222 Necessaries the Best Product — On Breeding Bach Vot. V. 



interest of money ; and of the bread-stuff 

 farmers themselves, as to horses and mules, 

 the breeding- of which is excluded by this 

 system, and as to pork also, whereon a better 

 mode of raising it than the present shall not 

 be adopted. 



" Havinnr had no experience of a farm de- 

 voted to the raising of live stock, my obser- 

 vations are merely conjectural ; but, it seems 

 to me, that manuring might be carried much 

 farther where the whole produce was con- 

 sumed on the land, than when a part of it 

 was exported ; that the product might be 

 therefore more rapidly increased,and the space 

 cultivated diminished ; and that the herba- 

 ceous and succulent crops would so far ban- 

 ish the use of those now exhausting crops, as 

 greatly to accelerate the improvement of the 

 exhausted tobacco district, and to insure an 

 immediate, or very quick return of profit, 

 exclusively of a return of comfort, far exceed- 

 ing: that to which it has been accustomed." 



by hand, hanging, striking, stripping, stem- 

 ming and prizing ; and that the same labour 

 devoted to almost any other employment, 

 would have produced a better return, by or- 

 dinary success, than tobacco does by the ex- 

 travagant crop I have supposed. And although 

 its profit is small, or nothing, yet its quality 

 of starving every thing exceeds that of every 

 other crop; for it starves the earth, by pro- 

 ducing but little litter, and it starves its cul- 

 tivators by producing nothing to eat; and 

 whatever splendour or plenty it may bestow 

 on its owner, the soil it feeds on must neces- 

 sarily become cadaverous, and its cultivators 

 squalid ; nor can it possibly difliise over the 

 face of the earth, or the faces of its inhabit- 

 ants, the exuberance which flows from ferti- 

 lization, nor the happiness which flows from 

 plenty. Now, a substitute is the object of 

 inquiry, after we are convinced of the detri- 

 mental nature of any crop. When flour sells 

 for as much as tobacco, by the pound, wheat 

 would be a complete one, at any distance 

 from water-carriage ; but as that is seldom 

 the case, others must be sought after; and 

 the extent and population of the country, 

 witliin reach of navigable water, opens to the 

 tobacco districts a wide market for the dis- 

 posal of many better substitutes. Horses, 

 mules, beef, and pork, would more than suf- 

 fice to replace all the advantages lost by 

 relinquishing' the culture of tobacco; and 

 materials for manufacturing, with manufac- 

 turing itself, would amply provide for any 

 possible deficiency. The market for live 

 stock and meat, is so great and valuable, in 

 the bread-stuff" districts of the eastern waters, 

 as to attract supplies from quarters far be- 

 yond the narrow tobacco-belt with which they 

 are immediately surrounded ; and if it is a 

 question in the best cultivated countries, 

 whether grazing- and breeding live stock, 

 even upon the margin of navigation, is not 

 the most profitable agricultural employment, 

 every doubt vanishes, in comparing it with 

 the cultivation of tobacco in situations where 

 the capacity of walking- to market will create 

 a considerable item of that comparison. 



The system of agriculture for a bread-stuff 

 farm, according to the experience I have had, 

 requires live stock sufficient to consume and 

 reduce to manure every species of provender 

 and litter; in effecting which, a sufficient 

 quantity of meat may be provided lor the 

 labourers, either without expense, or even 

 producing profit ; but, if I am right in conclud- 

 ing that the live stock of such a farm ought 

 to stop at that point whenever its situation 

 renders the expense of transporting its grain 

 to market trivial, it follows that a vast mar- 

 ket would remain for the meat and live stock 

 of the tobacco district, consisting of towns, 

 artizans, all who live by professions, and the 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 On Breeding Back. 



Sir, — Conversing lately with two very 

 intelligent friends and practical agriculturists 

 on the tendency of all animals to " breed back," 

 instancing particularly the case of that noble 

 animal "Blossom," the property of Mr. Canby, 

 whose portrait is to be found at p. 97 of the 

 Cabinet for the present year, and who is evi- 

 dently breeding back with white calves to 

 Comet, who was white, I was struck with 

 the instances they related as having hap- 

 pened within their knowledge, and which 

 carry back that tendency to a date far more 

 remote than what I had contemplated as pro- 

 bable, or even possible. 



The first said, " When I was a lad at my 

 father's house, we had, amongst our poultry, 

 a small rooster of the bantam, or feather- 

 legged breed, with the feathers extending 

 outside his legs like two small wings ; he was 

 kept until it was suspected that the breed of 

 the other fowls might be injured by his cross, 

 when he was killed ; but, from that day to 

 this, not a year passes without a feather- 

 legged chicken amongst the poultry !" The 

 other said, " I once kept the variety of fowls 

 called Rumps ; that is, fowls naturally with- 

 out tails ; but, at length, determining to get 

 rid of them, they were all killed right away ; 

 this was seventeen years ago, and during that 

 time I have never had one of that sort upon 

 my farm, but this year there has come a rump 

 fovv'l amongst the chickens !" And it is in 

 this way, I presume, that the very frequent 

 admixture of black, or spotted-faced sheep, are 

 to be found in flocks where there have never 

 been either ewe or buck of that variety used 

 for breeding for an age ; but it must have 



