458 



THE FARMERS)' REGISTER. 



19 used, a few inches of ihis material is all the 

 covering necessary. 



11. Sulphur is one of the best substances for 

 freeing all animals from vermin, by leeding it to 

 them occasionally. Although we have never 

 known the slightest injury result from i's use, ex- 

 cessive quantities might possibly prove hurlflil, and 

 they are certainly useless. 



12. The common duck or mallard is the only 

 variety that can be profitably reared, as all others 

 appear less hardy, require more care, and being 

 wilder, are more disposed to make their escape. 

 We are not aware that the wild turkey has ever 

 been crossed with the domestic one, or that a suc- 

 cessful attempt has been made to domesticate 

 them. Such attempts appear to be scorned equal- 

 ly by the wild turkey and the partridge. 



is ground in a mill and mixed with the curd info a 

 kind of paste, which is put into conical moulds to 

 be dried and cured. Some farmers in Europe are 

 in the habit of mixing it in small quantities with 

 their hay. lis powerful aromatic smell imparts to 

 the hay an agreeable flavor, which is evidently 

 agreeable to animals. But as most of our readers 

 have cultivated it in their gardens as sweet 

 clover, there is no necessity ol enlarging on its 

 properties. 



ANOTHER HUMBUG EXPLODED. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 



From the English agricultural journals we per- 

 ceive that much attention has been exciied in the 

 agricultural community of that country, by the 

 introduction of a new clover, called the Bokhara 

 clover, famous for its rapid growth, and the great 

 amount of green food a small quantity of land sown 

 with the seeds would produce. Quite a handsome 

 speculation was going on in theseeds, when some 

 specimens fell under the notice of the naturalist. 

 Dr. Smith, who pror.oimced the plant to be the 

 Melilotalba, or white Siberian melilot, commonly 

 known as Buffalo or sweet clover, but in reality no 

 clover at all. This plant had long been cultivated 

 in gardens, and to some extent had been intro- 

 duced into field culture on the continent ; but the 

 benefits expected from its use have not been rea- 

 lized. In a memoir read before the French Agri- 

 cultural Society, in 1788, by M. Thouin, it was 

 strongly recommended, but on a large scale was 

 not Ibund to equal representations made from 



garden culture. It was found in France to bear j ever, been unobservant as to the general raanage- 

 Ibur cuttinuG in a year; but if not cut while | ment of my neighbors, and with the additional 



REPORT TO THE STATE BOARD OF AGRI- 

 CULTURE. 



ON THE FAKMING OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY. 



White Hall, June 21, 1842. 

 Edmund Ruffin, esq, — Sir — The letter which you 

 did me the honor o( addressing, as Corresponding 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, came to 

 hand yesterday. I promptly respond to your call, 

 so far as my limited information will serve. Being 

 a farmer ol' only some eight years' standing, the 

 greater part of which time has been spent in 

 erecting suitable buildings to make farming 

 pleasant, 1 have not been enabled to give that 

 attention to the improvement of my farm which 

 it so greatly needed ; the former proprietor having 

 been fairly starved off, sought a home in the far 

 west, leaving the premises in a galled condition, 

 without a gooii building, save the body of a barn. 

 The consequence was, when 5 purchased in 1834, 

 i had to build a good farmhouse, negro-houses, 

 siabling, shed ray barn, put up meat-house, dairy 

 and hog-house, together with saw-mill, grist-mill 

 and oil-mill, and plant out some 300 trees of select 

 fruit. Thus, you will see, with a limited force 

 and not a large capital, 1 have had much to attend 

 to, without being enabled to give much time to 

 the improvement of my land. I have not, how- 



young, the stems (jecame woody and of little 

 value. 



This Bokhara clover, or melilot, was introduced 

 into Pennsylvania, some two years since, and the 

 fortunate possessors of the plant vt?ere driving a 

 lucrative business in selling the seeds ai the rate 

 of one dollar a hundred, when its identity with 

 siceet clover was detected by a lady, and the bub- 

 ble of course has burst in this country as well 

 as in Europe. A letter from Mr. Hepburn, in the 

 August Agriculturist, details the process of ideu 1 

 lification. 



We have frequently cautioned our farmers 

 against indulging in extravagant or costly specula- 

 tions in new things, or things that are called so. 

 The caution to "prove all things and hold fast 

 that which is good," is as aj)plicable in agriculture, 

 as in theology. The meiilot is a valuable plant 

 lor some purposes, but it will not equal the repre- 

 sentations made of it as a forage plant. It is not a 

 clover, and the plant is not a new one ; and if any, 

 with a knowledge of these facts, have disposed ol 

 theseeds as such, they have practised a gross de- 

 ception or imposition. Melilot is the plant used to 

 give the peculiar flavor and appearance to the 

 celebrated Schabzieger cheese of Switzerland, and 

 the Guyere cheese ol France. The green plant 



light diffused from your excellent Register, the 

 Albany Cultivator, and the Southern Planter, I 

 flatter myself I have derived much useful inform- 

 ation ; and I hope, j^hould my life be spared a few 

 years longer, to let my neighbors see that a free 

 use of lime, with deep ploughing, and a proper 

 rotation of crops, will in the end not only yield a 

 very comfortable living fur my family, butwill be 

 a source of revenue. 



Tbe general average of the wheat crop in the 

 county of Rockbridge will be about 10 to 12 

 bushels. Many good farmers make 20, 25 and 

 SO bushels to the acre; Major John Alexander, 

 in the year 1839. had a few acres that reached aa 

 high as 40 or 42 bushefs per acre, agreeably to 

 his report to the Rockbridge Agricultural Society. 

 This crop is, however, rarely obtained, and 1 

 might safely put down the average of our best 

 farms at something like 20 bushels. My own 

 crop for several years did not average more than 

 5 bushel=i. Last year I took much more pains in 

 preparing my ground ; after (allowing, hauled on 

 lime at the rate of about 40 bushels per acre, 

 tongued in my wheat, after rolling heavily in 

 lime, say 1 bushel of lime to three of wheat. The 

 crop looks remarkably well, and good farmers eay 

 I will have at least 20 bushels per acre. The 



