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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

IDeboteti to &grfcultut% jQovtfculturc, antt the ©ouseftoli* Bvts. 



Agriculture is the nursing- mother of the Arts. Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the State. 

Xenophon. Sully. 



C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 



Opposite Merchants' Coflee House, Main Street, 



Vol. I. 



RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1841. 



Nos. 11 & 12. 



WHEAT. 

What is the cause of the universal failure, of 
late years, in this great staple of Virginia? 
This is a most important question to the southern 
farmer, and we have been very sedulously en- 
deavoring to obtain a satisfactorj'' response to the 
inquiry. Is this important product to be aban- 
doned in Virginia 1 ? Are our great manufactur- 
ing mills, the source of so much wealth, to go 
down ? Is our unrivalled reputation in the flour 
market to be lost ; or are our farmers to continue 
the cultivation of this crop only to see their hopes 
blasted, just at the moment they expect them to 
be realized % We sincerely hope that we shall 
not be compelled to choose between two such 
terrible alternatives. We know no substitute 
for the wheat crop in Virginia. It was formerly 
the great source of wealth to our farmers : now 
it must yield to tobacco, and even, we believe, 
to corn and oats. Much of our red clays is un- 
suited to the growth of these products, whilst 
they are peculiarly adapted to wheat and clover. 
How would we gladden the hearts of the pro- 
prietors of such soils, if we could point out the 
means by which the wheat crop could be freed 
from the precariousness and uncertainty which 
have attended it of late. 

Many facts that wehavegatheredhave brought 
our minds to the conclusion that all the evil in- 
fluences operating on this valuable crop may 
be dispelled by a little management and a supe- 
rior mode of cultivation. We believe that less 
attention has been paid to the cultivation of this 
crop than any other known in Virginia; the 
great reason for which is, that, heretofore, it has 
not been needed. But of late years a change 
has taken place either in our soil or climate, that 
requires to be counteracted by a corresponding 
action on the part of the grower. 

In the first place, we have ascertained by re- 
peated inquiries, that the best farmers, those 
whose fields are most nicely prepared and in the 
highest state of cultivation, invariably suffer 
least, In the next place, we are satisfied that 
Vol. 1—26 



by far the greater part of the injury to this crop 
is sustained within a few days of its maturity, 
and that the earliest crops are universally the 
best. Indeed we were informed by a very intel- 
ligent and observant miller, with whom we 
sought an interview on this subject, that he had 
remarked, that the failure had been concomitant 
with the abandonment of the early varieties. Is 
it not a fact that thousands of bushels are an- 
nually destroyed by rust, induced, as we have 
every reason to believe, by a state of atmosphere 
peculiar to our present harvest season % Would 
not thousands of bushels have been saved, not 
only last year, but the year before that, and the 
year before that, if the wheat could have been 
reaped a fortnight earlier than it was ? How 
many days difference will richer ground and 
superior order make in the growth of the wheat % 
Will not this alone take it out of the jaws of its 
devouring enemy? 

But some experiments lately made by Mr. 
Hannam in England, which are most minutely 
reported in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 
go to prove, that wheat can be reaped to the 
greatest advantage a fortnight before it is ripe. 
These experiments were made, it is true, upon a 
very small scale, and such are not always to be 
relied on, but they seem to have been conducted 
with great care and impartiality, and have been 
confirmed by subsequent statements made in the 
agricultural papers both of Europe and America. 
Indeed, we have conversed with several of our 
own most distinguished millers and farmers, who 
are satisfied of the correctness of Mr. Hannam's 
conclusions. The experiments made by this 
gentleman were upon the same crop in three 
stages. First he cut a portion of it green; a 
fortnight after he cut another portion of it in 
what he calls its raiv state ; and lastly, he cut 
another portion a fortnight after that, when it 
was ripe. He found the raw to excel the ripe 
and green, both in measure, weight, and value 
in the market. The green was inferior to the 
other two, except in the nutritious matter of the 



226 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



straw, in which it excelled the raw, which was 
again superior to the ripe. 

Mr. Hannam thus describes the appearance 
presented by the wheat in its raw state : 

" The straw, though appearing at a distance 
green, when examined closely, was of a hue 
fast approximating to yellow ; while, for about 
a foot upwards from the ground, it was quite 
yellow." 

By the term ripe, he says, " I don't mean that 
degree of ripeness when the straw breaks, the 
ears curl, and the grain shakes out, but that con- 
dition in which it is customary to commence 
reaping it — when the straw from the roots to 
the ear is uniformly yellow and has lost all symp- 
toms of vivid health." 

If then it is not only practicable, but desirable 
to cut the wheat £rop a fortnight earlier that it 
is generally secured, is not this a circumstance 
of which we may avail ourselves, to the infinite 
diminution of the ravages of the fly and rust 1 

It must be confessed that our wheat crops 
suffer much sometimes from being winter killed ; 
now whilst we think, that higher cultivation 
will, by strengthening the root, in a great mea- 
sure, remedj' this evil, we believe that spewing 
by which it is caused may be almost wholly pre- 
vented by a thorough system of under-draining. 

So that we say to the wheat growers of Vir- 
ginia, be not dismayed at your repeated failures. 
Do not dream of abandoning this great staple 
to which your soil, your habits, and education, 
are adapted. Let your difficulties only inspire 
you with a determination to overcome them by 
increased attention and energy. We believe 
you have them all in your power, and may sub- 
due them to your will. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Mr. Editor, — For the last twenty-six years I 
have cut down my corn on the first da}' of Sep- 
tember, and may almost say I have never had 
a heated or moulded ear. The consequence has 
been, that I have never been compelled to invade 
my springing wheat with cart-ruts, every one of 
which the winter rains would have converted 
into a gulley. There is no doubt you will say 
about the advantages of getting off your corn 
crop before you commence sowing, but how do 
you prevent your corn from spoiling? Simply, 
I answer, by putting it up in long, narrow pens 
through which the air can penetrate. Make 
your pens as long and as high as you please, 
but never let them be more than three feet 
through. I generally use fence rails for the 



sides, and pieces of old rails for the ends. By 
this means no ear of corn can be more than 
eighteen inches from the air, and by this means,, 
I repeat, any tolerably forward corn may be 
penned on the first of September and preserved} 
perfectly sound. This little secret is worth toj 
those who did not know it before ten times the 
cost of your subscription. The pens should, of 
course, be protected by a sloping roof of plank, 
raised twelve or eighteen inches above the corn. 
Your friend, W. N. 

Louisa, JYov. 3, 1841. 

The above is an important statement, reason- 
able in itself, and vouched for by one of the mostf 
respectable gentlemen in Louisa ; his name is 
at the disposal of private inquirers, 



To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

My Dear Sir, — As you request communica- 
tions upon the subject of household recipes andj 
domestic economy, I take the liberty of inform- 
ing you that I have been for several years sub-i 
stituting the flowers of the well known weed,-; 
called life everlasting, for hops. Five or sixf 
years ago I was travelling through the county: 
of Amelia, and observed an old negro womanl 
in a field by the way-side very busily employed! 
in gathering these flowers. To my inquiries 
concerning the use to which they would be ap-j 
plied, she told me that her mistress used ihemi 
instead of hops in making yeast. I laughed, 
and thought people must be put to it indeed! 
when they gathered such weeds to make bread! 
of. As I approached home I happened to ob- 
serve a large field full of the life everlasting ; I 
gathered a quantity of the flowers, and carrying 
them home, related the circumstance to my wife; 
she tried them and from that day to this I have 
never bought a pound of hops. These are in 
no respect inferior, and I have never seen morei 
beautiful bread than that made up with the yeastl 
of these flowers. Every year we send out and) 
gather a bag of them, which is hung up and'! 
keeps as well as a bag of hops. Hoping this 
communication may be the means of saving 
some expense and a little trouble to many of 
your numerous readers, I remain, 
Your obedient servant, 

John Turpin. 

Manchester. 



For the Southern Planter. 
MANGE. 

I see, Mr. Editor, that you recommend on the 
authority of Mr. Goode, arsenic for mange. I 
have kept a large pack of hounds, and been 
much troubled with this disease. I have tried 
the arsenic and turpentine as recommended by 
Mr. Goode. It is good, but a little dangerous. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



227 



I dislike to keep poisons about the house. I 
have found the following simple remedy more 
efficacious : — Mix pounded sulphur with com- 
mon lard, and let the dog eat as much as he 
pleases, then annoint him well down the middle 
of his back and behind his ears wilh the balance. 
Persisted in two or three times this will certainly 
effect a cure. 

Yours, J. P. C. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Mr. Botts, — Though not a practical farmer, 
i feel a deep interest in the prosperity of our ag- 
riculturists, and most heartily rejoice that the 
attention of the judicious and reflecting is stead- 
ily withdrawing from the wild and visionary 
schemes and speculations which have lately 
swept, like a pestilence, over our land, and is 
centreing on this branch of labor, now confess- 
edly the most important to the best interests of 
our state. I do not flatter when I say, that I 
think your valuable and cheap paper better cal- 
culated to produce practical and lasting benefit 
to our farmers, than any I have ever seen. If 
you can accomplish the plan which you have 
so oftened pressed upon the attention of your ag- 
ricultural readers, by inducing them to contri- 
bute, under the sanction of their own names, their 
several experiences, in every matter relating to 
farming, you will accumulate a mass of in- 
formation, which must have a most important 
and beneficial effect on this great interest. 

You will think it strange, after such a pre- 
face, that I should depart from the plan so 
highly commended ; but being no farmer, as I 
above remarked, and having no experience to 
communicate, my name could answer no good 
purpose, and might prevent the subject I intend 
to allude to, from receiving the attention it 
merits. 

It seems that the smut in wheat is becoming 
an engrossing topic among the wheat, growers, 
and any information calculated to throw light 
on the subject, would receive attention. I do 
not mean to propose a remedy for this evil, or to 
discuss the relative merits of those proposed — 
but merely to say to my agricultural friends, 
that they have taken this entangled skein by 
the wrong end, and I fear they will have much 
trouble in unwinding it. A judicious physician 
will never prescribe for a disease unless he 
knows, or believes he knows, its true character, 
nor will he advise a course of preventives un- 
less he knows the cause which generates the 
disease. Let the wheat growers apply this 
principle and th^y may hope for success — 
scarcely otherwise. The following questions 
may lead some of your readers to institute ex- 
periments, by which the desired information may 
e obtained. 



1. What is the character of the disease in 
wheat called the smut ? 

2. What are the causes which produce it. ? 
Are they atmospheric? or are they derived from 
the soil? 

3. If atmospheric, what are the conditions of 
the weather which are productive of the evil? 

4. If from the soil, what are its peculiarities? 

5. If healthy and unhealthy seed are sown 
together, is the disease communicable by the 
diseased to the healthy seed, and does it mani- 
fest any effect on the plant before the head 
forms ? 

6. Does the soaking the seed in the various 
solutions proposed accomplish any other object 
than the separation of the healthy from the un- 
healthy seed ? and would not plain water have 
the same effect ? 

7 — and lastly. Do these several solutions pro- 
posed for soaking the seed give any virtue to 
the seed itself? or do they impart any property 
or any material to the soil, which being taken 
into the plant, protect it from deleterious influ- 
ences, whether derived from the atmosphere or 
the soil ? and would not the application of the 
remedy to the soil have the same good effect ? 

These inquiries deserve the attention of our 
farmers, and a few T experiments judiciously con- 
ducted, might lead to a satisfactory solution of 
man} r of the difficulties which now surround 
the subject. B. 



ASPARAGUS. 
It will be remembered, by those in this vicin- 
ity at least, that Gen. Richardson obtained a 
premium from the Henrico Agricultural Society, 
for the extraordinary asparagus exhibited by 
him at their fair last spring. Since that time, 
we have been requested, more than once, to ob- 
tain for publication the General's mode of cul- 
tivating this delicious vegetable. With this re- 
quest we have complied in the article below, 
which was furnished by the General with that 
readiness which he always displays to advance 
the interests of agriculture. 

Dear Sir: I give you, not as you have request- 
ed, " directions for cultivating asparagus," but a 
briefly as 1 can, the manner of cultivating mine ; 
premising that so far as I know, there is no skill 
or mystery involved in the matter. 

The roots (then two years old) were purchas- 
ed of Mr. John Carter— planted in the month of 
March, in trenches 1 foot deep, 12 inches wide 
and 5 feet apart — the crowns of the roots when 
set in the bottoms of the trenches, so that the 
lateral roots interlocked, being about 12 inches 
from crown to crown. Previous to planting, 
stable manure was spread over the bottom of 
the trenches, an inch or two deep, the roots were 



* s 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



then set and covered with about as much earth, 
well pulverized, and the whole surface kept free 
from giass and weeds through the year. These 
were the directions given me by Mr. Carter. 
By the end of the first year, the trenches were 
filled up by the ordinary process of weeding, to 
within 2 or 3 inches of the surface ; I cut off 
the tops, filled the trenches to the surface with 
stable manure, and very early in the spring drew 
up the earth so as to form a ridge over each row 
of roots — the produce was more than sufficient 
for my family. We cut none after the month of 
May in the second year, but kept the beds as 
before, clear of weeds and grass, and in the 
fall, before the berries began to drop, the tops 
were cut down and removed. 

Finding that by the ordinary method it would 
require more time and labor to dress the beds 
than I had to spare, and supposing it would be 
better to apply the manure near the roots than 
on the surface, I split the ridges with a single 
horse plough the next season, running twice on 
each bed, removed the earth left by the plough 
with broad hoes, and put in an inch or two 
of fresh stable manure. The garden line was 
then set over the centre of each row of roots, 
about 12 inches above them, the earth (well 
pulverized) drawn up to the line, first from one 
side and then from the other, with hoes, so as to 
form a ridge or bed 14 or 15 inches high — the 
line then removed, the bed raked over, and that 
completed the dressing. The produce was 
abundant, large, fine and well bleached. I have 
continued this practice ever since — the beds 
were never forked, but when they become dry 
and hard on the surface, a dressing with iron 
tooth rakes, puts them in good order again. 

The crown of the root from which the shoots 
are thrown up, seems to increase in size every 
year, buds forming upon buds, which give it a 
conical shape. I observe that more and more 
of these crowns are visible and are cut, in every 
succeeding year's dressing ; but it does not ap- 
pear to injure them. Forking, I suppose, in- 
jures them quite as much or more. I observe 
also, that the lateral root or feeders, have spread 
across the intermediate space between the beds, 
and think it highly probable it might be better 
to apply the manure there than to the crowns. 
I tried the experiment last spring on a small 
scale, but without any visible effect, until the 
tops were suffered to grow up : it was percepti- 
ble in them, though it had not been in the shoots 
cut for the table, probably because the manure 
was applied too late. 

My success in raising this plant, so far as it 
depended on my own management, is entirety 
accidental. I never planted, or owned, or dress- 
ed a bed of it before — never heard of its being 
dressed in this way, and adopted the plan at 
first to save time and labor, which I had not to 
spare. I have thirty-nine beds (one row of roots 



in each) sixty feet long, which are usually 
dressed by four men in a day and a half. 

You say that your inquiries of me are for the 
information of others. Allow me to recommend 
to them and to you, applications to Mr. John 
Carter, at his nursery and vineyard near the 
city, not only for supplies of roots, but as the 
best authority in every branch of horticulture. 
I have always succeeded when his advice was 
followed, and always failed when I neglected it. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obt. servt. 

WM. H. RICHARDSON. 



For ihe Southern Planter. 
TOP DRESSING PASTURE LANDS. 

Henrico, Nov. 29th, 1841. 

Dear Sir, — I have been very much interested 
with two communications in the September and 
October numbers of your paper, on the subject 
of manuring, over the signatures of " W. W." 
and "A Hanoverian," and I had hoped that 
your invitation to subscribers to enlarge the dis- 
cussion would have elicited many valuable ar- 
ticles on this most important question. I am 
sorry to find from your last number that your 
invitation has been unheeded, and ihe discussion 
at once abruptly terminated. With the view of 
calling public attention to it again, I have deter- 
mined to offer you my views, which you can 
publish or not as you think proper. The point in 
dispute between "W. W." and "A Hanoverian," 
is one which has excited great interest in the 
agricultural world, for some years past, and is 
still undetermined. I admit with you, Mr. Ed- 
itor, that the plan of "A Hanoverian," (plough- 
ing in manure,) is that which is most commonly 
pursued, but I am persuaded from personal ob- 
servation, and information derived from other I 
sources, that the course recommended by " W. 
VV." (top dressing) is rapidly gaining ground, 
and is infinitely preferable. If it can be shown 
that there is no greater loss or expenditure of 
the fertilizing principles of manure, in this last 
than in the first mode, then its superior advan- 
tages for convenience will be at once manifest 
to every practical farmer — among these I will 
only enumerate two. In the first place instead 
of hauling your straw, leaves, weeds, &c. (I 
take it for granted that every good farmer does 
haul these things) into your farm pen or stable 
yard, you haul them at once to the field, thereby 
saving half or nearly half the labor of hauling, 
and enabling you to manure nearly double sur- 
face. In the second place you can, adopting 
this mode, apply your manure at all seasons 
of the year when not engaged in other farm- 
ing operations. On the contrary, by the oth- 
er plan, you can only apply it in the spring 
and foil, and then only when the land is in 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



229 



order for ploughing. There are other advanta- 
ges, in this method, which I could enumerate, 
but as they will readily suggest themselves to 
the minds of all practical farmers — and I wish 
lobe brief— I shall content myself with these 
two, believing them to be most important. 

We now arrive at the most difficult points in 
the discussion — v/hat I suppose to be the gist of 
the matter in dispute between " W. W." and 
"A Hanoverian," viz: In which mode of applica- 
tion does the same amount of manure act most 
beneficially ? Does the " mere covering" of the 
land increase its fertility? If so, quo modo 1 — 
These, Mr. Editor, are very important matters, 
involving the whole question of the modus ope- 
randi of manures, and I approach them with 
great diffidence, having no expectation of an- 
swering them satisfactorily, but resolving to 
throw out the suggestions of my own mind, hop- 
ing that abler heads may be induced to inves- 
tigate the subject, and give us, through your 
valuable journal, the results of their researches. 
In regard to the first question, I have no hesita- 
tion in declaring it as my firm belief, that the 
same quantity of manure, either animal or veg- 
etable, decomposed or undecomposed, will pro- 
duce more fertilization applied to the surface 
than when ploughed in ; and I fully agree with 
u W. W." that the " mere covering of the land 
makes it wonderfully productive ;" and I more- 
over strongly incline to the opinion, that the 
"mere covering" is one of the great secrets of 
the superiority of his plan. If this opinion be 
well founded, of which I feel firmly persuaded, 
despite the long array of authority in opposi- 
tion, what a wonderful revolution in agricultural 
improvement would be effected by its general 
adoption. 

Let us inquire what are the advantages to be 
gained by subjecting our vegetable manures to 
the " trampling process ?" For the life of me I 
cannot see one of any consequence. It is true 
we mix them with the excrements of our cattle, 
and perhaps can distribute the animal manure 
more equally or uniformly on our fields ; but 
will any one contend that this mere convenience 
can compensate for the immense additional la- 
bor ? This reminds me, Mr. Editor, of the old 
fashioned mode of sowing turnip seed, mixed 
with ashes or sand. If hauling litter into our 
farm pens, could by any possibility increase the 
animal excrements, then truly it would be a 
wonderful advantage. Will the friends of the 
trampling process tell us that a heap of vegeta- 
ble matter cut to pieces with the hoof and mixed 
up with animal matters during the winter gets 
into a prodigious fever and sweat, and in the 
spring becomes perfectly mellow, assumes a fine 
black color and is exceedingly rich, &c. Now 
all this I do not gainsay, but I should like to be 
informed in what manner that same heap of ve- 
getable matter has acquired any of the elements 



necessary to fertilize land which it did not pos- 
sess when first deposited there, of course except- 
ing the animal matter. On the contrary, has it 
not lost nearly or quite 50 per cent, during the 
operation of sweating? and notwithstanding 
the addition of animal manure, the heap has les- 
sened nearly one-half. What has become of it ? 
Gone, gone. We have lost from our compost 
bed enough of carbonic acid gas, ammonia, ni- 
trogen, and other fertilizing gases, to have nour- 
ished a whole field of corn. Again, in the 
spring of the year this manure is generally car- 
ried to the field and deposited in small heaps. — 
After it is all hauled out, all hands turn to scat- 
tering, and it is thinly spread out and exposed 
for 24 or 48 hours longer before it is ploughed 
in, and then perhaps, imperfectly. 

Mr. Editor, did you ever bring your nasal or- 
gan within the range of smoke ascending from 
one of these heaps of manure when being dug 
into in the spring ? If you have not, I can as- 
sure you you would be in almost as much dan- 
ger of losing your breath as if you had applied 
to the same organ a wide, open mouth bottle of 
aqua ammonia?. Why sir, if the nutritious 
gases escaping from a heap of this description 
every five minutes could be sufficiently diluted, 
and applied, it would afford a week's supply of 
food to a moderately sized field of grain. This 
too, escaping at a period when there is no grow- 
ing crop, not a blade of grass to desorb or detain 
the smallest particle. It is all gone — vanished 
into thin air. Seriously, I have no doubt but 
that the loss at this period is immense, and has 
not, I fear, sufficiently arrested the attention of 
farmers. I contend that by adopting " W.W.'s" 
plan none of this loss occurs, or at least, com- 
paratively little. When the undecomposed ve- 
getable matter is spread upon the pasture land 
in the spring or summer, the decomposition, or 
more properly speaking the combustion, is very 
slow, and the various elements which it contains 
are evolved very gradually. Those which are 
volatile, the carbonic and nitrogen gases for ex- 
ample, are absorbed as rapidly as they are yield- 
ed, by the grass and weeds of the field, and the 
nutritive mineral bases not volatile, and which 
are equally necessary to the growth of plants, 
are carried into the earth, by the rains and snows, 
as fast as they are liberated from their chemical 
combinations, and taken up by the roots of plants, 
causing an immense growth of weeds, and cover 
for the land, and these in their turn restoring to 
the earth not alone the food derived from the 
top dressing, but adding their original stock to 
the capital. 

I will close my communication (already too 
long) by adding a few words in reference to the 
last query : Does the mere covering of land in- 
crease its fertility ? Although 1 have expressed 
the opinion above that it does, I fear, Mr. Editor, 
I cannot satisfactorily account for it. I will, 



230 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



however, present the reason which has occurred 
to my mind, hoping that if any one can account 
for it more satisfactorily, he will not hesitate to 
do so, through your columns. We know that 
neither heat nor moisture alone is sufficient for 
the decomposition of animal, vegetable or mine- 
ral substances, but there must be a combination 
of both these agents. I therefore suppose that 
a top dressing of straw, leaves, &c. prevents the 
rapid evaporation of moisture from the land, 
thereby preserving it for a much longer period 
in a condition favorable for the development or 
evolution of those substances, vegetable, animal 
and mineral, necessary for the growth of plants, 
and that, therefore, a much larger amount of this 
nutritive matter will be furnished for succeeding 
crops than if the surface of the land had not 
been covered. Respectfully, 

J. R. G. 



We are happy to present to our readers ano- 
ther article from the pen of Mr. Morriss, upon 
the management of Tobacco. We have assu- 
rances from high authority that his dissertation 
is more thoroughly practical and useful to the 
planter in Virginia than any other that has ever 
appeared in print. The numerous inquiries 
from our readers for the continuation of what 
we have published, evinces the great inter- 
est his essays have already excited. We 
hope Mr. Morriss will not remain content with 
the laurels that he has won, but that the meed 
of public approbation will only stimulate him 
to further exertions in the cause of agriculture. 

