THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



"The Productions of the Earth will always be in proportion to the culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. v.- No. 5.] 



12th mo. (December,) 15th, 1840. 



[Whole No. 71. 



KIMBER & SHARPLESS, 



PROPRIETORS AND PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers* Cabinet. 

 Choice between Live-Stock and Grain. 



Mr. Editor, — On this subject of vital im- 

 portance much might be said. It appears 

 strange to see immense droves of oxen, tra- 

 velling from the far west to supply the sea- 

 board cities of the east, and the adjacent 

 country, with fresh beef, while the most fa- 

 vourable intermediate portions of country, 

 peculiarly adapted to tlie rearing and feeding 

 of stock, are devoted, in so great a measure, 

 to the cultivation of grain, which could as 

 well be raised in the west, and be much more 

 conveniently transported to such a distance, 

 either for the support of those cities or for 

 exportation. I was particularly struck with 

 this unnatural state of things when, on a late 

 visit to a neighbouring county, I saw some of 

 the finest grazing pastures in the world de- 

 voted to the production of grain, and beauti- 

 fully undulating fields of the sweetest herb- 

 age, with living springs of water and cool 

 shade, condemned to be broken up for the 

 growth of grain crops, while, at the very mo- 

 ment, the roads were lined with bullocks, 

 being driven past these farms, coming hun- 

 dreds of miles from the west, to supply the 

 cities on the sea-board with beef, which ought, 

 assuredly, to be furnished in a great measure 

 by these pastures, which are, comparatively, 

 in the vicinity of these markets ; and on 

 pointing out this mistaken policy to some of 

 their owners, their surprise seemed as great 

 as mine, when they came to think about it. 



Now this evil — for it is an evil — has, I 

 think, arisen from the supposition, that beef 

 cannot be made to profit, except upon the ex- 

 tensive pastures of the west, and goes upon 

 the maxim laid down by a certain writer, 

 that "soiling and stall-feeding cannot be 

 inade profitable in this country, where land is 

 cheap and labour dear" — a maxim that has 

 done infinite wrong to the cause of improved 

 husbandry ; for from hence has arisen the 

 ruinous system of cropping large tracts of 

 Cab.— Vol. V.— No. 5. 



land, without the trouble and expense of clean 

 cultivation, throwing them up when ex- 

 hausted and taking in others, to be thus im- 

 poverished — to the disgrace of the agricul- 

 ture of the country ; and hence, too, has 

 arisen the notion that " land won't pay for 

 good management." 



It may be admitted, that the practice of 

 stall-feeding and soiling is attended with more 

 labour, care and expense, than is necessary 

 in the common practice, namely, to give the 

 cattle more food than they can eat during 

 summer, permitting them to destroy one-half 

 their pasture by treading it under foot, and 

 none, scarcely, in the winter; but practice, 

 which makes perfect, renders things at first 

 difficult, easy to be performed ; and the hap- 

 piness of seeing the animals well and regu- 

 larly supported through the year, and thriving 

 under the eye of the owner, soon renders that 

 labour a pleasure. Dr. Thaer, whose observa- 

 tions will bear repeating, on summing up the 

 difference between soiling or stall-feeding, and 

 the best system of feeding wholly abroad, has 

 the following remarks in favour of the former. 



" A spot of land which, when pastured 

 upon, will yield sufficient food for only one 

 head, will abundantly maintain four head of 

 cattle in the stable, if the crop be mown at a 

 proper time and given to the cattle in proper 

 order. The soiling yields at least double* 

 the quantity of manure from the same num- 

 ber of cattle ; and the best and most eflSca- 

 cious summer manure is made in the stable, 

 and carried to the fields at the most proper 

 period of its fftrmentalion. The cattle, when 

 used to soiling, will yield a much greater 

 quantity of milk, and increase faster in weight 

 while fattening than when they roam the 

 fields, and they are less liable to accidents — 

 do not suffer by the heat, flies or insects, and 

 are not affected by the weather, escaping also 

 many disorders to which cattle always abroad 

 are liable. Each head of cattle fed in the 

 stable, if plentifully littered, yields annually 

 sixteen large double cart-loads of dung; a 

 management of this kind, therefore, affords a 

 /ncTimai dressing of manure per acre, of ten 

 cart-loads of very superior stable dung, while 

 the best system of pasturing affords a manur- 

 ing at the same rate but once in nine years ! 



* Nearex four times the quantity. 



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