430 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 7 



means of wind mills. This is certainly a most 

 beneficial application of the wind; and F appre- 

 hend the same means would produce tlie same re- 

 sult in the tnar.<lies of the Pocomoke, Nanticoke, 

 and Cho|)tank. Maryland is a stale small in ex- 

 tent, and limited in means, but jier projects are 

 vast, and her views magnificent. By internal im- 

 provements she calculates to secure the entire trade 

 of the Susquehanna, a large portion of the Ohio 

 and Mississippi, and to divide with New York and 

 Quebec the riches ol" the western lakes. Mary- 

 land has stated her credit for many millions on ca- 

 nals, and rail-roads, and b would well become her 

 Ibstering genius to expand her wings, and to apply 

 a few hundred thousands to reclaim her waste 

 marshes. Many ofiliem are still vacant, and the 

 state holds the title; those which have been grant- 

 ed, she might appropriate tc herself, by condemna- 

 tion. When the work was accomplished, and 

 these now barren wastes are set in timothy and 

 herds grass, the state could sell them out at a heavy 

 advance, which would not only pay the costs of 

 the wind mills and ditches, but would leave a 

 heavy profit to the state. This is not a scheme 

 of mere total profit, but of general utility; the 

 western shore would leel the benefits, which would 

 perhaps extend to Philadelphia, and New York; 

 thousands of tiit bullocks would be brought into 

 market, (inm lands which are now worse ttian use- 

 less. The odious monopoly of western graziers, 

 (which I much fear the patriot butchers of Balti- 

 more will be unable to dissolve,) would be at an 

 end, and the Baltimorian would eat beef of very 

 superior quality at low rates. Eastern shore men 

 know, though western shore men do not, that cat- 

 tle, which can eat salt and fresh grass, and drink 

 salt and water, at pleasure, fatten quicker and 

 make viands more savory, than those of the liigh 

 country, where salt is dealt out with a parsimo- 

 nious hand. Salt in its congelation, either by the 

 power of the sun or fire, contracts impurities of 

 which it is clear in its aquous state; and pure sus- 

 tenance is as necessary to tlie health of of a beast 

 as to a man. The principal sanative ingredient 

 in the waters of the Saratoga spring is salt, which 

 has never been successfully imparted to medicated 

 waters. It is for these causes that Governor Ste- 

 vens' sheep are the crack of the Baltimore mar- 

 ket, and so much preferred by the epicures to 

 these raised on Elkridge, and Big Pipe creek. To 

 this another important consideration may be super- 

 added ; Maryland holds a deep stake in the Eas- 

 tern Shore Rail-Road, which she increased last 

 session, and which she will probably contitme to 

 increase, until it shall be finished, as the private 

 stockholders, either for want of faith, or want of 

 funds, commit heavy Ibrleitures, and if peradven- 

 ture when the road is finished, the great couununi- 

 cation between the north and the sonili, tliould 

 take another direction, the loss miirht lie compen- 

 sated by taking fat beeves to market in the cars. 

 They would arrive in Baltimore fi'esh and uujaded, 

 and in fine killing condition, and the risk ol being 

 drowned, or blown up li'om steamboats entirely 

 avoided. 



If our salt marshes were reclaimed, and set in 

 timothy and herds grass, the Eastern Shore of 

 Maryland for its extent of territory would become 

 the most valuable in the United States; the hardy 

 Germans, the laborious Dutchmen, and the sturdy 

 Irish, who now go trooping to the west, attracted 



by the smell of fine sweet hay, which they love 

 almost as much as the smack of whiskey, would 

 come into our country; this supply of free labor 

 would enable us to send our blacks to Cape 

 Palmas. The abolitionists would have to go 

 further south for experiment, and in the height of 

 our prosperity, with fine salt-water navigable riv- 

 ers, abounding in fish, oysters and wild Ibwl, and n 

 fine level rail-road, we would laugh at the vain 

 babblers of the great valley of the Mississippi. 



TiMOTHy. 



E. S., Md., 26th June, 1839. 



EARTH WORBIS — MOULD. 



From tlie Genesee Farmer. 

 The increasing number of earth worms {lum- 

 bricus terrcstris) in the cultivated parts of our 

 country, has drawn the attention of many farmers 

 to the subject, and elicited some inquiries as to 

 the effect of their presence in such numbers in 

 soils that are cropped. The opinion of some 

 seems to be, that while they confine themselves 

 to the soil, they are harndess, if not actually ben- 

 eficial. Loudon says that this worm, "unless ex- 

 isting in great numliers in a single place, cannot 

 be raid<cd among injurious anin;als, notwithstan- 

 ding the prejudicesoflarmers and gardeners against 

 them. VViihoui worms, the earth would soon 

 become hard, cold, incapable of receiving mois- 

 ture, or of giving nourishment to roots. They 

 are, in fact, the great promoters of vegetation, by 

 boring, perforating, and looseninir the soil beneath, 

 and by manuring it above with their excrement, 

 which is thrown up into lumps called worm casts." 

 It is to this latter process, the throwing upon the 

 surface of these casts, or excrementitious matters, 

 as they are supposed to be, that some modern wri- 

 ters have attributed the formation of mould, or that 

 part of the earth which is of the most value in 

 supporting vegetation. 



Mr. C. Darwin, F. G. S., in a paper read be- 

 fore the London Society in 1837, was the first, we 

 believe, to reduce this theory to a form, by an ex- 

 planation of the manner in which this worm is 

 supposed to produce the results attributed to it. 

 His attention was called to an examination of the 

 process by finding that some fields over which 

 lime and cinders had been spread on grass land, 

 and which had never been ploughed, were found, 

 alter intervals of twelve or fifteen years, to have 

 these coarse materials covered with mould to the 

 depth of three inches. 



'This layer (of cinders and lime) was in some 

 places so continuous, that the superficial mould was 

 only attached to the red clay subsoil by the longer 

 roots of the grass.' 



'•On carelully examining between the blades of 

 grass, in the fields above mentioned, the author 

 Ibund that there was scarcely a space of two inches 

 square, without a little heap of the cylindrical cast- 

 ings of worms. It is well known that worms 

 swallow earthy matter, and that having separated 

 the serviceable portion, they eject the remainder 

 at the mouth of their burrows." 



With all deference to the opinions of Messrs. 

 Loudon and Darwin, we are disposed to dissent 

 from both, and believe that the earth worm is more 

 or less injurious, according to its numbers; and 



