352 



FARMERS' REGISTER— CHEESE— TEASELS, &c. 



vent their increase, should be adopted. The in- 

 crease of every innoxious animal that preys upon 

 insects, &c., should be promoted. Birds are gene- 

 rally their enemies, many species of birds are very 

 little injurious to vegetable production, and others 

 not at all so, as bats, both leather-wing and leather- 

 ed, the whole marten and swallow tribes, which 

 prey alone on insectSj and do no harm to any thing 

 valuable to man, except the bee-eater — and these 

 ehould be made the special objects of protection by 

 the agriculturist. If you think likewise, can you 

 not call the attention of your readers tbrcibly to 

 this subject, and imjilore the clemency and protec- 

 tion of the community for tde whole race of birds 

 and other ammals, which do either little or no 

 harm to any useiul production of the earth? Could 

 not our jiigh-minded generous Southern brethern 

 particularly, be induced by a hint from you, to ab- 

 stain from killing and eating the innocent martens 

 that do nothing but good? And could not our 

 own people be induced to spare the lives of the 

 harmless highland frogs and lizards, &c. &c. 



CHARLES WOODSON. 



TO GIVE TO NEW CHEESE THE FLAVOR OF 

 OLD. 



From the Agricultural Journal. 



li' it be required to communicate to a new 

 cheese the flavor and appearance of an old one, it 

 may be done by the insertion in the new cheese of 

 portions of the old one containing blue mould. 

 The little scoop which is used in taking samples of 

 cheese is a ready made means of pertbrming the 

 operation, by interchanging ten or a dozen of the 

 rolls which it extracts, and placing them so as to 

 disseminate the germ of the blue mould all over 

 the cheese. A new Stilton cheese treated in this 

 way, and well covered up from the air for a i'ew 

 weeks, becomes thoroughly impregnated with the 

 mould, and generally with a flavor hardly to be 

 distinguished from the old one. I have sometimes 

 treated half a Lancashire cheese in this way, and 

 have left the other half in its natural state, and 

 have been much amused with the remarks of m}' 

 friends on the striking superiority of the English 

 over the Scotch one. 



MANGE IN HOGS. 



From the Southern Planter. 



McDonough, Ga. l^th May, 1834. 



Mr. Editor — During my travels through the 

 Gtate, especially in towns and villages, I see a vast 

 number of swine dying with what is called the 

 mange, while many others are upon the eve of ex- 

 piring. This disease is verj' easily cured if persons 

 would only take the trouble of pulverizing sulphur, 

 an \ give to each hog affected one table spoonful in 

 a little corn meal dough twice a week for two weeks; 

 they will shed the scurf and become perfectly clean 

 and fatten. The sulphur at the same time de- 

 stroys lice and fleas on the swine. s. m. 



From the New Hampshire Gazette. 



There has been a great rise in the price of the 

 teasel or fullers thistle, and some farmers in Hat- 

 field and Wiliiamsburgh have lately received large 



sums of money for the produce of small quantities 

 of 1-uid. Three or four years since, teasels were 

 sold at 75 cents per thousand, and some as low as 

 67 cents; now the manufacturers give from ^^ 37 

 to 2 50 |;er thousand. Two farmers in Williams- 

 buriih have recently sold teasels to the amount of 

 1500 dollars. In Hatfield, a single acre has in 

 some instances vielded 100,000 teasels, which have 

 brought oxev 237 dollars. There are very few 

 acres, however, that do this. Two years are ne- 

 cessary to bring a teasel crop to maturity; the 

 plants require much care and labor, and are liable 

 to be winter-killed and to other injuries. After the 

 price fell to 67 or 75 cents, the cultivation was re- 

 linquished by many, and the present high prices 

 are owing to a great diminution in the quantity 

 raised. 



RAINY DAY REFLECTIONS OF A PRINCE ED- 

 WARD FARMER. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



After the drought which has been severely felt 

 in our county lor some time past, the morning has 

 set in with a gentle and refreshing rain — reii-esh- 

 ing to the tobacco crop; but the largest portion of 

 the corn has passed the period when the benefi- 

 cial effects of rain Avould have been felt. As I 

 will probably be within doors most of the day, I 

 know not how to spend my time more pleasantly 

 than by making some remarks on farming: not 

 that 1 have the vanity to think that any thing 

 which may drop from my feeble and inexperienced 

 pen will greatly promote the agriculture of our 

 country, but that il' possible I may be able to pre- 

 vent the formation of gullies, and promote the fil- 

 ling up of those already formed. 



The present degenerate state of agriculture in 

 JVIiddle Virginia, seems to be owing principally 

 to two causes, viz: grazing and injudicious plough- 

 ing. What is known as the "three shift system," 

 is the one almost universal in this country. While 

 some have adopted a better system, yet as a ge- 

 neral observation it is true, that our farmers have 

 no standing pastures tor their cattle. While in 

 other parts of the State which have adopted a 

 system of improvement on their lands, the luxu- 

 riant and fertilizing clover is seen to carpet every 

 field at rest, ours are trampled and grazed to bar- 

 renness by little half starved cattle and sheep, 

 which can hardly by unceasing industry through 

 a long summer's day, get enough hen-nest grasa 

 and broom-straw to keep them alive. After har- 

 vest all the sheep, hogs, cows, and horses, are 

 driven to the stubble-field, to devour the scanty 

 provision made by nature to improve the soil. I 

 have no doubt that land would improve if suffered 

 to rest every third year, (land which has not been 

 entirely killed by injudicious management) simply 

 by an effort of nature to that effect; but this kind 

 of management would produce barrenness in the 

 most fertile lands I have ever seen, much more on 

 soils naturally thin, sandy, and subject to wash. I 

 have doubts whether or not this part of Virginia 

 can ever be profitably employed as a grazing 

 country, under the best system that can be applied. 

 Be this as it may, we have convincing evidence 

 arising from the diminution of our products, and 

 the numerous galls and gullies on almost every 

 farm, that it will not do at the present day. Ar- 

 guments have been used in favor of large stocks 



