OP TENNESSEE. 19 



vote labor through the whole winter, in accumulating a 

 large compost heap to apply to his meadows ! The result 

 may be imagined. While the Tennessee meadows will 

 average from 800 to 1,500 pounds of hay to the acre, Eng- 

 lish meadows will make from two to five tons on land that 

 has no other advantage than the care bestowed on it by the 

 owner. 



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 a 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 great demand at high prices. It is because 

 these States have more land in meadows, while broad 

 stretches of valuable pastures and prairies dot the landscape 

 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 in- 

 frequently 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 meager sum. 



Let us draw a comparison 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 



