THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

Bebotea to .agriculture, horticulture, antr tlie ^ouseholtr &m. 

Agriculture is the nursing mother of the I Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts 
Arts. — Xenophon. of the Stale. — Sully. 

FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor. P. D. BERNARD, Proprietor. 



Vol. XII. 



RICHMOND, FEBRUARY, 1852. 



No. 2. 



For the Southern Planter. 
PLASTER OP PARIS vs. AMMONIA. 

The action of plaster of Paris, when min- 
gled with a manure heap, or with guano, is a 
question of great practical interest to the far- 
mer. If it have no beneficial influence, then, 
is much money wasied in the purchase of 
plaster, and much labor lost in effecting its 
mixture. But if it be salutary, if it really 
exert a conservative power in arresting and 
combining with the escaping ammonia, then 
is much more lost by the neglect to use and 
profit by so important an auxiliary in ferti- 
lizing soils. 

This is a chemical question and ought to be 
susceptible of easy solution by reference to 
chemical principles and chemical authorities. 
It may also be decided by well conducted, ac- 
curate experiments on the part of the cultiva- 
tors of the soil. It is unfortunate for the first 
mode of solution that the dicta of the che- 
jnists are utterly contradictory. They do not 
^jgree upon first principles. Edward Turner, 
in his Elements of Chemistry, a Text Book in 
many of our Colleges, lays it down as an ele- 
mentary fact, that lime will separate sulphuric 
acid from ammonia and combine with it. See 
Turner, page 125. Here is certainly a strong 
authoriiy against the advocates of plaster. It 
is essential to their theory that ihe reverse 
should be (rue; that ammonia should separate 
sulphuric acid from lime; decomposing the 
plaster, combining with the acid, and forming 
a sulphate of ammonia: by this means the 
volatile alkali which was about to escape from 
the soil being saved as a food for the crops. 
And this has been the general idea diffused in 
the periodical literature. 

Boassingault states that gypsum in solution, 
will accomplish this object, but that in a state of 
moist powder, the gypsum is indifferent to wards 
ammonia; nay more, that the law of affinity 
is reversed and that carbonate of lime decom- 
poses sulphate of ammonia. "To explain this 
contradiction he quotes Rerlhollet and the fol- 
lowing singular law: If two saline solutions, 
which will form between them an insoluble 
sall.be mixed, that insoluble ss\l will be formed 
and precipitated; but if the two salts contain- 
ing between them a soluble salt, be mixed in 
a moist, pulverulent state, the volatile salt will 
be produced. Thus sulphate of lime and car- 
Vol. XII.-2. 



bonale of ammonia in solution, produce car- 
bonate of lime, which is insoluble, leaving 
sulphate of ammonia, which is soluble though 
not volatile. But carbonate of lime mixed 
with sulphate of ammonia in a state of moist 
powder, acting by an opposite interchange, pro- 
duces carbonate of ammonia, a volatile salt, 
and sulphate of lime." (I quote from the 
American Farmer, page 184, of the present 
volume, not having a copy of Boussingault by 
me.) 

This author, though differing from the for- 
mer, is not more favorable in his views to the 
use of plaster for (he purpose suggested. The 
gypsum* must be in a state of solution to com- 
bine with ammonia. That is amode in which 
it is never used, either with guano or manure. 
It is scattered over the heap of the latter, or 
mixed up with the former in a dry state, or at 
farthest, a merely moist state, when the affinity 
of the sulphuric acid for the lime with which 
it is combined, is much stronger than for am- 
monia. But is it possible for the combination 
to take place in the soil, the principles here 
stated being conceded to be true? They are 
mingled and interred together, but how long 
do they bear one another company in the tomb 
to which they are consigned? The volatile 
alkali is continually ascending and escaping 
from its prison house, until rain comes, and 
then it descends with perhaps equal rapidity. 
The gypsum lies inert in "cold obstruction," 
until it meets with five hundred times its own 
volume of water, when a solution takes place 
and it seeks a lower depth. Now, wo! unto 
the tiny gases of ammonia with which it comes 
in contact, for if Boussingault be true, they 
will be arrested forever, chained in their dark 
domain, with no chance of ever seeing the 
upper air, unless some hungry root seeking 
about for food should lap them into his sto- 
mach and digest them into the world above once 
more. But is it probable that many arrests of 
this kind will take place? Let it be recollected 
that while gypsum takes five hundred limes its 
own volume of water for solution, ammonia 
only requires one six-hundred and seventieth 
of its volume. It is obvious they must move 
from their places at very different periods, and 
be governed by widely varying laws. WhaJ 
must be the prospect of contact with one bushe 

* Plaster of Paris, gypsum and the sulphate 
lime are the same. 



^ 



** 






34 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ft 



> 



7° 

4 



or three-quarters of a bushel of plaster dif- 
fused over an acre of land with so many ad- 
verse circumstances opposing"? To produce 
any effect, according to our author, the union 
must occur while the gypsum is in solution. 

In justice to our two authors, and that their 
apparent variance may not invalidate their 
authority, it should be stated that the affinities 
of substances, or their order of decomposition, 
are different under different circumstances. 
For example: when a stream of hydrogen gas 
is passed over a bar of oxide of iron, heated 
to redness, the iron is deprived of its oxygen 
and water is formed by the union of the hy- 
drogen with the oxygen. It would seem from 
this experiment that oxygen had a stronger 
affinity for hydrogen than for iron. Yet, when 
watery vapor is brought in contact with red 
hot metallic iron, the oxygen of the water 
quits the hydrogen and combines with the iron 
From this last result it would appear that the 
reverse was true, and that iron had a more 
powerful affinity for oxygen than hydrogen 
possessed for oxygen. Modifying circum- 
stances often change the results of affinity. _ 

But let us suppose, in opposition to the prin- 
ciples of these chemists, that ammonia will 
decompose the sulphate of lime, both in a 
state of powder and solution, and that the 
muriate of ammonia, the oxalate, urate, phos- 
phate and carbonate of ammonia, all found in 
guano, are decomposed, their respective ac.ds 
feet free and the sulphate of ammonia formed | 
in their' stead; which would take place were | 
the sulphate of lime once separated and these 
substances brought in contact. What a vast 
change would you have herel Would the 
guano be any longer the same substance 7 
These various acids all liberated, and in pur- 
suit of new combinations, the lime also on the 
hunt for some other mate, the organic matter 
subject to the action of all these substances, 
would there not be an upturning, a complete 
"boidevmement" of the guano 1 ? The sweet 
juice of the grape, by the introduction of a 
Utile air, forms so many changes, there is so 
much decomposition and composition, the 
must becomes wine; a substance as different 
as sugar is from the beet. It would seem that 
when such chemical action was once intro- 
duced into the guano as that above referred to 
we would have cause to apprehend equal 
changes, but far less salutary. 

Not that the value of sulphate of ammonia 
is to be doubted for a moment. This substance 
is certainly highly fertilizing. But the doubt 
is whether guano is the most economical and 
best material from which to make it. It would 
seem that it could be bought already prepared 
on much better terms. 

It is now necessary to consider some autho- 
rities on the other side of this question. And 
first we will introduce Baron Liebig as a che- 
mist of the highest reputation, wielding an in- 
fluence and enjoying a confidence in the world 
inferior to no man on questions pertaining to 
the chemistry of agriculture. He says ' car- 



bonate of ammonia and sulphate of lime (gyp- 
sum) cannot be brought together at common 
temperatures without mutual decomposition. 
The ammonia enters into combination with 
the sulphuric acid and the carbonic acid with 
the lime, forming compounds destitute of vo- 
latility and consequently of smell. Now, it we 
strew the floor of our stable, from time to time, 
with common gypsum, they will lose all their 
offensive smell, and none of the ammonia can 
be lost, but will be retained in a condition ser- 
viceable as manure.— Mohr. 

It will be seen that Liebig quotes Mohr as 
his authority. It may be, and it is not impro- 
bable, that he relied exclusively on him, and 
made no experiments himself. No writer of 
a chemical treatise can possibly test all his 
statements himself, and if this be said merely 
on the authority of Mohr.it is much less to 
be relied on than if Baron Liebig had investi- 
gated the subject himself. 

Apart from chemical authorities, the Hon. 
P H Pusey, M. P. states that he made the 
experiment here recommended ; that he applied 
plaster on the floor of his stables and that the 
escape of ammonia was not arrested. Here 
is fact against theory; and the fact being true 
goes very far to prove that the theory must rest 
on some erroneous principle Mr Pusey fur- 
ther states that he strewed a bushel of plaster 
over a few square feet on the litter of a farm- 
yard, from which he perceived that ammonia 
was escaping and yet the application did not 
aYrest it.* This he tested "by holding near 
the surface a paper dipped in spirits of sa It, 
which turns the invisible fugitive into a while 
opaque steam of sal ammonia 
Vol. John Taylor, of Caroline, was in the 
habit of scattering plaster on the sod along 
with his manure, and ploughing them in to- 
gether. Many other farmers have also used 
U with manure, and have testified to the bene- 
ficial effects of the application There is do 
reason to doubt the good results; but might 
not the same consequences have ■been obt n*d 
by applying them separately 1 On some lands 
pfaster exerts a magic influence with o^wUh- 
out manure. The same query may we 1 be 
suggested as to those reported successful ex- 
periments in mingling plaster and guana If 
the Plaster produced no chemical effect on the 
guano, it wo P uld certainly be an important aux- 
iliary on those soils which are deficient in , or 
o which it is adapted; but it would be equally 
salutary in its action alone as in combination. 
In introducing the authority of Baron Lie- 
bis we have placed him on the other side of 
this question. But this is only true as to the 
effect which ammonia exerts in decomposing 
sulphate of lime; and here he ,s in ^direct op- 
position to Turnerand Bousstugault. But h s 
principle, if it be true, seems to be still more 
unfortunate for the advocates of mingling 
plaster and guano. According to the two for- 
mer there would be very little, if any chemi- 



♦ See American Parmer, page 184, last volume. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



35 



cal action resulting from the mixture — it would 
be only useless. According to the latter, those 
consequences would result, of which a glimpse 
has been given — before, when tracing the ef- 
fects that would ensue on the supposition that 
ammonia would underordinary circumstances, 
decompose the sulphate of lime. In short, ac- 
cording to the two chemists, the mixture would 
be innocuous, but it would result from the prin- 
ciple of the latter that it would be destructive. 
What would be the end of the decomposition 
that would ensue, I am not prepared to say. 

It is much to be desired that some of the 
learned chemists in our Colleges, with the aid 
of their laboratories, would give this subject 
a thorough analysis. 

W. B. 

December 26, 1 851. 



The subject of the following essay is a very 
important one, and we wish its author had 
made it longer. We invite him to renew it 
at his earliest leisure. 

For the Southern Planter. 

FENCING. 

Mr. Editor, — In the last number of the 
Planter, I observe a communication over the 
signature of Mr. Walker Timberlake, on the 
proper construction of corn cribs, a very useful 
and valuable article, and one which will be of 
great benefit to your building subscribers. I 
hope Mr. T. will give us a description of his 
■*f stable and pens for making manure. Infor- 
mation on the subject of farm buildings and 
fencing is of especial interest to the farmer; 
and the object of this communication is to 
furnish a few hints on the latter subject, which, 
I hope, may lessen this onerous tax among 
your subscribers. No man looks forward with 
any hope to any modification in the law of en- 
closures, and it is a matter of the greatest im- 
portance to land owners to lessen the labor 
and expenseof keeping out neighboring stock, 
by consulting both economy and durability in 
the future construction of their enclosures. — 
My farm contains two long lanes of fencing, 
crossing each other at right angles, and fur- 
nishing a promenade for a large number of 
very industrious and enterprising cattle from a 
neighboring village. The large amount of 
fencing rendered necessary to keep up the 
fences along the public roads, leading through 
my farm, with the tax of keeping up cross 
fences, has turned my attention to the cheap- 
est and best modes of enclosing lands; and 1 
give below the result of my observations and 
enquiries on the subject:— Stone constitutes 
the best, and, in the end, the cheapest material 
for fencing where the hauling is from adjacent 
arable ground, which they encumber, or where 
there is no quarrying to be done, and the wall 
2 8 



is constructed by the labor of the farm. But 
few farms furnish stone in sufficient quantities, 
and ol the proper description, to enclose any 
large proportion of their arable surface; but it 
should be remembered, that if the farmer has 
it in his power to construct only one hundred 
yards of good stone wall, that much is done 
for him and his successor. Most of the high- 
lands on the James river farms, contain great 
quantities of small, round stone, which, if pro- 
perly used, would become a valuable fencing 
material. No wall constructed entirely of such 
stone, it matters not how broad the base, pro- 
mises much durability; but a permanent en- 
closure may be made by inserting posts— say 
eight feet apart — along a row of such stone, 
piled to the height of three feet, and two planks 
nailed on the posts above it. It should, how- 
ever, be observed that, along such fences all 
kinds of noxious briers and weeds seem to 
find a congenial home, and it is impossible to 
get at their roots to eradicate them, without 
removing the fence. Where but a moderate 
quantity of such stone is upon the soil, they 
should not be removed, as they contribute, by 
the moisture which they retain, to the produc- 
tivenessof the land; andanysurplusquantity of 
them can be more advantageously employed 
in constructing under drains than fences. 

Next to stone, live fences are the most per- 
manent, and when properly kept are highly 
ornamental. The plant best adapted to our 
soil, is the Osage orange, which can be obtained 
either from the seed, or in plants large enough 
to set out from the Northern nurseries.* The 
price of plants is about eight dollars per thou- 
sand, and of the seed, three dollars per quart. 
This plant grows luxuriantly on any strong 
clay or loamy soil, and forms a hedge so dense 
that nothing can penetrate it. For cross fences, 
yard, garden, or orchard enclosures, it is inva- 
luable. The only hedge of this description 
that I am acquainted with, is a very perfect 
one on the farm of Doctor Thomas Massie, 
of Nelson county, who recommends it highly. 
I would advise any one designing to set out a 
hedge, to consult a very able article on the 
subject, in Stephens' "Book of the Farm." 
Of other enclosures— post and rail, with each 
rail inserted into a mortice in the post, makes 
an excellent fence; the construction of which, 
however, is tedious, and I much prefer a fence 
constructed of good locust posts and strips 
sawed one and a quarter inches thick, by four 
inches wide. Seven strips of these dimensions 
(which should be braced by a plank nailed up- 
right on each panel, between the posts,) make 
a fence that will turn stock, and where the 
panels are sixteen feet long, require only thir- 
ty-seven feet of plank, running measure, to 
the panel, which is a great saving of limber 
over the common method of constructing plant 

* And of as pood quality from Gen. William H 
Richardson, of Richmond, whose care and integrity 
we warrant to the few who may not knofl him per- 
sonally or by character. 



36 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



enclosures. A still farther saving of timber 
and labor maybe accomplished by putting the 
fence on a bank, where, practicable, and it 
should be borne in mind, that, under such cir- 
cumstances, it is not necessary to construct a 
fence as higli as when made on level ground; 
yet among the very tallest fences I have ever 
seen, were some elevated on a bank, or run- 
ning on the side of a hill! 

The common worm, or rail fence, is the 
pride of Virginia, cherished, under all circum- 
stances, by Cuffee, to whom it affords a fine 
supply of fuel, as well as by his master, and 1 
shall say nothing in condemnation of it. — 
Where it is designed to make a permanent 
rail fence, on the line of division, for instance, 
the following is the best plan I have ever seen 
of constructing it: — A bed six feel wide is 
thrown up, along the proposed line of fencing, 
by a three horse plough; on this is laid the 
bottom course of rails, to form the base. Hands, 
with broad hoes, then get upon the bank, and 
pull the earth over the rails, thus changing the 
bed from a straight one, as formed by the 
plough, to a shape corresponding with the po- 
sition of the rails, which have been previously 
laid down, to mark the course of the fence; 
upon this bank a fence is then constructed, 
staked and rided, and seven rails high. Stock 
are prevented from getting to this fence, to 
break it, by the embankment, and ditches 
which will be formed each side of the bank 
by subsequent rains, and, in all respects, it 
makes the best fence, lor general use, where 
it is iniended to be permanent, that 1 am ac- 
quainted with. I am admonished that my 
communication is getting as long as some of 
my fences; so I will defer to another opportu- 
nity a farther consideration of the subject. 

M, C. 
Nelson, County, Virginia, Jan. 1, 1852. 



proper, further an object deemed second to 
none other in importance, as it regards the 
prosperity of agriculture in eastern Virginia. 
With respect, youis, truly, 

.Richard Irey. 

The Petition of the Farmers' Club of Nottoway 
County, to the Honorable the General Assembly 
of Virginia, now sitting : 

Your petitioners, after a full and careful ex- 
| aminalion of the present system of enclosure 
I in the eastern section of Virginia, beg leave, 
: respectfully, to represent: That, in their opi- 
I nion, it originated with the necessities of the 
i earlier settlers of the State, under circum- 
j stances that rendered the law at that time both 
expedient and paper; but since the face of 
the country and our social and agricultural 
wants are now essentially, and, in many re- 
spects, radically changed, we deem the altera- 
tion of the system to be as strongly demanded 
as was its original institution. The farming 
interest, now that judicious improvements are 
opening new markets, as well as new and va- 
luable sources for obtaining fertilizing agents, 
they believe, has but this great and oppressive 
impediment to shnike off, to rise to a degree of 
prosperity, unprecedented in its previous his- 
tory. This being the great and paramount 
interest on which every other mainly depends, 
your peiitioners, for many reasons, regarded as 
both cogent, and, in fact, unanswerable, believe 
that your honorable body could rendernomore 
acceptable service to the community at large, 
than to grant their prayer, and substitute some 
system, better adapted to the present condition 
and requirements of the country, especially 
one prohibiting the roaming of stock at large. 
Richard Irey, President. 
J. M. Hurt, Secretary. 



For the Southern Planter. 
THE FARMERS' CLUB OF NOTTOWAY. 

