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CHERAW GAZETTE itt : - fm . ; ?* - . . * AND PEE DEE FARMER. r ltiriT.-r W?1 VOLUME IV. CHERAW, SOUTH-CAROLINA, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 30, 1839. NUMBER XLII. r^==saiS======================Si;sasaBBBis?s J?e EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. T E R M~Ss If paid within three months, - $3 00 II paid within three months after the close of the je&r, 3 50 If paid within twelve months after the close of the year, ...... 400 If not paid within that time, . 5 00 A company of eight new subscribers at the same post office, whose names are forwarded together, and accompanied by the cash, shall be I entitled to the paper for $20; and a company of fifteen new subscribers for $>30. . No paper to be discontinued but at the option of the editor till arrearages are paid. Advertisements not exceeding sixteen lines, inserted for one dollar the first time, and fifty cents, each subsequent insertion. Persons sending in advertisements are requester .o specify the number of times they aro to be inserted; otherwise they will be continued till ordered out, and charged accordingly. CD3The Postage must he paid ou ajl coaunu. sieaUoqs^ 4i r < giaB B r",i eg _ fittfrtrettent of Wern?Ovt Land. To the Editor of the Chetaw Gazette. Sir?With jour permission I will occasionally occupy a small space in your paper with such hints and sugg stions as may from time to time occur to me, and may be deemed interesting to your Agricultural read. rs. It may be a trite, hut it it nevertheless a very true remark, that every man knows something which it would profit others to learn. In confirmation of this I have heard it affirmed of a very distinguished individual* of this section of country, that he had never conversed with any man upon tho sub. jeot of Agriculture, that he did not learn some, thing from him. Emboldened by such authority, I will suggest what seems to me a very economical mode of improving worn out land, and ameliorating, in the highest degree, that which is stiff and unkind of culture. Sometime between the first and middle of October, sow down with Ryo at the rate of about a neck and a half ner acre. dIoupIi. ? ' c m ml is oven, to a food depth. If it be stubble land and has lain out for several years previous, it should be first thoroughly cle nsed of all roots, briers, &c. and then burnt. Land in this con dition should have two ploughing ; the first a very deep one about a month previous to the owing of the rye; when it is in full bloom, then sow on tho common cow peas, and turn all un- ? der carefully and thoroughly. In the fall before fructification has commenced with the peas, it should be laid off with a ten inch shovel plough, Ihe distance required for the rows, (whether for corn or cotton) and well bedded with the dagon or cutter. Early the next spring, reverse theee beds and plant upon them. This process won Id certainly yield a profitable return upon any land, however poor it might be, and upon some of our stiff and impermeable claps the production would be double. The enriching qualities of these two green crops would bo very great, if turned under when they ought to be; that is, before the period of fructification. Chaptal says in an article "on the effects of plants upon the soil,** that "it is well known to farmers, that ploughing in a green crop of any kind whatever, prepares the oil for producing well without any other manure ; since, by this process, all that the aoil has yielded is returned to it with some additions, resulting from the decomposed principles of air and water, which are contained in me pi&nis." The reasons why I have selected rye and the cow pea aro, that they grow upon any soil, pro. duce succulent vegetation, transpire but little, and henoe make an entire return to the soil.? Every planter, whether groat or small, could manure at least a portion of his lands in this way, which would enable him to use more freely his compost in other places. ABATOR. The late Gov. David R. Williams. From the American Farmer. NEA T CA TTLE ?Different breeds adapted to different circumstances? Which best suited to the Atlantic States ??At some more leisure moment, we will submit, more in detail than we have time to do now, our imnrpssiocK in resoect of the different races of cattle, and the better adaptation of one or another, to different circoms ances nnd different parts of the country, it is a subject on which we profess to have read much, to have reflated not a little, and to have had some experienr e ; and without stopping now to give all the reasons which lead to it, we will yet express, for what it is worth, our opinion, that for tho tide-water, slave.holding, corn, wheat and cotton country, with its indifferent pastures and not very careful management, what in England is called the North Devon cattle aro best suited. This is probably, the popular opinion, but with us truth, we trust, or what we believe