394 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



It is not necesBary, liovvever, that it should be 

 sown this season, (or hke the common variety it 

 may be sown in the autumn and will be ready 

 to be cut in the (bllowing summer. It is known 

 that the common rye may like the seigle du nord 

 be sown in summer with analogous results; the 

 difference between the two kinds in this point has 

 not been yet entirely established. 



It is however perfectly well known that the 

 seigle du nord is very valuable on account of its 

 great vigor, and it deserves to be tried com- 

 paratively witli our coojmon variety, both as 

 grain and forage. On account ol' the smallness ol' 

 its grain and the size o( its shoots, it requires one 

 filth part le^^s ol seed than liie common variety. 



Sorgho, Broom corn, Holcus sorghum.— 'V\\\h 

 grain grows only in the middle parts of France, 

 and even there offers but small inducement to its 

 further cultivation, because it is an indifferent 

 food, and requires good soil. They give it to the 

 fowls, although some accounts are unfavorable 

 to it as food lor them. This plant may be used 

 as green food. In parts of Anjou they cultivate 

 it to make brooms of the branches composing 

 the heads of the plants. They sow it late be- 

 cause it is apt to be injured by frost, and thin 

 because it grows almost as large as maize. The 

 Sorgho blanc is larger and more larinaceous than 

 the ordinary variety, but it is later and matures 

 with difficulty in the climate of Paris. 



For tlie Farmers' Register, 

 TIME OF RIPENING OP WHEAT ON THE NORTH 

 SIDE OF RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER, 18 MILES 

 BELOW FREDERICKSBURG, AND ABOUT 50 

 MILES NORTH OF RICHMOND, FROM 1831 TO 

 1842. 



few 



1831. 21st June, began harvest with a 

 cutters— 23d, with all hands. 



1832. 23d June, cut early wheat— 28ih, began 

 to cut purple straw in spots— July 4lh, all hands 

 in harvest. 



1833. 14th June, began to cut early wheat — 

 22d, began bearded and purple straw — 24ih, all 

 hands in harvest. 



1834. 20ih June, began to cut early wheat — 

 22d, began bearded and purple straw— 24th, all 

 bands in harvest. 



1835. let July, began to cut early wheat — 2d, 

 golden chaff— 6th, all hands in harvest. 



1836. 22d June, began to cut early wheat— 5th 

 July, all in harvest. 



1837. 30ih June, began to cut early wheat— 3d 

 July, all in harvest. 



1838. 19ih June, began to cut early wheat — 

 29th, a few hands cutting — 2d July, all hands. 



1839. 17ih June, began to cut early wheat — 

 24ih all in harvest. 



1840 12ih June, began lo cut early wheat — 

 19 h, cut Delaware or red German wheal — 22d, 

 all hands in harvest. 



1841. 28ih June, began to cut the ordinary 

 wheat, having ceased to raise early wheat. 



1842. 21st June, began to cut the ordinary 

 wheat. 



It will be observed, that our harvests have gene- 

 rally followed one week after those recorded in the 

 June number of the Farmers' Register. The 

 extremes are (excepting the early wheat) in 1833 



and 1840 on 22d June, and in 1836 on 5ih July, 

 an interval ol 13 days. 



The crop of 1831 was small — crops of '32, '33 

 and '34 pretty good — of '35 and '36 very bad 

 —'37 and '38 good— 39 indifferent— '40 and '41 

 pretty good — the crop of the present year is in- 

 jured excessively by rust, but we cannot know 

 the extent ol the injury until it is t'hrashed. An 

 estate on the Potomac, where the largest crop of 

 the county was expected, will barely, ii is thought, 

 yield its seed. Half crops, or two-thirds of crops 

 are anticipated by the most sanguine farmers. 



E. T. T. 



King George, 9th July, 1842. 



THE CROTON AQUEDUCT FOR SUPPLYING 

 AVATER TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 



From tlie New Yorlt Tribune. 



This stupendous structure is now completed, 

 and in a lew weeks, at furthest, the city will have 

 a fbretasie of the thousand benefits it is destined 

 to conler. Our citizens may not be generally 

 aware, that in this magnificent work they are 

 surpassing ancient Rome, in one of her proudest 

 boasts. None of the hydraulic structures of that 

 city, in spile of the legions of slaves at her com- 

 mand, equal, in magnitude of design, perlection of 

 detail, and prospective benefits, this aqueduct. 

 The 7nain trunk consists ot an immense mass of 

 masonry, six feel and a half wide, nine liier high, 

 and lorty miles long, formed of walls three leet 

 thick, cemented into solid rock. But this water 

 channel, gigantic as it is, is far from being all the 

 work. The dam across the Croton, which re- 

 tains the water in a grand reservoir, is a mound 

 of earth and masonry, lorty feet high, and seven- 

 ty leet wide at the bottom, and has connected 

 with it many co.-Dplicated, but perfect contrivan- 

 ces, to enable the engineer to have complete control 

 over the mighty mass of water. The river, thua 

 thrown back towards its source, will form a lake 

 of five hundred acres, which will retain a supply 

 lor emergencies, of some tl;ousand millions of 

 gallons, and also offer, as a collateral advantage, 

 many picturesque sites lor country seats, upon the 

 woody points which will jut out into its smooth 

 basin. A tunnel leads ifie water Irom this re- 

 servoir into tlie aqueduct, and eleven more of 

 these subterraneous passages occur belbre reaching 

 Harlem river, having an aggregate length of 

 seven-eighilis of" a mile, and many of them being 

 cut through the solid rock. At intervals of a 

 mile, ventilators are constructed in the form of 

 towers of white marble, which give to the water 

 that exposure to the atmosphere, without which 

 it becomes vapid and insipid : and these dazzling 

 turrets mark out the line of the aqueduct to the 

 passengers upon the Hudson. 



The sireanis which intersect the line of the 

 structure, are conveyed under it in stone culverts, 

 the extremities ol which afford tiie engineers an 

 opportunity of displaying their architeciaral taste. 

 Sing-Sing creek, with its deep ravine, is i^rossed 



by a bridge of a single eliptical arch of eighty- 

 eight feet span, and a hundred leet above the 

 stream. Its unusually perlt^cl workmanship was 



proved by its having settled but one inch alter the 



centres were removed. The view of its massive 



