THE CULTIVATOE. 
288 
traveled through your native State of Connecticut. In 
passing north from Hartford, the scene suddenly changed, 
and the houses and barns were either not painted, or 
painted with a dingy red or ochre color, and upon inqui¬ 
ry I found that I had passed the State line, and was in 
Massachusetts. This kind of paint gives a dirty and 
sombre appearance to buildings. Whitewash is a cheap¬ 
er application than white lead, but then it is sooner and 
easier applied, and must be annually renewed. The re¬ 
newal however, promotes the healthiness of the locality 
where it is applied. On this Island, some of the inhabi¬ 
tants, rich and poor, whitewash their houses inside and 
out, and you may see barns and other out-houses, and 
long lines of fences about gardens and along the public 
roads subjected to the same treatment. It promotes clean¬ 
liness and health, and preserves the wood to which it is 
applied. To prevent its being washed off by rains, I 
slack the lime with hot brine, or boiling salt water. 
The want of fencing timber to enclose farms upon 
your western prairies, caused me, in a former letter, to 
propose the propagation of forest trees for shade and fen¬ 
cing. The yellow locust tree you say is indigenous 
there. I also named the red cedar (Juniperus Yirginia- 
asus,) because I had seen in one of the volumes of the 
Cultivator an inquiry for the seeds to be planted on the 
prairies, and I could furnish you with them. Since you 
ihave the locust, why not propogate it from the seed, and 
m a short lime, portions of the prairies will be timbered 
with a valuable tree, and one easily raised. 
But at present, as you have not the timber, farms 
might be enclosed and divided into lots by earthen sod¬ 
ded walls. Some years ago I employed an Irishman 
who divided a field by such an embankment. Taking 
off the sod in the line of his wall, three feet wide with a 
spade, he laid the square portions on one side, and then 
dug a trench, heaping the contents on the other, and 
when of sufficient height, covering the mound with the 
sward. 
Thus, on your prairie lands, where there are no obstruc¬ 
tions from rocks or stones or stumps, and where the 
sward is matted together by many roots, such enclosures 
may be easily effected. Now suppose a site selected for 
a house on a prairie, and one or two acres for a garden 
and out-houses, thus enclosed, and locust seed or acorns, 
or chestnuts or walnuts, planted on the embankment. In 
a few years a growth of young trees would surround the 
premises, add utility to beauty, and tend to fix your no¬ 
mad or wandering population, and lead to other per¬ 
manent improvements. But these, I apprehend, are re¬ 
mote, as long as so much new land lies still farther west, 
which will entice the adventurous pioneers until the Pacific 
ocean arrests their course. Substantial improvements 
cannot take place with a moving population. Farmers 
must have stronger local attachments to effect such im¬ 
provements, and induce others to unite with a laudable 
pride in making the country to smile with an improved 
and flourishing agriculture. 
But under existing circumstances, the prairies would 
probably be turned to best account in raising sheep and 
cattle, converting the grass into beef and wool. Those 
animals, however, reserved for domestic purposes, as a 
few sheep for mutton, and cows for their milk, if kept 
within enclosures, would prevent the necessity of hunt¬ 
ing them up in the distant woodland or on the naked 
prairies, or going without milk and cream as related in 
your last letter, (Jan. 20th, 1844.) 
After the enclosure by earthen embankments of the 
house, barn and garden, as proposed above, would it not 
be advisable to extend them and make a number of en¬ 
closures of several acres each in extent, about and near 
the dwelling-houso, (hat the milch cows and calves and 
sheep should be within a reasonable distance, and easily 
driven up when wanted, and as the pasture became short 
in one field, to be turned into another, while the herds 
of larger numbers were allowed a wider range ? 
