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REVIEW OP THE APRIL NUMBER OP THE AGRICULTURIST. 
REVIEW OF THE APRIL NO. OF THE AGRI¬ 
CULTURIST. 
I hope my review for March was sufficiently 
condensed to meet your limited space. I hope to 
be able to keep this within bounds. But the fact is 
every number contains so many articles, that it is 
difficult to pass over them lightly or without any 
notice. But to proceed—I must first notice'one 
line in the leading article of this April No, on the 
Culture of Horse-Radish. —Many of your readers 
will at first be led to believe that the depth (“ 2k 
feet”), which you direct the roots to be planted, 
must be a mistake, and that inches instead of feet 
is meant. But although I have never tried it, I be¬ 
lieve you are correct. Other authors direct the same 
depth. 1 think there is no mistake. Let it be tried 
as you direct. 
Farm of General Johnson.-— “ This is said to be 
the only farm on Long Island remaining in the same 
family.” This I don’t understand. Do you mean 
to say it is the only farm in possession of the family 
descendants of the original proprietor? [No; but 
the only one that has not been more or less divided 
among heirs.] You say “ he raises no ordinary field- 
crops, except for his own consumption.” Can or¬ 
dinary field-crops be cultivated on land that will 
rent for $30 per acre ? [Perhaps not except on ex¬ 
traordinary occasions. But General Johnson chooses 
to raise his own family supplies. His desire is not 
so much to make money as to live easily and 
comfortably.] If so, then cultivators of the great 
Western Prairies, should grow rich—particularly 
as they need no manure. 
In describing this farm you should have told your 
readers what was the nature of the soil. [A light 
loam with a considerable quantity of loose stone 
in it.] 
It appears strange to me that cultivators of land 
in the vicinity of New York city should continue 
to prefer street-manure when so many fertilizing- 
substances could be obtained in a more condensed 
form. The waste of the glue-manufactories men¬ 
tioned in another article, for instance. 
Lard-Lamps —The best that I have ever used 
are Arthur’s of Philadelphia. He should sub¬ 
scribe to the Agriculturist for this puff. I don’t like 
to dispute your correspondent, but I must say that 
“ any kind of lamps will” not “ do as well.” I 
wish somebody would construct a table for the Ag¬ 
riculturist that would show us at a glance which is 
the most economical light, at given prices of tallow, 
lard, oil, and as many other substances as he pleases. 
On Manures , No. 3.—Judge Beatty says, corn 
is sometimes cut up and hauled off of the cultivati- 
ble land, and fed upon woodland, &c., where all the 
manure is lost. He might have said that the waste¬ 
ful practice was one of the most common ones in 
Kentucky. And so far as I have observed, similar 
practices prevail in all the Southwestern States. 
And nothing but necessity will ever work a change. 
Such men never read. Five or six agricultural pa¬ 
pers have been started in Kehtucky, but how could 
they live in a community where more than half the 
cultivators pursue practices that tend constantly to 
waste the soil, instead of improving it. How are you 
to reach the minds of men who do not read ? One 
great error in all the West and South, is owing 
to having top much land. And here in the Let¬ 
ters from the South , No. 5, is an apt illus¬ 
tration of the “ too-much-land” system. For it 
seems that within a few miles of the city of Augusta, 
on the navigable Savannah River, some of the most 
fertile land in the world is lying a waste wilderness 
of tangled vines. And this land too, was once 
cultivated; or perhaps more truly the virgin purity 
of its luxuriant soil was wasted, by some of that 
numerous class who “ take no thought of the mor¬ 
row.” Ah! how peculiarly characteristic of 
Southern farming are those “ numerous herds of 
cattle and swine” “ out to pasture” in those tan 
gled thickets. R. L. A. remarks upon the Southern 
custom of turning out land to rest, after exhausting 
its fertility. Probably the land above noticed was 
“ turned out” and got “ astray,” and has never been 
“taken up” again. It is most truly to be hoped, 
that the example of improvement made by Gov. 
Hammond, and other eminent men, will have an in¬ 
fluence throughout all that region. 
Sumach. —Are your readers at the North aware 
that this shrub grows at the South into a tree so 
large that it is split up into rails ? Such in truth is 
the case to a large extent, on the Yazoo River in 
Mississippi. I have also seen sumach rails in other 
places. 
The Horse , No. 4. —I cannot pass this article 
without commending it to the attention of every 
reader of this paper. If any have passed it by, I 
would earnestly recommend them, if they have any 
desire to study the comparative anatomy of this 
most noble animal, and excellent servant of man, to 
turn back and read it with careful attention. 
The Marl District of Virginia, comprises that por¬ 
tion of the State which lies between the Chesapeake 
Bay and the falls of the rivers that empty into it. 
This paragraph conveys no intelligence to the 
general reader. How great a portion of the State is 
included—Indefiniteness is a great fault of many wri¬ 
ters. 
This article should have given the boundaries of 
the marl district so that any reader could trace it 
upon the map, particularly as we are told at the 
close of it, that not more than one-third of it has 
yet been cleared of the native forest. I have no 
doubt of the value of the marl as a fertilizer, and 
if it would be more valuable in some cases to use 
quick-lime, it is easily made from the marl. The 
manner of doing it is, to mould the marl into the 
form of bricks, and set them in a kiln and burn 
them in the same way. This writer recommends 
lime to the farmers of New Jersey and Long Island. 
Upon a purely sandy soil, it must be used in modera¬ 
tion, or the result will be mortar. But in any soil, 
to depend upon marl or lime to enrich it, will 
prove futile, without grass. The Dutch maxim 
quoted by this writer is the only true one for those 
to follow who would keep up the fertility of their 
soil. Grass is the great thing See page 78 of pre¬ 
sent volume for a valuable editorial article on lime. 
The “ desire to introduce Northern farmers,” will 
do but little good, unless Virginia farmers them¬ 
selves will adopt the system of Northern farming. 
But comparatively few Northern farmers will ever 
settle in a country that is acknowledgedly so un¬ 
healthy that they must “ leave their farms some two 
or three months in a year to the management of an 
overseer.” If they did, the} r would soon contract 
