AGRICULTURAL AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



581 



No. II NOTES, AGRICULTURAL AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



RAMBLES IN THE SOUTH. 

 THE CATTLE TRADE BETWEEN THE WEST AND THE ATLANTIC JURKETS. 



[The first branch of industry in the order of observation was that of the Tar and Turpentine business of 

 of North Carolina, (to which brief reference was made at page 544 of the last Number.) On that we 

 were favored with a very full and satisfactory sketch by Colonel McCloud, of Smithfield, N. C. which we 

 loaned to a friend, who unfortimately, and much to our disappointment, has not (this 20th of May) returned 

 it. If recovered, it shall have in the next Number the precedence which it had in local order on our tour 

 of observation. The author will, in any event, accept our hearty thanks for his kindness in preparins it, at 

 our express and earnest instance.] 



One of the most interesting and substantial 

 branches of American Industry is tliat of Graz- 

 ing Cattle in the "W^est, to be sent in " droves'' 

 and sold in the Eastern markets. Some of its 

 details may prove entertaining to the curious 

 reader, however alien it may be-jo his own pur- 

 suits. 



The business of the grazier and drover is, 

 perhaps, nowhere better understood, or carried 

 on with more spirit, than in Kentucki/ ! and 

 what better basis for it could any people have 

 than such magnificent fields of blue-grass as are 

 to be found nowhere else, perhaps, in the world 

 — fields which aflbrd a good bite even under 

 the winter's snow, and in earliest spring look 

 more like luxuriant grain, than grass pastures. 



Nothing can be more charming to the eye of 

 the traveler than her extensive forests, so clear 

 and open that a huntsman may pursue the deer 

 at the top of his speed, with the grass growing 

 matted up so closely to every tree that it seems 

 to have bursted up through a rich blue-green 

 carpet. 



This Kentucky blue-grass possesses that qual- 

 ity" for thr'v-ing in the shade which recommends 

 the orchard grass (dactylis glomeratisj, with 

 tliis advantage over it, that it grows thicker and 

 more evenly — not so much in tufts ; while it 

 equals it in the quality of early and late pas- 

 turage. 



Many attempts have been made to propagate 

 this noble grass in other, especially in more 

 Southern States, but without any or with very 

 limited success. We saw some at Mr. Daniel 

 TuKNBur.L's superb residence, near iSV. Fran- 

 cisvil/e, Mississippi ; but, with all the benefit that 

 care and skill could offer, its growth was sickly 

 and unpromising. These rich fields of Ken- 

 tucky blue grass sen-e, however, onlj' to pre- 

 pare her stock to be finished for market from 

 her fields of redundant Indian corn. The one 

 (1241) 



prepares the frame-work, while the other puts 

 on the covering and fills the inside with fat. 



Kentucky raises within her own borders all 

 the beef with whicii she supplies herself, and, 

 in part, the demand of the country. The whole 

 number of fat cattle driven from the State annu- 

 ally is about ten thousand. They commence 

 starting about the 20th of February, and con- 

 tinue to leave home until about the 1st of May. 

 Of these droves, tlie last put in motion arrive in 

 New- York about the 1st of August. Bj' that 

 time the grass-fed cattle from States nearer the 

 market begin to resupply the vacuum whicli 

 had been filled throughout the winter and 

 spring by the corn-fed beef fi-om more distant re- 

 gions. 



As has been already stated, the beef fatted in 

 Kentucky is the unbought produce of her own 

 mountain ranges and blue-grass pastures. — 

 About a third in number is snppo.«ed to come 

 down from the highland Eastern Counties of the 

 State — as White, Harlan, Letcher, Clay, Perry, 

 Breathitt, Hite. Floyd, Morgan, Lawrence. Car- 

 ter, Fleming, Bath, and Montgomery. These 

 are of a smaller and more thrifty race of cattle- 

 better adapted than would be a heavier breed 

 to tlie rugged, woody country in which they 

 are reared — without any special feeding, winter 

 or summer, until about four years old, when 

 they are sold in early spring, as lean stock cattle, 

 for about 2J or 3 cents a pound (that is accord- 

 ing to what it is estimated they would make, 

 net weight) to the grazier in the hlue-grass 

 Counties. He grazes them on his rich pastures 

 through the summer, and with his com, fed 

 abundantly through the winter, they are pre- 

 pared to move on by the first of Februarj-, to be 

 sacrificed in the Eastern market — weighing 

 there from 650 to 700 pounds, On this Ken- 

 tucky corn-fed beef, the Iri.shman just escaped 

 from famishing in his own country, for want of 



