THE FARMERS' REGISTER, A MONTHLY PUBLICATION Devoted to the improvement of the Practice. SUPPORT OF TME INTERESTS OF JMGMICU&TURE. EDMUND RUFFJN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. And he gdve it for Ins opinion, <• that whoever could make two cars of corn, or two blades of erass to ^row anon a snot ol ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential serWee Jo bSwff try, than the whole race of politicians put together." service to dis coun- VOL. III. PETBSSBURG, VA, PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETOR, 1836. Rile TABLE OF CONTENTS OF VOL. Ill Abolition Societies, movements of, and anticipated results 287 Address of James M. Garnett, President, to the Agri- cultural Society of Fredericksburg 615 Address of T. M. Bondurant, President of the Buck- ingham Agricultural Society 503 Address of James Barbour, President, to the Agricul- tural Convention 685 Advice asked for, and comments thereon 447 Agriculture, the unsettled state of opinions on 140 Agriculture of Virginia sketch of its progress, and causes of its decline and depression— an Address to the Historical and Philosophical Society, by Edmund Puffin 748 Agriculture of Virginia and the Northern States, com- parative view ot 186 Agriculture of the United States, Strickland's obser- vations on 201 Agricultural Society of Buckingham, proceedings of 502 Agricultural Society of Fredericksburg, proceedings of 565 Agricultural Society of Albemarle, proceedings of 5G6 Agricultural Society of Florida, proceedings of 567 Agricultural Society of Rockbridge, notice of by R. R. Barton 607 Agricultural books and papers published in the United States 134 Agricultural Convention, remarks on itsjalan and ob- jects 556, 619; hints for its consideration 556; pro- ceedings of 620; petition of, to the Legislature of Virginia 620 Agricultural professorship, advantages of one being in- stituted in Va., by Gov. James Barbour 274 Agricultural Societies, remarks on their constitutions, and usual procedure 575 Agricultural publications, influence of 141 Agricultural publications, low priced, remarks on 226 Amherst tillage, &c. of, by an Amherst Farmer 104 Analogy, vegetable and animal, 22.9 Annualized charcoal, oli'al of sugar refineries, a new and valuable manure 568 Anonymous writers, a proposition to exclude 507 Ants, to destroy 291 Apple tree, of large size 47.0 Apple trees, soils suitable to 168 Architecture, submarine; of the Alexandria aqueduct, 90 Artesian wells — depths of the most remarkable, and uses of 82 Ashes, as manure 137, 175; of anthracite coal 232 B Back river lau'ls, described by "A Gleaner" Bacon, to cure well — the Smifhfieffl method 554 Barbour, James, on (he advantages of an agricultural professorship, 274; his Address to the Agricultural Convention, 685 Barton, R. R., on the Rockbridge Agricultural Socie- ty— silk business — and internal improvements in Virginia.. 607 Bee-moth, to get rid of, 367 Bees, management of, 370; burying, to pass through the winter 109 Beet-root, cultivation of in France 290 Benners, L., his improvements by marling 225 Bleaching mania 423 Bone manure for corn, by A. Nicol 474 Bones, as manure, general account of, by Sir John Sinclair 596 Bones of whales, proposed to he brought into Eng- land for manure 292 Booth, E. G., on making Irish Potatoes and mangel wuitzel 434 Bread fruit tree, seeds sent by J. S. Skinner 316 Breeding stock, important facts observed in regard to 51 Breeding, principles of 87 Briers, to destroy 2s2 British Farmers' Magazine borrows without giving due credit, 511; further remarks on 716 Broom corn, its culture, cost, and profit 176 Bud'aloe, Petrified, 213 Buffaloe Berry, account of 35 Buhr stone in Va., by W. S. Morton 677 Buildings destroyed by gunpowder, to arrest fires 595 Burwell, Nathaniel, on wheat and cheat growing from the same root, 556 Cabbages, to keep in winter 492 Calcareous earth, remarks on, and objections to that term being limited to carbonate of lime — by J. E. Muse, 664, 665. Remarks in reply 665 Calcareous earth, for manure, discovered in Western Pennsylvania 169 Calcareous rocks, in Mecklenburg, Prince Edward and Chesterfield, by W. S. Morton 517— remarks on 516 Camak, James, on corn made without tillage 454 Camel-lighters for carrying marl, described by H. 501 Campbell, C. furnishes notes from old authors, on Va., 483 Campbell, Hugh, on tarring seed corn 725 Canada plums 260 Canal, Chesapeake and Ohio, state of 135, 447 Canal boats, swiit, 21, unparalleled speed of 194 Canal, &c, of the James River and Kanawha, its ex- pected beneficial effects in checking emigration, by T. R. Dew 138 Canal, Erie, enlargement of 275 Carbon, animalized, a new manure, account of 120; account of its falsification 120 Caimichael, Win. his experiments on the effect of de- priving corn of the green fodder 661; describes his machine for raising marl 290 Cats, anecdotes of 474 Cattle, short-horned breed, origin and value of 159; list of animals, and prices at which they sold 162 Cauliflower, culture of 424 Celery, to preserve through winter 281 Cement, American, a new and valuable invention 148 Champagne, American, manufacture of 213 Chondrometer, for ascertaining the weight of grain — by lames M. Garnett 286 "Charity thinketh no evil" by "Mailer" 542 IV F A R M E R S ' REGIS T E R Cheat, convertibility of wheat to 431, 555; proofs of being derived from wheat, by Thomas Carter, 276 Cheese, Parmesan 1C3 Cheese, making and preservation of 10 Chemistry, on the utility of, to agriculture and horti- culture 717 Chincoteague Island, and its wild horses, 417 Christian, James H., gives details of manuring, &c, 149 Cinders, blacksmith's, value of as manure, by W. S. Morton 546 Climate, Kenrick's remarks on 480 Clover hay, curing of 107 Clover seed, directions for saving 282, method in France, 285 Clover and plaster used successfully for improving worn-out land, by Catlett Conway 444 Clover, on the mode of its benefiting a succeeding crop of wheat 296 Coal gas, refuse of, important use of 126 Cocoons, successive crops of i 3 Coffee, Florida, by H. B. C. 232 Coffee, substitute for 214 Cold, the bad effects on our soils and their products; by J. R., 252 Comments on various papers of the Farmers' Register, No. 10, vol. II, by Commentator 111 — on papers of No. 11, 114 Commercial reports, monthly, 64, 189.318,383,510, 511, 639, 704, 767 Common grazing, the legal right of, by Jeremiah, 592 Communications on small matters, generally the most useful 44 Co.rway, Catlett, corrects a mistake in the publica- tion, 546 — on improving worn land by clover and plaster 444 Cooking with gas, as fuel 9 Corn, Indian, how made without tillage, by James Ca- mak, 454; comparative value of different kinds 16; Tunicata, by N. Herbemont, 447; seed of, selection of, 722; on tarring, by Hugh Campbell, 72.3; experi- ments on gathering it early, and drying it in venti- lated pens, by E. R. 634; advantage of cultivating by cross ploughing, by A. S. F. 495; on the tillage of, by J. P. 614; statement of a crop of, on Staunton river land, by G. W. Read, £73; experiments-tp shew the injury it receives from the fodder being taken off, by Win. Carmichael 661; large crop of in Goochland 574; on kilns for drying by W. O. Gregory 251; experiments in topping; 369; seed, on tarring 44; to lessen the cost of replanting, by E. R. 445; green, dried for table use in winter 25; large yield of, by A. S. Foreman 470 Corn, twin, notice of, by P. J. Derieux 434 Corn crop, mode of securing and value of its offal, by Agricola 346 Cornstalks, on saving and preparing them as food for cattle, by Agricola 91 Correspondence, private, extracts from 191 Cotton gin, Whittemore's improved, advantages of 179 Cotton seed, an article of food, by II. B. C. 232 Cotton, cultivation of on prairie lands, by "A Plan- ter," 409 Cotton, machine to gather from the balls in the field 678 Cotton, on the different kinds of, by James Davis, 469 Cotton, on the fraudulent packing of 700 Cows, on spaying, 736; detailed esses of 747 Cows, spayed, improved thereby for giving milk ICG, 183 — the process directed 1 tion 347 — on the communications of "A Planter" on prairie soils 355 — on the Essay on Lime, by M. Pu- vis 359, and in notes to 366 — and also from 3S5 to 391 — on the fallacy of the usual modes of choosing seed lor the best kinds of wheat and other grain 32S — on green sand, Jersey marl, or gypseous earth 422 — on the habits of emancipated slaves 429 — on the use of the native mulberry leaves for silk worms 433 — old writers on Va. 439 — on applications for advice and instruction 447 — on Tunicata corn 448 — on the superior value oi* the communication of facts 448 — season and state of crops in October 448 — on the ef- fects of the law of de-v mts, and law of enclosures, on agricultural interests 453 — on scorzonera as food for silk worms 472 — on flooding and irrigation in warm regions 434 — on the puffing system 508 — on the -course of the British Fanners' Magazine in re- gard to the Farmers' Register, and Essay on Calcari- ous Manures 512 and 716 — season and state of crops in November 512 — on composition of calcareous rocks of Prince Edward, Mecklenburg and Chester- field 516 — on Mr. Walker's communications 536 — on the habits of the Shakers, and the value of their institution and labors to national interests 544, — on Mr. Fontaine's experiments on fodder, and observa- tions on marl 553 — on the steps taken and the promise of the agricultural convention 556 — on the cal- careous ingredients of soils from Arkansas 557 — on animalized charcoal as manure 568 — on constitutions of agricultural societies 575 — on facilitating the ana- lyzing of marl 575 — on horse feeding and manage- ment, and usual errors therein 591 — on blowing up houses to arrest the progress of fire 594— on the Ye- w discovery of compressing air for mechanical power 595 — on the error of Sinclair's opinions on o; -!-r shells as immure 600 — onMalthus' theory of popula- tion 602 — on the transactions of the Geological So ciety of ;'•: rinsylvania 613 — on the discussion as to the size of farms, and the policy of Va. in altering sizes and boundaries 641 — on the great loss of value in using fish manure without combining it with calca- reous earth 654 — on the superiority of Va. to the Northern States, for silk culture 674 — on the labors of the Marquis de Turbilly 678 — introduction to M. Puvis' essay on marl as manure 690, marginal notes and comments thereon 691, 692, 693, 694, 705, 706, 70S, 709, 700 — on the fraudul :ht packing of cotton 700 — on feeding silkworms on the leaves of the Osage orange 701 — on liming in Delaware, remarks on 703, on season and state of crops in February 704 — on darnel or spelt 715 — on premiums for increase of population 724 — on the question of propagating the Chinese mulb ;rry by seeds73! — on the propagation oi the Chin rry 736 — on closing the 3d vo- lume 768 — on the geological survey ol New York 768 I preserved Jby. lime-water 614 El ctro-m ign itistn appiii d to m ichanical operations 367 ares, on the ill policy of reducing their number, by F. nc Emigration from Ya., its baneful effects 138 Ewe, remarkable fecundity of, by E. R. 271 F Farms, large, the superior advantages of, advocated, 641 — small, the superior advantages of, advocated, 643 Farms, large and small, the casn stated as to their rela- tive advantages and disadvantages 641 select, in Fiance, report of a committee of ex- amination on 131 Farmers' proverbs 494 ing, small, large products from, by J. L. 440 Farming and general economy of the Shakers 544 Featberstonhaugh, G. W. extract from a review of his geological report 738 Female labor, low price for 375 Female laborers, observations on the low price of the wages of, by Polecon, No. 1, 257, No. 2, S79— and No" 3, 435 Fence law, objected to by Fenceless 259 Fence law, its operation on the poor, by Waqua 31 — its general policy defended, by Fencemore 47 Fig, account of the kinds, and culture of, 2.97 Fish, a strange kind caught near Norfolk, Va. 275 Fish, gold, raised in warm water in England 6S3 Fishes, vast number of, 296 Flies, house, to exclude, 289 Flooding lands, the advantages of, in warm climates, 4S4 Florida, on the soils, products and agricultural advan- tages of, by F. Macrae 179, 228, 372 and 515 Fodder, experiments of the elfects of gathering and treating in different modes, on the corn, by W. S. Fontaine 5-19 Fontaine, W. S. report of his experiments on fodder and corn, 549, on calcareous manures, and some facts observed in connexion 551 Forest trees of America, catalogue and descriptions, from Michaux 94 Frederick and Jefferson counties — remarks on the cha- racter of the country and system of calculation by a Frederick Farmer 2 I , introduction of into Ireland, 33 Fruit, high priced, 368 Fruit drier 308 Fruits, on the decline of old varieties and production of new 524 Fruit trees, diseases and enemies of 340; on scraping, 232; on transplanting 500 Q Galen's reply to Commentator 230 Garlic, wild, means to destroy 3S3 Garnett, James M. his address to the Agricultural So- ciety of Fredericksburg 615 Garnett, James M. on the pocket chondrometer. and skinless oats 286 — on drilled wheat — queries 340 Gas. cooking with as fuel. 9, 298 Geology, Professor Silliman's lecture on 310 Geology, importance of its principles to mining opera- tions" 196 ical Society of Pennsylvania, remarks on the transactions of 613 Germination, quickening of, 214 Gibbon, J. H. on the uses and culture of Ruta Baga 240 Gold, mines of the United States — on the probable di- minished product, and early exhaustion of 738 Company, the Union, of Va. 143 Grafted tries, Mr. Knight's opinion of deemed erro- neous 168 Grafted fruits, influence of the stocks on 510 'Grape, th'eToKalori 678 FARMERS REGISTER. Grass, ribbon, account of 223, 479, 727 Grass, orchard, on the culture of, by A. Nicol 72 Grass, Herds, on salt marsh, by J. B. Marsh 126 Grasses, artificial, on the management of, 249 Green sand, (or Jersey marl,) speculations on its na- ture, and fertilizing- properties, by Wilioughby New- ton 419 — remarks on 422 Green sand, region of in Va. described by Professor Win. B. Rogers, in the report of his geological re- connoissanee 666 Gregory, W. O. on corn kilns, and cheat controversy 251 Gypsum, efeits of on Tobacco, tested by a series of experiinen 3, by Anderson C. Morton 547 Gynsum, on preparing lor use bv heat 540; not injured by being heated, "by J. D." 260, and by A. Nicol 125 H Hailstorm, destructive, in Va. 110 Hammering stone by steam 144, 110 Harper, P. W. on the tobacco crop 710 Harrison, Wm. B. his rejoinder to the defence of the four-field rotation 215 Harrow, on covering corn with, by E. R. 444 Hay, late mowed 298 Heat, injurious effects of, on cultivated land, by J. R. Wallace 33 Hemp and silk culture, the profits of compared 612 Herbemont, N. on Tunicata corn 447; corrects mis- take respecting "vin muet" 227 ; on the Chickasaw pea, ana pea fodder 93 Hessian fly, supposed mistake as to, by II. H. R. 261; its injuries not avoided bv liming seed wheat, by "Crooked Run" 43, and by E. R. 65T; effect of sowing quicklime on the maggots, by Wm. M. Tate 252 Hogs, on the causes of their diseases, by AgricolaSoS, on raising and fattening, by Agricola 3-"> i; new '!i~- ease of, 127; swelling in the throat of, to cur on fattening, by '-Incognito" 722 Holmes T. describes the sea islands, and the breed of wild horses thereon 417 Hooks in horses 738 Hops, culture and value of 245 Horse, the vices and disagreeable or dangerous habits of, described separately and at length 93, 170 Horse power compared with steam power 394 Horses and mules, working, facts as to their feeding, by W. 590, remarks on their usual bad tre; 590 Horses, race or high-blooded, the losses sustained by their being reared for sale in Va-. by Gulley 662 Horses, manner of feeding in Flanders 9 Horses, their supposed disease of hooks 738 Horo?s, working, on the abuse and proper treatment of, by R. C.726 Horses, the wild breed of, on Chincoteague island, by T. Holmes, 417 Horse-shoe machine, Burden's 144 Horticulture, party spirit in, 173 Hyacinths in glasses and pots, 498 I Ice business, carried on in the north, for exportation 110 Improvement of Va. remarks on by John Dickinson 475 India rubber (or gum elastic) vegetable production of. and its application to manufactures 174; solvent of, 294 Insects, trade in, in Brazil, 148 Insects, their structures of calcareous rock 430 Iron ore, remarkable deposite of, 146 Irrigation in Italy 163 Irrigation, in Massachusetts, statement of 195; its ad- vantages in Massachusetts 766 Irrigation of gardens 247 Irrigation, Treatise on 347, 449 Irrigation by catch-work 396 James River and Kanawha Company, proceedings of, 85, and 1S4 >n's opinions on tobacc® culture commented on 513 Labyrinth, plan of 185 Lactorine — desiccated milk, 127 Lake, subterranean, and its inhabitants 35 Land, improvement of, observations and inquiries on, by "Charlotte County" 284 Lands in Virginia, sale of in London 57 Lands, on the prices and products of 372 Law of enclosures, objected to 259 Lead ore and mines in Missouri, account of 144 u cattle, how to kill 72, and by II. H. C. 261 Lice oniowls, destroyed by dry ashes 150 Lime, . Essay on, by M. Pirns 359, 385 Lime as manure, experiments with, by A.S. F. 262 Lime, fertilizing properties of 111 Lime, importance of to the lower Eastern Shore coun- ties 470 Liming in Lehigh 281 in Delaware 703 Llama of Peru 294 Locust and mulberry trees for timber 72 . mountain (robiniapseudacacia) mistakes re- specting its growth and corrected, by J. G. C. 343 Lucern, 251 M , ; trees 434 cotton 678 i i . ing 224 Machine for raising marl, by Wm. Carmichacl, 290 McDuffie, Gov. on protecting duties — slavery, and the attempts lor its abolition 571 Macrae, F. on the forms of overseer's journals and month] 163 — describes the soil, agriculture, &c. of 'Florida 179, 228, 327, 5!5 Mangel wurtzeL. or field beet, management, uses and value of, 52 1 wurrzel, by E. G. Booth 434 Manar i 410, potash, 137, ashes 137, 175 cessity of making, by Simon Pure, 736 from fish — profitable effects of, 658 — ignorance and negl ctof its greatest value 634 tnur , o i mal ing 523 ■. what crops it should he applied to, 16 1 . in. Manure, on poor soils, by T. B. A. 376 and by M. D. s, putrescent, general treatise on, 539, 583, 654, 729 -. putrescent, extracts from Low's Elements of Agriculture 77, compost 729 it, obsei on, by J. M. G. 55 Maniiri s, general report on, by N. Hi rbemont, 603 Manuring, practical details of, I EL Christian, 149; queries and desultory remarks on, by T. W. P., 157 Manuring, surface. J. M. G. 60 Manuring by ploughing under green crops 291 Marble, valuable kinds near Lynchburg, 55 FARMERS' REGISTER. Mares and foals, management of, S7 Marl as manure, Essay on by M. Puvis, translated from the French, 690, 705 Marl, on means for facilitating the analyzing ol 575 Marl, great depth of, underlying Norfolk, Va., and its quality 269 Marl of Tennessee, described by Professor Troost, 696 Marl region of Va., described in the report of the geo- logical reconnoissance, by Professor Win. B. Rogers 627 Marling, statement of its effects on a poor farm, by T. M. Stubblefielcl, 554 Marling, improvements by in North Carolina, by L. Benners, 225 Marling labors of John Moore, by E. R. 310 Marling, effects of, by Subscriber, 272 Matoaca Manufacturing Company 248 Meadow, on making 312 Milk, how preserved for long voyages, 369 Milk weed, (Asclepias Syriaca,) account of, 105 — re- marks on, 106 Mine, inundation of 703 Mistakes in payments, and the means of amending or correcting them 191 Mite, cheese, natural history of, 580 Moon, influence of on vegetation 142 Moore, John, account of his marling labors, executed under great disadvantages Morton, Anderson C. on experiments with gypsum on tobacco, 547 Morton, W. S. on calcareous rocks and gypsum found in the middle region of Va. 517 — on the use of black- smith's cinders as manure 546 — on buhr stone in Va. — iron ore — clay for bricks — and charcoal as ma- nure 677 Mulberry, seed time of, 2S3; on the profits and increase of, 465 — poor and dry soils best for, 465; on its cul- ture 416 Mulberry, native, improper opinions of its unfitness for silkworms 433 Mulberry,Chinese, opinions and facts for,and against its being propagated by seeds 253, 734, 735, 736; on its properties and mode of propagation 6S9, 466, 481 Mulberry, White Italian, directions for sowing and raising 309 Mulberry trees, profit from a few 163 Mulberry leaves, a profitable crop of 253 Mule's colt, another from the same dam, 384, 440 Muse, Joseph E. on calcareous manures, and the im- proper limitation of the term "calcareous earth" 664, 665 Mushrooms, cultivation of, 214; new mode of grow- ing; 725; raising; from the mushroom stone 728 N Nature furnishes rules to direct agricultural operations Nelson, Thomas C. on the conversion of wheat to cheat 555 New England, on the climate and soil of 291 Newton, Willoughby, on the nature and fertilizing properties of green sand, or "Jersey marl" 419 Nicol, A. on effects of heat on gypsum 125, remarks on his experiments 126 ; on Mr. Bauer's discoveries respecting the diseases of wheat, 59 Northampton, (Eastern shore of Va.) notes of a hasty view of the soil and agriculture of 233 0 Oat, skinless, unproductiveness of, by Wm. Prince &. Sons 564; statement of the product of. by James M. Garnett, 287 Oil, of cotton seed, 50 Oils, vegetable, on the preparation of, 294 Olive trees in Georgia, 246 Orange trees in Georgia, 246 I (sage orange, (Madura Aurantiaca,) account of 35; by T. S. P. 543; its leaves a good substitute for those of the mulberry 702 i for hatching eggs in Egypt, 78 Overseers' journal and monthly reports, form of for southern plantations, by Farquhar Macrae, 163, 164, 165 ■is. on the manner and time of employing them, by Ed. W. Hubard, 713 Oxalic acid, formation of in soil, stated by Professor Renwick 653 Oxalis crenata 678 Ox-chains, wooden, the advantage of, 722 Painting houses, proper time for 127 Palm leaf hats, manufacture of, 107 Pea, Chicasaw, and pea fodder, by N. Herbemont 93 Pea crop, on the benefit derived from 250 Pea and potato harvest, on the plans of mixed crops, by Agricola 92 Peach trees, good treatment for 246 Periodical publications on agriculture, great value of, •508, 509 Pisa, the use of in constructing houses 490 Plant, pitcher, 294 Plants, the relation of certain kinds to the ingredients of the soils on which they grow, by H. B. C, 129, 441 remarks thereon 129 Poor land, suggestions for the profitable culture and improvement of, by M. N. 577 Poplar, a remarkable one in Dinwiddie, by a "Subscri- ber," 543 Posts, durability of 336 Posts for fences 308 Potash as manure, compared with ashes 137 Potato crop in Britain, cause of the failure investigated 143 Potato, sweet, on planting, by M. 547 Potato, tubers of, growing above ground, by Quintus Barbour 383 Potato cuttings, important experiment with 243 Potatoes, Irish, management of to produce crops unu- sually large 79 — remarks on the former piece 121 — on the preservation of for more than a year 124 Potatoes, Irish, directions for making the latter crop of by E. G. Booth 434 Poultry, on the hatching of, 253 Powers, new moving, suggested 30 Prairie soils of Alabama, some described by R. W. Withers 498 Prairie soils of Arkansas, by N. D. Smith, 273, and 556, report of their analysis 577 Prairie soils, furnishing and wanting different manures by "A Planter" 356 Prairie lands cultivation of cotton on 409 Prairies west of the Mississippi, described by G. W. Featherstonhaugh, and his theory of their formation 147 Prairies, inquiry into the causes of the formation of, and the peculiar constitution of soil which favors or prevents the destruction of the growth of forests, by Edmund Ruffin 321 Price, Essay on, by Professor T. R.Dew, 65 — remarks on 65 Pride of India, (or China,) value of its leaves as ma- nure 699 Private correspondence, extracts of, 254, 319, 509, 510 Public works for improvement, and political jobs, by T. Putrescent manures, treatise on 559, 583, 654, 729 FARMERS' REGISTER, Puvis, remarks on his Essay on Lime 721 Q Quinoa, Chenoaodium, account of 84 R Rail Road Company of Petersburg — proceedings of 762. Report to, of the Board of Directors 762 Rail Road, Raleigh and Gaston, expected value of 652 Rail Road, proposed from Richmond to Petersburg, re- port of the survey 593 Rail Road, proposed from the Ohio to Charleston, S. C. 740 Rail Roads in Virginia, state and prospects of 507 Rail Roads, schemes of, for North Carolina, by P. Q. 766 Rail Roads, desultory remarks on, by G. L. C. 634 Railway from Lynchburg to Abingdon, proposed 446 Railway from New Orleans to Nashville 384 Railway, Portsmouth and Roanoke, progress of 125 Railway, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, re- port of the Directors 211 Railway, hydrodynamic, proposed 118 Railway, Liverpool and Manchester, trade on 9 Railway proposed trom Wythe county to connect with those now reaching the Roanoke 426 Raking, a remedy for colic in horses 473 Read, N. E. on draining 299 Read, G. W. states the tillage and product of a crop of corn 478 Reasoning of brutes, by E. R. 474 Review, English, of Essay on Calcareous Manures 717 Review of Professor Ducatel's geological survey of the tide-water region of Maryland 36 Rice, on making it on dry land,by Agricola 62 Rice bread 90 Rocks, description of the principal, and statements of their component parts 198 Roots, on preserving for food, 463 Rotation of crops 412 Rotation, four shift, defence of, by John A. Selden, p. 1 Rotation, four field, rejoinder to the defence of, by W. B. Harrison 241 Rotation, four shift, advocoted in preference to the three field, by W. T. T. Rotation, three shift, effects of, and reasons in support of, by John Tabb 269 Flotations of Holkham, Mr. Coke's estate 317 Ruffm, Edmund, on the formation of prairies 321; his address to Historical and Philosophical Society, on the history, and causes of depression of Agricul- ture in Va. 748 Rust, or mildew, of wheat, essay on 459 Ruta Baga, uses and culture of, by J. H. Gibbon, 240, as a second growth after corn 246 Scarlet Trefoil, remarks on 292, 296 Scorzonera hispanica, food for silkworms 471 Sea Islands of Virginia, a trip to, and remarks on 531 Sea weed as manure 410 Season and state of crops during May, 1835, 63; in June, 1835, 190; in July, 255; in August 319; in Al bemarle and the Valley, by Win. Woods 190, in N. Carolina, by W. B. Lockhart 191 Seed, selection of 283 Selden, John A. defends the four shift rotation 1 Shakers, farming and economy of 544 Sheep, protection of from wolves or dogs 248; hints on the management of 293; on the breeding, i-aising, fat- tening 150, ?15, 305, 353, 446, 518, 581 Sheep, Saxony, defended 309 Sheep and hogs, of valuable breeds, imported by Cor- bin Warwick 127 Sheep husbandry, 196 and 393; (in New England) 15; breeds compared 45 Sheep farm, estimate of the cost and profits 197 Sheep, synopsis of the different breeds of 217 Sheep, British, comparison of the different breeds of, 150 Silk, American, superior quality of, 94 Silk culture— compared with hemp 612 — labor required for, 612 — price of making cocoons 613 Silk business, its progress 432 Silk, history of its early use and trade, and the first in- troduction of its culture into Europe 135 Silk culture, 291; profits of in Connecticut 94 Silk manufacture, profit of, 683 Silk of native cocoons, in Va. 163 Silk and mulberry culture, estimate of the expenses and profits of 674 — attempts making in the South 677 Silkworms, instructions in the art of managing, chiefly compiled from the work of Count Dandolo 374; fed on scorzonera 471; fed on the leaves of the Osage Orange 702 Skinner, J. S., sends seeds of the bread-truit tree 315 Slavery, observations on the good and evil effects; opi- nion's of Fletcher of Salton on 749; its establish- ment in Scotland proposed 748 Slaves, emancipated, result of an experiment with, made under very favorable circumstances 430; re- marks on 429 Smith, N. D., on the prairie soils of Arkansas 273 Smith, G. B. on milking cows 231 Smut, caught by clean wheat 414; nature of the dis- ease, and means for preventing 337; experiments on the means of preventing 743; the sulphate of soda (Glauber's salts) found most effectual 745; process described 746 Soil, on the effects of the nourishment of plants on 608; on the good effects of covering, by J. R. 626 Soil, calcareous, necessary for vine culture 130 Soils from Alabama, analyses of, made by Dr. R. W. Gibbes 272 Soils, on the choice of, to apply manure on, by E. T. T. 473; prairie, of Arkansas, some account of 273; ingredients of, inducing or preventing the growth of certain plants 129 Soils of Tennessee, described and analyzed, by Pro- fessor Troost 697, 698 Spade, substitute for, 727 Spark-catcher, for locomotive engines 261 Spaying of heifers, advantages of, 271 Spaying of cows 736, cases stated 747 Speed of men on foot, extraordinary performance 8 Squashes, hybrid 336 Steam, improvements in the use of 30 Steam carriages on common roads 21 Steam ploughs, remarks on 141 Steam power compared with horse power 394 Steamer, Swift, 55 Stimson, Earl, his farm described 18 Stink-weed, the same with "Florida Coffee;' 247 Strickland's observations on the U. S. of America 201,262 Stubblefield, T. M. his experiments in marling 554 "Stump and barrel Legislation," by Jeremiah 126 Sugar, beet-root, amount of the manufacture in France 8 Sugar made from various substances 464 Sumach, remarks and inquiries respecting, by J. S. S. 392 Tabb, John, on the three-shift rotation; and spaying heifers 269 FARMERS' REGISTER. Tate', Wm. M., on destroying Hessian fly by lime— and the crops of wheat in the Valley 252 Tea, substitute for 214 Tea plant, region of 137 Temperance, its value in the construction of rail roads 111 Tether, the use of for grazing, by W. B. Westmore, 381 Timber, proper season to cut 1 11 Timber, how preserved from dry-rot, by Kyan's pro- cess 368 Toads, the use of to destroy bugs in gardens 19S Tobacco, made in New England 547— experiments on with gypsum 547 Tobacco and wheat, culture compared 513 Tobacco culture, desultory remarks on, by P. W. Harper 710 Tobacco plant beds, management of, by H. M. 494 Tomato, its qualities and value 394 Transplanting a large tree 52 Travertin, formation of described, by G. W. Feather- stonhaugh 557 Trees, machine for felling 434 Trees, diseases of, and methods of cure 177 Tulip, cultivation of, 492 Turbilli, some account of his labors in improving waste lands in France 678, 722 "Vegetable substances, constituent parts of different kinds 442 Vin Muet, correction of mistake concerning, by N. Herbemont 227 Vineyards require calcareous soil 130, 423 Virginia, table of exports from 443 Virginia, scraps from old authors concerning, by C. Campbell 438; other extracts from the early history of, serving to show the state of agriculture 756 W Walker, George H., his letters on farming, and the in- terests of agriculture, 536, 539, 600, 601 Wallace, J. R. on the injurious effects of heat on cul- tivated land 33 War and rail roads compared, as objects of national expenditure 564 Washing clothes, directions for, 495 Water Level, a cheap one described, and the method of using it, by F. H. 59 Watkins, T. B. on destroying the cut worm 296 ; on the means of destroying weeds and producing the growth of fine grass on yards, &c. 169 Waters, black, phenomenon of 64 Wheat crops, in Loudoun in 1835, 213; in Fairfax, by X. Y. Z. 62; in Montgomery, Md. by J. P. 104 Wheat, cultivation of, 193 Wheat, on means of preserving the crops of, from rava- ges of various insects 313 Wheat insect, northern, ravages of, and remedy for 429 Wheat, choice of kinds, by W. B. Westmore, 381 Wheat, Vittoria, yielding two harvests a year 59 Wheat, seed, facts observed in regard to its being steeped in brine, and limed, by E. R. 651 Wheat drilled, produce of, by James M. Garnett 340 Wheat, White Washington, 382 Wheel axles, on greasing — a good composition for 683 Whitewash, a durable kind 293 Willow, osier, its uses and value 111 Wine, the mode of making in Marcillac 22 Withers, R. W. describes certain soils of Alabama 498 Wool, on the various kinds and qualities 518, 520, 521 Worm in potato tops destructive to grain 543 York county, Va., view of part of by "A Gleaner 414 THE FARMERS' REGISTER. Vol. III. MAY, 1835. No. 1. EDMUND RUFFIPT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. DEFENCE OF THE FOUR-SHIFT ROTATION, IN ANSWER TO W. B. II. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Westover, March \0th, 1835. It has been my intention for some time past, to answer the objections to the four-field and fal- low system, set forth in a communication under the signature of W. B. H., in your January No.; but have been prevented from doing so, at an earlier period, from obstacles not altogether within my control. I am prompted to such a course, not for the mere sake of writing, (for there is nothing that I abominate more) but in vindication of practical opinions, advanced by myself in a former essay — viz. the recommendation and jus- tification of the four-field and fallow system. I will not feign ignorance of the author of the com- munication alluded to; no, I feel a pride in ac- knowledging that it has sprung from so high a source: tor it could not have originated from one that I more highly respect and esteem, and whose opinions would command more consideration — and an admonition of my imprudence, in recom- mending any particular system, comes with mighty force from that respected writer. But he must pardon me for entertaining such confidence in my agricultural opinions, as have resulted from ex- perience; and which have been countenanced and approved by better heads than mine. The ob- jections and arguments of my friend seem plausi- ble enough, and if not properly considered, tested, and refuted, must consign to oblivion all that I have before said in vindication of the system I have recommended to the public. My object in the present essay, therefore, is to refute, as far as it is in my power, the objections which have been urged, and to place the system, if I can, upon stronger grounds, by yet stronger testimony in its favor. But before entering upon the main subject of this essay, let me express my entire concurrence with W. B. H. in the opinions he has expressed, with regard to the four-field system of Arator. Yes, and let me go a step farther, and say, that if the theory and practice of that great agriculturist and public benefactor had been persisted in, and not received the frowns of prejudiced men, Vir- ginia would long ago have been aroused and re- suscitated from her impoverished condition, and would now be ready to adopt the more rigid and profitable system of three successive grain crops in four years. There is a tendency in human nature to mar and throw a shade over the enter- prising and laudable intentions of some. Perhaps this is a frailty inherent in us. But at the same time that I agree with him in justifying the sys- tem of Arator, I must express my astonishment at his concurrence with that highly intelligent gentleman, Mr. John Wickham, in condemning the adoption, more generally, of the four-field and fallow system. Yes, a system which I under- stand one or both have adopted, and are now practising. It does not appear either generous or Vol. Ill— 1 consistent, for a farmer to denounce to others, a system which he pursues with perseverance and profit. Can it be that my learned friend design- edly acts against his own precepts? Video melwra probaque, deteriora sequur. It may be said that this system has been tried, and that it will not do. Let me tell W. B. H. that he has plucked it in its bud, before it has unfurled itself lor him to reap its full benefit. It is condemned before it has had a fair trial, or one round of crops. I would ask, has it not paid him well ? Has it not cleared his land of all pests, and improved its fertility? And is not his farm in a better state to afford him both pleasure and profit than before he commenced it? I must be vastly mistaken if it is not; and can assure him, that it will carry with it both profit and improvement as its rotation rolls around. As I am furnished with no written data, by those who pursue the three-field course, (which seems to me to be rather unkind,) I shall be go- verned in the comparisons I may make, by my own observations, and what information I have been able to collect from many highly respectable and intelligent gentlemen who have pursued it; and therefore shall be regulated by their practices and results, both on large and small estates. The first objection of W. B. H. which he deems "insuperable, is its expensivencss, which expense, consists in keeping a supernumerary number of horses, which are only employed at one season of the year, (and that the fallowing season) and kept at a heavy expense the rest.'1' I will ask the gentleman what number of horses would be necessary for the judicious cultivation of a farm of 400 acres under the three-field course'? I use twelve mules. With this team I fallowed with ease this fall 100 acres, in five weeks; and during the greater portion of this time the season was excessively dry. Now, vice versa, let me ask what this team would have been employed about if they had not been fallowing? Why, I should say idle; and consequently supported at a "heavy expense." For, after the wheat is thrashed, and the corn laid by, which is always accomplished by the middle of August, the teams would have no- thing to do until seeding time, were they not em- ployed in this. I should therefore think the labor much more equally distributed under the four than the three-field course. I have never yet seen the day that my teams had not as much as they could do; and sincerely think the fallow sea- son for wheat is the most leisure one we have. The ploughs are kept running at their leisure, having nothing to interrupt them, while the man- ual labor is employed in gathering and securing the fodder, &c. The fallow field is always ready, and frequently (by the time the corn would admit of being removed,) we have ploughed much of our corn land before the season had arrived for seeding. Many persons have been deterred from fallowing, in consequence of the droughts. I have never yet been compelled to stop a day from that cause, and know I have as stiff land to encounter as any one. It may be attributed in a great mea- sure, to the peculiar advantages of our system, FARMERS1 REGISTER. [No. 1. viz: the non-grazing, and the constant stirring of our soil. The land is so frequently turned over, and that deeply, that it never becomes so very hard and tenacious as to cause a suspension in our operations. It is also mellowed and kept porous by the shade and roots of the clover, and the great quantity of other vegetable matter which is given to it. It is worthy of consideration, too, that three-fourths of the entire farm receives the ame- liorating effects of the frost. It is true, that I have found it advisable for the relief of the teams to double them, or add one or two more to a plough; and have ploughed with as many as five; but this has rarely occurred — only once in eleven years. It is a great fault with Virginia farmers generally, that they keep too little team. Their work is fre- quently badly executed, and it results from this false economy. If I were to pursue the three- field rotation, (and which I certainly never shall) I should unquestionably keep and consider this number of hordes (or rather mules) necessary. It will be recollected that I work but few oxen — so few as scarcely to be taken into consideration. Having more corn land to put in wheat, and more in corn, I should consider it not more than suffi- cient at those particular seasons; for it is the corn land with me that is so difficult to seed. The land ie most always grassy, and of a wet season it is frequently almost impossible to plough on account of this impediment. This fell I seeded 100 acres of fallow in seven days, and was nearly four weeks seeding 68 acres of corn land. After the fallow is finished, by the last of September, it rarely re- quires more than harrowing in. The corn land has to have the corn removed, and to be plough- ed, harrowed, sowed, and then harrowed again, at the most pressing season; for at this crisis, there must be no time lost, or the season has passed. Your corn land for wheat should be better drain- ed, being more liable to suffer from water, not having the vegetable matter in it which the clo- ver fallow has. It has to lie out longer, and if not drained with care, your clover may be killed from wet in a hard winter. You know, that in a farm of 400 acres, there is only 33^ acres of land in cultivation under the three-field course more than you would cultivate under the four-field course, and this is in the fallow for wheat, and which I have before said is done when the teams would have nothing else to do were they not so employ- ed. There will be too, an additional 33J acres in corn under the three-field course, and about which you are engaged in some way, the whole year. Now, I believe it is universally admitted, that all land intended for corn (perhaps it would be better to say all stiff soils) should be turned up as early in the winter as possible, for reasons which it would be superfluous here to mention. How rarely do we see it done. And why? Because we have not had time, having so much of it to do. I should say, as our winters are so variable and un- certain, that this would be a season of unusual pressure: more, or as much so as the seeding sea- son— for when the weather opens, every exertion has to be made to get through in due time. We are enabled the better to get through it in the pro- per time, because we have less of it to do. I should remark, that as the wheat crop will be much less, and consequently under the three-field course will take a shorter time to thrash and de- liver, the teams would be kept at this heavy ex- pense the longer. The time for seeding wheat being short and limited, that system should be pur- sued by which we can get in the most in this given time, and at the least expense. I would ask why it is that those who pursue the three-field rotation do not finish seeding before those who fallow'? Not in consequence of the excess of team; assured- ly not: but because we have had six or eight weeks to prepare one -half of' our whole surface, while on the other hand you arc doing nothing towards it. It is put in, in a few days, before you are scarcely rea- dy to commence, or at least the fallow land can be sowed, while you are seeding the excess of corn land. There is only one-ninth more land in culti- vation annually under the four than the three-field course, and this ninth is the fallow, which as I have repeated before, is done when we should be unemployed with our teams, and we should have two-ninths more in wheat. Now let me inquire, which would be the greater press of the two, to prepare and seed two-ninths in ten or twelve weeks, or to prepare and seed one-ninth in four weeks. Again, by way of farther illustration, suppose we had but one team, say two or three horses; which would be the most easily accom- plished, to prepare and seed with the same team and hands two-ninths in ten or twelve weeks, (which time you would have, say until the last of October,) or to seed one-ninth in four weeks, hav- ing the corn to remove? You could not commence ploughing for the latter, before the former would be already prepared, and would require but har- rowing in, which may be done in a lew days. In the other case, if the month of October should be a very wet one, you would have but little or no wheat seeded. One may be accomplished, and the other might be impossible. This may be thought an extreme case, but it matters not, as it goes to show the principle, and in the same ratio with the entire crop, will the fallow be sown. Fi- nally, if I were to choose between putting 133£ acres of land in wheat and cultivating 133^ in corn, and putting 200 acres in wheat, one-half fal- low, and cultivating 100 acres in corn, with the same team and hands, I should unhesitatingly choose the latter, independent of its greater re- ward, as I shall presently show. As W. B. H. is such an advocate for a substi- tution of horse-power for manual labor in some other respects, I am surprised he should be so un- friendly to the fallow system, which is accomplish- ed almost entirely by their agency. A farm can be improved and profitably managed, with a good team and few hands, but it cannot be with a good force of hands, and an indifferent team. The ex- pense of the one will be small compared with the other, taking into consideration the first cost, &c. I shall ever bear in mind the opinion once ex- pressed to me upon this subject, of a good practi- cal and strictly economical farmer, who had accu- mulated quite a large fortune by tilling a poor soil, the late Major James Dillard of Sussex county. He wondered that farmers generally, and particu- larly on the wheat estates on James River, did not keep more team than they did. He was once of the impression, that more than enough merely to till the soil, and that very imperfectly, were eating up their owners; but by experience had found out his error, and then thought a double team economy. He had substituted mules for oxen al- most entirely. He believed oxen kept to perform 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. much hard work, would cost as much as mules — being obliged to be fed with grain, &c, and then not capable of performing one-third the labor. His mode of supporting this extra team, was in the following way. During the winter they were penned in the usual way that we do our siock, ex- cept having a more complete shelter to protect them from the weather. These pens were kept well littered with corn stalks, &c. which he con- sidered as good food as they required — and he gave them rarely any grain. After the grass put out they were of no more trouble or expense, ex- cept when used. At particular seasons when the services of the whole were required, you could have your work done speedily and effectually. I concur in the opinion of this worthy gentleman, and do believe if we were to keep a double team of mules, and abandon almost the use of oxen, (for from the peculiarities of our situation and cli- mate, particularly in the tide-water section of Vir- ginia, they are comparatively of but little value) we should find it greatly to our advantage. What few I have, eat more grain during winter, than my mules, and cannot do one-third the work — mules are hardier and more long lived animals, and fed in this way, would make more manure, and that better. The next objection which W. B. H. says is of a formidable character, is that "the more valuable crop, corn, is sacrificed in part, to the crop of wheat, which is less safe." As I have before said, gentlemen who have raised objections to this system, have furnished no written data by which to be governed. I shall therefore allow in my comparisons the most liberal crops that I have ever heard of, any year, under the three-field rotation, and compare them with my own under the ibur-field; and in this compari- son shall be governed, also, in what 1 believe my own estate would make under the same system, and under the most favorable circumstances. In getting an average price of the crops of both wheat and corn for the last five years, I have been furnished with such as I may quote, by reference to the journal of a friend, who has regularly sold both crops. It will be unnecessary to state the prices each year, but take an average for the last five years — The average price of wheat for that time has been, per bushel, $1 09£ cts. The average price of corn for that time has been, per barrel, 2 93£ He says in a note, "the above prices are what I have sold at each year; but I ought to remark, that the prices of wheat are rather under the highest prices that wheat has sold for some years, as I did not always get the highest price for wheat; but the prices of corn are a little over the prices generally got in each year; as I have generally got a little over the market price for corn, as my corn is white and very nicely cleaned, and has a very high character in Petersburg." When upon a former occasion it was stated by me, that one-fourth of a farm under the four-field and fallow system would produce more corn than one-third under the three-field, it was supposing the farm cultivated under the old plan, which I believe is still kept up, of grazing the one-third bare. For if a farm under that course has ever received the generous assistance of a standing pasture, I have certainly never seen or heard of it. Persons who pursue this course, are too te- nacious of their soil for tillage, to appropriate it to so wasteful a purpose, as they think. And 1 am led to such a conclusion, al^o, from the knowledge and belief, that under the four-field course, the crops would increase from the increase of fertility; and under ihe other, would diminish for the want of this improvement — and still think one-fourth of a farm, in a series of years, under the four-field system, will produce more corn, than under the old three-field course. I may revert to this again. I will now undertake to show to the satisfaction, I hope, of all impartial persons, that the corn crop is not so valuable a one as that of wheat. To effect this object, I shall give my average crops for the last five years, (or rather will give four crops) and will omit the crop of wheat of 1833, as I do not believe any one in this section of Virginia would admit that as any thing like an average crop, it having been destroyed by incessant ialls of rain for nearly six weeks, and that when the wheat was nearly matured, an event never known with us before. My crop of that year, however, shall be taken into the calculation in its proper place, and allow the difference it would make in comparing the relative value of the two crops for the whole term of five years. 1 will first take the crops of wheat for the years 1830, 1, 2, and 4, and the crops of corn for four years also. I will remark, that my crop of corn of 1833 was 616 barrels. I was advised to stack the corn on the land while sowing wheat, that I might get through the quicker in seeding; it Avas the first time I had ever done so, and do believe I lost 100 barrels by the birds and wet weather; the land was scarcely ever in a condition to drive over without destroy- ing much wheat, and on our narrow eleven feet beds, the carts, &c, filled up our water furrows so much, that I was until the spring before I suc- ceeded in housing it. Corn should always be removed from the land intended for wheat, if pos- sible. Our winters are so wet, that there will be much loss from depredations: and it is a crop which easily decays from exposure to the weather too long. My average crops of wheat for the above mentioned four years have been 3114 bushels, which at the average price as above quoted is, $3409 83 My average crops of com for four years, viz. 1830, 1, 2, and 3, are 435 barrels, which at the average price above quoted is, 1275 28 Gross amount under four-field course, if the entire crops had been sold, $4685 11 Now 133^ acres land in wheat under the three-field course, allowing an average of 12 bushels per acre, is 1600 bushels, which at the average price for wheat as above is, - $ 1752 00 133| acres in corn, allowing an aver- age of 5 barrels per acre, is 666 bar- rels, which at the average price as above is, 1954 71 83706 71 Balance in favor of four-field system, §978 40 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. Cr. — difference in the "heavy item of expense" in seed wheat, - - 62 88 Dr. — difference in seed corn and clover seed, - 15 52 $900 00 Now here is a difference of $900 upon a small farm in favor of the four-field and fallow system, after allowing an average of 12 bushels of wheat per acre, and 5 barrels of corn, for the above years, which I trust will be considered a liberal one. In- cluding my crop of wheat of 1833, which was 2300 bushels, (and which God grant I could take into the calculation as an average crop, for it pro- mised to be at that advanced season, May and June, to be much the best I ever had,) it would make the balance in favor of the four-field $722. I have given the above average of 12 bushels of wheat, per acre, and 5 barrels of corn, as they are the best I have ever heard of any year, under the three-field course, and hope it will elicit from others, a more correct statement of their average for the years above quoted. Under my present impression, I do not think their crops have aver- aged 10 bushels of wheat, or 4 barrels of corn, where lime has not been used very extensively, if even then. Several good farms on James River (possessed of the rich mellow soils, and the great natural fertility of mine,) have not aver- aged 8 bushels of wheat, or 3| barrels of corn under the three-field course, as I have been told by their owners. Why is this so? Most assuredly in consequence of a defective system. Again, let us continue our comparisons: my fallow for wheat has averaged 21^ bushels per acre, and my corn land in wheat within a fraction of 10 bushels, viz. -j^Vo* You are told that corn will produce more money in a series of years, from the same land, than wheat— now let us see: 100 acres of fallow for 4 years has produced 2133 bushels, which at $1 09i cts. iSj $2335 63 100 acres in corn for 4 years, an aver- age of 5 barrels, is 500 barrels at $2 931 cts, [S} 1467 50 Amount in favor of fallow for wheat, $868 13 An average of the two crops from fal- low and corn land for wheat, is ra- ther over 154 bushels per acre, 100 acres at this is 1557 bushels, at aver- age price is, - The crop of corn from 100 acres would be, !1704 91 1467 50 #237 41 So that an average of the two crops of wheat from the fallow and corn land, will amount to more than the product of 100 acres from corn as a first crop. Again, let us see the difference between fallow first for wheat, and succeeded by corn; and corn the first crop, and succeeded by wheat. Wheat from fallow field of 100 acres, an average of 2133 bushels at 81 09^ is, $2335 63 Corn after wheat 435, on an average St $2 93£ is, .... 1276 72 Amount from fallow for wheat, and corn after it, - - - - $3612 35 Corn as a first crop, 5 barrels per acre at #2 931 iS} .... 1467 50 Wheat after corn at 12 bushels per acre is, 1314 00 $2781 50 Balance in favor of fallow for wheat, $830 85 But before concluding these comparisons, I will state a fact which will be someAvhat more at home to W. B. H. The year I purchased this estate, (1829) my best field was put in corn after clover, by my worthy predecessor, (whose capacity to manage any crop, I am sure W. B. H, will ac- knowledge, and allow me to add my testimony in his behalf.) This field of 100 acres produced, under his directions, 7 or 8 barrels of corn to the acre, (I do not know the precise amount, but will say eight barrels:) now, from the price of com that year, (1830) this 800 barrels would not have brought $1500, But we will allow the average as I have before done, and the amount that the 800 barrels would have brought, would be $2348. 1 put the very same land in wheat after clover in the fall of 1831, and the crop was 3000 bushels, which brought me £1000 — more than double, if the crops had been sold as they were made; but we will carry out the average prices — The product of this 100 acres from fal- low, 3000 bushels at $1 09| is, $3285 00 The product of the same land in corn, 800 barrels at $2 93i is, - - 2348 00 $937 00 Here is a difference in favor of the wheat crop of $937, from the very same land, and both after clover. 1 hope that this statement alone will satisfy my friend that he is mistaken in supposing that the same land will produce more money from corn than from wheat, where an equal surface is devoted to each crop, I am very sure that any of our James River lands (of course I do not mean our light sandy soils,) that will produce 4 barrels of corn to the acre, will also produce 20 bushels of wheat upon a good clover fallow, if well prepared and seeded. And do believe also, that land which will produce 8 barrels of corn to the acre, will produce from 25 to 30 bushels of wheat, after a good fallow. But to attain this, the earth must be well ploughed during the months of August and September, (nor should you stop your ploughs because the land is a little hard,) well harrowed, and then well sown and drained, and I will warrant the result. The fallow for wheat has paid me so much more than the corn land, that I am almost discouraged from seeding the latter. This fall, being stopped by heavy rains, I determined to seed a portion in oats, (one-fourth.) If it should residt lavorably, and the clover should succeed as well after if, I shall hereafter leave one-fourth to one-half for that crop, of my corn land, otherwise intended for wheat. There are other considerations too, which should be borne in mind, in comparing the relative value, of these two crops — one is, that the corn crop will not answer as a sale crop for persons living at a 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. distance from navigation — as it will not afford transportation by land to any distance — which no doubt all calculating persons will take into con- sideration. Aa0ther--very important consideration is, that the fellow system gives you so much more straw from which to make manure. 1 do in my conscience believe, that a farm, say one of 400 acres, (as that is more familiar to me) will pay from $1000 to $1500 more under the four-field and fallow system, clear, than the same farm managed under the three-field course, in a series of years. The least I can say is, that the advantages in favor of the four-field, will be suf- ficient to defray all the necessary expenses at- tendant on the cultivation and management of such a farm. W. B. H. next supposes the corn crop not suf- ficient to employ the hands advantageously, except in seeding and securing the crop of wheat. In answer to this I must say, that my belief is, that under this system, with a good team, less manual labor is required tban under the. three-field course, in preparing and seeding a crop of wheat. Having more corn land, which 1 hope I have before shown, required more of this sort of labor. But in securing the crop, I will acknowledge it will require a greater press; and who can object to this press, when he is so well paid for it? All this extra time we are supposed to be idle, or at least no profitable farm labor, with teams, can be im- agined. I hope your correspondent will not con- tend that my force (which has been given) is more than sufficient to cultivate a farm of its ex- tent, under any system, where improvement is aimed at. I am as much, or more pressed at this season of the year in preparing for corn, and get- ting out my manure — for he must recollect how much more the system gives in this article for employment. Upon due reflection, one must think upon the whole, the labor much more equally distributed under this than the three-field course. I have certainly never yet seen the day I had not as much to do as I could do. It has on the con- trary been a matter of astonishment with me, what employment is given to the hands under the three-field course at certain seasons, (for as far as I have observed, they keep as large, or a larger force of hands) — particularly those who cultivate their corn crop almost entirely with horse- power. Their crops of wheat are light and small in harvesting and thrashing, and nothing like the quantity of land manured, compared with ours. I like to be pressed, if by this pressure I can re- ceive a sufficient compensation for it. A farmer who always has spare, or sufficient time to accom- plish any work, is sure to become careless and in- attentive about it; and from this inattention, his purse and farm both become sufferers. I beg not to be understood as desiring this press, that 1 may impose an undue degree of hardship on the slaves; by no means — but enough to keep one al- ways on the alert, and his wits exerted, to get through in due season. I must beg leave to differ from W. B. H. in supposing that no corn will be sold from the four- field and fallow system. An estate well managed under that system, should sell corn enough nearly, or quite, to defray the expenses of the estate: for I have no question, but that from its improvement, it will yield from 5 to 8 barrels of corn to the acre. 1 am supported in this conclusion also, by the fact that my brother the last year averaged 7 barrels of corn per acre, on one-fourth of the Woods Farm in Curie's Neck, an estate which has been regu- larly under this system for 19 years. I have never made less than enough to support the es- tates, except the first year; (and this deficiency I have upon a former occasion accounted for) and might have sold corn each succeeding year, had I not had so large and expensive family. And with me it is a most extravagant and wasteful article. If I had practised the same economy in the ma- nagement of my corn crop that some do, I might have been quite a considerable seller in that arti- cle. Many sell more than they should, for their teams are often not in a condition to perform their required labor. As my estate has improved great- ly, I shall calculate hereafter on selling enough to pay all the necessary expenses of the estate. I should remark that my corn crop of the last year has not all been shucked out, being told that it would keep much better in this state. I therelbre do not know the precise quantity, but this I will say, that, after encountering the severest drought I have ever known, it will make considerably more than the same field did when previously in corn. Dr. John Minge was an eye witness to the fact. I greatly prefer, too, when we realize money from a farm, it should be received in as large sums as possible, to its being much divided. For my fingers, unfortunately, are too slippery lor it to stick, when it comes in driblets, but, when derived in a large sum it is more apt to be appropriated to a good purpose; particularly, would I prefer it, when we can get so much more of it irom the wheat crop under the four-field and lallow sys- tem. I should mention also that I have sold corn at $1 50 and $1 75 per barrel. I would ask, how would a poor farmer feel, and in what situation would he be placed, who relied upon his corn crop, as his staple crop, for a support, those years? Of the two crops, wheat anil corn, the latter is un- questionably the most uncertain and variable, both in product and price. W. B. H. next objects to the system, because he says the succession of three white, or grain crops, is opposed to the universal practice and ex- perience of all good cultivators of the soil, both to the north, and in Great Britain. To this I must say, that I have never had the time, and if I had, have never devoted it to reading English works upon agriculture, and therefore can say nought as to their practices. This I do know however, that our climate and soils must difler materially from theirs; and therefore the same ro- tation of crops may not agree. And I well know that two small grain crops, that is, wheat after wheat; or oats after oats, will not succeed well; because I suppose, the previous one has exhaust- ed most of the ingredients contained in the. earth, peculiarly suited to the second crop, and in which it would most delight. But it must be recollected that one-third to one-half of the surface will have had a manuring, besides the remaining effects of the clover, and the entire decomposition of the stubble of the first crop of wheat; and the corn crop, a hoe and summer crop, and entirely a differ- ent one in its cultivation intervening, prepares the earth with a pabulum the better suited to the second crop of wheat. It is true that the second crop of FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 1. wheat is not so large a one as the first — and it would be expecting too much for it to be so, after two other crops previously — but even then, I be- lieve it is a better one than is generally made un- der the old system of three-fields; and if the aver- age is taken of the two crops it is indisputably so. W. B. H. next says, "cannot a standing pas- ture be combined with the three-field course," &c. &c. I have before said that such an occurrence had neveryet met my observation. Those who are impressed with the necessity of it are too reluc- tant to commence it. by surrendering a portion of their arable surface, (which, however, is not al- ways necessary.) And many with whom I have conversed, are impressed with the necessity of a change of system, but cannot bring their minds to the conclusion of surrendering a larger, for a smaller portion of land for corn: for say they, "one- third of my farm, now scarcely furnishes me with corn — how then can I possibly make bread on on- ly a fourth?" "But," it might be answered, "are you not now on the eve of starvation under your present system? Are your lands improving; or do you realize any thing from them?" "No, I sell enough corn barely to pay my blacksmith's ac- count, &c. and of wheat, if it should be a good season, to defray my other expenses, with great economy." "But how are your children to be ben- efited by this? How are you enabled even to give them a liberal education, independent of furnish- ing them with a start in the world? — Your parents left but yourself, and you are barely enabled to live with your means, what must become of your six children?" "Why, my father and my grand- father, &c. pursued this same system, and made money with which to buy this same estate, and raised a large family." "But your ancestors lived in better times: lands were then cheap; and they had these same lands that you are now almost starving upon in their primitive state— the rich virgin soil to work upon, and from which to make money; but they have left none of its richness for you, from which to do the same? It is now a waste, gullied and barren. And what has brought it to this condition? Has it not been this same three-field course that you now adhere to? Has it ever been under any other? "No." "Well, by adhering to it, can your lands be improved, or your condition bettered?" "No — but before I can diminish my cultivation for corn, (which now barely supports me) I must remove to the west." Yes, sir, this is a true state of things. And this very three-field course has been the principal cause of the great tide of emigration to the west, and until that is abandoned, it must continue to flow. W. B. H. says again — "is it not better to ma- nure one-third with clover, under the three-field [course, than one-fourth under the four-field?" Without this standing pasture I must say, there will be but little benefit derived from the clover under the three-field course. But even admitting it was not grazed off, as is customary, I question very much whether the benefits are not greater towards improvement, when turned under in the months of August and September, when it is in its greatest degree of perfection, than when ploughed under in the winter or spring, when there is scarcely a ves- tige of it to be seen on the land. A good clover lay for wheat may, much of it, be seen the next winter, when the same land is turned up for corn, in a perfectly decomposed state. And this fact goes a great way too in supporting the belief that one-fourth will make more corn than one-third. I have frequently when the clover has been a very heavy crop, taken up handfuls at a time remain- ing in this rotted state. Under the foregoing im- pressions, I doubt very much whether an estate would not improve the faster, when under any sys- tem the clover remained but one year. But there remains not a doubt on my mind, when, in addi- tion to the clover, is added the greater quantity of manure. I would remind W. B. H. and Mr. John Wick- ham, that it is not always the richer soil that is most successful in clover. On the contrary, we frequently see rich portions of a field fail, and poor hill-sides succeed. The soil 'should be freshened or altered in some way, either by manures, or by cultivation. Land which has been heavily dosed with clover, will most generally fail, if seeded in it again, before it has gone through some preparato- ry crop, and will become what is termed clover sick. Poor fresh land, we frequently see succeed better, and bring better clover than much richer land that has before borne it. I think our four- field system peculiarly adapted to the clover hus- bandry. The land from the previous cultivation, seems to be in the very best state to receive it again. I am confirmed in this fact by never hav- ing failed in my life, and if W. B. H. will observe, farms which are under this system, seem always to have better clover fields. I hope, sir, I have said enough to condemn the three-field system as a rotation suited to us. I will briefly refer to W. B. H's. favorite system of five-fields. There appears to me to be a want of consistency in his preference for it, that I cannot exactly understand. Perhaps it is for my want of a better knowledge of it; and if wrong, I hope to be corrected. My idea of it is this: that one-fifth is in corn, two-fifths in wheat, one-fifth in pastu- rage, and the remaining one-fifth in clover. To be more particular, and that I may be the better understood, I will convey my idea of it by the fol- lowing diagram. 1st year 1st field. 2nd field. 3rd field. 4th field. 5th field. Corn. Wheat after clover Wheat after corn. Pasture. Clover. 2nd. Wheat after corn. Pasture. Clover. Corn. Wheat after clover 3rd. Clover. Corn. Wheat after clover Wheat after corn. Pasture. 4th. Wheat after clover Wheat after corn. Pasture. Clover. Corn. 5th. Pasture. Clover. Corn. Wheat after clover Wheat after corn. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. I have been thus particular that I may be put right, if I have taken a wrong view of the rotation. Now, W. B. H. objects to the four-field rotation, because only one-fourth is apportioned for his favo- rite and more valuable crop, corn. How he can reconcile this system to himself, when one-fifth only comes in that crop, (and that not after clover) I cannot imagine: lor the consequence must be that his more profitable crop, corn, will be greatly lessened in quantity. Again he objects to the ibur- field system, because, says he, "is it not better to improve in this way one-third than one-fourth of the same farm'" with clover? Under this five-field course there will only be one-fifth improved with clover. And I would ask if it is not better to im- prove with clover one-fourth than one-fifth'? No one can doubt but that the field allotted to be gra- zed will be cropped harder than any. My im- pression is that it will be the greatest sufferer of the five fields. The idea of appropriating one- fifth annually of arable surface as a pasture, will never do. The clover if sown on the pasture field will soon be destroyed by the stock, for you must commence on it, grazing belbreit can have gotten much start in the spring in growing; and it is ea- sily destroyed at that season, and if not seeded in clover lands which are regularly cultivated, throw up but little grass from which to nourish stock. The advantage of a standing pasture is, that it forms a sod of blue or other grasses, which is not killed, but increased by being trod by stock; but where you cultivate lands regularly, this sod is destroyed, and therefore your fields will be left bare and exposed the whole summer to the hoof and the sun. But there are other objections which are of too "formidable" a character to be overlooked, and which I should imagine would be serious ones with him, viz. that the field grazed would come in corn the succeeding year, and con- sequently that crop greatly shortened for the want of the clover. There would not only be three grain crops in succession, but what would be much worse, there would be four, or what might be con- sidered equivalent to it — and they may be counted in this way. 1st. Wheat. 2nd. Grazing — 3rd. Com — and 4th. Wheat. So that the two latter crops will not have received any benefits from the clover whatever: on the contrary will be preceded by a bare crop, (for I know not what else to call it.) This must be the case; for the usual number of stock of all kinds kept on an estate, will leave not a vestige of vegetable matter on one-fifih of a farm, when it is kept under regular tillage, and only remains out one year. It is true you will have the stick weed, &c, which we had better be without. Again; under this system you would have less materials from which to make manure. Also, you will have more fencing to keep up; as your wheat fields must be divided from each other occasionally. The fact stated by W. B. H of his having to abandon it in consequence of its be- coming too foul, is alone sufficient to condemn it with me. I am opposed to these odd rotations — for to me they appear odd, indeed. If I were to cultivate lands which would not bear the four- field and fallow system, (and I think there is but little with us that will not) I should adopt the sys- tem of Arator — and which is the system I spoke of in allusion to Mr. Lewis. Or, i should adopt the six-field until my land was in a condition to pursue the more rigid and profitable one of four- field, and fallow: but none without a standing pas- ture. If our lands lie out too long (which is an objection to all fallow systems with us, except the four-field,) they become too foul with blue grass, &c. &c. Once in four years in a hoe crop is almost indispensable, and therefore the five or six- field systems will not answer. If W. B. H. ima- gines that I recommended the four-field and fallow system for "universal adoption," he is certainly mistaken. I did so for our James River lands, and now take pleasure not only in recommending it to James River farmers, but for all farms which can be made to produce clover — as it combines the two desiderata of profit and improvement in an eminent degree, above all others. In my allusion to the four-field and fallow sys- tem having originated with Mr. James M. Selden in Curle1s Neck, on James River, I was not aware of its having been practised by any one but himself, prior to the time referred to, but have since learnt, from a conversation with him, that Mr. Harding practised it about the same time, which he was not then aware of at the time he commenced it. Nor had he ever heard of its being practised by any one else, until Major Heth brought Mr. Har- ding down to Curie's with him, for the purpose of obtaining his advice with regard to its manage- ment, being then thought one of the best farmers in the state. It was at this time Mr. J. M. Sel- den first learnt that M r. Harding was pursuing the same system with himself. And Mr. H. advised it as the best system for Major H. at Carle's. He (Mr. Harding) told Mr. J. M. S. that he was practising it on an estate which he had purchased, and which was in a very impoverished condition, but under this system, expected in a short time to resuscitate it. I believe there is not a question about his having done so; whether he continued it to his last, or not, I cannot say — but ever since I can recollect, or took any interest in agriculture, Mr. Harding has been held up as a model, and as being the very best farmer in the state. Believe me, sir, when I say that I did not intend to de- prive Mr. Harding of one iota of his reputation as the father of this system. No, none — on the con- trary let me add to it, by calling it Harding's sys- tem; and hope it will be handed down to posterity as immortalizing his name. But before dismissing this subject, let me say a word in support and justification of this system, as practised by Mr. Harding at Dover. Mr. Har- ding did not pursue the system there, with the in- tention of improvement, having had it on lease; and I will state a few facts, as I am credibly in- formed, which should go to prove it. He had no standing pasture; used none, or but little plaster; sowed clover not with the view of improvement, but for grazing — had a smaller force than was ne- cessary for the cultivation of the estate — kept a large head of cattle, and from them derived a great portion of his profits. For I am told he kept fifty or sixty milch cows, and from butter alone sold from $'1000 to $1500 annually. Now, is it expected, or could it be expected, that an es- tate would improve under these circumstances'? I wonder W. B. H. should not. have incmired more particularly into the mode of its cultivation, and the assistance given to it, before pronouncing con- demnation upon the system. I have never yet seen an estate under this system that has not im- proved, where it has been fully carried out; and 8 FARMERS1 REGISTER. [No. I. all certainly cannot be in the hands of first rate managers. But I will state a fact, and W. B. H. can easily get the same information from fountain head — that Col. Allen's estate in Curie's Neck, under the management of my brother Miles, has the last year cleared net proceeds between seven and eight percent, upon $100,000 — which is more than the first cost, and rather more than its ap- praisement, within the last lew years — and this se- ven or eight thousand dollars net, has been done with forty mules, and fifty hands of all sorts, and no oxen, or scarcely any — for I think he has but eight on the whole estate. This is from an estate that has been under this, and much harder sys- tems for the last eighteen or twenty years, but for the last six or seven years under the four-field and fallow regularly. It would be well to mention too, that from its particular situation, it is a very expensive estate, as all the pork, &,c. lor its use has to be purchased, which should never be done on any, if possible. The gross amount of sales from wheat and corn, were between twelve and thirteen thousand dollars. Let me inlbrm W. B. H. too, that this estate has regularly sold from 81000 to $3000 worth of corn a year. These facts do not show that this is an "exhausting course;" but on the contrary, a very improving one. These results too are without one cent being expended in lime or marl. I could relate other in- stances of its great benefits, but it would be su- perfluous. I am already weary of" reciting them, and am sure others must be of hearing them. I shall therefore take my farewell of the subject, and let my efforts, as I hope in a good cause, go for what they are worth. JOHX A. SELDEN. From the Rail Road Journal. EXTRAORDINARY PERFORMANCE. The purse of $1000 offered by Mr. J. C. Ste- vens to any one who should succeed in going ten miles, on toot, within the hour, was yesterday trained, eleven seconds within the time, over the Union Course, Long Island, by a Connecticut man, named Henry Stannard, a farmer of Kilingvvorth. Two others, as we learn from the Courier, went the ten miles, one a Prussian, named George W. Glauer, who did the distance in 60| minutes — and the other an Irishman named Mahoney, who did it in 61$ minutes. There were at starting nine competitors, whose names and deeds are thus set forth in the Courier: Miles. 1st 2d 3d 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Stannard, 3 Glauer, 2 Mahoney, 1 Downes, 5 McGargy, 6 Wall, 4 Sutton, 3 1 5 2 7 5 gave in. 4 gave in. 6 gave in 2 111 3 3 2 2 4 4 2 2 I 2 gave in. Mallaro, 9 9 8 8 fell and gave in. Vermillye, 7 6 gave in. The winner did not show much fatigue, and was seen soon after riding about the Course. The other two who went the ten miles received $200 each. The Courier gives this statement of the time in which each mile was done by the winner: 1st mile, 2d " 3d » 4th « 5th « 6th " 7th » 8th " 9th " 10th « VI in. Sec 5 36 5 45 5 58 6 29 6 2 6 3 6 1 6 3 5 57 5 54 59 48 It is said that the course is six feet over a mile, making sixty leet more than the ten miles, in the distance run. Now 60 feet being the 88th part of a mile, it would allow (taking the time of the last mile) four seconds, which is to be deducted, making the dis- tance therefore in filly-nine minutes and forty-four seconds. The speed of the runners will be best estimated perhaps by stating, that Stannard was accompanied the whole distance by Mr. Stevens on horseback, and that the horse was all the time in a fast can- ter. From the Genesee Fanner. BEET ROOT SUGAR. A committee of the French Chambers have made recently a long and elaborate report, on the state of their tariff', and the effect of high duties, in the course of which, the article of imported sugars necessarily led to an examination of the quantity of that staple manufactured in France. The report "enters at great length into the state of the manufacture of beet root sugar, and brings to light a variety of circumstances respecting that description of sugar hitherto but little known even in France. It appears that this sugar, not being liable to duties in any way proportioned with those levied on the colonial article, has established a competition in the home market which is highly injurious to the importer of and the dealer in the latter. The number of manufactories of beetroot sugar in various parts of Fiance has been in- creasing rapidly of late years. Land destined for the cultivation of beet root is let at a higher rent than for any other production. About 18,000,000 kilogrammes, equal to 36,000,000 lbs. or 18,000 tons a year of the article are manufactured, ac- cording to the latest estimates, and the profits it yields to the manufacturer are enormous. The committee recommend that beet root sugar should be taxed in such a way as to he of advantage to the revenue, without being injurious to the inter- ests of the colonial planter and the refiner of colonial su™ar." 1335.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 9 From Radcliff's Report on the Agriculture of Flanders. FEEDING HORSES IN FLANDERS, Eight horses perform the entire work of the 200 acres, and are in the highest possible condition. They are of the most compact kind of Flemish horse, and do not exceed 15^ hands, in height; chiefly roan and chestnut in color. As the banks of the river supply good hay, in this district they are indulged with that species of food, which is not the case In other parts of Flanders; but they are also fed upon straw, chiefly of rye, and upon oats with chopped straw in every feed, and after every feed, a bucket of water, richly whitened with rye, or oat. meal. A vessel oi this composition is in every stable, nor are the horses suffered to have any other drink. The quantum of food in the 24 hours for each horse, in the winter, is 15 lbs. of hay, 10 lbs. sweet straw, and 8 lbs. of oats; in summer, clover is substituted for hay; the other feeding remains the same; and the white water is never omitted: on this they place a chief reliance. The allowance of oats is but moderate, and yet the horses are in superior condition; the chopped straw contributes much to this, in converting, by the mastication necessary, every grain of corn to nutriment. The use of it is so universally approved throughout Flanders, that in every town it. is sold by retail, and if generally adopted with us, it could not fail to improve the condition of the working horses, and lessen the expense of their proven- der. In Flanders, a farmer will work fifty acres with two horses; and by the regularity of his care and keep, will preserve their condition. In Ireland, the great wheat farmer of Fingal, upon a similar extent, will keep four times the number, fed more expensively, but not so judiciously, always over- Worked and always poor. Some of these farmers, upon 100 acres, keep sixteen horses in their em- ploy, and there have been instances of three- fourths of that number being lost within the year by hardship and disease. By these means the profits of a farm are consumed without benefit to the farmer; and what would reasonably support and enrich him, is squandered upon supernumera- ry horses. This special circumstance, not the high rent, keeps the tenant in indigence and diffi- culty. If landlords interferred to procure for their tenantry a good description of working horse, and encouraged them to use him properly, and feed him well, it would tend more to their advantage than any abatements they can give. Upon the farm of Vollandre, the management was in all points to be approved: economy prevailed in every respect, except in the application of manure; the occupier was in comfort and affluence, and yet his rent was near 40s. by the plantation acre, and his taxes triple those of the Irish farmer. The differ- ence is to be found in established system, skilful management, and unceasing industry. GAS USED AS FUEL FOR COOKING. Extract from a letter of Mr. John Barlow, one of the most experienced and distinguished engi- neers of London, dated on the 27th February last. "There is one source of revenue to a coal gas company, last coming into practical effect here, Vol. Ill— 2 which promises to be of great importance, namely cooking by gas; I know one family who have used no other fuel for cooking for the last two years, and another who for several years have never lighted any other fire in their house, for any pur- pose whatever, than gas, during the 3 or 4 hot months, and they both say that it is cheaper, more convenient, cleanlier and the cooking better. Hun- dreds, and probably thousands of families will, in this country, be supplied with gas lor cooking du- ring the ensuing summer. They now roast, bake and boil by gas. The heat is always ready when wanted, and is extinguished when it is no longer required: no dust, no preparation, nor any cleaning up aflervvards; the cook can leave a joint of meat either roasting or boiling, and never look at it again till the clock inlbrms her it is time to take it up; I know a family who regularly put their meat down, and all go to chureh on Sunday, locking the house up, and leaving a capital dinner to the care of the gas. I dwell on this subject a little, because' in my view, it is very important, and it behooves directors and shareholders to give it every encour- agement. LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY, The editors of the Baltimore American have been favored with a report of the directors of this work, and present theirreaders with a brief synopsis, from which it appears that, during the half year ending on the 31st December, the receipts were, Coaching department, Merchandize do. Coal do. The expenses of all kinds, during the same period, were £60,292 7 4 41,197 18 6 3,408 16 4 104,899 2 2 64,552 15 7 Net profit for six months, £40,346 6 7 The directors in former reports have alluded to the course which they had considered it expedient to adopt of substituting heavier and stronger rails in place of those which from time to time had been bent or broken; owing to the service to which they were subjected, from the speed and weight of the engines, being far more severe than was original- ly contemplated. From experience of the decided superiority of these parts of the way which have already been laid with the stronger rails, the direc- tors feel the propriety of proceeding to re-lay with stronger rails such portions of the line as have from time to time to be taken up for the purposes of substitutingstone blocks for the original wooden sleepers, and they doubt not, in so doing, they shall obtain the concurrence of the proprietors. By the foregoing statement of ac- counts it appears that there is a net disposable profit for the half year of £40,346 6 7 Which added to the surplus from last half year 155 11 0 Amounts to £40,501 17 7 Of this sum the directors recommend that a 10 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No.l. dividend be now made to the proprietors of £4 10s. Od. per £100 share amounting to £35,850. That £3000 be appropriated to the relaying of the way with slronger rails and that the remaining sum of £1651 17s. 7d. be carried as general ba- lance to the next half year's account. Extracts from the last edition of the "Complete Grazier." ON THE ECOXOMY AND MANAGEMENT OF THE DAIRY. Of the making and preservation of Cheese. The goodness of cheese, as well as of butter, depends much on the quality of the milk; though the season, and particular process adopted in ma- king it, also, have a very considerable influence upon it in this respect — more perhaps than the material of which it is prepared. We shall, therefore, briefly notice these circumstances; and, as different modes of making cheese are practised in different counties or places, we shall then con- cisely state those which are more particularly de- serving of notice. The best season for this purpose is from the commencement of May till the close of Septem- ber; or, under lavorable circumstances, till the middle of October; during which interval cows are, or can in general, be pastured. In many large dairies, indeed, cheese is often manufactured all the year round; but the winter cheeses are much inferior in quality to those made during the summer months; though there is no doubt but that good cheese may be made throughout the year, provided the cows be well fed in the winter. It is also worthy of attention, that milk abounds most in caseous matter during the spring, and with the butyraceous in summer and autumn. After milk has been exposed for a certain time to the air — generally two or three days, according to the season — it becomes sour and coagulates. The curd which is thus formed may then be either made into butter, by the process of churning, as already detailed in the preceding chapter, or, be- ing merely broken, the serum, or whey, separates from it, and, by means of pressure, it becomes cheese. The curd thus formed, being composed of both the caseous and the butyraceous matter combined, constitutes the richest, or what is com- monly termed full-milk cheese: that produced by the curd which remains after the cream has been taken off, is necessarily more poor, in consequence of the abstraction of the butyraceous substance, and is termed skim-milk cheese: but there is no material difference in the mode of making either. It having, however, been found, that cheese made from sour milk is hard and ill -flavored, means have been devised to curdle it while sweet. With this view various substances have been employed, but the most effectual hitherto discovered, and conse- quently the most generally used, is taken from the stomach of calves — denominated rennet; and, as no good cheese can be made without it, great at- tention is necessary in preparing it for coagulating the milk. Strictly speaking, rennet is the coagu- lated lacteous matter, or substance, found in the stomachs or maws of calves that have been fed only with milk, though it is, in a more extensive sense, applied to the bait, veil, maw, or, stomach, as >t is variously termed, which possesses the same properties; and which is now invariably used for that purpose. Dairy women usually preserve the maw, and the curd contained in it, after salting them, and then, by steeping this bag and curd, make a ren- net, to turn their milk for making cheese. But a more simple method, and which is equally good in every respect, is to throw away the curd, and, after steeping it in pickle, stretch out the maw upon a slender bow inserted into it, which will soon be very dry, and keep well for a long time. An inch or two of the maw thus dried, is steeped over night in a few spoonsful of warm water, which water serves full as well as if the curd had been preserved for turning the milk. It is said that one inch will serve for the milk of five cows. However, as the quality of the rennet is of con- siderable importance, inthe manufacture of cheese, we shall here mention a few of the most approved methods of its preparation. That recommended by the late Mr. Marshall is as follows: — "Take the maw of a newly killed calf, and clean it of its contents: salt the bag, and put it into an earthen jar for three or four days, till it form a pickle; then take it from the jar, and hang it up to dry, after which it is to be replaced in the jar, (the covering of which should be pierced with a few small holes to admit air,) and let it remain there for about twelve months. When wanted for use, a handful each of the leaves of sweet-briar, dog-rose, and bramble, with three or four handfuls of salt, are to be boiled together in a gallon of water, for a quarter of an hour, when the liquid is to be strained oh"' and allowed to cool. The maw is then to be put inlo that liquid, together with a lemon stuck round with cloves; and the longer it re- mains in it, the stronger and better will be the rennet. Half a pint or less of the liquor is sufficient to turn 50 gallons of milk." The above is much used in Gloucestershire. In Scotland, according to Mr. Aiton, so far from throwing away the curdled milk found in the sto- mach of the calves, or washing away the chyle, both are carefully preserved, and are supposed to form a more powerful rennet than can be drawn from the bag alone. It is prepared thus: — "When the stomach, or bag — usually termed the yirning — is taken from the calf's body, its contents are examined, and if any straw or other food be found among the curdled milk, such impurity is carefully re- moved; but all the curdled milk found in the bag is carefully preserved, and no part of the chyle is washed out. A considerable quantity of salt — at least two handfuls — is put into and outside the bag, which is then rolled up, and hung near a fire to dry: itis always allowed to hang till it is well dried, and is understood to be improved by hanging a year, or longer, before being infused. When rennet is wanted, the yirning, with its con- tents, is cut' small and put into a jar with a handful or two of salt; and a quantity of soft water that has been boiled, and cooled to about 65°, or of new whey taken oft the curd is poured upon it. The quantity of wa- ter, or whey, to infuse the bag, is more or less accord- ing to the quality of the yirning: if itis that of anew- dropped calf, a Scots choppin, or at most three Eng- lish pints, will be enough; but if the calf has been fed four or five weeks, two quarts or more may be used. The yirning of a calf four weeks old yields more ren- net than that of one twice that age. When the infu- sion has remained in the jar from one to three days, the liquid is drawn off, and strained, after which it is bot- tled for use; and if a dram-glass of any ardent spirit be put into each glass, the infusion may either be used immediately, or kept as long as may be convenient." 1335.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 11 Rennet thus made, from the maw of a well fed calf of about five weeks old, Mr. Aiton says will coagulate thirty gallons of milk; but its chief ad- vantage consists in the quickness with which it is performed, which he asserts does not occupy more than from five to ten minutes, while in England the same operation usually requires from one to sometimes three hours, and this he attributes chiefly to the removal of the curdled milk and the washing away the chyle from the maw, and part- ly to the practice of hanging up the hag to dry after it has been steeped, by which the pickle, which he considers as the best part of the rennet is lost. In opposition, however, to Mr, Aiton, an ingenious writer, who has made strict inquiry into this subject, recommends the following method of preparing a rennet, which he has found to be bet- ter than any other: — "Throw away the natural curd, which is apt to taint and give the bag a bad smell; then make an artifi- cial curd, or rather butter, of new cream, of sufficient quantity to fill the bag. Add three new-iaid eggs well beaten, one nutmeg grated fine, or any other good spice; mix them well together, with three tea-cups full of fine salt; till the rennet bag with this substance, tie up the mouth, lay it under a strong brine for three days, turning it over daily. Then hang it up in a cool and dry place for six weeks, and it will be fit for use. When it is used, take with a spoon out of the bag a sufficient quantity of this artificial butyrous curd for the cheese you purpose to make, dissolve it in a small quantity of warm water, and then use it in the same manner as other rennet is, mixed with the milk for its coagulation." But, whatever kind of rennet the dairy woman may choose to prepare, it should be remembered, that this animal acid is extremely apt to become rancid and putrescent, and that great care is ne- cessary to apply a sufficient quantity of salt to preserve it in its best state; because the rank and putrid taste, occasionally found in some of our English cheeses, is owing to a putridity in the rennet. The following mode of preserving it in asweet state, as practised in the West of England, may, therefore, not be undeserving of attention. "When the rennet bag is fit for the purpose, let a strong solution of salt be made with two quarts of sweet soft water, and add to this small quantities of al- most every indigenous and foreign aromatic spice that can be obtained. Boil the whole gently, till the de- coction is reduced to three pints, over a clear fire, if possible, or at all events, so that it may not become smoky; next, let the liquor be carefully strained, and poured, in a tepid state, upon the rennet bag. A lemon may now be sliced into it; and, after the whole has stood at rest for one or two days, it may be strained and bottled. If well corked, it will retain its goodness for a year, or even longer, and wdl communicate an agreeably aromatic flavor to the cheese that may be made with it,'" In a case of emergency, or where no good ren- net can be procured, a decoction of the yellow flowers of the cheese-rennet, or yellow lady's bed- straw, (Galium verum, L, which blossoms in July and August,) will answer every purpose for coag- ulating milk. Or the marine acid, in the hands of a judicious person, may be employed for this pur- pose as is practised in Holland. The mode of making cheeses in most general use in this coun- try is chiefly as follows, although there are many slight varieties in the practice of different dairies even in the same counties. Cheshire cheese. The evening's milk is set apart till the following morning, when the cream is skimmed off, and poured into a brass pan heated with boiling water, in order to warm; one-third part of that milk is thus heated. The new milk, obtained early in the morning, and that of the preceding night, being thus prepared, are poured into a large tub, together with the cream. To this is put a piece of rennet, which had been kept in warm water since the preceding evening, and in which a little Spanish annatto (the weight of a quarter of an ounce is enough for a cheese of six- ty pounds) is dissolved,* The whole is now stirred together, and covered up warm for about half an hour, or till it becomes curdled; it is then turned over with a bowl, and broken very small. After standing a little time, the whey is drawn from it, and as soon as the curd becomes a little more solid, it is cut into slices and turned over re- peatedly, the better to express the whey. Next the curd is removed from the tub again, broken by hand into small pieces, and put into a cheese- vat, where it is strongly pressed both by hand and with weights, in order to extract the remaining whey. After this it is transferred to anodier vat, or into the same, if it be previously well scalded, where the same process of breaking and express- ing is repeated, till all the whey is squeezed from it. The cheese is now turned into a third vat, pre- viously warmed, with a cloth beneath it, and a tin hoop or binder put round the upper edge of the cheese, and within the sides of the vat, the former being previously enclosed in a clean cloth, and its edges placed within the vat. These various pro- cesses occupy about six hours, and eight more are requisite for pressing the cheese, (under a press of 14 or 15 cwt.,) which, during that time, should be twice turned in the vat, around which are passed thin wire skewers, and frequently shifted. These skewers are of strong iron wire, about 18 inchea long, and the vat and hoop have holes, about an inch apart, through which the sides of the, cheese are skewered. Some dairy women also prick the upper surface of the cheese all over, an inch or two deep, in order to prevent its blistering. The following morning and evening it must be again turned and pressed; and also on the third day, about the middle of which it is removed to the salting chamber, where the outside is well rubbed with salt, and a cloth binder passed round it, which serves as a lining to the vat, but is not turned over the upper surface. The cheese is then placed midside up in brine, in a salting tub, and the upper surface is thickly covered with salt. Here the cheese is for nearly a week turned about twice in the day, then left to dry for two or three days, during which period it is turned once, being well salted at each turning, and cleaned, each day. When taken from the brine, it is put on the salt- ing benches with a wooden girth round it, of near- ly the thickness of the cheese, where it stands about eight days, during which time it is again salted and turned every day. It is next washed and dried; and, after remaining on the drying * Marigolds, boiled in milk, are also used for color- ing cheese; to which they also impart a pleasant fla- vor. In winter, carrots scraped and boiled in milk, afterwards strained, will produce a richer color; but they should be used with moderation, on account of their taste. 12 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No.l, benches about seven days, it is again washed in warm water with a brush, and wiped dry. In a couple of hours after it is scoured all over with sweet whey hatter; which operation is afterwards frequently repeated; and lastly, it is deposited in the cheese or store room, (which ought to be mod- erately warm, and sheltered from the access of air, lest the cheese should crack,) and turned every day, till it become sufficiently hard and firm.* They require to be kept a long time; and it' not forced by artificial means, will scarcely be suffi- ciently ripe under two or three years, or even more. The Dutch make their cheese nearly in the same manner, excepting that they substitute the marine acid, or spirit of sea salt, which imparts to Dutch cheese the peculiarly sharp and salt fla- vor for which it has long been remarked; and that they leave out the cream. In Mr. Holland's very intelligent Survey of Cheshire, the following remarks occur on the prac- tice of the Cheshire dairies, li'om which some im- portant hints may be gathered respecting both that and the general process of making cheese. He says, "this is generally admitted, that not only the quantity, but the quality of the curd as to texture, (toughness, or otherwise,) depends, in a great measure, on the length of time the cheese is in coming; and that the time again depends on the quantity and strength of the coagulum used, the state of" the atmosphere, and the heat of the milk when put together. In this stage of the art, where a degree of accurate certainty seems to be required, there is no other guide but the hand, and the external feelings. The thermometer of a Cheshire dairy woman is constantly at her fingers' ends. Accordingly, the heat of the milk when set is endeavored to be regulated by the supposed warmth of the room and the heat of the external air; having reference also to the quantity and strength of the steep; so as that the milk may be the proper length of time in sufficiently coagula- ting; which is generally thought to be about an hour and a half. The evening's milk — of sup- pose 20 cows — having stood all night in the cool- er and brass pans, the cheese maker (in summer,) about six o'clock in the morning, carefully skims off the cream from the whole of it, observing first to take off all the froth and bubbles, and the rest of the cream is put into a brass pan. While the dairy woman is thus employed, the servants are milking the cows, having previously lighted a fire under the furnace, which is half full of water. As soon as the night's milk is skimmed, it is all car- ried into the cheese tub, except about three-fourths of a brass pan full, (three to four gallons,) which is immediately placed in the furnace of hot water, in the pan, and is made scalding hot; then half of the milk thus heated is poured to the cream, which, as before observed, had been already skimmed into another pan. By this means all the cream is liquified and dissolved, so as apparently to form one homogeneous or uniform liquid, and in that state it is poured into the cheese tub. But before this is done, several bowls or vessels full of new milk, or * The cheese rooms in Cheshire are generally placed over the cow houses on a floor strewed with rushes. This is done, in order to afford them, from the heat of the cattle below, that uniform and moderate degree of temperature, which is deemed essentia) to the proper Opening of cheese. perhaps the whole morning's milk, will generally have been poured into the cheese tub. "In some celebrated dairies, however, they do not, during the whole summer, heat a drop of the night's milk; only dissolve the cream in a brass pan floated or suspended in a furnace of hot water* In other dairies, they heat one-third, one-half, or even more than that of the previous night's milk; but in all, they are careful to liquify or melt the cream well before it is mixed with the milk in the tub;* and whatever may be the general custom in any given dairy respecting the heating of the milk, the practice varies according to the weather. It is generally on poor clay lands that the milk most requires warming: on good rich soils, it will not bear much heating; at least, by so doing, the process of cheese-making is rendered more diffi- culty In making Gloucester cheese, as well as other kinds of thin, or toasting-cheese, known as the Trent-side and Cottonham, the milk is poured into the proper vessel, immediately after it has been drawn from the cow; but being thought too hot in the summer, it is lowered to the due degree of heat by the addition of skimmed milk; or, if that, will not do, by pouring in water. When the curd is come, it is broken with a double cheese-knife, and also with the hand, to separate it from the whey which is ladled oil'. The curd is then put into vats, which are submitted to the action of the press for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, till the remaining whey is extracted. It is next re- moved into the cheese-tubs, again broken small, and scalded with a pailful of water, lowered with whey in the proportion of three parts of water to one of whey, and the whole is briskly stirred. After standing a few minutes for the curd to settle, the liquor is strained off, and the curd collected into a vat, and when the latter is about half full, a little salt is sprinkled over and worked into the cheese. The vat is now filled up, and the whole mass of cheese turned twice or thrice in it, the edges being pared, and middle rounded up at each turning. Lastly, the cheese is put into a cloth, and, after undergoing another pressure, it is carried to the shelves, where it is turned, in general, once a day, till it become sufficiently close and firm to admit of its being washed. The only material difference is, that Gloucester and Trent-side are rather thicker than the Cottonham — which is not more than an inch and a half in depth, and is therefore sooner * The practice in this respect is different in Scotland, in districts of which country the manufacture of cheese, particularly the Dunlop, has been carried to great per- fection. There the cream, when separated from the milk, is put into the curd-vat cold, and brought, by the admixture of warm milk, to the general warmth of the mass at setting the curd. Mr Aiton is of opinion, that by melting the cream, much of the oily matter it con- tains is carried off with the whey, and impoverishes the cheese: but he admits that he has not had sufficient experience of that practice to enable him to decide on its comparative merit with the Scotch method. f This although the opinion of Marshall and other celebrated writers, as well as that of Mr. Holland, is contradicted by Mr. Aiton, who says, "I never understood that the milk of cows so fed, (on poor clays, or even wild waste land, or moss,) required to be heat- ed more than that of cows fed on the warmest valleys or richest haughs in our best cultivated districts." — ^ Dairy Husbandry, p. 128. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 13 ready for the table than the olhers; and that the latter is put together rather hotter than the two former. Much of what passes under the names of Dou- ble Gloucester, and of Cheddar Cheese, is made in Somersetshire, by the following simple process: — When the milk is brought home, it is immedi- ately strained into a tub, and the rennet is added, in the proportion of ahout three table-spoonsful to a quantity sufficient for a cheese of twenty-eight pounds; after which it remains undisturbed for about two hours, when it becomes curd, and is bro- ken. That done, three parts of the whey are warm- ed, and afterwards put into the tub lor about twenty minutes: the whole whey is then again put over the fire, made nearly scalding hot, and returned into the tub, to scald the curd, for about half an hour, after which part of the whey is again taken out, and the remainder left with the curd until it is nearly cold. The whey is then poured off, the curd broken very small, put into the vat and press- ed, remains there nearly an hour, and is then taken out, turned, and put under the press again till even- ing; when it Is turned, and put in again until the next morning. It is then taken out of the vat, salted, put into it again with a clean dry cloth round it, and remains in the press till the following evening, when it is again taken out, salted, put into the vat without a cloth, and pressed till the next morning: it then finally leaves the press, and is salted once a day for twelve days.* Stilton Cheese has only been introduced since about the middle of the last century. It was first made by a Mr. Paulet, who resided in the Melton quarter of Leicestershire, but who, being a relation of the landlord of the Bell Inn, at Stilton, on the great North road, supplied his house with cheese of such a singularly superior quality, that it became in demand beyond the consumption of the house, and was then sold so high as halt-a-crown a pound. f It thus acquired the name of Stilton Cheese; but the mode of making it having been soon discovered, it is now generally made through- out all the neighboring counties; the sale is no longer confined to Stilton, and much of what comes to market under that denomination is of very infe- rior quality. Its richness depends, of course, both on the breed of cows employed, and the quality of the pasture on which they are fed, as well as upon the quantity of cream used in the making up; for, unless a large portion of this be added to the milk, the cheese will be deficient in all the essential qualities for which it is remarkable. It is commonly made by putting the night's cream to the milk of the following morning with the rennet; and as soon as the cujd is come, it is taken out whole and put into a sieve, gradually to drain. While it is thus draining, it is pressed till it become dry and firm, and is then removed info a wooden box or hoop, adapted to its size; this sort of cheese being so very rich, that it would sep- arate or fall to pieces were not this precaution adopted. Afterwards it is turned every day on dry boards, cloth binders being tied round it, and which are made tighter as occasion may require. * Communication in the Agricultural Survey of the County of Somerset. 3d Edit. p. 247. t Marshall's Midland Counties. 2d Edit. Vol I. p. 320. l After it is removed from the box or hoop, the cheese is closely bound with cloths, which are changed daily, till it become sufficiently compact to support itself; when these cloths are laken away, each cheese is rubbed over every day once (and if the weather be moist or damp, twice,) for two or three months, with a brush, which is also done every day to the tops and bottoms of the cheeses before the cloths are removed. Sometimes it is made in a net like a cabbage-net, which gives it the form of an acorn. Stilton cheeses are not sufficiently mellowed for use, until they are two years old; and will not sell unless they are decayed, blue, and moist. In order to accelerate their maturity, it is no uncommon trick to place them in buckets, and cover these over with horse-dung. Wine is also said to be added to the curd, in order to produce a rapid advance, of ripeness. In making Wiltshire cheese (which is admitted to be among the best English sorts) the milk is "run" as it is brought from the cow; or if it be of two warm a temperature, it is lowered by the addition of a little skimmed milk. The curd is, in the first, place, broken with the hand to various degrees of fineness, according to the sort of cheese intended to be made. Thus, for thin cheese, it is not reduced so fine as in the county of Gloucester; for the thick kind, it is broken still finer; and tor loaves it is almost crushed to atoms. But, in first breaking the curd, care is taken to let the whey run off gradually, lest it should carry away with it the "fat of the cowl." As the whey rises it is poured off, and the curd pressed down; after this it is pared, or cut down, three or lour times, in slices, about one inch thick, that all the whey may be extracted, and is then scalded in the same manner as Gloucester cheese. In some dairies it is the practice, after the whey is separated, to re-brake the curd, and salt it in the "cowl;" but in others, it is taken, while warm, out of the liquor, and salt- ed in the vat. The thin sorts are disposed, with a small handful of salt, in one layer; thick cheeses, with two handstid of salt, in two layers; and loaves, with the same quantity, in three or four layers; the salt being spread, and uniformly rubbed among the curd. In general, Wiltshire cheese is twice salted in the press beneath which it continues, ac- cording to its thickness: the thin sorts three or lour "meals;" thicker ones four or five, and loaves five or six. Dunlop cheese is made in the counties of Ayre, Renfrew, Lanark and Galloway, of various sizes, from twenty to sixty pounds. After the milk is brought to a certain degree of heat, (about 100 degrees of the thermometer upon an average, though in summer ninety will be sufficient, as, on the contrary, during winter, a higher degree will be requisite,) it is mixed with the cream which had been previously skimmed, and kept cool; the whole is then poured into a large vessel, where the ren- net is added to it, and which is closely covered up for a short time, perhaps ten or twelve minutes. If the rennet 'be good, it will have etlected a coag- ulation of the milk, which is gently stirred, when the whey begins immediately to separate, and is taken off as it gathers, until the curd become tol- erably solid. It is then put into a drainer, (a ves- sel made for the purpose, the bottom of which is perforated with small holes,) and the cover of which is pressed down with any convenient weight. After it has thus stood for some time, and is pretty 14 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 1. dry, it is returned into the first vessel or dish, where it is cut into very small pieces by means of a cheese-knife, which is furnished with three or four blades, fixed on prongs from the handle, that cut in a horizontal direction; and it is thus turned up and cut every ten or fifteen minutes, as well as pressed with the hand until all the whey is extracted. The curd is then once more cut as Email as possible, and it is then salted, by the hand, care being taken to mix it minutely with the mass. Lastly, it is put into cheesitt, or chessart, a stout dish with iron hoops, which has a cover that goes exactly into it: a cloth being placed between the curd and the vessel. In this state it is submitted to the action of the cheese-press, when it is oc- casionally taken and wrapped in dry cloths, till it is supposed to have completely parted with the whey: it is then laid aside tor one or two days, when it is again examined; and, if there be any appearance of whey remaining, the pressure and application of cloths are repeated. As soon as it is ascertained that the whey is extracted, the cheese is generally kept lor a lew days in the farm- er's kitchen in order to dry them before they are K laced in the store, where a smaller degree of eat is admitted. While there, they are turned three or four times a day until they begin to har- den on the outside, when they are removed to the store, and turned twice a week afterwards. After the cheese is cured, various modes are adopted in polishing them for sale, which are rather injurious than beneficial; nothing further being requisite, besides turning them, than to rub them occasion- ally with a coarse cloth, especially after harvest, because at that time they tend to breed mites.* It is, however, worthy of notice, that the prac- tice differs, in one material point, in the best dai- ries; in some of which the cream is carefully sep- arated from the milk, while in others, the milk is allowed to cool, but thickened as taken from the cow; it being thought that, "if the milk be allowed to stand till the cream separates from it, the cream can never again be completely blended with it, or retained in the curd when set, and the cheese is poorer; and this, without great care in the man- agement, to a considerable extent."! Green cheese is made by steeping over night, in a proper quantity of milk two parts of sage with one of marigold leaves and a little parsley, after being bruised, and then mixing the curd thus greened, as it is termed, with the curd of the white milk. These may be mixed irregularly or fanci- fully, according to the pleasure of the maker. The management is in other respects the same as for common cheese. Green cheeses are chiefly made in Wiltshire. Skim cheese is chiefly made in the county of Suffolk, whenceit is sometimes called Suffolk cheese. The curd is broken in the whey, which is poured off as soon as the former has subsided;the remain- ing whey together with the curd, being thrown into a coarse strainer; and exposed for cooling, is then pressed as closely as possible. It is then put into a vat, and pressed for a few minutes, to ex- tract the remaining whey. The curd being thus * Farm. Mag. Vol. IV. p. 381; see also, the Ayrshire Report; and Aiton on the Dairy Husbandry. f See the Library of Useful Knowledge; Fanner's Series, No. XII. p. 45. drained from the whey, is taken out, again broken as finely as possible, salted, and submitted to the press. The other operations do not materially vary from those adopted in other cheese-making districts, but they are more easily performed on the curd of skim milk, as it is more readily coagulated and separated from the whey, and requires lesa subsequent care and pressing than that of milk and cream united. The Suffolk cheese forms in general, part of every ship's stores, because it re- sists the effects of warm climates better than others; but it is remarkable for "a horny hardness, and indigestible quality." A better kind is made in Dorsetshire, although the only perceptible differ- ence in management consists in its being put to- gether cooler; tor, by putting milk together hot, and immediately applying the rennet, the whey drains so quickly as to impoverish the cheese, and render it tough. Cream cheese is generally made in August or September, the milk being at that time richer and fatter than at other perfods of the year. Not having the warm season to ripen it, this kind of cheese is generally made somewhat thick, in order to preserve its mellowness. Cream cheeses are more liable than the leaner sorts to accidents, owing to dullness, or the being frozen before they be- come hard: lor when frost once penetrates a cheese, it destroys every good quality, and generates pu- trefaction, or makes it become either insipid or ill tasted. Hence this kind of cheese should always be kept in a warm situation, and be particularly guarded against frost, and till it has sweated well; otherwise all the advantage of its rich quality will be completely lost.* Cream cheese is, however, in general only wanted for immediate use; and that kind commonly so called is in fact, little else than thick sweet cream dried, and put into a small cheese-vat, about an inch and a half in depth, having holes in the bottom, to allow any whey that may exude, to pass, and having rushes, or the long grass of Indian corn, so disposed around the cheese as to admit of its being turned without being handled. It is thus, that the celebrated Bath and York cream cheeses are made, when genuine; but. the greater part of those commonly sold are in part composed of milk. A^eiv cheese, as it is usually termed in London, or, provincially, slip-coat, is, on the contrary, an early summer cheese, which is made of new milk, and about one-third of warm water. When the whey is removed, the curd is carefully kept entire, and spread upon a cloth, to the thickness of less than an inch. It is then very gently pressed, for a few hours only, and when removed from the vat, it is covered with a^cloth, and placed in a warm situa- tion, as it requires to be brought forward immedi- ately; the management is therefore different from that of other cheese. These are the kinds of British cheese, and in most general esteem; the other sorts, together with foreign cheese, are both too numerous and too uninteresting to the generality of dairy-men to admit of detail. The process of making cheese is much more difficult than that of making butter; and the quality depends more perhaps on the mode of performing that operation than on the richness of the milk. The temperature at which the milk is kept before it is formed into cheese, and that at * Twamley on Dairying, p. 64, 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 15 which it. is coagulated, or turned into curds, are objects of the greatest importance in the manage- ment of a cheese dairy: the former ought not to exceed 55°, nor to be under 50° of Fahrenheit's thermometer; and tor the latter it should be at 90° to 95°. If the milk is kept warmer than 55° it will not tbrow up the cream so well as at the low- er degree, it is also subject to get sour and give a bad taste to the cheese; and if it be allowed to be much colder than that, it becomes difficult to sepa- rate the curd from the whey, and the cheese made from it will be soft and insipid. If the curd be coagulated too hot it becomes touffh; much of the butyraceous matter will go off with the whey; and the cheese will be hard and tasteless. The ther- mometer should, therefore, always be employed in every dairy; and, although the servants may at first be prejudiced against it, yet its evident utility, and great, simplicity, will eventually reconcile them to its use. The greatest care should be taken thoroughly to extract every particle of whey from the curd; for no cheese will keep well while any whey re- mains, and if any part become sour, the whole will acquire a disagreeable flavor. Similar effects are produced by the use of an immoderate quan- tity of rennet; it is also apt to blow up the cheese full of email holes; and this last effect will be pro- duced if it be allowed to remain too long on one side. Sometimes it happens that cheese will hove or swell, either from some accident, or from inatten- tion in some part of the process. Mr. Holland at- tributes it partly to the cows being fed on clover: he also thinks that the cracking of cheese is oc- casioned by the use of lime on the pasture; but these observations have not been corroborated by general experience. To prevent, as likewise to stop, this hoving, it has been recommended to lay such cheeses in a moderately cool, dry place, and regularly to turn them. Whenever any one be- comes considerably swollen, it will be requisite to prick it on both sides in several places, particularly where it is most elevated, by thrusting a large awl, or pin, pretty deeply into it; repeating this as often as may be necessary. Though the prick- ing, it is observed, will not altogether prevent the swelling, yet it will, by giving a passage to the confined air, render it less considerable, and the cavities of the cheese will neither be so disagree- able, nor consequently so unsightly or unpleasant to the eye. A very experienced dairyman* is of opinion, that from nine to twelve months' time are requi- site to ripen cheese of any kind, if from fourteen to twenty pounds weight; and lays it down as a rule, in the process of making cheese, that the hotter it is put together, the sounder it will be; and the cooler, the richer, and more apt to decay. He also recommends the use of a small quantity of loppercd, or sour milk, as a preventive of its rising, which is one of the worst accidents to which it is liable. It should be kept in an airy but not in a cold place, and if the moderately dried leaves of the tutsan, or park leaves, as it is provincially termed (hypericum androsamwn, L.;) or, of the yellow star of Bethlehem, (ornithngalum luteum, L.;) or, if the young twigs of the common birch- tree be placed on the surface or sides of cheesea they will — especially the tender branches of the birch — be found very serviceable in preventing the depredations of mites. It is a good practice to strew a little dry moss, or fine hay, upon the shelves on which the cheeses are laid; as, when new, they sometimes adhere to the board, and communicate a dampness to it that is prejudicial to the other side of the cheese, when turned: it also promotes their drying. At a more advanced stage they may be laid upon straw; but at first, it would sink into, and deface, the surface. To which we will add, as general maxims — that great cleanliness, sweet rennet, and attention to the heat of the milk and breaking the curd, are the chief requisites in cheese making. [To be continued.] From the New York Farmer. EXTRACTS FROM AN AGRICULTURAL TOUR* Sheep husbandry in New England. * * * # * Elias Taylor, of Charlcmont, a shrewd and in- telligent farmer, gave me some account of his ope- rations, which I record, because the opinions and practices of observing and intelligent husbandmen, even on familiar subjects, though they may con- tain nothing original, are worth remembering. He is lamiliar with the business of fattening sheep for the market, and, as I know from the best authori- ty, has pursued it with great success. His general practice has been to sell them after shearing. He is of opinion that it is more profita- ble to buy, for this purpose, wethers than ewes. He prefers merinos on account of the superior value of the fleece; dislikes Saxony for their in- ferior size; and thinks merinos are kept at less ex- pense than native sheep; chooses to buy them of different ages, and puts them in his pastures, so that he may select such as are suitable, and have them come along in succession; considers five years old as the best age for fattening; chooses to feed them moderately until a short time before he designs to market them, as he thinks they will not pay the cost of high feeding for a long time; often begins to fatten in March, sheep which he designs to market immediately after shearing. His store wethers he is accustomed to keep in the yard with his cattle, upon the orts and husks which are thrown out to them. His wethers for fattening he keeps upon rowen the first part of the season; and after he begins to feed them upon corn, he takes care, he says, not to allow them to be hungry; to feed them with regularity; and never sutlers them to be disturbed. His wether sheep often give four pounds of washed wool at shearing. He mentions an experiment in feeding swine which deserves notice. He put up four swine, and fed them with potatoes and Indian meal, at the rate of three bushels of potatoes to one peck of Indian meal. He boiled the potatoes, and while hot, mashed them with the Indian meal. He then added cold water, and left the mixture to ferment, and when it became sour, he fed his swine freely with it. He says that he never had his Mr. Parkinson, Treatise on Live Stock, Vol.1. * By the Rev. Henry Colman, of Massachusetts. Ch. I. Sect. 12. I Ed. Far. Reg. 16 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. hogs thrive so well; that they gained surprisingly well; and were led at a small expense. I found some superior and well managed farms in this vicinity on the river, [the floosie, in Ver- mont;] and an intelligent and very civil man, by the name of Wright, a deputy sheriff", as I after- wards learnt, and a farmer, at whose house I stop- ped, was kind enough to give me considerable in- formation of the agriculture of this part of the country. My attention was arrested by the ap- pearance of a small field, covered with the thick- est mat of white clover which I had ever seen. I stopped to inquire if it had been plastered, and found this to be the fact. Plaster, or gypsum, is applied to their oak lands with great success; but not with equal advantage to lands where the growth was maple. For this fact, if indeed it be well established, I do not pretend to account. The mode of operation of this extraordinary manure or vegetable stimulant, is still enveloped in mystery. No theory of its operation, though many plausible ones are given, has yet satisfied me. Facts are all that we have as yet got that are of any value. There is every where, in all the processes and operations of the material and intellectual world, a limit beyond which human sagacity cannot pen- etrate; and from which, however bold and perse- vering its clforts to pass may be, it is invariably driven back with the humiliating consciousness- of its own impotency and ignorance. The grass and oat crops were highly luxuriant; and making due allowance for the extraordinary season, (1832,) Indian corn appeared remarkably well. The hay- ing season had just commenced.. The grass was principally herds grass and red top. The crop ap- peared heavy; they mowed, however, only once, as they were accustomed to feed their meadow lands closely and very late in the season, often- times into June, which, upon the whole, they deemed a bad practice; and they were of opinion they should get more hay by two mowings. Large crops of oats and corn might be obtained by different management. The crops were esti- mated by Mr. Wright to average thirty-five bush- els of oats, thirty-live bushels of corn, and two tons of hay to the acre. This, however, was probably only a conjectural estimate, as few far- mers ever take the pains to weigh or measure any thing. Their produce is applied chiefly to the feeding of sheep. The yearly expense of keep- ing a sheep is estimated at one dollar. This like- wise must in general be mere matter of conjecture. It can only be accurately determined by a careful estimate of the actual value of bay andgrain; and not their market value, but their value consumed on the place, making due allowance for the valua- ble returns of manure; and there must enter into the estimate the labor of attendance, the value of pasture land and fencing; and then, too, a careful ascertainment of the amount of pasture required for, and the amount of hay and grain consumed by a sheep, and necessary to his profitable condi- tion. Now these are calculations into which Paw farmers have the patience to enter; and one dollar per head is therefore only a conjectural estimate of the cost of keeping a sheep, formed from no ac- curate standard; and you can only infer from this statement, that they find their husbandry profita- ble, or yielding a satisfactory return at. the close of the year, when they can receive for the pasture occupied, and the hay and grain consumed, by a healthy sheep, the value of one dollar. It has been found by actual experiment, that seven healthy sheep will consume one ton of hay in 135 days, the average of our winter foddering — or a little more than two pounds each per day. If we value this hay at six dollars per ton, and this is certainly, considering the cost of labor, a low price, the cost of the hay consumed by each sheep would be 85 cents. We have then about 33 weeks of pasturing to provide for, which cannot be rated at less than one and a half cents per week— or say 50 cents — which would make the keeping of a sheep, even at low rates, equal to one dollar and thirty-five cents per year. I make these cal- culations to show how careless almost all conjec- tural estimates are in matters of this kind. Whether however, his pecuniary estimates are critically exact or not, if the larmer at the close of the year is satisfied with the balance of his receipts over his expenditures, if he is so fortunate as to find the balance on that side, he may be well content- ed with his numerous privileges and blessings, though his gains in arithmetical amount may seem small compared with those of other trades and professions. The amount of wool obtained from their sheep averages about three pounds of fine, their sheep being principally of the merino and Saxony race; and sold this year at 42 cents per lb. A Mr, Wright, neighbor of the one above named, has a flock of 700. His annual loss by disease or acci- dent is a very small per centage, which he attri- butes to the circumstance of his never housing his sheep at any season, as he was formerly accus- tomed to do. His opinions and experience in this matter are entirely at variance with the opinions and experience of many distinguished and suc- cessful sheep farmers; and especially of one,, whose authority on this and various agricultural subjects, from his experience, edusation and intel- ligence, is entitled to great respect; I mean Mr. H. D. Grove, of Hoosic. He says, "shelter against the inclemency of the weather is almost as necessary to the health and good condition of the sheep as food itself; and for this reason stables built lor that purpose are of great benefit. Not only do sheep do much better, but it is also a great saving of fodder and manure." Mr. Wright's lambs are yeaned in May. His wool is sold on the farm. The general appearance of this farmer's grounds and crops attracted my particular atten- tion as highly creditable. The intervals furnish abundant, crops of hay and grain, and the neigh- boring hills afford pasturage in plenty of the best, quality. Comparative value of different kinds of corn — what crops to manure. * * * The corn cultivated here [near Still- water in New York,] is of the eight rowed kind; rather a small ear; and though not white, yet not of that deep yellow which we sometimes see.. This corn was recommended for the small size of its cob; but I am disposed to believe, from some careful examinations, the results of which were communicated to the public through the columns of that admirably conducted journal, the Genesee Farmer, that the weight of cob in the different va- rieties of corn will be found to bear a pretty equal 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 17 proportion to the weight of grain upon it; and in this matter, therefore, the small will be ibund to have no advantage over the large ears. I speak particularly of the flint corn, having made no ex- amination of the gourd seed varieties, where I suspect the advantage will be perhaps more in fa- vor of the large ear. There is however one advan- tage on the side of the corn with a small cob, which deserves much consideration. The corn with the small cob is more likely to be dry and sound, and becomes merchantable earlier than that with a large cob. The large cob retains its moisture much longer; and where the season is backward, or the corn late, or where it is harvest- ed by being cut up at the bottom while the stalks are green, and ripened in the stack, there is dan- ger, especially if the season be unfavorable, of its not drying sufficiently, and of its becoming mouldy in the bin. I have known serious losses to accrue from this circumstance, especially where the corn after being husked had been placed in large heaps, and the granary not well ventilated. This, in fact, is the only objection I have to what is called the Dutton corn, so much commended by Judge Buel, and of which he has exhibited at the agri- cultural shows some splendid samples; and also to other twelve and fourteen rowed varieties. This circumstance, as I have recently learned, has in- duced some very intelligent farmers in New Hampshire, on the Connecticut river, to give up the cultivation of the Dutton com for the eight rowed varieties. The large twelve rowed corn will, I believe, produce ordinarily more bushels to the acre than the small eight rowed corn. A good sized ear of the twelve rowed will yield more than half a pint of shelled grain; one of the small eight rowed will not exceed a gill. A field of the twelve rowed will yield generally one good ear to a stalk; a field of the small eight rowed will do no more; for I have not found, in my own cultivation, that the eight rowed is more likely to produce two ears to a stalk than the twelve rowed. Its producing two ears in either case, depends, in my opinion, something upon the selection of seed from twin-bearing stalks, but more upon wide planting; as corn which is crowded or closely planted will very rarely produce more than one good ear to a stalk; if there is a second, it is com- monly imperfect, and a mere nubbin. It is ob- vious, then, that the twelve rowed corn will yield more than the eight rowed to the acre; but it will not yield twice as much, because the small kind will bear much closer planting than the large kinds, as the stalks and leaves are not nearly so luxuriant. The kind grown in this part of the country was remarkable for its low growth, and the ears being set very near to the ground, the stalks being in this case small, the fodder is more easily saved, but the yield of herbage is much less to the acre. It may be expected on this account to ripen earlier. The small amount of stalks and leaves is, I believe, attributable to their not ma- nuring their corn lands, rather than to any pecu- liarity in the kind of corn. That high manuring in the same year of planting the corn will produce a great amount of stalk and leaf, is well known; but that the actual yield of grain is always in pro- portion to the luxuriance of the plant, is a point not so well established, and upon which I should be extremely glad of the opinions of observing and practical farmerc. That the extraordinary Vol. Ill— 3 luxuriance of the plant will delay the ripening of the grain is certain. Market-men near our large cities understand this, as they never manure the peas which they wish to bring forward very early; and it is a common observation, how well found- ed I will not say, that the very high manuring of potatoes causes them to "run too much to vine;" and the quantity of potatoes in the hill is not al- ways in proportion to the luxuriance of the tops.* Whether in such cases, if the season were long enough to admit of the perfect maturity of the plant, the yield of grain and of tubers would not correspond with the great luxuriance of the her- bage or stalks, is another query which grows out of the subject, and deserves inquiry and attention, as it is a matter of great practical importance to ascertain, if possible, (which can only be done by lonff observation and experiment,) to what degree corn, potatoes, or other plants, may be safely and advantageously forced by manure, with a due re- gard to the actual return in grain or tubers. 1 have spoken above of the small varieties of the eight rowed corn, though not of the smallest. The Hoosic corn is larger than what is called the Ca- nada corn, though probably it is the same, and has acquired a larger size from successive planting in a lower latitude. The ear is about ten inches in length. A kind of eight rowed corn is grown on the Deerfield meadows, which frequently measures sixteen inches in length, and from a single ear of which I have sometimes obtained a full pint of grain. It ripens late, however, and requires early and very wide planting. On our fine alluvions, with high manuring, it yields about fifty bushels to the acre. It weighs from fifty-seven to sixty pounds to the bushel, whei'eas, my twelve rowed and a small eight rowed corn, which I have grown upon a thin soil, weigh from sixty to sixty-four pounds per bushel. Another inquiry connected with this subject de- serves attention. Is the color of the corn any index of its nutritious properties? This is a sub- ject for experiment, and for chemical analysis. Be- tween the varieties of the yellow and the white flint corns, I have made no experiments. The prejudices in favor of the one or the other in dif- ferent parts of the country, where the one or the other is cultivated, are strong, and as in mo3t other cases exactly coincident with the interests or habits of different individuals; those who grow and eat the yellow pronouncing the white tasteless, and those who grow and eat the white, with the same self-complacency, disdaining the yellow. But between the yellow flint of the northern states, and the white goi-ird seed of the south, I am in- clined to believe there is a difference in nutritious properties in favor of the former. This opinion is formed only on a single experiment, which I made some years ago; but of which I preserved no written record, and can only state it from memory, * These views accord with the reasons given in a former No. of the Fanners' Register, (p. 257, Vol. I.) in favor of applying manures, in preference, to those crops in which general bulk is wanted, instead of those of which the quantity of seed is the object— or, for ex- ample, to the crops of grass, in alternate husbandry, rather than to the wheat cr corn which follow them. — Ed. Far Reg. 18 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. and therefore not with that minute accuracy which I should desire in all such casea to observe. I had a cow, which I put in the barn in October; fed her abundantly with hay, and gave her four quarts of meal per day of the yellow flint corn; saved all the milk, and weighed her produce in butter, which during the week was nine pounds. The second week her feed was the same as before, excepting that the meal given her was the meal of the white gourd seed, or what goes among us by the name of Virginia, or southern flat corn. Her produce this week in butter fell short of eight pounds. The third week I fed her as before in quantity, and re- turned again to the meal of the yellow flint corn; and her produce in butter was as the first week, nine pounds. I took the exclusive care of her myself during the time, and can assign no cause for the difference in the product but the difference in the quality of the meal. There may have been other causes, however, and I by no means regard a single experiment as decisive on this or any sim- ilar subject. The meal in the several cases was measured, but not weighed; the actual quantity given, therefore, though it appeared the same, might not have been the same; arid I record the experiment because I deem all such trials, where all the circumstances connected with them are de- tailed, of some value; and in the hope that it may induce others to make similar experiments in other matters as humble; for which experiments, if they 6peak of them, they may get nothing from their overwise neighbors but the sneers of real igno- rance, indolence, and self-conceit, the usual at- tendant of ignorance and indolence, but from which they will derive themselves much pleasure and satisfaction. They are attended with little trouble or expense, and from them, in some cases, the most important results may be obtained. * # # # # The land, as I approached the Hudson, became thin, and strongly predominating with sand, though favorable to Indian corn, and well suited to the renovating influence of clover and gypsum; that beneficent operation by which much of the land in Columbia county, in the neighborhood of Kinderhook, has been converted from pine barrens into highly productive fields; and according to the interesting and gratifying account of Mr. Teunis Harder, given in the Quarterly Journal of Agri- culture, vol. I., No. 1, p. 32, has actually raised the value of these lands from three to sixty dollars per acre.* Nearer the river the character of the soil became much better, and within a mile of the ferry I found a superior farm, in high cultivation, belonging, I have since been informed, to a Mr. Knickerbocker. The corn crops here were very promising. I have since passed this farm, and its condition is highly creditable to its owner. I have seen, too, in this neighborhood, a herd of uncom- monly fine swine; indeed, for store hogs, as many together, I have seen none superior in appear- ance. * # # # # I crossed the Hudson at this place in a ferry * This account was first published in the Farmers' Register, (p. 544 Vol. I,) and we presume was copied into the work to which it is credited above — which however we have not seen. — Ed. Fab. Reg. boat impelled by a horizontal wheel, moved by two horses. The horses had been several years attached to the boat, and though unable to see the shore, they measured the distance with great ac- curacy, stopping of their own accord at such a dis- tance before they reached the shore, that the im- petus which the boat had already received was nearly sufficient to cany it to the land, and when ordered to start again, turning it only one revolu- tion and stopping again without direction. I could not help wishing that men were half as tracta- ble. # # # # # Earl Stimsoii's Farm. A principal object of my journey soon presented itself at a distance of two miles, which was the farming establishment and residence of Earl Stim- son, Esq., whose dwelling house and numerous out-buildings, placed on a commanding eminence, had more the appearance of a village than the do- main of a private individual. His buildings con- sist of a spacious dwelling house, with extensive piazzas in front, several barns and stables, very extensive sheds, a large store, a three story build- ing for agranar}--, cider house, &c: a large slaugh- ter house, cooper's shop, potash establishment, blacksmith's shop, and smaller dwelling houses, which, with the fame [farm?] connected with them, had come into his possession, and might now be said to form a part of his domicil. The situation, being at the rectangular junction of two large roads, was favorable to the prosecu- tion of his business as an extensive trader, and the keeper of a large hotel. The homestead in- cludes about seven hundred acres, two hundred of which are in wood; and the rest in meadow, pas- ture, or under the plough. He has himself favored the public with an account of his management and cultivation, in his address to the Saratoga Ag- ricultural Society; and an exact and detailed state- ment of the produce and course of crops of a certain portion of his land is given by Dr. Steele, in his survey of the agriculture of Saratoga County, in New- York Memoirs of Board of Agriculture, Vol. II., p. 69. I shall, however, detail from re- collection the accounts which I received from him- self; and record such remarks as suggested them- selves on the premises. The soil is generally of a dark loam, resting upon sandstone and carbonate of lime. The an- alysis of this soil, as given by Dr. Steele, is sub- joined: Water, 9.5 Animal and vegetable matter, 12.5 Alumine, 17.5 Siliceous sand, 54. Carbonate of lime, S. Soluble salts, 1. Oxide of iron, 1. 98.5 Loss, 1.5 100. The great roads passing through the farm, and crossing at its centre at right angles, give a straight line to all the outside fences; and the fields every where divided into rectangular lots of eight 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 19 or ten acres, are enclosed by stone walls, formed of email etonea gathered from the land, and sur- mounted by posts and two rails. The cultivation exhibited an exemplary neatness, as in but a single instance did I remark any weeds or briars growing near the fences ; and these had been re- cently mowed. Mr. Stimson is highly systematical in his farm- ing, and pursues a determined rotation of crops, beginning usually with wheat, then corn, barley, clover, and herds grass two or three years; then frequently depastures his fields for one year, after which they are again subjected to the plough, fol- lowing the same rotation as before, excepting that corn is sometimes a first crop after the land is bro- ken up; and flax sometimes takes the place of corn or barley in the rotation. He manures his land once only in six years, ex- cepting the application of plaster to his corn. He allows five loads of barn manure, and three of leeched ashes, to an acre; and this is always spread upon the surface after ploughing for the first crop and either harrowed or ploughed in by a very light ploughing. In ploughing, he never permits the plough to go deeper than three inches; the sod is turned over flat, and then rolled, it being his great object to keep all the vegetable matter on the sur- face. In the ploughing for the second crop in the rotation, the sod being completely decomposed, is turned, and affords a fine soil for the ensuing; crop. Though a good deal of the. manure is in this way lost by evaporation, yet he considers this loss as much less than that which is occasioned by bury- ing it under the sod. He deems leeched ashes a most valuable manure, and much to be preferred to that which is unleeched, which he considers as having a tendency at first to force the land, but in the end to impoverish it. Next to leeched ashes, he deems lime the best manure for land. The opinions of so intelligent, experienced, and suc- cessful a farmer, are certainly entitled to the high- est respect, and we shall not undertake to theorize on the subject; but the subject is still matter for ex- periment, and deserves the most careful and philo- sophical investigation. Wheat is generally the first crop in the rotation, in which case it is usually sowed in the autumn; and harrowed in at the rate of two bushels to the acre. His average crop is from thirty to forty bushels per acre. This year (1832) he has sixty acres in wheat. Of Indian corn, his average pro- duct is about five thousand bushels. He assured me that for the last ten years it had exceeded the average rate of one hundred bushels to the acre. He plants an eight rowed kind, with a small ear, on the ground where he has had wheat, in hills two feet eight inches apart each way; the places of planting being accurately marked out by a simple machine with four teeth, like a rake, and drawn by a horse, which marks the piece to be planted in one direction, and then crosses these marks at right angles. Four stalks only are left in a hill, and it is ploughed slightly, or harrowed twice. Some- times plaster is~applied to the hill, at the rate of about five pecks to an acre. He is of opinion that too much manure may be applied for any crop ex- cepting corn. This cannot be manured too highly. Owing to the unfavorableness of the season, his corn, much of which had been planted twice, seemed quite small, and in his opinion would hardly yield him a third of the usual crop. Potatoes are planted by him at the same dis- tances aa his corn, and on the outside of his corn- fields. At the second hoeing of his potatoes, he takes pains to open the top of each hill with the foot, and to put a hoefull of dirt directly on the cen- tre, by which means the sun is admitted to the po- tatoes, which he deems likely to contribute very much to the increase of the crop. This simple op- eration is in accordance with Mr. T. A. Knight's lately broached views of the great importance of light and air to the productiveness of the potato crop; but in a partial experiment, I have not my- self perceived any sensible advantage from it. His average yield of potatoes is about five hun- dred bushels to an acre; and he raises yearly about two thousand bushels. Flax is likewise a valuable crop, of which he calculates to obtain at least twenty bushels of seed, and four hundred pounds of flax; commonly more than this. His flax fields, which he was then pulling, with a platoon of sixteen men, exhibited a most luxuriant growth. After the flax is pulled and rotted, he has it cleaned and prepared for market, for two and one-half cents per lb. What he usually obtains over six cents per pound for flax, will pay for the cleaning of it. He is of opinion that it will do to repeat flax on the same land once in six years. Barley, or rye is another crop in his usual rotation, and ordinarily follows corn. Barley he considers as much the best crop with which to lay down his land to grass. His plan of laying down his land to grass is to sow the grass seed at the time he sows his barley, at the rate of 3 lbs. of clover seed, and 4 quarts of timothy or herds grass. His crop of grass ave- rages about two and a half tons to an acre. He feeds many of his mowing fields until the 10th of June. His grass, as I saw it, was quite ripe, and farther advanced than we are accustomed to have it at the time of mowing; and this, perhaps, ac- counts for his practice of cutting his grass in the morning, and housing it at. night of the same day, which he informed me he frequently did. The proper time of cutting grass, as with reference to their nutritive properties, is a subject which has not received all the attention which it deserves. Ac- cording to chemical analysis, some grasses are much more nutritive after their seed is perfected, than when cut in the flower. It is the reverse with other grasses. In respect, for example, to timothy or herds-grass, (Pheum pratense,) ac- cording to Sinclair's table annexed to Davy's Ag- ricultural Chemistry, it is said that "the nutritive powers of the straws simply therelbre exceed those of the leaves in proportion as 28 to 8; and the grass at the time of flowering, to that at the time the seed is ripe, as 10 to 23; and the latter math to the grass of the flowering crop, as 8 to 10." Mr. Stimson mows his grass land usually two years; and pastures it the ensuing year. This completes his rotation of six years, and he then begins the same course again. Thus, 1, Wheat — manured. 2, Corn — plastered, 3, Flax, rye, or barley. 4, Clover and herds grass. 5, Clover and herds grass. 6, Pasture. His potatoes are usually planted round his corn fields, three or four rows on each side, so as to render 20 FARMERS' REGISTER [No.l. it convenient to come out with a horse, and turn the plough. He puts one large or two good sized potatoes in a hill. He steeps his seed corn before planting, in a mixture of 1 lb. of saltpetre, to 3 pints of water; and then rolls the seed in plaster. He purchases large numbers of cattle in the fall; those which are in condition to kill, he slaughters and packs; and it is then forwarded to the New York market, where it is repacked, inspected, and fully salted, at the expense of 75 cents per barrel. The cattle not in condition for beef, he win- ters, and disposes of the next spring and au- tumn. He kills and packs great quantities of pork, and bacons the legs. For packing his beef, he uses four quarts of salt, with some saltpetre; and for his pork, fourteen quarts of salt to each barrel, which he deems sufficient to keep it until it is re- packed in New York. He considers this a better mode of disposing of his pork and beef, than to send his cattle on the hoof, or his pork unsalted, to market. His preparation for his hams is 4 oz. saltpetre, 4 qts. of salt, 1 pint of molasses, 1 oz. of pearlash, to 100 cwt. of meat. They are to be smoked three weeks with maple or walnut wood. Recently he slaughtered twenty hogs, whose average weight was 414 lbs. each. His hams are preserved by being sowed in paper, or coarse bags, whitewash- ed, and suspended in his storehouse. He has at present 700 sheep, which he considers as a profita- ble stock. He has thirty cows. He has paid lit- tle attention to the improvement of his stock, se- lecting his cows from the numerous droves which he purchases tor feeding or slaughter. He never puts his young cattle in the barn. He has large and commodious sheds for their protection; and he would always choose to have wooden floors in the sheds for them to lie upon. He chooses to keep his different kinds of stock separately from each other: his milch cows in one 3rard, his young cattle in another. With his laborers he always makes a written Agreement, stipulating to board them, but furnish- ing no ardent spirits; and requiring of them good manners and good temper; early rising; a readiness to assist in husking in the evening, and to do any extra job which may be customary on a farm; and an attendance upon public worship in their turn. Such were a few hasty and cursory observations which occurred to me in a short but highly gratify- ing visit to his interesting and instructive, establish- ment; and I beg leave to express my grateful sense of the kindness and hospitality which I received, and the politeness with which the information I sought was communicated to me. In extent, in froductiveness, or in its admirable management, have seen no individual establishment to be com- pared with it. In extent, I except the magnifi- cent farm of Mr. Wadsworth, in Genesee, which is confined to grazrflg, and where, a few years since, for it is some time since I had the gratifica- tion of visiting it, not a bushel of wheat was raised. As a dairy farm, likewise, that of Mr. Bussey, at Hoosic; and the grand establishment of Robert Smith, Esq., near Baltimore, where one hundred cows were soiled, are likewise before it; but I speak of it in respect to the variety of its business, culti- vation, and products: and the skill, system, and success, displayed in its management. Mr. Stimson has peculiar advantages in his abundant capital: in the profitable consumption of a large amount of his produce by means of his hotel, which is much frequented; in a most abun- dant supply of manure from his stables, slaughter house, piggery, and potash establishment; and in his facilities tor procuring labor. But I saw no part of the process of his farming, which may not be copied by other farmers, on a smaller scale; and, especially as he does not apply a larger amount of manure to an acre than what is applied in other cases by many farmers. The great points of difference between his own and the management of other farmers, and almost all other farmers, deserve particular attention. They consist, first, in the regular arrangement of his lots, which are all laid down upon a plan; and the management of each pursued systematically; and made matter of exact record. Secondly, in his shallow ploughing, by which the vegetable mould is always kept in its proper place; or what he says, nature teaches is the proper place, on the surface. Thirdly, in the incorporation of the manure with this vegetable matter, instead of burying it amongst the gravel or loam. Fourthly, in his exact and systematic mode of planting; his corn being as regularly deposited as straight lines can make it. Fifthly,in his economy of labor, his ploughing after breaking up the green sward, which is done by two horses, always being performed with one horse to a plough. He informed me that the last spring, with eight horses, he set eight ploughs in operation. Sixthly, in his pursuing with each piece of land a regular rotation of crops. In this way the land is taxed but once in six years for the particular qualities in the soil, demanded by each particular crop; and by being three years in grass and clover, a new supply of vegetable matter is lefl upon the surface, to be turned under for its improvement, preparatory to a second rotation. His ploughs are an improvement upon the Scotch plough, and of very easy draught. Of other utensils, I remarked- none of a peculiar con- struction. He has a superior cider mill, and made last year from his farm five hundred barrels of cider. He has contrived a saw to go by horse power, with which he says two men, a boy, and a horse, are able to saw thirty cords of wood per day for the fire. His men breakfast at six o'clock; dine at 12 M.; and sup when work is done at night. A large party of them were at work in the field nearly a quarter of a mile from the house, pulling flax, soon after 4 o'clock in the morning. He furnishes them a luncheon of bread and butter, or bread and cheese, in the field, at 10 o'clock, A. M.and 4 o'clock, P. M. Their drink, consisting of cider, cider and water, molasses and water, milk and water, is carried to them in the field. Above all, his farming, as well as all other of his op- erations, are tinder his constant and immediate supervision. To the inquiry, who was his fore- man, his answer was, that he had no foreman; he was his own foreman. To every man was as- signed his proper task, which he was expected to perform, so that the responsiblity rested upon him- self alone; and under this conviction, he was the 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 21 more likely to be faithful. I quitted the place with a just admiration of its extraordinary management, and not without a deep surprise at the system, skill, care, and success, with which such heavy and various concerns were carried on, and a press of business maintained and conducted, under which ordinary men would have been overwhelm- ed and confounded; the cumbrous and complicated machinery making its gyrations and movements without dislocation, without friction, and without any sensible concussion or jarring of the moved or the moving body. Extract of aletterto the Editor of the Rail Road Journa'. SWIFT CANAL BOATS STEAM CARRIAGES ON COMMON ROADS. When at Glasgow I visited the "Paisley" and the "Forth and Clyde" canals; and as our coun- try is very much interested in canal navigation, some memoranda relative to the swift, passage boats on those two canals may not be uninteresting to your readers. First, of the "Paisley canal," which has been the longest known, and is still most successful as regards quick travelling. This canal commences at Glasgow, and goes through Paisley (eight miles distant) to Johnston, where it terminates; 12 miles long; no lock in the whole distance. The boats are of iron, of one-sixteenth of an inch thick, 70 feet long, five feet nine inches broad, and weigh 16 cwt. 14 lbs. This is the weight of the iron part alone. The total weight of the boat, including the wood work, (the cabins are of this material,) fixtures, &c. is 33 cwt.; and with 100 passengers, draws 19 inches aft and 18 inches for- ward. Two horses draw the boat in stages of four miles each; the pair of horses go only 12 miles per diem. There are lour boats, which make six journeys each, or twenty-four journeys for the whole, each day. These boats have been running four years. They are generally full. They meet the greatest encouragement, and are very profitable to the proprietors, notwithstanding the fare is so very moderate. The charge is six pence, in the after cabin, and nine pence in the forward, to Paisley, eight miles; to Johnston, 12 miles, the charge is nine pence in the after cabin, and 12 pence in the forward cabin. The time usually employed between Glasgow and Paisley is 50 minutes; or 9| miles per hour. This is the narrowest canal I ever saw, generally 30 feet wide and five feet deep. The captains of the boats on board of which I travelled, told me that on a narrow canal, such as this, the horses can pull a boat easier, when travelling rapidly, than on one of greater section. This, paradoxical as it may appear, is verified by the fact, that on the "Forth and Clyde" canal which is of nine feet depth, and 68 feet breadth, the boats, which are of nearly the same dimensions (68 feet long, and 5\ feet broad,) as those on the Paisley canal, are drawn by three horses, with 70 passengers on board, and yet travel at about the same velocity as on the narrower and shallower canal. I asked these captains, and also a civil engineer of some eminence, whom I met on board, returning from Johnston, how they could account for this circum- stance. Their reply was as Ibllows: on a narrow canal, say 30 or 40 feet wide, the boat passing svvilUy through the water, throws the wave against the shore, which being thrown back again against the boat, raises it up, and thus propels it. The wave strikes the boat about two-thirds of its length from the bow. But if the canal were much wider, the boat would pass by before the reflected wave could reach the boat, and thus give it aid. 1 give this explanation nearly in the words of these captains, and am responsible only for the correct- ness of the report of what they told me. I hope this will meet the eye of our distinguished coun- tryman, Gen. C. F. Mercer, chairman of the Committee of Internal Improvements in the House of Representatives, who advocates with so much ability broad and deep canals for transporta- tion, as far more economical than narrow canals. I will now finish what I have to say respecting the fast travelling on' the "Forth and Clyde" ca- nal. This canal, as 1 have said above, is 68 feet broad by nine feet deep, and the iron boats are 68 feet long and 5^ feet broad, and when light draw eight inches water, but with 70 passengers draw 20 inches; this is when in a state of rest — when in rapid motion they draw less. There are three horses employed to each boat, and the passengers who get into the boats at Port Dundas (Glasgow) are set down at Port Hopetown (Edinburgh) in 6£ hours, a distance of 56 miles, or nearly nine miles per hour. It is necessary to explain to you that the passengers go only a part of the distance on the "Forth and Clyde" canal. They start from Port Dundas and go to Port Downie, (the commencement of the "Union Canal,") a distance of 24| miles, which includes four locks. In the next half mile are eleven locks, which are avoided by the passengers being conveyed in omnibuses to boats in the "Union Canal," which carry them on a level of 31 miles to Port Hopetown (.Edin- burgh.) I regret that I did not take a memoran- dum of the cost of these iron boats, which are light and beautiful vessels, and being fearful of making a mistake I do not quote from memory. On the Lancaster, Carlisle, and Kendal canals, there are rapid boats, but not having travelled by them I do not give you any details. But if any of your readers feel an interest in the above re- marks, and wish further information, I can with facility procure it, and will with pleasure communi- cate it to you. Since my return from the north I have called on Mr. Hancock, in company with Mr. T., one of the engineers of the Boston and Providence Rail- way. We found that for the last two months the "Era" and the "Autopsy" have discontinued run- ning, owing to the absence of Mr. Hancock in Ireland, whither he went with the "Era," for the purpose of ascertaining if he could profitably in- troduce locomotives on the roads of that country". He is now returned to London, and will, I am in- formed, recommence running these two engines on the metropolitan roads in a few days. Mr. T. and I also went to see Mr. Russell's steam car- riage, recently arrived from Glasgow, which will in a few days ply regularly, in conjunction with others of this gentleman's make, between Hyde Park Corner, and Hammersmith (t'.ie commence- ment of the great western road out of London.) This carriage is by far the most tasteful of all the steam carriages I have seen. It is built exactly like the stage coaches of this country, except the dimensions are larger. The whole of the ma- 22 FARMERS' REGISTER [No.l. chinery is in the hind boot. The water and the coke are in a tender, or separate carriage on two wheels, behind the locomotive. This steam coach will carry six inside passengers sitting viz-a-viz, 14 outside on the rootj and six on the tender; total, 26 passengers. From the favorable terms in which I have heard Mr. Russell's engine spoken of, both here and in Glasgow, I feel a great curiosi- ty to ride on it, and I will take advantage of the first opportunity to do so, and will report to you respecting it, as well as others which will no doubt be introduced as the spring advances. You may inquire, why did not Mr. R. remain in Glasgow? I will reply in nearly the words of the gentleman who showed us this carriage. He said the preju- dice against it. was great, in consequence of the. unfortunate accident by which 12 or 13 passengers were killed or wounded; that it was expedient to come to a distant part of the country. He told us, that for several months this engine plied between Glasgow and Paisley, and performed in a manner to give entire satisfaction; and in consequence, the stage coach proprietors and trustees of the road were alarmed lest this and others would gain so much in public estimation as to become regular coaches. They therefore resolved to drive it of!', if possible. This they accomplished by picking up the turnpike, and putting fresh metal down in unusual and extraordinary quantities. Notwith- standing the road was made almost impassable, the engine was still continued, and plied regularly several times each day for a whole month, and excited the admiration of all intelligent persons, that it could overcome such difficulties. It how- ever war, finally injured by being driven for so long a time over a road so much worse than it was constructed for, and one of the hind wheels get- ting into a hole (made by order of the turnpike proprietors.) it broke, and the carriage tumbled to the ground; four or five persons were killed, and eight or nine others seriously maimed and wound- ed. But none of them were hurt from the explo- sion of the engine, or the escape of steam, but from being thrown with great violence against the rough, new mettled road — the same kind of injury as would be received from a common stage coach breaking one of its wheels when travelling rapidly. I am informed that an action is brought by the owners of the steam carriage, as well as by seve- ral of the survivors and the friends of the de- ceased, killed by this melancholy event, against the road company, for obstructing the King's high- way, and causing the injury and death of a num- ber of persons, besides loss of property. Sanguine hopes are entertained that the guilty will be se- verely punished. I forgot to tell you above, that, the swell on the two canals, caused by the quick passage of the boats, is very inconsiderable. I am, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, GERARD RALSTON. P. S. The demand for railway locomotives is very great. I am sending nine to different parts of the" United States, and both Mr. Robert Ste- phenson and Mr, Bury have orders to give them full employment for several months to come. MEMOIR ON THE MAKING OF WINE IN THE CANTON OF MARCILLAC. By M. Charles Girou de Bczareingues. Translated for the Farmers' Register, from the Annates de V Ag- riculture Francaise. The vintages which continue aboutthree weeks, generally take place in the course of October. More intent upon the quantity than the quality, the proprietor bestows little care upon gathering only the ripe and sound grapes. The vintage is seldom interrupted, or suspended, to wait for the perfect maturity of the fruit; in from fifteen to twenty days the whole is finished in the vale of Marcillac, and the vintage scarcely lasts four or five days in the same vineyard. It is not thus that the work is performed in the vine lands which fur- nish the good qualities of Bourdeaux wine: there they pick constantly, and the vintage continues for one or two months. No great advantages, it is true, would be obtained at first by similar care in the vale of Marcillac, but in the end it would be found not wholly useless, for complete ripeness was never yet a defect. The vintager receives for hire 20 centimes a day, and his food, representing a value of 50 cen- times. The grapes are carried from the vineyard to the vat in double panniers, which are placed upon cushions of goat skin, of a triangular form, with the angles rounded. Seen underneath, these cush- ions represent, towards the sharpest of their an- gles, a cap or hood to receive the top of the head, and towards the opposite side two small cushions near together, designed to protect the shoulders on which the two divisions of the pannier rest. The head of the porter being placed between these di- visions, the pannier is prevented from slipping back by a band of osier attached to its two divi- sions, and against, which the anterior angle of the cushion presses. This pannier, which together with the cushion, weighs five or six kilogrammes, contains from 40 to 45 kilogrammes of grapes. It is wonderful to see the porters, under this heavy burden, descend at a rapid pace, with the aid of a long staff, from the top to the bottom of the vineyards or climb up them by goat paths, and often traverse more than half a league with- out relaxing their speed. If we judge of them by their gait when they return unloaded, to the vineyard, they do not then feel so much the necessity of hurrying them- selves. Their stature generally corresponds with the muscular force required by their employment, which is at once laborious and dangerous. The number of porters is determined by the abundance of the crop and the distance of the vineyard from the cellar. When this distance is great, oxen are used to haul the grapes which, in this case, are put into a large tub placed upon a cart. The porters then, have only to cany the grapes from the vineyard to this tub which is ge- nerally not far distant; their task, however, is not therefore lessened, for they are fewer and more frequently obliged to go up and down the steep paths of the vineyard, the most dangerous and most difficult part of their work. Their wages and food agree with their service; they receive, per day, from one franc twenty-five centimes to one franc fifty centimes, and they make eight or 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 23 nine meals, which, together are worth two francs at least. We are, at first, no less astonished at their digestive capacity than at their muscular powers; but the one is soon explained by the other. When the grapes reach the cellar ihey are pour- ed, generally without being stripped from the clus- ters, upon a table pierced with holes, surrounded by high raised sides and furnished with a 1 rap-door. This sort of chest is fixed upon handles, by the help of which it is carried like a hand-barrow, and placed horizontally on the vat; it is called gabio, which signifies a cage. A man, who receives the name of gabrazre, be- cause he works in the gabio, enters it with naked feet and legs, and tramples the grapes. When the operation is ended, he opens the trap-door and throws into the vat whatever has not already fal- len through the holes of the cage. This trampling is not practised by all the own- ers of vineyards; there are some who pour the grapes at once into the vat, where they are after- wards crushed as well as their situation will per- mit. Some proprietors strip a portion of their grapes from the clusters. My honorable friend, JM. de Cabneres performs this operation upon all his. He has a double bottom fixed above the grapes which keeps the cene beneath the surface of the liquid; and a cover or lid placed and luted upon the vat pre- vents all evaporation. The results obtained by this intelligent proprietor establish beyond a doubt, that the wines of Marcillac might take their place among the good wines of France, if in the vine lands of this name the culture of the vine and the making of the wine were directed by men like him. The question, however, whether it is proper to strip or not to strip the grapes from their clusters cannot be determined by the success of a single individual in a tract composed of such a variety of grapes, soils, and exposures. The introduction of the clusters whole, facilitates fermentation, and, by the principles which it furnishes to the wine, gives it sprightliness, renders it piquant and lessens its tendency to become thick or oily, (toumer au gras.) In these respects it becomes useful, when without it the wine would be very weak and taste- less, and could not be preserved without difficulty; and consequently it is proper on the hills where a sweetish taste predominates, and from which only a wine of very weak quality can be expected. But it is not the same with the crops in which aroma and sugar abound, at least sufficiently to enable us to calculate upon a generous wine, agreeable to drink, and easy to be kept by the or- dinary processes of racking, [vintage] and fining. In such situations it is proper to get rid of the as- tringent principle. It may then be of advantage in one place to strip all the grapes from the clus- ters, in another to strip only a part of them, and in a third not to strip any; and each person ought, in this particular, to pursue the lessons of expe- rience, taking care to modify his practice when the circumstances under which it was established are no longer the same. It might have been proper formerly to strip off the grapes of a particular vine- yard when it was planted inmenn and received but little manure, while this would no longer suit since it is planted in mQi??:agues, in maural, in ca- nut. or other varieties which produce only flat wines and since it receives much manure. The fermentation generally goes on in an open vessel, whence it follows, first, that the must does not contribute at all, or it contributes very little by its own oxygen, to the formation of the carbonic acid gas, and that a less quantity of this gas is absorbed by the wine; secondly, that the must loses more oJ* its carbon; that its hydrogen and oxygen may be united in greater quantity to form water; that alcohol is produced in less abundance; that the evaporation of this as well as of water ia greater, that, in fine, there is less wine, and that this wine is of weaker quality. The grapes generally remain ten days in the vat: the duration of this stay is abridged or pro- longed according as the weather is warm or cold, and the ripeness of the grapes more or less com- plete. When, from the abundance of the crops and the want of vats, it has been necessary to re- move the wine before its fermentation was entire- ly over, the result has been a better wine, but more disposed to become thick, doubtless because there remained in it a greater amount of carbon united with its mucilage. Here perhaps the un- suitableness of habit is felt in a change; because it was right to keep the wine ten days in the vat, when the menu containing a great deal of sugar predominated in the vineyards, it is thought proper still to give the same time when other varieties which produce grapes less sweet and weak wines have been substituted for the menu. Some wine-makers, however, take their wine from the vat before the tumultuous fermentation is entirely over, and they applaud the practice; as their proceeding is rational I can easily credit their success. The fermentation is often facilitated by pouring into the vat a certain quantity of must boiling hot; but this good method is proscribed by the preju- dices of certain makers who consider wine thus made as adulterated. During the fermentation a naked man enters once a day into the vat, and returns towards the bottom the stems and woody fibres of the clusters (rafle) which the fermentation has raised to the surface; he crushes, besides, the grapes when they have not been trampled in the cage. This operation becomes dangerous if the vat is only half full. The danger and the accidents are in- creased by the intoxication of the persons who are exposed to them: in 1831, an imprudent vine- dresser perished in a vat, in a state of asphyxia. The temperature in the vat rises in the course of the fermentation to 25° or 26°, (centigrade,) that of the store-house being 15° or 16°. When the fermentation is over, the wine is drawn off through a hole, made for that purpose at the bottom of the vat, and kept free from the obstruction of the marc by tiles, vine-branches, or other articles. On some estates the cellar is un- der the store-house, and the wine flows of itself, conducted by tubes, into the casks which have been cleansed and prepared beforehand for its re- ception. When the wine has ceased to flow and no more remains in the vat the marc is taken out and sub- jected to the action of the press, an enormous square beam of oak fixed as a lever of the second I order, on which the power is applied by means ot I a screw, of which it becomes the nut, and which 24 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No.l. three men turn by the help of three other levers: this screw tends to press together the thick and heavy plank of the table on which the marc is placed. This wine is put away separately, or mixed with the first to give it a deeper color. Wishing to have the means of increasing this depth of color, some proprietors cultivate the vari- ety called teinturier the whole merit of which is to produce a wine as black as ink. The great value attached to the coloring of the wine proceeds doubtless from the prelerence given by the trade to that which is highest colored, and this preference is itself founded fn part perhaps on the capability of the high colored wines to receive, without its appearing, at least, to the eye, a cer- tain quantity of water. Yet, is it really indifferent whether the. wine contain much of the coloring principle or be al- most deprived of it? On this question it. may be observed, that wine as it. acquires age, loses its co- lor and improves in quality, and besides, that many poor wines are very high colored, but that would not prove that it is useless to wine to have color at first: to determine this question it is proper to collect all the facts, reserving the endeavor to as- certain the cause of them afterwards. Wines de- prived of this principle, when first made, easily become thick or acid, and the more certainly the more completely they are deprived of it. When wine becomes thick it loses its alcohol and acquires oil: it becomes acid only by contact with the air. It ceases to be liable to turn acid when it is de- prived of that mucilage, which some chemists have called extractive, considering it as a distinct substance: by this mucilage also wine is capable of becoming thick; the most mucilaginous wines are the most subject to this fault. The more coloring principle there is in the f rapes, the more tartar also is there in the wine, 'he mucilage, the tartar, and the coloring princi- ple are precipitated together, and form the lees. The mucilage is not precipitated in white wines, at least it, is not precipitated either so promptly or so abundantly as in red wines; yet in the first as well as in the last, the tartar is precipitated, whence it may be concluded that the mucilage is precipitated by the coloring principle. In separa- ting from the lees, the wine does not lose its alco- hol, and becomes less and less capable of turning thick or acid. These tacts prove that the coloring principle is useful to the preservation of the wine so long as the mucilage is not precipitated; they enable us, besides, if I am not mistaken, to understand more easily, some phenomena which are displayed in the wine, which depend in some measure upon this principle, and which explain, at least, in what manner the color may contribute to the preserva- tion of the wine. When, in the spring, the mucilage undergoes a new fermentation, the carbonated hydrogen which is disengaged decomposes a part of the alcohol, and is combined with its constituents in the pro- portions requisite to make oil; the whole quantity of alcohol is diminished, the mucilage puts on an oily appearance, and the wine has become thick. The coloring principle, which is itself without ac- tion on the alcohol, becomes nevertheless an ob- stacle to its decomposition, by fixing, in the muci- lage, to which it is capable of being united, and which can even dissolve it, the tartar which ac- companies it, and which tending, as well as sugar, to form alcohol, ought to prevent its decomposition. By being precipitated to the bottom of the casks, carried down by the coloring principle and the tar- tar, the mucilage ceases to be in contact with the air; it has scarcely any fermentation, and the acidi- fication of the wine is more difficult. I submit to the judgement of chemists this theory, incomplete without doubt, false perhaps, and which I offer only with very great and very well founded diffi- dence. When no more wine can be produced by the action of the press, a colored liquid is obtained by watering the marc and pressing it again: this makes the piquette which is the ordinary drink of the wine-dressers when they are not supplied by the proprietor. Every year at the commencement of the spring, prudent proprietors rack their wine after having fumigated the casks destined to receive it by burn- ing a match made of cloth dipped in sulphur, four centimetres wide by two in length, for each pipe in quantity. The cask in which the match has been burned is left shut close for five days; sometimea aromatic substances are added to the sulphur which forms the match, whence results a per- fumed flavor, an artificial bouquet which is not equally agreeable to all amateurs. Fining the wine with the whites of eggs is practised by only a small number of economical and careful propri- etors. The wine of Marcillac, it is said, cannot bear transportation and keep long; this is a mistake. I have drank it at Paris very good, and four or five years old, coming from the hill of Gradels. The wine of the hill of Cru Who rear no clover on a- thirsty soil, For why? — it grows not to reward their toil: Who strew no gypsum, but absurdly rail, A"d swear 'tis nothing to the old cowtail. These are their follies — these their crying sins, Despite the pamphlet of the enthusiast Biiins; I own the charge and cry myself, peccavi: I read, but follow not, Sir Humphrey Davy. Old Virginia Georzics. Vol. Ill— 4 In reviewing the causes which have operated to retard the agricultural advancement of Lower Virginia, it has long been the settled conviction of my own mind, that the most extensive and fatal, if not that of" paramount importance to all others, was to be found in the odious three-field system. It is still a question of doubtful solution, to which of the two principles mankind have alternately yielded the most absolute dominion; that of the sanctity of time, and custom, on the one hand — or, of an inordinate spirit of innovation on the other. While the latter is decidedly the master spirit of the age, and has extended its influence to ail other classes of the community — even that of the agri- cultural— the former still retains and exercises its ancient and uncontrolled supremacy. In no de- partment of the arts, or indeed of the sciences, (tor to that distinction may agriculture now confident- lyaspire,) have greater improvements been effect- ed than in the theory, philosophy, and practice of farming. Chemistry has shed a flood of light over the whole subject, illustrating its principles, and establishing its laws, on the sure basis of scientific truths — improvements of acknowledged practical utility are daily made; errors both in principle and practice exposed. But yet by the great mass of our community; they are received with distrust, denounced as innovations, or passed unheeded, as the illusions of the theorist; and they still plod on in the "good old way" to ruin — with the same pertinaceous adherence, and no better reasons, than did the old Dutch settlers of Kinderhook, because forsooth, their fathers had done so before them. To the influence of this principle are we indebted for that system, the delects of which, it is my present purpose to expose. Looking as I have done to the explosion of this, and the adop- tion of some better system, as the only hope lor any extensive, or permanent improvement in our agricultural condition, I had early designed ma- king it the subject of a communication, if for no other purpose than that of inviting others more competent than myself to the task. In this design however, I happily found myself anticipated, and after the two able, and. to my mind, conclusive articles of Messrs. Selden and Carter, considered the whole ground as completely occupied, and that more, neither could or need be said. Presenting as they did, a plain and un- questionable record of practical results, read, dis- cussed, and admitted, as they generally were, I had anticipated from them, the most happy effects — all things, in fact, seemed to afford the most favorable auguries. Through the joint influence Of your Essay and your Register, a spirit of in- quiry had been aroused — better hopes had been inspired — the vis inertia, so long felt, removed, and a new impulse every where given to the work of improvement. In the translbrming effects of calcareous manure, an approximation seemed really made to the long sought principles of the alchemist, and in the fond hopes of the farmer, were again amusingly revived the bright visions, and early dreams of that visionary — a new era had indeed arisen — the revolution so important to be effected, seemed at least in progress of success- ful accomplishment, and the future in bright per- spective, broke forth in all the beauty of renovated nature: our worn out fields, and poverty stricken herds, (the too faithful moral portraiture of our condition) had assumed a new aspect, and already 26 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. teemed with life, luxuriance antf comfort. But, alas! this was but the day-dream of a too san- guine imagination! A sad reality, in bitter mock- ery, every where meets the eye. Among the advocates of the three-field rota- tion, I regret to find my friend and neighbor, Wm. H. -Hoy, Esq., a gentleman whose sound and practical views, on all subjects, and whose success as a farmer, justly entitle his opinions to much weight and deference. I cannot better effect the object of this communication, than by glancing at a few of the arguments urged by him, in the article above referred to. The first position assumed is, "that ours is not a wheat growing country;" and the inference thence deduced, that Indian corn should be our primary crop. When the major proposition is established, I will admit the minor. But by what process of reasoning docs he arrive at this con- clusion? By "observation, and the experience of years, which have convinced him, that the wheat crop is precarious, and subject to numerous casu- alties, which no skill or industry can remedy." Let us not, however, take the fact, without inves- tigating the cause. He proceeds, "it not unfre- quently happens in the spring, when the wheat is in bloom and promises an abundant yield, that the hopes of the farmer are blasted by an easterly storm. Indian corn is the only crop on which he can with safety rely." Would it be right then, he asks, "to adopt a system which would render wheat our primary crop?" Would it be right, (if I may be permitted to answer this question by asking another,) to persist in a system, which yearafter year, but mocks us with disappointment? 1 do not maintain that ours is a wheat growing country — nor, consequently, that wheat should be made our primary crop. But I do maintain, that the converse has not been established — that our entire system is opposed to its success — that its cultivation should either be abandoned, or that, to the extent cultivated, recourse should be had to some more ameliorating system, and that the very admission of the fact or "uncertainty," is the strongest possible argument in support of this. Nor is the conclusion drawn from our want of success, a legitimate one. By parity of reasoning it might be shown, that James River, and other sections of country, (for there this system has been repeatedly tried, and with no better success,) were not wheat growing regions. Can it then be ex- pected, that a system which lias entirely failed in a location naturally adapted, both by soil and cli- mate, to the production of wheat, should not fail in one acknowledged to be defective in both? And does not the fact of its "being uncertain and sub- ject to numerous casualties," give it an additional claim to the fostering care of the most judicious and approved cultivation? But it is "by the eas- terly storms that the hopes of our farmers are so frequently blasted." Here we join issue — now I do not imagine, that clover fallow is to afford an effectual protection against this evil; but I do sup- pose, that it would go very far in counteracting its effects. I take it for granted, that whatever con- tributes most to the health and strength of a plant, contributes at the same lime most to the proba- bilities of its success. No one I suppose would hesitate to admit, that a healthy and vigorous crop is, in the first place, much less liable to dis- ease of any kind, than a feeble half starved one; and that if attacked, it would successfully resist disasters, to which the latter would fall a ready victim. As well might we compare the ability of the nursed up invalid to resist the winter's blast, with that of the hardy nursling of the storm. "I will concede," says the writer, "that land will improve faster under the four-field system, &c." An important concession, truly — involv- ing, I conceive, the whole matter in controversy. Land constitutes the principal capital, and its im- provement I had supposed the principal object of every farmer. To this end are all our efforts di- rected, and by its subserviency to this purpose, do we pronounce upon the value of every system. Of what importance are a few abundant crops, provided they leave us in return, an impoverished and worn out soil? Let us but make our land rich — adopt that system as the best which most readily effects it, and we may then cultivate as either taste, interest, or pleasure dictates. "Indian ccm," again proceeds our author, "is the only crop on which wre can with safety rely. In a country not well adapted to hay, it furnishes us with the means of supporting stock, and of manuring extensively." I admit the justice of the eulogium, and have certainly no disposition to quarrel with our best friend. With us it does indeed constitute the staff of life. It is with the system alone that I am at war; and to that I cannot con- cede the superiority claimed. That loss in the corn crop will be sustained for a year or two, is probable; but that as soon as in full operation, and the effects of the system are fully left, that that loss will be more than compensated, and that one- fourth of the same farm, will produce as much as one-third had previously done, there can be but little question. Upon this hypothesis, (and it is one which may be sustained by a reference to the actual results of farms under the two different systems,) no diminution of the corn crop being sus- tained, it follows of course, that there can be no diminution of material, either for manure, or the support of stock. On the contrary, from the in- crease, (say the three-fold production of the wheat crop) the material for both purposes is greatly augmented, in the articles of wheat straw, clover hay, pasturage, &c; and these, together with the increase of product, may be struck, as a fair bal- ance, in favor of the fallow system. It is thus under this system that wheat becomes the pri- mary crop, not by any actual diminution of the corn crop, but by the increased production of the former; and surely to its priority on such terms, none of us can object. "But," says the writer under consideration, "after all. facts afford the best, arguments." "I have noticed with minuteness and attention, the experiments of several of my neighbors, and will give you the results. One divided his farm into four-fields, and cultivated them successively in corn. His land, judging from the growth of ve- getable matter, evidently improved — yet, his corn crops declined, and his wheat crops were generally destroyed by insects. He was compelled to return to the three-field system." The instance here re- ferred to, affords a fair specimen, and the results a fair commentary on the four-field system, as pur- sued among us, I beg leave to state, that it was not the four-field fallow system now in vogue, as known and practised on James River and else- where, but that introduced by the late Col. John 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 27 Taylor, of Caroline — in other words, a turning out for four years in succession, with a certain prospect at that time, of an abundant crop of pine bushes, broom straw, and of every noxious weed, with which the iniquities of our first parents were visited. "Another gentleman, possessing more enterprise than his neighbors generally, divided his farm into five-fields. His crops of corn and small grain, have retrograded. He has had several crops of wheat on his fallow fields, which pro- mised a most abundant harvest; and yet from in- sects, or storms, or some other casualties, he has always been disappointed in his expected harvest. This last gentleman possesses all the requisite skill and and industry to insure success. He will, I doubt not, although he is unwilling to admit it, yet return to the despised three-field system." "Really I had expected more magnanimity! Such enterprise, skill, and industry, deserved a better fate! But, alas! who can contend against fortune — against the combined powers of insects, storms, and other casualities? He has, in truth, returned to that despised system. "Another neighbor has been cultivating his farm in four-fields for several years. His small grain crops increased; but lat- terly a great change has taken place — his barley crop (his principal reliance) has gradually dwin- dled away; until this year, he maybe said to have sowed himself out of seed — and fairly abandoned the crop." The gentleman here alluded to, de- serves to be particularly mentioned, as the first who had the boldness to set up for himself, and introduce the new system among us. His success for several years was signal — so much so, as to attract the attention of all, and 1o induce a few others, partially and cautiously, to follow his ex- ample. The production of his farm under this system, I have no hesitation in saying, has been double that under the former system, and greater by far than that of any other farm of the same size and equal fertility. I allude to the grain crop; nor am I aware, nor do 1 believe, that any diminution has been sustained in the corn crop. A series of disasters, it is true, he has shared in common with others — Mr. R., himself, not ex- cepted— but under all circumstances, his crops have been better than any in the neighborhood.* "I will cite you another case — a farmer very near me, a particular friend, &c, divided his farm into fb ir fields. He has made great exertions to improve it. by manure, rest, &c, and his success is very flattering, &c. — yet, I think, he isnearlyconvinced that the four-field fallow system will not an- swer, and that he will speedily abandon it. His small grain crops have never come up to their promise, and the wild onion is gaining rapidly on him." For that gentleman, I take it upon myself to Bay, that although his crops have not been ade- quate to his expectations, yet, that his confidence is undiminished, and his perseverance unsubdued. To the onion he pleads guilty. True it is, that at various times, in consequence of not grazing, it has taken almost entire possession; but yet, after *Tbis statement, however contradictory, is not do- signed to impugn the correctness of that of my friend R. It is given as a mere matter of opinion, on a subject of fair diiFerence, and in the absence of any certain data. | a doubtful and protracted conflict, his crops, both of wheat and barley, (through the redeeming virtue of fallow) have invariably obtained the mastery. The wild onion, I will here take occa- sion to add, has almost entirely given way; and to perseverance in the system, he confidently looks for its entire eradication. I will add, that while clover constitutes the chief excellency, and an in- dispensable part of the fallow system, yet, that in none of the instances above referred to, was re- course had to it, and that success ought rather to have been a matter of surprise, than of reasona- ble expectation. In concluding this hasty review, I cannot but advert to the silence, and becoming modesty, with which he passes by the success of his own experi- ments. I submit it to his own candor to say, if in the several instances in which he has tried lid- low7, he has not more than doubled, if not trebled, the production of the same land, wheat succeed- ing corn. In the last instance, on a lot of several acres, a crop of 25 bushels per acre was produced. Now, if one or more acres, under a certain sys- tem, be capable of producing a certain crop — why may not a greater number under the same sys- tem, and similar circumstances, produce a similar crop? On the ordinary principles of induction, may I not then conclude, that the same system in extsnso would be attended with the same results; and f reasoning a priori) derive an addi- tional argument in support of the position assumed — that want of success is not so much attributable to soil, or climate, as defect of system. I cannot in stronger terms express my unquali- fied condemnation of the. three-shilt rotation, than by adopting the words of that distinguished ag- ricuhuralist, Col. Taylor of Caroline. "As a sys- tem," says he, "for extorting crops from the earth, it is precisely similar to the rack tor extorting truth from the suflerer. It stretches, tortures, mangles, obtains but. little of its object, and half, or quite kills its victim. This three-shift system has only one merit — honesty. In theory, it promises to kill our land; in practice, it fulfils its promise." With him I cannot accord to it, even the merit of honesty. It professes, in fact, to improve, and under the imposing guise of friendship, inflicts the deadly wound. A chief objection to the system, consists in its hostility to the cultivation of grass; and a capital defect growing out of it, among our farmers, is that of an entire reliance on artificial putrescent manure, to the neglect of the more important auxiliaries, of green succulent vegetable crops. Among these, red clover claims a decided pre-em- inence. Yet, strange to tell, while in other sec- tions it has been regarded as the most important, if not the only rearefficient agent; with us it has been entirely neglected; at least with reference to the improvement of land. I know of nothing which would be regarded with more incredulity, than the assertion that a good crop of clover was equal to a plentiful dressing of stable manure — yet we have the authority of Messrs. Carter, Selden and others, for the fact. An unfortunate impression prevails, that our lands are not. adapted to clover. I do not assert that they possess that peculiar aptitude for it, which characterizes the James River and moun- tain country; but that it can be cultivated to great ad vaat age even on our worst soils, improved to a 28 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No.l. certain degree, (and with us such improvement is always pre-supposed) admits of but littie question. The greatest obstacle with which we have to contend, arises, I have long thought, from the fact, that from the. neglect of the cultivated grasses, our lands have become so completely pre-occupied by noxious weeds and other grasses, as to afford in the contest for possession, a very undue ad- vantage to these, the primitive and rightful tenants. The efficacy of plaster, in consequence of our contiguity to the sea, and the supposed neutraliz- ing effects of saline atmosphere, has also been much questioned. So far us experiments have been made, their results have been so equivocal and unsatisfactory, as to leave the subject still entirely problematical. The use and value of ashes, calcareous manure, &c, in counteracting this effect, (as suggested by yourself and others,) ps a subject of interesting inquiry, well worthy the attention both of the practical and scientific ag- riculturalist. But, say the advocates of the opposite system, what obstacle is there to the cultivation of clover .under the three-field rotation, with the addition of a standing pasture? To this I will simply object, that it is a begging of the question — that it con- stitutes no part of the system — that clover is prin- cipally valuable as a fallow crop for wheat — that corn requires a clean preparation, and (as gene- rally admitted,) seldom succeeds on a clover lay. It is in the application of manure, that the beauty of the system is particularly seen. Manure is to the farmer, what principal is to the money lender. The value of both depend upon the activity with which it is employed, and the return annually made, if it is a sound principle with the one, to .collect punctually every year his interest and add it to his principal, it must be a bad one for the other to await a precarious return but once in three years. There is nothing so discouraging to a farmer, as to find at the expiration of lhat time, all his labor lost, (as is the case in most of our soils,) and nothing but an increased necessity for renewed exertion. If his manure is to be evap- orated and lost, why not derive the benefit of it to a crop. Here the clover crop interposes its kind offices. By this it is taken up, secured from loss, held in trust for the benefit of the land, and in the admirable economy of nature, returned in a new and modified form to the purposes of its own sup- port. The value of clover admitted, and the practi- cability of its cultivation established, the superi- ority of the four-field fallow system must be con- ceded— three-iourths of your land being in active production, and the remaining portion under a course of regular and progressive improvement. The limits assigned to an article like this, (and which I have already greatly transcended,) forbid me farther to enlarge on the many other advan- tages which might here be mentioned. Facts, however, "after all afford the strongest arguments." Compare then those sections in which the two systems have been respectively pursued — point out the individual instances of success under each — show me the estate under the three-field sys- tem, which, either in its profits, or the rapidity of its improvement, can compare with that of Wood- stock, Westover, Shirly— raised as if by the manic of a system, from the ruin and desolation to which they were reduced, by the scourging effects of an opposite course. We have among us intelligence, energy, and enterprise — no where are the evi- dences of these more obvious — neatness, order, good cultivation, and general good management are striking features — and challenge from every observer a proud contrast, with that of most other sections of country. But yet our lands, with few exceptions, are scarcely stationary — our citizens, worn down with toil, and disappointed in their expectations, are seeking in the "far west," the land of hope and promise, and leaving to ruin and abandonment, the neglected fields and deserted homes of their fathers. Let others seek in the romance of their feelings, the wildness, vigor, and untamed luxuriance of the west. Give me, (and would that I could inspire others with the same hallowed feeling,) give me, the endearments of early life, the social enjoyments, and solid com- forts of the old states, pressing rapidly onward as they are, in their career of improvement, and destined as they soon must' be, to rival even the old world, in all the improvements and refined elegancies of life. W. T, T. Gloucester County, Stpr'd, 1835. FREDERICK AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES — RE- MARKS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE COUN- TRY, AND THE SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Most of the readers of the Farmers1 Register have heard much, and few comparatively have seen any thing of the Valley of Virginia, that par of it especially which borders upon the Shenan- doah and the Potomac rivers. Some remarks upon t-he character of the country, the system of cul- tivation, &c. may not be unacceptable to the pub lie. No part ot Virginia has been improved to sq great an extent, and with so great rapidity, as the region of country which I have mentioned. The best portion of the county of Frederick lies to the east of the Opequon and borders upon the Shenandoah river; it joins the beautiful county of Jefferson, which through its whole extent, hag the same river as its eastern border, and the Poto- mac river as its northern limit. The same vein of land runs through the upper and better portion of the state of Maryland, and through Pennsylva- nia to Philadelphia, embracing in its course, the justly celebrated counties of Cumberland, Lancas- ter, York, and many others. My remarks are in- tended to apply to the part of the county of Fred- erick above mentioned, and to the county of Jef- ferson, because with them I am familiar. The extraordinary point of improvement, fertility, and value to which the Pennsylvania portion of the valley has attained, has been produced by the ab- sence of slavery, and the consequent division and subdivision of the land into farms of from ten to one hundred acres. Of course we can enter neither into comparison nor competition with them in the absence of the cause of improvement to which I have referred. I believe however, that the por- tion of Virginia alluded to, is in no respect inferior, in natural fertility, to any part of Pennsylvania. Our lands are very much broken with ledges of limestone rock, causing great laborand expense in their cultivation — though this inconvenience is very unequally felt in different places, diminishing generally as we approach the rivers. The coun- 1S35.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 29 try is for the most part abundantly supplied with limestone streams — though we have reason to fear that this great advantage is lessening every year from summer droughts. Certain it is lhat both the springs and streams (lowing from them are much less copious than they have been within the re- collection of many living witnesses. In fact, the great enemy with which we have to contend is drought. Our lands burn easily from the great quantity of limestone at and near the surface, and hence our cropping is precarious, except vipon well improved lands. With all of these disadvantages, (and I may add to them a harsh and most capri- cious climate) agriculture is in a prosperous con- dition, and the price of'lands immensely high. It will be recollected that about the year 1817 lands had attained a price totally disproportioned to their productive value — from sixty to eighty dol- lars per acre being the current rate. The reac- tion, which afterwards followed, reduced them as much below as they had been above their real value. One of the best (arms in Jefferson coun- ty sold under my own observation, for twenty dol- lars per acre. It has now settled down at a mean between the two extremes, and the present value of good land may be fairly stated at from thirty to forty dollars. Clover and plaster of Paris are here, as else- where, the instruments of improvement. Soon after the introduction of plaster among us, our most energetic farmers used it with great effect; and judging that the benefit would be" proportion- ed to the quantity used, it was laid on with a lavish hand. Hence it resulted that the land became, as it was termed, "plaster sick," and no continuing benefit seeming to follow, it was in a great mea^ sure abandoned. The circumstance was eagerly seized upon by those averse to the expenditure of money upon their lands, to justify their neglect of its use altogether. As soon however, as the ef- fects of its former use had worn off" from the lands which had been benefited by it, it was discovered that the clover ceased to grow luxuriantly, and of consequence that there was an end of improve- ment, most sensibly felt in diminished productive- ness. It was therefore again brought into free use, and is now in as high favor as ever, with a much better understanding of its properties. No farmer now thinks of using clover without plas- ter, it beins; a concession, that it is entirely depen- dent upon this valuable auxiliary for ifs efficacy. Manuring is also extended as far as practicable by every one— though the manner of applying it is various. Many persons feed their stock through the winter upon the hills and- galled spots in the open fields. Others pen them near the straw- ricks, and leave the manure to be afterwards haul- ed upon the field where it may be wanted; while others (more particularly small farmers) adopt the old system of bringing every thing to the barn- yard. No attention is paid to mixing manures for compost: that which is in order is usually put upon the corn land in the spring, while the rough or only partly rotted is reserved for fallow in the au- tumn. The old practice of ploughing in the ma- nure generally prevails, though many^ofus have been induced by what we have read in the Farm- ers' Register, and elsewhere, to try the top-dress- ing, and I think the latter plan is growing into fa- vor. While I do not question its adaptation to the porous and sandy soils of the lower country, I have apprehended great loss from evaporation in our stiff', unyielding lands. It is a question of great importance, and it is hoped that continued discussion and experiment may lead to some satis- factory solution. Our staples are, as you know, wheat and corn; rye and oats are made forborne consumption. The market for corn has been confined to the neigbbor- hood sales, from its not. bearing the cost of distant transportation. Indeed, no effort is made to pro.r duceit beyond the point of home consumption, and the necessity of freeing the land from blue-grass. Wrheat is our only article of export, and every thing is made to yield to its culture. Here, as in almost every other part of Virginia, the land has been reduced by close grazing. We are, however, fast awaking to the impolicy of this course. Even those who have been in the habit of purchasing cattle for future sale, (the only profitable grazing,) are giving il up. We have no standing pastures, being dependent upon the cropping fields for pasture. Add to this, we have discovered at last, that our corn-stalks and straw will yield mote manure when wastetlilly given to a few cattle, than when altogether con- sumed by man}'. I do not think that a particular rotation of crops is much observed among us. We cultivate in corn those fields which are too grassy to promise a crop of wheat without cleaning, and generally fal- low in alternate years those which will answer tor wheat, as long as their condition will permit. I will here remark, that we understand the term "fallow" to mean exclusively those lands which have laid out of cultivation for a year or more, whether naked or in clover, and which are broken up for wheat in the summer and autumn. 1 think the term has been frequently used by your correspondents in a different sense. Corn field wheat, except when highly manured, very rarely yields a tolerable crop. Hence, a practice is last obtaining — more especially in Jefferson — of leav- ing the corn land over for fallow the succeeding year. However adverse to sound theory it may seem, to leave land thus naked, certain it is, that in practice it answers remarkably well; and I believe that it will be within a few years very commonly adopted. I understand that this practice is very general in Frederick and Washington counties, in Maryland, where the lands are admirably farmed. Our proper rotation will then be as follows: 1st. Corn. 2d. Rest. 3d. Wheat; followed by clover. 4th. Rest in clover. 5th. Wheat — growing a crop of corn and two of wheat fallow within five years. W'hen a good crop of clover has been turned under for wheat, many of our best farmers venture to stubble for a second crop. An interesting experiment has been tried upon corn land; just after the last ploughing, clover-seed has been sowed, and the result would have been highly satisfactory but for the summer drought, which we rarely escape. Corn land is also very often left over for oats and cloverin the spring, and has always produced better than other oat. land. The clover sown upon the fresh land immediately after the oats are harrowed in, will very generally succeed much better than when put in the usual way upon the wheat lands. The heavy expense attending the carriage of our products to market has been heretofore a great drawback upon the prosperity of the valjey, and 30 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. nothing except Hour has been available at all. A better day has now dawned upon us. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, both now in full and success- fid operation to Harper's Ferry, give us an outlet at that point, and have already "reduced the ex- pense in a very great degree. Within another year the completion of the Winchester and Poto- mac Rail Road to a junction with those great works, will leave us nothing to desire as to trans- portation, and must very materially enhance the value of our lands. Our prospects lor the present year have been marred by the unusual severity of the past winter. The cold and dry autumn prevented the vegeta- tion of the wheat in due time. It came up under the snow in January, and began to promise fairly, but the subsequent, intensity of the cold appears to have destroyed it in its tender state; and now it is very certain that the crop will be a very short one. The foregoing remarks are designed to describe things as they are in this part of Virginia, and al- though devoid of any particular novelty, may not be without interest to those who desire informa- tion. A FREDERICK FARMER. From Dr. Lardner's Second Lecture on Steam, Delivered be- fore the Liverpool Mechanics' Institution. NEW MOVING POWERS, AND IMPROVEMENTS ON THE USE OF STEAM. The celebrated Leslie has invented a method of producing ice, by the employment of sulphuric acid. This acid has such a strong affinity for wa- ter, that if it is present in an atmosphere filled I quify them. will again assume a liquid state; it may also be made solid, so as to take a shape like a metal. The most refractory substances we know of are capable of being converted into liquids by heat. All the metals we know of may be brought into a state of fusion by a proper supply of heat; indeed, all substances, by proper treatment, may be seen in the solid, fluid, and a>riform state. By turning the rays of the sun, through a lens, upon gold and pantinum, we can decompose them, and convert them into gas. There is only one solid which has not yielded to fusion, and that is carbon, or the diamond; but we can only conceive that we cannot reduce it, because we cannot command a sufficient quantity of heat to melt it and maintain it in a li- quid state. Of all liquid there is only one which has not been congealed by the abstraction of heat, and that is alcohol, or spirits of wine. We can only argue by analogy, that the bodies which exist in the gaseous state can be reduced to liquids or solids: which leads us to suppose that the substances known as atmospheric air, oxygen, hydrogen, &c. are, in fact nothing but the steam of various substances which cannot exist in the liquid state upon the surface of our globe without being deprived of a large portion of heat. This analogy has been confirmed by recent experiments and discoveries, particularly by those of our dis- tinguished countryman Farrady. Neither steam nor any gas can be reduced to a liquid by com- pression alone, however high the degree of com- pression applied to it, notwithstanding the asser- tions of superficial writers, and even of* some who are otherwise well informed, on the subject. But. if' by the compression we could squeeze out the heat from these gaseous bodies, we could then li- Dr. Farrady has substantiated this with vapor, it will immediately seize upon the va- por and incorporate it with itself. He places wa- ter in a watch-glass under an air-pump, with sul- phuric acid near it: the air being withdrawn from the pump, the sulphuric acid seizes upon the vapor as it rises from the water, and the water parting with all its heat to maintain the vapor, is conver- ted into ice. In perlbrming this experiment, it is necessary that the vessel containing the sulphuric acid should not be in contact with the water, otherwise the degree of heat which accompanies the combination of the vapor and the sulphuric- acid would prevent congelation taking place. A very pretty experiment, to prove that the at- mospheric pressure is a great agent in preventing water from boiling, can be performed with a flask half filled with boiling water, and closed at the neck. If it is in that state plunged into cold water, it will boil; but the ebullition will cease when plunged into boiling water. This is because the cold wa- ter condenses the steam in the upper part of the flask, and, by removing the pressure, allows the water to boil; whilst the hot water keeps up the temperature of the steam which presses on the surface of the water so as to prevent it boiling. From these investigations it may be concluded, that a liquid or gaseous^tate is not essential to the nature of any substance, but that its state is en- tirely dependent on the supply of heat which that substance has access to. We know that water can be passed through these three states, by the abstraction or the application of heat. Fluid mer- cury may be evaporated, and the fact ascertained by passing the vapor through a cold tube, and it by actually converting several gases into liquids. For instance: he found, that when carbonic acid gas was submitted to a pressure of 1000 lbs. on the square inch, it became a liquid. It must, however, be remarked, that as the pressure is increased, the temperature is raised; and it is not until the gas is cooled that liquid is produced. These facts, uni- ted with the other analogy, afford such a high de- gree of probability, that, to a reflecting mind, there can be no doubt that every substance, in parting with its heat to a certain extent, becomes a solid; and it is possible to conceive that it", by any circumstances, the temperature of our globe were raised sufficiently, the water of the ocean would no longer be able to exist in a liquid form, but would assume the state, of vapor, and mix with the at- mospheric air. By the same cause, many of the solids would be converted into liquids, and fill the body of the ocean, so that we should have an at- mosphere of steam, and an ocean of metal — a gold and a silver sea. Then, again by the process of evaporation, which causes liquids to pass into va- pors, we should see the iable of Jupiter descend- ing in a golden shower illustrated in golden and silvery showers. To carry the analogy still fur- ther; we know that water cannot exist in a liquid state at the poles. A slight decrease in the tem- perature of the globe, on a change of distance of the sun, would cause all the water of the earth to become solid; a further decrease would freeze the various gases, so that the air would drop down, and form an ocean of water; and a still further re- duction of temperature would convert it into a solid body. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 31 These circumstances suggest to a reflecting mind the beautiful adaptation of the different ob- jects on the globe to each other, and the distance of the earth lrom the sun. Otherwise, those substances which ought to be liquid, for the sus- tenance of animals, would subsist in the solid state. It is not at all improbable, that the different pla- nets have different substances in them, suitable to their distances from the sun; lor there is no doubt that the temperature is produced by the sun, and depends on the sun's distance from the planets, and its intensity is diminished in proportion to its distance. In the planet Ju- piter, the heat is twenty-five times less than it is with us; and water, on such a globe, could not ex- ist in a liquid state, unless heat was supplied from other causes than the sun. When we consider the prodigious mechanical power which has been obtained, by the mere abil- ity, on our part, to convert a liquid or water into steam, and reconvert that steam, into water; when we consider the enormous amount of human civili- zation which has been produced by the due appli- cation of this simple physical effect; when we con- sider, that it is probable that the relations of the human race may be altered and modified by this application, and the very distances of the differ- ent parts of the world be changed by a speedy in- tercourse, and the prices of the objects of con- sumption be ultimately affected by it; when all these effects are attained by the mere fact of our availing ourselves of the simple physical effect of converting water into vapor and back again, we naturally say, where there is so large a field, and so many different substances from which the effect may be produced, should we not expect, from the large advances which are making in the generali- zation of these principles, that this effect may be produced from other substances. Water possesses several properties which render it the most hope- less and unfit for such an experiment. In order to convert it into vapor, we, of course apply heat. The least promising liquid is that which requires the largest application of heat; and, of all liquids, water consumes the largest quantity ol heat, re- quiring 1000 degrees to raise it from a boiling state to a state of vapor: therefore, a priori, a philoso- pher would say, try spirits of wine, or a thousand other things, but do not try water, for this special reason. It may be said, that the cost and difficul- ty of producing any species of vapor does not de- pend upon the fuel necessary to produce it, but on the cost of the liquid itself. Supposing, then, we could get fuel for nothing, still water is the most unfit and unpromising agent. For instance: in the transport at sea, the source of heat is derived from coals, which are bulky, and are transported in the vessels in order to produce steam; the water at sea costs nothing: and, suppose the fuel cost nothing, still they must be carried, and they im- pose a limit to the application of the steam engine to the purposes of navigation. A vessel impelled by steam-power of 200 horses consumes one ton of coals per hour, or twenty-five tons per day: there- fore, to provide for a voyage of twelve days, it would have to carry with it twelve times twenty- five tons of coal. Thus, therefore, there is a limit to the application of steam navigation. It is gen- erally understood, that a vessel cannot carry more fuel than is necessary for the purpose of propelling it ten or eleven days; consequently, by the present steam impelling power, such a voyage as from Li v- erpool to New York could not be made lor any practical and advantageous purposes. In considering the prospects of improvement in these respects, we naturally look towards those li- quids which are most readily turned into gaseous lbrm. Ether and alcohol are easily converted into vapor, but in the way in which the steam power has been applied these liquids are rather expen- sive. If it was used in a high pressure engine the vapor would escape into the air and be lost, whilst, in a condensing engine, although not lost, it would be mixed with so much water that its sep- aration would be attended with a considerable ex- pense. There is only one other way in which it is possible to use alcohol, namely, by condensation, in contact with a cold surface. If we introduce the vapor of spirits of wine into a thin shell, formed by two bodies placed upon one another, after work- ing the engine, it will spread over the cold surface of the hollow shell, the steam will be reconverted into a liquid state, and trickle out at the bottom, so as to be wanned over again, and this might be carried on from time to time. But this great step must be followed by another improvement in the steam engine, especially for the purposes of transport both by land and by wa- ter, which will doubtless be cultivated in our own time. Jt is the application of the gases, and es- pecially of carbonic acid gas. in a liquid lbrm. If we could obtain carbonic acid in sufficient quantity, and on sufficiently moderate terms, there is no rea- son why it should not be employed to supercede steam at the present time. This gas takes the li- quid form at the common temperature, under a pressure of 1000 pounds, and in that state exerts a prodigious power, and from its small bulk, would ef- fect a saving of tonnage. The difficulty to its adop- tion lies in the price of the liquid, the providing of proper air-tight valves and pistons, and in guard- ing against the corrosion which the carbonic acid would cause in the materials themselves. But all these are matters of detail, and are at present but temporarily difficult, and we may, therefore, look forward to the superceding of coals altogether in the steam engine, by the use of the liquid carbon- ic acid, as nothing would be necessary except to send it into the receiver, and let the piston of the engine wTork as with steam; possibly it might be found expedient to apply heat, but a trifling degree only could be applied, as the power of the gas is so great that it has no bounds. Thus we should get rid of the magnitude of the marine boiler, and a thousand other inconveniences which attend it. We may, therefore look forward to the time when we may send our captains to sea with the wind that is to blow them in their waistcoat pocket; and it is not impossible, that we may get rid of those ugly smoky chimneys! which are at once so un- poetical and unpicturesque, and against which our sailors so bitterly complain, because they deface the surface of our beautiful sea. OPERATION OF THE FENCE LAW ON THE POOR. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Brumioick, May 1st, 1835. Although my experience or success will per- haps not justify any attempt by me to enlighten our people on the subject of agriculture, 1 am etill 32 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. induced to hope from every day observation, that I may say something which will be of service to some one individual, who might be more active, and exert more influence in behalf of our own old Virginia. Mr. Editor, it is not enough lor me, to hear that a man is a patriot — he must be a Virginia patriot. Have we not great reason to doubt the patriotism of our political editors, when we see room, and to spare, in their papers, (if we are to judge from the trash which they sometimes present to us,) and not one single extract from your invaluable paper? Are they afraid of infringing upon your rights, or do they believe that your paper, (as good as all of them acknowledge it to be) is taken by all of our citizens? Or are they so absorbed in the subject of politics, as not to see that it would benefit rather than injure your paper? Or are they indeed ene- mies to the formerly sturdy and honest, but now withering and disreputable agriculture of this good old commonwealth? I would not charge them with want of patriotism, or with being ene- mies to the cause of agriculture; but I would charge them with a heedless forget fulness of the best interest of our people. There is an old proverb frequently used to pre- vent poor people from marrying, that "when pov- erty comes in at the door, love will jump out at the window," which although not always true, is somewhat applicable to patriotism. When pover- ty comes in. patriotism, I was going to say, would take its departure, but at all events I will say, we. see daily the hardy yeomanry of our state, when they begin to feel the secret but chilling blight of penury creeping in upon them, after a long and desperate struggle between patriotism, and the want of bread, yielding to the imperious require- ments of the first law of nature, and Avith almost bursting hearts, bidding farewell to the land of their nativity to seek a home in a more plentiful country. But sir what is the remedy for this- state of things? You will say, improve our lands and the people will not move. But how are we to im- prove our lands? In many ways, which our peo- ple will not listen to, but which they might be in- duced to attend to if proper means were used. Cannot the press throughout the state be enlisted, to encourage agricultural societies — to call upon enlightened practical farmers, when they are elec- tioneering, if at no other time, to give their more uninformed neighbors some new notions on farm- ing, and whilst they enlist their feelings in favor of the candidate of their choice, enlist them also on the side of agriculture — which is to injure no par- ty, but enable them to enjoy more perfectly the blessings of civil liberty in their native land. Mr. Editor, I differ from you, if you think your paper alone sufficient to bring about an entire reforma- tion in a short time.* " There are a great many * Most assuredly we hold no such opinion — and none could be more absurd, at least while our sub- scribers do not amount to a fiftieth part of the far- mers, even in Eastern Virginia — and perhaps bear no greater proportion to the number of those who read party politics, and almost nothing else — a kind of reading, which alone, and especially when (as is usu- ol" our good citizens who take political and other papers who do not take yours, but who might be induced to read communications in your paper upon the recommendation of their favorite politi- cal editor. But there is one subject particularly on which we need the aid of the press generally and that is the present fence law. We would not ask them to join us, but only to call upon the people to examine the subject fully and impartially, but par- ticularly that the poor would look into it— for late- ly it has been objected that the poor would be op- pressed by the alteration. And when I took my seat to write it was mainly to say something on the subject of the fence law, as oppressive to the poor. And although you may be tired of my stuff, I will try and give you some of my notions on that subject. I take it tor granted that the richer class of the community ought generally, as they have the means, to be the most enlightened; and if so,< they will very readily see the propriety of uniting in support of the proposed alteration: unless in- deed they, or some of them, see the benefit which the poor would derive from it, and be unwilling that they should receive and enjoy that benefit. I have the charity to believe that there are very few, if any of that sort. But that it would not oppress the poor, I shall try to give a few amongst a great many reasons. I will start with thi3 self-" evident proposition, that it requires half as much' fencing to enclose a square of one hundred acres* of land that it requires to enclose a square of four hundred. The richer man has a tract of land of eight hundred acres, half of which, is arable land; the poorer man has a tract of two hundred acres with the proportionate quantity of one hundred acres of arable land. The richer man has twenty hands on his farm, the poorer the proportionate number of five. The poorer man, (I use the comparative degree as 6rie would not be consider- ed very rich or the other very poor,) has to per- form-annually with one-fourth the hands half the labor in fencing that his richer neighbor does: and the richer man has to cut annually twenty acres of his wood land for the purpose of fencing with his twenty hands whilst the poorer has to cut, not al) confined to one side, teaches more falsehood than truth, and results more in ignorance than knowledge. In reply to a previous observation of our correspond- ent— so far from Considering the extracting for repub- lication from this journal', however frequently or co- piously, as "infringing on our rights," it would be highly gratifying: and whether beneficial to our prij vate interest or not, it would be greatly aiding what- ever the Farmers' Register can do for the service of agriculture. But the true and sufficient reason for ex- tracts being so seldom made by our brother editors, is simply this: their object is to make their papers as agreeable as possible to their readers and patrons — and to the great majority of them, subjects of party politics and their usual accompaniments and embellishments, are the most pleasing. The censures of our corres- pondent then should be bestowed on the general taste of readers, even among the agricultural class, and not on the editors who minister to their pleasure, and aim to supply their intellectual demands. — Ed. Far. Reg. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 33 five acres in proportion to his hands, but ten acres, since he has half the fencing to do which the rich- er one has to perform. But pursue the conse- quences: the poorer man in half the number of years has been obliged to cut down all his wood land, and the richer one by the same necessary course has only cut down double the quantity which the poorer has cut, and has still a good chance of woods left. And now see the condition of the poorer man compared with his richer neigh- bor. His neighbor having had less fencing, (Tut- ting, mauling, and hauling rails to do, has had more time to improve his land, (which improve- ment has been much less in consequence of the present law,) has in some sort gotten along in the world, and perhaps has a little money; whilst the other poor man, from the want of timber, is obliged to sell his land. His farm is now in market with- out a rail tree upon it. Who are the bidders? not his neighbors in moderate circumstances — no, they cannot buy for the same cause that has brought him to want, and because the land has no timber; but his richer neighbor, without an oppo- nent, buys it at his own price, because he can open the wings of his fence and easily enclose so small a piece in a body with a large one; and the poor man is forced to leave all that is near and dear to him, and seek a home in a new country, not more highly favored than originally our beloved Virgi- nia. And there is another view of the matter; the poorer man, from the weakness of his force, and the over proportion of his fencing, is apt to neglect his fence, and his richer neighbor's stock, four times as large as his own, break in upon him when he is perhaps from home, and destroy half his crop in one day — and then the falling out that takes place not only between them, but perhaps half the neighborhood are engaged in this dispute. Do you not perceive by the above named course, that the circumstance of our state being cut up into small tracts of land, has, under the present law, either driven from us the hardy yeomanry of the country, or brought upon many of them such abject poverty, as to render them very useless citi- zens; and that Virginia has principally been im- poverished by the same circumstance, and its con- sequences. Thus, if the above reflections are sound, we see that the poorer a man is, the more oppressive in proportion is this odious law. It may be objected that there are some so poor as to own no land at all, and that this rule will not apply to such. But how many poor have we who could rent and would cultivate a piece of land, which they might get for a very small sum, if it were not for the cost and labor of enclosing it; and how much waste land would the poor be allowed to cultivate, merely for the sake of having a small piece of meadow cleaned up for the proprietor, which meadow would yield the tenant an abun- dant supply of provender for all his stock. But Mr. Editor it is not for me to use such little argu- ments to trouble j ou — but our object should be to induce the people to attend to us whilst we give these arguments by word of mouth. WAQUA. date. In the seventeenth number of the Dublin University Magazine, there is a quotation from the writings of Donat, who was himself an Irish- man, and Bishop of Fesula?, near Florence, and who about the year 820, wrote a brief description of Ireland, in which the following passage oc- curs:— "Nulla venena nocent, nee serpens serpitin herba; Nee conquesta canit garrula rana lacu." "At this very hour," says our respected contempo- rary, "we have neither snakes nor venomous rep- tiles in this island; and we know, that, for the first time, frog-spawn was brought from England in the year 1G96, by one of the fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, and placed in a ditch in the Uni- versity park or pleasure ground, from which these very prolific colonists sent out their croaking detach- ments through the adjacent country, whose pro- geny spread from field to field through the whole kingdom. No statue has yet been erected to the memory of the natural philosopher who enriched our island with so very valuable an importation of melodious and beautiful creatures." We may state, however, that we have learned from good authority, that a recent importation of snakes has been made, and that they are at present multiply- ing rapidly within a tew miles of the tomb of St. Patrick. From Dublin Medical and Chemical Journal. INTRODUCTION OF FROGS INTO IRELAND. It is not generally known that the introduction of frogs into Ireland is of comparatively recent Vol. Ill— 5 THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF HEAT ON CUL- TIVATED LAND. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Fauquier, April 21sf3 1835. In two communications I addressed to you in February last, I stated that u heat is a great des- troyer of the vegetative or nutritious principles of the earth.'''' So far as I then knew, or now know, that opinion is peculiar tome. Its novelty, and the rational deduction of the fact from the pre- mises, justified its publication, in the double hope of establishing its truth, or of exposing the error. Mr. James Fife has contested its correctness; and while I have neither leisure nor inclination to dis- cuss, with labored minuteness, my own opinion, or his replication, I will proceed to make a brief reply. Mr. Fife says, in submitting "some difficulties that lie in the way of my proposition and illustra- tion," he could, "for example, select lands in the torrid zone, exposed to the heat of a vertical sun, and producing large crops, notwithstanding the frequent stirring in the hottest time. How is this, if the sun kills the nutritious principles of the earth?" It is said there are exceptions to all ge- neral rules, and correctly. Mr. Fife may know of some land in the torrid zone which produces "large crops, notwithstanding the frequent stirring in the hottest time;" but, I marvel greatly if such be the fact. Let it be borne in mind that I have not said that one crop, or two, or ten crops of corn, tobacco or any other plant, would in every grade and variety of soil produce effects equally injurious. I did not, and could not say. that rich river low ground would be exhausted as soon as poor river hills. The poorer land is, the easier is it reduced to sterility. Now, it must be obvious to the ca- pacity of every man, that land under the torrid zone which has been often cultivated and still pro- 34 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 1. duces good crops, must have been, originally very fine, or have been made good. II' it was originally good, I venture to say it is now worse, unless improved by art. Will Mr. Fife say, that, after repeated consecutive cultivation by that mi- nister of desolation, the shovel plough, ir is as good as when first the forest was lelled? Can he venture such a declaration in the face of the whole earth? The testimony of every man — of every ''beast that bites the grass or browses on the shrub" will confront and confound him. I will not at- tempt to prove what is universally known to be true, that all land — land of every grade of fertility, of every geological base, from barren sand to the deep and inexhaustible beds of alluvion on the shores of the Mississippi, deteriorates under the cultivation of corn, cotton, tobacco and other spring crops, which require the earth to be kept pulverized until the plant is matured. But, it de- teriorates in a greater or less degree as the land is poorer or richer. The thin soil of sand hills van- ishes in the third crop of corn, cotton or tobacco; while the soil of the Mississippi, the Red River, the Yazoo or Big Black, twenty feet deep, cannot be exhausted till the bottom be reached; for as the vegetable mould of which it is composed sinks beneath the exhausting action of the sun, the plough descends with it to a bed not hereto- fore disturbed. It may be, that land in the torrid zone, of the same base, is not so much injured by cultivation as in our latitude. The rains of that region are more frequent, and dews manifold more copious than in Virginia The moisture of a southern atmosphere is, also, a part, and a lead- ing part of its natural history. Here our summers are dry, and the sun more intense than far south of us. They are, at stated hours of the day, re- freshened, by steady breezes from the sea always charged with invigorating salt-water vapor; and at night their copious dews impart a delightful coolness to the air. Here we have, occasionally, slight breezes — generally dry; slight dews till late in the summer, and hot nights. In the north the land is not galled as here, in part owing to three causes about equal in their effects: — the sun af- fects us two months longer in the year than it docs them— their land is better cultivated, and there is no negro labor to beget idleness and its handmaids, shovel ploughs, new hopes and disappointed ex- pectations, rags and debt. It is known to all, that one of the principal means of improving worn out land, is the mould- board ploughs, the bar-shares of my friends and countrymen, McCormick, Stewart, Kemper, Fletcher and Green. The benefit is derived, in my opinion, from various causes. The earth which has been exhausted by the sun is turned under, where it is kept till the next fallow, while the loam or other soil never before reached by the plough is thrown to the top, where, from the ac- tion of the sun, rain and atmosphere, noxious principles are expelled or neutralized, or those that are valuable are imbibed. I suppose that Mr. Fife did not understand me to say, that the eun, in all the degrees of its influence on the earth, is injurious. All crops that require frequent ploughing in the spring and summer, corn, cotton, tobacco, tur- nips, &c, have the character of exhausting crops, when others that yield as much in weight are known not to impoverish the ground: for instance, wheat and rye. If it were not the mode and pe- riod of cultivation that does the injury, principally by exposure to the sun, all crops of equal weight would reasonably do equal harm. The universal testimony of experience is, however, that corn, cotton, tobacco and turnips, are exhausting, and, that wheat and rye are improving crops. What other cause than the mode of cultivation can in- duce so great an injury? The repeated plough- ingSj erroneously deemed to be necessary to make thesa crops, renders the earth so light or loose as to receive the heat of the sun to the depth of the ploughing. The top earth is most injured because most exposed to the sun, and after it has been subjected to his rays for some time, another sur- face is thrown up by another ploughing, and so on, till the whole body ploughed for corn, &c. is successively operated upon, and finally, the whole is left open for years before it regains its former compactness. Clay from the bottom of wells, cellars, &c. after a few years produces luxuriantly. As to Mr. Fife's notion that the mixing of wa- ter with earth destroys the fertility of the earth, I can say no more, than it i* the first time 1 ever heard that water was not a valuable, nay, an in- dispensable agent in the growth of vegetables. Heat is also indispensable; but too much of either destroys vegetable lite; and "mortar" contains too much of the former. It is true, that by mixing water and earth more intimately than by the usu- al falling of rain, when dried it is harder; but no other injury can be done by the admixture. If it can, the more rain the greater the injury; and what then becomes of the well established lact of the fertilizing properties of water? The bottoms of rivers and ponds too would be very poor instead of being very rich. Roads that have been used for seventy years, although trampled thousands of times more than mortar for bricks, it is every day's practice to reclaim by the usual methods of im- provements. Let me here make the conjecture, that if the dust of hard burnt bricks be subjected to the same means of improvement with well trodden roads or dried "mortar," that the end will be a thorough conviction of the impracticability of the one, and the easy accomplishment of the other. Mr. Fife is respectfully advised to visit north Alabama, (the great bend of the Tennessee,) a country of as high reputation for fertility, a few years ago, as any in the south, and see for himself) its present thriftless condition. Originally, indeed, not more than fifteen years ago, very rich, of dark red loam, with a surface among the most beautiful and convenient for the purposes of agriculture on earth; the effects of the sun upon it, exposed as it has been by shallow ploughing, have been ruin- ous. Corn and cotton have thus ruined that, as com and tobacco have this country. Again let Mr. Fife tjo into the Dutch settlements of Rock- ingham, Shenandoah, Loudoun: to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, where they have to a very small extent cultivated corn; where wheat and rye are the staples and are produced abun- dantly, and he will see the difference between those regions, and the land of corn, tobacco, and cotton. It is generally thought that the hickory, lombar- dy poplar, &c. exhaust the earth, and that the yellow locust improves it. The instances cited are where the land is cultivated in corn or other spring crops. The earth under the former is gene- 1335.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 85 rally exhausted where it is cultivated; but not so under the latter. The reason is that the roots of the ionner are much more shallow than those of the locust, and of course, the ploughing is not deep. The body of earth thrown up by the plough under the poplar and hickory, is not half eo deep as under the locust, and the power of the sun is proportionally greater on it. Who is he that can point out the difference in the fertility of the ground well covered by grass, where the largest poplars and locusts have grown for many years in the same yard? The earth under trees, whose roots are shallow, is merely scratched on the first ploughing, and from the repetition of it appears to be dead or exhausted; while under the locust, the apple, the peach tree, &c. &c, whose roots are deep and not reached by the plough, its advances in improvement are at least as last as where there, is not a tree. My communication is growing too long, and whatever other views I have, must, if at all, be forwarded to you hereafter. Such as are here thrown together depend rather on the experience than the theories of men. J. R. WALLACE. From the Genesee Farmer. THE BUFFALO BERRY. Last autumn we procured of Judge Buel, three trees of the buffalo berry; and this spring when they came into flower, we found that one plant is staminate and the other two pistillate. This dis- covery is very gratifying; for it is well known that like the date palm, none of these trees are expect- ed to be productive unless both sexes grow in the same neighborhood. Whether there is any way to propagate them except by the seed, we have not been informed. Last year we tried layers on another plant which we had previously obtained; but none of them rooted. If it could be increased by some such mode, we could then be certain of having both kinds; and we should not be subject- ed to the risk of having only one sort when we procure two trees. If they can be readily in- creased only by seeds however, it will be well to purchase only such trees from the nurseries, as have had blossoms; and as these appear while the trees are small, this precaution will not be at- tended with much inconvenience. Ours are not five feet high. From the Genesee Farmer. THE OSAGE ORANGE. We have been informed that this fruit ripened the last season for the first time, east of the moun- tains. Our friend T. S. Pleasant has kindly sup- plied us with seeds from his trees at Beaverdam in Virginia; and we have now a number of plants which sprung from them in a hot-bed. They ger- minate freely. This tree is also dicecious. We have a pistil- late plant eight or nine, feet high, which now ap- pears to be preparing to blossom; but as this is the only tree of the sort in our possession, we can- not expect much fruit — which however is only to be prized as a curiosity, or as the means of propa- gation. Pistillate trees indeed, sometimes pro- duce hermaphrodite flowers, and consequently some fruit; but never in much quantity; and this exception to a general rule, seems only to be a provision of nature for preserving the species un- der extraordinary circumstances. With layers of this tree we have always been unsuccessful; and equally so with cuttings of the branches, though we have succeeded with pieces of the root. Whether we shall hereafter become more skilful or not, is uncertain, but at present we are inclined to believe it can be most readily in- creased by the seeds. From Jameson's Philosophical Journal. SUBTERRANEAN LAKE AND ITS INHABITANTS. "The most striking example which we can men- tion of a subterranean sheet of water, of a vary- inglevel, is that of the Lake Zirknitz, in Carniola. This lake is about six miles long by three broad. Towards the middle of summer, if the season be dry, its surface rapidly falls, and in a few weeks it is completely dry. The openings by which the waters retire beneath the soil may then be distinct- ly perceived, sometimes quite vertical, and in other places bearing a lateral direction towards the ca- verns which abound in the«urrounding mountains. Immediately after the retreat of the waters, all the extent of the surface which they covered is put under cultivation, and at the end of a couple of months, the peasants are mowing hay, or reaping millet and rye, in the very spot where, some time before, they were fishing tench and pike. To- wards the end of autumn, and after the tains of that season, the waters return by the same natural channels which had opened a passage for them at the time of their departure. The description which we have just given of the inundations and retreat of the water, is the regular and common occur- rence; but every extraordinary atmospheric change is apt to interfere with this order. Sometimes a very heavy fall of rain on the mountains with which Zirknitz is surrounded occasions an over- flowing of the subterranean lake, which advances, during many hours, so as to cover with its waters the land which lies over it. "Very singular peculiarities have been remark- ed as belonging to these different openings in the earth: some of them supply nothing but water; others supply a passage both to water and to fishes of a greater and smaller size; and there is a third class by which ducks are supplied from the sub- terranean lake. •'These ducks, at the moment that the water floats them to the surface above ground, swim with perfect facility. They are completely blind, and almost naked. The faculty of sight, however, is very speedily acquired; but it is not till after two or three weeks that their feathers, which are black, except in the head, are so grown as to allow them to fly. Valvasor visited the lake in 1687. He himself caught a great number of these ducks; and saw the peasants catch individuals of the Mustela fluviatilis, which weighed two or three pounds, tench of from six to seven pounds, and, finally, pike from twenty to thirty, and even to forty pounds weight. Here, then, it will be per- ceived, that we have not only an immense subter- ranean sheet of water, but a real lake, with the fishes and ducks which frequent the common lakes of the country." 36 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. For the Farmers' Register. REVIEW. Survey of the tide-water region of Maryland, and report thereon, by J. T. Ducatel, Svo. pp. 61. Document published by order of the Legislature of Maryland. The legislature of Maryland has latterly, in sev- eral important matters, exhibited a rare and lau- dable degree of attention to the general improve- ment of that state — and the means adopted to for- ward that great end, are manifestly not planned in subserviency to any narrow minded feelings ol sectional jealousy, but are dictated by a liberal and patriotic disposition to use the means of all. for the general benefit of all. May the results be fully commensurate in reward with the enlighten- ed acts and liberal means employed, and with the noble spirit which has prompted them. Among the several means for promoting "inter- nal improvements" — (a term generally, and with a singular degree of incorrectness confined in the United States to making roads and canals — ) one of the least costly, and which was probably con- sidered as of least importance, was directing to be made a geological survey of the territory of Maryland. But it may well be doubted whether the future benefits of a well conducted examina- tion of the mineral treasures of the state, the making known all its dormant resources of wealth, and the instructing its citizens as to the man- ner of reaping such rewards, might not yield a richer harvest, than even the millions ot dollars bestowed upon its magnificent canal and railway- And even if the actual plan, and consequently its execution, be defective, the benefits to be derived, though produced indirectly in a considerable de- gree, will nevertheless be of great value. We shall make free to point out what appear to be some of the defects either of plan, or of execu- tion: and this freedom will be used the more rea- dily because of the high value attached to the ge- neral plan, and the anticipations of beneficial re- sults from its execution, so far as it has been com- pleted, not only to Maryland, but to her sister states — to whom, in this "respect, she has offered an example already followed by Virginia, and which will doubtless extend farther. The most important and most abundant sub- stance, by far, among the mineral resources of wealth in lower Maryland, is the immense under- lying deposite of shell-marl. Accordingly, the various beds, their localities, qualities, and practi- cal value as manure, constitute the greater part of the matters embraced in the report. This exhi- bition cannot fail to increase the zeal and industry of the farmers who have already been deriving profit from this manure, and to attract attention from, and invite to similar efforts, the still greater number who have heretofore possessed this re- source of wealth without knowing or enjoying its benefits: and persons elsewhere will also learn to attach a more correct estimation to the great im- provable value of this highly favored, and yet heretofore neglected and undervalued region- abused as in Virginia, both by the opinions of strangers, and by the practices of its cultivators. The report has so far only embraced the tide-wa- ter region of Maryland, and the remarks on it which it is proposed to offer, will be confined to the most important object of investigation — the beds of marl. The results of the geologist's own observa- tions will be copied at length. "Southern limits of the shell-marl deposite onthe Eastern Shore of Maryland, available for agricultural pur- poses. "There is reason to believe, as stated in a previous report, that this shell-marl deposite underlies the whole of the country between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays, even to its extreme limits; but, as was also pre- viously observed, it evidently inclines on the Chesa- peake side, from the summit level of the peninsula to the water's edge. The dip of the formation is at an angle of about 5° from north-east to south-west. The inclination is not, however conformable to, though in the same direction with that of the country; a circum- stance which it is important to attend to, as a neglect of it might cause fallacious expectations to be enter- tained of the discovery of marl in situations at its north-east extremity where it lies too deep, for pro- fitable extraction; and, on the other hand, might dis- suade from a justifiable research in situations at its south-west extremity, where though lying low and the country flat, it still may be found at a small distance only below the surface of the soil. It is likewise ne- cessary to bear in mind what has already been said on a former occasion, that the surface of the marl depos- ite undulates; so that, it not unfrequently happens that the opposite banks of an inlet, present to view the summits of two waves of marl, so to speak, the trough of which constitutes the bed of the creek. "Observations so far made seem to indicate that south of the Choptank, in Dorcbester county — in the lower portions of the county — the marl in general lies too low to be advantageously extracted. It has been reached in the sinking of wells; but the only place where any indications of it present themselves above tide, is on the Choptank, west of Cambridge — at a spot called Sandy Hill. The material alluded to is co- vered by a stratum of sand from fifteen to twenty feet, contains impressions of scallop, clam, and other shells, and was observed in the high banks of the river, from the spot just named to beyond Castle-Haven. Subjected to analysis it was found to consist of carbo- nate of lime 23, silica 58, alumine 13, and a small pro- portion of iron. This is no doubt a continuation of the shell-marl deposite of Talbot county; and as no other indications of marl have been observed south of the Choptank, in Dorchester county, it may proba- bly be assigned as the limit of that deposite in this di- rection. It is not pretended however, to exclude by this assignation the upper parts of said county which have not yet been examined. ''Principal location of the shell-marl deposites between the Choptank and Chester rivers. "These deposites are in Caroline, Queen Ann's and Talbot counties, and will be most conveniently indica- ted under the head of each county. "Caroline county. — At the head of the navigation of the north-west fork of the Nanticoke, at Federalsburg, there is a deposite of marl which lies high, and in a veiy accessible position; it owes its formation to an ac- cumulation of fossil oysters, and other small marine shell-fish, some of them extremely delicate, giving ev- idence by the integrity of their parts that they have originated and died where their testaceous coverings are now discovered, and appear to have been subse- quently enveloped in a deposite of clay. The material of this deposite may emphatically be called shell-marl: the enveloping clay contains from fifteen to twenty per cent, of calcareous matter, and the chief constituent of the fossils is the same fertilizing agent. The soil of the surrounding country is principally a light sandy loam; so that the marl which has just been described 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 37 consisting principally of carbonate of lime, and alumi- nous particles, is no doubt adniirab'y fitted to impart to it the physical and chemical properties requisite to con- stitute a good soil. "At. Greensborough, the marl forms the substratum of the soil upon which the village is built. It breaks out on the west bank of the river, a few feet above tide. At low tide, it becomes very accessible, and from the nature of its constituents, as exhibited in the appended table, showing the result of the chemical analysis of the marls from the several localities in Caroline county, and the condition of the superincumbent soil, it will be perceived, that it must furnish a material of great value lor the improvement of the latter. Reference must be made for the analysis of this marl, to No. 1. of the table. "At Denton, or rather in its vicinity, several locali- ties of marl were discovered, principally on the head streams of Watt's branch. They are generally, of ex- cellent quality, and well adapted to use on the spots and in the vicinity of where they occur. See Nos. 2 and 3 of the table. "Three miles below Denton, on the east side of the Choptank, there occurs a considerable deposite of fos- sil oysters, forming the mass of the banks of the river, from fifteen to twenty feet above tide. The neighbor- ingcountry would derive great advantage from the gen- eral use of this material, and every consideration oi individual interest and public usefulness, was accord- ingly presented to the proprietor of these valuable banks to induce him to employ their contents on his own lands, or dispose of a portion of them to neighbors willing to purchase. It is to be believed, that an in- telligent citizen cannot long resist any proper appeal made to him, when conducive both to private interest and to public good." pp. 14 to 17. This appears to be saying indirectly that the "intelligent citizen" had to that time not only re- fused to use manure from this inexhaustible body, but to permit it to be used by his "neighbors wil- ling to purchase" — and it is only "believed" that "he cannot long resist any proper appeal made to him when conducive both to private interest and public good." If this is the meaning of the pas- sage, the compliment to the marl bank and its owner is equivalent to a strong expression of de- served contempt for the latter. "Another much more extensive, and more decidedly marly deposite, occurs on the estate of General Pot- ter, at Potter's landing on the Choptank, between Ko- kias creek and Watt's branch. It affords several vari- eties of marl, (Nos. 4 and 5.) It is covered by a blue earth, which on analysis yielded the following constit- uents: alumine 10; carbonate of lime 9; silica 70, &c. This article might also be advantageously employed as an amendment to the soil by which it is overlaid; it is, in fact, a sandy marl. The enlightened and patriotic proprietor of this estate, has expressed his willingness to supply his neighbors with such quantities of these materials, as would afford them the means of satisfying themselves as to their efficacy." p. 17. The owner of marl has as good right to sell it as any other commodity — though in some other places it is a thing unheard of for any man hav- ing an inexhaustible supply, not to give it. freely to his neighbors. But it is a strange waste of en- comium to speak thus in commendation of this "enlightened and patriotic proprietor" merely for having "expressed his willingness to supply his neighbors with such quantities as would afford them the means of satisfying themselves as to the efficacy" of his marl — that is, to let them test its value for his own future benefit. "In the neighborhood of Hillsborough, marl of very good quality has, likewise been discovered. "Queen .Jnn's County. — An important and valuable deposite occurs at the head of south-east creek, in the vicinity of Church Hill. It is found on a farm be- longing to Judge Earle;at present, the residence of Walter J. Clayton, Esq. by whom it was made known. Its analysis is given at No. 6 of the table. Similar de- posites may be expected to make their appearance at the heads of the several creeks, having a common es- tuary with the one just mentioned; namely, Hamilton creek and Island creek. Accordingly, an analogous deposite has been traced in the direction of the head of these creeks, to the north-east side of Corsica creek, reaching into that section of Queen Ann's county, known as Spaniard's neck. "On the south-west side of Corsica creek, extend- ing to the head of the branch south of Centreville, the marl is abundantly diffused. Nos. 7,8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 indicate the constituents of the various kinds found in this region, the samples of which, have been furnished by the gentlemen whose names are given in the marginal column of the table. "Continuing in the same direction, being in a line north-east and south-west, to the head of Reed's creek, marl of superior quality (No. 14,) is found on the estate designated, as belonging to Maxwell's heirs. It is composed principally, of that variety of fossil shells, known in popular language, as pearl shells (Perna Maxilla.) These broad, thick shells, closely compact- ed together in the deposites, exfoliate, and crumble into almost an impalpable powder, by the least exposure to the air. They thus yield readily and abundantly, their calcareous particles to the soil. Finally on Back Wye, where abundance, goodness of quality, and a judicious application on the part of those who are so fortunate as to possess the material, have co-operated, the most extensive benefits have al- ready been realized. Nos. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 of the table, indicate the chemical analyses; fossil consti- tuents and localities of the marl in this section of the country. Nos. 21 and 22 indicate the constituents of two samples of shell-marl from Chew's island, taken from the estate of William Paca, Esq. "Talbot County. — Nearly the whole of this county is underlaid by marl; but it presents itself under a va- riety of circumstances of unequal facilities for extrac- tion, and is, as elsewhere, of very variable qualities. "On the Talbot side of the Tuckahoe branch of the Choptank, it occurs in the high banks of the river from six to ten feet below the surface; but is exposed to view in the ravines that make down to the river. As every where else, it is undulating on the surface, oc- curring in a distinct stratum, from three to five feet in thickness, the inferior level of which, is six feet above high water mark; it is frequently covered by a crust of indurated marl mixed with sand, evidently caused by the action of the waters, which filtering through the loose soil above, on reaching the marl bed, have facili- tated its decomposition, removing a portion of its cal- careous constituents and depositing in their stead, sili- cious particles. The most remarkable deposite of this kind, is about three miles south of Hillsborough, on the farm of Thomas O. Martin, Esq.; a more interesting one, in every respect, can scarcely be pointed out in any other part of the county. In this place, the banks are elevated from thirty to forty feet above the river, and the deep ravines that descend to it, greatly facili- tate the extraction of the material at all seasons of the year. This place may be mentioned as the only spot at which the bottom of the marl deposite is known to have been reached; unfortunately, the excavation was not sufficiently extensive to allow a satisfactory exami- nation of its substratum; it appeared to consist in a stiff blue clay. The analysis of the marl from this locality, is given at No. 23 of the table. "Descending the Tuckahoe into the Choptank, a little below Kingston, we reach the mouth of King's 38 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 1. creek. The high banks on the inlet of this creek ex- hibit thick buds of good marl, (No. 24,) the shells of which are imbedded in a stiff clay. The bed at one lo- cality— on the farm of Mr. William Pratt — is covered by a thick stratum of a very plastic chocolate-colored clay, which itself might serve as a useful amendment to the thin soils of the surrounding country. "J3ut perhaps the most valuable beds of shell-marl in this part of Talbot county, inasmuch as they may be made extensively available to the public demands for the article, are those which were fully described in the preceding report. They occur three miles below Dover bridge, forming the high bank from fifteen to twenty feet above tide, being one compact mass of fos- sil shells, and extending nearly a mile along the river, on the farms of the late Col. Smyth and Mr. Atkinson. These beds are in contiguous strata, apparently succes- sive, and consist of vast accumulations, principally, in the asscending order, of oyster shells, succeeded by clam shells intermixed with other marine shells, scal- lop, clam and scallop, and uppermost principally of scallop. Endeavor was made to bring these beds into notice, witli a view of enlisting them into the public service, by giving to their proprietors what was deem- ed proper directions for extracting the material, and salutary advice as to a just estimate of its value, in or- der to secure a constant and permanent disposal of it. The subject is now in progress of experiment. South of these banks on the Choptank, no other deposite of marl is known to occur." p. 19. Several of the foregoing passages, in addition to many other incidental remarks through the re- port, exhibit in many of the land owners a decree of neglect and ignorance of the value of their bo- dies of jbssil shells, which is the more strange and unaccountable, when it is considered that the first known profitable use of this manure was made thirty years ago in part of this region of coun- try, (by Mr. Singleton) and that the example had been successfully followed on many other farms in Talbot and Queen Anne's counties. The prac- tice has not to this day extended to the Western Shore of Maryland, where the means are unlimit- ed, as is seen in a subsequent passage which will be extracted from this report. The reader would naturally desire to know, but is not informed, whether the "plastic clay" men- tioned in the last paragraph but one, is recom- mended for manure, supposing it to be merely a clay, or as containing other useful ingredients. "It will have been remarked, that these deposites are described as lying high above tide. It is, in fact, from this boundary of the county, that the dip from north- east to south-west in the marl deposite previously al- luded to, becomes most apparent: occurring so far in Talbot county, only a small distance below the surface of the soil, it now becomes covered in the middle dis- tricts by a heavy coat of gravel and sand, extending from north to south from the head of Wye to the Chop- tank, and reappears again at a lower level on the banks, at the termination of the numerous inlets that so conveniently and beautifully intersect the lower por- tions of the county. "A reference to Map A, appended to this report, will convey a better idea of the extent and numerous local- ities of shell-marl in this section of the state, than a bare mention of them by name could do. Suffice it to say in this place, that a line drawn from the head of Skipton creek, touching the intervening creek between this and Dividing creek, and perhaps, prolonged to the Choptank, would limit the eastern boundary of that portion of the territory which embraces the great shell- marl formation of the county; whilst another line from the mouth of Pickering creek, enclosing the western banks of Mile's river as far as the terry; thence, by the head of Plain dealing creek to the Chop- tank, and uniting with the water boundary of the coun- ty, would form its western limits. Nos. 25 to 41 on the table, indicate the chemical composition of the marls from the principal localities of this great de- posite. "Nature of the materials contained in the shell-marl de- posites of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. "It is important to become acquainted with the pre- cise nature of materials contained in these deposites; because upon this knowledge in a great measure de- pends the judicious application to be made of them. It is more especially to furnish such information that the table which has been so frequently referred to was made out. Some general remarks under the present head seem, however, to be necessary. "Perhaps the true nature of these deposites is this. They are vast accumulations of the exuviae of testa- ceous animals, formed at a time when the portion of dryland where they are now observed, was the bottom of an ocean. There is no evidence that their present elevated position is owing, to any upheaving of strata from below — the favorite geological notion of the day — nor to a simple retreat of the water from above them. They are generally overlaid by a thick covering of water-worn materials, such as gravel and sand, occa- sionally enveloping boulders of rocks belonging to the oldest geological formations; sometimes they are co- vered by a heavy stratum of clay; occasionally by al- ternate strata of clay, sand and gravel. In no in- stance, save when they form the bottom of an in- let or creek, or when they occur in the bed of a stream, has their surface been observed to be denuded. Some cataclysm contemporaneous with the cause of the re- treat, has no doubt, occasioned the formation of these superincumbent strata. It is not worth while howev- er speculating about this, at present; although it may be useful to know that the material by which the marl is covered is not contemporaneous with the mail it- self. "It is useful to know this, for two reasons. First, to become satisfied that the nature of the superincumbent soil cannot in any case be expected to partake of that of the underlying stratum of marl; hence it is never found to contain calcareous particles. Secondly, to understand the cause of the variety in the ingredients with which the marl is associated; thus we find the shells sometimes enveloped in clay, at other times in sand, and then again in a mixture of sand and clay, these two ingredients being in very variable propor- tions. "Now although the marl does not influence the na- ture of the soil lying over it, the latter frequently greatly modifies the quality of the marl beneath it. The cause of this is apparent. The superincumbent earth (understanding thereby the whole mass of mate- rials covering the marl) consists either of clay, gravel or sand, or a mixture of all these, and having, it is pre- sumed, been deposited upon the marl subsequent to its formation, it will, from a variety of causes, have be- come mixed with it. It is, however, more especially by infiltration that the marl becomes modified in con- sequence of the condition of the soil above it. If the latter contain fine particles of sand, as is very common- ly the case, these will be taken up by the waters that traverse the soil, and so charged, will penetrate more or less deeply into the marl bed. Should the shells there be loosely scattered in their mineral envelope, which is also frequently sand, the whole of their cal- careous particles may be dissolved and become re- placed by a silicious deposite. The bed of fossils will in this case, at least in its upper portions, exhibit an accumulation of indurated casts alone of shells. Such is the case in many places on Chew's island, in some of the fossil deposites of Skipton creek, and in several places on the Wye. It is evident that then the mate- rial cannot be used as marl. When again, the super- 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 39 incumbent soil is ferruginous, it veiy generally hap- pens that the shells are bound together by an argillo- ferruginous cement extremely hard, which unfits them for use not only in this respect, but also by substituting for the calcareous ingredient which they originally con- tained a predominating constituent of oxide of iron, which cannot be beneficial to the soil. "It must be borne in mind, however, that this sort of disnaturing of the shell-inarl is most generally confined to the upper portions of the deposite. Hence, if in the search after marl, those silicious or ferruginous in- crustations are met with, they should always be re- moved to ascertain the nature of the material beneath. There is a very remarkable example of a thick coat of silicious incrustations covering very excellent marl, on the estate of William Carmichael, Esq. on Back Wye, Queen Ann's county. "As to the fossil constituents of the shell-marl dc- posites on the Eastern Shore of Maryland they are very various. Some are principally composed of oyster shells, others principally of scallop, some again principally of clam, and in others nearly the whole bed consists of perna, commonly known by the name of pearl shell. These last furnish decidedly the best marl. The perna is a broad, thick shell, some- what in the shape of a large oyster, of a white pearly appearance, peeling off in thin laminae that are very soft and friable. When exposed to the atmosphere for a short time it falls into an almost impalpable dust, con- sisting essentially of carbonate of lime. This shell occurs in most of the marl beds of the Eastern Shore, but more especially in those of Talbot county, and as already stated, at the head of Reed's creek, in Queen Ann's county. "The quality of the marl is also greally influenced by the nature of the shells that compose it. It was stated in the former report, and may be repeated here, in illustration of what has to be said under the present head, "that those beds which consist principally of clam shells, usually associated with numerous varieties of othersmaller bivalve and univalve shells, containing at the same time very little admixture of foreign in- gredients, yield a marl which exhibits its beneficial effects upon the soil in a very short time; because the calcareous particles are derived from shells which are very prone to disintegrate when exposed to the atmos- phere. Marl beds, composed entirely or principally of oyster shells, are much less valuable, because of the slow disintegration and decomposition of this species of shell. Scallop shells resist such decomposition still more obstinately than do oyster shells, and when they occur, as they have been observed to do, in extensive beds firmly agglutinated by an argillo-ferruginous cement, they are useless in all soils, and may be positively injurious to some." "It follows then, that the nature of the material in the shell-marl deposites must be ascertained first in re- ference to the species of shells which it encloses, and their admixture with foreign ingredients, as clay, sand, gravel, &c. This can be done by a simple inspection aided by such experience and knowledge as can be acquired without any difficulty. But a more impor- tant consideration relates to the composition of the marl, and especially to the relative proportions of its three principal constituents, namely, carbonate of lime,alu- mine and silex. To ascertain this recourse must be had to a chemical analysis. The proportion of calca- reous particles is doubtless generally the most impor- tant fact to be determined; but it sometimes becomes equally important to ascertain the proportions of alu- minous and silicious particles; for, one of the advan- tages, and not an inconsiderable one, in the application of marl is its use in ameliorating the mechanical con- dition of the soil, and these ingredients are eminently serviceable in this way. "From what has already been said, it will readily be perceived that great variety must also necessarily pre- sent itself in the chemical composition of the marl in its different localities. So far as experiments havcbeei> conducted, it has been found that the proportion of cal- careous particles varies from 20 to CO per cent.; that of aluminous from 10 to 20 per cent, that of silicious in- gredients from 30 to 50 per cent. "It is doubtful whether any directions could be given which would enable those unpractised in chemical op- erations and manipulations to ascertain with any de- gree of accuracy the relative proportions of these con- stituents of the marl. This is a subject which must be submitted to some analytic chemist; and it is the duty of the geologist to satisfy inquiries of that sort when- ever called upon for that purpose. On the proposed geological map of the state, it is contemplated to ex- press the composition of the marl in the principal local- ities that will be laid down; and by extending the ta- ble exhibiting the chemical analyses of these marls, to all such as can be conveniently procured, a mass of in- formation will be collected that will in some measure supersede the necessity of any further experiments. Though the words of the last three paragraph?, if very strictly construed, may be maintained to be correct, yet they will probably convey a very different, and as we think, an erroneous impres- sion to most readers. It may be readily conceded that no "directions could be given which would enable those unpractised in chemical operations and manipulations, to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the relative proportions of these con- stituents of marl1' — if "these constituents" are to be separated with absolute accuracy, as arranged in the table, of marls analyzed (p. 61,) under the heads of "silica, alumina, lime, carbonic acid, oxide of iron, potassa, and water." To execute this separation correctly, would indeed require not only the labors of an "analytic chemist'1 but of one of a very high order of talent. If all Dr. Ducatefs analyses of calcareous marls were as carefully and accurately made, he has gone through a most la- borious undertaking, and to very little purpose. But if this array of scientific terms and arrange- ment had not been brought forward, and served to create apparent difficulty, and the operation is confined to what is important and necessary to the farmer, the very opposite of the above opinion might be truly expressed, viz: that any person of ordinary intelligence may easily learn to analyze his own calcareous earths — and for all useful and practical purposes, with as much correctness as the analytic chemist. Farther — the results so to be obtained, would be even more correct than those of the author's analyses, on account of a delect in his mode of examination, which will presently be noticed more particularly. Such directions (lor example) as are given in the Farmers' Register, Vol. I. p. 609, if attended to, will enable any one to analyze marl so as to know the amount of cal- careous matter — and if desired, the proportions of silicious sand and aluminous earth, or pure clay, are as easily found. The two latter ingredients, however, would seldom require more nicety of ob- servation than a glance at the residuum, as shown after removing the calcareous parts. The proportion of oxide of iron is still less impor- tant— (at least for any purpose yet known;) of "wa- fer" as a chemical ingredient of calcareous marl, our ignorance is readily confessed — but at all events, its presence cannot affect the value of the manure, except in adding to its useless weight. The column for potassa (potash) is a blank throughout the whole list of calcareous marls (be- ing found only in the green sand, and not in cal- 40 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 1. careons marl proper,) and therefore is manifestly not necessary to be sought for in such marl. Then as to the main and all-important ingredient of marl, the calcareous earth, or carbonate of lime, an unnecessary obscurity is thrown over it by stating its amount in its two component parts of lime and carbonic acid, in separate columns. There is no reason for this, as these constituents always combine in certain and invariable propor- tions, to form carbonate of lime. But this is not known to every reader, and therefore the arrange- ment adopted keeps many entirely in the dark as to the strength of marl, and is even somewhat em- barrassing and troublesome to the inspection of those who well know the proportions in which the constituents of carbonate of lime combine. If, for example, the marl marked 6 in the table, (p. 61,) had been staled to contain 38 parts of carbo- nate of lime, or shelly matter, in the 100, it would have been plain to every one: but as it is there stated to contain 21.25 of lime, and 16.15 of car- bonic acid, it may be well doubted whether the in- formation contained is not hidden from most of those interested in the report, and lor whose benefit it was specially designed. Indeed, the constituent parts are improperly stated chemically, as well as ior common and practical purposes. Neither "lime," nor "carbonic acid," ever exists in marl — but a third substance formed of these two. If it were proper to name the separate constituent parts of a body, though never found except in com- bination, instead of the compound itself— then the author ought to have gone back a step farther, and stated these ingredients in the more remote elements, which constitute by their combination the lime and carbonic acid — dividing the first into calcium and oxygen, and the latter into carbon and oxygen. Yet we have known nearly a dozen dif- ferent men and boys, who, without knowing the meaning of either of these terms, or even in what proportions carbonic acid and lime combined to form the carbonate of lime, could analyze marl with so much ease and correctness, that their re- sults might be received with confidence. To sep- arate correclly and ascertain the proportion of the calcareous ingredients of marl, may be learned and practised more easily than either of the house- hold jobs of making a pot of soap, or a loaf of good bread — both of which are also chemical operations. The process is so mechanical, that it has occurred to our mind that the business of marl proving was one that might be carried on ad- vantageously for the undertaker, and still more so for his employers or customers. Any intelligent youth, or female, might learn the processes in a fnw days, and then, if receiving sufficient employ- ment, might analyze any specimens of marl fur- nished, for a very small compensation, and yet make good profits. The indolence or negligence of most marling farmers will always prevent their performing this necessary operation for themselves — and perhaps many who even understand the process, would prefer to pay 50 or 100 cents for each trial, to any competent person who would undertake the trouble. But besides the making a mysterious and diffi- cult business of a very simple and easily practica- ble operation, there are strong objections to the re- sults of the author, even though obtained by so much superfluous skill and care. In the general remarks on the table, he says — "The owners of the marl-beds from which these specimens were taken, are informed that the opera- tions tor analysis have been conducted on small quan- tities of the marl (generally the friable portions of it) the larger fragments of fossil shells having been cast aside; so that when applied in considerable quantities, these shells will by their disintegration, furnish an ad- ditional proportion of carbonate of lime and conse- quently enhance the value of the marl. It was deemed more advantageous to operate in the manner just indi- cated, in order to ascertain more accurately the respec- tive proportions of the diiferent ingredients." It is very true that this disintegration will go on, and consequently enhance the value of the marl; and the practical marler knows that this process generally proceeds so rapidly, that to ex- clude all the larger fragments of shells from the analysis, is equivalent to destroying its pretensions to accuracy. There are certainly objections to in- cluding the most indestructible shells, without any separate notice, and counting all the parts asalike: but of the two, this mode wrould be more correct, agriculturally as well as chemically, than the one adopted. The farmer knows, or will soon learn, that the fossil oyster, and scallop shells are very slow in coming to pieces, and that therefore they are of but little value. But the white shells seem to be dissolved by combining with the soil, (if in a soil much needing calcareous manure,) and however solid when applied, will mostly disappear in a lew years. So much as to the analysis itself. But even if that process is perfectly accurate, and altogether unobjectionable as to each particular specimen of marl, the manner of selecting the specimens may have been such that the results of analysis may be of little value for showing the average strenglh of even one body of marl — and of far less, as evi- dences of the average quality of the marls of a neighborhood generally. The geologist does not always say how his specimens were oblained: but as it is almost impossible that he could have se- lected many himself, it may be inferred that most of the specimens were selected by other persons. Then the chemist is not responsible for the speci- mens showing anything like fair averages of qua- lity, and there are several reasons for believing that without a proper and careful selection of spe- cimens, the most correct analysis is of no vdue, except as showing the constitution of the particu- lar specimen examined — or (in some rare cases,) some new ingredient, (as green sand, for exam- ple,) and of course suggesting the probability of the presence of that ingredient through an exten- sive region. When the author describes the marls of a particular farm, and even generally of a neighborhood, he refers, in most cases, (as is seen in the foregoing extracts,) to one or two spe- cimens only, in his table, to show the quality. Now we have rarely, if ever, seen a single bed of marl dug into eight feet, that did not present different layers of various degrees of strength in shelly matter. Sometimes one layer lying within a foot of another, above or below, is of double the strength — and sometimes a bed which in part con- tains 60 or 70 per cent, of carbonate of lime, will in another part be below 20, and not worth using. The diversity is greater, in different beds on the same farm, and still greater through a neighbor- hood of some extent. Of course, one or two spe- cimens, and especially without particularly de- 1835;] FARMERS' REGISTER. 41 scribing the precise locality, and from what part of the bed each was taken, could give but little if any information, even if selected by the geologist himself But if selected by othes— -either igno- rance, or carelessness, or self-interest, or a desire of a proprietor to show better marl than others, might cause an exhibition of a very rich speci- men from a bed generally much poorer. For these several reasons, but little importance can be attached to the results presented in the table of calcareous marls — and so far as our latter objec- tions apply, the fault is not the author's, (nor the proprietor's) but of the plan fixed by law under which he acted, and by which he was bound to be governed. In making it the duty of the geological surveyor to analyze the various spe- cimens of marl, soil, &c. sent him by any proprie- tors, he was left no choice but to perform a vast deal of arduous, yet mechanical, and often useless labor, of which the results must be necessarily mostly mere rubbish. The worker of a marl pit who desires to know its average strength, should take specimens carefully and fairly selected at va- rious depths, and certainly at every change of ap- pearance. A single digging may sometimes re- quire a dozen trials, if great accuracy is deemed necessary. But after tins is done, the same bed might be worked for years, without showing a variation worth notice, from the same general cha- racter, or average strength. And indeed, the practised eye may easily know the same bed though found at some miles distance, and may be satisfied with the analyses made from the earlier known locality. The observations made by the author through the report are as often agricultural as geological, and on that account might be supposed to pro- mise the more value, to the farmers of Maryland. But the duty was of course confided to one cho- sen as a geologist and chemist, and not as an agri- culturist— and however desirable the union of all three branches of knowledge may be in the indi- vidual appointed to make a geological survey, it is not to be looked for. But it may perhaps deserve consideration whether the general and most im- portant objects of such a survey would not be ad- vanced by the aid of an intelligent agriculturist to the more scientific labors of the geologist, and which should be confined to drawing these practi- cal deductions for which the man of science is rarely qualified. If one of the many enlightened farmers of the Eastern Shore of Maryland had for this purpose been associated with the geologist the latter might have been saved much of the trouble of making observations of matters of prac- tical agriculture, and that branch of* the subject could have been made far more full, correct and useful. It seems to be a remarkable deficiency in the report, that though it was made by the law part of the surveyor's duty "to analyze and ascertain the qualities and properties of all specimens of miner- al substances, or soil, left at his office or residence, for that purpose by any citizen of the state, and taken from any portion of the territory of the state" — that not a single analysis of any soil is given. Nor is there any indication of the con- stituent parts, other than such as the eye of an un- learned observer might direct, except that it is in- cidentally and slightly observed (p. 21) that the Vol. Ill— 6 soil lying over the marl "is never found to contain calcareous particles." If the author meant to con- vey (as is maintained generally in the Essay on on Calcareous Manures — ) that the soil is gener- ally, if not entirely destitute of any portion of car- bonate of lime — -it would have been gratifying if he had been more particular, and had commented on the remarkable difference in that respect be- tween the soils of that region, and the usual con- stitution of most of those soils in Europe of which any knowledge is to be gained from books. In furnishing directions for working marl pits, and applying marl, and making observations on the practical effects of the manure, the author quotes largely from the Essay on Calcareous Ma- nures, to which work due credit is given. We will pass by this part of the report, and proceed to the account of the beds of marl, and the green sand formation of the Western Shore of Mary- land. "Principal localities of the shell-marl deposiles on the Potomac, their constitution, relative value, and use. "As the use of marl has scarcely been at all resorted to on the Western Shore of Maryland— although from its quality as it there occurs, and the condition of the soil by which it is overlaid, its application would be of the greatest benefit— it is deemed a matter of infinite importance to indicate, as precisely as the extent of the examinations so far made will permit, the situations in which it has been discovered, or where it is likely to be found by proper research. "A very extensive and very accessible deposite of marl occurs near Piscatawa, on the north side of the creek. The bed is overlaid by a thick crust of indu- rated shells and sand, that can, however, be easily re- moved, and beneath which is the friable marl in an ex- cellent condition for immediate use. The analysis of this marl is given at No. 42 of the table. No. 43 indi- cates the constitution of a marl occurring under similar circumstances with the preceding, at Upper Marlbo- rough. These two localities are to be considered in fact, only the most prominent points of a great fossil deposite, extending from Fort Washington to the west branch of the Patuxent. This deposite will, no doubt, be soon discovered on intermediate spots, from which it can be extracted with equal facilities, so as more generally to diffuse the benefits which its application to the soil must inevitably produce. The situations that may be indicated, as those where it is most likely to make its appearance, are along the small branches that make into the Piscatawa, on either side. The village of Piscatawa is based on a bed of marl, and in its vicin- ity, at a place called the marl bottom, the material has been employed with the usual success. We are in- debted to Dominick Young, Esq. for this perhaps soli- tary, experiment made on the Western Shore of Ma- ryland, on the good effects of marl.