522 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



cretaceous matters and from 30 to 80 feet deep. 

 I derive these last numbers from wells which 

 have heen sunk on the immediate margin of the 

 Bay, as w^ell as 20 miles interior, at Houston for 

 example. In no case,, as I am informed, has the 

 solid rock or a bed of sand been reached. The 

 cretaceous matters have been found in consider- 

 able quantities fromverj' near the surface to the 

 greatest depths to which the earth has been 

 penetrated. These cretaceous matters consist 

 of partially decomposed marine shells thickly 

 disseminated through the earth, and the abund- 

 ant mineral matters which their pre.'jence indi- 

 cates, must be a source of great fertility to the 

 soil. The cretaceous matters are not so abundant 

 as with the argillaceous matter to constitute marl, 

 nor does it exist in the form of lime, as in the 

 Alabama and Mississippi prairies; where, be 

 sidesother inconveniences, it is destructive*< i-t 

 feet of plantation animals. But ^V^er- are ade- 

 quate quantities of this e6.se' nai component of 

 fertile soils, and a.'' "'i stiaii oe exhausted by culti- 

 vation, it can be ;estored by deep plowing. I have 

 mentioned that the soil varies from one to a few 

 feet in depth ; in color, too, it varies from an in- 

 tense black to a brown in proportion to the quan- 

 tities of humus or vegetable mould which it 

 contains. In the cedar brakes where the herb- 

 age is not consumed by the fires to which the 

 prairies are subjected, the quantity of vegetable 

 mould in the soil is very great, and the color of 

 the earth of an intense black. This is true in a 

 less degree of the other timbered lands. Some 

 of the open prairies resemble in respect to the 

 quality last mentioned the cedar brakes, being 

 protected in a similar manner by growths, one 

 of the most abundant of which is an annual 

 plant six to seven feet in hight, of the order o: 

 acacias. The soils vary in tenacity, but the most 

 tenaceous, on being turned up and exposed to 

 the weather, crumble and work light. 



It would be out of place here to enter into 

 any consideration of the advantage respectively 

 of cultivating a plantation of prairie, or bottom, 

 or timbered land, when the plantation is to bo 

 opened, for the snperor fertility of the latter lands 

 is admitted by all. The Galveston Bay lands 

 offer a choice to the judgment of the planter; 

 their fertility is known to all who have cultivated 

 them. Their productions are Sugar, Tobacco, 

 Cotton, Com, etc. The Orange, Peach, Fig and 

 Plum flourish in perfection. 



The borders of the Bay furnish abundant sup- 

 plies of wood for fuel for Galveston City ; and, 

 including the wood on the Trinity, San Jacinto, 

 Buffalo Bayou and numerous small streams, the 

 quantities are inexhaustible. 



Galveston Bay, Buffalo Bayou, San Jacinto, 



and Cedar Bayou offer the great facilities of a 



perfectly safe and convenient navigation every 



day of the year : and the Trinity is navigable for 



(1110) 



500 miles a considerable portion of the year. All 

 these waters abound with fi.sh of f:ne varieties ; 

 the coves are alive with swan, geese, brant, and 

 ducks during the winter months ; oysters of ex- 

 cellent quality and abundant, a few miles down 

 the Bay ; and the prairies and timbered lauds 

 furnish excellent range for horses and homed 

 cattle, and roots and mast for hogs. 



In health, the margin of Galveston is unsur- 

 passed by any country under the same latitude ; 

 and for beauty of picturesque scenery it vies 

 with the most renowned spots of the earth. 



To the planter, then, of Sugar, Tobacco, Cotton, 

 or Corn, Galveston Bay offers large crops, con- 

 venience to market, with healthfulness and 

 beauty of situation. 



(? iii,ts«on, Feb. 9, 1846 



TOWN SEWERAGE. 



The question has been raised by an active mem- 

 ber of the Agricultural Association of New- York' 

 as to the practicability and value of turning the 

 Town Sewerage of this City to horticultural pur- 

 po,ses — our position lately has not enabled us to 

 know the result of their inquiry. All things cannot 

 be done at once. The world it.sclf was not made in 

 a day, but all cities that promise population and 

 extension, should look ahead to the conversion 

 to some useful purpose of all the offal of every 

 kind which large populations throw off every 

 day — and which too often become sources of ma- 

 laria and pestilence, instead of wholesome sub- 

 sistence. 



" Were Glasgow properly washed out,I should 

 judge the washings capable of irrigating at least 

 1.5,000 acres — a square of five miles; and this, at 

 ^£30 per acre, would be worth ^1450, 000 ; or, at 

 only £^0 per acre, £300,000 yearly, taking into 

 account the population of Glasgow, these sums 

 are considerably under what Liebig allows. We 

 ,should have here a stream of dirty water running 

 out from the City, to return again in a stream of 

 milk — a transformation effected by the mysteri- 

 ous metamorphic power of combined vegetable 

 and animal a,ssimilation. No doubt a large out- 

 lay of capital would be necessary, in the first 

 place, to bring in and distribute a sufficiency of 

 water over the City, and to effect a complete 

 drainage ; and in the second place, to raise the 

 collected washing.s, conduct them by aqueducts 

 to the proper distance, and spread them out in a 

 complete network of irrigation ; but the exu- 

 berant fertility which would thence be extended 

 over a large space of country would more thaji 

 doubly compensate the amount of outlay, while 

 the improvement which would be effected in the 

 health and even in the morals and character of 

 the population of GlaiJgow would be inapprecia- 

 ble. In the event of this improvement being 

 carried out generally, our beautiful rivers and 

 streams, which now as they pa.ss our cities and 

 populous villages, suffer pollution by the drain- 

 age, would continue to run in crystal purity to 

 the sea, sweet as when they first welled out in 

 the fountains and springs from the bosom of our 

 pastoral hills." 



[Mr. Matthew, in the Glasgow National. 



