FARMERS' REGISTER— ARABIC WORK ON AGRICULTURE. 



515 



probability they are of marine origin. But the 

 period of their connexion with the sea is so re- 

 mole, and the means by which tliey were transferred 

 to their present positions, so indistinctly "known 

 to our philosophy," that I have not thought proper 

 to class them under thiscattjgory. It is not how- 

 ever foreign to the purpose of this essay to say a 

 few words on this interesting subject. 



Your Essay on Calcareous Manures, and the 

 articles in the Register on that subject, have ex- 

 cited great interest in the Northern Neck, as well 

 as in other parts of the state. The subject is dis- 

 cussed in almost every company, and some of our 

 practical farmers are already applying marl, and 

 many others are in search of it. It is a very for- 

 tunate, and seemingly providential circumstance, 

 that as soon as we leave the flat lands of the rivers 

 and creeks, and come into the forest where ma- 

 rine manures are not to he had, marl is found in 

 abundance. I have now in my possession several 

 specimens, some of them uncommonly rich, found 

 since the publication of your book, in different 

 parts of the Northern Neck. You have just cause 

 to be proud of having conferred so great and last- 

 ing a benefit on your country. 



I cannot close this long, and I fear tedious com- 

 munication, without expressing the confident opi- 

 nion, that the cultivation of artiticial grasses, parti- 

 cularly clover, is absolutely necessary to secure the 

 full benefit of any system of manuring. I fully con- 

 cur with your correspondent Mr. Archer, of Fort 

 Monroe, that in Eastern Virginia we have com- 

 mitted a great error, in supposing that our lands 

 will not produce artificial grasses to advantage. 

 My limited experience and observation entirely 

 confirm the view so well expressed by him. It 

 may be safely affirmed that there is not on tlie face 

 of the globe, (possibly with the exception of Chi- 

 na,) a highly improved and well cultivated coun- 

 try, in which artificial grasses are neglected. If 

 China be an exception, the peculiar condition of 

 that country, will afford the best reasons for the 

 practices there adopted, whilst it should teach us 

 the impossibility of following the example. 



Whilst on the subject of grasses, I will inquire 

 if the question, whether plaster will act in the vi- 

 cinity of salt water, has yet been satisfactorily set- 

 tled by the experience of practical farmers.'' I de- 

 sign to make some experiments with it in the 

 spring, and may possibly send you the result of 

 my observations.* 



I hope sir, that you will receive this communi- 

 cation as an earnest of the zeal with which I desire 

 to co-operate in the noble cause of agricultural im- 

 provement. I should be happy if I could bring to 

 your service, any thing calculated to give effect to 

 your labors. But I am well convinced, that nei- 

 ther my skill nor success as an agriculturist, give 



me the slightest claims to the confidence of the 

 public as a teacher of the science. 



■WILLOUGHBY NEWTON. 



Westmoreland Co., Va. Dec. 16, 1833. 



[The f(}regoing communication does not need our 

 commendations to aid it in attracting attention — but we 

 cannot repress our inclination to greet with welcome a 

 new ally and efficient fellow laborer, in support of the 

 most neglected and yet most improvable region of Vir- 

 ginia. Mr. Newton's facts (wlijch are the more valua- 

 ble, because failure is stated as well as success,) furnish 

 the best of arguments to prove that no where else can 

 soil be more cheaply fertilized, and no where are better 

 profits offered to the judicious and economical farmer, 

 than in the lower tidewater counties. Yet vast quanti- 

 ties of land, possessing in abundance either the " ma- 

 rine manures" described by Mr. Newton, or the richest 

 beds of fossil shells, may be bought for prices varying 

 between $2 and $4 the acre, although an enhancement 

 of valuation (caused by late opinions of these advanta- 

 ges,) has begun to affect selling prices. Our individual 

 location is in a higher and less favored region, and 

 therefore we are not misled by personal interest when 

 we venture to predict that the counties on the salt wa- 

 ter of Virginia will hereafter be the most valuable por- 

 tion of the state.] 



* We have no experimental lilfcw ledge of gypsum 

 acting near salt water, but have fully proved its effica- 

 cy on soils after marlmg, on which before, that manure 

 was totally worthless ; and its inertness even near fresh 

 tidewater, has been generally attributed to the sea air. 

 If our correspondent will try gypsum on clover where 

 he has already applied his oyster bank manure in abun- 

 dance — or if he can cause the like, experiment to be 

 made on some of the land injured by Mr. Carrie's ex- 

 cessively heavy dressing, we entertain but little doubt 

 of his success. — [Ed, Farm. Reg. 



ARABIC WORK ON AGRICUL,TCRE. 



Translated for the Farmers' Register. 



University of Virginia, December 28th, 1883. 



Dear Sir, — I send you a translation of the first 

 article of the first chapter of the Arabic work 

 on agriculture, compiled by Ebu-Zacharia, Tahia, 

 Ebn- Mahomed, Ebn-ilkmed, Ebn-el ^Jwam. This 

 author wrote his v/ork in the sixth century of the 

 llegira, (the twelfth century of the Christian era,) 

 when culture of every kind flourished most among 

 the Arabs of Spain. He was a native of Seville, 

 and his estate was situated in Alxarafe, where he 

 lived and made his agricultural experiments and 

 observations, to which he added the maxims of a 

 great number of geoponic writers of different ages 

 and nations. 



The Arabs or Moors, masters of Southern 

 Spain, introduced from Africa and Asia, into their 

 country, and acclimated there, a variety of plants 

 and garden vegelaldes, before that time unknown 

 in Europe, and for the possession of some of which 

 V. e are even now indirectly indebted to them. 



I am afraid, however, that many errors will oc- 

 cur in my translation of the names of various 

 objects in husbandry — the Spanish translator seems 

 to make his own sometimes a matter of guess- 

 work, and my knowledge of agriculture, botany, 

 geology and also of the Arabic and English lan- 

 guages is not so very proibund, as to be able al- 

 ways to set him right when he seems to be wrong, 

 and to give myself the most exact and best cor- 

 responding word in tlie English. 



From such errors a deal of mischief may arise. — 

 — Germany is, to this very day, deprived of the en- 

 joyment of one of the finest and most wholesome 

 vegetables — the tomates, — because, forsooth, the 

 name of this delicious vegetable had been badly- 

 translated into German. The name " tomates" 

 given to this fruit by the Moors, trom a supersti- 

 tion concei-ning certain virtues, which it Avas 



