•116 James Goiven's Letter to Gen. Richardson on Farming. Vol. X. 



Colours of Flowers. 



To find the colours that contrast, the fol- 

 lowing simple and ingenious method maybe 

 resorted to. Take a sheet of while paper, 

 upon which place a red wafer; look at it 

 steadily with one eye for half a minute or so, 

 without allowing the eyelids to close, and 

 then look from the red wafer to another part 

 of the white paper; a green spectrum will 

 be seen, of the same size as the wafer; and 

 this is the colour which would form the true 

 contrast to red ; in like manner, an orange 

 wafer will produce a blue spectrum ; and 

 hence blue is the true contrast to orange ; 

 yellow to indigo; green to reddish-violet; 

 blue to orange-red; indigo to orange-yellow; 

 and violet to bluish-green. By a little at- 

 tentive study, it will be seen how easily any 

 gardener might make himself acquainted 

 with the principles of the science, sufficient- 

 ly to avoid gross errors in the composition of 

 colour in his flower-beds. — Gardeners' Jour 



James GoAven's Letter to Gen. Richard- 

 son on Farming. 



Dear Sir, — The many and various mat- 

 ters that have pressed upon me since you 

 visited Mount Airy, crowded out to this mo- 

 ment the possibility of attending to your en- 

 quiries. The time may appear long since 

 the subject was left with me, but you will 

 recollect, however, that I was to answer at 

 my leisure. I advert to this merely to show 

 that I cannot be accused of either forgetting 

 or neglecting you, and may add, that in turn- 

 ing to you even now, I may be accused by 

 others, having previous claims, of having 

 overlooked them. Be this as it may, or how- 

 ever situated, I feel a strong desire to oblige 

 you by taking up your interrogatories at 

 once, and have only to regret that I have 

 neither the time nor the ability to respond 

 to them as I could wish. As to the quantity 

 of land I farm — the crops I cultivate — the 

 average crop per acre, the stock I keep and 

 have fed — I must refer you to my Report to 

 the Committee on Farms, as published in 

 the June No. of the " Farmers' Cabinet" of 

 the present year ; likewise to my Reports to 

 the Committee on crops for 1842, '43, and 

 -'44, also published in the Cabinet; which 

 will afford you a tolerable idea of my prac- 

 tice and success. 



I take up then, your list of inquiries, 

 where you remark that I have said "a farmer 

 cannot grow wheat at one dollar per bushel, 

 and that he would find it more profitable to 

 graze and breed cattle," and where you add 

 " how would I carry out this system V Be- 

 fore replying, I must premise that my re- 



mark did not embrace all farmers; it was 

 only applicable to farmers situated pretty 

 much as I am as to climate, soil, and market. 

 Where land and wages are high, much should 

 he taken from the land to cover expenses — 

 that* is, by an improved culture, the land 

 should be made to yield double or treble the 

 product it does under the careless or com- 

 mon system. The new States, with their 

 cheap lands and rich soils, can grow grain 

 much cheaper than we can, and every year 

 their facilities to market will be increasing, 

 and their competition rendered thereby the 

 more formidable. Where wheat lands are 

 worth no more than five to ten dollars per 

 acre, and of such exceeding richness in soil 

 as to require no manure; where, in many 

 places, as I am informed, they husband no 

 manure, but burn even their straw; I am 

 not surprised that they can grow wheat at 

 fifty cents per bushel — but where land costs 

 from fifty to one hundred dollars per acre, 

 and of a quality that requires much care and 

 manure, it is my opinion that wheat at one 

 dollar per bushel, will not pay the husband- 

 man a fair compensation for his capital and 

 labour, in view of contingencies of failure 

 in the crop from rust, fly, &c. While I 

 make this remark, I must not be understood 

 as forbidding entirely the culture of wheat 

 among such farmers as I have pointed at : I 

 intend no more than to suggest that wheat 

 being made so generally a staple of their 

 farms, is an oversight, and must prove un- 

 profitable in the main, should the article be 

 nominally about one dollar per bushel. Some 

 farms are better adapted to grain than others 

 — those so good for grain, should, to some 

 extent, be sown with wheat ; others not so 

 good, may at times, under certain circum- 

 stances, be made to yield wheat. I would 

 even have the cotton planters of Mississippi 

 to grow wheat — to raise at least as much as 

 they consume ; and so of corn, cattle, and 

 hogs. To say that they can get their wheat, 

 corn, beef, and pork cheaper from Ohio, than 

 they can raise them, is an admission not very 

 creditable to their management. It is one 

 thing to think of rivalling Ohio in the pro- 

 duction of these commodities for export, and 

 another thing to be independent of her for a 

 home supply. Hence there is no particular 

 practice I could recommend, that would 

 prove advantageous or applicable to all: I 

 can only suggest more attention to raising 

 and feeding cattle. Some, according to the 

 condition and situation of their farms, as 

 breeders, both for the dairy and the stall ; 

 others, while keeping dairy, may breed oc- 

 casionally from fine stock ; the choice ani- 

 mals raised, paying them well for their time 

 and trouble. These branches of husbandry, 