- Much regret is felt, that, owing to the absence of that gentleman from his plantation, a full account of the result of his expe- rience was not obtained. It is desirable indeed to as- certain the operation of marl on differently constituted soils, and a knowledge of their natural fertility or sus- ceptibilities— never better discovered than by agricul- tural experiments — is essential, in order to arrive at safe conclusions. The directions given in a former part of this report as to the manner of employing the marl on the Eastern Shore, will no doubt apply here: at all events it will be perfectly safe to follow them on wheat and corn lands; but we possess, as yet, no infor- mation as to its effects on tobacco lands. Reasoning from analogy, no mischief can be apprehended from the use of marl on these as on other lands; but in order to direct its proper application, as to quantify especial- ly, we should be aided by at least a few positive re- 42 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. I. suits. It is hoped that the efforts made to interest the planters of this part of Prince George's county in the subject, will soon supply this desideratum. • Charles county, also, is abundantly supplied with marl. A great deposited" fossil shells, similar in char- acter to that at Fort Washington, occurs between Pye's landing and Indian-head, stretching across Cornwallis neck to the Mattawoman. A partial ap- plication of the material from this locality, is said to nave been made to the soil above it by the former pro- prietor of the landing, and report states that it proved very serviceable; yet it was discontinued. We have the assurance from the present owner, Mr. John Pye,that it shall not be any longer neglected. The banks of the Potomac, from what are termed the blue banks along Wade's bay to Smith's point, exhibit likewise one con- tinuous deposite of fossil shells from thirty to forty feet above tide. Nos. 46 and 47 indicate the analyses of these marls. South of the Mattawoman, and embracing the large tract of land between it and Port Tobacco river, the diluvial formation composed of gravel, sand and clay, having a depth of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, rests upon a great bed of blue marl, pos- sessing very remarkable characters. Subjected to an- alysis, it proves not to be rich in calcareous particles, but it frequently contains potash as one of its consti- tuents, by which it becomes assimilated to the green marl, so called, of New Jersey and Virginia, known to possess very fertilizing properties, although frequently without a trace of lime; as was ascertained by Profes- sor Rogers of William and Mary college. The analy- ses of these marls are given at Nos. 48 to 53 of the ta- ble. It may be well to remark, that the parcels sub- mitted to analysis were obtained under quite unfavora- ble circumstances, being mostly tlic superior water- worn portions of beds thus uncovered at the bottom of ra- vines, and made known during our examinations of the past year. A transient inspection of these depos- ites led to suspect that at a greater depth, their con- tents would be found more valuable — inasmuch as they might be expected to yield a larger quantity of fossil shells, which by their disintegration would in- crease the proportion of calcareous particles. This conjecture has been verified by the subsequent re- searches of Capt. Walter U. Miller on Ward's branch in Nanjeinoy. An immense agricultural resource is thus shown to be at hand for the benefit of this por- tion of the state, of which the intelligent planters of this district, in Charles county, will certainly lose no time in taking advantage. The places at which it has been so far discovered, are the heads of the small branches making into the south side of the Mattawo- man, on the plantations of William Dulany, Esq. ami Mr. John Pye; at the heads of similar branches emp- tying into the Nanjemoy, on the estate of Capt. Alex- ander Gray; and at Port Tobacco It may confidently be looked for at the head of all the deep ravines that furrow the highlands, to discharge their waters into the Potomac or its creeks. "From the nature of this blue marl, and the condi- tion of the soil belonging to the hilly lands in this sec- tion of Charles county — deprived in a great measure, by washing, of their natural soil — it is believed that small applications — say of ten loads, or one hundred bushels to the acre, aided by a few loads of stable ma- nure, and repeated to a given extent at intervals of four or five years in proportion to the progress of im- provement in the soil — would be very profitable. Such soils, moreover, as are apt to wash, will by this opera- tion have their texture greatly improved, and will be found much less liable to run into gullies. An impor- tant observation related by Mr. Ruffin is that "when a field that has been injured by washing, is marled, with- in a few years after, many of the old gullies will be- gin to produce vegetation, and show a" soil gradually forming from the dead vegetables brought there by the wind and rains, although no means should be used to aid this operation." "The next variety of marl to be described as apper- taining to Charles county, is perhaps the most valuable material of this kind which the state possesses. It has been identified, as well by its geological relations as by its chemical composition, with the green-marl of New Jersey and Virginia. This formation in Charles county, so far as it has been traced, occurs on the Po- tomac, between the mouth oi Port Tobacco river, and the mouth of Pope's creek, constituting the high banks of the river in nearly the whole of this extent. The situations from which the material was procured for ex- amination are, St. Thomas's Manor, at Chapel Point, and the plantations of G. Brent and R. Digges, Esqrs. Nos. 54, 55 and 56 of the table, indicate its chemical composition." p. 43 to 46. "To give some idea of the value of this marl," the author then quotes at length from Professor Rogers' paper on the discovery of green sand in Virginia, [Farm. Keg. Vol. II. p. 129,] the state- ments of the remarkable effects produced on lands in New Jersey — and aitervvards the description of that earth. As the entire communication is in the hands of the readers of" the journal lor which these remarks are designed, these quotations will be omitted here. The author then proceeds — "The general appearance of the green-marl in Charles county, is pretty well represented in the name which it bears. This however, may be owing to its having been observed so far only on the dry banks. The particles of the so called green sand which it con- tains answer exactly the description given of them; "they are easily recognized by their want of lustre, the ease with which they may be bruised with the point of a knife, and the bright green stain which they then produce." Some of the iossils supposed to be characteristic of the formation, were also observed, es- pecially the fossil shell called the Gryphaza, described as "having one valve very deep and convex, and the other flat;" and lignite, or carbonized wood. In two localities, at Mr. Brent's and Mr. Digges's, groupes of crystalized selenite, or gypsum, are found in the green marl; but as they occur always in the upper portions of the deposite, at a uniform elevation, and as it were in a continuous stratum, (the marl being covered with a thick coat of ferruginous sand and gravel containing iron pyrites,) it is presumed that the selenite is only an accidental constituent of the green-marl of these local- ities, produced by the decomposition of the pyrites and the action of the resulting acid upon the lime of the marl beneath. A similar formation of selenite, was described in the former report as observed in the shell- marl deposite at the mouth of St. Inigo's creek, on the St. Mary's, and this, as previously stated does not be- long to the green sand formation. The phosphoric, odor recognized by Professoi Rogers in the marls of New Jersey, was not perceived in ours. But the fore- going points of similitude are sufficient to identify the depositeson the Potomac with the green sands of New Jersey and Virginia. On the other hand, a very useful accompaniment of the green marls of Charles county, is that of spheroidal masses of indurated marl, in shape resembling a gourd — whence they are sometimes call- ed by the uninformed petrified gourds — and varying in size from the larger to the smaller kinds of this vegetable production. Some of these masses present when bro- ken a nucleus apparently of the same nature as its en- velope; others exhibit irregular cavities lined with an incrustation of a straw colored carbonate of lime, hav- ing the lustre of imperfectly bleached bees wax. Such is the character of these masses on the plantation of G. Brent, Esq. On St. Thomas' Manor, they more re- semble irregularly shaped nodules, traversed by fissures, the sides oi which are lined with selenite. "Below Pope's creek, at Clifton — a situation which 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 43 was indicated by Col. Win. D. Merrick, and visited in company with this gentleman and the owner, Mr. Lat- imer— there is an immense deposite of a blue marl ex- ceedingly rich in calcareous matter, and containing moreover a notable proportion of the green sand. The analysis of this marl is given at No. 57, of the table. The bed of marl now referred to is elevated from thirty to fifty feet above high tide, and is covered by a stratum of diluvial gravel from ten to twenty feet in depth. It is decidedly one of the most important de- posites of marl hitherto discovered on either shore of the Chesapeake bay. Whenever the value of its con- tents shall be duly appreciated it will prove the source of renewed prosperity to the adjacent country, and of wealth to its fortunate proprietor. That marl is des- tined to become ere long an article of barter and ex- change, as lime, plaster of Paris, &c. are now, there cannot be the least doubt; and no situation is known in Maryland that possesses more advantages for its easy delivery and general distribution than Clitfton. Should the public attention be called to this subject to the ex- tent that it deserves, it is the duty of the state geolo- gist to furnish proper directions for the best mode of extracting it. Other situations presenting the same, or not much inferior advantages, may be hereafter dis- covered. "It was stated before that a stratum of copperas earth, was occasionally found associated with the marl of this region of country. It can be easily recognized by a greenish efflorescence which usually takes place on its surface after a very slight exposure, due to the forma- tion of a saline substance characterized by a styptic taste, and very well known in the domestic and useful arts by the name of green vitriol. A stratum of this earth varying from twenty to thirty feet in depth was observed overlying the marl on the plantation of G. Brent, Esq. Care must be had not to confound this article with the green marl, which it somewhat resem- bles, as its application to the soil would probably prove injurious." — p. 47 to 49. We have entire confidence in the statements and opinions of" Mr. Rogers, as quoted by the au- thor. But while admitting fully the facts of the remarkable and valuable operation of the green sand as a manure, in the cases cited, and in very many others, we more than doubt the soundness of what seems to be the deduction, that equal, (if indeed any) benefit may be expected generally on most soils of the region convenient to this earth where found in Maryland. The marl referred to above (No. 57) as promising so much value, even as an article of commerce, and stated as "exceed- ingly rich in calcareous matter, and containing moreover a notable proportion of green sand," contains, according to the table, only 13 per cent, of lime, and 11 of carbonic acid, (or 24 per cent, of carbonate of lime) and would be rated rather as poor than rich. We cannot be sure, from the manner in which the constituent parts are stated, how much of this specimen is properly green sand: but it cannot be large, as the potash, which forms one of its uniform constituent parts, amounts only to one per cent. This sinsular earth, the green sand, offers a most interesting subject for both chemical and ag- ricultural investigation — and one of which almost every thing is yet to be learned; and if the mode in which this manure acts, can be discovered, and its operation be secured in most cases when ap- plied, then indeed it will prove a treasure of incal- culable value. But so far, no chemist has even made even a plausible surmise of what constitutes the peculiar value of this earth, or how it acts: and we are at present persuaded that in practice it will rarely be found beneficial, unless when com- bined, with calcareous manure, or applied to sod made calcareous previously by nature or by art. This is admitted to be an opinion, which, though (bunded in part on practice, needs many more ex- periments to confirm its truth. But if true, there can be no fair comparison of value between any certain quantities of calcareous marl and of green sand, as manures, unless the suitability of the soil lor each is first ascertained. The application of one ton of ' effects of all this on the exchanges in society, and then on the rapidity of circulation in the cur- rency. During a pressure of the kind just spoken of, the loss of confidence and fall of prices, force a great deal of real and other property in the mar- ket, to be sold for payment of debts, which or- dinarily remains stationary in the hands of its owners. Lands, houses, negroes, stocks of goods, &C.j are thus forced to change hands, and of course increase the exchanges. Perhaps the sinking of prices generally may have a tendency to diminish the sales of the annual products of the soil; such as corn, wheat, tobacco, and sugar; but not of cotton, for the foreign market is the regulator of the price of this very important ar- ticle. Hence it may be said, that a money pres- sure at first has a tendency, by the great quantity of property forced into the market for sale, rather to increase, than diminish the number of ex- changes. "Whilst, however, the number of ex- changes increase, the circulating medium suddenly becomes much more sluggish, taking the whole aggregate, in performing the functions of circula- tion. The great capitalists who are in the habit of purchasing produce with a view to sell with a profit, when prices are falling, rather keep aloof from the purchase of raw produce, lest a further till! may injure them — their capital then circulates more slowly, and in consequence of it, the annual productions of the country are not distributed with that regularitj-, and adaptation to the various wants of the community, as under ordinary cir- cumstances. The body politic in this situation, is like a patient suffering congestion in one part of the system, while there is a depletion almost to the loss of vitality in another. Again — bonds, bills of exchange, &c, ordi- narily performing the larger portion of the circu- Iniion of every country, have now a much slower circulation, and consequently less efficacy in ef- fecting the exchanges; because as there is a ge- neral loss of confidence and credit, A, who has sold to B, is distrustful of his bonds, his bills, in fine of credit in every shape — he wants money. Money too has generally a sluggish circulation on such occasions, for every one getting possession of it. is disposed to hold it as long as possible — hard money seems to be almost the only true friend which one can get hold of in such times as those, and is consequently held with a miserly grasp. Persons will not venture it out without the best security, and on high rate of interest, obtained cither directly or indirectly.* *An inconvertible bank paper is never hoarded in this manner. It is like fire in each man's hands, he 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 67 Thus we find, first, that the number of ex- changes has a tendency to increase during the first operation of a money pressure; and second, that the whole circulating medium of the country suddenly, from the very same cause, diminishes in the rapidity of its circulation, and therefore be- comes less efficacious, as I have already proved. 2nd. Effect of money pressure on actual amount of circulating medium. Let us now examine into the state of the cir- culating medium, and see whether during a mo- ney pressure, it has any tendency to increase in quantity, so as to counteract the operation of the causes above specified. It is evident, first, that the money has no tendency to increase inquantitj ; because, first, the banks are distrustful of the cre- dit of individuals, and of one another; the cur- tailment forced on one, communicates to another, and finally all are obliged to curtail their accommo- dations and issues — hence a decided diminution in bank paper. Secondly, gold and silver in actual circulation diminishes in amount, because of the universal disposition to hoard, in consequence of loss of confidence. Thirdly, bonds and bills of exchange will generally diminish in amount, be- cause these depend on credit altogether, and the first effect of the pressure is the destruction of confidence, and the ruin of the whole fabric of credit. Fourthly, stocks of every description di- minish in value, or are entirely destroyed by the disastrous operation of the times. Money, and not stocks, is what the times call for. And thus do we see, that while the exchanges increase, the circulation of the currency grows sluggish, and the quantity in actual circulation rapidly dimin- ishes. Combined effect of these causes. What, then, let me ask, is the effect of the com- bined operation of an increase in the number of exchanges, greater sluggishness in the circulation, and diminution of the whole circulating medium? Most undoubtedly, a continued fall in prices, until certain causes are thrown into operation, which will counteract, this downward motion. Mr. Hume, in his History of England, says there is a point in the depression of nations, in the scale of circulation, below which they cannot sink. Ame- lioration will then spring out of the very disorder it- self. So I would say, in the disasters of trade and agriculture, there is a certain point of depres- sion below which they cannot go. The self-sus- taining energies of commerce are called into play, and apply the healing balm without the interfer- ence of government. Thus the causes, whose operation I have just been considering, gave a downward motion to prices in our country, until they reached that point which made this one of the worst markets in the world to sell in, and one of the best to sell from. The effect of this on foreign exchange will readily be perceived. More commodities were exported than imported. A money balance was created in favor of the nation. wants to get rid of it as speedily as possible, lest it may be caught on him at a still lower point of depre- ciation. Hence the inconvertible paper of the Bank of England, in 1797, soon relieved the money pressure, but only to bring on evils greater still, as an incon- vertible paper always will do. Hence a rapid and full current of the metals was soon seen flowing steadily into the. country, and supplying the vast deficit in the circulating me- dium, occasioned by sluggishness of circulation, and diminution of the quantity from general des- truction of confidence and credit. We all very well recollect, that a short time since, almost every paper announced the fresh arrivals of cargoes of iiold and silver — and we know that at this mo- ment, we have more foreign coins in circulation, than have been seen in the country for years past. The banks too seem generally to have drawn to their vaults large portions of the precious metals. Effect of importation of precious metals, and of a restoration of confidence. Now whilst the importation of the metals from abroad is gradually adding to the circulating me- dium, and therefore partially relieving, by this means, the pecuniary distresses of the country, the number of exchanges in society occasioned by forced sales, will of course have a tendency to diminish, because those sales will become less and less frequent, after the violence of the storm has already prostrated all that could not stand against it. Affairs will soon settle down to this new state of things. Many of the wealthy men of the for- mer epoch, find themselves bankrupts at the com- mencement of the new — others again who could command a little ready cash during the crisis, find they have suddenly become wealthy. From this point, the operations of commerce once more begin to extend themselves. Confidence is gradually restored, and with it the credit system begins to be built up again, and the large accession of mo- ney from abroad, makes the money market much easier than before. The effect of all this is at first to raise prices gradually, and then more rapidly as a spirit of speculation is generated. When prices are sinking, the spirit of speculation sinks likewise, because each individual is fearful of pur- chasing, lest he be injured by a fart her fall in prices. The credit system likewise is greatly contracted, because the rapid fall in prices, and the frequent bankruptcies occurring from day to day, destroy the confidence of man in man. Now a rise in prices is accompanied with ef- fects the reverse of these. 1st. The credit sys- tem becomes instantly enlarged. When prices are rising all are on the alert: the energies of man are drawn forth, his hopes which ever have an undue influence, are thrown into play, and the imagination spreads enchanting schemes and pro- jects before him; he is disposed under those cir- cumstances to rush into business, or to get possession of properly, whose enhancement in value from the rising tide of general pros- perity, is alone expected to make him wealthy. The borrower now can much more easily get mo- ney on loan than before, because general confi- dence is restored, and the constant rise in prices makes property a good security which before would have been deemed very inadequate. Buying and selling too under these circumstances, will pv- nerally be'on credit more and more extended in proportion to the restoration of confidence. Now the immediate effect of the extension of credit, and the increased velocity given to the circulating medium, is to produce a superabundance of mo- ney. For, recollect I have previously shown that sluggish circulation and the destruction of the 68 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 2. credit system generated an extraordinary demand for money, which flowed into the country through the medium of importations. The increased ve- locity of circulation and the re-establishment of the credit system have just the opposite effect, viz: to increase the apparent amount, and the real effica- cy of the whole circulating medium. Now when we reflect that the currency has received immense additions during the money pressure from abroad; that the portions hoarded by individuals are thrown into circulation so soon as the panic subsides — that the banks which have rode through the storm are beginning to increase their business and push out their paper, and thus add to the circulating me- dium; that the United States' Bank has recovered from the shock which it sustained by the re- moval of the deposites, and is consequently, en- abled to do a more liberal and extended business, thereby enabling other banks to enlarge likewise; we are not to wonder under these circumstances, that we have a redundant circulating medium; especially, when we recollect that this increased currency is circulating with greatly increased ve- locity: and the effect of these combined causes must be a vast enhancement of prices, and a con- sequent rage for speculation. I will exemplify this by a very simple illustration. Let us suppose a particular neighborhood, whose exchanges in or- dinary times, are effected by $1000. Now I have shown if any causes operate to make the circulation only one-half as rapid as the ordinary circulation, then the $1000 will not appear to our little district to be more in amount, or in real effi- cacy, than $500. In this state of things, throw- ing out of view all other causes, prices in the neighborhood supposed would fall to half their former amount. Now let us farther suppose that this lidl in prices should cause an importation of $500 additional into the neighborhood, anil that the rapidity of circulation was again restored. Do we not clearly see that we should have a currency redundant by $500. And this would not only, on the great principle of supply and demand, carry up prices to their former level, but would increase them in the case supposed, fifty per cent, beyond that level. Now what I have been saying here of a neighborhood, may with equal propriety, be said of a whole nation. Let us suppose, for ex- ample, the circulating money of this country to be $100,000,000, in ordinary times; that the circula- tion becomes suddenly onlv one-half as rapid as before, then the whole $100,000,000, even sup- posing the quantity kept in circulation undimin- ished, will perform no more exchanges than $50,000,000 would with the former rate of velo- city in the circulation. Prices then would gene- rally sink to half their former amount; money would flow in, let us suppose $25,000,000, and immediately afterwards, the restoration of confi- dence, and the consequent re-establishment of the credit system would communicate to the circula- ting medium the same velocity as before, you would then have a redundancy of twenty-five mil- lions of dollars, and a consequent rise of prices at least twenty-five per cent, upon the principle of supply and demand alone. But the probability is, prices would rise greatly beyond this point, in con- sequence of the effect produced by a speculating mania — for when prices are rising, every one wants to purchase — few are capable of reason- ing upon the causes; hence an artificial competi- tion is generated among the buyers and property rises greatly beyond what it should do, upon the principle of actual supply, and efficient demand. The reason of man on these occasions seems to be completely unhinged. He looks forward to the realization of wealth by changes in the price of property which he holds in his hands, and al- most every one is disposed to turn speculator. And this speculating mania is generally fust felt in regard to stocks, whose value is ever fluctua- ting, and therefore liable to the most sudden im- pulses, upwards and downwards. I understand at this moment the stock-jobbing spirit to the north has risen to a most extraordinary height. A gen- tleman, under date of the 2Sth ult., writes me from Philadelphia, that rail roads and canals are the order of the day there — that the papers scarce- ly find room for politics. He says, "two subscrip- tions have been opened for canals since I came here. The whole stock for the first was taken in thirty minutes. In the second, the whole stock was taken by the commissioners before the doors were opened. A rush and disappointment follow- ed. Millions could have been taken," &c. All this arises from restored credit; from throwing sud- denly the hoarded portions of money into circula- tion— from increased velocity of circulation — from issue of banks, &c, all of which have contribu- ted to make currency redundant, prices exorbi- tant, and the spirit of speculation wild and reck- less. When I saw certain politicians congratula- ting the nation upon fresh arrivals of gold and sil- ver a short time since, I could not but reflect upon the shallow knowledge of political economy which such congratulations proved. The influx of gold and silver was the clearest proof that could be fur- nished, of the general distress of the country; of the loss of confidence and credit, and of the stagnation of trade and the circulation. The im- portation of the precious metals could only be ef- fected by parting with a large portion of our wealth;and as soon as a sound currency and healthy circulation could be restored, this newly acquired portion was to be entirely redundant, and even mischievous in its operation, by raising in the community a speculating mania. What is to check this rise in prices and spirit of speculation? I will now examine into the manner in which this rise in prices is ultimately to be checked, and the spirit for speculation to be cured. And here let me observe, that as there is a certain point of depression below which prices will not go, incon- sequence of the influx of precious metals which this lowness of prices will certainly produce; so likewise there is a certain point in the eleva- tion of prices beyond which they cannot well go, because of the efflux of the precious me- tals. It is this efflux which finally checks the speculating mania. 1 will explain: a rise in prices, when very great, make our country a good market to sell in, but a very bad one to sell from; hence our imports will greatly overbalance our exports, and a money balance will be created against the nation, which must be paid in money. This produces the exportation of money until the redundancy is sent off; then prices fall, and ruin overtakes the most adventurous in the game of speculation — they involve others, and prices once 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 69 more sink, from loss of confidence and credit, and stagnation in circulation, below their average level, to be brought up again by the operation of causes already pointed out. Whenever the pendulum of price, (if I may use the expression,) has either by the operation of the natural course of events, or by the unwise and unskilful tampering of govern- ment, been thrown far into one extreme of the arc, it will, in its effort to regain its natural position, go almost so far into the opposite extreme; and the vibrations will frequently last through a long pe- riod of time. Do these fluctuations depend entirely upon the banks? Some suppose these fluctuations depend entirely upon the operation of the banking system. This however, is not the fact. Hanks may do a great deal, but are by no means omnipotent in the regu- lation of a currency. For example: when loss of confidence, stagnation of circulation, and fall of prices derange the whole credit system, banks are affected like individuals; they are obliged to curtail their operations, and check the farther emission of paper, lest a run upon them may break them. They may not, under these circum- stances, have the ability to relieve the distress, however strong the inclination; the relief must come through the wasting process of buying me- tals from abroad. Again: when prices begin to mount upwards, banks by seizing upon the favor- able moment, may enlarge their issues, and thus swell still farther the already bloated state of the currency. But they cannot prevent, if they be spe- cie paying banks, the correction of the evil by ex- portation of the metals; for so soon as these are redundant they will be gathered up for a foreign market; a necessary run will then take place on the banks for the purpose of making the col- lection, and these banks must either suspend spe- cie payment, curtail their issues, or break. On the first, supposition, the evil would have to cor- rect itself by a rise in exchange against us with foreign countries, to the amount of Ihe deprecia- tion caused in the currency by suspension of spe- cie payment. In the second case, prices would be lowered by contraction of the currency from cur- tailment. In the third, by contraction from the withdrawal of all paper which had emanated from the broken banks and a loss of confidence in the whole banking system, which would, by the runs made upon them, force all to curtail, or break. And thus may we always confidently look for- ward sooner or later lrom causes, whose operation I have pointed out, for either a rise in prices when they are very low, or fall when they rise very high. Whenever prices are disturbed, it is a long time before the equilibrium is again restored. Effect of foreign demand for some of our agri- cultural products, on present prices. So far, I have been arguing as if the present state of things were the result solely of that reac- tion which must sooner or later take place after great depression and stagnation of trade. But the rise in prices may be rapidly accelerated by an ex- traordinary foreign demand for some of our great staples. Most undoubtedly the rise in the price (f cotton has at this moment very great agency in the high prices, and rage for speculation manifest- ing themselves every where. The price /)f cotton in this country is regulated by the prices abroad, because the foreign market taking up about four- fifihs of the whole product of the United States, it is evident that the value of the article must be determined by the foreign, and not by the home demand. What is the cause of the immense rise which has taken place in the price of cotton with- in a lew months I am unable to say. I am not at this moment in a condition to get at. the statistical information, required for the investigation of this subject, and my mind not being particularly direct- ed to it, until within a day or two past, I have not noticed from time to time in the papers such arti- cles as might perhaps have given me a clue to the explanation of this interesting phenomenon. — Whatever may be the cause however, whether a general deficit in the cotton crops over the world, or in the United States particularly; or to the rapidly increasing demand for cotton fabrics all over the world; or to a spirit of speculation in England; or to the gradual reduction of the tariff; or to all these causes combined; certain it is, that the price of this most important agricultural staple, is now at a height which well indemnifies the planter for his labor, and will, if it could con- tinue, diffuse wealth and prosperity over the whole of our southern country. Let us now examine into the influence exerted by this rapid rise in the price of cotton. And in the first place it is manifest, that the rise in the price of cotton must have had a most important influence on the foreign exchanges. This arti- cle, alone constitution; a very large proportion of the whole of our exports — say two-thirds, a rise in its price has therefore tended to swell the value of our exports, and of course, to make money flow more rapidly into the country — through the agen- cy of a favorable balance cf trade. From this cause then, the late money pressure may have lasted a shorter time than it would under other circumstances. Influence of the price of cotton on the value of slaves. Again: the rise in the price of cotton has most undoubtedly given an impulse to the price of slaves. Cotton is the great agricultural staple throughout almost the whole of our southern slave-holding states, and consequently, the mar- ketable value of slaves will ever be determined by the value of the principal product of their labor. In Virginia and Maryland the price of slaves will always depend upon the external demand, and not on their intrinsic value in those two states. If the price depended on the real demand ari- sing among themselves, I doubt whether those states could afford to raise them even: so little would be their marketable value. But there is another cause which I believe at. this moment is operating in raising the price of slaves, and will exert a still more powerful influ- ence in future. I mean the late emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies. That act is certainly indefensible upon every ground of ex- pediency, morality, and religion. But its impoli- cy appears most glaring when considered in a po- litico-economical light. Now whatever may be said about the relative efficacy and value of free 70 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 2. and slave labor, there is no question, but that free labor, produced by sudden emancipation of slaves, is the most worthless and inefficient labor in the world. Let us take upon this subject the testi- mony of one who has favored emancipation in the West Indies, and who has already reaped some of the traits of his lolly. Lord Brougham in his Colonial Policy, says: "the free negroes in the West Indies are (with very lew exceptions chiefly in the Spanish and Portuguese settlements) equally averse to all sorts ol labor which do not contribute to the supply of their immediate and most urgent wants. Improvident, and careless of the future, they are not actuated by that prin- ciple which inclines more civilized men to equal- ize their exertions at all times, and to work after the necessaries of the day have been procured, in order to make up lor the possible deficiencies of the morrow. Nor has their intercourse, with the whites taught them to consider any gratification as worth obtaining, which cannot be procured by slight exertion of desultory and capricious indus- try." The report ol the committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain in 178S, of Mr. Braith- waite, the agent for Barbadoes, and of M. Ma- louet who bore a special commission to examine the habits and character of the Maroons in Dutch Guiana, all agree in asserting that free negroes are idle and worthless, and will never provide for the morrow with the foresight of civilized beings. The latter, M. Malouet says, "Le repos et I'oisi- vete sont devenus dansleur etat social leur unique passion." Does not our own experience in this country prove the truth of his assertion? Do we not find the i'vaa ney some one or more of the pestiferous plants just mentioned, to say nothing of the far greater increase of insects injurious both to corn and wheat. The farm on which our Trismegistur- -Col. John Taylor, of Caroline lived, and on which he pursued the four- shift system, was excessively annoyed before his death by these nuisances. But when I first knew it,' some forty odd years ago, then under the three- shift plan in its worst form, and before he owned it, not a thing of the kind was to he seen. Several gentlemen who have followed the rival system have often complained to me of the constant dimi- nution of their wheat crops. Of this, there was 110 doubt; but whether to ascribe it to the redundant accumulation of unrotted vegetable matter; to the greater increase of destructive insects; to the more rapid multiplication of the noxious weeds al- ready enumerated, to which I might have added the still more formidable enemies — running-brier, trumpet flower, yellow locust, sassafras, and per- simmon, they did not undertake to assert. Now, if the four-shift advocates, versus three-shift advo- cates, admit the foregoing facts, which can be es- tablished beyond cavil or refutation, let the non- committed farmers and planters decide between them. How this controversy originated, seems to me of no importance; but its continuation surely need not be long, if only a few reputable farmers would undertake to try the rival systems fairly. The friends of each have taken for granted that which both Flemish and Chinese husbandry, 'tis said, have proved to be untrue. This is the necessity for resting land — in other words, leaving it uncultivated for some years. Both in Flanders and China, unless my information be incorrect, all arable land is made to bear some crop every year, and its fertility is at least preserved, if not in- creased, by the application of manures and a pro- per rotation of crops. Why might it not be so in Virginia?* *The "four-shift" rotation referred to above is that recommended by Arator, of corn, wheat, and two years' rest, either with or without clover — and not the very different rotation called also "four-shift" of three grain crops with clover fallow. Each system has its peculiar disadvantages, (which we do not mean to discuss here — ) but the latter "four-shift rotation" is truly such as "Commentator" advocates on the author- ity of Chinese and Flemish practice. There is no year or seaso7i of rest — but the fourth crop (clover) is turned in as part of the manure necessary to bring three grain crops in succession. As to Arator's four-shift ro- tation, of which we have had long experience, howe- ver beneficial for restoring lost fertility to poor lands, it is certainly liable to the objections stated above, of encouraging the increase of troublesome weeds, and destructive insects— of both which evils we have had woful experience. As to the causes of diminished The article on draught, from the "Library of Useful Knowledge" is an excellent one, and should be diligently studied by every person who owns either a plough or a carriage of any kind, since the principles on which they ought to be constructed in order to render them as perfect as practicable, are probably as little understood as any other art. can be, which is of" such great im- portance to mankind. "A" has presented some very useful hints on the management of sheep, which in most parts of Virginia are worse treated than any other other stock, although as profitable, perhaps more so, in proportion to first cost, than any other. In sum- mer they are rarely noticed, except to shear, or to furnish a lamb for the table; and in winter, too often left to shift entirely for themselves. COMJIE5TATOR. COMMENTS ON FARMERS' REGISTER — No. 11. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Mr. C. W. Gooch's two letters contain much interesting and valuable matter. It is therefore to be regretted that he should have blended with it any thing as a settled truth or principle, which is still a subject of controversy among some of the best wrriters, both in this country and in Europe. Such are his assumptions as to the cause of "Ma- laria," and the best state in which to cut grass for hay, which he says, is "in full bloom.'''' With- out expressing any opinion myself on either topic, I will here only remark, that it cannot probably be unknown to Mr. Gooch, that numerous well writ- ten treatises have been published within a f^w years past, on the causes of malaria, maintaining not only different, but contradictory opinions, and that the subject may truly be said to be "adhuc sub ji/rf('ce" — yet undecided. Again, it is quite improbable that Mr. G. should be ignorant of the statement made by Sir Humphry Davy in his Ag- ricultural Chemistry, of the ninety-seven experi- ments made by the Duke of Bedford's gardener, at Woburn Abbey, for the purpose of ascertain- ing at what particular stage of growth it was most advantageous to cut the different kind of grasses subjected to these experiments. The number of grasses subjected to trial was ninety-seven, and in most of the cases, as well as I recollect, the quan- tity of nutritive matter ascertained by accurate analysis, to be contained in the grass cut when the seed was ripe, exceeded the quantity in it when in flower, to an enormous extent. Quere, does Mr. G. use the term "grass-knife" as synonymous with grass-scythe, or is it a new implement?* His suggestion to mix two kinds of grass-seed together, is probably a very good one, and might be extended to the mixture of three or four, if we may believe some late English publications on ar- tificial grasses. The description which he gives of what his neighbors have called "blue-grass," renders it production in our experiment of this rotation, referred to above, we can throw no additional light on the re- markable results. Ed. Farm. Reg. *The term was meant for the scythe, it is presumed, as it is often so applied in this part of Virginia. — Ed. 1835.] FARMERS5 REGISTER. 115 highly probable that it will prove very valuable in lands similar to those on the Chiokahomony, although it is to be regretted that a different name had not been bestowed on it, since we already have a highland grass by the same name, and of quite a different character. If this new grass "will conquer the bull-rush," it will accomplish more than any other species has ever yet done among the various trials I have seen made. Ef- fectual draining however, most certainly kills it. As to two other pests which he mentions, the running brier and the sassafras, I have had woful experience of both, but have not succeeded in ex- tirpating either, although his mode lor destroying the latter is certainly worth trying. The method of sowing jjrass seed recommended by Mr. G. is by hand. This I know is the cus- tomary mode; but not comparable to that by a machine made and sold by Sinclair and Moore of Baltimore. This is so constructed as to sow anv kindl of small seed, or small grain, broadcast, in spaces twelve feet wide, and as fast as a horse can walk. Small tin slides, perforated with holes of different sizes, regulate not only the quantity of seed distributed by each step of the horse, but also enable the sower to change the kinds when he pleases, merely by moving the slides backwards or forwards. It is likewise admirably adapted to Bowing gypsum. The cost I believe is about 60 dollars; the construction simple; and the durability probably great. In level open land, I have never seen any method of sowing small grain, grass seed, or plaster, that seemed to be compara- ble to sowing them by this machine. From Mr. G7s remarks on what he calls "the guinea grass," I should infer that he means a spe- cies of millet which I have heard so called, but improperly. This inference I draw from the fact that Mr. GTs opinion is in direct contradiction to that of the only farmer of my acquaintance who has cultivated the guinea grass to any extent. The gentleman is Mr. John Roane of King Wil- liam, who has been trying it for some years, and speaks so highly of it both for soiling and hay, that he is now extending its culture. Mr. G's conclusion against "exotic grasses" altoorether, because some of them have yielded but "one crop of" hay," seems neither very logical nor accordant with the experience of many other farmers. It is notorious, for instance, that the lucerne which is an exotic, can be cut four or five times in the sea- son at the average height of fifteen or eighteen inches — and I myself know an instance which oc- curred last summer, (dry as it was,) of guinea grass being cut four times, at the average height of at least three feet, in each case. Mr. G. in- clines to the opinion, once universal in my part of Virginia, and in favor of which more, I think, can be said than the scoffers at it are aware of — I mean the occasional, if not the annual burning of lands which are much covered with dead grass and weeds. Without either denying or affirming it to be correct, I will barely add* the admitted facts in its favor. It converts coarse vegetable matter — full of the seeds of weeds and the eggs and larva? of insects, into the fertilizing substance, ashes, which is free of all these nuisances; and it lessens much the labor of preparing the land for an after crop. To this may be added, as something wor- thy at least of being well considered, whether certain discarded practices in agriculture have been condemned upon sufficient evidence of their worthlessness. The individuals of each genera- tion are too apt to consider themselves the peculiar "children of light," in comparison with their pre- decessors, and consequently sometimes discard, as unworthy of their superior knowledge, practices superior, in some respects, to their own. So it has been, and I fear will be, to the end of time; but those who think so, should still not despair of guarding some against so pernicious a fallacy. The second letter of your correspondent Mr. Gooch, increases much in value as well as interest, for it has more facts and fewer opinions. Among the former, I find several which furnish in my humble judgement, some very strong proofs in fa- vor of applying manures in the freshest state, and to the surface, instead of ploughing them under. They also favor, as I think, the opinion, that what we call "resting land," is needless, if a proper ro- tation of crops, and manuring were regularly pur- sued. There is however, one fact — at least stated as such by Mr. G., which I myself, although pro- bably as old a man as he is, and living also in the tide-water portion of Virginia, have never wit- nessed. I mean that wherein he states that "be- tween the Chickahomony and James River hills, there are portions of land, with a gray and ash colored soil of nine or ten inches thickness, resting on a clay foundation." Now, I, as well as Mr. G., have examined most soils — such as may pro- perly be so called, in the tide-water part of Virgi- nia, and I have never seen a single spot of high- land, where that which could truly be called soil, was five inches deep. This difference of opinion however, resolves itself into a question of what is really soill and will be deemed perhaps unimport- ant by my readers — especially as I accord with Mr. G. in the opinion, that it is very advantage- ous gradually to mix with it a portion of "the red clay foundation," wherever it can be reached, even by trench ploughing. I regret that Mr. G. has not given us the pro- duce in bushels of potatoes, turnips, and oats which were made in the several experiments which he states; for by this omission he has de- prived his statements of fully half their value. In the oat case of more than half. Why should he fear that we would doubt his word in the latter case more than in any other which he states — ev- idently with a confident expectation of being be- lieved? I believe that I know the gentleman per- sonally, and if all your other correspondents are equally worthy of credence, your paper has none more trustworthy, where facts are concerned. His experiments with the two twenty-acre fields merit particular attention — especially ibr the fact furnished by the latter in favor of top-dressing with fresh manure. It is high time that farmers should come to some settled opinion, and adopt some uniform practice in regard to this important process. What a deal of labor, expense, and time, and manure also, would be saved by discard- ing your costly stercoraries — your short and long muck deposites — as well as all the complicated variety of compost heaps requiring ten or twelve months to form them, and three or four horse ploughs afterwards to turn them under — if it were once satisfactorily ascertained, that the best state to use manure was when freshest; and the most judicious mode of applying it was on the surface. Query — have we not already more ex- 110 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 2. periments and facts in favor of this last opinion than against it? What Mr. G. has told us of coal ashes trials, is not sufficiently particular; for Mother manures" having been used after them, we have no proof of the share, (if any,) which the ashes had in fertil- izing the land which was treated as he states. Upon the whole, I think your subscribers have much cause to be pleased with both Mr. Gooch's communications, although he has given us some- thing like half a dozen prophecies at the close of the last, which, I fear, can have very little effect in stimulating to more industry the numerous drones of the present generation — since, upon the most moderate computation, they will require some century or two for their fulfilment. This may discourage rather than excite; for if Virginia cannot thrive until then, her case is hopeless. Look at them, I pray you, sir, and then say wheth- er my fears are well or ill grounded. First, the final "improvement of the Roanoke." Second, the same thing accomplished tor "the northern extremity of the great Valley beyond the moun- tains. Third, "the cis and transmontane region nearest Fredericksburg, having easy access to it." Fourth, "the great central improvement of 'the James and Roanoke, with its lateral branches, of- fering the Richmond market to the Ohio country, and East Tennessee." And fifth, though last, not least, "a line of rail roads and steam boats connecting the extreme north with" the extreme south of the Union." Mr. Dupuy's inquiries and suggestions relative to ''sheep husbandry," involve questions in politi- cal economy of considerable interest to Virginians generally, but particularly to land-owners in the middle of the state. There are very few subjects connected with agriculture, of which we are more ignorant, although during the prevalence of the Merino mania in our last war, there were more discussions, and more pamphlets — to say nothing of newspaper out-pourings, than enough to elicit all the information on the subject that the United States and Europe put together could possibly furnish. Why it should have evaporated, it is no easy matter to say; especially when matters were then carried so far, that not only men's politics, but their patriotism, were measured and graduated by their zeal and efficiency in raising sheep — par- ticularly if they were Merinos. The article which Mr. Dupuy has noticed in the "Cultivator," must be, I suspect, justly attri- butable to some remains of the old "Merino ma- nia" in the writer; for if land worth one hundred dollars per acre, can really be more profitably used in raising sheep, than in providing food for men, it will prove indisputably, that in the arithmetic of such political economists a. sheep is intrinsically worth more than a man. To this, as a universal maxim, I cannot, strain my credulity; although (by the way) had I a right to make the exchange, I would require but little, if any boot, between some men of a certain political creed which shall be nameless, and an equal number of good sheep.* But every thing like badinage apart, (which with *Our editorial pen was in hand to mark out this pas- sage, as touching upon the forbidden subject of party politics. But it escaped erasure upon the ground that some of your contributors, seems to be deemed a contraband article in so grave a thing as an agri- cultural journal,) I will state, in compliance with Mr. Dupuy's request, notwithstanding it is appa- rently confined 1o "northern friends," some odds and ends of information picked up by myself, on this subject, among the Merino patriots of our last war. One of them who had profited largely from the fever, by selling his Merinos to the infected, at enormous prices, assured me that he had never found, after various and long continued trials, any cheaper or more effectual way to secure the health of sheep, so far as that depended upon me- dicine, than to give them tar with their salt. His method was to pour the former into a long narrow trough, made for the purpose, and then to stir up with it a quantity of fine salt, sufficient nearly to fill the trough. The mixture being inseparable, the tar was always eaten for the sake of the salt, and would last a considerable tune without the trouble of renewing. As to their other treatment, the information which I collected from him, as well as many others, may be summed up in the following particulars. That although sheep will live without any other food than that which they can find for themselves, provided they have suffi- cient range to hunt it out, yet that they cannot be made either very good, or very profitable, without Strict attention to feeding them well during winter, and the month of March, with corn-fodder or hay: to keeping them dry and clean, under a pro- per shelter, during all rainy or snowy weather — to separating the ewe lambs from the ram, until the second season afier they are yeaned — and to regular salting at least twice a week, all the year round. There are numerous well authenticated facts to prove that sheep thus kept will yield, on an average, about seven pounds of wool each; whereas if they are neglected, as usual, the aver- age will rarely exceed one and a half pounds. -In regard to minor points, the majority of good sheep farmers whom I have consulted, recommend that ram lambs should be castrated within a i'ew days after they are yeaned; that they should not be sheared until the second season: that this opera- tion should be performed on them, as well as the older sheep, immediately alter the long season in May; that a mixture of tar and fish oil should be smeared on from the end of the nose along down the spine, to the root of the tail: and that the flock should be kept rather in highland than lowland pasture, but occasionally changed from one field to another, and penned only in dry weather, during the months of May, June, September, and Octo- ber. There are some few of Mr. Dupuy's inquiries that I cannot answer, but hope that some other person will. Mr. J. Du Val has given your Matthews cor respondent with the queer name, a very proper re- buke for violating, as he seems to have done, his own advice, and in the very letter too, containing that advice. I agree perfectly with Mr. Du Val each reader would agree to its truth as to the party to which he is himself opposed — and that thus, by rare hick, an opinion might be expressed in which all par- ties could concur — En. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 117 ami yourself", that it is best in general, for every writer to sign his own proper name; bat there are two obstacles very hard to overcome, real diffidence, and false modesty, which is but another name for pride. Which of the two operates upon myself, I must leave it to others to inter from what I have already written, if they cannot hit upon some bet- ter motive. However, should the spirit move me hereafter to continue my communications, I mean at some future day, seriously to repent of former anonymous scribblings, and to give you, as well as all others whom it may concern, my proper ap- pellative. W. G's remarks "on harvesting corn," will guard all rash experimentalists from adopting the process recommended by Mr. Buel and Mr. Cole- man. In their climate, where the dwarf and flinty varieties of corn are the only kinds cultivated, and where they have plenty of hay for their stock, the method may answer. But in a large portion of Virginia, wherein corn is a very important staple, consisting almost entirely of those mealy varieties which are comparatively late in ripening, and therefore requiring more sun to fit them for hous- ing; varieties, too, that constitute the chief, in many cases, the sole dependance for supporting our horses, cattle, and sheep by their fodder— the practice of cutting up the entire plant at the season proposed, would render all the fodder near- ly worthless, and would cause, (as I myself have seen on several occasions,) much of the grain to become mouldy in the heart. That stripping the blades and cutting the tops might be beneficially delayed much later than usu- al, I have no doubt; nor have I any that it would be advantageous to discontinue it. altogether, on every farm whereon a sufficiency of hay could be made to support the stock. The short article "on splitting fire-wood'' re- minds me of a very important fact communicated to me by a good practical farmer several years ago. He stated it to be his practice, founded on his own experience, as well as that of his father, to saw through the heart of every stick of timber which he used either for gate-posts or the sills of houses. This, he said, caused them to last much longer, and I have often since, seen his assertion verified. Only a few days ago 1 was walking near two old gate-posts which had stood ten or twelve years in the same spot, and happening to think of the above fact, I examined both. The sap part was sound for some depth from the smface; whereas, ihe heart, which would certainly have lasted the longest if split, as we see by fence-rails, was so rotten, that I thrust my cane down into it almost to its head. The cause of this I cannot conjecture, unless it be, that the heart containing more pyroligneous acid than the sap, and this acid being confined by the surrounding wood, which soon loses, in the seasoning process, its own por- tion of this principle of decay in wood, the centre decays first because the acid in it cannot escape. The remarks of "Agricultor" on yoking oxen, furnish another strong" case to be added to the thousands already recorded, all going to prove how very slow all agriculturists are in either see- ing, hearing, understanding, or believing that any practice whatever can possibly be better than their own. Common sense would lead us to conclude that whatever older nations than Ave are, univer- sally or generally do, in any of the arts differently from ourselves, must be at least worth trying: but common sell-conceit or sheer laziness says /a — ■ and hence the snail-like progress of all improve- raents in husbandry. Whilst our agricultural societies arc offering premiums frequently for things, which to say the least of them, are of very doubtful utility, why could they not proclaim one lor the exhibition of a pair of oxen yoked according to the Spanish mode? To this might be advantageously added another for the exhibition of a horse shod after the French and German method, which has been said by very competent judges, to be far prefera- ble to our own. "A Planter from the Lower James" has given us some useful hints on "wheat-seeding." Per- mit me to add a few more on the same subject. For opening water-furrows in wet land after the wheat is sown, no single mould-board plough can perform it well without running backwards and forwards, which always makes the furrow so wide as to waste land; whereas, the double mould- board plough made by Sinclair and Moore of Bal- timore, opens it of the proper width, and at one stroke, thereby saving half the time. To open water- furrows on high, dry land, which, when done at all, is always performed by a plough of some kind or other often running twice, a prefera- ble plan is to use the single coulter, with fwo small mould-boards about five inches long by four wide, nailed on the helve some four inches above the lower end. This goes deeper than any sin- gle-plough, and makes the narrowest furrow com- patible with the object. For hauling off corn, the best kind of carriage which I have ever seen, is one called "a flat" in some parts of the country. The advantages are, that it carries much more than any cart; that it is loaded by men standing on each side, instead of having one to stand on the cart-wheel, and ano- ther on the top of the load; and the wheels being eight inches broad and about three feet high, they rather benefit the wheat by rolling the land, than injure it by cutting the beds, as the cart wheels always do, particularly when the land is wet. To make these "flats," requires very little me- chanical skill. The plat-form, or bottom is made like the bed of a cart-body, but longer and wider. It has neither sides nor end-boards, and is cover- ed with thin, smooth plank or boards, nailed on length-wise. In front there are three strong upright pieces about two by three inches square, and five feet high, inserted in the front sill of the plat-form, and connected by one cross-piece at lop, and another about three feet below. A similar frame is fixed behind, but made to fake off, while the load is forming. This is done by throwing the corn-stalks — ears and all, cross-wise from the sides — the ears in the middle, and the loaders standing on the ground. The hinder frame is fixed when the load is nearly complete, after which, a rope or common grape-vine is fastened 1o the centre of the front frame, and passing over the load to the hinder frame, secures the whole. The unloading is much facilitated by placing un- der and over the load a rope or vine long enough 119 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 2. for two or three persons to hold on behind, after the removal of the hinder frame, while the "'flat" moves on in an opposite direction. This kind of carriage is also far preferable to a cart or wagon for hauling in wheat from the harvest field. The wheels are made either by sawing off rol- lers eight inches thick from the body of a tree, if you can find one large enough, or by fastening to- gether either with large pins, or cross-pieces of iron bolted through, three pieces of timber three, feet long, and twelve by eight inches square. To these, when thus fastened, the circular form is af- terwards given, and boxes of a suitable size fixed in the centre of the middle piece. A single box to go entirely through each wheel would probably be better. If it can be deemed worth while to lighten the wheels, this may easily be done by striking two circles — one lour or five inches from the cen- tre, the other, thirteen or fourteen inches from it, and hollowing out the middle space to a thick- ness of four or five inches. To guard wheat against smut, it has been as- certained by very numerous and well attested ex- periments, that nothing more is necessary than to steep the seed in strong brine, and after taking it out, to mix with it as much quicklime as will ad- here to the wet grains. A lew hours after this it is fit to sow: but. the seedsman must, use the pre- caution to grease his hands occasionally, or the lime will soon make them very sore. Pray, Mr. Editor, tell me what your correspon- dent means by "gripped" land? Excuse me, for asking, and pardon my ignorance; for although somewhat curious in regard to provincialisms, and a great hunter up of such odd things, I have ne- ver seen nor heard of the above term before, and can neither guess nor imagine from its usual ac- ceptation, what its figurative meaning can be. This puzzle has prompted me to make another re- quest, which is, that you will exercise your "veto power" against all future provincialisms unac- companied by proper explanations.* * A "Grip" is a small ditch cut across the beds af- ter the wheat is sown, and every other operation has been completed. The grips pass through all the low places in the water-furrows, (or trenches between the beds — as "water-furrow" is a provincialism — ) and serve to draw off all the rain-water that would other- wise stand in puddles, and injure the crop. It would be gaining an important object if our agri- cultural nomenclature could be made so general and uniform, that there should be no necessity for either using or explaining provincial terms. But under pre- sent circumstances, it is difficult to know what would be considered as provincialisms requiring explana- tions, and what terms are of such extended use that the explanations would be quite unnecessary. "Grips" are described by another writer at page 106, vol. I. We have before proposed what we think would be the best means of avoiding the difficulties of usin°- provincial terms in agriculture — which is, to collect and publish as full a list as possible of all the provin- cial agricultural terms used in the United States, with the definitions and the localities stated. If this was done, we suspect that our friend "Commentator" would be surprised to find that several of his own Mr. D. Chandler's mode of cultivating as- paragus is, without doubt, a very good one; but the dislance one way, at which he plants, is greater than usual, and therefore more, probably, than enough. It may however, be judicious, where land is scarce, as he makes it produce also a crop of beels the first year. ''The proper distance for this vegetable" he says, is to have "the rows two feet apart." Is there not a very needless loss of land in this? I have often seen the roots four or five inches in diameter when grown not more than twelve or fifteen inches each way. Mr. Chandler's article furnishes another proof in favor of using "fresh uniermented manure" in prefer- ence to any other. The report in favor of a geological survey of our state, and the act which resulted from it, has brought to my mind a subject which has often ex- cited in it, the most melancholy reflections. No state of the same age, is more in want than ours, of internal improvements of every kind; nor any which is susceptible of a greater number that would pay large profits upon the money invested in them. Yet few, comparatively speaking, have been undertaken, and of these it would not be easy to point out a solitary one which has been managed in the best practical manner. The cause, the most deplorable cause of this failure can rea- dily be found by any Virginian who can summon courage enough to examine impartially, facts that must mortify his state-pride. Such examinations will inevitably lead him to the discovery, that par- ty-spirit and favoritism have constantly been permitted to manage nearly the whole affair, in every case. Instead of invariably employing men to superintend and execute the work, solely on ac- count of their talents, knowledge, skill, and ex- perience, all these have been either made secon- dary considerations, or have been disregarded en- tirely; and some miserable party ism or other, has ?',; reality, although never avowedly, been made the test of qualifications. This has resulted in part, from the circumstance of all our works hav- ing been made too much a matter of state con- cern, from which every body knows it is impossi- ble, in (hese times, to exclude party-politics, ra- ther than to leave their management, entirely 1o the judgement of the private stock-holders. Ask any member of our legislature for fifteen or twen- ty years back, I care not who it may be, whether he has, in every case, voted for the best qualified individuals in the whole circle of his acquaintance, to fill the various public appointments in the gift of the legislature; and if he does not reply in the negative I will suffer myself to be called a slan- derer of my own state. If it would not be too in- vidious I could state hundreds of cases to prove, the truth of my assertion. But I will forbear, and will add nothing more than a solemn warning to all who are immediately interested in the great James River improvement about to be com- menced, not to suffer this destructive curse of par- ty-spirit and favoritism to mar the chances of success, by governing the appointment of the en- gineers and other agents who must be employed terms were considered by other persons as provincial- isms. We should be glad to have his aid (and no one could furnish better,) in preparing materials for such a glossary. Ed. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 119 to conduct it. The company have got a charter which I will venture to say can never be executed without several important amendments; and the.}7 have got among their members personal partiali- ties and preferences (very honest ones I have no doubt,) which will interpose serious obstacles to success. Add to this, there are some local inter- ests working against them, under the plausible guise of public spirit, and therefore the more like- ly to injure them. These remarks, I assure you sir, are not designed to discourage, even if I were vain enough to believe I possessed any such pow- er. But my sole motive is, a wish that the great work may succeed; and take my word for it, that I do not speak unadvisedly, nor without some good cause in offering the foregoing cautions. "American Filberts." If by this term be meant the foreign nut raised in the United States, I as- sert, from long experience, that they will succeed perfectly well in all the tide-water portion of Vir- ginia— perhaps in every part of the state, and bear abundantly; although the bushes are sometimes killed by an insect that adheres close to the bark of the bodies and limbs, and resembles small, hard scales. The article from the "New England Farmer" on "clover," is particularly recommended to the consideration of disputants about the three and tour-shift systems. If it be "good economy always to sow clover with small grain, though it is to be ploughed in the same or the next season,'''' and we have this writer's authority for it — if moreover, "its value to the next crop cannot be less" (as he also asserts,) "than quadruple" the cost and la- bor of sowing the seed — then have we a complete answer — at least in my opinion — to the strongest objection to the three-shift system. The recommendations from "the Cultivator" of "root culture" and "pruning fruit trees" in June and July, deserve particular attention. Without the former, as well as meadows or grass lots, we cannot supply our families with the requisite quan- tity of milk and butter, unless at a great expense of winter feeding with grain and fodder; nor can we have either beef or pork of our own raising, but at great extra and needless cost. In regard to pruning, the writer has omitted one essential ope- ration, which is, to smear all large wounds over with some one or other of the various composi- tions recommended by gardeners. Of Gov. Barbour's address, it is nothing but sheer justice to say, that it calls our attention, in very appropriate and forcible, language, to several matters of the deepest interest to every true friend of his country. What could be more patriotic than the establishment of a Professorship of Ag- riculture at our University? What more mortify- ing and heart-sickening, than the neglect — nay, the fatuitous reprobation with which it has been treated? What epidemic — what pestilence has ever raged in our country, that has proved more destructive to the bodily health of our citizens, than the "party and political and office-hunting strifes," of which he speaks so feelingly, have pro- ved to their moral health? Among all the evils growing out of this state of things, there is none, I think, greater than the utter neglect, on the part of our legislatures, of the vital interests of agri- culture, from the establishment of our union to the present day. They did once crawl so far. several years ago, as to appoint a "Committee of Agri- culture! " yes, verily, a "Committee of Agricul- ture ! " If any doubt my word, let them search the journals of the House, and they will assuredly find, that this patriotic eflbrt was actually made, and as far as we can judge from the circumstances of the case, with "bona fide" intent, on the part of the performers, that they were actually achiev- ing something which would redound in no small degree, to their own honor, as well as to the ben- efit of their state. What has been the result? Can a single man be found in our whole state who has even known, or even heard of a solitary act of this committee — unless it be of a negative character, since their establishment ? In fact, they have literally done nothing, unless it is to furnish the inexplicable phenomenon of the legislature of a state, whose predominant interest is agriculture — a legislature, too, consisting chiefly of agriculhi- ralmen — not only neglecting utterly, all agricultu- ral interests, but. actually making a mockery of them, by creating a committee to take care of them, which has literally proved a sinecure ap- pointment. God save poor old Virginia! (for nothing else can,) when the maddening business of president-making, forever kept alive by dema- gogues and office-hunters, is constantly withhold- ing her citizens from studying and providing for all those vital interests by which she lives, and moves, and has her being ! In your editorial comments on "the recent en- actments of the legislature of Virginia, affecting the interests of agriculture," I entirely agree, ex- cept in your approval of the conclusion to which the committee of agriculture arrived in regard to the petitions for changing the present fence law. Your own reasoning on the subject is evidently founded on the erroneous supposition, that the pe- titioners sought "a sudden and entire change of policy."* In this I am perfectly confident you are mistaken, for I myself was one of the signers, and conversed often with many others on the objects of the petition. Not a man — at least in my hear- ing, ever said a single word in favor of a precipi- tate repeal. On the contrary, all expressed an opinion similar to yours, that the change which they sought — like all other changes of a general *Our words were intended to be applied to the view of the subject professed to be taken in the report of the committee of agriculture, which is only applicable to an entire and radical change — and not to the objects of the petitioners. We are well assured, (and would have so said in these remarks, it it had been deemed necessary,) that the object of the advocates of a change was generally such as our correspondent states. Our concurrence in these views, and the deci- ded opposition to the principle and policy of the pre- sent law, have been sufficiently expressed. But for a change of any ancient law to be beneficial or permanent, it is necessary that it should be preceded by a decided change of popular opinion. Ed. 120 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 2. and long established practice, should be made uslowly} but surely.'1'' The petitioners wished only to abolish the system, and designed — as in all similar cases, to leave the choice of the details, as well as the time and manner of accomplishing their object, to the good sense and judgement of the legislature. But admitting the rejection of the petition to be perfectly right, did the committee determine justly in abstaining from any attempt whatever to amend the law, merely because they deemed it wrong to repeal it altogether? Was there a man in our whole legislative body who could conscientiously say, that the present law is faultless-? Nay, can a single person be found in our whole community, by whom the law has been read at all, who will not pronounce it full of most glaring defects — delects too, that might very easily have been remedied, without disturbing its pre- cious principle of taxing enormously the whole agricultural portion of our people for the imagina- ry benefit of a few owners of comparatively worthless stock? If there be any such man, it has never yet been my lot to meet with him. As to that part of the committee's report which you so truly designate as "miserable and false rea- soning," 1 will not trust myself to speak of it as I think it deserves. COMMENTATOR. From the [British] Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. ANIMALIZED CARBON, A NEW MANURE. This substance is of French origin, and its man- ufacture is secured by patent. It was discovered by a French chemist; but that it is a substance easily manufactured may be interred from the fact of its being shipped free on board lor 35s. per ton. Mr. Joseph Owen, of Copenhagen, acquired the knowledge of the manufacture horn the patentee in France, and has since established a manufacto- ry on his own account in Copenhagen. His tra- veller, a Danish gentleman, was the first to intro- duce this new manure to the notice of the Scottish agriculturists. We have not had an opportunity of seeing a sample of it, but it seems it has been tried last year by Mr. Dalgairns of Ingliston, and Mr. Inches of Cardean, who, we hope, will favor us with their opinion of its efficacy. We under- stand that the. Danish gentleman has disposed of 250 Ions of it. in the counties of Forfar and Kin- cardine. Mr. Owen's card gives the following account of its nature, and the mode of using it: "The chief excellency of this manure is, Ihat it is powerful in its effects, occupies but little room, is easily separated, and conveniently used either by hand or drill; its eifects are farther to ensure a rich crop, by gradually ameliorating the soil, and rendering fallowing unnecessary. For wheat, rye, buckwheat, barley, and similar descriptions of corn, about 8 cwt. 1 qr. 16 lbs. is used per acre: it may be either broadcast or drilled in before har- rowing. For flax, hemp, beet, potatoes, &c. about 101 cwt. per acre; and 12 cwt. 2 qrs. 10 lbs. per acre lor artificial meadows, different sorts of cab- bage, rape, culinary plants, and for refreshing na- tural meadow land. For plants that are set in rows, a handful is put to each plant; for those which are transplanted, a child lbllows the planter and throws a very small handful of the manure into each hole, which is immediately covered over with earth; in several places for rape, it is scattered out in rows along the roots of the plant, which the plough covers by forming anew furrow. On mea- dow land it must be spread out in December or Jan- uary, when the snow is not on the ground. Gen- erally speaking, it is well to mix the manure with half its quantity of finely sifted earth; but there is no necessity for pursuing this method. On light and warm soils about 2 qrs. 22 lbs. less per acre is used than on cold or clay lands, where an extra 2 qrs. 22 lbs. are added to the quantity as before- hand directed to be used; it is in fact left to the farmer's judgement to make use of the above direc- tions, according to local circumstances. What characterizes this manure most is, that it dcvelopes its effects so slowly and gradually, that it may be applied without danger in contact with the seed or roots of plants; in this it differs from a number of other manures which are less rich, but more heat- ing. In Scotland it has been tried in 1834 on eight different soils, has been found nearly equal to bone- dust for turnips, and has since been ordered in large quantities from the manufacturer, Mr. Owen, at Copenhagen, who delivers it free on board at 36s. per ton. — Ed. Qu. J. Ar~ [We have seen in the last year's numbers of the An- nates de I' Agriculture Francaise, several notices of the manure referred to above, but none so full as to show how it is prepared, or of what it is composed. The following, however, may throw some additional light on the subject. The remarkable cheapness of the ar- ticle, of which the English editor speaks, may be per- haps caused by the adulteration which is here made known.] REMARKS UPON A FALSIFICATION OF THE AKIMALIZED CARBONACEOUS MANURE. Translated for the farmers9 Register. The great demand for some years back of ani- mal black, and of the charcoal -which isleir by the sugar refineries, has determined some persons to speculate on these manures, and to increase their quantity by the addition of matters having a like appearance, but a less value, and containing nei- ther the blood, nor the other matters, which make the base of these two manures. It is important to cultivators to know these fraudulent mixtures, and nothing is more easy, especially in relation to the. black earth of Picardy,* which is the most used in these falsifications, and which is now transported for this purpose to Brittany in heavy cargoes. To prove the existence of this fraud, it suffices to sprinkle a little of the manure in a shovel, to heat it red for some minutes, and then to let it cool. Then if the manure was pure, the ashes left on the shovel will have an uniform grayish color. If it contained the black earth, the. ashes will present reddish, or rust colored particles, which will be the more numerous in proportion to the quantity of the admixture of black earth. * *This matter, designated also by the names of black ashes, and of pyriious ashes, is met with in abundance in many localities, particularly in the department of Aisne. It is composed of argil, (or fine clay,) sulphu- ret of iron, sulphate of iron, of coally and bituminous organic substances. Steeped in water, it <;-ivesan acid solution, which strongly reddens litmus paper, (or ve- getable blues.) 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 121 [A place is given to the following article because it is in reply to one already printed in this No. (p. 79,) and which was inserted principally on account of the remarkably heavy products promised by the writer, from his new mode of culture. We are enough in- clined to distrust all such large promises — but the high recommendations with which several of our editorial brethern introduced the former article, gave it, appa- rently, an additional claim to attention. It is however treated with any thing but respect in the following re- ply— and our readers may judge for themselves as to the comparative weight of the opposing statements. The tone and manner of the reply, will serve to show with what "scant courtesy" some of the northern far- mers are accustomed to treat each other, in the discus- sion of agricultural subjects. From the Farmer and Gardener. POTATOES. American Hotel, Baltimore, May 19th, 1835. Having an errand in the office of the editor of the Farmer and Gardener, I had handed me, the 1st No. of the 2d vol., containing an essay of Mr. A. K. Barnum, of Vermont, on the culture of po- tatoes, which the editor recommended as being worthy of my particular perusal: accordingly I read it, with some attention. Perceiving the writer to be a theorist, one who aimed at creating an excitement, and that he had contradicted himself; and knowing from my own experience, that his piddling mode, as he has been pleased to call it, is deviating from known and well established practice, and fearing that if per- mitted to go without refutation from some one, it would be liable to lead many an innocent farmer astray from the true principles of the culture of this valuable vegetable, to their damage, as well as prove a loss to the community, after a more careful perusal, I gave the editor my opinion in full, that the author was not a practical farmer, and that very many profitable remarks could be, and ought to be, made, in order that people should not be misguided. The editor insisting on my communicating my objections in writing on the subject, I consented, on the. ground that he should be connected in my remarks with the author, he having given his opinion strongly in favor of his principles of cul- ture and still persisting therein. In the culture of the potato, it is necessary to know the nature of it, with respect to its growth, what, are its elements, and what its constitution; that is, what it will bear without injury, it being a most delicate root, and what mode of culture is necessary to ensure the most desirable and abun- dant crop. I have found by experience, that the potato is not particular as to its choice of soils, or its usage as to manure. It will thrive well on high and on low grounds, in ordinary seasons, if there be no extremity of wet or drought during their growing, and will generally produce a reasonable and satis- factory crop, entirely without manure, but are sure always to repay for extra attention. The potato above any other vegetable is found profitable to cultivate on new rough ground, anions; stones and roots, where the ground cannot be sufficiently worked for any other crop usually Vol. Ill— 16 cultivated, until time and labor renders it more pliable. Here the farmer is greatly benefited in the culture of this crop, as the potato is more pe- culiarly adapted to rough, half cultivated, grounds than any other crop, and the cultivation, by the more frequently working of the ground, tends to the better subduing of it. The farmers to the north, besides bringing their rough lands to, avail themselves of the certainty of escaping from the evil of the ravages of the worms that so often de- stroy a crop of corn, by first planting their new swarded ground with potatoes, and it is well to observe, that this swarded ground is far the best for a crop of potatoes. We generally plant to the north ground newly broke up, once with pota- toes, and once with corn, and then sow it down to grass and grain. This mode of culture is of well known and uni- form practice. As much ground as a farmer wishes to till is taken up yearly, that is by two years planting it, and managed in this way. Thus it becomes necessary to plant as many acres of potatoes at least as the farmer wishes to take up yearly, lor the benefit of stirring his land, and keeping it loose, by distributing his manure in pro- portion to the land required to betaken up for the benefit of his grass, as well as a proper system of tillage. In this mode of husbandry he does not use the line, clear out his walks, nor shovel over his land into beds; but he has use for all his ma- nure for the benefit of his three crops, and to fit the ground for grass. On Mr. JBarnum's system, it will take all the manure a very economical, in- dustrious farmer can possibly procure on a consi- derable farm, to manure one acre, for he recom- mends spreading and manuring high, the first coat to plough in, then to drill, 20 inches apart with a plough, not less wide to be sure than 8 to 12 inch- es, and four deep, and in those furrows two inches thick, the first coat requires from 25 to 50 bushel cartloads, the Latter will require 50, aggregate 75, this will take all the manure of a good farm. He says there is great benefit to be derived in thia mode of using manure from the coming crop. Well may his neighbors say let him piddle with his line, &c. But above all his deviations from rational farm- ing, is his providing heaps of different kinds of earth, from different situations, near where he plants, to hill his potatoes with; this it seems is not intended as manure, but. merely for hilling, as though there was not^earth enough: if this last process was to benefit as manure, according to his theory, all the worth of it would soon be evapo- rated; again, there will be an abundance of weeds and grass, and every foul kind of vegetation be- fore the potatoes are as large as he hills them, which would form a complete turf, and be almost as high as the potatoes; how are these disposed of I We hoe them as soon as they appear, when the. potatoes are but a few inches high, or we are punished for longer neglect: how does Mr. B. lay his weeds'? they are by his plan sure to get quite large, and very numerous, by the time potatoes are budded. This doctrine is contrary to all usage, in all my acquaintance in my own state, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania, where I have lived and farmed it. By the time potatoes are budded for bloom, if nothing be done from planting to that period, a Utile dirt or compost around the potatoes, 122 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 2. would avail nothing towards a crop, it would serve to nurse and nurture the weeds only, and would not benefit the potatoes at all. But ii" this compost or dirt is used as manure, why not spread and har- row it in, immediately, before the virtue escapes by evaporation; for much of the virtue of manure passes off in this way in a lew hours exposure to sun. In his first manuring he is anxious to pre- vent this effect; but I would ask what becomes of his economy of his manure in the latter applica- tion, it being exposed tor months to the influence of sun and rain? I conclude, therefore, that Mr. B. is inconsistent with himself. Notwithstanding the potato will bear poor and indifferent treatment, and produce a crop on any soil, rich or poor, high or low, and with but slight care and attention, (I do not mean not to boe them at all) it is nevertheless, the most delicate of all plants cultivated. It suffers sorely from the least changes of weather, that is from wet to dry, or from heat to cold, and soon yields to frost. A little too much wet when first planted will cause them to rot in the ground, and if up, a slight in- undation will cause them to wilt and die; and if a change from cool and wet to warm and dry, they are much affected, and from dry and warm, to sudden wet, they are also much affected, especial- ly at a time when near maturing, when they are eure to give up; and this is the cause that potatoes are so oiten not good, having failed to become matured; and let me remind the farmer that all vegetables, at this stage, are in their most delicate state. This is the time too when we are in danger of our grain blighting, and the time it is most fre- quently blighted, if at all, from sudden heavy rains; and from these causes we had not half a crop of potatoes in New Hampshire the last sea- eon, and those but half the usual size. The pota- to is easily cultivated as I have shown; and they will well repay lbr good usage, both in manure and good hoeing. I would as soon slight my corn as my potatoes. Mr. B. recommends plant- ing potatoes four inches deep; my expe ience teaches me the contrary. If I plant low around, I plough my ground in beds, in a direction for the water to drain off, then harrow lengthwise of the furrows, and the small lands; having a number of these, side and side, I take a light sharp horse harrow, and harrow crosswise of the beds, which pulverizes the ground, and fits it well for planting-, leaving a small space between the rows, which answers two purposes, one (or a guide for the rows for dropping; this is done by dropping in the mid- dle of the tracks of the harrow, which is easilv and correctly performed, by any small boy. It also serves completely to fill up all cracks or holes, the seed lying fair and easy. I then drop my manure directly over the seed potatoes, and when covered up, the seed is safe from inundation, by being some inches above the surrounding surface': the seed lies warm under this manure, the rains drain into the middle furrows. Thus I do not lose a hill when those that hole four to six inches for the hill even on common high ground, lose much of their planting. Another great advantage is derived from this mode of planting, above the great increase of yield, it prepares the ground for a crop of grass. There are other great advantages from this mode of culture: I plant about three feet distance, it takes the most of the surface that is pulverized to cover the potatoes, and by the time they are twice well hoed, my hills are as I want them to be. They naturally rise high above the surface in form of a sugar loaf; this hill is to turn off' hea- vy rains, and it naturally keeps the potatoes irom being too moist, as they are oiten injured thereby. In harvesting, I find a great advantage in the ma- nure being above the level; the hills being peak- ed, render them very easy to harvest, and the ma- nure is advantageously mixed with this loose sur- face over all the ground, taking care to harvest each row by itself) hauling the mixed loam and manure in one direction. This mode gives a rich surface over all the ground, and with a little har- rowing, it becomes as smooth as an onion bed: by improving this opportunity it availeth much. This ground is sown in grass, if I choose, in the fall, if early, and it is fitted to sow conveniently in the spring, on the snow, if I choose, or other- wise'. This mode of planting potatoes for the ben- efit of grass, is I think preferable to Mr. B\s. mode. I have obtained what I call very large crops in this way, say one of the most favorable dry sea- sons, on some portions of the best of the piece, from five to seven hundred bushels per acre, but no average like this. But the influence that the different seasons have on this kind of ground is very great on the crop. Some cold wet seasons, as above, the potatoes on the same kind of ground, have hardly been worth harvesting. I have as- certained in my latitude, 42^, when at home, that potatoes yield best planted shallow, that is, if ma- nured in the hole, to drop them on top of the ma- nure, instead of under; they have thus in some cases, produced double the quantity of those plant- ed under it, in the same kind of holes, made side and side. It is most sale to make the hills as peaked as they can be, conveniently, to cast off the water in heavy rains. It is certain, from expe- rience and observation, that potatoes are more often affected from the superabundance of wet than by drought, and in an average of seasons, therefore, it is wise to guard against, the greatest evils. It is not generally known that potatoes hold out and grow best if they lay dry in hills; on the con- trary, if the hill be wet through, and continue to be kept wet, it so affects them as to cause a dropping of the leaves, which is called the rust, and they will continue faltering without the possi- bility of a remedy, in any subsequent stage what- ever, if but half grown, as to the root. Mr. B. prescribes a rule for planting potatoes; I cannot, myself, venture on so invidious a task as to fix a definite rule in a case where its propriety is to be determined by contingencies. The sea- son and soil are so variable, that they render a general rule somewhat imperfect. But I will say, for strong moist ground, well manured, seed high for a large crop: sometimes we may seed too high on quick land, if it be a dry season. But the dis- tance the hills are to be apart is a consideration. I have found that three feet each way is the most proper distance to ensure a good crop, and pota- toes of a handsome size, for table use, &c. Taking this for the distance on the rich prepared ground, as I have described, three common sized potatoes to the hill will be more profitable than any less quantity. It is no use to cut them on such ground. If they should be cut small, the vines come up small and weak, grow fast and fall down, and on such ground the vines will run over tha. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 123 ground and keep green until harvest. I have often ibund some few ripe, and some in the same hill Email and green, and generally very ill shaped, whereas on the same ground with the same cul- ture, seed high with good sized potatoes, planted at the same time, they come up strong and are sure to stand erect, will shoot out their young at the same time, and will grow near of a size, ripen altogether, one or two months earlier, and will be found of suitable size for table; this is the mode that I recommended to obtain the largest crop and far the best potatoes. I have tried every method, even the piddling method of Mr. B. as to distance; it ruins them for a crop, to sow them in the way he has described, and much more in the size. I once tried an English mcde warmly recom- mended to produce 900 bushels to the acre: it was to prepare the ground and drill two feet apart, and plant the seed lengthwise, the potatoes in con- tact with each other. They were well attended; the result of the crop was, as any agriculturists would judge, there was after the rate of 900 bush- els (bund on the acre, but the time of finding them was not at harvest, it was when I planted; they produced notbing worth harvesting. It is observable that Mr. B. speaks of the im- portance of sun and air in his first mode, as de- scribed, as though they were the principal causes operating to produce his large crop when in his latter method he produced his largest crop, though he precluded sun, air and light, from entering into his beds. Where they are sown but. one foot apart, if they grow at all, there will be a bed of vines, and if they are kept clear of weeds, as they must be to produce any potatoes; and here too, he omils the great essential of hilling, and yet he gets the largest crop without this very essential and heavy work of hilling, with at least two hun- dred loads of compost manure to make his hills with, did there ever before, such a wild notion en- ter any man's brains as to think of hilling potatoes in this way; and can any agriculturists suppose there ever was a good potato produced in this un- natural method? I will also notice his expressions, that are still wilder: he says he did not mean to be understood that 1,800 bushels could be raised by field culture, but now says that eight hundred to 1,200 can be raised upon a single acre, easier than half that crop on four acres, and with less expense. This account implies that he had asserted that 1800 bushels could be grown on an acre, and he eurely meant in his new mode of culture. Why does the writer cringe and keep back what he pre- tends he has done, or said? Not one bushel does he assert, in positive terms, that he has ever raised in any mode of culture; and there is all the reason in the world to suppose that he never did raise a bushel by any culture whatever. But why does he hope to be spared from the shafts of the critic? Because this is a dream of his and he has by re- lating it in this public manner, caused the excite- ment that he tells of— an excitement extending even to the four corners of the world — and now he is afraid that he will be questioned on the sub- ject, and dreads lest he should be asked if he ever raised one bushel of potatoes in his manner of cul- ture. I will observe another grand mistake of his, which every practical farmer will readily detect him in — that potatoes planted in neighboring fields of different varieties, are so fond of each other, male and female, and their connection is such that in sending off their farina to each other, by the aid of sotl breezes, they lose their caste, and be- come impure — and this he states is the cause that they so often degenerate. It is certain that every practical farmer very well knows, they never degenerate by crossing in the least, even if they are planted together in the same hill. It must have been corn that he had heard of mixing from such causes, and I appre- hend, being quiet unacquainted with the potato and its culture, he has confounded one plant with the other. The gentleman to be sure, has stated some im- portant tacts, with respect to the manner of har- vesting potatoes so as to preserve their qualities long. There is great propriety, as he says, in har- vesting them with but little exposure to sun and air; and his manner of binning and turfing them over tight, is highly proper; but I cannot see why the spade or shovel, that the turf is cut and han- dled with, would not do to beat it down with, in- stead of a wooden mall. I would rather and what I have said heretofore on the subject, that is, that the sun and air soon generate a poisonous action in the potatoes; so much so, that it is well known that many a noble animal fed on them have died; this has taken place where potatoes have lain in out buildings exposed to the air for a long time, and the animals have been constantly led on them. The same potatoes, if cooked and eaten by men, would be sure to give them a degree of sickness, if not unto death. If we determine to have good potatoes and to keep them so, they should be har- vested by night, or in a cool overcast damp day, and [ticked up immediately after the hoe, and kept close in a body, entirely excluded from air, and go into the cellar as moist as they came, from the hill, and the more moist dirt adhering to them the bet- ter. These potatoes will not vegetate the next season to injure them any before the next crop. There is another remark of the writer's which haa much correctness in it, that is, that the potato thrives best within the latitudes described by him, and that they grow to greater perfection, and are there of a better quality. This, no doubt, he has been well informed of. This essay would be length- ened quite too long, were I to enter into a minute detail of each objection I have: my desire has been to correct erroneous principles so that farmersshould not be misled to their injury. 1 will only add, that the distance I have chosen for my hills, is derived from my experience in the culture of potatoes. At this distance, they have a good share of sun, air and light; they also have good space for roots, and strength of ground, so that they will mature a good crop, and if seeded well with whole potatoes, or good sized pieces, they will be found of good and even size for ta- ble use, and well ripened in good time, in ordinary seasons. Varying from this rule, in planting the common large field potato at a greater distance, it tends to an inconvenience in hoeing, as to an easy way of hoeing, over all the ground, and dividing and ma- kins a proper light peaked hill, which renders them easily harvested. If on the other hand the dis- tance be reduced, an inconvenience is experienced in hoeing, and shaping of the hill, and an inter- ference in the growth, is very perceptible; the size being reduced in proportion to the distance, 124 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 2. In seeding the potatoes, they should be placed close together in the hills, by which means they are easier worked, give more room for sun and air between the hills, and are more readily gathered when ripe in the fail. ABKD.\EGO ROBINSON, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. P. S. I will further observe, that although the potato of different varieties are so near alike, yet it is a (act that the sun and atmosphere vary in their effects upon different varieties; proving poisonous to many kinds, the white, most of all of them; yet there are some of the colored varieties that those elements have a salubrious effect upon; the [ong red potato is much improved by spreading them open to sun and air for a i'ew days, especially in the spring. They will become a little willed and dried, but are nevertheless rendered very pure lor eating, and in my humble opinion far preferable to any within my knowledge. There are some other colored ones that will bear sun, but will not improve like those named. While on this subject, it will be but justice to the etate of Maine to remark, that while I have been vi- sitingthe middle and southernstatesjl have observed that all the principal cities, and villages, seem to be almost wholly supplied with the best large potatoes from that quarter. Those most highly esteem ed are called here the Mercer, in New Hampshire they call them Shenangoes. This variety sells uni- formly lor 25 cents a bushel above all other vari- eties. Notwithstanding the abundance exported from Maine during and since the last fall, her sup- ply seems still unexhausted; which circumstance alone must satisfy every one of the adaptation of that state to the culture of this greatest vegetable friend of man, and of the productive quality of her lands. I must be indulged in the remark, that it is enough to astonish any person to behold the quantity, size, and beauty, of the potatoes, which we see daily carted and drayed through the streets of the southern cities — and which readily find a market at from a dollar to a dollar and a quarter per bushel.* From the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. ON THE PRESERVATION OF POTATOES OVER THE YEAR. [In the 1st vol. of the Farmers' Register, (p. 213) we gave a particular account (translated from the Journal d'Jlgriculture etc. des Pays-Bas,) of a mode of preserving potatoes for several years, the principle of which is like that of the following, the exclusion of heat. It is strange that so simple a process has not been more extensively used in places where potatoes form an important article of culture and of food. As the best mode of preserving potatoes until the produce of the next 3'ear's crop should be *This estimate of value, is entirely too high — the wholesale price of eastern potatoes, during the fall, when they are brought to market, ranges, as in qual- ity, from forty to sixty cents per bushel. We pre- sume our correspondent must have allusion to the re- tail price in the markets, and not to any sales in quan- tity. Mercers in the early part of the spring were high, and probably by retail, in the markets, brought the maximum price as named. — Ed. Farm, and Gard. brought into use, is a matter of considerable im- portance, I beg to refer to vol. XXIf. p. 135, of the Transactions of the Society for the Encourage- ment of Arts, &c. where is detailed the following method adopted with success by M. J. De Lan- cey, Guernsey. M. De Lancey says: "early in March, 1S03, I observed my winter's stock of potatoes, which I had dug in October, 1802, sprouted from the mildness of the weather in this island. 1 accord- ingly took indiscriminately from my pile about ihrce dozen, and in my court-yard dug a hole two feet and a half deep, under the protection of a south-west wall, where the rays of the sun pre- vail for a iew minutes only during the day, at any season of the year. Then, with three pantiles, one at bottom, I laid most of my potatoes in the hole, and placed the other two tiles over them in form of the roof of a house. They not containing all, I threw the remainder carelessly into the hole, (having no great confidence in my experiment,) covering the place over to its usual level. Busi- ness calling roe home during part of the summer, 1 neglected looking after my small deposite; but, on the 21st January, 1804, nearly 11 months after covering them, I had the curiosity to examine them, when, to my astonishment, I found them, (two or three excepted, which were perforated by the ground worm, though firm,) all perfectly sound, without having in the least vegetated in any re- spect, fit for the purpose of sets and the use of the table, as I have boiled a few, and found them sim- ilar in taste and flavor to new potatoes. 1 iurther pledge myself that they were perfectly firm. I have still some of them by me for the inspection of my friends, who all agree that they are so." In another letter, dated 17th May, 1804, M. De Lancey says: "I avail myself of the opportunity of a friend going to London, to send three of the potatoes, as a confirmation of their being fit for sets, as they are actually sprouting. The pota- toes I send I pledge myself are of the growth of 1802." Then follows the certification of the Se- cretary to the Society of Arts: "the above potatoes were examined before a committee of the Society on the 30th of July, 1804, and found to be in a state fit for vegetation." From the above experiment, it is evident that vaults or deep trenches, out of the reach of atmos- pheric influence, would effectually retard the growth or sprouting of the potatoes during the pe- riod of about twenty-one months; that is, from the time of taking up in October, till the 30th of July in the second year, or say at least eighteen months — and we have here a period of time three times longer than would be sufficient to fill up the inter- val betwixt the old and the new crop of pota- toes. It. is probable, that potatoes for deferred use, say from April to October, would be more safely de- posited in January or February than at an earlier period; for it cannot be doubted that when just taken from the field, they possess a succulence and moisture rather inimical to sound storing in large quantities, besides which the examination and re- moval of damaged sets would contribute much to the security of the deposited heaps. If we can preserve ice from melting, we can surely keep po- tatoes Irom sprouting; and the latter is undoubted- ly an object of mucb greater importance than the former. Trenches or vaults would probably re- 1S35.] FARMERS' REGISTER 125 quire three or four feet of covering of mould, be- sides all the advantages that can be gained by se- lection of a situation not less exposed to the sun; and if the potatoes deposited were formed into breaks or divisions of five, ten, or fifteen polls, [bolls?] accordingto circumstances, with interven- ing partitions to' prevent the access of air, there is "little doubt, that by well contrived and well constructed vaults or trenches, potatoes may be kept in excellent condition, from the beginning ol April till the end of October for domestic purposes, as well as for the use of horses and cattle. G. From the Alexandria Gazette. STATE OF THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CA- NAL,. A continuous canal is now open for navigation 110 miles from the basin, in Washington, to eight miles above Williamsport. The entire cost of the canal, including all expenses, estimated at $4,200,590. The canal from Georgetown to Little Falls is SO feet wide at the water line, and 7 leet deep; and to Harper's Ferry averages fully 60 leet in width and 6 in depth, from the point of eight miles above Williamsport it is reduced to fifty in width and six in depth, and will retain the same proportions to Cumberland. There are no obstructions on the canal to pre- vent the free passage- of steamboats; the only per- manent bridge being at an elevation of 17 feet above the water line. There are 52 locks, and the elevation of the ca- nal as far as completed is 353 feet. There are five aqueducts, all constructed of Bolid masonry, and 136 culverts. The canal is fed by five dams. They are con- structed on the most approved plans, of the best materials, and give promise of great strength and durability. Engineers are now locating the line of the canal to Cumberland. Experiments are now being made to test the practicability of navigating the canal with steam- boats. As yet nothing definite has been ascer- tained, but the directors do not despair of ultimate success. From the Norfolk Herald. THE PORTSMOUTH AXE ROANOKE RAH. ROAD. The great usefulness of this road to the inhab- itants of Southern Virginia, is becoming more pal- pable every hour. We learn that the road has been completed as far as "Murfee's Depot," in Southampton County, (or, rather two miles be- yond it,) distant 42 miles from Portsmouth, to which point the cars pass daily. On Friday last, 60 or 70 bales of cotton horn the farms of Mr. Newsom and Mr. Vaughan, of Southampton, were received by the road in this borough, and im- mediately disposed of! We farther learn, that a considerable quantity of cotton is at the depot, and will probably be brought down before this paragraph is put to press. It gives us pleasure to state, that 60 packages of goods, addressed to the merchants of Southampton, were forwarded by the rail road, on Saturday last,to their place of des- tination. GYPSU.1I AS MANURE NOT INJURED BY BE- ING HEATED. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Henrico, May 20th, 1835. In a late No. of your Register, T endeavored to obtain information whether "gypsum submitted to the action of a red heat would lose any of its li>r- tilizing qualities." From your editorial remarks in reply, I felt satisfied that the chemical combina- tion of the lime and sulphuric acid, was not af- fected by the heating process. Under this im- pression, I have subsequently made a trial of it on a small scale. If you should consider a statement of the experiment of any importance, it is at your service. Agreeably to the instructions of my employer, on the first day of April last, I applied gypsum to a considerable portion of clover of one and two years old, at the rate of between three pecks and a bushel to the acre. At the same time, I took promiscuously from aheap of lump gypsum seve- ral pieces, weighing in the whole 77 lbs. These I had carefully heated to a red heat, when they lost rather more than 25 per cent, of their original weight. It was given to three of the plantation hands, who in little more than fifteen minutes pre- pared it for sowing— it then filled a half bushel measure slightly heaped. I applied it to a ridge of clover situated between two ridges which had unburned gypsum applied to them in the same proportion, and on the same day and without any possible difference of the soil. The benefit de- rived from the application of the gypsum has been hio'hly satisfactory, nor does there appear to be the slightest difference in the benefit resulting from the burned and unburned gypsum. So lar as this experiment has gone, though on a very limited scale, I feel satified that the great fertilizing pow- ers of gypsum are not impaired by heating, while the process of pulverizing it is greatly facilitated. I consider the heating of gypsum to a degree sufficient to dispel its proportion of wafer, a good test of its quality, and consequently, of its value as a manure. Gypsum which loses, on being heated, from 25 to 30 per cent, of its weight, I think may be considered about the best quality for manure. If, on heating, it should lose less than 25 per cent., I think it highly probable that it con- tains some foreign substance, which would lessen its fertilizing qualities, and of course, render it of much less value. Gypsum presents considerable variety and di- versity of appearance, and with the view of ascer- taining whether any real difference existed as to quality, I selected a few pieces, on which I tried the effects of heat. The following are a few of the results: 1st. A piece of gypsum of light blue color, tex- ture hard, having an oily or greasy appearance, lost, on being heated to a red heat, 26 per cent, of its original weight. 2nd. Do. of a white color, interspersed with veins of a reddish brown — texture very hard, presenting much the appearance of marble — lost 23 per cent. 3rd. Do. of a dull white color — spotted with bright red and gray, having cavities lined with transparent crystals. Lost only 17 per cent. 4th. Do. of a dull white color, with light blue 126 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 2. spots; texture very close and hard. Lost rather more tlian 22 per cent. 5th. A quantity of manufactured gypsum bought in the barrel — lost 20 per cent. An equal quantity manufactured at home from pieces of the above mentioned varieties — lost rather more than 24 per cent. Should the heating of gypsum be considered as presenting a test whereby to ascertain its quali- ties, it would appear from the above, that gypsum presenting the appearance of the first mentioned specimen, is the best for manure — allowing that that which contains the greatest proportion of wa- ter, which I believe seldom exceeds 30 percent., is of most value. But in presenting you with the above remark, I beg not to be understood, as posi- tively affirming, that such is the cose — though I think it highly probable. I trust however, that some one of your readers may be induced to make the experiment on a larger scale than I have an opportunity of doing, and whose chemical know- ledge would be adequate to present more satisfac- tory results, than my limited experience of that important science to agriculture enables me do. A NICOL. [The experiment reported above is interesting;, and its result may lead to much saving of labor in preparing gypsum — and thus enable the farmer to avoid the frauds of some of those who grind for sale. We have made a similar experiment this spring, and in like man- ner found equal benefit from the gypsum prepared with, and without heat. But in this case, the burnt g\ psum was perhaps more finely pulverized, and there- fore the fitter for immediate effect: and we should re- quire longer time, and more trials, before deciding pos- itively. The practical result however, is just such as theory (directed by knowledge of the chemical com- position of gypsum) would have indicated, though in opposition to the generally prevailing opinion. (See remarks on this head at page 603 and 631, vol. II.) The water chemically combined with gypsum is in an unvarying proportion — which is 22 per cent., ac- cording to the now received opinion. [Rogers' Guide to Geology.'] Therefore no more than 22 per cent, of weight could be lost by driving off the water alone from the purest gypsum — and the excess of loss, above that proportion, shows that this test (at least as used by our correspondent,) cannot be relied on, except per- haps for comparative results. He lost more than the water chemically combined in every trial but one. This excess of loss might be of additional water held by absorption, (as a hard brick would,) if the gyp- sum was very pure: or if adulterated with chalk, or any calcareous earth, and the heat was strong enough, the loss would be still more increased by part of the carbonic acid being driven off.] ter from the Sound has been so much impregnated with salt as to leave a white scale or scum of salt- ed matter all over the earth, and on examination I have found it quite salt to the taste, but without its causing any apparent injury to the grass. Ap- prehending injury from these annual overflowings of the ground with salt water, I had the land the first year enclosed with an embankment to pre- vent inundation, and through the centre a three foot ditch was cut with a flood gate at its mouth to let ofTthe fresh water not needed, at low tide, and lo keep out the salt water at high or storm tides. This answered very well while it lasted; but the first severe gale from the north-east swept away my dam, and the tide-water took complete pos- session of my meadow. To my disappointment and gra'dfication, I discovered but slight injury to t lie grass, and in a few days it had a more deep blue and flourishing appearance than before. The land, before sowing the grass, had been well broken up, and planted two years in corn — but without success — it being too Avet and cold, and subject to bugs, for that crop. On preparing the land for the reception of the grass seed, it was laid up into beds of six feet wide, having a small water furrow between each, leading to the main ditch; that the water either from tide or rain, may be more readily conveyed off the ground. Equal proportions of timothy and herds, with half' a pound of red clover seed was sown to the acre. The timothy has nearly disappeared, and no clo- ver is to be seen, having been entirely overrun by the red top, or herds grass. The seed was sown the 1st of October. 1 have the last year made a small trial of gama grass on such land, and have reason to believe it will succeed and produce an abundant crop of good hay. I find it best to set it on ridges two and a half feet between, and six inches distance on the ridge. The gama I find, on the rotten shell and black sandy loam, to far exceed in rapidity of growth any grass in our part of" the country. The seed should be sowed in the gard- en, kept clear of grass and weeds the first year, and transplanted the first of March in the mea- dow. J. B. MARSH. Beaufort co. N. C. May, 1S35. For the Farmers' Register. HERDS GRASS ON SALT MARSH. In answer to inquiries made by a farmer in your 12th No. on salt marsh and meadows, I can say for the last five years I have had several acres of such land well set with red top, or herds grass. The ground is subject to repeated overflowings, both spring and fallj and many times the tide-wa- "STUMP AND BARREL LEGISLATION — FEKCB LAW. To the Fditor of the Farmers' Register. Fairfax County, May 7, 1835. I received your No. 11 yesterday, and am in- debted to "Commentator1.' for a sound and hearty laugh, which ended in my referring to your 9th No. in which "Jeremiah" was backed by "X. Y. Z." who showed by plain arithmetic, what "stump and barrel" legislation cost upon 640 acres of land per annum. Noav what more shall I do to save my beloved Virginia? Shall I sell that which I have and give it to the poor, and follow the "gen- eral assembly]1' Will it not suffice that I pay un- der the command of this high and learned body $220 per annum for confusing, confounding, and commingling my rights with those who claim only to depredate by the authority of the "general as- sembly?" Did they never read that Moses, who was a bond servant in Egypt? commanded the 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 127 people by the highest authority, that "they should not covet nor desire other men's goods?" Why should we violate this plain honest command? Are we less than the slaves of Egypt? What am I to say of your much boasted modern schoolmas- ter? Your great political institutions? Am I to go back and say, as was said of the "beginning,''1 that "darkness dwelt upon the face of the deep?" When I ask in the power and right of justice, why mock me? Why give me a stone when right and justice demand bread? 1 care not so much for my own rights — but why, in the name of heaven, should we make men familiar with the violation of each other's rights? Why hang a man for the violation of a strumpet, the stealing of a horse, &c. &c, and yet solemnly say he may drive ten thousand hogs upon me to root up and destroy my young timber, grass or grounds? I am not disposed to be disrespectful to the general as- sembly. I bow to the majesty of the people; but as a free man I shall dare to complain of injuries, come from what quarter they may. We are professedly a christian people. It is commanded that we should not covet, nor desire other men's goods — yet many good men, who would tremble at the thought of being daily vio- lators of the law of God, are scrupulous and tena- cious of carrying out their rights as derived from the genera! assembly under the fence law. Who will openly say that the principle is unsound which gives to every man that which is his? Sir, I venture to say, that you will not find one in a county: yet I read in the newspapers that, many have lost their elections for being suspected of partiality to this command of their Saviour — in plain English, for their love of upright law and exact justice. Are men aware of the dangerous tendency of this unrighteous law? Do they see that in breaking down the strict principles of moral law and chris- tian usage, they are slowly and insidiously giving sanction to Agrarian distribution, and a diabolic scramble for property? Let the moral aristocracy sleep a little longer — let the rust of universal cor- ruption enter a little deeper, and the devils them- selves will weep over our fate. The holders of Kroperty may then "sleep on," for their hour will ave come. I am aware that politicians will avoid this subject as they would a boa constrictor, or a rattle snake. To whom then am I to appeal? Sir, I make it to that portion of society who in my youth I have so often derided — I mean the chris- tians. They are, and must forever be the salt of every civilized society — their pure morals and straight upright rules operate like a cement, and sustain the various and complicated machine of government: and that holy principle of their mas- ter that "ye render unto Ca;sar the things that are Cssar's," they dare not reject. JEREMIAH. Translated for the Farmers' Register from the Jlnnales de I'Jlg- riculture Francaise for February, 1835. LACTOLINE DESICCATED MILK. In the sitting of the 9th of this month, the Acad- emy of Sciences has heard a communication from M. Grimand, relating to a substance which he names lactoline, which, mixed with nine-tenths [nine times its quantity?] of water, reproduces fresh milk. The substance is not injured by mois- ture or heat. NEW DISEASE OF HOGS. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Cambridge, Md., May 16, 1835. * * * To fill up my sheet, allow me to make an inquiry through your widely circu- lating and invaluable journal, whether a certain disease lately appearing among my hogs, and here quite original and fatal, hasoeen known else- where, and a remedy discovered for it. I had last fall twenty-seven shotes, of a very large and valu- able breed — six months old — running on clover, and penned and fed every night and morning with corn. In September, one was attacked with a cough, and shortly after a large majority of them. I then separated the diseased from the healthy — the progress of the disease was not rapid, but very fatal — in four or five weeks the animal continuing fat, and with good appetite during that period, be- gan to decline; the cough became violent and con- vulsive, assuming the appearance of a most in- veterate "pertussis." When seized with a par- oxysm, the animal would stand contracted in violent agony, coughing for several minutes; its sides spasmodically working, as if it would not survive it. In six or eight Aveeks from the com- mencement, a diarrhoea with malignant odor of the whole animal, supervened, and death- ensued. I lost nine of these shotes with this disease. In March last, every farrow of the sows remaining on that farm where the disease had appeared, suf- fered under the same symptoms, and many pigs have died with it. The pigs of several sows re- moved, previous to farrowing, to a distant farm, were wholly exempt — and what is very mysteri- ous, having sent off the diseased pigs, and brought home to the first farm those sent to the distant one, they began a lew days ago to manifest symptoms of the same disease. Therefore, the disease is not only very malignant, but obviously contagious in the highest degree — the yard hav- ing been well cleansed before they were introduced. From the Richmond Compiler. IMPORTED SHEEP AND HOGS. Mr. Corbin Warwick, whose farm on James River is stocked with some of the finest animals in the state, has lately imported, from the stock of Mr. Coke, of Holkham, the celebrated English farmer, several sheep of the southdown breed, and two hogs of an extraordinary size. These pigs (which pass pretty well for "whole hogs,") are but nine months old, and yet we should estimate the weight of each at about 400 lbs. Those who feel an interest in an examination of superior stock, can see these astonishing ani- mals at the lot of Mr. Warwick, adjoining hia new residence. From the Genesee Farmer. TIME FOR PAINTING HOUSES. Repeated experiments show that paint put on houses late in autumn, or in winter, will last far longer than that put on in warm weather. In cold weather the oil dries on the clapboards, and with other ingredients forms a durable body7, but in hot weather the boards absorb the oil, and what remains on the surface has but little sub- stance. 123 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 2. DELINQUENT SUBSCRIBERS. Before issuing this 2nd No. of Vol. Ill, we have erased from our list nearly all the names of those sub- scribers who have received the Farmers' Register from the commencement of vol. I, and have made no pay- ment whatever. If among these there should be in- cluded the names of some whose payments have re- mained due merely from inattention, the erasure will be cause for regret, but is a consequence which the publisher cannot possibly avoid. This measure will make a heavy nominal reduction of the list of supporters of the Farmers' Register — but will be in truth a considerable addition to the clear profit of the publication. Heretofore this journal has been sent to every person who wrote for it, and even to those in the most remote parts of the United States, though totally unknown, and when the orders for the work were accompanied by neither money nor availa- ble references. Under such circumstances, (justifiable only by the necessity of extending the circulation of a new work,) it might be expected that there would be very many bad debts. But this extent of confidence has not been often abused: and, taken altogether, the payments have been made with a rare degree of punctuality — and if every subscription now erased re- mains in default, the proportion of payments made will still be unusually large. It is hoped and believed that the present reduction of numbers will leave a still more sure and solid support to the work. TERMS OF PUBLICATION FOR FARMERS REGISTER 1. The Farmers' Register is published in monthly numbers, of 64 large octavo pages each, and neatly covered, at $5 a year — payable in advance. 2. Or five new subscribers by sending their names and $20 at one time to the editor, will receive their copies for one year, for that sum, or at $4 for each. Purchasers of any 5 volumes (except Vol. I.) at one time in like manner, shall have them for $20. 3. The risk of loss of payments for subscriptions, which have been properly committed to the mail, or to the hands of a postmaster, is assumed by the editor. 4. For all copies not received by mail, duplicates will be furnished to those subscribers who have com- plied with their own obligations. 5. If a subscription is not directed to be discontinued before the first number of the next volume has been published, it will be taken as a continuance for ano- ther year. 6. The mutual obligations of the publisher and sub- scriber, for the year, are fully incurred as soon as the first number of the volume is issued: and after that time, no discontinuance of a subscription will be per- mitted. Nor will a subscription be discontinued for any earlier notice, while any thing thereon remains due, unless at the option of the editor. AGENCY FOR THE FARMERS REGISTER. James Anderson, Esq. (now of Richmond) is ap- pointed agent for the Farmers' Register, and is author- ized to receive the names and payments of new sub- scribers. With this object, Mr. Anderson will soon commence a tour through Virginia, commencing with someof the upper counties. This agency will in no way affect any other previous arrangements, nor the directions for transmitting other names and payments stated in the terms of publica- tion. NOTE TO PROF. DEff's ESSAY ON PRICE.* The price of lands in Virginia will be kept down in some measure, by the disproportionate rise in the price of negroes, for this reason. Land and negroes make up the capital of the larnier; and the produce which he sells after deducting the expense of cultivation, constitute his net revenue, or profits. Now supposing the value of negroes to increase very rapidly, it is evident that the amount of the farmers capital will increase in the same proportion, provided the value of the land does not change. That being the case, if his pro- ductions remain stationary, or do not increase pro- portionally in price, it is evident there will be a fall in agricultural profits. Thus suppose there be a farm with 40 negroes, valued at #10,000 while the land is valued at the same, making an aggre- gate capital of $20,000. Suppose the produce after deducting expenses of cultivation, to sell lor $2,000, the latter will he the farmer's profits on #20,000, a profit of 10 per cent. Now suppose a sudden rise to take place in negroes, so that the 40 are worth $20,000, tnen the capital of that far- mer swells to $(30,000, and if you suppose the price of his neat produce ("prodwti »etf,") to sell for #2,000 only, as before, then his profits will fall to 6§ per cent. The consequence would be that persons with money capital urould not buy land and negroes because of this fall in profits, and that wTould occasion a fall in land, till agricultural profits bore a proper ratio to agricultural capital. Now the present rise in the price of negroes being occasioned more by causes extraneous to Virginia, than by the rise of her own native product^, upon the principle just elucidated, this rise in price will rather have a tendency to check any rise which might otherwise take place in lands, and of course to prevent the speculating rage from reaching them to the same extent as in the south-western cotton country, where the price of cotton, and the extension of the credit system to its utmost limits, will most certainly push the mania for land specu- lation to a most perilous and alarming extent, soon to be checked by one of those disastrous revul- sions, which will spread ruin and dismay through- out that country. In the mean time, the whole banking system of the south-west, if not judicious- ly managed, may be looked upon as the mighty engine, of the times, which by its potent agency, will hasten on the crisis, and magnify the calami- ties of the final catastrophe. *This was received after the article for which it was designed, had been printed, and therefore the note ne- cessarily stands separately. THE FARMERS' REGISTER. Vol. III. JULY, 1835. No. 3. EDMUND RUFFIIf, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. on the relation of certain plants to the ingredients of the soil on which They grow. 'ro the Editor of the farmers' Register. Your statement in a late number (12) of the Register, has satisfied me that the white or moun- tain locust (Robinia pseudacada,) is native on the calcareous banks of the lower James River, and perhaps on similar soils of other streams emptying into the Chesapeake. This brings to mind some similar facts which I had before noted. Bartram, in his Travels through the Southern States, long ago published, remarked, with surprise, the leather-wood (Direct palustris,) and some other northern plants grow- ing on calcareous hills in the lower part of Geor- gia. With equal surprise I remarked the same plant (Dirca palustris,) the calycanthus floridas, and a yew tree, (Taxus wionfavia?) growing on calcareous knolls in Florida. Pursh ibund taxus canadensis on the banks of one of the streams in Maryland, probably on similar soih From these facts may we not conclude that cal- careous soils have considerable effect in protect- ing growing plants from the injurious influence of an ardent sun and a warm climate'? And from this may possibly be derived a hint of some value to the agriculture of the south. Thus, is it not probable that, on calcareous soils, good crops of wheat might be obtained in those parts of the southern states where it does not thrive well in the ordinary soils? It is said that wheat does well in the prairies of Alabama, and 1 think you have remarked that the growth of clover is much promoted by marling in lower Virginia. How is it that these soils have this effect? Is it simply by their tendency to retain the moisture afforded by rains and dews? H. B. C. Newbern, N. C, May 20th, 1835. P. S. You may be assured that the honey lo- cust is a native of the southern states, and I be- lieve of the northern also. [Our correspondent is on the right track of an in- teresting pursuit, which promises abundant and im- portant results to the investigator who is aided by bo- tanical knowledge, and by the wide range of observa- tion afforded by travel. It is gratifying that the sub- ject has now engaged the attention of one Who may throw much light on it, and the few facts and deduc- tions to which our correspondent refers, may lead him to others far more interesting. Even under all the acknowledged deficiencies of means for this in- vestigation, we have long ago learntd that the limits of the localities of various plants which were supposed to be regulated by climate, were in truth determined solely by the ingredients of the soil; and of all differ- ences in soils in this and other respects, the greatest by far, the most important, and yet the least noticed Vol. Ill— 17 heretofore both by cultivators and scientific men, is the difference caused by the presence or absence of calcareous matter. We earnestly hope that at least some curiosity is now excited on this subject, and that it will be properly investigated by those who have ample powers and means for the purpose. The power which calcareous earth gives to soil (di- rectly or indirectly) of attracting and retaining mois- ture, is an important aid to clover and other plants which require it. But this is far from being its only, or its greatest agency. Many plants, and clover i3 one of them, require lime as part of their food, with- out which they can scarcely exist, and certainly cannot thrive, even with every other requisite for growth. Except on a few favored soils, profitable clover cul- ture was impracticable in all lower Virginia before the use of marl, or lime — and since marling, (and with other aids,) growths as luxuriant, as hardy, and as pro- fitable, have been produced in our neighborhood, as any in the rich limestone lands of Pennsylvana; and this on soils that were formerly very poor, and natu- rally as unfavorable as any to this grass. Still these instances are rare, because the improvement has not yet been extended far, and because all that has yet been written and done, has not removed the long es- tablished and general, though erroneous impression, that our hot summers and sandy soils prevented the success of clover. Even our very intelligent corres- pondent, when alluding to the truth which we are de- sirous of having inculcated, does not appear to attach to it any thing like its due importance. It would seem, from chemical observations, that the phosphate of lime is an essential ingredient of wheat — and therefore, that without a sufficiency of that in- gredient in the soil, that grain cannot be produced. Whenever there is enough lime in the soil, in any form, wheat will be sure to obtain this necessary but small proportion of the phosphate. But in many ex- tensive regions, as in New England generally, (on up- lands,) it is said that wheat cannot be profitably raised — and doubtless, on account of the deficiency of lime in the soil. A quantity of lime too small to cause much improvement of soil, might serve to supply this essential food for wheat — and even a still less quantity of bone manure, the solid part of which consists en- tirely of phosphate of lime. But such facts are more strikingly manifested by certain plants, which thrive in plenty either upon the total absence, or abundance, of calcareous matter, and which cannot be found un- der opposite circumstances — as the mountain locust and papaw which we before cited, and others named above— and sheep sorrel, and our poverty grass, (or hen's nest grass" as commonly called,) both of which are the most abundant growths of our poor soils desti- tute of lime, and of which not a trace will be found as soon as the land has been made calcareous. The observation of these and similar facts would often serve to indicate the nature, and degree of permanent value of soils, even to the rapid glance of a traveller. 130 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 3. It is to invite such observations that we have offered this hasty comment on our correspondent's remarks. It is astonishing what little attention the writers of de- scriptive travels (and even those who exhibit their knowledge of geology, mineralogy, chemistry, and botany,) have given to the composition of the soils o! the regions which they described. Except from some incidental observations, or minor facts, it is rare that their readers can learn any thing, even indirectly, on this important subject. But it is time to close these remarks, which are al- ready too extended for their place, and yet too slight for the subject. CALCAREOUS SOILS NECESSARY FOR VINE- YARDS. In some former remarks introductory to extracts from Bushby's Journal of a recent visit to the princi- pal Vineyards of Spain and France, we offered the opinion that calcareous soil was essential to the perfec- tion of grapes, and for obtaining from them wines of the finest flavor; and that to the want of calcareous mat- ter in all the soils used for that purpose in the United States, was probably owing, in part at least, the gene- ral ill success of our culture of the vine. The opinion of the superior fitness of calcareous soils for vines, was partly founded on a short passage of the work above named, which described the soil that produces the celebrated Hermitage wine, as being highly calca- reous. For that, and other extracts then given, we were indebted to a review of the Journal, (never hav- ing seen the entire work) — and in another review, just now met with, we find the following extract from the same work, presenting a statement of facts on this head, and more direct and full proof of the truth of the opinion which we before advanced. When the author speaks of "calcareous soils" it may be inferred from the context (here and in the ex- tract formerly published,) that he means highly calca- reous— either actual chalk soils, or otherwise such as effervesce freely with acids. But it may be presumed that many if not all the other soils, which he speaks of as not calcareous, though producing good "sweet wines," have lime in some form. He does not seem to speak with much precision on this point — and the soils which he considers not calcareous, may contain more lime than any vineyards in the United States. But without this supposition, it is stated expressly that two-thirds of all the vineyards of France are on cal- careous soils, and all those of both France and Spain "producing dry wines of reputation." Is not this statement (putting aside all theory and supposition,) enough to induce the making the soil of some vineyard in this country calcareous? There is scarcely an acre of soil, naturally calcareous, in any of the Atlantic states, and probably not one vineyard, if even one vine, has yet the benefit of a heavy cover of calcareous manure. Yet, from the small space occupied by a vineyard, and the great value of the products, marl or lime might be profitably used at an expense very far exceeding what would be justified by any other crops. If our view is well founded, if it cost $100 to make an acre of vineyard calcareous, it would be a profitable expenditure, compared to the culture, for a number of years, with the usual degree of success. Being a per- manent improvement, the cost would be only equal to the interest of the outlay, or six dollars a year — which m improvement of quality of the wine of only a cent in the gallon would greatly overpay. We earnestly r;commrnd the consideration of this matter to stveral of our subscribers near Richmond and Petersburg who have vineyards, and who could, at very little expense, make the trial. But enough of mere opinion. We proceed to give the author's facts as well as his opin- ions, in his own words. "Having recorded with so much minuteness my ob- servations on every vineyard and district through which I passed, I will avoid adding to the length of this journal by offering many general remarks. I can- not, however, refrain from observing, that, from the albarizas of Xeres, the most southern vineyards of any reputation in Europe, to those of the chalky hills of Champagne, amongst the most northern, I met with no vineyard producing dry wines of reputation which was not more or less calcareous. Although it is ac- knowledged that two-thirds of the vineyards of Fiance are situated upon soil more or less calcareous, by Chap- tal, and other writers upon the subject, they have stated that, provided the soil is porous, free, and light, its component parts are of little consequence; and they enumerate granitic, schistose, argillaceous, flinty, sandy, and calcareous soils as equally well qualified to produce, and as actually producing, in different parts of France, wines of the finest quality. It appears evident to me, however, that these writers have, in many instances, been misled by the representations which have been transmitted to "them: as, for instance, when Chaptal and Cavoleau cite the wine of Hermi» tage as an instance of the excellence of wines pro- duced upon the debris of granite; while the fact is, that the wine of the hill of Hermitage owes its supe- riority over the wines of the other hills in its neighbor- hood only to the circumstance of the granitic soil of a part of that hill being mixed with calcareous matter; and, but for this circumstance, I am satisfied that the wine of Hermitage would never have been heard of beyond the neighborhood where it grows. I am there- fore of opinion, that the finest dry wines owe their superiority chiefly to the quality of the soil; and I am much mistaken if it be not found that the soils of all vineyards producing dry wines of superior excellence are strongly calcareous. All my observations have led me to this conclusion, and I know of no instance to the contrary. It will be observed, that I here only speak of dry wines, for sweet wines of great excellence are produced in a variety of soils, and in fact, owe their qualities more to the variety of the grape, and the manner in which it is treated, than to the soil. The sweet Muscat and Old Mountain wines of Malaga are celebrated all over the world; but though they have the same varieties of vines at Malaga as at Xeres de la Frontera, and pursue a similar practice in making the wine, the best of their dry wines, produced on a soil consisting of decomposed slaty schist, are insipid and flavorless when compared with the Sherries which are produced on the chalky hills of Xeres. The sweet wine of Rivesaltes, the most celebrated in France, is produced on a granitic soil covered with pebbles; and the sweet wines of Cosperon and Collioure, in the same department, are produced on hills of schist, as nearly as possible resembling those of Malaga. But though the diy wines of both these soils are well known, they are not distinguished for their fineness or flavor. Their excellencies are their strength and rich color, which make them valuable for mixing with the weak and light colored wines of the ordinary growth* 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 131 of Burgundy and Macon which supply the chief con- sumption of Paris. "The limited extent of the first-rate vineyards is proverbial, and writers upon the subject have almost universally concluded that it is in vain to attempt ac- counting for the amazing diri'erences which are fre- quently observed-in the produce of vineyards similar in soil and in every other respect, and separated from each other only by a fence or a foot-path. My own observations have led me to believe that there is more of quackery than of truth in this In all those'dis- tricts which produce wines of high reputation, some few individuals have seen the advantage of selecting- a particular variety of grape, and of managing its cul- ture so as to bring it to the highest state of perfection of which it is capable. The same care has been ex- tended to the making and subsequent management of their wine, by seizing the most favorable moment for the vintage — by the rapidity with which the grapes are gathered and pressed, so that the whole contents of each vat may be exactly in the same state, and a sim- ultaneous and equal fermentation be secured through- out— by exercising equal discrimination and care in the time and manner of drawing oif the wine, and in its subsequent treatment in the vats or casks where it is kept — and, lastly, by not selling the wine till it should have acquired all the perfection which it could acquire from age, and by selling, as the produce ot their own vineyards, only such vintages as were cal- culated to acquire or maintain its celebrity. By these means have the vineyards of a few individuals ac- quired a reputation which has enabled the proprietors to command almost their own prices for their wines; and it was evidently the interest of such persons that the excellence of their wines should be imputed to a peculiarity in the soil, rather than to a system of man- agement which others might imitate. It is evident however, that for all this a command of capital is re- quired, which is not often found among proprietors of vineyards; and to this cause, more than to any other it is undoubtedly to be traced, that a few celebrated proprietors have acquired, and maintained, almost a monopoly in the production of line wines." EXTRACT3 FROBI A REPORT ON SELECT FARMS, Made by an examining committee, appointed by the Societe d' Agriculture et d'Economie Domestique de Rosay ( Seine- et- Mar nc.) September, 1S34. Translated for the Farmers' Register, from the Jlnnales de Vjigriculture Francaisc, of November; 1834. [Of the farm of Chapelles, only part of the obser- vations of the committee are here given, and that, principally, because of the more full notice of the four- shift rotation, which is again referred to in the suc- ceeding statements. Of the two farms of Noas and La Grange, to which the two first prizes of the society were awarded, the remarks of the committee are given entire. The reports on six other farms are omitted. Whether the details here presented to our readers may possess any practical agricultural value, or not, those relating to La Grange will be of some interest, as exhi- biting something of the private life,and humble but use- ful labors, of the illustrious man who belonged to our country as much as to that which gave him birth, and to the world — and whose deeds were more for man- kind, and less for self aggrandizement, than those of any, or all the great men now leading or governing, nations, or striving to attain such eminence.] Farm of Chapelles, belonging to M. Caron, cul- tivated by M. Vignier. The tillage of the lands belonging to the farm of Chapelles, is almost completely subjected to the four-shift rotation, based upon the sowing of clo- vers on wheat, and of oats upon the clover lay — the rotation most suitable, lor all kinds of land, because it is readily accommodated to all the par- tial modifications which may be suggested by the circumstances of the farmer, and of his land — and which is inflexible only on one point, viz: the con- stant alternation of grain crops and artificial grass- es. M. Vignier did so much the better in adopting this improvement, as his land, naturally wet, hav- ing been put in lucerne by a preceding tenant, could no more bear that grass, notwithstanding all his care lo establish it. He has not succeeded in making it grow, except upon a lot of land which had not yet borne it. He attributes his success to the use of poudreite,* of which he has sown a great quantity at the same time with the lucerne seed. The growth on the part thus sown, is much finer than that of the same ground, in lucerne without poudreite. M. Vignier makes considera- ble use of this manure, of which he knows the good effects on wheat. It is said that its effect is not prolonged beyond that of one crop: but he has made an observation on that head, which deserves to be cited. This is, that a crop of clover, made upon wheat manured Irom the farm-yard, where there had been, four years before, wheat made on p&udrette, grew much finer than the other clover made after two euch crops of wheat on farm-yard dung, or one crop manured by penning, and one from the farm-yard. Perhaps we ought to con- clude that this alternation ol poudreite and farm- yard manure suits best, especially for humid soil9, because that the poudreite, by its effervescent ac- tion making the soil enter into fermentation, acta not only as [alimentary] manure, but as an im- prover of the texture of the soil. After the wheat, without doubt the part serving as manure is ex- hausted, as the action of the poudreite is very quick: but the improvement of the soil remains — the earth is warmed, reanimated, and more proper than any other to bear good crops, wTith the addition of farm-yard manure. The rotation of the farm of Chapelles is cer- tainly that which suits it the best, and M. Vignier follows it with perseverance and intelligence. All his ploughings are well executed, his ground in the best state of preparation — and yet, though the land of this farm may be of good enough quality, the products are not such as wrould be desired. The crops of this year, especially, are far from answering to a culture so judicious and well executed. The wet nature of the soil is op- posed to complete success: it requires to be tilled precisely at such times and seasons as it is in the best order for receiving tillage, and without per- mitting the commencement of the difficulties by which the crops suffer. The amelioration of the soil is not yet enough advanced — there remain *This is dried and pulverized human excrement-— prepared generally in towns in France, where large quantities of the material can be collected from privies, or from cleaning out the public "fo?t?3 des atsance." — Tr. 132 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 3. still too many traces of imperfect culture — the lands are disposed to get foul Avith weeds very quickly. These various reasons oppose the sup- pression of naked fallows, (which he cannot use but with much caution,) and of course, oppose the developement of a system of agriculture en- tirely prosperous. * * * M. Vignier has attempted this year to make a large quantity of field beets, [bctteraves] or man- gel wortzel, (seventeen arpents;)* they were not advanced at the time of our visit, hut were coming on well, and will doubtless give good products. He regularly has ten arpents in potatoes, well cultivated. We remarked a field of rape [colza] of some arpents, promising a good crop. This is a novelt}7, which is so much the more useful as it has had complete success, which will, without doubt, en- courage the cultivators of the country to follow the example, The proprietor of this farm, M. Caron, has not confined to the buildings his participation in the improvements. He has devoted himself, with in- terest, to all that can favor the culture of Ihe land. A general marling — numerous ditches which he has made at the demand of the farmer — planta- tions of fruit trees — roads — in short, all that can be useful, is executed by him as soon as the utility is known. Farm of Koas — Commune de Pecy. It is on the farm of Noas that we have seen established most completely, and with the most remarkable success, the regular four-shift [quad- riennal] rotation. On a middling soil, there are seen the finest, crops. Upon 400 arpents of arable land, nearly all unfit for lucerne, M. Vignier culti- vates 100 arpents of wheat — 70 in clover, made on the manured wheat. — 90 in oats, of which 70 are upon a clover lay, [defHche des trefles,] the balance upon a lay of lucerne, or after vetches, or potatoes, or other roots. YVe will again call attention to this point, that generally the soils of this farm are middling — in many places even the land is very bad. Well! no where is there found a bad crop: every part bears what might be hoped from good culture, with success proportioned to the worth of the dif- ferent pieces of land compared with each other. The fallow (this year lost for the bad cultivator) is in this farm devoted entirely, according to a rational system, to the melioration of the land, and to the production of useful crops. Fifteen arpents only have been left in naked fallow: this was the part which had need of repeated ploughings, per- fectly executed, and at precise times, to bring it to the state of good order common to the other land of the farm : the remainder had been in rye, grazed by the sheep, and in vetches, also grazed or cut green; and five arpents in potatoes and thir- ty-five in field beets or mangel wortzel. These roots are made after three ploughings, and receive three hoeings [binagesj~\ they are of the finest growth, and promise a very abundant crop. M. Vignier has told us that he has made this root at *The arpent is not now a legal measure in France, and was not uniform every where when it was legal. Jt does not vary much from our acre. — Jr. the rate of about 35,000 weight to the arpent — which may perhaps be equivalent to 1000 bottcs of dry forage. He prefers the beet to the potato, for the consumption of beasts, because it appears to him to contain less of the water of vegetation — and also for the preparation of the soil, because that wheat grows well enough after the beefs, whilst the trials that he has made after potatoes have been without success. The interior of the farm, [homestead, or farm buildings] answer well to the exterior culture. A cow-house contained 24 cows of the finest form, in the best condition, and appearing fit to yield good products. The flock consisted of about 700 sheep, and 200 lambs, all of fine wool. The grown sheep are in good condition; but the lambs appeared not to be in such state as might have been expected. It appeared that the pasturage being short, the lambs had not yet been turned out. This is the only thing which the inspection of this fine establishment showed to be defective; but the good state of the rest of the flock, proves that circumstance is but accidental: and it should be remarked, that the range or "commons" [par- cours'] of the farm is limited to about 450 arpents, near the lands which compose it.* M. Vignier has established at Noas, at his own expense, those parts of buildings which would have been deficient, as extensive sheds, sheep folds of light construction, and a thrashing ma- chine. We have no need of telling you, gentlemen, how much satisfaction we have experienced in visiting the establishment of M. Vignier. Such complete success of intelligent labor has confirmed us in the opinion, that the most prosperous destiny awaits agriculture, when it shall have received the developements of industry. ###### Farm of La Grangc-Blesneau — Commune de Courpalais — belonging to Gen. Lafayette, di- rected by 31. Lecuyer. We have ended our rural visits with the farm of *The "parcours" does not consist of pasture land belonging to a particular farm — but to the whole com- mune, or territorial district — and indeed the parcours of adjacent communes, by law, owe reciprocal service, by which the beasts of one commune, may be driven to graze on the territory of a neighboring commune. See "Parcours" Vol. VII. p. 235, Cours Complet d'Agriad- ture etc. par I' Abbe Rozier. Thus the grass furnished to the flock of any one proprietor, by 450 arpents of "parcours," is a very indefinite amount — but could scarcely be of much value in any case. There is another legal right of grazing in France, sometimes (as Rozier says) confounded with this, and which is still more injurious to agriculture. This is the local usage and right of "vaine pasture," by which the owners of beasts may graze them upon the lands of the commune generally, after the crops have been taken off. A similar usage was getting established in Vir- ginia— and though without legal sanction, would have became "time honored" and irrevocable, if Arator had not taught us the necessity of protecting our fields from grazing, and thus induced the expulsion of the intruders, before they had become too strong to be resisted. — Ed. Farm. Reg. 1835.] F A E M E R S ' REGISTER. 133 La Grange, which will be celebrated as the place of residence of Gen. Lafayette, and which is also for us an object ol particular interest, as a rural establishment founded by that illustrious man, under whose presidency our society was tunned. Around a vast yard, (or court) are arranged the buildings belonging properly to the farm. There /ire seen sheep folds large enough for a flock of a thousand head. They are well lighted and ventilated, boarded or ceiled, and once a year whitened with lime; so that the flock is kept in the best condition for health. The flock is not more than seven to eight hun- dred head. It was found proper to reduce it on account of the barrenness of the common range, [parcours] of which the product has been lessened by the growth of the trees planted on the borders. The flock which is now in very good condition, has been brought to a high state of improvement by successive crossings of the merinos of Ram- bouillet, which had formed its primitive foundation with sheep of Saxony, of Naz, and of the flock of M. de Jessaint. Its products have been the object of distinction to the meeting of the department. The great cow-house can contain about twenty- four cows, and is in the most simple form; only the paved floor of it is so inclined that the urine is collected and preserved in a pit, dug outside of the building, from which it. was drawn for use. The cows are generally fine. Part of them came from Switzerland, and others are the issue of the same race. They are all capable of yield- ing good products. We name especially the cows of Schwitz, which are the best milkers of the farm, and which M. Lecuyer, its superintendent, •places above all known of the best in the country as beasts of profit. The bull is of the same stock. A second cow-house contains cows of different breeds, particularly an English breed, the Devon- shire, of which, but a short time before his death, the General received a bull and two cows from England. These beasts have not yet had time and opportunity to furnish means to appreciate their qualities. At the end of this cow-house is the stable. Opposite the window of the proprietor, is the habitation of the superintendent, disposed with simplicity and convenience. At the side is the bake-house, an apartment well occupied in an establishment so extensive, and in which the in- habitants, the masters as well as the laborers, and domestics, eat the same kind of bread. In the bake-house, are the entries of two dairies perfectly well situated and arranged, the one for winter, and the other for summer — and also the entrance of the steaming apparatus, of which we shall speak hereafter. This apartment, and all connected with it, are kept with a degree of order and neatness, which leave nothing to be desired. The bread is prepared by using a kneading ma- chine, with the operation of which the superin- tendent is well satisfied, because the dough is well worked, with less trouble and expense than if kneaded by hand. It is a useful instrument — and indispensable in a house where they bake fre- quently, and in great quantity. At the end of this building is the place occupied by a steaming apparatus, which has no other ordinary use except the cooking of an immense quantity of potatoe* for feeding all the beasts. At the right and left of the boiler, are two vessels which can contain each, fourteen setiers of pota- toes, and which, well covered, can be cooked in a few hours, the fire being fed by wood of very lit- lie value. We cannot propose, this boiling establishment as a model for imitation, except for a large, farm and extensive operations, directed on account of the proprietor, or for a model farm: but there, where it is, it renders great service, and is con- sidered as one of the most useful things. It has been made sometimes to serve for purposes of another kind, which in this house are not less pre- cious: it is to give vapor baths gratuitously to the poor and sick, who could not otherwise procure them. Gen. Lafayette had recently caused to be made in the i arm-yard.* a pit, with two large ditch* s or drains under the dung hill, to collect the water: above the pit is a pump for the purpose of water- ing the manure from the pit, and ditches which empty into it. We noticed the poultry houses which are closed on the south with a grating of iron, which per- mits free entrance to the air. In another yard, to the north, and serving as entrance to the farm buildings, is the piggery: to this the yard is exclu- sively appropriated. The greatest cleanliness is here preserved — and the animals find all the at- tention and space necessary for them. They ap- pear to live well, and to be well managed for the yielding of manure. Next is the press house, where the wine and cider flow by subterraneous pipes into the cisterns and casks placed in a large, vault on one side. On the other side are sheds ibr the various plough- ing utensils: and under these sheds there are im- mense vaults or cellars under ground, designed to hold the root crops, which are poured down through trap-doors, opening under the sheds. At the east of these buildings there is yet ano- ther yard, where stands a vast granary, closed with frames of planks, which are raised or lowered at will. In this building is fixed a thrashing ma- chine. A great number of utensils of various kinds are put away under the sheds, and particularly ploughs of all kinds: the plough without wheels of Ro- ville, that of JVI. Rose, and others Belgian and American, and the Grange plough: but all the work of the farm is done with the ploughs of Brie. The object of M. Lafayette being to obtain im- mediate returns, new experiments have not been treated by him but as subsidiary, and on a small scale. This is a model farm in respect to the pro- duct obtained by a good combination of culture, rather than a theoretical school of agriculture. The lands of the farm consist of about 500 arpents, of which 100 arpents are in turf and meadows, given almost entirely for pasturage for the sheep. The remaining 400 arpents are of arable land, divided into fields of 24 arpents, by alleys and rows of apple and pear trees. Of these, 96 arpents are in lucerne, 96 in wheat, 48 in oats, 24 in barley, for the purpose of being sowed in lucerne, 24 ar- *"Cour de la ferme," the open space surrounded by the farm buildings, and not simply the dung yard, or winter cow-pen, as the term is used here. — tr. 134 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. pents in field beets and potatoes, and 96 arpents, instead of being in naked fallow, are entirely laid down in common clover, of which only one cutting is taken, and in crimson clover, [trefle in- carnat,] rye, vetches and peas, grazed or cut green lor feeding cattle. To the potatoes and beets cultivated on 24 ar- pents succeed oats, on which common clover is sown. Alter the first mowing of this clover, this piece returns under fallow. The crimson clover is sown upon the stubble of the wheat or oats, and after being once mowed, it also returns under tal- low, with the advantage that, this crop being very forward, the land is ploughed in the same time as if the (allow had been naked. The rye and the vetches of winter and spring, are made upon the stubbles of wheat and oats, and even a sowing of vetches is again made partially after the grazing of the green rye; and after their being grazed or mowed, these lands are also thrown into fallow, which, as may be seen, lbllows every year, upon 24 arpents which had borne wheat the preceding year: that is to say, this por- tion of land is cultivated as if in two-shifts; but only one time, until its turn comes again, which depends on the quantity of land to which this ex- hausting culture may have been applied. The numerous flocks of the farm secure the means of suitably manuring from the farm-yard, or by folding, the land designed for the wheat crop. But as one part, which had produced wheat the preceding year, exacts a greater abundance of ma- nure, and as there are 24 arpents of beets and po- tatoes, which require a great quantity of the bet- ter manure, the superintendent of the farm, M. Lecuyer, has sought to multiply his supplies of manure, by composing it of poudrette and urat$* with the cleanings of moveable privies, and the urine of the cattle, collected, as before stated, in a covered pit. He showed us the experiments which he has made with this manure this year, on some furrows, compared with manuring by penning, and from the farm-yard: and the wheat on this manure, applied at the rate of ten to twelve hectolitres the arpent, was as good as on the land folded on, or manured from the farm-yard. This manure is made, in part, of matters which ordinarily remain in the farm-yard manure; there is this advantage however, that being destined for a particular use, these matters, which are the excrement of horses and urine of cows, are collected and used with more particular care. We have not seen that the manure in the yard of this farm was inferior to that of other farms. In short, if this supply ol manure is not entirely a new product, it is certain- ly an improvement. There are on this property many thousand fruit trees, now in full bearing. They have already yielded near 300 casks [pieces'] of cider; and it is believed that this year, that number will be dou- bled. The average may be counted at 150 casks a year. A quantity of forest trees are planted, especially wherever there is a waste spot, however small it may be. Further — the farm of La Grange, a useful rao- *Urate, in chemical nomenclature, means salt form- ed by the combination of the uric acid with any base. But as used here, it must be intended for urine collect- ed in, or absorbed by, any other matter whatever. — tr. del in many respects, is subjected also to very good and careful tillage. The 24 arpents of roots, the 100 arpents of lucerne, the meadows and pastures, tiie 100 arpents of clover, rye and vetches, which occupy the fallow, the whole pastured or mowed, give an immense product of forage, so that every year there are sold from the farm ten to twelve lu ndred bottesj which is an important profit, and which has been so for some yeais. The root crops, followed by oats, and then by clover, offer a partial rotation well arranged: but what appears to us a limit, is the necessity of taking again tor wheat one-fourth of the land which had borne wheat the preceding year, and, to make barley, 24 arpents of the land which had borne wheat. This is to return to a bad syslem, after having come out of it happily. Wheat made upon common clover may often succeed well; but the success of it in our country, is not enough as- sured to make it the foundation of a rotation. We do not conceal that we found the land, otherwise well ploughed and manured, giving evidence of the defects of this rotation; and that called, each part in its turn, to undergo this forced production, some are found not in that state of cleanness and fertility, which insures good crops. The lucerne also, made in too large proportion, yields less abun- dantly: it is to this disproportion that we believe ouo-ht to be attributed the defects of this rotation. The four-shift rotation founded upon the sowing of clover on the grain crops, with a less quantity of lucerne, might furnish as much forage lor con- sumption and for sale, and not imposing on the land the bearing of forced products, would main- fain it in a better state of fertility. The compari- son, while we acknowledge the merit of the good culture of La Grange, has confirmed us in our opinion that the four-shift rotation, such as is fol- lowed on the farm of Noas, is the most rational, and the most conformed to the invariable princi- ples of good culture. * * * * From the Cultivator. AGRICULTURAL BOOKS. We have been requested, by a correspondent of the Genesee Farmer, to furnish a list of agricul- tural books, suitable for a farmer's library. This we do cheerfully, remarking by the way, that the number of Shnerican books is very limited; and that in selecting those of foreign origin, we must take much chaff with the wheat. The elemen- tary principles of husbandry are pretty general in their application, while the practical operations of different countries must necessarily be variant, not only on account of difference in climate and soil, but in productions for the market, price of la- bor, habits of the people, &c. No European system of practice is therefore exactly adapted to our wants, though it may embrace much that ii highly beneficial. Independent of the memoirs which have been published by the agricultural societies in Pennsyl- vania and Massachusetts, and by the Society of Arts and Board of Agriculture in New York, the slmerican works on agriculture, that we have been acquainted with, are, to name them in the order in which they appeared, 1. Deon's New England Farmer; 2. Boardley's Husbandry; 3. Arator, a series of agricultural essays, by John Taylor, of Virginia; 4- A Treatise on Agriculture, by Gen. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 135 Armstrong; 5. The Farmers Assistant, by John Nicholson^ 6. Lorrain's Husbandry; 7. Essay on Calcareous Manures, by E. Ruffin; and 8. The Complete Farmer, by T. G-. Fessenden. These are ail worthy a place in a farmers horary, as well as the memoirs first named. Of Nos. 1 and 7, new revised editions have lately been published at J3osfoa and Richmond. Of the others, copies are scarce, and the memoirs, we beli 've, cannot be purchased. No. 4 is a work of merit, comprising a great mass of interesting matter, detailed with great conciseness and perspicuity^ No. 6 was written by an excellent practical fanner, who blended a great deal of useful reading and nice observation with an extensive practice. The writer was a self-taught philosopher, who scruti- nized narrowly into cause and effect, and we. be- lieve was a very successful farmer. The Essay on Calcareous Manures, is an invaluable treasure, to all who can avail themselves of lime and marl, as sources of fertility. No. 8 is principally a judi- cious compilation lrom the agricultural papers of our country. A new edition is now in the press. There are several American publications which treat of the orchard and the garden, which it is unnecessary to enumerate, as they may be found in all our seed shops. Of foreign publications upon husbandry, we should recommend the following, in the order we name them: — Low's Elements of Practical Agri- culture; Lawrence on Cattle; Davy's Agricultural Chemistry; Sinclair's Code of Agriculture, and, (last, only on account of its expense,) Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. The Farmers' Series, published by the British Society for diffu- sing useful knowledge, affords an excellent com- pendium of British husbandry, though but par- tially adapted to our country. But neither foreign nor American books ought to supersede the agricultural perio Heals of the day. These abound in communications from our best farmers, and detail the improvements which are continually developing in rural labor. We venture to say, there is not a farmer in the Union, of common intelligence and cnterprize, who is ambitious to improve his condition, and who takes an agricultural periodical, that is not more than re- munerated for his subscription, by the useful infor- mation which he acquires from it. They are ge- nerally printed in a form to be easily preserved, and they ought to be preserved. We subjoin a list of such as are known to us, lor the benefit of the readers of the Cultivator: — Published quarterly. — The New York Quarter- ly Journal of Agriculture, at New York. Monthly. — Southern Agriculturist, at Charles- ton, S. C; Farmers' Register, at Sbellbanks, Va.: New York Farmer, New York: Cultivator, Alba- ny; Tennessee Farmer, Tennessee; Fessenden's Practical Farmer, Boston; Rural Library, a monthly publication of 32 8vo. pages, New York. Semi-monthly. — Farmer and Mechanic, Cincin- nati, Ohio. ^ Weekly. — Genesee Farmer, at Rochester; New York Farmer, at New York; New England Far- mer, at Boston; Maine Farmer, Winthrop, Me.; Yankee Farmer, Cornish, Me.; Ohio Farmer, Columbus, Ohio; Southern Planter, Columbus, Georgia. Devoted to Horticulture particularly. — The American Gardener's Magazine, by Hovey & Co., and Horticultural Register, by G. E. Barret, both monthly 8vos., published at Boston. Devtedto Silk Culture. — The Silk Culturist, at Hartford, Conn., and the Silk Worm, at Al- bany. To Orchards and the Vine. — Coxe on fruit trees; Thatcher's Orchardist; Prince's Pomologiral Ma- nual; Kenrick"s New American Orchardist, and Prince, Adlum, Loubat and Rafinesque on the Vine. The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and New York Farmer are from the same press, as are the New England Farmer and Practical Fanner. The Rural Library is a re-publication of Ameri- can works on husbandry and gardening. We can neither give the prices of all the books we have enumerated, nor refer to the bookstores at which they can be had. The periodicals may be obtained, by addressing the editors of the re- spective works. From Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY USE OF, AND TRADE IN SILK, AMONG THE ROMANS, AXD FIRST INTRODUCTION OF THE SILK WORM INTO EUROPE. I need not explain that silk is originally spun from the bowels of a caterpillar, and that it com- poses the golden tomb from whence a worm emer- ges in the form of a butterfly. Till 1 he reign of Justinian, the silk worms who fed on the leaves of the white mulberry tree, were confined to China; those of the pine, the oak, and the ash, were com- mon in the forests both of Asia and Europe; but as their education is more difficult, and their pro- duce more uncertain, they were generally neglect- ed, except in the little island of Ceos, near the coast of Attica. A thin gauze was procured from their webs, and this Cean manufacture, the invention of a woman, for female use, was long admired both in the East and at Rome. What- ever suspicions may be raised by the garments of the Medes and Assyrians, Virgil is the most an- cient writer, who expressly mentions the soft wool which was combed from the trees of the Seres or Chinese; and this natural error, less marvellous than the. truth, was slowly corrected by the know- ledge of a valuable insect, the first artificer of the luxury of nations. That rare and elegant luxury was censured in the reio;n of Tiberius, by the gra- vest of the Romans; and Pliny, in affected, though forcible lanijuacje, has condemned the thirst of wain, which explored the last confines of theearlh, for the pernicious purpose of exposing to the pub- lic eye naked draperies and transparent matrons. A dress which showed the turn of the limbs, and color of the skin, might gratify vanity, or provoke desire; the silks which had been closely woven in China, were sometimes unravelled by the Phoeni- cian women, and the precious materials were mul- tiplied by a looser texture, and the intermixture of linen threads. Two hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure or even mixed silks was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly famil- iarized with the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dig- nity of an emperor and a man. Aurelian com- plained, that a pound of silk was sold at Rome for 135 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. S. twelve ounces of gold: but the supply increased with the demand, and the price diminished with the supply. If accident or monopoly sometimes raised the value even above the standard of Aure- lian, the manufactures of Tyre and Berytuswere sometimes compelled by the operation of the same causes to content themselves with a ninth part of that extravagant rate. A law was thought neces- sary to discriminate the dress of comedians from that of senators; and of the silk exported from its native country, the far greater part was consumed by the subjects of Justinian. They were still more intimately acquainted with a shellfish of the Med- iterranean, surnamed the silkworm of the sea: the fine wool or hair by which the mother-of-pearl af- fixes itself to the rock, is now manufactured for curiosity rather than use; and a robe obtained from the same singular materials, was the gift of the Roman emperor to ihe satrnps of Armenia. A valuable merchandize of small bulk is capa- ble of defraying the expense of land carriage; and the caravans traversed the whole latitude of Asia in two hundred and forty-three days, from the Chinese ocean to the sea coast of Syria. Silk was immediately delivered to the Romans by the Per- sian merchants, who frequented the fairs of Ar- menia and Nisibis: but this trade, which in the in- tervals of truce was oppressed by avarice and jea- lousy, was totally interrupted by the long wars of the rival monarchies. The great king might proudly number Sogdiana, and even Serica, among the provinces of his empire; but his real dominion was bounded by the Oxus, and his use- ful intercourse with the Sogdoites, beyond the ri- ver, depended on the pleasure of their conquerors, the white Huns, and the Turks, who successively reigned over that industrious people. Yet the most savage dominion has not extirpated the seeds of agriculture and commerce, in a region which is celebrated as one of the four gardens of Asia; the cities of Samarcand and Bochara are advantage- ously seated for the exchange of its various pro- ductions; and their merchants purchased from the Chinese the raw or manufactured silk which they transported into Persia lor the use of the Roman empire. In the vain capital of China, the. Sog- dian caravans were entertained as the suppliant embassies of tributary kingdoms, and if they re- turned in safety, the bold adventure was rewarded with exorbitant gain. But the difficult and peri- lous march from Samarcand to the first town of Shensi, could not be performed in less than sixty, eighty, or one hundred days; as soon as they had passed the Jazartes they entered the desert; and the wandering hordes, unless they are restrained by armies and garrisons, have always considered the citizen and the traveller as the objects of law- ful rapine. To escape the Tartar robbers and the tyrants of Persia, the silk caravans explored a more southern road; they traversed the moun- tains of Thibet, descended the streams of the Ganges or the Indus, and patiently expected, in the ports of Guzerat and Malabar, the annual fleets of the West. But the dangers of the de- sert were found less intolerable than toil, hunger, and the loss of time; the attempt was seldom re- newed, and the only European who has passed that unfrequented way, applauds his own dili- gence, that in nine months after his departure from Pekin, he reached the mouth of the Indus. The ocean, however, was open to the free com- munication of mankind. From the great river to the tropic of Cancer, the provinces of China were subdued and civilized by the emperors of the North; they were filled about the time of the Christian a-ra with cities and men, mulberry trees and their precious inhabitants; and if the Chinese, with the knowledge of the compass, had possess- ed the genius of the Greeks or Phoenicians, they might have spread their discoveries over the southern hemisphere. I am not qualified to ex- amine, and I am not disposed to believe, their distant voyages to the Persian gulf or the Cape of Good Hope: but their ancestors might equal the labors and success of the present race, and the sphere of their navigation might extend from the isles of Japan to the'straits of^Malacca, the pillars, if we may apply that name, of an Oriental Her- cules. Without losing sight of land, they might sail along Ihe coast to the extreme promontory of Achin, which is annually visited by ten or twelve ships laden with the productions, the manufactures, and even the artificers, of China; the island of Sumatra and the opposite peninsula, are faintly delineated as the regions of gold and silver: and the trading cities, named in the geography of Ptolemy, may indicate, that this wealth was not solely derived from the mines. The direct inter- val between Sumatra and Ceylon is about three hundred leagues: the Chinese and Indian naviga- tors were conducted by the flight of birds and pe- riodical winds, and the ocean might be securely traversed in square-built ships, which, instead of iron, were sewed together with the strong thread of the cocoa-nut. Ceylon, Serendib, orTaprobana. was divided between two hostile princes; one of whom possessed the mountains, the elephants, and the luminous carbuncle, and theother enjoyed the more solid riches of domestic industry, foreign trade, and the capacious harbor of Trinquemale, which received and dismissed the fleets of the East and West. In this hospitable isle, at an equal distance, (as it was computed) from their' respective countries, the silk merchants of China, who had collected in their voyages aloes, cloves, nutmeg, and santal wood, maintained a free and beneficial commerce with the inhabitants of the Persian irulf The subjects of the great king ex- alted, without a rival, his power and magnificence^ and the Roman, who confounded their vanity by comparing his paltry coin with a gold medal of the emperor Anastosius, had sailed to Ceylon, in an Ethiopian ship, as a simple passenger. As silk became of indispensable use, the em- peror Justinian saw, with concern, that the Per- sians had occupied by land and sea the monopoly of this important supply, and that the wealth of his subjects was continually drained by a nation of enemies and idolaters. An active government would have restored the trade of Egypt and the navigation of the Red Sea, which had deca3^ed with the prosperity of the empire; and the Roman vessels might have sailed, for the purchase of silk, to the ports of Ceylon, of Malacca, or even of China. Justinian embraced a more humble ex- pedient, and solicited the aid of his Christian allies, the ^Ethiopians of Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts of navigation, the spirit of trade, and the seaport of Adulis, still decorated with the trophies of a Grecian conqueror. Along the Af- rican coast, they penetrated to the equator in search of gold, emeralds, and aromatic*; but they 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 137 wisely declined an unequal competition, in which they must, be always prevented by the vicinity of the Persians to the markets of India; and the em- peror submitted to the disappointment, till his wishes were gratified by an unexpected event. The gospel had been preached to the Indians: a bishop already governed the Christians of St. Thomas on the pepper-coast of Malabar: a church was planted in Ceylon, and the missiona- ries pursued the footsteps of commerce to the ex- tremiiies of Asia. Two Persian monks had long resided in China, perhaps in the royal city of Nan- kin, the seat of a monarch addicted to foreign su- perstitions, and who actually received an embassy from the isle of Ceylon. Amidst their pious occu- pations, they viewed with a curious eye the com- mon dress of the Chinese, the manufactures of silk, and the myriads of silkworms, whose educa- tion (either on trees or in houses) had once been considered as the labor of queens. They soon discovered that it was impracticable to transport the short lived insect, but that in the eggs a nu- merous progeny might be preserved and multipli- ed in a distant climate. Religion or interest had more power over the Persian monks than the love of their country: after a.long journey, they arrived at Constantinople, imparted their project to the emperor, and were liberally encouraged by the gifts and promises of Justinian. Tothe historians of that prince, a campaign at the foot of mount Caucasus has seemed more deserving of a minute relation than the labors of these missionaries of commerce, who again entered China, deceived a lealous people by concealing the eggs of the silk worm in a hollow cane, and returned in triumph with the spoils of the East. Under their direc- tion, the eggs were hatched at the proper season by the artificial heat of dung; the worms were led with mulberry leaves; they lived and labored in a foreigh climate: a sufficient number of but- terflies was saved to propagate the race, and trees were planted to supply the nourishment of the rising generations. Experience and reflection corrected the errors of a new attempt, and the Sogdoite ambassadors acknowledged, in the suc- ceeding reign, that the Romans were not inferior to the natives of China in the education of the in- sects, and the manufactures of silk, in which both China and Constantinople have been surpassed by the industry of modern Europe. I am not insen- sible of the benefits of elegant luxury; yet I re- flect with some pain, that if the importers of silk had introduced the art of printing, already prac- tised by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander and the entire decades of Livy would have been perpetuated in the editions of the sixth century. A larger view of the globe might at least have promoted the improvement of speculative science; but the Christian geography was forcibly extracted from texts of scripture, and the study of nature was the surest symptom of an unbelieving mind. The orthodox faith confined the habitable world to one temperate zone, and represented the earth as an oblong surface, four hundred days journey in length, two hundred in breadth, encompassed by the ocean, and covered by the solid crystal of the firmament. Philadelphia from the Secretary of the Asiatic Horticultural and Agricultural Society at Calcutta, slating that the tea plant has been discovered Growing abundantly in the north-east portion of the British possessions in India, adjoining the pro- vince of Yumar in China, in which the plant is cultivated. The discovery is announced as one of great importance. It may be doubted however whether it will prove so. Good teas like good wines only grow in particular districts. A vast quantity of the tea raised in China is so ordinary as to be unfit for exportation, and the plant pro- duces best between the 26th and 30th degree of latitude. By a reference to the map, it will be seen that the north-east region of British India does not extend beyond the twenty-fourth degree of latitude. In China itself, although the culture has been widely extended to meet the increased demand throughout the world, by far the best leas are confined to the two original provinces. The inhabitants of Tonquin and Cochin China, coun- tries lying almost between China and British In- dia, are consumers of tea, but are obliged to go to China for their best, being able to raise nothing but a very coarse black tea on their own terri- tory. From the Baltimore American. REGION OF THE TEA PLANT. A letter has been received by a gentleman of Vol. Ill— 18 Fromjthe New York Farmer. POTASH AS A MANURE. I was pleased to see an inquiry suggested in a recent number of the New York Farmer respect- ing the use of potash as a manure as practised on Long Island, but regret to find no answer furnish- ed by those to whom the inquiry was directed. In the absence of better information on the subject, permit me to state what has been my brief expe- rience in the use of this manure. * I had a lot of meadow land, containing about three acres, which had been reduced to poverty by severe cropping. On this piece of ground I made the following experiment. Having broken up the sward, and harrowed it repeatedly until quite mellow, I spread leeched ashes over one acre, and potash dissolved in water over the other two acres; sowed millet seed, clover, and timothy, all mixed together, in the proporlion of one part of each of the latter to five of the former, and one bushel of the mixture to an acre; harrowed all in together on or about the first of sixth month. The ashes cost fifteen dollars; the potash five dollars the acre; the expense and trouble of dress- ing with potash, about in the same proportion. And now it. was a matter of no small interest to me, a novice at farming, to observe the result of an experiment, which when made, I supposed to be entirely original. The crop of millet was fine, and as nearly alike as could have been expected, if the land had all been covered with the same kind of manure. The clover also, all over the lot, was luxuriant, and gave the strongest evidence, to my mind, that potash is the principal agent in leeched ashes, which causes fertility. I made trial of pot- ash on a lot of four acres, which was considered the poorest on my farm, on which I sowed millet with the potash. I sowed at the same time four other acres without any manure, on ground con- sidered much better than the last above mention- ed. - I cut double the quantity of hay from that dress- ed with potash, and of a better quality. Thus 138 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. far my little experience goes in favor of potash as a manure; but I much desire that some of thy sub- scribers, of larger experience, and abler pens, would favor us with light on this interesting sub- ject. t. d. Burlington Aih mo. 8th, 1S35. [The foregoing statement shows that potash is, for the first year, as productive a manure as leeched ashes, and at only one -third of the cost. But the writer is greatly mistaken in supposing the fertilizing principles of both to be the same. They may be similar and* equal in the effects produced, but are still very differ- ent in composition. If the ashes were completely "leeched," they were deprived entirely of that sub- stance of which the other manure consisted entirely. The fertilizing principles of such ashes, consist prin- cipally of, first, carbonate of lime, second, phosphate of lime, (far more valuable than the carbonate,) and if obtained from a soap factory, of some quick lime be- sides, added to aid the separation of the potash. All these last are permanent manures — and the potash be- ing a soluble substance, and applied in small quantities, is probably of transient benefit. — Ed. Fahm. Reg.] William and Mary College, } June 3, 1835. $ To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Dear Sir — Since my article on the fluctua- tion of price was forwarded to you, the stockhold- ers of the James and Kanawha improvement have met, organized the company of directors, and appointed their president. The directors, I understand, are intelligent, business men, station- ed along the whole line of the contemplated im- provement, and earnestly devoted to its ad- vancement. The gentleman whom they have chosen president has devoted the last six or seven years of his life almost exclusively to the cause of internal improvement. He has displayed in its behalf ability, untiring zeal, and persevering industry, almost unparalleled. Under these fa- vorable auspices, the great central improvement of Virginia will no doubt be quickly executed — pro- ducing an influence on the economical, political, and moral condition of our state almost incalculable. In the exposition which I have given of prices I have spoken of the deleterious drain of our pop- ulation and capital to the west, and its effect on the price of real property, and of labor in Virginia. The contemplated improvement in our state is calculated to exercise so salutary and so powerful a counteracting influence in this respect, that I have supposed my article on price would be in- complete without this little addendum, explaining briefly my views of the. operation of' the James and Kanawha improvement on emigration, and on the prices of real property, and labor. With high respect, &c. T. B. DEW. THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE JAMES AND KA- NAWHA RIVERS MISCHIEVOUS EFFECTS OF THE EMIGRATION TO THE WEST. For the last half century Virginia has been pouring forth upon the regions of the west the full tide of emigration. She may be literally said to have become the "fruitful mother of empires." Her population and capital, almost as fast as they have increased, have been swept off by this tide to the distant west, and the soil of Virginia has been left comparatively naked and unimproved, whilst this mania has been operating. Is there a young man of promise, upon whose education the kind father has almost exhausted his resources'? How apt is he, when he arrives at the age of ma- turity, to ask for his little patrimony, and move off to the far west. And the hardy laborer, whose strength and industry constitutes his only property, is disposed to follow on in the same direction, where imagination presents in brilliant colors to his view, ample fields and large domains which are to be all his own, and where, in the decline of life, he is to enjoy bweet contentment in the lap of lux- ury and ease. The evil effect which this emigration has pro- duced on the condition of Virginia is almost incal- culable. It is one of the principal causes of our stationary condition, and of the great depression in the price of real property. The injury resulting from this emigration is much more than in proportion to the mere num- bers who leave us. In the first place, the great majority of emigrants consists of males, who are all over the world more productive laborers than iemales, and these males are generally between eighteen and thirty, at that period of life when their labor is worth most to society. Up to the age of eighteen, generally, the individual is what the economists call an unproductive consumer, and therefore a burden to the state. In the second place, the laborers who emigrate are generally among the most efficient and enter- prising, because, as a citizen of the west once ob- served to me, in his strong but unpolished lan- guage— "it is only the most energetic and hardy who can boldly resolve to pull up stakes and move from their homes." In the third place, many young men whom we lose by this emigration to the west, are those upon whose education there has been made considera- ble expenditure, and who are always to be ranked among our most valuable citizens, both in a moral and politico-economical view. The man who in any of the learned professions is making $2000 by the exercise of his talents, is worth in an eco- nomical light, four times as much as the sim- ple laborer who earns but $500, and more still in a moral point of view. In the fourth place, a large proportion of the emigrants to the west take along with them a very considerable amount of the accumulated capital of the state, and this paralizes our agriculture and commerce. Influence of our central improvement on emigra- tion. Let us now examine into the probable opera- tion of the James and Kanawha improvement on this tendency to emigration. And first, upon tho emigration of western Virginia. For some years past, the emigration from the western and middle counties of Virginia has been as great or perhaps greater than from the eastern. The western por- tion of Virginia, situated at a great distance from market, possessing roads and improvements of tha most wretched character, is necessarily forced to 1335.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 139 become a grazing country. A grazing country admits but a sparse population — tew laborers are required to attend to the cattle. "When the stock is purchased and put upon the pasture (says a very able correspondent from the west.) — two or three men can readily attend to several hundred, if sold in November: but if reserved for market in January or February, then a few laborers will be required to raise corn (maize) to feed them during the winter months, which is given in aid of good hay. None can pursue this business with any hope of success unless he has large possessions in land." Now the effect of this system is two-fold. 1st. to concentrate tbe property of western Virginia in the hands of a few men — and 2ndly, to produce a redundancy of population, wherever the numbers increase very fast; for as it requires but few to at- tend to the cattle, all beyond become supernu- meraries, and are generally disposed to move off to the great west. Now what is the remedy for this? Most un- doubtedly such a change in the whole labor sys- tem as will create a demand not only for all the la- bor which they now have in western Virginia, but all that they can raise there by the procreative en- ergies ef society. The great central improve- ment will produce this effect. By increasing the facilities of transportation to market, farmers will be encouraged to change the grazing into the grain growing system, because the latter is more lucrative than the former, wherever the produc- tions can be carried to market. "Were a convey- ance to market practicable (says the same very intelligent correspondent, from, whom I have just quoted) of the usual products of the soil, as wheat, barley, potatoes, rice, &c, the grass farm would soon be divided into several farms for the growing of wheat, which is much more profitable. The five acres of land allowed the ox, if cultiva- ted in wheat, would certainly produce fifty bushels, which would be fully sufficient to manufacture ten barrels of flour, worth at least forty dollars ! whereas the beef raised from the same ground would only bring from ten to fifteen — at most, twenty dollars."* It is evident then that the mo- ment you convert the grazing system of the west into the grain growing system, that mo- ment will you produce a new demand for labor. Every new plough which is stuck into the ground will require a new laborer to manage it. This will check at once the emigration from the western portions of Virginia, and will produce, no doubt, an additional demand for labor, which will be sup- plied most readily from the slave population of eastern Virginia. The effect of this will be most happy. It will, by the diffusion of our slave population over the tramontane regions, add to the wealth and prosperity of that whole country, whilst it will give a homogeneous character to our population, and destroy that dangerous discrepancy of interest, whose baneful operation was so deci- dedly felt in the convention of Virginia, and which, if it continue, will produce the most unhap- py and even disastrous effects. But again: the influence of our central improve- ment in checking emigration from eastern Vir- ginia, will be almost as great as that which is ex- erted on the emigration from the western portion. The immediate effects of the improvement will be to pour the immense productions of the west down upon our Atlantic borders, for exportation. This will necessarily produce a great importing and exporting business — a large town, with many smaller ones, musl spring up somewhere within our limits — capita! will flow into these towns and spread itself over the adjacent country — the towns themselves will create a new and great demand for the productions of the lower country — the whole system of tillage will be changed by the beneficial operation of this state of things — the garden cultivation will take the place of the grain growingsystem in the neighborhood of the towns, and diffuse an increased prosperity every where. "The farms of Long Island," says Professor McVickar, "are now turned into gardens, and this not by being driven from their old employments, but by the superior temptations of the new — fruit and vegetables gradually taking the place of butter and grain, and thus creating a new demand for land of the next grade of contiguity. This position may further be illustrated by the history of the supply of fat cattle for the New York market. A century ago they were raised on farms adjoining the city; they are now principally raised three hundred miles from it — driven step by step, through the superior pro/itableness of the new crops demanded by the increasing extent and trade of the metropi :'-.' * So will il be with lower Virginia. The Ii arms n info smalleronss — these smalle give an" in- creased employment to live labor, whi e the towns themselves will increase the demand for the same kind of labor much more than for slave. This will check the tide of emigration among the whites, and keep our population at home.f Thus this great improvement is eminently cal- culated to check the emigration from both the eas- tern and western extremities of our state, and keep our increasing population with us. Now I have no hesitation in affirming that this single effect will be worth to Virginia more than the whole im- provement will cost. It will raise the price of lands throughout the state — it will increase and multi- ply the occupations and trades of the community — it will introduce manufactures, cause a rapid improvement in our agriculture, and change the whole aspect of our state. The immediate effect of the improvement will be to raise the price of labor in another manner likewise. It will cause in the next five or six years the expenditure of millions of dollars along the line of the improvement. This expenditure will increase enormously the demand for labor, and will raise the hire of negroes throughout the state, besides attracting to it free laborers from all quar- ters. I wish my limits and time would allow me to show, by numerous examples furnished by the history of canals, rail roads, &c. both in this coun- try and Europe, the immense advantage which "This letter was written in 1832. *A gentleman from Missouri assures me that a large portion of the cattle for the New York market is now raised in that state, a thousand miles'oft". t As the slave is paid for when carried out of the state by a slave dealer, this emigration does not injure the state, because an equivalent value is left behind: unless indeed where the ready sale of the slaves stimulates the seller to sell his land likewise, and take the whole capital with him to the west. 140 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 3. has resulted from the mere expenditure of money in the construction of the improvement. Popu- lation thus attracted to the state will frequently form ties within our limits which will make them a permanent accession just at a time when we stand most in need of them. If every dollar expended in our state on the James and Kanawha improvement could have bee] i procured from abroad at the rate of lour or five per cent., I have no hesitation in saying, it would have been better I'or Virginia to have borrow- ed the whole sum instead of raising it at home by subscription. For I have no doubt that the tolls on the improvement will ultimately pay much more than interest on the money expended. And we know too that so soon as the line is in full and complete operation; the price of property, and the profits of stock will rise throughout the state — new employments will spring up — increased energy and activity will be communicated to our popula- tion every where, and there will consequently be a new and rapidly increasing demand for capital. Hence the greater disposable wealth in the hands of the people, the greater their prosperity at such a time. I do not however, by the remarks made, wish to be considered as censuring those who i'avor the joint-stock scheme of our state. It was the only plan perhaps which could have been successfully carried through, and therefore ought certainly to have been supported rather than leave the state without any improvement at all. There are many other advantages which will result from this im- provement, but as they do not fall within the limits which I have prescribed for myself in these brief remarks, I will here draw them to a close. PHENOMENON. By a gentleman recently from Prince William county, Virginia, we have been informed, (says the Georgetown Metropolitan,) of a remarkable occur- rence which took place on the Neabsco tract, about four miles from Dumfries, on Monday sen' night, during that heavy thunder storm, which, it will be recollected overspread the whole heavens, and apparently visited every quarter of our coun- try. The earth for several acres, which was pre- viously firm and good, suddenly (from its present appearance) sunk to the depth of about four feet, and cracked open in innumerable places through- out the whole mass, as if it had been blown by gunpowder. The thunder and lightning which here was comparatively slight, there was awfully heavy and severe, accompanied by an abundant shower of hail, which however, was not so injuri- ous to the grain as to the window glass. Nume- rous persons have visited the spot, but are totally unable to account lor the remarkable phenomenon. Some suppose it to have been produced by the shock of an earthquake, although the people re- siding in the neighborhood experienced, or rather observed no sensation during the storm to justify such a conclusion; yet it is possible such might have been the fact, as from the continual blaze of lightning and the heavy peals of thunder, with a combination of apprehension for their personal safety, they might have had the shock of an earth- quake which they attributed to the effects of a raging etorm. EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS TO THE ES- SEX COUNTY AGRICULTURAL, SOCIETY. By Ebenezer Moseley, President of the Society, September 25, 1S34. Unsettled opinions on Agriculture. The art or science of agriculture, if examined, will be found to be ae far removed from certainty as the law. That is, there is not any settled opin- ion as to the means of producing the best results. Agriculture, in its highest state of improvement, must be the result of long experience. The great utility, therefore, of agricultural societies, is, that they call forth to public observation the expe- rience and practice of those, who have been most successfully engaged. Yet it is not a little sur- prising that agriculture, which was coexistent with man, which has passed through all the successive ages and generations of men, which has had the knowledge of this long experience reflected upon it, is yet, probably, in its infancy, and involved in much uncertainty. I will illustrate this idea of its uncertainly by taking the cultivation of corn. One would natu- rally suppose, that the long experience among us in the cultivation of corn, would have settled down in establishing in the minds of all men, some fixed and settled rules as to every part of its culti- vation. Yet we find that such is not the fact. I begin with the planting of corn. It is not yet well settled, whether the moon has an influence upon vegetation. Some plant without regard to the moon, and some are very careful to plant only in certain stages of the moon. Some recommend soaking and even sprouting the corn before it is planted, others think it does as well without. Some advise planting in hills, while others think a better crop is produced by planting in rows. Some place the manure over the corn, some place the corn over the manure, while others spread the manure over the ground. With respect to hoeing the corn, some think the corn should be hoed while very young, to destroy the weeds, yet others prefer the corn should remain and the weeds grow up till they get to some height. The reason assigned is, that the corn is less liable to be destroyed by birds, squirrels and worms. Some are of opinion that no hill should be made about the corn, while others deem the hilling the corn to be attended with much benefit. Some practise taking the suckers from the corn, while others severely censure this prac- tice. Some are of opinion that the stalks should not be cut until the corn is sufficiently ripened to be gathered; others arc of opinion that cutting the stalks* after the farina has fallen, does no injury to the corn, and affords an excellent fodder for cattle in the winter. Such are some of the various opinions which have been advocated relative to the cultivation of corn. It is not my design in mentioning them, on this oc- casion, to speak discouragingly of ihe art of agri- culture. My more immediate object is, to show the importance of greater exactness and closer ob- servation on the part of those, who turn their at- tention to the subject of agricultural experiments. * Above the ears, is meant — or "tops" as ca]Je4 here. — Ed. Farm. Reg. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 741 Influence of Agricultural Publications. The improvement which has been made within a few years in the art of agricultural implements, must be highly gratifying to every farmer. Who, forty years ago, would have thought it possible to raise "one hundred bushels of corn on one acre of ground? Yet now, it is no uncommon case lor a firmer to raise a much greater crop. This im- provement must be attributed in a great measure to the influence of the press. If we go back but half a century, I believe we shall find no periodi- cal publication eitherin Europe or America which treated exclusively on the subject of agriculture. The consequence was, that in those districts, where particular branches of husbandry were the most successfully and judiciously treated, the knowledge remained with them, unless, perhaps, slowly communicated from one to another, as ac- cident or opportunity should oiler. But when jour- nals, devoted to this art, began to be put in circu- lation, containing the experience of intelligent, learned and practical men, the improvement in particular districts became very generally dissem- inated. It is true indeed, that in many cases these publications were coldly and reluctantly received, from a false notion, that book learning, especially when it contradicted the opinion they had derived from tradition, must be very visionary. The light of truth has in a great measure removed these er- rors, and a new era has commenced upon the sub- ject. The knowledge which has been derived irom science and experience in one quarter of the world is communicated by the press to all others, and that which was claimed as private property is now communicated for the benefit ol all. One fact will strikingly illustrate this subject. When Mr. Knight, president of the London Horticultu- ral Society, sent his first present of new pears in 1823 to Mr. Lowell, his letter and the list which accompanied it, were published in the Massachu- setts Agricultural Repository. Within twelve months, application was made for these fruits, and scions were actually distributed from the lower part of Maine to Cincinnati in Ohio. Among the great improvements which have been made in tools and implements of husbandry, the plough may be mentioned as an instance. Such have been the great improvements in this article, within a few years, that I am told one yoke of cattle will do the work, in one day, which for- merly required two yoke, and will do the work, much better. Our ancestors used the flail to thrash out their grain, but modern invention has produced a machine, moved by horse power, and thrashes out as much grain in one day, as one man can thrash in ten days with a flail. A rake has been invented, moved bjr horse power. It is said that by this horse rake one man with a horse will put the hay into windrows as fast as eight men can put it into cocks, after it is raked. Among the wonders of the age steam has been applied with surprising success in pro- pelling vessels on water and wagons on land: but in my wildest flights of imagination, I had never conceived the idea that steam could be applied to agricultural purposes. Yet Professor Rafinesque of Philadelphia, a gentleman of great scientific attainments, advertises for farmers his steam plough, by which six furrows are ploughed at ©nee, and "which he says will in one day perform the work of a single team for a week, and in the best manner. What a delightful contemplation. How wonderful is man! May we not indulge the hope, that the day is not remote, when all agri- ricuhural operation will be performed by steam.* # * # * # On the best season to cut timber — Influence of the moon on vegetation. There is one subject, connected with forest trees, ^ upon which there appears to be a diversity of opinion, and which I wish to present to your con- sideration, that you may compare it with your own experience. It is, as to the best time to fell *The discovery referred to above was advertised as follows, on the covers of the New York Farmer — "Steam Ploughs.— Professor Rafinesque, of Phi- ladelphia, offers his services to introduce the use of steam ploughs in the United Spates. If there is a wealthy fanner who owns level land, anil has patriot- ism enough to connect his name with this wonderful invention, whereby six ploughs can be driven, and six furrows cut, as easily as one now, and one day's labor do the work of a whole week— let him apply to me, and I will enable him to have such a steam plough made for himself and all his neighbors, thus settingthe example of this wonderful application of steam." We, like Mr. Moseley, hope that signal benefits will hereafter be derived from the application of steam power to agricultural processes — but would neverthe- less advise that but slight reliance should be placed on the labors of Professor Rafinesque for this purpose — as he has been remarkable for ill success (to say no more) in bringing his numerous and wonderful inven- tions into use. For example — the same paper from which the foregoing is copied, contains the two follow- ing advertisements, which, (with another offering to save many millions by a substitute for railway trans- portation,) were long published to invite the attention of the heedless and obstinate public. Yet it seems that nobody has availed of these magnificent offers of insurance; and houses are still burnt as often as here- tofore, ships sunk, and steamers blown up, without the least regard to Professor Rafinesque's benevolent plans, and splendid discoveries. "Incombustible Architecture. — Incombusti- ble dwelling-houses and buildings of all kinds de- vised or built in New York, or any part of the United States, as cheap as any other combustible buildings. Actual buildings and houses rendered in- combustible at a small additional expense. Ships of all sorts, and steamboats, rendered incom- bustible, and not liable to sink, at a small expense. For sale, 10,000 lbs, of Antignis, or Incombustible Varnish, at one dollar per pound. Apply to C. S. Rafinesque, Professor of Hist, and .Nat. Sciences, Chemist, Architect, &.c , in Philadel- phia, No. 59 North 8th street. A pamphlet given gratis." "To Steamboat Cosipanies. — Professor Rafi- nesque, 'of Philadelphia, offers his services to ren- der steamboats incombustible, and not liable to sink, even by the bursting of boilers, or striking against snags, sawyers and rocks. This will save many boats, much property, and the lives of hundreds every year. Those who neglect this easy improvement, deserve to be neglected and deserted by the public as unmindful of safety. Apply, post paid." 142 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. timber, with a view to its durability. To rue, it is a matter of much surprise, that the opinions of practical men are not uniform and settled upon this subject — a subject so important to almost every man in society, and particularly to those who have any interest in civil and naval architecture. The subject, appears to be as unsettled in Europe as in this country, or rather the prevailing opinion in both countries is probably erroneous. It appears to be the more general opinion in Europe and in this country, and the practice has conformed to this opinion, to lell timber in the winter, or while the sap is down: or to be more precisely accurate, in the. month of February in the old of the moon. In France, by a royal ordinance of the year 1669, the time of felling' naval timber was fixed from the first of October to the fifteenth of April, in the wane of the moon. Napoleon, having adopted the opinion that ships built of timber felled at the moment of vegetation, must be liable to rapid de- cay, and require immediate repairs, from the ef- fects of the fermentation of the sap, in those pieces which had not been felled in the proper season, issued a circular order to the commissioners of the forests, that the time for felling naval timber should be abridged, and that it should be in the decline of the moon, from the first of November to the fifteenth of March. Commodore Porter, of the American Navy, in the communication which ap- peared in the. A merican Farmer", gives it as his opin- ion, that the most proper season for felling timber, with a view to its durability, is in the winter, when the sap has ceased to circulate. He is of opinion that the moon has a powerful influence upon timber, as well as upon many other tilings. Notwithstanding this powerful array of authori- ty for felling timber in the. winter, while the sap is down, to increase its durability, many experiments have been made, which seem to establish the feet that timber cut when the sap is in most active cir- culation, is most durable. Mr. Benjamin Poor, the owner or occupant of Indian Hill Farm, inthis county, in a communication to Gorham Parsons, Esq. published in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, states the following fact as within his own knowledge and observation. His grandfath- er, in the fall of the year 1812, selected two white oak trees, size, situation, general appearance as to age and health and the soil, as near alike as pos- sible. In the month of March following, in the old of the moon, one tree was cut, the timber car- ried to the mill and sawed into suitable limber and scantling for an ox cart, and put it up to season in the open air. The middle of June the other tree was cut, carried to mill, and sawed as the for- mer, suitable for an ox wagon, and put up in the open air to season, and treated in every respect like that cut in March. In the fall of the year, both parcels of timber were housed, and in the spring following an ox cart was made from one, and an ox wagon was made from the other parcel, both painted, and the work alike in all respects. They were used principally for hauling stone, and if there, was any difference in the service to which they were used, it was that the June timber had the hardest. They were both housed in the win- ter and commonly remained out in summer. Mr. Poor says, at this time (1821) the one made of timber cut in March is very much decayed, the sides defective, much bruised, and a general appear- ance of decay, while that made of timber cut in June is perfectly sound, has not given way nor started in the joints, or in any respect appears half as much worn as the other, although it has had the hardest service. The late Hon. Timothy Pickering, the first president of our society, whose zeal and intelli- gence, connected with his long experience and great industry, give to his opinions much value, appears to have been of opinion, that the best time for felling timber trees lor durability, is, when the sap is vigorously flowing. He states the fol- lowing fact, as communicated to him by Joseph Cooper, Esq., of New Jersey, a practical farmer. Mr Cooper's farm lay upon the banks of the Del- aware, nearly opposite Philadelphia, and was ex- posed to the ravages of the British army while oc- cupying that city. Pressed for fuel, his fences first fell a prey to their necessities, and in the month of May, 1778, they cut down a quantity of his white oak trees; but circumstances requiring their sudden evacuation of the city, his fallen timber was saved. This he split into posts and rails. The ensuing winter, in the old of the moon, in February, he felled an additional quantity of his white oaks, and split them into posts and rails to carry on hia fencing. It is now, said Mr. Cooper, twenty-two years since the fences made, of the May fallen tim- ber were put up, and they are yet sound; where- as those made of trees felled in February, were rotting in about twelve years. Mr. Pickering treats the notion, that the moon has an influence upon timber or vegetation, as visionary. I have before said, that it is not yet well settled whether the moon has any influence upon vege- tation. It is, indeed, a singular fact, that this sub- ject should remain unsettled even to the present day; and yet it is so far unsettled, that probably one-half of our farmers who have occasion to sow a field of turnips, would prefer the old of the moon. I have never had any belief in the supposed influence of the moon, and have generally adopted the opinion, that industry and sunshine will be very well with- out any aid from the moon. I have generally ranked this opinion of the moon's influence, with those superstitions which would give importance to the circumstance, whether the moon was first seen over the right or left shoulder, or whether an enterprise would be successful commenced on Fri- day. And yet some men of great science and experience are firm in the belief of its influence. It would be an amusing exercise to collect the various opinions and facts, both ancient and mo- dern, upon this subject, but it would far exceed the limits of this discourse. I will however remark, that the ancients paid great regard to the age of the moon in the felling of their timber. Their rules appear to have been to fell timber in the wane of the moon, or four days after the new moon; some say let it be the last quarter. Pliny orders it to be in the very article of the change, which happening in the last of the winter solstice, the timber he says, will be immortal. Columella says, from the twentieth to the twenty-eighth day. Cato, four days after the full. Vegetius, from the fifteenth to the twenty-fifth for ship timber, but never in the increase: trees then much abound with moisture, the only source of putrefaction. Commodore Porter, we have seen, is of the opinion that limber should be felled in the old of the moon to give it durability, and he expressly says that it« influence is nearly, if not quite as 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 143 powerful as the sun. The commissioners of the French forests require such timber to be cut in the old of the moon, and such has been the standing regulation from the year 1669. Mr. Staples, of Turner, in the County of Oxford and State of Maine, in a communication in the New England Farmer, describes himself as above the age of seventy years, and during the greater part of that time has been a practical farmer. He removed to this place at the age of twenty-two, when the country was new, and was among the five first settlers, and has given particular attention to the moon's influence on timber, vegetation, &c. He says, that it is a truth, that the moon operates upon the earth and every thing which grows upon it, much more powerfully than is generally ima- gined. It is also true, that the effects of her op- eration vary regularly, as she passes through her orbit or monthly course. Timber, cut in the wane of the moon, will be much more durable than it would be if cut between the new and full moon. Her operations are so great and different in the various parts of her orbit, that by cutting one tree three hours before the new moon, and another of the same kind six hours afterwards, and preserv- ing them one year, a very striking difference in the soundness of them will be discovered. If I had known, says Mr. Staples, as much at the age of twenty-two years, as I now do, relative to this sub- ject, I am satisfied it would have benefited me more than a thousand dollars, particularly in clear- ing hard wood land and in getting durable tim- ber tor buildings of all kinds, and for sleds, carts, &c. He says, I have found by experience that fruit trees set out in the wane of the moon, and partic- ularly on the last day of the last quarter, are more likely to live and bs flourishing, than when set out at any other time. I have proved by experiments for ten years in succession, that an apple tree limb or graft, cut off in the month of May, about three hours belbre the moon changes, and carefully set out, will grow and do well. Another writer says, that in the months of May, June, and July, oak trees, in the new of the moon, will readily part with the bark, when, in the old of the same moon, the bark will adhere closely. Such are some of the opinions and facts to sup- port the affirmative of this question; but opposed to these opinions may probably be found most of the scientific and practical agriculturists of the present day. Doctor Dean and Colonel Picker- ing, men of great experience, practical knowledge and accurate observation, consider these notions of the moon's influence as visionary. There are cer- tain operations of the moon upon the earth, which are obvious and admitted by all. It aflbrds us light by night, it turns the earth in some degree from its elliptical orbit, it occasions a small oscillation in the earth's axis, it causes the ebbing and flowing of the sea, and a like effect upon the atmosphere. But heat, which is the cause of vegetation, has never yet been discovered in the collected rays of light from the moon. Experiments, made at the Royal Observatory in Paris, have proved, that the light of the moon condensed by a powerful lens, had no effect whatever in altering chemical pro- ducts, though very sensibly and easily affected by the light of the sun. Another fact is, that the most opposite weather in different parts, take place at the same instant of time, and of course under the same phases of the moon. It was probably from opinions prevalent in the days of Solomon of certain influences in the hea- vens, that he was led to make the mild rebuke — "He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." From the National Intelligencer. UNION" GOLD MINING COMPANY OF VIR- GINIA. A party of Cornish miners arrived at New York, a lew days since, in the ship Boston, of London, and passed through Philadelphia on their way to the Company's Mines. We are informed also, that a large amount of machinery, of the most approved construction, is expected daily. It is gratifying to perceive that the attention of Bri- tish capitalists has been at length awakened to the great mineral resources of the southern states. It is natural to suppose that native American enter- prize will derive much advantage and information from the well-directed operations of the London Company, whom it may be presumed have been very choice in their selection of men and machi- nery, and from the known success of the Brazi- lian Mining Company, whose profits amounted to $250,000 per annum. These foreign capitalists may reasonably calculate on a largely profitable return. We now confidently anticipate some fixed results, which will more completely develope and satisfactorily determine the character of the gold region of the southern states. The future conduct of similar operations must be much modified and directed by the successful results of the present undertaking. The skill and science which will be here evinced, cannot fail to save many engaged in similar enterprises from much useless expense and disappointment. From the New Monthly Magazine. CAUSE OF FAILURE OF THE POTATO CROP. Mr. Hickley has communicated to the "Irish Farmer's Journal" a very singular and successful experiment tried upon the potato in the county of Dublin. A gentleman who holds a farm of 150 acres, planted in the usual manner 34 acres under potatoes in 1832; the result was, a complete failure of the crop. This induced him to try many ex- periments upon the root, all of which failed except ihe following: he took six potatoes and divided them into twenty cuts; he then got a large basin of water, into which he put a cupful of salt and a piece of blue stone about the size of a walnut. He put len of the cuts into the basin, and let them remain there one entire night. On the following day he procured a very strong microscope, through which he examined the entire twenty cuts. On the ten cuts which were not immersed in the ba- sin he could distinctly perceive many small while particles like eggs; and those cuts which were not immersed presented no such appearance whatso- ever. This discovery urged him to follow up the examination attentively; and every day for a short period, he continued to watch the. appearance of the aforesaid matter. The result was, that those white globular particles were animalculae, for in a few days they became quite visible to the na- 144 FARMERS' REGISTER. INo. 3. ked eye in the form of worms or maggots. The cuts that had been steeped never showed the slightest appearance of any such thing; and they retained their solidity and firmness when the other ten cuts were completely decayed and rotted. Still unwilling to believe without further proof. he tried the experiment five or six times, and planted them, distinctly marking a division be- tween those cuts which were steeped and those that were not. The consequence was, the al- most total failure of one kind and the complete success of the others placed the question beyond the possibility of a doubt. He considers that, the air has a powerful effect on the potato, and may sometimes impregnate it with this destructive mat- ter. From Scientific Tracts. HAMMERING STONE. A physician of this city has invented a ma- chine, recently patented, for hammering and fa- cing sranite, or anv other kind of buildinsr stone. The mechanic who constructed a model for the patent office, at Washington, informs us that he considers it in the light of a happv discovery, ns faced stone may be shortly afforded as cheap as brick. A number of hammers, weighing not far from twelve pounds each, are set in motion either by steam or water power and move with such rapidity that the fragments fly like dust in a windy day. All the hammers move diagonally across the stone, in two directions, thereby completely levelling and smoothing it by simplv passing the block onward under them and back ntrain. One of these machines, on a larcre scale is being erect- ed at South Boston. Should it answer the expec- tations of the inventor, the old fashioned method of hanvmering stone will be wholly neglected as one machine will accomplish as much in a day as twenty or thirty men. [A wiseacre who conducts a northern paper boast- ing of some 20,000 subscribers, after publishing the foregoing statement remarked that "this is very well — provided that the money saved by the invention shall be given to the stone cutters thrown out of em ployment by the use of the new process." Having mislaid the paper, we quote the words from memory and therefore probably not exactly— but the luminous idea is not stated incorrectly. Its promulgator is a true supporter of the principles of the restrictive poli- cy— of the protecting duty school: and the same views would have prohibited the first use of ploughs and mills — and in short, every labor-saving implement and process that have 'benefited the world, and have served to distinguish men in the civilized, from the savage state.] From the Troy Whig. burden's horse shoe machine. The mechanical skill and inventive power ot our townsman, Mr. Burden, appears to be in con- stant and active exercise. We had the pleasure of examining, a few days since, at the Troy iron and nail factory, a recent invention of his for the manufacture of horse shoes, which, for curious mechanism, and practical importance, is equal to any thing which the genius of constritctiveness has produced lor many years. By the operation of this machine, a heated bar of iron is converted — as if almost by magic influence — into horse shoes, of any size that may be required, that for cheapness, neatness, and smoothness of external appearance — firmness of texture, and practical' utility, are greatly superior to the article now in general use. The admirable adaptation of the machine to the purposes for which it is intended, and the great rapidity with which it operates, is truly wonderful. Extract from Featherstoiihnugh''s Geological Report, Published by order of Congress, 1835. ACCOUNT OF THE LEAD ORE, AND MINES OF MISSOURI. * # * * j became now desirous of finding some natural sections that would assist in explain- ing the phenomena around me, but I could find none, and could hear of none, so that it became necessary for me to examine the localities where mining operations were conducted, in order, by an examination of the subterranean arrangement of the metallic beds, to form some estimate of their direction and extension towards those parts of the country where the public lands lay. I according- ly visited the most ancient "diggings" which had been partially carried on ever since the French had had possession of the country, but I found that the irregular maimer in which those diggings had been conducted almost, baffled every attempt at systematic investigation. Thesulphuret of lead, or "mineral," as it, 'is called in the lead country, has been, in certain localities, at all times found in fragments near the surface of the ground, from the size of a pin's head, in which it can be picked up in great quantities where the rain has washed the soil, to masses weighing several hundred pounds. Sometimes pieces of an intervening size are found, which have been affected by attrition; but, more frequently, the "mineral" preserves its angles very fresh, as it, might be expected to do from its brittle cubic structure. Various opinions have been entertained of the cause of so singular a distribution of this mineral substance in loose pieces, and occasionally in such great quantities, near the surface of the earth — a circumstance which has occasioned the whole adjacent country where the mineral has been found, to be excavated into pits from six to twenty feet deep, so that in the, localities of such districts it would be impossi- ble to drive any carriage by daylight, and imprac- ticable to ride securely on horseback by night. The disorder into which the country has been thus thrown, is entirely owing to ignorance of the geo- logical structure of the country, and the common- est principles of mininc, and is much to be re- gretted, as it will greatly embarrass future efforts, in those localities, at systematic mining. It would be superfluous to enter into any mineralogical de- tail of those diggings, or to render a very particu- lar account of any of them, since nothing can be more rude than the attempts at collecting ore which they exhibit. In particular localities im- mense quantities of sulphate of barytes, or "tiff," as it is named, masses of quartz rock, cellular, and occasionally coated with mammillary crystals of great brilliancy, and, in other instances, a pro- 1S35.] FARMERS' REGISTER 145 fusion of dark red clay, are thrown out of the dig- gings, together with the mineral. It was at Mine la Motte I first received satisfac- tory evidence that the broken up mineral I had seen in the diggings had been occasioned by an accidental derangement of the regular structure of metallic veins, and to which I had always attri- buted these appearances. The country around presents an extensive table land, almost denuded ol timber, through which a few slight streams run, which are used to wash the soil taken out of the shallow diggings. The whole surface is cut out into pits of various sizes, from four feet diameter to some exceeding twenty feet square, with an equivalent depth. These larger areas have been the result of a discovery gradually made, that the loose fragments near the surface, which were formerly the sole object of the diggings, were connected with mineral imbedded in the solid rock. Hence, large areas have been opened, without much relation to method, some- times to the extent of half an acre, and gunpow- der is employed to blast the metalliferous rock; so that mining in this particular district is become precisely what quarrying is every where else. The history of these diggings, and the manner in which the sulphuret of lead is often lbund, is as follows. The streams washing through the su- perficial gravels sometimes disclose valuable de- posites of the ore. Adventurers follow up these in- dications wherever found, and commence their diggings: when they reach a depth of twelveor fif- teen feet, or as soon as it becomes inconvenient to throw out. the earth, or hoist out the mineral, a new digging is commenced, and again aban- doned lor a new excavation. Frequently the su- perficial soil for about a foot will be red earth, mixed with mammillary quartz, called here "min- eral blossom," and petro-siliceous stones; a de- posite of red clay of a few feet is then generally found, resting upon a bed of gravel ami flinty pebbles, in which the lumps and fragments, in- cluding extremely small pieces of ore, are found. Deposites of this kind do not difler, in any partic- ular of mechanical arrangement, from any gravel deposites I have seen, especially the gravel depos- ites of gold in the southern states, and which are, without exception, the detritus of rocks brought into these superficial beds by aqueous transporta- tion. Beneath these free deposites lies the real metallic formation of the country, consisting of the fetid calcareo-siliceous rock before described, fre- quently so much decomposed as to admit of being shovelled out, and traversed by horizontal bands of bright galena, or sulphuret of lead, sometimes one inch thick, and frequently a foot thick. In other situations, the ore is very much dissemina- ted in the rock, although always confined in a vein or bandlike breadth, of different dimensions. Where the ore is much disseminated, and the rock is speckled with metallic particles for a great breadth, the ore is usually less productive, yield- ing about forty or fifty per cent, of lead, when the compact mineral in other situations yields sixty- five per cent. Upon such occasions it appears to contain an excess of sulphur. In some instances, I observed broad veins with a considerable dip. but generally the bands of ore were nearly hori- zontal. This locality appears to furnish a full ex- planation of the singular manner in which the ore and sulphateof bar) -tea, in which it is often shealh- Vol. Ill— 19 ed, have come into that free and broken situation in which they are found in the superficial depo- sites. 1 observed veins at the top of the metalli- ferous formation, and beneath the superficial de- posites, in quarries fifty feet across, and twenty feet deep, containing fragments of ore of various sizes, bright and sharp, with the vein, as well as that part of the rock through which it passed, much shattered and dislocated, the back of the vein being broken in numerous places, and the contents exhibiting strong marks of sudden violence. Some- times the galena was rent in shivers, sometimes its horizontal sheet was broken up, and parts of the bright ore, ten inches wide, left standing on their edges, some in one direction, some in another, and the remainder left flat in its old place. In some places the phenomena resemble those pre- sented in the chalk cliffs near the Isle of Wight, in England, where the beds are upset, and the seams and nodules of flint shivered. This is not the case, however, with all the veins. In va- rious quarters at Mine la Motte, especially those which go by the name of lYline la Prairie, where more than half an acre of ground has been unco- vered to a depth of twenty feet, the sulphuret of lead is not only seen running horizontally in hard compact veins in the calcareo-siliceous rock, but is sometimes disseminated for a great extent, in specks through the rock, affording to the eye suf- ficient proof that the stony and metallic matter was deposited at the same time; for if either of them were abstracted, no principle of adhesion would be left for the remaining mineral: occasion- ally the rock changes its character, becoming either calcareous or siliceous altogether, and, in- deed, the structure differs so much as to be some- times hard, sometimes soft, sometimes granular, sometimes compact. Sometimes a bed of sand- stone, three feet thick will lie upon a seam of bright mineral six inches or a foot thick, though more generally it is much thinner, and lies in a flat plate. I have however, seen it in veins of two feet thick. The deepest digging or quarrying I observed at this place did not exceed twenty- five feet; they had not yet begun a regular system of sinking shafts and cutting out drifts, but no doubt this will soon be done, as both the public and private lands around the whole region of Mine la Motte are, in my estimation, underlaid by rich veins of galena, that descend very deep to- wards the central parts of the earth. The su- perficial indications of this mineral are unerring. On the approach to a mineral district, numerous localities present a confused, but distinct and rather unvarying character of crystallization. Im- perfect nodules of siliceous matter, masses of mammillary quartz, the crystals of which are often superinduced upon chalcedonized concentric lay- ers with an agate structure, indications of sulphate of barytes, with small fragments of sulphuret of lead in the rain furrows, betray the metalliferous rocks: these are the situations which are chosen to com- mence new diggings in, and with invariable suc- cess as far as respects the finding ore. But from some works which have been recently constructed, and which I had an excellent opportunity of ex- amining, I am confident a thorough reform in the whole system of mining in that interesting coun- try is about to take place, and that it will hence- forward be conducted upon acknowledged princi- ples, consistent with the true nature of metalliferous 146 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. veins, and that economical administration of the mines which will enable them to contribute pow- erfully to the national resources. These works, which, when I visited them, be- longed to Messrs. Taplit and Perry, are distant four or five miles from Vallee's mines and about twenty-five miles trom the point where I observed the quartzose sandstone jut out into the Mississip- pi. They are. situated in a small valley at the loot of a ridge of calcareo-siliceous hills, and abound in the external indications I have before described. The proprietors, disregarding the superficial ores, and confiding in the metalliierous nature of the rock formation, had boldly sunk a shaft, in imita- tion of some practical miners from England, on the other side of the hill, and had been rewarded with the most perfect success. In sinking this shaft, they had come, at random, at a depth of about sixty feet deep, through decomposing calca- reo-siliceous rock, upon a vein of sulphuret of lead, and going down, had reached another hori- zontal vein upwards of one foot thick, and throw- ing out from it numerous subordinate veins and threads, into all of which they had cut drifts, wherever the mineral was sufficiently abundant. They had sunk this shaft to a depth of about one hundred and ten feet, when 1 was there, and very obligingly let me down into it, andgave me every aid and facility in examining their works, which ena- bled me to observe the very curious structure of these metalliferous rocks, and to form a satisfactory opinion of the geological structure of all this re- markable country. In pursuing the maine horizontal vein, I came, in succession, to a great number of cavities or pockets — analogous to those of some parts of the gold region in Virginia — in the calcareo-siliceous rock, of various sizes. Some of these caves, as they are there called, are not more than four or five feet across, whilst others are much more exten- sive. I examined one which was about forty feet from top to bottom, and about thirty-five feet in diameter. The uniform horizontally of the veins would keep the true nature of their origin in great obscurity; but, before I reascended, I had an opportunity of examining what they called the main channel, which proved to be an almost verti- cal vein, filled with compact galena, and about eighteen inches broad. I found the course of this lode to be about N. N. E. and S. S. W., with an inclination of about 18°; and upon examining it further, and reviewing what I had seen before, I had no longer any difficulty in understanding that these horizontal veins, and their subordinate ones, were lateral jets from the main lode, after the manner that Mr. McCulloch has described the structure of the horizontal injec- tions of trap rock into sandstone at Trotternish, in Scotland.* Having made these observations upon the direction of these veins, I commenced an ex- amination of their structure more in detail, and found they were all what is called in some of the mining districts of England ioet veins, being, without exception, encased, not in sulphate of barytes, but, in pure brigh red argillaceous matter, quite wet below, and cutting with a bright waxy face. This red clay accompanies the galena wher- * Vide McCulloch's "Western Highlands of Scot- land." ever it goes, always including it as in a sheath, and carrying along with it sometimes nodules of quartz, and of iron, zinc, and galena, which last compound is called by the miners dry bones. Every one of the pockets or cavities was filled with this red clay, even the large one I mentioned; but at the bottom of each of them was a thick bright plate of sulphuret of lead, that seemed to have sunk to the bottom by its specific gravity. AH these circumstances seem to point to a projection of this metallic and mineral matter from below.* At these mines, when circumstances are iavorable, they can raise and bring to the surface, as I was in- formed, five thousand pounds of the mineral a day — a quantity that could be easily quadrupled if the demand for the metal justified it. This sulphuret yields sixty-five per cent, pure lead of commerce. I had occasion to observe, in numerous instances, that the mineral indications on the public lands were quite as encouraging as at the established mines; but this mineral of lead, to judge from ob- vious appearances, exists in such inconceivable profusion in the metalliierous region of the south of Missouri and the north of Arkansas, that, like the iron of which I am about to speak, it may be relied on for countless ages as a source of national wealth, and an interminable supply of the most useful metals. From the Same, REMARKABLE DEPOSITE OF IRON ORE. Having completed my examinations of the lead mines, I pursued a southerly course, with the in- tention of visiting the district of primitive rocks, as it had been described to me, which lies on about, the same parallel with the heads of the Merrimack river. At a considerable distance I perceived very lofty hills of a different aspect from any I had yet crossed, and having an abrupt and stony ascent. The rocks upon the slope of the chain are for a considerable distance denuded, and pre- sent a well defined syenite. The chain at a dis- tance appears to run N. E. and S. W., but, upon crossing it, and examining it inside, it deflected into a crateri-form, reminding me in some of its features, of some ancient volcanoes I had seen. In various portions of this district I found varieties of greenstone, alternating with some horizontal rocks entirely quartzose, and containing no lime. Upon one lofty hill of syenite I found immense breadths of this siliceous rock, extremely and pon- derously impregnated with iron; and at. a distance of about a mile from this, the iron increasing in quantity in the intermediate distance, I came upon one of the rarest natural metallic spectacles I have ever seen. Upon a mound sparingly covered with trees, I observed a veinlike mass of submagnetic iron, and having a bright metallic fracture, of a steel gray color. This vein was about one hun- dred and fifty feet above the surface of the adja- cent plain, and at the surface had the appearance of being roughly paved with black pebbles of iron, from one to twenty pounds weight; beneath the surface it appeared to be a solid mass. I mea- sured the vein from east to west full five hundred feet, and I traced it north and south one thousand * During the eruption off Sicily, in 1832, when the volcanic island was formed, the agitated ocean waa filled for several weeks with red mud. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 147 nine hundred feet, until it was covered with the su- perficial soil. Unusual as is the magnitude of the superficial cubic contents of this vein, yet it must be insignificant to the subterranean quantity. This extraordinary phenomenon filled me with admira- tion. Here was a single locality of iron offering all the resources of Sweden, and of which it was impossible to estimate the value by any other terms than those adequate to all a nation's wants.* Upon a more minute investigation of the country, 1 found other similar metallic beds, though not of an equal extent, and all upon the public lands. Extract from Fealherstouliaugh's Geological Report. NOTICE OF THE PRAIRIES WEST OF THE MIS- SISSIPPI THEORY OF THEIR FORMATION. From the Caddo to Tournois creek, the distance is about fifteen miles, always upon good level soil. Part of the country, however, was sandy, with heavy beds of a bluish green arenaceous clay, con- taining a trace of lime. I found no fossils or im- pressions in it, but was induced to believe it was the equivalent of some tertiary beds I had seen nearShirly, on James river, Virginia. The whole of this part of the country almost seems to be un- derlaid with rotten limestone, derived from broken down marine shells. The country hence for seve- ral miles, consists of good bottom land, full of hol- ly and laurel, with occasional hills of old red sand- stone of moderate size, with their usual pine trees. Having gone about twenty miles, the coun- try tell again to the south, and I soon came tc an important stream which rises to the north west, and empties into the Washita, called the Little Missouri, from its waters being of a dusky red, muddy color. On crossing this stream, I enter- ed upon a dense low bottom of the richest soil, covered with cane, holly, laurel, and swamp timber, intersected by numerous bayous; this lasted for three miles, when the country began to rise a little again; and, after advancing a Tew mifes, I came upon a singularly black waxy soil of a car- bonaceous color, entirely different from any thing I had yet observed, except the surface of the tra- vertin, at the Hot Springs, which, as I have before observed, was not dissimilar to this, agreeing further in the profusion of helices and other land shells with which it abounded. The country here ap- peared to consist of achain of prairies running west- ward, and parallel with Red River for a very great distance. Some of these prairies were mere bald spots, of half an acre and upwards, surrounded by plants, whilst others were said to contain seve- ral hundred acres. In every instance they were surrounded with a belt of timber and plants pecu- liar to the country. I was informed by Judge Cross, a gentleman well acquainted with the coun- try, and to whose intelligence and hospitality I owe many obligations, that these prairies extend probably many hundred miles to the west, and that it is an opinion deserving of being entertained, that plants are encroaching upon the prairies gen- erally. It was with sincere pleasure I found my- self upon geological grounds, with which I was * It yields about sixty-five per cent, of fine iron, but is found not to weld easily, which I attribute to an ex- cess of sulphur. well acquainted. The prairies were covered with the fossils which, as I have before observed, charac- terize the New Jersey green sand formations,* but the superficial soil was uniformly of a deep black color, resembling charred wood, and in wet weatherisof awax}r, plasticconsistency, that makes it extremely disagreeable to move amongst. lis fertility is remarkable, and renders it eminently fitted for cotton, which, as I had many opportuni- ties of observing, succeeds well. The black soil, which is substantially calcareous, contains, as I found from slight experiments, a proportion of car- bon. This was one of the most lovely countries I had seen, a gentle rolling surface and fine woods, in which is an abundance of the indigenous crab ap- ple,! with the beautiful bow wood, J or D°is d'arc, as it is usually called. On examining where the streams had abraded the lower parts of the land, and digging in various places, I found that all these portions of the country, which consisted of prairie land, were bottomed upon immense beds of rotten limestone, derived from the testaceous remains of the mollusca I have named, entire shells of which in a soft state are still imbedded in the broken down masses once composed of shells. The zone of black land here does not ap- pear to have a breadth of more than five miles; wherever it is, the same fossils are found, with the undervalves profusely scattered around on the sur- face. Sometimes the black earth gave place to a deep red marl of great fertility, but in this marl I found no shells; they seemed peculiar to the black prairie land. It was evident I was here upon an ancient floor of the ocean, from which we may in- fer it had retired with comparative tranquillity, the surface being so little disturbed. The broken down marine shelly matter had accumulated into local beds and extensive hill deposites, after the manner in which we know some existing species accumu- late, and the general irregularity of the surface was not dissimilar to that which is presented by the various soundings of marine coasts, where re- cent surfaces are forming. These accumulations are more or less covered with a vegeto-animal de- posite, that, by the constantly acting power of the elements, is partially removed, and carried by rains towards the streams; hence this covering is dimin- ished in some places, and thickened in others. In some situations the black soil is two or three feet deep, whilst in others it is only a few inches thick, in which latter situations the tender roots of plants, having in extreme dry weather, to contend with a caustic calcareous bed, are liable to perish; the Indian corn for this reason, is sometimes what is called fired, its leaves drying up and wasting away. These characteristics of the prairie coun- try, as far as this particular zone of prairies is con- cerned, is common to a vast extent of country to the west of the points I examined. To the east the zone extends from north latitude 33° 40' to north latitude 32° 30', in the state of Alabama§, * Gryphaee convexa, exogyra costata, &c. &c. f Malus coronaria, twenty feet high, ten inches in diameter. f Maclura aurantiaca. § Wells, five hundred feet deep, have been dug through rotten limestone, into slate with quartz. 14S FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. and can be traced at intervals to north latitude 40° 30', in the state of New Jersey. Throughout this very extended line, all of which I have per- sonally examined, the characteristic shells of this subcretaceous formation have been found. I possess gryph8ea,exaggraand other shell s,from localities far up the False Washita, the neighborhood of the Kiamesha, from Mount Prairie in Arkansas, from Mississippi, from Prairie Bluffs in Alabama, and from New Jersey, all of them identical; and in the subcretaceous deposites of Alabama, I have found the greatest prolusion of the fossil equivalents of the genera peculiar to the green sand beds of Eu- rope. I hope at no distaat period to be able to trace, with some precision, the ancient littoral bounds of that geological period, so clearly demar- cated by all the unequivocal circumstances I have described. In relation to those areas which have received the appellation of prairies, from their surfaces, denuded of timber, being at certain seasons covered with long grass, I am not of the opinion of those who think that all prairies have originally been pro- duced by firing the timber annually, and thus, by repeated combustions, destroying the timber as well as the sproats. That much ground has been denuded by such means, I would admit, and the cause certainly would appear a sufficient one for those prairie districts to which no other cause ap- parently could be assigned. By whatever method plants begin first to germinate in such deposites, it is evident, as I have before stated, that where the ve- getable matter is thin, and the season unfavorable, they are liable to perish; and where they would not altogether perish, it must be remembered lhat this country was stocked, as the more distant prai- ries still are, with buffalo, which would, by their periodical occupation of the country in number- less herds, assist in exterminating plants of a vi- gorless constitution. These may be enumerated amongst the efficient causes of a prairie or meadow state of extensive tracts of country. This view of the subject is somewhat strengthened by the fact of plants, in modern times, encroaching on the prairies; for I have observed they encroach on the sides where vegetable matter has been washed and accumulated, finding a nutritious bed there, into which they can push their innumerable deli- cate fibres, secured from the devastating teeth and hoofs of the buffalo, which have now all left this part of the country; for where man settles, that animal never remains long. But there is also an- other view of the subject. These vast prairies of the west, as well as the diminutive ones in question, must be admitted to be ancient floors of the ocean. When it aban- doned them, they were, of course, without plants; and unless we admit their spontaneous growth, we must suppose them to have germinated from seeds derived lrom plants growing on lands which had been left with a higher level than the ocean, be- fore it receded from these prairies. Their borders would, of course, be planted first, and thus we can conceive of every new generation of plants giving some of its seeds to the winds and the wa- ters, and gradually extending the forests, like the present members of the human family, advancing upon, and settling the country for the' uses of pos- terity. This seems a more natural and just meth- od of accounting for the immense prairies of the west, and the pampas of the southen portion of* the South American continent, than conjectural opinions founded on a convenient method adopted by the Indians of securing their game, and which they have practised at all times, certainly with the effect of thinning, but without destroying the tim- ber, as we know from the immense forests of Vir- ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, and Arkansas, which were once annually fired by the Indians, to burn the high grass, that they might better see their game — a practice which de- stroyed the undergrowth, but only thinned the trees; and now that the Indians have left these countries, we find the undergrowth rapidly occu- pying the ground again. Before we receive opinions altogether hypothetical in relation to the cause of the prairie condition of land, it seems as if Ave were bound to inquire what was their first condition, consistent with the geological fact that they are ancient floors of the ocean. It, therefore, appears to me to be probable that many of these prairies have never, since the ocean left them, been covered by any vegetables of greater im- portance than the gramina. Under this view of the matter, it is consistent to suppose, what is per- sonally known to me to be the fact in many ob- served instances, that trees and plants may be transplanted to those prairies with perfect success. AMERICAN CEMENT. The Catskill Recorder thus speaks of this arti- cle, which is manufactured by a company in the City of New York: "The cement, which is at first like ordinary ma- son's mortar, becomes by age and exposure, as hard as granite itself, and resists the action of frost under any circumstance. We were shown cisterns, well curbs, sections of an aqueduct, and a monument, which were said to have stood in the open air through the last winter, and the summer thus far. These, when struck smartly with a trowel, gave out fire, and a clear ringing sound, which indicates the absence of any flaw. The cement is first moulded, then polished with a trowel, and after it has had time to harden, glass itself could not be more absolutely impervious to water. In all situations where it is desira- ble either to confine or shut out water, the cement answers every purpose, and is withal as we are informed, a very cheap material. In the process of hardening, it suffers no contraction, and in con- structing from it works of any kind, no other care seems necessary than to protect them from being mutilated or defaced; while in a green state. This material is now employed for a variety of uses, and every day calls for its application to some new purpose. We think that it will yet be extensively used in the construction of docks, aqueducts, canal locks and rail roads. The facility with which it may be moulded into blocks of a uniform size and shape, seem peculiarly to recommend it for bed stones on which to lay the rails; and in answering such a purpose, it may very materially reduce the expense, of rail roads as at present construct- ed." From Meyon's Voyage round ttie World. SINGULAR TRADE IN BRAZIL. Many owners send their slaves for daily employ- ment to the neighboring quarries, while very many others send them out to catch insects: and this is 1S35.] F A R M E R S ' REGISTER. 149 the reason why the most brilliant, insects are to be had so cheap at Rio de Janeiro. When a man has attained to some adroitness in this operation, he may on a fine day catch in the immediate vi- cinity of Rio more than five or six hundred bee- tles. This trade in insects is considered very lu- crative, six millreis (tour rix-dollars, or about four- teen shillings,) being paid lor the hundred during our stay. There is a general demand for these bril- liant beetles, whose wing-cases are now soughi for the purpose of adorning the ladies of Kurope — a fashion which threatens the entire extinction of this beautiful tribe. The diamond -beetle (chla- mys bacca Kert., and especially the chlamys cu- prea, Klug.,) was in great request for brooches for gentlemen, and ten piastres were often paid for a single beetle. PRACTICAL DETAILS OF MANURING — SINSU- LAR COLLECTION OF SHELLS AND BONES. To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. Charles City Co. Dec. 26, 1834. In compliance, with your request that the mem- bers of the agricultural community contribute to advance the interests of agriculture through the medium of the Farmers' Register, I have deter- mined to throw in my mite, contenting myself with the reflection that although this communica- tion may fail to afford either interest or pleasure, yet the motive and object will be duly appreciated, and the manner and matter receive the indul- gence of an enlightened community. The farm on which I reside is a gray soil, lying on a substratum of yellow sand, with the clay at the distance of from eighteen inches to two feet below the surface. It had been reduced to the lowest degree of poverty b}r the system practised by our ancestors, when I came into possession of it in 1823. I immediately cast about in my mind for means and resources for improvement. The object was to sustain my family, and at the same time improve some land. I therefore immediately enclosed a lot of ten acres, which was improved and cultivated in corn and peas for several years in succession. The corn was planted five feet each way, with as many pea hills as corn hills. It was gathered and shucked out as early as the corn would bear gathering, and my hogs turned upon the peas. This lot added from sixty to eighty barrels of corn to my crop annually, whilst the peas assist very much in fattening my hogs. Indeed, I know nothing better than a field of green peas to put hogs in a thriving condition, and pre- pare them for the pen. Another lot of eleven acres was now added to the first improved and cultivated for several years in succession (through necessity) either in corn or wheat. The production of these lots very soon convinced me of the value of im- proved land — having reaped for two crops in suc- cession, twenty bushels of wheat for one seeded, from land, which had not within the memory of any man living, produced more than five or six for one. Having now come into possession of other land I was enabled gradually to extend my im- provement to the field-system, collecting materials from every resource in my power, which are car- ried through the stables, farm pen, hog pen, &c. The farm pen, or shelter, is situated about the centre of my arable land — within forty yards of the barn anil stables, where each field corners. It is built of pine slabs on cedar posts put in the ground in the form of an octagan, closed entirely around except a «pucc of fifteen feet on the south side to admit the stock. The yard is graduated to the centre in the form of a shallow basin, which receives the water, and retains it in the vegetable mass, and being too shallow to retard decomposi- tion or putrefaction, yet retains the essence of the manure, so that nothing is lost. In this pound tho cattle are penned every night through the year, and during the winter both day and night, except for a short period in the evening when the} are turned out to water. I know that in this respect. my practice is different from most of our best ami most experienced farmers: hut from experience I am induced to believe it suits my situation and circumstances better than the more common mode of summer cowpens. The stables are well sup- plied with a fresh bed of litter every night, and their contents suffered 1o remain until the mass becomes twelve or eighteen inches thick, when they are cleaned out, and the manure removed immediately to the standing farm pen, spread reg- ularly over the yard, and covered with straw or pine leaves. 1 always prefer removing the stable manure, to the farm pen during a rainy season, or to anticipate a rain, as the essence of the stable manure will be immediately carried down into the bulk below, and mixed with the whole mass. Loads of pine litter from the. woods are always carted in previous to carrying in the stable manure, for the purpose of protecting it from the sun and atmosphere. Under this system the additional labor of haul- ing the manure made in summer to the field is in- curred, but I am satisfied that a much larger space can be manured during the same period, than by the usual mode of summer cow pens. I act upon the principle that labor directed to the rais- ing and applying manures rarely, if ever, tails to re- munerate the farmer — one acre of good land be- ing, in my estimation, worth ten, or perhaps twen- ty, of such as is really poor. This farm pen is cleared of its contents twice a year, in December and April. The manure accumulated from the last of April to December, is then carried to the field intended for corn, deposited in heaps accord- ing to the strength of the land, and is covered with common earth, if it is to remain for even a few days before being turned in the land. The manure is thus protected from the sun and atmos- phere, and a portion of that which would have es- caped, imbibed and retained by the cover of earth, which becomes the more readily mixed with the, soil to assist, in the process of vegetation. A brisk boy of fourteen or fifteen years old will cover the heaps of manure as fast as a good team of oxen and three horse carts can carry it to the field — say a distance of 700 yards. The manure made dur- ing winter is all carried out and ploughed in, aa before observed, for the corn crop in the spring, and the only litter used in the farm pen up to this period, consists of straw and pine leaves. Imme- diately after carrying out the manure in spring, wc commence carting in corn stalks, which is con- tinued until they are all used. This mode of using the corn stalks is preferred, because they are not so soon converted into manure as straw, or lit- ter from the, woods, and they have a longer period to remain in the farm pen through summer. All the manure made is applied to land pre- 150 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. viously marled — a very fine bed of which I have near the centre of my arable land. My marl is that which 1 think is generally termed yellow, be- ing a decomposed mass of various kinds of shells tinged with clay. No sand is discovered in it. I have applied only 200 bushels to the acre, and be- lieve from several experiments made on a small scale, that, quantity sufficient lor my land. There are several indications of marl in my neighbor- hood— and a deposite has recently been discovered of very good quality. I have but little doubt that many deposites of this valuable manure are yet to be discovered, and that our worn-out and neglect- ed country is destined to be brought to a slate of gradual improvement. On my friend Col. J. S. Stubblefield's farm, on Chickahomony, there is found a curious de- posite of muscle shells, extending on the bank of the river about one hundred and fifty yards on a level with the flat land, and covering a breadth of from thirty to forty yards. These shells are found on the surface, and extend to the depth of from three to four feet, imbedded in rich black mould. This deposite contains a considerable portion of carbonate of lime, and has been used extensively by Col. S. who is an industrious and enterprising farmer. In this deposite of shells are found a number of human bones of all sizes, from the smallest infant to the full grown man, interred in pits of various size, and circular form; and in each pit are found intermingled, human bones of every size. Standing in one place T counted fifty of these hollows, Irom each of which had been taken the remains of human beings who inhabited this country before the present race of whites. These remains differ in several particulars from the In- dian burying grounds heretofore discovered among us. Might they not furnish curious matter of speculation to the antiquarian? It is time I should bring this desultory communication to a close. JAMES II. CHRISTIAN. From the New York Farmer. DRY ASHES DESTROY LICE ON FOWLS. When confined, or when simply roosting, in an inclosed house, hens are apt to become infested with lice, in the warmer months. Dry wood ashes, put on the ground where they dust them- selves, will, says a fanner, who has given much attention to poultry, very soon entirely iree them. s. F. From the last London edition of the "Complete Grazier." ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTEN- ING OF SHEEP. Introductory and comparative view of the different breeds of British sheep. Among the various animals given by the benev- olent hand of Providence for the benefit of man- kind, there is none, perhaps, of greater utility than the sheep; which not only supplies us with food and clothing, but also affords constant employ- ment to numerous indigent families, in the various branches of the woollen manufacture; and thus contributes, in no small proportion, to the produc- tive labor, the commercial prosperity, and the op- ulence of this highly-favored island. In a wild, or natural state, the sheep is a vigor- ous animal, lively, and capable of supporting fa- tigue; when domesticated, indeed, it loses much of these properties, but amply compensates for the absence of them by the superior advantages arising from the rearing of this sort of stock. In fact, on most soils, sheep constitute a material part of a farmer's live stock and profits; and as particu- lar attention has, of late years, been bestowed on the improvement of the respective breeds, we shall first present the reader with an introductory view of them; which will, we trust, convey an ad- equate idea of the different varieties, together with their specific ch^acters, and the peculiar ad- vantages they respectively possess. The general management of these animals will afterwards form a subject of discussion. Naturalists maintain that all the varieties of dif- ferent animals, of the same species, have been de- rived from one parent stock; and, arguing upon this hypothesis, the origin of our native breeds of sheep has been deduced, by some from the moufflon of Corsica, and by others from the argali of Siberia, both of which still exist wTild in the mountains of those countries. The moufflon is, however, mentioned by very ancient authors as a distinct animal, and, indeed, it appears to partake more of the nature of the goat; but the argali, which is spread throughout Asiatic Russia, and many parts of Persia, has much of the appear- ance, and many of the habits, of the common sheep. Whatever degree of credit may be at- tached to this conjecture, it is certain that sheep were found in a domestic state in England at the earliest, period of which we have an account; it is also probable, that they were then of one species only — the small horned kind; and there can be little doubt, that the various breeds in existence at the present day, have gradually arisen through the progress of cultivation, and experiments in crossing, as well as from those differences, which will naturally arise, when they are long confined to soils of opposite quality. It might prove an object of curious research, to trace the improve- ments that have been made in this important branch of rural economy; but, this treatise being intended solely for the use of men of business, our inquiries are necessarily confined to the actual breeds that compose the present stock of the coun- try, of which the following are the chief. I. The Heath, Linton, Short, or Forest Sheep, are names indiscriminately given to the several varieties of the same breed, which is found in the north-western counties of England, and thence forward to the western highlands of Scotland. The specific characters of this race are, large spiral horns; faces black or mottled, and legs black; eyes wild; carcass short and firm; wool long, open, coarse and shagny; fleece averaging about three pounds and a half at four years and a half. They are of a hardy constitution, admirably cal- culated lor elevated, heathy, and exposed districts; and, judging from this aptitude to support the hardships of constant exposure in a wild pastur- age country, as well as from the form of the horns, which is characteristic of the animal in its unim- proved state, it may be not improbably inferred, that they are directly descended from {he parent stock ofthe kingdom. The true black-taced breed, is said to be distinguished by a lock of white wool on the forehead, termed the snow-lock. In moorland tracts, where the pasturage con- sists rather of heather than of green herbage, 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 151 these sheep have been found more valuable than some which, in more favored situations, might be considered superior; and although they have been superseded in some instances, yet they still main- tain their ground on the bleak hills of the north, many of which, indeed, would, be wholly unpro- ductive to the farmer under any other stock: their flesh is highly flavored; and when lattened on the lowland pastures, they make excellent mutton. There is another moorland breed, of an unmixed race, existing on the Yorkshire wolds, which dif- fers from the former, in having the face and legs white, with a thin flat, carcass; but in point of hardiness of constitution, and the characteristic distinction of large horns, it is nearly similar. Both range over the heathy mountains in the. summer, without any attending shepherd; and, on the approach of winter, they are brought nearer to the enclosed grounds, that hay may be given to them during deep snows, and also that they may be prepared for the severity of the season, by be- ing salved: an operation which will be hereafter more particularly described. The other horned breeds of English sheep are — II. The Exrnoor and the Dartmoor, which de- rive their names from the districts in the northern and western parts of Devonshire, where they are chiefly found. They are long-woolled, with white legs and faces, and are delicately formed about the head and neck; they make very finely flavor- ed mutton; and arrive, when fatted, at two and a half to three years old, to fourteen and sixteen pounds weight per quarter. The country in which they are reared, is gene- rally over-charged with water, after the autumnal rains, yet this breed sustains the chill of the wet ground even in the infant state, without becoming subject to the rot, which has proved fatal to some other species that have been attempted to be in- troduced, and even to crosses. Their summer pasture is scanty, and their winter food consists chiefly in what they can pick up, in ranging over extensive tracts of pasturage, with the assistance, in the severity of extremely bad weather, of a lit- tle indifferent hay, made from the coarse herbage of the moors; and perhaps occasionally with a small supply of turnips, which are sometimes cul- tivated, but which, from the wetness of the land, they are often prevented from resorting to when most wanted. From this superior hardiness of constitution, and more especially from their power of resisting wet, which is generally so injurious to sheep, nature has evidently adapted them to the soil; it is not, therefore, to be much wonder- ed at, that the attempts made to improve them by crosses with more tender breeds, have not been attended with all the success that was expected. \ A cross with the old Leicester sheep has, indeed, increased the weight to twenty-four pounds per quarter; and another, with the Spanish merinos, has improved the quality of the wool; but the foot-rot and the scour have in both instances made great ravages; and until some effectual system of drainage be adopted, by which the pastures may be rendered dry, and shelter be provided by enclo- sures, the most rational hope of improvement must rest upon increased attention to the native race.* 338. See the Agricultural Survey of Devonshire, p. III. The Norfolk Breed is indigenous in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The horns are large and spiral; bodies long; loins narrow, with a high back and thin chine; the legs long, black, or gray; of a roving, wild disposition, and not easily confined within any but strong enclosures. The wool of the original breed was short, the fleece weighing from two to two and a halt pounds; but within the last twenty years, in consequence of crosses and new modes of feeding, the weight has been increased full a pound, and the greater part is now used for combing purposes.* The carcass has been proportionally increased; and though the mutton has not been thereby improved, it yet is well flavored, and of a fine grain, but only fit for consumption in cold weather. The agile form of these sheep, enabling them to move, over a great space of ground with little labor, was of vast advantage to the old Norfolk farmers, many of whom were possessed of large tracts of heath-land, which they had no means of bringing into cultivation, except by the assistance of the fold. Mr. Marshall characterizes them, in his account of the Norfolk husbandry, as being singularly well adapted to the soil and system of management prevalent in that country: thriving upon heath and barren sheep-walks, where nine- tenths of the breeds in the kingdom would starve; standing the fold perfectly well, yet fatting freely at two years old, and bearing the drift to distant markets with comparative ease. Mr. Kent has been equally warm in their praise in his survey of the same county; yet notwithstanding these strong testimonials in their favor, they have long been giving way to the more fashionable Southdown breed, which has now taken possession of nearly all, except the most barren and sandy districts of the county.f IV. The Wiltshire Breed are distinguished by large spiral horns bending downwards, close to the head; they are perfectly Avhite in their faces and legs; have long Roman noses, with large open nostrils; are wide and heavy in their hind quar- ters, and light in the fore-quarter and offal, but with little or no wool on their bellies. The qual- ity of the fleece is that of clothing wool of mode- rate fineness, averaging nearly three pounds in weight; and the carcasses of the wethers, when fat, usually weigh from 70 lbs. to 90 lbs.: the mut- ton good: they sometimes, however, reach much higher, and may be considered as our largest breed of fine-woolled sheep. The county of Wilts, being in great part com- posed of downland, the same necessity exists there, as upon other light soils, of maintaining large flocks of hardy constitutioned sheep for the purpose of folding; to which the old stock of the country was well adapted. But the improvements in the modern system of agriculture, by the intro- duction of green crops instead of fallows upon light land, having enabled the farmers to supply their flocks with better winter food than the bare pastures on which they were previously kept, the * Evidence before a Committee of the House of Lords on the wool trade, in 1828. Printed report, p. 129. f Agricultural Survey of Norfolk, by the Secretary to the Board; Kent's ditto; and Evidence of Mr. Fison before a Committee of the House of Lords, on the Bri- tish wool trade, 1828, p. 194. 152 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. size of the present race has been increased, and the form has been improved by crossing. It is, however, said, that they have become less hardy, and worse nurses; and, in particular, so very nice in their food, that they wili starve on the same kind of land where the former sort of smaller and more compact sheep lived well. Another serious consequence of the change is also said to have been produced by this delicacy of appetite — that by rejecting the teed of the downs, on which the chief dependence of the flock master rests, the herbage has gradually grown coarser; which evil has been further increased by the consequence of shortening the stock previously kept; it being a well known fact, that, to a certain extent, the closer the downs are fed, the more sheep they will support.* Hut it is more probable that the great- est injury done to the downs has been occasioned by the system, pursued during the high prices of corn, of breaking them up, and after exhausting them by repeated cropping, then laying them down with artificial grasses which soon wear out, and coarse natural grasses then take possession of the land, instead of the finer sward with which it had been previously covered. It has been also "found that the quality of the wool has been injured by the new system of feed- ing; and in this county, as well as in Norfolk, the native breed has been nearly superseded by that of the Southdowns. V. The Dorset Breed have small horns with white faces and \e> d Q weather. d o >> o pq 3 fab 13 o bio '5 o CD a CO a CO Sh 00 § 1 a CO eS ca Si o C i— i CD CD Ph O CO a "3 o H 1 JOURNAL OF PLANTATION. NEGRO ACCOUNT. CATTLE ACCOUNT. On hand, ... Increase, - - Total, .... Decrease, ... Remain, ... c B o CO o pq '5 - On hand, Increase, Total, Decrease, Remain, CO CD M O w "_ 3 c CD 3 en o O CO 03 > is striking Ids head against a low door-way. or entangling the harness, ion will but associate greater tear and more determined resistance with the old recoil ction. Mr Castley, to whom we are indebted for much that is valuable on the. subject of the vices of the horse, gives an interesting anecdote, which tends to prove that while severity will be worse than useless, even kind treatment will not break a con- firmed habit. 'I remember a very fine gray mare that had trot into this habit, and never could be persuaded to go through a door-way without taking an immense jump. To avoid this, the ser- vants used to back her in and out of the stable; but the mare happening to meet with a severe in- jury of the spine, was no longer able to back; and then I have seen the poor creature, when brought to the door, endeavoring to balance herself with a staggering motion upon her half-paralyzed hind extremities, as if making preparation and sum- moning up resolution for some great effort; and then, when urged, she would plunge headlong forward with such violence of exertion, as often to lose her feet, and tumble down "altogether most pitiable to be seen." 'This I. merely mention,' he continues, 'as one proof how inveterate the habits of horses are. They are evils, let it always be re- membered, more easy to prevent than cure.' Slipping the Collar. This is a trick at which many horses are so cle- ver that scarcely a night passes without their get- ting loose. It is a very serious habit, for it enables the horse sometimes to gorge himself with food. to the imminent danger of staplers; or it exposes him, as he wanders about, to be kicked and injur- ed by the other horses, while his restlessness will often keep the whole team awake. If the web of the halter, being first accurately fitted to his neck, is suffered to slip only one way, or a strap is at- tached to the halter and buckled round the neck, but not sufficiently tight to be of serious inconve- nience, the power of slipping the collar will be taken away. Tripping. He must be a skilful practitioner or a mere pre- tender who promises to remedy this habit. If it arises from a heavy forehand, and the fore legs and pulls, and the other jumps, plunges, frets, and throws up his head, until both, pretty well exhausted by the conflict, grow tranquil again and proceed on their journey, though not for some time afterwards in their former mutual confidence and satisfaction. Should they in their road, or even on a distant day, meet with another coach, what is the consequence? That the horss is not only more alarmed than before; but now, the moment he has started, being conscious of his fault, and expecting chastisement, he jumps about in fearful agitation, making plunges to strike into a gallop, and attempting to runaway. So that by this correction, instead of rendering his horse tranquil during the pas- sage of a coach, the rider adds to the evil of shying that of subsequently plunging, and perhaps running away.' — The Veterinarian, by Messrs. Percival and Youatt, vol. i., p. 96. being too much under the horse, no one can alter the natural frame of the beast: if it proceeds from tenderness of the foot, grogginess, or old lame- ness, these ailments are seldom cured; and if it ia to be traced to habitual carelessness and idleness, no whipping will rouse the drone. A known stum bier should never be ridden, or driven alone, by any one who values his safety or his life. A tight hand or a strong bearing-rein are precautions that should not be neglected, but they are gener- ally of little avail; for the inveterate stumbler will rarely try to save himself, and this tight rein may sooner and farther precipitate the rider. If, after a trip, the horse suddenly starts forward, and en- dea\ors to break into a canter, the rider or driver may be assured that others before him have fruit- lessly endeavored to remedy the nuisance. If the stumbler has the foot kept as short and the toe pared as close as safety will permit, and the shoe be rounded at the toe, or have, that shape given to it which it naturally acquires in a fortnight from the action of such a horse, the animal may not stumble quite so much; or if the disease which produced the habit can be alleviated, some trifling good may be done, but in almost every case a stumbler should be out rid of, or put to slow and heavy work. If the latter alternative be adopted, he may trip as much as he pleases, for the weight of the load and the motion of the other horses will keep him upon his legs. Weaving. This consists in a motion of the head, neck, and body, from side to side, like the shuttle of a weaver passing through the web, and hence the name which is given to this peculiar and incessant action. It indicates an impatient, irritable temper, and a dislike to the confinement of the stable; and a horse that is thus incessantly on the fret will sel- dom carry flesh, or be safe to ride or drive. There is no cure for it, but the close tying up of the ani- mal, except at feeding time. From the Horticultural Register. OX PARTY SPIRIT IN HORTICULTURE. Start not, reader; the caption of this article forebodes no bloodshed in America, and however violent the spirit, the subject is merely a Rose. It is in the great commercial, free Hanseatic city of Hamburg, in Germany, that this flame of discord has been kindled, which threatens even to falsify the line of" the great delineator of the human character, that, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." It appears that Messrs. Booth, proprietors of the Flottbeck Nursery, near Hamburg, had raised a new rose from the seed of the old and well known Maiden'sBlush, which is described as wonderfully beautiful (wunderschon) and of which they had consequently sold a large quantity. This they called in their catalogue the Queen of Denmark rose. Professor Lehmann, Director of the Hamburg Botanic Garden, in his descriptive catalogue re- marks on a variety of the rose, there called La Belle Courtisanne, that this rose was described in France in 1806 as a hybrid between the old Dutch Hundred Leaf and the Maiden's Blush. 174 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 3. The roses being identical, Messrs. Booth ielt the honor of their well regulated nursery at stake, and alter some slight warfare in their respective annual catalogues, these gentlemen published a pamphlet on the subject, which was replied to by the Professor in the newspaper. This produced a very bitter and persona! rejoinder from Messrs. Booth, in a second pamphlet, which was distri- buted gratuitously. The Professor havingstated that the rose in ques- tion was figured in the magnificent and expensive publication, with colored plates, by the celebrated Redoute, fellow pupil with Audubon, of David the painter, he procured the work and ieit it out lor public exhibition. Redoute's figure wasgene- rally considered identical with Booths' Queen of Denmark, although these gentlemen would scarce- ly allow it. A hot war of affidavits, letters of proof, and documents now commenced, the most interesting of which is a letter li'om the distinguished veteran botanist, Thouin, who died in 1826, dated in 1824, which gives some good explanations of the Pro- lessor's strong declaration, and shows that the Belle Courtisanne rose, under this name, was sent by Thouin to the Hamburg Botanic Garden, from whence it was also distributed to many other gar- dens. Messrs. Booth hereupon published gratis a most offensive pamphlet, entitled "Victory of the Queen of Denmark Rose, unveiling the motives of the attack of Professor Lehmann." To this the Professor published a cool and well written reply; the friends on each side began to publish also — accusation and retorts were liberally scattered and the plague of party spirit spread far and wide. We do not think, however, it will terminate in a continental war. That elegant German writer, Wicland, in his fiction of the history of the people of Abdera, a town in ancient, Greece, relates that a citizen of the town hired an ass; the day being sultry, lie took it into his head during his ride, to dismount from the patient animal, and sit down for a time in the shade of the creature's body. The owner demurred to this proceeding, and demanded addi- tional hire, having, as he stated, only let the ass, and not his shadow. After a warm altercation, both returned to the city and went before the ma- gistrate. The question now became altogether one of party, in which no neutrality was permit- ted, and the whole city was soon divided into two violent sides, one of which obtained the appropri- ate distinctive appellation of jlsses, and the other of Jlsses* shadows. During a popular commotion on this quarrel, the innocent cause of it was torn limb from limb — thus even the shadow of an ass was annihilated, and had not some other question of equal importance been started, which threw this into oblivion, the result would no doubt have been disastrous. We disclaim the slightest idea of an offensive application of the above story; it is enough to show how well those understand the human heart who describe a trifle as sufficient to inflame the bad passions of mankind. The highly talented German botanist, Nees Von Esenbeck, writes two letters on this quarrel, which have been published in the sHlemcine. Botanische Zeitung, (General Botanical Newspaper) com- mencing in something like the following lively vein: "How much that is beautiful, joyous, and en- dearing has been written and said on the rose; how much that is delightful on its character? how many exquisite ideas has it inspired to be breathed by love?- The beauty of this flower must sink deepest into our imagination, when its appearance forces us to associate with it every feeling that is tender, delicate, and luxurious. How anomalous, how absurd, then, the idea that the rose can en- gender feelings of division and strife. lam con- vinced that in the beautiful manuscript of my young friend Dorinir, 'On the Character and Na- ture, of the Rose,' there is not even the smallest chapter on the fruit of rose as an apple of dis- cord.'1* It is hardly worth while to read every statement and counter statement in this quarrel, but we be- lieve that Messrs. Booth, the nursery men, must have the best of it, as undoubtedly the excitement has enabled them to sell the greater part of their stock of this rose, as well as of many others ap- proaching to it in character, to enable a compari- son; while the. publishers of Redoute's work on roses have certainly disposed of several copies to persons who have withstood the best newspaper pufls that ever were penned. [There have been very many instances, in modern as well as ancient times, of parties being formed, and bitter feuds engendered among countrymen, neighbors, and former friends, for causes not more important, and even less understood, than those from which have ori- ginated the rose factions mentioned above. And most parties agree with those of the roses in another re- spect— that the few knaves who lead, on both sides, may gain by the fend, while the many fools who follow them, are sure to be losers.] From the Horticultural Register. O.f THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTION OP INDIA RUBBER, AND ITS APPLICATION TO MAN- UFACTURES. At the present time, Avhen attention to this sub- ject is so much awakened, we deem an account of it will be of some interest to our genera! rea- ders, particularly as an entirely new and extraor- dinary use for it has been very recently discovered and patented in England. The India rubber in the state it is imported into this country, is the concrete juice of the Hevea caoutchouc, orguianensis, aEuphorbiaceousplant which abounds in South America; it is also pro- duced from the Apocyneous plants, as Urceola elastica, of Sumatra, Vahea Madagascariensis, Ficus elastiea, of the East Indies; and from Arto- carpeous ones, as Ficus indica, the Banyan tree also of the East. Indies, Artocarpus incisa, the Bread fruit tree, from the West Indies, and from many trees in Africa. In fact, plants producing it grow in almost all countries in or near the tropics. The produce of these is sometimes equal to nearly * The apple was placed by Decandolle in the Rosa- ceous family, from which it is now, however, properly separated. It is classed with others in a distinct order called Pomaceee, from Poma, an apple. The figure of Nees Von Esenbeck, of the rose fruit being an apple of discord is therefore not so far wrong as may appear at first sight. