THE CULTIVATOR. 
Editorial Correspondence—VIII. 
Baltimore Co., Md., May, 1858. 
Springfield, 
The residence of George Patterson, Esq., in Carroll 
county, contains 1,759 acres. About 700 are in culti¬ 
vation. In the improvement of his estate, Mr. Pat¬ 
terson casually mentioned that he had applied 240,000 
bushels of lime at a cost of over $50,000. lie said that 
as a farmer, he u believed in lime, grass, and dung,’ 1 
and we had evidence that it was a creed not of words 
merely, but of actions. For many years Mr. P. has 
devoted himself closely to his agricultural operations, 
and has been a minute observer as well as a careful 
and thorough practitioner. 
The first thing to spring up after the application of 
lime, he had noticed to be mulleins; then comes the 
white clover, and lastly., what he considers undoubted¬ 
ly the same grass as the Kentucky blue grass, Poapra- 
tensis. In speaking of grasses, Mr. P. mentioned 
Timothy Hanson of Baltimore, who first introduced 
that kind known so widely by his Christian name, and 
which also bears in some parts of the country the sir-, 
name of one Herd, who is said to have discovered it 
growing wild. 
The rotation on which Mr. Patterson has decided, is 
one of nine years, viz: clover for two years, wheat one 
year, timothy mowed for hay two years, and then 
pastured for two years more, and lastly one crop of 
corn. Timothy and orchard grass he compared thus.: 
the former will make twice the hay, but the latter gives 
more pasture. Timothy he cuts just as the head is 
forming. To cure clover hay properly, it must retain 
the color of flower and leaf perfectly, and Mr. Patter¬ 
son recommends this as the cheapest and simplest mode: 
he lets it lie in the swath about six hours, then turns 
and gives the lower side half an hour to dry in, puts 
up .in small cocks and takes in the next day. 
His treatment of the corn crop may be interesting. 
The timothy sod having been turned in, in the fall, as 
deeply as possible, say by plowing 9 or 10 inches, the 
field is thoroughly harrowed three times in spring, and 
laid off by the plow three and a half feet by four. The 
corn is dropped in, in the rows laid off by the first 
plowing, and is covered by the harrow. There is thus 
no furrow left for the water to tear out the seed or 
young plants. 
Tlie Patterson Devons. 
But Mr. Patterson’s Devons are the main feature of 
the place. The herd is descended from six heifers and a 
bull presented to a brother of the present owner by 
Mr. Coke of Holkham, England, who afterwards be¬ 
came Earl of Leicester—a man whose fondness for fine 
trees is as noted as that he manifested for superior 
stock—it being related of him that he planted 1,800 
acres in wood, and lived to sail in a yacht made from 
timber of his own planting. In order to change the 
blood when necessary, Mr. Patterson has imported five 
bulls during the 22 years since the stock first came into 
his hands—the bull Anchises, (140) bought from the 
Earl of Leicester (who stated that he had purchased 
him for his own use from one of the best herds in Dev¬ 
onshire,) and imported in 1836; Eclipse. (191) calved 
in 1839, and imported from Mr. Bloomfield of Warham, 
Norfolk, England; Herod, (214) calved in 1844, and 
imported from the same herd in 1846; Norfolk, (266) 
calved in 1851, and imported from the same herd the 
succeeding year; and Chafsfield, (to be entered in next 
vol. Herd Book,) now three years old, imported two 
years after from the Quartly stock, and although some¬ 
what smaller than those previously brought over, still 
apparently very satisfactory to his owner, and an ani¬ 
mal of great symmetry and promise. The price paid 
for him at home was one hundred guineas, and his cost 
by the time he reached his present residence not much 
short of $1,000. 
The herd now includes between eighty and ninety 
head—the young cows by K Norfolk,” and the older 
ones by “ Herod.” Mr. Patterson’s stock has always 
been selected more with a view to the dairy qualities, by 
which the breed was first mainly distinguished, than 
to that perfection of form, which, together with some 
diminution in size, characterizes the more recently 
“improved” importations. He thinks that his stock 
will run from 25 to 33 per cent, the heavier of the two, 
but I should scarcely estimate the difference so great. 
I was really surprised to notice the evenness that char¬ 
acterizes all the animals we saw,— and there can 
be few herds anywhere in which the general average 
of merit must be ranked so high. Doubtless a judge 
of greater experience would have perceived differences 
of much importance to him in considering, as a breed¬ 
er should, the influence each point in the parent pos¬ 
sesses upon his progeny, but I question whether the 
majority of such committees as render decisions at our 
State shows, would not have found it a very difficult 
task to select the best one, or two, or three, from the 15 
or 20 head of young stock we saw in one field, while 
they might have been scarcely less puzzled in deciding 
the merits of the cows. 
Mr. Patterson still adheres to the way of breeding 
prevalent before the days of Herd Books—only regis¬ 
tering the sire of his calves, and not keeping their 
pedigrees back from dam to dam. Take away, thus, 
the influence which every item in a pedigree has come 
to have upon the decisions of most who are at all fa¬ 
miliar with them, and where so many are so nearly 
equal, there might be no two judges whose opinions 
would exactly coincide. The condition of the herd at¬ 
tests an abundant supply of food, but no over-feeding 
or stuffing. I was somewhat astonished in view of the 
smooth coats and soft hides, and well fleshed frames 
before me, to learn that it has been the custom to let 
the calves run unsheltered the first winter, with the 
view of rendering them more hardy. It has also been 
the practice to “ cut the first calfs throat,” in order 
to milk the heifer, and develope her bag well during 
her first milking season. The calves run with the cows, 
instead of being brought up by hand and fed the milk 
from two or three, as it is intimated breeders of fine 
stock sometimes are obliged to do ; and it thus becomes 
a matter of importance to render the dams large 
yielders of the food so necessary to the thriftiness of 
their calves, while the size and fatness in which the 
latter were found, evidences the successful attainment 
of this end. 
Headers at the south, or elsewhere, who may have 
been heretofore unsuccessful applicants for the limited 
surplus Mr. Patterson has heretofore had yearly to 
dispose of from his Devon herd, will be pleased to 
learn that this year there is a somewhat larger num¬ 
ber offered than usual. Mr. Patterson’s address is at 
the Sykesville post-office. 
