214 
THE CULTIVATOR 
July. 
Editorial Correspondence—V. 
Baltimore County, Md., May, 1858. 
During a day or two spent in the city, I have 
been indebted to Messrs. S. Sands of the American 
Farmer, B. M. Rhodes, Martin Goldsborough and 
others for attentions. Messrs. B. M. Rhodes & Co., as 
our readers are aware, are largely engaged in the man¬ 
ufacture of a Superphosphate of Lime which has re¬ 
ceived high encomiums from many who have examin¬ 
ed or actually tried it. Every lot is said to be subjec¬ 
ted to analysis before it is offered for sale, while the 
processes of manufacture are carried on according to a 
receipt furnished by Dr. Higgins, recently state chem¬ 
ist. 
A Good Farmer’s Clu/h. 
A narrative of the rise and fortunes of a Farmer’s 
Club, of which Mr. Goldsborough was a long time at 
the head, interested me much, and might form the ba¬ 
sis of similar institutions elsewhere, with those who 
have not yet tried them. On the Eastern shore of the 
state, where he formerly resided, he induced a dozen of 
his neighbors to unite with him in organizing the club, 
and they kept it up together for a number of years, 
finding it throughout productive of considerable mutu¬ 
al advantage, and no little social enjoyment. The thir¬ 
teen met to dine in succession at each other’s houses 
once a month, the member whose turn it was to receive 
the others having the privilege of appointing the par¬ 
ticular day, if desired, through the county paper. As 
was very natural on these occasions, they would walk 
about the farm to see how each was getting on, besides 
devoting themselves to the discussion of questions of 
agricultural interest; and after such tours of observa¬ 
tion, Mr. G. could not but be struck by the opportunity 
they offered for good natured but profitable criticism. 
As he justly remarked, one who does not easily discov¬ 
er his own remissness at home, may prove to have 
sharper eyes for the short-comings of his neighbors, 
while at the same time suggestions from them about 
his management, and from him upon theirs, would be 
kindly received and often advantageously acted upon. 
It was consequently, after some hesitation, resolved to 
appoint a committee whose duty it should be at each 
meeting to examine more particularly into the system 
pursued at the farm on which it was held, the condi¬ 
tion of the buildings, the fields, the fences, &c., and to 
draw up a report distributing commendation and blame, 
where they seemed respectively proper, calling the at¬ 
tention of others to every merit experience enabled the 
writer to discover, and warning the owner of any dis¬ 
advantages or dangers which it taught him to expect. 
These reports were received and discussed, and then as 
a whole, or paragraph by paragraph, they would be put 
to vote, thus distinctly expressing the “ sense of the 
meeting” on each point brought up. 
How such a feature might add greatly to the at¬ 
tractiveness and value of the meetings, any one can 
see : those who thought themselves unable to express 
their views satisfactorily on paper, were by degrees led 
to make the trial, and when it came their turn, soon 
found that the difficulty of writing will in a great de¬ 
gree disappear, when a writer has something he wants 
to say; and the improvement here, and the social in¬ 
tercourse obtained, as well as the results in more prac¬ 
tical directions, were of a most satisfactory and quite 
an important kind. We should add as a hint to any 
readers who may be pleased with the idea of a club, 
made up as this was, of just enough good friends and 
farmers to form a pleasant monthly dinner party, that 
it was found necessary to pass a sumptuary by-law 
limiting the said dinners to one course of plain and 
substantial dishes, in order that they might not lead 
to extravagance, and be an unnecessary burden to the 
housewife of the day. 
Vauxliall. 
Taking the train for Cockeysville on the 19th, I was 
kindly met at the station by John Merryman, Esq., 
now the energetic President of the Maryland State Ag¬ 
ricultural Society. Before the cars came to a stop, the 
evidences began to be multiplied of the one great 
manufacture to which the Agriculture of the whole re¬ 
gion owes its resuscitation and improvement—kilns for 
the burning of Lime—a fertilizer which seems to have 
the power of thoroughly rejuvenating a soil, at once 
rendering it capable of a beneficial rotation, adding to 
the enriching effects of other manures, and driving out 
some weeds of most troublesome character. Of the 
extent to which it has been and is still employed, I 
shall have more to say hereafter. 
We called as we drove along, at the residence of Wm, 
Jessup, Esq., “Vauxhall,” an estate, as we under¬ 
stood, practically and profitably farmed, but where we 
could not stop long enough for much conversation as to 
the system employed, or even to glance at the stock 
upon the place, which, as I had been previously told, 
included quite a flock of fine Cotswolds. Related to 
Mr. Sands of the American Farmer, the results of Mr. 
J.’s experience have been occasionally contributed to 
thot sterling journal, and we understood that some ex¬ 
periments are now in progress on his fields, an account 
of which may there be expected. Mr. J. was quite 
disposed to differ with the views recently expressed on 
several subjects by some of our correspondents, and it 
will not be out of place to renew here the invitation I 
gave him to submit his criticisms to their consideration 
through the columns of the Country Gentleman. It is 
only by the discussion of knotty points, that we can 
hope for the elucidation of the difficulties involved, and 
practice is no less the test than it must be the source 
of all theory. 
Clynmalira Manor. 
After a brief pause at “ Hayfields,” Mr. Merryman’s 
own residence, we resumed the seat we had occupied 
behind the horses for a drive of several miles to the 
extensive estate of Henry Carroll, Esq., a gentle¬ 
man of the old school, if it is pardonable to repeat an 
often abused, but very expressive phrase, in order that 
the reader may share with me, if possible, a welcome 
as courteous and urbane as perhaps we might have 
expected from his ancestors had we called in the days 
of Lord Baltimore or George Washington. Clynmali¬ 
ra Manor includes 2,200 acres, of which the Messrs. C., 
senior and junior, jointly cultivate about one thousand 
—the remainder being in the hands of tenants. The 
property has been in the family since 1704, but only 
farmed for the past 30 years. 
There are this year 120 acres in Wheat, including a 
a fine field of 50 acres of Mediterranean wheat—85 of 
Corn, 55 of Oats, 150 in Meadow, and the remainder 
in Pasture. There are ten or a dozen acres of a very 
plump and handsome kind of white wheat, from seed 
purchased from one of the largest grain growers of 
