516 



F A 11 JNl E R S ' K E G 1 S T E R , 



By practising this system, eevernl objects of 



essential imporiance wiih tanners are obtained. 

 First, purity of seed — a very important cont^idera- 

 tion with the neat farmer, certainly ; anJ, secorKl- 

 \y, cheapness nf cultivation, wliich under present 

 exigencies, isofnolefia importance, probably, itian 

 the first. More on this topic anon. 



ESPERIMENTAMST. 



IMPORTANT — EASTERN LANDS. 



stead ofworkinu; to earn eomethin<j; for themselveg 



— a course which is always to be deplored as of 

 Incalculable injury to society. 



It lias been esiimaied by a careful business 

 mind, that if what people thought they had made 

 in the eastern land ?pcculaiions, could liave Ijeen 

 "irealized,' not less ihan one hundred million of 

 dollars would have come out of them ! But what 

 a short dream of wealth it was ! In a few moniha 

 the inmginary wealth had departed, and not a 

 man was worth as much as he would have been, 

 if no speculations had existed. They held each 

 From the Pliiladelpliia Snuiiday Courier. other's notes— but what of that! Nobody could 

 Judge Story recently pronounced a decision in j pny. You miiiht as well expect to get pay (or 

 Portland, setting aside a speculative purchase in moonshine. And, to our judgment, Judge Story 

 eastern land, on the ground of a mistake of its has performed not only a ]ust judicial task, but n 

 value, by the purchaser. The opinion is Hghly very equitable one, in setting out a decision by 

 important, as affecting a great many contracts. which all lliese false sales can be put aside. 



There probably has never been, in any country, I But we must not leave this subject without 

 a more ridiculous fiirce than was the loild sppi-u- { drawing from it an instructive lesson. We live 

 laiions in eastern timber-lands, in the ypars 1833, to learn. The experience of thousands in tlio 



'4 and '5. In the very eastern portion of Maine. 

 there are millions of acres of land unsubdued. All 

 of a sudden, nobody knows for why, or (or where- 

 fore, people got the idea into their iieads that those 

 lands were covered with nearly all the pine timber 

 there was in the states, and of coii;^equence, pur- 

 chasers would find themselves compelled ultimate- 

 ly to seek that region Uiv ail their supplies. Pre- 

 viou^ly, the price of many of these lands had been 

 as low as twenty-five cents per acre. But maps 

 were drawn of townships, in which the artists 

 were instructed to put plenty of rivers and good 

 WMter ()rivileges ; and above all, to estimate the 

 pine timber very aiiundanf. Ii whs wonderful with 

 what lacility tliey accon)plished this task. Town- 

 ships, where previously only now and then a 

 pine tree could be found, were covered over with 

 ten millions of feet of pine timber to the acre as 

 rapidly and easily as the dralisman could draw j 

 the map! It was a sort of magical process — but i 

 it never failed to be accomplished for any tovvn- 1 

 ehip, which was for sale — and at the prices to 

 which they soon rose, viz : ^6 a .$15 per acre, no- 

 body thought of holding on. 



Without makir)g a long story of it (which cer- 

 tainly would not he interesting to those who were 

 used up in tliese wilrl speculations,) we ivill say, 

 in a few words that thousands of people in Maine, 

 Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New- 

 Hampshire, New- York, and from almost all other 

 parts of the union, and not a few from I'^ngland — 

 were ruined by their attempts to get ricli in a day, 



eastetn land speculations was perfectly paralyz- 

 ing at the time — but let them think of it only as 

 a guide to all (iiture operations, remembering that 

 there is but one sure vvaj' either to wealth or repu- 

 tation, viz: by the practice of uticeasing industry, 

 economy, virtue, iriiellisence, and uprightness. 

 All speculations are absolutely injurious to any 

 community in which they nmy occur, in the long 

 rim, lor a speculator does not add a penny, but 

 nhf tracts dollars from the wealth of society — and 

 whint is equally deleterious, he destroys the siraighf- 

 (brvvard and moral business habits, as (ar as his 

 operations exert any influence. Society is alone 

 interested in the proper support of correct business 

 men, industrious mechanics, and good airricultu- 

 ris's. TVe arc vncompromisivg opponents to all 

 speculators. 



BTAE RP.ASS, WIRK GRASS, kc. 



To Uic Editor of tlie Fanners' Register. 



Surry Covrity, September L 1840. 



I v.'ould be pleased to be informed through the 

 Uegister, whether it would be advisable lo sow 

 blue grass on our marled lands, with the view of 

 smoiherinti or destroyint: that creat pe-^t, wire 

 grass. Would it not be swapping the devil for a 

 w ilch ] Wire grass follows our n)arling operations 

 ^0 prompt and certain on light soils, that some- 



by investing all they had, and promising to pay | times I am almost in doubt Which would be i bea- 

 ten timps as^ much more lor townships and por- wiser plan, to marl the land, and have it improved 

 nd, in and about the region of the i and well set in wire grass, or have it not marled 



lions of wild 



reiiobscoi river, and the Great Lakes, u\ (he State 

 of Maine. The bu&iriess portion of the city of 

 Portland— one of the finest in the world— was 

 almost destroyed by these s; eculative operations. 

 And scarcely a town in Maine or Ma=:sachusetts 

 escaped their destructive influence. Years will 

 not restore the injury which these wicked specu- 

 lations produced. They gave people such ridicn- 

 Jous notions as to whot they supi^oscd they had 

 made, that they run into all sorts ol'extravagance, 

 and thus set the most destructive examples to tlie 

 honesty oftrode and industry around them. They 

 broke up men in their regular business, prostrated 

 their business-habitg, and set them lo lounging 

 about society, living by getting more in debt, in- 



and poor, without tlie grass. With the same la- 

 bor we cannot cultivate as much land by one third 

 as we could a i'eAV years ago. I have never seen 

 a field well set in blue grass, and therefore know 

 but very liiile al>out it ; but I cannot think that it 

 can be worse, or even as bad to cultivate, as one 

 set with wire graps. 



We are making a desperate effort to improve 

 our stock of hogt^. There have been a good many 

 Berkshire pi(-s iniioiluced info the county, which 

 are decidedly superior to anything nf the swine 

 species that I have ever seen. There is one 

 (which was ferrowed in the county, and raised 

 with Virginia management,) that weighed 117 

 pounds al lour months of age; and I have heard 



