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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

SgVjtn f* to .^gricuUiire, ffiortfuilUirc, an* the £>ouseftcI& am. 

A An"- KeZ^i nUrSlng m ° ther 0i the I T *» a S e ^ d ^sturage are the two breasts 

A!l S .-A6?w;;/ W ft. | of the Stale.— ,W/,/. 



Vol. Xf. 



RICHMOND, APRIL, 1851 



No. 4. 



R. 13. GOOCH, •Editor. 



P. D. BERNARD, Propb 



IKTOR. 



LECTURE ON HAIR, WOOL AND SHEEP 
BREEDING. 

TJie following interesting lecture upon the 
new science of "Trichology," was delivered 
in this city, a few days since, before the "Cen- 
tral Southern Rights Association of Virginia, " 
by Peter A. Browne, Esq. LL. D. of Phila- 
delphia. It has been furnished to us lor pub- 

' lication at the instance of friends who, having 
heard it themselves, were unwilling that a 
paper so full of curious and profitable matter 
should be kept from the public. We need not 
say that we are happy that our pages have 
been made the medium of its publication. 

The lecture abounds with curious and va- 
luable information upon a subject of great 
importance and intimate concern to every far- 
mer—and to the welfare of the State at large- 
wool raising and wool manufacturing. It also 
possesses another recommendation, which' we 
cannot refrain from noticing, viz: It is almost 
entirely freed from scientific technicalities, which 

>fcw readers can comprehend, ard is couched 
in plain English phrase that all who peruse 
can understand. We trust every reader will 
give it careful attention, believing that no one 
can do so without being amply repaid. 

LECTURE. 

Nothing which belongs to the study of Na- 
ture is insignificant. The naturalist surveys 
with interest, all the works of the Great Cre' 
ATOii;~with the telesr-ope, he measures the 
parallax of the distant stars, and with the mi- 
croscope, he examines the minutest part of 
the smallest leaf, crystal or infusoria. No- 
thing, (or him, is too large,— nothing too small 
which God has placed within his reach If 
that Mighty Being who created the heavens 
and the earth, did not consider it beneath His 
dignity, to make so minute, as a microscopic 
object, surely it would be great presumption 
in man to consider it too small for his exami- 
nation. We are, therefore, of opinion that 
making collections of pile, and examinin° 
Vol. XI.-4. 



hair and wop! under the microscope and with 
the tachometer* are exceedingly interesting 
I he natural history of man has, within the 
last ten years, attracted mote attention than at 
any former penod oi time. It. is not to bo won- 
dered at, that we should be desirous of know- 
ing i he race Lrom which we and our immediate 
ancestors sprung; but, as almost all V ei V an- 
cient history is involved in fable, it often ha p- 
p«-ns, that no positive testimony as to the on 
gm oi nations can be obtained; wherefore it 
»s proper and laudable, by f,ir arguments 
founded upon cncumsta'nccs, to assist the ar' 
Chaiologist in his valuable researches To do 
j this the ingenuity of modem times have pointed 
| out several methods. Professor Samuel G 
j Morton has chosen the department of cranio- 
logy. Vv it I, great industry and perseverance 
he has collected a vast number of human 
sculls, of all nations and of all ages: and bv 
their examinations, by the measurement of 
their facial angles, and bv ascertaining the 
j capacity oi the cavity for the repository of the 
i brain he has drawn certain conclusions which 
have been published, and read with great inte- 
rest Professor Samuel S. Haldeman has 
spent it uchtime'in studying the mechanism 
i of the organs of speech, and in a series of verv 
| interesting lectures, delivered before the Uni- 
versitv of Pennsylvania, has laid down rules 
by which it may be discovered, fom the na 
tional method of pronouncing certain sound* 
which people are allied and* which are not' 
and even which race is the oldest. Mr Plon 
reus, a celebrated French naturalist and ana- 
tomist has devoted his energies to the' scru- 
tiny of the human skin and its coloring mat- 
ter; showing wherein they agree and wherein 
they disagree, in the different races Other 
writers have taken an account of the customs 
manners and even the prejudices of nun to 
discover their national connection I have 
made an extensive collection of national pile 
both ancient and modern, and by studying 
he shape, direction, inclination and orgai iza- 
t.on am enabled to divide the whole human 
family into species. 

All these studies are intensely interests 
especially as it is evident, that it is upon the' 
combined evidence, to be adduced from iht 

* An instrument invented bv me to nscert-Wn m. 
the ductility, elasticity and t/uacity o? " 2£ *« I 

