238 
THE CULTIVATOR 
number of independent gentlemen farmers be found, in 
proportion to the area, as are interspersed throughout the 
Sciota Valley, and the intelligence and enterprise that 
pervade the masses of land owners, will secure the soil 
from deteriorating, as unfortunately has been the case in 
the best portions of Virginia. 
The great staples of the Valley are corn, pork, and 
beef. The corn is mainly grown with a view of feeding 
it to beef cattle, and hogs, on the ground; and the soil, 
instead of deteriorating in fertility, improves in produc¬ 
tive powers, so that land that has grown 40 consecutive 
crops, will now produce from 80 to 100 bushels per acre, 
with the labor that would be required to produce 25 bush¬ 
els per acre in northern New-York. The corn-fields are 
large, ranging from 100 to 500 acres each; and as far as 
the eye can stretch in the distance, one continuous line of 
corn fields are presented to view, which contributes 
a richness to the landscape, and a permanent source of 
wealth to the land owners, that are rarely met with. The 
only labor given the crop is a plowing, followed by plant¬ 
ing, and two, and at the most three plowings, with a one 
horse shovel plow. One man, with the aid of a horse, 
will properly tend 40 acres of corn, where the land is not 
overrun with weeds; and the crop on the ground, when 
converted into beef and pork, is worth from 20 to 30 
cents per bushel; and as it costs only some 10 cents per 
bushel to produce it, and the land is improved for future 
croppings, at the rate of some three dollars per acre, the 
business of corn growing, and fattening beef and pork, 
are among the safest and most profitable landed opera¬ 
tions. 
Farming in the Sciota country is practiced largely upon 
the scale that prevails in the south, in growing tobacco, 
cotton, and sugar cane. One man, for instance, will feed 
500 hogs, on corn grown by himself, and during the sea¬ 
son for purchasing store hogs, his agent will buy in two 
or three times the quantity he can feed for market from 
his own crop—and to make up this deficiency, lie buys 
of his neigbors their entire crop. Thus the large farmer, 
and those of small capital, each perform different depart¬ 
ments—the one with his ample means, buys the store 
hogs, young cattle, and horses, and even the crops of corn 
on the ground, for which he pays a fair price to the lat¬ 
ter, and both parties seemingly make good profits, and 
are satisfied with the gains afforded by their business. 
The grower of corn is contented if he can get from 12 to 
15 dollars per acre for his corn, and the feeder takes 
pretty good care to purchase his stock so that they net 
him in the New-York and Philadelphia markets, a hand¬ 
some profit. Besides what is fed for home consumption, 
there are annually sent from this Valley between 30 and 
40,000 head of five and six year old flit bullocks, worth 
from 50 to 70 dollars each. The cattle, are mainly grade 
Durhams, and possess fattening properties which in a pe¬ 
culiar degree adapt them to the climate of the country, 
and the requirements of the stock feeders. It is a strik¬ 
ing fact, that the corn, after being eaten by the cattle, 
contains fattening properties which impart to it highly va¬ 
luable qualities for the production of pork, and hence, 
that no portion of the crop should be lost, the experienc¬ 
ed feeder parcels out a full grown store hog to each bul¬ 
lock ; and frequently, fields containing 500 fat bullocks, 
July, 
and an equal number of hogs, along the Valley and tri¬ 
butaries, are seen, which to an admirer of good and pro¬ 
fitable husbandry, is among the richest sights that can be 
imagined. This is especially so, from the fact that the 
stock, both cattle and hogs, almost uniformly strongly 
portray evidences of good breeding, and thorough skill 
in rearing and feeding. The largest operator in feeding 
swine, with which we have any knowledge, received from 
a pork packing establishment last fall, fourteen thousand 
dollars, for his annual crop of hogs; and the largest feed¬ 
ers of cattle, drive over the mountains annually, some 800 
head of fat bullocks! 
On the Valley, towards its mouth, the system seems 
changed, and instead of hogs and cattle, corn cribs of 
ponderous proportions, are everywhere presented to view, 
and the corn being shipped to Cincinnati and other mar¬ 
kets, commands, probably, on the whole, better prices 
than if fed on the grouud. 
The cultivation of broom corn is more extensively pro¬ 
secuted on this Vally, than in any other portion of the 
world. From 100 to 800 acres, are grown by individual 
farmers, and the operation is decidedly a paying one, af¬ 
fording, as it does, a profit of from 15 to 30 dollars per 
acre, over and above rent of land, and the entire labor 
of managing the crop. The seed is sown pretty thickly, 
in drills four feet apart, during the month of May, and 
the crop requires about the same attention necessary for 
Indian corn. The seed is not a source of much profit, as 
at the best, stock of no kind relish it, and hence the only 
portion of the crop suited for market, or from which any 
profit can be derived, is the tops for brooms, which is 
thoroughly cleaned and prepared for market, and put up 
in bales, and shipped to New-York and Boston, where it 
is manufactured into brooms. 
This notice of the far-famed Sciota might have been 
profitably extended, but sufficient has been penned to af¬ 
ford the reader some idea of the magnificence of its farm¬ 
ing operations. IV. G. Edmundson. Keokuk, Iowa 
Habits of Bees. 
Luther Tucker —I have noticed the theory, from 
Huber down to Miner, concerning the queen bee, that 
when they came together they were likely to be both 
killed. This does not agree with my observations. I 
several times have had both queens lost, and the bees, 
the first year, do nearly as well as though they had one, 
but die the next winter, or run out the next summer, and 
not one brood cell is to be found. I rather doubt whether 
the old queen always leads the first swarm, for I have had 
the queen unable to fly the first time of coming out; on 
her being put back, they came out regularly the second 
day after. Also the cause of swarming—my bees swarm as 
well, or as many times, with the hive about one-third, 
one-half, or two-thirds full, as when full. I consider it 
immaterial, if they have sufficient brood comb in the 
hive, whether it is full or not—although I think that 
swarms differ in the same situation—one hive will swarm 
when another would not. I don’t know but you will 
think me rather credulous, but I have been reading dif¬ 
ferent authors and making observations, and am led to 
think that bees work differently in different places, be¬ 
cause my observations do not agree with others in several 
respects. Henry Hitchcock. Martinsburgh, May 
12, 1852. 