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 175 two-thirds the weight of the branch tapped, and when exhausted, hut a few months' rest are re- quired to replenish the vessels; the supply is there* fore equal to almost any consumption, although no doubt exists that this will increase amazingly. A small quantity has been manufactured from the juice of a tree in the Glasgow botanic garden, and exposed to the public at an agricultural museum at Stirling in Scotland. Mr. Nutla'l ohserves that the juice of the Milk- weed, Asclepias Syriaca, which grows plentifully in the vicinity of Boston, as well as of that of the Apocynum is convertible into a substance resem- bling gum elastic. A patent has been very recently granted in England for the manufacture of an essential oil or liquid, by distilling India robber at a given heat in sssels made for that purpose; by redistilla- tion it comes over pure and transparent. This oil has many singular characters. It is the lightest liquid known, being of less specific gravity than sulphuric ether, it is exceedingly volatile, yet the gas formed when it evaporates is the heaviest, gas known, and may be poured out of one vessel into another like water, as was exhibited at a late lec- ture given on it, by Dr. Faraday in London. The rapid evaporation of it, produces intense cold; one minute and a quarter was sufficient to reduce the thermometer from 60° Fahrenheit to 10° below zero, by covering the bulb with muslin and blow- ing on it with a bellows, while this liquid was dropped on it. On removing the muslin at about. 10° above zero, in another experiment, the bulb was observed to be covered with a concrete substance resem- bling snow, termed by Dr. Faraday. Bicarburel of Hydrogen, supposed to have been previously dis- covered by M. Mitscheriich. On mixing this produce of India rubber with cocoa-nut oil, which is known to be always hard at the usual temperature of the atmosphere, in the proportion of one-quarter of the former to three-quarters of the latter, the cocoa-nut oil is liquified and gives a most brilliant flame. Mr. Beale has taken out a patent in England, for a new lamp to burn this mixture; one of them was exhibited at the before mentioned lecture, and surprised the audience by its peculiar bril- liancy. It mixes readily with oils used for painting, and evaporates so speedily that the paint dries within an hour after laying it on. As it is extremely cheap and does not in the Jeast injure the most de- licate colors, it is probable that it will be considera- bly used for this purpose. One of its most important properties, however, is that of completely dissolving all the gum re- sins, particularly gum copal, without the assis- tance of" heat, therefore the varnish may be pre- pared without the usual danger from fire. It is also a perfect solvent in cold, of India rubber itself, and when this is laid on any substance in its liquid state, the oil evaporates and leaves the India rub- ber without the slightest alteration of its character, fixed on the material. Messrs. Enderby & Co. of Greenwich, near London, have established a manufactory of this substance on a large scale, and have sent an agent to South America for the pui'pose of pro- curing a constant supply — they have always about one hundred tons to operate on. The principal object of their manufactory, is to saturate the fibres of the Phormium lenax or New- Zealand flax, with this liquid previous to its being made into cables, thereby rendering it totally im- pervious to water, ami protecting it altogether from the effects ot damp and motsfure. It has been named Caoutchouchine from Caout- chouc, another name lor India rubber — which it is supposed, if carefully managed on distillation, would give nearly weight for weight of this oil. Being so recently discovered, its properties are of course by no means entirely developed, and much remains yet to be known on the subject. Dr. Faraday's lecture is represented to have been most interesting — he exhibited the juice of the India rubber in its fresh state and explained how it de- posited the article of commerce — he entered also into a chemical analysis of it, the repetition of which here would be trespassing too far on our horticultural readers. From the Genesee Farmer. ASHES AS MANURE. Farmers who now have ashes on hand, will find it profitable to apply it as a top dressing to their corn, instead of selling it at the asheries. An application of ashes to this crop will not un- frequently cause an increase of more than five times the value of the ashes at the price they are commonly sold. Ashes which have been kept perfectly dry and uninjured are far preferable to leached, though the latter is very valuable. When it is applied to corn, one gill of that which is fresh or unmoistened will be enough; if leached, half a shovel full will not be too much. It is recom- mended that when unleached ashes is appled, it be placed on the. surface round each hill so as not to touch the plants, as it might otherwise injure them by its causticity. LEGAL, RESPONSIBILITY OF POSTMASTERS TO PUBLISHERS FOR A VERY COMMON NEG- LECT OF THEIR DUTY. "The proprietor of this paper" says the Phil- adelphia Times, "last week, recovered judgement against a postmaster for a paper not taken from his office, of which he neglected to inform him. All postmasters who do so, render themselves lia- ble, and ought to be held accountable." We earnestly wish that every careless postmaster in the Unitpd States, and especially some of those to whose offices the Farmers' Register is sent, would read and profit by this warning. With many of these of- ficers the most culpable neglect of their sworn duty in this respect, (if not worse than neglect,) is frequent. We have suffered by it, in common with most of our editorial brethren, by some very long continued and most gross offences of this kind — and if no other re- dress can be obtained, we shall try whether the law will afford it in Virginia, as well as in Pennsylvania. If publishers generally would adopt such a course, they would check much of the disposition to indulge in gross neglect, if not in petty pilfering. 176 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 3. From the New York Farmer. BROOM CORX. The cultivation of broom corn is carried on to a very great extent on some of the alluvial lands on the Connecticut river, and in small patches in ma- ny of the interior towns. The towns of Hadley and Hatfield raise large quantities, which are manufactured into brooms, and distributed through- out the country. The seed is considered of about two-thirds of the value of oats, and, mixed with corn, makes an excellent provender for the fat- tening either of swine or neat cattle. The return of seed is somewhat precarious; but often it is abundant, and will more than pay the whole ex- pense of cultivation and preparing the crop for the market. I have known a case in which 150 bush- els of good seed have been obtained from an acre; and I have been assured, on good authority, of a still larger yield, though this is not frequently to be^xpected. One thousand pounds of broom to an acre is a very good crop. It will pay well for manuring and good culture. No crop is more beautiful than the standing corn when in perfec- tion. It frequently attains a height of 12 to 15 feet. The stalks of the plant are. very long and hard, and, therefore, rather difficult to load upon a cart. They are considered as of no value but for manure. The usual practice is to table the corn, that is, to cut off the top, or tassel the broom, as it is called, about two feet from the top, and bending the stalks of two rows together, lay it down until it is seasoned and fit to be carried in. The re- mainder of the stalks are then burnt in the spring in the field, and some Utile advantage is derived from the ashes. A much better way, it is thought, is, after gathering the crop, to cut the stalks and lay them lengthwise in the rows, and plough them immediately under. They will become entirely decomposed by spring. A still better mode is to carry them into the cattle and sheep yards, where they become incorporated with the manure, and make a valuable addition to the compost heap. The seed is planted in rows, wide enough apart for the plough to pass conveniently between them, and dropped in hills about eighteen inches from each other. Four or five stalks are considered sufficient to remain in a hill — more are sometimes allowed. The cultivation and manuring is more than for Indian corn. It may be manured in the hill or by spreading, or in both ways, as you have the means of high cultivation, which this plant will bear. The stalks are not eaten by cattle, nor even browsed by them; but I am not certain that the leaves would not furnish a good feed for young stock, if stripped early, when tender, and well cured, as the Indian corn blades are cured at the south. What would be the effect of such mutila- tion upon the crop itself, and whether it would compensate for the labor, are inquiries which I am not able to answer, and in respect to which I cannot learn that any experiments have been made. It is an important subject for experiment. As it is at present managed, the plant returns little to the ground compared with Indian corn; and the Hadley and Hatfield farmers are obliged to con- nect with it the fattening of beef to a considerable extent, to furnish manure for their broom corn. It is deemed a good crop when the broom com- mands five cents per lb. The price has heretofore been subject to great fluctuations. At one time it wras the custom for every farmer to make up his own brooms, and then to■*> a, «, p1 p £ a- f^ ° <"> g 8 g ►I S era !^ era ^ P p !» P 3 3 a 3 a- a. a- °- era era era ^ J" to CO ™ a. oi »e-a« p o a- o ^5 6_. >_i i_ii_il_.l-ih-h3i-il>srCNSl>SMlvS>-'l-'t>5>-|l-l>-,S" j. 7 ; - r. ii ^ c a w s t ;; ;i i: ^ x c x c - ■ ff4 (B 218 !• A R M E R S ' REGIS T E 11 . [No. 4. On the Breeding and Management of Sheep. Before Ave proceed to discuss this branch of ru- ral economy, it will be necessary to state the names or terms by which these animals are generally known at different ages; though even these vary in different counties. From the time of weaning to the first shearing, the males are denominated hogs, hoggets, or hog- gerels, alter which they receive the appellation of shearing, shearling, shearhog, or diamond tups, or rams; after they are called two, three, or four shear, according to the number of times they have been shorn. When male sheep have been castrated, they are termed, from the period of weaning to that of shearing, wether or wedder hogs, then shearings, shearlings, &c; or they are afterwards denomina- ted two-tooth, then three, or four-tooth wethers, and finally, full-mouthed. The females have the appellations respectively following: — from the time of weaning to the first shearing they are termed ewe or gimmer hogs; they then take, the name of gimmers or theaves, which continues only ibr one year, after which they are invariably denominated two, three, or four shear ewes; and, when old, they are termed crones. Sheep, in general, renew their first two teeth from fourteen to sixteen months old, and after- wards every year, about the same time, until they are turned three years old, or rather three shear, to speak technically, when they become full-mouthed; ibr, though they have eight teeth in the under jaw before, it is believed they only cast or renew the six inside ones. But, with regard to this point, there is a difference of opinion among experienced shepherds, some of whom conceive that they cast, only six, while others think they renew the whole eight fore- teeth. With respect to the selection of sheep, as an ar- ticle of live stock, the same principal of symmetry of form, and other requisites to the formation of a good breed of black cattle, which have been al- ready specified, are equally applicable. The breeder, or grazier, should also carefully examine the nature of his land; and having attentively weighed its relative degrees of fertility, and his various sources for supplying food, he may then proceed to purchase that breed, which, after ma- ture consideration, he has reason to believe is best calculated for him. In this point, the introducto- ry view of breeds and varieties, already reierred to, will probably afford some guide; but there are. some additional hints, to which we would call his attention. In the first place, therefore, he should take care not to suffer himself to be led into need- less expense, in purchasing fashionable breeds, by which his affairs might become involved, and his exertions in other objects be rendered nugatory; though he should be scrupulously attentive to pro- cure the best blood of that particular breed on which he may fix. Secondly, the difference of the land, whence the sheep are to be purchased, ought to be attentively weighed; for with sheep, as with cattle stock, if any breed be brought from a rich to an inferior soil, it must necessarily de- crease in value and condition. Not only, there- fore, must sheep be suited to the pasture, but they should also be purchased, if possible, from poorer land than that of the intended proprietor, Ibr on attention to this last point depends their immedi- ate thriving. Having thus noticed the general objects in se- lecting sheep, we now proceed to state some par- ticular points that will demand the breeder's atten- tion; and, as in all cattle the male has the greatest influence, we shall speciiy those requisites which are essential to a good ram. "His head should be fine and small; his nos- trils wide and expanded; his eyes prominent, and rather bold and daring; ears thin; his collar full from his breast and shoulders, but tapering gradually all the way to where the neck and head join, which should be. very fine and graceful, being pefectly free from any coarse leather hanging down; the shoulders broad and full, which must at the same time join so easy to the collar forward, and chine backward, as to leave not the least hollow in either place; the mutton upon his arm, or fore-thigh, must come quite to the knee; his legs upright, with a clean, fine bone, being equally clear from super- fluous skin, and coarse hairy wool, from the knee and hough downwards; the breast broad and well forward, which will keep his fore-legs at a proper wideness; his girth, or chest, full and deep, and, instead of a hollow behind the shoulders, that part, by some called the fore-ffank, should be quite full, the back and loins broad, flat, and straight, from which the ribs must rise with a fine circular arch; his belly straight; the quarters long and full, with the mutton quite down to the hough, which should neither stand in nor out; his twist (i. e. the junc- tion of the inside of the thighs) deep, wide, and full, which, with the broad breast, will keep his (bur legs open and upright; the whole body cover- ed With a thin pelt; and that with fine, bright, soft wool."* Such is the description of the animal recom- mended by Mr. Culley, who observes, that the nearer any breed of sheep comes up to it, the nearer they approach towards excellence of form; and there is little doubt, but it the same attention and pains were taken to improve any particular kind, which have been bestowed on the Dishley breed, the same beneficial consequence would be obtained. It should, however, be remembered, that symmetry consists in that shape which is best suited to the soil on which the animal is to be bred; and thus that winch may be thought perfect in a Leicester sheep may be found inferior in a South Down or a Cheviot. In addition to the symmetry and other requi- sites above specified, the pelt, or coat, should also be attentively investigated, lest it be stitchy haired, in which case the wool will be so materially dam- aged, in the course of two years, that the injury cannot be remedied for a long period, unless the whole flock be changed. But the fineness of wool is not the only criterion by which it should be judged even in the short wooled breeds: the staple is also of the greatest importance; though on that material point — on which the substance and wear of the cloth so much depends — it may, however, be observed that the, now fashionable, Saxon wool is far inferior to the fine Spanish growths of Lcon- esa and Segovia. Ewes generally breed at the age of fifteen or eighteen months, though many experienced breed- ers never admit the ram till they are two years Culley on Live Stock, pp. 103, 104. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 219 old. Much, however, depends, in this respect, on the goodness of the food, a.s well as on the tor ward or backward state of the breed. The choice of ewes, therefore, ought to be made with care and discrimination, not only as to the characteristic marks, which ought to be the same as those of the ram, but also with regard to the breed; for, with sheep, as with other cattle stock, no certain degree of excellence can be attained, unless the fe- male possesses an equal degree of blood with the male. In particular, a purchaser should see that the animals be sound; and, in order to ascertain this point, it will be advisable to examine whether the teeth are white, the gums red, the breath not fetid, the eyes lively, the wool firm, and the feet cool; qualities these which afford a certain criterion of health or disease. Of equal importance is the proper selection of rams, even of the same breed and apparent qual- ifications: in attending to which point, the conduct of the Duke of Bedford (whose memory every real friend to his country must revere) deserves to be imitated by all attentive breeders. Previously to drawing off the ewes for tupping, it was his con- stant practice to select every ram, together with the Iambs begotten by it in the preceding year, from the rest of the flock, and confine them in se- parate pens, in order that he might examine them and their issue, by the value of which he was guided in his determination. Ewes bring forth one, two, and sometimes three lambs,* after a gestation of five months, or twenty weeks; hence the sheep firmer, or breeder, ma}', in general, by considering whether he has suffi- cient grass to support the ewes and their progeny in the spring, ascertain the most advantageous pe- riod for lambing; or in the event of a lailure of pasturage, whether he has a stock of turnips ade- quate to their maintenance till there is a sufficient herbage to supply them with food. The usual time of yeaning is towards the end of March, or early in April; consequently, the rams are, according to the general practice, admit- ted in the commencement of October. But in the count}- of Dorset, where the ewes are, from a pe- culiarity in their constitution, capable of bringing ' *The most prolific sort is the Tees Water variety of the Lincolnshire breed, of which Mr. Culley has given the following instances. An ewe belonging to a Mr. Eddison, when two years old, In 1772, brought him four lambs, In 1773, five lambs, In 1774, two lambs, In 1775, five Jambs, In 1776, two lambs, In 1777, two lambs; and of these the first nine lambs were yeaned in eleven months. But such instances are of very rare occur- rence, and deserve notice rather as being curious devi- ations from the usual course of nature, than as afford- ing any real ground for calculation. According to Mr. Teissier's experiments on gesta- tion, (already alluded to in the previous books,) out of 912 ewes, HO lambed between the 146th and 150th day; mean term 148 676 150th and 154th day; 152 96 154th and 161st day; 157 The extreme interval being 15 days to a mean dura- tion of 152. Iambs at a much earlier period;* and also in the southern and south-western districts, where large quantities of house-lamb are raised for the table, it is most profitable to deviate from this plan, and so to admit the ram, that the lambs shall be drop- ped from lour to six weeks, or more, earlier. The strength and beauty of sheep stock also greatly depend on the number of rams allowed tQ serve the females. While the former are young fifty or sixty should be the utmost extent; and, as they advance in years, the number may be gradu- ally increased; without these precautions, the lambs would not only be deficient in number, but also in point of strength. Various expedients have been resorted to, in order to make the ewes blossom; among others, is the practice of worrying them with small dogs, kept for that purpose, in consequence of which they become warmed, so that they seldom refuse the ram. In Leicestershire, a practice was intro- duced, at Dishley, of employing teasers; that is, inferior rams with a cloth so fited on them, as to prevent copulation; and whose duty it is to prepare the ewes for the visits of the sultan of the Ibid. But it is much better, and certainly a more ration- al plan, to keep the rams and ewes in different pastures, till the time when they are intended to be brought, to the rut; and for about five or six weeks before, let them have somewhat better pas- ture than they are usually accustomed to, by which expedient they will be disposed to take the ram the sooner. In fact, it is with sheep as with other cattle, the female must be in a certain state desirous of the male before the latter will attempt to serve iter; and this object can only be artificially attained by increasing the richness of their food a short time before they are required to couple; for, in proportion to the excellence or poverty of their food, the bodily vigor of these animals must evi- dently increase or diminish. During the period of gestation, ewes require great attention, lest any accident should occasion them to slip their Iambs; and, if that should take place, it will be proper to separate them instantly from the rest of the dock. Where they are not pastured upon open downs, or moorland, the best plan is to keep them in the same manner as cows, while, going with calf, namely, upon a moderate, or tolerably good pasture, where no object can dis- turb them; and it is also advisable to give them turnips, or similar green food, under the like pre- cautions, till within the last two or three weeks before their yeaning. In the breeding of cattle, indeed, it is a maxim which ought to be steadily kept in mind, that nothing can be more prejudicial to the females than to fatten them during gesta- tion; and with respect to ewes in particular, Ibis rule should be more carefully observed than with regard to any other animal; for if they be fed too high while they are going with lamb, they will undergo great difficulty and pain in yeaning: whereas, unless they are put into a little heat be- fore that period arrives, they will not only be defi- cient in strength at the critical moment, but also be destitute of afsufficient supply of milk for the sup^- port of the lamb, and consequently both the dam and her progeny must be greatly weakened, if * It is commonly, but erroneously supposed that the Dorset ewes bring forth lambs twice a year; such in- stances have occurred, but they are rare. 220 F A R M E R S ' REGIS T E R [No, 4. they do not actual!)' perish from suchmisma merit. As the time of yeaning approaches, the atten- tion ami assiduity of the shepherd ought propor- tionally to increase, as i> sometimes been i • cessary to assist nature in cases of d turition; and also, if in the e away emus and similar bird i of j rey, w ;!. ch othenvis • a '• i ,vly dropped lamb pick out their eye.-, notwithsl of the dam. As soon, therefore, as the ewes are ex] ?cted to begin to yean, they ought to be separated from the rest of the Hock, and placed in a moi paddock-, or in a spacious standing littered fold, 0:1 one side of which should be a warm 1 provided with a chimney, and with a sto\ warming milk, and th a bed on which the shepherd may lie down. Here he is to sleep during the lambing season, that he may be re: watch, assist, and tend any ewes which he ob- serves to he very near lambing, and, if nece to give aid to the young animal. Some fi have such huts on lour wheels, to draw about with the flock wherever they may be, and on extensive downs that, is an excellent plan; but on farm moderate size, it is afar preferable method to one or two well-sheltered inclosures, to which the flock may be taken withoul any ui tant d for, although the fold may be useful in very ex- posed situations and inclen practice of folding ewes at lambing time nerally objection; . I . It has already been intin ips are of great sen ice in gi\ ing a Hush of milk to ewes. unless they have been I partu- rition, in which case it is considered rather dical than other.. . many drop their lambs at a very e: 11 the year, grea necessary in supplying them with 1 roots, so as to insure a sufficient quantity. If the land be wet and liable to be poached, th mode is to draw the turnips, and cart them to a dry pasture, where the sheep may be hailed with them once or twice in the day; proper attention being bestowed that they eat the whole, without com- mitting any waste; which, il duly observed, will afford a certain criterion of the quantity necessary for each bait, while the stuck of roots will be con- sumed in the most benefical and economical man- ner. On dry hinds, indeed, a different practice may, with advantage, be adopted, by eating the crop on the land, hurdling off a certain quantity for the flock; and, as they consume these, by ex- tending the hurdles further. By this method, no considerable degree of trouble is occasioned; and, it is preferable 10 that of allowing the sheep to run over the whole field, by which the roots are never eaten off so clean as whenMhe flock is confined to a small quantity at owe time. During very wet or stormy weather, or in deep snows, it. will be necessary to baitthe ewes on haj . With some farmers it is usual to drive, them to hay-stacks, where they meet, both with shelter and with food; a measure which is by no means con- sistent with the economy that ought to exist in every department of farming business, in the man- ner in which it is commonly practised, but which •might be rendered in all respects expedient, by merely fencing the stack round with hurdles, and distributing the hay from it daily. When placed in the centre of a standing fold, a square stack forms an excellent defence for a small Hock, against bleak winds, as they have quite sufficient sagacity to seek its leeward side. By others, again, the hay is given in moveable racks, and a portion per day is allowed. This is an ex- en turnips, let the weather 1 1 or bad, for it corrects the watery quality of the ?heep thus led are found to thrive better than upon either hay or turnips alone. In some parts ol the 1 : in, the most e qierienced farmers give their ewes and lambs bran and oats, or oil-cake, in troughs, while they are feeding on turnips; but the expense attendant on this practice can only be repaid by a superior hired. By the course of feeding here detailed, the sheep may be successfully supported tiil the month of March, aboul which time the stock of turnips upon 'ii'' land 1 generally consumed; so that every at- tention should be paid to have a proper supply of sprine- Ibod. Among the many expedients result- ed to for this purpose, may be mentioned the turn- ing of sheep into a spot of rye sown for the pur- .- intocroj s of wheat, in order to teed them off; a practice which, however, is necessarily con- lined to arable firms, and can seldom be carried to a sufticent extent. Other resources are the letting the animals run over the clover and pasture of the (arm; hence the crops of hay, and pastures lor huge cattle, receive material injury. Others have an adequate spot of land, under ray grass and clover, ready to take the ewes and lambs from turnips, before they are turned in upon the pa 'ares. The last mentioned practice is undoubtedly the best; but ii may be material!} assi ted by removing Swed- ish turnips from the ground and stacking them u] on laj ers of straw, a! 1 f cut off' the to] s and roots: the common turnip will become sticky; but Swedes, treated in this manner, will retain their nutritive quality until towards .summer, and will be found essential!} serviceable at this trying season. Turnip, cabbages, the ruta baga, green, honct>le, and especially burnet; all afford singular- ly useful crops for spring feed. The hitter has the r property of maintaining its verdure throughout the winter: so that, even under deep snows, some luxuriance of vegetation may be discovered. In November, it should be four or five inches high; and. by February, the crop will gain two or three inches in growth in the young leaves, when it will be ready for sheep. Infinitely preferable, however, to any of these useful articles of late spring feed for ewes and lambs, is rowen, or the aftergrass, kept on dry- meadows and pastures after the hay-harvest is concluded. Although afield of rowen presents an unpromising aspect at a distance, in color not unlike very bad hay, yet when this covering is re- moved, a fine green herbage, from five to six inches in height, will appear; the whole of which is eaten with avidity by the ewes and their young ay, who are thus supported till they are turn- ed into the pasture, and being a sure resource, while others may fail, should never be neglect- ed.-" *Mr. Young gives it as his opinion, that rowen is the cheapest mode ui' keeping a full stock in April. If of a tolerable quality, lie estimates that it v. ill carry ten ewes en an ac re, together with their lambs, through the who] ■ of April; and computes its relative value to be, 1835.] FARMERS1 REGISTER. 221 With regard to the besl time-fbr weaning lambs, much depends upon the period, or season, when they were yeaned. When a Iamb is to be kept for breed in a good common pasture, it is the practice in some counties to wean it at the end of about tour months, in order that it may be- come, strong, and that the ewe may acquire strength and go quickly to blossom. In others, which are more mountainous and poor, the lambs are wean-, ed a month earlier. But whatever influence local customs may have in this respect, this business should be performed before the expiration of July; and, as it is of essential importance to their future growth, and consequently to the breeder's profit, that due provision be previously made, it will be proper to remove the lambs to a distance from the ewes, to such fresh food as may be most convenient. Clover, while in blossom, is the most forcing food; sainfoin rowen may also be successfully employed for the same purpose; but nothing is superior to a sweet bite of fresh pasture-grass. On weaning the young animals, their dams may be milked two or three times, in order to relieve their udders, which would otherwise become painful. When lambs have been once stinted in their growth, either by disease or insufficient food, they become what is technically termed sticky; after which, although they may be in apparent health, it is out of the power of art to fatten them. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance both that the ewes should have abundant food, in order to pro- duce a flow of nutritious milk while they are suck- ling; and also that the lambs should have plenty of good pasture, or of other succulent green meat when they are weaned. Various ages are mentioned as being most pro- per for geldingthoee Iambs which are not intended to be raised as rams for breeding; but the sooner this operation is performed, the better it is for the animal, which is more able to support it while yountr, and running with the dam, and when there is less danger to be apprehended from inflamma- tion. The time best calculated for this purpose, in the opinion of the most, experienced farmers and breeders, is within the first, fortnight, unless the lambs are unusually weak, in which case it will be advisable to defer castration for two or three weeks, or such longer term as may be expedient, till they acquire sufficient strength. In grazing farms, in general, it is not only of great importance to dispose, at certain times, of such beasts as either become unprofitable, or are sufficiently fat for sale, but also to separate the stock and place them in different pastures, according to their age and condition. In the southern coun- ties of this island, the severing of sheep usually takes place about six, eight, or ten weeks after the shearing is finished, or in the course of the middle of August. In making this selection great care should be taken to choose, those only which give indications of their being of the true breed (what- ever that may be;) and, according to their com- parative strength or weakness, to regulate their pastures. Hence it will be proper to place those animals which are designed for breeding or fatten- ing by themselves: the ewes by themselves; the in autumn 10s. or 12s.: in spring from 30s. to 40s. per acre; and, if the season be backward, that a farmer who possesses it would not be induced to dispose of it for a more considerable sum. wedder ov wether hogs, (i.e. males, whether cas- trated or not, that are of one year's growth,) and theaves, or females, that are two years old, by themselves; and the old wethers and rams by them- selves; and lastly, the lambs by themselves; other- wise the stronger animals will injure such as are w : ' . and prevent them from taking that food which would be most beneficial for them. When a farm is thus stocked with a proper as- sortment of sheep, it wiil be necessary for the owner to inspect them often, particularly in the winter; and, either to remove into better teed, or to dispose of those which do not thrive upon their allotted grounds; but, independently of these ex- aminations, the shepherd ought constantly to con- tinue with his charge, as they are liable to various maladies, which, if" not speedily attended to, will carry them off in a very short time. Before we close the present discussion respecting the management of sheep, it may not be impro- per to advert to one or two practices materially connected with them. The first is that of docking, or cutting their tails; which prevails not only in this country, but likewise in Spain, Saxony, and, ge- nerally speaking, in every district where the inhab- itants pay much regard to the improvement of wool-bearing animals. The tails are usually cut when the Iambs are three or four months old;for, if the operation were deferred beyond that time, it could not be performed with safety to the animal. This practice is objected to by some intelligent breeders in England, on the ground that it renders sheep unable to defend themselves against the at- tacks of dies dining hot seasons: by otheis, how- ever, it is strongly recommended, because it tends to preserve the health of the animals, by keeping them more clean from the odor which they, in a great measure, deposite on the fleece, and gives the animal a square, handsome appearance on the hind quarter. It is very generally adopted, except by some breeders in exposed situations, who, not unjustly, conceive that the long bushy tail affords considerable protection and warmth to the udder of the e'wes in very severe weather. The other practice above alluded to is, that of extirpating the horns of sheep; which has hitherto, we believe, been confined to the sheep-walks of Spain, and to the sheep-farm at Rambouillet, in France. The. reasons assigned for it, and the man- ner in which this operation is performed, are de- tailed by M. Lasteyrie,* but we deem it unneces- sary to insert them, as the practice is not likely to be adopted in this country. In fine throughout the whole system of sheep husbandry, the greatest attention is necessary, on the part of the shepherd, regularly and frequently to inspect the animals committed to his charge. From the nature of his employment, which is usu- ally exercised at a distance from his masters eye, he is under but little control; the property in his care is generally valuable, and always requires the closest attention; the greatest circumspection is therefore necessary in choosing an experienced and trustworthy person for the office; but when such an one is found, his services should not be grudgingly remunerated. In Saxony the shep- herds have not fixed wages, but are allowed a pro- 236. Hisfoire de lTnfroduction des laines fines, Sec. p. 222 FARMERS' REGISTER. 1835.] fit on the produce of the flock. From the adop- tion of this arrangement, the sheep-masters derive great advantage, as the shepherds have, no induce- ment to deceive them, and are themselves interest- ed in taking due care of the animals committed to their charge. This practice has also been adopt- ed by some large flock-masters in Scotland with great success: how iar it may be feasible in Eng- land it would be rash in us to assert; but as the. hint seems worth)- ol attention and trial, we leave it to the consideration of the intelligent reader. The Shepherd's Dog performs so important a part in the management of sheep, that some no- tice of his qualities cannot be deemed irrelevant to the subject. The species which is delineated in this work occurs chiefly in the extensive sheep- walks in the northern parts of this island, where the purity of its breed appears to be preserved in the greatest perfection. Its docility and sagacity, indeed, surpass those of every other variety of the canine race: obedient to the voice, looks, and ges- tures 01 his master, he quickly perceives his com- mands, and instantly executes them. A well- trained dog of this kind is, to a shepherd, an in- valuable acquisition. The faithful animal anx- iously watches the flock, keeps them together in the pasture, from one part of which it conducts them to another; and, if the sheep are driven to any distance, he will infallibly confine them within the road, and, at the same time, prevent any strange sheep from mingling with them. In Prussia, there is a peculiar breed of dogs employed in the management of sheep: it is de- scribed by M. Lasteyrie as being of a small size, but stout and thick, with erect ears, and bearing some resemblance to our wolf-dogs: their coats are partlysmooth and lose, while others arc long and shaggy. They are remarkably docile; never bite the sheep; and at. their masters' voice, repair instantly to that part of the Hock which is pointed out: in case the sheep bang behind, these dogs push litem forward with their muzzles; which is sufficient to make the sheep take the requisite direction. An importation of a few of this breed would certainly be worth the trial: or if the Prussian mode of teaching our dogs not to bite, could be acquired, it would be a most desirable object. The continual state of (ear in which those naturally timid ani- mals are kept by a dog that has not been properly 1 rained, disturbs their repose, and prevents them from feeding quietly; and, in fact, it rarely happens in any flock, that there are not some sheep which are, from time to time lacerated, more or less se- verely, by the bite of dogs. From the Genesee Farmer. ROTATION OF CROPS. I have ever considered the notion which has been advanced in some of the English agricultu- ral journals, that the matter thrown off in the soil by a species of plants is poisonous to other plants of the same kind, if grown in- succession, as most unphilosophical, and contrary to fact. Some of the advocates of a doctrine of an absolute neces- sity in all cases lor a rotation of crops, found in this supposition of excrementitious poison, a very convenient argument for their system, and hence it has obtained some currency both at home and in this country. Farmers, however, of all men, should be the last to be wedded to theory, as theirs is a profession eminently practical. It is too late in the day to "doubt" that the system of rotation in crops, under proper circumstances, is of the first importance in agriculture. Its effect, how- ever, does not depend on the extinction of excre- mentitious poison, but by a renewal of the proper food of plants. That, the influence of rotation has been overrated by some English and Ameri- can theorists will not be disputed, and when the inn" comes to underrate, of which some symp- toms can be discerned already, it is at least proba- ble it will be ;:s injudiciously decried. That corn will grow in succession for half a century on the Genesee flats — wheat for thirty years on some of the favored wheat, lands of West New York — and oats for twenty years on some of the slaty soils of Cattaraugus, without much diminution of quantity, I can readily believe; but exceptions like these to the system of rotation only demon- strate the propriety of the coarse in general. To us it appears the doctrine of rotation is founded on very simple principles, capable of easy and successful application, and hardly leaving room for doubt or disputation. That plants during their growth do take up, and appropriate as nour- ishment, very different materials from the same soil, will not be questioned by any one who has paiil the least attention to vegetable physiologv. For instance, does the pine apple or the orange take as much silex from the earth as the bamboo or the rattan, some of the species of which have an outer covering so hard as to strike fire when struck together? — -or, to select a more familiar ex- ample, does the linden contain as much of the salt called potash as the elm or beech? — and how does it happen that while 1000 pounds of wormwood yields 784 lbs. of saline matter, the box and the aspen produce but 70? This faculty of taking up particular substances as food, and the necessity of the supply, holds good in the cereal grasses, such as wheat, rye, barley; in corn and oats; in roots, such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, &c. They all find and assimilate as nourishment dif- ferent ingredients from the same soil, or appropri- ate them in very different proportions. If the soil of my firm abounds in those aliments essential to the production of wheat, I can raise crop after crop from the same land, and rotation is needless; and this course of successive crops will be suc- cessful in exact ratio to the continued supply of proper ibod. If, however, the proper food of the wheat plant is limited, a rotation of crops, and manuring, by which this quality can be restored, is indispensible. It is so with corn, oats, and most other plants. The rich alluvion of the Genesee flats is apparently inexhaustible by corn; perhaps 90 parts in 100 are suited to the growth of that important article; but this fact does not prove that other and less favored soils cannot be exhausted, or will not be benefited by a rotation. I have seen some of the oat lands spoken of by Mr. Allen in a former number of the Farmer, and feel a plea- sure in bearing testimony to the general correct- ness of his views, and justness of his remarks; yet the facts he has stated furnish perhaps one of the strongest arguments in proof that, different plants take up different materials from the same soil, and therefore that rotation must, in most cases, be advantageous. Those, lands in the southern tier of counties of which Mr. Allen has 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 223 spoken, as producing such abundant crops of grass and oats, are, it is well known, worthless for wheat, the flour of the little they do produce beinfj of a very inferior quality, and no more re- sembling that of the counties bordering on the lakes, than does the rye flour of the eastern states. I should put but little confidence in the theoretical notions of any man, who could imagine that the farming of a whole country can be made to con- firm to a single system, or pattern. There is an almost infinite variety in the original ingredients of our soils and their proportions, and the mode of treatment, to be judicious, should be as near as possible made to conform to these variations. There are some general principles every where applicable, and there are others which have but few exceptions; of the. latter class I consider to be the doctrine of the utility of rotation in crops. My friends, the practical as well as theoretical UJ ni us, or the < -doubting" lv. M. \V., may be so fortunate as to possess (arms which will admit of an unbroken succession of wheat crops, but f imagine the tanners of Old Onondaga will in ge- neral agree with me, that the simple rotation of wheat and clover has more enhanced the produc- tiveness of their farms, and consequently render- ed them more profitable and valuable, than would successive hut necessarily diminished crops of that valuable grain, and important staple of our country. W. G. From the Farmer and Gardener. RIBBON GRASS. I wish to make a few remarks on some experi- ments that [ am making, though now in their in- fancy, on a species of' grass here named and known as the ribbon grass. This early disclosure of results, as far as they have gone, is rendered the more necessary, inasmuch as 1 have recently seen an extract from a letter of mine in an agri- cultural paper which though not intended for Ihe public eye, found its way to the press. To this course I have not the slightest objection; but on the contrary, will feel especially happy at all times, if what I may say should be of service to my countrymen, of letting whatever I may write be published. The circumstance to which I allude was this. I mentioned in a letter to a friend, that I had seen a patch of ribbon grass, in a very nour- ishing state on a wet, boggy spot of ground, and of my full belief of its being susceptible of being very extensively and profitably cultivated, and of my intention of trying the experiment. As this has been communicated to the public, and as I have had a very favorable account of it from a gentleman in Connecticut, an experienced and practical farmer, and of his determination of en- tering into its culture immediately, I deem it pro- per that I should make known my own experi- ments and opinion of this grass, believing as I do that it will prove a most valuable acquisition to the cultivated grasses, and a great blessing to the people of the south in particular. A neighbor of mine, (Capt. John Simpson. living in Greenland,) knowing 1 had made some experiments on grasses, observed to me that he * Mr. Robinson means timothy, that being the name had a patch of ribbon grass on a springy, boggy J by which it is designated to the eastward. — Ed. Far. piece of ground, which it was worth my while to I and Card. see. It was his belief, from its luxuriant growth in the bog, and the circumstance of ils expelling all other grasses, taking full possession of the soil, and affording two full crops in the season, and from the fact that all kinds of stock were very fond of it, that it might be cultivated to great ad- vantage. This excited my curiosity, and I soon called on the gentleman to satisfy it, and was sur- prised at the beauty and richness of the grass. It grew on a bog at a small distance from a living spring, where the water descended and spread through the grass all the season. The appear- ance of the neighboring grass in the same situa- tion, was very ordinary, being thin, flat-leafed, short, and nearly worthless — whereas the ribbon grass, in every particular, wore the most beautiful appearance of any grass I had ever beheld. It was then in its vigor, and in full bloom, every leaf being expanded, wide and thick, so that the eye could not penetrate through it. Each leaf has one or more stripes lengthwise, differing, on close scrutiny, from each other, either in the number of stripes, or their form or shade. This grass aver- aged about, four feet in height, and stood perfectly erect. It is possessed of a fine solid stock, having an inviting and luscious appearance as fodder. I took a clean lock of it, and another ol herds grass, and offered them both together to my horse, and found him quite as fond of the ribbon as of the herds grass.* Capt. Simpson states that he has observed that his stock were more fond of it than of his best, hay of other kinds. This patch would amount to about one square rod. I engaged the seed, not knowing what it pro- duced, having never particularly observed the grass before; T accordingly applied at the proper time as was supposed, and reaped the heads, but was able to discover but very few seeds, from one to three to the head. Being certain that we were full early, a part was suffered to remain till later in the season — when by a re-examination it was (bund in the same condition. I beat and rubbed out the chaff; but could discover only a few small seeds. I sowed it in good season, with the great- est care, in my garden, hoping that in the chaff', there was more than what I could discover, which would vegetate. I sowed it in drills, to be sure to have it well covered, and that I should not mistake ot her grasses for it. There appeared to come up a few white blades, which I supposed to be young ribbon grass; these few, however, dwindled off one by one, till all disappeared, the ground never having been disturbed since, and I have not one plant To show from these seeds. Hence I conclude it cannot be propagated from the seed. Havinga very favorable opinion of the grass, I looked for some way to propagate it, and conclu- ding that it might be multiplied from the root, as hops and many vegetables arc, I accordingly en- gaged one-half of the patch, to take it in the spring. I prepared my ground (40 rods) by plough- in"- in my low ground in the fall, the ground vary- ing from soft to' very soft mud. The spring being wet, the ground uncommonly soft and muddy, I postponed the setting of it out, I think, till June, when I went for my wagon load of turf, the grass 224 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 4. was then from four to eight inches long. Early in the spring it had had a dead appearance, but at this time it had become pretty well sprung up; some old stubs were dead. Perhaps this situation was one of the most, trying of any to be fbund. It grew where ice made to a great thickness horn the water spraying from the spring all the year. Mr. Simpson has informed me since I took away one- half of his turf of the ribbon grass, that it sprung immediately up in the same place, and produced a crop quite as good as before. Since his closer ob- servations, he says he esteems the grass more highly than at first. The manner in which this grass was planted in the bog, was this. lie had a tuft of it growing for ornament in his garden, in a very rich sod; which he occasionally ploughed, and finding the ribbon grass spread a little too far, he ploughed off some of the roots, gathered them and threw them into the bog; he (bund they took root, spread and flourished as I have stated. I observed when get- ting my grass, there were some low spots covered with water, where the grass sprung up stronger and larger, being apparently more in its element. — Capt. Simpson's garden is of the richest soil among us; yet it is evident that one rod of the bog will produce as much as four in his garden. Immedi- ately after getting home with my turf, I com- menced chopping it up, taking care to divide the lulls according to the stalks, leaving from one to three in each piece, choppig them with a sharp spade, into pieces, from one to four inches square, setting out about 40 square rods, about two feet apart, without any manure; and setting a few for experiments in the middle furrow where the water was constantly issuing nearly all the season. None of them failed of living, and all have taken root, shot out and spread considerably; some few to meet each other. Those in a dead furrow ap- pear every way as thrifty as those on the bed. I had the curiosity to try the experiment by sticking one stock of this grass without root in the mud, where the water continued to issue: it appeared to grow as well as those with the root; and shot out with branches. This method of propagation is more facile than from the root. 1 pressed several tufts into holes in a bog where the water would rise to the top of the tufs, (this is among fresh grass,) here it shot out and appears in its element, and will in all probability spread and drive away all the other grasses. I also sunk some into what is called a quagmire, where it is so soft as not to bear a cat; here I sunk the tufs level with the wa- ter; these have the appearance of being perfectly in their element. All these I have lately surveyed since our severe cold, and those in the wettest places appear least effected. I set some of them out on some of the most barren soil, under a forest of white oaks, where nothing of consequence will grow: they all live there, and will probably pro- duce something, perhaps one ton to the acre; if it will do this on very barren lands, it may be well to cover them over with it. I have set it in my front yard and in my garden, on warm soil of tol- erable quality, bordering on common grass, in part for ornament. A portion of this was manured and hoed; here it is perceivable that the higher the cul- ture the greater the product as it respects high ground. It is demonstrated from my experiments, and Capt. Simpson's discovery, that this grass is truly amphibious. It will do well on high dry lands, and it will thrive in a bog or even in water. I do not know how deep a water it will grow in, but I presume it will grow in shoal, especially run- ning water. Is it not evident that this grass possesses very valuable properties, and must prove superior to most other grasses? — Yes, for it not only grows luxuriantly and in abundance in a quagmire where nothing of any value has ever been known to be produced before, but its roots are of such a tough nature, that a sward is soon pro- duced that will bear a cart and oxen to pass over it. It has another good quality: — although the circumstance of this grass not producing seed for propagation, seems at first view to lessen its value — yet when we consider the evils resulting from many troublesome grasses that spread from seed, and that no limits can beset them; we may, with propriety, esteem it a virtue in this fast-rooted •jrass, that limits, can be set to it, that our valua- ble tillage ground may never be impeded with its roots, and that our waste and unproductive bogs may be easily changed to the most productive por- tions of our farms. As to what Ribbon Grass will do in pasture, I know nothing. I have my doubts whether it will succeed, as I think it is not thick and downy enough, to bear repeated trampling and cropping close to the ground. It is possible, how- ever, from its hardiness, wherever it has been known by me, that it may endure the hardship of being pastured; if so, I have a right to conclude from all its other properties, that it will prove far more valuable than any species of grass yet intro- duced into culture (the gama not being fully known,) and if any farmers at the North or South, have waste bogs that are eye-sores within their en- closures, let them try the experiment of the cul- ture of this grass; it will not be costly, even if they should not succeed. ABEENEGO ROBIJYSOJV, Of Portsmouth, N. II. From N. V. Jour, of Com. BIOWING MACHINE. We have seen at the shop of Mr. Johnson, in Cherry Street, a mowing machine, which we are told is the first of the kind built in this country. The cutting operation is performed by circular knives fastened upon the periphery of a horizon- tal wheel five feet in diameter. This wheel is sus- pended upon a perpendicular iron shaft, which hangs upon a lever, by which the knives are raised or lowered at the pleasure of the driver to suit any unevenness in the ground. The motion is given by geering, connected with the wheels, on which the "whole machine rests. The machine will weigh a ton, and is moved by two horses. Upon the horizontal wheel, and just within the edge of the knives a tub of light wood, which has the effect of carrying the mown grass into a swath. We see not but that the thing will work well on smooth land, but where there are rocks of much unevenness it cannot. It is said to be capable of mowing ten acres a day, and certainly, for the mower, it is much easier to ride on this machine, than to swing a common scythe. The machine was invented in England, but the laborers there, probably under the guide of some philanthropic leader, made Avar upon it, and would never permit it to be used in peace. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 225 IMPROVEMENTS BY MARLING IN NORTH CA- ROLINA. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Newbern, June, 22, 1835. Dear Sir — .1 have lately received from Mr. Benners the enclosed letter, and supposing it to possess some interest for you, 1 have accordingly forwarded it. I should he pleased to send you some of Mr. Benners' specimens, if an opportu- nity of forwarding them should be found. Mr. Bs position, you may remember, is on the north- ern bank of the Neuse River, about 16 miles be- low Newbern. He is the only person in this sec- tion of country who has any considerable expe- rience in marling. A few other persons however have begun to make experiments. Yours respectfully, II. B. CROOM. P. S. The marl pits of Mr. Benners are remark- ably interesting for the variety of shells and fossil bones which they afford. These have proved, in the estimation of Mr. Conrad, the existence here of the newer pliocene formation. — Sec Sillimaii's Journal lor April, 1835. To H. B. CroojIj Esq. Moseville, June 14, 1835. Dear Sir — In reading the Essay on Calcareous Manures, I learn for the first time, that our shell marl is not what is properly understood by marl in English books and practice. The solution of the two kinds is widely different. The test of marl is pure water — and acids the test ive use for the same purpose. Observing this fact, I immediately re- cognised an old acquaintance overlooked and ne- glected by me, as I only knew him by the name of clay, but since his introduction to my notice un- der his proper name, I have made it my business to become more intimate with his character and calling, and find upon investigation, that marl is his real name. Brick mortar has certainly done him great injustice, both here and in England, in assuming the garb, quality, and character of marl — to the great loss and detriment of society in general, and farmers in particular. At the same time begging pardon for our past neglect of him, and promising every attention to him in future, we remain his humble servant. About ten years past, I did offer this marl a glass of vinegar, but having refused it, I cut and broke off all farther acquaintance, until latterly, I have fortunately dis- covered he is a pure water drinker. It is also re- marked, that he is none the worse for his temper- ate habits. Nos. 1 and 2 are samples of this marl. I am now enabled to give you an account of the position and order of the different kinds of marl as they come to view in working the pits. The first bed is a fat blue or red clay marl. Nos.T and 2, from two to five feet below the surface, and from three to seventeen feet thick. The second bed under this, rich red or yellow shell marl, from one to five or six feet thick — ef- fervesces in acids. The third bed is a very deep blue marl, without shells, with here and there the impression of the whole exterior surface of the shell, forming a cell in Vol. Ill — 29 which is a lump of marl the size and shape of the fish. This kind is very tough to cut up, but when dry, crumbles to a very fine powder, as light as ashes, and about the same color — effervesces in acids. Soecimens No. 3. The fourth bed is (either) a blue or white shell marl, and works like coarse mortar, hardens in lumps as it dries, but crumbles in moving about — effervesces in acids. This last or lower bed is from three to five feet below common tide-water, and has never been worked through. I have selected from the different beds of shell marl, a variety of specimens which I intend sending to you very shortly, and some fossil bones, &c. I am at present working a pit which exhibits the different strata, in the order in which 1 have at- tempted to describe them above, but very imper- fectly. It is very easy to be deceived in the strength of marl by merely handling it, or by the eye, as I have experienced the injurious effects of a too liberal application of it on an impoverished soil. Fifteen years ago, I burned vp a piece of an old -field by laying on too great a quantity of shell marl at the first dressing: but it is now excellent land. As this was my first experiment, (1818) I was mortified and disappointed, and was of course laughed at and ridiculed, because the experiment had fulfilled the prediction of those who merely guessed at what they knew nothing about. I soon discovered my mistake by observing that where the heaps were left unspread, and ploughed through and planted, that the young corn died, and that no grass would grow on the pure marl — but this was not the case in the intervals between the heaps; these spaces showed evident improvement, but so very gradual, as to be unobserved by every one but myself, and the hands employed on the farm. I soon perceived that my land was getting better. My means were extremely limited, and of course my land improved in proportion, and continues so to do up to the present moment. I very soon dis- covered that manure went a great deal farther on my marled land, than on land of a better quality not marled. The improvement, however, became at length too evident to all to be any longer doubt- ed; but the jest continued, and the whole improve- ment placed to the credit of the manure, of which I have never raised as much as would afford a tolerable dressing to half of my corn crop, with- out the marl, and both combined with enclosing and alternate cropping; corn, cotton, potatoes, and wheat or rye: * the land divided in two equal parts, and one-half tended as above des- cribed, while the other half remains enclosed. This is the course I have pursued steadily for the last fifteen years, and have no disposition to change it for a better, unless our climate Avas more con- genial to the cultivation of artificial grasses. White clover grows in my fields, but receives no assis- tance from cultivation — it dies in July and August, while the crop grass and carrot weed cover the land, and are invaluable, being capable of resist- ing the dryest and hottest weather. *Rye should succeed corn and potatoes on all our light lands, instead of wheat. It is a most profitable grain for stock, and the quality and texture of our high lands are admirably adapted to the production of this grain, as a very profitable crop. My attempts at a good crop of rye have never failed — wheat on the other hand is just as uncertain. — l. b, ■ 226 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 4. Whether land is sour or sweet, I am not che- mist enough to determine: but I do know that the red sorrel will not grow on marled lands, as I have had a very fair opportunity of being abundantly satisfied. The whole of my land was covered formerly knee deep with a most luxuriant growth of this beautiful plant. At this time there is none to be seen, nor for the last eight or ten years. With great respect, I remain, dear sir, Your obedient servant, L. EESKEKS. [We learn from the foregoing letter what we had no idea of before, that Mr. Benners' experience of the use of marl commenced as long ago as 18 IS — the same year of our own first effort to profit by this mode of improvement. That the benefit of marling should have been so long exhibited, in a region eminently fitted to reap its richest rewards, without inducing others to follow the example, and scarcely to believe in the results, are facts both strange and lamentable. Nothing can place in a stronger point of view, the former and existing want of intercourse and exchange of opinions among farmers, and of the vast importance of agricultural periodical publications, as a means of remedy. Mr. Benners seems to have placed an erroneous construction on a part of the work which he refers to, and which it would be improper here to pass with- out notice. In stating and proving at length that English farmers and writers have very often called marl what was merely clay, but slightly if at all calca- reous, the author did not mean to contend for the cor- rectness of the application of the term — but directly the reverse: and he would neither attach the name of marl, or consider of much value as manure, any clay which was not calcareous.] LOW PRICED AGRICULTURAL PUBLICATIONS. EXTENSION OF THE PLAN OF THE FAR- BIERS1 REGISTER. Low priced newspapers, and other periodical pub- lications, are now so common, and so little regard is paid by the majority of readers to the considerations which ought to recommend more costly works, that some concession must be made to the prevailing opin- ions, in this respect, to be enabled to spread any pub- lication very widely. Especially does this apply to agricultural publications among the middle class of farmers, by far the most numerous and important class, both as farmers and as citizens, and therefore the most desirable to attract and retain as readers and subscri- bers. Unless the main ingredient of a publication consists of party politics — the exciting and maddening intellectual food of thousands to whom every other kind is insipid, or repulsive — scarcely any periodical at $5 a year can now obtain very general circulation in the southern and western states. It is unnecessary to state here, the various causes of expense which serve to add to the price of a periodical published in the manner, and form of the Farmers' Register — or to show, as might easily be done, that for its cost to the publisher, its style of execution, and for the amount and value of its contents, that it is truly a cheap work. This is so well understood by the greater number of those who are its present supporters, that they would not choose to have its form changed, and to yield the peculiar advantages of its present plan, for any consequent abatement of price. Neither is it our wish or intention, to lessen the value or the beauty and convenient form of the present publication — but on the contrary, to continue (as has been commenced al- ready) to give increased cost and value to the material, and mechanical execution, and to as great extent as the object requires, and the means may authorise. But while carefully guarding against impairing the value, or lowering the grade of the Fanners' Register, as now published, it is highly desirable to suit the wishes, and gain the support, of the very many farmers of Virginia, and adjoining states, who have not yet learned the value of agricultural periodicals, and who will not profit by them, except when conforming to their ge- neral and commendable (though in this respect mis- taken) views of economy. However extensively and liberally this journal has been supported, it must be confessed that it has comparatively made but little pro- gress among the middle class of proprietors. It is true, that some farmers whose poverty forbids their indulg- ing in any useless expense, and who labor daily and assiduously for their maintenance, are among our sub- scribers— and we are proud to have their support, be- cause the amount of expense to them, is equivalent to a very high estimate of the value of the work. But for every one such, whom we can boast of as a sub- scriber, there are perhaps fifty who are rich, or at least in the possession of competent fortunes, who have withheld their aid, and that on account of the expense of the subscription. Without stopping to oppose the soundness of this objection, it will be admitted that it exists, and operates extensively — and every friend of this journal, and to the cause which it is designed to support, will admit the high importance of removing this obstacle to its circulation, and of gaining access, if possible, to a far more extensive body of readers. With this view, a low priced publication is pro- posed, consisting of a single sheet, to issue four times a month, and to contain nearly the same matter as the monthly publication. But getting rid of the cost of the difference in the value of paper and of execution, and of the entire cost of various other matters peculiar to book work, and to the mode of delivery of our present publication, the work in the cheaper form may be furnished at little more than half the present price, and yet yield as much profit upon the same amount of annual receipts. Or in other words, 3000 subscribers at the rate of $2.50 would yield nearly as much profit, as 1500 at $5. The vast difference of benefit to the general interests of agriculture, which will be caused by the greater number of subscribers, is a sufficient inducement for us to risk the possible contingency of loss from a smaller accession of names, and of course a proportional diminution, in future, of the present amount of receipts. A specimen sheet and proposals 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 227 will be issued, and the publication commenced as soon as there appears sufficient indications that a publica- tion on this plan will^be approved and sustained by the agricultural community: and if it is well sustained, there shall be nothing spared or omitted to make the diffusion of agricultural knowledge through the south- ern states both as extensive and as cheap as possible. CROPS IN BEDFORD. AGRICULTURAL, PA- PERS. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Lynchburg, June 19/7t, 1835. ' * * * * I have just returned from the country, (my farm in Bedford, 22 miles above this) where I find a small portion of the wheat crop tolerable good, but the mass very inferior — and a large part of that on the corn ground not worth cutting, even if it escapes the rust. This failure is ascribed in some degree to the unfavora- ble winter, but mainly to the ravages of the Hes- sian fly. Many of our planters have wholly, or partially discontinued the culture of tobacco; and by attention to manure, clover, and plaster, and better ploughing, have improved their lands to a considerable extent: but the prospects of the wheat crop, connected with the present price of tobacco, will, I apprehend, produce much backsliding, and many of us be found again to have "returned to wallowing in the mire;" so that this seeming good — the high price of tobacco — may be to us a real evil. The rye, oats, and corn crops appear rather promising, and the frequent rains of late, have enabled the planters to pitch their crops of tobacco without difficulty. In a late number of the Register, you remark that your subscription is confined chiefly to the low lands. Your locality, your level and sandy lands, your marl beds, your easy access to lime, and other circumstances, produce a greater dif- ference between our situation and yours, than with the same elevation would exist in several degrees of latitude. From these circumstances, I had no idea of taking the Register until I read your Essay on Calcareous Manures; and I have no doubt many are deterred from even looking into it from the same causes. The price too being higher than many other publications, may have some effect Sixty odd nambers of the Cultivator, and several of the American Farmer, and Genesee Farmer, are received at this post office. I state this, not by way of complaining, but in explana- tion: for it is my opinion, that every sensible farmer, whatever may be his latitude or longitude, elevation or depression, may read your Register and your Essay with manifest advantage. With my best wishes for the continued success of your useful endeavors, I am, &c. MICAJAH DAVIS, JR. [The foregoing letter (post marked June 24,) was not received until after the last No. was printed, or it would have appeared earlier. It is gratifying to learn that however small may be the patronage of the Farmers' Register in Campbell, other agricultural papers are more welcome there. The subscribers who receive the Farmers' Register at Lynchburg are only twelve — and there have never been more, nor so many until recently. If the price of this journal is the only bar to its receiving more fa- vor in the upper country, a proposal has been made for its removal, by a similar publication of low price. But if there are objections to the general character of the work, or to the manner in which it is conducted, they will still remain in full force. Let farmers generally be but impressed with the importance of reading and sustaining agricultural periodicals, and we are content that their support shall be given to the most deserving, even if our work should be surpassed by many others in merit, or in other claims to public favor and sup- port. If the great object is effected, it is of but little importance (and none whatever to the public,) by what means, or by whose agency, the end is reached, and the benefit produced.] CORRECTION — "VIN MUET, OR DUMB WISE. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Columbia, S. C. June 10, 1835. I have read with pleasure your article on "the making of wine in the canton of Marcillac." I take the liberty of observing to you that one word "mutage," [p. 23, Vol. III.] seems not to have been understood by your translator, and there is nothing surprising in this; for the technical ex- pressions of particular arts are not easily under- stood, and they are not found in dictionaries. It is to be hoped that the new dictionary that is an- nounced as coming forth, after many years' labor by the French Academy, will contain this and all such terms, without which it will not be complete. The verb ''muter," signifies "to render mute," or dumb, which is done" to wine by sulphuring it. Mutage, therefore means sulphuring. There is in some places a wine made that is called "Vin Muet," literally "dumb wine." It is wine that has been fumigated to excess with sulphur, before fermentation has taken place, which chemical pro- cess is thereby prevented, and the wine remains sweet. It is called "mute" because the bubblings of the fermentation are not heard, and it actually makes no noise. This word then is not near as bad as most others which no etymology can clear up. N. HERBEB10NT. [We thank our correspondent for this correction. He who is best qualified to offer such, will be most in- dulgent to the mistakes of this kind which require correction. The number of provincial expressions which are found in all agricultural writings, render translations from one language to another very difficult: and this difficulty may well be conceived by all readers who have noticed how many of the provincialisms in our own language are unintelligible. Neither the verb "muter', nor its derivative "mutage" can be found in either of five French dictionaries in our possession — among which is the old voluminous Dictionaire de V.i- cademie, fyc. a modern abridgement of the same, which professes to give terms of science and art, and Ro- zier's Cours Complet, fyc. one entire volume of which is occupied with definitions of technical and provincial terms.] 228 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 4. For the Farmers' Register. The soils and agricultural advantages OF FLORIDA. No. 2. Plantation JVascissa, Florida, July % 1835. The most prominent characteristics of the lands immediately bordering on the Atlantic in East Florida, were succinctly delineated in my last let- ter: and conformable to my sell-assigned order of correspondence, I continue my observations on the remaining and extensive inland portion of the "eastern district." The character, features, and growth of the land are singularly and abruptly changed, as we pro- ceed westward from the ocean: the country be- comes generally more interesting in landscape, and more diversified in soil and native production. The monotonous levels and eye-fatiguing flats of the low Atlantic marshes, are no longer, with their rank grassy plumage, and thirsty pal mettoes, to be seen: dense and towering forests of every ioliage, luxuriant over a rolling and picturesque country most verdant with herbage, and spotted like the variegated leopard, with abrupt and strange marks of richness and sterility, strike the observant traveller with surprise, not unmixed with the illusion of enchantment. The river Saint John's, than which there can be no nobler stream, seems by nature intended as the marked and eternal division of this varying and diversified country. It rises amid the swamps of the Everglades in the far south, and with com- paratively little deviation from a north course, it streams itself along for an hundred miles and up- wards, receiving numerous tributaries, and rapidly becoming a. wide, magnificent river. When reach- ing the site of the town of Jacksonville, some twenty miles from the sea, it gracefully rounds and empties its widened breadth almost due east, into the ocean. This river is singularly charac- terized, in addition to its unrivalled forest banks, by extensive eye reaches, and prospective scenes, in being the only river of magnitude in the south- ern states of America that, from its source to the parallel of its mouth, runs -northerly: and still more is it notable, that with this course, it should run for nearly one hundred and twenty miles of its length directly parallel to the Atlantic, and only divided lor that whole distance, from the oceanic waters, by a narrow strip of land some thirty miles in average breadth. It is indeed a great natural canal, singular in its position, and unsur- passed in magnitude; and one sighs in witnessing the unprofitable waste, and sluggish idleness of its magnificent waters. The curiosities of the Saint John's are likewise peculiar, and well worthy of sight I would name the Silver Spring, so daz- zling with its transparency and spangled carpet, and so enormous in its dimensions and vehemence: as also the Golden Spring, equally curious, though smaller, in its jewelled bowl, and pellucid waters: but above all is. most remarkable the phenomena of sound to be here awakened: no where can "Gamboling echo hold more boisterous court — " than o'er the still expanse of this enchanting stream. The report of my rifle was reverberated with astounding loudness, and stammering reiter- ation, alternately from bank to bank (here five miles distant) in thirteen distinct successions, gra- dually diminishing in power, till "Distance smothered softly the sound." Crossing this fascinating river, as the line of our descriptive sketches, we leave in the. east the At- lantic, with the lands delineated in my first letter, and we find on the west the lbrest of Alachua, now to be described. The county of Alachua extending nearly from the western bank of the St. John's, to the gulf of Mexico, and between latitude 29 degrees and 31 degrees, as its average northern and southern boundaries embraces an immense body of rich and diversified lands, constituting it one of the largest and most valuable counties of the territory. It is as yet but thinly populated: the presence of the Seminole Indians, heretofore in' sole and native possession of its wide extending hunting grounds, has prevented the settlement of white men. These ill-fated sons of the forest will however "relin- quish^ their original rights this winter, and re- move to the "far west," there to await the sure advance of demoralizing civilization, and as sure- ly, their second pilgrimage! Speculation and ava- rice have, notwithstanding the "red men," ere. this found a limited "local habitation" within these Indian reserves.and from the exciting reports, the tide of emigration is now setting rapidly thither. A great diversity of soil, as visibly marked by an infinite variety of growths, necessarily is to be found throughout so extensive a county. The most valuable is the dark chocolate soil, generally on tabular sites, but oftentimes over the rolling lands, indicated by a dense growth of sweet-gums, dogwood, and tulip tree, with an impenetrable undergrowth of gigantic grape vines, thickets of wild orange, and plum. This soil I have never had an opportunity of examining accurately. To the eye, touch and taste, it seems composed of a strong rank vegetable decomposition, coating the surface in black humid fibrous matter, and com- bined with a large portion of aluminous earth, containing lime or other salt in visible quantity, though not in a carbonate combination. These lauds when first brought in tillage yield but indif- ferently well, being, in the language ofthe district farmers, "too luxuriant and fat, and produce only weed." Cotton, corn, and sugar, however, after two or three years' culture, produce amazingly, and continue their large returns as far as expe- rience has yet gone. I have said that "lime is present, though not as a carbonate," in these soils. I may extend my remark, and doubt whether cal- careous earth as carbonate of lime is to be found in any of our inland districts: they have undoubt- edly lime in abundance, and in some places are based on rotten limestone; yet I am inclined to think we have the combination of the sulphate, instead ofthe carbonate — and most probably more, of magnesia, than of lrme. I hope however ere long to analyse these interesting formations, and place my knowledge beyond an hypothesis. My present conviction is partly formed, by the taste of the earth, and partly from the great luxuriance near these rich mulatto soils of* towering pine trees! But to return. These rich soils are beyond doubt inexhaustible; and large tracts are now va- cant, awaiting the test of culture. Some portions are lighter in color, showing the preponderance either of silicious or magnesian earth: but all are proverbial for fertility and strength. The. attention of the scattered settlers has heretofore been devo- 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 229 ted to grazing: and their extensive herds, well rounded in limbs, and accompanied with numerous young, afford substantial evidence of the profit of such "occupation. Same few plantations have been opened, and are now successfully under cul- tivation of the sugar cane, sea island cotton, and farinaceous grain. Their crops have been varia Lie in production: though their failures may justly be attributed to the deficiencies of the requisite machinery and dilatoriness in harvesting) rather than to any fixed discovered error of soil. Pro- crastination has been here, as well as in other parts of Florida, the thief of wealth. Col. Clinch of the army, is I believe, the proprietor of the largest settled estate in Alachua, J lis plantation has been in operation tor several years, and though it has had, like others, its good and bad crops, it may be staled, (in evidence of what the soil and climate can produce,) that last year, notwithstand- ing the unexampled severity of the winter, he re- alized from his crop, unassisted by artificial ma- nuring, and at best roughly cultivated, with only about fifty negroes, the sum of (as understood,) $20,000! having made (as heard,) 170 and odd hogsheads sugar, and 60 odd hales of fine sea island cotton, besides a large crop of corn and other provisions! No other evidence is needed to establish the great fertility of the Alachua soil; or to show the immense returns capable of being there made from agricultural investment. What one man has done, a thousand equally skilful and industrious may do: and if any apology is due for the freedom with which I promulgate private emolument, I trust it may be found excusable, in the absence we have of oilier means of comparing the fertility and ca- pabilities of this new country; as well as in my aim, that the speculative world may be attracted to an examination of this wealthy, yet vacant land. The advancement of the public weal aug- ments the prosperity of individual interest; and upon this truism, I hope yet to see intrusive and prying science embowelling the concealed mines of Florida. Alachua has, bestowed by nature, a liberal share of her best advantages. With an extent of latitude, embracing both a temperate and tropi- cal clime; and affording a choice of navigation and intercourse, either direct to the gulf of Mexi- co, (of which it constitutes a part of its eastern boundary,) or through the tributaries of the St. John's River, to the Atlantic. With a soil rich beyond exhaustion, rich in perpetual pasturage, and valuable timber, and varied in texture and qualities; congenial to the production of almost every northern and southern staple of commerce. With open and commanding roadsteads, among which are notable Charlotte's Harbor and Tampa Bay, equally proverbial for good anchorage, ac- cessibility, and uninterrupted health. All these are advantages singularly combined, and which must not only create rapid wealth and improve- ment, but ultimately rank the County of Alachua as the "Jewelled Queen of Florida." My next letter shall not be so prolix, and will be upon the Middle District. FARQ. MACEAE. For Uie Farmers' Register. VEGETABLE AXE ANIMAL ANALOGY. [Continued from page 756, Vol. II.] Observation teaches that nature has implanted appetites as various among vegetables, as we find in the animal kingdom, and hence arises that end- less diversity of their qualities and properties. They are so differently organized, and had im- planted in them originally, such various appetites, that every order and species of the two kingdoms may receive certain principles from the earth, which when combined in certain proportions, shall constitute the animal or vegetable; and although they may be equal in size, and similar in their general conformation, as to external appearances, and nourished by the same food, shall differ in strength, texture, and solidity. This, however, can only be explained upon the principle of a dif- ference in organization; viz: a difference of capa- city in their vessels, glands, &c, whereby certain portions of the same food are received, or rejected, according to the structure of those parts, or capa- city for receiving suitable proportions of aliment. A plant extracts from its gross parent (the earth) those principles which are suited to its nature and constitution; the earth always ready to give, but the plant is not willing, and rarely receives any thing but what is proper lor its subsistence: it is worthy of remark-, that in soils most favorable for the production of the various mild esculent or nu- tritive plants, nicoUana,cicuta, hyosiamus, digitalis, lauro cerasus, datura stramonium, monkshood, 4&c, flourish and arrive at great perfection. There can be no doubt that the principles received from the earth, by those noxious plants which constitute their most virulent and active qualities, are not intimately blended with that which affords nourish- ment, and becomes a component part of all the nutritive tribe. Their organization, or the capacity of their absorbing vessels, are such as necessarily exclude those poisonous principles; and it seems that by virtue of an inherent or instinctive prin- ciple implanted in them by the author of their ex- istence, those offensive matters are uniformly re- jected. From this circumstance may we not inter, that both the animal and vegetable kingdoms pos- sess the power of receiving ibod when it is offered them, and also the faculty of choosing. Animal and vegetable instinct may probably be admitted, since we cannot with greater propriety call that principle of a child by any other name, which prompts it to seek the breast of its mother, soon after it comes into the world; and that of aquatic, fowls to seek water, as their natural element, soon as they are disengaged from the egg-shell; and that of a vine to rear its head to the highest places, and entwine every branch within its reach, as if mindful of the danger to which it must be exposed, if spread out promiscuously upon the earth. Many other circumstances relative to ve- getables, would, at first view, seem to prove that they possess sensitive and instinctive qualities, not unlike those of animals. The, vegetable and animal kingdoms derive their support, either directly or indirectly horn the earth, through certain media. Many of the large vegetable seeds, when divided longitudinally, pre- sent an entire plant with its stalk and foliage com- plete in miniature, and nothing wanting but to be placed in reach of what it is destined to receive 230 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 4. for its futher developement. We may perceive at the same time, that this little germ has a par- tial connexion with the farinaceous matter which protects it, at this early state, from external injury, till, like the chick confined in its shell, which has exhausted the resources of its confinement, and arrived to that degree of maturity which enables it to sustain the impression of the earth and atmos- phere, it bursts forth and seeks new acquisitions in the earth. It is probable that this germ is nourished, and thus far developed, by the channels of its connexion with the farinaceous matter which tonus the body of the seed: yet from some experi- ments made with the bean, it seems that the germ, so far unfolded as we find it in the ripe seed, is not necessarily dependent on those channels through which it had previously received its nourishment, for a final germination in the earth. This fari- naceous matter may be separated and removed wfthout the least injury to the plant, and this too before it has rooted. On dividing the two tables of the bean longitudinally, we perceive the germ pretty firmly embraced by each of them, forming a sort of cylindrical mein or link of connexion, which is merely partial or temporary, for those two bodies, though lively and juicy at an early stage, wither and fall off at a certain period when the plant has put forth roots and leaves; which cir- cumstance inclines me to be of opinion, that, they serve some useful purpose in the way of assimila- tion or transmission of suitable juices for the nour- ishment of the germ — though this may also be rendered somewhat doubtful from the following experiment. The germ was carefully detached from the two tables of the bean, having previously provided a suitable space for its reception by hol- lowing each of them: this was done in such a manner as to free the entire germ from any degree of pressure that might be made on it by the two sides of the bean, when they were brought in con- tact— having bound them pretty firmly together and placed the whole in moist vegetable earth — on examination the third day, the germ had be- come so enlarged, as to put the bandage very much on the stretch. It was now removed from the tables of the bean and placed naked in a fine bed of earth which had been prepared for aspara- gus, where it soon rooted and flourished as an ordinary seed would have done in its natural state. Hence an inference may be drawn in favor of the opinion, which supposes the fetus receives no nourishment by the umbilical cord. Nevertheless, I am well assured that the seed of vegetables as well as animals, receive their nourishment through the channels I have mentioned, during their at- tachment to the parent. I am unable to conceive how nourishment can be conveyed to vegetables, if the mouths or ex- tremities of those vessels which open on the sur- face of the roots, be quiescent. Capillary attrac- tion above would hardly convey the necessary principles to the different parts of the vegetable. If it be not allowed that those vessels possess irritability and contractibility similar to those of animals, the whole process of vegetation must be performed mechanically. It must be explained upon the supposition, that a partial vacuum is form- ed in their vessels, or the fluids they contain be- come ratified, or less dense than those which are afforded by decomposition in the earth, and brought in contact with their rooty fibres; if this be the case, those fluids, according to the general laws of gravitation, must press forward and occupy the void spaces. But I think it much more probable that these vessels possess excitability or aptitude of motion, and perform their office similar to the lacteal and lymphatic vessels of animals — their food as it is offered by the earth, being in a similar state to that of animals as it is found in their di- gestive organs, where the mouths of the lacteal vessels are open to receive it for the nourishment of the general system. "• There seems to be a remarkable similarity in many of the operations of nature, and it is this obvious analogy, discoverable in the astonishing works of creation, that gave rise to the opinion, that it is not more necessary for a continuous route of circulation to be kept up between the mother and foetus, in order to produce its evolution, than that the earth should be considered organical, and continuous vessels form between it and vegetables at the time of their germination, for the purpose of conveying into them the various matters of which they are formed. A tree acquires from the earth its cortical and ligneous parts, without a placenta to assimilate, or an umbilical cord to con- vey to the general system; and is on a footing with an animal which is disengaged from its mother, and seeking food in the earth where it may be found. The general operation of nature, as it regards the production and nourishment of the two kingdoms, is decidedly analagous, with this difference, that animals receive their food some- what refined and assimilated, while the vegetable kingdom extract it from the crude matters of the earth. In order to pursue the analogy between animals and vegetables with perspicuity, we should con- sider the fetus entirely distinct or unconnected with the mother; or rather as having no further connexion between them, than that which may be dissolved without causing a solution of con- tinuity; or perhaps it may be admitted with some plausibility, that they are connected in a manner similar to that in which the various vegetable seeds are to their mother stalks previous to their maturation: at which period we observe the tem- porary union is dissolved, and they fall off spon- taneously. It. is not until they have arrived to this state of maturity and independence, which pre- pares and enables their delicate organs to receive nourishment directly from the earth, that they are disengaged from their maternal dependence. In like manner, the female of the animal king- dom, when pregnant, may justly be said to bear seed, which become ripe at the usual period of parturition. At this crisis the temporary union of the placenta, with the uterus is dissolved, and the fetus ushered into light and life. REPLY TO "COMMENTATOR'S" REMARKS ON galen's COMMUNICATION. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. I have seen in the 12th No. of your Register, Vol. II, "Remarks on the papers contained in No. 9 of the Farmers' Register," by "Commentator." I beg leave, Mr. Editor, to subjoin a few of his remarks. "With Galen's communication, I was, upon the whole, much pleased; although I must 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 231 say, that he delivers his opinions — however im- portant the subject, rather too abruptly. For in- stance, he asserts — without the slightest, doubt or qualification, that as to plants, "the earths afford no real nourishment themselves, but act entirely as exciting agents." Now, do not all agricultu- rists admit that there is such a thing as the food of plants, and that it is supplied either by the earths, or bij water, or by both? Will they not also admit, that "exciting agents1' cannot, with any propriety, be called suppliers of food'? Where then is Galen's authority for assuming that as a fact uni- versally admitted, in support of which, he oflers nothing, but his ipse dixit? His concluding; sen- tence furnishes another instance of a highly im- portant assertion, entirely without qualification, or illustrative argument to sustain it. I subjoin his own words: "There is a wonderful similarity be- tween the vegetable and animal world; they are both governed by the same laivs — the various agents that act upon them arc similar," (to both these assertions there are numerous and stri- king exceptions,) — "their organization in many respects the same, and they both possess motion, sensation, and life." This last assertion also, is much too broad; for, not to cavil at the term, "pos- sess motion," instead of the power of motion, the motion and sensation ascribed to vegetables are as really unlike the motion and sensation of animals, as any two things can possibly be, between which any sort of resemblance has been supposed to exist. Such fanciful analogies may do very well as ornaments of style, but not for scientific agri- culture." "Commentntor" thinks I have delivered my opinions "rather too abruptly" — be it so. [ wish, however, to be particularly understood, and if "Commentator" has read my communicalion in the February No. of the Farmers' Register with attention, he wili do me the justice to say, that I confined my remarks to the simple or primilive earths, viz: silex, lime, magnesia, alumine, and barytes, and not to compound earlhs containing foreign or extraneous matters. With all due res- pect to the opinions of "Commentator," I must be permitted to remark, that I have been educated 1o believe, and do now believe, primitive earths afford no real nourishment to plants, but act on vegetable and animal matters, hastening their decomposition: and the principles arising from the decomposition of water, ahv vegetable and animal matters, feed and nourish plants. If the. food of plants is supplied from primitive earth, why the necessity of adding manure? Seed, deposited in silex, lime, magnesia, alumine, or barytes, may possibly germinate, and live until the germ has devoured its farinaceous matter, but they cannot possibly mature with all the atmospheric air and water that can be given. This I suspect "Com- mentator" will admit, and if admitted, would it not be fair, at least, to infer that they do not con- tain in themselves any nourishment, but act on foreign agents as stimulants or excitants? "Com- mentator" asks this plain question, "now, do not all agriculturists admit that there is such a thing as the food af plants, and that it is supplied either by the earths, or by water, or by both? Will they not also admit, that 'exciting agents' cannot, with any propriety, be called suppliers of food?" Yes, all agriculturists must admit that there is fc'uch a thing as the lood of plants, but I am strongly inclined to think, all will not admit that it is supplied by the primitive earths. Again, I take leave very respectfully to remark, that "Com- mcnlator" is mistaken if he is under the impres- sion that I have stated exciting agents are sup- pliers of food — I have not, nor did I intend to convey such an idea; I merely stated, that earths were exciting agents — lime, for instance, acts upon straw, or some extraneous matters, and becomes the exciting agent in their decomposition. With regard to my concluding sentence, which seems to "Commentator" so very objectionable, I believe philosophers of every age have thought with me, or perhaps I have thought with them, that "there is a wonderful similarity between the vege- table and animal world, &c." Yes, the variouslaws and agents, I think, are similar, for they are both acted upon by similar causes, viz: light, heat, air, water, food, etc.; and I might add, that both king- doms are surrounded by ten thousand irritants, that act upon, and effect them in a similar way. I believe vegetables not only have the power of motion, but possess motion in some degree, and 1 am not alone in this belief. Many plants are said to recede from the approach of the finger, and we have all seen the tall sun-flower turn to the great luminary, face to face, and follow him throughout the day. With respect to vegetable motion and sensation, I do admit it to be very unlike the mo- tion and sensation of animals. As it regards "fan- ciful analogies," they are common, quite common: perhaps they are to be found in some of the "Re- marks on the papers contained in Nos. 9, 10, 11, of the Farmers' Register," my "ipse dixit" to the contrary notwithstanding. I nm much pleased with "Commentator's remarks," and regret that he did not commence with the first Yol. of the Farmers' Register. GALEN. The following letter was evidently written as soon as the article referred to had been read, and before noticing that the earlier piece of "Viator" had been discovered and republished in a later sheet of the same No. But though the first purpose of our correspon- dent has been anticipated, his after observations are not the less interesting and deserving of notice. ON MILKING COWS. To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. Baltimore, July 3, 1S35. I was much pleased this morning with the ar- ticle in your July No. on the spaying of cows, and write this note merely for the purpose of put- ting you in possession of the information necessary to complete the historical part of the discovery. In Vol. XIII, page 53 of the American Farmer, (April 29, 1831,) you will find an article copied from the New England Farmer, signed "Viator," which contains the first and only record of Mr. Winn's experiments. It is undoubtedly the arti- cle from which the French obtained the sugges- tion; and this will not appear strange when it is recollected, that the American Farmer was regu- larly received by one or more of the agricultural societies of France, by Lafayette, and several others. I have full confidence in the success of the experiment, if fairly and properly tried; but 232 F A R M E R S ' REGIS T E R [No. 4. have endeavored in vain to induce persons having the means to make the trial. Indeed I have not. been able to find any one who could perform the operation. As you have the American Fanner to refer to, I have thought it unnecessary 10 copy the article. By the way, I laid almost forgol to state the cause of my pleasure on reading your article: it was with the very excellent directions given in it by M. Levrat ibr performing the oper- ation, which, will enable almost every one, of nerve, to spay a cow. 1 should much prefer throwing the cow down on her right side, with her head declining upon the side of a moderate hill obliquely downwards, her back towards the declivity. But probably the best fixture would be the gallows, or frame, in which the smiths sling oxen for the pur- pose of shoeing. Much of the advantage of spaying will of course depend upon the previous manage.ment ol the cow. A good cow, of almost any breed, may be secured by proper management with ihe first and second calf. The young cow should have plenty of good pasture, pure water, and salt, reg- ularly; then, if she be not allowed to suckle her calf, alter the udder shall have become healthy, (generally three to seven days after calving,) il she be regularly and thoroughly milked at six in the morning and six in the evening,' I would be willing to warrant her to become a first rate cow when she has her third calf. It is as important that a cow be milked regularly as to time, as it is that she be properly fed. Nature accommodates herself to all our practices, provided they be not unreasonable; but she will not, be trifled with. Therefore, if a cow be allowed to suckle her calf, she gets in the habit ofsecretinga certain quantity of milk every half hour or so; and when the calf is weaned, we cannot correct the habit so as to adapt it to the required milking every twelve hours: therefore, the calf should not. be allowed to run with the cow at all; nor to suck her, after her udder is in order. Neither should we be care- less as to the times of milking. The day should be equally divided, else between the morning and the night milking, there will be fourteen to sixteen hours, and between the night and the morning there will be only eight to ten; and the conse- quence will be, that nature will be baffled in her regulations of the animal's habit, and she will be injured as a milker. Now, if a cow has had all this previous care and attention, she will, four weeks after her third calf, come to the pail with a full bag of milk, and may then be secured as a permanent milker by spaying; as I verily believe, both from the facts stated by "Viator," and the experiments of M. Levrat, and from the reasona- bleness of the theory. I hope some of your friends will try it. When I began to write, I only intended to in- form you where to find the record; but my pen has run wild. When I get upon a subject of this kind, I never know when to stop. GIDEON B. SMITH. like an ill weed, and about two weeks since pre- sented a luxuriance of growth exceeding any thing of the kind we ever saw. The clover had the ap- pearance ol' tall pea vines, so rank had it shot up. If anthracite ashes have such virtue, it would be well for the public generally to understand it." From the New England Fanner. SCRAPING FRUIT TREES. East Hartford, June 15//;, 1535. Dear Sir — I have for the two last years scraped my apple and pear trees towards the latter part of June or commencement of July, and think from the experiment it is much the best season to scrape the rossfrom the body and large limbs of fruit trees, I have ever tried. I prefer to scrape them with a hoe soon after a rain, as they scrape much better when moist. It is well known that many apple trees bleed, (urn black, and are much injured, when scraped in the spring season. I knew it was the rule with some farmers (if they had a tree in their orchards that was unthrifty, or was not good to bear) to peel off the whole bark from the body of the tree during the longest days in June, and that a new bark is soon restored at that season. If the trees are scraped abundantly, and some of the bark entirely torn off, they heal immediately and do not bleed. I cut several decayed limbs from one tree two years since, which healed overmuch better than when trimmed in the spring. I think the fruit on those trees scraped in the above man- ner much improved in size, as well as in the gen- era! appearance of the trees. ANTHRACITE ASHES. The Philadelphia United Slates Gazette says, "a lot of land, clay and sand, was covered over with ashes from anthracite coal, and clover seed sown upon it in abundance. The clover after waiting a little while longer than usual, sprung up "FLORIDA COFFEE." To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Early in May last I bad an opportunity, for the first time, of seeing some young plants of what has been called "Florida coffee," from which I was satisfied that, it is not okra, and thai it is probably a species of cassia, several of which are natives of the southern states, and are particular- ly abundant in Florida. This opinion I expressed at the time in a letter to you: and I perceive from an article in your June number, that it is confirm- ed by Mr. Herbemont, who states that is a cassia. When the plants which Mr. H. is cultivating shall have been fully developed, he will no doubt, be able to ascertain the species, and thus we shall ar- rive at a knowledge of the true nature of the plant, II. E. C. June 20th, 1S35. COTTON SEED AN ARTICLE OF FOOD. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. It was formerly said that in some of the south- ern states the negroes were fed on cotton seed. In this there was no truth whatever. I was there- fore not a little surprised when I read (in the En- cyclopaedia of Plants,) that cotton seed are used in the south of Europe, by the poorer class, as an article of diet. As they have none of "Follett and Smith's Hulling Machines," it would be cu- rious to know how they dispose of the outer co- vering of the seed. II. B. C. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 233 For the Fanners' Register. NOTES OF A HASTY VIEW OF THE SOIL AND AGRICULTURE OF PART OF THE COUNTY OF NORTHAMPTON. The county of Northampton, which forms the lower part of the peninsula called the Eastern Shore of Virginia, presents a remarkable appear- ance of uniformity, in the level surface and gene- ral qualities of the soil, and in the mode of tillage and general management. The land has but little elevation above the water which almost surrounds it; and the level of the surface is rarely changed so much as to effect tillage or labor injuriously — and nothing deserving to be called a hill is found any where, unless the abruptly rising (though low) borders of creeks be so designated. The soil is universally sandy, and differs very little in texture or appearance, and is not more than three or four inches deep. On the bay side, below the sandy subsoil, there is generally a yellowish clay, lying from twelve to sixteen inches below the surface, and which is open enough to permit the filtration through of rain water. Below the clay is a barren white sand. The clay is generally deficient en- tirely elsewhere, or is not found within several feet of the surface. The rate of fertility, though made different by nature, and still more so by the difference of treatment under tillage, is yet more uniform than any other considerable tract which I have observed. No one acre seems to have been very far below the medium grade of natural pro- ductiveness, and not many are very much above it. No land was seen which appeared half as rich as the best soils west of the Chesapeake — and none as poor as the worst — which are i'ar more abundant than the rich, on both sides of the bay. Flat and narrow as the county is, (the mainland varying between two and eight miles in width,) there is a central ridge of a little more elevation, and of worse and poorer soil than the lands on the bay and the sea side. Of the two last, the lands on the bay are generally the best. But a very large proportion of all the lands lie on the bay and the Atlantic Ocean, or on the creeks and inlets. It is said, that there are very few farms in the county distant more than a mile from navigable water. This is an immense advantage enjoyed by the farmers — and another connected with it is, that every Atlantic market is open to their choice. A string of long, narrow and low islands, barely separated from each other by inlets, serve to pro- tect the mainland from the fury of the ocean, and in the navigable sounds, between eight to twelve miles wide, keep comparatively smooth water, when the wind is producing awful effects at the distance of but a few miles. These islands are part of the chain which reaches from Florida to Delaware, and offers between it and the mainland, a safe inland navigation for stout sea vessels, which is scarcely interrupted by too shallow water, or too open sea, during the whole distance. The waters bordering on and intersecting North- ampton, are not more valuable for navigation, than l'or furnishing in great plenty and variety, fish and wild fowl. The greatest delicacies for the table which salt water yields, are here common and cheap: and coarse fish, which are prized in our fresh waters, are here caught in such numbers, that they form a valuable resource for manure, Vol. Ill— 30 which a few enterprising farmers have already begun to profit by using. Though the soil is sandy, andalmost universally so, it is less so than is generally reported. I saw but little land that seemed as sandy as much of the county of Surry — and the greater portion of the soil is not more sandy than part of Lower Weyanoke in Charles City, the farm of the late Fielding Lewis, which, since being limed, is so productive under wheat, as well as in the crops more suited to light land. Yet scarcely any wheat is made in Northampton — and from the very few trials of this crop on a small scale, it has been decided generally, (and no doubt correctly,) that the soil is quite unfit for the profitable growth of that crop. The use of lime, or other calcareous manure, would probably remove the existing ob- stacle to wheat culture: though even then it might not be so profitable as the crops now preferred. Wheat has been often raised with sufficient suc- cess to encourage the farmer to persevere in the culture. But he has invariably found that there was a great diminution of product when wheat was sown a second time on the same land, in its proper turn in the rotation. I have heard of a like result on the sandy land of Sussex, as ascertained by two rounds of the rotation of a very intelligent practical farmer. The rotation of Northampton, which may be almost said to be universal, is 1st, corn — 2nd, oats — and so on every year as long as Cultivation is continued on the same land — and that has been known to be, on some fields, and those never manured at all, for more than sixty years. The only material variations are in the manage- ment of the land in the interval of time between reaping and stacking the oat crop, and ploughing the land in the next winter, or early part of spring, for the succeeding crop .of corn. Some very lew larmers permit no grazing: a greater number graze during that whole time, but not so closely but that much of the volunteer growth of vege- table matter remains to be turned into the earth by the plough. The others, and they are the far greater number, graze as closely as can be done by all their live stock. Some even believe that the closest grazing is most beneficial, and leave the fences down that their fields may be a com- mon pasture for all the roaming stock of the neighborhood, between the removal of the oats and the beginning of preparation lor corn. Ten or twelve years continuation of this latter practice, in at least one case, has not served to prove so satisfactorily, to the individual who has pursued it, the evil of tire practice, as to put a stop to it. But the grazing in general, is not so close as might be supposed from the unrestrained access of each far- mer's live stock, because their number is kept small by the nature of the land and mode of til- lage. There is but little grazing land before the oat harvest — and the products of live stock, as well as their numbers, are smaller than usual elsewhere. This fault in their husbandry, (as it may be considered in one respect,) perhaps has saved the fields from exhaustion. Whoever may for the first time hear this rota- tion described, will be ready to pronounce it as having been devised and commenced in ignorance, and carried on in direct and manilest opposition to all the established principles of agricultural science — and that persisting in it lor any considerable 234 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 4. time, must always be unprofitable to the farmer, and result inevitably in the destruction of the fer- tility of the soil. But strange as it may appear that such a rotation should be in general use, it is still more so, that it should be maintained by the general, if not universal testimony of the inhabi- tants, that the production of the county, for the whole space under tillage, has not been diminished under this system — that the exhaustion of par- ticular firms when worst managed, has neither been rapid, or considerable, in any short term of years — and that when attention has been paid to collecting and applying manures, and grazing has been prevented, the most enlightened farmers con- cur that the rotation, so aided, has been found to increase the crops regularly, and for a long term: in short, that the rotation is decidedly an improving one, when judiciously conducted; and most proba- bly that it is better for the farmer than any other- more conformable to the generally received opinions on agricultural improvement. It must be at least admitted, that many and strong facts, and those tested by long experience, are brought to sustain the superior advantages of the Eastern Shore rotation. There is one additional feature of the tillage here, which in many cases has had much influ- ence in aiding the benefits, or lessening the scourg- ing tendency of the rotation. This is the growth of a plant which has great value as an improver of fertility, and which is peculiarly adapted to sandy soil, and to the succession of crops here in use. The Magothy Bay bean is a plant of the pea tribe, and the whole of that tribe seems to pos- sess greater power than any other for acting as manure. Clovers are of the pea kind, and red clover stands at the head of the class of green manures. But though a good cover of Magothy Bay bean is probably of far less value as manure than a good cover of clover, yet the former growth in general is more valuable, because requiring no regular sowing, but very slight care for its perpet- ual preservation, and producing crops far more luxuriant than could possibly be obtained of clover, and perhaps of the most worthless weeds on the like sandy soils. The seeds are very hard, and slow to vegetate, and will remain sometimes for years in the soil before sprouting. This quality prevents the tillage of corn, however perfect, serving to root out, or materially thin the aftergrowth. The spring ploughing for oats retards the springing of the plants, until the oats are enough ahead not to be injured by the undergrowth of beans. At this time, (July 10th,) the reaping of the oats is ge- nerally going on, or has been just finished where most forward. The undergrowth of Magothy Bay bean is from three to eight inches high, ac- cording to the condition of the land, (rarely more than six inches J and is not a material impediment to reaping and saving the oats. It is even now a beautiful growth — but its present appearance is nothing in comparison to what will be exhibited in August, and from that time to frost, according to the descriptions given of the well covered fields, and which I can well believe from the more sparse growth which I have seen matured at home. The flowers are very abundant, and of a deep and beautiful yellow — and continue to open for many weeks. The whole plant was well described by Bordley, as a "Lilliputian locust tree," with which it agrees in the general form of the flowers and leaves. The beans rise rapidly as soon as the shelter of oats is removed, and acquire a height usually varying between one, and two and a half feet, according to the land. Even where no care whatever is taken to preserve the succession of plants, and indeed where the tillage and grazing (under the common rotation) is such as would effectually destroy any other kind of any value, this continues to be the most general cover of the land after the. oat crop— though, of course, a scat- tered and thin cover compared to what is found under more favorable circumstances. Cattle feed on this plant, and indeed find not much else in the fields, afterthe scattered uats have been picked up. Hogs strip oft' the green pods, and to the extent of their operations, destroy the seeds. When matured, the seeds are so hard that they would probably pass through the body of" an animal un- injured. The plant is an annual. '1 he leaves fall before winter, and the stalks seem so hard, that, many persons would on that account deem them of but little value as manure. In the few cases where the land is not grazed at all, and even where the small number of the farmer's stock prevents much of the bean cover being taken oft, it is evident that there are suf- ficient means afforded to preserve the succession of the growths of this plant. Where several suc- cessive hoed crops, or other circumstances, have thinned the bean cover, it is easily increased by a means used by those who attach proper value to this improving crop. Numerous plants spring up in the land under corn, which are generally, of course, destroyed by the ploughing of that crop. But near the plants of corn, some bean plants will grow out of the way of the plough: and as but little hand-hoe work is used, or required, the ne- glect of weeding, as well as the design of spread- ing the growth, serve in this manner to furnish numerous seeds to be added to those then buried in the earth, and which will spring the next year. Where the land is not grazed, or even when the grazing is but slight, the Eastern Shore rota- tion, though nominally the same, is in truth alto- gether different. It then consists of a regular suc- cession of three crops — corn, oats, and Magothy Bay bean — the last being a crop of manure regu- larly turned in to sustain the land under the two succeeding grain crops. This improved practice would take away the objection to the perpetual succession of grain crops — and presents a rotation perhaps as conformable to sound theory, and fur- nishingaslarge a supply offood (grown on the land) for plants, as is found in the best modern prac- tices under what are called three and four-shift rotations. The circumstance that this three-shift rotation has only two years' length, is decidedly in its favor. If all other things are equal, and an equal proportion of the rotation is of meliora- ting effect, the more crops that it will furnish the better, within any certain term of years. One of the greatest causes of the superior productiveness of the farms in Flanders, is found in the frequency of" secondary crops, by which two crops are ob- tained from the same field in one year. The great objection to such cropping in this country, is the amount of labor required at very busy seasons, and that the low price of land offers no induce- ment for such perlect tillage. But the secondary crop of the Eastern Shore rotation requires no trouble or cost of preparation or tillage — and there- 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 235 fore may be used to the greatest advantage where the peculiarity of soil favors the growth of ihe Magothy .Bay bean — and forbids (as is supposed to be the case here,) the adoption of other courses of crops, which would be incompatible with the growth of that valuable plant. It may be asserted then, according to the fore- going views, that the mere difference of using this green crop directly as manure, or for grazing, will serve to place the usual tillage of this country under a mild and improving rotation — or under one which, though it seems not to be ruinous here, well deserves to be so, and would be so, I think, on any other land to which my labor, or personal observation, has been directed. And why it should be otherwise here, I cannot jiear or conceive a satisfactory reason, though the fact is readily ad- mitted to be true. The reason which is generally assigned for the sandy soil here bearing up so long under the worst use of the corn and oat rotation — and for being actually improved under its best use — is the beneficial influence of the air, which is supposed to be loaded with salt vapor from the adjacent and almost surrounding waters of the Chesapeake and the ocean. Without discussing the truth of the fact of salt being thus continually conveyed to the soil, it seems incredible that salt in any quantity can act as an alimentary manure to grain crops, or perpetually renew the whole or any portion of the wasted fertility of soil. From time to time, persons have discovered great value in salt as a manure — and much more frequently its use has been found of little value, when not decidedly injurious. But the most sanguine ad- vocates for the use of salt as manure, have not supposed it to give directly food for plants, as dung does, or as being a manure which by annual repe- titions can possibly continually renew the produc- tive power of land. If this were so, surely men might copy nature's practice in this respect, and wherever the price of salt did not forbid its use, inexhaustible fertility might be produced and main- tained. But 1 cannot think that any vapor, salt or fresh, can be serviceable to grain crops, except as furnishing additional supplies of moisture: and this effect, though highly beneficial to grass crops and grass husbandry, when considerable, is at least of* very doubtful advantage to grain crops. But I repeat that there is no question of the great power of these lands to resist exhaustion under a scourging and barbarous .course of tillage — nor of their fitness to be easily and profitably improved by the best practices already (though rarely) here in use. I do not rely lor this conclu- sion on the experience of any one farmer, how- ever intelligent and well qualified to judge, and however much entitled to command belief ] and the utmost respect for his opinions— nor on the state of any particular farms, long kept under either good or bad culture. I have heard many proofs of these kinds which might be adduced by others. But my cursory views and hurried inquiries having been limited to but a few days of personal obser- vation, they were not sufficiently accurate for such detailed statements, even if that course were not forbidden by the length to which they would ex- tend this sketch. Such details, however, from those possessing better means for observation and the collection and comparison of facts, would be highly valuable and interesting — and it is earnest- ly hoped that such will be given to the public at a future time, by one or more of those better fitted by their location for the task. If I can attract attention to subjects which deserve it, and induce any others to furnish more accurate informal ion, my end will be accomplished: and even the inac- euracies,or unintentional misrepresentations, which my very imperfect notices may perhaps exhibit, will not be regretted, if other persons should be thereby drawn forth for their correction, and to supply the more numerous deficiencies. This has been the motive of my offering such hasty and imperfect observations, and must serve as my apol- ogy for doing that which in general ought always to be avoided — that is, writing and publishing opinions on subjects that we know very little about. But by such means, in several former cases, very valuable and interesting communications have been elicited from others, and discussions have been produced which have shed much light on agricultural practice and opinions. To similar ef- fects, I hope these imperfect notes may be the hum- ble instrument of impulse. To return to general results. Very little land in Northampton, compared to the mainland of Lower Virginia, has been "turned out" of cultiva- tion, because exhausted, to grow up in trees. And where this has been done, though of course the most impoverished land was so treated, the mo- tive was in part to permit pine timber to grow, to supply the place of that which was taken off from the small amount, of woodland on the farm. Wood and timber are very scarce, and but little land is given up to even the growth of what they have, which is unfit for building purposes, and but of small value for fencing or fuel. The extensive clearing and destruction of good timber has been caused by the demand for land for cultivation, and encouraged by almost every acre of dryland being fit and profitable for the plough. I have seen scarcely any land recently "turned out:" and all which has been at any one time thrown out of cultivation — admitting all to be on account of ex- treme poverty, and tor the purpose of being re- cruited in fertility under pines — must be incon- siderable. Therefore the continued productive- ness of the county in general, cannot be materially aided by this cause. Neither is it to be attributed to the great and profitable improvements made by particular individuals, by means of using manures not derived from their own fields, whether putres- cent or of a more permanent character — for these examples have, unfortunately, been too few to have a considerable effect on the general products and profits of the county. The lands which have produced nine-ienthsof all the grain in the county, and those which now produce as large a propor- tion, probably may embrace not one farm which has been so badly cultivated as to have been kept up by the "turning out" system — the pine-tree- manuring it may be called — nor one on which the owner has used lime, shells, or any manure pur- chased or brought from abroad. Excluding then the most exhausting and bad cultivation, and also the most improving and profitable, the remaining lands will show fairly the effects of the usual mode of tillage in this county — and in general, they ap- pear to be such as will be now stated. According to the system of tillage" described, there is no such thing as any field having a year of rest: every acre (except the small amount of woodland reserved for timber and fuel, and the 236 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 4. still smaller amount of land "turned out,") is un- der a crop once a year. Of course, supposing products to continue equal, there is twice the amount qf cultivation, of amount of crop made, and of laboring and consuming population, as there would be if the land was at rest, and producing no crop two years in four. The people are in an uncom- mon and remarkable degree, (for Virginians, I grieve to say — ) attached to the place of their na- tivity, and seldom think of emigrating to the far west, or even to the "Western Shore," (as they call all Virginia except their own narrow streak of land,) unless driven by the impossibility of obtain- ing a laborious support at home. It ibllows that the people are too many for the land, as it now produces, and the demand for land, both on pur- chase and rent, is as high as the profits of culti- vation will permit — but not higher than that point, as is abundantly proved by the permanency of such prices, as well as by other circumstances. It may be safely asserted, that the average price of land in Northampton, is three times as high as that of the average of the lands in Prince George and Surry, which border James River and extend back eight miles, and lor nearly all of which, marl might be used with sufficient facility and profit — an immense benefit of which the Eastern Shore is deprived. In all that space, embracing some of the best and some of the poorest land in Virginia, though there are a few tracts which might sell for ^30 the acre, the average price would hardly exceed $5 — and many tracts con- taining marl, notwithstanding the increased de- mand and price for such land, would sell ibr S3. In Northampton, there is but little land (excluding the sea islands,) under $14, and much would now «ell for more than $20 — and the average price throughout would not be less than $15. "it may however be objected, that such prices cannot be founded on correct estimates of profit, and there- fore are no certain evidence of value. It would be Very difficult to put down such an objection to high prices, if every man tilled his own land. But the best proof is offered here in the fact, that a considerable proportion of the soil is regularly tilled by tenants, and that there is demand for all offered to be rented out, at such shares of the crops ns will pay six per cent, net, on the purchase, at the high existing rates. This is sufficient proof that the landlord can afford to buy and to retain land at the present prices. And if a tenant pays too high rent, he cannot fail to make the discovery by the time, a year has passed. It may be safely assumed that annual rents, in general in every country, and especially in the United States, can never remain higher than tenants can afford to pay. Poor land is here rented, and cultivated in the ordinary rotation, at never less than one-third of the grain, and also of the smaller, yet impor- tant crops of castor bean and sweet potatoes. If of a little better quality, (andj'et such as appeared to me quite poor,) it will pay two-fifths of the corn, and one-third of the oats and other smaller crops. Good land, say any yielding four barrels of corn, may be readily rented to tenants for one-half the crops made. The landlord keeps the buildings in repair, and the tenant the fences. For land of apparently equal productiveness in Prince George, not half the same nominal rent can be obtained— nor can lands be rented out at all, as a regular and continuing system, to any who will so^cultivate and manage them, as not, to injure their value nearly as much as the amount of rent is worth. From all that has been heard on this subject, I cannot but believe that the lands of Northampton are well worth their present prices, under their pre- sent management: and, if from so slight a glance I may presume to offer the opinion, it seems equally clear, that by retaining what is really excellent in their system, avoiding some very ge- neral errors, and adopting means for additional improvement, which are quite available and yet. almost totally neglected, that the same exercise of industry and economy so directed, would ad- vance the net profits, and of course the prices of land, to the double of the present estimates. It is admitted that there are reasons why the Northampton lands should be worth more in pro- portion to their average and continued returns to the acre, than most other lands. Such reasons are presented in the almost entire absence of all waste and worthless spots, whether in ravines or hill-sides, or for want of drainage — great ease of tillage, caused by the soil being level, dry, and light, and by its being kept always clean by annu- al cropping. But though these are important causes of value, they are not greater than the dif- ferent advantages which other lands west of the Chesapeake possess, and which, notwithstanding, are at prices very far inferior. The cheapness and profit of marling on many poor soils, and their after fitness for wheat and clover husbandry, and the. natural fertility of the best soils, seem to be at least a fair compensation for the want of other advantages peculiar to the Eastern Shore. If then the latter lands are held at fair prices, as there seems no ground to doubt, the good or im- provable lands west of the bay are just as much below fair prices, as they arc below the usual prices in Northampton. Why this remarkable difference should exist, is an interesting subject for inquiry, and the results would serve to throw much light on the causes of the general decline and low state of the prices and profits of landed property in Virginia. From the slight view which I have been able to take, it appears that the principal cause of the remarkable difference in the. prices of lands on the Eastern Shore and in the balance of lower Virginia, is found in the difference of the modes of thinking and acting as to continued resi- dence, and emigration. It may be said truly that the people of the Eastern Shore only, of all the inhabitants of Virginia, as a community, feel that they are at home — that they and their children are to live and die where they were born, and have to make the best of their situation. Compared with this state of things, the population of the balance of Virginia may be considered as in a state of transition — having future migration in prospect, either for themselves or for their children. If only one-third of the community are operated on di- rectly by such considerations, they are enough to bring all the lands of the country to the prices and condition of their own. With so much land al- ways offered for sale, and at almost any sacrifice, the prices of all must necessarily and continually decline. The formerly contented and industrious and successful improver of his farm, finds that it has sunk in price more than his expense incurred for its improvement — and that he might have bought at a lower price the lands about to be de- serted by his neighbors. Hence grows discour- 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 237 agemeht to all permanent and valuable improve- ments— general and increasing discontent with their homes — and next the willingness?, and finally the expectation, of following to the west the more enterprising, or more greedy, who had gone before them. The lonjj continued prevalence of such opinions and habits are alone enough to ruin any country: and the mere absence of this curse seems enough to maintain the superior thrift and prosper- ity of the county of Northampton. The opposite conditions of the two communities may be com- pared to the different operations of the institution of marriage when indissoluble except by death, and where the law offers and invites divorce at will. In the former state, the parties arc compel- led to make the best of their union, and in the lat- ter they would as certainly make the worst of it. From what I could gather of the opinions of farmers of this county, it was inferred that the land was naturally, as it still appears, of middle quality as to productiveness. I heard of no farm, or even a field, which was supposed by its owner as having in its best and original state, to have produced more than 30 bushels of corn to the acre — which is certainly a very moderate crop on land peculiarly adapted to that grain. Probably in some places near the creeks, there were spots of much greater natural fertility: but all such could not have amounted to any great extent. I saw no land, other than the highly manured lots about dwellings, which now would produce 30 bushels; and not. much which by ils present growth promi- sed more than 20 bushels of corn. Still I may be deceived in this respect, not only for lack of judgement, but because the grain may be greater in proportion to the general bulk of the plants, than on other soils. This is asserted of their oat crops, which appeared to my eye generally mea- gre, and very few spots were seen where the growth was very luxuriant. Yet it is affirmed that their ordinary round stacks will yield not much short of 200 bushels — -tind if of wheat, and else- where, they would hardly exceed 50 bushels. The land was formerly covered with a heavy growth of excellent timber — oaks of different kinds, hickory, &c. as well as of pine. But al- most nothing is now left but pines, and those of late growth, and of course very worthless both for fuel and timber. This remaining cover of the land not brought under cultivation, gives it an ap- pearance of having possessed but little, fertility, as we involuntarily associate an unmixed growth of pines with the idea of worn out land, or a bad na- tural soil. But though such growth is probably found here on better soil than it would indicate elsewhere, the general if not universal disposition of this land to throw up pines is enough to prove that it is no where calcareous, and that it is much wanting in that essential quality of soil. On the other hand, the rare occurrence of land naturally very poor, and the general and remarkable dura- bility of all, would seem to forbid the conclusion that, much of the soil was of such acid quality as lands favorable to pines generally possess. There can however be no doubt but. that an addi- tion of calcareous earth is every where wanting, and on every field would give increased produc- tiveness and value. Very little use has been yet made of this all-important means for improvement. There are no beds of fossil shells, or rather they here dip too deep to be reached by any digging yet tried — and some, few wells have been sunk to the depth of 40 feet. These beds disappear on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, by sinking grad- ually as we approach the south, (as stated in Dr. Ducatel's geological report,) and it, may be sup- posed that they underlie the counties of Accomac and Northampton, though at a still increasing depth. But though thus deprived of easy access to this the most cheap and valuable, form of calca reous manure, the quantity of shell fish would fur- nish lime in abundance — and there are many oys- ter shoals, naked at low tide, where immense quan- tities of shelly matter might be cheaply obtained. This if crushed would be better than if burned, as there is much putrescent, matter which is destroy- ed by fire. The little use which has been made of quicklime (not extending beyond a iew experi- ments) has not produced results which encouraged the repetition — and hence has arisen the opinion that prevails unfavorable to the application of cal- careous matter in general. My observations did not reach farther north than about the middle of the county — but I heard that some gentlemen nearer to Accomac still persevered in using lime. It is not at all surprising that quick or caustic lime should be even hurtful to these lands, however much they may need mild calcareous earth. From the dry and sandy nature of the, soil, and the con- tinued tillage to which it is subjected, there can never long remain any inert or insoluble vegetable matter: and on all the vegetable matter in the soil, fit to feed plants, or rapidly becoming so, the caus- tic and burning action of quicklime is decidedly injurious, by decomposing and dissipating such matters. Thus the early destructive power of the lime, applied in its quick state, has here apparently overbalanced the more slow and permanent bene- fits which it afterwards produces as mild calca- reous earth. This is one. of the numerous cases in which a want of the. knowledge of the mode, of operation, causes even facts to lead to falseconclu- sions, instead of teaching truth, as they would do, if properly understood. It is of great importance to this country that a proper estimate should be made of the value of calcareous and marine ali- mentary manures, as there are great facilities for obtaining both, as well as great need of them on most of the soils. Next to corn and oats the castor bean, and sweet potatoes arc the most important articles of culture in Northampton. There are seven oil presses in and near the little village of Eastville, and per- haps more than twice as many in the whole county. New ones are now erecting. One is to be worked by steam, for, which the machinery is pro- vided, and the necessary fixtures are now con- structing. This seems a singular, and I fear will prove an unprofitable application of steam power. The oil cake, or "bean pomace" as it is called, is highly valuable as a rich and sure manure. It sells readily at 25 cents the bushel at the oil fac- tories. Its" effects are very great, as may be in- ferred from the price, but they seldom last beyond one crop, unless heavily and wastefully applied. There is much difference of opinion as to the value of castor bean as a crop, and its effects on the soil, even among those who have most expe- rience of this new kind of culture. One practical and judicious firmer, who is considered very suc- cessful in bis business, and who had formerly ob- tained unusually heavy products of castor bean, 238 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 4. told me. that he would not continue its culture for the highest price ever known. His principal ob- jection was to its supposed exhausting quality. Others think it not more exhausting than corn — but it requires rich land, and cannot be continued on the same, without an immediate and consider- able decline in product. But though a second crop of castor bean will not do well on the same land, if immediately succeeding the first, corn will produce as well, and some think better, than on the same land if not preceded by the bean. The management of this crop is very troublesome, when the time arrives to cut the ripened clusters. If not cut immediately, the outer coverings open and waste the seed — and indeed there is no avoid- ing great waste in this way. The clusters ripen successively, and ten or twelve times it is neces- sary to cut over the field, before frost stops the Jabor by preventing the later beans' maturing. Some persons, who do not consider the crop as particularly exhausting to the soil, are not satisfied that they have gained by this partial departure from their old and general rotation of corn and oats. The castor bean has not been made a part of any regular plan of rotation. The crop of sweet potatoes is here an important object, not only on account of the soil beino' very favorable to the growth, but because of the facility for shipping the crop to the northern cities, where good prices are always sure. The business of grazing livestock is very limit- ed, both in extent and in profit. There are no standing pastures of arable land, and of course, the fields cannot, be grazed until after the oats have been reaped and removed. Before that time, the cattle have very scant iare in the woods, and on the firmer marshes which border parts of the sea side. But i\\\v give any land to artificial grasses. The soil certainly cannot be naturally favorable to clover: yet it is said that fine lots of this grass are made by the lew who give the manure and preparation necessary for the purpose. But it may be said in general, that so far as green food is con- sidered, the cattle have a feast from the middle of July until frost, and a famine the balance of the year. Of course, dairy products in general are very poor. Those who have no marsh pasture, or other waste land fit for grazing, and who take good care of their stock, rely entirely on their grain and offal of the corn and oat crop, not only in winter and spring, but through half the summer. In the foregoing statements of the general results of the system of culture here practiced, 1 have cho- sen to rely more on general concurrent opinion, than on particular facts; because, of the great liability of a stranger to draw false inferences from the few facts to which his observations must necessarily be limited. Nevertheless, it may be useful to add some few of even partial and defective observa- tions of facts, which maintain the general views already presented. When first reaching the shore, it was not so much my object to seek for uncommon though valuable improvements in farming, and the use of means not generally used or accessible, as it was to learn what was the general practice, and the good and profitable practices which might be ge- nerally adopted. My inquiries to this end led me first to the farm of Mr. James Goffigon, who has cultivated with success and profit, for more than thirty years, a farm having no facilities for im- provement, except what its soil yields. It is on, and eastward of the ridge, midway between the waters of the bay and the ocean, and not touching either. The tillage has been throughout on the regular corn and oat rotation, with grazing after the oat harvest. The horses, (when not at work,) and the tew cattle necessary to be kept about the house, and the whole stock of hogs, are kept in a space of two or three acres, anil are supported almost entirely on grain, and the dry offal of the previous year's crop, until after the oat harvest. The cattle which are not wanting are turned out in the spring, and go to the marsh land on the sea side. The whole stock, being kept at such dis- advantage, is necessarily small, in comparison to the extent of arable land; and they live in great plenty on the pasture after the oatcrop, and are un- able to keep down, or destroy the succession of the general cover of the Magothy Bay bean. Much manure is made in this very long period of penning stock — is made necessarily, it may be said, when litter is*given, as is done here, from the pine woods, as well as the offal of the crops. But Mr. G. does not speak favorably of the effects of his manure — and indeed the summer penning on fer- menting litter, would seem likely to be wasteful of the Jertilizing principles of the manure, and in- jurious to the health of the cattle. No other means of improvement, worth counting, have been used: yet the farm has not diminished in product ma- terially, if at all, since Mr. G. has known it, and according to the report of others, is still one of the most productive in the county. But though the farm lies in part on the "ridge," and consists partly of the worst kind of soil in the county, the greater part was of the best natural soil in the interior. The field now in oats is the most distant from the homestead, and a large part of it has never re- ceived any aid from manure. Mr. G. supposed that this part would now make 20 bushels of corn, and in its original and most fertile state, might have brought 30 bushels. He rents out the greater part of his land, and the poorest, tor two-fifths of the corn, and one-third of the oats, castor bean, and potatoes. Mr. G. disclaims all pretensions to the character of a good farmer, and attributes all his success to steady attention to his business. He certainly has been an excellent manager of his means: and his undoubted and long continued success, taken in connexion with the total absence of all uncom- mon, or foreign means for improvement, and his continued adherence to the Eastern Shore rotation, serve to place in a strong point of view, the pe- culiar and durable good qualities of the soil, and the profit of the rotation in general. The smaller farm of Mr. Isaac Smith, on the sea side, furnishes an example equally striking, of the ease and profit of increasing the products of an impoverished soil, by using proper means, and such means only as may be availed of by all. Mr. S. took possession of this farm in 1819. The product has been gradually increased, on the same surface, until it is now doubled. Being on the sea side, and having some firm salt marsh for pasture, he has rigidly secured his fields from being grazed at any time, and thus has regularly returned to the soil all of the improving crop of Magothy Bay bean, and secured its regular return as a thick cover of the fields. In addition to this, and to the. use of the manure furnished by the stock and offal 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 239 of the grain crops, Mr. S. formerly had the bene- fit of the pomace ol castor beans, which he bought to make oil for sale. But that part. of his business was never extensive, and he has for some years ceased to make any oil, except from his own crop of beans, raised on the same farm. The use ol this manure was not properly understood when he at first might have profited by it, and indeed it was scarcely used at all, or thought to be worth using, except to remove an oflensivc nuisance. It was thrown out of the factories in bulks, and left to rot aud waste — and was used as manure most inju- diciously and to great loss. It is now saved under shelter, and applied in very small quantities. Mr. S. thinks. that the whole amount ol' this manure which he used, that was not derived from his own fields, could not have exceeded 1500 bushels ol' the pomace properly applied. This I mention because it is the only foreign substance which has been used to restore the lost productiveness of the farm — and this is certainly more than counterbal- anced by the oil which is every year produced on, and sold from the farm. It would seem then, that whatever Mr. S. has done to improve an exhaust- ed farm, may be done any where, by the means furnished by the land itself, and under the corn and oat rotation, provided grazing is prohibited, and clue attention paid to the preservation of ma- nures. Mr. S. thinks that cotton seed must contain at least as much of fertilizing matter, as an equal bulk of bean pomace — and probably much more, as the former have lost none of their oil, and the castor beans lose all that can possibly be expres- sed by the most powerful machinery. But the great difficulty with cotton seed, is to apply them as manure without destroying the oil which con- stitutes their value. Violent fermentation, to which they are commonly exposed, must produce a great chemical change, and particularly on so putres- cent a substance as oil. The manure is still rich, but perhaps half its amount and value has been wasted. W applied before fermenting, the seeds sprout, and in the process of germination, the oil is certainly changed to a far less valuable sub- stance. Mr. Smith has tried steaming his cotton seed — and this seems not only reasonable as a means of preserving their whole value as manure, but his experiment of the effect fully confirms the supposition. I saw where the steamed seed had been applied to corn, by throwing a single handful into each place where the corn was planted, and the growth was at least double in luxuriance and in promised product. This is a valuable improve- ment lor other parts of the country where cotton is a large crop. Steaming of seed on a large scale might be done with very little trouble or ex- pense, the object being merely to destroy the ger- minating power of the seed by heat. The valuable farm of Mr. W. L. Eyre, ex- hibits a high state of improvement, and of pro- ductiveness that is rare in this county — and which he has principally produced himself, and within the ihw years which he has been in possession. The land, however, though much impoverished, was originally among the best, which of course gave the greater facility to profit, by the applica- tion of putrescent manures. Mr. E. has also abundant means to use calcareous and marine manures, and lias availed of them to some extent, but not so much as might have been expected. It is unnecessary to speak more at length on this head, as I can refer to a communication from Mr. E., at page 731, Vol. I. of the Farmers' Register. The old oyster shoals which are there described, are found in various places on both sides of the count)'. They would not, only supply calca- reous manure, but other kinds in the salt, the mud, and the remains of putrescent vegetable, and ani- mal matters. Another excellent use might be made of this as a material for compost heaps, in which should be placed in layers the fish which may be here caught in great abundance, and at little cost. The calcareous matter would receive, and preserve for use as manure, the products of animal decomposition, and by the chemical action prevent all waste: and it seems probable also, that by the action of the animal products on the shells, (as they certainly combine chemically,) that the shells would be made more friable, and easily re- duced, when put on the land. Mr. Eyre now has fish in compost beds of earth and vegetable substances: but these substances are very interior to calcareous matter for the purpose of absorbing and retaining the products of animal decompo- sition. When fish are applied directly and with- out preparation as manure, it is the most wasteful of all the modes in which they are used. If pro- perly used, the abundance and cheapness of this material lor manure would make it of immense value to many farmers in Northampton. It has been already stated that the renting of land is extensively practiced in this county — and it is still more general in Accomac, where the more minute divisions of land, (for Virginia,) the comparative scarcity of slave labor, and other ex- isting circumstances, offer interesting subjects for inquiry and remark, which it is highly desirable should be presented to the public, by some of those who have the means. Large land-holders may, if it is desired, derive their entire income,withease and with sufficient profit, from tenants. Though the terms of rent are only from year to year, changes are not frequent. Mr. John Eyre, of Northampton, has long had a large proportion of his lands in both these counties, in the hands of tenants. He told me that he had never denied a continuation of the possession to but one person. One held the same farm tor 35 years, paying half the product as rent, and in that time increased the landlord s share from less than 40 barrels of corn, to more than 100. He did this in part by new clearings, and by using the means for manure which the location offered, and which the landlord aided in, and though not in his obligation, to his own profit as well as his tenant's. Another of his iarms was held 28 years by one tenant, who then died, and was succeeded in the possession by his son. Such cases would seem to show that there is more attachment to rented land on the Eastern Shore, than is felt on our side of the Chesapeake for lreehold inheritances on which the owners were born, and on which perhaps several generations of their ancestors were buried. My conclusions as to the soil and culture of Northampton, are very different from the opinions which prevail among most of those who are equal- ly strangers to them. It is not. uncommon to hear the country spoken of as but little better than a mere sand bank, and the tillage as miserable as the soil. These of course are exaggerated ex- pressions, and would be so admitted by those who 240 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 4. use them to express the contempt they really feel. It is possible that I may have erred as much on the other extreme. But my opinions are founded on reports of profits and prices, and of long con- tinued products, and not upon the appearance of the land, or the growing crops, and still less upon any excellence of the implements or processes of tillage. The great merit seems to be, that though neither of these are such as would command ad- miration, or even attract notice, that all the parts are well suited to each other. If I had merely judged of the state of agriculture by what was presented to my view, and without knowing any thing else, I should have certainly formed a very unfavorable opinion of the soil, the rotation, and the profits and prospects of the cultivation. July \7lh, 1S35. A CLEAKER. USES AND CULTURE OF RUTA BAGA. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. The Swedish turnip, or ruta baga, is a most valuable vegetable for all kinds of cattle. Some horses refuse it, but generally they are fond of it. When designed tor horses, the roots should be well washed and chopped up — but lor cows or hogs this is unnecessary. Indeed it is thought that cows thrive better upon the roots in their dirty state; and when given whole, they are not so likely to choke them. The teeth of sheep may be injured by roots in very dirty condition — but all these cattle eat more slowly and securely, I think, if the turnips are thrown to them in an undivided stale. I used a turnip cutter when I first began to feed them, but discontinued it as troublesome and unnecessary. The Swedish turnip, when first eaten by milch cows, gives the milk and butter a flavor some- thing like that of garlic. This is not unpleasant to some persons, and becomes less obvious as the digestive organs of the cattle more perfectly assim- ilate the food. It may be obviated, however, by dissolving an ounce of saltpetre in a pint of water, and putting a table spoonful of the solution into each milk pan as the warm milk is emptied into it. In the winter season, the butter from cows ju- diciously fed upon ruta baga, has the flavor and appearance of grass butter. Half a bushel per day, divided into three messes, is a fair allowance. I have sometimes fed a bushel and a half to each cow per diem. The vegetable is very grateful to the animal, which while eating it, requires little water to drink. I have known cows refuse to drink water for several weeks when freely fed on Swedish turnips. Straw, corn fodder, or coarse hay, is at the same time essential to enable them to chew the cud. The skin remains slack, and the health more vigorous and decided, by the use of these turnips; and the amount of barn-yard manure is much in- creased. It is best to feed twice or thrice a day. In fattening cattle, Swedish turnips, sprinkled with corn meal, gives the meat a finer quality, juice and relish. It is also an economy where corn is high in price. The ruta baga is generally thought to be a troublesome crop; and many relinquish its culti- vation from the difficulty of its management, when not thoroughly understood. The ploughing or ridging, drilling, hand-hoeing, and care, are pe- culiar, and much unnecessary labor and pains of- ten at first embarrass the cultivator. But when once well comprehended, the crop is usually es- timated highly. We generally plough up a barley, wheat, or rye stubble, immediately after harvest; then roll and harrow it well. If we have fine manure, (we often use street dirt and bones,) this is hauled out and spread, and the ridges (two furrows cast to- gether) are ploughed at once. These are rolled flat, and the seed drilled upon the top of them with a machine (a turnip drill) contrived for the purpose; or a porter bottle with a quill fixed in the cork, having a hole of sufficient size in the small end of the quill. If the manure is long, and in- tractable, the ridges are ploughed first, the dung is then carted and spread between them, and the double furrows are afterwards split, so as to cover in completely the long manure. The seed is sown tolerably thick. When the plant has lour leaves, the supernumeraries are cut out with hand-hoes, leaving the finest plants from six to twelve inches asunder. Eight inches is the average width be- tween the plants — if they are allowed to stand thiek, the crop is ruined, and no fear should be entertained to cut out freely. Before hoeing, a light triangular harrow is run between the rows to level the earth, and clear the ground from weeds. An implement with a slide behind and hinges in the front, so that the width can be changed at pleasure, according to the growth, is most convenient. . A mistake is often made with the turnip crop, in lulling up the roots by plough or hoe. The earth, on the contrary, should always be taken from the turnip. Its tap root is quite sufficient for its nourishment, and the bulb grows larger as the earth is drawn from it. The calculation is to hoe and cultivate the ground until it is quite level, harrowing or horse-hoeing between the rows, and hand-hoeing between the growing turnips. We sometimes sow barley, wheat, or rye among the ruta baga for a permanent crop, and cover in the seed when we give the turnips the last dressing with the harrow or horse-hoe. I have seen very good crops of grain after the turnips, and 300 bushels of turnips per acre. In planting Swedes for seed, care should be had that no other plants of the same family be permitted to flower near them, or in the same garden. Other kinds of turnips, cabbage, and radishes, will change the character of the seed; and of course the quality of the roots will be subsequently altered from that of the original. A friend — G.TI. Walker, of Hong- ford, Philadelphia County — who is exceedingly careful in all such matters, promises me to forward you some of the true breed, which you "will do me a favor by distributing among our friends on James River, (especially to George E. Harrison and John A. Selden, his brother Miles D. Selden, and Hill Carter, Esqs.) In your climate, except in very severe winters, like the last, you have the advantage of being able to leave the turnips in the field, to be pulled as they are wanted for use. Here we are obliged by the severity of the season, to pull and top them by the middle of November, and to hoard them away in cellars or caves, where they sometimes heat, and require much handling. You can sow later than we do, for the plant is F ARMERS' REGISTER. 241 one of a cold climate, and grows-rapidly after the firs! frosts. I am, however, now (June 30,) eat- in »■ ruta baga raised this spring in my garden by mistake; the seed being sown instead of Savoy cabbage. I find them very palatable. This turnip bears something the character of the pippin apple, which increases in sweetness and flavor by being kept. When the Swedish turnip is first taken from the ground in autumn, it has a raw, or rank taste, when prepared for the table; but towards the middle of winter, it improvesvery much. It is now sought after in our markets. often selling for 50 cents per bushel, for the use of the table, in mid-winter and spring. Its color is a fine rich looking yellow when boiled, and the only objection I know to it is, that during the process of cooking, it gives out an un- savory odor. This is of less importance when ihe kitchens are separated from the dwelling house. J. II. GIBBON. Philadelphia County, 2nd July, 1835. A REJOINDER TO MR. JOHN A. SELDEN S DE- FENCE OF THE NEW FOIR-F1ELD SYSTEM. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Brandon, July 2d, 1835. It was alike foreign from my intention and wish to appear again in the Farmers' Register on the subject of the new iour-fiekl system. Nor from this course would I now deviate, but for some re- marks to be found in a communication from the pen of my worthy friend, Mr. John A. Sefden of "Westover, (which made its appearance in the regular number of the Register for the last month,) that seem to require some notice from me, howev- er cursory, in justification of myself. At the same time I shall endeavor to show that some of the ob- jections to this system are not altogether so trivial, and without foundation, as my friend would linn make appear in his elaborate defence of his favo- rite system. Still I cannot, and will not deny, that. it possesses some great advantages; sufficiently great, perhaps, more than to counterbalance, in the opinions of many, the objections that may be fairly urged against it, allowing them their full weight. My confidence in my own opinions, on any subject, certainly has not increased as my life advances, and it is well known to me that some things succeed much better in practice than could be expected from an abstract consideration of all the arguments pro and con. Nor must it be for- gotten, that this system comes strongly recom- mended to us by two of the most skilful cultivators of the soil in eastern Virginia, my friends of Shir- ley and Westover. My friend Mr. S. says that I charged him with imprudence in recommending his system; and surely this is rather a hasty assumption, as any body may see (page 464, Vol. II. of the Register) by referring to the passage from which he infers the charge. I there slate t lie difficulties to be over- come by each individual, in fixing on the best s\ s- tcm; and then ask, if it is not imprudent to recom- mend any system for universal adoption] I then endeavor to show that no system can be suited to all situations and all soils; but that the rotation must be varied fo suit the peculiar circumstances of each ease. Now Mr. S. must have meant to recommend his system universally; or not; and as Vol. Ill— 31 such was not his intention, the remark cannot ap- ply to him; and if he had intended it (which he tells us he did not,) the truth of the remark must be evident to all. Besides, ihe proposition is gen- eral, and applies with equal force to all systems; and there is undeniably a great difference between this and the naked affirmation that Mr. S. had been guilty of imprudence. 1 even gave the ex- ample of Arator's four-field system, than which I know of no one more susceptible of profitable ge- neral adoption, to show that even that system will not answer in every case. After commending the four-field system of Ara- tor in deservedly high terms, Mr. S. descants on the frailty of human nature, which has prevented the more general adoption of it; and the passage in question might perhaps be misconstrued by one who did not know him, into a charge of unworthy motives against those who have had the temerity to disapprove of his favorite system. I am unwil- ling, however, to believe that such was his inten- tion. When Mr. S. denounced in the strongest terms the disastrous three-field system (as he call- ed it,) he surely must have expected that those who practice and approve that system, would say what they could in its favor. The wonder was not that I at length took up my pen in its defence, but that I had not long before been saved the trouble by some one of the many whose opinions coincide with mine, and who are so much better qualified to do justice to the subject. My friend asks, if it is generous and consistent to adopt a system and then denounce it? Now I mentioned that I had adopted this system on a farm that had become foul under a lenient course of management, and that I did not expect to con- tinue it longer than for a single round of crops. Surely the most scourging system might be re- sorted to for the purpose of cleansing foul land, and would, doubtless, be found the most effica- cious. I said too, that I had a light field, exclu- sively devoted to corn, which furnishes a sufficient hoe crop; thereby removing an important objec- tion to the system. If all this had been stated by Mr. S. his question would have been sufficiently answered without a single additional word from me. There are, however, other strong reasons why this system might answer on the farm in question, and not generally on lands bordering on the river. In the first place, this farm is better naturally, than the ordinary river land, though, perhaps, inferior to some favored spots; better for instance than an adjoining farm which I cultivate in three-fields. I believe too, that it is known to Mr. S. that I use lime quite extensively, by the means of which the crop of clover is ensured, and the land otherwise improved. Besides all this, the teams from the adjoining farm (cultivated in three- fields) aid in preparing the fallowed land, giving me a double force for that purpose. Surely these might be considered sufficient reasons, even for continuing this system here, when at the same time it might be thought too severe and too ex- pensive for general adoption on the river. It must be recollected too, that my hostility to the system is not utterly uncompromising. On the contraiy, I admitted that, under certain circumstances, I might myself pursue it. Allow me here to add, that I will endeavor to give this system a lair trial, and it' it should fulfil any thing like the promise Mr. S. makes for it, shall certainly not be so blind- 242 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 4. ed to my own interest, by pride of opinion, as not to persevere in it — or to the interest of others, as not 1o recommend it to them. In arguing against the general adoption of this system, it must not be overlooked that so enlight- ened and so judicious a gentleman as Mr. John Wickham, on land too, of much better than ordi- nary quality, should, after having tried, condemn it. As much as his opinions are worth ou all sub- jects, they seem to me to be at least doubled in value, when founded on experience. Mr. S. thinks the number of horses or mules, necessary to cultivate a farm in three or lour fields, equal; and states the number at 12 for 400 acres. This puts the subject in somewhat a tangible shape. In the latter part of his communication too, he gives the force employed in cultivating the Curie's estate in four fields, and slates the number at 40 mules and 50 hands. Now I leave it to all the gentlemen who prac- tise the three-field system, to say, whether there is a single instance known to any one of them, in which, on a well managed farm under that sysr lem, the number of horses or mules is so great in proportion to the arable surface in the one case, or to the number of laborers in the other. Perhaps 1 might be excused for having presu- med on the authority of Mr. S. that a much larger number than 12 for 400 acres, is necessary under the new system; for in his first communication (in page 323 Vol. I. of the Register,) he tells us that he then worked at Westover, 11 horses, 14 hands, some inefficient ones among them, and but few oxen; and that these numbers should be nearly doubled to give a just exhibition of the four-field system. Now Westover contains 400 acre's of arable land. Let me not, however, be understood as disapproving of an adequate team; but eight to a farm of 400 acres, under the three-field system, I should consider an ample allowance— more I am sure than are generally found on a farm of that extent. It is difficult to imagine, when the proportion of horses and hands is as 40 to 50, that there will not be a good many of the former idle at many seasons of the year, when manual labor is required to be performed. Mr. S. says that under the three- field system, the horses are idle from the time, the crop of corn is laid by till seed time; and elsewhere tells us that this is the critical time to plough under clover to improve the land, and also urges as an objection to the three-field system, that the corn land can very rarely be broken up in time. Now can any thing be imagined more easy than to give these idle animals employment by turning in a heavy growth of clover for corn; thereby avoid- ing all danger from the worm the ensuing spring, obviating at the same time, the objection to the three-field system, urged by Mr. S.; and by di- minishing the labor to be performed the next win- ter, more time will then be afforded for collecting materials for manure. There are unquestionably some farms under this system, on which clover is grown to considerable extent without being depas- tured; and allow me to add, that the farm cultiva- ted by me in three-fields, affords at this time am- ple evidence of the fact. There can be no reason why it should not succeed under this system ou all land able to produce it; nor why it should be gra- zed off sooner than under any oilier system. If it were impracticable, or even difficult to succeed with the clover husbandry under the three-field course, I should be one of the first to abandon it; for I am endeavoring to improve my laud exten- sively by the use of that valuable grass. Mr. S. says that the best clover does not grow on the best land. My best has certainly grown after lime and manure. Indeed, without the previous use of lime, the clover hardly pays me for the seeding; but in a few years we hope to have the whole ara- ble surface here improved in that way, having al- ready more than half accomplished it. There is one argument in favor of the four field system, which seems to have been overlooked by its advocates, and which it. may not be amiss to advert to in this place. The scantiness of the se- cond crop of wheat in the rotation is very favora- ble to clover, by sheltering the young plants with- out endangering their exigence by suffocation, as is sometimes the case when the crop is heavy. In this point of view, I must acknowledge its decided superiority over the three-field system. If the crop of corn, succeeding wheat, made on a clover fallow, is as much benefited by the decayed grass, as Mr. S. contends, why would not wheat after corn, made on clover, (as under the three-field system) receive equal benefit? Mr. S. labors to prove the superiority of wheat, as a crop, over corn. Whether he has succeeded, it must be for others to determine, and experience will be their best guide. It is certain that many of my notions ore erroneous, and I am far from wishing that any opinion of mine should be prac- tically adopted by a single individual, unless sanc- tioned and confirmed by his own experience and observation. With me, the crop of corn, estima- ting what is consumed at home at the price the remainder sells for, has been much the most pro- fitable, and far more certain, however more varia- ble the price may be. In the last two years, for instance, the gross crop of corn has been much the most valuable, although made ou less land, after deducting $360 for shorts, each year. I will add that the quantity delivered this year exceeded the delivery of any previous year by 180 bbls. and that the moiety of it was sold from the farm under the abominable three-field system, although no more expense was incurred for shorts than for the last five years. Admitting that as much corn can be made per acre under this, as under the three-field system, and that no more would be consumed, (and I am as far as ever from a'dmitting either proposition — ) as there would be one-fourth less land cultivated in corn, the gross crop would be diminished one- fourth, and as one-half of all made under the best management is usually consumed at home (even under the three-field system,) the quantity for sale would, of course, be reduced one-half. On good corn lands that crop is not unfrequent- ly the most profitable when shortest, (paradoxical as it may appear;) and the reverse of this is gen- erally true with regard to the wheat crop. The reason is that the demand for the former is local, and the price is accordingly more affected by a partial failure. Mr. S. rates his loss from shocking out his corn one year at nearly a sixth of the whole. Now we are in the habit of putting all our corn in shocks, in order to expedite the seeding of wheat, and a portion of it frequently remains out lill January, and yet we have never sustained any considerable 1835.] ARMERS' REdSfER, 243 loss from the, practice that I know of; and I can in no wise account Tor so great a loss, but by sup- posing some delect, in the corn itself. When the corn is perfectly made, and not prematurely cut down, I am confident that my loss does not exceed two per cent, from exposure in the shocks. We are told that land which will produce four barrels of corn, may be relied on to give twenty bushels of wheat on good clover fallow, well pre- pared, and seeded; and that 25 or 30 bushels may be expected under like circumstances, from such as will yield eight barrels per acre. In this par!, of the state, my opinion is that land thai would bring four barrels of corn, will not generally, without the use of calcareous manures, bring good clover at all. It might be asked, too, if the kind be equally well adapted to both crops, why the ra- tio of increase is not more nearly equal? I have always thought that there is no land, except, per- haps pipe clay, to be found in this part of Virgin- ia, that will yield as many bushels of wheat as of corn, which Mr. S's. first proposition assumes. Under the four-field system there is only one- ninth more in cultivation than under the three, and admitting that the crops are equally heavy, (which is going far enough in all conscience,) there would be only one-ninth more offal to con- vert into manure. What becomes then of the su- periority of the new system in this respect? For if there is one-ninth more manure made and applied, there is also one-ninth more land in cultivation, and that ninth is moreover deprived of the advan- tage of clover. I am willing to admit that the manure made from wheat straw ie somewhat su- perior to that produced from the offal of corn. The crop of corn made by Mr. S.'s predecessor at Wesiover, was but seven barrels per acre, f hough with very imperfect cultivation. Only a email part of the crop followed clover, as that gen- tleman informs me, and of course any calculation, based on the supposition that the whole had that advantage, can prove nothing. Does Mr. S, regard as inconsiderable the ex- pense incurred annually by wheat growers in fseed 1 If I were at all happy at numbers, it would give me pleasure to calculate, as nearly as possible, the cost to the state of Virginia every year of this single article. It must be a pretty round sum, as one-tenth or more of all the wheat made in the state is reserved for the purpose; and from the noise made about the tythes in Great Britain, this would seem to be something consider- able. As I have crossed the Atlantic, I will now try to fortify the objection against the new system, de- rived from the universal practice of the best. Eng- lish farmers, which Mr. S. regards so lightly. He tells us that he does not read books on English agriculture, but knows there may be a great dif- ference between the soil and climate there and here. This no one will deny, but I take it, the difference is decidedly against us, except that we can here cultivate that noble plant Indian corn, about the value of which Mr. S. and 1 seem to differ so widely. The climate there is very humid, anil is accordingly admirably suited to grass, as well as small grain, which is partially protected from many casualties, to which it, is liable here, by the coolness and equability of the temperature. In such a climate, one would suppose that se- verer culture might be admissible, than in a com- paratively arid and variable one like ours. Allow me to advert, too, to the great abundance of lime and other manures, foreign and domestic, which are used there, and to the skill with which they are applied. Now if in such a country, with an over- flowing population, where land is high and rents of course correspondingly so, labor is very low, and produce hardly ever fails to command a good price; three grain crops in succession are found to make too great a draught upon the fertility of the soil to be profitable; it would seem to follow afor- tiori that they cannot answer here — where the reverse of all this is true. It is considered there an established rule, founded on long experience and profound observation, that the more rarely any crop occurs in a rotation, the heavier it will be lbund to be; and the reason is, that the specific food of the plants constituting the crop, will there be found in sufficient quantities in the soil to nour- ish them to perfection. In answering this objection, my friend Mr. S. says that, the corn crop, a summer and hoe crop, intervening between the two crops of wheat, pre- pares the earth with a pabulum the better suited to the last crop of wheat. I can very readily conceive that the corn crop will diminish the pabulum that tlte succeeding crop of wheat ought to find in the soil; but can in no way discover how it can add to the quantity, until the plants. themselves revert to the earth in the shape of manure. Mr. S. accuses me of inconsistency for approv- ing the five-field system, and objecting to the new system, that it gives too little corn for sale. With regard to the farm-on which I practised this sys- tem myself I always had a sufficient corn crop; having a light field cultivated altogether in corn. We have, too, a large marsh, which answers for a standing pasture. As for my recommendation of it to others, it was only conditional, (as any' body may see by referring to the passage,) viz: when the fallow system lias already been deter- mined upon; and I assigned as a reason why I should prefer it to the new system, that, as at least one-fifth of the farm would be required as a stand- ing pasture, the same surface would be, in cultiva- tion, and the worst feature of the new system, the three successive grain crops, would lie avoided. I never thought, and no where said that it was free from all the objections that may be urged against the new system. Indeed the lair inference from what I did say is, that I considered both systems liable to the same objections, with the very im- portant exception above mentioned. It is a little remarkable that Mr. S. in his ac- count of the improvement at Woods' farm, (in page 324 Vol. I, of the Register,) where the crop Was astonishingly increased, should inform us that this great improvement was effected without a standing pasture, and the cattle, of course, deriving their sustenance from the clover field, (as he ex- pressly says,) and only one-fourth of the farm in clover; and should yet think it other than an im- proving system to have two-fifths in clover, with np greater disadvantage on the score of pasture land, and without the excessive draught upon the soil from three successive grain crops. In other words, Mr. S. would seem to think it better (other things being equal, for there is no standing pas- ture in either case,) to .have one-fourth than two- fifths in clover, and three-fourths than three-fifths in cultivation, on the score of improvement. 244 FARMERS1 REGISTER. [No. 4. The crops of wheat made by Mr. S. at West- over, have been certainly very flattering; but in accounting for them, lie seems to me to overrate the merits of the system, and to underrate the natural fertility of his land, and his own excellent management, which would doubtless insure suc- cess under any system. As these crops have been produced as evidence of the excellence of the new system, it seems that tiie following re- marks are certainly pertinent, and perhaps neces- sary to a proper understanding of the subject. The crop of wheat made by Mr. S. s prede- cessor at Westover, is by no means to be consider- ed as a fair criterion of the productiveness of the land; for, as that gentleman informs me, it was all sown after the 10th of November, (the period assigned by Mr. S. and all other good farmers, as the proper one for finishing that operation in tiiis climate,) by the force from another estate, where a full crop had been previously sown; and in ad- dition to this, the season was extremely unpro- pitious for wheat — the crops in this neck being of such inferior quality, as to require a deduction from the price originally agreed on. Mr. S. is mistaken, too, (unintentionally 1 am perfectly sure,) in regard to the amount of that crop, which was larger than stated by Mr. S., and produced from less land; a portion of the former having been reserved, and re- moved elsewhere for seed, without the knowledge, it is presumed, of Mr. S.'s informant, and twenty acres of excellent land (as nearly as it could be es- timated,) having been led out, in consequence of the advanced state of the season; it being then about the middle of December. These facts 1 have from Mr. S.'s predecessor. As far back as 1816, 3100 bushels of wheat and 600 barrels of corn were made at W estover by my kinsman, Benjamin Harrison, Esq. of Berkley, after the estate had been long subjected to the most exhausting course. If I mistake not, and if 1 do I hope to be put right, Mr. S.'s own great crop of 3000 bushels from 100 acres, was made on land on which he had put little or no other improve- ment than clover and plaster, and what was ob- tained by a masterly preparation for the crop. By a reference to his exhibit of his crops, (see page 322 Vol. I, of the Register,) and to what follows, it will be seen that this field was never cultivated by him in corn till 1833; and as he tells us he ap- plies nearly all his manure for corn, it is to be in- terred, that this field at that time (1832) had re- ceived little or no manure. I wish if any one of your subscribers has the good fortune to cultivate as fine land in three fields, that he would furnish the data which Mr. S. complains so much that he wants. I cannot help thinking, if he is a good manager, that 'his exhibit will sbow more than 5 barrels of corn, and 12 bushels of wheat per acre. I never for a moment supposed that Mr. S. was acquainted with the fact that Mr. Harding was the first to practise the new system, when he at- tributed the honor of having introduced it to Mr. James Selden. On the contrary, I am quite cer- tain that Mr. James Selden adopted it himself, without any previous knowledge of the fact. Mr. S. says that Mr. H. kept at Dover as many as 50 or 60 cows, and derived a considerable part of his profits from stock: and if so, the exhausted con- dition in which he left the estate, is certainly not fairly chargeable upon the four-field system. Mr. S. say« too, that Mr. H. improved very highly the farm to which he removed, and where be con tinued to practice that system till his death. I can only say in reply, that all bis neighbors wei unanimous in regard to that improvement. By way of illustrating the advantages of this system, my friend Mr. S. refers triumphantly to the result of the last \ ears cropping at Curie's. It is to be regretted that it had not suited his pur- pose equally well to give us the average sales from the estate, since it was purchased by the late Col. Wm. Allen, instead of referring to the results of the last year's crop, which greatly exceeded an average, and can of course prove nothing. If I mistake not, the crop of wheat of the last year exceeded, by at least a fourth or more, the average crop made on the estate since the purchase; and if so, (if I am wrong I hope to be corrected,) and if even then the crop was only 13 bushels per acre, as Mr. S. has informed us in the number of the Register for November last — this deduction of one- fourth, would, you perceive, reduce the average per acre to a very moderate one for uncommonly fine land. It happens that an estate adjoining me was of- fered in even exchange lor Curie's a lew years a^o, and the offer refused by Col. A. It would give me pleasure to present a comparative estimate of the crops made on this and that estate for the last, and several previous years; but I am pre- vented from doing so by the repugnance expressed by the proprietor, to such an obtrusion of his pri- vate concerns before the public* Without entering into minute details, I will, however, take it upon myself to say, that the sales from this estate, for two out of the last three years, have exceeded 1 lie- largest sum assigned by Mr. S. to Curie's, for the last very favorable year. It is proper to observe, that this estate has the aid of a small grist mill, and usually about $400. worth of Avheat offal, but never more; but these advantages, it is believed, are more than counterbalanced by the pork raised and fattened on the estate, (none of which it ap- pears is raised at Curie's,) by the support of a huge and expensive establishment, and of a black pop- ulation, the extent and inefficient character of which may be inferred from the fact of their being, at the last enumeration, 50 children under the working age. The despised corn crop of the last year, has, with the above aids, after supplying the heavy demands upon it, furnished a surplus for sale of more than 1500 barrels. On this estate, which is under an irregular but very improving course of cultivation, some fallowing is done, more than a fourth of the land is suffered to rest, and corn is largely aimed at as a sale crop. There are *It is strange that any such statement as is here refer- red to,and which every reader would agree with our cor- respondent in deeming interesting and useful,.should be considered as an "obtrusion of private concerns*' on the public notice. If such was the view taken by all of those who are, or may be, contributors to this journal, it would soon lose its most valuable features. There would be presented no more authenticated facts and practical proofs — and the want of these could not be compensated by mere general and intangible state- ments and theoretical views, no matter how true, and though as ably maintained as so unsatisfactory a course would permit. — Ed. Farm. Reg. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 245 more hands (I do not. know thai the physical force is greater,) and fewer horses than at Curie' . and great use is made of thai valuable animal the ox. Mr. S. says that from $1000 to $3000 worth of corn has been regularly sold from Curie's each year. Nov.- when we consider the extent, and fer- tility of that fine estate, and that all the pork used upon it is purchased, this is astoi little to lie derived from that crop. In conclusion 1 must say that, although on the very best hinds, and with the very best manage- ment, i lie new system may answer very well, and I cannot doubt that it will; yet on ordinary land, with ordinary management, ! am very far from thinking that it will ever be found to succeed. If I have not been misinformed, I believe that you, sir, have tried this system, and I am sure that many of your subscribers, myself among the number, will be, both edified and gratified, it' you will afford us the light, which you arc so well qualified, by experience and otherwise, to throw upon the subject.* I will now remark, that it has been my object to discuss this subject fairly and freely, but with- out saying a single word otherwise than respectful and kind; and [ hope that my friend Mr. S. will receive what I have written in the same spirit of perfect kindness and good will, in which it ema- nates from me. W1U. B. HARRISON. From the New York Fanner. HOPS. The opinions of intelligent and practical men, or rather the results of their own actual experi- ments, are of great value. This applies particu- larly to small farmers, whose operations, being on a limited scale, receive their immediate personal attention. In looking at such results, however; those who farm on a large scale are liable to be led into error in expecting that the same will fol- low an extended cultivation, forgetting that the success is in many cases mainly to be ascribed to this minute personal attention, stimulated and strengthened by self-interest. In extended con- cerns, that attention cannot always be given; and as much hired labor is employed, the powerful motives of interest do not operate. The large and enterprising farmer, therefore, must take tins into consideration; as his concerns extend them- *Our personal experience of the new four-shift sys- tem is so limited, and the all important part of it, the fallow process, has been so imperfectly executed, that our practice would be worse than worthless, as afford- ing an example for imitation. But they who have committed the greatest errors may be at least trusted to point them out for the avoidance of others — and in that manner only can the results of our experience be of any value. But as imperfect as may be our views on this interesting subject, as they have been called for, they shall be presented at some early time — upon the ground that we hold every reader of, and contri- butor to this journal to be hound to answer, so far as may be in his power, such inquiries as may be address- ed to him by any other reader and contributor. — Ed. Farm Reg. selves. are multiplied; and il the results of his cultivation are not proportionately corres- pondent to those of the small larmer, he must of- ten place it to the account, of circumstances abso- lutely beyond his control. Nothing valuable in this world is accomplished without perseven labor, fidelity, and attention. This is one of the wise provisions in the constitution of things; one of the benificent laws of a righteous Provid On the other hand, labor, perseverance, fidelity, raid attention, seldom fail, in ordinary circum- stances, of reasonable success. The business of the farmer particularly demands his attention, and his ill fortune may be but too often traced to ne- glect, to this want of personal attention, to the di- vision of his care among other pursuits, or to a miscalculation in extending his operations beyond his power of immediate and careful superinten- dence. These remarks often occur to me in my visits among our small farmers, with whom I have been much in ihe habit of familiar, agreeable, and instructive intercourse; whose affairs are managed under their own immediate and constant personal attention, and among whom 1 often meet, with the highest pleasure, with examples in a small way of eminent success. I have been long ac- customed to note, the observations of such men, and to gather and record any facts which they have been kind enough to communicate, where I knew I could rely upon the correctness of their statements. I now send you some information, ob- tained in this way, in relation to the cultivation of* hops by two farmers, who cultivate a small farm in partnership, in a town in Vermont, on the Connec- ticut river. Messrs. D. & II., in 1833, from four acres obtain- ed 3000 pounds, which sold for 20 cents per pound. In 1834, from five and one-halt' acres they obtain- ed 4000 pounds, which sold for 15 cents per pound. In 1833 they judged that their land, alter deduct- ing all expenses, yielded an income of $100 per acre. Hops are planted eight feet apart in hills. The cuttings are planted, and Indian corn is cultivated among them the first year, about half as thick as when planted by itself. The corn and hops are hoed at the same time. The second year the hops are polled and a crop gathered. Green barn manure is thought to be injurious to the vines. Fall manure, or compost, is deemed best. The hills are opened in the spring; the vines are then trimmed, the ground loosened, and the manure applied to the hill. The field must be kept clean of weeds. The hops are gathered by hand. Women are employed in the picking at 20 cents per day. They require to be kiln-dried im- mediately, as they are very liable to be injured by heating in the heap. From 45 to 75 lbs. are kiln- dried at a time, and the process of drying occupies about 12 hours. After drying they are put into a heap and suffered to sweat a little, and then con- veyed to be packed and bagged, which is done by a screw press. They are packed and screwed for about $5 per ton, and are then sent to market without delay. The manner and condition in which they are put up is of the greatest, impor- tance, for if the inspector discovers, on trying the bag, the whole bag is condemned. Spruce poles for hops, about 15 feet high, cost here one cent apiece. Messrs. !). & II. gave 2-5 cents per one 216 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 4 hundred and cut them for themselves. They will set this year about 4400. The market price of hops is very fluctuating, and the risk of curing them well is very considera- ble, and requires great experience and care. The ordinary yield per acre I am not able to state, as it varies greatly. In some parts of this state they are extensively cultivated; and on land, which, with- out great attention, would make very small returns. A former in Boxborough, Mass., recently from five acres of land gathered 10,000 pounds; and I have been credibly informed that a farmer on the river, about 12 miles above this, the year before the last, received from twelve to fourteen hundred dollars from the sale of his crop of hops. The cul- tivation, I am persuaded, might be extended to great advantage, as there is little fear that the market will be over supplied. It must not be for- gotten, however, that the quality and condition of the article, when sent to market, is of the first im- portance. Good hops will always command a faii- price. Damaged or ill-conditioned hops are worthless. n. c. Meadowbanks, May, 1S35. From tbe Massachusetts Agricultural Repository. PEACH TREES. Mr. William Phillips, of Pennsjlvania, has derived great benefit from the application of air slacked, old effete lime to peach trees, the effects of which, according to his own account, have been very great. He puts about a peck of lime to each tree; he thinks it useful as a preservative against the insect so fatal to these trees. We have then two applications recommended, un- leached ashes and lime, and from our own experi- ence are able to recommend both. We are not sure which has the preference. The lime and ashes should both be dug up every spring. A friend suggests that he killed his young peach trees by lime; caution is needed in the applica- tion. From the Southern Agriculturist. GEXERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE OLIVE, ORANGE AND DATE TREES GROWING IN GEORGIA RUTA BAGA TURNIP AS A SE- COND CROP AFTER CORN. St. Simon's, (Georgia,) June 17, 1S35. I am unable to excuse myself for not sooner replying to your esteemed letter of the. loth of January. I did intend writing you something on such matters, as had come under my observation, particularly respecting the olive, orange, and dates. The frost of February has destroyed those trees, leaving nothing but stumps and wrecks behind. I shall, however, still make some observations: — I had a very pretty grove of 200 olives, import- ed about 10 years since, their stems from 8 to 12 inches diameter, and, perhaps, averaging 20 to 25 feet high to the top; they have borne fruit for some years. I had also near 600 trees, or plants, from 11 to 5 years old. From comparisons be- tween the olive and orange, in previous severe frosts, where the orange was much hurt, the olive was uninjured. I have, therefore, no hesitation in believing the olive is well adapted to, and will succeed on our sea-coast, of both Carolina and Georgia. I have been personally acquainted with sour- orange trees, both on St. Simon's and Jekyl, for 58 years, and believe they were planted near 100 years since; and have never been killed by frost until last February, when they were all destroyed. I therefore, conclude, that since the first settlement of Georgia, the olive, would have succeeded. It occurs to me, that notwithstanding the present im- mense value of the olive in France, they have been cut down in some severe frosts. The olive and orange seemed so completely de- stroyed, even to some depth under ground, that I cut them down, and planted corn in their place; on examination about a month since, the lower roots still appeared fresh, I concluded that opening the ground around them might encourage vegeta- tion; and have now the satisfaction to see the olives pushing out abundance of fine strong shoots, not one failing. The oranges are doing the same, though some appear dead, not yet decided; by re- turning the earth to the olive shoots, they will throw out roots, and furnish fine plants. In fact, I am better satisfied respecting the success of the olive than I was before the severe frost. I had little hopes of any date trees surviving — some appear certainly gone, others are sprouting from the roots, some from the tops; a few put out, blossoms — so I close the list of my misfortunes in that way. I like to have some hobby in the agricultural line — my present is, raising ruta baga, a double crop after corn. In prudence I should wait another year's experience, but as the season advances, I shall relate what I do know. Every horticulturist in the southern states must have his mortification, after preparing land, to find his seed bad; indeed, he is quite an honest seedsman, that only mixes three-fourths of bad, to one of good seed. 1 have seldom ever been sofovtunate. Accident threw in my way an advertisement of William Cobbett, No. 11, Boltcourt, Fleet-Street, London, offering warranted seeds lor sale, of his own raising, par- ticularly rutabaga seed, warranted, at the follow- ing rates, if 25wt. price 9d. str. per pound, if 50wt. 8(1., if lOOwt. 6d. I got some of his seeds last year, all good; and have some arrived this year. These particulars I mention for the benefit of those who may attempt the culture of turnips or. other articles. Mr. Cobbett sends his seeds to any place (cash first paid;) mine were sent to Liverpool, expense trifling, and there put up in an air-light tin canis- ter, sufficient to hold half barrel of flour, expense 5s. lid. But. to the turnips. My corn, as usual, in rows five Ccet apart, land well ploughed in the spring by oxen, and entirely attended during summer by a small cultivator har- row of three teeth, and a light mule — no bed to the corn. In all August and September, say to the 15th of September, I consider the season in our sea-islands — the corn was stript of their leaves, and tops cut, a furrow was drawn between the rows with a shovel plough, and two bushel baskets of manure, dropt into each task row; a furrow on each side with a bar-share, covered the manure, and made a small bed; the top being levelled with a hoe, draw a small trench, two inches wide, one 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 217 deep, and therein, at every 10 inches, drop five or six seeds. Such particular and good directions are given in William Cobbett'a Year in America, also inserted in the Baltimore American Farmer, 1st volume, that I refer to it; as soon as convenient pull up the corn-stalks, and throw the earth on each side to the turnip bed; the rows will of course be five feet apart, but where land is plenty, this is an advan- tage. If there was no corn I should not plant ruta baga at a less distance titan lour leet. The following spring plant corn in the turnip bed; it will receive the benefit of the manure. I am con- vinced land this way will be much improved and produce double crops; the last crop (turnips) more valuable than the corn. I planted eight acres this way last year; the sea- son was dry, and my people awkward; the seed though good, came up badly, from drought and bad planting; my ruta baga being exhausted [ fill- ed up with Norfolk turnip; crop hardly set till late in September. Turnips, as Cobbett sa} s, are poor watery things, compared with ruta baga, and so they are; yet, quite beneficial to cattle fed on dry food. Most of my field consisted of Norfolk tur- nip, and I commenced on them, reserving the ruta baga till the last, having many oxen; I regularly led, during December and January, 30 bushels of turnips per day, chopped up raw, and found much advantage. My allowance of ruta baga, was five bushels per day, which was boiled, for experiment. I fed two horses one month thereon, without grain, only rice-straw; 1 never saw horses thrive better. Some sheep were fed on boiled ruta baga, raw Norfolk turnip and cotton seed; I never saw fatter mutton. Poultry requires no better food. My negroes had free access to the turnip patch. I preferred the ru- ta baga; seldom eating a meal without a plenty. When the frost happened in February, the Nor- folk turnip was entirely destroyed, and though the ruta baga were frozen, after being thawed, they remained good. My present crop oi corn, plant- ed in the last year's turnip beds, looks very well. I am respectfully, dear sir, Your most obedient servant, JOHN COUPEE. From the Southern Agriculturist observations o& the stink-weed, (cas- sia occidentals) recently termed the florida coffee. St. Helena, June 15, 1835. Dear Sir — In the last number of the Southern Agriculturist, I see a short article upon the Flori- da coffee. The writer is perlectly correct in say- ing that it is nothing more than a useless weed, which grows here abundantly, but he has mistaken the name, supposing him to have purchased the same kind of seed that I did. He calls it ihe horse indigo, (fiabtisia tinctoria,) the Sophora tinctoria of Linnaeus. This plant is delineated in Prof. Rafinesque's Medical Flora. The plant which I have hatched on the contrary, is the Cassia occi- dentalis, or Styptic-weed, or as it is very signifi- cantly termed in a note to the communication, stink-weed. It grows more abundantly in the town of Beaufort, than any other locality with which I am acquainted. It may be that Florida beats it in this respect, but if they can send all their seed elsewhere, they will be getting rid of a nuisance, and make a handsome profit into the bargain, il" the seed maintains its original price. So great was its abundance in the vacant lots in the town of Beaufort, and so offensive its smell, that the inhabitants of that town, in the year 1817, when the bilious fever prevailed to an alarming and deadly extent, conceived the impression that the cause might be owing to this loathsome weed, or at least contributed to by it. They, therefore, had them cut up in all parts of the town, but unfortu- nately neglected removing them. The consequence was, that they became still more offensive. Since then, they have every year cut them down when working the streets, and "thrown them like the loathsome weed away." It is frequently used there as a styptic to fresh cuts, and I have been inform- ed is considered useful for that purpose, but never having tried it myself, cannot say what its proper- ties are in this respect. I saw some of the prepared coffee in its pow- dered or ground state, and it had the appearance and the smell of coffee, but not. its peculiar aroma. Indeed, there are a thousand things which when charred and ground, will deceive many persons. The rye thus prepared is used extensively in the northern states, in the interior, that with long sweetening (molasses) in contradistinction to short, (sugar) forms the principal morning beverage. In Germany, Chiccory is used either alone or com- bined with cofiee, and this not at all confined to the poorer classes, but by many who consider it a.s giving an additional flavor to the cofiee. So, also, in many parte, the roots of the Dandilion, (Lenn- todoa taraxacum) is prepared and used in like manner. Indeed, as they are. now appl> ing India rubber to so many purposes, I would not be at all surprised if some one should advertise Caoutchouc coffee, as it has already been converted into bread, it can certainly be burnt into an imitation or sub- stitute lor cofiee; and the same may be said of deal- boards, to all those who may choose to deal in such substitutes, when the genu-ine article, as our northern brethern can assure us, can be procured at a much cheaper rate. Respectfully, yours, CHARLES WM. CAPERS, M. D. From the Southern Agriculturist. IRRIGATION OF GARDENS. "In the south of Spain, no garden is formed but in a situation where it can be irrigated; and the water for this purpose is drawn from deep wells by what is called a noria, viz., a kind of water wheel, which is described and figured in Loudon's Encyc. of Agr. The ground is laid out in small squares, separated by channels for conveying the water. Each square is a level panel, sunk a few inches below the water channel; and at one angle of each panel is a small opening in its bank or border for the admission of the water. On the margin of the squares, garlic is commonly planted. The olive is raised from truncheons of 8 feet to 10 feet in length, and from two inches to three inches in diameter. 'They are sunk about four leet orfive feet into the ground; and the part of the truncheon above ground is covered, during the first sunnier, with a cone of earth or clay, to the height of from 248 FAR M E R S ' REGIS T E 11 . [No. 4. two feet to three feei, doubtless to prevent the sun from drying up the sap of the truncheon. Vines, in some, places, are trained with single stems to the height of two feet or three feet, and then al- lowed to branch out like gooseberry bushes; they are manured with recent stable dung when it can be got, and the fruit is never found to be injured by it." — Busby's Journal. Colonel Pinckney's house in Pendleton, is at the top of a hill, of about 70 feet elevation, and is at 800 feet, measured superficially, from a spring, which gushes out at the foot of the hill. The ri- vulet, or as we call it, springbrancb, falls over one or two rocks at a little distance, but as the quanti- ty of water is small, it is kept back by a little dam furnished with a floodgate sell-acting, by means of a float, which lifts the gate as soon as a sufficient head of water is accumulated to act advantageous- ly. The water falls upon a small wheel which sets in operation Hubbard's patent forcing pump; and the spring water is carried through leaden pipes, 18 inches under ground to the top of the hill, and is discharged in the kitchen; from which the surplus is conducted, by proper channels, from level to level, through the garden, on the hill side. This example ought to be contageous, the only doubt of its utility lies in the use of leaden pipes; the proprietor considers the constant use of them as a sufficient security against the poisonous influ- ence of the lead, but we know that, lately objec- tions have been made to the salubrity of the wa- ter conducted into the town of Mobile, through leaden pipes, notwithstanding their constant use; and the Messrs. Fabers, with several workmen, at their country seat, on Pon Pon river, have just recovered from very formidable and repeated spas- modic attacks, brought on by the use of water forced by one of these ingenious contrivances, through leaden pipes from their spring into their buildings. The use of wooden pipes or small iron castings would be free from any risk. The precautions taken to supply abundant mois- ture to the cuttings of olive, show the cause of the failure to propagate the olive by cuttings in this country. In this city and at Mr. John Couper's, on St. Simon's Island, cuttings have been made to germinate, but after putting forth, the leaves pe- rish and the cuttings become a dry stick under our sun. It is far easier for us to propagate the olive by seedlings, according to Mr. Mey's practice, de- scribed in the 6th vol. page 308, and confirmed in page 250, and in vol. 3, page 230 of the Southern Agriculturist — Conductor of Southern Agricultu- rist. From the Ohio Farmer. PROTECTION TO SHEEP. Clarke Co., Ky. May 19, 1835. It is known to those who have tried the experi- ment, that sheep put into the same enclosure with cattle that are in good order or cows having with them young calves, are completely protected by them, from the attacks of dogs; anil I believe they would also be protected from the, attacks of wolves, though of this last I have no experience, the wolves having been exterminated from this sec- tion long since. These remarks are made in reference to the large breed of cattle we have in this county; but it is believed that any cattle that are tolerably fat, will show the same dislike to the dog. S. D. MARTIN. From the Petersburg [ntelligencer, MATOACA MANUFACTURING COMPANY. We had the pleasure, a few days since, of vi- siting the works of this company, situated on the north bank of the Appomattox about four miles from Petersburg, and were no less gratified by the beauty and substantial appearance of the buildings than surprised at the expedition with which they have been erected. They consist of two cotton mills, three stories high, a machine shop and sizing house, built of granite of a superior quality, obtained from a quarry on the company's land. The principal mill is 118 feet, long by 4 t feet wide; the other 90 feet long by 40 feet wide. They will contain about 4000 spindles and 170 looms, a large portion of which have been setup and rea- dy for use. In addition to these, buildings, the company have erected a granite hor.se for a store, and fifteen or twenty frame tenements, as residences for the workmen, each to contain two families: and pre- parations have been made to erect as many more as the establishment may require. When the whole shall be completed, and the mills in full op- eration, it is estimated that Matoaca will contain between 400 and 500 inhabitants. It had already assumed the appearance of a village, and will, in a short time vie with any manufacturing establish ment in the country for beauty of situation, the substantial construction of its buildings, and the care and attention bestowed on the comfortable ac- commodation of the workmen. It is expected to put the works in operation ear- ly in the next month, and we understand that it is the intention of the company to manufacture all the cotton spun in their mills into cloth. Matoaca furnishes another gratifying evidence of the enterprise of our fellow citizens, and of the increasing prosperity of Petersburg. We have now (in addition to the several well known flour mills) five cotton, and two cotton seed oil mills; and there remains a large unemployed water pow- er on the Appomattox. From the Farmer and Gardener. IMPORTANT EXPERIMENT IN POTATO CUT- TINGS. Mr. Roberts — It. being desirable among cultiva- tors to produce early vegetables, I lake the liberty of noticing through your journal, an experiment on the potato crop, which may possibly fie (bund use- ful to your subscibers, and cause our markets to be supplied with new potatoes about two weeks ear- lier than is customary, besides enabling those who plant them to prevent the ragged and uneven ap- pearance, which potato crops too generally present when coming up. In order to have a lull and sat- isfactory trial, I caused a large square of ground to be prepared in my garden, and laid it out, in four long beds, all well manured. In one of these beds I planted the top or crown of the potatoes, (mercer) in the next, the sides, and in the two last, the crowns and sides promiscuously. The crowns are 1935.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 249 nil up about eight inches high, and look very flourishing. On examining the bed in which the sides were planted I find them just sprouting, being but about one inch from the bulb, the surface of the ground having no appearance of vegetation whatever. The other two beds have come up as they were planted, promiscuously, presenting a very rough and uneven appearance, while some are eight inches high, others have not made their way through the earth. This patch was planted on the 18th June, and I mention the facts thus fat- developed, to encourage others to make more care- ful experiments, on more extensive scales, and to excite a spirit of inquiry: satisfied that we agricul- turists have much to learn yet. s. July 9, 1835. From the Farmer and Gardener. ON THE MANAGEMENT OF ARTIFICIAL GRASS- ES. Clairmont, 6th Month 20, 1835. Edward P. Roberts, Respected Friend — I have received thy letter of the 13lh inst., containing 12 queries relative to the culture and suitableness of the most approved spe- cies of grasses, for dairy purposes, intended lor the information of a gentleman to the south. And while I comply most cheerfully in replying thereto, I hope I shall be excused, at this busy season of the year, for making my answers as concise as pos- sible. 1 am fully sensible that the subjects to which thou has called my attention, are vitally important, and are entitled to a more minute and extensive no- tice than I have leisure now to devote to them, but if a plain account of my opinions and practice, will be of any service to our southern subscri- ber and inquirer, or to others, they are at thy ser- vice. 1st Query. Is clover suited to being grazed by cattle, horses, &c. — or is it more profitable to cut it and soil the cattle with it? In reply to this query, I may observe, that red clover is good for grazing cattle; but in order to derive the full benefit of enriching the land by it, the cattle ought not to graze on it until it is nearly or quite in bloom, whereby the droppings of the cattle, are in some degree covered by the clover, and the evaporation of the more valuable portions of the manure, thus to aconsiderable extent,prevent- ed. The cattle should be taken off early enough in the fall to leave a good cover, to protect the roots of the clover, and prevent their being drawn out by the winter frosts. Clover is now generally known to be the best of all grasses for enriching and im- proving poor land; it should, therefore, be sown with all the varieties of spear grasses, viz: — orchard grass, timothy, tall meadow-oat, and herds grass, if the latter be sown on dry mellow land. Although red clover is not the best grass for grazing cattle, yet it is essential to the grazing, as it fertilizes the land, and thereby promotes the growth of white clover and green grass, poa pra- teimis, which are considered as the richest and most acc^table to cattle of all grasses. Soiling of cattle in the stalls have two good pro- perties in it, viz. cattle thus fed furnish more raa- Vol, III— 32 nure, and require loss land to provide the necessa- ry supplies of provender, but these are not gained without additional expense, and great risk to the health of the cattle, which is certain to be impaired more or less, unless they are permitted to range abroad a part of each day. 2d Query. Is lucerne better suited to soiling milch cows than the common red clover; docs it yield more green fodder, and is it earlier? 3d Query. Is orchard grass calculated to be- ing grazed by cattle — does it sustain much loss from the treading down of the cattle while feed- ing? Answer to the 2d and 3d queries. The cheap- est and earliest article for soiling, is, I think, the tall meadow oat grass — avena elictor. T1W lu- cerne is equally early, and as good or better for soiling; but its culture is more difficult and expen- sive. The red clover soon follows them, and when ready to cut we have no occasion for a better ar- ticle to soil with. The orchard grass and tall mea- dow oat, atfords the most pasture of any of the spear grasses I am acquainted with, and will make good and suitable hay for cattle if sown thick, and cut when in flower, or rather before; continuing longer in sandy land than most other grasses and . bears the trampling of cattle well. I shall now answer the following of thy ques- tions, under the same general head: 4th Query. Is it considered judicious to sow clover seed and orchard grass seed together to graze upon? 5th Query. Is it considered sound economy to sow the above grasses together for hay? In either case, what are the respective pro portions of seed of each that should be sown to the acre? 6th Query. Will the orchard grass mature sufficiently early to be cut with the clover lor hay. 7th Query. What quantity of orchard grass when sown alone, should be sown on an acre in- tended for hay? 8th Query. Should a largerquantity of orchard grass be sown on an acre intended for grazing than on one intended to be cut for hay? 9th Query. Will herds grass bear grazing; and is there much loss resulting from the hoofs of the cattle? 10th Which of all the artificial grasses within your knowledge would you prefer for grazing, and which for soiling? 11th Query. Which of the artificial grasses is the most profitable lor hay, regard being had to its nutritious quality, facility of curing, and adap- tation as food for cattle? I am in the regular practice of sowing from five to six quarts of clover seed to the acre, in March, on land that was sowed in t!ie.previous fall wiih orchard grass, or tall meadow oat. They are. in flower about the same time and are well calculated to support the clover, and be mowed together. The requisite quantity of orchard grass seed for an acre, depends much on how well it has been cleaned and prepared for sowing. I sow about two bushels when clean, first preparing it as fol- lows:— lay the seed about 'bur inches thick on a floor; make it thoroughly damp by repeatedly wa- tering it well, and care should be taken to turn it frequently. It should remain thus for about 36 hours, which renders the seed heavier, causes it to fall freer from the hand, and enables the sower 250 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 4. to distribute it more evenly, it not being from its increased specific gravity so liable to be affected by the wind. "Another advantage gain- ed is — it vegetates with much greater certainly. Herds grass makes good hay for milch cows, being soft and nutritious, but the yield is not equal to other grasses, either for hay or pasture. — It may, however, be sown to profit on cold damp lands, where it thrives better than on dry land, and will grow on land too wet for any of the other grasses enumerated above. 1 prefer clover and orchard grass mixed to feed catlle with in hay or pasture: and timothy and clo- ver for horses. Although the clover ripens earlier than the timothy; yet if cut. when in bloom, they m;il a better hay than either do separately. Ow- ing to the astringent quality of the timothy, horses fed alone on it constantly, become costive, if not feverish, and sometimes both; these being the ne- cessary consequences of such a condition of the bowels, when long continued. This injurious and natural tendency of the timothy, is corrected by the clover; its admixture therefore with the latter is absolutely necessary to the preservation of the health of horses. Should some of the clover when mowed with the timothy be so ripe as to crumble on making it into hay, it should not be considered as a loss; it lalls to the ground where it decomposes, and in part repays the soil for what it has abstract- ed from it, and thus serves to fertilize it and enable it the better to nourish and bring forth its next crop. 12th Query. What quantity of seed of each of the several grasses should be sown — when — and how should the ground be prepared, manured, &c? Answer to the 12th Query. In order to prepare lands in the best manner for grass seed, all the na- tive grass and weeds must be completely eradica- ted by the culture of mellowing crops; such as In- dian corn, tobacco, cotton or potatoes, or by a cleansing fallow of repeated plough ings and liar- rowings during the spring and summer; and if not rich enough to produce from five to six barrels, of five bushels each of corn, to the acre, manure the land and plough it in with a shallow fur- row just before sowing the seed. If lime or ashes should be used, it will be best to harrow them in. 1 prefer sowing the spear grass seeds in the lati- tude of Baltimore from the 1st to the 25th of Sep- tember. However, on stiff clay they may be sown later, as also on sandy lands, owing to the injurious effects resulting from their heated sur- face. For every degree south of, and parallel with, Baltimore, and the sea-coast, sow the spear grass seeds about ten days later: and in the spring sow clover seed tendays^arlier. '• I sow about the same quantity of oat grass seed & of orchard, and about five quarts of timothy seed, and one-half a bushel of herds. It is the neatest way to sow the spear grasses by them- selves: nor do they require, in my opinion, the pro- tection of grain crops; but it is however, some- times a convenience to sow these seeds on wheat, rye and oat fields — and often very judicious in a routine of c-rops. It is not, nevertheless, always best on grazing farms, the shattering grain fre- quently proving a weed to the succeeding grass crops, whilst those grain crops, themselves, sub- tract much of the nutriment which should have been permitted to, and otherwise would, have sus- tained the grass. Respectfully, thy friend, KOBERT SINCLAIR. From the Southern Agriculturist. ON THE BFNEF1T DERIVED FROM THE PEA CROP. Woodlands, (Ala.') April 15, 1835. Dear Sir — The great benefits derived from the pea crop in the south, are generally known to planters, but, it will be readily granted by those ac- quainted with southern agriculture, that the advan- tages which a knowledge of this fact might give to them, are but partially experienced, owing to the want of being informed of a successful and rea- dy mode of preserving that valuable plant. In No. 12, for December last, I think this subject is brought forward by one of your writers, and whose remarks has induced me, sir, to oiler to you, and through your truly valuable periodical, the mite ot my practical knowledge of the value of the pea, arising from the manner in which I cultivate and preserve it, and also apply it in the feeding and support of stock. And here, I beg leave to sug- gest an idea, the application of which I have fre- quently noticed, and not unfrequently felt, viz. that the relative value of any product of planting in- dustry depends in a great degree on a judicious application of it, and a strict adherence to a well timed system of economy. Under a belief in the truth of this remark, I have appropriated my pea crop exclusively to the support of my milch cows and sheep, and fattening kids. It aids equally in the production of superior milk and butter during the winter, and fine mutton and lamb — four pro- minent items in comfortable living. The pea crop claims a considerable credit from the circumstance of being produced by the same labor that brings to maturity a crop of corn. Another value is fairly claimed by this plant, as an ameliorator of the soil, independent of a valuable product. The pea can be sown or planted after a crop of small grain is taken from the ground. My practice is to cut my rye and oats, what would be called early, or just before they are perfectly ripe, remove the grain from the field, and stack to cure, in some other, and turn in the stubble as soon as possible on peas previously sown — and this course more especially to improve my land, which last would be partially lost by cultivating the peas. This course is adopt- ed also, not only to improve the land but to admit the pea to be put into the ground in good time to se- cure a heavy, crop, and to give greater value to the straw of the oats or rye, and which I stack, or rather house, sometimes the day after cutting, by giving a liberal quantity of salt, sprinkling it over as I stack the last. When I plant the pea with the corn crop, I put the seed into the ground uniformly, so as to secure one ploughing of the corn to the pea, as also a liberal share of the hoe. As early as the pea reaches maturity, anticipating about the time now admitted, in saving small grain, viz. "just before it is perfectly ripe," while yet the leaf and vine^x- hibit a growing state, the jieas are pulled u"or cut at the ground, with knives made for the pur- pose of cutting down corn, the cutters returning along the row, cut by them* and gathering into 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 251 small armslull, raise up the bunch, placing it as upright as it can be made to stand, ibr the more free admittance of sun and air. If planted among corn, this last has been sometimes removed from the field, by being cut at the ground, saving in this Avay, stalks, blades, tops and corn. After one day's sun, I turn and raise up the bunches of vine and peas, and if any assurance of the continuance of good weather can be seen, T give them another day. The following I haul in, on a long coupled low- wheel wagon, fixed for the purpose with racks. Satisfied from reason and experience, that open pens are better calculated for the preservation of every kind of straw and vines in our climate, than close buildings, I have pens built of chestnut rails, about twelve feet in length, which pens can be re- moved at pleasure: in them I placed a tight floor of jointed plank, moveable if required, and raised about two feet from the ground. On this floor 1 lay a little well cured and dry wheat, rye, oats, or rice-straw, and on this, pea vines are put, until the layer, after being pressed down by the weight of a child, will be about twelve inches thick; on this layer salt is scattered — there is no loss by scat- tering the salt freely, the floor ultimately arresting what passes through in handling and feeding; what goes off with the pea vines being necessary for the thriving and health of the animals fed — the first going to salt my hogs the next year. The scatter- ing of the salt is followed by straw, peas as before, and salt, until the pen is filled, when the roof o) broad and sound clapboards is laid on, and secured by cross-rails, which interlock with the last put on. In this mode of housing my pea crop, I consult saving time, convenience and economy. In place of a door, I have three of the rails so fixed on the front side, (or whatever one is most convenient to take out) that they can be moved as bars. The leaves and vines are generally taken out as green and sweet as when housed, and if possible, sub- mitted to the cutting box, and which is found an excellent preparation for the use of the animal feeding on them. This last enables them to fill themselves much sooner. The vines are cut about an inch, and if not steamed, (which is a superior preparation for milch cows) are put into the feed- ing trough, and sprinkled with a liquid preparation of water, with as much corn or rye-meal in it as will produce the vinous fermentation, and used just as the dcelus has commenced. By pursuing this mode of saving, and using this plant, it will readily occur that an acre gives, when either planted among corn, or sown after grain, a fine quantity of dry winter food, and of a most nutri- tious character. The period at which the vines are taken up, makes the pod hold the pea much more tenacious- ly than if suffered to get perfectly ripe; consequent- ly there is less waste in feeding. A tew pigs suf- fered to run in the cattle or sheep pens, accounts honestly for every pea. If fed in racks, the peas may be fairly credited with the maintainance of one pig lor every sheep, and four for each cow, during the time of feeding. The straw is given out with the vines and eaten with avidity, evidently imbibing so much of the quality of the pea as to become very agreeable to the taste of animals, particularly oxen, to whom I give it frequently. In filling the pen, I place a large keg in the centre, drawing it up as I progress. This leaves an opening for the escape of any pro- duct of fermentation that may arise, as also, for the entrance of atmosperic air. For a stock of that valuable animal, the sheep, there cannot be a superior winter provision, espe- cially if a few turnips are added, or an hour in the day in a rye-field, with pointed attention to salt- ing. From a fair trial, I know this mode of feeding that animal, preserves a fine state of flesh, fleece and health, during our short winters. With some, kid is a delicacy, kept on this food along with the sheep, the real "savory meat" may be had. CINCINNATI'S. KILNS FOR DRYING CORN — MODEOF INVESTI- GATION IN THE CHEAT CONTROVERSY. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Granville, Jf. C. July 14, 183S. I am desirous of erecting a kiln for the purpose of drying Indian corn to be ground into meal in the spring, and kept for use duringthe summer months. Will you be so good as to furnish through your Register, the most approved plan of building them? The size, the mode, and material of construction, &c% The cheat controversy has escaped unsettled from your paper. If wheat is changed to cheat the fact may be demonstratively shown by care- fully taking up by the roots the bunches of cheat, and washing the earth from the roots. If the hull of the parent grain of wheat can be found attach- ed to the cheat, no one can longer doubt that the change does take place. I have in this way wash- ed and examined often the roots of wheat and of cheat: the hull of the grain of wheat I generally found adhering to the roots of the wheat, but ne- ver to the cheat. W. O. GREGORY. ril For the Farmers' Register. LUCERNE — MANURE ON BARREN SOILS. Lynchburg, July 9th, 1835. This valuable grass is not sufficiently known among our farmers. I have had a lot of it for several years, and am much pleased with it. Al- though it is not calculated to supercede clover on a large scale, and one cutting does not produce quite as much, yet it has several advantages. It is fit for use twelve or fifteen days earlier — can be cut from four to six times a year — never salivates, but is good throughout the season, and does not require renewing for many years. Every farmer should have, at, least, a sufficient Jot of it, but as it requires free manuring, it will, as a crop suit only those who have much manure and little land. And here permit me to make a few suggestions respecting manure. Every well directed move- ment that is made in relation to this article gives the most ample returns, but like all other opera- tions, it requires judgement. Rich stable manure ought to remain under a shelter till carried to the field. Only observe the large quantity of highly colored water it gives out after a heavy rain. When there is plenty of straw, corn stalks and other litter, the case is different, as these absorb what would otherwise run off. Indeed it is prob- able that a large portion of the value of the corn stalk as a manure, is owing to its capacity for ab- 25-2 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 4. sorption. In general, land that is "bom poor'' cannot be manured to advantage, unlil something is done to change its constitution, whether it be lime, marl, burnt clay, ashes or other substances. We all know that, the decomposition of vegetable matter tends to improve the generality of soils: yet there is laud in our country that has had weed -, grass, leaves and other matter rotting on it for hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years, and is yet poor. There are lands in the neighbor- hood of large cities which the skill of the chemist and farmer combined, has not been able to render fertile. I am informed there is land not many miles from London itself, that has never been made productive. It would certainly be a waste of manure to put it on such stubborn soils. I am aware, Mr. Editor, that some of your readers un- derstand these things much better than I do, but there are others wKo have paid little attention to the subject, and you know that to impart informa- tion, and correct bad habits of long standing in many persons, requires "precept on precept, and line upon line." M. D. EFFECT OF QUICKLIME ON THE MAGGOTS OF HESSIAN FLY. CROPS OF WHEAT IN THE VALLEY. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Augusta County, Va., July 16, 1835. You requested "a statement of some experi- ments and observations on Hessian fly." I have made, no experiments on that subject, but suppose Mr. A. referred to some observations on that sub- ject made by me when he was here sometime since. It consists in sowing lime on the wheat at the time it begins to shoot; the theory of the modus operandi is, that the egg that produces the worm, or small insect, is deposited through the blades of the wheat, and ob^ins vitality about the time the stem begins to shoot or rise up, and it begins then to eat it, or by ils bulk prevent the growl h of the etalk. The remedy is then to sow broadcast lime, first made as fine as possible and dry; and it must be sowed when there is a heavy dew, or during a shower of rain. About a bushel of lime to an acre is thought to be sufficient. I had last sum- mer an opportunity of observing a piece of wheat that was treated in this manner. It appeared to become yellow and be on the decline; and after the application of the lime, it changed color and ap- peared recruited, and was at harvest almost as good as the other part of the field, in which there was not any fly. You can readily conceive the manner of the water or dew on the wheat be- coming impregnated with lime, which it must re- ceive in the process of sowing, and running down the stalk, and coming in contact with the young fly, and destroying it by its caustic qualities. The apprehension of the most desponding is realized, as to the product of the crops of wheat in this region of country. It has been estimated at one-fourth of an ordinary crop. Perhaps taking Augusta County, it may turn out so — but in my neighborhood, I think, it will not be so much. I think that I will not have more than the seed sown, if eo much — but some others will have half a crop, and some Cew as good as ordinary. Wheat, does not ripen as it generally does — it is now the 16ih of July, and I have harvested none as yet, though some people are cutting now. The time of com- mencing harvest here, is usually in the last of June or first of July. Wheat is generally thin on the ground, and we have had a late and cold spring, and wheat is taken with mildew, scab, smut, and almost every disease to which it is sub- ject— and being so thin as not to cover the ground, weeds and cheat, and all kinds of trash grow up with the wheat. In Rockbridge, the county next up the. Valley, the crops of wheat are much better than in this county: in many parts of that county I am told their crops of wheat are good — but down the Valley to the Potomac, I believe the cropa have in a great measure failed. \VM. M. TATE. For the Farmers' Register. ON THE BAD EFFECTS OF COLD ON SOILS AND THEIR PRODUCTS. fVardsfork, Charlotte. In the first place, in those regions of the earth where winter is most severe, the soil is the most ♦ril ; and where warmth prevails, fertility abounds. ' Secondly. Nature provides against the bad ef- fects of frost, by covering the earth with trees, whose, leaves dropping in autumn, prepare a cover- ing against winier. Where cold is so severe as to benumb the vital principle of soil, there is nothing but. barrenness. Thirdly. Land newly cleared, is most produc- tive (if well broke) the first year, being long se- cured from freezing by a bed of leaves. And those parts of the clearing produce best which have a southern exposure. Fourthly. Land produces better after being covered during the winter by deep snows, as these snows prevent freezing. Fifthly. Land is more productive where it is covered during the winter by logs, brush, stacks, and even frocks and clay, where there is no marl. Soils brought up from below the reach of frost, will also produce best. Sixthly. Land broke in the fall and exposed to the winter freeze, does not produce eo kindly as when broke in the spring: though the opposite notion is held by most, but. it is neither agreeable to reason nor to nature. Uncovering the earth in the fall exposes it to all the disorganizing effects of wet and cold. Forwarding business, is the only thing that can be said in favor of fall plough- ing. Seventhly. The method which nature takes to restore exhausted soil, shows it is injured by cold. There is a vis medicatrix in inanimate, as well as animated nature. The way we are told to become eminent in medicine, is to watch the movement of the conservative principle ; and so I judge it is in agricuhure. When exhausted land is thrown out of cultivation, the conservative principle be- gins to prepare a covering for the. soil. The broom- straw is generally selected. This humble sedge is only of negative advantage — nature only aims at a piece of economy — a home dress to hide na- kedness and keep oft" cold, and tie the soil together, until she can prepare a better suit. The action of frost without this covering, would be altogether destructive. I have observed after a freeze suc- ceeded by rains, the galls increase for want ot 1SS5.] FARMERS' REGISTER 253 broomstraw to hold the soil together, and there is a perpetual dividing and crumbling of particles of earth, and a vast quantity of this "real estate" is really hastening off to the sea. Such a "removal of the deposites7' is producing waste and want in the land. It is for the want of nature's covering, that galls become gulleys — cultivation never made fulleys. Bad cultivation, to be sure, will assist; ut good cultivation will not prevent the bad ef- fects of freezing. Nature clearly shows that the mode of defence against this destructive agent, cold, is the covering of the surface. The next after the growth of sedge, is the old-field pine. Here nature aims at something more than a nega- tive good: soil improves somewhat under this thick warm evergreen shelter, so secure against the ac- tion of frost. Nature surely abhors nakedness as much as she abhors a vacuum! With some practical inferences, I shall con- clude. In the first place, I infer that the best mode of shielding the soil against the action of" winter, is the great desideratum. Throwing your coarse ma- nure over the surface, would contribute to this end. So would brush and other offal of your new- grounds. It also points out the great advantage of raising those grasses which would not only protect the soil against heat, but cold also. Secondly. Galls and gulleys must be healed by covering them effectually against the action of frost, and diverting the rain waters from them by protectors. Never suffer any place naked of soil to be naked of clothing or covering. For cold in winter, is like old Harry Lee was in war: it makes for the weak points. It will be nibbling at such places through the whole winter, and they will be increased every year. What with the growing of Yankee collections and winter freezing, I think Old Virginia is dying not a very lingering death. Thirdly. I infer that it is best to plough land in the spring; that plant beds should be covered during winter, and also garden spots; as keeping out the cold quickens the vegetating principle, and gives a forward growth to plants. Fourthly. I infer that there is no necessity for the four-shift system, the grand promoter of emi- gration, sending off more than would an annual insurrection. If our fields were kept well covered with vegetation, and coarse litter, there would be no need of so much rest. The monopoly of land- ed property now increasing, and shoving out many of the laboring people to the west, is a serious matter to Virginia, and it arises in some measure from the idea, that it. takes a longer lime to make land rich, and it must be done by rest principally. If this notion remains with us long, the bone and sinew of the state will be driven off, and who will be left behind? A few of the genteel with their many shifts and many diggers' will have more high blood than high pluck, more bowels than brains; and will in less than a half century, (if they breed at all,) by marrying (but not loving) their rich cousins, fill the land with halt, withered and blind, which would take another pool of Siloam with an ana;el to trouble it, to make them whole again. The view I have taken, suggests the necessity of covering the soil around the roots of grape vines, valuable shrubs, and fruit trees. Does not j the close observer of nature see how she covers I the roots of trees with leaves, full time enough to guard against winter? j. r, | ^ From the Penny Magazine. OS THE HATCHING OF POULTRY. In the hatchingof poultry, asin most otherthings, nature is the best guide. The hen and duck, if left to themselves, find some dry, warm, sandy hedge or bank, in which to deposite their eggs, forming their nests of leaves, moss, or dry grass. In this way the warmth is retained when the bird quits the nestfor the momentsshe devotes to her scanty and hurried meal. The good housewife's mode is the reverse of this. She makes a nest, or box, of stone, brick, or wood, and fills it with clean lonf straw. By this means, less heat is generated by the hen, and that which is produced quickly es- capes in her occasional absences; — the eggs arc chilled and addled, and frequent failures ensue in the expected brood. To obviate this, the best mode is to put at the bottom and sides of the boxes of the henhouse, a sufficient quantity of fine, dry sand, or of coal or wood ashes, lining them with a little well-broken dry grass, or untwisted hay- bands, or moss, or bruised straw. Wood-ashes have been found to be the best, as they produce the effect of destroying the fleas by which poultry are so much infested; and that this will not be dis- agreeable to them is evident from the propensity which they have to roll in heaps of dust, or of ashes of any kind. An experienced rearer of poul- try adopted the method above described during a long course of years and scarcely ever met with a disappointment. From the Franklin Mercury. A PROFITABLE CROP OF MULBERRY PLANTS. A Northampton gentleman planted last year a half-paper (costing twenty-five cents) of the Mo- ms Multicaulis, or Chinese Mulberry. The seed occupied a lew feet square of his garden, and the plants came up to the number of about two hun- dred and forty. For these plants he has repeated- ly this season been offered twenty-five cents each. The principal reason of this, however, is that the seed originally procured of this species of mulber- ry has all been consumed, and there is not much probability that any more good seed can be pro- cured from the same quarter; and some years, of course, must be elapsed before it can be procured from the native trees. Other parcels of this seed have been obtained from China 6ince the first was imported, but none of them have produced any- thing, having without doubt under the influence of the proverbial jealousy of the Chinese been sub- jected to some process, which, without affecting the appearance, destroyed the fructifying princi- ple. [The foregoing is a striking illustration of how many losses and disappointments will be sustained, before it is generally known that no reliance can be placed on the seeds of the Chinese mulberry for pro- ducing the same kind of plants. The several trans- lated articles on this subject, which have been given in this journal, if regarded, would serve as very im- portant instructions to those who seek to propagate this tree. If indeed it is true, (as alleged above) that the Chinese have destroyed the germinating power of the seeds before selling them, by the intended fraud they have rendered a service: as it is better to be dia- 254 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 4. appointed by the seeds not sprouting, than in the jyid of crop expected from thein, after years have been devoted to the culture.] From the Penny Magazine. WILD DOGS IN VAN DIEMEn's LAND. The annoyance and danger occasioned by the wild- dogs in Van Diethen's Land is still a subject of great complaint in the papers of that colony; and the most active exertions hitherto used seem to have had little effect in abating the nuisance. The dogs appear rather to increase in number and boldness. A case is mentioned in which a per- son named Akerly was assaulted by thirteen of these animals, and would probably have been killed if he had not contrived to get up into a tree. The means hitherto employed to eradicate them do not seem to have been commensurate with the growth of the evil. A society has been establish- ed at Gaddesden, near Campbell Town, to effect their destruction; and the house of the chairman exhibits a collection of skins, to the number of a hundred, of dogs that have been killed, of almost all kinds, from the shepherd-dog to the Newfound- land. It is thought that unless the most decided measures are taken, it will be Impossible to pasture sheep in the colony. The dogs bring forth six or eight young at a litter, and commence breeding at one year old, while the sheep brings forth only one, and does not. commence breeding until two years of age. The ultimate and discouraging prospect which this opens is brought nearer by the daily defection of the domestic dogs ol* the colony to the wild ones. "At the remote stock- hunts," says a recent paper, "a free man keeps as many dogs as he pleases; frequently six or eight are kept; these dogs provide for themselves, and continually make off to the wild packs. All re- monstrance is received with a smile, of contempt, and returned by insult; and until such people are strictly prohibited from keeping dogs in the pasto- ral districts under heavy penalties, matters are not likely to mend: indeed it is to be feared that the evil is fixed for ever — that it has been too long ne- glected, and is 'now past remedy." We are too well assured of the resources and power of civil- ized men to partake of these apprehensions; but any delay now in organizing a plan of simulta- neous operation against the dogs, is likely to ren- der their future extirpation a matter of great and increasing difficulty and expense. Meanwhile, at this distance from the spot, it is interesting to watch the various aspects in which this remark-able state of things appears, and to observe the different measures which it may be necessary to adopt against the canine depredators. Since writing the above we find that an "Act of Council" has been issued for the purpose, of restraining the increase of dogs. All dogs are to be registered; and none are to be left at large except in Ilobart Town and Launceston. Unregistered dogs, or dogs found at large contrary to this order, are to be killed. The persons killing them are to be paid from 5s. to 40s. for each, out of a fund formed by the registration fees. The registration fee for a watch-dog kept chained, or a sheep dog, is 2s. 6d.;all other dogs 10s., or if females double the respective amounts. The local newspapers are not very sanguine in ex- pectations of good from this measure. EXTRACTS OF PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. Abbeville, S. C, July 11th, 1835. I congratulate you, sir, on the growing circula- tion of (he Register. Yet it is a matter of sur- prise that, a useful publication like this, which in- terests nine-tenths of the people, should not be still more eagerly sought for, and liberally sustain- ed. Is agriculture, the first, noblest pursuit of man, unworthy of the investigation of the princi- ples which constitute it a science, and of their proper application to practical purposes? This question will be promptly answered in the nega- tive; still men, by their acts, seem to affirm other- wise. It is certain that one of the most efficient means of rendering service to 1he cultivators of' the soil, is to present, in one view, the results of individual experience, by the examination and comparison of which, some principle may be de- duced and established. And as the remoteness of individuals from each other preclude the prac- ticability of a personal interchange of thoughts and opinions, such a work as the Register, may, through the facilities furnished by the press and post office, remove the barrier, and bring men who live many hundred miles apart together, without scarcely any trouble or expense. Its title to pa- tronage is too obvious to demand labored reasons to prove it. Columbia, S. C. July 12, 1S35. I had intended when I next wrote to you, to say how I was pleased to travel over again the farm of Lagrange in your last number. Our great and good lricnd Gen. Lafayette, and his son-in-law Mr. Delasterie, took me to see the whole of it, at which I was, of course, much gratified. I recog- nized most of the particulars as I read the account. The farm of Lagrange is, I believe, the best as to quality of land of that part of country; but some of his neighbors who have also their farms in the best order, deserve much more credit than ihey generally get; for, if I am not very much mistaken, they had to work on a most miserable fiat, white and wet soil, and nothing but. great skill and great industry could have made such farms as I saw there in a state of improvement. Prince George, July 21, 1835. I send you specimens of the turkey, and of the blue stem wheal; a couple of heads and some of the grains of each. They are both very fine. Examine them attentively, and see if you can dis- cover any difference. They were raised but a short distance apart, a space of but 15 or 20 feet intervening; and bore so strong a resemblance throughout the whole period of their growth, as to leave on my mind but little doubt of their iden- tity. If it be the same wheat, it may save some trouble to those who, or whose neighbors, culti- vate it under the name of "blue stem," to be ap- prised of the fact. From the high reputation of the turkey wheat, they might incur some trouble and expense, too, to get that which they already have. I have been somewhat disappointed by finding that I have but one valuable variety, where I expected two. The blue stem has the 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 255 character on the Pamunkey, where I derived my specimen, of being peculiarly adapted to low grounds, but is not otherwise considered a very productive kind. I understand it is exempt from the strut, as it is called in this neighborhood, to which the purple straw is unfortunately so liable. While on the subject of wheat permit me to ask, through you, a description of the " Washing- ton white wheat" of Maryland. Is it a bearded wheat, resembling at maturity, while standing in the field, the golden chaff? I received a barrel last fall, selected with some care, in Baltimore, un- der that name, which accords with the above de- scription, but has turned out very indifferently, • whence I infer that there may have been amis- take [The two samples of wheat seem, both in grain and head, to be precisely alike. Until receiving this sample of "blue stem," and finding it a white wheat, we had been deceived by that name, and supposed that it was meant for the "purple straw," of which the name is equally descriptive. Thus it frequently happens, from the confusion in agricultural nomenclature, that a term known to every body in one part of the country, is either unknown, oris applied to something else, at the distance of a hundred miles, or less.] PROSPECT OF SEASON AND CROPS. From all the information received, there is but little doubt left of a general loss in the wheat crop of Vir- ginia, of between one-half and two-thirds. In Lower Virginia, we have heard of good crops no where, ex- cept in the neighborhood of Williamsburg— and all were not good even in that small space. The sufferers in such cases are apt to be persuaded that their losses are greater than afterwards may be found true — and besides, we have only statements limited to particular farms, or at most, particular regions of the state. But our reports all came from known and highly respecta- ble correspondents, and are in every case made as correctly as the writers' lights have permitted. In this respect, they stand on a very different footing from the usual reports which appear in commercial newspapers, and which often are written by dealers and speculators, with the view of affecting prices for their private gain. The crops of wheat in Pennsylvania are fine — and so it is lately said of New Jersey, and at least part of New York. The price in Virginia therefore cannot be as high as is generally supposed. The corn in Lower Virginia now promises a good harvest. But much of its present luxuriance is owing to the recent frequent and abundant rains, which have produced a degree of succulence which will be the source of greater injury to the crop, should a severe drought occur in August. The uncertainty of the re- sult, and the risk of diminished product is not lessened, but increased, by the present fine appearance of the growth. July 29, 1835. Lynchburg, July 9lh, 1835. A terrible tempest of wind, rain and hail passed over the centre of this place on the 27th of June, and in its range totally destroyed wheat, rye, oats, corn, and garden vegetables, and broke all the window glass which was exposed. Twenty- five birds, mostly doves, were found dead under one tree in a field near town. Much of the hail was solid, and large and heavy as hens' eogs; and several credible gentlemen say they saw stones big as a man's fist. It was something over a mile wide, and commenced in Botetourt, filly miles or so west of this, and continued, I know not how far down. A similar storm, reported in the En- quirer, on the same day in Chesterfield, was prob- ably a continuation of the same cloud. Abbeville, S. C, Uth July, 1835. The crops in this section of South Carolina, are more backward than it was ever known — and what I affirm of them here, may be justly predi- cated of them throughout the state. Our great staple, cotton, has been retarded in its growth by the lingering of winter in the bosom of spring. Planters commenced to commit their seed to the earth at the usual Time in April, but the coldness of the soil produced by a winter of unparalleled rigor, and the hard chilling rains which succeeded the planting, destroyed the vegetative, principle of many of the seeds, and caused, what is here term- ed, a "bad stand." These unpropitious circum- stances, made the plants that did protrude through the crust of the ground, puny and sickly; thus rendering it almost indispensable to replant. The reward of the planter's toil now depends much upon the subsequent season, and the late arrival of frost in autumn. Indian corn, which is a more hardy plwt, and can endure tribulations that would be death to its more tender neighbor, cot- ton, exhibits a more flattering prospect, except in such vicinities as have been visited by a drought of long continuance. But the rains begin now to descend in copious showers, and if they continue, corn crops will, no doubt, yield well. The oats are in general good, and have just been harvested. There was an almost total failure of the wheat crop. The intense cold of the winter killed it almost entirely, and some of that which did sur- vive, was injured by the rust. The quantity raised will not near supply the demand for home con- sumption. Flour is now selling from nine to ten dollars the barrel. We must look to the north to supply the demand. Wheat with us has proved generally an uncertain crop — but I cannot avoid believing, that this is owing to a very defective preparation of the soil, and a want of attention to the selection of proper seed — though I will not venture to assert, that our southern climate is as congenial to its growth as a more northern one. King George, July 13, 1835. I am just finishing my harvest — the latest with- in the memory of our old men — and the most un- profitable. I do not think that I shall make more than one-third of an average crop. One-third of my crop was a clover fallow, the product of which will probably equal that of the balance, which was sown upon the best of the corn land. My esti- mate is, that the fallow will bring only tour for one. The fly did me infinitely more mischief than the excessive cold of the winter. I observe that the wheat was better where the clover was plastered. 256 FARMERS* REGISTER [No. 4. Frederick, Va., July 23rd, 1835. Harvest is now over in this Valley pretty ge- nerally, and the reports of the newspapers to the contrary notwithstanding, I think the average crop of the Valley will not exceed one-fourth. A CHAPTER ON DISCONTINUANCES OF SUB- SCRIPTIONS. If the Farmers' Register could live upon praises, it would be in a most thriving way — and there would be little ground to entertain fears for its decline, and final suppression, for want of a continued and sufficient support. If we were so disposed, we could fill many pages with unbought and unsought expressions of ap- probation from various subscribers and correspondents, and which however mistaken, or exaggerated, as tes- timonies of the value of this journal, were given (it may be presumed) as honestly as voluntarily, on the part of the writers. Very many of our correspondents know that passages of their communications of this kind have been either omitted entirely, thereby incur- ring some risk of offending our best friends, or the ex- pressions of their favor and approbation have been softened and moderated in the publication, when they were so connected with the more important subject of the communication, that such passages could not be left out. This course has been taken, because such expressions of approbation, if published as received, would be considered more as evidences of editorial vanity, than merit — and would be confounded with the ordinary "puff's" which are so easy to procure, and the fabrication of which now forms a regular Wt disgrace- ful part of the trade of publication— and is a branch of the trade which is the most profitable to the least deserving. But it is remarkable, (and would be not a little amusing to others less interested than ourselves — ) that many of those who lavish praise on our work, at the same time announce the discontinuance of their sup- port. Now we are well aware that kind feelings may often induce these disagreeable annunciations to be accompanied and softened by expressions of approba- tion— but we cannot therefore distrust the sincerity of the opinions so expressed, and which are altogether voluntary, and uncalled for. When any subscriber chooses to withdraw his support from a work, after having complied with all his obligation incurred on that account, there is no need of reasons or excuses being given for his discontinuance. Between him and the publisher, the transaction is a mere matter of busi- ness— an exchange of a certain amount of money, paid by the one, for certain services to be rendered by the other — and neither of the parties is under any ob- ligation to the other, beyond the payment of the sum, or the service; nor to continue the bargain longer than it is desirable, or than a full equivalent is received for what is paid. If we expected more than this, we should be at least ashamed to acknowledge it. We only ask those who wish to withdraw their support, to do so in proper time. The whole year is open to them for that purpose, and when payment is made, and a discontinuance ordered for the end of the current vol- ume, it will be as readily and as certainly entered early, as late. But many will subject the publisher to send- ing out one and even two or more monthly numbers of a new volume, before announcing an intention to stop at the end of the previous one: and in many cases, he is compelled to submit to this most unjustifiable im- position. The course of subscribers in such cases, is either civilly begging that a debt fairly incurred by them shall be remitted gratuitously by the creditor — or otherwise the debt is boldly denied, and the creditor must submit to the spoliation, for want of means for redress. So far the matter is considered as between individu- als— and so far, the editor pretends to have no claims on any subscriber's support — nor for any thing more than a bare compliance with obligations actually in- curred. But there is another and more important point of view, to which attention is due. This applies to the general interest of the agricultural community, in the maintenance of the Farmers' Register, consider- ed without regard to any particular or private interest, either of publisher or subscribers. Whatever may be the true degree of applause due to the operation of this journal — whether it be fixed according to the partial estimate of its warmest friends and zealous supporters, or of those who have never aided its efforts — or at any average degree between the opinions of friends and of enemies — it will certainly appear, that thiough this medium much service has been rendered to agricul- tural improvement and agricultural interests, even during its short course — and that such effects may be necessarily expected to continue to increase, with the age and increased influence of the work. If any per- sons deem the Farmers' Register to be worthless — or that its place would be better filled by any other agri- cultural publication — they are right to withhold their support. But among the great number who entertain opinions altogether opposed to these — who indeed would testify the most strongly in favor of its useful effects — it is strange that there should be so large a number who have never lent any support, or having done so, have withdrawn it. If only a tythe of the benefits anticipated from such a journal were to be realized to the agricultural community — and even ad- mitting that an individual should derive from it no special and private benefit, but only his proportion of the general benefits shared by all the agricultural com- munity, it would be manifest that his subscription for life, would be of very inconsiderable amount, com- pared to his share of the general benefit to be thus derived. QUERIES. Queries on the following subjects have been address- ed to us. We owe an apology for the long delay of the first, which was caused by unintentional over- sight. 1st. What is the prop?r mode of thatching houses with straw? And would the practice be economical in Lower Virginia? 2nd. Whatls the best size, form, and model of fix- ing a roller, to be used on level and light land, for the purpose of giving the soil greater firmness by pressure.' THE FARMERS' REGIl STER. Vol. III. SEPTEMBER, 1835. No. 5. EDMUND RTJFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. For the Farmers' Register. OBSERVATIONS ON THE LOW WAGES OF FE- MALE LABORERS. No. 1. The general depression of the wages of laboring females in this country, and the peculiar circum- stances which condemn to unceasing toil, and se- vere privation, so large and meritorious a portion oi' rhe whole community, are subjects which well deserve the consideration of every one who has a share in the general interest. It is not only a matter calling for the action of the philanthropist — but it also has an important bearing on the pub- lic economy and national wealth; and may affect, it' it does not already threaten, the private interest and family affections of every individual. This is as yet a country of plenty — one in which the in- dustrious laboring man cannot fail to earn the ne- cessaries of life, and in which the labor of a day will generally suffice to provide the bare neces- saries of life for a week. Yet not content with the wages which demand and fair competition will always properly adjust, nothing is now heard of in the northern cities but the combinations, and "strikes" of bodies of laborers, and the resort to every means of intimidation, to enforce their un- just and lawless claims for higher wages, or for reduced hours of labor. It is not designed here to consider the operation of these combinations, or to show that, even when successful, the conse- quences would be injurious to those who seek benefit from them, as well as to their employers and to the community at large. The conduct of these full-fed, yet discontented and riotous labor- ers, is merely here named to be contrasted with the condition of the thousands of females, wlio, in silence and in hunger, and under fears of still greater miseries in future, labor incessantly to prolong a wretched existence. Why should such a difference in the rewards for labor exist, and be increasingin degree, between the two sexes? And are there no proper means of removing, or at least of alleviating the evil as it regards women? Benevolent and public spirited men have recently taken this subject into consideration, and have commenced acting, with more zeal perhaps than discretion. It is feared that their efforts are not properly directed, and will therefore produce no permanent or beneficial result. Public meetings have been called, in Philadelphia, of the laboring females, and reports of the existing grievances have been ordered; — resolutions entered into of the propriety and necessity of increasing wages, and a plan devised (as is inferred from the imperfect and concise statements in the newspapers,) for forming associations of females, like the "trade's unions" of men, to combine their wishes, and to enforce their demands. All this will be ineffectual — and much worse than merely ineffectual. The assembling of females in public meetings, is a violent departure from the retiring modesty which has heretofore distinguished our country women, the poor no less than the rich. By previous habits they are unfitted (and long may they remain so,) Vol. Ill— 33 to take part, in public deliberation and action. Even were it otherwise, combinations of females cannot possibly compel an advance of wages, as is often attempted and effected by associations of men — and if they could, the results would be liable to the same general objections. Without drawing together, tor public gaze, thousands of the suffer- ers, it would be as easy to ascertaifi and make public their cruel oppressions. As to any number of individuals, resolving that they will pay higher wages, and ndhereing to that course, it would merely operate as charitable gilts to particular persons, and could have no effect in curing the general evil. To do this, the causes must be re- moved: the evil must be attacked, not at the latest shoots of its branehes, but at its root — which will be found in the habits and institutions of society in this country. Why is it that, while mechanics generally in our towns can earn at least $1 for 10 hours labor, very many of the most industrious and competent female laborers, or mechanics, for 15 hours work, seldom earn one-lburth, if indeed one-eighth as much? The answer would be ready, if the occu- pations were such as to require the whole strength of a healthy man. But this is very rarely the case. In most kinds of mechanical labor, skill, dexterity, and patience, are more required than mere physical force — and women, if employed, would as well or even better than men, execute the same labors, and deserve at least as high re- wards. But the misfortune is, that while every mechanical employment, save two or three, (those of milliners and mantua makers are perhaps the only exceptions,) arc open to men, women in Vir- ginia, and wherever manufactures are not in ex- tensive operation, are confined almost entirely to sewing. There are at least as many poor women as of poor men — and the labor of half of all the portion of the community dependent on labor for bread, is not only forced into one single employment, but is driven from the most profitable part of that employment, to make way for the other sex. Men's clothes, by usage and fashion, have been almost entirely given up to be made by males — and in many cases, the male merely receives the price, while females, for a small proportion of it, actually perform the whole labor. Now suppose that - the tyranny of law, or of custom or fashion, of religious prejudice, or any thing whatever, compelled a very large proportion of the laboring men to confine their efforts to a business which one-third of their number could as well execute: would it not be a certain conse- quence that their competition and urgent neces- sities would depress their wages to the lowesj possible state? If 20,000 shoemakers were enough to supply the wants of our country, and 40,000 other persons were compelled to make shoes, or to be deprived of all other employment, it is evident that the wages for this kind of labor, would be reduced as low as are now those of poor female seamstresses ; shoemakers, almost without ex- ception, would be reduced to the greatest neces- sity and state of suffering. If the proper and 258 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. necessary number of the trade (which was sup- posed to be 20,000,) could have effectually com- bined, or any portions of ihem, to raise wages, it is as obvious as it is certain, that it could not be done when thrice that number had to share the employment and the wages, and were almost starving on the insufficient dividend. Therefore, combinations of women to compel the raising of the wages will be altogether ineffectual, as all such combinations are altogether wrong, and in- jurious in their tendency. But the main reliance seems to be, that the persons who pay these stinted wages of labor, may be impressed with the enormity of the grie- vance, and voluntarily consent to increase them to a fair and reasonable demand. Doubtless many individuals are ready to yield to such promptings of benevolent feeling: but however numerous the cases may be, and however liberal may be the advance made on previous prices, the remedy for suffering will be but slight, and no remedy what- ever will thereby be offered for the real evil — that, is, the general and fixed depressed prices for fe- male labor. By possibility, thousands of individ- uals may be induced lo pay double prices, (and double prices would be required at least,) as wages for the employment which their private and personal demands would create — and thous- ands of deserving workwomen might thereby ob- tain a fair recompense for their toil, and an ex- emption from their previous sufferings. But even the occurrence of this rare (not to say impossible) exercise of charity, would not benefit the still greater number, who were not so favored by other employers — and indeed, would rather cause them increased injury. And no confidence could be placed in the permanency of even the very partial relief that would be afforded. It is an established truth, that prices for labor, as for commodities, will always be regulated by the proportion of supply and demand — and that the)' never can be materially affected, nor for any length of time, by any other considerations than the interest of the contracting parties. Laborers, as a body, will always take as high wages as the.}' can obtain — and their employ- ers will give no higher than the lowest which will suffice to command the services required. This general operation of such causes, if properly con- sidered, will show that no relief can be hoped from any voluntary offers of increased wages. The remarks which have been submitted, apply more particularly to the state of society in Virginia, and other parts of the United States where "there are few or no factories which call for female labor- ers. When such factories arc introduced exten- sively, they extend the field of woman's labor, and serve to increase their wages — at least in the be- ginning. But it is found, ultimately, that one evil has only been exchanged for others of not less weight. However, it is not intended here to enter upon the consideration of such changes in habits tmd industry — but only of society and habits as existing in a community not much advanced in manufactures. Except in towns, it is literally the case in Vir- ginia, that poor females have no employment whatever, by which they can gain wages, but in sewing. Weaving and knitting formerly furnish- ed more employment, but now scarcely any worth naming, on account of the improvements inweav- ing on a large scale, and the consequent reduction of price. As the small proportion of sewing which is shared among the many who would gladly be employed, would not suffice for one-fourth of the hands, it lollows that three-fourths of their time, on the general average, these laborers are without employment, and cannot obtain it even at the lowest pittance which is even paid for it. These females are often as respectable and as deserving as any of the more wealthy — and who are indebt- ed to "the kindness of some relative or friend for a home, where if they eat the 'bread of dependence, it is at least received from kind hands. Without such aid, and with nothing but their wages of labor to sustain them, thousands of such females would starve, or be driven to live on public charity. Many among these are the widows or orphan daughters of highly respectable men — many even of men who had enjoyed wealth. And there is not a farmer in Virginia, whether rich or poor, who can feel sure that in two generations, if not in one, that some of his female descendents will not be in the same deplorable situation: a situation to a sensitive mind, which cannot be otherwise than most galling and distressing, however tem- pered and alleviated by kindness and affection. A state of dependence, when not so alleviated, con- demns the poor woman to the unremitting toil of the day laborer, without his wages — to the subjec- tion of the slave, without his treedom from care and mental suffering. This is the situation, in its various grades, in which thousands of the most industrious, virtuous, and deserving part of our population are placed — and the danger of which is pending over as many others, who are now growing up in hope and joy, cherished by afiec- tion, and supplied with every present comfort. And the beings who are condemned to this state, and who succeed each other in endless succession, and increasing in numbers and in wretchedness, form a portion, (and an equally deserving portion) of the "better half of the human race" — who as a class, are flattered, almost adored by men, and yet denied by their usages and institutions, the means of earning honest bread, and in numerous cases, are deprived of all the means of subsisting, except in a worse than slavish state of depen- dence— or in a lite of infamy. If we were neither husbands nor fathers — if we cared nothing for the situation of unfortunate fe- males who are not connected with us by ties of relationship — still as members of the community, all men have a deep interest that so much of the country's capital of labor and talent, should not be kept idle and useless, and a source of expense, instead of profit and wealth to the nation. July 3rd, 1835. I'OLICCON. [Deeming that (for the present time) enough of argumentative writing against the policy of the exist- ing law of enclosures, has been given to our readers, we have withheld from publication more than one such communication recently received. A similar course would have been pursued with regard to the following, but for the matters of practice contained, which present a different kind of claim to notice. The experiments would have been of more value as ex- amples, however, if authenticated by the author's 1835.] F A II M E R S » REGISTER. 259 name, and would have served his purpose better as proofs of the positions maintained.] For the Farmers' Register. A WORD TO "FEXCEMORE," Who in the May No. of the Register, Vol. III. page 47, "insists that agricultural reform calls lor no legislative enactment — that the existing legal policy" (as regards fences) "throws no obstruc- tion whatever in the way of the individual who sincerely wishes to place his stock management upon a profitable footing, and that he feels con- strained to condemn all such attempts on the part of the legislature as gratuitous and uncalled for, and as oppressive in the extreme to the whole body of small farmers, who constitute so large a portion of the agricultural community." "Agricultural reform calls for no legislative en- actment"— and Fencemore seems to think that he has satislactorily established this proposition, because he has adjudged that he would do better with just double the quantity of fencing now used — and as we are now compelled by law to have a certain extent of fencing, he would by no means remove this compulsory enactment, least, as it would seem, we should attempt to do with less, when it is his opinion we ought to have more. It matters not what other honest farmers may think, or to what conclusions their arithmetic may lead them. The true interest of the farmer, and his sagacity in pursuing it, is not enough to direct him in the management of his own private affairs — he must he made to keep up his fencing about his arable lands at all events, by "legislative enact- ment.'''' Fencemore has demonstrated arithmeti- cally (if indeed he has demonstrated any thing) that it will take as great an extent of fencing to enclose a proper number of lots for standing pas- ture and other purposes, upon an improving sys- tem, as is now used for the outside enclosure of our arable lands — and thus as nothing could be gained in the actual amount of fencing, supposing the present law of enclosures modified, (which by the by we do not believe) he concludes that no- thing can be gained in any way — or because we should have to make fences around a iexv lots for pasture and improvement, we had as well make them around our whole plantations! Thus doubling our amount of fencing, and lor what? Why, ac- cording to Fencemore, to keep "the country from being thrown into consternation and dismay by a drove of hogs or bullocks!!" Or at another place, because "it would be oppressive, in the extreme to the whole body of small farmers," for the legisla- ture to take away from them the power to turn their hogs and cows on their neighbors' fenceless crops. Or again, because "the annual clearings of the tobacco planter are utterly inadequate to his immediate demands," this tobacco planter must therefore be permitted to use the woods as a range for his stock, having no open land; thus entailing upon his neighbor, perhaps a cotton planter, with an abundance of pasture of his own, the enor- mous expense of keeping up double as much fen- cing as he ought to have, solely for the benefit of the tobacco planter's half-starved hogs and cows. This argument of Fencemore seems to us to af- ford but a poor "defence of the law of enclosures" — and we think it will be found to weigh still lighter against a few stubborn facts which we are now going to state, and which we think ought to go farther than arithmetic with the "whole body of small farmers," and that of the big ones too, to prove that it would be best for every man to live upon his own land, and within his own fences. First. A k\v years past an ox was put into an old barn about the first of December — kept well littered and fed till the first of March following. U pon hauling out the manure, it was found that that taken from the barn was equal to that made by six of the out cattle at the pens; and it is believed to have possessed twice the strength that the pen manure did. Second. Several winters past, six cows were milked — fed in the usual way with dry shucks scattered over the pen. The next winter two only were milked — fed throughout the winter upon one quart of meal each, morning and night, mixed with cut shucks, and wet with salt water. These last two gave more milk, and that richer, than the six gave the winter before. The next winter, but one cow was kept to milk, which was well fed with meal, cut shucks, and a few cotton seed. Her calf was killed, and she was milked three times each day. She gave nearly or quite as much milk as the two, or the six before kept gave, and was ti#ncd out in the spring quite fat. Third. In the spring of 1834, ten shoats were put into a small pen, and fed through the summer upon clover cut from half an acreofiand, together with one ear of corn each every day. They kept in good order, and at fattening time in the fail, were found in better order, and fattened upon less corn, than those that ran at large; although these had the same quantity of corn each day whilst out — one-eighth of these last having died from the time the ten shoats were put. up. When killed and weighed, the ten hogs which had been put up in the spring as shoats, of the same size and age as these which were running at large, weighed from 27 to 35 pounds, each, more than the hogs which these last made, although fattened in the same manner. It was moreover observed, that at least six times as much time was required to look after the out hogs, as was required to feed and water those in thejoen. By these experiments then it would seem that we in fact gain nothing by permitting our stock to run at large, even as regards their benefit, to say nothing of the enormous expense which the present ad libitum system, as regards stock, en- tails upon the whole agricultural community. We have just seen that one cow tolerably well kept upon a man's own land, and within his own fences, is worth six runningat large — that it will make him more manure than six — will be a finer animal than any of the others, and will bring him better calves. That his hogs may be kept up upon the same amount of corn; and with the addition of a little clover, will keep fatter, grow larger, be less apt to die; to be killed or stolen, and will give him more meat, and be fattened upon less corn than the same number running at large. And above all that time which, with industry, is a poor man's capital, is saved to him in the ratio of six to one, when he keeps up his hogs. FENCE EESS. June 30//;, 1S35. 200 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. GYPSUM NOT INJURED AS MANURE BY BEING HEATED. To the Editor of the Farmers' Registi r. Fairfield District, S. C, July 11th, 1835. Impressed with the justness of a remark of yours, that "information obtained irom statements in detail of agricultural experiments, is far more satisfactory to the attentive and laborious inquirer, than a mere report of the general opinions of the experimenter," and in accordance with that spirit, I now offer you a brief account of an experiment, which perhaps may not be uninteresting. In the spring of 1834, intending to plaster a lot of orchard grass, I ordered a few barrels of gyp- sum from Charleston. As I had before found the process of pulverizing the stone rather trouble- some, I requested my factor to purchase the gyp- sum already ground into powder. When the gypsum arrived, 1 was astonished at the high price it had cost me, to wit, six dollars per barrel; but not suspecting the judgement of my factor as to the quality of the article, I made no examination of it myself, but placed it entirely to the account of imposition. In June I had it spread over the grass at the rate of one bushel per acre. The very next day after having spread it, a pfastercr who it seems had previously examined the plaster, called on me to ask the favor, as the article was not to be had in the Columbia market, of a barrel of it, to finish a job of stucco-work in which he was then engnged. I told him there was still a barrel on hand which he might have, but that it was raw gypsum, and that he would have to put it through the process called "boiling." before he could use it. He replied that it had already gone through that process, and was excellent plaster for his work. I denied the fact, as I had bought it for simply ground gypsum. He, however, in- stantly undeceived me; and convinced me, by working a little of it into plaster, that, he was right; upon which he took the barrel, with which he finished his job of stucco-work. As I had never seen any account of the ap- plication of gypsum in aid of vegetation that had undergone the process of heating, it at once oc- curred to me that I had probably destroyed my lot of grass. Reflecting a moment, however, upon the effect of heat upon gypsum, it was ob- vious that it, had undergone no essential change in its component principles, except the expulsion of the water of composition. It was still the sul- phate of lime in a more concentrated and con- densed state; and as in this state its avidity for water is so prodigiously great, I concluded the first rain, or perhaps the dews, would soon satu- rate it, and re-convert it into its natural state of gypsum; and, therefore, I could not conceive how it could injure the grass, unless from an over-dose of gypsum in consequence of its greater strength to the bushel, of which I felt but little apprehen- sion. In a few days afterwards, upon receiving one of the numbers of your Register, I was grati- fied to find you had opened a discussion upon the same subject, the first which I had ever seen; and so far, in the absence of any experiment, the same conclusion had been arrived at by yourself. My accidental experiment, however, I think goes far towards settling the question. The grass never showed any signs of unhealthiness, or suf- fered in any way for a moment; but on the con- trary, from the manner it sustained one of the severest droughts ever witnessed in August, and again the unparalleled cold of the last winter, and the manner in which it has subsequently flourish- ed, and retained its verdure, I am satisfied the mistake was all in favor of the grass. I had ap- plied gypsum to a part of the same lot in June of the year preceding. The benefits were very manifest, but not equal to those from the last plastering. In 1832, I applied it at the rate of about one bushel per acre of unheated gypsum, and it was my intention to apply only one bushel per acre in 1834; but by the mistake, as gypsum contains 22 per cent, of water, which had been driven off, I of course applied what was equal to one bushel and nearly a quarter of the unheated article; which the result has shown was not too much. The. great objection then to the application of gypsum that has undergone the process of heat- ing, as a fertilizing substance, consists in the ex- pense, and not in any deleterious or impaired qual- ities of it — which expense at the rate I paid, was far too great. The heated plaster cost me about two dollars per bushel, whilst I never paid higher than ten dollars per ton in Charleston for the gyp- sum in stone, and have bought it as low as seven dollars. j. r>. P. S. As it is satisfactory, and generally useful to know all the circumstances attending an exper- iment, I will mention that the lot on which my grass grows is new land, on a ridge of pretty good soil, with a growth of oak and hickory, in Fairfield District. It is what we call clay soil mixed with a good deal of feldspar stones; but sufficiently silicious to be easy of cultivation. It, is shaded by the natural growth of lofty oaks, &c, left stand- ing about 50 and 60 feet apart. It has had no manure except two annual supplies of cottonseed, spread at the rate of two wagon loads (45 bushels each) to the acre. The grass is flourishing and profitable. J. D. From the Claremont National Eagle. CANADA PLUMS. The plum trees all over this section of the state and in the adjoining parts of Vermont present a most singular appearance. The fruit at this point of the season, unless injured in some way, should be about the size of a pea — perhaps not so large. But, the fruit every where presents a most unnatu- ral size, presenting rather the appearance of green lemons than anything else we can remember, swollen, wrinkled, and puffed up, some long, others round, an inch long and nearly as thick. They are of a bright green or yellow color, tinged with a beautiful scarlet on the outside, while they are completely empty within. This fruit — the large red plum — in the natural course of vegeta- tion is at this time, as we remarked, about the size of a pea; and those who have plum trees, as there are many on the Connecticut, are.exceedingly puz- zled to account for this state of things. We had a branch brought to this office from Cornish which really has a very curious and singular appearance. We are informed the trees have some ten years 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 261 back suffered in Ihe same way, but the cause is a mystery. Nothing like a worm is to be (bund in the swollen fruit. From the United States Philadelphia Gazette. young's patent spark catcher for loco- motive ENGINES. Mr. Editor — At a time like, the present, when the extension of rail roads throughout our country is becoming so general, and the employment of locomotive engines has become a matter of course, I deem it important that all persons connected with the management of rail roads should be made ac- quainted with the fact, that a complete remedy ex- ists for the greatest nuisance to which this mode of travelling is liable, viz: the. emission of sparks from the engine. That remedy is to be found in the contrivance with the name of which this arti- cle is headed, and the patentee is prepared to dis- pose of the right of using it, either at a reasonable rate for each engine, or at a gross sum, to be paid for the privilege by each company that may be de- sirous of availing itself of his invention. It is now upwards of two years since the spark catcher of Mr. Young* has been in use on the New-Castle anil Frenchtown rail road, since which period no instance has occurred on that road of a single, garment having had a hole burnt in it by a spark from a locomotive engine. Of the tens of thousands of persons who have travelled the. New-Castle road during the period named, not one can be found to gainsay the above state- ment. Is there a single person, who has travelled on any other road in the United States, on which lo- comotives are used, with wood for fuel, that has not been annoyed, and either had his flesh or clothing burnt during his journey, by the means I have mentioned ? I do not believe there is one to be found. Is the Camden and Amboy road free from the intolerable and dangerous annoyance? No! — Bag- gage cars have been burnt, passenger cars have been on fire, and ladies almost denuded. Is the great thorough fare of Pennsylvania, the Columbia rail road, free from it? No! Barns, wood, crops of grain, and fences, have fallen beneath the flames in turn. Are the Philadelphia and Trenton, the Phila- delphia and Germantown — in a word, are any of our rail roads in the whole country, from Maine to Louisiana, provided against the inconvenience and danger of which I am speaking? No! not one. We have arrived then at this point; the greatest drawback to the pleasure and safety of travelling on rail roads with locomotive engines, is fire emit- ted from the chimnies of the engines, and against this a perfect preventive exists, the right to use which may be obtained by any company that see proper to purchase it, at a reasonable price. One company only in the United States has availed it- self of it. The question for the public to decide is, whether they will suffer this sort of carelessness or false economy to prevail in rail road boards any * Mr. Young is the engineer of locomotive power on the New-Castle and Frenchtown road, and resides at New-Castle. longer, ani allow their own property and lives, and those of their wives and children, to be jeo- parded, or whether they will resolve with on<;# accord to prosecute in all cases of damage the company that undertakes to convey them safely without taking the proper precautions to do so. The writer of this article is as ardently attached to the rail road system as any man in the country. He has long looked on the monstrous abuse, he'is now noticing, in silence, but a solemn sense of duty, quickened by a recent signal illustration of the dan- ger to which life is subjected by neglect in guard- ing against the particular evil of fire, has at length urged him to break his silence. And I hope that this brief notice may induce a general attention to the subject, which is one, in my humble judgement, of paramount importance both to the corporations alluded to, and the pub- lic. One word more. The assertion is distinctly made, and all contradiction of it defied, that Young's Spark Catchers are a perfect preventive to the emission of sparks from the chimnies of lo- comotive engines when in use. I believe it might be asserted with equal safety, that no other con- trivance has been (bund to answer at all. L. June 16th. TO DESTROY LICE ON CATTLE. To the Editor of the farmers' Register. In the June number of the Register, I perceive several modes recommended lor destroying lice on cattle, each perhaps, efficacious, but with some objections: and as we cannot have too many re- medies for the destruction of that pestiferous in- sect, allow me to recommend the use of a^ttle flour of sulphur, given internally, once or twrce a week, with salt, which is eaten kindly. This I have practised with great success. In addition to the beneficial result in destroying the lice, it has the happiest effect on the general health of the cattle. For the Farmers' Register. SUPPOSED MISTAKE AS TO HESSIAN FLY. ^7ssex, Juhj 22, 1835. From the severity of the winter and the de- struction by what we term the fly, our crops of wheat are reduced to about one-third of a crop. I have, on examining the stalks of wheat during the spring, seen a great number of deposites near the root; and at the approach of summer I found the}- had all matured,»diid deserted their winter quarters. I have looked diligently for the Hessian fly, but can see nothing but an innumerable quantity of grasshoppers of the smallest size. Indeed from the slight observations which I have made on this subject, L am brought to Ihe conclusion, that we may probably be condemning the one for the fault of the other. I would beg, therefore, should any of the writers for the Register make a farther experiment with this deposite, that they will keep the insect till they are thoroughly con- vinced whether in fact it be the Hessian fly or not, for between the grasshopper in its youngest slate, 262 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. and the- Hessian fly, there is a striking resem- blance. EXPERIMENTS WITH LIME AS MANURE. