University of South Carolina Libraries
' " -*' -"Ifi i jr % . # mm mrnrnnw iLmwimwwm?* ! ..- . .... ,i , mm n I I ill i it? VOLUME VI * CHER AW, SOUTH-CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1S4L NUMBER 39. By M. MAC LEAX. d ? ii TtUMi:?Published weekly at three dollars a c year; with an addition, when not paid within ^ three months, of twenty per cent per annum. 1 Two new subscribers may take the paper at s fire dollars in advance; and ten at twenty. p Four subscribers, not receiving their papers jin town, may pay a year's subscription with ten dollars, in advance. A year's subscription always due in advance. a Paper? not discontinued to solvent subscribers a in arrears. a Advertisements not exceeding 1 f? lines inserted p r one dollar the first time, and fifty cents each ( nbsequent time. For insertions at intervals of two weeks 75 cents after the first, and a dollar n if the intervals are longer. Payment duo in v advance for advertisements. When the number q of insertions is not' marked on the copy, the ^ advertisement will be inserted, and charged til ?rdered out. 0 O" The postage most bo paid on letters to the !<: editor on the business of the office. Jj From the Western Farmer & Gardener. P BOROUR HONEY?MANAGEMENT OF T1EES. }' For many years hv past, Borgue has e been famed for producing fine honey? ii perhaps the finest in Scotland. It is of a t< transparent sea.green hue, and possesses j, an exquisite richness of flavor which is Sj "keenly relished by connoisseurs. What gives it the beautiful color, has hitherto ^ battled the investigations of naturalists; ^ . .. HI % but it is certain that it is clear until the heginningof July. Many of the pasture Si fields in Borgue abound with white clover, 01 nnd in fine dry weather in July, thous- ^ ands of the industrious insects may be C1 heard buzzing, and seen gathering sweets ti from the lime that the dew rises until late U in the afternoon. Extreme dry and d warm weather is unfavorable for pro- o thicing good honey, for the flowers either || never arrive at perfection, or the scorch- (j ing ravs of the sun burn them up. Ex- jj tremelv wet weather is also unfavorable ? for however numerous the flowers of different kinds are, the plashing rains P. wash out what the bees so ingeniously 1 mix in their laboratory, while they are reluctantly confined in their cells. In (t good seasons, as much as one hundred iind fifty pints* of sixteen imperial gills a each, have been produced in Boruue, o: though for some years past, the quantity B has been considerably less; and bee hus- b; bandry is bv no means so generally cul- nj tivated as in former times, when the Z( seasons were more propitious. The f}| eentso* of 1839, was highly unfavor- p| able, and the produce in the parish of Borgue was hut little more than forty .pints; while that of 1S40, which was ^ something better, yielded somewhat more { than eighty. The summer of 1826, was s the wannest that any living person re- w tuemhered, and the most unfavorable for 1,1 " - ^ ?i? r.t.. ft jiroflucing noney. noi oniv in quamuy, * bat in quality; for in that season it was w as dark in the color as what conies from pi the Moors, and wholly devoid of the rich pi flavor that it commonly has. In the win- fr ter of 1833, and also that of many S( hives died of starvation, though at killing fl time each season, numbers of weak ones ^ were taken with the view of preserving jr the lives of the stronger one* in the eh- ^ filing spring; and hence (lie small nntnber ^ of hives that are to he found in the parish of Borgue. fn former times, almost ev- a ery married laborer, as well as each join- ** er, mason, cooper, blacksmith, <&c. had a * winter-sfool; and in the month of the fol- Ci lowing October, the gains of each wouid w amount to from ? 1. 5. to ? 