AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
JbipA tffimjrffte % $mtx, % planter, aitir \\t ifiartrmr* 
AGRICULTURE IS TIIE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.— Washington. 
CONDUCTING EDITOR, 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
ALLEN <fc CO., 189 Water-st., New-York 
VOL XIV.—NO. 21.] 
NEW-YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1855. 
[NEW SERIES.—NO. 99 
JTor prospectus, (forms, 
(SF SEE LAST PAGE.^ 
|@°* Every one writing to the Editor or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices," on last page. 
All letters relating to Editorial mat¬ 
ters should be addressed to Mr. Orange 
.Tudd, (the Conducting Editor). 
Letters inclosing subscriptions and on oth¬ 
er business should be directed to Allen & 
Co., Publishers, and also those referring to 
both departments. Editorial and business 
matters, if in the same letter, should be on 
separate sheets. 
Correspondence of the American Agriculturist. 
LETTERS FROM MR. PAGE-No. VI 
Kentucky, April, 1855. 
The Kentucky blue grass pastures have 
long been celebrated. This grass is sup¬ 
posed by northern and eastern farmers to 
be something entirely strange to their soils. 
Nevertheless, it is very common in those 
sections, and is called June grass (Poa Pra- 
tensis). The excellence of these pastures, in 
addition to the mild climate, arises from the 
care bestowed upon them. They are rarely 
plowed, lightly stocked, and no weeds or 
bushes allowed to plunder the soil. Canada 
thistle, the great pest of New-York lands, is 
not seen in Kentucky. 
As I have previously said, much of the 
pasture is woodland. All the very large and 
quite small trees have been cut, leaving only 
the timber valuable for fencing or fuel, such 
as the ash, elm, cherry, hickory and maple. 
The stumps are then grubbed out, knolls 
leveled down, and all rubbish carted off. I 
should say sufficient trees are left to about 
half shade the ground. Cattle fatten finely in 
these parks, but mules thrive better in the 
open grounds. 
Five miles from Paris, away back from 
the pike, and on the banks of the Stoner, 
lives Mr. G. M. Bedford, who has a large 
herd of Short Horns, derived from the late 
importations. The drouth of 1854 was par¬ 
ticularly severe in Kentucky; in conse 
quence, I found Mr. B.’s cattle in low con¬ 
dition, having been kept through the winter 
chiefly on cornstalks—rather hard fare for 
Kentucky cows, that are used to having 
grass twelve months in the year. Very 
many of them, however, were fine speci¬ 
mens of the breed. With a roan heifer, be¬ 
longing to A. M. Bedford, I was much 
pleased; very even in her points, with an 
extra brisket. The stock bull is “ King Cy¬ 
rus,” Kentucky bred, and a good one ; two 
years old; has carried several premiums, 
and, what is much liked in Ohio and Ken¬ 
tucky, has a very fine head, neck and horns, 
and proves a remarkably good getter. 
At Mr. Bedford’s I met Capt. Jeremiah 
Duncan, and rode through the fields with 
him to his house, which is pleasantly situ¬ 
ated on a gentle rise (two miles from a pub¬ 
lic road) surrounded on all sides by the wood¬ 
land pastures, vocal this pleasant evening 
with the far-off sounding wail of the mourn¬ 
ing dove. On this farm, and the only one 
in my whole journey, I saw a superabund¬ 
ance of feed. The Captain’s cattle were all 
in fine condition. His stock bull, De Ottley, 
is a large, massive, fine bull, got by imported 
Ottley, out of Louan. I have never yet seen 
six so good calves from any one cow as from 
Louan, by DeOttley, Perfection, Louan 2d 
and 3d, and a heifer, name forgotten. 
Louan 2d, chiefly red, two years old, is the 
gem of this herd ; has been running out all 
winter, in high order, and in shape is a par 
allelogram—that is, trimming off the head, 
neck, legs, and a little from the lower part 
of the brisket, you have a great oblong box. 
Short Horns are higher-priced in Kentucky 
than any other State of the Union. To show 
the estimation put on their breeding by pur¬ 
chasers from other States, I would mention, 
that Capt. D. could have sold the above 
heifer, a few days since, for the handsome 
sum of $1,000. 
Much pains is taken by the inhabitants in 
directing a stranger on his way across the 
country, and after a little practice, no trouble 
will be met with in going from one house to 
another. From Capt. Duncan’s it is a pleas¬ 
ant ride of five or six miles, through the 
splendid woodlands, to the farm of Mr. E. 
G. Bedford, the owner of the celebrated bull 
Perfection, a descendant of Mrs. Motte, and 
winner of the first prize at the National Cat¬ 
tle Show last fall. 
Perfection is a very large animal, light 
roan color, fine head, neck, and horns, very 
broad across the loin, hip and rump, with a 
brisket which drops quite to his knees ; full 
crops ; carries his head high ; and with a 
temper so mild that he has never yet been 
rung, although six years old. 
Laura, a red, 3-year-old heifer, the get of 
Perfection, has been beaten once, but has 
carried enough prize cups to set up a silver 
smith; she traces on both sides to Mrs. 
Motte, of the importation of 1817. She has 
a fine lean head, short neck, short, straight 
legs, of fine bone, and in shape is like Louan 
2d, a parallelogram. 
I have seen recently several hundred Short 
Horns; many of them have crossed the At¬ 
lantic ; but have never yet seen the superi¬ 
ors of these two American-bred heifers, Lau-- 
ra and Louan 2d. 
Mr. Bedford also showed me several other 
heifers which were highly creditable to his 
breeding. 
Hon. John Cunningham is another breeder 
of Short Horns near Paris. I found his herd 
so thin in flesh, that Mr. C. declined show¬ 
ing any thing, save two or three promising 
calves, the get of his bull Deceiver, imported 
last season. 
Deceiver is a light roan, in moderate con¬ 
dition, stylish about the fore end, with good 
chine, wide loin, and long quarter. Without 
doubt he will prove a good getter. 
Mr. C. also breeds thoroughbred horses 
and jacks, and feeds annually a large lot of 
steers for the eastern markets. He gave 
me the results of feeding several lots of cat¬ 
tle, which were quite interesting, as show¬ 
ing that it can be done at a profit—but, neg¬ 
lecting to take notes at the time, the partic¬ 
ulars have escaped my recollection. 
Mr. B. C. Bedford had a sale last fall; 
hence his herd is quite small. I saw sev¬ 
eral fine specimens of descendants of the 
importation of 1817. Mr. B. has been using, 
the season past, the well known bull Yane 
Tempest, imported by Col. Sherwood, of 
Auburn, N. Y. 
But a few miles from Paris was the first 
white settlement. We were reminded that 
we were on the “ Dark and Bloody ground,” 
while walking with Mr. Bedford over one of 
his fields, by finding several relics of antiqui¬ 
ty—pieces of the flint arrow-heads used by 
the Aborigines. 
Sheep. —The Texas State Gazette of the 
7th inst. says, “ We have conversed with 
several farmers lately who are raising sheep, 
and we find that the result of their experi¬ 
ments have far exceeded their expectations. 
One farmer tells us that the yield, this sea¬ 
son, of wool from his sheep, will be 82 per 
cent upon his small capital invested. From 
this rate to 45 per cent are the extremes of 
profit upon sheep raising, as far as we learn, 
from actual experiment. Farmers, think of 
this, and diversify your labor. A few sheep 
to begin with is better than many, and the 
cost of purchase will be trifling.” 
If there be no faith in our words, of what 
use are they 1 