We have been at some pains to procure a 
good cut of the prize of which Mr. Morriss sent 
us a drawing, and which we are inclined to 
think the best and most economical in use. It 
will be found at the foot of this article. 
TOBACCO. 
Continued from page 144. 

After the stems and stalks of the tobacco are 
thoroughly cured, and after a few hard frosts, a 
part of the crop may be taken down for strip- 
ping, so that the hands may be employed in 
rainy weather, though planters generally prefer 
that the larger part should remain hanging up 
in the houses until the last of November or De- 
cember. Before taking down the tobacco, it will 
be necessary to haul straw to each house suf- 
ficient to cover the top, end and sides of the bulk, 
at least six inches thick. 

When a season of soft, damp or rainy weather 
occurs, and the stems will bend their entire 
length without breaking, the tobacco is taken 
down, pulled off the sticks, and laid on a bed 
prepared by placing the sticks side by side on 
poles, and covered with a thin coat of straw. 



The length of the tobacco sticks about 4 feet 3 
inches constitutes the width of the bed, and a 
sufficient length to hold the tobacco to be taken 
down ; so that the bulk will not exceed 4 or 5 
feet in height. 

After the tobacco is neatly packed down, it 
should be covered with straw, and with tobacco 
sticks, all around and over the bulk, to prevent 
its drying, and thereby avoid much inconven- 
ience and loss which will be sustained if it dries 
in bulk. 

When the stripping commences, the negroes 
who have had most experience, and who are 
considered best judges, sort the tobacco. The 
richest, longest and most perfect leaves are se- 
lected for the 1st quality; those which are less 
perfect or rich, or which have not sufficient 
length, for the 2d quality ; and the refused leaves 
for the 3d quality, or lugs. 

The first and second qualities are tied in bun- 
dles of 5 or 6 leaves, with the half of a fine 
small leaf, neatly wrapped around the heads, 
and about an inch down the bundles ; carefully 
observing that the leaves in a bundle be as near 
as possible of the same length. The lugs are 
tied in bundles of a dozen or more leaves, with- 
out much care. The first and second qualities 
are neatly placed away to be afterwards bulked : 
whereas it is better to have a hogshead ready, 
and prize the lugs as soon as stripped. This 
saves labor and prevents loss. 

When sufficient quantities of 1st and 2d qual- 
ities are stripped to form a bulk of each quality, 
beds are prepared as before described ; two bun- 
dles of tobacco are taken up, the heads placed 
even, and the bundles are straightened, pressed 
and drawn through the hands of one person, 
then given to another, who likewise presses the 
bundles and draws them through his hands, and 
passes them to the bulker, who packs them 
down ; two more bundles are treated in the same 
manner, and placed as close as possible to the 
first two ; and so on the whole length of the 
bed ; the bulker then passes to the oiher side, 
and places the bundles in the same manner, lap- 
ping the tails about one third of the length of 
the bundles, and continues first one side of the 
bulk and then the other, until the bulk is finish- 
ed. The bulk is then covered with plank, and 
a few rocks or other weight put on. 

These bulks remain in this situation until the 
month of March, when the tobacco is placed on 
thin sticks, smoothed with a drawing knife, and 
in dry weather hung up in the house. The 
sticks are placed about 10 inches apart, so as to 
admit a free circulation of air, that the tobacco 
may be perfectfy dried. After it is perfectly dry, 
it should be taken down the first season, for if it 
gets in high order, the benefits of the previous 
bulking are lost. It should therefore be care- 
fully watched, and whenever the leaf and the 
small part of the stem, about one-fourth its 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



231 



length, will bend without breaking, to be imme- 
diately taken down, and placed away in a 
bulk on the sticks like shingling a house, until 
the planter is ready for his second bulking, and 
carefully covered with straw ; and when there 
is favorable weather, such as will not change 
the order, the tobacco should be moved to a close 
house with a plank floor, and again bulked as 
above described ; except that 3 or 4 courses may 
be substituted for 2 
The tobacco ought 



, and heavily weighted. — 
to remain in this second 



bulk three or four weeks, before it is prized. It 
is packed in the hogshead in the same manner 
as it is prized, except that only one bundle is 
straightened, pressed and drawn through the 
hands, and passed to the prizer at a time. 

I send you a drawing of a tobacco prize, 
which I consider better than any I have seen, 
except the screw, which is too costly for general 
use. RICH'D G. MORRISS. 

Buckingham, Oct. 10th, 1841. 



TOBACCO PRIZE. 




A. The stump part, 3^ feet in the ground. 

B. The hogshead under prize. 

C. The beam, 16 feet long, 10 by 12 inches. 

D. The sill, 10 by 12 inches, morticed in the 
stump, and placed two inches below the earth, 
so that a bed of two inch plank for the hogs- 
head to rest on will be even with the surface. 

E. A permanent sword morticed in the sill, 
with holes for prizing above, and a shoulder at 
L, to prevent the beam from being below a ho- 
rizontal position. 

F. A movable sword morticed into lever G, 
so as to permit the lever to move up or down, 
and fastened by a pill of iron. 

G. A lever 12 feet long. 

M. Three fifty-sixes, to put on the lever after 
a good set is taken. 

H. A fork strongly planted in the ground. 

K. A pole with a rope. 

I, at one end, and a frame J, at the other, to 
raise the beam with. 



COMMON SOAP AS A REMEDY FOR BURNS. 



BY THOMAS WILLIAMSON, 



EDINBURGH. 



In case of burns, common soap, besides its 
great value as a local application, commands 



the additional advantage of always being at 
hand in cases of emergency. The mode in 
which I am in the habit of employing it is this ; 
A common shaving box may always be pro- 
cured, from which a good lather may, in the 
course of a minute or two, be easily obtained. 
This lather is then gently laid over the burnt 
surface by means of a shaving brush, and re- 
peated so soon as the first coat begins to be dry, 
or the pain returns. This practice ought to be re- 
peated occasionally during the first day, or until 
such time as the pain is relieved. The benefit 
accruing to the patient is immediate and the re- 
sult of the practice highly satisfactory ; for in 
more superficial burns, if early applied, vesica- 
tion is prevented, and in the course of a few 
days, desquamation of the cuticle follows, with- 
out leaving a raw surface. Of course, this as 
a remedial measure, is most applicable to super- 
ficial burns ; but even in such cases as involve 
destruction of the more deep tissues, it is not used 
without advantage, in so far as the personal com- 
fort of the patient is concerned. In such cases 
after the lapse of a few days, the crust formed 
by the soap is easily removed, so as to permit 
the employment of other remedies, if necessary. 
I am not prepared to say whether the benefit 



232 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 



and instantaneous relief, following- the applica- 
tion of the lather, are to be ascribed to the che- 
mical composition, or simply to the fact of its 
affording some degree of protection from atmos- 
pheric agency or both. — London Medical Gaz. 



APPLE TREES. 

The Editor of the New England Farmer 
speaks of it as a well known fact, that any land 
from which a growth of forest trees has been 
lately removed, (in our vernacular, new grounds) 
is peculiarly favorable to the growth of the ap- 
ple tree. 



THE HOG. 

We hope our friends will not be induced by 
the very low price of western pork, this winter, 
to abandon the raising of hogs. That three or 
four dollars a hundred is less than pork, beyond 
a certain amount, can be raised for, in this vici- 
nity, we are ready to admit. We say, beyond 
a certain amount, because, there is a certain 
amount, and that no inconsiderable one, that 
may be raised upon refuse and offal, that would 
otherwise be lost. This does not cost two dol- 
lars a hundred. 

But we must remember that the graziers of 
the West are complaining dreadfullv of the low 
price of pork. It cannot remain at its present 
rate for another year, and there is no more cer- 
tain way to secure its rising to an exorbitant 
height, than for the eastern people to divest 
themselves of their stock. 

Moreover, we should be very glad to receive 
from a competent hand a new calculation of the 
cost of one hundred pounds of pork, raised in 
Eastern Virginia, at the present day, with an 
improved stock, and under an improved system 
of cultivation. If the day has not already come, it 
will soon arrive, when more care and better man- 
agement will enable the East, we believe, to raise 
her pork cheaper than it can be driven to her even 
from the fertile forests of Ohio. It is, however, 
a matter entirely of calculation; and if the 
West, from natural advantages, can send us this 
article cheaper than we can raise it for ourselves, 
we should be madmen not to purchase it. Will 
some of our friends, competent to the task, afford 
us some information upon this subject? It is 
very evident that the people of this country are 
just beginning to appreciate the advantages of 
agriculture ; the great forests of the West are 
soon to be settled ; and if they can there produce 
corn for fifty cents a bushel, and send it to us at 



that price, in cured bacon, it is evident that we 
will take of them as much as we can consume 
in that form, and turn the labor now engaged 
in that proportion of the production into a more 
profitable channel. But until these facts are as- 
certained, and the trade so extended as to be 
placed beyond the control of monopoly, we warn 
our friends to be careful how they place them- 
selves in the power of the Cincinnati packers. 



VISIT TO ENGLAND. 

The celebrated stock importer, Mr. A. B. Al- 
len, has just returned from an agricultural visit 
to England, with a new importation of Berk- 
shires. Of these it seems he has introduced 
some extra varieties, calculated to throw our 
present stock completely in the shade. The 
Kenilworths, we believe, is the title in which 
this new family rejoices. They aspire to the 
weight of 1,300 pounds per hog, and are all 
white. Mr. Allen himself, however, seems to 
prefer some black Berkshires, that will not ex- 
ceed the trifling weight of 800 pounds. It is 
absolutely necessary to get up something extra, 
every now and then, to gratify the morbid appe- 
tite of the lovers of the marvellous ; and we 
sincerely hope that those gentlemen, who take 
so much pains to minister to so praiseworthy a 
passion, may find in its universality a fair field 
for speculation. 

From the " Spirit of the Times" we learn, 
that Mr. Allen thinks our imported cattle equal, 
with a few exceptions, to the best in England. 
The Pennsylvania draught horse he considers 
superior to the English cart horse, and in point 
of bottom, he thinks the English surpassed by 
the American race horse. 

In seeds, Mr. Allen found the British farmer 
quite as careful in selecting for sowing, as in 
choosing breeders for his stock. Their imple- 
ments of husbandry he thinks more complex 
and intricate, without being more effective than 
our own. 

With respect to the Berkshires, Mr. Allen de- 
clares that the real Simon pures are black, or a 
dark rich plum color, with a slight flecking of 
white: the white and light spotted he pronounces 
spurious breeds, and of far inferior quality and 
shape. 



THE COW. 
How much a certain supply of good milk 
conduces to the comfort of a family : how much 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



233 



inconvenience is occasioned the good wife by 
the failure of the cow "to come up," or any 
other accident which deprives her of this ne- 
cessary addition to her culinary stores ! How 
often it happens that all the art of the milkmaid 
fails to extract the necessary supply from the 
dozen miserable looking cattle she is sent to 
drain ! What a contrast does such a scene pre- 
sent to one we lately witnessed. We were in- 
vited to call and see a cow belonging to a poor 
man in this neighborhood, to whose family she 
was the chief means of support. We called 
about milking time, and found this beautiful ani- 
mal well housed, well fed, well curried, and in 
the act of being well milked. The rich stream 
that was flowing from her generous bag would 
have more than sufficed to supply the wants of 
any one family, and was certainly greater in 
amount than that obtained from a whole planta- 
tion of cows that we have seen. Why will any 
body, who does not intend to sell milk or butter, 
Jseep more than two cows 1 One good one is 
generally sufficient. It is not necessary to urge 
the convenience and economy of keeping one 
good cow well, instead of a half dozen indifferent 
ones badly. We believe the community are well 
aware of the difference. But the truth is, the 
cattle in this region, generally, are so indifferent 
that it is a difficult matter to get one good cow ; 
and with us importation is out of the question. 
What is left then but that our farmers should 
pursue the course pointed at by us on a former 
occasion? viz: by selecting the best of our na- 
tive stock, and judicious crossing, build up a 
good stock of our own. The man who will 
early turn his attention to this matter will find 
his account in it. A native or acclimated stock, 
every thing else equal, is worth fifty per cent, 
more than a foreign one. An hundred cows per 
annum may be sold in the city of Richmond, 
alone, at one hundred dollars a piece, if they are 
of the quality that may well be produced in a 
few years by proper attention. 

The Ayrshire we incline to believe the best 
cross for the native cattle of Eastern Virginia, 
and the importation of a good bull would, we 
think, amply remunerate the importer, provided, 
he would calculate to use his services in raising 
a stock of milch cows for this market. When 
the character of such stock came to be estab- 
lished, and the farmer knew where for one hun- 
dred dollars he could get a cow that, well fed 

and attended to, would supply his family with 
Vol. 1—27 



milk and butter, we believe that the probable 
demand would be, for some time, greater than 
the supply. For th'13 purpose the river farms 
below are admirably adapted; for they have 
this advantage, that whilst this stock can be 
transported above, not only with impunity, but 
with actual advantage, it is a well known fact 
that cattle cannot be brought down from the 
upper country, without the greatest risk. 

That our friends may the better judge of 
those outward and visible signs, that mark a 
good milch cow, we subjoin the following article 
from the " Tennessee Agriculturist" : 

"If we ever rightly appreciate the cow, we 
will understand the secret of breeding cattle of 
one shape for milk, another for beef, and still a 
third for oxen. We will learn the milk cow 
must have light fore-quarters and brisket, thin 
neck, delicate head, soft, silky coat, wide hips, 
and thin thighs ; while the best animal for beef, 
has a short thick head and neck, heavy quarters, 
round barrel and short legs ; but the ox is longer 
in the limb, body, and indeed in all his propor- 
tions. When breeding domestic animals is re- 
duced to a science, the different breeds for the 
milker, beef and ox, will be discussed with the 
greatest gravity, and the particular structure of 
each will be considered indispensable. Not only 
so, but the proper management of cattle in each 
state of their growth will be looked upon as a 
matter of more importance than the attention 
now given to the racer in each year of its 
growth. When we esteem the cow as w T e 
should, we will have her winter quarters, in 
point of comfort, next to the family dwelling; 
and we will learn that even currying is at least 
as serviceable to the cow as the horse. The 
proof that we do not put a proper estimate upon 
the cow, requires no other argument than the 
fact, that not one farmer perhaps in fifty has 
even a comfortable shelter or wholesome winter 
food for cattle. In Tennessee, we have enough 
of the improved breeds, and we trust a suffi- 
ciency of knowledge to commence improving. If 
we, as farmers, study our own comfort and in- 
terest, we will produce breeds of cattle more va- 
luable than any yet in existence, and the prices 
heretofore given for the best short-horned Dur- 
ham, will be no more than a 'starting bid' for 
them. There is no doubt in the world, a race 
of cows may be made which will give a bushel 
of good milk each per day, and could we ima- 
gine an adequate price for an animal of this de- 
scription ?" 



FERMENTATION. 

In fermentation, vegetable matter undergoes a 3 
chemical process that renders it much more ^ oor 



234 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



luble and nutritive. This has been demonstrated 
and admitted by the best chemists — the same 
effect is produced in a more expensive manure 
by the application of heat. The natural pro- 
cess may, therefore, be economically substituted 
for the artificial one, especially in the preparation 
of food for hogs. 

The plain English of all which is, that we 
would advise you to let your hog feed stand until 
it sours, 



SEA-SAND. 

In Europe the happiest results have been ex- 
perienced by the application of sea-sand to cold 
tenacious clays. Independently of the mecha- 
nical effect, produced by the disintegration of 
the particles of clay, all sands from sea and salt- 
river shores, are charged with large quantities 
of saline and oily matters, which exert a highly 
beneficial influence in the improvement and me- 
lioration of the soil. We mention this fact, be- 
cause we are aware that on the margin of our 
seaboard and salt-river States, there are thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of acres of cold 
livery clay lands greatly exhausted from impro- 
per cultivation, and we are firmly of the opinion, 
that by draining these lands wherever they may 
require it, and admixing with them from fifty to 
one hundred loads of this sand to the acre, that 
a very solid improvement both in the texture 
and productive capacity of the soil will be there- 
by produced. — American Farmer. 



MANURING. 

The following article, from the South Caro- 
lina Temperance Advocate, is worthy of consi- 
deration. To save the labor of hauling out 
manure, and to prevent the loss of the volatile 
alkalis, are great desideratums, which are un- 
doubtedly obtained by the plan recommended. 
The difficulty, we should suppose, would consist 
in the disadvantage of having cattle sometimes 
at inconvenient distances from the barn and the 
homestead ; and at any rate, a due regard to 
sheltering would render the system impractica- 
ble for one portion of the year, at least. 

The system of covering the manure as soon 
as made, we believe to be good, whenever 
practicable. It was highly recommended by a 
correspondent in a former number of the Planter. 

"A friend of ours, who deservedly holds a high 
rank as a practical planter, in all its various de- 
tails, gave us, in conversation, the plan he pur- 
se sues in manuring his land. He owns about one 
Jpndred and fifty head of cattle, all of which 
driven home in the evening and penned. 



His cow-pen is half an acre in size. He pens 
his cattle in one place, three nights, and then 
moves it forward, so as to cover half an acre 
more, and a plough follows immediately and 
turns under the manure, on the half just occu- 
pied, so that nothing is lost by evaporation. He 
continues this throughout the year, at the end 
of which he has about a hundred and twenty 
acres well manured, and the manure all well 
turned under, so that he has lost none. 

" The trouble of moving such a small pen so 
often, he thinks is less than it would be to wagon 
out the same amount of manure, and scatter it ' T 
and then by his system, he saves a vast amount 
that would be lost by evaporation, if permitted 
to be long in a heap. 

" But he gains, too, in another important par- 
ticular; this secures for his cattle greater atten- 
tion than is ordinarily bestowed on stock, and 
prevents his losing a large number. 

"We asked if he did not haul straw and 
leaves to his pens? He remarked that his land 
was a light, porous soil, that would not bear this 
kind of manure; but that after his cattle had 
remained two nights in a pen, he hauled in a 
rich, clayey soil, from a large swamp near him, 
and scattered this over the pen, and the cattle 
were penned on this the third night, which was, 
of course, turned under too. He thus not only 
enriched his land, but produced a permanent 
change in the physical structure of the soil. 

" We regret that we are not at liberty to use- 
the gentleman's name, as authority for the ad- 
vantages of this system, for he would be recog- 
nized by many of our readers as a most success- 
ful planter. And in connection with his success- 
in planting, he remarked, ' it is owing wholly 
to planting short to the hand, so as to afford m& 
an opportunity to manure highly.' " 



BREEDING. 
We know no subject upon which more nor*- 
sense is written than on the principles of breed- 
ing. Experience and observation have undoubt- | 
edly discovered valuable facts in this important 
branch of science ; but the mysterious nature of 
the subject has opened the door to the promul- 
gation of vague, contradictory, and visionary 
ideas. To which class the following, taken- 
from an exchange paper, properly belongs, we 
leave it to the more skilful to determine : 

"If a man has a superior milch cow, and 
wishes to raise milking stock from her, the com- 
mon plan is to save her heifer calves. But ac- 
cording to a principle of breeding, sustained by 
facts as well as theory, by far the better plan 
would be, to save a bull calf from this cow, and 
his stock when he is put to breeding will have 
the excellent quality of his dam, and be, like 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



235 



her, superior milkers. For example, Cleopatra 
was an extraordinary milker, according to this 
principle her heifer calves may, or may not, make 
good milkers ; but her bull calf Frederick, hav- 
ing her character and qualities bred in him, will 
communicate them to his stock ; and his heifer 
calves will be, like his dam, superior milkers. 

11 This last principle suggests an important 
consideration in selecting a breeding bull, viz: 
that he be descended from a superior milch cow." 



HOGS. 
The following description of the points of a 
good hog is taken from that standard little work, 
the Farmers' Almanac : 

"As this species of farm stock justly occupies 
much of the attention of the farmers of the 
West, at this time, we shall devote a chapter to 
a sketch descriptive of those breeds in which 
the most interest is felt. 

" Let us see first what constitutes a good hog. 
The head — though it is certainly preferable that 
this should be short, handsome and sprightly, 
with thin, small, pointed and pendulous ears; 
yet good hogs may have a long and somewhat 
^coarse head, with a heavy, flopped ear. The 
jowl should not be too heavy — the flesh of that 
part is coarse and of little value ; and moreover, 
it denotes a too great aptitude to fatten, frequently 
to the serious injury of the breeding qualities. 
The neck short, and not too heavy, fitting well 
<on to the shoulder ; the shoulder not quite as 
high as the loin, thick and of good substance, 
rounding well out: the constitution is generally 
in proportion to the capaciousness of the breast 
and loin. The brisket coming well down, and 
the distance between the fore legs as great as 
possible. The back broad and straight, and 
rather slightly arched than otherwise, and parti- 
cularly no sinking immediately behind the shoul- 
der. The ribs well arched, forming a good bar- 
rel, and supporting the belly well. The loin, as 
before remarked, wide and full, with the ribs 
coming well back. The rump rounding off 
evenly, the tail well set on, tapering and thinly 
haired, except the tuft, which may be heavy ; 
in some breeds the tail is curled like a cork- 
screw. The ham must be of good size, round 
and plump, and swelling out so as to come in a 
line with the shoulder : such a formed ham will 
weigh well to its size. The hips wide spread, 
and the twist coming well down ; the flank deep 
and full ; the belly roomy, but not coming too 
near the ground. The legs straight and fine in 
the bone; the muscles heavy, particularly in 
the thigh and arm ; the hock pointed ; the pas- 
tern joints firm and strong, not resting the dew- 
claws on the ground, so that the animal has a 
bold and erect footing; a thick, fleshy leg will 
not carry a heavy hog to a distant market. The 



skin thick, but tender and gelatinous, and easily 
masticated, even in the shape of roasted crack- 
ling; soft, and handling well, and free from 
eruption. The hair smooth and soft, no bristle 
on the neck, shoulder or back. It has been ob- 
served, even by some of the oldest writers that 
'smooth, soft haired hogs are most suitable for 
warm climates.' 

" Though the above described form and qua- 
lities are those that in our view constitute the 
best hog, yet, like all other kinds of farm stock, 
they should in a measure be adapted to the cli- 
mate, situation with reference to market, nature 
of the keep, and the circumstances and manage- 
ment of the farm." 



CLEANING PAINT. 

Housewives should be careful not to wash 
paints, especially green, in strong soap suds : the 
lie has the same effect on paint that it has on 
grease. When it does not destroy the paint, it 
may affect the lustre. — Exchange paper. 



