FARMERS' REGISTER. 



253 



but rarely. They are found more frequently near 

 Wilmington, as I heard when there. These also 

 are most forbearing enemies to man, though 

 among the most brave, and dangerous in their 

 defence, when attacked. They not only give 

 warning to the intruder or assailant by their rat- 

 tles, but will avoid a conflict, or aitemptini? to use 

 their deadly means ol' delence, as long as endur- 

 ance is possible. 



Most of the lands seen on our ride from New- 

 born had much more of clay in their composition 

 than I had supposed belonged to this country. On 

 the south border of the Trent, where crossed by 

 our route, the lands have an undulating surlace, 

 are very light, and were once among the best high 

 lands in the country, but now are very much ex- 

 hausted by scourging cultivation, and neglect of 

 ail means of resuscitation. 



Marl and Limestone of the Neuseand Trent. 



My visit to this neighborhood could not have 

 been worse timed, for the accomplishment of its 

 designed object. The court had but just com- 

 menced its session and would not rise in a week, 

 engaging in some manner the attention of most o( 

 the intelligent larmers, and of course the continual 

 attendance of every member of the bar, of which 

 class was .lames VV, Bryan, esq., the gentleman 

 whose information and invitation had first induced 

 me lo promise to visit this region ; and which pro- 

 mise has 60 long remained unperformed, as to ad- 

 monish me never lo make such another engage- 

 ment. Two othergentlemen who had most kindly 

 and urgently requested my visiting their farms and 

 calcareous deposites, in Jones count_v, were both 

 absent. Under such circumstances, I would not 

 permit the sacrifice of the lime and services which 

 were notwithstanding ofl'ered to forward my ob- 

 jects ; and alter remaining between two and three 

 days at Newbern, I turned my course homeward. 

 A letter from Mr. Bryan on this subject, previously 

 received, and whicli will be published in this num- 

 ber, will serve to give belter information than I 

 could have obtained personally under the existing 

 circumstances. 



Very lew persons have as yet even commenced 

 to use the marls of the Neuse and Trent. I heard 

 mentioned Messrs. Isaac Taylor, J. W. Bryan, 

 S. Biddle, and J. C. Burgwyn, and the first be- 

 ginner, the late L. Benners. Mr. Taylor has 

 marled about thirty acres, and must have de- 

 rived much benefit from it. as I heard of his hav- 

 ing good clover on that land. This old geniie- 

 man's good (arming and improvements were in 

 other respects well worth seeing, and 1 was sorry 

 that a visit to him, which I had promised him and 

 myself to make, was prevented by the necessity 

 of leaving Newbern a day sooner than I had then 

 intended, so as to be able to avail of the use of the 

 public conveyances. 



I have no doubt, however, that the visible and 

 early effects of marl have been small hereabout, 

 compared to the best that might be derived Irom 

 the use of this manure. Such would be the result 

 that I would anticipate and predict, merely from 

 knowing the general system of tillage in usage, 

 which IS more or less exhausting in almost every 

 case, and which therefore does not [lermit the ac- 

 cumulation of vegetable matter in the soil by rest, 

 .^nd by the prohibition of close and general graz- 



ing. Neither the increased general products nor 

 the net profit of marling on land under continual 

 or very exhausting tillage, can compare with those 

 of the like application to lands under meliorating 

 culture. This 1 would as earnestly wish to im- 

 press on the k\v persons who are beginning to 

 marl in this region, as to induce them to extend 

 their applications of the manure in proper manner. 



Odds and Ends. 



The journey from Newbern to Plymouth (69 

 miles) is through a low, level country, much of 

 which is more or less wet, though firm land, and 

 some of it is swamp. The western part of the 

 great Dismal Swamp, is touched by the road. 



Within a \hw miles alter passing the town of 

 Washington, the road passes among a number of 

 basin-shaped depressions, which appear precisely 

 like the " sink holes" of the mountain limestone 

 region of Virginia, and which I should attribute 

 to the same cause, that is, to lime-stone caverns 

 having Ibrmerly existed below, which by breaking 

 in, under the weight of the super-incumbent earth, 

 have made these depressions. Ifsearched (or deeply 

 enough in these sinks, I think that limestone rock 

 will be found. 



At about 14 miles from Plymouth, the pinefs of 

 the (brest are generally of the great size which I 

 had been disappointed in not seeing elsev\herc. 

 All are deformed by being skinned for extracting 

 turpentine, and in a manner much more wasteful 

 of the product, and promising to be more speedily 

 destructive of these noble trees, than is the case in 

 the great turpentine region seen farther west. 



Here I again reached the Scuppernong grape 

 neighborhood. The settlements are much more 

 frequent, and almost every dwelling house has its 

 adjacent arbor covered by one or more Scupper- 

 nong vines, forming an object even at this early 

 season very pleasing to the eye, and which in 

 summer must be as beautiful as profitable. It is 

 very strange, that when the expressing the juice of 

 this grape is done so generally, and to such great 

 extent, in this part of the country, that no one at- 

 tempts to make true wine from it, by proper (er- 

 mentation. For though what is called Scupper- 

 nong wine, if of the best kind, is a delicious drink, 

 it is not a fermented liquor, nor does it indeed de- 

 serve to be called a wine. I wish that some of 

 those v/ho prepare the best of this liquor would 

 try to make wine of it, by the process recom- 

 mended and practised by Mr. Herbemonl, in his 

 treatise which was republished in vol.ii. of Farm- 

 ers' Register. 



The snug little steamer Fox, (which may claim 

 naval supremacy on the Blackwaier by the same 

 kind of right that Robinson Crusoe had to the 

 sovereignty of his island,) arrived at Plymouth, 

 as usual about 11 o'clock, the night of my arrival 

 there, and in a (ew minutes was again on her re- 

 turn voyage. The next morning at 10 o'clock, I 

 reached the landing at the Portsmouth and Roan- 

 oke railway, expecting, as (ormerly, to be able to 

 reach Petersburg by way of North Carolina, the 

 evening of the same day. But this convenient 

 and speedy, though circuitous course of travel, had 

 been interrupted by a new arran<femeiU of the 

 mails, (and derangement of travelling,) and I had 

 to choose between waitinixfor the next train some 

 18 hours, where there was neither accciinnodauoii 



