Agriculture is the most healthful, the most useful, and the most 
noble employment of Man.— Washington. 
VOL. in. NEW YORK, AUGUST, 1844 . NO. VIII. 
Saxton & Miles, Publishers, 205 Broadway 
A. B. Allen, Editor. 
TO EXCHANGE PAPERS. 
When anything appears in these which is de¬ 
signed to attract our attention, we wish it conspicu¬ 
ously marked with ink lines, and the paper folded 
up with the article outside, so that it will instantly 
meet our eye. We do not often open, much 
more read, one in twenty of our exchanges: for 
we have not the time to do so, and if articles here¬ 
after are not marked and folded as directed, it will 
not be our fault if they remain unnoticed. 
WEEDS. 
Now is an excellent time to destroy weeds, as 
the rankest and most pernicious of them are in 
flower, and you thus prevent their seeding your 
own and neighbors’ land. If cut down close to the 
ground in full bloom, some kinds will be totally 
destroyed ; others will not rise again that year, or 
if they do, so feebly as to do little injury, and there 
is no danger of scarce any running to seed. The 
most effectual means which we have found to de¬ 
stroy the hardier weeds, such as mulleins, thistles, 
burdocks, &c., is to place half a table-spoonful of 
salt upon each stem immediately after being cut 
close to the ground. If there be a great number, 
after mowing them, scatter salt plentifully upon 
the land, pasture sheep there, and they will most 
invariably be destroyed in a season or two. The 
salt acts beneficially with the sheep-dung in en¬ 
riching the land. To increase the feed, plaster 
may be sown at the rate of to 2 \ bushels per 
acre. 
PLASTER NO LONGER BENEFICIAL. 
When in Putnam county, and other places the 
past month, we heard complaints among the farm¬ 
ers that gypsum (plaster of Paris) no longer acted 
beneficially upon their land. The reason of this 
is thus explained by Leibig :— 
“ When we increase the crop of grass in a mead¬ 
ow by means of gypsum, we remove a greater 
quantity of potash with the hay than can under the 
same circumstances be restored—hence it happens, 
that after the lapse of several years, the crops of 
grass on the meadows manured with gypsum 
diminish, owing to the deficiency of potash.” 
From the above extract it will be seen that 
nothing is wanted but the application of ashes or 
potash to the land, when plaster will again act 
upon it with its former good effects. Plaster will 
also be found beneficial again after manures have 
been used for a few years, more especially when 
made of an intermixture of swamp-muck or peat- 
earth. 
