1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
119 
more perhaps than 10 bushels corn per acre. It is 
rather wet, for the crawfish work over two-thirds of 
it. There is about forty acres of it. Can this land 
be made valuable? if so, how? I know thorough 
draining is the first step. What then? Lime costs 
us 40 cents per bushel, delivered, and we have a bad 
market for surplus produce. Under these circum¬ 
stances, I think, I can hardly afford to use lime. 
Would lime have a good effect on such land, for there 
is very little vegetable matter for it to act upon? I 
w T ould give it up to the bushes and brambles, but 
that would be a bad example—and besides, it is in 
the centre of my farm—and of course, an eye-sore, 
that I would willingly get rid of, even at some pe¬ 
cuniary sacrifice. I could, without much expense, 
turn a small stream upon about one-half of it. 
Would not that be advisable? If so, should I suffer 
it to overflow it constantly, or only some few weeks 
at a time, through the year? Would you drain be¬ 
fore overflowing? Would animal manure benefit 
such land much? or would some other manure 
(leave out lime,) do better?—In short, what would 
you do for a soil so uninviting? Give me the mo¬ 
dus operandi. Blaze out a track, and I will try to 
follow it, no matter how crooked. 
While speaking of this part of my farm, I will 
mention that there are several low, marshy strips, 
passing through it, at the depth of 2^ feet from the 
surface. These strips continue soft and miry. What 
materials suit best for draining such a place? I have 
tried stones; but they sink with the superincumbent 
weight and choke up. How would you underdrain 
such land? As to the goneral improvement of my 
farm, I have adopted the following rotation of crops: 
No. 1. 1 No. 2. 1 No. 3. 1 No. 4. 1 No. 5. | No. 6. | NoT?. 
1 yr 1 Corn, | - [ . ■— | Com | . - | ■ | 
Oyr 
Pasture 
Corn 
Oats 
with 
Clover 
Corn 
Syr 
Wheat 
Past’re 
Corn 
Clover 
Oats 
and 
Clover 
Corn 
-- 
4 yr 
Corn 
'Wheat 
Past’re 
Wheat 
Clover 
Oats 
and 
Clover 
Corn 
5yr 
Pasture 
Corn 
Wheat 
Corn 
Wheat 
Clover 
Oats 
and 
Clover 
In this way I give more rest to 4, 5, 6 and 7, than 
1, 2, 3, for the reason that the three last mentioned 
are much more productive, and improve as much 
with one year’s rest as the others with two. Ne¬ 
cessity compels me to cultivate in corn one of the 
river lots and one of the upland. Under this neces¬ 
sity, can I adopt a better rotation? If so, point it 
out. Rapid improvement of the soil is my object, 
without regard to profit. My means of making ma¬ 
nure are abundant—hundreds of acres of woodland, 
plenty of swamp mud, straw, weeds, corn-stalks, 
&c., &.c., with about 70 head of cattle, same num¬ 
ber of swine, 12 or 14 head of horses; and besides 
have Bomm^r’s method of making manure. Apro¬ 
pos: What is the common opinion with you in re¬ 
gard to that method? Could I profitably use it? 
Another question. Where thin upland (clay) ifc to 
remain in clover but two years to be turned under 
for wheat, would you recommend any mowing or 
pasturing the second season? Would it be better 
to let it alone and turn the whole summer crop un¬ 
der? Recollect, benefit to the soil is more my ob¬ 
ject than large crops. Ed. W. Jones. Clover 
Hill, N. C., Jan. 22, 1850. 
White Sugar Manufactory. 
Eds. Culvivator—D uring the past season we 
have, by availing ourselves of suitable machinery 
and apparatus, been able to make our entire crop 
of cane into white sugar, direct from the cane juice; 
and with about the same facility as in the ordinary 
way of boiling in open kettles. 
The mode wo have adopted is similar to that 
adopted in all refineries—by filtrations and concen¬ 
tration in vacuum—principally by the Deronne sys¬ 
tem. The machinery was constructed by the Novel¬ 
ty Works, New-York. 
We have made some in loaf, which has been pro¬ 
nounced very fine; and feel assured, when the mode 
becomes generally adopted, that white sugar may be 
obtained twenty-five per cent less than at present, 
saving thereby to the consumers, a vast amount, and 
to the producers and merchants, the heavy drainage 
of brown sugars—the drainage being an entire 
loss. 
Mr. Melsen’s process has been tried here, but 
anticipations have not been realized. S. Tillot- 
son. New River, La., Jan. 3, 1850. 
Preparing and. Sowing Clover or Timothy Seed, 
Eds. Cultivator —Take one bushel of clover 
seed, put it in a pile on your barn floor. Make 3 
gallons of pickle, not quite strong enough to bear 
an egg, put it on the seed, mix it thoroughly, in the 
evening with a paddle or shovel, and then spread it 
on the floor, 4 inches thick. The next morning, wet 
it again as above; then mix about one peck of plas¬ 
ter, by sprinkling 2 quarts upon it at a time, well 
stirred; spread out your heap again, and so on, till 
you have it so well dried w r ith plaster that the seed 
will not stick together. Sow while the seed is 
damp. One bushel thus prepared will make over 
one and a half bushels. 
The advantage of sowing in this way is, you save 
at least one-third your seed, and are almost certain 
of its growing. In the spring and summer of 1849, 
I sowed in four different pieces, 42 acres in the 
above way, 6 quarts to the acre, not one acre of 
which u missed.” I sowed nine acres in the u old 
way,” viz. the clean dry seed; 6 qts. to the acre. 
On the whole field there may be 2 acres of clover, 
not more. I also sowed 9 bushels of plaster on this 
field ; not any on the other. 
An experienced gentleman told me of this way, 
and that he had seldom if ever missed having plen¬ 
ty of clover, and thick enough too. B. M. Ellis, 
Muncy, Pa., Jan. 23, 1850. 
Timber for Flank Roads. 
We notice by some papers that serious apprehen¬ 
sion is felt that the vast amount of timber used for 
plank road, is likely to render all kinds of wood and 
lumber scarce throughout the county. Let us give 
one moment’s thought to this objection. 
Suppose that every township in the country has 
its plank road—a result which, independently of 
the wood consumed, would add immensely to the 
value of land and prosperity of the whole country. 
This would be a road for say every five miles, or 
one mile of road for every five square miles. A 
good single track, (and few roads need more,) re¬ 
quires about 160,000 feet of lumber; a thousand 
feet are about equal to a cord of wood in weight; 
consequently a quantity equal to 160 cords is need¬ 
ed for every five square miles. The average dura¬ 
bility, including the stringers, is about 8 years; or 
equal to the consumption of 20,000 feet of lumber, 
Drive thy business or it will drive thee. 
