p.13

407

Wilmington, N. Carolina, the proportion is increased to one-tenth,* and
in the vicinity of the Santee canal in South Carolina, the proportion is
still further increased to one-ninth. ^1

The culture of the gramineae may be regarded as giving origin to four
different and distinct kinds of husbandry:

1. The culture of the grasses proper, for the purpose of supplying
food for stock.

2. The culture of the grain bearing grasses, mostly for bread.

3. The culture of the aquatic grass, rice, (oryza sativa, Linn.,) on
which a very large proportion of the human family are fed.

4. The culture of the sugar cane, (Saccharum officinarum, Linn.,) for
the sake of its juice.

It is only with the first two that we have any concern as cultivators in
this climate; rice and the cane requiring a greater annual temperature
than is here found.

Whether the culture of grass and the rearing of stock, or the culture
of grains is the most important and will yield the greatest return
for the capital and labor employed, at any given locality, is quite an important
inquiry. Usually upon the first settlement of a country, of the
first emergence of a people from the barbarous state, the culture of grains
predominates the cattle being allowed to shift for themselves, and rely
upon the natural grasses and herbage. The culture of grasses as food
for stock is therefore an indication of a more advanced state of the agricultural
art.

Usually in this country the two kinds are combined in the same townships
or even on the same farms, but there is a decided tendency towards
the increase of the first at the expense of the second kind of husbandry.
Doubtless this mixed culture is best for western farmers, but yet there
must be a certain relative proportion that one should bear to the other;
and it should be our aim to ascertain what this proportion is, and to conform
to it as nearly as circumstances will allow. The question resolves
itself into this: whether the production of grain or of meat is the most
profitable?

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* Catalogue of Rev. M. A. Curtis, in the Boston Jour. of N. Hist., vol. i, p. 82.

^1 According to the enumeration of Prof. H. W. Ravenal -- Pro. Am. Ass., 1850, p. 2.