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FARMERS' REGISTER 



intended for winter or spring use, should be of the 

 large, giant, solid kind, and not the little pipe- 

 etem, suckery variety, generally grown, which is 

 only fit for early fall use, and, at the best, barely 

 worth growing at all. Bailey's red or white 

 giant, and Law's silver giant, are new sorts, de- 

 serving of extensive cultivation, and every one 

 who appreciates good celery, should be particular, 

 and obtain one or the other of them. Attention to 

 this, and procuring seeds which can. be relied upon, 

 will prevent much disappointment, and repay the 

 cultivator lor his trouble. — Ml. Bl. H. 



SBEDS FROM SOUTH FLORIDA. 



We have to acknowledge the receiving from 

 Dr. Henry Perrine, of Indian Key, seeds of se- 

 veral tropical plants, which grew in the southern 

 part of Florida. These were, 1st, the "kidney 

 seed cotton," described at length in a former com- 

 munication of Dr. Perrine in our last volume of 

 the Farmers' Register; 2nd, seeds of the " pe- 

 rennial bean;" and 3rd, seeds of the " coontee 

 root," or arrow root, the natural growth of which 

 furnishes food to the savages. These seeds have 

 been distributed among some of our subscribers 

 who have green-houses, or who reside far to the 

 south. 



TEXAN STATISTICS. 



!7%e whole, story told. — The following minute 

 statistics of Austin are said to be correct. On the 

 first of January, 1840, the whole population, 

 members of congress, speculators, gamblers, loaf- 

 ers, and all, amounted to 856— whites 711. White 

 adult males 550, while adult females 61 ! children 

 100, families 75, mechanics 35, lawyers 4, physi- 

 cians 6, printing offices 2, taverns 6, stores 9, gro- 

 ceries 9, billiard room 1, and faro banks 6. — Hous- 

 ton Star. 



REMARKS ON THE SOILS IN GENERAL, AND 

 PARTICULARLY THE RIDGE LANDS, OF 

 EASTERN VIRGINIA. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 

 The peculiar and remarkable features of the 

 highest or ridge lands of lower Virginia deserve 

 more consideration than they have received. 

 These features are scarcely known at all except to 

 the residents of that region, and even of these, 

 very Cew have cast a thought upon the circum- 

 stances referred to, which are general and uniform 

 through an extensive territory, and' yet veiy diffe- 

 rent from the surface of the earth in general else- 

 where, v/helher considered in regard to agricul- 

 tural qualities, chemical composition, or geological 

 structure. In presuming thus to refi^r to geologi- 

 cal character, let me not be understood as pretend- 

 ing to any scientific knowledge on that subject, but 

 merely to having observed the great and obvious 

 ef!t3cls of the removals and deposites of earth by 



water, which even an unlearned observer may 

 easily learn, although learned geologists have 

 either passed over the facts without notice, or have 

 neither explained nor investigated them. 



Strangers to this region, and especially the resi- 

 dents oi' bur mountainous region, are impressed 

 with the belief that the low country of Virginia, 

 is one wide level surface of low-lying land ; and 

 even when they travel through it along the main 

 public roads, which are always on the most level 

 routes, they are first struck with surprise to find 

 that there are some hills in the tide-water region, 

 and that the land is generally dry, and also high, 

 except near the borders of the Chesapeake bay 

 and the ocean. They are also surprised to find 

 b'Jt a very small proportion of low land formed by 

 alluvion, and still subject to be overflowed by the 

 streams which had made the deposite ; and in- 

 deed, except our tide-marshes and miry and inun- 

 dated swamps, that in fact there is less wet land 

 in the low than in the liigh country. Still the 

 traveller who kept on the usual routes of travel 

 would retain the opinion that the country was ge- 

 nerally and remarkably level ; but if he were to 

 cross those routes, in the direction of the streams, 

 he would form the equally mistaken opinion that 

 the face of the country was remarkably broken, by 

 the frequent alternation of hills and narrow val- 

 leys or ravines. Both of these opinions are true 

 to a certain extent, and each is false, if applied 

 generally or extensively. 



A correct idea of the configuration of the lands 

 of the tide-water region may be had by supposing, 

 first, an almost perfect plane surface declining by 

 imperceptible degrees towards the sea- waters. 

 Next, suppose this even and slightly inclined plane 

 to have been deeply guttered and liirrowed by the 

 passage of every river, and their largest tributary 

 streams, and more slightly by every small brook 

 and rivulet trickling from the highest head sources 

 of streams. Lastly, suppose the hill-sides formed 

 by thus cutting down the channels by the waters, 

 at first necessarily precipitous, to become gradual- 

 ly sloped by the operation of natural and obvious 

 causes, in the course of thousands of years. Such 

 is now the surface of the tide-water region, and 

 indeed, though in a less marked manner, such is 

 the next great region above the falls of the rivers, 

 extending almost to the most eastern spurs of the 

 mountains. Thus, if on any correctly marked part 

 of the map of Virginia, any intermediate point be 

 taken between two rivers, and a course be drawn 

 so as to avoid tlie heads of every smaller stream 

 that flows to the one or the other river, a route 

 may be pursued for many miles, which would 

 have scarcely any perceptible rise on depression. 

 Such a route, to be kept always on the highest 

 and most level ground, would of course be made 

 very crooked by the numerous head springs of in- 

 terlocking streams, flowing to both sides ; and 

 therefore no such route is ever precisely followed, 

 by a road, or for any practical purpose. Still, if it 

 were done, meandering and zigzag as such courses 

 might be, they would be, to the eye, perfectly le- 

 vel, (and very nearly level even il' measured ac- 

 curately,) and stretching and branching through 

 the whole country, from the sea-coast almost to 

 the mountains. And as nearly all the public roads 

 are on these ridges, and varying from them only 

 to avoid too great departures from the shortest 

 courses, it explains sufficiently why the roads may 



