306 



James Goicen's System of Farming. 



Vol. X. 



or even corn. Bermuda grass will cut dou- 

 ble the weight of hay to the acre that any 

 grass in the North or West will. Crab- 

 grass makes excellent hay, and a great deal 

 of it ; and a good crop can be had after cut- 

 ting a crop of oats or millet. Even bitter 

 coco makes good hay. In no part of the 

 world do oats succeed better than in Missis- 

 sippi; the Egyptian (winter) oats, when 

 sowed in September, afford capital grazing 

 all winter, and will yield, if the ground is 

 suitable, and they have been well put in, 

 forty to sixty bushels per acre ' of oats, 

 weighing thirty-eight to forty-two pounds 

 per bushel. Millet is an excellent fodder 

 crop. — New Orleans Commercial Times. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 James Gowen's System of Farming. 



Mr, Editor, — It is with some reluctance 

 I again trouble you on this subject, espe- 

 cially in view of having already treated it 

 as far as my sense of delicacy would permit, 

 it having assumed through the interference 

 of your correspondent, H. S., somewhat an 

 affair of my own, in which light did it really 

 stand, I should be the last man to appeal to 

 your readers for justice or approval — I feel 

 too secure and independent in my own posi- 

 tion to trouble the public with any affair of 

 mine. But this is a matter which concerns 

 the public — I mean the farming interest. It 

 was for its promotion in general, and for Vir- 

 ginia farming in particular, in my chapter 

 on Farming, addressed to General Richard- 

 son, that I incurred the animadversions of 

 H. S. — how candidly and fairly he dealt 

 with the subject, is of no consequence to me 

 personally, but to the cause of agriculture 

 it is, to my thinking, a grave and serious 

 question. How lamentable it is, that there 

 are to be found at this day among the tillers 

 of the soil, some who with their eyes open 

 to the improvements in other departments of 

 art and industry, not only obstinately refuse 

 all aid or instruction tending to lighten their 

 toil and advance their prosperity, but posi- 

 tively wage offensive warfare against every 

 man and everything that exhibit an enlight- 

 ened practice or a novel improvement. 



Superadded to the disinclination 1 fed to 

 notice H. S. further, I have other causes of 

 excuse, growing out of a recent deep afflic- 

 tion, and a continuous severe illness — which 

 with most men would justify a total indiffer- 

 ence to everything save their own afflictions 

 and infirmities — I have to grieve the loss of 

 a most lovely and interesting boy, who in a 

 few hours illness, in the very bloom and 

 freshness of health, was by a sudden stroke 

 of that inscrutable Providence, which we 



are made to fear and magnify, translated to 

 the abodes of angels, who while living, 

 seemed fitting in beauty and loveliness for 

 such associations without the preparatory 

 hand of death. This severe trial deepening 

 the channels of a disease that has for a lono- 

 time baffled all medical treatment, unfits me 

 for the task of following up an anonymous 

 writer, such as H. S., and who, had I been 

 less zealous in the cause of agriculture, I 

 should through a sense of self-respect, not 

 have noticed — his first article bearing on its 

 face sufficient evidence of its being unwor- 

 thy my consideration. 



H. S. assumes that my report to the Com- 

 mittee on Farms, as published in your June 

 No. for 1845, was thrown out by me to the 

 public, and therefore he had a right to take 

 exceptions to the management on my farm. 

 If this was so, had he the right to garble 

 and quote only my outlayings, without show- 

 ing the work and produce consequent upon 

 the expenditure 1 But I did not in fact 

 place that paper gratuitously before the pub- 

 lic, no more than I did the communication 

 addressed to General Richardson. The re- 

 port on my farm was elicited by the Com- 

 mittee on Farms, appointed by the " Phila- 

 delphia Society for promoting Agriculture," 

 by whom it was published. As a member 

 of the Society, I complied with its requisi- 

 tion, and in accordance with a sincere desire 

 to withhold nothing that might subserve the 

 cause, contributing, as I ever have done, my 

 humble mite to the general agricultural fund. 

 But if I and others shall be treated so un- 

 fairly — as may with much force be charged 

 against H. S. — then am I free to say that the 

 Cabinet will in future exhibit fewer Reports 

 on improved farming. 



Another egregious error has been perpe- 

 trated by H. S., that is, that the amount in 

 dollars and cents, say ^6,724.50 is claimed by 

 me as profits on the produce of my farm in 

 1845. This is a perversion of the plainest 

 meaning. I neither hinted at this item as 

 being profit, nor claimed it to be. I did not 

 in summing it up, subtract even the wages, 

 lest it might give the semblance of net pro- 

 ceeds in the view of profits. When H. S. 

 paraded my annual outlay for wages in one 

 year, without showing corresponding work 

 that might justify the outlay, I took occasion 

 to show, and did it in all truth and sincerity, 

 the crops I raised and housed, with their 

 value, in the same given time, so as every 

 farmer could judge for himself whether the 

 outlay was extravagant or wasteful, in view 

 of the work and hands it would take to raise 

 and gather so much hay, grain, corn, pota- 

 toes, and other roots, with the care of such 

 a herd of cattle, and the management of a 



