Besides this, the grass grown in a damp, cold climate is never so 

 sweet and nutritious as that raised under a warm sun and with 

 quick growth. In this State there is an occasional drought that 

 begins in June or July,"interfering seriously with the development 

 of the later crops. But such a condition of climate is scarcely 

 known in the earlier months during the growth of the grass crops. 

 Yet there is with the spring rains a degree of temperature unknown 

 to the Englishman, a degree sufficiently high to give grass all the 

 necessary heat to enable it to attain its full supply of sugar and 

 nitrogen from the soil. 



The beautiful lands of Kentucky and Missouri, to say nothing of 

 the Northern States, still retain a great value, and are in demand at 

 high prices. It is because these States have more land in meadows, 

 while broad stretches of valuable pastures and prairies dot the land- 

 scape in every direction. Poor land will not make much grass, 

 and without a great outlay of capital, land cannot be placed in first- 

 class order at once. But it only requires a start, and then the 

 persevering, provident farmer will soon see his farm blossoming as 

 the rose. Land in Europe not infrequently reaches the sum of 

 $1,000 per acre for purely agricultural purposes, while here it is a 

 difficult matter to extract, with our best farming, $50 per acre, and 

 then the expenses are to be drawn from that meagre sum. 



Let us draw a comparision between our leading staples. Cotton 

 here will make on average land 800 pounds seed cotton per acre. 

 This at the usual price makes $20 per acre. Corn will produce on 

 good land eight barrels per acre, and at $2.00, the laborer will get 

 $16. Tobacco, our most remunerative crop, on good land will 

 make 800 pounds of leaf, which is about $50 to $60 per acre. 

 Wheat will make, on good land, fifteen bushels per acre, and at $1 

 will yield about $15. Taking the cost of production from these 

 amounts, the average farmer will not have left, at the best, more 

 than twelve dollars per acre. A good meadow, in full bearing, 

 with ordinary care, will yield, with two cuttings, at least two tons 

 per acre. The cost is altogether in harvesting, while the trouble of 

 sending to market is no greater than either of the other crops. 

 This, at the price for which it has been selling for several years, 

 will be $20 per ton. Here, then, is a difference in actual receipts 

 of almost double that obtained from other crops, nothing paid out 

 for production, and besides the land can be enriched year by year, 



