THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



167 



do no betler, and therefore arc not, now, nor liavc 

 tliej' ever been, even for a da}', truly spccie-pnying 

 banks. And if any doubt now e.xisis, we think 

 it will be speedily removed by their admission of 

 the lact of genera! re-suspension. Tiiai will pro- 

 bably be the acknowledged state ol" things before 

 this ariicle can be issued from the press. The 

 North Carolina banks, which occupied precisely 

 the like grounds, (of pretended resumption ofpay- 

 ments, and real continued suspension,) have al- 

 ready, since the foregoing remarks were written 

 thrown aside the thin disguise, and for the pur- 

 pose of saving the brokers the trouble of collecting 

 their notes to obtain specie, and themselves from 

 the odium of refusing to pay while professing to 

 be "specie-paying" banks. The Virginia banks 

 will all follow the same course as soon as it 

 shall be deemed less profitable to them to keep up 

 the present deception, than to publish the truth of 

 a general refusal to pay all demands. If the 

 lapse of another week does not bring them to this 

 result, (wo months certainly will.— Ed. F. LI. 

 March 12. 



OIV THK CULTURE OF RICE-GRASS. — LEERSIA 

 ORIZOIDES. 



From tlie Southern Agriculturist. 

 Pendleton, October 21, 1840. 



Mr. Editor : — [n the hope of inducing some of 

 our farmers to turn their attention fiom the exclu- 

 sive cultivation of cotton, to the improvement of 

 stock, I send you the result of eight years' expe- 

 rience in the culture of hay, on a piece of mea- 

 dow land", one mile distant from the village of 

 PendJeton. Two branches, whose united streams 

 are sufficient to turn a small grist mill, are kepi: con- 

 tinually running over the meadow, except during 

 harvest. A day before cuding" we remove a 

 small obstruction placed in the natural channel of 

 the branch, when the water leaves the land suffi- 

 ciently dry for the mowers to work, and a narrow 

 wheeled two horse wagon to take off about 800 

 lbs. at a load. Immediately after harvest, the bar 

 is replaced across the channel in a few minutes, by 

 drawing mud against a rail laid over it, and the 

 land ^gain put under water. Having made abun- 

 dant crops of hay several years, at so little ex- 

 pense, I last year laid ofi' one acre, had the wa- 

 gon carefully loaded by a white man, directing 

 him to make every load as neir as possible of the 

 same size, and on weighing one load, found the 

 average product of the acre to be more than 

 three tons, of two thousand pounds each, at the 

 first cutting. The same directions were followed 

 this year, and the product was more than four tons 

 at the first cutting. This greater product may be 

 attributed to a late harvest, and a summer of 

 more rain. 



The soil, on which these crops were made, is 

 the ordinary quality of low land, near the creeks 

 overflowed only by high freshets. It had been 

 cleared and cultivated several years, producing 

 good crops in dry seasons. I first saw it in 1831, 



when the corn on it was nearly destroyed by a 

 wet season; in '32 it produced more weeds than 

 f;ra?s, they were all moved — in '33 I was atto- 

 nishcd by the product of hay, which has been 

 good e^er since. This hay is made from the 

 rice-grass, the " Leersia Orizoides''^ of the bo- 

 tanist, called Nimble Will, in the upper country ; 

 it has a fine thin stalk, covering from four to five 

 feet in length, but not being erect, it does not 

 stand more than three to lour leet on the ground ; 

 no part of the stalk is one-eighth of an inch in 

 diameter, they have been measured more than 

 six feet long. It grows well on the low grounds 

 of branches, and may be Ibund in every part of 

 the state: it is killed by host, and does not grow 

 in the interior, belbre May. 



I have made various experiments with red 

 clover, herd's grass, orchard grass, and timothy, 

 the two former on wet and dry soils; alter two or 

 three years they have been overpowered by the 

 native weeds, grasses, briers and shrubs, which 

 spring up spontaneously when the soil is unbro- 

 ken. The single enemy of the rice grass is the 

 rush, large and small, which appears to be the 

 only noxious growth of land covered by running 

 water, and this is so entirely outgrown by the 

 rice-grass, that notwithstanding its formidable 

 appearance in the spring, I have taken no mea- 

 sures to eradicate it. IJylheend of June the 

 rush is so completely covered by the grass, that 

 it is scarcely thought of until the ensuing spribg. 

 One great advantage of this grass is, that you 

 can choose the lime for cutting, as it does not 

 blossom early. Towards the end of July it seems 

 lo settle or lodge in spots, but I am not aware of 

 any injury that results. We commence mowing 

 with a brier scythe, the first fair weather after 

 oat harvest, — the task is a quarter ol' an acre for 

 the mower ; one woman can toss and turn half 

 an acre, which should be done as soon as it is cut, 

 and put up into cocks by evening. When the 

 dew leaves them next morning they are opened 

 at the top, and alter an hour's sun on them, all 

 the hay cut belbre twelve o'clock of the pre- 

 ceding day, may be carted home and put away. 

 Eight or twelve hours' sun is sufficient to cure the 

 hay, il" properly tossed and turned immediately 

 alter culling which is easily done with a wooden 

 hay fork. An iron fork is used for loading and 

 unloading the wagon. 



The bloom and seed appear late in September, 

 A liew days belbre we expect Irosi, a second crop 

 is cut and harvested. As this occurs at a busy 

 period in October, we have never measured or 

 weighed the product of an acre ; it has been 

 variously estimated at a third or lialf of the first 

 cutting. 



1 have never made any comparative experi- 

 ments of the nutritious qualities of this hay, but 

 have been informed that it sells in the Columbia 

 market as readily as northern hay. One of our 

 most experienced farmers told me that he preferred 

 it lo corn blades when wagoning to Hamburg. 



Yours, respectfully, C. C. Pinckney. 



VEGETABLE TALLOW. 



On the 2d of March, Dr. lloyle and Mr. E. 

 Solly read lo the Asiatic Society two distinct 