We are indebted to the lively imagination of 
Mr. John B. Miller for the following description 
of the effects to flow from the late important 
discovery of Dr. Boucherie's method of preserv- 
ing and coloring wood, heretofore noticed in this 
paper : 

" The discovery, by Doctor Boucherie, of a 
process by which liquids may be infused into 
living timber, is an invention, the benefits of 
which almost surpass computation. By means 
of a most simple application of a force contained 
within the tree itself, the wood may be rendered 
much more durable, its elasticity preserved, the 
variations in volume on account of exposure to 
different degrees of moisture avoided, its com- 
bustibility destroyed, its strength and solidity 
increased, and every shade of color and variety 
of odor cheaply, easily and expeditiously im- 
parted. The benefits to be derived from this 
simple discovery will be as numerous as the 
purposes to which wood is applied are various 
and useful. Dr. Boucherie has, by this disco- 
very, become one of the great benefactors of the 
human race. For there are none so high as 
not to be benefitted by if, and none so poor as 
not to participate in its advantages. Whoever 
lives uses wood, and whoever uses wood will be 
benefitted by this discovery. If the invention 
is generally applied, and it is folly to suppose 
that it will not be, fire insurance companies may 
close their offices, and the fire departments break 
up and disband. Masons and painters may for 
the most part turn carpenters, and a light and 
simple bo ucheried wooden edifice will surpass in 
beauty the splendor of the heavy and expensive 
marble palaces of the present day. The poor 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



man's house will need few repairs, and the car- 
man's truck will last his lifetime. Ships will 
require no sheathing, and roofs no tiling. The 
mouse and the rat may bid adieu to their old 
hunting grounds, and with the moth and the 
bed-bug retire in disgust from the embittered 
pantry shelf and odoriferous bedpost, leave these 
regions of enlightened civilization, and take up 
their line of march towards the confines of ig- 
norance and barbarism. The luxurious may 
roll in spiced carriages, and the lady's boudoir 
be redolent with musked ebenisterie. The fact 
that the most simple discovery may produce the 
most stupendous results, has, perhaps, never been 
more strikingly illustrated. The principle is not 
novel: the originality of Dr. Boucherie's disco- 
very consists merely in the full application of 
an experiment, which has long since been use- 
fully applied to rid trees of the grub or canker- 
worm. An infested tree is cleared by perforat- 
ing it, and filling the bore with sulphur. By 
this means the sap becomes impregnated with 
sulphur, and the worm, in consequence, leaves 
the tree. This fact is adduced, not with any 
view to detract from the merit of the discovery 
of Dr. Boucherie, but to suggest the remark, 
that it is much to be regretted that some one of 
our own shrewd and intelligent countrymen had 
not made this discovery instead of the learned 
Doctor, whose high fame will most deservedly 
descend to future generations as the discoverer 
of this astonishing mode of improving and pre- 
serving timber. The following account of the 
manner of operating, and of the substance used, 
is translated from 'Xe Journal Scientifique de 
VAcademie des Sciences] which contained the re- 
port of a committee appointed by the academy 
to examine the discovery of Dr. Boucherie. 
After highly complimenting the Doctor for his 
science and ingenuity, the report proceeds to 
unfold his plan as follows : 

" ' In order to infuse preservative or other sub- 
stances into living timber, recourse is had to no 
other force than the capillary attraction, by which 
the tree takes up its sap. Let the tree be felled 
when the sap is in full flow, and plunged in the 
liquor that it is desired it should imbibe, and in 
a few days the liquid will ascend even into the 
leaves at the farthest extremities, every fibre, 
except the heart of the tree, becoming perfectly 
saturated. It is not, however, necessary that 
the tree should be cut down, for it is sufficient 
to bore it at the foot, or merely to saw it rather 
more than half through, and then apply the 
liquid to the incision, and a rapid and complete 
absorption will ensue. If it is desired to increase 
the durability and hardness of the timber, and 
thus prevent its decay, the pyrolignite of raw 
iron should be infused. This substance is ex- 
ceedingly well adapted to the purpose, inasmuch 
as impure pyroligneous acid is produced in all 
our forests by the fabrication of charcoal, and 



this is easily changed into a pyrolignite of iron, 
by bringing it in contact with old iron. More- 
over, this preparation contains a quantity of 
creosote, which substance, independently of the 
salts of iron, has itself the property of harden- 
ing the wood, preventing ordinary decay, and 
injury from insects. To preserve the timber 
elastic, and destroy its combustibility, Dr. Bou- 
cherie recommends the chloride of calcium, or 
a still cheaper substance, the water from a salt 
marsh. "Wood prepared with these saline solu- 
tions retains its flexibility after several years of 
exposure to the atmosphere, and in their slips 
may, without breaking, be twisted in spirals, 
and again untwisted. Exposed to the atmos- 
phere, it neither warps nor splits, no matter how 
dry soever it may become ; finally, from the dif- 
ficulty with which it burns, it is incapable of 
spreading fire. Wood is, by this process, colored 
in such different shades, and with the tints so 
beautifully mingled, that it cannot but cause a 
vast improvement in all cabinet ware. The 
pyrolignite of iron gives a brown tint, which 
contrasts prettily with the natural color of such 
parts of the wood as are too compact for the 
pyrolignite to penetrate. If, after the absorption 
of the pyrolignite of iron, some tanning liquor 
be infused, it produces an ink in the body of the 
wood, and can thus be colored blue, black or 
grey. Let an absorption of the pyrolignite of 
iron be followed by an infusion of the prusiate 
of potassa, and Prussian blue is formed, and by- 
introducing successively the acetate of lead, and 
thechromateofpotassa,chromateoflead (chrome 
yellow) is produced. If in the same tree are 
infused the pyrolignite of iron, the acetate of 
lead, the prussiate and chromate of potassa, they 
form different shades of blue, green, yellow and 
brown, and produce the most varied effects. In 
the same manner timber may be impregnated 
with odoriferous liquids, and every variety of 
odor imparted to the wood.' r — Northern Light, 
Utica, October, 1841. 



UNDER DRAINING. 

We are glad to find our own views on this 
subject enforced by the following, from a distin- 
guished correspondent of the Farmers' Cabinet: 

"JWr. Editor, — This is the season for making 
under drains; the leisure of autumn and the 
open weather of winter cannot be so well em- 
ployed as in this most necessar}' and all-impor- 
tant operation : by this means, too, labor is found 
for our helps at a time when, otherwise, they 
would be suffering privations from the want of 
employment ; and when the business is judi- 
ciously conducted, it is sure to pay a per centage 
upon the cost, far greater than any other that 
can be devised, as that land which has been re- 
claimed by draining will oftentimes require no 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



237 



manuring for an age ; the herbage, too, being 
of a peculiarly different species from that hither- 
to produced, and far more nutritious. It must 
be observed, however, that drains cut at this 
season of the year should be filled and finished 
immediately, lest the frost might shake the sides 
of the newly-cut earth, and render the labor in 
a measure abortive, b}' partially filling them, 
before the stones, or other articles used, are 
placed. 

" On land that has been drained, the system 
of subsoil ploughing can be adopted with ten- 
fold advantage, which is an object of the highest 
importance, for there is no doubt, the use of the 
subsoil plough will ere long be in very general 
requisition on almost all soils, having been found 
as valuable on light lands with retentive bot- 
toms, as upon those of a more compact and 
stiffer surface — rendering, as has been observed, 
all soils drier in wet weather, and more moist 
during a season of drought. On this all-im- 
portant subject, I find some interesting remarks 
in the Sou! hern Planter, a new agricultural pe- 
riodical, published at Richmond, Virginia, which 
stands high in public estimation, and deserves 
the liberal support of the country through which 
it circulates." 

11 Here he quotes the article from page 129 of 
the Planter, and then adds : 

" There are many articles used in the filling 
of under drains. On the old and low meadows 
of England, it is usual to cut drains eighteen 
inches deep and twelve inches wide, and in the 
middle of the bottom of these, to sink a foot 
deeper, only three inches wide ; then, to take 
the turf that had been cast off at the first open- 
ing and turn it, sod downward, on the shoulders 
of the drain, and fill the mould upon them ; and 
these drains have stood in perfect order for an 
age. Then again, on other meadows it is the 
custom to sink a deep and narrow drain, and 
place in it the branches of beech, osier, or other 
aquatic timber, covering them with straw, &c. 
and filling in the earth, and these also stand and 
perform well. But when stones of proper size 
can be obtained, a preference is due to them over 
every other material, for if the drains are carried 
so as to have a slight declination only, and care- 
fully filled, they will run for any length of time : 
where stones are not to be had, however, tiles 
are used very extensively ; and two pine boards 
nailed together and placed in the bottom of the 
drain, so as to span it, the aris edge upwards, 
has been found a cheap and very excellent sub- 
stitute for them. But, upon the principle of the 
working of the subsoil plough, if land be cut 
into wedge-shaped deep drains, and these be 
filled again with the matter that has been thrown 
out, after it has had time to dry, they will be 
found to keep open and run, perhaps for any 



length of lime, even for an age. In any view, 
therefore, draining in some form or other ought 
to be practiced very extensively on land requir- 
ing the operation, it is the nc plus ultra of good 
husbandry." 

We had imagined our suggestion about the 
plank drain to be new, but are happy to find 
that its value has been tested by English expe- 
rience. There are several ciicumstances that 
render it much more economical and suitable 
here than there ; and we have no doubt that it 
may be introduced extensively, to great advan- 
tage. 



PREPARATION OF FOOD FOR HOGS. 

Grain is worth far more, as food for animals, 
ground than unground. Cooking food, also adds 
greatly to iis value. Some have estimated 
cooked meal at fifty per cent, more in value 
than uncooked. There can be no doubt that 
grinding and cooking grain will make an im- 
provement, far excelling in value the cost of 
these operations. They will probably add nearly 
one hundred per cent, to the value of the food. 

It is well to have a mixture of food for hogs ; 
it is less cloying, and induces more thrift. Roots 
of various kinds, with apples and meal, make 
an excellent and cheap food. Pumpkins may 
be added, or pumpkins, meal and apples, may 
be used, if no roots are at hand ; sweet pump- 
kins and sour apples, with meal, form a very 
palatable and nourishing dish. 

All these kinds of food, excepting the meal, 
and that may be used sparingly, are very cheap, 
and yield a large amount to the acre. Apples 
are produced with little labor, after the trees 
once attain a good size. They are probably the 
cheapest food that can be produced in New 
England or the Middle States. And even in 
the West, where grain is raised with little ex- 
pense, apples may be produced with little ex- 
pense also. — Farmers' Journal. 



CABBAGES. 

A correspondent in the Farmers' Cabinet re- 
commends very highly cabbages as food for 
cows and hogs. They should be boiled, he 
says, with corn cob meal, when they will be 
found superior to any other food. They are 
much used for milch cows about London. He 
proposes the following plan for preserving this 
vegetable through the winter: 

11 Let the cabbages be cut in fine and dry 
w T eather, and after stripping off a few of their 
outer leaves, lay them sing]}- upon straw — which 
must be clean and dry — on the floor of a barn 
or outhouse, well secured from the rain ; upon 



238 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



these lay more straw, and then a line of cab- 
bages, and so continue to any height you may 
choose. The mode of hurrying them head 
downward in the earth, appears, to say the least, 
a troublesome and dirty business, by which their 
outer leaves become corrupted, and oftentimes a 
portion of the cabbages also." 



LARD. 

As the season is approaching, we copy Mr. 
Lewis's mode of trying lard for the benefit of 
our pork curing friends. Mr. Lewis is known 
as one of the most extensive and successful pork 
curers in Kentucky ; raised in Virginia, he has 
sustained in his adopted state the well establish- 
ed fame of the Old Dominion. 

PREPARATION OF LARD. 

Messrs. Gay lord <$> Tucker. — The following 
is our mode of trying up lard, of which we 
make three qualities ; that from the intestines, 
that from the leaf-fat, and that from the upper 
part of the back-bones. The latter is the su- 
perfine. So soon as the intestines are taken 
from the hogs, while yet warm, the fat is rid off 
and thrown into cold water, where it remains to 
soak some hours ; it is then washed out and 
put into other fresh water, in which it remains 
until next morning. It is then cut up into pieces 
not more than two or three inches long rinsed 
again and immediately put on in iron boilers 
thoroughly cleansed. The fire is then applied, I 
which must be free from smoke during the whole 
process of boiling, which should be continued 
for at least twelve hours. It is very frequently 
stirred during the boiling, and the bottom of the 
boiler scraped hard with the sharp edge of the 
iron ladle, to keep the cracklings from adhering j 
and burning, which they are apt to do towards 
the end of the process, if the fire is strong and 
the boiling rapid. When the cracklings begin 
to burn brown, and the lard becomes clear as wa- 
ter and scarcely any evaporation is visible, the 
fire should be slackened. The bubbles rising 
to the top will be as clear as cut glass. Con- 
tinue the simmering gently until the cracklings 
are quite brown. They never become crisped; 
but although brown and entirely done, will be 
soft and flabby. The clearness of the lard, the 
brown color of the cracklings, the crystnl pu- 
rity of the bubbles, and the nut-like scent ari- 
sing;, indicate the end of the boiling. Take the 
boilers off the fire, or extinguish the fire, and 
when the lard is so cool that you can bear its 
heat on your finger dipped into it without pain, 
strain it off into clean tight vessels. Exclude 
the air ; and you will have a nice article even 
from gut fat. 

The leaf and chine fat arc soaked in water 
at least forty-eight hours, after being thoroughly 



washed, and cut up into bits not more than cu- 
bic inches in size. The frequent agitation and 
stirring of these in the cold water, makes the 
lard much better. When put into the boilers 
the water should be carefully drained off, so that 
as little water as possible should go into the boi- 
lers with the fat. Apply the fire, and in eight 
hours these two kinds, which should be kept 
separate, will be done. The lard clear as wa- 
ter, the cracklings nut brown and crisp, and gi- 
ving as they simmer the sound of rustling dry 
leaves, emitting the scent of nicely fried pork, 
and giving off scarcely any perceptible evapo- 
ration. Stir very often during the boiling and 
let no cracklings stick to the bottom of the boi- 
ler. For the last hour the boiling should be very 
gentle, rather brisk simmering than boiling, to pre- 
vent burning, which must be most carefully 
avoided. Cool and strain off, and exclude air 
as directed for gut fat, and you will have a 
snowy white, firm, fragrant article, that will 
keep for years without the slightest alteration. 
Never put another parcel into the boilers during 
the process, and when one parcel is done, have 
the boilers most carefully scoured, and so clean 
that they will not soil a cambric handkerchief. 
Much depends on thorough washing, soaking, 
and agitation in clean pure water before boiling ; 
much on careful boiling and stirring, but most 
of all on the perfect purity of the boiler. The 
slightest rancidity, burnt grease or oxydation 
will impart to the whole parcel of lard boiled in 
it, offensive or injurious scent, taste or color. 
Although I have stated the usual time of boiling, 
you must not be governed by the time, but by 
the indications mentioned as produced by boiling. 
These indications must appear, no matter what 
the time has been, before the boiling or trying 
up is complete. Leaf and chine lard thus pre- 
pared are superior even to the best butter for ma- 
king pastry, biscuit, all kinds of hard cakes and 
jumbles. Lard, like butter, should be kept in 
cool, dry apartments, subjected to as little at- 
mospheric change as possible. In this country 
we usually keep lard in kegs or firkins of the 
linden or lime (tilia) tree, containing from 55 to 
60 pounds. I however prefer well glazed stone 
jars or tin buckets, because they are more im- 
pervious to the air. 

Very truly gentlemen, 

Your obedient servant, 

John Lewis. 

Llangollen, (Ky.) Aug. 27, 1841. 



From a very elaborate description of the farm 
of Mr. Elias Phinney, Esq. of Massachusetts, 
given by the editor of the Farmers' Visitor, we 
make the following extracts. Mr. Phinney 's 
name is familiar to the reader of agricultural 
papers, and we have no doubt he is a man of 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



239 



great judgment and industry. When we see 
such a man so successfully contending against 
the natural obstacles of a barren soil and frigid 
climate, we cannot help considering what results 
the same energy and vigor would effect in our 
own climate, where nature is ever ready to as- 
sist, instead of thwart, the labors of the hus- 
bandman : 

The farm of Mr. Phinney consists of about 
one hundred and sixty acres, upon that rough 
ridge of hills dividing the waters of the tributary 
streams which run into Charles river on the one 
hand and Merrimack river on the other — a much 
harder faced soil than is usually found upon the 
ridges farther in the interior. The elevations at 
this point are not only full of rocks, great and 
small, terminating the sharp points of many hills 
in mere ledges, but a great portion of the soil is 
scarcely less hard than the rock itself. These 
rough ridges, after their first clearing, were the 
favorite haunts of the barberry bush, the cedar, 
the poplar and the birch, indicating not a very 
strong soil in its crude state. Yet it is not un- 
common, when the masses of stone have been 
dug from this ground, to find upon it, by the ar- 
tificial aids of manure and good cultivation, such 
crops as would do no discredit to the finest and 
most fertile soil in the country. Such is not the 
condition of Mr. Phinney's farm alone upon this 
ground — there are farms all about him at their 
sides and in the valleys between these elevated 
ridges, whose productions are creditable to the 
perseverance and industry of his neighbors. 

We have of late remarked that generally in 
the vicinity of land of one prevailing character 
there is at no very great distance land of an oppo- 
site character, in the intermixture of which an ex- 
tremely sterile may be converted into a produc- 
tive soil. In the midst of arid plains we now and 
then find swamps in which are beds of black 
vegetable mould, clay or marl ; and in some in- 
stances it has been discovered that the exchange 
of silex for clay or mould, and clay for sand or 
gravel, have wrought wonders in cultivation. 
The rough ridges of Lexington, in the midst of 
which Mr. Phinney's farm is situated, are inter- 
spersed with bog or peat meadows, some of 
which have a vegetable mould of great depth. 
The most of these meadows were formerly 
ponds — some of them have been recently drained 
of their former fixed surface of water. Others 
had so much standing water as to preclude the 
growth of other than coarse inferior hay of the 
poorest quality. Others, after the first wood 
had been cut off settling down into more solidity, 
were dug up for peat. One of these on Mr. 
Phinney's farm, from which thousands of cords 
of fuel nearly as valuable as the best bituminous 
coal had been taken, has been changed into the 
most productive hay ground upon his premises. 



In the first place a ditch has been made at the 
' edge of the whole semi-circle of the meadow on 
I this side between the soft ground of the meadow 
and the hard pan of the rising hill just deep 
enough to cut off the cold springs which form- 
erly fed the meadow. This outside ditch filled 
at the bottom with rocks large and small leaving 
the water room to percolate between them, these 
are covered first with hassocks or tough-sward 
sods, and afterwards with the soil to a depth so as 
not to be reached by the plough. Transverse 
'ditches covered in like manner connect the out- 
! side with other open ditches at convenient dis- 
tances on the level of the lowest meadow, and 
through a main ditch the whole water is carried 
off to the lowest point of the lot. But this has only 
been a part of the under-ground work, which has 
made of this meadow, out of which when mowed 
' at the driest season of the year, Mr. P. said he had 
i when a boy while poling the hay off often sunk 
i to the armpits, a field which will produce the 
largest crop of hay for the whole life of man. 
In the most sunken, cold part of the meadow, 
Mr. Phinney has caused ditches to be made of 
some eight or ten feet in width extending towards 
; the centre of the meadow from the ditch at the 
! edge. Jnto these ditches in the winter the stones 
from the weight of tons to the merest pebble are 
drawn, while the ground is frozen : filled with 
:the stones to the proper height, ihe coal black 
soil of the meadow is dug out, so as to form a 
new ditch, covering the rocks to the depth of 
twenty inches and more, so that the plough can- 
not reach them, and raising the surface several 
inches above its former position. This process has 
been repeated, filling one ditch by the digging of 
another until the good part of an acre of ground 
has been gone over with a substratum of stones 
covered by a rich soil which produces year after 
year the largest crops of hay. The effect of the 
deposition of rock is the proper draining of ihe 
whole surface of the meadow within, so that the 
land is proof against boih wet and drought, and 
the ground maybe readily tilled with the plough 
and hoe, as often as it may be deemed expedient 
to break up the sward. The low meadow land, 
drained and prepared in this way, is said to be 
excellent for raising early potatoes for the mar- 
ket: this crop on that ground fears no drought ; 
the potato vines are free from rust. On this 
same meadow we saw at a distance two years 
ago, when we made a hasty visit to this place, in 
the absence of Mr. Phinney, a crop of corn 
growing of a great size, and then supposed the 
meadow wasJike the common intervale upon our 
river where Indian corn is always raised. In 
1840, the corn field was put down to a crop of 
small grain ; and this year for the first crop three 
tons to the acre of the best English hay had been 
taken from the ground, and a luxuriant second 
crop was now growing. Two or more acres 
lower down the same meadow and upon the oth- 



240 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



er side of the highway, more recently treated in 
the same manner, last year planted with potatoes, 
were this year sown down to herdsgrass in 
April: the grass sprang at once so that a great 
crop of this first rate hay was taken off in July, 
and another crop was nearly ready for the 
scythe. 

The meadow made thus valuable — and Mr. 
P. thinks it to yield him an annual income equal 
to 6 per cent, upon five hundred dollars to the 
acre— was prepared at an expense far less than 
its real value. The bodies of stone upon the 
ground in the vicinity must be taken somewhere: 
left at any point above ground, they are much in 
the way. Upon this farm Mr. P. before he adopt- 
ed this method had disposed of many thousand 
tons in the construction of several hundred rods 
of double wall for fences, until the entire farm 
was partitioned into convenient enclosures. But 
the stones were much too numerous, and many 
of them were too small to be used any where to 
advantage above ground. Picked and piled up 
in the summer, a portion of the winter business 
of the farm was to team these rocks to their use- 
ful destination in the underground meadow ditch- 
es. Upon this meadow when the fresh herds- 
grass runs out after a few }'ears, the ground is 
at once prepared for a new growth by turning 
over the sward in September, spreading some 
ten or a dozen loads of compost manure to the 
acre, and sowing new clover and herdsgrass. 

Mr. Phinney is of opinion that the use of a 
sub-soil plough, not the Deanston plough im- 
ported from England, but one invented by him- 
self, will increase the crop of carrots, beets and 
potatoes nearly one-half. His sub-soil plough 
is a large and heavy wooden instrument, in the 
shape of the Cultivator : it has three large iron 
bolts at the centre, running all the distance, say 
of eighteen inches, one behind the other : these 
bolts, an inch and a half or more in diameter, 
and 8 or 10 inches clear below the wood, are 
stump footed at the bottom, pointed so as to perfo- 
rate the ground. This stump-footed half har- 
row, half cultivator, drawn by a team of three 
heavy yokes of oxen, follows the plough in the 
same furrow, and roots into the sub-soil, some 
two, three, or more inches, according to the 
hardness or softness of the ground upon which 
the prongs operate. 

The simple instrument of Mr. Phinney, the 
plough with three teeth following directly after 
each other, it does seem to us, may be made a 
most effective instrument, passing along in an 
open furrow, turned out by a preceding team 
with the common plough, in moving the hard 
pan, and thus laying the foundation for a deeper, 
richer soil when the stirred sub-soil shall become 
meliorated by due exposure to the atmosphere. 

