IS39] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



759 



ing, yielding a bunch every month in ihe year. He 

 has also a lew of the date pahns, the gooseberry 

 tree [^or ciccaracimosa.'] the pomegranate, hog plum, 

 white malaga gra|)e, plantains, bananas, papa'vs, 

 red nmlberry trees, coral trees, and various other 

 ornamental trees and shrubs. On the side of the 

 island iiicing the gull' stream, may be lound the 

 seven year apple, the gumholimbo tree, \burscra 

 gummifera,'] which is valuable lor fence-posts on 

 account of its tenacity of lile ; lor it immediately 

 takes root, and in a lew years large trees are 

 lormed Iron) every post. That which first at- 

 tracts the attention of a stranger when viewing 

 the variety of plants and their ra|)id growth, is the 

 remarkable fact, that we have not a particle of 

 either sand or clay, the soil being purely carbonate 

 of lime tinged with vegetable mould. And to a 

 traveller, the contrast between this and the north- 

 ern states at this season of the year is truly de- 

 lightful. To day the thermometer has been at 

 83° and every thing abroad is sunny and beauti- 

 I'ul, like a day in June at the north ; indeed it is 

 here almost a perpetual summer, and with our 

 refreshing sea breeze, salubrious climate, sunny 

 skies, ever blooming verdure, and purely calcareous 

 soil, who can deny that this is truly a "gem of 

 the ocean ? " 



EXPERIMENT OF COMPOST BIANURE FOR 

 V CORN. 



For ttie Fanners' Register. 



In the fall of 1838, I peimed my mules while 

 seeding of wheat, and littered the pen with corn- 

 stalks, top-lbdder, oats and straw. In March, 

 there being a considerable portion of, as I thought, 

 good manure for corn, but not enough to manure 

 more than 20,000 corn hills; I concluded to put 

 pine leaves or beards, and lime with tiie manure. 

 Therefore I put manure at the ground, then pine 

 beards, then lime, then mani;re and so on, until it 

 was all heaped ; let it lie until the the corn was 

 planted, and then manured 50,000 [corn-hills] in 

 the hill. This corn was not injured at all by the 

 chinch-bug, alihouffh they were to the very rows 

 on the other corn that was not manured or limed. 

 There was about 4 bushels of lime used in this 

 manure, and the mules were penned about ihrae 

 months. The land would not have produced more 

 than two barrels of corn to the acre, but lor the 

 experiment ; it produced at least six barrels to the 

 acre, this the 31st of October, 1839. 



Samuel W. Cousins. 



Chestnut Grove, Amelia. 



DESCRIPTION OF A FARM IN THE WESTERN 

 EXTREMITY OF EASTERN ROSS, ROSS-SHIRE 

 [SCOTLAND.] 



Presented by Mr. John Baigrie. 



From tlie ' Reports of Select Farms.' 



Thislarm, consisting of about four hundred im- 

 perial acres, was, prior to 1825, occupied by nume- 

 rous small tenants, who farmed the land on the 

 old system which prevailed in the highlands of 

 Scotland about fifty or sixty years ago — viz., the 



continued occupation of the ground by sonic des- 

 cription of corn crop, with exception of the small 

 portion allotted lor potatoes. 



Their rotation — if rotation it may be called — 

 consisted of oats, chiefly of the dun or black vari- 

 ety, which were continued to be sown in the same 

 field in many instances lor five or six years, or so 

 long as the produce yielded two returns. When 

 thought sufTiciently exhausteil, a portion was then 

 manured in the spring lor bearor bigir, and lor po- 

 tatoes — succeeded again by oats, which were con- 

 tinued uritil the etl'ects of the dung were no longer 

 visible, when the land was allowed " lo rest" — i. e., 

 to remain unploughed lor a period of years, produ- 

 cing nothing but weeds, with a small portion of 

 indigenous grasses, no artificial seeds being ever 

 sown. 



The arable land of this farm was detached in 

 small patches, of from two to three acres, inter- 

 spersed with considerable tracts of brush-wood and 

 uncultivated ground, on which stones, which have 

 for centuries been collected from the land, have 

 been allowed to lie. In addition to this accumula- 

 tion of small stones, large masses of blue granite 

 lay amongst the arable ground, above and imme- 

 diately below the surface, so as to offer consider- 

 able interruption to the plough. The land was 

 besides in a very wet stale from the many springs 

 issuing out of it, and there being no drains nor 

 ditches to carry them off. So much was this felt 

 in some seasons, that it was frequently the month 

 of May before any corn was sov/n. 



Such was the stale of the farm in March 1825, 

 presenting serious obstacles to improvement, but 

 at the same time possessing capabilities which 

 could not be overlooked, and which promised am- 

 ple remuneration for the expense proposed to be 

 incurred. 



As the farm whioh forms the subject of the fol- 

 lowing remarks was, at the period alluded to, al- 

 most in a state of nature, the writer, in the hope 

 it may prove useful, purposes giving a detailed ac- 

 count of the various operations connected with its 

 improvement. 



The farm lies on the slope of a hill and facing the 

 south, and consists of two varieties of soil. 1st — 

 a clay loam of from twelve inches to two feet 

 deep chiefly upon an open gravelly subsoil. 2d — 

 gravel mixed with a large portion of black mould 

 from six to fifteen inches deep, also on a pervious 

 subsoil. 



Possession of the arable land having been ob- 

 tained in the spring of 1825, inconsequence of the 

 right to the sowing of the crop of that year by the 

 former tenants having been purchased from them, 

 as well as the manure they had made from the 

 previous crop, operations were commenced on the 

 larm in the month of March. The first object was 

 to lay off the arable land, as well as what was in- 

 tended to be trenched, into fields of a regular 

 shape, varying in size li'om twelve to twenty-five 

 acres, according to circumstances, when such of 

 them as could not be taken in hand in one season 

 were sown with oats so lar as the arable land ex- 

 tended. One field was selected lor turnips and 

 another for fallow; but from ibe scarcity of ma- 

 nure, in the first season, the sowino; of both wheat 

 and turnips was necessarily coyfincd to a sma'l 

 scale. 



Draining. — As draining was evidently the first 

 necessary operation, a number of laborers were 



