1852 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
249 
Ayrshire Bull “Dandy.” 
The above cut represents the Ayrshire bull “Dandy,” 
the property of J. C. Tiffany, of Coxsackie, Greene 
county, N. Y. He received the first premium in his class 
at the fair of the N. Y. State Ag. Society, held in Al¬ 
bany, 1850—also the first premium at the show of the 
American Institute in New-York city in 1851. He was 
imported by Mr. Saml. G. Ward of Lenox, Mass. He 
is a bull of superior points, great substance, and compact 
form. His color is dark red, with a few white spots. He 
is decidedly one of the best bulls of this valuable breed 
in the country. 
Thoughts and Experience. 
Eds. Cultivator —It isastonishing to me that farmers 
do not read agricultural works. It is uniformly the case, 
that when a man takes The Cultivator, or any other good 
work of the kind, you can tell it at once by the appear¬ 
ance of his place. Talk with him, and it will soon be 
evident whether he is a friend of improvement, for a man 
who never reads is never a wise man. 
I have been a subscriber to Agricultural Papers for the 
last twenty-five years, sometimes taking as many as three, 
and have been the gainer by ten, yes twenty fold. I own 
a small farm of some 46 to 48 acres of working land. My 
crop last year was 326 bushels of wheat, 206 bushels oats, 
350 bushels corn, 103 bushels potatoes, 21 tons prime hay , 
besides many other smaller products. The land in this 
section of Frederick county is second rate, being of the 
red sand stone formation. Many of my neighbors have 
twice as much land, and do not raise half as much—their 
soil is worn out, mine is improving. 
I have plowed my corn land eleven inches deep in the 
fall, as that is the only time that the soil can well be plow¬ 
ed to such a depth. By this means five more inches of 
soil is exposed to the winter frost, becomes disintegrated 
and mixed with the top soil, and the roots of the corn 
have eleven inches instead of six, in which to find their 
nourishment. 
Some years ago, I invited a friend to see my plowing. 
It was late in the fall, and the land was covered with a 
heavy body of grass, clover and timothy. He said to me, 
u why do you not let your cattle feed here, and not waste 
your grass in this way?” I replied that I wanted the 
grass which was being turned under, to feed my horses, 
to fatten my hogs, and some to sell. How is that, was 
the interrogation? I explained to him that in the first 
place it was necessary to feed the corn, and then that it 
would thrive, and repay principle and interest, and not 
only so, but would make provision for the wheat crop 
next year. To expect crops without something in the 
ground to produce them, is the height of folly; and 
thousands of farmers are laboring, like one beating the air, 
from ignorance of what preparation is necessary in order 
to insure fertility. 
If the legislature of Maryland ivould pass a law, giving 
some good agricultural journal to every farmer in the 
state, and a dollar yearly to read it, and at the end of 
three years tax each one ten dollars, in nine cases out of 
ten the farmers would be largely the gainers. 
I advise my neighbors to plant one row more of corn 
or potatoes, or something additional, to pay for a paper; 
but after all their apathy is surprising. 
I do not think a man can be called a good citizen, or a 
useful member of society, who allows his land to lie a 
barren waste, and lives in poverty. His children are un¬ 
educated, often brought up in idleness and vice, and thus 
his example is handed down, a legacy of ruin to his pos¬ 
terity, and of injury to the community. Cannot this 
state of things be done away with? Wm. Todd. Utica , 
Mills, Md., Jan. 16, 1852. 
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Make few promises. 
