330 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
State was a very precarious one, and that we did 
not rise enough for our own consumption, but 
by introducing a new variety, the Mediterranean, 
we now have a sure crop; may not this be 
called a new article of culture ? 
Let me remind you of the benefit and profit 
of the turnip as an article of food for cattle. 
They can be raised at small cost, with but little 
trouble, and do not exhaust the soil, but I think 
benefit it. In the winter your cattle require 
succulent food, no matter how much hay or 
stalks you feed, unless some succulent food is 
given, they will fall off. Beef cattle fatten much 
easier and are in good health by an occasional 
feed of turnips. ' Were more attention paid to 
cultivating turnips, we would not see so many 
lean and unhealthy looking cows in the spring. 
I speak of turnips because they are so easily 
raised, but beets and carrots are far better for 
milch cows. I was informed by a foreman of a 
large manufacturing company, where four cart 
horses were kept and worked hard every day, 
that carrots were their constant food, and they 
done much better on them than on oats or 
ground teed, and at the same price per bushel, 
they were cheaper horse feed than oats. 
-» ft e- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
FARMS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. 
Lewisbcro, Greenbrier Co., Ya., Jan. 15,1854. 
Messes. Editors :—As some of your corres¬ 
pondents wish to know something about the 
Trans-Alleghany part of Virginia, I will attempt 
to give a general idea of this and the adjoining 
counties. 
By an examination of the State map, it will 
be seen that Greenbrier is nearly in the center 
of Western Virginia, immediately on the west¬ 
ern slope of the Alleghany mountains. Through 
this county there runs an extensive limestone 
valley from north-east to south-west. This 
limestone formation juts out of the great moun¬ 
tain-chain in the county of Pocahontas, and 
makes down in a southward direction through 
the counties of Pocahontas, Greenbrier, Monroe, 
&c. This entire district is most valuable agri¬ 
cultural soil, and is celebrated for its grazing 
lands, and is mostly occupied with grazing es¬ 
tates. The price of these lands range from ten 
to forty dollars per acre. Immediately west of 
this limestone formation, is a mountainous range 
of countiy, extending on almost to the Ohio 
river, and very sparsely settled. It cannot, how¬ 
ever, properly be called mountains. It is a high 
elevated table-country with the water-courses 
cut deep through it;-and throughout its entire 
extent it is a coal and sandstone formation, and 
has large quantities of the most valuable lands 
for agricultural and grazing purposes. 
On the most elevated parts are to be found 
extensive flats of the richest soil, and the slopes 
are most beautiful, being, in many instances, 
not too steep to cultivate, though there frequent¬ 
ly occurs large quantities of surface rock. My 
own impression is, that to take the entire coun¬ 
try, about one-third is land of the very best 
quality, one-third good, and the other quite in¬ 
ferior. Comparatively, however, there is but 
little which could not be made worth something 
as grazing lands. 
In this vast district—almost unoccupied—the 
price of lands unimproved range from one to 
three and four dollars per acre; large quantities 
in the northern part of this and eastern part of 
Nicholas counties have been sold during the past 
summer to Eastern Virginians. These sales 
have been made to persons who intend to occu¬ 
py them, in quantities ranging from five hun¬ 
dred to six and seven thousand acres, and at 
prices from one to two and three dollars per 
acre. Throughout this entire country there is 
but very little bottom land, excepting on and 
about the head of Meadow river, a branch of 
Gauly river, which with New river form the 
Great Kanawha river, on which also there is a 
considerable quantity of most valuable bottom 
lands. About the head of Meadow river there 
is a beautiful valley of some ten miles in length 
with a considerable breadth. This contains 
some three thousand acres of bottom-lands—a 
considerable portion of which is entirely too wet 
and marshy even for grass, and will require 
draining. This district is occupied to some 
extent. Lately several gentlemen of wealth 
have made purchases, and are improving their 
property extensively. These lands sell for five 
to ten dollars per acre, and when occupied by 
men of means and energy, this will become one 
of the most beautiful valleys in Virginia. 
The whole Trans-Alleghany part of Virginia 
has been almost entirely locked up, excepting a 
small part, near the Ohio river. But now the 
State has adopted the internal improvement 
policy, and ere long every part of this country 
will be penetrated by a system of railroads 
which will develop the great resources of this 
vast region. The Central Railroad will soon be 
completed from the city of Richmond, by way of 
Charlotteville and Staunton, to Covington, where 
it will be met by the great Covington and Ohio 
Railroad, from the mouth of Big Sandy river. 
This latter road is now being constructed, and 
will be prosecuted with energy until finished. 
Covington is thirty miles east of this place, and 
the Covington and Ohio road will pass through 
this county. For agriculturalists of eastern 
States this country holds out great inducements. 
Their system of small farms is almost unknown 
here, and wool growing is scarcely thought of. 
I have had much experience as surveyer and 
land-agent in this region, and shall be happy 
to impart any information in my power, as wiil 
also IIexry L. Brooke, Esq., of Richmond, or 
Col. Philip P. Dandridge, of Leetown, Jefferson 
Co., who are interested with me in the sale of 
these lands. Samuel S. Thompson. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Is Food when Cooked and Ground_most Profitable 1 ? 