2f besides a o< small quantity for family use, and an old pi hive to breed, and throw off swarms next c< 8ummet, Some of the more extensive s{ cultivators of bee husbandry, used to have {j ? .1 l*t from six to ten winter-s!oois, nnu ineir n gains were iri' proportion. For some years past, few persons in Borgue have 15 had more than four hives that survived the winter; and in tolerably good seasons they throw otFon an average, two swarms each. There are sometimes one, or even tiro more ; but they are commonly weak, and the produce would have been greater r( and finer in quality had they remained i? in the parent stock. In very good sea- V 80H9, the top or first swarm throws off c one hive, and the produce of it is called a virgin honey, which is of a truly beautiful j, hue, and always commands the highest j, price in the market. A virgin hive sel- ^ dom produces more than two, though in jj particularly good seasons, three, or even four pints. In fine summers, the honey * is always much superior in quality, to what it is in unfavorable ones. In sener- a al, there are but few young swarms before Whitsunday; and the greater number are thrown off from the 1st to the 21st of j F June. Sometimes there are a few as late as the last week in July; but unless the season is highly propitious, they do not a gather as much as will preserve them e through the winter, and are smoked in i September. In good seasons the average p quantity from each swarm is probably p three pints, though the top one occasional- n Iv yields from six to seven. If the top swarm is very strong, it is customary to ^ put one, two, or even three ekea\ to hinder it from casting; and in extraordinary fine seasons, from six to eight pints have been produced. In bad seasons, the drones*are -? 1 I Ml 1 I C* iL. y. ^ ,al L'tl'O PfYl N 1 soinenmcs kiiipii neiort? mc mai o?? .? j thrown oft*, which materially injures the j s parent stock; but in good seasons, the j t * The Scotch pint is rqnal to our half-gal- i Ion. <f From Sft to ?10, \ Additions. 1 rones are not destroyed until the hiving i past. Owing to the darkness of the olor and the difference in the flavor, loor honey rates from two to three hillings per pint lower than the finest reduced in the low countries?at least n Borgue. Honey gathered orT heather, nd also ofF the leaves of oak, fir and svcmore trees, is always of a dark color, nd consequently less marketable. It is flowed on all hands, that white clover is | eculiarly rich with materials for proucing fine honey; but it is a mistaken otion that bees also gather from red cloer. The wild, or bumble bee very freuently extracts food from red clover; ut the tame one, owing to the shortness f its proboscis, cannot penetrate. The itter, however, are very fond of gooseerry and current trees, cherry, apple and ear tree blossoms, wild and garden musird, rape, kale, &c. They are also very art m I tn tho flr.iv?r? ttf OTprman tTfCenS. xx.xx.xx, xv xxxv ... e- , ellow clover, and many other wild flowrs, which callous persons pass by with ldiflerence. In some apairies the wri;r of these remarks has seen the, ground l their immediate vicinity delved in the iring, and sown with rape or mustard ?ed. In Borgue, old swarms or winter oo!s, are not removed to the moors, hut re kept in their summer stations. In immer, bees are often found ataconsidrable distance from anny dwelling house mugh how far they fly in search of food innot be accurately calculated. A long me ago, some hives were kept from ten > fifteen years ; but of late they are selom allowed to stand for more than two r three years. A hive that weighs 30 >s. including the sleep, will keep during to winter, and if it is heavier, will most kelv throw ofi' swarms earlier in the nsuing summer; but forseveral seasons ast, some weighing 20 lbs., have with a D Itlo spring feeding with honey, or mel;d sug;ir, hoen preserved, though the prouce is commonly scanty. I bad seasons ie killing of hives usually commences O v bout the 1st oi September; and in good nes, about two weeks afterwards. In lorgue, the way of getting the honey is y digging a round hole in the garden or 4iarv, putting two pieces of wood hori>ntally over the mouth; placing two 'imstone candles in the bottom; then acing the skep right over them, and >vering it over with a sheet. In a short me the bees are suffocated ; and lest on ie following day the rays of the sun muld revive them, they are covered over ith earth ; and thus are they not only nscrupulouslv robbed of their store, hut rue IIy put to death. Fine honey usually eighs from 7 to 7 1-2 lbs. per imperial { int; and in proportion to the quantity reduced, or to. the demand, it brings omsix to twelve shillings. In ordinary -asons, it brings about nine shillings,? lough in very very bad ones, it has been s high as fifteen shillings per pint. The it tor price is very rare indeed. In the eginnirg of October, persons desirous of avingan v stock, repair to the moors, nd purcnasc keeping hives at from fif;en to twentv-one shillings each.? \ 'hough all the moor honey is of a dark i 3for, it is