single operation. 






~~~^**^ *r^Y'~*~~* r / K '-*y& 



98 



THE SOUTHERN PLATER. 



whole of them, that the question of races must, 
ultimately, be determined. 

The peculiar state of the hair of the head, 
and often of the body and limbs, likewise, is 
intimately connected with the health of the in- 
dividual. All cutaneous diseases affect the 
pile, in a greater or less degree ; besides which, 
there are diseases of the hair, some of them of 
a most frightful character, as for instance, 
plica polonica, favus, &c. &c. To understand 
these diseases perfectly, the physician should 
examine the condition of the pile, and parti- 
cularly of its root, before he makes out his di- 
agnosis. But no physician can be a competent 
judge of a diseased hair, if he is unacquainted 
with the character of a well one.* Hence it 
is obvious that the medical student, and even 
the medical practitioner, is benefited by stu- 
dying the organism and properties of these in- 
teguments. Fortunately I have made a col- 
lection, not only of diseased hair, but of the 
hair of the sick and diseased; which I have 
examined myself, and submit to the inspection 
of those who take an interest in such subjects. 

I think that there is difference between the 
hair of the sane and that of the insane; and, 
with a view to test the accuracy of the posi- 
tion, I have made very large collections of the 
covering of the head of the last named unfortu- 
nate fellow-beings, in no less than five lunatic 
asylums in the United States, including those 
sufferers of every variety and stage of that infir- 
mity. To the physician and philanthropist 
this is a most interesting cabinet. 

This is not a tithe of the contributions that 
the new science of "Trichology" has made 
to her sister sciences, but we must speak of 
her assistance to the arts. 

Howisit with Agriculture'? Ts sheepbreed- 
ing and raising important'? If history tells 
the truth, there never has been a nation who 
has fostered it, that has not become opulent. 
Let others talk of the gold mines of Califor- 
nia ; our theme is the golden fleece! To glean 
a lew grains of metal at the former, hundreds 
and thousands of our countrymen have sick- 
ened, pined, and perished in a distant land; 
who would have been better, — far better, em- 
ployed, in a healthy climate, feeding and tend- 
ing their flocks; and who, while enriching 
themselves, would have added to the national 
prosperity and independence. 

Cotton was grown in Georgia as early as 
1787, but was not seriously thought of as a 
great American staple until about 1790. From 
Oct. 1st, 1790, to Sept. 30th, 1791, the United 
States exported 189,310 lbs. of cotton. In 
1835, the lands used in the United States for 
the cultivation of cotton were estimated at 
three hundred and twelve millions of dollars. 
Sheep breeding, for fine wool, dates as late as 
1800, and yet it would not be hazarding too 
much to say that, even now, the raising of sheep 

* Example, the crisped state of oval hair in plica 
polonica. 



and the wool interest, are as important in the 
United States as was the cotton interest in 
1835, and I venture to predict, (let who will 
sneer at it,) that in thirty years from this time, 
wool will become as great an American staple as 
cotton. 

Until the census is published, we have no 
very accurate means of ascertaining what is 
the number of sheep in the United States; but 
we suppose it may safely be put down at thirty- 
five or forty millions. Now if we value these 
at two dollars a piece,- which considering that 
individuals of good breed are often sold for 
several hundred dollars, is moderate enough, 
we have sevenly or eighty millions; then if 
we add three shllings per head for the land and 
buildings necessary for their shelter and sup- 
port, we have one hundred and five to one hun- 
dred and twenty millions. But there are many 
persons who hear me, who, recollecting with 
what avidity everything was received, in 1835, 
that was calculated to improve the growth of 
cotton, will be at a loss to discover why what 
is advanced by trichology, in regard to breed- 
ing and raising sheep and improving the quan- 
tity and quality of wool, is nuw heard with 
such apparent indifference. Is the examina- 
tion of a subject which regards thirty-five or 
forty millions of domestic animals and one 
hundred millions of real estate so insignifi- 
cant'? 

The General Government through the Pa- 
tent Office, a few years since, sent a special 
agent to Europe to collect specimens of all the 
fine wools. He brought back with him sam- 
ples from Russia, Hungary, Silesia, Prussia 
and Saxony. They were divided into parcels 
and sent to the Govenors of the different 
States. The one sent to Pennsylvania lately 
came to my hands. I measured the wools and 
compared them with the growth of our own 
country, and had the pleasure of announcing 
what had never before been known, or even 
suspected, viz: 

That we can raise as fine wool in the 
United States as any country in the world, 

AND FINER THAN ANY EXCEPT SaXONY. 

This important informajion, showing that 
the United States has it in her povier to create 
another great staple, equal in importance to her 
cotton, was published in "The Plough, the 
Loom and the Anvil," — was read,— has never 
been contradicted — and is now almost for- 
gotten ! 

Let us now examine this subject in another 
point of view. Let us assume that the num- 
ber of sheep in the United States is thirty-five 
millions. In Germany the average annual 
produce of fleece is put down at a trifle over 
two pounds. In England, where the wool is 
coarser and less valuable, the average is four 
pounds. Our average is put at from two 
and a half to two and three quarters, but 
I am persuaded that it is underrated, for I 
have in my cabinet specimens of fine wool, 
grown in the United States, from three and a 



*»»* " ^V» 



* - » 



+.^> 



**> s * *-«* —< 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



99 



half to four and even as high as five pounds. 
But suppose we say three pounds; this will 
give us an annual produce of one hundred and 
five millions of pounds: which, at forty cents 
a pound, will make forty-two millions of dol- 
lars. And observe, that in this calculation 
nothing is said about the increase of lambs. 
The annual production of all the gold and sil- 
ver mines of North and South America was 
estimated by Baron Humboldt at nine millions 
of pounds sterling — at present, (except the re- 
cent discoveries in California,) it is less than 
five millions of pounds or twenty-five millions 
of dollars. 

Mr. Hughes, a London wool broker, upon 
his examination before the House of Lords, 
in England, in 1828, on the subject of wool 
and woollen manufactures, thus delivered him- 
self: 

"Other countries are making rapid strides 
to compete with us, [England,] particularly 
North America. Vv ithin the last twelve 
months there have been upwards of five thou- 
sand bags of foreign wool, shipped from the 
port of London alone, for that country, for the 
purpose of being manufactured. They [the 
people of the United States] are now making 
very rapid strides and I have no hesitation in 
believing that, in a few yeais they will be in- 
dependent of us for coals, as they now are for 
kals." 

I did every thing within my power to have 
our fine wools exhibited at the World's Fair; 
had I succeeded, the House of Lords might 
have learned that Mr. Hughes was a prophet; 
and that the time has arrived when the Ame- 
rican people can not only be independent of 
Great Britain for their own coats; but that 
they can furnish wool, of the growth of the 
United States, fine enough for the most fasti- 
dious of Europe. 

England cannot raise the fine wool required 
for manufacturing broadcloths. Lest we might 
be suspected of prejudice, hear what is written 
by one of her own subjects. 

In "the industrial resources of Ireland," by 
Robert Kane, M. D. Honorary member of the 
Royal Dublin Society, &c. we find the follow- 
ing: "The woollen manufacture has been, at 
all periods, considered as of high importance 
in this country, [Ireland;] so that, at certain 
times, it was deemed necessary [by England] 
to take measures to moderate its prosper it y[\]* 
A very large quantity of wool is grown in 
Ireland. The total number of sheep being 
2,091,199. A great deal of this is sent to 
France, where it is manufactured into 'mous- 
seline de laine.' " After noticing the differ- 
ence between wool that will felt and full, and 
fleece [hair] which will not, he proceeds thus: 
"In moist, cold climates, such as the British 
islands, the natural wool is, universally, long 
stapled and unfit for felling; whilst in dry cli- 

* This puts us in mind of British writers talking of 
the arrogance of New England in attempting to 
manufacture. 

4d 



mates, with hot summers, the wool is short 
stapled and wits strongly. The wool produced 
vol merely in Ireland, but in England, also, is 
thus c.cdnsivcly adapted to the worsted hade. For 
woollen cloths and similar goods the wool ?'.<; 
im ported from the Continent. It has often been 
an object with the English wool growers and 
landed proprietor^ to produce this felling wool, 
in England, and thus get rid of the necessity 
of purchasing abroad; cut it His been found 

IMPOSSIBLE, AFTER THE MOST EXPENSIVE EXPE- 
RIMENTS, in importing sheep of particular Jlocls. 
It has been found that in two or three genera- 
tions, of even the pure breed, the influence of the 
climate and 1'ood totally changed the character of 
the wool, and brought it to the same quality as 
that of the native animals." 

We repeat, then, without fear of contradic- 
tion, "England cannot produce the fine wools 
required lor manufacturing broadcloths," but 
she will continue to manufacture these cloths 
as long as she can find sale for them; conse- 
quently she must import fine wool from some 
other country. Why should not this country 
be the United States? Why not Virginia"'? 
Can any one give a reason'] If we can pro- 
duce as fine wool as any other country, why 
may she not import our wool as she does our 
cotton? How will it be if we can produce 
finer wool than any other country? And we 
can produce finer wool than any except Saxony. 
Perhaps some may imagine that even if they 
did take our wool it would be a small account; 
let such persons read the following document: 
Account of Foreign Wool imported into England 
from 1801 to 1845, inclusive; {from Fisher's 
Industrial Record, v. I. p. 207.) 



Year. 


lbs. 


1801, 


- 7,371,774 


1802, 


- 7,609,798 


1803, 


- 5,904,740 


1804, 


- 7,921,595 


1805, 


- 8,009,793 


1S0G, 


- 6,775.036 


1807, 


- 11,487,050 


1808, 


- 2.284.482 


1809, 


- 6,758,954 


1810, 


- 10,914,137 


1811, 


- 4,732,782 


1812, 


- 6,983.575 


1813, records dest.lrj 


1814, 


- 15,492,311 


1815, 


- 13,640,375 


1816, 


- 7,517,886 


1817, 


- 14.061,722 


1818, 


- 24,749.570 


1819, 


- 16,100.970 


1820, 


- 9,775,605 


1821, 


- 16,622,567 



Year. 
1822, 
1823, 
1824, 
1825, 
1826, 
1827, 
1828, 
1829, 
1830, 
1831, 
1832, 
1833, 
1834, 
1835, 
1836, 
1837, 
J 838, 
1839, 
1840, 
1843, 
1845, 



lbs. 
19,058,080 

19,336,725 
22,564,485 
43,816,966 
15,989,112 
29,115 341 
30,236,059 
21,516,649 
32,305,314 
31,652,029 
28,142,489 
38,076,413 
46,455,232 
42,604,656 
64,239,977 
48,379,708 
52,606,196 
57,364,772 
52,959,221 
49.343,093 
65,079,524 



Vast as this consumption appears to be, the 
United States has the capacity to supply it, 
after all our own manufactories are supplied; 
and one would think that it would be highly 
gratifying to the owners of unseated lands in 
[he United States, in Virginia, to have it pro- 
ven to them, that they can be turned into sheep- 



♦**; «# 



100 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



walks and thus rendered exceedingly produc- 
tive to their proprietors, and beneficial to the 
nation. We wish all our hearers could exa- 
mine rny specimens of the finest kind of wool, 
raised upon old, worn-out, tobacco lands, in 
Bedford County, Virginia. They far surpass 
any fleece that England ever has, or ever can, 
produce and will not lose by a comparison with 
the finest wools of the most favored country 
on ihe continent of Europe. Messrs. Robert 
Allen, Stuart Patterson, H. W. Chaplin, Thos. 
Patterson and Robert Kelso, and others, the 
producers, deserve a vote of thanks from the 
Virginia Legislature, for their exertions to im- 1 
prove this branch of American industry. 

But let us not forget that sheep breeding and J 
raising-, to be prosperous and profitable, must 
be pursued with some degree of art. A plain, ! 
nnsophistical witness was once asked in court, J 
"what he followed?'' He answered that it was ; 
"the art of ditching." This man was right, ' 
for there is an art in every occupation, not ex- ! 
cepting, even the digging of a ditch. 

One portion of the art of sheep breeding i 
consists in selecting the proper breed, of sheep j 
for the particular location of the farmer. We j 
have already seen that neither England nor! 
Ireland can raise the finc-woolled sheep Doctor 
Kane says that it has been found to be impos- 
sible, after the most expensive experiments. — 
He attributes the failure to climate and food. 
The natural food depends upon the soil and 
climate; so that he might have said u soil and 
climate." If it depends upon climate it is for- 
tunate for us, that in this widely extended con- 
tinent we have almost every variety of it; but 
still, it is a most important point for the far- 
mer to know which breed of sheep will thrive 
best and produce the finest wool, in the parti- 
cular district where Providence has cast his 
lot. And we confess that upon turning over 
the leaves of the volume of the Cabinet of Ame- 
rican Wools, we were forcibly struck with the 
correctness of the remark first made at the 
late Pennsylvania Agricultural Convention, 
thai two parallel lines might be drawn over 
the map of the United States, including within 
them the geographical (and perhaps the geolo- 
gical) district best calculated for rearing the 
ftne-uiooll'id sheep. We also remarked that there 
was another extensive district of our country, 
easily pointed out, which is admirably calcu- 
lated for raising the fleece, which, in England, 
is called "long wool," but which is properly 
"hair." If this information turns out to be 
correct, (if it is so, only to a limited extent,) 
then my collection of wools, made for a differ- 
ent purpose, will have shed more light upon 
the connexion of climate and soil with wool 
growing, than all the learned disquisitions and 
opinions that have ever made their appear- 
ance before the public. Two things, we think, 
are certain; 1st. That the wool staplers and 
manufacturers will find it their interest to con- 
sult this record, for the best information, where 
they may find the finest fleece; and 2d. The 



new' beginner in sheep breeding may also there 
learn w T here to apply for the best breeds. 

But, perhaps, after all that has been said, 
some persons may believe, that while this in- 
formation may be well enough for the sheep 
breeder and wool manwfoxtnrer that to the public, 
in general, it is comparatively useless. But 
the true patriot, particularly if he be a politi- 
cian, (in the proper sense of 'that word.) is 
deeply interested in knowing what are all the 
great and leading interests of his country. 

Every moral, sensible and well educated 
citizen has a right to expect, that he will he, 
at some period of his lile, called uron to act 
as a member of one o( those deliberative bo- 
dies that make laws for this free and happy 
country; but how can he, understandin^ly, 
give his opinion upon a measure connected 
with the industrial interests of the country, 
unless he possesses, at least, a general know- 
ledge of the subjects alluded to in this paperl* 
Besides, in an economical point of view, does 
not every man, and even every woman, wish 
to know, why it is, in these modern times, that 
having paid a high price for flannel, and hav- 
j ing been subjected to the expense of making 
I it into a garment, — that after having been sent 
! two or three times to the laundress, it has 
j shrunk so much as to be almost, if not en- 
! lirely, useless'? Would it rot be a comfort to 
I know, why the Welsh flannels, (formerly held 
I in such high repute,) have so deprecif ted? and 
to be assured thai, we have the capacity of 
producing, in the United States, a vrool that v:iU 
not shrink? The author of the '-Industrial 
Record," speaking of Thompsonville, in Con- 
necticut, says that they manufacture carpets, 
annually, to the amount of 480,000 yards. To 
enable them to do this, they use l,000,OC0 and 
I upwards of pounds of wool, a 1 of which is, 
I he says, imported from either the Mediterra- 
j nean or South America. But I contend, (and 
I you agree with me in this opinion,) that every 

j POUND OP THIS WOOL OUGHT TO BE RAISED IN 

! our Southrrn States. The sheep that pro- 
| duces that fleece thrives there, and its breeding 
i and raising, from Delaware io Georgia, would 
j be a source of immense profit. 



But here we feel callei 



,. upon to notice an 
error into which the editor of the work above 
quoted has, inadvertently, fallen. He asserts 
that the importation of the Mediterranean and 
South American wool, at seven cents a pound, 
does not interfere, in to? slightest deeree, will 
the domestic wool grower, who, (he says.) 
cannot afford to raise woo] at so low a price, 
when, with the same food and expense, he can 
■ raise fleeces worth, on an average, thirty cents 
a pound. But he seems to have been entirely 
unaware of the fact, that the places where these 

* The members of the Central Southern Rights 
Society of Virginia, hive solemnly pledged them- 
selves, to each other, and to the people, to foster 
articles of home growth ami home manufacture, 

I has therefore become their duty to investigate this 

1 subject. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



101 



tifliry fleeces can be grown, are unfit fur the 
breeding and raising of the fine lOooUedsfcep. 
He seems also to have lost sight of the fact, 
that the sheep, whose wool is worth (as he 
says,) thirty cents a pound, produces, on an 
average, only three pounds oi' fleece; whereas 
of the hairy fleeces, bred in the United Stales, 
I have in my cabinet specimens that produced 
Ilk lbs. Now a schoolboy can cypher iliis 
out, to show that this iatter wool is the most 
profitable; 

3 lbs. of line fleece at 30 cents, $0 90 

17J lbs. of hairy fleece at 7 cents, 1 22£ 



•Balance in favor of the hairy fleece, SO 32j 

To raise one million of pounds of fleece at 
3 lbs. a sheep would require 333,333 sheep. 

But to raise one million of pounds of hairy 
'fleece, at 17ft lbs. per sheep, would require 
only 57,1-10 sheep. 

Difference 76,193 sheep, the feeding and ta- 
lking care of which, would cost $'171,120. 

Our brethren of the Eastern parts, of the 
Southern Stales, should, therefore, turn their 
attention to breedingand raising ike hairy sheep; 
and Congress should encourage them to do so, 
by laying a duty on foreign wool, ti'ough worth 
only seven cents a pound. 

There is a woollen mill in -Lowell, Massa- 
chusetts, (the Middlesex Company.) Their 
wool comes from the States of Vermont, New 
Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin. The quan- 
tity of cloth there manufactured in 1845, was 
equal to the produce of 400,000 sheep. The 
broadcloths and cassimeres, annually made, 
exceed 1 14,000 yards ol the former, and fisJO.000 
yards of the latter, and the sales exceeded 
$800,000 per annum. And there is no reason 
why the city of Richmond should not follow 
the example. 

The area of this State has been variously 
stated from sixty-five to seventy thousand 
square miles, exceeding that of England and 
Wales, which, together, are only fifty-seven 
thousand eight hundred and twelve, yet they 
have a population of ten and a half millions 
and raise thirty-two millions shee pi The total 
area of the six New England States, viz: 
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
setts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, is only 
sixty-three thousand and twenty-six square 
miles. 

The climate of Virginia, though various, is, 
in general, good. It lies between parallel lines 
of latitude, which, on the Old Continent, in- 
clude Moroeco, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, 
Sicily, Naples and the southern part of Spain. 
Some of these places, famous for producing 
fine hairy fleeced sheep, and one of them, at 
least, viz: Spain, renowned for rearing the 
fine woolled Merino breed. 

The citizens of Virginia, descended from the 
hardv and liberty-loving Saxon race, are pecu- 
liarly an agricultural people; their great sta- 
ples have been, hitherto, tobacco, wheat, In 
dian corn, and in the southern part of the 



; Slate, cotton; but they must, at no distant day, 
m:\ke fleece one of their great staples. Piovi- 
J dence has so decreed it, and, therefore, the 
sooner it is accomplished the better for the 
community. I am prepared to prove by spe- 
cimens that Western Virginia can produce as 
fine wool as Saxony, and I have not a doubt 
but that in regard to the hair y fleece Eastern 
I Virginia will be able to compete with, if not 
j excel, the Mediterranean and South American 
! fleeces. 

The easy means or transit of the former of 
these productions to Richmond by navigable 
streams and artificial means, points out that 
city as the emporium of this valuable commo- 
dity; and the exportation of it, tuber in a raw 
or in a manufactured state will greailv improve 
the commerce of the metropolis. 

But this is not all; Richmond is destined to 
become one of the greatest wool manvfaauting 
places in the Union. Let us take a compara- 
tive view of her water power. As Patterson is 
one of the best known and most appreciated 
we will commence there. 

Patterson has a fall of sixty-six feet, which 
is capable of being used three times. The 
amount of cubic feet of water per second is 
thirty. On an average of two and a half feet 
of head discharged from the side of the lore- 
bay, the bottom of the aperture being three 
feet. One square foot, drawn in this way, is 
J estimated as equal to a thirteen horse-power; 
so that the horse-powers may be put down at 
eleven hundred and seventy. 

Now, counting 225 spindles to a horse power, 
I Patterson has a water-power only sufficient 
i to drive 201,251 spindles or their equivalent. 

The James river at Richmond, in 184!), was 
[gauged by Mr. E. H. Gill, a skilful cm " ,;i 
who found the discharge to be 2,-444 cubic feet 
[per second. The fall of the first three miles 
is eighty-one feet. 

Now, if we adopt the same rule for this 
place as for Patterson, allowing three falls, of 
twenty feet each, and admitting the average 
head of two and a half feet, an aperture of 
j twelve square inches will discharge eight cubic 
feet per second, which will make the James 
! river power, at its lowest stage, equal to 
2,673,375 spindles. 

To this immense amount of water-power 
Richmond can add her inexhaustible supply 
