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VOLUME VI. CHERAW, SOUTH-CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1841. NUMBER 47.
- ???~~~ " i
By M . MAC LEAN.
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rdercd out.
H?" The postage must be paid on lettcrsto the
editor on the business of the office.
From the Southern Cabinet.
*4 Old Point Com fort, Aug. 22, 1^41. .
44 Dear Sir,?I enrlose you a copy of a
letter received from Mr. McCIcan on the
subject of drilled wheat. His experiment
is a very interesting and important
one, and d? 8 rves to be prosecuted farther.
I saw this wheat and think I never saw
a more luxuriant growth or one that pro.
raised a greater yield : but Mr. M. omits
one important fact?it suffered somewhat
fmm the rust.
44 The objections urged to drilling wheat
ill this country, where land is cheap and
labor high, are first, that the drilling is expensive,
and secondly, that to secure any
advantage from drilling, the crop must be
worked ; or in other words, that drilling
is only to he resorted to, as it enables you
to work the crop. If this the fact, I should
fay, that no Virginia farmer would he
justified in drilling his wheat; but the
fact is the reverse ; for drilling is attended
with no increased expense, (other
than the cost of the drill) and the labor of
working the wheat would be thrown away.
The increase of product therefore,
arises from the more equal distribution
of the seed, the uniform depth at which
it is covered, the free circulation of air
through the drill, and ihe bettfrcondition
in which the land is left by the operation
of the drill plough.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
R. \rchrr "
44 Elizabeth Cihj County Aug. 17,1341.
44 Dr. Robkrt Archer,
44 Dfnr. Sir.?Late in October ult.
I thought I would experiment a little hv
drilling two-thirds of nn acre of wheat, believing
that drilling a full crop would pay
we much better than a crop sowed broadcast.
44 In this two-thirds of an acre, the rows
fifty to sixty yards long, there were sixty,
three rows fourteen inches apart.
4 If any difference in quality or quantity
of wheat in these rows, it was in favor
of those seven inches apart, where
five necks were drilled to an acre.
44 At the rate of ten pecks, were drilled
on two l?eds, drills seven inches apart:
this I found by far too thick : the wheat
<lid not produce ho well, and looked sickly
from the time it first came up. j
44 The wheat came up well, hut looked j
no better than my crop in general, until
It began to head. Early in April [ ran a |
large harrow over it; thought it improved !
its appearance; latter part of April or '
first of M ?y I ran a cultivator between i
the drills (fourteen indies apart) on two)
beds ; hui at reaping time I found no ma- |
terial difference between that worked and :
that unworked. The weeds were completely
kept under where the drills were
close,; not so with those fourteen inches
apart.
** On this tu n.thirds of an acre I made
fourteen bushels, and had it ail hnen dril- |
led seven inches (which produced as well
or better than the fourteen inches) I
would have made twenty-one bushels, a
yield of thirty-one and a half bushels to
the acre?three times as much as my gen.
eral crop averaged.
" I am so confident of the success of
drilling, that I intend to drill thirteen acres
this fall. I have a machine made
by Mr. Jabez Parker, of Richmond, invented
by Mr. Andrew Bartle, of this
county, by which wheat can he drilled
with less trouble than it can be sowed
broadcast, provided the wheat is to be
ploughed in.
"This drill can in a few minutes be attached
to any plough by any common
hand.
"I shall he able, after my crop of thirteen
acres is reaped, to give more on this
drilling system.
Iam, most respectfully, yours,
A. B. McLean."
From Ihe Southern I'lanter.
AN OBJECTION TO BKRKSHIRBS.
My Dear, Sir.?I have seen and heard
much of the Berkshire* and have no doubt
that for same purpose* they are the most
improved hog now known to the agricultural
world. But I maintain that they
are not calculated for this particular region.
My objections are that they fatten
too easily and arrive at a heavy weight
too early. With the exception of a few
jockey pigs, raised about the house, we
must continue to rantre our hogs, and
hence they must ever he exposed to depredation.
