214 



Agricultural Address. 



Vol. VII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Agricultural Address. 



James M. Garnett, Esq., in an Address 

 lately delivered before the Agricultural So- 

 ciety of Fredericksburg, Va., of which he is 

 President, mentions the gratification he had 

 received in visiting the farms of a number 

 of his friends in the vicinity of Wilmington, 

 Delaware. Among others was that of Dr. 

 Thomson, consisting of about 600 acres, on 

 which were kept from SO to 100 cows, chiefly 

 Devonshires. The Doctor has also 150 acres 

 of peach trees, a fine body of meadow land 

 reclaimed from the Delaware, and one of 

 those fine commodious barns, for which Penn- 

 sylvania is so famous, and from which, our 

 orator thinks many Southern farmers may 

 read a lesson. After passing over several 

 others, he says : 



" The next farm I visited was Mr. C. P. 

 Holcombe's. This gentleman was formerly 

 a practising lawyer in Philadelphia, but is 

 now, and has been for some years past, as 

 my friend Dr. Thomson informed me, a 

 zealous and active farmer. He gave me a 

 truly kind reception, but such, in fact, met 

 me everywhere that I went, and all seemed 

 anxious to make my time among them pass 

 off as agreeably as possible. Although Mr. 

 Holcombe's farm, like the others I visited, 

 appeared to be in a state of increasing im- 

 provement, my attention was attracted prin- 

 cipally by his fine herd of Devon cattle, 

 which, taken altogether, were certainly the 

 most beautiful animals of the cow kind that 

 I have ever seen. The hair was in every 

 case, of a mahogany red colour, whilst the 

 skin of each that I examined, was of a golden 

 yellow, which is said to be a sure indication 

 of a good milker. This breed is preferred 

 by all the farmers I met with, but I, myself, 

 shall not undertake to express any prefer- 

 ence, as it is a much " vexed question," and 

 I might bring a hornet's nest about my ears, 

 by taking sides, when, in truth, I have no 

 pretensions whatever, to rank among the 

 Cognoscenti, in such weighty and mysteri- 

 ous matters. With all possible deference, 

 however, I will venture so far as to say, 

 that such DeVons as I saw on Mr. Hol- 

 combe's firm, came much neater to my idea 

 of beauty in the Bos Genus, than any thing 

 I have yet met with." 



Again, "from i\lr. Higgins' firm, rnynext 

 visit was to Mr. Philip Iteybold — a self-male 

 man, of whose general success in all his 

 agricultural operations, I heard much from 

 every gentleman with whom I conversed on 

 the subject. He, himself, lives on a large 

 firm, and has four or five sons and sons-in- 

 law, living near him, on farms which are 



said to be in a high state of improvement. 

 Such seemed to be the condition of Mr. P. 

 Reybold's own farm. A large portion of it 

 appeared to be well set in grass, on which 

 was grazing a flock of one thousand Lei- 

 cester sheep in fine order. They yielded, 

 at their last shearing, (as the proprietor in- 

 formed me,) an average of eight pounds of 

 wool to each fleece. Mr. R. derives much 

 of his revenue, at present, from an immense 

 peach orchard, which I there saw in a very 

 flourishing condition; although, 1 cannot 

 avoid thinking that the Delaware farmers 

 are pushing this matter somewhat too far. 

 It is true, that they make enormous profits 

 of a "hitting year," (as it is called,) but 

 then, so far as I could learn, this hitting year 

 does not occur oftener than about once in 

 five years, which reduces the average an- 

 nual profits from peaches, to at least an 

 equality with the profit arising from other 

 sources, if not below them. Of course, it 

 is well worth calculating whether it is good 

 economy to give up so much land to peach 

 trees ; from which land the owners receive 

 nothing else, but partial crops of corn and 

 potatoes, whilst the trees are young. This 

 remark is applicable to ourselves, as well as 

 to the farmers of Delaware; for it inculcates 

 caution in regard to all new sources of re- 

 venue from land ; and will save us, if we 

 pay due regard to it, from incurring the 

 danger of loss by too hastily adopting any of 

 them. 



" My last visit was to Mr. Edward Tat- 

 nall, a wealthy, and apparently excellent 

 practical farmer, who resides just beyond the 

 Northern limits of Wilmington, on a farm, 

 upon which I noticed more fine highland 

 grass than I saw on any other. But the 

 great object with all whose farms I visitei 

 seemed to be, to get their lands well co- 

 vered with grass as soon as possible, and 

 there was much of it on all of them. Such, 

 indeed, should be the object of every Vir- 

 ginia farmer, for grass constitutes the basis 

 of all agricultural improvement. The Dela- 

 ware farmers sow, generally, a mixture or 

 red clover, orchard grass, and timothy, but 

 prefer a mixture of green grass and white, 

 clover to any other. This is the common 

 growth of their grass lands after they reach 

 the highest state of improvement, and a pas-; 

 ture of it is deemed fiir better than any, i 

 either of what are called artificial, or natu- 

 ral grasses; indeed, the green grass and 

 the white clover may well be styled natural 

 grasses, for they spring up spontaneously, 

 u herever our lands are made very rich. 



" On Mr. Tatnall's farm I saw one of the ( 

 largest and best of those fine barns already 

 described. It was of stone, and cost, as I 



