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Rogers, &c. &c., they say, "aye they have rich which the land had been under very gentle tillage, and lands, they are wealthy"-my mouth is shut, and secured entirely from being grazed. In one of these I am constrained to acknowledge the truth. If experiments, where the four-shift rotation of Arator you will take a ride through some of the middle has been strictly preserved since 1815, there has been counties of this state, and see the vast quantity of an actual and considerable lessening of the product, as poor land, and even after all the emigration how tested by the crops of four successive rotations. thickly settled it yet is-know their names-ex- should be stated, that this diminution is supposed to amine our sheriffs' books, and see what a vast amount of taxation is paid by these poor land have been caused by the ploughing having been too farmers, out of their hard earnings and savings, deep (six inches) for so shallow a soil-but it was not you will begin to think that we claim a great share so deep as was advised by Arator, nor as deep as was of your attention. found safe and beneficial on adjoining land, after it had been made calcareous.

My paper admonishes me to draw to a close; you will discover I have been more intent upon bringing the outlines of our condition before you in a crude manner, than polishing with a critic's

pen.

T. B. A.

Our doctrine may perhaps be met (as it frequently has been) by the objection, that it sentences to hopeless sterility all lands naturally poor, and which have

not command of lime or other calcareous manures. This may be an important and lamentable fact, but it is not an argument against our position, but the reverse. [The foregoing statement of the writer's experience If a farmer owns poor land so unfortunately constituted and disappointment in the attempt to enrich a soil nat- and situated, that no considerable or profitable imurally poor, is an apt illustration and striking testimo-provement can be made on it, the sooner he is conny of the truth of the positions maintained in the Essay on Calcareous Manures, viz: that soils of that kind cannot be enriched above the measure of their natural fertility, by vegetable and other putrescent manures, without making use also of calcareous manures, the want of which latter ingredient is the sole cause of the unimprovable nature of these soils. There are but few persons who have long labored to improve poor soils, who will be as frank in confession as our correspondent—and there are not many, having that sanguine temperament which is essential to make zealous "improving" farmers, who can be induced to believe that their past efforts have been thrown away, and that there is no hope from persisting in similar attempts. But if these objections did not serve to keep them silent, there would be hundreds who would make statements of general failure and long continued disappointments, not less marked than those given above. If T. B. A. could have applied marl or lime to his land, he would have thereby cured its natural defects —and his other materials for improvement, vegetable matter, clover, and gypsum, would have become available, efficient, and profitable.

vinced of the truth the better, that he may cease to labor for unattainable objects, and direct his energies where their exercise will be amply rewarded. If half the expense which has been thrown away in such fruitless efforts at fertilization, even in the last twenty years, had been given to the judicious application of calcareous manures, there would be now a vast difference in the aspect of Eastern Virginia, and of the amount of profit gained by every individual concerned in these different practices.]

From the London Quarterly Review of Nov. 1st, 1834. HORTICULTURAL CURIOSITIES OF JAPAN.

If we assume the perfection of the arts of tillage and manufacture as a test of civilization, Japan may at least compete with any oriental nation. Mr. Meylan places it higher than any. He extols their field cultivation, but they appear to neglect their great opportunities for horticulture, as far as the kitchen and the dessert are concerned. As florists they are conspicuous, and the beauty of the productions of the soil in this department is known to every possessor of a greenhouse and We are aware that this doctrine is so unpalatable to proprietor of a camelia. The singular art of producing miniature samples of the larger products of many, that it has to expect but small favor, or scarcely vegetation, unknown, we believe, in Europe, is serious consideration-and indeed its being even utter- practised by them to an extraordinary degree. ed here, may be deemed a sort of treason to the cause Mr. Meylan speaks as an eye-witness of a box of agriculture-to the progress of general fertilization, offered for sale to the Dutch governor, three inches which almost all the addresses to agricultural societies, long by one wide, in which were flourishing a firand essays on agriculture in general, concur in declar-tree, a bamboo, and a plum-tree, the latter in ing to be easy, sure, and profitable. We at one time blossom. The price demanded was twelve hunheld the same opinion-and it was with painful reluctance, and not until after years of mispent and lost From the New York Farmer. labor, that we became satisfied of the error of expectLOUBAT'S VINEYARD. ing to enrich such soils as are naturally poor, with profit or durability, by vegetable matter, or putrescent This vineyard, on which a large amount of manures alone. If T. B. A. had (on such soil) prac- money has been expended in foreign vines, was ticed the milder four-shift rotation, and had prevented recently sold for the purpose of being divided into all grazing, his success would have been not much lots for cottage residences. It is six miles from greater—perhaps less, if estimating the greater cost. Brooklyn, lying on New York Bay. There are We know of two different experiments, carefully con- The vines were, we presume, considered of little upwards of 40 acres, which were sold for $15,300. ducted, which show by the measurement of the corn or no account, and thus has ended the last extenproduced in each rotation, that almost no increase has sive experiment in attempting to acclimate the been found in a course of near twenty years, during | foreign vine in this country.

dred florins.