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Norfolk Co., July 6lh, 1835. In my first acquaintance with the use of lime, I was almost driven from a further trial ot it, by its contrary effects; but I candidly admit that my expectations were founded upon gross ignorance of the proper manner of using it, tor I ought not, upon neither rational nor scientific principles, to have expected a different effect after the manner ol use. I will give you a history of my mode of appli- cation and its eflects, if you can have patience enough to follow me, for I really expect you to be, tired reading such crude unpolished stuff' as I am truly ashamed ot myself: but the experiment is correct. If my pen has a poor faculty of relating it, your repeated assurances that doctrines when found- ed upon correct observation,was the greater object of your solicitude even if clad in homespun lan- guage, have spurred me onward to give you this desultory statement. In the spring of 1834, a very poor lot of land containing 15 acres, rather on the sandy order, what is termed by your Es- say a sandy loam, was divided in two equal lots of 1\ acres each, both to be seeded in red clover to experiment from, with lime and plaster sepa- rately. As my knowledge of the effect of either, was rather vague and visionary, I determined to improve it if I had to pay rather dear for my whistle. Consequently 500 bushels of well burned shells was set apart tor the lot for liming, and from 20 to 25 bushels of ground plaster was set asiA for the lot for plastering. After the lot for lime received its first fallowing, it was checked off carefully at different distances so as to vary the quantity when spread from 40 to 120 bushels per acre, a bushel of the shells was put down in each check, and carefully covered over with earth until they had perfectly slaked, and then spread as regularly over the surface as possible. The other lot received a light broad cast of rich dung- hill earth, and seeded both lots about the middle of February in red clover, prepared as neatly as a harrow and roller could do it. In March follow- ing, the lot destined for plaster, received its first due 1 \ bushels to the acre sowed on a damp day, and the next plastering after the first cutting of clover was taken from it: the two lots were left to time and seasons to unfold their wonders. The limed lot with a good grass season did manage to admonish the passer-by that red clover seed had been sown there. The other yielded in the month of July, a very fine cutting of hay. So much lor my first attempt. The difference was so very striking that it awakened in me an anxious inquiry. I commenced to read — for until then I looked upon a book on agriculture, like fhe laymen did the Bible in the darkest days of popery, to be touched at the risk of ruin. I had embraced the ruinous idea so common, and yet so fatal to my country- men, that book knowledge was prejudicial to pro- fitable husbandry: but I soon detected my error, and determined to carry my experiment with lime still farther. So, last October I carted on the lot 500 loads of good farm pen litter, and spread it broad cast, then .seeded it again with wheat and red clover at the rate of 1^ bushels of wheat and 5 quarts of red clover seed to the acre. Now comes the bright side of the picture. The wheat (on land before almost too poor to produce any thing) stood on an average, from 5 to 6 feet high (though a very bad season lor wheat;) and I verily believe, could it have been prevented from falling down, the yield would have been from 175 to 200 bushels. I know not the exact quantity I have saved, not having yet thrashed it all out, but it. will not fall much short of 175 bushels, and the waste was considerable. The clover bids lair to ex- cel the other lot, though the yield from the plas- tered lot was not inconsiderable, as the first cutting this season averaged from three to four feet in height, and is now fit for the scythe again. So much lor lime and plaster. Many of my neigh- bors when passing these lots look puzzled. The cloud of ignorance which basso long obscured Eastern Virginia is gradually disappearing before the effulgent rays of your agricultural pioneer the Farmers' Register, for such I hail it in this sec- tion of the country. Whilst my hand is in I will give you some ac- count of a small crop of corn which I have grow ing, and for a more appropriate name will call it the experiment crop. I do not expect this to excel or even to compete with overgrown crops that have been made at the north; because the number of stalks to the acre is not great enough to afford the requisite number of ears: but I am not so certain but what corn might be planted thick enough to afford to the acre as great a pro- duct as lias been raised at any other place. The land the crop is now growing on, was originally very poor, but was made rich for a crop of the skinless oat: being disappointed in obtaining them, I determined to plant it in the extra prolific or twin corn, which is said to produce from five to eight ears to the stalk. The corn was planted on a deep trench filled with rich dunghill earth three feet by eighteen inches, and the corn covered with an equal combination of leeched and unleeched ashes: it was with great difficulty that the com was made to stand from the caustic effects of the ashes, but the whole is growing finely and bids fair to produce well. If it does not suffer from be- ing too thick, the yield must be considerable: the result, if deserving of public notice, you shall hear as soon as ascertained. A. S. F. From communications to the Board of Agriculture. OBSERVATIONS ON THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. By William Strickland, Esq. of Yorkshire. Re- ceived 8th March, 1796. [Concluded from p. 211 Vol. 3.] VIRGINIA Is the southern limits of my information in America; beyond it inquiries were unnecessary, because it appears as if agriculture had there al- ready arrived at its lowest state of degrada- tion. The usual crops, in this state, are maize and wheat alternately, as long as the land will produce them tolerably well; then in future afier the two crops, three or four years rubbish pasture; and in 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 263 parts where tobacco is cultivated, several crops of las possible after harvest; and this is frequently at- ii are taken on first clearing the ground, before any grain is sown upon it; now and then a crop of oals intervenes, perhaps instead of wheat, per- haps following it; clover and lucern are yet little known, though there is reason lor supposing thai they- would be as beneficial here, as the first is, in the other states, or perhaps more so; since, on ac- count of the increasing heat of the climate, pas- tures and meadows are more precarious, and less frequent. Where crops of wheat, of not more than five or six bushels per acre, are expected, it is not usual to sow more than half a bushel of seed, and no where in this state more than one bushel. The average of all that part of Virginia- lying east of the Blue Ridge, 1 am satisfied I state at the utmost, at seven bushels per acre; no one states the ave- rage of that extensive flat country in Virginia, lying below the head of the tide, at more than five or six bushels; it therefore requires much better crops in that naturally fertile, but worn out, and not extensive tract of red land, at the foot of the mountains, to raise the average to seven bushels. In those lertile and beautiful vallies that lie among the mountains, in which ignorant cultivators have not yet resided sufficiently long to have entirely exhausted the soil, lavored with a temperate and delightful climate, it yet produces crops equal to any in America; I have reason to believe not less than twelve bushels per acre; but the surface, ca- pable of cultivation, when compared with the rest of Virginia, is very small indeed: with the country beyond them I am unacquainted. The average ol maize, in the eastern part of Virginia, is not to be reckoned at more than fifteen bushels; of the vallies, at twenty bushels; of oats, from one and a half to two bushels of seed to the acre, will be a return of from twenty to thirty. All the back country of America is very favo- rable to the growth of rye; crops, producing from twenty to thirty bushels, are commonly met with; this grain is entirely consumed in the distillation of whisky, chiefly for the consumption of the Irish frontier-men, except among the Germans in Penn- sylvania, who use. it for bread. Much of the wheat of this state is of a very infe- rior quality, some so bad as scarcely to be of any use, though that which is good, naturally much re- sembles the wheat of Maryland; but the slovenly management of the farmers considerably lessens the value of it The use of the flail is scarce known here; al- most, all the wheat is trodden out in the field by horses upon the bare sandy soil, with which much of it gets incorporated, and afterwards is separated from it by sieves, or some other means that an- swer the purpose; the consequence of" this is, that a considerable quantity of dust adheres to the sur face of the grain, and insinuates itself into the groove on one side of it, so that no art can entire- ly clear it away; and thence I am told millers are unable to make superfine flour from Virginian wheat; and on that account, that it bears a price, inferior to what the quality would otherwise de- mand. A weevil, or some other insect, greatly infests the wheat of this state when in the straw, which makes it necessary to tread it out as soon tended with inconvenience and loss. In unload- ing the wheat of this state from shipboard, or otherwise working among it in the granaries, the people employed are frequently so affected with a prickling or nettling on the skin, as to be unable to go on with their work, but without being able to account for the cause of it. I recollect a similar circumstance happening, in unloading a vessel la- den with Virginian wheat, some years since at Liverpool, when it was said to be caused by a mi- nute insect. Oats are not extensively cultivated in any part of America, and are every where bad, but those of this state, of the worst possible qual- ity; they have certainly kernel sufficient to enable them to veo-etate, but are, notwithstanding, light as chaff". The cultivated oat appears again re- turning to the. original grass. [ never saw any oats that would be marketable in England, except some in the German tract in Pennsylvania, and they would admit of comparison with such only as Ave should esteem very moderate. I am unable to discover how profit is to be de- rived from such crops, unless, that people being actually possessed of the soil, and of the slaves to cultivate it, abandoning all expectation of profit lor their capital, look upon all as nett profit that is re- ceived from the land. The land owners in this state are, with lew exceptions, in low circum- stances; the inferior rank of them wretched in the extreme. The evils of slavery are now rapidly and forcibly recoiling from the slave upon his own- er. Tobacco and maize, which heretofore have been the curse of the slaves, are now, with the slaves, allowed by all men in Virginia, to have been the ruin of themselves and their country: the almost total want of capital, among this descrip- tion of people, forbids all improvement on a great scale, and want of -the knowledge of agriculture, pre- vents its slow but certain progress. To show what some of this land would submit to before it became exhausted, and the mode pursued to accomplish it, I will take the cultivation of a gentleman, pos- sessing a considerable tract of land, originally as fertile as any in nature, on the loot of the Blue Ridge, who complained that much of his estate was worn out. Alter clearing and burning the woods, seven crops of tobacco were taken, in as many years; in some instances, ten crops; four crops of wheat; and ten crops of maize and wheat alternately, in ten years. After twenly-one years, the land refused to yield any more grain; but in a twelvemonth, too benignant nature clothed his property with a malchless sheet of white clover. To such modes of cropping, the poverty of the people, and sterility of the soil must be attributed: crops may be seen where each ear, frightened at its neighbor, keeps that awful distance, which would admit of a person's walking through the field without breaking down a stalk, in a climate and soil well calculated for the. produce of wheat. In many of the states, the Hessian fly bears the blame, which, if properly placed, ought to stand to the account of the. ignorant and greedy land owner; but no one pretends to say, that this insect has committed any material (if any) depredations on this state. 264 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. RECAPITULATION. In the state of New York, Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia (east of the Blue Ridge,) Ditto (west of ditto,) Average produce of wheat. Maize. Buckwheat Bushels. 12 per acre 8 ditto 7 12 25 15 20 15 15 25 oats 25 The average of the above, according to the number of districts, is nine bushels and three-quar- ters of wheat per acre; but as the first and last dis- trict, which are the most, productive, are consider- ably less in extent than the two which are the least productive, the average of the whole, in propor- tion to the extent of surface, cannot be estimated at more than nine bushels per acre; to the other crops it is not necessary to pay attention. Now, that a country situated in the finest latitudes of the globe, with a soil certainly, by nature, as capable of producing, as the climate is of bringing to ma- tin ity,far greater crops, and certainly, in both res- pects, better calculated for grain than many parts of Europe, which produce from double to treble the quantity on an average, should yield crops which there, would be looked upon as scarce worth the collection, renders the cause of it deserving of our notice. When inquiring into the subject, among the most intelligent people of the different states, I lbund this inferiority pretty generally attributed to a deficiency in the vegetative powers of the soil: it was said that a country, fresh out of the hands of nature, was not fertile; that it would bear a few tolerable crops when first cleared, but soon ceased to do it; and that it required the cultivation of ages, to render it as fruitful as old countries; so little were the best informed aware of their own defects the merits of the soil, or willing to acknowledge either of them. Some of the northern states, who remembered the days of greater fertility, at- tributed the visible decline to the depredations of the Hessian fly; but in Virginia, they scarcely know this insignificant animal, and therefore on it cannot cast the blame; and Virginia has probably experienced a greater failure of crops than any other state. In Virginia, this gradual decline has not injudiciously been ascribed to the culture of tobacco and maize; the first it has been observed, enriched the planter, but ruined the soil; the last ruined both; but the culture of tobacco and maize, as the staple articles of" the country, has only been partial, being confined to some of the southern states, while the decline has pervaded the whole of them; therefore, however injurious these may have been, we must look deeper for the root of the mischief: that I venture to state, as likely to be found in the present constitutions of the states, and the manners of the people. Before the revolution, I have reason to believe that the average produce of the soil would have stood considerably higher than at present, and there is no doubt that the owners of it were more opulent: at that time, the capital of the country was vested in the lands; and the landed proprie- tors held the first rank in the country for opulence and for information, and in general Reived, the best education which America, and not unfre- quently Europe, could afford them: thtir estates were sufficiently extensive to make it worth their while to bestow their time and their money upon them; and the estates in return repaid with inter- est the attention and expense. The law of Eng- land* generally prevailed with respect to the de- scent of property; an aristocracy Avas formed of capitalists, well calculated for improving, cultiva- ting, ornamenting, and enriching the country; great exertions and great improvements cannot be made in any country but by persons of this description; and no country requires such exertions and such im- provements, as a new one. Since the revolution, a new orderof things has taken place; new people, and people of very different occupations and pursuits, have taken the lead in the government, both of the confederation and respective states. The capital, as well as the government of the country, has slipped out of the hands of landowners; and these new peo- ple are now employed in very different, and, in the present state of things, more productive spec- ulations than the cultivation of lands; in specula- tions frequently at variance with the best interests of the country. In some of the states, the gentle- men of landed property have passed into perfect oblivion; in none of the stales do they bear the sway, or even possess their due share of influence, except perhaps in those, of New England; and there, they only take it incidentally, as the lands are divided with much equality among every de- scription of people, and are rather a secondary ob- ject, even with the principal people of the country, who generally, with a small occupancy of land, are obliged to follow other more lucrative pursuits, on which they place their chief dependence. Before the revolution, real estates descended to the eldest son; the law, since that period, has or- dained an equal division of them among males and females in equal degree, except in one or two states, where the eldest son takes two shares. This law has already had a very extensive, but a very mis- chievous influence; it has had the effect which the authors of it intended, in introducing a greater equality among the people; but it has had another also, which they might not have foreseen, and could not have intended; that of reducing them to an equality of poverty, and their soil almost to a Caput mortuum. Fewer people of landed proper- ty of any considerable opulence, are to be met with, than heretofore, and their numbers must be continually diminishing, from the influence of this law of descent; for though some people will not from custom acquiesce in it, and the wisest, from * In the state of Connecticut real estates were al- ways divided, as at present, among the children, male and female, the eldest son taking two shares; the evils, however, of minute division of real property, are there fully perceived and felt at this time. 1S35. FARMERS' REGISTER. 265 a sense of the evils arising from it, which they al- ready feel and lament; yet the law will occasionally have its course; and the estate once divided, can never again be united. The consequence of this is, that landed property is no longer an object of profit or pleasure; thw choose to possess more than is necessary for their own convenience; fewer live in the country than heretofore; no houses, in many parts of the country, of any consideration, are building; and no improvements of any kind taking place. Willi the decline of this class of people, and their property, is also that of the produce of the soil; lbr the poor and the ignorant must una voidably wear it out; the opulent and the intelligent alone can improve and ornament their country, and increase the produce of it. Such is the operation of the new constitutions on the higher orders; and it will be found, that manners too, have their full influence on the inferior orders; the mass of those we should call planters or farmers, are ignorant, uneducated, poor, and indolent: such an one who possesses an hundred acres of ground, will not in stock, furniture, or property, be worth £60; were he to possess such a capital, he would be esteemed a person of considerable substance; but he boasts of his independence, and enjoys inaction. Of the people of this, and of inferior ranks, ease is the greatest bliss, and a frolic the greatest spur to activity; with such inclinations, labor will afford but. a bare subsistence; and with this, such people will sit down contented rather than toil. From this picture, must be entirely excepted the people of the New England states; they, with a more ra- tional love of independence, possess also an equal love of industry and order; consequently this ex- emplary and enterprising people, enjoy the natural attendants of such principles, knowledge, wealth, and power, in full proportion to their respective stations. The consequence of this state of thinga cannot be otherwise, than that the produce of the country must be stationary, if not on the decline; and that the supplies hereafter to be drawn from this, by other countries, cannot be greater, if so great, as they have been, unless some sudden and very material alteration of public principles and private practice should take place. It may account also, in part, for the excessive price which a de- mand not excessive, and no very great supply, has created in most articles of export from the United States, and especially within the last two or three years; and it may perhaps also appear, that this in- creased demand, and excessive price, have not ma- terially added to the quantity exported* of articles * The following is an account of the export of the staple articles of the United Sates, in the first and last years, in which it can at this time be obtained; in the first year, public disturbances in Europe had not had any material influence on commerce; in the last, a vi- gorous and general war had called for all the supplies that America could afford. Ycarending Sep. 30. Maize. Bushels. Tobacco. Hogsheads. Cattle. Horses. Rice Tierces. Flour. Barrels. Wheat. Bushels. 1,124,458 696,797 Beef. Barrels. Pork. Barrels. 1790 1794 2,102,137 1,472,700 629,437 118,460 72,958 5,406 3,495 8,628 1,828 100,845 *134,611 724,623 828,405 44,662 97,779 24,662 47,242 Loss, Gain, 32,402 1,911 6,800 33,766 93,782 427,661 53,117 12,7S0 The return of this article being defective in 1794, that of 1793 is here taken. The United States are therefore Losers. Gainers. Dollars. j By rice, at 18 dollars per tierce, 314,718,5 By flour, at 6^ dollars per barrel, 1,416,080 By beef, 61 dollars ditto, 38,220 272,000 427,661 By maize, at \ dollar per bushel, By tobacco, at 40 dollars per hogshead, By cattle, at 20 dollars each, By horses, at 40 dollars each, Buckwheat, at 1 dollar per bushel, 2,468,779,5 1,657,982,25 Dollars— 810,697,25 By pork at S^dollars ditto, 607,788 609,583 331,981,25 108,630 Dollars 1,657,982,25 The dollar 4s. 6d. sterling. Therefore, though a bounty from 50 to 100 per cent, has been offered on the export of their chief articles of produce, in that great increase of price that was paid for them in 1794, yet in five years the United States have declined in the value of their export to the amount of upwards of eight hundred thousand dollars, accord- ing to the peace price. The price has augmented the export of articles of chief demand by the belligerent powers, but an immense loss in other articles, the produce of their soil, so as to leave the above great balance against the owners of it. If this be fairly stated, and the writer apprehends that the authorities from whence it is derived, cannot be disputed; surely it behoves the government of the United States to pay more attention to the landed and agricultural interests of their country; to remedy principles of law, so destructive to them, to occupy their minds on certain and immediate benefits, rather than attend to uncertain and distant speculations, before habits have become fixed in the mass of the people, which cannot afterwards, when wanted, be coun- teracted; before the principal people have abandoned a country life, as no longer affording them an occupation worthy of their attention; before their estates cease to be objects of rational pleasure, by being split into por- tions no longer worth possessing; and before they feel that their property and pursuits no longer afford them that influence, which their rank in society ought to give them. Vol. 111—34 266 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 5. of primary necessity to the countries demanding them, which they would have done, had the sup- ply been naturally adequate, or capable of being forced. "The husbandry of every country depending mosdy cm the market for cattle and shee| ai wool; how far is the bad culture of America owing to a wapt of them/? Is there a demand for beef, mutton, and wool, in any quantities for exportation, or otherwise? And how far does the existence of these circumstances, in the vicinity of large towns, remedy such bad cultivation? The answer to this has, in a great degree, been anticipated in the answer to tbeiasl question; what farther is requisite, will be found in detailing the prices of artii les in the different parts of the coun- try when I was there. 179-1, September. New York city. Beef, 3] &d.to3§ Lfd.; mutton, 3-*} ^|d.; veal, 5 T4T;d. to 5| T8Bd.; land, per quarter 2s.; pork, 5 ,-^d.; pigs, live weight, 2^d. perlb.jbutter, Is. HA. new rnilk3| T;-M. per quart; chickens, lOd. to Is.; hay, £25s. to £2 16s. 3d. per ton; wheat, 5s. 7.ld.; barley, 3s. 11 pi.: maize, 2s. 9|d.; rye, 3s. l^d.; oats, Is. S^d.; per bush- el. New York Slate. Beef, 3 ^d.; mutton,2§ r"Bd.: butter, 9d.; wheat 5s. 4,^,d.; pair of good oxen, five or six years old, from £ 13 10s. to £ 14 12s. 6d.; three years old, £6 15s. per pah;. Fal sheep which may w'eigh 141bs. per quarter, 6s. 9d. each; wool of good staple 41bs. per fleece, Is. 5.UI. per lb. 1794, October. Albany. Beef and mutton. 2;} ,^1.: butler, S^ i|d.; wheat, 5s. 9|d. 1794, November. New England. Beef and million, 3^d.; butter, fromS^d. to lOgd.; wheat 6s. 9d.; a drove of lean cattle going into Pennsylva- nia to be fed, some ol wmch cost .CIS a pair; and when fat would weigh 1500 lbs. or upwards, hide and tallow included. About Chesterfield and Massachusetts, the best sheep in the United States, weigh as high as 20 lbs. per quarter, fleeces as 7 lbs. each, long wool but coarse, used for combing, sells for 2s. 3d. per lb. In Rhode Island, extremely fine wool fleece, from I;j lbs. to 2 lbs. sells for Is. 1-^d. per lb. unwashed-, hay, £ 1 10s. per ton. Boston. Beef and mutton, 4£d. per lb,; butter, Is.; butter in barrels, from S^d. to 9fd.: used to be 3d. and 3fd.; geese, 2s. to 2s 3d.; turkies and fowls •I'.d. per lb. ready for the spit. Cattle for the cu- ring-Twuses in all parts of New England, in the drove, calculated at 18s. 9d. per hundred lb.: lade and tallow included. Beef from 31s. 6d. to 45s per barrel of two hundred pounds nett each, according to quality; the first is very bad, the last excellent; the demand is far greater than the supply, pork per barrel, not surpassed by any in the world, 72s. to 70s. 1794, December. New York City. Wheat, 7s. 10 id. Philadelphia. Beef 44 hi. to 7 gd.; mutton and veal, 3| |d. to 5\ |.;best flour, 3Ss. 3d. per barrel, of 1 cvvt. 3 quarters nett; wheat 8s. 4|d.: best tim- othy hay, £3 12s. per ton; maize, 2s. S\ "'d. but- ter 9d. to 10^ hi.; milk, 4f Id. per quart; bread of superfine inspected flour, lib. 7 oz. for 3^ fd.; of inspected common, lib. 8oz. for ditto; of inspected rye, 2 lbs. 3oz. for ditto. 1795, January. Common meadow hay, £3 per ton; best timothy, £4 10s. March. Wheat 9s.; flour, 47s. 3d. per barrel; fowls, 3s. to 4s. 6d.; ducks, 5s. Sj[d.; butter, from 10+ |d. to Is. 1 ;d. to Is. 4f ]d.: wheat, 9s.; flour, 49s. 6d. per barrel. Jul)-. Philadelphia. Wheat 10s. 21, |d. New Jersey. Mutton and veal, 3£ fd.; beef scarce at this season; baiter, ll.ld. New York City. Beef and mutton, 6|d. and 7:f ,",,d.; veal somewhat cheaper; butter ll^d. and Is. 0£ T%d.; wheat, 9s. 10d% From the above detail of prices, it will not only be evident, that the demand for exportation must be greater than the supply; but that the consump- tion of the great towns, affords a price more than sufficient !<>r all the articles that are carried to them. A very large proportion of the supply, both for ex- portation, and the consumption of the large towns, is brought from very great distances; cattle from the Chinessee country on Jake Ontario, andjiom Kentucky, into the neighborhood of Philadelphia; the former nol less than six hundred miles, the latter about seven or eight hundred. The chief part of the flour comes in barrels, li'om the beads of the rivers tliErt fall into the Atlantic; and some by laud carrige, from t]io neighborhood of Fort Pitt to Philadelphia, a distance of three hundred miles. That a supply in itself moderate, when compar- ed with the vast extent of country, should be col- lected from such great distances, is sufficient proof that the large towns have not beneficial effect on, or power to remedy, the bad cultivation of the country, even in their own vicinity. "It is said that all the better soils in the central states, when exhausted and left, cover themselves with white clover; ascertain the fact; and observe what soils they are, upon which this fact occurs most." In every part of America, from New Hamp- shire to Carolina, from (lit; sea to the mountains, the land, whether calcareous or argillaceous, whether wet or dry, whether worn out or retain- ing its original fertility, from the summit of the Allegany ridge to the sandy plains of Virginia, is spontaneously covered with white clover, growing frequently with a luxuriance and perfection that art. can rarely equal in Europe. In the northern Slates, it affords an herbage throughout the year; in the southern, the seed ripens about July; after which time the heat, of the sun scorches it up, and I be- lieve it is no more seen till the spring following. The climate or soil, or both, seem particularly fa- vorable to this genus of plants; the trifolium repens, pratense, arvense, alpesire, are abundant, and se- veral others are to be met with. It is probably too late now to ascertain whether white clover be a na- tive of this, as well as the old continent. I am told it is never met with far back in the 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 26* woods, but immediately on their being cleared l as far south as the southern boundary of Virginia; away, either by fire or otherwise, it takes posses- | beyond that, the climate is too hot lor it; every sion of the ground; which should prove that it j where to the north of this, in every waste .spot, was natural to it; that the seed lies there, butcan- hemp grows spontaneously, with a luxuriance I not vegetate till the ground is cleared: but again I never met with elsewhere: I have seen single plants I have been told, that by some tribes of Indians it upwards of \cn feet in height, with branches in is called white man's fool grass; from an idea, that wherever he has trodden, it grows; which should prove at least, that it had not been known in the country longer than the white man. "Timothy produces immense crops in America: would it not be worth while to try some uf the ever} direction four or five feet in length, and with a stem more than four inches in circumference. I do not mention this kind of growth as an excel- lence in the hemp, because such branching would be injurious to it, but to show how congenial the climate and soii is to the plant: such excess of ve- seed in England, and to sow it on the same kind getation would be prevented in cultivation, by the of soil?" - closer growth of (he plants. Timothy grass* is extensively- cultivated in the Kahn. in his travels in America, remarks the middle and northern states of the American luxuriant growth of wild hemp, particularly about Union, and I apprehend it to be the same as the the remains of Fort Saratoga, (by which I sup- phleum pratense, eat's-tail grass, of European bo- pose he meanl Fort Hardie, formerly built by tanists, I have frequently seen extraordinary crops j the French at Saratoga;) at that very place, up- of it, growing thick as it could stand on the ground, wards of forty years* afterwards, I saw hemp at 3 or 4 feet in height, and in some instances coarse i least eight feel in height growing wild, which pro- as wheat straw, however, in this state, as it is cut bably had annually shaken its seed, and annually before maturity, and as in the climate of America grown from that time to the present. hay isalways well cured, however succulent at the Notwithstanding tins natural inclination in the time of cutting, horses preterit to every other kind soil to produce hemp, next to none is cultivated; of hay, ami thrive better upon it. I cannot there- | lh-is probably arises more from the indolence of the tore but think it worthy of some fair experiments in this country. No other grass approches il in produce; and it is particularly useful when mixed with red clover, in preventing it from falling too close to the "round. "Clover seed from America ought to be tried, particularly on ground that is tired of English or Dutch clover seed: can such be procured? Clover, growing With such remarkable luxu- people, than any othercause. Hemp affords much labor in the winter, on which account it would be particularly valuable to an industrious people; but here, particularly the reverse. Winter is the sea- son of frolic and dissipation, With which nothing must interfere. These habits do not appear likely soon to be eradicated, and till that change takes place, no hemp will be cultivated-. American hemp is said to be peculiarly soft, silky, and pliable; and riance as that in America, must produce good seed,' I therefore better adapted than any other, for the and such may prove an useful change. ".Seed has i running rigging ol ships, and it is used lor that frequently been sent from America to England: I purpose in most American vessels. probably will be sent in future without any partic- Hemp is said to be much improved in its bright- uiar demand; and will hereafter be certainly sent, ness and silky quality, by being rated [rotted] in whenever ordered or required here. The price at | brackish water, which is always the case in Ame- Ncw York in the autumn of 1794. was about 7d. | rica when possible: experiments of that nature, per lb. "Might not Great Britain be supplied with hemp from America?" No supply of hemp can be drawn from the Uni- ted States, since the quantity grown there is very inconsiderable, near the whole of their consump- tion being imported from the Baltic. No country seems better calculated ibr hemp than the states. * ( 1799.) I have cultivated the American Timothy grass, and English cat's-tail grass, in my garden for three years; and I find not the least difference between them, except that the timothy is about a fortnight ear- lier than the cat's-tail; the ettect of the change of seed anil climate. They are the phleum pratense of the va- riety g. nodosum of Withering. This variety, I find, is not well founded, as the bulbous root is acquired both in the timothy and cat*s-tail, by luxuiiant growth; and the bulbs or knots on the roots become larger and more numerous by age; young plants, and those stinted in their growth by a poor soil, have them not. The bul- bous cat's-tail, is not common in meadows, at least in liiiirlit in many instances be tried in this country, While the United States were under the domin- ion of Great Britain, bounties were offered for the raising and exporting of hemp, but I believe with little effect: and are at this time continued by the state of Massachusetts, but with so little tendency to increase the culture, that the bounty for not more than one hundred tons, has been claimed in a year. "Might not immense quantities of oil-cake for manure, and the feeding of cattle, be got from America?" The only oil-caket used for manure is the resi- * Not ha\ ing Kalm's Travels by me to refer to, I do not know the precise date. f (1799.) In consequence of the above recommen- dation, the importation of oil-cake was allowed by ;j pasl are early in thespring. I never graze the cultivated land until late in June — (August would be much better — ) when it is well covered, and the stock can make very little impression up- on it. I am sure the annual profit by sale, derived from my stock, in addition to the supply of m}^ family, would more than pay every expense of the estate, ami almost entirely from Mr. Seidell's despised race, (the sale of oxen, milch cows and butter,) (or I give to my people in addition to a moderate quantity of beef and mutton, all the pork we can raise over and above the consumption of the fam- ily. I made the arrangement as an inducement to take care of' and increase the quantity, and find it succeeds very well. The hams which we do not use, (more than half) are sold ai. a high price, and the proceeds invested in m idlings, which are. preferred. All the wool, with enough cotton both for the summer and winter clothing of the slaves, is manufactured on the estate, so that if we do not sell much, we purchase little. JOIIX TADB. P. S. Since writing the above, the No. of the Register for July, has been sent me from Norfolk', in which I observe a communication on the sub- ject of spayed cows. I have often thought it strange the practice of spaying was not more com- mon.' About sixteen years ago, my father, Philip Tabb of this county, who was in the habit of 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 271 spaying two or three heifers every year for beef, at the proper age, had the experiment made on a cow with her first calf, which succeeded; and he sent her to me at Norfolk, after keeping her a year or two, thinking she would be desirable for a town row. She gave as much milk as ordinary cows, and I thought a1 firsl she would be a great acqui- sition, but soon found one inconvenience attend- ing her which had not occurred to me. Having no calf to attach and accustom her to my lot, it was necessary to send after her whenever requi- red, or keep her up altogether, which was incon- venient, and being (as most spayed animals gen- erally are) in fine order, I lost her in afewmonths. and have no doubt she was sold to the butcher. I have always regretted the loss, not so much on account of the value, but that I might have as- certained how long, and in what quantity she would have continued to give milk. I have now on this estate eighteen spayed heifers, (and 1 kill two or three every year for beefj) from one to se- x-en years old. The operation is performed when they are about a year old, say in the month of May, and with the single precaution of keeping them entirely from food or water for twenty-four io thirty-six hours before — is not attended with the least risk — is performed in the same way, and may i be done by any person in the habit of spaying hogs. They go to their food immediately after, I and require no attention. The operation has been imperfectly performed two or three times, and they had calves afterwards: but 1 have only lost one, and thai in consequence ofkeepingit sus- pended a very long time, in order to leach, and in- deed, to permit an inexperienced hand to operate. We select the most indifferent calves to spay, which isone way to improve the stock. You increase the size amazingly. They become as large as ordi- nary oxen — are easily kept — make the finest beef — and as they are not in perfection till six or seven years old. we work them alter three or four, to make them gentle, and consider them superior for that purpose, to the ox. 1 have had so little experience in farming, and am necessarily so much absent in the performance of other duties, that I am loaih to make any com- munication for publication, and certainly should not, but for my knowledge of the. liberal and cha- ritable feeling amongst, farmers toward each other. One of the greatest objections to landed estates in Virginia, consisls.in the difficulty of procuring first rate managers. The difference between good and bad management is, abundance and wealth in the one case, and want and poverty in the other. I have been very fortunate in that respect; and acknowledge myself under obligations to Mr. Anthony Smith, my manager. For industry, hu- manity, care and attention to the people, and stock, he cannot he surpassed; and 1 take the liberty to suggest to every farmer who has a good manager, the propriety of selecting one or two boys of in- telligence and good character, to place under him. Patriotism and self-interest should prompt them to do so, as the best mode of increasing the number of good managers, and their chance of obtaining one, and of improving the country. It is impossible lor the proprietor of a large estate to attend to the details; and perfectly useless for him to read, think, and plan, unless he can procure an agent who can understand and execute. J. T. For the Farmers' Register. REMARKABLE FECUNDITY OF A EWE. Mr. William Nottingham, sen. has at his farm near Easlville, (Northampton, Va.) a ewe which has brought 20 lambs in 7 years and 2 months, from the-first to the last yeaning; and omittingthe last, the first 19 lambs were produced in less than G years. The following dates and numbers were copied from the written memoranda kept by Mr. Nottingham, on whom, as a man of observation and accuracy-, the most entire reliance may be placed. The ewe was yeaned in February 1S27. In February 1828, she brought 2 lambs. February 1S29, 4 November 1st, 1829, 3 (beino- 7 in 19 months.) February 7th, 1831, 3 March 10th, 1832, 3 ' January 18th, 1S33, 2 December 31st, 1833, 2 April 13th, 1335, 1 None of these were supposed to he premature births, and as large a proportion of the lambs lived as could have been expected in ordinary Hocks, bom births as they usually occur. Great care was generally taken of the mother, but owing to par- ticular occurrences, she was sometimes greatly exposed. Her lour lambs were yeaned at a birth, when out in a severe snow storm, and all (I be- lieve) died in consequence. The ewe was raised as a house Iamb, and is of the common breed. She was the only ewe kept on this farm, and has been always fed abundantly. When givingmilk, her udder was stated to be more like a cow's in size, than that of a sheep. Hut if her fecundity was caused altogether by high feeding, it would seem that the same ofiects may be contin- ued in her race by like treatment. Some of the female lambs of this ewe were given to Mr. Not- tingham's sons, and have been kept as breeders, with the like abundant supply of Jbod. Of these, '•'one has had 4 lambs at one time, and 3 at ano- ihertime — another had 4 lambs at her first and only yeaning — and a third has had 3 lambs atone yeaning." These loiter facts were also furnished me in writing by Mr. Nottingham's son. I omit- ted asking what proportion of these were raised — and did not note down the proportion of those lost, by the old ewe. Mc Nottingham's flock of sheep is kept on grazing land on the sea side, and the mother of this family has been the only ewe kept at his house. In addition to this peculiar situation, she had the company every year except the last, of more than one male — as several ram lambs were brought home from the sea-side pasture at shear- ing time, to be killed in the course of the year. Upon these facts, and his observations, Mr. N. has formed the opinion that the several lambs of each yeaning, had different sires — and thai the number of males In fact determined the number of lambs. Whether this strange opinion is well founded or not, Mr. N. is so sure of it, that he has latterly more than once before the yeaning stated correctly the number of lambs that would be pro- duced. The last time there was only one male with her. E. R. July I3lh, 1835. 272 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. "a deed without a name." To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. Having derived much useful information from your valuable periodical, the Farmers' Register, I have thought it the duty of the whole fraternity of agriculturists to contribute each his portion of in- formation for the benefit of the rest. Indeed, my mite would have been thrown into the general cofier before this, but. for my thorough aversion to placing my proper name to any paper which pos- sibly might get me into difficulty, or which misfit involve any sort of responsibility. Shall I tell you 1 he reason.' A friend of mine gave me a mortal aversion to its vain glorious use. Some sixteen years ago I visited Richmond, and was invited by a gentleman of that city to partake of his good cheer, and being somewhat fond of the good things of this life, I indulged as far as a reasona- ble man may be supposed to have done. At the winding up of the feast, my friend invited me to unite with him in a note for $10,000 at one of the banks, which he would at a proper time redeem. The request was reasonable enough- — the name a mere matter of form. Besides, it was quite a cre- ditable thing to be the endorser — aye the endorser, of such a good fellow, and one who spoke ofthou- sands as I now do of dollars. Well! sixteen years have passed away — my friend is a bankrupt — his property made over to a favored few: and if you have any curiosity to know who the author of this paper is, on the first discount day in August, a small man, of a sorrowful countenance, wearing ;i broad brimmed straw hat, and riding a gray mare, may be seen on the turnpike, wending his solitary way to Richmond to renew this very note. True, it has been clipped a little, but the sum of $6450 still remains due. Can mortal man wonder at my aversion, therefore, to write my name in full on any paper? Such is my abhorrence, Mr. Editor, to any unnecessary display of the sort, that in ad- dressing my own dear children I subscribe myself generally, simply "your father." I know them to be wise, and rely on their knowledge of the old man. With these preliminary remarks, I shall proceed to give in my experience as a tiller of the earth. 1 have marled, Mr. Editor, God be praised, I have marled. Not to the extent of thousands, but a cool hundred or two. Now mark me. In one of my best fields, I had a gall, a washed knoll, pre- cisely such a spot as every judicious farmer most sedulously avoids when showing his crop to his neighbors. Now, sir, one of my first operations with the precious mineral, was to apply it to this knoll, or gall. And what suppose you is the con- sequence? Why, sir, when a neighbor comes to see me, and a walk is proposed, I generally man- age to take him by a sort of circumbendibus, around to this poor despised gall, where on this 13th of July, the corn is actually tasseling, and proba- bly will produce six or eight barrels per acre. I could not have believed it on the testimony of others.* Mortal man would scarcely believe it. * Neither can ice — and it is presumed that our cor- respondent will permit others in this respect to assume what is precisely his own ground. Farther — we would not believe our own eyes in such a case — and if more respect could be paid to the eyes of another, it would not be to a correspondent without a name. And now my good sir, when my spirits are de- pressed, I generally take a walk to look at the corn on the marled land. When the cashier in- forms me that on such a day my note falls due, I walk to the marled land. If any thing crosses me there I go, morning, noon, or night. Upon my word I begin to think marl will cure half the ills of life. My wife says it has prevented the chickens having the gapes. She declares that never had she so little trouble with the young turkeys: and in fact .she verily believes the health of the children is great- ly improved. All this, my dear sir, she attributes to the marl. And now, sir, I am straining every nerve to fertilize every arable acre of my farm, by its im- mediate application. An oxcart is generally devoted to this business: and I regret that my means will not enable me apply double the lbrce to this beneficial purpose. I entreat you not to regard this as an exagger aled statement. I am incapable of an untruth, or any manner of deception. SUBSCRIBER. For the Farmers3 Register. ANALYSES OF SOILS [FROM ALABAMA] MADE BY DR. R. W. GIBBES. JULY, 1835. Colbcrlua Plantation of Col. F. Elmore. 1. Black or Slue Prairie — (from Rig Slue — ) G to 8 inches below the surface. Vegetable matter 26 per cent. Carbonate of lime 32 " Silex, alumina, oxide of iron [the remainder.] 2. Hammock Prairie — (between House and Ce- dar Ridge.) Vegetable matter 36 per cent. Carbonate of lime 22 " Silex, &c. &c. 3. Open Prairie — mahogany colored — (be- tween Gin House and William Colbert's field.) Vegetable matter 38 per cent. No limestone. Silex, &c. &c. 4. Hog Bed Prairie-- (William Colbert's land.) Vegetable matter 26 per cent. Carbonate of lime 8 " Silex, &c. &c. Of course our amount of faitli as to such erf ects of pure marl alone, is (like our correspondent's interest in the bank,) a quantity largely minus. But though holding as nought the only agricultural fact of our unknown correspondent — and supposing that his object is to make light of those whom he may deem marl-mad farmers — his communication is freely given a place; and if for no other reason, as evidence that we are willing to bear our full share of good hu- mored reproof, whether deserved or not. In this it is hoped that a profitable example is offered to some of our "thin-skinned" friends. Whenever our new corres- pondent will give his true name, or authenticated facts, he will be received with hearty welcome — (and the more so if his hand writing should be more legi- ble— ) for however well he handles his present subject, it is not altogether suited to this journal, and would not have been admitted, but for its apparent personal bearing. — Ed. Fabm. Reg. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 273 5. Post Oak Prairie — (near Goodson's.) Vegetable matter 3S per cent. No limestone. Silex, &c. 6. Moulton Plantation of Dr. J. H. Taylor. Black Slue Prairie — (Woodland's — best.) Vegetable matter 2S per cent. Carbonate of lime 12 " Silex, &c. 7. Prairie — (scattering last post oak) mingled with red clay. Vegetable matter 32 per cent. Carbonate of lime 6 " Silex, &c. 8. Open Prairie — from a hill or ridge. Vegetable matter 32 per cent. Carbonate of lime 18 " Silex, &c. Chisholms. White Open Prairie— from near surface: soil not more than 18 inches. Vegetable matter 28 per cent. Carbonate of lime 42 " Silex, &c. All the specimens except the last, taken from about G or 8 inches below the surface. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PItAIRIE SOILS OF AR- KANSA.. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Hempstead Ariz. Ter. > June 27, 1835. ) The May No. ofyourvalueble journal being re- ceived, my attention was attracted by "State- ments of the constituent parts of soils of the prairies of Alabama," and more particularly fixed by the editorial remarks soliciting information on the sub- ject of prairies in general. In anticipation of Mr. Featherstonhaugh's forthcoming report of his geological survey of Arkansa. (though I much fear from the rapid manner of his travelling among us, his investiga- tions have been neither accurate nor minute,) I will endeavor to give you such an, account of those in my vicinity as a sixteen years' residence among them, without any pretensions to science, enables me to do. The prairies of Arkansa exhibit every variety of soil, surface, exposure, and degree of produc- tiveness, when under the hand of culture. Those that border the Red River are nearly a perfect le- vel, formed of alluvion, composed of a dark red clay and sand, a little elevated above the sur- rounding timbered land. They contain no re- mains of shells, but the soil resembles in all re- spects, that of the timbered alluvion adjoining. Another description of prairies occupies eleva- ted situations, the surface, composed of a mixture of rounded smooth pebbles, oyster shells and their fragments, a pale yellow clay, and a little sand. They are broken into ridges and valleys, and rounded knobs surmounted with post oak tim- ber. The Mound Prairie, and those that extend fir some miles around it, are found of gently swell- ing ridges, divided by timbered valleys. They ex- V©l. Ill— 35 hibit considerable variety of soil. On some the surface is mixed with sand; others are nearly or quite destitute of it: some are a deep black; others a light gray; others again are of a yellowish brown; and the whole of them rest on a founda- tion at various depths from the surface, irom one to six feet, of a pale blue rock, that is soft enough to cut with a knife, but hard enough lor hearth stones if kept out of the weather, but which slacks and crumbles into powder on exposure. I have seen corn and cotton of the rankest growth, standing in an unmixed bed of this substance that had been thrown up from the bottom of a deep well. This rock lies in strata of from four to eight inches thick, in alternate layers of harder and softer matter, and of a darker and lighter co- lor. The lighter colored masses have been burned into a superior quality of lime, and the deeper into good potter's ware. Oyster shells and pieces of coral are every where found upon the surface, and imbedded in the rock; as well as petrified bones, and a very heavy black substance that resembles blacksmith's cinder, and entirely volatilizes by heat, with a strong sulphureous smell.* This sul- phur ore, as it is called, when exposed to the air under shelter, incrusts itself with crystals of cop- peras. Masses of erystalized gypsum are also sometimes found deposited in chasms of the rock penetrated in digging wells. This rock, varying, but little in appearance, underlays the whole of this section of country, timbered land as well as prairie. Large trees torn up by storms, many times contain, entangled among their roots, oys- ter shells and their fragments, rounded smooth pebbles, red clay and sand. When the timbered lands join upon the prairie, the roots of the timber are imbedded in a stiff red clay, and elevated ge- nerally about a foot above the edge of the naked prairie, exhibiting the appearance of this super- stratum having been washed away from the space occupied by the prairie. The roots of the timber however, strike some depth below the red clay, into the shelly substance beneath. These prairies when I first saw them in 1S19, were clothed with a tall fine grass, and ornament- ed with flowers, without any mixture of timber or shrubbery, except at long intervals, where a clump of veteran post oaks had been able to resist the an- nual fires. Now, a large proportion of the prai- rie is in cultivation; and what is left out as com- mons is nearly divested of its native grass, by nu- merous herds of domes'ic animals. The fire has ceased to sweep over them, and thickets of crab, thorn, persimmon, mulberry, elm, honey-locust, peccan, the different oaks, the vine rose, grape vines, rattan, green brier, and blackberry bushes, render them in most places impassable. In the oldest thickets, the more vigorous trees are alrea- dy destroying, those of weaker growth, which die, lull, and the "fire thus furnished with nutriment, begins to thin out the underbrush, and give this recent growth the appearance of young open woods. " Thus, as soon as the native grass is so rnuch eaten out as to prevent the fire lrom run- ning over the prairie, these sprouts spring up- pierce with their roots the shelly substance be- neath, loosen and dissolve its texture, elevate its "This is sulphuret of iron — .also found in the Alaba- ma prairie soils. See Essay on Ceil. Man.. 2d ed.f.22. 274 F A U M E ii S REGIS T E R [No. 5. surface, change its color, and form and accumu- late a rich vegetable mould. The new lands lately cleared of these thickets, and pu1 into culti- vation, are much richer and more productive than the naked prairie's formerly were, that were put in cultivation before the thickets had grown; and the prairie fields that have been many years in unin- terrupted cultivation, in corn, cotton, wheat and oats, and so managed, by ploughing in all the ve- getable rubbish every year, as to prevent the soil from washing, are continually improving. 1 know of one field of fifty acres that was at first a naked gray prairie, that "has been constantly cultivated in cotton for the last ten years, that produced last year a bale of cotton to the acre. 'Sue rust in cotton has never been seen in the country. The soil of this tield has heroine black. The black timbered land of the valleys, however, the soil of which is composed of lite wash from the prairie hills, mixed with the decayed vegetation of the low grounds, is that which is the most valuable. The oldest fields show no symptom of decay, nor are they much influenced by excessive rain or drought. They have been proved to be equal to airy soil in the world, in any climate, for corn, cot- ton and wheat. The vast extent of new wild land that remains yet to be put into cultivation, has as yet prevented us from paying any atten- tion to improving the quality of our soils, for in- deed, they are so rich by nature as to seem not to require it. The crops of last year were fully- equal to any ever before produced; and those on the oldest fields were the best. For this reason, the crops of wheat, though few, and on a small scale, might vie with those of the middle states in the best seasons. We have now, at this lime, had no rain to moisten even the surface of the ground since the 30th of April last, yet our corn and col- ton on the low groundsare not in the least injured. Thus have I given you a statement of facts respecting the southern portion of Arkansa, as they have come Avithin my personal knowledge. 1 regret much my inability to give you a chemi- cal analysis of the different soils, and still more the want of a proper conveyance, for specimens. 1 want to send you, or the editor of the Farmer and Gardener, larger quantities than are proper for the mail, and I would with pleasure remit a box during next season, to any gentleman in New Orleans, whom you will name to me lor the pur- pose. From the sensible properties of our best prairie toil, without using chemical tests, 1 judge it to contain a large proportion of carbonate and sul- phate of lime; a due proportion of alumine, and a small proportion of silcx and iron. A strong smell of sulphur is also sometimes perceived from fresh ploughed ground in a hot day, and lumps of carbonate of magnesia I have found imbedded in a red clay. Intelligent strangers that come among us, gaze at every thing they see with wonder and delight. They find many "things new and unheard of, in the appearance and sensible properties of the soil, the vegetable productions, and the indications of minerals. They are captivated with the transpa- rency of our atmosphere, and the rosy glow of smiling health that animates the countenances of the inhabitants. *". D. SMITH. ON THE ADVANTAGES TO Rli DERIVED FROM Till; ESTABLISHMENT OF AN AGRICULTU- RAL PROFESSORSHIP. 'J'u the Editor of t!i<' Farmers' Register. JJarbounvdle, July 23, 1835. Sir: [i has been a settled conviction on my mind lor years, that a professorship of agriculture — a pat- tern farm, and such a paper as yours, united therewith, would lie productive of incalculable benefit to the commonwealth. The. space of a letter is too confined to admit of one-half being stated. Suffice it to say, it Would elevate the sci- ence—add dignity to the pursuit — call off from encumbered vocations a portion of the mind of our citizens now lost to the community — presentaral- l\ ing point for all the scattered information of the land — reduce to the test of experiment every the- ory plausible enough to justify ii — by the same standard to prove the value of every discovery or improvement — promote economy by causing one experiment for many — a certain and rapid com- munication, through thestate, of the results — fur- nish a sure means of ascertaining the nature of our climate— the quantity of rain falling in the year — the seasons when droughl most generally prevails — and by consequence, furnish data to guide the husbandman in the cultivation of crops, both as to time and kind. I3t.it 1 must stop— for I find no end to t he advantages that would result from such an i stablishment. Let. me, however, add one more All these things are to be done before the youth of Virginia — the future men of the commonwealth, destined eventually to influence her destiny. A portion of these, selected from every part of the. state (say one to each congressional or senatorial district,) of promise, but unable, from poverty, to educate themselves, to become the adopted children of the state, would be able by alternate, labor and study, alike to keep up the form, and to improve themselves. Indeed, it is worthy of the profbundest consideration, whether every student of the University would not profit, by a few hours' work daily, in the proper season. These being my views, 1 submit to you whether it does not be- hoove the tillers of the earth to make an effort to induce the legislature to attend to their neglected interests. How is this to be done? I answer, as every other sect effects every thing by conventions — to that alternative we must also re- sort. What say you to such a convention, to meet in Richmond the first Monday in January? Let any one who feels an interest in the object attend. Let each agricultural society in the state be represent- ed there. If it be asked what good can come of it, the answer is, let us try it. A free communion of the intelligence of the land cannot be altogether unproductive of good fruit. Apart from what can be done by such a convention on its own means, an appeal may be made to the legislature under the weighty sanctions' of their united wishes, to do something "for us. If the view which I suggest is esteemed impracticable, they may incorpo- rate an agricultural society in each congres- sional district, and award a small sum to each, to he distributed in premiums, afler the maimer of New York and other states. But it is objected that it will cost something. Have we not as a class offered our fleece aunual- ly, without a murmur, to be appropriated to other 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 275 improvements'? Is it unreasonable that in turn we should require a small portion of our own to be applied to our peculiar benefit? A small portion of the Interesl paid annually by the University, would in a few years put our scheme completely in operation, and 1 verily believe after that it would be able to support itself. However, all these things might be discussed in convention, and digested in a form that would be most acceptable. And I may be permitted to add, that for once we should have a convention whose soleobject would be the good of the country— a spectacle so singu- lar in these times, that, it could not. tail to be as consolatory as the oasis to the weary traveller of the desert. If you agree with me on this point, you can greatly promote the object by inviting the meeting in your journal. If I thought my name would be of any service, you would be at liberty to use it. with my remarks. But I (ear not. However do as you please. I have it much at heart, to do something. Better heads than mine may sug- gest better plans, to which I will most cordially submit. Accept assurances of my high consideration, JAMES BARBOUR. We concur entirely with the foregoing views ami recommendations, and shall he pleased to aid them, as has before been attempted, through this journal. We are also clearly of the opinion that nothing in aid of agricultural interests, or agricultural science, is to be expected from our legislature, unless prompted and urged by the expressed wishes of their constituents: and therefore the more ready admission of the necessi- ty, and probable advantages, of consultation among the zealous and intelligent friends of agriculture — ei- ther in the mode proposed above, or in some other. There' is is no individual whose voice is entitled to be beard with more respect on this matter, than our cor- respondent; but it is desirable that, others should also present their views, both as to the objects to be sought, and Uifi mode ef seeking them. Though willing to support, and lend our efforts to further any other plan of combining our force that may be found more pleas- ing to the greater number of the agricultural commu- nity, we see no reason now to object to the particular plan proposed above, viz: a meeting and free confer- ence of all the members of the agricultural interest in Virginia, who may have enough zeal to join in the ef- fort, for the purpose of determining on what aidof go- vernment agriculture most needs, and of asking it re- spectfully of the legislature. In the mean time the ex- pression of different views on this subject, and discus- sing the comparative merits of the different ultimate objects in view, will greatly facilitate the operations of such an agricultural conference — and we invite to our pages, the expression of opinion of any of those who feel interest in this important subject. It is hoped that the several societies will take the proposal into consideration, and give it their support. In whatever manner the meeting may be constituted, there can be no sound objection to the qualifications of any individual as a member. The agricultural inter- est in Virginia, however overlooked and neglected by the government, is still the national interest — and no- thing can be derived for its benefit, by the whole or by any portion of those belonging to il, which would not be as beneficial to the commonwealth, as to agriculture. Such a meeting could not do otherwise than honestly labor for the good of the country — because that would be most effectually done by supporting their own. All bodies' of men may be trusted implicitly when their private interest is to be promoted by the same measure, that will support that of their country — and none ought to be truste 1 when these interests are separate and op- posed. A STRANGE FISH. A sea monster has been caught somewhere in the neighborhood of Norfolk, which is thus des- cribed by the Norfolk Beacon: "Its general outline is that of a turtle, the fins or Mappers being much longer. The whole fish is covered with a shining black cuticle or outer skin, (easily removed,) with the exception of the top of the head and the spinous processes of the back, which arc white, with irregular outlines, as if it had been rubbed in three places. Immediately under the skin is a bony covering, extending oven the back and down the sides, ridged with seven or nine bony prominences or spines, running nearly parallel with the back bone. The head is that of a turtle, with the upper lip or bill notched, so as to form two prominent pointed teeth or tusks. The throat and inner part of the mouth is l'retted with spikes about two lines thick at the base, an inch long, of a horny substance, hanging loosely, but looking towards the throat, so as to permit a ready entrance, and completely preventing regurgitation, or egress. It measured eight feet in length, and nine leet from tip to tip across the fins." From the Hartford Patriot. ERIE CANAL,. In consequence of the great increase of busi- ness upon the Erie Canal, the Legislature of New York, at their last session, passed an act directing the Canal Commissioners to commence the con- struction of a double set of lift locks, as soon as in the opinion of the Canal Board the public interest should require it, and the enlargement of the Ca- nal itself the dimensions of the canal and locks to be determined by the Board. On the 30th ult. ihe Canal Board convened at the Comptroller's office, in the city of Albany, and adopted several resolu- tions, among which is a resolution that the public interest does require the construction of a double set of lift locks and the enlargement of the Canal. It was resolved to commence the construction of the locks immediately, and the enlargement of the Canal as soon as a sufficient sum shall have been collected from the canal revenue, to discharge the Erie and Champlahi Canal debt — that the width of the Canal shall be in general sixty leet on the sur- face of the water, giving a depth of water of six feet. Several other resolutions were adopted lor the purpose of facilitating the work. The Board ad- journed to hear the report of the Engineers until the 20th of October next. The time required lor 276 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. the completion of the locks from Albaiiy to Syra- cuse is estimated at three years— and six years to' Complete the Canal. The enlargement it is sup- posed will be commenced in about one year. By ihis arrangement the width of the Canal will be increased twenty feet and its depth two feet. It is believed the expense of this great work will be paid out of the canal revenues by the year, 1845, which is the time fixed for the redemption of the ori rinal canal debt. WHEAT AND CHEAT GROWKG FROM THE SAME EOOT. To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. FampUUce, King William, June 22, 1835. As there seemed to be a great difference of opin- ion sometime rip.ee in the Farmers' Register among some of the farmers with regard to chess ok cheat in wheat, f think the following ought to decide the matter. My manager found this morn- ing a bunch containing three heads of cheat and two of wheat, growing from the same root. It has always been my opinion that cheat was de- generated wheat. THOMAS CARTER. White Sulphur Springs, July 21, 1835. Dear Sir — Yours of the 28th ult. has just come to hand, and 1 am sorry the plant alluded to was net preserved, or it would afford me pleasure to send it to you. It was found by my manager, and not taken care of. He says he has seen the same thing before. I am, yours respectfully, THOMAS CARTER. Being desirous of establishing truth, and not our own particular opinions, and considering with Mr. Carter that such a fact as this, fully established, would decide the controversy, we wrote immediately after receiving his first letter, to ask that the entire plant might be sub- mitted to such scrutiny as wouldleave no suspicion of a mistake. This request was dictated by no doubt of the good faith either of Mr. C. or of the person who stated to him the circumstance — but by the remem- brance of a mistake of our own making. Before ha- ving formed a decided opinion on this disputed matter, we once found a bunch of wheat, then just getting in- to head, and of which some heads were of cheat. The fact seemed conclusive: and if the bunch had been then thrown aside, after what was deemed close exam- ination, we probably would have been always willing to swear to its truth, and of course to the fact of the transformation. But intending to preserve the bunch as a curiosity, and for permanent evidence, it was car- ried to the next brook to be well washed, so as to clear the roots of all the adhering dirt. In this operation, and without applying any fo.ee. or having any expec- tation of such a result, the roots separated, and showed two distinct bunches, so closely interlocked that they before had seemed to be one, and to L.. e ?•' Ting from the same seed. MANURE ON POOR SOILS. VVBtAC IMPROVE- MENTS, AND POLITICAL JORS. To the Editor of the Fanner's Register. Caroline county, Va. July 27, 1835. Your remarks on my letter, (Farmers' Regis- ter, Vol. II. page 614,) have, 1 have learned, dis- heartened many farmers on poor land, and I as- sure you, sir, I saw nothing in them to cheer my spirits, or increase my ardor in attempts to im- prove lands naturally poor. The consumptive pa- tient does not always despair after an unfavorable prognosis. "Hope ever lingers in the hectic breast." Your experience, it seems, as well as my own, goes to prove the difficulty, if not im- practicability, of enriching lands naturally poor, (and exhausted too, by long cultivation) by vege- table matter alone. You have pursued the four, and I the three-shift system. You have fortunate- ly found a remedy in marl: I have not. You seem now to pursue a course calculated to make amends lor all your lbrmer errors and disappointments, as well as your toils and losses. In this situation, sir, I think you seem to abandon us to our fate, if not with disgust, at least with but. little or no hope for our success. Without marl or lime, we are doomed to poverty or emigration: and to add to our sufferings, your "Commentator" laughs at our calamity. This is more than we can bear. You are elated with your discovery of the catholicon — he with a smile points you to the opprobrium medi- cines. Whatever may be the success ot your pa- nacea, we cannot but hope that the God of na- ture has provided other available remedies. Do not too hastily conclude that human genius and human effort must centre in lime. Do not believe that all lands naturally poor are doomed to their present condition without lime. Would you, sir, presume that you have fathomed the depths of nature, or spanned the circle of human ingenuity? Remember the story of the three clergymen and the setting sun in St. Piere's "Studies of 'Nature." How do you know, sir, but your discoveries (and great I must call them) are but the platform: the mighty edifice is yet to be erected. Damp not then, 1 beg you, human effort; nor doom not to endless poverty the descendants of poor-land-far- mers in our native state.* * We could not state our views more clearly than was done at the place referred to above (Vol. II. p. 614,) — and indeed, though condemning their having been so exprersed, our correspondent seems to concur en- tirely in their general correctness. When declaring that the putrescent manures alone, furnished by a farm of soil naturally poor, could not enrich it — and that calcareous matter being added would serve to pro- duce that effect, certainly and profitably — it was not thought necessary to state also (what we now readily admit) that there may be other substances or means, though as yet unknown, which may serve the same or even a better purpose than calcareous earth. We then knew of one means only, and therefore spoke of no other. We were aware that the views expressed were likely to be unpalatable to many — and certainly the expression was not calculated to aid the popularity, or add to the profits of this journal. Our correspondent 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 277 When I spoke in my letter of lands originally poor, [enclosed in a parenthesis "/ may say com- pared with much." Now if most of those lands were poor enough originally "to make a rat cry," I do not know if; whatever they may do now. I had heard of one or two generations preceding the present, with large families, some of them buried in the forests of the west, and »soine of them bu- ried by the sepulchres of their progenitors. As poor then as these lands may have originally been, knows well that the physician who would always ho- nestly tell his patients when he considered their dis- eases past the aid of Ids skill, or who refused to prescribe for what he knew to be incurable maladies or infirmi- ties, would soon lose his practice. The rule applies as well to land doctors, as to body doctors. As there are plenty of the latter who will always give their patients hope, even when help is out of the question, so the great body of prescribers for the diseases of soils al- ways promise relief, and a state of vigorous health, and to be gained easily, cheaply, and profitably. Such flattering promises are always more impressive than statements of opposite character — and if any readers desire to get rid of all despondency produced by our former croaking, let them read the first address to an agricultural society that comes to hand — and ten to one, but they will find the proper remedy, in the prospects exhibited, of certain, speedy, and cheap agricultural improvement, on the poorest and most intractable soils. But for our part, we cannot hold out what are be- lieved to be delusive hopes — and we consider that the only solid expectation for a cure must be founded on the full knowledge of the malignity and strength of the disease, and of the nature of the medicines pro- posed to be used. We do not say to the tiller of nat- urally poor soil that there is no hope for fertilization or profit — but that he will fail in reaching both, if reliance is placed solely on not grazing, and otherwise apply- ing putrescent manures. But even if any region is so situated, that making the soil generally ^fertile cannot be reasonably expected, there are particular kinds of products which might be there obtained, and yield as much profit as an equal amount of capital vested in richer land elsewhere. Much of the land of New England furnishes examples of this truth. The soil is so destitute of lime, that it is not only naturally poor, but is incapable of produ- cing wheat to any profit. Yet these lands yield great profits, and command high prices. Two of the most profitable parts of agricultural business pursued there, are silk culture and sheep raising — and both of these are much more opposed there, than here, by the long and severe winters. These are only named as examples. In Virginia, we scarcely ever think of a change of crops, products, or habits, no matter how much re- quired by difference of soil. We almost every where aim to raise corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, or cotton, for | market — and seem to have no choice except among those very few of all the numerous and varied produc- tions of the earth, and of agricultural industry. as poor as they now are, should they be abandon- ed, without more than a single effort being made to restore them to their pristine, or a much higher degree of fertility! Last of all, should statesmen and politicians ridicule them? Shonld the farmer himself? Should the agricultural chemist? Not yet having discovered a system, a remedy, ought not this very failure to excite the compassion of the statesman and the patriot? Although, sir, I consider myself but a poor politician, I had reflect- ed a little upon the condition of the farming inter- est of our native state, the bone and sinew of the commonwealth. I thought I had discovered that, under the present system (or rather want of sys- tem,) our state was, and had long been, on the. decline. That great numbers of her most wealthy and intelligent farmers had moved to the rich lands of the west and south-west, carrying with them their wealth, and intelligence or knowledge, which is said to be power, and left only their de- preciated lands — whereby the sources of taxation tor the support of all state expenses were daily di- minishing. In addition too, the learned profes- sions must necessarily have a more scanty sup- port: and I had lor years seen the young lawyer, physician, and perhaps the more useful divine, wending the same way. When, in fine, I saw a rapid decline of our state, both physical and moral, I was constrained to ask the political questions, with suggestions, from which, "Commentator" with so muck kindness and confidence informs us that I "appear less at home." I hope "he will pardon me for saying," that after roadino- his com- mentary I am "of the same opinion still;" and I believe I am so, not because, his views are "a- gainst my will." I feel no disposition, nor have I the information or ability to enter into discussion of this subject: yet I will say, that although I have not "consulted the most approved writers on the subject, nor statistical comparisons of the two me- thods of conducting internal improvements by pri- vate chartered companies, or entirely on state ac- count," yet I should suppose after all that has been written by "the most approved writers," that there is opening for two opinions upon the sub- ject, from the fact of some recent internal improve- ments (in other states) on the "state account" principle being in progress,*or that "the most ap- proved writers on this subject" must have veiy re- cently come to light. As regards the trial of our sister state who has involved herself in a debt of some fifteen or twen- ty millions of dollars, I conceive the trial as yet by no means concluded. "Commentator" may suppose after the completion of these important works, the tolls will never be sufficient to pay the interest and necessary expenses, much less to ex- tinguish the debt or loan. If so, the trial will be conclusive. Should the tolls not only pay the in- terest and expenses, and extinguish the debt, and ever after bring a handsome revenue into the state treasury, then I suppose "Commentator" would not object; even too, if many of those un- dertakings have been made poltical party jobs, with incompetent undertakers and superinten- dents, and the expenses much greater than those of any private company or companies. I say so for this reason, that where a state undertakes all these internal improvements, some of them might fall far short, of expectation, and be unproductive, either after the strongest presumptive evidence that 278 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. they would be profitable, or from incompetent un- dertakers and superintendents-', and exceeding great expense: yet when the whole he completed, if the result be an income not only sufficient to pay off the debt and expenses, but to relieve the citizens of the commonwealth from direct taxation, what more could be wished. The last important objection with "Commenta- tor" is, that "almost all matters of internal im- provement when undertaken on public account, are forced to subserve, in locality, in the choice of agents to conduct them, and in the expenditures lavished on them, the popularity of the occupants for the time being of political power.1' This I presume would be true in a greater or less degree. This, however, is one of the evils attendant upon fallen man. It may lie traced to the principle of self-love, which prevents men from doing unto others, as they would that others should do unto them. As ihese favors depend upon the occupants for the time being, and the occupants depend upon popularity, and popularity (I am truly sorry to say it) upon the wind,* and the wind blows from dif- ferent points in a short, time, so it may not be long before these favors are pretty equally divided. At any rate I see no good reason why through fear of partizan favors, varying with the popular breeze, we should have all the control, profits and emoluments (which may be great) permanently fixed upon a few individuals and their heirs, in- stead of the profits being thrown into the public treasury for the common weal. When I penned the questions above alluded to "on certain topics of political economy," 1 had not the smallest ex- pectation of ever hearing of them again. Yet as they have been thought so erroneous by "Com- mentator" as to excite his attention, and as I veri- ly believe with a view of correcting the error; and as he has failed to convince me, I thought it but proper to state some of the reasons why 1 had not yet embraced his views. 1 assure you, sir. as f have before said, that I am no great politician. I should be unwilling to introduce the subject, into your paper on party grounds, and should be sorry to see it in ihese days of excitement, introduced by others far before me in political acquirements. I hope so far as we have gone, we have not trans- cended the limits of political economy— one of the branches not improperly introduced lor the general good. If I have wandered from "home" into a wilder- ness, I have met with a native of our own state, (in No. 3, Farm. Reg. pp. 138, 140,) whose com- pany cheers me in the desert; who, upon the sub- ject of the improvement of the James and Ka- nawha Rivers, says: "I have no hesitation in say- ing it would have been better for Virginia to have borrowed the. whole sum instead of raising it at home by subscription; for 1 have no doubt that the tolls on the improvement will ultimately pay much more than interest on the money expended, &c." Again the same writer, Professor Dew, says: "I do not, however, by the remarks made, wish to be considered as censuring those who fa- * We think that our correspondent does great injus- tice to the wind in making it the cause of such effects. The wind is honest and "straight forward" — and, whether it is doing us good or harm, we can at least always tell which way it is blowing for the time being. vor the joint-stock scheme of our state. It was the only plan perhaps which could have been suc- cessfully carried through, and therefore ought cer- tainly to have been supported rather than leave the state without any improvement at all." t. n. a. P. S. My remarks have run in rather a differ- ent channel from that I had intended. I wished to have speculated a little, upon your theories in your work on Calcareous Manures. I wished also to ask the favor that you would collect and publish in your Register, the best information upon the use of quicklime upon different soils. From the last Loudon edition of the "Complete Grazier.' ON THE BREEDING, HEARING, ASI) FATTEN- ING OF SHEEP. [Continued from p. 222 Vol. III.] On the treatment and rearing of hnuse-lambs. In the preceding chapter, the treatment of lambs intended to be kepi lor stock, has been chiefly regarded; but, as the price given in the winter, in the metropolis, and in other place:', where there is a demand for young lambs, is often very considerable, we shall, at present, confine our attention to the rearing of those animals, under cover, in which case they are denominated house- lambs. In this branch of rural economv, two circum- stances are worthy of notice: 1. To put the rams and ewes togetherat such a tunc, that the lambs may fall at. the proper season; an object, which may be easily effected by any skilful shepherd: and, 2. That appropriate places lie provided for their reception. Where the suckling of house- Iambs is intended to be regularly followed, it will lie necessary In erect a house of such proportions as the probable extent of the business may require, and to divide the building into pens, in order that each lamb may be more conveniently suckled; but when it is not a primary object of attention, any airy building may be made to answer the purpose. Care should also be taken, not. to crowd too many into one house at the same lime; as the increased degree of heat, thus occasioned, will render the place unwholesome. The breed of ewes, best calculated for produ cing house-lambs, is the early Dorsetshire sort, particularly those whose lambs die fair, in the language of the market; i e. whose flesh is of a delicately-white color: and from this prolific va- riety l he demands of the luxurious in the metrop- olis are supplied. The dams are fed with hay, oil-cake, corn, cabbage, or any green food afforded by the season; which is given in an inclosure ad- joining the apartment where the young lambs are confined. The light is excluded from the lambs excepting at the intervals when the shepherd suckles them upon the ewes; and some feeders confine them in separate stalls in order to prevent them from playing, and thus promoting their fat- ting, but others deem the exclusion of light to be sufficient. Where the system of suckling is carried on to a. great extent, it. will be advisable to mark the lambs, in order to ascertain which has been long- est sucking on the bastard eiee; (i. e. such as 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 279 suckle strange Iambs,) as such lambs ought to suck a-headj or be permitted to take the first milk. There is great difficulty in compelling the ewes to suckle strange lambs; but when they have lost their own by accident, thej maybe deceived by stripping the skin from the dead lamb, and stitch- ing it. round the body of a live one. In the intervals of suckling, some wheat straw may be given to the lambs in racks, either -with wheal or bruised peas in troughs, together with a piece of calcined chalk for them to lick, hut as die ewe's milk is the chief support of their young, especial care must be taken to supply her with turnips; or, in case, these or oilier roots cannot he procured, besides turning her into a good warm pasture, she should be fed with brewers' grains, to which may be added a little hay, oats, or bran; hut the last mentioned articles are greatly inferior to turnips, or any of the succulenl roots, in pro- ducing a flow of milk. The ewes ought to be conducted to the lambs three or lour times in the day, at nearly equidistant I •; and if anyone have a more than ordina- ry How of milk, she may beheld by the head, while a second lamb draws the udder. During the whole of the treatment, the strictest attention ought to he paid to cleanliness; to promote which, the pens should be well littered with fresh straw; and, by this simple expedient, the animals will, if kept free from all disturbance, speedily fatten, and their flesh becomes exceedingly white and delicate. Some estimate may he formed of the profil arising from rearing house-lambs, from the prices given per quarter in the London markets. These, re- tail, vary from ten to fifteen, or twenty shillinffs, according to the demand, so that each Iamb sells at from two to four pounds; though the prices af- terwards gradually decline, till the ensuing spring affords an abundant supply for the table. Yet, whether from the great trouble of the requisite at- tendance, or from the precariousness of the result, it is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding the in- crease of population, the rearing of house-lambs has, of late years, materially fallen off. On the feeding of sheep. The successful feeding of sheep must greatly depend on the quality of the pasture intended for their reception, and upon the resources which the farmer has for supplying them with food during the trying winter months. Hence, as already in- timated, it will be necessary to suit them to the pasture, and on no account to purchase or procure sheep from the grounds of a superior quality to those which are destined lor their support. With sheep, as with other cattle stock, it has been found that the larger breeds are calculated only for the richest and most luxuriant grounds, while the smaller sorts are best adapted tor the less fertile tracts, where the grass is shorter; and as the breeds that are most beneficial tor particular situations are detailed in the introductory view prefixed to this book, we deem any further remark on that subject unnecessary. In the grazing of sheep, as well as neat cattle, various methods are. practised, and with different success. Thus some farmers buy two, or three- shear wethers, earlj in May, which, for several weeks, are indifferently kept till all the grass has been mown off the meadows, when they are turn- ed into the rowen, and are afterwards forced or fat- tened off' on turnips, hay, and oil-cake, during the winter months, so as to be fit for sale at the com- mencement of march. This practice is very ben- eficial, if conducted with cure, as mutton fetches the most advantageous prices in that month. Others purchase pregnant ewes towards the close of summer, or early in the autumnal quarter; and keep them on inferior grass lands, stubbles, or fal- low, till the beginning of the following year, when they are kept in go.od condition through the lamb- ing season, and after that in the best manner that. circumstances will admit; so that the lambs may bcreadj for sale in sufficient time for the dams to he fattened for the butcher early in autumn. Another profitable practice on good soils is, the buying of lambs of forward, breeds, about the end of August, or in the beginning of the following month. The animals thus acquired are, by some, graziers, kept in an indifferent way throughout the winter, till the following spring, when they are turned into rich pasture, and fattened so as to be read\- for sale before Christmas, at which time the whole stock are cleared off the land. Others how- ever,adopta system altogether the reverse of this: having purchased the sheep, as already stated, they force them with the best keep that can be procured, and dispose of them as quickly as pos- sible. Each of these plans has its separate ad- vocates; they are all good; and the preference to either can only be determined by relative circum stances of soil and situation, the quantity and the nature of the feed. In grazing sheep, the fine grasses produced on downs are, undoubtedly, the best and most conge- nial food for these animals; and, on such soils, both the finest wool and the best mutton are produced; but in order to bring sheep forward af an earlier age than would be possible on such herbage, and for the larger breeds reared on lowlands, richer pasture is necessary: good hay alone will fatten wethers; but they may be yet more advantageous- ly prepared for the butcher by means of grass and hay together. Great attention, however, is ne- cessary, that sheep be kept from all grass that is! grown in marshy places, otherwise they will be- come affected with the rot. And here it may not be amiss to remark, that the late Mr. Bake well at- tributed this fatal disease solely to flooded lands, and the premature, but unsubstantial, herbage af- forded by them. Whenever, therefore, particular lots or parcels o! his sheep were thus affected, his practice was to fatten them for the butcher; and, probably from motives of jealousy, in order that he might be certain the animals would be killed, and not got into other hands, he was said to rot them before they were disposed of! This he effect- ed by overflowing a pasture or meadow in the summer, in consequence of which the soil thus flooded inevitably rotted the sheep that were fed on it in the ensuing autumn: but this, it should be observed, does not apply to irrigated land, if pro- perly managed. ■ .Beside humid situations, and the acid grass ve- getating there, the tufts of long, rank grass that usually spring up after horse-dung, are injurious, unless the grass has been previously exposed to a lew nights' frost, after which they may be turned 'See Book VIII. Chap. XI. 2S0 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 5. in without (Linger. It is also improper to suffer sheep to browse upon fallows that are wet and un- sound, as they frequently pull up unwholesome herbs by the roots, which they eat with the dirt adhering to them. This has been thought to give them the rot; though there is much reason to doubt the accuracy of that supposition, which, indeed, is manifestly at variance with the fact, that sheep fed on turnips, with which they necessarily lick up dirt, are not thereby affected with it, though they may be injured by the weeds. The origin of the rot, so far as it has been ascertained, is solely attri- butable to the wetness of the land on which sheep are fed; and its immediate effect is the production of insects, termed flukes or flmoks, which prey upon the liver; but. whether these are generated in the animal by the nature of the food, or arc de- rived from animalcule absorbed with it, is still un- known. It is observable that salt marshes are ex- empt from this malady; and therefore salt lias, not unreasonably, been conjectured to afford a preven- tive, but its effects have not been sufficiently tried: the best is a dry pasture. In such pastures, how- ever, as are subject to give sheep the rot at certain times, it will be advisable to let the lambs run with the ewes; the longer the better; for though these tender animals arc more susceptible of injury in these unsound places than full-grown sheep, yetthey are seldom attacked with the rot, suckling having been found a preservative against it. In turning sheep into pastures, particularly wa- ter-meadows, and also into those places that are subject to rot, it will be necessary to purs;::' the same precaution as with neat cattle, viz. previous- ly to satisfy the craving of appetite, by giving them hay or cut straw; and, after the dew has been evaporated by the rays of the sun, to drive them gently round the field for two or three hours, be- fore they are suffered to feed. But, whenever any sort of dry food is given, they ought to be supplied with pure water, particularly during the intense heat that usually prevails during the dog-day:;, and which often renders the grass as dry as Bubble. For this purpose, clear, light running water is al- ways to be preferred, where it can be obtained; though, in general, whatever water presents itself' is made use of.* * The watering of sheep is on the continent, regard- ed as a circumstance of the greatest moment, and ac- cordingly receives that attention which it requires. Thus in Sweden, and at the national farm at Rain- bouillet, in France, they are daily watered with run- ning water, or with that obtained from lakes and springs; stagnant water being most properly and rigo- rously prohibited. In some of the Saxon sheep-farms, the sheep are watered in the cots or folds during the winter, instead of taking them to watering-places. Spring or well water is conducted, by means of pipes, into troughs, out of which the sheep drink at pleasure; they in consequence drink oftener, and each time take less water, which is favorable to their health. The or- dinary mode ©f watering sheep in that, and, we may add, in many parts of our country, is attended with many inconveniences. The animals refuse to drink water in the winter, if it be too cold; they hurry while drinking; and do not take enough when the weather is ve ry windy, or hail, rain, or snow falls. Besides which, they often disturb the water with their feet; this dis- gusts them, and at length, one part of the flock com- pletely prevents the other from approaching the water- ing-place. The best time for turning sheep into summer pastures is in May, when every attention should be paid to proportion the number according to the luxuriance of the grass; and, as these animals are with difficulty restored to good condition when in- jured by want of sufficient food, it will be advisa- ble rather to understock than to overburthen the land. It is, however, worthy of notice, lhat by pursuing a system of close/ceding, the plants will be prevented from running up to seed, and those orasses, which are naturally coarse and unprofita- ble, will thus be kept down, and become sweet and valuable. The number to be allotted to an acre depending on the weight of the stock, the richness ol the soil, and the forwardness of the pasture, it must be evident that no general rule can be appli- cable to this portion of management, which must, be wholly regulated by the combination of those circumstances. Of lute years, it has become a frequent practice to soil sheep during summer with the various ar- tificial grasses, and to supply them with corn, as well as green food, during winter. In this view, barley-meal, when abundant and cheap, may be advantageously combined with green meat, and will speedily fatten wethers: pulverized oil-cake has also been given; but has been objected to, as ii is apt to impart a peculiar flavor to the mutton. Pea-haulm is much relished by sheep; and pota- toes, particularly if steamed, would rapidly con- tribute to fatten them, were not the operation at- tended with two much trouble for the feeding of a flock. Borecole and hurnet also supply an excel- lent food for sheep during the winter, particularly towards the close of that season; but in most situ- ations turnips form the farmers chief dependence for the winter-keep of his sheep-stock. There are various methods in the use of giving turnips to sheep. By some farmers, they are promis- cuously turned into a field, and allowed to eat the roots at pleasure; either previously picking these out of the ground for their use, or leaving the sheep to do that themselves. Others divide theirland by hurdles, and inclose the sheep in such a space as these can clear in one day, advancing progres- sively through the field till it is cleared. But, in either case, care should be taken not to turn them in until the dew is off in the morning, as by their eating the turnip-tops they would be subject to become hoved. Another method is, to pull up such a quantity of turnips as they can consume in a lew days, and cart them oft* the land to the sheep pastures; and in wet weather, or when it is an ob- ject to feed off the turnips on the ground on which they are grown, this is an advisable mode. Each of these methods has its advantages; but a more profitable plan than either, is to eat off the. crop by two successive flocks of fattening and store sheep. By allowing the first the range of the held, they will scoop out such turnips as they prefer, and will thus satisfy their appetites better than wllerethe turnips are dug up: amostmaterial point, it may be observed, to be considered in fattening all cattle, which should always be indulged, when that is possible, with such food as they prefer. The store sheep may then follow, and the roots and pieces left by the former should then be taken up lor their use. One man with a common picker, used for the purpose, will turn out and break as many as will serve a large flock, and his hire will be more than compensated by their being eaten F A R J\l E US' li E G 1 S T E R 281 cleanup; while, if thai were done by the fattening flock, it would perhaps rather check than forward iheir improvement. When the turnips are hurdled off' to be eaten pn the land, they should always be taken up; us otherwise, in so small a space, they would be trodden under and spoiled; if not taken up, the sheep should be allowed more room. But the fattening of sheep cannot be conducted to advantage without regularity in distributing, and economy in the management of, the various ar- ticles that compose their food. Hence, it will be found useful to have troughs, with partitions in the middle and rac!(s,annexed, about two feet high from the ground, the whole being firm and steady, so that it cannot be o\ erturned. The sheep-cribs and racks in common use, are too well known to require description. Considera- ble benefit may be derived from their adoption for the purpose of feeding sheep; for it not only ef- fects a material reduction in the consumption and expense of provender, which is thus prevented from being trodden under loot, or soiled with dung; but also, in this state of separation, the stronger sheep cannot drive away the weaker, as each is secured by the head. But. whatever system of management may be adopted b\ the farmer, whether at home or in the field, he oughi on no account to withhold salt from his sheep; for not only does the continual use of thai article contribute to the digestion of succu • lent vegetables, and of course, preserve the ani- mals in constant health, but it is also said to im- prove both the quantity and the quality of the wool, and it ought to be particularly used in those moist situations, the produce of which is liable to rot sheep, of which malady it is affirmed to be both a preventive and a cure. Rock-salt is undoubted- ly preferable; but, where this cannot be conve- niently procured, it will be advisable to dissolve eomraon salt in water, and after mixing it with line, pure clay, or with pulverized and sifted chalk, to form the whole into masses or lumps, which maybe placed under shelter, so that the sheep may lick it. at pleasure. The importance of salt in preserving the health of sheep is not generally known, or appreciated, by man) breeders of this island, who do not give it in any form. The same prejudice exists in Prus- sia and Holland, where no salt is allowed to these animals.' On the contrary, at Rainbouillet, in Silesia, Saxony, Sweden and Spain, salt is con- sidered as a most important article, and the use of it is most strongly recommended. In Swe- den, thej give salt, particularly in rainy or damp weather, and frequently add to it wormwood, or some other bitter vegetables, juniper seeds or ber- ries, and even pitch, which articles are reduced to powder, and, after being diluted with water, are carried to the sheep house, and put into the trunks of trees, which are excavated expressly lor this purpose: the preparation is considered as an ex- cellent preventive of several distempers, particu- larly the dropsy, to which the Swedish sheep are very liable. In this country, the high duty on salt has hitherto prevented its employment for many agricultural purposes, to which it. might be benefi- cially applied; and to none more advantageously [n Holland the use of alder leaves, which the sheep eai with uncommon avidit) in wet weather, is said to prevenl the rot. Vol. Ill— 36 than in the feeding of cattle: but as that objection now happily, no longer exists, it is to be presumed thai it will be gradually brought into use. The preceding statements have been given chiefly with reference to the fattening of sheep profitably for the market; but it ought never to be forgotten, that the- growth of the wool is liable to be materially affected by the system of feeding pursued. It is essential to the evenness and strength of the staple, that the feeding of the an- imal should be uniform, without any sudden inter- ruption or transition: for, where this is suffered to take, place, the natural progress of the wool is checked; a second growth succeeds; and the point oi contact becomes so weak as to snap under the operation of the manufacturer; who, being aware of this disad\ antage, cannot of course afford such a price for wool of this description, as he could lor that of a more perfect staple. Much wool is in- jured in (his way between summer and winter keep, which should be made to blend as gradually as pos- sible, that the mischief above described might be prevented, and a sudden transition from rich to poor diet or from poor to rich keep, ought carelul- ly to be avoided. [To be continued.] From Loudon's Gardener's .Magazine. TO PRESKRVE CELERY THROUGH THE WIN- TER. Get up the celery on a fine dry day before it isj injured by frost, cut off the leaves and roots, and lay it in a dry, airy place for a few days; then re- move it to a cool cellar, where it will be quite se- cure from frost, and pack' it up with sand, putting layers of celery and of sand alternately. STEAM- DIGGING MACHINE. j\l. Wronski, a celebrated mathematician at Paris, has, according to the Paris papers, discover- ed a new system of applying steam to carriages, digging machines, hoes, picks, ploughs, &c; so superior to any thing hitherto known, that a French company has bought his patent for lour millions of francs. — Le Temps. From the Fanner and Gardener. LIMING IN LEHIGH. In speaking more particularly of Lehigh county, it may be assumed, that the introduction of the use oi' lime in farming, and the culture of clover about 20 years ago, wrought a most salutary revo- lution, and saved the second and third rale lands from being deserted lor the far west. Ever since. that period agriculture is rising. Every summer adds to the number of solid and capacious barns, and old ones are enlarged. A considerable part of the county, especially on the borders of the. Le- high and its tributaries, is limestone land, but 'the (rouble and expense of carting the stones the dis- tance of 14 miles is not thought too muchTlhus al- most the whole of our county is provided with this commodity. As soon as winter sets in, or as often as during summer the other farm operation; an u pended, the quarries present a lively scene, and wagons or sledges are seen toiling along up 282 FARMERS' REG] Si E R. [No. 5. unil down through the country, broken and hilly us it is in many parts. The consequence is, that you see beautiful farms not only in hollow land.-', but in situations where you never would look for them, on the tops of the mountains as well as on their declivities. Wheat however is not the only sta- ple article; we produce a great quantity of rye for sale and home consumption, for man and beast; tor be it remembered that we eat rye bread in pre- ference, even when we have both sorts on the ta- ble. The effect of lime upon rye land is quick and immediate, hence whoever is improving his land begins with rye. On the Lehigh land quar- ried limestones are sold at the quarries for 25 cents per ton. In other section.1, the common way is for farmers to do all the labor themselves and pay to the owner of the quarry 6 cents for every ten bushels of quicklime they di;i\v from the kiln, or they engage bands paying to them from 1 to li cents per bushel of quicklime, the hands to find their own tools and powder where necessary — this is in addition to the fees of the owner of the quarry. The work at the kiln to be done by the farmers. If you wish to buy quicklime you can have it deposited on the fields at ten cents per bush- el and upwards, according to distances. We pui from 40 to 60 bushels on the acre, repealing the operation every five yeas. From the time that stone coal from Munch ("hunk has been furnished in abundance along the Lehigh canal, and that its use in burning lime has been understood, agricul- ture has received a new start. Previously, the scarcity of fuel — though rather prospective than ac- tual, operated as a check upon the universal use of lime. Now the coal is mixed with the lime stones, and no more, wood is required but what is necessa- ry to ignite the coal, which may be done with 1 or 13, cords, thus not only a mass of fuel is saved, but. a great deal of hard labor-r-the coal when once fairly burning requiring no farther atten- dance. Timothy is not much raised on dry land, as its effect upon the land is not so beneficial as that of clover. Common rotation, 1st. clover, "2d Indian corn, 3d oats or flax; and potatoes, manure, 4th wheat, 5th and 0th clover, 7th wheat, without manure; 20 bushels of wheat — 50 bushels of In- dian corn, 2 tons of clover per acre, are good crops, though there are many instances of more having been produced. Average somewhat below this. For the benefit of such as wish to sprout a few seeds of gama grass, let me add my recipe. Split the seed with a small chisel, put the kernel in a tumbler with sand, keep it moist, and in 3 days, if the sce.ds are not covered too deeply, die grass ap- pears. The splitting is easily done. The seed of gama grass is in the shape of a cylinder, on the surface of which you will observe a spheric trian- gle, two sides being formed by seams, and the third by the base of the seed, but the two sides or scams, one not quite connected with the base, make the connection with the chisel or knife, and the triangle, will tail out like a trap door, the; ker- nel adhering to it; take care not to separate it fur- ther, or injarc it, which is very easy to avoid. From tlic Tennessee Farmer. TO DESTROY BRIERS. We are assured by a respectable and intelligent farmer, that from the repeated experiments of himself and his neighbors, he is able to state with confidence that briers, both the blackberry and dewberry, will be effectually destroyed by cutting them down or ploughing them up when they are in toll bloom, which is ordinarily in the month of May. From the Tennessee Fsrmci SAVING CLOVER SEED. Answer to Queries vf a subscriber published in the Farmer No. G page 91. The two great objects to he attended to, in rais- ing clover seed with profit, are — first, to secure the production of as large a crop to the acre us prac- ticable— and secondly, to harvest the crop in such a manner, as to bring as large a portion of the seed into the barn mid to leave as small a portion of it as possible in the field. To attain the first object, thai of securing a large product, we have in our preceding numbers, in ob- servations on the culture of clover, given the ne- cessary directions; wc will now only repeat, thai the main things to be attended to are the following —1st. That the land be fertile. 2d. That it be well prepared before sowing the seed, as heretofore di- rected. 3d. That a sufficient quantity of seed b< sown to the acre. lib. Thai it fie evenly distrib- uted over the ground. 5th. That, whenever the land requires its aid, gypsum or plaster be sown on the clover— ami till.. That it be not injured by injudicious or excessive grazing. If these purlieu lars be well attended to, an acre of ordinary land will produce three bushels of seed in a common season, often more. We come now to speak of the more difficult and laborious operation of safely and economical ly harvesting and seeming it. This requires care and attention. The great objects to be aimed at are, to cut the seed at the period when there is the largest portion of the ripe seed on the ground, in that stage of maturity, which will admit of its be- ing collected into the bain, and so to handle it, as to prevent the seed from being shattered oil and left on the field, while the straw or haulm only is collected in the barn. It is, we believe to the impro- vident and ruinous neglect of strict attention to these two latter objects, that most farmers may at- tribute their iailure in making clover seed. Wc will lay before our readers the results of our own ob- servation and experience, on these important points, hoping that those of our patrons, who may have discovered a better mode of effecting these objects, than the one recommended, will yet com municale lo us their practice in time to enable us to lay it before the public in our next number. Time of culling. As the clover seed, from the time the lirsl head. ripen, until the close of the season, are daily ar- riving at maturity, the great, desideratum is, to as- certain the precise period when there is on the ground the greatest portion of ripe seed, in a state which will admit of its being collected and brought into the barn. If the clover be cut before this pe- riod, there must evidently be a loss sustained, from the immaturity ol too large a portion of the seed. If the. cutting be deferred beyond this period, an equal, and perhaps a greater loss will be sustained, 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 283 from the impossibility ol saving liie seed firsi ri- pened, generally the bss^on account ol' its being so easily shattered off. 'We would recommend, as the most eligible time for culling, the period when about two-thirds of (he heads have become ripe and assumed a black color, many of the others, at this time of a brown color, will ripen after cutting. Mode of culling. Where the clover lias not lodged, and is high enough to admit of it, by far the mosl expeditious, ami in every point of view the most eligible mode of cutting, is to cradle it as we do grain, only throwing it into double swarths, that is laying the clover cut from two lands in one swarth. If the grass be so short as to require it, a strip of linen ma) be fastened on the lingers of the cradle so as to prevent the heads falling through them. Mode of curing. If ihe crop be not heavy and the weather be good, the swarths may lie undisturbed for several days, until Ihe hay be perfectly cured, it should then, in the morning or evening while sufficiently moist from the dew, to prevent its shattering oil' too easily, lie gently raked into small bunches, such as can be conveniently raised with a link and laid on the wagon. When not too damp, these bunches should be hauled to the barn, and either stowed away in mows, or, which is best, thrashed off, and either immediately cleaned, or else the heads slowed away in a room prepared for the pur- pose until winter, to be then thrashed or trodden out. But should there be rain on them, or should they be suffered to remain in the field any consid- erable length of time after being raked up, these bunches must with a fork be gently turned bottom upwards, and laid in a new place, after every rain to which they may be exposed, and after every two or three days they may have lain in the field in fair weather. This is necessary to prevent the seed from being injured by the heat and moisture to which they will have been exposed, from the sun, the rain, and the moisture of the earth. After being sufficiently cured, while dry, let the seed be gently laid on the wagon or sled, and hauled to the barn, using every necessary precaution to ensure, that as little of it as possible be left in the field or scattered along the road. Mode of cleaning. Various methods are praclised, for cleaning the seed from the chaff. The only two as far as we know, used in this country, are treading it out with horses, or cleaning it in a thrashing machine: The first is tedious, laborious, filthy and unwholesome both to man and beast, the latter is far preferable in every respect, but as all are not provided with thrashing machines and as therefore many must •;lill continue to tread out their seed we will sub- mit a lew observations on the mod;- of performing this operation. Having covered the barn lloorwith seed in Ihe chaff to the depth of from 12 to 18 inches, put on the horses and tread one day, the next morning run the chafl through a fan, much of ii will have been beaten to dusl and will be blown away, as will also the lighf chad) having no seed, and that from which the seed has been separated, but much the larger portion of' the. seed, still enveloped in the chafl) will be found in the rear of the fan, this, having been separated from the empty chafi' adjoining it, must be again spread on the Moor and having added another portion of untrodden chaff, the horses must be again put on and made to tread it another day when it should he again run through the fan as before, the pro dace (if this, will far exceed (hat of the first day's treading, but still, much good seed will he found immediately in the rear of the Ian not yet separa- ted from the chafl— this must be again spread on Ihe floor, and a new addition be made ol' untrodden chall, and this process must be repeated until the whole crop is trodden out. The seed, after pass- ing through the Ian, should first be run through a sieve, sufficiently coarse to permit the clover seed to pass through, but retaining all larger seeds and trash. It should then be again run through a fi ner sieve, retaining the clover seed, hut permit- ting tlii- passage through oi' all smaller substances, by these two processes, the clover seed will be thoroughly cleansed from all kinds of filth and pre- pared lor market. The only advantages derived from cleaning the seed rather than sowing it in the, chaff, are the ascertaining with grealer certainty the quantity sown and the ensuring a. more equal dis- tribution of Ihe seed — where therefore, a sufficient quantity can he afforded to insure Ihe desired thickness in every part of the ground, sowing in the chaff, will not only do as well, but is to be pre- ferred, as it is believed more likely to come up and to stand. From the Silk Cultuiist. SEED TI-1UE FOR THE M IT.TiERRY. South Coventry, (Conn.) June '2-ilh, 1835. Sir — The scarcity of mulberry seed the present season having prevented many persons from sow- ing nurseries in the spring, I take the liberty of in- forming them through the medium of your paper, that from experiment, I am satisfied that the month of August is a suitable season for sowing the seed. If sown any time during the. month of August the seed will vegetate quickly, and by the time of the early autumnal frosts, the plants will have grown to the height ol' three or four inches. They may then be easily covered with straw and horse manure, which will suffi- ciently protect them through the winter. In co- vering them but little straw should be used, other- wise, the rats and mice may be induced to burrow in it, in which case they will mosl assuredly de- stroy the plants. If the seed is sown at this sea- son and protected in this manner, they start early the following spring, grow vigorously through Ihe summer, and by autumn attain aboul Ihe same height as though sown the preceding spring. An- other advantage from sowing in Augusl is thai seed of Ihe same year's growth ma\ he obtained, which is more sure to vegetale. j. w. UOYNTOIV. SELECTION OF KEEP. The important topic, of the selection of seeds, opens this number, [of the New York Farmer] exam] oted to show ;essive selection of seed from choice 284 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. plants grown in the same situation, is to be prefer- red to any benefit which changes of seed from dis- lanl localities can produce. We in the South prac- tice on the. opposite system very extensively; the planters of Bayou Bceui grow cotton seed from Mexico, and furnish seed to the planters of Petit Gulf; these in their turn supply Louisiana, Missis- sippi, and Alabama, and from them our Petit Gulf cotton seed comes— gradual changes lake place in its character here, and the genuine varie- ty is kept up by annual importations. It is not to be doubted that instances occur of re- markable improvement both in the quality and quantity of our rice crops upon the use of North Carolina seed rice. And it has been the settled habit of our rice planters from the commencement of that culture on our River Swamps, to draw their supplies of seed from the Inland Swamps; this shows a deep conviction of the advantage derived from change of seed. On the other hand, Mr. Gibbes, of Chester dis- trict, in this state, grows corn known there as the three eared corn, which his neighbors buy for its prolific tendency; this he. obtained by selecting stalks having three ears; and every body knows that ol" late our Sea Island planters have been zealous in the selection of fine samples from their crops for seed; so far was this intent examination carried in one instance, that the long use of mag- nifying glasses, to aid in selecting the finest, fibre, threatened blindness to one gentleman of John's Island, as we are told, he is rewarded by sending to market a "fancy brand." — South, s/gr. For the Farmers' Register. DESULTORY OBSERVATIONS, AND INQUIRIES, ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF LAIND. Charlotte, Va. Aug. 1, 1835. We arc disputing in this section of country whether the three or four-shift system is most suitable to our lands, and I propose making a few remarks relative to this question, as well as some desultory observations on other matters connected with the subject. Of agriculture. In order to arrive at any thing like accurate con- clusions, it is necessary first to define the terms three and four-shift system, as used in this com- munication. By the three-shift system, we mean a farm divided into three equal parts, cultivated successively, one year in corn, one in oats, and one in grass. By the lour -shift system, we mean a farm divided into four equal parts, cultivated suc- cessively one year in corn, one in oats, and two in grass. From this it will appear that on the three- shift plan there is in fact but one year's rest — and on the tour-shift plan only two — which in my hum- ble opinion, is but a slender chance lor improve- ment— that is, where we depend on grass alone. The farm on which I now reside, has been un- der what is called the four-shift system, for some- thing like fourteen years— eleven of which, I can safely say, there has been little or no grazing du- ring the spring and summer. Occasionally in the months of November and December I have per- mitted my cows, and sometimes a small head of horses, to glean the fields. My stock of hogs ne- ver yet enjoyed the pleasure of the harvest field more than twice, or thrice during the fourteen years; and strange to tell, I have never bought pork or bacon, except the two first years of my little farming career. The different shifts have been tolerably well set with herds grass or clover, (wherever either of these grasses would grow) for the greater part, if not the whole time abo\ e mentioned. Still my lands arc poor and unpro- ductive— and I am now in whatis commonly call ed a quandary. Shall I continue my efforts on the four-shift plan — or shall I abandon all hope, and try the three-shift system/? It would, Mr. Editor, be a source of much gra- tification not only to the writer of this article, but also to many other readers of your valuable Re- gister, to see this subject fidly discussed by some of your able and practical correspondents from the tobacco growing country. The excellent remarks already published in your columns, relative to the three and four-shift systems, apply more particu- larly to the wheat growing country. My opinion, though entitled to but little weight, if any, rather inclines to change; and the reasons which influence my mind in relation to this important subject, will be candidly and plainly submitted to you and your readers. The first which suggests itself in favor of the three-shift, is, a greater proportion of the best land of the farm will annually be brought into cultiva- tion. Now, in order to elucidate this idea as clear as possible, let us take for example, a tract or farm containing 320,000 corn hills, and where tobacco, corn and oats are cultivated, (as is common here) 8,000 per hand of each, is considered lair crop- ping for an average parcel of hands, although 10, and sometimes 12,000 per hand is cultivated. This 320,000 divided into four-shifts, and worked by- ten hands, gives four shifts of 80,000 each. If the same farm be divided into three-shifts, and ffian- aged by the same force, we have three shifts, con- taining about 106,000 hills each. Out of this we may select the best 80,000 for the year's work. The. remaining surplus of 26,000 may be sowed down in small grain, which will not. materially in- terfere with, or affect the general management of the crop; or it may be suffered to improve by rest, and be occasionally cultivated, as time and cir- cumstances may direct. From this view of the question, it would appear a matter easily decided: but then another question arises — does the land improve as much when cultivated once in three years, as' when cultivated only once in four? Ex- perience, as already remarked, is but a small in- ducement with me to hope for much improvement to our common lands from grass alone; and we may add to this, the combined advantage of non- grazing and deep ploughing. These remarks are intended to apply only to the common corn land of this section of country, or to lands of a midling quality, for there is not the least doubt that fresh land of good quality, or even old land in good heart, under judicious cultivation, with the use oi' clover, may be not only kept up to' its original fer- tility, but is susceptible of a high degree of im- provement. But. on the common corn land let me ask what is the improvement of three or four years worth, when, as before remarked, that of ten or a dozen is scarcely perceptible? Another advantage which the three-shift system possesses, consists in the great, saving of labor both in the preparation and cultivation of the crop. It generally requires the greater part of my hands to shrub and clean up the. briers, bushes, &c. near- ly the whole time, of Ihe ploughing season, (say from the 15th November till the 15th of January,) 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 285 in order to keep the ploughs in motion. This la- bor would be considerably diminished under the three-shift plan, for the plain and obvious reason, that u bush or shrub is easily cut off", or taken up, at one ortwo years old, when if permitted to grow, and increase in number, another twelve-months, ih" labor would be increased nearly two-fold; and we all know the difference between working a field recently cultivated, and one that has not been dis- turbed for a longer period of time. Again the three-shift system oilers a great in- ducement to abandon that pest on all stiff high laud, called herds grass; lor on the four-shift sys- tem with this grass, we only reap the advantage of the grass the last or fourth year, it being hard- ly discernable the year after seeding; whilst on the three-shift plan we may avail ourselves of the use of clover, which springs up earlier, and affords a much better covering to the land. The clover crop on good high laud, and with seasonable weather, may be used moderately the year ii is seeded, and yields one of its best crops the suc- ceeding year — which may be called a "nimble shilling," and according to the old adage, is worth at least a "slow dollar/' Lastly by adopting the three-shift plan, the fir- mer is enabled to turn his attention more to the subject, of manure, which to the vegetable king- dom is of the same importance, and sustains the same relation, that bread does to the animal king- dom. And we arc here led to ask what is the best application of manure, or what is the best system ol manuring? Shall we apply the little that is made to the poor worn-out spots? or shall we give it to those parts of the field which are in better condition? It, surely cannot be sound policy to give one bushel of manure to a galley which will scarcely compensate us lor the time required to scatter it on — especially whilst we have so much land of a better grade, that will, on a mod- erate calculation, pay us double. [ have thought, Mr. Editor, for a long time, that many of us who make great pretensions to the subject of improvement, commence at the wrong end of the chapter. What would be the difference of product in applying manure to an acre of exhausted land — and applying the same quantity to an acre in good condition? Suppose a certain small quantity of manure applied to an acre which will produce without that aid, one bar- rel, and the gain should be one-tenth — would an acre capable of producing two barrels, gain only one-tenth? But if each acre gains one-tenth, does it not follow as a consequence, that we have taken the wrong end first? J)oes manure increase the productive capacity of soil in proportion to the quantity applied; or is it in proportion to the fer- tility of the soil previous to the application of ma- nure! I do not. suppose the productive capacity of soil can be the law regulating the increase, unless by that, capacity we mean the fertilizing matter already contained in the soil, which possibly may be the case, and is perhaps exemplified in the ap- plication of plaster — for we can scarcely believe the very small portion of plaster generally used, could have the effect so frequently seen, unless we reason on this hypothesis. But as a general rule, I am disposed to think the increase from ma- nure, is m proportion to the fertilizing matter al- ready contained in the soil, and a particular adap- tation of this manure to the soil. Lei us take four lots of laud Nos. 1, 2, 3 and !, differing in point. of fertility according to their respective numbers; that is, Mo. 1, producing one barrel — No. 2, pro- ducing two barrels, &.e. Now, supposing that the same small quantity of manure is applied to each of these lots, which lot will give the greatest re- turn for the application? The gain ot No. 1, ta- king a tenth for the increased production, is one- hall bushel — No. 2, gains one bushel — No. 3, gains one and a half — whilst No. 4, gains two bushels, thus showing an increase of product for the same labor and expense, of 300 percent. This perhaps would be the result until the soil is brought up to its highest point ot productiveness, or nearly so, at which time we might take the next number, and so on, until we shall have com- pleted the rotation. The policy of this course arises from the simple fact, that under present circumstances, we are put up to all that we can do, to make both ends meet, and the plan proposed provides for the present a more plentiful return, whilst for the future we ma\ remember the proverb — "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Opinions on these matters, from any of the. rea- ders of the Farmers' Register are respect full}' so- licited by a subscriber from CHARLOTTE COT MY. ON SAVING CLOVER SEED. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Granville, N. C. Aug. 1835. The following extract of a letter was handed me by a friend, a copy of which I send you for in- sertion in the Farmers' Register. The cause of agriculture is to some extent interested in the dis- semination of information upon the subject of this letter. There exists in this section of country a strong prejudice against the use of clover seed sold by the merchant, from the danger of intro- ducing nettles, and other pestiferous plants — and besides, the cost is in a great many instances, an objection to the buying of them. I hope some one of your readers is in possession of a more convenient and speedy means of saving these seed, than the one described below. If so, he would confer a favor on the public by publishing- it through the. columns of the Register. I should myself be particularly gratified, by seeing a com- parative estimate of the trouble and labor of sa- ving the seed, with the cost of purchasing them. Extract of a letter from Dunkerque in France, in answer to inquiries respecting the culture and manner of saving clover seed in the north oj France, and kingdom of Belgium. DuMiERtu'K, Jan. 7, 1834. "The seed is sown from the month of March till about the 20th of May, in ground sown with wheat or oats. It ought to be sown in cloudy, fog- gy, or rainy weather, as hot sunny weather is apt prematurely to burn part of the seed, and of course make the crop thin on the ground at har- vest. When the wheat or oats are cut, the ground re- mains covered with the clover plant, which does not require the least care or trouble during the 286 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. winter, unless being passed over by a wooden or iron roller, where the frost lias rendered the ground too light. In the tnonth of May of the following year, they pull out all the thistles, and other de- structive weeds, and plants that may be likely to impede its growth, or be troublesome afterwards. In the beginning of July they cut the first, crop of hay. This first crop does not give any seed, but the plant grows again, anil it. is in the second cut- ting or crop that they find the seed. It is lor the farmer to judge when the. plant is ripe enough to cut for seed. However, it appears necessary it should be quite ripe, or apparently dead. They then dry it well and slack it, and when dried or deadened, ihey thrash it out with Hails, in the same way they formerly used to take out grain in Scot- land. It is, however, very difficult to part the peeds from the husks of the clover plants, and then it. requires all the skill and ingenuity of the fanners, with their fanners, rakes, sieves, &c. to cleanse it so as to please the English, and more es- pecially the Scotch farmers. This plant is gen- erally sown in land which requires rest, and is fol- lowed by a crop of wheat. Thus they will in the year 1833 have wheat in which ihcy sow clover seed in 1834. They gather the harvest, of clover seed in 1835 — they have wheat again, and in 1836, a crop of Max. This mode of culture generally pro- duces the finest quality of flax, but the land must be good and rich. "If any further information regarding this or any other of our productions, can be useful to you, or your American friends, you know you have on- ly to say so, and to command my services." The above you will publish or not, at your dis- cretion, in the Farmers' Register. The subject at- tracted my notice from its being the first account I have seen of a method of saving clover seed. I hope, (more for the benefit of my neighbors and others, than of myself, for I never expect to ga- ther the seed, although I sow it to some extent, and intend to do so quite extensively hereafter,) it will turn out that the ingenuity of some of our Yankee brothers has already invented a machine or a mill, for the purpose. If they have not it seems to me from the nature of the thing, a mat- ter of surprise. The introduction of clover into the county of Granville, is of recent date, and un- til the last two or three years, its successful culti- vation was regarded as an experiment. This ex- periment has, however, been fairly made, and its success has fully realized the most, sanguine ex- pectations, so that, the crop is now coming into common, and in some instances, into extensive use; and I doubt not will, with the herds grass and other artificial grasses, in the course of a very inw years, greatly improve our system of agricul- ture. The doubts heretofore entertained with re- spect to the culture of clover, were formed with re- ference to the heat of our summer months, and not to the character of our soil, which is general- ly well adapted to the growth of tobacco and wheat, and of course, in the absence of other op- posing influences, to clover. [There are several objections to mowing clover to save the seed, for the farnler's own use. The stalks and leaves, which, if left, would help to enrich the bud where they stood, are taken oil; and with much labor, to be carried out again lor the same purpose, even if not wasted. A large proportion of the seeds are har- vested green, or, if waited for, to ripen, the early ripe will have been mostly wasted. Bad weather, after mowing, will cause much more loss of seed, either by shattering or sprouting. The seeds then must be sep- arated from the stalks by treading or trashing, and fan- ning, at considerable cost of labor. Finally, all the seeds of bad weeds, ripe about the same time, are sa- ved with the clover seed, and carefully sown over the other best parts of the farm. There are contrivances to pull Tiff the ripe heads of the clover, by means of an edge formed into long teeth like those of a comb. The smaller kinds are worked by hand— the larger drawn on wheels by a horse. This plan seems to be free from most of the objections stated above, and to promise well in theory. Nevertheless, in 40 years it has not worked its way any where into general use, and very few fanners in Virginia have used, or continue to use this plan. There is another mode which would seem the rjoosl slow and tedious of all — but which we think decidedly preferable both to buying the seed, and to saving them by mowing and thrashing. This is to pull oil the heads by hand. When there is plenty of crop to ga ther, and there is no objection to leaving a large pro- portion--—and even though the growth is irregular or in spots — women, stout boys, and girls, will gather from eight to ten bushels each a day, These are of course oidy the heads containing ripe and perfect seed — and no seeds of had weeds are mixed with them. The seed live and thrive better by being sown in the chalf — and the only objection is the great difficulty of regu- lating the quantity. If equally distril uted, six bush ■ els in the chaff are enough for an acre. In this man- ner every day's work is saved, by putting the seed in a house as fast as gathered. No had weather causes loss, except by interrupting and preventing the ga- thering. Where there is the proper kind of labor to spare in August (which however never can be where there is cotton to pick out,) it is seldom so profitably employed as in this seemingly slow way of saving clover seed.] THE IMPKOVU.I) POCKET CIIOXBROMETEK. — SKINLESS OAT. To the Editor of Uic Farmers' Register. Thie being a very useful little implement, and probably not generally known to your subscribers, I take the liberty to send you a description ol it, together with a copy of the printed, table, pasted on the inside of the small box containing the im- plement itself Its use is to ascertain the weight per Winchester bushel, ol all kinds of grain or seed, which it does very accurately. The princi pie on which it is constructed is that of t ho steel* yard. It consists of a very neat little brass stan dard, six inches high, with a circular bottom abou two inches diameter, a small bar about nine, inche long, part brass and part steel — the brass pari gra- duated, and having a small brass weighl made to slide on it so as to mark by its edge the number ol pounds per bushel, of the grain or ^a'(\ intended to he weighed. For the other end of the bar ! 1835.] F A R M E R S ' REGISTER 2b7 teen dollars a bushel. (hero, is a little brass bucket made to contain about | next spring, as I can procure: not however at six a gill, struck measure, which is to be carefully ' filled with whatever you design to weigh, when the bar is fixed on the standard, and the brass weight being moved until it balances the filled bucket, ascertains precisely, the weight by the struck Winchester bushel. Copy of the accompanying Table. Seventeen specimens oi marketable grain and seed. Wheat is from 55 to (13 lbs. per bushel; mean wt. Rye, Barley, Red clover, 50 45 60 56 49 64 White do. 66 70 Dutch clover, 65 71 Hemp, Linseed, 38 11 42 50 Turnip, Oats, 48 35 50 42 Meadow grass , 10 18 Rye do. 12 20 Cipque foil, Peas, 22 62 28 67 Small beans, 60 66 Canary, 54 56 Rape, 47 50 59 53 47 62 68 68 40 47 49 38A 14 16 25 64i 63 55 4SA The use of ibis little implement will be obvious, I think, at first sight; for it furnishes, at once, a more convenient and expeditious mode than any I have known tried, of ascertaining the compara- tive weight of all our varieties of wheat, corn, rye, and oats; and as their value generally, is in proportion to their weight, it is a matter of some importance; as well as curiosity, lor every farmer to possess so easy a means of ascertaining which is the heaviest. I have very often used this im- strument, ami in several instances, have sold my wheat by it — the purchaser being perfectly satis- tied with this mode of determining the weight. By this I find the weight of tin; skinless oat to be 47 lbs., whereas the heaviest oats in England, (as yon will see by the table,) weighs only 42 lbs. As you may never have seen this new variety, which has lately been introduced into England from Chi- na, and cultivated with great success, I send you a lew grains as a sample. Last spring I purchas- ed from one of William Prince's agents, in our neighborhood, a single quart, at the rate of $16 a bushel! One pint oi' these 1 drilled in my garden, nine inches apart, the. wide way, and two inch- es the other, as near as 1 could prevail on the hands employed to drop the grains at that distance; but they were probably nearer. In this way the pint sowed 247 square yards, and produced 116 pints of such grain as I send you. The produce would have been something more; for three spots, each about six or seven feet square, were lodged, and consequently injured. The average height, when ripe, was about four feet, and the appearance then, by far the most beautiful of any small grain lever saw. From the looks of the grain I should judge it would make very good flour; but for horse feed it must certainly be vastly superior to any other oat yet discovered. To judge by my single trial, they will make at least as much, by measure, as any of the kinds we cultivate, and will so liir ex- ceed them in weight as fo give them a very de- cided preference. Be all this, however, as it may, JAMES M. GARNETT. MOVEMENTS OF THE ABOLITION SOCIETIES" AND ANTICIPATED RESULTS. For some years past, the small, but growing- and ac- tive sect of abolitionists in the Northern States, have been bringing- their theories respecting slavery into practical operation: and the effects have recently as- sumed an importance which threatens seriously to af- fect both the agricultural interests and political rights of the Southern States. Tiiis sect, composed of bi- goted and reckless zealots, who avow their aim to ef- fect, if possible, the entire and immediate abolition of slavery, at all hazards, and without regard to conse- quences—has increased rapidly in numbers and strength. Nor is this strange. The detestal ion of sla- very, in the abstract, is a feeling almost inseparable from man's best feelings; and thousands of slave hol- ders—who will, if. necessary, defend their rights against the attacks of the abolitionists, at the bayonet's point — would make far greater personal sacrifices, in any feasible and proper manner, to mitigate the evils, or remove, if possible, the existence of slavery, than those who condemn and denounce them It is the ea- siest thing in the world to be charitable at the ex- pense of other people— and there never will be a lack of fierce advocates for the removal of this evil, thmgh by producing evils ten times greater, so long as all the losses and dangers from the change, whatever they may be, must fall on those far removed from the zeal- ous and ferocious "philanthropists" — who are striving to put fire to a train of gunpowder, because they are in perfect safety from the awful and destructive explo- sion that may follow. These societies, lately deemed so contemptible, and now perhaps as incorrectly elevated to a most impo- sing station of power and influence, are now using systematic efforts to reach their end. More than 200 affiliated abolition societies in the Northern States, have already been organized, to labor for the good or the ill of the South: large amounts of money have been col- lected— secret emissaries are employed in the South — from their presses numerous publications are issued, filled with misrepresentations and falsehoods, address- ed fo the supposed feelings of the slaves, ami to the degraded understandings and besotted prejudices of the lower class of their northern countrymen— and these publications, through the mails, are sent free of carriage (to the publishers) to every part of the south, as well as of the north. These violent and open pro- ceedings, and the strong suspicion that even worse are in secret operation, have roused the south, and drawn forth a burst of indignation, and expression of deter- mined resistance, which will be universal. In this matter, at least, there are no party divisions to distract our views, and to prevent a united effort to maintain our interests and rights. Whatever may be the issue, the people of the south will, in defence of their rights ami properly, act as one man. Public meetings are every where called. They have been already held in J have determined to sow as many bushels of them ' Richmond and Petersburg, and with a unanimity with- 1'SS r a \{ M r. ii s- i; i: <; i s r f; \\ Ho. ,,u! |>ri cedent i itions have been , m I von and li uctioi on tl ; • the tnurder- o I' their feelings ol' indignation — antl ol njjjiroval •■■l ers. Whether such ett'ects may he great or small, the such legal and proper measures, (and p lilabli result jnust h , that whatever eviLs exceeding the legal limit,) as ma} be deemed neces maybe brought on the w I cause ten times as Sary to guard against these assassin-like a H i uch to the race which til circumstances of the very recent di cov< , oi an in- in: rve. [f anj one desired the tended insurrection of slaves in Mi i of j In be inflicted on ted, planned, and intended to be led (as is alleged) bj ho skn ot the oulh, by any means, and without re- white men, some of whom were of the gard to other consequences, he ought to wish for the northern abolitionists, have served to add fuel t<> the increase of the numbers, strength, and power ol the Uaine, and l" incr i •■■ the bill - iation, ab I I the north, and of hostile feeling. The Souiha e is often brought forward So far as the opinions of the South, (n proeeedin danger ol insurrection. 'I'd from public meetings, and from the pi generally,) ■ uml of those deplorable events, and the .,,■,• expressive of indignation at the iu lenls uc (and we had good humus of knowing (lie. abolitionist; and of delen the contrary. The i hazards, awllo any length, the I Southampton was gotten uj md mstained Hieir theories, (even in tlie sii i tar,) tluy throi h its brief course of thirty- ; lioin by the command our entire and li . oi' e\ oral circumstances, some of which [oubl Um' prop) iet} and the policy ol tl , lover can be again looki d foj much importance to the ravings ol the abolitioni I fho leader wa - of uncommon powei of mind and to their circulation through the press and the mail yet mcln I vi li aw oi n mils -a religious Plio violence of effort openly exhibited in endea voi enthusiasl ivho I : p I (', and sonn in..- (o suppress these publications (even if entirely of his i i follow he pi ed prophetic successful in the attempt,) may have as ill effects on and perhap i While this d< lie • for whom these publications were d igned, lusi u (and thi done,) I hi hi fust few ion: ami perha] \. i . ! ■ Ibllowei , he had cunnin it to imparl his dc- i in<>' Hi.' apparent iinportan e of tin ;n, even generally, but to two, until the day of the far more than i vvn in .ill, before coin , ir own labors could as yet have cifected. I mitling the first midni Wo tin ii. il intend I li had lien: coin- policy of the institution ol icists in these mil tod to even lift} md for a single wcel slates. We should disdain maintaini] lie a ild have been divulged, as in every 10 defend our rights, i lo m our claim of property. I othe of conspirac} \ powerful aid Whatever may be the evils of our system ol slavery, m I ry ,'ements in this (and we den} not that they are many for the slaves, country, was that i( was the season for distilling: 01 and still more foi theii masti rs,) the matter i.- oui mm every farm new In bund in abundance, ami concern — and we will not con 'lit to its n Iation 1 ( Idening power was kept in full opera iched bj III'' people of the north. And while recruits, and to stimulate them lo acts of butchery. ill,-, will confini theii efforts to mei the} w II flieii »vholi bloi f, progress manifested the deeds of meet with no success in exciting II:'' slaves (ol Vii uicn lantic by the conflict of drunken valo ginia at I ast) as a body, lo insurrection. There tin of their nature, or of education. The would h" at least as mucl , if the hand never reached filly in mil I II the re attempt was made, by writing and printing on this side emits were forced by threal i to theii rani , and ; Ihc Atlantic, to stimulate the peasantry "1 Ireland, most of the others were deluded bj false state m or even the better informed poor population of En which were almost equal in land, to cut the th n eize the property of the power to 1 1 cli. I'm I though the object of the aboliti all urpriscd and i tly wo- together visionary and impracti ': I would li i men and children, before their im uei were subject for derision and contempt, but for its probable enough known to ca Lance m as the accompaniment of horrors- still they can, and proba ancc h; armed wl I bly will, (if at all countenanced by lite belter judging ' the who! mil/drill/ of their countrymen,) produce effi cts ■;' awful .md not the slightest attempt wa i i to rally, or re- importance, and affecting deeply and permanent^ , the , p< at tin' effort. .Ml the guilt} p :rished and unfortu- welfare of the people of the United States, and the nately more than the guilty, from the madness of the permanency of their present general government. The | times, such as will always be excited l>\ such events utmost direct effect of (lie efforts of the northern pro- - ami of which awful fruits will always ho produced, vokers of insurrection, would be conspiracies of slaves, when an infuriated people (as lately in Mississippi,) detected before maturity, as recently in Mississippi, take the execution of law and justice into theii own md visited awfully, illegally, and without just discrim- hands — which is equivalent to having bo i iiiation, on the heads of black and white of the inno- justice completer} put a ide and their place taken bj cent as well as the guilt} oi partial massacres by the ignorance, delusion, and worsl passions oi the blacks, as in Virginia in 1831, which however a The efforts ol ii; olitionists of the north, (oi Morions, and afflicting to individuals, would be nothing of their more temperate country mi n, who claim lo be as a war measure, ami would draw down most < ertain friends ol southern interests, because they arc li 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 289 tacking slavery slowly ami gradually,) may cause rep- etitions of such events, and their equally deplorable consequences: but they will only serve to destroy whatever amount of happiness and contentment is now enjoyed by our slaves, and produce to them misery, if not destruction, without there being a semblance of hope for effecting, by any of their efforts, the object of a peaceable extinction of slavery, and elevation of the condition of the blacks to equality of right and power with the whites. • It would be useless to remonstrate with the abolit on societies and their leaders — to address ourselves to the reason of men who insantly expect to reach their ob- jects through the desperate means which they use — or to appeal to the sense of rectitude of any, who, even for a desirable end, would willingly resort to means so abominable — so murderous in their tendency. But we would address our language of complaint and of warning, to the great majority of the citizens of the northern states — who declare themselves friends to the south, and utterly opposed to the schemes of the abo- litionists— in the hope of inducing them to exert their counteracting influence, and to put down the nuisance — to use the power which the great body of any commu- nity on the right side must always have over a very small portion, considered by that majority as altogeth- er in the wrong. We would ask of the reflecting, to say whether the movements of the abolition societies are likely to effect their avowed object, even if the object is thought desirable — and of the prudent and calculating, to consider whether any results disastrous to the interests of the south, would not also necessarily and greatly injure the interests of -the north. We are assured, from the north, as with one voice, that the abolitionists are but a few, scorned and con- temned by the people generally, and by all of worth and high character. Still this despised handful of men, call and hold public meetings to disseminate their doc- trines, in every town — have openly established, and keep in operation, presses to flood the south wTith incen- diary publications — and instead of being put down by the force of what is said to be the public and general opinion, are permitted to proceed in their course without impediment of any kind. The reply is ready, that these acts, however detestable, are not in violation of existing laws, and therefore cannot be restrained. It is not for us to point out the remedy — but we beg leave to submit a similar case for illustration. The people of the southern states are very generally opposed to the policy of forcing manufacturing, or other pursuits of industry, by protecting duties — by the operation of which, it is considered, that they and their country are heavily, unjustly, and illegally burdened, to furnish millions in indirect bounties, to northern capitalists. Very many of us in the south, upon gen- eral principles, as well as in regard to our general in- terests, are as hostile to this policy, as any calm and dispassionate abolitionists can be to the existence of negro slavery. Now suppose that a few thousand of our zealots — (for they are to be found in all parties and sects — ) were to earn* to such excess their hatred of Vol. Ill— 37 tiiis iniquitous policy of our government, as openly to league for its destruction, by inflicting loss and destruc- tion on the interests and persons supported and enrich- ed by protecting duties — that they provided materials and employed agents to burn the factories of the north, and to poison the proprietors and superintendents: that under a philanthropic horror of the enormous mass of suffering which is certain soon to reach, and then for- ever to attend the laboring manufacturers, (far worse than the sufferings of our negro slaves—) that all means of seduction wrere addressed to this class, in- cluding the plunder of their employers' property, to urge their joining in and becoming the most efficient agents of the work of destruction. Suppose that the preparation of means for these ends was carried on without disguise — that proselytes to the hellish design were continually and zealously sought by public meet- ings, and publications, in many southern towns — that the leaders and principal actors were all known, and even proud of their notoriety — and that nothing was hidden except the operations of their emissaries, at- tempted or executed in the northern states. Suppose farther, that with all this unlimited malignity of inten- tion, the actual effects produced were comparatively trivial, and that the northern manufacturers, in fact, feared their enemies as little as slave holders have to dread the now avowed abolitionists: still — would such a state of things, and its evident increase, be patiently borne by the north, and the southern states be held as friendly? Would the plea be valid that "these villain- ous plotters were but a few, held in detestation and contempt by the great body of southern people, who would rejoice no less than their northern brethren, to see such miscreants meet with merited punishment, if the laws were such as to permit any to be inflicted: but that no existing laws had been violated by the known acts of these men in the south — and when they carried their proceedings to the northern states, it would be for the latter to apply the proper punish- ments— in the propriety of which, (and in aid of which, if necessary,) the south would heartily concur." It such declarations wr6uld serve to justify us in the opin- ions of our northern brethren, we ought to receive as equally entitled to respect the reasons given for the im- punity and unmolested progress of the bold and open conspirators and incendiaries of the abolition school. From the Arcana of Science. HOUSE FLIES. On April 7, the Secretary of the Entomological Society read a paper by Mr. Spence, detailing a a curious mode, adopted in Italy, of excluding the house fly from house?. The plan consisted simply in straining a net, made of white thread, across the aperture of an open window: the meshes of the net were about half an inch in diameter. It had occured to Mr. Spence, whether it could be the dread of a spider's net which caused the flies to avoid the thread net, but on consideration he had determined otherwise; and he was totally at a Jos* how to account ibr so singular a circumstance. i,t»0 F A R M E R S REGISTER [No. 5. For the Fanners' Register, i MACHINE FOR RAISING MARL. In your Essay on Calcareous Manures, yoi \ give instructions tor digging and carting marl. I This method I pursued for several years, bul found the labor hard on my hands, ami tedious. _ Marl here is generally found in deep ravines, or in wet grounds. My operations have been slow, from the difficulty of maldnir firm and lasdng ways, and the labor of ascending steep hills. Last win- ter I made a model, arid this spring I built a ma- chine for raising ma1-1, to be worked by a horse. 5 have been using it to advantage, and now send you a draught, of it, as it may I to th ise "who have wet marl pits like mine. By means of a pump to throw off the water, pits may be work- ed at a considerable depth; and even if marl is dry, if it lies deep, I think it may be used to ad- vantage. I use two boxes, and by means ol hinrrps and a latch, the marl is discharged from he bottom. I have double blocks: the rope | ass- s through the swoop about eighteen inches from he end, and runs down to the post which sup- ports the swoop, and passes through it, on a small roller, and in like manner through the next post, to the cylinder, to which a reel is attached to in- crease the motion. The post which holds the swoop and the cylinder, runs on iron pins let into thimbles. The levi r is in two pieces, one fastened tlir cylinder with a groove at the end, into which the oilier is let. and secured by a sliding. iron clamp. When the marl is discharged from he box, and the swoop swung round over the pit, in nautical phrase, by unshipping the end of the levei', the rope unwinds, and the box descends without moving the horse. The, circle in which he horse travels ought to be twenty-one feet in diameter, and the second and third posts support- ed by side bi The cost of the machine is small, though I can- not, make an exact estimate. The carpenter who did the work, was hired by the day on the. farm, and was taken off with other jobs: but his bill could not exceed eight dollars. The cost of the iron work was ten, and one hundred and six y-five feet of inch rope, at eighteen and a half cents a pound. The timber, taken from my own woods, may be estimated at five dollars. The rope I find soon wears out, and I intend to supply its place with a light iron chain. When the marl is uncovered, with one efficient hand in the pit, and a less efficient one to discharge the boxes and drive the horse, five hundred bush- els may be raised in a day. The work is not op- pressive to the laborers. The teams stand on high, dry ground: no sloughs to plunge through, and no hills to climb. The swoop is turned by a email rope over the carts, and the marl immedi- ately discharged into them. I work four carts, with two sets of oxen to each. They came out of the winter lean and weak; and now with green clover for their food, at the distance of a half to three-quarters of a mile, I draw out from four to five hundred bushels a day; and my oxen have improved. My work goes on with ease and ex- pedition, without stoppage to mend roads, or to clear ditches. WILLIAM CARMICIIAEL. Wye, Queen jiane^s co. Md. July 15, 1835. CULTIVATION OF BEET-ROOT FRANCE. SUGAR IN A hectare of land (nearly 2 J acres) sown with beet, produces, in most cases, 2,400 kilogrammes of the root, which is equivalent to 47 cwt. 36 lbs. avoirdupois; and there are many instances in which a single grower raises from 80,000 to 90,000 kilo- grammes (6,260 to 7,098 cwt.) The cultivation costs the farmer about 8s. the 1,000 kilogrammes (20 cwt.) The quantity of sugar extracted by the present process is in the proportion _of se- ven or eight parts of saccharine matter out of 100 parts of the raw root. From the molasses, sugar is obtained, and the pulp furnishes nearly as much fattening food for cattle as the root in its simple state; the leaves also are much sought after by the grazier for his cows during those months of the year when green fodder is not easily obtained. — Printing Machine, JVo. 24. id35.] FARMERS' REGISTER 5?91 From the Silk Culturist. CLIMATE AND SOIL OF NEW ENGLAND. Almost every newspaper in the country has an occasional paragraph on the culture of silk, and in many of them we notice the climate and soil of New England, spoken of as admirably adapted to rearing the silk worm and the cultivation of the mulberry. Remarks of this kind have a tendency, not only to make an erroneous impression but to mislead other sections of the country into a belief that there is something peculiar in our climate and soil, which gives us advantages and facilities, in this respect, not enjoyed by others, while, at the same time, precisely the reverse is true. That providence in the distribution of its gifts has given us a climate and soil congenial to the production of silk is a matter of fact, and ought to be of grat- itude and thanksgiving; but that it has lavished them upon us in greater, or even equal prolusion with some of our sister states is not true. The middle, southern, and western stales, have natural advantages for the culture of silk, which the northern can never enjoy. The white mulber- ry will grow luxuriantly in all parts of the United States, and so far as its foliage is depended upon for the subsistence of the worm, the natural ad- vantages of all the states are equal. But with re- spect to the Chinese mulberry, it cannot be culti- vated in the northern states, without much addi- tional labor and expense; while at the south no extra care or precaution is indispensable to its* propagation. This gives the southern section a decided advantage over the northern, which no amount of skill or experience, can counterbalance. The whole truth about it is, a portion of the pop- ulation of New England, and especially of Con- necticut, have been tor about half a century en- gaged in the culture of silk, and their experience and observations have constituted a fund of prac- tical information on the subject, which cannot be found in any other part of the country. The suc- cess of the silk business in Connecticut, is there- fore attributable to this cause, and not to any pe- culiar adaptation of climate and soil, for in this respect we are far less favored than most oi" the other states. From the New York Times. CULTIVATION OF SILK. It is little more than fifty years ago, since an American vessel was seized at Liverpool for having on board eight bales of cotton, it not. beintr believed that the article could be produced in this country. At present about 600,000 bales are car- ried to the same port. To the culture of this ar- ticle the country owes a great part of its wealth and prosperity. Where fifty years ago eight bales of cotton were produced, one million two hundred thousand are now produced. If fifty years ago a man had ventured to predict that the article of cot- ton would become the grand staple of the country, and add millions upon millions to its wealth, he would have been laughed at as a madman. It has lately been predicted that before many years are passed, the production of silk in this country will equal the production of cotton; and we see no reason to question the justice of the calculation. The cultivation of this article has been commenced by the enterprising men of the east. Theeoil and cli- mate of New England are admirably adapted to its cultivation. Those who have thus far engaged in it, have reaped good profits, and have every reason to persevere. It hascommenced in apart of the coun- try where thrift and industry have never failed to succeed. It has been commenced under far more favorable circumstances than those which attend- ed the first cultivation of cotton. It requires but little labor, and the principal part of the labor re- quired may be performed by females and children. The experiment has thus far proved successful, and it has been attended with but a trifling degree of expense. A MODE OP DESTROYING ANTS. A writer by the name of Roughly, says: "Poi- soning with arsenic is the most expedient mode of getting rid of ants, as the living will feed on the dead, so that the whole nest, (by devouring one another) are thus killed.'' From the Northampton Courier. PLOUGHING UNDER GREEN CROi;3 FOR MA- NURE. Being the owner of a small farm, most of which was in a low state of cultivation at the time I commenced making experiments, and feeling desi- rous of enriching it. faster than I could with stable and barn yard manure, the quantity made being small I therefore resolved to try the effect of plough- ing under green crops. The piece upon whch I tried my experiment contains nearly tour acres, and is of a hazle-nut colored loam, lying near the Connecticut river. In 1831, the lot above mentioned had wheat and rye reaped from it; about 1^ were of wheat, and produced 17 bushels, yielding 9^ bushels to the acre. The 2| acres of rye yielded about 27 bush- els being 12 bushels to the acre — total of wheat and rye, 44 bushels. The ground for the wheat was ploughed three times and had the same num- ber of harrowings. That for rye was ploughed but twice, with two harrowings; clover and herds- grass were sown on the whole piece. At the time of raising the grain. I did not intend trying any ex- periment; but the grass seed not having come up well, the lot was ploughed once in August, 1832, and sown with rye, was fed down with sheep in the fall and also in the spring, until about May; thus affording sufficient feed to pay the expense of the seed for the first crop. After the sheep were taken from the grain, it was left to grow until about the time it blossomed, when it was ploughed under, and the ground sown with buckwheat — \ bushel of seed to the acre. When the buckwheat was in blossom, that was also ploughed under; after which the ground was suffered to remain until a short time, before it was sown, when it was again ploughed once, sown with wheat and rye, October 3d. Previous to sow- ing the wheat, the seed was soaked about twenty- four hours in brine, and afterwards rolled in plas- ter, where it remained in a body twelve or sixteen hours. My object in treating it in this manner was to prevent smut, and the ravages of the Hes- sian fly, which has several times destroyed some ot my "wheat; but fortunately the crops the present 292 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. year were uninjured by them. The rye was sown in its natural state. In the spring of 1S34 the whole piece was plas- tered with about two bushels to the acre. It was sown for the purpose of benefiting the young grass, and it has now (spring of 1835) con;:' up well, and bids fair to produce nearly twice the quantity of feed usually obtained from it in a sea- son. The quantity of grain which the piece pro- duced the past season is as follows: About one acre was sown with white flint wheat and yielded 16 bushels — 2| acres were sowed with red bearded wheat, and produced 33 bushels, making in all 49 bushels or 14J to the acre— | of an acre wa with rye and yielded about twelve bushels, being at the rate of 19| bushels to the acre. The increase of the' wheat crop, according to the above estimate, was more than 49 per cent, and that of the rye more than 59 per cent. Had the past season been favorable for wheat crops, I doubt not that I should have obtained eight or ten bushels more. Perhaps some may think the plaster caused the last crop to be better than the preceding one; but I do not think it was, as I sowed some on a piece of rye the past season, a part of which was left unplastered, and it could not be discovered that the plaster benefited cither rye or land — the soil was the same as that on which the wheat was sown. From the [British] Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. IMPORTATION OF THE BOXES OF CETACEOUS ANIMALS FROM THE POLAR SEAS FOR THE PURPOSES OF MANURE. The great consumption of bones occasioned by the increasing demand for bone-manure in the ex- tension ot turnip husbandry to the more remote and inaccessible parts of the country, accompa- nied with the small indeed, but gradual, rise in the price of that valuable means of iertilizing the soil situate at a distance from large towns, naturally creates the apprehension that at no distant period the demand will outrun the supply. In order to anticipate such an '-untoward event," our thoughts have lately been turned to a prolific source of sup- ply which has hitherto been almost entirely over- looked— we mean the Polar Seas. Much valua- ble bone might be brought home in the whale ships from those regions. One large whale might afford several tons of bones. We are quite aware that while the prospect of an abundant supply of blubber arrests the attention of the whale-fisher, he will be regardless of the bones of the animal. This state of the mind is natural. The fisherman, when so actuated, only fulfils the principal object of his voyage, and were he always certain of load- ing his ship with the most valuable part of the ce- taceous animals which he captures, no one should be so unreasonable as to request him to direct his attention in the short time he has to accomplish his object to any other subject. But we all know how very seldom whalers bring home bumperships, how much more frequently the ships are only halfloaded; while every year some come home clean. Now some of their time might be profitably, at least useiully, employed in securing a quantity of the bones, such as the jaws, ribs, and vertebrae of the animals which they capture, and although it would not be desirable to occupy the most convenient parti of tka ship with bones, while there was a prospect of obtaining blubber, it should be re- membered that no bones can be obtained without in the first place securing the blubber. It will, no doubt, not unirequently happen that the most successful periods of the fishing, are those when the capture of whales takes place faster than the blubber can be removed from the carcass and stored by; and we have heard a whaler assert that they have had fourteen carcasses floating along- side awaiting the process of fleecing. But if the whole bodies can be kept floating alongside to await the convenience of the crew to remove the blubber, cannot the fleeced bodies in like manner be kept floating till it is convenient to disengage some of the bones? Bones are easily disengaged, and would be of easy stowage. They could be cut in- to junks with cross-cut staws made for the purpose, and many of them used as wedges to secure the butts in the hold, while others could be stowed away in any space in which a butt cannot be stowed. In this manner any ship could bring home many tons of bones; and it might be an un- derstanding among the masters of the ships on the fishing ground, that if one ship was much taken up with the storing of blubber, while anoth- er was less successful, the latter might get leave to tow away the fleeced carcasses to their own ship. We have heard it stated that the bringing home of bones would be a question of freight with the owners of the ships. We think this is a mis- take, for the mode in which whale-fishers are paid has no reference to freight. They are paid ac- cording to the tons of blubber which they bring home. Some bones have been brought home of late years; one ship from Leith last season we saw brought lour or five tons; but what is that trifling quantity compared to what she might have brought when she came home litile more than half laden? The mode adopted by the owners tor pay- ing tor bones, is to give the crew one-fourth of their value, so that the question of freight has no- thing to do with the. matter. We wish the own- ers of the whale ships from Scotland would seri- ously take this matter into consideration, and en- courage their crews to slow as much bone as they conveniently can at their leisure. The value real- ized by the bone might not only pay the expenses of delivering the ship, but might even reimburse the owners lor the loss of the bounty, over and above the value of the blubber in an average voy- age. If a premium of a piece of plate from the Highland Society would be any stimulus to the captains who would bring home the greatest quan- tity of bones, and thus forward our views for the benefit of agriculture by a constant supply of a cheap and efficient manure, we are sure they will be happy to grant such a prize to the successful competitor, and the owners we are assured would be proud that it was one of their ships which had carried off the honored prize. From the British Farmer's IVIagaziiiP. REMARKS OIV THE SCARLET TREFOIL. Addressed to the Conductor of the Gardener's Mag- azine, and communicated by Mr. Loudon. As the scarlet trefoil (trifolvUm incarnatutri) has already engaged the attention of agricultu- rists, and from its valuable properties is likely to be brought into general use, permit me through the 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 293 medium of your periodical, to offer a few observa- tions on the best mode ol' cultivating it. It is well known, that all the clovers like a solid bottom; and from experience it appears thai such i> more particularly the case with the scarlet trefoil. When the land upon which it has been sown has been rendered fine and Iight,by repeated plough- ings, the crop hasfrequently been an entire failure. Such failures have been attributed to the depreda- tions of grubs; but there is much reason to be- lieve that, the plant perished in the winter, owing; to the lightness of the soil, as I have never heard of a single instance of failure when the seed was committed to an unploughed surface. In the be- ginning of October, 1833, I sowed a plot of gar- den ground, the soil being strong and rich, upon a chalk bottom. The seedlings, came up well; but, in the course of the waiter, all perished, with the exception of a single plant. In September, of the same year; Colonel Beach sowed a kw acres in a field, about a hundred yards distant, which he had ploughed and dressed tor the purpose, the soil in this case being of a similar nature to that men- tioned above, and here again the crop was a fail- ure. At a distance of about two hundred yards, and upon soil precisely similar, and in the same season, a stiff, unploughed wheat .subble produced as fine a crop as could be desired. The farmer, who had this crop, had previously pursued the same plan, and had realized from his produce up- wards of £40 per acre! I find, also, that the crops have frequently Jailed in the county of Es- sex, where the ground had been ploughed before sowing. In September last, I sowed four and a half acres upon a barley stubble, without any prep- aration whatever, and there is an abundant plant. I do not mean to assert positively that, no crop will follow alter ploughing; but experience proves that success is very doubtful when this is done. With respect to the properties of the trefoil, I do not believe that there is a more hearty green food in existence. Cattle are extremely fond of it. Farm horses, during their spring work, may be kept in the highest condition upon it, and after af- fording abundant feed, may be cleared off in time for turnips or barley, both of which, upon trial, have succeeded perfectly well after trefoil. Should these observations prevent disappoint- ment, or be the means of drawing the attention of the farming interests to the facts of the case, it will be satisfactory to their friend, MATTHEW HARRISON. Church Oakley, Near Basingstoke, November, 1S34. P. S. — Scarifying the ground has been found to answer well; and where the surface is foul, it is certainly advantageous. From the Claremont, N. H. Eagle. SHEKP. It is a well known fiict, that wool growers in this section of the country, whose flocks exceed 200 sheep, lose a large number of their sheep each winter. Some of them, we will allow, die of old age; but too many of them do not live more than two years. There is a remedy for this loss of prop- erty and that too directly in the hands of the shep- herd. This being the case I am anxious to lay it belbre the public that all may profit by it hereaf- ter. It is a custom among many farmers, when they drive in their flocks in the fall, to put the whole dock together in a single barn, shed, or whatever place they may happen to have to keep them in. Now it is very evident that the young, the very old, and weakly, or in other words, the most un- healthy of the flock, cannot possibly fare equally well with the rugged, and it is a fact while the one is thriving the other is losing i;s strength. When kept in this situation, one after another falls from hunger, and other causes incident to this slate of affairs, and they are no longer able to raise them- selves. Here the shepherd for the first time sep- arates the almost lifeless sheep from the multitude, and endeavors to restore it to health. But it is too late. He is soon convinced that "a stitch in time saves nine" — that ten thousand dying sheep, are worth no more than the wool on their backs. Y\ hen sheep are brought in from the pastures, in the fall, they should be divided into four distinct flocks, viz. 1st. Meagre or sickly — which should be kept in a warm barn, with "but few in a pen. They should have salt as often as once a week — should have a handful of corn each day through the winter — as much hay as they can eat through the day, and should be watered as often as twice a day. This will not fail to keep them in good order. '2d. The ewes also should be kept from the rest of the flock and should receive the same treat- ment with the exception of the green which may he given occasionally, though it is not ne- cessary. 3d. The bucks, intended for the benefit of the flocks, should he kepi by themselves, that they may be in good order, and lor another reason that will suggest itself to all wool growers. 4th. And last of all are the wethers which may be, if health)', kept entirely on hay and water. I have for twelve years kept a large flock of sheep, and have lost a great many; but since 1830 I have adopted this course and have not lost one- tenth as many as I did in the same number of years preceding that time. AN OLD FARMER. From the Annates des Arts et Manufactures. DURABLE WHITEWASH. I am enabled to certify the efficacy of marine salt in fixing whitewash made of lime. In the year 1795, when I was director of the naval artil- lery at the port of Toulon, I was commissioned to ascertain the utility of a method proposed by the master painter of that port, M. Maquilan, for whitewashing the ships between deck, and like- wise their holds, in a durable manner, by means of lime. Our report was in favor of this process, which consists in saturating water in which the lime is slacked with muriate of soda, (common salt.) The whitewash produced by it is very per- manent, does not crack, nor come off upon one's hands or clothes. The experiment was made only on wood. It appears from M. St. Bernarde's ac- count, that it succeeded equally well on walls, 294 V A R M E R S ' U E G I S T E R . [No. 5 tiil: pitcher plant. Few plants il* we consider the structure of its foli- age, are more interesting than the pitcher plant, of Southern India. If is ibund in Ceylon, Java, and other islands in the Indian Archipelago. Ji has been transplanted into several gardens in Eng- land, where it attains to great perfection. Its stem is eighteen or twenty leet. It branches out over the wires prepared to support it; and bears numerous leaves, in the form ol' a pitcher, and which look more like art than the production ol nature. The lcaij including the stalk, is two leet long. The pitcher is rather an appendage to the leaf, than the leaf itself. It is hollowed out like an elongated pitcher; and is eighi or nine inches long. I' is attenuated at its base, where it is curved or arched, and then suddenly turns upwards. In its young stale, il is covered by a lid or operculum. After a nine, the lip opens, ami the mouth of the pitcher is exposed to view. The color is pale green, hat often tinged or spotted with red and nurnle. country, hul I tear the hope of their breeding is very uncertain. From tin- Annua of Science. SOLVENT OF INDIAK RUBBER. There is no solvent of Indian rubber so good lor gardening and most other purposes, as refined coal tar. sold under the name by drug merchants, which is only common coal tar deprived of water by hoilmg. From lie. Field Naturalist. THE LLAMA or PERU. We are indebted to the attention of a corres- pondent in (.'ban tor tie- following account of the interesting attempt now making in that nei hood to domesticate the llama. 1 am not surprised that the llamas here be exciting attention, lor they certain!) are obj :cts worthy of notice. Tins animal does not in am shape resemble the sheen of this country; us height is from (bur to five leet, with long legs and lone.- neck, in some respects not unlike Hie camel. asmall head without horns, the countenam i tie and expressive of wonder. Ii is not remarka- ble for any peculiar habits, except that it d ^hl in ascending to the summits of the lulls: it,- a| ance indicates an unfitness for climbing: I obsen e, however, nature has served it with a hooked claw on each hoof, which enables it in some measure to travel heights with as much security as ti: Their food and treatment differ in no particul i from Mr. Stevenson's cows; they graze, eat hay. chopped straw and potatoes, with them daily, and have formed such an attachment to the cows, that when the latter are brought from the hill tin- I'm: purpose of milking, the llamas will not remain be- hind, but accompany them to and from the byre three times a day, a distance of half a mile — the wool is extremely fine, each fleece weighing from five to six pounds. Mr. Stevenson imported the first pair (of the Alpacha breed, for there are seve- ral varieties,) about three years ago — he tells me that there were lour or live pairs shipped for him, but all died during the voyage except the one, am! the following year he received another pair ol what he terms the real llama, but a common ob- server cannot descern any difference. They in- habit the mountains of the Andes, and, when do- mesticated, are used in that country as beasts of burden, chiefly in carrying ore from the mines of Peru, and they carry about 100 lbs., and if one pound be added more than they can carry with freedom, like the camel, nothing will impel them forward. If there was any chance of rearing them, thev would doubtless become a benefit to the a ions have directed to some onl}' methodical plants, know n here From the Southern Agriculturist. OX THE PREPARATION OF VEGETABLE OILS. The production of the fixed vegetable nils, has in all climates been a source of wealth; and of course has attracted the science, industry, and capital of cultivators. The plants in us- are con- fined to no /.one. though growing in greater vari- ety ami abundance, in tropical or hot countries. W e. too, have indulged in speculating upon the agricultural value to us, of oil plants. These been generally discursive, or ndividual of the class. The investigation of oil-bearing or easily introduced, of which ive have ever been informed, was undertaken by the late .Mr. George Trescot, in whose education, the exact sciences preponderated so much, as to impress us with the belief, that his inquiries would be v aluable lor their order and precision, he hid, as we learnt, in conversation, made considerable 5 in his researches, but his untimely death, it i- presumed, left them imperfect. In the east, the plants cultivated fir this use, me mas ard, the fixed oil of which is as mild and bland, as the oil is notoriously acrid; lin- seed, familiarly known every where. Sesamum ami Palma Christi. This last has been sic cultivated in all pans 0f South Carolina, the oil commanding a higher price in the market than any imported. The mode of extraction was ge- nerallj by boiling. It has fallen into disuse, una- ble to ■ oni| etc u nh the profits of our cotton cul- ture, and perhaps, in some degree, from the diffi- cult} of the han est: the seeds ripen successively, and are shed by the plant as they mature, the loss in this way bears heavily upon the whole crop. It is cultivated like Indian corn, bat we are with- out any circumstantial estimate ol' the expense and profit of growing it. Many gentlemen resi- dent near Beaufort could supplv tins estimate, ami we hope to draw the attention of their agricultu- ral associations to it. The sun-flower seed is used in a limited degree in Europe, from the Spanish peninsula to Russia, ami its cultivation has been earnestly recommend- ed in the Coiled States, where, in some instances, it has produced 60 or 70 bushels to the acre, the bushel \ ields three quarts of cold and one of hot pressed oil. Notwithstanding the plausibility of this account, we know of its growth only to feed poultry, and especially turkeys, which thrive upon the leaves and seeds, and, perhaps, it is used quite as much for the pleasure of its flaunting flowers, as tor any profit which it brings. At Arras, and other places in France, extensive tracts are covered with poppies, which adorn hill and dale with their rich variety of bloom. These 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 295 are intended to produce seed only, and large mills are erecled to crush and press the oil irom the seed. When first pressed the oil is'colorless and insipid, and the avowed object is to adulterate with it, the more costly olive oil. The same cul- tivation prevails in Flanders. All plants producing oil exhaust the fertility of countries in which they are extensively grown, and in fact, they will grow thriftily only in the richest soils. At the mention of exhausting plants, the in jmory of every reader promptly re- calls the cotton, now about to derive Irom i;s seed a new recommendation. A mill tor preparing the cotton-seed oil, was erected at Petersburg, in Virginia, several years ago, by Follet & Smith, patentees of that part of the apparatus intended to hull the seed. This process was considered indispensable, and the owners of the patent-right set upon it so high a value, as to deter from the general adoption of it. A small establishment on their plan was made in North Carolina, and General D. R. Williams, of Society Hill, in South Carolina, is believed to have erected a mill after Mr. Smith's plans: we ehould be glad to hear the results from our friends in that quarter. In order to bring their mill into prominent notice, Messrs. Follet & Smith obtain- ed from our legislature an act of incorporation lor a Joint Stock Company, to hull cotton-seed and press oil, but the project has not excited attention, and seems likely to rest in the hands of the pa- tentees. Launcelot Johnson, of Georgia, invented an in- strument for hulling cotton-seed, which he de- scribes as a truncated cone, furnished with teeth, Avhich revolves in a tub adapted to its form, and also furnished with teeth; the two sets of teeth pass near each other and tear oti the hull, this is separated by a sieve and fan from the kernels, and the kernels are pressed. One thousand pounds of upland cotton will produce twenty-five bushels of seed; three bushels of seed produce one of ker- nels, and one of kernels produce two gallons of oil, or one and a half to two bushels of seed, will produce one gallon of oil. This contrivance has not been patented, but on the contrary, the most liberal offers of its use extended through the pub- lic prints, with the earnest recommendations of the Hon. Mr. Clayton of Georgia. It has the ap- pearance of a cheap, easily managed, but imper- fect engine, and other means supposed to be more efficacious have been adopted. Individuals in New York are known to use methods of expressing and purifying cotton-seed oil. And the Messrs. Freemans, of Philadelphia, extract the oil without hulling, and clarity it very perfectly; their methods are, we believe, secrets of trade. Messrs. Plummer & Miller erected in 1833, a very extensive mill at Natchez, moved by a pow- erful steam engine, and brought to this enterprise all that capital and organized labor can provide for its perfection, their mill has been in profitable operation ever since, and they have secured the most perfect means of purifying their oil. We learn from a traveller, that they have been joined by James H. Couper, Esq. of the Alatamaha, and to those associates, an act of incorporation was granted during the last year, for half a mil- lion capital, the establishment at Natchez, being rated at $T00,000 in stock. Steamboats ply up the Mississippi, and its tributaries for the collec- tion of seed, the rank fertility of the soil makes this of no value as manure; and it is obtained in part, at least, for the labor of its removal. Branch- es of tlte Natehes' mill, have been and will be extended through that country. Mr. John Couper, jun. of Georgia, is the pro- prietor o! a mill of considerable extent at JN'o'tile. His oil when purified by processes, lately intro- duced, sells there at 90 to 120 cents a galion. Cotton-seed oil is consumed, in painting; in this use, its character is that of an oil drying very slowly — more slowly than linseed-oil, and unless purified, darker in color; in burning, in this, it produces no effluvia and little smoke; in manufac- turing tvoollen clvihs, in this, its value seems yet uncertain, indeed, very doubtful. For machinery, where we should suspect it of too great a tenden- cy to become inspissated, though they say not; ! and in adulterating castor oil, for which it is re- | commended as a mild substitute. The meal or oil cake has great value in feeding j stock, even hogs partaking of it without injury, ; the removal of part of the oil, and perhaps, the i hull render it more digestible than before. Ne- groes employed about "the mills frequently mix it with their corn-meal as a savoury ingredient; and we have been assured by an eye witness, that it is a decided improvement. It does seem strange, that this state should be the most tardy in turning to account a very valua- ble product. At length, however, if we are not misinformed, one of our skilful and wealthy plan- ters, is about to embark in the business of pres- sing and purifying cotton-seed oil here at home. We solicit from our distant readers intelligence upon this subject. CONDUCTOR. From the Arcana of Science and Art, for 1835. AFFECTION AND VAST NUMBER OF FISHES. But affection is scarcely to be looked for where the offspring is so very numerous as to put all at- ! tempts at even recognising them out of the ques- I tion. How could the fondest mother love 100,000 j little ones at once? Yet this number is far ex- I ceeded by some of the matrons of the deep. Pe- | tit found 300,000 in a single carp; Leuwenhoeck, 9.000,000 in a single cod; Mr. Harmer found, in a sole, 100,000; in a tench, 300,000; in a mackerel, 500,030; and in a flounder. 1,357,000. M. Rous- seau disburdened a pike of 160,000, and a stur- geon of 1,567,000; .while from one of this latter class, some other person (whose name we do not immediately recollect,) got 1 19 pounds weight of eggs, which, at the rate of seven to a grain, would give a total amount of 7,653,200 eggs! If all these came to maturity, the world would be, in a short time, nothing but fish; means, however, am- ply sufficient to keep down this unwelcome supera- bundance, have been provided. Fish themselves, men, birds, other marine animals, to say nothing of the dispersions produced by storms and currents, the destruction consequent on their being thrown on the beech and left there to dry up, all combine to diminish this excessive supply over demand. Yet, on the other hand (so wonderfully are all the contrivances of nature harmonized and balanced,) 296 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 5 one of these apparent modes of destruction be- comes an actual means of extending the spe- cies. The eggs of the pike, the barbel, and many other fish, says M. Virey, are rendered indigesti- ble by an acrid oil which they contain, and in con- sequence of which they are. passed in the same condition as they were swallowed, the result of which is, tha: being taken in by ducks, grebes, or other water fowl, they are thus transported to situ- ations, cjch as inland lakes, which, otherwise, they could never have attained; and in this way only can we account for the fact, now well ascer- tained, that several lakes in the Alps, formed by the thawing of tbe glaciers, are now abundantly stocked with excellent fish. A METHOD FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CUT WORM. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Ben Lomond, Jlug. 3, 1835. It is doubtless a subject of interest to the farm- er to be informed on any subject relating to his ad- vantage; and as your periodical has for its object the improvement of agriculture in all its branches, I willingly contribute my quota, hoping that what I may say, may serve in a measure t^ aid that ob- ject. There was a field brought into cultivation this spring which had not been cultivated for several years. The crop planted was corn. The corn sprang up, and had begun to grow "pretty consid- erably," when on examination a few days alter, it was discovered that most of the corn was entirely destroyed by the cut worm. Corn was again planted, and still the same, case continued, until in that field the corn was (I may say) planted en- tirely three times. By accident, however, a small portion of the grass had been burnt — and on ex- amination it was observed that a very small por- tion of the crop required "re-planting" (as the farmers say.) from that cause, viz: cut worm. In this case the cut worm was destroyed, doubtless by the fire, as it was destructive to all parts of the field, except the part burnt. Then, if you should be troubled, or rather expect trouble from the cut worm, if you will burn the grass on your lands, I think I can safety guarantee to you, that the de- struction of the worm will be sure. If any of your readers are willing to profit from the experience oi^ others, let them when necessity requires, try the remedy, and effect the cure. F. B. W ATKINS. SCARLET TREFOIL. SPECULATIONS ON THE PECULIAR BENEFITS TO WHEAT OF A PRE- CEDING CROP OF CLOVER. [The following extract is from a late English pamphlet entitled Further observations on the cultiva- tion of Scarlet Trefoil, $c. The facts stated are in- teresting and important — and though the reasoning is far from satisfactory, it may furnish subject for thought and more successful deductions, on an important and mysterious breach of husbandry, viz. the growth of wheat after clover, and the peculiar benefits furnished by the latter as a preceding crop.] Now turn to the scarlet trefoil; — whether cut green for the horses or cut for stover, it may be clear from the land the first or second week in June; then the first time the plough goes into the earth it turns up like the finest garden mould, it is like ploughing an ash heap, or diving into a bar- rel of Hour. In the same field, one part of the land is all powder, with only one ploughing, be- fore the harrows have even touched it: and by or before the first of Augustit will be in a better state than the fa.low, where the fanner has been len- ding and tearing to pieces his implements of hus- bandry, and wearing his horses to skeletons. The beuefir will not end here, lor where the scarlet tre- foil has grown, the succession crops will be bet- ter than on the fallow; J have invariably seen it. It is impossible io know and contemplate these circumstances without being led into further re- flections upon them; in hinting at causes that may ■ tiiese effects, it is solely done to ask lor information, trusting that this pamphlet may stray into the hands of the scientific, as well as the ag- riculturist. When we consider the living wonders contained in a drop of water, which the microscope has lately brought to view, have we nut reason io suppose that a grain of earth may be equally teeming with anima! life; and when sheltered and protected from the sun's scorching rays by the scarlet trefoil, may they not have produced the effects I have men- tioned, and which absolutely hold up the boasted arts and labor of man to derision ? It is well known to every farmer, that when he has a field of clover, pari of which shall be a per- fect f'uli plant, and part without a leaf upon it, and thislast shall be keptfreefrom weedslhe wholesum- mer, the other part mown twice, and all the produce carried off the land and nothing returned, yet where this land has been thus robbed without rest or ma- nure, the farmer well knows that the following yeai this very land will produce him from seven to eight sacks of wheat per acre, and the part that has had perfect rest will not produce three.* Ask a larmerthe cause of this, and he will tell you because the earth has been exhausted by the sun: ask, ex- hausted of what? and after being posed for a time, he will say — moisture: the farmer may be right; I think exhausted of animal life. The farmer well knows if this land is broken up by the plough — the harrows and rolls set to work upon until it is reduced to powder, the moisture will be still fur- ther exhausted, yet it will be equally fertile with the other for his crops in due season. Have not agents, unseen, been doing this work beneath the shelter of the clover, which the farmer knows he must do with his ploughs and teams, to make his land productive? I could mention nu- merous other circumstances which appear to point the same way. * The first part of this sentence is either written or printed very incorrectly, but the intended meaning is easily gathered from the remainder of the passage. The author evidently designed to compare the results of wheat on clover lay (though after mowing,) which in this country is called "fallow," with the very differ- ent preparation for wheat called "fallow" in Eng- land.—Ed. Far. Reg. 1CJ35.] F A R M E E S ' R E G I S T E R . 297 There is a phenomenon frequently occurring in our fine autumnal days, which creates a moment of* pleasure and surprise to the traveller. In less than two hours after the plough has turned up the furrows of a field, it will be completely covered, as if a sheet of gauze or lawn had been cast over; this is known to be the work of countless millions of a small species of spider, which are never seen till the plough turns them up to the. light. We can- not believe that the Almighty Creator of the uni- verse can have formed these little artizans, solely that the mind of man may receive a moment's ;,'e from viewing their floating gossamer. The information I seek comes, as a question, into a small compass: To what extent, animal life exists in the earth, and how far vegetation depends upon it? From the Southern Agriculturist. the fig, (Flcus Carica.) A native of Caria, in Asia, whence its name; known in the warm climates of Europe and Asia; in ils wild state bearing iruit; perfect in the devei- opement of the parts of fructification, but without flavor; those in which the stamens are most con- spicuous are apt to fail before maturity, and are used to impregnate and accelerate the ripening of cultivated figs. The practice is said to prevail under the name of caprification, and has given rise to the controversies among travellers in the Levant. The only inaccuracy fairly chargeable upon those who assert the existence of the custom, is perhaps, an affected exactness in the details de- scribed: and some extravagance in the results at- tributed to it. The practice occupied more atten- tion than its importance would seem to have war- ranted, and has now become a mere matter of cu- riosity. Other modes of forcing the fruit to maturity are said to have consisted in punching the. fruit at the flower end, or inserting in that end a drop of oil. This use of oil has been made familiar to us by experiments at home; in our 4th volume, page 224, the use of olive oil or hog's lard in Florida, is described as ripening green and hard figs in seven or eight days, several weeks in anticipation of the regular period of maturity. At page 3SS, several members of our Horticultural Societj^ concur in stating that applied to the flower ends of fruit from 1 to 1^ inches in diameter, ripens them fourteen i days earlier; that oiling the whole fig was injurious; and that the use of oil to those less than one inch J in diameter, caused Ihem to fall off, without coming to maturity. At page 473, a drop of oil was ap° plied to the centre of the flower end of the fruit, in less than 24 hours the fruit begah to swell and ma- tured a fortnight earlier than those without oil. At page 534, there is reason to helieve that, the limit to a beneficial use of oil, is in anticipating by se- ven or eight days the usual time of ripening. The fruit touched at an earlier growth either fell off* or was insipid, olive oil or sunflower oil were found ef- fective, tallow and iard ineffective; the trial v tended to both black andlemon figs. Atpage5&2, its mode of operation is discussed, which seems to be by arresting the growth of the part touched, and giving to other portions of the fruit extraordinary stimulus. We delight in this fruit, and remind our friends Vol. Ill— 38 of the results recorded as an introduction to what we now propose. Although one or two doubtful cases have heen mentioned to us of the growth of seedling trees here, we think ourselves sale in saving, that no other mode of propagation is known to us, but by cuttings, layers, or suckers. Many varieties are cultivated here, and of each variety, there are great differences observable, in the quality of Iruit From individual trees. WTe pro- pose that every person possessed of a peculiarly fine tree, should take note of its production, and en- able us to record a description of the tree and its locality, with a view to the extension of its cul- ture. The storm of 1822 blew down a tree so large, thai it could not be replaced without cutting off' its branches; these were trimmed very short, and the icted, put forth a vigorous growth of wood. The next year the fruit was so much larger and richer in flavor, as to induce this resolution, of three trees, to cut one close each year, and thus secure a constant supply of fruit from young wood upon large stems; the suggestion is thrown out with the hope of provoking trials to be communi- d to us hereafter. The three following sorts are not. known to us, and if they exist here, we should be glad to hear of them. Large white. Genoa, fruit large, pale yellow without, red within. Brown Turkey, large, reddish brown. Clack Genoa fig, fruit purple, almost black, lar e at the flower end, becoming slender at the stalk, downy and colored like a rich plum. In the garden of Mrs. Wagner, St. Philip*s- sfreet, there, existed last year, a very fine tree, sus- pected to be a brown turkey fig, we hope to hear that it escaped the frost, and recommend it to our readers. Our people are not sensible of the value of this luxury, or of our peculiar advantages in its culti- vation. The following passage will enable them to compare the ease, with which we produce this salutary and abundant fruit, with the pains taking of French gardeners. "The inhabitants of Argenteuil,near Paris, de- rive their chief support from the culture of fig trees; near that town are immense fields covered with thes_e trees, on the sides of hills facing the south, and in other places sheltered from the north, and the, north-west winds. "In the autumn, the earth about the roots of these trees is stirred and dug; as soon as the frosts commence, the gardeners bend down the branch- es, and bury them under six inches of mould, which is sufficient to preserve them from being li'ozen. "The branches must be entirely stript of their leaves before this is done; the gardener then ta- king hold of the top of each branch, bends it down gradually, and with much care, to prevent its breaking, placing- his knee or hand under such parts as resists the most; the branches that will not bend low enough to be buried, are cut off close to the ground. A fig tree will remain buried in this manner seventy-five or eighty days without harm; when the season is mild, the gardeners uncover them, es- pecially in times of warm rains, but on the first symptoms of frost, they are again buried. Severe frosts sometimes reach them, but the branches 29S F A R MERS' REGISTER [No. 5. only are destroyed. The roots produce a new- crop in the summer; but these do not bear fruit iiil the next year , and are more tender arr' killed by frost during the next winter, than older and more woody branches. "In the spring, the trees are careful! and where a double bud is obs eners, who are able to distinguish a leaf-bud, which is more sharp, from a fruit-bud, which is rounder, pinch out the leaf-buds, without hurt- ing the fruit-buds; these, as they receive the sap prepared by the plant for two purposi duced fruit of double the ordinary size; this i at Paris between the first and tenth of June; bul these leaf-buds may be suffered to expand a till the}'' can be distinguished with cer must not ail be destroyed .at the sumo time, in cool seasons, the ripening of the fruit is hastened by inserting a drop of oil in the eye, from the point of a pen or tooth-pick. "It is necessary in dry seasons to water fig-trees; the nature of the plant requires to have its roots cool, while its head is exposed to the hottest sun. If planted against the south wall of a house near a spout that brings water from the roof, it thrives luxuriantly. Figs do well also in a paved court; the stones keep the ground under them moi cool, while the surrounding buildings reflect and increase the heat of the sun's raj a.-" From the Genesee Farmer. LATE MOWED HAY. The editor of the. Western Farmer h to our recommendation of mowi We hope he may be enabled here i make more accurati In oar youthful days, i* was the practice fo mow the natural grasses as soon as m came into bloom. The hay Was of a be: green; and all persons, as fir as we knew, thought it must of course, be the best. About twenty-five years ago, our attention was first turned to the subject. Farmers in this quarter, cut their grass at such times as were most convenient; that is to say, a part was generally cut before harvest; but the principal part, owing to the pressure of other business, was cut after the grain was secured; and the same motives of convenience induced us to adopt the same practice. We found however, by repeated observations, that our live stock, when- ever they had the liberty of choosing, rejected the green hay, and preferred that which had been well matured, although of a rusty appearance. Having clearly ascertained the fact we inquired of some of our most intelligent farmers who were also acquainted with the value of well ripened hay, what was the cause of this preference? and the purport of the answer we received, was as follows: "Grass cut before it is matured, contains little or no saccharine matter; the juices turn sour, like wine that is made of crude or watery grapes; and the sense of taste in chewing two stalks of two kinds can distinguish them at once — the one being much more sweet and pleasant, than the other." The notion that plants are always nutritious in proportion to their quantity of soluble matter, is er- roneous. The quality of that matter, is of more con- sequence. Sugar is supposed to be more nutritive than any other substance; and no plant has yet been discovered that produces it in such quantities a. GROVE. Prom the Farmer and Gardener. DIRECTIONS FOR SOWING THE SEED AND RAISES G THE PLANTS OF THE WHITE ITAL- IAN MULBERRY TB 1. To sow an ounce of seed, prepare a bed 50 feet long and 4 feet broad. Manure it well with a compost composed of | stable manure, J ashes, and.; decomposed leaves from the woods, or gar- den mould; dig deep, pulverize finely, and then !ayr the bed off in drills 12 inches apart, ^ or \ of an inch deep,; sow the seed as thick as you would onion or parsnips; cover with rich mould, press the mould down gently, but sufficiently to cause the seed to come into contact with the earth; and should the weather be dry, water the seedbed every o!her evening, it will assist in promoting the ger- mination of the seed and vigorous growth of the plant. 2. Keep the beds clean of weeds; and should they receive an occasional watering with suds or soot and water, say once a week after they are up, if planted this month, August, they will be fit to transplant into nursery rows in April next, or if not desirable to be so removed, they may be per- mitted to remain until the ensuing spring, care be- ing taken to keep the bed clean of weeds, the earth stirred, and watered in dry seasons. 3. The second year, if not. removed before, the plants must be removed info the nursery rows, which must be prepared as for any other crop. The ragged roots being taken off and the tap root shortened, the plants must be planted out 12 inch- es apart in rows three feet apart, the earth to be well trodden around the plant. As beibre, the earth must be kept open and tree from weeds. 4. At two years old, the plants may be planted out into hedges, at 18 inches apart in rows six feet wide. The ground should be prepared as before directed and some good rich mould put into the holes, to be pressedaround the plant. If intended to be planted out as standard trees, 20 feet square 310 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. apart would be good distance; but in that case the plants should not be transplanted until they are about an inch in diameter. In either case they will require trimming and topping, and if kept as hedges should be treated as other hedges are. ROBERT SINCLAIR, JR. From the Salem Landmark. PROFESSOR SILLIMAJi's SECOND LECTURE OK C iiOLOGY, ABRIDGED. Internal fire or Volcanoes. The lecturer said it was a tremendous thought, that the centre of the earth was a vast mass of li- quid boiling flame. But that it was so, was in the highest degree probable. He then glanced at the volcanic regions on the globe, beginning with Ice- land, which is wholly volcanic, Being the hottest and the coldest country in the world. He said it was well ascertained that Sweden was rising out of the water, at the rate of about four feet in a cen- tury;that is, the ocean is gradually receding from the shores of that country, as the water marks plainly indicate. This he supposed to be the expansion of that part of the crust of the earth, produced by the internal heat. In England there are no volcanoes, and no evi- dence that there ever was any. But in the city of Bath there are heated waters which are known to have existed in their present state for more than two thousand years. These waters can he heated only by internal fires. In France there is a series of extinct volcanoes along the borders of the Rhine. They are also to be found in Spain and in Portugal, in Italy and in the islands of the Mediterranean. A volcanic is- land emerged from this sea about four years ago. There is, therefore, reason to believe it reposes on a bed of fire. There is abundant evidence that volcanoes have been in Palestine; the last probably were those connected with the destruction of So- dom and Gomorrah. They are clearly traced around'the Caspian Sea, and in the centre of Asia. In the Azores, the existence of forty volcanoes is discoverable. So likewise they are found in the Madeira, the Canary, and the De Verde Islands, in Madagascar, Bourbon, along the Red Sea, in Su- matra, Java, Kamschalka, and on the north west coast of America. Mexico is a peculiar volcanic region, and so is the whole western side of South America. They have not existed on the eastern side. Sufficient relief has thus far been had on the western coast, but should these safety valves be obstructed for any length of time, very probabhy there would be volcanoes on the eastern coast. The Pacific Ocean to a very great extent stands upon a basis of fire. There are on the globe three hundred chimneys, through which the fire can es- cape from its prison in the centre of the earth. Volcanoes are very justly denominated safety- valves, the conservative principles of our globe. The invariable precursor of a volcano is an earthquake, generally attended with loud detona- tions. Chasms arc opened in the earth, and some- times cities are swallowed up. Changes in the at- mosphere are also visible. The seasons are irreg- ular; animals utter cries of alarm; dizziness of the head is experienced by men. The waters of the Ohio were affected by the earthquake at. Lisbon. In the eruption of a volca- no, rocks are dashed against each other, and either ground into powder, or broken into iragments. White smoke first emerges from the crater, then black, rising like the trunk of a tree. The most remarkable volcano on the globe is in the island of Hawaii, one of the Sandwich group. This has been visited and scientifically examined and described by the American Missionaries, to whom Mr. Silliman awarded high praise, not only for their christian zeal but for attainments in science and literature. Science as well as Chris- tianity is under obligation to them for their devo- tedness and enterprise. The cause of volcanoes is internal fire. That it exists, there is very satisfactory evidence. — There is a gradual increase of heat as we descend into the interior of the earth. At two miles below the surface, water will boil; at ten miles below, rocks become red hot. The frozen [or solid] crust of tho globe is supposed to be about forty miles thick. We cannot be perfectly secure against the effects of this fire. The crust of tin; earth is at any time liable to be broken. Our security and dependence are upon Him who made the world, who gave to matter all its laws, and who controls its wonderful movements. The. sun is a body of fire, occasionally exhibit- ing dark spots on its surface. Mr. Silliman sug- gested those spots might be produced by the for- mation of a freezing crust like this which covers our crlobe. If so, the time may come when the sun shall all be frozen over, and there shall be no more light or heat to cheer or warm this solar sys- tem. For the consolation of this audience, he said they would not be here when such an event should happen. For the Farmers' Register. ACCOUNT OF MARLING LABOltS, EXECUTED UNDER GREAT DISADVANTAGES. When any laborious or expensive improvement or process is referred to as worthy of imitation, and as promising profit to those who possess (and neglect) the means' for like operations, it is very common to hear it said in reply, and with an air of triumph, as if the reply was quite conclusive — "Oh! Mr. has plenty of money: that's the whole secret. Give me the like means, and /could do as great things." So far from this being true, there are very few farmers whose means arc scanty, and whofail altogether to improve their Iands,or their practice, who would not be found as deficient, if their wealth was increased to any extent. No one will deny the great advantage of capital, in fa- cilitating improvements: but still it. maybe assert- ed, that where there is no profitable improvement without surplus funds, there would be none with any amount of them whatever. The common re- mark quoted above, is applied as often as in any other way to marling; though numerous facts, as well as reason, are ready to contradict its truth. There are very few new improvements in agricul- ture that are made early use of by poor farmers — either from the slowness with which information reaches them, or because the eventual profit is not so certain as the expense. But with marling at least en the south side of James River, it has been remarkable that many poor farmers have engaged in it earlier than many of the rich, and (in propor- 1835.] F ARMERS' 11 E G I B T E R 311 tion to their respective means.) have performed much greater labors. It matters not how labo- rious an improvement ma}" be, il'its profits are suf- ficientiy sure and speedy — and that such are the returns from marling is sufficiently proved by the labors of such persons as are referred to — though unlortunately, for want of proper knowledge, much more than lor want of capital, their efforts have seldom been well directed, and have there- fore failed in reaching their full and proper share of reward. One of the most striking cases of this land is presented in the facts which it is the design of this paper to communicate. These are obtained from Edward A. Marks, Esq. of Eurley,Prince George, who at the request, of the writer, took pains to ob- tain, and to make written memoranda, ot all the facts which his own means of observation had not previously supplied — and whose close neighbor- hood, and business as a farmer engaged success- fully in like operations, gave him every facility to obtain correct information. The father of the individual whose labors will be stated, left at his death a tract of -very poor land, amounting to about 200 acres, which ac- cording to law, was divided in portions ol equal val ne, among his eleven children. The widow's third for life, was, as usual, laid oil' around the dwelling, and embraced nearly the whole of the cleared land. As is also most usual, the sbares to be given into the immediate possession of the leg- atees, were useless-to all of them: but more fortu- nate than most persons in the like situation, they were enabled to sell out their respective shares to one person, at a full price, but not without being compelled by law, to pay a lawyer's lee, and other legal expenses, to obtain a decree of the court for the sale. Such is the penalty which our law then imposed, and though moderated, still imposes on all who are required both by public and private interest to sell rather than retain small shares of land, unfit to support their owners. The eldest son, Mr. John Moore, bought in all the other shares, on a credit, and executed bonds lor $24 for each. The purchase included the right to the reversion of the- widow's dower, to be received after her death. Low as this price may appear, it was more than enough for the value of the land, considered with a view to cultivation, as both the cleared and the wood land were too poor to promise any clear pro- fit on the expense of cultivation, even supposing the clearing of the latter to cost nothing. This is however precisely the situation of many who till the poor ridge lands of this county, and who nei- ther improve, nor can expect to improve the small rate of return for their labors. The wood land in question, was well timbered — and this, more than the crops to be obtained by cultivation, was the re- source counted on by Mr. Moore, like all other proprietors of similar lands. But Petersburg was his principal market, and his slaves, shingles, laths, and other light timber, had to be drawn in his single-horse cart sixteen miles, and the usual price of a load would scarcely pay ordinary wages lor the actual time and labor employed in getting the timber, and conveying it to market. Still, un- remitting labor made him thrive on this miserable business: which is only to be accounted lor by considering that every hour which most others equally necessitous would have given to idleness, | or search of pleasure, he devoted to labor — and that small as the returns were, all of them were saved, and judiciously used. Some of his heavy timber could be sold as it stood — but this was rare, and he had neither the necessary money, (or the boldness to risk more debt,) to hire labor, &c, to go largely upon sawing building timber lor sale. "While engaged in this laborious course, grad- ually clearing and extending his cultivation, and as gradually paying his bonds, he first witnessed, on the lands of his neighbors, the effects of marl- ing, and became desirous of obtaining similar ben- efit. He had no marl on his land — and though his neighbors would ireely give the use of their beds, the distance remained a great obstacle. Not discouraged by this, as most richer men would have been, he began marling in the autumn of 1826. His whole force then consisted ol his two sons, one 12 and the other 10 years old, himsellj and one excellent horse. He never owned a slave. At a later time, and on some lew and spe- cial occasions, he also hired a man to assist his la- bor for short periods. During all this time, and until his death, Mr. Moore drove his cart to Pe- tersburg with a load of timber about once a week. Of course, his marling was only carried on at such times as could be spared from his ne- cessary labors ol* timber getting and selling, and of cultivation. In stating his lorce, it is but fair to add a part, which, though not of much use in out-door labors, has an important bearing on eve- ry man's means of living — and in no case was the benefit greater than this. Mr. Moore's wife and two daughters were patterns of industry, and no doubt greatly increased the gains of his honora- ble labor and economy. Mr. Marks does not pretend to state how much space wras marled in any one year — but from a view of, and familiar acquaintance with the whole body of land, he is sure that in the eight years, during which the labor was irregularly carried on, that the space covered was more than 75 acres. The distance was never less than 800 yards — and the greatest was 1900, by supposition. The marl used in 1826, was on the land of Josiah M. Jordan. The pit was very wet, and the labor greatly increased by the flow of water; and the marl had to be thrown up about six feet to the place where the cart could stand to be loaded. The marl was rich. In 1827, marl was obtained (and always after- wards) irom Mr. Marks' land, liurley, which had been postponed until then by the owner's being previously under age, and the scruples of his guardian as to giving permission. Since then, Mr. Marks has had as lull opportunity ol' being acquainted with his neighbor's marling, as with his own, both being from the same locality, and generally from the same pits. in 1827, the marl used by Mr. Moore, was dry, and of good strength, but hard to dig; and he had a steep hill to ascend, Kir want of a suitable road being cut. The rate aimed at was 350 bushels to the acre, audit was more often exceeded than fallen short of. In 1828, there was about three feet of over-ly- ing earth to remove, to get from below it a thick- ness of lour and a half feet of marl. No other change. In 1829, a one-ox cart was added to the hauling force— that carrying three and a half bushels ol 312 FARMERS' R E G I S T E R [No. 5- marl — the horse loads five bushels. The. covering th removed was more than five feet tin five and a half feet of marl was got out. In 1830 a good road oat o the '• and up the hill, had been made by Mr. Marks, suitable lor his own marling, and this Mr. Moore afterwards used instead of his previous steeper ascent. A pair of small oxen was now used instead of the single ox. in 1831, the work was changed to a pit of marl of interior quality, wet, and more difficull to dig. The quantity was increased to 400 bushels the acre. The youngest son this year was so much injured by a iali, as to remain an invalid as long as his father lived; and the little labor which he was able afterwards to perform, was not any thing like a compensation tor his support. On this ac- count,a white man was hired for about nine months of this year. In 1832, two single horse carts we lame youth driving one by riding. The wet pits were worked in dry weather, and when wet, the dry bank. The average cover ol earth five and a half feet, and the marl obtained about the same thickness. No change occurred in 1S33. In 1834, no marl- ing was don;-, as before the usual leisure time of the year had arrived, the death of Mr. Moore oc- curred. He was attacked by the newand fa ease of our country, cholera, when returning irom Petersburg, and would have died on the road, but for being found and carried by a friend, to I his last at home. lie had been toe,:: of his crop of wheat to mark:!, and the price which he brought bac to pay off the last of the bonds due for his laud, then almost doubled in amount by the accumulation of interest. A few years before his death he had purchased the lite interest of his father's widow, in her dow- er land (exclusive of the building.) For want oi means to keep the land fenced, it had previously been thrown out of cultivation, and had remained a common range for the cattle of the neighbor- hood, and yielded no profit whatever io the pos- sessor. This is one of the many eases in which land holders, and especially widows, (as life own- ers,) are robbed of the whole income which their land would yield, by the operation of the law of enclosures — which law, notwithstanding, is upheld in argument, and in practice, as peculiarly bene- ficial to the poor. '"The widow was glad to a three barrels of corn annua!!)', for more than fifty acres of cleared laud, which was yielding her no- thing. Mr. Moore had marled about fifteen acres of this after iiis purchase, and. had cultivated part of the land one year before he died. It would be a source of much gratification, if when thus recording the facts of so uncommon an amount oi' labor and expense having been incur- red by a very poor man to improve his land, it could be also stated that his labors were judicious- ly applied, and met with a proper share of reward. But this end was but imperfectly reached. The effects of marling seen on his neighbors' lands were sufficient to induce Mr. Moore to commence this great labor — and the effects which he d from his own applications were such as satisfied him on the score of profit, and caused him to per- severe with increasing energj to the last. But his land was ai first vilely poor— and even when doubled in product by marl, was still poor, lie had before (as is the common practice on such land,) taken a crop of corn from each of his two fields, every second year, and left the land to rest the intervening year. After marling, the land was immediately fit for wi,: at, and (being quite stiff,) even more lit for that crop than for corn. Tins ed him to take a crop of wheat in what was the year of rest, and thus there was a grain crop every year— and besides, the land was grazed bare between the wheat harvest, and the next winter's ploughing lor corn. He was warned by some of his neighbors, who had better means to. the theory of the operation of marl, that his course would prevent the manure giving half its , and would in lad. make it the means of destroying the little stock of natural productive- aich his land possessed. He was perhaps incredulous as to what was so opposed to his pre- vious opinions of other manure — and his scarcity of cleared land, and necessities, urged him to this improper, and indeed, destructive course — in which however, he did no worse than many others who have not the same excuse, of wauling land, money, or means of being informed. Under these ange that the land marl- ed shows but little of the ■ which 1 1 would have insured, and which iias been obtain i re. But however much this result istobe lamented, it in no manner impairs the value of the lesson by the labors of John Moore— which is, that extensive and valuable improvements by ; may be made by farmers who are placed ihtageous circumstances, as io want of capital and labor, and without any of ides which are commonly supposed indis- p [e to encourage and aid such undertakings. There was not only the absence of spare capital, space labor, and spare time — but the continued presence and pressure of pr and of debt. Above all — there was the want of information, and of any existing mode of general comm'u iion amongst tanners, which would have served .vn this man's meritorious efforts, and brought to him that applause and encouragement which he so well deserved, and the information and aid which he needed. His efforts were scarcely heard o!j except by Ins nearest neighbors — and except the gift of the marl, he had no aid of any kind. It was unfortunate for John Moore that this want of means for intercourse among farmers should then have existed: it is not lets so for the community, that lor the same reason, his worthy exertions should have been | ermit- tedjo be spent almost in vain. To make known such efforts, to direct, and to encourage them, would be among the most useful operations oi' ag- ricultural journals, and i J societies: and by such a course, they would promote the public in a far more important degree, than that of the particular individuals whoi nd ne- cessities would deserve their attention and aid. From the Ti n . ex MAKING meadow. In th trt of East Tennessee, (1 lowing course will be I most advai 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 313 cms mode of making a new meadow, where the land is not very foul. Let the land be cleared by grubbing it well, and taking oil' all the timber by the first of August, then rake up the leaves, chips, &c. and bum them; after which harrow the ground repe'atedly, until the weeds and grass are completely destroyed, and the soil on the surface well pulverised, then sow turnip seed and harrow it again, after which sow timothy seed thickly, and brush the land over with a light brush. The bottom will thus be smooth, the turnips and timo- thy will both do better than if the land had been ploughed, and ihe latter particularly, will be far better set, and endure much longer. By break- ing up the land, the roots, will be broken, and much labor rendered necessary to remove them, so as to prevent obstructions to the scythe, while the grass, instead of being benefited, will be greatly injured by the ploughing. Take care to sow the grass seed thick, sowing one-half the seed in lands in one direction, and the other half in lands crossing the first, so that the seed may be as evenly distributed as possible. By this means, the first crop of hay will be found to be as good and as clean, as any succeeding one. it is a very common, but a most injudicious practice, to break up the land with the plough, by which the grass is not only injured, but in spite of all the care which can be taken, snags, or pieces of the roots, will be left standing up, well calculated to break scythes and to obstruct the mowing. A false economy also, is too often resorted to, of sowing too little seed, depending on the ground to seed itself from the first crop: the consequence is, that the weeds spring up in such abundance, as to ren- der the first crop of grass of little or no val ue, and the land is moreover rendered so foul, that in a short time, it will be necessary to plough up the meadow, whereas, by a liberal application of seed in *rhe first instance, the first crop of hay would have been clean and valuable, and much of the filth smothered by the grass. This mode of seeding highland meadow here recommended, has been repeatedly tried by the editor with uniform success. Whether it would answer as well on the more sandy soil of the western part of East Tennessee, unless in favorable seasons, is doubt- fill; but if the turnips be dispensed with, and the timothy seed be sown late in the fall, or in the winter, he has no doubt it would prove equally' beneficial in those soils. If old land is to be con- verted into meadow, alter ploughing and well har- rowing the ground, the seed should be sown lib- erally as before stated, and the roller run over the land once or twice immediately after sowing, and again in the succeeding winter or spring, white the ground is tolerably dry. When the meadow begins to fail, let the seed become perfectly ripe before mowing, immediately after, harrow well with a large harrow, and if practicable, apply a dressing of manure. The meadow will thus be renovated, and again yield fine crops of clean hay. It must not however be forgotten, that timothy is an ex- hausting crop, and that therefore, to render a mea- dow of this grass permanently productive, it must be aided by occasional applications of manure. If the land be wet, a mixture of the seed of the herds grass or red top, will be very advantageous. If the land be very soft, or even miry, the herds grass alone should be sown, and it will form a Vol. Ill— 10 most valuable and durable meadow. We must caution our readers however, it' they wish to pre- serve good meadows, to avoid excessive grazing on them, and particularly, not to permit stock to run on them while the ground is soft. This de- structive practice so common amongst us, is more injurious to our meadows than all other causes combined. It is one of the many instances of false economy to be met with in our agricultural practices, by which pounds are sacrificed to save pence. A meadow should by no means be pas- tured in the winter or spring. From the Code of Agriculture of the 5th Edition, 1832. OX THE MEANS OF PREVENTING THE RAVA- GES of 1. slugs; 2. grubs; 3. the wire- worm; AND 4. THE WHEAT FLY, (OR TIPULA TRITICI,) ON OUR CROPS OF WHEAT. Among the various difficulties with which a farmer has to contend, in raising his crops, the ra- vages committed by a variety of the more diminu- tive tribes of animals, are much more important, and carried to a far greater extent, than is gener- ally apprehended. These vermin are of several sorts; but the principal are, 1. Slugs;— 2. Grubs, or large maggots;— 3. The wire-worm;— and 4. The wheat-fly. The three former devour the plant when young; the latter attack the ear when it is coming to maturity.* It is proposed to give a short account of the va- rious measures hitherto adopted, for preventing rhe injuries to which our crops of wheat are liable from these destructive animals, accompanied by any recent suggestions for that purpose. 1. Slugs. — These are properly "naked snails." They abound in spring, but only appear early in the morning, and late in the evening, more espe- cially when the weather is warm. In the day time, they destroy the roots, and in the night, the blades, and other parts of the young wheat which they find above ground. They deposite their eggs in ihe earth. Powdered salt, saltpetre, and quick- lime, are destructive to slugs; but lime-water is the most effectual, the least drop of it killing them. For that purpose, some diligent farmers collect by means of pea-haulm, under which they shelter themselves, and they are then destroyed by a wa- tering pot, by means of which, lime-water is sprinkled over them, when the haulm is removed. Sulphuric acid, even diluted, would probably an- swer the same purpose. Rolling the ground at night, or treading the surface with sheep, &c. are useful practices for the destruction of this species of vermin. 2. Grubs. — These are worms or maggots pro- duced from the eggs of beetles, which ultimately are Iran sformed into winged insects of the same species as their parent. They are likewise called "the rook worm," rooks being so fond of them. * Fields of wheat sometimes appear blighted early in the spring, by a small insect of the grub or caterpillar kind, lodged in the centre, or very heart of the stem, just above the root, but the plants afterwards recover, and shoot afresh. The insect is called the musca pu- milionis by Linnaeus, from its effects on rye, on which it chiefly feeds in Sweden, rendering the plants it attacks dwarfs. A.nnals of Agriculture*, vol. xvi. p. 170; Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. ii. p. 7<>. 314 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 5. They do great injury to the crops of grain, by un- derminding and feeding upon the roots of the plants. They are hardy in their egg state, and, when grubs, are invulnerable to the weather; but when passing from the aurelia state, rain and cold weather will destroy them. This maggot is so de- structive, that if every season were equally favor- able to its production, it would soon render'4the world a desert. Various remedies have been recommended for destroying them, in particular, sowing salt with the seed — strewing barley chaff on the surface, so as to entangle and destroy them — spreading quick- lime, or saltpetre over the field, before the plants get up — employing ducks to devour them — rolling the earth, more especially during the night, when the grubs are generally on the surface — and tread- ing the surface with sheep or pigs, and sometimes even with horses. 3. The JVire-worm. — This is a noxious animal, abounding both in old grass-lands, and in clover leys. It is very difficult to destroy them, as they are peculiarly tenacious of life. For five years, the wire-worm remains inhabiting the earth, till it changes its nature, and becomes a winged fly, (the Elator segetis of Linnaeus.*) Some recom- mend, as the surest and most effectual means to get rid of them in old grass lands, to pare and burn the surface. Others suggest the sow- ing of spring instead of winter wheat, on the idea that the culture, at that season of the year, would destroy them. A plan has recently been suggested by Mr. Radelifl'e, an intelligent clergy- man in Ireland, of paring the surface of old leys- accumulating it in great heaps in the fields, and planting the field, and even the heaps with potatoes. By this means, a valuable crop is raised — the de- struction of the wire-worm is insured — and an im- mense quantity of valuable earth, full of rich sub- stances, is obtained. Another effectual mode of destroying the wire-worm is to plough the clover stubble in July, as soon as the crop of hay is takeii off, or the land has been cut for soiling, and then to sow it with cole seed, on one furrow, to be eaten down by sheep. The treading of the sheep will effectually destroy the worm, and the wheat may be sown with safety in November. But the sim- plest mode of destroying wire- worms is to delay ploughing till December; for if the land is then ploughed, they would be exposed, in a torpid state, to the frost, and the inclemency of the sea- son. That the reader may be induced, to pay more attention to this branch of the inquiry, it may be proper to state, that according to the most accurate calculation that has hitherto been made on the sub- ject, no less a quantity than 60,000 acres of wheat in England alone, are annually, either greatly af- fected, or completely destroyed, by this noxious animal. t 4. The Wheat Fly. — But of all the injuries to which wheat is liable, perhaps there is none more to be dreaded, or which is likely to be more se- verely felt, than that which is occasioned by a species of the fly, whose depredations have been *See Trans, of the Linnaan Society, vol. ix. p. 160. f See Trans, of the Linnaean Society, vol. ix. p. 158. J ' felt in other countries, as France, and America, as well as Great Britain.* 1. France. — The depredations of insects in the district called the Angoumois in France, are well known. They began their ravages in one pecu- liar canton. They successively spread through the whole of that district, and afterwards penetra- ted into the neighboring provinces, particularly those which had any settled intercourse in corn with the Angoumois. Grains that have appeared quite perfect, have each contained one caterpillar. This is soon transformed into a butterfly, which becomes the stock of an innumerable line of cat- erpillars. It is thus that so deplorable a calamity spreads so quickly. But it requires a combination of several causes, (which fortunately does not hap- pen very frequently,) to favor the increase of these little animals, otherwise they would soon overrun any kingdom, and destroy the food of its inhabi- tants.t 2. America. — The celebrated Hessian fly in America, js another insect of the destructive ef- fects of insects. It got the name of The Hessian Fly, because it was supposed to have been brought over in the straw-beds and baggage of the Hessian troops employed in the American war, who were first landed, an. 1776, in Staten Island and the west, end of Long Island. It was there where the insect first made its appearance, and thence it spread into the southern district of New York, part of Connecticut, and Jersey. In the countries which it ravaged, the destructive powers of this insect are represented as in the highest degree alarming. In some districts, it is said to have so entirely cut oil' the produce, "that able farmers had not got at harvest a sufficient quantity of wheat for domestic uses, and, indeed, that they some- times failed to reap the amount of the seed they had sown. "J During the period that the Hessian fly was so celebrated for the mischief it occasioned, the government of this country, prevented the in- troduction of wheat from America. Such pre- cautions are not useless. The Egyptian bean has an insect in it of considerable magnitude, which completely devours the kernel of the bean be- fore it becomes visible. This species of bean has been raised in some parts of England, and the same insect is produced. Some means should be adopted, to prevent the dissemination of so pernicious a production, otherwise the public will sustain a very considerable injury, which, by wise precautions, may be prevented. Any risk of this mischief spreading might have been prevent- ed, had a public institution existed, to warn the farmer of his danger from its dissemination. In the years 1787 and 1788, the greater part of the southern provinces of America, were infested * A valuable paper on the wire-worm will be found in the Stockholm Transactions for the year 1777. t M. de Harnel du Monceau has written a work, entitled, "Histoire d'un Insecte qui devore les grains de l'Angournois, avec les moyens que l'on pent em- ployer pour le detruire." Paris, 1762, 514 pages in 12 mo. This work details the advantages of all the methods hitherto proposed, for preventing the ravages of weevils, moths, and every other species oi vermin that attack corn. \ See Malcolm's Survey of Surry, vol. ii. p. 25S, on the authority of Dr. Mitchell of America. . 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 815 with another insect, called there the "JFlying JVee- W(7," which, when full grown, is a minute moth, some- what resembling that which breeds in, and destroys woollen clothes. This insect is unfortunately well known in Europe as well as America. In fact it seems to be the same insect that is called "The Wheat Fly" in this country, and which has re- cently been so destructive in several districts. 3. Gredt Britain . — The mischief done by the wheat-fly in various parts of the kingdom, in the course of the year 1829, and the two preceding years, is frightful to contemplate. In one district in Scotland, (the Carse of Gowrie, in Perthshire,) the destruction it occasioned was estimated at little short of forty thousand pounds.* In many cases, the crop was not worth the cutting down; and in other instances a fourth, a third, or even a half of the produce was destroyed. The myriads of this vermin, and the facility with which they fly from one field to another, in search of the plants in which their eggs can be safely and efficaciously de- posited, seem to place their depredations beyond the powers of man to control; and hence it has been asserted, that the only means of avoiding the mischief is, either to give up the culture of wheat until the race is destroyed, by the want of the plants necessary for continuing the species, or by patiently waiting, until seasons destructive to them naturally occur. If Providence however, has cre- ated so destructive an insect, as the tipula tritici, or wheat-fly, it has been no less attentive, to pre- vent its becoming too numerous, by making it the food of other insects. Indeed, there are no less than three ichneumons^ who seem to be intrusted with the important office of restraining, within due limits, the numbers of this destructive species, otherwise it would become too numerous to be subdued. The most extraordinary circumstance is, that one species of these ichneumons lays an egg near the egg of the fly. They are hatched at the same time; and it is ascertained, that the mag- got from the egg of the ichneumon, either lays its egg in thejjody of the caterpillar, when it can get at it, or devours the maggot, and thus preserves the wheat from its attacks. J It is not here proposed, to enter into any phil- osophical discussion regarding the origin of the wheat-fly. It is sufficient to remark, that in the spring, and in the beginning of the summer, a spe- cies of fly is frequently found, in great numbers, which attaches itself to the heads of wheat, when the ear begins to appear, and where it deposites its eggs, which in about ten days after they are placed in the ears, become maggots or caterpillars. These destroy the young pickle, by sucking up the milky juice which swells the grain, and thus, depriving it of part, and in some cases perhaps the whole of its moisture, cause it to shrink up, and so to be- come, what in the western parts of England is called pungled.§ In about three weeks after, when * Mr. Gorrie, an eminent gardener in the Carse, cal- culates it at £36,000. f Trans, of the Linnaean Society, vol. v. p. 102, where they are described by Mr. Kerby. J See this interesting fact explained in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, published by the Highland So- ciety, No. 5, p. 301. § See Transactions of the Linnaean Seciety, vol. iii. p. 302, it has exhausted this substance, it drops upon the ground, where it shelters itself at the depth of about half an inch from the surface. There it re- mains in a dormant state, until the mean tempera- ture is about 50°, when, vivified by the warmth of spring, it becomes a fly, about the time that the wheat produces the ear. It is evident, that the same plan, that in our cli- mate has been found so effectual for destroying the wire-worm, would be equally destructive to the wheat-fly, namely, that of leaving the soil which has produced the wheat untouched till No- vember, and then exposing it to the inclemency of the weather, and in particular to the action of frost. The great difficulty attending this plan is, to de- vise an advantageous course of crops, consistent with the idea of putting ofi the ploughing of the wheat stubble till November or spring. In the celebrated four years' rotation, 1. Turnips, 2. Bar- ley, 3. Clover, 4. Wheat, the wheat stubble, as a preparation lor the turnip crop, might first be ploughed shallow, and then a deeper furrow taken, by which the fly would be buried,* scarifying and ploughing at the same time, and ploughing shal- low in spring. I scarcely think it possible, that the fly can be destroyed, if the wheat is succeeded by clover, unless, perhaps, by severe rolling and treading. f The minuteness of the caterpillar, which is no bigger than the ordinary roman letter C, will pre- serve it in a great measure from the effects of pres- sure. It is a great advantage attending any plan for the general destruction of this vermin, that the young embryos are in general deposited in the fields "where the wheat grew. "J Under a proper sys- tem, therefore, the race might in a great measure be extirpated in any particular district. It is abso- lutely necessary however, that there should be a general combination for that purpose. Nothing done in the field where the new wheat is sown, can be of any use, for the fly is produced in fields, not under wheat at the time, and flies about, until it finds a plant suitable for its purpose. In seasons, when the frost may not be supposed sufficiently violent, the desirable object may be ob- tained, by frequently stirring the ground, and by rolling and treading it, or burning stubble upon the surface, or by the use of hot-lime. Fumigations of tobacco or sulphur, made when the wind is la- vorablc, might also render the ear disagreeable to this insect. § If other means are ineffectual, surrounding the field of wheat with a belt of hemp, the smell of * This is a plan recommended by Mr. Gorrie in the Carse of Gowrie. f An instrument, at the same time, might be invent- ed, similar in principal to the machine used at bleach- fields for beating linen, which would probably destroy the maggots of the wheat-fly in the young clover by compression. J Mr. Sheriff has ascertained, that embryos are like- wise deposited in the triticum repens, or couch grass, which delights to grow in hedges, and other neglected situations; but these could easily be extirpated. § Transactions of the Linnaean Society, vol. v. p. 10.3. 316 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 5. which is so peculiarly noxious to insects, might be tried.* The smoke of burnt weeds, and in par- ticular of sea weeds, might also be of use. In the course of these inquiries, 1 have seen very strong assertions, made of the benefical ef- fects of elder, in protecting growing plants from the attack's of insects; in proof of which it is said, that when a whole district was infested with cock- chafers, and scarcely a green leaf was untouched, the elder alone remained uninjured. This plant is said, 1. To preserve cabbages from being injured by caterpillars; 2. To prevent blights and other effects on fruit and other trees; 3. To protect crops of wheat, from destructive insects; and, 4. To prevent the destruction of turnips, by the fly, if elder bushes are drawn, for that purpose, along turnip drills. It is recommended, to beat the cabbages with twigs of elder,*)rto make a strong infusion of el- der water, and sprinkle it over the plants with a watering pot. It has been remarked, that the greatest mischief is usually done to the late sown wheats, and that, such as are sown early, receive little or no injury. When the grain has arrived at a certain degree of hardness and consistency, (which may be the case, with the early sown wheats, before the insect has made any material progress, or even commenced its operations,) the plant is not so liable to be in- jured. Conclusion. It, is much to be lamented, that so important an object as the means of preventing the destruction of our most valuable crops of grain, should not have attracted the attention of government; by whose means, discoveries might be made, which can never be expected from private exertions. By public encouragement, the inquiry would be car- ried on with energy, and probed to the bottom; and the most effectual means of preventing the mis- chief; would probably be ascertained. What sub- ject can be compared to it in point of importance? At present, we are liable every year, not only to the loss of some millions worth of grain, but to all the mischiefs of scarcity, and even of famine. These would not probably be experienced in this country, were the ravages of insects, and the de- struction by the mildewf prevented; objects which are certainly in a great measure attainable, if the inquiries regarding them were prosecuted with vi- gor, and if no expense were spared in collecting facts, and ascertaining, by careful experiments, the means by which such frightful losses might be prevented. SEED OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. I send you by my friend , a few, of -a few, seeds of the celebrated "bread-fruit." In its na- tive climate, it continues in use for eight months, and so various are the messes made of it by the Otaheitans, that Capt. Cook was led to say of it, ''if in those parts where it is not spontaneously produced, a man plant but ten acres in his whole lite time, he will as completely fulfil his duty to his own, and to future generations, as the nature of our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter, and reaping in the summer's heat, as often as these seasons return, even if after he has procured bread for his present household, he would convert the surplus into money, and lay it up for his children." Not only does this fruit supply food, but. clothing, and numerous other conveniencies of life. It was for the purpose of transplanting the bread-fruit tree to the West In- dies, in a growing state, that his majesty's ship, the Bounty, was despatched in 17S7, to the South Seas, under command of Lieutenant, afterwards Admiral Bligh. I send you also a i'ew locks of long glossy and silk-like looking wool, from the skin of the famous Angora goat, sent to me from Constantinople, by the gallant and intellectual Porter — one of those rare spirits, who here and there rise aloft by their courage, enterprise, and talents, to illustrate their country, as do "cloud-capt towers" to embellish a city. For Ihe bread-fruit, should these seeds produce it, as they may in our southernmost region, the country will be indebted to Mr. N orris, a very younjj gentleman, who is much to be commended for his thoughtfulness in bringing them. For acts of less apparent national utility, some men have gained enviable immortality: for after all, what so deservedly confers immortality as the considera- tion of having added one more to the means of national subsistence and comfort. J. S. SKINNER. Baltimore, July 30, 1S35. * It may be proper here to mentiona curious fact re- corded in the Survey of the Hebrides. A cottager there, had his cabbages much injured by the caterpillar. He surrounded his little garden with hemp, and was no more molested by them, the smell of that plant being noxious to insects. The same idea exists in France, as appears from the following paragraph: "Quelques personnes out cru reconnaitre, qu'en semant du chan- vre sur toutcs les bordures d'un terrain, les chenilles n'ont point depasse cette barriere, quoiqu'elles infest- assent tout le voisinage." Code of Agriculture, 4th edit. p. 523, note. t The writer of this paper, from his zeal to promote the improvement of British Agriculture, was led per- sonally to examine the husbandry of the Netherlands. It is believed that the best disposition has been made of the few seeds which were enclosed in the forego- ing letter, by placing them in the care of two gentle- men of the South, to whom this journal and its read- ers are under many obligations. Our thanks for the gift, are due to our esteemed correspondent. He there found, that "The Rust" or mildew, which frequently occasions such devastation to the crops of wheat in England, was scarcely known. He prevailed on the Board of Agriculture, to offer premiums for the best accounts of Flemish husbandry; and regarding that point in particular, several valuable papers were sent over; but unfortunately, about the time they arrived; government had resolved to abolish the Board, and ac- tually sent all the papers belonging to that institution, (and these most valuable documents among the rest,) 1o the Tower of London, where they still remain, rare- lully locked up, as if information that might prevent the' miseries of scarcity or famine was unfit to be pro- mulgated, and should be carefully concealed from the public eye. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 317 From the Code of Jlgricultwre, of the 5th Edition, 1832. ON THE ROTATION OF CROPS ON THE ES- TATE OF HOLKHAM, BY FRANCIS BLAIKIE, ESQ. When an account is given, of the rotation of crops in any particular estate or district, it is proper, that the soil and situation should be described at the same time, so that the reader may be better enabled to judge of the propriety of the system. For instance, upon Mr. Coke's estate in West Norfolk, which is celebrated for its good husban- dry, the soil varies from light dry sand, to strong loam, retentive of wet. But the greater part of the land is a friable sandy ioam, naturally poor, but very productive, from being kept in a high state of cultivation. The subsoil of the whole district is calcareous, and is called clay, marl, or chalk, according to its texture. First Rotation. The best, or first class of this land, is cultivated, either upon/the four course shift, or upon the four and six courses alternately, as follows: The Four Course Shift. — 1. Turnips well ma- nured, and part of the crop eaten upon the ground, or turnips and mangle wurzel, (:'field beet,") in alternate ridges of four or more drills; the beet all drawn oil', and consumed in the yards — and tur- nips eaten upon the* ground; — 2. Barley; — 3. Red clover, mown once; — the second crop folded, and eaten off by sheep— a fresh piece being set out every day; — 4. Wheat. The Six Course Shift. — 1. Turnips well ma- nured and part eaten on the ground; — 2. Barley; — 3. White clover and mixed seeds, mown once; — 4. Pasture; — 5. Peas; — 6. -Wheat with ma- nure. Thus, in the ten years, the land received three dressings of manure, exclusive of the sheep- fold; and produced two crops of turnips, two of barley, two of wheat, one of peas, one of clover hay, one of mixed grass hay, and one year's pas- ture. The four or six course shifts, taken alter- nately, are preferable to a constant repetition of four course husbandry, and should be adopted, whenever a convenient opportunity occurs. To a person unacquainted with the manage- ment of light arable land, and the use of rape cake, it will appear,1 hat the three dressings of manure here mentioned, exclusive of the sheep-fold, are extra- ordinary high firming. But when the expense, and speedy application of the manure are pointed out, the wonder ceases. Thus, the average price of rape cake, including the expense of breaking; the same into a powdered state, has, in the last ten years, been about 5£ 10s. a ton, and that quantity is usually allowed to three acres of land; and suppose rape cake manure only is used, and three dressings given in ten years, the whole comes to eleven shillings per acre per annum. The expense of laying on the manure is a mere trifle. A common wagon carries enough for six acres at one load; and one man sows by hand, broadcast, three tons of rape dust in one day, with which he covers nine acres, and for which the usual pay is one shilling a ton or fourpence the acre. The Holk- ham horse machine, for sowing rape dust broad- cast, is more expensive than the hand process; but it spreads the manure, more regularly, and is more expeditious. It is particularly calculated for large farms. Second Rotation. Cropping for the second class of land. A Four and a Five alternate Course Shift. — The occupier uses his discretion in having any particular part ot* the larm in a four course, and other parts in a five course, so that, "on the whole, he has not, in any one year, more than four-ninth parts of the said arable lands, under crops of corn, grain, or pulse." The four crops on land of the second class, are, 1. Turnips well manured, and all or nearly all the crop eaten upon the ground; — 2. Barley; — 3. Red clover, mown once, the second crop sheep-folded, and if a weak crop, the stubble is mucked, or oil caked for the succeeding crop; — 4. Wheat. The Five Course. — 1. Turnips well manured, and all, or nearly all the crop eaten upon the ground: — 2. Barlej-; — 3. Mixed grasses, mown once; — 4. Pasture: — Wheat with manure. In the nine years, the land is manured three or four times, exclusive of the sljeep-lbld: and produces two crop of turnips, two of barley, two of wheat, one of clover hay, one of mixed grass hay, and one year's pasture. Two years crass' layers upon light land, are li- able to be stocked with wire-worms. Where that misfortune is apprehended, it is advisable to reece- balk the land in preparation for the wheat crop. The reece-balking, or rib-balking, is done soon after midsummer, and is perlbrmed by a common wheel plough with a broad-winged share. The land is only half broken; the turf or flag in the alternate rib, being skimmed off about two inches deep, and thrown flat on its back, the grass side down upon the unbroken ground. The effect of this practice is, that the wire- worms and grubs creep to the outsides of the ribs, and are eagerly picked up by the rooks. Those sagacious, useful birds, are generally in close attendance when wire- worms and other destructive insects are plentiful. Gamekeepers raise a hue and cry against rooks, pretending, that they destroy the eggs of pheas- ants and partridges. Those people are generally more attentive to the raising of rabbits, than they are to the preservation of birds; and the poor rooks are a convenient apology for the deficiency of game. When there are no rooks, the gamekeepers attach the blame to the cuckoo, to unfavorable weather, &c. &c. &c. There is no loss in pasturage, from reece-balk- ing two year's layers upon light land. The spring feed is eaten off" before the ground is broken, and the grass grows vigorously afterwards, from the sides of the furrows in the ribs, and produces more good sheep feed than if the turf had not been dis- turbed. In the autumn, the broken turf is har- rowed across the ribs, and drawn into the spaces from whence it was cut. The turf on the unbro- ken ground is also tendered, or half rotten by the time, from the broken turf having lain upon it, and thence excluding the air. The ground is then manured all over, generally with rape cake in cob- ble, and in the proportion of about a ton to three acres. The ground is immediately ploughed at the usual pitch, considerably deeper than the reece- balking, and the broken turf effectually covered. The wheat seed is thus drilled in at a proper sea- son. When wheat is sown on light land, upon two years' allafid, or layers unbroken, it is apt to suf- 318 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 5. fer in winter, not only from the depredations of wire-worms, but also from the frost heaving up the turf, and breaking the roots of the plants. Roll- ing and treading are good preventives. Third Rotation. The third class of land is thus cropped. The. Five Course. — 1. Turnips well manured, and all the crop eaten upon the ground by mixed stock; the treading of neat cattle, along with the sheep, in such cases, is greatly beneficial to very light land; — 2. Barley; — 3. Mixed grasses pas- tured;— 4. Pasture; — 5. Wheat highly manured, or oats without manure. Fourth Rotation. There is a fourth class of light land in West Norfolk, still inferior, which is occasionally culti- vated, and at other times used as sheep pasture and rabbit warrens. That land, when broken up, is usually pared and burned, and sown with rape lor the first crop;— 2. Rye or oats; — 3. Turnips well manured, and all the crop eaten upon the ground by mixed stock. Other food being given to the stock at the same time, in cribs and troughs placed on wheels, and frequently shifted upon the turnip ground; a most commendable practice, and peculiarly suitable for all poor light soils. 4. Bar- ley, well seeded with white clover, narrow-leaved ribgrass, and other permanent wrasses; — 5. Pas- tured, and so continued for a series of years, until the moss plants overcome the grasses; when the ground is again broken up, and undergoes a course of aration as before. In the description here given, of the various rotations of cropping and manuring, no mention has been made of the application of calcareous substances. On that subject, it is only necessary to observe, that an intelligent and attentive farmer, does not require a chemical analysis of the soil, to direct him when calcareous manures ought to be applied. Experience, founded on common sense, is his unerring guide; he knows, that the culti- vated soil requires a dressing of calcareous mat- ter, when he sees his crops become proportionably more productive of straw than of corn. When the straw, particularly that of barley, becomes soft and feeble, or, as it is called, "lazy," and bends down, and knuckles under the wreight of the ear — when the scythe in mowing, rather breaks than cuts it — also when the land shows an un- usual disposition to produce annual weeds, such as the corn marygold, &c. these are certain indi- cations, that the cultivated soil is deficient in a due proportion of lime. The subsoil dressing is usually laid upon wheat stubble, in preparation for turnips; also, upon two years' layers, in prepara- tion for wheat, and sometimes upon young clo- ver, immediately after the bailey is carried ofl, and the harvest is over. For the Farmers' Register. COMMERCIAL REPORT. The business of the present year has been very favorable to the interests of the farmers and plan- ters of Virginia, and indeed, of the Union gener- ally. The price of tobacco, which may be considered the great article of export from Virginia, has been higher than for several previous years; and al- though some decline has recently taken place, so small a portion of the crop remained in the hands of the planters, that their interests have suffered little by the reduction in price, while the large crop produced has added greatly to the aggregate sum obtained from this source. It appears that about 42,000 hhds. were inspect- ed in Virginia up to August 1st, being 6,500 hhds. more than the year's inspection to October 1st, 1834; but as the facilities of getting it to market have been greater this year, there may be less re- ceived during August and September, than in the corresponding months of last year. Besides this increase in Virginia, there were 10,000 hhds. more received at New. Orleans this, than last sea- son— say 34,200 against 24,200 to 1st of August, 1834. The price of the lowest quality, in the Richmond and Petersburg markets, has scarcely been under #6, during the last two months — and from this price up to $12, the great mass of sales have been made. At present the latter price is not exceed- ed, except for such as is peculiarly adapted to the use of certain manufacturers at home. The markets in Europe might, without any con- siderable decline in price, bear the large addition which they will receive to their diminished stocks, but that the prospects of the growing crop are so favorable as to excite some apprehension of an over-supply next year; and therefore a continu- ance of present prices during another season is very improbable. Something has been said of a change in the regulations of France concerning this article, and it is very desirable that it should be placed on the same footing as other articles of commerce, to be freely bouirht and sold, instead of the government reserving To itself the exclusive right to sell a se- gar, or a pinch of snuff. The liberation of the trade however, is not soon to be expected. It is ascertained with some approach to accura- cy, that the crop of cotton produced in the United States last year, was between 1,238,000 and 1,242,000 bales, an increase of about 35,000 bales on that of the year previous, although the crops of the Atlanlic States were very unproductive. About 980,000 bales have been shipped to Europe, and 200,000 consumed in this country. The price has not varied essentially during the last two months, varying from 17 to 19 cents. The cultivation of this article has produced a rapid increase in the wealth and population of the South- Western States, and an immense emigration to them con- tinues to proceed from the Carolinasand Virginia. The present year's crop, if not affected by early frosts, will be much larger than any previous one, and may prove that the growth can overtake the consumption. The price of wheat has disappointed the expec- tations of the farmers; for although the crop is short, and the quality generally good, the price is lower than last year. The millers have ceased their unprofitable competition, and the markets of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virgi- nia, are about on a par. Wheat may be quoted 1 1.15 to $1.25 cents. Among the recent importations at New York, are wheat from Ireland, and beans from Trieste — 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 319 the former paying a duty of 25 cents per bushel. Large shipments would have been made to this country had the price of wheat advanced to $1.50 per bushel. The crop in all the Atlantic States is generally estimated to be considerably less than an average product. Corn had reached a high price ($5.50 to $6 per barrel,) a tew weeks ago, but has declined to $3.75 to $4. The prospect of the growing crop is favorable beyond precedent, and there is no doubt that corn will be cheaper the ensuing sea- sat! than it has been for many years. The abun- dance of this article insures that of others of the first necessity. Money has been abundant — Stocks of every description command good prices. Loans for pur- poses of internal improvement are readily obtain- ed on favorable terms. Kail roads are extending in every state, save one, and hopes are entertained that this one (a southern neighbor,) will not long remain an exception. x. Aug. 22, 1835. EXTRACTS OF PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. ( Western Penn.) July 12, 1835. In this section of the country we are in the back ground. Our land is the best — the markets latterly very good — -the climate and water unsurpassed — but yet there does not exist that spirit of improve- ment, which is developing itself daily in other sections of the country. I attribute the torpidity to the almost entire absence of agricultural publi- cations among our farmers, and their total want of information on the science of agriculture. I have actually seen stables removed to get out of the road of the manure, and have seen farmers (professedly,) throwing the manure from the hog-pens into the streets. I will give you an anecdote illustrative of the spirit of improvement with which we are favored. A Quaker from the lower counties was visiting this section of Pennsylvania; and a far- mer wishing to show all the conveniencies of his plantation, directed the attention of the Quaker to an improved plan he had in execution for remov- ing manure from his stables; which was by a run of some magnitude, which he carried to his stable door, and which from the rapidity of the current, carried off the troublesome trash fast as it was thrown into it ! Do we not need a more general dissemination of information among the agricul- tural portion of our community? King William Co. Aug. 5, 1835. This year I have three acres in Guinea grass, which having been once cut for green food, the second crop is now securing for winter provender, believing from an experiment of last year, it will be found a profitable adjunct to our provisions. Two other cuttings may safely be calculated on. After much doubt whether the gama grass could be advantageously raised here, my conclu- sion is, that the greatest difficulty arises from ob- taining the first plants from seed; after that is ef- fected, other lands may speedily be covered with sets, to any extent, and with but little labor. Fauquier Springs, Aug. 20, 1835. I learned on my way up here, that the wheat I sent you along with the Turkey wheat, is simply called blue tvheat, and that it was brought from Ohio by a gentleman of Hanover. I I. pp. 276, 277, 367, of Vol. I.— and pp. 637, 710,717,'" Vol. II, and pp.65, 66, Essay on Calcareous Manures. |See extract from the report at page 117, Vol. III. Farm. Reg. mote locality, has recently been published. A tract of prairie land in the northwest part, of Penn- sylvania, lies on calcareous earth so pure as to be converted, by being burnt, to lime of the best qual- ity. This earth reaches to within a foot of the surface.* The next extracts present sufficient ground for considering the steppes and prairies as belonging to the same class. "In all parts of the river [Don] above Kasan- kaia, it seems to flow over a bed of chalk; anil its banks, gently swelling upwards from the water, rise like the South Downs of Sussex; often disclo- sing the chalk, of which they consist. Farther down, and near the water's edge low copses of wood almost always accompany its course; but they diminish as it draws nearer to Tscherchaskoy, the inhabitants of which town derive all their wood from the Volga. "As soon as we left Kasankaia, we entered the steppes in good earnest, with a view to traverse their whole extent to Tscherchaskoy. These are not cultivated; yet, bleak and desolate as their ap- pearance during winter must be, they have in summer the aspect of a wild continued meadow. The herbage rises as high as the knee, full of (lowers, and exhibiting a most interesting collec- tion of plants. No one collects or cuts this her- bage. The soil, though neglected, is very fine. We passed some oaks in the first part of our jour- ney, which had the largest leaves I ever saw." — Clark's Travels in Hussia, p. 189. "Leaving this encampment, we continued tra- versing the steppes in a southwesterly direction, and passed a very neat village belonging to a rich Greek, who, to our great surprise, had established a residence in the midst of these desolate plains. As we advanced, we perceived that wherever riv- ers intersect the steppes, there are villages, ancf plenty of inhabitants. A manuscript map at Tscherchaskoy confirmed the truth of this obser- vation. No maps have been hitherto published in Europe which give an accurate notion of the country. A stranger crossing the Cossack territo- ry, might suppose himself in a desert, and yet be in the midst of villages. The road, it is true, does not often disclose them; but frequently, when we were crossing a river, and believed ourselves in the midst of the most uninhabited country, winch might be compared to a boundless meadow, we be- held villages to the tight and left of us, concealed, by the depth of the banks of the river, below the level of the plain; not a single house or church of which would have been otherwise discerned." — p. 198. "From Acenovkaia, we continued our route over steppes apparently destitute of any habitation. Dromedaries were feeding, as if sole tenants of these wide pastures." — p. 199. Dr. Clarke, though traversing a vast extent of steppes, says very little more of them' than is pre- sented in the short quotations above. They give a clear though indirect indication of their chalky formation, and similarity to the downs of Sussex in England. Yet the author seems to have at- tached no importance to these facts, nor does he take any other notice, direct or indirect, of the na- ture, or chemical composition of the soil. Yet, in *See Farmers' Register, page 169, Vol. III. 323 F A RMERS' RE G I S T E R . [No. 6. addition to his scientific attainments as a chemist and mineralogist, his botanical knowledge, if pro- perly applied, would have thrown much light on this subject. I have no doubt but hereafter the character of soils, as to possessing calcareous mat- ter abundantly, or being destitute of that ingre- dient, will be determined with certainty by the presence or absence of many different plants. Dr. Clarke gives a catalogue of many of the plants ob- served in his journey, and of them a few are stated to have been found on the steppes. These are copied below,* that others who have some know- ledge of botany, may be able to state whether these plants are confined to calcareous soils or not. If the author had stated that sheep sorrel was a common growth of the steppes, I would at once admit, from that solitary fact, that the soil must be destitute of calcareous earth. In like manner, if the soil is highly calcareous, some of the. plants which he observed there, cr which may be found on the prairies, would afford as certain proof of that fact, as the presence of sorrel would of the reverse. These suggestions are thrown out for the consideration of investigators who have the knowledge and opportunities requisite to put them to use. It is a new field for botanists, which pro- mises a sure and valuable harvest. The next extracts which are from Toolte's View of the Russian Empire, will give more full infor- mation of the steppes. "Arable Land. — Under this head we musl « various tracts of land, especially, 1. Those that are kept in constant cultivation and tillage, such as are every where seen in Great and Little Russia, in the provinces bordering on the Baltic, and many others. 2. Such as are only used at times, and left quiet for a great length of time. In some regions, for instance, in Little Russia, about the Don,t &c. where they are looked upon as steppes, which if merely ploughed and then sown, would be productive; in others, for example, in Livonia, Ksthonia, and Ingria, where they are rendered fertile by fire, and are called by the countrymen bush-lands. \ On such parcels of ground, which are either allotted into particular possesions, or without a proper owner, villages might be gradu- *"Centaurea Frigida, northern knap weed — on the steppes." "Centaurea Radxata, rayed knap weed — on the steppes near Koslof. The sheep feed on it in win- ter, and it is supposed to give them that gray wool so much valued by the Tartars." "■Crocus Sativus, au- tumnal meadow-saffron — steppes near Achmetchet." "Geranium Sylvaticum, wood crane's bill — steppes." "Silene Quadrifida, tour-cleft catch-fly — steppes, near Perecop," "Sisymbrium Loesclii, Loesel's hedge-mus- tard— steppes near Perecop." "Statice Tngona, three- sided lavender — in the steppes, very frequent." " Vescia Pannonica, Pannonian vetch — steppes.; "Stipa Een- nafa — in all the steppes." Many other plants are na- med in different parts of the work, as found in the re- gion of steppes, but it is not certain that they were al- ways from such soil, and therefore are not added to this list. t The Don Kozak takes, in whatever part ol the steppe he chooses, a piece fit for cultivation, and, be- stows his labor upon it as long as he thinks proper or as long as its visible fertility will amply reward his la- bor. | See Hupel Liefl. and Esthl. vol. ii. ally erected. In uninhabited districts these tracts are most frequent. 3. Those that are proper lor agriculture, but lie totally unemployed: they wait only for industrious hands. There are still plenty of these vast tracts, where millions of men might find work and profit, especially in fruitful steppes, and in numberless large forests. "The fertility of all these tracts is very different according to the quality of the soil. In Livonia and JEsthonia, from good fields they reap 8, and in successful years from 10 to 12 ibid; from indif- ferent ground about only 3, but from better, at times 16 or even more than 20 fold. The harvests about the Don are commonly 10 fold; but towards Tomsk on the Tshumush, and in the whole region be- tween the Oby and the Tom, many fields afford an increase of 25 to 30 fold;* and at Krasnoyarsk the failure of a crop was never heard oii of winter corn they reap 8, of barley 12, and of oats 20 Icld.t . uln Little Russia, on the Don, and in many other places, the fields are never manured, only plough- ed once, just to turn up the earth, afterwards har- rowed, and then sown: more culture, especially dunging, would push the corn up too luxuriantly or parch it, and so hurt the harvest, as the soil is sufficiently fertile of itself: Of equal goodness is the ground in great part of Siberia: fin- example, on ili:' Samara., on the Ufa in the country of the :' irs; here and there in the Baraba,or the Bu- rabinian steppe; also on the Kama, whence a quantity of corn is sent to the northern comless dwelling- places on the Dvinaand Petshora. In like manner too in the government of Isetsk the soil gen- erally consists of a black earth to the depth of an ell, consequently is proper for tillage, for mea- dow-land, anil garden ground. On the Oby near Barnaul, "the black earth docs not indeed go very deep, hut the marly clay\ that lies under it, fer- tilizes it so much as to make it, in some places, yield plentiful harvests, without, manuring, for t wenty years successively.§ At Krasnoyarsk, the fields will bear no manure whatever, and yet con- tinue fruitful for 10 or 15 years, if only suffered to lie fidlow every third year. || When the fertility ceases, the boortakes a fresh piece from the steppe. On the Selenga, in the district of Selenghinsk, the fields are hilly, and yet will bear no manure, as it is found on repeated trials to spoil the corn. ''II Speaking of the meadow land, the same author says— "Some steppes produce the best meadow-grass for provender, and yield seed for making artificial meadows; such as the esparcelte the alpine hedysarium, clover, various kinds of artemisia, pulse, starflower plants,** and fine grasses that will bear any climate. * Pallas, vol. ii. p. 650 & seq. t Ibid. vol. iii. p. 6. \ A dark-gray earth, about a foot deep, beneath which runs a layer of clay, and is field in many places to be fine arable land. § Pallas, vol. ii. p. 611. || Ibid. vol. iii. p. 6. H Ibid. p. 1G8. ** Ibid vol. ii. p. 75. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 829 There was good reason to believe that other plants mentioned as growing on these lands, as clo- ver, vetches, &c. indicated a calcareous soil — but here is one mentioned, which alone is a positive and sufficient proof. JEsparcette, which is stated as one of the natural grasses of some of the steppes, is the French name of sainfoin — and the fact of its growth, alone,proves as well as any chemical anal- ysis could, that all the soils bearing it are highly calcareous. Sainibin not only delights in calca- reous soils, but it will scarcely live, and cannot thrive, on any other. It is a valuable grass on chalk soils in England, which would be almost barren under grain tillage; and it has never been raised in Virginia, and indeed will scarcely pro- duce a few feeble and scattering stalks on our best lands. The bald and least productive prairies of our western country would be the proper place for this grass. "All the meadows may be reduced to these four kinds: 1. Fine productive meads that have a good black, but somewhat moist soil: these yield the greatest crops, of hay; to them belong the luchten [overflowed land.] 2. Dry, whereof the soil is fit for agriculture, and at times is so employed; they commonly yield a short but very nutritious hay. 3. Watery and marshy; these do not produce the best, but give a, very serviceable hay in cases of scarcity in parching summers and dry places. 4. Fat steppes, where the grass in some parts grows to the height of a man: they are seldom mown." "Steppes. — This term does not properly denote low and watery places, or morasses, but dry, ele- vated, extensive, and for the most part uninhabited plains. Some of them being destitute of wood and water, are therefore uninhabitable; others have shrubs growing on them, and are watered by streams, at least have springs or wells, though they are void of inhabitants; yet in these, nomadic people wander about with their herds and flocks, and thus make them, if not their constant, yet their summer residence. In many of them are seen villages. Some occupy a very large space: thus it is calculated that the steppe between Sama- ra and the town of Uralsk* amounts in length to upwards of 700 versts; but, as every twenty or thirty versts we come to a lake or river, the Ural- kozaks traverse them when they fetch their meal from Samara. Probably hereafter several of these steppes, at least in some places, will be cultivated, if they wish to raise forests upon them. "In regard to the soil an extreme variety pre- vails, either being very fruitful and proper ibr ag- riculture or for meadow-land, or indiscriminately for both. Accordingly in the steppe about the Don, the Kozaks of those parts employ them- selves in agriculture, as Avell as in the breeding of cattle. Some of them furnish excellent pasture by their fine herbage, as the southern tract of the Isetskoi province, and the steppe of the middle horde of the Kirghistzi.f Or the soil is unfruitful: whether it be the sand, the salt, or the stone it contains that is the cause of it. Among these are to be reckoned the sandy steppe on the Irtish near Omsk; in general we find about the mountains up the Irtish pure arid steppes, and therefore no vil- * Formerly Yaik. Vol. Ill — 42 | Pallas, vol. ii. p. 75. lages. Also the Krasno-ufimskoi, between the rivers Belaia, Kama, and Tchussovaia, towards the Ural-chain, is mostly sandy; and that on the Argoun towards the borders of China, is of a still worse soil, consisting of rocky particles and flint. The whole of the steppe along the river Kushum, towards the town of Uralsk, is described by Prof. Pallas* as dry, poor, saline, and unfit for any kind of agriculture, for the breed of cattle, and even for permanent inhabitants; there is not even a solitary shrub to be seen, much less any wood. In gene- ral saline spots are not unfrequent in the steppes; and here and there we also meet with salt-lakes: however, such districts may invite to camel-pas- ture."—pp. 81, 83. "The steppes are frequently fired, either by the negligence of travellers, or on purpose by the herdsmen, in order to forward the crops of grassj or, it may be, out of* malice, as some years since the Kozaks of the Yaik did; when, having risen in rebellion, a small corps of Russian troops advancing against them, they saw themselves all at once al- most entirely surrounded by the high grass on fire. Such a catastrophe often occasions great mischief; ihe flames spread themselves far and wide, put the dwellings of the inhabitants in imminent danger, consume the corn on the ground, and even seize on the forests. Many prohibitions under severe penalties have accordingly been issued against this practice, but they seldom have any effect.! All the steppes may be considered as a sort of common land."— p. 84. "The steppe of the Don and the Volga com- prises the whole space between the Don, Ihe Vol- ga, and the Kuban, and is a large, very arid steppe, altogether destitute of wood and water; it has few inhabitants, and contains several salt- lakes and salt-plots." "Within the confines of this steppe lies what is called the Kuman steppe" — —"this, it is said, has all the appearance of a dried-up sea: it is a sandy, part clayey salt plain, without trees. Many circumstances render it pro- bable that it might really have been the sea bot- tom, as the flat shores of the Caspian and Azof Seas, the shallowness of their coasts, the low sit- uation of the steppe, the saline lakes, and the sea shells" &fc. — Hees'' Cyclopaedia. Of the extensive Kamyk steppe, it is said in the same work, that "the soil consists of sand, marie, and clay, often mixed with sea shells." The latter passages include under the general name of steppes, steril deserts of altogether a dif- ferent character. In like manner, some great tracts of naked sand in South America, are called pampas — and some of what are called prairiea west of the Arka'nsas territory, are of somewhat similar general character to those described above. These are mentioned here to avoid the appearance of omitting what might be considered as opposing my positions. But these regions are altogether different from the lands properly called prairies or steppes — and have no more connection with our subject than if they had been more properly called sandy, stony, or salt deserts. "Pampas, a province in South America in the * Travels, vol. iii. p. 525. | See Pallas, vol. h. p. 378. 330 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, consists of" vast plains, which extend from the sea coast on the east, to that great chain which forms the beginning of the Cordilleras of Chili, about 140 leagues west from the city of Buenos Ayres. Towards the south, they stretch about 100 leagues, to a chain proceeding "W.N. W. from the. Atlantic. The northern boundariefrare not distinctly known, but the name of Pampas is chiefly applied to the territory on the south of Buenos Ayres, Cordova, and Mendoza. These vast plains, like the steppes of Russia, having scarcely any elevation, the view, as at sea, is terminated by the horizon. They are only diversified with paths and ditches, which col- lect the rain waters, and which commonly end in lakes, as there is no declivity; yet there are wide tracts in which no water is found, nor is that ele- ment pure; and the trees are extremely rare, ex- cept a i'ew shrubs round the lakes. Hence this region is only inhabited by a few wandering sa- vages. The soil is generally a black earth of little depth, and is followed by a kind of coarse chalk, so that it is difficult to form icells, as the water can scarcely pass so tenacious a substance. The chief pasturage is clover, and in the best parts, some- times so strong as to resist the step of a horse: it is much liked by the cattle, which, when there js water, multiply prodigiously in the pampas." — Bees' Cyclopaedia. "On leaving Baenos Ayres, the first region is covered for 180 miles with clover and thistles; the second region (480 miles) produces long grass, without a weed; and the third reaching to the base of the Cordilleras, is a grove of low trees and shrubs, in which such beautilul order is ob- served, that one may gallop between them in eve- ry direction." "The climate ol the pampas is subject to great differences of temperature, though the gradual changes are very regular. The win- ter is as cold as an English November. The sum- mer is oppressively hot. But the whole pampas enjoy an atmosphere as beautiful and salubrious as the most healthy parts of Greece and Italy, without their malaria." — Malte Brun's Geog. "The whole plain [nearest] to the foot of the Cordillera, is a loose sandy soil, greatly impregna- ted with saline matter, which is inimical to vege- tation in the natural way. This immense tract is called the Traversia, or the Desert, resembling similar tracts in Africa. When assisted by irriga- tion, it is the most fertile soil imaginable.1'' — Malte Bran's Geog. vol. 3, p. 362, (note.) Am. Ed. A late traveller from Buenos Ayres to the An- des Temple, speaks thus of the first and second regions of pampas: "The country for leagues round is covered with thistles, which at this season are to be seen grow- ing to the prodigious height of eight, and, in some places, ten feet: cattle which go in amongst them to seek a shade from the sun, and to feed upon the grass beneath, are completely concealed. These thistles* form almost the only fuel for the few in- * At certain periods of the year, when the clover withers enormous thistles, ten or twelve feet high, sud- denly shoot up, hem in the roads and paths, and form a dense and impenetrable barrier. Mr. Head remarks: "The sudden growth of these plants is quite astonish- ing: and though it would be an unusual misfortune in habitants who are scattered over this vast wilder- ness: not a tree is to be seen, wiih ihe exception of a lew peach trees, which have been planied in the immediate neighborhood of the huts.* "We now bade adieu to the region of thistles, through which we travelled for upwards of one hundred miles, and which, on each side of the road, extended as Jar as t lie eye could reach. At this season of the year, in consequence of these gigantic weeds being parched by the sun, the country, at a distance, had the appearance of be- ing covered with ripe corn; but the scene was too monotonous to afford any agreeable impression. Madame de Slael, on her journey inio Russia, re- marks, [of ihe steppes] "ihere is so much space that every thing is lost — " "memc les chateaux, meme la population. On diroit qiron Iraverse un pays dont la nation vieni de s'en aller.''' Here, on ihe contrary, the traveller would say that he tra- verse's a country where Ihe nation is yet to come; for every thing exists as nature first formed it, un- improved, uncultivated; untouched." "Afterleavinir ihe region of I hisl les before men- tioned, we travelled for about 120 miles through a country of more agreeable aspect, though not a free as yet appeared to our view, ihe 'whole being one vast field of rich pasture. This is ihe true pampa of Soulh America, of which we have of late years read and heard so much in Europe. "Innumerable herds of cattle, the progeny, it is said, of six cows and a bull, imported rather more than two centuries ago liom Spain, range at large over this ever verdant surface of inexhaustible lux- uriance. I have been credibly informed, that their numbers at the presenl day bear no proportion to what they were belbre fbedevaslaiingbavocof t lie late civil war; still they appear 1o a European eye in countless multitudes, and leave ihe ivaveller no longer cause to wonder lliat such fine animals should, at one time, have been slaughtered in thou- sands, merely for their hides.'"' "This noble plain, entirely covered with pasture, extends many hundred miles into ihe regions of Patagonia, where it is yet unexplored. M. Hum- boldt calculated its area at 70,000 square leagues. "This area," he observes, "of the pampas of Tu- cuman, Buenos Ayres, and Patagonia, (they are all united) is consequently four times as large as the area of all France." "No lawn was ever laid down with greater pre- cision by the hand of man, than this vast intermi- nable plain has been by nature. Not a sione is to be seen on its surface." — Temple's Travels. "In the whole of this immense region, there is not a weed to be seen. The coarse grass is its sole produce, and in the summer, when it is high, it is beautiful to see the effect which Ihe wind has in passing over this wild expanse of waving grass: the shades between the brown and yellow are beau- tiful. The scene is placid beyond description: no habitation or human being is to be seen, unless oc- casionally the wild and picturesque outline of the Gaucho on the horizon, his scarlet poncho or cloak streaming horizontally behind him, his balls flying military history, yet it is really possible, that an inva- ding army, unacquainted with this country, might be imprisoned by these thistles, before they had time to escape from them.''' — Head's Notes. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 331 round his head, and as he bends forward towards his prey, his horse straining every nerve." — Head's Jiougk Nutes, 4"c. Nature of prairie soils, so far as ascertained by chemical tests. After I had ascertained the truth of the novel and strange fact that scarcely any soils in Virgin- ia, or of the other Atlantic slates, of which I had opportunity to examine specimens, contained any calcareous matter (carbonate of lime,*) it became a new subject of surprise to learn from articles which have been published in this journal (pp. 276 277, Vol. I.) that many of the prairie lands of Ala- bama were highly calcareous according to the ob- servations of those who judged merely from ap- pearances. Combining this fact with my own personal experience that old cleared lands, even slightly calcareous, were much more easily kept clear of young bushes, than naturally poor and acid soils — and with what I had read of the na- kedness of chalk downs in England — and the ge- neral difficulty of rearing trees in calcareous parts of Europe — all served to build up the opinion which I now aim to establish, that the abundance of calcareous earth in prairie soils was the princi- pal, and is a sufficient cause of the absence of trees. Still there had never been an analysis made of any such soil, to my knowledge, and there was no other kind of evidence (however slight) of such quality of any prairie soils, except of a part of Alabama: and reports of the constit- uent parts of soils, judged solely by the eye, or by the mere close neighborhood of calcareous rocks, I know from experience, deserved but little credit or respect. In 1834, I first obtained some such proofs from a few specimens of prairie and wood- land soils from Marengo county, Alabama, and one from Mississippi. The prairie soils were all calcareous, containing from 8 to 59 per cent, of carbonate of lime: and these were the first speci- mens of highly calcareous soils that I had ever examined, except from shelly spots on the banks of our tide- water rivers. The woodland soils, like ourhmestone andotherrich 7ie(rfra/soilsf contained no carbonate of lime. Since then, other specimens have been received and examined from various parts of Alabama — and also the reports of analy- ses of others, made by Dr. Cooper and Dr. Gibbes of South Carolina, have been received, and have been published in this journal. J Most of these soils are highly calcareous. But also some speci- mens of prairie soils contain not a particle t without injury, and the remedy, when prop'erly used, may be consid- ered "to be infallible.*31' ^-_ Having fi1^quentlytreeomn>ended this preventive against the.smut, niter mj^Having first discovered it in_the course of In the autumn of 1810, he sowed-thirty three acre^s of wheat, and in the spring of 1820, nine acrfeof Talavera and Cape wheat, prepared in the sn*rie manner. The result, at harvest was again, crops of grain entirely free from disease. In theyseed time of 1810, Mr. Hipkys induced a pai -iicular friend, whose soil and situation were per- fectly afferent, to make a trial of the sulphate, which'fhe did with the most satisfactory and de- cisive cesults. The particulars have been detailed by Mr. Hipkys, in the Farmer's Journal, at that gentleman's particular desire. Letters subscribed by hi#i, -have been transmitted to me; and though he declines having his name mentioned, there can be*ne,doubt, lliat the facts he states, may be con- fule'rTtly reliec m, and that the success of this plan of preventing smut, is placed beyond the possibili- ty of'' doubt. £he' nature of smut is now well known. It is a small and delicate microscopic plant which would "soon be destroyed by the variations of the atmos- phere, if wheat did not offer an asylum, whore it could propagate itself. While it is only attached •externally to the grain, and before its' seeds, or ,germs, have penetrated into the plant, itsgermina- applications. If nothing effectual is done for that purpose, the smut penetrates into the plant of the wheat, while it is still very young. There it pro- duces globules, which increase with the ear, and become perfect seeds when the wheat approaches to maturity. If however, the seed is forfeited 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 339 b;, a solution of copper, that substance not only de- stroys the germination of any smutty powder at- tached to the grain, but likewise prevents its being attacked, through the root, by any other parasiti- cal plant that may be found in the soil, and thus en- ables it to escape other accidents, or disorders to which wheat is liable.* The mode of using the blue vitriol, adopted by the gentleman whose name is not disclosed, was as follows: Into eight quarts of boiling water, he puts one pound of blue vitriol; and while it is quite hot, he mixes three bushels of wheat with five quarts of the liquid, and at the end of three hours adds the other three quarts; and the three bushels ' of wheat are suffered to remain three hours long- er, or six hours in all, in the liquid. The whole should be stirred three or four times, during the six hours, and the light grai is may be taken off. Then add a sufficient quantity of slaked lime, to make the wheat perfectly dry. It may remain in a heap for six hours; it may then be spread open, and used the next day, but not sooner. Though it is recommended to be spread six hours after it has been limed and put in a heap, yet there is no risk of its heating, and it may be kept longer than a day, without any risk of injury. Mr. Hipkys's mode of preparation is different. After dissolving five pounds of the sulphate in hot water, he then adds as much cold water as may be sufficient to cover three bushels of wheat; which is gradually passed through a riddle in older that all the light grains may swim on the surface, and be skimmed off. After being repeatedly stirred, and cleared of the light, grains, the wheat is suf- fered to remain in the liquid for live or six hours; but it has remained, in one or two instances, from twehe to twenty-four hours, without experiencing any bad effect. It is then taken out, and thrown upon the floor. If it is to be sown broad-cast, it should be crusted with lime in the usual way; but for drilling, it is stirred about until it becomes dry, which it generally does, in dry weather, in five or six hours. When the atmosphere, however, is moist, it will require double that space of time.f It may then be drilled, with as much facility as grain that had not undergone any operation. After the first two or three bags, of three bush- els each, have passed through this liquid, one pound of the sulphate should be added, for each succeeding bag, until from ten to twelve bags have been thus used; when a fresh quantity of the preparation should be made ready, in case the liquid should become foul or turbid. Either of these modes may be adopted with a certainty of success. This plan is surely superior, in point of cleanli- * Mr. Hipkys states, that he had a superior crop of wheat, which had been sulphated, and escaped being lodged, while the field of a neighbor, of equal quality, was beaten down, and mildewed. This he attrib- utes to the superior strength of the straw. He is not of opinion, tint the sulphate will prevent the mildew; all that can be expected from steeps is, that through their instrumentality, the plant may be thereby freed from a general aptitude to disease, and by being thus invigorated, it may be the better enabled to withstand those attacks, to which, in a less healthy state, it would be liable. t Passing it through a pair of fanners would soon dry it. ness at least, to some of the disgusting processes that are frequently recorrfmended for the same pur- pose, and is likewise attended by the following advantages: 1. The expense is trifling, as the price of the vitriol is not, in general, above from sixpence to eightpence or ninepence per pound; and after being used, in the manner above de- scribed, the water may be evaporated, and the re- mains of the sulphate will again crystallise. 