1>2 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 2 



6. The pollen tubes remain fixed (to the em- 

 bryo eac) sometimes after impregnation and the 

 commencement of the development of the embryo 

 in the latter. ,^ 



The translation of the memoir in the Journal, 

 is accompanied by a series 6i' engravitio-s repre- 

 senting the process of impregnation, from the 

 formation of the pollen lubes, to their entrance 

 into the ovnle and the discharge of their contents, 

 embracing the first rudiments of the embryo. 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



ABUNDANCE OF THE RESOURSES FOR MA- 

 NURE, AND FOR THIS IIVIPU-O VEJIENT OF 

 THE SOIL. 



Mecklenburg, Fa., May 10th, 1737. 



Enclosed, I send five dollars, for the fifih volume 

 of the Register, which 1 pay, the more cheerfully, 

 that I am assured 1 shall (as heretolbre) get the 

 worth of the money, in the instruction and enter- 

 tainment to be derived from reading its pages. , I 

 also avail myself of this opportunity to oiler an 

 humble mile lor publication— not that 1 have the 

 vanity to think I can throw much light on any 

 subject connected with agriculture; but, upon the 

 presumption that there are hone so learned but 

 that they may learn yet more, and none so igno- 

 rant, but that they may itnpart some useful hint; 

 and I shall offer the ibllowing, which you can re- 

 ject or publish, as may seem to you' best. 



We meet with many plans and schemes in our 

 agricultural journals ibr the improvement of our 

 impoverished soil, such as sowing clover and grass 

 seeds, cutting hill-side ditches, dividing farms into 

 three, four and five shifts, &c. &c. "But it is not 

 possible, in my humble judgment, to bring about 

 any thing like a striking or even perceptible im- 

 provement of worn out or poor land, by any or all 

 these combined, without the aid of a yet more ef- 

 ficient agent. As a general rule, no system can 

 be laid down, for the improvement of land, in 

 which manure is not the principal aijent. You 

 may improve the beauty of your fields by hill-side 

 trenches, you may in some measure hide the galls 

 and gtillies, by sutf'ering the broom straw, weeds, 

 and briers to grow up on them, and you may per- 

 haps keep the land at something like its present 

 productiveness, by not grazing, and restino", and 

 securing it fi'om washing, &c. But in vain shall 

 that man look for improvement, whose cattle are 

 fed on the commons, without fiirm-pen or bafn, 

 whose horses are suffered to stand and lie without 

 litter or bed, and who, in short, has no well devi- 

 sed and industriously practised plan of saving ma- 

 nure. It is surprising to see what apathy exists 

 in my neighborhood on this subject. Even now, 

 (the 10th of JMay,) you will scarcely find a sum- 

 mer cowpen, ready to receive the cattle at night, 

 and to receive the manure : "where they fare best, 

 there they stay longest," and where night over- 

 takes them, there they lie down, and there tliey 

 drop the manure; as apt as not on some public 

 liighway. 



There are very few men who seem aware of the 

 facilities they possess for raising or rather accumu- 

 lating manure. An eminent improver was asked 

 where he had obtained manure enough to enrich 

 his land as he had done? Where could such a 

 «^uantity come fiom? He replied, "that it would 



be hard to find the place that it could not be pro- 

 cured." Here was the remark of a wise and prac- 

 tical man. The words are fe-vV, but they weigh 

 most heavily. They most forcibly, because most 

 truly, address themselves to every planter! "Who 

 hath ears to hear, let him hear." Nature has 

 been most bountiful in her supplies; every provis- 

 ion has been made; nothing remains but for art 

 and industry to make the application. 1 was not. 

 long since informed that a gentleman, late a resi- 

 dent south of Dan river, not succeeding in ma- 

 nuring his tobacco lot wilh stable and fiirm yard 

 manure, completed the deficiency wiih leaves 

 newly hauled from the forest, and plorghed in; 

 and that no difference appeared in the crop grown 

 on the lot. I once tried a similar experiment on a 

 small piece of branch flat; the first crop of tobacco 

 failed, on account of the too great abundance of 

 leaves, and the dry summer; but every f'iuccessive 

 crop of tobacco, wheat or clover, lor ten or twelve 

 years, was most luxuriant. Previous to this ap- 

 plication of leaves, (which was made in the month 

 of April,) the land, though naturally rich, had been 

 exhausted and was barely in tobacco heart.. 1 have 

 been informed that Mr. James Brooks, fbrmerlj' of 

 Charlotte, an eminent planter, succeeded conrplete- 

 ly by using leaves, and it is well known that few 

 men made such good crops as he did. I state 

 these facts, not to advocate or recommend the use 

 of leaves unmixed, (lor using them to catch and 

 absorb the juices of the stable and covrpen, &c., 

 is doubtless better,) but to shdvv that cue means 

 of manuring, at least, is in reach of aln;ost every 

 planter. I was last year in the county of Bruns- 

 wick, and observed some planters collecting the 

 pine lags, for littering their stables and cow pens, 

 and was informed that they preferred them to the 

 leaves of other trees, and that it had a fine efl'ect 

 when gathered with hoes, hauled on the land un- 

 trodden, and ploughed in. One of my friends, who 

 ranks high as an improver, has long been in the 

 habit of mowing over his low-ground meadow the 

 first autumn alter seeding, tor the double purpose 

 of cleaning the meadow and collecting litter for his 

 stock, (from which, by the way, they collect some 

 sweei morsels). The banks of his ditches, and 

 every other foul spot, were trimmed for the same 

 purpose. I think he was particularly partial to this 

 sort of litter. He once hauled out, on a hill-side 

 convenient, the earth thrown out of a ditch, and 

 used it as a covering for the corn. The conse- 

 quence was, a crop of nine barrels and two bush- 

 els of corn to the acre, and a premium fi-om the 

 Agricultural Society, for "the best two contiguous 

 acres of up-land corn." Some gentleman humor- 

 ously argued, that he could not claim the premium, 

 as "it was not exactly up-land corn." We should 

 all be very glad to raise such loiv-ground corn on 

 our up-lands. . I once applied several loads of un- 

 rotted or new saw dust to a piece of poor thin pipe 

 clay flat, and the tobacco was fully equal to that 

 which grew on the same sort of land adjoining, 

 manured with good stable manure. The garden 

 which I formerly cultivated, was a stiff' red soil, 

 and it occurred to me that a kind of soft rock, dug 

 from the bottom of the ice house, (of a yellowish 

 color, mixed with a white chalky substance, which 

 after being exposed to the frost, assumed the ap- 

 pearance of fine sand) would render the stiff soil 

 light. I accordingly covered one square with it. 

 It produced the desired effect, and the square be- 



