■78 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



The school is divided into working parties of 

 ten; at the liead of each is a steady young man of 

 experience, called the 'decurion,' who directs the 

 Avork of his party. In all difficult operations, a 

 regular farming laborer is at hand to perlbrm 

 them; but such is the ardor and j)erseverance of 

 the youths, that Ihey rarely allow any difficulty to 

 arrest their progress. The duty of one 'decury' 

 or ten, is to dress, litter and feed the cattle, with as 

 much regularity as a cavalry corps dress their 

 horses; alio to keep the fiirm-yard in order. Thus 

 all, in turn, are made acquainted with every thing 

 connected with a liirm, whether in regard to 

 horses, oxen, cows, pigs, or manures. These last 

 are made and husbanded with the greatest care, 

 the mixons being formed of sweepings, leaves, 

 and weeds that had not seeded, in alternate layers 

 with stable manure. 



The drainings of the stables and straw-yard, 

 run into a tank, to be pumped out when required 

 as liquid manure, which is in the best, most port- 

 able, but least known in this country. 



The learned professor M. Donku, who is an 

 admirable practical ftirmer, as polite and commu- 

 nicative as he is learned, complained that he had 

 not a sufficient quantity of manure. I urged him 

 to burn the underwood and decaying timber of the 

 large adjacent forests, through which wide roads 

 were cut, which would enable him to obtain an 

 inexhaustable supply of ashes the best of all ma- 

 nures either for turnips or wheat; the cartage of 

 ashes being easy, and the quantity required to 

 dress the land not being great; in which he entire- 

 ly coincided. 



At nine all come into their studies, when they 

 write remarks on the various operations of the 

 morning. From eleven to twelve is the breakfast 

 hour. From twelve to three is the time fi)r recre- 

 ation and study, which embraces for the first class 

 questions of the following nature: — "His farm of 

 600 acres, one eighth of which is always to be in 

 beet-root, is to be divided into the most eligible 

 rotation of crops; show the most profitable course, 

 and describe the nature and chemical properties of 

 the soil in each field, the proper manures to be ap- 

 plied to them, the quantity of seed required for 

 the crop, its culture by previous ploughings, by 

 after-hoeing or weeding, the cost and labor, and 

 the probable return'?"' 



The plans of farming given by some of the 

 youths, would have done credit to an experienced 

 i'armer, and demonstrated clearly that though 

 iheory alone in firming is an absurdity, the com- 

 bination of the practice with scientific acquire- 

 ments, will soon operate great melioration in the 

 agricultural world. From three till seven they 

 prosecute their labor in the fields, being eight 

 hours work in the day. They then come in for 

 dinner. At eight the director receives the report, 

 from every decurion, of the day's work of his par- 

 ty of ten. He then orders the work for the ensu- 

 ing day, givinii a concise lecture on the subject 

 when necessary to the culture of any unusual 

 crop. A library of agricultural works is open to 

 the studenis till bed time, a quarter past nine. 

 * * * The crop that appeared to me to be most 

 carefully cultivated, was beet-root in drills, which 

 produced per acre about 750 pounds of sugar, sell- 

 ing at ten pence per lb. as last as it could be man- 

 ufactured. 



REMARKS ON THE EXCEPTIONS TO DR. MUSE's 

 ADDRESS, 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



March 25, 1838. 



You will allow, if you please, an earnest patron 

 of the "Farmers' Register," to make a few re- 

 marks upon your "Exceptions to some positions in 

 Dr. Muse's Address," including, also, others of a 

 similar import, under the signature of 'N. L.' in 

 your late 10th and 11th Nos. 



First, as to his belief of the transmutation of 

 wheat — besides the numerous evidences referred 

 to by him, he has lately received from a farmer of 

 intelligence and high standing, other conclusive 

 testimony. 



What I chiefly design in this brief communica- 

 tion, is fo call your attention to the fact, that your 

 'Exceptions' to Dr. Muse's views of the deterio- 

 ration of our climate, and its approaching unfitness 

 for the profitable growth of wheat, are founded, 

 exclusively, upon one, only, of the grounds which 

 he has taken to arrive at his conclusion, to wit: 

 the general lowering of the temperature of the 

 globe; and you consequently "difl^er widely as to 

 Uie rate of the progress of "the change." Were 

 he to confine himself to this single cause, as you 

 have done, he might probably agree with you, 

 that the rate of the progress should be shown. 



In his address, Dr. Muse has called in the aid 

 of co-operative causes, which, he maintains, where 

 they exist, will greatly accelerate the ordinary 

 rate of this progress. Among these auxiliaries, 

 he names the extensive clearing of the country, 

 and the felling of the forests of the United States, 

 which, from the geographical position of this sec- 

 lion of the globe, in relation to the northern re- 

 gions of the same hemisphere, and their mode of 

 connexion, will, he thinks, in all human probabili- 

 ty, upon well-known philosophical principles which 

 he explains, produce such efi'eets as he enumerates; 

 and which, he thinks, have already operated to the 

 injury of the wheat plant; and, as this cause is 

 progressive in a kind of geometric ratio with the 

 increase of the population, and the spreading of 

 new settlements, so he thinks, that in a short 

 lapse of time, not to be measured by a single rule, 

 the meteorological character of the United States 

 will be so considerably altered, not only in the de- 

 gree of cold, but in the suddenness and frequency 

 of the transitions, at all seasons of the year, and 

 in the frequent and critical droughts, as to com- 

 pel a resort to other crops, which may be found 

 more suitable to \he partially present and reasona- 

 bly anticipated condition. And the motive of Dr. 

 Muse appears to have been, not to exche alarm, 

 or despondency, but to warn his fellow-citizens, of 

 the necessity of gradually introducing new crops, 

 in place of that, which experience and reason both 

 declare to be on the decline. 



You say, "if this (the general lowering of the 

 temperature of the globe,) were the cause of the 

 frequent failures of our wheat crops, the effect 

 would be more striking, as we advanced to the- 

 colder stations;'''' which, you add, "is not the case." 

 Dr. Muse adduces authentic proof, in the records 

 of the "Northern Farmer" of New England that 

 fifiy years ago the New England states made fine: 

 crops oi'tointer wheat; and that now, they cannot 

 produce enough of this grain to pay costs." They 



