1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



33 



five acres in proportion to his hands, but ten acres, 

 since he has half the fencing to do which the rich- 

 er one has to perform. But pursue the conse- 

 quences: the poorer man in half the number of 

 years has been obliged to cut down all his wood 

 land, and the richer one by the same necessary 

 course has only cut down double the quantity 

 which the poorer has cut, and has still a good 

 chance of woods left. And now see the condition 

 of the poorer man compared with his richer neigh- 

 bor. His neighbor having had less fencing, (Tut- 

 ting, mauling, and hauling rails to do, has had 

 more time to improve his land, (which improve- 

 ment has been much less in consequence of the 

 present law,) has in some sort gotten along in the 

 world, and perhaps has a little money; whilst the 

 other poor man, from the want of timber, is obliged 

 to sell his land. His farm is now in market with- 

 out a rail tree upon it. Who are the bidders? not 

 his neighbors in moderate circumstances — no, 

 they cannot buy for the same cause that has 

 brought him to want, and because the land has no 

 timber; but his richer neighbor, without an oppo- 

 nent, buys it at his own price, because he can open 

 the wings of his fence and easily enclose so small 

 a piece in a body with a large one; and the poor 

 man is forced to leave all that is near and dear to 

 him, and seek a home in a new country, not more 

 highly favored than originally our beloved Virgi- 

 nia. And there is another view of the matter; the 

 poorer man, from the weakness of his force, and 

 the over proportion of his fencing, is apt to neglect 

 his fence, and his richer neighbor's stock, four times 

 as large as his own, break in upon him when he 

 is perhaps from home, and destroy half his crop 

 in one day — and then the falling out that takes 

 place not only between them, but perhaps half 

 the neighborhood are engaged in this dispute. 

 Do you not perceive by the above named course, 

 that the circumstance of our state being cut up 

 into small tracts of land, has, under the present 

 law, either driven from us the hardy yeomanry of 

 the country, or brought upon many of them such 

 abject poverty, as to render them very useless citi- 

 zens; and that Virginia has principally been im- 

 poverished by the same circumstance, and its con- 

 sequences. Thus, if the above reflections are 

 sound, we see that the poorer a man is, the more 

 oppressive in proportion is this odious law. 



It may be objected that there are some so poor 

 as to own no land at all, and that this rule will not 

 apply to such. But how many poor have we who 

 could rent and would cultivate a piece of land, 

 which they might get for a very small sum, if it 

 were not for the cost and labor of enclosing it; and 

 how much waste land would the poor be allowed 

 to cultivate, merely for the sake of having a small 

 piece of meadow cleaned up for the proprietor, 

 which meadow would yield the tenant an abun- 

 dant supply of provender for all his stock. But 

 Mr. Editor it is not for me to use such little argu- 

 ments to trouble j ou — but our object should be to 

 induce the people to attend to us whilst we give 

 these arguments by word of mouth. 



WAQUA. 



date. In the seventeenth number of the Dublin 

 University Magazine, there is a quotation from 

 the writings of Donat, who was himself an Irish- 

 man, and Bishop of Fesula?, near Florence, and 

 who about the year 820, wrote a brief description 

 of Ireland, in which the following passage oc- 

 curs: — 



"Nulla venena nocent, nee serpens serpitin herba; 

 Nee conquesta canit garrula rana lacu." 



"At this very hour," says our respected contempo- 

 rary, "we have neither snakes nor venomous rep- 

 tiles in this island; and we know, that, for the first 

 time, frog-spawn was brought from England in 

 the year 1G96, by one of the fellows of Trinity 

 College, Dublin, and placed in a ditch in the Uni- 

 versity park or pleasure ground, from which these 

 very prolific colonists sent out their croaking detach- 

 ments through the adjacent country, whose pro- 

 geny spread from field to field through the whole 

 kingdom. No statue has yet been erected to the 

 memory of the natural philosopher who enriched 

 our island with so very valuable an importation of 

 melodious and beautiful creatures." We may 

 state, however, that we have learned from good 

 authority, that a recent importation of snakes has 

 been made, and that they are at present multiply- 

 ing rapidly within a tew miles of the tomb of St. 

 Patrick. 



From Dublin Medical and Chemical Journal. 

 INTRODUCTION OF FROGS INTO IRELAND. 



It is not generally known that the introduction 

 of frogs into Ireland is of comparatively recent 

 Vol. Ill— 5 



THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF HEAT ON CUL- 

 TIVATED LAND. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Fauquier, April 21sf 3 1835. 



In two communications I addressed to you in 

 February last, I stated that u heat is a great des- 

 troyer of the vegetative or nutritious principles of 

 the earth.'''' So far as I then knew, or now know, 

 that opinion is peculiar tome. Its novelty, and 

 the rational deduction of the fact from the pre- 

 mises, justified its publication, in the double hope 

 of establishing its truth, or of exposing the error. 

 Mr. James Fife has contested its correctness; and 

 while I have neither leisure nor inclination to dis- 

 cuss, with labored minuteness, my own opinion, or 

 his replication, I will proceed to make a brief 

 reply. 



Mr. Fife says, in submitting "some difficulties 

 that lie in the way of my proposition and illustra- 

 tion," he could, "for example, select lands in the 

 torrid zone, exposed to the heat of a vertical sun, 

 and producing large crops, notwithstanding the 

 frequent stirring in the hottest time. How is this, 

 if the sun kills the nutritious principles of the 

 earth?" It is said there are exceptions to all ge- 

 neral rules, and correctly. Mr. Fife may know of 

 some land in the torrid zone which produces 

 "large crops, notwithstanding the frequent stirring 

 in the hottest time;" but, I marvel greatly if such 

 be the fact. Let it be borne in mind that I have 

 not said that one crop, or two, or ten crops of corn, 

 tobacco or any other plant, would in every grade 

 and variety of soil produce effects equally injurious. 

 I did not, and could not say. that rich river low 

 ground would be exhausted as soon as poor river 

 hills. The poorer land is, the easier is it reduced 

 to sterility. Now, it must be obvious to the ca- 

 pacity of every man, that land under the torrid 

 zone which has been often cultivated and still pro- 