to be truth, will always have pre., cedence of popularity?Value so often con. ' sists in quantity, that in the public estimation it is too frequently confounded with it? Laigeat and best areBpplied synonimously in many cases where it would be nearer the truth to say the larger is the worse, and this is emphatically true in numerous instances with reference to domestic animals. To peak particularly of cattle?meaning neat cattle, there are various points of view in which the subject is to be considered; and chiefly; the principal uses the breeder has in view, and the kind, quantity and value of his means of subsisting and rearing them. In Kentucky or Ohio for instance, the breeder's object is almost exclusively beef, or at least in very large proportion to the capital invested in his cattle?With a herd of one or two hundred, sometimes more, be has occajion for no more oxen and no more milk and butter, than has the planter of Maryland, Virginia or the Carolines, who keeps not more than twenty or thirty head. With the former the great, the almost ex. 1 elusive object is, to turn his redundant crops of corn and grass into the greatest quantity j1 of meat, in the shortest possible time; to be barreled up or sent on the hoof to market; and for that object it must be conceded that ' the improved short horn, commonly called 1 the Durham breed, or the half breed between 1 the Durham &u/?and the best common stock, is the best. They, with abundance of rich food, will give much more beef ofgood quality in much shorter time, than any other race; hut with the planter and farmer of the tide* water slave.holding region, where grass is not so abundant and corn too near to market and too high to warrant its being turned into beef; ihe case is essentially different? Hence their herds are comparatively small, and more equally divided if we may ray so, in the uses we make of them between the yoke?the shambles?and the dairy?and tor these three purposes, taken logctner, in reference to the importance of each respectively, in the economy of a tide-watej idave-holding estate, we consider tto? Devon as having decided claims to preference over the short horn, and think it probable that the Ayrshire, which we apprehend may be re* garded as the short horn in miniature, is en. titled to rank next to the Devons under like circumstances. The short horn may be considered an artijicial made up breed, manufactured with great care, after many years, and with strict and we may add scientific reference, to all points and properties external and internal. To keep them up to the same degree of ex. cellecce to which they have been thus brought by great skiil in the choice of breed, ing s ock and high feed, will require great vigilance, extraordinary judgment, and the best keep. Under any falling off in these guarantees and precautions, it may well be expected that deteriora ion will immedi. ately ensue.?The coarse points of the large boned fill.pail thin.n.iik Holstein race, relied on by the milk-sellers of London, and form* ing principally the basis of the improved breed, afn*r having been worked out, or mode to dip as it were under so much care and skill, will, when these are relaxed, reappear on the surface in all their deformity. Nothing but a continuance of that assiduous attention and nice selection to refine the breed, can keep it from, as it were, fying to ptece*; whereas the Devon is of itself a dts. inct race, uniform and beautiful in its colour, and marks of middling size, head and limbs bony and delicate, giving very rich milk, next aftor the AlJerney, but not often in extraordinary quantity, fattening very kindly, giving beef of fine quality, and fur ihe yoke excelling all others, as lo quickness and docility. We sometimes read, it is true, of great quantities of milk given by improved short horns* For ImUhuwThe Philadelphia U? S. Gazette gives as the result of the milking of a short horned Durham cow, during the week commencing 27th May and ending 2d June, 7 days, 194 quarts, being within a fraction of 28 quarts per day, ana from which were made 251b. butter of the fiat s! quality. And still better are the good doings of the Dairy Maid,' the property of Jas. Go wan, of German to <vn, who gave in 7 days, from 5th to 11th June, 198 12 quarts, being an average of more than 28 quarts per day? butter net yet ascertained. The next week's 1 milk was expected to be greater, from improved feed ; tho feed of the past week was pasture, with a basket of grass morning and evening cut from a head land of a grain field, except on the evenings of the last three days, when a handful of chopped corn, with shorts from the hny.mow was added Dairy Maid is a beautiful rosn, of the improved shorthorn Durham stock, bred by Mr. Whitaker, of Yorkshire?imported last fall, and in point and proportions is said to have no superior. Her pedigree, which may be found in the 3d volume of the Herd Book, is inferior to no cow on record. When it is considered