From the Complete Grazier.

FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF LORD SOMERVILLE'S DRAG-CART.

[The marks referred to in the following description as accompanying the cuts, but which do not there appear, were also omitted in the original engraving from which this was copied. The error however is not so important as to prevent the figures being perfectly understood by every reader.]

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The cut above, Fig. 1. represents a front view gravity of the load, as described at ab by the of a drag-cart, invented by Lord Somerville; se- curved iron, perforated with holes for receiving a lected from Vol. II. of "Communications to the pin, to keep it at any required height: c is a small Board of Agriculture."-Fig. 1. is a cart calcu-chain to prevent the cart from going too far back lated for draught, by a single horse in shafts; b b is in fixing it: and the letters dd denote the upper a friction-bar, or drag, that is fixed behind by a part of the cart, which is extended to contain chain, and before by a tooth-rack, delineated at bd, bulky or heavy loads.

which catches on a staple, and by means of which The following are the advantages to be derived the pressure may be regulated by the driver, ac- from the adoption of the drag here described:cording to the steepness of the descent. c is a 1. The degree of friction and pressure may be toothed rack, fixed in the front of the cart, for expeditiously adjusted to the steepness of the deregulating the position or centre of gravity of the clivity; so that the cart will neither press forward, load. In this figure, the friction-drag is placed nor require much exertion in the draught. lower on the wheel than Lord Somerville original- 2. The friction is judiciously applied to the ly intended, in order to divide the pressure and wheel, in such a direction, that a given pressure friction more equally on the opposite side of the will produce twice the effect in retarding the prowheel: thus the action on each is diminished, and gress which it would do if it had been immediatethe risk of over-heating and destroying the friction-ly applied to the body of the cart, or to the axis. bar is rendered less than if the whole pressure 3. The apparatus is capable of being arranged were applied in one point at the top of the wheel. with such facility, that it may be instantaneously Fig. 2. represents a side view of the same drag- adjusted, without stopping the cart, or exposing cart, designed to be drawn by two strong oxen, the driver to danger.

with a pole yoke, and bows, the friction-bar being 4. It may also be remarked, that still greater removed. In this figure, a more simple mode is benefit may be derived from this invention, by apadopted for regulating the position or centre of plying it to both the hinder wheels of wagons;

thus, the resistance may not only be proportioned three inches after fifteen days growth. At this to the steepness of the declivity, so as to prevent stage, I am (after years of experiments made to most effectually the damage done to the high determine this point,) now fully convinced that in roads, and the unnecessary labor of cattle, when the production of milk, and butter-two of the drawing locked carriages down hills; but it will most agreeable et ceteras of a comfortable table, it also remove the danger of the frequent accidents is not excelled even by the wide pea vine, so long to which drivers are exposed; and will save that celebrated for the production of those two articles, time, which is now of necessity lost, in locking in their richest and most delicate state. and unlocking wagon-wheels.

From the Ohio Farmer.

BUCK WHEAT.

For the purpose of making hay or dry forage for the winter support of animals, this grass has been well tested. See a communication in that valua

BLUE COLORING MATTER FROM STRAW OF ble agricultural paper, "The Baltimore Farmer," of the 9th of September last. In curing this grass We intended to have mentioned this subject when it may be taken from the scythe and stacked, for hay, it ought to be cut at thirty days growth, earlier in the season, in order that some of our if mixed with equal quantities of good oats, rye, readers who had buck wheat upon their premises or rice straw, each layer of grass is laid on (or might try the experiment and ascertain more satis- what is better, mixed as stacked) sprinkled with factorily the facts of the case. But we will bring salt, when it will be found to cure admirably, and it forward now; perhaps it may be recollected in its proper season. The method which has been re-to the straw, increasing the mass of excellent forimpart a great portion of its highly aromatic flavor commended for preparing the coloring matter from

worth a trial.

From the Southern Planter.

