658 



FARMER S' REGISTER. 



markably neat housekeepers. There are some of 

 them, however, extremely slovenly, and their 

 dwellings are kept in the worst possible condition. 

 The effluvia arising from this want of cleanliness 

 is in the highest degree disgusting and offensive to 

 persons unaccustomed to such fare. The same 

 remarks are applicable to the Irish ; nay to some 

 native Virginians. The Germans are remarka- 

 ble for their fine bread, milk and butter. They 

 consume in their diet less animal flesh, and of 

 course more vegetables, milk and butter, than 

 most other people. Their "sour krout"* in the 

 winter constitutes a considerable part of their liv- 

 ing. They generally consume less, and sell more 

 of the product of their labor, than any other class 

 of citizens. A Dutchman is proverbial for his pa- 

 tient perseverance in his domestic labors. Their 

 farms are generally small and nicely cultivated. 

 In all his agricultural pursuits his meadows de- 

 mand his greatest care and attention. His little 

 /arm is laid off in fields not exceeding ten or 

 twelve acres each. It is rarely seen that a Dutch- 

 man will cultivate more than about ten or twelve 

 acres in Indian corn any one year. They are of 

 opinion that the corn crop is a great exhauster of 

 the soil, and they make but little use of corn for 

 any other purpose than feeding and fattening their 

 swine. 



Previous to the war of the revolution, and for 

 several years after, considerable quantities of to- 

 bacco were raised in the lower counties of the val- 

 ley. The cultivation of this crop was first intro- 

 duced and pursued by immigrants from the eastern 

 counties of Virginia. From the newly cleared 

 lands, two crops of tobacco in succession were 

 generally taken, and it was then appropriated to 

 the culture of other crops. The crop of tobacco 

 left the soil in the finest possible state for the pro- 

 duction of other crops. Corn, wheat, rye, flax, 

 oats, potatoes, and every thing else, were almost 

 certain to produce abundant crops, after the crop 

 of tobacco. 



In the year 1793 the French revolution broke 

 out, when bread stuffs of every kind suddenly be- 

 came enormously high ; in consequence of which, 

 the farmers in the valley abandoned the cultivation 

 of tobacco, and turned their attention to wheat, 

 which they raised in vast quantities for several 

 years. It was no uncommon thing for the farmer 

 for several year* after the commencement of the 

 French revolution, to sell his crops of wheat from 

 one to two, and sometimes at two and a half dol- 

 lars per bushel, and his flour from ten to fourteen 

 dollars per barrel in our seaport towns. 



In the year 1796, the Hessian fly first made its 



* " Sour krout" is made of tlie best of cabbage. A 

 box about three feet in length, and six or seven inches 

 wide, with a sliarp blade fixed across the bottom, 

 something on the principle of the jack plane, is used 

 for cutting the cabbage. The head being separated 

 from the stalk, and stripped of its outer leaves, is placed 

 in this box, and run back and forth. The cabbage 

 thus cut up is placed in a barrel, a little salt sprinkled 

 on from time to time, then pressed down very closely, 

 and covered over at tfie open head. In the course of 

 three or four weeks it acquires a sourish taste, and to 

 persons accustomed to the use of it, is a very agreeable 

 and wholesome food. It is said that the use of it, 

 within the last few years, on board of ships, has proved 

 it to be the best preventive known for the scurvy. 

 The use of it is becoming pretty general among all 

 classes of people in the valley. 



appearance in Virginia. Its ravages that year 

 were limited, and but little damage was sustained 

 in the crops of wheat. The crop of 1797, in the 

 counties contiguous to the Potomac, was general- 

 ly destroyed, and the same year partial injury was 

 discovered in Frederick county. The crop of 

 1798, throughout the county of Federick, was 

 nearly destroyed. Ever since which time the 

 farmers have annually suffered more or less from 

 the ravages of this destructive destroyer. This 

 insect had prevailed in some of the northern states 

 for several years before it reached Virginia. It is 

 said it first appeared on Long Island, and was 

 believed to have been imported by the Hessian 

 troops in their straw bedding in the time of the 

 war of the revolution. If this be true, it was a 

 woful curse upon our country, — of which it proba- 

 bly will never be relieved. The present genera- 

 tion have abundant cause to execrate the inhu- 

 man policy of our parent slate in bringing upon us 

 this heavy calamity, and all future generations 

 will probably join in condemning the British mi- 

 nistry who forced upon our ancestors that unright- 

 eous and disastrous war. 



From the Cultivator. 



Economy of Fuel. — We have examined, with 

 interest, a small work, detailing ^^Experiments to 

 determine the comparative quantity of heat evolved 

 in the combustion of the principal varieties of wood 

 and coal, used in the United States for fuel ; and 

 also to determine the comparative quantity of heat 

 lost by the ordinary apparatus made use ojfor their 

 combustion — Uy Marcus BulV 



The experiments seem to have been made with 

 great care and accuracy, and the results afford 

 matter of interest to every householder. 



Mr. Bull has computed the cost of fuel con- 

 sumed in Philadelphia, in a given year, to be 

 S80,043, which being divided among the popula- 

 tion, gives $^7.04 as the average cost of fuel to 

 each inhabitant, supposing the consumption to be 

 equal. Adopting this estimate as a fair average 

 lor the population within ten miles of tide-water, 

 in the Atlantic states, from Maine to Georgia, it 

 gives an aggregate of twenty-one millions of dol- 

 lars as the annual cost of fuel for this portion of 

 population, which is assumed to amount to three 

 millions and a half of our population at half the 

 above price, or ^3.50 to each individual, he gives 

 us an aggregate amount of about fifty-one mil- 

 lions of dollars as the total annual expense of fuel, 

 for every purpose in the United States. 



The economy of fuel is to be studied — 1, in the 

 kind to be selected for use ; 2, in its quality and 

 preparation for use ; and 3, in the choice of the ap- 

 paratus in which it is to be used. 



In regard to wood. — The quantity of heat 

 evolved by a cubic foot of the several kinds, when 

 in a perfectly dry state, is very nearly in the ratio 

 of their specific gravity, or relative weight, as for 

 example, the specific gravity of shell-bark hickory 

 being 1.000, a cord weighs 4,469 lbs. ; by the same 

 scale, the specific gravity of white pine is .476, 

 and the cord weighs only 1,868 lbs. The quanti- 

 ty of heat evolved by a pound of white pine is as 

 great as that evolved by a pound of hickory. The 

 difference in value arises from the great disparity 

 in weight— the hickory weighing as 22, and the 