that the short horn cows gonerully cost upwards of $500, it may be taken lor granted, that they are not put off with any thing like the commoo keep i that wou'd be given to ordinary country cows that would cost not more than $40 or I $50, or Devon cows that may be had for an hundred?yet as to mere quantity of milk, we have known a small red and white cow 1 orthe "country breed" from Adams Uounty, Pa., property of Mr. Gregg, of Franklinstreet, Baltimore, to give thirty-two quarts n day, and have heard of a cow of no extraordinary family pretensions, belonging to Mr. T. F. B. of Upper Marlbro,' giving even more than that; and there are cows in the herd of Devon Cattle on thf* estate of George Patterson, Esq. near Sykesville, (perhaps the most uniformly alike fat sleek deep mahogany red coloured and beautiful pon of cows to be found in any country,) which have this summer given 12 and 13 quarts at a milking. To sum up, in a few words, the grounds of preference of the Devon over all other cattle for all the country east of the mountains, it may be said, that for size, hardiness, and dairy properties, they are at least equal to our country cattle, while for beauty they are fer superior, being all of the same deep rich morello cherry colour, with a clear white handsomely tapering horn, and white brush to the fail, with sometimes a little white on the udder, while for richness of milk they are superisr to our common cattle, and for easiness to be broke, and qnick motion under th**yoke they are proverbial. Finally they fatten early and quickly, and will keep up to the mark with c*.erseer and negro treatment and short rations, under which the pampered short horn bo early to maturity and so valuable on the rich prairies of the west, would degenerate, and a8 we said before, soon By to pieces ! Advantage of Soiling Horses. With respect to the advantages of soiling horses on green food, in th** yard or stable, it seems to be now generally understood that, with proper management, they can now be supported with great vigor; its economy*, however, must depend on the proportion which it bears to the price ofdry food, and its convenience to the quantity in which it can be spared for other cattle. It is a very old, though by no means a universal practice,* and the experience of hundreds of farmers proves that horses maintained in that manner for years have neither lost flesh nor strength sufficient for all farming purposes, although there wa?no pulpable saving of their work, and though afterwards placed on dry food tWing the winter, they continued in peHpct health. It is an excellet plan to give soft? green food along with the corn and bofore the usual period of feeding on dry fodder ; the change from ary to green, and again from green to dry food, should be gradual. In its commencemen , theclov?*r or tares should be cut, and mixed in small portions with straw* and a proportionate quantity of corn should be reduced. The green food is insensibly increased, until the rnrn is pntirelv omitted, and the QUBntitV of green meat is supplied without limitation: it should, however, be cut overnight* and given only in smuil quantities gradually in. creased, to guard as much as possible from accidents, which may arise from its succulence by hoving. When horses are soiled, they never should get much at a time, a practice far too prevalent among servants. The summerfeeding of hones wus form, erly confined to pasurage ; but of late years the practice of soiling has become very general. The bonefit of grazing consists in its requiring little attendance; and being tiie most natural, and therefore the most healthful, it is preferable for all youog cattle which can be spared from constant labour, and on farms which contain a con. siderable portion of rough pasture. But for horses at regular work, these advantages are counterbalanced by the time lost in getting them up t'rom the field ; the indisposition to labour which they acquire by being at large; and the annoyance they suffer from heat and flies when turned out in the day-time. The value of their dung and urine is also in a great measure destroyed by being scattered upon the surface of the ground, and exposed to exhalation from the sun and wind ; and there is much waste of grass, and injury done to the mellowness of the soil, if it be valuable land, by the treading of all heavy stock, but especially the horses. Th*? muling Consists imm More economical consumption ofgrass, whether natural or artificial, than by graz^ ing ; in the accumulation of manure, and in the quiet and coolness which the cattle enjoy under sheds, or in the stabh', during mid-day, as well as their being always ready when wunted ; the only disadvantage is the xpense of cutting and carrying home the grass, against which may be fairly set the inrrpn&p nf manure, if exDense be really in ...v.?