1S37] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



189 



When it is desired to sow timothy with if, I 

 plioukl think it niuch prefijrnhle to the other, when 

 the land suits, as the_v ripen top;elher. 1 have never 

 heard anv objection to it on account of its coarse- 

 ness, exce[)t from those who have never cnhivaled 

 it. I am informed liiat cattle eat it wilii sulBcient 

 avidity. I sliould thinly it a better improver than 

 tlie other icind, wlien a crop ol" hay is no object. 

 Much more miu^ht be said npon the subject, but I 

 am no essayist, and have my information second- 

 handed. I was in hopes your experience in tlie 

 cultivation of it, would have rendered information 

 upon the subject unnecessary. 



EXTRACTS FROM PRIVATE CORRESPONDEIVCE. 

 DIFFEREiVCES OF 0PIXI03V, AND PROCE- 

 DURE, AND COaiJIENTS THEREON. 



Fairfax, June \2th, 1837. 



I cannot close this without grateful acknovvledtr- 

 ments to you for the inlormalion I received in the 

 value and use of calcareous matter upon our land. 

 I am using 12 to 15 thousand bushels of oyster 

 shells per annum with marvellous success; but, as 

 I cannot write over my pioper name, I feel that I 

 am not at liberty, in self respect, to give you any 

 account for publication. Let it suffice, that I give 

 ,S50 per thousand bushels for the shells, and take 

 them on board the craft; and I tlien have to cart 

 them from six to eight miles. 



We have often urged on our correspondents the im- 

 portance to the public, and to the proper appreciation 

 of the value of their communications, that they should 

 sign their real names to statements of matters of fact, 

 as the respect paid to them, of course, must rest on the 

 name of the writer, except so far as the character of 

 the journal for which be writes may serve as a voucher 

 for respectability. But, though greatly preferring the 

 form of avoiced to anonymous communications, (of 

 matters of fact, and not of reasoning,) we never de- 

 signed to discourage the latter — and, in this case, we as- 

 sure our much respected correspondent, that his com- 

 munications, though anonymous, have always been 

 welcome — and that if he will hereafter furnish a re- 

 port of the expense and profit of his liming, executed 

 under such unusual disadvantages, (though he may 

 still adhere to his incognito,) it will be highly accepta- 

 ble to us, and doubtless of value to many readers. 

 Charles City, June lOth, 1837. 



The effects of the marl which Mr. 



deli- 



vered me some iijw years ago, from your marl 

 banks at Coggin's Point, are so great (in fact they 

 surpass every thing in the shape of manure I ever 

 saw, or could conceive), that I should be very 

 glad to procure more of it, and would be very 

 much obliged to you to assist me in gettinij some 

 good honest person to deliver me from five thousand 

 lo ten thousand bushels per annum, for five or six 

 years, until 1 shall have marled my whole planta- 

 tion. I would give five cents per bushel for marl 

 like that before brought, to be delivered on my 

 land, at the most convenient landing lor the light- 

 er; and I would build aconvenient slage,(orwharf;) 

 on which to throw it from the lighters, at my own 

 expense, if necessary. If you could contract with 



a Buitable person for me, I would be very much 

 indebted to you to do so immediately; or, if you 

 could even recommend some one to"me, I should 

 be very much obliged to you. 



Did you ever know such a drought in the sprino- 

 before I Every thing here, on thai account, is in a 

 desperate state, except where the land is marled. 



We shall endeavor by future and suitable arrange- 

 ments to have our friend accommodated; and at a less 

 cost than he is now willing tc pay. For though he 

 has the best possible proof that he can afford to give 

 the price named, for water-borne marl of the best qua- 

 lity, we are equally sure that it may, by proper ar- 

 rangements, be dug and transported for much less; and 

 under this impression, we had before advised other 

 applicants, who were willing to pay more, to wait for 

 better arrangements, and a consequent lower price for 

 delivering this manure. 



, June 9th, 1837. 



I soon discovered, with much regret, after the 

 commencement of the Register, that I differed 

 widely with you as to the most beneficial mode of 

 conducting it; and more recently, on the principles 

 on which you expect to improve the agriculture of 

 Virginia. But you are, 1 conceive, like myself in 

 one respect at least. You do not sacrifice your 

 opinions to politeness, nor would I give a fig tor 

 any man who did. Yet, in my opinion, the pub- 

 lisher who, at this period of the world, is most like- 

 ly to increase the knowledge of mankind on any 

 subject, is he who selects, condenses or compiles, 

 and not he who gives you a bushel of chaff, in 

 which you may find three grains of wheat. In 

 this respect, the Penny Magazine is above all 

 praise. 1 could never satisfactorily discover why 

 you were opposed to inserting in the Register ex- 

 tracts from standard books, or even the whole of 

 them. If Sir Humphrey Davy's Agricultural 

 Chemistry, exclusive of the Appendix, or Cobbett's 

 Gardening, &c., &e., were inserted in a volume 

 of the Register, I should think it well worth bind- 

 ing after it had been read. 



I am under serious apprehensions that the marl 

 banks in lower Virginia, will be as injurious to its 

 agricultural, as the paper banks to its commercial 

 prosperity. After having used, (on a most insig- 

 nifipant scale, to be sure,) shell lime,(not marl,) lor 

 about fifteen years, I am induced to suspend, be- 

 lieving that I had begun to discover that similar 

 effects to those in England, where "many thou- 

 sands of acres, in every part of the kingdom, have 

 (by the use of it) been reduced to a state of al- 

 most perfect infertility," were likely to be pro- 

 duced. ****** 



The last extract is from an old and esteeme(^ friend, 

 who has been a subscriber to this journal from its 

 commencement — and we have received these and 

 some previous strictures from his pen, in perfect kind- 

 ness of feeling, and we take the liberty of publishing 

 them here the more willingly, because we can truly 

 declare that he is the only one of our subscribers, who 

 during our whole editorial course, has expressed to us 

 censure, of any kind, to any extent worth considera- 

 tion. No doubt there has been enough ground for cen- 

 sure, both real and supposed — but it has not been ex- 



