PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB, 267 



but sure. She is now increasing her agricultural power. She 

 employs an able engineer, Mr. Emmons, to examine, scientifically, 

 her extensive swamps, with a view to drainage and culture. The 

 engineer states that these lands, when reclaimed, will become the 

 best in the State to grow cotton ; that there are two millions of 

 acres of them, which will be worth four millions of acres of their 

 upland to grow cotton. The cotton on two millions of acres will 

 be worth over fifty millions of dollars. These lands will not re- 

 quire any fertilizers for a long time, and are easy of cultivation. 

 England and France have examined the world, and found no land 

 and climate, rains, &c., equal to those of the United States. 



The Planter says, about forty years ago the French farmers at 

 Detroit used to put their stable and other manures on the ice in 

 winter, so that it might be carried away from them. Some others 

 removed their stables to get rid of their manure-heaps ! Wis- 

 consin used to burn her wheat straw after thrashing out the 

 grain; and this practice still continues on some of our prairies — 

 an almost exhausting and ruinous course — so that instead of 

 twenty-five to thirty-five bushels an acre, they now get* seldom 

 more than fourteen bushels per acre ! The poor soils of Scotland 

 and England are now giving an average of thirty-three bushels 

 per acre I He says that salt, as recommended by Prof. Mapes, 

 has been tried on cotton, on alternate rows, and prevents rust. 

 He recommends one peck of salt well mixed with four bushels of 

 lot manure, eight to one, and likes it better than guano. 



England contains 50,000 square miles ; so does North Caro- 

 lina. The swamps of the latter can be and are being drained, 

 and two millions of acres of the best cotton land in the world 

 will soon be bearing a thousand pounds of pure_ cotton per acre, 

 or not less than about $50 to $100 worth per acre, Holland has 

 drained the land on which she is and was powerful, although it 

 was below the sea level. North Carolina is above it. The whole 

 world has been of late ransacked by the great powers for a cot- 

 ton-growing land I The United States possess the only region 

 suitable for it. 



ELECTRICITY. 



We owe it to ourselves to see what our predecessors did in 

 every science. 



Mens. Sigaud de la Fond, Professor of mathematics in Paris, 

 1776, states that the analogy of electricity and magnetism was 



