14; 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
would consider extraordinary. The heifer calves 
of this cow promise to equal their dam. They 
have the following record: 
“ Maggie Mitchell 2nd,” 7years old; yielded from 
June 5th to January 1, 1875, 208(days, 5,0881 lbs. 
“ Maggie Mitchell 3d,’’ 3 years old in 1874, yielded 
from May 20th to Jan. 1st, 1875, 223 days, 3,352 lbs. 
“ Maggie Mitchell 4th,” 3 years old, was small and 
not allowed to come in until 3 years old ; she yield¬ 
ed for June and July, 211 lbs. per day. To this 
record Mr. Tilden adds : I have repeatedly tested 
the milk of my Jerseys, and find that 7 quarts is a 
very safe estimate for a pound of butter. For the 
month of June, 1874, the average for 13 head was 
16- 3 /i 0 o lbs.; or 7 54 /i00 quarts ; this milk was set in a 
spring, the temperature of which is 47°, and that 
left after skimming would pass for pretty good 
milk. On the 20th of Nov. last, we skimmed 1311 
lbs. of milk, and obtained 211 lbs. of cream, from 
which was made 11 lbs. of butter; thus using 
ll 06 /ioo lbs., or 5.56 quarts of milk for one pound of 
butter, nothing being allowed for the slight shrink¬ 
age while set. 
Mr. Tilden has recently made an addition to his 
herd, of nine cows and heifers, which he imported 
from the Island of Jersey. These animals were se¬ 
lected for Mr. Tilden by Col. M. C. Weld of New 
York, who visited the Island for that purpose, and 
were chosen with the greatest care and deliberation 
for their butter yielding capabilities alone. Some 
of these cows have given 13 to 161 lbs. of butter 
per week in an actual test. 
Southern Agriculture. 
The Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of 
Georgia, Thos. P. Janes, Esq., is doing a work of 
the greatest value to agriculture in the southern 
states. He is now issuing a series of circulars, con¬ 
taining information respecting the crops grown, 
and kinds of stock kept in the state, with sug¬ 
gestions as to the methods by which they may be 
improved and increased in value. From one of 
these circulars, (No. 21), which contains “ A Con¬ 
solidated Report of Crops, etc.,” for last year, we 
gather some very valuable, not to say surprising 
information. This is valuable as showing the prom¬ 
ising condition of southern agriculture, now that 
its defects and mistakes are clearly seen, and in 
process of being removed or corrected, and sur¬ 
prising as showing from what comparatively poor 
returns the southern farmer can make a living, if 
not a good profit. That a profit can be made from 
a crop of only nine bushels of corn per acre, is a 
surprising evidence of the cheapness of labor and 
cultivation, in a climate under which farm opera¬ 
tions can be carried on during every month of the 
year, without hindrance from frost or snow. Now 
that the intelligent farmers of the state have com¬ 
bined to investigate the possibilities of their soil, 
climate, and supply of cheap labor, and experiment 
upon more promising crops than that of cotton, they 
can hardly fail to change the system under which 
they have been contented with the most meager 
crops, for one through which they can greatly in¬ 
crease their productions. The report referred to 
shows that the yield of cane syrup is equal to 192 
gallons per acre, which sells for 68 cents per gallon, 
giving a total gross income per acre of $130.56. 
The cost of raising a gallon of syrup is 28 cents, or 
with the above yield, $53.76 per acre ; leaving the 
net profit equal to $76.80 per acre. Twelve gallons 
of syrup are make from '100 gallons of cane-juice. 
The production of syrup is more profitable than 
that of sugar. The culture of sorghum has very 
largely increased of late. The average yield is 73 
gallons per acre. It sells for 66 cents per gallon, 
producing $48.18 per acre, which leaves a profit of 
$27.74. Fifteen gallons of syrup are produced 
from 100 gallons of juice. The average yield of 
corn is nine bushels per acre. The greatest yield 
reported is as high as 30 bushels per acre, while 
the least is but five bushels. When peas, (the 
southern pea, and altogether different from the field 
pea of the north), are sown with the corn as a catch 
crop, the average yield is only 4 bushels per acre. 
The cost of a crop of com and peas is $8 per acre, 
and the value of the crop, including only 185 lbs. 
of fodder, is $16.32 per acre. The average yield of 
“ ground peas,” or “ goubers,” which are grown for 
feeding hogs, is 28 bushels per acre, that of sweet 
potatoes is only 60 bushels per acre. All these crops, 
notwithstanding the very small yields, are grown 
with profit. The most common crop, cotton, on the 
contrary, has been produced at an actual loss the 
past year. The crop amounts to 400,000 bales, which 
cost the producers $2,000,000 more than the market 
value. The average yield is 412 lbs. of seed cotton per 
acre, from which about 137 lbs. of lint is produced. 
The cost of the crop is about $16 per acre, or with 
this yield about 12 cents per pound. 
These returns compared with what might be ex¬ 
pected under a better system of culture, are such as a 
northern or western farmer would consider ruinously 
poor. A more intelligent management could not fail 
to greatly increase them, both in quantity and profit. 
The first help to a better way, is to discover the neces¬ 
sity for a change. The next is to give an earnest 
effort to make the needed change. The fact that 
the Georgia farmers have organized a Department 
of Agriculture, and have set themselves resolutely 
to improve their condition, promises well for their 
early success in gaining this end. A convention of 
the correspondents and experimenters of the 
Department, is called to meet at Atlanta, on the 
25th of the present month, for the purpose of dis¬ 
cussing subjects of vital interest to the farmers of 
the state. This is better, and will be productive of 
more satisfactory results, than crying out for immi¬ 
gration which does not come, and is not likely to 
come while the returns from agriculture remain so 
poor and unattractive to northern or foreign farm¬ 
ers. The case of southern agriculturists generally, 
and those of Georgia particularly, is clearly one in 
which they will be helped the more, the more they 
help themselves. 
