THE CULTIVATOR. 
373 
tleman’s horse and feed him.” If you call in the fore¬ 
noon, there is no getting away till after dinner; if you 
call in the afternoon, you must certainly stay all night. 
Nor is this all. If the gentleman should be absent, the 
lady of the house makes her appearance, and without 
questioning you on your business, tells you at once, you 
must come in, be seated, and take some refreshments; 
that her husband will soon be home, and that you cannot 
leave until he comes. There is no resisting these ap¬ 
peals, they are made with such unaffected sincerity. 
You are entertained too as your taste may lead you, either 
in conversation, reading, (for they all have libraries to 
some extent,) or with music. In point of comforts, of 
luxuries, and even elegancies, the Kentucky farmer 
compares well with the English, Irish, or Scotch gentle¬ 
man-farmer, in every respect. Their houses, generally 
speaking, have been built within the last 30 years; are of 
brick; well and tastefully planned; large and roomy; 
and if fault is to be found at all, they are too magnifi¬ 
cently furnished for a “ farmer's ” residence. They all 
stand some distance from the road, and are approached 
by a wide avenue, shaded on either side with large for¬ 
est trees, and the ground immediately surrounding the 
dwelling, is invariably tastefully laid out in shrubbery, 
ever greens, and flowers. Every farmer has his elegant 
family carriage, and his one horse buggy for himself, 
with horses and saddles innumerable, for the younger 
branches to use when their inclination leads them to gal¬ 
lop uncontrolled from one neighbor’s house to the other. 
Were the young ladies of our cities to see the ease, the 
elegance, and the independence with which the Ken¬ 
tucky farmer’s daughter mounts and rides her horse, 1 
am persuaded that many city belles would soon be con¬ 
verted into a farmer’s wife or daughter, and I will add, 
that the change would not only be a happy, but a most 
useful one. 
“ John Bull,” in inquiring about any place, speaks first 
of the eating and drinking—though it is last in my cata¬ 
logue, yet it is not the least in importance, nor the less 
interesting to your readers to know something about. 
Let me describe to you a Kentucky farm-house breakfast. 
Reader, I give you the catalogue just as I found it, nine 
times out of ten, on every table without any addition 
whatever: 
The tea service of neat but elegant China, not unfre- 
quently silver forks, and invariably a silver goblet laid 
by the side of every plate. Tea and coffee, the richest 
cream and butter in abundance, with a large pitcher of 
rich sweet milk on one side, and a like pitcher of fresh 
butter-milk on the other, covered with snow white nap¬ 
kins. Hot corn bread of two or three different kinds, 
hot biscuits, hot light bread, and hot cakes of two or 
three other kinds, made from I know not what or 
how, but they all taste admirably well; a dish of white 
maiden honey in the centre, surrounded by fried harn, 
fried chicken, and a beef-steak or mutton chops, support¬ 
ed in general with a dish of fine Irish potatoes, baked, 
and flanked by a bowl of fresh eggs, either poached or 
boiled. This for breakfast! Only think what you might 
expect for dinner or supper. No wonder, you will say, 
that the Kentuckians should be such a tall strapping race, 
when they live in this way; and so say I myself. 
Having now spoken in general terms, I will descend 
to particulars, and endeavour to describe to you some of 
the finest farms, that are under the best management, in 
the state, and they are many. In doing so, I shall take 
them in the 1 ‘otation that I visited them, and not make se¬ 
lections on account of the name or public character of 
the owners, but speak of them all as farmers , and as I 
really found them at their homes. 
In my next letter I shall make this commencement; and 
will devote the few remaining lines of this sheet to a short 
notice of the husbandry of Mr. John Davis, which is 
different to that of any other man in the state, so far as 
I have seen or been able to learn. He is a native of 
Switzerland, many years in this country, and was form¬ 
erly a resident of Indiana, where, not many miles from 
Jeffersonville, he planted two tolerably extensive vine¬ 
yards of the Catawba grape, and made a most superior 
wine, for which he got ready sale at $2 per gallon. Mr. 
