BRITISH AND AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 265 



Hie dryness of the season. In a moist climate, therefore, 

 without sun to harden the straw, heavy crops must be 

 very often injured by lodging, especially if we take into 

 consideration, that high winds are much more usual in 

 Great Britain than here. Blight and mi'dew are effects 

 of a moist climate. These are seldom and partially 

 known in this country, prevailing only in particular dis- 

 tricts, in extraordinary seasons. In Britain it often hap- 

 pens, that wet weather, when the wheat is in blossom, 

 affects all the wheat in the kingdom, many parts of which, 

 on this account, do not pretend to raise it. 



If vegetation is slower in Britain than here, and if the 

 grass is also less nutritious, it must follow, that with the 

 same attention to stock our pastures with the best grass, 

 and to keep the cattle out of them at improper seasons, a 

 larger stock may be maintained on the same quantity of 

 ground in this country than in England ; and thus the 

 difference in the length of our winter be am;)ly compen- 

 sated. This observation leads me to a circumstance in 

 British husbandry, v/hich might be advantageously prac- 

 tised by us. Many of their farmers sow rye, for the use 

 of their sheep and iambs, in the spring. In order to do 

 this they must be at the expense of a fallow ; and as 

 their rye grows two-fifths slower than ours, it must fol- 

 low, that they can only keep three sheep where we 

 may have five. If, therefore, this practice is advantage- 

 ous in England, it would be much more so in America, 

 to sow our corn fields with rye, to feed off with sheep 

 in the spring, not only because of the additional numbers 

 we can keep, but because we are more pinched lor 

 sheep-food in the spring; besides that, the rye that costs 

 the British farmer a complete fallow, costs us nothing" 

 but the seed. 



In the healthfulness of our stock, we have great ad- 

 vantages over Britain. Although some disorders pre- 

 vail among neat cattle, Mr. Livingston observes, that 

 during 20 years he only lost one creature, unless it was 

 by some accidental hurt ; or by bad keeping in the 

 spring ; and while the rot svvepps aw ly whole lloc'cs of 

 sheep in Britain, it is a disorder entirely unknown in this 

 eountry. 



