Vol.. xlii. NO. a. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



13 



we ciuinol expuct to vie witli Duiicaster or Loii- 

 diiii, liut still something may be done.' So doffing 

 the gay soldier's coat, and putting on the liodden 

 grey, I set to work, to try if fine pasture could not 

 he got in Scotland. — Long did 1 toil at top dress- 

 ing, — all the never-failing, oft-recommended re- 

 cipes of this compound and that compound, I tried 

 in vain, — peat-earth in all the varied shapes of 

 mixture with lime and dung, soot, composts with 

 scraping.? of ditches or other matter — all these I 

 tried in various ways. I exhausted the pharma- 

 copeia of agricidtnral ipiacks ; and soon found out 

 that withotit the aid of plough and harrow, noth- 

 ing could he (lone — in otiicr words ilie grouuil 

 must he put in good heart before you can liavu 

 good grass. 



" Well, that being done, I had fine grass : hut 

 it grew bad again ; it was not fine permanent pas- 

 ture. I had recourse once more to llje old system 

 of top-dressing, and of course improved tlie pas- 

 ture, but again it fell off. By this time I had be- 

 fore my eyes the palpable fact, that new laid down 

 grass was good, and that, do what 1 would, old 

 grass could not be made to bring the same rent. 



" It a|ipears to jue, that only on certain soils 

 and sitiiaiiuns, that pasture can he allowed to re- 

 main without great loss ; that such situations are 

 flat meadows, or the neighborlioud of rivers or 

 streams, rich in alluvial soil, and the natural hab- 

 itat of the pasture plants, or in the vicinity ol' 

 large towns, where manure has been ajjplied till 

 the ground coidd not bring a grain crop to ujaturi- 

 ty ; and that oii all other situations recourse must 

 be had to the plough, as soon as failure in the 

 grass crop takes place ; and the breaking up will 

 entirely depend on the quality of the land, and 

 manner which it has been treated, there being no 

 such true imerring- guide to the quality of the land, 

 as the length of time it can he profitably left in 

 l)asture. . Little need be said on the unprofitable- 

 ness of old pasture to the actual farmer. There 

 is little old grass to he found on the farm of a man 

 who has rent to jiay. Have you never remarked 

 the difference of rent tliat is given l)y a grazier or 

 liutcher, for a field of new, and a field of old 

 grass ? Have you ever put the question to your- 

 self, why is this ? I shall give you the answer: 

 Let both fields be shut up and cut for bay, weigh 

 the ])rodiice, see the great dilierence in favor of 

 I the new grass, and the secret is out. Still keep 

 \the cattle from the field ; look at tlie new grass, 

 iiow soon the aftermath springs ! Well then, is 

 lot the overplus of the liay that which would have 

 l-d so many more cattle ? and yet people prate 

 bout old grass. 



"Not only is the produce of tm acre of new 

 gfiss, far greater than that of an acre of old, but 

 its more paliifible to the cattle, ami, as far as 1 

 h;ie been able to observe, exactly in the ratio of 

 tlUage of the grass. An ex.nnple of this came 

 lat>V imder my eye: A tradesman occupied a 

 tiehwhich he cultivated regularly — breaking up a 

 bit, reen cropping it the following year, and then 

 sowic_r it down, after which he pastured it by 

 weth-iiiir Ilia beasts. The man leaving the place, 

 I cauiil some hurdles (fence) to be put arouiid 

 the biiiot in grass, and left the rest of the field in 

 pastur Xlie cattle during the whole of summer, 

 ate tiitimv grass to the very e;trtli, and did not 

 taste tb older until the force of hunger made them 

 do so. fext season the bit which had been hurd- 

 led oft Vg sown ; and was allowed to go with the 

 rest of tlltield. The very same thing took place. 



the new grass was first eaten, and then that which 

 was older, I had nn opportunity of observing 

 last sunnner, the marked preference which sheep 

 give to young grass, compared with old, by put- 

 ting cattle into two fields, separiilcd by a fence 

 only — one very fijie grass of some years standing, 

 the other only three years old, and pulling out 

 some of the lower rails of a coimnmiicating gate, 

 perjnitted forty sheep to j)ass through, and pasture 

 in whichever field they pleased. The result was 

 they were constantly to be foinid in the field of 

 younger grass, an<l very seldom went into the old 

 grass enclosure. At last I was forced to shut 

 them into the old grass, finding they were reduc- 

 ing the feed in the one, and leaving too much in 

 the other. Be it always remendiereil that fand 

 must be well laid down. If grass however new, 

 he growing on poor land, or wet, or on land that 

 has been badly cleared, cattle do not relish it. I 

 have .seen frequent instances of this. More par- 

 ticularly do they dislike pasturing on foul land. 



" Having now broached the subject, I would 

 not for the i)resent at least, pursue it any farther; 

 hut ere I take my leave, 1 would in the first place 

 state, in corroboration of what I have been endeav- 

 oring to maintain, that by following the breaking 

 up system instead of the top-dressing one, I have 

 not only altered the verdure, but 1 have increased 

 the rent of the old grass lawn on my farm from 

 three to five fold. Li conclusion I would make a 

 brief recapitulation of my sentinients : I maintain 

 tliat except a fevv favored spots on the banks of 

 rivers, &c. no ground can without loss be left 

 long in pasture ; that it appears to me four or five 

 years is generally speaking, the longest period land 

 should be allowed to lie in grass ; that is, if pasture 

 be the object, at the end of that time, the groimd 

 should be broken up and returned to grass again. 

