SKETCHES OF THE WEST.—NO. II.
Plantation of Mr. Grey.—One of the best plantations, especially for its farm-buildings, which we visited in Kentucky, was that of Mr. Benjamin Grey of Versailles. The house, as is usual in the more southern states, stands near the centre of the domain on rising ground, and commands a fine view of the country around. It is in cottage style, large and roomy, and flanked by thick, strong chimneys, built up outside of the gable ends. A pretty yard of smooth green-sward, decked with shrubbery and evergreens, is enclosed around with pointed white palings, and adjoining this is a noble park, formed by merely underbrushing and thinning out a few of the trees of the original forest. These are usually termed wood-land pastures in Kentucky; yet in most instances, they better deserve the name of park, than many of those on noblemen's estates in Europe.
Crops.—Mr. Grey's farm being principally devoted to stock, and what is rather unusual here, dairy products, the crops are but a secondary consideration. Hemp is the main one to which he gives his attention; and in addition to this, he raises a sufficiency of corn and the smaller grains for his own consumption. The rotation is much like that described in our first volume, under head of Tours in Kentucky.
Stock.—This is very fine indeed, Mr. Grey having been highly spirited in this matter. His Short-Horns are choice, and quite numerous. We particularly admired the cow Mary Ann, with the calf at her foot. She has a fashionable and airy form; an up-head, and deer-like action; handles well, and in addition to all these, we were informed that she is an excellent milker. Three heifers of her produce we also admired; the two youngest were strikingly like their dam. After the Short-Horns, we were shown a few good Cotswold, and South-Down sheep, imported direct from England by Messrs. Bagg & Wait of Orange Co., in this state. The stock-hogs are a cross of the Berkshire upon the Thin-Rinds, (a grade Chinese), and they make excellent porkers.
Farm Buildings.—These are among the most complete we have seen in any place, and we speak of them with the more pleasure, because they are blameably deficient in farm buildings throughout the whole southwest. The climate here, it is true, is warmer and much more open than at the north; but it is in thisvery openness, that consists the principal suffering of the stock. The ground during this time is muddy, cold, and damp; and worse, consequently, for animals to repose upon, than when frozen dry, or covered with snow. Sudden changes are continually taking place. Mild weather prevails for a few days, relaxing the system; this is then followed not unfrequently by intense cold; the thermometer sinking in 48 hours from 55° or 60° above, to zero, and sometimes 8° to 10° below it. These sudden changes are very injurious to man and beast, and far more to be dreaded than the steady cold of northern latitudes; and for this reason, more attention should be paid to the warmth of their dress on the part of the people here, and to the housing of stock, than is generally done. It would lessen disease, add to their longevity, and give a handsomer, fuller, and more healthful physical appearance. But to return more immediately to our subject.
With the exception of the usually reserved gangway on the barn-floor, the lower story is devoted to stables. These are planked, and each animal is accommodated with a separate stall. Behind them is a shallow gutter, running the whole length of the stable, which conducts the liquid falling from the animals into a cess-pool in the yard, and is there absorbed by muck. The solid manure is also equally carefully saved and applied to the land, and notwithstanding the proverbial fertility of the soil of Kentucky, Mr. Grey assured us that he considered himself well paid in the increase ofhis crops, for the labor employed in thus saving and applying his manure. Over-head in the barn are lofts for hay and straw; a straw-cutter to prepare them for feeding; cribs and bins for grain; and a large square box with heavy wooden pounders, for the hands to pound up corn and cob into meal on rainy days, when they can do nothing else. This cob-meal is usually mixed up with water, and allowed to stand till it ferments, and is then fed to the stock.
The Dairy.—This is a sufficiently roomy building, of one story, situated in a little dell a short distance from the mansion. One of the gable ends abuts against a nearly perpendicular cliff, out of which bursts a clear gurgling spring, that takes its course through the centre of the rocky floor of the dairy, and then finds its way into the valley below. Here is every convenience for making butter and cheese, in which Mr. Grey excels. We have dwelt thus minutely on the plantation, stock, and buildings of Mr. Grey, because we consider them an excellent example to follow in Kentucky; and also for the purpose of giving our northern readers a general idea of the husbandry at the west, of which the great majority entertain the most indefinite notions imaginable.
Mr. Hart's Plantation.—After taking an early dinner, Mr. Grey ordered up his buggy, and we started for Mr. Nathaniel Hart's. This was some few miles off, yet in order to get there we paid no attention to the public roads, but took our way over gentle hill and dale, through woodland-pastures, and among fields containing a hundred acres or more in each, under a single fence. For the purpose of opening and shutting the field-gates as we passed, we were accompanied by an ebony urchin, as out-rider, mounted on the bare back of a high-spirited gray nag, which he rode with no little address. This seemed quite a gala business for him; and bare-headed, with his thick woolly locks fluttering in the wind, and his shirt-collar wide open, he went grinning along, now advancing at a hard gallop, and anon closing up at a fast trot, swinging open and shutting to the gates, shaking his pate, and hallooing to every animal that he thought did not move with sufficient alacrity from our destined path.
"Yo! ho! So you no move, Misser Cow—then Pompey make you," and at her he charged, brandishing a long stick, like a Cossack of the Don with his spear, the gray nag at the same time laying back his ears, and opening his mouth, and showing his teeth, as if grinning in fiery sympathy with his redoubtable rider, and ready to devour the animal that so sluggishly obstructed the path. But one look from the cow, or whatever beast it might be, at the horse and boy, seemed quite enough; and without waiting further hints, they would shake their tails, then give them a slight curl, and set off at a round scamper, the triumphant Pompey following up their career a short distance, singing with high satisfaction:—
I tell you so, now Misser Cow;Yo, ho, you go, bow wow, bow wow.
I tell you so, now Misser Cow;Yo, ho, you go, bow wow, bow wow.
I tell you so, now Misser Cow;Yo, ho, you go, bow wow, bow wow.
Mr. Hart's plantation is a very fine one, and he is one of the largest hemp-growers in Kentucky. He has done much to introduce a system of water-rotting hemp in ponds, which we think is the best and most simple of the kind yet tried. He has promised us a description of this, with his late improvements, and we trust that we shall be favored with it soon, for the benefit of those desirous of preparing their hemp for market by the pond-water-rotting process. There is so much in common with Kentucky plantations, that it is unnecessary to dwell further upon particulars. Mr. Hart's stock of cattle is principally derived from the first importation of the Short-Horns into Kentucky, in 1817. He keeps a flock of about 800 Merino sheep, which, low as wool is, he thinks make him as good, if not a better return, than anything else which his plantation produces. Sheep-husbandry is attracting much attention at present in Kentucky. It is a very superior region indeed, for sheep, and if the planters would go judiciously into the fine-woolled breeds, wool would soon become an article of large export with them, and a source of considerable profit. Let it be remembered, that the cheaper and better wool can be produced, the more there will be consumed of it; and the cheaper and better, woollen cloths will be furnished in return. We need not fear overstocking the country in our generation.
Mr. Hart keeps quite a herd of deer in his park, and several head of elk. These last, with their large branching horns, and lofty, erect heads, have a noble appearance. He formerly had a few buffaloes, but they became so troublesome in breaking down fences, and sallying out whenever they pleased, to the great terror of the country round, that he was at last obliged to kill them. Buffalo bulls get somewhat ferocious as they grow old, and are rather dangerous animals on the plantation. While in Kentucky, we picked up some comic anecdotes of their doings as they turned out; but a feather's weight in the other scale might have made them equally tragical; and upon the whole, unless enclosed within a fence that theycould not break down, we should advise our friends to eschew keeping buffaloes.