THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



45 



liajre; and he intends lo plant a large patch of 

 cabbnups, the cominn; season, more lully to lest 

 the advantages ol'ihis kind ol Teed (or liogs. We 

 invite him, and oilicrs who may "experiment" in 

 the business, to give us the result for publication. 



EKGLISH MINES AND MINING. 



From tlio English correspondent of the N. Y. American. 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, jlugust, 1840. 

 That man must be insane who should write a 

 letter at Newcasile-upon-Tyne, about any ihing 

 hut coal. He has but one idea — coal ! One Ihini? 

 fills his vision — coal ! Coal is the standard of va- 

 lue, and coal dust the circuhuinff medium. The 

 houses are built of coal. The streets are paved 

 with coal. The inhabitants live on coal. The 

 children look as if they were made ol' coal, and 

 even tlie white clouds are black I 



What a wonderful reijion is Durham and Nor- 

 thumberland shires ? The whole country is un- 

 dermined. Buildiiirrs are erected 700 and 800 leet 

 below the surlace of the earth, and streets and 

 railways running (or miles in all directions, are 

 daily traversed by thousands of human beings. 

 Newcastle, with its population of 60,000, stands 

 on the crust of a subterranean city. Some ol 

 its houses have sunken their foundations in con- 

 sequence of the yielding of the ground beneath. 

 The River Tyne, as large as the Thames at 

 London, floats its commerce over these vast ca- 

 verns ; while at Sunderland and other places on 

 the coast, the ocean rolls its waves over the heads 

 of the miners. The chief wealth of Durham 

 and Northumberland lies hid in the bowels of the 

 earth where a very considerable portion of the in- 

 habitants pass half their time. The coal-pits 

 open their black mouths on every hill and in every 

 valley. They may be distinguished far off by 

 the towering enginery erected over them employ- 

 ed in raising the coal and water from the depths 

 below, and the piles of the former which lie 

 around in hillocks waiting to be transported to 

 market. The country is lined with railways — 

 more abundant than hedgerows — used in "car- 

 rying coals to Newcastle." At every half mile, 

 you meet with the little villages of the pitmen 

 (as the laborers are called.) The snug brick cot- 

 tages are arranged with regularity and taste- 

 each having its petit grass plat in front, usually 

 decked with flowers, and its vegetable garden and 

 fruit trees in the rear. What a contrast between 

 these smiling though humble abodes, and the dis- 

 mal caverns where the villagers spend nearly their 

 whole conscious existence ! 



Great labor and expense attends the sinking of 

 the shaft of a coal mine. The exact location of 

 the strata must be ascertained by boring before the 

 excavation commences. This determined, you 

 know not what obstacles you may encounter from 

 veins of rocks or streams of water in your descent. 

 And, then, the destruction of human life almost 

 invariably in these perilous enterprises ! the gigan- 

 tic nature of which may be inferred from thelact 

 that the shafts are generallv sunk to the depth of 

 600 or 700 feet, and sometimes to 1200 ! 



TWO GOOD FABMERS. 



From the New Genesee Farmer. 



Not too good farmers — lor those that are merely 

 good, are almost as rare as white blackbirds. 

 When we say ^^ good,^^ we do not mean what is 

 commonly understood, — industrious, money-ma- 

 kiiiii men, — but who perhaps apply a large poriion 

 of their labor to very bad advantage ; but those 

 whose whole course, in all its departtnents, id 

 such as accurate and repeated experiments have 

 proved best adapted to the soil and climate ; which 

 not oidy affords ihe greatest prt)fit each year, but 

 is constantly improving instead of exhausting the 

 land. 



These two specimens are given in the late, 

 report of the Farm committee of the Hartford 

 County Agricultural Society, published in the 

 New England Farmer. The first is that of John 

 B. Davis, of Derby, whose farm consists of 

 seventy-five acres, and from which the Ibllowing 

 very respectable average annual receipts are 

 derived. 



Apples and Cider, - . - $500 



Hay, 2f)0 



Potatoes, 100 



Pork, 80 



Sheep, . - - . - 75 



Grain, 75 



Wool, - . - . . 25 



Two men labor on the farm the year through, 

 with occasional additional help, but no precise 

 account of the amount expended was rendered. 



It will he seen that the orchard is the most pro- 

 fitable, the trees being kept in the finest condition, 

 to which frequent tillage doubtless contributes. 

 F'ive hundred dollars were received last year 

 (1839) lor winter apples of \he choicest varieties, 

 and forty dollars lor cider sold, besides thirty bar- 

 rels kept [for what purpose ?] and apples fed to 

 hogs, cattle, and horse. All the farm, except 

 the woodland, has been subjected to the plough, 

 although hay is the chief ol)ject aimed at in cul- 

 tivation. Only small portions of the land are 

 tilled, on which the cultivated grasses have be- 

 come less luxuriant. The routine of crops adopt- 

 ed is, Isi, corn on sward with manure ; 2d, pota- 

 toes with manure (sometimes Ibllowed by tur- 

 nips ;) 3d, rye or oats or grass seed. For the 

 corn, (which is Dutton and wliite flint,) twenty 

 double loads of manure are spread on the grass 

 before ploughing, and afterwards holes dug at 

 each hill in which a small handful of plaster and 

 ashes is dropped and mixed with the soil at plant- 

 ing. The average crop is seventy bushels an 

 acre. The potatoes are planted with equal ma- 

 nuring, and yield two hundreil bushels. The rye 

 yields twenty-five, and the oals seventy bushels, 

 two and a half bushels of the latter being sown lo 

 the acre, which is ploughed in, harrowed, and the 

 grass seed covered with a bush. 



About twenty acres are kept in meadow, which 

 continue in grass from six to eight years, and the 

 average crop is estimated at two and a half tons 

 to the acre. 



Of manure, seventy-five loads are made yearly, 

 and fifty purchased ; one ton of plaster, half a ton 

 of shell lime, (which is added, as indispensable, 

 to the compost,) and fifty bushels of ashes are 

 also used. 



