1837] 



FARMERS' RIOrrlSTlOR. 



811 



3. A third experiment was in clearing up six 

 acres of a biisii pasture. No irriss seed had been 

 sown, and what orass was on the land was Ij-oni 

 seed dropped by the cattle fed on it. It was 

 plouiilied deep in tlie lall, in the spring harrowed, 

 cross-ploUL'lted, and harrowed airaiti, until it was 

 mellow. For two jears, oats were sown with 12 

 pounds of red clover seed, and ploughed in, alter 

 reaping the crops of oats ; and in August, after 

 the second croj), winter wheat was sown. The 

 soil was a rich loam, and the form of the land 

 was in moderate swells. Owing to this, the crop 

 was uneven, as the snow drifted deep in some 

 places and in others the land was bare. The 

 wheat vvas vicrorous, 5 leet 4 in. in height, and 

 the ears over five inches long. The crop was a 

 profitable one, and lor three years after, the land 

 produced as much grass as could be dried on the 

 ground. 



4. My last experiment was sowing in the spring 

 a small piece ol land with winter wheat. It lay 

 next to the sheep pasture, and was occasionally 

 fed b}^ the sheep until September. This experi- 

 ment did not answer, probably trom the want of 

 previous cultivation, and the snow not covering it 

 during the winter. 



As regards Mr. Ronaldson's proposals of sowing 

 the winter wheat, so early as to raise a crop of 

 barley on the same land as the winter wheat, 

 there is the following objection. Whatever crop 

 is raised that produces seed, and quantity suffici- 

 ent to repay the labor, must exhaust the ground, 

 and iti this case the barley will take from the wheat 

 a portion of the nourishment intended ibr it. For 

 this reason, will it not be better to sow oats or bar- 

 ley for a crop early in the sprintr, with 12 lbs. of 

 red clover seed, and as soon as this grain is reap- 

 ed, iiumediately to plough in the clover and stub- 

 ble, and sow the winter wheat with the oats as 

 proposed before? The growth of the clover by 

 this mode will replace what the crop of oats or 

 barley has taken to manure it. 



This subject is a very important one, and if by 

 experiments we can secure a motle of cultivating 

 winter wheat on ploughed land, that would be 

 profitable, it may be the means of increasing the 

 quantity of wheat raised, as well as improving 

 the quality. 



It is a (act that winter wheat is a sure crop on 

 new land, where the growth has been cut down, 

 and recently burnt off. In the state of Maine, a 

 great quantity of new land is annually brought 

 into cultivation, and the use of winter wheat as 

 the crop, will have other advantages besides its 

 increased value. The farmer by this means will 

 have the whole of the season li'oni the spring un- 

 til the first of August, (and on burnt land a later 

 period will answer to sow the wheat) to burn 

 and clear his land, without interrupting his la- 

 bor on his spring crops, and will not depend 

 on favorable weather to burn ofT the trees for 

 spring grain. 



CHARLES VAUGHAN. 



June 19, 1837. 



[The reader of the foregoing piece shoidd bear in mind 

 the great difficulty and uncertainty of raising wheat in 

 ; Maine, which have operated so strongly on most farm- 

 'I's, as almost to stop the culture, and on others to seek 

 I 'lief in the substitution of spring wheat and other 

 uiefficient remedies. The legislature has entered upon 



the field of controversy, and by the offer of a bounty on 

 every bushel raised, expect to bear down tlie existing 

 obstacles to wheat culture in Maine. This bounty, (on 

 the policy of which we conunented at page 692 vol. 

 IV.,) it is said, will have the edectof increasing enor- 

 mously the crops of wheat raised in Maine — but will not 

 remove or lessen the true and great obstacle, (the want 

 of lime in the soil,) and the increase will probably be 

 purchased at a dear rate by the treasury bounty. Let the 

 legislature of Maine induce (whether by bounties, 

 instruction, or otherwise,) the application of calca- 

 reous manures on the lands now so deficient in that 

 necessary ingredient, and their thence newly acquired 

 fitness for wheat will cause the culture and success 

 of that crop, without a direct legislative bounty for its 

 production. In the last paragraph of the foregoing 

 letter, there is a striking confirmation of our opinion 

 on this subject, (which we have stated more at length 

 before, in the remarks referred to above,) in the fact 

 that newly cleared woodlands, on which the wood has 

 been burnt, produce wheat with great certaintij. Now 

 the only cause of this, is that the ashes of the trees 

 supply the land for one year, with a sufficiency of car- 

 bonate and phosphate of lime to be taken up by the 

 wheat, and which ingredients, in unusually large pro- 

 portions, are essential to the healthy existence of that 

 crop. If the intelligent and public-spirited editor of 

 the Maine Farmer will exert his influence to have the 

 trial of calcareous manures fairly and fully made on 

 proper soils in Maine, we will hazard any reputation 

 that we may possibly possess, by the prediction that 

 the alledged obstacles to that culture, of climate &c. 

 will then be found no longer to be very important. — 

 En. Far. Reg. 



From the Charleston Courier. 



THE GREAT SUBMARINE SPRING DISCOVERED 

 OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA. 



To the Editors of the Courier: 



Charleston June 23d, 1837. 



Gentlemen : The phenomenon, on the coast of 

 Florida, as described by captains Sisson, Pettigrew, 

 and others, in your paper of this morning, is not 

 new, though the mineral properties of the water are 

 certainly so. The spring off St. Anastasia island, 

 south of St. Augustine, has been long known to 

 navigators, and I have heard of those who have 

 profited froiT. it, in obtaining a supply of fresh wa- 

 ter. The doubts which prevail, as to its existence, 

 may be traced to the fact tliat it intermits, and, at 

 certain seasons, "no agitated sea, like a shoal," ia 

 to be discovered in that quarter, Its appearance 

 changes with circumstances — the surface some- 

 times larger or smaller, and more or less ag- 

 itated, according to the greater or less quantity of 

 water evolved. These marine springs are not 

 uncomraoti along the coast of Florida. In addition 

 to those mentioned in your paper, there is a very 

 imposing one in the latitude of Jupiter inlet, and 

 being immediately off a point of rucks projecting 

 into the sea, it has not unfrequently caused much 

 uneasiness (o navigators who have unexpectedly 

 encountered it. This I have seen in its most an- 