Sub-soil ploughing is but of recent practice, 
even in England, whence it was introduced into 
this country. Connected with under-draining, 



| where the wet. which resting long near the sur- 
I face producing heaviness, and retarding and pre- 
' venting the progress of vegetation, is carried off 
unseen, and the upper soil is left dry and light, 
sub-soil ploughing adds wonderfully to the ca- 
pacity of the land for production. This matter 
is well understood and practised in Great Brit- 
ain — it is adding hundreds of thousands to the 
profits of farming in that country. Mr. Phinney, 
with the philosophy which he has applied to 
other things, seems at once to have stepped into 
the true process of sub-soil ploughing, of which 
we had the evidence before us in the case of his 
carrot beet, and potato cultivation. 

ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. 

By continued improvements of this kind Mr. 
Phinney has been able to increase his crop of hay 
four-fold : he gets a great quantity on a small 
space of ground. On the kind of land natural 
to the production of hay, his practice has been 
for several years to invert the sward to the depth 
of six or eight inches, with the Prouty & Mears 
plough adjusting the edges so as to leave no cre- 
vice — pass over the ground in the first instance 
with a heavy roller — spread on ten or a dozen 
loads of compost manure — harrow the ground 
lengthwise of the furrows — sow with herds-grass 
and clover — harrow or brush it in, and roll down 
close a second time. In this way the field is left 
in the smoothest condition : the unmoved sward 
at the bottom has a fine effect upon the subse- 
quent annual crops, making the grass hold on 
much longer than if it had been stocked down 
in the usual way. Mr. P. had one field put down 
in this way which without other preparation had 
continued to produce for five years in succession 
full two tons of hay to the acre. 

The method of stocking down to grass first 
after a crop of corn or potatoes, is found to be 
the best in the drained grounds. Mr. Phinney 
sowed herds- grass in April upon about two acres, 
and instead of the long process when the seed is 
sown with grain, of obtaining a crop of herds- 
grass in two years, he was able to cut a large 
crop of hay in less than three months from the 
time of sowing. 

The unevenness of Mr. Phinney's farm enables 
him much to increase his crop of hay by irriga- 
tion. The effect of pure water on grass ground 
applied at the proper time and in the proper 
manner, is surprising to those who would sup- 
pose that the pure element intrinsically has no 
fertilizing quality. Mr. P. has ascertained that 
land will produce large crops of hay year after 
year, with no other application than fiowage in 
the spring, when fresh water makes brooks that 
become dry a greater part of the summer. He 
has contrived to turn a stream of water issuing 
from a pond that is never dry, which soured or 
killed the grass when all flowing in its natural 
confined channel, over an extent of several acres, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



241 



by running channels on the brow of the hill so 
as to overflow or leak out on the lower side : 
wherever this water touches and flows off, the 
crop of hay is much increased. 

Irrigation in this country seems to be but little 
understood and practised. There are many 
places where the water can be plashed over 
the fields where the proprietors have never 
thought of the great advantages resulting, but 
where a very trifling expense, judiciously ap- 
plied would much increase the crops of hay 
and grass. 

As the only practicable mode of bringing up 
the production of his Farm — it being too distant 
and loo expensive to purchase and bring manure 
from the stables of the city — he commenced 
rearing and keeping swine. For several years 
his common average number was one hundred 
and fifty. Every one who keeps swine will re- 
alize how great is the quantity of food consumed 
by a score or two of this voracious animal ; that 
few of the largest vegetable and grain farms will 
produce enough to keep in growth so great a 
number. To keep up the number, Mr. P. re- 
sorted to the Boston market, and frequently pur- 
chased damaged grain and rice, the refuse ship 
bread from returned voyages, and other material 
to be found in the citj^ : boxes of damaged rai- 
sins, with other injured imported fruits, were 
sometimes converted into thanksgiving food for 
the grunters. All the time the brutes were made 
workers for the benefit of the farm. When we 
contrast the indolence of our own half a dozen 
swine, which if hungry would much rather re- 
sort to some mischief, as the devouring of young 
chickens, or lie stupidly down when fed with a 
full belly, than perform any useful labor, — with 
the industry of Mr. Phinney's seventy-five or 
hundred swine ; we must admit that his hogs 
have much the better bringing up. His swamps 
and low grounds have furnished abundant mate- 
rials for the hog pen: loads of black mud or muck 
are constantly lying on the outside to be thrown 
in and worked over by the nose of the hog as 
fast as it may be profitably added to the work 
already done. Aficr it is thus worked, it is gen- 
eral^ carried to the barn-yard to be trodden upon 
and mixed with the droppings of the cattle, or 
the daily collodions in the winter of the stables, 
where the whole is accumulated in a mass fit to 
be applied in the spring of the }'ear to every 
growing crop. The well arranged barns on 
these premises are so constructed that the urine 
of the cattle passes underneath into cellars where 
every thing is saved. The hogs are generally 
kept in small pens, with two apartments, one for 
the mud and the other as a place to rest upon a 
dry floor — they work, for the most part, either 
singly or in pairs ; and it seems to he a part of 
their daily business to root and champ the fresh 
black mud that is thrown to them. And it is as 
much the business of the workmen to supply 
Vol. 1-28 



and take out of the pens, as it is periodically to 
milk the cows, or to sow and hoc for the crops. 

WORKING HOGS. 

Mr. Phinney's present number of working 
hogs is about seventy-five : he says he cannot 
afford to keep a number beyond this while Indian 
corn costs a dollar a bushel, and pork sells for 
only six cents. When pork sold for eight, ten, 
and twelve cents the pound, he did well, even 
when he had to purchase a portion of food for 
the keeping, to keep as high as the number of 
one hundred and fifty. Pie has accumulated by 
their means as many as five hundred full loads 
of the best of manure in a year ; and he has 
made sales of pork to the amount of between 
two and three thousand dollars in a season. 



CURE FOR THE MANGE AND QUINSY IN 
HOGS. 

JWessrs. Editors, — During my perigrinations 
through "Old Robertson," a few days since, in 
conversation with one of its most respectable and 
intelligent citizens, (and one of your subscribers, 
too,) I was informed of two sovereign remedies 
for two common diseases to which swine are lia- 
ble, to wit : "Mange" and "Quinsy." If you 
have not already given to your many readers the 
same or other better remedies for the same dis- 
eases, you might do well to give them this, 
which I am assured has never failed, in many 
trials, to produce a perfect cure in a short time. 
The remedy for that most loathsome disease, 
mange, is simply this — take the common poke 
root, stalk and salad, and boil a quantity of it un- 
til the liquid becomes quite strong, then season 
with salt, meal, pot liquor, &c. until it is made 
palatable to the hog, and he will partake of it 
and the salad most bountifully. It has been ob- 
served, too, that if the hog has ticks on him, 
they all drop off after the first or second feed ; 
but whether from getting the liquor on him, 
whilst feeding, or taking it inwardly, is not 
known. For the quinsy, give the hogs one or 
two tea parties — tea made strong of penny-royal, 
and seasoned, as the poke juice, with salt, meal, 
and pot liquor. 

Very respectfully, one of your subscribers, 

S. 

We have long known that poke root was a 
valuable medicine for many diseases incident, to 
domestic animals. We believe a strong tea of 
poke root, given frequently, will cure the malig- 
nant disease denominated farcy. It acts upon 
the skin and the absorbents, and " cleanses the 
blood ." — Agriculturist. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Hanover Court House. 
Mr. Editor.— That portion of our domestic 



242 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



economy which we in Virginia neglect the most, 
is what I shall designate by the rather homely 
phrase, the " truck patch." It is true that we 
sometimes plant a few pumpkins in the corn- 
field, which, however, generally turn out but 
poorly, from future inattention, and sometimes 
you may see a few half starved, unthrifty turnips 
or beets, which have had the fortune, good or 
bad, I an doubtful which, to escape the clutches 
of the marauding pigs ; but how rarely, how 
very rarely is it, that we see a large and well 
enclosed lot of fine and thrifty vegetables for the 
winter consumption of our cattle — unfortunate 
and neglected that they are ! I have often 
thought with sorrow and with shame of the 
marked superiority which the inhabitants of 
New England have over us in this respect. — 
Why should it be so ? Is it any excuse for us, 
that because we have more cattle, they should 
not fare so well as theirs 1 By no means ; if we 
have more to feed we are able by care and at- 
tention to provide more food for their mainte- 
nance and comfort. We have more land — and 
it is susceptible of as high improvement. We 
have more labor, and it can be as profita- 
bly employed on our farms. But we have not 
the habit (for if we would but exert it we have 
the faculty) of attending to the minutiae of a 
farm. We aim at a large, a bragging crop of 
corn and wheat, whilst we neglect, what I think 
the essentials of good management, the comfort- 
able food and shelters for our cattle, the sheds 
for our implements of husbandry, our fences, 
and the other thousand and one petty details, the 
neglect of which is absolutely incompatible with 
good farming. 

But to return to the " truck patch." The 
size of it must of course bear relation to the 
quantity of stock which you have to provide 
for ; but the larger and richer it is, the more 
corn one will save in the fattening of his hogs ; 
the more comforts he will bestow on his horned 
cattle, and, what is to many of more importance, 
on himself; for there are many amongst us, 
who, though they don't care a straw how their 
poor starving, freezing cattle look, may be actu- 
ated by the desire of having good butter and 
milk, to pay this little attention to their comfort. 
I should recommend pumpkins to be cultivated 
for use in the early part of the winter. The 
roots, which I would plant, are the mangel 
wurtzel, the carrot, the parsnip, and the ruta-ba- 
ga. These, as they will keep much longer than 
the pumpkins, I should leave untouched, until 
all of the latter were consumed. The common 
turnip I do not look upon as near so valuable as 
any of those roots which I have enumerated, 
being much more watery, and being possessed 
of much less nutritious matter. The Jerusalem 
artichoke has some merit on account of its great 
product, and the little labor which its cultiva- 
tion requires ; but that is also too succulent and 



too little nutritious to allow much value to be at- 
tached to it. The four kinds of roots that I 
have mentioned above I consider far better than 
any others that we can plant. In addition to 
the great quantity of nutriment which it con- 
tains, the rutabaga has the recommendation of 
being sown much later than any of the others, 
which is desirable, because, if any of those 
which are first sown should not come up, the 
ruta-baga can be sown where they have failed. 
The best mode of feeding away these vegeta- 
bles is to chop them up, boil and give them to 
the cattle while warm. 

I feel confident, Mr. Editor, that any one who 
will once try this mode of providing for his cat- 
tle, during the winter, will find himself so well 
repaid for his attention and labor, that he will 
never abandon it. With renewed wishes for 
the prosperity of the Southern Planter, 

I am, your obedient servant, X. 

December ', 1841. 



For the Southern Planter. 
Caroline County, Nov.* 16, 1841. 

Dear Sir 7 — In your Southern Planter of this 
month, page 184, I find a request is made for 
any person to vouch, that layers of elder twigs 
will prevent rats from destroying oats in the 
sheaf. I saw a publication some two or three 
years ago, (I do not recollect where) recom- 
mending the elder as a preventive against the 
ravages of rats in oats ; having suffered so much 
loss by them, I was induced to try the remedy 
proposed ; I was at much trouble to procure the 
elder, and took great pains to give the experi- 
ment a fair trial ; but to my regret, I found it a 
total failure ; the rats trespassed as usual, and 
my horses and cattle never ate them with their 
usual eagerness. I am under the impression 
the elder imparted a taste or smell that was of- 
fensive to them. 

I am much pleased with }?our periodical : al- 
though I can't be called a farmer, I feel deeply 
interested in the advancement of that branch of 
business, and hope, ere long, the farmers in this 
county will form societies, as some of the ad- 
joining counties have done, for the advancement 
of agriculture, thereby benefitting themselves, 
and encouraging your laudable efforts manifest- 
ed in your monthly communications. 
Respectfully, yours, 

Wm. G. Maury. 

The refutation of error, though more invidi- 
ous, is not less useful than the establishment of 
truth. We return our sincere thanks to Mr. 
Maury for the manly promptitude with which 
he has advanced to save others from an useless 
and injurious experiment. We believe that 
thousands of the recommendations of new practi- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



243 



ces, that arc going the rounds of our agricultu- 
ral papers, belong to the same category with 
the elder leaves. We take pains in making 
our selections to avoid such as seem to want 
the stamp of truth ; for we believe it is better 
to fail to publish two good things, than to prop- 
agate one bad one. 



refuse vegetable 



MANURING 
The system of spreading 
matter over the surface of land, instead of haul- 
ing it into the farm pen to be trampled by 
cattle, is finding much favor in public estima- 
tion. Among its advocates, we reckon not the 
least able, Mr. Drummond, the author of the fol- 
lowing communication. We invite particular 
attention to his views ; they in a great degree 
correspond with, and confirm, those of "W.W." 
in a former No. of the Planter. 

For the Southern Planter. 
MANURING THE YEAR BEFORE TILLAGE. 

I have for many years been in the custom of 
spreading a portion of my manures on the sur- 
face of some field which was to be cultivated 
the year following, and have never failed to be 
gratified at the result. When I speak of ma- 
nuring the year previous to tillage, I mean a 
year before the usual time ; i. e. spreading now, 
and during the winter and next spring, on land 
which is to be cultivated in the year 1843. 

I have already spread on my field to be cul- 
tivated in corn in 1843, some refuse straw and 
chaff, compost, saw-dust and mould, scrapings 
about negroes' houses, rotten leaves, and pul- 
verized charcoal and cinders from a blacksmith's 
shop ; and shall through the winter continue 
to spread the like. Refuse hay, weeds, chips, 
shavings, saw-dust, and tobacco trash are all 
very good, and should never be moved to the 
farm pen, that we may have the trouble of mov- 
ing them out again. The hog pens, however, 
should be liberally littered, for whicli purpose 
leaves are best ; but if these cannot be had 
abundantly, then othet trashy matter should be 
used. 

Next spring I intend all the long manure of 
the horse, cattle and hay yards, to go on the 
cornfield intended for 1843". Of course, the de- 
composed and pulverized manures, will go on 
gardens and meadows ; and of course, my corn- 
field of 1842, gets no manure. So soon as the 
weather is sufficiently warm to cause evapora- 
tion, (which is usually about the first of April) 
I intend to sow plaster on all the manures then 
spread, and follow with the same immediately 
after every future spreading. The plaster is ex- 
pected to intercept and retain the ammonite, as 
it issues from the manure, and which would 



otherwise become serial, and future rains to carry 
it into the earth ; and this, together with the 
protective coat, is expected to grow a splendid 
crop of grass ; and altogether, to make the land 
permanently rich. 

My hilly lands are kept mostly in small grain 
and pasturage, and my bottoms, except for mea- 
dows, are kept in corn, small grain, and used 
without grazing, except partially in the fall and 
beginning of winter ; which system I am satis- 
fied with, and shall continue it unless convinced 
of my error. The ground allotted to corn will, 
as above stated, be manured the year before til- 
lage, fallowed in fall or winter, raked and plant- 
ed in the spring, the crop tilled by the cultiva- 
tor, so as not to lift the grass seeds to the sur- 
face, fallowed again the next fall or spring for a 
crop of small grain, when the grain and grass 
will all start together. So soon as the small 
grain is harvested, the field is again readj>- for 
the manure and plaster, and the third year is 
rest for the land, and jubilee for the sheep and 
calves, or cows and hogs if you please, from 
August till the fallow is finished. 

My ground intended for corn in 1843, is now 
well taken in white and red clover, and in spring 
is expected to make a handsome show of spear 
grasses ; the seeds of all which were either pre- 
viously on the land or carried with the manure 
which was spread for the corn crop. For this 
purpose, the clovers are far preferable to all oth- 
ers. Before dismissing this part of my subject, 
I would remark, that it might J^ well to be cau- 
tious in pasturing stock sheep on highly 
dunged land, as I am ipelined to think this is 
at least one of the generative principles of rot. 

Let us now compare the customary mode of 
moving and applying manure with my proposi- 
tion. As to manuring in the hill, or on the 
planted and growing crop, it is out of the ques- 
tion. Broadcast and before the fallow for plant- 
ing is the only method for a substantial South- 
ern Planter. If the land to be planted is 
clay, it must be ploughed in fall or winter, for 
the purpose of exposing it to the frosts ; that, 
thereby, it may become pulverized. And if in- 
fested with worms, or other pestiferous insects, 
although sandy or otherwise porous, it must be 
ploughed in the same season, for their destruc- 
tion. If the agriculturist has on hand the want- 
ed quantity of manure, he must start his carts 
to moving it out in March, and perhaps continue 
through April ; and whether his field has alrea- 
dy been ploughed or not, by the time the job is 
done, it is badly potched, by the treading of the 
wheels and teams. If the ground has been 
ploughed, it must be ploughed again, for the 
purpose of turning down the manure ; and this 
is double work and cloddy to boot ; nay worse, 
for the team and ploughman have a tough job 
in getting through the trodden earth, and tan- 
gled corn-stalks, and straw : and if it has not 



244 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



been ploughed, the last mentioned objections are 
equally applicable. 

My mode is to get out the manure at my lei- 
sure, — the sooner the better — but if by June not 
much difference ; and if the land should be 
potched in so doing, not much difference for 
this either, for the covering matter will prevent 
the land from baking, and the growing roots 
will open the pores anew. 

Unfermented dung when applied directly to 
growing vegetables begets rust and other disea- 
ses ; and if these be eaten by man or beast, they 
have a deleterious effect : but if instead of con- 
verting these vegetables into food they are 
ploughed down for manure, the deleterious qual- 
ity must by decomposition, be thoroughly dissi- 
pated. Colonel Taylor has justly remarked, that 
K the earth will no more bear gorging with 
dung, than the stomach of man with food," and 
I say that disease will as certainly follow the 
one practice as the other. A weakly constitu- 
tion, and poor land, will bear less ; and a robust 
constitution, and rich land, will bear more food. 

The custom is to spread the manure, plough 
it down, and plant immediately ; by which pro- 
cess poor earth is brought to the surface, conse- 
quently the crop takes a wretched start, the 
puny roots presently enter and feast on the rich 
dung-, which gorges the plant, and disease is 
the consequence. By my proposed practice, 
the ami\ionia3, or essence of the manure, has 
time to sink six or eight inches before the fallow 
plough shall again lift it to the surface, when 
and where it is ree^y for immediate and conge- 
nial action on the young plants ; and the coarse 
manure which shall be \ n rned under, will, with 
the aid of industry, produce a bountiful and nu- 
tritious crop. Z*. Drummond. 

Amherst, Nov. 1841. 



We return our thanks to Col. IsbeU for the 
promptitude with which he has furnished the 
following reply to the inquiries in our last. 

Willow Banks, Nov. 29th, 1841. 

Dear Sir— My attention has been called to 
the publication, in the November No. of your 
paper, of a letter addressed by me to Doctor 
N. M. Osborne, in which a brief outline of 
my mode of cultivating corn, is given ; and in 
compliance with your request I take pleasure in 
furnishing you with a more detailed statement 
of that method. 

To carry out my plan, I am careful, in fallow- 
ing, to turn under all vegetable matter on the 
land, and let it remain so during the season of 
the corn crop. Before planting I harrow with 
light harrows, then lay off the rows with a 
small trowel-hoe plough, not cutting more than 
two inches, so as not to turn up the turf, having 



the rows on common high land, 5 feet 3 inches 
wide, and 2 feet 3 inches in the drill. On low, 
wet land, the distances might be lessened. I 
then plant early and cultivate quick, running 
single straight tooth harrows, with seven teeth 
in each, the frame in the form of Y. This is 
the kind of harrow I have used, though upon 
maturer reflection I am inclined to the opinion, 
that a harrow with nine teeth would be better, 
so as to run only twice in each row T , and at the 
same time cutting the top of the land more than 
one with seven teeth. I harrow four or five 
times, and hoe two or three times, according to 
circumstances, drawing up but little earth to the 
stalk. 

The result of this kind of cultivation is, that 
the land not only remains light throughout the 
season, but the vegetable matter beneath, contin- 
ually decomposing, is as continually furnishing 
the young corn with nutriment, so that the crop 
when maturing is as well or better supplied with 
manure than at. any other stage of its existence, 
and hence is protected, in a great degree, from 
burning, which generally happens when the 
stalk has exhausted the strength of the land 
about it. And here you will discover the rea- 
sons for my preferring the spring fallow. By 
fallowing in the spring, much less vegetation 
springs up, so I have much less difficulty in 
destroying the grass with my harrows and 
hoes. Another reason is, that in the spring fal- 
low, the turf, or other vegetable substances, are 
undergoing a state of decomposition throughout 
the growing and maturing of the crop, while 
with a fall fallow, this decomposing would 
cease long before the crop could be matured. \ 

The most plausible objection raised against 
the method practised upon by me, is, that it in- 
creases the labor with the hoe. It is true I now 
have more laborers at the hoe than formerly, but 
it is attributable to the fact that after the corn is 
planted it requires fewer hands to harrow than 
to plough, so it is onlj* a transfer of labor from 
the plough to the hoe. I will not undertake to 
say that mine is a labor saving plan, but I am 
fully convinced it is a land saving plan, for since 
I commenced the system I have never discovered 
the least disposition in the land to be washed by 
summer rains, although hilly and of a light 
sandy loam. This method, contemplating as it 
does the cultivation of land with as smooth a 
surface as practicable, leaves the field in excel- 
lent condition for the succeeding wheat crop, it 
not only being very light, but when ploughed 
for wheat turns up the decomposed sod, which 
presents the field with the appearance of a fine 
top-dress. As to the quantity produced by this 
mode of cultivating and those heretofore used 
by me, I discover no difference. Cultivating on 
the four field system, and grazing lightly, is, of 
course, in furtherance of the plan proposed by me. 
Respectf'ly, yr's, &c. Jas. Isbell. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



245 



For the Southern Planter. 

Taylorsville^JYov. 1841. 

Mr. Editor, — Of all known vegetables, that 
which I think would most amply repay the Vir- 
ginia farmer for the trouble of cultivation, is the 
Irish potato, (solarium tuberosum.) The potato 
is a native of America, and was carried from 
the colony of Virginia to England about the 
year 1640, where it was soon eagerly seized 
upon as a valuable addition to their rural econ- 
omy, and now, as is generally known, forms the 
main source from which the poorer classes of 
the whole kingdom, but particularly of Ireland, 
draw their means of subsistence. The cheap- 
ness and simplicity of its cultivation, its great 
product, and the fact that it is probably the most 
nutritious vegetable that we can cultivate, should 
cause the potato to be highly esteemed, and 
should induce our farmers generally to plant it 
extensively, with the view of its forming a most 
valuable article of food and comfort for the ne- 
gro race. Much might be said on the many 
different methods of cultivating this most valu- 
able plant, but were I to enter into a minute ac- 
count of the culture of the potato, I should tres- 
pass too greatly on your columns ; I shall there- 
fore confine myself to a brief description of that 
which I conceive to be the best. 

