Coco nut Grasg—Exchange Papers, 
243 
sufficient size for stakes, and the less thrifty ones may 
be cut for that purpose, taking care to leave the most 
thrifty one growing upon each ten feet square, as near-- 
ly as practicable. 
When these shall have attained a sufficient size for 
rails, say in twenty-five or thirty years, all should be 
cut down—large and small—as they are needed, on one 
side or end of the field, so that the sprouts may grow 
from the stumps and roots without being overshadowed 
by trees left standing. As soon as a part of the old 
trees are cut and removed, a new crop of locusts will 
commence growing, and by the time the whole shall 
have been cut, the plantation will be fenced with rails, 
which will last from thirty to fifty years. By the time 
the fencing will require renewing, a second crop of lo¬ 
custs will have grown, that will produce more rails 
than the first, and thus a permanent- supply of rail tim¬ 
ber will be afforded from a few acres of ground. 
The following estimate will give some idea of the 
profits arising from the cultivation of the locust. The 
value of rails, made of the ordinary rail timber, of the 
better kinds, in the rich lands of Kentucky, may be es¬ 
timated at three dollars per hundred. Locust rails will 
last more than twice as long, and consequently may be 
estimated to be worth at least six dollars per hundred. 
Three hundred rails, growing upon one acre, will, at 
the expiration of twenty-five or thirty years, produce 
seven thousand five hundred rails, and be worth four 
hundred and fifty dollars. Estimating the rent at three 
dollars per acre, for thirty years, will be ninety dollars. 
Allowing the pasturage of the ground, and stakes cut 
from among the growing locusts, and the branches of 
those cut down for rails to be a compensation for the 
trouble of rearing and protecting the locusts, (a very 
liberal allowance,) and we shall have a clear profit of 
three hundred and sixty dollars per acre. To this 
should be added the saving of labor in making and re¬ 
pairing fences with rails of such great durability, com¬ 
pared with the expense of keeping up fences with rails 
that will last only fourteen to twenty years. 
But this is not all. In the fertile parts of Kentucky, 
where good rail timber is not abundant, it is necessary 
to keep one-third of a moderate sized farm in woods, 
to supply rail timber and fuel. A few acres, planted 
in locusts, after they shall have attained a suitable 
age, will supercede the' necessity of keeping more 
woodland than will answer for fuel. A large portion 
of what now lies in forests may, therefore, be convert¬ 
ed into arable land, and thus the profit of the farm may 
be considerably increased. 
A Correspondent from Louisiana asks: “ Is there no 
way for destroying the coco nut grass ? for by its intro¬ 
duction among us, large fields of some of the best parts 
of our plantations here become entirely valueless, and 
are now thrown out of cultivation.” During our late 
trip on the Mississippi, we heard considerable conver¬ 
sation upon the subject, and finally suggested that as 
swine were very fond of the nuts of this grass, they 
Should be kept in large herds to root it out. Since this, 
we understand our advice had been anticipated by the 
practice of several planters for the past two or three 
years. But Dr. Cartwright, in his admirable letter 
published in the Oct. No. of this paper, p. 215, speaks 
of two kinds of the cocoa; the sweet and the bitter. It 
is the sweet, doubtless, of which the swine are so fond, 
and as Dr. C. says : “No means have been discovered 
of extirpating this pernicious repent when it once gets 
fixed in the soil,” we suppose the pigs eschew the bit¬ 
ter and take only to the sweet. Will Dr. Cartwright, 
or any of our friends at the south, add to their favors, 
by answering our correspondent, for if swine will not 
eradicate it, we can hardly divine what will, on ac¬ 
count of the great depth of its roots and their tenacity 
of life. This is a most important subject for an exten¬ 
sive section of the South and well worthy the investiga¬ 
tion of the observing and intelligent. 
Exchange Papers. —-We have received within a 
short time, numerous applications to exchange with 
newspapers. This is a losing exchange for us, not 
from any want of merit in the papers sent, but from the 
matter they contain not being of use for our own paper. 
We shall be most happy, however, to comply with 
those requests in all cases, although our list is already 
large, and we suggest a way by which it can be done 
with mutual advantage, and great benefit to the com¬ 
munity. There are, as nearly as we can guess, and 
guessing is the only means for estimating, not to ex¬ 
ceed 80,000 copies of agricultural papers circulated in 
the United States; and of these, at least one-fourth are 
taken as duplicates, which will reduce the number of 
subscribers, of these invaluable farming papers, to the 
low number of 60,000. 
In our population of 17,000,000, we ought tehave, at 
least, one eighth, or 2,000,000 subscribers, to some 
purely agricultural periodical. The field then is not 
one thirtieth occupied. This statement suggests the 
mode of a mutually beneficial exchange. Let each one 
of our Editorial brethren procure for us as many sub¬ 
scribers as possible, from one to twenty, or, a hundred 
will be more satisfactory, deduct the commission al¬ 
lowed, and remit us the money through the post office. 
By this simple process, he will “ do the state some 
service,” and “ put money in our purse,” both read¬ 
er’s and editor’s, but the Lion’s share, will go to 
the farmer’s. 
We have received two letters from Thomas Bates, 
Esq., of Kirkleavington, England, together with the 
packages of papers. We make some extracts from the 
former. 
“ I sent nothing to Bristol this year, (meaning ani¬ 
mals for exhibition at the annual meeting of the Royal 
Ag. Society,) the distance being so great. The show 
of Short Horns there, was indifferent. The Devons 
were numerous and good, Ilerefords also, and Long 
Horns, the best show that has yet been of all those 
tribes. The meeting went off finely, and the American 
Ambassador was enthusiastically received, and acquit¬ 
ted himself well. It was indeed a mutual congratula¬ 
tion, and must give great satisfaction to your country 
as well as this. 
“ In this paper (the London New Farmer’s Journal,) 
also will be a full account of the York Show, on Wed¬ 
nesday last, by far the largest show of any in England, 
and the animals made up most extravagantly. I sent 
the Duke of Northumberland there, and his dam 
Duchess 34th. He is the eldest of her eight calves, 
and she herself only nine years old, and has passed 
through more casualties than any animal I ever knew, 
(had a leg broken at two years old, and other accidents 
subsequently,) and yet the judges could not get over 
giving her and her son the highest premiums, as the 
best bull and best cow. Mr. Booth’s cow, that got 
the premium at Bristol, was placed second. She was 
sister to the one shown at Liverpool and Hull, last 
year, and was also at Berwick; the cow of last year 
was also at the show yard at York.” 
Several English correspondents we replied to, pri¬ 
vately, by last steamship, and have since executed their 
orders. 
The letter and cut from George Yail, Esq. was re¬ 
ceived after our matter was made up. It will appear 
in our next. 
