FOREIGN CATTLE.-SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE. 
273 
FOREIGN CATTLE, 
I notice your remarks in the July No. of the 
Agriculturist, on the subject of Foreign Cattle , and 
heartily coincide with the opinions advanced. The 
question has often occurred to me, “ Do we gain 
much at the present time by continuing our impor¬ 
tation of cattle from England ?” It has for some 
time appeared to me that we have all the materials 
for improving our stock to any extent, among our¬ 
selves ; and that we have as fine, well-bred, and as 
valuable animals among our cattle, sheep, and 
swine, as could be found in England, with perhaps 
very few exceptions. It appears to me, we are 
getting in this respect, as well as in many others, 
to place too much value on a thing merely because 
it has been imported. I may be mistaken, but it 
seems to me the practical effect of this continued 
disposition to look abroad, is to lessen the prices 
obtained by our enterprising breeders at home, 
when the home-bred animals are in every respect 
equal, if not superior, to the commonly imported 
ones. Occasional importations will continue to be 
necessary; the fundamental laws of good breeding, 
and occasional infusion of blood from other races 
of the same family, demand this; but further than 
this I can scarcely conceive it necessary at present 
to go. 
Acting upon this principle, I have always pur¬ 
chased my stock at home instead of sending abroad, 
although many of them were imported. 1 had the 
good fortune to obtain some of the Ayrshire cattle 
you “ saw standing in the Ayrshire quarter of the, 
State Cattle Show at Poughkeepsie,” in 1844. I 
purchased the imported bull and cow, together with 
their produce, and have now in my possession one 
male, and five females, all thorough-bred Ayr- 
shires, abandoning all other varieties, although I 
must confess I am well pleased with the cross with j 
the Durham and Ayrshire. For the dairy, I esteem 
them superior to my full-bred Durhams. It was 
from a heifer of this cross that one pound of butter 
was produced from eight quarts of her milk. 
The very laudable attempts which have been 
made to improve our farm stock by importations, < 
and, in some instances, by judicious crossing and 
good keeping, cannot but prove highly beneficial to 
our country. Our native cattle, it is true, originally' 
sprang from the same stock as those of Great Bri¬ 
tain ; and, with the attention to improvement that 
has been bestowed in England, they would, at this 
time, probably have been inferior to none. But 
from want of care in retaining the best individuals 
as breeders, and from an almost total disregard to 
purity of blood, and propriety of crossing, in our 
stock of neat cattle, we are unable longer to identify 
distinct breeds, and consequently we have been, till 
within the past few years, retrograding rather than; 
improving in this branch of our business. In; 
Great Britain, the business of rearing, or, in other 
words, of improving the form and value of domestic 
animals, has, on the contrary, formed a distin¬ 
guished and lucrative branch of farming, for the 
last eighty or hundred years; and the success of 
the gentlemen engaged in this business has not 
only greatly increased the agricultural wealth of 
the nation, but procured for many large fortunes. 
The Ayrshire breed of cattle are at present at¬ 
tracting considerable notice, as the attention of 
breeders has been, in a peculiar degree, directed to 
the characters which indicate the property of pro¬ 
ducing milk. They are a tough, hardy race, well 
suited to light soils, and scant fare. 
Albany , July , 1846. C. N. Bement. 
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE. 
I have for some time past been examining the 
American Agriculturist, and the interest mani¬ 
fested by it in the South, and the many valuable 
items of information it contains, induce me to be¬ 
come a permanent subscriber. You will therefore, 
if you please, forward me the numbers for the pre¬ 
sent year, from its commencement. While I am 
writing, perhaps it may not be amiss or irrelevant 
for me to make a few remarks. There is a gradual 
change creeping over the minds of the Southern 
planters in regard to the leading features of agricul¬ 
ture—they are more ready to catch at any im¬ 
provement, and more eagerly take interest in any 
novelty in the profession—they do not dislike in¬ 
novation. This I can readily believe is brought 
about by agricultural works becoming accessible to 
the mass, and from the interest which seems to be 
felt by the scientific in the analysis and synthesis of 
soils, the application of manure, rotation of crops, 
deep plowing, and in fact in all matters relating to 
the business. Feeling, as I do, an all-absorbing 
interest in the advancement of our profession, I 
consider it the duty of every man, to add into the 
common stock every item of practical information, 
so as to repay, in part, for the advantages he has 
himself gained from the experience of others. My 
feeble efforts have always, and shall ever be, for 
the benefit of farming in the South. 
In respect to our worn out lands, it is almost use¬ 
less for any one to waste paper and ink to write to 
the Southern planter, telling him to manure. It is 
well enough for the Northern farmers to talk ; they 
can well afford to fertilize their little spots of ten 
or a dozen acres i hut a southern plantation of five 
or six hundred acres in cultivation, would take all 
the manure in the parish, and all the force to do it 
justice. Our plantations are too extensive to ma¬ 
nure thoroughly, consequently it is half done, or 
not done at all. Again ; we have no time to haul 
large quantities of manure to the field; for it gene¬ 
rally takes until January to get out all our cotton, 
and we have to rush it then, to get time to make re¬ 
pairs, before we go to plowing for our next crop. 
You might say, why not take part of the hands and 
put them to making manure, while the others are 
picking ? Because we then would have to leave a 
great deal of cotton in the field, which would be a 
loss; and many other things would have to go 
undone which we should have done. Only place a 
Northern farmer in our places, and he would be 
about as bad off as w r e are—what with waste, de¬ 
predations, the buying of all we have. 
However, not to look all the time on the dark 
side of the picture, we will see what is the 
remedy which exists and has existed with us. Oui 
lands have yielded nearly all the nutriment to ex¬ 
hausting crops, by the ruinous system of farming 
thus year after year the same crop is planted, until 
the land is totally worn out. I know fields now in 
