198 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



in the no;riciilUiral dcpartmont of the palcnt-office, 

 I entei'inin ilie respeclfiil liopo, that you, in com- 

 mon with all intelligent i^entlcmen who have seen 

 them and studied their hi'^tory, would coincide 

 witli hoih committees in their estimate of the fu- 

 ture importance of the fibrous-leaved plants, to all 

 the worst soils between the Potomac and the Mis- 

 sissippi. Every member of the senate and of the 

 house of representatives, who has visited the coni- 

 mittee-room and given the specimens an exami- 

 nation of 5 to 10 minutes' duration, has expressed 

 his sense of their high importance, and his appro- 

 bation of the reports of the committees. But such 

 visits have been so " few and tar between," 

 that it would require two or three years to elapse 

 before the specimens would be seen by a majority 

 of the members of the Congress, although the 

 whole time necessary for a visit from cither cham- 

 ber would not exceed ten minutes. To enable 

 you to form distinct ideas oi'the origin of the folia- 

 ceous fibres sent to you, I refer to plate 1, figs. A, 

 B C ; and of the mode of separating them, to 

 plate 2, figs. Al, A2, N and T. By a further re- 

 ference to the printed articles in the latter part of 

 the report of the house of reprei»entatives, under 

 the heads of agave sisalana, niusa abaca, and 

 bromelia pita, a few brief notices of each will be 



seen. 



In your editorial remarks, whose general cor- 

 rectness I acknowledge, there appear one or two 

 statements apparently founded on misconceptions. 

 For example, in speaking of the reports, you say, 

 " but both of them are but second editions, re- 

 vised, corrected and enlarged, of prior publications 

 made in like manner by order of Congress." The 

 fact is, that in the house report, there are but 26 

 or 28 pages to which that statement is applicable, 

 and in the senate report, not a single page ; and 

 the latter report is merely supplementary to the 

 former report. If you have had much experience 

 in committees of legislative bodies, especially 

 where the committees are composed of numerous 

 members, you will appreciate the difficulty of ob- 

 taining a unanimous report, either in matter or 

 manner such as the subject may seem to require. 

 Indeed, the documents annexed to each report, 

 are neither the kind that I would have voluntarily 

 selected myself, nor have they the boundaries I 

 should have given to them, nor have they even 

 the arrangement which the order of dates alone 

 would require. Besides, there arc subsequent dif- 

 ficulties, to which I cannot now conveniently al- 

 lude. With respect to your suggestion, that the 

 business of petitioning annually would be more 

 profitable, if I could get half as much as the clear 

 profits of the printers of the documents, the idea 

 might have been better expressed by saying it 

 would be less ruinous to my interests. Since the 

 11th February, 1837, when I arrived at New Or- 

 leans, to the present period, employed solely in 

 promoting the business of my petition, my cash 

 expenditures have far exceeded the value of any 

 township of land in South Florida, if not the whole 

 cost of printing the reports. And as I have no 

 income independent of my professional labors, the 

 cessation of them doubles my losses. 



* « * 



H. Perrine. 



P. S. Inclosed are four seeds or beans of the 

 dolichns tuberosus, or turnip-bean, or bean-turnip 

 of Yucatan, which produced good edible roots in 



Baltimore in 1834, although planted as late as the 

 1st of June. 



[With the foref^oing letter we received specimens of 

 the prepared foliaceous fibres of the agave sisalana, 

 forminc; the coarse but strong Sisal hemp, those of the 

 musa abaca, or finer Manilla hemp, and the still finer 

 and softer pine-apple flax, or prepared fibres of the 

 bromelia pita. Of the last, a notice was publish- 

 ed in this journal, copi«?d from a late English pub- 

 lication. The sight of these beautiful specimens 

 caused to be formed a much higher estimate of the 

 value of these products, than mere description could 

 have done. We wish success to Dr. Perrine's applica- 

 tion to Congress, and to its general objects. We can 

 well sympathize with a man of enthusiastic zeal, who 

 has been for years laboring, without encouragement or 

 success, to serve the cause of public improvement. 



The seeds of the turnip-bean have been placed in 

 the hands of a gentleman who will do justice to the 

 experiment of their cultivation.] — Ed. Far. Reg. 



ANALYSIS OF THE SANTEE MARL. 



In the latter part of our fifth volume, (page G93,) 

 there was published a letter from F. H. Elmore, esq. 

 describing the marl found in South Carolina on the 

 banks of the Santee,and which accompanied a specimen 

 of the marl in question. We then, upon veiy slight ex- 

 amination, merely reported that the marl was very 

 rich; and promised a careful analysis, and a report of 

 the results, at a time of more leisure. We are now 

 enabled to state, from recent examination, that the' 

 specimen sent was almost a pure carbonate of lime, 

 as it contained more than 98 per cent. The small resi- 

 due is of very fine clay and vegetable matter, with a 

 minute proportion of silicious sand. The lump was 

 almost as white, and very similar in other respects, 

 (as it was entirely in chemical composition,) to Eng- 

 lish chalk; the only certain difference being that the 

 American earth is not fit to mark with, like the Eng- 

 lish. Wo true chalk has yet been discovered in this 

 country. From the unexampled richness of this spe- 

 cimen, if considered as marl, we strongly suspect that 

 there was sent to Mr. Elmore a specimen of the 

 richest parts, and not one selected fairly to show an 

 avera"-e quality. We therefore, without further light 

 on the subject, would place more confidence on the 

 analysis reported by our correspondent J. D., on page 

 17,3 of last number, as showing a usual or average 

 strength. Th<it marl was from the same part of the 

 country, and doubtless was part of the same deposite, 

 and contained 88 per cent, of carbonate of lime; which is 

 rich enough to induce even the most lethargic of the 

 South Carolinian land-holders to commence its use. 

 We rejoice to learn, from the statement of J. D., that 

 the reproach which, in this respect, has lain on the 

 otherwise energetic and enthusiastic people of South 

 Carolina— and which we have not been backward in 

 urging against them— is now in course of being re- 

 moved. For, sure we are, that if marling is once 



