118 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



it is used in the same manner ; no hills are made, 

 but the ground is kept level. Neither hand hoe, 

 nor plough are used, after the corn is planted. 

 Fields, nfanured with coarse manure, have been 

 tilled in the same manner. Corn, tilled in this 

 way, is as clean of weeds, as when tilled in the 

 usual way ; it is no more liable to be blown down, 

 and tbe protkice is equally good. It saves a great 

 deal of hand labor, which is an expensive item in 

 the usual culture of corn. Last October, ten rods 

 were measured out, in two different places, in a 

 corn-field, on grass land— the one yielded ten, the 

 other nine bushels of ears. In one corn-field, 

 after the last dressing in July, timothy and clover 

 seed were sown, and, in the fall, the grass ap- 

 peared to have taken as well as it had done in 

 adioininf fields where it had been sown with 

 oats." ° * * * * * 



CHARLES H. TOBILIlVSOJf. 



NICOTINE, 



Mr. Davy described some experiments which he 

 had made in reference to the relative values of 

 Virginian and Irish tobacco. He procured nico- 

 tine^by simply digesting the leaves in potash, and 

 then distilling. A'liquid, possessing uniform quali- 

 ties, passed over. The liquid is acted on by acids, 

 affording salts possessing a sharp biting taste. 

 The effect of the liquid was tried upon different 

 animals, and found to be highly narcotic. He 

 found that one pound of Virginian tobacco was 

 equivalent to two and one-lhird of Irish tobacco ; 

 the root containing four or five per cent, of nico- 

 tine. The usual estimate of the relative values, 

 Is as one to two. — Arcana of Science, 



TRIFOLIUM INCARNATUM. 



The cultivation of this plant is, we are glad to 

 hear, spreading rapidly ; and it is in some parts of 

 the country very generally taking the place of 

 tares, as it produces a much greater quantity of 

 food, and does not require much more than a tenth 

 of the labor bestowed in preparing the ground 

 and sowing it. It also comes in a ibrtnight earlier, 

 Loudiui's Gardener^s Magazine. 



TENNKSSEE LAND AND FARMING — LIME- 

 STONE — LIME — LUCERNE. 



Columbia, Maury County, Ten. 



May 4, 1836. 



To Uie Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



I have, thus far, been very much pleased with 

 the Register. 1 hope it will continue to be as 

 interesting as it has been. It might, perhaps, be 

 rendered more acceptable to your patrons in this 

 section, if you would devote more space to cot- 

 ton, stock, and grass. Our climate and soil are 

 well suited to those subjects, and they engross the 

 chief attention of our a<|riculturists. We are not 

 much of a wheat-growing people. Our climate 

 does not suit it. It freezes out of the ground in 

 the winter. 



While I am writing, I will call your attention 

 to an article in your last nund)er, of much im- 

 portance, but which I do not sulHciently under- 

 stand, and which I will thank you to explain. In 

 the essay, translated from the Annates deV Agricul- 



ture F'rangaise, page 743, is described a sure 

 remedy for smut in wheat. In describing the 

 quantity of lime and of sulphate of soda, the 

 terms " hectogrammes, kihtgrammes, hectolitre,^^ 

 are used, which are not sufficiently explained to 

 a person who cannot " parlez uoi/s." I will thank 

 you to give them a more definite exposition in 

 English measures. One other subject I will thank 

 you to give us all the information about, you can 

 obtain, which is of great importance to this coun- 

 try, and that is the use of lime as a manure or 

 improver of soils. This is a limestone country. 

 We have it in great abundance, and no other 

 kind of stone. But how to use it on our lands, in 

 what quantities, and how to tell whether our 

 soils require such improvement, we do not know. 

 Perhaps you may be able to give us some plain 

 directions in the particulars. W you can, it will 

 be very acceptable. 



I have but little experience in farming, as I 

 have but lately turned my attention to it. I will 

 mention an experiment I commenced last year, 

 with lucerne. I sowed about one-third of an 

 acre near my stables last spring, in April, in drills 

 two feet apart. I commenced cutting it in Sep- 

 tember, and cut it three times before frost. I 

 have now cut it nearly over the first time this sea- 

 son, and where I began first to cut it, it is as high 

 as when I first began. I work eight plough 

 horses and mules, and have four other horses that 

 do not work, and lour milk cows. I give them all 

 a liill feed of it every day, and they cannot con- 

 sume it near so fast as it grows. I find it very 

 valuable. It requires but httle labor to cultivate 

 it, and contributes greatly to the health of my 

 work horses. * # * « 



[The several articles on lime and cafcareous ma- 

 nures, recently given in tliis journal, will serve, it is 

 hoped, to furnish much of the information on that 

 head, desired by our correspondent. If he had been 

 a reader of the earlier volumes, he would have seen 

 that much space has been there given to the sub- 

 ject of live stock, and tlieir management: and that 

 more has not been given, and of information more es- 

 pecially suited to the western breeders of cattle, is 

 owing to the ciicumstance, that, from their pe/is, this 

 journal has received scarcely any aid. Let them com- 

 mence to write — to commmuuicate ever so little that 

 they Icnoxv of what is useful, in each particular case — 

 and to inquire for the much more abundant suppl}' of 

 information that each writer may need — and it may be 

 relied on, that the scarcity in this particular depart- 

 ment of our journal will no longer be a matter to com- 

 plain of. If a subscriber is anxious to read, and to 

 learn, on any particular subject, we advise him forth- 

 with to write on it, as the best means to attain his ob- 

 ject speedily and effectually. In this manner, our 

 respected correspondent may help himself, and at the 

 same time greatly help the Farmers' Register. 



With regard to the explanation of foreign weights 

 and measures, we have given it generally, and also 

 in reference to particular casas, in several different 

 parts of this journal, (as at p. 505, vol. 2, p. 745, vol. 3, 

 &c., 8tc.) Still, as it may not be always convenient 

 to refer to such foregone explanations, a convenient 

 abridged statement will be now annexed.] 