^ - I ? curred; but as, during lumiser, there isusunil!y long interval of rest' between the morning and afternoon work, the carters can then cut the necessary quantity, which may be drawn to the homestead by one of the team horses, if there should not be a supernumerary one left for odd jobs. When, however, the economy of thp practice is not the chief consideration, horses on summer work may be both grated and soiled. They may be put on dry clover in the middle of the day, between yoking* arid turned out during the night int > a well sheltered meadow or enclosure. In being kept under cover during the heat of the day, they will be sheltered (rom flics, and will feed more at ease ; and in being pastured out during the night, they will also have an opportunity of selecting those grasses which act as condiments and arc most agreeable to their palate. All animals like variety of grasses, selecting always what is most palstable, which they cannot do when soiled, particularly if fed on cut clover or tares. Exposure to the night air is also found to be highly favourable bo:h to their health and appearance. The economy of soiling, wherever jt can be conveniently adopted, is. indeed, too generally admitted to need the support of argument ; and particularly oa soils on which turnips are entirely consumed on the ground, Dr on which they cannot be grown, and where consequently there is difficulty in con verting the straw into manure during the -- - o winter, it cannot be too strongly recomnwnJed. But it requires a succession of green crops; and as only the artificial grasses are resorted to in England?though in many wrts of the continent the meadows are mown for that purpose?it is necessary that winter and summer tares should be sown *t different periods, so as to afford a conitant supply, both before clover comes in, ind after the first crop is off. This is a sjreat impediment to the practice in Scotland,1 ind some of our northern counties, where ares are an uncertain crop ; though cattle ire certainly soiled with great advantage, ^>oth there and in other places, on clover ilone. In other situations too, farms, on itrong clayr frequently contain a large por. ;ion of meadow, und grazing being combined with tillage, the whole of the straw is consumed in the winter ; in which case one j( the chief advantages of summer soiling would be lost, ns yard dung, without the, addition of straw, is of very little value. But J even in this instance, or ioothers where the * It is mentioned in a treatise on Agriculture jntitled uHarlib,a Legacy," so long ago as 1650, ?. 245. distance of the fields from the homestead may be opposed to the carriage of the grass, it is better to cut it daily, and give it on the ground in pens, or small enclosures hurdled off, so as to prevent the cattle from injuring the growing crop, tnan to allow them to range over and trample it. By confining them in this manner to a small space and moving the hurdles forward as the grass is eaten, the fertilizing properties of the dung k and urine, which would otherwise be lost, are in a considerable degree preserved ; and if the land be immediately ploughed, it will be nearly as much benefitted as if it were more regularly manured. The artificial grasses used for soiling are the same as those already enumerated as hay, but here tares take the lead, both be* cause the winter species is earlier ready than any other, except rye.grass, and affords u ?<ught?r crop. In most seasooa, tare* *tl% ready lor the scythe to Wards the middle > of May, for if left tilUhey are quite ripe they will become unfit for soiling before the crop can be used ; and although there may be some loss in using them so soon, it will be compensated by the saving at the latter end, as well as by commencing the soiling sooner than would be othorwise practicable. Before thev are off. clover will be ready ; the tares still standing may then be made into hnyf and by the lime the clover is becoming strawy, and losing its succulence, spring tares will come in, which, if they have been sown at intervals of ab< >ut a fortnight each, will last until the second cut of clover; or, if spring-tares be not sown, the growth of part of the clover may be checked by light early feeding. There is also an excellent fashion regarding soiling in Dorset* shire, which consists in saving a portion of rye alone, to be cut green ; then another portion of rye with tares ; and afterwards the remainder entirely with tares : the rye comes first into use, and assists in raising the earlier tares,-?while those of latter growth do not require any such nursing* Thus horses may be kept upon a succession of green herbage, without touching the meadows, throughout four months of the sum* mer and autumn, and while thus fed, require very little corn ; when stirring the fallows, and during tne hurry of harvest, a couple of feeds u-day may be serviceable, but more is unnecessary, and at other times should be wholly omitted. The mention of/uceme has been omitted, although extremely valuable for soiling, be* cause it requires a peculiar quality ol land, and is not commonly cultivated. In the Essex report, it is and, that two horses have < supported during four months upon a quarter of an acfc, with scarcely any thing given to them besides ; and that six horses, on hard work, have been kept on lucerne instead of hay. but with an allowance of oats and chaff for twelve weeks?six from the first cut; four from the second ; and two from the third ; which, vulumg the hay saved at 3s. per horse per week, woul 1 amount to 10/. 