56 



FAR M E ii S' REGIS T E R. 



[No. 1 



fice to fasten it in the mortice tiiroiish \he bentn, 

 whicli should be at least four by three inciics at 

 that part. A band orromui, hail-inch iron, should 

 also be fixed on that part of the beam, so as to rest, 

 ao-ainst the front edoje of the coulter above and 

 its hack edge below, which will keep it firmly 

 fixed in the mortice. 



Il'thpselwo drawing, with my description of 

 them, should corvt>ril)ute only half as much as I 

 Jiope they will, to the henetit o!' our agricultural 

 -brethren, it will be deemed an ample reward, to 

 the end of life by their li'iend and yours, 



Jambs M. Garnett. 



To tlu; Editor of tlie Fanners" Register. 



BUCK -WHEAT CAKES. 



By the way of contributing a little to the useful- 

 ness of the 'Register,' I will venture to send you 

 a receipt lor making buck-wlieat cakes. In the 

 room of water, mix up your batter with butter- 

 milk; instead oi' leaven, yeast, or yeast powder, 

 use a little saleratus, and one, two, or three eggs. If 

 you do not pronounce it the best buck-wheat cake 

 yoii ever cat, you and I do not agree in taste. 



The same receipt is likewise as good fiir other 

 batter cakes and biscuit. The theory of this is 

 plain, which you will at once see. R. 



and far more reasonable and scientific than the old 

 theory respectinir the influence of salt water, here- 

 tofore maintained by many, without foundation. 

 Respectfully 



Charles F. Randolph. 

 [In answer to the inquiry above, we have to say 

 that there has been nothing found, either in later ex- 

 perience or information, to contradict or oppose the 

 views presented in the 'Essay on Calcareous Manures,' 

 as to the action of gypsum on marled lands; and as to the 

 fact, and the cause, of its not acting on all soils which 

 most need the application of marl or lime. — Ed. Far.. 

 Reg.] 



BIARLING AND LIMING IN NEW JERSEY. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Cumberland, JV. J., March 8th, 183S. 



Sir — I became acquainted with your 'Essay on 

 Calcareous JNlanures," between two and three years 

 ago, by the way of an article in the 'New Jersey 

 Slate Gazette', copied from the 'New York Jour- 

 nal of Commerce.' I was so well pleased with 

 your theory, as there laid down, that I procured a 

 copy of the essay of Messrs. Carey Si Hart of 

 Philadelphia, the first op|)ortunity I hud; and I 

 can truly say I perused it with much pleasure, and 

 1 trust with some profit. I consider it a valuable 

 work, especially for those making use of marl and 

 lime. I put your 'Essay' into the 'Union Librar3^' 

 thinking to procure one f )r myself. I have sent to 

 Philadelphia several times, but could not obtain 

 one at any price. It is perhaps not more than 

 two years since people in these parts generally 

 became in fivor of marling and liming. Havin<; 

 got clear of their prejudices, many are perhaps 

 acting in the other exireme. Many people in this 

 county cart marl that contains only thirty or forty 

 per cent of calcareous earth, 6, 7 and 8 miles, and 

 pay for it at the pits from 50 to 65 cents for a load 

 of 20 bushels. 



Our practice in this part of the country, general- 

 ly, is to raise fi-om one to three crops of buckwheat, 

 first, before we sow clover, or try to raise some 

 other grain. 



I sowed gypsum last summer on buckwheat, 

 from one to two bushels to the acre. The season 

 was quite wet, and I could perceive but little dif- 

 ference, and none between that which had but 

 one, and tliat which had two bushels to the acre. 



I would like to be informed in the 'Register' or 

 gome other way, of j'our success in using plaster; 

 and whether you still continue to hold to your 

 theory respecting its want of action, as laid down 

 in your e&say. I think your theory very ingenious, 



From the Norfollt Herald. 

 DISASTERS ON RAILWAYS. 



A correspondent calls our attention to a com- 

 munication in the March number of the Farmers' 

 Register, purporting to be li-om a correspondent on 

 the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but suspected to 

 have originated nearer home, in which the writer, 

 while arguing against the construction of the Eas- 

 tern Shore rail road, does injustice, we think, to 

 Major Kearney. But what we regard as more 

 particularly deserving our attention, and the ex- 

 pression of our resret at such remarks from such a 

 (juarter, are the notes by the editor of the Register, 

 whose position towards the great body of the pub- 

 lic, if we understand it rightly, is one of strict 

 neutrality in regard to all questions of a local bear- 

 ing. Whatever interest he may feel individually 

 in the line of rail road from the Roanoke to Fre- 

 dericksburg (and it is natural that he should feel a 

 deep interest in it) it does not become him to make 

 his excellent Register, which owns the whole state 

 for the sphere ol' its usefulness, a vehicle lor ad- 

 vancing one section of it at the expense of another. 

 For instance: he says, "but if experience may be 

 relied on to furnish evidence, it may be safely as- 

 sumed, that a well managed railway is the safest 

 mode of travelling next to well managed river (^not 

 Allantic or Chesapeake) steam vessels." Now 

 this is an assumption notoriously contradicted by 

 fact. VV^ithout instituting a comparison between 

 the safety of rail road and steam boat travelling, or 

 between that of river steam boats (including those 

 on the western waters) and the steam boats na- 

 vigating tlie Chesapeake between Norlblk and 

 Baltimore lor the last 21 years, we will only state 

 the remarkable fact, that while the public sensibi- 

 lity has been almost incessantly pained by recitals 

 of "dreadful steam boat disasters" on our rivers, 

 and "accidents and loss of life on rail roads," from> 

 all parts of the country, no accident has ever oc- 

 curred on board of one of the boats running on the 

 Chesapeake, which involved the loss of a single 

 life, or any bodily injury whatever, from their com- 

 mencement in 1817 up to the present lime. Now 

 we dely the editor of the Register, and the whole 

 world to back him, to produce a corresponding in- 

 stance of exemption li-om casualty and human 

 suffering on any other line of travel, in so long a 

 period of time. The fact here stated is too well 

 known to travellers, lor the inuendo of the Regis- 

 ter to cause the least ajiprehension for their safety 

 in coiTimitting themselves to the Chesapeake 

 steam boats. 



•The editor of the Register also takes occasion in 

 his remarks, to notice tlie disasters on the Ports 



