State Convention—Grass is King. 
383 
has filled the country with a countless number of small and nar¬ 
row strips of land, which is highly cultivated and yields a great 
variety of rich crops; but in that country, as in other populous 
countries of Europe, land is almost too valuable for such extensive 
grazing operations as your country is capable of maintaining. 
Why do you not follow the example of those New England and 
New York farmers, who are acquiring wealth by dairies on soil 
that is almost worthless for grain crops? Instead of wasting your 
time and substance in raising wheat, why do you not devote your 
attention to efforts to resuscitate and re-invigorate your soil, and 
raise less bulky and more valuable products, that will bear trans¬ 
portation and yield you remunerative profits, without impoverish¬ 
ing, but Avith the enrichment of your farms? 
So, good friends of the A\ r est, please discontinue your ill-advised 
operations in Avheat, which averages tAventy-six bushels to the acre 
under British farming, and do not ruin yourselves on our account. 
Very truly, yours, 
European Operatives. 
Whether international courtesy permits such plain talk or not, 
there would be in it more truth or friendship than poetry. 
advantage of dairy and stock over grain. 
*When we see the dairy and stock-farmers of New’ England, Newv 
York, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, Avith inferior lands, of com¬ 
paratively little value for grain-culture, enjoying a degree of pros¬ 
perity that is unknown to the great bulk of Avestern farmers who 
are engaged in an unprofitable and unequal competition with Rus¬ 
sian serfs for supremacy in the grain-markets of England, we ma}^ 
Avell conclude there is something Avrong in our system of agricul¬ 
ture. The farms of the dairymen and stock-raisers are not mort¬ 
gaged to secure the payment of debts incurred in the purchase of 
farm machinery; as their cattle, sheep, and horses assist in harvest¬ 
ing the crops. The dairymen and stock-raisers are not compelled 
to hire labor at high-pressure prices in the harvest season to 
gather their farm products Avith expensive haste. The dairymen 
and stock-raisers do not find at the end of the year tliat the produc¬ 
tiveness of their farms has been diminished or impaired; but, on the 
contrary, that their land has been strengthened by the season’s opera- 
