176 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



more ihan about half as dee|)Iy with earth. The 

 end ol' the pit may be closed with a lew bundles 

 of straw, so as to have easy access to the rools 

 when desired. 



Amount of produce, feeding, Sfc. 



Not having talien particular pains to weigh or 

 measure my crops, 1 cannot say exactly what the 

 amount of produce is per acre. But judging from 

 the number and weight of the loads, and the space 

 which the roots occupy, I should think that I ob- 

 tained, upon an average, about twenty-five tons 

 from an acre. I tliis year raised three acres, and 

 harvested one hundred and two large loads of 

 about a ton weight ; one-fifth of which we calcu- 

 lated for tops. 



I feed the roots to all kinds of farm stock, 

 except horses. For milch cows, fatting cattle, 

 hogs and sheep, 1 find them of great advantage. 

 Some animals will not eat them freely at first, but 

 they soon learn to eat them readily. I let them 

 first get well hungry, then cut a few roots and sprin- 

 kle on them a little bran and salt. My Iiorses alone 

 do not seem to lancy them. They prefer car- 

 rots instead, and if worked hard, want a lew oats 

 in the bargain. I leed my milch cows half a bush- 

 el of mangel wurtzel each per day, with hay. They 

 keep in good condition, and give milk freely all 

 the winter. Fatting cattle require a bushel or over 

 per day. They thrive and fatten finely on them. 

 For working oxen 1 think they are superior to any 

 other food, especially when worked hard in the 

 spring, and during hot weather in summer; as 

 they will do more work, and bear heat better than 

 with any other food. The roots can be kept 

 through the summer ifdesired.) I keep my store 

 hogs on them almost exclusively during the win- 

 ter, and they thrive admirably. With the addi- 

 tion of a little corn, hogs fed on these roots will fat- 

 ten rapidly and make good pork. Sheep also do ex- 

 tremely well on them ; and they are superior to all 

 other food for feeding ewes at lambing time in the 

 spring. I keep 130 ewes, and find them greatly 

 benefited by this practice. For sheep and hogs 

 it is not necessary to the cut the roots, but lor cattle 

 I cut them to pieces with an axe or spade. A 

 proper machine for ihe purposes would be some 

 advantage. 



I use very little hay, as my sheep and young 

 cattle are fed only straw with the roots. They 

 eat the straw readily without cutting, and keep in 

 good conilition. Thus by raising only two or three 

 acres of these roots, I can devote nearly my whole 

 farm lo grain, and at the same time keep a large 

 amount of slock, with good profit. 



JVhcatland, Monroe co., JV. Y. 



CALCAREOUS SOILS OF LOWER SOUTH CAR- 

 OLINA AND GEORGIA. 



From tlie (Ga.) Cliroiiicte & Sentinel. 



3Iessrs. Editors: — Having lately passed through 

 the eastern section of the Oarolinas, and in 

 Georgia along the Savannah River, my attention 

 was directed lo some of the great mineral resources 

 of this section of country, which appear to be en- 

 tirely unappreciated by its inhabitants. 1 refer 

 particularly to a great deposit of limestone which I 

 first observed in Jones county, N. C. near the 



Santee, and afterwards in the western part of 

 Charleston District, S. C, and again on the 

 Edisto, and in Georgia at Jacksonboro, where 

 there is now a small kiln, not at present liowever 

 in use. The purity of this rock, which approaches 

 that of chalk, renders it admirably adapted for the 

 production of lime, and yet notwithstanding its 

 abundance, the facility of procuring wood, it costing 

 nothing but the labor of cutting and hauling, and 

 the great expense of lime, Charleston and Sa- 

 vannah, and all the Southern coasts continue to be 

 supplied with Thomaston lime. Were men of 

 capital and enterprise once aware of the means 

 they have at hand, and of the relative cost at 

 which this article may be produced in the two sec- 

 tions of country, it seems hardly possible, that 

 the South should look much longer to the North 

 for lime, any more than, as was once the case, 

 they did to Germany lor brick ! 



Lime is burned at Thomaston, Me., with wood, 

 which never costs less than ^3 a cord. Fine 

 anthracite coal has lately been introduced, and 

 partially used as fuel, which may reduce the ex- 

 pense a little; but li-om the lowest estimates, as 

 given in Dr. Jackson's Geological Reports of the 

 surveys of that slate, it cannot be produced at a 

 less expense than S77 the hundred casks, which 

 includes the price of the casks. These should hold, 

 by law, each five bushels, but they have been 

 found to contain less than a common flour barrel 

 — three and a half bushels may be taken as their 

 average capacity. The expense of transportation, 

 &c. makes them worth at Charleston about ^2 per 

 cask, or more ; and as it is carried into the inte- 

 rior, its value rapidly increases, till on the very 

 spot, where the rock occurs in the greatest abun- 

 dance, it has long been sold for ^3 per cask I 



In the Chester valley, Penn., lime is sold at the 

 kilns lor 12^ cents per bushel. It is burned in large 

 kilns holding 1600 bushels, with only sixteen cords 

 ofgood hard wood, which costs ^2,50 per cord. 

 Fine anthracite coal is there used also to some 

 extent, but the lime is not afforded any cheaper 

 than that made with wood. At Pottsville where 

 coal is used altogether, lime costs twenty cents ; 

 the rock, however, has to be transported some 

 twenty-five and some eighty miles. 



From the slight opportunities I have had of 

 judging, I can see no reason why lime should not 

 be made as cheap and as abundantly in South 

 Carolina and Georgia, as in the Chester valley. 

 Suitable stone lor making kilns may not always 

 be found conveniently at hand, but if granite can 

 be transported from Quincy lo build churches and 

 houses, it, or a better material may, also, to build 

 kilns, and substantial ones made, which should 

 last manv drawings. Pine wood can every where 

 be obtained for little or nothing. Of the relative 

 cost of labor to effect the same end, I know no- 

 thing. Bui as lo the quality of the lime the southern 

 may well compete with the northern in purity and 

 strength, though prejudiced workmen may lor a 

 time refuse to adopt the change, as is invariably 

 the case with any alteration introduced in their 

 business, which they, naturally enough, think they 

 understand better than any one else. As an in- 

 stance ofthis, lime made Irom a particular rock in 

 Rhode Island, a magnesian carbonate of lime, is 

 prepared at double ihe price in New York of 

 Thomaston lime, while a precisely similar quality 

 of lime, made Irom a rock, which is chemically the 