Now a round fat sleek Berkshire
a temptation that the pilfering propensities
of our negroes cannot resist, I
Our only safety is in your long legged
lean and hungry alligator, which he could
not catch ifhe would, and would not if he
could. If any man attempts to keep a
large number of B^rkshires in this neigh- j
borhood, he must house them every night
under lock and key.
Again, as to the bacon they make. I i
am old fashioned in my taste, and prefer a
Virginia ham to any other eating in the
world. Now I do not believe that a
i prime ham can be made of the true flavor <
I out of any hog less than two years old, or <
1 from any except a poor hog just fattened
j up. But your Berkshire never gets poor,
! and at the end of two years is an over- i
j grown mass of grease, well adapted prob. <
I ably to making grass meat for negroes,
but totally unfitted for the delicate highly 1
flavored table ham. That new flesh af!
fords the most delicate food is no new, i
dea, but one well recognised amongst
L./.f all admit that thfi most I
ucui waiV/i*? JIU an uumi? ... ^
delicate eating is obtained from an old
worn down ox just fattened up.
Remember, sir, I am speaking of the
delicacy of bacon without regard to the
expense of making it, which by the by no
true lover of bacon will ever regard. My
devotion to tbe article may make me over
particular, but [ must confess I look upon
one of your overgrown Berkshires with
great distrust, and set down to my favorite
ham with a melancholy foreboding that
its delicate sweetness is destined to yield
to the greasy ranknessof the new breed.
An Amateur Bacon Eater.
New, Kent Virginia.
From the Fanners' Rcg stor.
experiments to show the proper state
of wheat for reaping.
#
[Continued from last week.]
From the above details, it would appear
that it is the farmer's interest to cut his
wheat before it becomes thoroughly ripe.
Many, no doubt, will he disposed to doubt!
deductions of such importance drawn
from such limited experiments. This objection
the writer anticipates, because it
is a natural one, which he felt himself,
when he considered the most important
conclusions which resulted ; when, however.
he retraced, step by step, his investiCations,
without any variatiim in that re- ,
suit, he could no longer refuse to believe
I it true till he proved it untrue. He is ,
t aware that there are other points of con->>ln.n<inn
in *hic ci I hi*? r t_?f lm f tllPre flTC <
(II 11/11 I ai iiMo ...... ,
peculiarities in the nature of land, of seed
or of season, and that there is. as in all
man's investigations, a possibility of error;
any of which circumstances might
materially affect the result of experiments
upon so limited a scale as the present one;
and for this reason ho will, if all he well,
give the subject a trial in the ensuing harvest,
on a much more comprehensive ,
scale. That the results of these expcrimerits
will he corroborative in the main
i points, ho has no doubt, and for this cause
he feels no hesitation in laving the preceding
"details" before the agricultural
world; moreover, as he has in no case
: given a deduction without the grounds
upon which it rested, the degree of " aci
ceptalion" whieh the reader may give it
rests with himself. The most sceptical,
he however flatters himself, will think it
" worthy" of being tested, if of nothing
more.
In testing, however, the conclusion
which the foregoing experiments warrant,
there are some other advantages which
strengthen that conclusion, which must 1
not be forgotten. That they have not 1
been considered in the preceding pages, )
is not because they are of no import, but,
on the contrary, because they are of such
consequence that (he writer could not as. i
sign them an adequate momentary value.
And had he attempted to do so, he would
have at once made the details of his experiments
valueless, by mixing the real
results of practice with the imaginary ones
| of opinion. Before the subject, however, J
can he thoroughly sifted, they must be ,
considered. The circumstances are these:
?independently of the 4 per cent, gain
(according to the foregoing experiments)
by reaping our wheat a fortnight before it |
is ripe, we have
1st. Straw of a better quality.
2d. A better chance of securing the
crop; and
3d. A saving in securing it.
1st, " Straw of a better quality." This
is easily demonstrated both for the purpose
of food and manure.
