Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1851-10-24

By draining and dtching below the soil the warm in.
MIGRATING rains penetrate the entire mass, and there
dltuse the genial temperature through the roots. The
warm air rushes ia and supplies its portion OF augmented
heat TO the land. Tins porous soils readily imbibe heat,
and just as readily part with it.
These are some of the reasons assigned for under.
draining. Those who have tried the experiment know
the great advantages that result from il.
/ have a neighbor who informed me that in 1850, a
very dry season, he bad ditched a field that he had pre-.
viOusly put in corn; in the low and wet parts Of the field
he usually gathered in the Fall a few %nubbins, but went
TO the high ground for his crop. In the Fall of lastyear
he obtained his good corn from the low land, his poor
from the high; the extra crop Of the year paid for the
whole expense Of ditcling and draining.
SPRING DRAINING.
We have IN various parts OF the country springs that
are discovered, not by a free discharge OF water, but
they are found in large extensive plains of wet, marshy,
DOGGY lands. In this condition their greatest practical
use is 70 mire stock. Near them is sometimes gath
, cred a small quantity of inferior ~bog-hay; while in the
neighborhood is too frequently seen the pale face and
countenance, demonstrating that disease and death have
found the proper locality to do their work.
These springs should be Immediately traced to their
source, the very highest point where the ground is mois-
tened and led off by a drain to the nearest ravine, Of
sufficient depth and width to prevent the escape OF the
water into the adjacent soil, unless IL should be needed
for irrigation, which is seldom required with us.
NEW ROAD.
| should like to see the experiment tried, of making a
perfect Earth Rood, without metal or plank. Dig your
bitches, say seventeen feet apart, cover them ever, throw
mp the ground in the centre, let the water from the ditch
es be taken to the lowest point. In place oil making a
culvert and bridge, use the rock for making a solid bed
for the water to run over, across the road, called a valley,
that droves of cattle and the stock Of the country may
use, and your wagons and carriages may he cleaned
thereby.
have great confidence. that in a large proportion of
our country, roads may be made, for less than one half,
what our plank roads cost, more durable, and far pre-
ferable.
WOOL.
We ~ nraaflr da6.fant n Shaan in InJ,.ra Aoo0r
ding TO the Census of 1850, we have but about a million
in the State. Great Britain has more than ~forty-five
millions which average about 81 lbs. OF wool TO each
sheep.
II you were offered to-day a proposition for a perma-
nent investment, which you were satisfied would realize
forty per cent upon every dollar invested, the whole
community would invest their money in the enterprise.
1t is susceptible of the clearest demonstration, that
every dollar, invested in sheep, would yield more than
forty per cent. annually. No article (the COW excepted }
will come so near TO paying annually for their cost, as
the sheep.
The annual fleece, ut present prices, will pay first
cost, their increase viii pay the cost of keeping them.
We have every variety Of soil, the billy land. the bro
ken land, the prairie, the level plain. A very large por-
ton of our State, is admirably adapted to the raising Of
sheep, which is not used for any other purpose. All
that the farmer has to do is to clear up his farm, leave
the live timber standing, and, whether level or broken,
fence it in, SOW it down in grass and turn in his sheep.
The annual deficiency of wool, in this country is esti-
mated at seventy millions of lbs, when TO this we add
the increase demand for the article, will annually require
luC NOCl vi = 4 iii &C IllAlDu5 VI ID nO
fear Of ovsr-supply.
1t is strange, that our people cannot supply the de-
mand Tor wool among us: In England, the annual rent
of ground per acre, is almost equal TO the cost of the
average improved land with us, yet the rent is paid, the
wool raised, shipped and sold abroad.
You have, upon this ground, exhibited to-day a French
sheep that the owner (of Clinton county Ohio, } assures
me turned of last spring, twenty pounds OF wool-that
he sold for 344 cents per lb, making $3.50. A wool
buyer informed me, that in Warren county IN this State,
he purchased a fleece that weighed eighteen pounds.
We can, in my opinion, raise WOOL in this State, as cheap
as in any part Of the Western States. My advice TO
farmers, would be to engage in raising sheep.
FLAX SEED OIL.
We are neglecting. too much, the cultivation of the
Flax. The amount OF fiaxseed oil imported into the
United States. for the year previous TO the Both June,
1850. was l~.513,l77 gallons-equal to 69S 900 bushels
Of flax seed, which is at its present Eastern price ST..
54s 900, a sum equal TO one fourth of all the -four ex.
ported from the United States during the same period.
The crop therefore must be increased more than a mill
ion OF bushels before the home demand can be supplied.
In some parts OF the country, fax is raised and cut
for the seed alone, the ground the same season put in
wheat.
You may take the present price of fax seed. make an
estimate OF the cost of preparing il for market, and no
article can be raised that is more profitable.
In conversing with one of our best farmers on the sub
ject, he informed me, that an acre of flax will yield
twelve bushels, the cost of raising, preparing, and taking
to market, he estimates at about SS-the price at 81. 25
per bushel, will make SI5-leaving a profit of 81 per
acre.
But in this calculation, no account is taken of the fax.
L nave now before me a specimen oil the flax cotton,
samples of cloth made of all fax, likewise part wool
and fax, and part cotton and flax. / do not consider
myself competent TO decide whether this movement in
the flax cotton will succeed, but if the Yankee fails in
this movement, to make il successful, it will be the first.
In conversing with a gentleman on the subject of the
cheese trade in Indiana, I was astonished to learn that
we purchased annually about eighty thousand dollars
worth of what is called Western Reserve Cheese. The
amount purchased in two years would build a McAdam-
lied or plank road across your State. A very large pro-
portion OF this cheese is an inferior article that would
not be brought TO the table where IL is made. No coun-
try is better adapted 10 the dairy than Indiana, with the
variety OF hill, dale, aud valley; springs, wells, running
brooks, branches and streams, of all sizes. 1t is a won.
der that our people do not turn their attention more to
this subject.
LAND.HOLDERS GOVERNMENT LANDS.
FAIRS, sc.
The tillers of the soil, while they are making efforts
TO advance the agricultural interest to its highest state
of perfection and usefulness, ought to remember that
much will be required Of those to whom much is given.
Let us not forget that in the United States, with our
vast extent of territory, our variety of soils and eli
mates, and our popular republican form oe government,
we possess, to aid us IN our progress, advantages Tor
Improvement far above ali other nations Of the world. In
some foreign countries a miserable kind of agriculture
has been carried on for ages, by people living in igno.
rance and indulgence, on lands to which they never had
any settled right of possession; and under the most free
and enlightened governments, the great mass OF practi-
cal farmers, are mere tenants at will, or on short leas.
es, bound by covenants with their landlords TO pursue a
certain mode Of cultivation.
1t is our true policy TO have settled the vast domain of
wild land. The great Law writer OF the past century
expressed a noble sentImen when he exclaimed-"Tha
Freehold loas the possession Of the soil By q Freeman
The sooner our lands are reduced to possession and
by actual settlers, the sooner you make citi-
Zens interested In all the institutions that surround
them. Why not open the entire vacant lands Of the
Union to actual settlers; and whenever proof is made
the settler has made Improvements to the value of
the land az its present price. that the government shall /