

DE VOTE D TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Likbio. 



Vol. XI No. 9.1 



4th mo. (April) 15th, 1817. 



[Whole No. 14T. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY J O S I A H T A T U M, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per j-ear. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Sheep, 3Ioniitain Laiid»i, <!bc., in Virginia. 



I RESIDE in Amlierst county, about twelve 

 miles east of the Blue Ridge, and here, as 

 through the county generally, the foddering 

 of sheep, as well as all other stock, begins 

 about the 1st of December and ends about 

 the 15th of April — that is, from the time 

 the annual grasses and weeds are unfit for 

 food, until the budding of trees. On the 

 mountains, the foddering season may be 

 counted from 1st of December till the 5th 

 or 10th of Mny; but it is remarkable that 

 on the mountains, cattle, hogs and sheep, 

 requite less food given them than in less 

 elevated situations. This I can account for 

 in no other way, than by estimating the su- 

 perior capacity of the mountain soil for pro- 

 ducing a heavy sod of grass, weed roots, and 

 fungi on rocks and logs; all of which are 

 nutritious food. Small flocks of sheep, and 

 some colts, and yearling cattle, were some 

 years past wintered on the mountains of 

 Amherst, exclusively on the growing rye; 



Caiu— Vol. XL— No. 9. 



but now the rye crop is nearly abandoned, 

 and foddering is required. 



Some fifteen or eighteen years past I kept 

 a small flock of 30 or 40 sheep, which were 

 never fed through the year, yet kept in 

 healthy condition. They fed on dry grass, 

 pine leaves, and twigs of shrubbery, on poor 

 and unenclosed grounds; but certainly a 

 large flock must either be foddered during 

 winter, or given extensive pasturage on 

 grass or rye. Rye, when sown on our 

 mountains in August, will by 1st of Decem- 

 ber make a heavy sod, and afford food for 

 stock throughout winter, and then yield a 

 good harvest. It will grow through all the 

 months except January and February, and 

 indeed in open weather, somewhat in these. 

 The difference in duration of winter between 

 the northern and southern portions of Vir- 

 ijinia, I would estimate at thirty days. Spring, 

 about the centre of Amherst, and at my resi- 

 dence, is perhaps fifteen days later than on 

 the eastern shore, and ten days earlier than 

 on the Blue Ridge. I have just had a con- 

 versation with an old man, and we agree 

 that our snows during the year will average 

 about six ; in the general two to four inches 

 deep — very seldom eight inches; lying gen- 

 erally one day, and seldom more than two 

 or three days. On the mountains the snowa 

 will number say eight or nine, from three to 

 six inches deep, seldom twelve inches, and 

 lying from one to six days. 



Two farmers from Washington county, 

 Pennsylvania, have lately been here for the 



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