1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



663 



attorneys, who have more intended their own 

 profit and their inordinate lucre than the good and 

 benefit ol their clienis : IJe it tiierclbre enacted, 

 That all mercenary attorneys be wholly expelled 

 from such olHce, except such suits as they have 

 already vndertaken, and are now depending, and 

 in case any person or persons shall oli'end contrary 

 to this act to be fined at the discretion of the court." 

 p. 302. 



(^To be continued.) 



UNROTTED LEAVES AS MANURE. LATE SOWN 

 WHEAT. 



To the Editor of the Farmer's Register. 



On reading your article, in the November num- 

 ber of the Register, on the subject of the use of 

 leaves as a manure, I am induced to offer you tlie 

 fbllowmg experiments which I have made with 

 them, as you have solicited communications li-om 

 the patrons of the Register. Early in the spring 

 of 1837, I covered about 15 acres of highland, 

 with leaves taken from land cleared the previous 

 winter. The land on which I put the leaves was 

 very rolling, and about sixty feet above the level of 

 the fiat land on the river. It was very much over- 

 run with blue grass, and required a cleansing crop. 

 The leaves were spread very thickly, and then plas- 

 tered, at the supposed rate of a bushel and a-half 

 to the acre. The land was then ploughed deeply 

 with a two-horse plough, and was soon after 

 planted in corn, and cultivated altogether with the 

 coulter and hoe. At first it was backward in grow- 

 ing ofi'; but, alter it started, it grew rapidly, and 

 withstood the drought of the summer, and conti- 

 nued green longer than my low-ground crop. 1 

 did not ascertain tlie ditlerence between the pro- 

 duct of this piece of land and other highland corn 

 that I had on richer and better land; but the result 

 was decidedly in favor of that to which the leaves 

 were applied. 



In the fall of 1837.. I covered with leaves, quite 

 thickly, a piece of highland of nearly twenty 

 acres, and sowed plaster on two-thirds of the lot, 

 not having enough to sow it all. The leaves were 

 ploughed in, early in January, and before planting 

 corn the land was well harrowed. The cultivation 

 of the crop as belbre was altogether with the coul- 

 ter and hoe. It withstood the extreme drought of 

 the past summer better than my low-ground corn ; 

 and the fodder continued longer green on it, and 

 the yield, though not ascertained by measurement, 

 was a very good one. 



I am quite a novice in farming; but the result of 

 my experience (though differing from yours) is, 

 that leaves ploughed in, the earlier in the fall the 

 better, are a valuable manure for corn. They 

 keep the roots moist, and yield nourishment to the 

 plant, and in a dry season have not the injurious 

 effect, that farm-pen and stable manures have, of 

 making the crop so liable to burn. 



In the fall of 1336 1 was stopped in sowing 

 wheat by rain on the 13th November, and though 

 I had only a lew days' ploughing, the weather 

 continued so unfavorable that I did not finish sow- 

 ing until the 14th December. The wheat sowed 

 between the 1st and 13th November had come up 

 belbre I finished sowing; and that sowed last did 

 not come up until about the middle o( February. 



It then came up very well, and was nearly though 

 not quire so thick as the rest of my field, all being 

 on low-grounds. The weather just belbre harvesc 

 was so wet as to cause rust in a considerable part 

 of my crop. I found on examination that the 

 wheat I had sown between the 1st and 13th No- 

 vember was very much rusted, and that sown on 

 the 14th December was entirely free from it; and 

 the latter yielded as well as the rest of my low- 

 ground crop. This, though it is at war with the 

 speculations of some of the correspondents of the 

 Register, is no guessing matter, as I have taken it 

 from a memorandum made at the time. The 

 kind of wheat sowed was purple straw and red 

 bearded, which had accidentally got mixed, and 

 they are both late kinds. That sowed in Decem- 

 ber had only an equal chance with this humbug of 

 spring wheat, and I am quite sure the yield was 

 fully equal to any spring wheat I have seen. 

 Can you, Mr. Editor, or any of your correspond- 

 ents, explain why the wheat sown in November 

 should have the rust, whilst that sown one month 

 later did not, when every thing was in favor of the 

 first? It was sown next the river, where the land 

 is light and loamy, and was put in in fine order ; 

 whereas that sown in December was on stiff land, 

 inclined to be wet, and, moreover, was ploughed 

 belbre the land was in good order. The sowing 

 of wheat this fall is unusually late, and the fact 

 above stated may not be uninteresting to your 

 readers. A Planter. 



James River ^ November \Qth, 1838. 



SINGULAR AND FATAL DISEASE OF HORSES. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Pasquotank County, N. C. Oct. 25th, 1838. 

 I have lost the greater part of my horses in 

 about 15 days. The 1st of October I discovered 

 two were sick, and they continued to sicken and 

 die until I had lost seven. They were sick from 

 one to ten days. Tlie symptoms were at first, 

 when moving, a rattling in the throat, and unwil- 

 lingness to move quick; a discharge from the nos- 

 trils of a thick ropy phlegm, and, as the disease ad- 

 vanced, it changed to matter, and was offensive, 

 except one ; they did not appear to be in violent 

 pain ; they had a disposition to eat and drink, but 

 were not able to swallow— had not the least swell- 

 ing about the throat — eyes not at all affected, al- 

 though at times a high fever. The second horse 

 that was taken sick, after living three days, and 

 being unable to stand, I had killed for the purpose 

 of opening. I was very particular in exanriinmg ; 

 the lungs were very much enlarged, and discolor- 

 ed ; the same substance that was discharged from 

 the nose was mingled with the lungs. There was 

 nothing in the stomach but water ; the rest of the 

 intestines were filled with such food as I should 

 have expected to have found in a horse in health, 

 apparently not affected in the least. No obstruc- 

 tion from the throat to the stomach. The next 

 was opened by a physician. His heart was very 

 much enlarged, the lunirs in the same situation 

 as the first. That horse lived but 15 hours after 

 I discovered him to be sick. The day before his 

 death he eat hearty and appeared to be well. The 

 next I opened lived 10 days ; his lungs were die- 

 eased more than the others, ^nd the discharge 



