1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
291 
acre, according to the amount and kind of labor expen¬ 
ded upon it in its cultivation; and, on the other hand, 
a naturally rich wheat soil will yield only some 8 or 10 
crops of corn in succession, averaging from 30 to 50 
bushels per acre, according to circumstances, unless a 
liberal dressing of barn-yard manure be applied to it, in 
periods of from two to three years. 
In very many cases the corn crop is fed on the ground 
to beef cattle and hogs. This practice prevails more 
extensively in the southern portion of the state than in 
any other. At first sight the system appears slovenly 
and wasteful, but it really'possesses some favorable fea¬ 
tures that deserve consideration. By feeding the crop 
on the ground to horned cattle and hogs, the latter pick 
up and consume what the former would destroy and 
tread under foot, and the whole crop, including corn, 
leaves, and most of the stalks, are masticated by the 
animals, and converted into a liberal supply of the very 
best kind of manure for the corn plants. When the 
interest of land, taxes and cost of production are care¬ 
fully computed, the actual cost of a bushel of corn on 
the valley lands does not exceed 12| cents per bushel; 
and in favorable seasons will not equal that sum. At 
the prices that beef and pork brought in the market the 
past and present seasons, corn judiciously converted into 
beef and pork on the principle adverted to, would pay 
from 25 to 35 cents per bushel. This is a full average 
price for corn in Ohio, and by feeding it on the ground 
the labor of cutting up the crop, husking and cribbing 
it, and drawing it to market are avoided, and besides the 
ground is improving rather than being exhausted, as 
would be the case by the common process. The number 
of cattle fed and driven to the eastern markets, in the 
district of country lying south of the national road, 
average annually some 30,000, a very large portion of 
which are first fed on grass till tolerably well fattened, 
and then put on corn in the manner described during 
the fall and winter months till spring, when they are 
driven in droves ranging from one hundred and fifty to 
two hundred head in a drove. The largest feeders drive 
from four to eight hundred head per annum, and the bu¬ 
siness to present appearance will yearly become better, 
as the facilities for getting to the eastern markets be¬ 
come increased. 
There are many things to admire and a still greater 
number to deplore in the methods of cultivation adopted 
by the corn growing farmers of Ohio. They have well 
learned the secret of extracting from the soil, its fer¬ 
tilizing properties. This they do by deep plowing and 
by frequently working the corn with the one horse plow, 
or shovel plow. But when we have said this on the fa¬ 
vorable side, hut little more can be added, unless an ex¬ 
pose be made of the wretched barbarous systems that 
very generally prevail, which have the result of im¬ 
poverishing the soil, without giving any adequate return 
to the proprietor of the land for the money and labor 
expended in the operation. Happily a better state of 
things may be expected through the instrumentality of 
agricultural societies and papers, and also from the ex¬ 
ample of the few enlightened farmers that are dotted 
over the country, exciting an almost magic influence on 
the minds and practice of their neighbors. 
The plan of growing corn, wheat and oats for a series 
of fifteen or twenty years on the same soil, without al¬ 
lowing a clover crop, a naked fallow, a root crop or a 
liberal barn-yard manuring to alternate—to say the least 
of it, deserves no better name than wretchedly had 
farming. This or other plans equally obnoxious, find 
favor and are extensively practiced in many portions of 
this great and flourishing agricultural state. The average 
annual agricultural products of this state, might he con¬ 
stantly on the increase by adopting a rational system of 
culture and rotation of crops, without increasing the 
cost of production. The quantity of corn and wheat 
cannot be greatly increased by the present system of 
farm management, even including what are raised on 
new lands brought into cultivation; but a great danger 
exists of a rapid decrease, which can only he avoided 
by the adoption of improved systems of cultivation that 
have for their object the improvement and increased 
production of the soil. The average yield per acre 
should be sought to he increased, without in the end ex¬ 
hausting the fertilizing properties of the soil, and this 
object once generally accomplished, will entitle this to 
be the first agricultural state in the union. 
Poultry and Poultry Books. 
A Treatise on the History And Management of Ornamen¬ 
tal and Domestic Podltry. By Rev. E. S. Dixon; with large 
additions by J. J. Kerr ; illustrated with original figures of Fowls, 
Philadelphia : E. H. Butler & Co. 
It is not more true that mankind are subject to certain 
epidemic diseases, than that they are also subject to va- 
rious excitements of a social and pecuniary nature. The 
commercial world has had its speculative manias, which 
have at times deeply occupied public attention, and have 
been seriously disastrous to the fortunes of individuals. 
Thus England has had its “ Darien” and “ South-Sea” 
schemes, its “ Railway Mania.” &c.; France its “ Mis¬ 
sissippi Scheme,” and Holland its “ Tulip Mania.” Ame¬ 
rica is not less subject to such excitements, and they 
have been extended more to the agricultural communi¬ 
ty, than in the old world. Hence, at different periods 
we have had the “ Merino Fever,” the “ Down East” 
and other land “ Fevers,” the “ Multicaulis Fever,” the 
‘‘Berkshire Fever,” and lastly, the “HenFever,” which, 
to some subjects, will probably be worse than the 
“ Chicken Pox.” 
It is not to be maintained, however, that the conse¬ 
quences of these excitements, though in many instances 
highly injurious, are entirely without benefits. They 
have, in various instances, established important facts; 
and, though the lesson has been dearly bought, it has 
served to teach many the distinction between “ good and 
evil,” in regard to subjects of which they had previously 
but little knowledge. Thus, the great attention which 
is now given to poultry, may prove of more or less be¬ 
nefit, by imparting a knowledge of the proper modes 
of management, and of the characteristics of different 
breeds. When the peculiarities of each become fully 
known, people will be better able to select those which 
will best answer particular purposes; and if the various 
trials could be properly conducted, and the results re¬ 
corded, they would form a valuable source of informa¬ 
tion for the future. But to render these experiments 
valuable—to develop by them light, which will be useful, 
either in a physiological or economical view—they must 
