252 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



70 or 80 yards' distance apart. They have now 

 acquired size to shade the cattle, but I have never 

 seen a more abundant crop of the bushes than at 

 present, I have tried grazing ihem at, various 

 seasons, deep summer grubbing, and cow-pens 

 on s[)ots without success ; and believe there is 

 but one infallible and permanent antidote, and this 

 is what we in lower Virginia may well call the 

 grand restorative o( exhausted land, fire wood 

 and rail tia)ber, the old-field pine. On a farm 

 adjoining me, as much infested with sassafras a 

 i'sw years sine© as perhaps any I ever saw, it is 

 over a large surface eniirely supplanted by the pine. 

 I will close these gleanings with a few observa- 

 tions on the subject of gelding animals. The ope- 

 ration should be done in warm weather, and 

 exposure to wet or even damp atmosphere guard- 

 ed against for a week at least. Without this pre- 

 caution many a fine animal has fallen victim to 

 tetanus or locked jaw. But the pariicular practice 

 ■which I wish to suggest to my brother farmers is 

 to substitute for the barbarous custom of searing, 

 and the awkward one of clamping, the simple and 

 safe one of tying the blood vessels, not with twine, 

 however, but with animal ligatures, following the 

 example of the surgeons : narrow strips of sheep- 

 skin dressed without tan, and rolled as the shoe- 

 makers do, will answer very well. The ends 

 may be cut oflT short after tyins, and in twenty- 

 four hours all danger of bleeding will be over. 

 Washing wiih salt water will be lully sufficient to 

 excite suppuration, and anointing all the surround- 

 ing pans with elder leaves stewed in lard will pre- 

 vent all inconvenience from flies. To all these 

 items I would, as old Father Wesley, f=ubscribe 

 "Tried." W. G. 



BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF THE GREEN-SAND 

 EARTH OF JAMES RIVER, RECENTLY OB- 

 SERVED, 



By the Editor. 



As it has fallen to my lot to make and to report 

 much the greater number (indeed nearly all) of 

 the experiments and applications of green-sand 

 alone, as manure, in Virginia, and as the greater 

 proportion of my applications have been profit- 

 less, or without eflect, and the general results 

 discouraging to the practice — notwithstanding 

 some remarkable exceptions of powerful effects, 

 produced by this earth — it is the more espe- 

 cially incumbent on me to report, without de- 

 lay, some more recent trials and their very 

 different results. The difference of results, with 

 the supposed difference of circumstances, also, 

 seems to throw some light, though leeble and un- 

 certain as yet, on the heretofore dark and inex- 

 plicable differences of operation of what seemed 

 to be precisely the same agent. 



The new (acts learned of the eflects of the 

 Pamunkey green -sand and green-sand marl, and 

 reported in vol. 8 of the Farmers' Register, in- 

 duced me 10 request of my son, who is co-pro- 

 prietor and sole director of the Coggins Point 

 /arm, to resume the use of green-sand lor experi- 

 ment. His first experiment, stated below, was be- 

 fore reported (3d) p. 86, vol. x. Belbre its having 

 any effect was despaired of, he saw at Evergreen 

 the beneficial effects of an application, which he 



described in a communication published at page 

 64.5, vol. ix., and which experiment was comment- 

 ed on subsequently at page 135 of the current 

 volume. This lact induced the larger application of 

 last November. The green-sand earih used was 

 dug from under the Coggins Point beach, which 

 is all jormed of it, after removing a few inches of 

 eand, gravel or pebbles. The darkest was chosen, 

 such being deemed the richest in green-sand. 

 No gypsum was perceptible, nor any other known 

 fertilizing ingredient, except the green-sand itself, 

 and a lew small fragments of shells, which would 

 scarcely amount to as much as one per cent, of 

 carbonate of lime in the whole mass. 



Experiment 1. — In the spring of 1841, as much 

 earth was dug, of the part first reached, as cover- 

 ed 8 acres, at 40 bushels to the acre. The land 

 was a level loam, of good quality, then in wheat 

 and clover. .Two wide beds, in different parts of 

 the ground, were left without being dressed, for 

 comparison. The spreading carefully made to 

 the marked outlines of these omitted spaces. 



During all 1841, and up to 8th of May 1842, 

 when the stock of cattle were first turned on, and 

 soon grazed the whole bare, there had not been 

 produced the least visible benefit or effect by the 

 dressing. N. B. On this same land, the first ob- 

 served very great benefits from green-sand were 

 produced in 1827-9, and which did not remain but 

 a lew years, (See Exper. xxiii, p. 121, vol. ix., 

 Farmers' Register.) 



Exp. 2. — In December, 1842 — Enough earth 

 was dug (adjoining and precisely alike in appear- 

 ance to the last) to cover 40 acres more, at same 

 rate, (40 bushels,) on clover sown in the spring or 

 winter previous. Of this, the first used, and taken 

 from the top or most exposed part of the bed, as 

 belbre, has shown no eflect up to May 21st, when 

 the clover had reached full growth, and mewing 

 for hay had been proceeding some days. After 

 the dressing had covered some 6 or 8 acres, a 

 marked interval was omitted ; and another one 

 after 5 or 6 more acres had been covered. The 

 dressed clover, on each side of the first of these 

 omitted spaces, showed a very slight benefit in 

 May, and at the second interval greater benefit ; 

 but not regularly, and not enough altogether to 

 repay the expenses of the application. 



Exp. 3. The same rate of dressing as above 

 staled was continued, and though no more mark- 

 ed spaces were omitted to compare results, there 

 could be no doubt of liiere being very great, 

 though irregula.' effects produced on the last 10 

 or 15 acres dressed. This was most apparent at 

 the broken lines, where the work had been in- 

 terrupted ; and as it had not been designed as the 

 conclusion, the out-line of tlie spreading was very 

 crooked and irregular. The difference in product 

 was every where most marked, and the dressed 

 clover a vigorous growth, of rich deep green 

 color, while ihe clover immediately adjoining, and 

 not dressed, was comparatively yellow and mean. 

 Several small detached spots of luxuriant clover 

 were seen outside of the general dressing, and 

 surrounded by the mean growth ; and upon look- 

 ing for the cause of such superiority, in each 

 case a lump ol green-sand earth was found in the 

 middle of the rank spot, which had been thrown 

 beyond the general spreading. 



If both these applications had not extended be- 

 yond 15 acres, the results would have indicated 