LUE OF GAMA GRASS.

age.

this plant is the following-cut the stems before In cutting this grass at thirty days growth, the the grain is fully ripe, and spread them upon the sickle is certainly the most ecomomical plan, and ground exposed to the sun and thus exposed until the seeds drop off with ease. When the grain is sufficiently expeditious for soiling; but I can assure separated from the stems, they are thrown into learn an individual to cut with the scythe. I have your readers that but little practice is requisite to heaps, moistened with water, and left to ferment to had it cut both ways without any difficulty. such a degree, that decomposition takes place, and I notice the remark, that as the roots progress a blue color is developed. It is then formed into in age, the blades come out from around the edges, balls or flat cakes which are dried in the sun or by and leave the centre of the root bare. To this a stove, after which if the balls are boiled in water, objection I will candidly communicate a piece of they impart an intensely blue color which is not information I lately received, and which obliges effected by vinegar or oil of vitriol. It may be me to believe it is entirely owing to our mode of converted into red by adding an alkali as potash or cultivation that this takes place. About two soda, with nutgalls it strikes a blacker color, and months ago, a most observing planter called on a very fine green is afforded by evaporation. It is me for the purpose of having some conversation said that stuff's dyed blue by this preparation re- on the subject of this grass. This peculiarity was tain their colors well and appear very handsome. noticed; he immediately remarked, that in a patch We have never prepared any coloring matter of the gama found in his field, in its native state, from this plant, nor can we vouch for the truth of about one acre, there was not one root to be found the above statement, but certainly, we think it in the abovementioned situation; that a remark of mine had induced a close examination; and added that it was entirely owing to my mode of cultivation that the roots exhibited this appearance. That REMARKS ON THE MANAGEMENT AND VA-I cultivated to produce root, by giving a distance that caused the root to spread to an unnatural Mr. Bartlett-I beg you to receive my thanks breadth, and which prevented that thick coat of for your kind attention in forwarding the back num- foliage found attached to the plant in its natural bers of your valuable periodical. Since I have state; that none of the roots found in his patch, had the perusal of them, I am perfectly informed which to his knowledge is fifteen years old, and of what my loss would have been, had I not re-appeared as old and luxuriant when he settled on ceived them. On looking over those numbers I the land (black limestone land) could have been discover in one of them, some remarks on, and in- originally more than twelve inches apart; that quiries respecting the Gama Grass. Having been when he first noticed this plat of grass and attemptthe first individual who was so fortunate as to get fed to break it up, with the plough, the ground was the public attention directed to this plant-which I totally occupied with the roots, and which pream compelled to view, after an assiduous cultiva-vented his effecting the destruction of the plat; tion of ten years, as of extraordinary value to the that finding his horses, mules and oxen preferred agriculturists of the south, I feel myself compe- it to all other grasses, he let it stand for hay, and tent to answer those inquiries satisfactorily, and I from it made annually several stacks. The statethink, to do away the imaginary objections sug- ment appearing to carry weight with it, I went the gested. next day and examined for myself, and found the With me this plant is found to grow in every whole entirely correct; and am now induced to bekind of soil: but certainly to exhibit its extraordi- lieve his observation judicious. In consequence nary productiveness, the soil must be good, natu- of this circumstance, I shall plant a lot of gama at rally, or made_so by art. And in addition, the twelve inches from plant to plant, and let trial depresence of calcareous matter is essential. As it termine the correctness of theory. During a ride regards its growth, after being cut monthly, I am last month through a part of the Choctaw country, yet to learn the name of a plant that equals it, if I found this grass in greater luxuriance than I the soil is properly prepared. I have cut it twenty- have ever been able to produce it, and uniformly I

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inches square for each stalk, and then the number
of square inches in an acre, which multiplied by
83 will give the number in the ground planted in
corn. The ratio between the space occupied by
the corn stalks and one acre is as 1 to 22, and a
large decimal. At the rate then of 22 bushels of
plaster to the acre, was it used on my corn.
benefit was as manifest as if manure had been
put in each hill, and was distinctly to be seen for
two years. The third year the field was put in
corn-the plaster scattered, and, of course, I could
not discern a continuance of advantage from it,
but as long as the earth was undisturbed the in-

The

As regards the important point, viz. the nutritive quality of this grass, in addition to my own experience, which has established its highly nutritive character, I beg leave again to refer to the communication before mentioned. I have frequently stated my own opinion on this subject. I am happy to find it completely corroborated by others. Your agricultural friends have nothing to fear in the cultivation of this grass, but the diffi-creased quantity of grass and the richness of its culty of getting seed to plant. I shall give the result shortly, of a trial to produce this grass in the highest perfection, made this year. To the mode of planting and preparing the soil the singular production of vegetable matter must be attributed, the season has however, been remarkably fine with us for grass and weeds.

PLANTER.

verdure on the spots on which the corn had grown was strikingly manifest. The corn was not hilled. I then thought, and now think, hilling an entire loss of the labor employed in the operation, if not injurious.