of fuel. Virginia coal, equal, in quality for 
all manufacturing purposes, to any found in 
j England, may be had in Richmond for three 
! to three dollars and fifty cents a ton, cheaper 
! than any part, of England. The appropriation 
i of a portion, (a small portion only,) of the wa- 
iter-power of Richmond to the manufacture <#t 
j the wool grown in her own State, would not 
; only encourage a large portion of their farmers 
and planters who raise sheep, but would tea] 
and clothe a portion of the city population, by em • 
ploying them in and abeir the manufactories. 
In this country tin's is a very desirable em- 
ployment, for while in England a male spinner 
in a woollen mill receives only ninety-four 



102 



TEIESOUTHERN PLANTER. 



cents, and in France from forty to fifty-nine 
eents, in the United States he receives one 
dollar and eight cents. 

At the same time the necessaries of life are 
twenty-five per cent, cheaper than in England. 

The objection to manufactories, as- injurious 
to the morals of the operatives, has been so 
triumphantly contradicted by the history of 
Lowell that at this day nothing need be urged 
upon that head. 

But every projected operation which may 
act upon the health of the community deserves 
to be strictly inquired into; and, we think, 
that considering that in a country like this, 
where temperature is so continually and so 
materially changing, for the greater part of 
the year every man, woman and child in Vir- 
ginia should be clothed in flannel next the 
skin ; and, therefore, the production of a large 
supply of home made flannel, from home-bred 
sheep, whos: fleece will not shrink, would be a na- 
tional blessing. 

But the most important information, as re- 
gards the art of sheep breeding and raising, 
consists in the crossings, and those which it is 
proper and those which it is improper tomake. 
This information will form the subject of a 
distinct and entire lecture, which 1 wall read 
to-morrow evening. 

We hope is* our next number to be able to 
give to our readers a very full synopsis of Mr. 
Browne's second lecture. It will throw much 
important light upon sheep breeding and wool 
growing. 

We are pleased to learn from Mr. Browne 
that he has a work nearly ready for press 
which will be of great value to the sheep 
breeder and wool raiser. His views of the 
crossings of stock appear satisfactory and con- 
clusive, and are well worthy the careful study 
and consideration of every farmer and stock 
raiser. In our next number we shall notice 
more fully the object and design of Mr. B/s 
book. 



OBITUARY 



We extract from the Baltimore Clipper, of 
March 22, the following just tribute to the me- 
mory of the late John S. Skinner, the well 
known Editor of The Plough, the Loom, and the 
Anvil, whose sudden and painful death was 
occasioned by falling into the cellar of the 
Baltimore Post Office: 

"Between two and three o'clock yesterday 
afternoon, he entered the Baltimore Post Office 
to transact some business, and on leaving step- 
ped toward the side door on North street, but ! 



unfortunately mistook for it the door which 
leads to the basement, and opening it hurriedly, 
made one step and plunged head foremost 
down the flight of steps to the bottom, making, 
in the fall, a complete somerset. The clerks 
and carriers (one of whom saw him open the 
wrong door, but had not time to warn him of 
the mistake before he fell, immediately ran to 
his assistance, and found him speechless! As 
soon as possible they took him up and carried 
him into the Postmaster's room, placed him on 
a comfortable cot, and called in a number of 
physicians, among whom were Drs. Buckler, 
Riley, and McKenzie, who did everything that 
the best medical science could suggest-, but 
his skull was found to be badly fractured at 
the base, and his injuries of such a character 
as to leave no hope of his surviving. He re- 
mained totally insensible until twenty-five mi- 
nutes past seven o'clock last evening, when he 
ceased to breathe. His afflicted wife was pre- 
sent soon after the accident occurred, as were 
also Ex-Mayor Davies and other relatives, 
whose grief at the sudden bereavement may 
well be imagined. 

"Mr. Skinner was no ordinary man. He 
was known throughout the whole Union for 
his talents, untiring industry, and strict integ- 
rity. For twenty years he was the able Post- 
master in this city, having been commissioned 
by President Madison, and continued until 
nearly the close of General Jackson's second 
term.* It is a singular coincidence that he 
should have met his death in the office the af- 
fairs of which he so ably managed for many 
years, but from which he was removed more 
than fifteen years ago. 

"General Harrison coming into the Presi- 
dency, he was appointed Assistant Postmaster 
General, the duties of which he ably discharged 
until removed by another Administration ; since 
which he has been engaged in editing and con- 
ducting The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, 
an agricultural journal of the highest charac- 
ter. His death will be a severe loss to the ag- 
riculturists throughout the country, as he was 
an able and zealous advocate of their every 
interest. 

"In this city, where he was universally 
known and highly esteemed for his social qual- 
ities, unassuming demeanor, and generous im- 
pulses, the news of the accident which befell 
him, and the subsequent announcement of his 
death, created the most profound sorrow." 



COLIC IN HORSES. 

Colic in horses is readily cured by tying a 
small piece of tobacco on the bit of the bridle. 
The cure is effected when the tobacco is dis- 
solved in the saliva. We have seen horsea 
cured in this way when swelled up badly and 
in great agony. — Exchange paper. 

*Mr. S. was removed from office by President 
Van Burcu — not by General Jackson. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



103 



From the Richmond Enquirer. 

THE NECESSITY OF LEGISLATIVE 
AID TO AGRICULTURE. 



The Legislature of Virginia has been 
engaged for many years in an ellbrt to de~ 
velope the resources of the Slate by making 
roads and canals to bring to market its 
agricultural and mineral productions. Is 
it less important to afford aid and encour- 
agement to production itself than to the 
means of transporting production? Is it 
not of equal interest to the State, that our 
exhausted soils should be improved and 
restored to fertility, as that the virgin lands 
should be provided with a road to the sea 
shore for their exuberant crops? Does not 
the farmer, who finds at the end of a year, I 
that his hard toil is only rewarded with ten 
bushels of corn to the acre, appeal as ! 
strongly to the sympathy and justice of his ! 
government, as the occupant of Western j 
land who gathers fifty? The latter cries 
aloud to the former, nor are his cries in I 
vain, to assist him with roads, with canals, ! 
with tunnels, with bridges, with railroads ; 
that shall perforate or scale the Blue Ridge ! ' 
and the Alleghany, that he may bring his l 
produce into the markets of the world. The 
former appeals to the sense of right and 
justice of the representatives of all parts of 
the Commonwealth to afford some assist- 
ance; that he may be enabled to apply to 
his worn and weary fields, improved modes 
of culture; that after the example of other 
countries and other States, he may find a 
remedy for exhaustion, some medicine for 
over-wrought and diseased soils; that sci- 
ence and experience may be united in ex- 
ploring his lands, their constituent ele- 
ments, their geological, chemical and agri- 
cultural features; that what is wanting to 
them may be known, and that the treas- 
ures they conceal may be brought to light. 
This knowledge would save millions now 
expended in groping in the dark, amid em- 
pirical efforts at improvement, and would 
create millions to add to the wealth of the 
commonwealth. Thisjs a species of 
knowledge in which all are interested, from 
the seaboard to the Ohio. This is an im- 
provement which concerns all trades and 
professions; for, certainly with us, agricul- 
ture is the great basis of all prosperity. 
Even education, on which we expend, per- 
haps, a hundred thousand a year, would 
be more efficiently promoted by devotino- 
a large portion of the sum to agricultural 
improvement. If the income of the farmer 
is increased, the schools and colleges im- 



| mediately feel its influence. Put it in hia 
power to educate his children by the im- 
provement of his lands, and he will not be 
in want of the Literary Fund. Teach jiim 
to make two blades of grass to grow where 
one grew before, and he will add another 
student to your schools and colleges. 

One single discovery in agriculture, the 
value of fossil shell marl, is now educating 
thousands of children, giving comfort, ease 
and even luxury to large numbers of our 
population, diffusing refinement and a 
more elevated civilization, and pouring a 
rich treasure into the coffers of the State. 
The recent assessment of lands shows an 
increase in value, east of the Blue Ridge, 
of twenty-three millions since 1S38. Be- 
tween .1819 and 1838, there was a decrease 
!5 the same d Ntricts of sixteen per cent. 
To those acquainted with this part of the 
State, it is well known that a large portion 
j of this increase is due to this discovery, 
j and the general stimulus given to improve- 
i ment, which was the consequence of it.— 
; Much of the result may be attributed to 
j the general diffusion of information on the 
i subject by the able and energetic man who 
| made it. Virginia owes more to him than 
any man now living. By his efforts the 
| ebbing tide of her prosperity was arrested, 
■ and it now roils on, slowly it is true, but 
surely, with a strong and steady wave to 
the flood. Tens of thousands of acres of 
exhausted lands have been restored to fer- 
tility, and many citizens who were pre- 
paring to join in the exodus from the land 
of their fathers, driven forth by imperious 
want, have been enabled to remain and 
grow rich on their paternal estates. Farms 
which had been reduced to sterility, where 
a struggling nature continued with diffi- 
culty to conceal her nudity with' broom- 
straw and hengrass, now bloom with ver- 
dure and rejoice in beautiful, vigorous and 
abundant crops. 

We hazard nothing in saying that, if the 
Legislature had extended efficient aid to 
agriculture a half-century ago, and this 
discovery had been then made and its value 
made known, the tide- water country would 
present a vevy different picture from that 
which is exhibited in the recent assess- 
ment. Its wealth and population would 
have made an easy settlement of a ques- 
tion which now exacerbates the public 
feeling, and perplexes and disturbs the 
mind of the State. But the last assess- 
ment does not show the true increase in 
the value of the real estate of the East- 
far the high price of labor, owing- to the 



104 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



large demand in the South, has had the 
effect of depressing the estimate put upon 
the lands. The profits of land, other things 
being equal, are highest when lahor is 
low; and, consequently, as the value of 
the one ascends, the other descends. The 
arc of the pendulum of price has land upon 
one end and labor on the other. There 
has been a much greater enhancement in 
in their true value than it would appear 
from this assessment. 

Any important discovery in agriculture, 
which, is available to us, must have a simi- 
lar effect. Who can calculate the addition 
made to the wealth of the world by the 
discovery of the value of plaster of Paris, 
(sulphate of lime.) as a fertizer? It is not 
too much to say that it is worth more to 
the human race than the acquisition of a 
territory of the magnitude of a great em- 
pire for their peaceful possession. 

Who can appreciate the great results of 
the chemical analysis of soils? It consti- 
tutes a new era in the science of agricul- 
ture. It is a step from the known into the 
unknown, which may bring to light facts 
and principles that may overthrow all the 
systems of culture now existing. It may 
be, and not improbably will be, as the fall- 
ing apple of Newton. A specimen of the 
soil of a field or of a district is presented 
to the chemist. He takes it to his labora 
tory, and by the magic of his science, a 
magic which in other ages would have 
condemned him as a magician, he takes it 
to pieces, separates the elements of which 
it is composed, and presents you with all 
the constituents. Here is so much lime, 
clay, sand, potash, magnesia, iron, with hu- 
mus and all other ingredients. The nature 
of the soil is now known, and you perceive 
what is valuable, what is wanting and what 
is injurious in it to fertility. It may be very 
productive in some crops and worthless for 
others. Land, apparently very sterile, may 
need only one ingredient, and that of small 
cost, to render it hiyhly valuable. Some 
substance may be detected, poisonrus to 
crops and which may be easily remedied, 
when once known. 

A specimen of a soil of good appearance 
was given to Sir Humphrey Davy, from 
Lincolnshire, in England, as remarkable for 
sterility. On analyzing it he found sul- 
phate of iron. He recommended a top- 
dressing of lime; and the sulphate of iron 
was forthwith converted into the sulphate 
of lime; a noxious substance was at. once 
changed into an element of fertility. It 
was the boast of Franklin that he had 



I stripped lightning of its perils and had 
chained the thunderbolt. Chemistry does 

j more. Poisons are changed by its alchemy 

\ into the means of subsistence. 

The Hon. Reverdy Johnson purchased, 
in 1S49, a small farm, near Baltimore, in 

j the last stageof impoverishment. Such was 
its reduced condition that the last crop of 
corn was not more than one peck to the 
acre. He states that all the vegetable mat- 

! tor growing on the two hundred acres of 
cleared land, including briars, sassafras 

! and other bushes, if carefully collected, 
would have been insufficient for the manu- 
facture of one font-horse wagon load of 
manure. He applied to Dr. David Stew- 
art of Baltimore, an able chemist, who rode 
out to the farm and procured specimens of 
the soil, which he carefully analyzed. He 
found that it contained an abundance of 
lime, potash, magnesia, iron and organic 
matter, duly mixed with alumina and sand. 
One element only of a lertile soil was 
wanting, phosphoric acid; and of this, there 
was no trace. He recommended an ap- 
plication to the soil of the biphosphate of 
lime, a preparation of bones, as the best 
mode of supplying the deficient element. 
The remedy was given at an expense of 
ten dollars per acre. It was the one thing 
needful. Health was restored to the ex- 
hausted patient, and the grateful soil 
yielded last, year twenty-nine bushels of 
wheat per acre to the proprietor. Nothing 
else was applied, indeed nothing else was 
wanting. Here was a beautiful triumph 
of science. There is no doubt about the 
facts; the experiment came under the ob- 
servation and atiracted the attention of 
hundreds. It was detailed to the writer by 
Mr. Johnson himself and various others 
worthy of perfect reliance. It has been 
made known to the country in the Ameri- 
can Farmer. 

In each of these cases, a mere practical 
farmer would have groped his way in the 
dark, ready to be led astray by any igtli* 
fatmrs in his efforts to find some means of 
improvement. He might, have applied 

I lime or stable manure. The first would 
have been worthless, if not injurious, and: 
the second would have given no results 
commensurate with the expense. The 
same is probably true of guano, for though 
the best specimens contain as much as 
twenty-two per cent, of phosphates, yet the 
expenditure would have been out of pro- 
portion to the result, if enough had been 
applied to give a sufficiency of phosphoric 
acid. Give us light, was the prayer of 



THE SOUTIIER'N PLANTER. 



1C5 



A jax to the Gods, amid the fearful struggle 
of battle. That prayer is as appropriate 
to the agriculturist as the warrior. Let us 
have the lamp of science n> light the la- 
borer in bie toil, that, he may not expend 
his efforts in vain. Give us an analysis of 
our soils, that we may know of what they 
are composed, thai labor and capital may 
not be thrown away in the attempt, to im- 
prove them. Give us an agricultural sur- 
vey that the general capacity and defici- 
ency of the different sections may be known 
to the people. 

The an of culture is to a great degree 
a chemical art. Is the soil diseased, has ii 
been exhausted of its alkalis, and conse- 
quently, is it now suffering with acidity as 
in all tbe tide-water country? Chemistry 
prescribes the remedy with as much cer- 
tainty and upon the. same principles that a 
physician gives potash or soda to neutral- 
ize the acidity of a dyspeptic stomach. — 
Do you employ plaster of Paris, or ashes 
or manures of any kind, it is chemistry 
that explains their action, the best mode of 
application and their effects. The earth is 
a great laboratory, in which chemical ac- 
tion is ever in progress, forming new com- 
binations and decomposing old ones, de- 
stroying and giving life, preparing nutri- 
ment and' sometimes poisons both for the 
vegetable and animal creations. He must 
understand something of this laboratory 
and of the agencies that are brought into 
play, who would draw from it the maxi- 
mum of productions. The poor Mexican, 
toiling for his daily bread, trampled under 
foot for ages the gold of California,; He 
knew not that he was surrounded with 
treasures, which would gladden the sove- 
reigns of the earth. Like the Mexican, we 
have also labored in ignorance and dark- 
ness, and have walked over mines less 
glittering, though perhaps not less valua- 
ble. The veil is now partial!} 7 torn from 
our eyes, and we see some of the rich 
stores which have been so long hidden. 
But we feel that we are still in the same 
situation as Sir Isaac. Newton, who seemed 
to himself in his advanced aire to have 
been wandering only on the shore of the 
great ocean of knowledge, gathering a few 
beautiful pebbles here and there, while the 
great deep la\ r unexplored before him. 

Those who doubt the utility of legisla- 
tive aid to agriculture, would do weil to 
consult the history of our sister States, and 
of other countries in reference lo this sub- 
ject. Our neighbor, Maryland, has just 
commenced this system by employing a 



State Chemist, and she can even now point 
to the report of this gentleman,, as allbrd- 
ing "demonstration strong*' of the wisdom 

of the measure, and the economy of the 
expenditure. In the midst of a preat vari- 
ety of the most valuable information which 
he has presented in his report, lie makes 
known one {act, which is merely cited as 
an example, that is worth more "to the far- 
mers of that State, than the expense of his 
office for a century to come. He found in 
a large district, a red and yellow clay sub- 
soil, containing from eight and a half to 
twenty bushels of lime per acre, for every 
inch in depth, besides also magnesia, and 
sometimes potash. The surface soil was 
very deficient in these very elements — deep 
ploughing there is all that is necessary 
to give to these lands whatever lime is ne- 
cessary, without the expenditure of any 
thing, either for its purchase or transpor- 
tation. 

W. B. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

CORN-GROWING. 

Messrs. Editors, — I have a desire to com- 
municate to you, and through the medium 
of your valuable paper to others, the me- 
thod I have successfully practised in grow- 
ing corn for several years past — not that 1 
claim to have made any important disco- 
very in its cultivation, but simply to have 
comhined and practised the experience and 
recommendations of men wiser and more 
experienced than myself. The soil that I 
have tilled is a grave! loam. J have, usually 
for corn, turned over in the month of April, 
or early in May, a clover sod, by plough- 
ing carefully and deep — a little deeper than 
ever before ploughed. I have spread the 
manure upon the ground before ploughing. 
I dig up the grass around the stumps and 
then thoroughly harrow until the surface 
is well pulverized and mixed. To mark 
the land for planting, I have used a light 
pole about thirteen feet long, twelve feet of 
which is divided into three equal spaces, 
four feet apart, (the distance I have between 
the rows) and to it. I attach, by means of 
ropes, four pieces of chains, which 1 have 
found to make die best marks to follow in 
planting. Two men or boys, by each tak- 
ing an end of the pole, can mark both ways 
ready for planting, several aeres in a day. 
The benefit of thus marking 1 have (bund 
to be saving of time, straighter rows, and 



306 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



a uniform distance between them, and also 
the entire independence of the planters of 
each other, so that boys who can plant only 
a part of a row and keep up, can do so cor- 
rectly. I grow the large dent corn which 
is adapted to this climate. Four kernels 
are usually dropped in each hill and slightly 
covered with not more than two inches of 
earth. As soon as the corn has come out 
of the ground so as to be seen and follow 
the rows, I prepare a composition by mix- 
ing equal parts of slaked lime, ashes, awl 
plaster, of which about a gill is dropped 
upon every hill of corn, and which isquickly 
done by suspending a pail or other vessel 
across the shoulders by a strap of leather, 
or rope, walking nearly erect, and with a 
small shingle dip out of the vessel and 
throw it upon the growing corn. Should 
the leaves be open and the preparation 
drop into them it does not injure the corn. 
I have found this composition thus applied, 
to cause the corn to grow rapidly and vi- 
gorously. And also what to me has been 
a great benefit, crows have never pulled 
up any after its application, although they 
had began to pull before. As soon as the 
rows could be easily traced, I have gone 
between them with a horse, and a cultiva- 
tor so constructed that all the earth was 
moved and cleaned of whatever was grow- 
ing, thirty-five inches wide. The cultivator 
has flat teeth, shaped like a common flat- 
iron, with a shank from the wide end eigh- 
teen inches long, and fastened on the top 
of the frame by screws and nuts. I have 
found that passing once with it has been 
as effectual as twice with any cultivator I 
had previously used. After passing both 
ways through the corn as above mentioned, 
I leave it till about the first of June, when 
I again go through the field in the same 
manner, and then thoroughly clean the 
hills with the hoe and hand, leaving the 
ground level. About the first of July I 
again clean the hills, alter having been 
through as often as necessary with a horse 
and cultivator. The average yield per 
acre, in favorable seasons, when harvested, 
has been one hundred, or more, bushels 
good, sound ears of corn. The cultivator 
is gauged by a wheel so that it can be used 
without disturbing the sod. The benefits 
of level culture I have found to be that corn 
resists the winds better, extends without 
interruption its innumerable, fibrous roots 