16s.* A paper in the communications 'to the Board of Agriculture also states that, in one year, twenty-three horses have been X&iJt.weofy weeks, and in the next, twenty* oiffht horses durfnt? eighteen *c?k>. urmn o o * v ?r ""j eleven acres alone , which gives an average of three roods per horse in nineteen weeks, f It is also extensively used on the coast of Normandy, and in the neighbouring islands of Guernsey nnd Jersey ; but it is there said that horses, particularly those used for the saddle, require more precaution from overworking, when first going out of of the stable, than when fed on other hay ; and, wlia' is singular, that, when soiled on green lucerne, there is not the same danger.^ In Holland and Flanders, where the feed, ing of cattle is supposed to be better understood than in most places the summer soiling of larm horses is limited to half an acre of m ado w grass, cut nnd carried to the sto.. hies, from the middle of May to tho middle of June ; from which lime to the end of August one sixth of a.i acre of clover is added, with 2lhs. daily of beans ; and from thence (o November, when the winter feeding commences, the clover is replaced by an equal qnantity of carrots. From the number of horses stated, in this instance, to be kept in proportion to the tillage?11 to 150 acres of alluvial soil?their labour can however be only light; though a pair is said to draw a ton and a half of manure in the field, and three tons upon pavement.} Accounts have been also published, show, ing that horses may be regularly worked mrougnout ins summtT, 111 uns cuuui?\, without any corn ; thus greea crops, consumed by soiling, are said to go four times as far as when grazed ; and that, in this manner, one acre of clover is equal to six of meadow pasture. But many of these statements rest only on opinion, or upon insufficient data, and in a'l, so much depends on the state of the crop, the size and health of the animal, and the work performed, of which the account is generally imperfect, that no safe conclusion can be drawn from them : it is therefore unnecessary to reter to them ; nor is the cause which they are meant 10 promote assisted by being advocated upon any other than its real merits. A * Young's Surrey of Essex, vol. ii. pp. 71, 72. + Vol. vii. Art. 25, "Part I. t Quayle's Surrey of the Islands en the Coast of Normandy, p. 117. ? Radcliffo's Report of the Agriculture of East and West Flanders, p. 216. Another farm of 200 j acres mentioned in the same Repo** is cultivaltd j by eight horses, each of which get daily, in win- j ter, 15 lbs. of hay, 10 lbs. of straw, and 8 lbs. of oats; and aflor every feed a bucket of water 'richly whitened with tyo or oatmeal;* in summer clover issubstituted for hay, but the other feeding Domains the same, end the 'white water* is never omitted, p. 54. , medium-steed farm-horse, at customary labour, consumes from 84 lbs. to one cwt. of green food daily, with an occasional allowance of corn. Now a good acre of tares, or of broad clover, will weigh twelve tons (that is presuming the tares to be cut only once, and the clover twice ; * for although winter tares may be cut again, it is more usual to get them ofT the land as soon as possible, either in order to sow turnips, or to form a bastard fMlow); and taking that weight as the average of both, and the consump'ion at the highest rate, half an acre of either would support a horse during four months. This nearly accords with some instances in the county surveys; in o'hers, more have been consumed, and, for the reasons already stated, it is neat to impossible that any two accounts should ngree ; but, upon a rough estimate, it may be affirmed, Uhat about a perch per day will be required for each horse in most seasons, and *on most kiijds of land, if soiled, and that double that quaiajfty will be necessary if pastured.f It must however, be borne in mind that the difference in the degree of succulence contained in various grasses, must necessarily have a material influence on the state of the cattle by which they are consumed. Of this farmers are generally pretty well inAithos tk*/M1?vk tkni'a A am. lUllliruy Ciuroi UllUUgll llicift UW(| UUoDI va* tion, or by the experience of others; but an accurate acquaintance with the subject was not attained until the experiments made at Woburn. by which Mr. Sinclair has been enabled to ascertain the quantity of soluble nutritive matter afforded by all those grasses which constitute the produce of the richest