90 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 2 



rion in such matters. Apart from its locality, it 

 niay not be Ibund worthy to retain a name at all. 



And the above-named criterion will be had ere 

 long; for I have lately sent vines and cuttintjs 

 thereof into various sections of our country, as 

 New England, and the states of New York, Ala-- 

 bama, South Carolina, and Ohio. N. Longworth, 

 Esq. of Cincinnati, now noted as one of the great- 

 est vignerons of our country, assured me in a late 

 letter, that he would test the qualities of the Hali- 

 fax as a wine grape in 18 months. 



And if permitted to compare facetiously little 

 matters vvhh great ones, I know not but if I assent 

 to Mr. Herbemont's proposition, I miirht do a like 

 injustice as that done by Americus Vespucius to 

 Columbus. As named, in answer to late inter- 

 rogatories propounded to me in a letter ti-om a 

 liighly esteemed correspondent, A. J3. Spooner, 

 Esq. this vine first attracted my attention in a 

 vineyard of a Mr. Smith of this county; or, m an 

 enclosure of his I call nature's vineyurd, because 

 formed by leaving vines in woods while clearing, 

 and the trees round which they had entwined 

 themselves. But if still thought, by those com- 

 petent to judge, that the successful cultivator 

 ought rather to be entitled to have the honor of the 

 name, than the original discoverer, I should, as I 



And here I am tempted to branch of}" into a long 

 digression on the great advantages of clover, other 

 grasses;, and root culture, to sujiport the stock, as 

 well as for other purposes; and advantages of 

 stock, on the other hand, lor keeping up and en- 

 riching lands preparatory to the above objects of 

 culture; but aware that time and space forbid, 

 I beg leave to add, in conclusion, a ft^w remarks 

 only on the dairy, and means of sustaining one to 

 the greatest advantage in our southern country. 

 And first, a general error is to be avoided; that is, 

 of sufiering cattle to run at large, instead of soiling- 

 or pasturing, as is done inEi;gland, whence como 

 the improved breeds of cattle, and as is done in 

 Goshen, the famous place for butter in New York 

 state. Another error connected with the above, 

 and unknown, I believe, in the above-named places, 

 is that of allowing the calves to suck the milch 

 covvs. I say, connected with the above, for I 

 cannot conceive any reason for the practice, ex- 

 cept that of inducing the dams, wandering in the 

 woods in the day time, to return to their calves at 

 night. Now field-pasturing avoids the trouble- 

 some business of whipping calves avvay from their 

 dams before a moiety of the milk can be obtained, 

 and absurd notion that cows cannot be induced to 

 ''letdown their milk" before the calves first suck. 



have said to Mr. Herbemont, in answer to his But here, to avoid these errors, I confess requires 



suggestion, prefer retaining the Halifax, and have 

 the grape called JFeller^s Halijax, if found, in due 

 time, worthy of a name., or change of name. 



On reading Mr. Herbemont's letter, I was 

 highly gratified to find that, in publicly avoiding 

 an opinion that the grape and silk culture might^ 

 with the greatest advantage, he conducted by the 

 same hands and in the same establishment, I was 

 but reiterating the sentiments of so good a judge 

 on such subjects. 



The peculiar advantages of blending a dairy es- 

 tablishment with those of the vine and silk culture, 

 never occurred to ray mind till suggested by JMr. 

 Herbemont's letter. But, as he states, it must be 

 evident to every competent judge on the subject, 

 that negatively, the business of "the dairy estab- 

 lishment would not interrupt the business of the 

 others, but would posiiively conduce, by its heal- 

 thy diet and profit, to the advantage of all concern- 

 ed. But here, I confess that the advantages of 

 stock or cattle for enriching the ground, preparato- 

 ry to the culture thereon of vines or the mulberry, 

 are not, I consider, so great as some would sup- 

 pose. According to my 'American System of 

 Vine Culture,' manures (so far as necessary) 

 from the place of wood-pile, from low-grounds and 

 sides of ditches, and from the woods, are compe- 

 tent, in general, to ensure complete success. That 

 ja, I conceive other than animal manure is better 

 for both vine and mulberry culture; and that the 

 resources on almost every plantation of chip ma- 

 nure, swamp or ditch bank dirt, rotten logs from 

 the woods, surface earth fi-om the same, and, after 

 vines or trees have sufficiently advanced, leaves, 

 pine straw, or green pine boughs strewed thickly 

 underneath, answer all purposes of sustaining the 

 bearing and flourishing. But suppose, as Mr. H. 

 states, the poorer lands of a plantation, (with the 

 above help,) will answer for vine and silk culture, 

 independent of help from the kine of the dairy, 

 yet the richer lands need the latter help to sustain 

 the stock in return, by clover and grasses, and 

 foots, as well as to afibrd bread-stuff ifor all. 



preparatory steps — steps almost as necessary as to 

 have a mulberry orchard before you can make 

 silk. The clover, or other grass culture, should 

 be first attended to, in order to sustain both calves 

 and cows; and it is also desirable to enter upon 

 ruta-baga culture, not to name other esculents. 

 And I candidly confess, that in our southern clime, 

 connected with sandy soil, are peculiar difficulties 

 to overcome, in order to successful clover culture; 

 which culture may be called the key to all after 

 permanent improvement and sustaining of lands. 

 But such difficulties (as I, in common with others, 

 have proved) are not insurmountable. I have 

 found that even on most light and sandy soils, by 

 first manuring well, if necessary, (leached ashes 

 highly important,) and sowing clover with wheat 

 early in the fill, alter taking off a forward crop of 

 corn, or cutting up some after grains are glazed, 

 good clover lots may be had, and a system of im- 

 provement thereby kept up, as well as the dairy. 

 The object in sowing clover in the fall on light 

 sandy soils, is to have the clover grown in the 

 fall beyond danger of being winter-killed, and to 

 have it so well rooted in the spring, as to sustain 

 safely the summer droughts, so heating to sandy 

 soils. For greater security of the crop, by push- 

 ing the growth, I sow a mixture of plaster of Pa- 

 ris and leached ashes — say, one bushel of the for- 

 mer to three of the latter per acre, after the clover 

 is in third leaf An old field of broom sedge en- 

 closed, will answer for a standing pasture till the 

 clover is in blossom, or fit to pasture or cut for 

 soiling. 



The ruta-baga 1 have found a sure and very 

 abundant crop, by manuring plentifully in the drill 

 where necessary, and sowing, or rather planting, 

 about or before the middle of July. No better 

 vegetable, not only for family use in general, but 

 for fallening cattle and making cows give abun- 

 dance of milk in winter. 



By the aforesaid plan of managing cows and 

 calves, 1 have had both to do far better than those 

 of my neighbors, by the old one in practise here. 