all through the earth, so near the surface 
that they derive every benefit from heat 
and moisture. [ have often dug between 
the hills when the earn had attained nearly 



its growth and set for ears, without finding 
any space that the roots did not occupy. — 
I had designed to have written more, but 
my article would be too long. 

Orange EL Wait. 



WHAT IS THE BEST FRUIT ROOM? 

A correspondent in Ohio has written us 
a long communication detailing his expe- 
riments in keeping fruit under different 
circumstances and asking a minute plan 
for a fruit room. 

Our views on this subject may be very 
concisely given. The best possible place 
for keeping fruh is a perfectly dry cellar or 
building below ground, whieh should have 
all the qualifications necessary for a wine 
cellar — that is, it should not have a pnrticle 
of dampness about it, very little light, and 
the temperature should vary as little as 
possible all the year round. In such a cel- 
lar, fruit may be kept perfectly sound for 
double the usual length of time, either in 
barrels, or boxes, or bins, or upon shelves* 
Wherever a proprietor has a dry, gravelly 
soil, such a fruit cellar may be constructed 
with very little trouble. In such places a 
pit may be dug and lined with logs, if they 
are cheaper than stone or brick walls. 

It should be remembered that it has 

lately been discovered that all rottenness 

in fruit is owing to the attack of a fungus, 

which propagates itself and spreads rapid- 

i ly from a decaying fruit to a sound one. 

i Hence the necessity of examining fruit in 

| fruit rooms frequently and taking away all- 

j such as show the least signs ol' decay. 

When we were in the gardens of Mr. 
| Rivers, in England, we saw an admirable 
fruit room for preserving fruit. It was an 
old vault in the side of a dry bank. Fruit 
kept there with the least possible care, and 
we tasted a very good winter pear, quite 
sound and perfect, which had remained on 
the open shelf in this fruit room from No- 
vember till the month of August. — Down- 
tog's Horticulturist. 



SALT AND ASHES. 

See that your sheep are liberally pro- 
vided with this mixture at all seasons. — 
One quart of salt and three of ashes. Place 
it where it will be easily accessible, and it 
will prevent many unpleasant and painful 
evils. Salt and charcoal for hogs.— Ger- 
mantown Telegraph* 






THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



107 



From the Albany Cultivator. 

MANURES-TOP-DRESSING. 

We are indebted to Hon. John W. Proctor, 
of Danvers, Mass., for a copy of an essay on 
Top-dressing Grass-Lands, written by Charles 
L. Flint for the Transactions of the Essex 
County Agricultural Society. The length of 
the paper precludes the possibility of our pub- 
lishing it entire, and we therefore give the fol- 
lowing extract, which contains many useful 
suggestions: 

It is a very common practice to suffer the 
manure from the barn to lie exposed, for 
months to the winds and rains of summer and 
winter. Many farmers have no arrangement 
by which the liquid and most valuable part of 
stable manure, is saved, and yet, under all 
these disadvantages, they are too apt to con- 
gratulate themselves on having so many loads 
of manure. They do not consider that it is 
the quality, and not the quantity, which adds 
richness to :he. soil. The practice of digging 
a cellar under the barn, is becoming more 
common among enterprising farmers, and it 
may be said that the increased value and 
quantity of the manure, is enough to pay far 
more than the interest of the extra expense. 
Sheltered manure is far more valuable; but 
in cases where this has not, and cannot well be 
done, much of the real value may be saved by 
forming the yard so that nothing may escape. 
Let peat mud and loam be thrown in to absorb 
what would otherwise be lost. Plaster, occa- 
sionally thrown info the yard, is like monev — 
I will not say in the savings bank, but rather 
put to compound interest. 

In Flanders, where the greatest economy is 
practised, the liquid of a single animal is esti- 
mated at from ten to fifteen dollars a year. 
This, applied as a top-dressing, has a surpris- 
ing effect. No one should neglect to form a 
compost heap; it may be so made as to form 
an extremely valuable article for top-dressing. 
A quantity oC meadow mud, should be dugout 
in the autumn, for this especial purpose. That 
this is indispensable, will be seen from the 
fact that two cords of peat mud, added to one 
cord of good stable manure, will make a com- 
pound of three cords as valuable as clear barn 
manure.* This has been tried repeatedly, and 
is constantly done by those who are ambitious 
to excel in "farming. To this compost should 
be added, from lime to v time, all the animal 
and vegetable matter adapted to enrich the 
soil; woollen rags, the remains of fish, the 
blood and flesh of animals, the hair of animals; 
all these make an exceedingly rieh manure. 
A most intelligent gentleman, connected with 
a wool factory, informs us that a cord of 
matter collected at the establishment, is worth 



* Peat varies much in its value as a manure. 
Some may be worth what it is here estimated at; 

but we think it put too high to he received as a 
gfiueral rale. — Eds. 



at least five or six cords of the best stable ma- 
nure for a top-dressing. This we cannot doubt, 
for here are the blood, the wool, pieces of the 
skin of the animal, and many other substances, 
all collected together. A fermentation takes 
place by which the richest gases aie formed. 
Such a compost heap, with an addition of loam 
and mud, would be invaluable for a top-dress- 
ing. But though, in most ca.>es, all these sub- 
stances cannot be procured, many of them can 
and should be saved by everyone who is de- 
sirous of improving his lands. Those who 
are near the sea, or near the market, can pro- 
cure an abundance of fish to add to the com- 
post. Nothing is better for soils than this. 
Ashes should also be added, and when addi- 
tions of manure are made, they should be co- 
vered with mud or loam to prevent waste. 

We need not enter more minutely into the 
details of forming the compost heap ; it is suffi- 
cient to say, in a word, thateverything capable 
of fermentation may be added to it. The low- 
er layer should be of loam or mud. Nothing 
is more common among farmers, on the death 
of a horse, or any other animal, than to throw 
the body away. It is estimated by some, that 
the body of a single horse, when divided and 
mixed with peat, mud and loam, will make a 
compost worth fifteen or twenty cords of the 
best and richest manure. This is perhaps too 
high an estimate, but animal substances fer- 
ment rapidly, or rather they may be said to 
putrify without fermenting, so quick is their 
decomposition. Leaves, grasses, moss, straw, 
and other substances of like nature may be 
used, and when they are well fermented, the 
heap should be thrown over; and if it is made 
long and narrow, so as to expose the greater 
surface to the air, it will be better. Whenever 
such a compost has been used as a top-dress- 
ing, it has produced the most astonishing ef- 
fects. Many experiments have shown that 
this is the best way of using such a compost. 
In the fertile county of Hertford, in England, 
it is seldom used in any other way. It cannot 
be too highly recommended. 

Animals fed on rich food make the most 
valuable manure. This will serve to show- 
why the manure from the pig- stye is so ferti- 
lizing. Swine are fed on a great variety of 
rich food. The actual profit of raising them 
in some places, arises mainly from the amount 
of substances they will mix together and make 
into good manure. Let the stye be supplied 
at intervals with mud, loam, and other vege- 
table matter, and farmers will not complain of 
the cost of these animals. 

Liquid manures are highly useful to grasses. 
Care should be taken to apply them, also, to 
the compost heap. The richness of manure 
from the stye, is owing; mostly to the great 
quantity of liquid matter; hence the impor- 
tance of adding a great variety of vegetable 
substances, loam, and mud. In a word it may 
be said that all liquid manures contain a large 
amount of nitrogen, which is an important in- 
gredient of ammonia. The importance of savin? 



1CS 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the liquid of stables, either with the compost, 
or to be applied by itself, may be seen, also, 
in the fact that the exceeding richness of gua- 
no an i the ordure of all fowls and birds, is due 
to the union of liquids and solids. Spent lev 
from the soap boiler, is also a good, powerful 
liquid application. It shows is good effects 
for years, when properly applied. 

After fermentation has taken place in ani- 
mal manures, in the compost heap or elswhere. 
they may be spread without much loss by 
evaporation; and hence it matters not whether 
the top-dressing is applied in the autumn or 
in the spring. Plaster is better spread in the 
spring, when the moisture of the earth makes 
it immediately available. Not so with other 
manures. Some prefer the autumn for spread- 
ing these, while others preier the spring just 
before the thick grass surrounds and protects 
them from the snn and wind. The soil in au- 
tumn is not injured by the loaded cart, as it is 
apt to be in the spring. Others still apply 
them after the hrst mowing, and before the 
summer rains. The new erop preserves the 
manures from drying up and wasting. This, 
however, is ordinarily too busy a season to at- 
tend to it with convenience. 



MECHANICAL IMPROVEMENT OF 
SOILS. 

There are two modes of improving soils. 
I have spoken of the composition of soils. 
You see how they vary, and what differences 
there are in the qualities of soils, and what it 
is that constitutes equality of soil, and what 
the relation between rhese arid the chemical 
composition of soils. But how are soils to be 
improved 1 There are two methods, the me- 
chanical and the chemical. Of the mechani- 
cal method I shall now speak, and of the 
chemical in my last lecture. Among the va- 
rious mechanical methods of improvement 
there are three principal kinds. The first is 
deep ploughing; that, in almost all cases, is 
found to-be important ana profitable In all coun- 
tries where 1 have been, in all parts of Euro p« 
which 1 have visited, experience has shown 
that the .-oil generally is not ploughed to a 
great depth; three, four, or five inches is al- 
most the maximum depth of exhaustion. It 
is very often the case that persons exhaust 
land until they can raise no more crops, and 
are then compelled to leave. The person who 
succeeds, seeing the system of tillage that has 
been practised, instead of adopting the former 
system of shallow ploughing, goes down deep 
er, and turns up a new soil altogether. Verv 
likely in this new soil are (bund accumulated 
the materials which the other soil once con- 
tained. The manure that has been put on and 
accumulated below is turned lip, and ibe new 
coiner gets, perhaps, not. only a good virgftfl 
soil, but much of the money that, the old far- 
mer has buried there. This is no hypotheti- 



cal esse. If it were, I would not. state it, for 
speculation and hypothesis are good for no- 
thing. In the neighborhood of Edinhnrg there 
are farmers of the greatest skill and who make 
a great deal of money? and, as a general rule , 
you may judge of the skill of a farmer by the 
number of sovereigns that he has pocketed at 
the end of the year; it is a very good test. One 
of these farmers, alter hearing one of my lec- 
tures, in explanation of this simple principle, 
told me that, though he lived sonearEdinhnrgh, 
the thing had never occurred to him before, 
nor had tie heard of it: and he immedia'elv 
went to work to carry out the principle, and, 
by ploughing down, he had brought to the sur- 
face a fre>h soil, and was then growing luxu- 
riant crops where he had the hind entirely ex- 
hausted. Therefore it is quite true that m the 
under or subsoil there accumulate many sob- 
stances which have drained through from the 
upper soil, which make ii fully as rich as the 
upper soil once was. and that the farmer takes 
the cheapest steps to reclaim poor land, ex- 
hausted by severe cropping, who ploughs 
deep. 

This must be sufficient to show the value of 
the subsoil, when turned up and mixed with 
the upper. I need not dwell on this; but I 
have this remark to make. It happens some- 
times that various substances accumulate be- 
neath, which are injurious to the plant, and in- 
order that they may not injure the upper soil, 
it is not always advisable to bring up. There 
are districts, in my country, where the subsoil 
is a white clay, which is so barren that if 
brought up it might destroy the upper soil, and 
therefore it is carefully avoided. This is the 
case in many parts of the world. It is quite 
proper not to do so; bur not an 'infrequent re- 
sort with us, as a means of deepening the soil, 
where the subsoil is impervious or noxious, is 
to cut it through, so that the water sinks, and, 
as it sinks below the level of the soil, the rain 
falls, filling up all the pores ia the soil to a 
certain point, which, with the fresh air, effects 
a chemical action on these substances, changes 
them chemically, and gives them ether a 
nourishing quality or modifies the subsoil so 
that, when brought vp, it will not. be injurious 
or noxious to plants 

This is the object of subsoil ploughing; this 
is common in England; af er draining in s'iff 
clay sotls. But the practice is also adopted 
were the land has been long drained. In 
Srodand, the farmers plough from seven to 
tuvnty inches deep, and experience has shown 
that lands thus treated not only retain every- 
thing put on them in the form of manure, but 
pro capable of growing crops t';^r a longer time, 
without exhaustion, than if they did not plough 
so deep. — Johnston's L < 



To spin and weave, to knit and sew, was 
once a girl's employment; but now to dress 

and catch a beau is all she calls employment 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



109 



l* 1 ron i tlic Gent 



Parmer. 



TEIE BREEDING AND REARING OP 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

The fanners of the United States pos- 
sess every advantage to excel in the breed- 
ing ami rearing of domestic animals. They 
have an abundance of land fur tillage, 
meadow, and pasture; and climates admi- 
rably adapted to the production of grans, 
roots, and grain. Horses, mules, neat cat- 
tle, sheep, and swine, are healthy, suffici- 
ently long-lived, and profitable, when skil- 
fully managed. In nearly one-half of the 
States, a good mule is worth $100, and an 
ordinary one of fair size is worth $70; 
while ihe cost of rearing until he is three 
years old, is no more than to keep a steer 
to the same age. As a mule will perform 
hard labor twenty-five or thirty years, or 
more than twice as brig as a horse, parti- 
cularly at the South, ihe demand for these 
field servants keeps pace with the wonder- 
ful consumption of calico, shirting, and 
other cotton fabrics. iMules are wanted 
for growing tobacco, which two-thirds of 
the men, and boys over ten years old, either 
chew or smoke, or both, every day in the 
year. For the culture of corn, as well as 
sugar cane and rice, mules are much pre- 
ferred to horses; ihe laiter, however, sell 
high in the Southern States, for carriage 
use and riding. The wife of almost every 
planter who is doing well, keeps her car- 
riage and a pair of horses worth from $200 
to $500; arid every son and daughter big 
enough to ride, wants a saddle-horse be- 
sides. As population and wealth increase 
throughout the country, the demand for 
fine animals of all kinds augments in an 
equal if not a greater ratio. Ordinary 
cows sell in Georgia at from $G to $10 a 
head, extraordinary ones bring readily 
from $50 to $150 each. We saw a native 
cow sold at the latter price at the Stale 
Fair in 1849, not so good as we have 
boight in Erie county for $13. 

No other department of rural industry 
pays so well at this time as the breeding 
and rearing of superior slock. This is a 
branch of business which nearly every 
farmer thinks he understands perfectly, but 
after all, the results of his practice prove 
that he is mistaken. A. large share of the 
best stock- imported into the United States 
has deteriorated from the carelessness or 
ignorance of those into whose hands it has 
been committed. Until the art and science 
of breeding and keeping domestic animals 
are more generally studied, and more 



highly esteemed, the number of (irsi rate 
horses, mules, neat cattle, sheep, and hogs. 
will be comparatively small. We have re- 
cently estimated, in a public document, ihe 
number of horses and mules in th«' coun- 
try at sic millions, and we are confident 
that their average value might be in- 
creased, by a course of skilful breeding, in 
a few generations, $30 a head. This would 
be equivalent to creating a capital of $180.- 
000,000. A horse or a mule worth $90 is 
as easily kept, when reared, as one worth 
but $00; and the same rule applies to the 
rearing and keeping of swine, sheep, steers 
for the shambles, working oxen, and dairy 
cows. The farmers of Belgium and Hol- 
land make more beef, according to the area 
under cultivation, than is produced else- 
where in Europe, and they market most of 
their cattle before they are three years old. 
Every calf designed for meat, should be 
ready for the butcher by the time a thou- 
sand days have passed over its head; and 
it should never form less than a pound of 
good meat in twenty-four hours, for its 
owner. 

How can a farmer use the digestive or- 
gans of a calf 1000 days lo the best, ad- 
vantage? An engineer is required to sin- 
dy every part of the machinery under his 
control. He must he familiar with the build- 
ing and strength of each tube, valve, cy- 
linder, and joint, in the most complex steam 
engine, to work it with the largest profit. 
What is a calf, colt, pig, or lamb, but a 
small locomotive in the hands of an agri- 
cultural engineer? How few engineers of 
this class have carefully investigated the 
nature and strength of the complex ma- 
chinery which elaborates milk, butter, 
cheese, wool, meat, or produces the valua- 
ble physical powers of the ox, mule, and 
j horse? The time has come when ihe 
J anatomy and physiology of these wealth- 
j creating animals should be universally un- 
| derstood. Their internal organization and 
I external symmetry, their intrinsic value 
I and productiveness, as well as beauty, can 
I never be fully appreciated before science 
• enlightens \\\v. understanding of the stock- 
I grower. That all kinds of food in all sorts 
of conditions may be given to cattle, sheep 
I and hogs, with equal benefit and profit, no 
one pretends; but when we presume to 
say how animals shall be fed. and what 
they should consume, there are almost as 
many opinions as farmers. Where butter 
is high, and calves are reared on skim milk 
and bu ter-milk, experience in Europe, has 
confirmed the teachings of science, that 



110 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



molasses', used to sweeten milk deprived of 
its butter, is the best substitute in the sys- 
tem of the calf. Bread and sweetened 
water may not be so nutritious in the sto- 
mach of a growing child as bread and but- 
ter, but it is better than bread and pure 
water. Both molasses and sprouted bar- 
ley have been successfully used in Eng- 
land in fattening bullocks and feeding 
milch kine. Many say that to malt barley 
sufficiently th deveiope its saccharine pro- 
perties, increases its fattening powers, per- 
haps by rendering all its starch, gluten, 
and other protean compounds more easily 
digested. 

Who has ever spent a dollar to learn 
what part of the nutritive matter that en- | 
ters the stomachs of his horses, cattle, and ; 
hogs, passes through their systems undi- 1 
gested? Who can say how much is wasted ! 
in generating extra heat, by reason of the 
fact that animals are exposed to severe 
cold and storms in winter? All experience 
confirms the statement that, in a degree, 
external warmth is equivalent to lood. — 
The living locomotive must have a given 
degree of internal heat, or all the machinery 
stops forever. The heart ceases to beat, and 
the lungs to inhale a single breath, ii' the 
fire within or the solar warmth without be 
too feeble for the purposes of life. A com- 
fortable degree of external heat united with 
proper ventilation, for the benefit of ali 
bipeds and quadrupeds, is a matter of uni- 
versal interest. Warm houses, barns, sta- 
bles, and pig-pens, with an abundance of 
good food, and that skilfully prepared and 
economically consumed, are points often 
overlooked even by intelligent persons. — 
The keep of animals governs their gradual 
improvement or certain deterioration. At- 
tentive and proper feeding, with the judi- 
cious selection of males and females in 
propagating any race, constitute the cardi- 
nal points in stock-raising. One should be 
careful to provide a plenty of pasture, and 
that fresh and sweet, for consumption in 
spring, summer, and autumn, and a plenty 
of well cured forage for winter. Pastures 
and meadows have been sadly neglected, 
and their failing productiveness has at- 
tracted our attention in all the States we 
have visited, which are not a lew. They 
greatly need a liberal covering of stable 
manure, re-seeaing, and a good scarifying 
with a sharp harrow. Many need draining, 
and still more irrigation, which adds won- 
derfully to the growth of grass and the im- 
provement of grazing and meadow lands. 
Water in springs, brooks, and creeks, 



abounds in the mineral and organic food of 
plants; and in thousands of ravines, dams 
and ditches may be cheaply constructed, 
to turn it over extensive fields. 

The soiling of cattle is gaining in public 
favor every year, where it is tested by ex- 
perience. By feeding stock in small en- 
closures, a large share of the fence now 
required in this country, may be dispensed 
with — an object of no inconsiderable im- 
portance. All good farmers recognise the 
necessily of either making or purchasing 
an annual stock of manure; and with this 
they can cut grass, clover, corn, or other 
1'orage, enough from an acre to keep one 
and perhaps two cows the year round. — 
The droppings of horses and cattle on 
pastures, while feeding, are found to be of 
little value; too much manure is applied at 
one place, and none at all over many square 
yards. Sheep distribute the raw material 
of crops more evenly, but not so well as it 
can be done by the husbandman. Stock- 
growing, manure-saving, and the econo- 
mical production of grain and grass, must 
be blended into one system of tillage and 
husbandry. Much of the manure now 
manufactured is poor stuff, and really not 
worth over half what it costs. Not a little 
trash is hauled ten miles out of the city of 
Washington, to fertilize poor soils, which 
is of as little value for manure as a load of 
pine chips. Good manure is worth its 
weight in timothy hay, and often its weight 
in corn. The science of producing manure 
is quite as important as that of transform- 