■ - 
Business Habits. 
There is probably not one farmer in ten thousand 
who keeps a set of accounts from which he can at 
any moment learn the cost of anything he may 
have produced, or even the cost of his real prop¬ 
erty. A very few farmers who have been brought 
up to business habits keep such accounts, and are 
able to tell how their affairs progress, what each 
crop, each kind of stock, or each animal has cost, 
and what each produces. Knowing these points a 
farmer can, to a very great extent, properly decide 
what crops he will grow, and what kind of stock 
he will keep. He will thus be able to apply his 
labor and money where it will do the most good. 
He can weed out his stock and retain only such 
animals as may be kept with profit. For the want 
of such knowledge, farmers continue, year after 
year, to feed cows that are unprofitable, and fre¬ 
quently sell for less than her value one that is the 
best of the herd, because she is not known to be 
any better than the rest. Feed is also wasted upon 
ill-bred stock, the keep of which costs three or 
four times that of well bred animals, which, as has 
been proved by figures that cannot be mistaken, 
pay a large profit on their keeping. For want of 
knowing what they cost, poor crops are raised year 
by year at an actual loss, provided the farmer’s 
labor, at the rates current for common labor, were 
charged against them. To learn that he has been 
working for 50 cents a day, during a number of 
years, while he has been paying his help twice as 
much, would open the eyes of many a farmer who 
has actually been doing this, and it would convince 
him that there is some value in figures and book 
accounts. It is not generally understood that a 
man who raises 20 bushels of corn per acre, pays 
twice as much for his plowing and harrowing, twice 
as much for labor, and twice as great interest upon 
the cost of his. farm, as a neighbor who raises 40 
bushels per acre. Nor is it understood that when 
he raises a pig that makes 150 pounds of pork in a 
year, that his pork costs him twice as much, or the 
corn he feeds brings him but half as much as that 
of his neighbor, whose pig weighs 300 pounds at a 
year old. If all these things were clearly set down 
in figures upon a page in an account book, and were 
studied, there would be not only a sudden awak¬ 
ening to the unprofitableness of such farming, but 
an immediate remedy would be sought. For no 
person could resist evidence of this kind if it were 
once brought plainly home to him. If storekeep¬ 
ers, merchants, or manufacturers, kept no accounts, 
they could not possibly cany on their business, and 
it is only because the farmer’s business is one of 
the most safe that he can still go on working in 
the dark, and throwing away opportunities of bet¬ 
tering his condition and increasing his profits. 
- — — -— 
Tie for Use in Stables. 
There are few cattle-ties that are absolutely safe 
to use. The chief danger in the chain-ties is that 
they may become loosened, and in the rope-ties 
that the animals may entangle their feet, and be 
thrown in the stall. The consequences of either 
accident may be disastrous. A tie that is very safe 
is shown in an illustration, which we borrow from 
the London “Agricultural Gazette,” and which is 
in use in English 6tables for both horses and cattle. 
It is made of rope not less than three-quarters of 
an inch in diameter, to the 
end of which is fastened a 
weight, sufficiently heavy 
to keep it always drawn 
tightly through a ring, 
fixed to the side of the 
stall, except when the ani¬ 
mal lies down, or moves 
backwards, when the 
weight is drawn up. This 
weight slides up and down 
on an iron rod. There is 
thus never any slack left 
in the tie, over which the 
animal can put its foot, 
and get cast or fast. With 
this tie there should al¬ 
ways be used a stout head¬ 
stall, to which the upper end of the halter should 
be safely and permanently fastened. A blunt or a 
peg hook should be placed at the upper end of the 
stall, upon which to hang the head-stall when not 
in use. If this is not carefully done, the head-stall 
will lie in the filth, and become disagreeable to 
handle ; yet this happens very frequently in stables. 
- — m — - 
The Yield of Wheat. 
The wheat crop as the chief food grain of the 
world, ought certainly to be grown with profit. If 
this staple crop is by universal consent admitted 
to be an unprofitable one, there must necessarily 
be something wrong in its management. No other 
crop can take its place under our present system of 
farming, for it is in the vast majority of cases 
made the vehicle for bringing in grass and clover, 
and its place in the usual rotation cannot well 
be filled by any substitute. But there is a uni¬ 
versal complaint that there is no profit in growing 
wheat. This is very generally true, but it does not 
follow that the blame belongs to the wheat, for with 
some farmers wheat is by far the best money 
crop they raise. But these farmers raise far 
more than the low average of 12 or 15 bushels 
per acre. It may be taken as a general rule that a 
yield of less than 25 bushels of wheat per acre is 
grown at a loss, at least in those localities where it 
is necessary to use manure to produce this grain. 
Where the “ virgin soil ” is still unexhausted, and 
manure is left to rot idly in the yards, or to be washed 
into the streams, there may still be some little profit 
in 20 bushels per acre. But where 10 to 20 loads of 
manure per acre is used every four years, and lime, 
superphosphate, or other fertilizers are applied 
periodically, in addition ; a crop of even 25 bushels 
is hardly profitable. Still a larger yield than this is 
the exception rather than the rule upon well culti¬ 
vated farms. An elaborate effort has been made 
recently by Mr. Klippart, the Secretary of the Board 
of Agriculture of Ohio, to ascertain how frequently 