Having first properly prepared the land in 
which you intend to plant your potatoes by 
ploughing, (or spading if it is but a small crop) 
and raking it, and carefully removing with the 
hand all roots of grass or weeds, that the rakes 
have failed to carry off, lay it off with furrows 
of from two feet to two feet and a half apart ; 
in these furrows put a considerable quantity of 
manure from the stable yard, and immediately 
upon that place your bits of potato, which should 
be quite large, not cutting your potatoes into 
more than two pieces when small, nor into more 
than four parts when large, unless they are of 
very great size : then cover them with from 
three to four inches of earth. When the young 
plants are regularly up, weed them, throw a lit- 
tle earth around them, and re-plant where they 
may be missing. They will require a second 
working about six weeks afterwards ; at which 
time you should hill them up considerably. A 
third working is necessary about the time that 
the flowers of the plant begin to make their ap- 
pearance ; they should be entirely freed from all 
weeds, and a large quantity of fresh earth placed 
about the plants at this time of working. It 
will be unnecessary to disturb them again after 
the third working, if it is properly executed. — 
About the 1st of September, after the vines are 
entirely dead, dig your potatoes and place them 
in a dry cellar, where there is no possibility of 
their freezing, and they will keep readily until 
late in the ensuing spring. 

There are many fine varieties of the potato ; 



but for the purpose which I have indicated 
above, I think the Rohan best suited ; for, al- 
though it wants the delicious flavor of the Mer- 
cer, and other good varieties, yet I think it 
greatly preferable to them on account of its 
wonderfully great yield. I think it better to 
change the stock of your potatoes once in every 
three or four years, which, by the way, I con- 
ceive to be the case in regard to almost all 
plants that we cultivate. 

A small quantity of potatoes should be plant- 
ed during the first mild weather after the mid- 
dle of Februaiw, for the summer consumption, 
but the fall crop should not be planted until 
the last of March, or first of April. 

With the sincerest wishes, sir, that the Plan- 
ter may meet with the success which it so richly 
merits, I am, your obedient servant, X. 



The Editor of the Southern Planter will much 
oblige "A Naturalist," by correcting the follow- 
ing errors that appear in his two last communi- 
cations : 

At page 1 97, for " Sarvacasnia Flara," read 
" Sarracenia Flava." 

At page 216, the 5th word of the 12th line 
from the top of the 1st column, should be 
" which" instead of "and." 

At the same page, the 2d word of the 25lh 
line from the top of the 1st column should be 
"such" instead of "rough." 

At the same page, the 7th word of the 24th 
line, from the bottom of the 1st column should 
be "quantities" instead of "quantity." 

At the same page, the word " chygroscopi- 
cete," in a parenthesis, of the 2d column should 
be " hygroscopicete." 



POULTRY. 



" When," says M. Bosse, " it is wished to 
have eggs during the cold season, even in the 
dead of winter, it is necessary to make the fowls 
roost over an oven, in a stable, in a shed where 
many cattle are kept, or to erect a stove in the 
fowl house on purpose. By such methods, the 
farmers of Auge have chickens fit for the table 
in the month of April, a period when they are 
only beginning to be hatched in the farms 
around Paris, although further to the south. It 
would be desirable that stoves in fowl houses 
were more commonly known near great towns, 
where luxury grudges no expense for the con- 
venience of having fresh eggs." It is worthy of 
remark, that the Irish peasantry, whose poultry 
occupy at night a corner of the cabin, along with 
the cow, pig and the family, frequently lay very 
early, in consequence of the warmth of their 
night quarters ; and there can be no doubt that 
this is the chief secret for having new laid eggs 
in winter, paying at the same time due attention 



246 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



to protect the hens from wet, and to have them 
young, or at least early in moulting. — From the 
Poultry Yard, by Peter Roswell. 



BARRETT S GARLIC MACHINE. 

The Editor of the Southern Planter, in speak- 
ing of our notice of this machine, remarks : 

" If the machine is all that it is described to 
be, the inventor will obtain a suitable reward for 
his ingenuity in bringing it to this market [Rich- 
mond, Va.] Our millers are proverbially enter- 
prising and liberal." 

We most cheerfully concede to the millers of 
Richmond, all that is claimed for them by the 
Editor of the Planter, on the score of enterprise 
and liberalit}' — the high standard to which they 
have brought their flour is indubitable proof of 
the possession of the first quality, and their lo- 
cation is as pleasing an evidence that they enjoy 
the latter. And while we make these conces- 
sions, we will remark, that Barrett's Garlic Ma- 
chine from its intrinsic value, is eminently enti- 
tled to every thing we said in its favor, and that 
before we ventured to speak in its praise, after 
having examined it, being pleased with the 
principles of its construction, we visited Mr. 
Weirman's mill, where one had been many 
months in practical use, under a skilful miller, 
and there satisfied ourself fully of its utility. 
Thus confirmed in our good opinion of the ma- 
chine, and of its worth, we felt it to be our duty 
to say what we did, and we are confident, that 
if any of the millers of Richmond were to try 
it, its use there would become as extensive as 
the flouring mills themselves, for no miller of 
correct judgment, after seeing one in operation, 
would rest until he had added it to the other 
appointments of his mill. It is, in fact, one of 
those machines, whose simplicity and economy 
cannot fail to commend it to any careful observer. 
American Farmer. 

In this handsome tribute to the millers of 
Richmond, no more is said than is due generally 
to the millers of Virginia. We are authorised 
to say that any substantial improvement in the 
manufacture of flour needs only to be presented 
to the millers of our State to be properly appre- 
ciated, and suitably rewarded. 



CLAY MIXTURE ON SANDY LAND. 

A correspondent of the Western Farmer gives 
the following as his experience of the value of 
mixed clay with sandy soil: — Several years 
since, when a resident of New England I pur- 
chased a piece of dry sandy land, denominated 
there, " pine plains," that had been very much 
worn. A portion of it, about \% acres, was on 



the verge of a deep ravine, and a little more i 
elevated than the remainder of the lot. This ! 
piece had been sown the fall previous to rye, and 
stocked to clover. The rye was harvested — an 
inferior crop — and the ground, I found in the fall, 
was, not to appearance, more than half stocked. 
Not having manure for a spring crop, and clay 
being handy, I carted on to the piece about 
thirty ox-loads of clay; this, however, was not 
pure, but supposed to contain one-third sand ; 
the same was spread upon the surface of the 
ground in the fall. In the spring it had formed 
a complete coating over the whole surface; the' 
result was a heavy crop of clover. The next 
spring about twenty loads of yard manure was 
spread upon it. It was then broken up, rolled, 
harrowed and planted to corn, about the ICth of 
May. The result was, about ninety bushels of 
sound corn. I had corn enough for my owff use 
and sold about fifty bushels for fifty dollars. 
This was my first experiment in farming. It 
is nearly eight years since the clay was applied, 
and I am told the ground is still benefitted by it. 
The application was continued on other portions 
of the lot with equally beneficial results as long 
as I occupied it. 



TOBACCO. 

We published some time since a communica- 
tion to the Farmers' Register in support of a 
practice said to be common with Mr. William 
Old, of Powhatan, of cultivating two lots alter- 
nately in oats and tobacco ; the oats being turned 
in as an improver. The celebrity of the gentle- 
man alluded to has, we find, excited great in- 
terest in the communication. We therefore feel 
bound to say that a correspondent of the same 
paper signing himself A. M. H. objects to the 
practice, and recommends in its stead a three- 
field system in which clover shall take the place 
of oats : he says : 

" I consider that clover, on account of its early 
protection to land from sun and evaporation, as 
well as its fertilizing properties, has no equal as 
a lay. Oats, maturing rapidly, with an exhaust- 
ing crop of seed, and drying up at once, cannot 
be so considered ; and if turned under at matu- 
rity, as they must be to produce the most fertil- 
izing effect, a naked fallow is exposed to the 
injurious influence of the sun at the hottest sea- 
son of summer." 



PRESERVATION OF BUTTER. 

At a late council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, a jar of butter was received 
from Henry Wood, Esq. as a specimen of the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



247 



successful mode adopted for its preservation 
when that article is intended for export to foreign 
climates. 

Mr. Wood informed the council that this butter 
had been prepared on the 19th instant, (June,) 
according to the process adopted in eastern coun- 
tries, where it was used for culinary purposes 
instead of hog's lard, which the Mahometan 
law prohibited, and would keep for any length 
of lime in a perfect state of preservation, al- 
though it contained no salt or other additional 
substance. This preservative state of the butter 
was induced by the removal of scum, and the 
dissipation of the watery particles of fresh but- 
ter, effected by the gentlest possible application 
of sufficient heat to produce the result. Mr. 
Wood stated that in Asia this gentle heat was 
obtained by the natives by filling a large open 
earthenware pan with powdered and well dried 
cow-dung, and then setting fire to it, introducing 
into the midst of the burning cow-dung an 
earthen vessel containing the butter, which thus 
became melted ; and when the scum, as it rose, 
had been successively removed, and the watery 
particles driven off by the heat, it was poured 
into a jar and preserved for use. Mr. Wood 
suggested that a sand-bath, properly regulated, 
might answer the same purpose as the dried 
cow-dung, and, as the process was so very sim- 
ple, there could be no difficulty in preparing it ; 
and that, when once prepared, the butter never 
became tainted. Mr. Wood stated that he car- 
ried with him to the Cape of Good Hope some 
butter prepared in the same way, a year pre- 
viously, and which was there pronounced to be 
superior. to the salted butter of the colony, and 
for culinary purposes far superior to lard. 



A NEW INVENTION. 

The Newark Daily Advertiser notices, with 
high commendation, a new and ingenious in- 
vention, the production of the ingenuity of a 
citizen of that place, Mr. Levi Bissell. It is a 
substitute for the ordinary car and carriage 
springs now in use, the elasticity and spring 
being produced by atmospheric air condensed in 
a cylinder, somewhat resembling that of a small 
steam engine, made air tight at one end, with a 
piston working in the other. Four of these 
springs have been in use in one of the cars on 
the New Jersey Railroad for some months past — 
the whole weight of the body being supported 
by the four columns of condensed air in the cy- 
linders — and we believe with universal satisfac- 
tion. Passengers readily detect the difference 
between that and the other cars by the superior 
ease and comfort of its motion. It is stated, by 
those who have had the fullest opportunities for 
observing, that over the roughest and most un- 
even places, where the inequalities of the track 
render the jar exceedingly disagreeable with 



steel springs, the air springs make the motion 
perfectly easy, so that a passenger may even 
read with comfort while rifling. 



MENDING STEEL PENS. 

But few people are aware of the fact, that or- 
dinary steel pens may be made to perform at 
least four times their usual service, as easily and 
with as little trouble as that of mending a com- 
mon quill pen. The steel pen usually fails in 
the first instance, by having the corners of its 
point worn off, which prevents the ink from rea- 
dily taking to the paper. This may be usually 
corrected in a minute or less by means of a fine 
flat file, such as is used by watchmakers, and 
may be procured for a shilling. Hold the file 
in a horizontal position, or let it lie on the table, 
with its point from you. Then place the point 
of the pen on the point of the file, holding the 
pen in a vertical position with its back a little 
inclined towards you: draw the file towards you, 
gently pressing the file. Repeat this two or 
three times as the case may require. Then hold 
the pen nearly in a horizontal position with its 
point from you, and with one side of its nib rest- 
ing on the file, draw the pen towards you, re- 
peating the operation with boih sides of the nib, 
till by trying it with ink you find it sufficiently 
pointed. A small magnifying glass is conve- 
nient in this case, but the operation may be very 
well performed without it. — JV. Y. Mechanic. 



CHEMISTRY. 

When butter is to be made, if a little old but- 
ter be put into the cream, the butter will come 
from much less churning. When soap is to be 
made, if a little old soap be put into the lie and 
grease, the soap will be made with considerable 
less boiling. — Farmer and Gardener. 



We have been favored with a copy of the 
address delivered by Mr. James M. Garnett be- 
fore the Fredericksburg Agricultural Society. 
Mr. Garnett is too well known as an agricul- 
tural writer to require an introduction from us. 
Without pretending to preserve the beauties of 
his style, we will endeavor to do all that our 
limits, in any case, permit, to give a condensed 
view of the practical results at which this emi- 
nent gentleman has arrived. 

First, Mr. Garnett. is fully satisfied that neither 
the Brown corn nor the Dutton, so celebrated at 
the North, are suited to our climate. 

Secondty, that corn should always be suc- 
cored, because experience has satisfied him that 
this process renders it more impervious to a 



248 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



drought, and that in a large majority of years 
we are visited with a dry season. The twin 
corn, which, he says is not to he confounded 
with the Baden, he prefers to any other. 

Mr. Garnett recommends the following mode 
of cultivating potatoes, of which he has heard 
others speak very highly, but which he has not 
yet had an opportunity to try : 

" First plant them, either whole or cut, in well 
prepared earth, about fifteen inches each waj 7 , 
and three inches deep. Then cover them eight 
or ten inches deep, with pine leaves — if you can 
get them — if not, with straw or refuse hay. 
When fit for use, take them from under cover 
without disturbingit anymore than can beavoided. 
This practice is followed by many ; but the im- 
provement consists in leaving enough potatoes 
under the same cover, in the fall, to produce a 
second crop the next year, which they will do, 
much earlier than you can procure them by any 
other process." 

Of the different varieties of turnips, Mr. 
Garnett prefers Sinclair's white flat, for the pro- 
duct, and the Scotch Aberdeen, for the flavor. 
Concerning Mr. Garnett's favorite, the Guinea- 
grass, we make the following extract : 

" Before I quit the subject of experiments, I 
will once more offer you a brief notice of the 
Guinea-grass. The experience of the past sea- 
son has confirmed me in the belief, that it is 
probably the very best grass we can cultivate in 
our high, dry soils, especially such as are rather 
sandy than stiff. Indeed, I believe, that from 
latitude 39, as far south as our Government ex- 
tends, it would prove our surest reliance as green 
food for horses and cattle — particularly during 
seasons of great drought. My reason for think- 
ing so is, that mine has been twice subjected, 
since I first planted the roots, to this severe test, 
and on boih occasions has remained green, while 
all the other plants on the farm were suffering 
extremely. It has both a fibrous and tuberous 
root, it will grow in ordinary land, to the height 
of five or six feet, and will bear cutting three or 
four times, during the season, at an average 
height of at least three feet, which no other 
grass will do, of which I have any knowledge. 
After the first year, during which it requires 
some cultivation, the growth soon thickens so 
as to smother all other plants that may spring 
up amongst it ; and it is now so acclimated as 
to spread, not only from its roots, but its seeds, 
a large proportion of which now ripen with us, 
although it is still safest to propagate it from 
the roots. These will bear transportation for 
several weeks, without losing their vitality, if 
wrapt up either in cotton, tow, moss, or soft 
paper. They may then be buried in the earth, 



until the season for planting, which is as early 
as the earth ceases to freeze hard. The loots 
should be cut into pieces an inch or two long, 
then buried about three inches deep, five or six 
inches apart one way, and twelve inches apart 
the other. Two or three workings with the 
hand hoe, during the first year, will amply suf- 
fice to insure their thriving, after which they 
require no more labor but to cut the growth for 



use. 



Mr. Garnett well urges the established doc- 
trine, that the highest cultivation yields the 
greatest nett profits, and that the best investment 
that a farmer can make of his rcone} 7 , is to 
" lend it to his land." On this subject we make 
the following extract ; 

" Of this I could give you innumerable proofs, 
but let three suffice for the present. In an ex- 
cellent address by John Sanford, Esq , President 
of the Onondaga Agricultural Society, which 
he was lately so kind as to send me, there is the 
following statement of the capacity for improve- 
ment of the lands in that part of New York. 
He says—' In our State 53 bushels of wheat, 
58 of barley, 50 of peas, 132 of oats, 135 of 
corn, 750 of potatoes, and 5 tons of hay, have 
been grown per acre. In 1837, I grew, (says 
he,) 1,400 bushels of potatoes on 3 acres, ruta- 
baga 1,000, mangel wurtzel 1,150, carrots 1,200, 
and sugar-beet at the rate of 2,100 bushels per 
acre, making 6,000 bushels ; and in 1838, 1 cut 
40 tons of clover and herds-grass from 10 acres.' 
This proof is taken from New York; and now , 
for the two within my own knowledge. The 
first is, that several j'ears ago, I knew 103 bushels 
of wheat and a fraction, to be made from only 
two acres of land, manured from the cow-pens, 
and this too, in the county of Stafford, which is 
as remarkable for povert}' of soil as almost any 
in Virginia. And in my own county, I have 
known 30 bushels of wheat — at the rate of 504 
bushels of Irish potatoes per acre, and 75 bushels 
of corn per acre, to be made from a soil similar 
to that which was within a hundred yards of it, 
but unmanured, and which produced barely 15 
bushels. Here was an increase of more than 
fourfold, at no other additional expense than 
carting out and applying the manure made on 
the farm, to land which had certainly been 
cleared more than seventy years. I could state 
many more cases of still greater products, but 
deem it needless, as this suffices to prove an in- 
crease of more than four hundred per cent. — 
which far exceeds any shaving that I have ever 
yet heard of." 

An error prevails very extensively, says Mr. 
Garnett, that rye and oats exhaust land more 
than wheat ; whilst the experiments of the ce- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



249 



lebrated Dr. Von Thayer satisfactorily established 
the fact, that whilst wheat exhausts the fertility 
of land in the proportion 4 per cent, per bushel 
of product, rye exhausts in that of 3£, barley of 
2£, and oats of only 1 T V 

We happen to know something of the zeal 
and devotion with which Mr. Garnett has nursed 
the little Society of which he has so long been 
the President ; and if they attain that degree of 
celebrity and usefulness, that we are happy to 
hear may be presaged from the success of their 
last meeting, not only for that, but for their very 
existence, will they be indebted to the fostering 
care of James M. Garnett. 



of the domestic animals should ever suffer for 
food, from the time it comes among us, until it 
fulfils its final destination. Starving never suc- 
ceeds with man or beast." 



REMEDY FOR FILM IN THE EYE OF A BEAST. 

A correspondent of the Yankee Farmer, sug- 
gests what he considers a new remedy for a film, 
produced by a blow or other accidental causes 
of a similar nature, i. e. spitting tobacco juice into 
the eye of the animal. He remarks, that he 
has seen it tried only twice, but each time with 
entire success ; and with very sensible caution 
concludes, by saying "the remedy requires to 
be more fully established." We can assure our 
cautious friend, that the remedy has been fully 
established down South for years. The memo- 
ries of our oldest tobacco chewers reach not the 
antiquity of its discovery. We have often seen 
tobacco juice spit in a horse's eye when weep- 
ing or looking weak, and entire relief afforded. 
Temperance Advocate. 



MR. CLAY ON HOGS. 

We have been kindly furnished with the fol- 
lowing extract from a letter, written by the Hon. 
Henry Clay to a gentleman in this vicinity, upon 
the subject of raising hogs. Mr. Clay's agri- 
cultural reputation is hardly inferior to his poli- 
tical celebrity. 

" You inquire about hogs. The best race, I 
think, is the Berkshire ; put your boars to the 
sows in the first week of December, regulating 
the number by the number you want for the 
pen, averaging five pigs to the sow. Your pigs 
will all come about the same time, early in April : 
about the 10th of May, when they can crack 
corn, have the sows all spayed and the boars 
altered. They will form the best part of your 
pen of killing hogs the ensuing fall. Select 
your boars and sows from the April pigs to pro- 
duce another year — keep them apart until the 
first week in December, and then put them to- 
gether, &c. That is the whole system, except 
that you should always remember, that no one 
Vol. 1—29 



VALUE OF ASHES. 

Professor Jackson, in one of his lectures in 
Boston, in illustrating the manner in which soils 
might be rendered fertile, said that: "A farm 
within his knowledge of blowing sand, a pine 
barren, and almost hopeless, on which ten bushels 
of corn to an acre, could scarcely be grown, by 
the judicious application of ashes, had been 
made to produce forty or fifty bushels to the 
acre." We do not question the correctness of 
Dr. Jackson's statements. Our observation has 
convinced us that on sandy soils, with the ex- 
ception of clay marl, there is nothing more be- 
neficial in the application to such soils than 
ashes ; and, very fortunately, unless uncommon 
quantities of acid exist in such soils, leached 
ashes are nearly as beneficial as unleached ones. 
Ashes do what lime cannot; they render the 
soil more tenacious of moisture; and, although 
their action is not as prompt or efficient on cold, 
sour soils, they are, for the reason assigned, con- 
sidered as valuable on light, sandy ones. Of 
this fact the farmers on the light soils of Long 
Island and New Jersey are well aware, and in 
the gathering and application of ashes find a 
certain source of profit. 

Philadelphia Saturday Courier. 



GOVERNOR HILL S ADDRESS. 

Of all the pursuits of life, we hold the occu* 
pation of the farmer, followed as it is, under the 
blue vault and in the open air of heaven, to be 
not only the most enticing, but the most redolent 
of health and happiness. We, therefore, most 
heartily subscribe to the following forcible ex- 
tract from an address of the Hon. Isaac Hill, 
delivered before the Agricultural Society of Ken- 
nebeck : 

"No men are generally better qualified or 
more discreet and safe agents for executing the 
various purposes of civil government, than the 
intelligent farmers of our country towns. For 
the last thirty years I have been conversant 
with much public business of a State and of the 
nation: I have known men of no occupation 
more trustworthy or more able so far as related 
to all the practical uses of government, than 
farmers who have left the plough for one or 
more weeks or months in a year to take seats 
in the Legislature, or manage the prudential 
concerns of a town, or administer upon estates, 
or even sit as judges in causes for trial. Rarely 



250 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



will it be found that the well-informed man who 
has spent a portion of his time in public life — who 
has gone his round as a state legislatoi or even left 
his farm and his family to occupy a seat in Con- 
gress, who does not return to the labor of his 
farm, if he have been successful in that pursuit, 
with an appetite increased for a more zealous 
devotion to his occupation. I have myself been 
more or less in public life for twenty years — I 
have spent the time of several successive ses- 
sions by the side of some of the most talented 
and conspicuous men of the country in that de- 
sirable position, the Senate of the United States, 
and I have in succeeding years sat at the head 
of the councils of the State ; but better and 
more satisfactory would have been the employ- 
ment, had my constitution and education ad- 
mitted the exercise, to have labored on land 
which I knew to belong to me, and on which I 
had the satisfaction of witnessing a growing 
annual production profitably increased by my 
personal efforts. I have in fact gladly retreated 
from a public position when my services might 
be dispensed with to do such work in the garden 
or field as I know how to perform. 

"Let the soldier exult in the pomp of war r 

The king - in his self-thronecl hall; 
The free-born farmer is happier far 

Than kin<rs, and lords, and all. 
His are no fields with carnage red, 

And drenched with blood of the slain,. 
But hills and vales, o'er which is spread 

A harvest of waving" grain." 



PLASTER. 

The Editor of the American Farmer says: 

"Our own experience has taught us, that 
plaster can only be applied with decided advan- 
tage on soils naturally dry, or made so by drain- 
ing ; that there, when judiciously used, it is of 
immense value upon corn and clover, and that 
it always acts most powerfully upon ground 
previously limed." 

