192 



Raising Wheat and Cattle. 



V0L.X. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Raising Wheat and Cattle. 



Mr. Editor, — The strictures on my com- 

 munication* to General Richardson on farm- 

 ing) ^y your correspondent H. S., in the last 

 number of the Cabinet,f should pass unno- 

 ticed, so far as I am personally concerned, 

 did I not fear that in some decree they might 

 operate injuriously upon the practice of 

 others. While therefore, I am constrained 

 to say a word by way of rejoinder, I disclaim 

 any unfriendly feeling towards H. S., who, 

 I must say, treated my communication \m- 

 fairl}', yet took occasion to pay me a hand- 

 some compliment, for which I am bound in 

 courtesy to make due acknowledgment. 



I flatter myself H. S. stands singularly 

 alone in the view he has taken, for I never 

 wrote or advanced any thing during my ag- 

 ricultural career that seems to have met 

 with such general favour from all quarters 

 as that communication, as the numerous let- 

 ters I have received from the most intelligent 

 agriculturistscan fully substantiate. Had your 

 correspondent read the article attentively, he 

 could not have arrived at the conclusion, that 

 I had said unqualifiedly, " When land is worth 

 ffiy dollars an acre, wheat at one dollar a 

 bushel will not pay expenses, advising to raise 

 catlle in preference.'" What I said, and 

 what every candid reader must acknowledge 

 I meant to say, was, that such devotion to 

 raising wheat, to the shameful neglect of 

 the cattle, and raising profitable stock, was 

 an ill-judged practice; that on lands that 

 cost fifty to one hundred dollars per acre, 

 requirhig much manure and care, and where 

 labour was high, wheat at the nominal price 

 of one dollar per bushel, would not pay; 

 when the average yield might be put at fif- 

 teen bushels to the acre. Tsaid, or conveyed 

 the idea, that farmers situated as I was, could 

 not compete with the wheat growers of the 

 new States, where lands were so rich as to 

 require no manure, and were worth but five 

 to ten dollars per acre. Instead of discour- 

 aging the raising of wheat under any cir- 

 cumstances on land that was worth fifty dol- 

 lars per acre, as Mr. S.'s article would imply, 

 I recommended the raising of grain condi- 

 tionally, to even the planters of Mississippi. 

 It was likewise as unfair to make me appear 

 as recommending the raising of cattle ex- 

 clusively; I am sure I never intended, nor 

 did I recommend to every farmer in Virginia 

 or Pennsylvania, to compete with the breed- 

 ers and graziers of Upper and Lower San- 

 dusky, \vhile I am free to say, there are 

 some situations in Virginia and Pennsylva- 



* See page 116. t Page 155. 



nia, where cattle couM be raised and fe^ as 

 cheaply as in those favourite places. I do 

 not dispute that there are, as H. S. says, 

 '■'■well buiW'' cattle in Ohio; but he will 

 please recollect, that these well built cattle 

 are almost uniformly a cross from the im- 

 ported Durham — thanks to the spirited gen- 

 tlemen of Ohio, who at much pecuniary per- 

 sonal sacrifice, enriched their country by 

 importations of this noble breed. 



The extreme of what I recommended, as 

 to the raising of cattle, may be found in the 

 following extract, copied from the communi- 

 cation in question, which on reviewing, I 

 find no occasion to change the opinion ad- 

 vanced therein; I feel satisfied of its cor- 

 rectness, in the qualified sense in which it 

 was offered, to large farmers, living at a dis- 

 tance from a market. I said : 



"Those who live at a distance from a 

 market, and have large farms, should turn 

 their attention principally to breeding and 

 grazing; they should not separate these two 

 branches. Jt is but too common for the gra- 

 zier to depend upon the drover for his supply 

 of cattle ; in that way he can never be as- 

 sured of the good feeding properties of the 

 young cattle he purchases; better by far to 

 select a good bull, the character of whose 

 breed he can depend upon for easy feeding 

 and early maturing, and progress steadily 

 and patiently for a ievf years, and in that 

 time he will have possessed himself of a 

 breed that will show good proof of his at- 

 tention and skill. 1 am persuaded that the 

 improved Durham steers, under proper man- 

 agement, can be turned oft" regularly at four 

 years old, to weigh from nine to ten cwt. 

 If this be so, and I have not a doubt of it, 

 what a saving in time and feed is here — 

 nine to ten cv.'t. of fine beef in four years, 

 against five or six cwt. of the hard feeding 

 tribe in six to seven years. It appeared 

 strange to me, as passing through several 

 farming districts, to see such devotedness to 

 raising grain, to the almost utter neglect of 

 cattle. As fiir as the eye could reach from 

 the road, nothing could be seen but grain, 

 with iiere and there a corn-field ; while a 

 ^e\\ stunted cattle and sheep might be seen 

 running along the road sides, excluded from 

 the fields, till they and the swine should 

 have a harvest feast in the stubble field : — I 

 speak now of some parts of Maryland and 

 Pennsylvania — how short-sighted to neglect 

 the cattle or to keep such a breed ! not one 

 in a hundred of them could, by any force of 

 feeding, be made to weigh six cwt., or could 

 be put in a condition, from tlie time it was 

 taken up, at an expense short of the whole 

 value of the animal when it came to bo 

 slaughtered," 



