1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



447 



acqueducts; all conspire to impress upon the tra- 

 veller a high sense of the engineers and of the 

 enterprise of the company, which has persevered 

 in the work, under so many appalling difficulties. 



We left Georgetown, about half past 6 a. m. in 

 the tri-weekly packet boat, drawn by two, and 

 sometimes three horses. The boat was built by 

 the canal company, and only Temporarily used by 

 the packet company, and was far too large lor the 

 business. We were carried along, nevertheless, 

 at the rate of 6 miles per hour — a rale which was 

 reduced, however, on the average, by the stop- 

 page occasioned by two and thirty locks in 02 

 miles. The packet company has, by this time, 

 two smaller and better constructed boats afloat, 

 by which a daily line will be kept up. We have al- 

 luded to the locks and acqueducts. We cannot 

 specify as to the former: for all seemed equally 

 neat and substantial, and built — as is indeed the 

 whole work— for posterity. The acqueducts over 

 Seneca and Monocacy creeks are perhaps not ex- 

 ceeded by any thing in the country, ibr beauty and 

 lightness of design and solidity of construction. 

 The wilderness of the scenery around setts off to 

 greater advantage the triumphs of art over na_ 

 ture. 



It is, however, from the Point of Rocks to Har- 

 per's Ferry — 12 miles — the greatest difficulties 

 have been encountered. For this distance the 

 Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road runs parallel to, 

 and in contact with the canal — the bank of the 

 latter forming the bed of the former. Both works 

 are carried, tor miles, under precipitous crags, im- 

 pending many hundred leetabovc you, and whose 

 very foundations have been cut away to form a 

 shell for the road, while the canal is made to en- 

 croach on the bed of the river. The scenery it- 

 self is grand and imposing, and when viewed in 

 connection with the monuments of human genius 

 and perseverance which are seen at the base of 

 the cliffs, it assumes the character of sublimity. 

 He must indeed have a dull spirit, who carried 

 along by boat or car, can view it unmoved. We 

 have rarely experienced feelings akin to those we 

 felt, on a fine morning, seated on the top of the 

 car, and whirled along at the rate of 10 miles per 

 hour along side, and under these tremendous pre- 

 cipices. We could, for miles, have touched with 

 the hand the walls of everlasting granite, and not 

 seldom was the perpendicular view of the sky ac- 

 tually obscured by the jutting out of the crag. 

 This is a part of the rail road, on which the use of 

 steam is prohibited by stipulation with the canal 

 company. 



The canal is finished as high up as Williams- 

 port, about 104 miles from Georgetown, and is 

 now under contract from the former point to Cum- 

 berland. In another year and a half the coal of 

 the Alleghany will find a market in the eastern 

 cities. 



The rail road — that is the Baltimore and Ohio 

 Road — terminates at the Ferry. On the other 

 side commences the Potomac and Winchester 

 Road, now nearly finished. The works are to be 

 united by a viaduct, built at the expense of the 

 former company. Baltimore will thus have, in a 

 few weeks, a direct communication with one of 

 the most populous, fertile, and wealthy sections of 

 our state. 



ADVICE WANTED, AND COMMENTS THEREON. 



County. Fa., 1835. 



Dear Sir: 



As I am a stranger to you, and not a subscriber 

 to the Register, the following information is re- 

 quested with becoming diffidence: though I am 

 emboldened to do so from a belief that you are 

 desirous of imparting to every one the best infor- 

 mation touching the agricultural interest. There- 

 fore, without further comment, I will first state 

 that I am the owner of a farm on the banks of the 



river immediately below the mouth of 



creek. The banks of the river, on my land, as 

 well as the ravines, abound in shell marl, the qual- 

 ity of which, I am induced to believe, is of the 

 best kind. There are also strong reasons to con- 

 clude that the green sand marl, (such as is de- 

 scribed in the Register, May No.) exist in strata 

 among it. Now I am desirous of commencing to 

 improve (immediately) by means of this marl, 

 and must request the favor of an answer, directing 

 in as few words as possible, the most approved 

 mode of its application — the time when — the quan- 

 tity, &c, &c. to be applied. I do not expect you 

 to be exact, but that you give me the best idea by 

 general remark. 



Having understood that you are supplied with a 

 chemical apparatus, and are in the habit of ana- 

 lyzing all calcareous substances, [I have] the 

 thought, of putting up portions of the different 

 kinds of marl on my land, as also portions of the 

 different kinds of earth, and while in Richmond this 

 winter, to pay you a visit for the purpose of getting 

 further information, that I may prosecute the con- 

 templated improvement upon scientific principles, 

 when I shall become a subscriber to your invalua- 

 ble Register. For the above requested informa- 

 tion I shall be your obliged and obedient servant, 



N. B. I hope (under the circumstances) you 

 will excuse the liberty I have taken. 



[The foregoing letter is an amusing example of the 

 frequent and heavy demands made on our time and la- 

 bor, for objects of very small importance to the appli- 

 cants, and of none whatever to any other person. 

 This, it is true, presents an unusually strong case: but 

 there are other persons, who though also total stran- 

 gers, and not even subscribers, have made applications 

 of very similar character, as if they thought that we 

 had nothing else to do, and no greater pleasure to seek, 

 than to comply with their wishes, and answer their in- 

 quiries, severally and specially. After suppressing 

 merely the names which would identify the writer, we 

 have taken the liberty to publish this letter, and will 

 use the occasion to answer all similar applications — and 

 some of which have been pressed more than once on 

 our attention. 



If we were to answer the demands (present and 

 threatened hereafter) of the unknown gentleman who 

 wrote the above letter, it might occupy more than a 

 week of our time and labor, and then would furnish a 

 very meager and unsatisfactory body of instruction — 

 and of far less value in every respect than the result of 

 our labors of this kind already laid before the public, 



and which Mr. might have bought if he 



had chosen, for 50 cents. We can have no motive for 