COB CRUSHER. 

We are glad to find, from the inquiries made 
for it, that this article is getting into general de- 
mand. We were shown to-day a very substan- 
tial machine, made at the foundry of D. I. Burr 
& Co. in this city, which will not exceed the 
price of $20, all complete, ready for connexion 
with the shaft of an ordinary mill. The article 
is extremely simple, and we should imagine per- 
fectly efficient to crush the cob preparatory to 
its being reduced to meal between a pair of 
stones. Mr. Burr assures us that he has sold 
upwards of an hundred, and, notwithstanding 
the lowness of the price, never heard a complaint 
of one of them. We can answer for the general 



style of mechanical execution in this establish- 
merit. We do not believe it is surpassed in the 
Union. 

To the cash system, adopted by our friends, 
is the cheapness of this article, in part, attribu- 
table. 



STOCK FARM. 

Our attention was called a few days since to 
a splendid lot of sheep on their way to the stock 
farm of Capt. John B. Coles, of Nelson. We 
learn that this enterprising gentleman has lately 
made arrangements for going largely into the 
stock business for which we understand his lo- 
cation is admirably adapted. The sheep to 
which we referred consisted of Bakewells and 
Southdowns. We heard an offer of fifty dol- 
lars a piece for the Bakewells refused before they 
left our wharves. We have not the smallest 
doubt of the success of the enterprise. 



BUTTER. 

Although deficient in many points of good: 
husbandry, Normandy has always been remark- 
able for her butter. The cattle, to appearance 
indifferent, afford a constant supply of cream, 
that is churned into the most delightful butter 
at all seasons of the year. The yield is not 
abundant, but more remarkable for quality than 
quantity. The butter is described as being of a 
"marrowy consistence," very superior to any 
thing known in England, neither hard in winter, 
nor soft in summer. Something of this is no 
doubt attributable to a peculiarity in their breed 
of cattle, but much, we suspect, is also owing 
to the very want of thrift, of which they are 
accused, and, in spite of which, it is said their 
cows yield this delightful butter. We are told 
that they are ignorant of roots, and that their 
pastures are by no means luxuriant. Now, we 
believe that a feed of dry hay, with short pas- 
turage, is exactly the kind to afford butter of a 
"marrowy consistence," and of the most de- 
lightful flavor; and we believe, moreover, that 
this extraordinary quality will only be obtained 
at the expense of quantity. 

We see that Mr. Biddle furnished the dinner 
of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, a few 
days since, with some butter, the produce of his 
Guernsey cow, which, even in that butter region, 
attracted great attention. 

This cow, although described as little else 
than a bag of bones, took the premium at the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



251 



show without difficulty, on account of the ex- 
traordinary quality of her milk. The charac- 
teristic "consistency" appeared in all its richness, 
and we are inclined to believe this importation 
a great acquisition to the stock of the country. 
We once knew a little red cow whose ap- 
pearance might have commanded, possibly, ten 
dollars — she gave regularly, when well attend- 
ed to, about six quarts a day, throughout the 
year ; but of those six quarts very nearly 
three were pure cream, and from that cream, 
was made the most delightful butter we ever 
tasted, with all the boasted " consistency" of the 
Guernsey breed ; but alas ! our little favorite was 
not imported, and lived and died without ever 
dreaming of the possibility of her taking a pre- 
mium at an agricultural show. 



VACCINATION. 

It appears that Dr. Creely, a surgeon in Ayles- 
bury, England, has lately made the discovery, 
that the cow pox is nothing but the small pox 
in the cow, and that the disease may be com- 
municated at pleasure to the animal by innocu- 
lating her with the virus of the small pox. 

We presume that he considers small pox as 
the original disease, communicated accidentally 
to the cow, in whose system the poison is de- 
prived of its worst properties, and reduced to the 
quality of vaccine. 

This discovery is important, because it affords 
a means of obtaining vaccine matter, at all 
times when it is required, without depending 
upon the dubious operations of nature or climate. 



LUCERNE. 

The following directions for cultivating this 
valuable crop are at the same time more precise 
and better adapted to our climate and soil than 
any that we have met with. They are taken 
from the South Carolina Temperance Advocate, 
a paper, by the by, which we would recommend 
very highly to all of our readers, especially such 
as unite a love of temperance with devotion to 
agriculture. 

For the Advocate. 

Mr. Editor, — A friend of mine, at my request, 
drew up the following statement of the value 
and mode of cultivation of lucerne, in the ma- 
nagement of which, he has been very success- 
ful. Though not intended for publication, it 
may be acceptable to some of your agricultural 



readers, who will, of course, modify his direc- 
tions as to time of sowing, &c. to suit their re- 
spective locations. The writer lives in the hilly 
part of North Carolina, on a stiff soil of red 
clay. A Subscriber. 



LUCERNE. 

Dr. Darlington describes grass as "having 
a cylindrical jointed stem, with the joints solid, 
and the intervening portions hollow, or, in a few 
instances, filled with a pith-like substance — the 
leaves alternate, one originating at each joint, 
embracing the stem with its base, and forming 
a sheath which is slit on one side down to its 
origin, and the flowers protected by those pecu- 
liar envelopes known by the name of chaff." 
Every such plant, he assures us, is a l true grass? 
This description includes Indian corn, broom 
corn, sugar cane, wheat, &c. while it excludes 
lucerne and clover. Whether lucerne be entitled 
to the denomination of a grass or not, it yields 
to none of them for soil feeding; and besides 
being more productive and long-lived, as well as 
more palatable to horses and cows, than red 
clover, it is free from its salivating quality. In 
seven years, I have cut thirty-five heavy crops 
of lucerne from one seeding, averaging five crops 
a year. The largest number of crops any one 
year, was seven, the smallest, four. Manure 
was applied once only during the time, and then 
as a top dressing. The soil was a deep red clay, 
made light by deep ploughing and manure. 

Lucerne has a strong tap roop, penetrating to 
a great depth. Hence the necessity of deep 
spading or ploughing. I have cultivated it only 
on upland ; and don't doubt it will do well on 
any good corn land. 

I have tried diilling and broad-cast, and much 
prefer the latter ; first, because the number of 
plants being much greater, the yield is greater ; 
secondly, because the labor of cultivation is 
saved. Some suppose that without annual cul- 
ture with the plough or hoe, the plant must lose 
its vigor, and be overpowered by weeds and 
grass. Such is not the result of my experience. 
I have eradicated blue grass — the enemy most 
to be dreaded — by couriering, and cross couller- 
ing, harrowing and cross harrowing, until every 
root of the blue grass is torn up, and the surface 
of the ground completely pulverised, and then 
raking off the blue grass. This is to be done 
in the winter, once in three years, and a good 
top-dressing of rich manure should follow. I 
have used ashes and stable manure, separately 
and combined. The two combined, have given 
the best product. 

PREPARATION OF THE GROUND. 

Plough or spade deeply ; pulverise complete- 
ly ; manure richly. Break up the ground in 
the fall, and the winter frosts will mellow it. 



252 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



QUANTITY OF SEED TO THE ACRE. 

If the seed be very good, the season very fa- 
vorable, and the sowing done in the best man- 
ner, two gallons may suffice ; but under any 
circumstances I would sow twice that quantity. 

TIME OF SOWING. 

Lucerne, like clover, if sown in the fall, will 
survive a moderate winter, and be destroyed by 
a severe one. I prefer sowing in September 
nevertheless, and running the risk. Should it 
survive the winter, it will give several good 
crops the ensuing year. Should it be destroyed, 
the ground is in fine condition the next spring 
for any crop you please. You may, in that 
event, sow lucerne again in the spring, or, after 
gathering a heavy crop of corn, run the same 
risk again the next fall. 

When sown in the spring, the lucerne does 
not give a crop till the next spring. After at- 
taining to the height of six inches, it begins to 
wither, and its sickly aspect induces in the in- 
experienced, the fear that his labor is lost. It 
will, however, bear the scythe without injury ; 
and mowing is commonly necessary to destroy 
the weeds. If sown in the spring, the best time 
is from the middle or end of May, to the middle 
of June, the ground having been ploughed se- 
veral times lightly at intervals of two or three 
weeks, until the superficial seeds of grass and 
weeds have been destroyed. 

MANNFR OF SOWINCJ. 

The ground being prepared as above described, 
and made as smooth and level as possible, by 
means of the harrow and brush, mark it off with 
a hand plough, or a small pole from the wood 
pile, into lands of six or seven feet, and scatter 
the seed as uniformly as possible. (It would be 
well to moisten the seed with warm water two 
or three days previously to sowing,) and then 
apply a heavy roller once, or a light one twice, 
and the work is done. The value of the roller 
is so little known in the South, that many of 
our great (large I should say) farmers are with- 
out that indispensable instrument. If you can't 
get a roller, the difficulty is easily obviated, by 
first ascertaining from a weather witch when 
there will be a hard rain, brushing in the seed 
just before it, and letting the shower do the work 
of the roller. 

P. S. — I have seen it stated, and do not doubt 
the fact, that one seeding of lucerne will last 
twenty years. 



CHEAP ROOFS. 



We copy the following from the American 
Farmer. For our own part, we must confess 
we retain strong prepossessions in favor of a 
shingle roof over any other we have ever seen 



or heard of. Under ordinary circumstances, 
split shingles are cheaper and more convenient 
than sawed boards and sheath ing-paper, and the 
exterior coating, we presume, might be applied 
to the one as well as the other. For security 
from leakage, we have never seen any thing 
superior to a shingle roof. 

" The simple mode of roofing out-houses by 
nailing thin boards on light rafters, may be in- 
troduced to very great advantage, particularly 
in the country. It is only to subject boards be- 
fore using to the action of fire, by way of tho- 
roughly seasoning them ; nail them on imme- 
diately, and cover them with sheathing-paper 
and a dressing of tar ; and a covering, almost 
for a lifetime, may safely be calculated upon. 

"The rafters, 3 inches deep, 1^ thick; the 
boards half an inch thick, straightened on the 
edges and closely nailed. The following com- 
position for covering such a roof was emploj'ed 
at W T ickham twentjr years ago, and is at the 
present time as good as when first laid. The 
roof is nearly flat, having a run of one inch only 
to the foot, the boards being secuiely nailed and 
covered with a course of sheathing-paper, such 
as is used under the copper-sheathing of ships, 
made fast by small flat-headed nails. To 8 gal- 
lons of common tar add 2 gallons of Roman 
cement, 5 lbs. of rosin and 3 lbs. of tallow ; boil 
and well-stir the ingredients so as thoroughljMo 
incorporate them, and lay on to the roof while 
hot, with a brush, spreading it very evenly ; 
then sprinkle it while hot with sharp, sifted 
sand, and when cold, tar and sand as before, 
after which a single coat of tar once in five or 
six years will preserve the roof for an age. 

" To the above may be added, an incombusti- 
ble, impenetrable wash, prepared according to 
the following directions : — Slake stone-lime with 
hot water in a tub, covering it to keep in the 
steam ; pass six quarts of it through a sieve, it 
being in the state of fine dry powder, and add 
to it one quart of fine salt and two gallons of 
water, boiling and skimming it. To every five 
gallons of this boiled mixture, add one pound of 
alum, half a pound of copperas, and by slow 
degrees half-a-pound of potash and four quarts 
of fine sharp sand. The mixture will now ad- 
mit of any coloring matter that might be pre- 
ferred, and is to be applied with a brush. It 
looks better than paint, and is as durable as 
stone ; it will stop leaks in a roof, prevent the 
moss from growing and injuring the wood, ren- 
dering it incombustible; and when laid upon 
brick-work, causing it to become impenetrable 
to rain or moisture. G. D." 



The following recipe is taken from the New 
York Mechanic. We know nothing of its vir- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



253 



tues: if efficient, it is invaluable. Many of our 
most beautiful ornaments as well as useful in- 
struments may thus be protected from the cor- 
roding effects of rust. 

TO PRESERVE STEEL FROM RUST. 

Take some melted virgin wax and rub it over 
the article to be preserved. When dry, warm 
the article again so as to get off the wax, and 
rub it with a dry cloth until the former polish is 
restored. By this means all the pores of the 
metal are filled up without injury to the appear- 
ance, and rust will not attack it unless it is very 
carelessly exposed to constant humidity. 



FOOT ROT IN SHEEP. 

An intelligent and successful wool-grower in 
forms us of the method by which he entirely 
prevents the inroads of this disease. 

It is known that the sheep, when removed 
from its native mountains and rocks, to the soft 
and luxuriant pastures, no longer has its hoofs 
worn away as in a state of nature, by which as J 
they grow they are preserved fresh and sound ; 
but the outer part, which is naturally intended 
to support the weight of the animal, grows out 
of all bounds, until it laps more or less over the 
soil, and retains the accumulated earth and filth 
which collects within. From this the disease 
originates. 

According to our informant, by repeatedly 
paring off this crest of the hoof, as often as ne- 
cessary, the disease is effectually prevented. 
"Where it has already made progress, something 
more is necessary, as the application of turpen- 
tine, or tar, with cauterization, the disease being 
very similar in nature to the "foul in the foot" 
in cattle, which is successfully treated by rub- 
bing a hot iron rod with tar between the hoofs. 
Although it had made such progress in the 
flocks of our informant, as to cause indirectly 
the loss of several hundred sheep, yet he suc- 
ceeded after a year or two of careful attention, 
in removing it entirely. 

He thinks it rarely reaches that degree of 
malignancy described by European writers, by 
whom it is represented to become contagious, 
and occasion directly the destruction of the ani- 
mal ; or at least that several years would be re- 
quired to produce such a result; death appear- 
ing here to be caused by the severity of winter 
operating on weakened and emaciated animals 
affected by the disease. — Genesee Farmer, 



TOBACCO. 

This important product is attracting the at- 
tention of the whole agricultural world. Its 
cultivation is no longer confined to Maryland 
and Virginia, but our sister States of the West 



are making vigorous exertions to compete with 
their elder sisters. To sustain our supremacy 
we of the East must keep wide awake ; their 
richer lands must be opposed with more skilful 
cultivation, and greater competition must awaken 
greater enterprise. We are glad to find, from 
the following notice, that this great staple, the 
source of uncounted millions to the wealth of 
Virginia, is working its way into the generous 
soil of our western counties: 

TOBACCO IN KANAWHA. 

This county, in which four years ago not a 
hogshead of tobacco was raised, is now able to 
turn out from one to two hundred hogsheads per 
year besides an enlargement of our crops we 
have very much improved in the quality of the 
article. Many of our principal farmers are now 
zealously engaged in the business, and before 
long there will be hardly an agriculturist in this 
country lhat will not endeavor to raise more or 
less. Sufficient experiments have been made to 
convince us all that tobacco can be cultivated 
here as well as in any part of Old Virginia. Per- 
suaded of the entire practicability of making it 
a profitable business, our citizens have deter- 
mined to petition the Legislature for an inspector 
at this place. Mr. Mark Antony, of Campbell 
county, a gentleman of great experience in this 
line, has been raising tobacco for the last two or 
three seasons in Fayette, and he has assured us 
that he has been entirely successful, and that 
he means to go into the business largely after 
this year. The farmers of Mason and Jackson, 
we believe, have no doubt but that their soil is 
very well adapted for yielding this most valuable 
crop. When it is recollected that tobacco is a 
cash article, a thing, by the by, very desirable to 
our people, there are few, we imagine, who will 
hesitate to turn their best attention to a matter 
of so much consequence to their interests. 

Kanawha Jeffersonian. 



Amongst the thousand projects, which will 
hereafter characterise our day as the era of in- 
ventions, we select the following for its ingenuity 
and simplicity. If there is not some defect in 
the principle, which we confess ourselves unable 
to detect, it is a wonderful invention, and calcu- 
lated to produce a tremendous revolution in saw 
mills. It dispenses with a great deal of work 
and an immense deal of friction. The notice is 
from the New York Mechanic. 

A STEAM SAW MILL. 

BY MR. D. D. BJEECHEH, OF PROSPECT, CONNECTICUT. 

This is a very novel invention, on a simple 
and rational principle, and should have been in- 
troduced long before. The engine cylinder is 



254 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



secured in a horizontal position, with a piston 
rod extending through the length of it; and to 
each end of this piston rod is attached a saw, 
which works horizontally ; so that two logs can 
be sawed at the same time, yet without the com- 
plication of cranks, pitmans, shackle-bars, or 
geer. The logs are set or adjusted by elevation, 
and the carriages are moved forward by a simple 
connection with the valve rod of the engine. 
This plan must go ahead of all other steam saw 
mills, and is likely to reward the well known 
enterprise of its ingenious inventor. 



We have seldom been called on to resist a 
stronger temptation to a betrayal of confidence 
than the one we have conquered in withholding 
from the public the name of the author of the 
following communication. We have not the 
pleasure of a personal acquaintance. Of his 
success as an enlightened agriculturist we have 
seen a little, and heard much. Of his capacity 
for sound reasoning, and his facility of commu- 
nication, we want no better proof than the fol- 
lowing essay. 

Our author will see from the first article in 
this No. which was in press before the receipt 
of his communication, how we have anticipated 
his view of the value to be attached to the early 
maturity of wheat. 

To the Editor of the Southern Planter : 

You seem to be at some loss to decide whe- 
ther northern seeds transplanted to southern 
fields will have the effect of accelerating or re- 
tarding the maturity of the crops. You incline 
however to the opinion, that they w T ill be retard- 
ed, and cite two experiments from Lindley and 
Knight in support of this view of the case. 

With due deference, it appears to me, that 
the experience of Knight and Lindley leads 
to the opposite conclusion. They both maintain 
that the seeds of vegetables which have been 
grown for several years in a dry, quick soil, ac- 
quire a constitution which adapts them to the 
production of a rapid development of their pro- 
geny, when removed to a cold ungenial soil. 

It is a well established fact, that northern 
seeds planted in southern soils will invariably 
produce the earliest vegetables of their kind — 
and vice versa. It may be accounted for philo- 
sophically in the following manner : The north- 
ern summer is short, and the season of vegeta- 
tion comparatively limited. For the plant to 
pass through its various stages of growth at all, 
it must progress with great rapidit} r . Whoever 
has remarked the progress of vegetation in a 
northern climate, must have been struck at its 
wonderful development. The effect upon the 
germ is, that it necessarily acquires the habit of 



the plant; and the aptitude to early maturity is 
transmitted to its offspring for several gen- 
erations, even when transplanted to regions 
where the seasons are of much longer duration. 
A number of instances have come under my 
observation which fully confirm the truth of this 
! fact. I have received seeds and plants from vari- 
I ous parts of the U. S.; and compared with our na- 
| tive productions, I have uniformly found that the 
fruit ripened earlier or later, as the seeds were de- 
rived from the north or south. Northern corn may 
be gathered much sooner than our native varie- 
ties. The same variety of wheat from northern 
: seed may be reaped several days sooner than 
| when grown from our own seed. The earliest 
| varietj? of garden pea I have ever known was 
received some years ago from the northern part 
| of N. York. For two or three seasons it came 
, to the table a week sooner than our own earli- 
j est varieties ; but notwithstanding the greatest 
t care in the selection of the seed, it is now not 
1 more than two or three days in advance of them. 
I have also discovered that many varieties of 
winter apples obtained from northern nurseries, 
will not answer our expectations. The fruit 
comes to premature perfection, and falls early 
in autumn, before the time of gathering. The 
'summer varieties of the apple may very prop- 
erly be selected from the north. Early peach 
trees should also be preferred from thence, on 
the same principle ; but when a succession of 
fruit is desired, the later kinds should be obtain- 
ed nearer home, or a little farther south of us. 

Southern seeds on the contrary, when taken 
s to the north, are seldom worth ihe trouble of 
I planting. I have seen melon seeds from New 
j Orleans which would barely perfect their fruit 
I before frost. Our varieties of corn, taken to the 
[north, will not. ripen their grain one season out 
! often. They produce gigantic stalks, similar to 
the growth of our own fields, but the season is 
too short to bring the ear to maturity. Many 
attempts have been made to acclimate our fa- 
mous hominy corn, even on the other bank of 
the Potomac ; but never with success as far as 
I have heard. It cannot be made productive 
north of Virginia, except possibly in the lowest 
and warmest pans of Maryland. I have fre- 
quently sent small parcels of seeds, both of or- 
namental and useful plants, to some of my north- 
ern friends; but with few exceptions they do 
not furnish the means of perpetuating themselves. 
But notwithstanding that the northern seeds 
ripen so much earlier than our own, it should 
not be inferred from thence that it would be wise 
or proper to rely on them, even if they were ac- 
cessible, to the entire exclusion of our own. — 
Some degree of judgment and experience is ne- 
cessary, to enable one to make a judicious dis- 
crimination. As a general rule, when early ma- 
turity is chiefly desirable, it will be safe to plant 
all species which yield their fruits before the arid 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



255 



heats of our summers overtake them. If the 
period of ripening is later than that, they will 
not. repay the cost of cultivation. They cannot 
contend with our excessive droughts. The 
northern squashes, which are so much superior 
to our pumpkins, will not flourish in our lati- 
tude. The celebrated Dutton corn, which Judge 
Buel labored so earnestly to introduce into gen- 
eral culture, is totally worthless in Virginia. — 
Its time of ripening here was about the first of 
August — the most critical period, as all far- 
mers know, of the corn crop. The consequence 
was, that it became withered and dried up be- 
neath the scorching rays of our southern sun. 
Corn is an autumnal crop ; and there can be no 
advantage gained in hastening its maturity ear- 
lier than September. On the other hand, wheat 
is with us, so to say, a spring crop. Formerly 
it came to the scythe in May ; and even now, 
though no care has ever been exercised in the 
selection of seed, after the manner of the Eng- 
lish farmer, the latest varieties ripen by the 20th 
or 25th of June ; but not before the accession of 
a settled state of hot weather. The great de- 
sideratum to the Virginia farmer, is the posses- 
sion of a productive variety of wheat that will 
ripen at least as early as the 10th of June ; for 
we all know that in proportion as the time of 
harvest runs into the hot season, the greater is 
the liability of the wheat crop to be diminished 
in product. A cool June is almost invariably 
accompanied by an abundant harvest ; while a 
warm, humid spell is attended with disastrous 
consequences. Unfortunately, the character of 
the weather at this most critical period, is gene- 
rally so unfavorable, that a sultry June — for the 
last half at least — may be regarded as in accord- 
ance with the laws which regulate our climate. 
It follows then, of necessity, that as long as the 
time of harvest shall be protracted to the latter 
part of the month of June, there never can be 
any certainty, nor indeed probability, of reaping 
heavy crops of wheat. A good crop at that 
time would raiher be an exception to a general 
rule, than in conformity to it. We have all seen 
our fields of wheat dry up rather than ripen be- 
neath the influence of a hot sun. We must en- 
deavor to restore the old order of things. The 
change has not been so much in the seasons as 
in the carelessness of formers in preserving the 
purity of their seed. Much might be effected 
if each farmer would select for himself a small 
quantity of seed wheat every year, even if it 
were not more than a bushel, from the earliest 
ripened ears in his own field. In a short time 
he would have the satisfaction of perceiving a 
sensible improvement, not only in the quality, 
but in the early maturity of his grain. He 
should not only endeavor to obtain the earliest 
varieties, but he should also bestow the neces- 
sary care upon the soil, so as to give the seed a 
a warm bed, a suitable matrix^ for its develop- 



ment. He will never gain any thing, but rather 
he will lose time, by running afier every new 
wheat he may hear of, as is now so much the 
vogue. The California wheat, the rock wheat 
the fly proof wheat, and the many others which 
might be enumerated, though all very valuable, 
perhaps, are no better nor so good, as he might 
obtain by careful selection from his own fields. 
In the mean time, the seedsman might very ma- 
terially aid the farmer, by obtaining from the 
north, seed of all the earliest varieties The 
northern seedsmen have imported many kinds of 
wheat from England, some of which may prove 
exceedingly valuable, and offer ihe desideratum 
that is wanting. The efforts of all should be 
directed to procure the earliest varieties, and ihen 
to preserve them in their purity : for it is throw- 
ing away land, seed and labor, one or all, toper- 
severe in sowing late wheat. 

