1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



289 



made upon it by a few individuals, who included 

 in their (leimncialioiis, not only llie survey, but all 

 leijislativo iiieasiuTs lur tiie pioniolion of a<fricu!- 

 jure, all Pocietios, plou2[hin<i: matches, I'air.s, &c. 

 They niaiulaiiied that it was absurd to slimulale 

 nien'lo attend (o their own interest — that le<fisla- 

 tion was improper — that aixricultural and geolo- 

 gical surveys are expensive — in short they were 

 wholly on "the *• let us alone system." a system 

 whicli will do very well lo talk about, but which 

 in practice is found (requcnlly to produce results 

 any tliin<f but lavorablo. 



Their r(>marks called out a most triumphant re- 

 futation from JNIr. Prince ofRoxbury, who has 

 from the first been connected with the most efiec- 

 tive and prosperous airricultural society in the 

 country, that of Massachusetts ; and who for 

 some twenty years has been secretary of that 

 Slate Institution. Mr. Prince showed most con- 

 clusively that the first introduction into the state, 

 of all the improved implements of husbandry, 

 those that have entirely superseded the clumsy 

 contrivances of the earlier Ihrmers, were owing to 

 agricultural associations, and exhibitions. 



The first ploughing match in America took 

 place at Brighton, in 1S17, under the patronage 

 of the Massachusetis Atrricultural Society, and 

 then was introduced there for the first time, 

 Wood's patent cast-iron plouo-h, made by Free- 

 born, a plough which in its various modifications 

 has superseded all others, and so lar as ploughing 

 is concerned, (and all will admit that this lies at 

 the very basis of husbandry) has effected a com- 

 plete revolution in the ease and facility of the ope- 

 ration. At the Brighton show in 1836 there were 

 twentj'-two ploughs in the competition, all of 

 which were of iron. He showed that such had been 

 the lact with retjard to drills, cultivators, machines 

 forsovving seeds broad cast, hay and manure forks, 

 and numberless other implements of great value 

 to the farmer. They were first introduced by 

 such societies; they were tested, and their opera- 

 tion shown at the shows and exhibitions, and they 

 were thus brought to the notice of thousands of 

 farmers at once, many of whom might otherwise 

 not have heard of them for years. 



The Merino, and the Durham cattle, were in- 

 troduced many years since by the president of 

 this society; and it is mainly through the infiu- 

 ence of this and similar associations, that the 

 beaulil'ul McKay, Berkshire. China, and Byfield 

 pigs, have in that state mostly superseded the 

 long-nosed, impossible-to-liit swine that formerly 

 devoured the corn of the bay state. This im- 

 provement in pigs alone was many years since, 

 by one of the most extensive dealers in pork in 

 Massachusetts, estimated at more than a hundred 

 thousand dollars. 



It gives us pleasure to state that tiie bill to con- 

 tinue the appropriations of the state fur such pur- 

 poses was sustained by a vote of more than twen- 

 ty to one. The course of the Massachusetts le- 

 gislature is one honorable to their patriotism, and 

 a proof of their intelligence. Their bounty on 

 wheat, will cause the production of a handsotr.e 

 crop, we have not a doubt; we only regret that 

 such quantities of wheat have been sent to east- 

 ern farmers, under names to which it has not the 

 slightest pretension. The "stafi' of life" should 

 not be subjected to such petty speculations and 

 deceptions. 



Vol. Vr.-37 



FIBROUS-LEAVKD PLANTS, AND THE MODE 

 OF PRKl'AUIXG THE l^IBUES. 



To the Editor of the Fiumers' Register. 



TFashington, D. C, Id July, 183S. 



Dear Sir — You may have perceived in the 

 ncws|)apers, that on the 12ih June, the bill lo en- 

 coura<re the introduction and cultivation of Tro- 

 pical Plants, was passed in the senate by a vole^ 

 of 26 to 11; the majority including the names of 

 the most distinguitrhed senators, of all parlies, in 

 their seats on that occasion. You may also have 

 seen that on ihe 28ili ult., the committee on agri- 

 culture of the house of representatives re-report- 

 ed the same senate bill without amendment — a 

 measure upon which they unanimously agreed two 

 weeks before. The committee on agriculture has 

 but two bills to be acted on — viz: said senate bill, 

 and the bill to establish an agricultural department 

 in the Patent Oflice, and although that committee, 

 ever since the establishment oflhe government has 

 not ever asl<ed its right to be heard by congress, 

 it has not this session been able to obtain a sin- 

 gle hour for the consideration of its humble bills. 



On Saturday last, Gen. Jesup spent an hour in 

 the committee room, in the examination of the 

 specimens of foliaceous fibres of fibrous-leaved 

 plants adapted to both the arid and the humid 

 surfiices of Tropical Florida. He stated that all 

 Southern Florida from 28" N. L. to Cape Sable, 

 had now been explored by himsehj officers, and 

 soldiers, and that they still re-affirm the fiict, that 

 for our actual staples the whole district is not 

 worth the expense of surveying; that my sug- 

 gestion alone can render valuable the country 

 hiinerto considered uninhabitable and uncultiva- 

 ble, and that the government ought to grant 

 the whole territory below 28° to actual settlers 

 and cultivators on the conditions of the albre- 

 said senate bill. That bill you will see merely 

 admits the prospective sale of one or more sec- 

 lions, not exceeding thirty-six in all, for the most 

 valuable considerations ever offered to any go- 

 vernment or people for the actual settlement and 

 cultivation in valuable plants, within eight years, 

 in a district officially affirmed to be uninhabitable 

 and uncultivable, unworthy of the expense of a 

 survey, or even of the cost of medicines requisite 

 to conquer it. Although my heart sickens with 

 hope deferred, after eleven years' laborious absence 

 from my family, yet I shall still have some consola- 

 tion, provided public attention will thus be excited 

 towards the propagation of our indigenous fibrous- 

 leaved plants alone. The Hon. H. Wise thinks 

 that he recognizes, in the Agave V'irginica of my 

 jilales, a liimiliar plant in his district, ihere called 

 silk grass, of which slips of the leaves have Jong 

 been used lor economical purposes — especially lor 

 straps to suspend hams, &c., without suspecting 

 that they contained strong glossy white fibres, 

 which may be profitably extracted for sale or ma- 

 nuliicture. The economical uses of the Yucca 

 filamentosa or bear-grass, i. e. of tiie unscraped 

 leaves or slips of leaves, have been known from 

 time immemorial, in all our southern and south- 

 western states. The Hon. R. Hawes, of Ken- 

 tucky, informed me that the name of Bear-grass 

 Creek, in his state, was taken from the abundance 

 of the Yucca filamentosa on its borders. Nut- 

 tal tells us that it inhabits tiie banks of the Mis- 

 souri, from the confluence of the river Platte, to 



