THE CULTIVATOR. 
235 
1851 . 
such comparisons in our own favor or otherwise, as most 
naturally suggested themselves after a rather extensive 
acquaintance with the practical agriculture' of both 
countries. No intelligent farmer can rise from the pe¬ 
rusal of these books, or of any considerable portion of 
them, without feeling that he has gained a vast amount 
of useful information", and also perceiving that we as an 
agricultural people have an immense work to do. 
I think that American farmers owe something to the 
Messrs. Scott, for the style of this publication and for 
the spirit which has led them to assume its risk. I hope 
that they may in the end be amply remunerated by its 
sale. Yours truly; - John P. Norton. 
Pulverization of the Soil. 
The fact that plants- can only receive their food in a 
soluble state, cannot be too strongly impressed on the 
mind of the farmer. He should also be acquainted with 
the agencies which bring the crude elements into this 
state of solution. Hon. L. C. Ball, in an address be¬ 
fore the Rensselaer County Agricultural Society, gave 
some good illustrations of this subject, in speaking of 
the t: mechanical preparation of the soil.” He explains 
the importance of this in reference to the preparation 
of soluble food for plants, and observes — 1 ‘ All these 
operations and results which I have endeavored to ex¬ 
plain, take place no where else than upon the.surface 
of the earth; in the presence of light, heat, air , mois¬ 
ture and electric fluids ; subject to the separate influence 
of each, and exposed to the combined action of all. 
At that moderate distance below the surface, at which 
these influences cease to operate, all tendency to de¬ 
composition and decay, and all attempts at changes and 
alterations of form and substance, are arrested. The 
same elements are doubtless every where 'diffused, but 
they are locked up by the conditions of their original 
combination, and will so remain until brought to the 
surface, and their prison doors opened by some agent 
already free. Bury this piece of rock below the in¬ 
fluence of heat and moisture, and unless thrown up bj" 
some convulsion of nature, it wiil remain there un¬ 
changed for ever. Place it upon a cultivated field, let 
it be turned by the plow,, and exposed to the decompo¬ 
sing agents existing in the air and in the soil, until it is 
pulverized, and in a few years it will appear upon your 
table in some article of food, or upon your person In the 
garments you wear, or be sent to market in the form 
of beef and pork, and exchanged for tea and sugar, or 
silks and laces.” 
Fattening Cattle in Dutchess County. 
Eds. Cultivator' —The business of fattening cattle by 
the farmers of this county, for the New-York market, 
has been followed for upwards of twenty-five years, and 
for the last three or four years has received a great im¬ 
petus from some of our most wealthy and influential 
land-holders—they adopting'it, instead of keeping fine 
wooled sheep, as formerly; their object being to make 
more money. But the all important question —-•“ Is it a 
money-making business to fatten cattle at all?” seems 
not to have been fully weighed. That the time has been 
when this business was one of great profit to those en¬ 
gaged in it, is not doubted. Before the countless acres 
of the inexhaustible west were opened to the sun-light, 
before the cultivated grasses were strewn broad-cast 
over the boundless prairies, and before the iron horse ran 
his race of speed from state to state, and from lake to 
ocean, bearing in his rapid flight loads of the u Yankee 
Nation,” who, planted on that teeming soil, send back 
to us not u Yankee Notions,” but the substantial things 
of life, the same that Dutchess used to produce and grow 
rich upon before all this occurred. Now she struggles 
—•not to make those articles, for that were in vain, but 
to keep alive until those “better times” for which we 
have so long and anxiously looked. 
To turn this struggle into one of success, is an object 
greatly to be desired. In order to accomplish this, it 
becomes necessary to carefully examine the position oc¬ 
cupied, and in case it should prove to be one left behind 
by the “ spirit of the age,” then should our hard-work¬ 
ing farmers leave it also, and adopt some business more 
consonant with the times in which we live. Then we re¬ 
peat the question—Is it a money-making business to 
fatten cattle at all in this county?” 
The usual course pursued is to purchase steers in 
the fall, wintering them on hay, and allowing them the 
choicest of our pastures during the following grass sea¬ 
son. Another method, of feeding corn-meal, will be 
considered in another article. A medium sized steer of 
good quality, maybe bought from the droves of lean cat- 
tie for $30, and after 12 months good keeping may weigh 
750 pounds New-York weight, or the four quarters. He 
will require two tons of hay to keep him 183 days, and 
will also require 182 days pasturage, worth here 5 cents 
per day, or 35 cents per week. Thus it foots: 
1849, Oct. 1st., one steer,.. $30 00 
Nov. to May, two tons hay at $5.50,. 11 00 
May to Nov., 182 days pasture, at 5 cents, 9 10 
Commission for marketing,............. 2 50 
$52 60 
1850, Oct. 1st., by 750 pounds beef at 7 cents,.. 52 50 
Loss,............................. $00 10 
It will be perceived that the interest on the capita! in- 
vested is not included, as that and the.attendance should 
be balanced by the manure. Hay is worth $15 per ton 
in New-York, and it can scarcely be said that the home 
estimate above is too great. Some may argue that they 
feed straw, and save thereby; but that is worth 6 cents 
per bundle In New-York, and a steer will eat two or 
three bundles in a day. Corn-stalks, than which there 
is no better food for cattle, are wqrth two cents per bun¬ 
dle here, and a steer will eat four bundles a day If kept 
as he should be. Few farmers fatten a steer to the acre 
of their pasture land—where too, each acre would pro¬ 
duce two tons of well cured hay, if mown instead of be¬ 
ing pastured- Then, surely, the estimate of pasture 
cannot be too high. But low as our estimates are, we 
find a balance against us, and he who makes more money 
at fattening cattle, than at other branches of business, 
must be a lucky man, Indeed. With a railroad on our 
eastern border, and another on the west, that give access 
to the best market in the Union in the short space of 
three hours; and three hundred and sixty-five times in a 
year, we cannot but express'the opinion that this slow 
and uncertain business must give way to that of a more 
profitable nature. Amenia. 