I am fully sensible that I have diverged from 
the topic which I designed to elucidate ; but the 
importance of the subject which led me astray, 
will, I hope, constitute a sufficient apology. 

A Farmer. 



MAJ. YANCEY'S ADDRESS. 
We have been so fortunate as to procure a 
copy of an address delivered before the Agricul- 
tural Society of Buckingham, by Maj. Charles 
Yancey. Maj. Yancey has devoted a long life 
to the pursuit of agriculture, and has amassed 
a large fortune by the sweat of his brow. When 
called on for an address, like a sound practical 
man as he is, he preferred to detail his own mode 
of operations, to give to others the benefit of his 
hard earned experience, rather than to seek the 
reputation of an orator , by repeating common 
place encomiums upon the art of agriculture, 
and indulging in the too frequent strain of vapid 
eloquence. The address is replete with instruc- 
tion — not a line but tells. If our copious extracts 
serve to teach others to do as the Major has 
done, w T e shall be pardoned the extent of our no- 
tice of this valuable production. 

PLASTER AND CLOVER. 

The Major conceives that clover and plaster 
must form the basis of improvement for our ex- 
hausted lands. On this subject he says : 

Forthwith resolve to commence upon the im- 
provement of your exhausted fields, by making 
and applying all the manure in your power, of 
animal and vegetable matter, such as corn stalks, 
wheat straw, and leaves taken from the poorest 
part of your woodland, designed for timber and 
not for cultivation. Much can be done in this 
way to increase your quantity of manure; and 
then rely upon clover and plaster, as the great 



256 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



auxiliary of the whole vegetable kingdom, by 
which you can renovate your exhausted lands, 
and bring them up into good tilth again. Now, 
gentlemen, let me intreat and beseech you to 
commence the clover husbandry as the only 
known process by which you can render your 
lands fertile ; you must not mind the expense ; 
the money expended will return to you with 
usurious interest, in augmented crops, and re- 
newed fertility of your exhausted lands, and 
amply reward you for all expenses, time and la- 
bor employed. One of two things must of ne- 
cessity be done, either to improve your lands, or 
sell the bones of your fathers, as too many have 
done, and exile yourselves and families from the 
attachments of nativity, friends, and relations, 
and make an unmanly retreat, to the far lands of 
the south-west, w T here you will risk the diseases 
incident to a hot sun, and perchance, to many 
members of your family, an untimely grave. — 
Now gentlemen, let me again conjure and en- 
treat you, being sincerely desirous to promote 
your interest, and being able from many years' 
experience to recommend the clover system, as 
the best mode of improvement — to prevail on 
you, one and all, to adopt it the next season — 
to sow upon your wheat and oat land a gallon 
of seed to the acre, bearing in mind, that poor 
land requires more seed, as many will fail to ve- 
getate. Poor exhausted places in your fields 
should have a dressing of some kind of manure, 
and be frequently plastered. Oats should be 
seeded thin, as they incline to branch much of 
moist springs,whenthe3' will injure theyoung clo- 
ver. My preference as to time of seeding upon 
wheat land is the last ten days of February ; 
and when the land is much heaved up by frost, 
when rains will settle it down, and give a cover 
to the seed and insure vegetation. If the ground 
be dry, hard and compact, I recommend a light 
single horse harrow, with white-oak teeth, to 
pass over the field, which will greatly assist the 
seed in vegetating, and instead of injuring, as 
many would suppose, greatly benefit your wheat, 
especially if the roller is made to follow the har- 
row. 

Young clover seldom dies for want of moist- 
ure till the grain crop is cut. If the season then 
be dry, having been sheltered and protected from 
the heat of the sun sufficiently, then an appli- 
cation of plaster, of from three to four pecks to 
the acre, will be very timely, and greatly tend 
to preserve the young clover. For the second 
application of plaster the next season, I prefer 
the time when vegetation is fully abroad, and 
the clover near heading ; there is then more ve- 
getable matter for the plaster to act upon. Clo- 
ver and plaster should be like man and wife, ne- 
ver separated ; for without plaster, the crop will 
be feeble and sickly. Every farmer must feed 
his land either with manure, or clover and plas- 
ter, or it will not feed him ; and will withhold 



from him that increase which would reward him 
for his care and labor. 

Hoof nor tooth should be put upon clover be- 
fore it is in full bloom — at any earlier stage is 
very destructive : and never at any time graze 
clover in the first year of its growth. I mean, 
when in bloom the second year, when if the 
crop be heavy, there will be more clover than 
the plough can well turn under. It will then 
not be bad management to permit your stock to 
derive the benefit. Sheep and hogs injure less 
than horses and cows. 1 will suggest to you 
that all good managers sow clover to improve 
their lands, and not for the purpose of grazing. 

It will readily be perceived by you all, that 
the old three-shift (or land killing) system must 
be abandoned ; for with less than four shifts, the 
clover husbandry ought not to be attempted. — 
Five shifts is much better — but with those who 
lack surface commensurate with their operating 
force, by forming grazing lots, of from two to 
four acres each, according to circumstances, 
upon lands adapted to grass, and sown with 
greensward, orchard and herdsgrass — as differ- 
ent grasses mixed, succeed best in forming the 
strongest and most durable turf to resist the hoof 
and tooth, under annual grazing. Twelve acres 
in such lots, well sodded with these grasses, will 
keep more stock than a common hundred acre 
grain field : say six lots of two acres each ; three 
are to be under grazing at the same time ; when 
eaten down, turn in upon the other three ; when 
they are consumed, the first three will again af- 
ford a good bite. These lots can be inclosed by 
hurdles, sufficient for three lots, by removal as 
you change your stock, and may be kept up 
for a series of years, by cutting the turf every 
three or four years with a coulter plough, and 
an annual dressing of plaster, with a top dress- 
ing of manure occasionally. With the aid of 
such lots, the four-shift system can be made to 
answer tolerably well. Five-shifts I prefer to a 
greater number — for experience and observation 
teach me to believe, that our lands will require 
a hoe crop to cleanse them every fifth year. If 
permitted to lie longer, they become foul and 
wormy, and overrun and infested with sassafras, 
locust, briers, sorrel, blue thistle, and .St. John's 
wort, &c. reqiuirng great labor in shrubbing and 
preparing the ground to receive a crop. 

Clover hay I consider equal, if not superior, 
to any other kind of hay, and readily made in 
fair weather. A very common error in curing 
it is exposing it too long in the sun, which 
parches up the leaves and makes the hay poor. 
It is better to sun less, turn it every hour, so as 
to make a fresh exposure to the sun through 
the day. At night, before the dew falls, cock 
it up in convenient hand stacks, there let it re- 
main two fair days, and it will be cured by its 
own heat and the air, when it ought to be haul- 
ed in, and if any part be not sufficiently cured 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



257 



to keep, a little exposure upon the yard will 
make it safe to place away in the hay-house, or 
in a rick — if the latter, it should be sloped off 
like the roof of a house, and covered with 
straw or top fodder — otherwise, the hay will 
sustain damage by rains. I estimate a quantity 
of well cured clover hay equal to the like quan- 
tity of sheaf oats, especially if cut, as the oats 
usually are, and ought always to be. Hay, 
when cut like oats, is less subject to waste — the 
stock eat it better, and derive additional nutri- 
ment, perhaps equal to ten per cent. It is ad- 
mitted by the best farmers, that oats make a 
hasty and heav}*- draft upon land, and that clover 
is an ameliorating crop, drawing much less from 
the land, growing and sustaining itself upon at- 
mospheric air and moisture, and known to be 
the greatest improver in the whole vegetable 
kingdom. It would then seem to be good eco- 
nomy to lessen the oat crop, and substitute clo- 
ver hay. 

CORN. 

There is no doubt that one stalk of corn will 
grow better by itself than two stalks together : 
from which it may be inferred that it is best to 
drill upon lands of every quality. I think oth- 
erwise ; and I will advise that such lands as 
will produce twenty bushels, and upwards, 10 
the acre, only should be drilled, excepting hill- 
side land, regardless of quality, should always 
be drilled in a horizontal direction, to prevent 
washing ; and leaving your plants asunder in 
the drill, according to the strength of the soil, 
from nine inches to two feet and a half. Upon 
lands a grade lower in tilth, I would plant and 
cultivate three feet six inches each way, which 
is as near as can be conveniently ploughed. — 
And upon lands a grade lower in quality, four 
feet each way, and in both cases, a single stalk. 
In planting corn in drills, I advise that the beds 
be opened deep, and the corn planted as deep in 
the bed as the surface soil. A higher elevation, 
near the top of the bed greatly exposes it to 
want of moisture in dry seasons, and makes it 
more liable to blow down in stormy weather. — 
To drill the whole crop of corn, does not suit 
tobacco growers, as it requires much more hand- 
hoeing, and at a season when you are busy put- 
ting up tobacco hills, and planting tobacco. — 
Ashes is a most valuable manure for corn ; a 
pint of which put underneath your corn in plant- 
ing, and a little earth drawn over the ashes be- 
fore dropping the corn, I believe, upon old ex- 
hausted land, will increase the crop one-third in 
quantity. As to the effect of common manure 
you are all well informed. Corn land should 
always be harrowed clown before planting, which 
working is as valuable as ploughing after the 
corn is up. In the first place, it prepares your 
land to receive the seed corn, and in the next 
place it destroys a young crop of grass and 
Vol. 1—30 



weeds, which will permit you to delay the first 
ploughing, and consequently the second, with- 
out injury to your corn, and enable you to em- 
brace the whole grass-growing season, and 
make good corn with two ploughings, which if 
well done, and done in the right time, no more 
ploughing will be required ; the cultivator then, 
will destroy a young crop of grass, and level 
down your land in good condition for seeding 
wheat. From experience, I am of the opinion 
that seed corn should be saved from the stalks that 
have produced two ears. Whether it be sex or 
not, I cannot say, but have observed it is most 
apt to produce its like, and that likeness in- 
creases as you continue the process. 

My plan to prevent crows and blackbirds 
from pulling up the corn, is to soak the seed corn 
in copperas water, made strong — to remain in it 
till the grain is somewhat swelled and turned 
black. It is thus rendered obnoxious to those 
birds, and vegetation greatly expedited. I con- 
sider this method preferable to tarring corn, 
which, if smeared entirely over the grain, makes 
it impervious to moisture, which will cause it 
to rot, instead of sprouting. 

A great saving will result in grinding all 
your stock corn, into fine meal, and feeding it 
mixed with cut hay, fodder, shucks, or straw ; 
in this form I estimate three quarts equal to four 
of corn, a saving of twenty-five per cent, to 
those who have mills ; to those who pay ten 
per cent, toll, a saving of fifteen per cent. ; an 
object well worth your attention, and I hope 
many of you will test the estimate, fully believ- 
ing that all who do, will concur with me in 
opinion; and I will further add, that when fed 
in this form to old animals that chew corn im- 
perfectly, the saving would be one-half. 

TOBACCO. 

This is the Major's great crop, and one on 
which he is completely at home. We know 
not whether other systems be better; his has 
certainly been successful. We give his direc- 
tions entire. 

Tobacco being our great market crop, it will 
be expected that I treat upon the culture and 
general management of that plant. It being 
very important to have forward plants, the best 
selection of suitable ground for your plant beds 
must be made. New virgin soil is preferable, 
where to be had, with a southern exposure and 
the command of water, where practicable. — 
With the command of water and good fresh horse 
manure, plants can be raised early, and in de- 
spite of the fly, that are, in dry cool seasons, so 
destructive to our plants. I prefer a close fine 
soil, with as little sand as possible. Rather 
than a light puffy soil, I would take black-haw 
swamps, or white-oak land, which are inclined 



258 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTEK. 



to be adhesive and somewhat cold, with shallow 
soil. I will here remark, that such a soil, with 
the aid of manure, will produce your plants 
with better roots than native rich land : such 
land, when well burned, will divide its particles 
to great fineness, imbibe and retain more of the 
stimulus imparted to it by the action of the fire, 
and retaining its close compact nature, yielding 
moisture to the roots of the young plants, which 
in an open light soil, would be evaporated by 
the sun and drying winds of March, when the 
plants perish. The next process is burning ; 
for the extent of which, the best rule I can give, 
is to burn till the ground assumes a red appear- 
ance ; bearing in mind, that burning late in 
February, and early in March, must be less than 
what would be called early burning. The lar- 
gest coals must all be taken off with a fine rake, 
then hoe up your bed, not exceeding two inches 
in depth, and avoid turning over the soil. Now 
put on horse manure all over your bed, then 
chop over with the hoes repeatedly, until the 
ground is reduced sufficiently fine, removing all 
the roots that can be got out, large and small, 
taking care not to rupture the substratum by 
pulling up large roots ; mark off your bed, and 
sow a common table spoonful of tobacco seed 
for every hundred square yards, dividing your 
seed, and sowing one-half lengthwise, and the 
other half crosswise, by which means you will 
sow your bed more regular ; tread, and cover 
well, and you may expect plants in due season, 
provided you give another dressing of horse ma- 
nure, made fine enough to sift through a basket, 
when your plants are generally square, and at 
the time when rain is expected. Seasons for 
setting plants being uncertain, we usually em- 
brace seasons in the month of May, yet I greatly 
prefer planting from the 1st to the 15th of June. 
It will come to the knife sooner, and make larger 
and better tobacco, than if planted in May. — 
Tobacco requires early and deep working, with 
a coulter plough first, then with a scoope to 
make fine earth ; and instead of the old mode 
of ridging down, it is much better to hill it. — 
At the second working, plough and hill in the 
same way, and if well done, and at the right 
time, it scarcely will require a third working. — 
All the necessary working should be performed 
by the time your plants are in the second suck- 
ers; after that period, a working is often preju- 
dicial. Young grass in that stage of its growth 
will not injure; indeed, it defends the plants 
from dirt upon the bottom leaves, and will cause 
it to ripen of a yellow grey color, and make to- 
bacco of a finer fibre, and more easily cured. — 
Weeds will injure, by the winds whipping the 
leaves against them ; they should be plucked 
up by the hands when suckering. I recommend 
low priming and topping — the shorter the stalk, 
the richer the tobacco. Take out the bud as 
«?oon a3 practicable, without crippling the bud- 



leaves. In my opinion, eight leaves is better to 
top to, than any greater number, even upon rich 
lands ; it will make richer tobacco, more certain 
to make itself, and come to the house before 
frost, than any greater number of leaves. It is 
often seen upon weak land in dry cool seasons, 
the two top leaves of ten-leaf topping will not 
ripen, and they ought to be the two best leaves 
upon the plant— when, if eight-leaf tobacco had 
been in the same hills, it would have ripened to 
perfection, with longer and broader leaves, rich- 
er, heavier, and every way better tobacco. Be- 
sides, it will come to the knife two weeks sooner, 
making the crop much more certain, and enable 
you to seed your tobacco land in wheat that 
much sooner, which is a very great considera- 
tion with every farmer. 

A very great and common fault in tobacco 
makers, is cutting tobacco before it is ripe, by 
which the loss is great, in quantity and quality. 
In an address of this kind, there is much diffi- 
culty in giving you a criterion, by which to 
know certainly when it is really ripe — for to- 
bacco often assumes the appearance of ripeness 
(especially in dry weather,) when it is not ripe. 
I will, however, say, that when most planters 
think their tobacco is ripe, if they would delay 
cutting one week longer, it would then probably 
be ripe. I will draw your attention to the point 
of top leaf on the north side of the plants. — 
From the stalk to the declining part of the leaf, 
you will see yellow spots, which is the oil sepa- 
rated from the water ; from thence to the point, 
it is green in color, if water only, and ought not 
to be cut until the oil has reached the point of 
the leaf. There is as much difference in a chew 
of good ripe tobacco, compared with a chew of 
half ripe, as there is in a ripe and half ripe wa- 
ter-melon. Unless the intense heat of the sun 
forbid it, (such heat as we had in the last 
month, September,) I always scaffold tobacco. 
As to the time when it ought to be housed, and 
fire applied, nothing is more indefinite, depend- 
ing upon the degree of ripeness, the kind of land 
on which it grew, the strength of the sun, the 
state of the air, whether dry and cool, or warm 
and moist, and whether it ripened of a yellow- 
grey, or green color ; the latter always contain- 
ing more water, and longer before the water and 
oil separate. The best guide is this separation, 
the water having escaped through the mouths 
of the leaf vessels, where you see the j^ellow 
spots of essential oil, and the remaining green 
and watery part of the leaf approaching that 
process. A slow fire and weak heat must be 
applied, say eighty degrees, for if your tobacco 
gets too yellow, the vessels become so open, the 
least degree of heat too strong, will force out 
the oil with the water, kill the staple and cure 
it up red, the most worthless kind of tobacco 
that is made, there being no essential oil in it, 
in which the value of tobacco entirely consists. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



259 



That degree of heat ought to be continued, but 
not increased, one natural day : after that toast- 
ing the tobacco is prepared to bear an increased 
heat of five degrees more, the next natural day ; 
the third day, 90 to 95, and the fourth day, 105 
to 110 degrees, which ought by that time to 
cure the leaf perfectly ; but of that fact be cer- 
tain, by a nice examination above the joist, 
where the process of curing is the slowest, be- 
fore you raise heat to 140 or 150 degrees, which 
is necessary to reduce the stems ; even a greater 
heat if your tobacco is very large. There is 
then no danger of injuring your tobacco ; the 
mouths of all the vessels are sealed up, no oil 
can escape, and your tobacco will be finer in 
fibre, closer in texture, and the large stems well 
reduced, exhibiting a fluted appearance instead 
of round, a sure proof that all the water is evap- 
orated. Partly cured stems have, and will de- 
ceive even good planters, as to the right order to 
strike down for pressing. It is the moisture re- 
tained in the stems, that imparts itself through 
the leaf, as warm weather approaches. Of the 
different degrees of heat of which I have spoken 
much depends upon the tightness of the house, 
and ought to be regulated by common sense 
observation. 

Never crowd your tobacco either upon the 
scaffold or in the house — ten good plants is as 
many as ought to be hung upon a stick : if 
small, go to 12. When arranging in the house 
to fire, give a space of ten inches between, and 
it is best to cure in the body of the house, com- 
mencing upon the joist ; when the leaf is cured, 
raise it up in the roof, when 4£ inches space is 
sufficient — if house-room be scarce, fill the body 
again with your next cutting — the firing of that 
will cure the stems of that above. No man 
can cure as good tobacco in the roof as in the 
body of a house, a dry heat curing best. The 
tier next to the fire will be best, if heat be ap- 
plied right — the steam passing up through so 
many tiers of tobacco, from which the water is 
constantly issuing out, before it passes the joist, 
the steam becomes vapor, and being confined 
some time before it escapes through the roof, 
has a deleterious effect, which, if not prevented 
by a constant and sufficient supply of heat, to 
dry off the moisture upon the plants, house- 
burn ensues, when then the leaf perishes on each 
side of the stem. The curing of tobacco is a 
nice chemical process ; yet it is generally in- 
trusted to illiterate managers and ignorant ne- 
groes, neither knowing the first principles of the 
science. The constitutent parts of tobacco, are 
wood, water and oil ; and he who dries the 
wood evaporates the water, and preserves the 
•oil, in the best manner, is the best tobacco curer. 



The following sketch is drawn to the life ; 
few things of the kind have been better done, 



Any one who has ever felt a flea (and who has 
not?) will recognise the portrait. 

DOMESTIC SPORT. 

Did you ever catch a flea ? — not you — you 
don't know how — nor I neither — but they catch 
us don't they ? When you feel thern biting the 
calf of your leg, just about getting up time you 
slip your hand down so cautiously, thinking to 
come over him — you miss where you think he 
is — give the hair on your legs a smart pull — 
find you hav'nt got him — swear a little and all 
the time the vagabond was sitting on your knee, 
looking on and laughing at you — up you bounce 
in a fury, determined to murder the villain, and 
find the flea sitting quietly in the middle of the 
bed rubbing his claws and pretending not to see 
you — down goes your open hand — and you 
catch a handful of sheet — and see him laughing 
and capering on the pillow, and singing, " You 
can't come the giraffe over me." " Hit one of 
your size," &c. This don't provoke you a bit — 
oh no ! You make one more grab and he is on 
j^our arm, and in a Jeffy he is down your sleeve 
and digging away in the small of your back. 
Now jam your back against the bed-post, tear 
an inch or two of your shirt — off comes that 
garment, and before it's over your head you feel 
him again on your leg. Give yourself one 
thundering slap ; say a naughty word — and 
then give it up quietty, having made up your 
mind that a flea is invincible. — Pennant. 




TO THE READER. 

A newspaper may be likened to a stage 
coach — its readers to the passengers — its contri- 
butors to the horses, and the editor to the poor 
devil of a driver. 

We have jogged along pleasantly and we 
hope not unprofitably together and have at last 
arrived at the end of our journey. 

About the first of January, 1842, the same 
coach with a stronger team will start upon a 
new route beautifully diversified with hill and 
dale and altogether very promising in appear- 
ance. Those who have acquired confidence in 
the skill of the driver are respectfully requested 
to come forward, pay their fare, and book their 
names for the coming trip. 



9S0 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



{£/=* The vehicle is very roomy and there is 
no danger of being crowded. 



BACK NUMBERS. 
In consequence of an accession of numbers 
that we did not anticipate we were compelled to 
increase the edition of our later numbers and 
commence the reprint of our earlier ones. This 
is a heavy business, and is not yet quite com- 
pleted ; in consequence some of our subscribers 
are still without the early numbers. A faithful 
record has been kept of their names, and they 
may each and every one count upon their being 
forwarded as soon as they are ready. We pro- 
bably regret the delay which has deprived them 
of them more than they do. 



ENGRAVINGS. 
We are compelled to apologize again for the 
want of engravings. We know the value of 
cuts when they are properly selected, and this 
department has occasioned us more trouble and 
anxiety than any other of the paper. Strange 
as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that in 
the city of Richmond there is not a single indi- 
vidual who makes a profession of engraving. 
We are now making arrangements to remedy 
this defect, and we hope soon to be surpassed by 
no paper in the Union in the beauty and variety 
of these embellishments. 