Mr. Editor,— The Farmers' Club of Notto- 
way, at its last meeting, ordered that the fol- 
lowing petition should be presented to the 
General Assembly of Virginia. A resolution 
at the same time was passed, ordering it to be 
sent on to the Southern Planter for publication, 
with the earnest request that all the clubs and 
societies in the State co-operate with it in the 
petition — if in favor of its object — and if not, 
that such club or society send one, in accord- 
ance with its wishes. It is also the request of 
the club, that farmers, and others interested, 
publish individually their views, pro or con. 

The object of this resolution and request is 
to agitate the subject, and elicit information 
in relation to the wishes of the farmers in the 
eastern section of the State. 

The club would also be under obligations 
to you, Mr. Editor, if you would, as you see 



For the Southern Planter. 

A PLAN FOR THE FORMATION OF 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES; 

WITH AN APPEAL TO THE FRIENDS OP 
AGRICULTURE IN VIRGINIA. 

Mr. Editor,— Hio arguments are needed to 
prove the utility of agricultural socieiies and 
of cattle shows, when they are properly ma- 
naged, and a spirit of emulation is excited in 
the community. Such a spirit may sometimes 
be spread over a limited space, and be so ac- 
tive as to manifest itself by the formation of 
a county society, and by a few annual exhibi- 
tions: and then, for want of adequate support, 
and sufficient rivalry, languish and expire. — 
Again, it may be equally strong in individuals 
sparsely scattered over an extensive region, 
and be active enough to show itself by similar 
means; but not having the sympathy of the 
community, it soon dies from want of concert, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



37 



want of mutual encouragement and want of 
pecuniary contributions to defray expenses, 
and to attract attendance from a distance, by j 
adequate inducements. Could a history be i 
» obtained of the societies that have existed in 
I our State, something like the above would j 
probably be found to be the causes of their 
decline. If such be the case, we can only 
expect to erect permanent and useful ones, by 
arousing the penpie of large districts to concen- 
trated action, by diffusing a feeling of emulation 
and improvement among the whole of them. 
And how is this to be effected 1 It is feared 
that individual exertion would be in vain. — 
The memory of the past is too discouraging 
for many to attempt it with heartiness and de- 
termination. The following plan, then, which 
calls in aid the permanency and the resources 
of the State government, is respectfully sub- 
mitted for consideration to the farmers of Vir- 
ginia. If they approve it, and will act, it will 
succeed; if they are indifferent, it will fail. 

It is proposed that they shall influence the 
next Legislature, either before or after its elec- 
tion, to pass a law enacting, 

1st. That whenever a society shall be formed 
in any Congressional District of this State, it 
shall be authorized to draw from the treasury, 
every two years, a sum equal to its contribu- 
tions, provided, it does not exceed one thou- 
sand dollars. The whole to be used for the 
encouragement of agriculture and the manu- 
facturing and mechanic arts within such Dis- 
trict, by prizes and otherwise; e. g. the em- 
ployment of a chemist and geologist, for a 
year or more, to analyze the soils and investi- 
gate the mineral resources of that District, be- 
. side delivering lectures. It shall be incumbent 
""♦ upon such Society to make reports of its trans- 
actions to a Central or State Society, when one 
shall be organized, as follows, viz: 

2d. That whenever a majority of the Dis- 
tricts shall have organized their societies, the 
members thereof may constitute a State So- 
ciety, which shall be authorized to draw one 
thousand dollars, every two years, from the 
Treasury, to be used, with the funds below, 
for the purposes mentioned in 1st section — and 
each District may, of right, contend for pre- 
miums at its fair, provided, its own Society 
shall have contributed three hundred dollars 
for that exhibition; but no article, viz: essay, 
animal, implement, &c. shall compete, without 
having previously taken a District prize, or, 
nnless it be imported into the State, or in- 
vented subsequently to the last fair held in its 
District. The State Cattle Show and Fair 
shall be held in alternate years with those of 
the other Societies— and also, at some conve- 
nient place, aliernately east and west of the 
Blue Ridge. It shall also be incumbent upon 
this Society to furnish to the Legislature, for 
publication, a report of its transactions, with 
a compendious synopsis of the District trans- 
actions. 

The above is a brief outline of the plan — 
the organization and details of which could 



be readily supplied — and be perfected by prac- 
tical experience. The Congressional Districts 
have been assumed, as probably most nearly 
equalizing the agricultural interests of the 
State. 

This scheme is very similar to one that has 
been in successful operation, with beneficial 
results, for several years, in New Yoik. The 
chief differences being in the provision lor 
District instead of County Societies — the pro- 
vision that none but prize articles shall con- 
tend before the Slate Society, and the provi- 
sion for biennial instead of annual fairs. 

The District system would be better with 
us, because the comparative paucity of our 
population and the smallness of our counties 
would afford but little competition; and from 
their great number, the quota of means that 
could be supplied to, and by each, would 
scarcely sustain a Society at all— whereas, in 
Districts the reverse of this would hold— the 
means would be ample to command a noble 
fair, and to bring together a great assemblage 
by arousing emulation to a higher degree in 
individuals, and by exciting in the counties a 
healthful rivalry to bear away the honors of 
the District. 

These feelings would be farther augmented, 
and the interest in, and importance of these 
fairs would be still farther increased by the 
provision, allowing only their prize articles to- 
be exhibited for competition in the great fairs 
of the State, since each District would have 
to prepare in the former to contend for the 
highest agricultural honors of the Common- 
wealth, as awarded by the latter. "What a 
laudable ambition and generous contest for 
pre-eminence would thus be excited in indivi- 
duals, counties and districts throughout our 
broad land! And who can estimate the ad- 
vantages thence resulting 1 ! 

The biennial system, too, is preferred, be- 
cause, with the same means the exhibitions 
maybe made doubly interesting and attrac- 
tive; nor are two years too long a time to pre- 
pare worthily for such a fair as Virginia ought 
to desire. Freshness and originality might 
then be expected, instead of annual editions 
; of the same show, with but small additions and 
slight improvements. But, in fact, an annual 
| anticipation and gratification would not be 
wanting. These would be supplied by the 
.State Fair alternating with the others, and 
furnishing the inviting spectacle of all the 
prize animals, &c. in the entire Commonwealth 
assembled at one point, after a year's training, 
to contend for honors and prizes, worthy of a 
great State and a great cause. 

Is this scheme premature? Not if every 
influential farmer—?/ every subscriber to this 
paper— will act in the premises, and that with- 
out any farther appeal in person or by letter. 
At least, let the Legislature try the sense of 
their constituents on this subject, by passing 
a provisional law, as above. Jf it be preina 
ture, it will remain inoperative, by their inac- 
tion. But, from the spirit of improvement we 



3S 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



all have heard of, as being abroad, arid from 
the practical improvement many of us have 
seen, there can be no doubt that every Dis- 
trict would gladly avail itself of such pre- 
ferred advantages. 

As the next Legislature will be the first to 
assemble under the new Constitution, may it 
signalize itself by the enactment of a law for 
the promotion of the greatest and best interests 
of the State, viz: agriculture, with its attend- 
ant aids, the manufacturing and mechanic 
arts — nor is commerce forgotten, for as these 
increase, that must grow; and as another Le- 
gislature will not assemble for two years, may 
the friends of these great interests exert them- 
selves in time, and with an energy and perse- 
verance not to be resisted. 

"Axon." 

November 19, 1851. 



For the Southern Planter. 
SOUP. 

Mr. Editor,— Of all the dishes served at our 
tables, soup is the most economical, the most 
wholesome, and ought to be the most palatable, 
and yet to see the little care bestowed upon it, 
one would suppose it either positively delete- 
rious or wholly innutritious. "Why," says 
one of your lady readers, "I never trouble 
myself about soups, because none of my fa- 
mily like them." And are you quite sure, my 
dear madam, that they have ever tasted soupl 
for, pardon my bluntness, the tureen of luke- 
warm, greasy stuff, black with pepper and 
reeking with cabbage and onion, which your 
cook daily serves up to them under that name, 
is little better than a very happy imitation of 
dish-water. Truly you tax their politeness too 
far if you do not expect them to commit that 
terrible breach of good manners, "decline 
soup." 

With the French, who of all people in the 
world understand best the gastronomic, and 
what is quite as much to our purpose, the eco- 
nomic, art, soup is ever a prelude to dinner. 
And from the pauper, who pays his sous for 
one dip of the iron spoon with his chance for 
one of the bits of meat floating in the immense 
caldron, to the would-be emperor, I doubt whe- 
ther a man in France ever willingly takes his 
dinner without his soup, margre or vegetable. 

That it is wholesome, all will allow; that it 
is economical, is equally true; for the bony 
shin, and even the tail of the ox, so often thrown 
away as worthless, are, from the quantity of 
gelatine they contain, particularly adapted to 
soup-making; and I have eaten most delicious 
soup made from the carcass of a turkey which 
had dined a family consisting of three grown 
persons and two children for three days. And 
that it is palatable, I think you will agree, if 
you follow the accompanying excellent direc- 
tions taken from a newspaper. In addition to 



these, I will, with your permission, send yon, 
from time to time, such recipes for soups as I 
may deem acceptable to the readers of the 
Planter. 

W. 

"Making Soups. — The delicate and proper 
blending of savors is the chief art of good 
soup making. Be sure and skim the grease 
off the soup when it first boils, or it will not 
become clear. Throw in a little salt to bring 
up the scum. Remove all the grease. Be 
sure and simmer softly, and never let a soup 
boil hard. Put the meat into cold water, and 
let it grow warm slowly. This dissolves the 
gelatine, allows the albumen to disengage and 
the scum to rise, and diffuses the savory part 
of the meat. But if the soup is over a hot 
fire the albumen coagulates and hardens the 
meat, prevents the water from penetrating, 
and the savory part from disengaging itself. 
Thus the broth will be without flavor, and the 
meat tough. 

"Allow two table-spoonfuls of salt to four 
quarts of soup, where there are many vegeta- 
bles, and one and a half, where there are few. 
Be sure not to leave any fat floating on the 
surface. A quart of water, or a little less, to 
a pound of meat, is a good rule. Soup made 
of uncooked meat is as good the second day, 
if heated to the boiling point. If more water 
is needed, use boiling hot water, as cold or 
lukewarm spoils the soup. It is thought that 
potato water is unhealthy, and, therelore, do 
not boil potatoes in soup, but boil elsewhere, 
and add them when nearly cooked. The wa- 
ter in which poultry or fresh meat is boiling 
should be saved for gravies or soup the nex.y 
day. If you do not need it, give it to the poor. 
Keep the vessel tight in which you boil soup, 
that the flavor be not lost. Never leave soup 
in metal pots, as sometimes a family is thus 
poisoned. Thickened soups require more sea- 
soning, nearly double the quantity used for 
thin soups." 



Number of Farms in Thirteen States. — 
The following census statistics, showing the 
number of farms in the States enumerated, 
will be read with interest by the farming com- 
munity: 



" New York, 
Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, 
Indiana, 
Virginia, 
Illinois, 
Kentucky, 
Maryland, 
New Jersey, ■ 
Delaware, 
Michigan, 
Wisconsin, 
Iowa, 



174,234 

127,733 

146,821 

101,973 

76,704 

71,062 

77,290 

21,950 

24,504 

6,225 

34.690 

22,062 

15,500 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



39 



From the Boston Journal of Agriculture. 

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

The phrase "practical man" has been al- 
lowed to express simply "one who works with 
his hands"— a hand-laborer at any calling; and 
this definition has been the bar to a good un- 
derstanding between adverse parties on many 
questions. If the usual definition — the one 
given above— be the true one, then in a law- 
yer's office the copying clerk is the practical 
lawyer, instead of the lazy old hunks who do 
nothing but read books, and afterwards talk to 
the judge; — the practical sailor is he who is 
stretched on the yard-arm furling sail in a 
storm, and not the quarter-deck loafer, who 
merely gives orders; — the practical machinist 
is not that thoughtful, anxious looking student, 
who watches a score of workmen, while they 
file, and turn, and hammer the iron and brass 
under his direction, to complete that wonder 
of the world — a steam engine; to be "a prac- 
tical man," he should be at work with his 
hands, and if his face is smutted with the soot 
of the forge, and iron filings set in sweat, he 
is a little nearer the definition. And by this 
same definition, the sturdy Irishman who holds 
that plough, is the practical farmer, in prefer- 
ence to the scientific individual who is insist- 
ing against him, that three inches is not the 
best, though the easiest depth to which the soil 
should be disturbed. 

We have gone thus at some length, in this 
and a previous article, to demolish this defini- 
tion of "a practical farmer," because it has so 
, often done duty as "a Cock-Lane Ghost," in 
agricultural meetings, to scare the trembling 
"Book Farmers," who "could n't begin to mow 
a swarth with our Sam, he'd give 'em a sweater, 
the whole posse of them; president, secreta- 
ries, and all." Let an individual with any ap- 
pearance of science about him, — say a black 
dress coat, — announce at a meeting that his 
experiments (these are heretical practices, by 
the way,) have convinced him that from sixty 
to eighty per cent, of the ordinary farm yard 
manure is mere water, and that in consequence 
from three to four-fifths of the labor and 
strength expended in hauling it to the fields is 
positively labor and strergth wasted, — let him 
dare to announce so strictly correct a statement 
as this, and instantly some hobby-riding indi- 
vidual, who finds it easier to join the clamor 
against science, than to stem the tide of pre- 
judice, — instantly he crams down the throat of 
the daring experimenter "a dozen practical 
farmers in my neighborhood who have worked 
a farm, man and boy, for forty years." What 
can the book-worm say! Here are four hun- 
dred and eighty combined years of practical 
experience opposed to him, and they agree thai 
he knows nothing about ii! Why, he is ne- 
cessarily choked by the "dozen practical 
farmers." 

Now, readers of this journal, and farmers 
of New England, having endeavored to demon- 



strate who are not entitled to monopolize the 
honorable name of "practical farmers," we 
will proceed to show who have a claim to it. 
A Practical Farmer, in our view of the case, 
is one who reduces the Science of farming to 
actual use. This knowledge he must possess, 
and we do not care a copper whether he re- 
duces it to actual use by the agency of his own 
hands, or those of hired laborers, so long as 
he knows, and can show others what is to be 
done, and how it is to be done. We will even 
go one step further, and agree with Hon. Mr. 
Brooks, of Princeton, who declared that he 
"could farm it the best from the top of a slone 
wall." The old adage is a good one — ihat " the 
owner's eye is worth more than his hands." 
The only exception that now occurs to us, is 
in the case of a large field of grass or grain, 
when it happens, as it rarely does, that the 
owneristhe bestmowerorcradleron hisfarm; 
he can then to advantage lead the gang. But 
in almost every other operation of a large farm, 
while the farmer is sweating like a bull atone 
extremity of the farm, his more prudent 
" hands " are lying under the shade of a tree ; 
ordiscussinginteresting topics in lhe corn-field, 
with a halt every three minutes to gesticulate 
and to lay down the law on their side a little 
stronger. This is no fancy sketch. Every 
farmer knows how great a difference it makes, 
with the best help he can hire, whether he him- 
self is in sight or out of sight. 

We are assured, then, that in farming, (on 
a large farm, of course,) as in every other bu- 
siness, where we are obliged to employ the 
laborof others, as in a mill or a machine shop, 
it pays to superintend the hands employed, and 
to see that their labor is rightly divided, and 
that no working time is idled away. If this 
be admitted, as we think it must be, the last 
rag is removed from the bugbear which has so 
cruelly frighlened us, and it stands exposed — a 
subtle fiction— a broom handle and a pumpkin- 
head ghost. The hand as rough as a nutmeg- 
grater, and the pantaloons of lhe last century, 
cut in scorn of fashion, are not necessarily the 
uniform of the practical farmer. 

Ic may be thought that we are taking much 
trouble to little purpose, in proving who are 
and who are not practical farmers. But let 
any one attend an agricultural meeting in any 
State of the Union, and attempt to laud science, 
and he will soon find with what staggering 
force "a practical farmer" is flung at his 
head. 

The opposing parties have both set up their 
standard of a practical farmer; the one claims 
it to be the hearty and honest, but prejudiced 
and obstinate character, now almost obsolete 
who will do as his father did before him, and 
desires his own sons to continue lhe course 
after him, because old folks have experience, 
and ought to know. This old gentleman shuts 
his eyes to the light which science is pouring 
upon agriculture; he ridicules, without exa- 
mination, the improvements which are made 
in his agricultural implements, and they are 



40 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



sweepingly condemned underihe terriblename 
of "new-Iang!ed notions." This is the tough 
old codger who is chucked into your teeth at 
agricultural meetings, and busy men must they 
be who bring him forward on these occasions, 
for through the length and breadth of New 
England, there are not a score alive. It is a 
figure of the past, brought forward to frighten 
the present. While on the other hand, the 
really practical farmers are those who are 
sought to be intimidated by this phantom; they 
are the active men of every neighborhood — 
they are the men who are not ashamed to learn 
what others have done, even if forced to obtain 
this information from a book; they are the men 
who believe that the nineteenth century finds 
the world more advanced in useful knowledge 
than did its predecessor, and who are deter- 
mined to hand it over to the twentieth, the wiser 
for their having lived in it. These are the men 
who, rightly appreciating knowledge, are de- 
termined that their sons shall possess it; and 
they demand that a suitable provision shall be 
made by the State, to supply those branches of 
education required in their calling. We will 
see who dare deny them. 



INFLUENCE 



OF GYPSUM ON VEGE- 
TATION. 



BY M. C. MENE. 

Ever since Franklin's great experiment, 
gypmm, or sulphate of lime, has generally 
been considered as possessing much fertilizing 
power, and as being of great importance in 
agriculture. Having paid some attention to 
this substance, I make known my results, in 
the hope that they may be found of value to 
the public. 

1. I filled two zinc boxes with pure sulphate 
of lime obtained from the double decomposi- 
tion of sulphate of soda and chloride of cal- 
cium; in one of these boxes I sowed some 
grass seeds, in the other some wheat. The 
two boxes were then placed underglassshades, 
in order that all external influences might be 
avoided: the seeds were watered every other 
day. At the end of a few weeks plants had 
come up green and healthy, as in common 
soil; but as they developed, their fine appear- 
ance diminished, and at the end of a fortnight 
they look dried and withered. 

