Year: 1865

Union. Not one farmer in those counties In q
hundred cuts a ton Of grass Of any description
Not one in fifty sows pound of timothy seed,
nor do enc. third sow a pound OF clover
seed, even. They rely almost universally for
winter feeding upon wheat straw and corn
fodder, where they do not have the not unfre-
quent addition Of marsh range-fresh or salt
which enables all who have 1t to carry any
stock except sheep) well through the winter
without feeding. for a month, perhaps, at the
barn and in the stock-yard. Stock cattle, where
running on marsh ranges on "The Shore" come
off them in early spring in excellent condition
for market; their owners in many cases not
having laid eyes on them during the winter, or
until getting them up to ship, per steamer, to
the Baltimore butcher, at q cost of $3.50 per
head, the boat charge. Hogs do equally as
we'll on these ranges, the nutritious and easily
accessible roots OF which keep them really fat
in winter or summer. When upon them, how
ever, they are called together daily and fed an
ear or two OF corn each, by way Of preventing
the N from straying off, which they would in
evitably do II not thus constantly reminded
where they belong. Whenever the progress Of
the affairs of "The Shore" shall accord il suf-
ficiency of freighting steamers for the transac-
tion Of lis business, its marsh ranges will send
to market immense numbers Of fat hogs and





that will speedily enrich their fortunate pos
SCISSORS, who up to this time do not dream
OF what is to be their value when a due in
fusion OF free State energy and enterprise
among them shall command and secure for all
sufficient steam facilities for getting their pro-
duce to market. The fact that more than half
the farmers OF THE Shore have schooner
transportation at less than three miles from
their doors-thousands OF them from within
three hundred yards of thers-has doubtless
made them Indifferent up TO this time to the
importance of securing the requisite facilities
for the prompt and convenient shipment Of
their live hogs, horned stock and sheep, which,
when secured, will so stimulate their produc-
ton in this section, as to add speedily and enor-
mously to the aggregate of its wealth. Up TO
this time the SO general inattention to thorough
draining and to seeding down to grass have
prevented the four counties of whian / am


writing from evmcng much capacity for
stock raising except in the matter of sheep.
The heat of the sun in summer, the people
say, unfits "The Shore'' for general stock


raising. except on the marshes. 1 d. not be-


Iievo in their theory. Fauquier, Va, itself,
does not grow better blue grass, nor does it ap-
pear to he anything like as generally indige-
nous to Fauquier as to the county of Dorches.
ter, Maryland. An application of one hundred





perhaps six, or at most eight cents per bushel,
spread On the land will soon cover any wheat
land in Dorchester with this SO valuable for
age, which in spring and fall is as luxuriant
here as in Fauquier. But as the lands here
require draining and are not drained, the sum-
mer's sun 80 bakes them as to burn up for the
time being everything in the shape of grass
growing on them. I am myself experimenting
with tile draining, to the end Of the permanen.
production OF blue grass on some of my fields
under the con viction that whenever / can re.
Heye them entirely Of surplus water this val.
uable forage will flourish upon them in sum-
mer as well as It used TO flourish upon the
hills of Fauquier.


1 can perceive no difference whatever
between the Fauquier blue grass and that in. =.
digenous here. When the farmer had it there
he would no more dream of breaking it up
than he would dream of burning his house
down. That is: SO long as 1t continued to re-.
produce itself luxuriantly. Say for twenty
years; after which it ran ont, only to be re-.
newed by few years cropping with other
crops and manuring.


The English sheep-Cotswolds Lecesters
South Downs, and their various crosses with
natives, flourish throughout the Eastern Shore
as where else within my knowledge, nearly
all its sheep growers having years ago turned
their attention to the due Improvement of that
description Of stock, no better muttons reach
the cities than those sent from "The Shore,'
where they keep fat all winter, as far as can
perceive, without any grain feeding whatever,
rarely being treated bite OF aught else than of
winter grass and the pickings around the stalk
heaps Of the wheat fields seeded down SO soon
as the Indian corn is taken off them. The
difficulty here with sheep appears to be to pre-.
vent them from keeping at all season 100 fat
with oh thn H1o M
Shore' are small in numbers, it being COM
monty thought that they cannot be kept in


focks mum bering more than thirty to fifty
without great danger of contracting
unmanageable diseases. The sheep disease,


which seems to battle the skill of the Eastern


Shore farmer, appears to me 10 be but too much
fat. Their fiocks are SO small as that they are
constantly over-ted by what they pick up.
Sheep in that condition will not rem ain healthy


in considerable hocks, all sheep. growers
know and more especially where, when
housed in winter, they are almost invariably
carelessIy attended to. Sheep-growing on


1.-The Shore" is attended with more clear profit
than any where else on this continent, really


believe. The cost Of steam transportation to
the Baltimore market is but 50 cents per grown
sheep and 25 cents per lamb, worth, the former
from $l2 to Sl4 and the latter from 81 to Sll,
without being fed dollars worth of grain,
and OF course without being hay fed; as not
one farmer in twenty on the portion of "The
Shore" Of which write cuts ton Of hay an
nually. When the farmers of "The Shore"
learn to take as much care OF their sheen in
winter as they take OF their horses, they will
surely realize that they can as safely venture
to keep each his hundred Cotswolds in q flock,
as twenty. five. The best grazing lands Of
Dorchester county are at this time it's lowest
priced lands-those bordering its fresh tide
waters, where they are apt TO be margined by
marsh from quarter to a mile wide In
drained and uncleared as they are, musq uitoes
and ague have prevented them from being set
tied up. Yet wherever drained and cleared in
considerable tracts, both these pests have in
variably disappeared. Most OF the farms that