1838] 



FARiMEKS' REGISTER. 



675 



[The inqiiirifts of our highly respected correspon- 

 dent cannot be answered with conciseness, nor satis- 

 factorily to ourselves. But, in general terms, we 

 will take this opportunity of explaining, and limiting 

 in some measure, the too general application of the 

 doctrines in regard to the fertility of soils, from which 

 our correspondent draws his inferences. 



We still maintain, and as firmly as ever, as to the 

 poor region below the falls, which may be called the 

 pine region, and as to similar " acid" soils above the 

 falls, the positions assumed in the ' Essay on Calca- 

 reous Manures'; viz. that these soils are not durably 

 or profitably improvable (above their 'natural rate of 

 productiveness) by putrescent manures, nor by gyp- 

 sum, unless with the previous or simultaneous appli- 

 cation of lime or other calcareous manure. But our 

 subsequent iiifoimation and observation of other poor 

 lands above the falls, and especially Mr. Sampson's 

 undoubted success in improving such by leaves and 

 gypsum, compel the belief that the poor lands of 

 Goochland, and no doubt of Amelia also, have some 

 valuable ingredient, or chemical quality, which is 

 wanting in the pine Jands, and which fits them, in a 

 greater or less degree, to receive benefit both from gyp- 

 sura and putrescent manures. — Ed. Far. Reg.] 



From Loudon's Gardener's ISIagazine. 

 TO KEEP FILBERTS SOUND. 



Filberts are preserved a year and upwards, with 

 as good a flavor as when gathered IVoni the tree, 

 by packing them in earthern jars, covering them 

 with about an inch in thickness o' common salt, 

 and keeping them in a cellar. 



From tlie Philadelphia Gazette. 

 GRAPES OJf TOWN HOUSES. 



Whde recurring to the articles of the late exhi- 

 bition, sve may mention a few bunches of grapes 

 left by Dr. Sharpless, of Arch street. They were 

 of a very delicate class, but we mention them less 

 with regard to their excellence, than to say that 

 they are an additional evidence of the capabilities 

 oC every hou.^e lot to produce grapes. Dr. Sharp- 

 less placed the cutting of" the vine, from which 

 these grapes were raised, in a little corner, a few 

 feet square, presenting neither sun nor space, for 

 grape vines — but he conducted the vine to the top 

 of his buihiing, three stories high, over vvhirh he 

 erected an arbor, upon which the vine, having 

 worked to that height, was allowed to expand. 

 On the second year after setting out the slip, one 

 or two bunches of grapes were taken from the 

 vine, which had in that time attained such an em- 

 inence; and this, the third year, the vine produ- 

 ced upwards of 70 large bunches of fruit. What 

 encouragement is here tor any one, and ever}' one 

 to set out a vine! A man at the corner of Pine 

 and Sixth streets, long since conducted a vine to 

 the roof of his house, and was thus enabled not 

 only to sit, but to sleep under his vine, and to 

 make some excellent wine from its fruit. And 

 any body may do the same thingr, and have as 

 much fruit of the kind as is desired, if they will 



set out the vine and let it grow, no matter wheth- 

 er the person owns the 1 ou^e he live? in or not. 

 Let every one |)lant a vine, and tfie people will 

 move from vine to vine, just as they now go from 

 hydrant to hydrant. 



From the Kichmoiid Whig. 

 REMARKABLE SAGACITY OF A DOG. 



Dash, the subject of the following lines, is a na- 

 tive of Hanover county, Virginia — was carried to 

 Boon county, Kentucky, the fall of 1835; between 

 two and three hundred miles of the way by water, 

 on board a steamboat. He remained apparently 

 satisfied with the family that carried him there, 

 for three weeks after their landing, when he sud- 

 denly disappeared, and in eighteen days arrived 

 at the place of his nativity, having travelled a 

 distance of six hundred miles. A few weeks after 

 his return to Virginia, he was again carried back 

 to Kentucky, where he remained quietly and ap- 

 parently satisfied (or two years, when he again 

 left his home in Kentucky, and in twenty-eight 

 days was at the above named place in Hanover. 



What perhaps renders the last trip more singu- 

 lar is, iha! he left his home eight days befiire his 

 owner, who was about to visit Virginia on busi- 

 ness. 



RUST ON MANURED WHEAT. 



To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



Nelson county, January 5th, 1838. 



*****! ob.served, in a commmnica- 

 tion made to you by Mr. Carter, a statement that 

 the manured portions of his wheat field at Shirley, 

 escaped the rust. Precisely the reverse being the 

 fiict here, shows that the same agent produces op- 

 [losite results on soils of dillerent character, or at 

 least under different circumstances. The ma- 

 nured parts of my wheal field having been all- 

 most totally refined by rust during the last sum- 

 mer, and showing the exact limits manured at a 

 great distance by the very dark appearance of the 

 wheat, satisfied me that excessive stimulation 

 was the cause of the disease here. Had not the 

 season been excessively wet, I think the manure 

 at least would have done no harm. 



RESISTANCE TO MOTION IN CANALS, IN RE- 

 LATION TO VELOCITY. 



Mr. Russell, of Edinburgh, was called upon to 

 lay before the section the result of certain experi- 

 ments made by him on the traction of boats in ca- 

 nals, at difi'erent velocities. On the general prin- 

 ciple of the resistance of fluids to bodies moving 

 in them, was grounded the conclusion that \t 

 woukl be an impracticable thing to move the cum- 

 brous boats upon canals at any but very low velo- 

 cities, except by an expenditure of power so great 

 that the ordinary methods of conveyance by roads 

 would be cheaper. It was believed, that (he re- 

 sistance would increase with the velocity, by a 

 law so rapid in its variation, that for two miles an 

 hour speed, there would be four times the resis- 

 tance of one mile; fur three miles, nine times that 



