Bermuda Grass, and Southern Products—Curing Hams, &c. 
supply me with the dust at two shillings per barrel if I 
found him the barrels; but I had just engaged two 
sloop-loads for carting away. A friend living at Wil- 
liamsburgh, has lately bought a large quantity at the 
above price. 
The next articles I shall call your attention to as 
valuable fertilizers, are the broken brick, and lime rub¬ 
bish, of buildings pulled down in New-York and Brook¬ 
lyn. This, heretofore, has been carted away to fill up 
docks and low grounds, but I hope soon to see it ap¬ 
plied to the land. We send to Nova Scotia for plaster, 
freight it from thence, cart it to plaster mills, and grind 
it fine for agricultural application; yet the bricks and 
mortar, possessing far greater fertilizing powers, are 
thrown away. Let some of our plaster grinders col¬ 
lect these materials, grind them coarsely, and sell to 
the farmers, and I predict that in a few years it will 
be more sought after than plaster. 
I was told by a farmer I met at the Albany fair, who 
came from near Boston, that he owned four acres of 
land, which more than forty years ago was covered 
with brick-kilns ; that this land had been in possession 
of his family ever since, that they had taken off great 
crops of natural grass every year, without adding any 
manure or soil, and that this year he had cut from it 
two and a half tons of hay per acre at one mowing. 
These observations were elicited by my having recom¬ 
mended burnt brick as manure, in the Cultivator, some 
months before. 
Bricks contain roasted alumina, and silicate of pot¬ 
ash. The first produces one of the best of soils, and 
the second forms a portion of all grass, straw, grain 
and corn. Wheat contains more of it than any other 
grain. 
A Chinese farmer will scrape the plaster off rooms, 
and re-plaster them at his own expense, for the sake of 
applying the old plaster to his land ; yet in our highly 
intelligent country, we permit hundreds of tons an¬ 
nually to be thrown away rather than take the trouble 
to collect it. Old plaster contains more or less of 
nitrate of lime, which is a most valuable manure. 
On the 11th of the present month I noticed a carman 
carting away a large heap of plaster, and he told me it 
was used to fill up a dock. Thinks I to myself, they 
might as well fill that dock up with hay, as to fill it 
with a material that will produce more than its own 
bulk of hay annually. 
Wm. Partridge. 
N. York, Nov. 14, 1842. 
We extract from a letter received from 
Dr. M. W. Phillips, dated 
“ Log Hall , Amsterdam P. 0. Mi. ) 
Oct. 22, 1842. $ 
“ In one of your numbers, the “ Bermuda 
(rrass” and the kind cultivated by Mr. J. J. 
McCaughan, on the sea coast, are spoken of 
as being different. I have some of both of 
these now in my yard, they are to my judg¬ 
ment identical—both having leaves and seed 
stalks precisely alike, Mr. McC. being kind 
dnough to send me some, on the ground of 
his being the “ Simon Pure” and not seed¬ 
ing, but here it has seeded , and is the same. 
We are all as busy as bees, gathering our 
crops. Immediately in this neighborhood, 
our crops are good. I shall make 6 to 7 
bales cotton, and 250 to 275 bushels of corn per 
hand, with sweet potatoes, peas, forage, &c. 
in abundance. I do not plant for a cotton 
crop, having got a few Berkshires, part 
bred Durhams, &c. that I am trying to pro¬ 
vide for, but think ere the year closes, that 
my nett proceeds will not be far behind the 
most of them. I am inclined now to think 
the cotton crop will be an average one. A 
short time since I did not think so ; but the 
yield of wool is greater than has been for 
years. I ginned out 393 lbs. of seed cotton, 
and weighed 132 lbs. of clean cotton. I did 
all the weighing and ginning myself A 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Gent. —The following is a receipt for cur¬ 
ing hams, which I tried last fall, and found 
superior to several other modes I had before 
tried, the hams and shoulders being far sweet¬ 
er and better flavored, and preserving well 
through the summer. 
“ Dissolve two ounces of saltpetre and two 
teaspoons full of saleratus in strong brine, for 
every sixteen pounds of meat; boil and skim, 
the above thoroughly, and add molasses in 
proportion to one gallon for each hogshead 
of brine. 
“ Let the meat remain in this pickle three 
or four weeks, then smoke with hock down¬ 
ward.” 
Packing hams in oats in such a manner as 
not to allow two to come in contact, pre¬ 
serves them in a much better condition than 
any other mode I have seen practiced. 
Yours, &c., 
C. Starr, Jr 
Mendham, N. J., November, 1842. 
To Correspondents .—The account of the Genesee 
Co. Fair was received too late for insertion in this num¬ 
ber. It will appear in our next. 
The letter from Solon Robinson came too late for 
insertion. 
SELECTIONS. ______ 
(From the New Farmers’ Journal .) 
Natural Silicate of Potasli, for Manure ; in Felspar and 
Granite. 
On a future occasion I may have something to say 
about the nitrogen; but my present object refers to 
potash, which being drawn from the soil by every crop, 
requires constant renewal. Wood ashes are not pro¬ 
duced in this country, in sufficient quantity; burnt 
weeds and leaves, and the farm-yard straw returns only 
a part of what was drawn from the soil; the potash in 
the food, both of man and beast, coming off chiefly in 
the liquid excrement, and running to waste, not only 
in town sewerage, but too often in faim-yard drainings. 
Leibig’s artificial silicate of potash, referred to by Mr. 
Trimmer, for agricultural purposes, may be more likely 
realised in the woody districts of Germany, than in our 
coal-burning country, where the potash itself seems to 
be wanting. 
