306 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 6 



own observation goes, the red-top, though a most 

 excellent hay for every kind of stock, never yields 

 a great weight of hay to the acre. The average 

 crop of potatoes is about two hundred bushels to 

 the acre. Rhode Island heretofore has been re- 

 markable for the quality of its potatoes. A kind 

 called the Elam potatoe, a long, white, kidney po- 

 tatoe, taking its name from a gentleman who first 

 cultivated irhere, was a longtime celebrated; but 

 has given place to the pink-eye and the Chenan- 

 go. A very great crop here, and one more culti- 

 vated at Bristol, is the onion. The cultivation is 

 said somewhat to have declined on this island; the 

 crops for some cause not having yielded so well as 

 formerly; but at Bristol, about fifteen miles above 

 Newport, it is pursued very extensively and suc- 

 cessfully. The produce of the onion crop last year 

 in Bristol, I have been credibly inlbrmed, exceeded 

 tliirfy thousand dollars. The red onion is that 

 Avhich is principally cultivated, being Ihc greatest 

 favorite in the West India market. The cultiva- 

 tion of the crop is simple and well understood. 

 A good crop will give from four to five hundred 

 bushels. The cost of cultivation very much ex- 

 ceeds that of corn ; some give it as their opinion 

 three times as much labor is demanded on an acre 

 of onions as on an acre of corn. They are sub- 

 ject to few casualties, provided the seed is good ; 

 and the seed is never safe, if more than one year 

 old. It is a singular feature in the habits of this 

 plant that it bears planting j'ear after year, with- 

 out any diminution of the crop, on the same 

 ground. I saw one field of two or three acres on 

 which onions had been grown every year for more 

 than forty years, and with equal success. The 

 land pays for manuring well; though they are not 

 particular as to the kind of manure applied, pre- 

 fering however a rich compost to green manure. 

 The large sized onions are put in barrels; the smal- 

 ler sized are strung in bunches; the weight of the 

 bunches being about three and a hall pounds. 

 The land is marked out in rows about one foot 

 wide with a machine resembling a boy's sled with 

 four runners, making three rows at a time, one run- 

 ner being kept in the fourth track of the last mark- 

 ing. The seed is then dropped and covered very 

 slightly by hand, in hills about six inches distant 

 in the row; and four plants are generally left stand- 

 ing in each hill. The great business afterwards is 

 to hoc them, and keep them fi'ee froom weeds. 

 Two kinds are cultivated ; an early and late kind. 

 The ibrmcr are usually ripe in August, and sent 

 to market as soon as may be after ripening. The 

 crop is, upon the whole, of easy and profitable cul- 

 tivation. I was at the house of one farmer on the 

 island who keeps about one hundred sheep, and 

 who the last winter applied his onions, which were 

 too small for the market, to the feeding of sheep ; 

 and he adds, with advantage to the sheep; a use 

 of onions, 1 venture to say, altogether novel. 

 The advantages of obtaining sea manure both at 

 Newport and Bristol are very great ; but particu- 

 larly at the former place. Vast quantities are con- 

 stantly driven upon the shore by winds and fides ; 

 and much is gathered in boats fi-om the rocks. It 

 is used in compost and as top-dressing. The eel 

 grass is seldom used, but in compost; and princi- 

 pally as litter for swine ; the rock weed has great 

 effect, when applied as top dressing on grass 

 ground. Common beach sand is likewise used as 

 top dressing, and in compost, with advantage. I 



I have myself tried it in moist cold soil, in the hill 

 of potatoes, with success. But one of their princi- 

 pal manures is the "Manhayden" fish ; a small 

 fish, in appearance, resembling the herring or ale- 

 wife. These are taken in great qu aunties, in 

 large seines ; and are sold at the rate of Iburteen 

 cents per barrel for manure. They are most fre- 

 quently spread broad-cast among the growing 

 corn, and left undisturbed upon the surface; or 

 they are carried into the barn yard and mixed in 

 compost. Their effects in either case arc said to 

 be very powerful. The odor of them, while rot- 

 ting in the field, is most certainly powerllil. 



It is obvious that I could give but a cursory view 

 of the agriculture of these places. But I can say 

 with propriety that their agriculture, though ad- 

 milting many obvious improv^ements, is highly re- 

 spectable ; and the island, li'om its remarkable sa- 

 lubrity, the fertility of the soil, and the beauty and 

 many advantages of its situation, seems destined 

 to become a favorite place of residence for indus- 

 trious and enterprising cultivators and improvers 

 of the soil, and of luxurious resort to the fashiona- 

 ble and wealthy. The island contains an inex- 

 haustible sup[)ly of excellent building stone; of 

 which two large cotton factories, propelled by 

 steam, have already been erected, and others are 

 in embryo. The population of Newport, at pre- 

 sent, is about eight thousand; there is every en- 

 couraging prospect of its large increase. The pro- 

 jected and indeed half finished rail road between 

 Providence and Stonington, in Connecticut, seems 

 likely to divert the travel between Boston and 

 New York in that direction. 



H. C. 



July, 1836. 



REPORT ON THE NAVIGATION OF THE UPPER 

 ROANOKE, RY MEANS OF STEA3IBOATS OF 

 SHALI>OW DRAUGHT. 



Coiiimuuicateil for paI)lication in tlie Faimeis' Register. 



Lawrencevilk, June 20th, 1636. 



To Col. Andrew Joyner, Superintendent of the Roan- 

 oke Navigation Company. 



Sir — Agreeably to the order of the Board of 

 Directors, made at their meeting in April last, i 

 set out, on the r2lh day of last month, to perform 

 the duties assigned me. The people of Clarkes- 

 ville, most promptly and liberally responded to this 

 effort of ours, by appointing Tucker Carrington, 

 Es(]., to accompany me, from whom I received 

 much assistance. 



From the Hon. Walter Coles, and the Hon. B. 

 W. Leigh, we obtained every assistance they 

 could give us in our investigations, by procuring 

 and giving us letters to all persons in our route 

 most capable of aiding us in obtaining the infor- 

 mation we were seeking. These letters enabled 

 us to make the acquaintance of many persons in 

 the city of New York, and the Stales of Connec- 

 ticut and IMassachusetts, best acquainted with the 

 subject of steam navigation in shoal water. In T. 

 B. Wakeman, Esq., of the American Institute of 

 N. York, AUi-ed Smith, Esq., of llartlbrd, Con., 

 and Charles Stearns, Esq., ol' Springfield, Mass., 

 I iound (rcntlemen well ac(]uainted with the sub- 

 ject, and who were not only willing, but did put 

 ihenisclvcs to much trouble and inconvenience to 



