1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



!? 



moderately manured, I would sooner trust, for a 

 fine crop of any kind. 



I have felt much at a loss to account for the 

 cause of ihis increase of fertility from the use of 

 blacksmith's cinders. Since learning a little more, 

 however, of the chemistry of agriculture, from 

 your writings, and from other sources, I beffin to 

 suspect that 1 have learned the secret. Black- 

 smiths, while heating their iron and steel, use sand 

 largely, by throwing it on the fire and dipping the 

 metal to be operated on in beds of it, to prevent 

 oxydation. There is some potash also, probably, 

 formed from the ashes of the coal exposed to ex- 

 treme heat. Thus, we have the materials for the 

 formation of the silicate of iron and potash, which 

 seems to be the acting manure, in the famous Jer- 

 sey marl. Of course, if this notion be correct, 

 every blacksmith, while forming tools wherewith 

 to work the land, is unconsciously preparing a 

 most excellent material for its improvement. 



It is true, that no great surface of land could be 

 manured by shop cinders, if those from every shop 

 in the state were carefully used. But in agricul- 

 ture, small matters are not to be despised. En- 

 riching a few acres in every neighborhood, 

 throughout the country, by means heretofore ne- 

 glected, is certainly a matter worthy of attention. 

 But besides the cinders from smith shops, a vast 

 amount of a similar material may be found, in the 

 scoriae from the various kinds of iron-works in the 

 country. These, probably, would be more valua- 

 ble than ordinary shop cinders, inasmuch as a 

 great deal of lime is used as a flux in iron-works. 

 I have an intelligent and public-spirited friend, 

 largely engaged in iron-works, whose attention. I 

 can almost pledge, to testing the value of such 

 scoriae as manure, should you think this matter 

 worthy of notice in the Register. It should, per- 

 haps, be noticed, that as the materials alluded to 

 above, belong to the class of stimulating manures, 

 they will, of course, need some aid from those 

 which are nutritious. 



W. S. MOKTO.V. 



then take out of the bed and plant immediately 

 Be careful not to break the sprouts. 



By this very easy and simple mode of preparing 

 your seed, you will have potatoes from three to 

 four weeks earlier than you would have if planted 

 in the usual old way— that is, in the hills when 

 they are first taken up in the spring. 



M. 



From the New York Daily Advertiser. 

 NEW ENGLAND TOBACCO. 



It is surprising to see the great quantity of to- 

 bacco that js constantly arriving from Connecticut 

 River. The Bunker Hill brought down last trip, 

 fully equal to fifty hogsheads. We learn that it is 

 not only cultivated extensively along the banks of 

 the Connecticut River, but 'that it commands a 

 much higher price in that market than any other 

 American tobacco. 



ON PLANTING THE SWEET POTATO. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



The mode I am about to relate, was told to me 

 some time since, by a gentleman of this neighbor- 

 hood, and may be the common one pursued by 

 many of your readers and subscribers; but it is 

 one very little practiced, or known, so tar as I am 

 informed, in this part of the country — and there- 

 fore may be of some benefit, to some one of your 

 numerous readers. 



JEarly in the spring, procure your seed potatoes 

 — then prepare a bed from four to six feet in 

 width, in any well pulverized earth, (say your 

 garden,) by raising the earth about a loot 

 above the level of the surface of the earth. On 

 that put a layer of your potatoes, two or three 

 inches thick — then a layer of fine moist earth, the 

 same thickness, and so on with a layer of potatoes 

 and layer of earth, until you have put as many 

 down as you want to plant. The bed must be 

 kept moist by artificial watering, in the absence of 

 rain. Examine the roots occasionally, so as to 

 ascertain when they have arrived at the right 

 stage for planting, which is, when the sprouts are 

 about an inch long. Then prepare your ground 

 well, when it is moist, where you intend planting: 



OF THE EFFECT OF GYPSUM ON TOBACCO, 

 AS TESTED BY A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS 



Read before the Agricultural Society of Charlotte, and ordered 

 to be published in the Farmers' Register. 



At the last meeting of the Society, I communi- 

 cated the following facts in relation to the effects 

 produced by the application of plaster on my crop 

 of tobacco, then growing. Owing to the difficulty 

 of obtaining plaster, its application was delayed 

 until sometime between the 10th and 20th of July, 

 when the larger number of the plants had been 

 topped. It was applied, by dropping from the 

 fingers on the top of the stalk, or in the bud when 

 not topped, so as to be distributed along down the 

 stalk and upon the stems of the leaves where they 

 join the stalk, to the amount of about a half an 

 ego 1 -shell to each plant, leaving several rows 

 through different parts of the lot, unplastered. On 

 the evening and night after we finished this pro- 

 cess, there was a fine fall of rain, after which [ 

 did not again see the lot until the eighth day from 

 the time the plaster was applied, when to my as- 

 tonishment, the whole lot, which had before look- 

 ed faded and sickly, had assumed a fine healthy 

 and vigorous growth, with the exception of the 

 unplastered rows, which still retained the yellow 

 anil unhealthy appearance. The change produ- 

 ced by the plaster was so obvious and striking 

 that I carried several persons to see it, who readily 

 pointed out the unplastered rows. Among others, 

 some of my fair friends, who, (however acute they 

 may be in detecting the difference of quality of 

 silks and satins, would not be supposed to possess 

 any extraordinary scrutiny in regard to the quality 

 of tobacco) as readily pointed - them out. The 

 difference, though obvious in the size of the to- 

 bacco, was more so in the color, and perceptible 

 to the feel with the fingers, the leaves of the plas- 

 tered tobacco evidently having more "body." 

 The difference has existed to the present time, 

 (the 20th of August,) and can be seen as far as 

 the spaces between the rows can be distinctly 

 marked by the eye, but is not altogether as striking 

 as for a week or two after it was first noticed — and 

 although evident improvement has been produced 

 throughout my crop by the use of plaster, yet, 

 (owing probably to the fact, that the remainder of 

 it was on land cultivated in tobacco last year, and 

 of course, clear of litter, and that the plaster was 



