1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



453 



whose soil and climate are better adapted to it, or 

 where it can be prosecuted with jjrealer economy 

 in reference to labor, I should be at a loss to point 

 it out. We occupy that position in regard to cli- 

 mate, which is too Hir north to admit ofours being 

 a planting state; and too much to the south to be 

 a first rate grain-growing or grass-growing coun- 

 try. We have extensive tracts of impoverished 

 land in which the mulberry will flourish without 

 difficulty, and where nothing else will grow. Our 

 dry and long continued summers are eminently fa- 

 vorable to the health and prosperity even of suc- 

 cessive crops of the silk-worm. We have in almost 

 every fimily a number of unprofitable hands, 

 either too young or too old to be put to constant 

 employment; and the more intelligent portion of 

 our colored population, remarkable as they are for 

 their tractableness and powers of imitation, would 

 soon learn to conduct all the operations of the co- 

 coonery with neatness and skill. 



Many of the states to the north of us have en- 

 couraged the introduction of the silk culture by le- 

 gislative boimties; and I am convinced the wisdom 

 of this policy will be justified in due course of 

 time. If from causes already pointed out, but lit- 

 tle has yet been accomplished in the production of 

 the article thus encouraged, yet the ground-work 

 has been laid, and the superstructure will be erect- 

 ed upon it. The seed has been sown, which will 

 produce, some ten, some twenty, and some possi- 

 bly a hundred-fold. It will, however, necessarily 

 be a work of time. It may be another generation, 

 and yet another perliaps, before it is established 

 on a durable basis. But with a climate like ours, 

 and with a species of mulberry superior to any 

 hitherto known, the energies of the Anslo-Saxon 

 race will eventually command success. The men- 

 tal resources, the quickness of perception, the de- 

 termined perseverance, which constitute the dis- 

 tinguishing attributes of this people, will enable 

 them to triumph over every difficulty, and achieve 

 all but impossibilities. 



T. S. Pleasants. 



Goochland, September 15. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 

 THE CUOW (or daw?) A BIRD OF PREY. 



Surry, Sept. 12, 1838. 



A few weeks ago, whilst I was at a gentleman's 

 house of this county, I witnessed an act in a crow, 

 (the corn-dealer,) which was entirely new to me, 

 and it may be so to some of your subscribers. 



My friend and myself had been noticing his 

 flock of young turkeys, then about a week' old. 

 He was complaining of the depredation and ha- 

 vock the crows were playing among them, saying 

 that he expected to raise not one out of the whole! 

 This excited much surprise, and induced me to 

 watch for, and to notice the movements of, the 

 crows. WhiLst talking about them, or in a very 

 lew moments afterwards, there came one, (and 

 crow he certainly was,) and immediately attacked 

 the young brood, and after one or two ijnsuccess- 

 ful eflTorts he succeeded in taking up one, in spite 

 of every attempt of defence of the mother hen, 

 and bore it off, in every respect similar to the 

 hawk. It may be said, that this was a jack-daw, 

 a smaller, and a different bird' from a crow, as some 



contend. I, as well as my friend above, believe 

 them to be one and the same bird. Hut whether 

 crow or daw, it is immaterial; if was one of that 

 family, and one of a large and full size. 



JJy your reader, JQ, S. 



From tlic Farmers' Cabinet. 

 A TRIP TO MARYLAND. 



We passed over the bridge at W^ilmington, into 

 the rich alluvial bottoms of the (Jhristiana creek, 

 which extends nearly a mile from the city. The 

 causeway is hemmed with two rows of beauti- 

 ful trees, and surrounded with luxuriant pasture- 

 grounds, that have, within these few years, been 

 very considerably cultivated and improved. The 

 high-land immediately connecting those rich bot- 

 toms, is gravelly and poor, but the immense 

 amount of manure produced by the marshes, en- 

 ables the farmer to force vegetation in every 

 corner of bis farm, and thus make his habitation 

 a place of comfort and plenty. 



The land through New Castle county is tolera- 

 bly well improved; much of it is under cultiva- 

 tion, and the crops of wheat look well and bid fair 

 to produce at least an average quantity; oats and 

 corn not forward enough to form any opinion. 



In Maryland, where the ruinous three-field sys- 

 tem of fiirming prevails, the wheat looks bad 

 enough to alarm one with the fear of want, not- 

 withstanding some of her most intelligent citizens 

 are inclined to the opinion, that the prospect is in 

 favor of a medium crop. 



As we advance towards the table-land that di- 

 vides the waters which flow into the Delaware 

 and Chesapeake, we find a kind of soil perhaps 

 the most congenial to the growth of wheat of any 

 in the United States, and why it is not a subject 

 of deeper interest to the inhabitants of Pennsyl- 

 vania, particularly to the enterprising citizens of 

 Chester and Delaware counties, is a matter of 

 some surprise. 



In Chestertovvn we found land selling at five 

 dollars per acre, and shell lime at six cents per 

 bushel, neither of which seemed to excite any 

 anxiety among the farmers, though the land was 

 about a mile from the wharf, and the wharf with- 

 in a few hours' sailing of the city of Baltimore. 



On many of the farms upon the Eastern Shore, 

 there are immense beds of shells spread over 

 acres of land, and in some places six or seven feet 

 deep, in a perfectly sound state, yet covered with 

 mould, perhaps the growth and decomposition of 

 grass and trees for many a century. A white oak 

 that measured fifteen feet in circumference, had 

 once reared his \oi\y head over those banks, but 

 was now prostrate in a wilderness of underwood, 

 with his tangled roots jammed full of shells, and 

 most of them without any appearance of ever hav- 

 inof touched the earth. Shells make the purest 

 and best of lime; by a chemical analysis, it is 

 found to contain little or none of those foreign 

 substances that constitute from twenty to thirty, 

 and in some cases, as much as forty-five per cent, 

 of stone lime. 



Shell lime can be had on the Eastern Shore at 

 a very small expense, compared with what a 

 Pennsylvania farmer pays for stone lime, even if 

 he should be eo fortunate as to have q limestone 