2. In boxes similar to the first, I placed a 
mixture of equal quantities of pure sulphate 
of lime, obtained as before, and clay, and 
sowed the same seeds as in the last experi- 
ment; the plants came up but not nearly so 
well as in an unartificial soil, and they did not 
ripen. 

3. In boxes, and under circumstances the 
same as before, I sowed the same seeds on 
dung covered over with a layer of sulphate of 
lime three-tenths of an inch deep. At the end 
of a fortnight the plants had come up and 



grown wonderfully; they ripened well and were 
magnificent specimens. 

These facts, though of considerable practi- 
cal importance, would not have shown in 
what way sulphate of lime really acts, had it 
not been for the following accident: 

1 happening to have a glass of muriatic 
acid in my hand one day, when looking at box 
No. 3, I accidentally spilt some of the acid on 
one of the boxes, and to my great suprise the 
lime effervesced, and on further examination 
I was satisfied that the sulphate had become 
changed into carbonate of lime. I conclude 
from this fact that the carbonate of ammonia, 
given off by the decomposition of the dung, 
being volatilized by the heat of the sun, came 
in contact with the sulphate of lime, when 
double decomposition ensued. [Forming car- 
bonate of lime and sulphate of ammonia.] 

To ascertain how far this was true, I got 
some zinc pots, with bottoms pierced like a 
sieve; in the pots I placed some dung, then 
some sulphate of lime, and then 1 sowed some 
grass seeds. 

When the plants had appeared and become 
tolerably developed, I watered them abun- 
dantly for a quarter of an hour, and in the li- 
quid which flowed from the bottom of the pots 
I found sulphate of ammonia, whilst on the 
surface of trie pots there was evidently carbo- 
nate of lime. This confirmed the view I had 
adopted. 

I then made other experiments, which do 
not, however, bear upon the last mentioned 
facts. For example, I watered grass seeds • 
sown in manure, in pots with pierced bottoms,, 
with watercontaining one of the following sub- 
stances, viz : sulphuric acid, muriatic acid, ni- 
tric acid, acetic acid, sulphate of iron, sul- 
phate of potash, chloride of manganese, phos- 
phate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, nitrate' 
of soda. 

With all these substances the grass grew 
well, and from the bottoms of the pots I ob- 
tained salts of ammonia, which are not vola- 
tile at the ordinary temperature. From all 
these facts I think we may conclude. — 

1. That gypsum has by itself no fertilizing 
power, and is alone useless as a manure. 

2. That gypsum only is useful in agricul- 
ture when mixed with substances containing 
ammonia; in which case there is a double de- 
composition, and the ammonia is stored up for 
the use of the plants. 

3. That for gypsum may be substituted any 
other salt which will fix ammonia, and render 
it not volatile at the ordinary temperature. 

It is my intention next year to repeat these 
experiments on a large scale, in order to as- 
certain their real practical value. 

Comptes Rendus. 



While a man liveth he may mend; count 
not thy brother reprobate. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



41 



From the Gardeners' Chronicle. 

PHILOSOPHY OF MANURES. 

Tt is an excellent custom in certain for- 
eign countries, and one which leads to very 
valuahle results, to send from time to time 
scientific men to travel in the various neigh- 
boring kingdoms; they are sent with a 
specific object, they carefully investigate 
the matter to which their attention is di- 
rected, and on their return, they make a 
report to the government who sent them, 
embodying the facts which they have col- 1 
lected in their travels, and the conclusions 
at which they have arrived; these reports, 
which are generally drawn up by men 
eminently well qualified for the task, often 
present better and more impartial views 
of the particular manufactures of the king- 
doms so visited, than could possibly be 
prepared by any one residing in them. 
There is a good illustration of the truth of 
this, in the skilful reports lately drawn up 
l>y M. Payen, by desire of the Minister of 
Agriculture and Commerce of France, on 
drainage, the use of peat, and the employ- 
ment of artificial manures in England. — ; 
These reports, written by an excellent ob- 
server, one who is intimately acquainted 
with all the various departments of scien- 
tific agriculture, and the economy of vege- 
, tation in general, are of the highest inte- 
nt rest and importance. 

If, however, a stranger visiting England 
for such a specific purpose comes with the 
advantage of an unprejudiced and unbi- 
assed judgment, he has, at the same time, 
the disadvantage that he does not always 
know in how far he may safely rely on the 
statements which are made to him, and he 
therefore runs considerable risk of being 
misled by false or erroneous information. 
The conclusion which M. Payen appears 
to have arrived at, from a very careful 
study of the present state of the manufac- 
ture of artificial manure in England, and 
of the results of numerous experiments on 
the practical application of those manures, 
might probably be expressed as follows: 
A dozen years ago it was stated by Liebig 
and his followers that the great object of 
all artificial manures was to supply certain 
inorganic matters to growing plants. It 
was asserted that soils became exhausted 
from the abstraction of potash, phosphoric 
acid, and soluble silica, and it was, there- 
fore, said that manures were chiefly valua- 
hle in proportion to the quantity of those 
substances which they contained. The 
experience of the last few years has, how- 



ever, shown that this is not really the case, 
for the most careful and satisfactory expe- 
riments have proved, that soils are very 
seldom wanting in the inorganic elements 
of plants, such as phosphoric acid and al- 
kalies; but that they are often deficient in 
nitrogen, in a state capable of being assi- 
milated by plants, [n other words, that 
ammonia and nitric acid are far more im- 
portant components of manure than phos- 
phoric acid or alkalies. 

That Liebig did, at one time, attribute 
very great importance to the earthy and 
alkaline parts of manure, no one will deny: 
and, indeed it is evidently proved, by the 
fact that he even became the originator of 
a patent mineral manure, which, as Payen 
remarks, has for the most part been found 
of comparatively linle real value. If, how- 
ever, it is acknowledged on the one hand, 
that the value of these inorganic manures 
has been overrated, it must, however, at 
the same time be admitted that there are 
circumstances under which they produce 
very remarkable effects; and that even 
though it is proved that they are not the 
only things necessary to the growth of 
plants, or the only things which the culti- 
vator has to edd to the soil, it does not, 
therefore, follow that they are of no value 
at all; and we ought to take care that in 
acknowledging our error, we do not fall 
into the opposite extreme. 

It has been all along known, that the 
very best manures were those which con- 
tained a mixture of organic and inorganic 
matters; substances such as common farm- 
yard manure, consisting of decomposed 
and decomposing animal and vegetable 
materials, intimately mixed together. The 
error which has been committed consisted 
in the attempt to compare perfectly dif- 
ferent and opposite things; and to decide 
which of the two was the most impor- 
tant. The alkalies and phosphoric acid 
are, no doubt, quite essential to the growth 
and well-being of plants; but so also are 
ammonia, nitric acid, and the various other 
sources of nitrogen. To attempt to com- 
pare the kinds of food is pretty much as 
though we were to try and compare to- 
gether meat and bread, as articles of ani- 
mal food; both are valuable, and the two 
taken together are more valuable than 
either taken alone. So it is with plants; 
it is of no use attempting to determine 
whether ammonia or alkaline phosphates 
are the most impoitant, as constituents of 
manure; they serve very different objects 
in the nutrition of plants, and when the 



42 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



one is required, it is certainly idle to at- 
tempt to supply its place by giving more 
of the other. 

There are a number of curious experi- 
ments which have at times been quoted, 
as proving that the organic part of com- 
mon yard manure is of no value; and that 
its virtue consists entirely in the inorganic 
salts which it contains. Thus, for exam- 
ple, it has been stated, that on manuring 
two equal pieces of ground, the one with 
a certain weight of good farm-yard ma- 
nure, and the other with the ashes of an 
equal quantity of the same manure, no 
difference could he subsequently observed 
between the crops raised on the two fields. 
The truth of this, again, has been called 
in question by other experiments, the re- 
sults of which were just the reverse; and 
those who attempted to draw general con- 
clusions from the two experiments, were 
at last fairly puzzled how to reconcile two 
apparently diametrically opposite state- 
ments. The real cause of the difficulty, 
however, was simple enough ; it arose 
merely from the attempt to compare to- 
gether dissimilar things, which, from their 
very nature, could not fairly be contrasted 
with one another. If we admit that which 
is now pretty well generally acknowledged, 
namely, that all plants, in addition to cer- 
tain other substances, require both ammo- 
nia and also alkaline phosphates, it is very 
easy to perceive, not only that a manure 
containing both these substances must be 
generally valuable, and therefore more cer- 
tain in its effects, than a manure which 
contains only one or the other; but also 
that such a manure would act in a very 
different manner on different soils, and ap- 
plied to different plants. For example, 
good farm-yard manure, applied to a soil 
rich in earthy phosphates, and abounding 
in bone earth, will, nevertheless, be found 
to do good and cause the plants cultivated 
in it to grow with increased vigor and lux- 
uriance; not because of the phosphoric acid 
which it contains, but chiefly from the pre- 
sence of a certain quantity of ammonia, 
nitric acid, and matters capable of yielding 
those substances by their putrefaction. — 
Nevertheless, the same manure applied to 
a soil containing no phosphoric acid, but 
artificially supplied with salts of ammonia, 
will also be found to act beneficially; in 
this case it is not the ammonia, but the 
phosphoric acid of the manure, which is 
of importance. Or, if in place of applying 
a mixed manure, such as we have im- 
agined, to these two soils, we were to take 



simple chemical manures — say phosphate 
of lime and sulphate of ammonia, weshould 
probably find, that upon the one soil the 
phosphoric salt was the best manure, whilst 
upon the other the salt of ammonia would 
produce the best effect. It i3 plain, then, 
that the value of these different elements 
of manure must depend on the wants of 
the plant, and on the capabilities of the 
soil. 

In concluding his report, M. Payen well 
observes, that there is one thing wanting 
which would be a very great aid to the 
cultivator, and that is, that all artificial 
manures should be designated by plain 
and simple names, expressing their real 
nature, and that their exact chemical com- 
position should be honestly stated, as their 
purchasers would he no longer deceived 
by mysterious names, or misled by vexa- 
tious uncertainty as to the real value of 
the manures they buy. On this point there 
can be no doubt as to the evil, though the 
remedy may not be quite so clear. Per- 
haps the best advice which can be given 
is this — buy only of respectable dealers, 
and do not be deceived by cheap manures: 
if yon are tempted by what is termed a 
bargain, you are pretty sure to suffer in 
the end; good manure is well worth its 
fair market value; the trash which dis- 
honest dealers sell you is often not worth 
having as a gift. 



"There is nothing," said Sir Sam'l Romilly, 
"by which I have through life more profited 
than by the just observation, the good opinion, 
and the sincere and gentle encouragement of 
an amiable and sensible woman." 



From the Cultivator. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR EXPERIMENTS 

TO OETERMINE THE MODE OF ACTION AND 
VALUE OF GYPSUM AS A MANURE. 

Messrs. Editors, — Few substances used 
as manure have produced more widely 
differentresultsthan gypsum, or have given 
rise to more numerous and discordant at- 
tempts to explain their mode of action. 

In some districts, farmers have derived 
little or no benefit from its use; in others 
it has proved highly beneficial to a certain 
class of plants — while in others again, it 
seems to have been applied to almost all 
crops with advantage. If it is a difficult 
matter to arrive at any satisfactory general 
conclusion regarding the action of gypsum 
on plants, from a study of facts recorded 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



43 



by practical men, the inquiry becomes 
9 much more perplexing when we consider 
the explanations which have been advanced 
by chemists and others, with a view to ac- 
count for the eccentricity of the action of 
this manure. Some have supposed that 
gypsum does not, of itself, afford food to 
plants, butthat its fertilizing powerdepends 
upon the influence which it is said to exer- 
cise on other substances; that it merely 
improves the physical properties of the 
soil — that it hastens the decay of organic 
matter — that it fixes ammonia which would 
otherwise be dissipated in the air. Others 
contend that some one of its constituents is 
the sole active agent, — water, sulphur and 
lime, having each their advocates. While 
by others, gypsum is considered to be an 
essentia! constituentof some plants, without 
which they cannot grow in a healthy con- 
dition. 

Theexperiments and observations which 
have hitherto been made, do not seem to 
have been sufficiently extensive or accu- 
rate, to enable any one to point out with 
certainty, the means by which gypsum 
contributes to the growth of different plants, 
nor to which plants, on which soils, or in 
what manner, it can be applied with the 
greatest advantage. Our knowledge on 
these important points being so unsatisfac- 
" , *tory, I have thought it may be well to in- 
vite the attention of the readers of the 
Cultivator to the subject, in order that they 
may see that the inquiry is an interesting 
one, and likely to afford useful results, and 
that it stands much in need of, and well 
deserves a more extended chemical and 
practical investigation. 

The least plausible of the hypothesis 
mentioned, seem to be those which ascribe 
the action of gypsum to its supposed power 
of decomposing organic matter, altering 
the physical constiiution of the soil, or of 
affording water to plants. 

Sir Humphrey Davy and others, have 
proved that the decay of animal substances 
was not hastened by being mixed wilh 
gypsum; if it had possessed this property, 
and by this alone, it was useful to plants, 
then it should prove most efficient on soils 
rich in organic matter, and add to the lux- 
uriance of all plants. 

The quantity usually applied, from two 
cwt. to four cwt. per acre, is obviously 
too small to exercise much influence on the 
physical constitution of a soil; besides its 
beneficial effects have been observed on 
eoils varying in texture from sand to clay. 

Vegetable mould, clay and other sub- 



stances in the soil, are known to have a 
much greater capacity for absorbing moist- 
ure from the air than gypsum. In two 
cwt. unburned, about forty-seven lbs. only 
of water are added to the soil, and suppos- 
ing roots had the power of abstracting the 
water of combination, and that this could 
be continually replaced, then if the supply 
of moisture afforded by gypsum was the 
chief cause of its influence, its effects should 
be most observable on the driest soils, and 
it should be of great benefit to all crops on 
most soils in dry seasons; but the facts at 
present known do not warrant any such 
conclusion. A crop has been doubled by 
the use of gypsum, on the western coast of 
Scotland, where much rain falls, as well as 
on the sands of Holkham, in Norfolk, where 
the climate is comparatively dry. 

Liebig has stated that the influence of 
gypsum on the growth of grasses, depends 
on its fixing in the soil the ammonia of the 
aimosphere. There can be no question 
that gypsum has the power of fixing am- 
monia, or that the sulphate of ammonia 
produced by the mutual decomposition of 
gypsum and carbonate of ammonia, is rea- 
dily soluble in water, and a valuable food 
for plants. Before, however, it can be ad- 
mitted that this is the sole, or even the chief 
cause of its influence, it should be proved 
to have the most decided effect on soils 
which contain least of other matters capa- 
ble of combining with or condensing am- 
monia, and that on these soils, a dressing 
of charcoal, or chloride of calcium, or sub- 
stances containing ammonia, are equally 
efficient. 

Sir Robert Kane considered that the pe- 
culiar action of gypsum consists in its sup- 
plying lime for the rapid growth of clover 
and other leguminous plants, which its 
moderate solubility in water enabled it to 
effect better than any other compound of 
that earth. It is probable that gypsum 
may, in some cases, act chiefly by means 
of its lime, when sulphuric acid and an 
abundance of other matters required for 
the growth of plants, excepting lime, are 
present in the soil. But it seems sowewhat 
paradoxical, that the rapidity of the growth 
of a plant should be in proportion to the 
slowness of the supply of one of its chief 
constituents. If lime, in the state in which 
it is usually applied, were so easily soluble 
as to be washed out of the land, or beyond 
the reach of the root6, before the plants had 
completed their growth, then a compound 
affording a more lasting, though limited, 
supply of lime, might in the end prove 



44 



THE SOUTHERN PLATER. 



more useful; but a dressing of ordinary 
lime is seen not only to carry through one 
crop, but to exercise an influence on crops 
for years after; and if the action of gyp- 
sum depended solely upon its lime, then it 
should follow that it would be an useless 
application to calcareous soils, where this 
material already abounds. The reverse 
of this, however, seems to be the case, for 
some of the most decided instances of the 
beneficial action of gypsum, have been 
observed in chalk. In "British Husband- 
ry," it is said "experience has prove gyp- 
sum to be beneficial when laid upon lime- 
stone soils, or upon land which had been 
dressed with chalk or lime. It is used ex- 
tensively for clover, sainfoin, &c. on the 
chalk formations in Kent, Hampshire and 
Berkshire. At Tanstall, near Sitiing- 
bourne, in Kent, situated, I believe, upon 
the chalk, a portion of clover was dressed 
with gypsum, at the rate of four cwt. per 
acre, and the aggregate produce was three 
times as great as the other portion of the 
field, to which no gypsum was applied. It 
can hardly be conceded, then, that the lime 
supplied by gypsum is the sole or main 
cause of its fertilizing power. 

Sir Humphrey Davy concluded that 
gypsum is an essential constituent of some 
plants, as it was always most beneficial to 
those which afforded it on analysis, and he 
considered that it might naturally exist in 
some soils in quantities sufficient for the 
wants of plants; consequently a special 
application of gypsum to these soils, would 
be attended with little or no benefit. Other 
writers, as Russel, Johnson, &c. coincide 
in the opinion of Sir Humphrey Davy that 
the benefit to be derived from an applica- 
tion of gypsum, will not only depend upon 
the kind of plant, but on the abundance or 
scarcity of gypsum or sulphates in the 
soil. That sulphur contributes to the 
growth of plants, seems to be proved by 
the fact that sulphuric acid alone has in 
many instances proved beneficial. Vege- 
tation has been observed to be luxuriant 
in the neighborhood of sulphurous springs. 
Natural or artificial waters which have a 
sulphurous taste, are said to give birth to 
a peculiarly luxuriant vegetation when 
they are employed in the irrigation of mea- 
dows. (Johnston.) In France, sulphuric 
acid has proved to be a good manure when 
poured upon land afier the removal of the 
crop. (Liebig.) Sulphur has been applied 
with advantage in Germany, as a top- 
dressing for clover and other crops, to 
which gypsum, in that country, is usually 



applied. (Cuthbert Johnson.) In experi- 
ments made on two fields by a Scotch far- ] 
mer. sulphuric acid afforded a greater in- 
crease of hay than gypsum, and an ex- 
cellent crop of turnips has been raised by 
means of sulphuric acid in Fifeshire. 

