492 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 8 



may be easily reslored by judiciouf? mannge- 

 nipnt. 



Few soils are so ungrafeful as not to pay the 

 expense oC improvement, provided the money laid 

 out upon them be apphed with judgment. Many 

 tracls of the poorest sand have been rendered fer- 

 tile b}- judicious dressinfrs of clay, loam, or marl, 

 and other thin and huntjr}' soils have been im- 

 proved by the application of similar substances; 

 while ihose of the sourest description have had 

 their acidity corrected by lime, chalk, and ashes. 

 It should, however, be borne in mind, that land, 

 of" any descriplion, which is retentive of water, 

 can never be rendered fit for the plou.fijli until it 

 has been completely drained; for otherwise, the 

 operations of tillage cannot be accomplished in 

 due season. lis state will have a direct and pre- 

 judicial effect upon its productive powers; and 

 manures can never communicate their full benefit 

 to any soil which rests upon a wet bottom. 



From a London Paper. 

 GRINDING OLD GARMENTS INTO NEW. 



Sir George Head, in his tour ikrovgh the Man- 

 ufacturing Districts, i:\vcs {he following account 

 of a new trade carried on at Dewsbcrry ; literall}^ 

 tearing in pieces fusty old rags, collected from 

 Scotland, Ireland and the Continent, by a ma- 

 chine called the "devil," till a substance very like 

 the original wool is produced. This, by the 

 help of a small addition of new woo!, is respun 

 and manufactured into sundry useful articles, such 

 as the w.tdding which Messrs. Stulz & Co. intro- 

 duce wiil'.in the collars of their fashionable coats, 

 and various descriptions of drugget, horse-sheet- 

 ing, &e. The trade or occupation of the owner, 

 his life and habits, or the fillhiness and antiquity 

 of the garment itself, oppose no bar to this won- 

 derful process of regeneration, whether from the 

 pcarecrow or the gibbet, it makes nodilT'eience ; so 

 that according to the transmutation of human af- 

 fairs, no doubt it frequentl}' does happen, without 

 figure of speech or metaphor, that the identical 

 garment to-day exposed to the sun and rain in a 

 Kentish cherry orchard, or saturated with tobacco 

 smoke on the "back of a beggar in a pot house," 

 is doomed in its turn, "perfusus liquidis odoribus," 

 to grace the swelling collar, or add dignified pro- 

 portion io the chest of the dandy. 



From tlie Genpsce Fanner. 

 AGRICULTURAL READING. 



The advice of the justly celebrated Bakewell, a 

 man who did more perhaps to advance the inter- 

 ests of the agriculturist, and render him prosper- 

 ouB, than any man of the age, to those young 

 friends who as farmers called upon him, was, to 

 " spare no pains to know what others were doin"*." 

 This could only be done through the medium of 

 agricultural journals, and hence he was, as may 

 well be supposed, one of their ablest advocates, as 

 well as a constant conlributdr to their paijes. Ex- 

 perince has shown, that to be a successful farmer 

 at the present day—to enter the vast field of ag- 

 ricultural conipefition on equal terms— a man 

 must know what others are doing; he must be ac- 

 nuaintcd with the improvements in husbandry, in 



labor saving machines, in the preparation and ap- 

 plication of manures, and with the new and im- 

 proved breeds of cattle and sheep that liave with- 

 in a fevv years been introduced. 



To possess this knowledge is one thing — to 

 make a judicious use of it is quite another. The 

 first he must acquire fi-om extensive personal ob- 

 servation, or from agricultural works; the last 

 must he the result of reflection, combined with ex- 

 perience. Without thefirst, he will be behind the 

 age; without the last, he will be a farmer at ran- 

 dom, a mere visionary in theory, incompetent to 

 his business, and a loser in practice. Judgment, 

 sound judgment, is required to render available 

 knowledge, and where these two are combined, 

 the result will be a successful farmer. 



Many of these farmers at the present time, we 

 mean those Vvdio make the best use of their caphal 

 and realize the greatest profits, are men who en- 

 ter into competition with long established agricul- 

 turists, utterly ignorant, so far as personal superin- 

 tendence or labor was concerned, with the busi- 

 ness of farming. They were professional men, 

 divines, lawyers, merchants, or mechanics; unac- 

 quainted u'ith the mechanical part of their new oc- 

 cupation, but l)ringing to the work minds well 

 stored with varied and useful knowledge, and a 

 thorough acquaintance with the advanced state 

 and best methods of modern agriculture. The 

 voluntary choice of such men proves that they 

 have a taste for one of the noblest occupations of 

 mankind, and entering upon it with zeal, they 

 meet with a success to which many of those who 

 have been brought up to farming from their infan- 

 cy remain strangers. 



It is sometimes said by those who decry agricul- 

 tural reading, or book fiirming, as they are pleased 

 to term if, that jou cannot ni«A'e a farmer, he muse 

 be brought up to it, or he cannot succeed. The 

 celebrated Marshall of Entjland thought different- 

 ly ; he maintained ihat "attendance and attention 

 will make any man a farmer." He was brought 

 up a merchant, but at mature age, took a poor 

 farm of three hundred acres in the vicinity of Lon- 

 don, and commenced farmer. All his fi'iends pro- 

 phecied a total failure, but he prepared himself by 

 studying the best agricultural works of the day, 

 and by reflection — superintended his business him- 

 self—kept an accurate journal of his operations, 

 which he afterwards published — and became very 

 rich, the Coke or Bakewell of the farmers of his 

 day. The same thing has happened, and is al- 

 most daily happening in this state. Professional 

 men and mechanics have become our most able 

 and successful farmers — showing the best regula- 

 ted and well managed f]\rms — exhibiting the finest 

 cattle, sheep and hogs — giving a flat contradiction 

 to the doctrine, that books will not make good 

 farmers; and what, in the estimation of many, 

 will be more than all the rest, as furnishing the 

 test and proof of the whole, putting more money 

 in their pockets than any of those who have been 

 regularly bred to the business. 



'J'he time has come when the farmer in self-de- 

 fence must read ; not to become a mere theo- 

 rist or visionary in agriculture; not to keep con- 

 stantly changing his S3'stems, but steadily impro- 

 ving them ; but because to ensure success, and 

 keep pace with others, he must know what others 

 are doing. 



G. 