As an article of food the value of any
vegetable depends upon the gross quantity,
or upon the combination of certain
substances termed soluble, from their entering
into union with water. This rule
applies particularly to the grasses which
are used for the purpose of feeding stock.*
The substances generally found in these
O v
grasses are saccharine matter or sugar,
mucilage or starch, and gluten or nlbumen,
and bitter extract and saline mat
ters. Of these the sugar is no doubt the
most, and the extractive matlcr the least,
nutritive; the latter having been found,
by experiment, to come away in the dung
of the animal cousuming it, while the
* u The mode of determining the nutritive
pow??r of grasses by th*? quantity of matter
they contain soluble in water, is sufficiently aocurare
for ail the purposes of agricultural investigation.*'
Sir Humphry Davy in his
' Account of the Resuts of Experiments on !
the produce and nutritive qualities of different
grasses and other plants, instituted by John.
Duke of Bedford."
othpr matters were absorbed by the
body.
Now wheat is a species of grass, and
the value of the straw, as an article of
food, depends upon the quantity of nutrilive
matter contained it. "This nutritive
matter must be very small in straw,
as now generally used," the practical
farmer will say, "for straw per se is but
poor food, and scarcely able to sustain
life." This is true; "from 400grains of
dry barley straw," says Sir H. Davy, " I
obtained 8 grains of matter soluble in water,
which had a brown color, and tasted
like mucilage. From 400 grains of wheat
straw, I obtained five grains of a similar
substance." With this paucity of nutritive
matter in the straw before us, how
can we account for the fact that, in the
sap of wheat, the straw, and all succulent
pian is, mere is naiuraiiy a grew yruyvrtion
of mucilaginous and saccharine matter
?] The answer is this. In all grasses
and succulent plants, the greatest proportion
of this is present before the flower is
dead ripe.| So in wheat, when we allow
the straw to remain till thoroughly ripe, a
portion of the sugar is converted by the
the action of light, heat. &c. into mucilage,*
and a great proportion of the nutritive
powers of the grass absorbed by the
atmosphere, or lost in some manner; for,
as Mr. Sinclair observes, in his " Report
of Experiments on Grasses," " there is a
great difference betweens straws or leaves
that have been dried after they were cut
in a succulent state, and those which are
dried (if I may so express it) by nature
while growing. The former retain all
their nutritive powers, but the latter, if
completely dry, very little, if any."
Asa manure, too, the straw cut "ratr"
is equally superior to the ripe; for, as it is
an agricultural axiom that the better the
food of an animal is, the better the manure
from it, the manure from a stock con
suming this straw, containing a fair proportion
of nutritive matter, must be moro
valuable than that from stock consuming
the ripe with scarcely any in it.
But a great proportion of the farmer's
straw is converted into manure without
undergoing the process of mastication and
digestion. For this purpose the unripe
straw is equally preferable, as ail unripe
vegetables are manures without preparation]?the
soluble and nutritive extracts
which they contain, being the principal
agents in forming vegetable manure ; as
they not only combine to render the process
of decomposition the more rapid, by
breaking down the woody fibres.^ &c. in
the manure heap, but are abo in their
pure and separate states stimulants to
vegetation.J
It may be urged that the increased
value of the straw is more in favor of that
cut very green (No. 1) than that cut a
fortnight later (No 2.) This is true; but,
to produce this increase of value, if we
cut our wheat so early as No. 1. we have
a desiccation of the grain to such an extent
as to diminish the measured produce,
above. 12 per cent.; while, by reaping with
V_ i) Cmih ininrinn oilhpr
.^o. <?>. we uiC| su iai iivmi mjunmg .
sample or measure, actually improving
both, and at the same time gaining above
5 per cent, in the weight, and at least as
much in the quality of the straw. For
the increase of weight in the latter is not
produced by a greater produce, but by the
presence of a greater portion of those
f The fluids contained in the sap-vessels
of wheat and barley afforded, in some experiments
which I made on them, mucilage, sugar,
and a matter which coagulated by heat."
Sir H. Davy, AgricuL Chem. 142.
I Vide Agricul. Chem. Sec. 6, p. 264.
The inferiority of the quantity of sugar in
the summer crops, probably depends upon the
agency of light, which tends always in plants
to convert saccharine matter into mucilage.
