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FARMERS' REGISTER 



fN-0,8 



vation or after, one fact is certain, that there is 

 involved in it one of the most prominent features 

 of agricultural reform — that of saving labor — 

 and can command the best argument in its behalf 

 — that of unrivalled success. When labor can be 

 saved, and success is certain, with the prudent 

 husbandman it will weigh more than all the spec- 

 ulative deductions, and plausible theories, that the 

 most learned or scientific can offer. For there is 

 no experimental former among us but what has 

 tested the truth of Johnson's remark, that in agri- 

 cultural matters, practice is contradicting theory 

 every day. My remarks, are with you, to dispose 

 of as you please. They have but one merit — 

 that, "facts are stated." 



DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN REMARKABLE 

 PRAIRIE AND WOODLAND SOILS OK ALA- 

 BAMA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Erie, Greene Co., Ala. ) 

 September 7th, 1S35. $ 



The October No. of the Farmers' Register, con- 

 taining your dissertation upon the prairies, and 

 the analyses of the soils, came duly to hand. I 

 nm very much surprized that the specimens from 

 Noscubee county contained no carbonate of lime. 

 It not only militates against your theory of the 

 formati-xiof prairies, but also against our pre-con- 

 ceiyed opinion that the rust is caused by an excess 

 of lime in the soil. I had tor some time, howe- 

 ver, abandoned that opinion from observing that 

 where the prairie joins, or runs into, the sandy soil, 

 the cotton rusts more than in the open prairie — 

 particularly where there is no clay near the surface. 

 I have had some specimens of our prairie soils 

 some time for you, but have not had time to put 

 them up and send them. 



No. 1 is of the kind of soil I have just been 

 speaking — a loose dark friable sandy loam; 

 whether calcareous or not, I cannot say, as it is 

 very much like No. 12 of the specimens reported 

 in the October No. of the Farmers' Register.* 



No. 2 is from our open or bald prairie, which 

 has been cultivated seven or eight years — taken 

 from near the same place; produces corn very well 

 — nearly fifty bushels to the acre are now standing 

 on the ground; but cotton does not produce so well 

 on it as on poor sandy soil. I feel very confident 

 that this specimen is highly calcareous, as there 

 are many fragments of shells mixed with the soil, 

 and the rock is not two feet from the surface. 01 

 all the specimens hitherto sent, this is the one 

 which will give the nearest approach to the gene- 

 ral character of our open prairie land in this part 

 of the country.f 



No 3 is from the post oak land immediately ad- 

 joining the prairies. It is a very tenacious, argil- 



*This specimen, upon examination, was found to 

 contain 8 per cent, of carbonate of lime. Ed. 



tNo 2 contained 33 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 

 This, as a specimen of the most general quality of 

 prairie soil, (as Dr. Withers thinks,) deserves particu- 

 lar notice. 



laceous soil; produces cotton well, but is difficult to 

 cultivate from its tenacious character, which causes 

 it to retain its moisture in excess; hence it is very 

 muddy in rainy seasons, and very hard in wet. 

 There are some considerable bodies of this kind 

 of soil interspersed among the prairies, but gene- 

 rally, it is very poor, and produces very badly. 

 Cotton succeeds better on it than corn, and it is too 

 wet in winter lor small grain. The color is from 

 a white livery to a chocolate. In some of it, 

 there is scarcely any sand apparently, and the 

 roads through it in winter become impassable for 

 loaded carriages.* 



The next specimen, No. 4,t is from Madison 

 county, in this state, about half way between 

 Whitesburg and Huntsville. It is a fair specimen 

 of their best soi's — was taken from near the sur- 

 lace of land which has been cultivated for many 

 years. It originally produced corn and cotton very 

 well; but that part of the state can no longer vie 

 with the south in raising the latter article, even 

 where the lands are fertile. The knobs and spurs 

 of the Cumberland mountain are interspersed 

 very generally over Madison county — and this 

 specimen was taken not far Irom a mountain of 

 blue limestone rock; yet, judging from the result 

 of your other investigations into the nature of 

 similar soils, I should doubt whether you would 

 find calcareous matter in any excess. Most of the 

 blue limestone region of the western country is of 

 a similar soil. After crossing the Tennesee river 

 at. Whitesburg, or Ditto's Landing, and proceed- 

 ing five miles south, you ascend the main Cumber- 

 land mountain, which is about a mile and a half, 

 as the road runs, to the top. Before you reach 

 the top, however, the rock changes from a blue 

 limestone to sandstone, and continues of this de- 

 scription till you get into Jones' Valley, near 

 Elyton, where the limestone is again seen in par- 

 allel lamina 1 , extending north and south, and vary- 

 ing from about 45 to 80° of elevation. The last 

 traces of the blue limestone are about sixteen 

 miles east from Tuscaloosa, where they burn a 

 good deal of rock lime for the country below. All 

 this country from near Tennessee river to the city 

 of Tuscaloosa, is full of excellent pit coal — the in- 

 habitants digging it up out of the beds of creeks, 

 &c. for their forges, and for fuel — when they 

 use it at all. The face of the country is generally 

 broken and poor, until you get to the rotten lime- 

 stone region, about Ibrty miles south of Tuscaloo- 

 sa, from whence I send you the first three sreci- 

 mens. 



ROBERT W. WITHERS. 



From the American Gardener's Magazine. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF HYACINTHS IN 

 GLASSES AND POTS. 



The following observations, though not written 

 expressly for this Magazine, we have thought 

 might be of considerable interest to many of our 

 readers who cultivate hyacinths and other bulbs. 

 The season is now approaching for planting them 

 and many may be induced to grow a few, who 

 have heretofore been prevented, from the want of 

 information on the subject. Hyacinths in glasses, 



*No. 3 contained no carbonate of lime. 

 tNo 4 — also none. En. Farm. Reg. 



