316 



FARMERS* REGISTER— COTTON FACTORIES IN PETERSBURG. 



til last year we believe it had scarcely been thought 

 of for any thinfi; else, except in a remote part of 

 " the far west!" and we are indebted to General 

 Wm. H. Harrison, of Ohio, for bringing it into 

 notice." That General Harrison may have been 

 the first to announce the fact in print, I will not 

 deny, for I cannot disprove it ; but you are mista- 

 ken in supposing that it was not long ago known 

 in the east, as well as the " far west." It is at 

 least ten years ago, I think, since Captain T. T. 

 Tabb, of Gloucester county, in Virginia, told me 

 that his father Col. PliilipTabb, who by the way, 

 was one of the best farmers in Virginia, had long 

 used the catalpa for gate-posts, and that he consid- 

 ered it certainly as lasting lor that purpose as any 

 timber he had ever tried. Tliat many others must 

 have known tlie same fact, 1 cannot doubt; for 

 Colonel Tal^b was not a man to withhold from liis 

 agricultural brethren any useful discovery, suppo- 

 sing this proof of the lasting nature of the catalpa 

 wood to be one made by himself. He travelled 

 frequently over the best cultivated parts of his own 

 state; was a very observant man, especially in re- 

 gard to every thin^ connected with the husbandry 

 of the country ; and most probably had heard the 

 fact from others older than himself General Har- 

 rison himself was a Virginian, and I know did not 

 take up his residence in the " far west," until some 

 time after he became a man. So much for the du- 

 rability of the catalpa wood being a recent discov- 

 ery. 



The second article to which I wish to call the 

 attention of your readers, purports to be a dis- 

 covery of certain doctors, that "new wheat is 

 unhealthy ;" and that the eating of bread made out 

 of it has produced the cholera and all other malig- 

 nant epidemics. Now, if this were true, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, we should have had the cholera and other ma- 

 lignant epidemics, with dyspepsia in their van, af- 

 ter every harvest, from the time that wheat was 

 first introduced into this country, up to the present 

 day ; for so long has bread made from new wheat 

 been preferred to bread made from old wheat; and 

 so long too has it been constantly consumed, with- 

 out any of the dreadful consequences ascribed to it, 

 being even suspected, until since the new fashion- 

 ed diseases " dyspepsia" and " cholera asphyxia" 

 made their appearance. The reasoning used to es- 

 tablish the opinion, (for it is nothing more,) of the 

 writer in the " Portsmouth Journal," is of a piece 

 with the opinion itself Thus it runs : — " half 

 grown potatoes, cloy the stomach"-^ergo, whole 

 grown wheat, made into bread soon after harvest, 

 will produce, first dyspepsia, next cholera, and 

 other malignant epidemics. Again — " new corn, 

 new fodder, and new hay, (all unbaked of course, 

 will not only fail to nourish horses, but it is said, 

 (quere, by whom,) will actually so disorder as to 

 sicken them :" ergo, new wheat baked will give 

 men dyspepsia, cholera, and heaven knows what, 

 besides. Again — the cholera and similar malig- 

 nant diseases made their appearance* in various 

 countries about or very soon after the wheat har- 

 vest in each : ergo, bread made ot new wheat was 

 the cause of them. This discovery will match 

 that of the old man mentioned by Miss Edgeworth, 

 who affirmed that the steeple of Tenterden, in the 

 county of Kent, Avas the cause of the Godwin 



* In England the cholera appeared about Christmas, 

 and in North America— certainly before harvest. 



sands on the coast of that county, because they be- 

 gan to aj)pear immediately tliat the said steeple 

 was built. 



The third discovery which I thought of noticing 

 some time ago, was that attributed to Mr. For- 

 syth, of Georgia, which has caused a long known 

 variety of cotton to be called " Mr. Forsyth's nan- 

 keen cotton." A fi-iend of mine told me, while 

 our newspapers were ringing the changes through- 

 out the country, about this cotton, and the patrio- 

 tism of the gentleman who had introduced it lately, 

 into Georgia, that he had seen samples of it more 

 than forty years ago, in a cotton factory at Glas- 

 gow, in Scotland ; but that it was not approved : 

 and I myself know, that during our revolutionary 

 war, it was partially cultivated in every part of the 

 tidewater portion of Virginia. So much indeed, was 

 this the case for some three or four years, that, during 

 the summer season, if you went to any public meet- 

 ing in the country, you would sec almost every 

 man's breeches, (for pantaloons were not worn in 

 those days,) made of nankeen cotton. Sometimes 

 their coats also v/ere of this material. Yet it was 

 always so mottled, that it was next to impossible 

 to make the cloth of an uniform color; to remedy 

 which it became the practice — especially among 

 the country beaux, to dip their inexpressibles and 

 coats into a solution of Arnotto, which made them 

 appear at a distance somewhat like a flock of fla- 

 mingoes. I remain, Mr. Editor, 



Your constant reader and friend, 



QUID NUNC. 



P. S. If the editor of the Portsmouth Journal 

 will inform me what his doctors mean by " the 

 mcorganization powers of the stomach, and " col- 

 latitious viscera," I will let him into a bit of a se- 

 cret, as I should judge it is to him, about the effect 

 of new corn and new fodder upon horses. " Me- 

 organization" is not to be found in any one of four 

 or five dictionaries that I have consulted, and 

 " collatitious," they inform me, means — "contri- 

 buted by many," which seems to me, (ignoramus 

 as 1 am,) a truly strange thing to affirm of a man's 

 bowels, although it might very well be applied to 

 the innumerable disorders created in them by the 

 doctors themselves. JSIy secret about new corn 

 and fodder is, that we southerners verily believe, 

 tliat nothing in our whole country will fatten a horse 

 sooner than to turn him into a good corn field, where 

 he can get either new corn or new fodder to his 

 heart's content, at any time he may fancy them. 

 The only precaution necessary — is, to turn him in 

 upon a full stomach. It is true that the mode is 

 less economical than several others ; but where des- 

 patch is more consulted, than economy, it is often 

 adopted. 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 COTTON FACTORIES IN PETERSBURG. 



The disposition to engage in manufacturing ope- 

 rations was strongly evinced in Petersburg a few 

 days since. A suitable site for extensive opera- 

 tions was obtained, and a subscription opened for 

 ig 120,000 — to be invested in the erection of Cotton 

 Mills. The whole sum -was subscribed in the 

 course of two hours, and more might have been ob- 

 tained. Another establishment is contemplated 

 in the same vicinitv, and one other in Richmond. 



M. 



September 26, 1833. 



