MISCELLANEOUS. 
9 
us information on these interesting topics. We 
are quite confident that parts of Maryland, Vir¬ 
ginia, and the upper country of the Carolinas, of¬ 
fer as great inducements for settlement to our 
northern people, as any sections of the United 
States; good lands there, with more or less im¬ 
provements, may be had from $5 to $10 per acre, 
and farms with buildings, from $15 to $30. Some 
lands may be bought as low as $2 per acre. The 
climate is so mild, that stock need be foddered 
only two to three months out of the year. Gen¬ 
eral Washington, in a letter we believe to Mr. 
Sinclair, asserted that sheep, even no farther south 
than Mount Vernon, would usually pick up a good 
living from their pastures all the year round. 
Oil Destructive to Plum-Trees.— Mr. David 
Tomlinson of Schenectady, informs us, that two 
of his neighbors lost quite a number of valuable 
plum-trees the past year, by applying oil to cater¬ 
pillars in the spring, to destroy them, as they had 
seen recommended in some publication. 
Bommer’s Patent Method of Making Ma¬ 
nure. —We are repeatedly asked about the above 
method of making manure, and whether the pa¬ 
tent is worth purchasing. We have the best au¬ 
thority for saying, that the only patent granted, is to 
Messrs. Baer & Gouliaet of Baltimore, the im¬ 
provement claimed in which is this:— 
“What we claim as our improvement on Jauf- 
fret’s method of forming manure, by the rapid fer¬ 
mentation of vegetable fibres, is, first the forming 
of the said vegetable matter into piles or heaps, 
without its being first immersed in the prepared 
lye, and the subsequently saturating the same by 
the pouring on the lye in the manner set forth. 
Charles Baer, 
John Gouliaet.” 
The lye , the main thing above, is not patented. 
Mr. Bommer’s “ patent ” is simply this, and no 
more, viz: he has purchased of Messrs. Baer & 
Gouliaet the right for some of the states, of ma¬ 
king manure-heaps as set forth in their patent 
above. The public believe Mr. Bommer has a 
patent, and they dare not use the ingredients with¬ 
out paying the sum demanded for the invention. 
Whether this is worth ten dollars, every one now 
must judge for himself. As for Mr. Bommer’s “ new 
process,” as he terms it, of making manure, the 
general principles of it have long been practised in 
France, and pretty much all that is valuable in it 
will be found in an extract from the Farmers’ 
Mine, by Mr. Heermance, under the head of “ New 
method of making Manure,” page 164 of our last 
volume. Mr. Bommer’s method is undoubtedly a 
good one, and if he gave it in a book at a reason¬ 
able price, it would be worthy of purchase. By 
paying 75 cents for the Farmers’ Mine, the public 
will get about as much useful knowledge as they 
can obtain from the patent of Mr. Bommer for 
$10. We should not have taken any notice of 
this subject, except to answer frequent inquiries, 
and did we not perceive how much public atten¬ 
tion has been drawn to this patent rio-kt, by the 
communications of Mr. Bommer, which have re¬ 
cently appeared in several of our agricultural papers. 
Change of the Quality of Fruits at the West* 
—Our excellent friend John Fitz, in the Prairie 
Farmer, informs us that several kinds of fruits 
which are considered first rate here, become 
worthless on being transplanted to the west. 
This we know to be a fact from our own taste and 
observation in those parts which we have visited., 
He recommends growing naturals there, and se¬ 
lecting from the choicest varieties when the fruit 
appears. This is a capital idea, and if carried into 
effect, Illinois may one of these days send us seed¬ 
ling fruits equal to any of our own choice produc¬ 
tions. There is nothing like cultivating the inter¬ 
nal resources of one’s own country, and no one is 
stronger in this principle than ourselves. 
Short-Horn Cattle. —We meet with so many- 
erroneous articles lately in the papers, on the his¬ 
tory and improvement of these celebrated animals, 
that it is our intention to commence in our next a 
series of numbers oil this subject, wherein we shall 
give a fuller, and as we hope, a truer and more 
complete account of them than has yet appeared 
in print. 
Index to Volume II.—This index was printed 
on the same sheet as the last No. of Vol. II., of 
this periodical. It is paged by itself, and in the 
folding of the number, occupies the eight middle 
pages. It is only necessary to cut open the leaves 
as usual, when these eight pages of index will be 
found detached by themselves, and should be 
placed in front of the volume when it comes to be 
bound. 
Volumes I. and II. of the American Agricul¬ 
turist, with tables of contents complete, are now 
bound and ready for delivery. The farmer’s libra¬ 
ry will be incomplete without these instructive and 
highly entertaining books. They are more ele¬ 
gantly got up than anything of the kind ever is¬ 
sued from the American press. 
Long Articles. —We have two or three arti¬ 
cles in the present number, of considerable length, 
but let this be no objection to our readers in pe¬ 
rusing them. There are subjects occasionally 
which must be treated at length to do them proper 
justice, and to divide them into different numbers, 
would lessen their interest. We do not design 
our periodical as a mere ephemeral, to be read on 
its day of issue and then be thrown aside; but we 
mean to make it a work of permanent value, worr 
thy to find a place for future reference in every in¬ 
telligent farmer’s library. 
Deferred Articles. —Tour in England, No. 17, 
Sketches in the West, No. 3, and several other arti¬ 
cles are deferred till our next, we wishing to make 
as much room as possible for correspondence. 
Payments for Volume Third.— It will be 
recollected that our terms are cash in advance; 
all those, therefore, who expect the future numbers, 
will please remit through the Post-Masters. 
Agents in arrears will oblige us by forwarding all 
dues. 