There are some other facts which tend to prove the utility of using plaster more largely than the present stinted allowance of half a bushel to the acre: but writing is a laborious employment, and I am willing to rest my opinion on the leading

ON THE ADVANTAGE OF APPLYING GYPSUM facts I have stated, and the few following obser

IN QUANTITIES UNUSUALLY LARGE.

To the Editor of the Farmers' Register.

Fauquier, Feb. 4, 1835.

In a letter I addressed to you in August last, I told you that I entertained the opinion that poor land should have twenty bushels of Plaster of Paris put upon it, if the proprietor desired to improve it speedily; and I promised to give the reasons on which my judgement approved the use of that quantity.

vations. In England 400 bushels of lime are used on an acre with great advantage-in Pennsylvania 200 bushels are used, and often upwards of 300. The valuable principle of lime and plaster is the same, as I have been informed, but in what ratio it exists in each I do not know; but I suppose it cannot be in a greater ratio than 20 to 1 in favor of plaster. If this be the ratio, then my opinion that 20 bushels of plaster may be, and ought to be, used on an acre of thin land, is strengthened by the quantity of lime used in the countries I have mentioned. In Pennsylvania a greater quantity of lime would be used, I presume, but for the expense of it. They could safely employ it to the same extent as in England. I shall use plaster as largely as my means will allow.

In the winter of 1828-9, I fallowed a poor field of 30 acres with the view of improving it; but for reasons not necessary to be stated, 83 acres were put in corn, at 3 feet by 4. In the hills I had 2 bushels of plaster put. A part of the corn was rolled, and on the remainder the plaster was thrown dry. In the fall of 1829, wheat well rolled in plasI also expressed the opinion to you last sumter, was sown on this land, and in March clover mer, that the mere growth of corn, wheat, &c. seed were sown. In April, 1830, I ordered 30 did not injure land. The reasons are obviously bushels of plaster to be sown on the field of 30 correct. If we compare the weight of an acre of acres; but fearing that the sowers might oversow forest with the largest product of an acre of the on the best of the land and leave the poorest with- best river lowground, or manured upland, for 150 out any, I directed that about an acre, (a cove that years, we shall be satisfied that the difference of received the deposite from an adjoining wood) weight, (or of substance extracted from the earth) should not be sown till the balance of the field in favor of the trees is very great, while the woodhad been. My fears were realized: when they land is best. It will be said that the leaves of the finished sowing there was no plaster for the omit- trees increase the fertility of wood land-but look ted acre, and none was put on it for some time. at the small return made to the earth by the leaves About the 20th of May clover attains its greatest of one tree, and we must be satisfied that but very growth. From the time that grass took a steady little can be derived from them-too little to be growth to the period of maturity, many persons received in computation when compared with cloobserved that my corn (i. e. of the previous crop ver, &c. &c. Further, it is a generally received of 1829) had been manured in the hill. The clo- opinion, that wheat fallows improve land, while it ver that grew on the hills in which the corn had is as generally known that corn, oats and buckbeen planted was at full growth, three feet high, wheat injure it. But it is not owing to the plant while that on the intervening ground was not more but the mode and period of cultivation necessathan five or six inches high, and of pale sickly yellow color. The next spring the difference in the vegetation on and contiguous to the hills was still very great.

ry to rear it, that is injurious. Wheat does not injure, because when the earth is prepared and has received the crop it is no more disturbed, and the action of the sun upon it is very slight. In the In order to ascertain the quantity of plaster cultivation of corn, and preparation of the earth which had been used, per acre, in the corn hills, for oats and buckwheat, it is made so light as to with such manifest benefit, I ascertained the num-receive the heat to the depth of several inches, ber of corn hills in each acre, doubled that num-during the spring and summer, when the sun acts ber for the number of corn stalks, allowed 14 with such power on it. Heat is the great destroyVOL. II.-45

Having gathered my fodder in the old mode, when ready for sowing wheat, I have the corn cut and stacked in small stacks-the same ploughs running at the same depth with the ploughs used in the spring. On the land thus prepared, my wheat is sown and harrowed in. The crops of wheat are decidedly better than those put in with that mischievous shovel-plough, which (next to negro labor, that ever has, and ever will carry des olation and ruin in its train,) is the greatest enemy to good crops and good land, that the human intellect can devise in the form of an implement of husbandry.

