164 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



I employ some 15 hands — 9 males and 6 females — with some 5 small boys, on my estate 

 of 2,000 acres, which I deem sufficient. White labor can be ]irocured at $10 per mouth, A 

 good hand will cut and maul from the stump 200 rails in a day; 100 is the usual task, which 

 is easily accomplished in good timber by an iudificrent hand. 



The Negroes of this part of the countiy are not allowanced, being at all times permitted 

 to eat as much as they desire of good and wholesome food, and are always comfortably 

 clothed. 



Western Virginia I think admirably adapted to the gi-owth of sheep. Our common stock, 

 when well taken care of, produce a large fleece, and the mutton is as fat and weU-flavored 

 as any in the world, I have no doubt the breeding of improved sheep would be more prof- 

 itable to the formers of this countiy tiian the grazing of cattle. From 21 to 23 days are 

 usually consumed in driving cattle from this vicinity to the Baltimore market. The average 

 cost or expense per head is from one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars. The average 

 weight of the common stock of this countiy when in market, (4 years old,) is about 500 

 pounds net. 



The reason of my asking about salting was that doubts have been started, 

 founded on partial experiments in England, 'about the efTect of salt ; but I 

 cannot doubt that it has its virtue — else even wild cattle would hardly go the 

 distance they do for it. Mr. Erskine, the worthy and very obliging host of the 

 "Salt Sulphur,^'' from which I am 7ioiv scribbling, and who has much experi- 

 ence in grazing, says he knows it to be beneficial — that he has observed that 

 salted cattle v/Tll shed their coats sooner, invariably, than those which are not 

 salted ; and this is everywhere, regarded as a healthful indication. Yet there 

 are hundreds of farmers who never give their cattle, intentionally, a particle 

 of salt. Salt and ashes mixed have been highly recommended as a vermifuge, 

 and otherwise Avholesome for horses and cattle. In that view ashes are system- 

 atically ordered to their horses, by the old mail contractors in the South. DC?" A 

 spoonfull of alum will immediately cure your horse of an accidental founder, so 

 that vou may pursue your journey next morning — so says Doctor P. Thornton. 



Would any one believe in the continued stolidity which prevents farmers, 

 even yet, from bavins recourse to cattle of improved blood ? How differently they 

 order things in England ! There, at a late (twe:-;ty-first) annual lettings of 

 South-Down rams, by Mr. Jonas Webb, a great South-Down breeder, 67 rams 

 (the whole number let) were let by the season at upward of $100 each ! while 

 lately at Mr. Gowen's sale of choice Short-Horns, the prices averaged not over 

 $40 f Is it any wonder that we witness no general improvement ? The reason is 

 that men are reared in ignorance of the meliorations that are going on in their 

 profession, and of the principles on which they turn ; and men groini rarely take 

 to books and the search for knowledge, who have been kept from them Avhen 

 young, any more than they take in mature life to fishing, or shooting, or cock- 

 fighting. But if, as in other cases, boys were taught what appertains to their 

 own particular business, if the boy that is to be a farmer, were also initiated, as he 

 should be, in the principles of vegetable and mechanical and animal economy, 

 he would know already, before he entered upon his art, that breeding from im- 

 proved animals of true conformation and constitutional temperament, would give 

 him, from the same food and care, the increased profits of which Mr. Beirne 

 speaks t''rom personal observation. But you can't make an improving man out 

 of one who does not believe in knowledge, or thinks he knows everything, any 

 more than you can make— to use a vulgar saying— a silk purse out of a sow's 

 ear. I very much doubt, Mr. Editor, whether there are ten men in your own 

 native county, since the death of your father, who read ten pages a year on the 

 very business of their lives, a business essentially intellectual and progressive. 



Here vou see Mr. Beirne, a gentleman of close observation, great personal ex- 

 perience', and strong powers of discrimination, expressly averring his belief in the 

 superiority, as winter food for cattle, of the offal of Indian corn over all the dry 

 fodders, even timothy hay, and yet— so faithfully is the agricultural interest cared 

 for, so careful are they to have rendered a full account of their contributions to 

 the national wealth, that not the slightest mention is made of this, one of their 

 most valuable products, in the Census of our national resources. But thus must 

 it ever be while farmers are educated in anything and everything hut that 

 which qualifies them to comprehend their own interests and tire principles of 

 their art ; and while scarcely any but lawyers and party demagogues represent 

 and make laws for them. 



