324: 
AMERICAN ACRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
wliich case it requires the utmost care and watch¬ 
fulness to prevent the mass of frightened ani¬ 
mals from running over the camp, or making 
the cattle break from the corral, and join the 
terror stricken herd, leaving the traveler to 
pursue the remainder of his journey on foot. 
ThecoTVS bring forth in the spring, producing 
one and sometimes two calves, at which time 
the herds break into small bands, of from half 
a dozen to fifty; and remain so until the au¬ 
tumn, when they come together again. 
Many attempts have been made to cross the 
Buffalo with the domestic cattle. The Buffalo 
hull has been crossed with the domestic cow, 
and the lieifer calf from this union has bred 
with both the Buffalo and domestic bull; no at¬ 
tempt has succeeded in crossing tlie domestic 
bull with the Buffalo cow. The Buffalo has 
been broken to the yoke, but is said to be un¬ 
reliable and dangerous. 
The hump is caused by the prolongation of 
the processes of the spine, commencing at the 
first dorsal vetebra. The second, which is long¬ 
est, sometimes measures twenty-two inches in 
length. Across the top of these processes runs 
the strong ligament which serves to raise the 
enormous head. This hump gives a formidable 
appearance to the animal, and when coming di¬ 
rectly towards yon, witli the head down, pre¬ 
sents a similar outline to the freshwater sunfish. 
Tlie flesh of the Buffalo bears about the same 
relation to beef that vediison does to mutton. 
The Buffalo is the main dependence of the 
Indians, and it is a low estimate that half a mil¬ 
lion are destroyed yearly. About fifty-five 
thousand robes are annually brought to market, 
tlie skin of the cow only being saved for that 
purpose, that of the bull being too thick to dress. 
This operation is performed by the squaws.” 
The destruction of the Buffalo, as now car¬ 
ried on, is sheer wantonness in the exercise of 
the ability to kill. Often only the tongues are 
taken; often not even these, but the animals 
counted as they roll in mortal agony, that their 
destruction may be boasted of by the hunters. 
This certainly calls for action on the part of 
the Government to prevent it, and preserve 
some representatives of these great herds for 
future generations to make use of, if we cannot. 
--- -- 
Th.e Crops—Eiiitorial Correspondence. 
One of our editorial corps is up in one of the 
New England States—we won’t say which one- 
fishing for his health. He sends us the follow¬ 
ing : “ When I went off, it was with the injunc¬ 
tion not to put pen to paper while I was gone, 
so I Avill write in pencil. While I have caught 
fish, the w’eight of which “ averaged well,”(f. e. 
the boy with me caught a 6 'l 4 pound pickerel, 
while mine was only "j 4 of a pound, makino- the 
average 3>|, pounds,) I could not help between 
spells having an eye to the crops, and I give 
the result of my observation. 
“MuLLEiKpromises fair, and though rather 
late, there is a good stand, and no fear of scarce- 
ty of seed for next year. 
“Wild Parsnips. —I am surprised at the 
abundance of this crop. In some fields it grows 
witli sucli luxuriance that the fence cannot re¬ 
strain it, and it has run over and fills the road¬ 
side. _ There will be no lack of Wild Parsnips 
at tins poinq and probably the breadth of land 
devoted to it will increase each j'ear. 
“Viper’s Bugloss.— Some fine patches of this 
are to be seen. It is a rather local crop, but I 
do not see why it should be. A small patcK of 
It m a meadow or pasture will soon run every¬ 
thing else out, and in a few jmars the field will 
be covered with its beautiful blue flowers, and 
the plant will become so well established that 
there need not be the least fear of losing the 
stock. Botanists call it Echiiim vulgare. 
“Canada Thistle. —This seems to be the 
staple crop of the farms hereabouts, and, on the 
whole, promises well. In some fields I noticed 
that the crop is interfered with by a few oats, 
but notwithstanding this, I think there wdll be 
an average yield. The farmers in these parts 
economize every available foot of land, and 
devote the roadsides to the Canada Thistle. 
This, I believe, is from purely benevolent 
motives, for while their fields supply seed for 
home use, the plants by the roadside are sure to 
give the neighbors all the seed they want. 
“ These seem to be the principal gi'owths of 
this neighborhood, though some of minor im¬ 
portance are to be found. Elecampane is grown 
to some extent, as are Ox-eye or White Daisy, 
Tansy, etc., but they are fast being superseded 
by the Canada Thistle. Wild Carrot, so ahun- 
dant in York State, seems to receive but little 
attention here, but it wdll doubtless come in. 
Corn, oats, and the like are grown to some ex¬ 
tent, but the land is mainly devoted to the crops 
I have mentioned above, of wdiich I see not 
the least reason to fear a reduced yield.” 
--— « - t-m -— 
A Western Grazing Farm. 
The immense consumption of beef cattle in 
the great seaboard cities, has built up a great 
business extending clear across the Mississippi 
Valley into Texas. There are at least four dis¬ 
tinct branches of this business: the raising of 
the cattle in districts where there are no inclo¬ 
sures, and wdiere ear-marks are the only badge 
of ownership; the purchase and removal of 
these cattle to the more thickly-settled regions 
wdiere there are inclosed pastures, and beef is 
higher; the ftittening of these animals; and 
their foiwvarding to the eastern markets. 
