524 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



in the few pages of this volume yet to be filled, 

 and in the few days of our editorial and public life 

 which yet remain unfinished. 



In addition to the reg^ular duties of members, 

 we learn that the society has taken measures to 

 obtain an accurate statement of the lands marled 

 and limed in the county of Prince George, such as, 

 and more full than the report we were lately ena- 

 bled to publish for the county of King William. 

 Every such statement will be both interesting. and 

 beneficial. And if it could be made general 

 throughout the state, by legislative authority, and 

 the operations of each subsequent year be thereaf- 

 ter added, the beneficial consequences would be 

 perhaps greater than the publication of any sta- 

 tistics whatever. This is one of the {hw measures 

 recommended to the legislature by the Board of 

 Agriculture ; and, as it will not cost the trca-ury 

 the expenditure of a dollar, there may be some 

 hope indulged of the execution. Among the be- 

 neficial consequences of such general and accu- 

 rate reports of the applications of these perma- 

 nently improving measures, would be the following: 



The large amount of such labor already per- 

 formed would be astonishing to all ; and the mag- 

 nitude of the operations, and their long continu- 

 ance and annual increase, would prove, more 

 satisfactorily than any reasoning or statements of 

 particular profitable results, the great and certain 

 profit thence derived. The facts thus broadly and 

 clearly displayed, and the inevitable deductions 

 from them, would alone serve to induce marling to 

 be commenced by very many farmers, who have, 

 for want of information, neglected it heretofore ; 

 and would cause liming to be commenced by far 

 greater numbers, and the mode of improvement 



to be introduced in perhaps 30 or more of the 

 upper counties of Virginia, where the practice has 

 heretofore been unknown, and may otherwise 

 remain untried for half a century to come. 



Even in the counties where great improvement 

 and profits have already been derived from marl- 

 ing and liming, the emulation of each individual 

 would be stimulated, by such reports of the opera- 

 tions of each, to increase his own exertions; and 

 probably the second year's reports would show 

 a great increase of attention and effort, even 

 where least wanting before. None of us do, in 

 this or any other respect, all that we know to be 

 right, or that would be profitable. And the most 

 sanguine or the most industrious and judicious 

 raarlers and limers would be thus urged to in- 

 creased and profitable exertions, as well as, in a 

 far greater degree, the more indolent, neglectful, or 

 heretofore skeptical, to make their first efforts in 

 this mode of improvement. 



And lastly — upon any grounds whatever of es- 

 timating values that can be applied to the reports 

 of marling and liming thus to be obtained, the 

 magnitude of the intrinsic value of agricultural 

 fixed capital and wealth, and of annually increas- 

 ing income, would both be so enormous iu amount, 

 that nothing could so strongly show the impor- 

 tance of using every means for difftising agricul- 

 tural information and knowledge, to which cause 

 much the larger part of these operations are 

 altogether due. Our legislature might possibly 

 thus learn that any sum judiciously expended in 

 furtherance of the great end of agricultural im- 

 provement, is not lost, but is as the seed sown 

 which will return to the commonwealth a future 

 har-vest of a hundred-fold of increase. — Ed F. R. 



CONTENTS OF THE FABMERs' REGISTER, NO. XI, VOL. X, 



ORIGINAL, COMMUNICATIONS. 



rage 



A cheap under-drain - - . . 494 



Artesian wells in Alabama - - - 495 

 Time of ripening of wheat on the south side 



of James River .... 493 



Another "amende honorable." Renewal of 



the rotation disciiasion proposed - - 499 

 Acccount of the operation of McCormick's 



reaper ----- 503 



Editorial notices to subscribers - - 504 



The Mediterranean wheat - . - 511 



Hemp culture for North Carolina - - 512 

 Report to the State Board of Agriculture 

 on the " Obstacles to improvement, caused 

 by operation of the laws, or governmental 



regulation" - - . . 512 



Notes on the Sandy Point estate. No. 6. - 517 



Recent and extensive marling in S. Carolina 519 



Cheap marling ...... 523 



i'irst labors of a working Agricultural Society 523 



SELECTIONS. 



Butter making . . . i 



Fatal effects of castor oil on a horse - 

 A million of dollars lost annually in Massa- 

 cfiusetts ..... 

 Worms in the head of sheep - 

 Experiments with corn sown broad-cast 

 Successful manufacture of corn-stalk molasses 

 Extracts from English correspondence of Al- 

 bany Cultivator .... 

 Bokhara clover. Soiling 

 New method of grafting apple trees 

 To kill weeds . - 



Expense of fences .... 

 Address to the Agricultural Society of Albe- 

 marle ..... 

 The garden snail . - . - . 



New horse shoe 



Public sale of provisions at Liverpool, under 

 the new tariff 



Page 

 493 

 496 



497 

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498 

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505 

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522 



