THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Vol. IX. 



JULY 31, 1841. 



No. 7. 



EDMUND RUFPIN, EDTTOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



LIMIXG LAND WITHOUT ANY BKNEFICIAL 

 RESULT. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Noitoway, Jane \Qth, 1841. 



Though not a subscriber to your paper, yet 1 

 am not indiflorent to its success, nor deprived ol 

 the pleasure and profit too, I trust, to be derived 

 Ironi its perusal. On the contrary, you have my 

 most hearty congratulations for the many compli- 

 ments you have won from your correspondents, 

 for the ability and usefulness with which you 

 have conducted it ; and lam now restrained more 

 by prudence than jusiice, I'rom expressing, plenis 

 verbis, the favorable regard in which your labors 

 are held by an humble member o!' the agriculiu- 

 ral commtmiiy. This will be better done, no 

 doubt, to your own tas'e. and with less fulsome- 

 ness to your readers, by adding, if I can, to the 

 number of (acts, which you may be able to present 

 before them, worthy of their atieniion. 



In the winter of 1837-'38, I cut down a piece 

 of pine land, of second trrowih, in good heart, 

 being interspersed with doL''-wood and grape vine. 

 The size of it was 3 or 4 acres of ground. It 

 was permitted to lie for 1 year with the fallen 

 trees and rubbish upon it. In the spring of 1839, 

 it was hilled and planted in tobacco, followed by 

 the same crop in 1840, and by wheat and lierds- 

 gra?s the jast winter. Previously to hillinu: lor 

 the first crop of tobacco, a portion of lime, made 

 by burninfj oyster shells, was sprinkled over half an 

 acre of tliis latid, selected from about the middle ol' 

 it, the pine beard being permitted to remain upon it, 

 but removing by a slight raking the coarsest of 

 the trash. It was put on at the rale of aliout 

 70 bushels of lime to the acre. I have careiuily 

 watched the eH'ects of it upon the 3 successive 

 crops, by comparing the products, according to 

 the eye, of the limed and adjoinini^ portions ol 

 land, and have not yet been able to detect the 

 least decided advantatre of the former over the 

 latter, ntore than what nnght be attributed in 

 certain parts to superior original fijrtility of soil. 

 The crop of wheat now upon it shows such a 

 uniformity of aspect, in growih and maturity, 

 throughout the entire piece, that it seems to me 

 the most minute observer would not dream that 

 such a vaunted fertilizer ag lime is had been ap- 

 plied to any part of it, if we may except many 

 irregular spots over the entire surface, including 

 limed and unlimed portions, in which the more 

 vigorous growth and more rapid maturity of the 

 wheat manifest the undoubted virtues ol'ashes, de- 

 posited by the burning of heaps of logs and brush. 



Other experiments with lime have been made 

 and are making in my neighborhood, but 'with 

 few well-established practical conclusions, at least, 

 in its favor. A gentleman sowed lime upon his 

 tobacco lot last spring after manuring it, and did 

 not reap such a crop of tobacco as^his manure 

 alone promised. Not meaning, however, to aver 

 that the lime was an injury, but only that it did 

 not seem, to an appreciable extent, to coimteract 

 injurious causes. This gentleman is doubtless 

 Vol. IX.-32 



flattered with Ihe hope, if not belief that its bene- 

 ficial eflects will be considerably realized in the 

 present crop of wheat. Whether it be confirmed 

 or not. It will be difficult accurately to ascertain, 

 but the conclusion to be drawn from the experi- 

 ment, related above, upon my own land, would 

 5eem to be unfavorable to such a supposition. 



Guided by principles which I suppose you to 

 have advanced in relation to the action of calca- 

 reous manures, I shall yearly watch the eflects of 

 the lime upon the | acre ofarround above described, 

 with the expectation, if they ore correct, that 

 with moderate cultivation and s^razinsr, and a 

 moderate supply of vegetable matter of its own 

 growth, from herds-grass, it will eiilier improve 

 more rapidly than the adjoining land, or deterio- 

 rate more slowly. If the above should merit any 

 notice li"om you or your readers, it would be 

 pleasinoj to me to see something confirmatory of, 

 or contradictory to what is here advanced ; f!ir, in 

 ao^ricultural practice and opinion, the paradox ia 

 just, that our enemies are often our best friends. 



G. F. 



FREXCH AND AMi^KICAN RURAL C03IF0RTS. 



, From tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 



3Jr. Editor .-—To be able to " define our 

 proper position in the world," and to form a true 

 psiima'e of our character and standing in the 

 scale of human beings, it will be necessary lor us 

 to compare oursi'lves by the standard of comfort 

 and happiness enjoyed in other civilized countries, 

 and especially with the inhabitants of those states 

 which have been for ages under other forms of 

 government, become venerable from their an- 

 tiquity. I am led at present to this sutject, by a 

 perusal of the article in the Cabinet for March, 

 on the state of society in that part of the continent 

 which is denominated " the Granary of Europe," 

 where cheap land and low wages seem almost 

 synonymous with misery and starvation. 



Darintj a laie tour in the low countries in 

 F^'rance, I was struck dwnb while witnessing the 

 rotate of society in that part ^of " dear, delightful 

 France," having never belorehad the most distant 

 idea of the possibility that such a low, debased, 

 and de2raded state of things could exist in any 

 civilized country under heaven; and I have never, 

 since my return, been able to find words to ex- 

 press my f(?elinnrs, or to describe what I there 

 saw; but as I have since (bund the same scenes 

 poitrayed to the life in Blackwood's Magazine, 

 all I have to do is to bear testimony to the truth 

 of the picture, which is by no means loo highly 

 colored, and which I do most conscientiously ; 

 congratulating my fellow countrymen on the com- 

 fort and happiness which they enjoy in this blessed 

 land of liberty and high wages. The traveller 

 thus commences : — 



" Nantes, in Bretagnc. Passed through a 

 productive country, where the cows seemed the » 

 legitimate proprietors— the peasantry, interlopers. 

 The fields were luxuriant, but all that betokened 