principally consumed during. inter and spring ; and the new honey is: ammonly of .as tine a quality as if the irent stock had been bred in the low imntry. Old hives are sometimes dcroyed hy the white moth, or miller, inugh its ravages ,.i proportion to the j umber of hives kept, are by no meansso J rent as they appear to be in some parts f America. SAM'L. HOUSTON, orgue, near Kirkcudbright, > April 1st, 1841. \ (The preceding communication was jceived from a correspondent in Scotland ! i answer to our enquiries on the subject. lTe were anxious to know if Burgee hony was still as beautiful in appearance, s delicious in flavor, and as highly rized as when we were wont to ramble n our boyish days oiccr the muir am'ing \e heather. We wished to learn, too, ' the secret of its peculiar excellence had et been discovered. We are much indebted to Mr. Houston nd will be pleased to hear from him gain, on such jike topics.) 'rom the Western Farmer and Gardener. MEDIUM SIZZP, VERSUS LARGE HOGS. Mr. Editor;?You are aware that I m now, and have heen ever since 1820, xtensively engaged in pork-packing in his city; and I feel that I may without resumption, lay claim to .iot a little exerience in the business. It is fully as nuch to my interest, and that of every me else engaged in curing pork for rnar;et, as to the interest of the farmer, that he very best breeds of hogs should be catt'Ted over the country. When I first entered into it, the pork irought to us, was produced from the | ame miserable race yet to be found hrough much the greater of the West, t yielded us little lard, and the sides were mfit for mess or clear pork?too thin and ?nly fit for bacon. The first improvement we had was the little chunky China jog?a perfect mass of lard?hams light I and too fat?though the vraste of offal ! was trifling. The next we had was the large Warren county hog, requiring years to mature, and then coming to us of an enormous weight?great waste of offal? the hams too large and badly shaped, as was also the shoulder?and the sides, nevertheless of their great size, were thin in proportion. They were still a great improvement. The crosses of these and the Russian and Ryficld, in the hands of some of the more judicious breeders, pro. duced a very excellent hog?-and we who were the purchasers, were anxious for any improvement on the unprofitable woods hogs usually raised. Though as I nave remarked, so long engaged in the business of packing, I had paid but little attention to the breeding of hogs, though always keeping a fuw of the best I could find on my farm, and improving them to the best of ability. It wag not until some of the part.bred Berkshires were brought to us from Butler and Warren counties, that I was struck with the great improvement they were on any I had yet seen. The perfect manner in which they were fattened?their extraordinary length of body, and the thickness of the side met?their small yet thick, fleshy shoulder?the great weight and handsome form of their hams the great yield of lard, and little waste of offal, either of inside waste, or head and hone, proved'to me that they were a something entirely different and altogether superior to any other breed within my knowledge. On making further enquiry respecting them, I found them equally advantageous to the farmer and drover, as to the pork packer. Prolific and easily kept; maturing early and fattening kindly to as great weights as were desirable ; stamping their own character strongly on any other breed with which they might be crossed ; and travelling well to any reasonably distant market. I had before this been breeding hogs for sale, and seeing at a glance, the great advantage it was going to be to me in my packing business, to have such a hog as the Berkshire in general use, I at once engaged in it largely. u True it is that I cannot give tip mv farm, and my attention and capital, to the breeding of fine stock, without a prospect of meney-making by it; but that was the secondary object I had in view?my pork-packing business was of the first importance to me. I saw and dreaded the efforts that were made to introduce an extrcmelv large hog into n o Kentucky, for I had about this time transferred my pork business to that state, and had gone tovery*great expense in erecting an extensive establishment back of Covington, and intended making my entire purchases in the state. We can make no use in this market, of animals weighing from 400 to 