FARMERS' REGISTER— WILD ONION— GYPSUM, &c. 



153 



sible, of the Union Turnpike into ii cheap rail 

 road, and its continuance to the waters ol" Beau- 

 fort. Tiiis would be useful, and to the final ac- 

 coniplislunent of the scheuie for rendering the 

 ))ort of Beaufort tlie great port on the Atlantic ior 

 the conve^anre of all the produce of the west to 

 i(s cis-atlantic as well as f rans-atlantic markets, im- 

 peratively necessary. To f)erlect it, a cheap rail 

 i-oail from Port Rojal to Hamburg and Augusta, 

 will be requisile. 



If the ])oint of contact is to be the river at 

 Boyd's Neck, it' should appear, from the district 

 map that a rail road might be laid down from that 

 place to Roberts ville, or between the heads of 

 Bees' Creek and Great Swamp, at Riley's — thence 

 to the church opposite Mathew's BlulT — thence to 

 JNIr. Cohen's bridge on Upper Three Runs — 

 thence to Minor's Bridge — thence to Hamburg, 

 and, in i'act, Augusta — a distance of one hundred 

 miles. Th^ rail road to be of the simplest de- 

 fecription: in short, to be a track road to pursue 

 the undulations of the superficies, and to use the 

 best and most solid ground. 



This it is to be presumed may be laid down for 

 82400 per mile, or ,^240,000. 



There is no doubt that as soon as the Athens 

 and Augusta Rail Road can be finished, fiilly 200 

 to 220,000 bales of coton will be brought down it; 

 and il" the road here proposed should be laid down, 

 fully 400,000 bales of coton* will be shipped at 

 Beaufort; and further, that if, as in all probability 

 will be the case, a road shall be made from the 

 mouth ol' the Chatahooche to Savannah, it is very 

 likely little short of 600,000 bales of coton will be 

 Bent from thence to their destined markets. Of 

 t3ie returning merchandise, I take no notice. 



SM EATON. 



DOBIESTICATED FISH. 



The Easton Sentinel mentions that a ti-out of enor- 

 mous size was recently presented to a dinner party at 

 Betli'ehem, Pa. by Mr. G. H. Goudie, and adds the 

 following particulars — from which it seems that the 

 rearing of fish in this novel mode may be conducted 

 successfully. 



" The trout measured 22 inches in length, 19 



inches in circumference, and weighed 7| pounds. It 

 was raised by Mr. Jacob Schneider of the Lehigh 

 Water Gay, who had kept it for the last six years in 

 a trough in the second story of his house. We under- 

 stand Mr. G. of Bethlehem has about 400 fine trout yet 

 in his front house, measuring from 10 to 17 inches in 

 length." 



* Though I am no disciple of Webster or of Grimke, 

 I think this the preferable way to spell "cotton," and 

 request your compositor will leave my "eoton" in 

 stulu quo. 



[The request of our correspondent is complied with 

 at this time — but hereafter we beg leave to adhere to 

 our own old fashioned- mode of spelling "cotton," as 

 the adoption of that abeve (even if correctly derived) 

 v.'ould be attributed by most readers to the ignorance 

 of the editor, rather than to the learning of his corres- 

 pondent.] 



WILD ONION GYPSUIvr LEGISLATIVE FARM- 

 ING. 



Fairfax county, June 17, 1834. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Your correspondent J. E. M. of Cambridge, 

 Maryland, wishes to know wdiat he is to do in re- 

 lation to that pest, wild onion. The experience of 

 thirty-six years induces me to believe that it can- 

 not "be rooted out. Perhaps if he could sift the 

 earth for five inches in depth, and burn the roots 

 he mio-ht get relief — yet a neighbor of mine be- 

 lieves that the ashes of that pest will reproduce 

 the root. 



I once ploughed a field ten or eleven inches 

 deep, with the hope of smothering this root, and 

 succeeded so far as to destroy the greater part: 

 but that which was left soon filled up the vacuum. 

 I have after various and repeated experiments, 

 settled into the following practice. Cultivate the 

 land in corn, or seed in oats, and never give your 

 last ploughing for wdieat, or any fall crop, until 

 10th October. The roots will then have forced up 

 all their shoots to a fresh and strong growth — and 

 you will so far cripple the ]jlant as to have no 

 seed from it at the following harvest. 



As I find many opinions in your publication 

 about the quantity of plaster to be used upon an 

 acre of land, let me say how I have used it. I 

 have applied it every month in the year, varying 

 the application from one to ten bushels per acre. 

 Ten was injurious — one not enough. The best 

 mode of using it is from one to two bushels in 

 September or "October, and the same in April or 

 May. The whole amount at either season will 

 not "do so well; yet, in either way, a young farmer 

 might be excused if he lost sight of his land marks, 

 and became doubtful of being upon his own old 

 naked farm. 



You and your very respectable correspondents 

 will excuse me for a few words on "legislative 

 farming." It will not do — the state has no mo- 

 ney for imperial experiments — and I venture to 

 say, that if you spend ten hundred thousand dol- 

 lars in this way, you will blush in the retrospec- 

 tive view of it. I mean nothing other than per- 

 fect respect sir; but, old as I am, had I that cele- 

 brated ram's horn of Joshua, which he was used 

 to blow around the camps of his enemy, I would 

 go around this state bare-footed, and sound the 

 alarm against governmental experiments. I am 

 almost ready to say that I would make govern- 

 mental experiments a jienitentiary offence. What 

 are the half million of fixrms that are spread over 

 this state but experimental farms? Does not every 

 cultivator apply his labor with an eye to the re- 

 sult? What more then is wanting, as relates to 

 practical and profitable cultivation, than to commu- 

 nicate through your paper, what has been done, 

 and the result in dollars and cents? Is it necessaiy 

 that we should have a score or two of officers Avhh 

 fat salaries to learn us how to farm? Poor mor- 

 tality! how often have I seen thee create maggots^ 

 in cheese to make it better! Could I raise letters of 

 polished brass upon the rainbow, they should 

 warn the good people of Virginia to stand aloof 

 of office, and office seekefrs. 



Our corn is mending — our oats better than we 

 looked lor — and our wheat, though one week later 

 than usual, is quite as good as we could have ex- 

 pected. Upon looking over my memorandum 



