172 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



soil; and the hand hoe follows, to clean in the rows 

 between each plant. Alter a time, the clogs are 

 put on the shares of the horse-hoe, to mould them 

 upwhh the fresh soil.. I know of no way so 

 cleanly and good to o-row this uselul and valuable 

 root; and under this system the land is krpt clean 

 from weeds, and well pulverized, and will produce 

 a o-ood crop of wheat equal to a dead fallow. 



1 never knew a farmer leave ott dnllino; who 

 placed his rows near enough together, and allow- 

 ed plenty of seed to the acre. 



There is no machine deserves encouragement 

 more than the drill, tor many reasons. It encour- 

 a<'-es industry; it grows a iirealer quantity of corn 

 to the acre, of better quality; it emplojs the poor 

 in the spring, and the extra produce of the crop 

 pays them; no weeds are allowed to seed and fall 

 to the ground, nor to grow so as to impoverish the 

 land. 1 am certainly of opinion that one crop of 

 weeds exhausts the land more than, or equal to, 

 throe crops of white straw. 



The price I pay for hand-hoeing is 43. per acre 

 for wheat, 3e. 6d. for barley and oats, and 6s. lor 

 beans; the wider in the rows, the more it is worth 

 for hoeing. The hoes cost 2d. an inch. 



To encourage the drill against broadcast, I have 

 offered the farmers to divide a field of clay land 

 into two equal parts, and that I would drill in the 



enclosures where wood and stone are either too 

 costly, or not to be had : and the South Carolina 

 "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," 

 in the 3d vol. Farmers' Register, No. 8, also re- 

 commend pise as a mode of constructing houses 

 and fences. I shall not pretend to question such 

 hijrh authority— still less should I be inclined to 

 adTl any thing to the much that has been written 

 upon pise, a mode of building which is s:ud to have 

 its oriyin iraccalilc back to the days of Rome and 

 Greece, and which is said in the address of the 

 South Carolina Society, above alluded to, to "be 

 "the subject of a full article in a work of great au- 

 "thoritv,"'the Cours Complei d'jfgricidture, by the 

 "Abbe Hozier, assisted by some of the most scien- 

 "tific inen in Europe," and by Mr. llerberiiont 

 himself, that "there is a full description of the 

 "manner of buiUhng pise houses and walls, to be 

 "Ibund in one of the volumes of the American 

 "Farmer of Baltimore, and in Rees' Cyclnpoedia. 

 "It may also be probably found in several other 

 "books"" I have mentioned these authorities 

 upon the subject of pise, chiefly that the subject 

 may be the more readily investigated by those 

 who desire to compare it with what I shall call 

 mud i«a//s, and I would invite this comparison, es- 

 pecir.lly by those who have read Mr. Ilerbcmont's 

 article in the Register above refi^rred to; because I 



cronand hoe it' at my own expense; and that I I think he has there, in his zeal lor pise, opposed 

 would have p.othing but the extra produce for my the influence of his name too hastily to the intro 

 trouble and expense. My offer has never been 

 accepted. I have therefore never had the pleas- 



ure of a trial, except on my own farm, which is 

 good wheat land; and, on the averace, produces 

 one quarter to the acre more than broadcast. 

 I am, &,c. 



TIIOS. CHECKETTS. 



ON THE VALUE, AND MOKE OF COXSTRUCTION, 

 OF MUD WALLS, FOR FARM BUILDINGS AND 

 ENCLOSURES. 



To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



Surry, Va., May 31, 1836. 



I believe no one has given to your very valua- 

 ble publication, any account of the mode of con- 

 structing mud wafls for fences and houses; and as 

 I am at this time constructing half a dozen houses 

 Avith such walls, for negro quarters, upon the place 

 of my present residence, and having also seen 

 much of this kind of building, I have thought that 

 a short sketch of the plan of such houses, the mode 

 ol constructing them, together with some account 

 of the results of experiments made some eight or 

 ten years since in this kind of structure, might 

 serve to call the attention of the public to it, as 

 something novel indeed in this country, but at the 

 same time as affording for permanent enclosure, in 

 the absence of ordinary materials, one ofthe cheap- 

 est and most durable substitutes; and for farm 

 houses perhaps the very best material that can be 

 found to fulfil at the same time all the conditions 

 of fitness, durabilitj-, cheapness, ami appearance. 

 I will premise, however, that I am not going to 

 speak oi' pise or dirt loulls, of which the public 

 have heard so much. Mr. Ilerbemont of South 

 Carolina, has given in the 1st vol. ofthe Farmers' 

 Register, a high commendation ni'pise as a mate- 

 rial for constructing houses and fences, but he 

 seems to recommend pise chiefly for permanent 



duclion of the more simple and humble, but not 

 the less useful system of "mud walls," when he 

 says, "this mode of building (pise) must not be 

 "confounded with what are called 'mud houses,' 

 "and which are inferior in every respect" — if in- 

 deed Mr. Herbemont meant here to refer to the 

 kind of mud wall which 1 shall describe. 



I have been unable to ascertain the origin ofthe 

 mud wall mode of building. _ Rees' Cyclopcedia is 

 silent upon the subject, with the exception of the 

 following remark under the head of "Walls." 

 "Rammed earth walls, as well as those formed of 

 "muddy clay, answer very well in some intentions, 

 "being very close, compact and warm." Loudon 

 in his "Cyclopcedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa 

 Architecture, &.c." p. 77, gives tlie mode of build- 

 ing; the mud walls of cottages in Cambridgeshire, 

 En<j!;land, but this process is totally different from 

 the one I shall describe. General John H. Cocke 

 of this State, constructed the first mud walls for 

 houses and enclosures which I have ever seen or 

 heard of in this country, and in answer to some 

 inquiries lately made of him upon this subject, he' 

 writes: "I know of no person in our country who 

 "has built mud walls but rnysclf. It was not an 

 "original conception of mine, it having been in use 

 "for centuries in Europe. I was put upon it from 

 "reading of it in agricultural and rural economy 

 "books; and finding a Welshman in my neighbor- 

 "hood, 15 or 16 years ago, who had been accus- 

 "tomed to making walls of that description in 

 "Wales, I made mj' first expermient with his as- 

 "sistance, shortly after that time, upon a farm 

 "yard wall, which is now as firm as it was the day 

 "it was put up." So you see, Mr. Editor, 1 shall 

 be unable to attribute to my mud walls tlie anti- 

 quity of Greece or Rome, or to recommend fhcm 

 to the public notice by citing any learned trea- 

 tises upon them by learned men. I regret indeed 

 that they have no such aid, for I verily believe 

 they merit this last as much as pise — or if they 