 I maintain that without grass, severely cropped 

 laml cannot be restored to fidl fertility ; and ivith- 

 oul cropping grass cannot be made to continue at 

 the maximum point of utility and verdiu'e." 



From the N, Y. Farmer. 

 OHIO C03IPA1VY FOR IMPOUTINS CATTI.E. 



Our correspondent F. E. R. has sent us the sub- 

 joined article, taken from the Chillieothe Adverti- 

 ser. We are pleased to record exertions so spirit- 

 e<l and liberal to iin|)rove our stock of cattle. It 

 is very probable, too, that the Inqiroved Short 

 Horns will he suitable for the fertile and rich 

 lands of the West. For this section of the coun- 

 try, and for all New-Englaud, we are persuaded it 

 will not answer to invest capital in this breeil at 

 high prices. 



The following is an extract of a letter from Felix 

 Uenick, Esq. to liis brother in this place, dated 



"Liverpool, (England), 30th April, 1834. 



" I returtied to this place the day before yester- 

 day, after a pretty thorough cxajniu.'itiou of all the 

 best stocks of short horned cattle in Yorkshire and 

 Durham, and have been considerably disappointed 

 in finding so few of the best kind of cattle ; their 

 slocks liaie evidently been "going back," as they 

 call it here, for several years, in consequence of a 

 depression in price, &C. 



" We have purchased fourteen head of the best 

 cattle we conhl find, and have had to pay very 

 high for them, as 1 ihiidi it is entirely useless to 

 import any hut the best kind, with an indisputable 

 pedigree, and they are scarce and dear. We have 

 paid various |)rices according to their qualtiy and 

 [mrity of blood, which is much looked to here, 



and they are valued accordingly. We have paid 

 froiri 30 to 150 guineas for those which we liave 

 purchased. The cattle purchased by us, in our 

 opinion, (as well as that of all the best judges that 

 we have seen) are superior to any in England 

 with the exception of one. 



Some of the cattle purchased by ns took the 

 premiuma at the Otiey Agricultlual Fair. We are 

 now so far advanced with our purchases as to be 

 ready for shipping at any time, and my object in 

 returning here was to procure vessels to take them 

 out. 



I parted with Josiah Renick and Edwin J. Har- 

 ness a few days ago at Leeds. They proceed to 

 London and Paris. They will |)robably return 

 through Herefordshire, and look at some of the 

 Hereford Ileds, as they are called, and some of the 

 Devons; but from any thing I have seen, and all 

 the information I can get, 1 do not believe it will 

 he right to import any other than Short Horns ; 

 or Durhams as we call then). The best cattle 

 here are all kiiown as the improved breed of Short 

 Horns ; and as it respects the Long Horns, that 

 were formerly so much admired by us, I do not 

 believe there is any stock of that kind in England ; 

 there are still some bred in Ireland, and purchas- 

 ed in England, to bring up some of their Short 

 Horned calves, for they never let them suck their 

 dams, but either raise them by hand or by nurses. 

 The Long Horns have dwindled comparatively to 

 nothinj;. 



OI.D APPLES. 



Mr. Levi Tucker, of Cummingham, Mass. Lag 

 sent us three Koxbiiry Russets, which have been 

 kept through two winters and ojie sunmier, — indry 

 sand. The fruit was sound and but little shiivel- 

 ed, and bad the freshness and flavor of last year's 

 crop. Might not this mode of preserving winter 

 apples and pears, be adopted on a large scale with 

 profit .' It certainly might if they comtnanded 

 the |)rice here they do in the London Market. The 

 Gardener's Magazine for April, quotes Newtou 

 pippins at 10 to l-2s ($2.22 to 2.S6) per bushel— 

 Nonpareils at 11 to 2Z 10s ($4.44 to 11.10) per bush- 

 el, and pears at 4 to Gs per dozen. — -Cultivator. 



AVATBRIKG ISABEI.I.A GRAPE VIJTES. 



Some years past a gentleman recommended, at 

 a meeting of the New- York Horticulturni Society, 

 plentiful watering of the native grapes just as they 

 begin to change their color after obtaining a full 

 size. Mr. Aymar, of this city, has tried it for two 

 or three years. He cuts a trench near the stem, 

 ami keeps it well siqiplied with water, principally 

 from the wash of the kitchen. Mr. A. says it im- 

 proves the flavor of the grapes, and makes them 

 more melting, like the foreign. — .V. 1'. Farmer. 



NATIVE GRAPES. 



The following is the testimony of N. Longworth, 

 Esq. one of the most extensive vine growers in 

 ibis country : The Catawba is superior as a wine 

 and table grape to the Isabella, ami matures its 

 fruit better though a less abundant bearer. We 

 have native grapes in most of our States, could a 

 selection be made, that would leave us little cause 

 to regret that foreign grapes succeeded so hadly 

 with us. 



Merit. True merit is like a river, the deeper it 

 is the less noise it makes. 



