226 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 4 



Greece. In every village there are rouni.1 paved 

 places, where the inhabitants spread out their 

 corn, and have it trodden out by horses. On the 

 arrival of the Bavarians in this cotinlry, an officer 

 ordered several flails to be made, with the inten- 

 tion of leaching the Greeks iheir use ; and some 

 soldiers were set to work with them lor this pur- 

 pose. The Greeks, of course, approved of the 

 new way ior them ; "but why should we tire our- 

 eelves," said they, "when our horsee can do it as 

 well with their feetl" 



That awkardness, or idleness, which is percep- 

 tible on many occasions, struck me particularly on 

 seeinii them digging or trenching the ground. It 

 is extraordinary how men in this warm climate 

 can remain bent, and sitting on the calves of their 

 legs, or, rather, doubled on their legs, for hours to- 

 gether, and not upright, as every where else, 

 working with implements which never have lon- 

 ger handles than from 2 ft. to 2 fi. 6 in. 



The climate of Greece being so favorable for 

 the vine, accounts for the country also abounding 

 in wine. We must not, however, expect to see 

 the vine cultivated regularlj'; the slocks are plant- 

 ed, they are allowed to grow, and they are thought 

 of no more till the time of the vintage. Those 

 wines which come from the islands are very good 

 and light ; those, on tlie contrary, which are made 

 on the continent, for want of cellars and reservoirs 

 for keeping them in, are always mixed with resin 

 or gypsum. The taste produced by this mixture 

 is at first extremely disajireeable, particularly 

 when gypsum or plaster-of- Paris is used. I soon 

 got accustomed to the mixture of resin, which 

 seems at first to be turpentine. The latter cus- 

 tom, in this warm climate, is a very good means 

 of promoting digestion. 



This is nearly the amount of the notes Avhich I 

 wrote during my stay in this country. I can, if 

 you wish ir, communicate other matters to you, 

 perhaps still more agreeable than these. 



SohOj London, September, 1838. 



From tlie Soutlicrn Agiioulturisl. 

 TRI8H POTATOES FKOM SLIPS. 



Irish potatoes may be grown from the slips, 

 like the sweet potato. As soon as your potato 

 tops have grown about one loot high, cut them 

 off and plant the same as you do To the sweet 

 potato, only have the beds nearer each other. 

 The potatoes from these will be later, but they 

 will be more numerous, and decidedly more mealy. 



OLLA P0J:)UU)A. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



March 22ncl, 1839. 

 In one of the late numbers of your Register, I 

 have read what I consider a very just complaint 

 against most of your early correspondents, who 

 are yet in the land of the living. It is, that they 

 appear to have grown weary in the good work of 

 contributing to your paper, as their communica- 

 tions have gradually been dinninishing in number 

 and frequency, until you rarely hear from them at 

 all. You and your readers, I think, will all acquit 

 me of this fault, for my fear has generally been 



that I should over-do the matter; but nevertheless, 

 i will venture to send you something, lest others 

 better qualified should be unmoveti by your ap- 

 peal. 



You must long ago have been convinced thai 1 

 most heartily wish success to your Register on 

 your own account; but you have yet to learn that 

 I wish it also, because I fake a pride in it, as a 

 work of good oKi Virginia, concocted out of iier 

 own materials, and by a native-born Tuckahoe.* 

 To aid it, therefore, in every honest way that I 

 possibly can. is a matter which occupies much of 

 my thoughts, and prompts me, perhaps oftener 

 than is useful, to be scribbling for it. This, how- 

 ever, having no other object than the good of our 

 cau.^e, is never designed to impose upon you more 

 trouble than that of perusal ; smce to see myself in 

 print, very rarely, if ever, forms any pan of my 

 motive lor addressing you. Let me then again 

 repeat, as I have often done before, that you are 

 at perlecl lil)erty to destroy wliaiever of mine you 

 do not deem fit to publish. 



At present 1 have nothing to ofl'er but certain 

 sugiresiions brought to my mind by your just com- 

 plaints of the increasing want of original commu- 

 nications — suggestions, which, if followed out, as 

 your own judgment might direct, would add, I 

 am sure, considerably to the interest of your highly 

 useful journal. One of these is, to re-publish, 

 when you are hard run lor fresh matter, short ar- 

 ticles, ii'om some ol'our comparatively old agricul- 

 tural works ; for instance, the American P^'armer, 

 which consists of lb quarto volumes. J\]y rea- 

 sion (or this recommenilation is, that such works, 

 when published periodically, are almost always 

 treated as waste paper. Their contents, iherelbre, 

 are very soon entirely lost and forgotten. /, wlio 

 read every agricultural work I can lay my hands 

 on, and careiully preserve all I subscribe for, was 

 forcibly reminded of this fact a i'ew days ago, 

 while searching the American Farmer lor some- 

 thing of which I had a faint, but imperfect recol- 

 lection. JNly attention was so completely arrested 

 by several liighly interesting and valuable articles, 

 which I had utterly forgotten, that I was near los- 

 ing sight of the first object of my search. Had I 

 seen them in your paper, without a mark of quo- 

 tation, i have no doubt that I should have taken 

 them lor original communications to yourself; and 

 I am very sure that the same thing would happen 

 to hundreds of your other subscribers ; for there 

 are nniltitudcs of us agriculturist who require 

 "Znie upon line,'''' and '■'■precept upon precept," io 

 enable us to retain in our memories what we learn 

 of our profession from books; especially if they are 

 published piece-meal. 



Still older works than the American Farmer 



* Would you believe it? There are hundreds of 

 native-born Virginians still so ignorant of the early 

 history of their own state as not to know that a 

 root called "Tuckahoe," was a common article of food 

 among the Indians, when Virginia was first settled by 

 the English. It is indeed, a great botanical curiosity, 

 (now very scarce,) for it has neither root in the ground, 

 nor stem above it ; but grows a few inches below the 

 surface, apparently as unconnected with the soil as a 

 buried cannon ball would be. It is ova! in shape, and 

 varies in size from that of a goose egg to that of a man's 

 head. The coat is rough and of a dark brown color; 

 the inner substance is very white, similar in texture to 

 that of the yam, and of an insipid taste. I believe it 

 is found in the Caroiinas, as well as in Virginia. 



