1865.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
247 
ings of all westera farmers. Add to these, the 
losses from neglect of rotation of crops, care¬ 
lessness in selecting and preserving seed and 
ignorance of the business rules which are as 
essential to successful farming, as to success in 
any other occupation, and the secret of our oc¬ 
casional “ hard times” is disclosed. Not one in 
ten of our farmers can tell the cost of produc¬ 
tion of a bushel of his grain. Few can cal¬ 
culate the pecuniary difference between selling 
their corn, or feeding it to stock. Fewer still 
can tell the distance from market, at which 
wheat growing ceases to be profitable. If the 
Agriculturist will give us more of its forcible 
and practical lessons on these and similar topics, 
“Western Boy” and many others will admit 
that the American Agriculturist is as useful to 
us as to the rest of mankind. C. S. W. 
Slaughter of Breeding Animals. 
Several times during the prevalence of the 
temptingly high prices which have prevailed 
of late, we have taken an opportunity to caution 
our readers against slaughtering their cows and 
ewes, as also heifer-calves and ewe lambs. 
These cautions, though we hope useful, have been 
rendered unnecessary in a measure, or at least 
strongly urged home to the attention of farmers, 
by the high prices of all the products of the 
dairy, and the high prices of wool and the de¬ 
mand for sheep for breeding purposes. There 
are, however, some extensive grazing districts 
(which, by the way, are notorious for being 
backward in agricultural progress, and for 
having few reading farmers), where the high 
prices of beef have tempted farmers to part with 
their dry cows and probably other stock, in the 
expectation of being able, as usual, to supply 
themselves again from droves passing from the 
back-country through to market. In this they 
have been disappointed, and real destitution now 
prevails which may seriously embarrass farming 
for some years in these parts of the country. 
The Commissioner of Agriculture, too late, 
sounds an alarm. The poor short-sighted farm¬ 
ers who have sold their cows and heifers will 
not enjoy particularly to be held up to the com¬ 
miseration of the world, whose charity they do 
not ask, and whose pity they will not get. (For 
who ever thought of wasting sympathy on the 
boy who killed the golden-egg-laying goose ?) We 
make a few quotations from the Report of the 
Agricultural Department for April and May; 
Mr. Hamilton, president of the Pennsylvania 
State Agricultural Society, writes: “I have 
been for some time seriously concerned at the 
falling off and derangement of agricultural 
products, particularly in the important one of 
cattle. It cannot be overlooked by the most 
casual observer, that from the immense slaughter 
and waste consequent upon the supply of animal 
food for the army and navy, whilst importing 
and breeding are at a stand-still, the most 
strenuous efforts will be necessary, on the part 
of the farmer, to prevent an absolute scarcity, 
particularly in the product of beef-cattlc, and 
that beef must soon be sold at rates that but 
few will be able to afford. The high prices at 
present offered by butchers have tempted farm¬ 
ers to part with their largest and best formed 
cows, which under different circumstances would 
have been retained for breeding, and the most 
healthy and vigorous heifer calves have been 
sold to them. From this cause most farms ex¬ 
hibit a poor, ungainly stock of cattle compared 
with what it formerly was. Ohio, Indiana, Ken¬ 
tucky, Illinois, Missouri, and West Vhginia, on 
which we used to rely for supplies, present 
limited resources.” 
Jolm .1. Taylor, of Shelby County, Missouri, 
says: “ I see from your reports that horses and 
cattle are on the decrease. Should the practice 
of butchering dry cows, as it has been done in 
this county, become general over the West, you 
may expect a continued decrease in cattle; and 
as I have stood on the streets of our town in 
the fall season and seen drove after drove of 
cows driven away for beef, I thought a law 
ought to be passed to limit this trade.” 
E. F. Lucas, of Warren County, Indiana, 
writes that “the usual increase of cattle has 
fallen off, owing to so many of the best graded 
cows having been killed and packed into barrel 
beef the hast two years.” 
The Commissioner .adds: “ But with the war 
now at an end, and with scarcely any foreign 
demand for breadstuffs, a change M’ill t.ake place, 
and deficiencies in our farm stock will be filled 
up. To supply the loss of cattle, the first step 
will be to increase the number of cows. This 
must be done in two wa 3 's—to stop their 
slaughter for beef, an evil and a wrong justly 
condemned by our Missouri correspondent, and 
to raise more of the heifer c.alves. For a time 
the dairy establishments of the western reserve 
and other localities should cease from their 
usual practice of turning a cow on grass to be 
fattened when her milk product ceases to be 
profitable. That must be restored by breeding, 
and not by the purchase of another and the 
slaughter of the one nearly dry.” 