600 lbs., even though they may be well fattened. A hog of the proper form and quali y of meat, that matures at ten or twelve months old, so as to fatten properly, and then weighs from 200 to 300 lbs., is the sort for which we will give the highest price, because it yields us the greatest profit. And most assuredly it will also pay the farmer best. We have no population to supply, thai will consume large, coarse, indifferently cured meat. Our principal demand is for city and family use, both here and in the cities of the south and cast. The ham is with us the most valuable part of the hog, and the celebrity of those cured in Cincinnati is now great. This part must be heavy without being large?round, thick and plump; the flesh, though principally lean yet marbled with fat. Next to the ham the lard and side meat vield the greatest * O return?the former must he abundant in quantity, and line grained ; which never is the case with any hog until he has somewhat matnred?the latter raust carry its thickness throughout, having no thin flanky parts ; and must be fat?and last we rank the shoulder and the jowl! Many of the Boston arid Richmond dealers, and those from the other cities in the East and South, come here annuallt? frt Koi'n rrtoof r\nn1'A/l .fKotr 111 n f*P T |> IU IKIIG IllV^Cll pav^(\^ll ** * |',w,v' such a hcg as I have described, and will huv no other if they can help it. How the drovers, who arc represented as driving to Richmond and Charleston, and as preferring the largest sized hogs, can possibly dispose of such animals there, I cannot understand. Nor how meat of a size that I kn*w from experience, cannot he cured, even with the aid of cool cellars here, can be kept there. surprises me. Think of a pair of hams, Mr. Editor, weighing 14$ lbs. in the climate of Charleston or Richmond or Baltimore ! They would indeed require to he cut in two; and then what a sightly object! Still some regions of country may require a larger hog than others; and to 1 . .1 I * I 1 .1 .1 T"l ! supply inose wno may inink so, ?jr. a. i?. Alleu, now on his way to England, will import for me some of a size sufficient to suit any taste For my own part, and for my use for packing, I want neither an extravagantly large hog, no. yet a very small one. A hog that has to be fed two I winters, never will pay first cost; if he i can be had of sufficient size without wintering fit all, so much the more profit?a 1 spring pig hilled in the fall at '200 lbs. nott, Will evidently pay better than if the I same hog had been kept over winter, and reached the second fall 500 lbs. nett. I have been speaking now as a porkpacker, not as a breeder; and what I have said, I say in all sincerity. I have no desire to injure the business of any other breeder of improved hogs, nor to prevent their continuing their improve, ments to as high a point as they please. But I do regret to see gentlemen of science and experience going back to a large i r?r?nrsp hncr. Miirh no th*? YVnhiirn. Tritth I ev ?? ? " grazier, or Lieoesier, when they can procure a hreed so infinitely superior; the improved Berkshire* JOHS MA HARD, Jr. Cincinnati, July 5, 1841. From the Southern Planter. corn cobs. . Mr. Editor,?'1 am happy to see you and correspondents pressing the value of the corn cob upon our wasteful and extravagant community. If farmers would only attend a little more to this and some other points of rural economy, they . might easily save enough to justify a sys. I tern of improvement which they admit tp he desirable, but from which they are frequently deterred by the want of funds. I am fully satisfied that there are but few farmers in our community who do not* waste more than enough to supply them with the means of effecting improvements, that in their turn would double their means of making others equally as j profitable. | Go upon a large farm m Virginia, ob| serve the niggardliness in providing fences, houses, and fixtures, and the correspondent waste in food, li\bor, and destruction of implements. Compare the management with that of a manufacturing or mercantile establishment, and you see at' once, why agriculture is not profitable, j j Such system, or rather such a want of it, j j would break ddwn any other business in i the world. But I have been dr wn off from the j main object of this communication, which J was simply to confirm the value of corn j cobs, by relating to you a circumstance ! that came within my own kr?o\vlc!grt. In