Again, the experience of farmers gene- 
rally favors the conclusion that gypsum 
acts most energetically on sainfoin, clover, 
lucerne and turnips, all of which contain 
a considerable proportion of sulphate of 
lime. Thus at Holkham, an application 
of four bushels per acre on sainfoin layers, 
is said to have doubled the crop. On a 
clayey soil in Hampshire, two and a half 
cwt. per acre were strewn on two year old 
sainfoin; the extra produce of hay at the 
first cutting was one ton per acre; in Oc- 
tober the gypsumed part afforded one and 
a quarter tons of hay, yet there was scarcely 
any on the rest of the land. In the next 
year the former was twice mown, while in 
the latter, it is said there was nothing to 
mow. On clover the influence of gypsum 
seems in some instances to be very decided. 
In an experiment made at Highstead, the 
simple soil produced one ton of clover hay 
and twenly pounds of seed per acre; a 
portion of the same soil to which gypsum, 
at (he raie of five bushels per acre, had 
been applied, yielded a crop equivalent to 
three tons of hay and one hundred and five 
pounds of seed per acre. In British Hus- 
bandry, gypsum is said to have increased 
crops of clover and lucerne, on some soils 
in Kent, at least three fold. In Ayrshire, 
part of a crop of turnips was nearly doubled 
by the use of gypsum. In the same neigh- 
borhood, no perceptible effect was pro- 
duced on turnips by two cwt. of gypsum; 
but the entire crop was excellent — a cir- 
cumstance which should not be lost sight 
of when experimenting with special ma- 
nures. There is a limit to ihe growth of 
plants; if a soil is already so rich in vege- 
table food as to be able to produce a great 
crop, a dressing of any manure to a soil in 
such a state, would be useless. 

There are also many observations on 
record which seem to show that the growth 
of plants in some instances was checked, 
owing to the want of gypsum in the soil, 
and that it acts milch more powerfully on 
some plants than on others. Thus, if land 
is clover-sick; if the plants spring up and 
die away as summer advances, this is con- 
sidered by many to be an indication of the ab- 
sence of gypsum. A crop of sainfoin which 
began to decline in the fourth year, became 
as productive as before by an application of 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



45 



% 



gypsum. (Brit. Hus.) In the fifth year 
alter sowing lucerne, the natural grasses 
appeared to be gaining ground, when a 
dressing of gypsum produced such a smo- 
thering crop that the grass could no longer 
make head, fill after the third cutting. In 
another instance, an old grass field became 
gradually less and less productive in spite 
of all applications, when a quantity of peat 
ashes containing about two cwt. of gyp- 
sum, was afterwards applied, and a similar 
result followed, — the grass not only grew 
with greatly increased vigor, but a quantity 
of white clover made its appearance in the 
part dressed, in so marked a manner as to 
attract the notice of the farmer. In both 
these cases the gypsum had evidently a 
much more powerful effect on the clover 
and lucerne than on the grass. 

So far, then, as my gleaning of facts and 
opinions extends, it seems to nre that all 
we can be said to know with any degree 
of certainty regarding the action of gypsum 
on plants is, that it does not depend upon 
the moisture it contains, or is capable of 
attracting from the atmosphere; noron its 
supposed power of decomposing organic 
matter. We may also infer that it is most 
benefieial to clover and other leguminous 
plams, and that it probably acts more pow- 
erfully on them in consequence of the great 
proportion of sulphur they contain. If this 
be so, it is easy to understand why in 
some soils it may add to the growth of 
most plants. If a soil contains all other 
substances required for the perfect nou- 
rishment of plants excepting sulphur, then 
adressing of gypsum would have a visible 
effect on wheat, oats, &c. which require a 
comparatively small supply; and it should 
follow that if the quantity naturally exist- 
ing in a soil were so small as not to suffice 
for the wants of these plants, that clover, 
lucerne or sainfoin, which contain much 
sulphur, could not, previously to the appli- 
cation of gypsum, grow in a healthy con- 
dition. A difficulty, however, arises here; 
if this were the case, if the exhaustion of 
the sulphur of a soil, were the only reason 
why gypsum is so beneficial on some soils, 
why clover and turnips cannot be repeated 
at short intervals with advantage; why do 
not these soils produce a similar effect on 
the potato and cabbage, for the analysis of 
(he ashes of these plants indicate that they 
require a very considerable quantity of 
sulphuric acid? yet there are few or no 
districts where the potato, at least, is not 
frequently repeated on the same land, but 



we do not hear of lands being tired of po- 
tatoes or potato-sick. 

The points on which more precise infor- 
mation seem to be required are the fol- 
lowing: 

1. Does analysis show a deficiency of 
sulphate of lime in soils where an applica- 
tion of gypsum is efficient, and an ahun- 
dance in those soils in which it is inert? 

2. Is gypsum on all soils beneficial to 
plants in proportion to thesmallness of the 
quantity of sulphate of lime they contain? 

3. Does gypsum act by different means 
in different soils and on different plants? 

If it should be ultimately proved that 
the action of gypsum is chiefly due to the 
sulphuric acid which it contains, then a 
question will arise, whetherothersulphates 
or sulphuric acid, can be profitably substi- 
tuted for gypsum on some soils or for some 
plants, as dilute sulphuric acid on chalk 
and limestone soils, or sulphate of potash 
for wheat, on land with sufficient lime. It 
would also be desirable to ascertain what 
are the chief causes of the difference in 
the quantity of sulphuric acid in the soils — 
whether it is to be traced to a difference in 
the composition of different rocks from 
which soils have been derived, and conse- 
quently whether a knowledge of the geo- 
logy of' a district will enable one, without 
the aid of analysis or experiment, to pro- 
nounce whether an application of gypsum 
will be profitable or otherwise. Or, may 
the difference depend partly upon the mode 
of cropping pursued in different districts; 
to the presence or otherwise of sulphurous 
springs; or is gypsum conveyed to the land 
in unequal quantities in different localities 
in the ordinary dressings of lime? 

The following experiments seem likely 
to throwsome light on the main questions. 
I propose that they should be tried inat least 
three districts. 1. Where gypsum is known 
to be of the greatest benefit. 2. Where it 
acts on certain plants only, as clover. 3. 
Where it is of little or no use to any plants. 
A field should be selected in each district, 
well drained, nearly level, of uniform qua- 
lity, free from the shade of trees, and which 
had been manured and cropped throughout 
alike, for three or four preceding years. A 
complete analysis must be made of the soil 
of each field, previously to the commence- 
ment of the experiments. The same va- 
riety of each plant should be grown in the 
three districts; it is desirable, indeed, that 
all should be supplied from the same sam- 
ple. The culture of each plant must be 
alike throughout; all kept free from weeds; 



46 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the land accuraielymeasured and theentire 
produce of each patch carefully weighed. 
Notes should also be taken daily, of the 
weather during the. trial of these experi- 
ments — and, as will be seen hereafter, it is 
especially desirable that the time the gyp- 
sum remains on the leaves should be care- 
fully observed. I propose that a patch of 
most of our arable plants should be grown 
and top-dressed alike — say in the first week 
of June, with the following substances: 
1. Clover. 



2. 


Wheat. 


• « E '3 


3. 


Oats. 


rc — o o • 
"5 o Ss2 


4. 


Beans. 


•w M . I S3 ■ ■_• 


5. 


Peas. 


« S'-So ^<!<"S = 1 S 


6. 


Carrots. 


= D O ^ ■— O ._ 3 " 


7. 


Potatoes. 


-J >.- a o „ o a c SJ 


8. 

9. 


Mangel Wurzel. 
Corn. 


= 3 °J=r5 


18. 


Ruta-Baga. 




11. 


Turnips. 


OW 



The burned lime used, should be slaked 
by exposure to the air; when reduced to 
powder, it will be partly in the state of hy- 
drate and partly of carbonate of lime; as 
carbonic acid, sufficient for the wants of 
plants, exists in the soil and air, I propose 
that carbonates of lime, soda and ammo- 
nia, should be tried with the sulphates, 
with a view to determine how much of the 
extra growth of the plants is due to the 
action of these substances, and how much 
to the sulphuric acid. By a comparison of 
the produce of the different patches of any 
one plant, we may be enabled to conclude 
whether gypsum acts chiefly by means of 
its lime, its sulphuric acid, or its power of 
fixing ammonia. 

A comparison of the produce of all the 
plants will indicate whether gypsum acts 
differently on different plants, growing un- 
der the same circumstances, and whether 
it is probable that other substances may be 
used with greater profit than gypsum, in 
certain localities. The advice of a pro- 
fessional chemist would be required as to 
the quantities of these substances to be 
used, and how they should be applied ; it 
will be necessary, I apprehend, to consider 
what quantity of each would be required 
to afford an equal quantity of sulphuric 
acid; what is the degree of solubility, and 
the tendency to form fresh compounds 
when in contact with the soil. 

A consideration of this subject, suggests 
another interesting inquiry, viz: how can 
gypsum be most advantageously applied 
to plants? One might have supposed that 
it would have beenof little moment whether 
it was worked into the soil previous to sow- 



ing, or strewn on the plants early in the 
spring, or if there was any difference, it 
would be in favor of the former practice, 
as by that means the gypsum would be 
more thoroughly mixed with the soil, and 
be useful to the plants from the commence- 
ment of their growth. The experience of 
farmers, however, points to a different re- 
sult, and seems t> indicate a peculiarity of 
action not yet understood, and which, there- 
fore, requires to be cleared up by expe- 
riment. 

Many have supposed that gypsum exer- 
cises the greatest influence when strewn 
upon plants in spring; some, indeed, con- 
sider that it increases the growth of 
plants in proportion to the length of time 
it remains on the leaves, and that if rain 
falls immediately after it is applied, it pro- 
duces little or no effect. Cuthbert Johnson 
says — "he has noticed that the weather, 
at the time of spreading gypsum, has a 
very material influence on the result of 
the experiment. Its effects are never soon 
apparent when sown in dry weather, but if 
the. season is damp, so that the powder 
adheres to the leaves and stalks, the effect 
is immediate." This, he says, has been 
observed inEnglandand the United States. 
It is also said to be a well known fact with 
the sainfoin growers of Berkshire, the clo- 
ver cultivators of Surry and Kent, and to 
the growers of lucerne in Essex and 
Middlesex. 

In other instances, I find it has proved 
of great use to wheat, when strewn on the 
plants in spring, and it is said to produce 
immense crops of peas, if applied when 
the plants are "looking up." At Well- 
wood, in Ayrshire, gypsum and salt were 
strewn on a mixed crop of oats, beans and 
peas, which, by some means, had been 
much injured. The effect is described as 
like magic; the plants assumed a deeper 
color, and grew wonderfully. On the same 
farm, a similar dressing was applied to a 
portion of a crop of beans when coming 
into flower. The beans at the time were 
very weak, but they ultimately became as 
good a crop as other portions to which 
manure had been earlier applied. 

Again, it is said in British Husbandry, 
that gypsum never appears to produce 
better effects than when it has been laid 
upon red clover already so far grown as 
that the leaves nearly cover the soil, "for 
there seems no doubt that it acts with the 
greatest force when it adheres to them, 
and that the longer it remains upon them 
the better." 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



47 



These observations derive great support 
from a comparative experiment made by 
Professor Korte, who found that gypsum 
,y applied to clover, at different periods, pro- 
duced the following results: 
Undressed, 100 lbs. 

Top-dressed, 30th of March, 132 " 
13th of April, 140 " 

" 27ih of April, 156 " 

Thus the benefit derived seems to have 
been in proportion to the extent of the fo- 
liage on which the powder could be spread. 
The plants most advanced in growth when 
the gypsum was applied, having, with the 
same materials, accomplished the most 
work in the least time. It is, doubtless, of 
importance to ascertain by further compa- 
rative experiments, whether gypsum is in- 
variably most efficient when it remains 
some time on the leaves; and if so, what 
is the cause of this special influence. Does 
the gypsum act immediately on the plant, 
while in contact with the leaves, or does it 
acquire some property by being exposed 
to the air, which afterwards renders it more 
efficient when mixed with the soil? Gyp- 
sum, when sprer.d on the floors of stables, 
is known to purify the air by abstracting 
ammonia, and it is not improbable that gyp- 
sum may. in like manner, attract ammonia 
from the atmosphere, when exposed thinly 
on the leaves of plants. It would in thatcase 
prove a more efficient manure. If a small 
■^ quantity only of ammonia exists in a soil, 
and if there were present vegetable mould 
and other matters to prevent its escape, 
then gypsum would probably act by means 
of its sulphuric acid and lime only; but if 
before entering the soil, the gypsum had 
abstracted a certain quantity of ammonia 
from the air, the soil would obviously be- 
come richer in this essential food of plants. 
But if this is not the reason why gypsum 
is more efficient when strewn on the lenves 
of plants, is it probable that leaves have 
the power of disengaging and absorbing 
the sulphuric acid and water of the pow- 
dered gypsum? As sulphuric acid is an 
essential constituent of those plants to' 
which gypsum is generally most useful, ; 
may not the presence of sulphuric acid in ; 
the plant, in a more concentrated form, and ; 
greater abundance than it would be if ob- i 
tained from the soil only, cause a more 
energetic absorption and assimilation of 
alkaline bases from the soil, hence a more 
rapid building up or grow:h of the plant. 
In " Lectures on Agricultural Chemis- 
try," it is said Peschier has observed that 
gypsum laid on the leaves is gradually 



converted into carbonate of lime. If this 
invariably happens, then the change is 
effected by one of the two causes men- 
tioned; either the sulphuric acid unites 
with ammonia, or it is absorbed. If it does 
unite with ammonia, then what becomes 
of the sulphate of ammonia formed? Is 
it gradually dissolved by slight rains or 
heavy dews, and so washed off the leaves, 
or is it in this state absorbed by them? 

Experiments like these, I fear, will be 
considered by many uncalled for and likely 
to be attended with too much expense. It 
is high time that a different mode of expe- 
rimenting should be entered upon than 
has hitherto prevailed; it must be done, 
sooner or later, before any rapid or sure ad- 
vance can be made in farming — and I can- 
not but think that thereis wealth and energy 
enough in this country to prosecute such 
experiments now. If six hundred dollars 
can be given by an individual to listen, for 
a brief hour in mostdelighiful raptures, no 
doubt, to the warbling of the " Swedish 
Nighiingale," surely it would be no diffi- 
cult matter for the farmers of a State to 
raise at least an equal sum, to conduct an 
inquiry which would tend to benefit them 
individually, add to the resources of the 
State, and, I may say, confer honor on the 
country. It has been said of the distin- 
guished Von Thaer, a man who seems to 
have combined within himself a greater 
amountof practice with science than almost 
any other writer on agricultural matters, 
that "the first care of all societies formed 
for the improvement of agriculture, should 
be to prepare the forms of experiment, and 
to distribute the execution of them among 
their members." One State is distin- 
guished for the growth of wheat, another 
for its dairy produce, another for raising 
cattle, and so on — let each State Agricul- 
tural Society consider what question it 
would be most for its interest to thoroughly 
investigate; then let the chemist, the ve- 
getable physiologist, and the practical 
farmer, unite together in order to determine 
how the experiments should be conducted 
and what precautions must be observed in 
order to avoid the influence of disturbing 
causes, or of receiving evasive or erroneous 
answers to the questions it is desirable to 
solve. There is no nation on the face of 
the earth which should enter into such in- 
vestigation with greater zeal than the 
United States. In Europe, and especially 
in Britain, great improvements have been 
made in agriculture of late years— and 
how have these improvements been effect- 



48 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



ed? Chiefly by the skill and enterprise of 
the tenant farmer. On the strength of a 
lease, he has been ready to adopt sugges- 
tions, showing good ground for concluding 
that a profitable return would be obtained 
for money expended. He has laid out his 
capita] freely, and although he may, during 
the time of his occupation, win back his 
capital with a liberal interest, yet many of 
the improvements he makes are of a per- 
manent character; consequently when his 
lease expires he has to pay a considerably 
higher rent for improvements which he 
himself has effected, or give way to another 
who will. Now in the United States, where 
the majority of the farmers are owners of 
the land they cultivate, the case is very 
different; they have the prospect of reap- 
ing the full benefit of any improvements 
they may make. 

John Townley. 
Port Hope, Wisconsin. 



Java coffee, we learn from the Milton, (N. 
C.) Chronicle, has been successfully grown 
near that town. It was produced by a shrub 
only two years old, which sprouted 1'rom a 
grain of coffee planted on the north side of a 
house, and the fruit is described as looking in 
all respects like the imported article. — Ex-. 

Can this be so] It is very important if it 
is, and we will thank some of our North Ca- 
rolina friends to inform us. — Editor. 



For the Southern Planter. 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

"One ton of hay will winter from five to seven 
sheep." — Southern Planter. 

Mr. Editor, — Sheephusbandry will probably 
form a very important branch of the agricul- 
ture of Virginia, within a few years, — at 
least, such is the hope of many persons, both 
for its immediate pecuniary profits and its ul- 
teriorbenefits, in the improvement of her lands. 
It is desirable, therefore, that no statement 
should be made, calculated to discourage its 
prosecution and extension, especially under 
the authority of the Southern Planter, if that 
statement be inapplicable to her situation and 
climate; and that the above extract is more 
appropriate to a Northern than a Southern la- 
titude, will appear in the sequel. 

The quantity of provender necessary to 
winter sheep depends upon: the length and 
severity of the winter — the amount and pro- 
tection from weather — the size or weight of 
the sheep— and whether they are to be kept in 
a fattening, or merely in a healthy, thriving 
condition. In the lattercase, we havereliable 



authority for saying that two and a half pounds 
of good hay per day, or its equivalent, with 
proper shelters, will be sufficient to support 
one hundred pounds of flesh and wool, in any 
of the different breeds — suppose, now, that 
Merinos be taken at an average of ninety 
pounds — South Downs at one hundred and ten 
pounds — and Bakewells or Cotswolds, or their 
cross, at one hundred and fifty pounds, as the 
basis of a calculation; it will result, that one 
of each kind can be fed as follows, viz: 



Merino. 


