FARMERS' REGISTER— NEW MINERAL MANURES, &c. 



537 



assertion is not made on mere speculation, but from 

 unquestionable sources of information. 



In conclusion upon this subject, I must remark, 

 that I cannot conceive any one capable of taking; 

 an expanded view of the improvement of the state, 

 «t all cognizant of the deiiciency of capital with us, 

 hut that he must see the importance of legislating 

 upon the subject, with a special regard to the en- 

 couragement of distant capitalists to participate 

 with our citizens in making improvements, instead 

 of blindly persevering in a course calculated to de- 

 press existing stocks by promoting rival works. 

 We have unfortunately legislated upon this last 

 principle already, to an extent, which makes it 

 difficult to obtain subscriptions to the James River 

 and Kanhawa connexion, that but for apprehen- 

 sions of rival works being patronized by the state 

 as soon as this should be finished, would be regard- 

 ed, and justly too, as tiie most jiromising stock in 

 the Union, (the Erie Canal in New York always 

 excepted) — a reflection will naturally spring up 

 in the minds of capitalists, wishing to invest in 

 corporate stocks, that if Virginia spends two fifths 

 to create a rival work to the Petersburg railroad, 

 in which she holds two fifths of the stocks that is 

 thereby sunk as capital, where is the guarantee 

 that she will not take two filths to open a rival work 

 to the James river improvement, down the Valley 

 of the Roanoke, which her late engineer reported 

 quite as favorably upon as the James river. This 

 is the real incubus that weighs down the James 

 river enterprise ; and Mr. Jos. Cabell will not be 

 able to shake it off, I can assure him, unless his 

 untiring energy can arrest the baleful legislation 

 I have been complaining of, and which I so much 

 deprecate, in reference to the Portsmouth railroad. 



I trust I shall not be regarded as inimical to the 

 prosperity of either Portsmouth or Norfolk, — far 

 from it. I wish every portion of the state could 

 be gratified in its wants. So did the dog in the 

 fable want two pieces of meat as he swam the 

 river with one in his mouth, and mistook the sha- 

 dow of it in the wafer for another piece, snapped 

 at it, and lost that which he had. I wish this fable 

 could oftener occur to the minds of our legis- 

 lators — I should not then feel so much apprehen- 

 sion, that we sliall in despite of Pennsylvania's 

 example to deter us, adopt her course and plunge 

 the state millions in debt to make internal im- 

 provements, that w ill for generations to come, be 

 so unproductive as to compel a resort to high taxes, 

 to pay the interest on the loans, as is now the case 

 with that state. Her Governor, in his late mes- 

 sage, reports that the gross tolls from the public 

 works, that have cost the state about fifteen millions 

 of dollars, amounted for the year ending 31st Oct. 

 last, to .9150,000 only: a sum, I apprehend, not 

 more than adequate to defray charges of superin- 

 tendence and repairs. So that near a million has 

 to be raised by direct taxes, to pay the interest on 

 the loans. 



I feel well assured Mr. Editor, that your Hali- 

 fax correspondent, now on the Assembly, is the last 

 iman in the state who would desire to see Virginia 

 in the condition of her sister Pennsylvania, or aid 

 in leading her to the adoption of her system. Yet 

 I doubt very much whether he could more effec- 

 tually promote such a result than by voting assis- 

 tance to the Portsmouth railroad. 



Dropping this interesting subject, with these 

 hasty and cursory remarks, with a hope that thev 



Vol. I.— 68 



will at least serve to elicit reflection and discussion 

 from abler heads and pens than mine, I shall draw 

 to a close of this I fear already too tedious letter, 

 with some brief notice of the principal subject of 

 Mr. Bruce's communication and its kindred ob- 

 servations contained in yours upon managing the 

 corn crop. 



Having a broken farm to cultivate, which in the 

 hands of my predecessors, had been much gullied 

 and denuded by the old system of ploughing and 

 cultivating up hill and down, I have tried several 

 modes to arrest the evil and restore the land. For 

 several years past, I have pursued horizontal 

 bedding for corn, leaving a bed unploughed for 

 every sixty or eighty feet on the hill sides and 

 slopes, which I am happy to find effectual. The 

 heaviest rains and thaws, even such as fell last 

 night on ten inches of snow, that has caused a 

 mammoth freshet here, do not break over these 

 guards, so as to make gullies, and of course, if that 

 is tl'.e case, the soil is not swept off" broad cast, as 

 frequently is the case with such rains and thaws, 

 where thei-e is an even surface. 



I have never tried the horizontal trenching re- 

 commended by Mr. Bruce, as an effectual guard 

 against washing, except on a very limited scale. I 

 think it much more laborious than my plan, and not 

 as effectual. If the bottom of the trenches are of 

 a loose friable soil, or sandy, a gully will be cut by 

 a heav}' water fall — whereas, by accurate horizon- 

 tal bedding and the turf bed guard, this will rarely 

 be the case. The bed left unbroken is by no 

 means lost, as it serves to stack the crop upon, both 

 corn and wheat, and should be shifted every other 

 breaking up, for corn. 



I approve of the trenching course for springy 

 hill sides, or slopes, that must have more wafer to 

 pass, than a secret ditch could at all times dis- 

 charge — when that is not the case, secret drains 

 are preferable — especially for all short spaces 

 and oozy slopes, and spring heads near branches, 

 \\ hich commonly have open ditches. It is a sub- 

 ject worthy of criticism, that our farmers are not 

 more negligent in any thing tending to improve, 

 than that of secret draining to relieve their richest 

 land from water, that renders them rather a nui- 

 sance, than a source of profit. Experience will 

 teach then), that the labor of making, (which will, 

 I think, last many years,) will not be greater than 

 twice cleaning away the briers and shrubs from 

 the two sides, and cleaning out oj)en ditches, which 

 fill up nearly every year; and then there is the 

 saving of land, and loss of time in turning twice 

 every furrow in ploughing. 



It had been my purpose to have offered some re- 

 marks upon the mode of planting and cultivating 

 the corn crop, which I would recommend ; but this 

 letter has run out so much longer than I expected 

 when I commenced, I must defer it until a more 

 convenient season. 



In the meantime, accept my best wishes for the 

 continued prosperity of your useful work. 



Respectfully, &c. jno. bickinsoiv. 



NEW MINERAL IMANUKES PROPOSED, AS SUB- 

 STITUTES FOR THE CELEBRATED " CEN- 

 DRES DE IMER," OR DUTCH ASHES. 



In our remarks inti-oductory lo Sinclair's account of 

 the wonderful effects of Dutch ashes as a manure, (No, 

 6, p. 375,) we alluded to the memoir of Mr. Hollertj 