2. It is a great advantage, that, with this preparation, liming is not necessary; as lime, more especially recently slaked, cannot always be had, and as the use of lime is so injurious to the drill machines, where brushes are used. 3. It is well known, that after wheat has been steeped in other modes, it has been lost by keeping; whereas, when pre- pared by the sulphate, it may remain unsown for any length of time without injury;* and, 4. The plant is thereby so strengthened, that it is less liable to be lodged, or to suffer from other disorders; and thou 'h it does not prevent the rust or mildew, yet for tua smut, when properly applied, it is an infal- lible antidote. In order to do justice to 1 he application, the grain should be perfectly dry, when the solution of cop- per is applied. The germination of the smut plant will then be effectually prevented, without injuring the vegetative powers of the wheat. It may be proper to add, that M. Prevost's dis- covery was, in a great measure, accidental; and that the utility of preparations from copper has long been known in Flanders. The method has also been successfully employed by Mr. Joseph Butler of Ivillamarsh in Derbyshire.! Mr. Brown- rigg in the county of Wicklow in Ireland, like- wise uses vitriol, and with success.J On this interesting subject, M. Desmazieres of Lisle, who has paid peculiar attention to the dis- eases of wheat, states in a recent communication to the author, that the Microscopic fungus which produces smut, (urcdo caries,) attacks only the grain, which is entirely filled with it, and the pow- der, which was spread only in a very small degree befb.re, remains in the grain when gathered and thrashed. Some means must be found, for de- stroying this contagious fungus, and this has been effectually brought about, by the various opera- tions commonly made use of. How comes it then, it may be asked, that a field, where seed has been well prepared, should sometimes yield smutty plants? To this question it may be answered, that the seeds of rottenness, like those of smut, may be more or less scattered over the surface of the earth, at the very moment that the crop is cut down. Hence it follows, if we wish to obtain a * It would be a good plan, for seedsmen to prepare the seed wheat before they send it to their customers. Sulphated seed has been kept uninjured, in small quantities, from the 2d of November to the 24th of December. t See Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 116. He mixed two pounds of blue vitriol, in as much chamber-ley, as would wet twelve bushels of wheat, and after soak- ing, dried the wheat in quicklime. % Report of the county of Wicklow, by the Rev. Thomas Radcliff, p. 256. Mr. Brownrigg dissolved only a quarter of a pound of Roman vitriol, in warm water, and mixed it with one barrel of sea-water, strengthened with a stone of salt. 340 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. pure harvest, that the earth itself ought to be pu- rified, and that the ground to be sown or planted, should be covered with lime, or watered with a so- lution of sulphate of copper, before or after tillage. DRILLED WHEAT — QUERIES. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. August 7, 1835. I received your last Register on the 5th of this month, by the way of Fredericksburg; and the communication from Prince George relative to the "blue stem wheat," reminded me that I had omit- ted in my late letter to mention, as I intended, an experiment which I also have made with the same kind, as I suppose mine to be, although in Louisa —whence it came, it is called "the blue straw." § Last fall one of my sons brought half a gallon of it from Louisa, in his saddle bags. Very late in October I drilled it in some land from which I had taken a crop of Irish potatoes. The vines had been buried nearly long enough to be partial- ly decayed, between the ridges in which the pota- toes had grown, and which had been manured with stable manure in the trenches. New ridges were thus formed between the old ones. These be- ing flattened by chopping with the hand-hoe,receiv- ed the wheat in trenches opened to the depth at which we usually sow garden peas, and the grain was covered by a garden-rake moved to and fro fansversely. The drillers were directed to drop the grains about two inches apart, as near as they could guess; but the operation was not accurately performed. The ground was hand-hoed three times, and the drills hand-weeded twice; but all the plants were more, or less injured by the fly, al- though no wheat had ever been cultivated nearer than two or three hundred yards of the spot since I could remember; and a still larger portion was destroyed by the frost, so destructive to wheat, iu every part of Virginia. Add to these disadvan- tages, there were five fruit (r^es of a medium size, growing among the wheat: still the half gallon produced 42 half gallons, weighing by the chon- drometer 61 lbs. to the Winchester bushel, of such grain as I send you to enable you to determine whether it is the same that your correspondent calls "blue stem." Among the grains shattered out, where the sheaves lay previous to passing through Douglass"' wheat machine, I found some grains of smut, although in the wheat sown I had not discovered any. I did not attempt 1o ascertain the number of square yards occupied by the drills, because they were unnecessarily as far apart (say two and a half feet,) as the potato ridges had been. That they might have been much closer, I infer from the fact, that upon each of three of the ridges I drilled three rows of wheat, which were, in every respect, equal to the single rows. The land upon which this wheat was drilled, was not particularly fertile; nor do I think it would have produced, in the best season, more than twelve or fifteen for one, sowed broad-cast. Some idea may therefore be formed of the advantage of drilling, so as to cultivate wheat, over the broad- cast mode of sowing. A single experiment, how- ever, will not prove much; but I give it to you for what it is worth. Under another cover, I send you two selected heads, one six and a half inches long, and the other six inches; the average length I should say, was about five inches; but whether this was ascribable to the particular variety of wheat, or to its being drilled and worked, 1 cannot tell, as 1 never saw any of it before. Since I wrote you cm account of my skinless oats, I have seen one of my brothers, who inform- ed me that he made five pints from fifty-seven grains planted in hie garden, twelve by six inches apart, and twice worked with the hoe. From these two facts, I entertain sanguine hopes that Ave shall find this variety of oat far preferable to any other which we have ever cultivated. JAMES M. GARNETT. P. S. I avail myself of the present occasion to propound a few queries which I will be much obliged, either to you, or to any of your subscri- bers, or readers, to answer. Is there any, and if any, what, difference be- tween the seed produced by the principal head of the carrot, parsnip, celery, and parsley, and the seed of ihe other seed-stems? Should any part of the tap-root of plants hav- ing such roots, be taken off before transplanting them? What garden plants, if any, will be injured if hoed before the dew is oil? There is a very prevalent opinion, which some ridicule as an idle superstition, that the seed of all root, crops should be sown during the de- crease of the moon, and that the seed of all other crops should be sown or planted on the increase. Have you, or any of your subscribers, or readers, ever made any experiments to ascertain how far this opinion is true or false, since, if true, it is a very important fact; and if false, had better be corrected by a detail of such experiments as prove it to be unfounded I j. hi. g. [The queries above,'it is hoped will be attended fo by some of those who are enabled to give practical in- formation on any of the several points.] From the Genesee Farmer. DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF FRUIT TREES. The fact that many valuable fruit trees, and sometimes even whole orchards, are destroyed by diseases and insects, shows the importance of at- tention to the subject. A concise account there- fore, of the various diseases and enemies to which fruit trees are liable, and the most efficient reme- dies which have yet been made known, may prove acceptable to young or inexpericned cultivators of fruit; especially as this information is now scatter- ed through a great number of horticultural works, which perhaps are accessible to a few only. We therefore propose to give brief descriptions of the most formidable and common of these evils, and their respective remedies. Apple. The hardiness and vigor of this tree is such, and its enemies comparatively so few in ihe wes- tern part of New York, that little difficulty lias been yet experienced in its successful cultivation. It has occasionally however, its evils to contend with. Among the most common are 1. Canker. tS3o.] FARMERS' REGISTER 341 2. The Borer. 3. The Caterpillar. 4. The Ame- rican Blight. 1. Canker is a disease ascribed to various causes. Some ai tribute it to poorness or wetness of the soil; others to the trees being exposed in a bleak situa- tion to frosts and cold winds; but the most proba- ble cause is external injuries sustained by apply- ing ladders in gathering the fruit, leaving dead branches remaining on the tree, and by injudicious pruning. Where trees thus receive large wounds, decay frequently commences in those parts, and gradually extends until the tree dies. Wherever therefore wounds have been made, whether by pruningor otherwise, they should be protected from the air and moisture by a thick coat of paint or of a mixture of tar and brick dust. Where canker has actually commenced, either in apple or other fruit trees, the only remedy is to cut away, (with a drawing knife or other suitable instrument,) all the affected parts, protecting the freshly cut surface with a coating of paint, wax, or other similar sub- stance. Canker is sometimes caused by pruning in the spring while the sap is in rapid circulation, as it then oozes out. upon the wound, causing it to turn black and producing decay in the branch. 2. The Borer is an insect which perforates the wood at or a little below the surface of the earth. They may be taken out by means of a slender bar- bed wire, which can be introduced into the hole for this purpose. Where the hole is too crooked for this, soap suds, or a strong decoction of tobacco, injected into it, will destroy them. Whatever mode is adopted to destroy them, the operation should be repeated several times during the sum- mer, in order completely to extirpate them. 3. The Caterpillar has heretofore been the most formidable enemy to the apple tree in west- ern New York. It first makes its ap.pearance in the spring, just as the leaf buds begin to open, when it is not the tenth of an inch long, and no larger than a cambric needle. It is then very ea- sily destroyed by means of a brush dipped in some caustic or poisonous solution, as of lime, soap, or tobacco. It is destroyed with less ease as it in- creases in size. When fully grown it is two inch- es long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. It then spins a cocoon and passes to the pupa state, and in the latter part of summer comes out a brown miller. It then deposites its eggs near the ends of the smaller branches, in the form of a band or broad ring round them, each ring of eggs contain- ing about five hundred. These may be cut off and destroyed at any time during the autumn or win- ter. Every ring of eggs thas destroyed, will pre- vent a nest of caterpillars the next season. 4. The American Blight, (so called,) is caused by the Aphis lamata, a small insect, so thickly co- vered with fine white hair as to appear enveloped in fine cotton; hence it is sometimes, and more ap- propriately, termed white blight. In England, apple trees have been greatly injured and some- times destroyed by it. The insect is described as furnished with a fine bristel-like beak, with which it pierces the bark and abstracts the nourishment from the cambium or newly formed sap wood. The sap wood being thus wounded rises up in ex- crescences over the whole surface — this limb grows sickly, the leaves turn yellow, and the branch perishes. Branch after branch is assailed in turn, until they all become leafless and the tree dies. The insect spreads from tree to tree, by being car- ried on the wind by means of its long cottony tun's of hair. It, is easily destroyed on young trees, and those older which have been recently attacked, by coating over with a painter's brush, the affect- ed parts, with a mixture consisting of equal parts, by weight, of rosin and fish oil, melted together and applied warm. This prevents the escape of the insects and stifles them. The operation should be performed early in the season, or as soon as the hoariness occasioned by the insects, appears on the branches. As this insect has as yet been in- troduced into this country in but small numbers, it becomes important to watch it closely, and destroy it now at the outset before it becomes extensively spread. The application of soft soap has been re- commended for its destruction when it first appears on trees from infected nurseries. The canker worm is perhaps the most destruc- tive insect to apple trees which has infested Ame- rican orchards, but it appears to have been hither- to confined to certain parts of the country only, particularly of New England. It ascends the trunks of the trees in the spring and in a short time destroys all the leaves of the tree, and thus even- tually causes its death. The most common meth- od is tarring daily the body of the tree, during the season of its activity, and thus preventing its passing up the tree. Quince. The most formidable, and perhaps nearly the only enemy to the quince, is the Borer, which at- tacks the tree in the same manner as that of the apple. The same remedy is to be applied. It is said that the borer ma}" be excluded by inclosing the lower part of the trunk in tan or unleached ashes during the spring months. Grafting the quince above ground on pear stocks, will also in a great measure save it from the attacks of the bo- rer, as the pear is rarely touched by it. Pear. The pear, in common with the apple and other trees, is liable to occasional attacks from the cater- pillar, and sometimes from a few other insects; but its great and peculiar malady is the Fire Blight. This first affects trees generally during the early part of summer, sometimes later, cau- sing the branches and leaves suddentyto turn black and die. It is attributed to a very small insect QScolytus pyri) which eats a small circular ring under the bark, round the branch, thus cutting off the upward flow of the sap. W here the insect has been discovered, it has been some inches be- low the affected part. The only remedy is to cut off the diseased branch immediately, at some dis- tance below, and commit it to the fire. This course when faithfully' and unremittingly pursued has been found entirely effectual in preventing the ra- vages of this formidable enemy of the pear. Some attribute the blight to other causes than the work of an insect, but all agree that the only effectual cure is to cut off and burn the limb. Plum. The principal enemy to the plum, as well as to all smooth stone fruit, is the Curculin. This is a small beetle or bug, about a quarter of an inch long, (its head and thorax resembling at first glance, a long beak, serving at once to distinguish it,) which punctures, and deposites its egg in the young fruit. A worm proceeds from this, which 342 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. feeds upon the fruit, and causes it prematurely to fall to (lie ground; when the worm passes immedi- ately into the. earth, and continues (as is supposed) in the pupa state during winter, and the next sea- son comes out in the perfect state to propagate its species by again puncturing the fruit. Now if, when the fruit (alls, it be destroyed immediately, before the worm escapes, (he. fruit of the succeed- ing year will be saved. This may be easily af- fected by suffering a number of swine to feed among the trees to devour all that fall. But where swine cannot be admitted, the best way is to jar down the insects during the time of la3'ing their eggs, by a stroke of the hand or of a mallet, when they may be caught in white sheets of cloth spread under the tree to receive them, and destroyed. Where this operation has been performed two or three times a day, it has soon cleared the tree of them. The plum tree is liable to a disease sometimes called canker; which is an excrescence upon the branches, at first green, and afterwards becoming Mack; the diseased branch soon dies and the whole tree gradually perishes. It is prevented by cutting off all the affected branches as soon as the disease appears, and burning them. By seasonable care, it may thus be prevented from doing further mis- chief with little trouble. A large number of plum trees in this state suf- fered greatly from some unknown cause, in the early part of the autumn of 1833. The leaves fell prematurely, in consequence of which the fruit was not perfected, and the trees themselves received a check from which many of them did not recover. A large number have since died; many however, perhaps the greater part, are now recovering, and some have resumed their former thriftiness. Peach. The peach is particularly subjcctto the attacks of of an insect called the Peach worm, mid to a dis- ease known by the name of the Yellows. 1. The Peach worm is produced from the eggs of a lepidopterous fly (j-Egeria perscice) which depositcs its eggs during summer in the bark of the tree near the roots. The worms which these produce, penetrate the bark to the external surface of the wood, and commence the work of destruc- tion sometime devouring the inner bark entirely round the tree, and speedily causing its death. It is rare however, except in very small trees, that death is produced, as the worm seldom eats com- pletely round; in which case the injury only retards its growth. Its presence is readily detected by the gum filled withexcrementitious matter, which oozes from the tree, near the surface of the ground. The best remedy is to remove the earth from round the foot of the tree, together with a small portion of the injured bark, when the worm will be exposed and may be readily destroyed. All the holes should be traced to their end, in order to to see that the tree is cleared of them, cutting the bark as little as possible so as not to injure the tree unnecessarily. 2. 7Vie Yellows. This disease is by far the most formidable evil which the peach has to en- counter. It is entirely peculiar to the peach and nectarine. Its cause is unknown. It is first in- dicated by the fruit ripening three or four weeks earlier than usual, generally with red specks and blotches upon it. This commonly takes place on a part of the tree only. The following season, a number of very small wiery shoots grow from the larger branches, the leaves become yellow, the whole tree assumes a sickly appearance, and eventually perishes. What renders this disease the more to be dreaded is its contagious nature. If not checked it commonly spreads through the orchard. The infection is supposed to be com- municated at the. time of flowering by the pollen or farina which is carried from tree to tree; the fruit thus receives the malady, which is quickly carried by the circulation of the sap through the branches and trunk-. The disease is also always communicated where a bud from an infected ace is inserted on a healthy one; and even by pruning a healthy tree with a knife which has been pre- viously used on a diseased one. After it has once attacked a tree, there is no remedy; it must inev- itably perish. Wherever therefore a tree is seen ripening its fruit prematurely, especially if that fruit be marked with red blotches unusual in it, it. is to be looked upon as a lost tree — no- thing can save it; and nothing can save adja- cent ones from becoming infected but by destroy- ing it before it blooms again. No peach tree should be planted on the same spot until several years of intermediate cultivation; perhaps it will be best in most cases to plant fruit trees of some other species, which are not attacked by this dis- ease, in places where such peach trees have stood. Nectarine. This fruit tree is subject to the same diseases as ■It, of which indeed it is considered as but a variety; and the same remedies apply to both. Its fruit is also subject to the attacks of the cur- culio, for an account of which, see the article on the j -.htm. Apricot. The principal enemies of this fruit, are 1. 77;e worm or JEgeria, which has been described in the account of the peach; and 2. The care alio, de- scribed in the account of the plum. Cherry. In western New York, the cherry has but few diseases or enemies, and those of little importance. Some varieties are attacked by an insect which causes large excrescences on the branches. When- ever these appear, they should be immediately cut off and committed to the fire. Perhaps the great- est enemy is the Cedar bird.* The only known way of repelling them is to thin their ranks by means of powder and shot, when they become suspicious and fearful, and less voracious in their depredations. Small trees of choice varieties may be protected from the birds by covering them with a large coarse net, made of bass matting or other material. * This is a small bird about the size of the blue bird, of a light brown color, readily distinguished by its crest: and is by its voracity very destructive to ripe cherries. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 343 CORRECTION OF MISTAKES RESPECTING THE GROWTH AND SITUATION OF THE "MOUN- TAIN LOCUST," or ROBINIA PSEUDAC ACIA. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. In your 12th No. Vol. II. of the Register, is an article on the "honey locust,1' (Gleditschia,) and "mountain locust," (Hobinia pseudacacia.^ Your correspondent II. 13. ('. saj s that the honey locust is a native of the alluvial portions of Virginia, and that the white or mountain locusl is a native of the Allegany Mountains, and that this is the common opinion of all writers on the botany of North America. I see you differ in opinion with your correspondent, and advance another which I would hope to be correct, viz: "that this tree, the white or mountain locust, is seldom seen growing naturally on any soils, except such as contain a notable proportion of calcareous earth or lime in some form." You further say that it would be impossible to find a locust growing naturally, a mile from James River: but on river banks, and in ravines, where shell marl or other calcareous matters have affected the soil, it grows so abun- dantly, and in places least touched by the labors of man, that it is scarcely possible it could have been introduced from a distant region. (Vol. II. p. 710.) Two questions growing out of the opin- ion of your correspondent H. B. C. and your own views, are worthy of investigation, and facts may establish the correct theory on the subject. Is the white locust indigenous to those portions of Maryland and Virginia bordering on the Ches- apeake or tide-water? And Does it when growing "naturally" indicate the existence of calcareous matter or lime in the soil, where, it grows vigorously and abundantly? My limited experience as an agriculturist, has already satisfied me so thoroughly of the value of calcareous matter in any distinct proportion to the soil, that I deem it important to establish any facts that may indicate or prove its existence: and if your proposition be entirely correct, this portion of Maryland has not been properly appreciated, and its agricultural resources are susceptible of much more profita*ble developement. This por- tion of the state (I mean St. Mary's, Charles, and the lower parts of Prince George's and Calvert counties,) exhibits an uneven and irregular sur- face of plains and swamps, hills and valleys, in- tersected and watered by numerous creeks, streams, and tributaries to the Potomac, the Wi- comico, and the Patuxent. The hills consist chiefly in diluvial deposites of clay, sand and gra- vel, varying in depth. The plains exhibit a simi- lar formation, and the valleys are covered by allu- vial deposites, being chiefly the decomposed vege- table matter washed from the adjacent highlands. Extensive beds of shells marl, strata of green sand, bine marl ami gypseous earth, are found on the banks of the Potomac; and in some places on the banks, and in ravines contiguous to its tributa- ry streams, marl is also found. The fossil depo- sites discovered, belong to the different tertiary ibr- mations distinguished by geologists into the eocene, miocene, and pliocene eras. There have also been discovered in digging wells ,7 depo- sites, containing bones and teeth of animals; but in no instance within my knowledge, have any researches in this section been prosecuted to the discovery of primary deposites, underlying the se- condary formation of organic remains. Neither am I aware that in those places where shell marl, or blue marl, green sand, or gypseous earth, has been discovered in greatest abundance, in Charles, St. Mary's, or Prince George's counties, that any indications of a fresh water tertiary have been manifested. As far as opinion has been express- ed on the subject by geologists, these calcareous deposites seem io be horizontal; and where disco- vered in other situations than on the immediate banks of the river, are covered by strata of sili- cious or argillaceous earth, of various depth — and when discovered in ravines, are covered by strata of sand or clay, containing in some cases, more or less decomposed vegetable matter. In such places on the banks of the rivers Poto- mac and Patuxent, also on the tributary streams, and in ravines where marl has been discovered, or other calcareous matter, the locust grows most vigorously, and no man who is acquainted with its growth in this section, can hesitate to believe that it is native and indigenous. It is to be found on cliffs and in ravines where the labor of man has never been directed, and in too great abun- dance to admit the belief that it could have been produced from seed scattered there by accident. But it grows equally abundantly and vigorous- ly in those parts of our county, where there does not appear to be any marl or calcareous matter, or fossil deposite. There arc few portions of this county, (Charles) where the- locust does not grow in great abundance, and with surprising rapidity. It does not thrive well on that kind of soil which we commonly denominate cold, stiff white oak land — nor does any thing grow well on such soils. They seem to be incapable of improvement to any great degree of fertility, defying alike the efforts of skill, the labors of industry, and the improve- ments of science. But on the brittle, friable lands, containing a mixture of silicious and argillaceous earth, even remote from watercourses, and where, there is no indication of calcareous matter existing in the soil, and on those too which are very unpro- ductive, the locust is found in great abundance, and when cut down is reproduced with surprising rapidity. It is indeed almost as common as oak or white, gum, and perhaps much more than wal- nut or hickory. I would consider it of great inte- rest to us to establish your position, that this tree, the white or mountain Iccust, (Jiobinia pseudaca- C(«,) "iieing ainiost never seen growing naturally on any soils except such as contain a notable pro- portion of calcareous earth, or lime, in some form." I am not disposed to controvert the opinion, being too much interested in the truth of the theory, and solicitous for its being established. My ignorance of botany, and limited knowledge of geology, for- bid my advancing views opposed to the opinions of men of science and observation. But the opin- ion expressed by you is certainly at variance with the general appearance of this county, and the character of our soil, as indicated by its agricultu- ral and natural products. The proposition that the white or mountain lo- cust grows naturally and vigorously upon soils containing a notable proportion of calcareous mat- ter, is no doubt true. But is the corollary or con- verse proposition equally true, that it does not "•row naturally upon any other soils? It is known to you thai recent geological examinations have, thrown much light on the tertiary formation of 344 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. this peninsula. Rich deposites of shell marl, green sand, gypseous earth, and fossil deposites are found underlying portions of the country 'be- tween the Potomac and the Patuxent, and the Patuxent and Chesapeake. Hay. But these depo- sites do not seem to underlie the whole country, or if they do, are in some parts too remote from the crust of the earth, for any indications to have been manifested, or appearances to be discovered. They are doubtless partial, running in veins, and are confined to the deep ravines adjacent to those tributary streams of the rivers which take their rise in the range of hills and highlands that di- vide the waters of the two rivers, and where the sources of the tributaries of each river are near to each other. But the locust is not, confined to those sections, and as flu* as my recollection now serves me, the locust is much more abundant in those portions of this county, where no calcareous matter has been discovered, and where appear- ances do not justify the belief that any can be found. On my farm, the locust is more common than any other growth, except pine, cedar, and oak. It is impracticable to extirpate it when it is desirable to do so, and on cutting it down for posts or stakes, it is reproduced from the sprout or root, of the same size, in ten or twelve years. No ap- pearance of calcareous matter has ever been dis- covered, and so far I have every reason to think that I am not within the range of any of the fos- sil deposites, or undulations, which pervade in places, and underlie this country. There arc strong reasons against the existence of calcareous matter in this soil, where the white locust grows so vigorously, and in such abun- dance. All agricultural writers, I believe, norec that phosphate of lime is an essential ingredient of wheat, and you remark in a note, page 129, July No. "that a quantity too small to cause much improvement in the soil, might serve to supply this essential food for wheat." If the soil con- tained calcareous matter in any notable proportion, it would yield the phosphate of lime requisite for this plant, and by the admixture and application of vegetable and other manures to the land, it would yield at least good crops of wheat. Yet wheat cannot be grown in this immediate section, to pay the farmer for the necessary labor attend- ing it. Every mode of preparation, with every variety of wheat, fails to yield more than from five to eight bushels to the acre. Some of my neighbors who are experienced farmers, and es- teemed judicious not only in the application of manures, and the great improvement of their lands, but in their whole agricultural arrange- ments and economy, assure me that on their best improved lands, they never obtain more than from six to ten bushels to the acre. What is wanting? Those lands produce tobacco, corn, oats and grass as well, and in as large quantities as the land in the marl regions of the country. But the prevailing opinion is, that they are not adapted to wheat. They certainly are adapted to locust. Do they not contain a sufficient quantity of calcareous matter to yield the necessary proportion of phosphate of lime lor wheat? If that is the case, what becomes of* the proposition, that locust is seldom seen growing in any soils that do not contain a notable proportion of calcareous matter? The foregoing views are given with no expec- tation of affording information, but with the hope of eliciting the opinions of those whose experience and research.es enable them to shed light on every question of science or physics, in which the inter- ests of agriculture are involved. J. G. C. Charles Co. Md. July, 1835. [The interesting facts stated by our correspondent, respecting the general and luxuriant growl]] of locust on soils of inferior quality, and apparently very defi- cient in calcareous earth, are in contradiction to all our experience. But they are entitled to the more at- tention on that account. With our imperfect lights, we have no idea of the cause of the remarkable differ- ence.] ON TIITC Cn.TIVATION OP MIXES CROPS. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Notwithstanding my practice of ''mixed crop- ping" has taken up so much of the columns of your valuable Register,* I feel disposed to add a i'ew remarks. And first, I am aware that my ro- tation will not meet the theory of your enlightened farmers, wdio contend for the most improving sys- tem. But it has been adopted by me on grounds that I feel disposed to believe ought to be always in view of the judicious planter. It has been adopted with an eye to the great, and now ex- tremely valuable staple of our section of the Union, which our interest calls upon us to secure — the consumption of the country — a rotation sys- tem— and as far as I could, with these objects in view, the increasing fertility of tire soil. The corn crop, as in other parts of our country, is with us, truly important. To have then a* full crop is the object with me — and I give it the first. agency of the manure, but also because, in my rotation, it is the only one that, agreeable to my experience, as also that of many excellent planters, most decidedly feeds kindly on long, or but par- tially decomposed manure. The best evidence I can require is, the production. That evidence I get annually. I acknowledge that my manuring is uniformly a heavy one. It. is immediately ploughed under, and is never fairly brought to the surface, during the cultivation of the corn crop. In fifteen years practice I have never had one crop injured, or burnt by the manure alone — and some dry seasons have passed over me. Whether your readers have noticed it or not, I have can- didly given the manner of laying on the manure, to which, I believe, I stand indebted for a perfect guarantee against the usual fatal consequences of manuring beino- followed by a dry season. It will be seen that I throw into the soil along with the animal excrement, (and even that given in the form of a compost manure, embracing a mixture of every fertilizing production of the farm,) a great quantity of vegetable matter, in its green state, and swamp mud. The addition of lime, applied in the northern manner, I deem a farther security against the effects of drought; as also another source, of fertility. The manner in which I apply the swamp mud, requires some explanation. It is partly the pro- *Page G3i,Vol. II. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 345 duction of a view to economy in labor, but also a belief that the agency of the mud is brought suf- ficiently soon into action for the benefit of the plant, by its combination with the manure in the earth; and on this ground I make the one ato\ ing of the mud suffice. Of its- superior value when combined with manure and lime, repeated and carefully conducted experiments have satisfied me. Here 1 must apologize for saying, that twen- ty years of my life I have been, as opportunity of- fered, endeavoring to settle for my own benefit and satisfaction, what I believe is at this moment, the point least understood in the whole ran;;;' ol agricultural pursuit, viz: the most judicious lbr- mation of manure, and the mode most efficient ol applying it. I am aware of the mass of talent, practical and theoretical, that has been applied to this subject. About the time before mentioned, the "food of plants,"' agitated the agriculturalists of England, and the United States, i read Ingen- house, Young, Kirwan and Davy, Peters and others, until I found that I knew nothing about the sub- ject, but that it was necessary lor my limited in- tellect to pursue it by actual experiment, making the best use I could of the mass of contradictory theory that I had gathered. The foregoing detail of my method of forming and applying manure, or other fertilizing matter, will give a practical view of the theory I settled down upon, while the ears of corn, and "the weight of the grain, have left me satisfied, so far, with the practical application of my adopted theory-. If I can effect it, I will certainly forward you a speci- men of the cars of corn I produce — the corn plan- ted five feet by four, and four stalks left in the hill — with the accompaniments mentioned in my de- tail of the corn crop. A specimen of such rice as I make on high dry upland, with the corn, was forwarded by mail. I have said that corn, above all grain crops, ac- cepts ol long, or but very partially decomposed manure, and feeds well on it. Cotton, the next in my rotation, will not do so — but the next year, (af- ter the manure is put into the soil, and undergoes the incorporation with the soil that is produced by the cultivation of a crop, and the other effects that follow that incorporation and cultivation, )this plant, with us, is found to do remarkably well, producing a heavy crop — and so with the rye and oats. The mode of cultivating the corn crop, as detailed by me, admitting and remunerating me well ibr a garden cultivation, completely prepares the ground for an easy and successful cultivation of the cotton plant. A moment's reflection will compel the ac- knowledgement that the ground has all the requi- sites for the successful cultivation of the last — the ground well filled with fertilizing matter — that matter in the state which experience has proved to be the happiest" for the production of cotton — grass and weeds rooted out by the previous cul- tivation— and the very seeds of them in a great measure destroyed — the land loose and mellow, and a good deep coultering, or stirring with along Scooter plough previous to planting the cotton, by the operation of which, the soil is prepared for a p\0kit that projects its main root deeply into the earth. Rye, the rohite, a most valuable species, does admirably after the cotton. It is sown in Decem- ber or January, generally the last, and if the cot- ton stalks are not pulled up and deposited in the Vol. Ill— 41 dungstcad, to undergo the action of the feet of cattle, and become saturated by the liquid part of the manure, (the last much preferred,) they are beaten down with sticks, the operator striking in such a manner as to produce the best effect, in re- ducing them to small pieces, and which last oper- ation, prevents them from being in the way of the cradle. In turning in the stubble, the broken cot- ton stalks, with other offal of the cotton plant, go into the earth, to help out the peas, sown previous to turning under the stubble, or harrowed in after- wards. The admirable preparation which a cotton crop is found to be for corn, is I believe, generally known — but I have found it not less a valuable preparation ibr small grain, and a pea crop. The oats crop, the next, and last in the rotation, I know, is "not agreeable to Iloyle," and I am persuaded, I will be told, "they order things better m Fiance" — and the only apology I can offer is, that the state of things makes it. necessary, and that we possess a most superior climate lor the c tltivation of that grain, and of the "Egyptian o it," make admirable crops — the stubble of which turned in on the pea, again produces an equally lesirable crop of that valuable plant. Where other more important objects prevent saving the pea croj), as before stated,* by pulling up the vines, and curing vines and peas together, a profitable plan has been formed in feeding oft' the peas with hogs, and turning in the mass of vines early in the spring, and which four turnings in, viz: the stubble of the rye, and the following pea vines, and the oats stubble, and its following pea vines, will be acknowled to be, as it has been found a tapid fertilizer of the soil. The cultivation of the black, and red tory pea, suits this last course well, those peas not being affected by wet spells of weather. In my rotation it will be seen that one manuring is relied on to secure that rotation — while I rely equally on the mode of cultivation, for the duration of the benefits of that manuring — and further, that the rotation observed, is a ma- nure-making one. In the choice of plants to accompany the corn crop, gross feeders are selected, and rice is chosen as one, not only because it grows well in this way, appears not to affect the corn in any unfriendly manner — feeds well on any thing that corn receives benefit from— but also because it is one of the most valuable grains that the eaith produces, whether we consider the value of the grain, or fo- rage it yields. It adds singularly, if well mana- ged, to our comfort, and I discover that my cow, or horse, or mule, or ox, appears to enjoy well saved rice straw, as much as I do well saved rice pudding, or bread. The pea feeds kindly on ma- nure in any stage that corn will. The sweet po- tato is not choice of food. From repeated trials, it may be raised well in the very hill with Indian corn, without, apparently, affecting the corn crop, especially when the "gold dust" is well applied — particularly the bunch and red potato. The pin- dar or peanut, has loner been raised with us in the bill of corn. Thai it produces any bad effects on the corn has not yet been even suspected. The removal of the corn, as before stated, gives to the last mentioned three items especially, a full op- portunity of exerting their productive powers. *See Farm. Reg. p. 92, Vol. III. 346 F A R M E It S * REGIST E R . [No. 6. Generally I am able to remove my com crop, du- ring the Jast week in July. [ have set oul vines at the same time, ami made excellenl sweet po- tatoes. When the corn is removed, ever) article left has a distance of* five feet apart :". its rows. Admit the theory oi dii the earth different inti from reason and analogy, no coll together could, apparently, i ' diet. The flic) , lion of the supported i.\ a m course, and good . . ition. The next year 1 my i four, and lour stalk ; in the 1 of rice, twelve iridic six feet — (I. oppii bunch kind, between l he no rice is planted, I shall drill two i bunch pea, on the last plow hit give them a working alter its r< in wal. pea bears profusely, a large white pea, with n black eye, a long pod, and almos it furnishes when pulied up and cu duction in forage, of si off in good time for the rata b; English turnip. I will conclude by r . without the anticipate ting laud will alarm ine :. trong pii u tl ci |iience is net uncommon, - i '.' . things, out of the beati When Oliver Evans first announced his belief dial in a few years wagons would be propelled h\ he was deemed a visionary lunatic, by many who laid strong claims to superior mechanical to and profound knowledge of chemical science. IJut Oliver's wagons are now going, and successfully. In the course of human affairs, it appears that all men who pursue any object with a zeal propor- tioned to its importance, and who are fortunate enough to succeed in producing valuable improve- ments, have a tax to pay to certain minds — and for my part, when this tax amounts to no more than incurring a portion of doubt, or provoking a few sneers, I pay it cheerfully, reconciling myself to the circumstance, with "nous cvrrmis." A GUI CO I. A. Alabama, July 1, 1835. ON SECURING THE CORN CROP, AND THE VALUE OF ITS OFFAL. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. The value of the corn crop, no citizens of the United States know better, or are more willing to acknowledge, than those of Virginia. Ffthey are sincere in this acknowledgement, it will be unne- cessary to use many words to prove the propriety and good sense of endeavoring to find out the most economical and judicious mode of saving, not only the grain, but. benefiting themselves by the offal, or forage it affords. While it gives a great mass of food of the "/-»//'" kind, it cer- tainly aids astonishingly in the production of ma- nure. But these are not all the advantages that the cultivation of this grain claims. If it can be removed off the ground in time tor other crops to succeed in the same piece of ground, and in the same year, it is no small addition to its claims on the agriculturist. If the forage part of the corn crop can be saved with less labor, and more of the e principles secured in every part of it, then in ought to be adopted. Thai tii ae i< nu- in every part ot-the plant, ■ of our animals tells us at mice, when the cow, and in- deed t: horse, and mule, w ill< ■ \ r u itli the field. 1 1' any . ■ of the ■ ! for anim iii the man- vhich I 1 ■ whole to the cutting cut Still ion ! have a:s.i point- But the , also disco- • ■ ■ ry acre of corn furnis lies apr ligious : : economical- banded. Aware that thousands of corn rant of the real extent of the ad\ to be derived from this plant, ju- :!. i w i iuld iv-;..'. tfully suggest to the i | lanters aie sa\ ing their con witli the sa- .1 '. and to lest, thai during the ensuing it a air trial, Lirse. As . oon n * (he corn quire curing, pull them off, und to be but i ck turns yellow, and the corn ex - a In -ed apj earanee, \\ ith considerable 58. By this period it will In- discovered that the remaining blades, and tops, call for sav- ing; and let this be the period of cutting down the id, and shocking on the ground, or hauling out of the field as cut, and shocking in an enclosure adjacent to the barn yard or place where it will be wanted to feed away, with most convenience. There reman is no doubt of the sin- gular advantage of steaming, every part of the refuse of corn, even the cob— if it can be done — if it cannot, the cutting up, and letting it become charged with the preparation 1 have sug- gested, will amply secure, in its effects on the cat- tle, the suffrage of the planter who will try it. I have found the curing process aided by shock- ing about, fitly to sixty stalks in the shock, and as far as one hundred, if the shock is made, only ob- serving to spread it well at the bottom, tying at top with a handful of lye straw, and permitting the but-end of the stalks to press into, or even against, newly ploughed ground. If the weather is what may be called dry, let those shocks stand about ten days — if wet, say twelve: and it mat- ters not if the corn is cut and shocked in a slight rani. My experience of years, would prefer it. On taking down the shocks to put away, the corn may be pulled off, and cribbed. And if the stalk is to be cut in the box, J prefer shucking at the time, letting the shuck adhere to the stalk, lbr the saving of time, and convenience of cutting up. In all cases I sprinkle salt amongst my corn when cribbing, whether shucked, or put up in the shuck — as also every species of grain, "rvjffage" and hay, when I stack, that I put up for winter provender. It is loo late in the day to question, or be even ignorant of the advantages of this See page 631, Vol. II. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 317 course. After taking off the corn, the stalks, &c. may be preserved in the old fodder house mode. But tor the preservation of every thing I prefer the board shelter, and open barn. It is true econ- omy, and that is to me sufficient. Mr. Editor, I am persuaded you will, and I know some of your readers will, require an apolo- gy for taking up so many of the pages of your (if it could be got into the hands and heads of our agricultural population,) invaluable Regis- ter on this subject — and to you, and them, I will say, that I have received so much valuable infor- mation, consequently gratification, from the com- munications it contains, that I am anxious to dis- charge, if* but a part of the debt I owe. It I can- not give coin, I am willing to give all the iiproc''' I have. Alabama, July 21, 1835. AGRICOLA. [It is regretted that the foregoing observations on securing the corn crop, by cutting otf the entire plant, could not have been published in time to permit the process to be tested by experiment The communica- tion was received late in August, and when all the space of the September No. was occupied. This mode of harvesting the entire corn crop has been long practiced successfully in some parts of the north and west, with the small and hard-grained corn raised in those colder regions. We infer (from his incidental remarks) that this is the kind of corn cultivated by our correspondent. If so, we should be glad to learn whether he has tested fully by experiment, the dispu- ted point of the small northern corn being equally pro- ductive, in the south, with thalargerand softer grained kinds. The answer furnished by our experiments would be in the negative — though perhaps they were not sufficiently varied to be conclusive. We have also tried frequently, and with various success, the mode of saving fodder as well as corn, by cutting oil" and putting in shocks the entire plants — and have thence formed the opinion that the plan would not answer with the soft grained corn, even if always safe for the hard kind.] TREATISE OX IRRIGATION. Extracted from the Practical Irrigator and Drainer. By George Stevens, Land drainer, and member of the Nerician and Werm- landska Agricultural Societies, Sweden. [In the following pages will be presented to the reader the whole of the latest and most approved Eng- lish work on an important branch of agriculture, of which very little correct knowledge or practice ex- ists in this country. The complimentary manner in which Mr. Stevens' labors have been spoken of in the late agricultural reviews, induced us to send to Lou- don for this work, which issued from the press only within the last year — and to lay before our readers this portion of it, (which has no immediate -connexion with, or dependence on the after part,) as soon as the engravings could be procured. The great cost of irrigation, as stated of various dif- ferent operations, may so startle the tillers of our cheap lands, as to forbid all desire of adopting the most perfect and productive methods. But it may be seen that the returns are much greater than the necessary outlay, and if that would be also certainly the case in this country, the amount of the cost per acre is of but lit- tle importance. In our mountain region, watering meadows has long been practiced, and with success and profit. Still, we infer that the plans used are very imperfect, and there- fore are far less productive than such as might be sub- stituted. There may not be many situations in this country (under present circumstances,) where irriga- tion is advisable to be used; but if proper to be prac- ticed at all, we presume that a correct method will be more profitable than one either not founded on correct principles, or imperfectly executed. There is another consideration well worth attention. Great and valuable as have been the products of irriga- tion in England and Scotland, they are not to compare with those of Upper Italy, the south of France, and of Spain. A cool and moist climate renders this im- provement less necessary, and therefore less profitable in the former countries, than in the latter, which are comparatively hot and dry, and where water alone will cause land to yield exuberantly, which without such aid, would have been a hard and naked clay, on perhaps shifting sand. These changes from barren- ness to fertility, caused merely by the application of water, are still more numerous and remarkable in Asia and Africa, under a state of agriculture which in all other respects is wretchedly defective. The dryness of the climate and soil of the hilly and mountainous regions of Virginia, (which only are fit for profitable irrigation, causes a greater similarity to Italy and Spain, than to Great Britain — and therefore it may be fairly presumed that the increase of product from irri- gation in Virginia, and still more farther south, would be proportionably greater than in the lands described by our author. The remainder of the Practical Irrigator and Drain- er, treats of other and detached though kindred sub- jects. The principal one is vertical draining, by bo- ring, on the plan first discovered and successfully prac- ticed by Elkington. This method, excellent and ad- mirable as it is for Great Britain, would be but cf lit- tle practical use in this country.] Preface. The following treatise on irrigation was drawn up and published at the request of those for whom the author has had the honor of converting land into irrigated meadow, in order to point out, in a practical manner, the different methods of their Ibrmation, and, more particularly, what was ne- cessary to be attended to in their management, as well as to show the result of experiments made in Scotland in this useful branch of agriculture. It having gone through two editions, which are now exhausted, he is encouraged, by the success which has attended them, and the work having been frequently asked for since it was outol print, to bring ibrward a third edition, which he hopes will not be unacceptable. An account of several other experiments has been added in this edition, with letters from proprietors and tenants, showing the expense of the operations and the results 348 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. which have attended them, which will clearly prove the great advantages to he derived from an improvement that has now become much more generally known and appreciated, mid is daily gaining ground, not only in this country hut in others — indeed there can be no doubt that, in a lew years, it will be put in practice in all situations where it is eligible. General principles of irrigation. To investigate, by observation or experiment, the processes of nature is the object of physical science: to imitate or regulate these processes is the object of art. It is apparent to the most superficial observation, that the banks of rivers, which are overfloived oc- casionally, and the places contiguous to springs, over which their waters continue to flow, are ever covered with a conspicuous verdure of the sweet- est grasses, while stagnant water converts the land on which it lies to marsh, productive of no- thing but coarse and unpalatable aquatic plants. To imitate this process of nature constitutes the leading principle of the art of irrigation. Water is brought over the land in a constant current, so gentle as not to endanger the tearing up of the soil; and, at the same time, is all dis- charged, so as to permit none of it to become stag- nant; and, to gain these purposes, the land must all be formed into a proper shape, both lor admit- ting and discharging the water. In this, as in every other art, long practice leads to perfectness; previous errors are thus detected and amended, and new improvements are sug- gested and brought to the test. ' The agency of water in the process of vegeta- tion has not, till of late, been distinctly perceived. Dr. Hales has shown that, in the summer months, a sun-flower, weighing three pounds avoirdupois, and regularly watered every day, passed through it or perspired twenty-two ounces each day, that is, half its weight. Dr. Woodward found that, in the space of seventy-seven days, a plant of common spearmint increased seventeen grains in weight, and yet had no other food but pure rain water; but he also found that it increased more in weight when it lived in spring water, and still more when its food was Thames water. The next most important ingredient to the nourishment of plants is earth, and of the different earths the calcareous seems the most necessary, as it is con- tained in rain water, and, absolutely speaking, many plants may grow without imbibing any other. Earths enter into plants in a state of solu- tion when suspended in water in a state of divi- sion, as minute as if they really had been dis- solved; that silicious earths may be suspended in such a state of division appears from various ex- periments, particularly those of Bergman, who found it thus diffused in the purest waters of Upsal. One mode of its operation is, indeed, sufficient- ly obvious. When brought over a meadow in such a gentle current as to allow it to deposite sediment, but, at the same time, so as never to stagnate, the sediment deposited from the water in its filtration through the grass must greatly en- rich the soil.* And hence much more efficacy * All rivers, from the least to the greatest , waft earth to the sea, and that in proportion to their magni- i may be expected from the waters of the large ri- vers, draining extensive tracts of rich improved soils, than from springs which receive no wash- ings from surrounding lands, or from rivers run- ning through tracts of mere mountainous pastoral districts of poor and unimproved soil; although, even in suen districts, considerable quantities of enriching sediment may be expected from the wa- ters of such rivers, if care is taken to have the meadow in a proper state for receiving the waters of the first flood after summer, which will wash down and carry along with them the droppings fallen from animals grazing upon the tracts of country which such rivers drain. Another mode of the waters operation upon a meadow, is by protecting the grass plants from the effects of the winter frosts: for it is evident that water req.iires more severe frost to freeze it when in a current than when in a stagnant state; and it is equally obvious that fluid water retains a higher temperature than ice or hard frozen earth. So long, then, as the frost is not so severe as to prevent the water from maintaining its currency over the meadow, the grass plants will be main- tained in a higher degree of temperature than if exposed uncovered to the air. It would appear, then, that irrigation acts upon the vegetation of the irrigated meadow chiefly, I should presume, from the deposite of manuring sediment; in the next place, by shelter afforded to the plants against severity of winter frost, and from the decomposition which the water under- goes in filtering through the grass. The best effects from irrigation may therefore be expected when the irrigator can obtain his wa- ter from the larger rivers, draining a large tract of fertile and improved soils, or from those streams which receive the drainings of great towns. Con- siderable improvement may, nevertheless, be ex- pected from waters which drain considerable tracts of mere unimproved pasture lands of infe- rior soil, which, at any rate, will afford winter shelter; and, if advantage is taken of the earliest floods after summer, will yield also considerable quantities of enriching sediment. Nor is the irri- gation from mere springs to be neglected, in re- gard to the smaller patches of land which they are capable of overflowing — in as much as their superior temperature to that of running water longer exposed makes them capable of affording warmer and more kindly shelter in winter — with- tude, velocity, and length of course, combined with the nature of the soil which forms the beds and banks, and with the rains, which, in proportion to their vio- lence and the degree of slope of the higher grounds, wash down the soil into the nearest stream. Mr. Rin- nel says, that the quantity of alluvial soil wafted into the sea by the waters of the Ganges, is a two hun- dredth part of the whole volume, or 2,509,056,000 sol- id feet per hour. The alluvial soil deposited by the waters of the Nile, is the one hundred and twentieth part of the whole volume, or 14,784,000 solid feet per hour. The Mississippi deposites 8,000,000, solid feet per hour, and the river Koangho, according to Barrow, carries into the sea 2,000,000 solid feet of sediment every hour. Although these facts had been witnessed for several generations, it is but of late that the attention of phi- losophers has been drawn to this subject. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 349 out taking into oonsideration the deposition to be obtained from all water however apparently pure, or that decomposition of its elements which it un- dergoes. Many errors still prevail in regr.nl to irrigation, which have a tendency to raise a prejudice against the system itself,- from the disappointments those have felt who have proceeded upon wrong princi- ples, either in the original formation of their mea- dows or in their subsequent management of them. While some conceive that every kind of water should have equal effect upon equal soils, or that its etficacy should .yield equal returns from the poorest as from the richest soils, others esteem it sufficient merely to bring water upon the land without regard to its continuing to run or to stag- nate upon it; and others overstretch their water, spreading it over such a large portion of land as it cannot cover in a body sufficiently deep to afford the plant an adequate winter shelter; and lastly, others conceive that, if the meadow has been, once regularly formed, no farther care of it is necessary, although it is obvious that, by the continued action of the water, alterations may be made upon the feed- ers and dischargers which may render them, if not corrected, unfit fur the purposes they were designed to accomplish. In the following pages I shall chiefly state the object held in view in the irrigating system, as practised in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, where t^e system has the longest prevailed and with the best success, and in other places where it has been introduced more lately, together with the means by which these objects are endeavored to be ef- fected. Formation of loater meadows. Before I begin to point out the particular mode of ibrming an irrigated meadow, some questions will be necessary to be proposed; such as, will the stream of water to be used in irrigating admit of a dam across it / can you dam up the water high enough to run over the surface of your land with- out injuring your neighbor's land? or is the water already high enough without a dam? or can you make it so by diverting it out of the stream higher up, and, by a conductor, carry it nearly level till it enter the meadow? and can you draw it off your meadow as fast as it is brought on, without being stagnated on the surface? This should be partic- ularly attended to in the formation of every irri- gated meadow, for experience shows that wher- ever water is allowed to lie on the surface for any considerable time, the finer grasses disappear, and the whole surface, in a very short time, will be completely covered with nothing but stinted aqua- tic plants. Another precaution in the formation of an irrigated meadow is of the greatest conse- quence, I mean draining; lor unless a piece of land that is to be converted into water meadows be properly drained, although the surface be ever so nicely formed, at the greatest expense, and the richest water applied, the crops of grass or hay will be very inferior to what they might have been had the ground been properly drained; therefore every irrigator, before he proceeds to the execution of any of the works, should first determine whether the drains that are necessary to carry away the water from the meadow will be. sufficient to free the soil from all subterraneous water, otherwise arrangements must he made to that effect. Where you are free from all objec- tions of this nature, your first operation is to take an accurate level of the ground intended for irri- gation, and compare the highest part of it with the height of the surface of the water to be used. Having found the surface of the water in the ri- ver to be eight, twelve, or twenty inches higher than the surface of the ground in the intended meadow, which lies at the distance of one, two, or three hundred yards, cut your main conductor or main feeder, from which all the inferior feeders branching from it are to be supplied, as straight as circumstances will allow, directing it along the highest side of the field rntended to be watered, so that the separate ridges into which the mea- dow is to be divided may have an equal slope from it to the discharging drain, keeping up its luniks, not on a dead levei, but with a gradual de- scent from one end to the other, giving ihe whole length an equal degree of fall, and then every drop of water will be kept in equal and constant motion. Sometimes the surface of the land has two or three considerable swells higher than the rest; it will then be necessary to give each side or part its respective conductor, with feeders branching from them, which will be found, whatever be the form or situation of the meadow, to be competent to ef- fect a true distribution of the water over the whole surface of the land. The breadth of each main conductor depends upon the quantity of water it is to convey, the de- scent from the bottom of the stream to the surface of the ground intended for meadow, together with the number and length of the feeders which it is to supply with water. The depth of the conduc- tors, at their junction with the stream orriversup- plying the water for irrigation, should be regu- lated by the depth of' the stream or river, and the lowest part of the land; i. e. it should, if the sur- face of the land will possibly admit, always be made as deep as the bottom of the river, by which means the water will carry a larger quantity of mud with it from the bottom of the stream. The stuff taken out in forming the conductors is used in Ibrming the banks; or where not wanted for that purpose, in levelling any inequalities on the surface of the meadow. To give the meadow a proper command of the water, it is requisite to place a sluice in the mouth of each main conductor, in order to admit or ex- clude the water at pleasure; and in droughty sea- sons, when there is not water enough for the whole at one time, the manager will thus be en- abled to confine the water to any one part at plea- sure; likewise, by paying attention in building in the sluices according to the height of the different swells of the ground, a considerable sum of mo- ney might be saved in many situations; for, in- stead of forming all the beds or ridges into one common level, they can be formed according to the different swells. All sluices should be built in with hewn stone and lime; wherever this has been neglected, I have always found the expense of continual reparation to have been much greater in a few years than what it would have been if the work had been substantially done at the first for- mation. The next part of the process is to make the mam drain, which is to receive and carry off the water after having irrigated the ridges into which 350 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. the meadow has been divided. If the stream or river, by a crook in its course, happens to run alone- the lower end of the meadow, all the irriga- ting water will tall into it from the ridges, and it will act as the discharging drain; hut when the ri- ver itself does not afford that advantage, a main drain must be cut along the lower end of the mea- dow, which will receive the whole water irrigating the meadow, and discharge it into the stream or river. This drain should always be made of the same dimensions as the large conductor, and deep enough, when the meadow is under lull watering, to carry the whole off without allowing any of it. to stagnate and sink into the soil; for in a well- formed meadow, where it is not allowed to stag- nate, less of the water will sink in the soil than is generally imagined, especially when it is muddy: it will then leave a considerable quantity of sedi- ment on the surface, which acts as an impervious covering, and pevents the water from sinking into the ground. The stuff taken out forming the main drain is now used in filling up low places. The next part of the process is to divide the portion of land for meadow, which is assigned to each conductor, into regular beds. Where the soil is naturally dry, and the supply ot water plentiful, they misfit be made forty feet wide; but when the sub-soil is naturally cold and impervious, their breadth should never exceed thirty-two feet, and even less in deep mos- sy soils. The (feeders are made in the middle of the beds, always branching out at right angles from the conductors, except in cases where the ground falls two ways, when it will be necessary to make the feeders a few feet (or according to the fall of the ground) nearer the one drain than the other, or more on one side of the bed than the other. A bed two hundred yards long will require a feeder where it leaves the conductor twenty inches wide, gradually decreasing in width to twelve inches at the farthest extremity, (see plate 1.) for the quan- tity of water becomes less and less by overflowing constantly over the sides. The earth taken out in forming the feeders is to be placed on each side, in such a regular manner as to form small banks with a gradual descent to- wards the drains. In forming the feeders, care should be taken to leave stops (small portions of solid earth) in them about six inches wide at reg- ular distances from each other, or according to the fall of the ground, to obstruct and keep up the wa- ter to a proper height, so that the whole length of the bed may be regularly watered, without the as- sistance of notches, as recommended by Wright and others; indeed the contraction in the width oi the conductors and feeders serves to raise the wa- ter over their sides, but this is not sufficient where the descent is considerable. Stops and notches have been thought indispensably necessary in the formation of water meadows, therefore several writers on the subject have recommended stakes to be driven into the conductors and feeders, to re- tard the velocity of the water. But if a water meadow is properly laid out, few stops will lie wanted; and, in situations where they cannot be avoided, the best method is either to put in a few stones, or pin down a tough sod or two, taking care that the heads of the pins do not stand above the surface of the water otherwise they would be apt to collect any weeds that might be carried down with the water, and thereby retard the regu- lar distribution. Wherever notches are found in a water meadow, it is a sure sign of an imperiect formation. Having completed all the feeders which are ne- cessary to introduce and spread the water, a drain must be made between every two feeders, paral- lel to and equidistant from each, that is, if the leyelness of the land will permit; but if the surface of the ground falls two ways, which is often the case, the drain must be made as before directed. The drains are made in an order which is the re- verse of the feeders; they are narrowest at the up- per part of the meadow, and gradually increase in width, as is represented in the plates, till they descend into the main drain, which returns the wa- ter into the original channel. The depth of these drains, in all soils, should be so regulated that they free the surface from the stagnated water; but in moist soils, with retentive sub-soils, the depth at the upper ends should never be less than six inch- es, and increasing to nearly the same depth as the main drain where they discharge their waters, and the width exactly the reverse of the feeders. Having thus completed the formation of the va- rious conductors, feeders, and drains, let in the wa- ter, and, after having given each part its due, and regulated the stops in ihe feeders, beginning with the one next the head or upper part of the mea- dow, and continuing the same way over the whole, till the water runs an equal depth over the sides or bank of the conductors and feeders, it will very soon show such places as are too high, or hollows necessary to be filled up. The stuff taken out in forming the drains, with what is gained by reducing high places, is gener- ally enough lor levelling the beds, to keep the wa- ter in constant motion; but ihe nearer the beds are brought to an inclined plane, the better for the pur- pose oi irrigation; therefore, when the land is very unlevel, with a thin sward on it, I would recom- mend every proprietor to plough the whole and take a crop of oats before forming it into a water meadow; or, if the sward of grass is strong enough to be lifted, to lift the turf and form the sub-soil with the plough and spade, and lay the turf down again. In either of these cases the beds should be raised about twelve inches in the centre. When- ever the whole surface of a piece of the ground is broken to be constructed into an irrigated mea- dow, the formation should be done with the great- est nicety, for the greater the pains that are taken in the first forming, the easier the management will be ever after. Land that has been laid down with grass seeds requires from two to three years before it will be sufficiently swarded for the admit- tance of water; but when the turf is taken off and laid down again, the water should be put on im- mediately; and if the work is done in autumn, it cannot fail to give a very great crop of hay the first year. Several meadows have lately been form- ed in this manner, and have given general satis- faction. As the rivers and brooks in this country are generally very rapid, all dams across them should be avoided as much as possible, by taking the wa- ter out of the stream farther up, although the ex- pense should be considerably more; but especially when there is the least possibility of a neighbor- ing proprietor's or farmer's lands being injured, or he should imagine he might receive damage by such an erection, although no real injury be done. It 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 351 will always be advisable to put nothing in a neigh bor's power; for, although there are many propri- etors and even tenants who would not only be happy to concur in any real improvement of the country, but would even sacrifice a trifle before they would think of throwing impediments in the way, yet the reverse is the case in some instances, where, either through malice or some private de- sign, they try to balk what they have not in their power to do themselves, or have not sutlicient en- ergy to perform.* Where necessity obliges you to erect a dam, every care possible should be taken to make it as substantial as the nature of the site will admit of; for should it once blow at the bottom, or the wa- ter penetrate round the ends, the whole erection will be lost, and the rebuilding will undoubt- edly cost three times the first expense. There are few pieces of land where the natural * This is not an imaginary supposition, for several cases of this kind have fallen under the author's obser- vation. descent of the surface will not admit of the water being collected a second time, and carried to a lower part of the meadow, and there used again. Where the water is scarce, this should never be neglected;* but where there is a constant supply of good water, this precaution is unnecessary. In others, again, it is necessary to carry the water over a hollow place, by means of what the irriga- tors term a carry-bridge, (aqueduct,) to a higher part of the ground, which is either made of wood, iron, or stone, high enough to carry the water to the highest place required. [To be continued.] * In a water meadow I made for his Grace the Duke of Athol in 1827, containing thirty English acres, part of the water is caught and used three successive times. The operations are so arranged that when the water leaves the meadows it can he collected and carried over another tract of equal extent, which his Grace is intending to do at some future period. Plan of a Water Meadow belonging to William Loch, Esq. of Radian, Peebles Shire. a Biggar Water, b Dam. c Sluices. d Conductors. e Feeders. f Drains. g Conductors to other fields. h Buck drain to cut offspring i Waste water drain. k Carry Bridge. Stops in the conductors and feeders. 352 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 6. From the Fanner and Gardener. CLOVER AND ITS FERTILIZING PROPERTIES. In a recent conversation with Mr. Robert Sin- clair, Senior, upon this subject, we observed to him, that in crossing a clover field a iew days pre- viously, we were more convinced than ever, of its capacity tor restoring worn-out lands, by the im- mense vegetable deposites which we saw in a state of rapid decomposition; that no matter how carefully a crop of clover might be cut, the return to the soil would be very great; upon which he related to us the following fact illustrative of our remark. Some years back he purchased a farm on Jones' Falls, called Poplar Hill, on which there was a lot of eight acres, which, from the exhausting course of culture to which it had been subjected, was almost literally deprived of its vitality. It was not convenient for him to apply either lime, ashes or stable manure, and so impoverished was the lot that the general opinion of the neighbors was, that it would not brino; more than six bushels of wheat to the acre. This opinion was based as well on the results of former years' productions, as on the then present appearance. In this discour- aging aspect of affairs, being unwilling to let it remain idle, he sowed it down jn clover, and push- ed its growth by plaster. The clover thrived tolerably well, was ploughed in the next fall, and wheat sowed on the clover lay; the produce of the eight acres, to the great astonishment of Mr. Sin- clair and his neighbors, was 200 bushels of good heavy wheat, being an average of 25 bushels to the acre. This result, as we have before pre- mised, was effected without the application of any thing in the form of manure save the clover and plaster, and to those agents alone, is this great melioration in the condition of the soil of Mr/Sin- clair's lot to be ascribed; and we hold it, that it is a matter of perfect indifference whether the effect was produced by the clover acting as a manure, or the plaster as a stimulant; whether from the affinity of the latter to attract moisture, or by the combined operation of both— we say, be the mo- dus operandi what it may, the effect was most sal- utary and wholesome, in converting a worn out field into a state of fertility. The success of this experiment, for it was but an experiment at that period, together with the thousand of other en- couraging results, which have subsequently taken place, should make every one who has a poor field sow it down in this grass, whether his object be the attainment of a good crop of nutritious hay for his stock, or a luxuriant clover lay to turn in to fertilize his soil: and whether his object be the one or the other, he should not sow less than three gallons of seed, if sown alone. In our view, a great fault is most generally committed in not sowing enough of seed. If intended for hay, a primary object with every farmer should be, to have that hay as clean m~\& free from weeds as pos- sible, and the only way to effectuate that, is by filling the entire surface of the ground with grass, inasmuch as leaving unoccupied spaces in a clo- ver field, only serves to encourage the growth of noxious weeds, exhaust the strength of the soil, render the. hay foul, and ultimately to supplant the clover by unwholesome grasses and weeds. There is another mistake, which many farmers make in their great desire to practice a wasting economy. We allude to the time of ploughing in their clover lay. Many delay this operation until the third year, when, in the natural course of things, the clover is nearly run out, it being a biennial plant. This delay, therefore, defeats, in a great measure, the very effect intended to be secured by the ploughing in of the clover, because of the scarcity of the plant. Whereas, if it were to be turned in the second year, the decomposi- tion both of the tap and lateral roots and stems, would exercise the happiest effects in fertilizing, separating, and rendering the soil friable. But is it not wonderful, that notwithstanding the advantages resulting from the clover culture, in the comlbrt of animals, the melioration of the soil, and increase of crops, has been known and universally acknowledged in Europe for upwards of two centuries, and it is well on to fifty years, since it was first, introduced into America, that it is not even now in general cultivation throughout our country? It was but the other day that the raising of small patches, by two gentlemen in one of the counties of North Carolina, was hailed as a meritorious novelty. We rejoiced sincerely when we saw the annunciation that the good work had been begun there; for in the language of an old adage, it is "better late than never," and we doubt not the intelligence of the good people of that state, will, when the benefits of the clover culture are placed before them, soon discover its great advantages, and emulate their neighbors in the praiseworthy work of rendering public good. — Editor. From the Genesee Farmer. THE CUT WORM. Although all insect life, in the worm or mag- got state, is more tenacious of existence than in any other, the cut worm deserves a high rank in the class of invincibles. In seeking for a destruc- tive or preventive a gent, a broad rmg of mercu- rial ointment wTas first tried, as a boundary or barrier to their motion. This was passed with great precipitancy, and even tasted with apparent indifference. In the same manner a number were surrounded alternately with a -solution of oxygen, muriate of mercury, oil of vitriol, aqua- fortis, japan varnish, spirits of turpentine, and spirit gas, most of which were first tasted by the worms, and then heedlessly forded. A little oil of vitriol was applied to the head of one, which he seemed to dislike when it came to his mouth, but was unharmed by its action. Nitric acid was applied in the same manner and with the same result. A number were immersed in a saturated solution of corrosive sublimate, which caused them to disgorge the green contents of their sto- machs, and to writhe ibr a time as though in a dy- ing state. When their motions had ceased, they were removed from the bath, and in one minute were fully resuscitated, and scudded away as fast as possible. Some fresh ones were next dropped into sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol,) which caused also a disgorgement and writhing violently for a shorter space. On its ceasing they were removed, and lay as many insects that feign death when disturbed, or think themselves observed. From this condition they suddenly started into life, and scampered away as if nothing had happened. The conclusion was irresistible, that however 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 353 vigorous transpiration might be, the imbibing power was wanting or obedient to their will. None of the alkalies were tried, but the idea was suggested that their spiraculi may be closed with an oily substance, and these would remove it and destroy them. But after the above experiments, we had little hope of finding an antidote in the apothecary shop. Like the curculio, this eremy requires mechanical and not chemical warfare for its destruction. In despair of finding out a remedy for their ra- vages, the owner of a young nursery of some thousands of trees in this city, when all the bud- ding and grafting was threatened with destPtrc- t ion by their seizing the tender buds when they first gave signs that the budding was successful, he was induced to carry a lew to the poultry yard. The avidity with which they were devoured, left no doubt of their being a perlect dessert for fowls. Accordingly they were invited, together with all of his neighbors', to a banquet in the nursery. A few worms placed beside the stocks for a bait were first picked up, and as is their wont, more were immediately sought by scratching where the first were found. This operation succeeding to The extent of their inclinations, the whole tribe immediately became hunters of the cut worm, and very little experience pointed the proper places and necessary depth beyond which they found it useless to scratch. The number eat by each fowl it were useless to calculate, but with crops distended nearly to bursting, they were with- drawn for fear of bad consequences to them- selves. No mortality to the fowls followed, and they were subsequently introduced a few times, till their scratching mania threatened the entire destruction of the nursery, which was planted but the year before. They however accomplished a great work in a short space, and have recom- mended their species for this useful work. M. From the last London edition of the "Complete Grazier." ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTEN- ING OF SHEEP. [Continued from p. 2S1 Vol. III.] An account of some experiments on feeding sheep. In the preceding chapter, we confined our- selves to the common vegetables usually employ- ed in this country in feeding sheep, which long ex- perience has proved to be the most advantageous: but we think the following detail of some novel experiments on their food may afford some fur- ther useful hints respecting the value of other sub- stances, even should their employment be not immediately expedient. The first were made by M. Crctte de Palluel, and by him communicated to the Royal Society of Agriculture of Paris, in 1789, of which the substance is as follows: — he states, that the practice of fcedingsheepin houses was commonly adopted in many of the provinces of France, where they were fed with clean corn, (i. e. barley and oats, sometimes gray peas, beans, and rye,) and sweet, fine hay; and that, when roots were given in lieu of corn, clover, rowen, or lucerne hay was continued. Though the sheep thus fed on roots did not become so fat as those which were corn-led, yet they all fattened: and Voj. Ill— 45 he thinks they would have made greater progress, it' their food had been varied. This opinion he supports by an experiment made on four, whose food was changed, and the animals ate consider- ably more. The sheep which were put on pota- toes, were for a few days somewhat averse to them, and at first ate but little; consequently they did not thrive so fast; though they recovered in the second month what they lost in the first. Those which were fed on turnips and beets, ate heartily of them from the beginning, and contin- ued so to be. They all drank much less than those which were corn-fed. M. de Palluel thinks that corn might be advantageously added to the roots; and, when the sheep are destined for sale, if two feeds of corn be given them for a fortnight, in the intervals between their meals of roots, this would give a degree of firmness both to their flesh and tallow.* A very valuable addition to the articles of sheep food has been made by employing muscovado su- gar. Under the direction of the Board of Agri- culture, a series of experiments was undertaken by the late Rev. Dr. Cartwriuht, in order to as- certain the daily quantity of brown muscovado sugar necessary to fatten sheep; to show its ef- fects and value when so applied; and to demon- strate what substance sufficiently cheap might be mixed with it, so as to prevent its application to common uses, in order to protect the revenue, and yet render it not unpalatable or pernicious to ani- mals feeding upon them. It should be stated, that these experiments originated in a suggestion of the Parliamentary Distillery Committee- of 1808, that the drawback on sugar should be al- lowed to the farmer for agricultural purposes, on his mixing it, in the presence of an excise officer, with some substance, which would render it unfit for common uses. This suggestion was not em- bodied into legislative enactment; but Dr. Cart- wright availed himself of a short interval of lei- sure, in order to ascertain how far the proportion might be practicable. The following is an ab- stract of his extensive detail addressed to the Board of Agriculture: — The flock of sheep purchased for the purpose of instituting a set of experiments to ascertain the facts enumerated in the title of the paper, con- sisted of fifteen two-shear Down wethers, which were bought at Chichester, 24th of August, 1808; they were bred upon the Downs, had been folded through the summer, and were in a common store state. They were weighed on the 27th of Au- gust, and their average weight was 90^: lbs.; the price was 35s. per head. For the first week they were folded every evening; each had half a pint of bran and a quarter of a pint of peas; and the same was given them when they left the told in the morning. In a week they became habituated to dry food, and then to this quantity of bran and * This account is abridged from the "Memoires de l'Academie Royale d 'Agriculture," of Paris, for the year 1789. There can be no doubt that corn and pulse are the most efficient food in fattening all cattle; but the consideration for the grazier is not only what will soonest, but also what will most economically effect that object; and in that important view, it is much to be doubted whether grain can, in this country, be profita- hly applied to sheep. Ep 354 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. peas was added an ounce of sugar for each. When they were familiarized to this, the next ob- ject of Dr. Carlwright was to try what different substances might be given in addition to the su- gar, which would not be injurious to them, and which they would neither reject, nor which at the same time would spoil the sugar lor all other pur- poses; and he thought it better to try the experi- ment with the different substances, while the sheep had access to the grass field, rather than wait till they were kept upon artificial food alto- gether. The substances used for this purpose were, lin- seed-oil, train-oil, palm-oil, oil of hartshorn, assa- foetida, urine, antimony, and charcoal; most of them preventing the sugar from being used in dis- tillation, and all of them spoiling it for common purposes. Linseed-oil was first tried, in the pro- portion of one to thirty-two parts of sugar. This mixture was given for the first time on the 7th of September, and was put into one only of the three troughs out of which they fed; the sheep, however, ate indiscriminately, ami apparently with the same appetite, the mixture which con- tained the linseed-oil, as those which had the su- gar only: on the following day the quantity of oil was doubled, and the sheep continued to leed up- on it with the same appetite. After this, train-oil was given in the same proportions, and with the same success; and it was supposed, from the par- ticular avidity with which they devoured this mess, that the train-oil, so i'ar from rendering the sugar less palatable to them, irave it a more agree- able zest and poignancy. The next experiment was with assafcetida, in the proportion of one to four hundred and forty-eight parts ot surrar: part of the sheep began upon this mixture immediate- ly, but others hesitated, and when they did feed, it was somewhat fastidiously, and the troughs were not emptied quite so clean as before. This experiment was suspended at that time, and a trial made of a mixture of sugar with urine, in the proportion of one part sugar to twenty-four of urine; but an obstacle, from swarms of bees de- vouring the mixture as soon as put into the troughs, prevented the experiment from being carried on at the usual hour, and the mixture was obliged to be given to the sheep in the evening in- stead ofthe morning; they werc,however, no sooner accustomed to the change of time, than they fed upon it as greedily as upon the other mixtures, and there was no reason to conclude that the urine had any influence in abating their appetites, or was in any degree offensive to them. The ex- periment next in succession was with palm-oil, which appeared very likely to answer the purpose of the experiment, and as far as the sheep were concerned, it fully justified the expectation; for they did not seem coucious that any variation had been made in their usual repast. The experiment with assafcetida was then renewed, and the sheep fed on this as readily as on the other mixtures; it was given in the proportion of one part to two hundred of sugar. The next experiment was with the empyreumatic oil of hartshorn, a sub- stance uncommonly offensive to the smell; but even this was not rejected by more than two or three sheep, and not by them for more than a day or two; the proportion of it was one in two hun- dred and twenty of sugar. Tartar emetic, in the proportion of two hundred and forty of sugar, was afterwards given, and produced no ill effect on the bowels of the animals. Dr. Cartwright being convinced, from these experiments, that of the substances recommended for the purpose unfit lor common uses, and of which he had made the trial, there was none which sheep would reject when mixed with sugar, in proportions sufficient to answer the end proposed, thought it might be also satisfactory to the Board to know in what larger proportions the oils might be given beiore the sheep would betray symptoms of disgust. Linseed-oil, train-oil, and palm-oil, were given in the proportion of on^. to eight, and the allowance of sugar at the same time increased to two ounces each per da}-; and these mixtures appeared to be equally as palatable to the sheep, as any thing which had been administered, and produced the same results, and without occasioning any change in the slate of the bowels. On the 29th of September the sheep were again weighed, when their average weight was nearly 109 lbs. each, being an increase of up- wards of one-fifth of their original weight; and they were tolerably fat, though it was the opinion of the person who purchased them, that they would not make themselves fat on grass only be- fore Christmas. From the 24th of September to the 22nd of October, their allowance of food was increased to a quart of bran per day, one pint of peas and three ounces of sugar," ringing changes at the same time with the different substances with which the sugar was debased, which was done to discover the particular substance they most re- lished, and though they appeared to be extreme- ly fond of all, yet, if a conjecture might be haz- arded, the preference was in favor of train-oil. Dr. Cartwright, however, suggests, (if the prac- tice of using sugar in this way should be adopt- ed,) that instead of employing any one of these articles singly, it would not be unadvisable to use a composition of several of them together, which would be attended with no additional expense; and he recommends — instead of mixing, for ex- ample's sake, four pounds of palm-oil, with one hundred weight of sugar — that four pounds of a mixture be substituted, composed of palm-oil one pound, train-oil one pound, urine two pounds, emetic tartar two ounces, assafotida 24 grains, and oil of hartshorn 28 drops; since in this com- position are comprised an animal, a vegetable, and an empyreumatic oil, a substance containing ammoniacal and other salts, metallic calx, and a resinous gum; and the whole expense of which would not exceed one shilling and eight-pence upon each hundred weight of sugar. He is also of opinion, that the most practicable way of man- aging this businass, would be to have only one person or company in each sea-port, where sugar is imported from the West Indies, licensed to sell it in the adulterated state. This detail of the experiments is thought by the author to have afl'orded a very satisfactory conclusion, that sugar thus adulterated may be advantageously given to sheep, and indeed to other animals; for a horse was equally fond of it, and both sheep and horses are known to be deli- cate leeding animals compared with cattle.* * In the West Indies, it is a common practice to give molasses to both oxen and horses: it is mixed 1S35.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 855 On the 22nd of October, the sheep were again weighed, and were found to have gained an ave- rage increase of weight of 15 pounds each since the 29th of September; they were then taken in- to the house, and kept upon aitificial food alto- gether; but one of them appearing to droop, that with two others was sent to the butcher, and the remaining twelve, reserved for further experi- ments, had no sugar in their food for several days, that they might be reconciled to its omission, and might all start fair, without any preference of means. On the 2d of November these were divided in- to three classes of four sheep each, and were weighed on the 12th, when a very inconsiderable gain was perceived, which was accounted for from their not beingyet reconciled to confinement. An attempt was now made to adulterate their food with charcoal, but this part of the experi- ment was soon given up, from the difficulty of ob- taining it sufficiently pulverized; bran, peas, and hay, were given to all, and to the first class six ounces of sugar each per day, to the second class four ounces each, and to the third class none. They weie weighed every week, and the respec- tive weights of each are given in Or. Cartwright's original communication, but the increase of weight was not considerable, and sometimes one class and sometimes another had the superiority. Their progress in confinement was not equal to that which was made when they were at liberty; and both those which had only four ounces of su- gar per day, and those which had no sugar at all, made rather more progress than those which had a daily allowance of six ounces, and the advan- tage was rather in favor of those which had the tour ounces. From all the facts taken collectively, Dr. Cart- wright draws the following conclusions: — "1. That sugar may be given with great ad- vantage to sheep, if not confined, especially if they have access to green food, however little that green food may be in quantity. "2. That sugar may be ijiven to them with every prospect of a beneficial effect, in the quan- tity of four ounces per day to each sheep. "3. That sugar, supposing it to be purchased at four-pence per pound (which it might be if duty free,*) would at the rate of four ounces per day be paid for in a return of flesh, exclusive of the advantage of expeditious feeding, and the benefit to be derived from the manure. "4. That six ounces per day to each sheep ex- ceeds the maximum that can be given with the best advantage to sheep of the size of South Downs. "5. That the advantage of stall-feeding sheep altogether upon sugar and dry food, of whatever nature that food may be, is extremely problemat- ical, "f On these ably conducted experiments we have with their water, and materially assists in improving their condition. — Ed. * Molasses, and coarse West India sugar, may now be obtained wholesale, for very little more than half the price. f Communication to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. VI. Part II. only to remark, that Dr. Cartwright has fully shown the practicability of feeding sheep, at least partly, with sugar; the profit however is the ma- teriaFpoint, and that can only be ascertained by comparative trials of lood given with, and with- out sugar, to which, as the object was chiefly to discover how far the sheep would relish it, the ex- periments were not sufficiently in point; but it seems probable that, were the duty taken oil', the farmer might beneficially avail himself of this ar- ticle, and also benefit the sugar planters, without interfering in any degree with the distilleries. Some experiments, tried on dogs, by the cele- brated Dr. Magendie, have been adduced as proofs of the fallacy of the commonly received opinion that sugar, gum, oil, butter, and other similar substances which do not contain azote, are nourishing articles of food. He fed those animals separately on sugar and water, olive-oil and water, gum and water, and butter; and they all died within thirty-six days. But these experiments cannot be considered con- clusive; for it appears, from other trials, that the stomach requires substance as well as nutriment: thus, of two dogs, one fed on the jelly extracted from beef, and the other on the fibre of the same beef, from which all its nutritive matter was sup- posed to have been exhausted, the one. fed on the jelly died, whilst the other throve. The sugar, and other substances ought, therefore, to have been combined with solids in order to arrive at the desired conclusion. [To be Continued.] [The two following communications were received just before the close of our last number, and after the foregoing article on the same general subject was ready for the press. We are gratified to have the confirma- tion here furnished to several of the points there main- tained. We are also pleased to count "A Planter" among the contributors to the Farmers' Register. From his letters to the Southern Agriculturist, (repub- lished in Vol. I. Farm. Reg.). we obtained some of the earliest information that the prairie lands furnished practical proofs of what we had maintained by argu- ment as truths, though only known in theory, and sus- tained by reasoning alone. From the peculiar fitness of the lands described by our correspondent to be im- proved by the application of the theory of calcareous manures, we begin to hope that even the tillers of the rich western lands will cease to believe that nothing but cultivation is required for their fields. It would seem that there is no region where sure means can be so easily and cheaply used to preserve, or to create fertility — and none . where the neglect of those means will be ultimately more certainly visited with well de- served loss. For want of proper means, and practical knowledge, still more than on account of the small quantity of the specimens of soils mentioned below, we did not at- tempt to ascertain the proportion of vegetable matter contained — though that is a point which well deserves investigation. The three specimens contained, of pure calcareous earth, 11, 8-1, and 27 per cent.: for this in- gredient alone, the third would be a rich and cheap manure, and the second, more than thrice as valuable i for the adjacent poorer wooded lands. Whether the 356 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. calcareous or the vegetable ingredient is the more de- sirable as manure, depends on which of the two is most deficient in the soil to be manured. The union of the two substances is essential to durable value and fertility in soil — and where both are wanting, the prai- rie earth, formed principally of vegetable and calca- reous matter, is a better manure than any that nature or art has yet supplied.] MANURE FROM AND ON PRAIRIE SOILS. *To the Editor of the farmers' Register. I sent to you about two mouths past, ihree spe- cimens of prairie earth, taken from under the sur- face of the ground, and one of them as low as four feet. They are contained in joints of cane, and I fear are in two small quantities for chemical analysis. My object in sending them was to ena- ble you to test more fully the accuracy of the facts hinted at in the communication of your correspon- dent E. (p. 715, Vol. II.) that the prairies con- tained more vegetable matter under, than in their surface. The analyses there made, countenance the idea — and the fact that some of the lime-co- lored prairies are much more productive after a few years cultivation without the addition of any vegetable matter, seems to do the same. But they are not satisfactory. Results in agriculture are so often the effect of other causes than those we at- tribute, them to, that it is not sate to consider a fact so established as to make it a guide, until ren- dered certain by repeated experiments; and as the ascertainment of this fact would be a matter of consequence, I should be much pleased to have the benefit of your examination into it. I also Bent the specimens with the desire of knowing whether the prairies were such calcareous earl lis, and if of such richness as to make them a valua- ble manure when put on oilier kinds of land; and whether those are best for that purpose that have the most lime, or the most vegetable matter mix- ed with the lime. The prairies lie on almost ev- ery plantation in such close contiguity to the sandy lands, which have in most cases a heavy coat of leaves on them, that the carting on the prairie would be attended with but little trouble. I use the term sandy, because the usual term here, but it does not mean poor lands, for they are gen- erally oak and hickory lands, very free, and that produce fine crops for a few years, but are not du- rable. These lands work kindly under the plough, and if we had any means of making them last, as convenient to every body, and as easy of applica- tion as hauling on prairie earth, it would do as much in preventing a rich soil from getting poor as vour JEssay on Calcareous Manures is doing in making a poor soil get rich. The burning of the lime, and hauling it on the land, T fear might be too troublesome for general practice. Your correspondent H. (Vol. I. p. 278,) has ad- duced many facts to show how beneficial to health the use of lime has been. He attributes, and ap- parently with much reason, the health of the city of Mobile to the covering of the streets with shells. If such effects have been produced by such a small cause, how much more certainty may be given by shelling the yards of all the crowded parts of that city] May not the city of New Or- leans be very much improved in health by also shelling the streets and yards, and by the free use of lime in all such places as are usually directed by the Board of Health? The objection that the subsoil is too moi*t, and will not admit of stoning or paving, or any other covering thai will bear the conveyance of heavy burdens on them, would be removed by making rail roads through the business parts of the city, and restricting to broad wheel carts the conveyance of heavy bur- dens on the other streets. It is unquestionably true that the prairies are the healthiest lands of the state, and probably the only lands having fertility of soil sufficient to in- duce the establishment of farms, that will continue healthy when cleared. The first settlers put the unwooded prairie, and the thin lands least wood- ed, into cultivation, as easiest to clear, and the prairies were healthy. At this time the richest and most densely wooded forests are killed, and such will be the case for a few years. The im- mense number of decaying trees giving off' the products of decomposition, would not make it a matter of surprise if such a great cause should be sufficient, for a time, to counteract, and to even counterbalance the beneficial influence of the lime. That this will be but for a lew years, I am induced to think, from having observed the well established fact that new mill ponds, while the trees are rapidly decaying, make situations sickly, that were healthy before, and which in a lew years become healthy again. Looking a lew years in advance of this time, and I think the prairies will be valueless to those who abuse them; and lor those who will use them properly, they will con- stitute the most valuable farms of the state, and furnish perfectly healthy residences on them. I send you herewith a communication on the prairies, which is intended as acontmuation of the subject before treated of in two numbers, and it may be added to on some other occasion. A PLANTER. Alabama, Aug. 4, 1835. ON THE PRAIRIES OF ALABAMA. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. I sent to the Southern Agriculturist, two years ago, two communications on the advantages and disadvantages of locating a planting interest in the prairies of this state, in which I gave, to the best of my observation, a description of the red and gray lands, the river swamps, and the prairies, with their several peculiarities, so as to enable the new settler to make his selection among them. The prairies were described as a healthy, high, dry, and undulating submarine soil, generally gray or lime colored, and unwooded on the crowns of the elevations; the woods, and with them a black soil, commencing at half their declivities, and con- tinuing through the intervening valleys. The soil light and loose, readily absorbing water at and near its surface, and impenetrable to it at any depth belowr, and the water never becoming pu- trid. I have had the opportunity of being much better acquainted with the prairies since that time, and my subsequent experience induces me to think that the opinions then expressed, were substan- tially correct. This country has been at some time the bottom of the sea, I think is evidenced by the immense amount of rotten limestone which 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 357 forms a Stratum of many feet in thickness, with oyster shells of immense size scattered over and under the surface every where,and occasionally the petrified remains of salt water fish. I think it probable when these lands first emerged from the ocean they were unwooded, and unfit for vegeta- ble life, but that by the influence of heat and mois- ture, and other agents, they gave lile to some of the inferior grasses. That the annual decay oi these grasses gave an accession of vegetable mat- ter to the earth, which by repeated rains has been washed down the hills. That this increase of ve- getable matter thereby, has given growth to trees, which in turn, by the great annual increase of it, from the falling of their leaves, has continued the growth, increased the fertility, and given color to the earth. Any one standing on the summit of one of these elevations, will notice trees growing wherever the slope of the ground would natural- ly wash the soil to, and no trees growing where it would wash from. The same is to be observed where ravines of even very gentle slope extend to any distance up the hills. He will observe also on many of the knobs of the hills there are small levels in which the lime, in a pure, state, shows it- self in lumps, protruding out of the earth, and there trees are generally growiug, because being level, the first grasses did not wash off. That the coloring of the earth is given by the quantity and the quality of the vegetable matter in it, I infer from observing that in every place where a single tree has grown on the bald prairie, that that spot is always of a different and a dark- er color than the surrounding soil, and yet never as dark as in the dense forest. That trees gener- ally dye a black color, for such is the general co- lor of the prairies. Where you see decided shades in the color of the soil, you will see a rea- son for it in ihe kind of trees growing on it. There is a large class of lands called the "post oak prai- ries," where the soil is rich and very light colored, and the fact is, the post oak bark makes a light co- lored dye. The theory that, the prairies were kept free from trees by the annual Indian fires, is unsatisfactory, as that cause would be uniform in its effects in all prairies, and all other lands, and so soon as the cause should cease, as it has done here for many years, we should see bushes springing up indis- criminately every where, which is not the fact. The growth of bushes is every year diminishing the extent of the bald prairies; but they are uni- form in their encroachments, and only on these parts where, from the position of the ground, they have the opportunity of receiving a greater depo- site of vegetable matter. This however, is a mat- ter of theoretical speculation, which may be left to others more conversant with the subject, and bet- ter able to decide correctly. I shall proceed to what is of more consequence to the practical plan- ter. The prairies are calcareous soils, and possess the quality of chemical combination with all pu- trescent animal and vegetable matter, so that none is lost. If this be a fact, almost every prairie planter has within his farm, the means, in ample abundance, of keeping his lands rich, and of rest- ing such as have been worn, and with infinitely less labor in its application than any other class of planters in the United States. For evidence that they are calcareous soils, and possess the quality of chemical combination attributed to them, I refer to the Essay on Calcareous Manures. As a plan- ter, 1 thank the author for the valuable information contained in that essay. It should be in the hands of every prairie planter, as it points to more means of improving his land than all else that has been written on the subject. The fact, however, must have come under every one's observation, who considers what becomes of the very large mass of leaves that are every autumn scattered on the ground, and are not to be seen in the spring. They are stuck to the earth by the winter's rains, and are used up by the lime; that is, the products of their decay are not evaporated, but are held in combination, no part, is lost, and it all becomes manure; and it is to this that we are indebted lor our very fine soils. Such being the fact then, it would seem reasonable that the planter should use the most practicable means of placing within the reach of that combination, all the vegetable mat- ter he can. And first in the class of means, is to convert to his use the many tons of leaves annual- ly deposited on the sandy woodlands he designs to clear. On them he should wagon and spread 10, 15, or more loads of the prairie earth, and scatter over the surface, and they would not be evaporated and lost under this powerful sun, but would be combined in a great measure with the lime, and then fixed as manure. The nearness of the prairies to such lands on most plantations, would make this an easy task. A wagon and cart ought to manure ten or twelve acres a week. Lime for this purpose is much used in England, and in the northern states, and in quantities some- times as great as several hundred bushels to the acre, where the cost of the material and its con- veyance are both great. The hauling of leaves from the woods, and scattering them in the alleys of the cotton and corn rows to be listed in, and to be within the bed of the ensuing year, would also be attended with inconsiderable trouble. The greatest trouble will be to make up the mind to do it, and to commence it. The most important use of the fact will be to in- duce the planter to list his lands. This is done in two ways; the best, though the most tedious, is to run a furrow in the centre of the alleys of the last year, and to pull up the cotton and corn stalks and lay them in with the buts or root ends all in one direction, trampling them with the feet, so as to break the large limbs, and with the hoe draw from the old beds the grass, weeds, and surface soil on them, and with two cuts of a mould-board or shovel plough to lap the earth on them. The plough should commence the covering at the root end, as the stalks are less displaced by it, and though many of the limbs will show out of the covering, it will be of no consequence. This should be done as early in the winter as your cot- ton is gathered. A much more expeditious mode of listing, is to do the same, thing, except not to use the hoe at all; and this is done with less than half the labor expended in pulling up the stalks, col- lecting them into heaps, and burning them. You give by this tedious labor, this consuming, waste- ful, and unplanter-like practice, a mass of mate- rials to the air, worth more as a manure, than all your cotton seed. Only see how many large piles an acre of fine cotton stalks would make, and then calculate how much you throw away that would be converted into a valuable manure by chemical 35S FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6 combination, without the labor of carting from and to the field. The limits of my paper will not permit me to say on this subject, as much as I think its import- ance deserves, and I must therefore make its con- tinuance the subject of another letter to you. A PLANTER. Alabama, flag. 4, 1835. ON THE CAUSES OF DISEASE IN HOGS. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. In the first No. of Vol. II. I find from the Gen- esee Farmer, a i'ew remarks on the diseases of hogs, with a request lor information on a particu- lar case stated. The hogs alluded to were kept in a large frame pen, with a plank Moor, and led on "bran, shorts, and short midlings." Three hundred had been pen- ned, and fifty died during the winter. A neigh- bor gave a drove seven hundred dollars worth of corn, and the same disease made a similar havoc. On opening them a great many slim worms were discovered, about one inch long, in the leaf, and about the back bone. On the same page, one of your correspondents states his hogs being subject to lice, &c, and re- quests a remedy. I believe it is pretty well set- tled that no animal in its natural slate, is less the subject of disease than the hog. But as soon as we get him fairly under our jurisdiction, he be- comes liable to many — and it is not a little aston- ishing, on cool reflection, that we frequently begin the management, and actually the improvement of the whole animal world, by a vigorous attempt to counteract the laws of nature; and one of the first and most certain consequences of our course is, to generate disease as foreign to the animal as our course of management and improvement is to those laws which nature wisely and kindly coupled with a strong, instinctive capacity. Amongst the last we find distinctly marked, a disposition to find and use a great variety of tbod. Our know- ledge of the substances used by the animal world in this way, and hunted for by them with much anxiety at times, teaches us that in their opera- tion they are medicinal, and that the cravings of animal nature must call for them, more to counter- act and cure a predisposition to disease, or disease itself, than for yielding nutrition. Would not common sense dictate, on reflection, that in our management of any animal the same rule ought to be observed, if we wish to produce the animal perfect, and to preserve animal health? Among animals which we appropriate to our use, as food, there cannot be found one which af- fords a more singular instance how wonderfully nature yields to our extravagant deviation from its laws, than the hog. The animal that roams over the surface of the earth, and eats of almost every vegetable and animal substance within its reach, is put into a small pen, deprived of locomotion, and restricted to dry corn, and water. If we ad- mit that a part of that which they hunt for, and consume, if not in duresse, is in its operation ne- cessary for the preservation of animal health, ought we to be astonished at the appearance of disease in our hog in limbo? I think not — but ra- ther, that disease is not uniformly the issue — and in fact, I fear, that we frequently mistake a mass of obesity in disease, for sound pure pork. The notorious different operations on the stomach, of wild animal oils, generated in nature's mode, and those produced by artificial means, is stubbornly in point. No animal comes nearer the hog than the bear. You may drink the oil of the last, without the slightest danger of producing any aversion of the stomach. Were you to make a pen capable of containing any given number of hogs, placing in one end, an apartment, with not only a plank floor, but ele- gantly planed and jointed, and covered — and in the other a shed, covering a floor of dry earth, with a sufficient bed of dry leaves, and take, a hog from all the different species on the globe, I think with- out hazarding, we might quickly determine which end they would prefer. Among all the different lied- for rest constructed by this animal, I feel as- sured they were never known to drag together a number oi' planks. This preparation for their rest, is not at all consonant with their notorious, natu- ral disposition. But in the bed of dry leaves they delight. Nor are they averse to having that bed on a clean place of dry earth — especially if pro- tected by a shelter. Had the gentleman before mentioned, have thrown into the pen a quantity of rotten wood, and a portion of charcoal, or oc- casionally boiled the corn in strong ley, or added a portion of copperas and brimstone, the issue, I am assured, would have been extremely different. As for lice, the brimstone would have put that out of the question. The disease of those hogs is not unknown in this section of the Union. Carelessness and arti- ficial food, destroy many with it, but intelligent hog raisers and fatteners avoid it, by the means of simple preventives. Some years ago I found myself annually losing hogs, with what they told me was the worm- sometimes in the stomach, then in the kidney, and lastly, when fattening in the back bone. 1 gave my hogs dry corn, in a close pen, profusely. I heard of an old Roanoke Virginian, who had em- igrated to this state, who, it was stated, had ac- quired uncommon practical knowledge of the most successful mode of raisincr and fattening this animal — and wishing to raise them in perfection, I went to see the old gentleman, who had been at it for forty odd years. The result of an evening's conversation enabled me to drive the worm in every shape and place, and save hundreds — and raise the animal with actually half the common expense, giving them a good growth — and as it may be new, and perhaps useful to many of the readers of the Register, I will transmit the detail shortly. jflahama, July Wlh, 1835. AGRICOLA. ON RAISING AND FATTENING HOGS. To the Editor of the Farmer's Register. I promised to give you a detail of my mode of raising and fattening the hog, as communicated to me by an old Virginian, and a little improved, I believe, by my own experience and practice. My rotation of crops, and the circumstances that. grow out of it, permit me to live up to an article in my agricultural creed, to wit: that five hogs in- 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 359 side of a good fence, arc worth more to me, ulti- mately, than ten outside — or, in plain English, "raised in the woods." Bat I will here remark, that tor a hundred "good reasons me thereunto moving," I always include in every field, if possi- ble, water and woodland, especially if marshy, or the heads of branches. With the raising and fat- tening of hogs, I combine, as far as possible, the fabrication of manure. For my stock hogs, I have a standing pen adjoining my dungstead, for the purpose of occasionally mixing their manure with that of the cattle, horses, mules, &c. This pen is littered with leaves, or pine, straw, regularly — and as regularly emptied. Through one end, a long shed, sufficient lor the standing stoi'k, shelters them when they choose to avail themselves of it. That part not. covered is densely shaded with trees that were topped for the. purpose. The whole is what every person of common means and capacity may have. For my breeding sows, I take care to have a good rye pasture, after they produce, pigs — or a rich crab grass one — and for all a plum orchard, peach orchard — and for win- ter range, a field of the black and red tory pea, for about two hours in the day. This, with ripe cu- cumbers, melon rinds, simblins, pumpkins, cab- bage leaves, and turnips of different kinds, &c. secures them plenty. For the purpose of securing the progress of the manure heap, all that can con- veniently, and with economy of time, be thrown to them is so given. A part of every day they are permitted, unless in very wet, or severe wea- ther, to run into the field, and adjoining woodland, and which latter, I conceive, contains what nature may require in that animal, for the preservation of its health — aiding in the formation of manure, as well as health of the animal. Rotten wood is oc- casionally thrown into the pen, with the remains of coal-kilns, or tar-kilns, &c. The time they are out of the pen. does not embrace more than one- third of the day. Every second day in the even- ing, or rather near night, I give to every four head, one ear of corn, shelled into water in the morning, and every fourth day, just before giving, drained off, and rolled in fine salt, suffering as much to adhere to it. as will adhere. Every Monday, I add a sprinkling of powdered copperas, and every second Monday, a little brimstone. The corn I give in narrow troughs, laying it down in hand- t'uls, or mixing it carefully in the trough, in the bottom of which, every Monday, is placed some dry hickory, or black-jack ashes. At one year old, each hog averages one bushel of corn. At two years my hogs average 200 lbs. of pork each. Whenever time and circumstances will possibly admit, I cut rye and oats, and gather the peaches and apples, and throw into their pen — detaining the hogs in it as long as possible. During those days, they get about one hour out to go to water. In the fattening, I pursue the same rule precise- ly, varying only in the time they are allowed to roam abroad, not exceeding one hour in the mid- dle of the day. All the vegetable diet they get, such as pumpkins, ruta baga, sweet potatoes, &c. is steamed, and mashed up with corn meal. Fer- mented drink that has just reached the acetous fermentation, is given three times per day, in a clean trough. For lazy hoo;s, the saking, by dou- bling the quantity, is a perfect cure. The excite- ment it produces in the stomach for green food and water, drives them to the woods, and the ap- petite it keeps us, keeps them going. My hogs have uniform health. [ have not lost one by any other disease than the knife, for years. They fat- ten kindly, and my meat has been pronounced by Virginians to be fine. I believe that the real fat- tening disposition of the animal is only kept up by the best state of animal health. There is a fattening disposition. The production of disease and obesity, is the result generally of gorging with improper food, or rather (bod not altogether calculated to produce sound animal flesh. Pursuing the foregoing, I will insure freedom from worms, in every part, and in every stage of the life of the hog, and also a fine quantity of su- perior manure, with sound animal flesh for diet. Alabama, July 29th, 1S35. AGRICOLA. ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE. By M. Puvis. Translated for the Farmers' Register from the Annates de I'Ag- ricultwre Francaise, of 1835. [The publication of the following communication to the Annates de ^Agriculture Francaise, was commenc- ed in the February No. of that journal, (which was received here in May,) and the June No. contains the end of the first part, "On Liming," and enables us to offer the translation of that portion to our readers. On- ly a few pages of the next portion of the series, "On marling,'" has yet appeared, and not enough to permit a judgement to be formed of its worth. Though there are many deficiencies in this treatise on liming — and also opinions as to the theory .>fthe ac- tion of lime, in which we cannot coincide — still, on the whole, we consider it as presenting far more cor- rect views, and more satisfactory information, both on theory and practice, than any other work on liming that we have before seen. In other points, and those of most importance, the facts here presented, (and now first learned from any European authority,) strongly sustain the views maintained in the Essay on Calca- reous Manures. It would be both unnecessary and ob- trusive to remind the reader of these points of differ- ence, and of agreement, whenever passages exhibiting either may occur. They will therefore generally be submitted in the author's words, without comment. A few exceptions only to this rule will be made, in cases which appear particularly to call for them. We have no information whatever of M. Puvis, the author of this treatise, previous to the appearance of the commencement of the publication in the Annates. But he is evidently well informed on his subject, and is stated by the introductory remarks of the French editor, to be entitled to all respect, for his long expe- rience, and his practical, as well as scientific investi- gation of the subject. If then there remains no ground to distrust his judgement or his facts, the state- ments made are most important to a very large portion of this country, which has heretofore been generally supposed to be deprived of all possible benefit from the use of calcareous manures, on account of their re- moteness and high price of carriage. M. Puvis states that the most successful and profitable liming in Eu- rope (for the expense incurred) is in repeated applica- 3G0 F A R M E US' REGISTE R tions of very small dressings — making lesson the aver- age, than tour bushels of lime to the acre, annually. This small amount, if really as efficacious as is alleged, would cost so little in labor and money, that the limits of the region capable of being limed may be very far extended. It would not matter though the applica- tions should require to be repeated forever, provided the annual returns gave good profit upon the annual expenses: and far greater will be the profit, if (as we think) the soil ultimately will no longer require such repetitions — or only at very distant intervals of time — and still ba a highly productive, because it has been made a calcareous and fertile soil. Ed. Farm. Reg ] [No.G On the different modes of improving the soil. To improve the soil is to modify its compo ition in such manner us to render it mure fertile. This definition, which might be extended to manures charged with vegetable mould [humus] or animal substances, which also modify the com- position of the soil, is limited by French agricul- ture to substances which act upon the soil, or upon plants, without containing any notable proportion of animal or vegetable matter. It issaid that manures, [putrescent or enriching,] serve for the nutriment of plants. But it is the same as to substances improving to ihe soil, which furnish to it matters which it needs to be fruitful, and which furnish to vegetables, \\\o earths and saline compounds which enter as es- sential elements in their composition, their texture, and their products. Such improving substances ought well to be regarded as nutritive.* Thus lime, marl, and all the calcareous com- pounds employed in agricultrue, since the) lurnish lime and its compounds, winch sometimes form half of the fixed principles ol vegetables, ought also to be considered as aliments; or, what comes to the same, as furnishing a part of the substance of vegetables. Thus again, wood-ashes, pounded bones, burnt bones, which furnish to vegetation the calcareous and saline phosphates which com- pose a sixth of the fixed principles of the stalks, and three-Jourths of their seeds, ought well to be considered, and surely are, nutritive. What, then particularly marks the distinction between manures which improve the soil [amende- ?)iens,~\ and alimentary manures, [engrais,2 is, that the former furnish, lor the greater part, the fixed *The two classes of manures which are described generally above, are conveniently designated in French each by a single word. "Engrais," which we can on- ly translate as manure, is limited in signification to such substances as directly enrich soils, and feed growing plants — and "amendemens," signifying substances which alter and improve the constitution, texture, and indirectly, the fertility of soil, but the operation of which is not to furnish food tc plants. In speaking of the action of these different classes, the sense may be rendered, though not very precisely, by the words "en- rich," and "improve" — but there is no one English term that will convey the meaning of either class of substances. "Alimentary manures" will be used for the first class, and "manures improving the constitu- tion of soil," or some similar awkward, but descriptive phrase, can only render the meaning of the word "amendemens" — useless "improvers" could be tolera- ted as a substitute, for convenience. Tp. principles of vegetables, the cart lis, and salts, which are not met with ready formed, neither in the soil nor in the atmosphere: while alimentary manures furnish a small part of the volatile prin- ciples which are abundantly diffused throughout the atmosphere, whence vegetables draw them, by means of suitable organs: and what is most remarkable.is, that the vegetable, b} receiving the fixed principles of which it has need, acquires, as we shall see, a greater energy to gather for its sustenance the volatile principles which the atmos- phere contain:-. The greater part then of soils, to he carried to the highest rate of productiveness, require ma- nures to irflprove their constitution. Alimentary manures give much vigor to the leafy products — but they multiply weeds, both by favoring their growth and conveying their seeds — and they often cause crops [of small grain] to be lodged, when they are heavy. Manures which improve the soil, more particularly aid the formation of the seeds, tjh e more solidity to the stalks, and prevent the laliing of the plants. Shit it is in the simulta- neous employment of these two means of fertili- zation by which we give to the soil all the active power of which it is susceptible. They are ne- cessary to each other, doubling their action recip- rocally: and whenever thej are employed togeth- er, fertility ones on without ceasing — incri instead of diminishing. The greater par! of impro\ ing es are calcareous compounds. Then- elleet is decided upon all soils which do not contain lime, and we shall see that three-lburlhs, perhaps, oi' the lands of France are in that state. The soils nol calca- reous, whatever may be their culture, and what- ever may be the quantity of manure lavished on them, are nof suitable for all producls — are often cold and moist, and are covered with weeds. Calcareous manures, by giving Ihe lime which is wanting in such soils, complete their advan i render the tillage more easy, destroy the weeds, and fit the soil lor all producls. The. improving substances have been called stimulants; they have been thus designated be- cause it was believed that their eflecl consisted only in stimulating the soil and the plants. This designation is faulty, because it would place these substances in a false point of view. It would make it seem that they brought nothing to the soil, nor to plants — and yet their principal effect is to give to both principles which are wanting. Thus tin- main elleet of calcareous manures pro ceeds from their giving, on the one hand, to the soil the calcareous principle which it does not con- tain, and which is necessary to be able to devel ope its frill action on the atmosphere — and on the other hand, to vegetables, the quantity which they require of this principle, for their frame-work and their intimate constitution. Jt would then be a better definition than that above, to say that to improve the soil is to give to it the principles which it requires, and does not contain. Importance of manures which improve the constitu- tion of soils. The question of improving manures is of great interest to agriculture. This means of meliora- ting the soil is too little known, and above all, too little practiced in a great part of France — and yet it is a condition absolutely necessary to the agri 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 361 cultural prosperity of a country. In the neigh- borhood of great cities, alimentary manures being furnished on good terms, may well vivify the soil: but animal manures cannot suffice but in a few situations, and of small extent — and in every country where tillage is highly prosperous, im- proving manures are in use. The Department of the North (of France,) Belgium, and England, owe to them, in a great measure, their prosperity. The Department of the North, (which is, of all Europe, the country where agriculture is best practiced, and the most productive,) spends every year, upon two-thirds of its soil, a million of francs in lime, marl, ashes of peat and ol dead coal [hnt- illej*} and it is principally to these agents, and nut to the quality of the soil, that the superiority of iis production is owing. The best of iis soil makes part of the same basin, is of the same formation, and same quality, as a great part of Artois and Picardy, of which the products are scarcely equal to half the rate of the North. Neither is it the quantity of meadow land which causes i; riority; that makes but the fifth part ol its extent, and Lille, the best x/rrondissement, has scarcely a twentieth of its surface in meadow, while Aves- ne, the worst of all, has one-third. Nor can any great additional value be attributed to the artificial meadows, since, they are not met with except in the twenty-sixth part of the whole s; ace. Neither can this honor be due to the ;ion of naked fallows, since in this country ol pattern husbandry, they yet take up one-sixth of the ploughed land, every year. Finally, the Flemings have but one head of large cattle lor everv two hectares^ ol land, a proportion exceeded in a great part of France. Their great products then are due to their excellent economy and use of' manures, to the assiduous labor ol' the farmers, to cou crops well arranged, but. above all, we think, to the improvers of soil, which they join to their al- imentary manures. Two-thirds of their land re- ceive these regularly: and it is to the reciprocal reaction of these two agents of melioration, that appears to be due the uninterrupted succession of fecundity, which astonishes ail those who are not accustomed continually to see the products of this region. At this moment, upon all points in France, ag- riculture, after the example of the other arts of in- dustry, is bringing forth improvements; in all parts especially, cultivators are trying, or wishing to try, lime, marl, ashes, animal black. It is this partic- ular point in progress, above all, for which light is wanting; and this opinion has induced the prepa- ration of this publication. Since more than SO years, the author has devoted himself] from incli- nation, to agriculture; but he has been especially attentive to calcareous manures. He has studied in the practice of much extent of country, in his own particularly, in personal experiments, and in what has been written on them both by foreign- ers and countrymen. An Essay on Marl% has been the first, fruit of his labors; an Essay on the use of lime will soon be ready: it is with these materials that he. now sets himself to work. To prepare for this object, a series of articles, of the nature of a recapitulation ratherthan of a regular work, it was necessary to be concise, and yet" not lo omit any thing essential. It is proper then that he should limit himself to the prominent parts of his subject, those especially useful to practice. His advice will then be as often empirical as regular, and his directions will be precise, although sup- ported by lew d velopemients. An extract from tiiis work has appeared in the Encyclopedic dgricole: here it will again appear, but by separaie articles, which will be corrected by a systematic general view of theory, founded Lice. This is the moment for multiplying publications on this subject, becausethat in almost all parts of France, it is the point in ajxrieulture most controverted — that which induces the most labor and the greatest expenditures — which pre- sents most doubts — and which has consequently mot need of being made clear. We shall not enlarge here upon the. manner in which improving manures act: we will put off this important question, with its developements to the article on lime. Here we only present the theory. Hereafter, that which we will hazard will be founded upon facts, and yet we will not promise these develo] ements, but for the purpose of enlightening and directing practice. Of the various kinds of improving manures. The first in order, and the most important, are the calcareous manures. We comprehend under this name, lime, mar!, old plastering mortar, and other rubbish of demolished buildings, beds of fos- sil shells, [falun,]* or shelly substances, plaster or gypsum: experience and reason will prove that we oughl to arrange in the same class, and by side of the others, wood ashes, ground bones, and burnt hones. We will not place in the same list the ashes of peat, of dead coal, and red pyritous ashes: their effect is not owing to their lime, but (as will be seen afterwards,) rather to the effect of fire, upon the earthy parts, and particularly upon the argil which they contain. We will next in order treat of manures of the sea, of saline manure of different kinds, of mix- tures of earths, of calcined clay: and finally, of paring and burning the turf, and the different questions which peat presents in agriculture. *Statistique du departeinent du Nord. fThe hectare is very nearly equal to two and a half English (or American) acres. See account of French Weights and Measures, p. 508, Vol. II. 'Farm. Reg. — Tr. %Essai surli marne, published 1826, at Paris. This is the first notice which wc have had of the existence Vol. II!— 46 of this work, and have forthwith sent for a copy, as well as for one of the author's forthcoming Essay on the use of lime, that no source of information on this important subject may be excluded. But it may be inferred (from the author's expressions.) that these more extended works will contain nothing more of what is essential, than is presented in this condensed form, prepared by himself for the Annates. Ed. Far. Reg. *-'F.ihrn— Beds Formed by shells. There is one of these immense 1> ds in Touraine. The cultivators of that country ihelly earth to improve their fields." This definition, is from Rozier's Cours Com- plete and though it clearly shows that the substance in question is the same as what is called "marl" in Virgi- nia, it is equally clear that neither of these authors consider falun as being marl. Tit. 362 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 6. Of liming — on the use of lime for the improve- ment of SOU. 1. Among the immense variety of substances, and of combinations which compose the upper layers of the globe, the earthy substances, silex, alumine, and lime, ibrm almost exclusively the surface soil: the greater portion of other sub- stances being unfit to aid vegetation, they ought to be very rare upon a surface where the supreme author willed to call forth and to preserve the mil- lions of species of beings of all nature, which were to live on its products. It was also a great benefit to man, whose intel- ligence was to be exercised upon the surface of the soil, to have so few in number the substances proper to support vegetation. The art of agricul- ture, already so complex, which receives from so many circumstances such diverse modifications, if there had been added new elements much more complicated, would have been above the reach of human intelligence. 2. But among these substances, the two first, silex and alumine, form almost exclusively three- fourths of soils; the third, the carbonate of lime, is found more or less mixed in the other fourth: all soils in which the latter earth is found, have simi- lar characters, producing certain families of vege- tables which cannot succeed in those in which it is not contained. The calcareous element seems to be in the soil a means and a principle of friability. Soils which contain calcareous earth in suitable proportions, sutler but little from moisture, and let pass easily, to the lower beds, the superabundant water, and consequently drain themselves with facility. Grain and leguminous crops, the oleaginous plants, and the greater part of (he vegetables of commerce, succeed well on these soils. It is among these soils that almost all good lands are found. Nevertheless, the abundance of the calcareous principle is more often injurious than useful. Thus it is among soils composed principally of carbonate of lime that we meet with the most arid and barren, as Lousy Champagne, part of Yonne, and some parts of Berry. 3. The analysis of the best soils has shown that they rarely contain beyond 10 per cent, of carbonate of lime; and those of the highest grade of quality seem to contain but from 3 to 5 per cent. Thus the analyses of Messrs. Berthier and Drapiez, show 3 per cent, of it in the celebrated soil of the environs of Lille. 4. But all these properties, all these advantages, all these products, calcareous manures bear with them to the soils which do not contain the calca- reous principle. It is sufficient to spread them in very small proportions: a quantity of lime which does not exceed the thousandth part of the tilled surface Jayer of soil, a like proportion of drawn ashes, or a two-hundredth part (of even less) of marl, are sufficient to modify the nature, change the products, and increase by one-half the crops of a soil destitute of the calcareous principle. This principle then is necessary to be furnished to those soils which do not contain it; it is then a kind of condiment disposed by nature to meliorate poor soils, and to give to them fertility. jfneient date of the use of lime. 5. Lime, as it appears, has long ago been used in many countries. However, nothing proves thai its effect was well known to the Greeks and Ro- mans, the then civilized portion of mankind. Their old agricultural writers do not speak of the use of lime on cultivated lands, nor on meadows. Pliny, the naturalist, tells us however, that it was in use for vines, for olives, and for cherry trees, the fruit of which it made more forward: and he speaks of its being used on the soil generally in two provinces of Gaul, those of the Pictones and iEdui,* whose fields lime rendered more fruitful. The agriculture of the barbarians was then, in this particular, more advanced than that of the Romans. After that, all trace of the use of lime in agriculture, is lost for a long time — whether that it had ceased to be used, or only that the no- tice of it was omitted by writers on agriculture. The trace is again recovered with Bernard Pallis- sy, who recommends the use of it in compost in moist lands, and speaks of his use of it in the Ar- dennes. Nearly a century later, Olivier de Serres,f advises its employment in the same manner, and reports that they made use of it in the provinces of Gueldres and Juliers [in Belgium.] He makes no mention of its use in France: but as the prac- tices of agriculture were not then much brought together, and were but little known, it may be be- lieved that at that time, Flanders, Belgium, and Normandy, made use of lime. In England, liming seems to have been in use earlier and more generally than in France. But then, and in all time since, good agricultural prac- tices have remained in the particular countries where they were established, without beingspread abroad. Now, noveliies carry no alarm with them — anil in the last twenty years, liming has made more progress than in the two preceding centuries. Of soils suitable for liming. 6. Lime, as has been said before, suits the soils which do not contain it ahead)'. To distinguish these soils from others, chemical analysis is, with- out doubt, the surest, means; but it offers often too many difficulties, and lime may be met with in a soil in proportion great enough to exert its power on vegetation, without producing effervescence with acids. J But visible characters may furnish indications almost certain. The soils where the cow wheat [mclampijre,~\ rest-harrow, [Pononis, ou arret e-b(Buf\ thistles, colt's foot, [htssilage], and red poppy, spring spontaneously. — which produce well in wheat, legumes, (or plants of the pea kind,) and especially sainfoin — where the chestnut suc- ceeds badly— which shows but little of dogstooth, [chiendent,'] volunteer grasses, or common weeds, [graminees adventices,) except of the small legu- minous kinds — soils which after being dry, crum- ble with the first rain — all these are almost cer- tainly calcareous, have no need of lime, nor its * JEdui et Pictones cake uberrivws fecere agros. fWho wrote on agriculture in the reign of Henry IV. of France. Tr. JThis is a full though indirect admission of the truth of the doctrine of neutral soils, maintained in the Es- say on Calcareous Manures. Tr. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER S63 compounds,* and would feel from their use, rather ill than good effects. On the contrary, all soils composed of the moul- derings [debris] of granite or schistus, almost all sandy soils, those which are moist and cold of the immense argilo-sihcious table lands [plateaux ar- gilo-silicieux] which separate the basins of great rrversf — the ground where the fern, the little rush [petit ajonc] the heath, les pet its carex blaacs, the whitish moss spring spontaneously — almost all the soils infested with cvci le a chapelets, with dogs-tooth, with bent grass [agrostis,] red sorrel, and the little feverfew — that soil where, unless so clayey as to offer great, difficulty to cultivation, on- ly rye, potatoes, and buckwheat, can be made, and where sainfoin and the greater part of the crops of commerce cannot succeed — where, how- ever, trees of all kinds, and especially the resinous kinds, the wood-pine, the sea pine, the larch, the northern pine, and the chestnut, thrive better than in the best land — all these soils are without the calcareous principle, and all the improving ma- nures in which it is found, would give to these the qualities ofj and nourish the growths peculiar to calcareous soils. But there, more than elsewhere, it is especially necessary to avoid too much haste. Liming upon a great scale, ought not to be done, until after hav- ing succeeded in small experiments on many dif- ferent parts of the ground designed to be improved. *Though both the truth and the usefulness of this passage, in general, are admitted, yet it is incorrect in the position that none of the "compounds of lime" would be advantageously employed on calcareous soils. On tin- contrary, the sulphate of lime (gypsum) the most important compound as a manure, next to the carbonate, is most effective where the land has lime in some other form: and indeed (as has been maintained elsewhere) it seems generally inert and useless on soils very deficient in lime. — Essay on Calcareous Ma- nures, pp. 50, 92. tThe character of the lands called by the author "plateaux argilo-silicieux ," and which he refers to fre- quently in the course of his essay, can only be gather- ed from the context. They are poor, intractable under tillage, and but little pervious to water. The name in- dicates their composition to be silicious and aluminous earth almost entirely. It may be inferred that such lands resemble in soil the elevated level ridges which in lower Virginia separate dilferent water courses, and especially those which in addition to being miserably poor, are remarkably close, stiff, and "water-holding" — and are in some places called "cold livery land," "pipe-clay," or "cray-fish" soils. Soil of this kind, and of the most marked character, is particularly de- scribed at page 40, Essay on Calcareous Manures, 2nd ed. M. Puvis elsewhere speaks of this "argilo-si- licieux" soil as being found every where in France, and as known in different places under the various names of "terrain blanc," "blanche terre," in the south, "boulbenne," in the north, of "terre clytre,"and "ter- re a bois" — and in the basin of the Loire, "terre de So- logne." The last name would direct us to the lands of Sologne, which furnish it, as it may be presumed, as being of like quality. Arthur Young says "Sologne is one of the poorest and most unimproved provinces of the kingdom, and one of the most singular countries I have seen. It is flat, consisting of a poor sand or gra- vel, every where on a clay or marl bottom, retentive of water to such a degree that every ditch and hole wa3 full of it." Tr. Extent of surface to which lime is suitable. 7. A great proportion of the soil of France does not contain the calcareous principle. The country of primitive formation — the mountains of which the rock is not calcareous — many soils even, of which the subsoils enclose calcareous formations — the great and last alluvion which has covered the surluce, and which still composes it wherever the return waters have not carried it oh' with them — also extensive surfaces, in the composition of which the calcareous principle had not entered but in small proportions, and which small amount has been used by the successions of vegetation — all these kinds of soil, which compose at least three-fourths of the surface of France, to be fer- tilized, demand calcareous manures. If it is ad- mitted that one-third of all this space has already received aid from lime, marl, ashes of wood, or of peat, of bones burnt, or pounded, there will still remain the half of France to be improved by such means: an immense task, doubtless — but of which the results will be still more prodigious, since it will cause the products of all this great space to be increased by one-half^ or more. Of the various modes of applying lime to the soil. 8. Three principal procedures are in usage for applying lime. The first is the most simple, and is the most general wherever lime is obtained cheaply, and where culture is but little advanced in perfection, and hand labor is dear. This con- sists in putting the lime [the burned limestone] immediately on the ground in little heaps at 20 feet average distance, and each heap containing, according to the rate of liming, between a cubic foot of the stone, to half that quantity. When the lime has been slaked by exposure to the air, and has fallen into powder, it is spread over the surface, so as to be equally divided. 9. The second mode differs from the first in this respect: the heaps of stone are covered with a coat of earth, about six inches thick, according to the size of the heap, and which is equal to five or six times the bulk of the lime. When the lime be- gins to swell, in slaking, the cracks and openings in the heap are filled with earth: and when the lime is reduced to powder, each heap is worked over, so as to mix thoroughly the lime and the earth. If nothing hurries the labor, this last op- eration is repeated at the end of 15 days — and then after waiting two weeks more, the mixture is spread over the soil. 10. The third process, which is adopted where culture is more perfect, where lime is dear, and which combines all the advantages of liming without offering any of their inconveniences, consists m making compost heaps of lime and earth, or mould. For that, there is first made a bed of earth, mould, or turf, of a foot, or there- about, in thickness. The clods are chopped down, and then is spread over a layer of unslaked lime of a hectolitre* for the 20 cubic feet, or a ton to the 45 cubic feet of earth. Upon this lime, there *The hectolitre contains 6102.8 English cubic inch- es, or is equal to 2.83, (or about 2.6-7) Winchester bushels. Therefore the hectolitre is rather more in proportion to the hectare, than our bushel is to the acre. The decalitre (named next page) is the tenth of a hectolitre, and of course the "double decalitre," ii the fifth. Tk. 364 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 6. is placed another layer of earth, equal in thick- ness jto the first, then a second layer of lime; and and then the heap is finished by a third layer of earth. If the earth is moist, and the lime recent- ly burned, 8 or 10 days will suffice to slake it com- pletely. Then the heap is cut down and well mixed — and this operation is repeated afterwards before using the manure, which is delayed aslong as possible, because the power of the efi'ecl on the soil is increased with the age of the. compost— and especially if it has been made with the earth con- taining much vegetable mould. This method is the one most used in Belgium and Flanders: it is becoming almost, the exclusive, practice in Nor- mandy: it is the only practice, and followed with the greatest success, in La Sjjarthe. Lime in com- post is never injurious to the sod. It carries with it the surplus of alimentary manure which the surplus of product demands for its sustenance. Light soils, sandy or gravelly, are not tired by rep- etitions of this compost. No country, nor author, charges lime, used in this stafr?,with having been in- jurious to the soil. In short, this means seems to us the most sure, the most useful, and the least ex- pensive mode of applying lime as manure. 11. The reduction of burnt lime to powder by means of a momentary immersion in water, in handle-baskets, serves much to hasten the slaking, whether the lime is to be applied immediately to the soil, or in compost heSffl — some hours in this manner sufficing, in [/lace of wailing two weeks. However, the effect of lime, in this state, ma\ well be different, as we have then the hydrate of lime, and Jess of the carbonate of caustic lime. If great rains follow, this process is not without inconveniences, because then the. lime, which is already saturated with water, is more easily put in the state of mortar, which ought to be. avoided more than every other injury to the manure. The reduction of burnt limestone to powder. whether it be spontaneous, or by immersion, pro- duces in the compost a bulk greater by one-half or more, than that of the stone- — 10 cubic feet, pro- ducing 15 — or a ton, 10 cubic feet. This in- crease is not uniform with all kinds of lime; it is more strong with rich [grasses,] waters, and weaker with the poor [caux mmgres.]'] Liming as practiced i n different countries. In the Department of Ain. 12. The applications of lime in Ain date from fifty years back. At the present time, the soil which has been limed is still more productive than the neighboring, not limed. Nevertheless, Jiming is but beginning to extend, while marling, which was begun fifteen years later, has already covered many thousands of hectares. This is be- cause marling is an operation within the means ol poor cultivators, being accomplished by labor alone; while, liming requires considerable advances, especially in this country Where lime is dear, and the dose given is heavy. *An incorrect expression certainly, but literally translated. Tr. fWe are unable to give the meaning, with certain- ty, of these provincial terms. They are probably equivalent to our "hard and soft" water — terms which are as little descriptive of what they mean, as the French "eau.r grasses'' and "eaux maigres." The dressings vary in quantity, from 60 to 100 hectolitres the hectare, according to the nature of the ground, and often according to the caprice of the cultivators. Although these linnngs have not been made with all the" care and economy that was desirable, they have been very efficacious, when the soil has been sufficiently drained. The following tables, extracted from the registers of ihree contiguous domains, belonging to M. Ar- mand, three years before, and nine years during the progress of liming, give us the means of ap- preciating the results. The quantities of seed and of crops, are calculated in double decalitres, or in measures of fifths of hectolitres. Table of product of the domain of La Croisette. 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 Seed. 110 110 110 107 106 100 90 82 60 78 55 61 Product. 600 764 744 406 576 504 634 538 307 350 478 529 Seed. Product. 24 146 24 136 24 156 27 251 28 210 30 249 36 391 48 309 60 459 48 417 68 816 52 545 Table of product of the d main of Meyzeriat. 1822 1S23 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 RYE. WHEAT. Seed. Product. Seed. Product. 120 487 16 100 120 70S 16 103 • 120 644 18 84 112 504 28 22S 120 677 20 115 115 594 20 162 118 726 40 328 104 566 41 277 79 298 71 477 91 416 43 326 79 411 75 786 76 616 48 351 Tulle cf predict of the domain of La Baronne. YEARS. RYE. WHEAT. Sped. Product. Seed. Product 1822 110 505 22 180 1823 110 643 22 138 1824 110 662 24 149 1825 102 393 32 252 1826 110 612 32 187 1827 107 516 34 204 1S28 93 696 35 343 1829 84 608 40 268 1830 91 33.9 59 374 1831 92 411 40 295 1832 70 512 SO 649 1833 75 511 51 471 183.5.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 365 Theapplicationof8000hectolitres[8490bushels] of lime, of the value of 6000 francs [$1116] upon 32 hectares [80 acres] of ground, marie successive- ly during nine, years, has then more than doubled the crops of winter grain, the seed being deducted. The other crops of the farms have received a pro- portional increase, and the revenue of the propri- etor, in doubling, has annually increased two- thirds mure than the amount of the sum expend- ed in the purchase of lime. Still, there is not ye: Half the arable land limed, since of 66 hectares, only 32 have received this improvement. The products of 1834 are still greater than those of 1S33. But these are sufficient to prove the im- portance and utility of applying lime to suitable soils. Many other examples sustain these results; and from them all it. appears, that the wheat Beddings are increased from double to triple — that the rye lands, from bringing four to five [to one of seed] in rye, are able to bring six to eight in wheat — and that other products are increased in proportion. The melioration then is, relatively, much greater upon bad ground than upon good, since it is two- thirds and more on the wheat land, and on the rye lands the crop is increased in value three-fold. Flemish liming. 13. The use of calcareous manures in the de- partment of the North, as in Belgium, appears to be as old as good farming. It is now much less frequent in Belgium. The ancient and repeated limings have, as it seems, furnished to great part of the soil, all that is necessary to it, for the present. But the department of the North still receives lime, marl, or ashes, every where, or nearly so, where lime is not a component ingre- dient of the soil. They distinguish in this coun- try two kinds of liming. The first [chaulage fon- der,'] consists in giving to the soil every 10 or 12 years, before seed time, four cubic metres, or 40 hectolitres of lime to the hectare.* They often mix with the slaked lime, ashes of dead coal, or of peat, which enter into the mixture in the propor- tion of from a third to a half, and take the place of an equal quantity of lime. The other mode of liming [chaulage jPassohfnent,] is given in com- post, and at every renewal of the rotation, or upon the crop of spring grain. It is also in regular use in this country, still more than in Belgium, upon the meadows, on cold pasture lands, which do not receive the waters of irrigation. It warms the ground, and increases and improves its products. The older the compost is, the greater its effect, which lasts from 15 to 2D years, at the end of which time the dressing is renewed. 14. The limings of Normandy, the most an- cient of France, are kept up in the neighborhood of Bayeux, while elsewhere they arc forbidden in the leases: however, now they go over all the sur- face which has need of them; but in place of be- ing applied immediately to the soil, as in the an- cient method, the lime is almost always put in compost. * 46 bushels to the acre, English or American mea- sure. Liming of La Sarthe. 15. Of the modes of using lime, that of La Sarthe seems preferable. It is at once economi- cal and ]"■<> 'v.i i'xve, and secures the soil from all exhaustion. It is given every three years, at each renewal of the rotation, in the average quantity of 10 hectolitres to the hectare,* in compost made in advance, with seven or eight parts of mould, or of good earth, to one of lime. They use thiscom- I 0! I on the land lor the autumn sowing, and placed alternately with rows of farm-yard manure. This method, of which the success is greater from day to day, is extending on the great body of flat ar- gilo-si!icious lands, which border the Loire; and it would seem that this method ought to be adopt- ed every where, on open soils that permit surplus water to drain off' easily. On very moist soils, the dose of lime ought perhaps to be increased. We would desire much to inculcate with lorce the suitableness', and eminent advantages, of usijag at the same time lime and [alimentary] manure. licvii they do better still, in using at the same time a compost of lime with earth and dung. In addition, during the half century that the Man- ceaux have been liming, the productiveness of the soil has not ceased to increase. 16. The countries of which we have spoken, are those of France in which liming is most gen- eral. However more than half the departments I think, have commenced the use, and in a sixth, or nearly, it seems to be established. Doubtless, the first trials do not succeed every where. There is required a rare combination of conditions for new experiments, even when they have succeeded, to induce their imitation by the great mass. Still, successful results are multiplied, and become the centres of impulse, from winch meliorations extend. English lining. 17. The English limings seem to be established upon quite another principle from that of France. They are given with such prodigality, that the melioration upon the limed soil, has no need to be renewed afterwards. Whilst that in France we are content to give from a thousandth to a hun- dredth of lime to the tillable soil, from 10 to 100 hectolitres the hectare, they give in England from one to six hundredths, or from 100 to 600 hecto- litres the hectare. The full success of the method of our country might make us regard the English method as an unnecessary waste. It seems that they sacrifice a capital five, six, ten times greater, without obtaining from it a result much superior; and that without lavishing [alimentary] manures also afterwards, that the future value of the soil would be endangered, in the hands of a greedy cu'nivator. We will not urge the condemnation of a prac- tice which seemslo have resulted in few inconve- niencies. The abundance of alimentary manures which the English farmer gives to his [limed] soils, has guarded against exhaustion: and then, in very moist ground, they have doubtless by the heavy liming, made the soil healthy, and its na- ture seems modified for a long time to come; and such kinds, and where humus abounds, will take fll£ bushels to the acre. 366 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 6. up a heavy dose of lime, and as it seems, always without inconvenient consequences: there is then formed there the hamate of lime in the greatest proportion, and we will see that that this combi- nation is a great means of" productiveness in the soil.* Surface liming. 18. In Germany, where liming and marling, like most other agricultural improvements, have recently made great advances, besides the ordina- ry modes of application, lime is used as a surface dressing. They sprinkle over the rye, in the spring, a compost containing 8 to 10 hectolitres oi lime to the hectare, fifteen days after having sown clover. Also on the clover of the preceding year, they apply lime in powder, which had been slaked in the water oi the dunghill, the dose being less by one-hall: the effect upon the clover and the following crop of wheat is very advantageous. In Flanders, where they use lime mixed with ashes, it is particularly for the meadows, natural or artificial, and the application is then made on the surface. Burning lime. 19. The burning of lime is done with wood, with pit coal, or with peat; in temporary kilns, or furnaces, in permanent, or in perpetual kilns. It is burned in many places most economically with coal, but it is not so good a manure as the lime burned with wood, because, as it seems, of the potash contained in the latter case. There are but few places in which peat is used for this pur- pose; however, in Prussia, they succeed with three-fourths peat, and one-fourth wood. It is, doubtless, a very economical process, and the Su- citte a" Encouragement has given in its transac- tions plans of peat kilns; but i know not whether the operators who received prizes for their use, have continued the practice. The temporary kilns admit of the burning of a great quantity of lime; but the permanent kilns burn it with most, economy of fuel. In the first, 5 quintals of wood burn 4 quintals, or 1 ton, or 2^ hectolitres of lime — and in the others, the same quantity of wood will suffice for 6 quintals, or 3^ hectolitres. But in the permanent kilns such is the expense of construction and repairs, that they cannot be justified except when kept in frequent use. Coal burns lrom three to four times its bulk of lime — the shape of the kiln, the kind of lime- stone, and that of the coal, making the difference. Hydraulic lime is calcined more easily than the common [chaux grasse.] The eifg-shaped kilns for coal seem to be preferable to the conical, which are more generally niet with. *In this passage the author distinctly affirms the truth of the chemical combination in the soil of calca- reous and vegetable (or other putrescent) matter — or the power of calcareous earth to fix and retain enrich- ing matter — which is maintained in the Essay on Cal- careous Manures, (pp. 30, 31,) to be the most import- ant action of calcareous matter as an ingredient of soil. Still M. Puvis seems to attach much less importance to this than to other agencies of lime, which are con- sidered in the Essav as of little value in comparison. Tk. Precautions to be used in liming. 20. Whatever may be the method adopted for using lime, it is essential that, as with all calca- reous manures, it should be applied in powder, and not in a state like mortar — and upon the earth when not wet. Until die lime is covered up finally, all rain upon it ought to be avoided, which reduces it to paste, or to clots: and this injures its effect greatly, and even more than reasoning can explain. It ought not to be placed but upon soil, the surface mould of which drains itself natural- ly [by permitting the water to pass through.] On a marshy soil, unless the upper layer has been well dried, or in a very moist soil, from which the surface water does not sink or pass off easily, the properties of' lime remain as locked up, and do not make themselves seen, until, by new opera- tions, the vegetable mould has been drained and put in healthy condition. On an argillaceous and very humid soil, the use of marl, which is applied in great quantities, is preferable to that of lime, because that it can have a more powerful effect in giving the deficient health to the surface mould. On soil of this kind, a deep ploughing is a preliminary condition, es- sential to the success of either liming or marling: because in increasing the depth of the till- ed soil, we increase also the means of put- ting the surface into healthy condition. 21. To secure the effect of lime on the first crop, it ought to be mixed with the soil some time belbre the sowing of the crop:- however, if it is used in compost, it is sufficient that the compost may have been made a long time previously. Lime, whether alone, or in compost, spread dry upon the soil, ought to be covered by a very shallow first ploughing, preceded by a slight har- rowing, in order that the lime, in the course of til- lage, may remain always, as much as possible, placed in the midst of the vegetable mould. Lime, reduced to the smallest particles, tends to sink into the soil. It glides between the small particles of sand and of clay, and descends below the sphere of the nutrition of plants, and stops under the ploughed layer of soil: and when there in abundance, it forms by its combinations, a kind of floor, which arrests the sinking water, and greatly injures the crops. This is an inconve- nience of lime applied in heavy doses, and is has- tened by deep ploughing. [To be continued.] From the New England Farmer. MUD FOR MANURE. If you should find no mines of marl on your premises, worth working, it may be well to direct attentiou to wdiat a geologist would call alluvial deposites, or the mud lbund at the bottom of ponds, rivers, creeks, ditches, swamps, &c. Some ponds are totally dried up, in allot and dry summer; and all ponds and rivers are so diminished, by a copi- ous evaporation, as to leave part, and the richest part, of their beds uncovered. And these beds, where there has been no rapid current, are al- ways found to contain a rich mud. In some places, it reaches to a considerable depth. This mud, though taken from fresh waters, has been found to be a valuable manure, especially for dry, 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 367 sandy and gravelly soils. It has been known to have as good effect as dung from the barn yard, in the culture of Indian corn, on dry and sandy soils. The advantage of mud (or manure is not limited to a single season, for it mends, as it were, the constitution of the soil, and restores to a hill side, or an elevated piece of ground, those fine and fertilizing parts which rains and snows have washed away. But farmers on the sea coast have great ad- vantages over others, as respects the use of mud for manure. The sediment of salt water, which may be taken up along the shores of the sea, contains some fertilizing substances not to be found in fresh water deposites, and abounds more than any other mud with putrified animal sub- stances. If it be taken from flats, where there are or have been shell fish, it is calcareous as well as putrescent manure, and answers all the pur- poses of lime as well as of animal matters taken from farm yards, &c. The best manure, how- ever, is obtained from docks, and from the sides of wharves in populous towns, having been rendered richer from sewers, the scouring of streets, &c, as well as refuse animal and vegetable substances fallen or thrown into such places. Dr. Deane observed, that "mud lhat is newly taken up may be laid upon grass land. But if it is to be ploughed into the soil, it should first lie exposed to the frost of one winter. The frost will destroy its tenacity, and reduce it to a fine pow- der; after which it may be spread like ashes. But if it be ploughed into the soil before it has been mellowed, it will remain in lumps for several years, and be of less advantage." A layer of mud is an useful ingredient in a compost heap, and should be underlaid, or over- laid, or both, with quick-lime, or horse dung covering the whole with loam or other rich earth. But a still better mode of disposing of all sorts of earthy manures, is to lay them in farm yards to be thoroughly mixed with the dung and stale of ani- mals; and we believe this mode of management is in most general use by New England farmers. It requires more labor, and the increased expense of twice carting; but the advantage it aflbrds in absorbing and retaining the stale of cattle, will be more than equivalent to such labor and expense. From the Bucks County Intelligencer. HOW TO GET RID OF THE BEE MOTH. Conversing, a few days since," with an intelli- gent farmer in the south-west part of Bucks county, I queried with him relative to his success in raising bees, which were observed in a corner of his garden. I had noted nothing remarkable in the situation or position of the hives — neither was there any thing peculiar in their form — but the bees in all of them appeared uncommonly ac- tive. The farmer pointed to a number of boxes and calabashes, which he had placed in various parts of the garden, elevated in such a manner as to attract lorens, which I could perceive had established a residence in each of these simple and easily prepared apartments. These, he said, were the guardians of his bees; and they effect- ually protected the latter from their natural ene- mies'— the mode of doing which he thus briefly explained: "I raise the hive above the bench with little blocks at each corner, say from one and a half to two inches, so as to allow the wren to pass under it. This being done, the little domicils should be raised in different situations about the garden, ta- king care to have one or more of them contiguous to the bee-hives. The wrens will then watch the moth, with great assiduity, as I have frequently seen, often entering the hive after the miller, seiz- ing it, and bearing it to its young, or devouring it on the spot. I have often seen the little bird en- ter the hive, and in the twinkling of an eye returning with its prey, without, apparently, disturbing the bees in the ieast, or even manifesting the least de- gree of fear, although the bees were on all sides. Since I have been in this practice," he continued, "I am not conscious of having had a single hive materially injured by the bee moth." I observed a number of the habitations above named, about the garden, and they all appeared filled with sticks, as if occupied by wrens. My friend observed that he found it necessary not to leave the door of the entrance too large — as blue, birds would sometimes take possession under such circum- stances, and these were implacable enemies to the wren. This little specimen of practical philosophy pleased me exceedingly, and set me to reflecting how much useful knowledge might be obtained by a little observation, and at a very small share of expense. While on the other hand, by ne- glecting to make a proper use of our senses, we are continually persecuting some of our most useful auxiliaries in the animal creation! Take as a specimen the unrelenting persecution with which we follow the king-bird, as a bee catcher! Experience has proved that this bird never dis- turbs the working bees — but a quantity of drones have frequently been found in their crops! The black bird is also proscribed; and he is destroy- ed without hesitation by every urchin who can carry a gun. But observation teaches us that the principal food of all the different tribes bear- ing this name, is the various families of nox- ious insects which infest our fields and orchards — among which may be classed those destructive worms which have committed such ravages on our corn fields the present season. The wood- pecker and sapsucker have also been placed un- der ban, as enemies to the interest of the or- chardist. But the enlightened Wilson has shown that they should properly be ranked among his truest friends. lie also, if I mistake not, confirms the above trait in the character of the king bird. If our attention were more devoted to inquiries of this nature, besides the practical utility which would naturally result, we should, moreover, be taught alesson of humanity, and learn how much a knowledge of the laws of nature is to be preferred before the crude no- tions and false prejudices which so much abound in the world. "As he who studies nature's laws, From certain truths his maxims draws." AGRICOLA. From the Troy Budget. ELECTRO-MAGKETISM APPLIED TO MECHAN- ICAL OPERATIONS. An obscure blacksmith of Brandon, Vermont, sixteen miles south of Middlebury college, hap- 36S FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. pened, accidentally, to become acquainted with Professor Henry's discoveries in electro-magne- tism. Possessing one of those minds, which can- not be confined to the limits of a blacksmith shop — nor any shop less than the canopy of heaven — he applied this power (with which Professor Hen- ry astonished the scientific world) to the asti nish- ment of scientific mechanics. He turns three horizontal wheels around 50 times per second with this power. The wheels and shaft weigh eleven pounds. He has convinced Professors Henry and Bache, that, the power is sufficient for strong machinery. A detailed account of it wdl appear in the next number of Silliman's Journal. The Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer has purchased his first constructed machine, (or model) for the Rensselaer Institute in Troy, as a piece of school apparatus. No chemical nor philosophical appa- ratus, can hereafter, be considered perfeel without it. Whatever may be its late in mechanics, it will cause the "name of Thomas Davenport (the in- ventor) to accompany that of Professor Henry, to the ends of the earth. AMOS EATON. Sen. Prof, in the Rensselaer Institute. N. B. Professor Bache of Philadelphia, and Prof. Turner of Middlebury, Vermont, have given opinions in writing, which I have before me, (after examining the machine in operation) that Mr. Ds. application of Prof. Henry's discoveries may be made to move heavy machinery lor useful purposes. According to their views, another Li- vingston might make another Fulton, of the Brandon blacksmith. From tiic Cultivator. DEAR FRUIT. Loudon's Magazine for June, quotes the price of peaches in Covent Garden market, at £3 ($13.32) per dozen, about. Ill cents each! — cher- ries at £ 1 to £1 10s. per lb. — and strawberries at Is. 6d. (22 to 33 cents) per ounce! These were of course of ibrced fruit. Extracts from a Lecture delivered by Doctor Birkbeck, at the Society of Arts, Adelphi; December 9, 18:J4. ON Till: PRESERVATION OF TIMBER BY KY- An's PATENT OF PREVENTING DRY ROT. We have heard persons assert that it appears to them almost ridiculous to suppose that it ever can become necessary, on a large scale, to per- form any operation with a view to render timber durable, beyond that of properly seasoning it by exposure to the atmosphere. But is not this mere prejudice? Why should not timber be pre- pared by a particular process, which conveys something additional into it, and thereby effects a a chemical change in its nature, as well as leather is tanned? "A very effectual procedure has taken place, in regard to one form of animal matter, by the pre- servation of the skin from natural decay, by a pro- cess known by the name of 'Tanning.' This process will give a very good idea of Mr. Kyan's inven- tion. Tanning consists in protecting the leather and skin by the introduction of tannin, which is generally derived from an infusion or decoction of the bark of the oak. If no change were produced in the gelatine, which makes the largest part of the skin to be immersed in the tan-pit, it would undergo certain chemical changes. — it would pu- trify, and lose its tenacity; but ii a portion of ani- mal jelly is dissolved in water, and a iittlc of ihe substance added, similar to the tannin, a combi- nation will take place between the gelatine; a pre- cipitate will follow of the animal matter-, which is the tanno-gelatine, or a compound of tannin and gelatine, and is precisely that substance which is formed in the leather, and gives durability and | ower to resist the causes of decay. The same intention exists in the process of Mr. Kyan. Ii is true he does noi act on ihe gelatine of animal matter; but he does on the albumen: one of the approximate principles of vegetable matter, which appears to have been slightly perceived by Four- croy, but which was actually discovered by Ber- zelious, about the year 1SI3. "In order to obtain this vegetable matter (albu- men,) there are various substances which may be employed. The hibiscus esculentus yields it in considerable abundance: it is a West Indian plant, which Dr. Clarke mentions as adopted in Deme- rara, for the same ] urpose as in other islands the white of eggs and blood are employed in the process of clarifying sugar. The ficus indica, also, if di\ ided at the stem, will exude a consider- able quantity of' this matter. If the solution of the bi-chloride of mercury (which is the accent adopted by Mr. Kyan) is added to the vegetable matter, albumen, it will be (bund, when they come in contact, that, decomposition occurs." '■Mr. K van, who had been a series of years (since 1S12) engaged in trying a variety of ex- periments on the preservation of timber, was led to the present experiment by having, as he con- ceived, at length ascertained that albumen was the primary causeof putrefactive fermentation, and sub- sequently of the decomposition of' vegetable mat- ter. Aware of the established affinity of cor- rosive sublimate for this material, he applied that substance to solutions of vegetable matter both acetous and saccharine, on which he was then op- erating, and in which albumen was a constituent, with a view to preserve them in a quiescent and incorruptible state, and obtaining a confirmation of his opinions by the fact that, during a period of three years, the acetous solution openly exposed to atmospheric air had not become putrid, nor had the saccharine decoction yielded to the vinous or acetous stages of fermentation, but were in a high state of preservation; he concluded that corrosive sublimate, by combination with albumen, was a protection against the natural changes of vegeta- ble matter." "The mode in which the application of the. so- lution takes place, is in a tank similar to the model on the table. They are constructed of different dimensions, from 20 to 80 feet in length, 6 to 10 in breadth, and 3 to 8 in depth. The timber to be prepared is placed in the tank-, and secured by a cross beam to prevent its rising to the surface. — The wood being thus secured, the solution is then admitted from the cistern above, and for a time all remains perfectly still. In the course of 10 or 12 hours the water is thrown into great agitation by the effervescence, occasioned by the expulsion of the air fixed in the wood, by the force with which the fluid is drawn in by chemical affinity, and by the escape of that portion of the chlorine 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 369 or muriatic acid gas which is disengaged during the process. In the course of 12 hours th iff com- motion ceases, and in the space of 7 to 14 days (varying according to the diameter of the wood) the change is complete, so that as the corrosive sublimate is not an expensive article, the albumen may be converted into an indecomposible substance at a very moderate rate." After stating the result of various experiments, Dr. Birkbeck concludes by observing that tins dis- covery is yet in embryo, but that the public bene- fit that will result from it is beyond calculation. In an Appendix the various purposes to which I lie process is applicable are detailed: such as pre- venting dry rot, seasoning timber, protecting from insects, applying the process to Canada and Brit- ish timber, and preserving canvass, cordage, &c. from mildew. "Canada timber is much more liable to decay than that thrown in the northern parts of Europe, and for this reason is never used in buildings of a superior description. The principal of decay be- ing destroyed, as above shown, this objection is no longer in existence; and this kind of timber may now be employed with as jireat security as that of a superior quality and higher price. "The same observation applies with great force to timber of British growth, particularly to that of Scotland, much of which is at present considered of very little, if any value for durable purposes, on account of its extreme liability to decay, whether in exposed situations or otherwise. The present process will therefore render of considera- ble value, plantations of larch, firs of all kinds, birch, beech, elm, ash, poplar, &c, which are the chief products of the great wooded estates, and which, when prepared, may be advantageously employed to most useful purposes." '• Purposes for which the prepared Umber fyc, would be highly useful. — Houses, farm-houses, out-houses. Large timbers, floors, roofs, gutters, &c, furniture and all joiners work, preserved from dry rot, and perfectly seasoned. Posts, rails, gates, park pailing, fences, hop-poles, felloes, spokes, shafts, &c. &c. For these purposes any kind of timber may now be used, instead oi the more ex- pensive kinds. It will also supersede, in many cases, the employment of iron, from its acquired durability and greater economy." The additional expense of preparing timber for buildings, such as farm-houses, out-houses, &c. in Mr. Kyan's manner is estimated at the very moderate sum of 20s. per. load. From the London Mechanic's Magazine. MODE OF PRESERVING MILK FOR LOXG VOY- AGES. Provide a quantity of pint or quart, bottles, (new ones are perhaps best;) they must be per- fectly sweet and clean, and very dry, before they are made use of. Instead of drawing the milk from the cow into the pail, as usual, it is to be milked into the bottles. As soon as any of them are filled sufficiently, they should be immediately well corked with the very best cork, in order to keep out the external air, and fastened tight with packthread, or wire, as the corks in bottles which contain cider generally are. Then, on the bottom of an iron or copper boiler, spread a little straw; on that lay a row of the bottles filled with milk, Vol. HI— 17 with some straw between each, to prevent them from breaking, and so on alternately, until the hoiler has a sufficient quantity; then fill it up with cold water; heat the water gradually until it be- gins to boil, and as soon as that is perceivable, draw the fire. The bottles must remain undis- turbed in the boiler, until they are quite cool; then take them out, and afterwards pack them in hamp- ers, either with straw or sawdust, and stow them in the coolest part of the ship. Milk preserved in this way has been taken to the West Indies and back, and, at the end, of that time, was as sweet as when first drawn from the cow. From Lorrain's Husbandry. EXPERIMENTS IN TOPPING CORN. It was discovered early in August, 1810, that proper o-rasscs for soiling my cattle would soon be very deficient; and on the 20th of that month, one row of corn in a field of thirteen acres, was top- ped to ascertain how the plant would bear early cutting. It was thought that it had received no injury. On the 21st of the same month I com- menced feeding the cattle with the tops cut daily as wanred. These lasted them until the 18th of September. After this, the blades were stripped, commencing where the toppings began. They fed the cattle until the 5th October. In the process of topping and blading, one row was left entire, standing between the row which had been topped on the 20th of August, and an- other row which was topped on the 2d of Septem- ber. These rows were cut off by the roots on the 2d of October, and hauled in, and set up separate- ly under my own inspection. They were husked and measured on the Sth November. Produce of the row that had not been topped and stripped, nine bushels and five-eighths of corn in the ear. One of the rows which had been topped and stripped, measured seven bushels and six-eighths: and the other topped and stripped row mea- sured seven bushels and three-eighths of corn in the ear. Thus it clearly appears that mutilating the corn plant before its fruit is perfected, is a very injurious practice. The injury done to my crop by this mode of management was clearly seen some time before the three experimental rows were cut on". Throughout the whole field the husks were gen- rally dry and open, except on the row which had not been topped and stripped. On this they still retained a o-rcenish hue and were close set to the ear when the plants were cut off by the roots. 1811, I selected three rows of maize in the mid- dle of my field, as nearly alike as possible. The plants were then about two feet high. I cut off the tops of the middle row as low down as might be readily done without injuring the tassels, which were wrappid in their own leaves within the stalks. I could not observe that the stalks in the row which had been cut. grew any thicker, until new leaves had been formed from the crown of the plants. Before this happened, the stalks in the rows on either side of it seemed to be as thick again as those standing in it; and the ears grown on the plants in this row, shot, filled, and ripened about two weeks later than the rest of the field. As several writers on agriculture had asserted that the topg of potatoes might be cut and given 370 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6. to the cattle without injury to the crop, I cut oft' the tops from a row running through the middle of a very luxuriant patch. Care was taken to cut. them in that way which was supposed least likely to prove injurious to the future growth of the plants. The debilitated appearance of the second growth of the tops, determined me not to risk the second cutting of them. When the crop was gathered, the roots in the row that had been cut did not seem to be more than half as large as those in the rest of the patch. In fact, I have never seen any advantage arise either from carefully trimming, or ruggedly mutila- ting annual plants; on the contrary, much injury certainly ibllows. It is, however, probable that good housewives and ignorant gardeners will con- tinue to trim and mutilate the tops of their onions, as long as the world may happen to last, for the express purpose of making the roots grow more luxuriantly; unless perchance, they may happen to reflect, that the tops would not have existed, if nature did not considerthem as necessary to the well- being of the plant as its roots. Certain it is that the writings of many gentlemen who ought to have known better, are exactly calculated to con- firm them in this truly savage practice. From the Genesee Farmer. MANAGEMEJiT OF BEES. Mr. Tucker — In the Genesee Farmer of Au- gust 1st, one of your subscribers from Onondaga county writes — "I commenced keeping bees last, spring on the plan of Ulmus, in a long box, &c. but they have sent out swarms as usual, although there is room enough at home. I wish I could find some certain way of managing them, other than in separate hives." R. Honey, also, of North Union, says — "I wish that some of our corres- pondents would be so kind as to give a description through the medium of the Farmer as to the best mode or manner they know of, by experimental knowledge, of constructing a bee house, and give the particulars of the internal regulation and ar- rangement of their hives, boxes, &c. together with the improvements they may have made," &c. In compliance with their wishes, and those of other gentlemen similarly expressed through dif- ferent channels, I send you a statement of the manner in which I have managed my bees of late, together with a description of the hive re- cently invented and patented by me. I would re- mark that I have kept bees in a hive of the descrip- tion given below four years, and in all that time they have shown no signer inclination for swarm- ing; and in consequence of ventilating the hive in the manner I do, they have never been driven out- side the hive to take fresh air, as they often are out of our old fashioned hives for no other reason than that the air becomes so heated as to be insup- portable within. The hive should be made of boards, of a size say three feet high, three feet eight inches long, and one foot eight inches deep, (standing on legs like a bureau,) or any other convenient size, to suit the taste of the builder. This should be set in a room in the upper story of a house, or other building, with the backside against the wall of the building. In the front side of this hive should be a door sufficiently large, (say two feet high from bottom, by one and a half feet wide,) to open and examine the internal concerns of the hive at pleasure. This door should be cased within, and hung with hinges in the ordinary way, with a wooden button or a lock to hold it last when shut. The cover to the hive also, which should be made of a board an inch thick, should be hung with hinges on the backside, precisely in the man- ner of a chest lid, and may have a lock to fasten it in front, if necessary. The cover should project over the hive in front and at the ends, sufficient- ly to receive mouldings underneath. These moul- dings, as also the casing inside the door, will be essentially necessary, in order to hide the cracks and thereby shut out all destructive insects, and also to exclude the light. Underneath this cover, in the top of the hive, are to be four small open boxes, each extending from the front to the back- side of the hive, and sufficiently wide, so as in the aggregate to just fill the top of the hive. They should fit so close as not to admit of the bees passing up and down around the sides of the box- es, and they should each be about ten inches deep. They should be placed in an inverted position in the hive, and should rest upon a tier of slates, or narrow strips of board, extending from end to end of the hive, and placed at about half or three- fourths of an inch from each other. About one foot below these slats should be placed another tier, in like manner as the first, with the exception that the last may be placed a little wider apart than those on which the boxes rest. These tiers of slats should severally rest upon two narrow strips of board nailed or screwed on the end boards of the hive, and the slats themselves should all be fastened in their places by nails or screws. It is intended that the bees, in their accustomed manner of working, shall first fill the boxes, then work from the slats below down to the second tier of slats, and from these again down to the bottom of the hive. In the back side of the hive should be three apertures, which should extend through the wall of the house or building, into which three tubes should be inserted of sufficient length to reach from the inside of the hive to the outside of the house, the ends being cut slanting on the up- per side to make a lighting place for the bees. These tubes should be placed in a triangular po- sition, one above and two below. The upper one should enter the hive just below the upper tier of slats on which the boxes rest. The entrance through this tube should be four inches wide, by half an inch deep. The two lower tubes should enter the hive just below the second tier of slats, and should each be three inches wide, by half an inch deep. All the tubes should be inclining a lit- tle downward from the inner to the outward ends, that the water from without may drop off at the ends, and not run into the hive. These tubes should be the only places for the bees to pass into and out of their hive. In the four boxes above mentioned, there should be holes cut three inches wide by half an inch deep near the upper side of the boxes, so that the bees may pass freely from one box into another, as occasion may require. There should also be three small apertures cut in the side of the boxes directly over the holes last mentioned, to the top of the boxes, three inches Ions; by one-fourth of an inch, or a little more, in width, extending up to the cover of the hive. These should be'eovered by a piece of millinet laid loose on the top of the boxes, to prevent the 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 371 bees passing up through them. In the cover of the hive should be formed three grooves, extend- ing from the apertures last mentioned, to with- in about an inch of the back side of the cover, and there intersecting a mortice leading from thence to the back side of the cover. This mortice it will be seen, must be cut in the edge of the board forming the cover, and should be three inches long by half an inch deep; and should be covered on the outside by apiece of fine wire screen, or a piece of niillinet, sufficiently open to admit a free circulation of air through it, but not so open as to admit of flies or other insects to pass in. This mortice and those grooves, in connection with the apertures below, are to serve as a draft through which the heated air in the hive and the perspiration of the bees may es- cape, while at the same time a constant supply of fresh air lrom without is conveyed in through the tubes. When a hive of this description is obtained, the bees should be hived into one or more of the small boxes and placed in the hive, or if they are already in a hive of common construction, by turning il bottom side up, and placing one box at a time on the top of it, they can easdy be dri- ven into the boxes and placed in the hive, where they will immediately go to work. Here they will remain perfectly secure, and neither disturb the inmates of the house, or be disturbed by them. Some of the benefils to be derived from the management of bees in the manner here recom- mended may be stated as follows, viz: — 1st. By keeping bees in the house, the owner, or bee mas- ter, may exercise absolute control over his proper- ty, and instead of having it wrested from his hands improperly, appropriate it to his own use. 2nd. The bees would be secure from the inclemency of the weather; neither the scorching rays of a summer's sun, or the chilling winter winds, would effect them; they would also be kept both dry and comfortable, and consequently healthy. 3d. They would be secure from destroying insects. The hive should be so perfectly tight within the house, that nothing could molest them: and the tubes be- ing the only entrance from without, it is believed they will be too high arid too much secluded for insects, especially the bee moth, that fell destroy- er of the honey bee, to enter. 4th. They may be carefully examined at all times, to see if an enemy gets among them, and also how they pro- gress in their work. 5th. They will not be sub- ject to losses by swarming, as it is well known that bees will never swarm while they have suffi- cient room for their operations. If, however, they should become too numerous at any time to occupy one hive to advantage, they may be divi- ded in the following manner, viz: prepare ano- ther hive of the same size and construction with the one the bees occupy, place it in the room where it is to stand, then in a stormy day or even- ing, when the bees are all in their hive, take out all the boxes, with all the bees that may be in them, and place them in the new hive, and put the boxes belonging to the new hive into the old one at the same time. This will divide them nearly equal, and if either becomes too numerous again, divide them again in the same manner, (or connect the two hives by a tube, so that the bees can pass from one into the other,) remembering always to stop up the tubes of the old hive for one or two days after dividing a swarm, or until the bees in the new hive begin to work well in and out of the tubes of their new habitation; then unstop the tubes and all will work well. 6th. Honey may be taken from them at any time, even in the midst of summer; if the owner wish- es a box of fine white honey, he has but to take a spare box with him, and take out one of the box- es, supplying its place with the spare one; then take the box out of doors and turn it bottom side up, and rap on it until the bees all leave it. The bees will all return to their hive again, while the owner may enjoy in an eminent degree the fruits of their industry. 7th. The owner should be careful to leave honey sufficient in the hive for the use of the bees through the winter, which he may well afford to do, as it is well known that 10 or 12 pounds will winter a swarm of common size, even as far north as latitude 42 or 43°. Then in the spring the whole should be taken away, first by clearing the boxes above, and then by cutting the combs from the slats below.* The boxes may be cleared by taking them out of the hive, one at a time, turning it bottom side up and placing an empty box on it, and driving the bees into the empty box, which place in the hive. This may be done in a cool day in the spring without any danger to the one who performs the operation. This is the great desideratum in the art of keep- ing bees, and with hives of this construction you can take from them all the honey they have to spare, and still preserve their valuable lives. 8th. Bees work belter in a hive that is empty, than in one that is full; and by clearing it out wholly once in the year, and partially at other times, they will always have room sufficient for their operations. 9ih. Honey is far more delicate and more valua- ble when new than when it has been a long time in the hive; and by this process we may always have new honey. 10th. Bees kept in this man- ner would be much less liable to be robbed by other swarms. Being kept in the house they would be more secluded; other bees would not be so likely to be attracted thither by the smell of honey, and in the course of one or two years, they would become so numerous as to be able to repel any invasion of ordinary swarms. 11th. By keeping the bees in the manner here recom- mended, they can as well be kept in large towns and cities, as in the country, which is not the case when kept in the open air and on or near the ground. 12th. As a matter of profit, it is confi- dently believed that bees kept in this manner, will pay some hundred per cent, more on the capital invested, than any other stock our country will produce; yet instead of producing our own, we import a great quantity of honey every year. The only improvement I would suggest on the above plan, is, simply, to lay a small piece of board, say 10 or 12 inches square, in the hive on the bottom, so that if a bee miller gets into the hive she will deposite her eggs under the edges of the board. Then by opening the door and re- * If this operation is performed full early, and it should be early before the breeding season commen- ces, otherwise a quantity of eggs or young bees might be destroyed, a little honey should be left in one or more of the boxes, for the use of the bees until the spring flowers open. 372 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No, 6. moving the board occasionally, say once a week, you may destroy all the young worms before they get among the bees to do any harm. It' by open- ing the door for this or any other purpose, some few bees should fly into the room, as they often do, it. is easy to hoist a window and let them out, when they will immediately return to their hive. Some people might apprehend that bees kept in the house would be troublesome to the family within, but this is not the case. The room might be used for any other purpose as well as though the bees were not there. When the door to the hive is shut and the lid closed, as they ordinarily would be, there is no possibility of the bees get- ting into the room unless they come in from onto! doors, and if they should at any time come in through a door or window, they will be as anx- ious to return as the most timid could desire. When in a room they will often fly against a glass windovv until, wearied with exertion, they will drop down and die, if they can find no way out. • • * # * LEVI II. PARISH. Brighton, (near Rochester,) slug. 10th, 1835. REMARKS OJV PRICES AND PRODUCTS OF LANDS. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Charlotte, Jug. 19, 1S35. If the writers for the Register would each give some general description of the lands in his neigh- borhood, of their adaptation to the production ol this or that staple, the average amount they will produce per acre, and the prices at. which they sell, or could be purchased, it would be a great convenience to those who are looking out tor homes, and might be the means of giving a check to the tide of emigration which is desolating our country. I am myself desirous of selling my land that I may purchase elsewhere, with the same money, a lar- ger plantation. Good lands well suited to the pro- duction of tobacco, cannot be bought in this coun- ty for less than $10 per acre, and have ranged from that to $15 for the last twenty years, while those of inferior quality, range between $3 and 10. Now, there may be sections of my native state, where lands are selling much lower than this, and where I might be induced to locate my- self were I in possession of the requisite informa- tion. And certainly your periodical affords a me- dium through which such information might be imparted. For instance, if the lands on the lower James River are of great fertility, and selling at low prices, and that fact known to the people of middle Virginia, might not many who are seeking the rich valleys of the west and southwest, direct their attention that way? There are many, Mr. Editor, who are driven by stern necessity, to seek an asylum in the west, who would prefer remaining in Virginia, if with their means they could purchase land on which their families could be supported. But the great body of our planters are home-staying people, and are in fact ignorant of the quality of the lands in their own state, while their intercourse with their friends who have emigrated to the west, is the means of making them acquainted with both the cheapness and quality of the lands there. Would it not be wise in land-sellers to advertise, their pri- ces, the average product of their land per acre, and the description of crop raised? I live in the heart of a fine tobacco country, where the best planters raise from 1000 to 2000 weight of tobacco to the hand, and from 1^ to 4 barrels of corn to the acre. There is some agricultural improvement here; but where one man is improving his lands, five are murdering them. Plaster operates like a charm. An agricultural society has been estab- lished here, but it receives very little encourage- ment from the land-killing gentry. We have here a host of destructive insects called chinch-bugs, from the odor which they emit. They infest the corn, wheat and oats, in such numbers as to produce, in some instances, a total failure of crops. They are worse than drought. When the wheat is cut Ihey march in a column, which blackens the earth, to the corn field, and settling on that, they soon exhaust the whole of the sap, and leave the plants lifeless and dry. The man who would discover a remedy for them would be a benefactor to this section of coun- try. They made their appearance, here about fif- teen years ago, and I think, are becoming more and more destructive. How far their ravages ex- tend I am not able to say. Can you tell us where they come from, and whether they are common throughout Virginia, and also whether they are to be found elsewhere? Has any remedy been found for them, and what is it? Committees of the agricultural society are now examining into the condition and management of the farms of members of the society. I suppose they will lead the people to the first step towards improvement, the knowledge of thei/r faults. P. S. A communication in your last number on the subject of the lands of Northampton, is a very exccllent specimen of the plan I propose to the wrilers for the Register, in regard to the lands in their respective counties. SOILS, AND AGRICULTURAL ADVANTAGES OF THE FLORIDAS. No. 3. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Plantation Wascissa, Aug- 26, 1835. My preceding letters must limit for the present, further observation on the soils of the eastern dis- trict. Desultory and brief as they necessarily have been, I yet hope they have proved sufficient- ly interesting to excite the attention of emigrants, to an examination of the lands they feebly de- scribe— and for which there can be no period so propitious as the present autumn; as from the cer- tain removal of the Seminoles during the coming winter, speculators are already anticipating a rich harvest in the selection of choice tracts. Assu- redly these lands, so happily located for the Atlantic market, and sea ports, and blessed with the security of our own unrivalled government, must be more eligible, for the American emigrant, than the far distant and revolutionary Texas. 183.5.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 373 1 proceed westward on my route of observation. From the confines of Alachua to the banks ol the Suwanee River, are found the barren wastes, which detract so largely from the otherwise ver- dancy of Florida. The country, for many miles inward front the gulf, is here one continuous, un- varying and steril pine forest: and the traveller leaving the rich alluvials of Alachua, with their varied and umbrageous forests, becomes sadly "outof conceit with thecountry," as, mile af ermiie, he still finds his desolate road extending over an eye-fatiguing flat, whose only growth, as far as sight can reach, is the stiff, branchless, and mo- notonous pine — whilst the earth, a dazzling white sand, is exposed to the clear rays of a tropical sun, without even the protection of grass or shrub. This continues with little alleviation or improve- ment, for upwards of 50 miles, to the borders of the Suwanee, when the traveller hails with the fe- verish delight of an Arab, the majestic live oaks, indicating the banks of that long wished for stream. I need not attempt a minute analysis of these purely southern barrens. No one, I appre- hend, will be attracted thither, be the magic of my pen ever so persuasive. It is enough there- fore, to say, that superficially, it is a white gravel- ly sand, which, on deeper examination, is found based on a cold clay of yellowish complexion, so strangely cohesive, as to form an indissoluble and distinct mass between the sand and the substrata of coarse lime shell. This section is almost en- tirely without settlement. Its dwarfish and stint- ed pine sufficiently attest in their ■monopolizing growth, its barrenness — whilst the want of whole- some water, and the absence of all pasturage, have caused even the restless "Squatter" to shun its desolation. Before taking leave of the eastern district, hav- ing now reached its western limit, I may with a candid acknowledgement of my superficial know- ledge of the science, express my conviction, that its geological character,especially east of the St. John's River, is entirely of a secondary and transitive for- mation. We find no evidence of a primitive organi- zation, neither silex, quartz, nor any of the combi- nations of mica. Every examination of soils on the other hand, exhibit throughout the peninsula, the unvarying presence — first, of testaceous shells, and sea sand — second,of crustaceousshells,marsh mud, with putrescent saline vegetables — and third, of gravelly earth, with decomposed and fibrous veg- etable matter. The proportion of these organic strata are doubtless variable, creating in their dif- ferent excess, the rich alluvial bottoms, and less fertile uplands — the former indicating a later alien- ation from the sea, and the latter a longer expo- sure to terrestrial vicissitudes. The Suwanee is the boundary, dividing the eastern and middle districts; but ere we cross it, let us momentarily admire its bold and picturesque banks — its pellucid waters, so "Darkly, deeply, beautifully blue — " and its silent, meandering, yet swiftly gliding course. Its tributaries take their rise in the south- ern parts of Georgia, and are many of them of great length: but it is not till after their junction with the soft-named and sombre With-la-cov-chic, that'the Suwanee is every inch the monarch. It is immediately below this "meeting of the wa- ters," that arise the notable "Sulphur Springs," and which if Rumour be not false-mouthed, pro- mise to realize, in their efficacy, the long sought for "Fountains of Youth," of *i)e Leon, and De Soto. I have not as yet been credibly informed, that these springs have caused "Decrepid age to smooth Ins wrinkled front — " but I have witnessed some surprising and perma- nent, efiects upon bed-ridden and deformed crip- ples, who had lor years ne'er trod the earth, until resuscitated by a draught of these magical waters. Obstinate rheumatism, long endured dyspepsia, and affections of the liver, are radically cured, and with astonishing celerity. The magnitude of the spring being sufficiently large to allow crowds to bathe at the same time, and its temperature being delightfully cold, many resort thither merely for amusement. There is little doubt of these springs rising in notoriety. The waters are composed of sulphur, nitre, magnesian earth, and carbonic acid. Buildings are now being erected suitable for the accommodation of invalids and tourists. From the site of the springs, the Suwanee continues, through the centre of Florida, dividing it almost equally, to the gulf, a distance of nearly 100 miles, a broad, expansive, and navigable stream. Projects are now in contemplation, with every promise of consummation, to render this hither- to profligate river, subservient to the uses of man. A charter was last year obtained, incorpo- rating a company, to establish, by means of steam boats up the Suwanee, and a rail road across to the St. John's, a line of internal communication, connecting the waters of the gulf and Atlantic: and which, on accomplishment, will not only expe- dite the intercourse between New Orleans and the Atlantic ports, and lessen the present hazardous navigation, but will more immediately benefit Fk- rida, in creating a rise in the value of her widely vacant lands. Crossing the Suwanee, we enter upon a part of Hamilton county, and the appearance of thecoun- try is very much of the same character as was described on the eastern bank, the only diflerence being perhaps, a slight improvement in the soil, from the putrescence of a thicker foliage, but ge- nerally, until we approach the " Oscilla flats," a distance of some forty miles, the same sandy level, interspersed with "Byegals," and lime sinks, and covered with gaunt pine trees, which here correct- ly exhibit Euclid's definition of a straight line — as "length without breadth," continue to weary and disappoint the wayfarer. The banks of the Oscilla, however, seem the magic bounda- ry of good and evil — for, whilst on the one side are visible, verdant and diversified hills — on the other the eye is fatigued with the wide spreading flat of branchless pines. I must not here allow myself to be understood as asserting the absence of good lands, throughout the extensive section lying between the rivers Suwanee and Oscilla. In such assertion I should be erroneous. My mean- ing only includes that section of country exposed to the traveller's gaze. To the right and north- ward of this roate, though distant from view, there is an extensive section of some most superior lands; and I little risk contradiction in declaring that, the middle and western portions of the coun- ty of Madison, contain large tracts of land infe- rior in richness and variety to none to be found in the middle district. I allude particularly to the 374 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 6. settlement known as "Ilickstown;" and it is my regret that the want of personal inspection com- pels me thus briefly to dismiss the notable supe- riority of the "Hammocks" in that settlement. Faithful and disinterested reports have described them to me as being of a dark chocolate com- plexion, and dense with a luxuriant growth of magnolia, wild cane, tulip and dogwood. The county of Hamilton bordering the Suwa- neeon the west, is the first we enter, of those con- stituting the middle district. The county of Mad- ison is adjacent, and together, they comprise the country lying between the Suwanee and Oscilla rivers, from The line of Georgia to the gulf. Next thereto, being the western boundary of the Oscil- la, lies Jefferson county, and beyond it on the west, the counties of Leon and Gadsden. These five counties, contiguous to each other, and con- taining some 2500 voters, or thereabouts, consti- tute the "middle district of Florida,'''' and are bounded on the north by the state of Georgia — on the east by the Suwanee river — on the west by the Apalachicola — and on the south by the gulf of Mexico. It is this district which essentially deserves our most labored attention — for whether it be from fortuitous or intrinsic circumstances, it cannot be denied, that at present, it is prominent- ly first, above all other sections in the territory, in general prosperity. It is not the province of these letters to investi- gate the causes which have led to this prominence of sectional improvement, farther than those may have originated from agricultural success. Doubt- less it has been much owing to the enterprise and intelligence of her denizens, as well as to those local advantages which might arise from her im- mediate proximity to her sister states, and her possession of the seat of government — or to her natural advantages of varied richness, good wa- ter, and picturesque landscape. Be it however from one or all these hypothetical causes, I may, as an indisputable evidence of her actual increase of wealth and population, state that her cotton ex- ports for 1827, were only 338 bales — whilst they amounted last year, (1834,) to 15,870 bales, of in- creased weight. This fact taken from the pub- lished annual enstom house report, so strongly in- dicating an improvement in agriculture, immedi- ately concerns the aim of these letters, and in- vites the consideration of the producing causes, which my next letter, I trust, will be enabled sat- isfactorily to exhibit, as originating in the rich soils, and improved advantages, of the middle dis- trict. FARQ. MACRAE. From the Silkworm. INSTRUCTIONS IN THE ART OF MANAGING SILKWORMS. [Chiefly compiled from the work of Count Dandolo, Milan, 1824. 4th edition.] Translated from the Italian. New York, April, 1834. By Charles Rhind, Jun. The following instructions are adapted to five ounces of seed or eggs. If the quantity be in- creased, the space they occupy, and the nourish- ment given them, can be increased in proportion. As the worms produced from this quantity of eggs will, in their last age, or stage, occupy 500 yards of grating, the room ibr this purpose should be capable of containing on each side 10 yards of grating, and have sufficient height to receive 5 frames horizontally, and leave room to walk round them. If the height is greater, the other dimen- sions may be smaller. General observations and implements. The room where the silkworms are raised should have, at least, one door and one window, and it would be better there should be two or more. The windows should be glazed, that the light may en- ter, not only for the convenience of altending to the worms, but also for their health, as darkness is injurious to them. They should not, however, be exposed to the rays of the sun. They should be ventilated, if possible, both in the floor and roolj or, on a level with both, to open and shut by slides. One of the low ventilators should be made in the door. There should be a stove, and one or more chim- ney places. The chimney place is of much use to burn straw or chips when a blazing fire is re- quisite for changing the air. The stoves serve to heat the room at any time. A Franklin stove will answer both purposes. One or two thermometers and a hygrometer should be kept in the room to regulate the heat, and determine the degree of humidity or dry- ness. Another appendage is necessary to purify the air when it becomes deteriorated by ihc exhala- tions of the worms and their excrements, the pu- trid leaves which collect, the breath of atten- dants, or the use of lights at night. This con- sists of a bottle of strong glass, and a large mouth, with a cork stopper, and a smaller bottle. In the last is put one pound oil of vitriol (sulphu- ric acid,) kept well closed with a ground glass stopper. In the larger bottle put six ounces com- mon salt, three ounces powdered manganese, mix- ed with two ounces water, or one pound saltpe- tre. Pour on the mixture of salt, manganese, and water, or on the saltpetre, a spoonful or small wine glass full of oil of vitriol, and a white vapor is produced which purges the air. This vapor is not only more wholesome, but less disagreeable to those who breathe it. It may also be obtained by a mixture of two-thirds of pure nitre and one- third manganese, pounded and well mixed to- gether, placed in a spoon or wine glass, on which are poured a few drops of oil of vitriol. This process may be repeated as often as necessary to purify the air. It is also necessary to have cartoon boxes, in which to place the eggs, and others on which to place the worms when they are produced, and small tables, or baskets with a handle. Preparations for hatching the ivorms. Those who, in the preceding year, have pur- chased the seed, (eggs,) and have them in the cloths where the worms laid them, ought, on the approach of the proper season, to prepare them. This is the mode: Plunge in a pail of pure water the cloths con- taining the eggs, and leave them there about six minutes. Take them out, let them drip for two 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 375 or three minutes, spread them upon a table, and with a scraper, or knife, not very sharp, separate the eggs from the cloths. Put them in a basin and pour water on them, gently stirring them. Those that are not good will float, which can be skimmed ofl and thrown away. To take the rest from the water, filter them on a rag. Put them in a clean basin and wash them again with some sound light wine, and gently stirring or rubbing them. White is preferable to red wine. Strain ofl' the wine, spread the eggs on cloths, place them on a tight floor, or on gratings, and in two or three days they will dry. When they are well dried, put them on pewter plates, or copper tinned, in layers, not more than half a finger high, and keep them in a fresh, dry place, free from mice, until the time for hatching them. The greater number of cultivators of silkworms buy the seed. The color should be well looked to. It should be bright gray or asli color. The yellowish or reddish eggs do not generally pro- duce any thing. The white have already pro- duced. To hatch them, artificial heat is requisite. This is produced by the stove. The eggs should be placed in cartoon boxes, in proportion to the quantity they are to contain. A box six inches square, with sides half an inch high, is sufficient for an ounce of eggs. Number the boxes. There should in the room be tables or gratings jutting from the wall, and an inch apart from it. If there are many of them, place one above another a yard apart. Place the boxes on the grating so that they may be conveniently examined. Let them be kept separate, that the worms may not pass from one to the other. Place the thermometer near the boxes to ascer- tain accurately the heat of the place, as the cham- ber may not be uniformly heated, the heat being greater in the higher than in the lower part of the room, and nearer the stove than at a distance. The eggs which are kept in the warmest place are soonest hatched. The overseer should have a man with a book to note, down his observations. He should note down: 1st, the number of each box, and the quantity of eggs it contains; 2d, the day and hour in which the worms are hatched; 3d, the quantity of leaves that he gives them; 4th, the degree of the thermometer and hygrometer; 5th, whatever may appear worthy of observa- tion. Hatching of the worms. When every thing is prepared, and when the mulberry trees have put forth their leaves, so that after ten days they may supply the aliment ne- cessary for the worms that may be hatched, the overseer puts the eggs in a box, and marks the observations mentioned in the preceding chapter. The temperature of the chamber near the place where the eggs are put, should be 63J,-0; this is obtained by increasing the fire, should the tem- perature be less, and by opening the ventilator, and even the door, should it be greater. This temperature should be observed two consecutive days. On the third day the temperature is raised to 66; on the fourth to 68; on the fifth to 70; on the sixth to 72; on the seventh to 75; eighth, 77; ninth, 79; and on the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, to 81 degrees. It is to be observed, that the earlier or later hatching of the worms depends not only on the heat of the stove, but also on the manner in which the seed has been kept during the course of the year. If it has been kept in a temperature rather warm, it will hatch sooner, and vice versa. When the time of hatching draws nigh, the seed should be stirred once a day with a spoon — not with the fingers. When the eggs assume a whitish color, indi- cating that the worm is already formed within, pieces of white paper are placed upon them, pierced, that dust may not collect there. These pieces of paper should cover the whole box. Up- on the paper should be placed small twigs of mul- berry, having three or four tender leaves, and these should extend over the whole box. The worms, almost as soon as hatched, pass through the holes in the paper, and attach themselves to the leaves; the paper is then replaced by a fine net. But few worms are hatched the first day, and being kw, it is better to throw them away; but if it is wished to keep them, put them in a corner of the sheet, distinct from the others, which may be hatched on the subsequent days, and in order to make them equal with the last, on the two follow- ing days give them only half the quantity of leaves given to the others, as it is of much advan- tage to have the worms alike. When the temperature of the apartment reach- es 75 degrees, the atmosphere becomes too dry, as the hygrometer will indicate, and may injure their growth. Then place in the room two plates of water, of about four inches diameter, and the evaporation will temper the dryness. The room for the worms is supposed to be prepared. When first hatched, they occupy but little space, and may be left where they were born un- til the third change, occupying as at first (the di- rections are understood to be given for five ounces of seed) an area of about four yards square; at the second change eight, and at the third nineteen. This being understood, gratings (made of reed in preference,) sufficient for this area, are placed in the room, and the corresponding numbers, written on slips of paper, are attached to them. Whether the worms are kept in the room where they were hatched, or removed to another, the first day the thermometer should be at 75 de- grees, for the heat should be diminished in pro- portion as the worm grows, and gathers strength. If a cold unfavorable storm should retard the developement of the leaves of the mulberry, and make the cultivator apprehensive, for the fate of his worms, the temperature should be diminished, and this will retard the hatchings; and if the worms are already hatched, will diminish, their hunger. But it should not be reduced lower than 70, or 68 degrees, and the diminution should be made gradually. When the newly hatched worms go out in great abundance, and a bubbling of the worms is seen, place twigs on paper with a number corres- ponding with that on the box, so that those hatch- ed at the same time may be near each other. The twigs should not be taken up with the fingers, but with a hook, so as not to touch the worms. The twigs should be placed apart from each other, that there may be room for placing between them leaves finely cut, and the branches may beempti- 376 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 6- ed of a portion of the worms, if they are too thickly crowded. In order to have a proper distribution, divide each sheet of paper into four parts; and in this manner the worms produced from one ounce may be easily distributed on four sheets, which they should occupy till the first change. The remain- der ol" the worms are distributed in the same man- ner; then a fnw tender leaves finely cut are given them, distributed so that by degrees the entire su- perficies of the sheet may be covered with worms. All the worms are generally hatched in two, or perhaps three days; whence the first will be little larger than the second; and as it is of much im- portance to have them of the same size, it is ne- cessary, at first, to give them (the first) less food, and to ! vaiT with the consistence of soils: the first two kinds are more favorable to forming ,he7 0USht 1o bc enial] on Hglrt and sandy soils— and may, without ill consequences, be heavy on clay soils. gram, while the latter favors more, the growth of straw, grasses, and leguminous crops. It is bet- ter ibr the improvement of the soil, but a heavier dose of it is required. Magnesian line acts very powerfully, but ex- s the soil if given in a large dose, or if it. is not followed by alimentary manure in abundance. It has exhausted some districts in England, and entire provinces of America,* and it. is to this kind that seem due most of the complaints made against lime. By chemical processes the farmer may make himself sure of the nature of the lime which he uses. Pure lime is commonly white, and is dissolved without any thing being left, in nitric or muriatic acid. Silicious lime is often gray, and leaves a sand) residue [after solution,] which is rough to the touch. Argillaceous lime is obtained from stones which have a clayey odor and appearance: it is common- ly yellow — and leaves, after the solution, a resi- due which is mostly an impalpable powder, [etqui prend en masse,] which may be formed into a mass when wet. Magnesian lime is made from stone commonly colored brown or pale yellow; it forms a white cloud in nitric acid, diluted with water, and used in less quantity than enough for saturation. *The author has been deceived by exaggerated ac- counts of injury from liming in America. It is prob- able that wherever it occurred, it was caused by the usual ignorance of the action of lime: from erroneous- ly considering it as an alimentaiy, and directly fertil- izing manure, and after applying it, wearing out the soil by continued grain crops. Such effects are spo- ken of by Bordley. En. Farm. Rig. Vol. Ill— 49 The dose ought to vary according as the soil is more or less pervious to water, or as drained well or ill by its texture. Small applications to soils from which the superfluous water does not pass easily, are but little felt; but if the dressing is heavy, and the ploughing deep, the lime aids the draining, and adds to the healthy state of the soil. St may be conceived that the quantity of lime ought also to be increased with the annual quanti- ty of rain that falls — because in proportion to that quantity ought the openness of the soil, and its fitness for draining, to be extended. Nevertheless, the practices of the departments of the North, and of La Sarthe, seem to indicate the average dressing which suits in general for land: thus the liming of the North, which every ten or twelve years gives to the soil 40 hectolitres of lime to the hectare, or a little more than three hectolitres a year, agrees with that of La Sarthe, which gives eight or ten hectolitres every three years. The first plan gives at one dressing what the other distributes in four: as both make a like average, it may be thence inferred that the earth demands annually three hectolitres of lime to the hectare, [3| bushels to the acre,] to sustain its fe- cundity. But as neither the soil nor the plants consume all this quantity of lime, it is to be be- lieved, that at the end of a greater or less length of time, the soil will have received enough to have no more need of it for a certain space of time. Marnier of treating limed lands. 25. After having by liming, given the soil a great productive power, having put it in condition to produce the most valuable crops, which are of- ten also the most exhausting, it is necessary to husband these resources — to give manure in re- turn for the products obtained — to employ as litter, 386 FARMERS' REGISTER. rNo.7 and not as food, the straw, now increased by one- half — to raise grass crops from the soil now fitted to bear them with advantage — in short, to modify the general plan, and the detail of the culture ac- cording to the new powers of tiie soil, the prices oi commodities, and to local conveniences. However, it is not necessary to hurry the change of the rotation. Such an operation is long, diiii- cult, very expensive, and ought not to be execu- ted but with much deliberation. Effects of lime on the soil. 26. The effects of lime, although similar to, are not identical with those produced by marl; and the qualities of soils limed, differ in some points from those of natural calcareous soils. The grain from limed land is rounder, firmer, gives less bran, and more flour, than that from marled land: the grain of marled land is more gray, gives more bran, and resembles that made upon clover, though it may be preferable to the latter. The grain of a limed soil is more like that from land improved with drawn ashes. Limed land is less exposed to danger from drought than marled land, on soils naturally calcareous. The crop is not subject to be lodged at flowering time, when the sowing was done in dry earth. 27. In limed earth, weeds and insects disappear. The earth, if too light, acquires stiffness, and is lightened if too clayey. The surface of the ar- gilo-silicious soil, before close and whitish, is made friable, and becomes reddish, as if rotten: it. har- den? and splits with drought, and is dissolved by the rains which suc< eed. This spontaneous loos- ening of the soil facilitates greatly the labor of the cultivator, the movement of the roots of the growing plants, and tiie reciprocal action of the atmosphere upon the soil, which remains open to its influence. All these new properties which the limed soil has acquired, doubtless explain in part the fertil- izing means which calcareous agents bring to the soil: but. we think it is still necessary to seek some of these causes elsewhere. 28. Lime, according to the recent discoveries of German chemists, seizes in the soil the soluble humus or humic acid, takes it. from all other bases, and forms a compound but slightly soluble, which appears, under this form, eminently suitable to the wants of plants. But as this compound is not so- luble in less than 2000 times its weight of water, while without the lime, the humus is soluble in a volume of water, less by one-half^ it would fol- low that, in consequence of lime, the consumption of this substance, and the productive power of the. soil would, in like proportion, be better preserved. Since the products of the soil increase much from the liming, while the humus is economized, since these products borrow very little from the soil. which remains more fertile while thus yielding greater products, it follows that the principal ac- tion of the lime consists, at first, in augmenting in the soil, and in the plants, the means of drawing from the atmosphere the vegetable principles which they find there, and next, in aiding, accord- ing to the need, the formation, in the soil or the plants, the substances which enter into the compo- sition of plants, and which are not met with ready formed either in the atmosphere or in the soil. The researches upon these various points are curious, important, interesting to practice as well as to science — and will lead us to explain, by means not yet appreciated, the action of lime up- on vegetation. absorption by plants of the principles of the atmos- phere, in the vegetation on uncultivated soils. 29. Saussure has concluded, from his experi- ments, that plants derive from the soil about one- twentieth of their substance; and the experiments of Van Helmont and of Boyle have proved that considerable vegetable products diminish very lit- tle the mass of the soil. But this fact is still better proved by the observation of what passes in un- cultivated soils. Woodland that is cut over in regular succession [taillds] produces almost indefinitely, without being exhausted, and even becoming richer, the mass of vegetable products which man gathers and re- moves, and of which the soil does not contain the principles. If, instead of woodland thus par- tially and successively cut over, we consider upon the same soil a succession of forests, and, for greater case of estimation, resinous forests, we find, for the products of the generation of an age, forty to fifty thousand cubic feet to the hectare. This product is less than that of the resinous fo- rests of many parls of the country, and yet it is nearly equal in bulk to half of the layer of the productive soil itself: it represents an annual in- crease of 24,000 weight of wood to the hectare — and which is produced not only without impover- ishing, but even while enriching the soil, by an enormous quantity of the droppings and remains of all kinds. These products which do not come from the soil, are then drawn from the atmosphere, in which plants gather them by means of particular organs designed for that use. These organs are the myriads of leaves which large vegetables bear — aerial roots, which gat her these principles either ready formed in the air, or which take up there the elements, to combine them by means of ve- getable power. But these aerial roots exert quite a different and superior energy in gathering the constituent principles of plants in the atmosphere, to that of the roots in the ground — since the former furnish nearly the whole amount of the vegetable mass, while the latter draw but very little from the soil. 30. Plants may well find in the atmosphere the greater part of the volatile principles which com- pose them — the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and azote. But it is not so easily seen whence they obtain the fixed principles of which their ashes are composed. These products could not exist ready formed in the soil — for the saline principles contained m the ashes of a generation of great trees, which would amount to more than 25,000 weight to the hectare, would have rendered the soil absolutely barren, since, according to the ex- periments of M. Lecoq of Clermont, the twen- tieth part of this quantity is enough to make a soil steril. We would find a similar result in accu- mulating the successive products of an acre of good meadow. It is then completely proved that the saline principles of plants do not exist ready formed in the soil. They are no more formed in the atmosphere, or the analyses of chemists would have found them there. However, as the 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 387 intimate composition of these substances is not jet perfectly known, their elements may exist in the atmosphere, or even in the soil, among the substances which compose them. Neither can it be said that these salts may be derived from the atomic dust, which floats in the air; for this dust is composed of fragments organic and inorganic, carried especially to the plants themselves, and then, in estimating this atomic matter at the most, we will scarcely find in it the hundredth part of the saline substances contained in the vegetable mass produced. We ought then to conclude that the saline substances of plants are formed by the powers of vegetation, or of the soil. 31. In like manner as with the saline principles, the lime and the phosphates of ashes ought to be due to the same ibrees, whether that the roots take up their unperceived elements in the soil, or that the leaves gather them in the atmosphere. This consequence results evidently from this fact — that plants grown in soils, of which the analy- sis shows neither lime nor phosphate, contain them notwithstanding in large proportion in their fixed principles — of which [or of the ashes] they often compose half the mass.* Absorption of plants, in vegetation on cultivated soils. 32. Vegetation on uncultivated soils operates under conditions altogether different, from those of the cultivated, so that the results receive modifica- tions which ii is important to examine. Nature produces, and continues to produce, all the vegetable mass in spontaneous growth, with- out any other condition than the alternation and succession of (hi1 species. In vegetation on culti- vated land, by bringing together the same indi- vidual plants which are to grow abundantly on a soil and in a climate which, in most cases, are not those which nature had designed, there are re- quired, besides the general condition of alternation of the species, frequent tillage, of the soil, and means to repair its losses, that the culture may be productive, and be continued. However, with these new conditions, the force of absorption of plants on the atmosphere still furnishes the greater part of the vegetable principles in soils not limed — and still more in limed soils. To form a precise idea, we will take it in the land of the writer, its culture and its biennial ro- tation. As the same qualities of soil are found elsewhere, as no particular circumstance increases or impairs its products, there would be found simi- lar results, tor the same qualities of soil, with a different culture. The inferences which we will draw from ours, will apply then to all others. On our soil of the third class, [or worst quality] fallow returns every two years, with a biennial manuring of 120 quintals to the hectare. This mass contains more than four-fifths of water, which should not be counted as manure, and con- sequently, the substance which serves for the repa- ration of the soil is reduced to 24 quintals. We reap, in rye, straw, and buckwheat, after the year * This fact is explained very differently by the Es- say on Calcareous Manures (Ch. VII) where it is used to sustain the doctrine of neutral soils. Ed. of fallow, a dry weight of 40 to 50 quintals on an average. If it is supposed that all the manure is consumed, or employed in forming vegetable sub- stance, still the soil would have furnished IS to 20 quintals more than it received, and which excess would be due to the power of absorption, whether of the soil, or of the plants, on the atmosphere. On lands of middle quality, which yield a crop every year, with a double manuring, that is to say, of 48 quintals of dry manure, in two years there is a product in wheat, maize, or potatoes, which amounts to from 12 to 15,000 weight, 120 to 150 quintals, of which two-thirds, or 80 quintals at least are derived from absorption. On soils of good quality, with a manuring of one-third more than the last, which is equal to 64 quintals of the dry substance to the hectare, there are obtained of dry products, ingrain, straw, roots, or hay, double of the last, or nearly so, of which three-fourths, or 180 quintals are due to the power of absorption. Lastly — upon the most fertile soils, (sols (Pex- ception,) where manures are useless, the product, often double, or at least half as much more than the last mentioned, will amount to 3G0 quintals to the hectare in two years. This product would be, as in spontaneous vegetation, entirely due to ab- sorption. We would have then, to represent the products of two years, in quintals, in the four classes of soil under consideration, the progressive amounts of 42,130,240,360: or, by deducting from these pro- ducts the weight of the manure, we would have, to represent the power of absorption, the progres- sion IS, 82, 176, 360 quintals. From this is de- duced, as the first conclusion, that, supposing the plants have consumed and annihilated all the sub- stance of the manure given, (which is beyond the truth,) plants receive a much greater part of their substance from the atmosphere, than from the soil; and that this power of drawing food from the atmosphere increases with the goodness of quality in soils. 33. The proportion of fixed substances, or ashes, in agricultural products, is 43 pounds to the 1000, and consequently, in our four classes of land, the quantity amounts to 180, 559, 1032, 1548 pounds. But the soluble saline substances form at least half of these ashes: they are then produced in the two years of the rotation, in the quantities of 90, 279, 516, 774 pounds. But, according to Kirwan, barn yard manure yields 2 per cent, of soluble salts: then the manure given to these soils contained 48, 96, lbs. 128 of saline substances, which being deducted from the preceding quantities, leave the four classes of soils stated, 42,183,3S8,774 lbs. of pro- ducts in soluble salts, in two years of the rota- tion, gained solely by the absorbing forces of the soil and of plants.* *The proportions of ashes of different plants, and of their saline matters, vary greatly — and the uniform proportions assumed above, are far from correct, even as averages of unequal proportions. This will suffi- ciently appear from the following examples extracted from Saussure's table of the products of various vege- table substances. (See Davy's Agr. Chem. Lee. III.) 3&S FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 7 34. But. in the same soils, with the same ma- nures and the same tillage, by the addition to the thickness of the ploughed layer of only one-thou- sandth part of lime, the product v vola- tile or fixed, are increased in a manner: the soil of the first named (or lowest) quality reaches the product of the second- rises one-half or more — and tha best (ol the manured soils) increases a fourth. Tli . 01 i Bcale of product becomes 130,201 and deducting the manure, 106,152,! for the two years- of the rotation. Tl tile soil (sol cT exception) cannot receive lime b< ne- ficially because it contains it already; the; all belongto alluvions, where the call areous prin- ciple has almost always been found in greater or less proportion. 35. The product of fixed principles [ns i in the three classes of limed soils, would be 559,868,1290 pounds, and in soluble salts. 278,430,645 pounds; and deducting the soluble salts of the manure, the quantities would be 230,334,525. A light addition of lime has then doubled the force of absorption, and almost triplet! the quan- tity of saline principles produced. One of the most remarkable effects of lime consists tl making a soil produce a much greater proportion of saline principles: and if th Lecoq upon the efficacy of saline substances on vegetation arc to be admitted, it would be to the phenomenon of their production thai lime would owe its fertilizing ei 36. It results from what precedes, that salts are formed in the soil, or in vegetables: thus everyday the nitrates of potash and of lime form under our eyes in the soil, or elsi without any thing indicating to us the ori which is contained. But. potash i spontaneously in drawn ashes, according to the observations of the chemisl Gelhen. We i salts also renewed in the artificial nitre beds, with the aid of moisture and exposure to the air. But it is the presence of lime that determines this for- mation more particularly. The nitrates abound i Liins of demolished edifices; they are formed in the walls and in all parts of house s situated in lamp places: they effloresce on the buildings of in Cham] ' ■ ponta- hed lands of the kingdom ol Murcia. Tl which we see that the cal- uces every where, we think it produces in all the soils to which it is given, and where meet the circumstances which favor the formation of nitrates, viz: humidity, veg mould, and i totheair. But, accordingto the experiments of M. Lecoq, and othi opinion which is established of the old agricultu- rists, the ni i the most fertilizing sails. It would be then to their formation, which it pro- motes in the soil, that lime owes, in part, its efi'eet on vegetation. 37. Th.% 1 of the daily formation in the soil, and '.. ble life, of saline and earthy compounds, taken in nature and on a great scale, are doubt! : snt: but. they may still be supported by the experiments and opinions of able men who ha d the same system. And first — in the experiment, of Van Helmont, in five years, a willow of five pounds grew to weigh 169, and had caused a loss of only two I which bore it. But the 164 pounds which the willow had tak ned five of ashes, which are due entire!) to al ves and the other drop] inj I ..-••. which .. en at least one pound of ashes, which makes up all thai ivhi ' the sheet of 1 in which iw grew, it in reci ived in the nitons circumstances. Boyle has repeated and confirmed thisexpi i in all its parts. NAMES OF PLANTS. Wheat, in flower, ... Do. seeds ripe, Do. seeds ripe, ... Straw of wheat, .... Seeds of do. .... Bran, - - - . . Plants of maize (Indian corn) a month before flow Do. in flower, .... Do. seeds ripe, .... Stalks of do. Spikes (tassels) of do. ... Seeds of do. - Oats, (entire plant,) ... 33 43 13 52 122 SI 46 84 1C 10 31 Constituents of 100 parts of ashes. 43,25 II 10 22. a 4,16 C9 72,15 62 1 - 12,75 15 11.75 6,2 44,5 46,5 5.7.3 6 o ri o O X 'o O >-> cd I) ni S W 0,25 32 0,5 0,25 54 1 0,25 51 0,75 1 61,5 1 0,5 0,5 0.25 0,25 7,5 0,25 7,5 1 18 0,5 1 0.12 60 0,25 12,25 18,75 23 78 7.6 8.6 17,25 17 3,05 0 i 14,75 The proportion of soluble salts, 2 per cent, found by Kirwan in barn yard manure, however correctly ascer- tained in a particular case, can no more be relied on as a fixed and uniform proportion, or even a true general average, as used by M. Puvis in the estimates above. En. Farm. Reg. 18350 FARMERS' REGISTER 389 Lampadius, in different isolated compartments, some filled with alumine, others with silex, other? with [carbonate of] lime, all pure, has made to grow plants, of which the burning has yielded to analysis like results, and which, consequently, contained earths which were not in the soils which bore them. Saussure, in establishing that plants do nol take in the soil mine, than a twentieth of thei stance, in extract of mould and in carbonic acid, has necessarily established, by the same means, that almost the whole amount of fixed principles do not proceed from the soil. Braconnot has analyzed lichens, which contain- ed more than half their weight of oxalate oflime ■ — and he has observed others covered with crusts of carbonate of lime, when there was none of this earth in the neighborhood. Shrader, in burning plants grown in substances which did not contain any earthy principle, has found in their ashes, earths and salts which were neither in the seeds sown, nor in the pulverized matters in which the plants grew. Lastly — the analyses ol Saussure, though show- ing more of the carbonate of lime in the ashes of plants which grew on calcareous soils, than on soils not calcareous, yet nevertheless, they have formed more than a sixth of the ashes from vegeta- bles on silicious soil — and Einhoff has found 65 per cent, of lime in the ashes of pines grown on silicious soil.* The labors of science then confirm what we have above established, that plants, or the soil, form salts and earths. t *It is presumed, from the context, that these silicious soils, were not the least calcareous. Ed. Farm. Reg. f Van Helmont's experiment, cited first in the list above, like M. Puvis' reasoning in general, furnishes ample proof that most of the volatile parts of vegeta- bles, and the greater part of their bulk, are drawn from the atmosphere — and they are equally defective in pro- ving that earths and other fixed principles are thence derived, or are formed by the power of vegetable life. Distilled water is not entirely free from earthy matter, and if it had been used for watering the willow, it would in five years have given some considerable part of the five pounds of solid matter in the ashes. But as we are not told that it was either distilled or rain water, it may be inferred that the comparatively im- pure water of a fountain or stream, was used for wa- tering the plant, and which would more than suffice in so long a time, to convey the wdiole increase of earthy and saline matter. The experiments of Lam- padius and Shrader are liable to the same objection — and the former to this in addition — that his earths were deemed absolutely pure, when, in all probability, they were not so — and that a very slight admixture of other kinds with each, would furnish the minute quantity that a small plant could take up during its short and feeble existence under the circumstances stated. The results stated of the experiments of Braconnot, Saus- sure and Einhoff, may be, and probably are, entirely correct — but they are fully explained by the doctrine of neutral soils, and need no support from, and give none to our author's doctrine of the formation of lime by vegetable power. 38. The fertilizing effect of fallow, of plough- ing, of moving and working the soil, prove still hat ail these circumstances determine the formation of fertilizing principles, and probably of saline principles, in all the parts of the soil which receive the atmospheric influences. But sal so formed in plants. The nitrate of potash, which takes the place of sugar in the bi •; — the oxalate of potash, so abundant in sorrel — the ci ash in tern, in the tops of es, arid in almost all vegetables in the first period oi their life — the sulphate of potash in to- bacco— the nitrate of potash in turnsole and in pel- litory — prove, without reply, that vegetation iorms salis, as it forms the. proper juices of plants, since the si.il contains the one kind no more than the oilier. But can we say where plants take the ele- ments necessary for all these formations? They can take them only in the soil by means of their roots, or in the atmosphere — in the soil, which would itself take them in the atmosphere, in pro- portion to the consumption of plants — or directly in the atmosphere by means of their leaves which would there gather these elements. And if the analyses of the soils, and of the atmosphere, show almost none oi' these elements, it would be neces- sary to conclude from it, thai the substances which analysis has found there, are themselves, or would furnish, if decomposed, the elements of the saline substances, although science may not yet have taught us the means of reaching that end. 39. The formation of lime, like that of the sa- line principles necessary to plants, is an operation which employs all the forces of vegetation — and these forces, directed to this formation, have no en- ergy left to give a great developemeut to plants: hut when the vegetable finds the calcareous prin- ciples already formed in the soil, it makes use of them, and preserves all its forces to increase its own vigor and size. It would then result, from all that has been said, that lime modifies the texture of the soil — makes it more friable — invigorates it — renders it more per- meable— gives it the power to better resist mois- ture as well as dryness— that it produces in the soil the humate of lime which encloses a power- ful means of fertility — that lime increases much the energy of the soil and of plants to draw from the atmosphere the volatile substances of which plants are composed, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon But though deeming Mr. Puvis altogether wrong in this, his main and most labored position, and that the proofs cited above, as well as some others in the pre- ceding section, are of no worth, still these pages which present his theory ,'contain what is of more value. He places in a strong point of view the important truth that the atmosphere is the great treasury of manure, from which nature doubles and triples the amount of all the small portions given to the earth by the indus- try of man. The author's scale of actual products from ditferent grades of sod is also interesting. It sus- tains the position assumed in the Essay on Calcareous Manures, that the worst soils are limed (or made cal- careous) to most profit — and that alimentary manures, when needed, are most productive on the best soils. — Ed. Farm. Reg. 390 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 7. and azote — that the limed soil, in furnishing to plants the lime which they need, relieves the soil and plants from employing their powers to pro- duce it — and finally, that lime promotes the forma- tion of fixed substances, earthy or saline, necessa- ry to vegetables. All this whole of reciprocal ac- tion and reaction of lime; on the soil, plants and at- mosphere, explains in a plausible manner, its fer- tilizing properties. We would, consequently, have nearly arrived at the resolving of an important ag- ricultural problem, upon which were accumulated all these doubts. The amount of lime taken up by vegetation. 40. The ashes of plants from calcareous soils, or those which have been made so by manures, contain 30 per cent, of the carbonate and phos- phate of lime, which, by taking off the crop, is lost to the soil. But. the product of limed land of middle quality, is during the two years of the course of crops, about 20,000 lbs. of dry products to the hectare, which contain a little less than a hectolitre of lime in the calcareous compounds of the ashes. The vegetation has then used half an hectolitre a year. But we have shown that there was necessary, on an average, three hectolitres per hectare, each year. Vegetation then does not take up, in nature, but a sixth of the lime which is given profitably to the soil: the other five-sixths are lost, are carried away by the water, descend to the lower beds of earth, are combined, or serve to form other compounds, perhaps even the saline compounds, of which we have seen that lime so powerfully favors the formation. Another portion also, without doubt, remains in the soil, and serves to form this reserve, which in the end, dispenses, for many years, with the repetition of liming. Of the exhaustion of the soil by liming. 41. "Lime," it is said, "only enriches the old men: or it enriches fathers, and ruins sons." This is indeed what experience proves, when, on light soils, limed heavily, or without composts coming between, successive grain crops have been made Avithout rest, without alternations of . is but a dro] From I.ov ' . As cr ; other upon the same ground, a termined is the order in whi till t kinds should follow each oilier. All plants which are cultivated, and whii carried from the ground wh tend to render the soil less productive, or, in the language of fanners, to exhaust it. But plants which are suffered to >r which are consumed by animals on the ground on which they grow, do not exhaust the soil. On the con- trary, the decay of the stei plants, either naturally, or by the consuming of them by animals, lends to add sing organic matters to the soil which form one of the elements of its fertility. Thi maybe imperceptible and slow, but ii is that which Nature herself employs to form the I juished from what has been term Sometimes this proce by the singular natural pru\ ision, of ; i of the decomposing vegeti which itself re ists with this exception, the ten he decay ol vegetables upon the sui ace is matters of the soil. This is well understood in the culturists. When the productive powers of a soil have been exhausted by cultivation and the ing away of its produce from the surface, h i.< laid down to herbage, in which future vege- tation which it produces tends, by its decoi tion upon the surface, to renovate the pro powers of the soil. Land in thi said to rest. When land, however, has been empoverished by successive crops, and has become full of weeds, the laying it down to rest in that state is a with less beneficial consequences than when the soil has been previously cleaned of injurious weeds. and fertilized by good culture. In the former case, the process of renovation is slow, if perceptible at all; the useless plants increase, and not those which are beneficial and afford food to pasturing animals. Land, when properly laid down to therefore, tends to recover its wasted powers of production. Land not properly laid down! of this healing property, and may be more full of weeds and no richer when ploughed up altera time, than when first laid down. Under good management, however, the laying down of cultivated land to grass and other herl to be consumed upon the ground, is a mean of resting the soil, and renovating iis powers of pro- duction; and this mode of recruiting an exb eoil being always at the command of the farmer, its application is important in practice. It is to be observed also that the poorer soils require this spe- cies of rest and renovation more than those, which are naturally productive. The experience of husbandmen from the ei i times has shown, that the same kinds of plants cannot be advantageously c ion. The tend 1o ■ more sub- ly upon rule w hich tonus tion of ■ : in immei ar ex- s shall recur al as dis- 1s of the course as circumstances will All hi oduce is carried off the ground which produce s them, may be said to exha >\\ neon winch they grow. But ■ soil in the same degree; lor a is seen to be more em] id than alter others. And not only do dille ies of plants ex- haust the soil m a greater or li - than others, but the i i according to the differ- ent peri which the plant is re- moved from the ground. When the herbaceous plant is suffered to ma- ture its seeds, it exhausts the soil more than when ii is removed b; fore i ■ ■ i i . d. All . , v. hen cut in their green state, that is, before they have matured their seeds, exhaust the soil less than when liia'm until they have ripened . of tl of plai it belongs; but the turnip, when allowed to remain upon the , until it has ri] ened it Is, is one of the r plants that is cultivated amongst [he rape and others. the larger or smaller quantity of manure which the tion of them affords, are more or less useful in maintain- I" the farm. a a herbaceous plant is suffered to mature its I . hen any pi Is is carried off the farm, the plant affords, when consumed by . a smaller return of manure to the farm than ii plant had been cut down before it had matured its seeds, and been in that state. consumed by animals. Thus it is with the turnip plant referred to. This plant is with us sown be- Ibre midsummer. In the first season it forms a napifbrm root, and puts forth a large system of , Early in the following season it puts forth a long stem, which bears flowers, and the seeds rally matured about midsummer. If this is removed in the first stage of its growth, it has put forth its large leaves and bulb, and is I imed by animals, if manure; but if it re- : I ate of its growth- l sumption of i I leaves i any manure. TJ of the root ng nutrition to the flower-stem, the flowers, and the seeds. It is beyond a qi in order to 1 i its entire maturity, by the perfecting . ■ ' f the nutritive" matter of I only to its I When crops of plants, then fore, a bred to rive at ma they are 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 413 which they grow than when they are cut down while they are green; and if those seeds are in whole or iii part carried off the farm, the crops are exhausters of the farm, as well as of the ground which had produced them. Were the ripened seeds To he wholly returned to the soil, if may be believed that the ive back- to ii all the nu- tritive matter which had been derived from it. But, in practice, seeds are. employed for many purposes, and are generally carried off the farm which produces them. When this is done in whole or in part, the plants produced are in an eminent degree exhausters of the farm, as well as of the soil on which they have grown. Further, certain plants, from their mode of growth and cultivation, are more favorable to the growth of weeds than other plants. The cereal grasses, from growing closely together, and not admitting, or admitting partially, the eradication of weeds, are more favorable to the growth and multiplication of weeds than such plants as the turnip and the potato, which are grown at a con- siderable distance from each other, and admit of tillage during their growth, and whose broad sys- tems of leaves tend to repress thegrowth of stran- ger plants. Having these principles in view, certain rules may be deduced from them, for the, order in w hich the crops ol* plants in cultivation in a country shall succeed to each other on the same ground. 1st, Crops consisting of plants of the same or similar species, shall not follow in succession, but shall return at as distant intervals as the case will allow. 2d, Crops consisting of plants whose mode of growth or cultivation tends to the, production of weeds, shall not. follow in succcession. 3d, Crops whose culture admits of the, destruc- tion of weeds, shall be cultivated when we culti- vate plants which favor the production of weeds. And farther, crops whose consumption returns to the soil a sufficient quantity of manure, shall be cultivated at intervals sufficient to maintain or in- crease the fertility of the farm. And, 4th, when land is to be laid to grass, this shall be done when the soil is fertile and clean. These rules may be applied to the plants which form the subject of common cultivation in the fields. In this country, the plants chiefly cultiva- ted on the large scale are — the cereal grasses, chiefly for the farina of their seeds; certain legu- minous plants, as the bean and the pea; plants cultivated for their fibres, as the flax and hemp; for their leaves, roots, or tubers, as the turnip, the cabbage, and the potato; and certain leguminous and other plants for forage or herbage. The plants of these different classes are yet to be described; and they are now only referred to with relation to the order in which they may succeed to each other in cultivation. The 1st class of these plants consists of the ce- real grasses. These are chiefly wheat, barley, ,oats, and partially rye. All these plants are in an eminent degreee exhausters of the farm. They are all suffered to mature, their seeds, and are wholly or partially carried away from the farm. Further, from the manner of their growth, and mode of cultivation, they all tend to favor the production of weeds. For these reasons, and on the general principle thai plants of the same or similar kinds should not follow in succession, the cereal grasses should not succeed each other, but should be preceded or followed by some crop, which either exhausts the soil less, or admits of a more perfi ct eradication of weeds. 2d, The leguminous plants cultivated for their as the bean and the pea, are all exhausters of the soil. They ripen their seeds, and these seeds arc for the most part carried off the farm. Some physiologists suppose that they are less ex- hausters of the soil than the cereal grasses. It is probable that they do exhaust the, soil somewhat less than the cereal grasses. But the essential difference between them, when considered with relation to their effect upon the soil, is, that, from their growth, and the manner of cultivating them, they are greatly less favorable to the production of weeds than the cereal grasses. By their broader system of leaves, they tend to stifle the growth of weeds more than the cereal grasses: and further, they admit of tillage during a great part of their growth. This is especially the case with the bean, which is therefore regarded as a useful cleaning crop, and so is cultivated in rotation with the ce- real grasses, as a mean of preserving the land clean. 3d, Hemp and flax, which are cultivated chief- ly for their fibres, and all plants cultivated for their oils, are exhausters of the soil. They are suffer- ed to form and ripen their seeds and their stems afford no return of manure to the farm. The next class of plants, from the large return of manures which the consumption ol them af- fords, may be regarded as enriching or restorative crops, in contradistinction to the others, which may be termed exhausting crops: — 1. The turnip, the rape, and other plants of the cabbage genus, cultivated for their roots and leaves, and consumed tyion the farm. 2. The potato, the carrot, the parsnip, the beet, and other plants, cultivated for their tubers, and roots, and consumed upon the farm. 3. The leguminous plants — the clover, the tare, the lucerne, and others — when cut green for for- age, and consumed upon the farm. The plants of the latter class, namely the legu- minous, when mixed with gramineous, plants, as the rye-grass, arc commonly termed the artificial grasses, but would be more correctly termed the cultivated herbage or forage plants. They are often suffered partially to ripen their seeds, and are made into hay; and in this case they follow the gen- eral law, exhausting the soil more than when used green. And when the hay-crop is carried away from the farm, they are to be regarded as ex- hausting rather than restorative cro] s. In speaking of these different classes of plants, the following terms ma}- be employed: — 1. The cereal grasses may be termed corn- crops. 2. The leguminous plants cultivated for their seeds, pulse crops. 3. The turnip, and other plants of the same kind, cultivated for their roots and leaves, may, with reference to the mode of consuming them, be termed green crops; or, with reference to the manner of preparing the ground for them, fallow- crops. 4. The potato, and plants of other familes cul- tivated for their roots and tubers, may in like manner, be termed green or fallow crops. 414 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 7 5. The leguminous plants cultivated for green food, as the lucerne and tare, may be termed green forage-crops. And, lastly, the mixture of gramineous and leg- uminous plants cultivated lor herbage or green feed, may, in compliance with common language, be still termed the sown or artificial grasses. Further distinguishing these different classes of crops according to their eflects upon the fertility of the farm, they might be divided thus: 1. Corn-crops — exhausting crops, and favorers of weeds. 2. Pulse-crops — exhausting.but cleaning crops, or capable of being rendered so. 3. Green or fallow-crops — restorative and clean- ing crops. 4. Green forage crops — restorative, and some- times cleaning crops. 5. The sown grasses — restorative crops. Knowing these the general characters of the cul- tivated plants, we have, in devising a rotation, to cause the restorative and cleaning crops so to al- ternate with the exhausting crops, as that the land may be preserved fertile and clean. Fur- ther when we find that land cannot be sufficiently cleaned by means of cleaning crops, we must make use of the summer fallow; and again, when we find that land requires rest, we may lay it down to grass for a longer or shorter time, taking care when this is done that the land shall be in as ler- tile a state as circumstances will allow, and free of weeds. Extract from tlic New York Fanner. CLEAN WHEAT CATCHING THE DISEASE OF SMUT. "A neighbor of mine, having purchased some very excellent seed wheat, the same was delivered in the farmer's bags of whom he had bought the wheat, with a promise that he, the purchaser, would return the bags immediately alter the grain was sown or deposited in the drill. My neighbor complied with this request, and having drilled about half the quantity, from those bags in which he had received the wheat, he took opportunity on the following day, which day had been very wet and unfavorable lor drilling the remainder, to emp- ty those bags, in order that they might be return- ed. Thus was this excellent, clean, and till then unadulterated seed wheat, put into his (the pur- chaser's) own bags, which before had contained some very foul and diseased smutty wheat, as he, together with his farm servants, acknowledged the fact. On the third day the remainder of the wheat was drilled on the same soil, and in the same field, but not from the clean bags of the seller of the seed wheat. "Now, mark the result at harvest. The clean seed wheat, which had been emptied into the far- mer's own filthy smutty bags, produced about one twentieth part of smutty ears; whereas, from the former day's drilling, not a single ear of smutty wheat could be found." For the Fai-mars' Register. VIEW OF PART OF YORK, AND THE BACK RIVER LANDS. The lands of York county, along the main road from Williamsburg, present a very general ap- pearance of bad farming, and neglect of the val- uable and abundant resources for improving the soil and increasing its products. There are some exceptions, particularly the farm of Judge Semjile, near Williamsburg, on which much marl has been used, and most beneficially, as well as other ma- nures. The. road, as in most other cases in lower Virginia, is kept generally on the ridge between rivers or smaller streams, and of course, on land poorer than the average. There are farms on and near York River, of most excellent soil, and some improved to a high slate of productiveness, and well cultivated. These however, are not in view on this route. Above Yorktown, the lands seen are mostly undulating: farther on they become more and more level, and in the lower part of the county, the surface is mostly so flat that it is ob- jectionable, on account of not permitting the ex- cess of rain water to flow off with sufficient facili- ty. I was not enough acquainted with the coun- try to know how much of it has marl beds of easy access: but it is certainly well supplied at several different, parts along the road — yet there is lor 20 miles the same general, indeed, almost total ne- glect and disuse of this manure. The character o( their cultivation is such as might be expected from the disregard of the improvement of the soil. No where in our country can be found such valu- able and cheap resources for improvement, and sure means for agricultural profits, combined with such general neglect of them. In the vacant lots of Yorktown, and in the out- skirts, I noticed a weed which was to me quite new, and which, from being confined within such narrow limits, seems to have been brought from abroad. It. is of the thistle family, grows from one to two feet high, and has a flower of a brilliant and beautiful yellow color. The flower stands singly, and is more than an inch across. The leaves of the plant are shaped much like those of the common thistle, or the artichoke, armed with thorns at every point. The seed-pod is also co- vered with points. I learned that it is also found on the other side of the river, on Gloucester Point. As flat as the lands are below, there seems to be almost no use made of bedding and water-furrow- ing, without which such land cannot possibly be kept, dry. Extensive swamps are visible on both sides of the road, at some distance, which have been neither cleared nor drained, nor any attempt made (as was stated) to derive a profit from them, except by cutting out the best oak trees, to furnish timber to the neighboring fortifications, and for the navy yard at Portsmouth — which business has been very profitable in this low country. These swamp lands are rich, and not subject to any ex- cept surface water, with which they are soaked, and more or less covered in winter — and might be very easily and perfectly drained. It appeared as a striking illustration of the gen- eral apathy of the people, and of the small desire for any means of deriving information, that not one post office was on this main mail route for the 24 miles between Yorktown and Hampton — nor did I see the stage driver throw out for any one in this distance, a way newspaper, or other periodical. Perhaps they are not worse off, for this privation, than other parts of the country where political newspapers are taken generally, and almost ex- clusively. By shutting out both the light and the darkness — the truth and the falsehood— which the 1S35.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 415 party presses furnish — there is at least as much gained as lost. For my accommodation, the stage took a differ- ent road for the last nine miles beibre reaching Hampton, which passes through the remarkable and valuable body of lands lying on and near Back River. I devoted parts of two days to an examination of this very interesting region, and receiving information of its character and mode of tillage, in the company of an old friend who is a successful and enlightened cultivator there, and whose opinions deserve great respect. This gen- tleman, Col. John Pryor, has promised me to pre- pare, and communicate to the Farmer's Register, a full and minute report on the Back River lands, if not of the whole of the little county to which they belong. My memoranda therefore of this re- markable and interesting region will be very con- cise, and present merely observations on such mat- ters as are striking to a stranger, and might per- haps be passed over without notice by an old resi- dent— or otherwise will consist of such "shreds and patches" of facts and opinions as might be deemed by others not worth distinct notice, or the trouble of being recorded. It is my object in these hasty memoranda, to note trivial matters — to present the mere gleanings of more important and valuable harvests which other writers either have before given to the public, or have ready se- cured in their minds, and may communicate for the -public benefit. The. stranger will be first struck with the re- markable level surface of the whole body of Back- River lands. They have but a few feet' of eleva- tion above the highest storm-tides — and on such occasions, much of the land is covered, which is firm and dry generally. This of course is a strong general objection, and cause of much injury to the lands which are sometimes inundated. The nat- ural fertility of the whole body (of about 8000 acres) is great, and its permanency is abundantly proved by the wretched and scourging tillage which has been heretofore general, and still is practiced on most of the farms. The papaw, which is unknown in the high conntry, except on spots of rare fertility, or on the rich western lands, is here a common growth, seen in almost every waste spot. Though water may be reached by digging three feet in most places, and stands in the wells at only eight or ten feet below the surface, there is no difficulty in draining on account of springs. Surface or rain water is all that is to be guarded against, and the proper system of drain- ing required, is simple and cheap. It consists in putting all the land in beds with a proper direction lor their water furrows to be emptied in the ditches which are in the lowest places. The long and narrow bottoms, or slight depressions by which the storm-tides penetrate lor great distances through the land, furnish admirable sites for these ditches, and great facilities for digging and keeping them open. The soil is of three kinds, which are distinguish- ed as the gray land, the black, and the brown or chocolate colored. The first is the most elevated and the least fertile — and the last is the most va- lued. It would be difficult to find any land richer than either of the two last kinds — and scared}7 any more productive, when well cultivated, and in good seasons. But the low and level surface, the close neighborhood of water below, and proba- bly other circumstances, cause more hazard here, and make the prospects of the farmer less sure than on some much less fertile soils. Corn is here the great crop — (he most sure and the most productive. The soil (especially the brown) is very good for wheat also, being generally stiff enough — but the various disasters to which that crop is subject, render it much less sure and profitable. All the land is much mixed with gravel, and much of it below the surface has a quantity of rounded stones of various sizes, such as are seen on the river shores in the higher country. In one place, soon after entering this county, the surface of the road appeared much like that of a paved street, from the uniform cover of imbedded stones, about the size of those used for paving. Below (he surface, at various depths between two and eight leet, a bed of shell marl is so gene- rally reached, as to be supposed to be almost the universal substratum of the Back River lands. This is a remarkable and important fact, if true — and may serve to account for the great fertility of the surface. The marl is nearest the surface of the brown and black soil — generally there within three feet, and often less. In whatever manner the surface earth was deposited by natu- ral operations, and however poor it might have been originally, every tree which grew, must ne- cessarily have pierced the marl with its roots, and brought up calcareous matter to form part of its body. All these trees require more or less lime — and all obtain some, as is proved by the contents of their ashes. For pines, the smallest supply of lime will suffice, and the presence of more is de- cidedly injurious — while the wild locust, the pa- paw, and some others cannot thrive except where the supply of lime is abundant. But every tree must draw up more or less — and when it dies and returns to (he earth again its entire substance, all the lime which it had received is left on, and is ultimately mixed with the surface soil: and if the abundance and vicinity of the lime below offers an unlimited supply, this natural process must con- tinue until the soil is as calcareous as is necessary, and as rich as that quality and putrescent matter in abundance will, together, certainly cause any soil to be. It may be objected to this reasoning, that the same process would have gone on where- ver marl lies within reach of the deepest roots of trees — and (hat all the soil lying above should be thereby made rich, instead of exhibiting the natu- ral sterility of most of such land higher up the country. The same effect is produced in many cases, and perhaps in every case where there is no barrier of barren subsoil between the surface and (he marl. But where this barrier is found, as it generally is, and of from two to more than ten feet thick, it effectually stops the descent of the roots of such trees as delight in a calcareous soil — and those of pines, and other trees of like character in this respect, would not dip into the shelly earth be- low. Black or native mulberry is a very common fo- rest growth here, and on a field which had been cleared, (the second time) a iew years ago, many young mulberry trees were left, to serve for fencing limber. Some of these are now entirely dead, and all the others in a dying or declining state. From this it would appear that the shelter of other trees, or a thick growth of their own kind, is best for their healthy growth. The fact is 416 FA RMEItS' REGISTER [No. 7 worth the notice of those who design to raise mul- berry trees for silk worms. Col. Pryor's crop of corn was planted entirely with seed of the "twin" or "prolific corn" obtained from Maryland, and of which, accounts have been given in Vol. 2 of the Farmer's Register, both by Mr. Carmichael and Mr. Garnett. Though planted late, it was then, (on July 8th) throwing out shoots, and sometimes showingthree and four shoots to the stalk. On a newly cleared part of the same field, the planting was finished as late as June 23d — and in the rows which were planted a few days earlier (supposed June 20th) some plants were as high as my breast, when the leaves were raised. This remarkable luxuriance was howe- ver not owing to the kind of corn, but to the, rich- ness of the black- soil. The general opinion which I formed from my slight and hurried view, and the information sain- ed during the same time in conversation, was, that there is no body of land in Virginia richer than this, or more capable of rewarding i lie outlay of capital and the judicious labors of the cultivators. But the general management, though greatly im- proved within fifteen years, and still improving, is yet very bad: and the labor which such soil would require, if judiciously managed, is made heavier by neglect, and its rewards diminished in propor- tion. Some of the best land (not. under tillage) might have been bought hot very long airo, under $10 — and perhaps some such miffht still be found as low. A large proportion still remains to be cleared and drained — and a general operation of Ibis kind, directed on a proper plan, and by com- bined effort, would greatly enhance, the value of the land already under tillage. There is greal dis- proportion in the prices of the land under cultiva- tion, and such as is not cleared. The farm of Thomas Jones, esq., which is all cleared, and has no fencing timber, and scarcely any wood for fuel, was lately bought by him at $30 the acre— and though without buildings of much value, is cer- tainly low at that, price, though it is the highest yet given for any Back River land. But however rich these lands are, and however much the labor of tillage might be lessened, and the general products increased, by better farming, there are two great objections to Ihe country — in the swarms of mosquitoes which infest every corn- field and thicket through the day as well as night — and in the bad quality of the water furnished by all the wells: but neither of these evils appear to me to be past remedy. When the. remaining waste and swampy woodland shall have been cleared, and the whole country drained as well as it is capable of, and as even regard to economy in la- bor would direct to be done, the mosquitoes will in a great measure disappear here, as has happened elsewhere from like changes. As to the. water. there is no hope for improvement except by one means — and that holds out such promise, of suc- cess, that it is strange that no where in all this low country, neither in the towns or country, the trial has been yet fairly made. I refer to the obtaining pure water by boring to great depths, as has been so extensively and successfully practised in Ala- bama, as well as in various parts of Europe. To the owner of every farm of 300 acres on Back Ri- ver, an Artesian well of pure overflowing water would be a cheap purchase at $500— ant] to such a town as Norfolk, it would be well worth fifty times that sum. In Norfolk the experiment was commenced, but with means and arrangements so insufficient, that the boring was not carried deeper than 150 feet. If I were an inhabitant of the place, I would gladly pay my share of the expense of penetrating to 800 feet, if that depth should be found necessary. The experiment might fail, it is true, after incurring every expense: but none is better worth the risk. If it. succeeded in any one place, it would show that the same valuable ob- ject might be effected any where in all the low country of Virginia, and perhaps of adjacent states. Even the Fortress is not supplied with well- water fit to drink, and resort is had there, as in Norfolk, to rain water collected in tanks. While the means proposed for procuring pure water are neglected in rich and populous towns, and in forti- fications where the treasure of the nation is lavish- ed for every thing else, it would be idle and ridicu- lous to expect the effort to be made by scattered individuals. But even in their situation, there is abundant inducement, for a number to unite to bear the expense of a single experiment, the result of which would show what each one might venture for his own benefit. To these two great evils of the Back River lands, I have not added the usual charge of un- healthiness, because, it does not seem to be well founded, or more so than belongs to all our tide- wa- ter country. Whatever liability there, is to bilious disorders would be removed in a great measure by a general and jud'e'ous system of clearing, draining and tillage. The country would be, no doubt, unhealthy at first (and even dangerous in autumn,) for new settlers from the upper country — but it seems quite the reverse for those who re- side here. There are particular as well as general causes, which it would be out of place here to treat of, which have concurred to depress this fine country — for which nature has done so much, and man has done so little. But, though slowly, there is a beneficial change now goine; on, caused by capi- tal and cultivators being attracted from other places, as well as by increasing attention to im- provement being every year given by old resi- dents. There is no part of Virginia where the repeal of our present law of enclosures, or change of state policy in that matter, is more necessary than os Back River — and the land holders with whom I conversed were fully impressed with that truth. Yet, as an illustration of the listlessness of the people of Virginia, not one here aided in any of the several movements for relief made in the last session of the General Assembly. A GLEANER. July 10ik, 1835. From the Silk Culturist. CULTURE OF T1I13 MULBERRY. Eastwood, near Fredericksburg, Vd, Sir: — I feel deeply interested in the success of the silk business, particularly as regards this Slate, and beg leave to suggest to you ihe propriety of making a statement of fans, which I think would arouse ihe. most indifferent. I believe no statement in your paper has placed J835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 417 the net profit of an acre of land, well set in grown mulberry trees, at less than .*;100 per annum, and some writer has put it at .^300. Now, can this be shown conclusively — or, in other words, are any of your various companies prepared to rent or purchase lands, well set in grown or five years old trees, at any thing like the above prices? If these queries can be answered in the affirmative, hun- dreds of our citizens who are now forcing their lands into market, to move west, at from $5 to $7 per acre, would be induced to remain and cultivate silk. There is no agricultural staple in the world, as little liable to fluctuation in price, nssilk. It. will be at least fifty years beiore we can supply the home demand; and England must ever be an im- porter to an immense amount. Now, sir, let me state one more fact, in regard to the net profit per acre per annum, in this State, of cultivated land. It is less than $6, and I am fullv prepared to prove it. Very respectfully, J. E. GRAY. P. S. I myself have gone largely in the busi- ness. SOJIE ACCOUNT OF THE WILD HORSES OF THE SEA ISLANDS OF VIRGINIA AND MA- RYLAND. Pliarsalia, (Accomac,) BOih July, 1835. To the Editor of the farmers' Register. Your favor of the 20th inst. I did not receive un- til nine days after its date, and during a period of considerable engagement. You wilfdo me only justice, by attributing the tardiness of the reply to these causes, rather than indifference to your wishes. No enterprize, of a temporal nature, more deeply enlists my feelings, than the improve- ment of the agriculture of Eastern Virginia, and particularly of this interesting section of the state: and the man of science who voluntarily devotes his labor and talents to the accomplishment of an object so important to the best interests of our country, I would honor as an illustrious benefactor. The Eastern Shore of Virginia possesses physical advantages to the agriculturist and man of taste, rarely united in any other portion of the earth. Its climate is in bad repute abroad, and I regret my inability to give my testimony in favor of its salubrity. But the autumnal bilious, remittent, and intermittent fevers of our peninsula, depend upon causes, perfectly under the control of human skill and industry; and the period will come, when its general health will equal that of any other coun- try in the same latitude. The inflammatory dis- eases of our spring and winter, are comparatively mild; and pulmonary andthoracick affections more rare than in any other more northern portion of the United States. There are more cases of coughs and dangerous colds, terminating in fatal consumptions, in one village of our northern and eastern states, in a single winter month, than oc- cur in the dense population of our two peninsular counties in a whole year. While marshes and low grounds can be drained, the Eastern Shore has no reason to despair of a pure atmosphere; but industry must be excited into activitv to ac- Vol. Ill— 53 complish so desirable an object. The marshes of Italy, and particularly in the vicinity of Rome and Naples, though exposed to a hotter sun, have in- jured the health of those populous cities but little, until within the last few years, when they have been neglected. That the health of this shore is susceptible of immense, improvement, my own experience fur- nishes abundant evidence. The gentleman who owned the farm on which I have resided for nearly twenty-four years, was forced to leave it, and seek a healthier situation. Every member of his fami- ly had been attacked with a dangerous grade of bilious lever, in August and September — and ver- nal intcrmittents — that surest proof of miasmatic poison, and a sickly situation — were frequent. This did not deter me from a purchase; for the source of this terrible contamination, I soon dis- covered, and instantly applied the remedy. I drained two pretty extensive ponds of half stag- nant water, near the homestead, and half a hun- dred others more remote, as soon as I was able: and the consequence was, that during the whole period of my residence here, with a numerous fam- ily, not. one case of spring intermittent has ever occurred, and but few fevers of any kind, and those yielding readily to the gentlest remedies. But I am travelling, inadvertently, from the more immediate subject of your letter, if youragri- cultural work obtained a wider circulation here — to which it has the highest claims — I might occa- sionally offer some hints, that your superior judge- ment could improve, in a way to add to its merit- ed popularity. Permit me to assure you, that I would, at, any time, be highly gratified with an opportunity of furnishing a column or two of plea- sant or useful matter for your interesting and patri- otic journal; but the subject, to which you have invited attention, will, I fear, disappoint my wishes. The florid description which you have recently received of "wild horses" and "horse pennings" u pon our Atlantic islands, was better suited to what they were thirty years ago — and indeed, before my knowledge of Virginia — than to their present appearance. The horses have been gradually di- minishing in number, by neglect, until on one island, they are nearly extinct; and the rustic splendor, the crowds, and wild festivity of the Assateague horse-pennings, scarcely retain a shadow of their ancient glory. The multitudes of both sexes that formerly attended those occa- sions of festal mirth, were astonishing. The ad- joiuing islands were literally emptied of their sim- ple and frolic-lov'ng inhabitants, and the peninsula itself contributed to swell the crowd, for fifty miles above and below the point of meeting. All the beauty and fashion of a certain order of the fe- male population, who had funds, or favorites to command a passage, were sure to be there. All who loved wild adventure — whose hearts danced at the prospect of a distant water excursion, and a scene of no ordinary revel, where ihe ocean rolled his billows almost to their feet; all who had a new gown to show, or a pretty face to exhibit, who could dance well, or sing; belles that sighed for beaux, and beaux that wanted sweethearts; all who loved to kiss, or to be kissed, to caress, or be caressed; all, in short, whose hearts delighted in romance, without knowing its name, hurried away to this anxiously expected scene of extrava- 418 FARMERS' REGISTER. fNo.7 gant jollity, on the narrow thread of beach that the ocean seemed, every moment, threatening to usurp. You can scarcely imagine, sir, the extrav- agant enthusiasm with which this exciting sport was anticipated and enjoyed. It was a frantic carnival, without its debauchery. The young oi both sexes, had their imaginations inflamed by the poetical narratives of their mothers and maiden aunts, who in their more juvenile days were won! td grace those sylvan fetes, of the mad Hi wild horses careering away along a narrow, i level sand-beach at the top of their speed, with manes and tails waving in the wind before a com- pany of mounted men, upon t! shouting and hallowing in the w rtes of tri- umph, and forcing the affrighted animals into the angular pen of pine logs, prepared to enclose them: and then the deafening peals of loud hurra the thousand hall- frenzied spectators, crowding into a solid mass around the enclosure, to behold the beautiful wild horse, in all his native vigor subdued by man, panting in the toils, and furious with heat, rage and fright; or hear the clamorous tri- umphs of the adventurous riders, each of whom had performed more than one miracle ofequeslrian skill on that day of glorious daring — and the less dis- cordant neighing of colts that had lost their mo- thers, and mothers that had lost their colts in the melee of the sweeping drive, with the maddened snorts and whinnying of the whole gang — all, all together, formed a scene of unrivalled noise, uproar and excitement, which few can imagine who had not witnessedit, and none can adequately describe. But the play of spirits ended nol here. The booths were soon d loads of sul provision were opened and fish and water f! ■ . cured for the occasion ed and barbacued by hundreds, for a tted to marvellous keenness by early rising, a scan tj I Ida [^exer- cise and sea air. The r inlets of wafer and the jugs of more exhilerating liquor, were lightened of their burden. Then softer joys succeeded: and music and the dance, and love and courtship, held their undisputed empire until deep, in the when all sought shelter and repose on board of their boats, moored by the shore, or among their island friends, who gladly entertained them with characteristic hospitality. Many a winter even- ing's tale did the incidents of those merry-making occasions supply, and many a peaceful young bo- som of retired rural beauty was assailed with other emotions than the rough sports of an Assateague horse-penning inspired; and from one anniversary of this half-savage festivity to another, all was talk of the joys and transports of the past, and an- ticipations of the future. In regard to the origin of the race of our insular horses, there is no specific difference between them and those of the main land: the smaller size and superior hardihood of the former are entirely ac- cidental, produced by penury of sustenance through the winter, occasional scarcity of water, continual exposure to the inclemency of the sea- sons, and the careless practice of permitting pro- miscuous copulation among them, without regard to quality. With respect to the supposed resem- blance, on which you remarked in your letter, these horses are, in general, neither so sure-footed or hardy, or small, or active', as the famous Shetland pony; nor are their hoofs so well formed, although there are to be found among them numerous ex- ceptions to this remark. All this may be readily accounted for from the operation of physical agents, the difference of climate, better water, long win- ters, and the localities of the soil on which they subsist. The interior of Shetland is mountainous and boggy, and abounding with wholesome water; and the more nutritive grass of the rugged moun- tains, inviting the little animals to iced principally upon those rough grounds, during their short sum- mers, and occasionally in the latter part of spring and beginning of autumn, impart greater arid activity to their systems, and give them, doubtless, better fret. Assateague and Chinco- e islands are flat, sandy and soil, producing abundance of excellent grass, upon which they become very fat dining the summer anil autumn, notwithstanding the annoyance of Mies, with which those i; : [uently abound. But horses and cattle surfer for good water in dry summers and hard winters. Having no springs of running wa- ter, the animals which the islands support, depend for their drink upon ponds and glades, or small excavations made for the purpose, which are filled by the rains. These soon become putrid in our burning sun, are often dry in the summer, and over in the winter, so as seriously to injure the suffering creatures, that have no other resource for this indispensable article. AH this might be easi- ly remedied by a little care and trouble; but insular ire at. enmity with systematic labor, or provident industry. Fishing, ami shooting, and frhich yield immediate profit or subsist- er with their indolent, temporary whilst the slower and more re- of agriculture, or rear- k, are considered as servile drudgery. The horses of Assateague island belonged ally to a company, most of whom resided upon the peninsula. No other care of them was required, than to brand and castrate the colts, and dispose of the marketable horses, all of which was effected at the period of their annual pennings, (June,) the whole, nearly, being joint stock. Their winter subsistence was supplied abundantly by na- ture. The tall, dense, and heavy grass of the rich flat lands, affording them green food nearly the whole winter, the fops of which alone were killed by the frosts, mild, as usual, so near the ocean. They never suffered for provender, except in very deep snows, with a crust upon the top, or when high tides were immediately succeeded by intense cold, which covered the marsh pastures with ice, both of which accidents were of rare occurrence, and very transient in their duration. Once or twice since my residence here (24 years,) the loose and spongy ice, formed from salt water, either lay so long as to injure the grass, or it was so en- tangled with the ice, that upon being suddenly car- ried off by a second north-easter before it had melted, it swept away, in its broken fragments, much of the food upon which the animals de- pended for their support. But J never heard that the scarcity thus produced, had any other effect than to reduce their flesh: no deaths occurred from that cause. The wild gang of Assateague horses were se- cured by driving them into pens, made for the pur- pose, of pine logs. The horses seized in the pens, (by islanders accustomed to such adventures, who pushed fearlessly into the midst of the crowded herd,) were brought to the main land in scows, 1835.] FARRIERS' REGISTER. 