ing grass, grain, and roots, into meat, milk, 
wool, and the flesh of horses and mules. 
The best manure sold in Washington 
brings four dollars a barrel, and it is worth 
that to make into wheat at a dollar a bushel. 
This fertilizer comes from the Pacific, on 
the coast of Peru, and from small islands 
covered thirty feet deep with guano, which 
is there estimated at thirty millions of tons. 
Manure of equal value per cwt. can be 
made at home, provided farmers will give 
instructions to their legislators to foster 
agricultural science. 

As a general rule, it is safe to say that 
one-third, if not one-half, of the fertilizers 
voided in stables and barn-yards, are never 
carried out upon the fields whence (he crops 
that fed the animals were taken. To waste 
manure and impoverish land, is not the 
way to produce cheap beef, pork, butter, 
cheese, and wool, for any considerable 
number of years. The manure of a fat- 
tening pig is worth nearly half as much 
as his food", provided one knows how to use 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



111 



it to the best advantage. Meat sells at 
about the same price in Belgium that it 
does in the State of New York, and of 
course grass is worth about the same. — 
The manure of a cow in Belgium is often 
sold at from $12 to $15 a year. How can 
this raw material of crops and beef be 
more valuable there than here, provided 
our crops and beef fetch as much per 100 
lbs. as theirs do? They send vast quanti- 
ties of meat to London, and so do we, more 
or less. The truth is, we have yet to learn 
the money value of good manure, the art 
of saving it all, and the economy of selling 
fat heifers and steers when two years old, 
and fat pigs when from nine to twelve 
months old. A call' can extract more meat 
from 100 lbs. of oat, corn, or barley-meal, 
well cooked, by 40 per cent, than a six year 
old cow or ox can. Pea and bean porridge 
for pigs and calves, will make them grow 
rapidly, and are much used for that purpose 
on the continent. One that has plenty of 
rich manure can make cheap oats and corn 
for feeding ?A\ domestic animals; and if 
these are the best, they will pay a round 
profit. 

Too little attention is paid to the saving 
and liberal use of grass seed by dairy-men, 
wool-growers, and such as make a busi- 
ness of rearing horses, mules, hogs, and 
neat cattle. After all that has been said 
about making two blades of grass grow 
where only one grew before — a proverb 
older than the time of Jacob, in all proba- 
bility — the neglect of grazing lands is a 
prominent defect in modern husbandry. — 
Go where you will, and you shall find 
mean cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, where 
pastures and meadows yield little food for 
domestic, animals. To pay high prices for 
improved breeds, and then run them down 
in size, form, and value, by injudicious 
keep, is the height of folly. Hence, in- 
stead of commending Short Horns, Here- 
fords, Devons, Ayrshires. or any other race, 
we content ourselves with urging the ne- 
cessity of providing an abundance of food, 
adapted to the constitution and habits of 
the animal, which may be regularly con- 
sumed every day in the year. Sheep that 
have a feast three or six months and are 
then half starved an equal length of time, 
never clip even wool. The staple is ma- 
terially affected by all changes of this kind; 
and every dairyman knows that to give 
cows only half allowance ten days in June, 
will diminish the yield of milk, butter, and 
cheese, for six weeks thereafter. Many 
interesting experiments on this point have 



been tried in Europe, the results of which 
are highly instructive. The transforma- 
tion of grass, roots, and grain, into milk, 
meat, and wool, is now treated of as a 
branch of manufactures, in which labor 
and capital must be vastly more concen- 
trated, to give the highest attainable profit. 
Instead of being so anxious for an illimit- 
able "range for stock," as Western and 
Southern growers demand, bring the whole 
operation into a narrow compass, and add 
four-fold to the natural productiveness of 
the soil, and at the same time make one 
animal worth three or four common ones. 



From the Richmond Whig. 
ON MIXING PLASTER AND GUANO. 

The mixture of plaster and guano, and 
plaster and putrescent manures, has been a 
standing recommendation in the agricultu- 
ral papers for the last six or seven years. 
The writer of this, believing such combi- 
nations to be absolutely injurious, recently 
took the pains to investigate the matter, 
and succeeded in obtaining a number of 
important facts. The result was, that in 
nearly every case the action of guano was 
impaired by the addition of plaster, very 
much in proportion to the quantity of plas- 
ter employed. When mixed together in 
any thing like equal proportions, the effect 
of the guano was entirely destroyed. In 
one or two instances, when plaster had 
been liberally used with stable manure, 
the effect was equally injurious. 

The professed object of this combination 
is, by means of the plaster, to arrest the 
escape of certain ingredients which enter 
into the constitution of the other sub- 
stance.--, which would otherwise pass off 
into the air; in ordinary phraseology, to 
"fire" the ammonia. That the ammonia 
is "fired" most effectually, there can be no 
doubt; for the roots of the plants are never 
able to disengage it, at least in its original 
form. 

When two substances are brought in 
contact, between which a chemical action 
takes place, a new and entirely distinct 
substance is the necessary result. This is 
obvious to every person in the least ac- 
quainted with chemical affinities. What 
the quality of the substance thus formed 
may be, as a measure, it is impossible to 
predict, a priori: it may be valuable or 
worthless, but it can only be ascertained 
by experiment. In the case under discus- 



112 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



eion, the principle combination is supposed 
to be between the sulphuric acid of the 

plaster and the ammonia of the guano, 
which produces sulphate of ammonia. — 
There are also other combinations winch it 
is not important to specify. So that in ap- 
plying this compound to the soil we are in 
reality using neither guano nor plaster, but 
an entirely different substance — something 
of our own manufacture; and yet we are 
expecting a separate, as well as combined, 
action from each of the original compo- 
nents. And if disappointment ensues, in- 
stead of taking any blame to ourselves for 
such a violent interference, we cast, it on 
the guano, and are ready to pronounce it 
a humbug. 

If there be any of your readers who de- 
sign using guano according to the mode I 
have ventured to condemn, I hope they 
may be induced to re-consider the matter. 
They cannot do better, I am persuaded, 
than to act on the good old maxim of 'let- 
ting well enough alone " That there have 
been some respectable imitations of guano 
may possibly be true; but whoever suc- 
ceeds in improving the quality of genuine 
Peruvian guano, needs not despair of em- 
ulating the hues of the rainbow, or adding 
perfume to the violet. 

T. S. P. 

Petersburg, March 10, 1S51. 



From the Ohio Cultivator. 

CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF 
THE FLAX CROP. 

The extraordinary demand that has 
arisen for the article of flax seed, during 
the past two seasons, through the multipli- 
city of our oil mills and the scarcity of seed 
in our principal markets, have influenced 
many farmers to think favorably of this 
crop who are practicably unacquainted 
with its most successful methods of ma- 
nagement. Hence any information on this 
department of farming, that would be con- 
sidered by practical men of a reliable cha- 
racter, must at this time be desirable. — 
Having had much experience in the ma- 
nagement of flax, and having cultivated 
some seasons as high as fifty acres and 
worked the whole of the fibre into a mar- 
ketable article of flax and afterward into 
small cordage and twines, practical far- 
mers who may have a desire of embarking 
in this business, either for the seed alone or 
for the seed and fibre, may put any sugges- 



tion we make to a practical test, without 
any apprehension of the result proving di- 
sastrous. The only motive which prompted 
us to prepare our thoughts and experience 
on this subject for the press is to enlighten 
public opinion on a subject that has hitherto 
been much neglected by those who have 
contributed to the agricultural lileratureof 
Ohio. 

Flax requires a rich, deep and friable 
soil; and one which rests on a subsoil com- 
posed mainly of a permeable clay loam is 
{(referable to that which is more porous in 
its character. This applies with greater 
force in the latitude of Ohio than further 
north, for the obvious reason that the 
drought affects the flax crop in the lines of 
latitude lying between 39 and 42 decrees, 
to a much greater extent than between 44 
and 46 degrees. The great difficulty that 
the flax grower will have to contend with 
in Ohio is the flamage that the flax will be 
apt to sustain in average seasons by drought. 
By carefully observing ihe few hints that 
maybe gleaned from the folio wing remarks, 
this evil may in a great measure be ob- 
viated. 

The great starting point is to have the 
naiural qualify of ihe soil in every respect 
right for the crop. A rich and strong loam 
abounding in vegetable mould and rt sting 
on a tolerably retentive clay subsoil is, 
above all others, the best suited for the pro- 
duction of a large average yield of seed 
and a uniformly strong and valuable yield 
of fibre. This kind of soil comprises per- 
haps one fourth of the arable land of Ohio, 
and in the central, northern, and western 
portions of the State especially the suitable 
quality of laud for this crop abundantly 
abounds. Indeed, almost any soil that will 
produce ah.rge return of cultivated grasses 
without much extra cultivation, by being 
brought into perfect Mate of tilth, is adapted 
to the profitable production of flax. 

The course of cultivation most likely to 
afford an abundant yield of seed and fibre 
is 1o break up an old sod field, one in which 
thecultivaied grasses preponderated would 
be preferable, and plant it with corn, and 
cultivate it thoroughly, so as to destroy all 
weed*, and the following year bow it with 
flax. Corn, when properly cultivated, is 
the best preparatory crop lor the flax that 
can be cultivated, with the exception of 
potatoes. 

The proper system of culture to practise 
in all cases whore an abundant yield of 
sred is desired, is to plough the land for 
the flax crop in the autumn, to the depth 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



113 



of at least six inches, and if this haS been 

neglected i I. should be done, during tin*, win- 
ter months, so as to get me benefit of the 
ameliorating action and influences of frosl 
and atmosphere, by which the entire! soil 
will be changed in its mechanical combi- 
nations, so as to make the mots of the plants 
easily accessible to the full depth of the 
soil. The root* of the flax plants will ex- 
tend into the soil, if in a suitable state of 
culture, to the depth o! at least one-half 
the stems or straws. By good cultivation, 
and other influences being equal, the s terns 
of flax would average at least three feet in 
height, and hence the importance of deep 
cultivation for this crop. This particular 
feature of the business can however be 
best ascertained by a practical series of 
experiments, and it) no instance will the 
labor and money expended in this way be 
found unproductive in profits to this and 
succeeding crops. 

Where autumn or winter ploughing has 
been adopted, theonly preparation required 
for the seed is to plough a very light fur- 
row, then harrow once or twice with a small 
tooth harrow to level the surface and bring! 
the whole into a perfectly fine tilth. If the j 
soil be cloddy after the spring ploughing' 
and harrowing, it. should be either rolled I 
before the seed is sown or else a thick brush ' 
harrow should be employed to pulverize 
the surface. 

The period for sowing the seed is usually ; 
protracted some weeks beyond the one 
which would best secure a full average! 
crop. As seasons very much differ, no pre- i 
cise period can with safety be given, but, 
experience has proved in numerous in- 
stances that a safe and unerring rule in all 
oases will be found in sowing the flax crop 
just before the forest trees put. forth their 
leaves and when the indigenous fruit trees 
of the country are showing the first evi- 
dences of blossoming. Every day that the 
sowing is protracted beyond this point, will 
the crop be seriously affected, especially if 
the. season be very dry. 

The quantity of seed ordinarily sown in 
this country is from two to four pecks per 
acre. A more fatal mistake than this, how- 
ever, could not be made. At. least two 
bushels of seed should be sown per acre, 
and on many soils from nine to ten pecks 
would be preferable to a les« quantity per 
acre. 

We have frequently harvested thirty 
bushels of flax seed and four hundred 
pounds of clean scutched flax from an acre 
of land prepared on the foregoing princi- 



ples, and the qnanlity of seed sown was 
never less than at. the rate of nine pecks 
per acre. 

Without prolonging our remarks any 
further at this time, we would simply say 
lhat the subject will be continued until the 
ground has been fully occupied, including 
the preparation of the fibre for market, 
W. G. EDMUNDSON. 

Columbus, Ohio. 



ILL SUCCESS IN FARMING. 

There is more truth than poetry in the fol- 
lowing, which is exiracted from the leader of 
the Loudon Times, of January 18th. It comes 
at the conclusion of a long article on Protec- 
tion, Free Trade, Agricultural Clubs, &c. — 
We particularly mention where it was found: 
because there are some who believe in the far- 
famed Leviathan, and think that nothing but 
what is good can be issued by the 'j ivies. To 
such as the advice here given may apply, we 
wish profit from the perusal. 

"It is something that with all the ups and 
downs which formers, in common with all 
other people, have had in these live years, and 
which they had heal in every previous yea:, 
they have had a fair average of success, and 
are Still in condition to continue their struggle 
with the thornsai d thistles ever fated to in test 
the surface of the ground and the lot of mor- 
tal man. The secret of agricultural ill suc- 
cess, and the secret of nearly all agricultural 
complaint, is to be found much nearer home 
than in eq lal laws and unrestricted competi- 
tion. Under the same laws, ami on the same 
soil— under no appreciable difference of cir- 
cumstances, one farm will exhibit a good and 
profitable cultivation, and the next the very 
reverse. Our agricultural correspondent has 
pointed this on: with a eaiefulness of observa- 
vation. which eaa hardly be questioned, and 
which Lohd Bkat-mont corroborates, so far as 
regards that portion of Yorkshire with which 
he is best acquainted. If there are men who 
«'ill undertake farms above their capital — who 
borrow capital for the purpose, and are obliged 
to repay it when they are most in want of it — 
who adopt a siyl? of living in proportion to 
their farms, not their actual mep.ns — who for- 
get lhat ihev are engaged in a business which 
requires both application and skill and who 
expect to make blunders with impunity, and 
be extravagant without lo^s— Mich men will 
experience the uniform fate of all who trade 
on similar principles, and just as two shop- 
keepers in the same business and the same 
street, will one grow rich and the other find 
his wavinio the Gazette, so will it be with two 



114 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



farmers in the same parish or the same valley. 
Even if they all equally complain in bad times, 
we shall beg leave to wait for a more unques- 
tionable test than the momentary feelings of 
disappointment. Agriculture, we have no 
doubt, will be as profitable as ever it was in 
the run of years, and after a little readjustment 
to the various changes of the times, some of 
them against, and some of them as decidedly 
for the tenant-farmer." 



For the Southern Planter. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH GUANO. 

The following essay was prepared at the re- 
quest of the Wardsfork Club; since reading it, 
several friends, who heard that it contained in 
a condensed form the result of a great many 
experiments with guano, have applied for it. 
In searching for the essay as presented to the 
Society, I have only been able to find the first 
draft, which is somewhat variant from the one 
read. I have determined, as the most conve- 
nient mode of furnishing it to those who de- 
sired to read it, to offer it for publication in 
your paper, with a slight hope that it may be 
useful to others. 

Being requested by the Club to submit my 
views on guano, I must premise, that neither 
my own experience, nor the experience of any 
one farmer, for the short period of time that 
guano has been introduced amongst us, is suf- 
ficient to enable us to form a correct opinion 
of its value. The accurate experiments of the 
English, Scotch, German and French farmers 
ought to be collated and brought to bear on 
the question of its efficacy. 

If there is any reliance in human testimony, 
it ought to be put down as a fixed fact, that 
guano is a fertilizer. I have examined more 
than one thousand experiments, and in more 
than ninety-five in the hundred, its use resulted 
in increased production. 

The only question of interest is, does it 
pay— does it reimburse with profit the invest- 
ment made in it? 

There are evidently two extreme opinions 
on the efficacy of manures. Those who with 
Liebig and Petzhold reject the carbonaceous 
and gaseous matters, as useless or of little 
value, and those who entertain the common 
prejudice against guano and other special ma- 
nures that they are applied in too small quan- 
tities to do good. 

By the aid of analysis and experiment the 
constituents of plants have been ascertained; 
and l he modern theory of agricultural chem- 
ists is, that no plant can grow on a soil that 
does not contain the same substances that are 
found in the plant; the idea is, that in the 
growth or organism of plants they possess no 
power of making new elements, or of trans- 
mating one element into another, that the plant 
appropriates, or as it is more technically called, 



assimilates the food, fitted to its organs, found 
around it. and can do no more; and has no 
power of creating matter. 

Now according to this theory, the necessi- 
ties of most cultivated plants, as found by 
analysis, favor the idea of great value in 
guano. 

Its prominent constituents are, phosphate of 
lime and ammonia. As 1 am not expected to 
occupy much time, the club will have to take 
my authority for the statement, that I have 
examined several hundred experiments, with 
a view to ascertain what are the most effica- 
cious constituents of manure, and although 
there are exceptions, yet as a general rule, 
those manures that showed the greatest in- 
crease of production, contained the most am- 
monia and phosphate of lime. The grain of 
cereals it is said cannot be produced without 
phosphorus, as proved by Boussingault's expe- 
riments with plants grown in land without it. 

Now, very few manures contain either phos- 
phorus or ammonia in such large proportion 
as guano. Horse dung about three-quarters 
of one per cent, of ammonia, good specimens 
of guano, about ten per cent. Guano contains 
some twenty -five per cent, of phosphates, fresh 
stable manure three-tenths of one per cent. — 
Very few manures in nature contain much 
phosphorus. We have a cheap sulphuric ma- 
nure in gypsum. Ashes, mica, felspar, and 
many clays furnish potash. Carbonate of lime, 
hornblende, &c furnish the lime of plants; but 
very few minerals contain phosphorus in any 
of its combinations. Native phosphate of lime, 
or the mineral apaite, is found in few places; 
some little has recently been carried from 
Spain to England tor manure. Most of the 
phosphorus of plants is taken from a dissemi- 
nated condition in good soils; and unfortu- 
nately this rarest of all manures, goes to form 
the bones of man, and by the custom of civi- 
lized and christian communities, these bones 
are buried beyond the reach of vegetation of 
plants. 

But to approach the subject more practi- 
cally, I condensed the results of forty-seven ex- 
periments, (selected at random,) made with 
great accuracy and precision, from the trans- 
actions of the Highland Agricultural Society, 
made by different persons on a variety of soils. 
Most of these experiments were reported in 
prize essays; nine of these experiments were 
with guano, dressed on grass; eight resulted 
in profit, and only one in loss — average profit, 
(after deducting for loss) £[ 7s, or upwards of 
five dollars on a Scotch Imperial Acre.* The 
profit in this experiment, as in the others here- 
in after named, was the nett profit, after de- 
ducting cost of manure, and ascertained by 
comparing the crop, with the crop on a portion 
of the land not dressed with any manure. Five 
experiments with oats; three resulted in profit, 
and two in neither loss or profit; average pro- 

* The Scotch Acre is 1.29 English, nearly one- 
third larger. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



115 



fit, £l2s2d, per Scotch acre. Five experi- 
ments with potatoes, none resulted in loss; 
average profit per imperial acre, £1 Is \\d. 
Eleven experiments on wheat ; five resulted in 
loss, six resulted in profit; average profit on 
the whole, 12s Id, (twelve shillings, seven 
pence,) per Scotch acre. Seventeen experi- 
ments on turnips; all resulted in profit; ave- 
rage profit, £3 (Is 6,i. In the great bulk of ex- 
periments I have examined, guano pays better 
on turnips than any other crop, and a heavy 
yield of turnips contains by analysis, more 
phosphate of* lime than any other; it pays but 
poorly on wheat, although I was surprised to 
find that it is generally applied in Scotland as 
a top dressing, or slightly ploughed in — if top- 
dressed, generally sowed during rain. The 
Club will be surprised to learn, that guano in 
a majority of experiments I have referred to, 
is beaten in productive effect by nitrate of 
potash, (salt-petre,) and nitrate of soda, and 
very often by sulphate of ammonia on wheat 
and oats. At the same time, from two hun- 
dred and fifty to three hundred lbs. of guano, 
in nine experiments out of ten, beat from 
twenty to thirty tons of farm-yard manure, on 
most of the cultivated crops; but from the 
Scotch experiments, what are called special 
manures, (those above mentioned — saline ma- 
nures,) take precedence of guano on the cere- 
als. — It ought perhaps, however, to be staled, 
that Henry Coleman, in his work on Euro- 
pean Agriculture, writes rather disparagingly 
of the nitrates, and thinks they serve mainly, 
to increase the amount of straw, without a 
correspondent benefit to the grain; I consider 
it however, much safer to rely upon the accu- 
rate Scotch experiments, than upon the gene- 
