434 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 7 



made to apcertain whether this supposition be cor- 

 rect or not. [ remain, dear sir, 



Your old friend and fellow laborer, 

 J. M. G. 



[The article respecting the wonderful (and, as we 

 fully concur in pronouncing, the incredible) increase 

 in corn, from merely soaking the seed in a solution of 

 nitre, is justly obnoxious to our correspondent's stric- 

 tures. It was inserted during our absence, or it would 

 have been accompanied by remarks, showing that the 

 article was selected as a scrap of agricultural news, 

 and as furnishing subject for experiment, but not as 

 ground for belief, or confidence, upon merely the pre- 

 sent statement. We can scarcely suppose that the 

 editor of the paper from which the article was copied, 

 and his friend the farmer, both being named and 

 known witnesses, could have deliberately combined to 

 tell so monstrous a lie, as a severe judgment may pro- 

 nounce upon the statement made, viz., that simply 

 soaking the seed-corn in saltpetre-water, increased 

 the crop fully 400 per cent. We infer, that there 

 was an increase, (greatly exaggerated perhaps by the 

 guessers,) but that it was owing to some indirect bene- 

 fit, and in a manner not stated, and not amounting to 

 any noticeable addition to the fertility or producing 

 power of the soil. 



So far we agree with our friend J. M. G.; but not so 

 in his harsh strictures upon the words of another se- 

 lected article. It is very true, that the phrase quoted 

 is not grammatically or critically correct; and, if sub- 

 jected to be construed literally, and according to the 

 strict rules of composition, that it would (if the con- 

 trary were not evident,) bear the meaning that our 

 correspondent charges to have been conveyed. But 

 the manifest absurdity of a man's weekly allowance 

 being 300 pounds of meat, ought alone to be enough 

 to acquit the writer of any intention of making such 

 a statement. To our reading and understanding, it 

 was so plain that the writer meant a weekly proportion 

 of 300 pounds of bacon allowed for the year, that it 

 was not thought necessary to add any editorial note in 

 explanation. If such an inaccurate mode of expres- 

 sion had been seen in a manuscript communication, it 

 would certainly have been our duty, as it is our usage, 

 to correct it; but it is not our practice, nor would it 

 be justifiable, to alter the text of articles selected from 

 other publications. — Ed. Par. Reg.] 



PROFIT FROM CLOVER. THE DROUGHT. 

 SEA-ORE AND SALT. COULTERING NEW 

 GROUND. IMPROVEMENT OF LAND AND 

 HEALTH, &C. 



To tlie Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Old Point Comfort, EUzahelh-city ? 

 County, September 10, 1838. \ 



The wheat crops in this neighborhood have not 

 realized the sanguine expectations entertained be- 

 fore harvest. The growth of straw, was most 

 luxuriant; but the heads small, and generally light. 

 The fallowed wheat was infinitely superior'to that 

 sown on corn-land. I sowed 45 bushels in a field 



of 42 acres, 12 of which had been in clover turned in 

 in September. The exact yield I have not ascer- 

 tained, as F have got out yet but three stacks, 

 averaging 80 bushels each; but I obtained ten 

 stacks, and of these, four and a half were cut from 

 the twelve acres. It is proper to state that the 

 fallowed land was naturally the best part of the 

 field, and would, under any circumstances, have 

 produced the best crop; but nothing like their differ- 

 ence would have resulted, without the aid of the 

 clover. A gentleman in this neighborhood, of 

 great accuracy in sjch matters, told me, that last 

 year his fallowed land yielded 26 bushels, and his 

 corn land 13 to the acre, just one-half; and that 

 this year the difference was full as great, if not 

 greater; the land in both instances of equal qua- 

 lity. Can there be a sironser argument than 

 this, to exhibit the benefit to be derived from clo- 

 ver, to say nothing oi" the excellent pasturage it 

 affords for two or three months, if, like myself, 

 you are compelled, occasionally, to turn your stock 

 upon it, until the harvest fields are ready for 

 them. 



But, says one, my land will not produce clover, 

 and what am I to do then? Why marl it. I 

 don't believe there is an acre of land below tide- 

 water, that will produce any thing, that cannot be 

 made to produce clover. Lime it, and if you 

 have not the means to buy the lime or marl, sell 

 one-half of your land, and apply the proceeds to 

 the other, and with a light top-dressing of vege- 

 table manure, my life upon it, you will make the 

 clover grow. I have tried it, and know if to be 

 true. Four years ago I sowed a field in wheat, 

 and the following spring put it in clover, at the rate 

 of a gallon to the acre. The wheat was indiffer- 

 ent; the clover seed thrown away: for, except 

 here and there in small spots, not a leaf was to be 

 seen. The following winter I dressed this field 

 from a deposit of burned shells, which had been 

 on the farm from time immemorial, at the rate of 

 about 100 bushels to the acre, and gave it a light 

 coat of vegetable manure. In the spring it was 

 planted in corn and yielded several bushels to the 

 acre. In the fall it was again put in wheat, and 

 clover sown on it in the spring: and this year I 

 had as luxuriant and well-set a crop of clover, as 

 I ever saw in Virginia. 



We have sudered this year from the drought 

 and heat, equally with most other parts of the 

 country. We had no rain from the 21st July, to 

 the 1 1th of August. It may not be uninleresting 

 here, to give a comparative statement of the 

 mean temperature, and the amount of rain that 

 fell in the last three months and the corresponding 

 month of last year. 



The thermometer is noted at sunrise, 2 P. M. 

 and dark. 



We cannot but be struck with the difference in 

 the quantity of rain that fell in August last year 

 and this; and although the farmer has suffered 