419 and immediately backed, and broke to use; their wild, and apparently indomitable spirit deserting them after being haltered and once thrown, and subdued by man. More docile and tractable crea- tures could not be found. The price of these horses has been greatly en- hanced of late. Thirty to forty dollars were esti- mated high prices, until within the last few years; some may still be obtained at these prices, but not of best quality — and at a sale of part of a joint stock, a few weeks ago, on an adjoining smaller island, (Morris',) several horses, that from some peculiarity of ibod, or better water, or superior and more recent origin — the latter I believe the efficient cause — had attained a larger size and more ele- gant shape, were sold upon the spot as high as from 60 to 70 dollars each. A considerable num- ber may still be purchased on the islands — and some tolerably handsome — at prices varying be- tween 30 and 45 dollars. I saw this week a beauti- ful little animal just bought by a gentleman from Jersey, at the latter price. The only peculiarity I have ever observed in these animals, is their predi- lection for salt marsh grass, which never deserts them, however long they may live, and however early they may be removed from their native pas- tures. The catastrophe you allude to, did occur on Chincoteague island, of horses rushing into the sound, when indiscreetly attempted to be caught without pens, by driving detached portions of them upon narrow, projecting marshes; and some fine creatures were drowned. The practice is now abandoned. I am perfectly assured that a small capital mighl be most profitably employed, by a man of enter- prize, in horses, black cattle and sheep, upon these islands, if one careful herdsman could be procured. Pasture lands are extremely low. Since I have disposed of my real estate in Virginia, preparatory to a removal north, I have sold 230 acres of first- rate pasture land — part arable, a portion of a large body which I own upon the northern end of Chin- coteague island, and affording the principal win- ter subsistence for the slock of the island — at 100 cents per acre. The remainder is still unsold. The largest and finest work-steers of the Eastern Shore, are raised upon these islands, without any expenditure lor winter support; a proof that horses of full size, might also be reared there, with ju- dicious attention to the breed, proper selection of stallions, and care to provide water. No other at- tention is necessary, except to watch the winds and weather about the periods of the equinoxes, when desolating tides are threatened, and to drive the stock upon high grounds, secure against inundation. Drovers from the North, purchase their cattle, and their horses always command a good price in the neighborhood. They are hardy, rarely affected with the, diseases to which the horse is subject, perform a great deal of labor, if proportioned to their strength, require much less grain than com- mon horses, live long, and are, many of them, de- lightful tor the saddle. I have a beautiful island pony, who for fifteen years has been my riding- nag in the neighborhood and upon the farm, who has given to my daughters their first lessons in equestrian exercise, and has carried us all many thousands of miles in pleasure and safety, without having once tripped or stumbled; and he is now as elastic in his gait, and juvenile in his appearance. as he was the first day I backed him, and is fatter than any horse I own, though his labor is equal, with less than two-thirds of their grain consump- tion. His eye still retains its good natured anima- tion, and to one unskilled in the indications of a horse's teeth, he would pass readily for six or seven years old. My regrets at parting with this noble little animal, are those of the friend. *- * * * * * Chincoteague island contains upwards of seven- ty families. One-third of their bread corn is raised upon the island; and the productions of the water, and occasional profits from disasters at sea, afford them an ample support. Assateague, though containing three or four times as many acres as Chincoteague, has but few inhabitants. It is un- fit, for the cultivation of corn, and has but little wood. Its rich, bent-growing lands, are subject to inundation during spring tides. The scenery around certain localities upon Chincoteague, are inexpressibly sublime, and beautiful; and the view of the ocean and surrounding clusters of islands from the elevated sand hills of Assateague, direct- ly opposite my, house, would enchant you. To give you some faint idea of the extent of surface upon the two principal islands near me, I will just say, that Chincoteague is perhaps seven or eight miles in lengtb, narrow at the two ends, and grad- ually widening in the middle to two or two and a half miles. Assateague is vastly larger. Noth- ing but the total prostration of all enlerprize among us has kept these islands in their present unprofita- ble condition. Some hundreds of horses, cattle, iep, might be raised here, and annually sold, without one dollar of cost, except the ex- pense of herdsmen, whose whole care and super- vision would be confined to two or three objects — a supply of water — to drive the stock 1o high grounds when violent north-easters were threaten- ed— (of the approach of which, sufficient premo- nitions are always e-iven — ) and to attend to the branding and castration of the young stock, at the periodical June pennings. The Hebrides of Scot- land, so profitable to their proprietors, do not pos- sess the one-hundredth part of the advantages of our Atlantic islands, for all the purposes of com- fortable living and extensive stock raising; and yet they are stupidly neglected. * # # # * t. holmes. SPECULATIONS ON THE NATURE AND FER- TILIZING PROPERTIES OF THE EARTH CALL- ED "JERSEY MARL," OR "GREEN SAND." To the Editor of the Farmer's Register. The contributions to your Register by Professor Rogers, on the green sand of New Jersey and Virginia, have afforded me, and 1 doubt not a large, portion of your readers, much pleasure and instruction. It is" gratifying to see men of science, thus bringing the stores of their learning to the aid of the practical concerns of life. By pursuing this course, they not only confer great and lasting benefits on mankind, but afford themselves the finest opportunity of gratifying an honorable am- bition, by the almost "indefinite extension of the sphere ol their reputation and usefulness. A che- mist may toil for years in his laboratory, wasting his lite over his crucibles and retorts, ami die and 420 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 7 be forgotten. Or if perchance}he strikes out some new discovery, his name may be recorded in the annals of the science, and recited annually by pro- fessors in their introductory lectures; but solar as the great world of mankind is concerned, he is yet ut- terly unknown to fame. But let him once turn his attention to practical affairs — be no longer a man of speculation, but ol" action — and how soon the obscure philosopher is converted into a promi- nent public benefactor. His lame, no longer con- fi icd to mere men of science, in this reading age E03n pervades society, and becomes emphatically popular. Why else is itthat the scientific fame of Franklin and Davy is so much more extensively dif- fused than that of Priestly, Cavendish, Lavoisier and others, who, equally eminent among men of science, have yet failed to make any impression on the popular mind? The lightning rod of Frank- lin, and the safety lamp and Agricultural Chemis- try of Davy, have so connected them with the common affairs of lite, that they can never be for- gotten; and each of them may be said with truth to have erected for himself a monument more du- rable than brass. The agricultural community has reason to congratulate itself that these splendid ex- amples are not likely to be lost on the zealous and indefatigable professor of chemistry in the Uni- versity of William and Mary. Connected with the subject of the green sand formation, there is a most interesting inquiry but slightly noticed by Professor Rogers, to which my attention has been frequently turned, and of which I have yet seen no satisfactory solution. I allude to the remarkable fact, almost universally observ- ed, of the disappearance of calcareous matter near the surface of our marl beds. I propose in this communication to offer some conjectures on the causes and effects, in an agricultural point of view, of the chemical changes which this deposite has evidently undergone. So far as my information extends, this fact is alwa3Ts observed near the surface of beds of blue marl. The upper stratum consists invariably of what at first sight appears to be blue clay, but when more nearly examined is found to be com- posed principally of a silicious substance, through which are interspersed distinct impressions of shells, and numerous shining particles, (according to Protessor Rogers) of mica, but which I take to be seleniie or pure gypsum. I have occasionally found in these beds what at first appeared to be an actual shell fish, with both shells and the hinge seemingly perfect; yet so entirely destroyed was the hard substance of which it was originally com- posed, that it would yield to the slightest touch, and the application of the strongest acids could not detect the presence of the least portion of the carbonate of lime. What has become of this cal- careous matter? This is an inquiry equally inter- esting to the geologist, and to the agriculturist, and it is surprising that no satisfactory solution of it has yet been given, or even attempted. In your Essay on Calcareous Manures, second edition, page 49, speaking of a deposite which had once been a bed of fossil shells, you say: "Not the. smallest portion of calcareous earth can be found — and the gypsurn into which it must have been changed, (by meeting with sulphuric acid or sul- phuret of iron) has also disappeared in most places," &c. — and Professor Rogers in his arlicle re-published in the Appendix to the Essay on Calcareous Manures, uses the following language: "Besides a considerable proportion of green sand, it contains, in addition to the crystalized gypsum, a notable amount of this substance in a sub-divi- ded state, and seemingly occupying the place of the shells, which were lormerly present, and have been decomposed under the chemical agency of some substance which filtrated in solution through the mass'" — (page 115.) In the article on gypseous earth published by you in the Register as early as September 1S33, the fact of the disappearance of calcareous matter from beds formerly composed of lossil shells is mentioned, and the difficulty of its explanation very clearly stated. That sulphuric acid is the agent in effecting this remarkable change, there can be no doubt; but whence is it derived? And what new combinations have been Ibrmed? These questions are not suggested by a mere spirit of speculative curiosity, but .are of high practical importance, inasmuch as upon their so- lution depend the chemical character of this sub- stance and its value, as a fertilizing agent, to the agricultural community. In prosecuting this inquiry, I shall proceed on the supposition that the beds of gunpoivdcr marl of New Jersey, containing the green sand, are similar to our beds of blue marl in Virginia; the descriptions given by Professor Rogers of the New Jersey deposites agreeing precisely with those that I have examined in Virginia. I take it for granted, also, that no accurate analysis has been made (because none is reported) of the substance called gunpowder marl, the analysis of Professor Rogers having been confined to one of its ingredients," the green sand. The following theory, which I offer without any great degree, of confidence m its correctness, is at least not destitute of plausibility, and is certainly strongly sustained by some striking facts connect- ed with this deposite. Suppose the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, generated by the de- composition of the animal matter of the shells, or of the fish originally inhabiting them. Or more probably, it may be an exhalation from the wet or marshy places, in which these beds are usually found. The writers on mineralogy in giving the geognostic situation of sulphuretted hydrogen, say that "it rises from sulphureous springs, also from marshy places, and is met with in mines" — or it may probably be produced by some chemical change effected in the earth with sulphurct of iron, or of antimony, from both of which substances chemists are in the habit of procuring sulphuretted hydrogen. But however generated, the existence of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, in the low ravines in which the marl beds are usually found, is extreme- ly probable. This gas is composed of hydrogen -and sulphur, in certain proportions. A small por- tion of sulphuric acid is also supposed to enter into its composition. It possesses decidedly acid pro- perties, for it reddens litmus paper, and forms sails with alkalies. It is hence, sometimes called hydro-sulphuric acid. (Turner's Chemistry, 252.) Its elements may easily be separated from one another. Thus, on putting a solution of sulphu- retted hydrogen into an open vessel, the oxygen absorbed from the air gradually unites with the hydrogen of the sulphuretted hydrogen, water is formed, and sulphur deposited. (Ibid.) It seems therefore that the natural effects of the formation and disengagement of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 421 in a deposite of shells, would be these: the sul- phuretted hydrogen, coming into contact with the atmosphere, the oxygen of the air would gradual- ly unite vvilh the hydrogen and form water; sul- phur would be deposited, and the. sulphuric acid (of which the sulphuretted hydrogen is supposed to be in part composed,) would unite with the lime of the shells, forming sulphuret of lime, (or gypsum) and the carbonic -acid would pass off in the form of gas. The result of this process in three distinct new formations, viz: water, sulphur and gypsum. This theory is sustained by the fol- lowing facts. 1st. The presence of sulphate of lime, which has been ascertained to exist in most of these de- posites, and is believed to exist in them all. The shining particles interspersed through them and designated by Professor R. as mica, are most prob- ably selenile, or pure gypsum. I hazard this con- jecture with great distrust, and would not venture it at all, if it appeared that these shining particles had been separately collected and analysed by him. The term mica was probably not used with reference to their chemical composition, but as its etymology imports, to indicate the shining charac- ter of these particles; particularly as he speaks in another place of one of these beds of Jersey marl being interspersed with spicules of gypsum. The order mica in mineralogy, is divided into eight ge- nera, and a great number of species, the chemical composition of each of which is different. {Ed. Enc. art. Mineralogy.) And it is presumed if the elements of these shining particles had been as- certained by actual analysis, Professor R. would have communicated the result of the process.* 2ndly. The presence of sulphur, as indicated by the strong sulphureous odor emitted by this substance when gently pressed and wanned by the hand, and which together with its appearance, has probably obtained lor it the name, of gunpow- der marl, and by the total destruction of vegeta- tion occasioned by too large a dressing of it made in this neighborhood, supposed to be the effect of sulphur, which though highly beneficial in small, in large quantities is believed to be fatal to vege- tation. 3rdly. From the remarkable fertilizing effect of the gunpowder marl of New Jersey, containing the green sand, and which can scarcely be attri- buted to the agency of that substance alone, thirty grains of which, according to the. analysis of Pro- fessor R. contain of Silica 15.51 grs. Protoxide of iron. 7.56 Potash, 3.10 Water, 3.00 The most striking effects are said to have been produced by the application of five loads to the acre, of the gunpowder marl, containing, we will suppose, in the absence of evidence, 50 per cent, of the green sand. Now, according to the esti- mate of the author of the Essay on Calcareous Manures, of five or six bushels to the load, this would be an application of 25 or 30 bushels of the marl, or half that quantity of the green sand to the acre, which containing about 10 per cent of pot- *Profcssor H. D. Rogers of Philadelphia, in his "Guide to a course of lectures on Geology," states the fact that gypsum is found in the Jersey mail. — Farm. Reg. Vol. III. p. 200. ash, (the only known fertilizing principle it con- tains) would makean application of 1J or 1£ bush- els of that substance, or its equivalent to the acre. As the effect of the protoxide of iron is entirely conjectural, I leave that out of the estimate. So great an effect, I apprehend, has never been at- tributed to so small a quantity of potash applied in any form. The green sard or '-silicate of iron and potash," can scarcely be supposed capable in any manner of producing this effect. Green bottle glass being composed of impure materials, such as river sand containing iron, and the commonest kind of pearl ashes, may be considered a '-silicate of iron and potash," yet we should scarcely attri- bute any great fertilizing power to that" We may hence conclude that the green sand is to- tally inadequate, to produce, the effects attributed to the gunpowder marl, and must look to some other of its ingredients to explain its efficacy as a fertilizing agent. 4th. That gypsum and sulphur are the princi- pal active agents in the gunpowder marl, may be inferred from its remarkable efficacy on clover, ob- served in New Jersey by Professor Rogers and others, and by an intelligent gentleman in the county of Richmond, whose statements I shall subjoin. I have now before me three specimens furnished by this gentleman, with a view to their being transmitted to Prof. R. They all abound in the shining particles which I have supposed to be gypsum, and differ only slightly in color and con- sistency. No. 1, which he designates as blue clay, abound- ing with impressions of shells, without any cal- careous matter, he accompanies with the follow- ing statement: "In the spring of 1833, a small quantity of this was beaten fine, and put on young clover to see if it would act as manure. In a very Cew days the difference in size and color was very perceptible. In the spring of 1834 I gave the whole lot of clover a top dressing of this, (say 300 bushels to the acre) except 15 or 20 feet run- ning through the lot. This I gave a heavy dress- ing of old ashes, a larger quantity than of the clay. The whole lot of clover was very fine, and I have never been able to discover any difference in the clover, or in the wheat now growing on the lot." Of No. 2, designated as yellow clay, though the blue color predominates, he says: "About 250 bushels to the acre were put on a poor sandy knoll last spring when the clover was sowed. During last summer's drought, it stood and kept its color much better than the lot adjoining, which had been ma- nured with ashes, and the clover is now much greener where the clay wras put." No. 3, green sand, corresponding very exactly to the description of the pure green sand of New Jersey. "A small quantity of this was put on about three feet square of very indifferent clover, about three weeks since, and the clover is now much greener, and at least six inches higher than that adjoining it. I sup- pose the quantify did not exceed two quarts." (Dated 12th of June.) The effect of gypsum on clover is too generally known to be now the sub- ject of remark.' But'that the same effect has been attributed to sulphur, and proved by actual exper- iment, has not been so generally noticed, and is probably unknown to a large majority of agricul- turists. M. Bernard, the author of a French treatise on the use of gypsum, an extract from which is published in the Mem. of the Phil. Jlgr. 422 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 7 Society, Vol. II 207, having observed the fertility of the lands in the neighborhood of Catana in Si- cily, which abound in volcanic matter, was led to infer the vegetative virtue of sulphur. He caused brimstone to be pounded and sifted, and mixed with ashes, to render the sowing easy. "The ef- fect was surprising on lucerne and clover, but little perceptible on wheat and natural grass." The experience of Judge Peters seems to afford some confirmation of this statement. If sulphur is so efficacious, the difficulty expressed by you, of ac- counting for the. great efficacy of the gypseous earth on the supposition that gypsum was the only active principle of that substance, is at once re- moved. 5th. This theory receives some confirmation from the fact that these beds are invariably wet near the surface, where the water may be suppo- sed to be formed by the union of the hydrogen of the sulphuretted hydrogen, with the oxygen of the air; and the shells arc decomposed only to the depth of a few feet below the surface, to which depth the sulphuric acid in solution may be sup- posed to percolate. 6th. The blue or green color of this deposite is a circumstance in some measure confirmatory of the theory. "It is a property of sulphuric acid to dissolve a small portion of sulphur, whereby it acquires a blue, o-reen, or brown tint." ( Turner's Chem. 1SS.) The color of the marl may be oc- casioned by a combination of a small portion of the sulphur, deposited by the sulphuretted hydro- gen, with a portion of the sulphuric acid supposed to enter into its composition. This may also pos- sibly account for the fact of the change of the co- lor of marl from yellow to blue, produced by put- ting it in a farm-yard, as reported in a note 'to the 2nd edition of the Essay on Calcareous Manures, page GO. The urine of the horses, &c may be supposed to be the ao-ent— for independently of the sulphuric acid which it contains in combination with soda and potash, it is supposed also to con- tain some acid in a free state, and also a minute portion of sulphur. The result of this theory, if if be correct, is that the gunpowder marl of New Jersey, and the sim- ilar formations in Virginia, do not owe their effica- cy entirely to the green sand, as has been suppo- sed, but mainly to sulphur and gypsum, two pow- erful fertilizing agents. And as a consequence, most important to the agriculture of eastern Vir- ginia, that the upper strata of our marl beds, con- taining the impression of shells, and heretofore regarded as comparatively worthless, are the most valuable portions of these deposites. The correciness of this theory might be with certainty tested, or at least the truth of the proof adduced in support of it, by chemical analysis. And it may be asked why is this not done? " To make a perfect analysis of a compound substance, such as the green sand or marl, is a task requiring a degree of care, patience, and scientific know- ledge, to which few persons can lay claim. It is no difficult matter to "analyze a specimen of marl, so as to ascertain the quantity of carbonate of lime contained in it; but this operation falls far short of a complete analysis, or resolution of any compound substance into its elements. All the analyses of marl, the results of which I have yet seen, have been confined principally to this object. A complete analysis of this substance is much to be desired. In offering these crude conjectures to your read- ers, I beg to be understood as claiming for them but a small degree of confidence. I make no pre- tensions to the character of a chemist — all the knowledge 1 possess of the science having been derived from attending at a very early period, the usual collegiate course, and from such subsequent reading and reflection on the subject, as its inti- mate connexion with agriculture has induced me to bestow upon it. If this communication should have the effect of engaging for this interesting subject the attention of other gentlemen, whose greater knowledge and better opportunities for in- vestigation, will enable them to afford more satis- factory information to the public, all that I desire will be accomplished. That the physical sciences are yet in their infancy is most obvious; and what we now vainly call philosophy, is but the alpha- bet of that universal knowledge, which, in the course of future ages, will be developed, by the energy and intelligence of man. Yet enough is already known by those who have studied nature, as far as her wonderful and mysterious operations have yet been explored, to enable them to impart to others much useful and interesting information. The cause of science, and the interests of agricul- ture and the arts, require that it should not be with- held. WII.LOUGIIP.Y NEWTON. Linden, (Westmoreland,} Aug. 12, 1835. [It is gratifying that the inquiring mind of our cor- respondent has been directed to an important and in- teresting subject, which lias in no respect been yet made clear — and which still needs better explanation than is furnished by the foregoing theory. Itis hoped that others will aid in the investigation, and that satis- factory and valuable conclusions may be thereby reach- ed. Having elsewhere given our early opinions at large concerning "gypseous earth," in the article re- ferred to above, we shall now merely mention very concisely, a few facts, or deductions from facts, which seem to bear on Mr. Newton's reasoning. The shining particles which Prof. Rogers called mica, and which are generally, if not universally seen in this earth, are not selcnite. This would sufficiently appear from the correctness with which that gentleman would certainly apply the names of such very differ- ent substances presented in specimens under his ex- amination. Long before we had ever heard of "green sand," or had seen a specimen of "Jersey marl," or had met with any pei-son who was better acquainted with it, we maintained the identity of the latter sub- stance with the "gypseous earth" of Virginia, and at- tributed the value of both (when there was any value,) solely to, gypsum. But gratifying as it would have been to have had the proof which the universal pre- sence of gypsum (or selenite) would have afforded, the rough modes of chemical investigation used sel- dom found that substance, which could not have been the case if it composed all the shining particles con- tained. In the body of gypseous earth af Berkeley, sul- 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 423 phuret o( iron was found — and in another body, a fluid containing sulphate of iron oozes out, and when dry forms a crust on the surface. Both these substances, if meeting shells, would decompose them and form gypsum — and thus, at least, would aid the process at- tributed above to sulphuretted hydrogen alone. In many localities the upper layer of shelly marl has been changed as above described by Mr. Newton — and the .shells, and every trace of calcareous earth removed. In addition to his experience on this head, in Westmoreland and the adjacent counties, we will name the marl beds of Henrico and of Hanover, where the same appearance is frequent, if not general. But in Prince George, near James River, there is no such change in the upper layer of any marl that we have noticed or heard of. The gypseous marl of Coggin's Point, (a very peculiar kind, described p. 43, Essay on Cal. Man.) throughout its whole extent, as exposed to view for more than half a mile along the river bank, lies upon gypseous earth (of unknown depth,) from which all calcareous earth has disappeared, but leaving abundant evidence of its former presence in the hol- low iorms of shells. Many calcareous marls contain a little gypsum, which of course gives additional value and effect to the manure. But the wet beds can hardly contain gyp- sum— as even if it had been present at a former pe- riod, it must have been dissolved in the water, and carried off by the continual oozing. We concur entirely with onr correspondent in the opinion that the chemical analysis of green sand has exhibited no constituent part or parts, to which can be properly ascribed its remarkable effects as manure — and also, in considering these effects, precisely similar to those of gypsum. So far as our limited experience goes, the two manures act on the same kinds of plants, and of soils, and are alike totally inoperative under other particular circumstances. The direct effects of both are transient. Neither will be found valuable, (and generally have not the least effect,) on "acid soils," or those the most destitute of lime in every state of combination — and both become active on such soils if made calcareous. However, the green sand, to our own knowledge, has sometimes acted with greater energy than gypsum — and besides, we have yielded to Mr. Rogers' views our earliest impression, that gyp- sum constituted all the value of this earth. But high- ly valuable and important as are the effects of these manures, in aid of, and addition to, calcareous earth, there is no doubt of the immense superiority of the latter. Of course, green sand can never substitute cal- careous manures, though it, (or gypsum in its place,) may indirectly, and in connexion with clover used as manure, serve to double the profit derived from cal- careous manures alone.] cation of calcareous earths to vineyards, is impor- tant; and comes with peculiar force and propriety from one of so much experience and so capable of profiting by experience. Let me add, that the wine made by Mr. Herbemont, is of very superior quality, particularly his wiiite wine, which has been said by good judges to resemble the Sauterne very closely. Yours, Extract of a letter from N. Hcrbcmnnt, Esq. to Gideon B. Smith, dated Columbia, S. C. Sept. 25th, 1835. "I am much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken, and the consequerft information you give me relative to the culture of the grape in your vicinity. The Ias1 winter was the most se- vere one ever experienced here within the memo- ry of our oldest men. It could not have been less soin Maryland. Our foreign vines were al- most all killed down to the ground; but my Ma- deira, or, as you call it, the Herbemont and Lenoir stood it bravely. I am glad to learn that some of your zealous rms, to vine- yards, that it is supposed by experienced men, that lime protects the soil, and, consequently, the plants growing in it, from the effects of severe cold in winter and drough's in summer; and this, too, in addition to its other not so well understood proper- ties of fertilization. G. B. S. From the Farmer and Gardener. CALCAREOUS SOIL FOR VINES. Permit me to lay before your readers the follow- ing extract of a letter from Mr. Herbemont of SouthCarolina, the most successful wine maker in this country. The advice he gives on the appli- From the London Mechanic's Magazine. the bleach1mg mania', from a lecture delivered before the chelmsford mechanics' institute; by john Mur- ray, ESQ. F. S. A., &C. Chlorine (from a Greek word signifying green) is the characteristic name given to a gas discover- ed by Scheele, in 1774, and called by him dephlo- gisticated marine acid gas. It was some time ago more generally known by the name of oxymuriaf- ic acid gas, from a presumption (now considered to be erroneous) that it contained oxygen; and among manufacturers it goes by the name of the bleaching gas. The mode of obtaining it is very simple. We take black oxide of manganese and 424 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 7 mix it with a small portion of muriatic acid, in a glass retort, and on the application of heat the chlorine is evolved. Either alone, or in combina- tion with lime or magnesia, it may be, and is, em- ployed for bleaching paper. I have no objection to its being used by the manufacturer in bleaching his linen and calico, but against the practice of bleaching paper I do protest. The consequences of thus using chlorine — which has the properly of destroying ink and other colors — are, that many valuable epistles become illegible, and some have even dropped to pieces on the. road. Some of our best modern books are already tottering on their shelves; and numerous deeds and valuable wri- tings, requiring to be kept a great number of years, will, ere a very lew, become useless. I have in my possession the remnant of a royal octavo vol- ume, one of an edition of 30,000 copies, printed at the University press in 1818, and it is a singular fact, that there is not a perfect copy now existing. We find that when any thing of a delicate color is wrapped up in white paper ihe color is destroyed. A silk manufacturer once told me he. could not pre- serve his colored silks; he used the whitest and cleanest paper he could procure to wrap them in, but the colors invariably faded, I told him for the future to wrap them in common colored, or brown, paper — he did so, and the silks retained their deli- cate hues. Paper stainers have lost hundreds of pounds in value, in consequence of the destruction of their goods by chlorine. This oris has also the property of dissolving gold. I knew a bulton merchant, who sent a quantity of gilt buttons to London for sale; being an expensive article, he took care to have them securely packed in white paper that they might be kept perfectly clean. The consequence was that the. gilt corroded, and the buttons were returned unsaleable. Every thing now-a-days — such is the rage for bleaching — must be bleached. Our linen must be bleached, though by that means we render it yellow; our calico must be bleached, our ginger must be bleached, although at the expense of destroying the very principle which renders it valuable; and by-and-by, I suppose, we shall be bleaching our daily bread. Let us, however, view the case as we ought. If we have an inferior article, paper for instance, the fault is ours, not the paper ma- kers. We fix our prices, and if I am determined to have a quire of paper for 4d. the manufacturer knowing he cannot furnish it of sterling quality, is obliged to resort to the expedient of bleaching, for the purpose of giving a good exterior to a bad ma- terial. Perhaps the subject may be illustrated this way: suppose I want a pound of confectionary, I walk into the confectioner's, and say, "if you let me have it for 4d. I'll take it, and if not, why I can obtain it elsewhere;" never, for a moment, re- collecting that the very materials, or perhaps merely the sugar, costs double the sum. The con- sequence of this mode of proceeding is, that we have the privilege of swallowing with our confec- tionary a sufficient quantity of chalk. To such a pitch has the bleaching of paper been carried, that government find themselves obliged to em- ploy a person to watch the manufacture of the pa- per they require, for the purpose of securing it of a good quality. I know of two cases in which letters containing money have fallen to pieces by the road. One was directed to the post-master of Sheffield, and it so happened that the check was found in the post bag — the person for whom the other letter was intended, was not so fortunate. Every thing is now made up into paper, and in consequence of its being bleached, we do not so easily detect the inferiority. I have by me spe- cimens of paper made not only from wool and leather, but from the bark of the willow, from hay and straw, potato peelings, wood shavings, saw this"; and in short, any thing can be made into pa- per, such as it is. From the London Horticultural Register. CULTURE OF THE CAULIFLOWER. The ground on which the cauliflower plants are. Intended to be planted can scarcely be made too rich, therefore lay on a large portion of rotten dung, and dig it well in. The best, soil in which to sow the seed is one somewhat light, and for the first spring sowings rather rich; at all other sowings this is not mate- rial. Always plant in open, airy situations, for the plants will never form good heads under the shel- ter or drip of trees; sometimes none at all. The varieties known amongst us are only two, the early, and the late. The difference betwixt them is very trifling; the one called the early, has a slight purple or red color in its stalks, and pro- bably is a little hardier than the other, and therefore is generally sown in the autumn, to pre- serve in frames or under hand glasses, for the first crop in spring. Cauliflowers are raised annually from seeds, and arc liable, like cabbages, to be impregnated by bees, &c, during the time of flowering. There are three principal seasons for sow- ing, ami all three require some little difference in their treatment. First sowing season. — This continues from Feb- ruary to the end of March, and the plants are in- tended to succeed those sown the previous autumn. During this season, two sowings are usuallv made, one in February, and the other in March; both require precisely the same treatment, which may be stated as follows: — Make a hotbed about two feet six inches thick, and as broad and long as may be necessary, for the seed intended to be sown. When Ihe bed is made, put on a frame, and cover it down with lights, to draw up the heat, and let it remain about a week to settle, which will reduce it to something less than two feet; then take off the frame, and level the surface of the bed nicely, and replace the frame again on the bed. This being done, lay about six inches thickness of light rich soil, and on this thinly scatter the seed; sift a little soil over the surface, just to cover it. On the same bed, both radishes and celery may be sown, as they will interfere very little with each other by being mixed. After the seed is sown, cover down the frame, and so let it remain, until the young plants begin to appear, which will be in a few days. Then give air, and in a few days afterwards remove the lights altogether, during the day, and merely shel- ter them at nights from sharp frosts, or heavy dashing rains. ""Or, if the frame be wanted for 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 425 other purposes, it may be removed altogether, and the bed merely sheltered by hoops and mats. If it is not convenient to spare a frame lor the pur:. use, one, may be made of turf walls, about eight inches high in front, and twelve at the back, and by laying a lew bearers across, it maybe readily covered with mats, or even hoops will an- swer the purpose very well. And should the cul- tivator not have the conveniency lor making a hotbed, delay the sowing till March, and s nice warm border facing the south. When the plants have become an inch high, prick them out, about three inches apart, eitl a warm south border, of light rich soil, or on ano- ther slight hotbed; and from this nursery bed, they will be taken to their final destina The second crop should be sown in the lust week in March, either on a slight hotbed, or on a warm border, which answers the purpose exceed- ingly well at this time of the year. The second sawing season. — The sowing at this season is to produce what are usual!;," termed the Michaelmas crop of cauliflowers. This sowing should take place about the third week in May, and a shady border should be selected for the pur- pose; or if the weather becomes very dry, the plants will suiter notwithstanding all the care that may be taken in watering. Prick out the plants, when large enough, as re- commended for the early sowings wthem to remain there until the third week in July, when they may be transplanted into the situations where they are to form hea Third solving season. — This season e from the middle of August to the middle o tember, and is intended to produce plants to stand the winter, and to plant out early in the spring for the main early crops, which are generally the finest. YYY pi ring this crop about the se- cond week in September, because when sown in the middle or towards the end of August, they of- ten become too large before winter, and are more liable to be injured by frost, unless they are check- ed in their growth, which often ends in their but- toning; that, is, forming small heads very early in the spring, which, to say the least, is a very great disappointment. Sow the seeds on a warm border in light soil, and when they arc large enough, which will be about, the beginning of November, transplant them in the situation where they are intended to stand the winter. This is either under a south wall, where they will receive no covering, under hand glasses, or in frames. Where the cultivator has not a frame or glasses to spare for the purpose, they will do re- markably well if planted as close under a south Avail as they can be placed; and if the weather be very severe, a slight shelter maybe given them, butin general, this is unnecessary. These will not be quite so early in fori ii heads as lhe,sc. in frames, or uud.'i' hati Planting under ha . — Prepare some rich ground, in a warm si tati n, for this purpose, by digging in a good quantity of rotten dung. Then place the hand glasses about lour feet dis- tant from each other, and proceed to plant from six to twelve plants under each, according to the size of the glass. If the day be dry when they are planted, it. will be necessary to for pro- heads somewhat earlier than can be obtain- ed by the usual mode of planting in frames. This is, by potting a number ol fine plants in GO sized pots, at the end of October, and plunging them in the frame, with the other plants. On the ap- proach of s] ring, if thi se roots have filled the pots, it would be advisable to place them in layer; they eatly outstrip the others in growth, and at the end of April, when they are planted out in the open ground, they will be a good size; and meeting with no cheek in their removal they will speedily form their heads. Some persons keep the pots in a vinery, or other house, where a moderate heat is kept; we have tried this plan with success, but they are liable to button, alter being turned out. Final culture, fyc. of the three crops. — The mode of final culture for all is much the same in : ce, but diners in detail, in consequence of isons at which they are sown; so that it be- comes necessary to treat of them separately. And first:— Final culture of {he first sowing. — In the be- ginning of May, prepare to plant them in their final destination, which must be on an open, rich, quarter of the garden, well manured for the pur- po >e. Take u^ the plants carefully from the nursery beds, whh good balls, and plant them on the quar- hem, in rows four fi I apart, and two feet six inches from plant to plant in the rows. If the weather be dry, water them as often as they require it; t ither with manured water, or not, as may be convenient; the former will stimulate the plants to grow finer. The plants raised from the second sowing at. 42G FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 7 this season, should be finally planled on a rich north or north-east border, where they will pro- duce heads from the beginning of August. Final culture of the second solving. — About the end of the second week in July, plant these, as recommended for the last, on an open quarter. Give them water as often as they require it, and they will begin to produce heads in October; and, if the weather be mild, will continue to do so throughout November and December. Preserving during winter. — There are many ways of doing this, a few of which we will de- tail:— Cut. them on a fine dry day, strip off all the leaves, except those close to the head, and bury the heads under dry peat earth; this plan answers very well, for keeping them, but they become so filled with dirt that fhe.y rarely or ever can be got wholly free from it again. Another way superior to the last, because they are not so liable to be dirtied, is to put them in boxes or small barrels, and bury them in a stock of turf, such as is used for burning. We believe this was originally practised by Mr. Mcintosh, who detailed it in the Gardener's Magazine; this system, however, has its disadvantages, for the close confinement of the heads in boxes or barrels gives the vegetables an unpleasant taste. They also keep exceedingly well buried in sea sand, perhaps better than in any thing else yet made use of; but they are liable to the'objections made against the first system; namely, becom- ing filled with grit, which can scarcely ever be removed; and another obstacle presents itself here, sea sand cannot be obtained without greater expense in inland counties, than the value ef the cauliflowers would warrant. A system is mentioned in the Caledonian Hor- ticultural Transactions, which consists in burying the whole plants out of doors. On a fine day, dig a trench close under a wall, wrap the leaves Avell about the heads of the plants, and place the plants head downwards in the trench; then lay the soil lightly over them, in a sloping direction from the wall, and smooth off the surface with the spade, that it may carry off the rain. This sys- tem, however, we can say little about, having ne- ver tried it. Another plan often practised, is to draw up the whole plants on a dry day, and without trimming off any leaves, hang them up by the heels to the root of a dry, airy shed; the only objection to this plan, is, that the heads lose all that beautiful crisp- ness, and become flabby, and less pleasant to the taste. Another, and a still better plan, is to take them up in fine weather, with good balls, and plant them in good light rich soil in a back shed, mush- room shed, or any other convenient place of the kind; and if kept free from dead leaves, they will soon form their heads in that situation, and be ve- ry good for table. But the best method we have met with, where there is the conveniency, is to plant them in a brick pit, when severe weather comes on, and by removing the glasses in fine weather, and preserv- ing them from foul, we have cut very fine heads, as good as could be grown out of doors, until the middle of February, when the winter was very severe. Final culture of the third so wing.— About the middle of April, take up those plants with good balls, that have stood the winter under walls and in frames, and plant them in the situations appoint- ed for them to form heads. Take up all, except three or four of those re- maining under hand glasses, and supply all defi- ciencies, about the end of March. Draw a little earth round ihe stem of each, give them plenty of air, by propping up the glass on the south side, and as the plants advance in growth, raise the glasses all round by means of bricks, and finally, about the beginning of May, remove the glasses altogether. The crops will, therefore, come into use as fol- lows:— 1. Autumn sowing for preserving through the winter. a. Those potted, and preserved in frames, and finally planted under hand glasses, at the end of March, will produce heads early in May. b. Those growing underhand glasses, either planted from the frames at the end of March, or having stood there all the winter, will produce heads by the end of May. c. Those removed from the frames in April, to the open quarters in the garden, will produce by the middle of June. d. Those sheltered under walls, and planted in open quarters in April, will produce by the end of June. 2. Those sown on a hotbed, in February, and planted out finally in May, will produce heads by the end of July or beginning of August. 3. Those sown on a warm border, in March, and finally planted out in May, will produce by the middle of August, or towards the beginning of September. 4. Those sown in May, and finally planted out in July will begin to produce in October, and continue through the winter. Insects and diseases. — Whilst young, they are often destroyed by the ravages of slugs, and when grown to a large size, they are often infested by caterpillars, particularly those of the green-veined white butterfly (Pontia Napi) which secrets it- self in the head, and is hard to be discovered, the turnip butterfly (Pontia Rapce.) The cabbages brightline moth, ( Mamestre Oleracea) and the common cabbage moth (Mamestre Brassicce.) The only way of keeping clear of these is to hand pick them. They are also infested with the larva? of a fly, which causes the clubbing at the roots; many means have been adopted to prevent this, none of which, to the best of our knowledge, are efficient remedies. Charcoal dust has been ibund to have a good effect as a preventative, when spread over, and dug into the bed, and soot has been found to have a similar effect, but neither can be depended upon, at times. BAIL ROAD PROPOSED FROM WYTHE COUN- TY TO JOIN THOSE CONNECTING PETERS- BURG AND PORTSMOUTH WITH THE ROAN- OKE. slddress to the Citizens of Virginia and North Carolina. At a convention of Delegates assembled at Danville on the 5th day of October 1S35, for the purpose of taking into consideration the projected 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 427 improvement by a rail road from Evansham to Danville, and thence to some points in connection with the improvements to the Roanoke — among other proceedings the following resolution was adopted. 'Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare an address to the citizens oi Virginia and North Carolina showing the practicability and importance of the proposed rail road.' In pursuance ol" the duty devolved on them by the foregoing resolution,! lie undersigned beg leave to offer to their fellow citizens of Virginia and North Carolina, the following facts and considera- tions. An inspection of the map of Virginia, as con- nected with her southern and south-western boun- dary, offers at a glance to the eye of the examiner an immediate and direct communication by the channel of the Roanoke, between the great south- western valley, and our Atlantic border. A rich and expanded area of the surface of Virginia, em- bracing not less than ten thousand square miles, with a population of one hundred and eighty thou- sand souls, a wide extent of the territories of Ten- nessee and Kentucky and the richest portions of our sister state of North Carolina, embracing of her population one hundred and sixty thousand souls, seem at once connected by the ties of a common interest in this common channel of com- merce, which want of energy or want of resour- ces in our people has hitherto left unimproved. It behooves us now to exhibit to our fellow citizens the titcts and calculations by which we ourselves have been irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that the removal of all obstructions to the free enjoyment of that channel and of the rich fruits matured by the increased activity and energy which such an improvement must infuse into all the operations of our people, is practicable; is within our immediate resources; and is promptly and urgently called for, by every consideration that can influence men de- termined to avail themselves of the great blessings which nature has scattered around them, with a lavish hand. The experience of a few years, yet ample in that time, the eminently successful expe- riments made in Europe, on our continent and even in our state, demonstrate the superiority of rail roads over all other improvements. Where nature has furnished, t\ee of expense, a direct and continuous channel of navigable water from the interior to the seaboard — such improvements may not be required. But that mode of communica- tion is denied to us, and accordingly the Conven- tion has determined on an immediate survey of a route lor a rail road from Evansham in the great valley of the south west, to some points in con- nection with the several rail road improvements to the Roanoke. Is the contemplated work prac- ticable! We assure our fellew citizens that every means of obtaining information, short of an actual survey of the specific route has been resorted to, and we are prepared to assert that it is not only practicable, but. in our opinion, presenting fewer obstacles to its accomplishment than any known work of the same extent, on the continent of Ame- rica. Which ever route may be ultimately selected between the eastern and western limits of the contemplated improvement, the distance cannot far exceed a line of two hundred and ten miles. Of that extent one hundred and sixty miles at least must be in a champaign country, along the valley of the Roanoke, resembling in its general features that country in which the rail roads alrea- dy completed and in progress, are located; differ- ing however in some important particulars, in the increased fertility of the soil and consequent cheapness of provision on this route, and still more in the greater abundance, cheapness and ac- cessibility of all the materials for the construction of the work. Of the remaining fifty miles, six may be taken, as a large, estimate for the moun- tain section, which has hitherto alarmed the timid, and presented an obstacle even to inquiry. Let us approach it undismayed, and how insignificant does it appear? There is no person acquainted with the features of our mountain scenery, that has not observed how much lower is the general swell of the mountains, constituting the boundary between Franklin and Patrick on the one side, and Floyd and Grayson on the other, than along the same range northwardly. Over that range, at some point, the route must lie, innumerable gaps and gorges offer favorable locations for roads of every kind, and the observa- tions of the practised hunters of these mountains as- sure us, that there lies in the contemplated line, a gorge offering a route with slight exceptions, al- ready graduated by the hand of nature. But sup- pose the intervening hills as stubborn and imprac- ticable as those which the enterprise of Pennsyl- vania has tamed to her uses, suppose them pre- senting as much difficulty as ihose in the way of the once contemplated rail road from Lynchburg to New River, are they such as to deter us from this great enterprise? The report of Col. Crozet on this subject made to the board of public works 26th December 1831, furnishes the following details applicable to our case: Over Bu ford's Gap the highest rise on the rail road, is 75 feet per mile. The highest estimate of expenditure per mile contemplating granite sills for the section is $ 14.000 per mile. The highest average expenditure on the whole route from Lynchburg to New River is $11,000 per mile. Let us then suppose as many difficulties in our route as the State Engineer reported, to offer them- selves in the route from Lynchburg to New River, the greatest difficulty which he should encounter, would be an elevation of 75 feet per mile over a section of six miles, and that wholly in favor of the heavy traffic: and the greatest average expen- diture on a section of fifty miles would be, $11,000 per mile. With these facts we can no longer doubt the practicability of the work at a moderate ex- pense. We entertain no doubt however, that the estimate and surveys of an experienced engineer will bring the expenditures and difficulties far with- in this admission. Assuming then the estimates of Col. Crozet lor a more difficult route, the upper section of our work embracing a line of fifty miles at s 11,000 per mile would cost $550,000 The lower section, taking the highest combined average of the Petersburg and Roanoke, and the Portsmouth 423 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 7 and Roanoke rail roads predicated on actual expenditures, would be $8,000 per mile, making lor one hundred and filly miles the sum of ."'1.200,000 j resenting an aggregate expendi- ture on the whole ol the proposed route of 81,750,000 Allowing then for every contingency and the most unfavorable result of the surveys, it i safely asserted that the round sum of two millions of dollars would cover the whole expenditure on the contemplated work. Is that a sum within our resources? Is its mag- nitude such as to deter us from the prosecution of an enterprise, pregnant as we believe it is with blessings inestimable to so large a portion of our people? Upon this part of the subject no obser- vation of ours can be necessary. In times like these of unexampled prosperity, when so large a portion of capital in every part of our wide spread confederacy is courting a profita- ble investment, it can only be necessary to show that ample returns must reward the investment to insure the application of the estimated sum to any contemplated work. By a reference to 'the synopsis of the James River and Kanawha Improvements, &c.' we find the amount of tonnage on the south western route, embracing part only of thai region which must in- evitably seek our improvement as the cheapest and most expeditious, estimated at 100,000 tons. Oi this by far the largest portion is now carri d to Baltimore, at an enormous expenditure of time and money. The time ordinarily occupied b\ a wagon in travelling from Wythe court house to Baltimore may be estimated ai on the contemplated rail road the rich pro, of the valley may reach Norfolk, Petersburg or Richmond in two days, or the Baltimore market in three. Taking then as the basis ol our calculation the report of the slate engineer confirmed by the report of the Abingdon Convention, as set forth in the synopsis above referred to, we may estimate the immediate trade meeting this improvement at JEvansham as yielding a tonage ol 100,000 tens. To ibis add the trade of the com: east of Wythe in Virginia and North Carolina bordering on the proposed road, which on the. fair- est principles of calculation known to the committee may be estimated at 50,000 tons. The aggregate amount of tonnage now anually seeking its destina- tion by wagons, and other means of transportation is 150,000 tons. From this calculation are excluded the vast mineral resources on the immediate line of'the roid. The salt, lime, gypsum, iron and lead, the three last sufficient to supply every possible de- mand, in fact, inexhaustible, yet. according to the report of the Abingdon Convention, which valua- ble document we beg leave to recommend to the attention of the public — "The transmission of mineral productions of south western Virginia and East Tennessee, would form the largest source ol profit to the stock holders of the rati road compa- ny." Add to all these the continued stream of travel which now runs through the southwestern valley, and which, as certainly as cheapness, com- fort and expedition invite the steps of the travel- ler, would mainly be diverted to the projected route, and the revenue of the road would 'swell loan amount which this committee would feel reluc- tant to indicate. Here we reach the great tho- roughfare to the south and southwest. Since Jan- uary last not less than thirteen thousand slaves alone have passed the western terrninous oi this improvement. But excluding horn our estimate of profits all these, sources of revenue, excluding also every prospective addition to these resources which maybe derived from the awakened ener- gies of q people now slumbering over their inval- uable interests; and confining our calculations to Ihe tonnage known to exist, and now inviting this improvement, we shall see that on a capital of #2,000,000, adopting the calculations of Col. Cro- zet, the return would almost exceed credibility. Suppose the 150,000 tons actually seeking its desti- nation, to travel on an average only through half the extent of our contemplated road, and suppose the average on freights, exports and imports to be reduced to lour cents per ton per mile, the aggre- gate amount of the tonnage on the road would yield a Revenue of six hundred thousand dollars annually. Without pretending to accuracy in all our es- timates and calculations, although they seem to us based on undeniable facts, and on the public re- ports of accredited public agents, we. may safely ■ that no error can | lace the revenue on this investment below twenty-five | cr cent, it may be d thai we have not taken into consideration the cost o! the necessary engines, superinten and repairs. To meet this objection, we suggest that the conveyance of passengers and the trai s- portation of the mails must am| !y cover, if not largely exceed all such incidental expenses. But should our expectations from these sources prove fallacious, can a doubt be entertained that, the transportation of the minerals above referred to which as certainly as the work shall have been constructed must, in large quantities, be transport- ed on this route, will more than compensate for any deficiency in the other resources of the im- provement. In presenting these details we have endeavored to exhibit a simple and condensed view of the commercial advantages of the contemplated work. We cannot, however, overlook the social and po- litical benefits which it cannot fail to secure. Who can look upon our vast territory and observe the advancement of our people in those stupendous improvements, which, spurning the common limits of space, are throwing their chains over the ex- tremes of our union? Who can behold the contin- uous links which are already connecting Boston with the Roanoke on the east, and which promise tnd New Orleans in close approx- i with the southwestern valley, that does not feel the necessity ol' completing the interme- diate link? In peace 1 must it contri- bute to the promotion of kind and social relations i rent portions of our territory ? How rapidly will it diffuse among our people the i blessings of knowledge and information'? In war, should that evil unhappily come upon us, what in- J valuable facilities will it afford to every operation, ■ whether designed for the annoyance of a common enemy or for the defence of our common coun- try? in every view which we take of this 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 429 work, its importance rises before us. As promo- ling' commerce, agriculture and t lie arts, as strengthening and extending every tie of social giving vigor to our arm?, and stability to oar institutions, we recommend tins work to the warm support of our fellow citizens of Virginia ana North Carolina. GEO. TOW3VES, C. C. LEE, N. M. TALIAFERRO, B. W. S. CABELL. EARTH W. EGAX. From the New York Farmer. RAVAGES OF AND REMEDY FOR THE XOR- TIIERX WHEAT IKSECT. The grain fly, or insect, which, for a few years past, has been so destructive to wheat in many parts of the country, has tins year extended his ravages, and excited, wherever he has made his appearance, very serious alarm. An eminent farmer in the State of New York wrote to me a year since, that he must give up the cultivation of wheat, as his crops were so much injured that he hardly obtained a return equal to the seed sown. I knew another instance in the same state, where, though the straw was large an 1 the appearance promising, yet from thirty bushels sown not more than seven were obtained. 1 have known other cases in which the whole field has been mowed and sold lor litter; and in a recent excursion up the valley of the Connecticut, I have heard com- plaints every where, and seen hundreds and hun- dreds of acres so destroyed that the grain they would yield would hardly pay for the reaping. Besides this, the same insect has destroyed many fields of rye in the same manner as liie wheat, and had been found this year in the oats; the pro- gress of the insect has been about forty miles a year; and a distinguished gentleman in Vermont, a practical and extensive firmer, remarked that he feared they would on this account be obliged to relinquish the cultivation of small grains. The habits of the insect have not yet been ac- curately observed. I myself have not yet seen the fly, but have seen the worms in the kernel af- ter the grain has been destroyed. He is represent- ed as being a small reddish fly, which is seen ho- vering over the wheat fields in immense numbers, while just in flower, and has been observed to alight upon the kernel or bud, to ascend it, and then descending in the inner side, to deposite his egg between the stalk and the kernel. I purpose- ly avoid the use of all scientific terms, wishing to be understood by common farmers. From this egg the worm is generated, which entirely con- sumes the grain while in the milk, leaving nothing- but the husk, in which are found several small 5^ellow worms, about an eighth of an inch in length. As the woik of destruction is now com- pleted, any farther observation of his habits are of no importance, unless we can some way reach so as to destroy the germ of the future insect. No preparation of the seed or ground, however, has as yet been found effectual to this end. The continuance of the fly upon the grain is thought not to exceed three or four days, and they are, seen in greatest numbers just at night. Some farmers have (bund late sowing a partial security, as the season for the flies has passed away before the wheat was in condition for their attack. Spring wheat sown as laic as the 20th and 2Sth of May has in a great measure escaped, while some sown as late as the 7th and Sth of June has been un- touched, though incases of such very late sowing, the larmer will be very fortunate if, in attempting to escape the fly, he does not get nipt by the frost. I have now, however, the extraordinary happi- ness of announcing to the agricultural public, wbat there is reason to believe will prove an ef- fectual, as it is a reasonable and Jeasibie preventa- tive. Should it prove effectual, the remedy will be worth millions and millions of dollars to the country. It. was communicated to me on a late tour of agricultural inquiry and observation by Dr. Eli] halet Lyman, of Lancaster, N. II., an intelli- gent and practical .farmer, whose crop of wheat usually averagas from twenty-five to thirty bush- els per acre, it cons sts in the application of fine slacked lime to the wheat just at tiie time of its heading out and flowering, at the rate of about a peck to the acre. It is sown broad-cast upon the wheat while the dew is on, and the field is ren- dered, white with it. The bes: mode of applying it is with the hand, and for the person, who sows it, taking his proper breadth or cast, to walk back- wards, so thai he may not cover himself' with the lime. It must be sown while the wheat is wet or the i\e\v is on, and the philosophy of its application is very simple. The maggot of the fly is deposit- ed between the grain and the stalk. It is, of course, an animal substance. The lime, oralkali, mixing with the dew, is carried down upon it, and neutralizes or destroys it. Dr. Lyman has now tried this preventative three succes ive years, and has invariably, as he assures me, saved his crops, while those of his neighbors have been de- stroyed. I visited, at the same time, the field of a Mr. Bellows, in the same town, who had been advised by Dr. Lyman to make this application. The field consisted of several acres. He did it, and it has proved successful; and what is strongly confirma- tory of the value of this remedy, is the (act that a field of rye belonging to Mr. Bellows, adjoining his wheat, and 1 think within the same enclosure, which was not limed, has been nearly destroved by the fly. These, are certainly very important experiments, and I make no delay in presenting them to the public. Dr. Lyman has promised me a more par- ticular account of the experiment and result, and likewise Mr. Bellows, which, as soon as received, I shall be happy to communicate. I have re- ceived an indirecet and indefinite communication, that the same experiment has been successfully made in Gilmanton, N. H., but I have not yet been able to obtain either the name or the de- tails. IIEXRY COLMAN. Meadoiobanks, Sept. 15th, 1835. AX EXPERIMENT OF EM AXCI P ATIXG X E- GROES, UXE-ER VERY FAVORABLE CIRCUM- STAXCES. [The reader will observe that the following state- ment is not made by a slave holder, nor was it written or published in a slave holding state. The source from which it proceeds leaves no ground whatever for the 430 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 7 suspicion that might otherwise exist, that the facts had been exaggerati d by the prejudices or self interest of the holders of slaves. Such results as are here pre- sented, of this experiment made in the free state of Ohio, have been also found in more than one instance in Virginia, when negroes were emancipated, and provided by their former owners with sufficienl means forpresenl i , and future accumulation ol property. We should be glad to be furnished by some of our Prince Edward subscribers, with a par- ticular account of the descendents of the emancipated negroes in that county, which formerly Randolph's estate. That experiment has be n in ope- ration for some generations. The results, if coi and minutely stated, would throw much light on this subject.] From the Cincinnati Gazette. Some forty miles from Cincinnati, to the east, are two settlements of free negroes — probably near a thousand, men, women, and children, of the true ebony color, with a very little mixtureof the mahogany or lighter shades. The n own the lands occupied by them; but without the power to sell. Each family has a small farm. They are emancipated slaves, and these lands were purchased expressly for them, and parcelled out among them about fifteen years i Their lands are not of the best quality of Ohio lands; but, by good management, could be made very good — they are particularly well adapted to grass, either meadow or pasture. Having been formerly slaves, and ci work, one would suppos e the} ought to have indus- trious habits. They have fad every indu to industry and good conduct held oul to them. The experiment was to test the merits of the ne- gro race, under most favorable circumstances for success. Has this experiment succeeded? A~o, it has not. In all Ohio, can any while settlement be found equally wretched — equally unproduc- tive! Farms given to them fifteen years ago, instead of being well improved, and timber preserved for farming, have been sadly managed — small, awk- ward clearings and those not. in grass, but ex- hausted and worn out in corn crops — the timber greatly destroyed — wretched log houses, with mud tloors, with chimnies of mud and wood — with little timber for further farming. They are so excessively lazy and stupid, that the people of Georgetown (nearby their 'camps') and the neighboring farmers will not employ them as work hands to any extent. They do not raise produce, enough on their lands to feed their families, much less do they have a surplus for sale abroad. They pass most of the time in their little smoky cabins, too listless even to fiddle and dance. One may ride through the 'negro camps,' as they are called, passing a dozen strag- gling cabins with smoke issuing out of the ends, in the middle of little clearings, without seeing a soul, either at work or at play. The fear of star- vation makes them work the least possible quan- tity, while they are much too lazy to plaj . Why do not the zealous abolitionists "go there and see the experiment in all its beauty? The slave changed into a free, but wretched savage! Why not make something of these thousand ne- groes? There are not more than two or three families out of the whole who are improved by the change from slavery to freedom. The two negro settlements are a dead weight upon Brown County, as to any productive benefit from the negro land's, orfrom negro labor, and that I ace of countrj might as well, to this day, have remained in possession of the Indians. If southern wealth can be applied to buy and colonize among us such worthless population, what farmer in Ohio is safe? Has he any guar- antee that a black colony will not be established in his neighborhood? Let any one who wishes to learn the operations of emancipated negroes, visit the Brown County camps. As they sink in laziness, poverty, and filth, they increase in numbers — their only pro- duce is children. They -want nothing but cowries to make ihem equal to the negroes of the Niser. Extract from Wood's Notes on Geology. STRUCTURES OF CALCAREOUS ROCK BY IX- SECTS. From all ilu1 testimony Ave have been able to collect on the subject, it appears that the great southern basin is no! so deep as the western. This would seem the more probable from the fact, that the coral rocks and reels are more abun- dant in the Pacific than in the Atlantic ocean. It is known ili.it the animals which firm these struc- tures, are scarcely ever (bund at greater depths > or 30 feel beneath the surface, and yet many of the islands and shoals in the former, are entirely constructed bj die labors of these para- fn tropica! climates they encircle entire islands by walls and reefs of their own construc- tion and thus dail) contribute to the enlargement of the coasts. A single coral reefj in the vicinity of the Australasian islands, is even seven hundred miles in length. The quantity of carbonate of lim , furnished by mad-repores and other polypous animals, together with the testacea, almost challenges credibility. Many have been at a loss to understand from whence they derive the materials necessary for the construction of such immense masses of cal- careous matter. As sea-water contains but a trace of lime, it is thought they cannot separate it from this fluid, and as they are fixed to the spot which gave them birth, it is impossible for them to bring it from a distance. Lime is known to be an alkaline metal (calcium) in union with oxygen; and hence it is allied in structure, to potash, soda, and according to Sir II. Davy, ammonia. The chemist just named, thought he discovered a me- tallic property in some of the salts of the fatter ar- ticle; and hence he infers, that the others may be compounds of hydrogen and azote, combined in different proportions, which we, in the present. state of chemistry, are unable to analyze. If this were all tiue, the formation of lime by animal se- cretion, admits of an easy explanation. Upon this principle a world might, in time, be formed by these minute workies out of air and water! By 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 431 whatever process the lime is furnished; it is evi- dent that these industrious parasites are rapidly elevating the bottom of the Southern Ocean. The work is ijoing on there both rapidly and ex- tensively; and millions of minute and immovable beings, are preparing a habitation for animals of a higher grade and difterent construction. CONVERTIBILITY OF WHEAT INTO CHEAT, OR CHESS. To tile Editor of the Farmers' Register. Madison County, Sept. 1S//j, 1835. Seeing Mr. Carter's communication in the last No. of the Farmers' Register, stating that his man- ager had found a bunch of wheat and cheat grow- ing from the same root, and seeing from your re- marks, that you are an advocate of the immuta- bility of wheat, and differing from you in this re- spect, I have been induced to send you the Jbllow- ing facts (copied below iiom the American Jour- nal of Geology, &c.,) stated by G. W. Feather- Btonhaugh, Esq., a gentleman who stands unri- valled in a knowledge of Natural Science, and to- gether with the opinion of our venerable Madi- son, ought certainly, Mr. Editor, to be a prepon- derating weight in the scale of the mutability ot wheat. Whilst this question has been so long discussed, I have seen nothing said respecting cheat in flax. I have, Mr. Editor, been in the practice of raising flax for 20 years, and have ta- ken pains to get my seed clear of the cheat seed, (which differs as much from the cheat in wheat, as wheat does from flax,) notwithstanding I have been frequently disappointed in my crop of flax, owing to the quantity of cheat. Why is it that this cheat is found no where but with flax? I do not recollect of having seen a single stalk on my farm away from my flax ground. If flax is seeded too early in the spring, or the flax should receive a check after coming up, there will be a quantity of cheat. I can account, for it, Mr. Editor, but in one way — and that is, that the flax degen- erates to cheat. "The opinion continues to be very much encour- aged amongst agriculturists, that the heads of cheat or chess, which are often found in wheat fields, take their origin from seeds like those which they bear, and not from the seeds of wheat, which many insist are immu- table and undegenerate in their nature. This opinion is a very natural, and perhaps, a very useful one to en- tertain, as it induces great vigilance on the part of the farmer in the selection of his seed wheat. Having practised farming upon a tolerable extensive scale du- ring the most active pail of my life, my opinions as to the immutability of wheat, were long ago shaken. After attending to the selection of seed with the most scrupulous care, and with experimental views, I was too often disappointed when I had the greatest reason to entertain sanguine expectations in favor of the im- mutability system. Upon more than one occasion too, when I had every possible persuasion, and had seen the spring open upon a fine field, as I thought, of wheat in the grass, I had the mortification to find it shoot up almost entirely into chess. The friends of immutability told me that the chess had eaten the wheat out, but they never told me how the chess got into the field, or why the wheat had not eaten it out, which I should much have preferred. However, 1 sometimes had a great crop of wheat, and perhaps the chess was eaten out upon these occasions. "Having had a liberal share of agricultural contro- versy, I am content to let others enjoy their opinions, however distant they may be from my own on such subjects, and do not wish to be thought desirous of en- croaching upon a province, which now engages the attention of many able agricultural editors. "1 have a fact, however, to communicate to my bo- tanical and agricultural readers, which ought to have weight in a controverted matter of very great interest. "Whilst on a geological excursion this summer, in Virginia, at the close of the wheat harvest, Mr. Con- way, of Rapid Aim, Madison county, presented me with a plant of cheat or chess, which he had plucked up by the roots from one of his wheat fields. Mr. Conway's attention having been long drawn to the ap- pearance of cheat in his wheat fields, was in the habit of examining plants of this kind from time to time. The plant he exhibited, and which was but recently taken from the field, consisted of four stalks, not in the least broken, and as perfect as when they were grow- ing in the fields. Each of these stalks bore a prolusion of the heads of cheat, and nothing whatever that ap- proached, in the least, to an ear oi wheat. As far as the heads went it was a perfect specimen oi' cheat or chess. The plant having been carefullj drawn from the field had all its roots attached to it, without any visible fracture, and in the most natural manner. Mr. Conway, however, drew my attention to the skin of the kernel of the seed from which this plant had pro- ceeded, and which was attached to the radicle in a sit- uation quite distinct from the lateral roots. The skin was that of a kernel of wheat, and upon applying a microscope to it, I found that it had been a kernel of wheat, and nothing else; not differing in the least from the skins of wheat seed as they are often found adhering to the radicle of wheat plants, bearing regular ears of wheat when the heads are ni II formed. This was the opinion of Mr. Conway, who declared himself satisfied from the inspection of this plant, that, in this particu- lar instance at least, a kernel of wheal had produced a plant, bearing four stalks with ears of cheat or chess. Mr. Conway informed me, that one or two of his neigh- bors had found similar plants this summer, and come to the same conclusion, that cheat could be produced from wheat seeds. "The evening before my interview with Mr. Con- way, the apparent convertibility of wheat into cheat was the subject of a long conversation between Mr. Madison (under whose hospitable roof I found most welcome head-quarters during my tour in Virginia,) and myself. We had been old correspondents on ag- ricultural subjects, and we entered into it con amore. That venerable man, who at the age of eighty-two, preserves all the vigor of a highly polished and unri- valled mind, related to me the many experiments he had personally conducted in his garden at Montpelier, by sowing cheat to produce wheat, but all in vain, he had never succeeded in prevailing upon it to retract its perverse deviation from its type; and Mr. Madison had paid too much attention to the production of cheat in wheat fields, not to be impressed with the many strong reasons there were to suppose that wheat, which belongs to the Gramineae, could degenerate into a plant which approaches the grasses. He examined, on my return to his house, the plant which I brought from Mr. Conway's, and expressed himself satisfied that, in this particular instance a kernel of wheat had pro- duced a plant bearing heads of cheat. 1 still possess this curious plant, and it will give me great pleasure to show it to any agricultural or botanical gentleman who desire to be convinced that I have related the state of this plant faithfully. It appears to me, howe- ver, that if farmers would carefully remove plants of cheat at the proper season, after the heads are out, but whilst the stalks are yet green, that the controversy on this subject would soon cease. The single fact I have brought forward, ought to have great weight, and I 4 32 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 7 have no doubt, that another season will give it all the support it may now appear to want. "1 shall rely upon this fact at present: I shall not at- tempt to support it by any arguments drawn from the philosophy of plants, or theories of vegetation. There are, however, some very important views which bear upon the economy of agriculture, and are within the scope of this work, which will probably be brought forward in the second volume of this journal. O. W. FEATHERSTOjVIIAUGH." For the Farmers' Register. FOLLOW NATURE. JVardsfork, (Charlotte,) ? Aug. 27th, 1S35. $ In all our attempts at agricultural improvement, (to succeed) we must follow the indications oi nature. Whenever we are in doubt of the way, we should not be misled by every ignis fatuus of speculation — but eye attentively the linger of direction on the way-side — lor nature has tixed a signpost at every fork, so that the wayfaring man may not err. Man in his inquiries after truth, is prone too mucb to listen to the suggestion of a theorising fancy — and when the maul becomes vain of its own ingenuity, and amazed with its own reveries, it. turns with disgust from the more laborious but more certain pursuit of truth, in the way of observation and experiment. The wise physician, in order to find out the best indications of cure, applies his finger attentively to the pulse, and looks steadily on the countenance of his pa- tient. So should the agriculturist, who has to re- store to health a diseased and exhausted soil, ap- ply his nicest touch- and scrutinizing look, to the indications of the vis. medkatrix natura of agri- culture. Amid the now noisy clash of discussion, and the conflicting jar of registered essays, the still small voice of practical truth is not sufficiently re- garded. Let us lay aside much of speculation and noisy talking, and elaborate writing, and go forth into our fields, with the eye and touch of ob- servation, under the light of nature, and find out, each for himself, where lies the truth. 1 would not be understood as objecting to discussion, con- versation, or written essays on agricultural sub- jects, where they arc not substituted lor practice and experiment, and directed too much by a theo- rising spirit. When properly conducted, they be- come the reservoirs of tried truth, and the chan- nels for circulating the refreshing and fertilizing water of knowledge through all the desolate and thirsty places of our country. But to return. If we would catch the true spirit of improvement, we must bow at nature's shrine, and consult, her oracles. If we would move on- ward to perfection in agricultural science, we must invoke her aid. Do you wish to reclaim land subject to injury from water? — notice the natural direction which the water is disposed to take, trace out that course with your spade, and by this sim- ple and sure method you redeem the lost soil, and render it safe and productive. But on the other hand, if you run an awkward ditch without any regard to to the direction of the stream, you incur all the expense and trouble, without any sort of ad- vantage. The simpleton who obstinately slights the indications of nature, will always reap trouble and expense only, for his pains. Do you wish to rear a valuable fruit tree? plant it where nature has said it. should grow; and when you come to look lor fruit, you shall find it. But if you tear the scion from its proper home with a rash and heed- less hand, and iuree it into a soil and situation un- congenial to its nature, it will not flourish, but die, and its withering branches shall upbraid him with Solly who planted it. V hen you undertake to turn nature out of her course in any depart meat of her operations, there is a reaction immediately produced — the protect- ing principle is aroused into action to counteract the effects of this encroachment on her laws. For ex- ample: if you throw an obstruction across a stream, the water gathers above, accumulates force, and endeavors to remove the barrier. The weight of ihe wal i' above, and the lidl of the water below, (undermining) both contributing to bring things to their natural state. Again; you see the. same thing exemplified in diking. If too great encroachment is made on tin1 natural boundaries of the stream, by an inju- dicious embankment, you will be chastised tor this violation of nature's laws, by the loss of your dike. Many of'thedikes that have been raised oflate, have been so injudiciously contrived, that their broken backs and excavated sides will tell to future times the lolly of their builders. Where they are con- structed with due regard to the natural privileges of the water, they are useful, [but not] where the stream cannot be straightened all the way, or where there is not sufficient fall (when straighten- ed,) to keep the low lands out of the reach of freshets. Let us observe the indications of nature with .o the application of manures. Her object seems to be two-fold — to cover .-oil from extreme heat and cold, and to invigorate the productive principle. The matter used, are leaves, weeds, grasses, sediment, &c. The time of applying is lite fall. The part to which she applies, is the sur- face. It is a little curious how she manages this business, about the time she brings her materials in the greatest perlection. She employs the hand of frost to prepare, and the wings oi" the wind to scatter broad cast. In the fall, and while .he mat- ter rots, the rich juices are trickling into the soil, while the woody parts remain on the surface as a cover to protect against winter cold. I .could enu- merate many other examples, to show that to suc- ceed in agricultural improvement, we must follow the indications of nature — but let these, for the present, suffice. J. R. From the Philadelphia Commercial Herald. SILX. In every part of our country, attention is waken- ed to ibis important and profitable branch of manufacture. New England, however, having taken the lead, s"ems likely to enjoy for the pre- sent neatly a monopoly of the production. A company, "with a capital of S200,000 has been firmed at Boston, called the Massachusetts Silk Company, which has for its object the culture and manufacture of this article. This company has purchased several tracts of land at Northampton, on which are one or more water privileges, and their factory will probably be erected in that town. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 433 Northampton also contains a silk cocoonery, late- ly the property of Mr. Samuel Whitmarsh, capa- ble of feeding lour or five millions of worms, though the number at present does not exceed 800,000. The building is two hundred feet long and two stories in height. It is filled with ranges of sliding drawers of twine lattice work, on which the worms leed. and these are intersected by al- leys, so that there is abundance of both air and light. The New England Silk Company has likewise been formed at Boston with a capital of $100,000. Their manufactory is under the superintendence of Mr. Cobb of Dedham, whose works the com- pany have purchased. It is wholly dependent at present on foreign culture for its supply of mate- rial, and is compelled to resort to the manufac- ture of articles in which silk is only a component part. The Connecticut Silk Factory at Hartford, has a capital of $100,000. Their building is furnish- ed with 100 looms, and preparatory machinery to be moved by a steam engine of eight or ten horse power. The want of stock compels this factory also to the production of articles in which the pro- portion of silk to the other materials is small. There is also a factory in progress at Poughkeep- sie, N. Y. At Concord, N. H. a farm has been purchased for the cultivation of the mulberry. The establishment of the Vralentine Company at Providence, R. I. now sold to a company from New York and Boston, includes a plantation, con- taining 30,000 trees, from four to five years old, and from six to eight feet in height. It is sup- posed, that for the next five years this plantation will yield an average product of half a pound of silk to a tree. This company has also manufac- tured a considerable quantity of silk goods, and fitted up a building 30 feet by 90, three st(*ries high, to be exclusively devoted to this branch of manufacture. The machinery is carried by steam. A trial of the power loom in this factory has proved that it will answer as well for silk as lor cotton, and that, with experience in its manage- ment, it will probably turn out as many yards of the former as of the latter. A silk society has been formed at New Haven. To encourage the production of this article a bounty has been offered by the state of Massachu- setts on reeled silk, and by Connecticut both on this and on the trees themselves. The natural ad- vantages, however, for the production, must of ne- cessity, be greater in the middle and southern states. The wild mulberry exists in abundance in Vir- ginia and Mississippi, and in the forests of the latter state^ silkworms are found growing sponta- neously. The native tree, however, is not found to produce silk of merchantable quality. It is thought that by engrafting scions of the white or Italian mulberry into these wild stocks, a tree will be produced of hardier growth, and less liable to injury from atmospheric changes. We are indebted for the above information to the Silk Culturisf, a monthly publication, com- menced in Hartfbld in April last, the pages of which are principally devoted to this interesting to- pic. To those engaged in the cultivation of the mulberry, the instructions contained in this period- ical must be highly valuable. From the novelty of this branch of agriculture among us, infbrma- Vol. 111—55 tion in regard to its details is peculiarly needed- The journal is published by an association called the Hartford County Silk Society, and furnished to subscribers at 50 ce#nts per annum. THE NATIVE MULBERRY FOR SILK WORMS. The foregoing article shows at a glance that the peo- ple ofNew England are about to make silk culture a large and important branch of their rural economy. It is there no new and untried speculation. The business has long been pursued in Connecticut, and with re- sults so satisfactory as to induce these recent and far more expensive investments for the same object. If good profits can be there made, in the cold and un- friendly climate of New England, (where it is yet a problem to be solved whether the best species of mul- berry can stand the winter's cold,) how much more profitable would the business be in Virginia and the more southern states? Our cheaper slave labor would also afford advantages, and many aged or infirm hands could be profitably employed in this business, who are now a useless expense to their owners.' Much land that yields no net profit under usual crops, would serve well for mulberry trees. The opinion expressed above of the worthlessness of the native (black or red) mulberry tree, for yielding silk, is as general as it is erroneous — and the error (though of use to nursery-men,) is very injurious to the community, in causing all efforts in silk making to be postponed until mulberry trees can be reared. Now, though professing to know very little of silk culture, we will venture to assert that those who can succeed well by using leaves of the white mulberry, will not fail, nor do a much worse business, with the black. The black is doubtless somewhat inferior to the white mulberry, as this is to the Chinese: but the difference of products from either two, would not be so great as would be made by the ditference of care and manage- ment of almost any two new silk growers. Dr. Wm. I. Cocke of Sussex, Va. some years ago fed some silkworms on the leaves of the cemmon mul- berry, and others on those of the white, and prepared sewing silk from each kind. It was either his first or second year's trial of the culture, and on a small scale, and of course attended with all the disadvantages of a new beginning, independent of any inferiority of the kind of food used. He sent specimens of the silk from the common black mulberry to Mr. Du Ponceau of Philadelphia, who,in conjunction with Mr. D'Hom- ergue, was then writing to urge the undertaking of this business. The specimen was considered by the latter as so excellent, that he at once pronounced, in the presence of the gentleman who carried it, that it could not have been the product of the native mulberry. The bearer of the specimens, however, was enabled to declare the contrary, he having been during the time, a member of Dr. Cocke's family, and acquainted with all the circumstances of the experiment. Still no subsequent allusion was made to this circum- stance, though it was so well calculated to encourage early and general efforts — and probably, because of some lingering remains of doubt of the correctness of 434 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 7 the experiment, or the statement, the results being so diiFerent from received opinions. But while we advise those who wish to rear silk- worms to use the native mulberry trees, if they are ready and convenient, we also recommend to them the immediate planting of a better kind, and especially of the new Chinese, (or Morus Multicaulis,) for future use. If there is doubt whether this valuable tree will thrive farther north, there can be none here — and as it furnishes undoubtedly the most abundant and nutri- tious food, and as the silk business must extend rapidly, every acre of land now, or soon, planted with cuttings .of this tree, will be almost sure to yield a highly profita- ble crop, either for sale or for use. From the Baltimore American. MACHINE FOR FELLING TREES. A most valuable invention has lately been made by Mr. James Hamilton of New York, which will be the means of saving an immensity of labor in this country. It is a machine for felling trees. The New York American gives, from the New York Mechanic's Magazine, a description of it. accompanied by a drawing. This machine re- quires very little more space for use than is re- quired for the swing of an axe, and may be used in almost any situation in which a man can use an axe. It may be moved l'rom tree to tree by one man, who can with it cut through a stem of two feet diameter in five minutes: two men will, however, work it to more advantage. It is so constructed as to admit of saws of different lengths according to the size of the tree. A committee of the American Institute, at New York commend it in strong terms. It cuts the stumps uniformly of an equal height, and at least a foot nearer the ground than is usual, whereby the most valuable part of the timber is saved, besides all the after labor of squaring the end. The cost of the ma- chine is about $50, and it is believed that with it two men can tell as much timber in a given time as twenty can with the axe. more than equal to one ear ot the corn commonly planted with us. PETER J. DERIEUX. INQUIRY ON SWAMP MUD. TWIN CORN. To tlia Editor of the Farmers' Register. Cypress Spring, .Essex ~) County, Sept. 21st, 1835. \ I am now about commencing an experiment with swamp mud as a manure, and should be glad to get information upon the subject from some one of your correspondents, as to its effects, and the best mode of" applying it. I was induced from reading the address of James M. Garnett, Esq. to the Agricultural So- ciety of Fredericksburg, recorded in your paper, (No. 8, Vol. II.) as well as from his personal re- commendation, to make trial of the twin (or as he calls it extra-prolific) corn, and obtained from Maryland a barrel, about two bushels of which I planted, some on inferior high land, and some in low ground. It has succeeded beyond my expec- tation; every stalk has two, three," and frequently four and five ears, not large, but I think two are IRISH POTATOES — MANGEL WURTZEL, &C. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Accompanying this communication you will probably receive a few Irish potatoes, and a part of a mangel wurtzel beet, indicative of its size, which I transmit you as a prelude to my method of cultivation, &c. Although there is nothing in it va- riant from that pursued by many, (except perhaps its imperfections resulting li'om a want of skill,) I have thought its publication might be profitable to some, while it certainly cannot be injurious to any. There is scarcely any culinary vegetable which exceeds in value the Irish potato, on ac- count both of the quantity of product, as well as the duration and easy preservation of which it is susceptible. The whole modus operandi in man- aging the early crop, is I presume, well under- stood. It is the late or second crop, to which I vvisli to call your attention, as both combined, fur- nish a supply of this delightful vegetable through- out the year. The plan which I have adopted (in imitation of others,) is simply about the mid- dle of June to hill up my tobacco patches, after the plants are drawn, and to deposite a whole po- tato in each hill: one weeding, and two hillings, usually complete the whole process of cultivation. A slatementof the quantity which may be thus produced on suitable land, would almost "invite incredulity" unnecessarily, as it is my only object to induce experiment. We know that Ireland is most celebrated for the quantity and quality of its potatoes — and as soil and climate are amongst the chief agents of vegetation, its success may be fairly attributable to a peculiarly suitable combina- tion of each. The system under discussion, se- cures its low moist soil, and cool autumnal climate in which to ripen. Then with the assistance of both the principal agents, why cannot we be e- qually successful? The last season was rather wet for them — though from the size of those I send you, (from 12 to 14 inches in circumference,) you would probably not consider it desirable for them to be larger. It is not the size however, so much as the double crop, and consequent supply through the whole year, which recommends this method of cultivation. Their preservation through the winter is a source of no difficulty whatever. The day on which they are dug (as early as conve- nient after the first killing frost,) they may be transferred to an elevated spot in the garden, and deposited in a hole two feet deep, and as wide as desirable. Over them a mound of earth should be raised in a pyramidal form, so as to prevent the penetration of moisture. In this way they may be kept perfectly sound and fresh through the winter. On the approach of warm weather, in March, they should be removed to a drier and more elevated place, to arrest vegetation. Those intended for seed should be spread, as the fermen- tation incident to a close heap, might destroy their vegetative property. It is not by any means es- sential that they be confined to plant-patches. I only use them because they are fit for little else the first year. Some of the largest I made this year grew on land which had been repeatedly tended in corn — but similar in other respects. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 435 The mangel wurtzel (which measured 23 inch- es in circumference when growing,) was planted about the first of April, in land which had been ploughed deep and coultered — laid off in trenches two leet apart — and the coulter run twice in the bottom of" thorn. Manure was then thinly spread in the trenches, and mixed with the dirt, over which the seed were drilled quite thick, and after- wards thinned to about eight inches. The subse- quent cultivation was performed with the coulter and hoe. Mr. John Hare Powell published a statement (vouched by a number of certificates,) that he had produced (according to my present re- collection,) at the rate of sixteen hundred bush- els to the acre. It is eaten voraciously by hogs when thrown immediately from the patch — though its nutritive qualities would no doubt be greatly enhanced by boiling. It affords a very conve- nient and profitable substitute for corn, when the resources of the harvest field begin to fail — and is easily preserved through the winter. I have not sent you the above mentioned specimens by way of boasting of their superior size, nor of any skill or originality in their cultivation, but merely to show you the results that may be easily attained without either. Shenstone, Oct. 16, 1835. E. G. BOOTH. For the Farmers' Register. OBSERVATIONS ON THE LOW WAGES OF FE- MALE LABORERS. No. 3. [Concluded from page 381.] Tn the two preceding Nos. I have stated at some length, the grievances of laboring females, and traced the effects from causes that lie in the insti- tutions, habits, and prejudices of society. It is now my purpose to treat of remedies for these enormous evils — and for this, I feel, and readily admit, the inadequacy of my powers of devising the best plans, or for persuading others to act on my suggestions. Would that I could awaken the zeal, and engage the influence for this great and benevolent undertaking, of some of those who are able to imitate the examples of a Howard, a Wil- berfbree, or of the far more admirable Oberlin ! And how much does this work surpass in value and importance, the objects of either of these illustri- ous philanthropists ! It is not so partial a good as merely to alleviate the sufferings of the sus- pected or convicted felons which filled the prisons of Europe — or of the savage inhabitants of Africa, whose condition at home was often as deplorable as the horrors of the middle passage, and of West Indian slavery — nor even as grew from the en- lightened and noble works of the heavenly minded Oberlin, which were limited by his position to a narrow compass, and which were doomed to end almost as soon as his own life and labors. Far above all these would be the benefit of properly employing and fairly compensating female labor. It would be rendering justice, (which has so long been withheld,) to ail the poor of the purer and better half of the civilized human race — and these are not strangers, and separate from ourselves in interest: the class of sufferers includes our coun- trywomen, friends and valued associates — it may, and very probably will hereafter include some of the near and most beloved relatives or connexions of all who may read these remarks. What be- nevolent object then, is more worthy of the aid, and of the zealous efforts of the philanthropist, the pat- riot, and the christian? Females are naturally as well suited as males to perform at least half the mechanical labors which are now principally or entirely executed by the latter. For very delicate operations (as, for example, parts of the business of engravers, watch- makers, and printers,) they are even better fitted. For some other situations in which some mental power and education are required, as well as me- chanical skill, women are at least as well qualified. It is not necessary to particularize these employ- ments to show that there are plenty to engage all the labor of females who would need to resort to them. There are even employments for women which might well engage the rich, the educated and the refined — and in some other countries such women are so occupied. In France, not only the retail shopkeeping is generally in the hands of wo- men, but the wife of a merchant of the most ex- tensive business is often his best assistant, and ef- ficient and enlightened partner in trade. The first remedial measure for the existing ar- tificial and unhappy position of women, which es- pecially prevails in this country, is, that every in- dividual, of either sex, who is sensible of the evil, should lend his individual countenance and sup- port to the proper employment and fair compensa- tion of female labor, and to the shaking off the ex- isting prejudices which oppose so many obstruc- tions to its exercise. A very partial exertion of this moral force, would render much service. But the evil is too old, too deeply rooted, and widely extended, to be removed by individual eflbrts alone. Society has raised the borders — and socie- ty, or the organized and continued action of many individuals, only can level them. With these views, I will propose the outlines of a plan for combined action, which, however partial in effect, may serve to commence this good work — and may suggest to others better means for attaining the great object in view. Besides the exercise of individual influence and effort for the same end, it is proposed that there should be formed in each, or any one town, or community, an Association for encouraging the em- ployment, and increasing the remuneration of female labor — to be composed of all persons of both sexes who concur in approving the scheme. It should not be attempted to increase (by direct means) the compensation for existing employments, how- ever small it now may be — (the objections to which attempt have been stated in No. I. — ) but to cre- ate and increase new employments, which, if ef- fected, would ultimately, and by proper means, serve to increase the compensation for the old. as well as the new. By discussion and by publica- tions much might be done to awaken numerous other individuals to the importance of the design, and to engage their co-operation. The associa- tion could effect much by the promise of the pre- ference of its members in dealing with those tradesmen who employed female apprentices or laborers, (upon proper and fixed stipulated terms,) and especially in cases where some of these ap- prentices were the daughters or other near rela- tions of the mechanics or merchants who employ- ed them. The latter circumstance would have two very important effects in the commencement 436 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 7 of so novel a state of things — 1st, to ensure the most perfect state of propriety of manners and moral habits in the several private establishments where female apprentices were admitted — and 2ndly, to engage the strong influence of parental feeling in sustaining the respectability and good reputation of these establishments. But though such measures, judiciously execu- ted, would engage in this good work many trades- men by the strong tie of self-interest, and the pros- pects oi pecuniary gain, still there might be others who would oppose and obstruct the reformation — either from short-sighted and mistaken views of their own future profits — or because (as in the case of the tailors,) they would be deprived of the unrighteous harvest which they now derive from the degraded and wretched state of female labor- ers. To guard against either or both these causes of opposition, and possible failure, the association might use another and stilt more efficient means. This would consist in establishing (in conjunction with individual undertakers, or otherwise,) work- shops to carry on the whole business of any par- ticular branches of trade, that might be consider- ed the most suitable for female labor, or which embraced the smallest portions for which male labor was indispensable. These more public es- tablishments should be, of course, under the gen- eral direction and control of the association, and so organized that every proper care could be taken to maintain the purity and correct conduct of the inmates — and that a portion of the time of the ap- prentices should be given to mental and moral in- struction, and to the performance of those house- hold duties which all women should be acquainted with. The most suitable business first to be underta- ken in such an establishment, of course would be that of the tailors — who may be considered as the natural enemies and oppressors of laboring fe- males. Even now, women actually perform a large part of the work for which tailors are em- ployed and paid — and for a mere pittance of the price obtained by their employers — and women are now well prepared, and sufficiently skilled, to execute the whole of this work, with no other loss to the community than that our coats would not at first fit so well as to satisfy the practised eye and exquisite taste of a dandy. But even this trivial objection could be easily removed. One male measurer and cutter of men's clothes would be sufficient for an establishment of more than twenty female tailors — and there is no reason why such an assistant might not be employed by the female head of the shop. Even if this one branch of the business should necessarily remain in male hands, it would compel nine-tenths of all the fu- ture race of male tailors to seek more manly em- ployments— and would double the present small demand for, and miserable compensation of wo- men. If this change bore hard on the present race of the knights of the thimble, it would be the only case — and there is no class, the members of which would so well deserve to bear some of the privations which they have so long inflicted on others. It would be well if public opinion could entirely root out this business, so unworthy of men — and as exercised by men, so injurious to wo- men. Another mechanical employment which seems well suited to females, is printing. Women could make more skilful compositors than men, and would be able to do more of that kind of work in the same time. This principal part of the labor requires not strength — but quickness of move- ment and delicacy of touch. This part of the bu- siness too might be conducted in an apartment quite separated from the other parts of a printing establishment, and therefore there would be no need of bringing together different sexes, or dif- ferent classes. But even this seclusion would be unnecessary — as one master printer, as head of the establishment, and one pressman, would be as many males as would be needed in an office in which eight or ten hands might be employed. Greater or less facilities lor employing females in a maimer altogether unobjectionable, may be found in various other kinds of business: but these examples will be enough to mention here. Of course many male laborers and mechanics (in the spirit of "trades' unions" and of "strikes,") would cry out against every effort of this kind, as calculated to deprive them of employment. But this clamor would be groundless. Except in the tailors' trade — to which many women have alrea- dy served a long and laborious apprenticeship, and are fully competent to earn journeymen's wages, without having yet been permitted to do so — there would beno immediate loss of employment to any males — nor any future loss, unless it was their own fault. In most or all other pursuits than that of using the needle, females could only be received as apprentices, and of course no more girls would be taken, than would be required by the demands of trade, and whose places would (without this scheme) have been filled by just so many boys. The difference of sex in apprentices hereafter to be received, could in no way affect the demand for, and employment of the present race of journeymen mechanics, even if they continued as journeymen, and unmarried. But every sober, industrious and capable journeyman, in 7 or 8 years will probably be either a master workman, or a married man, or both — and in either condi- tion, he will be benefited by the success of the scheme of employing women. As a hirer of their labor, he would be better and more cheaply served — and he would have a sure resource to save his young daughters from the danger of future want and misery. Girls would generally be more valuable as apprentices than boys, because the latter are more likely to be disobedient, vi- cious, and unprofitable laborers. As independent laborers, after serving through their apprentice- ship, females still (at least for years to come,) would be hired at less wages than males — and the difference would be a great profit to their em- ployers and to the public, while even at that re- duced rate, they would earn four-fold what is now obtained by them, in their only employment of sewing. It may be said that if so much advantage and profit are promised by employing female appren- tices, why may not the plan be safely left to indi- viduals to adopt and execute? It is because no one individual could give sufficient assurance of the stability of his purpose, and permanency of his plans, to induce parents to confide their daugh- ters to his charge, and to risk the prosperity of their lives on the issue of an untried, and therefore ex- Iremely doubtful experiment. Ilence the necessi- ty of the support and guaranty of an association 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 437 of many individuals. It would not be their money that would be wanted — or at least but. little, and that only in the commencement — but the support and strength furnished by their favor, and their influence with the public. A master printer and publisher, for example, who would take a dozen female apprentices, could not fail to make sufficient profit, provided he was merely assured of having enough work furnished to him, at fair prices, or o.1' sufficient demand lor his publications. But with- out an assurance of full employment, he could not justifiably, assume such duties, and such heavy responsibility, nor would he be trusted by others with so delicate and important a charge. Give such individuals however, the backing of a per- manent association, and these difficulties would be removed — not speedily perhaps, but surely, and effectually. We are a people slow to abandon old usages, and it is to be feared that it would be long be- fore any considerable change in labor could be produced even by zealous and well directed efforts for the purpose. More especially would it bedfficult to induce the parents and friends of young girls to adopt for them such novel measures, even though heartily approved by them in theory, lest there should be a failure in the attempt, or some loss of caste, and even of character be sustained, from improper company, or from unfounded popular prejudice. These objections, these fears, would proceed from feelings that deserve all re- spect and indulgence — they would be excited by the general purity of our female population, and by the keen sensitiveness as to the most distant approach to any thing like a stain on female cha- racter. Long may these feelings exist! It would be the care of the members of the association to cherish them — and to take every care to treat with attention and respect the young females who may be trusted to their guardianship. This could be easily and completely effected. The workinir es- tablishments under their patronage, might be as well organized to secure purity of morals, and pro- priety of manners, as the best boarding schools — and every apprentice might be made sensible, by the kind notice of the ladies who were members, that their labors were as honorable, as idleness and dependence would be likely to lead to want, and degradation. It may be objected to this scheme, that as soon as a female apprentice had served her time, and was capable of earning good wages, that she would often become a wife and a mother, and then be compelled to renounce her acquired trade. .Even were this to be the case, there would be no loss sustained greater than is now general. The female would have been at least well employed, for the interest of others, for some previous years, and would probably have acquired habits of in- dustry and economy, which would be valuable in any condition of life. But this worst case would not be so frequent as others of very different cha- racter. Young and poor females often marry on the first tolerable opportunitv, and most imprudent- ly, not so much from inclination, as to gain a home and asylum from dependence and threatening want — and without considering that the step is almost sure to bring greater future want and mis- ery to themselves and their children. Now the acqui- ring of a good and gainful trade would make a girl at once independent — and would be doubly a safe- guard against her marrying without proper mo- tives, or very hastily and imprudently. At any rate, it would be a strong inducement to postpone marriage until the wages of a few years had been accumulated — and thus the evils of imprudent marriages would be greatly lessened, if not often avoided altogether. If such measures as have been proposed, could be used, and had the effects anticipated, the re- sults would not be more important to the interest and happiness of women, than to society at large. The many thousands of young girls who will otherwise grow up to live, like their predecessors, in dependence, and destitute of the common com- forts and even of necessaries, would be made in- dependent of the charity, or of the oppression of others, and would possess within themselves the sure means of earning a competent and respecta- ble support. There would be removed the now existing powerful inducements, (amounting often to necessity,) for many a mercenary marriage — which, whether the object be a life of luxury and splendor, or merely to secure bread under the shel- ter of a hovel, is simply a species of legal prosti- tution. The laborious father who had necessarily lived "steeped in poverty," to support a large fa- mily of young children, in dying, would be reliev- ed of the heart-rending conviction which must now exist, that his daughters would be destitute except, from the charity of friends, or of strangers. By the change of position contemplated, woman would rise in the scale of society, and in dignity of character, as much as in comlbrt and happiness. She would be a substantive being — no longer a mere adjective to and dependent on man, whether situated as his valued companion and sharer of his toils and pleasures, or the mere object of his sensuality — as the pensioner on his bounty, or the slave and victim of his selfish tyranny. Nor, by this change, would there be any loss in the value of woman, as the solace, and best of all the bless- ings of man: on the contrary, she would become so much the more prized, so much the more a dis- penser of happiness as a companion and wife, in proportion to her advancement in useful pursuits, and to that increase of knowledge and enlarge- ment of mind, which would necessarily follow such pursuits. The men, who would otherwise have occupied the places which this scheme would give to fe- males, would be engaged in other pursuits re- quiring the strength, (physical or mental,) the en- ergy or the enterprise of the stronger sex. In our young country there can be no want of demand for services in all such pursuits; and of course no loss, private or public, by the change of occupa- tions could be expected to occur. To the commonwealth, to the public interests, the gain would consist in the change of many thousands of unproductive consumers, to produc- tive and profitable laborers — the obtaining, in fact, the fruits of the advantageous employment of half our population, which now may be considered (as to the public interests) as a class of paupers — which take away much from the public wealth, and return no compensation, except as breeders, and reproducers of the class of male laborers, which existing institutions and prejudices have made the only productive class. POI.ECOX. 43S FARMERS' REGISTER. fNo.7 SCRAPS FROM OLD AUTHORS VIRGINIA. RESPECTING To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. I send you some notes on the natural history of Virginia— Indian words, &c, taken principally from the old histories of Smith, and Beverly, and Stith. Smith you know writes in the uncouth sim- plicity of a soldier; and Mr. Jefferson has said that Beverly is as much too concise and unsatis- factory, as Stith is prolix and dry. Indian toords. Putchamins — Persimmons. Pawcohiccora — Milk of walnuts. The Indians heat hickory nuts or walnuts — mixed water— when it looked like milk — hence they called cows-milk, hickory. Maracocks — A fruit like a lemon. This is the fruit of the passion flower. Popanoio — Winter. Cohonk — Winter. Cohonkwas the cry of wild geese, whence it was applied to winter. Caltapeak — Spring. Cohattayough — Summer. Messinough — Earing of corn. Taquiiock — Fall of leaves. Ponup — Meal dumplings. An old writer says the pone, a favorite corn meal bread in Virginia, is not derived from the Latin pants, but from the Indian oppone! Ustatahamen — Hominy. Lord Bacon calls this "cream of maize," and commends it. as a most nu- tritious diet. The Indians also made bread of the sunflower seed. Macocks and Cushaiv — Names for the cymbling — called by the Indians of the north, squash — which is an onomatapeia. Messarnins — Muscadine grapes. Chechinquamins — Chinquapins. In the botanical department, Beverly had met with the following: Three sorts of cherries. Persimmons. Three sorts of mulberries. Two sorts of currants. Three sorts of hurts or huckleberrys. It seems in his day they knew no such word as whortleber- ry, made since to puzzle the wits of school boys. Cranberries — probably the same with Captain Smith's rawcomens. Wild raspberries — probably blackberries, and the wild strawberry. Nuts — chestnuts, chinquapins, hazel-nuts, hick- ories, walnuts. Six species of the grape. The honey tree — sugar tree — the maple. The Indians had made the maple sugar time out of mind. Maycocks— maracocks — lupines. Myrtle-wax — out. of which were made candles without grease, never melting, and exhaling a fragrant incense. Puccoon and musquaspen roots, with which the Indians painted themselves. Sumach and sassafras. Jamestown weed — "a great, cooler.'''' Flowers — The crown imperial — The scarlet car- dinal flower — Magnolia glauca, and liriodendron tulipifera. Of Indian corn, four sorts. The tuckahoe — a tuberous root growing like the flag in marshes. There is a place of this name in New York, and a creek in Virginia, the people living east of which are termed Tuckahoes, as those on the west are styled Cohees. The Indians had no salt but what they found in ashes. They were exceeding fond of roastin Oct. 18, 1835. 5 Dear Sir — Your letter would have been promptly answered had it been in my power to procure Berzelius. The arrival of my books, de- layed by accident on the river, has at length ena- bled me to attend to your request, and I take plea- sure in sending herewith a copy of the table of the composition of" the ashes of various kinds of wood, &c. translated and transcribed from the sixth volume of the Traite de Chimie of Berze- lius. These analyses were made by Berthier, one of the most skilful chemists living. Among the points of interest presented by these results, I would call your attention to the fact of soda being present in every case, as well as potash, though in most of the experiments, the two alkalies were only determined in the aggregate. In the instance of the Norwegian fir, where they were separately ascertained, the amount of soda greatly exceeds that of potash, a fact which Berzelius explains by referring to one of the striking geological features of the mountains of Norway. These are in ma- ny cases composed chiefly of Basalt, which con- tains soda in various forms of combination, and which is more readily converted into soil by the action of the weather, than the granite rocks of the country containing potash. Your friend, WM. B. ROGERS. 442 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 7 cd o fXoo •uojj jo a^qdsoqj CO 1ft CM kft CN © © © CO CO CO 00 kO CO 1ft CO CN l-H a in u •noq.TBQ m w ^*

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S5 V ' ^ n i £ Q CO ^ pq ry 03 &i O cd o Cl-. o cd O cd o cd ■n a 13 o s-T CD < Cm o s Cm o cu a cd W o "o C*H Cm o Cm o Id o C)H O o "id o pq § CJ T3 T3 o -d CJ o cd M CD s O cd PP o o J3 o a J3 43 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 443 From the Petersburg Intelligencer. COMMERCIAL. We are indebted to a friend for the annexed statements of the export of staple articles of pro- duce from Virginia for the year ending 30th ul- timo. H PS o ft 5 ft o ft . G tt £ 3 ^> 3 £ H ^ ft P5 CO o ft ft ft o <-! ft P <5 te o H H ^gs O }> i— l lo CO GO i> H O O ft "2 *»! H P rt BHOU C O J h t< O ft c« ■jgnaBUi 13 put? oi}j CM OS GO 1 O 1 CM CO •saxpui jsa^ CO CM I-H CO 1 CM 1 CO •.rejrejqijc) O CM 1 1 1 •(LoAvruy O O CM OIQ O t 1 id ■uiBpjajsray O CM CO , GO 1 1 CM •tUVjp.IO)}0|J GO -I GO lOO GO i>r-l | CM ■tracuaifj om i o r— i sarrrasjEp^ o rH | | | •xneapjojj CO CM 1 1 "8JABJJ r—O O CO CM CO CO CM CO 1 CO l-H •02J 'saMOQ co o ~-p ^ o »o OH IH CM •IfVprf CO S.i i i ■A\oSsBJ*) r-1 CO i> FENCES. Columbia, (& C.) Sept. 1st, 1835. Dear Sir — You will see by the resolution, a copy of which you will find here below, that you are requested to publish the accompanying "Ad- dress to the Standing Committee of the South Carolina Society for the advancement of Learning and the Diffusion of Knowledge." N. IIEItBEMOlVT. At a mooting of the Standing; Committee of Twelve, held on the 31st of August, 1835, the following Reso- lution was passed. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER 491 Resolved — That the Memoir on Pise work be trans- mitted to the Editor of the Saathern Agriculturist, with the request that he print it in his journal; and the Ed- itor of the Telescope be requested to reprint it from the same. To the Standing Committee of the South Carolina Society for the Advancement of Learning and the Diffusion of Know- ledge. Gentlemen — The great zeal exhibited at the last meeting of our society augurs well lor its ultimate success in the furtherance of its objects, and the readiness with which gentlemen are subscribing for a fund lor the purpose of erecting a suitable building tor the accommodation of the society, is a sure guarantee of the determination to persevere in so laudable an establishment. It has lor its ob- ject the advancement of learning and of useful knowledge, based on the best established scientific principles. It would be vain to attempt to show the great benefits which our country is likely to derive from a zealous pursuit of the objects in view. These must be incalculable, and we shall not be disappointed, let our expectations be ever so great; so that they are only within the bounds of practi- cability, if any thing approaching to the ardor now witnessed be persevered in. As it seems that the first and principal object desired to be effected, is the erection of a suitable building lor the accommodation of the society, I beg leave to be permitted to make a few observa- tions that will tend to render this, our first act, as eminently useful as its nature admits. So far as it is possible, every step of such a society should be attended by a benefit rendered to the public. We expect, of course, that a building tor such a society will be constructed according to the best models of architecture within our reach, and to join to the suitable convenience of its object , a specimen of pure and classical taste. Economy is one of the great requisites of great usefulness; lor without it, it could not serve as a model and a lesson to the private citizen which he could pru- dently follow. I conceive it the duty of such a so- ciety, as this, not only to lead the taste and fash- ion in all that is elegant and useful; but also in the most economical methods of attaining these valu- able objects. There is a mode of constructing houses of va- rious sorts, and also walls of enclosure practiced in various parts of Europe, particularly the south- ern parts of it, and also in South America, which, if it were exhibited to our citizens lor their imita- tion, would most probably be attended with the most extended benefits, both in town and country. This, in parts of the country where rail timber is either scarce or of bad quality, would supersede our rude, inefficient and insecure common rail fence, by a substance durable, cheap, and found, with very few exceptions, every where, where a fence or a house may be wanted. This substance is earth neither too clayey or too sandy, beaten down by a rammer between two planks till it is of a sufficient degree of hardness, which it very rea- dily acquires. This mode of construction is called Pise. There is not, perhaps, in the world, a place more favorably circumstanced for this kind of work than our town of Columbia. The red earth which is found here every where after dig- ging a loot, or even less, is the best possible for ir. Any kind of earth, however, will do, c;o that it be not a pure clay or a pure sand, and that it con- tains no vegetable or other putrescent substance. The usual test for it, is to take a handful and press it, and if it sticks together retaining the impression of the fingers, it is good. It is better to have much more sand than clay; for clay renders it lia- ble to crack in drying. It may be full of gravel, pebbles, or small lraginents of stone. It requires I no addition of any thing, even water, nor any other preparation than the digging of it, and the carrying it where wanted. I beg, gentlemen, you will not mistake this Pise with what is called "mud houses or walls." No, it is very different j and very superior, yielding only in strength and durability to the very best work of stone or brick, done with the best skill and the best lime-mor- j tar. This mode of building is not a new, untried j thing, the practicability and benefits of which j may be fermenting in the brains of some visiona- | ry man. No, it has been transmitted from gene- I ration to generation, from thetimeof the Romans, j into the principal parts of the southern provinces of France, and also in Spain; from which last country it has been transported and rendered most j extensively useful in South America. It is the I subject of a very full article, in a work of great | authority, the "C'ours Complet (Psfgriculture" by | the Abbe Rosier, assisted by some of the most scientific men in Europe. I have seen, in the vi- I cinity ol Lyons, houses and churches which are said to be between two and three hundred years old, which had been contracted of Pise. Indeed, i many of the richest inhabitants of that city have I their country houses, palaces we might almost call them, erected with Pise. You can also, any of you, gentlemen, have an ocular demonstration of the practicability of the thing, by riding with me to my place in our sand-hills, where I put up very hastily and unskilfully about four years ago, a small building, sufficient, however, to show the capabilities of this mode of building. I do not propose that the principal edifice for the accommodation of the society be constructed in Pise work; for, although I believe that it is capa- ble of forming structures equal in beauty and du- rability with the materials usually used here, we have not yet workmen sufficiently skilful and ex- perienced lor such a purpose. I only intend to recommend the erection of out buildings and walls of enclosure for the present. These being erected in a conspicuous place, such as you will undoubtedly select, will be models for imitation from which the public will derive incalculable be- nefits. Such are the facilities offered by this mode of construction, for fencing- walls, in Columbia, for in- stance, that the materials can be taken from the street to make an enclosure about six feet high, and thereby improve the street by giving it the usual form of being raised in the middle, forming drains on each side for the flowing ofl of rain wa- ter, &c. This thing must necessarily be economi- cal and cheap; for the materials are usually found on the spot, requiring no hauling, and so easily executed that common laborers, under the euper- intendance of a tolerably intelligent man, are equal to it. The only expense attached to it is a thick wash of sand and lime put on the wall with a broom, (and my experience shows that this operation may be delayed for years without injury) and a coping of suitable materials. Stone is, of 492 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 8 course, the best, tiles and bricks next, and wood. Poor people use turf, others straw, cut of a proper length, laid across the wall on the top, and kept down by earth. This has the double disadvan- tage of not looking so well and of requiring to be renewed every five or six years; all hough this is sometimes neglected for ten or twenty years, with no improvement in beauty, certainly; but without as great a change as could be expected from such culpable neglect. I have read an account of a wall several miles in length, in South America, which had been without a copinir for more than sixty years, and yet it was standing and availa- ble. A wall of this kind carefully constructed, rusticated with the lime and sand wash, with a coping of durable materials, will stand pretty near- ly as long as the earth on which it is erected, and of which it is really a part. As it has been used without any admixture, it must necessarily be in- corruptible. The question of the cost of such a work is worthy of inquiry; but it cannot be as expensive as a tolerably good looking wooden fence, which will not last twenty years, alter having been con- tinually repaired for the last half of that time. Six workmen (negroes) is the best number lor a set to work together, (and several sets may be under the same superintendant) can construct in one day three square toises of Pise, that is, a wall six feet high and eighteen feet long; seventy- five cents per day, as the cost of each hand, is a very full allowance, as some of them, the carriers, may he inferior. This makes the expense of such n -wall, independent of the wash and coping, $4.50 per day. This requires then about ninety- two such day's work to enclose a square of four acres which make $414, which is less than a good I )06t and plank fence can be erected for. The cost, as specified here, is in reality much more than it would be in most cases; for this is reckoned at the price it would cost by paying the hire of the hands: wheras such work would be usually done by the plantation hands. If it be, however,desired to make a comparison between a fence of this kind and one of any other sort, the labor of the hands must be val- ued at the same price for the common worm, or post and rail fence,not forgetting the hauling; but, for arjy timber fence of a superior grade, the cost should be estimated by the price of carpenter's work, besides the cost of materials. For a house, the foundation should be laid in stone or brick, in order chiefly to intercept the moisture arising by capillary attraction or other- wise, which might injure the building. The struc- ture, in Pise, commences then about one foot above th§ surface of the ground, and may be con- tinued as high as with brick, with perfect safety, and the materials for it are taken on the very spot by digging a cellar. If the house is a mere out- building, such as a kitchen, stable, servant's house, &c„ it is usually rusticated, as wan said of the wall; but, if intended for a large and handsome house, it is rough cast, and any ornament may then be added to it. The pounding of the earth to form these walls, &c. so incorporates the whole into one mass, that, if the work has been well done, it may be said that, the building is of one solid piece, and is undoubtedly more strong, firm and permanent than a brick house, unless the bricks are of a very good quality, and very care- fully laid in the besthme-mortar. There is much land of great value in the neigh- borhood of towns, the culture of which is some- times abandoned on account of the scarcity of timber and its short duration, which renders fen- cing in such situations very expensive. All such might be enclosed with a Pise wall at a compara- tively small cost, and would make it worth while to make in the soil of such enclosed land, such improvement as would render it of permanent fer- tility, for which a large town always furnishes abundant materials. The above is respectfully presented to the Soci- ety, with the desire that the subject may be treat- ed with the attention which it. deserves, and with the assurance that the writer is perfectly satisfied of the great and incalculable benefits that must necessarily arise from the adoption of this mode of constructing houses and fencing, wherever it is practicable, and that it is so, probably, in a majori- ty of places. I neglected to observe in the proper place, lhat the amount of work estimated as the usual day's work of a set of six hands, is for the building of houses, the walls of which are usually nearly double the thickness necessary for a fence, and that, therefore, such a set of hands can most pro- bably make a great deal more of the very plain work required for a comparatively thin wall. I leave, however, this estimate as it is, so as to have it at the highest cost possible or proba- ble. Respectfully submitted by N. HE11BEMOKT, Chairman of the Committee on Rural Subjects. From the Horticultural Register. KEEPING CABBAGES IN WINTER. The principal gardener in the Shaker establish- ment in New Lebanon, Columbia Co., New York, directs not to pull up cabbages in autumn "till there is danger of their being too fast in the ground to be got up. If there happens an early snow it will not injure them. When they are re- moved from the garden, they should be set out again in the bottom of a cellar. If the cellar is pretty cool, it will be the better." From the American Gardener's Magailiis. ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE TULIP. The season for planting bulbs being at hand, and presuming that some remarks would not at this time be unappropriate, particularly in regard to the flowering of the tulip, I with pleasure send you the following, which will be, perhaps, of some interest to your readers, and extend the cul- tivation of this favorite flower. To attempt to describe this lovely genus, would, I humbly conceive, be an insult to the common sense of any community. The beauty of the tu- lip flower draws the attention of the most careless observers, and as it were, makes itself known to them at once, because it is one of those kind of flowers, when taken notice of, is rarely or ever for- gotten. The Dutch are famed through the civil- ized world, for their splendid collections; inasmuch as some of their private ones have been valued at 1833.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 493 some thousands of pounds sterling. In England I have had the care of tulip bulbs, that were va- lued from five shillings to jive pounds sterling, a single bulb; this is, perhaps, one reason why we bo seldom meet with a choice collection in this country; the first cost being so great, and the time it necessarily takes, to give then) proper attention, is another considerable item with those who have business to attend to, and who have but a small portion of time to spare, in the care and produc- tion of elegant flowers. Nevertheless, there are persons in every city who can afford to spend both time and money in such pursuits; but by not un- derstanding the nature of them, are prevented from making the attempt. In order to do away with this difficulty in part, 1 will engage to give them all the knowledge I have on this subject, which will cost but a trifling sum, compared to the years of time I have been collecting it together. Those persons who are desirous of obtaining a good collection of tulips, should, by all means, make their selection from some of the established seedsmen or nurserymen; for, to trust to the bulbs that are sold every year, at, the auction rooms, in nine cases out of twelve, they would be deceived; therefore it is highly recommendable, to make the selection from persons of established credit, even if the cost is four times as much, rather than to run any hazard. Supposing the bulbs are on hand, the first step is to prepare for planting: the compost should be a mellow light earth, or leaf eoil, (the top spit of an old pasture field,) prefer- ring it rather light, than of a strong binding na- ture, and well rotted stable manure, blending the whole well together. To three wheel- barrow loads of the soil, add one of manure, and so con- tinue on, until there is enough mixed for use. This will be found to be an excellent compost for the growth of the tulip, if it has been thoroughly made. The beds should be four feet in width, and from twenty to thirty feet, more or less, in length; preference should be given to a plat of ground that is well sheltered from the north-west and easterly winds, observing to keep away from the shade of large trees as much as possible. Having decided upon the location, go to work, and throw out the whole of the surface and under soil, to the depth of two and a half feet, taking it away to some convenient place, leaving the bot- tom of the bed nice and level; then look out for some good stable manure, about half rotted, for the purpose of laying at the bottom, about six inches thick; this will leave two feet in depth for the compost; this may appear, to some people, al- together superfluous; nevertheless, it ought to be done, for this reason; the manure will be in an excellent condition for mixing with the soil the succeeding year. I shall here observe, that it is not necessary to prepare a fresh compost every year, alter such an one has been made as here re- commended. If the operator thinks the soil ought to be renewed in some degree the second season, a portion could be taken away from the bed, and replaced with some fresh compost, and so on year after year, never neglecting to place the manure at the bottom of the bed, as before stated: to do this properly, begin at one end, and take out the whole of the eoil, until you come to the bottom of the bed. If it was made four feet in width, take four feet in length; this will leave a trench four feet square, and two and a half feet deep; wheel the soil thrown out, to the other end of the bed, in order to finish oil' with. The manure should now be laid at the bottom at the depth proposed; mark off again four feet in length, and place the top spit immediately on the manure, continuing so to do, until you have a similar trench at the other end; this will completely change the compost every year, by bringing the under soil to the surface, which is of great importance — level oil' with the soil which was wheeled to the opposite end of the bed from where the trenching was begun. But to return to the planting of the bulbs the first year. I shall suppose the bed or beds are al- ready filled up with the compost a little above the level of the ground; allowing it to settle to the original level: this ought to be done the first week in November; the second week, have the surface of the bed raked perfectly smooth and even; then stretch a line tight and straight the whole length of the bed six inches from the front side, and with a small piece of stick mark off close to the line; remove the line again six inches, and mark off, and so go on, until you have six straight lines the length of the bed; this will leave s>x inches clear, both at the front and back; then mark off across the bed, six inches apart; this will leave the whole of the bed in six inch squares. At the an- gle of each square, or where the lines are crossed, place a handful of sand. If the day is fine, go to work and plant the bulbs immediately, for there is no trusting to the weather, at this season of the year. Place a bulb in the centre of each handful of sand that was put there for this purpose. When the bed is planted, cover them with a com- post similar to that they are to grow in, three inch- es deep; observe to mulch the beds over with leaves or litter, about six or eic;ht inches, before the approach of severe frosts; it is also indispensa- bly necessary to have a light frame built over the bed, for the purpose of fixing upon it a light can- vass, or strong cotton cloth, to shade the flowers from sudden storms of wind, rain, early frost, and particularly the hot sun. In the spring of the year, some tulip growers make use of hoops bent over the beds at regular distances, and throw over bass mats; but a permanent frame would be but a trifling expense, and is much to be preferred. As to the size of the frame, every one can suit their own taste in the dimensions of it; all that is ne- cessary is, to secure the plants and flowers from the before mentioned casualties. Take off the covering of leaves, &c, in the spring, as soon as the plants begin to make their appearance, and with a trowel or small fork, stir up the soil a little between each row, and leave the whole smooth and neat; now begin to make a quantity of small neat stakes, about two and a half feet in length, for securing the flower stems to, beginning at one end of the bed, and placing a stake in the centre of the four first plants. Procure some lead wire, and twisting it once or twice round the stake, you will find that there is only three inches to go to reach the flower stems of four tulips; twist it once round the stem carefully, leaving room enough for it to play about easy; thus it will take three stakes to secure twelve of the flower stems, which, if neatly done, will have an elegant eflect. After flowering, the tops will soon begin to decay; and when yellow, or dead, the bulbs ought to betaken up and laid away from the sun to dry a day or two; then clean and place them in a dry room, 494 FARMERS REGISTER. [No. 8 there to remain till the time of planting; look over them occasionally, to see that they are all in good order. Tulips are known by the following names: early tulips, which flower about a fortnight belbre all others; bizarres, which have a yellow ground, striped with brown, purple and violet, with inter- mediate shades; violet and rose biblnemens, which have a white ground, striped with violet, purple, black, cherry, rose, and intermediate shades: these are considered the most valuable by the florist; baguets, which are nearly allied to bibloe- mens, but arc much stronger in their growth, and more gross in their colors; double andpurrot tulips are esteemed mostly as border flowers. Yours, J. W. RUSSELL. Mount sfuburn, Cainbridge, Oct. I2lh, 1835. EXPERIMENT OF ASHES AND GYPSUM AS A MANURE FOR CORN. PLAN FOR MANA- GING TOBACCO PLANT BEDS. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. I promised (in due time) to send you the result of a small experiment on the application of plas- ter and spent ashes to corn, mixed in the propor- tion of one-third plaster, and applying a single handful to each hill of corn. I have now gather- ed and measured the corn on six acres — which was all I could manure in this way, in consequence of the want of ashes. The result is, forty-nine barrels and a half on the six acres. It is proper to state, that the land was very poor — a part of it had been cow-penned during the previous summer; another part was a complete gall, without soil upon it, and a small part, (less than an acre,) the margin of a branch. I do not believe the six acres, without the plaster and ashes, would have made fifteen barrels, even in this favorable year — the corn adjoining this, on similar land, being an indifferent crop, though it received precisely the same cultivation. Nor have I a doubt that I might have had nearly double the crop on the six acres, if I had doubled the quantity of hills, as the stalks are universally large and luxuriant — larger than I ever saw on high land. Although this result falls far short of the produce in Maryland, under simi- lar treatment, yet I am well pleased with it — hav- ing trebled the crop I had hitherto expected to reap from such land; and I have now no doubt, that where ashes are attainable in sufficient quantities, the crop of corn may be always doubled at least — perhaps in most cases on poor high land, quadru- pled. It may be necessary to state, that my six acres were laid off in horizontal rows, five feet and a half apart, the corn being dropped in the row at intervals of about three — one stalk generally in a hill, occasionally two. It received but two plough- ings and one hoeing — but would have been much benefited by another ploughing, which I would have given it had my other farming operations permitted it. I have thus, Mr. Editor, redeemed my promise to give you the result of this first experiment on the use of plaster and ashes combined. I am not chemist enough to know whether the combination of the two, produces a stronger manure than either alone; of this, however, I am certain, that no use of plaster on my plantation has ever pro^ duced so great effect as this combined use of plas- ter and ashes. Whilst I have the materials for writing before me, I will add a piece of information for'the benefit of your readers who make tobacco, (doubtless known already to many, but which others may profit by—) on the rearing of early and good plants. I have tried the method I shall recom- mend, for three years, with entire success; so have others of my neighborhood. The plan is exceed- ingly simple and easy of practice, viz: to under- lay the plant bed previous to sowing it, with to- bacco stalks, covering them about three inches deep with earth. This may be done by the plough, where the bed is clear of roots and stumps, or else with the hoe, by digging trenches parallel to each other, and nearly touching each other, until the whole bed is gone over, filling up the last trench dug (after pulling therein the stalks) with the dirt that comes out of the next. If a plant bed thus manured fails, every body else in that neighbor- hood will certainly tail too, to raise plants that sea- son. Mr. Old of Powhatan, (whose reputation as a tobacco maker, stands so deservedly high,) tried this plan last spring with the most perfect success. H. M. Nov. 13th, 1835. the farmer's proverbs. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Most of the ideas contained in the following piece are familiar to old farmers and house-keep- ers. I have adopted this mode of writing to notch them deep on the minds of the juniors. A sen- tence short in construction remains longer in re- collection. I have not prepared my bits for fine scholars, but for plain farmers — not for reading men, but for working men. A lean wood-pile makes a fat grave-yard. If you feed low, you must work slow. Clean out your spring often, if you would see the doctor seldom. Small cabins make large grave-yards — much filth, much physic. Feed well, and you will breed well. Smooth gear makes smooth ploughing — when the collar chafes the skin, the plough won't go in. The horse sweats least when the gear fits best. An empty belly makes a sore back. The sad- dle is damned when the fault is in the feed. Good feeding makes the best padding. A neat floor is an enemy to flies — but a dirty one is a friend to fleas. A foul yard invites sickness — but a neat one chaseth away fevers. A neat cook makes a neat kitchen, and a neat kitchen makes a neat table. A weak fence makes a strong foe — but firm stakes make firm friendships. Pence in your stock if you would fence out the devil. One bad sow will make many bad quarrels. A sow that has lost her ears should also lose her life — for among the overseers she'll cause a deal of strife. Bad shoes in winter make bad coughs. Mend your shoes and break your colds. Every new stitch in an old shoe saves a penny in a new bill. A penny given to a coarse shoemaker is a pound taken from a fine doctor. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 495 Fleas in the cabin will make grass in the corn- field— for he that catches fleas by night will catch sleep by day. Where the laborer is asleep there the grass is awake. Dull licks make brisk weeds. A mean overseer is a plantation cancer: imme- diate excision is the best cure. An overseer's cow makes the best beef, but her calf the poorest veal. The employer's family drink blue milk, but the overseer's children spoon up cream, and butter lieth thick on their bread. His cow findeth the way to the meadow and the hay that is forbidden — she eateth thereof — her bag is swollen, and her teats stand out — she letteth down her milk, and the piggin overfloweth — daily her churn foameth, and her rich butter is gathered into the plate. She is never found in the mire, nor doth the hollow- horn find her out. She is the queen of the pas- ture, and her horns are the terror of the cowpen. Many cows have given milk, but she excelleth them all. Home weaving overgoeth, but that done from home lacketh filling. There are some who are without sheep, yet have plenty of yarn, while they that have many sheep lack wool. There are some who have an empty meat house yet a full pot — an empty crib, yet a full oven. They spin not, yet are they clothed — they toil not, yet are they fed. Their horses graze, yet they have no pasture — and their cows calve without a bull. Their mares foal without a stallion. This is a sore evil under the sun. Others there are that find tools that were not lost — pick wool from dead sheep — pull down fences they built not — gather fruit from other men's trees — that go on errands where they have no bu- siness— that thump your melons with roguish fin- gers, and open them too by the light of the moon. They are the republican night-walkers — aristocra- cy haters — too free to work — want all things in common, as they have nothing in particular — hate those that have, because they have not. They never beg — ever buying, but never paying — never failing in promises, but ever failing in perform- ances— too proud to work, but not too honest to steal. This is another great evil under the sun. A new hoop saves an old tub, but new cider will burst an old barrel. Build no new nest out of old straw, for instead of brooding eggs you will be breeding lice. Never over-cock your poultry yard, for where there is much fighting there is but little gain. A nest without the house is better than a nest within — for lice within are worse than rain with- out. Take care of poor spots and the rich spots will take care of themselves. "He that giveth to the rich robbeth the poor, but he that giveth to the poor shall be repaid." He that tilleth very poor land sendeth good corn after worthless niibbings. Poor land receives good currency, but pays bad money. It borrows hard money and pays back bad paper. Provide fuel for summer, and winter will take care of itself — for winter is a tight overseer, but summer is an indulgent master. With your work always keep ahead, and the grass won't grow behind you. If the work is be- hind-hand, the grass will be before-hand. He that works his crop badly will be over-crop- ped sadly — for to slight work i« to increase work. When overseers become gentlemen, the master must become overseer, or the slave becomes a freeman. Overseers are often guilty of oversights. He that works of nights sleeps of days — night workers are bad croppers. If you lose oversight of your overseer, he will lose sight of your business — strict employers make attentive overseers. An overseer neglected is one soon ejected. If the master is much at home, the overseer is but seldom abroad — if one is a man of pleasure, the other will be a man of leisure. When your overseer puts a black man in his place, he gives a lesson to his employer. If "un- cle Tom" is to manage, let uncle Tom have the honor, and his master save the wage?. If you will cure the gall, you will not have the gulley — a gall for want of mending is a gulley in the ending. Keep your hogs lean or the rogues will be fat. A poor hog is better than no hog. A poor pig in hand is better than a fat pig out of pocket. A mean hog in safety is worth more than a fine one in danger. A PLAIN OLD FARMER. From the Essex Nortli Register. DIRECTIONS FOR WASHING CLOTHES. In this day of improvements, few have been suggested of more importance, especially to fe- males, than the new mode of washing clothes, which has been introduced into this town [New- buryport] through the agency of two benevolent individuals, now residing at a distance from us. It has been tried by quite a number of females with complete success, and those who have tried it are desirous of communicating it extensively, that others may reap the same benefit which has accrued to them. It is to be used only for white clothes. It does not answer the purpose in case of calicoes and woollens. 1. Mixture — Five gallons soft water, add half a gallon of lime water, a pint and a half of soft soap, or a pound of hard soap, and two ounces of carbonate of soda. 2. Method of washing — Soak the clothes over night if very dirty, at any rate wet them tho- roughly before putting them into the mixture. When the above mixture is at bailing heat, put in the clothes that have been soaked or wet, merely rubbing such parts with a little soap that are un- usually soiled. Boil them one hour. They are then to be taken out and drained, and thoroughly rinsed in warm water, then in the indigo water as usual, and they are fit for drying. The lime wa- ter may be prepared and kept on hand — the soda, sub carbonate, (be sure to get the right kind) may be procured cheap, by purchasing it in a large quantity. Let all who feel that washing- day is a day of hard work and weariness, cease to complain, until they are willing to try this safe, easy and expeditious mode of lightening their bur- dens. ADVANTAGES OF CULTIVATING CORN BY CROSS PLOUGHING. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Norfolk County, Nov. 12th, 1835. As a subscriber to your valuable publication, and one who wishes it great success, I have 496 FARMERS' REGISTER. [Ne. 8 thought proper, "it being a privilege," to offer a few remarks on the growth and culture of Indian corn, that may perhaps be novel to some of your readers; I offer as my apology, the pleasure that has often been realized from reading your journal, and gratitude prompts me to attempt some feeble return. No species of literature affords more useful in- struction, than that which leads to the knowledge of extracting from the soil, in the most easy and abundant manner, the best food for man and beast, and which shall leave it in the best situation for similar returns; and no grain more imperiously de- mands the notice of the agriculturist, than that which is best suited to his various demands, in sustaining health and life, and in suiting itself to the various kinds of stock which are indispen- sable for his support and comfort. Then may not Indian corn be justly called the "Jaquin and Boaz" of the farmer's support; for there is no crop so well suited to his wants, his interests, or his conve- nience— none less capricious or uncertain in its re- turns for labor — none better adapted to the various kinds of soil and climate that surround him — none less choice in its selection of (bod for support — nor more profitable and fruitful in its returns — but like all other crops, its products may be increased or diminished, according to the mode of cultivation. Though every tiller of the soil in our country is a cultivator of corn, and though it forms the larger part of his crop, still the proper mode of cultiva- tion is so little known, and the little known, is as much disputed, as any other agricultural question that can be named. Is it not much to be lament- ed, that a grain in every way so well suited to our needs, so easily and surely raised, and so ancient of use, should be so little understood, as to the most suitable way of cultivation? Must we adopt the idea, so long discarded, "that man is not fond of novelty, change, or experiment;" or that agri- cultural wisdom has been purchased at too dear a price — having either by it, suffered ourselves, or seen others suffer severely, by hastily adopting no- vel plans of improvement, which had nothing to recommend them but the loud and extravagant praises of the propagators? Often we suffer our- selves to become prejudiced against a change in conducting any concern of life, and obstinately persist in old practices, merely because a trial has been made of them, although constanffy witness- ing and acknowledging their defects, rather than expose ourselves to the hazard of failure. If we are travelling the old beaten path of our ancestors, or pursuing the same course with our neighbors, we rest satisfied with the result, be it small or great, without, for a moment, making the inquiry whether, by substituting some other mode in lieu of our own, the quantum raised would not be in- creased, and the labor lessened. Or, should a failure take place, which would be by no means a novelty, it is never attributed to mismanagement in culture, but invariably to the unsuitableness of the season. It is a common saying among Vir- ginia farmers, should their corn crops come in light, "that there was either too much rain, or drought," whilst the fact was notorious, that some of their near neighbors, had a heavy and plentiful harvest. There are two prominent systems common with us, for the cultivation of corn. The drill sys- tem, of which Col. Taylor, late of Caroline, is justly the author; and another system more an- cient, that of the cross-ploughing — but in either, the adherents vary in many particulars, but in none, very essentially. The former requires less plough- ing and more hand hoeing — whilst the latter re- quires more ploughing and less hand hoeing; but their dissimilarity is not confined alone to these peculiarities; for the theory upon which their indi- vidual modes of cultivation are based, is essentially different. Is it not a palpable absurdity to suppose that both systems can be best under any circum- stances? For the one supposes it an injury to the growing plant to cut its roots — whilst the other supposes it a benefit. Both of these systems, founded upon such opposite theories, cannot be correct; for if it be detrimental to the plant at eve- ry stage of its growth, to break its roots, then the cross-ploughing system must inevitably be the worst; but if the breaking of roots be no injury, but a benefit, then the drill system cannot, be the best. But I am disposed to favor the supposition, that the breaking the roots that fasten on, or near the surface of the soil, is not an injury, but a bene- fit; for so soon as the}' are broken, an innumerable quantity of young fibres are thrown out, which fasten in new soil, and consequently, the quan- tity of sap is increased, because the number of ab- sorbent vessels are increased. Again: the fact is obvious, that the simply running a light iron-tooth harrow over all kinds of small grain, is of infinite service to it — (in the spring season of the year.) Now, how can the fact be accounted for, upon phi- losophical principles, if the supposition is discarded, that it is not a benefit to break the roots of grow- ing plants? If the appearance of a field of small grain, immediately after the operation, was to be the criterion by which its effects was to be tested, no farmer in his senses could admit it in any way beneficial — for to all appearance, a more rash operation could not be performed. But the fact is clear and undeniable, that it is productive of the happiest effect. I know not how. in any possi- ble manner, to account for the circumstance, if this idea be taken away from me — for if it be an injury to break the roots of corn, or any other grain, it is to me surprising, how the adherents of the cross- ploughing system should make even half crops, or that it does not inevitably ruin any small grain crop, over which an iron-tooth harrow is dragged. The advantages of this, the cross-ploughing syr- tem, over the drill, have been strikingly verified in this neighborhood, and fair and ample opportuni- ties have been offered, in testing the comparative superiority of one over the other; for until the last three years, there was not a farmer of any celeb- rity among us, but who strictly pursued the course recommended by the "justly high famed farmer of Caroline," and verily believed it best; until an in- dustrious and enterprizing Kastern Shore farmer settled among us, on very poor land, and com- menced his plan of cultivating Indian corn. The labor-saving system which he rigidly pursued, and the fine appearance of his crop, created at that time, considerable excitement in the neighborhood. Fame having borne the exalted superiority of his crop over that of his neighbors, on land of like character, among the many that went to see for themselves, I, like the queen of Sheba, determin- ed to see in person. It is true the half had been told me — for the novelty of his plan gave no lati- tude to exaggeration, but I was truly surprised to 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 497 see so heavy a crop made by such simple means. He informed me afterwards, that his crop yielded him one hundred barrels — and strange to say, all the cultivation it received, was given it with one plough, without a single hand-hoeing alter plant- ing. I asked him afterwards to allow ms to be- come one of his club, by initiating me into the se- cret, which he did with apparent pleasure; and having for myself tested its labor-saving advanta- ges upon the crop now standing in the field, I will give you the mode, to dispose of j as you please. To many of your subscribers it may not be new — as it is the common course pursued on the East- ern Shore of Virginia, and, for aught I know, many, if not a very large majority, may have practiced it for many years; but, should there be one who has never heard of it and would be dis- posed to profit by the information, then I shall be amply compensated lor the task. The system is an extraordinary one — where all the labor is per- formed by team, and hand-hoeing entirely dis- pensed with. The field to be cultivated is first (al- lowed up (during the fall or winter,) in beds forty or fifty ieet wide — the wider the better. At plant- ing time it is accurately laid off one way in rows five feet apart, by running a very deep furrow and throwing the slice back again; it is then cross- checked in rows two and a half! three, or four feet wide, proportioned to the strength of the soil — where the checks intersecting each other receive the com, which is covered with hoes or horses, according to choice or convenience: there is kept up afterwards an alternate succession of cross ploughing, the bar next to, and as near the corn as possible; the field should be gone over twice after this manner, without shifting the position of the plough. The corn is then left standing on a very small square of ground. By this time it is strong enough to bear a gentle earthing with the mould- board. Then the same process is kept up with the mould-board run next the corn, until it shows the first symptoms of tasseling. The ploughs are then laid aside, and the five-tooth cultivator is sub- stituted in lieu thereof— the same system is kept up with them until the shoots and silks fully devel- ope themselves: then all further cultivation ceases, or in other words, the corn is laid by. The rota- tion of ploughing is in such rapid succession, that grass has no opportunity to fix itself on any part of the field; but should it spring so very near the plant, as to be difficult to to remove it in the young stage of the plant, when the mould-board is turn- ed, it is soon covered over and killed; so the pro- cess is so very simple that the way-faring man, though a fool, need not err therefrom. " If the crop is well laid off', the battle is half won. This year is my first attempt after this manner. A field of two hundred acres was cultivated with six ploughs, exclusive of hand-hoeing after planting, and as far as I can judge of it, standing on the field, to say the least of it, is as good as I ever made: and so far as others have tried it, success has attended the experiment. From the enlire success that has attended this mode of cultivation, and the many failures that have attended the drill system, I can but believe that the cross- ploughing system almost under any circumstances, is decidedly best. Though I am partial to the Eastern Shore plan, it is not yet perfect. In the stretch of economy, too much space has been left. The no-hoe system, (as I bea leave to call it,) Vol. Ill— 63 may be happily adapted to some peculiar kinds of soil — such as are common on the Eastern Shore — a dry sandy soil. But in a country like ours, where such a soil is not common, and grass grows kind and abundant, it would be safer to adopt a medium system — for the crop to receive one hand- hoeing and the ploughs to finish the cultivation: further than one hand-hoeing would be a superflu- ous waste of labor, except on newly cleared land, where the ploughs could not perform their part with correctness and facility. With the projected improvement, this system offers many advantages over any other that I am acquainted with — for, at almost air3 stages of the cultivation, it presents a level surface, which is the best situation that land can be in to derive the full benefit of the rains, which is so essential to a heavy product. This is a consideration too often overlooked by most of our farmers — for soil is only the laberatory in which the food tor plants is pre- pared; nor can manure be taken up by the roots of plants unless water is present. It is the opinion of Sir Humphrey Davy, that water forms by far the greatest part of the sap of plants, and that this substance, or its elements, enters largely into the constitution of their organs and solid productions. A level surface then, permits the rains to exert an equal influence on all parts of the land alike. Un- like the ridge or drill system, when the rains fall on the ridges it does not penetrate, but runs direct- ly off into the wafer furrows, from whence it is conveyed to the ditches, without being permitted to benefit the growing crop to its extent: so that system of cultivation which affords the greatest facilities to the perfect action of the vital support of all plants, must be best. But the objector may insist that a level surface leaves the plant too much exposed to the blighting influence of a superabun- dance of" water. "Such a crop season would rather be a novelty — for drought has been the most prominent characteristic of our summers." But should the order of things change, and our seasons become wet, still I am of the opinion that a level surface would possess the most advantages — (I well know the ground which I occupy to be disputed, and I would not presume an opinion if observation had not first given it) for if the sur- face be level, the water will pass off through its natural sources to the ditches or drains — for by one of the immutable laws of that unstable ele- ment, it must find its level, and no barrier is insur- mountable in obeying that law; by it, avenues or ravines have been forced, through which it com- municates itself until it finds in first station, the ocean. So upon the level surface system, the superabundant water passes off' the same way that it did before the land was in cultivation, assist- ed by ditches, to hapten its passage. But upon the ridge system, these natural ravines or conduc- tors are obstructed by the ridges crossing them: so the water is not permitted to pass off its own way, without breaking through, and washing away these newly formed barriers. It then neces- sarily mast stand in the water-furrow, and exert its worst influence on the growing crop. There are many more advantages that this system offers — that of seeding small grain — also, to derive the full benefits of the suifs rays, to warm the earth alike. But whether it possesses an advantage over the drill cultivation or not, as it regards the best or worst position of the surface during culti- 40S FARMERS' REGISTER fN-0,8 vation or after, one fact is certain, that there is involved in it one of the most prominent features of agricultural reform — that of saving labor — and can command the best argument in its behalf — that of unrivalled success. When labor can be saved, and success is certain, with the prudent husbandman it will weigh more than all the spec- ulative deductions, and plausible theories, that the most learned or scientific can offer. For there is no experimental former among us but what has tested the truth of Johnson's remark, that in agri- cultural matters, practice is contradicting theory every day. My remarks, are with you, to dispose of as you please. They have but one merit — that, "facts are stated." DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN REMARKABLE PRAIRIE AND WOODLAND SOILS OK ALA- BAMA. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Erie, Greene Co., Ala. ) September 7th, 1S35. $ The October No. of the Farmers' Register, con- taining your dissertation upon the prairies, and the analyses of the soils, came duly to hand. I nm very much surprized that the specimens from Noscubee county contained no carbonate of lime. It not only militates against your theory of the formati-xiof prairies, but also against our pre-con- ceiyed opinion that the rust is caused by an excess of lime in the soil. I had tor some time, howe- ver, abandoned that opinion from observing that where the prairie joins, or runs into, the sandy soil, the cotton rusts more than in the open prairie — particularly where there is no clay near the surface. I have had some specimens of our prairie soils some time for you, but have not had time to put them up and send them. No. 1 is of the kind of soil I have just been speaking — a loose dark friable sandy loam; whether calcareous or not, I cannot say, as it is very much like No. 12 of the specimens reported in the October No. of the Farmers' Register.* No. 2 is from our open or bald prairie, which has been cultivated seven or eight years — taken from near the same place; produces corn very well — nearly fifty bushels to the acre are now standing on the ground; but cotton does not produce so well on it as on poor sandy soil. I feel very confident that this specimen is highly calcareous, as there are many fragments of shells mixed with the soil, and the rock is not two feet from the surface. 01 all the specimens hitherto sent, this is the one which will give the nearest approach to the gene- ral character of our open prairie land in this part of the country.f No 3 is from the post oak land immediately ad- joining the prairies. It is a very tenacious, argil- *This specimen, upon examination, was found to contain 8 per cent, of carbonate of lime. Ed. tNo 2 contained 33 per cent, of carbonate of lime. This, as a specimen of the most general quality of prairie soil, (as Dr. Withers thinks,) deserves particu- lar notice. laceous soil; produces cotton well, but is difficult to cultivate from its tenacious character, which causes it to retain its moisture in excess; hence it is very muddy in rainy seasons, and very hard in wet. There are some considerable bodies of this kind of soil interspersed among the prairies, but gene- rally, it is very poor, and produces very badly. Cotton succeeds better on it than corn, and it is too wet in winter lor small grain. The color is from a white livery to a chocolate. In some of it, there is scarcely any sand apparently, and the roads through it in winter become impassable for loaded carriages.* The next specimen, No. 4,t is from Madison county, in this state, about half way between Whitesburg and Huntsville. It is a fair specimen of their best soi's — was taken from near the sur- lace of land which has been cultivated for many years. It originally produced corn and cotton very well; but that part of the state can no longer vie with the south in raising the latter article, even where the lands are fertile. The knobs and spurs of the Cumberland mountain are interspersed very generally over Madison county — and this specimen was taken not far Irom a mountain of blue limestone rock; yet, judging from the result of your other investigations into the nature of similar soils, I should doubt whether you would find calcareous matter in any excess. Most of the blue limestone region of the western country is of a similar soil. After crossing the Tennesee river at. Whitesburg, or Ditto's Landing, and proceed- ing five miles south, you ascend the main Cumber- land mountain, which is about a mile and a half, as the road runs, to the top. Before you reach the top, however, the rock changes from a blue limestone to sandstone, and continues of this de- scription till you get into Jones' Valley, near Elyton, where the limestone is again seen in par- allel lamina1, extending north and south, and vary- ing from about 45 to 80° of elevation. The last traces of the blue limestone are about sixteen miles east from Tuscaloosa, where they burn a good deal of rock lime for the country below. All this country from near Tennessee river to the city of Tuscaloosa, is full of excellent pit coal — the in- habitants digging it up out of the beds of creeks, &c. for their forges, and for fuel — when they use it at all. The face of the country is generally broken and poor, until you get to the rotten lime- stone region, about Ibrty miles south of Tuscaloo- sa, from whence I send you the first three sreci- mens. ROBERT W. WITHERS. From the American Gardener's Magazine. ON THE CULTIVATION OF HYACINTHS IN GLASSES AND POTS. The following observations, though not written expressly for this Magazine, we have thought might be of considerable interest to many of our readers who cultivate hyacinths and other bulbs. The season is now approaching for planting them and many may be induced to grow a few, who have heretofore been prevented, from the want of information on the subject. Hyacinths in glasses, *No. 3 contained no carbonate of lime. tNo 4 — also none. En. Farm. Reg. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 499 it cannot be supposed will flower as well as when in pots; but they have a very beautiful appearance, and flower sufficiently strong to render them high- ly desirable. For this purpose, the earliest kinds should be selected; and we would state, that we prefer sin- gle to double ones, or at least, an equal number of each, for the following reasons: the spikes are much taller, the bells far more numerous, the co- lors more vivid, and the fragrance very powerful; indeed, in some of the best kinds, the bells are so profuse as to form a complete pyramid of flowers. If attention is given to the following simple ob- servations, no fear need be entertained of disap- pointment. Select good large solid bulbs, especially for glasses; we have often seen it stated in the com- munications of experienced growers, that "small bulbs are worse than useless;" it is labor lost, to cultivate those which are sold at auction; they are the mere refuse of the Dutch florists, such as would be thrown away as worthless; the roots are weak, and would fail to flower well if put in their natural element, the earth; much more so if in an artificial one of water. How frequent we have heard complaints that bulbs start well, make a ra- pid growth of an inch or two, and then stop; the flower stems dying ere a flower opens. This is from the cause that there is not sap enough stored in the bulb the preceding year; and it must conse- quently make a premature and sickly growth the following one. Unless attention is paid to the se- lection of first rate bulbs, disappointment must certainly ensue. All complaints arise from this cause; and if cheap bulbs are cultivated, cheap looking flowers must also repay amateurs for their care. Management in glasses. — The bulbs may be put in the glasses any time from October to Janu- ary; when a succession of flowers is wanted, they may be put in every fortnight. Place in the bulbs, and then fill up with water just so that the bottoms of each will be immersed an eighth of an inch; then put the glasses in a dark cool room until the roots have protruded a half an inch, orso, which is generally in about ten days. They should then be exposed to the sun, light and air, as much as possible. If they receive the sun on one side only, turn them round every two or three days to prevent their growing crooked. Change the wa- ter once a week; if the glasses get very dirty, draw out the roots carefully, and give them a thorough washing. The water should not be allowed to freeze. Any pure water will do; but rain water is the best. After bulbs are grown in water, they are not worth saving; as it will take three or four years to recover their strength. Management in pots. — To bloom hyacinths to perfection, the pots should be seven inches in di- ameter and ten inches deep; plant only one in each pot; it is almost unnecessary to say, that it is folly to expect to procure fine flowers from a bulb in a pot scarcely large enough to hold a crocus. Put in some broken potshreds in each pot; fill them up with the soil before recommended, and place in the bulb, just covering it; give the pot a gentle knock to settle the soil. Select a dry spot in the garden, and dig a hole eighteen inches deep; place in the pots, and cover them up with the earth six or more inches in depth; upon the approach of frost, cover them with dry leaves, sea-weed or hay. They should all be planted at one period, during the month of November. Two or more pots can be taken up at any time throughout the winter, thus giving a succession of flowers from January until April. If there is no garden to place the pots in, they should be put in a box in a cool cellar, and covered with earth in the same manner. This is the method we have practised, and have never failed in blooming them well. We have had the main stems of some sin- gle ones eighteen inches high, with upwards of fifty bells, forming a pyramid of flowers more than twelve inches in height. It cannot be supposed that a bulb, set in a pot and immediately forced into growth, will flower strong; they must acquire roots first to support the foliage. When they are in flower, give them plenty of water, by placing pans under the pots, and keep- ing them constantly filled. We have seen ma- nure water recommended, but we havenever, our- selves, tried the experiment; cease to give water when out of flower, and discontinue it altogether when the leaves assume a decaying appear- ance. Roots that have flowered in pots are but little injured, and will bloom tolerably strong the next season, if set out in the ground; the same bulb should never be set in a pot two successive years, but by shifting them alternately, from the pot to the garden, they may be made to flower vigorous- The management, of the hyacinth in beds, to flower them to perfection, will be given in some future number. As many of our readers may not know what constitutes the properties of a fine hyacinth, we extract the following from Maddock's Florist'e Di- rectory: "The stem should be strong, tall, and erect, supporting numerous large bells, each suspended by a short and strong peduncle or footstalk, in a horizontal position, so that the whole may have a compact, pyramidal form, with the crown or up- permost flower perfectly erect. The flowers should be large and perfectly double; that is, well filled with broad, bold petals, appearing to the eye rather convex than flat or hollow: they should oc- cupy about one-half the length of the stem. The colors should be clear and bright, whether plain, red, white or blue, or variously intermixed and di- versified in the eye: the latter, it must be con- fessed, gives additional lustre and elegance to this beautiful flower. Strong, bright colors are, in ge- neral, preferred to such as are pale." The following is a list of superior kinds, and may serve to assist some in making their selec- tions: Double white. General Washington. Prince of Waterloo. Triumph Blandina. La Deese. Miss Kitty, rosy eye. A la Mode, rosy eye. Single white. Grand Blanch Imperial. Grand Vainquier. 500 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 8 La Candeur. Due de Cumberland. Double yellow. Bouquet. d'Orange. Due de Berri d'Or. Ophir. Louis d'Or. Single yellow. Princess Charlotte. Croesus. Double red, Bouquet tendre. Groot Voorst. Marquis de la Coste. Coaite de la Cosle. Single red. Cochineal, crimson. La Balaine, rosy. Lord Wellington, rosy. L'Eclair. Mars, crimson. Double blue. Grand Vedette, pale. Martinet. Habit Brilliant. Comte de St. Priest, pale. Single blue. La Crepuscule. Grand Vedette. L'Ami de Cceur. From the Genesee Farmer. TRANSPLANTING FRUIT TREES. This is commonly considered as one of the most, difficult operations in the culture of fruit trees; but if properly performed is very rarely attended with any difficulty or risk. It is a very common opin- ion that a transplanted tree must of necessity con- tinue nearly stationary in its growth lor a year or two after the operation, or at best make but com- paratively little progress. A tree, however, pro- perly transplanted, will experience very little check in its growth, and often apparently none. Hence the very great importance of the operation being well understood. Much has been written in ex- planation of the theory of successful transplanting; but we merely intend here to give a brief descrip- tion of the practice which experience has proved to be uniformly attended with success, and the most obvious principles on which it is founded. There are two great, points to be observed in re- moving trees from the soil; first, to preserve the spongioles uninjured; and secondly, to prevent evaporation, by which the tree becomes dry, and if carried to excess, beyond recovery. 1. Preservation of the spongioles. These are the minute spongy extremities of the smallest fi- brous or branching thread-like roots, through which, as mouths, the tree receives fluids and other nourishment from the soil, and not through the surface and sides of the roots as is sometimes supposed. As these spongioles are exceedingly delicate in their organization, a very slight degree of violence injures or destroys them. The more carefully therefore trees are removed ii'om the soil, and the more entire the fibrous roots, the greater will be the number of uninjured spongioles remain- ing, and better will the tree be supplied with nour- ishment alter it is planted again in the soil. And hence the absurdity of the practice, which has been recommended by some writers, of cutting oft' most of the small fibrous roots because they can- not be easily replaced in their natural position in the soil. 2. In order to prevent evaporation, the roots should never he suffered to become dry, but as soon as removed from ihe ground, they should be enveloped in some damp substance; wetted straw serves well for a temporary protection. But when intended to be conveyed to a distance, and there is a probability of their being several days out of the ground, damp moss should be employed in packing about the roots, as straw is liable to fer- ment if kept long in a wet state. Previously to packing them in the moss, it is an excellent prac- tice to immerse the roots in soft mud or a mixture of the soil and water, so as to coat their surfaces, after which dust or dry sand is to be sprinkled co- piously over ihem to complete the coating. The holes for receiving the trees shoukl be dug large — not less than five or six feet in diameter at the very least, and eighteen inches deep. The hard and steril subsoil should be thrown out, and its place supplied with rich mould or muck. Where the holes arc dug in ground in grass, the turf which is removed from the surface may be inverted in the bottoms. If manure is placed in them, it should be well rotted, and should never be allowed to come in contact, with the roots, but should be placed in the bottom, at the surface, and in the more remote parts. The tree should in general be set a little deeper than it originally stood, but not more than two inches; the roots should be spread out, horizontally in all directions, so as firm- ly to brace the trees when they become large; mo- derately moist and finely pulverized earth should then be gently shaken in about them, so as not to disturb the position of the fibres, until the hole is filled. Care should be taken that all the inter- stices among the roots be perfectly filled, so as not to leave the smallest cavities; and throwing in the earth in large quantities should for this reason be especially avoided. In order that the soil may be gently packed on every side of all the roots, it is very useful when the soil is inclining to dryness, to pour in a quantity of water as soon as the roots are covered, and then the remainder of the earth sho- veled in, which latter prevents the surface from be- coming hard by baking. After the operation is fin- ished, a stake should be set in the ground leaning towards the tree, to which it should be tied with a band of matting or of straw, to brace it firmly in an upright position. Placing the tree leaning a little towards the south or southwest, or with the most projecting branches in that direction, will prevent the trunk being injured by the action of Ihe rays of the sun in hot summer afternoons, an evil which is sometimes so serious as to cause the death of the tree. Autumn is ordinarily the best time for removing 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 601 trees— more time is then afforded than in the hur- rying season of spring — besides which the earth becomes more settled about the roots, and new spongioles are produced in place of those which may have been destroyed, especially if the oper- ation is not perlbrmed too late in autumn. Better trees also may be obtained in autumn than in spring after nurseries have been culled. But if ten- der kinds be transplanted in the fall, and particu- larly it' they be removed to a colder section of the country, they will, from their mutilated state, be more liable to injury from frost. To those there- fore, who live remote, and are unable to obtain such trees for early planting in spring, or those who live in the colder regions of the country, we would recommend to procure their trees in au- tumn, and bury the roots and a part of the stem and branches in a trench dug for the purpose, the roots being packed closely together, and the branches resting in an inclined position upon the earth; which operation is technically termed by nurserymen, laying in by the heel. In this way they may be effectually protected from injury from the frosts of winter. Nothing is more common than to loose trees by transplanting; but there is no necessity for such failure; — if trees are transplanted with proper care, there will be an almost absolute certainty of their living. If when they are taken from the earth, care is taken to remove the roots entire — to keep them fresh — and in replacing them in the soil, to pack finely pulverized earth well about the roots, preserving them in their natural position, there can be little danger of success. But it is not only necessary the trees should live, but that they should thrive also; and for this object, it is indispensably requisite that they should have a large deep bed of loose soil for the roots to penetrate. If the ground is of a hard or heavy nature, the holes must be made large and deep and filled with the proper materials, for if the roots are confined in small holes dug in such ground, they will succeed little better than if planted in a small box of earth. DESCRIPTION OF "CAMEI," LIGHTERS, FOR CARRYING MARL. [The excellency of the plan of the vessels descri- bed below, will strike every one who has had expe- rience of the difficulties attending those of the ordina- ry construction — and we doubt not that, by their intro- duction, our correspondent will serve the public interest as well as his own. In loading and unloading the ordinary decked fighters, there is great loss of la- bor; and open lighters loaded with marl, are in great danger from storms. Both these great objections seem to be obviated by this plan, besides attaining some less advantages.] To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. November, 1S35. I have just been" reading the last number of your useful journal. The first article that met my eye was editorial, and headed "facts wanting." This at least shows candor. Such complaints generally proceed from the opposite quarter. Well, then, in the words of a noted bibliopolist, when puffing a favorite article, "the absolute fact is" that I do not know I can at this time, or perhaps at any other time, do a more acceptable service to the agricultural interest, in eastern Virginia, than by describing and recommending a sort of lighter I have been lately building for the transportation of marl. It is significantly called a "camel," from its receiving the load on the back — in other words, the deck. Its recommendations are its simplicity and cheapness, buoyancy", and consequent securi- ty against storms, and the facility with which the load may be discharged. These advantages will, I think, be palpable^from a mere description. I here take pleasure in acknowledging the obliga- tion I am under to an observant friend, for suggest- ing the plan — and indeed for the personal superin- tendence and instruction, which enabled me to overcome the prejudices of a ship carpenter, whom I had employed on the occasion. This individual had no idea of a decked lighter, without knees, carlines, keelsons and other things, hard to call, and still harder to get, and to work when got. By mingled entreaty and command, he was in- duced to build a camel; and now no one is more clearly impressed with their utility. To show my opinion of their superiority, I will state that I have three completed. I had previously commenced an open one, now on the stocks, which I shall be pleased to dispose of to any of your subscribers in want of such a vessel. The materials are excel- lent. It can be finished on short notice, and de- livered where wanted — though I will be honest enough to say I do not recommend it, except for live stock, wood, and very bulky commodities. But I must stop. I sat down to compose an arti- cle for the benefit of others, and lo! 1 am penning an advertisement to benefit myself. Oh self-in- terest! what an insidious thing thou art. I do not ascribe to the friend, who communicated the idea of the camels, any merit on the score of inven- tion; and I presume it would be no easy matter to say to whom that is due: for aught I know, to some ancient Egyptian, who hit on the expedient for re- moving the immense blocks that compose the pyramids. I hope, by the way, for the support of this ingenious and important supposition, that the aforesaid pyramids are situated near the canals which intersect that celebrated region. The gen- tleman referred to, happened to be at Old Point a year or two since, at that season when folks do congregate there for health and pleasure, and ob- served these lighters engaged in the transportation of stone, sand, &c. Some were undergoing re- pair, which gave a good opportunity of examining their construction. "Jlinc Mcb" — not tears, Mr. Editor, but camel lighters. I cannot give a better illustration of these lighters than by likening them to a huge, flat, oblong box, bevelled at each end nearly, but not quite, to the top; and consisting of four longitudinal and parallel planks, viz: the sides and two others intermediate and equi-distant from them and from each other, dividing the box into three long and equal compartments; across and upon which four planks are nailed at the bottom and top. My lighters are 40 feet long at top, and 35 at bottom, 12 feet wide, and about 30 inches deep, including the thickness of the bottom and top planks. These planks are two inches thick, as are the longitudinal ones in the middle. The side planks are three inches, and must, together with the parallel middle ones, in all cases be got the full length of the lighter, for the sake of 502 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 8 strength. It would be desirable to have the side pieces of sufficient width to dispense with a seam; but that can rarely be done, and never without great waste of timber, as nothing but heart should be used. It will therefore be advisable to hew the long stocks for this purpose, with two opposite sides, inclined or sloping, with a reduction, gradu- ated by the diminished size of the heart towards the smaller end, so as to preserve the heart, and reject the sap. Two of these planks will form a side, with an oblique seam, by putting a wide and a narrow end together. For want ot this simple suggestion, while getting my timber, of which I merely gave my head carpenter a bill, I have been compelled to use four long, narrow planks on a side, in one (though only one) of my lighters, with what waste of labor, timber, and caulking, may well be imagined. These side planks, wheth- er two or more, must be fastened together by se- ven bolts on each side, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, extending from top to bottom, and Bcrewed up so as to make them as compact as pos- sible. Between these bolls, batons one and a half inches thick are nailed on the inside between the bolts. The middle planks, parallel to the sides, may be secured by batons alone, with bridges (as I believe the carpenters call them) introduced in two different places. In cutting timber for the top and bottom planks, it will be some economy to get the stocks of such length as may be divided by the width of the lighter without a remainder — as in mine, 12, 24, or 36 feet. If any sap must be used, it should be at the bottom. In every other situation it should be peremptorily rejected. The spikes for the bottom and top should be wrought, five and three-quarter inches long; those for batons, &c. four and three-quarters. I have mentioned that my lighters are 40 feet long at top and 35 at bottom — each end being bevelled two and a half ieet, to within six inches of the top, where an oak piece, four inches square, is let in, across each end of the lighter; the longitudinal middle planks be- ing cut away to receive them. The sides are fas- tened to the oak pieces by a small horizontal iron knee, one foot each way, secured by four bolts. At the turn of the bottom, where the slope com- mences, oak timbers, cut of the proper form, two feet long and three inches square, are nailed to the side and middle planks; other pieces are then lap- ped on them, and extend along the slope up to the transverse oak piece occupying each extreme end. This is done to strengthen the ends of the lighter, the planks on which are doubly spiked, to enable them to bear the violent shocks they will receive on approaching and striking the shore. Having taken these precautions, the bottom, top, and slo- ping ends, are covered with well jointed plank, nailed cross-wise, and as closely together as pos- sible; the whole is snugly caulked and coated over heavily with pitch. A pump about five feet long, is put in one corner for future occasions, in case a leak should spring; and the lighter, water proof top and bottom, is launched upon its future home. 1 should remark that four oak standards, two and a half feet long, and three by five inches square, should be ranged along on each side, secured in their places by staples'with threads at the ends, and taps — the standards next the ends to serve as rullocks by means of a pin near the top, and the whole to serve for loose planks to rest obliquely against, to prevent any thing from rolling overboard. The oars for such lighters may be 22 feet; the rudder may be a crooked oar in fact, with a hole, to receive a bolt fastened in the stern of the lighter. The lighter above described, it will be perceived, is as tight as a corked bottle, and will so remain as long as it is kept in good order, for which purpose it should from time to time be covered with pitch. It cannot be sunk, though the cargo may be washed overboard; a great ad- vantage, as in my exposed situation, that has soon- er or later been the fate of all the open lighters I ever owned. It is hardly worth while to observe that suitable apertures should be made in the low- er part of the two long partition planks to permit the water, should any ever enter the lighter, to flow from the other compartments into that in which the pump is situated. My lighters were built on blocks raised high enough to allow the workmen to operate beneath. They are calcula- ted to resist high winds: in protected situations, and particularly in narrow and shallow streams, thinner plank than that which I have used, would perhaps answer better; but in regard to that, each one must judge for himself. I have received large quantities of oyster shells, from the vessels, in my lighters, so as to test their utility. I have been too busy since their completion to commence get- ting marl, but shall in a lew days set about that in- teresting operation; and when well under way, you may perhaps hear from me again to the tune of "the Campbell's (camels) are coming." H. For the Farmers' Register. PROCEEDINGS OF THE BUCKINGHAM AGRI- CULT U RAL SO CI ETY. At the first annual meeting of the Buckingham Agricultural Society, held at Mr. Robert Shaw's on the 15th of October, 1835, the president, Col. Thomas M. Bondurant took his seat, and called the meeting to order. After which, he proceeded to deliver the Annual Address, requested by a re- solution of the society. At the close of the ad- dress, the following resolution was adopted, viz: — Jlcsolved, That the president be requested to fur- nish a copy of his address for publication in the Farmers' Register — and also, that five hundred copies of the same be published for the use of the members. Maj. Charles Yancey was elected president; Price Perkins, William Woodson and Beverly A. Brown, Esqs. as vice-presidents for the ensuing year. The committees appointed to award premiums made their reports, which were adopted, viz: — Hogs. The first premium to Col. C. M. Bon- durant's boar Surry. The second premium to Col. T. M. Bondurant's sow Blue Rose. The third premium to Capt. Wm. N. Patteson's boar Buckingham. Cattle. For the best bull over two years old; the premium to Col. T. M. Bondurant's Durham and Hereford bull Frederick. For the best bull under two years old — the pre- mium to Capt. Richard G. Morris's North Devon bull Thompson. For the best cow over three years old — the pre- mium to Richard G. Morris's North Devon cow Odell. 1835,] FARMERS' REGISTER. 503 For the best heifer under three years old — the premium to Dr. William P. Moseley's Durham and Hereford heifer Snow Ball. For the best fatted ox or cow — the first pre- mium to Col. T. M. Bondurant's Red Cow. The second premium to Mr. Price Perkin's Red Ox. For the best yoke of work oxen — the premium to Robert Shaw, Esq. Sheep. For the best ram — the premium to Dr. Win. P. Moseley. For the pen of six best ewes — the premium to Col. T. M. Bondurant. Domestic fabrics. For the best suit of clothes — the premium to Col. Jesse Holeman. For the best piece of negro winter clothing — the premium to Col. T. M. Bondurant. For the best piece of carpetting — the premium to Col. T. M. Bondurant. For the best specimen — the premium to Capt. Win. N. Patteson. Horses. For the best thorough-bred filly under two years old — the premium to Maj. James M. Patteson's Empress by Tonson, dam by Archer. For the best brood mare, other than thorough- bred— the premium to Maj. Granderson Mose- ley's Woodlark, by Powhatan, dam by Cultivator. For the best colt or filly, other than thorough- bred— the premium to Dr. Wm. P. Moseley's bay filly, by Moderator, dam by Bolivar. For the best mule raised in the county, under five years old — the premium to Maj. Granderson Moseley. Resolved, That Col. Thomas M. Bondurant, Dr. Wm. C. Moseley, Maj. Charles Yancey, Maj. James M. Patteson and Col. Beverly A. Brown be appointed to attend a proposed Agricultural Convention in Richmond, sometime the ensuing winter. Resolved, That the next annual meeting be held at Mr. Robert Shaw's. Resolved, That the president elect be requested to deliver an address upon the object and utility of agricultural societies. Resolved, That the foregoing be sent to the Farmers' Register for publication. Resolved, That this meeting do now adjourn. THOMAS M. BONDURANT, PREST. G. N. MOSELEY, R. S. Address of Col. Thomas M. Bondurant, Presi- dent of the Buckingham Agricultural Society, delivered at its annual meeting, on the \5th Oct. 1835. Gentlemen: — At your last meeting a resolu- tion was adopted, requesting your president to de- liver an address on the "objects and utility of agri- cultural societies." When I look over this intelli- gent assembly, I perceive that it is composed of those, who are much better qualified than I am to discarge this duty — those who are able to im- part information to me, instead of receiving interest or instruction from any thing that I can say. This is the first annual meeting of the Buck- ingham Agricultural Society, and my most ardent wish is, that each succeeding anniversary may be hailed with a deeper interest and a livelier zeal in the cause of agricultural improvement. Could I flatter myself, that my powers of mind were ade- quate to grasp and exhibit in a proper point of view this great subject, and to impart to it those attractive charms to which it is entitled, I should enter upon the task assigned me with greater con- fidence, and might be encouraged to hope to draw some new votaries to its shrine. But I am con- scious, that, from my limited abilities, I am unable to present this subject in as imposing an attitude as its importance demands. And when I take a survey of the wide and extensive field before me, I am almost tempted to shrink from the under- taking; but, as it has been my course through life never to shun any duty that might be required of me, I shall, in a plain and brief, though I fear, an unconnected and uninteresting manner, attempt to perform the one which you have imposed upon me. In the performance of this duty, 1 throw myself upon your kindness and indulgence, trust- ing that my zeal in a good cause may compensate, in some degree, for my many imperfections. In speaking of the objects and utility of agri- cultural societies, called for by your resolution, I suppose, I may be permitted, as there is a close connection between them, to speak of the prevail- ing defects in agriculture, and to point out what I may consider the remedy. This branch of the subject is of the first magnitude, whether taken in a physical, moral, political or national point of view. To know the defects in the present sys- tems, and to ascertain the remedies constitute the main ends for which our association was organ- ized. I will proceed in the first instance to speak of the advantages resulting from the formation of ag- ricultural societies, their objects and utility; next the importance of the agricultural profession, com- pared with other professions; and then point out some of the material defects in the systems of ag- riculture, and recommend a remedy. With regard to the objects and utility of agri- cultural societies, it may be observed, that they have a tendency to excite greater interest in im- provement; to bring together the agriculturists of the country, thus enabling them to compare their views, so that the information possessed by one, may become common to all. It is the formation of a joint stock company, the dividends of which, are to be drawn in the shape of increased know- ledge on the great and interesting subject of agri- culture. By your constitution, an annual contri- bution is to be made to the fund of practical infor- mation. From that valuable clause in our consti- tution, requiring from each member an essay on some subject, connected with agriculture, I expect to receive much benefit, and that the public will be laid under heavy obligations. Let this requisi- tion be strictly complied with, and much good will result, not only to the members, but to their neighbors and to the county. It is a notorious fact, that when one person begins to improve in any neighborhood, others speedily see its advan- tages, and are excited to follow his example. In those different essays required of your members, we shall not only have theory, but practice. Thus each one pays his instalments into the common stock, and meet together and draw their dividends in a compound ratio as one to the whole number: this cannot but be profitable stock. The dividends which we shall draw, will be more than equal to the requisitions made upon us; then this ought to be a sufficient inducement to make us all punctual in paying up our annual instalments. In a multi- 504 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 8 plicityof counsellors there is wisdom. The wisest and most profitable agriculturist amongst us, will receive a large dividend in the increase of his stock of information. No individual possesses as much information as is diffused through the whole number of members; here, then, are some of the benefits resulting from the formation of agricultu- ral societies. But these are only a part of the ad- vantages connected with agricultural associations. I might specify many others: the cattle show, con- nected with them, will certainly have the effect of creating a spirit of improvement in the breeds of cattle. Of all animals, the cow is perhaps the most valuable, whether considered in reference to the milk, butter and beef with which our tables are supplied, or in reference to the valuable labor per- formed by the ox upon the firm, or in carrying its Eroduce to market. Arid after he has perlbrmed is full quota of service on the farm, when put in- to the stall, he is even then more valuable than ever. This, then, is another important advantage of agricultural societies. I might continue to speak of improvements in all the domestic animals that are useful to man, the horse, sheep, hogs, &c; the improvement in which, is intimately connected with the objects of agricultural societies. But I will pass on to notice, in the next place, the importance of the agricultural profession, com- pared with other professions. Gentlemen: the subject to which I am about to call your attention, is of momentous interest. The agricultural profession is of more importance than all others. It is the profession from which all others receive their life and support. It is like the main spring in a watch, which puts the rest of the machinery in motion — it is like the main artery in the human system, which pervades and gives life to the whole animal constitution: it may be com- pared to the spinal marrow, which, if broken, causes the decay of the whole system. The law- yer, the physician, the merchant, the mechanic, and divine, all receive support from this profes- sion. Behold! the seas covered with shipping, and their sails spread to every gale — all set in moiion — all supported by the agricultural profession. Then can we not, ought we not, to feel a deep interest in elevating this profession to its proper rank? Can there be one spark of patriotism burning in the breast of that man, who would be unwilling to contribute his humble mite to the advancement of this great and important interest? Cold and selfish must be the heart of that man, destitute of a single glow of patriotic fire, who would be un- willing to step forward and contribute to the eleva- tion of this important profession. As Swift says, "and he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow on a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put to- gether." Gentlemen, this great and important interest has been kept in the back ground too long. It has been a hewer of wood, and a drawer of wa- ter to other professions long enough. It is time that it should shine forth in all its beauty and strength, and be elevated to its proper stand in so- ciety. The main spring should not be considered inferior to the other parts of machinery to which it gives motion. Destroy and break down the ag- ricultural profession, and all other professions will languish and die. That there is a great evil pre- vailing, and which calls loudly for a remedy, must be apparent to every reflecting mind. Why is it, that there is so little interest felt for improvement in agriculture? Is the field not wide enough? Is there not room enough to give full scope to talents and genius? Is it unworthy of talents of the first order? Surely in this field — on this great and im- portant subject, all the talent and genius, all the noblest faculties of man, might be brought into lively exercise, and have full scope to be useful to themselves and to mankind — in considering the plants of the field, studying the properties and qualities of soils, the best mode of improving and applying manures, and in imparting their informa- tion to others and exciting a greater interest in improvement. Such an employment cannot be unworthy of any man. Gentlemen — that there is something wrong must be apparent to every intelligent mind — that there is a fatal disease prevailing cannot be doubt- ed, and unless the remedy is speedily applied, will sap the foundation of this republic — the liberties that we now enjoy, for which our forefathers fought and bled, will be of short duration. Let us inquire into the nature and cause of the dis- ease, and what is the remedy. A skilful physi- cian, when called to visit a patient, first endeavors to find out the nature and cause of disease — being satisfied upon this subject, unless the disease is incurable, the remedy is easily applied. The principal disease in the agricultural profession, is defect in education. Heretofore, it has been con- sidered altogether unnecessary to educate sons, whose occupation was to be that of tilling the soil. If they could multiply two by two, take one from three, and write their names, this was all that was necessary. Of late, some little more interest has been felt on the subject of education, but still there is great deficiency. The agricultural com- munity must be enlightened, must be educated, to enable them duly to appreciate liberty, and the blessings that flow from our happy form of go- vernment. I would say, educate your sons for the farm, instead of making professional men of them. In the common acceptation of the word, professional is intended only to apply to law and medicine, in which sense I use it. But agriculture is as much a profession as any other calling: in this sphere they can be useful to themselves and to society. The professions of law and medicine in this country are already overgrown. Many who fill them are mere drones, hangers-on upon society, without any, or but little, business; and of course the temptations to idleness, vice and their conse- quences, are of fearful character. No greater evil can befal any community than to have those professions overdone. It has been the prevailing practice in Virginia, if a man had a son that he considered a tolerably smart fellow — and most pa- rents are inclined to give their children more cred- it, for cleverness than they are entitled to — why, he is such a prodiur through France," a work of* great and acknowledged merit, which gives the best account I have ever seen of the soil, climate and agriculture of that extensive and fertile country, I was struck with a passao-e which has reference to the husbandry of Vir- ginia— and as the work is perhaps not known to many of your readers and correspondents, and may not be in your possession, I have copied the passage, which you will publish in your Register, or not, as you think best. I know not whether you will think it worthy of a place there, but I am persuaded that it gives a lesson well worthy of the attention of our most active and judicious cultiva- tors. The work is divided into two parts — one a Jour- nal of his Travels, with remarks on the agricul- ture, &c. of the districts he passed through; the other of the Heads or Chapters on the soil, cl and rye are cultivated, as it were, to the exclusion of other crops. Tobacco cannot demand an uncommon degree of heat, because it has been cultivated on a thousand acres of land successfully in Scotland; and as to the demanding of too great exertions, the free hands of Europe voluntarily addict themselves to the culture, which has nothing in it so laborious as reaping wheat. I take the American case to be this— ill hus° bandry, not tobacco, exhausted the land. They are now adopting wheat; and, if we may judge from the no- tions of the preceding quotation, that culture will in a few years give the finishing stroke to their lands — for those who think that wheat does not exhaust, will be free in often sowing it, and they will not be long in find- ing out what the result w;ll prove." You see that Mr. Jefferson's observations on the cultivation of tobacco in Virginia, are very far from receiving the approbation of Mr. Young. Mr. Jefferson's reputation does not rest on h?s knowledge of agriculture; and I think it will ge- nerally be agreed, that the passage from his Notes on Virginia, quoted by Young, is at best, very loosely written — and, apparently, without due con- sideration of the comparative advantages and mate, agricultural products, &c. There is one on dis?,dvant of whea{ and tobacco ~ the culture of tobacco, from which you have the | QOtion that°tobacco is a much greater exhauster following extract : — than wheat, I believe was almost universal in Vir- "Tobacco, as an object of cultivation, appears in ginia at the period when his notes were written. these notes to very great advantage; and a respectable author in France declares, from information, that in- stead of exhausting the land, it improves it like artifi- cial grasses;* which seems to agree with my intelli- gence; yet the culture has been highly condemned by others. Mr. Jefferson observes thus upon it: "It re- quires an extraordinary degree of heat, and still more indispensably an uncommon fertility of soil: it is a culture productive of infinite wretchedness; those em- ployed in it are in a continued state of exertion, beyond the powers of nature to support: little food of any kind is raised by them: so that the men and animals on these farms are badly fed, and the earth is rapidly im- poverished. The cultivation of wheat is the reverse in every circumstance: besides clothing the earth with herbage and preserving its fertility, it feeds the labor- ers plentifully; requires from them only a moderate toil, except in the season of harvest; raises great num- bers of animals for food and service, and diffuses plen- ty and happiness among the whole. We find it easier to make an hundred bushels of wheat, than a thousand weight of tobacco, and they are worth more when made."f This authority is respectable; but there are circumstances in this passage which almost remove the dependence we are inclined to have on the author's judgement. The culture of wheat preserving the fer- tility of the soil, and raising great numbers of animals ! What can be meant by this? As to the exhausting quality of wheat, which is sufficient to reduce a soil almost to a caput mortuum, it is too well known and too completely decided to allow any question at this time of day; and how wheat is made to raise animals we must go to America to learn — for just the contrary is found here. The farms that raise most wheat have fewest animals; and in France, husbandry is almost at its lowest pitch for want of animals, and because wheat 267. *De I 'Administration Provinciate par M. le Trone. Tom. 1. p. fNotes on tlie.'State of Virginia, pa;e 271. Vol. Ill— 65 It is, I think, very far from being as general now, with regard to the crop itself. But lam not sure, that as a system, the culture of tobacco is not much more exhausting than that of wheat. Granting, what I believe, that a single crop of to- bacco reduces the fertility of the soil less than one of wheat, we must take into account, the much greater number of hands required for a given space — and of course the much more extensive crops of corn required; so that the question is not simply whether wheat or tobacco exhausts the most, but whether tobacco, with the increased crop of corn which it requires, does not injure the soil more than wheat. It is also worthy of con- sideration, that hilly lands subject to wash, are more injured in general by crops that require hoe- ing, or other constant tilth, than grain crops that are only cultivated for seeding. Mr. Jefferson's comparative estimate of the expense and profit of a hogshead of tobacco and a hundred bushels of wheat, seems to rest on very vague and insufficient data. Wheat being much heavier in proportion to its value than tobacco — - the relative value of each must be greatly influ- enced by its distance from market, and wheat when got ready for delivery, is subject to more casualties than tobacco, which may be kept over from year to year — while wheat is subject to many injuries from the weevil, &c, and is constantly suf- fering in quality, and diminishing in quantity, if not speedily converted into flour. With regard to to the greater severity of labor for a crop of to- bacco, there may be some room for doubt. It is difficult to draw an exact comparison, but I incline to the opinion of Mr. Young, that Mr. Jefferson is mistaken. The culture of tobacco requires more skill and mors incessant care than thnt of 514 FARMERS' REGISTER. 1SS5.] wheat, and perhaps more than that of any other agricultural product of this country; but I think the labor of a wheat crop the most, severe. A much greater proportion of women and boys can be usefully employed in making a crop of tobacco, than one of wheat. Mr. Young's inferences from this passage in Mr. Jefferson's notes, are certainly very unfavor- able to the agriculture of Virginia, and I am afraid not altogether unjust. The subject is one of great moment to the cultivators of middle and lower Virginia. I trust, however, that as the exhaus- tion of our soil has been owing to particular cir- cumstances necessarily attending our husbandry, his prediction that it is to be ruined by the cultiva- tion of wheat will not be realized. In clearing and cuitivating our lands, when a large proportion of our most fertile soils were clothed with their native woods, and might be bought at very low prices, the most natural, I -will not say the most proper course, would be, as it generally was, to cultivate the cleared lands as long, and perhaps longer than they would pay the expense of cultivation — and to goon from year to year clearing fresh lands and subjecting them to the same process of cultivation and exhaustion: and in this way the gross annual products were not diminished, while the land was growing worse. This course of husbandry might long since have worked its own cure, and forced upon us a more improving system; but the immense extent of fer- tile and unoccupied lands in our western country opened a new field to industry and enterprise, and thus individuals who had exhausted their lands in Virginiaby severe cropping, with a moderate share of prudence and industry, were generally impro- ved in their circumstances by migration, while the soil of Virginia was becoming more exhausted. One circumstance has checked, in some degree, this tide of emigration. The higher prices we are able to realize from our crops, by our being so much nearer to good markets. But lor this, I appre- hend that our population, which has been in ge- neral regularly increased, would have been in a rapid course of diminution. With this advantage, which we are likely to retain ibr a long period of time, I am persuaded that our more fertile soils, and even those that are much exhausted, if the means of improvement are within reach, may yield a very fair return for the skill and industry employed in their cultivation. The culture of tobacco has gradually given place to that of wheat, as fresh lands have become scarce, and the facility of getting crops to market in the country above tide- water, increased. Agreeing fully in opinion with Mr. Young that wheat is a most exhausting crop, I think we should gain little by this change if we were not able to counteract its effects, by connect- ing with the cultivation of wheat, that of clover — a plant invaluable for its fertilizing qualities, and peculiarly suited to corn in the same rotation for wheat. It has long been cultivated most success- fully on our fertile wheat soils; and I have no idea that those which have been worried by severe cropping can ever be restored without it; but this blessing of providence will have been bestowed on us in vain if we want the care or skill to turn it to account. It is true that some of our most fer- tile alluvial soils will produce heavy crops of clo- ver without assistance — a good crop can be ob- tained on lands inferior to these, but such as may be denominated as fertile and in good heart, by the aid of plaster; but ciover seeded on soils that have been worried by severe cultivation will never produce a heavy crop without the assistance of lime, marl, or a heavy dressing of manure — and even when such a crop is obtained, a succession of grain crops will soon reduce the soil to its lormer condition. I have ne.~. er thought so meanly of our Virginia husbandry, so far as relates to our annual crops, as most others; on the contrary, I believe the management of our tobacco from the time the seed is sown till it is ready lor market, is generally excellent. Our wheat crops on our most fertile soils, where wheat is the principal object of culti- vation, are in very many instances, managed in a way that would not be discreditable in any coun- try; and the culture of Indian corn is no where better understood or, more skilfully conducted. In- deed I have often thought it too good for the land on which it was bestowed. I wish I could extend my praise farther; but I think in the collection and application of manures, the foundation of all good husbandry, too many of us are lamentably defi- cient. I have no right to set my opinion above that of others, who are as capable at least as my- self of forming a correct one — and I am not at all dis- posed to enter into the controversies that have been carried on in your Register with regard to the three-shift, four-shift, and five- shift rotations; one may be preferable to the other, according to the character of the soils to which they are applied; with good management, all and each of them may succeed, but except on lands of extraordinary fer- tility, I am persuaded that in the course of time, and that not a long one, without the aid of ma- nures, they must all fail. Let us take for exam- ple, the four course rotation of clover, wheat, corn, and wheat. If the crop of clover has been a fair one. and it has been turned in, or even cut and carried off', if the growth has been luxuriant, a good crop of wheat may be expected after it. The succeeding crop of corn will require all the manure that can be collected for it. If well ma- nured, the product in a favorable season will be large, and the crop of wheat following it through, in a o-eneral way, inferior to that sown on the clo- ver ley may still be good — and if it receives, at or after seeding, throughout, or on such parts as most require it, a top-dressing of manure, the clover sown on the wheat will hardly fail if the season be favorable — certainly not where the top-dressing has been properly applied, and in this way the fer- tility of the soil may be kept up, or even increased — but leave out the manuring, and the land will sooner or later, according to its degree of fertility, be reduced to the condition which Mr. Young an- ticipates. Plaster applied to the clover will aid manure, but cannot answer as a substitute for it. Marl and lime are without comparison more bene- ficial than plaster, as they improve the soil itselfj while plaster only acts on the crop. In the lower country, where marl or shell lime can be easily obtained, the task of improvement is comparative- ly easy; but you will agree with me that their operation is greatly aided by animal and vegeta- ble manures. Holding these opinions, I have observed with regret that some of your intelligent correspondents, I think most of them, seem to have a great antipathy to live stock. While I agree with them that close pasturing on arable lands is very injurious to the crops; and thinking as 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 515 1 do, thatneitheroursoil, climate, nor local situation are suited to raising large herds of cattle with a view to direct profit, 1 would, with a view to ob- taining such supplies of manure as are indispen- sable lor good husbandry, keep as large a stock of cattle as could be well kept through the winter on the long forage and offal of the plantation, and be maintained in summer on standing pastures; and I should deem it no sacrifice, if it were necessary, to circumscribe, in a moderate degree, the limits of my arable fields for this object, in the attainment of which I should gain another of no trivial im- portance— that of improving the sustenance, and adding to the comfort of my laborers and their families. SOILS AND AGRICULTURAL ADVANTAGES OF THE FLORIDAS. No. 4. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Plantation Wascissa, 10th Nov., 1835. The sectional advancement of the middle districts, in wealth and pupulation, above the other districts of Florida, arising from her agricultural success, especially invites an examination of her soils and local advantages. In my previous letters, I have spoken highly of the rich and alluvial lands to be found in the east; and lest, in now extolling the soils of the middle district, any discrepancy should appear to others in this equal commendation of lands, distinct in char- acter and capabilities, I will at once expose my opinion of the characteristic advantages of each, as calculated to avail the emigrant in his selection of location. There are choice lands composed of the best soils to be had throughout both these adjacent sec- tions; and when I admit the greater richness and durability of the arable swamps of the east, over any soil to be found in the middle district, I claim at the same time for the latter, the greater advan- tage of a versatility of soil and climate, suitable for rotatory crops, which is not obtainable in the former. To the capitalist, desirous alone of a profitable estate, and indifferent to the reputation and comforts of a farmer, who has the pecuniary ability of estab- lishing suitable buildings and machinery, with the additional means of employing high salaried agents during his requisite annual sojourn of summer at the northf I unhesitatingly recommend the alluvial sugar lands of the peninsula. There can be no estate so profitable as a well regulated sugar plan- tation, and few lands are more adapted for its suc- cess than the above; but that is their limit- The eastern sugar planter must "stick to his Zosi.-" neither his soil nor climate admit rotation or va- riety of crop. He can have neither farm-yard lux- uries, nor "many fields of variegated green," and is entirely without that diversity of occupation, which renders farming so fascinating. The autumn is his only harvest time — the sole exciting period of his labor — the summer, to escape ennui and bil- iary attacks, is passed in travel ! Thus, whilst I appreciate the superiority of the soil, as suitable for the most productive oi' plants, I candidly allow that their settlement and successful cultivation, in prudence, can only be established by the capitalist. On the other hand, to the practical farmer, lim- ited in capital, but rich in industry, desirous of having neither idle time nor idle expenses, and equally ambitious of securing within himself the provender of his household, as well as remunera- ting crops — I urgently advise the undulating woodlands and fertile soils of the middle district. His crops may not be as valuable as those of the eastern planter — his soils less durable, and hia fortune may accrue more slowly. But under a safe climate, with his domestic comforts around him, and in the continued vocation of his farm — increased by every variety of crop, in endless ro- tation; he has no cause of envious solicitude: for though gathering riches slowly, he is annually reaping the larger harvest of comfort and content- ment. Thus, I neutralize the advantages of these distinct sections of Florida: the east is the district for wealthy plantations — the middle, for frugal farms. I now proceed to the examination of the lands of the latter. It would be tedious to detail each and every va- riety of soil to be found throughout the several ex- tensive countries, comprising the middle district; for every object of these letters, their character- istics are sufficiently similar, to be considered in description, essentially the same; and though I admit that in some countries a larger proportion of good lands are to be had than in others, I yet hold it indisputable, that the good lands of all, are composed of the same earth, possessed of the same capabilities, and known, provincially, under the same name. The face of this section of Florida, is correctly expressed in the term "rolling" — being for the most part undulating hills and planes; and in its primitive appearance, before the axe of civiliza- tion mutilated its forests, must have been extreme- ly picturesque and scenic. It still fascinates in woodland variety; though, for culture, the land in some places, is abrupt in declivities, and barren in its growth. The genera of the soil are lime and clay, and are varied in productiveness in the different coun tries, by the admixture of more or less sand. The great fault indeed of the land throughout the ter- ritory, is the predominance of sand. As the gene- ral character of the best soils in this district, it may be thus described: — 1st — putrescent vegetable mat- ter (formed by the annual deposite of forest leaves and decaying trees,) mixed in variable quantity with argillaceous earth, from four to ten inches. 2d — a secondary soil of yellow sandy clay combined with magnesian earth, lime, or sulplutte of potash; varying in depth from one jto three feet. 3d — alluvial clay, in all its varieties of red, yellow and white — tenacious and plastic; oftentimes based on limestone, anil sand and shells; extends from three to fifteen feet and more; growth of the above heterogeneous, but chiefly white oak, dog wood, poplar, tulip, with wild grape, and other under- growth. Such is the general formation of our fertile lands; and I may now state the variety of soils (here common) under their provincial nomencla- ture, in the order in which they are for durability estimated. 1st — dogwood hammock. 2d — low or cane hammock. 3d — oak and hickory upland. 4th — pine and hickory. 5th — gray or mulatto hammock. 6th — h'a k-jack and pine. The term "hammock" so frequently here in use, does not 516 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 9 seem to have any special or conclusive definition. I have heard it, by good farmers long resident in Florida, applied as well to high and dry lands as by others, to most aquatic soils. I may probably convey a sufficiently correct conception of its ge- neral application, in saying — that any rich arable soil covered with a dense, mixed, native forest and strong undergrowth, is so termed; seemingly in contradistinction to the open oak and hickory and pine lands. The species ot "hammock" is taken either from its color of soil, as the "gray ham- mock," or from the prevailing growth — as the "dogwood hammock." This long enunciation of soils exhibits in itself a great hypothetical cause of the early settlement, and increased prosperity of the middle district. The emigrant, whether desirous of cultivating cot- ton, rice, tobacco, or grain, or of breeding cattle, at once found before him, the land best suited to his wants — and all equa'ly alluring in verdant pas- turage, fertile forests and well furnished springs! The good lands are consequently mostly all "en- tered:" though large tracts are held still by indi- viduals in the market, and at rates cheaper tham any other land, of similar quality, in the southern country. They can be bought at from $10 to $12 per acre, and are in no ways inferior to lands now selling in Alabama at $25! Fifteen hundred lbs. raw cotton can easily be harvested from each acre by an industrious farmer; and the country affords the most intelligent society, with every wished tor banking and moneyed facility. Fifteen acres of land for every effective laborer, is the usual pitch of our crop — that is, ten acres of cotton, and five of corn, besides grain, potatoes, &c. Some thri- ving planters exceed this. The cotton crop has never failed in Florida; and in many instances have planters made more than they could save. The crop of the present year will, notwithstand- ing the early and unprecedented li'ost, nearly double that of 1834. Most of our planters are reaping unusual returns; and as it is only by indi- vidual success that I can convince those abroad of our well doing, I trust the following gentlemen will pardon the publicity I give their names. It will hardly be accredited in your state, Mr. Editor, that a planter working only forty ser- vants, can make and house in one crop 450,000 lbs. of fine staple upland cotton, besides 3,000 bushels of corn, and some 20 barrels of sugar and syrup — leaving his crop of oats, rice and potatoes untold! — and yet this is dona in middle Florida; and to prevent incredulity, I may now (first ask- ing his leave for its publication) state, that the for- tunate planter is my respected neighbor, Daniel Bird, Esq. of Jefferson county. The other gen- tleman referred to, is Col. Robert Gamble, former- ly of Virginia, who will this year realize from 65 acres of land, which have been for the last six years under continued cultivation of sugar cane, (the most exhausting of crops,) upwards of se- venty bags of cotton. It is these facts which, in showing what is realized, exhibit the strength and richness of our fertile lands. I do not write to mislead, by exaggeration — for I am open to imme- diate correction; but I feel that the lands of Florida have not been justly estimated above. Let us, however, take the minimum of crops on our good and bad soils; this never is less than 600 lbs. of cotton per acre; and when with this, it is remembered, that we raise a sufficiency of sugar and syrup, of rice and tobacco, for our own con- sumption, and oftentimes for sale; with grain and cattle in superabundance, will it be doubted, that the soils and improved advantages of the middle district, are the producing causes of her sectional prosperity? The rumored unhealthiness of the climate, has perhaps, injured the otherwise fair fame of Flor- ida. If so, it is calumniated. The health of the country districts, for a tropical climate, is not bad. Persons can scarcely expect Norwegian robust- ness beneath the vertical rays of the sun ! Talla- hassee, as a city, is undoubtedly sickly during the autumnal months; but even her mortality, appears more alarming to the stranger, than it in reality is — from the regretted fact, that her obituary is mostly made up of northern residents, unac- climated, and who, in their mercantile avocations, imprudently remain upon their first arrival, an au- tumnal sojourn. Their death, widely reported as "died in Florida," appal the emigrant ignorant of circumstances, and wrongly calumniate the health of the whole territory, from the casualties of an ill regulated city ! The evidence of the general salubrity of the climate, is to be found in the rapid increase by births of the mass of our population, and of negroes; and I will venture to assert, that in three plantations out. of every five, in the middle district, the gangs will be found to have increased by births, during the last six years, at the rate of eight to ten per cent, per annum ! 1 have been better than two years in Florida, and having now concluded the observations, my travel in the territory has permitted me to make upon the general character of the soils, I shall in my next, submit for your approval, the details of trials which I have made both in sugar and cotton cultivation — the egotism of which I hope will be overlooked, in the consideration, that I only de- sire that the comparative results of those two im- portant crops may practically exhibit to others, not only the advantages of both, but also enable them to decide which can be made in middle Flor- ida the most profitable. FARQ. MACRAE. CALCAREOUS ROCKS IN MECKLENBURG, PRINCE EDWARD, AND CHESTERFIELD, AND GYPSUM IN CUMBERLAND. [The following letter was drawn forth by our in- quiries respecting specimens of a singular kind of calcareous rock which we had received from Dr. Morton, and had lately examined, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of their calcareous ingre- dients. The specimen from Finneywood, Mecklen- burg, contained 72 per cent, of carbonate of lime — that from Mr. Branch's farm, in Prince Edward, 65 — and one from the land of George Johnson, Esq., Ches- terfield, 76 per cent. The latter was obtained from rocks thrown out by freshets, from the bottom of Win- terpock creek, a stream which enters the Appomattox about twenty miles above the falls. All these speci- mens agreed precisely in appearance. The rock was hard, and seemed to have been formed of a mass of small sea shells, mingled with silicious earth. The impressions of the shells were perfect, but all hollow, 1886.] FARMERS' REGISTER 517 their entire substance having been removed. The open, yet hard texture of the rock, made it something like buhr stone, and possibly it might serve to make millstones. Its great hardness will forbid its being used for manure, unless first bnrnt to lime. But it is rieh enough to pay well for that preparation — and its open nature would make a less degree of heat requi- site for the purpose. This rock well deserves the trouble of searching for — and though its quantity is yet no where known to be very considerable, its being discovered through so extensive a region, gives new grounds for the hope which we have so often express- ed, that the means of using calcareous manures in Virginia will be greatly and profitably extended, far be- yond the limits which were formerly supposed to be fixed.] To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Prince Edward, Nov. 20th, 1835. I have just returned from a laborious profession- al tour, and have found yours of the the 7th inst. I received this with great joy, considering I could not read it all, and have determined to answer it forthwith, lest my evil genius, procrastination, should load my conscience with an additional bur- den to that which has been so long accumulating. When I was returning from your house I made many resolutions about writing more for the Re- gister than I had done, all of which have been Broken. I have, however, written a good deal; but being; called off while the pieces were unfin- ished, they could not stand the ordeal of my own criticism, when I returned. What I write must be completed at a sitting, or it commonly proves an abortion. I know the Register cannot lose much by these, my|short-comings; but /do. Whenever I write for it, I find my eagerness for farming in- creases; and I wish that all your subscribers would try the effect of an occasional contribution, as means of their own agricultural improvement. I regret that I am able to give so little informa- tion in relation to the rocks sent you last spring. Those from Finneywood, Mecklenburg, were given me by S. C. Anderson, Esq., of this county, for transmission to you and Professor Rogers. I learned from Mr. Anderson that they were turned up by the plough in large quantities, on a farm called Finneywood, on a creek of the same name, in Mecklenburg; that the soil about them had a black color, and that he was much struck with the fromising prospects it held out for improvement, was informed that most of this calcareous mate- rial could easily be crumbled in the fingers, after being moistened. It has been some years since Mr. Anderson procured the specimens. The pet- rified impressions of shells, obtained from Capt. Branch'?, were found lying on the surface on a high hill in the woods; and the bed to which they belonged has not been found. I went to his house to investigate the matter, but neither he nor his sons were at home, and I could get no accurate information regarding the particular locality. I believe that Prof. Dame of Hampden Sydney, on analysis, obtained precisely the same result with yours. While at Capt. Branch's, I found a great deal of clay marl, interspersed with large calca- reous nodules, similar to those sent you from my land. This marl may be found at several places in his neighborhood, and at various others through the country. It is usually incumbent on, and sticking to beds of stratified hornblende rock. These beds of hornblende are found about the streams of water, and the slopes leading to them, and give character to the soil of such places by disintegration. The dividing ridges between the streams are usually covered by a much poorer soil, interspersed with quartz rock. The beds of horn- blende, however, are doubtless continuous, and penetrate thjough these ridges at a great depth. They may commonly be found on both sides of the ridges, deposited in the same direction and pos- sessing similar accompaniments. While on this subject, it may be proper to men- tion, that the little land which I have dressed with my weak clay marl, and afterwards clovered, pre- sents astonishing marks of improvement, far be- yond my most sanguine hopes. Before clovering the fertilizing action of the marl was not so strik- ing. The calcareous rocks on my land (specimens of which were sent you,) have proved too obdurate for my awkward attempts at calcination. I sup- pose them to be carboniferous limestone and marl- ite. There is alarge mouldered bank of them — dug up many years ago — which effervesces fiercely on the application of acid. I mean to spread this on the adjacent lands. I find more gypseous clay on my land than I at first supposed. I do not wish to exhaust this, un- til I get more land marled, for its application. 1 have tried a little, and it acts finely after marling. There is on the land of Col. Witson of Cumber- land, about four miles from me, and near the Ap- pomattox a stratum of this, which, I would sup- pose, almost inexhaustible. I suspect it to be the out-running of a large vein of coal. It con- sists of crystals of selenite, about the size of grains of corn, very closely impacted with an unctuous cream-like matter in the interstices. I see so rea- son why the best of plaster might not be made by grinding this selenite. If necessary, the inter- vening clay — very little in quantity — might be washed out in a running stream. Besides the clay marl interspersed with calca- reous nodules, I have found some devoid of these, which would effervesce smartly on admixture with acids. As this marl was lying adjacent to large ledges of feldspar rock, I suspected that its alkali might be potash. Feldspar, however, sometimes contains lime. A sedulous investigation into matters of this sort might produce important developements. It is not probable, that for some time to come, manufactories of porcelain will be erected in our state; yet it is proper that some record should be made of the localities in which the materials for making it may be found. Kaolin or porcelain clay is very abundant in this section — but generally of a coarse quality. There is, however, a body of it in the ice house at Ranes' tavern, Cumberland, of fine texture, and white as snow. W. S. MORTON. 518 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 9 From the last London edition of the "Complete Grazier," ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTEN- ING OF SHEEP. [Continued from p. 469 Vol. III.] On foreign and British wool. 7. Super-head. — An advance upon the pre- ceding sort. 8. Picked Lock. — First made, perhaps, in small quantities. 9. Choice Lock. — Still more excellent. Besides these sorts, there is another recently in- troduced into the list, and called Prime Lock; which, as its name indicates, is the finest that can possibly be obtained; and some have even gone so far as to distinguish fourteen, different quali- ties.* Till within a faw years, the finest wool manu- The importance of the woollen manufacture, both to the commercial and laboring classes of this nation, has long been felt; yet it is only with- in the last forty years that the subject has been scientifically considered, or any efficient measures have been taken in order to improve the quantity factored in this country was obtained exclusively and quality of British wool. ; from Spain, and next to Spanish wool, the Eng- As the extent of the present work will not ad- [ Hsh sheep, at that period, indisputably furnished mit of a detailed account of prejudices which are j the best commodity of the kind in Europe. Pre- now daily disappearing, we propose, in the present , viously to the introduction of Spanish sheep, the chapter, only to state the essential properties of finest and most esteemed sorts of British short wool, and concisely to notice the improvements already made, together with those means which experience and reason evince to be the best calcu- lated for that purpose. The growth of wool is always completed in one year, at the expiration of which it spontaneously decays, and is naturally renewed. In this respect, indeed, the covering of sheep bears a close resem- blance to the hair of most other animals; though it differs widely in the following particulars: wool is considerably finer, grows more uniformly, each filament growing at equal distances, and sepa- rating nearly at the same time from the skin; and, if not shorn in time, naturally lulling oil, being succeeded annually by ashort coat of young wool. Another peculiarity in wool is, the different degree of thickness which prevails in various parts ol the same sheep, being closer at the extremities or points than at the roots, and the part that grows during the winter being of a much finer quality than that produced in the summer. Various are the names given to wool, according wool were the Ryeland, Dean-Forest, Mendip, South-down, Wiltshire, Shetland, and Cheviot fleeces: but by the judicious crossing of Merino rams with the choice British sheep, particularly of the Ryeland breed, wool, even of the fourth descent, has been obtained, which, in point of fine- ness and texture, has proved nearly equal to the best Spanish. For this improvement, at that time deemed of the highest importance to its agricul- ture and manufactures, the British nation was in- debted to the patriotic exertions of Lord Somer- ville, of the British Wool Society, the Board of Agriculture, and Dr. Parry, of Bath.t With the same noble views, his Majesty, George III., for many years previous to his' illness, annually per- mitted some of his Spanish sheep to be sold at reasonable prices, under the auspices of Sir Jo- seph Banks; and, in many instances, allowed them to be used gratuitously. The expectations thus raised have, however, been disappointed; and the momentary advantage that was gained by these crosses, has 'been whol- to its state or relative degree of fineness. When I ly destroyed by the superior quality of the Ger first shorn, it is termed a fleece; and every fleece is usually divided into three kinds, viz. the prime, or mother -wool, which is separated from the neck and back; the seconds, or that obtained from the tails and legs; and the thirds, which is taken from the breast and beneath the belly. This general classification of wool corresponds with the Spanish method of sorting into Rafi,nos, or prime; Linos, or second best; and Terceras, third, or inferior sort; the initial letters of which words are usually marked upon the bags when it is exported: but the wool-staplers in this country distinguish not less than nine different sorts that are broken out of small fleeces, the names given to which prove the nice discernment of the persons employed; we therefore subjoin them for the information of our less informed readers. No. 1. Is Short-coarse; and very descriptive of its character. 2. Livery, ? old sorts, into which the fleece 3. Jlbb, 5 was formerly divided. 4. Second. — Probably a second or better abb, and the first alteration in the mode of sorting; which arose either from the improvement of fleeces, or in the art of breaking them. This, and all the subsequent names, seem to have been in regular succession of quality to the top of the list. 5. Downrighls. t>. Head, or chief. man wools, and the low prices at which they are now imported. The whole evidence before the Committee of the House of Lords, appointed, in 1828, to inquire into the state of the wool trade, goes to prove, that the wools of Bohemia and Saxony have entirely superseded the British short wool in the greater part of our cloth manufacture; and the consequence has been, that, the value of the latter has fallen below a remunerating price to the grower. To this alarming fact is to be added * The tables inserted in this chapter show the com- mon proportions of the different qualities in a fleece of South-down wool. t The details of the various experiments, conducted by the different public-spirited individuals above named, being too numerous for insertion, a few only of their general results can be given. Such of our readers as possess leisure and inclination to observe the gradual progress that has been made in this national object, will be amply compensated by a perusal of Lord Sorner- ville's "System, followed by the Board of Agricul- ture," &.c. 8vo. 1S0O; also his Lordship's "Facts and Observations on Sheep," &.e. 8vo. 1803; the second volume of "Communications to the Board of Agricul- ture;" Dr. Parry's "Facts and Observations on the practicability of producing British Clothing Wool equal to that of Spain;" and the ninth volume of the "Letters and Papers of the Bath and West of England Society." 1885.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 519 that of the rapid increase of the fine woolled flocks growers has not yet been directed so particularly in New South Wales, which bid fair, at no very' remote period, to supply the whole demand of this country. We shall now proceed to slate some of the principal requisites, which are indispensably ne- cessary to constitute good wool. These are: — 1. The length of the staple; for this regulates the various fabrics to which the fleece is destined. Thus, in carding wool, a short pile, and a disposi- tion to assume a crumpled, or spring-like shape, is an object of prime importance. This shrivel- ling quality, Mr. Luccock remarks,* cannot pre- vail in too high a degree, if it be to make cloths requiring; a close and smooth surface: but for cloths where a long and even nap is required, too large a proportion of this curling property he con- ceives would be detrimental; and consequently a long pile or staple will be preferable. There is, however, a certain point, beyond which, if the crumpling quality proceeds, the wool becomesless valuable, on account of the superior length of the curves, which render it difficult to break the staple sufficiently. The distribution of the hairs in this staple has been compared to that of the grain in a very crooked piece of timber, or to waved bars of metal, so formed that the convex part of one fits into the concavity of another; and this peculiar property cannot be communicated to wool where it does not naturally exist. 2. Pliability of wool is another important qual- ity to which the attention of the grower should be directed; as, without this elasticity, it will be unfit for the purposes of manufacture. 3. The peculiar property, termed the felting quality, is of equal importance with the preceding; and, though not evident to the eye, is in fact indis- pensably requisite in all wools which are wrought up into such cloths as are submitted to the action of the fulling-mill. Mr. Luccock describes it as "a tendency in the pile, when submitted to a mod- erate heat, combined with moisture, to cohere to- gether, and form a compact and pliable sub- stance."* This valuable property is possessed in a high degree by the Spanish sheep; and, accord- ing to Mr?Luccock's opinion, the Cheviot, Morf, and Norfolk fleeces are the best adapted for the purposes of fulling. 4. A soft pile is also an essential requisite to constitute a good fleece. In this, as well as in the other properties already enumerated, the Saxon and the New South Wales wools peculiarly ex- cel;! and among the British fleeces, those ofShet- land stand unrivalled in this respect. 5. The specific 'gravity, or relative weight of the pile is a quality to which the attention of wool *In his valuable treatise on perties ot Wool," p. 147. tTreatise on Wool, p. 161. X See page 285. 'The Nature and Pro- as the subject requires. In order to ascertain the comparative weight of different samples, Mr. Luc- cock directs each of them to be brought as nearly as possible to the same degree of purity, to expel all the moisture which wool obstinately retains, and extract all the air contained in the interstices of the staple. J 6. The smell of the wool is not a property to which much weight can attach: provided no disa- greeable odors are emitted, or any of the effects of moisture are exhibited, no one scent can be prefer- able to another. 7. In color, it is essential that wool should, as far as possihle, be perfectly white. 8. The last property to which the attention of the growers of wool should be directed, is trueness of hair, or a uniform regularity of pile, in which no coarse, shaggy hairs are perceptible; as the latter, by reason of their brittle nature, will very materially affect the progress of the manufacturer. Such coarse hairs, as well as kemps ovstichel hairs, (which are generally short, brittle, pointed, opaque, and of a gray or brownish cast,) are found principally in neglected breeds. Since, however, the art of combining the properties of the parent sheep in their offspring has been gene- rally known, the expert grower of wool has been enabled to produce surprising alterations in the re- lative weight and fineness of the fleece. In countries where wool is the chief object in the breeding and management of sheep, every other consideration is sacrificed to its improve- ment; but in England, the carcass is generally of greater importance than the fleece, and the weight of mutton has of late years been more attended to than fineness of wool. In this, the farmer has doubtless found his account; but they are objects which cannot be combined with equal advantage to both; and the consequence has been, that while the size of the principal breeds of our short-wool- led sheep, and the weight of the fleece have been gradually increased, a proportionate deterioration has been occasioned in the quality of the wool. The fact has, indeed, been denied by the breed- ers; but evidence, entitled to so much confidence as to be apparently conclusive, has been produced before the Committee of the House of Lords, al- ready alluded to, establishingit, generally, beyond the possibility of doubt; as will fully appear from the following tables, selected from the evidence of many emiient wool dealers and manufacturers, and extracted from the Minutes. This, however, cannot apply to the long- woolled breeds, which in point of profit to the grazier, and of national va- lue, rank among the very first. The length of the fleece not only gives a large weight, but the strength of the staple, and even its coarseness, are materially serviceable in the manufacture of car- petting and blankets. * Treatise on Wool, p. 173. 520 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 9 00 GO 00 00 00 00 tO I— ' hSM bJM -H Ol b © 3 § g> # St £■ "• 3 "■* tor? S ~~g ^tOJX l-i — : — © © ?T to J>B ~J ib "tOCO 'tb © Ol 44. <| 00 ceito ww i— o wo o^j M M OS to I9Q © Ol Ol >b ato ^ 1-1 3W W tdSJ t-1 GO oi ©1 to **• w to as w CO H< to -4 >b e- 00 00 o as © OT as w © to as © 3 l_i l-i to l-i to W J- r— • i—i to en h-i i-i o Ol ib Ol Or -4 -I oi co 00 w CO © Ot to Ol CO o to O CO © © 00 Ol to -^ W CO ro i-i i-i i-i ww © to l-i ib 00 © «4 CO © W i-i © to to -^ CO OlM CO CO Ol Ol w w CO Ol -a w ©l-l H-l 1-1 W -*J 00 CO OS 00 OS © w w TJ o o s 3 1—1 1 >r CO to 00 rt> ot Ol OS l-i 00 lb © • © CO to • © tU CO • © -J © W h- 1336.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 521 A STATEMENT, SHOWING THE COMPARATIVE •WEIGHT OF THE DIFFERENT SORTS PRO- DUCED FROM (15 TODS) 420 POUNDS OF CLOTHING WOOL GROWN IN NORFOLK, BY MR. JAMES FISON, WOOL DEALER, OF THETFORD, NORFOLK. 1793 1808 and 1809 1818 and 1819 1827 and 1828 Prices of Sorts in 1828. lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. s. d. Prime 200 144 56 14 1 3 per lb. Choice, and Choice Grey 96 80 48 24 1 0 " Super and Middle Grey 64 80 96 56 0 10* " Head, Downright, and ) Third Grey 5 52 104 168 • 152 f Head < Downrights I Third Grey 0 0 0 10 « n « 8 " Seconds, &.c. included in 1793, 1808, and 1809 Seconds 20 80 0 9 « Abb 10 48 0 n " Britch, &c. 2 6 0 5 " Livery 8 24 0 H « Waste 8 12 12 16 420 420 420 420 Calculating the weight of sorts produced at each of the above named periods at the present prices of sorts, the result will show, that if our clothing wool were equal in quality — To the growth of 1793 ... it would now make 12Jd. per lb. If equal to the growth of 1808 and 1809 .... llfd. « If equal to the growth of 1818 and 1819 .... lOJd. " Actual value in 1827 and 1828 ... - 8|d. " It thus appears that the difference in quality between 1793 and 1827 is equal to 3|d. per pound. Vol. Ill— 66 522 FARMERS' REGISTE [No. 9 Although these tables onfy apply to particular districts, yet they corroborate the unanimous as- sertion of the manufacturers, that British short, wool has generally degenerated in quality, while the increase of weight also appears from the following account, produced by Mr. C. Bull, wool stapler, of Lewes: — STATEMENT OF THE RESPECTIVE WEIGHTS OF FIVE TODS OF WOOL, THE PRODUCE OF DIFFERENT FARMS, AT DIFFERENT PERIODS, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1803 AND 1827, IN- CLUSIVE. Average of Year. Number of Fleeces. Tods of 32 lbs. Fleeces perTod. • Tods. lbs. Produce, No. 1. 1803 869 58 7 15 do 1804 864 50 28 17 1-4 do 1806 923 65 24 14 do 1807 808 68 26 11 3-4 do 1815 866 57 14 15 do 1816 875 67 13 do 1817 915 75 12 12 do 1825 778 63 8 12 1-2 do 1826 835 72 11 1-2 do 1827 824 69 4 11 3-4 Produce, No. 2. 1804 1,191 75 5 15 3-4 do 1805 1,227 89 10 13 3-4 do 1806 1,165 90 22 12 3-4 do 1807 1.248 105 18 11 3-4 do 1808 1,338 105 10 12 1-2 do 1822 1,348 125 20 10 3-4 do 1826 1,189 105 17 11 1-4 Produce, No. 3. 1804 658 40 14 16 1-4 do 1805 574 45 12 3-4 do 1806 572 42 16 13 1-2 do 1807 551 41 13 13 1-4 do 1808 650 45 18 14 1-4 do 1822 655 58 11 11 1-4 Produce, No. 4. 1804 1,306 83 15 3-4 do 1814 1,370 110 29 12 1-4 do 1815 1,350 104 12 3-4 do 1826 1,160 106 14 11 do 1827 1,210 115 3 10 1-2 Produce, No. 5. 1806 1,209 87 22 13 3-4 do 1822 1,195 96 23 12 1-4 do 1823 1,147 96 7 12 There are still, no doubt, some Down-land flocks, in which the original quality of the wool has been sustained;* and others in which it has been even improved by crosses with foreign eheep; but, wherever the now almost universal system of feeding on artificial grasses and rools, and fattening at an early age, has been intro- duced, the deterioration is, with very few excep- tions, evident. It is therefore clear, that high feeding is incompatible with the production of fine wool; and the farmer will henceforward find it most prudent to make his election of the breed he means to adopt, with a view to one object alone. That this has been already done, to a very great extent, appears from the large increase which is supposed to have been made within the last thirty * The evidence of Mr Ellman, of Glvnde, is to that effect; and shows also that the weight of fleece of his own flock has diminished about six ounces since 1S17. years, in the heavy long-woolled sheep, while the lighter carcassed short-woolled breeds have dimin- ished. According to Mr. Luccock's tables, published in 1805, and to the calculations of the Wool Com- mittee at Leeds, presented to the House of Lords in 1828, the number of packs of wool of the sev- eral qualities at the respective periods, have been estimated as follows: 1800, short-wool 193,475 1800, long- wool 131,794 1828, do 120,655 1828, do 263,847 Decrease 72,820 Increase 132,053 The preference which thus appears to have been given to the long-woolled breeds, has not, however, wholly arisen from the superior profit to be obtained from the carcass; but from British short wool having been to a great extent thrown out of our cloth manufactures, while an increased 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 523 demand has arisen for the combing qualify. The relative value of the fleece has thus changed: both the wool and the carcass of the heavy sheep, now severally produce the most money; and it has therefore become the interest of the farmer to breed them whenever his land will allow it. It is impossible to read the evidence produced before the Committee of the House of Lords, without being convinced, that even if the quality of British wool had not degenerated, it would still have been superseded by the superior value of the foreign wool for most manufacturing purposes. The softness and felting properties of the latter, are stated by the concurrent testimony of all man- ufacturers who were examined, to be of such ad- vantage in making fine cloth, that it. would still continue to be used, even if the duty, which was lately repealed, were continued. Nothing, in short, but an absolute prohibition, can prevent its consumption; while the effect of that, or even of a continuation of the former duty, would unques- tionably be to deprive us of the export trade. It appears, also, that by the admission of foreign wool into our manufactures, much of the British growth is brought into use by being mixed with it. Under these circumstances, it is hardly to be ex- pected that the legislature will impose any further impediment to the importation of the foreign woo!; and a dispassionate review of them must render it more than doubtful, whether, even were the prayer of the wool-growers granted, it would afford them the desired relief. The quantity of foreign wool consumed in our manufactories, is supposed to be about 25,000,000 lbs. annually; of which the greater proportion is German; yet the importations are stated to consist principally of inferior and middling descriptions, though there can belittle doubt that the best qual- ities grown, are sent to the English market. The proportions, if divided into parts, and the current value in 1828, were stated to the Committee of the House of Lords, as follows: — (2 from Saxon wool, j 6 " 20 parts ) 6 « 16 « Austrian, or f 5 " Bohemian wool, < 10 " 30 parts ( 15 " And the general average was calculated at 2s. 4d. per pound. Spanish wool is imported in about equal propor- tions; and that from New South Wales is consi- dered to average 9d. to Is. 6d. for three-fourths, and the remainder from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per pound.* The quantity of each of the above kinds, im- ported in the year 1827, was as follows: — s. d. s. d. 6 6 to 7 6 3 6 it 4 6 2 3 (( 2 6 1 8 a 2 6 4 6 tt 6 6 2 3 u 2 9 1 6 a 2 0 German Spanish Australian lbs. 21,220,788 3,898,006 512,758 * Minutes of Evidence, &c. p. 279. And from Russia, and various other countries, dif- ferent parcels, amounting altogether to 29,122,447 lbs. The above importation from New South Wales, appears of very trifling importance; but it amount- ed to more than double that quantity in the pre- ceding year; and the breeders in that country are making rapid strides both in the increase of their flocks, and in the improvement of the fleece. The Australian Agricultural Company are already in possession of 12,000 fine-woolled sheep; the Van Dieman's Land Company are making similar ex- ertions; and many individuals of enterprise and capital have embarked in the speculation of grow- ing wool for the supply of the English market. The wool produced in that climate, acquires a re- markable degree of softness, superior to that of any other kind. This has been proved by the comparison of fleeces shorn in England, from sheep which were alierwards sent out to New South Wales, with fleeces from the same sheep, shorn twelve months after their arrival, and sent there to ascertain the fact; and cloth of the finest quality that has ever been manufactured in this country has already been made from it.* With such advantages, and with an unlimited range of pasturage, to an unknown extent, it is no extravagant speculation to calculate that, at no very distant period, we shall receive our largest supplies of fine wool from thosesettlernents. From the Maine. Farmer. MAKING MANURE. Mr. Editor — A year ago last June I carted into my barn-yard about fifty loads of muck or mud turf, and loam. I dug it over a number of times during the season, with a hoe fork, yarding my cattle during the night time, and when I carU ed it out the succeeding autumn, it was "all of a color," black as animal manure itself, and I have not the least doubt that the materials I made use of to increase my manure were equally as good, after lying in the barn-yard a few months, as dung from the stable. I did not keep an exact account of the expense of carting the same, but I should think that one man with a yoke of oxen and cart would easily haul ten loads per day. At most it did not cost me more than one week's la- bor of one man and a yoke of oxen to haul fifty loads, which quite doubled the quantity of my manure, and by keeping the animal manure co- vered as much as possible with loam,&c. prevent- ed much of its virtue from escaping into the at- mosphere. After clearing out my manure the last autumn, I carted into ray barn-yard forty loads of loam (common dirt) from banks and other places where there were but few stones, and spread it evenly over the yard, with this ex- ception, my yard slopes a little wrong, which, when great rains happen, lets off much liquid ma- nure, the most part of which is lost, (and I have not yet had "time" to fix my yard, which, should slope from every part towards the centre,) so I formed a little dam across the lower side to pre- vent the virtues of the manure from escaping. *M nutesof Evidence, Stc. passim. 524 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 9 The first of June last I also carted into my barn- yard 20 or 25 loads of loam, and spread it evenly over the surface — (this should be done immediate- ly atter ground is thawed in spring, as the sun, wind and rains are busy agents employed in suck- ing the virtues of barn-yard manure,) — and the present autumn, be it known, the loam has all be- come of a dark color, insomuch that it would be taken for stable dung. Every farmer has not an inexhaustible supply of muck, but every one can get common dirt, which I think is as good as any substance whatever to place on the bottom of a barn-yard. Some will say their ground is full of stones — then pick them out. and haul them to some waste place out of the way if you will. I have carted upland loam, containing many stones, into my barn-yard, and with a common break- ing up hoe dug over each load and carefully picked them out. An active man will hoe over a load of loam and pick out the stones in a very few minutes. Let no man living say he has not materials for increasing his manure. Every farmer can get dirt to bank up his cellar — so every farmer can get dirt it he will, and make excellent manure of it. Never did providence lavish on mortals a richer giil than is contained in our swamps — in pond holes on the margin of brooks — in sunken places, &c. Why will not enterprise put forth her hand and improve these golden pri- vileges'? When science shall have more fully il- luminated the farmers of Maine, these inestima- ble treasures will be eagerly sought. When en- terprise and energy shall take the place of that monster, prejudice — then indeed will our farmers make an abundance of manure. "The attention paid to manure in any country indicates with cer- tainty the state of its agriculture," said a great agriculturist. What then shall we say of the ag- riculture of the state ot Maine, if the atteniion Eaid to manure is the criterion of good or bad usbandry? Indeed, I think agriculture is very much improving in our state, and many worthy citizens may be found among us who well deserve the name "good farmers," but. as often as we find one farmer who makes exertions to increase his manure by artificial means, how many may be found who pay no attention at all to the making of manure, if the facts could be known. Any one feeling a good degree of "state pride" would be unwilling to have the story told in Gath, or pub- lished in the streets of Askelon. I have not time, nor capacity, Mr. Editor, to do any thing like jus- tice to the important subject of manure, but I thought that to throw out a few hints at this time might do no harm, and it might possibly be the means of doing a little good — and if by writing these few hints a single farmer should be prevail- ed on to haul a few loads of loam, muck or turf into his barn-yard, that would not have done it supposing these hints had not been written, it will be a sufficient remuneration for my trouble and time. As soon as I can get time, if circumstan- ces are favorable, I will tell another story about ruta baga, and perhaps patatoes. J. K. R. Rumford, October, 1835. From Kenrick's New American Orchardist, 2nd ed.(1835.)ti ON THE DECLIKE OF OLD VARIETIES OF FRUITS, AND THE PRODUCTION OF NEW. The decline of many of the most valuable old varieties of fruit, has been noticed by several dis- tinguished writers of different countries, both of the present and of the former ages; and in Eng- land, particularly, by the celebrated Thomas A. Knight. In our country, and in the vicinity of Boston, it has been more especially observed in re- gard to the old pears. For our best varieties of apples, and some other species, are mostly native fruits, or of modern origin. Let no one suppose that the intelligent horticul- turists here, have never been acquainted with the best of the old pears, which the intelligence and industry of ages had concentrated in France. Who is not aware that in every good collection, a proportion of the very best are ahoays sentl How opposed alike to reason and to probability is the supposition, that even one of the best should have escaped? They must have been here received, in the numerous and ever varying selections, in the unnumbered importations. Rozier, in the original edition of his celebrated Dictionary of Agriculture, which was completed in 1801, has candidly informed us, that for his des- cription of fruits, he is almost wholly indebted to the no less celebrated Duhamel Dumonceau; and from the whole list of pears which he has described, he has recommended as their essence, for a mode- rate collection, fifty-three trees, of nineteen varie- ties, in different proportions. These are every one of them known among us; and more than half of them, including the very best, are decidedly of the kinds long since, from their defection, proscribed by those who cultivate for the markets of Boston. And of the list of twelve trees, of nine varieties, which he has recommended as the best of all, for a very small garden, three quarters of them, at least, are of the kinds which have long since ceased to produce perfect fruit, with those who cul- tivate lor our markets. We regret the circumstance, but have ceased to wonder at the cause — since the same complaints of defection have already reached us from other quarters — even from the capital of that country, for which those celebrated works were principally designed. I shall, in the following pages, designate some of those, in the class of old varieties, once the finest of all old pears, whose duration we had hoped, but in vain, to perpetuate. For except in certain sections of the city, and some very few solitary and highly favored situations in the coun- try around, they have become either so uncertain in their bearing — so barren — so unproductive — or so miserably blighted — so mortally diseased — that they are no longer to be trusted; they are no longer what they were once with us, and what many of them are still described to be by most foreign writers. The gentleman who prepared the article on fruits in F'cssenden^s New American Gardener, has warned us to beware respectingsomeof them. He is well known with us as first rate author- ity. In the markets of the city which formerly abounded with them, they are no longer, or but rarely, to be seen. The cultivators who furnish 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER 525 the barren fig-tree they have been destroyed — but not without cause; for if they had not been ac- cursed, their fertility and good qualities were gone; and they were no longer lruitful, but as the sources of vexation. The practiee of renaming those new, or un- known varieties, whose original names are lost, after these old kinds, is objectionable, inasmuch as it is calculated to mislead — and to falsify the proofs of their mortality. From some fancied similitude, the barbarous names of antiquity are brought down upon us, applied to existing varieties. From semblance of name alone, the G ergon, or Jargon of antiquity has reappeared — it has been reclaim- ed, not merely as kindred, but as in all probability identical with varieties still existing.* According to the theory advanced by Mr. Knight and others, and confirmed by their expe- rience, the different varieties of fruit have their periods of existence fixed by the immutable laws of nature; and after a certain time, either sooner or later, comes on their decline and final extinc- tion. I shall offer some evidence to show that the complaints of defection are not confined to us alone — they have reached us from other and re- mote quarters. Bosc, in Nouv. Cours Complet, has asserted the change — that in France many of the kinds have become, from some cause, so al- tered in the short space of half a century, that it is sometimes difficult to know them, even in the ex- act descriptions and precise engravings of Du- hamel; and with regard to many kinds described by Quintinie, the case is still worse. In the mar- kefs of fruits and legumes at Pans, as the com- missaire general has informed us in his report for 182S, some of these same ancient, and with us once celebrated kinds, are no longer cultivated, its suppliesJiave given up their cultivation. ^ Like each, [about forty cents] and their cultivation is neglected! "The Rousselette, so perfumed, so sought after by the confectioners, and distillers, is no longer of good quality. How different this Rousselette from that which they cultivate at the hamlet of Cormontreuil, at the gate of Rheims! At that place they cultivate the Rousselette almost exclusively, and these al- together on espaliers. These espaliers offer at the end of August a sightthe most rich and beau- tiful." See Annales d'Horticulture for 1828. The unwearied efforts of the most distinguished cultivators of France, during the latter ages, in their attempts to raise new and valuable varieties of fruits from the seed, appear to have been ac- companied chiefly with disaster. And JV1. Poiteau in one of his reports to the. Horticultural Society of Paris, has asserted that the result of all their labor has been "absolutely nothing." In adverting to the decline of the old French varieties of pears, in the vicinity of Paris, and the necessity of a re- newal, he asserts that they must look elsewhere for new varieties to replace the old — any where else but to their own couutry. He informs us that the celebrated Duhamel, du- ring the long course of his scientific career, plant- ed the seeds of all the best fruits wbich were eaten at his table, without being able to produce a single fruit worthy of cultivation. Others in that coun- try— as the Alfroys, had during three successive generations, adopted the same course, and with no better success. Their practice had been to plant uniformly, the seeds, only of the very best or ameliorated fruits — and to select from these, as the subjects of their experiments, those young plants only, which were furnished with large leaves, and large and fine wood. M. Poiteau ascribes the disastrous results of their experiments to these combined causes, even with them. He expresses astonishment at the cause— but the conclusion seems irresistible, | and further states it as a feet recorded by several that with them as with us, they are no longer j authors, that the seeds of the Winter Bon Chre- worthy of cultivation; and that out of that city, ! tien ahva3*s produce a detestable fruit. Mr. and in its vicinity, the country around, these once | Knight has asserted that the seed of the Wild famous fruits are at this day as liable to blight, I pmr fertilized by the stamens of the blossom of an ameliorated one, will yield a better fruit than and as unworthy of general cultivation as in the neighborhood of Boston. The following are his words, extracted from his report: "one is astonished on viewing in the mar- kets of Paris so very few melting Pears. We no longer see the Sucre Vert, the Sucre Masque, the JBezi de la Motte, nor the Bezi d1 Any [Bezi d) fie- ri?'] very few Chaumontelles, very few Calotte de Suisse; no Royale d^Hiver [Royal Winter,] 710 Virgouleuse, and what is to be deplored, no Col- mars. [Some of these expressions, it seems evi- the seeds of an ameliorated pear. M. Van Mona has stated that "the Belgians give no preference to the seeds of table fruits, wheu they plant to obtain new ameliorated kinds." Those seedlings which are without thorns, and with stout wood, and large leaves, are by them re- jected, as these are the signs of an early or inferior fruit. M. Van Mons ascribes the success of their experiments in obtaining so many fruits, which are in all respects so extraordinary, to the principle dent from what follows, were designed Jo be un- l which they had adopted in the beginning— that in proportion as a fruit becomes removed from the wild state, or state of nature, by repeated regene- ration, or planting always the kernels or stones of the last production, in that same degree will the fruit become ameliorated, until it attains the high- est perfection of which a fruit is susceptible. During the process of the amelioration, and of each successive remove, the austerity, or supera- bundant acid, which is the peculiar characteristic of the wild fruit, is diminished, and the saccharine Greculum of Macrobius; t a.ned or de- I ma'ter is increased But as a certain quantity of scribed near two thousand years ago, are but one and ; aci(1 ls an essential ingredient in every perfect the same; and no other than the Jargonelle of the pro- fruit— it will appear self-evident that the process sent day. I of regeneration, when carried too far, may prove derstood only in a general sense. K.] These three last species sell from ten sous to two francs * See t. 108 of the Pomological Magazine, where the authority of Menage and Due hat, and of Merlet are brought forward to justify the supposition, that the Jargonelle, asserted by them to be derived from Jar- gon, anciently Gergon, in Italian Gergo, in Spanish Gericona, all corruptions of Grcecum, and by the in- ference of Merlet the Pyrum Tarentinvm of Cato and Columella, the Numidianum Grcecum of Pliny, the 523 FARMERS REGISTER. [No. 9 injurious; and that excessive sweetness, by a short transition, degenerates into insipidity. It is asserted by Mr. Knight, that generally, the old varieties of fruit begin to decay, first, in the colder latitudes; and that a lruit which there be- gins to decay, may yet be successfully cultivated in a more southern climate, or, what is equivalent, in the confined and warmer atmosphere of cities. Those varieties, therefore, which no longer suc- ceed with us, may yet continue for a while to flourish in the middle regions of the Union, and especially in the interior, beyond the limits and in- fluence of those cold eastern breezes from the At- lantic, which, rising with the diurnal appearance of the sun, vis't us so regularly and constantly at stated seasons. There are some, however, who dissent from these opinions and conclusions — opinions, which, the continued experience of the ages, present as well as past, seems only the more abundantly to confirm. They do not, indeed, deny the fact of the destruction; but they deny the cause. In their attempts to sustain the credit of the old fruits by rendering them immortal, they would ascribe their deterioration to any other cause; to some sup- Eosed alteration of climate, and not of ours alone, ut of the climate of all those countries where the same proofs of their mortality have appeared. JVe await the proofs of such changes; mean- while in their absence, I believe all will agree, thai in adopting this theory, we adopt the safest course. Mr. Knight and some others in England, and the Comte de Coloma of Malines, have succeeded in raising some new and valuable varieties of fruit from the seeds obtained by hybrydism orcross fertilization. In describing the principles and modes of practice of this art, I have had recourse to Phillips, to Knight, and especially to Lindley and M. Fries Morel, to all of them collectively. The same principles are alike applicable to trees of ornament, and to flowers. But we are authorized in asserting, that this is not the mode which has been so generally adopted by Dr. Van Mons and others in Belgium — and that the mode by which so many new, and very extraordinary varieties of fruits have been there produced, differs essentially from this which I am now about describing. The outer circle of the slender threads or fila- ments, which rise around the centre of the blos- som or flower, are called the stamens, or males, and the central are called pistillum, pointals, or females. The stamens bear at their summit a small ball called the anther, which contains the fertilizing powder called the pollen. At the summit of the pistillum are the organs of secretion called stigmata, consisting of one or more intercellular passages leading thence to the base, where are situated the cell or cells in which are placed the ovula, or the rudiments of seeds. The pollen, when viewed through a microscope, is found to consist of extremely minute hollow balls, filled with a fluid in which swim innumera- ble particles of an oblong or spherical form, and having an apparently spontaneous motion. When the anther is mature, it bursts or opens with an elastic force, by which its contents are dispersed, and a portion of them falling on the stigma which is of lax tissue, the moving particles of pollen de- scend through the tissue of the style, by routes specially destined by nature, into the cells, where the ovular are placed, and these being thus vivifi- ed, are converted into the seeds or embryo of a fu- ture plant. The operation of hybridizing or cross fertiliza- tion must be performed in a dry day, and before the blossom is entirely expanded; the most favor- able moment is just before the rising of the sun; the pollen being at, that time humid, is closely at- tached to the anthers. The blossoms must be carefully opened, and the anthers extracted by de- licate scissors, care being taken neither to wound the filaments which support them, or any other part of ihe flower. About nine o'clock, the blossoms being exposed to the full influence of the sun, the matured pollen from another, variety must be carefully placed on the blossom which it is intended to fertilize, and from which the anthers have been extracted; and this operation must be repeated twice or thrice du- ring the course of the day. By shaking the blos- soms over a sheet of white paper, the time when it is perfectly mature will be ascertained. It is ne- cessary to protect the prepared blossoms from the bees and other insects with thin muslin or gauze, which will not exclude the sun or air; and it is pro- per also to protect them from the rain and dews, till a swelling is perceived in the germ. By screening the plants from the sun, and by frequent waterings, the maturity of the pollen and the stigma may be retarded. When the process has been successful, the pol- len which had been placed on the stigma, be- comes so attached, that it cannot be removed with a hair pencil; it changes form and color and soon disappears, and the blossom will soon wither and fade. But when the process has been imperfect, the reverse, of all this is the case; the pollen is easily detached from the stigma, its appearance is unaltered, and it remains visible with the duration of the flower, which will continue for a long time. The fertilized seeds thus yielded, produce gene- rally flowers which resemble in color, or fruits which inherit mainly the qualities of the kind which furnished the pollen; while the form of the flower, or some of the constitutional qualities of the fruit, will resemble those of the plant which matured the seed. No cross fertilization can take place between plants or fruits unless nearly related. None, for instance, can take place between the pear, apple or quince; or between the plum, peach or cherry, &c. Wild plants or fruits while growing in their na- tive wilds are generally perpetuated from genera- tion to generation without change; but this is not the case with the hynrids or cultivated varieties, however isolated or far removed the tree may be, which produces the seeds, from any other of sit species. The most intelligent writers have asserted, and it now appears to be admitted as an indisputatble fact, that the original number of varieties of the apple was very small, and that the numerous va- rieties, differing in size, form and flavorand periods of maturity, originated from the wild apple ox crab, a small and very acid fruit. The pear, from a small and very austere wild fruit, has been in like manner wonderfully ameliorated. Mr. Knight seems persuaded that their fine varieties of native 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 527 English plums, originated from the Sloe plum, a wild and austere, small, black fruit— or according to Mr. Neill, from the Bullace, another wild plum, very small, and acid. The gooseberry, originally a small, indifferent fruit, has by cultivatieu, not only highly improved in flavor, but wonderfullv in size. The large Dutch red and the large Dutch white currant, are highly productive and improved varieties. But the white currant, as Mr. Loudon asserts, is but a variety, produced from the seeds of the red currant. Cross- fertilization may, indeed, elfect impor- tant improvements, by combining in one object, those desirable qualities, which may be previously possessed by two other individuals in separate states. But it can never of itself, and alone, pro- duce or create those opposite qualities, which had never existed before in any individual; but are as directly opposed to all that had ever before existed, as white is to red or to black, and we must look to other causes for such important changes. The following mode, by which the Belgians have succeeded in obtaining so many newand ex- traordinary varieties, is from the account written by Dr. Van Mons— and for this valuable article, we are indebted to the researches of Gen. Dear- born, by whom this account was inserted in Vol. VII. No. 28 of the New England Farmer. "The Belgians give no preference to the seeds of table fruits, when they plant to obtain new ame- liorated kinds. When their plants appear, they do not, like us, found their hopes upon individuals exempt from thorns, furnished with large leaves, and remarkable fur the size and beauty of their wood; on the contrary, they prefer the most thorny subjects, provided that the thorns are long, and that the plants are furnished with many buds or eyes, placed very near together. This last, cir- cumstance appears to them, and with reason, to be an indication that the tree will speedily produce fruit. As soon as the young individuals which of- fer these favorable appearances, afford grafts or buds, capable of being inoculated upon other stocks, these operations are performed; the apples on paradise, and the pears on quince stocks, to hasten their fructification. The first fruit is gene- rally very bad, but, the Belgians do not regard that; whatever it is, they carefully collect°the seeds and plant them; from these a second genera- tion is produced, which commonly shows the com- mencement of an amelioration. As soon as the young plants of this second generation have scions, or buds, proper for the purpose, they are transfer- red to other stocks as were the preceding; the third and fourth generation are treated in the same manner, and until there are finally produced ame- liorated fruits worthy of being propagated. M. Van Mons asserts, that the peach and apricot, treated in this manner, afford excellent fruit in the third generation. The apple does not yield supe- rior fruit before the fourth or fifth generation. The pear is slower in its amelioration; but M. Van Mons informs us, that in the sixth generation, it no longer produces inferior, but affords excellent fruits, intermixed with those of a middling qual- ity." Intelligent writers, those on whom we may rely. have assured us, that the new and numerous class of fruits which have arisen during the last forty years, in Belgium, is far more precious and ines- timable in point of quality, than all previously known. They refer in this more particularly to pears. Highly satisfactory specimens of some of the new species which are described in the following pages, have been seen and exhibited among us; enough to convince us of the decided excellence of at least a portion of them; but as yet but a small proportion of the new foreign varieties here described, have borne fruit in our country. The unwearied labors of Van Mons,of Knight, of CoIoma,of Hardenport, of Duquesne, of Nelis, of Liarf, of Dorlain, and others, have probably ef- fected more, during the last forty years, than all that had been previously accomplished during twenty centuries. All these fruits are recommended as highly de- serving of trial in our climate. From them we must make our selections at another day, of such kinds onlv, as prove on trial, alike adapted to our climate, the very best in quality and the most pro- ductive. From Chaptal's Chemistry applied to Agriculture. SUCCESSION OF CROPS. A soil may be forced, by extreme care, enor- mous expense, and the use of manure without mea- sure, to produce all sorts of crops; but it is not in such sorts of proceeding that the science of ag- riculture consists. Agriculture ought not to be considered as an object of luxury, and whenever the produce of agricultural management, does not amnly repay the care and expense bestowed upon it, the system followed is bad. A good npricultarist, will, in the first place, make himself acquainted with the nature of his soil in order to know the kind of plants to which it is best adapted; this knowledge may be easily ac- quired by an acquaintance with the species of the plants produced upon it spontaneously, or by ex- periments made upon the land, or upon analogous soils in the neighborhood. But however well adapted the soil and climate may be to the cultivation of any particular kind of vegetable, the former soon ceases to be produc- tive if constantly appropriated to the culture of plants of the same or analogous species. In or- der that land may be cultivated successfully, va- rious kinds of vegetables must be raised upon it in succession, and the rotation must be conducted with intelligence, that none unsuited either to the soil or climate may be introduced. It is the art of varying the crops upon the same soil, of causing different vegetables to succeed one another, and of understanding the effect of each upon the soil, that can alone establish that good order of suc- cession which constitutes cropping. A good system of cropping is, in my opinion, the best guarantee of success that the farmer can have; without this, all is vague, uncertain, and hazardous. In order to establish this good system of cropping, a degree of knowledge is necessary, which unhappily is wanting to the greater part of our practical farmers. I shall here state certain facts and principles, which may serve as guides in this important branch of agriculture. More extensive information on this subject may be found in the excellent works of Messrs. Yvart, and Pictet.