ancient pastures, as well as those of artificial growth. The custom of giving corn along with green meat is unprofitable; for the grain, thus mixed, passes rapidly off the stomach, and is never properly digested. When, however, increased exertion demands an addition of more substantial food, and that corn is also allowed, it should be given only in the morning and night, accompauied with a sufficient quantity of chaff to afford it consistence, and green meat should only be given at mid?day. Farmers very generally omit that precaution, and it is a common custom among them to allow half the usual quantity of corn, without regard to the effuci >f the watery juices of grass upon the dL gestion ; but they may be assured that a great portion of the nutriment contained in the grain is thus wasted. British Husbandry. * From an experiment made at Wobant, th< green weight of an ecr j of broad clover was fount to be 49,005 lbs*a21 tens, 17 cwt. 2 qrs, 5 lbs. but the soil is described as rich clayey loam, ant the crop cannot be assume 1 as an average. Set Sinclair's Hortus Gramineus Wobernensis ; ant the Appendix to Sir H. Davy's Elements of Agri cultural Chemistry. tin one instance it is stated that twenty horsei have been supported :or three months on 6 acre* ef tores (Rutlandshire Reperts, p. 71); and it another, that 51 head of cattle?cowp, oxen anc horses?were kept during that period, on 15J acres of mixed hetbage; or, in each about hal; a perch per day. [Comm. to the Board of Agri culture, vol. via. part 1, art. 1J. A third mentioni that 12 horses and 5 cows, which, together, ma] be considered equal to 18 horses, consumed in tta same time, or 3 qrs. and k. 32 of a pereh eacl daily (Middlesex Report, p. 257); and a fourtl states the allowance of pastured tares, for 1! horses, to be an acre per week, or nearly 2 percl each day. (Essex Report, vol. ii. p. 354.) From The Cultivator. On the Application of manures. Fredericksburg, Va. June IBM, 1839 J 13uel?Dear Sir?In your paper foi the present month, I have read the following intimation ; "asubscriber wishes Mr. Garnet's opinion of the best method of applying manures to landand presuming that J am the p< rson meant, I avail myself of the earliest opp-rt unity io evince my w.lling. ness to graiifv him. But as no man's mere opiuion on such subjects, is worth any thing without the facts and reasons upon which it is founded, I shall take it for granted, thai he desires to hear both, and will therefore state them together. Whether your subscriber means by the 'term "manures" all things commonly sc called, or only putrescent substances, I I have had but one opinion for a long time in regard to their application, and this hai been confirmed all my subsequent experience, each year adding something tc the great mass of constantaneous facts.? When my attention was first turned to this subject, some thirty-five or forty years ago, I hud adopted, but without examination, the notion then most common amongst us, thai II was oesi tu ici an puircstcui uiuuui^o ? well rotted first, and next, to bury then deep, either by the plough, spade, or hoe. This notion, like the common law, was sc old, that44 the memory of man extended not to the contrary but happily for us all the revolution had broken the entail ol opinions as well as of landed estates, and lef us at liberty to think and act for ourselves. The natural consequence of this increased freedom was, the introduction of many new practices in the arts, as well as in govern* ment; and agriculture came in for some small share of these benefits. Among them, was the application of putrescent manures to the surface, and in a much less fermented state than had ever been tried before. But so dreadfully afraid were the first experimenters of the formidable laugh of that onco numerous family, 44Tii? Goodenoughs," that they made their trials, as it were, by stealth ; and consequently, jhe results remained, for a long time, unknown, except to a few. I happened te be among the number, and could noi long resist the evidence of my own Moses, although I must confess, that f* fir#* it -ft teemed to me a tort of sacrilege, even to doubt, and still more to act, io direct opposition to an opinion which, for aught I k. ov, bad descended from Triptolemus himaeiC By degrees, however, my courage waxed stronger and stronger every year, until I fe)t myself brave enough to commence the following experiment, which several eld farmers in whose veracity I perfectly confided, had assured me they had often tried, and always with the same result, as (hat which I am about to report in my own case. ' I began penning my cattle late in the spring, and continued it until frost, in pens of the same size, moped at regular intervals of time, and containing the same number of cattle during the whole period. These pens were alternately ploaghed, and left unploughed, until the following spring, when all were plaoted imcorn, immediately followed by wheat. The