No. 7. 



Surplus of Salem County — Mildew. 



213 



ordinary field of fourteen acres, with suckers 

 from the locust (a native of this country) in 

 the year of his marriage, as a portion for his 

 children. His eldest son married at twenty- 

 two. On this occasion the farmer cut about 

 fifteen hundred dollars worth of timber out 

 of his locust wood, which he gave to his son 

 to buy a settlement in Lancaster county. 

 Three years after he did as much for his 

 daughter. And thus he provided for his 

 whole family; the wood in the mean time 

 repairing by suckers all the losses it suf- 

 fered. — Boston Transcript. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Surplus of Salem County. 



The following statement compiled by Ro- 

 bert G. Johnson of Salem, for the Historical 

 Society of New Jersey, showing the large 

 amount of surplus produce obtained from the. 

 soil of Salem County, during the year 184.5, 

 over and above the amount consumed, I ex- 

 tract from the National Standard of Salem. 

 The extent of the County is only three hun- 

 dred square miles, and the number of inha 

 bitants 16,024 in 1840; since that time 

 there has probably been some increase. 



Exports of Salem County for the year 

 1845:— 



Wheat, 68,919 bush. 90 cts. $62,027.10 

 Corn, 386,254 " 50 " 193,127.00 



Oats, 174,574 " 31 J " 54,117.94 



Buckwh't, 6,000 " 60 " 3,600.00 

 Rye, 2,322 « 60 " 1,392.00 



Amount, 638,069 



Hay, straw and brooms, 

 Meat of various kinds, 

 Grass seeds, 

 Truck and fruit of all kinds, 



Ship timber and productions 

 of the forest, more than 



$314,264.04 



28,400.00 

 83,325.00 

 17,500.00 

 67,975.00 



$511,464.04 

 200,000.00 



Total exports, $711,464.04 



The corn crop of the year 1846 has been 

 perhaps the heaviest ever grown in Salem 

 County, and the oat crop much heavier than 

 in 184-5. The surplus for the year 1846 

 will probably reach near a million of dollars, 

 and the productions are rapidly on the in- 

 crease. D. P. 

 Salem, N. J. 



We have long known Salem County, as among the 

 most prolific in New Jersey. With abundance of tide 

 meadow; a soil easy of tillage and naturally good, 

 the farmers have made large quantities of manure, 

 which has brought up their lands to a high state of pro 

 ductiveness. The facility of obtaining lime, and the 



free use of extensive marl beds, have also been seized 

 upon and improved till the surplus of her soil amounts 

 as we see above, to nearly four dollars per acre: or, 

 deducting the amount of timber, to something less 

 than three dollars. The aggregate spared from this 

 small County, seems large, especially to us who know 

 that no inconsiderable portion of it is still unim- 

 proved by tillage: but we believe that Salem County 

 need not, and that she will not, stop short and be sat- 

 isfied with this aggregate:— let her double it,— and 

 when that is done, she may shake herself to further 

 exertion, and double it again.— Ed. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Mildew. 



The following opinions on mildew, gather- 

 ed from various sources, and modified by my 

 own observations, I offer for publication. 

 Mildew is a parasitic fungus growing upon 

 the culms, sheaths and leaves of grasses, 

 particularly wheat. Plants of the large 

 sub-class /«n^z, are many of them very mi- 

 nute, and vary so much from other plants in 

 their growth and fructification, that some 

 persons doubt their organization as vege- 

 table bodies: and the mildew or fungus, 

 growing on wheat, being one of the minute 

 fungi, not capable of being examined well, 

 except under a high magnifying power, it 

 is by many believed to be an exudation of 

 the sap from the stalk, arising from disease. 

 Tlie office of plants of this class, seems 

 to be to hasten the destruction of vegetable 

 matter; for from the time that the energies 

 of vegetable life decline, until the body has 

 been nearly reduced into its elements, some 

 of the many species of fungi, are engaged in 

 the work of destruction, if in situations fa- 

 vourable for their growth and production; 

 but when the principle of life in vegetables, 

 is vigorous and healthy, the fungi seldom 

 succeed in obtaining a place upon them. 

 That plants of this class will grow, and that 

 they can be cultivated and propagated, if 

 not by' true seed, yet by their sporules, or 

 by parts of their substance, may be shown 

 by the culture of the common edible mush- 

 room, Agaricus Campestris, a fungus of 

 sufficient size for examination — this mush- 

 room is raised by the gardeners for market, 

 with about as much certainty as other vege- 

 tables, by introducing the spawn or gills of 

 this species of mushroom into a bed of earth 

 and manure properly prepared ; for a de- 

 scription of the process, see M'Mahon's Gar- 

 dening,* — "Kitchen Garden in October." 

 Another instance may be made the subject 

 of experiment. The mouldiness sometimes 

 found on bread, is a fungus ; take two pieces 

 of bread not sufficiently baked, put one of 



*Sce also Farmers' Cabinet, vol. 10, page 29. 