A young beginner who has just commenced 
farming, wishes to ask a few questions of advice. 
Having heard much of the profits of ground and 
cooked feed over unground and raw for animals, 
I wish to know which would be the most profit¬ 
able, to go four miles over a hilly road to mill, 
or feed the grain unground, or procure a mill to 
grind it at home? Would it be best to build a 
dam and put up a building for grinding feed at 
a cost of say $350—my farm being 100 acres— 
or grind by horse-power in the barn ? If it will 
pay cost to grind feed, what kind of mill would 
you recommend to grind corn in the cob ? What 
to grind other grain ? And what the cost of the 
mill you recommend? Dutchess County. 
Clinton, JV. Y., Jan. 17,1854. 
We will answer our correspondent in a gen- 
ral way; we cannot minutely, for we are not 
sufficiently acquainted with the particular cir¬ 
cumstances of his case to do so understandingly. 
He will have the good sense to make such mod¬ 
ifications as best suit his situation. 
If food bears a low price, it is no economy to 
cook or grind it for stock. We should call corn 
at 30 cents a bushel, amFhay at $7 per ton a 
low price. When hay is above this price, we 
should use a machine for cutting it, then wet 
and mix with bran or meal, and feed it. Corn 
we should not grind, but boil, as the cost of do¬ 
ing this is not usually as much as the toll taken 
or price charged for grinding. The smaller 
grain, such as oats, barley, &c., should be 
ground, and then fed raw or cooked as most 
economical. Corn or meal is easily boiled in a' 
Mott’s Furnace, or steam boiler on the same 
principle as at the distillery. If grain is to be 
transported but four miles or so, it may be 
cheaper to pay for the grinding, if only some four 
hundred bushels are consumed per annum; if 
several thousand bushels are to be consumed, it 
might be more economical to build a dam for 
water-power, and put up a cheap mill; yet this 
could hardly be done for $350—we should sup¬ 
pose it would cost nearer $1200 or $1500. Grain 
may be ground at the rate of H to 2 bushels 
per hour, in a cast iron ^corn-mill costing $25. 
It would require a one horse-power to drive this, 
costing $85. A good corn and cob crusher 
costs $55, and requires a two horse-power to 
drive it costing $110. It will grind from ten to 
twelve bushels per hour. 
- »© ♦ - 
Directions for the use of Guano. —Frequent 
inquiries are made for the pamphlet on this sub¬ 
ject, prepared for the Peruvian Government. 
An answer to the question may be found in the 
advertising columns. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
EXPERIMENT IN RAISING CORN. 
Messrs. Editors : —Some months since I 
wrote you that members of the North Carolina 
Agricultural State Society put five dollars each 
into a common fund, as a sweep-stakes to be 
divided into premiums, and given to the three 
having greatest yields of corn on ground pro¬ 
nounced by competent judges, not capable of 
producing more than three barrels or fifteen 
bushels without stimulating or manuring. All 
entering the list of competition were to help the 
ground, or manure it, according to their own 
judgment. 
It is not yet decided who get the premiums; 
but so far as heard from my gain is the greatest, 
and that at the least expense. One gentleman 
in the lower part of the State, I learn, spent 
about three hundred dollars for manures, &c., 
and by machinery put some thousands of gal¬ 
lons of water on his acre, in a very dry spell 
of weather; and yet I beat him under same 
circumstances of weather, although my ex¬ 
penses are twenty odd dollars only. After as¬ 
certaining the result, I will send you an account 
more in detail. But I will here .state that sub¬ 
soil plowing at least 15 inches deep, with a sub¬ 
stratum manure of guano put some 12 inches 
deep in the winter, and afterwards a light sur¬ 
face manuring, and manuring in drill when 
planting with Chapell’s Fertilizer, are the out¬ 
lines of my procedure. The yield was a gain of 
about 12 barrels or GO bushels; and that, not¬ 
withstanding two dry, and one very wet spells 
of weather. 
I would inform 3 ’-ou as to my vineyard, that 
the yield the past season was very good. My 
Scuppernung wines especially are in great re¬ 
quest, and sold as soon as fit for market. 
Sidney Weller. 
Brinthleyreele, Halifax Co., N. C., 
Jan. 5 1854. 
-- 
“Punch” and iiis American Pippins. —The 
“ immediate apple of our eye” is an American 
apple, which we happen to have in our eye at 
the present moment. It is not an apple of dis¬ 
cord but an apple which comes home to our 
very heart’s core with its assurances of friend¬ 
ship. A correspondent who signs himself “ The 
American Enthusiast,” has allowed his enthusi¬ 
asm to take the very sensible turn of a present 
of apples to Punch , who, while receiving it, pro¬ 
ceeds to cut it up; and, like some critics, shows 
his taste by making mince-meat of it. We have 
perused the whole of the apples with great sat¬ 
isfaction, and though we might find a spot here 
and there, the blemish is only on the surface; 
for when we descend a little lower than skin 
deep, we find the apple quite worthy of the ap¬ 
pellation of the American Prince of Pippins, 
which we hereby confer on it.— Punch. 
“Do you see any thing ridiculous in this wig?” 
said a brother Judge, to Curran. “-Nothing but 
the head,” he replied. 
When does a man rob his wife? When he 
hoolcs her dress. 