Ibid. p. 414.
f Green crops, or any kind of fresh vegetable
matter, require no preparation lo Jit them
for manure.
" All green succulent plants contain sac.
rharine or mucilaginous matter, with woody
fibre, and readily ferment. They cannot,
therefore, if intended fjr manure, be used too
soon after their death.
" When green crops are to he employed for
enriching a soil, they should be ploughed in,
if it be possible, when in flower: for it is at
this period that tney contain tne largest quantity
of soluble matter, and that their leaves
are most active in forming nutritive matter."
Sir H. Davy, Agricul. Chera. p. 264.
I 44 Vegetable manures, in general, contain
a great excess of fibrous and insoluble mat.
tern, which most undergo chemical changes
before lhey can become the food of plants. 11
will be proper to take a scientific view of the
nature of these changes, &c.
441 f any fresh vegetable matter, which contain*
sugar, mucilage, starchy or other vegetable
cornpoiiTids soluble in water, be moistened and
exposed to air, at a temperature from 55 to
80 degrees, oxygen will soon be absorbed, and
carbonic acid formed ; heat will be produced,
and elastic fluids, principally carbonic acids,
gaseous oxide of carbon, and hydrocarbonate,
w11 be evolved; a dark colored fluid, of a
slightly sour or bttter taste, will likewise be
formed; and if the process be suffered to continue
for a time sufficiently long, nothing solid
will remain, except earthly and saline matter,
colored black by charcoal.
14 In proportion as there is more gluten, albumen,
or matters soluble in water, in the vege.
table substances exposed to fermentation, so
in proportion, all other circumstances being
equal, will the process be more rapid." Ibid. p.
257.
$ Mucilaginous, gelatinous, saccharine,
oily, and extractive fluids, and solution of carbonic
acid and water, are substances that, in
their unchanged states, contain almost all the
principles necessary for the life of plants" Ibid.
p- 250. j
I
soluble substances which are alike necessary
to animal and vegetable life?are
alike the nutritive part of food and the
quickening principle of manure.
2d, We come now to the second advantage,
the " belter chance of securing the
crop."
This is self-evident. We gain a fortnight
at the commencement of harvest.
If the weather he good, we can secure a
great portion of our wheat before we
should scarcely have begun upon the ol J
system. If not, we can wait; so, under
any circumstances, our chances of securing
the grain must be greater. Moreover,
if we take a retrospect of the harvests
for a number of years, we shnll find
that nearly all the early harvests have
been what we term "good" ones, i. e.
good as regftrds weather and the condi.
tion in which the grain was secured.?
When the peculiarities of our climate, its
general fickleness, and its still greater lia.
- . i ,i . J.._
Dlllty 10 cnange as me autumn uu vaine*,
are considered, this will require no explanation.
If we look, too, at the later hnrvests,
we shall, I venture to say, find that, in
nine cases out of ten, the grain which was
cut first was secured in the best condition.
As an example of this, the crop of
1839 will suffice. The crops were late,
the beginning of reaping the same, and
the result was that in the north of Eng.
land full 75 per cent, of the whole wheat
crop was damaged. And full 75 per cent,
of that which was uninjured, I will also
venture to say, was that which was cut
the first. In Yorkshire this was especial,
ly seen ; for the earliest wheat was with
the greatest difficulty secured. In this
village (North Deighton) not a sheaf was
in stack till the day before, and on some
farms, the very day on which the rainy
weather set in.
The frequent recurrence of such years
as this, will teach the value of even a fort,
night better than any thing that can be
said here. And that they will recur is
beyond a doubt. What has happened
once may happen again, hut what has frequently
happened, (as this sort of harvest
has,) with the same causes in operation,
we are warranted in saying, will happen
again and often.
3d, The saving in securing the crop i.<
a double one. In the first place, there i<
less waste in moving or reaping, and nc
danger of 41 shaking" or "necking" ir
strong winds. In the second place, there
is an absolute economy in the expense ol
renping the crop, which may be thus illus.
trated.