The farmers in these parts, where land is dear, labor 
high, and produce low, complain that they are undersold 
in their customary markets by the abundance of agricul¬ 
tural produce pouring in upon them from the cheap lands 
and rich soil of the teeming west. This, though a gen¬ 
eral blessing, is in some cases a local injury. My neigh¬ 
bor who was so skeptical about your cultivating m one 
field 500 acres of wheat or Indian corn, is now inclined 
to sell out and go west. He is much discouraged with 
toiling from year to year and not going ahead. He rai¬ 
ses an ample amount of grass and grain for home con¬ 
sumption, but for several years past, if he wanted to sell 
any of his produce, the price was so low that it did not 
pay the cost of labor and manure. He would lake the 
Cultivator if he was settled in his mind whither he 
should go. His land is worth $100 an acre, but he will 
not readily find a purchaser who would occupy it for 
mere farming purposes, at the -pvesent price of agricultu¬ 
ral productions; but for an amateur farmer it would be an 
eligible location on account of its elevation, gradual 
slope to the water, and its beautiful and commanding sea 
prospect. 
Farewell for the present. I won’t vote for John Ty¬ 
ler, because, among other reasons, he improperly turned 
you out as Post-Master, a situation in which you was do¬ 
ing more good to the cause of agriculture, than he in all 
his administration. Again I say farewell. 
Richmond. 
SCIENTIFIC EXCHANGES FOR FARMERS. 
Messrs. Editors —No class of the community would 
probably be more benefited by a general system of ex¬ 
changes in works of nature and art, than farmers. Be¬ 
sides being the largest class, and as individuals equally 
interested with any other, in general improvement, their 
profession leads them more directly and practically than 
any other, to operating among the works, and of course, 
by the laws of nature. Among the almost endless varie¬ 
ty of specimens in the vegetable kingdom, which might 
profitably be articles of exchange, seeds would be among 
the most instructive and useful; and certainly not less so 
to the farmer than the botanist. Nor would his interest 
be confined to the seeds of plants which are, or may be 
cultivated. As it is frequently useful to know our ene¬ 
mies, farmers-w’Ould often be benefited by a more per¬ 
fect acquaintance with plants which annoy them. A 
knowledge of the classes, or natural families of plants, is 
exceedingly useful to farmers. This can only be acqui¬ 
red by an acquaintance with individuals, in their different 
relations, and especially in their fruit or seeds. 
As an example of the ease and extent to which ex¬ 
changes in such specimens, may be instituted, a proposal, 
a year or two since, in some paper or papers, for young 
people in different parts of the country to collect the seeds 
of plants, embracing forest trees, fruit trees, weeds, &c., 
brought a collection of some thirty kinds from a lad in 
Ohio, to a gentleman in Philadelphia. With the seeds 
were specimens of the leaves directly, or impressions of 
them made by himself, using the smoke of a lamp for the 
ink, and his hand for the press; an excellent process by 
the way, for conducting agricultural exchanges, to some 
considerable extent. The process is so simple, that a 
child of five years can perform it, and as far as the gene¬ 
ral texture and shape of the leaf is concerned, the repre¬ 
sentation is more correct, than can be made by any draw¬ 
ing or engraving. The leaf is used as the type for im¬ 
printing itself. 
In 1785 the government of France sent two men, the 
elder and younger Michaux, to this country, where they 
were employed for eleven years, principally to ascertain 
what trees and other vegetables found here, could be in¬ 
troduced to advantage into that country. It i s s perhaps 
not less interesting for American farmers to know what 
plants from different parts of the world, could be intro¬ 
duced here for their cultivation. And it must surely be 
evident, that the most instructive, economical and com 
plete mode of ascertaining this fact, is by a system of ex¬ 
changes with all parts of the world, in plants, with other 
specimens, both of nature and art. 
In no department of agriculture, probably, have great 
er improvements been made within a few years past, ir» 
none perhaps, are so great yet to be made, as in manures 
In many instances, inexhaustible deposits, before suppo 
sed to be useless, have been rendered instrumental, vir 
tually, in producing a new creation; as they have giver 
to large tracts of land, previously deemed worthless, the 