So. Down. 


Cotswold. 


Davs 


With 67ilbs. 


82i lbs. 


Il2jlbs. 


30 


135 " 


1G5 " 


225 " 


60 


202£ " 


247| " 


337£ " 


90 


270 " 


330 " 


450 " 


120 


337i " 


412J " 


562J " 


150 



Or, in other form — and in order to use whole 
numbers, by cancelling the smallest fractions 
practicable, it may be stated that, instead of 
one ton, ten tons of hay will subsist: 

Cotswolds. So. Downs. Merinos. Months. 
35 48 59 5 

44 61 74 4 

59 81 99 3 x 

89 121 148 2 x 

178 242 296 1 

But the average weights of the sheep may 
have been placed too high; if so, the same 
quantity of hay would support a larger number. 
These breeds are selected as being probably 
the best representatives of the large, medium 
and small sheep — or, the long, middle and fine 
woolled varieties — and (let it be remarked, "1 it 
is sincerely to be desired that Virginia farmers, 
in commencing or enlarging their flocks, will * 
not be satisfied without either perfect purity of 
blood, or very high— the very highest grades in 
each kind. 

The climate of the United States is such 
that the Northern flock-master has to feed full 
five months annually — whereas it is confidently 
believed that similar feeding could only be ne- 
cessary in a very small portion of the North- 
ern orthe mountainous partsof Virginia — that 
a large portion of the State would not require 
more than four months; a still larger portion 
not more than three months; and, perhaps, one- 
half of the whole not more than thirty to sixty 
days of winter feeding — when the shortness of 
our winters, and the absence of snow for so 
considerable a portion of them — with the con- 
sequent ability of late fall, partial winter, and 
early spring grazing, are considered, this will 
not be regarded as too favorable an estimate. 
One ton of hay, then, will winter from six to 
fourteen sheep of the best quality in Virginia, 
and from four to seven in the Northern States, 
having due reference to situation and breed. 
What a contrast is here presented for our en- 
couragement! And if sheep husbandry be 
found profitable there, (as it undoubtedly is,) 
how much more profitable might it be here, if 
judiciously managed 1 Anon. 

November 12, 1851. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



49 




THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, FEBRUARY, 1852. 

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STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

We invite attention to the "Plan for the 
Formation of Agricultural Societies," which 
will be found in another part of our paper, 
and which we fully intended to have published 
last month. Not desiring to commit ourselves 
to any particular scheme until we shall have 
examined all that may be presented, we yet 
cordially recommend the one to which we refer, 
to the consideration of the fiends of this im- 
portant movement. It proposes a moderate 
outlay, which will, no doubt, be a recommen- 
dation to the Legislature, disposed as that 
body must be to economize as far as possible: 
| and it allows time to get ready for the exhibi- 
i tions we shall have, which can certainly take 
place in two years. 
We have not yet seen much evidence of in- 
I terest in the proposed Convention to organize 
I the Society, but we have not heard a voice 
raised against it, and have no reason to ex- 
pect, out of the Legislature, any other oppo- 
sition than that ominous shake of the head 
which expresses rather despondency than dis- 
approbation. When we call to mind that the 
I law authorizing our late Slate Convention was 
I passed with only one petition for it, and was 
afterwards ratified by an immense majority, 
j we see no reason to augur a failure from the 
: general indifference to our present enterprize. 
:' Such things are rarely spontaneous, they must 
! originate somewhere, and we see no insupera- 
ble objection to having a Society organized at 
the instigation of one single man, provided it 
be done on proper principles. All that is ne- 
cessary is to convince the Legislature of the 
expediency of the thing and the impossibility 
of wresting it from its sphere for mere private 
advantage, and we take it for granted they 
will do it. Then, when the frame is provided, 
it will become the men of public spirit to 
build up to it; and if they are not cheered on 
by popular sympathy or the co-operation of 
numbers they must find their spring of action 
within, and reflect that 



The fewer men the greater share of honor. 

We have every confidence that the Society 
can be established; with more or less labor, 
perhaps; but labor which will bring wilh it 
its own reward, even should it fail to secure 
the gratitude of those who reap its fruits. The 



, 



50 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



thing is so reasonable in itself, so moderate in 
its requirements, and will be so beneficial, in 
its influences, to the whole State, but espe- 
cially to the farmers, if they can be brought 
to view it in its true light, that we cannot per- 
mit ourselves to anticipate a failure. Let us 
look at some of the considerations which 
should weigh with us in this matter. 

Farmers should be united for their own be- 
nefit in a compact mass whose energy can be 
wielded by a few as the representatives of all. 
In that way more can be accomplished, and 
more effectively, than if left to individual ex- 
ertion. Forty horses could never transport a 
train of freight cars, but one locomotive of 
twenty horse power can do it easily and eco- 
nomically. And as steam in the material 
world is nothing more than a vast amount of 
repellant power condensed into convenient 
space, so voluntary association, the steam 
power of the moral world, is but concentrating 
the diffused will of many into one focus of 
effort, and directing it upon a given point. Its 
force is resistless to those who employ it, and 
its effects beneficial; but it requires skilful 
officers to set it to work and control its move- 
ments. 

We know it is the fashion with some to de- 
cry agricultural societies, to call them hum- 
bugs, and conclude their unsuitableness to our 
condition from their uniform failures hitherto. 
But when we look to their histories we should 
infer nothing from the past against the present. 
We have no time now to review them, but we 
may state that no Society in Virginia has yet 
been organized upon proper principles, and no 
general system of auxiliary measures has ever been 
, pursued. And should we admit, for the sake of 
argument, that, so far as professed objects are 
concerned, such Societies are humbugs, yet it 
may happen, as in the case of some other public 
institutions, that their indirect advantiges will 
greatly overbalance the defects in their consti- 
tution. Look, for example, at the county 
courts of Virginia. Though their decisions 
are generally just, because law is but the ex- 
pression of natural justice, yet they are so 
tardily rendered as to amount in many cases 
to a denial of right, and would have been long 
ago supplanted by a 'prompter tribunal, were 
it not that the genius of our people, eminently 
just, honest and peaceful, has rendered such a 
reform unnecessary. In matters of police their 



inefficiency is universally admitted. Yet we 
have always regarded them as a most useful 
institution. They bring men together who 
would otherwise never meet, and by that means 
alone, directly and secondarily, diffuse an 
amountof general information far greater than 
is conveyed by the boasted free schools of the 
North. So these Societies, if made attractive, 
shall assemble people from all parts of the 
State, make them intelligent by the mere force 
of contact and attrition, enlarge their sympa- 
thies with their fellow-citizens as it shall ex- 
tend their acquaintance; and thus rid us of 
our local conceit, and show just grounds for 
State pride. In New York where the prodi- 
gious throng at their Annual State Fairs is 
measured by acres, and can only be enumerated 
by conjecture, such an effect has attended their 
exhibitions; and that most utilitarian State, 
after an experience of more than twenty years, 
appropriates eight thousand dollars annually 
to agriculture. The efforts of her State, and 
affiliated County Societies are perceptible eve- 
rywhere. Their enterprizes, carried out by 
the Legislature, when they have not the power, 
have achieved such tangible results as the im- 
provement of stock, and farming generally, 
a geological survey, the foundation of an agri- 
cultural college, and the establishment of an 
agricultural literature, not very good to be 
sure, but better than ours, i. e. better than no- 
thing. Another very important consideration 
is that such an institution is a ready nucleus 
of combination for defence against any adverse 
influence of the body politic. For instance, 
in New York a society of madmen, or worse, 
has sprung up, whose only tenet is that every 
man shall be restricted to a certain small 
quantity of land, and shall not purchase or 
inherit more. Should the State Society choose, 
they can crush that faction at any time, as by 
their general course, they weaken it at all 
events. True, such a faction is not possible 
here at this time, and bodes no serious danger 
there at present: but nobody can tell when 
men are going to run wild, and we may be- 
come "cossack" in our very republicanism. 
Be that as it may, it can hardly be denied that 
the general tendency of laws is in favor of the 
very rich and the very poor. We standing 
between them and bearing the burdens of go- 
vernment, should become "a law unto our- 
selves." It is practicable to do this without 



< 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



51 



treading upon "the debateable ground" of po- 
litics. 

The economics of agriculture are rarely 
studied or understood by legislative bodies, 
composed as they generally are of lawyers. 
They would be very willing to make an infor- 
mal surrender of all such matters into the 
hands of a society not inclined to abuse the 
trust. Suppose such a society, imposing from 
its size, and influential from its respectability, 
should request a heavy premium to be offered 
for the best wheat-reaper to be furnished at 
reasonable cost. The request of such a body 
would go much farther with the Legislature 
than the most convincing petition from an in- 
dividual. It certainly should, because it di- 
vests them of much responsibility. So of any 
important modification in the laws relating to 
agriculture, or the passage of any law in re- 
gard to that interest. In the general field of 
politics men will not quit their party even for 
uncommon special advantages. But here all 
such matters can be arranged as under a flag 
of truce. 

It may also extend its sphere abroad. Thus 
at present certain people at the North, whether 
from enthusiasm, from the imagined popularity 
^pf the measure, or from hopes of plunder, are 
striving to create an agricultural bureau at 
Washington— a Patent Office humbug on a 
gigantic scale. It is to be feared they will 
succeed. But were State Societies formed 
and confederated, they might, as they probably 
would, remonstrate and expose the pernicious- 
ness of this scheme, whose greatest effect will 
be to supplant their solid usefulness by costly 
delusions. 

Other arguments rise to view, but we forbear 
to urge them lest we weary the reader. How 
a society shall operate directly, powerfully, 
and speedily to improve all our breeds of stock 
we will explain hereafter, and slate a plan for 
this purpose, — which can be commenced at 
once, — so simple, so obvious, so cheap, and so 
sure that it has struck us with surprise that 
none of the farmers of Virginia have ever 
suggested it to the public or adopted it them- 
selves. 

For the present we conclude with the re- 
mark, that two or three very promising socie- 
ties in Virginia have been badly hurt, if not 
killed outright, by Presidents! It is too much 
our habit to seek distinguished men for such 



offices. Now we have as much respect for 
those gentlemen in their proper places as others 
have. Sometimes they may happen to be our 
personal friends, whom in a proper manner 
we would treat with great consideration. But 
as an agricultural journalist we must say, that 
if they have been all their lives professional 
men, it cannot be expected that they should 
know anything of agriculture, who, as we 
know, to our cost, is as jealous a mistress as 
the law is said to be. To suppose otherwise 
is not so much to compliment them as to dis- 
parage ourselves. The President of the new 
Society, if we have one, will have work on 
his hands. We, therefore, want for the office 
a man of leisure, zeal, activity, energy, tact, 
address, and a knowledge of his profession. 
Such men can be had. We have our eye on 
two such now. Doubtless there are more. 
With such, we succeed, without such, we fail 
again. 

Finally, we beg that we may have at least re- 
spectable delegations from all Farmer's Clubs, 
and from all counties which shall be warned 
by this notice in time to appoint them. 

The Convention meets in the Capitol at 
Richmond on the 19th of February in the 
evening. 



AUGUSTA FARMERS. 

We have the pleasure of a goodly list of 
subscribers in Augusta, and most of them pay 
in advance. They are a ready money, if not 
a "hard money," set of fellows, and good fel- 
lows too. We like that people. But in one 
thing they should not be imitated— they don't 
keep their other promises as well as they do 
their promises to pay. Several of their best 
farmers promised to write an occasional essay 
for the Southern Planter; and not a scrip of 
the pen have we had from them yet, not a 
word. Why sol They farm pretty well in 
that section we know. Bashfulness is not one 
of their failings either, as we know quite as 
well. When we go over there sometimes on 
a little cattle expedition, it does our heart good 
to hear them brag over us. They raise more 
and bigger horses, more and fatter cattle, more 
and better woolled sheep, more and larger hogs, 
more and richer milk, more and sweeter butter, 
more and heavier wheat, and corn, and rye, 
and oats and hay, ranker clover and richer 



\ 



52 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



grass, bigger chickens and belter eggs, sweeter 
honey, stronger whiskey, clearer water, and 
vastly finer men and prettier women than we 
poor Tuckahoes. They can out-trade us, out- 
work us, (know better than we, at least in 
Rockingham, which is nearly the same, the 
difference between a " long-handled and short- 
handled hoe" some think Powell's Gap might 
have been tunnelled with "a short-handled 
grubbing hoe,") outplough us, outdrive us, 
outpull us, outride us, whip us; "dive deeper 
and come out drier," as the Kentitckians say, 
"than any man in these parls." In short, they 
bang us out at every thing, from a trade to a 
sermon. 

All this we have often admitted. But why 
don't some of them tell us how it is done? 
There is a secret in it, we know; for, in the 
several pleasant visits we have paid them, we 
never found it out, though looking with all our 
eyes. Nay, so close are they, that when an 
occasional quo'he does emigrate to this side, 
he seems to lose his superiority, and becomes 
all at once no better farmer than we are — 
hardly so good. He leaves his secret behind 
him. But when several of their crack farmers 
promised to write, we thought we should cer- 
tainly have it. Won't they tell us 1 We know 
that some of them can, if they only will. — 
Will our friend, Mr. Cochran, go after them 
"with a sharp stick," and see that they do? 
We want to hear from them. 

Seriously, gentlemen, won't you write?— 
Your subscriptions are a considerable item, 
but a communication from any one of you 
who know how to farm so well, will be worth 
more than ten limes your dollar. And then 
there is Rockingham wiih its thousand far- 
mers—but we don't like to speak of Rocking- 
ham. Out of those thousand farmers, we have 
only about thirty subscribers. We must go 
there again. "Lehigh must do better." 



HOT BEDS. 



In the January number of this paper we 
published a short and sensible essay on hot 
beds from the New England Farmer. We 
refer to the subject again to say that the use 
of glass is an unnecessary expense which may 
be easily avoided. We have about as good 
luck as common, neither better nor worse, 



with our hot beds, and we never covered one 
with glass. The substitute has been a piec* 
of cotton cloth — an old sheet is as good as 
anything else— made somewhat larger than 
the frame of the hot bed, so as to lap well over 
its edges in covering. At the upper and lower 
ends sticks are sewed in the cloth its whole 
length to give it weight enough to keep it 
stretched, and prevent the wind from blowing 
il off". In addition, for the sake of security, 
we generally lay a few sticks, pea sticks or 
bean poles, according to the size of the frame, 
across the coteii: then it can't be moved. It 
is recommended that the cotton be oiled, which 
makes it semi-transparent. But we have not 
thought that indispensable. The hot bed is 
then managed just as if you had it covered 
with glass; and we think the plants succeed 
quite as well. Our old friend, duintin Blain, 
a very experienced market gardener, near 
Richmond, saw ours last spring, and approved 
it. 

The great difficulty in hot beds is not so 
much in the covering as in keeping up a uni- 
form heat in the bed and preventing the fer- 
mentation from being completed before the 
season or the plants are far enough advanced 
to dispense with the warmth thus engendered 
We do not know any better directions on this 
head than are given in our last number. By 
personal attention and observation, experience 
will teach the gardener better than any minute 
direction, and even with that guide, we have 
sometimes known the most skilful fail with 
hot beds. 

A mode of growing tomatoes that we have 
seen recommended, and shall try, is this: At 
the usual time of sowing the seed, dig holes 
where you wish to plant, a foot deep; fill them 
up half with fermenting manure and half with 
rich soil well mixed with well rotted manure 
and therein plant the seed. Then have box 
frames made larger than the area of the hole, 
say eighteen inches square and tack cotton 
over the top of it. Let these set over the to- 
mato plants, rembving them occasionally after 
they have come up, to give air, until all danger 
of frost has passed. This saves the risk and 
loss of time from transplanting, and is said to 
answer as good a purpose as hot beds. Twelve 
plants thus treated, taking good care to have 
but one in a hill, will suffice for a moderate 
sized family. 



i\ 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



53 



\ 



VOTE OF THANKS. 



Our thanks are due to a large number of 
friends, both in our own State and North Ca- 
lolina, for a considerable addition to our sub- 
scription list. We do not generally notice 
these things — not because we are ungrateful 
for such favors, but because we really have 
not room. Our paper is so small, and we are 
so anxious to fill it with valuable reading 
matter that we begrudge even the space given 
to advertisements. Our January number was 
pretty full of original and valuable communi- 
cations. The present issue has quite as many 
and as good, and we have a good supply of 
capital articles for March, and "more a com- 
ing." We hope, therefore, that our failure to 
make acknowledgements will not be thought 
to arise from indifference. 



r 



HOLLOW HORN. 

At our instance Dr. Minor of Charlottes- 
ville reported for the last number of the 
Planter a case of what is commonly called 
hollow horn, including his treatment of the 
patient and an account of the post mortem ex- 
amination. We publish now a confirmation 
of his views by Youatt, which the Doctor has 
never seen, and which we would have inserted 
along with his report but for fear of making 
the article too long. We also add our testi- 
mony, though as we are not "professional," it 
cannot be deemed so conclusive. We had a 
very fine work ox, in excellent order, taken 
with some affection of the head which caused 
him, whether standing up or lying down, to 
turn in a circle, and constantly to the left as 
long as he was able. The attack was pre- 
ceded by a nasal gleet, which accompanied 
it, throughout. The overseer said it was hol- 
low horn, which we did not believe, but, ne- 
vertheless, permitted the horn to be bored. — 
Nothing but a little healthy blood followed the 
withdrawal of the gimlet. Having no faith 
in the nostrums usually prescribed, we suffered 
the case to run, unassisted by the cow doctors, 
to a speedy and fatal termination. Upon dis- 
section of the head, the left hemisphere of the 
brain, towards which he had inclined was 
found completely "broken down" or disor- 
ganized: the base of the left horn very slightly 
implicated. 



The notion that this diseas-e originates in 
the horn itself seems to us to be an error re- 
sulting from that backward mode of reasoning 
which confounds symptom with disease. The 
disorder in that organ should rather seem to 
be secondary. 