John L. Martin, of Jefferson co., induced him to sell 
out his vineyards in Indiana, and he has him now resi¬ 
ding on his princely farm near Louisville, planting and 
cultivating an extensive vineyard there, of the Catawba 
grape, of some 20 acres or more, a large portion of 
which will bear this next year. The arrangement is 
very complete, and must be successful under such guid¬ 
ance. The vines are planted in rows, at distances of 8 
feet and 10 feet apart between the rows; well cultivated 
and free from grass or weeds; the vines are being trained 
on a light standing frame, or trellis, and give the whole 
the appearance of a beautifully cultivated garden. The 
wine made from this grape, is of a fine, full, rich, and 
sweet flavor, and possesses a peculiar and invaluable 
qualification, namely, that it can be kept 4 years at least 
on tap (for Mr. Davis has tested it that long,) without 
injuring the wine in fullness of flavor, or risking its be¬ 
coming sour in the least degree—a quality that I never 
knew or heard of any of the wines of Europe to possess. 
A company has been formed amongst the most wealthy 
and influential farmers of Bourbon eo., to import several 
Alpaca immediately, into this state. The shares are all 
taken and the money paid in; a man has been chosen, and 
an agreement made with him to start before Christmas to 
South America for them, so that within the next year 
you may count with certainty upon seeing this most in¬ 
teresting and important experiment tested in Kentucky, 
by Kentucky farmers, to an extent, and in a manner that 
must insure success, if our climate is at all suited to the 
constitution of this most valuable animal. Before I write 
to you again, I hope to see some of the company, and t© 
be able in my next to give you a more detailed and par¬ 
ticular account of this important movement. 
Wishing you a Kentucty breakfast to feast on during 
the coming cold winter, I remain truly and respectfully 
yours, Grazier. 
Social Hall, near Lexington , Ky., Nov. 1, 1845 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
L. Tucker, Esq.—I have noticed many articles in 
your paper, headed (t Heavy Fleeces—Fine Sheep.” As 
I have been a wool-grower for the last thirty years, and 
have seldom, if ever, in that time, wintered less than 
300, it seems not improper for me also, for once, to 
speak on this subject. I commenced early with half- 
blood merinos: and in 1822, I selected 20 ewes from a 
lot of full-blooded merinos in Watertown, Conn. About 
1814, our late Chief Justice, R. Skinner, purchased a lot 
of full-blooded merinos, from his native county, Litch¬ 
field, Conn., then called the Humphrey sheep. In 1825, 
he purchased a Saxony buck. The scab got into his 
flock, and in his absence to the southern states, by neg¬ 
lect of good care, a large number of his flock of 500 
died, and fortunately, some would say, his Saxony buck 
among the number. On his return, in 1827, I pur¬ 
chased his entire flock of ewes, about 150. I have bred 
from the full blooded merino since then, and mostly from 
bucks from Consul Jarvis’ flock. I have had three bucks 
and a few ewes from the Shaker flock, Enfield, N. H. 
My manner of improving my flock has been the fol¬ 
lowing: No observing wool-grower can have failed to 
notice, that as great differences exist among sheep, as to 
the length, thickness, and fineness of wool, as of the hail 
of the cow. The first care of*a good dairyman is to se 
lect his cows best for milk, quantity and quality. Build 
is a second object. By proper crossing of these selec¬ 
tions, our best breeds of cattle are produced. I have hail 
ewes apparently from the same original stock, one at 
three years old, producing but three pounds of wool, and 
a miserable lamb; another of the same age, and in the 
same order, shearing lbs., and raising a good lamb. 
The fleece of the first will be short, thin, and of a rotten 
deadly appearance. The other, long, thick, and of fine, 
silky, lively appearance. This last I breed from as long 
as good keeping will enable me to. I have now a ewe 
18 years old, with a likely lamb by her side, and another. 
14 years old, that has raised a lamb this year with as 
much grain as both would eat, which at seven months 
old weighed 109 pounds. From a flock of 320. I select 
annually 100 for breeding, in the spring before shearing, 
two years old, and upwards. From this selection l 
