FARMERS' REGISTER— CASTOR BEAN OIL CAKE. 



267 



Our transmountain brethren require improved 

 facilities, for the products of their soil and labor to 

 reach a market ; and a liberal and judicious policy 

 has been adopted by the stale government, to aid 

 in effecting for them so desirable an object. The 

 joint-stock system, so called, in which the state sub- 

 scribes 2-oths against 3-5ths subscribed by indivi- 

 duals, is the plan for executing public improve- 

 ments by canals, turnpikes, &c. ; and considering 

 the circumstances of the ticle-water portion of the 

 state, in reference to its large slave population, 

 and consequent heavy contribution in taxes, while 

 scarcely any of the expenditures of the joint-stock 

 system, or any other for internal improvement, is 

 requisite, or if so, is considered to be so, a signal 

 advantage is secured by this system to the upper 

 country. But, not contented with this, and omit- 

 ting to help themselves, they, with other internal 

 improvement enthusiasts, are for plunging the state 

 in debt to the amount of millions, and under our 

 revenue system, thereby to pledge our peculiar 

 projjerty to raise the interest by taxes to meet the 

 deficiency of tolls upon the works, which they so 

 much distrust their capacity to meet the interest 

 on tiie cost by tolls, that although their country is 

 to reap the direct benefit, yet they refuse to take up 

 the 3-5ths of the necessary stock by which 2-oths 

 are to lie obtained from the state, under the joint- 

 stock system. Now, it must be obvious to the 

 plainest capacity, that such works of internal im- 

 provement as cannot command 3-5ths of private 

 capital for their execution, when by such subscrip- 

 tion 2-5ths of aid is to be obtained from the state, 

 with the character thereby superinduced in favor 

 of the enterprise, must be regarded by the pro- 

 jectors, mainly for the local advantages sought to be 

 obtained, at the expense of others; and not of a cha- 

 racter to be valuable as stock investment Other- 

 wise, they would take the stock, if they had to bor- 

 row the means, and the works would be made un- 

 der the general internal improvement system of the 

 state, it is idle for any section of the state, solici- 

 tous for a canal or rail road, to complain that it is 

 too destitute of capital to raise tb.e 3-5ths by sub- 

 scription, or to insure loans to meet it. If they 

 believe that the work is not to be an abiding tax 

 on the state, instead of yielding by tolls a profit on 

 its stock, they should not hesitate to pledge their 

 property for a tax, to meet any temporary and par- 

 tial deficiency of tolls to meet the interest on the 

 loans to be obtained for constructing the v.ork. — 

 Those who would have their lands benefitted by 

 the work, ought to pay for it; and it is a flagrant 

 violation of the principles of the social compact, to 

 fix a burden upon one section of the state, to ope- 

 rate a peculiar benefit to another section. The 

 principle is universal in all good governments, that 

 the benefits and burdens should be correspondent. 

 It is a universal principle of justice, too often lost 

 sight of by legislators. It ought to be inscribed in 

 letters of gold in every legislative hall. It might 

 operate to restrain enthusiasts from pushing their 

 projects, under all circumstances, in imitation of 

 New York, who, by her splendid success in the Erie 

 canal, has run a great portion of our people mad 

 upon the subject of internal improvement. It has 

 been overlooked, or not observed in relation to this 

 grand work, that it was to a superficial observer, 

 a route, of all others in the woi-ld perhaps, that 

 presented the surest promise of a trade upon it, 

 capable of affording tolls adequate to a handsome 



dividend upon the cost of construction. Half, and 

 the richest half, of the state, inlocked, and that ra- 

 pidly settling by a hardy, industrious and wealthy 

 population, and the junction with the lakes, making 

 the canal unite the most extensive inland ship navi- 

 gation in the world with the ocean's tide. Indeed, 

 no great credit is due for foresight to De Witt Clin- 

 ton, tor securing this work to the state, as a certain 

 source of wealth; and had it pleased God to have 

 presented Virginia with a similar boon, she would 

 have had Clintons enough to have saved it, to en- 

 rich the Old Dominion, long before it was done in 

 New-York, supine as she is charged to be. But, 

 it is out of the question to think of Virginia incur- 

 ring a debt of eight or ten millions to construct a 

 rail road or canal, through the state to the Ohio 

 river, in imitation of New-York, when the pros- 

 pect of a return by tolls to meet the interest is so 

 much doubted, that the intelligent inhabitants of 

 the country through which it must pass, and whose 

 lands must be doubled in value by its construction, 

 show such evident distrust of the value of the stock, 

 that they will not take up the requisite 3-5ths to put 

 the enterprise in motion. I have such confidence 

 myself in the enterprise, that were I a landholder on 

 the route, or adjacent to it, I would not hesitate to 

 adopt the plan of pledging the real estate in the 

 counties to be benefitted by the work, for such a 

 tax, as should be requisite to meet the temporary 

 deficiency of tolls for paying the interest on such 

 loan as should be necessary to be obtained for com- 

 pleting the work. This course would be satisfac- 

 tory to all portions of the state, and would be equal 

 and just. I may say, if this course were to be 

 atlopted all over the state, we should see our be- 

 loved Virginia advancing in a judicious course 

 of improvement, and the tidewater portion of the 

 state no longer under the ban of oppression, pro- 

 duced by a glaring inequality of the benefits, com- 

 pared with the burdens, of the state government. 

 Emigration would slacken; and this abused region, 

 instead of returning to a howling wilderness, would 

 yet, by having its energies aroused, and its resour- 

 ces thereby developed, smile like a garden, and 

 teem with a happy population. 



JOHN BICKINSOIV. 



CASTOR BEAN OIL-CAKE AS MANURE. 



To (he Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Williamsburg, Aug. 23, 1833. 



I have delayed answering your inquiries rela- 

 tive to the effect, and mode of apj)lication of the 

 oil-cake or residuum of the castor bean, after the 

 oil is expressed, that I might ascertain and report 

 to you the product of my crop of the present year, 

 although this is not yet known, in consequence of 

 ray not having been able to procure a vessel to take 

 it to market. I have determined, as your patience 

 must by this time be nearly threadbdre, to make 

 the promised communication at once, particularly 

 as I can form a tolerably correct, though not an 

 accurate estimate of the quantity made. 



I have been using this manure as a top dressing 

 for wheat and oats for the last three years. In the 

 fall of 1830 I made the first regular application of 

 it on seven and a half acres of wheat, on which 

 were sown ten bushels of seed. From fifty to sixty 

 bushels were put on each acre. The yield, in this 

 experiment, Avas twenty six bushels per acre. 