Not less erroneous do we deem the opinion 
held by some that the horn becomes frost 
bitten, and then putrifies. Though its whole 
inner surface is exceedingly vascular, yet 
it is perfectly protected by the almost insen- 
sible horny covering in which it is cased 
throughout, except only a very minute ring at 
its base, whose pulsations are the most accu- 
rate index of the pulse: and that ring, hardly 
wider than a thread, cannot be affected by cold. 
We have consulted Youatt and several other 
veterinary authors at various times, and we 
have never yet seen even an allusion to such 
a disease as hollow horn, or any thing like it. 
When it is considered that it is a substance of 
lower vitality than the hoof, which never be- 
comes frost-bit, even though chilled by an iron 
shoe, reason should teach that it cannot be 
injured by cold. 

There is another disease here treated of as 
palsy, which we commonly call getting on the 
lift, and sometimes tail-slip, which is so often 
connected with what is called hollow horn, 
and leads to such absurdities that we insert 
Youatt's account of it entire. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE FRONTAL SINUSES. 

The whole of this cavity is lined by a pro- 
longation of the membrane of the nose, and 
when one part of it is inflamed, the whole is 
apt to be affected. This accounts for the very 
serious character which nasal gleet, a dis- 
charge from the nostril, sometimes assumes 
in cattle. In the horse we think little of it, 
except it has a glanderous character, or is con- 
nected with considerable cough or fever; but 
the sooner a gleet from the nose of an ox is 
examined into and properly treated, the better; 
for the inflammation is far more extensive 
than that which occurs in the horse. 

After a little cough, with slight nasal dis- 
charge, we occasionally find the beast rapidly 
becoming dull and drooping, and carrying his 
head on one side. Either grubs or worms 
have crept up the nostril, and are lodged in 
some of the sinuses, and are a source of irri- 
tation there; or inflammation, at first merely 
that of the membrane of the nose, and con- 
nected with common cold, has extended along 
the cavity, and is more intense in some parti- 
cular spot than in others, or has gone on to 
suppuration, and matter is thrown out and 



54 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



lodged there, and generally about the root of 
one of the horns. The veterinary surgeon 
does one of two things; he either opens the 
skull at the root of the horn with a trephine, 
or he proceeds in a more summary and a better 
way — he cuts off the horn at its root. More 
than a pint of pus has sometimes escaped at 
the orifice, and although there may not have 
been any suppuration and throwing out of pus, 
yet the inflammation will be materially re- 
lieved by the bleeding that necessarily follows 
such an operation. The opening into the sinus 
which is thus made should, however, be spee- 
dily closed, or the stimulus of the atmospheric 
air will tender the inflammation worse than it 
was before. — Youalt on Cattle, Eng. Ed. p. 275. 

PALSY. 

There are many low, woody, marshy situa- 
tions, the cattle in which are notoriously sub- 
ject to palsy. It is frequent everywhere during 
a cold, ungenial spring, and there are seasons 
in which it assumes the character of an epi- 
zootic. Old beasts, and those that have been 
worked, are particularly subject to it; and es- 
pecially when they are cruelly turned out to 
gather their scanty food during a cold night, 
after a hard day's work. It is lamentable to 
think how many of the diseases of our quad- 
ruped servants derive their origin from our 
negligence or cruelly. A damp and unwhole- 
some cowhouse, from which the litter is rarely 
removed, but putrid effluvia mingle with the 
aqueous vapor that is continually rising, is a 
fruitful source of palsy, and especially if to 
this be added the baneful influence of scanty 
and bad food and stagnant water. Old cows, 
whose milk has been dried, and who cannot 
be made to carry much flesh, are very subject 
to this complaint. 

Palsy is usually slow in its progress. There 
appears to be a general debility; perhaps re- 
ferable to the part about to be attacked more 
than to any other; and it will be afierwards 
recollected, that there was a giving way, or 
trembling of that part, and sometimes, but not 
always, a coldness of it. The hind limbs are 
the parts which are most frequently attacked. 
It is at first feebleness, which increases to stiff- 
ness, awkwardness of motion, and at length 
to total loss of it. We have seen a few in- 
stances in which the fore limbs have been the 
principal seat of the disease, but then the hind 
limbs have always participated in the affec- 
tion. In no case, however, have we seen any 
affection of one side of the animal and not of 
the other; this is a difference in the symptoms 
of palsy in the human being and the brute, 
for which we are not able satisfactorily to 
account.* 

* It may be a very rare thing for a cow to be af- 
fected with hemiplegia, as we believe physicians 
call that sort of paralysis which attacks one side 
only of the patient. But we well recollect a case 
of a cow of Col. Randolph of Albemarle, which 
did have just this form of palsy, and died of it. — Ed. 



In many parts of the kingdom this com- 
plaint is traced to a most ridiculous cause. — $ 
The original evil is said to be in the tail; and 
all maladies of this kind, involving the partial 
or total loss of motion of the hind limbs of the 
animal, are classed under the name of tail-ill, 
or tail-slip. Our friend, Mr. Dick of Edin- 
burgh, has taken up this subject in a very in- 
teresting point of view, in the fourteenth num- 
ber of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture; 
and the public are much indebted to him for 
dispelling a false and injurious and cruel su- 
perstition. The farmer and the cowleech be- 
lieve that the mischief passes along the cow's 
tail to the back, and that it is on account of 
something wrong in the tail that she loses the 
use of her legs; and then some set to work, 
and cut the cow's tail off; while others, less 
cruel, or more scientific, make an incision into 
the under surface, and allow the wound to 
bleed freely, and then fill it up with a mixture 
of tar and salt, and we know not what. 

In some parts of the country, the practi- 
tioner is not content with this treatment, but, 
supposing there is witchcraft in the business, 
he has recourse to some charm in addition to 
the cutting and dressing. This charm con- 
sists in binding a small piece of the rowan 
tree on the extremity of the tail, and making 
a black cat pass three times round the cow's 
body, over her back, and under her belly, which 
(if it happens to be a strange cat, as is often 
the case, from the necessity of the color being 
black) so enrages the animal, that she mews 
and scratches with all the fury to which she* 
is so easily excited, until she escapes from the 
hands of the necromancers, leaving them con- 
vinced that the Devil has got into the cat. 

Mr. Dick, with a kind consideration, for 
which he deserves much credit, condescends 
to reason the case with these foolish people, 
and what he says is so much to the purpose, 
that we cannot refrain from introducing it 
here. The disease, in ordinary cases, is said 
to consist in a softening of the bones about the 
extremity of the tail, and is to be distinguished 
by the point of the tail being easily doubled 
back upon itself and having at this doubling 
a soft and rather a crepitating kind of feel. 
But what is the real state of the easel The 
tail is lengthened out to the extent of about 
three feet, and is formed like a common whip. 
Towards the extremity, the bones terminate 
gradually, becoming insensibly smaller as they 
proceed downwards. At this part is said to 
be found a soft space— the tail-slip. Beyond 
this, again, a firm swelling cartilaginous por- 
tion is found, covered with hair to brush off 
the flies within its reach. Now why have we 
the long column of bones; the termination 
with a soft space of a few inches; this thick- 
ened, hard, cartilaginous part, at the very ex- 
tremity, and that extremity covered with hair, 
but with a view to form a whip to drive off", 
and with the greatest possible effect, the in- 
sects which wound and torment the animall 

" Here the column of bones forms the shaft 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



or handle of the whip, the soft part, the con- 1 
nexion between the handle and the thong, 
while the thickened extremity may be easily 
"Recognised to represent the thong, and the i 
hairs to form the lash, or point; so that we 
have a whip to drive away the flies, and so 
complete a one that the coachman may borrow I 
a lesson from its construction." 

We trust, therefore, that our readers will 
never be found again looking at the tail of the ! 
cow for an explanation of palsy, or any other 
complaint; (for this tail-slip is supposed to be 
connected with various other maladies;) but 
we will allow them to examine it once more, | 
in order to admire its adaptation to the purpose 
for which it is required, and the peculiar con- 
trivance of this supposed diseased part, for 
the more effectual accomplishment of this na- 
tural purpose. It may, however, be asked, is 
not relief sometimes given by these operations 
on the tail? Very probably. We do not know 
what would make a cow get up and use her 
limbs, if the punishment of the knife, and the 
rubbing in of the tar and salt failed; and we 
can very readily conceive that the loss of blood 
would often be beneficial, but not more because 
taken from the tail than from any other part. 

The most frequent cause of palsy is the 
turning out of beasts of every kind, but parti- 
cularly of cows, too early to grass, after they 
have been housed during the winter and first 
part of the spring. We have known one- 
fourth of the stock completely chilled and 
palsied behind in the course of two or three 
nishts. The general health has not been much 
affected, except that, perhaps hoose has come 
*on; but the beasts have lain three or four 
weeks (we recollect one that lay three months) 
before they recovered the use of their limbs. 

The treatment of this disease would be half 
summed up in one word — comfort. The cattle 
should, if possible, be immediately removed 
into a warm, but not close, cow-house, and 
well littered up, and perhaps a rug thrown 
over them. It has been proposed to sling 
them, but they are rarely comfortable in the 
slings, and very fiequently galled. If they are 
well littered up, turned twice in the day, and 
so laid that the faeces and urine will flow from 
them, they will be much better without the 
slings. — Youatt, p. 301. 



have now an analyst at home. A very favor- 
able indication with us in behalf of Professor 
Gilham is that he docs not slate his charges for 
analyzing soils. This looks honest. We as- 
sure our readers that when any man offers to 
analyze their soils for jive dollars! that he is 
either a fool himself or trying to make fools 
of them. We know this fact on the testimony 
of a distinguished chemist in whom we have 
great reliance. We, therefore, warn them dis- 
tinctly against patronizing any of the quacks 
who profess to do in all cases for five dollars 
what is often worth double, sometimes more 
than double, and never as little as "the regular 
fee." Let them beware of all such pretended 
chemists. 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 

It will be seen, in our advertising columns, 
that Professor Gilham of the Virginia Mili- 
tary Institute offers to analyze soils. The sub- 
ject of analysis of soils is a very important 
and interesting one, and we should be pleased 
to see it liberally patronized by the State. We 
see by our exchanges that some of our farmers 
are sending their soils out of the State lo be 
analyzed. Tbey need do so no longer, as we 



FARMING IN TIDE WATER VIRGINIA. 

In a late visit to parts of the counties of 
Hanover, King William, King & Queen and 
Essex, a district with which in former times 
we had been familiar from boyhood, we were 
delighted to witness the improvement which 
ten years had made in the whole face of that 
country. It is drained by the waters of the 
Pamunkey, the Mattaponi and the Rappahan- 
nock; and except immediately upon the rivers 
and their more considerable tributaries, and 
occasionally, but very rarely, in "the ftiest," 
as the uplands are there called, it was formerly, 
and until within a few years, very inferior in 
the quality of its soil, and in many places ac- 
tually sterile; as it still is where no improve- 
ment has been attempted. Even the river flats, 
where not naturally unproductive, had been 
rendered comparatively so by improper cul- 
ture, and many spots, sometimes whole fields, 
which now teem with abundant crops, had 
been turned out as worthless and appropriated 
by broom sedge. Where the soil was neutral, 
it had become exhausted by the two, or at 
best, the three field rotation, whilst the acid 
uplands, many of them as level as the river 
flats, overrun with sorrel and hengrass, were 
upon the point of giving otit altogether. Til- 
lage was rude and slovenly. Drainage, though 
of the first necessity, had been entirely ne- 
glected, or executed in so imperfet a manner, 
that much the greater part of the labor ex- 
pended in ditches and water furrows, was 
thrown away. The water of underlying strata 



56 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



permitted to ooze to the surface and saturate 
the soil, collected in many places into natural 
ponds, and the copious streams were either 
imperfectly led away, or permitted to form 
swamps, by the accumulation of drift and the 
growth of bushes and briers. Thus the fields 
were poisoned with stagnant water, and the 
air filled with unhealthy exhalations. Under 
such circumstances, it is not surprising that 
barrenness and autumnal diseases were so 
prevalent as to be thought the natural and 
unchangeable characteristics of the country. 

The culture of tobacco had ceased; there 
were no fresh lands to be cleared, and no grass 
to support stock from which manure might be 
made in sufficient quantity for even a small 
crop of it. Wheat and corn, the formersome- 
times substituted by oats, and more rarely, by 
rye, had become the sole staples, and under the 
scourging rotation then pursued, had reduced 
the soil to the lowest ebb. The large majority 
of farmers were thought well off if they could 
clothe their negroes, and feed them somewhat 
scantily, and support their families in decent 
comfort. Few were beforehand, and none 
made fortunes, except the niggard, the money 
lender, and the man of superior skill and judg- 
ment. Slave property was valuable, more 
from its marketable increase, than its manual 
productiveness. Lands were low and plenty 
in the market — buyers rarely eager. Emigra- 
tion rolled in a rapid and swelling tide. All 
but the thoughtless began to despair. 

At this stage of lowest depression, the Le- 
gislature of Virginia proposed a remedy. — 
Roused by the negro rebellion in Southampton 
to look into the internal polity of the State, 
the Hall of the House of Delegates rang with 
lamentations over the evils of slavery. The 
impoverishment of the lands, and the conse- 
quent poverty of their owners, was charged 
to that cause; grave and prudent statesmen, 
"men of head and thought," pointed to tide- 
water Virginia as a sad instance of its blight- 
ing effect, and boding utter ruin from its con- 
tinuance, sought speedy riddance of the curse 
by means which, had they been adopted, were 
to have commenced some years ago. 

Just at that time, and just twenty years ago, 
to wit, in January, 1832, Edmund Ruffiin wrote 
a modest little book entitled "An Essay on 
Calcareous Manures." He was a book farmer, 
a term of reproach among some people; and 



one word in one book, the word "acid," had 
led him to adopt a theory, another term of bad 
repute with the same class. By continued 11 
and persevering effort, extending through a 
period of fifteen years, he had perfected that 
theory into successful practice, and now ven- 
tured to give the results of his thoughts and his 
labors to the farming public. 

Not in terms, to be sure, but none the less in 
effect, he took issue with the politicians, and 
traced the cause of the depression of tide- 
water agriculture to a matter, entirely inde- 
pendent of slavery, to a want of carbonate of 
lime in the soil, and to a consequent excess of 
acid which rendeted abortive the bestdirected 
efforts at permanent improvement. It were 
needless, if we had the space, to trace the 
success of this theory. Slowly and gradually, 
amid the discouragements of poverty, the blun- 
ders of ignorance and the doubts of prudence, 
that little book did its work. The statesmen 
were in error — the practical farmer was right. 
In spite of the increase of slavery, tide-water 
Virginia stands redeemed. The people of 
that favored land are growing apace in wealth 
and energy and enterprize; and these, wisely 
directed, will bring in their train every other 
element of the highest rural improvement 
and civilization. * 

Numerous facts attest the fidelity of this 
flattering picture. The assessment of the lands 
of tide-water, showing an increase in their 
value of something more than seventeen mil- 
lions of dollars, or twenty-eight per cent, in 
twelve years, is not a fair index of their im- 
provement, because lands there are generally 
rated below their productive value; and the 
valuation made by assessors, we believe, is 
uniformly less than the cash price of the land- 
Neither can it be rated by the wonderful in- 
crease of the whole wheat crop of Virginia, 
about one hundred per cent, in nine years; 
because much of the wheat grown on tide- water 
seeks other markets than Richmond. And 
whilst it is known that some farmers there have 
increased their wheat several hundred per 
cent, it is believed that nearly all who use cal- 
careous manures have doubled their crops 
within the last seven years. The best evidence 
of the rapid advance that agriculture has made 
in this country is rather to be gathered as 
matter of sound inference from the individual 
facts, which every where surprise the enquirer- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



57 



Among which, not the least sti iking is the 
fact that we find scarely any lands in market. 
Better evidence of thrift can neither be asked 
>nor given; it proves that every one is content 
with his present gains, and the chances of 
increasing them. 

This, then, is the prospect, at present, of the 
country in question, and we presume of all 
that lies in the same range. But there is se- 
rious reason to apprehend, unless they follow 
up the improvement so happily commenced, 
with other appliances, that they will not 
speedily reach the destined goal. The intro- 
duction of lime is a great thing, and indispen- 
sable in their husbandry. So is the use of 
clover and peas. But the art of farming does 
not consist in employing these agents alone. 
Their lands are only improved, not made; and 
there still remains much to be done before they 
shall be ftee from all danger of relapsing into 
a condition not so bad, perhaps, as they have 
lately emerged from, but still bad enough to be 
provided against, as it may be now, by proper 
means. 

So magical are the effects of clover when 
first grown upon land, that it is not surprising 
that they have been everywhere greatly over- 
rated. Yet wherever relied on as the sole, or 
principal means of enrichment on any, except 
^•the most extraordinary lands, as in Clarke and 
Jefferson counties, for example, it has never 
failed ultimately to exhaust them. Avoiding 
the tedious citation of many instances of this 
rule, let it suffice to refer to Western New 
York, and parts of Piedmont Virginia, as fair, 
prominent, aqd well known cases in point. — 
In both, large wheat crops, grown in rapid 
succession upon heavy clover leys, encouraged 
to such frequent repetition, that now, in each, 
the yield of wheat has greatly depreciated, 
and clover has ceased to grow with its former 
luxuriance. Thirty years ago the philosophic 
President Madison observed to a neighbor, ex- 
ulting at the prospect of his rank clover fields, 
that "clover would make a rich father, but a 
poor son." The farm on which he made the 
prediction has ceased to grow wheat. There 
is no doubt of the fact anywhere, and in Eng- 
land it is so well understood that the land there, 
save their richest alluvions, which are farmed 
on a distinct system, are never sowed in clover 
more than once in seven oreight years. When 
lime, in any shape, stimulates the growth of 



clover, the catastrophe will only occur more 
speedily. Not to go beyond our own or read- 
ers' depih into the science of these matters, 
and yet not to dogmatize, let us state briefly 
the operation of these fertilizers and exhaust- 
ers, for they are both. It can be done on prin- 
ciples of common sense with but little aid from 
that rather mysterious thing, analysis of soils. 