er of the vegetative or nutritious principles of the | tained; the ground does not wash, and the fine veearth. Fall crops do not injure land as much as getable mould made by the rotted grass and roots spring and summer crops, for the reason that the is preserved from the sun for the nourishment action of the sun is feeble-the nights are long-of the corn and the following crop of wheat. dews are copious, and by the spring the earth is so compact as not to receive the rays of the sun, and is soon shaded by the wheat, &c. For these, among other reasons, I am satisfied that the earth is not empoverished by the growth upon it. The last observation I have made, to wit: that "heat is the great destroyer of the vegetative or nutritious principles of the earth," requires some remarks. Make the richest earth into bricks--then pulverize them, and you will find that seed will not sprout in the dust, or if they sprout they live but a short time and perish for want of food. The valuable principle is killed or expelled by heat. Take a piece of plank, say 12 inches square— place it on a gall; let it remain for one year, and then sow seeds on the place covered by the plank and on the conterminous earth, and you will find the plants on the space covered by the plank much more vigorous than their neighbors: indeed, that they will survive through the summer, and yield fruit, while those on the earth which was not shaded will sprout and soon die.

JOHN ROBERT WALLACE.

ON THE CULTIVATION OF CORN.

To the Editor of the Farmers' Register.

Fauquier, Feb. 4, 1835.

I have been a farmer for five years only, but as my mode of cultivating my land differs from that usually pursued, and has returned me a larger reward than the same quantity of labor bestowed on even better land, I will communicate it to you. Impressed with these truths

That heat is a great destroyer of land-
That deep ploughing is indispensable-
That the roots of corn ought not to be injured
or disturbed-and

That the corn crop ought to be so cultivated as to make the best crop of wheat

This mode of preparing the land for wheat, has these advantages: the decayed grass, &c. is thrown to the top, nourishes the young wheat, preserves it against frosts and winds, and when hard freezes occur, owing to the depth of the ploughing, the water is dissipated, and the body of earth is too heavy to be affected by any but the severest spells of weather. When the crop of corn has been properly cultivated, and the ground prepared as above, the crop of wheat is not much inferior to a fallow crop: the reasons must be obvious to every one.

As to the corn crop, I am not left a doubt of its advantages over every other I have heard of. I have never failed in a crop. If the season be wet, the water sinks to the sod, where, owing to the grass and roots, it is retained by them by absorption, and is prevented from passing off rapidly. The earth too, being more compact than when the shovel-plough is used, the water is much more slowly evaporated, and in hard rains, owing to this cause, and the smoothness of the surface, but little of the soil is washed away.

In drought when other fields of corn are exhibiting its serious effects upon them, corn cultivated in the manner above mentioned, shows but little, if any injury from it. Wherever that destroying enemy, the shovel-plough, is used in dry seasons, its injury to the crop is shown after each ploughing, in the withered blades and sickly color of the corn. Owing to the depth they run, the roots of the corn are wounded, broken, and huddled together in bunches, instead of being expanded through the ground as the radii of a circle.

1 accordingly have my land broken up as deep as two and three good horses can do it. I require the sod to be as carefully turned as if for fallow for wheat. The ground is then well harrowed, the harrow running as the plough. The usual mode is pursued in laying off with a very small shovelplough. The corn is planted, (from the 12th of Is it not surprising to see how almost universalApril to the 1st of May,) and as soon as it is thin-ly the notion prevails, that it is serviceable to break ned, I use cultivators of five teeth, (set in as in a the roots of corn? They do not seem to compretriangular harrow,) made of harrow iron-the hend the offices of roots. One set of them is to teeth flattened for two inches, sharpened and turn- support the plant; these shoot out when the ear is ed so as to enter the ground. With these imple- forming, and descend perpendicularly into the ments my corn is worked three and four times. ground; the other, shooting out horizontally are But if there has been much rain, so that the grass purveyors-they spread themselves through the cannot be kept down by them, or if the ground be earth in search of food; but if they are bruised or very hard, then I direct the double shovel-plough broken, they cannot do their duty, for they must (about as long as the hand, and one-third broader) first be healed to enable them to do it, and then to be used; but if there be time after it, I again being forced altogether they must receive less use the cultivator, in order to level the land and nourishment for themselves and food for the stalk, prevent washing. In the use of both these imple- than if they ran through a circle, doubling in ments, orders are given not to turn a sod up, and its diameter, any one of the roots. What would if it be done, to replace it. By this mode a very be thought of the reason of a man, who declared small portion of the earth is exposed to the action it to be his opinion, and practically enforced it, that of the sun; the roots of the corn are not wounded, the best mode of fattening a bullock was to wound and can readily extend themselves in their search his tongue, disable his jaws, and break his teeth for food; the moisture of the earth is longer re- whenever he reached his head towards food? Can

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