1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
369 
(Elje .farmer's Note-Rook. 
Farming in Indiana* 
Eds. Cultivator— There are, perhaps, but few 
of your readers who are, to any extent, familiar 
with farming operations in this region of country; 
and I propose, with your permission, to give them 
a brief account thereof. This county, (Wayne,) is 
one of the first in the State in point of population 
and production as well as in agricultural improve¬ 
ments. It comprises in its eastern portion an un¬ 
dulating beech clay soil, resting upon blue limestone, 
which is accessible for quarrying in many places, 
and its western portions include some rich first and 
second bottom lands unsurpassed in fertility. Its 
first settlers were from N. Carolina and Pennsyl¬ 
vania principally, with a “ sprinkling” of emi¬ 
grants from most of the south eastern States. Corn 
has been the crop as long as it could be coaxed to 
grow, succeeded by wheat in later years. We have, 
perhaps, some of the finest exemplifications of the 
u skinning system” extant—-many of the original 
settlers having cropped with corn after corn until 
it was somewhat probematical whether the yield 
would equal the seed, and finally sold out at small 
prices and moved west, there to run another round 
of u skinning” and starving. This is true only of 
the clay lands, the u bottoms” like the lamp of 
Alladin, still bringing forth at every rubbing, very 
good crops. At this time, but a small portion of 
clay lands remain in first hands, but are now in the 
possession of those who are endeavoring, and with 
more or less success, to restore them to a state of 
comparative productiveness. We can now number 
two or three who use the sub-soil plough, in con¬ 
nection with barn yard manure, leached ashes, 
charcoal, &e., making these same exhausted lands 
produce 25 to 35 bu. of wheat per acre, and 75 to 
100 bn. corn. Others again are ploughing 3 horses 
abreast 8 to 12 inches deep with the best success, 
in many cases nearly doubling the crops of the three 
inch style of ploughing, while hundreds of others 
are watching these results, and, like king Agrippa, 
are (e almost persuaded” to be (Christian) farmers. 
The want of good agricultural implements has 
been, and is severely felt here, allhough no part of 
the country would pay better than this for their in¬ 
troduction. Messrs. Beard and Sinex of Richmond, 
are now manufacturing the “ Empire” ploughs with 
wrought steel mould boards, made with bar shares 
and wrought iron standards, which are superseding 
all other ploughs now in use here. We stand much 
in need of some good drilling machines for wheat, 
gang plows, cheap and effective straw and stalk 
cutters—In short, of farming tools of the best de¬ 
scriptions generally. Any of your eastern manu¬ 
facturers who would like to introduce their articles 
into this State, ean by addressing me, privately, re¬ 
ceive such information as will enable them to do so 
advantageously. Especially are we in want of the 
most improved stock of Cattle, Horses, Hogs and 
Sheep. There is a growing interest in these matters 
here at this time, and some of your eastern breeders 
would consult their interest by sending some of their 
surplus stock into this State. I would very willing¬ 
ly undertake to act as agent for the sale or service 
of stock of any of the improved kinds which might 
be sent here and any of your readers wishing to do 
so can write to me on the subject. We are expect¬ 
ing to have a Morgan horse here from Mr. W. H. 
Ladd of Richmond, Ohio. 
Our season has been one of unprecedented drought: 
We had no rain from corn planting until 19th of 
June, at which time rain fell moderately ; from that 
time until the present, we have not had to exceed 
half an inch of rain. Our wheat crop was one 
of the finest ever raised. Oats mostly very short. 
Hay, hardly half a crop. Barley a failure. Corn, 
a light crop, (the best were ploughed the deepest.) 
Potatoes a complete and total failure—hundreds of 
vines without any appearance of a potato about the 
roots. Early apples pretty fair; late ones small 
and backward in consequence of the drought. Al¬ 
though about seeding time, very little ground is or 
will be ploughed for want of rain. It is really dis¬ 
couraging, many springs and wells having nearly or 
quite failed. W. T. Dennis. Richmond; la., 
Sept. 1st 1850. ___________ 
Minerals in Washington County, N. Y. 
Dr. Fitch, in his survey of this county, observes 
that about 118,000 acres of its surface is underlaid 
by granite rock, which belongs to the same general 
range, as the rock which is so prominent in the 
counties of Warren and Essex. It appears that 
this rock contains valuable minerals. Dr. F. speaks 
of them as follows :•— 
Iron Ore.— Two valuable minerals are being 
furnished to the world at the present day, by this 
rock, from within the bounds of this county, viz : 
iron ore and black lead. Beds of iron ore have been 
opened, both at Mount Defiance and in the north 
part of Dresden, and there is little doubt that they 
occur in all parts of this range from Ticonderoga to 
Fort Ann; but it is only in the last of these towns, 
in the neighborhood of Mount Hope furnace that 
the mines are at present worked to any extent. 
This is the only smelting or high furnace within the 
county, and the company to which it belongs is also 
the proprietor of most of the mines that are as yet 
known in the neighborhood. The furnace is situated 
two miles up Furnace brook from the head of south 
bay, and about a mile from Furnace pond. It gives 
employment to 150 or 200 men and 50 teams, and is 
making some 1,500 tuns pig iron annually. About 
a third of the ore is obtained from down Lake Cham¬ 
plain and the remainder from different ore-beds in 
the vicinity, this admixture forming a better quality 
of iron, I am told, than either ore does separately. 
Graphite.— -Graphite, plumbago or black lead, 
(which is lead only in name, the mineral being com¬ 
posed of carbon with a slight admixture of iron 
commonly, but none of lead,) the material from 
which pencil-points are manufactured and which is 
in extensive use for polishing stoves, diminishing 
the friction of wheel-axles, See., is disseminated 
through most parts of this rock, and occurs in 
abundance in the north part of Putnam, from which 
town is obtained a portion of “ Ticonderoga black 
lead,” which has superseded most of the other kinds 
of black lead in this section of the state. It is at 
present afforded at fourteen dollars per hundred 
weight. Twenty-two thousand pounds! of this 
mineral passed the port of Whitehall in 1834, mostly 
from the vicinity of Ticonderoga, and the quantity 
has greatly increased since that date. Alexander 
Robertson, Esq., informs me that no exploration 
has been made to ascertain how abundant this ar¬ 
ticle is within the town of Putnam—that one of the 
men engaged in this business at Ticonderoga comes 
with his wagon to the north-west part of Putnam, 
digs what he wants out of the rocks, carries it home, 
and when this is sold out he comes again. Every 
housewife will hope that the supply may prove to 
be inexhaustible, so superior is it in its crude, native 
