THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Does Pastueage Impoverish the Soil? — In your remarks below my communication on page 252, 

 Vol. 12 of Farmer, you say: "But let them beware lest the few precious atoms in their soil which 

 form the banes of their cattle an J otlier stock, are not all extracted and either sold or lost before 

 they dream (A such a, misfortune. The things that really make beef, cheese, wool, and horse flesh, 

 are not,6o abundant in the surface of the earth, even in the fields of luxuriant clover and timothy 

 of Hornby, as to be perfectly inexhaustible." Now, friend Lee, I had formed the idea from what I 

 had seen, that pasturing land enriched instead cf impoverishing its soil. "We have many large fields 

 that have grown mo-re and more fertile for the last twenty-five years, and constantly pastured. 

 The application of one bushel of plaster per acre is all the manure aside from what is dropped, that 

 any of our pa-stures receive, and that they are growing sterile I can hardly believe. What tliink you 

 of the prairies of the west, the pampas of South America, and the steppes of Asia — are they not 

 growing more and more fertile ? — and yet they have been constantly pastured for ages, and not one 

 whole acre in five thousand has ever received a direct application of manure, other than its own 

 decayed vegetable growth. I don't hardly believe yet tha-t the removal of a few hundred pounds 

 of bones, flesh, wool, Ac, from fifty acres of pasture will ever impoverish the soiL Hope to hear 

 a little more from you on tliis subject. "V7m. II. Gardener. — Hornby, N. Y. 



We thaiik our correspondent for calling our attention to an interesting brancL. of 

 husbandry. In speaking of the exhaustion of pastures on the farms of Hornby, we 

 had no reference to permanent grazing lands, like wild prairies in Illinois, Brazil, or the 

 steppes of Central Asia, In all cases where all the excrements formed by the food con- 

 sumed are restored to the soil that produced the food, an-d also the bones of the animal 

 at its death, (which is Nature's plan for preserving the fertility of land,) no deterioration 

 occurs. But the pastures on which the million of cows in the State of New York 

 graze, are not, as a general thing, treated in the manner indicated. Cows come out of 

 pastures at night with their digestive organs full of grass, and their udders distended 

 with milk, the product of herbage. In the morning they return to their grazing walks 

 with empty stomachs, and minus several gallons of milk. This operation long continued 

 differs very 'little from cutting with a scythe an equal quantity of herbage, whether 

 clover or timothy, and carrying it out of the field on a wagon or cart, instead of in the 

 body of a cow. '"^^ur Hornby friend, however, should know that there is this difference 

 against the depasturing process as compared with what is called the soiling of cows and 

 other stock. The roots of forest trees, apple trees, clover, and other plants, grow in 

 weight and volume somewhat in proportion to their stems, branches, and leaves. Hence 

 it has been found quite injurious to the full development of the roots of clover, to permit 

 cattle, horses or sheep to cut it close with their teeth and jaws. In other words, this 

 severe pruning checks the growth of the plant, so that in the six best grazing months, 

 only about half so much clover stems and leaves above ground, and half the quantity 

 of roots below ground, are produced as there would be if no such severe pruning had 

 been performed. This is a substantial argument both in favor of soiling and never turn- 

 ing stock into clover fields or common pastures when the herbage is small and yo-ung. 

 We have not now room to discuss this subject further, but will resume it an early da3^ 



Wool Growing in tiie West. — I have for several years been dissatisfied with the profits ar.'sing 

 from keeping fine wooled sheep. My experience is, that it does cot pay to keep sheep for their 

 wool alone, without mutton or lambs. Some three or four years ago considei-ablo attention was 

 paid to purchasing and raising sheep, but from the depressed state of tlie avooI market it is decidedly 

 falling off. Farmers in the Western States h-ave also learned that growing wool is not the profitable 

 business that it was represented to be by those who bred slieep to sell at three times their value. 

 The demand e^ist for good horses, cattle and swine, is much more urgent than for wool ; hence they 

 command high price?. Good swine in decent order are worth in this State $5 per hundred for tlie 

 eastern markets. A drove of seven hundred swine passed through Ypsilaiiti the other day bound 

 for Boston. If western fiu-mers will turn their attention to breeding good horses, cattle and hogs, 

 the eastern drover will be after them and pay good prices. The supply is not equal to the demand, 

 and prices will continue to rise. W. Anderson. — Michigan. 



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