REVIEW OF THE JANUARY NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
61 
changed here. There have been several herds 
sold this fall, more perhaps than immediate 
public demand justifies. Fine cows sold from 
$75 to $100 and upwards.. At private sales, 
double these prices could be had for fine ani¬ 
mals. The farmers of this section of Kentucky 
are becoming sensible of the importance and 
profit of stocking their high-priced lands with 
improved animals. Within the last few years, 
since Durhams have been selling so low, a 
great change has been made in the stock of the 
country, large proportions of the cattle now fed 
for market being mixed bloods. 
James G. Kinnaird. 
Solitude, Fayette Co., Ky., Nov., 1850. 
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REVIEW OF THE JANUARY NUMBER OF THE 
AG-RIOULTURIST. 
When I look back over the long voyage we 
have made together, I am surprised to see by 
the log book, how few squalls we have met with. 
Whether it is because the “ Old Captain ” is so 
popular with the passengers, or whether he is 
not worth squalling at, I am unable to deter¬ 
mine. No matter which, so long as I possess 
the power of contributing so much to your 
pleasures as to keep all fair below decks. Now 
let all hands stick by the ship to the end of 
another annual voyage; trusting that the old 
steward will cater well for the ship’s table, and 
that the captain will bring the ship safe to a 
good port again next December. And now, as 
the voyage is likely to be a pleasant and profi¬ 
table one, let us urge our friends, far and near, 
to embark with us; it will only cost a dollar 
for a whole year. What a cheap passage! 
Who that has perused a single number of this 
paper with care, will say that he has not re¬ 
ceived a dollar’s worth of valuable information ? 
Who will tell me that all my labor to instruct 
and arouse the readers of the Agriculturist, have 
been thrown away, or fallen like the seed of a 
thriftless husbandman upon barren ground ? If 
I could be convinced of that, I would write no 
more; until I am, I shall continue my course. 
Professor Johnston’s Notes on American Agri¬ 
culture. —Is it possible that a man of so much 
celebrity could have written so carelessly as 
these extracts indicate? Yet, I do not know 
why I should doubt; for I have often observed 
that the English lions in literature, who visit 
this country, are not very remarkable for their 
chaste style, nor truthful descriptions. I am 
glad you have taken the matter in hand of re¬ 
viewing these notes, and that you are doing it 
in such an unexceptionable manner. Shall we 
have the subject continued? [Reviewer will 
find a continuation in this and the succeeding 
numbers.—E ds.] 
Bad Farming. —These are not the only in¬ 
stances of bad farming in this country. Your 
correspondent, who sends you his occasional 
“Rough Notes by the Way,” mentioned in the 
December number, a specimen of bad farming 
which he saw, that deserves the severest repre¬ 
hension. So long as the careless slovens 
among farmers are permitted to raise whole 
fields of weeds and thistles, to seed their neigh¬ 
bors’ farms, as well as their own, and so long 
as our broad roadsides are kept by law, as nur¬ 
series of everything pernicious to cultivation, 
how can the owner of the adjoining land make 
a show of good farming? I look upon the 
waste lands along our public highways and 
railroads as about the worst specimens of bad 
farming in America. It is a pity that we have 
not more travellers taking notes and pointing 
out our bad farming; for no one will be likely 
to correct his faults until he sees them. Plant¬ 
ing corn before plowing the ground is not worse 
farming than planting grass and never plowing 
it afterwards. I have my eye upon a field of 
as good tillable land as there is in the state, 
which has been in grass, (so says the owner,) 
for fifty years. No argument will convince 
him that he is guilty of bad farming, notwith¬ 
standing he expends almost as much manure 
every year on the grass crop as it is worth. So 
talk to him about rotation of crops, and the ad¬ 
vantage of breaking up that grass sod, and rot¬ 
ting it to make a crop of corn. You might as 
well talk to him about breaking up his own 
heart, and planting it with potatoes. “Sir,” 
says he, “that land was laid down to grass by 
my grandfather, in the year ’98; it has been 
mowed every year since, and while I live, that 
smooth green, sward shall never be broken. 
Breaking up old meadows is just on a par with 
your subsoil plowing, as you call it, and some 
other new-fangled notions, that my son is ’tar- 
nally reading about, in that paper of yours 
from York.” Another instance of bad farming, 
of which so many are guilty, is keeping about 
a quarter more stock than can be well kept in 
summer or winter. When summer feed is 
scarce, the cattle get over the fence into mis¬ 
chief. When winter feed is scarce, the mis¬ 
chief gets into the cattle, and their hides get 
over, or on the fence, in the spring. 
Economy in Human Food .—The very reason 
that “ many persons are unaware of the great 
difference of nutritious matter contained in diff¬ 
erent articles of food in daily use,” should be a 