J the winter of 1810 corn was very high, | and Peter Bedlock, of Dinwiddie, who is ! now an independent farmer, was a very I poor man, but an excelb nt manage r.? j Afraid that his corn would not last, he ! determined to try, and did, winter his! horses upon corn cobs alone, pounded in | a common hominv mortar with his own i J hands. They received no other suste. nance except long forage, as hay and fodder. Upon this they did their win. tcr's work, and no man ever saw Peter1 Bedlock drive a poor horse. To this fact I am ready to testify and you are welcome to give my name to any j persou w o may feel sufficiently interea- | ted in it to ask for it. j Yours, J. II. ' | From the Southern Planter. BERKSEIIRES. Mr. Robinson, who is not less remarka- j ble for his practical common sense thnn 1 for the forcible q iaintness of his style, j g.ves the following excellent advice to the breeders of Berkshires: "Experience is an excellent teacner? j as I have been taught a little I will impart it to others engaged in breeding pigs. Great care is necessary with this breed to guard against the temptation to use them too young. They are so large and , fine at eight or ten months, that many ! j suppose they are plenty big enough to | j breej. It is a great mistake. The hoar | j should scarcely he used until twelve months old, and then but sparingly until I eighteen. A sow should never lie allowed : ... to have pigs until a year old, and then : only in warm weather?and it wouid he j better that they were sixteen months old j ?nature cannot be forced with impuni-1 ty. The period of gestation in a sow is j exactly sixteen weeks. Now of mycxpe- j rience?I had two sows last fall on the j passage from Albany, got with pig at j j about four months old. On the first day I | of January, one of the coldest season, one drapped seven and the other two, and as ! the sows had little or no milk, and were ! I too young to mind rheir pigs, all died in j spite ofall that human care could do. "Yesterday, another sow, just one year j old, dropped eight pigs. Sao is one of i the kindest most careful, and sensible ! hogs I ever saw; and as the weather is I warm, are all as live>y as could be wished. It is characteristic ot Berkshire*, that they are great breeders, and fine milkers but do not he tempted to use them j too young. But above all tilings, do not be tempted to do without them. SOLON ROBINSON. i Lake C. H., la., April "2." SUCCESSFUL FEEDING OF SILK WORMS. j < We are gratified to learn that Mr. R Sinclair, sr. of Ciairmont Nursery, neari this city, has been most successful in his attempt at feeding Silk Worms the present season. He fed half a million of worms, nearly all of which have completed their interesting labor of winding their cocoons. No mortality whatever occured during the whole season, and but very few of them died. Nor are we less gratified to learn, that he has realized to the full, the ealcu. lations of profit contained in Roberts' Silk Manual, because we are aware that the statements made by the author of that work, were so made under a co/iscientiojs belief in their truth. In announcing the pleasing result of the labors of our old friend Sinclair, we seize the occasion to congratulate our ago n ricultural readers upon the prospect thue afforded of adding another dnd a most lucrative branch of husbandry to the co.untrv??a branch whose h'essings and.bene, fits we sincerely hope and believe, will, | in a few years, be not only felt but acknowledged throughout our wide-spread land, notwithstanding the drawback it y n ^ received by the speculating mania in the trees.-*? Amer. Farmer. From the Southern Agriculturist. OX THE USE OF LIME AS M VXURE. Mr. Editor:?It is unfortunately a trait in the character of the Southern Planter that he regards all novelties with suspicion. Any departure from the practice of his fathers, or his neighborhood, he considers dangerous, and the generality will deride as vain theory, the efforts of the man who will have the courage to make an innovation upon established precedents, or to violate a rule dictated by one of the partriarrhs of a neighborhood. This causious spirit if united to a liberal enterprise, is highly commendable ; he who possesses it will incur no rash risks, while he willavail himself of all the lights of modern research ; but unfortunately we too generally find the caution without the enterprise.?They sneer of the practical man withers the energy of the enthusiastic speculator, and the old routine of practice continues to he popular because nothing short of absolute demonstration will convince the man of practice that the theorist is not madman. In your editorial career you have suffered from this prevailing spirit. The practical man will not write because, he has nothing new to communicate. His practico is the 9ame now as it was yesterday, and as he thinks it will he to-morrow, and is known to all engaged in the same pursuit. The speculator dare not write, b -cause he knows that the first question ...