174 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



No. 3 



Onions are sown in this neio;hborhood from the 

 1st to the 25th April, on rich, well prepared 

 ground, in drills 12 inches apart, and are after- 

 wards thinned to a proper distance. Tiie earlier 

 they are sown, the sooner they come to maturity ; 

 and, well managed, are a sure and profitable crop. 



The tree onion is said to come from a high lati- 

 tude, where the climate being too cold for them to 

 flower and seed, the flower becomes viviparous, 

 and bears bulbs instead of flowers. 



suit; but it is to he hoped that, by experiments 

 made among the European keepers of silkworms 

 with dilliereiit farinaceous substances some substi- 

 tute may be found for the rice. — Ibid. 



FACT IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



We understand that the Beaver has been disco- 

 vered in Surrey county, near Cabin Point, from 40 

 to 50 miles from this city. It was for some time 

 believed that they were extinct in that part of the 

 country. A correspondent says: "We saw the 

 dams they had formed of the branches of trees 

 thrown across, and we brought home several of the 

 bits of wood nibbled by them for that purpose." 

 As it is possible they may also be found in some 

 of the adjoining counties in Virginia, we should be 

 happy to receive communications upon the subject. 

 — Richmond Enquirer. 



LOSS OF SPECIES OF PLANTS. 



M. De St. Hilaire states that many species of 

 plants have been lost within the period of history. 

 Within a '[&Vf years, many species, quite common 

 in the environs of Paris have become very rare; 

 Scilla italica, Spartium purgans, and Piponia co- 

 rallina have entirely disappeared from the neigh- 

 borhood of Orleans ; and, even in our own days, 

 the rocks of Vaucluse have been completely de- 

 spoiled of the Asplenium Petrarchan Is it not 

 possible, then, he adds, that many flowering 

 plants, really phosphorescent, may have been lost 

 in the long period which has elapsed since the 

 days of Democritus, Pliny, and Josephus '? — VE- 

 cho du 3 fonde Savant. 



SILK \VOR3IS FED UPON RICE. 



In a Chinese work on the culture of the silk- 

 worm, lately translated into French by M. S. 

 J alien, a curious process is mentioned, the cor- 

 rectness of which has been proved by experiment. 

 It is said that, in China, in order to supply more 

 nourishment to the silkworms, the mulberry leaves 

 upon which they I'eed are powdered with the flour 

 of rice. But M. Bonalbns of Turin, who trans- 

 lated the work into Italian from the French, wish- 

 ing to prove the truth of the Chinese process, 

 powdered the mulberry leaves with the flour of 

 rice, with wheat flour, and with other ft?cula; and 

 found that these various substances, which other- 

 wise are not eaten by the silkworms, become, in 

 this case, excellent nourishment, and cause the 

 worms to develope themselves rapidly. The co- 

 coons of the silkworms fed upon rice flour are 

 much finer and heavier than usual. The other 

 kinds of fecula did not produce a satisfactory re- 



From the Louisville Advertiser. 

 THE GREAT WORK DONE. 



The Herculean task of removing the great Red 

 river raft, has been accomplished. A free and 

 safe navigation for steamboats has been opened 

 entirely through it. If we may be allowed the 

 expression, a mighty river has been restored to its 

 natural channel, from which it had been forced for 

 some centuries. Many steam and keel boats 

 have passed through the channel where the raft 

 was, and heavily freighted. The United States 

 steamer passed out of the head of the raft on the 

 29lh ult., having run up from Shreveport, a dis- 

 tance of fifty two miles, in seven hours and fifty- 

 two minutes. Shreveport is on the river, one hun- 

 dred and fifteen miles above the original foot of 

 the rail. This shows that the raft was one hun- 

 dred and sixty-seven miles in length — much of 

 which was covered with a rich soil and heavy 

 timber. 



From the point lately termed ihe head of the 

 raft to the mouth of the Kiamecha river, a distance 

 of six hundred miles, there is no obstruction to the 

 navigation of Red river, and the land is as fertile 

 as any on this continent. In addition to this it is 

 said the tributary streams of Red river aflbrd 

 about eighteen hundred miles of good steamboat 

 navigation, the advantages of which depended on 

 the removal of the raft. W hen the great work 

 was completed, there was in the country above it 

 about twenty thousand bales of cotton, which 

 have probably been fleighted since on steamers to 

 New Orleans. In the region of the raft, we learn 

 the country is rapidly settling, and it is believed 

 two hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton 

 will be made on lands redeemed by the removal 

 of the raft, in 1S42. The value of the improve- 

 ment is really incalculable. Towns and villages 

 are springing into existence and flourishing where 

 there was nothing but one wide wilderness in 

 1834. The dense forest is disappearing and im- 

 mense cotton fields are to be seen in almost every 

 direction. The inhabitants are not squatters, but 

 men owning fiom forty to two hundred slaves — 

 planters, who will make from two to three hun- 

 dred bales of cotton each in 18.38. 



We also learn that vast beds of iron ore have 

 been found in the vicinity of" the head of the Raft. 



It would thus appear that the ingenuity, perse- 

 verance and boldness of II. M. Shreve, superin- 

 tendent of the work, have added thousands of 

 miles to the steamboat navigation of the soulh- 

 vvest, doubled the value of some thirty or forty 

 millions of acres of jmblic land, given an impetus 

 to cotton growing in that region which will accele- 

 rate the onward march of New Orleans, and 

 opened a new and most fertile region to the enter- 

 prise of his fellow citizens. His'snag boats have 

 been found not only serviceable but indispensable 

 machines. Without them the great undertaking 

 could not have been accomplished for several 

 years to come. 