ral, and perhaps loose opinion of the distin- 
guished author above referred to. I will men- 
lion as I pass on, that guano compares well 
with any manures on grass, as a top-dressing. 
Many of the Scotch experiments have been 
conducted with the special object of ascertain- 
ing the permanent effect of guano. In these ex- 
periments, the comparison is made with twenty 
or thirty tons of faim-yard manure, and three 
crops taken off of each parcel of land ; that is 
from the one dressed with guano, and the olher 
with farm-yard manure. The guano beats the 
first year, the farm-yard manure is a shade 
better in the second crop, (generally oats or 
clover,) and but little difference in the third 
But I have noticed some five or six experi- 
ments in which the comparison was made 
with the produce of a plat of land without 
any manure, and with this, the guano main- 
tained its superiority the first, second, and 
third year. A theoretical view confirms the 
idea of the lasting effect of guano. Two hun- 
dred and fifty lbs. is the ordinary dressing for 
an acre of wheat; this contains sixty two lbs. 
of phosphate of lime. Now, if the wheat 
drew altogether from the guano and nothing 
from the land, a fair crop (from the analysis 
of that plant,) would not contain more than 
twenty lbs. of phosphate of lime, and as this 



substance is permanent and not subject to eva- 
poration, the residue, after supplying the 

wheat crop, is left for the uses of subsequent 
crops. I have carefully looked through the 
last Patent Office Report (for 1849 and 1850,) 
through the numbers of the Southern Planter 
for two years back, and Professor M apes' and 
Skinner's, and several other agricultural pa- 
pers, and although the experiments mentioned 
in these papers show favorable results for 
guano, yet I have not met with a solitary sa- 
tisfactory experiment; that is, where a com- 
parison was made with nothing, or farvi-yard 
'manure, and the produce of straw, and grain, 
accurately measured or weighed and the nett 
product, after paying for investment and appli- 
cation, of each, contrasted. I have therefore 
not collated these experiments. 

The field for accurate experiment on Indian 
corn and tobacco, may be said to be untrodden, 
new and full of interest. There were eight or 
ten experiments reported at our last meeting 
of the effects of guano on tobacco, but no 
member weighed the guano-dressed tobacco, but 
merely spoke of its general appearance. 

The ash of Indian corn contains a large 
amount of phosphoric acid — tobacco compa- 
ratively little. The ammonia of guano would 
probably have a fine effect on tobacco, as 
most nitrogenous manures favor the growth of 
leaf. 

I must express an impression (although a 
mere theory,) I have, of the value of the ni- 
trates as a manure for tobacco. These sub- 
stances, even when applied to other crops, have 
a decided tendency to increase the leafy or 
carbonaceous part of the plant, and as tobacco 
contains more nitrate of potash, than perhaps 
any other plant, it must exact a good deal of 
this substance from any soil in which it flou- 
rishes. 

'There is great encouragement to use special 
manures on tobacco; it pays better per acre, 
than any other crop. Fifteen bushels is a fair 
crop of wheat per acre. Now, if the guano 
increases the crop thirty p?r cent., at ftl, the 
increased product is worth $4 50. Eight hun- 
dred pounds is a good crop of tobacco per 
acre; at $7 per hundred, it would be worth 
$56. Thirty per cent, on this is $1G 80. 

There are occasional drawbacks on the 
profits from the use of these condensed or spe- 
cial manures that ought to be calculated. 

1. Drought has a considerable effect on most 
of them. 

2. The diseases to which the wheat crop, 
the tobacco crop, and the potato crop are lia- 
ble. If the wheat crop fails from rusi ; the to- 
bacco crop from fire, or rot; or the poiafb crop 
from disease, the planter at least loses the vo- 
latile parts of these manures, besides his loss 
of labor in cultivating his crop. 

Another ingredient in the calculation of the 
profit of guano, is the probable error in the 
average of experiments, by occasionally mix- 
ing the dishonest statements of those inte- 
rested in the guano trade, with others that are 



116 



THE SOU T H ERN PL A N T E R 



trae. It, is tlie interest of some to exaggerate j 
its efficacy, of none to depreciate it. 

The frauds practised in England, by adulte- ! 
rating guano, have been so frequent and f/ottl, ; 
that it ought to be a warning 10 our Legisla ! 
lure to enact the strictest inspection laws; and i 
turn out every incompetent inspector, should 
cue be unfortunately appointed. To repeal the I 
inspection law for guano might inflict a blow 
upon the prosperity of our State, that would 
be felt through all time. Adulterated guano j 
might destroy the reputation of the genuine i 
article as a manure, ann it might fall into , 
diouse. 

George W. Read. 



OLD HORSES. 



Another great mistake if? made by many i 
persons in considering thai old horses 
should be indulged by an extra allowance J 
of rest compared to that which is permitted i 
the young ones of their stud. The incen- 
tive to such practise is amiable, hut it is at 
the same time a mistaken one. Old horses 
cannot bear entire rest; they may be fa- 
vored as to the frequency of calling forth 
great exertion from them, but a couple of 
days of entire rest brings on all their old 
aches and pains arising from work, blows 
and falls. Exercise is life to them; it keeps 
the vital functions going, and the limbs, that 
regular and daily exeicise keeps pliant, 
become stiff and rigid by continued ab- 
sence of motion; any exertion under such 
circumstances is attended with pain, and 
if an old horse is still in a state to work 
without pain to himself, the only way to 
enable him to do so is to keep him goincr. 
If a young hcrse should he stiff ihe day af- 
ter hunting, in him all the vital functions 
are in such full play that rest will restore 
hie limbs to their wonted elasticity; not so 
with the old one; his flagging energies 
must be quickened by motion, or swelled 
legs, general stillness, and consequent dis- 
inclination to motion, from the pain it cre- 
ates, is the certain consequence. In corro- 
boration of what 1 state I will refer to ma- 
chinorSjin other words, stase-coach horses; 
many a team of these, composed of four 
highly bred old cripples, would gallop over 
their five or six miles of ground at the rate 
of 14- miles an hour, and return in the. same 
stage in the evening without, figuratively 
speaking, turning a hair, or requiring a 
touch of the whip; and would do such work 
better by far than young ones, and why they 
would do so arose from the following 
causes: being old cripples as they were. 



they could be got, in stable phrase, "of a 
pretty good family; 7 ' that is, so very high- 
ly bred, that, had they been young, or at 
all sound, ihey could not have been pur- 
chased at coach price, and. if unbred, they 
could not have stood the pace. Such high- 
ly-bred horses had years of hard keep in 
them; the work they had all their lives 
been at kept them clear in their wind, ami 
a fast pace had from use become natural 
to then). If these same horses were put to 
a long statue, where they worked two days 
and rested one, the two horses rested would, 
so far from being in the best state of the 
four to commence their sta^e, come out of 
the stables as stifi'as if they had no joints to 
their limbs, nor till they had hobbled and 
cantered a couple of miles could they set- 
tle to anything like a trot. Old hunters 
are, in a mitigated way, similarly affected 
by absence of exercise. We all know lhat 
aged horses will stand more work than 
verv young ones; but neither will stand 
gr^at exertion and long rest alternately. — 
The Hunting Field. 



From the Alabama Planter. 
GOOBERS OR GROUND PEAS. 

Messrs Editors, — Perhaps nothing has 
been more injurious to the South than the 
idea that no product, was really worth a 
planter's attention other than corn or cot- 
ton — that ground pras, potatoes, beets, 
carrots, parsnips, turnips, garden vegeta- 
bles and the like, were too small things to 
en<zaiie the attention of a southern planter. 
A few sweet potatoes have a passing no- 
tice; and at random, a little patch is sown 
wit It turnip seed and a lew collar ds plant- 
ed out. This is about the extent of etfort, 
if it can be dignified with the name of ef- 
fort, in this way. 

Now, this is all wrong. Some little im- 
provement is indeed making, and I trust it 
is but i lie beginning of belter days in this 
respect. Even this dry season, I know a 
gentleman who planted about an acre in 
goobers. Some part of it was shaded and 
some trodden as a part of a yard. He 
turned his hogs on it before commencing 
dinging, and far some ten days the hogs 
and negroes contended who should <jet the 
most. When done the negroes had about 
forty bushels. The owner thinks thai the 
product was at least sixty bushels They 
sold readily in Macon, Miss., at one dol- 
lar per bushel. 



THE SOUTHERN PL ANTE II. 



117 



The best plan I have seen devised yet 
for gathering goobers, is to let. one hand 
take a spade or strong iron shovel, run it 
down beside the hill, take it up and throw 
dirt and pens into a sieve that another 
standing by holds, who sifts out the dirt 
and casts the peas into a basket at hand. 
In ibis way a hand will gather lour or five 
bushels per day. 

I. D. 



M AS 9 A C IT CJ S E T T S L E G I S L A T I VE 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

On Tuesday evening, Gov. Lincoln had 
been expected to preside at the 3d meet- 
ing. But Hon. E K. Whitaker, lor the 
Committee, read a letter from him, regret- 
ting that previous engagements prevented 
his attendance. 

General Dearborn, Mayor of Roxbury, 
was invited to take the Chair, and preside 
for the evening. Mr. Dearborn spoke for 
nearly an hour. He said we were indebted 
to General Washington, more than lo any 
other man, lor interest, in agriculture. From 
some inexplicable cause, the National Go- 
vernment had not done ils duty in fostering 
this great interest. Massachusetts may 
claim to have entered upon this cause 
nearly as early as any other State. Not 
enough had been done by government. It 
was left for individuals to advance the 
cause. Immense advances have been made 
abroad. If the same intelligence isdevoted 
to agriculture that has been to mechanics, 
jurisprudence, &c. the result would be as 
creditable. We require seminaries where 
every branch of industry may be repre- 
sented. 

Hon. B. V. French being called upon, 
said he had nothing new to offer. If it was j 
desired, he could repeat some of his former 
remarks. He detailed the practice of Mr. 
Smith of Deanston, thorough draining, and 
also his introduction of the subsoil plough 
with which he ploughed 16 inches in depth. 
Mr. F. said he had benefited his awn lands 
by opening trenches, filling with siones 
and building his stone walls on the top of 
them. 

Gov. Hill of New Hampshire, said he had 
for several years been interested in the 
matter of subsoil ploughing. He has sixty 
acres on which he has u-ed the subsoil 
plough with marked effect. The lightest 
soils may thus be made most valuable for 
cultivation, because they can be cultivated 
at the least expense. Capital may be as well 



employed here as 1000 miles West. lie 
is of opinion that manure does not operate 
below! where the. soil has been stirred. He, 
hoped the farmers of Worcester county 
would give their attention to the subject. 
lion. Mr. Walker, Secretary of the ( <em- 
monwealth, had made some experiments. 
lie regarded thorough draining as very 
profitable. Was surprised at its effects in 
bringing in fine grasses — while clover, 
herdsgrass, &c. without manure. He 
throws the mud but one side; the gravel 
out on the other side; digs four feet deep 
or more — then fills up within a foot, of the 
top with small stones, inverts the turf and 
fills up. 

Gen. dishing read a letter from a friend 
that has practised thorough draining in 
Scotland. Shallow draining had fallen 
there into disrepute. Root* of cereals would 
average 13 inches in length where soil wa.s> 
made deep by the subsoil plough. 

Daniel Pratt, Jr. of Chelsea, requested 
five minutes, and said that physical labor 
alone was not enough. Mental labor v\as 
required to make agricullure avai'able. 
He then made some discursive remarks on 
mechanism, &c. 

f£^T In allusion to the remarks of the 
gentleman from New Hampshire, Rev. 
Mr. Sawyer proposed this: — 

"The Plains of Massachusetts give their 
thanks to ihe Hills of New Hampshire. — 
Piltsfield Cullurust. 



THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

There has been no period since the com- 
mencement of the world in which so many 
important discoveries, tending to ihe ben- 
efit of mankind, were made as in the last 
half century. Some of the most, wonder- 
ful results of human intellect have been 
witnessed in the last fifty years. Some of 
the grandest conceptions of genius have 
been perfected. It is remarkable how the 
mind of the world has run into scientific 
investigation, and what achievements it 
has effected in that short period. Before 
the year 1S00, ihere was not a single steam 
boat in existence, and the application of 
steam to machinery was unknown. Ful- 
ton hunched trw first steam boat in 1807. 
Now there are three thousand steam boals 
traversing the waters of America, and the 
lime saved in travel is equal to seventy 
per cent. The rivers of every country in 
the world, nearly, are traversed by steam 



ns 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



boats. In 1800 there was not a single rail 
road in the world. In the United States 
alone there are now 8,797 miles of rail road, 
costing $286,000,000' to build, and about 
22,000 miles of rail road in England and 
America. The locomotive will now travel 
in as many hours, a distance which in 1800 
required as many days to accomplish. In 
1800 it took weeks to convey intelli- 
gence between Philadelphia and New 
Orleans; now it can be accomplished in 
minutes through the electric telegraph, 
which only had its beginning in 1843. Vol- 
atism was discovered in March, 1800. The 
electro magnet in 1S21. Electro-typing 
was discovered only a few years ago. 
Hoe's printing press, capabie of printing 
10,000 copies an hour, is a very recent dis- 
covery, but of a most important character. 
Gas lighi was unknown in 1800; now eve- 
ry city and town of any pretence are light- 
ed with it, and we have jthe announce- 
ment of a still greater discovery by which 
light, heat, and motive power may be all 
produced from water, with scarcely any 
cost. Daguerre communicated to the world 
his beautiful invention in 1S39. — Gun cot- 
ton and chloroform are discoveries of but a 
few years old. Astronomy has added a 
number of new planets to the solar sys- 
tem. Agricultural chemistry has enlarged 
the domain of knowledge in that impor- 
tant branch of scientific research, and me- 
chanics have increased the facilities for 
production, and the means of accomplish- 
ing an amount of labor which far tran- 
scends the ability of united manual effort 
to accomplish. The triumphs achieved in 
this lasi branch of discovery and invention, 
are enough to mark the last, half century 
as that which has most contributed to aug- 
ment personal comforts, enlarge the en- 
joyments, and add to the blessings of man. 
What will the next half century accom- 
plish? We may look for still greater dis- 
coveries; for the intellect of man is awake, 
exploring every mine of knowledge, and 
searching for useful information in every 
department of art and industry. — Phila- 
delphia Ledger. 



though everything around is deluged with 
wet. Its exuberant and web-like roots, 
issuing as they do from every portion of 
the branches, and running all over the sur- 
face on which it grows, bind everything 
together that comes within their reach 
with such a firm and intricate lace work, 
that not a single stone can be removed 
from its position without first tearing away 
its protecting safeguard. In proof of this, 
we refer to ruins of ancient castles and 
buildings; for, while in those parts of the 
structure that have not the advantage of 
this protection, all has gone to utter decay; 
where the ivy has thrown its preserving 
mantle, everything is comparatively per- 
fect and fresh, and oftentimes the very 
angles of the sculptured stone are found 
to be almost as sharp and entire as when 
first they came from the hand of the 
builder. — Am. Agriculturist. 



IVY ON BUILDINGS. 

It is a mistaken idea that ivy renders a 
structure damp, and hastens its decay. On 
the contrary, nothing so effectually keeps 
the building dry, as may be seen by ex- 
amining beneath the ivy after rain, when 
it will be found that the walls are dry, 



From the Lexington Gazette. 

THREE-HORSE PLOUGHS. 

Have you tried the three-horse plough, my 
brother farmer'? Some in Rockbridge have, 
I know. Did you ever know a man who had 
given a good three-borse plough a fair trial, 
throw it aside, and take his two-horse again 1 
I think not. It is a trite but sound adage, that 
"whateverisworth doing is worth doing well ;" 
and, in nothing that man employed his skill 
upon, is the adage more appropriate than in 
ploughing. Good ploughing is the very foun- 
dation of a farmer's success. Without it, he 
may rise early aud eat the bread of industry, 
but, if his ground is not thoroughly broke and 
well tilled, he will be but poorly remunerated 
for his labor, for, " as a man soweth that shall 
he also reap." Well, is a three-horse plough 
really a desirable implement of husbandry'? 
It is. The weight of the plough is such as to 
keep it better in place than a two-horse; the 
ground is therefore more uniformly broke. It 
cuts a wider and deeper furrow when properly 
drawn, and hence, declares a war of extermi- 
nation upon brier roots, &c. Owing to its 
weight, it requires a little more "elbow grease" 
in turning at the end of "a land," but less than 
a two-horse at other times. Superadded to its 
other advantages, the three-horse plough forti- 
fies the farmer more fully against the effects 
of dry weather upon his crops, and of washing 
rains upon his land. I consider this last, itself 
a sufficient inducement to the use of three- 
horse ploughs. Just try them, and it will do 
your "very heart good" to see how old mother 
earth "goes curling" before, and what a fur- 
row, dark and deep, they leave behind them. 
If your land is \\ stiff sod", the McCormick pat- 
tern with a cutter in front may suit best, but, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



119 



in most cases the "graceful Livingston" is all 
you could desire. Don't be scared by what 
you may bear as to the rapid wear of its cast 
points. When at a summer or fall fallow, you 
will find them to wear pretty rapidly, but just 
lay aside those half-worn points until winter, 
the time at which corn ground should be broke, 
and you will find them to do your ploughing 
well. 



Blake. 



From the Germantown Telegraph. 
PLASTER OF PARIS. 

Plaster of Paris, or sulphate of lime, which 
is now so universally used in farming pursuits, 
is a compound, as I presume most of your 
readers know, of sulphuric acid and lime. It 
exists in abundant quantities, in a native state, 
both for artistical and agricultural purposes, 
and has been recommended by many for the 
same use as muriate of lime — the fixing of 
ammonia — but it is generally regarded, and 
with justice, as greatly inferior to that article, 
as it is of difficult solubility; at a temperature 
of sixty degrees, one part only of gypsum being 
soluble in four hundred and sixty parts of wa- 
ter; and even the solution of this compara- 
tively insignificant quantity cannot be pel'ectly 
effected with the previous trituration of the 
gypsum and masceration for a long period of 
time. Il has, however, a very beneficial effect 
upon vegetation, especially upon clover plants, 
and for top-dressing, where the crop and soil 
are favorable to its application, is probably the 
cheapest and most economical mineral that 
can be applied, all things considered. 

The following from " SprengcVs Analysis" 
exhibits a tabular view, of the quantity of lime 
and magnesia, sulphuric and phosphoric acids 
in one hundred thousand parts of several of 
our most common and valuable ciops: 

Lime. Mail. Sul.Acid. Phos.Acid. 



Wheat, 


96 


60 


50 


496 


Barley, 


103 


180 


59 


210 


Oats, 


86 


67 


35 


70 


Potatoes, 


33 


32 


54 


40 


Cabbages, 


1822 


202 


474 


436 


S. Turnips 


835 


289 


890 


408 


W. Straw, 


240 


33 


37 


170 


B. Straw, 


534 


76 


118 


160 


Oat Straw, 


152 


22 


79 


12 


R. Clover, 


584 


70 


94 


138 


Turnip, 


127 


22 


41 


73 


Beet, 


285 


133 


123 


167 



The practical reader will not fail to notice 
that red clover contains, according to the above 
analysis, a very large proportion of lime: 
hence the very decided action of sulphate of 
lime on this crop, when sown on soils not na- 
turally affluent in this substance, or in which 
it does not abound in sufficient quantity to sub- 
serve the wants of the crop they are required 



to sustain. I cannot vouch for the stiict ac- 
curacy of the above table, but presume from 
the high character of the source whence it 
emanates, that it presents a very near approxi- 
mation to the actual truth, and more especially 
is this conviction impressed by the corroborat- 
ing fact that it quadrates very nearly with the 
deductions of others who have examined it 
with attention and practical skill. 

Cabbages are, I believe, ordinarily consi- 
dered both here and in Europe, a very exhaust- 
ing and emasculating crop— except on soils of 
a certain class. This will be easily explained 
when we reflect upon the comparatively and 
really large quantity of lime required to per- 
fect the plants. Unless the soil be strongly 
calcaieous, the chances against success are 
fearfully numerous, and hence it results that 
both in the field and garden cultivation of this 
vegetable, the application of ashes and lime, 
in some of its compounds, and in large quan- 
tities, produce such decidedly good results. 
A Montgomery County Farmer. 

Gwynedd, December 6, 1850. 



COMPOST FOR FRUIT TREES. 

Fruit trees must be fed, if we would 
have them thrive and bear. Decaying 
leaves or the scrapings from the forest 
form one of the best ingredients for com- 
post designed lor any kind of fruit trees. 
Mr. Downing, a distinguished fruit cultu- 
rist, and the editor of the Horticulturist, 
gives it as his opinion that the best com- 
post adapted for general use, with fruit 
trees, is that composed of swamp muck, or 
the black, decayed vegetable matter to be 
obtained from low grounds, mixed with 
wood ashes, at the rate of five bushels of 
fresh ashes or twice that quantity of leach- 
ed ashes to a wagon load. This furnishes 
not only the requisite vegetable matter, 
but also those mineral manures which are 
essential 1o the production of fine fruit. 
This compost he would modify as follows, 
