The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-01-30
M;he Gttil MAyhi9
ELKTON, JANUARY 80. 1875.

4" Surrounded as we are and de
pendent on agriculture for almost the
entire prosperity of Cecil, will be con
sidered sufficient excuse for So often
making that interest subject for sug
gestions and remarks in our columns.
The Winter season offers to farmers
the best opportunity for connecting
plans and devising for the future season
of busy work. for forming associations
clubs or Oranges 1t is also the proper
time to review the business of the pas,
year, and estimate what crops have
failed to give return for the outlay Of
producing them. If this subject is put
to the test of arithmetic, good many
will be astonished at the cost of every
bushel of grain they have secured. Ii
is beginning to be asserted that it costs
more to raise bushel of corn or wheat
than to buy the same in the market
where it has been placed by the Western
farmer, and that the tons and tons Of
supposed fertilizers for which so much
of the farmers money is expended, cost
more than grain-even if the grain were
used directly as manure. If this even
approximates the truth, it would pay
WELT examine the question more closely
and ascertain how many cattle, sheep
orswine of choice stock, a given amount
of this cheap grain would feed, and the
profit to be derived from the sale of the
fatted stock In making this calcula-
ton, the value of the granted manure
must not be lost sight of, nor must the
feeder neglect to provide means for saw
ing every ounce of the manure made by
his stock The value of an acre of grass,
as compared with an acre of grain, will
enter into this calculation, and the in
creased fertility of soil devoted to the
production of grass, will be an import,
ant factor. The land devoted to grass,
which has the same amount of manure
applied to it that is imperatively neces-
sary when cultivated in grain, will be
constantly increasing in fertility, while
tie land subjected to the hard tillage
that grain requires, will deteriorate.
There are few, if any, farmers who have
examined the subject of profit in GRASS
FARMING. With the demand always in
advance of the supply for meat, milk
butter, cheese, &c, which the numer,
Gus and populous cities in our Atlantic
States have created, the subject is well
worth serious consideration and careful
examination, to ascertain whether farm
exclusively devoted to grass and the
cultivation of food for stock, such as
roots and soiling crops, would not yield
a much larger profit than grain farming.
If corn can be purchased in the market
by the ton for less than it costs to pro
duce it, if properly manipulated by feed
ing it to the stock, handsome prof.,
must be realized, or it is folly to raise
the grain that is fed to stock, when the
commercial manures required to pro-
duce it cost more than the same amount
of grain-producing constituents can be
got for by investing in Western corn,
oilcake, wheat bran, etc. The heavy
cost of teams, agricultural implements,
hired labor, etc, would be saved in a
great measure This view is not, by
any means, wholly theoretical Wher-
ever dairying and feeding stock has
been introduced as the leading business
of the farmers, and grain production
the incidental one, the farmers are fore
handed and in easy circumstances, with
the value of real estate materially adj
yanced. If the same system was adopt
ed in this county, it could not fail to
produce similar results to those which
have been achieved in New York and
other States, further north and less
favorably crcumstanced in regard to
climate.
There is one iamentable fact which
must have become apparent to every
intelligent farmer, who has his business
enough at heart to devote an ordinary
amount Of study to it; that is, the sys-
TEN of grain farming which has been
pursued in this county from time I'M
mortal, can never restore the lost pros
perity of the farming interest. A new
leaf must be turned over and more
profitable system adopted, and that sys-
TEN might very appropriately be termed
the grass and stock system To lay
aside the old and adopt the new, is per-
haps, where the greatest difficulty is
apprehended by the men who have fol-
lowed the same routine which they
learned from their fathers when boys
And the men of intelligence and enter
prise who can surmount these initial
difficulties are the ones who will lead in
tie road to agricultural prosperity and
a better state of things. Organization
and system will be found of the utmost
advantage in pursuing the new system,
and the sooner the farmers take steps
to accomplish these objects, the better.
ANDY JOHNSON.
This distinguished parsonage is about