* *"Cours coraplet d'AgricuIture," articles Assolement 52S FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 9 Principle 1. All plants exhaust the soil. Plants are supported by the earth, the juices with which this is impregnated forming their prin- ciple aliment. Wetter serves as the vehicle for conveying these juices into the organs, or present- ing them to the suckers of the roots by which they are absorbed; thus the progress of vegeta- tion ten Is constantly to impoverish the soil, and if the nutritive juices in it. be not renewed, it will at length become perfectly barren. A soil well furnished with manure may sup- port several successive crops, but each one will be inferior to the preceding, till the earth is complete- ly exhausted. Principle 2. All plants do not exhaust the soil equally. Plants are nourished by air, water, and the juices contained in the soil; but the different kinds of plants do not require the same kinds of nour- ishment in equal degrees. There are some that require to have their roots constantly in water; others are best suited with dry soils; and there are those again, that prosper only in the best, and most, richly manured land. The grains and the greater part of the grasses, push up long stalks, in which the fibrous princi- ple predominates; these are garnished at the base by leaves, the dry texture and small surface of which do not permit them to absorb much either of air or water; the principal nourishment, is ab- sorbed from the ground by their roots; their stalks furnish little or no food for animals; so that these plants exhaust the soil, without sensibly repairing the loss, either by their stalks, which are cut to be applied to a particular use, or by their roofs, which are all that remain in the ground, and which are dried and exhausted in completing the process of fructification. Those plants, on the contrary, that are provi- ded with large, fleshy, porous, green leaves, im- bibe from the atmosphere carbonic acid and water, and receive from the earth the other substances by which they are nourished. If these are cut green,the loss of juices, which the soil has sustained by their growth, is less sensibly felt, as a part of it is compensated for by their roots. Nearly all the plants that are. cultivated for fodder are of this kind. There are some plants which, though general- ly raised for the sake of their seed, exhaust the soil less that the grains; these are of the nu- merous family of leguminous plants, any which sustain a middle rank between the two of which I have just spoken. Their perpendicular roots di- vide the soil, and their large leaves, and thick, loose, porous stalks readily absorb air and water. These parts preserve for a long time the juices with which they are impregnated, and yield them to the soil, if the plant be buried in it before arri- ving at maturity; when this is done, the field is still capable of receiving and nourishing a good crop of corn. Beans produce this effect in a re- markable degree; peas to a less extent. Generally speaking, those plants that are cut green, or whilst in flower, exhaust the soil but lit- tle; till this period they have derived their support almost exclusively from the air, earth, and water; et Succession de Culture, par Yvart. Traite de'Assole- ments," par Ch. Pictet. their stalks and roots are charged with juices, and those parts that are left in the earth after mowing, will restore to it all that had been received from it by the plant. From the time when the seed begins to be form- ed, the whole system of nourishment is changed; the plant continues to receive nourishment for the perfecting of its seed, ftom the atmosphere and the earth, and also yields to the grain all the juices it had secreted in its own stalks and roots: by this means the stalks and roots are dried and exhaust- ed. When the fruits have arrived at maturity the skeleton remains of the plant, if abandoned to the earth, restore to it only a small portion of what had been taken from it. The oleaginous seeds exhaust the soil more than the farinaceous seeds; and the agriculturist cannot be at too much pains to free his grounds from weeds of that nature, which so readily im- poverish them; especially from the wild mustard, sinapis arvensis, with which cultivated fields are so often covored. Principle 3. Plans of different kinds donot exhaust a soil in the same manner. The roots of plants of the same genus or fami- ly, grow in the soil in the same manner; they pen- etrate to a similar depth, and extend to corres- ponding distances; and exhaust all that portion of the soil with which they come in contact. Those roots which lie nearest, the surface, are more divided than those that penetrate deeply. The spindle or tap roots, and all tbose that pene- trate deeply into the earth, throw out but few rad- icles near the surface, and consequently the plant is supplied with nourishment from the layers of soil in contact with the lower partof the root. Of the truth of this I have often had proof, and I will mention an example. If when a beet or turnip is transplanted, the lower portion of the spindle be cut off, it will not grow in length, but in order to obtain its supplies of nourishment from the soil, it will send out radicles from its sides, which will en- able it to obtain the necessary supplies from the upper layers of the soil; and the root will become roundish instead of long. Plants exhaust only that portion of the soil which comes in contact with their roots; and a spindle root may be able to draw an abundance of nourishment from land, the surface of which has been exhausted by short or creeping roots. The roots of plants of the same and of analo- gous species always take a like direction, if situa- ted in a soil which allows them a free develope- ment; and thus they pass through, and are sup- ported by, the same layers of earth. For this reason we seldom find trees prosper that take the place of others of the same species; unless a suit- able period has been allowed for producing the decomposition of the roots of the first, and thus supplying the earth with fresh manure. To prove that different kinds of plants do not exhaust the soil in the same manner, it is perhaps sufficient for me to state, that the nutrition of ve- getables is not a process altogether mechanical: that plants do not absorb indiscriminately, nor in the same proportions, all the juices and salts that are presented to them; but that either vitality, or the comformation of their organs, exerts an influ- ence over the nutritive action; that there is on the part of plants some taste, some choice regarding their food, as has been sufficiently proved by th* 183G.J FARMERS' REGISTER 529 experiments of Messrs. Davy ami de Saussure. It is with plants as it is with animals — there are. some elements common to all, and some peculiar to each kind: this is placed beyond doubt, by the preference given by some plants to certain salts, over others. Principle 4. All plants do not restore to the soil either the same quantity, or the some, quality of manure. The plants that grow upon a soil, exhaust more or less of its nutritive juices, but all return to it some remains, to repair a part of its loss. The grains and the oleaginous seeds may be placed at the head of those which exhaust a soil the most, and repair the least, the injury done it. In those countries where plants are plucked up, they return nothing to the soil that has nourished them. There are some plants, to be sure, besides those mentioned above, that by forming their seed, con- sume a great part of the manure contained in the in the soil; but the roots of many of these soften and divide the soil to a considerable depth; and the leaves which fall from the stalk during the progress of vegetation, restore to the earth more than is returned by those before mentioned. There are others still, the roots and stalks of which, re- maining strong and succulent after the production of their fruits, restore to the soil a portion of the jui- ces they had received from it; of this kind are the leguminous plants. Many plants that are not allowed to produce seed, exhaust the soil but very little; these are very valuable in forming a system of successive crops, as by introducing them into the rotation, ground may be made to yield for many years without the application of fresh manure; the va- rieties of trefoil, especially clover and sainfoin, are of this sort. Principle 5. All plants do not foul the soil equally. It is said that a plant fouls the soil, when it. fa- cilitates or permits the growth of weeds, which exhaust the earth, weary the plant, appropriate to themselves a part of its nourishment, and hasten its decay. All plants not provided with an exten- sive system of large and vigorous leaves, calculated to cover the ground, foul the soil. The grains, from their slender stalks rising into the air, and their long, narrow leaves, easily ad- mit into their intervals those weeds that grow upon the surface, which being defended from heat and wind,grow by favor of the grain they in- jure. Herbaceous plants, on the contrary, which co- ver the surface of the soil with their leaves, and raise their stalks to only a moderate height, stifle all that endeavors to grow at their roots, and the earth remains clean. It must be observed, how- ever, that this last is not the case unless the soil be adapted to the plants, and contain a sufficient quantity of manure to support them in a state of healthy and vigorous vegetation; it is for want of these favorable circumstances that we often see these the same plants languishing, and allowing the growth of less delicate herbs, which cause them to perish before their time. Vegetables sown and cultivated in drills, as are the various roots and the greater part of the leguminous plants, allow room for a large number of weeds; but the soil can Vol. Ill— 67 be easily kept free, by frequent use of the hoe or weedingfbrk; and by this means may be preserved rich enough for raising a second crop, especially if the first be not allowed to go to seed. The seeds that are commited to the ground often contain those of weeds amongst them, and too much care cannot be taken to avoid this; it is more frequently the case, however, that these are brought by the winds, deposited by water, or sown with the manure of the farm-yard. The carelessness of those agriculturists who al- low thistles and other hurtful plants to remain in their fields, cannot, be too much censured; each year, these plants produce new seeds, thus ex- hausting the land and increasing their own num- bers, till it becomes almost impossible to free the soil from them. This negligence is carried by some to such an extent, that they will reap the grain all round the thistles, and leave them stand- ing at liberty to complete their growth and fruc- tification. How much better it would be to cut those hurtful plants before they flower, and to add them to the manure of the farm. From the principles which I have just estab- lished, we may draw the following conclusions. 1st. That however well prepared a soil may be, it cannot nourish a long succession of crops with- out becoming exhausted. 2d. Each harvest impoverishes the soil to a cer- tain extent, depending upon the degree of nourish- ment which it restores to the earth. 3d. The cultivation of spindle roots ought to suc- ceed that, of running and superficial roots. 4th. It is necessary to avoid returning too soon to the cultivation of the same or of analogous kinds of vegetables, in the same soil.* 5th. It is very unwise to allow two kinds of plants, which admit of the ready growth of weeds among them, to be raised in succession. 6th. Those plants that derive their principal sup- port from the soil, should not be sown, excepting when the soil is sufficiently provided with ma- nure. 7th. When the soil exhibits symptoms of ex- haustion from successive harvests, the cultivation of those plants that restore most to the soil, must be resorted to. These principles are confirmed by experience; they form the basis of a system of agriculture rich in its products, but more rich in its economy, by the diminution of the usual quantity of labor and manure. All cultivators ought to be governed by them, but their application must be modified by the nature of soils, and climates, and the particular wants of each locality. To prescribe a series of successive and various harvests, without paying any regard to the difier- * In additions to the reason I have given why plants of the same or analogous kinds should not be cultiva- ted in succession upon the same soil, there is another which I will here assign. M. Olivier, member of the French Institute, has described with much care all the insects which devour the neck of the roots of grain; these multiply infinitely if the same or analogous kinds of plants be presented to the soil for several successive years; but perish for want of food whenever plants not suited to be food for their larva5, are made to succeed the grains. These insects belong to the family of Ti- pulse,or to that of flies. (Sixteenth Vol. of the Me- moirs of the Royal and Central Agrieullural Society of Paris.) 530 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 9 ence of soils, would be to commit a great error, and to condemn the system of cropping in the eyes of those agriculturists, who are too little enlight- ened to think of introducing into their grounds the requisite changes. Clover and sainfoin are placed amongst the ve- getables that ought to enter into the system of cropping, but these plants require a deep and not too compact soil, in order that their roots may fix themselves firmly. Flax, hemp, and corn require a good soil, and can be admitted as a crop only upon those lands that are fertile, and well prepared. Light and dry soils cannot bear the same kind of crop as those that are compact and moist. Each kind of soil, then, requires a particular system of crops, and each farmer ought to estab- lish his own upon a perfect knowledge of the character and properties of the land he culti- vates. As in each locality the soil presents shades of difference, more or less marked, according to the exposure, composition, depth of the soil &c, the proprietor ought so to vary his crops, as to give to each portion of the land the plants for which it is best adapted; and thus establish a particular rota- tion of crops upon the several divisions of his es- tate. The wants of the neighborhood, the facility with which the products may be disposed of, and the comparative value of the various kinds of crops, should all be taken into the calculation of the farmer, in forming his plan of proceedings. There is another point in regard to crops that ought to be well weighed by the farmer; though his lands may be suited to cultivation of a particu- lar kind, his interests may not allow him to enter upon it. The more abundant any article is, the lower will be its price; he ought then to prefer those crops of which the sale is most secure. If a product cannot be consumed upon the spot, it is necessary to calculate the expense of transport- ing it to a place of sale in countries where it is needed. A proprietor ought to provide largely for the wants of his animals and of the men living upon his estate, before arranging for the disposal of sur- plus crops; he will then calculate his various har- vests in such a manner, as to be always secure of receiving from the earth the means of subsistence ibr those employed in performing the labor. An intelligent farmer, whose lands lie at a dis- tance from a market, will endeavor to avoid the expenses incident to the transportation of his pro- ducts; and in order to do this, he will give the pre- ference to those harvests of fodder or of roots which may be consumed upon the place by his de- pendants and his animals. There is another circumstance which must be attended to in sowing those lands which are light, or which lie upon a slope; for these it. is necessary to employ snch vegetables as cover the soil with their numerous leaves, and unite it in every direc- tion by their roots, thus preserving it from being washed away by rains, and at the same time pro- tecting it from being too much dried by the burn- ing raya of the sun. DECREASE OF THE BLACK POPULATION IN THE "FREE STATES." A late No. of the Journal of Commerce states, as "a curious and instructive fact, that while the colored population in the slave states increases with astonish- ing rapidity, in the free states it increases scarcely at all. The increase in Providence during the last five years is oidy 10, and in this city [NewYork] only 1019, which we presume is less than the amount of immigration from the south during the same period. In Dutchess County there is a decrease of colored po- pulation since 1830 to the number of 417; or one 6th of the whole." The fact that the emancipated negro race in this country has either decreased in numbers, or increased very slowly compared to the slaves, may well be "in- structive"— but it is not at all strange. It accords precisely with the laws of population applied to the general habits and circumstances of the negro family. Still, however striking may be the facts cited, they do not present a fair example of the operation of these laws. Where a few free negroes only are found, as is now the case in both the northern and southern states, they may subsist, and even increase, as paupers or pilferers, at the expense of the far more numerous in- dustrious, or wealthy part of the community — just as as fragments of the gypsey tribe have lived in Eu- rope. But if half the population of the north consist- ed of free negroes, or if all the slaves in the south were at once made free, and forced to subsist on the fruits of their own labor, the rate of decrease would be far greater. These anticipated results were stated in a passage in the earliest number of this journal, which will be copied here, as being even more appro- priate to this juncture, than when first presented. "Undoutedly the condition of a slave is deplorable, and it must ever be afflicting that such a state should exist, and be extended so widely over the globe, as to seem to be the inevitable lot of a large portion of mankind. But in our benevolent zeal for the removal of slavery, we should not forget that there are afflic- tions, numerous, wide-spread, and unavoidable, in the most refined and advanced state of society, that are even more intolerable than the slave's toil, stimulated by the slave-owner's lash. The substance, though not the name of slavery, is to be found almost every where in this miserable world — and the few favored spots now free from such causes of human suffering, must in their turn be visited with like inflictions. Except in • newly settled countries, or in others having as yet a sparse population, and plentiful means of subsistence, and a free goverment withal, the laboring poor are slaves in fact, either to individuals, to government, or to their own craving and never satisfied necessities. The negro slaves of Virginia present striking exam- ples of the first kind — the people of Egypt, and eman- cipated Hayti, of the second — and the entire laboring population of free and philanthopic England, of the third. Of these three kinds, personal slavery, as exis- ting in Virginia, is the most injurious, or the least profitable, to the masters, and attended with the least unhappiness (so far as mere animal comforts are considered) to the slaves; and where hunger is the only task-master, its victims are the most mise- rable of slaves, and yet compelled to yield the greatest possible nett amount, by their labor, and abstinence from enjoyment. If a rich English manfacturer, or land-holder, was offered all the laborers in his employ- ment, with their wives and children, and all their pos- terity, to be held precisely as the negro slaves are 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER 531 held and maintained in Virginia, considerations of economy alone would instruct him to reject the fatal gift, as he would avoid certain bankruptcy and ruin. On the other hand, if all the slaves of Virginia were at once emancipated, and left to provide for themselves, want, wretchedness and disease, would make such ha- voc among them, as to threaten finally, and at no re- mote period, the extinction of the race. The adult males, and even the females not burthened with chil- dren, might possibly do well; bnt the greater number of the feeble and infirm, from old age, infancy, or dis- ease, would inevitably perish. Marriages would near- ly cease, and births greatly diminish, and the work of death proceed as if a general pestilence was raging. The effects of emancipation, in equal time, would di- minish the African race in Viginia, more than the operation of any scheme that philanthropy has yet devised, though aided by the general will, and all the the disposable wealth of the country," — Review of the Slavery Question fyc. p 48, vol. I. Farmers' Regis- ter. For the Farmers' Register. A TRIP TO SOME OF THE SEA ISLANDS OF VIRGINIA.* While in Northampton county for a short time during ihe last, summer, I sought an opportunity to see some of the neighboring sea islands, which have not attracted so much curiosity as to induce many of their near neighbors on the "main" to examine them, though residing within the dis- tance of twelve or fifteen miles — and they are scarcely known to exist, by most persons west of the Chesapeake. These circumstances stimulated me the more to incur the difficulties of making the passage to this almost terra incognita. The short time which I had to spare, and the necessity of bringing the trip within the extent of 24 hours, made my excursion more hurried, and the view more cursory, than was desirable. After all preparations had been made, and we were ready to set sail at the appointed time, a change of wind compelled us to abandon the at- tempt for that day. The next morning, as it was arranged by W., (whom I had engaged as a guide,) to make use of the early tide, we were all to be on the shore two hours before day break. I thought that this appointment would not be likely to be kept by all — and so it proved. It was day break when we reached the shore, and the tide of the little creek was too low for our canoe to swim. There was no help, but to wait (patiently or otherwise) for the rising tide, which was not high enough for several hours. Even at the ear- ly hour when we arrived, the horse which drew our "carry-all' was soon beset by the green-head- ed flies, which are so abundant every summer as to be the greatest pest of the sea-side, and which are said to be uncommonly numerous at this time. They are seldom very troublesome except during *It is proper to state that the following piece was written soon after the date to which it refers, and was on hand some time before our receiving the interesting account of another part of the range of islands, which was published in No. 7: which later and more par- ticular statements were sought, and published first, be- cause of the acknowledged haste, and therefore proba- ble incorrectness of of the view of which the sketch was made that is now submitted. — Ed. the heat of the day: but now, one of us alone could not keep the horse clear of them: and if the attempt had ceased for a few minutes, the tortured animal, though well used to such attacks, would have broken loose, and taken to his heels. A ser- vant soon reached the place, and we were glad to send the horse away. The dogs during the same time showed by their antics that if they suffered less than the horse, it was only because they had bet- ter means of ridding themselves of their torment- ors. They were continually biting their rumps, or wallowing on the ground, or running about, as I have seen when one had incautiously poked his nose into a yellow-jackets' nest. These flies in July and August often compel the working horses to be taken from their ploughs by 10 o'clock, and to be kept in their stables until even 4 in the eve- ning. But at this time, it is with great difficulty, and in torture to the horses and mules, that they can plough at all in the day. One proprietor has lately discarded the effort altogether, and for the last week has been ploughing his corn only during the night, for which the moon happened to suit well. He intends (as I afterwards heard from him) to cover his mules in full dresses of* old sail- cloth, as the only probable mode of protecting them. These flies are known through all lower Virginia, but are no where numerous, or very troublesome, except on lands immediately adjoining these sea marshes, where they breed in the marsh grass. They are about five-eigths or three-fourths of an inch in length, here as elsewhere. This plague must be a serious offset to the value of lands, and the great advantages of living on the sea-side farms. Where we were waiting was a tide mill, the pond of which usually was filled and then drawn low every day, and the bottom of which was now becoming bare rapidly. Flocks of sea- gulls were busy fishing in the deeper part of the retreating waters, and some hogs were advancing "in line" through the mud flats, catching shell- fish, or other food left by the tide. Our oarsmen went in for their share of the harvest, and picked up oysters, which were thrown upon a fire prepared for the purpose, and thus soon provided them- selves with a breakfast. Our pilot, and owner of our little vessel, was a regular sea-side fisherman, a sort of salt-water "Leather-Stocking," who was as much at home in the pursuit of his game, furnished by the wa- ters, as the other renowned character was in the woods. His name might have been coveted for the hero of a lady-author's novel: but rough old Charles Dillon was any thing but what such a name would have indicated in romance. In his early days he had been employed enough on ship- board to make him a thorough sailor: but he pre- ferred, and had now long pursued the business of fisherman, varied occasionally, according to his account (though of course not recently,) by the more adventurous and spirit-stirring exploits of smuggling and wrecking, but always in a decent and "civil way. With all the poin's of character and of habits which belonged to his station, there were glimpses of better feelings exhibited from time to time, which made him appear to me as one of nature's gentlemen, marred by chance, and the force of circumstances. Taken altogether, there was much to admire in old Charles, and we soon became good friends and cronies?. My first 532 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 9 step in his favor was made by his finding out that I was a member of the Temperance Society — as that gave him what might otherwise have, been my share of the contents of the bottle of rum which my companion had brought. Charles seemed to know by a sort of instinct, the state of the tide, even when in his bed. When at last it nearly served to float our boat, he was absent, having gone to his home, half a mile from the water^ probably for some "creature comforts" of his own: but while W. was damning him very liberally for disappointing us, he made his appearance — and al- mostatthe very minute that it was first possible to set off. We started with the rising tide, rowing through narrow channels, bounded by naked mud banks and marshes. The shallow sounds or channels which separate the islands from the main land at this place are far from being open water, as I had supposed. Extensive mud shoals, which are na- ked at low tide, and not enough covered to be passed over, except at high tide, and numerous marshes covered with tall sea-grasses, fill more than three-fourths of the space, and make the na- vigation circuitous, and also difficult, to those not well accustomed to the routes. Thus ten miles, which is the nearest distance across the water to Hog Island from the the main, were made fifteen in our morning's voyage, and much farther when returning. The water too, through which the boats pass, is generally shallow, though there are open channels of sufficient depth for laro;e sea-ves- sels passing between the line of islands and the main. Our canoe was not so poor a sea-boat as its name would imply on our fresh waters. Though only of little more than twenty feet in length, °at bottom, it was stiff and sale, of which we had abundant proof; furnished by the rise of wind before the trip ended. As usual here, the canoe had been sawn open, and widened by letting in a keel, and the sides were raised by laying°on a plank to each. It had two masts, and sails"which were brought into use after getting into the more open water. Gulls are here in great numbers, and of several kinds. This is their breeding time, and their eggs are much in request for food, and are considered a great delicacy. My companions landed to search for them on a marsh island. One kind of gull builds a nest of marsh- weeds on a high tus- sock. The eggs are nearly as large as those of hens, and quite as large as Guinea fowls'. The wetness of the marsh and my unwillingness to in- cur unnecessary risk of being make sick, prevent- ed my leaving the boat at this place. The gulls rose in numbers with screams and moans, and ac- companied the course and kept over the heads of the plunderers of their nests. It seemed to me at first a shameful act — but it would be difficult to show that it is less justifiable, or less merciful, than taking other living articles of food, as much for sport as for use. Afterwards when I accompanied the egg hunters on a sand islet, I soon entered very earnestly in the pursuit, and was in a fair way of losing all my previously acquired intoler- ance, for bird-nesting. The largest kind of gull seems to live on the in- sects or other light substances which float in the foam on the surface of the water. Its dexterity in skimming off its food is admirable. I afterwards observed them flying at their usual great speed, and for considerable distances, the tip of the beak just grazing the surface of the water, and appa- rently never varying from that precise gage, not- withstand the high swell of the waves required a continual and great alteration of the bird's course. Nothing could be more graceful, or more exact in movement. We passed near to a large island, called Prouts', which is uninhabited, except by flocks of sheep. We had not time to call. This bears almost no trees; and wherever visible from the water, seemed to be but little else than sand hills very scantly co- vered with weeds or grass. It was said, however, that in the interior there is much of good grazing land. The north-western part of the island, which we approached, is losing greatly by the en- croachments of the sea. About half a mile from Prout's, and between that and Hog Island, (in Matchapungo Inlet,) lies a newly formed islet, which, with the peculiar fe- licity which our countrymen exhibit in giving names to places, has been dignified with the name of Pig Island. Until within the last ten years, this was only a shoal, which was usually bare at low tide, and sometimes was washed quite away by the fury of tempests. It seems now to be per- manent, and will probably grow, by accessions of sand brought by the breakers, until it is a large island. I was particularly anxious to visit this spot — to catch nature in the fact, as it were, of pro- ducing land. This, doubtless, is the manner in which all the larger islands were formed in the open sea — and at an earlier epoch, the peninsula (or "main") also. Unless destroyed by encroach- ments of the sea, (of whichthere are many evi- dences, both on the shores of the islands, and on both sides of the peninsula,) it may be supposed that the sand hills, which give elevation to both, will gradually be driven by the violent power of winds and waves, until they spread over the shoals and marshes and make firm land of the space over which we had been sailing. The sand hills, which are formed altogether by the violence of the ocean waves, and of materials brought from the shallow bottom, are higher than any other land, either on the islands or the main — often 30 feet high, and sometimes much more. It was at high water when we landed on this newly formed island; and it then seemed to be in size, from 25 to 30 acres. It had no where more than two or three feet elevation above the then height of tide. But a few growing weeds were seen — perhaps not a dozen in walking across it to the Atlantic side. And here we may trace na- ture's operations, not only in forming dry land, but in compounding soil of more or less fertility, out of materials separately barren and worthless. The island consists entirely of pure silicious sea sand, except for the mixture of shells scattered throughout. These, though recent, and of course verydiard, were rarely entire, and gave evidence of the power of the water in breaking and grinding them down. Clay then is only wanting to give consistency to the soil, and make it even well con- stituted. Seeds of various plants will be brought by the winds and by the water. The dung of sea birds first, and next the growth and decay of vegetable matter, will give the fertility wanting. I am told that the shells are seen even at the tops of the sand hills: and if so, there can be no doubt 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 533 but that they must have been originally thus given generally, though too sparingly, to the whole main land of" Northampton — though the ages which have passed have served to dissolve them, and conceal their former existence. The cultivated land in Hog Island, as I afterwards saw, now shows broken clam shells throughout — and the ha- bits of the people,as well as their words, declare that the shells were never put there by the hand of man. The sandy islet furnished a much more abun- dant supply ol the eggs of another kind of gull- — and all newly laid, as one of our crew had "egged" the place clean only a few days before. This kind of gull makes no nest, or at least, it is but a scarcely observable indentation on the sand. The eggs are smaller than those laid in the marsh. I found five nests containing from one to three eggs each, within the space of 40 yards. But as the tide was precious, we could give but little time to the study of world-making, or to bird-nesting. I requested my companion to bring here some of the seeds of the Magothy Bay bean — which will grow well, ns soon as any thing can, and perhaps will greatly advance the time when this spot may become habitable. I was disappointed in one object in visiting this islet. Though there standing on the beach of the great ocean, the water was so smooth that our ca- noe could have sailed as safely on that side as on the other. The wind set from the shore, and even if it had been towards if, the fury of the break- ers would not have reached the beach, but would be spent on the extremity of a shoal which stretched out perhaps a mile into the sea. At that place, calm as it was, the white-capped billows were breaking magnificently, (at least to my unpracti- sed eyes,) and with a continued roar, like the mut- tering of distant thunder. We now steered for the landing on the western side of Hog Island. We had several hours to stop here, as there would be no advantage gained by returning before a particular state of the tide. It had been intended to walk across (more than a mile) to the ocean beach — but the fatigue pre- viously incurred prevented, as it was stated that the scene would be nothing more than what was witnessed on the sand islet. In part of the shallow waters of this sound there was a strange occurrence some years ago, which I have heard stated by several different per- sons, and which seems to rest on perfectly good authority, as I will repeat it. One of the islanders, named Travis, was out alone in his canoe, "stri- king" drum fish, in the usual manner, that is, with a spear, or harpoon, attached to a long wooden handle. While pushing over a place where the water was not more than two feet deep, or per- haps less, he came up with a large shark. He struck at him with his harpoon to no purpose, and the shark by its sudden and violent motion caused the man to lose the hold on his weapon. The en- raged animal rushed against the canoe with such force as to upset it, and then attempted to seize on the defenceless fisherman. The shallowness of the water only prevented his instantaneous de- struction. The formation of the shark makes it necessary for him to turn on one side to seize ef- fectually so large a prey, and this the water was not deep enough to permit with ease. As he, howev- er, with some little delay, grasped the leo; of Tra- ils between his jaws, the man, as his only possi- ble defence, thrust his thumbs into the eyes of the monster, and kept them there, pushing himself off by the pressure and support, while the shark con- tinued to nip his leg and thigh, and to make nu- merous wounds. Still he was not able to use his force effectually, and at last, let go and fled from his gouging antagonist. The man instantly right- ed his canoe, and jumped in, just in time before his enemy returned to the attack. He did not however again strike the canoe, and indeed his upsetting it at first was probably the effect of ac- cident more than of a designed assault. The wa- ter, baled out of the canoe from time to time, was reddened with the man's blood, and served as a bait to draw on the shark, and keep up the threat- ened appearance of a renewed attack. But griev- ously wounded, and worn out with exertion as he was, and followed closely by his awful attendant, the fisherman was just enabled to paddle his ca- noe to the shore, and fell on the beach exhausted by loss of blood and fatigue. He received speedy aid, however, and sustained no permanent injury from his numerous flesh wounds. On all the maps of Virginia, previous to the late one published by the state, these sea islands are represented very incorrectly, and as far smaller than they are. Very few persons, even in lower Virfiinia, know any thing of them — and the pub- lication of the large new map has not served to remove existing errors on this subject, though it shows more size in the islands, and of distance from the main land. By the way, this map, with all its pretension, deserves but little credit for cor- rectness in other places, and probably is even still still less to be relied on as to this region. In truth, the inlets,or passages between the different islands, are not distinctly seen any where from the main — and from thence the line of islands completely shuts out all view of the Atlantic. From these circumstances, and the difference from the older maps, it might be supposed that the land was gaining on the ocean, and the islands increasing in size. But it is understood that the reverse is the fact — at least as to firm land. The low marsh- es, which border all the islands next the sound, probably are increasing, and may in time fill up much of the space now covered by water. But it is believed that the ocean is encroaching on the eastern side — throwing sand hills in advance of its progress, and then sweeping all away. Numer- ous stumps of trees are said now to be seen in the shallow waters, left naked only at low tides: and on Smith's Island, the brick foundation of a house may be seen in the sea at some distance from the shore. Hog Island contains several thousand acres. Eleven families reside on it, and live (as it ap- peared) in great comfort, on the returns of their fishing, and small amount of tillage. I visited several houses, on separate little farms, and was much pleased with the appearance and manners of the people. They were very civil, and kind in manner, without the least appearance of servility, or impertinent curiosity or familiarity. Every at- tention was offered that could have been desired, and nothing that was obtrusive or disagreeable. Indeed in the true and proper sense of the word, I have no where seen a more polite people than these plain and simple islanders. Hospitable they are in a high degree, and no doubt moral, and correct in conduct, according to their notions of 534 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. right and wrong. It must be confessed that they have never accounted smuggling and wrecking (in a decent way) among the things prohibited by the decalogue — but rather consider the opportu- nities for both as among the bounties of Providence, which are to be enjoyed temperately and thankfully. But the want of capital prevents smuggling al- most entirely, notwithstanding the great facilities which the islands offer: and the erection of the light-house on Smith's Island, has almost put an end to the wrecking business, both lawful and un- lawful. The strong inducements which the ex- istence of high duties on manufactured commodi- ties, and the peculiar features of this coast, held out to smuggling, have been but little availed of, compared to what might have been expected. If that means of breaking down the tariff for the protection of manufactures had been serious- ly resorted to, there would have been no need of the "compromise," nor of any other remedy. All the American naval power could not enforce here the execution of highly oppressive revenue laws, if there was a general wish to elude them — and it is some consolation that even that remedy is left, should there be a return to the prohibitory system, and a determination to destroy the bless- ings of free trade, for the benefit of particular fa- vored interests. Most of this island is covered with wood — some pine of small and worthless growth, and much ce- dar of great value as durable fencing timber. Much of this is carried to the main, for posts. The price of land here is as low, as it is high on the main. I heard of about 80 acres having been re- cently bought for less than 50 dollars, and from which more than that value in cedar posts had al- ready been taken. The best of the cedar timber is said to be of a more ancient growth, the trees having been prostrated, covered by the sand hills, and now again laid bare by the encroaching sea. Whether from the nature of the soil, or from be- ing afterwards saturated with salt, (as some think,) this timber is almost indestructible by time and ex- posure. But the modern cedar growth is of much less value, as if the soil had ceased to be favora- ble. With a view to the sending of cedar timber to the New York ship-yards, a northern man bought, and still owns, a large part of this island, for $3000 — which perhaps is ten times what it would now sell for. The expenses of transportation had been so great as to disappoint the expectation of profit. The soil of Hog Island is the most sandy that I had ever seen under cultivation. It is dry, and I saw no land moist enough for good grass land, except the marshes, which are subject to be fre- quently covered by the tide. The growing corn generally looked well: but when so speaking of it, I was reminded by the owners,that if a drought came, the crops suffered greatly more than any where else. They do not make oats, (or but rare- ly,) considering that crop most injurious to the productive powers of the soil — but suffer the land to rest one year between each two crops of corn. The Magothy Bay bean covers the land during this year of rest, and was then far more forward and luxuriant than on the main, where oats had preceded. It was here (on July 12th,) knee high, where best, and it is said will rise to three and even lour feet hereafter. This might be a good manure crop for the land: but the owners seem to have no view of any such matter, and rake to- gether and burn the dry remains, wherever in the way of their small ploughs. The moving sand- hills are gradually covering up and thus destroying the fields on the sea side. This might be arrested here and elsewhere, by planting the sand-hills with such trees or grasses as will grow on loose sands, as has been resorted to with success on the sea coast of France. Miserable as may be the tillage and present products of this and the other islands (and on se- veral of them there is no attempt at cultivation) 1 think that a proper selection of crops, and atten- tion to the peculiar character of the soil and situ- ation, might show that there exists a value, as yet unsuspected. The soil and situation (except as to latitude) agree very nearly with the sea islands of South Carolina, which are the most valuable of all the lands in the south — selling at from $250 to §300 the acre. Could not the same cause of va- lue be found here, at least partially, by cultivating the fine sea island cotton? But if that culture is forbidden by want of sufficient warmth of climate, (which is far from certain,) there are other vege- tables suitable to sandy soils, and some to saline soils, which might here be found profitable. The growth of every thing is said to be much more forward on the islands than on the neighboring lands of the peninsula — as much so perhaps as on inland situations 200 miles more south: and the vicinity of, and speedy navigation to the markets of New York, and other northern cities, added to the more early maturing of all vegetables that can thrive on the islands, would give to their cultiva- tors double the customary prices for every pro- duct. But the good people seem not to have any thought of agricultural improvement, and wait with calmness and resignation for the gradually advancing sand hills to cover their still remaining cultivated fields. It would be a good speculation if a company would buy up some of the exten- sive and almost desert islands, and improve them for stock raising, if for nothing else. For this purpose but little would be wanting except to in- troduce suitable grasses, and to guard the stock from sea-faring thieves. If improvement for til- lage was attempted, the adjoining marshes would supply both mud and vegetable matter in any quantity for manure, serving both to stiffen and enrich the soil. Musquitoes here are so great a plague, that the report of them alone was enough to limit my in- vestigations to day light. But a worse evil is the bad quality of the water for drinking, which stands in the wells at. about four feet only below the sur- face of the earth. Wells are dug with a sloping side for the cattle to Avalk down to drink in dry weather. Hares are very numerous and injurious to the crops on How Island. There are no squir- rels. It is known, by tradition, that some particu- lar wild animals were formerly brought from the main, and turned loose to breed: and without such an orisrin, it would be difficult to conceive how any came here,that could not fly or swim from the main land. In 1821, a storm produced so great a rise of tide,that this island, and all the others, were cover- ed by the sea, except the more elevated sand hills. All the cultivated land was covered. The site of every house, on Hog Island was waist deep in water. Here and elsewhere most of the stock 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 535 were drowned, and some few persons also, on Smith's Island. There are no slaves, nor any other than white persons on Hog Island. In making inquiry on this head of a very decent old man, at whose house we took dinner, I found that some of the islanders still own slaves, though they hire them out on the main, in preference to working them at home. He said that he had had the use of the last two slaves which had been on the island, but he found that they "wanted so much waiting on," that he was very willing to get rid of them. "They were lonesome here," he added, "as there were no others of their color, and I returned them to my father-in-law, to whom they belonged, that he might hire them out, as they wished, on the main." On a shelf in this old man's neat log house, there lay a large new bible, to purchase which must have cost him the net income of his little property for some weeks. A newspaper, which had been brought as a wrapper to our victuals, was eagerly seized on, and read with such inter- est by several members of the family, that it in- duced me to think that here might be made a new and useful disposition of some of the religious tracts with which the good ladies have so glutted the market elsewhere. * * * * On inquiry, I heard that none had yet reached Hog Island. Near the habitation, I observed several gourds hung up, with a hole in each, like those designed for martins to build in, but which were much too small lor their use. They were intended lor, and were used by wrens. My old host said he had been induced thus to accommodate them, because so scarce were hollows or suitable places for their nests, that they would often commence building where their labors were sure to be in vain. Sometimes, after having hung his jacket on a tree, while at work, he had found that a wren had com- menced to build a nest in the pocket, or sleeve. We left the island precisely at the time which would make the courses of the tides most favora- ble— and there was now a high wind which, though not quite fair, permitted a sail to be used, (and one was as much as the boat would then bear,) for the course through the most open water. The waves ran so high, that if I had suddenly found myself in such a situation without preparation, I should have thought that our best chance would be the chance of swimming. I am rot much afraid of water, (for a landsman,) but have al- ways deemed sail boats the most dangerous of all vessels. Yet so fast had my confidence in our pilot grown, that I felt perfectly at ease, while our little craft scudded over the waves, which once in a while meeting her bow, would throw a shower of spray over till her crew. The. ordi- nary, and always proper precaution, of the line at- tached to the sail being held by the hand, so as to be let go when an upsetting blast of wind strikes, was neglected — and the line was tied down fast, as soon as each new course was taken. This produced a strong proof of the stiffness of the vessel, or of the good luck of its commander. We had barely escaped striking on the extremity of the wide shoal extending from the land which "rejoices in the name," of Rogue's Island, and had taken our proper course, when the wind increased bo suddenly that the mast snapped close off, and that alone prevented the whole being capsized. The sail was caught and saved, as it passed by the stern — and the men barely had time to seize the oars and prevent the boat striking on the shoal to which it was drifting rapidly, and where it must have upset as soon as it struck, from the roughness of the sea. After this, we raised the other mast and sail, and our course through the water seem- ed to be rapid, and the passage delightful: but the course was made so circuitous by the state of the tide, that night arrived while we had still a long way to go, and along the creeks or channels be- tween crooked marshes. To mend our prospect, it was very dark, so cloudy that no stars which could direct the course could be seen, and a thun- der storm, with rain, was strongly threatening. The wind was now dead ahead, so that the oars were the only help, and my umbrella could not be hoisted, however desirable it might be, as it would be too great an obstruction to our progress. A strong argument now arose between W. (who also pretended to much seamanship,) and the pi- lot, as to whether the wind had shifted its direc- tion or not — and uncertain as that was, the direc- tion of the wind was the only guide to steer by. Though the marshes, (now so covered that the tall grass only was above water,) were on each side of us, it was too dark to see them unless very near, and we often rowed into the grass before it was seen. The boundary too of such marshes is so irregular, that steering close by them would make the distance more than double the proper course, and might the more certainly mislead, by the many and abrupt changes of direction. I gave up the matter — though silently, as I did not wish to discourage effort — and thought it was ut- terly impossible to find the way through such diffi- culties. I counted on nothing better than spend- ing the night, anchored among the marsh grass,, and with the addition of heavy rain. The vio- lence of the wind had kept, the musquitoes still, as yet — but if it should fall calm, they would be worse than every other annoyance. However, we tugged omslowly enough, against strong wind, and partly against tide also. The rain at intervals be- gan to patter, but fortunately it came to nothing worse. At last, from some more prominent fea- tures of the marsh and water, it was ascertained that old Charles' instinct had not failed him, and after seven weary hours of sailing and rowing, we touched the shore. The carriage which had been ordered to meet us at dark, had very properly been carried back, and we had a midnight walk of a mile and a half to my lodgings. Fatigue had kept off hunger, and left nothing wanting but rest. Soon after returning home, I met with my good friend Mrs. . who had recently made a tour to the north, and who gave me an amusing account of what she had seen. In return, I told her,that much nearer home, I had met with things, or had been correctly informed of their existence,, far more strange: as for example — of the com- monwealth of Virginia having desert islands in the Atlantic Ocean, and others well inhabited, where the gospel had never been preached — or there being on one (Chingoteague,) a breed of real wild, but diminutive horses, which lived on sea grass, and would almost starve on corn and good fodder, and which were caught by throwing the lasso, in South American style — of sailing on 536 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 9 the Atlantic in a canoe — of sea birds' eggs used as ordinary food — of wrens building nests in men's pockets — of a shark being beaten in single com- bat, by gouging, &c. All this list of marvels was pronounced to be an attempt at hoaxing — and Mr. , who heard the conversation, (and who moreover prides himself, on being an excellent ge- neral geographer,) even denied that there were any such islands existing. This was giving me so much less credit than Gulliver's Travels re- ceived from the English bishop, who declared that he "did not believe that more than half of what they contained was true," that I determined to lay my day's observations, trivial as they may be, hefore the readers of the Farmers' Register — furnishing the editor at the same time with a re- ference to a proper source for information as to the most interesting point, in relation to the "beach ponies," or wild horses of Chingoteague Island, of which I know nothing except by report. EXTRACTS FROM A FARMERS MANUSCRIPT NOTES. [The accounts received at different times, and from several sources, of the author of the following com- munication, induced us long ago to invite his corres- pondence, with as much urgency as propriety permit- ted— and it is hoped that the general and desultory ob- servations now furnished, are but preliminary to more full and minute statements of the separate parts of Mr. Walker's admirable and most successful practice as a farmer, as well as of his theoretical views of agricul- tural improvements and interests. It is not our habit to refer personally to our corres- pondents, or to remark on any thing relating to them, except the communications before us — and even these are generally left to speak for themselves, and to make good their own claims to notice. If in the present case we depart from this usage, it is because of the peculiar situation of the individual, his well establish- ed and high reputation at home, as a farmer, and his being entirely a stranger, even by report, to nearly all of our Virginian readers. "We understand that Mr. Walker is a farmer thoroughly trained by education in Britain — and by practice there and in this country — original, perhaps eccentric, in his modes of thinking and acting, but the general results manifesting that his departures from ordinary courses, are guided by correct reasoning, and sound judgement. Careless or regard- less of the censure or the ridicule which may be al- ways expected in such cases, he has in no way tried to justify the correctness of his views, except by their practical results — and by these best of proofs, his theo- ries have been most generally well sustained. We have been informed by a highly intelligent correspon- dent, who recently visited the farm of Mr. Walker, that it exhibits most strikingly all the beauty of ap- pearance, and of utility, that might be expected from the highest grade of agricultural skill, and industry — and that its owner is equally remarkable for the singu- larity and oddity of his opinions and manner. He left his native country on account of preference for the po- litical institutions of this — but notwithstanding that general and very decided preference, feels strongly ,and expresses freely the defects in our policy which ob- • struct agricultural and economical improvement. So far as we now see into the politico-economical cretd of the writer, it does not accord with our own: but we are not on that account, (and we hope that such is the case with all our readers,) unwilling to listen to the opinions, however opposite, of any enlightened and sincere friend of agricultural interests. Concise as are the statements on practical farming, there are two points which, (as tested by Mr. Walker's successful experience,) deserve especial attention — viz: the application of putrescent manures as much as possible to grass crops — and always on the surface. Both of these practices are still but little extended in this country — and had been scarcely heard of by most of our readers a few years ago. But they are strongly sustained by many facts, as well as by sound reasoning, presented in many previous parts of this journal — and we doubt not that by their general adoption, a revolu- tion, and a most beneficial one, will soon be produced in the agriculture of this country.] LETTER FIRST. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Holm esburg, Philadelph la County, Oct. 12th, 1835. Inclosed I send you five dollars — my subscrip- tion for the present volume of your Register — and I beg you to accept my very best thanks for the 1st and 2nd editions of your work on calcareous manures — in my opinion, one of the few works upon agriculture of any great value yet written. Indeed 1 am confident the day is not very far dis- tant, when it will be found, that nearly all the ex- isting works upon agriculture are becoming worse than useless, and with them will fall the existing theories of population and food. I have read your account of the formation of prairies with the greatest satisfaction. This great and important discovery must ultimately lead to vast results, in the improvement of the soil. How nature's school has hitherto been most strangely avoided and despised by farmers! — and there they must acquire all their learning and all their know- ledge.. But all improvers and discoverers in agri- culture must be content to say of themselves as Lord Bacon did of himself, "I am the servant of posterity." You do well to hint at the igno- rance of the learned. They name and catalogue things — measure buildings and ruins — describe ci- ties, castles, scenery, pictures, statues, costumes, military accoutrements, courts and nobles, and enu- merate armies, taxes, population, &c; but the laws of nature — causes and effects, they leave much as they find them, or rather, they find very few of them. I have been intending a communication to you for some time, but 1 am very dilatory with the pen, and my time is otherwise much occupied. I now send you a few extracts from my notes — just writ- ten as the thoughts occur — endeavoring to follow nature — the teacher whom farmers and most others have only occasionally condescended to no- tice since the creation. My views are — that man was formed to subsist upon animal and vegetable 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 537 food in certain proportions; these proportions vary- ing from the equator to the poles; and that the laws governing the full, perfect and increasing production of lbod, are exactly in accordance with the laws of this organization. Therefore as man most duly observes this, the Creator's law of his subsistence, so does the production of food in- crease with increase of population — and by no other means; simply because it is not otherwise required; as man departs from it — so docs the production of food decrease with increase of pop- ulation— the latter going on to a certain extent, and ultimately followed by rapid decrease of population, as the soil becomes more and more exhausted. Hence the real cause of the "decline and fall" of Rome, and of all other ancient empires, and the declining and stationary condition of many mo- dern ones. You have this sad transgression in operation in the south — the emigration to the west relieving you from its final and worst evils. It exists least in the north and is rapidly decreasing since the establishment of manufactories — thetrue stimulus to correct agriculture. The departure from this law exists to a frightful degree in Ireland, India, &c. Hence the real source of their misery. and apparent excess of population. In England. the rates of wages have raised parts of the mass to the bread and meat power of subsistence — in the United States still far more — and hence the real main essential source of all the prosperity, and consequently, of their advancement and civiliza- tion above all other nations. This power is now at work in France — and hence her progress since the revolution. Malthus certainly could not have known any thing of these principles, or he never could have arrived at the. conclusions he did; hence (to me at least,) his very obvious, great, and sad errors. His conclusions are formed upon the facts of decreasing production of food, arising from tribes and nations {'ailing, in theirpast and ex- isting ignorance, to subsist according to the or- ganization of man, and consequently, from not cultivating the soil, in accordance with that organ- ization, which are, and must be the true and only principles of increasingly productive agriculture. It can scarcely be deemed possible that the break- ing; two of the primary and most important laws of man's nature and condition, can be amended and remedied by breaking a third — still more im- portant, which commands his very creation ! ! ! — and the most directly imperative of the three ! ! ! With these views, arising from various circum- stances, and from observing the difference in the condition of the mass in this country and my own, (England,) and from a good deal of reflection upon the theories and doctrines of the existing school of political economy, and from some observa- tions and study of the workings and operations of nature's laws, I set about the practical application of the above principles. I began with the Eng- lish system of agriculture in the first instance — which I studied, and not idly, under three of the best farmers in England and Scotland. Perpetual tillage with occasional grass crops — as clover, &c. intermixed, and separate perpetual pasture. This boasted system, being that of England, Flanders, &c. — with the exception of its arable green and root crops for cattle, does not essentially differ from the agriculture of the earliest, rudest, and most ignorant stages of society, succeeding the mere hunter and pastoral stages — such is the slow pro- Vol. 111—68 gress of this science, upon which all human exis- tence and civilization depends! Hits systemdoes not produce and Jill the soil with a sufficient quantity of vegetable matter — the primary, main essential source of all fertility and permanent and increas- ing fertility — (you have most ably and clearly shown in the last No. of j-our Register, the direc- tion lime gives to that fertility upon the great scale of nature s works — ) and I found it would not do either on the score of production or expense. This system mainly grew up under war prices and com- paratively low ivages — the latter, the curse and bane of all good agriculture — of manufactures, and every thing pise, universally important and benefi- cial 1o mankind. My farm is now not two-thirds grass, and some- thing about one-third tillage; one, two, and three years grass and clover — alternating with one and two years only of tillage, with no permanent pas- ture. I do not pretend to say that these are the exact proportions according to the organization of ■man, as to his due and legitimate mode of subsis- tence; but I believe they are a close and correct approximation to it in this latitude. I formerly era- ployed four to eight men, one boy, and seven horses; now only one man and two boys, and one and two other men occasionally — more of course, in harvest — and four horses often idle. The more perfect and productive agriculture becomes, the fewer hands it employs — the reverse of all other professions — thus leaving the surplus (not excess,) for those professions — yet supporting all. Other- wise improvement and civilization could never take place. The worst agriculture the attendant and result of the lowest rates of wages, employs nearly a whole population — otherwise excess of" population would be frightful indeed, there being no demand for manufactures, &c. under such deadening circumstances. I have six large bar- racks and three barns, all full— the latter 50 by 34, 40 by 32, and 80 by 40 feet. Next year I must build again, and I believe I shall continue to do so for several years to come. My farm is barely 100 acres — the soil a light hazle loam, of medium pow- ers, deposited upon gneiss rock, with a white and yellow clay resting between — the latter perfectly permeable to water — the former not so much so. Thirteen years ago when I purchased the farm, it was in the lowest state of impoverishment and ex- haustion. I have purchased 8000 bushels of bones, and above 5000 bushels of lime — a good deal of straw, and not much manure. Now I sell all the hay and grain, excepting what the horses and four to six hogs consume, and all the marketable, straw. I keep only three to six cows, and manure from 25 to 30 acres, besides ploughing up from 28 to 32 acres of clover and grass sod annually. There is neither hoax, falsehood or mystery in all this. If others will fallow nature as I have en- deavored to do, they may accomplish a great deal more than I have yet done, upon much better soils, and with much more favorable local advan- tages and circumstances than I possess. I use about 150 bushels of gypsum, and 400 of lime yearly. I manure no crops whatever but the grass, and that upon the surface, and always in its in- fant state. If this is not a law of nature, we know not one of them yet. Go into the woods and prairies, and find fields covered with weeds, in the fall, and see if it is not so. I lime no crop except- ing grass, and in its infant state, at the rate of 10 65$ FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 9 to 15 bushels per acre (slaked under cover,) about once in three years, or as I see the sorrel conic. We have guides and directions in profuse abun- dance if we will learn and look lor them. I for- merly thought the farmer had to blunder out and Btumble upon his knowledge, in the best way he could, by long, tedious, painful and expensive ex- {)eriments. It is a great error and mistake: the aws for his guide and observance are as marked, distinct, and simple, as those for the mechanician, only far more multifarious — and their truth is not quite so soon ascertained. I apply manure, lime and gypsum, at leisure times upon the grain stubble, young clover and grass, in the fall — late in the winter — or early in the spring — so that there is no interference what- ever with the very short and most important of all periods, seed time and harvest. The exact due times of sowing and planting each crop are so booh passed over with the crops duly varied and proportioned to each other, that I consider this fact alone as conclusive proof that any operation at these times, excepiing those of the plough, har- row, and seed bag, or drill, is contrary to the laws of nature — therefore none others were intended to be performed at seed times, when the crops are manured, limed, &c. Upon no farm in any coun- try is the whole sowing scarcely ever accomplish- ed in due season — particularly, as upon no farm are the crops yet duly proportioned with each other. In England, the turnip husbandry is the main and essential support of the jet (there as else- where) almost exclusively separate and perpetual arable farms — and this most important crop (the foundation and support of England's prosperity, civilization, and wealth,) being always manured, it is made a most expensive, severe, formidable, and tedious operation — and t lie manure being ap- plied only once to the soil in the whole year, a great deal of it is lost by the rains and fermenta- tion, and the last sowed turnips are generally put in so late, as often to be not bigger, as the Scotch Lord of Session said of his own crop, than "golf haws.'''' In wet seasons the operation of manuring filoughed land is dreadful and hideous, and the de" ay and mischief are greatly injurious. By my practice, all this, and the great cost of making and hauling compost and manure heaps- two or three times over, and the immense waste from fermenta- tion, are saved. By top dressing the e E?say on Calcareous Manures, 2nd Ed. ch. xix, and Note N. of Appendix. 1835.J FARMERS' REGISTER. 569 in this time, to wit, twice with farm-yard dung, and twice with the remains of sugar, at the rate of four hectolitres to the hectare. This land now yields a high rent. The effect of the remains of sugar does not last but two years; and there are soils on which it scarcely acts as long as the second year — but then it is strengthened by a half manuring from the farm-yard, and again will produce heavy harvests of corn, or other exhausting crops. The remains of sugar is the manure to be preferred for all cab- bage-turnips, &c. It produces a very good effect upon cold and moist meadows; but it must not be spread there until spring, after they have been made dry. The refineries of Belgium, Holland, the north of Germany, and even of Russia, send their re- mains, in great quantity, to Nantes, where they find a suitable depot. They are in much demand, sell at high prices, and their use is still extending upon the banks of the Loire, and even in the in- terior of La Vendee. Animalized charcoal [noir animalise .~\ The following article in relation to the precious discovery of Messieurs, Salmon and Payen, is communicated to us by one of the men of science whom France most honors. It is seldom that the world entertains a just idea of the discoveries which daily enrich the physical and chemical sciences. It is generally considered that a fact, of which there is no immediate appli- cation to the arts, ought to be put away among the archives of science, where adept? alone will go to search for it. But however little we may carry back our recollections to time past, a crowd of examples will naturally present themselves to correct ideas, and to replace such new facts in their proper rank. When we see that the discov- ery of the new world is due to the simple obser- vation of the direction that a magnetized needle takes, when freely suspended on a pivot — and that the art of war is totally changed by the use of gunpowder, of which the discovery long preceded its application — we must be convinced that no new observation, however of little interest it may appear at first, ought to be neglected — for, soon or late, there may result from it useful applications. The benefit that has been derived latterly, from certain long known physical properties of charcoal, to form excellent manure, and to disinfect larger masses of organic and putrefying substances, comes to the support of the considerations which we have presented. All substances are called manures, which when applied to the earth, serve for the nutrition of ve- getables.* Manures are composed usually, of car- bon in various states, of azotic matters, and of salts which act often upon plants as stimulants. In gen- eral, all organic matters are manures, more or less good, according to their nature, and according to the *The reader of the translation of the Essay on Lime, may remember what was stated of the difference of meaning in the term manure, as used in French, and in English. (See Note, p. 360 vol. 3.) Ed. Farm- Reg. Vol. Ill— 72 greater or less facility with which they yield their constituent parts to vegetation. We distinguish three kinds of manures, which have each their characteristic properties. These are — animal ma- nures, composed of animal remains — vegetable manures, the name of which indicates their com- position— and mixed manures, formed of any pro- portions of both the preceding mingled together. The first kind, without dispute, is that which most promotes the developement of vegetation. Also, if we seek the means of' presenting animal matter in the most proper state, they will be found in re- tarding as much as possible the quick decomposi- tion which would naturally take place. We shall occupy ourselves, only, in this article, with the manure known in agriculture, for some years, under the name of animalized charcoal. Before making known its composition, and the ad- vantages which may be derived from it, we will recall certain physical properties, which different charcoals, and all porous substances in general, possess: the reader will then the better understand the procedure in use, the patent invention \brevete] for preparing animalized charcoal. Charcoal pos- sesses two very remarkable qualities, from which the arts have derived great benefit. It precipitates divers substances from a state of solution, by com- bining with them — and it absorbs in its pores con- siderable quantities of all the gases. To acquire for it the precipitating property, it is necessary that the charcoal should be burnt in close vessels. The kind which acts with most efficacy, is that which is obtained from animal matters, such as dried blood, hair, bones, &c. calcined with a chem- ical action proper to prepare the substances to be very minutely divided, when mechanical means are applied for that purpose. Charcoal thus pre- pared acts only on substances of organic origin, particularly upon such as are colored and odorous. It. serves, as is known, to take away the color from red wines, and shops, and to remove the fetid odor of bodies in a state of putrefaction, to render cor- rupted water potable, and to preserve fresh water at sea, by keeping it in casks charred on the insides. They also use, with success, pulverized charcoal to preserve animal substances for many months, in close vessels. Messieurs. Burry and Payen have found that all organized bodies of animal origin do nor furnish charcoals possessing the same degree of precipita- ting power. The charcoal (or black) of ivory is that which has this power ,'n the lowest degree, while the charcoal of blood is that which occupies the first rank, if its state of division is brought to the useful point. The property of absorbing and condensing gases belongs not only to charcoal of animal origin, but also to that of wood; and in general, of all porous bodies: but for that end, it is necessary that these bodies should have been in the first place deprived of humidity. We know not yet what is precisely the action of charcoal on vegetation, whether as alimentary manure [engrais~\ or an improver of soil [amende- ment.} Rum ford has proved, it is true, that it can unite with oxygen, and form carbonic acid below the temperature at which the combustion of this substance commences visibly; and this fact would tend to explain why the spots in forests, where charcoal has been made, become fertile in after time. As an improver of soil, this substance haa 579 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No, 9 properties which cannot be doubted, proceeding from its precipitating and absorbing action. In general, the matters which contain carbon in a Btate of minute division, are those which most fa- vor the nutrition of plants, because they are most easily changed into carbonic acid, which is dis- eolved in water and absorbed by the plants. M. Payen has applied himself to interesting researches upon the use of animal charcoal. This scientific manufacturer has proved that it was to be preferred, in refining sugar, to vegetable char- coal. He had to contend, for a long time, with the prejudices to which custom had given birth; but when he had well established the superiority ot the first over the other, the refiners of the great man- ufacturing cities came to Paris to provide them- selves with carbonized animal matters. This was lor him a motive to connect himself with Mes- sieurs. Salmon and Lupe, in order to devote their labors to this kind of fabrication. Before the for- mation of this establishment, M. Payen had stu- died with care the properties of animal charcoal, and had proved that the discoloring power depend- ed on the state of division of both substances; that the carbon only of the various charcoals acted upon the coloring matters, by uniting with and precipitating them, and that in the refining of su- gar, the action of the animal charcoal was carried equally upon the extractive matters; and that the remains of the refineries of sugar greatly favored the developement of vegetation. We will now proceed to the formation and to the properties of annualized charcoal. There have been made a great number o> trials to apply, in the most suitable and useful manner to vegeta- tion, the remains of animal matters, which by reason of their constituent parts, act with most energy in aiding the developement of plants: but among all the men of science, or manufacturers who have attended to this subject, we ought to distinguish Messieurs Salmon, Payen, and Lupe, who have formed, in the plain of Grenelle, an establishment of this kind, which deserves to be encouraged. It has been known, for some time, that the dregs or offal remains of the refinery of sugar, composed of animal charcoal, blood, and the extractive or impure parts of the raw sugar, formed an excel- lent manure. M. Payen has sought means for bringing into use the bodies of dead animals. In a memoir (for which a prize was awarded by the Society of Agriculture in 1829,) he has demonstrated, by numerous facts, that the greatest possible benefit may be drawn from manures not rotted, and from the remains of animals not putrefied. He has at the same time made known the favorable influence of a fermentation retarded, and proportioned to the developement of vegetation. In this interest- ing memoir, the author has already indicated as one of the means the most fit to reach the end which he proposed, the absorption of soft organic matters, containing azote, (as the blood, the fe- cal matter, intestines, brains, &c.,) by earths dri- ed in a furnace. This important result was the first step to make, to offer to plants animal matters not yet decomposed, in a very minute state of divi- sion. . In 1831, M. Salmon, an enlightened manufac- turer, succeeded in uniting in one economical fabri- cation all the useful conditions which can be offer- ed by a porous, absorbent, carbonaceous powder, charged as much as possible with organic animal matters. The immense advantage to agriculture to be derived from such a manure, may be ima- gined. M. Payen, hastened to unite his efforts to those of Messieurs. Salmon and Lupe, to accele- rate the developements of a branch of industry which was to have a great influence on agricul- ture. The trials which have been made in va- rious places with this manure, have served to con- firm the previously formed opinions of its efficacy. Animalized charcoal, by reason of its mild and gradual action, may be placed in contact not only with seeds, but also with the herbaceous stems, and the roots of plants; which cannot be done with many other rich manures,as night soil [poudrelte,'] urine, &c. It has been remarked in practice, that animal- ized charcoal has less activity in forcing the first de- velopement of stems and leaves than some other manures; but that its action favored fructification much better. Messieurs Briaune and Bella, at Grignon, have observed, that compared with night soil, the product in grain of an equal space manured with animalized charcoal, was one-fifth at least more considerable. This fact has been observed equally in the culture of other cereal plants, and of rape, hemp, flax, clover, beets, tur- nips, &c. It has also been ascertained that grass or fodder crops at the time of mowing, presented an equal increase of product, although sometimes the early movements of vegetation may have been less rapid. Sown upon meadows, artificial and natural, upon crass sod, and upon corn at three or four inches high, animalized charcoal soon pro- duced a deeper shade of green, and a sustained activity of vegetation. We are equally assured that in gardens, culinary vegetables, manured wilh four or five times as much animalized charcoal as in field culture, acquire gradually considerable di- mensions. Such are the benefits to be derived, in regard to agriculture, from the use of the carbonaceous ani- malized powder: but its preparation may be also of immense advantage for the salubrity of cities; we do not fear to call the attention of persons charged with their government, to this subject. The contents of privies and sewers, the infected mire, the remains of dead animals, are commonly carried to but a small distance from cities, where they serve to infect the neighborhood. Some- times their complete decomposition does not ar- rive until at, the end of some years; while if they were submitted immediately to the action of the pulverized coally matters, which are fabricated in the establishment of Messieurs Payen, Salmon and Company, the disinfection is instantaneous, and an excellent manure is immediately obtained. We have witnessed that entrails in a state of pu- trefaction, which spread a most offensive odor, have been converted immediately to manure hav- ing no odor. This establishment prepares a suffi- cient quantity of this charcoal to convert to ma- nure a large part of the filth of Paris. We ear- nestly hope, both for the interests of agriculture and of humanity, that similar establishments may rise around all our great cities, to make disappear those hotbeds of infection, which offen bear death and desolation in the midst a numerous popula- tion. 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 571 Extracts from Governor McDuffie's Message to the Legislature of South Carolina. PROTECTING DUTIES — SLAVERY ABOLITION. The magnitude of the burthen imposed upon the states which produce the great staples of" ex- portation, by that compound scheme of taxation and prohibition, artfully denominated the protect- ing system, may now be estimated, in some sort, j by the high state of agricultural and commercial prosperily which has followed the late adjustment ' of the federal tariff. By that measure of compro- mise, the duties upon many articles which we im- port from the manufacturing nations of Europe, | were entirely repealed, upon others greatly and ! immediately reduced, and upon the entire class of protected articles a gradual and progressive reduc- | tion was provided, until they shall reach 20 per ! cent, in the year 1842, and after that the lowest \ rate that will furnish a revenue sufficient for the j wants of the federal government, upon an eco- I nomical scale of administration. Such are briefly I the terms of that covenant of peace, which re- j stored for a time the long lost harmony of the con- I federacy, and to which the faith of the contract- ing parties is solemnly pledged. And although it came short of conceding all that we had a strict right to demand, the benefits we have derived from it are great and manifest. Every impost upon foreign merchandzie ope- rates botli as a tax, and as a restriction upon com- merce. However, in this two-fold aspect of the subject, we may distribute the burthen of the tax, the burthen of the restriction falls exclusively upon the exports which constitute the exchanges of commerce. Hence the unjust and unequal operation of prohibitive duties on the exporting States, and hence, in a great degree, the enhance- ment of the price of their great agricultural staple, since the reduction of the duties. The degree in which this measure has contributed to produce that enhancement, will be made manifest by refer- ence to a few statistical facts disclosed by the official statements of our foreign commerce, by the se- cretary of the federal treasury. During the fiscal year ending the 30th of Sep- tember, 1834, the importation of merchandize ex- empted from duty, amounted to the enormous sum of sixty-eight millions of dollars; fifty millions more than in any year previous to the recent en- largements of the list of free articles, and nineteen millions more than the whole amount, of cotton exported from this country during the same year. Of this unexampled amount, about thirty millions came from the manufacturing nations of Europe, which consume our cotton, thus furnishing the means of a direct, untaxed and profitable exchange for our invaluable staple, equal to nearly two- thirds of the estimated value of the whole export of that staple. If to this we add six millions for the import of teas from China, which are now to a great, extent virtually exchanged for our cotton, by means of an intermediate exchange for British manufactures suitable to the China market, the cause will be at once explained, of that sudden and seemingly unaccountable increase of the fo- reign demand for our cotton, which has exerted so propitious an influence upon its price, and by con- sequence upon the prosperity of the southern states. The extent of the demand for our raw cotton by the manufacturing nations of Europe, is limited only by that of our demand for their manu- factures; and how much this has been increased by the recent adjustment of the duties upon fo- reign imports, is clearly shown by reference to au- thentic documents. It is in this view of the sub- ject, that duties upon foreign imports impair the value of domestic exports, and that the repeal or reduction of those duties produces a corresponding enhancement of that value. A free and unrestricted exchange of our agri- cultural staples for such foreign productions as we require for consumption in the United States, is the essential basis of the prosperity of the staple- mowing portion of this confederacy; and whether these foreign productions consist of such articles as are manufactured in this country or not, is a less important consideration, than that they come from the countries that consume our staples, or from others in exchange for those staples. Thia was the basis of the late compromise with the fed- eral government, in which the southern states con- sented that the duties on the class of protected ar- ticles should be gradually and progressively redu- ced to the revenue standard, on condition that they should be forthwith repealed or reduced to a nom- inal rate, on olher articles, furnishing a beneficial foreign exchange for our exports. And I confi- dently trust that in the liberal spirit and with the liberal principle of this compromise, when the con- gress of eighteen hundred and forty-two shall come to perform the delicate and responsible duty of reducing the tariff of* federal duties to such a revenue scale as will barely supply the funds re- quisite for an economical administration of the fed- eral government, it will be. found practicable so to reduce and arrange the duties, as to relieve the planting states to a much greater extent, without materially affecting the interests of the manufac- turing states, and at the same time to withdraw from the vaults of the federal treasury, that pro- lific source of corruption, a large surplus revenue. * * # # # Since your last adjournment, the public mind, throughout the slave-holding stales, has been in- tensely, indignantly, and justly excited, by the wanton, officious and incendiary proceedings of certain societies and persons, in some of the non- slave-holding states, who have been actively em- ployed in attempting to circulate among us, pamph- lets, papers and pictorial representations of the most offensive and inflammatory character, and eminently calculated to seduce our slaves from their fidelity, and excite them to insurrection and massacre. These wicked monsters and deluded fanatics, overlooking the numerous objects in their own vicinity who have a moral, if not a legal claim upon their charitable regard, run abroad, in the expansion of their hypocritical benevolence, muffled up in the saintly mantle of christian meek- I ness, to fulfil the fiend-like errand of mingling the [ blood of the master and the slave, to whose fate they are equally indifferent, with the smouldering ruins of our peaceful dwellings. No principle of ; human action so utterly baffles all human calcula- I tion, as that species of fanatical enthusiasm, which is made up of envy and ambition, assuming the guise of' religious zeal, and acting upon the known prejudices, religious or political, of an ignorant j multitude. Under the influence of this species of ivoluntary madness, nothing is sacred that stands in the' way of its purposes. Like all other reji- i gioue impostures, it has power to consecrate every 572 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 9 act, however atrocious, and every person, how- ever covered over with "multiplying villainies," that may promote its diabolical ends, or worship at its infernal altars. By its unholy creed, murder itself becomes a labor of love and charily, and the felon renegado who flies from the justice of his country, finds not only a refuge, but becomes a sainted minister in the sanctuary of its temple. No error can be more mischievous, than to under- rate the danger of such a principle, and no policy can be more fatal, than to neglect it, from a con- tempt for the supposed insignificance of its agents. The experience of both Fiance and Great Britain, fearfully instruct us, from what small and con- temptible beginnings, this ami des noirs philan- thropy may rise to a gigantic power, too mighty to be resisted by all the influence and energy of the government; in the one case, shrouding a wealthy and flourishing island in the blood of its inhabitants; in the other, literally driving the min- istry, by means of an instructed Parliament, to perpetuate that act of suicidal legislation and co- lonial oppression, the emancipation oi'slaves in the British West Indies. It may be not unaptly com- pared to the element of fire, of which a neglected spark, amongst combustible materials, which a timely stamp of the foot might have extinguished forever, speedily swells into a sweeping torrent of fiery desolation, which no human power can ar- rest or control. In the opinion of intelligent West India planters, it is because the local authorities, from a sense of false security, neglected to hang up the first of these political missionaries that made their appearance on the British islands, that they are doomed to barrenness and desertion, and to be the wretched abodes of indolent and profli- gate blacks, exhibiting in their squalid poverty, gross immorality, and slavish subjection to an iron despotism of British bayonets, the fatal mockery of all the promised blessings of emancipation. Under these circumstances, and in this critical conjuncture of our affairs, the solemn and respon- sible duty devolves on the legislature of "taking care that the republic receive no detriment." The crime which these foreign incendiaries have committed against the peace of the state, is one of the very highest grade known to human laws. It not only strikes at the very existence of society, but seeks to accomplish the catastrophe, by the most horrible means, celebrating the obsequies of the state in a saturnial carnival of blood and murder, and while brutally violating all the chari- ties of life, and desecrating the very altars of reli- gion, impiously calling upon heaven to sanction these abominations. It is my deliberate opinion, that the laws of every community should punish this species of interference by death without ben- efit of clergy, regarding the authors of it as "ene- mies of the human race." Nothing could be more appropriate than for South Carolina to set this ex- ample in the present crisis, and I trust the legisla- ture will not adjourn till it discharges this high duty of patriotism. It cannot be disguised, however, that any laws which may be enacted by the authority of this state, however adequate to punish and repress of- fences committed within its limits, will be wholly insufficient to meet the exigencies of the present conjuncture. If we go no farther than this, we had as well do nothing. These outrages against the peace and safety of the state are perpetrated in other communities, which hold and exercise so- vereign and exclusive jurisdiction over all persons and things within their territorial limits. It is within these limits, protected from responsibility to our laws by the sovereignty of the states in which they reside, that the authors of all this mischief, securely concoct their schemes, plant their batte- ries, and hurl their fiery missiles among us, aimed at that mighty magazine of combustible matter, the explosion of which would lay the state in ru- ins. It will, therefore, become our imperious duty, recurring to those great principles of international law, which still exist in all their primitive force amongst the sovereign states of this confederacy, to demand of our sovereign associates the condign punishment of those enemies of our peace, who avail themselves of the sanctuaries of their re- spective jurisdictions, to cany on schemes of in- cendiary hostility against the institutions, the safe- ty, and the existence of the state. In performing this high duty, to which we are constrained by the great law of self-preservation, let us approach our co-states with all the fraternal mildness which be- comes us as members of the same family of con- federated republics, and at the same time with that firmness and decision, which becomes a sovereign state while maintaining her dearest interests and most sacred rights. For the institution of domestic slavery we hold ourselves responsible only to God, and it is utterly incompatible with the dignity and the safety of the state, to permit any foreign authority 1o ques- tion our right to maintain it. It may nevertheless be appropriate, as a voluntary token of our respect for the opinions of our confederate brethren, to present some views to their consideration on this subject, calculated to disabuse their minds of false opinions and pernicious prejudices. No human institution, in my opinion, is more manifestly consistent with the will of God, than domestic slavery, and no one of his ordinances is written in more legible characters than that which consigns the. African race to this condition, as more conducive to their own happiness, than any other of which they are susceptible. Whether we consult the sacred scriptures, or the lights of na- ture and reason, we shall find these truths as abun- dantly apparent, as if written with a sunbeam in the heavens. Under both the Jewish and chris- tian dispensations of our religion, domestic slavery existed with the unequivocal sanction of its proph- ets, its apostles, and finally its great Author. The patriarchs themselves, those cbosen instruments of God, were slave-holders. In fact, the divine sanction of this institution is so plainly written, that "he who runs may read" it, and those over- righteous pretenders and Pharisees, who affect to be scandalized by its existeuce among us, would do well to inquire how much more nearly they walk in the ways of godliness than did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That the African negro is des- tined by Providence to occupy this condition of servile dependence, is not less manifest. It is marked on the face, stamped on the skin, and evinced by the intellectual inferiority, and natural improvidence of his race. They have all the qualities that fit them for slaves, and not one of those that would fit them to be freemen. They are utterly unqualified, not only for rational free- dom, but for self-government of any kind. They 1S36.] FARMERS' REGISTER 573 are in all respects, physical, moral, and political, inferior to millions of ihe human race, who have for consecutive ages dragged out a wretched ex- istence under a grinding political depotism, and who are doomed to this hopeless condition by the very qualities which unfit them for a better. It is utterl}' astonishing that any enlightened American, alter contemplating all the manifold forms in which even the white race of mankind are doom- ed to slavery and oppression, should suppose it possible to reclaim the Africans from their destiny. The capacity to enjoy freedom is an attribute not to be communicated by human power. It is an endowment of God, and one of the rarest which it has pleased his inscrutable wisdom to bestow upon the nations of the earth. It is conferred as the reward of merit, and only upon those who are qualified to enjoy it. Until the "Ethiopian can change his skin," it will be vain to attempt, by any human power, to make freemen of those whom God has doomed to be slaves, by all their attributes. Let not, therefore, the misguided and designing intermeddlers who seek to destroy our peace, ima- gine that they are serving the cause of God by practically arraigning the decrees of his provi- dence. Indeed it would scarcely excite surprise, if, with the impious audacity of those who erect- ed the tower of Babel, they should attempt to scale the battlements of heaven, and remonstrate with the God of wisdom for having put. the mark of Cain and the curse of Ham upon the African race instead of the European. If the benevolent friends of the black race would compare the condition of that portion of them which we hold in servitude, with that which still remains in Africa, totally unblessed by the lights of civilization or Christianity, and equally destitute of hope and of happiness, they would be able to form some tolerable estimate of what our blacks have lost by slavery in America, and what they would gain by freedom in Africa. Greatly as their condition has been improved, by their sub- jection to an enlightened and christian people, (the only mode under heaven by which it could have been accomplished,) they are yet wholly unpre- pared for any thing like a rational system of self- government. Emancipation would be a positive curse, depriving them of a guardianship essential to their happiness, and they may well say in the language of the Spanish proverb, "save us from our friends, and we will take care of our enemies." If emancipated, where would they live, and what would be their condition? The idea of their re- maining among us is utterly visionary. Amalga- mation is abhorrent to every sentiment of nature; and if they remain as a separate caste, whether endowed with equal privileges or not, they will become our masters,or we must resume the maste- ry over them. This state of political amalgama- tion and conflict which the abolitionists evidently aim to produce, would be the most horrible condi- tion imaginable, and would furnish Dante or Mil- ton with the type for another chapter illustrating the horrors of the infernal regions. The only dis- position, therefore, that could be made of our e- mancipated slaves, would be their transportation to Africa, to exterminate the natives, or be exter- minated by them; contingencies,either of which may well serve to illustrate the wisdom, if not the phi- lanthropy^!' tho.se super-serviceable madmen, who in the name of humanity would desolate the fair- est region of the earth, and destroy the most per- fect system of social and political happiness that ever has existed. It is perfectly evident, that the destiny of* the negro race is either the worst possi- ble form of political slavery, or domestic servitude, as it exists in the slave-holding states. The advantage of domestic slavery over the most favorable condilion of political slavery, does not admit of a question. It is the obvious interest of the master, not less than his duty, to provide comfortable food and clothing for his slaves; and whatever false and exaggerated stories may be propagated by mercenary travellers who make a trade of exchanging calumny for hospitality, the peasantry and operatives of no country in the world are better provided for in these respects, than the slaves of our country. In the single em- pire of Great Britain, the most free and enlighten- ed nation in Europe, there are more wretched paupers and half-starving operatives, than there are negro slaves in the United States. In all re- spects, the comforts of our slaves are greatly su- perior to those of the English operatives, or the Irish and continental peasantry, to say nothing of the millions of paupers crowded together in those loathsome receptacles of starving humanity, the public poor-houses. Beside the hardship of in- cessant toil, too much almost for human nature to endure, and the sufferings of actual want driving them almost to despair, those miserable creatures are perpetually annoyed by the most distressing cares for the future condition of themselves and their children. From this excess of labor, this actual want, and these distressing cares, our slaves are entirely ex- empted. They habitually labor from two to four hours a day less than the operatives in other coun- tries, and it has been truly remarked by some wri- ter, that a negro cannot be made to injure himself by excessive labor. It may be safely affirmed, that they usually eat as much wholesome and sub- stantial food in one day as English operatives or Irish peasants eat in two. And as regards con- cern for the future, their condition may well be en- vied even by their own masters. There is not upon the face of the earth, any class of people, high or low, so perfectly free from care and anxi- ety. They know that their masters will provide for them, under all circumstances, and that in the extremity of old age, instead of being driven to beggary, or to seek public charity in a poor-house, they will be comfortably accommodated, and kindly treated, among their relatives and associates. Cato the elder, has been regarded as a model of Roman virtue; and yet he is said to have sold his superan- nuated slaves, to avoid the expense of maintaining them. The citizens of this state may not aspire to rival the virtue of the Romans; but it may be safely affirmed, that they would doom to execra- tion that master who should imitate the inhuman example of the. Roman paragon. The govern- ment of our slaves is strictly patriarchal, and pro- duces those mutual feelings of kindness on the part of the master,and fidelity and attachment on the part of the slave, which can only result from a constant interchange of good offices, and which can only exist in a system of domestic or patriarch- al slavery. They are entirely unknown either in a state of political slavery, or in that form of do- 574 FARMERS' REGISTER fNo.9 mesne servitude which exists in all other commu- nities. In a word, our slaves are cheerful, contented and happy, much beyond the general condition of the human race, except where those foreign intru- ders and fatal ministers of mischief, the emancipa- tionists, like their arch-prototype in the garden of Eden, and actuated by no less envy, have tempt- ed them to aspire above the condition to which they have been assigned in the order of provi- dence. Nor can it be admitted, as some of our states- men have affirmed, in a mischievous and misguided spirit of sickly sentimentality, that our system of domestic slavery is a curse to the white popula- tion— a moral and political evil, much to be de- plored, but incapable of being eradicated. Let the tree be judged by its fruit. More than half a cen- tury ago, one of the most enlightened statesmen who ever illustrated the parliamentary annals of Great Britain, looking unto political causes, with an eye of profound philosophy, ascribed the high and indomitable spirit of liberty which distinguish- ed the southern colonies, to the existence of do- mestic slavery; referring to the example of the free states of antiquity as a confirmation of his theory. Since those colonies have become inde- pendent states, they have amply sustained the glo- ry of their primitive character. There is no co- loring of national vanity in the assertion, which impartial history will not ratify, that the principles of rational liberty arc not less thoroughly under- stood, and have been more vigilantly, resolutely and effectively defended against all the encroach- ments of power, by the slave-holding states, than by any other members of the confederacy. In which of our great political conflicts is it, that they have not been arrayed against every form of usur- pation, and fighting under the flag of liberty? In- deed, it is a fact of historical notoriety, that those great whig principles of liberty, by which go- vernment is restrained within constitutional limits, have had their origin, and for a long time had their only abiding-place, in the slave-holding states. # * # * # Though the right to emancipate our slaves, by coercive legislation, has been very generally dis- claimed by popular assemblages in the non-slave- holding states, it is nevertheless important, that each of those states should give this disclaimer the authentic and authoritative form of a legislative declaration, to be preserved as a permanent record for our future security. Our right to demand of those states the enactment of laws for the punish- ment of those enemies of our peace, who avail themselves of the sanctuary of their sovereign jurisdiction to wage a war of extermination against us, is founded on one of the most salutary and conservative principles of international law. Eve- ry state is under the most sacred obligations, not only to abstain from all such interferance with the institutions of another as is calculated to disturb its tranquility or endanger its safety, but to pre- vent its citizens or subjects from such interference, either by inflicting condign punishment itself, or by delivering them up to the justice of the offend- ed community. As between separate and inde- pendent, nations, the refusal of a state to punish these offensive proceedings against another, by its cilizens or subjects, makes the state so refusing an accomplice in the outrage, and furnishes a just cause of war. These principles of international law are universally admitted, and none have been more sacredly observed by just and enlightened nations. The obligations of the non-slave-hold- ing states to punish and repress the hostile pro- ceedings of their citizens against, our domestic in- stitutions and tranquility, are greatly increased both b)- the nature of those proceedings, and the fraternal relation which subsists between the states of this confederacy. For no outrage against any community can be greater than to stir up the ele- ments of servile insuirection, and no obligation to repress it can be more sacred than that which adds to the sanctions of international law the so- lemn guarantee of a constitutional compact, which is at once the bond and the condition of our union. The liberal, enlighted and magnanimous conduct of the people in many portions of the non-slave- holding states, forbids us to anticipate a refusal on the part of those states to fulfil these high obliga- tions of national faith and duty. And we have the less reason to look forward to this inauspicious result, from considering the necessary consequen- ces which would follow, to the people of those states and of the whole commercial world, from the general emancipation of our slaves. These consequences may be presenled, as an irresistable appeal, to every rational philanthropist in Europe or America. It is clearly demonstrable, that, the production of cotton depends not so much on soil and climate as on the existence of domestic slave- ry. In relaxing latitudes, where it grows, not one half the quantity would be produced, but for the existence of this institution, and every practical planter will concur in the opinon, that if all the slaves in these states were now emancipated, the American crop would be reduced, the very next year, from one million two hundred thousand, to six hundred thousand bales. No great skill in po- litical economy will be required to estimate how enormously the price of cotton would be increased ; by this change, and no one who will consider how largely this staple contributes to the wealth 01 manufacturing nations, and to the. necessaries and I comforts of the poorer classes all over the world, can fail to perceive the disastrous effects of so great a reduction in the quantity and so great an enhancement in the price of it. In Great Britain, , France, and the United States, the catastrophe I would be overwhelming; and it is not extravagant ! to say, that for little more than two millions of ne- j gro slaves cut loose from their tranquil moorings [ and set adrift upon the untried ocean of at. least a i doubtful experiment, ten millions of poor white peo- ple would be reduced to destitution, pauperism I and starvation. An anxious desire to avoid the last sad alternative of an injured community, : prompts this final appeal to the interests and cn- | lightened philanthrophy of our confederate states. j And we cannot permit ourselves to believe, that our just demands, thus supported by every consid- eration of humanity and duty, will be rejected by states, who are united to us by so many social and political ties, and who have so deep an interest in the preservation of that union. From the Richmond Whig. KXTRAORDTXARY CROP OF CORN. Mr. Robert Ship, the manager of the plantation of Mr. Tarlton Fleming, Goochland county, haa 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 575 sent us a certificate of an extraordinary crop of corn raised by him the present year, namely, ele- ven hundred barrels from an eighty acre field, which is about fourteen barrels to the acre. WAGES OF FEMALE LABOR. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. I have read very carefully the three Nos. on the low rate of female wages, and it is not saying too much, that I was very deeply interested in them. They brought to memory interesting and pain- ful occurrences that had fallen under my own ob- servation. I have known a healthy and industri- ous woman to labor 14 hours a day with her nee- dle, and earn 12^ cents, having five children to support, and all of these children doing nothing — (for they had nothing to do, in which their mother could be present to instruct them) — and I have known her poor neighbor (also a widow) and her one little boy to earn in 12 hours, from 75 cents to SI 25 cents in a tobacco factory, in a little cor- ner by themselves, separate from the black people. I have seen direct and systematic means employed to raise the wages of seamstresses, and in every case, while good was done, and suffering, for the time, sowewhat relieved, the association soon exhausted all its means, and went down. Some of the writer's remarks too, brought to my mind the fact announced by a missionary in the island of Ceylon, viz: that there, it is very common to see strong men washing and ironino; nice cam- brics and muslins. Have not the habits of Chris- tian communities much of the very same absurdi- ties in them? No man can travel through New- England without feeling that there, women have decided advantages over women in the south. The avenues to a fair compensation for labor are abundantly more open there, than here. I have, du- ring the last summer, visited many of the northern factories in special reference to the point of morals, and I have, satisfied myself, that on the whole, the morals of young people at their factories are as good as among the same class of people on farms. It seems to me also, that in this country there is no lack of soil, on which profitably to consume the strength of the great body of males, and that we are specially criminal if we allow a system to gain footing among us, which shall in the end ruin the prospects of indigent but virtuous females. Agriculture and horticulture in this land are yet merely in the rudest state, especially the latter. CONSTITUTIONS OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIE- TIES. We have received from a valued correspondent, and one whom we would be pleased to serve or gratify, a copy of the constitution of a new agricultural society, with the request to publish it in the Farmers' Register. We are debarred from compliance, by the obligation of a rule which has been for some time in force, which is, not to publish in this journal the constitution or rules of any agricultural society, unless the provisions re- quire notice for their novel or peculiar character, or unless inseparably coniu :ted with other transactions of more interest and practical value to the agricultural public. We have seen published, within the last fif- teen years, the constitutions of some dozens of differ- ent agricultural societies, from not one of which was any subsequent action of value, or report of agricul- tural facts, ever heard. This procedure has indeed been so common, and has so generally served to intro- duce to public notice a body that has not attracted no- tice in any other way — the publication of the consti- tution has so often been the prelude to the dissolution of the society — that such publications have ceased to confer honor — and indeed have almost become a sub- ject for ridicule. We think it best therefore for agri- cultural societies not to publish their sayings until they can accompany them with something of their doings — and though desirous of avoiding the publication of the former class, if alone, we shall be at all times re- joiced to receive reports of, and promulgate the acts, of all agricultural societies. There can be no newly formed society of which we would form a more favor- able opinion (judging from its materials) than the one to which we are now compelled to show such an ap- pearance of scant courtesy: and should it take the rare course of drawing out the talents of its members, we hope hereafter to have many of our pages filled by their memoirs, transactions, and reports of their useful labors. MEANS TO FACILITATE THE ANALYZING OF MARL, AND OTHER CALCAREOUS MANURES, AND SOILS. While the importance of testing the strength and comparative value of marls, has been earnestly urged on those who are using, or intend to use such manures, this journal has also furnished plain and full directions for the process, by attending to which, any careful ex- perimenter would be enabled to perform the operation for himself, with a sufficient degree of accuracy for practical and common purposes. With the hope of still more advancing this object, we have caused to be made, for sale, several sets of the apparatus invented by Professor W. B. Rogers, and described by him at page 354, vol. II of Farmers' Register. Owing to the diffi- culties which have attended the manufacture of instru- ments so novel and delicate, and requiring so much skill and accuracy in the construction, we have waited long for the supply — but have just learned that the ar- ticles are now ready, and will be delivered in Peters- burg, perhaps before this number will be issued. But even with this new facility, we doubt (judging from experience) whether more than a few individuals will take the trouble to test the value of their calca- reous manures. Some indeed have already availed themselves of the instructions given for this purpose. But much the greater number have entirely neglected this very necessary part of the business of marling, un- less they could have the testing done by some other person. We have complied with many requests for such services — and have never grudged the labor, when it promised to be of service to the public, and to aid the extension of improvements by calcareous manures — nor even to serve the private interests of personal •576 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 9 friends. But there have been so many such demands on our time and labor, that a part have been necessa- rily neglected, and others have been attended to only after much delay. It has occurred to us that the wishes and convenience of all parties might be promoted by the establishment of a suitable laboratory for this limited but useful branch of operative chemistry, and making it the bu- siness of a competent operator to examine all speci- mens of marl, &,c. sent for that purpose. This, like every other kind of mechanical labor, can be executed more easily and cheaply, as well as more perfectly, on a large than on a small scale. With suitable apparatus and arrangements, an operator could test the strength of twenty specimens of marl, with more ease and cor- rectness than a single specimen, if tried alone, and un- der the ordinary disadvantages. If therefore such a new business was enough encouraged, correct trials of specimens and reports might be obtained at a less cost for each, than the mere trouble attending a single trial even to the experienced and skilful analyst. Any persons who may desire to obtain such services, for their mvn private convenience or profit, may send specimens for examination, to our care — and should the demand justify the means, a competent operator will be induced to undertake the trouble, for the profit. Our apparatus (Davy's, as well as Rogers',) and our instruc- tions,will be given in aid of the objects, and such gen- eral attention as will secure our entire confidence in the correctness of the results reported. If no other con- veyance offers, very small specimens (say 20 grains each,) may be sent by mail, postage paid. In that case, each specimen should be dried, pounded and secured by paste in a separate small paper cover. The postage on an ounce package is the same as on a quadruple letter. If larger specimens are sent, so as to show the appearance of the earth as presented naturally, they should be well wrapped separately, to prevent any com- munication or mixture, and the whole closely packed in a strong box, for transportation. The charge for such examinations must depend somewhat on the extent of the business: but it cannot exceed 50 cents for a single specimen — nor half that rate for each of 20 specimens provided at once. It should be understood that the proportion of calcareous earth (or carbonate of lime,) contained, is the only ingre- dient which is undertaken to be ascertained with cer- tainty. Other ingredients (if supposed to be present, and required to be known,) might demand not only far more labor, but also more skill and science then we would promise could be exercised. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE TO CORRES- PONDENTS AND SUBSCRIBERS TO THE FAR- MERS' REGISTER. The Farmers' Register will hereafter be published in Petersburg, Va. to which place all letters to the edi- tor must be directed. As the editor has no longer the franking privilege, (as postmaster,) and as the widely extended correspondence which exists, (and is neces- sary, for properly conducting such a publication,) will make the tax of postage very heavy under any circum- stances, he requests of his patrons and correspondents, so far as their convenience may permit, to adopt such modes of transmitting payments, and other communi- cations on private business, as may somewhat lessen this burden. The change of circumstances especially requires that the editor should withdraw his former request to have small specimens of particular soils, &c. sent by mail for examination. By the attention paid to that request by several correspondents, he has been greatly obliged, and he may dare to say, that agricultural sci- ence has been thereby advanced. VOI.. I. of farmers' register. By procuring some of the deficient Nos. a few more copies of Vol. I. have been made complete, and may be obtained at $5, by the earliest applicants for entire sets of the work, including the current Vol. III. For any single No. of the first Vol. from 1 to 9, in- clusive, returned uninjured, and free of postage, a No. of Vol. II. or III. will be given in exchange. For each one of a few copies of Nos. 2 and 6, Vol. I. $1 will be paid on delivery, or 3 later odd Nos. The se- cond Vol. bound up with the Essay on Calcareous Ma- nures will be given for each set of the first 9 Nos. of Vol. I. returned as above. TERMS OF THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 1. TheFarmcrs' Register is published in monthly numbers, of 64 large octavo pages each, and neatly covered, at $5 a year — payable in advance. 2. Or five new subscribers by sending their names and $20 at one time to the editor, will receive their copies for one year, for that sum, or at $4 for each. Purchasers of any 5 volumes (except Vol. I.) at one time in like manner, shall have them for $20. 3. The risk of loss of payments for subscriptions, which have been properly committed to the mail, or to the hands of a postmaster, is assumed by the editor. 4. For all copies not received by mail, duplicates will be furnished to those subscribers who have com- plied with their own obligations. 5. If a subscription is not directed to be discontinued before the first number of the next volume has been published, it will be taken as a continuance for ano- ther year. Subscriptions must commence with the beginning of some one volume, and will not be taken for less than a year's publication. 6. The mutual obligations of the publisher and sub- scriber, for the year, are fully incurred as soon as the first number of the volume is issued: and after that time, no discontinuance of a subscription will be per- mitted. Nor will a subscription be discontinued for any earlier notice, while any thing thereon remains due, unless at the option of the editor. PRINTED BY ROBERT RICKETTS, Comer of High and Market sis. Petersburg, Va. THE FARMERS' REGISTER. Vol. in. FEBRUARY, 1836. No. 10. EDMUND RUFFI.X, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. For the Fanners' Register. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT AND PROFITABLE CULTURE OF POOR LAND. To t. b. a. of Caroline. Dear Sir — - The strongest sympathies are said to arise from community of suffering; if this be true, you and 1 should be friends. Your communication in the March No. of the Register, produced so mucfi in- terest, that I commenced a loiter to you goon after reading it. Being interrupted by business, it was lost while in an unfinished state. But the interest has been kept up, and incog, as you are, I still feel disposed to address you, although conscious that my letter will contain little worthy of notice, besides an expression of good feeling. The detail of your situation so exactly depicted my own, except in small matters of time and lo- cality, that some of my friends suspected me of writing ir. I too am a poor land farmer, and fo! low a profession which requires that I keep horses not used in the plough — more of them, I fear, than I manage to render profitable. If, however, I were the owner of the richest lands, my feelings of regard would be called forth towards him, who rnight be striving to leant the means of fertilizing the extensive portions of our state, which are im- poverished, and which have, as yet, defied efforts at improvement. While I fully subscribe to nearly all the doctrines of the Editor of the Farmers1 Register in relation to the constitution of soils, my first thoughts, ou reading his remarks, and those of "Commentator" on your communication in the MarQh No., were of Job s comforters. By this, I by no means intend disparagement on either of these gentlemen, my feelings of regard for the first of whom I would not attempt to express, in his own periodical; and the latter I suspect to be a gentleman, to whom —a happy and virtuous people. Prove that this can be done, and it will be the most effectual mode of arresting the awful tide of emigration, going on from our beloved land. And if it cannot be dime without calcareous manures, we should, with all possible despatch, construct rail roads to the most convenient points for obtaining them. "Don't give up lite ship." When 1 suggest some steps towards effecting an object so desirable, (however dogmatic, for the sake of brevity, may he my manner,) I beg you not to suspect me of the vanity of aiming to in- struct my incognito friend, from whom I should lie glad to learn. Through you, I address many, some of whom may meet a useful suggestion. But lest my suggestions should prove like the Frenchman's dinner, too short for the long grace preceding it. 1 will wave further introduction. In attempting to improve our soils, we should never forget, that the great defect in their consti- tution, consists in a deficiency of calcareous mat- ter; this should lead us — 1. To seek out, at all times, every available mode of supplying such matter. 2. To diffuse manures over our fields, accord- ing to their powers of retention, or their natural grade of fertility, recollecting that the redundant manure applied to any spot, beyond its power of retention, will be converted into gas, and escape as soon as complete decomposition occurs. This evaporation takes place also (though more slowly) in calcareous soils, rendering occasionally melio- rating crops necessary, to prevent its injury. Our soils need greater attention to such crops, as from them evaporation is more rapid. 3. We should remember that a soil defective in calcareous matter, is, according to the degree of that defect, less adapted to the production of grain, and grasses producing granular seed, and the bet- r ■ tited to the growth of weeds. The truth of the first clause of this proposition is indisputable. (though personally unacquainted with him,) I Every kind of grain, and especially wheat, is that I owed much, both lor h po-|projuceiJ ;,-, greater quantity and with greater cer- litical and agricultural writings When the great question arises, "should tempts to improve the lands in Virginia, naturally poor, and denied the benefit of calcareous ma- nures, be relinquished?" too much is invol treat it lightly, or fo form hasty conclusions. Some of the finest specimens of populai earth may be found in various parts of Vir on lands "born poor." Perhaps the nece. exertion, produced by this poverty of soil, has contributed to the improvement of their morals. I would not argue from this, that poverty of soil is al- ways a blessing. But that, like many other evils in this world, it may be converted into the means of doing good, if connected with proper disposi- tions in those who have to contend with it. The same people, on the same soils, if they could dis- cover any mode of more extensively improving them, would improve with them. But here is the dilnculty. Can poor lands be improved without calcareous manures, on a scale sufficiently exten- sive to render them the abiding places of a thriving Vol. Ill— 73 tainty, on calcareous lands. The latter clause is equally clear to observation, and, possibly, very ant inferences may be drawn from it. We find that fepge corners, and other places so much i with weeds id Eastern Virginia, are al- lear of them in the neutral soils of the Val- ley. No land yields more luxuriant tobacco than that covered with tHe heaviest coat of broom- s'.raw, if properly manured. This weed grows also in its higlr st perfection, in some districts, which yield nothing else well, now cultivated. Chapfal, while treating of the cultivation of woad, (Isatis FinctoriG,) a weed raised in France, from which indigo is extracted, observes — "The nature of the manure which is employed in the culture of woad exerts a powerful influence, not only upon the vegetation of the plant, but upon the quantity ■and quality of its coloring principle. "The manures which consist of well decompo- sed animal and vegetable substances are the best, and for this reason, night soil, the dung of shero and cows, the decayed fragments of woo! and silk 578 FARMERS' RE G 1 S T E R [No. 10 and the chrysalides of the silk-worm are preferred to any other manures. "Those substances that act as stimulants to ve- getation, such as lime, plaster, marine salt, pou- drette, mortar-rubbish, ashes, &c. favor the growth of the plant, without affecting the coloring principle.'''' Chemistry applied to Agriculture, Bus- ton Ed. pp. 295, 296. Calcareous manures having so recently attract- ed much attention in this country, our opportuni- ties of making observations of this nature have been rare. It is, however, rather probable, that such manures, while they bring to earlier maturi- ty, will not increase or improve the peculiar quali- ties of other plants, besides the different kinds of grain and most of the grasses. Further agricul- tural developements may deduce important results from the foregoing principles. Should We, who are almost excluded from the benefits of calcareous manures, ever cultivate largely the poppy, woad, the whole class of root crops, (which I think need but little lime,) and many other plants which may- be found to thrive best in soils not calcareous, we may be almost equally indebted to those who have developed the principles connected with lime, as a manure, in its various forms, with those who pos- sess such advantages in the highest degree. Horizontal ploughing, hill-side ditching, ma- nuring, and the cultivation of grasses, are the means on which I would mainly depend in at- tempting to improve our lands. Having given some of my views in relation to levelling and manuring, in previous Nos. of the I Register, they need not be repeated here. S further remarks may, however, be mad?, on the preparation of manures. You would be sur- prised, sir, to find how much material for making manure you could amass in a short tim", if proper preparation were previously made. This consists in furnishing every hand you can muster (except the drivers,) with a good sharp rake, and every pair of wheels on the land with a large, light body, for hauling leaves and other rubbish to be rotted in the farm-pen, or rather, firm-pens — fori would have several of them in convenient locations for hauling out the manure, after it is made. One of them should have in it a good cow-house, to shelter the cattle in bad weather. This may be made of corn tops, or otherwise, as suits you. Last winter, as bad as the weather was, I spread leaves on about seventy acres of land, with about fifteen hands, six horses — generally worked singly in carts — and seven oxen. The oxen were work- ed, one yoke at a time, to the same cart, so as to rest each other. The leaves for somewhat more than one-third of the field were previously pre- pared in the farm-pen. The rest of them were in- judiciously spread on the land as they came from the woods. These last did but little good to the corn, as it got its growth before they began to rot much — June, and July (until the last of it) being, with me, very dry months. I think, however, that I have made fully double the corn that I could have made on the whole field, without manure. I have been told that what are commonly called ground-slides, with pieces of iron eighteen inches long, bent into the segment of a circle, and nailed to the bottom of each runner, to bear the weight and prevent friction, serve better than horse-carts to haul leaves for short distances. After getting all the litter possible into your pens, the next business is. to prepare it for yielding you the greatest and speediest profit. Besides the ordi- nary" commixture with animal manure, the drain- ings from the pens should be caught in pits dug forthe purpose, and sprinkled over the litter (with a large watering pot) as soon as it is dry enough to receive them. The dirty water and soap-suds made by washing clothes in the family, is also worth saving for this purpose. There are many other substances which might be profitably used in this way. The blood of animals slaughtered on the firm, if mixed with water, in the propor- tion of one part to twenty, might considerably en- rich a bed of leaves or other litter. The filthy fluids of a kitchen, it' deposited in a strong tub and borne off daily, constitute a good article tor top-dressing, or for impregnating litter. Before Heaping your beds of litter" which I think should he done once in two or three weeks, through the winter, sow on all the ashes you can procure. The quantity of this article will be greater than you would suppose, if you will supply every ne- gro house with an old barrel, and see that they are periodically taken up and secured. You may do your neighbors a favor by purchasing at a very low price, such as they would otherwise throw away. Your example and success might teach them economy in the use of manures. It might be well to make your calculations, whether you could not profitably afford to buy lime in moderate quanti- fies, and potash to sprinkle over your litter, before ■. The latter should be dissolved in water andapplied with a watering pot. I know from experience that top-dressing on wheat, with both lime and ashes, at the rate of only four or five bushels to the acre, much im- proves the wheat, and secures the life and com- parative vigor of the young clover, on poor land. Wheat, however, should not— as a general rule — be sown on poor land. Success from manuring does not depend so much on the mere quantity of matter used, as up- on a judicious mixture of all those substances en- tering into the composition of the crop to be rais- ed on the land. And the fluids, &c. mentioned above, not only hasten the putrefaction of the lit- ter, but furnish nutriment for the crop which it could not derive from the litter alone. It is on this principle, that a little rich compost will frequently cause a more abundant harvest than the greatest profusion of ordinary manure. It would be well for the farmer to make, out a list of all the sub- stances within his reach, which can be profitably used as manure, and to avail himself of them whenever an opportunity is presented. In the prosecution of the foregoing plans, it is evident that the corn-field will be considerably di- minished in size. This need not create concern, if the crop is increased. But in the commence- ment of such a system, requiring the whole corn field to be manured, we must calculate on rather small crops of corn — though they will, in some seasons, be much larger. The deficiency must be supplied by preparing for an abundance of suita- ble substitutes for corn. The chief reliance, for this purpose, should probably be placed on oats. The time usually occupied in tending three times the quantity of land in corn, as is here contempla- ted, to almost no purpose, might be employed in gathering materials for manure, in shrubbing out sassafras, persimmon, and other bushes, in turn- 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 579 mg under the running blackberry, and other small- ernuisances; and thus you might prepare, besides your small corn-field, an extensive fallow for oats, and (if you sow early enough,) make a large crop of this valuable grain. With a plenty of oats we may get along pretty comfortably, with but little more corn than enough for bread. As food for horses, barley has great reputation. In confirma- tion of this, the Arabian horses which get no other grain, may be cited. It is said to thrive best in a rich sandy soil, and an arid climate. With it, how- ever, I have no experience. For feeding animals mangel wurtzel, Guinea grass, rata baga turnips, and a variety of other articles, may profitably be prepared. Manuel wurtzel, or field-beet, gi most astonishingly in Virginia, wherever I have seen it tried. I have reared an amazing crop of it. this year, on poor land, manured in the drill, af- ter turning under a moderate coat, of leaves from the woods. This crop should be harvested before the accession of hard weather, be put away dry, and well secured from frost. Much effort is sometimes made to get the corn land broken up in the fall and winter. This is im- portant in stiff soils, but if the land be light, and there is but little vegetable cover on it, I should pre- fer spending the time in the preparation of manure. Those who have rich lands must judge for thein- selves, with regard to a rotation of crops. We must be guided by necessity. The best, rule, per- haps, is to cultivate in corn no more than we can manure, and in small grain all the corn-field of the preceding year, and aii that we can prepare with a clean nice fallow. You may begin to think about the most suitable rotation after getting over the arable part of your farm, with corn and ma- nure, that is, after getting something fit. to make a rotation on. But it may be said that ''the rats will be crying" over the part you commenced on be- fore you get through. To prevent this, besides catching as many of these rascals in traps as pos- sible, and thus giving them something else to cry about; sow grasses on as much of your land as possible — clover on such as will grow it well, and on the poor land sow burner, Peruvian grass, herds grass, or any other kinds which you can rea- sonably expect to grow. The subject of grass has been strangely neg- lected in Virginia. No good northern or English farmer would think of leaving afield bare ofgrass, after cultivating a hoe crop. We know little, gen- erally, of other grasses than clover, timothy, and herds grass — and much too little of them. Clover will seldom grow on lands, naturally poor, and artificially exhausted, until after they have been manured. Hundreds of our citizens, j since the publication of the Register and the Cul- ! tivator — not the readers of these works, however J — have been purchasing clover seed with the vain hope of enriching their poor lands, by the instru- j mentality of clover and plaster. I believe, that — at least in the southern part of our state — there is j but little land naturally poor, possessing such adaptation to be enriched by clover and plaster, as Columbia comity, New York. I know, from j expensive experiments too, that mine does not. I ; find that after improving it, these articles, if pro- ; perly used, will keep it in p;ood heart. But they will not do to start with. IT the clover is desired to feed on. it, should be sown on lots already en- riched. It may be true, in some localities, that poor land can be enriched by clover and plaster. With me, the proposition is reversed. I can only grow clover, to advantage, on land already im- | proved: and even then, the efficacy of plaster is j very uncertain. By the way, I would thank him who would explain to me, why this article is so capricious in its action. I have taken much pains to procure pure gypsum, but have found it some- limes failing to show any benefit at all — at others, succeeding wonderfully: and some of the parcel which failed one year, succeeded remarkably the next. And all this, on lands very similar. The following questions, in relation to the clo- ver crop, merit consideration. 1. Is it generally best to cut the first crop, reserving only the fall crop to plough in; or should the whole year's product be turned under? 2. Should clover be r while unripe, or in the mature state? 1. rf the land be strong enough to produce a crop sufficiently tall to be cut by the 20th of May, I should cut it, with the expectation that before winter, it would again produce as much vegetable matter as there is any necessity lor turning under ground — and, believing the hay better when cut early, than after the seed are. matured. Moreover, flic general fertility of the tract cannot be dimin- ished, if the hay be consumed on the farm, and the manure properly attended to. If, however, the spring be late, and the state of the land ren- der the production of a plentiful fall crop doubtful, and it be important io keep up the fertility of the particular spot on which the clover grows, it might be best not to take the spring crop off the land. There is with us, but little ground strong enough to produce a copious second crop, unless it be started to growiney and of Pevensey. We meet with it in the counties of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, upon the Cotswold-hills, in some de- tached parts of Lancashire, Oxford, Bedford, and Stafford, through the whole of Leicester, Rutland, Norlham id Huntingdon, and long the banks of the larger rivers. But it is remarked by Mr. Luccock, that the short wools of the kingdom do not arrange them- selves so distinctly in districts as those of a longer staple do, but fill up the whole space besides that which has been noticed as the pasture of the hea- vier breeds of sheep. Those families which pro- duce a fleece suitable to the card, though original- ly possessing features much more strongly charac- teristic than are found in the other kind, are some- times so mingled with each other, and with the sheep of the larger fleece, as to render it difficult to determine what particular race many of the in- dividuals belong to. Yet it will be found most convenient to describe them in classes, and to pro- ceed from that county where the species appears most pure, to those where its blood becomes inti- mately mingled with that of another variety. We know not the period when any of these sheep were introduced into the country, nor whence they were procured, but there remain at present in England and Wales, six different kinds of them, viz. the Norfolk, the South Down, the Wiltshire, the Rye- land, the Heath sheep, and the Mountaineer; be- sides some small collections of different varieties, which seem to have descended from families now almost extinct.* Only two modes, says Mr. Luccock, have yet been adopted for the improvement of fleeces. "One consists in selecting those lambs for slaugh- ter which have the least valuable coat; the other in bringing into the flock male sheep of the most approved breeds, in order that, their progeny may perpetuate their best peculiarities. "t It is in fact by the judicious crossing of different breeds with Spanish sheep, that so much has been done to- wards the amelioration of British wool, and, since this subject has been very ably treated by a neigh- boring practical writer, J we have selected the fol- lowing important principles, founded on actual ex- perience, for the consideration of all wool growers. They refer, indeed, solely to the improvement of short, or carding wool; but the judicious breeder will readily perceive that they may be equally ap- plied to long-woolled sheep; and a consideration of the facts already recorded must evince the strong probabiIity,that the latter breed will hence- forward command superior attention. 1. Every person, who is desirous of having a * Treatise on wool, p. 137. t Ibid. p. 350. | Mr. Fink's Treatise on the "rearing of sheep in Germany, and the improvement of coarse wool," pub- I lished (in German) at Halle, 1799. 582 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 10 fine-woolled flock, must, select the finest rams that can possibly be obtained, particularly at the com- mencement of his undertaking, i. e. for the first, generation; tor, if the ram ibr the second race is finer than that employed for the first, it is evident that time has been lost in effecting the proposed improvement. 2. In like manner, the finer woolledthe ewe is with which the improvement commences, so much the more rapidly will that of the breed arrive at the decree of superfine. 3. The greatest attention is requisite that the rams employed ior the subsequent breeds be as fine as the first; otherwise the amelioration will be retarded. 4. Where a breeder is desirous of stopping at a certain degree of fineness, without proceeding any further, he may easily effect this object. It will in such case be sufficient to take a ram and ewe of the first or second race; he will have one-half or three-fourths fine; and his flock will retain this de- gree of fineness without any additional improve- ment. 5. Unless the breeder be minutely attentive to the selection of his rams, the produce of the cross will have only one-fourth part of the Spanish fine- ness. 6. If an unimproved ewe be put to a ram of a mixed breed, and which has only one-fourth part Spanish in him, the offspring will only have one- eighth Spanish: by continuing to propagate in this manner, a complete separation of the two breeds will at length be effected. But Mr. Luccock is of opinion, thai flocks might be amended much more rapidly, if, in addition to the common methods above detailed, a kind of barter in lambs were adopted between two neigh- boring districts, one of them possessing a superior, and the other an inferior breed of sheep. If these could be exchanged in such a manner that the in- ferior sorts only should be sent to the markets, while the a;ood ones were preserved, he affirms that the British flocks would annually become more valuable; as a few seasons would be fully sufficient, todispossess the least cultivated breeds of their present pastures. Our limits do not allow us to notice the objections which he conjectures may be made to this proposal; but, as it is evident- ly the result of much reflection and experience, we leave it to the consideration of the attentive read- er. Mr. Bakevvell, however, has brought forward some facts and observations which render it pro- bable that the fineness of wool depends upon the difference of soil* Having, early on his introduc- tion into the wool business, noticed a remarkable difference in the softness of wool equally fine, but which was produced in different districts, Mr. B. was led to believe "that the herbage of each dis- trict derived from the difference of soil some pecu- liar properties, which gave to it, as the food of sheep, the power of effecting that process of the animal.economy by which wool is produced." "The soils most, favorable to this soft quality were, first, the argillaceous; next the siliceous; and it was well known, that calcareous soils, whether * "Observations on the influence of soil and climate •upon wool," &.c. 8vo. 1808. The value of this work is considerably augmented by several important notes communicated to the author by the Rt. Hon. Lord So- merville. limestone or chalk, produce wools of a contrary quality, remarkable for their harshness to the touch. In proportion as the above earths prepon- derate in a loose state near the surface of different soils, their effects may be defected, whatever be the breed of sheep from which the wool be shorn."* These remarks on the effects of chalk upon wool, are limited to chalk alone, by Lord Somer- ville. who considers them as inapplicable to lime- stone soils in general. "Lime," his lordship ob- serves, "certainly may be burnt, from chalk as well as from limestone: as chalk it is conveyed into the fleece by contact, in its natural state; but limestone, if it does not lie deep below the surface, as is usually the case, is a hard and clean stone, and can communicate nothing to the wool until it is rendered into lime by the strongest, effect of fire. This doctrine militates also against the whole of our practice in the western counties. The pile, of all my Merino wool, even of the pure blood, is publicly admitted to be improved; it has been con- stantly grown on a limestone soil, and the surface of the land manured with lime on each course of cropping, and to the extent of 100 bushels per acre of the best popple-lime, the qualify of which has been ascertained by Sir Humphrey Davy, to whom specimens were sent; it has been treated on in his public lectures, and its quality ranks among the strongest of our manuring lime. As the au- thor speaks so positively on the effect of limestone on wools, we may conclude that the limestone of byshire and the adjoining counties does pro- duce 'this effect." Mr. Bake well conceives that, the soft, quality of wool may be preserved in every situation by greas- ing the sheep; and that the same means will also contribute to counteract the effects of climate and soil, where these are unfavorable to this quality; and further, that sheep will thereby be preserved from cutaneous distempers, from the change of climate, and from the sudden change of tempera- ture after shearing. Mr. B. strenuously advocates the practice of greasing sheep, proving its antiqui- ty as well as its usefulness by details of facts, for which we reluctantly refer to his work, as this ar- ticle would otherwise be extended beyond our con- fined limits. The result of his practice, however, may be comprised in the following positions, dis- tinct from the recital of facts by which they are supported. Mr. B. infers, 1st. That hair differs from wool, by the greater degree of hardness and elasticity of its fibres. 2d. That some wools resemble hair in this quality more than other wools which are much coarser. 3d. That the hard quality found in some wool, prevents it from making cloth of the same value as the softer wools, if the former are considerably finer than the latter. 4th. That the application of unctuous matter sufficiently soft and tenacious to cover and remain upon the fleece, will defend it from the action of the soil, and is found to produce the soft quality of wool, so desirable to the manufacturer. Hence the greased wools of Northumberland and Yorkshire possess a superior degree of soft- ness to any ungreased wools in the kingdom. Bakowell on wool, p. 5. 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER 583 Sheep that have received the benefit of this practice, and are driven into other counties not re- markable for soft wools, still preserve the distin- guishing softness of their fleece. Thus also we learn the reason why ointments, when casually employed to cure some disease of the animal, have also generally been found beneficial to the wool. If these facts and inferences be admitted, we may also infer, that an improved method of greas- ing fine-woolled sheep should be adopted in every pari of the kingdom, and that it would greatly im- prove the quality of the wool, and annually save many thousand sheep from perishing by the se- verity of the weather.* It has been recommended to besmear the roots of the wool, immediately after the sheep are shorn, with an ointment composed of butter and sulphur, which is to remain on the sheep for three or four days; at the end of which time Ihey are to be washed in salt and water. The advantages stated to result from this practice are — a conside- rable improvement in the softness and fineness of the quality and also an increase in the quantity of wool produced; besides which the unguent operates as a coat to the animals, and thus prevents them from taking cold immediately after shearing; and also destroys the insects with which they are sometimes infested: a simple wash- ing over with tobacco water will, however, answrer the latter purpose. Too free a use of greasy substances occasions the fleece to imbibe dirt; and although ihey may not. injure the quality of the wool, yet the difficulty of cleansing it materially lessens its price. The opinion that it is of advantage to the growth of the wool may not be incorrect; but it is deteriora- ted, in a greater proportion than its increased weight, in the eye of the wool-stapler, in conse- quence of (he additional waste and trouble thus occasioned in preparing it for the manufacturer.! Were these objections removed by a proper system of thorough cleansing, and by the use of substances less noxious than fish-oil, tar, and tur- pentine, it is, however, not improbable that much benefit might be obtained by carefully greasing the pelt after shearing both in immediate protec- tion from the fly, and in the ultimate improvement of the fleece. From British Husbandry. ON PUTRESCENT MANURES. [Continued from p. 564, Vol. III.] Yards and Sheds. We have already said nearly all that appears to us to be necessary on the management of yards, and the construction rf sheds for the preservation of manure, in our remarks upon farm buildings, J * Bakewell on wool, p. 63. f See the evidence of Mr. Thomas Cook, of Dews- bury, before the Committee of the House of Lords on the wool trade, in 1823, and the table of comparative prices exhibited by him; from which it appears that Highland laid, or tarred wool, is twenty per cent, less in value than when it is left in its native state. % See pp. 95, 169, and 200. though it may be observed that the former are often so full of large holes as to leave them in ma- ny parts saturated with water, or their bottoms are either so porous, or else situated on such de- clivities as to drain off the entire moisture; in ei- ther of which cases the loss cannot but be very considerable to the farmer, although he may be ignorant of what he is daily losing, because it does not go out of his pocket in the shape of hard cash. Whenever a yard is circumstanced in either of" the ways just mentioned, all the inequalities should he levelled, the bottom should be rendered sound and water-tight, and if either any declivity in the yard, or the situation of the buildings, occasions the stock confined in it to give a preference to one part over another, the litter should, in that case, be occasionally removed, in order that it may be equally spread over every part, and the position of the feeding-cribs should be altered; for although our opinion inclines to that form which prefers a gentle slope to the centre of the yard, and the dung should be kept moist, it yet should not be suffered to become drenched with rain. If this be not at- tended to, the excess of wet will prevent the bot- tom of the heap from rotting; and if it be not reg- ularly spread to a nearly equal depth, the fermen- tation will be carried on imperfectly, which will occasion those parts where it may have been too much raised to contract an excess of heat, from which they become what is termed fire-fanged. This especially applies to stable-dung, which, if allowed to accumulate in heaps without being pro- perly mixed, acquires a mouldy smell, and loses so considerable a portion of the best part of its substance, that its diminution in value has been estimated by a very experienced agriculturist at not less than from 50 to 75 per cent.* Acting upon the principle of preserving dung, and rendering it immediately available, it has been recommended to construct cattle-sheds, sufficient- ly capacious to allow a space rather broader than the platform upon which the beasts lie, but sunk somewhat lower, and to which the dung may be swept up. When thus covered, its decomposi- tion is effected by the aid of its natural humidity, and if left for three or four weeks, its fermentation will be completed. The time at which it is sub- ject to the greatest evaporation of its volatile par- ticles will then be past, and it may be immediate- ly carried upon the land. Its quantity will be certainly less decreased, and its quality better pre- served, by being left under the cover of a shed, and there will also be a saving of labor in its remo- val; but not alone should the neatness and order of stalls be taken into consideration, but also the cost. Theoretic people, when advocating new schemes in husbandry, rarely give themselves the trouble of calculating any thing beyond their ef- fects upon crops, without due regard to the ex- pense of their cultivation; and if in this case the additional charges of the erection of the building, together with the repairs, rendered necessary by the steam arising from the dung, were to be reck- oned, they would probably be found to exceed the value of the proposed advantages of the plan. While the opinions of practical men on this and other modes of management, are so unsettled and discordant, those cannot be deemed imprudent who adopt that side of the question which is the most * Blaikie on Farm yard Manure, edit. 1S2S, p. 5. 584 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 10 con, stent with economy. We will, however., ad- | 01 every kind that is readily convertible into ma- nut that it would be an improvement il reservoirs J rrnre. The manure from the doors of the cattle- for the drainage o yards were so constructed that houses around it is also occasionally thrown into their contents might be pumped up, and sprinkled I the middle of th i all may be duly mix over horse-litter, whenever its too great dryness ed. When carted out it is placed on a layer of occasions any danger of its becoming fire-fanged; earth, and banked up in a compact form, to ex- clude, as much as possible, both sun and air, and then covered lightly over with another layer of earth on the top. By this means none of jis vir- tues are lost, and the top and bottom soil will mix with, and nearly equal in value, the rest of the heap.' This, indeed, is the common practice of all intelligent farmers, and it is evident that, by constantly putting a coat of light soil into the (arm yard when emptied, a considerable addition will be made to the annual stock of manure, as a oreat port of this will have become saturated with the urine, and will be shovelled up with it whenever it is emptied. Id there be, no perfect and permanent site formed tor a complete dunghill repository, ac- companied by a well and pump, as above recom- mended, yet the space intended for the reception of any common dung heap should be slightly hol- lowed out, leaving one side rather deeper than the other, and cutting a narrow drain through that side, from which any superfluous moisture may be carried off to a yet lower excavation, where it may be received upon a bed of loose mould, or anions articles of slow decay, as cabbage-stalks, the toimli haulm of over-ripe beans, or any similar sub- stances. It should also be surrounded with a mound dug out from the hollowed place, to prevent water from running into it, and, if that be pre- vented, no danger need be. apprehended from any excess of moisture, except in times of very heavy rain, which., in such seasons, can also be much ■uar t by sloping the sides. Were roois ructed over dung-hills, to protect them from the rays of the. s.m, as well as from rain, there can be no doubt that, if roughly put up, at little cost, they would prove advantageous; but the benefit should be always closely estimated, in or- der that it may not exceed the charge: perhaps a contrivance of the kind might.be made with spare branches of trees, and worn out hurdles, supported by posts formed out of any otherwise useless tim- ber. for, whether in the yard, or carried out to the dung heap, it should never he allowed to become, so dry as to lose the power of fermentation, and if there should be no portion of it sufficiently moist to allow of the dry part being mixed up with it, so as to prevent that risk, it should lie sprinkled re- gularly when shook up. A watering-pot with a lare-e rose will be found to answer the purpose.* There can, indeed, be nothing more appropriate to the subject than the observation ot Sir Hum- phry Davy, 'that v - is to be preserved tor any time, the site of the dimghiU is of great importance. In order to have il defended from the sun, it should be laid under a shed, or on the north side of a wall. To make, a complete dunghill re- pository, the floor should be paved with flat stones, a little inclination being made from each side to- wards the centre: in the centre there, should be drains connected with a small well, furnished with a pump, by which any fluid matter may be collect- ed for the use of the land; for it. too often happens that the drainings of the dunghill are entirely wasted. 'I A sheltered spot of ground ought, al- ways to be chosen lor the she; and although some after trouble may be saved by depositing it, in the first instance, in the field to which it is to be ap- plied, it is yet, in most cases, found more conve- nient to place it in some secluded situation near the homestead. 'There it is always under the farmer's eye, and a greater quantity can be moved in a shorter time than when its position is more distant. Besides, in wet weather the roads are not only cut up by driving to a distance, but the field on which it is made may be poached and con- siderably injured. 'J These are conveniences, however, that the greal bulkol fanners cannot always command; and it often happens that it is necessary to employ the men and cattle in carting the manure to distant parts ot' the farm some time before it can bespread upon the land. Besides which, it must be admit- ted to be of much importance, when the turnips are sown, to have the manure ready in the field, as it is then covered in with the least exposure to a burning sun, and the moisture is preserved for the benefit of the crop. In the East Riding of York- shire, under 'Farming at Scoresby,' Mr. Howard observes,§ 'as soon as the farm yard is emptied, a quantity of light soil, or road-scrapings, is brought into it; all irregularities of surface are then levelled, and the yard is formed into the shape of a very shallow saucer, being the deepest in the centre. This is immediately covered with litter, and made the general receptacle for potato-tops and waste Preservation of dang. * General Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 523. t Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, lect. vi. t Brown, of Markle, on Agriculture, vol. i. p. 372. § Report of Select Farms, No. 5, p. 27. See also Middleton's Survey of Middlesex, second edition, p. 377. Practice differs in the modes adopted respecting the care of farm yard dung. Most farmers allow it to accumulate for a long time in the yard, addino- fresh straw regularly to the heap, from an impres- sion that the bottom, if unremoved, will become the richest part, and that its accumulation imparts a certain degree of warmth to the cattle; while some recommend 'that it should be cleaned out once a month at least, not only to sweeten the yard, and thereby to increase the health and vigor of the animals, but in order that its contents may be properly mixed in some other place, to induce and bring on a regular fermentation.'* Now, on this it may be observed, that the fears which are entertained by some persons of the vapor arising from dung which is contained in the open air of the yards becoming prejudicial to the health of the cattle are proved by experience to be completely * Malcolm's Modern Husbandry and Survey of Sur- rey, &,c. vol. ii. p. 8. 1336.] F A RMERS' REGISTER. 5S5 visionary. No really bad odor prevails there; for, although it may be offensive to delicate nostrils, the air is always respirable. anil when not confined in close stall*, by which ilie circulati »n is ; revent- ed, no ill effects are ever known to arise from it. Bat. when the cattle areeitherled upon fur o her green load, the quantity of urine which they discharge drenches such a quantity of straw, that the beasts cannot be easily kept dry; or if they be crowded in badly-arranged yards, and im- mersed ia the filth proceeding from a scanty cover- ingof straw, a': ! the want ry off the su| moisture, they may then in- deed be exposed to injury from ; . and the dang should be removed, though in i case 'oace a month' wouid be lb many instances the yards are never cleared until the cattle are turned out after the close of th ter; and, unless in a v ry plentiful . straw, it is seldom done more frequently, after th ey are shut up, than perhaps ones more in the early part of the spring: except they be soiled du- ring the summer, in which case it becom quently necessary. When proper care has o prevent an excess of rain-water, the ma- nure thus obtained (rem the bottom layer will doubtless be found of superior quality; but the •whole heap ought to be well mixed, in* order to render it of equal value. An eminent agt hor, whom we have already quoted, complains that he has not, in any one instanc -. !■ en able to find an; like system in i he mechanic t. of the component jars of farm-yard mixens, which he generally Ibund put together as tl ing to circumstances, and without an; rule. Hence it follows that their ; manure can never be ilis'i mer, nor can be. annly that pr tvhich n more accurate knowledge of the contents would enable, him to apportion to different kinds of grain, orto the particular soils and seasons in which they can be most advantageously applied. A hear, for instance, compose;! entirely of dung from sta- bles where horses have been plentifully fed with corn, must be far superior to one produced by cat- tle in the. straw-yard; yet so little is this very ma- terial point adverted to, that nothing is more com- mon than to hear of 'so many loads per acre' be- ing laid upon the land, without regard to the. in- gredients which it contains, though nothing i more certain than that its power over the will be in exact proportion to the qualities of the materials of which it is composed.* This writer advocates the separation of the va- rious species of manure, in order that the proper- ties of each may be distinctly ascertained; yet another author, of equal experience, says, in treat- ing of Norfolk, 'that the, principal error in the com- mon method of manufacturing firm-yard dung originates in the prevailing custom of keeping the dung arising from different descriptions of animals in separate heaps or departments, and aj the same to the land without intermixture, and Consequently in an improper state.' He then al- ludes to the difference arising in the manure from the modes of keeping fatting and store cattle in yards by themselves, 'while horse-dung is also usually thrown out at the stable-doors, and there accumulates in large hea| s, which very soon ier- ment and heal to excess;' he therefore recom- mends that litter bespread over the and the whole of the dung from \l ' yards and the hogstyes to be mixed fogethi i On these opposite o| inious we have to remark, that, when either the soil or the intended crop is essentially different, it may be very desirable that the manure to be employed should possess dis- tinct properties, and therefore, in such cases, a portion of it should be se| arately kept, as w differently pi require manures of a contrary nature; an ad- vanced stage of their fermentation is in tome cases less favorable to vegetation than in others; and, in the instance of potatoes, it is well known that stable-dung is employed with more effect alone than when mixed. ft may, therefore, he advisable that horse-litter in particular should be separately kept in the yards, not merely for the purpose just mentioned, but that, as being of a hotter nature than any romniom dung, it may be mixed with that of other cattle in such proportions as may be thought best adapted to the purposes for which the compost may be required. If no better arrangement can be made, the litter should be placed vvi hin some dry ditch, which will an- swer the purpose of a more regularly constructed pit, where its moisture may be maintained without too greatly heating it, and without i :■: it to the evaporating action of the air. Tin s, if care beat the same time taken to prevent it from becom- ing dry, the f! ion will be checked; and should it be thought expedient to still further re- tard That operation, it may be effected by a mix- ture of hog's dung, which, though rich, y- t I of a colder nature, is less fei ible. By this union the di imes decomposed into a soft andpulp . hich firms a very powerful ma- nure, and, by a little judicious management, can be either promptly got ready or be kept back at pleasure. Under other circumstances, however, and espe- cially on small farms, where the quantity of ma- terials may not be sufficient to allow of their be- ing separated without incurring the risk of loss by the excess of evaporation, or by the want of due fermentation, it is found more generally expedient to spread together all the different sorts of the | dung of the lai als in different layers, so that each may be regularly mixed and partake ally of the common properties of all, by which means the faults of one species are corrected by another; the too rapid fermentation of the dung of horses is cl bile that of hogs and horn- rated, and thus the whole mass acquires the enriching j roperties of the most fer- tilizing compost. Prepared',!. n nf manure. Dung, thus indiscriminately thrown together, being < of every species, whether from horses, pins, or black cattle, bedded with a little of straw and haulm, to which every vegetable sub- stance that can be collected round the house and premises should be added, forms a combination of fermentable matter of various kinds, which, with Malcolm s Modern Husbandly and Survey ot bur- * Blailrie on Farm-yard Dun-, edit. 1823. pp. 3, 5, 6. rey, etc., vol. u. p. o. . . £ce aho the tfottmehamshire Report, p. 163. Vol. Ill— 74 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 10 due care, may soon be brought into a fit slate of preparation. Instead, however, of laying it in a regular manner, it is too often suffered to remain in different heaps, in whatever part of the yard it may have been carried from the barn and stables, in which condition it is left during the winter; and being thus imperfectly fermented, its value is, in all such instances, very materially injured: where- as, if spread as equally as possible over the entire yard, the different materials becoming thus well mixed together, their different properties arc blend- ed, and a compact mass of manure is produced of equal quality. It should, however, be observed, that there is in every farm-yard a proportion of hot and pungent dung, produced by poultry and pigeons, which should be separately kept for top-dressings, for which purpose it may be found very useful: ii scattered over the common heap, it will, however, have the effeq* of increasing the fermentation and hastening its decomposition. That of swine, also, when thus mixed, has the same eliect; and it was proved, alter repeated trials, when the temperature of the air was 40° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, that of Common farm-yard dung was about - 70° A compost of lime, dung, and earth - 55° And a portion of swine and ibwl's dung 850# Care should also be taken that, if any other sub- stances than those commonly employed be added to the heap, they be of such a nature as will ren- der them equally susceptible of decomposition; il not, a small quantity of quicklime will have thai effect; but it should be applied separately. Lime should also be added to all weeds which have ri- pened their seeds, as well as to the roots of docks and other noxious plants, which long retain the power of vegetation, and spirng up when laid upon the land, unless they are destroyed. The better way, indeed, is to place them in a spot away from the yard, and mix them into a compost, as will be hereafier mentioned. On what has been said respecting the removal of dung and litter from the farm-yard, it should also be remarked, that there being retained during a long time in the yard is consistent with the com- fort of the cattle and the due preparation of the manure; for if straw be added in sufficient quan- tity to keep the former dry, although the low- er layers of the manure may be in a good state, yet those at the top cannot. Straw, Hung out to the yards in considerable portions, becomes, after being compressed by the trampling of cattle, rather like a well-packed stack than a mass ol dung in a good preparatory state. Except where a considerable stock is soiled, the small quantity of urine and dung made by the animals is barely suf- ficient to cause a slight fermentation in the heap, which brings on fire-tanging after which its origi- nal powers can rarely be restored. To prevent that injury, no measure can be so successfully used as a frequent removal of this unmade dung, especial- ly if the weather be wet at the time; ""for there is in such cases so much straw that has not passed through the entrails of the cattle, as renders it al- most impossible to do injury by an excess of mois- ture:! if; therefore, its removal be deferred to anv * Farmer's Magazine, vol. xiv. p. 160. tBrown, of Markle, on Agriculture, vol. i. p. 375 distant period, a proportionately greater length of time must necessarily be devoted to its turning and being got in order for the field. Unless over-year muck be used, if the manure be required for tur- nips, it. will be found necessary to lead it from the farm-yard as soon after Christmas as the weather and the state of the roads will admit of it; or, if wanted for beans, that should be done much ear- lier. No period is more advantageous for this work than a frost; and if much manure is wanted early, it may be led from the yard a second time in the month of February. It should not be forgot- ten that the lighter it is laid upon the heap, the more rapid will be the decomposition; and that it may be retarded by compactness of form, and pressure on the top with a heavy coat of soil. This, however, must depend upon the quantity of litter and of cattle, of the extent of the yards, the state of the weather, the condition of the manure, and the intention to which it is to be applied — all varying according to circumstances, for which no precise rule can he laid down, and which must there- fore he left to the judgement of the farmer. Yard dun;'-, made in winter, il trodden by cattle, will not be (bund to ferment much. It ought, if possible, to be kepi neither too wet nor too dry; if in the former state, it will injure the stock, without for- warding its own decomposition; and if in the lat- ter, it will become mouldy, or fire-fanged, and lose its most, valuable qualities: in order to prepare it in the besl manner, it should therefore be preserved in a mean b< twin the two extremes.* Throughout most countries the general plan is, after foddering is over, to carry out the dung from the farm-yard, and to place it in large heaps, in or- der to occasion a due fermentation, and to render it quite rotten before it is laid upon the land. There are, however, many circumstances which render practice .and opinion at variance on this point, in consequence of which a great portion of the manure is carried directly to the fields, and ap- plied to the intended crop, either fresh, or perhaps after being once turned over. The apprehension lhat dung loses much of its virtue by evaporation is not entirely unknown or unattended to; but peo- ple think differently on the subject. Several farm- ers maintain that ploughing in the manure as soon as it is laid upon the land is unnecessary, if not in- jurious; because they say that it absorbs the night- ly dews and other substances from the atmosphere, by which ils quality is improved; that the rain will wash in the salts, while the sun only exhales the water; lhat, when spread upon the surface, the soil also thus becomes gradually impregnated with its juices; and that clay land in particular is ren- dered mellow and free to plough. Thus with many it is the practice to carry out yard-dung in ils long and hot, state, and to suffer it to lie both upon arable and grass land for perhaps a month or six weeks after being spread, before it is ploughed in, though it is acknowledged to encourage the growth of twitch and other weeds.! Others cover it, or, as it is termed in Norfolk, 'scale it in,' with a slight coat of mould. On the other hand, al- though the process of fermentation by disenga- ging a quantity of carbonic acid and ammonia, * East Lothian Report, p. 158. t Buckinghamshire Report, p. 273; Norfolk do., p- 171. 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 587 causes an evaporation, by which the bulk of the manure is much diminished, yet its power is thought to be thus increased. This apparent di- minution in bulk has indeed been too much insisted on by the opponents of rotten dun";, as proof of its decrease in value; for, although the size of the heap thus evidently becomes smaller, yet its cubi- cal contents are, by its condensation, increased in weight.* Alter about six weeks it assumes a saponaceous, greasy appearance, in which soli and sappy state, when neither fresh nor too rotten, but in the medium between those states, it is gen- erally applied to the land by the best farmers. When very rotten, its effect is more immediate and powerful; but when only moderately rotted, its effect, though more gradual, is found to be more durable. On this subject of evaporation, which has justly engaged so much of the attention of scientific ag- riculturists, we, however, add the following ex- tracts from the work of Von Thaer, whose prac- tical knowledge cannot be too highly appreciated. He savs, that not only does theory teach us, but during his own experience he has had frequent oc- casion to observe, that it is hurtful to remove farm- yard manure while it is in a high degree of fer- mentation; for, according to all appearance, an es- sential portion of the most active substances of which it is composed are evaporated when exposed to the air while that process is going on. But, be- fore the fermentation has arrived at its height, or after it has passed, the dang does not seem to lose anything by exposure to the air; or, at least, no- thing but what it regains by some other means. That an evident advantage attends the spread- ing of fresh strawy dung upon the surface of the soil during ihe winter, and leaving it there in that state until the spring ploughing (it being, at the same time, well understood that no declivity of the land allows of its being washed away by the rain) — for this method of covering the ground oc- casions it to absorb the juices of the dung, and thus renders it not only friable to work, but ex- tremely productive: so much so, that the straw has been afterwards raked off the land at the close of the season, and yet the soil has appeared as much improved, as that in which the whole of the litter had been buried — an effect which is also apparent in meadow ground which has been similarly treat- * The weights of putrescent manures will depend much upon the progress of their decomposition at the time, as well as the proportion of moisture which, from accident or particular treatment, they may contain. From an experiment on the subject, recorded in the Farmer's Magazine, we learn that the comparative weight of the following substances was as follows: — cwt. or. lbs. One cubical yard of garden-mould 10 3 25 Ditto of water 15 0 7 Ditto of a compost of earth, weeds, lii and dung, that had lain nine months, ami been turned over 14 0 5 if new dung 9 3 IS Ditto of leaves and sea-weeds 9 0 7 Thus a cubic yard of water is to that of newdungnear- ly as 3 to 2.— vol. xiv. p. 162. Von Thaer calculates the weight of a cubic foot of any strawy farm -yard manure at only about 4G lbs.; while one which has been partly decomposed will weigh from 56 to upwards of 60 Pas. without being compressed. Pnneipes Rahon- nes d'Jgriculturc, torn. ii. p. 32S. ed. Not alone has this occurred in many such in- stances; but in others, in which both long and short dung have been spread upon land already sown with tares and peas, and though left there during vegetation, have produced the most bene- ficial effect upon the crops, especially when sown late, and applied to ordinary land of a light and warm nature; but what appears more extraordina- ry, and difficult to explain — the land which has been thus managed has evinced a decided superi- ority in the subsequent crops over ground on which even a larger quantity of dung had been regularly [ loughed in. That, as one proof of this, in the spring of 1808, rape was sown along with clover upon a poor soil, and was afterwards covered with fresh dang: in the autumn of 1809, the clover-ley was broken up, and rye was sown; the crop of which in the fol- lowing year was distinguished by its superiority over that of an adjoining field which had been dunged upon a summer fallow. Indeed, after a number of comparative experiments, made by himself as well as by other farmers, it appeared to him beyond all question— however incredible it may seem to those who have not also tried its ef- fects—that dung which has already passed the ex- treme point of fermentation, not only loses nothing by being exposed upon the land, even during the summer, but even gains. The evaporation may, indeed, be not so great as it is generally supposed; for although it is true, that when the clung is carted out and spread, it then effects the air with a strong musky smell, yet there is no mode of avoiding that; and even if there were, the vapor which is thus diffused is so tenuous, light, and ex- pansive, that doubts may be entertained whether the quantity of sap which is thus evaporated can be very considerable, as, after a short period, the dung does not exhale any odor. According to the experience of M. Thaer, a docs not lose in weight; and he remarks, that, if laid during a few weeks upon a summer fallow, a number of young plants of a very vivid green will be seen to spring up, even upon spots which have not. come into contact with the dung; which proves that its fertilizing properties were spread around, even before it had been buried in the soil* We have thus entered at large into this discus- sion, because we consider it important to throw every light upon the subject of which it may be susceptible; and it besides contains some strong reasons for the application of long dung. There are, however, many fanners who persist in the use of* over-year muck, or that which has been kept perhaps a twelvemonth, or more, until it is completely reduced to a palp, in which state it is very commonly applied io turnips. It thus loses *Principes Raisonnes d'Agriculture, torn. ii. p. 315, §600. It is difficult to ascertain the precise degree of evaporation arising from fresh dung; but, by an ex- periment made by the Rev. St. John Priest, Secretary to the Norfolk Agricultural Socii ty, in the presence of Mr. Curwen, of Workington, it was found that steam was evaporat id by a piece of ; Id under a laro-e glass during a quarter of an hour, in the month of October, at the rate of about 1 A cwt. per acre. Sur- vey of Buckinghamshire^. 274. This indeed, appears a large amount within that soace of time; but, bad the i been longer continued, it would have been much diminished, and would, no doubt, in a short time, have entirely ceased. 5SS FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 10 perhaps half its bulk; but it is considered peculiar- ly favorable, and even necessary to the growth oi that crop, as its power men vegetation advances i so rapidly as to pul it promptly our of the reach ol the fly.* When, how process is carried too fur, and the manure has been frequently turn- ed— until, as said by some farmers, lblaa becomes black snuff;' it has then, indeed, been found so completely deprived of its nutritive sap as to produce no effect whatever upon the land. On the whole, there is reason to believe 'that there is, in the management ol dung, as in all things else, a certain point which constitutes the maxim; m oi profit, beyond which there is nothing but ' , i The management of anure, upon light and heavy soils, should differ accoi the use intended to be made of it; for it i rally employed in differ ins and ap] different crops. For light land, on which the most common crop in the commencement of a ro- tation is usually turni] s, ii requires to he highlj fermented; because, if not incorporated with the ground in that soft and sappy state in which good spit-dung ought to be, the plan's will not receive such immediate nourishment as will serve to push them into rough leaf before the attacks of the fly. But for clays and other strong sods generally, whether Ihe manure be applied to fallow under preparation for an autumn sowing of wheat, or in the early part of the spring for beans, as it has a longer time to deeompe.se in the soil, a less degree Of putrefaction is necessary than for I u mips. Po- tatoes, also, though grown on light land, may be raised by the use of fresh unfermenled manure. because they do not require the same nutriment as turnips during their earlier growth, and because they are also supposed to be assisted by the action of long dung in opening the soil J When, therefore, a firmer looks chiefly to a prompt, return through immediate benefit to the next crop, the manure should be thoroughly rot- ted to the condition of spit-dung; 'but if his views extend to subsequent crops, or if the soil be of a nature to receive benefit by the fermentation and heat produced by the application of long dung,' then it has been affirmed 'that preference should be given to that in a fresh state, provided it be immediately ploughed in and totally covered. '§ This, however, although the opinion of the au- thor whom we have just quoted, as well as that ol several eminent practical men, should yet be re- ceived with a certain degree of caution; for be- * Young, indeed, says, 'that long stable-muck has been carried out from turnips in March, without any stirring, and that the crops were as good as from short muck, though the growth of the plan's was not so quick; butthen 15 loads of the former were laid on in- stead of 12 of the latter. Long and short dung have also been mixed together, and laid upon strong land, with good effect. It was carted from the yard late in the spring, forming heaps, which in three weeks were turn- ed over, and, within a fortnight more, were laid upon turnips; but the practice is not common, nor very like- ly to be generally followed. — Norfolk Report, chap, xi. sect, iii.; Essex do., pp. 229, 240. t Surveys of Bedfordshire, p. 506— 5 OS; East Lo- thian, p. 159. ^General Report of Scotland. § A Treatise on the Connexion between Agriculture and Chemistry, by the Earl of Dundonald, p. 98. sides ihe, objsetions already stated to manure of this description, there is such difficulty in plough- ing in iii- straw, that much of it is necessarily left upon the surlace of the soil, where its virtues are •eat measure lost; or. if buried deep in cold and retentive clays, it becomes locked up in the 'ami, and its fermentation is prevented. In order to bring it into such a state of decomposition as we have already stated, the information which we have collected on the subject may be thus con- densed. On most farms the yards arc commmonly cleared towards the middle, or the hitter end, of April; i in some this docs not prevent the work ard during the winter, and thus preparing some of the manure in success sion: al whatever period it may however be done, ■; is the most advisable method oi' pro- The most usual mode is to carry out the dung i:i ui the yards, either to some waste spot adjacent the field 1o which it. is -d, and there to leave it exposed to tii" weather, without any other pre| aration than it over, until it be completely rotted, or ! until such time as it ma) bethought requisite to lay it upon the land. The better plan, however, is to lay a bottom for the dungstead, consisting of a bed formed of clay or sand, ditch and road sera- mar!, or any similar substance, which must I! mixed and pulverized, and then spread to b and. breadth which it is sup* heap will cover, and from a loot to 18 i,l it raised at the sides and sloped as to absorb the liqi or which from ihe dung during the healing and pu- ii which always lake place while it lies in ap. The yard dung is then carted out, and shot upon the bottom; one end oi' which is at first let' lower than the other, in order to render the as- cent easy to the cattle — a practice, however, as we shall afterwards see, which is not always to be commended. It is then thrown slantingly up un- til the heap rises to four or five feet above the foun- dation; after which careful farmers raise a coating oi' the same materials as the bottom, a couple of feet in thickness, which is spread round the heap to its full height: or, when the mixen is raised up- on the field in which it is intended to be applied, the soil may be ploughed around the heap, and plastered or faced up against the sides by the back of a spade. The dung is then allowed to duly ferment, which may be seen by its sinking, and easily ascertained by thrusting a few sticks, of the common size of broom handh s, into different pans of the heap, as well as by its steaming and offen- sive smell, which, however, subsides when it is thoroughly decomposed. Dark-colored putrid wa- so draineu from the heap, and there can be little doubt that this discharge of vapor and fluid will, tf permitted, occasion I he loss oi' some por- tion of the virtues of the manure; in order to guard against which, a thin coat, oi' the same kind as (he sides, and made as fine as possible, is laid regularly and lightly over it, so that its weight may press equally, and not. heavily — for, if left in lumps, their cumbrous weight would force the dung into holes, and prevent its regular fermenta- tion. By this covering of the dung with a due pro- per; ion of earth, or of other coating, that Joss ia 1838.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 5S9 however in a great measure prevented; and the bringing oi the heap into a state of preparation either sooner or later, as circumstances may re- quire its application to the land, can he effected by the denseness and compression of the coveri g. The operation therefore require? considerable deli- cacy; lor, if dung, already in an unfermented state, be so closely pressed as to effectually exclude the air, it will be found, perhaps at the distance of several months, in a state very little different Irani thai in which it. was put up; or, when il is thought to be in a period state of preparation, it will examination, be discovered to be only decayed, and, instead of abounding in rich mucila substance, to consist almost entirely of mere vege- table earth. This also leads us to remark on the common practice of driving carts, with their leads, upon the duvghills; the consequence of which is that, as nearly the same road is followed by each cart in crossing them, it is not possible to draw load after load upon such a heap without compressing 1 hose pans where the horses tread, and thus, instead of the dung undergoing a regular fermentation, which every part necessarily would if it had been thrown loosely on the heap, and of one uniform thickness, it is, in some spots, consolidated into a mass which, in most i istances, greatly retards, and in some en- tirely prevents, the process; "becomes mouldy from want of air, calorie, and moisture, — acquires a musty, turbid smell, — generates fungi — and is, in that state, injurious to vegetation." *" The sys- tem has indeed been defended by some very able men, one of whom insists "that the dung should be drawn out of the yards, and placed upon the bottoms, though not in the usual way of throwing it up loosely, to cause fermentation, but, on the contrary, by drawing ihe carts, with their loads. upon ihe heaps, for the purpose of compressing the dung, and thereby preventing fermentation;''''] and another conceives that '-a positive benefit will be gained by this slight compression. "J This difference of opinion may however have arisen from attention not having" been paid to the different qualities of the dung, as well as 1o the use intended to be made of it. When the mate- rials removed from the yard consist chiefly of litter in a fresh or rough state, not sufficiently saturated with the urine of cattle, or when the manure is not intended to be immediately applied to the land, no serious damage can ensue from driving the carts — which are usually drawn by one horse — across the heap, when the dung has risen to some height upon the foundation; but if that operation be performed before some considerable portion 'of the dung be laid on, the inevitable consequence will be that the bottom, which consists either of earth or of other matter devoid of elasticity, will thus be kneaded into solid and unequal lumps, which will occasion ihe eflect complained of Care should therefore be taken to make the heap *Malcolm's Compendium of the Modern Husbandry of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, vol. ii. p. 5. t Blakie on the Management of Farm -yard Manure, edit. 1828, p, 13. S?e also Sinclair's Code of Agri- culture, 3rd edit. p. 218. % Brown of Markle, treatise on Agriculture and Ru- ral Affairs, vol. i. p. 375. so narrow, that by driving on each side of it, the carls may be backed, and the dung shot upon the pile, which may then be levelled with grapes, or lorks, and laid compactly together. Much labor of the teams will tins be saved: if the object be to prevent fermentation, the dung may be regu- larly and closely trodden down by the men em- ployed in spreading and levelling it; and the quan- tity of earth to he laid over it may be regulated accordingly. \\ on the. oilier hand, the manure he intended for immediate use — then (lie dunive it the same inviolable character that all other 592 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 10 property receives, [ have thought it a folly to talk or write aboul improvement. For, sir, who will or can he such a fool as to take property that is sacredly and exclusively his own, and spread it upon real estate that he holds in ii se; arable com- mon-right with. every gentleman and scoundrel in the state. I say inseparable — because the law ol enclosing is an absolute mockery; von cannol es- cape from this internal hot.chpot in this way. Let me show you this melancholy fact bv demonstra- tion. Let us ass ime thai A has 100 acres of land enclosed with good and lawful fence; he is i ;ace- ful and prudent: he obtains a warrant to have his fence viewed. All is given — and believing him- self safe and secure, he goes lo work, e: SI, 000 upon it in manure, lime, and grnssseeds — nature responds and sings tin- joy: ii is the admi- ration of every one who sees it: the owner in the pride of prosperity, lias said in his heart • mine" — this is the reward for "mind and industry." Another day, and he is told the nudes and hogs of a careless neighbor have broken in upon him and spoiled and destroyed his crop. Indignant, he or- ders their destruction — but his wile, or a friend whispers "that is no; lawful, yon can only kill up- on the third offence;1' he therefore waits for two other October nights of waste and destruction; it is done — mules, hogs, and alJ lay in promiscu- ous destruction and death. The owner, careless as he is, watches his right of common, and comes with two or three convenient friends, equally anx- ious about the right of common. They view the fence and readily conclude that it is not lawful. Suit is ordered for damages, and A is tried by a judge, a jury, and witnesses, all interested and anxious about the right of common, or as it is call- ed in the more artful classes "the right of spoil.'1 The fate of poor A, though destructive and dis- couraging, brought "healing in its wings;'1 h out and went to the "far west." No man can, or will upon any rub's of prudence, improve real es- tate when lie is told from the very house-top, that it must be, common to all; no sir — all, all is lost to poor Virginia. 1 have passed through the. lime- stone valley, the mountain and the plain, and all is lost — wealth, industry, and enterprize are all upon the wing. It is a melancholy thing thus to see the pride and bone of a land leaving it, never to return, and yet more-melancholy to think thai you cannot go with them. I hold it undeniable, sir, that no people can be counted strictly civilized, who hesitate in the protection of property; and he who believes men will be honest unless bound by the law, must be in callow-feather — a mere gos- ling. It is the province of fools to hope ibr hnps- less things, and thus spend their lives. I return you many thanks for your very able labors in the cause of our country, and hope that your reward is ample. Respectfully, JEEEMIAH. P. S. Some forty years and more since, Gen. Washington enclosed his entire estate at Mount Vernon. He was not sustained by the spirit of the law, or society, and was obliged to go back to barbarian hotchpot He was denounced for the attempt as a military tyrant ! j. From the Liverpool Journal. kyan's method to prevent dry rot.* The new steam boat launched on Wednesday, for the city of Dublin Company, is entirely built of wood prepared by Mr.' Kyan's process, far which he has taken out a patent. The prepara- tion consists in letting the wood lie for some time in a solution of corrosivcsublimate, which impreg- nates it, and it is said prevents the dry rot. We stated, some months ago, that an extensive course of experiments, at Woolwich, had completely es- tablished I he fact that Kyan's process does totally i revent dry rot in timber. We have since met with the report from the House of Commons on the subject, and as the matter is of the utmost im- I ortance to the shipping interest, as well as to house builders, we have made the following ab- siract. The commissioners unpointed by the Admiralty io inquire into Mv. Kyan's process, are John Hayes, Dr. Birk bee, Messrs. T. F. Daniel, A. Copland Hutchinson, and 13. Rotch, Jr. They report as to the general efficiency of the process, that timber, canvas, and cordage, thus prepared, had been tested by comparative trials, lasting lor years in a variety of ways, at Woolwich, :>iar- gate, London, Sheerness, and in no instance had the dry rot. attacked them, while unprepared tim- ber, &c, had invariably decayed under the same experiments. That the process renders the ordi- nary length of time tor seasoning timber unneces- sary. That the solution diminishes in bulk by ab- sorption, but the remainder is of the same strength as at firs!. That the additional expense of build- ing the Samuel Enderbey, a ship of 420 tons, en- f the prepared timber, £240; and that the Admiralty are to pay 15s. a I >ad extra Ibr such as may be used in the construction of the Linnet. That the process was not in the least umvholej some, and that the crews of the two ships, wholly built, of the prepared timber, were reported "ail well" from the South Seas and Indian Ocean. That the bilge water in a ship built, of the pre- pared timber, was pumped out "perfectly sweet." No doubt can now be reasonably entertained as to theefficacy of the process. That it will be ge- nerally adopted we are confident, and the saving will be immense. It. is not solely by ship builders that the prepared timber is used. Sir 11. Smirke (well known as an eminent architect in London) has introduced it into most of his buildings, and was one of the witnesses in its iavor before the committee. Certainly all public buildings should have the advantage of the process. The state of the timber at ihe Lunatic Asylum in Liverpool is abundant evidence of the injury done to wood by dry rot. It is supposed that government will purchase the remaining time of the period from Mr. Kyan, and throw it. open for gratuitous adoption. Cer- tainly there can be no public objection to this. Dr. Carmichael Smith got £5000 for his disinfecting process; and this discovery for preventing dry rot in timber, is of fur greater importance to the pub- lic at large. * A full account of the effects of this valuable dis- covery was published in a former No. of the Farmers' Register, 1S38.] FARMERS' REGIST K R. 593 REPORT OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER OX THE RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG RAIL ROAD. To Messrs. Joseph Marks and Son: Lewis Webb & Co.; Lancaster, Denby & Co.; John H. Eus- tace; Jacob Barns & Co; David I. Burr & Co.; R. B. Haxall; F. & J. S. James & Co, and others, of Richmond; and Charles F. Os- borne, Robert Boiling, Samuel Mordecai, and others, of Petersburg; subscribers to the survey for a Rail Road between Richmond and Peters- burg. Gentlemen— I have the honor to present you the following report on the surveys which have been made under my direction, with a view to a rail road between Richmond and Petersburg. It was ascertained, on a reeonnoissance of 'the country, that a line east of the present turnpike would probably present more numerous curves, and a much larger aggregate amount of deflec- tions, than one west of it. It was thought, how- ever, that it might possess an advantage, in ad- mitting hereafter a connection with Bermuda Hundred by a short and economical branch rail road; that the elevation of the dividing ground between the waters of the James and Appomat- tox would be less on such a line; and passing, as it would for a considerable distance, along the valley of James River, that the expense of road- way formation would be materially diminished. The line traced east of tiie turnpike has in this respect disappointed the expectations which had previously been entertained. Whilst:1! no great superiority in the character of the of it next to Richmond, over the corresponding portion of the line west of the turnpike, the. di- viding ground is found to maintain its elevation: and as it is to be ascended from more depressed levels, the amounts of excavation and embank- ment in passing it are, in consequence, very con- siderably increased. It was deemed most advisable, under these cir- cumstances, to predicate the estimate to be made on the presumption of the adoption of a line west of the turnpike. The length of a branch rail road to Bermuda Hundred, from such a line, will be increased about two and a half miles; but this dis- advantage will probably be deemed ofless moment than the adoption of a main line to Petersburir, more expensive in its first cost, and on which, in consequence of more frequent, curvatures in its plan, the maximum velocity which may be attain- able would be necessarily somewhat impaired. The idea has presented itself", on an examination of the plans and profiles since the completion of the survey, that possibly a line passing west of the turnpike as far as the dividing ground between the two rivers, afterwards crossing the ridge obliquely to a point on fhe line east of the turnpike, near the crossing of Ashton's Swamp, and thence pass- ing in the neighborhood of the last mentioned line to Petersburg, might, 'on the whole, present more advantages than any other location. Such a line is at any rate deserving of investigation by the stockholders who may be incorporated to execute the work. It would prove somewhat longer than a line entirely east or west of the turnpike, but would present fewer curvatures than a line alto- gether east 'of it. and the length of a branch rail Vol. HI— 75 road to Bermuda Hundred would not thereby be increased. The line selected as above mentioned, as a ba-. sis for the estimates which have been made, may be thus described. Commencing at. the intersection of the Man- chester and Petersburg turnpikes, at an angle of 4° 45' with the latter work, it is perfectly straight to the crossing of Proctor's Creek, nearly half the distance to Petersburg. It afterwards, in passing up a branch of this stream, deflects to the left, un- til it attains the dividing ground between Proctor's and Ashton's Swamp, when it again bends to the right for about 4030 feet; after which it pur- sues a course varying but little from that of the first portion of the line, across branches of Ash- torfs Swamp and Tinsbury Cree.K, about two miles, to station 395. From this point a line nearly straight has been traced to the Appomattox, op- posite Mr. McKenzie's. The grades adopted on the line above described iween a level and thirty-seven feet. It is believed, on a fine location, that, the steepest of these may be reduced, and that no grade need be adopted exceeding thirty-three feet per mile. In regard to curvature, a consideration of great- er moment where high velocities are desirable, die line surveyed is excelled by but few in our country, or the world. There need be on it not. more than three or four changes of direction at id no radius of less than two miles. The whole length of the line is nineteen miles and forty-two hundred feet. Its extension to con- venient points of termination within the towns of Richmond and Petersburg would increase the dis- tance about two miles. It has been deemed most advisable, for obvious considerations, to defer any surveys with a view to this object; until the organization of the company. It will then become a subject of consideration for the inhabitants of the two towns, and the stock- holders of the company, how far the introduction of the improvement within their limits may be im- portant to the attainment of its ends. There can be little doubt that whatever determination may for the present be adopted in regard to it, its con- nection with the Richmond and Fredericksburg rail road should be ultimately looked to. The following estimates are believed to present a fair view of the cost of the improvement. The •ies embraced in theestimaies fbrroadway formation, with the exception of (he eleventh and twelfth items, are the result of minute calculations of the cubic contents of excavati n, embankment, and masonry on the whole work. It has been deemed unnecessary to give these in more detail. Grubbing and clearing, averaged at 8250 per mile, - - - 85,000 CO 61,647 cubic yards excavation, at ten cents per yard, - 6,164 70 -2 do at 12 cents, - 24,223 44 217,104 do at 13 do - 2S,223 52 114,232 do at 15 do - 17,142 30 105,801 do embankment at 11 cts. per vard, - 11,633 11 6 do do 14 - 23.476 84 do do 15 - 47,234 85 7,090 perches of masonry, at $4.50, . 31,905 00 1,400 do do ' at §2.50, - 3,500 00 !*203.50S 76 694 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 10 Amount brought forward #203,508 76 Cost of extending rail road into Peters- burg, including bridge across the A p- poraattox, - - - 30,000 00 Do. into Richmond, including bridge across the James, - - 125,000 00 Twenty-two miles superstructure, at $3,500 per mile, - - - 77,000 00 Add for purchase of land for depots and workshops, and the erection of ne cessary buildings, - 37,000 00 For locomotive engines, cars, and car- riages, - 55,000 00 For superintendence and contingen- cies, sidelings, condemnation oflands &c. — ten per cent, on cost of road, 43,550 87 Total, $571,059 63 The above aggregate it is probable may be somewhat reduced on a definitive location. Though not much exceeding what had previously been an- ticipated by the undersigned, it will probably dis- appoint the expectations of those of the subscri- bers whose impressions as to the cost of the work were founded on that of the Richmond and Fred- ericksburg, and Petersburg rail roads. Involving, as the work in contemplation does, two expensive bridges, it could under no circumstances have been a cheap one; and the country between Richmond and Petersburg, it was presumed, would present more difficulties in the way of roadway formation than had existed on the lines of rail road above mentioned. There can scarcely however be a doubt that, even at its increased cost, the stock of the road will prove an excellent investment. Forming, as it will, the closing link in the great line of rail road communication through the state, it will of course command the northern and southern travel, whilst it will, in addition, accom- modate a local travel already considerable, and which will be necessarily very greatly increased by the execution of the work in question. In addition to travel and the mail, a handsome trade may at any rate be anticipated on the rail road. Coal for the supply of Petersburg will be conveyed on it more advantageously and cheaply than in any other manner. Cotton for the con- sumption of the manufacturing establishments in Richmond, it may be presumed, will be obtained in the same manner; and whilst, the effect of ihe improvement, by adding to the faciliiies for per- sonal intercourse between the two towns, will probably diminish the inducements for the trans- portation of produce, there can be no doubt that a fair proportion of whatever is conveyed will be secured to the road, even at some enhancement in the price of transportation. Those of the subscribers who are familiar with the travel and trade between Richmond and Pe- tersburg will be enabled to judge how far the sub- joined estimate of the receipts of the rail road will be realized. It is submitted under the belief that it does not at any rate exceed what may safely be anticipated within a very short period after the execution of the improvement. It will be unnecessary to dilate on the benefits, in other respects, which may be expected to result from the execution of the proposed work. Bring- ing the towns of Richmond and Petersburg with- in one hour's travel of each other, it will give to the merchants of either town, facilities for the transaction of an extensive business, greatly be- yond those now enjoyed by them — 1o the country tributary to each, the advantage of the capital and enterprise of both — and, to the state at large, the benefits of a commercial metropolis of twenty-five or six thousand inhabitants instead of one of se- venteen. All which is respectfully submitted. MOSCUEE ROBINSON, C. E. Richmond, Dec. 19tft, 1835. Estimate of receipts on the proposed rail road from Richmond to Petersburg. 45,000 passengers at $ 1 25, Transportation of the mail, 8,000 tons of coal, at $1, 7,000 bales of cotton, at 50 cents, Miscellaneous articles, £56,250 00 6,000 00 8,000 00 3,500 00 5,000 00 $78,750 00 Deduct fi)r expenses of transportation, officers' salaries, &c, 30,000 00 Net balance. $48,750 00 The above balance, it will be observed, would pay a dividend of between eight and nine per cent, on the cost of the work. The amount esti- mated for expense of transportation, it will be seen, is somewhat less than the proportion usually allowed. It is believed however to be ample for the business on which the estimate is predicated. Consisting, as this will principally, in the transpor- tation of persons, the net receipts of the company may be expected, from this circumstance, and the limited extent of superstructure to be renewed, to constitute an unusually large proportion of its gross income. It is left for those who may take an interest in this improvement, to determine how far its produc- tiveness will probably be increased by the execu- tion of similar improvements south and west of it. Whatever its immediate receipts may be, there can be but little doubt that these will continue to augment with the growth of the towns which it connects, and the increasing intercourse between different portions of our country. DESTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS BY GUiVPOW- IiER, TO ARREST THE PROGRESS OF FIRES. [The recent great fire in New York, a calamity un- precedented in extent and importance in this country, was at fast arrested only by the use of gunpowder, in the manner described in the extract below, which we take from the New York American. The plan is a novelty to us, and we presume must have been so to most of those then suffering, or endangered by the fire — or they would much earlier have availed them- selves of a means so powerful and efficacious, and yet so safe in its application. It would seem, that instead of forbidding the keeping of gunpowder in cities, for fear of fire, a considerable supply should be always at hand as the surest and safest means of arresting the progress of its destructive fury, when other means would be feeble or entirely unavailing ] ISSG. FARMERS' REGISTER 595 Having witnessed and assisted in the whole op- eration oi' blowing up the stores that were destroy- ed— we have the most thorough conviction that no other human means, but that of powder in the manner resorted to, would have checked the pro- gress of the flames. Broad street, and Pearl street, west of Coenties alley were, beyond all perad venture, saved from conflagration, by the blowing up of the stores in Garden street, that in Pearl street, and those in Stone street. The eflect was so manifest, that none who witnessed it can doubt about it. Not less clear is our conviction, that a much earlier re- sort to powder would have been successful in pre- serving millions that, lor the want of it, were sub- sequently consumed. It may not be uninteresting, or without use to state the mode of proceeding adopted in blowing up the stores. Two barrels of powder, generally of 100 pounds each, were taken into the cellar of the devoted building;, and placed about the -centre of it, at a small distance apart: the heads of the barrels were then knocked out, and a train, by means of planks, or lono; pieces of calico or linen, of which too many were lying about in the streets, was formed from the barrels to the exterior of the cellar door; on this, straw, of which the crates from the crockery stores supplied enough, was laid, and sprinkled plentifully with powder; the doors were then closed, and all persons desired to retire from the vicinity of the building, except the one who was to fire the train. This was done by laying a burning brand on the straw projecting from the cellar way, and on which, tor a loot or two, no powder was sprinkled. After a few mo- ments of intense suspense, a sudden flash, a rum- bling explosion, a slight tremor of the earth, the audible shivering of glass windows for a hundred yards around, a dense cloud of sulphureous smoke, and a shapeless heap of ruins, told how well the work had been done. The eflect of these explo- sions was not to project any thing at a distance, for in no one instance probably, was a fragment of any size thrown from the buildings; but rather as it. would seem, to lift up and expand the walls — so that beams, floors, merchandize and roof all fell in at once, and upon them and covering them up, the walls themselves. Hence, it was immediate- ly perceived that ihe danger apprehended by some, of killing and wounding many persons by the materials which such explosions would, i( was supposed, scatter far and wide, was not incurred, and that moreover from the compact heap in which the ruins laid, little or no additional aliment was afforded to the flames. Greater confidence was therefore felt in having recourse to such an expe- dient. GUE A.T AND DiPORTAXT IXVEXTIOX. STEA5I SUPERSEDED. [Who would liave imagined that when Homer con- ceived and uttered the fiction of Eolus' compressing the winds in leathern bags, and giving them to Ulysses to be transported wherever he pleased, thus imprison- ed and dormant, to exert all their fury when after- wards let loose, that he was describing nearly the pur- port of the specifications of the patent right stated be- low? But however striking and amusing may be the resemblance, we admit that it will not do to laugh at all new discoveries thai seem to invite ridicule, for if this test had been permitted to govern the judge ment of the world, the invention of steam navigation and steam carriages would have remained, as they were deemed at first, mere subjects for laughter. The splendid results of these once derided schemes, and many others, by which the world has been as much benefitted as disappointed, should make us hesitate in pronouncing the impracticability of any, however ri- diculous they may appear at the first view.] From the Cincinnati Whig. Our ingenious townsman, Mr. Alex. McGrew, has invented a mode for obtaining and applying power for the purpose of propelling cars upon rail roads, and boats upon canals and rivers, which we deem of the utmost importance, and which, in our opinion, must sooner or later, in a great mea- sure supersede the use of steam. The power is derived from condensed air. obtained and applied in a manner so cheap and simple, as to render the expense a matter of little or no consequence. Air used in the manner proposed by Mr. McGrew, has advantages over steam, in many essential par- ticulars. It is infinitely less liable to explosion: but in case of such an event, its power to do mis- chief is greatly diminished, because of its being unconnected with boiling water. It is likewise much more safe in consequence of its not involv- ing the slightest danger from fire. Where cars or boats are propelled by steam, there is constantly danger from this source, and numerous instances of immense destruction of life and property have therefore occurred from that element. The annoy- ance, too, arising from the sparks and smoke of steam cars, is very considerable to the traveller, but will be wholly avoided by the use of condensed air. The great and overwhelming superiority, however, of the use of the latter over the former element, consists in its economy. Air may be condensed and used upon the plan under conside- ration without scarcely any expense, except that which is incurred in the first instance in preparing the receivers and machinery. We have witnessed, by the politeness of Mr. McG., the practical operation of this invention, and we are fully convinced of its entire success. Mr. McGrew has exhibited his plan and practical mo- dels to several of the most distinguished engineers in the United States, all of whom concur in deem- ing the invention of the highest possible impor- tance, and declare their belief that it will almost entirely supersede the use of steam. The inven- tor has taken out a patent, and as the schedule fur- nished at the Patent Office by Mr. McGrew him- self; and which is attached to his letters patent, gives a full and clear explanation and description of the invention, we have obtained, and herewith submit a copy of it to our readers. Copy of the Schedule. "To all whom it may concern, he it known that I, Alexander McGrew, of Cincinnati, in the coun- ty of Hamilton, and state of Ohio, have invented or discovered a more economical mode of obtain- ing power for propelling cars upon rail roads, boats upon rivers or canals, and effecting other objects where such power may be wanted for the purposes of transportation, than has heretofore been adopt- ed- and I do hereby declare that the following is 596 F A R E G I [No. 10 a full and exact description thereof. My improve- j merit does not consist in the employment of any ; newly invented machinery, but in the using of' such power from falls or currents of water, or other natural or artificial sources of power as has [ heretofore been allowed to run to waste, and em- ploying the same for the purpose of condensing j air into suitable receivers; the elastic force of which condensed air is to be subsequently applied to the purposes herein designated. In numerous situa- tions in the courses of canals and rail roads, and of other roads and water courses, there are falls of water, waste weirs, sluices, dams, etc.; the power from which, if economized, would be am- ple for the attainment of all the ends proposed by me. I bring this into use by taking the water power from wheels or other machinery already erected, or by erecting others where they do not already exist, using any of the known construc- tions of such wheels, or other machinery as may be best adapted to the particular situations in which they are to be employed. These I connect in the ordinary way with the piston or pistons of condensing engines, constructed for the condens- ing of air, and force air thereby into suitable re- ceptacles, or reservoirs, furnished with the requi- site tubes, valves, or other appendages, by which they are adapted to the containing of air thus condensed, and to the supplying of the same in measured quantities, so as to operate upon a pis- ton for driving and propelling machinery as hii>-h as steam is now made to operate. The means of doing this does not require any description, being perfectly familiar to competent engineers. The air is to be condensed into one large stationary re- servoir, and by means of a connecting tube and stop-cock, transferred therefrom into other reser- voirs connected with the vehicle to be propelled. What I claim as my improvement in the art of propelling cars, boats, or other vehicles for trans- portation, is the employment of the waste power of water, wind, or other natural or artificial sources of power, to the condensation of air in the man- ner and for the purposes herein before set forth." From Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. ON BONES AS A MANURE, AND ON THE USE OF SEA-SHELLS, SHELL-MARL AM CORAL, FOR THE SAME UENFFICIAL PURPOSES. Introduction. The use of bones as a manure, is perhaps the most important discovery, connected with the cul- tivation of the soil, that has been made in the course of a great number of years. By means of that discovery, and the improvements therewith connected, an end is put to every difficulty in pro- ducing at home, subsistence for the people of this country. We may thus be rendered independent of foreign produce; and unless our population were greatly to increase, we should be hardly able to consume, without the aid of exportation, the great quantities of corn that can be raised, under this improved system of production. If. has be- come proverbial indeed, uthat one ton of German bone-dust, saves the importation of ten tons of Ger- man corn,'''' and that, agriculture is thus rendered in a considerable degree practicable, without, cat- tle breeding, grazing, &c. Were the advantages of the discovery restricted to the use of bones alone,* as they might possibly be exhausted, cr raised in price, it would be less important; but tot*. tunately the shells of oysters, and other fish, are found to be equally effectual. Shell-marl also, which abounds in many parts of the kingdom, may be applied to similar purposes; and coral, the banks of which are abundant even on our own coasts, is found to be equally useful. In short, it is impossible to foresee, what may be the ultimate results of this new source of improve- ment, tor by a small quantity of pounded bones or shells, great crops of turnips can be raised; and with the manure which these turnips produce, abundant crops of corn may be obtained, even on the poorest soils, with the aid of judicious rota- tions. 1. Origin of the discovery. — The important discovery, that bones were an excellent manure, was made about the year 1766, by Anthony St. Leger, Esq. a gentleman in Yorkshire, who had employed himself, for a great number of years, in a long course of speculative and practical agri- culture, and more especially in making experi- ments with almost every species of manure. f Dr. Darwin mentions it in his celebrated work on ag- riculture, "The Phytologia.^X It is likewise briefly noticed in Sir Humphry Davy's lecturcs.§ But it was not until the year 1828, that it attracted much public attention, when, by the exertions of an active and public-spirited body, (the Doncaster Agricultural Association,) much useful informa- tion, regarding the advantages of this great disco- very, was collected and published. || 2. Chemical analysis of bones. — The composi- tion of bones, according to Berzelius, is as fol- lows: Dry Hu- Dry Ox man bones. bones. Phosphate of lime, 51.04 55.45 Carbonate of lime, 11.30 3.85 Fluate of lime. 2. 2.90 Phosphate of magnesia, 1.16 2.05 Soda, muriate of soda ar d I 1.20 2.45 water, Cartilage, 32.17? 33 30 Blood vessels, 1.13 5 3. Manner in xvhich the manure operates. — It is difficult to comprehend, how so small a quanti- ty of manure, as that employed when bones are made use of, should produce such astonishing ef- fects. But the enigma has been thus explained. Though the plants receive but a small portion of benefiT from the bone manure itself, yet by means of that manure, strong young plants are produced, * The importation of bones ought to be encouraged by a public bounty, and some allowance given to the captains of vessels, who bring bones as ballast in their ships. f The first account of this manure, was published in Dr. Hunter's Gcorgical Essays, vol. ii. p. 93. \ See Sect. 10. 5. 5. § Page 252. || The association appointed a committee, to make inquiries regarding the use and advantages of bones as a manure; and the Report of the Committee of that respectable Association, (which contains much valua- ble information on the subject,) was pu lished by Ridgway, London, in 1829. 1336.] F A R M ERS' REGISTER 597 which are thus rendered capable of extracting nourishment, from the substances in which they are placed, and from the surrounding atmosphere. These are acquisitions, the power of obtaining which, sickly or stunted plants do not possess. By the same healthy nourishment, obtained in small quantities during the progress of their growth, the plants are kept in a constant slate of improve- ment. They are thus enabled to absorb the sur- rounding organic matter, to increase in size, and ultimately to reach their full weight, and utmost perfection.* 4. On the soils for which bone, manure is adopt- ed.— On light dry soils, bone manure is peculiarly applicable, and it. has likewise been found highly advantageous on peat. From 15 to 20 bushels of bone-dust per statute acre, when drilled, have feeen found to surpass, both on light soils, and on peat, the ordinary dressing of farm-yard dung, and even to exceed pigeons'1 dung and lime in producing fertility. In wet stiff land on the other hand, the nutritive part of the bones is apt to re- main on the surface, and does not so readily mix with the soil as in ground of a freer quality. If previously mixed however, with other manure in compost, it might he advantageously applied, to every species of soil, whether wet or dry, and per- haps, in many cases, might render fallows unne- cessary. 5. On compost? with bone. — It is a circumstance that seems to be well ascertained, and the prac- tice is strongly recommended by the Doncaster Association,! that a compost of bones, with duns, or other substances, is superior to bones used sing- ly. Various substances have been employed for that purpose, as six loads of farm-yard manure, to ten bushels of bone-dust — a quantity of ashes from house fires moistened with urine — five loads of burnt clay, or good earth, mixed with fifty bushels of bones — a compost of soot, rape-dust, red ashes from burnt weeds, &c. This circumstance merits particular attention, for bones in wet weather do not act, whereas if' composts are applied with bones, some of the ar- ticles employed will operate; and when the land becomes dry, the bones will probably take effect, and the crop will hardly fail in any season. When employed in compost also, the manure may be more equally spread, and more confidently relied on. Captain Barclay uses a mixture of bone-dust, and farm-yard manure, in the proportion of ten loads of farm-yard manure, to fifteen bushels of bone-dust per Scotch acre. He puts the land in ridges in the usual style, with the dung in the cen- tre, and the bone dust is sown with the turnip seed, by a drill-machine. Under this excellent system, his crops are never injured by the fly. It is important however, that the dung'shoulrl be two years old, as it will be less likely lo be infested with insects. Others recommend a dressing of eight cubic yards of ashes, and twenty bushels of crushed bones per acre, applying them separately. The ashes would first operate, and the bones would complete the production. 6. On the various modes of preparing bones. — * Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, p. 52. t Rpport, p. 20. Mr. St. Leger, who originally pointed out the ad- bone manure, was accustomed to mix a cart load of ashes, with thirty to forty bushels of bones. After they had been heated for about twenty-four hours, and begun to smoke, the whole heap was turned, and about ten days after it be- came ft for use. Others have found, that cover- ing bones with quicklime, is an excellent mode of preparing them for use. As soon as the lime be- comes effete the bones are picked out, and though retaining their form, they are easily reduced to powder by a hammer, and in that state, they may be thinly spread by hand, or by a machine.* Dr. Fenwick cf Durham, an eminent agricul- turist, has suggested to the author, the adoption of the following plan: — where there is no mill to crush bones within a reasonable distance, after chopping the bones, he recommends spreading them between two layers of earth, near a pond, or other supply of water, and to let ihe heap thus formed, be kept moist, by occasionally sprinkling it, till the manure be wanted. Fresh soils, thus mixed with bones, and watered, will heat as a dunghill and the bones will be rendered so tender by the process, that they are quickly dissolved.. As the whole substance is thus sooner applied to the plants, a smaller quantity at a time will suffice, and thus the first outlay will be diminished. The bones wanted for turnip manure, may be thus pre- pared, even some months before they are want- ed. But the general mode of preparing bones for use, is by crushing them. Bone mills, for that purpose, erected at an expense of from £100 to £200, are very common in the northern parts of England. They are chiefly in the hands of per- sons who make a trade of it. They are mostly driven by steam engines of from eight to sixteen horse power. Some machines however, are dri- ven by water, and some by horses; but it requires three relays, of two horses each, to reduce eighty bushels of rough bones per day: and farm horses have so much to do, in carrying on the operations of the farm, that, they have work enough, without being employed in crushing bones. It is better re, that this process should be undertaken by a separate profession. 7. On the proper size of bone manure for quick profit. — A decided preference is given to bones broken small, and they are frequently reduced to powder of the size of saw dust. Indeed, the more they are divided the more powerful are. their effects. But if it is desired to keep the land in good heart, the size should be about half an inch. When the bones are broken to a small size like dust, twenty-five bushels per statute acre are suffi- cient, but forty bushels are required, if the size of the bones is from half an inch lo an inch. 8. On fermenting bones. — It can hardly be doubted, that fermentation is necessary to a spee- dy benefit from bone manure, for when unfemient- ed, though laid on at the rate of even eighty bushels per statute acre, they have at first little ef- fect on (lie soil. Hence it is that bones, though in consequence of their being boiled or stewed, and passing through an oil or glue manufactory, have * Oyster shells have been advantageously treated in the same way, and have proved fully equal to bone- dust. 59S FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 10 necessarily lost some valuable parts of their sub- stance, yet having been fermented, they are prefer- able to those in a raw state,* the fibres of the tur- nips, or of any other plant, taking hold of them sooner, alter the oleaginous part, which impedes their decomposition, has been taken from them. It is in consequence of their being heated, that bones are rather improved in utility, by their be- ing kept in a great body on board a ship, either when imported from oilier countries, or conveyed at home from one port to another. Bones howe- ver, in a raw state, are superior in point of dura- tion, to those which have undergone any manufac- turing process. 9. On the advantages of bone manure, applied to arable land. — In the cultivation of arable land, bone manure is generally employed for the turnip crop. This is productive of numerous advantages; the use of this manure, diminishes labor at the season of the year, when time is of the greatest importance, for one wagon load, containing a hundred and twenty bushels of small bones, fit for the drill, equals from forty to fifty cart loads of fold manure. Its suitableness for the drill, when converted in- to dust, and its great fertilizing properties, render it peculiarly valuable in those parts, where from the distance of towns, or large villages, it is im- possible to procure manures of a heavier and more bulky description. It is evident, that there can be no seeds of weeds, or larvae of insects in bone ma- nure, which is generally the case in farm-yard dung. It is an immense advantage, (if bones are pro- perly used,) that a severe drought will not prevent a crop of turnips, even in seasons, when all other manures will fail. A number of valuable animals are thus preserved from perishing, and ma- nure obtained for the succeeding crops in the rota- tion. When bones are used, the farmer is but little troubled with the Hy or beetle, so injurious to tur- nips, for as soon as the plant reaches the bones, they immediately get into the rough leafj and no fly touches them; whereas with dung, particularly if it is only one year old, the fly is generated, and in dry weather, the continued sunshine matures them, and from want of rain or cool weather to thin them, they come into action in great num- bers, and destroy the young plant. t It has also been remarked, that the disorder, called finders and toes, has been less prevalent since bone-dust has been in use. Turnips raised by bone-dust, are said to be su- perior in quality to "those produced by any other sort of manure. They also remain quite green. when the same crop, laid down with other dress- ings, is entirely destroyed. The roots also, are quite of a different quality, being much firmer, and more nutritious, while the succeeding barley ripens earlier, and is increased in quantity. The succeeding crop of clover also, is said to be im- proved in the same proportion. In thin sandy soils, with a gravelly subsoil, if rape dust be used, it is often washed away by rain, and in very hot and dry seasons, the strength and virtues of dung are apt to be evaporated. But in * Doncaster Report, p. 9; also p. 22. fDongaster Report, pp. 0 and 10. all seasons, and under all circumstances, bone ma- nure is (bund to be productive. Bone-dust as a manure may, with comparative ease, be applied to lands at a "great distance from the homestead, or of difficult access; also in situa- tions where the surface is broken by rocks, or so steep, as to make it difficult to cover dung, (where it is used) in the drills. Turnips however, produced by bone manure, should be consumed on the ground by sheep, to prepare it for the succeeding crop of corn, as the effect of such a small quantity, cannot be supposed to continue through successive crops; but if any part of the turnips be removed, care should be taken, to clean them well when taken up, other- wise the small particles of bones, which are Ibund invariably adhering to the roots, would be carried off' the land.* It is an immense addition to all these advan- tages, that when this extraneous manure can be made use of, the dung produced on the farm, not being required for the turnips, can be advantage- ously applied to the other crops in cultivation. The following is a comparative statement of the expense of manuring an acre of land with bone- dust, and with dung, allowing forty-five imperial bushels of the former, and thirty tons of the latter, and supposing the distance of the farm, from the. place where the manure is supplied, to be five miles. To 30 tons dung, at the low price of 5s. per ton, £7 10 0 Cartage, tolls, &c. for 30 carts, at 2s. 6d. per cart, 3 15 0 £11 5 0 To 45 imperial bushels of bone-dust and drill, average price 2s. Sd. per bushel, £6 0 0 Cartage, &c, one cart, 0 2 6 6 2 6 Additional expense of an acre manured with dung, compared with one manured with bones, £5 2 6 The above great inferiority of cost, when taken into consideration with the very great difference of labor, and the greater richness and durability of bones as manure, over dung, form a very striking contrast indeed. 10. On the advantages of Bone Manure applied to grass lands. — On grass, bones should be sown in the state of powder, in autumn, by the hand, or ifthe quantity allowed is small, early in the spring;f but previous to its application as a top-dressing, the five coulter cutting plough, or scarificator, should be employed to open the ground. The ma- nure has thus a more speedy influence upon the grasses. There is less waste of it, and its etfecls are more beneficial and complete, than when it is merely thrown upon the surface, and left to work its own way, without any such assistance. When thus managed, bones have a greater effect on ^ grass lands, than even on arable.f The cows * Hints from Mr. Grey of Millfield. j-If bruised bones were used they might interrupt the progress of the scythe. JDonoaster Report, p. 14. 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 509 pastured on lands thus manured, are so much im- proved in condition, that they will produce about twice the quantity of butter, than when feeding upon land of similar quality, but not boned: and the pasture, in regard both to quantity and quality, is greatly ameliorated tor a number of years. When the field is in hay, the crop is likewise more abundant— the aftergrass more nutritious — and the herbage it produces is so peculiarly sweet, that cattle and sheep wdl hang upon it, as long as they can find a blade of grass to devour.* But we are told, that bone manure is an article that may be exhausted, and that a supply cannot be confidently relied on. That idea however, can- not be admitted. Bones might be brought, even in considerable quantities, in ballast, from the most distant countries; and from the Brazils, where cat- tle are so cheap, as to be killed for the sake oftheir hides alone, the supply would probably be abun- dant. Besides, there are many other substances, as horns, the shells of sea-fish, coral, and shell marl, which may answer the same purpose, and the produce of which is perfectly inexhaustible. Horns are found to be a more powerful manure than even bones, for they contain a larger quanti- ty of decomposible animal matter, but being much used in various manufactures, their shavings or turnings alone, are applicable to agricultural pur- poses; and though they form an excellent manure, yet they are not sufficiently abundant to be much used. They are sown by the hand, as a top-dress- ing for wheat, and other crops. f Shells of Sea-Fish. — As bones are likely to be- come rather a scarce article, it may be difficult to England, instituted some comparative expert The addition which this plan would make, to the value of the counties of Caithness, of Forfar and other districts in Scotland, where shell-marl abounds, is hardly to be credited. Corals. — If every other substance of a similar quality were to fail, it is a fortunate circumstance, that corals might be obtained in inexhaustible quan- tities. Banks of them have been found in some of the Western Islands of Scotland, and in the parishes of Southend in Argyleshire, and of Loch Broom in Ross-shire. It is well known that corals are of animal origin, and wherever they have been tried, their effects have been highly gratifying. Conclusion. By these important discoveries in the art of ag- riculture, an end is put, to all the fanciful divisions of our soils, by political economists, into a certain number of zones, according to their supposed fer- tility. All these zones, by means of these discove- ries, may be rendered equally productive. Alrea- dy, it has been completely ascertained, that, by means of bone-dust, the poorest,coldest, and most humid lands, in various parts of England, have been brought into the highest state of cultivation, and improved in regard to their produce and in— tenseness of fertility. It can no longer be doubted, that, by means of bones, and the other substan- ces above enumerated, the coldest clay, and poor- est heaths, may be rendered productive. A foreign agriculturist, astonished at the im- mense exportation of bones from the Continent of supply them in quantities adequate to the demand it is a most fortunate circumstance therefore, that the shells of oysters and other sea-fish, when pro- perly reduced in size, have been found equally useful as a manure. Their utility would be much increased, if they were sprinkled with sulphuric acid, by the addition of which they would be con- verted into gypsum. Shell- Marl. — Among the articles that may be used in aid of bone-dust, there is none better cal- culated to raise abundant crops of turnips, than shell-marl. It consists of calcareous matter, the broken and partially decayed shells of fresh water fish, found often in morasses, and at the bottom of lakes and ponds. It possesses great stimulating properties, and is highly beneficial in fertilizing the soil. There can be no doubt therefore, that it furnishes the means of producing various crops, and turnips in particular, if employed in the same way as bone-dust, namely, inserting it into the drills, with the turnip seed. There is every rea- son indeed to hope, that its growth would thus be rendered so rapid, as to prevent the attacks of the fly. The field should be put in drills in the usual style; a moderate quantity of fish manure, or fer- mented dung, say at the rate of two tons per acre, put in the centre of the drills, and the turnip seed and shell-marl mixed together, sown by a drill machine above the fish or dung. By this simple process, immense crops of the Swedish, as well as the common turnip, might be obtained; and perhaps that sull more valuable plant, the mangold wurtzel, might likewise be suc- cessfully cultivated. *Worgan's Survey of Cornwall, p. 130. t Davy's Lectures on Agricultural Cliemislry, p 253. ments, the results of which prove, that bone-dust acts in the cultivation of grain, when compared to the best stable manure, — 1. In respect to the qualify of the corn, as 7 to 5 2. In respect to quantity, as 5 to 4 3. In respect to durability of the energy of soils, as 3 to 2 It is a strong argument also, in favor of bone manure, that it is found to benefit, not only the particular crop to which it is applied, but that it extends its influence to the succeeding ones, and that, even in the following courses, its effects are visible, in the improved quality of the soil, and the efficiency of a smaller quantity of bones, than was at first necessary to insure a crop. It may be proper to conclude this interesting in- quiry, with some general remarks on the utility of manures. It has been justly observed, that all vegetables, naturally incline to that state in which they existed, when sown and produced by the hand of nature, without any artificial aid; and that the great ob- jects of agriculture are, 1. To keep up vegetables in that unnaturally luxuriant state, in which they are brought by cultivation; and, 2. To preserve their health, and distinct character and proper- ties, while they are in that state. For these im- portant purposes, the application of manures is necessary. It is not essential however, that the manure applied should, in all cases be sufficient to maintain that unnatural luxuriance of the plant, which it has acquired in the course of its cultiva- tion, lor many plants, in particular turnips and po- tatoes, draw nourishment from the atmosphere as 600 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 10 well as the soil, and consequently do not require the same quantity of manure, as in the case of corn, where the growth of the plant, in a great measure, depends upon the fertility and richness of the soil.* [The foregoing article is from the Addenda to the last edition of Sinclair's Code of Agriculture, and may be supposed to present whatever was known of the valuable properties of bone manure. But there is one objectionable part, which by attempting to prove too much, might, with some well informed readers, weaken the sound testimony of the balance. We refer to the recommendation of pounded oyster shells as a substi- tute for bones, of equal value. Pounded oyster shells are almost a pure calcareous manure, consisting of carbonate of lime entirely, except a very small por- tion of gelatinous animal matter. None of our rea- ders will charge us with underrating the value of such * See some ingenious observations, entitled, Re- ' marks on Manures, and on the Action of Ground I Bones on Plants, and the Sod. Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 1. p. 43. Mi\ Mason of Chilton tried j the following experiment: "He applied forty bushels "of bones, broken small, with eighty bushels of burnt "soil, to one acre, and to an acre immediately adjoin- "ing, forty gallons of unrefined whale oil, (which cost "8£d. per gallon,) mixed with one hundred and twen- "ty bushels of screened oil." This last mixture was made one month before it was used. The result was, that the soil and oil gave him at the rate of 23 tons, 5 cwt. 6 st. per acre, while the bones and burnt soil pro- duced 21 tons, 18 cwt. 6 st. per acre, making therefore, a decisive difference, in favor of the fine earth and oil. See the Doncaster Report, p. 30. The attention of the spirited farmer, to its impoi tant experiment, cannot be too strongly recommended, for oil would be a much more accessible species of ma- nure than even bone-dust, and could be had in greater quantities, and at a cheaper rate. The want of an expi rimental farm, to try the effect of such experiments as these, is deeply to be lamented. In the interim, it is highly desirable, that agri associations should endeavor to supply the deficiency, by a diligent inquiry into the practices of different farmers, and a publication of the most important im- provements, which they have respectively discovered. This is an advantage, which has not hitherto been ob- tained to the extent it ought, owing to the attention of the public, not being hitherto sufficiently called to the immediate and extensive advantages which would re- sult from habits of inquiry. Hence, owing to the want of communication and intercourse on practical farming subjects, the improvements adopted by one farmer, are unknown, even among his nearest neighbors. It is next to impossible, that hundreds and even thousands of in- telligent men, should be in the practice of directing and superintending agricultural operation, without ma- king some improvements in their method; and it can- not be doubted, that the advantages accruing from the improvements they have discovered, might be made equally available to all other farmers. But unfortu- nately, from the seclusion connected with a life, en- tirely devoted to the pursuits of agriculture, individu- als are not led, by the great impetus of self-interest, to make their improvements public; on the contrary, they are frequently inclined to conceal them. This great deficiency can best be supplied, by means of ag- ricultural associations making a diligent collection of facts, and communicating them for the public benefit. See the valuable Report of the Doncaster Association, p. 32. a manure: but highly as we would estimate it, its chemical composition is altogether dilt'erent from that of bones — and its action as manure may be supposed to be also quite different — as it certainly is greatly in- ferior to that of bones, which consist of phosphate of lime, combined with a very large proportion of gelati- nous or other alimentary animal matter. Sir John Sinclair's agricultural works stand deservedly high: but, as we have elsewhere remarked, so voluminous a writer has been necessarily furnished by others with much the greater part of the matter of his writings — and as a consequence (in some degree per- haps unavoidable) some passages and statements of facts are admitied, which a stricter scrutiny would either have rejected, or so explained as to present quite a different aspect. The author of so many works was n cessarily, like the editor of an agricul- tural journal, principally a compiler and publisher of other men's opinions — but the difference is, that while an editor is responsible for no opinion which he merely publishes, or selects from other journals, the compi- ling author makes the materials of others his own pro- perty— and if his name is high authority, he thus, through want of examination, gives currency and im- portance to mistakes or false statements. The idea that "the utility [of sea shells] would be much increased by sprinkling them with sulphuric arid, by the addition of which they would be converted to gypsum," is as ridiculous as any practicable scheme of the philosophers of Laputa. In addition to the enormous and unnecessary expense of thus manufac- turing gypsum, the result would be to give to the soil a manure entirely different in chemical composition — and which, however valuable in suitable applications, mightbe useless and wasted, where the shells would be most necessary and profitable.] EXTRACTS FROM THE ?i Ae.TSCRirT NOTES OF A FARMER. [Continued from page 539.] Letter III. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Holmesburg, Nov. 22, 1835. I thought you would lecture me about slavery. If'I should say any thing which you think might ffive offence, pray alter it or strike it out — hut I have no such wrong and foolish intention. I am no abolitionist. I do not view slavery as a crime, but. an error — alike injurious to all future and pep* manent interests. Doubtless it has great and beneficial effects, otherwise it never would have been permitted to exist. But it is clearly not. a permanent institution. If it is viewed as a crime, every one who pays wages below the bread and meat power of subsistence, in ihe North, in Ena't;.;'tre. It' we observe a plant during ihe various stages of its vegetation, we shall perceive at these diffe- rent periods very remarkable difference in ihe odor, taste, consistency, &c; from this circumslance we must suppose that it forms new products, new combinations, and consequently new salts. The alkaline salts are the most abundant in green herbaceous plants. JVI. de Saussure has ob- served, ihat the ashes of young plants that grew upon a poor soil, contained at least | oftheir weight of alkaline salts, and that those of leaves of trees which grew from their buds contained at least £. The proportion of alkaline salts diminishes in proportion as the plants advance in age ; this re- mark ap.plies equally to annual plants and to the leaves of ihose trees that shed their foliage in au- tumn. The ashes of seeds contain a greater pro- portion of alkaline salts, than those of the plants that produced them. These facts are very important to those who are engaged in the manufacture of salts furnished by the combustion of vegetable substances; since they show clearly that it cannot be equally advantage- ous to them to consume all sorts of plants, nor at all periods of their growth. Next to the alkaline salts, the earthy phos- phates of lime and magnesia are the most abundant in plants, and like the first, these diminish in quan- tity in proportion to the age of the plant. Plants also contain, but in very small proportions, silica, and some metalic oxides, especially those of iron. 1S36.] FARMERS' REGISTER 611 From the Lynchburg Virginian. AX ESSAY, READ BEFORE THE AGRICULTU- RAL SOCIETY OF ALBEMARLE. In obedience to a resolution of the society re- quiring of me an essay upon some agricultural subject, I shall proceed, hastily to give, first, some general views on the subject of ploughing. Deep ploughing, is certainly the first great step towards improvement; it not only facilitates the improve- ment of the land, but it is a safeguard against the drought, and also the washing rains of summer, which we olten suffer from — especially the corn crop. But the great advantages resulting li'om deep ploughing do not stop here — by it, you bury all seed injurious to the land and crop so deep, that they never vegetate, leaving a clean surface for the seed sown. Good ploughing, however, can- not be done, without good ploughs, of which we have very lew. The iM'Cormick plough, when well made, is a good plough for light foul land, but it has not sufficient strength lor rough, or turfy land; and I have never seen one that would stand a draught of three strong horses, and that would not get out of order in one season, and often in one day. The plough which I think best adapted to our eoil, and would recommend to the society, is the bar-share. I have used this plough for more than thirty years, and I believe the improvement of my farm is more indebted to good ploughing than any thing else. I will endeavor to exhibit one for the inspection of i lie members of the society, and would urge them to adopt some mode by which they could be produced. The bar-share has ma- ny advantages over any other plough — one great advantage is the coulter, another is the peculiar shape of the mould board, which does not offer so great a resistance to the surface, and at the same time turns the soil more effectually. I have been ploughing from eight to twelve, inches deep with this plough ever since I have been farming, without ever in one single instance injuring my land, but on the contrary, greatly to its improve- ment. There is however, one great mystery with res- pect to deep ploughing, which I have not been able to solve to my satisfaction, and which I would .like so:ve of the members of the society, more conversant with the subject than myself, to ex- plain: it is this — no matter how much clay you turn up in flushing your land, in one season it all disappears, and you see nothing but good soil again upon the surface. One more, observation upon the subject of deep ploughing, and i shall then pass to another important subject connected with agriculture. i\ is certainly very desirable to have a deep soil for profitable cultivation, and if nature has not provided it, art must be resorted to. Long experience has convinced me of this fact, that just as deep as your plough goes, so deep will your soil be.* I will now submit a few remarks on the second •These remarks are doubtless correct as to the red lands of Albemarle, which posssss such rare and valu- able qualities. But they would not apply to shallow soils incumbent oa a steril subsoil, whether of sand or clay.— Ed. Farm. IIf.q. step towards improving — that is, the carefully making and taking care of manure. How few of us make one-half of what we might, and how very important an item it is, in the account of farming. There, are many opinions as fto the time, and mode ot using it. Convenience has al- ways dictated the time, the quantity being the greatest, object with me. 1 have always thought it unimportant whether you make use of it on the surlace, or plough it under. By using it on the surface, the first crop derives a greater benefit from it than by ploughing it under — but by plough- ing it. under, the second and succeeding crops de- rive a Greater benefit, than by using it on their surface, and is to be preferred, except tor the wheat crop, which I think best to harrow in with the wheat. One advantage, however, of the surlace mode, is, that the clover is more apt. to succeed well, on soils not particularly kind to the produc- tion of that invaluable crop. As there are other subjects to which I wish to call the attention of the society, I should be consuming more of its time than the present occasion would admit of, were I to dwell more lengthily upon this impor- tant branch of my essay. I would now invite the attention of the society to the great advantage to be derived from having a farm entirely rid of all pests to which our soil is so liable. Long experience has proved to me, that a farm of this character, may be worked to a greater advantage with almost half the number of hands, than one infested with pests, such as thistle, mullein, St. Johns's wort, wild carrot, and many others, not less objectionable and equally injurious to the land. The remedy which I have adopted is to keep a large stock of cattle. I am very well aware, that this is considered by many (and some judicious farmers too) as bad management; but I have found that, my farm, if not improved aa fast, is at least clean, and improvement is facili- tated; and, it is in fact almost the onl}' mode of get- ting rid of the sassafras. Another very important subject to which your attention is invited, and one attended with econo- my to the farmer, (which is certainly an important consideration and recommendation to any plan connected with the operations of alarm) is that of stone fencing, which is indeed "killing two birds with one stone:" for while you are moving a great pest, you are securing to yourself a lasting fence, and one that is no inconsiderable ornament to your farm. My farm is nearly half enclosed with a fence of this kind, and I find it much cheaper than cutting and hauling rails every lew years. There are a great variety of opinion? as to the best mode of constructing a stone fence — but 1 have found the following "to be the most durable, or, in other words, least liable to tumble. It is of course im- portant to give, the stone work depth of foundatior sufficient to place it beyond the influence of the frost. The fence should be eight feet wide at the base, and three feet high, and from six to eight inches on the top; upon this place, a lasting rail either of chestnut or heart pine. At intervals of eight feet, I let into the ground locust stakes, on both sides inclining to the wall and crossing on the rail: in live lock or cross ot' the stakes, another rail is placed, which keeps the entire lence perfect- ly secure; a lence on this plan, may be said, to be •'•as las'ing as the. hills/' 01/s«rvin-s in the orchard were much fiitter than those which had been led on corn, and confirmed to thrive until they were entirely fat, not having had one grain of corn — and I would venture at this time, to challenge a comparison with any lot of hogs that can be pro- duced. I sincerely hope that others may he induced, from this experiment, to turn their apples into pork, instead of permitting them to full and rot upon the ground. I conclude my humble contributions to the so- ciety, by offering to you, gentlemen members, my unfeigned thanks for the honor you have, confer- red upon me. JOHX H. CEAVE3T. From the Silk Culturist. PItOFIT OF A HliMP CROP COMPARED WITH SILK CULTURE. We are indented to the politeness of Samuel Chew, Esq., of Lexington, Kentucky, for an esti- mate of the cost and profit of a crop of hemp, coupled with a request, that we will compare it with a silk crop in New England. We cheerfully comply with the request, prefacing, however, the remark that from the rich bottoms of Kentucky, a much larger crop of silk' may be expected than from the ordinary land of New England. With respect to the labor necessary lor a hemp crop, Mr. Chew says: "I wish very much for a far comparison between the silk and our staple, which is hemp. I will give you the cost of an acre of hemp. As it takes the best land, the renl is worth, - $4 00 The land must be ploughed at least twice; the best farmers plough three times and harrow twice, which will take a learn two days, at $1 a day, is It takes one and a half bushels of seed, at $1 a bushel, ... Cutting the hemp will take two days, at -;1 per day, - Tying it in bundles and stacking, one and a half days, - Spreading it down to rot, one day, Breaking is always done by the short hun- dred, as we call it, of 100 lbs, 817 60 Five hundred pounds, of 112 lbs. to the hundred, which we sell by, is a good average crop to the acre, and $5 a hundred, may be called the average price for the last ten years, with the ex- ception of the last, will give $25 as the product of an acre well cultivated, $25 00 o 00 1 50 2 00 1 50 1 00 5 60 the work done, which is nearly impossible, as it is very dirty, and so laborious that scarcely any white man will workat itjofcourseit is entirely done by slave labor. A stout, man will make nine or ten acres, when well managed; and as it does not interfere widi a corn, or scarcely any other crop, may make something besides. Thus you see, a stout man will make from two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars. Negro women cannot la- bor at hemp at all, and are scarcely worth any tiling. Although our crop docs not appear so visionary as your silk crop does per acre, from your least calculations of from one hundred and forty, to five hundred dollars; yet as a whole, will it be as good as hemp to slave holders? If' near it, I assure you, I for one, will quit hemp. I wish a fair comparison, and if it cannot be obtained through the medium of your paper, how am 1 to obtain it? We have long been of the opinion that the culture of silk is peculiarly adapted to slave labor, especially females, infirm male adults, and chil- dren of both sexes. .Little muscular strength is required, and no more judgement and skill than ordinary negroes may exercise under the care and direction of a judicious and attentive overseer. With respect to the comparative profit, we would refer Mr. Chew to the communication of Messrs. Cheney in the last No. of the Culturist. According to their estimate, 14,000 Chinese plants of two years giowth to the acre, would furnish 35,000 lbs. of foliage, which would be sufficient to make at least 350 lbs. of silk, worth, after deducting the ex- pense of reeling $1050. The labor necessary to attend a family of worms sufficient to make that quantity of silk could not exceed 230 days, which being estimated at a dollar a day, and deducted from the gross amount would leave, a nett profit of §820. The experiment of those gentlemen has not been completely tried, yet we have little doubt of the capacity of the lands and climate, of Ken- tucky, to produce it. We see no difficulty in the way of a successful prosecution of the culture of silk in connexion with the culture of hemp, on the Kentucky plan- tations. The silk crop is not. commenced until some time after the time of cowing hemp is passed, and it is finished before the hemp crop is ready lor harvest. Help also which would be worthless on the hemp crop may be profitably employed on the silk crop, and the nett income of the plantation is thereby astonishingly increased. Nett profit, $7 40 Seventy-five pounds being a man's task to break in a day, will leave us the above sum of $25 for fourteen days work; or $7 40, if we could hire From the Silk Culturist. LABOR REQUIRED FOR SILK CULTURE. It is difficult to make accurate estimates of the labor required in feeding and attending a fam- ily of silk worms of a given number; as there are several circumstances which tend to increase or diminish it materially — such as the distance the foliage is from the cocoonery — the size of the trees and the quantity of their leaves — the variety of the tree, whether Chinese or Italian, &c. &c. The following estimate, however, has been made, by a correspondent of the New York Farm- er, which may be regarded by ihe culturist as ac- curate as any thing he can find on the subject, short of actual experiment. "The labor required to at- tend 1,000,000 worms would be, the first week, 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 613 two persons; for the second, four; for (he third, eight; lor the remaining two, Qfteen or twenty." Tins will make an aggregate amount of 324 days necessary lor a family of this number. The same writer estimates the product of this number at 500 pounds, which, at present prices, cannol be estimated at less than s3 a pound, after deduct- ing the expense of reeling. If these statements are to he relied on, it will be easy to calculate the nett profit, which may be ex- pected from 1,000,000 worms. The, gross profit being $1500, the expense of the labor is to be, de- ducted. Calling this a dollar a day, which is the highest it can be called, it will amount to which being deducted as aforesaid, would leave a nett profit of £1.176. But when the fact is taken into consideration, that most of the labor can be performed by bo\ s and girls, and aged women, its expense will be materially diminished, and the profit proportionably increased. From the Silk Culturist. PRICE OF MAKING COCOONS. In most of our estimates of the profits of a mul- berry plantation, we have put down the labor of making silk at three-fourths of its value, and in no instance less than one-half A few days since a silk grower from Mansfield informed us that he was readv to contract for making cocoons at $1 a bushel, which is one. third of the price they are now selling at the silk factory in this city. He re- marked that he could furnish the help and make a fair profit at that price. From this statement it will be seen that foliage sufficient to make a bushel of cocoons is worth, on the tree, £2.00, and ac- cording to to the quantity ordinarily consumed in making a bushel, one and a half cents a pound. Takingthis as the basis of a calculation, a firmer may readily ascertain the income he may derive from this source, without interfering with his other agricultural operations. The sale of mulberry foliage is a very important article of traffic in Eu- rope and Asia, and we have no doubt, will soon be, in America. Every farmer who sets out mulberry- trees will very soon derive a fair profit from them, though he may not be disposed to engage in the culture of silk. We hope no firmer will neglect to provide in this manner, a fund from which, both himself and his posterity may draw at pleasure. TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIE- TY OF PENSVLVANIA. The second half volume of this work has recently been published, and is a splendid monument of the public spirit and liberality of the Society, and of the individual members of whose labors it records. We have learned, with more regret than surprise, that this very expensive publication has exhausted the funds of the Society. Compensation for even the pecuniae expense of the publication was probably not counted on, and will certainly not be found. But it well be- comes every wealthy friend to science, and to the best interests of our country, to bear a small portion of this expense, and at the same time serve himself, by adding this valuable work to his library. We profess not to be able fully to appreciate the value of this and simi^ lar works, and unfortunately but few persons in Vir- ginia, as yet, are much better informed on this very important branch of science. But all those who are as little instructed as we are, may profit well by an examination of this volume, even though the benefit be limited to their learning what vast and rich resources such investigations may present, and how greatly they are needed to bring to light the natural resources, and the (as yet) dead capital of every country, and none more than of Virginia. If more is wanting to induce Virginians to lend such slight aid to these noble ef- forts of the Geological Society, they may be present- ed in the fact that a large proportion of the papers are devoted particularly to the geology of portions of this state, and must serve greatly to develope our mineral resources and wealth. Especially, all individuals concerned in coal lands, and in mining of every kind, will find much interesting matter, and in many cases, in reference to their own individual labors, or posses- sions. It will be a laudable, though very small return for important value conferred by this Society, if the legislature of Virginia would purchase as many copies at least as to furnish one to every College and public library in the state. However small the means, this and similar measures would aid the most important public w rk now in successful progress, of a general geological survey of Viig'nia, by fostering the growth of a taste for such investigations, gaining favor for them from intelligent inquirers in all parts of the state, and by aiding and directing their examinations, might put to work hundreds of private individuals, who would gather and treas re up numerous facts, by ob- servations made in advance, and yet essentially in aid, of the future examinations of the geological surveyor. Besides other papers of general application and in- terest, the following are reports on subjects belonging to Virginia, and several of which required much time, labor, and science to investigate, and the results of which are here presented to the many who may profit by these gratuitous labors. Memoir of a section passing through the Bitumin- ous Coal Field, near Richmond. Analysis of some of the coal of the Richmond mines. Notice of a geological examination of the country between Fredericksburg and Winchester, including the gold region Review of geological phenomena, &c. in two hun- dred and fifty miles of sections in parts of Virginia and Maryland. Account of travertin deposited by the Sweet Spring waters (already re-published in the Farmers' Register.) Observations on a portion of the Atlantic Tertiary region. We shall hereafter extract some of the portions that may be found suitable to our work — though the choice will be very limited, owing to the necessity of our omitting the plates which are so often required for il- lustration, and with which the volume of Transactions is profusely and beautifully embellished. Some of the most expensive plates are representations of fossil bones, such as are often found by our marl digging farmers, but which are rarely preserved to aid scientif- ic investigations. In this manner, many persons might easily aid the labors of the Society: and for this pur- 614 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 10 pose we invite our friends, and especially our iormer neighbors, to take care of such fossil bones as may be found, of large size, or in an unusually perfect state of preservation, and to place them in our hands, to be sent to the Geological Society of Pennsylvania. From the Magazine of Natural History. EGGS PRESERVED FRESH BY LIME-WATER. The method of preserving fowls' eggs in lime- water for eating is well known, but does not seem to be practised as it deserves to be. We are still using eggs at breakfast which were preserved in April last year; and (hey are as good as the day they were laid, retaining the milkiness and deli- cate taste peculiar to a new-laid egg. I had one, two days ago, marked "1st April" (then, of course, ten months and nineteen days old,) with all the characteristics of a newly laid one. It is lime-wa- ter, in fact, that we use, and the eggs are mostly warm when put into it. None of them are allow- ed to be twenty-ibur hours old: this is essen- tial, I believe. The shells arc liable to crack in the boiling; but the eggs do not burst; and [only] a very ihw of them have a slight curdy flavor, not unpleasant, however, to those who like new eggs. A SUBSCRIBER. Tale of Jlford, Aberdeenshire, Feb. 22, 1833. ON THE TILLAGE OF INDIAN CORN. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Montgomery Co. Md.Jan. 15, 1836. I have observed several pieces lately in your valuable Register, on the cultivation of corn, and as they all differ from the system that I have been pursuing lor several years with great success, I am induced to present it for the experiment of those who may not be so fortunate in their present practice. My farm of 520 acres is divided into seven fields, of about sixty acres each — one. of which is put in corn — two are in wheat — one in rye — and three in clover — so that it will be per- ceived, that a field goes in corn but once in seven years — and my rotation of crops is such that it re- mains in clover and blue grass, with which, by this time, it becomes too thickly set for any other crop, two years, or eighteen months previous to its going in corn. I greatly prefer for corn, a field that has yielded no crop the year previous: it is more capable of sustaining the heavy demand that is required of it — and the sod, which if turned well under, will be decomposing throughout the summer, will tend to ameliorate the land, and con- tribute materially to i lie support of the growing crop. I prefer breaking such a field in the spring. If broken in the fall, it becomes too compact dur- ing the winter, and you must either cross-plough, or list in the spring, which brings the sod upon the surface unrotted — adds materially to the labor of keeping the corn clean when young, and defeats the other goods effects that I have stated would result from having it well covered. As early in the spring as the ground will admit, and I never plough when the ground is wet or heavy, I start two large three-horse ploughs, drawn by three strong horses— with directions, which I see execu- ted, to my ploughmen, to plough as deep as the horses can draw the plough, and in every instance in which they skip a place, from the plough being thrown out by a stone, or other cause, to cut it on their return — being fully satisfied that the success of every crop mainly depends upon the prepara- tion of the land previous to planting. After the field is broken, which takes from fifteen to twenty days, I start two large three-horse harrows, and harrow first the way it was ploughed, and then cross-harrow, which if the spring is favorable, prepares it as nicely as if intended to be sown in wheat. It is then laid off in rows four leet apart, which finishes the preparation for planting. I prefer checked, to either step or drilled corn, where the land is not too steep, because it enables you to substitute the plough for ihe hoe— a much more expeditious, and I think, effectual mode of cultiva- tion. But even in checked corn, I would not en- tirely dispense with the hoe. There is no imple- ment so effectual in cleansing and cultivating corn when so small that the plough cannot approach sufficiently near without danger of coveriuo; or loosening the plant — but one hand-working I deem all sufficient, and that, merely to remove any little grass which may have sprung up near the corn, or to loosen (he ground in case it should have become encrusted when the corn is young. But in step, or drilled corn, it must be used at least twice, or of- tener, to cleanse or loosen ihe step or space be- tween the hills; for although many adopt the smothering system, by throwing the earth with the plough in upon the step, and thus covering the grass, 1 am decidedly of opinion, it is best, to remove it. Having every thing in readiness, my plaster and unleached ashes mixed, (which I do on my barn floor, by first sifting the ashes to re- move all fire-coal*, and lumps of other matter.) I take equal proportions of each, and have it well mixed, and put in barrels which I lake to the field, and have placed in a row directly through the centre of the cut intended to be planted, so that the two who drop the mixture, drop from the centre to one extremity of the row and return, which gives them time to replenish their bag or apron, and be in readiness for the. plough and corn dropper on their return. My force in planting consists of a ploughman, one who drops the corn, two the mixture, and four who cover. The num- ber of hills that will be in each row is ascertained and divided between the four coverers in propor- tion to their strength. The plough then starts crossing the rows that have been laid off four feet apart. At their intersection the corn dropper drops from four to six grains, and is followed immediate- ly byr the dropper of the mixture, who drops about a larire table spoon full directly upon the corn, which is instantly covered. So that the whole operation is carried on in the same row. This keeps those who cover separate, and prevents conversation, which invariably leads 1o neglect, of their work — enables you to apportion the labor where vour hands are of unequal strength, and at dinner, at night, or in case of a rain coming up hastily, to leave no row unfinished. Having com- pleted the planting, Ihe field remains until it re- quires replanting. As soon as the corn grows to be three or four inches high, if there has been no heavy rain to bake the land (in which event I first run the double-shovel plough,) I start a two-horse harrow with such of the teeth as would follow im- mediately" in the row being first removed, and a little boy who follows after with a light rake to re- 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER 615 move any stones or clods that may be drawn on the corn. The hoes then follow, remove any grass that may be near the corn, loosen such hills as the harrow may have missed, and set up, and draw a little earth around such plants as the har- row may have prostrated or exposed. The corn is then thinned, leaving two stalks in a hill, and receives two shallow ploughings with the double- shovel plough, which brings it to about the 15th or 20th of June. I then give it a deep ploughing, with a single shovel plough, which brings up the sod that had been turned under in the spring thoroughly rotted, which affords sustenance to the corn at the period when it most requires it — and after it has acquired sufficient rise to shade and cover the ground from the exhausting influence of the sun. It then remains until I finish my har- vest, which is generally between the 5th and 10th of July, when I again run ihe double-shovel plough with a view to level and cleanse the land preparatory to seeding rye, which generally takes place about the 10th of September. The follow- Big spring the field is sowed in clover and plas- tered. I have thus, Mr. Editor, submitted to your dis- posal, a detailed statement of my system in the cultivation of corn. The farming interest, and not my supposed mortification at not seeing it ap- pear in your valuable work, will, 1 hope, be your only consideration as to its publication. ADDRESS DELIVERED BY JAMES M. GAR- NETT, ESQ., PRESIDENT, BEFORE THE FREDERICKSBURG AGRICULTURAL SOCIE- TY, AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING, ON FRI- DAY, THE 13th NOVEMBER, 1835. Gentlemen — Members of the Agricultural Soci- ety of Fredericksburg — As I have never been a systematic man in any thing, and have had 16 or 17 years experience of your kind indulgence lor this failing of mine, I will once more presume that ycu are still willing to take me — as every man takes his wife — "for bet- ter, for worse," and shall therefore proceed to ad- dress you in my usual desultory way. First, I will venture to present you with a little of that gratuitous donation which every man is so fond of bestowing; but. very few of taking and applying to any useful purpose. I mean — advice. I ought perhaps to abstain, since so many millions before me have failed to accomplish any good by it; but the signs of the times, I think, afford the most cheering hopes, that on the present occasion it will not. be altogether thrown away. This ad- vice is — to cultivate and encourage, by all the ef- forts in your power, that appetite for scientific ag- riculture, which is now so prevalent, as the only sure basis of all good practice, of all real improve- ment. That both these are ''looking up" (as the mercantile men say,) I infer from the increased circulation of agricultural Journals, such, for ex- ample, as those two excellent works "The Far- mers' Register" and "The Cultivator" — both of which contain much valuable information in re- fard to all the branches of husbandry. These, y the way, cannot be too strongly recommended; for both are edited by men of unquestionable tal- ent, knowledge, and agricultural skill, whose ex- perience and high standing in their respective States form a sufficient guarantee for the utility of any thing they will sanction with their names. Both these Journals and all their ablest correspon- dents concur with me in most earnestly recom- mending to all agriculturists, that they should base agricultural practice upon agricultural science. Indeed, the recommendation to combine sound science with practice — as the best means of per- fecting the latter — may be safely adopted as a uni- versal rule, applicable, not only to husbandry, but to all irades, professions, and callings — nay to all the legitimate pursuits of life with which, what we understand by the term, practice, has any thing to do. For example, if you wish for power, the certain course is, to ga ?i knowledge; do you desire fame, you must obtain knowledge first; would you accumulate great riches, much knoivledge is requi- site for the task; above all, should you seek the greatest comforts, conveniences, and highest en- joyments of life, it is indispensable to acquire knoicledgc, sound, useful, scientific knowledge. In short to gain this inestimable treasure is our great duty in our present state of existence, and accor- ding as it. is fulfilled or violated will assuredly be our condition both here and hereafter. This, perhaps, may be "travelling" a little "out of the record" as our brethren of the bar would say; but in extenuation I will urge, that such ex- cursions have often the good effect of attracting at- tention to useful remarks which, otherwise, would pass unheeded, if anticipated as matters of course. With this excuse for my deviation from the beaten tract, I shall proceed to another subject of quite a different character. This wiil be to give you the results of various experiments, made by myself, and of some made by others, since our last meet- ing. I shall state them, rather in the proof of my determination to follow the course which I have so often recommended to all my brother members, of reporting annually their experience, than for any peculiar value which I attach to them. JBut the whole body of husbandry being made up of a great number of minute facts and particulars, they must be given in detail by a considerable number of individuals, or it would hardly be prac- ticable to collect them at all. The first two experiments which I will mention have already been stated in the Farmers' Regis- ter, but, as all our members do not take that very useful paper, I will state them again. From one pint of skinless oats, drilled in a square of my garden, nine inches apart one way and two inches the other, as near as I could have it done, I obtained one hundred and sixteen pints; one of my brothers made five pints from fifty-seven grains. The oats in my garden covered a space of 247 square yards, and would have yielded somewhat more, 1 think, but 3 spots — each 6 or7 feet square — . were lodged and consequently injured. The oats,, when ripe, stood at the average height of about 4 feet, and the grain weighed 47 pounds per bushel. The ground between the drills was hand-hoed twice, and the drills hand-wed twice. From half a gallon of blue-stem wheat — also drilled — I obtained forty-two half gallons, weigh- ing sixty-one pounds per bushel. The half gallon was drilled, late in October 1834. in some land, from Avhich I had taken a crop of Irish potatoes, manured with stable manure in the trenches. These were reversed in digging, so as to bury the 616 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 10 vines between. The top of these new ridges, in which the vines were partially decayed, were chopped down, and trenches opened on them about 2 or 3 inches deep. In these, the wheat was thin- ly drilled, and lightly covered with an iron-tooth garden rake. It was hand-hoed 3 times and hand-wed twice, but was considerably injured both by the frost and the fly. Another injury was done by 5 fruit trees ot a medium size which grew among ihe wheat. The drills were unnecessarily far apart, being 2| feet, but I gave them this dis- tance, that the wheat might grow exactly over My experiment with the Guinea grass is still continued. I have now more than an acre of it, all of which we have cut four, and some of it six times, at an average height, I will venture to say, of more than two ieet, although I have not mea- sured it this season, each time, as T did last. I ought to add that we have again suffered severely Irom drought. The only possible objection that I can yet see to this valuable exotic is, the supposed necessity for cultivating it. I say supposed, because I am inclined to believe, from my short experience, that if you plant the roots close enough, in the the buried potato vines. Next, year, however, if first instance, and work them once or twice, you Ave live, I shall have it in my power to report to you the result of a much fairer experiment, made with this same variety: for I have drilled f-ths of an acre, with a hand-drill, made for the purpose, in some well marled land, previously capable of produ may well trust it to produce broad-cast afterward^ for it will certainly spread so as entirely to fill up the intervals between the rows, if they be not more than IS or 20 inches apart. This, I under- stand, is the practice in the West Indies, where, cing fifty or sixty bushels of corn to the acre. ifter the first planting and a slight culture, the remainder of this wheat 1 have sown over a frac- [ plants are safely dusted to their own natural pow- tion less than three acres of Ian,! of medium ers of increase. 1 have been the more minute on quality, cultivated this year in corn. The process this subject, because the whole of our tide water was to cut off and remove the corn, then to plough country is deeply interested in the subject of what up the land, and next to sow the wheat, which ; are called — "the artificial grasses." No man who was put in by cross-harrowing with an iron-tooth lives in it, but must often have had his "bowels of harrow. One acre of this piece had the drag-log i compassion" strongly moved in behalf of such of; first passed over it, the same way with the plough- : our skeleton cattle as survive the continued starva- ing, previous to the sowing of the grain and har- rowing it in. Ot' tins simple contrivance for crushing the clods, which will always be left af er the best ploughing, I will take this occasion to say. that it promises to answer the purpose, fir better than any roller or heavy harrow that I have ever seen or heard of. I was induced to try it by two very strong recommendations in the Farmers' Re- gister: in the first of which it is said to be the in- vention of Mr. Thomas B. Gay, of Goochland, in this state. Like all first trials of a new thing, made with too little care, mine proved somewhat tion of a winter and spring, spent in masticating with worn out. grinders, corn-stalks, containing perhaps, an ounce of nutriment to the long hun- dred weight — or else in chewing upon, nothing! the ci'd of hopeless despondency, and all this too, in must cases, after a summer and lull mosl indus- triously occupied in foraging, at the rate of twen- ty miles a day, for the wherewithal, not of that little known article — grass, but of weeds, to stay the almost ceaseless corrodings of hunger, until the following day of renewed, but illy compensated, toil and suifering again makes a demand upon troublesome: for, after fixing my drag-log for two : their muscular strength, as well as their catering horses, I had to make it. lighter twice, and even ! talents, fully equal to all they can command. My then, as the log was green, it was a heavy draught. ! o'ood friends — one and all — these things ought no The direction is, to take a straight loo-, of any kind [ longer to exist to our shame; let all of us there- of wood most convenient, 6 or 7 feet long and i fore, to whom the facts apply, hasten to wipe off about 18 or20 inches in diameter, (22 or 24 woul 1 , the disgrace for such it certainly is, since nothing probably be still better,) at both ends, then to split ! is wanting to remove it, but that which all ran it and hollow out one of the halves, until you get ; command. Shall I be asked what that is? The it sufficiently light. After this, fix two strong bars across the log, and mortice them into another piece of the same size, parallel to the log, and nearly of the same length, to which ihe horses, mules or ox- en are attached, as to the cross bar of a roller. The answer is under every man's nose, — within reach of every man's eyes who can see. Keep no more stock of any kind ihan you can profitably feed, and always lake care to provide the necessary food for them. In this simple precept consists the whole se- superiority of this very simple and cheap contri- ! cret, (if there be any,) in regard to the propriety Vance, (for the merest coblercanmake it,) over any of keeping any stock whatever, since the sole ob- le ;pt that will not conduce to its attainment: Tis tried. It is certainly true that the same team will also palpably clear that all which are kept in the draw a roller of the same weight with more ease: I condition of "praise God bare bones" must inevi- but even, supposing that the drag-log required an ' tably conduce to its failure. How many of us may implement yet used for pulverising ploughed land, ■ ject being profit, 'tis manifest that none ought to be none can easily conceive who have not seen it kept that will not conduce to its attainment! ,rfis additional horse — say 3 instead of 2 — the latter would do the work so much more effectually, as greatly to overbalance the difference. But let any member try it before we meet again, (it may easi- ly be done,) and most confident I am that his re- have been, or may now be, guilty of this violation of good husbandry, it is not Jbr me to say; but ac- knowledging myself to have been one of the offen- ders, I may perhaps be excused for the attempt to draw others in with me, by way of securing com- port will furnish additional testimony in favor of pany in my misdemeanors. We are all grega- the drag-log. As a smoother, and preparer of the j nous animals, and this strong propensity to involve surface for grass seed, afterwards to be put in by a ! others as participators of our own guilt in every fine, light harrow, it is incomparably superior to | thing wherein numbers are concerned, isan irrefu- the roller, unless the land be entirely too stiff and , table proof of it. This must be my excuse in the hard to admit of being minutely pulverised by any ! present case, should any of my hearers believe] thing. " I 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER 617 that the neglect of farming stock is a very rare fault. Another experiment which I have made during this summerand fall, — although on a small scale — is with six varieties of turnips obtained from one of Mr. Prince's Agents: viz. Dales' new variety, which the seed venders call Hybrid, the Scotch yellow stone turnip, the Norfolk white, the Tan- kard, the Purple top, and Swan's egg turnip, drilled on the 14th of August in the ground on which the blue-stem wheat had grown. This was the cause of my late sowing, as I waited after the stubble was spaded in, until 1 thought the process of its decay had somewhat advanced. The ground was marled, at the rate of nearly 300 bushels to the acre; this was pulverised as well as the hand- hoe could do it; then spread and lightly chopped in, so as to remain near the surface. The seeds were sown in shallow trenches, (say an inch and a half deep, and 12 inches apart,) by a hand drill, and the plants thinned out, at the usual height, to stand about 5 inches apart. The tops of the plants are now very flourishing notwithstanding the severe drought which we have suffered for some time; but the roots do not appear like attain- ing any great size, which is probably owing as much to the late sowing of the seed, as to the drought itself. Although each variety is distinctly marked, 1 cannot judge from this single trial which should be preferred for the table and which for stock, nor should I perhaps have mentioned the experiment at all, but from its connexion with a fiict in lavor of marl, that 1 deem worthy of your attention. But here, I be^ leave to digress for a moment, to suggest a caution in regard to all expe- riments. This is — to keep a strict watch over ourselves during the whole process; for we are all too apt to form opinions in the outset for or against the result; and so to contrive matters unconscious- ly, as to make that result confirm our preconceived notions. This fact every man must have noticed in himself who ever undertook the unpleasant task of strict self-examination on any subject whatever; and I advert to it on the present occasion, for the purpose of producing the most riirid scrutiny of my own statement of the facts which I shall now submit. In preparing the ground for the turnips, a few rows were left without either marl or manure of any kind. A few others were sown on the top of covered trenches which had been three or four inches deep, and filled with a mixture of drawn ashes, well rotted weeds and grass, and a portion of fresh cow dung scraped from the cow-pens. This being covered, was lightly chopped, and the seed drilled immediately over the deposite. In the quality of the spot on which these turnips are growing, there is no difference; but much in their present appearance. Around the trees they have been more injured, in proportion, than the wheat, and will make very little. The unmanured are considerably better than these — but much inferior to the rest; while the marled turnips, unaffected by the trees, are decidedly better in height, color, and general appearance than those immediately con- tiguous, which were manured as I have just de- scribed. As I am a new experimenter with marl, and have been in the habit of deducting a large per centage from all the accounts I have seen in its favor, on the score of hobby-horse ism, (if I may be pardoned for coining such a term,) this testimo- Vol. Ill— 78 ny of mine in support, of its claim to be used lib- erally, will be duly appreciated. I have always had a mortal dread, since I arrived at the age of manhood, of being either accused or suspected of riding hobbies, to which I remember being hugely addicted in my childish days; but this dread may not altogether have saved me; and therefore I deem it prudent on all such occasions, to warn my brother members not to suffer their confidence in my veracity — in which it is no vanity to say, they may entirely confide — to prevent their viewing and considering all my statements with that degree of rigid scrutiny which is absolutely necessary to enable them certainly to determine how far these statements contribute to confirm or disprove the principles or opinions designed to be established or refuted by them. The cardinal vinue oi' impar- tiality is indispensable, both in experimenters and their judges — tor without it, no good whatever can be done to any cause whatever — but particu- larly to that of agriculture, whose improvement entirely depends upon fairly tried, fairly tested, and fairly judged experiments, frequently made, to de- termine every doubtful point of any importance. Among my own experiments, since we last met, that, which seems to me at least, of most value, is one to ascertain the comparative productiveness of several varieties of Indian corn. This grain is certainly our chief crop in all the tide water por- tion of Virginia; and it is likely to become more and more so, unless some means can be discovered of preventing the constant ravages of the Hessian fly, and other enemies to the wheat crop. The importance therefore of ascertaining which of all the great variety of corn cultivated among us, will produce the most to the acre, is much enhanced by the present and long continued uncertainty of making wheat. The best modes of culture too, are consequently becoming objects of daily in- creasing interest — at least to those who have made up their minds, in the midst of the prevailing ma- nia for abandoning the graves of our parents, wives, children, brothers, sisters, and friends, to live and die by good old Virginia. In these modes we have certainly made such great improvements, since I could recollect, as to encourage the hope, that we may make still o'reater — simply by taking care not to suspend or discontinue our efforts to im- prove, from vainly imagining, (as many do,) that we have already reached the une plus ultra?"1 of advancement as corn-planters and makers. I perfectly remember, that some forty or fifty years ago., scarcely any other implements, but the illy constructed plough of that day and the hand hoe were ever used in the culture of corn — that the distances at which it was planted were scarce- ly ever varied — that cross-ploughing was univer- sal on high land — that the stalks were hilled up like tobacco plants — that unless from twenty-four to thirty-six furrows were run by the plough, be- tween every two rows of corn, the proprietor, or his overseer, or both, were stigmatized as very Jazy fellows. By the way, let us endeavor so to act, . as not to furnish our successors with good cause to apply the epithet to us, who are now endeavoring to instruct them. If any man in the by-gone days to which I have referred, had ventured to assert, before Col. John Taylor proved the fact, (Col. John Taylor, who has done more for Virginia agriculture than any man who ever lived in it,) that corn could be made 618 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 10 equally well, or better by running only eight or ten furrows between every two rows, provided the double, instead of the single plough was used; such asserter would assuredly have been treated with unbounded ridicule. Yet the practice, I be- lieve, is now common; although I am satisfied that a still better may be, if it has not already been adopted by some farmers. I myself had hoped lo exhibit to you, on this occasion, some implements for the culture — not only of corn — but of all crops planted in rows, which, unless I am deceived by that partiality tor our own contrivances — so com- mon to us all, will prove superior, especially in sa- ving labor, to any I have yet seen. But I have been disappointed in procuring all the necessary castings, and therefore can only show two of them at present, with a drawing of the third. The first is a jointed, expanding harrow, so contrived as to cut any distance from three to five feet, and designed in the first place to open the lists for planting corn, at the same time that it har- rows each side of the bed on which the lists are formed; secondly, to work the beds between the rows, which it does by once passing from end to end — the coupling bolts enabling the ploughman to raise or depress the sides so as to work either a convex or concave surface equally well. It is in- tended for two horses. The second is a single horse cultivator, with cast iron hoes of a new construction, which, un- less I am much deceived, will be found superior to any now in use. Of these small hoes there are four, so fixed in a diagonal bar as to cut about twenty-one inches, and each to throw the earth moved by itself into the furrow opened by the one before it. Another advantap-e in it is, that it will throw the earth either to or from the corn, cotton, or tobacco, &c. which it may be used to culti- vate. The drawing represents a jointed cultivator for two horses, with seven such irons as those above described, with six harrow-teeth so fixed as to run in the intervals between the cultivator irons. < The whole will cut four feet, some few inches. For these irons and the expanding harrow, I shall probably apply for a patent — not, I assure you, to enable me to sell them at an extravagant price, but. merely to secure to myself the making of them at the usual fair profits made on agricultural imple- ments, by fair dealers in such articles. But let me not omit to give you the result of my corn experiment, to ascertain the most productive variety. Having planted nearly my whole crop with se- lected seed from the Maryland twin-corn, and so arranged it as to guard it in the best practicable manner, acrainst mixture, T resorted to the follow- ing method of comparing it, as to productiveness, with two other kinds, each of which has a high character. The produce in the number of ears and quantity, from thirty stalks of each kind, as they stood in a row, on land judged to be equal in every respect, was as follows: Maryland twin-corn, 59 perfect years and 19 do. of short corn, - \\ gallons. Richardson's, or Spotisylvania corn, 27 do. do. and 10 do. do., 3£ do. Peg-corn, 33 do. do. and 4 do. do. 3^ do. The weight of each kind, after drying for some time, in our common sitting-room, as ascertained by the pocket chondrometer, the little brass cup, of which was well and equally shaken in each case, turned out to be — Twin-corn, 60 lbs. per bushel. Richardson, do. 61 do. do. Peg-corn, 58 do. do. Now although some, perhaps, may question the accuracy of this little implement, for determining the actual iveight, per bushel, of any thing; yet, none who know what it is, can possibly doubt its being a perfect standard for testing relative weight — which is all that I mean to vouch for, in the above statement. Another test to which I have subjected two of the above mentioned varieties of corn, has been to ascertain how much grain the same measure of each in the ears, equally heaped and shaken would produce. The result was, that two flour bar- rels full of years of the twin-corn yielded of shelled grain, four bushels, which was five gallons more than the barrel held; and of course, more than one measure of shelled grain for two in the ears. The other variety, (Richardson's corn,) overrun only two gallons. It is proper here to remark, that 1 made a second trial between the twin, and the Spottsylvania, or Richardson's, and the peg corn, by gathering and measuring the produce of thirty stalks of each kind, where the distances were alike in all — that is, five and five and a half each wray — two stalks in a hill. The result was — From 30 stalks of the twin-corn, 57 perfect ears, and 10, short corn; produce, 4 gallons 3 quarts. Richardson's, 35 perfect ears, 12 short do., 4 gal- lons. Peg corn, 33 long ears, 5 short do., 3 gallons, 2 quarts and 1 pint. The peg corn was gathered and measured, in both instances, on a neighboring farm, by a disin- terested person, who selected a spot of ground of the same quality with mine, which he knew per- fectly well — and the corn on which he had very frequently seen during the, summer and fall. He was apprised, too, of my wish to make the trial as fair as possible; my only desire being to ascer- tain the productiveness of the two kinds, that I might hereafter cultivate the best, and recommend if to others. My conclusion from the whole experiment is, that the twin-corn is decidedly superior to the pop- ular varieties with which I have tried it, in every respect before stated, and in two others not yet mentioned, in ripening earlier — for it is the dryestl have seen this season; and in producing much small- erstalks, and, of course, drawingless from the land. In regard to experiments made by others — of which I promised to say something — I have heard of two which I deem worth presenting to your no- tice. Two gentlemen have informed me that the best corn they made this year, wascultivated, after it came up, entirely with harrows, skimmers and cultivators, with the usual hand hoeings. The other experiment, said to be successful, was, to deslroy sassafras bushes, by sprinkling the leaves with brine, so as to make cattle brouse on them. Before closing my remarks on the present occa- sion, let me entreat you my agricultural brethren, to encourage, more than you heretofore have done, the practice of reporting your annual experience. Be not deterred from this by any fear of ridicule; lor you may rest perfectly assured, that those who indulge the .disposition to laugh at your labors, will never of themselves be the discoverers of any 1 836.] FARMERS* REGISTER. 