510 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



ly filled, and perhaps the alcove, where the hay 

 is, will be blocked up." 



He adds, that "it is a great improvement to 

 castrate the yoimir bucks, and keep them till they 

 are full grown, before you kill them ; the flesh will 

 be amazincly finer, whiter, and tenderer. But 

 then it will be best to take them away, and keep 

 them in anoiher warren, lest they should be too 

 numerous, and disturb the breeding does; or else 

 have a few hutches in the alcove to flitten them 

 in." 



SEASON AND STATE OF CROPS IN HALIFAX. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Halifax, Va., Sept. 15th, 1838. 



Since 1 wrote you, about the 12ih of August, 

 the drought has continued to prevail almost with- 

 out a shower. We have not had rain enough 

 to more than moisten the lightest land to the depth 

 of 1 or H inches since the 6th day of July. The 

 effect o( so long continued dry and such exces- 

 sive hot weather as we have had, can perhaps be 

 better imagined than described. The corn crop 

 which, up to the 20th or 25th July, was the most 

 promising I ever recolieci lo have seen in this 

 county, IS now certainly the worst, much the 

 Avorsti ever saw any where. Many fields will yield 

 but little if any more than the seed, and that of 

 very mferior quality. In addition to the destructive 

 eflect of heat and drought, the chinch bug has 

 fallen aboard of many fields and parts of fields, 

 and nearly or quite finished the work of destruction. 

 Many of our farmers seemed never to find that the 

 the bug was injuring their corn until they com- 

 menced gathering the few blades that were left 

 worth gathering. I am satisfied from what I have 

 seen and heard from good authority, that there 

 cannot be but little, if any more than ^ of a corn 

 crop made in this county. Pittsylvania and 

 Campbell certainly not more than half a crop. 



Tobacco is, if possible, less promising than corn. 

 We are generally, at this season, busily engaged, 

 all hands cutting and curing tobacco, now we are 

 almost without employment of any kind on the 

 crop. Until yesterday, I had not seen a sinirle 

 plant of tobacco cut this season, and much the 

 larger part will not be worth cutting at all, should 

 we have early killing frost. We once hoped, on 

 finding our corn crops failing, that we should 

 certainly have rain in time to sow and raise a great 

 many turnips to help us 'hrough the winter with 

 our stock, that hope seems now almost gone. I 

 have sowed, and know many of my neighbours 

 that have, but what few came up, has all or very 

 near all perished for want of moisture ; in fact, I 

 don't think /have one living. A Planter. 



[The foregoing letter, though dated September 15th, 

 was post-marked the 30th, and of course arrived after 

 the last No. liad been printed and issued. It is neces- 

 sary that communications, to be inserted, should be in 

 hand by the 25th of the month, at latest.] 



season and state of crops in OCTOBER. 



We have heard very little from correspondents, in 

 October, of the state of crops, and therefore infer that 



the corn crop is no where worse than appeared from 

 our last month's report, and that in the locations not 

 there mentioned, it is better. On the fine Glou- 

 cester low-grounds there is a good crop made; and in 

 King William, not a bad one. We hope that much of 

 the corn-producing part of lower Virginia has so far 

 escaped the general calamity, as to be able to furnish 

 some surplus corn for the wants of the other parts of 

 the country. 



Since the last week in September, the rains have 

 been superabundant, so as to make bad and slow work 

 in sowing wheat. This, added to the small amount of 

 fallow land prepared, (on account of the drought, in 

 August and September,) will affect injuriously the 

 product of the next crop. 



After very early frost, in September, which hurt 

 some tobacco in the upper counties, and which so 

 alarmed many planters as to induce them lo cut 

 their crops too green, there has followed, and still con- 

 tinues, an unusual length of mild weather, in which 

 every green crop could continue to improve in growth, 

 or in maturity. 



October 29, 183S. 



PRINCEANA. 



To the Editor of the Farmer's Register. 



In several newspapers I have observed the fol- 

 lowing advertisement, of which I request a re- 

 publication in the Farmers' Register, together 

 with my comments thereon : 



" Competition. — Much has been said lately 

 about the superior growth of the morus multicau- 

 lis in Virginia, and the greater maturity of the 

 wood for cuttings, &c. VVe now offer to exhibit 

 one, two, three or more thousands of our trees 

 with any plantation of one year's growth of the 

 same kind existing in Maryland or Virginia ; and 

 if ours are not superior in the growth of the wood 

 to any other parcel of similar extent, we will pay 

 to the owner of the other parcel one thousand dol- 

 lars, or one thousand of the trees, he agreeing to 

 a similar forfeit if the reverse is the case. The 

 truth is, their growth is as great in Connecticut 

 and Rhode Island as in Virginia, and trees of two 

 and three years old, are here found to be as hardy 

 as an apple tree. Wm. Prince & Sons, 



Flushing, New York.'''' 



It is an old and approved saying, that " a wager 

 is a fool's argument." But though Mr. Prince 

 is no fool — and, on the contrary, no man is sharper 

 in his vocation of selling plants, to the best advan- 

 tage, still the saying is not the less true, applica- 

 ble in a different sense ; for though the wagei is 

 not offered by one, it is meant for the use of fools, 

 or to make fools and dupes by its operation. This 

 seeming offer to bet on the superior growth of his 

 multicaulis trees, is simply a specimen of the 

 " puff boastful;" a mere trick of Mr. Prince's trade, 

 which he will abandon just as soon as any Virgi- 

 nian attempts to pin him to his wager, and make 

 him responsible for it. To do this, Mr. Prince- 

 will be at no loss ; for his advertisement offers 

 plenty of " holes to creep through," and for him so 

 to escape from the consequences of his blustering 

 challenge. "The truth is," that Mr. Prince has 