CONTENTS OF NO. XI AND XII. 

Wheat — Advantages of reaping earl}'', p. 225. 

Corn — How to keep from moulding, p. 226. 

Yeast — Made of " life-everlasting," p. 226. 

Mange — Remedy for p. 226. 

Smut — Inquiries into the cause of, p. 227. 

Asparagus — Gen. Richardson's mode of cul- 
tivating, p. 227. 

Top Dressing — Its advantages, p. 228. 

Tobacco — A continuation of Mr. Morriss's es- 
say, p. 230. 

Burn — To cure, p. 231. 

Apple Trees — Flourish best in new grounds, 
p. 232. 

Hogs — At what price can pork be raised in 
Virginia? p. 232. 

A. B. Allen — His late visit to En^jland, p. 
232. 

Cow— The value of p. 232. 

Points of a good milker, p. 233. 

Fermentation — Renders food more soluble, p. 
233. 

Sea Sand — An improver p. 234. 



Manuring — Movable pen for stock recom- 
mended, p. 234. 

Breeding — A principle of, p. 234. 

Hog — Proper form of the hog, p. 235. 

Paint— To clean, p. 235. 

Wood — Effect of Dr. Boucherie's discoveries; 
p. 235. 

Draining — Various modes and advantages of 
under-draining, p. 236. 

Food — Value of cooking and grinding, p. 237. 

Hogs — Proper food for, p. 237. 

Cabbages — New plan of keeping, p. 237. 

Lard — Mr. Lewis's directions for trying, — 
excellent, p. 238. 

Visit — To Mr. Phinney's farm, what may be 
effected by labor and enterprise, p. 238. 

Irrigation — An instance of its value, p. 240. 

Mange — Poke root a cure for, p. 241. 

Quinsy in Hogs — A remedy for, p. 241. 

Boots — The cultivation of a " truck patch' 7 
recommended, p. 241. 

Elder Leaves — Will not keep off rats, p. 242, 

JManuring — Mr. Drummond's recommenda- 
tion to manure the year before tillage, p. 243. 

Corn — Col. Isbell's mode of cultivating more 
fully developed, p. 244. 

Potato — The Irish potato recommended as 
food for negroes, p. 245. 

Eggs — To have early, p. 245. 

Barrett's Garlic Machine — Further notice of. p. 
246. 

Clay — Used to improve sandy soils, p. 246. 

Tobacco — Mr. Old's plan objected to, p. 246, 

Butter — To preserve, p. 246. 

Springs — New invention for carriage springs, 
p. 247. 

Pens — How to mend steel pens, p. 247. 

Butter — How to get quickly, p. 247. 

Soap — How to make readily, p. 247. 

Address — J. M. Garnett's reviewed, p. 247. 

Guinea Grass — Mr. Garnett's opinion of, p. 
248. 

Potatoes — Mode of cultivation recommended 
by Mr. Garnett, p. 248. 

Film— To cure, p. 249. 

Hogs — Mr. Clay's management of, p. 249. 

Ashes— Value of, p. 249. 

Address — Gov. Hill's reviewed, p. 249. 

Plaster — Proper application of, p. 250. 

Cob Crusher— D. I. Burr & Co.'s, p. 250. 

Stock Farm — Capt. Coles's noticed, p. 250. 

Butter — To preserve, p. 250. 

Vaccination — Discovery in, 251. 

Lucerne — Treatise upon the cultivation of, p. 
251. 

Roofs — Cheap plan for, p. 252. 

Steel — To preserve from rust, p. 252. 

Sheep — Cause of foot rot, p. 253. 

Tobacco — Its extension, p. 253. 

Steam Sato-mill — New plan of, p. 253. 

Seeds — Value of northern, p. 254. 

Address — Major Yancey's reviewed, p. 255. 



INDEX 



A. 

Address — Of the Editor to the reader, p. 1. Gen. I 
McDuffie's, reviewed, 13. Dr. Archer's do. 
109. J. H. Turner's do. 124. Do. do. 222. 
J. M. Garnett's do. 247. Gov. Hill's noticed, 
249. Major Yancey's do. 255. 

Advice — To housewives, 94. 

Agriculture — Its profits, 22. In Virginia, re- 
marks on, 119. To be preferred to politics, 
198. 

Agricultural Botany — Dr. Darlington's list of 
plants, 201. 

Agricultural Societies — Urged to contribute to 
the Planter, 183. 

Agricultural Association of Hanover noticed, 114. 

Almond — The Languedoc may be cultivated in 
the United States, 7. 

Almanac — The Farmer's, reviewed, 173. 

American Farmer — Noticed, 41. 

Animals — Proper form of, 77. 

Anvils — To prevent ringing, 77. 

Asparagus — New mode of cutting, 102. Mode 
of cultivating, 170. General Richardson's me- 
thod, 227. 

Apples — To raise from the seed, 175. 

Apple Trees — Flourish best in new ground, 232. 

Association — Advantages of, 189. 

A. B. Allen — His late visit to England, 232. 

Ashes— The value of, 249. 

Auctions — Origin of the red flag, 31. 

Axes — Virginia Manufactory, 199. 

B. 

Barrett's Garlic and Smut Machine — Noticed, 
p. 183, 246. 

Bacon — To cure, 59. Better plan given, 171. 
Doubted by the Editor, 172. Mr. Lewis' 
mode of curing, 133. 

Bees — New hive for, 94. The subtended, 141. 

Berkshires — Their value doubted, 36. Value of 
the stock, 69. General Richardson's stock 
described, 101. Views of "A Breeder," 111. 
Mr. Robinson's advice concerning, 114. Berk- 
shires objected to, 159. 

Berkshire Boar — Mr. Turner's, noticed, 29. 

Berkshire Sow — Cut and description of Mr. 
Sublett's, 69. 

Bishop Porteus — Anecdote of, 54. 

Blue Grass — Chickahominy blue grass recom- 
mended, p. 113. Objected to, 156. 

Bone Dust — Mr. Haden's experiment with, 41. 
Its value, 75. Confirmed, 95. 

Bones — Should be decomposed, 96. 

Board of Agriculture — Established in Virginia, 
43. 



Book Farming- 



-Anecdote of, 3. 



Broom Corn — How introduced into the United 

States, 27. 
Broken Wind — Hereditary, 58. 
Breeding — Effect of inferior male upon future 

offspring, 60. A principle of, 234. General 

rules for, 160. 
Brewers' Grain — Good manure, 208. 
Bran — Valuable as a manure for wheat, 212. 
Burns— To cure, 16, 231. 
Butter — Directions for making, S6. To keep, 

174, 246, 250. To make quickly, 247. 
Bushes and Weeds — Proper time to cut, 9 1 . 
Bug — To deter from vines, 161. 

C. 

Cabbages — New mode of keeping, p. 237. 

Capital — Necessity for, in farming, 4. Most 
profitable when concentrated on small farms, 
68. 

Calf—Large, 76. 

Cattle — Improvement of the native stock recom- 
mended, 134. 

Canker Worm — Destroyed by saltpetre, 159. 

Carrots — White recommended, 97. 

Canon — How it may be usefully employed, 183. 

Cement — For joining glass, 66. For China, 75. 

Clover — Recommended co be sowed in corn, 43. 
Best renovator, 161. 

Cloth — New mode of making, 47. 

Clay — Used to improve sandy soils, 246. 

Compost — Its value, 26. 

Cornsheller — Gainsborough's, noticed, 28. 

Communications — Difficulty of procuring, 39. 

Cows — To prevent their kicking, 43. Value 
of, 232. Points of a good milker, 233. Win- 
ter food for, 45. Sir John Sinclair's letter on, 
7. Proper feed for, 93. Treatment of, 161. 

Corn — Rule for measuring, 45. Corrected, 85. 
Should be planted plentifully, 21. Plow to 
keep from moulding, 226. Great crop in 
New Hampshire. Succors should not be re- 
moved, 76. Contrary doctrine advocated, 145. 
Mr. Curtis' opinion of succors, 186. Mr. Gar- 
nett'sdo. 247. Deep-plantingrecommended,85. 
Soaking seed reprobated, 89. Preferred to 
roots, 90. Different opinions as to mode of 
cultivation, 90. Shallow planting recom- 
mended, 92. Col. Isbell's mode of cultiva- 
tion, 219, 244. Mr. I. A. Goddin's corn no- 
ticed, 221. 

Corn Cobs — Cob meal recommended, 142. Fed 
without being ground, 89. Horses wintered 
on them, 106. 
j Corn Shucks — Recommended as food for stock, 

108. 
i Com Stalks — Value of, as food, 170. 



262 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Cob Crusher— Of D. I. Burr & Co. 250. 

Cock Fighting — Origin of, 79. 

Conversion — Mutual, 80. 

Couching — Frequently applicable to horses, 60. 

Coal Ashes — Properties of, 90. 

Cough in Horses — Cure for, 180. 

Choking— To relieve, 36, 97. 

Cultivation — Its influence on vegetables, 22. 

The cause of varieties — difference between 

varieties and variations, 59. Continued, 84. 

Should be high to be profitable, 39. 
Cucumbers — To obtain early, 10. 
Cheerfulness — A virtue. Story of Madame de 

la Tour-du-Pin, 78. 
Cooked Food— Value of, 119. 
Cream — Management of, in Devonshire, 122. 
Charcoal— Experiments with, recommended, 158. 



D. 



24. 



Dahlia — The proper management of, p 
Mode of preserving the roots, 134. 

Dairy — Mr. How's mode of managing, 118. 

Distemper — In horses, treatment of, 167. 

Ditching — J. F. Schermerhorn's machine for, 25. 

Dogs — Worming prevents madness, 198. 

Draining — New mode recommended, 129. Va- 
lue of, 170. Letter on, from Judge Buel, 177. 
Various modes and advantages of under- 
draining, 236. 

Drenching — The danger of, pointed out, 21. 
Proper mode of performing, 146. 

Durham Cattle — Mr. Column's objections to, 36. 

E. 

Economy of Labor — As manifested in English 

husbandry, p. 207. 
Eggs — Recipe to preserve, 192. 

ly, 245. 
Elder — Said to keep off rats, 184. 
Engine — Applicable to a small 

26, 115. 
Epidemic — Prevailing amongst the cattle of 

Europe, 210. 
Exhibition of the Henrico Agricultural Society — 

Fall of, 1841, 220. 
Experiments — True doctrine of, 91. 

F. 

Fair — The Hanover, announced, p. 171. 

Fall Ploughing — Its merits canvassed, 189. 

Fattening — Rules to be observed, 186. 

Farm Pen — Mr. E. Hill's arrangement of, 66. 

Fencing — Post and rail, cheapest, proper mode 
of constructing, 20. Recommended, 149, 185. 
Morus multicaulis recommended for hedge, 
Editor's opinion, Mr. Chatfield's recommenda- 
tion, 72. 

Fermentatation — Renders food moresoluble,233. 

Film — To remove from the eye, 249. 

Filbert — Its cultivation recommended, 133. 

Flour — Superiority of American manufacture, 35. 



To have ear- 
Denied, 242. 
fall of water, 



Flowers — varieties produced by budding, 13. 

Cultivation of, recommended to the ladies, 65. 

Rules for disposing, 178. Origin of double 

flowers, 84. 
Food — Value of cooking and grinding, 237. 

Dry chop, recommended for horses, 44. 
Free Martin — An instance of one's producing, 

164. 
Fruit — Healthy and economical food, 163. Fruit 

trees benefitted by draining, 135. 
Founder — To cure, 174. 
Fowls — Fattened best with potatoes, 126. 

G. 

Gardens — Their value, p. 43. Cobbett's mode 

of preparing, p. 49. 
Gates — Economical one recommended, 12, 48. 

Excellent plan of, with a cut, 62. Proper 

position of the brace, 87. Arrangement of 

posts, 182. 
Glue — To render insoluble, 2. 
Glass— To cut, 97. To bore, 146. Cement for 

joining, 66. 
Glanders — Human race subject to, 121. 
Grasses — Proposed nomenclature of, 96. Dr. 

Darlington's estimate of, 153. Notice of two 

varieties, 221. 
Green Crops — Propriety of turning in, 94, 117. 
Grubs — To cure, 28. Dr. Harding's theory of, 
8. Origin of 90. 
Grafting— Mr. Hoult's plan, 114. Mr. Foster's 

mode, 130. New plan of, 184. 
Gum — Inquiry for a remedy on peach trees, 198. 
Guinea Grass — Mr. Garnett's opinion of, 248. 

H. 

Hanging — Anecdote of, p. 55. 

Hay — Too much neglected in Virginia, 6. 
Mr. Bernard's mode of curing, 1C6. Mr. 
Jewett'sdo. 135. See blue grass. New plan 
of hay house, 123. Inquiries concerning the 
cultivation of hay from J. R. G. 140. 

Hemp — Major Yancej^'s opinion of, 40. 

Hessian Fly — Miss Morriss' theory of, 14. Con- 
troverted, 28. Fly-proof wheat, 72, 89, 99. 
Fly prevented by hemp, 97. To prevent its 
ravages, 185, 192, 215. 

Henrico Agricultural Society — Organization of, 
2. Noticed, 37. 

Hinge — Parker's compensation, 120. 

Hogs — To prevent their destroying their young, 
20. Ineffectual, 40. To relieve of kidney 
worms, 72. Remarks on the raising of pork 
in Virginia, 63. Essay on hogs by J. H. 
Turner, Esq. 100, 131, 165, 195, 214. Pro- 
per form of the hog, 235. Medium size re- 
commended, 139. At what price can pork 
be raised in Virginia? 232. Proper treatment 
of, when kept up, 93. Proper food for, 237. 
Mr. Clay's management of, 249. See Berk- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



263 



Housewives— Advice to, 94. 
Horse Shoes — New plan of, 126. 
Hollow Horn — Origin of, 94. 



Juries — Anecdote of, p. 55. 

Iron — To make soft, 16. Buildings entirely of 

cast iron, 139. 
Inventions — National collection of, 
Improved Stock, 77. 
India Rubber — Used for preserving trees from 

insects, 73. 
Implements — No economy in cheap ones, 159. j 
Irrigation — Value of, 213,240. Opportunities! 

for should be improved, 213. 

K. 

Kidney Worms in Hogs — Mr. Rutland's remedy 

for, p. 72. 
Knitting Loom — Notice of, 39. 



Lady — Origin of the word, p. 15. Privileges 

and duties of ladies, 212. 
Laborers — Difference between American and 

English, 210. 
Lard — Mr. Lewis's directions for trying, {excel- 
lent,) 238. 
Leather — Expeditious mode of tanning, 150. 
Level — Method of using the span level, 191. 
Leaves — Removal recommended only after tree 

is cut, 88. Recommended for manure, 154, 132. 
Lime — Economical mode of burning, 28. Dr. 

Horton's theory of, 70. Dr. Darlington's 

views on, 125. Theory of, 185. 
Lice — On cattle, how to remove, 72. 
Loam — Definition of, 146. 
Lucerne — The danger of, 46. Treatise upon 

the cultivation of, 251. 
Lying — Of parents to children, 31. 

M, 

Manure — Hints for making, p. 46. Value of top 
dressing, 11. Material wasted that might be 
used as manure, 68. Manuring broad cast 
recommended, 77. Leaves, &c. should be 
spread over the land instead of being hauled 
into the farm yard, 58. Objected to, 190. 
New kind of manure, 90. Should be appli- 
ed as soon as formed, 107. Should be care- 
fully gathered up, ISO. Mr. Drummond's 
recommendation to manure the }^ear before 
tillage, 243. Table of manures published in 
London, 208. Difference in animal manures, 
91. See top dressing. 

Manure Loo — A new game, 88. 

Mange — In dogs, cure for 168, 226. In hogs, 
241. 

Matrimonial Quarrels — Anecdote of, 31. 



Machinery Agricultural — Essay on, 91. 

Manufacture — Speedy, 56. 

Meat — Too much consumed in America, 119. 

Meadows — Treatment of, 149. 

Milk — Wonderful difference between first and 
last drawn, 71. 

Mott's Agricultural Furnace — Highly recom- 
mended, 211. 

N. 

Nagore Bull — Cut and description of, p. 98. 
Newspapers — Mr. Jefferson's opinion of, 97. 
Neatness — Value of about homestead, 65. 
Northern Light — New periodical, 102. 



Oats — Large crop obtained by thin seeding, p. 
169. 

Orchards — Profits and advantages of, 130. 

Overseers' Wages — objections to giving over- 
seers a share in the crop, 58. 



Papers — Proper size of agricultural, p. 27. — 
Necessity of Southern, 120. 

Paint — Want of in Virginia, 137. To clean, 
235. 

Peach — Grafting injurious to peach trees, 30. 
To guard from the worms, 64, 97. To de- 
stoy borers, 170. 

Pea — The everlasting, a fertilizer, 169. 

Pens — How to mend steel pens, 247. 

Ploughs — Estimate of American, . Result 
of various experiments, 17. Its importance, 
notice of different kinds, 10. Tinkler's pa- 
tent described, and highly recommended, 73, 
217. 

Ploughing — Value of in drought, 208. 

Plants — To protect in winter, 30. Curious 
history of, 109, 197. 

Plaster — Should be used on stable floors, 159. 
Proper application of, 250. 

Potatoes — Merinoes preferred to Rohans, 20. 
Rohans recommended, 48. Advantage of 
topping. 75. To have early, 76. Mode of 
cultivation recommended by Mr. Garnett, 248. 
Proper mode of cooking for the table, 147. 
Excellent for fattening fowls, 126. Recom- 
mended as food for negroes, 245. Result of 
an experiment, 168. Seed should be chang- 
ed, 211. 

Pouclrette, 28. Described, 102. 

Printing — Elegant remarks on, 15. 

Premiums offered by the Henrico Agricultural 
Society, 48. 

Prospectus, 1. 

Prison Labor — Remarks on, 16S. 



Q. 



Quinsy — In hog, to cure, 241 



264 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



R. 

Rake — Horse-rake for collecting leaves, p. 60. 

Rat Trap — New plan, 115. 

Recipe — For a valuable plaster, 30. 

Road — Williams's track road described, 218. 

Roots — The cultivation of a truck patch recom- 
mended, 241. 

Roofs — Cheap plan of, 252. 

Rotation of Crops — Advantage of, 178. Mr. 
Keinzer's system, 180. 

Rye—The cultivation of highly recommended, 
196. 

S. 

Saw Mills — Portable, p. 28. Page's recom- 
mended, 75. New plan for steam saw- 
mills, 253. 

Saw Dust — Good litter for stables, 48. Value 
of as manure, 187. 

Salt — Proper use of prevents disease in stock, 3. 

Salting Meat — New and rapid process, 126. 

Seeds — Cobbett's mode of testing, 8. Mr. Ris- 
ley's mode of preparing, 1 15. The northern 

j are the earliest, 174. Doubted, 213. Con- 

,- firmed, 254. Full sowing recommended, 216. 

*3ea. Sand — An improver, 234. 

Science— Necessity of uniting practice with 
science in agriculture, 5. «:■ 

Sheep — Value of stall feeding, 45. Arthur 
Young's opinion of the adaptation of Ame- 
rica to sheep, 72. A new breed, 76, 145. 
Cause of foot rot, 253. 

Scours in Colts — Mode of treatment, 135. 

Shelters — Economy of, 181. 

Shoeing — Proper mode of shoeing horses, 166. 

Shucks-Recommended for cattle and horses, 184. 

Scratches — To cure, 36. 

Silk — American, its qualities, 23, 161. 

Slavery — Essay on the economy of slave labor, 
137, 156. 

Smut — Inquiries into the cause of, 227. No- 
tice of Mr. Barrett's smut machine, 183. 

Sower — Notice of Forrest's, 14. Bachelder's, 42. 

Soap — How to make readily, 247. Soap suds 
usefully applied to vegetables, 23, 77. 

Societies — Agricultural, advantages of, 101. 

Soils — Their peculiarities, 193. 

Soiling — Advantages of 184. 

Sows — Management of, 93. 

Soot — Recommended as a fertilizer, 23. 

Spitting — Anecdote of, 31. 

Spit — Account of an extraordinary one, 80. 

Springs — Mode of making, 135. New inven- 
tion for carriage springs, 247. 

Squinting — Operation to relieve, 55. 

Steaming — Mr. Lowndes's plan, 30. Another. 
37. A culinary utensil described, ly?. 

Stable — Economical plan of building, 9. 

Straw Cutter— C. T. Botts's noticed, 52, 116. 

Stock — How to select, 1 1 . 

Stock Farm — Capt. Coles's noticed, 250. 

Stumps — Different modes of eradicating, 95, 
108, 192. 



Steel — To preserve from rust, 252. 

Sugar Beet — Recommended, 25, 84. 

Sub-soil Ploughing — Nature and effects ex- 
plained, 129. 

Sweet Potatoes — M. Bernard's mode of culti- 
vating, 18. Commented on, 49. Mr. Ber- 
nard's mode of keeping, 162. 

System recommended to farmers, 29. 

T. 

Tares — The cultivation of recommended, p. 172. 

Tea — American, a new article, 188. 

Tiller — J. F. Schermerhorn's cylindrical, 24. 

Timber — New mode of preparing, 1 14, 187, 235. 
Nature of sap and heart, 215. 

Threshing Machine — McCormick's recommend- 
ed, 217. 

Tobacco — Essay on, from the American Far- 
mer, 33, 57, 82, 105. Should be cultivated 
in the neighborhood of towns, 39. Its exten- 
sion, 253. Essa}*- on the cultivation of, by 
R. G. Morriss, 86, 143, 230. Not an ex- 
hauster, 185. Mr. Old's plan objected to, 246. 

Top Dressing — Its advantages, 228. 

Tomatoes — Recipe for preserving, 168. 

Track Road — Williams's described, 218. 

Transplanting — Directions for, 186. 

Trenching — The value of turning up new soil, 
109. 

Turnip Flv — To prevent the ravages of, 187, 
213. 



Urate described, p. 



U. 

102. 

V. 



Vaccination — Discovery in, p. 257. 
Vineyards — Manured with their own offal, 210. 
Vinegar — Obtained from the sugar beet, 185. 
Visit to Mr Phinney's farm, 238. 

W. 

Warts — To cure, p. . Do. on cows, 210. 

Washing — Recipe for, 74. 

Water Power — Simple mode of using, 26, 115. 

Wheat — Should be permitted to become tho- 
roughly ripe for seed, 5, 23. Preparation of 
seed to prevent smut, 71. Weeding, do. — 
Harvesting, 72. Fly proof, 89, 99, 113. Mr. 
Le Conteur's experiments with, 89. Pro- 
tected from fly by hemp, 97. Result of an 
experiment in drilling, 155. Should be cut 
early, 184, 255. Preparation of seed, 187. 

Wood Cutting — Proper system of, 196. 

Wood — Dr. Boucherie's experiments on, .114, 
187. 235. 



Wounds in Trees- 



-How to heal, 210. 



Yeast — Made of life everlasting, p. 226. 
Yield of a quarter acre in N. York — Remarks 
on, 6.