The busy period of harvest with the
farmer generally extends over four or five
weeks. In this month a certain portior
of his work is done by his own hands
i. e. by the regular laborers and servant!
of the farm; therefore, by beginning i
fortnight sooner, and extending the seas,
on of harvest over six weeks instead ol
four, it is evident that these regular servants
would cut a much greater propor
tion of his crop?in fact one half more,
By this he is rendered less dependant oc
those extraneous "helps" or takers" who
in the seasons of hurry and anxiety, fij
their own terms.
How often do we, especially in the
north, behold a force of reapers in almost
every field. The reason is this: the
wheat, oats, and barley, are often ripe al
one time, and aware as the farmer is o!
the injury which strong winds and show
ers would do them, he has to hunt up la.
borers at any price. And, after all thi?
extra expense, it is extremely probable
that, having the whole of his harvest
upon his hands at once, he is compelled to
let some part of his grain have loo little
or some too much wenther. By com.
mencing his wheat harvest a fornighl
earlier, these evils would have been pre.
vented; by the time that his barley and
oats were ready, most or all of his wheal
would have been cut, and some of it fit
for the stack, and that, too, by the exer.
tions of his regular workmen only. And
being neither pressed for time nor laborers,
his harvest would have been finished at a
less expense, and his grain secured very
?./>knklt> .n n m11 r* h Kptfpr Cflfld 11 lOIl .
piUllllKljr III u lllliuu
To assign a value for these advantage?
is, as has been said before, for the farmer
himself; and it will not be an insignificant
one. For if beginning harvest a
fortnight earlier enables him to save a
crop from spoiling once in a lifetime,?
if the improved quality of his straw as
food for his stock allows him to plough
out an acre more, or to pasture another
acre of clover with feeding stock, instead
of mowing it for his lean stock, every
grain saved, every extra bushel of corn proditeed,
and every extra head of stock fed,
is a benefit to the whole community as
well as to himself?is so much added tc
the gross produce and wealth of the country.
There heinn-. in fact, an increased
-- j . - B - _
return without an increased outlay.
The Food of Plants.
1 cannot but think we are greatly a1
fault on this question. There is mucli
that is clouded and obscure, as well a!
confused, connected with the subject,
Science has been seldom consulted on the
I occasion, and speculation and theory hav<
| heen conrounded with the sound rationale
of practical detail. The problem seem;
to me more complicated than is generally
supposed, and the invention depend or
more subtile elements than usuallj
enter into tl^e estimate. Food^ to servt
I
as nutriment and he assimilated, is one I
thing; and stimuli, to impart a tone to or j
excite the functions belonging to vegeta- i
tion, sa as they may exercise their office i
in a healthy condition, is quite another af? j
fair. I am not quite sure that because <
we find on chemical analysis, sulphate of
lime in wheat, nitrate of soda in barley, j
phosphate of lime in the oat, and so on i
with others, it necessarily follows they
must be supplied with these several earth,
ly alkaline salts, until it be clearly proved
by experiment, that the salts are really
absorbed and selected with rare discrimin. 1
ation from the soil, and not produced from
the plant. If the former be ascertained,
then *4 sweet to the sweet," sugar to the
sugar-cane, pungent solutions to the Piper
Nicnm, Capiacum, Zingiber, dsc., as
well as alkaline matters to Soleconia Salsola,
Kali, dec. I believe that they are
fatal antipathies among plants, as well as
reciprocal affinities. In 1839 I proved
clearly that roots posses ssecreting
organs as well as absorbing In vessels.
This fact was subsequently verified
by Macaire and others. It explains
the necessity of the rotation of crops, as
i well as the phenomenon of individual
plants never perishing in juxtaposition
with several of their congeners?while
i they luxuriate in health and vigor near
I other plants. On the simple principle so
frequently exemplified in the animal world
! as in hares, goats, sheep, dec., what is
food for one is poison to another. In vegi
etable therapeutics we are miserably defective
; indeed, nothing has been done.