A crop of ten bushels of wheat is taken from 
an acre of land. This gives of grain six hun- 
dred pounds, and of straw twice as much, or 
twelve hundred pounds — eighteen hundred 
pounds in all. Here then is eighteen hun- 
dred pounds of something or other, which has 
made this wheat and straw. It is evident that 
all cannot have come from the air, but that a 
portion at least has been derived from the soil. 
Throwing out of account the very considerable 
part which goes off in and wilh the smoke, 
when it is burnt, we find the residue, the inde- 
structible part, the ash, which remains, equal 
to about forty-two pounds, or two and a half 
per cent, of the weight of the whole. This 
would seem to be too trifling a quantity to ef- 
fect the yield of a crop of wheat, but we know 
it does, since there are very few lands that 
will bear wheat after wheat, unless they have 
had a very long rest. And when we consider 
that some of the elements of wheat exist in 
the soil, at least in an available condition, in 
very slight quantities, and when we think what 
effects are sometimes produced by one hun- 
dred pounds of guano, or forty of gypsum or 
ashes, we shall be better prepared to admit its 
importance. But let this quantity be removed 
twenty times, as it will by the wheat and corn 
grown upon a farm in thirty years, according 
to some rotations, and we have eight hundred 
and forty pounds of the most valuable part of 
the soil abstracted; most valuable, because 
most costly to restore. 

Now clover is said, and with justice, to be 
"the mother. of wheat." Independent of iis 
mechanical action indeepening soils by render- 
ing them more porous, and thus affording them 
the benefits of aeration, and so indirectly ope- 
rating to increase the crop of wheat, it also, 
by its decay, affords food for the wheat plant 
to live and grow upon. But whence comes 
this food 1 The ashes tell us, from the soil, and 
from the subsoil, by means of the sap of the 
clover, as far down as its roots have penetrated. 
Now then, we can calculate that clover alone 






68 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



repeated indefinitely upon a certain breadth of 
land must, sooner or later, extract from that 
land the substances out of which it elaborates 
the food of wheat. 

But the lime comes in aid of this action. 
Independent of its mechanical action, for it 
has, like clover, a mechanical action, differ- 
ently exerted on different soils, and happily 
adapted to remedy the defects of each, and in- 
dependent too of its power to correct the acids 
of soils; it is also supposed to dissolve the 
substances that compose the food of plants, 
and to dispose them to take on that chemical 
action necessary to fit them for food. By this 
means the growth of clover is forced beyond 
what it might be otherwise. Whether this 
explanation be true or not, all know that lime 
makes clover grow with greatly more luxuri- 
ance than it can do without it. It is then evi- 
dent that this does but accelerate the rate of 
exhaustion from clover. 

We think the vast majority of the lands of 
lower Virginia are especially liable to this 
general law. They are not rich. For the 
most part light, friable, and easily worked, 
which requiring less labor to work them, com- 
pensates, perhaps fully, for their deficient fer- 
tility, they are of that class of soils which, 
being readily penetrated by the roots of plants 
in all directions, give up their contents with 
least difficulty. 

This doctrine may be disputed by many 
farmers, who are deceived by the manner in 
which their lands have heretofore responded 
to lime and marl. But we are happy to know 
that others admit it now upon evidence afforded 
by their own farms. Expressing our views on 
this subject to our friend Mr. Hill King, of 
King William, he said that his land did not 
now grow clover as well as at first. Yet his 
tract, near the Court House, is equal to any in 
its neighborhood, and is, as all know, who 
know him, exceedingly well farmed. It is pro- 
bably also occurring elsewhere, but is not yet 
suspected, and may not be distinctly observed 
at any given time. Farmers at large are not 
very remarkable forpersistent observation, and 
in the matter of decrease and failure of crops 
are rarely candid even to themselves. To 
those extrinsic impediments must be added the 
consideration that a process of nature extend- 
ing over a long period, cannot be accurately 
measured by the crops of last, this, or next 



year, but by a comparison of general results 
at distant intervals. When this is made, we 
take it for granted that no exception will bf 
found iti tide-water to the operation of a gene- 
ral law. 

But let not its impendence excite alarm. It 
is wisely ordained that we shall be checked 
in wasting the treasures of the earth and forced 
to restore them by varied culture. Had the 
tillage of one or two staples satisfied our wants 
we might have become stagnant and monoto- 
nous, and been tempted to forego that ceaseless 
and eager effort which is the grand characte- 
ristic of civilization. Another step must be 
taken to avoid this danger, one that has been 
often tried elsewhere and been always found 
to operate a cure. 

That step is the introduction of stock hus- 
bandry in some of its shapes. We shall speak 
of it next month. Whether we can chalk 
out the mode and manner in which it should 
be introduced, as clearly as we think we have 
done, the necessity of it is somewhat doubt- 
ful. It is always easier to pull down than to 
build up. But we shall try. A failure may 
stimulate some more competent hand to trace 
out the true plan. 



The following letter, for which we thank 
the writer, settles the question about the Osage 
orange's living from the slip. — Ed. Pl. 

For the Southern Planter. 

OSAGE ORANGE FROM THE SLIP. 

Mr. Editor,— Last winter I purchased from 
General Richardson one thousand plants of 
the Osage orange, which were forwarded by 
the canal to Buchanan, and reached me about 
the first of March last, in excellent order. — 
The roots were wrapped with moss and the 
tops with straw, and might have been trans- 
ported any distance with perfect safety. When 
opened, the roots were as moist as if they had 
been just taken from the ground. Having cut 
off the tops, the roots were set out, about six 
inches apart, and grew rapidly — say from two 
to three feet in height, notwithstanding the 
unusually dry season. Not a single one, that 
I am aware of, perished. 

Having seen, in a previous number of the 
Planter, that a doubt was expressed as to 
whether the plant could be propagated from 
the slip, and, at the same time, a request, that 
any one who had tried it, would communicate 
the result, I had the tops, after being cut to 
the length of about a foot, set out in a bed, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



59 



prepared for the purpose, from six to eight 
inches deep, and, contrary to my expectation, 
(for the drought was excessive during the 
summer,) nearly all of them lived and grew 
off finely, attainining as great a height, and 
presenting as thrifty an appearance, as the 
plants that grew from the roots. How they 
will stand the winier, remains to be seen. 

Having promised in your last paper, an ar- 
ticle on the Osage orange in your next, I 
thought it might not be uninteresting to you to 
communicate the fact, that it may be propa- 
gated from the cuttings. 

Whilst upon the subject of enclosures, 1 
hope you will say something about rock fences. 
For the sake of experiment, I had, during the 
past year, about a quarter of a mile of fence 
built of limestone rock, which abounds in this 
region, put up. The rock was obtained partly 
from the surface, worked out with crowbars, 
and partly fiom the quarry, by blasting, and 
the cost, according to the best estimate 1 could 
make, counting the labor of my own hands, 
together with the wages of an experienced 
workman, hired for the purpose of putting up 
the fence, was one dollar and ten cents a 
rod, equal to about the cost of the same length 
of plank fence, which is usually estimated to be 
worth, counting the posts, plank, nails, holes 
and putting up, one dollar a panel of fifteen 
feet. But even if it cost double the other, in 
the first instance, would not the rock fence be 
infinitely the cheapest in the end! The one 
would need constant repair and occasionally 
require renewal — the other, if well put up, 
(out of limestone, mind you, which have, in 
the language of the masons, good faces and 
• good beds, whilst the round rock used in many 
places, have neither, and are therefore liable 
to tumble down,) will last forever. Besides, 
I find that no kind of stock will attempt even 
to jump over a rock fence four feet high above 
the ground, except sheep, to whom it is fine 
fun. As to the pig, "his occupation's gone." 
My fence is two and a half feet at bottom 
and from one to one and a half feet at top. 
A good hand (and our farm hands can easily 
be taught) will put up two rods a day, the rock 
being hauled and put along the line of the 
fence. 

Respectfully, &c. 

Edward Johnston. 
Lo.uderdole, Botetourt county. 



but has been in use for many years, and only 
requires publicity to make it more generally 
practised. 

The fall after the colt is two years old he 
should be bridled and tied securely to a pair 
of steady horses, and taken to the field and 
permitted to walk by the side of them fur two 
or three days whilst they are at plough. The 
gear may then be put on, and the same process 
gone through for several days, when the colt 
may be hitched and worked for one or two 
days. He should then be turned out and not 
used any more until the next spring when he 
may be used moderately and again turned out, 
and taken up again and aeain throughout the 
season ; after which he may be used as it may 
suit the owner. The advantage of this mode 
of breaking is that the horses rarely, if ever, 
kick, and are easily made to work to any kind 
of vehicle the owner may desire. In thirty 
years I have never departed from this practice 
without suffering more or less from it. 

Thomas Garland. 

January 3, 1852. 



For the Southern Planter. 

BREAKING COLTS. 

Mr. Editor, — As it has been my fortune to 
have seen many valuable farm horses spoiled 
and rendered comparatively useless by bad 
management in breaking, I think it may prove 
not unuseful to some of your readers to give 
them the benefit of my practice in breaking 
colts to harness, which is by no means new, 



For the Southern Planter. 

USE AND PERMANENCY OF GUANO. 

Mr. Editor, — From the fact of having used 
guano to a considerable extent, for several 
years, I am often receiving letters of enquiry 
as to its use, and especially latterly as to its 
permanency. It is surprising from the length 
of time that farmers have been using plaster, 
that scarcely two chemists agree as to its ac- 
tion, although all agree in its benefits to the 
clover crop on land that has lime. So it may 
turn out with regard to guano. Indeed, men 
may be very confident in expressing an opi- 
nion, and yet change their opinion for another. 
We have a remarkable instance of this in a 
discussion going on at this time in the Ameri- 
can Farmer. Often have we been told of the 
danger of exposing guano to theair; yea, lhat 
it ought to be covered over, even in a house, 
unless mixed with plaster, or the ammonia 
would fly to the upper regions. Now it seems 
there is no danger, for that ammonia is not 
formed, but in the act of putrefaction. Again, 
it was supposed that the smell that everybody 
was sensible of in approaching a bag of guano, 
was the ammonia flying off. Still, if a bushel 
of plaster were mixed with a bushel of guano, 
the smell was not lessened. It would, at this 
time, be profitable to your readers, to show the 
power that exists in mother earth to do what 
plaster will not do. 

The Indians cover their meat with earlh 
when they have more than they can eat, and 
find it preserved. Sodoes the fox after eating 
a hearty meal, cover over with earth the re- 
mainder until he wants again to dine. These 
and other considerations have led to some very 
important discoveries within the last twelve 
moons in England, as to the power of the soil, 



60 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



to do what plaster cannot do in detaining all 
fertilizing matters, committed to her trust. — 
That if ammonia, for example, were mixed 
with plaster, and both put into the soil, that 
an application of water to the soil would bring 
away the plaster and leave the ammonia be- 
hind, showing that the ammonia had a greater 
affinity for the soil than for the plaster. It 
would, doubtless, be very interesting to many 
of your readers to see the report made of all 
the experiments, before the Royal Agricultural 
Society, by Professor Way, on fertilizing 
agents, and that once committed to the earth 
there was a power to detain them for the use 
of plants; what this power is he does not say, 
but nothing that was tried could exceed it. — 
Prom the extensive use of drains in England, 
the farmers were unhappy at the thought that 
manure was carried down into them and es- 
caped, and many of them imagined they could 
see the manure running out at the mouths of 
the drains. This unpleasant feeling through- 
out the farming community, gave an impor- 
tance to the discoveries made by Huxiable, 
Thompson and Way, that nothing could ex- 
ceed it. If you will be kind enough, Mr. Edi- 
tor, to answer a query which f will state, and 
it be acceptable to you, I will give a short 
account of my manner of using guano, with 
some remarks touching its permanency, in 
your next number. 

Gtuery. — Is there no ammonia in guano as 
we receive it"? I mean is it only in the act of 
fermentation that the ammonia is formed? 

James Fife. 

The above article of our friend, Mr. Fife, 
was mislaid, or it should have appeared in 
January. We shall endeavor to answer his 
queries in our next. If we had the report 
made by Professor Way, we would very gladly 
publish it. Can our friend furnish us a copy? 
— Ed. Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 
HEAVES. 

Mr. Editor, — An esteemed young friend re- 
cently lost a valuable saddle horse that, ac- 
cording to his representation, might have been 
saved by the operation practised in various 
parts of the world on koven animals. As this 
process is yet unknown to many, and the sub- 
ject of scepticism with others, will you give 
it notoriety by insertion in your columns'? 

In a life of no short duration I have owned 
three coarse, or what would be termed cold- 
blooded, horses. During the time I had them 
they were subject, one particularly, to severe 
attacks of colic which were always cured by 
bleeding boldly and freely. My blood horses 
neveF suffered in that way; nor did I ever have 
one foundered, though a lux hunter for many 



years, and no inconsiderable traveller beside. 
Utterly repudiating the empiricism that intro- 
duced physicking generally, bleeding in the 
mouth, <&c. and especially drenching, that has 
done an infinity of harm, wherever I have 
heard of the adoption of my mode of treat- 
ment it has been successlul — and yet 1 do not 
claim to have originated it, for when but a boy 
it was told to me by a fisherman, who had it 
from his father that had been long employed 
in an establishment where a number of horses 
were used. Now I am not to be understood 
as saying that bleeding alone is remedial in 
cases where the cavity of the belly is filled 
with wind, for then, as referred to above, the 
knife is to be called into coadjutant aid of the 
lancet. The doctrine once so universally be- 
lieved in that grubs killed horses by eating 
the maw is fast going the way of all notions, 
and will in time be entirely exploded. 

After parting with you in King William, 
where I was pleased to find you made such 
additions to your subscription list, I passed 
several delightful hours with our worthy friend 
of Dunluce, who, after showing me several 
specimens of nice farm ingon an extended scale, 
took me to witness the operation of a portable 
saw mill lately erected for Major Fontaine by 
that meritorious artisan, Mr. Haw of Hanover. 
Its cheapness and adaptation to the propelling 
power of any wheat machine must make it an 
appendage of no small interest to all large 
farms. In bad weather, or when not otherwise 
wanting, the teams can be employed in work- 
ing it, and if the owner should not keep an 
adequate supply of timber for this purpose, 
his neighbors would find it to their advantage 
to make up the deficiency. 

James Govan. \ 

December 3, 1851. 

It may be that our friend's blood-horses never 
"suffered in that way;" but we consider his 
case a lucky exception to the rule. We have 
never been able to ascertain that blood con- 
stituted an exemption, and for the small num- 
ber we have had think that the percentage 
of colic was raiher greater with such. A half 
bred mare is the most frequent subject to the 
attack that we now own. An old brood mare, 
by Timoleon, thorough bred, was on two oc- 
casions attacked at pasture without any pre- 
disposing cause that we could see, and a tho- 
rough bred Grey Eagle once had a severe at- 
tack from grazing in the yard during a smart 
sprinkle of rain at midsummer. At least, we 
could not imagine any other reason. We 
have heard of several other cases, too tedious 
to mention, of blood-horses that have been at- 
tacked, and some of them killed, by colic. — 
Still we go in for blood-horses of the right 
sort. — Editor. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



61 



1 00 



PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

From the 1st to the 25th of January, 1852. 

All persons who have made payments early 
»ough to be entered, and whose names do 
fcS&t appear in the following receipt list, are 
requested to give immediate notice of the 
omission, in order that the correction may be 
made in the next issue: 

"VVm. H. Whiting, to January, 1853, $1 00 

Bev. Randolph, to January, 1853, 

Smith Petty, to January, 1852, 

Dr. D. H. Gregg, to January, 1853, 

F. T. West, to January, 1853, 

Richard Cawthorn, to January, 1853, 

T. R. Argyle, to January, 1852, 

Wm. G. Rogers, to January, 1853, 

John Parker, to January, 1853, 

Wm. W. Mead, to January, 1852, 

Jos. Hillyard, to January, 1853, 

Wm. Boulware, to July, 1852. 

