130 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



system of farming. According to Chaptal, gyp- 

 sum acts only as a condiment — a spice to excite 

 the digestive organs of the plant ; and clover and 

 corn being among those plants upon which it acts 

 most powerfully, iis ejects upon the alter produc- 

 tion of both, should have corresponded. If, more- 

 over, the effect of the stimulus be to make the 

 crop more luxuriant, and thus draw more heavily 

 upon the nutritive principles of the soil, then your 

 correspondent using clover as an alternating crop, 

 would return to the soil an immense addition of 

 vegetable matter — which has been shown, under 

 the tour shift system of Shirle}', and Wcstover,_ 

 under the five, and six, and seven shift systems of 

 Messrs. Craven and Rogers, of Albemarle, and 

 under the infinite variety of systems in which plas- 

 ter and clover are used in rotation, throughout 

 Pennsylvania, Jersey, New York, along the broad 

 belt of red land at the base of the Blue Ridije, and 

 the coterminous calcareous region of the Valley of 

 Virginia — to be attended with progressive and per- 

 manent improvement. 



I have amplified, I fear tediously, upon this sub- 

 ject, because I consider the doctrine advanced by 

 your Maryland correspondent, the most danger- 

 ous which could gain ground among the desert 

 wastes, which disfigure Eastern Virginia. And 

 because it has already gained foothold with other 

 gentlemen, who, like yourintelligentcorrespondent, 

 have yielded at the first failure, and abandoned, 

 ■ what I am sure, has done more to repair the rava- 

 ges — the murderous cut-throat system of our fii- 

 thers — than all other agents united. 



Your Charlotte correspondent, J. F. E., tested 

 by the same authorities, would be adjudired equal- 

 ly exceptionable upon this point; and from the 

 sound sense which his remarks respecting putres- 

 cent manures indicate, he will probably have as 

 many converts as your Maryland correspondent. 

 If these gentlemen have not read Chaptafs book, 

 1 will take the liberty of reconunending it to their 

 perusal, in the confidence, that I offer them a rich 

 banquet, where they may resale themselves with 

 pleasure and profit, and in the further confidence, 

 that they will rise Irom its perusal, advocates of 

 gypsum and clover, and even more zealous than 

 tliey are now, for putrescent manures. They will 

 think, with the learned Frenchman, "that the use 

 of plaster is one of the most important improve- 

 ments that has ever been made in agriculture" — 

 "that dunghills are the riches of the fields;" for, 

 "without dung, there is no harvest." 



WM. M. PKYTON. 



P. S. Chaptal states, in his treatise near the 

 bottom of page 75, that 300 parts of water will 

 dissolve oneof gypsum. This differs so materially 

 from Sir Humphry Davy, and other chenfists, 

 that 1 have been induced to suspect that it was an 

 error of the printer; but there being no other pas- 

 sage in the work by which it can be tested, and 

 there being no other copy in the neighborhood, 

 I must beg the fiivor of you to compare it with 

 yours, and inform me whether they correspond.* 



* The figures above referred to are corrcctlj' given 

 in our correspondent's copy, (the American transla- 

 tion,) as we have ascertained by examination of the 

 orginal work, (Paris edition.) Chemists ditl'er grcallv 

 in their reports of the degree of solubility of gypsum iri 

 water. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



In publishing some hasty remarks, appended to a 

 letter of business, which 1 addressed you last 

 month, (your polite answer to which, I received 

 as I commenced this sentence,) you committed se- 

 veral typographical blunders, such as ''greatly un- 

 dilatiiig lor "gently undulating" — "immediately" 

 for "irremediably," &c., all of which, I have no 

 doubt, are justly chargeable to the indistinctness of 

 my hand writing. 



W. 31. P. 



From the British Farmer's Magazine. 



spade husbandry. 

 Sir, 



I beg leave to call the attention of your readers 

 to a recent experiment of spade husbandry in the 

 neighborhood of Eastbourne, which fully proved 

 that digging land is cheaper than ploughing it. 

 Ten sur|)lus laborers petitioned to dig a quantity 

 of land "at iweniy shillings per acre, which is fully 

 equal to three times ploughing, which costs thirty 

 shillings per acre y Some of the respectable ag- 

 riculturists of that neighborhood have made the 

 experiment, and it has also been practiced in Scot- 

 land: it will not, therefore, be unreasonable to 

 hope, that, if it be so much cheaper than plough- 

 ing, and advantageous in other ways, the practice 

 may become general. 



It is admitted hy those conversant with the 

 farming business, that it never was in a more de- 

 pressed state than it is at present ; and, conse- 

 quently, that it needs the utmost economy in ex- 

 penditure, the most judicious application of labor 

 and skill, and, indeed, every other aid which can 

 be called to its support. It is on this account that 

 I would urge the necessity of every farmer making 

 a trial of the spade, in place of the plough. The 

 experiment is simple, requires no additional study 

 to comprehend it, and its rusults are certain. 

 They may do this without the trouble of analy- 

 zing soils, or burdening their memories with a 

 knowledge of chemistry, or laying out large sums 

 in certain profitless pursuits : in fact, by such a 

 course, they may cultivate their farms at a less ex- 

 pense, augment their profits, and improve the con- 

 dition of their laborers. 



If digging were extensively practised, it would 

 furnish employment for thousands of men, able and 

 willing to work, who are now unemployed ; and 

 much of that degradation and crime, the concom- 

 itants of idleness, which has been manifested 

 amongst the agricultural laborers, would thereby 

 be curtailed. It is ofien the case, too, that the 

 farmer is the sufferer by such crime ; tor, though 

 he may feel sorry tor the wretched men, yet he 

 has not always the means of relief in his power; 

 nor, fi-om the places in which his produce is de- 

 posited, is he able to protect it from those who 

 may wish to appropriate it to their own uses. 

 Misfortune often compels men to do what they 

 woukl shudder at the thought of in opposite cir- 

 cumstances, and it is said that "hunger will break 

 through stone walls ;" therefore, they may be 

 tempted to plunder the potato-hog or the barn, to 

 obtain a meal lor their starving tiunilies ; poaching 

 necessarily accompanies such condition; one 

 crime is followed by others o 'greater magnitude ; 

 they thus become amenable to the law ; are pro- 

 secuted; and their families have to be maintained 

 — still out of the farmer's means. In such a etate 

 of thingSj if any plan can be found which will ben- 



