1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



289 



streets, principally the pure dung of animals, for 

 the use of the surrounding farms. Tliis is gene- 

 rdily "preserved" as it is supposed, or, as I consid- 

 er, subjected to the greatest possible waste, by 

 being heaped alone, and exposed to rain and sun, 

 untirwanted. Under these circumstances, decom- 

 position, and the evolving ol' the gaseous products, 

 raust proceed continually and rapidly. The ex- 

 crement from the Lunatic Hospital has for iialf a 

 century been thrown into large pits, and never has 

 been removed, except into the air by decomposi- 

 tion, and only was covered deep by earth, when 

 the pits became a nuisance. If the rich marl, 

 which is on the spot, were used to mix regularly 

 with these excrementitious matters, they would ne- 

 ver become ofl'ensivc, and would be preserved as 

 abodvof the richest manure. If I lived near, I 

 would" give an annual rent of §50 for the use of 

 this manure, which nobody will now meddle with. 

 ***** 



Dr. M of We.yanoke has continued for 5 or 



6, or perhaps more years to cultivate the same field 

 in corn — but with peas planted between the rows 

 of corn. Last year, about 250 bbis. from this field 

 or (as his overseer thought) about one third of 

 the whole, was Ibund rotten when gathered. 

 There seemed to be sutficient reason to believe that 

 this was caused by corn being so long continued 

 on tlie same ground. But I have heard of a much 

 longer uninterrupted succession of corn, on either 

 very rich land, or where there there was the worst 

 and laziest farminir — and no such evil was attribu- 

 ted to the plan. Indeed, I had thought that corn, 

 different from all other grain, might be cultivated 

 forever on the same land without diminution of 

 product, provided the land was kept as rich as at 



first. 



# # » * * 



When passing through the light ridge land of 



James City, Mr. pointed out a field 



which had been ploughed a number of years ago, 

 in August, "as deep as two horses could break the 

 land," and that so much injury had been sustamed, 

 that the field had never recovered. The soil was 

 like the neighborhood in general, a poor silicious 

 sand, on a similar white sub-soil, and not marled. 



PISE VERSUS MUD WALLS. 



To tlic Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



Columbia, S. C, July 30, 1836. 



An article in the 3d No., 4th vol., page 172, 

 signed "Philip St. George Cocke," seems some- 

 thing like a declaration of war against me ; but as 

 I arn too old to fight with any prospect of victory, 

 I must try the power of manilestoes and explanato- 

 ry notes, which, I think, in nine cases in ten, a 

 much better way than the carrying on vvar in the 

 usual way. In the negociation for peace thus en- 

 tered into, I must take heed lest the gnrrulity oi 

 old age exposes me again to the reproach of wri- 

 ting too much. Besides this reproach, which I consi- 

 der unmerited for the reasons which I shall state 

 in due time, Mr. Cocke adds to all he says, a spice 

 of irony, which I am not conscious of deserving. 



The reason that induced me to write at all on 

 pise for houses and fence walls, is, that I saw in 

 your Register that many i)eisonK were at a loss 



Vol. IV— 37 



how to supply the deficiency of v\'ood for lencing. 

 In the Sta'e in which I live, the use of the common 

 rail worm-tence is a disgrace to an old, settled, and 

 civilized country. I therelbre thouijlu I was doin<r 

 good in showing that ftiuccs of a very supeiior kind 

 could be made without incurring any great ex- 

 pense. In doing this, I thought it necessary to 

 caution the readers of my arlicle on pise, against 

 confounding it with what are usually called "mud 

 walls," which I slili think are very inferior to those 

 made of pise. Hinc dice, lachrymce. I certainly 

 knew not, at the time, that Mr. Cocke or any. one 

 else in Virginia had been constructing walls and 

 houses of mud; and although I find now that his 

 mode of constructing mud walls is very much like 

 that ol" Avhich I expressed disapprobation, ii can- 

 not be said that I attacked that gentleman in any 

 degree at all. I had heard and read of the mud 

 houses of the poorest people in Ireland, and had 

 seen in this place throe or four mud houses con- 

 structed by an English gentleman. On these spe- 

 cimens of' the art, I founded my reprobation ; for 

 the houses did last but a few years, and as they 

 had been a source of derision, it was most un- 

 doubtedly not improper in me to stale that pise 

 work was very different, and superior in duration, 

 and perhaps neatness of appearance. 



Knowing full well how much of the preaching 

 of religion and morality is practised before the de- 

 sired effect is obtained, even in these two objects, 

 on the goodness of which there is no dispute, it 

 was not very culpable in me to have written as 

 much as I did on the advantages of pise structures, 

 particularly as my first piece was not at all noticed. 

 " But," says Mr. Cocke, "I think he has there in 

 his zeal for pise, opposed the influence of his name 

 to the introduction of the more simple and humble, 

 but not less useful system of mud walls, "&c. 

 This is a severe cut ; for, so far from making any 

 calculation on the influence or weight of my name, 

 it must be veiy obvious that I quoted the authori- 

 ties which 1 did, as well as the antiquity of this 

 kind of construction, because I was well aware 

 that my name could not avail much in persuading 

 gentlemen to try this mode of building; and that 

 it might, without these quotations, have been at- 

 tributed solely to visionary and theoretical notions 

 of mine. But let us not pluck the mote out of our 

 neighbor's eye before we have taken the beam out 

 of our own. And here Mr. Cocke uses the 

 weight of his own most undoubted highly respect- 

 able name, to which he superadds four planta- 

 tions, with a number of mud houses and walls, to 

 which he, without mercy, adds Gen. Cocke, and 

 the mud walls erected by him. This seems cer- 

 tainly enough to crush me to atoms ; and notwith- 

 standing ali this superincumbent weight, I can stir 

 a little yet. 



So far from f>eing revengeful, I will return good 

 for evil, and heroically help my opponent with 

 another arm against me. I have read many years 

 since, but in what book, or of which of the many 

 travellers in the east, I cannot now remember — but 

 I certainly have read, that one of these travellers, 

 on visiting the ruins of the Tower of Babel, found 

 that it had been constructed chiefly of mud mixed 

 with straw ; and another states, that the straw was 

 placed between the difierent strata of mud, mucli 

 in the same way as Mr. Cocke describes the con- 

 structing o( his walls. I do not vouch lor the 

 truth of these travellers' accounts, but only that 1 