\\t~U ..fill Ko irhnn lua (iaanv shall WHIHI |T III UTy a.^n\yll IV HVII * Ml v?w.? v have boon rea?l, will bo?What sort of a planter is be ? How "does his practice square with his theory ! If the answer to this question be not satisfactory, he will bo condemned as one who presumptuously protends to teach, while he ought vet to be sitting at the feet of Gamaliel. n " He writes better than he plants." If a more damnatory specimen of faint praise wore over uttered, I have not had the misfortune to hear it. My imagination can conceive of nothing more killing. I am surprised that the Planters of lower Caroline have as yet derived no benefit from the publication of one of the most valuable and practical essays of tho age. (I moan Mr. Ruffin's essay on Calcareous Manures.) Several years have elapsed ~ ^ L ?n/1 n/\f iL'lf lief nn* since 11iinsi puimcmnnif nuu uui v* nuoiuu ding the knowledge that it has revolutioniseil agriculture in lower Virginia, I believe that hifhero not one planter in South Carolina has used lime but as a pretty and useless experiment. The book came out too, at a period when South-Carolina was suffering sev. erely from the emigration of her citizens. Exhausted fields, lying over large beds of lime were deserted, in some instances they were literally abandoned, and at best they were sold as lands hopelessly worn out and their proprietors went to the great Western Valley to seek richer lands, a main feature in the constitution of which was the presence of lime. Notwithstanding the known character of Mr. Ruffin, for intelligence and probity ; notwithstanding the labored details of experiments which teach the readar that he has got among stubborn facts, and not idle theories ; notwithstanding that it is a history of what has been affected in lower Virginia, j a territory differing but little in character and climate from our own, yet the books | which unfolds irs beneficial agency is with j us almost unknown ; the lime remains in its natural bed undisturbed; its very existence is by many questioned, and the fields lying but a few feet above it, and which with its application can be put in a state of progressive improvement, are un- J dergomg yearly, a progressive deterioration. The extent of the lime-stone region in South-Carolina is as yet unknown. There is every reason to helieve that it commences immediately below the falls of the great rivers, and continues to the sea. The stratum varies considerably in thickness. I apprehend that its maximum thickness is at o>* near its termination in the uplands, and that its minimum is at or near the sea coast. It is certainly much thicker at the Eutaw than in the known localities twenty miles below. The position of the limo is various. At the Eutaw Springs and in its vicinity, j in the neighborhood of McCord's Ferry I and near Monk's Corner, on Cooper river, j it frequently rises to the surface and a! little above it. On the elevated lands < bordering on the various swamps and creeks which form the head of the latter river, it has been found as low as from ten to twenty feet below the surface?On the margins of creeks, and near the point of junction of upland and swamp land, its depth below the surface is but a few inche9, and generally except the land rises abruptly to a considerab'e elevation, It may always be found at the depth of from four to eight fejt. If I might presume to propose a general rule from my limited observation, I would suggest the following as the indication of a bed of lime, vkj :?whenever the Upland adjacent to a stream of water produces & growth of hickory, red oak, dogwood, locust or walnut, lime may be dug for with n pprfainfu nf whon nn mn. Irary, the uplaryls produce only long leaf pines and scrub.oak, the search for lima will bo unavailing. The streams of the former class abound in muscle shells and craw.fish, and the uplands in snails; none