804 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No- 5 



to the process, and the examination showed that 

 the greatest frauds had been practised on the 

 community. M. Jauffret is dead, and a chemi- 

 cal examination proved it to be only an all<aline 

 solution, good in its eflecls on the soil, of course, 

 but utterly incapable of performing the effects 

 claimed by the inventor. There is no magic, we 

 had almost said no mystery, in the preparation of 

 manure. It is the result of animal or vegetable 

 decomposition ; and what has once been the con- 

 stituent part of plants, is more readily adapted to 

 their use, than matter which was never under the 

 process of vegetable or animal organization. In 

 the application of science to agriculture we are 

 entitled to expect great improvements, but not 

 miracles, and any process that claims a result ap- 

 proaching to this may well be looked upon with 

 suspicion. 



Since writing the foregoing, the last number of 

 the London Magazine has reached us, and from 

 it we make the following extract. 



"TTie New Manure of Javjf'ret.—A friend of 

 ours has obligingly written to a large landed pro- 

 prietor in France,\vho is a member of the cham- 

 ber of deputies, making inquiries respecting this 

 man, and his invaluable manure, when it turns 

 out that he is one of that class of charlatans, of 

 which there are so many at this time practising 

 deception on the agricultural community. It ap- 

 pears that the old peasant has lived in clover these 

 last two years, and duped dozens of Mayors, Pre- 

 fects, and other functionaries, and taken the cash 

 of hundreds of subscribers. "Our friend's infor- 

 mant, who was himself one of the dupes, states 

 that the new manure costs double the price of or- 

 dinary manure. The author of this valuable dis- 

 covery it seems is dead. Had there been a Na- 

 tionalAgricultural Institution in existence in this 

 country, having individuals connected with it rea- 

 dy and competent to examine into such pretended 

 discoveries, this sioindler^s tricks, as well as those 

 of many others, would long since have been ex- 

 posed." 



For tlie Fanners' Register. 



AGRICULTURAL 



NOTES OF 

 WEST. 



A TOUR IN THE 



Nelson County, Va., July I2th, 1838. 



Bear Sir — I left Baltimore, on the 31st of 

 March, for the west, by the railroad to Frederick- 

 town in Maryland; and passing over a pour 

 stony and hilly country for the first forty miles, 

 reached that place a little after noon. The coun- 

 try, as you approach Frederick, opens into a beau- 

 tiful valley, well cultivated, and at this time pre- 

 sented numerous fields of wheat, very luxuriant 

 in appearance. Contrasted with the wretched re- 

 gion in the neighborhood of Baltimore, it appears 

 to great advantage. Valley succeeds valley, with 

 little difference, apparently, in soil or culture, until 

 the traveller approaches the Alleghany range of 

 mountains. The passage across them, however 

 fertile in scenes interesting to the "eye of taste," 

 affords litUe to engage the attention of an agricul- 

 turist, except the fine national road, over which 

 the eastern and western commerce and travel are 

 here conducted. To us in the south, who have 

 been struggling since the first settlement of the 



country with the worst modes of conveyance for 

 our agricultural products, it is edilying to see what 

 an immense amount of labor may be paved in the 

 transportation of crops to market by the construc- 

 tion of good routes ; and, consequently, that a 

 great enliancement in their value, results Irom the 

 diminution in the charge of transportation, 



Fifiy-six hours of constant travelling carried us 

 from Baltimore to Wheelinir; yet, so good wa.=i 

 the road, although across lofiy mountains, and so 

 easy to sleep in the coach, that the journey was 

 attended with very little faiiiiue. 



The vegetation on the Ohio seemed at the first 

 iilance to be of a much richer and deeper green, 

 than any in the east, although the uncommon 

 coldness of the spring had retarded both so much 

 that very little moie than the first traces were visi- 

 ble on either side ol" the mountains. A steam- 

 boat ready to depart, afforded an immediate op- 

 portunity of descending the Ohio, and, in about 

 thirty-six hours afier leaving Wheeling, 1 was 

 landed at Portsmouth, at the termination of the 

 Ohio and Erie Canal. The navigation of the ca- 

 nal was just resumed, after the winter's suspen- 

 sion, and taking a passage in an excessively 

 crowded canal boat, I arrived at Chilicothe on the 

 following day. During this rapid journey, I had 

 an opportunity of seeing the wheat-crop was ex- 

 ceedingly promising every where, but more par- 

 ticularly so along the course of the Ohio and up 

 the Scioto. Reposing here some time, I received 

 information, in several respects, of ihe trade and 

 agricultural productions of this very rich valley, 

 which may possibly not be uninteresting to some 

 of the readers of your useful journal, although it 

 is far less extensive than I wished. 



The Scioto river is bounded by exceedingly rich 

 and extensive fiats, the dark alluvial soil of Avhich 

 varies from one to eighteen feet in depth, and pos- 

 sesses a proportionate fertility. From sixty to 

 eighty bushels of corn to the acre are produced 

 from lands long and successively cultivated in that 

 crop ; and there are well authenticated casea 

 of from 120 to 160 being obtained from fresh 

 lands, by good and careful culture. There are 

 instances where the same field has been cultivat- 

 ed for forty years in succession in corn, with very 

 little diminution, to the eye, in its product, at least 

 for the last thirty years. These grounds yielding 

 so abundantly in corn, are too rich to be safe for 

 wheat, although good crops are sometimes ob- 

 tained. But the neighboring highlands produce 

 small grain of all kinds most bountilijlly, and all 

 the most valuable grasses in great abundance. 

 It may be imagined that a country endowed with 

 such capacities for rearing live stock would have 

 a portion, at least, of its capital applied in that 

 manner. And that was the case to a great ex- 

 tent before the construction of the Ohio and Erie 

 Canal opened the markets of New York and 

 New Orleans to the productions of the soil. 

 Even now that trade affords employment to the 

 resources of many of the most wealthy landhold- 

 ers. Large numbers of cattle purchased west- 

 ward of the Scioto valley, in addition to those 

 bred in it are either fattened there for market, or 

 being kept for some time, are sold to persons liv- 

 ing in the eastern states, to be by them prepared 

 for the consumption of eastern purchasers. Ho^s 

 too, to a very large amount, are fattened, and ei- 

 ther driven eastward, or are slaughtered and salt- 



