FARMERS' REGISTER— CHEAT— THE TEASEL— NATIVE COWS, &c, 619 



would be necessary for us to abandon the defence of every gene 

 ral and important interest of agriculture as soon as it was assail- 

 ed : for what measure of government has ever been acted upon, 

 that has not been converted to party uses? Nay, what question 

 can be started, that may not be made a weapon or a defence, in 

 party warfare ? 



Our correspondent's expressions are not obnoxious to the 

 charge of being directed by the feelings or the interest of a par- 

 tizan. His reasoning and statements are simply those of an ex- 

 perienced and well informed merchant. To the facts derived 

 from his acquaintance with commercial affairs, we pay the ut- 

 most respect. But our politico.economical \iews as to the cur- 

 rency, have been acquired in a different school — and whether it 

 is from our want of commercial knowledge, or that we are 

 behind the lights of the present day, we remain of the opinion 

 long entertained, that it would be far better if our currency was 

 principally metallic. And we would zealously contend for a re- 

 turn to such a currency, provided (what we certainly do not be- 

 lieve to be the case now, if it will ever be,) that there was a 

 sincere disposition on the part of either the people, or their 

 rulers, to establish and adhere to such a rule of general policy. 

 Whatever may be the immediate cause of the present alarming 

 and general state of distress, the remote and efficient cause is 

 the existence of a paper currency. Without denying the alleged 

 advantages of the system of paper money, and its concomi- 

 tants, while prosperity and public confidence continue, it may 

 well be dotibted, whether those advantages are not more than 

 counterbalanced by such effects as are now felt, and such de- 

 atruction of credit, depreciation of the currency, loss of property 

 to individuals and to the nation, as were suffered in 1814, and 

 some years after.] 



" FARMERS REGISTER. 



Extract of a letter from a distinguished literary gentleman resi- 

 ding in New York, to the Publisher of the Farmers' Regis- 

 ter. 



New York, March 7, 1834. 



* * Tell Mr. Ruffin, if you please, I read his 

 Register regularly as it comes, and am reducing 

 some of his theories to practice, in my city gar- 

 den. I shall not fail to give him an account of 

 the success of my new system of rural economy. 

 My most potent and unconquerable enemies are 

 certain caitiff caterpillars, that forage on my plants, 

 devour the leaves of my grape vine, and like ras- 

 cally epicures as they are, bury themselves in the 

 luxury of my moss-rose buds. I wish he would 

 devise and publish some infallible recipe for exter- 

 minating these moss troopers. 



By the way, in the la§t number of the Register, 

 there is a letter from Mr. Featherstonhaugh to 

 Mr. Madison, on the subject of the Gold Mines in 

 Virginia, in which that gentleman expresses his 

 surprise that neither the early settlers nor the In- 

 dians should have had any idea of their existence. 

 If he had looked into the old History of Virginia, 

 by Captain John Smith, he would have found that 

 the savages did know of the existence of gold in 

 the interior, and that an expedition was sent in 

 search of it. I have mislaid my old folio of Smith's 

 History, and cannot precisely recollect the period 

 or the circumstances. I only know that the search 

 proved abortive, and the colonists never repeated 

 it. I have nodoubt that the information of the In- 

 dians referred to the very mines that have since 

 been discovered. 



CHEAT. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Essex, March 8, 1834. 

 From the variety of opinions expressed respect- 

 ing the origin of cheat, I am induced to make a 

 communication of what came under ray own know- 

 ledge. In 1831, 1 stacked my wheat about in the 



field, and in a few days the wheat shattered from 

 stacking came up very thick. The tield not be- 

 ing grazed, I observed the growth the summer 

 following; and to my great surprise, I found no- 

 thing but a luxuriant growth of cheat without a 

 single head of wheat. This cheat could not have 

 been produced from cheat, as I am very certain 

 there was not as much in my whole crop, as was 

 made from one of those stacks. 



From the above fact I am induced to believe 

 that cheat is not the production of faulty grains in 

 wheat, but is produced from unseasonable seeding. 



THE TEASEt/, 



From the London- Farmers' Magazine. 



The teasel, perhaps, affords a solitary instance of 

 a natural production being applied to mechanical 

 purposes in the state in which it is produced. The 

 head of the true teasel is composed of incorporated 

 flowers, each separated by a long, rigid, chaffy 

 substance, the terminating point of which is fur- 

 nished with a line hook. The use of the teasel is 

 to draw out the ends of the wool from the manu- 

 factured cloth, so as to bring a regular nap or pile 

 upon the surface, free from twistings and knot- 

 tings, and to comb off the loose parts of the wool. 



NATIVE COWS, 



From the New England Farmer. 



Dear Sir : In your paper of the 1st inst. is an 

 article under the above head, taken from the 

 American Farmer, who answers the question, 

 " What breed of cattle is best for the dairy.'" by 

 recommending half blood Durham shorthorns. 

 He may be correct for aught I can say, but you 

 may judge from the following account of three 

 cows of native American stock, entirely free, as I 

 believe, from admixture with any of the foreign 

 stock so much reconimended. 



I have made from these three cows, between the 

 1st January, 1833, and the 1st January instant, 

 535 lbs. of butter. One of the cows calved in 

 March last, another in May, and a third in July. 

 They have been fed exclusively on grass in sum- 

 mer, and hay in winter, with the exception of a 

 few pumpkins in the fail. My family consists of 

 ten persons, and we use cream almost profusely in 

 June and July ; during the season of the smaller 

 fruits, which I raise in great quantities, we con- 

 sume at least the cream of one cow. The greatest 

 quantity of butter made in one month was in Sep- 

 tember, when it amounted to 107 pounds. The 

 cows are all of them large, one very large, perhaps 

 the largest in the country. She calved in March, 

 and upon the dry food of that season even, made 

 48| lbs. butter in 5 weeks. My pastures in sum- 

 mer are very fine, and I keep them so by sowing 

 them every spring with unleached ashes, 15 bush- 

 els to the acre, which throws out a profusion of 

 white clover. The soil is dry and gravelly. The 

 extent of my pasturage is 6 acres divided into 

 three lots, into which the cows are driven to feed 

 alternately, and these acres afford an abundant 

 supply until the first of September, when I let 

 them in upon the rowen of my mowing lot. Be- 

 sides, I have about half an acre of lucerne and tall 

 meadow oat grass, which I cut and give them in 

 the spring belbre they are turned into the pasture, 

 and which, for the last two years, has afforded 



