214 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 



per separation of cream from milk, and the butter 

 from the cream, and the time required for each 

 process to he effected in the best manner. No 

 dairy room should ever be without a thermometer. 

 Proper and profitable selection and purchase of 

 cows for a dairy, Avould be greatly f:icilitated by 

 the knowledge of such tests. A single fact may 

 show in a slight degree, the advantage of selec- 

 tion. Cows were purchased for the iarm of the 

 writer, for making butter, and the character of 

 good butter-makers sought, so fiir as a very imper- 

 fect knowledge could direct. The animals were 

 no better in appearance than common, but in less 

 than three months in autumn, during a part of 

 which they had greatly diminished in milk, four 

 of them* furnished three hundred pounds of ex- 

 cellent butter 



lime itself The coal-ashes should be carefully kept 

 dry. Coal-ashes, thus prepared, are the quickest 

 breakers and imj)rovers of moorish and benty 

 land. 



From ttie Gentleman's Magazine, for 1766. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE INTRODUCTION OP RICE 

 AND TAR INTO OUR COLONIES. 



John Houffhton, a sensible writer on trade and 



husbandry, Vol. II. page 298. enumerates the 



commodities imported info England; among 



which he mentions rice, and gives the following 



These did not include one of the i account of it, probably froni the custom-house 



best butter-makers. 



J. J. T. 



From tlie Gentleman's Magazine, for 1766. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF PEAT-ASHES IN DRESS- 

 ING LAND, AND THE METHOD OF PREPAR- 

 ING COAL-ASHES FOR THE SABIE PURPOSE. 



Peat-ashes, properly burnt for a manure, are 

 noble improvers both of corn and grass-land ; but 

 tlie substance from which they should be got, is 

 an under stratum of the peat, where the fibres 

 and roots of the earth, &c. are well decayed. In- 

 deed the very best are procured from the lowest 

 stratum of ail. This will yield a large quantity 

 of very strong ashes, in color (when first burnt) 

 like vermilion, and in taste very salt and pungent. 

 Great care and caution should be used in burning 

 these ashes, and also in preserving them after- 

 wards. The method of burnins' them is much 

 the same as burning charcoal. The peat must be 

 collected into a large heap, and covered so as not 

 to flame out, but suffered to consume slowly, till 

 the whole substance is burnt to an ash. The 

 ashes thus burnt, are held in most esteem ; but 

 the peat-ashes burnt in common firing, are, in 

 many places, used for the same purposes, and 

 sold at the same prices. 



Peat-ashes are found excellent in sweetening 

 sour meadow-land, destroying rushes, and other 

 bad kinds of grass, and, in their stead, producing 

 great quantities of natural grass. 



They burn great quantities of peat-ashes in 

 some parts of Berkshire and Lancashire, and es- 

 teem them one of the best dressings lor their spring 

 crops. 



A very great improvement may likewise be 

 made, and at a moderate expense, with coal- 

 ashes; which, when properly preserved, are also 

 an excellent tillage. The improvement is, put- 

 ting a bushel of lime, in its hottest state, into 

 every cart-load of coal-ashes, when carried out 

 upon the land; covering it up in the middle of the 

 heap for about 12 hours, till the lime is entirely 

 fallen, and then incorporating them well toijether, 

 by turning them over two or three times; by 

 which the cinders, or half burnt parts of the coals, 

 which are noxious to the ground, instead of being 

 useful, will be reduced to as fine a powder as the 



* One of these yielded 7iine pounds oi butter per 

 week. They had common pasture only. 



books or bills of entry. 



nice imported in the year 1694. 



From the Straits, 1545 cwt. 



From Spain, ' 120 ditto 



From Plolland, 330 qrs. 



But as he takes no notice of rice from Carolina, it 

 is probable it was not then planted there, which 

 will appear with still stronger evidence by the fol- 

 lowing account. 



In the year 1696, my sagacious friend, Charles 

 Dubois, then treasurer to the East India Compa- 

 ny, told me olien with pleasure, that he first put 

 the Carolinians on the culture of rice. 



He happened one day, in that year, to meet 

 Thomas Marsh, a Carolina merchant, at the cof- 

 fee-house, to whom he said, I have been think- 

 ing, from the situation, nature of the soil, and cli- 

 mate, that rice may be produced to great advan- 

 tage in Carolina: but, says Marsh, how shall we 

 get some to try? Why, says Dubois, I will in- 

 quire for it amongst our India captains. Accord- 

 ingly, a money-bag full of East India rice was 

 given to Marsh, and he sent it to South Carolina ; 

 and in the year 1698, he told his friend Dubois, 

 that it had succeeded very well. 



But, from so small an original, it required a long 

 time to spread to advantage ; besides, the people 

 being unacquainted with the manner of cultivating 

 rice, many difficulties attended the first planting 

 and preparing it, as a vendible commodity, so 

 that little progress was made for the first nine or 

 ten years, when the quantity produced was not 

 sufficient for home consumption. 



About this time, a Portuguese vessel arrived, 

 with slaves from the east, with a considerable 

 quantity of rice, being the ship's provision; this 

 rice the Carolinians gladly took in exchange for a 

 supply of their own produce. This unexpected 

 cargo was distributed, which gave new spirit to 

 the undertaking, but was not sufficient to supply 

 the demand of all those that would have procured 

 it to plant. 



Therefore the Assembly of South Carolina, 

 taking into consideration the importance of the 

 culture of rice, very prudently voted a bounty to 

 encourage its importation, that there might be a 

 supply of feed ibr every undertaker. 



My ingenious friend, Tho. Lambol, esq. now 

 living, informs me, that in the year 1704, being 

 then a lad, going to school at some distance fi-om 

 Charles-Town, he took notice of some planters, 

 who were essayiuii to make rice grow. 



in the year 1712, the same gentleman was an 



