A MARYLAND FARM. 
id 
sheep, and horses, rioting in its luxuriance. 
Eleven hundred acres had thus been limed, and 
new fields were waiting for this fertilizing stim¬ 
ulant, still in the process of application., I saw 
large tracts of land so sterile that no vegetation 
grew upon it, not even grass or weeds, separated 
only by a fence from those bearing the richest 
herbage. One had been limed—the other not. 
I had never seen a specimen of agricultural im¬ 
provement which had pleased or interested me 
more than this; and when, in addition to this 
teeming abundance, all the appliances of rural 
luxury and independence, buildings, orchards, 
groves, and delightful scenery, were added, the 
picture was full to admiration. Yet all this 
beauty, fertility, and abundance, was created by 
the simple application of scientific principles, with 
the aid of moneyed capital, to this body of other¬ 
wise inert and lifeless soil. The proprietor told 
me that his friends and neighbors had jeered, 
ridiculed, and blamed him for thus squandering, 
as they termed it, his money on such worthless 
experiments; but the result has equalled his 
y/armest anticipations, and he has now the solid 
pleasure of looking at an estate, which, when he 
took possession of it, was absolutely worthless in 
its income, and not saleable at five dollars the 
acre, now worth eighty or a hundred. In ad¬ 
dition to this improvement of the soil, ten or a 
dozen miles of durable and substantial post-and- 
rail fences of chestnut and cedar have been built, 
separating the farm into large and convenient 
fields, with commodious lanes and entrances 
leading from the mansion-house and farm-build- 
tngs. Ample hay and grain barns are erected in 
many of the enclosures, for securing the crops 
and feeding the stGck; and altogether this may 
be termed & pattern farm of the highest order. 
The question may naturally enough here be 
asked, how should this remarkable improvement 
occur in this country, and by one who was not 
bred a practical farmer ? The answer is a simple 
and easy one: by the application of right prin¬ 
ciples to agricultural improvement. This gentle¬ 
man possessed education, enlarged and intelligent 
views of agricultural improvement, had travelled 
extensively abroad, and profited by his foreign 
observations; and after returning to his native 
state, instead of slothfully sitting down in idle¬ 
ness and inglorious ease, at once applied himself 
to the improvement of his property, and in giving 
an example to his fellow-citizens of incalculable 
value. And yet millions of acres in that fine re¬ 
gion, now yielding little or no income, might, by 
a very moderate outlay of capital, be made equal¬ 
ly productive. But more of this hereafter. 
Devon Cattle .—By far the best and most per¬ 
fect herd of Devons I ever saw is kept on this 
estate. The originals of these fine animals were 
imported about the year 1819, as a present from 
the late Earl of Liecester, then Mr. Coke, of Hol- 
kam, England, to Messrs. Patterson and Caton, 
two distinguished gentlemen of Baltimore. Not 
being practical agriculturists, these choice ani¬ 
mals met with indifferent treatment in their 
breeding, and for many years were neglected 
among the stock of their farms. But failing some 
years ago into the hands of their present proprietor, 
who readily saw their value for the locality and 
soil of his estate, he imported from Mr. Bloom¬ 
field (a principal tenant of Lord Leicester, and 
indeed the real breeder of the fine Devon stock, 
for which his Norfolk estate has become so cele¬ 
brated) a most valuable bull, by which his stock 
was in a few years brought up to a standard, ex¬ 
celled probably by few herds of Devon cattle in 
England, and certainly by none in this country. 
A year and a half ago he made another importa¬ 
tion of a two-year-old bull, certainly the most 
perfect of his kind, in symmetry and good points, 
that I ever saw. To a size abundantly large for 
all purposes of Devon stock, he united a fineness 
of touch, a delicacy of limb, and a vigor of consti¬ 
tution, such as I had not before imagined could 
belong to this ancient family of stock. In truth 
such a Devon I never saw! His color a deep 
mahogany, with the beautiful rich yellow ring 
round the eye, and the elegant slender white 
horn ! All my prejudices against the Devons as 
being “pretty little cattle enough,” were dissi¬ 
pated, and I at once acknowledged their value 
for the lighter soils of our country. In the pas¬ 
ture with this young bull were eighteen or twenty 
thorough-bred cows, large and beautiful; all a 
deep mahogany color, and hardly to be distin¬ 
guished from each other, so much in shaj)e were 
they alike. Their udders were large, with fine 
silky handling and genteel taper teats; and indi¬ 
cating by appearance good milking qualities. 
This their proprietor assured me they possessed 
in fully an equal degree to the common cows of 
our country, and probably superior. In another 
field were a score or two of thrifty young steers 
and heifers, the produce of the cows, and near by 
a home lot with a number of young calves of the 
present year. 
I need hardly say, after thus expressing my ad¬ 
miration, that, before I left, I purchased three or 
four select young animals of this valuable herd, 
from which, with those I before possessed, will, 
I trust, in a few years, give me a herd of Devons 
equal to any other to be found. For general cat¬ 
tle purposes I advocate the Short-horns. They 
are, all in all, the finest cattle. But there is a 
very general and, in my opinion, obstinate preju¬ 
dice in our country, particularly among the nor¬ 
thern people and their descendants, for red cattle, 
especially red oxen; and your true New England 
men, when they work oxen altogether, would as 
soon be seen driving a mule and a goat together, 
as a pair of roan or spotted cattle. No —red is the 
color, and red they will have, and red they shall 
have, if I can aid them to it; and no other breed 
gives it in such deep, rich, unalloyed luxury as the 
Devons. This breed has sufficient size for work¬ 
ing cattle, and in beauty of form is perfect. 
Here too I discovered several specimens of 
beautiful South Down sheep, from the select im¬ 
ported flock of Mr. Botch, of Otsego. Some fine 
blood mares and colts, to which has been added 
one of my own thorough-bred mares of the Bare¬ 
foot stock, now in foal to Bellfounder. Even the 
barn-door fowls of the place were of choice and 
selected stock, being a cross of the large Bucks 
