The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1863-07-01
AGRICULTURAL.
Stock Growing in America.
BY FRANCIS N. RoTcH.

OF our vast country, are apt to regard chiefly
its bread producing capacity, and to over
look its almost equally important and init.
mately connected ability to furnish meat.
Impressed by our immense crops Of grain,
and with the seemingly cxhaustless powers
Of the virgin SOIL they look but at the
commercial result in bushels of single
harvest, and do not take into consideration
the number Of acres required to grow the
crop, and the consequent small yield per
acre. 1t is the great amount of land under
cultivation, the case with which it is work
cd, and the sparse population which afforls
such crops, and enables so great a surplus
to be exported. But this condition of
things cannot last The most fertile soil
must in time become exhausted by con-
slant cropping, and both the yield and
quality of the products deteriorate. In
proof Of this we cite the State of Virginia,
one of the most fertile Of the earlier settled
States. When the land was first cultivated,
abundant harvests Of corn, wheat, and
tobacco rewarded the most careless hus-
handy, and no doubt the first settlers re-
garded her Virginia soil as inexhaustible.
But the. inevitable process of deterioration
was silently going on, and at the present
the best Of land in the State have been
old method, furnishing meagre return for
the labor expended upon them. Even in
our rich prairie State the same process is
going on, for the same causes are Mt work.
An intelligent wheat grower in Wisconsin
writes, "that lands that have been cultivated
only twelve years in that newly settled
Il. - 4. I.
bushels per acre which was obtained in the
beginning" Extensive corn growers in
Indiana say, that river bottoms that once
produced sixty to eighty bushels Of corn
per acre, now yield only from thirty to
forty" Instances like these might be null,
tplied almost without end. Wherever the
light Of truthful and thorough statistics
can be brought to bear on land under cult
walton, there the diminution Of its virgin
fertility is demonstrated. The injury year,
ly to the country from this cause it would
be difficult to compute. DR.. Lee, in an
admirable article or the Progress OF
Agriculture in the United States" com.
mnnicated to the department in 1851, says,
"Of the one hundred and twenty five
millions of acres now under cultivation in
the United States, four fifths, or one hun
ared millions, arc damaged to the extent OF
threesdoslars an acre per annumi' Such
are the results Of the American method Of
cultivation. a method growing out of our
having "a continent to cultivate and ex-
haust Of it's virgin fertility; of our great
facilities for internal communication of
our cheap land and dear labor. But we
should remember that in time even con
tinent may become impoverished. We are
trenching upon the best grain growing dis
tricts with alarming rapidity. Annually
the tide of emigration pours our food over
our unoccupied territory, till before long
the wave Of civilization from the east will
meet that from the west at the base of the
Rocky Mountains, lea, 1g no more land to
be suhjngated by the plough, no more
valleys AMI hill-tops for fresh focks and
herds. Before this time arrives, then, il
is the duty Of those who look to the future
# this country, who regard its greatest in.
.erests and its continued prosperity, and
who would have it retain its proud position
as the "granary Of the world" to consider
The great problem how best to save from in.
jury and destruction the natural resources
of the soil.
''To dig about and dung it." when we
wish increased growth and vigor in tree or
plant, is maxim Of Holy Writ, and gives
rs the clue to our grand problem Of how to
replenish the soil. Manure as afforded by
animals, is the great source of fertility and
renovation and its production depending
upon the rearing, keeping, and seeding
like stock, shows US the intimate connection
existing between the growing of bread and
meat. By the help Of the animal economy
we are enabled to turn to the soil in the
state of plant food, large portion of those
constituents taken from it by the process
Of vegetation. The close dependence of
the animal and vegetable kingdoms upon
each Other, and the difficulty of successfully
perfecting the one without the other, has
been recognized by all enlightened agricul-
turists as one Of the first principles of
cultivation, and the foundation of all good
farming.
In this country we have no Indigenous
distinct breeds Of either cattle or sheep
When this continent was discovered the
only animal Of the bovine race was the
bison, or as it is commonly called, the
buffalo, now confined to the regions west
Of the Mississippi river; but once a dcnizen
of the whole country, to the very shores Of
~,
most found within the borders Of the
United States, but an inhabi ant of the
northwestern portion of the cont nent.-
What are called natives are heterogen, US
mixture Of various breeds introduced al
various times and for different purposes.
and left to cross and mingle as chance or
convenience dictated in the earlier settle.
ment Of the country. Cattle and sheep
were procured at different times from tn,
continent Of Europe, from England and tbs
Spanish West Indies, with nc view, how
ever, to introducing the new breed or to
anleliorate the animals already in the coun.
try. But solely to supply present wants of
labor and food. Beyond this, no purpose
governed their selection, and no principles
Of breeding guided their crossing and pro-
pagaton. From this mass of monsrel
blood and i'll assorted races sprung our so
called natives. The first cattle brought
into the country are said to have been in
troduccd by Columbus. The Spaniards
afterwards brought over others, from
whence, no doubt, sprung the wild cattle
of Texas and California. About the year
1858 the Portuguese took. cattle to New.
foundland, Of which, however, no traces
now remain and in 1000 Norman cattle
were brought into Canada. In 1911 Sir
Thomas Gates. brought from Devonshire
and Hertfordshire 100 head of cattle into
jamestown, and thirteen years later Thomas
Winslow imported bull and three heifers
into Massachusetts,. From this time more
frequent importations were made though
still with little regard to their adaptation to
the localities or to their effect upon the ex.
listing stock of the country, as the same
promiscuous course Of propagati,g them,
breeding it cannot lie called3 combined
with the hard fare and exposure they wei, e
subjected to in those early days, resulted
in race deteriorated from the original
stock. Even now, il we examine herd