619 thing useful, nor reach any higher agricultural ho- nor than that of being dead weights upon the so- ciety, which is so unfortunate as to have them for members. The most important of all feelings, or desires is, to gain useful k lowledgej the next, in utility, and therefore in dignity, is, the wish to impart it to others. To what will this lead? Why certainly, to the effort to communicate all of which we be- lieve others to be ignorant. None of us, conse- quently, ought to be blamed. or ridiculed, merely for mistaking the am >unt of ignorance which ex- ists in the society to which we belong — for that may even exceed our own estimate. The appli- cation which 1 wish you to make of these remarks (if you approve them.) is, that each member should ask himself, before every fall meeting, "have I any thing that I myself believe to be worth communicating? If I have, it is my duty, as a member, to communicate it, without wasting a mo- ment's consideration in determining, whether others may, or may not deem it worthy of noticed Let me beg you to consider another thing — your duty; this is. to exert your influence to increase the number of oar members — not of smh as are with us one day, and off the next — of such as join for their own paltry views of petty gain — but of men sincerely devoted to the great interests of Virginia agriculture, and earnestly desirous to pro- mote them by all the legitimate means in their power. Especially, let this influence be exerted to persuade our non-subscribing friends of this town to join us, and abide by us, "through good and evil report;" for nothing is more demonstrable than that they have a more direct and immediate interest in promoting our institution, although not generally agriculturists, than we have who are not residents of Fredericksburg. What is that de- monstration? Why that every thing which annu- ally, or indeed, at any time, draws a great addi- tional number of persons to this place insures al- most to every dealer in the town, a certainty of making a sufficiency of additional sales to pay much more than it would cost him to become a member of our society. Again; if the labors of our society avail any thing towards making us of the country better farmers — our ability to pay to the citizens of this place old debts, and to contract new ones, will be incalculably enhanced. While 1 am on this subject, of xiew members, permit me to remark, that nothing has occurred at any of our meetings which has given us more pleasure, than that a lady should have yesterday become a member of our society. Not, a tew wishes did I hear expressed, that her laudable ex- ample should be followed by many of her sex, who, like her, have the sole management of farms — however they may, at first, view, be deterred by the novelty of the case. We have only to em- brace horticulture (arid why should we not?) among the objects of our society, and then even the most fastidious ol either sex could raise no objection, on the score ol' cust m, to ladies becom- ing members; for nothintr is more common than horticultural societies, which so much augm mt the Gfomfbrts of life, consisting principally of ladies. Who so proper, toe, as they arC; to judge of do- mestic manufactures, which all the agricultural so- cieties of our country profess a desire to promote? In short, it is to that sex, as I have everthought, to which we must all look — whether as single or as- sociated individuals — for our most effectual aid "in every good word and work," and therefore, should not oniy hail it as a happy omen of success, when any of them, distinguished as this lady is for her good qualities, volunteer to assist us in what we ourselves believe to be a laudable undertaking, but should invite their co-operation. None, I think, but the strainers of gnats and swallowers of cam- els can object to it. I have stated that the kind of members which it is most important for us to obtain, must consist of men sincerely devoted to the irreat interests of Vir- ginia husbandry, and anxiously desirous to pro- mote them by all the legitimate means in their power. Of such men, let me here testify, (and high is my gratification in being able to do so,) that we have always had, from our commence- ment, 17 years ago, an ample number to keep our society in constant operation, which cannot be said of any similar institution in our state. Most true it is, that we have several times been in a lan- guishing condition; and, on one or two occasions, have almost despaired of keeping the society up; but the patriotic maxim of one of our most gallant and estimable fellow citizens — "never give up the ship" — kept us in heart, until here we are, with renovated and confident hopes, that "The Agricul- tural Society of Fredericksburg," will Jong — very long survive the oldest liver among us. Let us make it like, old wine, which is known to improve both in quality and value, with every year that is added to its awe. Let us make it, as we certainly may — what is far, very- far superior — the means of improving the social and moral condition of all who are connected with it, or within the reach of its influence. This, by contributing to demon- strate what Virginia farmers and planters can ac- complish on the good old soil of their forefathers, will do more than any thing else to check that mad spirit of expatriation which is desolating our homes and fire-sides like a raging pestilence. AGRICULTURAL COKVKKTIOA*. This body met on the day appointed, and in the manner proposed in the last and previous numbers of this journal. Delegations were present from only two agricultural societies, those of Albemarle and Freder- icksburg, and from two popular meetings, the one in Albemarle, and the other of James City and York counties. But however desirable were such appoint- ments, as evidences of interest felt for the objects in view, by entire bodies or portions of the community, the plan of the convention as previously proposed, and repeatedly notified to the public, embraced every person belonging to the agricultural interest, whose zeal for the cause should induce his attendance and participation in the proceedings. The juncture was peculiarly favorable for the assemblage being large, and composed of agriculturists from ev rv part of the commonwealth. In addition to on of the le- gislature, and the other usual causes which draw per- sons from ail parts of the stat • at this season, there were members of three other conventions, besides the agricultural, which served to add to the latter, both iu numbers and talents, from remote parts of the state^ The proceedings of the Agricultural Convention at- tracted much attention. The last session was numer- 620 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 10 ously attended, and the proceedings were listened to with apparent interest — and though the memorial was not read until at the close of a sitting of three hours, there remained present at the late hour of 10 o'clock from one hundred and fifty to two hundred persons, when the final, and unanimous, vote of adoption was ta- ken. All persons present had been informed that their participation was invited, and that unless dissent was expressed, all present were considered as members of the convention. If the object of the meeting should be in any measure gained, by obtaining legislative en- actments in aid of agriculture, it will be a novelty in the policy and usual procedure of Virginia, that will greatly surprise as well as gratify those who have most zealously urged and aided this elibrt. But how- ever feeble may be the hopes entertained forlegislative action, there is better reason now for their being kept alive, than merely the respectable character of the late convention, and its wishes, alone would authorize. This reason is, that it has become apparent to every thinking man, that the agricultural and general inter- ests of Virginia are in the utmost need of all the sup- port that her government and her people can give. That something must be done for relief, seems to be the opinion entertained by every one — unless our legisla- ture is to present an all -important exception. If this should be the case indeed, the legislative history of Virginia will present a parallel case to the closing scenes of the Greek Empire — when the people, and their rulers, seemingly forgetful that the Turks were thun- dering at their gates, were divided into implacable op- posing factions, and engaged in disputing on meta- physical subtleties, or religious differences, of which nobody could understand the meaning. The journal of the convention, and the memorial adopted, are given below. The address of the Presi- dent of the convention, (which was delivered at the re- quest of the general committee in their meeting of the previous day,) we hope to obtain a sketch of for future publication. PnOCEEDIXGS OF THE AGRICULTURAL CON- VENTION. At a Convention of delegates from the Agricul- tural Societies of Albemarle and Fredericksburg, and from public meetings in the counties of Albe- marle and James City, and also of a number of other individuals belonging to the agricultural in- terest of Virginia — held in the Senate Chamber in the City of Richmond, January 11th, 1S3G — On motion of Mr. Craven of Albemarle, James Barbour ol Orange, was chosen President of the Convention. On motion of Mr. Richardson of James City, Edmund Ruflin ol Petersburg, was chosen Secre- tary. On motion of Mr. Cabell of Nelson, Resolved, That a committee be appointed by the President for the purpose of considering, and recommending such measures as may be deemed most proper tor the adoption of the Conven- tion. Messrs. Cabell, Ru (Tin, Randolph of Albemarle, Remple of Spottsylvania, Hairston of Henry, Gooch of Henrico, ami Craven were named as the Committee— to which, on motion of Mr. Cabell, the President was added, as Chairman. On motion of Mr. Randolph, Resolved, That the President may add hereaf- ter to the Committee any other names, so that the whole number shall not exceed thirteen. To give time for ihe Committee to act the next day, the Convention then adjourned to the evening ol the 13th iust. at 7 o'clock. Wednesday, Dei. \Wi. The Committee met, according to adjournment, in the Hall of the House of Delegates. Messrs. Garnetl of Essex, Richardson of James City, and Fontaine of King William, had been previously added to the Committee. The President addressed the Convention at length, in explanation and support of the general measures proposed for legislative aid to agricul- ture, and especially those recommended by the Committee. Mr. Garnett presented the following Report and Resolution from the Committee, together with a Memorial to the Legislature, praying lor aid to the increase and diffusion of agricultural knowledge — which were read, and then severally adopted by the Convention unanimously. The Committee to which was assigned the duty of reporting on such measures as in their opinion it would be proper lor the convention to act upon, beg leave to recommend the accompanying memo- rial to the favorable consideration of the conven- tion, as containing just and general views of our necessities, and the remedies it would be proper to recommend; and should the memorial be approved by the convention, that a committee of four be appointed, to be composed of such members as can perform the service, to take charge of the me- morial, with a view to present it to the legislature, and to attend on such committee as it may be re- ferred to, to give the explanations that may be re- quired. Resolved, That it is recommended by this body, that an Agricultural Convention shall aprain meet in the city of Richmond on the second Monday in January 1837, to be composed of delegates from the several Agricultural Societies in Virginia, and from any public meetings of members of the ag- ricultural interest, in counties and towns where no such such societies have been organized. After the adoption of the memorial, Messrs. Randolph of Albemarle, Gooch of Henrico, RufTin of Petersburg, and Peyton of Richmond, were appointed the Committee to lay the memorial be- fore the Legislature. The Convention then adjourned sine die. The 3fe>norial of the Delegates frcm the j/gricul- tural Societies of Albemarle and Fredericks- burg, and many other persons interested in agri- culture, from various parts of ihe Stale, to ihe Legislature of Virginia, Respectfully siioweth — That the present condition of Virginia husban- dry in general, and of her agriculture in particu- lar, imperatively requires every effort which the wisdom and patriotism of your honorable body can exert in their behalf; that for want of legislative aid, although biesscd with'* a soil, climate, and 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 621 other natural advantages far beyond most of our old sister states, we decline in a degree as alarm- ing as it is rapid, while several of them rise contin- ually in relative prosperity and importance, as members of our federal union; lhat thousands of our lellow citizens, in utter hopelessness of better- ing their condition in their native land, are aban- doning the beloved homes of their nativity, for new and strange homes in "the far west;" that this expatriating epidemic is spreading with such fearful rapidity as to threaten the almost entire depopulation of extensive neighborhoods, once the garden spots of Virginia, unless something can speedily be done to arrest its ruinous progress; and that, for this something, we who will not yet "despair of the commonwealth," confidently look to you, our representatives — to you, the legislators of the land, who as certainly have the power, as we hope and trust, the desire also, to do for the vital cause of agriculture, all that we shall ask. Think not, we entreat you, that we are about to pe- tition you for ourselves alone, it is for the best in- terests of our own dear state, and for the adoption of the only means left, (as we believe,) of rescu- ing her from that depopulation and political atro- phy brought upon her by her own shameful ne- glect of all those natural advantages with which an ever bounteous providence hath so abundantly blessed her. The facts which we have stated are too noto- rious to be denied, too manifest to pass unnoticed, even by the most careless observer. But their causes are not so obvious nor so recent, as to be well understood without an attentive retrospect into by -gone times. Our ancestors generally, like all persons who live in countries wherein the means of subsistence are easily procured in superabundance, seem never to have looked forward to days of comparative scarcity, but wasted, in profuse and luxurious hos- pitality, the time, the industry, and the resources which should have been employed, at least in part, to secure pecuniary independence lor themselves and their posterity. We say not this to censure those whom we have so much cause to venerate and love, but merely as the statement of an im- portant fact, which would be equally true of our- selves, could we be placed in a similar situation. We, their children, thoughtlessly trained up in the same habits, unwarned of our inability to indulge them to the same extent, have pursued a similar course. With means continually, inevitably di- minishing by the constant subdivision of property, without any proporfu late reduction in expendi- ture, we opened our eyes too late, to the startling fact of rapid decline, both in private wealth and state influence. Our commonwealth, once con- fessedly the first in the union — our beloved old state, who once gave away a principality for the preservation of that union, has lived to see the day when some, (we will not, say which,) who gave nothing, together with many of the very receivers of her bounty, are jeering and taunting her with her comparative weakness. We would scorn to urge this by way of complaint, but we do it to rouse our fellow citizens, if possihle, 1o a closer attention hereafter to our own state interests. What aggravates much the evils of which we. complain, is that, although our eyes are now wide open to the evils themselves, too many of us seem still utterly blind to the causes which have pro- duced them. Thus you will find thousands most latuitously ascribing them to our lands, our slaves, our geographical position; in short, to any thing, rather than to the causes just mentioned, and to our own habits of comparative indolence and im- providence. These, so long as they prevail, must continue to render useless every natural advantage that we either do or could possibly possess. We seem entirely unaware, that these deadly poisons of ever}' community can never be cured by mere change of residence, or simply, by substituting the culture of cotton, and the sugar cane, for that of corn, wheat, tobacco, or any other staple of the old states. We either forget, or have never learn- ed, that without increased industry and economy, the opportunity alone to make money will never cause its accumulation; but that with these indis- pensable qualities to the acquirement and preser- vation of wealth, even very inferior advantages of soil and climate will be more available than the richest lands the sun ever shone upon, to secure all the comforts, conveniences,and enjoyments of life, that rational men ought to desire. That we still have two of the indispensable prerequisites to the fruition of every blessing derivable from govern- ment, cannot be truly denied; prerequisites with- out which the wealth of the Indies would be to- tally insufficient to secure temporal happiness. These are, a public sentiment and moral force, fully adequate, and at all times desirous to main- tain the majesty of the laws. We have a civil power too, fully competent to punish, in the most exemplary manner, all who violate the same, or commit outrages of the kind, either against the peace and order of our community, or the rights of its citizens. In offering these remarks, we mean to make no invidious insinuations against such of our new states and territories as are continually receiving accessions of citizens from Virginia; let these em- igrants themselves inform those whom they leave behind, whether they have changed for the better or worse, so far as regards the conservative influ- ence of public sentiment over morals and manners; the exerted power of the laws of the land; and the efficiency of the civil authority in compelling obedience to them. We most solemnly assure our friends and rela- tives, who have lately left us, as well as the long settled and native citizens of the "far west,,' that we feel not the slightest inclination to exaggerate, or "set down aught in malice," against the land of their choice. Its prosperity must always be a source of gratification to us, for their sakes, how- ever we may individually suffer by some of the means of its promotion. If we have heard false acounts of their state of society, let them unde- ceive us; let them give us the truth; and should it prove that we have been misinformed although our opinions are derived from their own public journals, we will cheerfully retract, however we may lament the consequent breaking up of lamilies, and the loss to Virginia of more of her best blood. We mean not to harm others, but merely to be true to our- selves. In doing this, we shall always deem it our duty to aswst suited for the pur- pose g year $ ♦Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 337. fSinclair's Code of Agriculture, 3d edit., pp. 215, 440; Scottish Husbandry, 2d edit., vol. i. p. 379, and passim. A Berwickshire farmer ;;ives a single cart- load of turnips per day to eight or ten cattle in the straw-yard. He finds that, on an average of three years, from two and a half to three acres of straw will winter one of those oxen; and in this way each acre of straw will produce about four double cart-loads of rot- ten dung of from 30 to 35 cubic feet each. I Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 337. 660 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 11 5h 5 4 By clover if mowed, second year By pulse-crops — as beans — part of the grain being fed by live-stock By pulse-crops, when the grain is sold By white, or corn crops, as wheat, barley, &c, as an average of the whole The manure is understood by him to be the common farm-yard sort, consisting of the dung and litter from the different offices, in a state only so far rotted as to be easily divisible by the dung- fork, and so dry as to have in it of moisture only about two-thirds, or perhaps a little more, of its whole weight, and to be capable of immediate ap- plication to the land.* We fear, however, that, looking to the system of cultivation pursued on most farms, the quantity of manure produced falls far short of that amount. Much, indeed, depends upon its judicious man agement — lor a good farmer will accumulate per- haps nearly twice as much dung as his more indo- lent and inattentive neighbor, and apply it in bet- ter condition to the land, though their opportuni- ties are, in this respect, the same. No means should, therefore, be neglected to supply the de- ficiency; in which view, besides the extension of the soilingsystem, we should strongly recommend that corn crops should be cut as low as possible, so as to increase the, bulk of straw. When the stub- ble is left high and ploughed in, it retards the ope- ration, renders the land foul, and is, on some soils, injurious by rendering them too open. It is, in- deed, in many places mown, and converted into walls for the comtbrt. of the cattle. In Derbyshire a paring-plough is used, by which the roots of the corn and weeds are cut, and the stubble and other stuff is then carried home to be trodden into muck; but the produce does not pay the expense, and it has been found a more economical practice, when it can be carried into effect, to burn the stubble on the ground, by which insects and the seeds of weeds are destroyed. Even when raked up, it has been considered advisable to spread and burn it on the land, as it is thought to have a great ef- fect in preventing the ravages of the fly on tur- nips. | The following experiments on the quantity of dung voided hj cattle — lately made under our own direction — will throw some further light on the subject. The first was on a dragoon-horse, placed, at bur request, by the Commandant, of the Cavalry Depot at Maidstone, in a separate box — on the 26th of January, 1833 — and there kept, with one hour's exercise each day, during the following week, in which time the quantity of forage issued to him, and converted into dung, was as follows: — * General Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 521. We have omitted the Doctor's estimate of the dung pro- duced by pasture, as being irrelevant. fSee the Surveys of Essex, vol. i. p. S25; Hunting- donshire, p. 128; Derbyshire, vol. ii. pp. 124, 131, 406. In a work published about a century ago, and ascribed to Lord Belhaven, it is asserted that the goodness of the East Lothian crops was attributable to the length of their stubbles. 'A good crop of corn makes a good stubble; and a good stubble is the equallest mucking that can be given.' — The Countryman's Rudiments, p. 23. Oats each day, lOibs. = TOlbs. Hay, " 12 = 84 .Straw, " 8 =56 He drank, within the week, 27 gallons of water; and, during his time of exercise, die loss of dung is sii! posed to have been 4 lbs. daily, or 28 lbs.: in which period therefore — The total lorage consumed amounted to 210 lbs. And the dung and litter produced was 327| lbs. Thus — if the lost, dung be added — yielding, with the addition of the moisture imparted to the litter by urine, an increase of two-thirds beyond the weight of the solid food. The second— on the 28th of March, 1833— was on the food actually eaten by a large-sized York- shire milch cow. which was fed during four and twenty hours with the following provender — 81 lbs. of brewer's grains, 30 lbs. of raw potatoes, 15 lbs. of meadow hay. The food thus amounted to 126 lbs. She drank two pailsful of water, and the urine was allowed to run off; but she had no straw or litter of any kind, and the weight of the solid dung, which was care- full)- swepl up, amounted to 45 lbs. The third was on the same cow, a week after- wards, hut with a change of food, which was con- tinued during some days, on the last of which she consumed within the lour and twenty hours the following quantity: — 170 lbs. of raw potatoes, 28 lbs. of hay. As in the former trial, no litter was allowed, and the urine was let off; but the solid dung amounted to 73 lbs. Although not incidental to the subject in ques- tion, it may however be worthy of remark that, although the cow was in perfect health, yet, on this latter Ibod, her milk actually fell off at the rate of very nearly two quarts per day. When cattle are well littered and fully fed with turnips, it has been usually found that about twelve of them will yield a one-horse cart-load of dung within twenty-four hours; but that quantity will scarcely be produced by sixteen, or even eighteen, if kept only on straw, with a small al- lowance of turnips. It has also been calculated that an acre of very good turnips, with an ade- quate proportion of straw, will make upwards of 16 cart-loads of dung; but 10 may be considered a sufficiently large average, for the generality of those crops. Thus, it may be presumed that two acres will be required to manure one.* An account by Arthur Youn<; states that the winter stock on his own farm in Hertfordshire con- sisted of six horses, four cows, and nine lean hogs, which consumed 16 loads of hay, with 29 loads of straw lor litter, besides, no doubt, the usual quan- tity of oats to the working cattle. The cows and store swine ran loose in the. yard, and had their straw given in cribs; the horse-stables and lat-hog sties were cleansed into the yard: in May, the whole of the dung was turned over and laid into heaps, and in June was carted away. The quan- Roxburgh Report, p. 134. 1336.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 661 tity was 118 loads, each of 36 bushels, amount of manure which may be thus obtainedis indeed so considerable, that forty-five oxen, litter- ed, while fatting, with20 wagon-loads of stubble, are said to have produced 600 tons of rotten dung; and so invariably has it been found that the value of the manure is in proportion to the nutriment contained in the food, that, on comparing the dung of cattle fed upon oil-cake with that from the common farm-yard, it was Ibund that the effects ol 12 loads ol the former, when spread on an acre ot land, considerably exceeded that of 24 loads of the latter.j [To be continued.] For the Farmers' Register. EXPERIMENTS OF THE INJURY TO CORX CAUSED BY GATHERING THE FODDER. Several publications in the Register have stated the increase of Indian corn, matured with the blades and tops. The common usage in this county, which I have followed, is, to gather the blades as soon as they begin to spot, and to cut the tops immediately upon securing the blades. About the first of September last, I stripped the blades from several rows in one of my corn-fields, leaving a row alternately undisturbed — and cut the tons about the 7th of the month, in like man- ner. As I designed to make a fair and satis- factory experiment, I suffered both blades and tops to be much withered before I took them from the stalks. The last of November I gathered the corn from the stripped and unstripped rows, when it was dry, and in good condition, and put it away in my barn in separate parcels, in the shucks, from both of which I husked out, the sixth of the pre- sent month, one hundred ears, without particular selection, and now subjoin their weight and mea- surement. I am sensible that this experiment will not precisely correspond with others which may be made. The result of such experiments will be influenced by the quality of the soil, the goodness of the crop, the manner of planting, and the maturity of the corn at the time the blades and tops are gathered. My experiment was made from a field planted four leet each way, which had an early, vigorous growth, unchecked by in- sect or drought, and which produced more than forty-five bushels to the acre. I made other dif- ferent trials upon the parcels I have mentioned, both by weight and measurement, which I think unnecessary to state, as they all tended to the same result; but perhaps I ought not omit to men- tion, that the weight of the cobs of the unstripped corn was double the weight of the stripped, as il proves that subtracting the blades and tops dries up that part of the plant which immediately- sup- plies aliment to the grain. To this cause I also attribute the perfection of the grain to the end of the cob of the unstripped corn, whilst that on the * Papers of the Bath and West of England Society, vol. iii. p. 3. fBy another trial it appears that -sixty cows itrh and four horses, when tied up, ate 50 tons of hay, and had 20 acres of straw for litter, with which they made 200 loads of dune;-, in rotten order for the land; but the weigrht of neither the straw nor the dung is stated. — Complete Grazier, 5th edit., p. 100. stripped had, for the most part, withered or per- ished. lbs. One hundred ears of Indian corn matu- red with blades and tops — weight on cob, _.___- 54 Do. shelled, - 46 Do. measurement, 26 quarts, 1 pint, 100 ears of Indian coin stripped of blades and tops — weight on cob, - 50 Do. shelled, ----- 41 Do. measurement, 21 quarts. 1 have long desired to abandon gathering fod- der; but it is hard to depart from common usage, especially, if the deviation has the appearance of negligence. The month of September is usually devoted by farmers to this work; the dews are then heavy, and highly injurious to laborers; it is the season tor intermittent fevers, which I be- lieve arc often contracted in this employment. The month of September might, be most usefully devoted to drawing out marl and other manures, and preparing fallows for wheat. When the wheat is sown and the corn gathered at full ma- turity, the corn-stalks with the blades and tops; afford some provender and excellent litter for cat- tle. Few formers have such floating capital, as justify them in entering upon schemes of improve- ment without calculating the cost and probable result. The provender afforded by Indian corn cannot be abandoned, unless an equivalent be supplied. A farm divided into four or five fields, of forty acres each, and one of them annually in Indian corn, will not produce fodder, even if the land be in an improved state, beyond five hun- dred pounds to the acre — equal to ten tons. Four acres set in orchard-grass and clover, will, if marled and manured, at two cuttings yield ten tons of hay. A gentleman in an adjoining coun- ty, in whom 1 have entire confidence, assured me that from one acre, very highly improved, he gath- ered six tons in one year. I estimate the enclosing, marling, manuring, and setting in grass four acres, atone hundred dollars per acre, and the land thus diverted from the usual purposes of agriculture, at twenty-five dollars per acre, amounting in the whole to five hundred dollars. The capital thus invested, is not sunk, but is safe and sound, and the interest upon this sum, together with the cost of cutting and securing the hay, which I estimate at forty-live dollars, is the price to be paid annually for hay, in lieu of blades and tops. A field of forty acres of Indian corn which now yields, under the old system of gathering, forty bushels to the acre — equal to one thousand bushels, if my experi- ment, or that of others, be not entirely fallacious, will produce an additional fifth, amounting to one thousand nine hundred and thirty-three and a third bushels; thereby producing a gain of three hun- dred and thirty-three and a third bushels — equal, at fifty cents a bushel, to one hundred and sixty-six; dollars and two-thirds, to which is to be added the value of the labor saved, and the grazing after ihe hay is secured, which is worth something. If a lot be once well set in orchard-grass and oc- casionally dressed with manure from the stable, where the grass is fed it will remain in a state of undiminished production for many years — in this I feel confidence, from my own observation. I have one pit of blue marl in which I have found "gunpowder marl." It exhibits no lime by 662 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. U he test of acid?. There is no green sand — but it has many shining particles, and a sulphureous smell. It retains the impression of large shells and some sharks' teeth, in astute of perfect sound- ness, have been found. I have supposed that the hardness of the teeth have resisted the which decomposed the shells. On this sub;-: Newton's essay in the Register is highly instruc- tive. I have long thought that this pit contained properties, fertilizing beyond lime. It does not by the test, of acids exhibit lime equal to another pit; yet. it has been uniformly quicker in its action, and greater in its product. I am pleased that spe- cimens of the gunpowder marl (bund in Virginia, have been sent Professor Rogers. Agriculture stands indebted to him for much useful informa- tion. I left a specimen, taken from my pit, with our Professor bucatel. If the properties, sug- gested by Mr. Newton, shall be found in them, in addition to my own personal benefit, I shall feel gratified that this source of improvement is com- mon to Virginia and Maryland. As this article contains little more than a state- ment of facts, I have subjoined my name in at- testation of their accuracy. WM. CARMICHAEL. Wye, Queen Anne Co., } Md., Jan. 27th, 1836. $ IS THE REARING OF RACE HORSES A GAIN- FUL OR LOSING BUSINESS IN VIRGINIA? To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. For some time past you cannot have tailed to observe a vast increase of attention in Virginia and elsewhere to the breeding of fine horses, es- pecially, such as were designed for the turf. What- ever may be my opinions on the subject of the morality of such sports as the turf and its ordinary accompaniments offer, I have no disposition to obtrude them either upon you, or your readers. .But as a lover of my state, as a friend to agriculture, and a patron of all which I suppose can benefit out- permanent interests, I propose to present a few thoughts on the subject of raising fine horses. If the business is never profitable, let none engage in it. If it is ever profitable, let us ascertain to what extent — and never exceed the limit thus furnished. Are not too many now engaged in it, to allow any very important advantage to accrue to the ma- jority of those concerned? Admitting the business to be ever so good, is it not over-done? Why, sir, even the poor man, who owns but one animal of the horse-kind, is taking his mare from the plough, when he ought to be making bread for his family; and paying sixty dollars a year, for the chance of having her in foal by a high-blooded horse. In order to arrive at correct conclusions on the subject, let the following or similar estimates be made, and remembered. If they be inaccurate, let them be corrected. In preparing this article, there has been no intentional excess in any one esti- mate. The average cost, by purchase, of a fine brood mare, bought on reasonable terms, ma}r be assum- ed to be $400. Suppose her to be put to the horse when she is four years old, and she ought not to be put sooner; suppose her to live until she is six- teen years old, which is a liberal estimate; and suppose her to bring a live and sound coll, two years out of three, so that in her life-time she foals eight sound colts; then for each colt, she brings you — must put down one-eighth of her ori- ginal cost, which is $50. The interest on money, invested in a brood mare until she brings you eight foals, at 5^50 each, would be for the first year, at the end of which she brings a colt, $24. Allowing her, according to the foregoing estimate, to have but two good colts in three years; you must lose the interest on $350 for two years, before it, will be reduced to $300, which interest is $42. The interest for the fourth vear is $18— for the fifth and sixth years, it is $30— for the seventh year it is $12 — for the eighth and ninth years, it is $15 — for the tenth year it is and for the eleventh and twelfth years, it is $6. Being an average of interest on the purchase mo- ney of the dam, before it is restored by eight colts, at $50 each — (being two colts for every three years — of a life sixteen years long, and twelve of these years the mare being old enough to bring a colt,) of more than $19 for each colt — the whole amount of interest on the purchase money of the dam, being $153. So that the average cost of a dam to each colt, may be put down at $69. The average cost of keeping a brood mare one year, including expenses of groom, &c, &c, &c. cannot be less than $75 per annum. But as you have to keep her twelve years so as to get eight colls, you must charge to the estimated cost of'each colt eighteen months — keeping of the dam which is rather more than $102. The money expended in keeping the dam for eighteen months before each colt is dropped, will not be returned for four years; at which time the colt will be in market, the interest, on which money amounts to $24,50 cents, (say $24.) So that you do pay, (breach good colt dropped, in expenses for the dam alone $195. The average price of the best blooded stallions for the season, is at. least $60. The range is from $50 to $100. This money is payable at the end of the season, at least six months before the colt is dropped. But as the mare, even if put to the horse, does not bring more than three colts for eve- ry four times she is put; therefore, you must add to each of every three, colts dropped, the third of the price of the season when there was no colt, which is $20; which added to the $60 makes $80. Now as this money is paid at the end of each sea- son, and the colts brought into market at lour years old, you lose the interest on $80, for four years and six months; which interest amounts to $21.60, (say 21.) So that each good colt dropped, cost you for the sire alone $101, which sum added to the cost of the dam, gives a total for each good colt dropped, of $296. Suppose the mare safely delivered of a fine healthy colt, it costs you on an average for the two first years' keeping $100 — and for the two succeed- ingyears, without, training$150 — in all, for rearing a colt until it is four years old, $250. The interest or the cost of keeping the colt, being the first year $40 — the second $60 — the third $75 — will amount to $18,60, (say $18;) which added to precise cost of keeping a colt is [§268. So that each untrained colt of four years old, for expenses of dam, sire and raising, has cost a total of $564. . But on an average you mus (deduct ten per cent. 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 663 from the sum of live and sound colts foaled, for death, or material injury, received before the colt is four years old, so thai the colt is a total loss — not to say expense. Now suppose the death or injury to occur on an average at two years of age, when the colt has cost you #414; you must add to each of the remaining nine, one-ninth of that sum which is $46. So that on an average, each of your colts raised, and sound and untrained at lour years old, costs you a total of $610. Of all the line colts raised, not more than one- third are ever trained; leaving you two-thirds of all your fine colts, which have cost you each, $610. Of these two-thirds of untrained colts, one-half are mares; we will suppose them all fine — and to bring us brood-mares each $400. The other half of the untrained colts being geldings sell at a libe- ral estimate on an avi 200. So that of three colts each costing $6l0, and the three costing an aggregate of $1830, you sell two for an aggre- gate of $600, leaving you one colt lor training at the handsome sum of ^, 1230. Now add the cost of training this colt, which is never less than §100; and each trained colt raised by you, costs you §1,330. Twenty colts thus raised and trained, cost an aggregate of $26,600. Of these twenty it is cer- tain, that ten will not bring more than an average of $500, each. Deduct the aggregate value of these ten, from the aggregate cost of the twenty; and, it leaves you ten colts, costing an aggregate .600. Of these ten, it is certainly a fair esti- mate, that six will not bring you more than $1000 each; so that you have lour first rate colts, trained and sound at tour years old, costing you an aggre- gate of $15,600; or each colt costing you $3,900. These prices seem to stand on sure arithmetical grounds. If any of the charges have been made too high, the mistake is open to correction. But it can scarcely happen that any possible mistakes, and their exposure, can exhibit a result of anything but Zoss, on a general average, to the breeders of ra- cing horses. But these expenses are not all. There are expenses of another kind to be added, which though more conjectural, and therefore more lia- ble to be incorrectly estimated, are not the less cer- tain to be met with in greater or less amount — and generally in a very large amount. I will now present an estimate of a supposed average of this additional charge — and if any reader objects to its justice, he may even reject it entirely. The case of loss is sufficiently strong without this additional charge — which is for the general injury caused to a man's farming business and income, by the direc- ting his care and attention, to this seductive and engrossing pursuit. Suppose a man to have ft 20,000 invested in land, negroes, plantation stock, &c, &c, &c. and that besides this investment, he keej s five first rate brood mares: what will be the effect of this latter fact, on the availableness of the first invest- ment of $20,000? Will it not well nigh neutra- lize it? Certainly it will diminish its profitableness one-half Now estimating the profitableness of such investment to be six per cent, per annum, (which it ought to be,) and calculating the interest on one-half of the investment, it gives us $600 per annum. Now according to the foregoing esti- mates, with five brood mares, it will require twen- ty-two years to secure to the proprietor the four first rate trained colts four years old; and during eighteen years he loses the interest on $10,000 annually; which, in twenty-two years, will amount to $13,200; which sum divided equally among the lour fine colts, and added to their previous cost, makes each one to have cost the proprietor $7,200. Thus, his four horses cost him a total of $28,800. It is proper to add, that if the person attempting to raise fine horses be a poor man, and therefore, cannot lose the interest on $10,000 annually, it only makes the case the worse; for being poor, his own close and personal attention to his private af- fairs is a matter of great importance — and being poor, he is destitude of the means to bring his colts favorably into market, so that the ulntost he is likely to do, is to raise saddle-horses at $200 each, and, broodmares at $400; while they actually cost him, each $610; that, is, he sells at an average of $300 — what cost him an average of $610. What a prospect for making money ! A man sells his colts at less than half what they cost. Or if he has as many of them trained, as is commonly done; then after twenty-two years toil, he has raised and sold, or has on hand, four fine horses; each of which cost him $7,200. What he will actually get for each of his fine horses is a ques- rion I cannot answer. But suppose he gets for three of them, $5000 each — and for the fourth, $10,000— being a total of $25,000 still, he loses in money $3,800. But one in sixty of all the fine colts raised to be lour years old, does not sell for $10,000; and three more out of every sixty, do not sell for $5,000 each. On the contrary, not one in three hundred sells for $10,000; and not one in one hundred for $5000. Besides, those horses, which even bring these prices, seldom bring it at four years old. They have to be travelled through the country, and money risked upon their speed, and great expense incurred, before they will com- mand this sum. It is very seldom that the gentle- man raising the horse, gets the high prices just named. It is the racer who has paid for him at most $ 1000 or ft 1500, who afterwards sells for these high prices. It is true that the owner of the colt sometimes is, or becomes the racer; but if his first lessons on the turf are with his own colts, he is apt to find it a very losing business. Thus, Mr. Editor, I have stated the result of my inquiry into this matter. Are not the fore- going estimates correct? One of Virginia's most honored sons, who has furnished the data on, which they are founded — says they are within bounds. He himself has made the experiment on a large scale, and under every advantage; and he has arrived at the full and firm conclusion, that a more losing business is not done. But if the es- timates be incorrect, let any gentleman show^ wherein; and prove the business profitable, if he can. But if these estimates be any thing like the truth, let us abide their decision: and when we think of raising fine horses, let us remember the lessons taught by these or similar estimates. It is pleasant to know that light is beginning to break in on the public mind, on this subject; and that a few gentlemen of foresight and prudence, who, for a time were led off by the delusion, have sold out, or propose to sell out. — and thus the work will pass into the hands of poor "Jim, who, has not looked at the other side." Yet is there not on the whole any diminution, but rather an increase of the entire business done in this line. GULLET. 664 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 11 CALCAREOUS MANURES. OBJECTIONS TO THE LIMITATION OF TUB TERM "CALCAREOUS EARTH" TO CARBONATE OF LIME. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Cambridge, (Dorchester,) ~) E. S. Md., Jan. 27, 1835. S 1 have, for very many years, entertained the conviction of the want of calcareous matter throughout the whole of our peninsula with which I am acquainted; yet the almost impossi- bility of obtaining it in any of i!s combinations, in the section (Dorchester) in which my destinies have placed me, has diminished, mortifyingly, the advantages that might, have resulted from that conviction. Ten years ago, 1 constructed an au- ger with a long shank, and fixed with a moveable crank to work at any point of its length: and I have bored on my lands, indefatigably, in quest of marl, to no purpose. A year ago Professor Dn- catel assisted me in full confidence — but in vain. The few shells which my neighborhood afforded me have made my only resource — enough only to increase my regrets at the privation. I have fi- nally made a large contract tor oyster-shells in Bal- timore, to be transported ninety miles — a i'cw thousand bushels of which were delivered last fill, which led me to make further research into the operation and uses of calcareous manures. At this critical moment I had the satisfaction to re- ceive the kind favor of your Essay on the subject, and I say in truth, I know not, whether to appre- ciate the more the untiring zeal, or the discrimina- tive judgement, evinced in that production. Your propositions exhibit a philosophic view, founded, in my opinion, upon fads — which time, observa- tion, and reflection, may extend and improve, but will never controvert. Though extremely unfashionable, yet the doc- trine of uncombined acids, vegetable as well as mineral, ready formed in the earth, I have always maintained, and I believe, on good authority, as well as reason; and the presence of either the one or the other class would bring calcareous manures, within ynur rationale of its operation. Upon this subject, the celebrated Duhamel, who is known where science has reached, has expressed himself eighty years ao-o, in these words — "if the clay is of a cold, acid nature, the marl destroys that acid- ity, and keeps the clay warm, &c. &c. — Duha- meVs Practical Treatise of Husbandry, published 1762, p. 23."* * Our correspondent gives to this work, more credit than it deserves, in supposing it to be Duhamel's. His name, though standing most conspicuously on the title page, and with the intention, of passing for the author's, is a publisher's cheat, which will be manifest to a care- ful examination of the title page itself, with a glance at the contents of the volume. It is a compilation, and a part consists of experiments reported by Duhamel — but not the passage referred to — which indeed, is worlh nothing as authority even if it happened to contain a truth. In speaking of acidity in the soil, the compiler uses the term ignorantly, without any precise meaning, or the least knowledge of the chemical nature of soils, or calcareous manures — of which enough evidence is Dr. Darwin in his "Phitologia" says, "where clay abounds with vitriolic arid, it is anti-septic;" and he recommends lime and ashes, as a correc- tive. The source of carbonic, acetous, oxalic, and many other acids may be found, as every one knows, in the continual growth and decay of ve- getable substances. Some, in the products of their decomposition, by the fermentative process, others are mere educte, being ready formed in the plant: it is reasonable to believe that these results will, under favorable circumstances, be deposited in the matrix from which their elements had been derived, and where they had grown and perishedj with winch, too, they would become mechanical- ly mixed, and so intimately, as to be largely re- tained: and more especially, if undisturbed by agricultural operations — which accords with the fact stated by you, "that rest increases acidity in the soil:" the effect thus produced becomes a new cause, furnishing the proximate principles, | pecu- liarly required by the paints which yielded them; hence a cumulative series of cause and effect, in- definitely extended, and constantly in operation. A greater degree of "fixity" is consequently not essential for their continued presence in the earth. The materials for the generation of many of the mineral acids are equally copious. By lessening the aptitude of the soil lor the. production of those species of vegetables, by the neutralization of their acids, the cause and effect are removed, pro rata — and its constitution becomes finally adapted, exclusively, to other species of vegeta- tion. Moreover, the evaporability of the first named, the carbonic acid, is not so considerable as some suppose: its specific gravity being as 15 to 10 of atmospheric air, it may be copiously held by the cold sod— though, this 1 mention, incidentally, and not in reference to your theory, with which the question of the presence of this acid does not interfere. Mr. Grisenthwaitesays, "the carbonic and ace- tic are the only two acids likely to be generated by any spontaneous decomposition ol animal or vegetable bodies, and neither of them have any "fixity," when exposed to the air." The acetous acid is more fixed in its character than the acetic, holding more carbon — and is not so likely to es- cape; and it is in that, shape, possibly, that this variety of vegetable acid may usually exist in the earth; and hence the force of Mr. Grisenthvvaife's remark is at least diminished in its purpose. But, for reasons before given, acids whether o-enerated by the spontaneous decomposition of bodies, or by the secretion and assimilation of organic life, may be fixed in the soil, under very possible, and in- deed, very usual circumstances, durably enough to operate much good or evil, as their respective characters may incline them; and yet they may not possess enough of that property of "fixity" to beJar transportation and exposure in the labo- ratory of the analyst. The oxalic and other acids come under the same remarks. As to the "hu- mic" acid, its actual detection in the soil rests, at least upon highly respectable authority. furnished in other passages soon after. See quotations from the work, and remarks thereon, in Note G, of the Appendix to the Essay on Calcareous Manures, p. S2, — Ed. Farm. Reg. 1836J FARMERS' REGISTER. '665 These views which are just, allow ample scope to the agency of calcareous manures, and lead es- sentially to the use of them, upon general princi- ples— upon ancient authority — and upon the prin- ciples assumed by you in your essay under re- view; and more especially, in reference to those properties, whereby they exert a chemical action bf neutralizing acids; and, of combining putrescent manures with the soil; which otherwise under chemical laws, would be resisted. Your definition of "calcareous earth," I must, take exception to— it is too limited — and leads you occa- sionally into apparent solecisms, which are not cor- rected by the reader, until he turns to, or, reflects on your peculiar definition. You define "calca- reous earth" to be a combination of lime with car- bonic acid. You ascribe the sterility of soils to their being destitute of this earth. You recom- mend calcareous earth, as essential to restore and preserve them in a state of fertility: and you ad- mit, that many of the most fertile and valuable soils are destitute of calcareous earth. But you explain that these contain lime, though with a vegetable acid. Had you used the term "calcareous manures" with a latitude of defini- tion, embracing all manures with a calcareous base, in all their various combinations, chemical and mechanical, it would have been more systema- tic— perhaps more scientific and familiar language. And you might then, too, allowing each their re- spective grades of utility, have made your prefer- ences of the various combinations of calcareous bodies; and with your reasons of discrimination, growing out of your clear and excellent theory and without any of those apparent contradictions in terms, which now in a few intances occur. Ex- perience has taught, that all the calcareous bo- dies, in all their varied modifications, possess pro- perties subservient to the purposes of vegetation — though the carbonate, for its easy decomposi- tion, may perhaps justly occupy the highest or- der. In truth, my exception upon a point of nom- enclature is not worth maintaining, and I have made it, solely, because I believe that innovation of terms, or, of the meanings of terms generally, tend to perplex and retard the progress of scien- tific improvement. You will please to accept my zeal for the art and science of agriculture, as an apology for these few remarks, and an acknowledgement of the ser- vices which, by your unwearied diligence, you are rendering to the agricultural interest of the coun- try— and with it, to the author of these remarks. When I commenced this letter, I had no idea of extending it beyond the subjects of the first paragraph — but I have lugged in as foreign mat- ters as the amendments of a modern forafcation bill — and so you may dispose of it as you think proper, JOSEPH E. MUSE. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Cambridge, E. S. Md., January 29, 1836. $ The near approach of the mail-hour hurried the latter portion of my last communication to you, and rendered me, I am conscious, less explicit in my exception to vour term and definition of "calca- Yol. HI— 84 reous earth," than I might have been; and I beg leave to add the following postscript, explanatory of my views. You define calcareous earth, to mean "lime with carbonic acid." This definition I designed to suggest, is not consistent with the present state of geological science, and technical nomenclature; and therefore, is rather embarrassing to the rea- der. Since the discoveries of Sir Humphrey Davy, with which you are fully acquainted, and thetruth of which discoveries are, 1 believe universally ac- knowledged, earths are known to be "ra'etallic ox- ides." To wit: "aluminous earth" is "alumina" or the "oxide of aluminum;" "silicious," is "silica," or the "oxide of silicum ;" "calcareous earth" is "lime," or the oxide of calcium." These earths combined with any of the acids, form salts with earthy bases; or "earthy salts." Dr. Ure classes "lime," (not carbonate of lime) among the primi- tive earths. Dr. Webster, Professor in Harvard University, in a work, compiled from Bronde, Henry, Berzelius, Thompson and others, says: "of the primary earths, only four are usual- ly met with; to wit: silica, alumina, magnesia, and lime, (not carbonate of lime,) hence it would seem, that "lime" and not "lime with carbonic acid" is "calcareous earth." The term then used by you, does not appear technically correct. It is true, that defined as it is by you, the meaning is conveyed, and perhaps as well — yet, it is not so familiar, or systematic, as the nomenclature of modern science, founded up- on modern discoveries — which have been adopted as unquestionable truths. The facility and frequency of the union of lime with carbonic acid, will not sanction the innova- tion, any more than they would justify the term "aluminous earth," to imply the union of alumi- na with sulphuric acid, with which it is so often found united by the hand of nature. The adop- tion of it, therefore leads to apparent contradic- tions: which though removeable by reference to your definition, is a little embarrassing. You will excuse, in your liberality, the harshness of my cursory review of your inestimable essay; which should have a prominent place in every agriculturist's library. And again, except my thanks for the presentation of it; and the assurance of the high regard of JOSEPH E. MUSE. Our correspondent unnecessarily apologizes for his strictures. They would be welcome, from any such source, even though for more extensive and severe, and unaccompanied by such complimentary and grat- ifying expressions, as we are indebted for above. We only desire that the doctrines of the Essay on Calca- reous Manures may be considered as public property — without reference to the author— to be strictly scruti- nized, and admitted to be true and important, or con- demned as false and worthless, according to a correct ppreciation of their value. £he objections urged by Dr. Muse to the application and limitation of the term "calcareous earth" to car- of lime, are sound and weighty — and they were considered, and fully appreciated, before that defini- tion was adopted. The only excuse for this applica- tion— and which still seems to us sufficient — is that any other would be attended with far greater objec- ess FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 11 tions — whether the term was limited to the pure chem- ical earth lime alone, or was made to embrace every combination of lime whatever. Either of these ap- plications would have been far more regular in ap- pearance, and more suited to scientific arrangement. The defence for the course adopted as to this term, was given in a note in the Appendix to the Essay; Which, as it has not been seen by many who will read these letters, will be copied here. The passage presents the views which then induced the decision, and which still remain unchanged. "The definition of "calcareous earth," which con- fines that term to the carbonate of lime, is certainly liable to objections, but less so than any other mode of arrangement. It may at first seem absurd to con- sider as one of the three principal earths which com- pose soils, one only of the many combinations of lime, rather than either pure lime alone, or lime in all its combinations. One or the other of these significations is adopted by the highest authorities, when the calca- reous ingredients of soils are described—and in either sense, the use of this term is more conformable with scientific arrangement, than mine. Yet much incon- venience is caused by thus applying the term calca- reous earth. If applied to lime, it is to a substance which is never found existing naturally, and which will always be considered by most persons as the product of the artificial process of calcination, and as having no more part in the composition of natural soils, than the manures obtained from oil-cake, or pounded bones. It is equally improper to include underthe same gene- ral term all the combinations of lime with the fifty or sixty various acids. Two of these, the sulphate, and phosphate of lime, are known as valuable manures; but they exist naturally in soils in such minute quanti- ties, and so rarely, as not to deserve to be considered as important ingredients. A subsequent part of this essay will show why the oxalate of lime is also sup- posed to be highly valuable as a manure, and far more abundant. Many other salts of lime are known to chemists: but their several qualities, as affecting soils, are entirely unknown— and their quantities are too small, and their presence too rare, to require considera- tion. II ail the numerous different combinations of lime, having perhaps as many various and unknown properties, had not been excluded by my definition of calcareous earth, continual exceptions would have been necessary, to avoid stating what was not meant. The carbonate of lime, to which I have confined that term, though only one of many existing combinations, yet in quantity and in importance, as an ingredient of soils, as well as a part of the known portion of the globe, very far exceeds all the others. "But even if calcareous earth, as defined and lim- ited, is admitted to be the substance which it is proper to consider as one of the three earths of agriculture, still there are objections to its name, which I would gladly avoid. However strictly defined, many readers will attach to terms such meanings as they had pre- viously understood: and the word calcareous has been so loosely, and so differently applied in common lan- guage, and in agriculture, that much confusion may attend its use. Any thing "partaking of the nature of lime" ia "calcareous," according to Walker's Dic- tionary: Lord Karnes limits the term to pure lime* — Davyf and Sinclair,| include under Lt pure lime and all its combinations — and Kirwan,|| Roziei%§ an^r1 Young,1T whose example I have followed, confine the •Gentleman Farmer, page 2H, (2d Edin. Ed.) fAgr. Clscm. page 223, (Phil. Lid. of 1821.) / irricultiire, page 134, (Hartford Ed. 18 pKirwan on Manures, Chap. 1. S"3Vret" — Cours Cornplet d'Agriculture Prathiu tYoung'i Essay on Manures, Chap. 3. name calcareous earth to the carbonate of lime. Nor can any other term be substituted without producing other difficulties. Carbonate of lime would be precise, and it means exactly the same chemical substance: but there are insuperable objections to the frequent use of chemical names in a work addressed to ordinary readers. Chalk, or shells, or mild lime, (or what had been quicklime, but which from exposure to the air, las again become carbonated,) all these are the same chemical substance — but none of these names would serve, because each would be supposed to mean such certain form or appearance of calcareous earth, as they usually express. If I could hope to revive an obsolete term, and with some modification establish its use for this purpose, I would call this earth calx — and from it derive calxing, to signify the application of calcareous earth, in any form, as manure. A general and definite term for this operation is much wanting. Liming, marling, applying drawn ashes, or the rubbish of old buildings, chalk, or limestone gravel — all these operations are in part, and some of them entirely, that manuring that I would thus call calxing. But because their names are different, so are their effects generally considered — not only in those respects where differ- ences really exist, but in those where they are precisely alike." EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE GE- OLOGICAL RECn.MVOISSAKCE OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, MADE UNDER THE APPOINT- MENT OF THE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS. By William B Rogers, Professor of Natural Phi- losophy in the University of Virginia. [Continued from p. 634 Vol. III.] Of the Green Sand, Sulphate of Iron, Sulphur, and other matters associated xoith the marl beds. Green Sand. — As already intimated, this sub- stance is frequently ibund disseminated in the marl, and also in the overlying stratum of clay or sand. From the remarkable effects of compara- tively small quantities of this material when ap- plied to land, there can be no doubt that many of the marls of lower Virginia owe some of their value to its presence. Supposing only as much as 10 per cent, of this substance in a marl, and this is far below the amount which I have ascer- tained to exist in many localities, '100 loads of mail would correspond to ten of the green sand, an amount which in New Jersey has often been found productive of striking benefit. Several of the most efficient marls which I have examined, were more remarkable for the large proportion of this substaajSe contained in them than for their richness in calcareous matter. Jn many marl pits which jr-have visited, the impressions of the pick and si ade were streaked with green marks, which upon 'inspection were found to result from the bruised granules of this matter. In such cases, i here can he no doubt of the existence in the marl of an amount of green sand capable of affording material aid to the growing vegetable. In the layer immediately above the marl also, it some- times exists in considerable quantity — and hence instead of rejecting this overlying mass, in many cases it would be decidedly better to carry it out upon the land along with the calcareous matter. The experience of many farmers has already shown the propriety of this plan, and some even entertain the opinion that this upper layer, where 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 667 the green sand abounds, is quite as beneficial as the marl itself! Furl her observations respecting the green sand will be given in treating of the Eocene marls, of which it constitutes a very im- portant ingredient. Sulphate of Iron and Sulphur. — In some parts of the Miocene district, there occur beds of clay more or less sandy, and usually of a dark color, containing these substances in a minute but still appreciable quantity. Such matter, there is rea- son to believe would not in general prove direct- ly beneficial to the soil. The former has been thought positively detrimental to vegetation, and certainly when applied in considerable quantity, this is its effect. What agency it might exert in a more diluted state, and mingled with other matter, we are without the means of determining. Pro- bably under such circumstances it might operate as a stimulant: and thus contribute to the growth. The same doubts are also applicable to the other substance above named. Yet in some well au- thenticated cases, the action of these copperas and sulphur clays has been Ibund strikingly beneficial. In these instances, however, it would seem that much if not all the benefit was produced by the effectual protection which even minute quantities of these substances, especially the latter, afford against the attacks of insects. In a cotton field in which all the alternate rows were lightly sprink- led with earth of this description, the plants so treated grew up vigorous and healthy, while the others became sickly and were nearly devoured by insects. Much careful observation is required to determine the kind and mode of influence which these substances exert, and it would be premature, in our present ignorance of the matter, to assert any convictions on the subject. The presence of the former of these ingredients, if not recognized by the copperas flavor, will be readily discovered by steeping the earth in water, decanting the clear liquid, boiling il down to a small volume, and then adding tincture of galls or prussiate of potash. A black or brown color with the former, or a blue one with the latter, would indicate its presence. The experiment, however, should be made in a glass or china vessel. The sulphur becomes manifest, to the smell when the clay is heated, and even at. ordinary temperatures its peculiar odor may often be perceived. Eocene marl district. As already indicated, the extent, and boundaries of this interesting portion of eastern Virginia are as yet in a great depree matters of conjecture. The discovery of an Eocene deposite in the state first announced by me about eighteen months aw, in a communication to the Farmers' Register, has been followed up by a minute personal examination of some parts of the district in which it occur?, more especially on the James river and Pamun- key. Its existence on the Rappahannock and Potomac has also been ascertained, and speci- mens have been obtained from a number of inter- mediate points. With regard to the region south of the James River, i hough facts have been pro- cured which show conclusively that the deposite continues to the southern boundaries of the state, time has not admitted of such an investigation as would be necessary in defining its extent. A reg- ularly continuing line of observations on the Pa- munkey river, commencing below the point at which the deposite appears above the water's edge, and extending up the river to the junction of the North and South Anna, where it terminates, has served to develope the arrangement and compo- sition of the strata, and to determine the width of this portion of the formation. An inspection of the most important Eocene localities on the James River has also contributed many interesting and valuable tacts, while the Rappahannock and Po- tomac, its western limits, have been determined with as much accuracy as could be attained by transient observations directed only to a few local- ities. Wherever observed, the arrangement of the beds of the Eocene and the minerals and fossils contained in them, have been found strikingly alike, and hence the description of any transverse line of the formation may be regarded as convey- ing a just representation of its character through- out. At the same time, however, it is by no means to be assumed, that in all localities the same arrangment or composition of the strata must necessarily exist; for within a short distance in observations already made, considerable diver- sities have been observed to exist. But there can be little doubt that the general order of the strata already remarked, as well as the character of 1 he fossils which they contain, will present much uni- formity whenever the formation may be discovered within the limits of the state. The existence of Miocene strata over the Eo- cene, has been referred to under a former head, and some account of this more recent overlying deposite within the district of which we are now treating, may, with propriety, be prefixed to thj description of the Eocene itself Of the Miocene which overlies the Eocene. Westward of the limits of the Miocene pre- viously defined, the general level of the country continues gradually to rise. A surface more gene- rally undulating, and strewed with water-worn fragments of stone, sometimes of considerable size, marks our approach to the region of bills and rocks, whence these memorials of the destruc- tive lories of a former period have been derived. The superficial strata in the western portion of this district is generally a coarse sand or gravel, ofien containing large masses of rounded sand- stone and other rocks, of which the parent strata are generally to be found at no remote distance to the northwest. An inspeciion of these pebbles i3 sufficient to show, that in many, if not nearly all cases, they are derived from the grits and sand- stones with which the bituminous coal of eastern Virginia is associated, while from the similar na- ture of the sand and gravel in which they are embedded, we are entitled to conclude, that at least in part, they also refer themselves to the same reffion for their origin. In the hills at and .below Richmond, and in many other places, these bel^s of gravel have considerable depth, and pre- sent a structure at once curious and instructive. A series of strata at these places, in some of which the pebbles are disposed in horizontal lines; in otherc in lines oblique, but still generally paral- lel, inclining downwards to various points in the differenttlayers, give striking evidence of the agency of those diluvial and oceanic currents, of 668 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 11 which geologists have discovered so many me- morials in oi her regions, and may serve when mi- nutely studied, to throw much light on the physical changes to which this portion of the continent must formerly have been subjected. Beneath these beds of gravel, in many places strata of clay occur; but. whether referrable to the same epoch of deposition, cannot as yet. be clear- ly ascertained. Many beds of very argillaceous clay, suited lor the potter and brickmaker, and oc- casional layers of a pure beautiful yellow ochre, may be placed in this portion of the series. Other strata of clay and sand of a peculiar character present themselves in many localities beneath the superficial beds. These contain a record of their origin legible to the geologist, in the impressions of shells and Zoophytes with which they are generally filled. On comparing these casts, which m most cases can be easily re- cognized even in their more delicate markings, with the fossils of our Miocene, marl strata, their identity is established, and thus the strata in ques- tion at once take their places in the series of Mio- cene Tertiary deposites. In many parts of Han- over, King William, Henrico, and other counties in its range, these beds of clay are found, usually characterized by a dark greenish gray or brown color, a sulphureous odor, and an astringent taste. On Governor's Hill in Richmond, a stratum of the same kind is exposed; and at this spot, the fossil impressions and other characters above noticed, may be distinctly seen. Like the clays and sands formerly described as associated with the Miocene. these contain sulphate of iron (or copperas,) sul- phate of alumina (or alum,) and sulphur in an uncombined condition. So large a proportion of these substances is sometimes present, as lo render the water obtained from the strata in which they exist, absolutely unfit for use. It is to the existence of these materials in the strata, that we are to look for the cause of the dis- appearance of the calcareous matter, in the form of shells, which they once evidently contained. Either of the sulphates above named would exert a rapid decomposing action on the carbonate of lime, of which shells principally consist. The sulphuric acid of the sulphate combining with the lime of the carbonate, thus converting it into gyp- sum, while the carbonic acid would, in great part, escape in the form of gas. That the gypsum is not now discovered in these beds, is an obvious result of the comparative solubility of that sub- stance in water; its continuance in the strata being only possible where a heavy covering of clay ex- cluded the percolating liquid. Useless, if not injurious, as these clays are now believed to be when applied to land, there is rea- son to think that they are capable, by a little ap- plication of chemical knowledge, of being render- ed truly valuable as an auxiliary manure. The gypsum into which their enclosed shells were once converted, would doubtless have imparted to them a high agricultural value. Can we not replace.^ not all, some portion of this fertilizing material, bv mingling the clay with the more pulverulent shell marls occasionally found in its vicinity? That this mixture would result in the conversion ofi/a por- tion of the shelly matter info frypsum, there can be no doubt; and where the clay was originally rich in copperas and alum, the amount ofe the gyp- sum thus compounded would be proportionally great. Experiments on this subject are well worthy of being tried, not only with the clays here mentioned, but with those of a similar na- ture, which, as already remarked, occur in the more eastern portion of the Tertiary districts of the state. Before the amount of gypsum to be anticipated from such a treatment of these materials can be estimated, a chemical determination of the pro- portion of sulphates of iron and alumina must be had, and to this point future analysis might be use- fully directed. But though much ol the Miocene marl in this district has been exposed to the destructive chem- ical agencies above explained, much also is found retaining its carbonate of lime in undiminished quantity. On the lower levels on their river banks, if ap- pears seldom to have escaped the dissolving and decomposing action of the sulphates, while in the highlands it may usually be found containing its calcareous matter nearly as when first deposited. In King William, Hanover, Prince George, &c, beds are found in the highlands, at some distance from the. rivers. The fossils they contain are identical with those of the marl beds farther east, and the materials with which they are intermixed presenl no peculiarity important to be remarked. Specimens of this Miocene from Hanover, King William and Prince George, exhibit a good per centage of the carbonate of lime, and as might be expected, the strata from which they were taken are usefully resorted to by the neighboring farm- ers. As would be. inferred from remarks previously made, the general level at which this marl occurs, is higher than that of the Eocene, and here the promise is held out that this latter, even in the highlands, would be exposed by excavations car- ried to some depth beneath the lower limits of the former. In examining the Eocene deposite on the Pa- munkey and James Rivers, the interesting geolo- gical fact was observed of an actual superposition of the Miocene upon it; and on the Pamunkey, the precise point was determined at which the Eocene first makes its appearance above the wa- ter-line, being there overlaid by a. heavy bed of the more recent deposite. This occurs at North- bury, and directly opposite at the plantation of doc- tor Charles Braxton. Of the Eocene or lower Tertiary marl. The descriptions and facts which will be com- prised under this head, will principally refer to the localises on the Pamunkey and James Rivers, to whicfl especial observation has been directed. At the same time that, their value, as applying to the Eopene district generally, ma}' be regarded as being sufficiently established by general geological anal- ogies, as well as such observations upon other portions of the region, as the present early stage of the inquiries has allowed me an opportunity of making. No region of eastern Virginia holds out more certain promise of reward to future in- vestigation, and none will reap from the research more lasting and important benefits. 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 669 Description of the Eocene strata of the Pamun- key. Rising above the. water-line at Northbury, the upper surface ot' the deposite is seen ascending with a very gentle slope, as it extends higher up the river, until at Newcastle it attains an elevation of about 25 feet above medium tide. Beyond this point, with slight undulations in its outline, it con- tinues with but little general deviation of height from the water-line to near its termination at the junction of the North and South Anna, where it dips or thins out until lost immediately on the. verge of the coarse sandstone, which there, for the first time, makes its appearance in massy form. The deposite appears on both sides of the river wherever the flats do not intervene, and at the base of the second level, corresponding in po- sition to its place in the river cliffs in the same vi- cinity. On the south side of the river, the deposite has been particularly examined, at Northbury, Hamp- stead, Retreat, Washington Basset's, Walker Tomlin's, Mrs. Ruin's, Mr. Roane's and Mr. Wickhams's, where it terminates. Specimens have been collected from other localities, either on the river or at the base of the second l«vel: on the north side, at Chericoke, captain Hill's, Mr. Nixon's, Piping Tree, Newcastle, Dr. Braxton's and Mr. Fox's. Specimens also from various other points on, and remote from the river, have been procured, and thus a somewhat minute ac- quaintance with this portion of the Eocene tract has been attained. Towards the southern boun- dary of the deposite, the following arrangement of strata occurs, commencing at. the top. 1st. A stratum of greenish yellow earth con- taining no shells, but numerous traces or casts of them, plainly showing that shells were at one time embedded in the mass. Sulphate of lime or gypsum occurs in crystals sometimes of conside- rable size, interspersed throughout this stratum, which is principally made up of coarse silicious sand, blended with granules of green sand or sili- cate of iron. The thickness of this bed is varia- ble ; at Chericoke and Hampstead it is about two leet; at Retreat from four to five. 2d. Beneath this lies a layer of dark greenish blue or browc earth, which when dried, generally falls to pieces, and is discovered to consist mainly of coarse silicious sand, and green sand, together with shells generally in a broken condition. The shelly matter is sometimes entirely wanting, though occasionally it composes a large portion of the mass. At Hampstead, the. calcareous ingre- dient exists in large proportion and in\a finely di- vided state. Fiequently, one or more thin layers of the oyster shell peculiar to the lower Tertian- region occurs in the body of this stratum* a fact remarkably exemplified at Piping Tree, and for nearly a mile further clown the river, where the layer of shells forms a hard rockey shelf laid bare at low tide, and presenting large and perfect spe cimens of the fossil oyster, in the midst of the greenish stratum just described. At Chericoke the stratum rises to about four feet above the water, and as ascertained by digging, descends to seven feet below the river shore. Higher up the stream, these strata attain a great- er elevation, and subjacent beds not apparent at either of the points above described, come gradu- ally into view. In these localities we usually find, 1st. A layer of dark grayish green or grayish brown color, containing multitudes of shells, gen- erally in a perfect state; the fossil oyster shell al- ready referred to abounding chiefly in the upper part of the stratum. Beneath this, but frequently separated by no distinct line of demarkation, we find, 2d. A layer of darker hue, containing less shel- ly matter, and the shells chiefly of the smaller kinds; and 3d. A stratum of the same appearance, in which no calcareous matter can be discovered. All these strata contain a large portion of the green sand. In the upper and lighter colored beds, the granules of this substance are very ob- vious to inspection, resembling in size and color the grains of gunpowder, and giving when bruised a bright green stain. In .the lower beds they are more minute, and being intimately mingled with the other materials present, are not readily recog- nized, excepting by the general greenish charac- ter of the mass. These beds also contain a great deal of Mica in fine sparkling scales. Of the depth of these strata below the level of the. river nothing definite is known, no extensive excava- tions having yet been made. At Mr. Wickham's they are found to rest upon a layer of large peb- bles, but this basis is perhaps not co-extensive with the deposite. lower down the river. When the upper bounding surface of the Eo- cene is even and uniform, it is always marked by a fhin layer of black pebbles, upon which there usually rests a bed of olive colored earth, or of friable white clay — and in some cases, both these strata, the olive colored being next the Eocene. This olive earth is of a fine texture, containing but little gritty sand. Here and there a shark's tooth in a decomposed condition, or the impression of a shell may be discerned. The white stratum abounds in casts, but never presents the shells themselves. It shows a light, trace of gypsum, but in neither of these beds does there exist any carbonate of lime. From the character of the or- ganic impressions they contain, they clearly refer themselves to the Miocene formation. In some places on the river, particularly where the upper bed of the Eocene contains gypsum, as at a point a little below Piping Tree, a thin layer of ferruginous rock abounding in casts occurs im- mediately in contact, with the Eocene; this also is to be placed among the strata of the Miocene. A more distinct conception of the order and ex- tent of the strata of both the Tertiary divisions, as they occur at different points along the river, will be obtained from the following summaries derived from observation. On the north bank of the river in a cliff about half a mile below Piping Tree, the beds taken in a descending order are, Miocene. — 1. White friable sandy clay, containing fossil impres- sions, 10 feet. 2. White sandy marl with bro- ken shells, i 3. Ferruginous stratum abound- ing in casts, and occasion- ally containing the shells themselves, A 1 Thin band of black pebbles. 676 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 11 Eocene. — 5. Dark green sand stratum — no shells, 4 6. Rockey sheif of cemented shells of the saddle-shaped oyster, \ 7. Dark green sand strata with small shells, 2 17 The highest Miocene bed is not exposed at this point, but occurs a little farther up the river in the character of a dark blue clay with fossil im- pressions, on which there rests a thin layer of ochreous clay, as brilliant in its tints as the finest chrome yellow. This ochre is of the most impal- pable texture when dried, and would be found very valuable in coloring. At Mr. Washington Basset's, about A\ miles higher up the river, the bank is precipitous, and presents the following series of strata: Miocene. — Superficial gravel, 5 or 6 feet. Thin layer of friable sandy clay with casts, J? Olive-colored earth with shark's teeth, and a few casts of Miocene shells, 7 Thin line of black pebbles. Eocene. — Dark greenish brown stra- tum, containing a large proportion of green sand, and in some parts abound- ing in shells. The upper portion consists of a rocky mass of cemented shell, chiefly the saddle-oyster, 20 At Walker Tomlin's, on the south side of the river, immediately below Newcastle, the beds are, Miocene. — Friable white clay and sand with casts of shells, 2 Eocene. — Olive earth with pebbles at bottom, 6 A dark bluish green clay, containing a great deal of green sand, capped by rock as at the former lo- cality, 25 At Newcastle and William H. Roane's and Mrs. Ruffm's estates, a similar series of beds oc- curs, rising still higher above the level of the stream. About 1| miles above Newcastle, the upper surface of the Eocene marl has an ele- vation above the river ol more than thirty feet. The lower stratum consists of the bluish green clay before mentioned, containinn; only a few of the more delicate shells, and richly abounding^in green sand; the upper of a gray calcareous marl, thickly speckled with granules of this substance. Over the whole is a layer of the white friable ma- terial, with Miocene impressions. The upper surface of the .Eocene usually pre- sents an unbroken line, though at some places, as at Mr. Fox's above Newcastle, this is not the case. The bed here consists of a light-colored sand and clay, speckled with the green sand, and containing vast numbers of the Eocene oyster. \U outline presents numerous cavities and emi- nences, exactly resembling these which occur in the Miocene deposite nearer to the seaboard. A narrow layer of common sand deeply tinged by mixture with green sand, lies immediately upon this irregular surface, and the whole is covered with a bed of gravel and sand, with diagonal lines of stratification, indicating the agency of currents at the time of its deposition. At Mr. William Wickham's, the overlying stra- tum consists of bands of ferruginous gravel and sand, containing round concretions, like Geodes, generally fiiled with sand. Thin seams of iron ore run along this stratum a few feet above the (ossiferous beds. These latter, in some places, present a level outline, and are then always co- vered by a layer of sandy clay containing much green sand. On the other hand, where the out- line is undulating and irregular, a stratum of gra- vel rests immediately in contact with the bed of marl. The size of the gravel thus deposited, as well as the scooped surface of the bed on which it reposes, indicating the operation of powerfid cur- rents after the deposition of the strata of Eocene, presents an explanation of the absence in these places of the upper bed of this formation, remark- ed us present in those spots where there are no such indications of the action of destructive forces. The matrix of the fossils is sometimes an olive- colored clay, sometimes a grayish green sand and clay, and sometimes a bluish black clay, contain- ing a large proportion of the granules of green sand. The depth of the marl is 15 feet. Eocene strata of the James River. The beds of Eocene on the James River first make their appearance on its southern shore near Coggin's Point, and thence continue, except when interrupted by the river flats, to a small distance above City Point, making a distance following the flexures of the shores of about ten miles. On the opposite side they have been found at Berkeley and other points, but as yet this portion of the deposite has been but little examined-^ At Coggin's Point, Tarbay and Evergreen, the cliffs have a height varying from 30 to 40 feet. The Miocene marl, which in some places is seen overlying the Eocene, abounds in scallops and other shells which make it easily recognized. Be- neath this and usually separated from it by a thin line of black pebbles, like those occurring on the Pamunkey, there occurs a stratum of a greenish red and yellow aspect, containing much green sand and gypsum; the latter partly disseminated in sinn!; grains, and partly grouped in large and mas- sive crystals. The under stratum, rich in green sand and containing a kw shells in a friable con- dition, extends to some depth beneath the level of the river, and appears to rest upon a bed of clay of a lead color, containino; crystals of gypsum. At Evergreen a stratum of pure white clay rests upon the upper layer of Eocene, containing, em- bedded in its lower surface, large groups of crys- tals, and seems to occupy the place of the black pebbles before mentioned. The whole thickness of the Eocene deposite at this point, appears to be about twenty feet. Below as wTell as above thi« 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. (571 place, its height declines until no portion of it is any longer visible above the water edge. Eocene Deposite of the Potomac, Rappahannock, and Maltapony, Sfc. Although the shores of these rivers have as yet been but little examined '.vith a view to the struc- ture and arrangement of the various strata they exhibit, enough has been observed to prove that they are no less rich in t lie Eocene marl than the other districts which have been described. On Potomac creek, and for a great distance below its mouth, the green sand strata may be seen run- ning along the base of the cliff; and from speci- mens examined, there can be no doubt that the character of the deposite is similar to that of the Eocene of the James River and Pamunkey. On the Rappahannock, for a considerable distance below Port Royal, the very same appearance is presented; and the green sand obtained from some of these localities is in every respect like that from the points already noticed. In some places on the Mattapony, the occurrence of the green sand stra- tum has been ascertained, while in others the beds containing this substance are replaced by beds of clay, which, though geologically of the same (or Eocene) formation, are yet less likely to prove interesting to the agriculture of the vicinity. Minute inquiries throughout all this district, and throughout the corresponding region south of the James River, are alone capable of developing the extent and value of this deposite. Even a great deal yet remains to be done in investigating local- ities on the James and Pamunkey Rivers, the northern shore of the latter being so far almost un- explored, and the precise character and value of some of the beds in localities examined being but imperfectly ascertained. Of the several beds composing the Eocene formation. In treating of the accompanying Miocene in the beginning of this section of the report, our descrip- tions have been confined chiefly to those beds which occur remote from the rivers upon the high- lands, and no mention has been made either of the white friable sand or olive colored clay already frequently noticed in describing the overlying stra- ta on the Pamunkey. The first of these, though once the repository of shells and other fossils, is now entirely desti- tute of carbonate of lime. A small quantity of gypsum in a minutely divided state seems to be its only ingredient of any value, and the amount of this present in the specimens I have examined is much too inconsiderable to give the material any agricultural importance. The olive earth, which is frequently an exten- sive layer, has also lost all the calcareous matter which it once contained; but a further examina- tion, chemical and geological, of this material, will be required before its nature can be exactly de- termined, or the possible applications of which it may admit can be ascertained. The upper bed of the Eocene, characterized in most of the localities by the gypsum which it con- tains, is worthy of especial consideration on ac- count of this valuable ingredient. In specimens from the James River, from five to eight per cent. of this substance has been found in a divided state, at the same time that a considerable additional quantity in a massive form exists in various parts of the same stratum. On the Pamunkey this stratum is not so thick, and is perhaps less abundant in the sulphate of lime. The lower beds, in some cases containing a marked proportion of shelly matter, and in others having almost none, are more especially distinguished by ihe larger proportion of another and even more important ingredient, to wit, the green sand. Both on the James River and Pa- munkey, their richness in this material gives them an agricultural value which perhaps no proportion of calcareous matter by itself, however great, would be able (o impart. The illustrations of its beneficial effects, and the general observations upon its employment as a manure or marl, which will hereafter be presented, will, I think, manifest the justice of this opinion, and give a sound confi- dence to those who are disposed to make trial of its powers. Extent and commodious position of the Eocene on the rivers. One of the most interesting facts presented in the foregoing description of the Eocene on the Pamunkey and James Rivers, is the great depth and extent of those strata, which, from the nature of their contents, may be applied to profitable use in agriculture. Beds of such materials, preserv- ing an average thickness of twenty Jeet, extend along the banks of the Pamunkey with occasional interruptions for more than twenty miles. Their position on the river shore makes them of most convenient access, and gives additional fa- cilities to the conveyance of the fertilizing mate- rials they furnish to various distant points, while from the peculiar character of the strata them- selves, they are almost exempt from the usual de- structive agencies of the freshets, being of a tex- ture to withstand, with scarcely any loss, the most violent assaults of the sweeping currents by which the banks of the river are so often overflowed. To this cause we are to ascribe the steep declivity of the shores in many narrow parts of the river, where the abrading action of the water, instead of rapidly carrying off the materials of these strata, has merely served to wear them into smooth and almost perpendicular precipices rising immediate- ly from the margin of the stream. Existence of the Eocene beneath the highlands, and throughout the whole breadth of the state. The general position and direction of the Eo- cene beds suggest another view of great practical importance to this and the neighboring districts of the states. I allude to the probable, perhaps I may say certain, continuation of these strata over a wide area, on a level corresponding to the gen- eral depth at which they are found upon the ri- vers. In confirmation of this view it may be re- marked, that since the publication of a communi- cation on this subject in the Farmers Register, the existence of a similar deposite throughout an ex- tensive district of Maryland, lying in the general direction of our Eocene formation, has been brought to light, and there is reason lor believing that within the borders of North Carolina, near to the Virginia line, the same strata are displayed in 672 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 11 the banks of several of the streams. In the be- lief then that all the extensive band of country, stretching in a meridianal direction entirely across the state, rests upon strata of this description, we are led to regard it as furnishing an immense ad- dition to the resources of the state, and as holding out to our enterprising farmers situated within its limits, a new motive to persevering and active re- search. Let it not be supposed, however, that wherever the Eocene occurs within our state, it will be found to present the same materials in the composition of its strata, as have been found in the localities already examined. Much diversity in this respect may, and probably does exist. On the Mattapony, as already stated, the green sand is frequently replaced by beds of clay of a dark lead color; while on the Potomac, Rappahannock, Pamunkey and James, variable but generally large proportions of the green sand occur, and the probability is, that future inquiries will develope similar diversities in the materials of the beds in other yet unexplored portions of the district. Constancy in the character of the embedded fos- sils is all that is necessary to a geological identity of the formations, and this constancy may exist at the same time that, there is a considerable diversi- ty in the materials in which they are enclosed. It is almost certain, however, that throughout a large portion of the region in question, extensive and valuable beds containing the preen sand do exist, and that even in the highlands they might be reached by excavations descending not very far beneath the lower limit of the Miocene or or- dinary marl. On the value of the Eocene green sand marl in ag- riculture. From the descriptions already given of the materials of the. various beds of Eocene, it will be seen that many of them contain ingredients which have long been recognized as valuable when applied to land. The gypsum in some, and the carbonate of lime in others, will at once be- speak the favor and confidence of the agricultu- rist, and no observations, either as to their useful- ness or mode of application, will be necessary to give them the importance they deserve. But the characteristic and principal ingredient of a large number of these beds, the green sand, possesses claims to our attention which are equally indispu- table, though not so generally appreciated or un- derstood. Experiments within our own state on this material, as furnished by the Eocene deposites, though ihw, and on a very limited scale, have been so far satisfactory. But as the marls con- taining this substance, which have been employ- ed, have also in most cases contained a notable quantity of gypsum, or of calcareous matter, all the benefits which they have produced would most naturally and reasonably be ascribed to those ingredients, already known for their agency in ameliorating the land. On the Pamunkey the Eocene marl has long been in use, but chiaflC those beds have been selected for the pur marling in which the largest proportion o; reous matter was seen to exist. The lower lay- ers, containing little or no calcareous matter, have on that account, until lately, been rejected as use- less, and sometimes when a bed of this description of considerable extent was found immediately overlying a more shelly stratum, much trouble and expense have been incurred in its removal, to make way for the excavation of the material be- neath. Appealing to the experience of the farm- ers of New Jersey, by whom the green sand, in an almost unmixed condition, has long been ap- plied for the purposes of a manure, its unrivalled efficacy, and the permanency of its ameliorating effects, are to be regarded as established and un- questionable facts. It is true, that at one time, owing to the ignorance of those who attempted to make use of it, and the application frequently of a spurious material resembling it. in aspect, doubts of its value have been excited in the minds of some; but the extensive and uniform experience of the present enterprising farmers of that stale, gives an unqualified testimony to the rapidity, the power, and the durability with which it acts. A comparatively small dressing of this marl, often not exceeding ten or fifteen loads per acre, is uniformly attended with beneficial results, and this, whether the soil to which it is applied, be a clay, or a light sferil sand. As an illustration of this fertilizing property of the green sand, I will subjoin the following statement quoted from the report of my brother, Professor Henry D. Rogers, on the geology of New Jersey, to which work I beg leave to refer, for ample and satisfac- tory details relating to the agricultural value of this substance, as well as for practical suggestions as to the most judicious modes in which it may be applied: "When we behold a luxuriant harvest gather- ed from fields where the soil originally was no- thing but sand, and find it all due to the use of a mineral sparsely disseminated in the sandy beach of the ocean, we must look with exulting admira- tion upon the benefits upon vegetation, conferred by a few scattered granules of this unique and pe- culiar substance. The small amount of green sand dispersed through the common sand, is able, as we behold, to effect immeasurable benefits in spite of a great predominance of the other mate- rial, which we are taught, to regard as by itself so generally prejudicial to fertility. This ought to exhibit an encouraging picture to those districts not directly within the limits of the marl tract, where some of the strata possess the green sub- stance in sensible proportion. It expands most materially the limits of the territory where marl- ing may be introduced, and points to many beds as fertilizing, which otherwise would be deemed wholly inefficacious." If such then be the effects of this material, even under circumsfanccs where comparatively little advantage could have been anticipated, and if such moreover be the concurrent experience of those by whom it is daily and extensively employ- ed, we are fully authorized in the belief, that in the Eocene beds of our own state, though in gen- eral less rich in the fertilizing ingredient than the secondary strata of New Jersey, the agriculture of eastern Virginia possesses a new and most le resource. The chemical examination of these marls, with a view to precise results, being a matter requiring much time and labor, has as yet been carried on only to a small extent. But a thorough analysis of all the important varieties and an exact deter- mination of the proportion of the various constit- uents, especially the green sand, or the calcareous 1S36.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 673 matter in different localities, will be a work from which much practical good may be derived. By the light of such results alone, can the farmer be safely directed in applying it to the soil, or be pro- perly guided in distinguishing, between a mate- rial which is spurious, and one which will be found salutary in its effects upon the land. The following results are to be looked upon as approximate determinations, but will serve to il- lustrate the composition of several varieties of the marl: Composition of green sand (Eocene) marls Doctor Corbin Braxton's, Walker Tomlin's, lower stratum, Conrad Webb's, Wm. H. Roane's, lower stratum, Tarbay, lower stratum, Do. upper stratum, Berkeley, Viewing these results generally, it is apparent, that while in some cases the efficacy of the marl would be ascribable in a degree to the calcareous carbonate or sulphate present in large proportion, in a great, many others the green sand ought to be regarded as the chief, if not the only agent in the effects. A dressing of many of these marls to the extent usual in the application of the Mio- cene shell marl wouid scatter upon the soil a pro- portion of green sand, nearly as great as the ave- rage quota which is at present in use in New Jer- sey, and in the richer sorts, a much less proportion would be necessary than it is customary to ap- ply where the shells abound. We are struck, in considering the composition of these marls, with the happy variety of consti- tution which they exhibit, which, should there be any specific action of the respective ingredients on particular vegetables, which there is reason to believe is the case with one (the gypsum,) will the more completely adapt them to the variety of crops to which the farmer would wish them to be applied. Some caution will be necessary in distinguish- ing the marls, containing a large proportion of green sand, from dark greenish clays and sands, which have sometimes been mistaken tor them. These clays are always entirely destitute of fos- sils; they have an astringent or copperas flavor, and generally a strong sulphureous odor, though a slight smell of this kind is also often observed in the best marls. The occurrence of small shells sparsely distributed and in a decomposing state is Vol. III.— 85 Silica and alumina, &c. Carbonate of lime, Green sand, Gypsum, Silica and alumina, Carb. lime and gypsum, a trace, Green sand, Silica and alumina, &c. Carbonate of lime, Green sand, Silica and alumina. &c. Carb. lime, Green sand, Gypsum, Silica, alumina, Sac. Carb. lime, Green sand, Gypseous earth containing from 6 to 10 per cent, of gypsum, and from 10 to 15 per cent, of green sand. Silica, alumina, &c. Green sand. 50 10 38 2 60 40 30 45 25 60 4 46 3 40 3 57 50 50 very frequent in the good marls, though an almost total absence of shells is sometimes observed. ITine sparkling scales of Mica, (not gypsum, as supposed by some.) are generally present in con- siderable proportion, and have led those who spec- ulated upon the action of the marl, to ascribe a large part of its efficacy to the supposed sulphate of lime or gypsum contained in it. To distin- guish a marl of this kind from the dark blue Mio- cene marl, a slight attention to the embedded fos- sils will be sufficient. The saddle-shaped oyster, characteristic of the Eocene, and never found in the latter deposite, would at once determine the bed in which it is found to be of the former de- scription— while the common scallop or clam, which is never seen in the Eocene, would indi- cate the Miocene character of the bed in which it lies. In concluding what I have to say upon this im- portant, topic, I may be permitted to throw out the suggestion, that should the deposite of which I have been treating, be found as extensive in its range and as useful as a manure as here anticipa- ted, the districts of the state contiguous to its wes- tern limits, as well as the region in which it oc- curs, might be expected to reap important bene- fits from its employment. Parts of Henrico and Hanover, and the lower part of Louisa, in which no marl exists, would be sufficiently contiguous to the Pamunkey deposite to avail themselves pro- fitably of its use, and when the projected improve- ments in, this region of the state shall present cheaper and readier means of transportation to 674 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 11 the remote parts of the two latter counties, as well as to a portion of Goochland, it is not extra- vagant to hope that this material may be conveyed to those districts at such a cost as will render it a profitable, as it would be an effi. :acious restorative to the exhausted and steril soils to which ameli- orating applications have of necessity hitherto been denied. To other parts of the stale in a corresponding position, perhaps similar benefits might he dis- pensed, and thus most of that portion of the state beyond the reach of the limestone which ra little east of the South [ountain, would in time be brought under the benificent itiflue the marls of the western limits of the ICocene for- mation. ESTIMATE OF THE EXPENSES AKD PRO- CEEDS OF A SILK GROWISG ESTABLISH- MENT. [We are not competent to decide on the correctness of the following estimates, which however rest upon the respectable authority of the editor of the journal from which they are copied. But this we are prepared to maintain — that if such profits can be obtained near Albany, much greater would reward similar efforts in Virginia, on account of our greater cheapness of land, cheapness of the labor which young or infirm slaves, now an expense, might supply — and still more, on ac- count of our longer summers, and milder win i Most of our readers possibly — and certainly most of the southern people who are not our readers— have no idea of the recent great and rapid extension of silk culture in the comparatively unfriendly northern states. Joint stock companies have been formed in almost every northern state, and large capitals invested, to carry on the entire business, from raising the mulberry trees, to the manufacture of the products of the worms. Either these people are mad, or we in Virginia, (espe- cially of the middle region,) are in this respect, more than usually blind to our own interest. Three new periodical journals are specially devoted to giving information on silk culture — and, three new treatises or manuals have been published, in addition to the several of somewhat older date. These facts, even more than the formation of joint stock companies and the investment of large capitals, prove that the public mind and interest are awakened— that knowledge is every where sought— and that truth must speedily be found, and generally acted upon. Would that such a spirit of inquiry existed in Virginia, either as to silk- culture, or any thing else in which our true interests are concerned !] From the Albany Silk Worm. If there is a person in the world whose mind has not been warped and biased by the influence of hereditary prejudices and fashionable opinions; should that person be asked what human brimr is entnledto the highest veneration and esteem ofhis fellow beings, he would answer, the person who should devise the means to produce the |reater quantity of the most palatable and nutritions food lor his fellow creatures, at the least expense. Should he be farther asked, who is entitled to the next rank in public esteem? His answer would be; he, whose talents produces the same effect with respect to clothing. In other words, the most ex- alted rank belongs to the best agriculturist: and the next, to him, whose inventive genius has effected, the greatest improvement in the quantity and quality of clothing at the least or a given price. How enviable then must be the situation of that person, in whom is united both these titles, and. whose employment is at the same time, as lucra- tive, as healthful, and as pleasing as it is useiul to mankind. Such an employment, with such advantages, anil if well conducted, certainly and clearly entitled to such honor and respect, is now fairly presented to the people of the United States in the business of cultivating silk; and experiments have fairly shown that there is no deception in the offer, but that it may be entered into without any hazard or chance of failure. It embraces all the charms of rural husbandry, with as little of the hard labor, as is consistent with bodily health and vigor. Its agricultural department is calculated to furnish healthful and pleasant labor, and consequently, food to the indigent without servile degradation, and it furnishes the richest and most elegant clo- thing that man or woman ever put on; and when fairly introduced, under the advantages which this country offers, its price will never be beyond the reach of honest industry. And besides all this, the profits it will yield will be equal to, or greater than those of anv other branch of ngiiculture or manufacture. Who then would not be a silk "■rower, — especially when the means of engaging in it, are within the reach of every cne possessed of common mental and corporeal faculties, who has credit sufficient to hire an acre of ground, and that even of almost the poorest quality? The ultimate success and perfect adaptation oi the Chinese mulberry to every part of this coun- try, are now established by reports of experiments which cannot be doubted, from every quarter. It is now ascertained beyond the need of farther in- vestigation, that it is as hardy to endure the win- ter's frost as the white mulberry, or almost any other fruit tree. It is ascertained that the best "•round to appropriate to it, is such sandy or grav- el'y and hilly ground as is of little value for most other uses,- — that if seed cannot be obtained, it may be propagated equally well from cuttings, or pieces of twigs, or young branches, a few inches lonff, with one end stuck into the ground. There is no industrious man in the United States, with a family and in health who cannot hire, if he cannot buy an acre of ground lor a nur- sery; aud having bought it, he can by exchanging work with some farmer, cause it, or a part of it to be plonjghed. If he is unable to buy young Chinese mulberry trees, and cannot procure the seed, which may for a short time to come be rather diffi- cult, he can easily, by a little energetic persever- ance, procure two hundred cuttings, probably without paying any thing, or at most but very lit- tle. Let him commence with these, and at the lowest calculation, which is perhaps more than three quarters below the truth, they will produce him a thousand the second year and may be mul- tiplied, from year to year, not only in the same, but in an increased ratio, as those first set out increase in size. 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER 675 I will endeavor to show what may be effected by perseverance in a systematic plan, which is the only mode of proceeding with any certainty of suc- cess. I shall limit the calculation to seven years, which will be a fair beginning; after which, any one with the experience of that time, will be able to make calculations 1'or the future. I shall set down each item in the calculation far below, and in some, instances, three hundred percent, below what fair experiments have shown, may be relied on. As it. is important, at the commencement to multiply the trees as last as possible, I would ad- vise to begin with about an acre of mellow, rich, sandy loam, which, though not so good for the ul- timate production of silk, is more conducive to the rapid growth of the young trees before transplan- ting, and therefore, best for the nursery. In this nursery, 1 would set the seedlings, cuttings, or other young trees as near together as they can have room to grow, the first year. The first year, 200 cuttings, set in the spring, will afford leaves sufficient to feed about 500 worms. This number would be of no profitable use in yielding silk; but it will be well to keep them, in order to form some acquaintance with them, and to provide eggs for the next year. The moths produced by the 500 worms, will probably be half females, and will produce about 100,000 egix^ about 15,000 of which will be wanted for the next season. Suppose 50,000 of them should be sold at 12.1 cents, which is one half their present price, the account for this year may stand thus. Rent for acre, for nursery - - $5 200 cuttings, say, - - - 2 Trouble of collecting, settinves the soil without producing any food lor the plan's. Argillaceous marl, according to that philoso- pher, acts mechanically, by rendering the calca- reous or sandy soils, generally called light soi's, more compact and susceptible of retaining longer the water anil gases produced by the decomposi- tion of vegetable and animal matter contained in the humus or vegetable mould. Calcareous marl acts mechanically upon the ar- gillaceous soils, or those generally called stiff loams, by rendering them more loose or giving them i he property of being more permeable to water and to the roots of plants. Both these species, the argillaceous and calcareous marls, act chemically upon the vegetable soil hv means of lime, which has the property of dissolv- ing a great part of the humus, and furnish-'? 'here- by a more abundant food for the plants cultivated in it. To make this more evident we must state the experiments of Theodore de Saussure and Bracm- not, Irom which it appears, 1st. That alkalies dis- solve completely the humus, and that lime and limestone dissolve it partly. 2d. That the plants grow more vigorously in proportion as the humus is in a state of solution. The latter result is besides supported by ihe nu- merous facts which were till lately inexplicable. These facts explain why the soil becomes steril when the marl forms the surface or where it is too near to the surface, as is the case in JVlcNuiry county. These facts also teach that it is more ben- eficial to use marl often and in small quantities than to apply it in great abundance; lo useasmall quantity on poor, and a larger quantity on rich soils; that it is advantageous to manure a poor soil before the mail is applied. In fine, these facts show the utility of the use of lime for agricultural purposes, and that calcareous marl and lime are also excellently calculated to improve soils which have been for a considerable lime the receptacle o' stagnant water, which must be considered as the greatest enemy to humus, as it renders it acid and astringent, as we see in peat soils which, abound- ing with vegetable matters from which water is not properly drained, become sour as it is justly said, and produce rushes and other useless and un- palatable plants) In such soils the lime of the marl neutralizes the acid, and acfs at the same time upon the humus, and by these means abun- dant fertility will be restored. # * * # # Let us now turn our attention to the soils of the etate of Tennessee. Although these soils are much diversified in their appearance, texture, com- position and quality, those, nevertheless, which Vol. III-8S compose the surface, of the three counties under examination may be divided into two principal va- rieties, namely: into the silico-argillaceous soil (con- raining sand and clay) and the argillo-calcareous (containing clay and limestone) and their origin may generally be traced to the disintegration of the racks which I hey cover, and to mat er which is washed down from neighboring elevations, except in the low grounds near the rivers, some of which are still occasionally inundated, the soil of which, is generally a very rich alluvion. The elevated level.--, which, as may be seen in my geognostic description in previous reports, con- sist of sandstone, are covered with a slight silicious soil, whereas the lower situations, where the rocks are limestone, are covered vv'hli a soil which is mare diversified and generally of an argillo-calca- renus nature, or of a s iff calcareous loam. The liiiht soi's which cover the high grounds, and which are generally considered as unproduc- tive, would, in several parts of Europe, be regar- ded as tolerably good, and would remunerate the farmer for the labor he bestows upon them. Our Tennessean silicious soil is not to be compared with some of the silicious or sandy soils of the old con- tinent— of those extensive heaths, some of which are composed of almost pure sand, and which, nevertheless, in some parts, are cultivated.* They are generally composed of a mixture of sand and clay, easily adapted to tillage, and no doubt excel- lently calculated for the culture of rye, tobacco and all kinds of roots, as potatoes, turnips, beets and similar plants. This kind of soil, nevertheless, as long as in our state stiff argillaceous land is ob- * Any one who has visited the continent of Europe must be award of this fact, and no where is it more per- ceptible than in the Netherlands, where industry and perseverance have changed the barren sandy plains in- to cultivated fields. Some of the extensive heaths in the vicinity of Arnheim, and thosj situated between Breda, Bois le due and Antwerp, which thirty years ago were merely moving sands, where the winds alternate- ly created and Ijvelled hills and dal s, are now mostly cultivated. Since the government of King William I. the numerous orphans and poor which were kept in charity houses in Amsterdam and other large cities, have been colonized on these barren districts, r:nd by a proper training, this unproductive class of beings have not only b come productive for themselves and inde- pendent, but they have rendered the ground they dwelt upon productive also, and thereby rendered a service to their country. There is not, I b dieve, a country upon the globe where husbandry is brought to such a state of perfec- tion as in some parts of the Netherlands. I spent a few years in that part of Flanders, between Antwerp and Ghent, in which the populous villages of Themst, St. Nicolas ahd Lokeren are situated. There is in no country more manual labor bestowed on husbandry than there, and that it is not unprofitable, we conclude from the wealth of the peasants, the comfort of the la- borers, and the shek appearance of the cattle; in fact, the whole country exhibits a garden cultivated on an extensive scale. All the land is in tillage. The cattle are mostly kept in stables, and fed with green food, cut 'and brought to them; by which means one acre cf clo- ver, lucerne or other artificial grass, will maintain five tim s as many beast or more, than an acre of the best pasture. But the great object is to increase manure, especially in a liquid s.ate, which is carefully preserved in reservoirs without loss or waste till wanted for the land. 038 FARMERS REGISTER. [No. 11 tainable, is not cultivated, and is still in several places covered with the primitive lores;?. It' we examine my geognos.ie ma;-, we find these high grounds which are covered with the light silicious soil, colored red, and situated along the western side of the three counties. I have analyzed several samples of this soil: I have found much similarity amoujrsi them all. When I dis- covered a s id' sab soi1, which was most I v com- posed of' a ferruginous clay or rather loam, 1 luand the soil influenced by it and belter a lapted tor cul- tivation aa I pro.liicinrrgood cro] s of cotton. From ssveral analyses which I have made of this kind of Boil, I fi id it generally composed of about uine- ten:h< of si!ici.»..s sand and one-tenth of finely powdered matter, which consists of Alumina, - Silica, - Carbonate, of lime, Oxide of iron and manganese, Vegetable matter, - Loss, 53.03 3X00 2.50 3.00 4.00 2.53 130.00 Such was the average result of the analyses of those soils which have been for some time under cultivation. Those which never have been culti- vated, where the samples were taken below the roots of the herbage which covered it, were often destitute of vegetable matter; while others which had been for upwards of twenty years tilled, were found destitute of carbonate of Jime; this was the case with a soil from the farm of Dr. b\ Stith, situated about a mile north from I3iir Harpeth ri- ver, in Williamson county, an 1 which produced on nn average about six hundred pounds of cotton p.er acre. In this soil I found also a greater quantity of fine pulverulent, matter and no trace of man- ganese, while its color was that generally called mulatto color. The soil of the bottom lands situated near the Harpeth river is remarkably fertile. I made analy- ses of some of these soi!s; they are i's which cover the lower situations, us in the vicinity of Nashville, the greatest part of Wil- liamson and Maury counties, and which are colored ye. low on my (jeognostie map, are very fertile and well calculated for "cotton; and though they some- In these analyses I have not taken notice of the moisture the soils contain; I have, dried them until the paper on which they lay began to scorch. The beneficial property of lime in these soils is particularly perceptible, even in those where I did not discover any lime, because though ihe lime is , not perceptible in the soil, the water nevertheless which pervades i», con'aius a notable quantity of carbonate of lime, and they retain the moisture longer than the silicious soils which cover our high grounds, because they have generally a stiff loamy subsoil. Our soils cannot be called calcareous. It. is known that pure calcareous soil is not well calcu- lated for roots and grain, and every one knows that these products thrive remarkably in the three counties under examination. Oir soi's, on the con- trary, have all the beneficial properties of the ar- gillaceous improved by marl. They are of a yel- lowish, approaching to mulatto color, sometimes contain n; more oxide of iron when they are rtd- i dish; they are easily diluted in water, and some form irood brick day; but the injurious qualities which are olien found in soils that are entirely ar- glllaceous, are not possessed by our soils. They are excellent for maize, cotton and hemp. Some are. well adapted for the culture of wheat, and sev- eral other products may be raised in them which would advantageously compensate for the cottoni 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 09* for which the climate of Tennessee is nol so well calculated as our more southprn states.* Part of our soil is an old alluvion deposite; it has been brought on by ihe fame causes which have covered soui3 places with pebbles. This diluvial origin, nevertheless, is only attributable to a feu- spots of our .--oil. If we examine the coarse par; of it, we find it composed of fragments and more or less water-worn pebbles of limestone and chei", or hornstone perfectly similar to the. limestone and the minerals which are embedded in it, which per vade these counties, and this fact may be observed at the lowest depth. 1 have found this to be the case in the excavations made. Ibr brick clay in the vicinity of Nashville, Franklin and Columbia. I have never found a pebble which could be sup- posed to come from a distance; sometimes the sili- cious petref ictions charactei ising our limes'nne are found amongst the water-worn pebbles. But wa- ter-worn pebbles are of rare occurrence in our soil; in some places the bones of the mastodon and ele- phant, are found in it. But, although these re- mains tire found in it, it does not therefore follow that they have been carried from a distance. The bones found on ihe premises of Mr. Thima3 Holt, near Liberty meeting-house, were contained in a small circuit; they belonged at least to two indi- viduals, a very old and a very y^ung one.f The animals, judging from the manner in which Un- bones are now found, must have died on the spot; if these hones were hrought there by a delude, we would find them scattered and remote the one from the other, at least we. would not find ihe bones of two individuals in one spot; it is probable that these animals have perished bolh by the same ac- cident, and undergone, decomposiiion on the spot where they are now found. So that there seems no doubt that the soils of these two counties are the result of disintegration of the strata which once pervaded them. From the Southern Agriculturist. THE PRIDE OF INDIA [OR CHINA] AS A MA- RT RE. Mr. Editor — With pleasure I comply with your request to furnish you with the result of my experiments on "Pride of" India as a Manure." 1 have tried it, as such, for three or four years back — and can, with confile.nce, speak, as to is great usefulness. My mode of collecting it is somewhat slovenly. I suffer the leaves and ber- * As it si-ins that our inhabitants begin to turn their attention to n.inuficturing pursuits, I would here sug- gest, in lieu of cotton, to raise Rap2 seed, (Eraaica oleracia arvemU, Linn) which produces an oil that can be eaten, that is fit for the limp, ibr the manufacture of soap, for the tanners, the fullers of cloth, and is an ob- ject o" commerce in the Netherlands. The residue of the grain, after the o.l is extracted, is used for fattinjr cattle and hogs for their winter food, or it may be em- ployed as manure, for which it is excellently calcula- ted. Also, Palma christi or Castor oil bean, flax and Hemp, would profitably replace the cotton: f In order to give an idea of the proportion that ex- ists between the two Mastadons found on the farm of Mr. Holt, I here subjoin the proportion^ siz 1 of the two denial or second vertebra: it is as three-fourths to four- fourths. ries of the tree to drop off in the fall, when they are leathered, and put as a litter in my cow- pen. I find hat cattle eat the leaves with great ap| elite. This manure, when well lei I upon the land and listed in, drives away all kinds of worms and insects. I have tried it on a small piece of cotton land fur four years, and while, at all limes my other plants were, cut down and destroyed by insects, I never knew one plant, growing upon the Pride of India manure, to be touched. I consider the tree, an invaluable one, and have accordingly planted it all around my dwelling and negro houses. I should, perhaps, have said, that in callecting this manure, 1 mix the leaves and ber- ries together. The latter contain a great deal of rich oil, which may he discovered by mashing one of them upon the floor. If this hasty letter can in any way serve you, you can use it as you think best. A SEA-ISLANDER. Mr. Editor — You ask me to say what has been Ihe result of my experiment on the Pride of India as a manure. I am no writer, anil must beg you to excuse me if I express myself very imperfectly in reference to this matter. I have never tried the Pride of India upon any thing but corn, and some plants in my vegetable garden. I shall tell you how I have tried it with my corn, ami what was my success. I always trim rnv trees, as your correspondent of the January No. advises, and then coilect the leaves arid berries from the limbs thus lopped off. These. I put together into my manure pen to rot — which they will pretty effec- tually do before, spring. Wherever this manure has been put, I have never had any frouble*.vith grubs; my corn has never been cut down by them, and I believe that you can get no insect whatever to live wherever it can be smelt. As an evidence of this, when I wish to get rid of bugs in my bedsteads, I make a decoction of the roots or leaves of this tree, and by saturating the same with the mixture, I totally destroy or drive them away. I have frequently had the cabbages in my garden dreadfully eaten by worms — and by throwing the leaves of this tree over them, ihey have invariablv been totally destroyed. I have never seen the, caterpillar on my plare; but I hesitate, not in saying, that wherever they are to be met with, the Pride of India leaves will de- stroy them. The late Mr. Reynolds ofS*. John's, Colleton, once told me, that one year his whole plantation, on Wadmalaw, was infested with these insects, with the exception of a small srof. This spot was near where, several Pride of India trees trrevv. and he never found the traces of an insect near the cotton. If f lived on the island, and planted cotton, I would, with this, manure as much as possible. I consider it in richness, su- rerior to any cotton-seed ever used. There is some little trouble in using ihe seed for manure, inas- much as it gives some inconvenience by its spring- ing up with the cotton-seed; but this it does afier the cotton has arrived at a pretty good height, and it can be as easily cut down, as the sprouts from cotton-seed manure. The corn which I manured with it, produced me 28 bushels to the acre; be- fore, the. same land had been yielding only 15 and 20 bushels, and this too, with the ordinary cow- pen manure. jr. JBarnwell District, (S. C.) 708 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 11 FRAUDULENT PACKING OF COTTON. [The following proceedings of the Liverpool mer- chants, dessrve the attention of ;ill those who produce, and deal in cotton in tl e southern states. Policy, as well as regard to honssty, requires that the name ot every individual who packs cotton for sale should he marked on the bales. If our legislature will not guard our national character in this respect, aud compel the remedy advised, the merchants of a f.w considerable purchasing towns could effect the object, by agreeing to bay no cotton of the nr-xt and future crops that was not so marked. Every careful cultivator and every honest ginner and packer of cotton would be benefited by the origin of their bal.s being thus made known, because the quality will always prove creditable to their management: and none of such would d. sire to avoid the respo:isibi.i;y incurred. At any rate, the ge- neral adoption of the 1 1 in of marking the bales would at once place all on a fair aud equal footing. The dis- honest would no longer dare to commit frauds which would be sure to be detected, arid brought home to them — and honest planters and ginners would not have their cotton to sustain (as now) a diminution of mar- ket value, of such amount as will indemnify mer- chants for all losses from the fraudulent practices o( others. Though such a deduction, for insurance against fraud, is not named in bargains between the planter and merchant, it nevertheless forms a regular item, which the hon st plant r pays solely for the giin of the rogue: and this deduction for insurance will ne- cessarily increase as the frauds become more fre- quent— and these of course will continually increase as the safety from detection becomes mere sure and well known. It is far more important to the interest of the planters and ginners, than of the merchants, that this system oi' fraud should be exposed and stopped.] At a general meeting of the Liverpool Ameri- can Chamber of Commerce, held 27th of Novem- ber, 1835, lor the purpose of inking into consider- ation and adopting the most effectual measures for the prevention ol frauds in the packing ot cotton in the United States: T. B. Barclay, .Lsq. presi- dent, in the chair: a memorial was "read from the association of cotton brokers, entering into detail of the grievances complained of! It was Resolved, That the same he printed and ap- pended to the present proceedings. It was also Resolved, That it he respectfully submitted to the factors and merchants at the shipping ports. to consider the expediency of applying to the le- gislatures of their respective states for i he enact- ment of laws, to make it imperative on each plan- ter to have his name and residence written or stamped on each package; the effect of which would be to stimulate him to increased care in the packing of his cotton, so that his reputation might be established and preserved; and whereby those having claims to redress might be enabled more readily to substantiate them. It was further suggested, that in the mean-* while the planters should be requested voluntarily to affix their names on the packages, it beincr the opinion of this meeting, that cotton so distinguish- ed would command a preference in the ealem this market. It was also observed, that nsthe frauds are not generally discovered until the cotton is opened at the factories, from whence the damaged tart, or the whole package, is returned to the importer with expenses, lie is frequently called upon to pay losses long nf ( t his accounts have been settled with ihe shippers or owners of the cotton; who again have in such cases at a still more remote period to seek lor redress from the factors or | lanters. Resrfvsd, That ihese resolutions be signed by the president, aid printed, and that the mt mheis ot the association be desired to transmit them to their correspondents in the United States, with a request th it they will adopt such measures as may appear to them most likely to accomplish the ob- ject in question. (Signed) t. n. Barclay, President. COTTON BROKERS ASSOCIATI Liverpool, Gib Nov. 1835 ON, > To ihe American Chamber of Commerce. Gontlrmen — We ihe undersigned members of the. Cotton Brokers' Association beg leave to call the attention of the American Chamber of Com- merce to a subject of considerable importance to the cotton trade in general, hut | articular!}' to that part of i connected with the sale and import of cotton from the United States, viz. the fraudulent practices in the | acking of cotton. This srecirs of fraud has long been the source of much inconvenience and vexation to all con- corned in ihe cotton business; but whether from ihe, unfiequencv of the occasions, when distributed amonest so many, orlrom the smallness of the less h the sea'e ol mercantile transactions, no mea- sures have hitherto been taken to arrest i's pro- gress. For ihe same reasons, to which may he a Ider! the difficulty ol obtaining redress, the claims arising from this cause are frequently de- mand 'd rather as a matter ol" form, and often are altogether abandoned, and if allowed on this side of the water, tire seldom (as we understand) suc- cessfully prosecuted against ihe parties on ihe oiher. This impunity, tis might have been ex- pected, has operated as a direct encouragement to such dishonest, practices, which, commencing with the lesser fraud of introducing seeds, waste, stones, and sand, into the interior of the bale, have at length extended to a wholesale and systematic plan of deception and plunder by means of "false packing." The ordinary mode of effecting this is, by a plating or thin layer of good cotton on ihe two sides of the bale usually sampled, the inside being wholly composed of a very inferior quality. In some cases however the outer layer consists of a quality differing only a few degrees from lhat in ihe inside, which is again packed in layers of va- rious qualities, but all of ihem worse than the out- side; the obvious intention of which being to ren- der the fraud more secure by adding to the difficul- ty and uncertainty of detection. The experience of the present year furnishes abundant proof of the increase of this practice. It is not now as for- merly confined to an occasional bale or two, but it is extended to whole parcels of one or two hun- dred bales in a lot; and when it is considered that the difference between the real and apparent value of the cotton may be three or four pounds sterling 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 701 a bale, some idea may be funned of ihe magni- tude and dangerous consequences of ihe. fraud. Having now brought the subject under ihe no- tice of those who are the most deeply interested, as we conceived it to be our duty to do, we. leave it to their wisdom and experience to provide a re- medy. Amongst other motives for our interference is the desire we leel to preserve unimpaired the con- fidence which has herelofbre subsisted between the buyer and ihe seller, and lo maintain ibat character lor honor and fair dealing which has ever been ihe pride and boast of the cotton trade. [Signed by 59 Mercantile Houses] From the Journal of Commerce. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT. It is calculated that about twelve million bush- els of salt are consumed in ihe United States per annum, of which about 7,000,000 are imported. The bulk and weight of the article make its trans- portation a principal item in the cost. According to a statement in the Journal of the American In- stitute, it is now purchased abroad at an average price of 13§ cents a bushel; yet ilscost in this city- is from 30 to 35 cents by the quarility, and at that price it affords but. a moderale profit to the mer- chant. Salt made at Salina at 6 cents a bushel, sold at Ulica belbre the completion of ihe canal at $3 a barrel; and although the legislature have made it free of toll, and ottered a liberal bounty for its delivery on the Hudson, ihe manufacturers have as yet been unable lo do so at a remunera- ting price, by reason of the competition of foreign salt. For consumption in the interior, very large quantities are manufactured in western New York, western Virginia, and several other states. It is a remarkable arrangement of Providence, that while near the sea-board saline s| rings are rarely or never found, (at. least in this country,) they are abundant far in the interior. In this state they are found to extend through the counties of Onandarra, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Niagara, Genesee, Tompkins, Wayne and Livingston; and it has been said that the whole country west of the Alleghanies is underfiowed with salt water. On the sea-board, particularly in the region of Cape Cod, the manufacture of salt has long been carried on extensive!}", but is represented to be now in a declining state, on account of the low price which the article commands. The cause is less to be regretted than the effect. But surely, if it be possible by improved methods of manufacture to make the business profitable, and even to reduce the price of the article below what it is at present, every friend of his country would wish success to the enterprize. Such improvements are stated to have been actually made by Dr. E. C. Cooper, and are about to be put in operation on a large scale. It is well known that on the sea-board the manufacture is carried on entirely by evaporation. Of course a vast extent of surface must be ex- posed to the action of the sun, which, in the old method, is effected by extensive vats, with move- able roofs to shelter them from rain when occasion requires. These vats or rooms as they are tech- nically called, vary from twelve to eighteen feet in width, and from 18 to 200 feet in length. They are generally made in four divisions, viz. the weak and strong water rooms, the pickle and salt rooms, in the last of which only, salt is lbrmed. Except the pickle and salt rooms forming about one- eighth of the whole. Dr. Cooper's plan subslilutes for all the rest inclined plane beds, made directly on the ground, and rendered water tight by hy- draulic cement. They are then covered with coarse gravel, which acting by capillary attrac- tion, distributes the salt water in the most mi- nute quantities over the whole inclined plane sur- face, and thus exj oses it to evaporation while flow- ing down. By this plan ihe cost of the works is reduced from jgl to 15 cents per 10 square feet, and (here is also a very great saving of labor, in consequence of dispensing with so large a portion of the roofs. When rain occurs, the insertion of a plug separates the inclined planes from the pickle and salt rooms, and the rain water thus flows away. Any person who is curious to see a more particular description of this improvement may find it in the 4th number of the Journal of the American Institute, just published. A capital of $6000, according to this authority, will con- struct ten acres of the work, yielding 12,000 bush- els of salt per annum, at an expense which will allow it to be sold at 10 to 12 cents a bushel, and at the same lime afford the manufacturer a liberal profit. Dr. Cooper has secured a patent for his im- provement, and proposes lo form a joint slock company for the construction of salt works on Long Island, with a capital of $100,000, which he calculates will yield near 200,000 bushels per annum. Of ihe practical operation of the thing, we of course know nothing personally; but from the description given of it, we are led to anticipate favorable results. OF THE LEAVES OF THE MACLURA AURAN- tiaca, (Osage Orange.) as a substitute FOR THOSE OF THE MULBERRY, AS FOOD FOR SILK WORMS. By M. Matthieu Bonafous, Director of the Royal Garden of Botany and Agriculture, at Turin. Translated for the Farmers' Register from the Jlnnahs tie V Ag- riculture Fra.ncu.ise, of Oct. 1S35. [The following facts — which with more of assurance promise the attainment of the long desired substitute for the leaves of the mulberry, when the leaves of the latter are destroyed by late frosts — are the more impor- tant in this country because the maclura aurantiacais a native of North America, and grows naturally in regions where the clin.ate is more rigorous than in the middle Atlantic states. The late frosts that unexpectedly de- stroy the young leaves of the mulberry, and would leave the silk grower without means of keeping ali ve his new- ly hatched worms,are of rare occurrence: but whenever they do occur, without sufficient precautions, the worms must perish — and the whole business of that year be at an end. Hence the great value of any plant that can furnish a cheap and sufficient substitute for the. mulberry, during the short duration of such sea- sons of scarcity. There can be no higher European authority on this 702 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 11 whole subject than M. Bonafous; but still it would be desirable to have his experimants repeated m this country. We would especially request this of a gen- tleman in Goochland who has the Osage orange grow- ing, and to whom we were indebted for the account of it, published at p. 543 of this volume — and to whom, we regret to say, this journal has been indebted for no other original matter, although we have frequently, and with pleasure, copied his communications to other and distant papers. Of such preference, however, we have no right to complain.] The production of silk has become so fertile n source of riches, that the frosts of spring cannot cause injury to the young leaves of the mulberry, without affecting seriously the interests of agricul- ture, and of industry in general. To preserve this tree from the frosts, which so often occur unexpectedly even at the moment when the silk worms are about to come out of the eggs, has induced cultivators to adopt various measures— as planting in the best exposures, heaping earth around the lower part of the trunk in autumn, covering with straw, and throwing ma- nure over the roots, &c. But ihese precautions are commonly useless, if the frost occurs after the sap of the mulberry is rising. Researches have also been made to find some plant that could supply the place of mulberry, when late frosts suspend its vegetation. The wild bramble, the rose, the elm, Vepinevinette, the ma- ple of Tartary, the Spanish scorzonera, and lastly, the cameline, have been proposed as substitutes;* and if experience proves that some of these plants may feed the silk worm, it also proves that they cannot make it produce the glutinous [resmeuse] matter, considered necessary to the formation ol the cocoon. I was thence induced to believe that it would be difficult to discover a substance both suitable to take the place of the mulberry, and able to resist frosts. However, being at Montpelier, in April 1834, when the cold of four degrees (of Reaumur) below zero,t injured a great number of mulberry trees, I was curious to study the effects of the cold upon a multitude of plants cultivated in the Jardlii de V£cole-de- Medicine; aad having ob- served that a tree of the family of the urticces, (which botanists do not distinguish from the mul- berry except by its flower having a single style,) had resisted this lowering of temperature, while the white mulberry, the black, that of the Philip- pines [or Chinese~\ and the mulberry of Constan- tinople, had not been able to support it, I thought it useful to ascertain whether this tree, recently in- troduced into Europe under the name of the Ma- *Recherches sur les moyens de remplacer la feuille du murier par une autre substance propre au ver a soie; par M. Bonafous. — Memmres de la Soeiete royale et centrale a"1 agriculture, annee, 1826. See also an article on Scorzonera as food for silk worms, p. 471, Vol. III. Farm. Reg. fEqual to 22 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, or 10 degrees below the freezing point. Ed. dura vluranliaca,* could be successfully employed lor the nourishment of silk worms. For this purpose, I had batched the eggs of a Syrian variety of silk worms, which I had receiv- ed, and scarcely had the worms left the eggs, when I formed of them two divisions, which f ted in the same locality, the one with the leaves of the Madura, and the other with ihose of the white mulberry. The worms fed with the maclu- ra had a more rapid growth dining the two first ages: hut afterwards, the worms fed with mulber- ry leaves, in their turn, took the superiority over the others, and maintained the superiority up 1o the time of their climbing. The worms ted with the maclura acquired a greenish tint, which made them easily distinguishable from the others; and, although at a laier time, by seven or eight days, they formed cocoons of a regular structure, and of as firm a texture, as those of the worms fed hy mulberry leaves: such were the cocoons of M. Fared, correspondent of the Sr.ciete Rayale ei Cen- trale d'y/gricullure, sent me from Montpelier, as soon as he had completed (under the eyes of the agricultural society of Herault,) the comparative rearing of the two kinds, which my leaving the department had not permitted me to conduct my- self, to i;s termination. f It follows then, from this fact, that the maclura aurantiacu, without offering all the qualities which render the mulberry so well suited ibr feeding silk worms, presents still a most important advan- tage, that, of not being injured by a degree of cold which the mulherry cannot endure, and of being able to supply its place, until the mulberry shall have put out a second growth of leaves. It is true that I cannot mark the limit at which the maclura ceases to vegetate in Europe: however, I can affirm that it has never yet been injured by Ireezingin the Botanic Gardens of Paris, ol'Stras- burg, of Geneva, &c. nor in that [of Turin] which is under my direction, where I introduced this tree five or six years ago. In calling the attention of agriculturists to this first experiment^ I would wish to induce those who are engaged in silk culture to plant some stocks of maclura, to supply nourishment to their worms, when the leaves of the mulberry are nip- ped by frost. A maclura of 12 to 15 feet in height, such as that of Montpelier which served lor my I experiment, will suffice for the feedino;, during the two first ages, as many worms as will be produced from two to three ounces of eggs. Originally from North America, where it grows on the banks of the Missouri, and in the country of Natchez, the maclura auraniiaca rises to 30 feet., with a diameter of 6 to 8 inches. Its trunk is milk-yielding, and covered with bark that is readily divided into threads, and the branches are flexible, and armed with thorns which disappear nt adult age, as I have observed on the tree at Montpelier. The roots yield a lively yellow tint. The leaves are alternate, on foot-stalks entire, 5 to 6 inches long, and 2 to 3 wide, oval and acu- minate, glossy on the upper surface, and slightly *Nuttall — Genera of North American Plants, p. 233 —II. t Bulletin de la Soeiete d'agriculture du department de l'Herault, Octobre 1834. 1336.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 703 hairy on the lower, of an acrid taste, and becom- ing dry less quickly than those of the. mulberry. The male of flowers, forming a lengthened spike [chaimi] presents a calyx of four divisions, witliout carolla, and four stamens. The lernale flowers, borne upon another stem, have a smaller calyx, without carolla, a thread-like style, hairy, and nu- merous ovaries united in a spherical spike. The fruit, is a pulp with many cells, of the size and co- lor of an orange, good to eat, as some say, but not eatable ■according to Michaux, to whom we owe the introduction of this tree. Each cell encloses a com nressed oval seed.* The mnclura aurantiaca, on account ol its points of relation to the mulberry, has improperly been called tbe mulberry of the Osages — the name of a tribe of savages who inhabit Louisiana, and who use its branches to make their bows. It thrives well on both fertile and inferior soils, and is repro- duced easily by seeds, by layers, by grafts upon the paper mulberry, (broussonetia papyrifera,) and still better, by slips of its young branches or roots. In this last mode of multiplication, which I be- lieve the most proper, the roots are cut, when they are nearly the size of the finger, into lengths of 7 or S inches; the pieces are planted in a cool and sheltered place, and not. leaving but 2 or 3 lines ol each above the ground. The plant succeeds equal- ly well as a standard, in a hedge, in shrubbery, or as an espalier. The. utility of the madura aurar.tiaca, consider- ed ms an auxiliary of the mulberry, i:s resistance of late fros:s, the elegance of its form, the facility with which it can be multiplied, the vityor of its growth, and the pliability of its branches, which permits their being applied to various uses — all these qualities assign to it a distinguished rank among the foreign trees, that are the most suitable to enrich our agriculture, and to embellish our country. For the Farmers' Register. QUERIES AND REMARKS ON LIMING IN DEL- AWARE. Kent Counly, (Delaware,) ) February 1st. 1836. $ The Editor of the Farmers' Register is request- ed to answer the following queries, in that publi- cation. 1. What quantity of slacked lime would be safe and profitable to apply to an acre of light lands, very similar to these, described in the Essay on Calcareous Manures, in the tide-water region of Virginia, reduced by hard tillage to about five bushels of corn per acre. 2. Would farmers in this region, two miles from tide-water (navigable) be remunerated at a cost of twelve and a half cents per bushel, in- cluding all expenses — of purchasing the lime, carting, spreading, &c? — with such other infor- mation he existing rotation.] When, after a certain period of time, notwith- standing the attention to good culture and abun- dant manurings, the productiveness lessens — when the doir-tooth, bent-grass, and the plants be- longing to silicious soils re-appear — itistime then to recur anew to marl, but to an extent of half, at most, of the first dressing. By this means, with good culture, the first fertility will be sustained, as we have seen done in the countries where the sys- tem of agriculture is the most perfect. Theory of they effects of marl on the soil. The theory which we have developed to explain the action of lime upon soil, applies nearly entire to marl:* the active principle is the same in both — therefore the results are similar. It follows then, that in marling, as before stated of lime, the cal- careous principle gives to soils and to vegetables a greater power of absorption from the atmosphere — of drawing from it the volatile principles, hydro- gen, oxygen, azote, and carbon. Marl, like lime, increases then the faculty which both the soil and vegetables have of forming the fixed principles of plants — the salts and earths — whether it be that the elements of these principles are taken in the at- mosphere, in the soil itself, or in both. Once being given, this power of absorption would be, doubtless, one of the greatest means by which cal- careous agents fertilize soils.t * See pp. 3S6 to 390, Vol. III. Farmers' Register. t The last pages have presented several opinions which are opposed either in appearance, or reality, to views maintained in the Essay on Calcareous Manures. To the attentive readers of that work, itmay be unneces- sary to add any thing in explanation: but to very many others, these doctrines of M. Puvis, would seem to be admitted as sound, if inserted here, without contradic- tion or comment. But still we cannot for this purpose occupy the space necessary for a full exposition, and which indeed would be but to repeat, and at great length, what has been stated in the work just referred to. In addition to objecting to the amount of the first dressings of marl, recommended by M. Puvis, we deny the necessity of their being repeated, on his ground of the dose being exhausted by the several causes which he has named. Considering that a proper dose of lime (in whatever form applied) becomes chemically com- bined with the soil, we deny the power of rain water to carry it off, or to sink it below the upper soil — or that any thing else can take any portion of it from its com- bination with the soil, except the power of vegetation, which takes up the small portion necessary to form and perfect plants. This one cause of waste was admitted in the Essay on Calcareous Manures. M. Puvis esti- mates its amount at half a hectolitre to the hectare, which is a trifle more than half a bushel to an acre. Dundonald estimated the same at 80 pounds of calca- reous matter to the acre. Both estimates are no doubt made on very uncertain grounds. But tomcthing cer- DESILTORY REMARKS ON THE MAKING OF TOBACCO. Greenfield, JVottowav, } Feb. 12, 1836. $ To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. As you have made considerable complaints of late against your patrons for their neglect in send- ing their original communications to your Regis- ter, I have concluded this day to break the ice, as the old saying is — (for there is enough in this county tainly is so lost, in all the vegetable products carried from the land. Proceeding on M. Puvis' estimate, it would require 300 crops to be entirely removed, to ex- haust an acre of 150 bushels of the carbonate of lime previously applied. But if all the offal product of the field had been brought back, in the shape of manure, half of this loss would have been replaced, so as to re- quire 600 crops to take all away — and the addition of one peck of carbonate of lime annually to each acre, with this manure, or half a bushel without it, would replace the whole actual waste. This admission (or even on Dundonald's larger estimate.) is scarcely to be considered as contradicting the position we have else- where maintained, of the permanency of calcareous manures. Our author's theory of the action of calcareous ma- nures in general, is insufficient. His position that soils and plants can form and produce a portion of the calca- reous principle required, is contrary to all sound rea- soning, as well as to his own views of the continual and considerable waste of that principle in soils. Instead of the calcareous matter given to a soil (in suitable proportion,) sinking below the access of the roots of plants, and leaving the upper layer of earth more destitute than the subsoil, the contrary result is derivable from reasoning, and is sustained by the ac- tual condition of natural soils. Even if the calcare- ous matter (by possibility,) was actually below, and the surface soil was nearly destitute of lime in every form, the roots of the growing plants would continually draw up what is so necessary for their healthy support. The roots of grasses might not penetrate very deeply — but those of trees would seek and draw up the lime from 20 feet of depth. The greater part of this lime would be carried by the sap to form part of the plants above the ground — and their death and decay would leave it on and near the surface. Thus, in soils scan- tily, or but sufficiently, supplied with lime, nature is continually working to keep the supply at and near the surface. Hence the formation of what is called soil, and its fertility — and also the general sterility of the subsoil. But notwithstanding these and other objections to the theory of M. Puvis, and to those of his opinions made erroneous either by being deduced from his theory, or by his relying on the incorrect statements of other per- sons, his views and his facts are regarded as generally and strongly sustaining such as we have before pre- sented— and it is cause for much gratification that sup- port should have been found to such extent, and pro- ceeding from a source so much entitled to respect, 1S36.] FARME RS' REGISTER 711 at this time, to fill every icehouse in Virginia; also my ink in the pen lias occasionally become ice within the last three or four days,) and to give you some of my own ideas on tobacco. In the impropriety ofindiscriminently cultivating it in those sections of the state where it. is made, I am fully aware, that a majority of the growers of this plant will not agree with me; and whether they do or not, it is perfectly immaterial. That shall not prevent me from pointing cut those who should make it, and those who should not. I pe- vercan believe, taking every expense into consid- eration, and the almost uniform neglect of other crops, that there has been as much money made from its cultivation, as many have supposed, more particularly within the last thirty or forty years— my reasons are these; in the first place, our land generally is much poorer, requiring in many in- stances, double the quantity of land, and conse- quently double the quantity of labor with the con- sequent expenses. There were also, then much fewer overseers to divide the profits with. Every planter, with but few exceptions, who had lrom two to eight or ten hands, attended to his own bu- siness, and made his sons work, which superseded the necessity of so many overseers. In the pre- sent enlightened days of our comparative worn out land, things are very materially reversed. For me to point them out in detail, I am sure would be imposing on the good understanding of your nu- merous, intelligent, and respectable subscribers. I am clearly of an opinion that every cultivator of the soil, should consult the nature and disposition of his land, and at the same time, make a proper esti- mate of the nature and expense of his hands; and proceed to Us cultivation accordingly, even if it 'is only to make black eyed-peas. I believe it will be admited by all, that it requires the richest land and the most valuable hands, as- sisted by unceasing industry and good manage- ment, to make tobacco that which will yield a handsome profit. How many in the present day are there, who possess all the necessary requisites? But few lean answer, when compared to the large bulk of dab- blers in the tobacco plant. Within the last two years, there are men actually attempting, and do really think, that they are going to become rich, immensely rich, from makingtobacco who scarce- ly know a tobacco plant from a mullein plant. Vain hope ! deluded men!— Where is your land? Where are your barns, and where is your fire- wood?— If you rent or lease, and hire negroes to work the land at the present high prices of hired negroes, ruin will be the inevitable consequence. It is really amusing to see and to hear many such characters speak of what, they say, they can af- ford to give for rented land, and hired negroes, to make this precious and all-valuable plant. They 6peak of making tobacco (for they think and talk of no other staple commodity,) as if they had the command of the clouds. Some of them, to have the appearance of wealth and farming conse- quence, will employ overseers without showing them their farms; (sometimes they are to rent, and perhaps most of the hands to hire.) What is the consequence? Their bargain with their overseers must be complied with. How is this to be done? Why the employers, to keep up appearances, must (very often) run to every hiring in their reach, to get their number of hands to comply with their contracts. Just such characters have, been the cause of negroes hiring so very high this year, so much higher than i he nett proceeds of our faims will justify. But they say we are going to make tobacco. Now mark the consequence. These very identical men, nine, I may say, out often, at the close of the. year, after the proceeds of their crops are ascertained, will not be able to afford their overseers all of their own part, much less to pay the hire of their tobacco-negroes ; all of their to- bacco-money must, be paid lor corn and meat, and contingent expenses. It not unfrequently happens that their corn-crib is "rat-proof" by planting corn time, and their meat-hou?es destitute of the little flies which buz about the first warm season in March, to lay their maggot-eggs. 1 have seen tobacco sell years past, as high as it does at this time; and as high as it probably will this year. I saw people then lay the foundation for their ruin, and I shall be greatly mistaken, if I do not see them again in the same situation before * * * # # # # * gets tjie vote 0f Virginia, for the Presidential chair. Whilst 1 am constrained to ridicule the promis- cuous and indiscriminate cultivation of tobacco, I am fully sensible there are many, very many plan- ters, getting rich from its cultivation. They are not cutting down, in waste, every little piece of wood-land which they know should be reserved and used sparingly for rail timber. They are rais- ing manure and making rich lots — making plenty of grain also, to raise their own hogs and horses without taking their tobacco-money to buy them. They are not running to hirings and giving from eighty to ninety dollars for negro men, and other hands in proportion. No, sir, they are cool calcu- lators. They will not run into such wild specula- tions, regardless of consequences. They prefer smaller lots, made rich with fewer hands to work them, than to keep up this great, great appearance of cultivating their tens and tens of thousands of hills of poor land, with a train of high-priced hirelings. They brag not of the immensity of ground they have in cultivation, but they are per- fectly satisfied with the fertility of their smaller fields, the good management thereon displayed, and, what is better than all, they are perfectly sa- tisfied with the nett proceeds therefrom arising. I will now state as briefly as possible, my views on the making and management of the tobacco crop. It will be admitted by all, that the tobacco crop is attended with much more labor, 1 rouble, expense and uncertainty, conjointly, than bolh the corn and wheat crop. As this is admitted, we should not give it such precedence over the other two staples of life. In the making of tobacco, in the first place, our land should be rich, and well adapted to its culture. We should have good barns affording sufficient room, and quite airy. Experience has taught me that early cutting and curing do not require half the firing as has been recommended by many writers on tobacco; provi- ded, the barns are roomy and airy, and the weather suitable. In warm and moist weather even when the tobacco is cured, it should be dried by small fires; otherwise, it will very apt to mould. When the air in dry weather can freely pass be- tween the tobacco while hanging, it seems to im- part an invigorating substance quite discoverable in the tobacco. It certainly does in the. months of August and September, possess a curative process 712 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 12 which supersedes greatly, the cus om oi no much firing. F will admit to cure tobacco in ibis way requires nearly double llie house-room — but ihe question is, liad we not better have this extra room, than to subject our bains to ho much imminent danger by s > constant firing? The seasons are al|- iiur ortant a'so, in making good tobacco. Unless we can have them as the growing cro;; requires, we may not expect to make good tobacco. Ii must ba male good and cm ripe betbre housing: il'no , it cannot be made so nlierwards. I would res; ect- hdly refer those who wish to know the va y tine when tobacco should be cut, to Mr. Jordan Floyd's treatise on tobacco. It can be bought at the book stores in Petersburg. It possesses much more in- teresting and useful instructions, than I am able to impart, without being guilty of plagiarism. I shall content myselfthen by saying, as soon as mv tobacco is cut and put on sticks, say from eight to fifteen plants, agreeably to size, it. is carried di- rectly to the barn, the sicks hoisted from seven to eight inches apart. Fires are immediately put under it, about, ninety degrees temperature, con- tinued at this as near as possible for the first twen- ty-four hours; then raised to about one hundred and ten degrees, and kept at thai until the leaf of ihe tobacco is entirely dried — which is generally effected in forty-eight hours, ifthe weather is warm and sultry: I then raise the fires higher, (say one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty de- grees.) and keep them going until the stem and stalk are perfectly cured; but if the weather is close and windy, I stop my fires after the leaf is cured, and fire no more, unless damp and warm weather should ensue. When we can cure our tobacco in this way, it seems to me, that, ihe leaf ever afterwards, possesses more life ami elasticity, than when it is cured by a long continuation of fires. Any time after the stem of the, tobacco is cured, it may be stripped, and ihe leaf, or what is called "passable" tobacco, may be tied in bundles from five to eight leaves, agreeably to size. I then hang them on sticks, putting about, thirty bundles, on a stick, which are afterwards hoisted in the barns pretty close together to prevent their com- ing very high in order; where they remain until in "spring season." Experience has taught me, that tobacco prized from winter seasons, will not do to open late in the spring or summer. It will be uni- formly too high, and will most assuredly rot, if not opened and dryed out. Shipping tobacco then should not be taken down, until the arrival of some very warm dry and clear day, when the wind is at the south. If such a season should even take place in March, we may venture with safety; pro- vided that the tobacco is in such order as scarely to prevent crumbling. Tobacco taken down in this order with such a season as above described, will do to prize any winter season afterwards. It will then be able to stand the most severe scrutiny and inspection, of our best Petersburg and Rich- mond buyers and shippers; all they will have to do is to give us prices agreeable to quality, and not to the "fancy colors" — about which, permit me to say one word or two. I can well remember when the French people took a great fancy to particular colors of tobacco. It is really laughable to hear the names of the dif- ferent colors by which it was then called; and the very great and unceasing industry taken by all and every tobacco maker to excel each other. Some called is the "| ie-hald color,"'"' some, "calico," some '•green streak," some "straw color,'"' some "fawn color," and finally, ihe very best of all, some called it the "hickory leaf color." This was the c n sum- mation of all colors. In the year 1628, I look a fancy to the fawn color, and like mam othns, I thought I should get rich Irom making tobacco. We hod writers then on the different colors. I consulted all of them, and became more | artia! o the fawn color-wri'.er. I had a lot of tobacco that year (say lour acres, or fifteen thousand to- bacco hills,) which had assumed before it was cut, all the variegated color of the most healthy and sprightly fawn. All oflhis tobacco came in nearly at one cutting. Agreeably to my essay on the yawn- color, I cut this tobacco, carried it. iiiimedi- diately to the best barn I hail, regulated it on the sticks, by putting eight plants lo ihe stick, then hoisted the sticks, giving them equal dis'ance of eight inches. Then come the wood, the fire and my thermometer. However it may be unneces- sary to name that several hours elapsed before I could begin with my fires, in consequence of hav- ing to teach my attendant the nama of my he it measurer, and the number of degrees (eighty,) at which he was imperiously required to keep his fires going both day and night. I visited this barn during the firing process as strictly and as con- stantly, both day and night, as a doctor ever visited his palient with typhus fever. On the 16th day about the setting of the sun, mv tobacco firer came and stated, that he believed the tobacco was cured, and that the fires ought to be stopped. I di- rected him to stop them, and bring 10 me my heat measurer. Upon examination of the tobacco, I found, I ha I a barn of as beautiful a fawn color as ever was seen; but the tobacco had no more si.b- stance in it, hanan cak leaf in the month of March. I took great tr< ub e with this tobacco in handling, stripping, squeezing, stretching, packing and pri- zing; and after all this, sold it in July 1S29, in Rich- mond, lor $4.20 per hundred ! far less than I got lor some "refused :" this broke me of paying so much extra attention to the management of tobacco, to the great neglect of the great grain crop. We should however bear in mind that all kinds of tobacco were selling comparatively low at this time, except for manufacturing. In conclusion Mr. Editor, permit me to state that I have read with no ordinary interest in your valu- able and ably edited Register, the several interest- ing and ingenious pieces on the cultivation and management of tobacco. However, they display no inconsiderable diversity of opinions. They re- mind me not a little of the five loo-players, who all stood, all played, and all got off. They all seem right in theory. To lollow ihe strict directions of these tobacco- writers, is more than many are able to do for the want of the necessary funds to com- mand the hands, and to build their barns, &c. and for them to carry out those theories to their great- est extent: I am pretty sure, many of us would make no corn, raise no hogs, and have no milk and sweet potatoes for our children. All, all (la- bor) for tobacco. Poverty and starvation would be the inevitable consequence, unless we could do by our tobacco, as Will Boniface of old did by his ale, "live upon it, sleep upon it." That the above writers have reflected much, devoted much time and labor in their several modes of making and managing the tobacco crop, I cannot for one mo- 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER 71S ment entertain a doubt; and that they have real- ized ample reward for their industrious persever- ance and assidiuty, I am equally disposed 10 believe. But at the same time, I presume these gentlemen are wealthy. They have the tobacco land. They have old experienced hands, calculated for little else than to attend to their barns, and the man- agement of their tobacco. The hands are not put in' the common stock of hands on the plantation, to assist in making any and every other product appertaining to a well regulated system of farming. These are advantages in managing tobacco, more than paramount to every other consideration. In this old state, I am decidedly of an opinion that the frain crop should not be neglected for that of to- acco. We should make as much grain as will be sufficient to support the demands of our planta- tions, and as much tobacco afterwards as possible. In my opinion this determination to make the hould be our memorable motto. More grain, s anon P. W. HARPER. ON THE MANNER AND TIME OF EMPLOYING OVERSEERS. Saratoga, (Buckingham,) > February 2d, 1S36. $ To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. As I have just forwarded my subscription for the third volume of your Farmers' Register, and and not having heretofore given other evidence of the high estimation in which I in common with very many of my acquaintances in this part of the. state hold that work, I will now indulge in a lew- remarks. Being a plain sailing farmer, I have not the disposition to attempt any labored criticism on the merits of the work, or the inclination to in- dulge in any inflated or ill-timed commendation. I dare say, it willbe generally conceded, that, that person renders a more acceptable service, who when he beholds his fellow-man struggling against the difficulties which may surround him, freely contributes his mite to free him from embarras- ments, than the individual who seeing the unpro- mising state of affairs, stands aloft either to detect and magnify blunders; or to cry huzza for those who so nobly combat lor the amelioration of the human family, and the advancement of the great fundamental interest of the republic. Without farther preface, I will proceed to place before you, my reflections upon the important subject of hav- ing men of information and intelligence, as well as of practical skill to act as overseers— and also, on the expediency of the proprietors of estates enter- ing into a general determination to change the time of employing, or making contracts with their overseers. I think but few men of observation will deny. that one great cause of the very wretched state ol agriculture in the middle section of Virginia, is owing to so large a portion of it being not only entrusted to men of limited acquirements and moderate ca- pacities, but to those also whose interest it is, to aim almost exclusively at present gain, without regard to future consequences. We all know that it fs the due combination of knowledge and practi- cal skill, which enables particular individuals to achieve those objects calculated to better our con- dition; and, that requisitions are a§ frequently made Vox., III. -SO on the arts and sciences in accomplishing agricul- tural improvements, as elsewhere. Notwithstand- ing this tact, and the circumstance of other avoca- tions requiring long study and many years of ap- prenticeship before they are mastered; it is but too frequently the current, belief, that all that is wan- ting in the fanning department, to entitle anyone to a decent standing, is to know how his father or grandfather used to manage their farms — and to be able to condemn indiscriminately all innova- tions on old practices, and stubbornly refuse to bor- row light from other neighborhoods or communi- nities. It is also too prevalent a fashion among practi- cal men to repudiate all agricultural knowledge derived from books, which is about as wise as the conduct of our fanners learned in the sciences, in eschewing the means of acquiring practical skill. The former throw aside books in accomplishing their agricultural operations, and the latter equally as sagaciously, attempt to be practical farmers solely by reading books, devising new theories, and figuring upon paper. It must be conceded how- ever, that agricultural books in the hands of the really ignorant, are rather a disadvantage, for in- asmuch as they only know the common rules practised by their forefathers, without, having hardly examined the principles upon which they were based, or the particular circumstances which rendered them expedient; they can hardly be sup- posed capable of understanding the principles of any new subject connected with agriculture, or of possessing capacity sufficient to enable them to modify new rules or plans so as to suit their partic- ular situation. For somewhat similar reasons, it follows, that purely theoretical men would be about as much benefited in having a farm to ex- periment upon. Then it seems, that the great desideratum necessary to ensure successful farm- ing, is to possess so large a share of information and intelligence, as will enable any one to see what is going on around him, through a proper medium, and to determine, upon proper principles, the fitness and utility of things, while at the same time he has the practical skill successfully to turn the experience and plans of others to his own ben- efit, whenever in his judgement it may be advi- sable. Surely one of the highest points for any farmer to attain, is at all times to be able to grasp and wield the knowledge of others. We have frequently seen the immense difference between the judicious and injudicious application of both capital and labor even in the most common pur- suits. While witnessing such occurrences, we cannot help being forcibly struck with the incom- parable advantages, the well informed must pos- sess over those who rely entirely upon their mo- ther-wit. As for instance, in the case of the far- mer who ploughs shallow, and then plants his corn with the rows running directly across his field — and up and down hills and ravines. The consequence is a bad crop, and the land also ma- terially damaged by washing rains, and probably made so ridgy by improper cultivation, as to make it almost impossible to put the small grain in pro- perly— and even after the small grain is removed, the land is apt in such cases to wash out where the middle of the corn rows were. So we find bad management in one case necessarily counteracting the next two or three efforts at good management, and preventing not only the fair return* from the 714 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 12 land, but leaving it exposed to injury for years. I heard it remarked once, by a farmer, that he con- sidered the difference between selling a barrel o' corn for $5, and purchasing one barrel at that price for the use of the plantation, was equal to $10 in the purse of the farmer. Upon this prin- ciple the difference between good and bad man- agement is much greater than is generally be- lieved. If gentlemen had their funds rested in other property than land and negroes, they would be for getting clever and sensible men to manage and superintend them, but as long as their capital is in a farm &c, they seem to imagine that any dolt can see to feeding the cattle, working the ground, and whipping the negroes. And that it would be somewhat indecent for the proprietor to do any thing farther than pay taxes, pocket what little is made, and play the gentleman. This doctrine suits the taste of many individuals, and might be commendable were it not for the impoverishing effect it has on the purse, and the still greater in- jury it indicts on the husbandry of the state. Ag- riculture, like other occupations, requires a willing and energetic hand to execute, and a sound and clear head to direct its various concerns, to render it either agreeable or profitable. The wish, very frequently, of getting overseers at low wages, in- duces many farmers to forego other considerations of vastly greater importance. What would be thought for instance of an undertaker of some public-building, who first having procured atgreat cost the best materials for constructing his work, would then run the risk, by employing an inferior mechanic for some $50 or $100 less than he could have engaged a good one for, of not only having an illy shaped, badly proportioned house put up, but also the hazard of spoiling or destroying all the fine materials that were prepared tor the build- ing'? As injudicious, (to use the mildest term,) as such conduct would be, yet the farmers are fre- quently guilty of the like error. It needs no ar- gument to prove how much injury such conduct has imposed on this stale. If a man goes to the expense of getting a good farm, good slaves, good stock, &c, why surely he ought to be very particular in getting an overseer possessing all the requisites profitably to manage them. An error in that case not only prevents the annual proceeds from being what they should be, but the capital employed deteriorates, and blunders are made, which generally cost much labor and pains to counteract. In the general, we rarely if ever re- pent giving a good price for a good overseer, but frequently in our moments of repentance we would cheerfully have given three times the amount, rather than have had a bad manager. True economy therefore requires in this case, that we should look more to the overseer's ability to manage our matters profitably, than to the few extra dollars he may demand for his services. I hope I shall not be deemed an advocate of high wages, except as a contingent consideration. I have thought that a farmer who had property to the amount of $20,000 or $30,000 had better give a good manager two prices, or nearly that, for his services, than a bad one, half wages. That scientific or judicious agriculturists would in the main be decided gainers by pursuing the pre- ceding suggestions, I see not the least good reason to doubt; and I think there is still lees cause to sup- pose that the young or inexperienced farmers would be injured by doing likewise. To question the justness of the above remarks, would be tan- tamount, to maintaining, that a dull razor would shave as well as a sharp one, or that poor land would produce as much as rich. But iew subjects are more deserving of the con- sideration of the farmers and planters, than the present method of employing overseers. It is the general custom so far as my observation extends for overseers to be busily engaged in renewing their contracts with their old employers, or in hunting out new situations in the months of May, June, and July — some few only defering it till August. The bad effects of this custom ought after a lit- tle reflection to be so apparent to all, as to create a general wish to produce a change. A gentle- man employs a "new overseer," he takes place on the farm in November — makes a great effort to put his business forward — forces his teams and hands improperly — works the ground out of order and in the general does but little work in the way work ought to be done. As the spring approach- es he must try and be the first to finish planting corn, seeding oats, making tobacco hills, planting his tobacco crop, &c, and for what? Why, if he is forward in the spring — has a great deal of work done — and dashes about to this and that place in a great hurry, he soon gets the credit of being a "tip-top" overseer, which is the consummation in his estimation most devoutly to be wished for. Frequently it happens the overseer makes prepar- ation for two large a crop, which of course is in- judicious, as well as is liable to be badly done, or in his great anxiety to be foremost, half prepares the proper quantity. However all this is not to him a matter of much moment. For he has pro- bably a large family dependent upon his exertions, and his employer is independent, therefore he con- cludes it is proper for charity to commence at home, so he looks only to his own interest. Under this conviction he very naturally lakes those steps that will tend the soonest to increase his wages. If the tests of merit rest upon an improper basis, why he says to himself "if the other overseers are weighed by them, and the employers think them sufficient, I too had just as well give into the fashion," therefore he exerts himself to acquire those characteristics deemed important. The time for contracting being at hand, the parties un- fortnnately cannot agree about the terms for the ensuing year. Well! away goes the overseer on horse-back, in the most important part of the year, riding here and yonder in quest of a new home. In the mean time the employer and his business are all very unceremoniously left in the lurch, till the redoubtable character can procure a place. Some days and frequently weeks being passed off in this way, the overseer then returns to his post, and finds everything in confusion. Grass grow- ing— crops suffering for work — and employer vex- ed. As one might expect the overseer finds there is more work to be done, than he can well have done. The crop soon begins to fail — some of the stock are killed up — the negroes badly treated — and at the end of the year, it turns out there has been much ado about nothing. The employer if young, quickly concludes farming a poor business, and if old, is apt to turn his overseer off— undergo 1836.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 715 a great deal of fatigue, or get some lad to attend to his affairs in his stead. This custom of making bargains with overseers in the months of May, June, and July, holds out as can be easily proven sundry inducements for rash and injudicious management in the commence- ment of the year, and but too frequently gives room for neglect, waste, and general bad manage- ment for the remainder of the year. It puts it in the power of indifferent managers to compete more successfully with the really good, in obtain ing business. It has the tendency to induce peo- ple to form their estimates of the management of men, by their spring and winter's work mainly. It furnishes pretexts for neglect of business at the most important season ot the year. It prevents the employer from forming a correct opinion of the qualifications of the overseer previously to re- newing the contract for the second year, because that cannot well be determined till the crop is quite or nearly finished. To obviate all these difficulties the planters and farmers need only come to a determination of not making contracts with their overseers except in the months of November and December; and of fixing the moving day between the 15th of De- cember and the 1st of January. Upon a little reflection it seems to me that most people will perceive the benefits that would result from this change. It would be one in my opinion not only eminently beneficial to the farmers, but to the good overseers also — for merit when ascer- tained is most sure to be rewarded. When we employ a man to do anything for us, we generally like to see how he executes before we give him additional work to do. Now this can only be done in this case by giving the overseers one year's trial, and then having ascertained their me- rits, we can with propriety continue or discon- tinue our contracts. By deferring the time of contracting, they will be induced to continue their exertions to give satisfaction and to gain reputa- tion. And as the crop made, would be the test of their fitness, they would take more pains properly to prepare the ground, cultivate the crop, and to save it. The good managers would see that a display of skill and industry would be placed on its proper footing, and entitle them to higher con- sideration, and the bad managers for fear of not only being thrown in the rear, but of being left in the lurch, would also make greater exertions. The time could better be spared in November and December to look out. business, than at any other time of the year. The overseers could then see all of their grain crops secured. The farmers could tell better what they could afford to give as wages, and the last of December would be the most suitable time for moving for various consi- derations, which it is not material to mention at this time. I am sure if this plan were adopted we should not be forced to take an overseer but one year on trial — but according to the present custom, we are virtually forced in many instances to engage them for the two first years, before we have had an op- portunity to judge of their qualifications. In conclusion, it is proper to state, that it is not my intention to lay all the blame to the overseers, or because some are worthless, on that account, to disparage all of them. Like all other trades or professions, among them there are some that would do credit to any cause, while there are others of great inferiority. That there are many honorable, intelligent, and deserving men among them, as well as skilful farmers, I do not question or deny. Whether or not these hints are worthy of pub- lic consideration, I leave it for others to determine. Certainly many expedients will have to be essay- ed, and great skill be required in working out the various means designed to resuscitate our husban- dry. But that every effort may aid in achieving that great and desirable object, and hasten the pe- riod when this our native land shall again "blos- som as the rose" must be the cardinal wish of ua all. EDMUND W. Hl'BARB. ON THE VALUE OF COUCH AGE. From Burnett's Eotany. GRASS AS FOR- [The English couch grass, is the same with the wire grass which is mch a pest on the best sandy soil9 of Lower Virginia.] Of the creeping species, the couch grass of the farmers, which is here regarded as a troublesome weed, is collected on the continent as food for horses. Cattle of all kinds are fond of the under- ground stems of this plant, which are sweet and wholesome. Sir Humphrey Davy found them to contain nearly three timer- as much nutritious mat- ter as the stalks and leaves; and it has been stated, on the authority of a French veterinary surgeon, that exhausted and worn-out horses are very speedily restored to strength and condition by giving them, daily, one or two bundles of couch grass of ten or twelve pounds weight each, mixed with carrots. From Burnett's Botany. EUROPEAN OPINIONS OF DARNEL OR SPELT. [The plant which is commonly called spelt in Virgi- nia, and which is believed by many farmers to be pro- duced by the degeneracy of wheat, is the lohum. temu- lentum, or darnel, described below. In a former arti- have fewer overseers trifling about in the summer j Vo1- n) we expressed sur- and fall, and fewer turned off. And as they would | prise at the apparent fact that this grass, which was so be stimulated to more industrious habits, weshould I great, and still a growing pest, among wheat in Lower have more good overseers, and the more good Virginia, should not be much complained of in Eng- managers we have, the better for the country. Iand hereit had been known from time immemorial. 1 his plan would obviate the necessity the farmers I „.. . . , . , . .-. r „ ■ -± are under to a great extent at present of makino- 1 This iS explained >n the following piece; as it seems the two first contracts with their overseers upo5 that a much warmer climate than that of England, is the recommendations of other men. It is nothing I necessary to give darnel that vigor which it unforhi. more than lair and proper that the fanners should jnatelyhas here.] 716 F A R M E R S ' REGISTER !No.l2 Lolium perenne, or ray-grass, is one of our best, rind lolium temulentum one of" our worst grasses. Luckily, the latter is only an annual; appearing chiefly among wheat, and then known by the name of darnel. This is generally sup- posed to be the "inielix lolium" of Virgil, of which he speaks in no measured terms of condemnation. It is not a very common grass in Britain, where farmers are particular in the choice of their seed, but. in warmer climates it is a noxious corn-weed, and, with the barren oat, overtops and chokes the wheat, so that Milne thinks it highly probable that The Greek zizania, which occurs in the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, should be ren- dered darnel, which would convey the meaning ol the passage more fully than tares, and, in accord- ance with this view, the French always translate it ivraie, from ivre, drunk. Our partiality for con- tractions has caused the corruption of the French ivraie into ray-grass, one of the names of darnel, although it properly applies to one species only, viz., the lolium temulentum. which is said to pos- sess intoxicating powers. Haller affirms that this species of lolium not only produces intoxication, as its trivial name implies, but that, if baked into bread, or fermented in ale, its administration is at- tended by very disagreeable, and even fatal ef- fects. It produces headache, vertigo, vomiting, lethargy, drunkenness, and difficulty of speech, and the tongue exhibits a very strong trembling. Seagar further remarks, that a trembling of the body is one of the most cert-un signs of poisoning by this plant. It also affects with blindness for several hours. By the Chinese laws — for this plant is found both in China and Japan — it is forbidden to be used in fermented liquors. Some of the intoxi- cating qualities of factitious beer are said to be owing to the admixture of darnel with the malted barley; and a tew years ago. two acres of ground in Battersea- fields were sown with this grain: to what good purpose it could have been applied is unknown, for, though darnel meal was once re- commended as a sedative cataplasm, it has long been disused; and, according to Withering, horses, geese, &c, are killed by darnel, and dogs are pe- culiarly subject to its influence; mixed in small quantities with their food, it is, however, said to fatten chickens and hogs. In the "Medical and Physical Journal" there are placed on record several cases of poisoning, by darnel, in the human subject. In these, giddi- ness of the. head, pain, and swelling of the limbs, succeeded by abscess and gangrene, were the most prominent symptoms. One of the sufferers lost both his legs. Various othes cases, exemplifying the poisonous properties of this grain, have been condensed in the chapter on this plant, in the new edition of "Medical Botany." This, the only poisonous grass known, is easily distinguished by its two sided spike, and one-valved glume; the glumes being longer than the bearded locustae they enclose. ENGLISH OPIMONS OF AN AMERICAN AGRI- CULTURAL WORK. At page 511 of this volume, we commented it some length on the manner in which the conductor of the British Farmer's' Magazine, that thought fit to re-pub- lish io that work a garbled and imperfect edition of the Essay on Calcareous Manures. Since that time, two more of the numbers have been received, in which the re-publication is continued, liable to all the objections first stated. We have not read through the extracts, nor indeed any entire page of them, for the purpose of comparison— but to a general view, it appears that the first edition is re-published entire, with the exception formerly named, that a single short chapter ("on the soils and state of agriculture in the tide-water district of Virginia") is omitted, and also the preface— and these, if not omitted, would have served to show to the Eng- lish reader the true source, and proper object, of the es- say, and would have prevented much of the awkward- ness, and apparentpresumption, displayed by its appear- ing (falsely) as an "original communication" in an English periodical; and as if addressed to a class of rea- ders, whom in truth, its anthor had not expected to reach. If a single sentence of proper explanation from the conductor of the journal for which it was thus borrowed, had been prefixed, intelligent European agriculturists, and men of science, might perhaps have been invited to examine the work, if by no other inducement than the novelty of transatlantic views on soils and agricul- ral features altogether unknown in England, and alto- gether different. JBut to suppose an unknown Ameri- can writer to be addressing English agriculturists, through the pages of an English journal, (as would be inferred by every reader of the re-publication,) would mark him as both conceited and presumptuous. We venture to assert, that the views presented in the essay, if fairly considered, will be found no less novel in Eng- land than in Virginia. Still, the practical use of cal- careous manures there has been long established, and many volumes present instructions for their application, and reasoning, voluminous, if not sound, respecting their operation and value; and every intelligent reader can well conceive that a writer, if addressing English readers, would have adopted a very different form to convey his opposing opinions, from what would be pro- per in this country, where circumstances and opinionj were altogether different, and the practice scarcely ex- isted. But however much reason we may have to com- plain of the conductor of the Farmer's' Magazine hav- ing thus appropriated and disguised our work, and fte unseemly and dubious shape in which he has presented it to the British public, we freely admit our gratification that, even in this way, it has been thus extended: and still more that it has been the means of attracting the attention, and eliciting the remarks, of the writer whose incidental review of the portion of the essay which had then appeared, is copied below from the same journal. The reviewer had then seen only as much of the theo- retical part, as treated of the first propositions: the con- tinuation of his remarks, which he promises, will be al- so re-published here, when received. Mr. Tow- ers is the author of the "Domestic Gardener's Man- ual," and of many articles in different British periodi- cals, on scientific horticulture, and agricultural che- mistry.* * One of his pieces, "On the excretary powers of plants" was insert d at page 157, Vol. II. Farmes' Register— in which, and seemingly on good ground, he asserted an equal claim to tola du- covsry, the honor of which has be«ii awarded to Macair*. K». 1833.] FARMERS' REGISTER. 717 Perhaps an apology may ba deemed necessary for our inserting so laudatory a review ot a work of our own. There are few subjects more suitable to be se- lected for an agricultural journal, than the exhibition of the opinions of intelligent judges in foreign coun- tries, of the writings and opinions of our own farmers: and this consideration would direct the re- publication of any such review, no matter of what American work on agriculture, or whether the reviewer might have awarded more of approbation or censure. Our indi- vidual connexion with the work in question, would not justify a departure from this general editorial obliga- tion: and if the opinions expressed in the continuation of this reviewer on the part of the work which he had not then seen, or of any other intelligent foreigner, should be altogether condemnatory, they will notwith- standing, be here re-published, as surely and as readi- ly. Sundry highly approbatory American notices, and some extended reviews, of the second edition of the Essay on Calcareous Manures, have been published in this country — but not one of them has been copied in- to this journal: because, as these publications had ap- peared in popular and valuable journals, and were al- ready before a large portion of the American public, it was not necessary, and would have perhaps been indel- icate for us to extend their circulation, by re-publica- tion in the Farmers' Register. Yet each of these re- views was fully as favorable as that of Mr. Towers': and among the writers, we will name Jesse Buel, and David Thomas, (whose reviews appeared severally in the Cultivator, and the Genesee Farmer,) whose good opinion and applause deserved to be valued as highly as those of any living agriculturists whatever. Before commencing the following piece, we will point to some things which particularly deserve attention. The writer asserts in the strongest manner the almost universal presence of cdcareous earth, (carbonate of lime) in the soils of England — a fact which was infer- red from indirect evidence, and on that ground asserted in the Essay on Calcareous Manures. Another cir- cumstance worthy of note, is, that Mr. Towers is one of those chemists who deny the existence of humic, or geic acid; and has opposed, in a long article in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, the recent alleged discovery of that substance. Yet he does not here de- ny, and seems by implication to admit, the doctrine of acid soils, as maintained in the first edition of the Es- say, when it had no support from the discovery of hu- mic acid, as the account of that discovery had not then reached this country. From the British Farmer's Magazine. ON THE UTILITY OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRI- CULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. By Ma. TowEhS, author of the "Domestic Garden- er's Manual," C. M. H. S. I do not affect to apologize for the introduction of this subject, at some length, into your pages, be- cause I conceive thai, however it may have occu- pied the attention of practical farmer?, upon the urgent recommendation of men and science, ii has been misunderstood, and, therefore, unjustly agi- tated. 1 have been induced to resume the considera- tion, by the perusal of those admirable papers in your two last numbers, eniitled Essay on Calca- reous Manures — by Mr. Ruffin — papers which, I think, contain the soundest truths, and, therefore, may be rendered more practically available than most of the elaborate works that have preceded them. The propositions of the writer require, however, to be impartially examined; but before I attempt to do so, I shall cite a passage from a chemical work, written by that worthy and zeal- ous man, the late Mr. Samuel Parkes, whereby the reader may, at one view, appreciate the object of the chemist, and the weight of the arguments he employs, when he urges the necessity to call his science in aid of the agriculturist. "Chemistry" (it is observed) "will teach him" (an opulent land-owner) "how to improve the cul- tivated parts of his estate; and by transporting and transposing the different soils, he will soon learn some method by which each of his fields may be rendered more productive. "The analysis of soils will be followed by that of the waters which rise upon, or flow through them; by which means he will disc-over those pro- per lor irrigation, a practice, the value of which is sufficiently known to every good agriculturist. "Should he himself occupy the farm, and be- come cultivator of his own estate, he must, of ne- cessity, be a chemist, before he can make the most of his land, or put it in a high state of culti- vation, at the smallest possible expense. It will be his concern, not only to analyze the soils on the different parts of his (arm, but the peat, the marl, the lime, and the other manures, must be subject- ed to experiment, before he can avail himself of the advantages which they possess, or before he can be certain of producing any particular effect by their means. The necessity of analysis to the farmer is evident from a knowledge of the circum- stance, that some kind of lime" (magnesian lime- stone) "is really injurious, and would render land which had been hitherto very productive, actually steril." — (Chemical Essays, vol. i. pp. 8, 9,) — Again: "A knowledge of the first principles of chemis- try will teach him when to use lime hot from the kiln, and when slacked; how to promote the pu- trefactive process in his composts, and at what period to check it, so as to prevent the fertilizing particles bscomtng effete, and of little value. "It will teach him the difference in the proper- ties of marl, lime, peat, wood ashes, alkaline salt, soap waste, sea water, &c, and, consequently, which to prefer in all varieties of soil. A know- ledge of the chemical properties of bodies will thus give a new character to the agriculturist, and render his employment rational and respecta- ble."— (/ e. i themselves, for their baseness 756 FARMERS' REGISTER, [No. 12 and ingratitude. From five hundred, their number was soon reduced to sixty men, women, and children; and this miserable remnant, could not reasonably cal- culate on the security of a single hour, from the as- saults of the savages, even though by some miracle they should escape the agony of disease, and the tor- ments of famine. "In this forlorn condition, they were found by Sir T. Gates and Sir G. Somers, who, on the twenty- fourth of May, arrived in two barks, built with such materials, as "they could find in Bermudas, assisted by the wreck of their own ship. It required them but little observation, to be convinced of the inadequacy of their means to remedy an evil so woeful and exten- sive; and after a short consultation, it was unanimous- ly determined to abandon the enterprise. The colon- ists, with whatever was most valuable, being embark- ed, the ships dropt down the river to Mulberry Island: So near to entire extinction, was the germ of this mighty nation." — Hist, of Va., p. 159, vol. 1. "The colonists were importunate to burn the town and fortifications; but God, who did not intend that this excellent country should be abandoned, put it into the heartof Sir T. Gates to save it." — Stilh,p. 117. A boat met them before they reached the mouth of the river, and announced that Lord de la War's fleet was near at hand, bringing reinforcements, and every needful supply. Under his command the wretched fugitives returned to the deserted walls of James- town. "But while the Virginia establishment was thus al- most miraculously preserved by the arrival of Lord de la War, a danger of no less magnitude awaited it in the impatience of the company in London, and their inor- dinate expectations of immediate profit. It appears, that the genuine commercial spirit, which works by bold enterprise and patient industry, was debauched at this day, by the bewitching reports of Spanish disco- very; and the value of distant possessions, was estimated by the mines of rich metals they were supposed to con- tain. Disappointed in their expectations of discover- ing a Potosi in Virginia, the question was seriously dis- cussed, whether the enterpris ■ should not be abandon- ed. But the testimony of Sir T. Gates, solemnly given in at one of the quarter courts, backed by the r< ; re- sentations of Lord de la War, who published a trea- tise on the occasion, removed the veil, which ignorance and misrepresentation had drawn before the eyes of the company, and it was determined once more, to prosecute the enterprize with spirit and activity. "Sir T. Dale, with three ships abundantly supplied with all necessaries, arrived the 10th of May. He found the colony, as usual, indolent and improvident. To those vices their mode of living had added a disposi- tion to mutiny, which being general and habitual, it was more difficult to repress." — Ilisi.of Fa. p. 16iJ, 165. These "representations" of Lord de la War, (made no doubt in sincerity, and what he thought truth,) will show that in thatday "western country" descriptions were at least as highly colored as those which now are drawing away the people of this land of milk ami ho- ney. "The substance of these representations was, that the country was rich in itself, but that time and indus- try were necessary to make its wealth profitable to the adventurers; that it yielded abundance of valuable woods, as oak, walnut, ash, sassafras, mulberry trees for silkworms, live-oak, cedar, and fir for shipping; and that on the banks of the Potowmac, there were trees large enough for masts, that produced a sprcics of wild hemp, for cordage, pines which yielded tar, and a vast quantity of iron ore; besides lead, antimony, and other minerals, and several kinds of colored earths; that in the woods were found various balsams, with other medical drugs, with an immense quantity of myrtle berries for wax; that the forests and rivers har- bored beavers, otters, foxes, and deer, whose skins were valuable articles of commerce; that sturgeon might be taken in the greatest plenty, in five noble ri- vers; and that without the bay to the northward, was an excellent fishing bank for cod of the best quality; that the soil was favorable to the cultivation of vines, sugar canes, oranges, lemons, almonds, and rice; that the winters were so mild, that cattle could get their food abroad, and the swine could be fattened on wild fruits; that the Indian corn yielded a most luxuriant harvest; and in a word, that it was "one of the goodliest countries," promising as rich entrails as any kingdom of the earth, to which the sun is so near a neighbor." — Purchas. At the close of Sir Thomas Dale's administration, the colony had so much stability, that the grants of 100 acres, which before had been made to every new set- tler, were reduced to 50 acres — — "and this alteration had its rise in the opinion, that the country being likely to flourish, and the difficulties of making settlements consequently having become proportionally less, it was no longer necessary or poli- tic to hold out such strong inducements to emigration." —Burk,p. 177. The following gives some idea of the money value of lands at this time. Besides the general mode above stated of granting lands to settlers, there were two others. The first mode, probably, w:as the origin of the "aristocracy" of Virginia. •'When any person had conferred a benefit, or done service to the company or colony, they would bestow such appropriation of land upon him. However, to prevent excess in this particular, they are restrained by his majesty's letters patent, not to exceed twenty great shares, or two thousand acres in any one of these grants. The other was called the adventure of the purse. Every person, who paid twelve pounds ten shillings into the company's treasury, having thereby a title to an hundred acres of land, any where in Vir- ginia, that had not been before granted to, or possessed by others." — Hist, of Va., p. 178. The habits of the colonists had now become indus- trious, and of course, there was no more scarcity. "Nay, whereas they had formerly been constrained to buy fiom the Indians yearly, which exposed them to much scorn and difficulty. The case was so much altered under his management, that the Indians some- times applied to the English, and would sell the very skins from their shoulders for corn. And to some of their petty kings. Sir Thomas lent four or five hundred bushels; for re-payment whereof next year, he took a mortgage of their whole countries." — Stith,p. 140. "The attention of [The London, or Proprietary] Company was directed with equal care to almost eve- ry subject of political economy; and as the country as yet held out no prospects of sudden wealth in the work- ing of mines, agriculture was naturally resorted to as the means of trade and subsistence. Tobacco had in some degree grown into notice by the whim of the co- lonists, and the fashion of the times, unaided by the patronage, and indeed, in defiance of the repeat* d in- junctions of the company. But a strange taste for this nauseous plant was rapidly gaining ground in Europe; and the king, notwithstanding his unaffected antipathy to it. tempted by the prospect of revenue, at length permitted it to be entered in 1G1-1, as a regular article of trade. The colonists had learned the art of planting corn, together with the use of this valuable production, 1835. ] FARMERS' REGISTER, '57 from the Indians. Vineyards were attempted; and ex- perienced vine-dressers sent over lor this purpose. The culture of silkworms was recommended with a like anxiety; whilst anniseed, flax, hemp, wheat, and barley, with various other productions, formed a large and judicious lis1: forfeiture essay and experiment. Co- lonies will, for a considerable time at least, reflect the manners and pursuits of the parent state. During the hist years of the reign oi James, a considerable taste for ag-icultural inquiry prevailed; and numerous trea- tises were published on the subject. The company sent over several of those tracts, for the use of the co- lony. It is not surprizing, that at this time, a rage for speculative fanning prevailed in the colony. "The commerce of Virginia, from the nature of things, was for a long time of little value. Before the year 1614, she had no staple. But once, that she was legalized as a a fair trader, and the industry of her cit- izens was excited by the prospect of wealth and the se- curity of freedom, her advances were unparalleled and almost miraculous. In the year 1620, her tobacco was more than sufficient for the English market, and the continent was resorted to, as a vent for the superfluity. — Hist, of Va., vol. 1, p. 305. Tobacco was not only the staple crop, but it soon became, and long continued, the greater part of the legal and current money of Virginia. Payments and fines fixed by law were generally specified in to- bacco—and that kind of money was not entirely displaced until the revolutionary war. Even after to- bacco was no longer a legal tender in payment, habit and convenience continued to make tobacco notes, (or the certificates of hogsheads of tobacco, and their ta, being deposited in the public inspection houses,) a common currency. It is not 40 years ago since a tobacco note passed from hand to hand for the sum that the hogshead would sell for, and the pos- session of the note was the evidence of ownership. There was much convenience in this before other pa- per money had been authorized by law — and such a pa- per currency had the rare advantage of being the rep- resentative of real value. But this conversion of to- bacco to current money, and at a fixed legal rate, doubt- less aided in this respect the universal tendency of all legal inspections of the qualities of commodities — that is, of deteriorating the quality, and of course, ultimate- ly, the market price. The legal inspection of tobacco remains to this day a prominent feature of the absurd and general inspection system: and the only redeeming merit of this is, that the certificates of the inspectors, as to the quality cf the tobacco, are universally and total- ly disregarded as evidences of value. I proceed to give some of the early rates of value as estimated in tobacco, and fixed by the governors' proc- lamations. "During the administration of Captain Argall, to- bacco was fixed at three shillings the pound. In 1623, Canary, Malaga, Alicant, Tent, Muskadel, and Bas- tard wines, were rated at six shillings in specie, and sack.ninc shillings the gallon payable in tobacco. Sherry, andAquavita?, at four shillings, or four and six-pence in tobacco. Wine vinegar at three shillings, or four shil- lings and six-pence in tobacco. Cider and beer vinegar at two shillings, or three shillings in tobacco. Loaf sugar, one shilling and eight-pence per pound, or two shillings and six-pence in tobacco. Butter and cheese eight-pence per pound, or one shilling in tobacco. Newfoundland fish per cwt. fifteen shillings, or one pound four shillings in tobacco. Canada fish, two pounds, or three pounds ten shillings in tobacco. Eng- lish meal sold at ten shillings the bushel, and Indian coin at eight." — Hist, of I a., vol. 1. p. 307. In 1G07, an improvement was made in the mode of curing tobacco, which was deemed of enough impor- tance to be stated in history. [Siilh, p. 147.] Pre- viously, it had been cured in heaps. Mr. Lam- bert discovered that it cured better hung on lines, or on sticks, as in now customary. "One hundred dissolute persons, at the express com- mand of his majesty, delivered by his marshal, were sent over as servants, [in 1613,] much to the dissatis- faction and inconvenience of the company, who were obliged instantly, at the positive urgency of the king-, to hire ships at an advanced premium. "At the instance and advice of the treasurer, one hundred virgins were sent over as wives, for the pur- pose of fixing to the soil, the roving and inconstant spir- its of the colonists.'-' — Hist, of Va., vol. I, p. 206. "Such of these maids as were married to the public farmers, were to be transported at the company's ex- pense, but if they were married to others, that then those who took them to wife, should repay the compa- ny their charges of transportation.' — Stfth,p. 166. "The arbitrary conduct of the king, with regard to the persons ordered for transportation, "was followed by one equally flagrant and unjust, respecting tobacco, contrary to the plain and express words of their charter, which exempted them from all custom and subsidy for twenty one years, excepting only five per cent, iipon all such goods, Stc. '-as should be imported into Eng- land," &.c. The Spanish tobacco, which generally brought eighteen shillings the pound, and tobacco of Vir- ginia, which was sold at three, were fixed by the finan- cial logic of the farmers of the customs, at an average ratio of ten shillings the pound; while with a conse- quence perfectly consistent with the premises, a duty of six-pence the pound was demanded on the whole." —vol. 1, p. 207. '-Tobacco had become the staple of the country: and with this article the colonists not only stocked the Eng- lish market, but had opened a trade for it with Hol- land, and established ware-houses in Middleburg and Flushing. "The king, notwithstanding he professed on all occa- sions the most marked dislike and aversion to this com- modity, and had even labored to write it into disrepute,* did not see with indifference the diversion of a part of his revenue into foreign siates, by the trade of ti.e co- lonists. In vain the petition of the colonists, and the remonstrance of the company, attempted to soften or remove the obduracy of the monarch. Their depu- ties had to encounter the stern denial of justice from the privy council, in addition to the frowns and inso- lence of office. They were ordered to bring all their tobacco into England, in despite of their privi- leges as Englishmen, and the plain letter of thtir char- ter."— vol. l,p.209. "This year (1620) was remarkable for the introduc- tion of negro slaves into the colony — an evil, than which, none can be conceived more portentous and afflicting. A Dutch ship bound homeward from the coast of Guinea, sold twenty of this wretched race to the colonists." — vol. I, p. 210. In 1021, various tilings most needed 1 y the colony were subscribed, or advanced on loan, 'by individuals of the company in England, to be sold in Virginia on cer- tain terms, for re-payment. The most remarkable ven- ture enrolled, consisted of — *Scp at pngell, vol ii. of the Farmers' Register some amu- sing passages est acted from Kiog James' Counterblaste to To-. b 16s. or 1C0 do \ lrgima dram, ) Rum, - - - 10s. or 100 do Beer, - - 4s. or 40 do Cyder or perry, - - 2sGor 25 do These two last are stated to be rated proportionally higher, in order to encourage the produce of the coun- try. "From the circumstances of the colony, an horse must have been an animal at once rare and valuable In the year fifty-six the assembly ordered two thous- "60 F A R M E R S ' REGISTER [No. 1-2 and five hundred pounds of tobacco to be paid to John Page, Cor a horse lost in the expedition against the Rechahecrians, The complaint of Page, and the wording of the order, show, that this sum was not thought equal to that which the horse might have commanded. If we estimate the tobacco at the mar- Jet price only six years after, it will amount to an hun- dred pounds; a prodigious price, if we consider the rates in Europe during this period. In the same year, on the petition of Richard Nicholas, it was or- dered, "that sixteen hundred pounds of tobacco be paid him, for the charges and cost he had been at in recovering and finding a horse, which had been on the service in the same expedition." At the same time Richard Walker was ordered live hundred pounds of tobacco "for finding the horse of Henry Jupons, and four hundred more when he found that of Richard Eggleston." — appendix, His!, of Va.p. xxxii. vol. 2. note b. page 753. The foregoing address was drawn up in the early part of January, to be delivered at the annual meeting of the Historical Society which was to have taken place on the 9th of February, but which was post- poned from time to time, until March 2nd. When this task was undertaken, the attempt was about to be made through an Agricultural Convention, to obtain some legislative aid for the diffusion of agricultural knowledge; and the writer hoped, in this manner, to lend some feeble aid to that praise-worthy but fruitless effort. This intention, in some measure, directed the treatment of the subject, and induced the expression of hopes, which had not then been prostrated — as they were afterwards, and indeed before the meeting of the Society was finally held — by the total neglect of the whole subject, by the legislature of Virginia. When recommending objects for legislative encouragement, in aid of agricultural instruction, two principal, and and very important subjects were designedly omitted. The one was the circulation of agricultural periodical publications; the other, the establishment and support of agricultural societies. The recommendation of the first was forbidden by the writer's private interest be- ing connected with what he might advocate — and the second, because much space would have been required to explain his views of what agricultural societies ought to be, and the objections to their usual procedure, and because the subject had been treated fully upon several previous occasions. See Farmers' Register, Vol. I. pp. 147, 201, and Vol. II. p. 257. From the New England Parmer. IRRIGATION. Extract from a communication from John W. Lin- coln, of Mass. Having had some experience in this busines, I am disposed to offer myself as a witness, premi- sing that no school boy is more amused by pad- dling in the water, than I am pleased with turning it about from place to place on my farm, knowing that I could in no other manner be so profitably employed; gratified with witnessing from time to time the superior growth of the grass, and antici- pating the pleasure of seeing a heavy swath when it shall be cut. My late father was in the practice of irrigating a portion of his land on the farm on which I was bom, on which there are tracts which have, with- in my own knowledge, for nearly forty years an- nually produced large crops of hay, without the aid of* any manure, except that derived from wa- ter. In the spring of 1820, on ihe decease of my father, that farm, now owned by my brother, was placed under my superintendence"; and from that time to the present my attention lias year by year been called to the subject, of irrigation, and during thai time I have known no year, however moist has been the season, in which I have not derived much benefit from the artificial use of water on my land. The farm on which I now reside come into my possession in 1820, previous to which time, a portion ol it had been irrigated, but the works, from disuse, were much out of repair. If. not being convenient for me to take it under my own immediate supervision, I rented it, as it has been rented for many years, on shares. J how- ever at my own charge put the dam, the principal trench, and several of the smaller ones in repair, and endeavored to persuade my tenant, that it was much for his interest to make use of them. But whether he believed that our climate did not require this mode of improvement, that a kind Providence would supply all the moisture which was necessary for vegetation, or was unwilling to devote proper attention to this subject, I know not, it was much neglected. In 1829, my barn being then old, and much out of repair, 1 caused it to he pulled down, and another to be erected of a different form and greater capacity. When I showed the plan of the proposed structure to my tenant, he expressed much surprise that I should think of erecting. so large a building, saying that all ihe prod nee of the farm would not. half fill it. I told him that I was satisfied that the (arm, if properly managed, was capable of filling it, and that if I continued in the enjoyment of health for a fewr years, that I should see the barn full. It was true that alter the barn was erected, and the crops gathered, not half the barn was occupied: and it is also true, that after the last harvest there was very little spare room in my barn. On the fust day of April, 1830, I took my farm into my own care, and I was obliged to purchase several tons of hay to support what stock was then there, until vegetation was so far advanced, as 1o enable them to obtain a living abroad. I have been oradually increasing my stock as I had more food to sustain them, and now keep more than twice die stock of 1830, and have now considerably more hay than can be necessary lor their support, several tons of which I shall sell. And this change has been effecled principally by irrigation. I say principally, because I have during that time pur- chased some manure, but I have also received for hay sold, nearly as much money as I have paid for manure; and perhaps somcth'mgis to be attributed to a different mode of husbandry on lands notirri- gated, but the improvement which has been in- creasing from year to year, is in a great degree owing to the use of water. I have strong reason to believe, that by employing the same means I shall be able to add greatly to the future crops of my farm. I have not heretofore derived so much advantage from this mode of improve- ment as might have been expected: my engage- ments have required me to be frequent^ absent from home, and consequently I have not been able 1836 •] FARMERS' REGISTER. 761 to devote so much attention to the work as I de- sired. It may be well to notice in this connexion, a fact which I am aware may be urged to discredit the favorable representations of this mode of im- provement, that tracts of land even in England, in Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, were formerly irri- gated, but the practice has now been abandoned. 1 believe in every case of failure the cause may be directly traced either to improper management, or to culpable neglect; such, I have already stated, was the case on my own farm, previous to my taking charge of this work in person, and such I have no doubt would be found to be the case in every other instance, could a proper inquiry be in- stituted. There is usually a strong indisposition to undertake or continue that which requires con- stant and daily attention; and this attention must be given to the work by those who intend to de- rive any advantage from it. Some will turn the water on to the land; their usual work is on ano- ther part of the farm; it is inconvenient for them to go to their ditches, and the water is allowed to run over their land, until the person who should have attended to it, happens to be that way, how- ever long the time may have been; he afterwards perceives that a cold water grass is growing on his land, condems the water, instead of his own negligence, and the practice of irrigation is aban- doned. There is no business that requires more attention than irrigation, from early in the spring until near the time of mowing the grass. Il the water runs long on the same land without inter- mission, instead of being of benefit, it is working an injury. It is desirable that it should be changed each day, but should never be allowed to run more than two or three days on the same part of the land at any one time. Having attempted to show that irrigation in our climate is beneficial, that good husbandry requires that that mode of improvement be adopted where- ver opportunity is afforded, I shall now endeavor to controvert the position that "it is too expensive for our scale of husbandry." That "systematic irrigation," in conformity to the scientific rules, as laid down in the books, is expensive, I shall not deny. But if this expenditure was necessary to enable a farmer to make use of water, which, however, is not the case, the increased crops would soon reimburse the expense. From my own experience, I can say that i know of no mode by which hay can be obtained so cheaply as by the use of water. The greater portion of the land which I irrigate is interval, situated upon the mar- gin of the Blackstone river, from which stream the water is taken. The ground is, as is usual with alluvial lands, highest near the stream, and de- scends towards the high bank, it also descends with the river. Near the high bank is a hollow, usually here called a slang, which extends the whole length of the interval, with branches diverg- ing, and some of them extending across the inter- val. For the purpose of conveying the water to be distributed over the lower portions of the interval, it was necessary to cross several of these hollows, and as it would be necessary to pass over them with a team in the gathering the crops, I made two walls sufficiently wide for a cartway be- tween them, filled the space with gravel, and made my ditch over the embankment. That the embarkment might not operate as a dam, a culvert Vol. 111—96 was constructed under it, enable me to continue my trench drain without interruption, to carry off the surplus waten Where it is not desired to be at the expense of a stone culvert, a very cheap one may be constructed, by fastening four pieces of plank together, to serve as a trunk to convey the water of the drain. The weir or dam, and a part of the principal ditch lor conveying the water on to the land, were constructed before the farm came into my possession, all the smaller ditches and trench drains have been made by me, in the following manner: — Alter having pariicularly ex- amined the ground, by repeatedly passing over it, for the purpose of ibnning an opinion of the pro- per plan of laying out the work, 1 went on to the ground with my level, and with a man to assist me. I commenced the marking out the location for a ditch, as high up the main ditch as the water could be taken upon the land, and my assistant stuck into the earth small sticks, with which he had prepared himself, at short distances, and at such places as by the level I used would enable me to keep the ditch nearly or quite level, and in a direction as nearly at right angles with the main ditch, as the form of the land would admit, which was, however, frequently in a very serpentine course. Having in this manner marked out as many ditches as 1 supposed necessary, and at such distances as would enable me, as I then judged to water all the land in a short time, 1 with a plough and with a steady ox team turned a furrow each way to the cen re, in a line indicated by the small sticks, and thus my ditch was formed. The sods may be used in levelling any inequality in the laud or as I prefer, they may, with the dung-fork, be readily thrown into a cart, and deposited in the barn, or hog-yard, to be there converted into ma- nure, if after turning the water into the ditch thus made, I find any slight inequality in the sur- face of the outside of the ditch which allows the water to escape before the ditch is entirely filled. I take sufficient earth from its bottom to level its bank, so that the water will trickle over the land the whole length of the ditch. When I first com- menced this business, I left the panes between the ditches too large, as I found by observation that a portion of them did not obtain a supply of water: but this delect I have since remedied by making intermediate ditches. In all the slangs" a trench drain should be constructed to conduct off the sur- plus water. As all stagnant water, if it remains long on the land, is prejudicial to vegetation, every hollow should have a drain attached to it, and to this thing too much attention cannot be paid. Before making the drains it is desirable that a careful examination should be had, to determine whether the same trench that is used as a drain for one part of the land, may not be used to con- duct the water on to another portion ol the land on a lower level; from this I have derived much advantage. As the quantity of interval land which I irrigate is so extensive, being estimated at more than thirty acres, that I could not. if I wishi d, suita! ly water it all at one time, I have therefore in the main ditches several hatches or Humes to enable me to turn the water at pleasure on such pari as I may wish. I have found it con- venient to place at the mouth of each of my small ditches, a small flume made by taking four pieces of plank, and fastening them togeiher by large nails, ll ft opem, and the top plank 762 FARMERS REGISTER. [No. 12 about four inches shorter than the sides or bottom, the ends of the plank to be even with each other at one end, and a board to be fitted in as a gate and kept in its place by cleats nailed on the sides oi the trunk at the other end-. I have usually divided my watering into parts, and when I can attend to it, I change the water each other day, (each day would be better,) so that the water will be on the land two days, and oil' six days, or I can shut it otF entirely at pleasure. By the aid of the small flumes above mentioned, I am able to turn the wa- ter from one part of my interval on to any other part which f wish to irrigate, with very little loss of time, beyond that of passing to and from the land. PROCEEDINGS OF TIIG PETERSBURG RAIL ROAD COMPANY. At the Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the Petersburg Rail Road Company, held at the Bollingbrook Hotel in the town of Petersburg, on Monday, March 7th 1836— John D. Townes Esq., Mayor, was appointed Chairman, and Samuel Mordecai, Secretary. It being ascertained that of 6025 shares which constitute the stock of the company, 5561 were present, the meeting proceeded to business. Charles F. Osborne Esq., President of the com- pany, presented a report oi' its operations and condition, accompanied with various tabular statements, and also a report made to him by H. D. Bird Esq., Engineer— all which were ac- cepted. The following resolutions were adopted unani- mously. Resolved, That the President and Directors he and they are hereby authorized, to borrow any sum of money, not exceeding sixty thousand dol- lars, to refund the amount hitherto expended, or which may hereafter be required for the purpose of extending and perfecting their arrangements, and for procuring an increased number of locomo- tive engines, coaches, and cars, for the use of the company. Resolved, That the President and Directors be and they are hereby empowered and authorized, to arrange with the President and Directors of the Greensville and Roanoke Rail Road Com lor the general transportation on their road by this company, provided such an arrangement can be made on fair and equitable terms, and advan- tageous to the interests of both companies. Resolved, That this meeting approve of the ap- plication made to the present legislature of this state for amendments to the charter of this com- pany, and should the legislature grant the. same, in conformity with the petition of the Board of Directors, this meeting hereby accept and confirm said amendments. An election of President and Directors for the ensuing year was then held, whereupon Charles P. Osborne Esq., was unanimously re-elected President, and Robert Boiling, Joseph Bragg and Hart well P. Heath Esq., were re-elected Direc- tors. Samuel Mordecai Esq., was re-appointed a Di- rector on the part of the Commonwealth, and Thomas N. Lee Esq., was appointed on same behalf, in place of James S, Brander Esq., re- signed. The following resolutions were then unanimous- ly adopted. Resolved, That the thanks of the Stockholders in the. Petersburg Rail Road Company be pre- sented to C. F. Osborne Esq., President of the company, for the able and efficient manner in which he has discharged the duties which de- volved on him, and which has tended to place the company in its present prosperous condition. Resolved, Thatthe thanks of the Stockholders be also presented to Henry D. Bird Esq., for his unremitted attention to, and skilful management of tlie department of the business oi' the compa- ny, which has been under his superintendence. Resolved, That the report of the President and Directors be published. And the meeting then adjourned. joiin d. townes, Chairman. REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS. The Board of Directors under the obligations imposed by the charter and by-laws, and their own sense of duty respectfully report. Immediately after your last meeting, and the present organization of this Board, they proceed- ed to consider what was meet and proper to be done, under your resolution, giving authority to negotiate farther Joans, or create stock, in order that the exigences of the company might be pro- vided tor in the manner most conducive to your best interest, it was soon ascertained that the amount required, could not be borrowed upon fa- vorable terms. The stock at that time being below par, and the debts of the company not inconsider- able, ill*? hoard deemed, it advisable under all the circumstances, to consent to the creation of new slock to the amount of .^85,000, provided they could make an arrangement to do so at par. This was effected through the liberality of the Messrs. Biddle of Philadelphia: and the ci lias been a progressive improvement in the value of the stock, and tic affairs of the company, from that period to the present moment. Simultaneous with this arrangement, public notice was given to the holders of certificates of dividend, of your reso- lution of the 2d of last March, conferring on them the privilege of converting their warrants into stock — and to those stockholders whose dividend's did not amount lo the value of a certificate, of the readiness of the com puny to discharge the same in cash. Of this debt $20,500 was converted, and H-il44,S6 with interest to 1st May last, was paid, leaving unpaid, only, the dividend certificate held by the state, and due in 1842 lor §16,000 — and of the dividends of 1834 yet unclaimed $370. All of which are more fully exhibited in the tabular statements accompanying this report. So soon as these negotiations were complete, and made pub- lic, all of the loan bonds issued in 1833 and made convertible into stock at the will of the holder, were (with a single exception amountingto v3000_) converted into stock-, and thus has our capital been increased from $400,000 to $602,500 its present amount.. These results, proceeding from resolu- tions adopted and recommended by you at your previous meeting, and carried into effect under the duties thereby imposed, render further explana- tions respecting them now unnecessary. The income of the company this present, year is$104>260 49: last year 'it was 180^949 05 be- 1836.] F A R M E R S ' R E G I S T E R. 703 ing an increase of §23,310 84, which is 29 per cent, more the present, than the past year. Thus showing an income, whilst we are yet in our in- fancy, surpassing the most sanguine ex| of the friends of the road: nor do the bom- 1 be- lieve this income will ever be diminished. On the contrary, they are convinced, from nil the calcula- tions they can make,that the progressive ad Jifions to it, will be greater hereafter lhan heretofore. Born as the road was, in trouble, frowned upon at its birth, and never yet caressed, the board are nevertheless confident it has now obtained such vitality and strength, that it will more than realize the ardent hopes of its friends, baffling at all times, every scheme or machination which has been, or may hereafter be projected to its prejudice. On the north we have the Richmond and Fredericks- burg Rail Road rapidly completing. On the south within the short space of a year, we have grafted on our road the Greensville and Roanoke Rail Road; and proposals will soon he submitted for a bridge across the Roanoke at Gaston, con- necting that improvement with the. Raleigh and Gaston Rail Road— and satisfactory assurances are given us that before the present year rolls away the connexion will be complete, and part of the road on the other side of the Roanoke, so far made, that it may be used for travel and transpor- tation. With these feeders on the north and south and at no distant day a connexion with the Yadkin country, (perhaps the finest in the south,) either at Raleigh or at Oxford, we are insured a contin- ued and increased value to our investment: nor is it too much to anticipate, that the period is almost at hand when from the profit on travel alone, we shall declare such dividends to our stockholders, as will amply satisfy them, and consequently have it in our power to reduce the rates of transporta- tion of produce, to the mere expense of its receipt and delivery. These results we shall more than attain, should our western fellow citizens mature their contemplated improvement; and being at- tained, it is for you to determine its action upon the commercial prosperity of our town. Until the past year, the resourses of the com- pany were very limited — the original capita! was found insufficient, and a large debt was consequent- ly contracted, and, besides, the payment of all the current debts which it was possible to postpone, Avere deferred, — all these have been paid with all the interest which had accrued upon them. In- dependent of this, almost all the materials of re- pair are anticipated; and instead now of being a year in arrears, we are twelve months ia advance, in these respects. We have likewise discharged some of the old demands lor land damagi all the known litigated claims, with on ceptions, have either been compromised, or other- wise disposed of) in a satisfactory manner. It is our duty also to inform you that we have purchased another steamboat,a1 the cost of to meet the wants ofthe trade on the lower Roanoke and during the past year have rebuilt atJBIakely, in a strong substantial and handsome manner. The cost of this establishment will be $7,600, according to contract. It will thus be ap- parent to you, how the funds of the company have been disposed of, when these items are added to the ordinary expenses. You will perceive from the accounts now before you. that ! j41.936.19, has been this year expended beyond the actual capital of the company. This amount properly belongs to the fund to be divided among the stockholders, and it may be expedient perhaps to resort to a temporary loan to refund the amount already abstracted from tins fund, as well as what may be hereafter required for similar pur- poses. The board, with all deference, would re- commend this course being pursued, in preference to a further increase of ca| ital; being fully | er- suaded,that from the profits of the company, they can derive good and sufficient dividends, and pay off gradually any debt which is now due, or which it maybe hereafter necessary to contract. You will observe from the statements on your table, that our income for the year past more than meet all the charges against transportation, (we include here all of our expenses.) besides paying a divi- dend of ten per cent to the stockholders. The expences the ensuing year will, according to the estimate before you, amount to $45,000. These it is believed cannot be farther, diminished. Every reduction has been made, and all the econo- my introduced, which in ouropinion circumstances permit. The Directors have pleasure in stating, that the amount, paid for losses the present year, has been comparatively small. Last year transportation was debited on this account with $5041,22; this year with .^1174,12, and this too almost entirely incurred, by the burning of a car loaded with dry goods in March last. We have, had no similar ac- cident since — have burned no cotton — and trust and believe, have reduced the chances of these calamities materially by our present arrange- ments. We submit to you a detailed report respecting our road, locomotives, &c. from our £nginee.r,Mr, H. D. Bird; and will not omit this opportunity to bring to your especial notice, the merits of this invaluable agent — the talents, energy and zeal displayed by him on every occasion, and in evevy trust, is deserving of ail praise; nor can you too highly appreciate his devotion and zeal to your in- terest, and the valuable services of others in your employ. It is confidently believed that the condition of the road is much improved. Every piece of de- cayed timber is carefully removed and every pre- caution used to avoid accidents of all kinds. Our locomotives and cars are all in good order. Our coaches need improvement, and these, will be at- tended to, in the course of the present summer. You will observe from the statement, we have now 7 locomotives and 100 cars, having added the past season 2 locomotives and 35 cars to our stock. These we should increase the present year, partic- ularly if this company undertakes the transporta- tion on the Greensville and Roanoke Rail Road. And the board would recommend to the stock- to authorize the Directors, or some com- mittee, to make for this purpose an arrangement with that company, being satisfied, such an un- derstanding would promote the interesl of the stockholders in each company. A similar ar- ;nt with the Raleigh and Gaston Real Road Company would redound fo the. pr- of all concerned, and it is submitted to you, whe- ther or not it is now advisable to give, such au- thority to the board at your present meeting, or defer its consideration to another year. 764 FARMERS' REGISTER. [No. 13 We have applied to the present legislature through our representative J. T. Brown Esq. for an amendment to our present charter, should you concur in its provisions. A copy of the proposed amendment, is before you and we are led to be- lieve it will pass.* It asks ot* the legislature, as you will perceive, to put our stock on the same grade, as regards our profits and rates, with those of' the Richmond and Fredericksburg road, giving a more fixed and permanent regulation to its character than the present complex plan of our charter admits — in other words fixing our maximum rale of dividend at 15 per cent, instead of a return of capital and 6 per cent, thereafter. The advantage resulting from this arrangement will be, that the actual value of the stock will al- ways speak for itself j instead of requiring abstruse calculations to ascertain it. Moreover this altera- tion will furnish additional inducements to the stockholders, especially, those resident at the north, to embark in other improvements calculated to increase the present transportation on our road. It was these considerations which induced the board to make this application, and we hope they meet your approval. The Board have likewise applied to Congress through our representative John Y. Mason Esq. for a return of duties paid by the company on car wheels with rolled tires, locomotives, &c. Should this reasonable petition be granted, we shall re- ceive from the treasury about $'16, 000. We are induced to nape the application may be successful; but although right and proper in every point of view, we dare not be sanguine in its favorable re- sult. The Board deem it not irrelevant to express the hope that public attention will soon be directed to the improvement of Nottoway river — animprove- rnent in the opinion of engineers easily made, re- quiring but moderate means to effect, and pro- mising great advantages. But these advantages being essential to the prosperity of the counties of Lunenburg and Nottoway, we may no doubt confidently rely on the public spirit, of their citizens accomplishing this important end,\vithout much, if any aid from our community. It should be re- garded by us however as one of the legitimate avenues of our trade, and consequently deserving especial consideration. The Board have caused to be laid on your table full and distinct accounts of all the affairs of the company — they submit them for your examina- tion, and feel entirely confident, the more you in- vestigate them,the more will you appreciate your investment. By order of the Board oi' Directors, CHARLES F. OSBORNE, Prest. Transportation on the Petersburg Rail Road. February, March, April, May, June, July, August,, . September, October, . November, December, January, 1835, Transportation of the Mail, Storage, Nett profits from Steamboats, 1834. Total. $3,671 86 5,330 06 7,033 09 7,955 29 6,472 97 4,951 36 5,692 87 5,775 42 7,917 43 8,302 tty 7,566 73 5,279 59 $75,949 65 5,000 00 $80,949 65 1835. £4,532 14 6.45S 01 9,622 00 8,762 57 9,188 43 9,249 17 8,197 32 S,443 46 8,109 12 7,663 96 6,714 21 5,964 50 Total. $92,904 90 10,000 00 96 83 1,258 76 $104,260 49 Losses by fire and otherwise, 1834, Do do 1835, $5,041 1,174 The amendment asked for has since been enacted by the legislature. — Ed. 1335.] F A R M ERS' REGISTER 765 STATEMEiTT OF THE AFFAIRS OF TIIH PETERSBURG RAIL, RoAD COMPANY, Feb. 1, 1835. Road, Bridges, Depots, &c. to 1835, .... $506,391 68 Depots added and improved in 1835, .... 3,807 61 Repairs to Road, Bridges, Sec. 1835, .... 7,8S9 53 Land damages in old claim, , 510 00 Engines, Cais, &c. to 1835, ..... 61,000 00 Do in 1835, . . . 40,970 10 Steamboats and Lighters (doubled in 1835,) 15,943 85 Hotel at Blakely rebuilt of brick, .... 10,224 84 Mules and Horses, ...... 1,091 22 Wood and Coal, $-1,266 97. Corn and Bacon, $696 49, 1,963 26 Petty charges, ...... 307 86 Interest, ...... 80 83 Profit and Loss, ...... 881 08 Debts due to the Company, and cash in Agents' hands, 9,403 22 Cash, ....... 3,739 09 Stock, old, $400,000. New $202,500, .... 602,500 00 Loan Bonds $3,000. Bills, &c, Custom House Bonds, $2,404 35, 5.404 35 Debts due by the Company, ..... 9,537 14 Dividends unpaid, ...... 25,800 00 Transportation — nett since 1st November, 1835, 20,472 97 Iron, ....... 519 71 $664,234 17 $664,234 17 Comparative Statement of the affairs of the Petersburg Rail Road Compa- ny, 1st February, 1835 and 1836. Balances. 1st. Feb. 1835 1st. Feb. 183 . Dr. Cr. Capital Stock, $400,000 00 $602,500 00 A 202,500 00 Loan Bonds, 100,000 00 3,000 00 97,000 00 JSlotes unpaid, 32,076 08 336 94 31,739 14 Custom House Bonds, 1,540 25 2,067 41 527 16 Dividends unpaid, . 40,000 00 B 25,800 00 14,200 00 Due to individuals, 11,710 10 9,537 14 2,172 96 Due by do . 3,580 99 9,403 22 5,822 23 Iron, 418 91 519 71 100 80 Cost of Road, Engines, Cars, Depots, &c. 577,080 96 C 620,638 82 D 43,557 86 Steamboats and Lighters, 7,697 13 C 15,943 S5 E 8,246 72 Blakely Hotel, 4,971 32 C 10,224 84 F 5,253 52 Horses and mules, 120 00 1,091 22 971 22 Fuel and provisions on hand, 1,963 26 1,963 26 Surplus undivided, 8,636 29 19,203 20 10,566 91 Cash on hand, 971 13 3,739 09 2,767 96 $213,694 87 $213,694 87 C In this sum of $202,500 is embraced loan bonds converted, $97,000 < Dividend do do 20,500 ( New stock created 85,000 Of this sum of $25,800 there is due to the state in 1842 $16,000 Chargeable to capital. Of this sum, $28,640 expended in new engines and cars. A new steamboat and four lighters added. Hotel rebuilt of brick. 766 FARMERS' REGISTER [No. 12 Condensed view of the Receipts and Payments, year ending 31st January 1836. Amount s of bonds, Sec. converted into stock - received for transportation (in 1834 $80,949 6.3) 104.260 49 do from other sources 627 96 Amount of out standing debts liquidated 210,926 91 of dividend 1st May 1835 0 00 of do 1st November 1835 30,125 00 of interest on pre-existing debt 3.257 30 of loss s incurred in 1834 and paid this year 4,295 2.3 of charges en transportation and other disbursements 36.136 03 of cash in hand 2,767 96 £307,388 45 $•307,388 45 ON THE SCHEMES FOR RAIL ROADS IN NORTH CAROLINA. To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. Raleigh, (N. C) > March. I2(h, 1836. $ It is to be regretted that your correspondent "G. L. C." observes so little ceremony in planning some rail roads, and dealing damnation to others. He seems to sit at his desk, with an open map be- lore him, intersecting every state with projected roads, uniting the most distant I owns with lead marks. Regardless of the feelings of those who have long and zealously labored to promote a fa- vorite scheme, he dashes all their cherished hopes, by one fatal stroke of his pencil, and raises a rival enterprise to crush the first. I think, Air. Editor, it requires accurate knowledge of the topographi- cal features of a country, deep and mature reflec- tion on the interests, commercial and agricultural, of that country, and a freedom from all prejudice to project rail roads judiciously. Now, your cor- respondent has embraced in his letter such a large district of country, that there is ground to suppose he coald not have bestowed that consideration on all the projects suggested, which could constitute him an adviser to be implicitly followed. In one short communication, he settles the whole system of internal improvement lor Virginia, North Caro- lina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, not omitting some slight allusions to Man land. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, ii is, in truth, a letter de omnibus rebus cl quit aliisj for, not content with so extensive a field, there aresundry other topics discussed in it. The chief objection I Lave to your correspon- dent, and the foundation of every other, is, that by taking too large a field he necessarily advocates or condemns unjustly. It is as evident as possible, that he might, without disadvantage, inform him- self more fully about the roads coming to the Roanoke. It is very gratifying to a generous mind, to yield to conviction. Bat really 1 must ask for some reason, why works, which so many are interested in, and for which so much has been done, should be abandoned, because they are op- posed to other works which your correspondent prefers. What magic is there in the name of VVeldon, that it should be constituted the toll-gate of North Carolina? — and nothing permitted to pass the Roanoke elsewhere? Capitalists, merchants. farmers, the people, have decided against UG. L. C." Nearly six hundred thousand dollars have already been obtained for the Raleigh and Gaston Rail Road, and the small remainder of the cap- ital stock will soon be made up. This is proof that all do not think Weldon ihe only place for a rail road to cross Roanoke. Your correspondent is very indignant at what he calls an "error" of "Raleigh." The error is this — (quoted from an article signed ''Raleigh," in the Raleigh Register,) "the Gaston road will intercept all the trade from the west, and the greater part of the products of east North Carolina will be shipped from its coast." I suppose one of the "facts" which will be brought to prove this an error, is the fact mentioned in ihe same article, of the number of vessels which sailed out. of one of' the inlets in November last. Trans- portation by water is cheaper than transportation by rail road; and it is no error to suppose that the construction of rail roads will not put a stop to shipment by vessels which ply on our coast. Ves- sels of the largest size cannot come into the ports of North Carolina. Is it therefore absurd to say, that vessels of a less size will bear the products of the eastern part of the state to other parts of the union, or to the West Indies ' The writer in the Raleigh Register was right. The Ra- leigh and Gaston Rail Road will be supported by the west; ami if the citizens of Wilmington are mad enough to run a road to Halifax, they will find, when it is too late, that, cut off* from the west, and weakened from the east by the coast trade, the receipts of the road will not keep it. in re- pair. The Wilmington people could not do better than to make their road to Raleigh. Mr. Editor, it is a hard task to arouse people to a spirit of internal improvement- — but, when aroused, it is a still more difficult task lo keep them from wild ventures and mad projects. North Car- olina iias long slumbered; she is now about to become rail road mad. Roads will be projected in all directions — ana unless the state shall adopt, some uniform and judicious policy, her works will destroy, instead of strengthening each oilier. There is nothing so much ne< strong and clear view of the proper policy of a slate, in rela- tion to internal improvements. I should like to see such writers as G. L. C. en- gaged in this task. I can see that he has thought much ,and well, on the subject. He has a mind to grasp extended and enlightened plans. I would not have him construe my disagreement, in par- 1835.] FARMERS' REGISTER, 767 ticular cases, into a condemnation ol" his general principles. There is a mistaken notion gaining ground in our legislatures — that it is right to charter every company which applies. This is a suicidal policy. Rail roads are hot-house plants — they can no more exist withouta certain degree of protection, than tropical plants can grow without a shelter from our hosts. After a rail road is chartered, the state is pledged, (and if not, it should be pledged,) to pro- tect that road from competition to a certain ex- tent. If the wants of the community manifestly require another work, then it is proper to charter it. J would not have this principle carried so far as to prevent us from keeping pace with the im- provements of the age. But we should weigh the matter well. We should be perfectly satisfied that the work already existing is unfit to accom- plish the end intended, before we allow another to be made which will injure the first. Every rail road is an invention, so far that one was never tried before, under the same circum- stances. We cannot say of a rail road, as of a wheat machine, that, because it has operated well it one place, it will do equally well in another. It is by no means a lair deduction, that because a rail road from Boston to Providence has succeeded, one from Wilmington to Halifax will succeed. Every road, therefore, is a new application of the principle, and consequently an invention. We should pursue the same policy in these inventions as in others, viz: protect the inventors from com- petition for a limited number of years. I will suggest a scheme, which 1 acknowledge to be perfectly Utopian. I merely use it as the best means of making clear the idea I wish to convey; and perhaps some one of better judge- ment and greater experience, will be induced°to devise some plan of the sort. Suppo have a certain number of disinterested men of greal intelligence and sound judgement, chosen from all parts of the. state, io compose a board o interna! improvement. This board should meet annually, and all applications for charters should be laid before them. The legislature should gran! all applications approved by them, and only those recommended. The board must devise a genera! system of all the works in astate which seem to them expedient. This system would of course be subject to con- stant modification. The proceedings should be published from time to time, to stimulate ca| to embark in the works recommended. When a company applies for a charter, the board should have some little regard to its effect on the entire system, but should consider particularly \. it weakens a company already chartered. There should be v^vy strong reasons to induce the board to refuse a charter which does not injure any ex- isting work. Every charter granted, unless it is for a work embraced in lal scheme of the board, would make it necessary to chim whole system. We cannot 1'oa-v, the public. This board could only direct public attention to I schemes. They should direct, nol attempt to con- trol absolutely, public opinion. If they cannot gel the works made they have recommended, they should grant charters near as possible to their plan. They mast hold one principle as inviolable— the interest of every '■ work chartered must be consulted, before granting a new charter. 1 would not lei a turnpike deprive usol the chance of having a rail road; but I would not chatter one rail road to destroy another. Tins would be an excellent scheme if we could only find men fit lor the office. But where will we find men who would lay aside self interest, and thiuk only for the public good? The effect of such a plan, were it practicable, would be to attract capital from ail parts of the union. Bail roads would spring up, as if by ma- gic, wherever the wants of the community re- quired them. Our hardy sons would no longer have to seek wealth and prosperity in the wilds of the west. We should have a theatre of action at home sufficient to employ all our enterprise. 1 most earnestly hope that some of your corres- pondents may be urged by these hints, to do what / pretend not to be able to do — to give the world some feasible plan for promoting these ends. P. Q. For the Farmers' I'cgioter. COMMERCIAL REPORT. A prosperous state of trade prevails generally in all parts of the world — and no portion of it is deriving greater advantages, or accumulating wealth more rapidly, than the southern portions ol* the. United States. There 's no article of do- mestic produce or manufacture, that does not com- mand a good price — but the great staple, cotton, surpasses all others in extent and value. The total imports of cotton in Europe in 1835, were 1,531,500 bales, of which 1,032,600 were from the United States. Great Britain received 1,091,200 bales, of which 763,200 were from the United States. France 324,400, of which 225,500 \. ere from ihe United States. The total consumption of Europe was 1,453,200 bales, of which 1,036,850 bales were hum the United >Smtcs. The annual increase of consump- tion in Europe during the last, five years varied from 25,000 to 85,000 bales, in 1&35, it was about 75,000 bales. The increased import from ist Indies is consi lerable, and an unusually Led from thence during the ; year. A contrariety of o; inions still pre- vails as to the extent of the crop grown in the United States in 1835. Estimates vary (Wan 1,300,000 to 1,350,000 hales. The supplies in the great southern and western markets which had been withheld, are now increasing fast, and will soon reach, if not exceed, those at similar dates in Prices, however, have materially advanced. The ; rates in Petersburg are 10 to IS cents. Tobacco continues in at all prices 1 i : anufactur ■■/■•■ have extended their operations, and stemming qualities are par- after, 'idie European markets exhibil no favorable aspect, except for stemmed, which is scarce, in con. of the small quan- tity shipped hist year. 'Flour continues steady al ies will no doubt be soon received from the interior of New York u ia, where it ked up by the ice for some months. The expected increase of bank capital in this state will not be obtained this year. The legisla- ture not having had time, during a session of three 7'68 F A R M E R S ' REGISTER [No. 12 months, to act on this subject. This may tend to retard the improvements which are now in embryo. An advance in the price of the stock of the existing banks has resulted from this neglect, and 118 to 120 per cent, is now spoken of for Vir- ginia and Farmer's bank stocks. Petersburg Rail Road shares command 119 — Greensville and Roanoke $8 or $9 advance on $35 paid. The subscription to the R ileigh and Gaston Road, which is re-opened. for a limited amount, is freely taken, and the work is commenced.. The cotton manufacturing establishments are in a thriving state. The stocks of those in Pe- tersburg, which are now in operation, command 25percen1. premium, or more. Their goods are in request in all the southern, and some of the northern markets. x. March 25th, 1836. TO SUESRIBERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. This number will close the third volume of the Farmers' Register. The index will be sent with No. 1. of Vol. 4, and at the same time, a list of subscribers for the present volume. The subscription list, neither at this, or any other time, can be supposed to exhibit the extent of the circulation and support of this jour- nal— as very many new subscribers order all the back volumes: and in that manner, this later demand, here- tofore has been for nearly 200 copies of each of the two first volumes, and will probably not be less hereafter, for the third, in addition to all the names which are now on the list. According to the actual list, the number of subscribers has been slowly but regularly increasing through the three years. What is better than mere numbers, it is believed that the Far- mers' Register, on the whole, has at least as good a paying list of subscribers, as any journal in the United States. The pecuniary support has been such as we have every reason to ba content with, and thankful for, it it should ba continued without diminution. But to deserve and command a continuation, or increase, of support and patronage for an agricultural journal, de- pends but in a small degree on its editor — and no effort on his part will compensate for the absence, or scarcity, of the contributions of the many practical farmers, who can, and ought to be his correspondents. Such communications have heretofore formed the main va- lue of this journal — and its greater or less future use- fulness must depend on the degree of abundance, or scarcity, of supplies from such sources. A periodical that ceases to gain on the public favor, is almost cer- tain to be losing what it had enjoyed — and especially for a journal like this, a good subscription list ior any one valurne, is no guarantee for the profit of the next. We therefore presume to remind our friends that a re- laxation of effort to sustain the publication, may soon change its prosperous condition to one of decline, and even ruin. Various things connected with our peculiar position, and private circumstances, together with the novelty of the undertaking in this region, have at did'erent times affected injuriously the mechanical execution of this work. The causes of such effects have never been voluntarily permitted to exist, nor were they pro- duced by any wish to avoid making proper and suffi- cient expenditures — and every offence to the eye, in the quality of paper, or of printing, has been to us a source of deep regret and mortification. Such things are scarcely to be avoided at all times, in the in- fancy of such an establishment, or in a publication of- fice on a very small scale, where the deprivation or neglect of a single facility, or means, may cause se- rious injury to the execution of a work, when the pub- lication cannot be delayed. We have found that it is impossible to have first-rate printing executed, at all times, upon a single publication alone — and "on that account, and to insure the command of sufficient and suitable labor and facilities at all times, we are now inclining the expense and risk of establishing a job printing office, which, for book work, especially, will be equal to any in the state. The necessary arrange- ments are made, and are just now in operation — and whether we may gain or lose by this extension of busi- ness, the measure will be the means of insuring the print- ing the future volumes of the Farmers'Register to be bet- ter than any previous one. It is also hoped that our experience-of paper-makers, and sellers, has been bought dearly enough to secure us hereafter from such impositions as we were compelled to submit to, {aad without even any saving in price,) in parts of the first and second volumes. There has been no such fault more recently, as to the quality of paper — and it is ex- pected that the existing arrangements will prevent any future complaint on this score. In every other respect, no effort, or reasonable and proper expense, will be spared to render the publication deserving of all the favor and support that it may receive. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF HEW YORK. The Secretary of State of New York, acting under the previous order of the legislature, has reported a plan for a geological survey of that state, on a liberal and magnificent scale. The details of the plan we will publish hereafter. According to the eatimate of the report, the survey and publications connected witii it, will cost $104,000, and lour years time and labor will be required for the complete execution. The legisla- ture has approved the report, and appropriated $26,000 for the operations of the first year. SEASON AND STATE OF CROPS. Though another month has passed since our last re- marks on the season, and that, the one which usually brings the most marked changes of temperature, and movements of vegetation, yet the words then used would be nearly correct now. In all March, there have been but two or three days mild enough to suit the time of year — and as late as this day, the 25th, win- ter weather continues. Vegetation has scaicely begun ■ — and the general predominance of wet, as well as of cold weather, has made the preparation of land ior spring crops even more late than the commencement of spring weather. SUBSCRIBERS TO VOL. III. OF FARMERS' REGISTER. VIRGINIA. Jlccomac. Thomas R. Joynes Thomas M. Bayly John W. Cuslis James W. Cuslis John V. Dennis Albemarle. Thomas Macon Robert H. Carter Charles J. Meriwether Samuel Carr Lilburn R. Raily Alexander Garrett J. N. C. Stockton Nelson JBarksdale Alexander Rives J. White Professor Davis Prof. Blasttermann Prof: J. P. Emmet Prof. Wm. B. Rogers Francis K. Nelson M. Paffe Wm. C. Rives Wm. F. Gordon J. Lindsay A. B. Glover P. Porter N. Bramham Richard Duke Wm. L. Craven Thomas J. Randolph John Rogers Peter Meriwether Wm. Woods ' J. P. Henderson Carter H. Harrison Wm. H. Johnston Bushrod W. Harris Edmund Davis Tucker Coles Walter Coles jfmella. Wm. B. Giles Edward Worsham John P. Boiling James P. Vaughan Hodijah Meade Wm. S. Archer John H. Steger Wm. Barksdale John R. Archer Ed. W. Eggleston Nath. Harrison Richard Booker Tilman E. Jeter Francis F. Jones Thomas J. Perkinson Joseph B. Anderson .dmherst. Wm. M. Waller E. A. & P. C. Cabell Robert Tinsley Lindsay Coleman B. Brown jr. Rob. D. Warwick jfugusta. Wm. S. Esk ridge Crawford & Brooke Wm. M. Tate Baih. Thomas Sitlington Bedford. Benjamin A. Donald Robert N. Kelso Samuel J. Price. eley. Be Edward Colston Ebenezer Coe Botetourt. Wm. M. Peyton Dibrell & Watkina H. M. Bowyer Brunswick. S. D. Wat kins John Jones Henry Lewis Edward Clayton W. H. E. Merritt R. D. Powell J. B. Claiborne Robert Turnbull Thomas H. Fowlkes Burwell B. Wilkes John L. Wilkins jr. John G. Claiborne Creed Haskins N. S. Edmunds W. H. Winn Richard W. Eeild David Meade R. Kidder Meade William Meredith Turner Shell Jefferson H. Powell Nathaniel Mason Sterling Tucker Allen Love Buckingham. Philip A. Boiling Edmund W. Hubard G. Moseley Wm. P. Moseley Jesse Holeman Thomas M. Bondurant Rolfe Eldridge Price Perkins J. Austin Wm. N. Patteson J. Jones Wm. C. Moseley James Cobbs James M. Austin Reuben D. Palmer Robert P. Phelps Samuel P. Christian George Abbot Turner H. Patteson Josiah Moseley P. H. Elcan Wm. C. Jordan J. P.Bowcock Ambrose Ford Wm. Woodson Francis B. Deane jr. G. M. Payne John S. Nicholas CampbelL Joshua Thornhill Alexander Irvine James Browu Thomas Steptoe Henry Brown Agricultural Society of New London George E. Dabney Carotin e- Wm. P.Taylor John Taylor John Taylor jr. John Bernard John Pratt Wm. C. Redd Humphrey Hill Philip A. Dew Thomas B. Anderson Wm. Bankhead John Dickinson E. P. White John L. Pendleton W. H. Tenant Eldred Chiles Charlotte. Daniel W. Williamson David Rice Samuel D. Morton John B. Morton John F. Edmunds Nicholas Edmunds Thomas E. Watkins Henry Carrington Richard I. Gaines Winslow Robinson Melancthon C. Read Wnf. M. Watkins Thomas P. Richardson George J. Roberts Hen ry A . W at kins Nicholas E. Read Cornelius Crews Wm. Smith Anderson C. Morton Wm. J. Watkins T. T. Bouldin Richard Venable George W. Read William B. Miller Charles H. Robertson Charles City. Hill Carter Wm. A. Selden James Minge Wm. Tyler Robert W. Christian John J. Clarke Edward Willcox James H. Christian John A. Selden Benjamin Harrison John W. Bradley 780 Chesterfield. John Heth Lawson Buifoot Win. H. Temple George Johnson James Elam Robert Dunn Wm. R. Hill Cadmus Archer John JBritton Charles F. Woodson John Ennis Spencer Wooldridge Parke Poindexter Edward Anderson A. S. Wooldridge Culpeper. G. Morton R. H. Feild Richard H. Cunningham Gabriel Gray jr. James H. Britton Cumberland. John Kirkpatriek John C. Page Nelson Page John Spencer John P. Wilson J. Fuqua Hezekiah Ford Samuel Wilson Robert Henderson N. M. Osborne Alexander Trent Daniel A. Wilson Randolph Harrison Edward Cunningham C. Carrington Francis H. James Thomas Pemberton Dinwiddie. John Winfield Daniel G. Hatch P. W. Harper Edwind G. Booth William F. Boaden Douglas Muir Wm. Anderson Edward H. Allen Wm. Mason James Hargrave Stephen H. Hamlin John Grammer Thomas D. Edmunds Abner Adams James Eppes Robert G. Strachan Elizabeth City. Thomas W. Lowry John C. Pryor Thomas Lee Robert Hudgins Francis Mallory Henry Whiting Thomas Jones Kennon Whitinor John C. Kinff LIST OF SUBSCRIBER John C. Whiting Armistead Booker Robert Archer Essex. Robert G. Haile Jetierson Minor Wood & Upshaw H. W. Latane W. A. Wright Warner Lewis John H. Micou Benjamin F. Jones Thomas C. Gordon Winter Bray Lawrence Roane James M. Garnett Richard Baylor John M. Baynham Henry Wearing William F. Gaines Edward Wright Aug. Neale PeterJ. Derieux Richard H. Harwood Fairfax. Charles C. Stuart Wm. E. Beckwith Thos. Ap C.Jones U.S. N. Wm. M. McCarty Wm. H. Foote John Washington Mrs. Jane C. Washington Fauquier. John R. Wallace Thomas M. Ambler Edward C. Marshall Thomas Marshall Thomas M. Colston J. W. F. Macrae Fluvanna. J. M. Wills Horatio G. Magruder Samuel F. Morris John Forbes Arch. M. Harrison Gideon A. Strange John H. Cocke John H. Cocke jr. George P. Holeman Martin Tutvviler Wm. Gait James Gait Franklin. Wm. M. Burwell Frederick. Edward J. Smith Nathaniel Burwell John E. Page George Knight Fredericksburg. John Coalter Allen W. Morton Thomas W. Anderson John B. Gray Alexander Morson Wm. Bernard Thomas Yerby Thomas Pratt Thomas H. Boswell Agriculrural Society ' of Frede- ricksburg Gulielmus Smith Mrs. LucyM. Taliaferro Gloucester. Thomas Minor Robert C. Braxton John Tyler Thomas Smith Warren T. Taliaferro Thomas M. Stubblefield Wm. Taliaferro Wm. K. Perrin Wm. Jones John R. Bryan , Robert C. Selden John M . Cooke James Dabney Wm. Robbins John B. Roy Jefferson B. Sinclair Thomas B. Cooke Wm. Vaughan W. Smart Thomas M. Seawell Walker Jones John H. Cooke Charles C. Curtis Colin Clarke Thomas W. Fauntleroy T. M. B. Roy Goochland. Edwin L. Wight Joseph S. Watkins Richard Sampson John M. Trevillian Josiah Leake John Morris Edward Cunningham jr. J. M. Garland John S. Fleming J. M. Vaughan John Guerrant Thomas Boiling Thomas P. Poindexter Randolph Harrison jr. Martin Key Archibald Bryce George C. Pickett Thomas Curd R. W. Pleasants Greenbrier. John Simpkins Charles A. Stuart James F. Calwell Greensville. John A. Person John R. Chamliss William T. Maclin Augustine Claiborne Halifax. James C. Bruce Wm. H. Clarks James Bruce William Bailey- Richard Logan John Sims Jacob Davis Elijah D. Hundley Walter C. Carrington Clement H. Read Henry E. Scott Armistead Barksdale Henry Edmunds Charles R. Hunt Boiling Eldridge James Ferrell Wm. W. Carrington Wm. Baird Thomas P. Atkinson Hampshire. Charles Blue Hanover. Charles Thompson H. T. & Wm. Nelson George Taylor Williams Carter Thomas C. Nelson George W. Pollard Francis Nelson Wm. F. Wickham Lucian B. Price Robert C. Berkeley & Nelson Berkeley, senr, John T. Anderson Richard G. Smith J. O. Christian John W. Tomlin Ch. H. Braxton "Wm. R. Nelson B. M. C. Tomlin Corbin Braxton Frank G. Ruffin Charles L. C. Page Joseph S. Pleasants - Edmund F. Wickham Francis Page Charles B. Goodall Nath. C. Crenshaw C. W. Dabney Thomas G. Clarke Edmund B. Crenshaw Reuben Meredith Nicholas Scherer Wm. B. Sydnor Henry Curtis Miles H. Gardner Henrico. John M. Botts Wm. B. Randolph Claiborne W. Gooch Miles C. Selden Miles Cary Robert Randolph Robert M. Pulliam ?hilip Michaels ho mas Ladd Thomas I. West Francis Frayser Sam. M. Pleasants Joseph Sinton LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Henry . John Hairston Ro. Hairston 781 Isle of Wight. Daniel Hatton Arthur Smith Archibald Atkinson Joseph P. Whitehead James Peden Thomas Woodley William H. Day Robert Butler Jacob H. Duck John R. Todd John A. Hunnicutt Gray Carrel 1 Charles Wrenn Joel Holleman James City. David I. Anderson Goodrich Durfey Henry B. Richardson Hugh Bragg ■ — Wills fefferson . Thomas H. Willis J. L. Smith King George. Edmund T. Tayloe Addison Hansford Dcungerfield Lewis John Hooe H. W. Johnson Gustavus B. Wallace Charles Tayloe Carolinus Turner James L. Quesenberry Albert Turner Robert O. Grayson King William. Beverley Kennon, U. S. N. B. B. Anderson J. F. Brockenbrough Wm. S. Fontaine Philip Aylett Edward Hill Walker Hawes John Sizer Thomas Jones John S. Barrett Wm. West more Young I. Clements John Roane, sen. Thomas Carter James Croxton John Lumpkin Richard Gwathmey James Johnson King fy Queen. James Govan C. G. Henshaw Wm. Dew Wm. Boulware T. J. Gresham John Du Val Tho. Haynei Wm. Todd Arch. R. Harwood Robert Pollard, jr. Hugh Campbell Christopher B. Fleet Moore G. Fauntleroy Alex. Fleet James P. Corbin James C. Roy Lewis Smith Robert B. Boyd Thomas Gresham Lancaster. Wm. Jones Joseph W. Chinn Arthur Lee W. C. Eustace Ralph Edmonds James Harding Loudoun, George Carter George Richards Louisa* J. S. Scott Elijah Hutchinson James Watson James M. Morris J. Shelton Wm. Shelton Ch. Y. Kimbrough Frederick Harris Wm. Nelson Lunenburg. John Goodwyne Sterling Neblett Wm. G. Overton Henderson Lee G. C. Hatchett David A. Street Joel M. Ragsdale Thomas Adams James Fisher Millington Hines Wm. H. Taylor Lynchburg Robert Camm John M. Warwick Wm. Daniel Wm. Radford John Smith Micajah Davis Ogden G. Clay Elijah Fletcher John M. Otey Wm. N. Meriwether George Markham Walter Henderson Ro. L. Coleman Richard K. Cralle Madison. Nathaniel Welch Linn Banks Blankenbeker & Carpenter Wui. T. Banks 782 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Mason. Peter H. Steinberger Matthews. Win. H. Hoy Edmund Jones C. Tompkins Win. Williams Omega Billups Wm.Shultice Alfred Billups Augustine M. Braxton Mecklenburg. John Davis William Townes Alexander Jones Peter Puryear Tingnal Jones Philip Rainey Henry E. Coleman- Thomas M. Nelson J. G. Baptist Abraham W. Tenable- Tucker Carrington Samuel N. Watkins C. R. Kennon Roger B. Atkinson George Tarry Richard Russell Mrs. Mary Baskerville John P. Keen Paul C. Vennble Francis R. Gregory Middlesex^ Walter Healy R. A. Christian- Carter Braxton Robert Healy John R. Taylor Robert Mack an R. M. Segar Monroe. Wm. Burke Andrew Beirne Hugh Caper ton Nansemond. John T. Kilby Allen R. Bernard Mills Riddick Joseph Bunch David Jordan Thomas S. Shepherd Richard H. Baker E. R. Hunter S. C. Corbell & J. H. Godwin Richard H. Riddick, sen. Robert Lawrence John C. Crump Nottoway. William I. Dupuy William Fitzgerald Travis H. Epes James Jones Samuel B. Jeter A. A. Campbell R obert Fitzgerald, sen. Benj. W. Fitzgerald Francis Epes, jr. Isham G. Lundy Wm. B. Irby Richard Jones Thomas Jackson John L. Morgan Peter E. Williams' Charles Smith John P. Dupuy Nelson. Mayo Cabell Daniel Higsinbotham Thomas S. M'Clclland N. F. Cabell Joseph C. Cabell Thomas Massie J. Garland New Kent. St. George. T. Coalter George Kennon Clayton G. Coleman J. W. Royster Wm. R. C. Douglas Conrad e Webb Norfolk Borough. Littleton W. Tazewell George Wilson Wimll. Macfarland Robert B. Starke George Newton John N. Walke Richard G. Baylor Wm. E. Taylor Maximilian Herbert Thomas Nash William Tatem Alexander Gait, jr, John Stone John Tabb Edward H. Herbert Samuel D. Rawlings William French William Wright Mechanics' Institute N. C. Whitehead John H. Nash Dr. Old Norfolk County. Thomas V. Webb Josiah Wilson A. S. Foreman Richard W. Sylvester Alex. Etheridge R. W. Young Wm. Collins J. W. Murdaugh' Mordecai Cooke John Hodges Robert B. Butt David Griffith Wm. H. Wilson Richard Carney Northampton. Wm. L. Eyre Isaac Smith Wm. S. Floyd Severn E. Parker Edward R. Waddy Northumberland. Edwin Nelms Griffin H. Foushee Samuel Blackwell J. M. Towles Joseph Harcum W. M. Beane Job Slacum Orange* Albert Ball James M. Macon John Lee & J. Willi* Thomas Scott G. A. Smith J. JSlewman Francis Conway D. M. F. Thornton G. V. Price John F. & C. Conway James Barbour James B. Newman J. Morton & U. Terrell Edmund P. Barbour Petersburg. Wm. C. Powell David May Thomas Atkinson Francis Follet • • Charles F. Osborne Luke White Robert Leslie Richard F. Hannon Geo. W. Stainback Ro. R. Collier Thomas Whitworth Ro. B. Bollino; J. W. Campbell Ro. Ritchie John V. Willcox Hartwell P. Heath Wm. Robertson Jabez Smith A. B. Spooner Theophilus Gilliam Joseph Brao-o; Holdcrby & M'Pheetem Donald Mackenzie Charles D. Mclndoe L. E. Stainback Reading Room James S. Brander Samuel Mordecai JohnB. Townes John Ennis John Peuram Patrick Foley S. D. Morton Stephen G. Wells Th. M. Buford Ro. B. Wells John T. Robertson Robinson & Newsom Richard A. Worrell John P. Willcox Wm. G. Colquhoun Pittsylvania. Robert Brodnax George Wilson Wm. H. Dupuy Nath. Wilson Walter Coles Ellis J. Wilson Powhatan. E. W. Shelton Wm. Murray John J. Flournoy Milton P. Atkinson Wm. Old Rob. K. Dabney Silas Bryant Obediah Duval James M. Harris Wm. S. Dance Francis S. Smith Jaqueline A. Berkeley Geo. W. Tinsley Wm. Finney Beverly Randolph Wm. A. Turpi n David McCaw Thomas I. Goode Hannibal Harris Edward Scott R. Ragland J. Watkins J. S. Smith B. Trueheart Abner Crump Thos. P. Nash Princess Anne. Jonathan Hunter Smith Shepherd H. B. Woodhouse John M. Gait J. Rogers John Petty, Jr. Prince Edward. Wm. S. Morton Henry E. Watkins J. H. Dillon Sam. W. Venable Charles A. Morton James Madison Edwin Edmunds John Rice Nathaniel E. Venable Sam. Lyle James D. Wood Wm. B. Smith Frederick Woodson Wm. Price Thomas Tredway Silas Biglow MerrittB. Allen Joseph G. Williams Thos. F. Venable Wm. Matthews Ben]. F. Stanton J. P. Metteauer Henry N. Watkins B. Worsham James L. Dupuy Wm. Berkeley LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Joel W. Dupuy Wm. Seay Bachelor's Reading Room David F. Womack E, Root, Jr. Samuel Branch Isaac Read Asa Dupuy Simon Hughes James H. Wilson James Calhoun Robert Kelso Prince George. George E. Harrison Wm. B. Harrison John E. Meade Richard G. Dunn Junius K. Horsburgh Howell Heath Theron Gee Alex. Bryant Augustine Burge Marius Gilliam J. D. Lumsden John S. Epes Edmund Wilkins John H. Batte Coriolanus Russell Zachariah Harrison John A. Peterson H. H. Cocke, U. S. N. Elgin Russell Thomas Cocke James B. Cocke Robert F. Eppes Theodorick Bland Edward A. Marks John B. Bland Thomas S. Gary George H. Ruffin Andrew Nicol Richard M. Harrison Prince William. Wm. S. Foote John Hooe, Jr. Wm. H. Fitzhugh Wm. Ring Richmond City.' William Palmer R. B. Haxall John Robertson Robert Poore Robert Stanard Wm. Brockenbrough Bernard Peyton Thomas Green John Carter Stephen Duval Windham Robertson Ch. S. Morgan John Wick ham Corbin Warwick State Library John J. Werth Joseph Marx Anthony Robinson, Jr. John Van Lew Wm. Anderson John H. Eustace Joseph S. James 783 Francis J. Smith Musco L. Day Nicholas Mills Edward O. Friend Fleming James Richard Reins W. R. Savage Wm. S. Scott Edward Sydnor R. C. Wortham Henry Gibson Robert Pickett ' Edward C. Mosby Samuel M. Bockius J. C. Haley Edw. H. Mosely James Lyle George Watson Archibald Blair Samuel Shepherd Ro. C. Nicholas Edmund Redd A. B. Shelton J. G. Crouch Joseph Trent Thomas Burfoot Wm. P. Strother Archd. Thomas Peter Lyons James O. Breeden Wm. S. Plumer Wm. B. Dabney A. W. Nolting B. H. Bransfbrd James Lyons Philip Duval James M. McKenzie Robert C. Page Sherwin McRae Geo. M. Savage Edw. Cox John W. Smith Henry Watkins Lewis Chamberlayne James L. Apperson James W. Dibrell Richmond County. M. F. Brockenbrough Robert W. Carter Edwin B. Settle Thomas R. Barnes Rockbridge. Reuben Grigsby Rob. R. Barton John Ruff Wm. Taylor Samuel T. Chandler McDowell Reid John N. Shields Alex. T. Barclay Allred Leyburn Wm. Inglis James Lyle James M. Beard Rockingham. Robert Grattan 784 Richard Winfield Sam. H. Lewis Russell. James McFarlane Southampton. Robert Ricks Edwards Butts James Rochelle Wm. H. Nicholson Charles F. Urquhart Wm. White ■ H. B. Thompson John Moore John Y. Mason James B. Urquhart R. A. Urquhart George A. C. Barham Carr Bowers Spottsylvania. Wm. Jones John R. Spotswood Charles U. Lovell H. T. Minor John C. Stanard Stafford James A. Fitzgerald John R. Fitzhugh Wm. P- Conway Surry. John Peter Griffin Orgain John Avery Thomas Ruffin John N. Sebrell Richard H. Edwards Philip Smith Peter T. Spratley Drury Stith John N. Faulcon Philip S. Cocke Boiling; Jones Wm. Dillard William E. B. Ruffin John E. Nicholson Theophilus Strachan] Sussex. Wm. Thornton JohnQ. Moyler Henry J. Harrison Samuel Hines George Blow Wm.J. Cocke Henry Birdsong Wm. O. Chamliss Richard H. Parham George Feild John E. Parham Warwick. •Daniel P. Curtis Wm. G. Young Carroll Presson Westmoreland. Mrs. Mary Lee Robert Murphy Willoughby Newton Camillus Griffith LIST OF StiBSCRIBEES. Wm. H. Sandford Henry D. Storke Charles C. Jett Robert Bailey Williamsburg i Prof. Thomas R. Dew Robert McCandlish Thomas G. Peachy Dickie Gait Samuel F. Brig-ht Robert P. Waller Henry Edloe R. M. Garrett Jesse Cole Richard Coke, Jr. James Semple Wythe. Gustavus A. Crockett York. Thomas G. Tinsley Scervant Jones Thomas Wynne MARYLAND. Annopolis. James Murray George F. Worthington Baltimore. O. A. Gill James Symington Gideon B. Smith D. S. Carr Edward P. Roberts Charles C. Harper Charles Carroll James B. Kendall Sinclair & Moore Prof. Julius T. Ducatel Charles County. Wm. D. Merrick John C. Chapman Francis Neale Dorchester. Joseph E. Muse Wm. T. Goldsborough Harford. John W. Rutledge Kent. George S. Holliday Wm. S. Constable Colin F.Hale Montgomery. John P. C. Peter B. S. Forrest Prince George's County. Wm. R. Barker Queen Anne's County. John P. Paca Wm. Carmichael Richard T. Earle Thomas Emory John Tilghman Wm. H. Bordley Pere Wilm'er Stephen L. Wright John C. Ruth Edward Tilghman Jeremiah L. Boyd Thomas C. Brown Thomas B. Cooke Syksevsille. George Patterson Talbot. Edward Lloyd Wm. Hemsley S. Hambleton John Leeds Kerr Edward N. Hambleton H. L. Edmondson James M. Lloyd Wm. Haywood Daniel Lloyd Tench Tilghman Worcester. George Bishop DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Washington. Richard B. Mason Andrew Jackson, jr. G.W. Featherstonhaugh Columbian Horticultural Society Alex. Hunter Library of Congress Lewis Waddy Thompson Georgetown. Samuel Whitall James S. Morsell John Mason, jr. Alexandria. Lawrence Lewis John Mills R. C. Mason H. P. Daingerfield Francis E. Rozier PENSYLVANIA. Prof. Henry D Rogers T A Conrad Nathan Kite Athenaeum Thompson Holmes George H Walker J H Gibbon Ladner Vanuxem DELAWARE. James S Lister Hunn Jenkins OHIO. Benjamin Joy LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 785 Wm H Harrison Farmer & Mechanic KENTUCKY. G. V. Jones Thomas Tovvles John Hollovvay John AInes Meade. R. T. Robertson Shelby. S V Womack MISSOURI. Cooper: Peter Connoly St. Louis. John Lymington Cape Girardeau. Indian Creek Agricultural Associa- tion NEW YORK. J K Paulding Samuel Swartwout George Abbe Abraham Bell Israel Foote William Gibbon Flushing. William Prince & Sons Jllbany. Cultivator Columbia. J P Beekman Livingston. James Wadsworth ILLINOIS. Robert Scervant MISSISSIPPI. David Holt Wilkinson. Jackson. H G Runnels Natchez. W N Mercer James Metcalfe Kemper. B B B Hunter Vicksburg. Wm H Elliott Yazoo. Henry Vaughan Isaac Ratcliff Joel Stevens ARKANSAS. N D Smith LOUISIANA. G A Waggaman G G Skipwith John Penny Sosthene Allain Wm Taylor SOUTH CAROLINA. Orangeburgh. John M. Felder Charleston. St. John's Agricultural Society Count de Choiseul Wm A Carson Thomas Gadsden Sumptet . Thomas C Richardson John J Frierson Columbia. Benj F Taylor N Herbemont James Davis Franklin Elmore James S Guignard Robert Waddell J N Roach Thomas Cooper Pickens. Andrew P Calhoun Barnwell District. George W Moye Abbeville. Gov George M'Duffie Patrick Noble Wm Bowie Camden. George L Champion W Mc Willie Burwell Boykin Darlington. Thomas Smith John Gibson Newberry. John R F McMorris Edgefield. Andrew Pickens W Brooks Cataba. John Gooch GEORGIA, Rldridge G. Cahaniss Henry H. Lumpkin Paul Rossignol John R.Matthews Grieve St Orme Richard Nichols James A. Wiggins Ambrose Baber Henry C. Phelps David A. Rose Pleasant P. Coleman L. W. Hudson J. W.Jones Oliver H. Prince Joseph Rivers TENNESSEE. Benj. F. Foster Prof. Gerard Troost Wm. E. Kennedy Henry Turney Granville A. Pillow J. B. Conger Rob-rt Whyte C. H.Hines Wm. F. Smith David Wendel ALABAMA. Clarke. James Magoffin John Darrington Greene. R E Meade R C Randolph R W Withers Huntsville. William Weeden Lawrence. Turner Saunders Lawrence Watkins John Brown James E Saunders Alexander Sale A M Degraffenreid Robert A Baker Robert Paine Drury Vincent Lowndesborough. James Deas Marengo. John Rains F S Lyon James A Torbert Richard Cocke John Macrae Mobile. George E Holt Collier H Minge Hugh Nelson Montgomery. James G Turner W D Pickett Addison Powell Thomas S Mays Newbern. George L Jones Perry. William H Jones Bird M Pearson Selma. James M Calhoun Tuscaloosa. Nelson A Crawford 786 Nicholas Perkins Benjamin Whitfield Wetumpka. Joseph J Griffin Wilcox. George W Botts FLORIDA. Gadsden. Bryan Croom Jefferson. John G Gamble John Mcl>more James L Parish Joseph B Watts Leon. Augustine Alston John Parkhill San Pedro. John C McGehee Tallahassee. Farquhar Macrae H B Croom Samuel H. Duval NORTH CAROLINA. Beaufort. James B. Marsh Bertie. Wm. H. Pugh James G. Mhoon Thomas Laversage Cabarrus Robinson & McKinley Caswell. James W. Jeffries John Comer Chatham. Jonathan Haralson Chowan. James Norcum D. Macdonald Josiah Collins Augustus Moore Richard T. Browrigg Davidson. Wm. Holt Duplin. Elias Faison J5dgecom.be. Richard Hinea Jonas J. Cobb Elias Bryant Jesse Powell James J. Philips LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Currituck. Enoch D. Ferebee Fayetteville. Benjamin Robinson John Owen Franklin. Nicholas B. Massenburg Thomas Howerton Joseph Whitaker H. J. G. Ruffin Granville. James Bullock William Robards Royster & Beasley Josiah Crudup William O. Gregory John G. Taylor James L. Wortham Frederick M. Clack Halifax. Whitmell H. Anthony William R. Clarke William R. Smith Sen. Charles Hamblin W. W. Thome Mark H. Pettvvay William H. Southall Thomas Nicholson Benjamin Hunter Johnston. James J. Hinton Lenoir. Snoad B, Carraway Wm. D. Cobb James R. Croom Isaac Croom John C. Washington Samuel C. Bellamy Lincoln. Vardry McBee Martin. David Williams Hertford Colin W. Barnes James H. Wood Tristan Capehart John Waddille Alfred Darden Kerr Montgomery J. C. Moore Nash. James S. Battle Isaac Sessums Thomas Davis John F. Bellamy William Bellamy Bennett Bunn Joseph S. Battle Joel Wells John J. Bunn James N. Mann Wm. Dozier Newbem. Wm. Hollister Wm. Gaston Wm. B. Wadsvvorth Oliver S. Dewey Northampton. Bryan Randolph Wm. D. Amiss Wm. W. Wilkins Wm. B. Lockhart Andrew Joyner Orange. James Mebane Thomas D. Bennehan Duncan Cameron Walker Anderson Thomas Ruffin Pasquotank. William B. Shepherd Person. Thomas McGehee Bolton & Dixon Pitt. Reading S. Blount Wm. May Rockingham. Rawly Gallaway Tarborough. Noah Thompson Theodore Parker Wake. Wm. Boylan Leonard H. Seawell Bennett T. Blake John Hinton Gavin Hogg Washington. J. O. K. Williams Warren. Thomas P. Little George E.Spruill Henry Fitts Weldon N. Edwards George D. Baskerville Alfred Alston H. L. Plummer Thomas Carrell L. F. Browne Waynesborough. Samuel H. Whitfield Wilmington. James H. McRee •^, t ■ '-° *i *m ;/■ ■ ''Ti*-, m * ::\ £M