THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



677 



STRFACE MAM rim;. 



To ihe Editor of the Farmer's Register. 



Nov. 20lh, 1841. 



In your Weekly RegLsler, daleil ilie 12. Ii ol iliis 

 inoiiil), i liiiil ihrti one ol your South Carolina 

 coires|)uni.lenis has rt^quested me lo inlorin him, 

 ^^ ivhether I have made amjj'urlher experiments^' 

 in addition lo those which 1 nientioni d in your 

 second volume, relative lo the surlace application ol 

 manHres ; '^ and what mij present opinion is on 

 that subject V It gratifies me to rc|)ly thai i fiave 

 made some similar experiments smce that liine 

 and have witnessed several made tiy others — j 

 all of which, wiihout a single exception, coniri- | 

 bute to confirm the opinion there expressed — j 

 that surlace manuring is best, it is true that 

 nearly all these trials were made on cow-penned 

 land, and in the Jcllowing manner. The pens 

 were made as early in the spring as il is cusiom- 

 ary to pen cattle ; during the whole season they 

 were kept ol' the same size, and the same num- 

 ber of caitle penned in them. They were re- 

 moved at regular intervals of time, when they 

 were alte'rnalely ploughed up and left unploughed. 

 In the tollowing spring they were planted in corn 

 — to be followed by wheat in the lall ; and in all 

 these cases both the corn and the wheat on ihe 

 unploughed pens were s.> much better than what 

 grew where ihe pens had been ploughed up, that 

 the lines of each pen might be traced as plainly 

 as if ihe lences had still been standing. These 

 are indisputable iacis, and are now so generally 

 known in my part of the country, that it is now a 

 very rare thing to see cow-pens ploughed up as 

 soon as the lisnce is removed. 



Still I am aware ihat " ihe derisive stare of 

 incredubilily '' which seems to have so much an- 

 noyed your Souih Carolina correspondent, will 

 be equally excited against mysell, in sume parts 

 oi our country lar nurih of him. But il he will 

 take my advice, he will e'en let them deride or 

 Blare as may best suit their fancy; lor such per- 

 sons generally belong to a class of men lar too 

 happy in their own conceits to receive the small- 

 est benefit from any thing that eiiher he or 1 could 

 tay on this, or any other subject. For his own 

 satisfaction, however, I will respecllijlly suggest, 

 that if he will examine the matier further, ife will 

 find, that the " modus operandi" of manures ap- 

 plied to the surlace of land can be explained on 

 philosophical principles, in a manner quite as 

 satisfactory as any other fact in relation lo ma- 

 nures, notwithstanding the prevalent opinion 

 amongst his acquaintances may be directly op- 

 posed to his own. 1 remain, dear sir, yours, very 

 Sincerely, James M. Garkett. 



WOOLLEN RAGS. 



From Jolinson's work on Fertilizers. 



These are almost entirely composed of animal 

 matter ; they are Idund to contain a very large 

 proportion ol albumen, (a substance similar in ap- 

 pearance to boiled while of egg,) minute portions 

 of lime and silica, and traces of various salts. 

 They form, therelbre, an excellent manure by 

 slowly decomposing in the soil ; and are found to 

 remain dissolving in it, and Ibrming soluble and 



I elastic matters (or the service ol plants, when ap- 

 plied at Ihe rate of twelve hundred weight per 

 j acre, lor periods vaiyicg fiom two years on the 

 heavy clays. The lightness of CiiriiHge, and its 

 reatliness, as well as cleanliness o! a; plication, 

 I lender il peculiarly eligible as a lenilizer; u keeps, 

 1 too, lor any length ol time, unul ilie larmer id 

 reatly to appiy it to his ground, and is much more 

 I slowly decumposed and consumed, than either 

 ! biflibber ra[)e cake, irain oil, or bone dust. 

 ; Of these lags, ihe consumplion by the Berk- 

 shire and Oxloidshire larmers, and esjiecially in 

 Keiii lor the hop grounds, is very considerable. 

 j I am inlorined by an extensive dealer in these 

 I rags, that at least 20,000 ions are annually con- 

 I sumed by the larmers of the south of England. 

 i i\ly mlbrmant himself has a sale of more than 

 ! 5U0 tons per annum, which he delivers Iree oa 

 j board a vessel, at any of the Lundon wharves, 

 i lor five guineas per ion. The custom ol the 

 liirmtr is, 10 cut ihe woollen rags by means of a 

 i chop|jer and block, into pieces abou'. the size of 

 ja crown piece, and ihen spread them on iheir 

 j fields by hand, out of a common seed basket, 

 ; as evenly as they can ; they find that this ma- 

 i nure is admirably adapted lor hops, wheat, tur- 

 nips, &c., and that the beneficial effect is as great 

 the second year as the first ; it appears tiiat one 

 liirmer in Kent, JNlr. Ellis, ol Banning, purchases 

 annually lour or five liundred tons ol these rags, 

 almost exclusively ibr his hop grounds. Ihe 

 farmers of Kent think the apjilicauon of ihe rags 

 warms the ground ; they certainly, as they slowly 

 puirel'y in the soil, aflurd nounshmenl to the crop, 

 lor wool is composed almost entirely of a pecu- 

 liar animal mailer, with a slight portion of phos- 

 phate of lime, or earthy mailer ol bones. 



The very cottager is interested in these fads— . 

 lor every shred ol an old woollen garment is avail- 

 able lor his garden, is an admirable manure lor 

 his potato ground, or if he has not a garden, the 

 poor collectors of these rags, who travel about Ibr 

 the large dealers, will readily give him a larihing 

 per pound Ibr all he can collect ; and yet, judorinir 

 by the careless way in which very old cloihes are 

 often lo be seen absolutely thrown away, in some 

 country places, I should certainly conclude that 

 the inhabitanis were not aware ol their value. 



CORN FROM SEED TWO THOUSAND YEARS 

 OLD. 



At the annual dinner of the Southwest Middle- 

 sex Agricultural Association, held on Friday last 

 at the Adam and Eve Inn, Hayes, near Uxbridije, 

 Mr. H. Pownall, of Spring Grove, Hounslo^v, 

 while eulogizing the larmers of Middlesex on 

 their high degree of intelligence and practical 

 judgment, produced a head of corn, which he 

 said had been grown in the neighborhood of his 

 residence, and, as a proof of their meriting the 



; eulogy he had passed upon them, slated that he 



I had that day shown the head of corn to Mr. 



, Sherborn, of Bedlbnt, who, on examining it, im- 

 mediately said it was Egyptian corn, which Mr. 

 Pownall said was the laci, as it had grown Worn 

 grain Ibund within Ihe covering of an Egyptian 



' mummy, within which it had been enclosed (br 

 upwards of 2000 years, a statement which pro- 

 duced a great sensation throughout the assem- 



i blage. — London paper. 