of them, certainly net t ie muscle, will be found in the pine land streams. The appearance of the lime varies in different localities, but the fragments which have been subjected to analysis,* ) exhibits generally ahr-ut twenty per cent j of alkaline earth.?how large a portion of this is magnesia, is a question not yet set. tied by the chemis's. In some places near Santee river, below the Eutaw, and at Godfrey's ferrv on the Peedee, the lime is founcf in n bed of loose shells partially pulverised, and may he carried immediate, ly from the pit to the field, without further preparation?It is generally a hard rock full of fossilshells; frequently the rock is so hard that wheg smartly struck with a hamrnar scintillation will follow. This of course will require either fire or the hammer to render it fit for the field. If a quantity of this hard stone is thrown up in the fall, and ex x>sed through* out the winter months, it U idergoes disintegration. . I have no correct data for ascertaining the amount of labor neceswirry for oh. taining lime. Mr. Ruffin, who has been in the habit of spreading from three ftun. dred to two hunJred and thirty bushels of calcareous earth to the acre, [equal to from one hundred two hundred and thirty bushels of Carolina limn, (states that a single man, employed throughout the year, will dig enough to manure sixty acres of land. Two years ago. six men in three weeks dug for me eighteen hundred bushels?this was equivalent to the lrb.?r of one man tor nine weeks or nny-io i lays. mm una nmount of lime I man. r,*d < ighteen acres of land. I believe that my hurtdred bush, els of lime are fully equally in value to Mr. Rutfin's three hundred bushelsof calcareous earth. Now as. it required the labor of three days to manure one acre, if we take an.average number of two bundred and seventy days as the number of working days in the year, then the labor of one man would at that rite ofmanur. ing furnish enough lime to cover ninety ! acres of land. IPthe relative values of the ! Caroline and Virginia manures have been , (justly stated, we mi y presume^that the lvalue of the products of lalw>r will be v ' greater in Carolina than in Virginia,''be| cuuse it is to be supposed that when the j liming is pursued as a systematic part of I the operations of fiidM'arm, the means em. I ployed in procuringit must he more convenient than any I could command, when only engaged in n crude experiment, i Following the practice universally ad. ! opted in Carolina, viz to devote our attention to the market crops almost exclusively, considering every other as a secondary object, my experiments with lime have been made only on cotton. I have made Jwo experiments; the first in 1 iii- r - j ,^4 1839, a year remaraaoie ior iirvncss auu great productiveness; the second in 1840, a year as remarkable for humidity and ! comparative failure. In each year the | result was most gratifying^ the moat dej cidedly marked success was in the (try vear. After one year's cultivation the , land was suffered to rest. The field limed in 1839 produced a less abundant crop of poverty grass than the circumjacent lands not limed?and a more luxuriant growth of crab and joint grass a de| sirable object. That is a gross that is said to delight in a calcareous soil, it might ! cmr.-arl morn m nidi v on such, thnnon lands I T* - ~r ? v free from calcareous earth. Everv one who owns an old plantation, is aware that joint grass is no stranger, even to the poorest lands. If lime then be really a I fertilizing agent, let us ?.ot object to it be! cause it does not prove a panacea for ail the evils with which our ignorance, or our careslessness, or the behests of a wise Providence have strewn our path. Mr. Ruffin observes, that they who wish to use calcareous manures must make the i digging of it a branch of the regular farm* ing operations. Any system of manuring* we know must, to be efficient, become a part ot the habitual operations of the plantatioa. Trusting to the chance of oh? tainlng lime during the season oetween hreingand harvesting. I made no othff provision for it last year, but classed ^ with the rest of that miscellaneous jobbing operation called fall work. But mthe fall the water had taken possession of my pits, and I had land to clear, md other causes prevented me from obtaining a. bushel of lime. The opening of a small body of land, together with the rains ?f August aDd Septemper, bavQ stopped f<^>