Charcoal, the scalpel, the syring, fumigation,
&c., external and mechanical acts,
i ccrs itute the sum total, with a change of
food, of our treatment of invalids. No
medicine ha9been administered internally
to the sickly plants. If growing chamomile
will restore [as it constantly does)
health to diseased and drooping vegetation,
then let an infusion of chammonile be
tried, and so on. I merely, meantime,
throw out the hint; hereafter I may send
you results of experiments.
J. Murray : Gardeners' Chronicle.
Methods of Healing Wounds made in
large Trees by Lopping.
The branch is cut off at a distance of
three or four feet from the tree, care being
taken to support it in a manner to
prevent it from splintering the stump.
The bark of the stump is then cut into
narrow longitudinal strips, which, after
' being carefully peeled off with a barking
tool as far as the body of the tree are tied
hack so as to keep them clear of the saw
in the amputation of the stump close to
the body of the tree.?The saw-cut surface
is then smoothed with a wide mortice
chisel, and is covered with the strips of
bark, cut and fir ted to it as accurately as
possible, and fastened down with hrads
driven into the depth of about one-eighth
of an inch.?The wound and surrounding
parts are next covered to the depths of
two or three inches with a cataplasm, according
to the following receipt:?Clay,
4 parts ; fresh cow-dung 2 parts , finelysifted
wood-ashes, 1 part; add cows' hair,
such as that used by plasterers, a handful
or more, according to the quantity of the
composition required. Mix these mater-.
lals together in a very regular manner,
moistening them with water to bring the
t whole to a proper consistence. To pref
serve the cataplasm from injury, stout
. canvass 13 passed over it and sowed round
, the body of the tree ; both of which roust
, remain for 6or 8 months; their removal
j depends solely on the healed state of the
t bark. When the bark is healed, the part
, of the tree where the branch was ampu.
tated will nppear as if no limb had grown
, there. The operation should not be per*
I formed in the winter months, for the bark
will not run or separate from the wood,
| and the wounded part would be liable to
I be attacked by frost,
t Mr. Henry Smith : Transactions of the
. Society of Arts.
I
WATER-PROOF DUBBING FOR LEATEIIR.
Keep your feet dry and head cool,?To
. render leather water-proof, and at the
same time to preserve its elasticity, is a
, matter of great importance, as it increases
. its durability, and protects those who apply
it to shoes or boots from the mischiev*
ous effects arising from damp or wet feet.
The following receipt followed out care.
[ fully, it is believed, will effect this object.
Take a pint of linseed oil, two ounces of
bees-wax, two ounces of spirit of turpen.
tine, and a half an ounce of Burgundy
I pitch, and slowly melt them together, con,
tinuing to stir them so as thoroughly to
incorporate them, being careful not to set
ho mnaa nn firo as fhp inarrpriipnts are all
|ll? ll?uoa VM ?/| u*7 ?I*W fMKI ?.. w
| combustible. When this compound cools,
) it will be found to be about as elastic as
leather ought to be. If it were harder, it
j would cause the leather to crack
or break when bent; and if it were softer,
water would enter aod wash it out. To
apply it, re-melt it, warm the shoes, or
[ boots, and put it on with a small brush or
, a sponge, or piece of cloth tied on the
, end of a stick; continue to warm it in till
the leather is well saturated with it, and
, particularly the bottoms of tho soles and
, h els. [t should always be applied wiien
? the boots or shoes are new, and then lay
, them by to season some time before wear
i ring. Leather thus treated will be found
, impervious to water, and will wear twice
r as long as that to which it has not been
> applied The writer has used this article
for many years, and can testify to the
jrreat benefits derived from it; and he ha*
no doubt but his shoemaker's hill has beert
reduced to one half by the use of this com^
position;and what has been saved by
doctor's bill he is unable to estimate.
Common grease applied to leather tend.*
to rot it, and it is soon washed out in wet
weather.?Farmer's Cabinet. O.
From tha British Farmers Magazine*
Manure,
Allow to point out the enormouse waste
of manure, in the ahape of muck, reset*
ting from badly constructed farm-yards,
and by mismanagement. And first by
way of hint to landowners, there are but
few farmyards in the western part of this
conuntry, but are situated and apparently '
formed for the purpose of washing away
into thebrooksand streams this muck.?
