618 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



HI. I have already elated the reasons which lead 

 me to anticipate highly beneficial effects to vege- 

 tation from the use of sulphate of soda ; I would 

 suggest, therefore, a trial of this salt on the turnips 

 also, at the same rate of one cwt. per acre, and 

 applied in the way above recommended for ihe 

 nitrate of soda. Of course ihe intelligent farmer 

 vvill vary the proportions and mode of application 

 of these substances, as his leisure or convenience 

 permit, eras his better judgment may suggest to 

 him. 



THE GREEN SWARD AND BLUE GRASS OP 

 VIRGINIA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Farmville, June 16, 1841. 



Though I have not the pleasure of a personal 

 acquaintance with you, 1 hope I shall be excused 

 for the liberty taken of sending to you, (or your 

 inspection, specimens of blue grass and green 

 evvard ; grasses which have recently, to a con- 

 siderable degree, attracted the attention of your 

 readers. Upon these grasses I have no learned 

 remarks to oiler. I will merely state that they 

 are both good pasture grasses; the blue grass 

 decidedly superior on accotmt of its hardihood, 

 its weight and richness. The green sward of 

 Virginia may be the blue grass of Kentucky ; 

 but the blue grass of Virginia, as you see from 

 the specimens, is very dilFerent from the green 

 sward. The green sward is seldom, in Virginia, 

 mowed for hay. It is too light for this purpose. 

 In the Valley of Virginia, the blue grass is often 

 mowed, and makes the best of hay. In the mar- 

 ket it brings a higher price than any other hay. 

 From a residence of several years in the Valley 

 of Virginia, I had an opportunity of becoming 

 acquainted wi'h the facts above slated. 



I will further state that the green sward runs to 

 seed early, and in a short time matures its seed, 

 after which the straw or stalks are, as you per- 

 ceive in the specimen, very light and chaffy. 



The blue grass, though equally early as pasture 

 grass is later in running up and seeding, and 

 retains its properties for hay to a very late period 

 in the hay-making season. It affords a good and 

 heavy swath, and well repays the husbandman. 



It is due to you, sir, that I give you my name, 

 and this I do without reluctance, as my hasty re- 

 marks are not designed for publication. Very 

 respectfully yours, J. H. C. Leach. 



As we do not understand our correspondent as 

 forbidding the publication of his letter, and as 

 there is certainly no other reason why it should 

 not be published, we have taken the liberty to 

 do so, although he had not so intended. 



Not having any botanical knowledge, and 

 not being accustomed to distinguish any grasses ex- 

 cept as they are seen growing, we preferred to wait 

 and submit these dried specimens to a friend who 

 is much better informed. The one grass, of which 

 only we had any doubt, is the poa compressa, or 

 blue grass of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the 



other (he poa pratensis, or green sward of Vir- 

 ginia and blue grass of Kentucky. Of course 

 they are correctly characterized by our corre- 

 spondent, according to the vulgar names of Vir- 

 ginia. 



These specimens are of uncommon size for 

 eastern Virginia. One of the green sward stalks 

 we found by accurate measurement to be very 

 nearly 2 feet 8 inches above the ground ; and a 

 stalk of blue grass to be nearly 2 feet 4 inches. 

 They wanted less than a quarter inch of these 

 precise lengths. Now if these grasses had been 

 described as of such size, without exhibiting the 

 actual specimens, few persons would have recog- 

 nized them as the same grasses which are general- 

 ly seen of so much smaller growth. Many of 

 us are thus frequently misled even by the most 

 accurate descriptions of plants, when the greatest 

 heights are mentioned, as these so much exceed 

 the ordinary and generally observed sizes. Of 

 this, a remarkable case recently fell under our own 

 observation. If 100 different farmers were se- 

 parately asked what was the tallest sheep sorrel 

 that they had seen, it is probable that very few 

 would name a size more than a foot, and not 

 one exceeding 18 inches. Yet we pulled and 

 measured a bunch this summer, of remarkably 

 luxuriant growth, of which the highest seed stem 

 was 3 feet 4 inches above the ground — which we 

 should be almost afraid to tell, except that we had 

 a witness to the measurement. Now if any one 

 were to describe this plant as growing sometimes 

 above 3 feet high, it would cause every reader to 

 pronounce at once that it could not possibly be 

 the usually diminutive but powerful weed which 

 is such a pest on acid soils. — Ed. F. R. 



ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF ICE HOUSES. 



From tJie Kentuclcy Farmer. 



Lexington, Aug. 9, 1841. 



Dear sir : The desire to cor:tribute my mite, 

 however small, to the support of your valuable 

 paper, prompts me to send you the following re- 

 marks on the construction of ice houses ; which, 

 however, I beg you not to publish unless you 

 think they are worth the space they would occupy 

 in vour columns. 



The principles which should be kept in view 

 in the construction of houses for the preservation 

 of ice, are few and simple. The sole object of the 

 structure being to prevent the passage of caloric,^ 

 from the earth, the air or the sun, to the ice ; for 

 if we could completely prevent the passage of that 



* A definite term employed to designate the cause of 

 the sensation called heat ; which latter word is applied, 

 in common parlance, both to the cause and to the sen- 

 sation, leading sometimes to ambiguity. 



