624 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 10 



hearsay. I therefore feel myself at Iar<2;e, to ques- 

 tion it, without infriiiixing the rules of civility. 



1 live on lands flowing with cider of the best 

 sort ; I have drank it freely from my boyhood ; I 

 greatly prefer it to ardent spiriis, and all kinds of 

 wine, except champagne, to which it nearly ap- 

 proaches, when well made of good Jruit, ami care- 

 lully bottled. I have always thouiiht it salutary 

 to myself; and when my servants have it in plen- 

 ty, in the fall, [ have supposed that it kept them 

 in good health, spirits, and temper. The late 

 Doctor Rush, a man of profound science, and 

 deep observation, recommended cider as a healthy 

 beverage for laboring people. Governor Barbour 

 highly approves it — and the late Doctor Dwight, 

 a laborious student, and devoted christian, sj^eaks 

 of it as the best remedy for a nervous headache — 

 and recommends it to men of sedentary habits. 

 Against these high authorities, your correspondent 

 has been led to believe that a liogshead of good 

 cider was pregnant with almost as many evils, 

 as the labled box of Pandora. 



I agree that aslill is a bad appendage to an 

 orchard, and that distilling cider is an error, both 

 in profit and morals : but candor obliges me to 

 say, that a small dash of good old peach, or ap- 

 ple brandy, greatly improves punch, and apple 

 toddy. 



There are orchanis on my farms, to the planting 

 of which, the memorj' of man doth not run. The 

 impression here, has been, that cider lessens the 

 inclination for whiskey and rum — and thus tends 

 to preserve the morals of the blacks ; and it is very 

 rare to see intoxication among them by cider. 

 Some years ago, finding my apple trees were de- 

 clining, I planted new orchards : they are now in 

 flill bearing, the fi'uit is fine, and the cider is ex- 

 cellent. In doing this, (in addition to my own 

 personal gratification,) I felt a moral obligation to 

 make wholesome provision for posterity. If I 

 could be convinced that, in rearing orchards, I 

 had laid a foundation for " rheumalism," " in- 

 flamed eyelids," " headache," " bleeding at the 

 nose," " sores and ulcers," "affections of the sto- 

 mach and bowels, and premature trembling of 

 head and hands," I would do by my orchards, 

 what I understand you are doing in Virginia, (un- 

 der the salutary influence of the temperance so- 

 cieties,) by your mint beds — root them all up. 



I am pleased to learn that sweet apples, areex^ 

 cellent food lor horses, cattle, and sheep, and that 

 they keep the horses of practicing physicians, in 

 Connecticut and JVIassachusetts, sleek and fat. I 



wish B y J n, and Dr. M e, would try 



them on their racers. To their opinions, entire 

 confidence would be attached — and it would make 

 an important change in agricultural economics. 

 I once knew of a herd of fifteen milch cows, break- 

 ing into an orchard of" sweet apples, at night, and 

 thirteen of them were down next morning with 

 the colic, and were saved only by heavy drench- 

 ing with ley. Your correspondent has also learn- 

 ed, at the north, that hogs, if they can get sweet 

 apples, care nothing for Indian corn, and will fat- 

 ten without it. My hogs had the nm of my 

 orchard, last fall, of sweet apples, which they 

 abandoned for acorns, as soon as they began to 

 full; and they recjuired four weeks feeding with 

 Indian corn to make them prime pork. Northern 

 hogs, like northern men, may have their pecu- 

 Uar tastes. Yankees delight in pumpkin pics, 



and molasses. Southrons prefer pork, and hom- 

 ony. 



I have rarelj-seen a cider drunkard to the south, 

 and have always supposed that intoxication had 

 ihe same effect upon the moral and physical con- 

 stitulion, by whatever means it was I'roduced. 

 Climate may cause the difference. Brandy, gin, 

 and rum, if we can believe travellers, have but little 

 effect on northern men, and northern women. A 

 Rus^sian countess, after drinking six glasses of 

 brandy, will dance a waltz with a firm loot and a 

 steady head. A Maryland, or Virginia lady 

 would find her balance doubiful after one. I have 

 somewhere read of a young physician, who had 

 studied in Germany, and who, upon his return to 

 -Kngland, cured a Frenchman of a lever, by a 

 salt herrinir, at Calais, and next day killed an 

 Englishman at Dover, by the same prescription. 



Yankees are a queer guessing hoaxing people. 

 In the absence of other game, they will prey up- 

 on each other •, but when they start a southron, 

 they all open upon him, like a pack of ibx dogs 

 on a stray cur. 



From the Farmer and Gaidene'. 

 LI3IE SPREADER. 



[The difficulty of making an uniform distribu- 

 tion of any civen quantity of lime on an acre of 

 ground, and the injury experienced by laborers 

 engaged in the operation, have long been felt by 

 the agricultural community, and we are, therefore, 

 happy in believing that both these inconveniences 

 have been obviated by the invention of our inge- 

 nious townsman, Francis H. Smith, Esq., who 

 we believe has succeeded in so constructing a 

 cart that any given number of bushels of either 

 stone or shell lime may be equally spread over the 

 entire surfirice of a field of any dimensions. His 

 cart has been submitted to the test of practical ex- 

 periments upon the farms of several of the gentle- 

 men in this vicinity, and as we learn, gave the 

 most decided satisfaction in every instance. The 

 last experiment is thus flatteringly spoken of by 

 several of our most extensive and intelligent land- 

 holders, and from our personal knowledge of the 

 accomplished inventor's acquaintance with me- 

 chanics as a science, we have no doubt it will re- 

 ceive the approbation of the entire fiirming and 

 planting interests.] — Ed. Far. and Gakd. 



Having this day witnessed at the Orange farm, 

 the operation ofF. H. Smith's machine for spread- 

 ing lime, we cheerfully unite in giving our opin- 

 ion of the result. The shells were thrown into 

 the cart direct from the kiln. These were sufli- 

 ciently ground up and distributed with uniformity 

 over the land as the cart was moved along. We 

 are of opinion that no manual operation could do 

 the work so well. The quantity per acre, judging 

 merely from observation, in the three se\eral de- 

 crees exhiltited to us, was about 50, 109 and 200 

 bushels. It is evident however, that the quantity 

 may be regulated at pleasure. This experiment 

 was made with shell lime. One of the under- 

 signed has, with the machine, covered seven acres 

 with s/o?re lime^ with irreat expedition and to h\s 

 entire satisfiiction. We are of' opinion that it is 

 equally adapted lor spreading ashes, marl, or any 



