No. 9. 



Li I 



293 



seems as much more handy as the rig-ht hand 

 is over the left; the driver and the leading 

 horse of the team — the governing- povi'er 

 united — forming' a more general plan of dis- 

 cipline, and sanctioned by long custom. 

 Now take this plan of things to the plough, 

 where the first line or furrow is drawn, and 

 I consider a lad of 14 years with a lei't-hand 

 plough, quite as competent to govern and 

 enforce it, as a full grown hand with a right- 

 hand plough. I have seen many persons in 

 Chester and Delaware, using right-hand 

 ploughs with two, or double lines, but we 

 frequently, after the first furrow is struck, 

 use neither; left-hand ploughs requiring not 

 their aid: but as simply respecting the turn- 

 ing over the furrow, it makes not one cent 

 of difference, whether right or left. I would 

 be glad to be informed if the left-hand Cen- 

 tre-draught plough has arrived in Philadel- 

 phia'! many friends have been inquiring 

 about them, and I have insisted that they 

 should purchase no other. Please pay a 

 visit to us in this part of the country, and 

 bring some along. 



Respectfully, 



Caleb Brinton. 



Peqaea Valley, 3(1 ino. 21st, 1844. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Lime. 



To THE Epitor, — I observe that Isaac 

 W. Vanleer, in his communication in the 

 last number of the Cabinet, has fallen back 

 upon his original ground : it would seem a: 

 if his magnesian antagonists, who were "out 

 upon him," cast so much cold water upon 

 that warm subject, as to cool it off for time 

 to come ; so he goes back to his old position 

 and makes an attack upon every kind of 

 lime, indiscriminately, for agricultural pur- 

 poses. My business, as well as my devotion 

 to agriculture, has enabled me to make ex- 

 tensive observations on the subject upon 

 which our friend Vanleer is wont to treat. 

 In his last communication, he seemingly an- 

 nihilates the whole theory and system of 

 Davy, Chaptal, Dana and Liebia", and to 

 crown the whole, asks "respectfully to differ 

 from" our experienced agricultural friend, 

 Willis Gaylord, of N. Y. My object, when 

 I sharpened my pen, to try to write an arti- 

 cle, was not a design to enter into a contro- 

 versy, which I have avoided all my life, but 

 merely to propose a simple means, by which 

 our friend and those about him, who hold 

 his doctrine, may satisfictorily to themselves 

 "fling this bone of contention to the dogs." 



There is in Salisbury township, Lancas- 

 ter county, Pa., a farm containing above one 



hundred acres, the property ?d present, of 

 Christian Kurtz, wtio lately purchased it of 

 an aged uncle, at a high price, and which has 

 always been considered one of the most pro- 

 ductive farms in the county; the buildings 

 are in the centre, with water for every field. 

 I will, with our friend's permission, take the 

 liberty to compare this farm to TownseniVs. 

 On account of the productive character of 

 its soil, it has been in this county, by a few 

 anti-limers, referred to for proof, that one of 

 the best farms had never tasted lime. About 

 five years ago, the old uncle, in order to give 

 lime a trial, purchased 110 bushels — magne- 

 sian of course, — and commencing in one 

 corner of the field, spread half of the lime 

 along two sides of it. Of this circumstance 

 I was not aware, until I travelled by it on 

 the 18th inst., and noticed at a distance, a 

 handsome field of growing wheat, with the 

 striking appearance of two sides of a square 

 which exhibited an exuberant growth. Of 

 course I could not pass until all the facts 

 connected with the cause were related to 

 me, as above. The present enterprising 

 proprietor has already commenced making 

 arrangements to give the whole farm "a 

 whitewashing," arffuing that although his 

 crops before were large, yet he was satisfied 

 that by liming, with the same expense of 

 culti', ation, they could be increased nearly 

 double; and indeed his evidence is before 

 him ; his soil, by the bye, overlaying in its 

 whole extent, the magnesian limestone rock 

 of the county. Instead of friend Vanleer 

 wasting his energies in labouring to convert 

 others by his pen to the same faith with 

 himself, I would extend to him a cordial in- 

 vitation to visit this county; and by sijrnify- 

 ing his intention to the postmaster of Salis- 

 bury township, I shall at the shortest notice, 

 in company Vv ith other warm friends of en- 

 lightened cultivation of the soil, give him a 

 hearty reception; and after visiting the above 

 farm, and a number of others where experi- 

 ments have been more extensively made, 

 we shall escort him to the south-west part 

 of his own county, where " he that runneth 

 may read" a lesson on this mooted subject. 

 If our friend is very obstinate in conviction, 

 we shall take him to East Nottingham town- 

 ship, in his own county, where we shall call 

 upon .Tacob Hilaman, Esq., a wealthy and 

 extensive practical farmer, who began the 

 v^orld without a dollar, and after purchasing 

 his first tract of land, bought eight hundred 

 bushels of lime from Pequea Valley, at 31 

 cents per bushel, delivered ; friend Hilaman 

 will tell us thai outlay for lime, was the 

 principal moans of giving impetus to his 

 farming operations, and the harbinjrer of his 

 success; he will exhibit any evidence in 



