244 



FARMERS' REGISTER— MANURE— GOLD— HORSE RAKES. 



plant ; it will not thrive intermixed with any thing 

 else ; it must occupy the ground alone. But whe- 

 ther ripe clover ploughed in would seed the ground 

 so as to give a succeeding crop of it, 1 will not un- 

 dertake to give an opinion. — [^Columbia Sentinel. 



A. 



Manure is Wealth. 



From the New York Farmer. 

 In our intercourse with some of the farmers re- 

 siding within forty or fifty miles from New York, 

 on Long Island, we have been surprised at the in- 

 stances related to us of the profitableness of farm- 

 ing. Some farmers, known to have labored and 

 toiled hard, have continued yearly to fall in arrears 

 until they have commenced buying manure. Fif- 

 ty-six cents are given per carman load at tlie land- 

 ing, for the apparently worthless dirt swept from 

 the street. This applied at the rate of twenty loads 

 produces Avealth. The very farmers who could 

 not obtain a living by using only manure made on 

 their farms, have, in a very few years, not only 

 freed their farms from incumbrances, but purclias- 

 ed others in addition, and are now, from the year- 

 ly profits of their farms, putting money out at in- 

 terest. If then it is found so profitable to buy ma- 

 nure, and be at the various expenses attending the 

 carting, how very important is it to give special 

 attention to increasing the quantity and improving 

 the quality of that made on the farm. There is no 

 question but that almost every farmer can double 

 the quantity of his domestic or yard manure, with- 

 out scarcely any additional expense. It is thought, 

 too, that at least fifty per cent, of the nutritive pro- 

 perties of yard manure are lost by drenching of 

 rain, excessive fermentations, and injudicious ap- 

 plication to soil. The more we consider this sub- 

 ject the greater does it become in importance, and 

 justly regarded as the primary object in farming. 



Gold Mines in Virginia. 



From the Richmond Whig. 



We hear almost every week, of new discoveries 

 of gold in the gold region of Virginia — (which 

 as far as ascertained, commencing in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Rappahannock in the county of Spott- 

 sylvania, trends with the mountains from N. E. to 

 S. W., touching the counties of Spoltsylvania, 

 Louisa, Fluvanna and Goochland, on the north side 

 of James River, crosses James River near the point 

 of Fork and enters Buckingham, and passes on 

 through North Carolina to the Cherokee lands in 

 Georgia) and the letter below adds to the number. 

 Many of the veins are extremely rich, and the gold 

 of exceeding purity. The ore is found on or near 

 the surface and the preparations for collecting it 

 are so little expensive, as to have induced numbers 

 of individuals to engage in the search. Some pro- 

 bably do a bad business, but many have made and 

 are making, considerable sums. One gentleman 

 of Goochland, we learn, made ^110 in one day, 

 from 20 hands, the mines he worked being situa- 

 ted in Louisa, and his average profits were thus far 

 not much behind that average. One of the Edi- 

 tors of this paper last year narrowly missed mak- 

 ing his fortune by a speculation in gold land. A 

 tract of land in Goochland, the gold on which Avas 

 reported to have been exhausted, was sold for 

 SlllO, being about the actual value of the soil. 

 The person referred to, had been informed of the 



fact that there was an immense mine on the land, 

 with the existence of which, the owner was unac- 

 quainted ; but from distrust of his informant, and 

 the fear of being laughed at, he let the opjwrtuni- 

 ty escape, and the land fell into other hands. Af- 

 ter passing through several hands, it finally fell 

 into those of a New York Company , from whom we 

 understand it cannot be purchased for several hun- 

 dreds of thousands ! 



We would be obliged to any scientific friend, 

 who would take the trouble to furnish us a geolo- 

 gical description of that portion of Virginia gene- 

 rally known as the gold region. 



GOLD IN BUCKINGHAM. 



Buckingham county, July 30th, 1833. 



To the Editors of the Whig. 



Sirs, — Mr. Thomas Morton & Co., digging on 

 the west fork of Hunt's Creek, about two miles 

 north west of Buckingham Church, are getting 

 frequently four or five dollars per day, to the hand. 

 One day they obtained eighty penny weights, va- 

 lued at 95 cents per dwt., or about 7 or 8 dollars to 

 each hand employ etl in surface gold. A large quan- 

 tity of ore has also been dug up out of a pit adja- 

 cent to the branch that the surface gold has been 

 obtained from. One man (engaged in mining,) 

 supposes this ore worth 8 or 10 thousand dollars, 

 or 7 or 8 dollars to the bushel. A mill will be 

 erected to convert it to dust, for the purpose of be- 

 ing washed. John Mosely & Co., have very late- 

 ly commenced washing for surface gold, about 300 

 yards south of Morton & Co., on tlie land of Ste- 

 phen Guerrant. A few days ago, they with 8 hands, 

 obtained 16 penny weights, or $1,75 cts. to each 

 hand in one day. The number of hands was so 

 small that the washer was not constantly employ- 

 ed during the day. Yours, respectfully, 



DANIEL Gl ERRANT, JR. 



Hoi'sse Rake. 



From the CoUinihia Ssi tinel. 

 In my last communication I spoke incidentally 

 of the usefulness of the horse rake, as an instru- 

 ment well adapted to the purpose of gleaning wheat 

 fields. What I have farther to say of this instru- 

 ment, is to enlarge upon the use for which it was 

 specially constructed — that is, for the raking of 

 hay ; it being a substitute for the hand rake. Al- 

 though the horse rake has been in partial use here 

 for four or five years, and is extremely well adapt- 

 ed to the purpose for which it was intended, I have 

 often been surprised that it is still so little used by 

 farmers. I can only impute this to the want of 

 knowledge of the excellent manner in which it per- 

 forms its functions, and to the former slow process 

 that information upon every important branch of 

 agriculture becomes disseminated. There is no 

 way of doing this so speedily as through the news- 

 papers, and many a useful instrument is neglected 

 because farmers do not publicly communicate what 

 might be extremely useful to their own profession. 

 I venture to say to those who do not know the uses 

 of the horse rake, that, if through this paper they 

 only obtain the information that there is such an 

 instrument, and are thus induced to purchase it— 

 if that is the only benefit they obtain for one year's 

 subscription to it, they are amply repaid for the out- 

 lay both for the rake and the paper. I speak of 

 the patent revolving hay rake. The mode of using 

 it, is to attach a horse to it, and the rake foJlowing, 



