u 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 2 



publication, considerably cheaper than it is now, 

 by additional subscribers, induced me, during the 

 late session of our legislature, to make as much 

 exertion as my leeble health would permit, and 

 I had full expectation to succeed to some extent. 

 Another subject, however, had taken hold of uur 

 representatives, and nothing could be noticed by 

 them, but a subject upon which they could not le- 

 gislate, and which ninety-nine hundredths of them 

 did not at all understand, viz.: the currency. The 

 consequence was a total disappointment; and noth- 

 ins to which my etiort tended was effected. I also 

 endeavored to procure some aid of the marl dis- 

 tricts of this state, from the members from that 

 part of the country; but, as I could not mingle 

 currency and banks, or no banks and the svblren- 

 sury scheme, I could not draw the least attention 

 on the subject I wished to promote. I see, by a short 

 communication, near the end of the last number 

 of the Farmers' Register, by the Honorable F. 

 H. Elmore, who is truly deserving of the epithet 

 prefixed to the names of the members of con- 

 gress, and a great friend to agriculture, that he 

 sent a small specimen of marl to the editor, whose 

 observations and well deserved reproofs on the in- 

 attention paid by the agriculturists of the lower 

 part of the state to so valuable a resource at their 

 hand, and which they totally neglect, and that his 

 (the editor's) "request, advice, and instruction 

 have not served to induce a single cultivator to 

 marl even so much as an acre of land." "Truly," 

 (continues he) "we have but small encourage- 

 ment to persevere in offering to them advice and 

 instruction." 



Is it not surprising, my dear sir, how difficult it 

 is to introduce any thing new, or improvements 

 in our habitual practices? and this is more especi- 

 ally true in agriculture. It is not that they doubt 

 the efficacy of the use of marl and other carbon- 

 ates of lime, so much as that it is a deviation from 

 their usual practice; for none of those to whom I 

 have mentioned the great benefit derived else- 

 where from its use, have shown any sign of dis- 

 belief, and the only objection that I could ever 

 observe, was the necessity of making some exer- 

 tion in a waydifferent from their usual course, and 

 also the expense attending it; although this last 

 would not have been a material objection, if it 

 could have been effected by merely paying the 

 money. 



Although I agree very well, generally, with 

 you in your views of agricultural things and poli- 

 cy, yet there is one subject on which I cannot go 

 so far as you do. You seem inclined to the opin- 

 ion that, in the cultivation of corn, the cutting of 

 the roots by the plough and other instruments is 

 benficial to its growth. I admit with you that 

 generally the benefit obtained from the ploughing 

 out-does the disadvantage of cutting the roots; 

 but I think that the corn does well, not in conse- 

 quence of the roots being cut ; but in spite of this 

 mutilation. The land being in good heart, and 

 stirred deep, has undoubtedly, the state of weather 

 being favorable to thesti'ength, caused many small 

 roots with their spongioles to push from the ends 

 of the mutilated old roots, and by this the crop 

 does not seem to suffer. I have often seen, after 

 such a ploughing, the weather being unfavorable, 

 the corn to be much injured, by what is usually 

 called "firing," which I attributed, perhaps erro- 

 neously, to the roots having been cut when the 



corn waff not able to produce afresh supply of 

 them. The producing of these new roota with 

 their spongioles is, however, in every case, an 

 effort ol" the plant, which might probably be other- 

 wise applied to other useful purposes to the 

 plant's weiliu'c. It is true we have no experi- 

 ments that 1 know of tending directly to prove or 

 disprove clearly and distinctly my opinion; but I 

 tliink the experiment of Mr. James Camak, of 

 Georgia, goes far to prove on one side of the ques- 

 tion, that the roots of the corn never being cut in 

 the course of its growth, is not an obstacle to the 

 producing of a large crop. You know that his 

 experiment was, first to plough his ground well 

 and deep, plant his corn, and when it was only a 

 lew inches higher, to give it a sligb.t hoeing, and 

 then cover tlie whole field with leaves from the 

 woods, three, four or five inches thick, and then 

 let the field alone without any further work at all, 

 till it was fit to be gathered. By this method, he 

 obtained more than double the quantity of corn 

 usually produced by the land. Now, I was for- 

 merly personally well acquainted with Mr. Ca- 

 mak, and know him fully deserving of confidence 

 in his assertions, and incapable of wilfully assert- 

 ing that which was not most strictly true. His 

 plan of cultivating corn is only practicable in new 

 settled countries, where the abundance of forests 

 affords a full supply of leaves, of which a very 

 great quantity is required to cover a field. The 

 cultivators in the old settled states, have put it out 

 of their power, by their unprovidence in most 

 wastefully desti'oying their timber; but it seems to 

 me that this experiment favors my opinion very 

 strongly. 



There are many other parts of your most use- 

 ful and interesting address, on which 1 intended 

 making a few observations; but as these would 

 have been of little Vv^orth, and that you must be 

 tired of reading this long epistle, 1 shall close it 

 here by assuring you that I am, most respectfully, 

 Dear sir, your obd't. serv't. 



N. Herbemont. 



Extract from the London Farmers' Magazine. 

 JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES. 



I was determined to prove whether or not they 

 could be cultivated to greater advantage than the 

 potatoe, as food for cattle. One sack was con- 

 sumed by a young calf at hand; it eat them with 

 avidity, and improved on them. I took the other 

 two sacks, and planted them in the midst of a five 

 acre piece of potatoes. I set them without cut- 

 ting, — measuring correctly an eighth part of an 

 acre; the pi'oduce was in proportion to 630 bushels 

 per acre, — the potatoes 327 bushels. The follow- 

 ing year, the memorable one of 1826, I planted 

 half an acre on a piece of thin gravel, old tillage 

 land, in its regular course of preparation for a vege- 

 table crop after wheat; they maintained their ver- 

 dure through that extraordinary dry summer, and 

 produced 150 bushels; but the potatoes by the side 

 of them were completely set fast; they never form- 

 ed a bulb. The year following, I set an acre on 

 part of the same kind of soil, but of better quality; 

 it produced 570 bushels, without any dung. A 

 half acre on the same land, with the usual quanti- 

 ty of dung for turnipf;, produced 290 bushels (a 



