FARMERS' REGISTER— MARL BANKS, &c. 



363 



fore many years, be shaded, and protected by 

 mulberry trees, leeding silk worms, that will give a 

 better return^ to those, that watch anil labor upon 

 them. Cotton must take its real and relative value, 

 amon«r the gil'is of God — or its growers will leave 

 the wrangling governments, that have done what 

 they could do'to destroy it, to quarrel over its re- 

 mains. 



Bat the writer of this letter, has no where per- 

 mitted the pen fully to express, all the mind felt 

 upon the subject. The once generous and gallant 

 men of Spain, had been nigh devoured by sheep; 

 the still more generous and still more gallant men 

 of England, and of Scotland, were in danger of 

 being devoured by sheep, when the growers of 

 cotton, came to the rescue — and how have they 

 been rewarded? Let the legislation, for manj^ 

 years, of England, and of the United States tell. 



It would have been easy to have added to this 

 letter tabular statements, of the progressive in- 

 crease, in the growth, and in the manufactory, of 

 cotton wool; but every bookseller's shop, in every 

 town, in England, will give them. 



TIIOS. SPAI.DING, 



Of Sapalo Island, near JDarien, Georgia. 



MAKL, BAKKS AKD PAPKR BANKS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Eastern Shore, Maryland, 23rd Sept., 1834. 

 Two sunmiers ago, I derived much pleasure 

 and instruction, from reading your Treatise on 

 Calcareous Manures. At the time, I was engaged 

 in clearing and ditching a swamp, in one of my 

 fields. About twelve inches below the surface, I 

 found a stratum, of earth, corresponding with the 

 description you give of marl, not calcareous. I 

 tried it by one of the tests you mention, by drop- 

 ing a piece well dried in a tumbler of water, and 

 it fully answered, by crumbling and shooting up 

 sparkles to the surface. I became perlectly satis- 

 fied that it contained no calcareous particles, by 

 testing it, by a solution of muriatic acid. Last 

 aatunm I sowed the fi.eld in wheat, and applied to 

 its unjirovement a considerable quantity of cal- 

 careous marl, and as much putrescent manure as 

 I could collect, and by way of experiment, I car- 

 ried out a few cart loads of the earth first men- 

 tioned. It was spread on a ]}art of the field which 

 had been entirely exhausted by hard cultivation — 

 the land immediately adjoining, I was unable to 

 assist — the product at harvest, w^here this earth 

 had been sjjread, was more than double that of 

 the adjoining land. In the spring of 1831, the field 

 above mentioned was seeded in oatB and clover, 

 and where the experiment w"as made, the clover 

 has grown with great vigor, and the soirel has 

 disappeared. When I again cultivate this field, I 

 intend to applj' this marl largely; I have full con- 

 fidence in its value, and I have no doubt it extends 

 generally through our country, with many other 

 Kourccs of improvement, which might be deve- 

 loped by a little attention and expense. Many of 

 the larmers in this part of the country, who have 

 something to spare after iraying expenses and su])- 

 porting their families, huvebeen fond to place it in 

 the banks. Bat I am mclined to think, the recent 

 disasters, in some of these institutions, will render 

 thcin more wary. The best application that a 



farmer can make, of any little surplus he may 

 have, is to the improvement of his lands. The 

 deposite is always safe, tuid will pay a good in- 

 terest. When a farmer places his money m a 

 bank, he is most frequently without a knowledfre 

 of the persons he trusts. It often happens that the 

 president, cashier, and active directors of a bank, 

 have but small interest in the institution, beyond 

 the facilities it afibrds them, for schemes and sfje- 

 culations; and uhen the bank fails, he learns for the 

 first time that its active agents were bold, desper- 

 ate speculators — one engaged in building a new 

 town, another in constructing a rail road, and a 

 third in clearmg out a gold mine iri Mexico. The 

 fruits of many a hard day's toil are thus lost forever, 

 and he is left to seek satisfaction against the de- 

 faulters, by an indictment for a conspiracy, which 

 after remaining a decent cooling time in court, 

 generally fails, for defect in the law, or defect in 

 its execution. Farmers like other classes, have 

 their flill share of vanitj", and some of them in 

 addition to an easy profit, think they deserve con- 

 sequence from having money vested in bank stock. 

 Not a great while ago, Simon Placid lost his 

 dwelling by fire. Simon, like his father before him, 

 cultivated his farm on the old three shift system, 

 and deemed himself fortunate in always keeping 

 out of the hands of the sheriff. Having no lunda 

 to rebuild his house, he applied to his neighbor, 

 Solomon Thrift}', for a loan of two thousand dol- 

 lars. Solomon professed much sorrow for his neigh- 

 bor's misfortune, and consequent discomfort of Mrs. 

 Placid and the children; but his money was all 

 safe in the bank, the interest punctually paid, and 

 he could not break his capital. As the next divi- 

 dend day approached, Solomon, after calculating 

 the amount, went to bed and soon fell into a slum- 

 ber, and dreamed that he saw the hank swept 

 from its foundation by a tornado, and the bank 

 notes scattered to the four winds — he started and 

 awoke, and rejoiced that it was only a dream. 

 Next morning the occurrence Avas rememberec', 

 and he thought it strange that such a vagary should 

 have entered his mind in his sleep, as he had 

 never entertained any such apprehensions when 

 awake. He, notwithstanding, felt restless, had 

 but little appetite for his breakfast, and in the 

 course of the morning, rode to the next public 

 landing to get his newspapers,^ The packet had 

 just arrived and brought the astounding intelligence, 

 that Solomon's bank had i'aWed, and that some of 

 thefi'audulent directors, and iiaudulent officers, had 

 swept both counter and vaults. In his melan- 

 choly ride home, he passed Simon's tarni, and lor 

 the first time, thought that Simon's naked chim- 

 neys were an ugly object in the neighborhood, 

 and that they would have looked better, if Simon's 

 house had been rebuilt and he had his bond for the 

 money. 



PEACH AND ^'ECTARI^"E. 



It is useful to distinguish peach and nectarine 

 trees from each other, at an early stage of their 

 growth, when both first j)roduce their blossoms, 

 before fruiting. To effect this, dissect a i'ew of the 

 flowers of the trees about which you doubt; and a 

 tree which produces villosegerniens always proves 

 a peach tree, and a tree producing germens smooth 

 and shining proves a nectarine tree. — Gard. Mag. 