Rev. J. Shough, to January, 1853, 

Archd. Pointer, to January, 1853, 

Capt. J. L. Davis, to January, 1853, 

E.J. Hill, to January, 1851, 

L. H. B. Whitaker, to January, 1853, 

Dr. C. Whitaker, to January, 1853, 

Wm. S. Dance, to January. 1853, 

Judge Field, to January, 1H53, 

John Grastv, to January, 1853, 

W. It. Hankins, to January, 1853 

John H. Hankins. to January, 1853, 

James Govan, to January, 1853, 

Wm. Massey, to January, 1853, 

A. L. Winfree, to January, 1852, 

A. J. J. Brown, to January, 1852, 
" H. Allen, to January, 1853, 
*.' W. Friend, to January, 1853, 
Dr. B. Dennis, to January, 1853, 
Frederick Butler, to January, 1853. 
Henry Carrington, to January. 1853, 
L. D. Horner, to January, 1853, 
Dr. E. F. Gunter, to January, 1853, 
Fendo] Chiles, to January, 1853, 
A. W. Tally, to January, 1853, 
J. E. Smith, to January, 1853, 
Geo. J. Gardner, to January, 1853, 
R. W. Goodwin, to January, 1853, 
Benj. Henson, to January, 1853, 
D. E. Hickman, to January, 1853, 
Dr. M. Pendleton, to January, 1853, 
R. W. Harris, to January, 1853, 
Dr. W. J. Pendleton, to January, 1853, 
Capt. R. Wright, to January, 1853, 
C. G. Coleman, to October, 1852, 
Preston Lipscomb, to January, 1853, 
John Defarses, to January, 1853, 
Wm. M. Turner, to January, 1853, 
J. W. Taylor, to January, 1853, 
Dr. Win. Gwathmey, to January, 1853, 
W. C. Latane, to January, 1853, 
George Edwards, to January, 1853, 
John H. Burch, to January, 1853. 
Dr. W. H Howard, to January, 1853, 
James Wilson, to January, 1853, 
Dr. H. L. Jeffries, to January, 1S52, 



00 

no 
00 

in 

no 
00 
6 00 
4 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 

1 00 

2 00 



00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
1 oo 

1 CO 

1 oo 

1 00 

i oo 
1 oo 



George R. Trant. to January, 1853, 
John Sizer, to January, 1853, 
John H. Walker, to January, 1853, 
W. P. Courtney, to January, 1853, 
Dr. Lemuel Edwards, to January, 1853, 
Martin Slaughter, to January, 1853, 
Geo. W. Major, to January, 1853, 
Richd. T. Green, to January, 1853, 
Thos. Starke, to January, 1853, 
Dr. G. G. Minor, to January. 1853, 
F. H. Mays, to January. 1853, 
Jas. M. Sirange, to January, 1853, 
Thos. H. Garnett, to September, 1853, 
John A. B. Thornton, to January, 1853, 
Geo. C. Rives, to January, 1853, 
Thos. J. Massie, to January, 1853, 
T. E. Blount, to January, 1853, 
D. S. M. Crump, to January, 1853, 
Geo. Hairston, Sr. to January, 1852, 
Colin Clarke, to January, 1853, 
Prof. Bennet Puryear, to January, 1853, 
Dr. A. Bryant, to January, 1853, 
Col. W. Simmons, to January, 1853, 
Wm. Smith, to January, 1853, 
M. B. Halstead, to January, 1852, 
J. H. Parker, to January, 1852, 
H. B. White, to January, 1853, 
M T. Campbell, to January, 1853, 
Wm. T. Bowie, to January, 1853, 
John D. Farisb, to January, 1853, 
Joseph D. Withers, to January, 1853, 
Patrick Haden, to January, 1853, 
Saml. C. Gatewood, to January, 1853, 
Edward S. Coleman, to January, 1853, 
John W M'Callv, to January, 1853, 
Robert Garland, to January, 1853, 
Messrs. Boxley & Hart, to Jan. 1853, 
SteDhen Dickson, to January, 1853, 
Wm. Meredith, to January, 1853, 
Thos. Watson, to January, 1853, 
Wm. H. Clarke, to January. 1853, 
Walter D. Leake, to July, 1852, 
J. B. Whitehead, to January, 1853, 
B. B. Keesee, to January, 1853. 
R. B. Spratley, to January, 1853, 
Benj. F. Terry, to January, 1853, 
J. T. Hamner, (cor) to January, 1853, 
Ro. B. Harvey, to January, 1853, 
Andrew J. Carper, to January. 1853, 
Amos Crosby, to August, 1853, 
Kemp G. Holland, to January, 1852, 
A. Phillip*, to January, 1853, 
R. L. Rndicilla, to January, 1853, 
Jos. C. Burton, to January, 1852, 
Cyrus Dillard, to January, 1854, 
Col. John J. Prince, to January, 1853, 
J. T. J. Mason, to January, 1853. 
Geo E. Dabnev, to January, 1853. 
Wilson P. Dabney, to January, 1853, 
Richard Baylor, to January, 1852. 
John M. Tupman, to January, 1853, 
Pleasant W. Meredith, to Jan. 1853, 
Capt. Thos. Martin, to January, 1853 

T> TU^„ TXT r»,.l .~ ._ T__ *C\rr\ 



$1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
83 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
6 00 
1 00 

, 1 00 

1 00 

2 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 

00 
00 



1 CO 



1 

1 

1 00 



00 
00 
00 

00 
00 



1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 



1 00 

2 00 

1 00 

2 00 



Rev. Thos. W. Roberts, to Jan. 1R53, > 
Littleherrv M Powell, to Jan. 1853, ) 
I. Irvine Hite, to January, 1853, 
T. C. Goodwin, to January, 1853, 



00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 

2 00 
1 00 
1 00 

1 00 

3 00 

2 00 
1 00 
1 00 

1 00 

2 00 
1 00 

1 00 

2 50 

1 00 
1 00 






62 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



5 00 



Morgan Utz, to January, 1853, $1 00 

Jas. S. Walrond, to January, 1853, 

Oliver P. Gray, to January, 1853, 

Col. Daniel Ammen, to January, 1853, 

Henry Massie, to January, 1853, 

Geo. W. Macon, to July, 1852, 

James N. Stevens, to January, 1853, 

John F. M'George, to January, 1853, 

Jas. F. Jones, to September, 1852, 

John Shepherd, to January, 1853, 

Philip Edge, to July, 1852, 

B. J. Barbour, (in full) to January, 1852, 
W. W. Minor, to January, 1853, 
Richard Dossey, to September, 1852, 
Dr. A. H. Perkins, to October, 1852, 
W. B. Irby, to January, 1853, 
Geo. Rives, to January, 1853, 
A. H. Moorman, to January, 1853, *J 
V. O. Witcher, to January, 1853, : 
Moses A. Hubbard, to January, 1853, [ 
W. F. Gardner, to January, 1853, j 
John M. Patton, to January, 1853, 
A. L. H. Muse, to January, 1853, j 
Jos. W. Morriss, to January, 1853, 
P. M. Tabb, to October, 1852, 
Nathaniel King, to January, 1853, 
F. W. Connor, to January, 1853, 
J. D. Watkins, to January, 1853, 
Ed. W. Bell, to January, 1853, 
Henry E. Coleman, to January, 1853, 
Aaron Neal, to January, 1853, 
Jas. S. Yarbrough, to July, 1852, 
Jacob Ham, to January, 1853, 

D. D. Ferebee, to January, 1852, 
"Wm. Cowherd, to January, 1853, 
F. E. Brooke, to January, 1853, 
Dr. M. Pendleton, to January, 1853, 
Col. J. Peterson, to January, 1853, 
Dr. R. Eppes, to January, 1853, 
Col. S. Downing, to January, 1852, 
John T. Rice, to January, 1852, 
Wm. Smith, to January, 1853, 
Dr. Wm. G. Pollard, to January, 1853, 
John Lawrence, to January, 1852, 
Archer W. Womaek, to January, 1853, 
J. R. Depriest, to January, 1852, 
John D. Alexander, to January, 1853, 1 

E. C. Jordan, to January, 1853, 
J. R. Depriest, to January, 1853, 

C. N. Michie, to January, 1853, 
Mrs. M. Henricques. to January, 1853, \ 
John Murray, to January, 1853, J 
Saml. T. Miller, to January, 1852, 
S. F. Hunt, to January, 1853, 
Capt. W. S. Gillispie, to Jan. 1853, 
James Whitehead, to January, 1853, 
J. W. Allen, to January, 1853, 
J. W. Womaek, to January, 1853, 
Edwin J. Redd, to January, 1853, 
A. R. Venable, to January, 1853, J-10 00 
E. H. Bass, to January, 1853, 
E. H. Irving, to January, 1853, 
R. H. Gilliam, to January, 1853, 
Capt. H. Cary, to January, 1853, 
T. T. Totty, to January, i853, 
E. N. Price, to January, 1853, J 
Edward Tarry, to January, 1853, 1 00 



2 00 


3 00 


I 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


4 00 


1 00 


2 00 


G 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


5 00 


I 00 


1 00 



y 5 oo 



2 00 



James T. Redd, to January, 1852, 
Jesse B. Lucas, to January, 1853, 
Mrs. Mary T. Moseley, to Jan. 1853, 
Hiram A. Kite, to January, 1853, 
Geo. W. Houston, to January, 1853, 
Jas. Jack M'Bride, to January, 1853, 
Jos. W. Culton, to January, 1853, 
Maj. Jonathan Brooks, to Jan. 1853, 
Saml. Willson, to January, 1853, 
Zacharia Johnston, to January, 1853, 
James C. Wilson, to January, 1853, 
Mrs. F. M'Chesney, to January, 1853, 
Dr. Jas. Stuart, to July, 1852, 
John R. Miller, to January, 1854, 
W. H. Finch, to January, 1852, 
Wm. Waring, to January, 1853, 
Wm. W. Gilmore, to January, 1853, 
John Tabb, to January, 1854, 
Henry Hughes, to January, 1853, 
Dr. John P. Tabb, to January, 1853, 
Col. J. A. Whitaker, to January, 1854 
Dr. J. M. Garnett, to January, 1853, 
R. M. Garnett, to January, 1853, 
David Hancock, to July, 1852, 



&3 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 50 
1 



!► 6 42 



1 00 


6 00 


1 00 


2 00 


3 00 


1 00 


1 00 


8 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 



SANDY POINT FOR SAJLE AT 
AUCTION. 

THE undersigned, prevented by engage- 
ments requiring his undivided atteniion 
elsewhere from residing on his farm, will sell 
publicly, unless previously sold privately, (and 
of which due notice will be given,) at the 
Bollingbrook Hotel, in Petersburg, on Wed- 
nesday, the 26th day of May next, at 1 1 o'clock, 
A. M. without reserve or regard to weather, 
that valuable, highly improved and heavily 
limbered estate, known as SANDY POINT 
situated on James River, in the County *. 
Charles City, Virginia, 45 miles below the 
City of Richmond, and 32 miles below the 
City of Petersburg. 

This fine body of land contains 4,453 acres, 
and has been advantageously divided into four 
well located farms, with dwellings, commo- 
dious barns, &c. and into five valuable lots of 
timbered land, exclusive of an ample allot- 
ment of wood and timber for each farm. 

Persons desirous of investing in lands of a 
quality not often in market, are invited to ex- 
amine this estate. 

Printed bills giving the qantities in the sub- 
divisions. &c. will be furnished, and accurate 
plats exhibited to applicants. 

Possession given of the timbered lands im- 
mediately after sale; of the farms, at the end 
of the year, with the privilege of fallowing 
and seeding wheat. 

Terms — One-fifth cash; balance in five an- 
nual instalments for the farms; for the tim- 
bered lands, one-third cash and three annual 
instalments; credit payments to bear interest, 
and to be secured by deeds and approved en- 
dorsed negotiable notes or bonds. 

R. B. BOLL1NG. 

Address to Petersburg, Va. 

fe — tf Pannill & Sons, Aucis. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



63 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS, &c. 

THE undersigned is prepared to execute 
the analyses of Soils, Guano, Marls, Plas- 
ler, &c. &c. at the Laboratory of the Virginia 
'-"Military Institute. Packages may be" for- 
warded through Webb, Bacon & Co. Rich- 
mond, or Echols & Pryor, Lynchburg. 

Persons desiring further information will 
please address 

WILLIAM GILHAM, 
Prof. Chem. and Agriculture, V. M. I. 
Feb. 1, 1852. Lexington, Va- 

FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL, TREES 
AND SHRUBS. 

THE Subscriber offers for sale a select as- 
sortment of Fruit and Ornamental Trees 
and Shrubs, a number of new Evergreens, and 
a good collection of Greenhouse Plants, espe- 
cially of Camellias, Roses, Geraniums; also, 
Dahlia Roots, Pceonias, with Bulbous Roots, 
Garden and Flower Seeds, &c. 

All orders thankfully received and promptly 
attended to. Prices moderate. 

The subscriber is commencing a Nursery 
for the growth of Fruit and Ornamental Trees 
and Shrubs, in which the greatest care will be 
taken to grow only those fruits that are adapted 
to the climate; and all will be worked on 
seedling stocks. The subscriber has secured 
the services of an experienced Nurseryman, 
and thinks he will be able to suoply those who 
may favor him with orders with good Plants 
at reasonable prices. 

Catalogues will be published soon and can 
be had on application. 
1 ja 3t JOSEPH RENNIE. 
■»; 

COMMISSION HOUSE IN RICHMOND. 

WITH the view of giving our friends and 
all others who may favor us with their 
patronage, the advantages of both markets, we i 
have established in the City of Richmond a 
house for transacting a General Commission I 
Business, to be conducted by Tazewell S. \ 
Morton, under the style of Tazewell S. Mor- 
ton & Co. 

The business of Watkins & Morton, will 
be conducted in Petersburg by Samuel V. 
Watkins, assisted by John A. Morton, as 
heretofore. 

It is our purpose to adhere strictly to the 
Commission Business; giving our undivided 
attention lo the sale of trie staple products of 
the country, viz: Tobacco, Wheat, Corn, Flour, 
Cotton, &c. 

We return our thanks for the liberal patron- 
age that has been bestowed on our concern in 
Petersburz, and to the dealers in produce and 
merchandise in that city we feel under many 
obligations for the generous liberality and 
punctuality we have at all times met with in 
our transactions with them. 

TAZEWELL S. MORTON & CO. 

Richmond, Va. 
WATKINS & MORTON, 

ja 3t Petersburg, Va. 




NEW STYLE MEDALLION DA- 
GUERREOTYPES IN COLORS. 

This splendid improve- 
ment must be seen to be 
appreciated. Ourlriends 
are invited to call at the 
original Virginia Sky- 
Light Daguerrean Gal- 
lery, where may be found 
all the latest improve 
■ ments, consisting of the 
CELEROTYPE, 
J[ J~E||||?j|pl by which infant children 
" may be taken in one se- 
cond; 

TALBOTYPE, 
or Daguerreotype on Pa- 
per, and 

HYALOTYPE, 
or Daguerreotypes on Glass, which, with every 
other 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 full op- 
eration—it is the largest in the State. 

WM. A. PRATT & CO. Proprietors. 
MEDALLION DAGUEREOTYPES IN 
COLORS.— We have inspected the above 
siyle of Daguereotypes, lately and so success- 
fully introduced here by Messrs. Pratt & Co., 
132 Main street. By this process, a relief al- 
most magical, and a variety highly pleasing, 
is obtained. In some cases, the picture so 
closely resembles an enamelled miniature, in 
its ivory tone, as to deceive even an artiste; 
in others from the midst of a dark back ground, 
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 
in such matters, to call and judge for them- 
selves. . Messrs. Pratt & Co. claim to be the 
first to introduce the sky-light system into the 
State, and appear to be constantly inventing 
something fjr the improvement of the art. Re- 
pair to their gallery and "secure the shadow 
ere the substance fades."— Richmond Times. 



BOOKS. PIANOS, MUSIC, &c. 

NASH & WOODHOUSE, Wholesale and 
Retail Dealers in Books, Piano Fortes, 
Stationery, Music, &c. 139, Main St. Rich- 
mond, Virginia. 

Constantly on hand, a full supply of stand- 
ard Agricultural Works. 
oct— tf 

OSAGE ORANGE PLANTS FOR 
HEDGES — A few thousand raised by 
myself, for sale. 

WM. H. RICHARDSON. 
Richmond, Jan. 1, 1852.— 3 1. 



64 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



CONTENTS OF NUMBER II. 



Plaster of Paris vs. Ammonia 

Fencing 

The Farmer's Club of Noltoway 

A plan for the formation of Agricultural 
Societies 

Soup 

Number of Farms in thirteen States 

Agricultural Education 

Influence of Gypsum on vegetation 

Philosophy of Manures 

Suggestions for Experiments to determine 
the mode of action and value of Gyp- 
sum as a Manure 

Sheep Husbandry 

State Agricultural Society 

Augusta Fanning 

Hot Beds 

Vote of thanks 

Hollow Horn 

Analysis of Soils 

Farming in Tide Water Virginia 

Osage Orange from the slip 

Breaking Colts 

Use and permanency of Guano 

Heaves 

Payments to Southern Planter 



.42 

,48 j 

,49 

51 | 

52 

,53: 

53! 

,55 

55 ; 

.58, 
59; 

59 j 

,59; 

,61 



GREAT REDUCTION IN PRICES OF 
HATS AND ROOTS. 

J. H. ANTHONY'S FASHIONABLE HAT 
STORE, Columbian Hotel Corner. 

THE cheapest place in the city of Rich- 
mond to buy Hats and Boots is at the 
above store, where every article sold may be 
relied on as represented. By this means he 
has gained a good run of custom, and his cus- 
tomers feel satisfied. Below is a list of his 
prices, which will be strictly adhered to: 
Best quality moleskin, - - S3 50 
Second quality " - - 3 00 

Best quality silk, - - - 2 50 
Second " " 2 00 

Fine Calfskin Sewed Boots only three dol- 
lars and fifty cents. 
Also, Caps, Shoes and Umbrellas. 
J. H. Anthony has made an arrangement 
with one of the best makers in the city of 
Philadelphia, to supply him with a handsome 
and substantial Calfskin Sewed Boot, which 
he will sell at the unprecedented low price of 
three dollars and fifty cents. The attention of 
gentlemen is respectfully solicited, as they are 
the best and cheapest Boots that have ever 
been offered for sale in this city. He intends 
to keep but the one kind, and sell them at one 
price- se— ly 



PIEDMONT FEMALE SEMINARY. 

THE subscriber will open a Female School 
at his house, near Gordonsville, on the 
15th of January. He has already engaged a 
teacherof unquestionable qualifications. His 
terms per session of 10 months will be $120, 
for board and tuition in all the English branches, 
and in the French language. An additional 
fee of $30 will be chareed for music, 
de— 3t* " JAS. W. GOSS. 



OSAGE ORANGE SEED, 

SAVED with great care, and received direct 
from the region where it is grown, of re- 
liable quality. For sale by 

L S. HOYT, 
de— 4t 55, Water st. New York. 

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 — 5f 



n^HE RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG 
± RAIL ROAD COMPANY respectfully 
inform farmers living on the Roanoke River 
and on the line of the Raleigh and Gaston 
j Rail Road, that they are transporting tobacco 
[ and other produce between Richmond and Pel 
j tersburg with promptness and despatch, run 
I ning daily trains of eight wheel covered cars, 
securing tobacco and goods from damage. 
Tobacco consigned to the care of J. Lynch, 
Rail Road Agent, Petersburg, will be for- 
warded, free of commissions, to Richmond. 
Goods purchased in Richmond and consigned 
to the Rail Road Agent at Gaston will be for- 
warded up the river without charge for for- 
warding. THOS. DODAMEAD, 
Sup't R. & P. R. R. 
June 24, 1851— tf 

VIRGINIA AXES. 

THE undersigned, in connexion with their 
Rolling Mill, have erected an extensive 
Manufactory of Axes, Hatchets, and Tools 
generally, which they warrant equal to any 
manufactured, and offer at Northern prices. 
They solicit the patronage of the agricultural 
community. 
R.Archer, -i R. ARCHER & CO. 



LI. ARCHER, \ 

A. D. ToWNES, f 

R. S. Archer, ( 
C. Dimmock. / 



oct — ly 



BOOK AND JOB PRINTING executed 
at this Office with neatness and dispatch. 
Office South Twelfth Street. 



.