There are many farms in the West, some of 
them of vast extent,, whose chief product is fat 
beeves. The whole farm is managed wdth refer¬ 
ence to this result. If grain and grass are rais¬ 
ed it is to feed to cattle. If hogs are kept it is 
to consume what the cattle do not perfectly di¬ 
gest, and to gather up the waste. If wheat is 
raised, it is for the purpose of subduing the soil, 
and getting it into better condition to produce 
grass. Messrs. Fowler and Earl, of Lafayette, 
Ind., have a farm of 24,000 acres in Benton Co.’ 
of that State, which is worked exclusively to 
prepare cattle for market. The enterprise was 
begun some three years ago, and, as will be seen, 
has involved a large expenditure of capital. The 
laud alone, at six dollars an acre, must have 
cost nearly $150,000. The tract lies upon Mud 
and Sugar creeks, and is about eight miles long, 
by five broad, and is well watered by these 
streams. The first step toward improvement 
was the inclosure and subdivision of 13,000 
acres of the prairie with a board fence. This 
was made wdth cedar posts, seven and a half 
feet long, three feet in the ground, and placed 
at a distance of six feet apart. Upon these,boards 
w^ere nailed, making a fence four and a half 
feet high. The 13,000 acres w-ere divided into 
eleven fields, making in all about forty-three 
miles of board fence, at a cost of $850 a mile,* or 
$36,550. The remaining 11,000 acres have just 
been furnished with seventy-seven miles of 
Osage Orange hedge, which will be in condition 
to turn cattle, in three years from planting. The 
farm and the improvements are under the effi¬ 
cient management of A. D. Eaub, Esq.', who re¬ 
sides upon the place. 
It is found that the cultivated grasses are 
more nutritious than the wild, and the aim is 
to bring about a thousand acres a year into 
meadow. This requires at least two years of 
cropping. The prairie is broken in May and 
June wdth five jmke of cattle and a plow^ wdiich 
turns a furrow from eighteen to twenty-two 
inches wdde, and about three inches deep. This 
is planted with corn, which receives no cultiva¬ 
tion, and yields about forty bushels to the acre. 
The corn is followed by wheat, either of the fall 
or spring variety, and wdth the wheat is sowm a 
mixture of four parts of herds-gi’ass and one of 
red clover, at the rate of one bushel to five acres. 
This is mowed the first season after it takes 
possession, and after that it is turned into pas¬ 
ture. The tendency of the pasturing, it is 
thought is to run out the herdsgrass and red 
clover, and to bring in the blue grass and white 
clover, wdiich need no seeding. It is expected 
that these pastures once established wili be per¬ 
manent, and fully equal in value to the celebrat¬ 
ed blue grass pastures of Kentucky. It seems 
to flourish quite as w'ell here as in Kentucky, 
and it only needs good husbandry to make their 
pastures quite as famous. 
It is expected, wdien the W'hole tract is brought 
into grass, that it will carry 8000 cattle a year, 
and its present productiveness justifies this 
estimate. The cattle of three or four years 
of age are bought of drovers and small farmei'S, 
from January to April, wdierever they can be 
bought to the best advantage. The corn is 
drawn from the field wdiere it was raised, and 
where it has stood in shocks through the wdn- 
ter, and is fed out to the cattle upon the open 
prairie. They eat the corn quite clean, and the 
leaves from the stalks. They are also fed wdth 
hay of which about nine hundred tons were 
cured last year. The cattle come to grass in 
high condition, and by June or July the best of 
them are ripe for the butcher, and tliev' are sold 
off in lots to suit purchasers, as they fatten 
through the summer and fall. A lot of 176 
bullocks, averaging a little over 1400 pounds 
each, was sold thelast of July at seven and a lialf 
cents a pound. The custom is to sell by live 
weight, twelve hours after the cattle have been 
last fed and watered. This sale amounted to 
over $18,000. There were 1250 acres in corn 
last year, and the jdeld was about forty bushels 
to the acre; 500 acres were sowui in winter 
wheat, much of which wms wdnter killed ; 550 
acres w’ere sown with spring wheat of the Italian 
and Tea varieties wdiich were a decided success. 
Thus far much more money has been expended 
than received in this enterprise, but there can 
be no doubt that it will prove a good invest¬ 
ment. Other items of interest upon this farm 
are noticed elsewdiere. ' 
Forwarding Beeves to the Eastern 
Markets. 
The great demand for beef in our seaboard 
cities is felt in the Mississippi Valley and be¬ 
yond, and millions of capital are invested in 
supplying it. Chicago alone has about tw'o mil¬ 
lions invested in fixtures for carrying on this 
business, and sends east about a thousand cattle 
a day. But these are not all fat cattle, nor do 
they immediately reach their destination. Many 
tariy for a year or more, and change hands sev¬ 
eral times before they reach the consumer. The 
large towns farther east become centers of a cat¬ 
tle trade, where they are collected from the pas- 
