LAKE CHAMPLAIN SHELL MARL, ETC. 
53 
Mr. William Montgomery (the father), has spent 
a deal of money in a fruitless attempt to dam one 
of these soft-bank streams to drive a sawmill. 
Failing in this, he would now gladly avail himself 
of one of Page’s patent circular saw mills, but is 
afraid to order one for fear it should prove a “Yan¬ 
kee humbug.” A thousand other men in the south 
are in the same condition of this gentleman. They 
are greatly in want of just such a machine for 
sawing boards, but are afraid to purchase. So far 
as my word will go, I wish to assure them that 
these sawmills are just the thing wanted in a coun¬ 
try where they cannot have water mills, and where 
all kinds of sawed lumber is, as it is here, very 
scarce and dear. Upon every plantation, there is 
already a horse power to which the sawmill might 
be attached at the gin house. 
It is the fear of “ buying a pig in a poke,” that 
prevents a great many of these southern gentlemen 
from buying improved implements and machinery 
that would be of vast benefit to them. Many of 
them continue to use plows that would now be a 
great curiosity among eastern plowmen. Dr. Phil¬ 
ips has done much toward getting improved plows 
introduced among cotton growers. His system of 
cultivation, too, shows his neighbors whose land 
is wearing out, while his is improving, that such a 
soil as this judiciously managed should never wear 
out. 
It is a truth that his crop of cow peas which he 
has often written about in the pages of the Agri¬ 
culturist, appear to me sufficient to give the land a 
good coat of manure. The bulk of this crop must 
be beyond belief, to those who have never seen the 
like. My next letter I hope will be from the sugar 
plantations of Louisiana, provided it ever stops 
raining, so that l can get there. 
Solon Robinson. 
“ Log Hall,” Hinds Co., Miss., ) 
November 22 d, 1848. ) 
(a) One of the editors of this paper, R. L. Allen, has 
travelled extensively through the south within the 
last two years; and having detected this radical de¬ 
ficiency noticed by our correspondent, immediately 
ordered high beams for several sizes of plows, in¬ 
cluding an entire series from the lightest cotton at 
$1.75, to the heaviest sugar plow. These are made 
both by A. B. Allen & Co., of New York, and by 
Ruggles, Nourse and Mason, of Worcester. We 
venture to say, that, including the beautiful self- 
sharpening and sugar plows, lately got up by the 
latter firm, and the cheap, yet well-made and effi¬ 
cient cotton, corn, and sward plows, made by the 
former, there has never been a set of plows con¬ 
structed, combining so much economy and advan¬ 
tage. ^ 
Effects Produced under an Exhausted Re¬ 
ceiver. —Under a receiver thoroughly exhausted 
by an air pump, gold and feathers fall with equal 
velocity; most animals die in a short time, but 
some of those, which are amphibious, live several 
hours; vegetation ceases to grow; combustion 
cannot be maintained ; gunpowder will not explode; 
smoke descends; water and other fluids change to 
vapor; heat is slightly transmitted; glowworms 
emit no light; a bell, when struck, is but faintly 
heard; and magnets are equally powerful. 
LAKE CHAMPLAIN SHELL MARL (?). 
On my father’s farm, is a marsh (one of the 
many in this county), containing manure to a depth 
of from 10 to 25 feet. This manure you may call 
muck, if you please, but I shall dissent, in part, f 
from that term, as I have used what I call muck, 
not half equalling it. Had I time, 1 should be hap- f 
py to tell you ot its excellent qualities, and of the 
grand results from its use. Sandy and gravelly f 
soils it regenerates beyond anything I ever tried. 
It turns the hardest baked clay beds to a beautiful, 
rich, mellow soil. It will forward’ a winter or 
spring crop of wheat at least six days earlier than 
barnyard manure ; and one dressing of it will out¬ 
last three dressings of that manure; besides, it is 
free from all kinds of seeds, or anything that will 
grow on upland. In digging it, the smell is very 
offensive, and it stains or colors whatever it touches 
a reddish brown. This marsh manure [marl % Eds.] 
is principally composed of the remains of vegeta¬ 
bles, bones, and shells. I 
I have thought that if the farmers of Long Island 
would purchase it in lieu of our leached ashes, 
that have laid on the banks of our lake for seventy 
or more years, they would find it more beneficial; 
though the same properties contained in the one 
may not all be found in the other. 
E. Hibbard. 
North Hero , Lake Champlain, Dec. 31 st, 1848. | 
WIRE FENCE. 
If Mr. Peters is correct in saying, in your 
January number, that five strands of No. 11 wire, 
80 rods long, each weighing only 125 lbs., and; 
can be bought for seven cents per pound, and will : 
satisfy us that wire of that size is sufficient for a 
fence against horses and cattle, his communication 
is worth a life-time subscription for your paper, j 
He should be ranked among that class of men who 
are conferring lasting benefits upon their fellows. j 
Will Mr. P. please to favor us, through the me¬ 
dium of the Agriculturist, with an account of the 
size of No. 11 wire, its strength, where it can be 
had at seven cents per pound, and the necessity of | 
heating, as mentioned by him, before painting it.! 
Certainly, if a sufficient wire fence can be made at j 
so cheap a rate (20 cents per rod), it is worth en- I 
quiring into, and should elicit the attention of; 
every farmer in the country. { 
1 live where timber is plenty, and log fences are] 
generally used ; but have for some time been con¬ 
vinced of the waste. Last year, I made more than j 
a mile of board fence with the object of saving tim-; 
ber. I cut the logs in my own woods, hauled them 
from five to five and a half miles to a sawmill, and 
paid $4.50 per thousand feet for sawing, and after 
hauling the boards home, I probably had as much, t 
work, perhaps, to prepare them for a fence, as 1. t 
should have had in preparing the wire. The bill | 
for hauling and sawing alone cost me more than | 
the wire would have cost, according to Mr. P.’s cal- % 
culation. S. T. Warren. * 
Frederica , Del., Jan. 2d, 1849. 1 
Vegetation the Source of Reproduction.-—' 
No plants, no animals—no animals, no manure- 
no manure, no cultivation. 
