1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



227 



will be issued, and the publication commenced as soon 

 as there appears sufficient indications that a publica- 

 tion on this plan will^be approved and sustained by the 

 agricultural community: and if it is well sustained, 

 there shall be nothing spared or omitted to make the 

 diffusion of agricultural knowledge through the south- 

 ern states both as extensive and as cheap as possible. 



CROPS IN BEDFORD. AGRICULTURAL, PA- 

 PERS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Lynchburg, June 19/7t, 1835. 



' * * * * I have just returned from 

 the country, (my farm in Bedford, 22 miles above 

 this) where I find a small portion of the wheat 

 crop tolerable good, but the mass very inferior — 

 and a large part of that on the corn ground not 

 worth cutting, even if it escapes the rust. This 

 failure is ascribed in some degree to the unfavora- 

 ble winter, but mainly to the ravages of the Hes- 

 sian fly. Many of our planters have wholly, or 

 partially discontinued the culture of tobacco; and 

 by attention to manure, clover, and plaster, and 

 better ploughing, have improved their lands to a 

 considerable extent: but the prospects of the wheat 

 crop, connected with the present price of tobacco, 

 will, I apprehend, produce much backsliding, and 

 many of us be found again to have "returned to 

 wallowing in the mire;" so that this seeming good 

 — the high price of tobacco — may be to us a real 

 evil. The rye, oats, and corn crops appear rather 

 promising, and the frequent rains of late, have 

 enabled the planters to pitch their crops of tobacco 

 without difficulty. 



In a late number of the Register, you remark 

 that your subscription is confined chiefly to the 

 low lands. Your locality, your level and sandy 

 lands, your marl beds, your easy access to lime, 

 and other circumstances, produce a greater dif- 

 ference between our situation and yours, than with 

 the same elevation would exist in several degrees 

 of latitude. From these circumstances, I had no 

 idea of taking the Register until I read your Essay 

 on Calcareous Manures; and I have no doubt 

 many are deterred from even looking into it from 

 the same causes. The price too being higher 

 than many other publications, may have some 

 effect Sixty odd nambers of the Cultivator, and 

 several of the American Farmer, and Genesee 

 Farmer, are received at this post office. I state 

 this, not by way of complaining, but in explana- 

 tion: for it is my opinion, that every sensible 

 farmer, whatever may be his latitude or longitude, 

 elevation or depression, may read your Register 

 and your Essay with manifest advantage. With 

 my best wishes for the continued success of your 

 useful endeavors, I am, &c. 



MICAJAH DAVIS, JR. 



[The foregoing letter (post marked June 24,) was 

 not received until after the last No. was printed, or it 

 would have appeared earlier. 



It is gratifying to learn that however small may be 

 the patronage of the Farmers' Register in Campbell, 

 other agricultural papers are more welcome there. 

 The subscribers who receive the Farmers' Register at 

 Lynchburg are only twelve — and there have never 

 been more, nor so many until recently. If the price 



of this journal is the only bar to its receiving more fa- 

 vor in the upper country, a proposal has been made for 

 its removal, by a similar publication of low price. But 

 if there are objections to the general character of the 

 work, or to the manner in which it is conducted, they 

 will still remain in full force. Let farmers generally 

 be but impressed with the importance of reading and 

 sustaining agricultural periodicals, and we are content 

 that their support shall be given to the most deserving, 

 even if our work should be surpassed by many others 

 in merit, or in other claims to public favor and sup- 

 port. If the great object is effected, it is of but little 

 importance (and none whatever to the public,) by 

 what means, or by whose agency, the end is reached, 

 and the benefit produced.] 



CORRECTION — "VIN MUET, OR DUMB WISE. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Columbia, S. C. June 10, 1835. 



I have read with pleasure your article on "the 

 making of wine in the canton of Marcillac." I 

 take the liberty of observing to you that one word 

 "mutage," [p. 23, Vol. III.] seems not to have 

 been understood by your translator, and there is 

 nothing surprising in this; for the technical ex- 

 pressions of particular arts are not easily under- 

 stood, and they are not found in dictionaries. It 

 is to be hoped that the new dictionary that is an- 

 nounced as coming forth, after many years' labor 

 by the French Academy, will contain this and all 

 such terms, without which it will not be complete. 

 The verb ''muter," signifies "to render mute," or 

 dumb, which is done" to wine by sulphuring it. 

 Mutage, therefore means sulphuring. There is 

 in some places a wine made that is called "Vin 

 Muet," literally "dumb wine." It is wine that 

 has been fumigated to excess with sulphur, before 

 fermentation has taken place, which chemical pro- 

 cess is thereby prevented, and the wine remains 

 sweet. It is called "mute" because the bubblings 

 of the fermentation are not heard, and it actually 

 makes no noise. This word then is not near as 

 bad as most others which no etymology can clear 

 up. 



N. HERBEB10NT. 



[We thank our correspondent for this correction. 

 He who is best qualified to offer such, will be most in- 

 dulgent to the mistakes of this kind which require 

 correction. The number of provincial expressions 

 which are found in all agricultural writings, render 

 translations from one language to another very difficult: 

 and this difficulty may well be conceived by all readers 

 who have noticed how many of the provincialisms in 

 our own language are unintelligible. Neither the verb 

 "muter', nor its derivative "mutage" can be found in 

 either of five French dictionaries in our possession — 

 among which is the old voluminous Dictionaire de V.i- 

 cademie, fyc. a modern abridgement of the same, which 

 professes to give terms of science and art, and Ro- 

 zier's Cours Complet, fyc. one entire volume of which 

 is occupied with definitions of technical and provincial 

 terms.] 



