1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



725 



parts of my improvements, and settled in them 

 young men, who are now married, and have chil- 

 dren. Though my barns are very large, and not 

 few in number, I have the pleasure to find that 

 they would not contain all my last year's crop of 

 corn: a satisfaction which I hope to enjoy still 

 more amply in the next and following years. 



"Thus my estate, which formerly yielded 

 scarcely any thing, now affords every necessary 

 for food and raiment. When there, I can, truly 

 speaking, keep a very good table, and be decently 

 clothed, with only the produce of my own im- 

 provements. I have no occasion to buy anything 

 except salt, sugar, and spices. My farmers have 

 followed my example, so tar as their means, and 

 the helps that I have given them, have per- 

 mitted. 



"These improvements have, undoubtedly, cost 

 me a great deal of money; but my income from 

 them will soon be proportionably increased; be- 

 sides which, it is proper to observe, that few lands 

 will require so great an expense to break them up, 

 as mine have done; owing to the uncommon stub- 

 bornness, inequality, and unkindliness of the soil: 

 nor will it often be necessary to cut through hills 

 in order to make roads, to lay causeys over quak- 

 ing bogs, or to erect, so many new buildings: 

 though, even if all these difficulties should occur, 

 I would still advise gentlemen to undertake the 

 improvement. If they follow the directions here 

 given, and profit by my errors, so as not to com- 

 mit the like, I can assure them of success, at a 

 much less expense than it has cost me, who have 

 thoroughly paid for my apprenticeship. I can al- 

 so promise, that they will lay their money out at 

 better interest, and on better security, in this, than 

 in any other way: besides which, they will have 

 the heart-felt satisfaction of contributing to the 

 prosperity of their country, to the increase of pop- 

 ulation, and to the enriching of others, at the 

 same time that they enrich themselves. 



"I have already said, that when 1 began my 

 improvements, two and twenty years ago, a third 

 part of the farms in my parish were untenanted, 

 for want of farmers who would rent them; that 

 most of the inhabitants of my estate were very 

 poor, and did not in general, reap corn enough to 

 support them half the year; that they were grown 

 so indolent, that rather than cultivate their ground, 

 which would have afforded them a maintenance, 

 they chose to beg, like vagrants in the neighbor- 

 ing districts. Now their situation is very different, 

 and they are no longer in that deplorable condi- 

 tion. They are become industrious, live by their 

 labor, and beg no longer: they would even be at 

 their ease (a happiness which I shall do my ut- 

 most to procure them,) were it not for obstacles 

 beyond my power to remedy. The parish now 

 reaps more corn than it consumes; so that the far- 

 mer here is enabled to jell at the very markets 

 where he used to buy. All my farms are tenant- 

 ed; not a house on my estate is empty, and if I 

 build a new one it is immediately filled; in short 

 the number of inhabitants in this parish, for I have 

 an exact list of all of them, is double what it was 

 in 1737. Such is the history of my improve- 

 ments, and such are the effects with which tney 

 have been attended." 



For the Farmers' • egister. 

 ON TARRING SEED CORN. 



King &f Queen County, 

 February I9ih, 1836. 



Agriculture is evidently the source of wealth, 

 energy, and support of every country, and in none 

 should it be more regarded as such, than in the 

 United States. Every thing, therefore, which 

 leads to instruct the farmer should meet with his 

 grateful acceptance, and be looked upon by the 

 community at large as a public good. I have 

 frequently observed premiums granted by the 

 various agricultural associations in our country to 

 those persons who furnished them with the most 

 approved methods of husbandry. I do not pro- 

 pose myself as a candidate for such honors, and 

 yet I hope what I have now to communicate will 

 be as extensively useful to the farming interest as 

 many plans already devised. Almost all the tide- 

 water section of our state is emphatically a com 

 growing country; hence, whatever course has a 

 tendency to increase its product and lessen the 

 labor of cultivation, must be deemed valuable. 

 As the season for planting this great staple is ra- 

 pidly approaching, permit me to suggest a few 

 hints as to the excellent mode of preparing the 

 seed corn. 



Every farmer is well acquainted with the trou- 

 ble and perplexity he is subjected to in re-planting 

 his corn, merely on account of crows, black-birds, 

 moles, squirrels, &c, which are ready (after the 

 severities of the winter) to welcome him to the 

 field as their benefactor. No sooner has he plant- 

 ed his field over than he may begin the laborious 

 and disagreeable task. These rioters very fre- 

 quently, indeed, invariably, by their depredations, 

 cause a great deal of unnecessary labor. This is 

 an evil — and how is it to be remedied? Such a 

 a remedy must beof great importance to the farmer 

 especially, and to the public in general. This is 

 what I design to communicate — and it is as fol- 

 lows: — 



I have for several years past previous to plant- 

 ing my corn, put it into a vessel, and put thereto 

 as much tar (made thin by warming it a little, and 

 diluting with three parts water) as would tho- 

 roughly wet the whole — then taking it out and 

 mixing some plaster or unleached ashes by rolling 

 them well together, which made it ready for plant- 

 ing immediately. This method has prevented the 

 trouble of re-planting — the coat of tar and plaster 

 being a preservative for the grain, and is a nau- 

 seous drug to these troublesome gentry, who so 

 often rouse the anger of the farmer to no purpose. 

 This is a method easily practised, and undoubted- 

 ly deserves the attention of the farmer. 



If this shouid prove equally useful to such as 

 wish to give it a fair trial, as it has with those who 

 have already made the experiment, the commu- 

 nicator will think himself abundantly rewarded. 



HUGH CAMPBELL. 



From Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 

 NEW MODE OF GROWING MUSHROOM8. 



Not having seen in your Magazine so easy a 

 method to grow mushrooms, for catsup and oth- 

 er purposes, as I have practised for several years, 

 at litttle or no expense, I take the liberty to send 



