352 



Farmers' Club of Newcastle Co., Delaware. 



Vol. IX. 



Farmers' Club of Newcastle C0.5 Del. 



This valuable association is still kept up, 

 we learn with much spirit by its members; 

 and this is now the third year of its exist- 

 ence. It is composed of twelve members, 

 who meet alternately at the houses of each 

 other, every month in the year, when they 

 review the farm, stock and implements of 

 each other, dine together, and after dinner 

 generally some interesting agricultural essay 

 is read. Conversations and discussions con- 

 nected with their avocations always ensue. 

 The latest improvements in implements, tools 

 and machinery are examined and tested; new 

 and rare seeds distributed ; and agricultural 

 books, journals, &c., exchanged or distri 

 buted. Thus is the run and account cur 

 rent of modern agriculture kept by them, 

 and the first Tuesday of each month agree 

 ably and profitably spent, by a portion of our 

 farmers of this vicinity. Why has not their 

 laudable example been followed by each 

 neighbourhood or hundred of the county 1 

 The entertainments of the first Tuesday of 

 the month are not confined to the members, 

 for frequently distinguished strangers, and 

 farmers from the county and State are to be 

 seen at their board, and few meetings pass 

 without some inventor or improver of agricul- 

 tural machinery being present, and oftentimes 

 with his invention for examination and trial. 

 Being a guest at Woodside, the residence of 

 Mr. Samuel Canby, on Tuesday last, we were 

 forcibly struck with the practical utility and 

 social character of this Club. In the morn- 

 ing the improved and improving fields of the 

 proprietor were passed over, — his fine stock, 

 barn, and tasteful grounds examined. After 

 dinner the merits of "Guano" and other ma- 

 nures were discussed. The importance of 

 agricultural chemistry concurred in, and the 

 knowledge displayed evinced that Liebig 

 and Johnston had not written in vain. A 

 general interchange of opinions of the dif- 

 ferent growing crops ensued, from which we 

 learned that the wheat was universally fine 

 and promising from Ihis vicinity as far South 

 as the James' river bottoms. In this county 

 it was considered that the peaches might 

 reach a half crop, and that there was a fine 

 prospect for apples and other minor fruits. 

 The company then adjourned to witness the 

 operation of a drilling machine, made by 

 Mr. John Groundsell, of Chester, Pa, made 

 after a pattern of one imported sometime 

 since b}' Mr. Francis Sawden, a member of 

 the Club. This drill is intended for seeding 

 with great accuracy wheat and oats, and can 

 also be arranged for dropping and covering 

 corn. It is worked by one horse, weighs 

 from 1200 to 1500 pounds, and costs, all 



complete, about $100. So important is drill 

 husbandry being viewed by this Club, that 

 several use it altogether, and others ordered 

 this machine. Its advantages were stated 

 to be, economy in the use of seed, great cer- 

 tainty in seeding the ground regularly; de- 

 spatch in pitching the crops — one hand put- 

 ting in about twenty acres a day. It has 

 connected with it in front a manure or 

 management box," for applying guano, 

 ashes, plaster, poudrette, or woodearth, along 

 with the seed. Such have been the im- 

 provements in the drill in England and the 

 United States, that comparatively hilly and 

 uneven ground can be seeded with it. The 

 practical working of this machine elicited 

 the praise of all present, and we would 

 earnestly call the attention of all our farm- 

 ers to it: — of what immense importance and 

 value such a machine would be upon the 

 large wheat and corn farms of the South, 

 where hundreds of acres are hand-sown. 

 Let them look to it. Already in Delaware, 

 Maryland and Virginia, are the reaping ma- 

 chines of Hussey, and McCormick, well 

 known and duly appreciated ; — and by the 

 by, at the dinner a drawing of Hussey's im- 

 proved horse power reaping machine was 

 exhibited by Major John Jones, of St. Georges 

 hundred, much improved from his old pat- 

 tern; and the Club invited to witness its 

 operation in June among the fine wheat 

 fields of that rich and improving hundred. 

 The invention of another horse power reap- 

 ing machine was described by one of the 

 company as forthcoming from a Mr. Galla- 

 her, of Jefferson co., Va,, said to be very 

 simple and efficient, and highly spoken of 

 by those who have examined it. Thus with 

 the use of the drill and the reaping machine, 

 — the recent application of guano, a natural 

 and concentrated manure ; also the artificial 

 manures, such as poudrette, alkaline salts, 

 &c., with the general taste and diffusion of 

 chemical knowledge applied to agriculture, 

 what may we not expect in the course of a 

 few years in the way of crops, from our 

 mother earth, and of profits to our worthy 

 farmers. Let, therefore, these Clubs be 

 multiplied throughout the land — the new 

 impetus given by science and these imple- 

 ments to agriculture, increase its votaries 

 everywhere, and peace and plenty must 

 await all classes in a country so largely 

 agricultural as ours. — Delaware Journal. 



A PLATE or two of honey and water 

 placed near to the bee-hive in the evening, 

 during the active season of the bee-moth, it 

 is said will serve as a trap to this annoying 

 insect, and many may be thus destroyed. 



