Exhibition Adduesses. 153 



somewhat inaccessible piece of land, while a comparatively smooth 

 and convenient and cultivated acre near by is left unattended to and 

 half tilled; but it does not indicate much judpi;ment. And all men 

 are not judicious. I have no doubt more money is spent annually in 

 draining peat bogs and cold muck swamps than would be required to 

 thorough-drain into Avarmth and fertility all the valuable claybeds 

 adjoining. I have known farmers ruined by draining bogs ; but I 

 never knew one to fail in finding his profits from a well tilled, 

 thoroughly drained clay field. We must learn this practical lesson, 

 or our progress into agricultural system and success will be painfully 

 impeded. 



Choice and Feeding of Animals. 

 It is of the highest importance to know how to select animals 

 adapted to the locality in which they are to be reared and fed. We 

 must recognize the law, that the most profitable animals are those 

 which will make the largest returns for the amount of food consumed. 

 Time was when a farmer was judged of by the size of his cattle ; 

 the largest oxen being considered an index of the wisest owner; but 

 form, and thrift, and cjuality, and fitness are now beginning to be 

 deemed of greater value, even where attended by a reduction of size. 

 Every attempt to 'force an animal on land unfitted for it, every 

 attempt to compel a large, heavy-carcased cow to get a living on 

 pastures adapted only to a smaller one, must end in failure. Our 

 cattle should find abundant nourishment on onr hills and in our 

 stalls, and should be selected with reference to this, rather than to 

 that magnitude of proportion which gratifies the taste, regardless of 

 the purse. The constitution of every animal should, moreover, be 

 adapted to the climate in which he is to live. The cattle of Ken- 

 tucky differ materially from the cattle of New England ; and any 

 effort to transplant the animal organization created under a mild sky 

 and on blue-grass pastures into a hard climate and short grass, is a 

 violation of nature, for which the farmer will in the eiid suffer, and 

 wdiicli will be remedied only by an accommodation to nature after a 

 few generations. The daiiy being the great object of cattle feeding 

 in the northern States especially, a hardy, compact, thrifty cow, 

 easily kept during the winter without grain, and satisfied with pas- 

 tures not over-luxuriant in sunnner, is especially desirable, both for 

 dair}^ purposes and for beef when the work of the dairy is over. Such 

 an animal will thrive in summer, will hold her own on conmion food 