The 9ites which have been selected fof
the sheds, commonly called 44huhays,"
are placed on an eminen with the yard of
"barton" on an inclined plane?frequently
on a considerable declivity. The con,
sequence is, the valuable property of the
muck is either wasted bv evaporation or
washed away the heavy rains and by the
accumulation of water from the roofb of
water from the roofs of the sheds, mount, ,
ing, when the fall of water is heavy, to fi
flood. This waste of manure, in too many
instances, goes on throughout the winter.
What then must be the amount of waste
and loss? The bloodcolored streams of water,
by the mucilaginous and extractive
matter?the soluble essence?flowing a
way throughout a long winter, is the best
answer. It is so novelty to see an accumulation
of stahledung at the door, or placed
near, and under the eaves, smoking with
excessive fermentation, and driving off,in
gaseioun form, carbonic acid and ammoniacal
matter?the constituent property of
good farm -yard manure; the residue merely
woody fibre, and scarcely worth taking
away. All farm-yard dung, and particularly
that from high-fed cattle, deteriorates
from the same cause. It is too much
the practice to let dung accumulate
through the winter, till the cattle are about
to be turned to grass, and to collect
the wholo into large dunghills; by this
practice, on badly constructed farm-yards
one-half of the quantity, and three-fourths
of the quality, are lost to the farm and
to the public. The landowner would
do well for his tenant, in diverting the
water from his farm-yards, by shoots be
ing fixed to the eaves of the building* ;
the tenant would soon discover his interest,
by preparing layers of soil, from 1
foot to 18 inches thick, for a base, cast
on his dung as soon as made, and seal it
down with onother layer of soils, &c. Clay
or marl8hould be used for lovers, dtc..?
of compast for light or gravelly land, and
vice versa. Sir Humprhey Davy has informed
us, that when dung heats beyoxl
100 degres of Fahernheit, deieteriora'ion
commences. He subjoins a test: "When
a piece of paper, moistened in muriatic
acid, held over the steams arising from a
dunghill, gives dense fumes, 'it is a teat
that the decomposition is going on too
far, for this indicates that volatile alkali
is disengaged." Having given my opinion
on the economy of farm-yard dung,
I shall bonclude, on the present occasion,
hv rlotflilinnr thp nran.tip.ft I adont in further
"V -? I r
preparing these compost heaps, prepare*
tory to being laid on the land intended
for its reception, dec. Early in the.
spring, and when the temperature rises,
these comp?sts should be well turned and
mixed'; this cannot be too effectually performed*
When heat is generated in the
comports, which is generally the result in
ten days or a fortnight, according to the
temperature of the atmosphere, they
should be re-turned and intimately mixed
again ; and this process should not, en
any recount, be neglected; the non-deteriom
ion of the manure will not be safe
till it is well amalgamated with the soil intended
for cropping.
A North-west Somerset Farher.
Abuse of the President's Confidence.?
The individual referred toby the National
Intelligencer of yesterday, as having
wormed himself into the confidence of the
President, and who is connected uith the
New York Herald, has given another evidence
of his un worthiness of the partiality
which seems to have been conferred upon
him. He started from Washington on
Thursday, at 12 M., with a manuscript
copy of the veto message, in the hand
writing of the President's Private secretary,
which he exhibited to the passenger* ,
on board the steamboat from Baltimore ;
boasting at the time, of his familiarity
with the President, and his previous know*
ledge of the conteots of the veto message.
These facts reach us from three individuals
who were oo board the boat at the
time; and whose statements are entitled
to condfience. The explanation of this
disgraceful betrayal of confidence, as sts*
ted to us, is that the impudent fallow wa?
" in his cups." But the President shook!
not extend mch confidence, to any one,
and last of all to the one in question.?
He is an adventurer from abroad, a notorious
libeller of our institutions, and
his piesence in the Executive mansion is
a dishonor to the President, and a disgrace
to the country, to say nothing of the confidence
reposed in him. As the President
now understands this matter, we donbt
not he will save ns from further haailwi
tioa.?rhila-J. North Amer.