The love of money often induces men to work 
their own injury, with their eyes open. This is 
generally with the expectation that they will be 
able to find some way of avoiding the conse¬ 
quences. There is no doubt but the rise in the 
value of meats affected first the beef stock, then 
1 and 2-year old steers and young working 
cattle, and finally the milchcows, so that any 
one who had fat dry cows was very apt to sell 
them at one time; but almost at the same time 
with the rise in beef, butter and cheese brought 
“ gold prices,” and were bought in great quan¬ 
tities for exportation. This gave the cows a 
great value independent of their worth for beef. 
That the number of cows in the great dairy 
regions of the country has decreased, we do not 
believe, but on the contrary, so far as we can 
ascertain, it has increased. Veals, however, 
have been to a great extent Indiscriminately 
slaughtered, and many a nice heifer c.alf we see 
daily in the shambles which in two or three 
ye.ars will be greatly wanted on the farm. 
To a considerable extent is it true also that 
fine stylish large mares are sold to the city and 
the small or ill-formed, pot-bellied, hollow- 
backed ones are kept to raise colts. The fruit 
will be like the tree, aud in the long run it will 
surely pay to keep one’s stock up by retaining 
the best anim.als for breeding. The great con¬ 
sumption of beef in the army has in a measure 
ceased, but there being in several districts a de¬ 
mand for breeding animals, and for those to 
fatten, no doubt prices of beef and mutton will 
be high for some time to come—so high indeed 
that few if any more profitable branches of 
farm-industry can be followed than buying and 
fattening cattle and sheep, but don’t fatten the 
cows and ewes, nor neglect to keep up the stock 
on the farm. It is very poor policy to attempt 
to feed more than can be well wintered, but 
present prospects are favorable for our being 
able to winter more stock than ever before in 
the history of farming in this country. The 
hay crop so far as heard from East and West, 
is remarkably good, and generally well secured^ 
corn and roots also promise remarkably well. 
— - — I —» «- 
The Harvest. 
Our artists have furnished us another chapter 
in the “ Pictorial History of the Loaf of Bread.” 
Page 152 told the story of the Seed Time,— 
how the ground was enriched, and plowed and 
pulverized, and how the seed was drilled in, or 
sowed broadcast and then harrowed and rolled; 
and besides, there too wo have the hint given 
that grain crops precede grass, for behind the 
harrow the grass seed is cast, and when the 
grain is cut, the yellow stubble will soon be con¬ 
cealed by its cheerful green. 
This month, appropriate to the season, we 
have Tfie Harvest. The whole group of scenes 
will repay study, equally for the picturesque 
effect of the whole, and lh<at of each one viewed 
by itself, for the excellence of the figures, the 
naturalness of the attitudes, and the life and 
motion they exhibit, and for the faithfulness 
with which the different means of harvesting 
and final securing of the grain, either for the 
market or the miller, are portrayed. 
Time was (not very long ago either) when 
all the grain in this country was reaped by the 
sickle; work at which, at this day, over a great 
part of Europe, women find constant and lucra¬ 
tive employment during harvest time. Ever 
since the days of Boaz and Ruth, and doubtless 
for a long time before, the hand-gleaners fol¬ 
lowed the reapers, picking up the stray heads 
and the down trodden and over-looked ones. 
Each reaper cutting handful by handful gathered 
his or her armfuls and laid them in the gavel, 
till it was enough for a sheaf, and then bound 
it. Slow, back-breaking work. How different 
this, from the sweep of the cradles as lusty 
arms swing them through the falling grain, 
sometimes m.aking a cut of 8 or 9 feet, and 
laying each clip evenly in the swath. Voice¬ 
lessly perhaps the cradlers go, but the simul¬ 
taneous rush of the several scythes through 
the sonorous straw is one of the most inspiring 
sounds of the harvest field, especi<ally w'hen it 
begins anew after the musieal rip-rap rip-rap 
of the whetstone. Here the labors are divided, 
one party cuts, and another set of active hands 
does the binding. 
Even this is slow and tedious, and with the 
will to do it faster, came the way. The clat¬ 
tering reaper now swoops around the field, and 
by its automaton rake delivers the gavels ready 
for binding upon the short-cut, even stubble, as 
fast as horses ean walk. Many binders find 
enough to do to keep up with the single man 
with the reaping machine. In the thrashing 
scenes we see a similar eontrast, horses and iron 
supplanting human muscle. Such has been the 
advance of the past few years, and this is only 
a sample of the progress in other departments, 
not only of agricultural theory and practice, 
but also in other arts of life and peace, and—for 
how sadly do many realize it—in the arts of war. 
The nation returns now to peace, and peace¬ 
ful arts will prosper as never before. We may 
look for great advancement in farming practices, 
but do not let us go too fast. The heading 
harvesters so much approved where crops are 
great and hands are few, and straw of little 
value, though surprisingly expeditious and ex¬ 
cellent in their operation, are adapted to only a 
limited area of country. This will doubtless be 
narrowed year bj’' year until they will be 
counted, with wooden plows, and we may al¬ 
most say sickles, among the fossils of agriculture. 
