Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-05-01
What Grasses and Cattle Will Do for
the South.

Mr.. il. Talcott, of Jefferson, Ohio,
has an interesting letter in Progress
for May, from which we take the fol-
lowing extract:
March Odd, after finishing my most
urgent spring seeding on my farm
near McMinnville, l started for my
Northern home to attend to the same
work on two good farms here, if
spring ever comes and the weather
will permit
BY invitation from the Hon. Mark
S. Cockrill, Of Nashville, Tenn, I
stopped off one whole day and visited
his most famous 1 200 acre stock farm,
four miles out of Nashville on Cedar
street, and in fair sight of the Belle
Meade stock farm of Gen. Harding,
on Rich Valley Creek. Mr.. CockriH
and the other stock men in his neigh
borhood can give you an object lesson
well worthy of trip to that city as
foundation for future sermons in your
paper. His whole farm is nicely
seeded to tame grasses, and between
two and three hundred head of most
excellent thoroughbred Shorthorn cat
tie are quietly grazing on his fields,
fat as seals, and each one of them the
highest type of perfection. He has
all the most fashionable strains Of this
breed of cattle in his herd and to say
the least, it is one of the very best
herds on this continent. He can
make immense wealth, while you
with as many acres in Middle Ten
nesseestrugglew ithsedgegrass, briars,
sassafras and lean hogs, and eat moth
ing but Johnny-cake and soW-belly,
and can hardly pay taxes. His land
is well worth fifty dollars an acre,
while yours sells for from five to ten
dollars. Why this difference? 1t is
mainly, and almost wholly, because
Mr.. Cockrill keeps blowing his land,
seeding it down with bluegrass, timo-
thy, white clover, orchard grass, and
red clover. He does not expect one
seeding to last forever, but keeps three
good teams busy all the time turning
under sod ground, putting in crops OF
corn, oats, wheat and red clover, with
plenty of fertilizers. Besides doing
this, he has good stables for his cattle,
and as soon as the first cool, frosty
nights of autumn come, he puts
his cattle under shelter. He feeds
them nights and mornings fodder
Of grain, or oats and straw, cut up in
the bundle without threshing, and
day times when the sun comes out
and it is warm he lets them out tC
feed again in his tame grass pasture
which keeps green and fresh the
whole year round, while your sedge'
grass pasture is only good about foul
months of the year, and then horses
mules, cattle and hogs begin fright
full struggle for dear life hunting mas
enough to live upon through the win
ter.
No man or beast can thrive in this
manner; and these Davidson county
farms show most cOnclusively tina
the whole State of Tennessee can bt
made to blossom as a rose, and will
its most delightful climate, and adapt
ability for all kinds of mixed farming
will soon become the banner agricul
tural State of the Union. | hav,
never had a moments doubt since
first visited McMinnviIle that tn,
farm lands there could be put in tn
most prosperous coalition with yer,
little expense and as profitable farm
ing done as in any section of the Uni
ted States. | have just seeded fort!
acres of wheat and oats to red clover
and when that gets up good ant
strong it is going under again out c
sight to furnish heat and manure t
make still bigger crop of wheat
corn, oats or clover grow again, AM
so on until / choke out sedgegras
and sassafras-and put more nickel
in my pocket.
Wrong Home Influences.