to adapt, it to the different varieties of fruit 
trees. 

For Apple Trees. — To every cart load 
of muck and lime mixture, after it has lain 
a fortnight, add two bushels of air slaked 
lime. 

Pear Trees. — To every cartload of the 
muck and ashes mixlure, add a bushel of 
ground or dissolved bones, and two bush- 
els of leached ashes. 

Plum Trees. — To every cart load of 
the muck and ashes mixture, add half a 
bushel of lime, half a bushel of ashes, and 
a peck of salt. 



120 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Grape Vines — To every cart load of 
the muck and ashes mixture, add a bushel 
of lime, a bushel of ashes, and halfa bushel 
of gypsum or plaster. — Maine Farmer. 



Prom the Germantovvn Telegraph. 
PREPARATION OF CLOVERSEED. 

For several years past severe losses 
have been experienced by our farmers, an- 
nually, in consequence, as many have sup- 
posed, of sowing- bad seed. Others again 
have attributed the failure to drought, 
which prevented the germination of the 
see^l, or effected its destruction after ii had 
germinated and began to grow. All these 
causes, doubtless, have had their full share 
in producing the evil complained of; but 
we cannot, help thinking that, notwithstand- 
ing the introduction of much bad seed, and 
the occasional effect of severe drought, in 
some sections, the failure complained of 
might with proper attention in selecting 
and sowing the seed, have been in a great 
measure prevented. It is, perhaps, gene- 
rally well known, that clover seed germi- 
nates slowly, and that the plants, during 
the earlier stages of their develeperaent 
are peculiarly fragile, and liable to be de- 
stroyed by a privation of water, or by the 
suffocating and stultifying influences ex- 
erted by the grains in connexion with 
which they commonly take root. 

The latter evil is far more extensive and 
Fatal in its effects, unquestionably, than 
many arc prepared to suppose. I observed 
a field the past season, through which a 
narrow strip had been left unsown, in con- 
sequence of want of seed; but which had | chem 
been sown with herdsgrass and clover, the 



it an excellent plan to roll lands intended 
to be laid to grass. For this purpose, I 
have a "drag roller" which is expediti- 
ously formed by attaching a chain to a 
common drag by a clevis fastened to one 
side, in order that the length of the drag 
may be at right angles with the direction 
of draught. This allows the drag to swing 
clear of permanent, obstructions, and fin- 
ishes off the surface much more tho- 
roughly than any other instrument I have 
ever used. 

In laying lands to grass. I never sow my 
seed with the grain. The frequent fail- 
ures which perplex and discourage the far- 
mer, in his attempts to stock his lands, are, 
in my opinion, attributable to the natural 
effects of this practice. I prefer harrowing 
or ploughing my stubble grounds, after the 
grain has been taken off, and sowing on 
my seed, care being taken to cover it tho- 
roughly but not deeply, and to compress 
the surlace and render it perfectly smooth 
and level with theirnplement above named; 
or. if there are rocks or other obstacles in 
the way, which would render its operation 
imperfect or inefficient, with the heavy 
cylindrical roll. Seed put in in this way, 
rarely fails to "come" well, and if the 
ground is in good condition, the growth 
will be rapid and vigorous, and the grasses 
more forward at the close of the season, 
than if sown with the grain in the spring. 
A Montgomery County Farmer. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH "PURE BI- 
PHOSP HATES" 

The following is ihe experiment with this 



Johnson, of Maryland, referred to in the ad- 
vertisement of Messrs. Kettlewell & Davidson, 
published in our March number: 



game as the residue of the field, which had 
been laid to grass with oats. On this strip, 
the grasses presented a most beautiful and 
luxuriant appearance, while on those por- 
tions which had produced oats, scarcely a 
plant was to be seen! 

In the preparation of clover seed, I have 
ever found that soaking for a day or two in 
warm water, in which a small quantity of 
common salt has been dissolved, has usu- 
ally produced the beet results. But even 

this precaution against failure, will be of. "P OT » ,! : e particular theory of manuring the 
little use unless the seed be carefully co- trm[ \° ' W1,ch ¥ this experiment w»s desurneu 



Mr. Editor.-- Some time ago I promised to 
furnish you for publication in your valuable 
paper, a statement ofjfacte, in relation loan 
experiment made upon the farm of the Hon. 
Reverdy Johnson. Proti acted and severe in- 
disposition has prpvented me from sooner com- 
plying with my promise. 

I shall not trouble you with a disquisition 



vercd. On the contrary, seed that has 
been soaked, ii* it be not covered immedi- 
ately, and at a sufficient depth after sow- 
ing, will be much more liable to fail, than 
that sown in ita natural state. I have found 



to establish. It is the theory of Liehig, fami- 
liar to all intelligent farmers. 

Several excellent writers and intelligent ag- 
riculturists have attempted both in Eoroj eand 
the United Slates, to overthrow this theory; 
argmnenis have been used for this purpose, the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



121 



force of which I have been unable lo appreci- 
ate, and experiments made, the accuracy of 
which 1 amcompelled lo think at least ques- 
tionable. 

My sole object in making the experiment in 
question, was to ascertain facts, and my pur- 
pose now is to submit these facts-, through the 
median) oi' your paper, to the consideration of 
those who are more capable than myself of 
deducing from them true and reliable princi- 
ples for the application of manures. About 
thirteen months ago, Mr. Johnson acquired 
the farm upon which this experiment was 
made, situated about two and a half miles west 
of Baltimore. Believing the land susceptible 
of improvement, and desirous to effect his ob- 
ject by any reasonable outlay of money, he 
sought information from several persons as to 
the best mode of doing it — I was one of those 
consulted— I explained to him the theory of 
Liebig, and urged its adoption, by such argu- 
ments and illustrations, as occurred to me at 
the time; his consent was easily obtained, to j 
an experimental test of this theory upon a part i 
of a field, then about to be laid down to wheat, j 
The farm contains about three hundred j 
acres, two hundred of which are cleared — I 
The land originally good, had been utterly j 
impoverished by a long couise of bad hus- 
bandry. 

The soil contains a very large proportion of 
iron. So complete was its exhaustion, that 
when I first saw it all the vegetable matters 
growing upon the two hundred acres of cleared 
land, (including the briers, sassafras and other 
bushes,) carefully collected, would have been 
insufficient for the manufacture of one four- 
horse load of barn-yard manure. The field 
selected for experiment contains ten acres, 
embracing the slopes of two hills, and a small 
valley intersecting it diagonally. It was at 
that time in corn, and did not produce one peck 
of corn to the acre, although it had been cul- 
tivated in the usual manner, and with ordinary 
care, and the season had been not below the 
average of seven years. 

I procured the services of Dr. David Stew- 
art, so justly distinguished for his scientific 
attainments and the accuracy of his chemical 
analyses; who rode out with me to the farm, 
and selected himself the samples of the soil. 
These samples he analyzed most carefully and 
minutely, and having ascertained the defective 
elements, prepared a recipe by which the pro- 
posed manure was compounded, by those skil- 
ful gentlemen, Messrs. Kettlewell & Davison. 
The corn was then cut up at the ground and 
removed; the field ploughed, harrowed, and 
laid off into sixteen and a half foot lands. — 
The preparation was then scattered regularly 
over it, costing (all told,) ten dollars per acre. 
One and a quarter bushels of Mediterranean 
wheat were sown to the acre, about the first 
of November, and harrowed in. No barn-yard 
or other manure was used. The yield was 
more than twenty-nine bushels per acre, al- 



though the crop was badly harvested, and the 
field not subsequently rak< d. 

I send you herewith a note from Dr. Stew- 
art, containing the analysis of the soil, and 
his reasons for using the particular preparation 
employed, which 1 beg you will append to this 
hasty and necessarily imperfect communica- 
tion. If the account here given of this re- 
markably successful experiment, shall induce 
a few of our enlightened fanners to investigate 
this subject; or aid in establishing the truth of 
the great principles which it was designed lo 
illustrate. If it shall convince anyone of the 
necessity of ascertaining the disease of the 
soil, before ptescribing the remedy, and of the 
great value of chemical science as applicable 
toonrnoble pio.'ession, I shall be amply repaid 
for any trouble bestowed upon the experiment, 
or upon this communication. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. O. Wharton. 

P. S — Tt is due to the public and to Messrs. 
Kettlewell and Davison, to say, that the pre- 
paration made and sold by them, under the 
name of " Renovator, or Chemical Salts," was 
also used upon this farm at the same time, and 
upon similarland with marked effect, and there 
can be no doubt of its value upon soils like this. 

Bullimore, 19/A September, 1853. 
To Dr. Wharton: 

Dear Sir, — 1 take my pen to comply with 
your request that 1 should state to you the rea- 
son for using the bi-phosphaie of lime on a 
soil; in the examination of which we were 
both very much interested about a year since. 
It affords me much pleasure to comply with 
this request, as 1 know that you can appreciate 
the laoor of a careful analysis. 

I find in my note book the following com- 
ment, made on the occasion of our visit to the 
farm: "Sample of soil from the farm ol the 
Hon. R.J. yielding about a half a peck of corn 
per acre." 

Sand and bases insoluble, 71.20 

Lime, 0J 30 

Magnesia, C0.40 

Manganese, 00.10 

Potash, 00 23 

Water and organic matter, 10.07 

Phosphoric Acid, no appreciable 
trace, 00.00 

Iron and Alumina, 17.70 



100 00 
Remarks. — The above contains as much lime 
and magnesia as could be furnished by a dress- 
ing of one hundred and fifty bushels "per acre, 
although no lime has ever been applied to this 
farm. It also contains as much potash per 
acre as could be obtained from about six hun- 
dred bushels of best green sand, or several 
times that quantity of the best hickory ashes. 
But there is no doubt but that the latter Mould 
benefit it to some extent, on account of the 
phosphoric acid which exists in the ashes of 



122 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



wood, and which is deficient in this soil. The 
same remark may be made of lime, which con- 
tains a trace of phosphoric acid, and some- 
times one or two per cent. But another re- 
markable feature in the soil, is the immense 
quantity of iron it contains, at least six times as 
much as usually occurs in soils. [Phosphates 
had been applied to a field in Frederick County 
without any effect. The failure was attributed 
to the presence of a large quantity of iron in 
the soil, but upon analysis I find fifteen bushels 
of phosphate of lime in each acre, equal to 
about two thousand lbs. of guano, sufficiently 
accounting for the failure of this article, as it 
is manifest that the soil did not require it.] 
Now, as this soil contains an abundance of 
every other material except phosphoric acid, 
and the large quantity of iron is capable of 
supplying all the ammonia that the crop may 
require, the most economical dressing is the 
purest preparation of phosphoric acid that we 
can adapt to agricultural purposes; our object 
being to avoid ihe expense of hauling, and pay 
only for what the land requires. The result 
has proved that bones dissolved in oil of vit- 
riol — in other words, bi-phosphate of lime re- 
duced to powder with slaked ashes — supplies 
the deficiency in the soil where no phosphoric 
acid exists, while phosphate of lime applied 
to soils containing an appreciable quantity of 
phosphoric acid has no effect. I know that 
some object, that it is difficult, and others say 
impossible, to appreciate a few hundred pounds 
of phosphate of lime when distributed on an 
aero; but they seem to forget that it may be 
very easy to measure the quantity of water 
that will cause a vessel to overflow when full, 
although it may be impossible to measure its 
contents accurately, or sound iis depth. That 
which causes it to overflow (however small 
the proportion) corresponds with the quantity 
of phosphoric acid which, when added to a 
soil, renders it productive — any lesser amount, 
however minute, is the cause of sterility. — 
We assert that we can detect it in every pro- 
ductive soil, and if it cannot be detected, it is 
fair to infer that it should be applied, if we ex- 
pect to remove grasses and wheat w hich always 
contain it. On the other hand, should it exist 
in appreciable quantity, we save the expense 
of applying ten dollars per acre in the form of 
guano or bones, and substitute some other ma- 
terial that is deficient. In order more fully to 
illustrate ihis principle, I will show you below 
the qualitative analyses of three soils. 

The first, a soil from Frederick County — 
limed seventy-five bushels per acre— yielding 
the best crop of wheat in the neighborhood. 

The second, from Delaware — limed thirty 
bushels per acre. Before liming, it yielded 
twelve bushels of corn per acre; after liming, 
twenty-four bushels. 

The third is from the neighborhood of Bal 
limore, and is being limed. 

One thousand drops of distilled water, in \ 



passing through one pint of the soil, during 
twenty-four hours, dissolved — 

1st. 2d. 3d. 



Grains of solid ma- 






terial, 


0001.10 


0000.60 0000.30 


Specific gravity of 




* 


soluiion, 


0001.00 


0000.40 0000.10 


Inorganic matter in 






do. 


0000.90 


0000.20 


Lime & Magnesia, 


0.50 


15 0.7 


Potash, 


0.10 


003 Trace. 


Soda, 


01 


002 001 


Chlorine, 


0.01 


0.01 Trace. 


Sulphuric Acid, 


0.02 


0.01 Trace. 



If one grain of plaster should exist in a 
square foot of the soil, it would not only be 
easily delected, but weighed. This is a mode 
of analysis that I have devised for determining 
the immediate wants of a soil — rot estimating 
those substances that may be set free by sub- 
sequent disintegration. By the percolation of 
pure cold water, you obtain a view of what 
the soil would present to th^ next crop through 
the rain. 

It is demonstrated, then, that bones, lime, 
plaster and salt, are only relatively good: that 
even the best guano must fail when applied 
to soils that require some other substance; that 
the experience of the most intelligent and best 
farmers in the State, with regard to the compa- 
rative value of bones and lime, is worthless, ex- 
cept he can also prove that all farms are com- 
posed of the same proportion of lime, phos- 
phoric acid, &c. But the prejudice against 
these doctrines is so strong that personal abuse 
is frequently fulminated against those who 
deny the universal application of any means, 
or the value to the public of any multitude of 
experiments except the covxposition of the soil upon 
which the various experiments were tried, is also 
given. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

David Stewart, M. D. 
No. 77, N. Eutaw st. 



From the Baltimore Sun. 

ANALYSES OF GUANO. 

Laboratory of the State Chemist,) 
No. 78 North Eutaw Street, $ 

Messrs. Editors, — As the following is of 
interest to a large class of your readers, 
will you please give it an insertion in your 
paper: 

Having had numerous queries pro- 
pounded to me as to the quality of the 
guano now in market. I here publish for the 
information of the agricultural community 
the following analyses of several cargoes, 
recently imported, and now offered for 
sale. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



123 



The samples, with one exception, were 
furnished to me by Mr. N. E. Berry, com- 
mission merchant, No. 8, Light street 
wharf: 

Sample from ship Greyhound was com- 
posed of: water, 10.00 per cent.; ammonia, 
15.28 per cent.; sand and earthy matter, 
1 40 per cent.; organic carbonaceous mat- 
ter and other constituents, 41.32 per cent.; 
phosphates, 32.00 per cent. 

Sample from ship Albany was composed 
of: water, 13.00 per cent.; ammonia, 13.94 
per cent.; sand and earthy matter, 1.40 per 
cent.; organic carbonaceous matter and 
other constituents, 40.46 per cent.; phos- 
phates, 31.20 per cent. 

Sample from ship Brooklyn was com- 
posed of: ammonia, 12.09 per cent; sand 
and earthy matter, 0.90 percent.; water, 9.50 
per cent.; carbonaceous matter and other 
constituents, 51.71 per cent.; phosphates, 
25.80 per cent. 

Sample from ship Chapin was composed 
of: water, 10.20 per cent ; ammonia, 18.14 
per cent.; sand and earthy matter, 4.00 per 
cent.; organic carbonaceous matter and 
other constituents, 40.06 per cent; phos- 
phates, 27.60 per cent. 

Sample of a specimen of Patagonian 
guano, none of which is imported directly 
here, as far as I know, but comes by way 
of New York: water, 11.50 per cent; am- 
monia, 2 86 per cent.; sand and earthy 
matter, 10.00 per cent.; organic carbonace- 
ous matter and other constituents, 33.24 
per cent; phosphates, 42.40 per cent. ,- 

I did not make the above analyses in a 
very elaborate manner — that is, I have not 
given the quantities separately of many 
things of no particular value, such as ona- 
lates, &c. the enumeration of which con- 
vey to the mind of the non-professional 
reader no definite idea. Indeed, from many 
of the published analyses of guano, one 
cannot judge of its agricultural value. 
When, for instance, one number represents 
several different things, it cannot be told 
how much of either is present; it may as 
likely be nine-tenths of one substance as 
another, and so its agricultural value can- 
not be determined. 

In the above, the ammonia, already pre- 
sented, together with that capable of be- 
ing formed by the decomposition of the 
elements of the guano, is estimated, and 
its phosphoric acid, the relative quantity 
of which is shown under the head of phos- 
phates. The guano also contains a little 
chloride of sodium (common salt) with 
some potash and sulphuric acid; but as it 



docs not owe its peculiar value to these, I 
have not given them separately. Alto- 
gether, they seldom exceed five, and are 
sometimes less ihan two per cent. 

The first four of these samples are 
marked by Inspection No. 1, are of Peru- 
vian guano, and are sold at $48 per ton 
of 2,000 lbs. The Patagonion guano is 
marked No. 2 and sells foV $38 per ton. 

Here are four specimens of guano, sell- 
ing at the same price; their valuable con- 
stituents should be equal or nearly so; how 
is the fact: The Albany contains of am- 
monia, 13 per cent.; the Greyhound, 15.28 
percent.; the Brooklyn, 12.09 per cent.; the 
Chapin, 18.14 per cent. 

There is a difference of more than 33£ 
per cent, as to the quantity of one of the 
chief constituents, and that which gives 
Peruvian guano its peculiar distinctive va- 
lue. The other valuable constituent is the 
phosphoric acid, showing relatively as fol- 
lows: The Albany, 31.20; Greyhound, 
31.10; Brooklyn, 25.85; Chapin, 27.60. 

The difference in this is not so marked, 
but still sufficiently so as to make it a sub- 
ject of care in the purchase of the differ- 
ent cargoes, being nearly six per cent, be- 
tween the Albany and Brooklyn. The 
Patagonian, selling at $38 per ton, con- 
tains but two hundred and eighty-six per 
cent, of ammonia, whilst its phosphates ex- 
ceed those of the Peruvian. When we 
consider the absolute superiority of some 
of the above specimens over the others, 
and the value of guano to different soils, it 
is of the highest importance that its rela- 
tive value should be shown by an inspec- 
tion, that will cost those who use it nearly 
$5,000 per year. In the report which I 
made to the Legislature at its last session, 
I then insisted that the law for the inspec- 
tion of guano should cause to be shown 
what was the proportion of its valuable 
constituents, and that those in guano were 
the "ammonia already present as a salt, 
with that capable of being formed by its 
azotized matter and its phosphoric acid or 
phosphates." This is a "fixed fact," and 
the analyses above given show the neces- 
sity of the advice which 1 then urged upon 
the Legislature. 

There is no safety in buying an article 
by the mere name. The Peruvian guano 
differs very much, though it is frequently 
said to be "all alike." The Patagonian, 
being subject to more influences involving 
change, differs more widely. I have ex- 
amined some specimens containing as 
much as nine per cent, of ammonia; the 



124 



THE SOU T H ERN PLANTER 



one above contains less than three per 
cent. 

The above facts, independent of others, 
are sufficient to show the necessity to the 
agricultural interest of an inspection which 
will show the worth of the thing inspected, 
which will convey to the mind of the pur- 
chaser what he is buying- by showing the 
quantity oi" particular constituents in the 
article bought. 

The only remedy which I can at present 
suggest is, that the purchaser should insist 
on the seller guaranteeing his guano to 
contain a particular per ceniage of ainmo- 
nia and phosphoric acid, and in the event 
of this per centage not being present, then 
a pro rata deduction being made. 

I urged that, this should be provided for 
by the Legislature at its last session. 1 
have again and again insisted, that the 
planter and (armor should not purchase 
the article unless the seller would give the 
above guarantee. This should not be ob- 
jected to by any honest dealer or importer; 
and I again advise all not to buy guano 
without some arrangement of this kind be 
entered into. In England guano is offered 
for sale guarantied to contain sixteen per 
cent, of ammonia, for a less price than that 
which contains even less than twelve per 
cent. here. 

There is no reason why this should be 
the case; the purchaser should insist upon 
some guarantee as to the quantity of valu- 
able matter, when buying an article of 
which he nor the vender can know the va- 
lue. I shall furnish from time to time ana- 
lyses of the various cargoes in this port 
until all be completed. 

James Higgins, 
State Agricultural Chemist. 



For the Southern Planter. 
REVIEW OF THE FEBRUARY NUMBER. 

Mr. Editor, — The spikey roller is an entirely 
different article from ihe one described in the 
Planter of this month, and by reference to the 
November number you will see them so ex- 
pressed. Two errors appear in page 40, second 
paragraph, lGthand 17th lines: boarded should 
read banded, and ends behind should be ends 
and behind. I hope our friend, the Colonel, 
understands me. 

It' it be not "travelling out of the record" 
•Til take a step over" the last Planter. Im- 
primis, there is beauty, truth and simplicity in 
