64 Observations on Colonel Taylor's Letter. 
sick—the vitious 
and the idle—consume, however, 
no small portion of the earnings of the workers. The 
latter their owners must employ; for the more they 
work, the quieter they keep them. Therefore all sys- 
tems are good or indifferent, according to existing cir- 
cumstances. 
I have always been of opinion, and so I long ago 
mentioned to you as plainly as £ dared—that your corn 
stalk cutter was an expensive bauble; if used on a 
great scale on an extensive farm. You see even the la- 
bour of slaves, is thrown away in this tedious operation. 
It can only be useful where forage is scarce ; and la- 
bour applied when there is nothing else to do.—And 
when is that interval, on even a Pennsylvania Farm ? 
The maxim of our grazing farmers, on uplands here, 
is; ‘‘the more cattle, the more grass, and the more fer- 
tility.” Arthur Young says—* the more sheep the more 
fertility, and supplies of food.”’ I have never yet found 
this verified—est modus in rebus—William West, with 
the addition of his top dressing, went the nearest to 
prove it as to cattle. He bought no manure but lime, 
and ploughed none :—but the hoof and the tooth were 
in eternal activity. In no country is there finer or better 
grass, than constantly covered his fields. 
The bird-foot clover, eo nomine, 1 do not know. But 
being, no doubt a variety of the ¢refoil, the plaister ope- 
rates with it. Mr. Yaylor’s ideas, as to old dung, are 
similar to my own; but I have never liked applica- 
tions of it in a fermenting state, in light soils. Weeds, 
Mr. T. does not seem to care about. I have been just 
reading some discussions, in the late British agricultu- 
ral magazines. They go to prove ‘ thatthe heavier the 
