1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



41 



ceiving very valuable plants from the collections in 

 Charleston, S. C. by the monthly mail-schooner 

 from that port to this; but, at this very period when 

 it was most essential to our success, the mail has 

 been suddenly and entirely discontinued. It is, 

 however, stated, that this post-office will hereafter 

 be supplied with letters twice a month by the semi- 

 monthly packet which sails from New York, via 

 Key West to Saint Marks?; yet, unless it be arrang- 

 ed that the same vessel shall also touch at Indian 

 Key, we shall be entirely dependent on casual op- 

 portunities of intercourse direct. Under the hope, 

 however, that the post-master-general will direct 

 the semi-monthly packet to proceed via Indian 

 Key and Key West to Saint Marks, we shall have 

 ground enough prepared to transplant all the valu- 

 able vegetables from the green-houses ol'the north- 

 ern states and of Europe which may thus be ob- 

 tained through and from the commercial emporium 

 during the ensuing months, and prior to the sum- 

 mer rains of tropical Florida. During this inter- 

 val, I again respectfully solicit all easy aid to the 

 tropical nursery which can be rendered through 

 the facilities afforded for the transmission of seeds 

 by the commissioner of the patent office. The 

 trustees are able and willinir to return ample equi- 

 valents for every seed, cutting, bulb, &c. of useful 

 plants, which may be transmitted to them through 

 the patent office before the first of June next. It 

 is ardently to be desired that the bill to establish an 

 agricultural department in the patent office will be 

 speedily passed into a law; and that it will multi- 

 ply a hundred fold the facilities for colleciing and 

 diffusing valuable plants throughout every district 

 of our valuable country. If a thousandth part of 

 the weight of the political newspapers carried by 

 the mail to the most distant sections of the United 

 States were substituted by an erjual weight and 

 bulk of useful seeds and plants, for distribution, it 

 would be a million-fold more beneficial to all ranks 

 and parties of our common country. 



I am pleased to see the stand you have taken in 

 opposition to the epidemic humbug of speculative 

 sales of the silk mulberry tree. The greatest natu- 

 ral importance of the propagation of the mulberry 

 trees consists in the tact that they are naturally 

 adapted to propagate themselves in the poorest 

 soil; and hence their value is infinitely diminished 

 by the artificial process of forcing their multipli- 

 cation for trading' speculation. On this barren 

 coral rock, Charles Howe, Esq. has thousands of 

 the morus multiculis of the hardiest habits, yet he 

 has refiised to answer a letter of the speculator of 

 the north from whom he bought his original cut- 

 tings, and who now wishes to speculate on their 

 progeny. Very respectfully, your ob'dt serv't 

 Henry Perrine. 



P. S. In looking over my papers I found the 

 letters of Col. White and of Chief Justice Mar- 

 shall, of which copies are appended for publication 

 in the Register, if you think proper. 



Washington,^ May 29th, 1832. 



Deal Sir, — It may be gratifying to you to have 

 a copy of a letter I have just received from Chief 

 Justice Marshall, on the subject of your project. 

 It must be highly flattering to the ambition ol'any 

 man to have the commendation of such a distin- 

 guished and illustrious man. 



I am, sincerely yours, Jos. S. M. White. 



JDr. II. Par rim. 

 Vol. VII— 6 



Richmond, May 24, 1831. 

 Dear Sir, — The report of the committee of agri- 

 culture on the memorial of Dr. Perrine, to which 

 I am indebted to your politeness, was received on 

 my return liom the court at Raleigh. I have read 

 it with deep interest. If the growth of the tropics 

 can be transplanted advantageously to Florida, the 

 culture must be extremely profitable to that part of 

 the union, and consequently desirable to the whole 

 United States. The sisal hemp in particular, ap- 

 pears to be among the most valuable productions 

 of nature. The description of its qualities may be 

 exaggerated, still the experiment ought to be made. 

 1 trust the application oi' Dr. Perrine may be suc- 

 cessful. I thank you for this mark of your recol- 

 lection, and am, with great respect and esteem, 

 Your ob'dt, 



J. Marshall. 



We should be gratified to receive from Dr. Per- 

 rine a full and particular description of this little 

 speck of our territory, of which the existence, as 

 an inhabited place, is known to so Cew, and its 

 character, in soil, climate, &c. is so very different 

 from all the main land. Much of our own studies 

 and investigations have been devoted to the char- 

 acteristics of soils, caused either by the deficiency 

 or abundance; or by the various proportions, of cal- 

 careous ingredients. But though some of the prai- 

 rie soils in Alabama, of which we have heretofore 

 reported the constituent parts, are principally com- 

 posed of carbonate of lime, we have never j'et 

 known a soil so exclusively formed of that earth as 

 it would seem is the case with the soil of this islet, 

 judging from its original construction, (by the 

 labors of coral insects,) as well as from Dr. Per- 

 rine's statement. It is desirable to know, from ac- 

 tual analysis, how small is the amount of all other 

 ingredients of the soil; and what are the peculiar, 

 or most favored products, of soil so exclusively cal- 

 careous. We should fear for the safety of Dr. 

 Perrine's exotics in so peculiarly constituted a soil. 

 The growth of mulberry trees on such a soil, 

 though nothing is said as to the degree of their 

 luxuriance, is alone enough to confirm the opinion 

 which we had before entertained, and expressed, 

 that this tree requires a highly calcareous soil; and 

 though it will grow tolerably well on soils very de- 

 ficient in this character, yet that its greatest vigor 

 and growth can only be seen where lime has been 

 abundantly furnished to the soil, by nature or by 

 art. — Ed, Far. Reg. 



RANDOLPH'S TREATISE ON GARDENING. 



[The following little work deserves the place 

 which will here be given to it, not only for the 

 value ol'its instructions — which, to their extent, are 

 even now the best known ibr the region for which 

 it was designed — but also as a literary curiosity, it 

 being the oldest Virginian work on cultivation, of 