the extracts from Mr. Newton's address, and 
my knowledge of him makes them the more 
valuable to me. Guess he finds more satisfac- 



tion in the farming- than the political world. 
The fact is, men of his stamp are never pro* 
nerly estimated. The author of Arator is 
known but as a statesman. Euel,* the good 
and the wise, has gone unregarded to realms 
unknown; and the estimable head of the 
"Plough, Loom and Anvil" finds, by sad ex- 
perience, how monstrous is the task of making 
the agricultural world "do the things that 
ought to be done." G. is attempting to make 
I the worse appear the better side. The old 
wheel-horse is right sour in the intemperance 
of his style. Never saw any good salceraius 
j biscui.s yet. Peas are certainly a fine feed for 
i hogs, particularly our field pea, which, com- 
bined with the sweet poiato in cooking, is the 
\ most fattening of all hog meat, and is equally 
i as good for beeves. The article on the ma- 
nagement of negroes is th.e very best 1 have 
ever read, though the worthy author must par- 
don me lor dissenting from his mode of ele* 
vating their houses to far above the ground, 
as being obnoxious to two substantial objec- 
tions—cold in the winter, and danger from the 
1 hurricanes that prevail in the South. And I 
i would respectfully suggest the use of comforters 
in the place of blankets, particularly for fami- 
lies. Hauling logs for fuel is an immense 
saving of time and labor, for they can be 
sawed at night and morning in short lengths, 
and split out faster than shingle blocks, with 
a heavy axe. The laps, or smaller wood, 
should be hauled by carriage horses, for the 
double purpose of keeping them gentle ; j nd 
earning their food. A friend of mine, once of 
King &• Queen, practised this mode of sup- 
plying his homestead with furl. 1 think sun- 
rise, in short days, a good time enough for 
breakfast. The reclamation and draining of 
bogs having always "cost more than they 
come to," I let the Olive Branch pass. The 
farmer's elegy reminds me forcibly of the po- 
etical vagaries of old Dimock Hayes. Mr. 
| Barnum, when he look the Presidency of the 
Fairfield Agricultural Society, made, as poor 
Fleming Terry used to say, "very high aspi- 
rations." It is ardently to be desired that the 
Scuppernong grape should be extensively cul- 
tivated amongst us; it is decidedly the least 
expensive in its culture; is a heavy bearer; and 
certainly a great luxury. To Mr. Baldwin I 
would say, that as the man carries ihe um- 
brella in the summer and the overcoat in win- 
ter, so should the giound be protected in either 
season. Professor Norton is informed that 
latitude must be consulted in the successful 
propagation of the different kinds of corn. — 
Wonder if our friend of ihe White House 
(New Kent) does certainly know all about the 

* When the death of Judge Buel was made known 
I proposed lliat each subscriber to the Cultivator 
should contribute one dollar towards erecting a 
monument to the memory of a public benefactor — 
one who bad done more substantial good than all 
the warriors and statesmen of his day, but bis me- 
rits did but find a tomb. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



125 



prolific corn'? Although it is said the Profes- 
sor's examinations are plain, yet there is loo 
much of the "two and thirty syllable" in them 
for the plain yeomen, and even "Old Whack" 
could have dune as well. The colt article 
will do, though I have seen better. Remarks 
on iii-and in breeding, are in part true, though 
the celebrated Bakewell said "breed from 
your own stock until you get a better," and 
Dr. James Anderson reiterates this direciion. 
There is no controverting the doctrine of gar- 
den manures, as laid down by the Southern 
Recorder. What is said by I I. H. about 
plaster on wheat and grass may be true or not. 
The article on steam ploughing is very long. 
Lie who sings the praises of the Northern ap- 
ple, probably never tasted the Albemarle pip- 
pin or those of friend Woods. I have lately 
seen an apple that was raised on the Bordley 
lowgrounds, and although a seedling it pro- 
mises, if possible, to be superior to cither in 
flavor, and certainly in size and keeping qua- 
lities. All that is said about setting out, &c. 
is very good, and when the trees have attained 
sufficient size and strength, hogs should run 
amongst them during the fall, winter and 
spring months. Any leguminous crops, cotton, 
or potatoes, may be cultivated in the orchard 
whilst young, but no corn or straw crops. The 
Virginiaand Tennessee Railroad "I had rather 
see than hear talk of." The Patent Office ar- 
ticle reminds me of a remark seen several 
years ago in the National Intelligencer, "The 
power of party is the philosopher's stone, 
which by its transmuting powers can make 
pure gold for one, out of what was dross in 
another." 

Pray, who is using highland meadow oat? 
It is certainly the best grass for sandy soils, 
and followed by pea fallow, will make a very 
fine wheat crop. Pleased to find your valua- 
ble work meeting encouragement. 
I am yours, &c. 

Joel Younger. 

Februo/ry 25, 1851. 



with the ineandcrings of the rivers and creeks 
that bound her, to within striking distance of 
many post ofliccs which are much more than 
fifty miles from Richmond. There will be 
little trouble to ascertain what are over three 
hundred miles distant. 



EXTRACT FROM EDITOR'S CORRES- 
PONDENCE. 

"Liberia, Prince William, Marc/i29, 1851. 
"This section of Virginia has heretofore 
been remarkably badly cultivated, and conse- 
quently the lands are reduced in fertility verv 
much; but there is an evident improvement 
perceptible in the mode of culture, and with 
the use of clover, plaster, guano, &c. I anti- 
cipate a very great change, especially as we 
shall have the advantage of the Orange and 
Alexandria Railroad through the neighbor- 
hood, affording a cheap mode of transportation 
to and from market." 

We would be pleased to have a full repoit 
of experiments with clover plaster, guano, &c. 
from the above correspondent; the quantities 
applied, and to what crops, with the increase 
of product. 



POSTAGE ON THE PLANTER. 

Under the new postal law, commonly known 
as the "cheap postal bill," the charges upon 
the "Southern Planter" will be as follows: 

Beyond the county lines of Henrico — 
50 miles or less, - 5 cts. per annum. 

Over 50 and less than 300, 10 " " " 
Over 300 and less than 1000, 15 " " " 
Over 1000 and less than 2000, 20 " " " 

So soon as a list of the post offices within 
fifty miles of the county lines can be made 
out correctly, we shall publish it. The list 
will be longer than would be supposed. Hen- 
rico is not a very large county, but she stretches 



For the Southern Planter. 

! ON THE SELEC f ION OF A FARM. 

Mr. Editor, — The farmer has been compared 
\ to a general— his larm to a battle-field. If it. 
| is incumbent upon the one fighting the battle 
| of a day to be cautious in selecting his position, 
| how much more essential is that quality to the 
other preparing lor a life-time battle. The 
time was in the history of our agriculture 
when open was the watch-cry; the tall prime- 
val forest soon melted before the wood man's 
i axe. Regardless of the future, our ancestors, 
looking only to the present, with little judg- 
ment and less discretion, soon exhausted the 
shallow, yet fertile soil around them. Then 
under their system change was necessary. But 
another era has arisen. The stunted pine, the 
yawning gully, and the broomsedge have ta- 
ken the place once occupied by the giant mo- 
narchs of the wood. Now, another system 
is necessary. Improvement still opens a glo- 
rious field to the farmer, tor the full cultivation 
of which, in choosing a residence, it is need- 
less to say, he should locate for life. Allow 
one, who with Utile experience still desires to 
contribute his mite to the common good, to 
give a brief synopsis of what should influence 
one in such location. 

First, in regard to the house: he should see 
that it is easy of access, convenient to wood, 



126 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



and with an abundant supply of good water 
near; as nothing more than it contributes to 
the health and general well being of a family. 
He should observe (if there are any) whether 
the marshes and stagnant waters are west and 
south of the dwelling, as the winds which ge- 
nerally prevail during the generation of mi- 
asma blow from that quarter — if there is an 
intermediate body of woods the better. He 
should make strict enquiry into the health of 
the place, particularly if ponds or large water 
courses are adjacent. 

There are various other observations, which 
a discreet purchaser will not fail to make, viz: 
the arrangement of the interior house, its 
ventilation, and many others, which, while of 
too little importance to hinder his selection, 
should certainly have due weight in influenc- 
ing his contract. Though the house and its 
appurtenances may have all to please the eye 
and gratify the senses, yet, if the land be ori- 
ginally deficient in fertility, he should do any 
thing else than purchase. If originally fertile, 
yet impoverished by negligent culture, let him 
be assured that before him lies an ample area 
for successful improvement— for no maxim is 
more axiomatical than this, "land originally 
fertile has a strong tendency when impove- 
rished to resume its pristine state." The best 
soil is a chocolate loam. Such land is good 
for any crop. So friable as to be easily worked, 
yet so tenaceous as to resist washing. There 
are some light lands based on a clay subsoil 
that are rich and productive. The philosophy 
of deep ploughing long since taught what 
experiment has since corroborated, that the 
power of land to resist washing is increased 
in proportion to the depth it is broken. The 
rationale is this: the water is absorbed instead 
of running off. Light land at best lacks tena- 
city; its dense subsoil prevents absorption ; the 
thin surface is soon saturated. The water not 
being absorbed, running through so friable a 
soil, its effects are painfully manifested in the 
wol'ul gullies unfortunately too prevalent in 
Virginia. The scientific agriculturist tells us, 
that light lands, though quick and productive, 
are liable from their evanescent properlies to 
quick deterioration, and require a constant ap- 
plication of manure. While we admit in them 
the possession of good qualities, still we ad- 
vise a purchaser to buy such only when he can 
get none better. These remarks have special 
application to the middle region of Virginia. 
Yet though the soil may vie in fertility with 
the valley of the Nile— though health may 
take its abode in that dwelling — yet if the 
neighborhood be unsociable, it is no home for 
that man who wishes to act in harmony with 
that principle, "it is not good for man to be 
alone". Man is a social being. The poor man, 
surrounded by his fellows, feels more solid 
happiness in his humble cot, than the lonely 
Selkirk in his vast and ample island. 

Let the purchaser also remember, that in the 
cultivation of the soil he should not neglect 
the menial culture of his family. We are far 



from being advocates of that plan which, for 
educational purposes, takes the boy from the 
influence of parental dictation at the age when 
that character is being formed which is to ex- 
ert its influence on his whole life. Sent from 
the house of his parent, from the natural influ- 
ence of his example, the youth considers 
himself a man ere he has learned the responsi- 
bility of th.U state. We therefore presume to 
say that a school in the neighborhood should 
be a high recommendation of any farm. 
Knowing that this life is the schooling for 
another, it is superfluous to say that no man 
should locate in any neighborhood in which 
religion is not respected, and its propagation 
facilitated. 

These, Mr. Editor, are a few of the many 
facts that should influence one in the choice 
of a farm. If you think they may prove bene- 
ficial to any one, you are requested to publish ; 
if worthless, then they may serve to light your 
midnight lamp for the elucidation of more 
useful themes; and I will have tfie pleasing 
thought that I have attempted to perform 
what was considered a duty. 

Powhatan. 

Powhatan, April 9/k, 1851. 



For the Southern Planter. 

HORTICULTURAL REMARKS FOR 
APRIL, 1851. 



PREPARED BY A. D. ABKRNETHY, FLORIST, GRACE 
STREET, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



Annual flower seeds may still be sown. — 
Finish planting out verbenas, carnations, roses 
and other hardy flowering plants. When all 
danger of frost is over, plant out the more ten- 
der sorts, such as heliotropes, scarlet geranium, 
scarlet sage, dahlia roots, &e. also all the sum- 
merflowering. such as tuberose, gladiolus, ama- 
ryllis tigridia, &c. Newly planted fruit and 
other trees should now (if not previously done) 
be tied to stakes, as they are more liable to be 
injured by high winds after the foliage is de- 
veloped. Flower borders, &c. may now be 
hoed and raked, as the weeds will now be 
coming through the ground, at which lime they 
can be more effectually destroyed, and with 
less labor, than when they are larger. As this 
season is particularly mild and moist, grass 
lawns, to have them in neat order, will require 
to be mown towards the end of the month. — 
Admit abundance of air to greenhouses, &c. 
Water freely, particularly such plants as are 
blooming, as geraniums, roses, cacius, &c. 
About the end of the month the plants may be 
taken out of doors, examine them carefully, 
and shift such as may require it; afterwards 
plunge the pots in sand, tan-bark, or some 
other substance that will keep the roots cool 
and moist. Camellias should be placed in a 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



127 



situation where they are shaded from the sun 
after eleven o'clock. 

In the kitchen garden plant out cabbage and 
lettuce for succession crops, and tomatoes, and 
eggplants, if the weather is mild. Plant snaps, 
Lima beans, melons and cucumbers. Sow a 
Jew radishes and peas to succeed those sown 
last month. Sow flat Dutch, drumhead, or 
other late cabbage for fall use. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

The communication of Wm. Boulware, Esq. 
was received too late for the present number. 
We will take pleasure in laying it before our 
readers in the May number. 



MANURES. 



The continuation of the subject of Manures 
we promised in our last issue, is unavoidably 
postponed until the May number, when it will 
be resumed. 



An old gentleman in a neighboring town 
missed from his vines some luscious grapes 
which he suspected his gardener had appro- 
priated to his own use. 

"Wife, wife," said he, "what has become 
of the grapes?" 

"I suppose, my dear, the hens have picked 
them off," was her reply. 

I' Hens! hens! some two-legged hens I guess," i 
said he, with some impetuosity; to which she 
with as much calmness replied, 

11 My dear, did you ever see any other kind V 



AGENCY FOR THE PURCHASE AND 
SALE OF IMPROVED STOCK. 

STOCK Cattle of all the different breeds 
Sheep, Swine, Poultry, &c. will be pur- 
chased to order, and carefully shipped to any 
part of the United Slates, for which a reasona- 
ble commission will be charged. Apply to 
AARON CLEMENT, Philadelphia. 
Refer to Gen. W. H. Richardson, Richmond, 
Virginia. 

N. B.— All letters, post-paid, will be prompt- 
ly attended to. ap— tf 

GREAT SALE OF SUPERIOR 

THOROUGHBRED SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 

rj^HE subscriber having more stock than he 
X can well sustain on his farm, will offer at 
public auction about 30 head of his improved 
Short Horn Cattle, consisting of Bulls, Cows 
Heifers, and Heifer and Bull Calves, 'on the' 
26th day of June next, at his farm two miles 
and a hall from this city. 
It is known to breeders of improved stock 



in this country and in Canada, that the pro- 
pnetor of this herd during the last twelve 
years, has, through the medium of importa- 
tions from England, and selections from the 
best herds in this country, spared no expense 
to rear a herd of cattle, from which superior 
animals could be safely drawn for improve- 
ment, and crosses upon other herds. His im- 
portations have been derived from that eminent 
breeder, the late Thomas Bates, Esq of Kirk- 
lev.ngton Yorkshire, England'; which herd, 
it is wel known, has recently been disposed 
of at public sale, by his administrators, and 
dispersed in many hands, and can no longer 
be resorted to as a whole for improvement 
, /"eannouncementofthatsalecreated-r'eat 
interest, and all Short-Horn Breeders in Eng- 
and seemed emulous to secure one or more of 
these animals to mingle with the blood of their 
own herds; and at the dav of sale there was 
found assembled Ore largest audience ^ver be- 
fore witnessed upon a similar occasion, num- 
bering, as was said, from four to five hundred 
persons and among them the best breeders in 
England and several from other countries _ 
Some of the animals bringing prices that 
seemed mciedible to many. F 

In the herd now offered for sale, will be in- 
cluded the imported Bull Duke of Wellington, 
and the premium Bull Meteor. These are 
Bates' Bulls, and their reputation as stock get- 
ters are too well known to need anyeommfn 
I am, however, authorized by Lewis F A] en 
Esq. of B ack Rock, one of the most prominent 
breeders in this country, and who has had am 
pie means of forming a judgment, to say « Zt 
in no instance, to his knowledge, had these two 
bulls been bred to Short-Horn" Cows o h eT 
^WWOMltiBported i nt0 the S 
States, but what the produce was superior in 
general qualities to such herds 

fc.V? m K St ° f u the stock which ' '■ ^w offered 
for sale, have been bred by these two bulls 
and the proprietor having a young Bull more 
remotely connected with that portion of^ne 
herd he retains, (being about 14 in number ) 
can spare these two valuable Bulls. There 
wilLbe m the stock offered for sale 6 youn' 
Bulls, from eight months to about two year! 
old, in addition to the two named above and 
the remainder of the stock will be composed 
of Cows, (most of them possessed of etfraor 
! dmary milking qualities^ Heifers and b5£ 
^alvex It is believed that no herd of Short 
Horns has ever been offered for sale in this 
country, exhibiting more of the valuable con - 

bmat.ons of qualities which contribute to make 
up perfect animals. omaKe 

A Catalogue containing the pedigrees of 
these animals will be read? for delivery It an 
^y period ,in which the terms of tie ale 
Z L b \ prm ', C n] * r] y Sta,ed - A credit will be 
given from G to IS months. Gentlemen are 
mvued to examine the herd at their c^! 

Tro?/, Sew York, April 1st, lSoU-St^^' 






THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



CONTENTS OF NUMBER IV. 



PAGE. 

Lecture on Hair, Wool & Sheep Breeding.. 97 
Obituary of John S. Skinner, Esq. . . . . . . 02 

Necessity of Legislative Aid to Agriculture 103 

Corn Growing [05 

What is the Best Fruit Room'? 106 

Salt and Ashes |06 

Manures -Top- Dressing ••.-•; »g 

Mechanical Improvement of boils low 

The Breeding and Rearing of Domestic 

Animals *'" 

On Mixing Plaster and Guano 1 1 1 

Cultivation and Management of the Flax 

Crop 

Ill Success in Farming 

Experiments with Gaano 

Old Horses 

Goobers or Ground Peas Ho 

Massachusetts Legislative Agricultural So- _ 

ciety. . . r • J J' 

The Last Half Century 117 

Ivy on Buildings < -- 1 

Three-Horse Ploughs 

Plaster of Paris 

Compost for Fruit Trees 

Preparation of Clover Seed 

Experiments with Pure Biphosphate 

Analyses of Guano 

Review of the February Number. . . 

Postage on the Planter 

Extracts from Editor's Corresponclen 

On the Selection of a Farm 

Horticultural Remarks for April. . . 




118 

119 
119 

rid 

1-20 
122 
124 
125 
135 
, 125 
.126 



COMMERCIAL RECORD. 

WHOLESALE PRICES CURRENT, 

Reported for the Southern Planter by 

NANCE & GOOCH, COMMISSION MERCHANTS. 

Tobacco— Market more animated within 
the last few days, wilh a slight advance in in 
ferior grades. Lugs i 
Leaf &7 50 to $8. Middlin 
Good to fine 8 10 to $1350. 
nufactufing arrivin 



4 to $7 50. Inferior 
; :SS 25 to $9 50. 
iNo very fine Ma- 
Stemming $7 50 to .,!•'> 



NEW STYLE MEDALLION DA- 
GUEUREOTYPJES IN COLORS. 

This splendid improve- 
Btenl must be seen to be 
appreciated. Qui friends 
ire invited to call at the 
original Virginia Sky- 
Light Dagukrrkan Gal- 
lf.ry, where may Le found 
all the latest "improve- 
ments, consisting of the 

CELEHOTYPE, 
by which infant children 
'-' may be taken in one se- 
cond; 

TALEOTYPE, 
or Daguerreotype on Pa- 
1 per, and 

' HYALOTYPE, 
or Daguerreotypes on Glass, which. wi;h every 
oher improvement, may now be obtained at 
the Gallery, No. 139 Main street, above Go- 
vernor 

N. B.— Their NORTHERN COMBINA- 
TION SKY LIGHT is now open in lull op- 
i eration— it is the largest in the State. 

\VM. A. PRATT & CO. Proprietors. 
MEDALLION DAGUEREOTYPES IN 
I COLORS. — We have inspected the a. ove 
I st vie of Dagaereotvpes, lately and so guccesa- 
I fully introduced here by Messrs. Pratt & Co 

132' Main street. By this process, a relief al- 
I most magical, and a variety highly pleasing, 
I is obtained. In some cases, the picture so 
I closely resembles an enamelled miniature, in 
I its ivory tone, as to deceive even an arti-te; 
in others from the midst of a dark back ground, 
I appears the "human face divine," in all the 
! vividness of life; then, by still another process, 
! the picture appears entirely upon a brilliant 
white ground," surrounded by wreaths of flow- 
ers. But, we feel our inability to do full jus- 
tice to these beautiful medallion Daguereo- 
types, and must, therefore, request the curious 



d such matters, to call and judge lor them- 
selves. Messrs. Pratt & Co. claim to be the 
fust to introduce the sky-light system into the 
to be constantly inventing 



De nand for all kinds, fully equal to the sup- | Suite, and appear 

ith rather an upward tendency in prices, something for the improvement of the art. he- 

nr to their gallery and -secure the shadow 



ply. wit 

Crop unusually poor. 
Flour— Richmond 



mal 84 50. Sales at 
Scoltsville $4 02^— 



ere the substance fades."— Richmond Times. 



-90 cts. to $1 05 per bushel, as to 



retail $4 62* to $4 
$4 75 asked. 

Yv r tlKAT 

qui Hiy. , . , 

Corn- G3 to 65 cts. per bush 1. 

Clover Seed-$5 50 per bushel. 
Oats— 45 to 50 CIS. per bushel 
Plaster-$5 to $5 25 at the Landings and 

BC GBOU»n> PnASTP.n— On inquiry a few days 
since we found there was none in maikci. 

Limb— SI 25 from store. 

Guano— Peruvian $50 per ton— Patagont*i 
340 per ton. 

Richmond, April, 1S51. 



D' 



WILLIAM P- LAD1), 
APOTHECARY AND D&OGGISV, 

No. 319, head of Broad Street, Shockoe Hill, 
Richmond, Virginia. 
RALER in English, Mediterranean, India] 
and all Foreign and Domestic Drugs and 
Medicines; also, Paints, Oils, Varnish, Dye 
Stuffs, Window Glass, Putty, &c. For sale I 
on the most accommodating terms. 

£*T Orders from Country Met chants and 
Physicians thankfully received and prom] ilyi 
attended to. 
ja 1831 — tf