seperiurity of both crops on all the pens which had remained un* ploughed for so many months, after 'be cattle had manured them, was just as dts J ? J? % / | 1 linctiy maritea as 11 ine,omain^|iencM naa continued standing . it was too plain tp ad. mit even of the slightest doubt. A near neighbor, a young farmer, had made die samo experiment, on a somewhat different soil, the year before, but with results pre* cisely the same. Similar trials | myself have made and seen made by others with dry straw, alternately ploughed in as soon as spread, and left on the surface uritil the next spring. In every case the last method proved best, as far as the following crop would prove it. The same experiment has been made by myself and others of my acquaintance, with manure from the horsestables and winter-farm pens, consisting of much unrotted corn offal; and without a , soli'ary exception, either seen by me, * , heard of, the surface application, after the corn was "planted, produced most manifestly, the best crop. Upon these numerous, concurrent, and undeniable facts my opm? ion has been founded, that it is best to apply manures on the surface of land; and "| guess," (as bro'her Jonathan would say,) that is not likely to change, unless indeed, 1 I should hear still greater number, equal, ly well authenticated, on the opposite side j although I must say, that up to the present time t have not heard a solitary one. True 1 it is, that I have read many ingenions, fine 1 spun arguments in opposition to the opinion which I hold in common with numerous other agriculturists, but no proofs whatever have accompanied them, and therefore I ? must remain aninfidel,until they are sustajn. 1 ed and corroborated by such facts, as should | always be deemed mdispen#*bhr to caub. , lith any practice whatever, in any of the I various branches of husbandry. To col. iect these facts is a slow, and most tedious process, not very flattering to that pride of [ opinion who delights in speculative theories , of our own elucidation, and sickens at (he I mere thought of the labor necessary to make, t to watch, arid to record accurate experif m.al. in Dltripilltnm ?n nn other wnv. f II It'III <9 III u^iiwui'uri --w ? , | think, can we account for those differences , of opinion as to matters of practice, found. b among Tour brethren, where all the facts are 1 on one side. But to refuse to believe in 2 that which we cannot explain, unless m , some way that tickles our own vanity, gave rise ro the sect of sceptic philosophers, and it is to be feared, will keep up the breed as long as the world stands. Let me not be here misunderstood. Far be it from me . to object to theory and speculation, provrr ded the sole object in concocting and main. r taming them, be to arrive at truth. As this . should be the aim of all, I am in favor ef r the utmost latitude of discussion in the hon[ est pursuit of it. But 1 do, and will forever j protest against that practice which i* far . too common amongst us, of regarding plaui stble scientific conjectures, so much mo'e ; than the actual resui * o experiments fairiy i and accurately made, as not onfrequently to t indulge our fancies with the former, even in ) direct opposition to the latter. Take, for example, the two conflicting creeds as to-the i best mode of applying manures, and test > them by the uniformly concurring results ! of the several experiments which I have stai ted. Ail these results undeniably prove, i (hat the surface application was best; al. . t ough the kinds of manure differed considi erably. And what have we m opposition. any facts whatever ? Not one ; end only t the conjecture, that the evaporation from / , surface spread manure must carry off the i greater and best portion of the food of plants t therein contained. But that such evaporai tion cannot thus act, seems to me to he tini questionably proved by every fact J have , mentioned : lor, if tt did, then the land pf i summer cowans ploughed up at soon as t removed, would, in evety case, have pro, duced better crops, lhaii that of the tinF p/ouhed, instead of doing it in none. 8iml ilar results too must have followed in the , other cas? a I have stated, although J have I never seen nor heard of their doing it iojfany. - The effecis however, which rtdVp hove token place (iacts though th? y undeniably \ are,) happen to contradict, as plainly as we see the nose on a man's face, certain preconceived fictions, or ingenious theories if you please to call them so?quoad maI nures?in the propagation of which much i paper and 'nk has already been consumed, i much head work is siiH employed; and ( what is to be done f ShaHaH this labor, , all the ponderous volumes eh bo rated by it, , all the cpgit. tions in support of thoee theories, which are now taking'the rounds m our i agricultural papers?shall wM be discarded l as things serving only ioehosr how much , fonder men are of their own-speculatioes, tj than of facts the occurrence pf which hrtngs