SOUTHERN PLANTER (1841) 



Vol. 12 
1852 



Missing: no. 5, May 



THE SOUTHERN ■ PLANTER, 

j^eboten to .f tgrfcultu nr, ftovtitu ltuvt, an* the griisefogjj gjm. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the 
Arts. — Xeiwphon . 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts 

ol the State.— Sully. 



FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor. 



P. D. BERNARD, Proprietor. 



Vol.XIl. 



RICHMOND, JUNE, J 852. 



No. 6. 



THE LAW OF NEWSPAPERS. 

1. All subscribers who do not give ex- 
press notice to the contrary, are consi- 
dered as wishing to continue their sub- 
scriptions. 

2. II' subscribers order a discontinuance 
ot their papers, the publishers may con- 
tinue to send them till all arrearages are 
paid. 

3. If subscribers neglect or refuse takino- 
their papers from the offices to which they 
&re sent, they a re held responsible till their 
bills are settled and their papers ordered 
to be discontinued. 

4. The courts have decided that refus- 
ing to take a newspaper or periodical from 
the office, or removing and leaving it un- 
called for, is prima facie evidence of in- 
tentional FRAUD. 

fid The foregoing extract from the "Law of 
Newspapers" is published with the hope that 
it may meet the eye of some, whose papers 
have come back to this office with the word 
" Refused" written on them, and who are in- 
debted for several years' subscription ! 



t For the Southern Planter. 

THE IMPROVEMENT OF LAND. 

In looking upon the face of the country in 
Albemarle, trom any of its countless hills one 
13 struck with the beauty and variety of the 
prospect provided his taste is not already de- 
stroyed by the constant calculation of the 
value of dollars and cenis; and in that ca-e 
he only sees in the galls and gullies that are 
scattered over ns face, how a rich inheritance 
has been wasted. Such a one naturally en- 
quires into the cause of such a waste and how 
it is to be remedied. The cause is' obvious 
The surface of the country is uneven, and in 
many places steep. This, for years, has been 
ploughed only two or three inches deep, and 
.he rams have been constantly washing this 
Julvenzed surface down into the valleys and 
treams. Shallow ploughing is soon saturated 
Vol. XII.— 6. 



with water: as it is incapable of absorbing all 
the rain that falls in a hasty shower, it soon 
becomes thin mortar, almost fluid, and like all 
fluids it will run inio the lowest places.— 
Whereas, if the land had been broken up with 
a good team and plough to the depth of eight 
inches, and then four more with a subsoil 
plough, making twelve, nothing but a perfect 
water spout would have caused it to wash 
Suppose you were to cover one house top with 
a sponge twelve inches deep and another with 
a sponge three inches deep, during a hard rain - 
.which house would drip the most water from 
us eaves? Just the same difference would be 
perceptible, if two hills were covered in like 
manner with loose earth. The water would 
carry along with it the soluble matter in the 
soil— its most valuable ingredient. In a deep 
tilth water penetrates but does not run off and 
enriches the soil. The air enters it and adds 
its mite to its improvement. The roots of 
plants pass easily through it in search of food 
1 he great obstacle in improving land in Albe- 
marle is its broken surface and its consequent 
liability to wash; and the great remedy is dec o 
ploughing. ' l 

After land is once thoroughly broken up it 
may afterwards be broken to the same depth 
with nearly one-half less horse power But 
deep ploughing of itself will not make poor 
land rich. Thaer, in his work on agriculture 
says that attempts have been made to supply 
the place of manure by an increase of labor 
or to.supply the place of labor by an additional 
quantity ol manure; but the success of these 
experiments have necessarily been merely ap- 
parent at first, and but of a short duration — 
Jethro lull imagined thai he could altogeiher 
dispense with manure, and replace it by nV 
application of frequently repeated tillage ap- 
plied io his crops, sowing in rows, and by the 
complete division of the parts of the soil pro- 
duced by that means. The plan, at first 
turned out favorably for himself and his fol- 
lowers for they had a fenile soil to work upon 
which had for a long time previously bee,.' 
plentifully supplied with manure; in fact bv 
the repeated tillage and the consequent expo- 
sure of the soil to the action of the air all ihe 
j nutritive particles contained in it we're con- 
| verted into extractive matter fit for the food of 
! plants, and thus brought into the service of 
j the roots and their fibres. But this effect can 
i only last for a few years; and wherever lir 



^ 

v 
* 



162 



THE SOUTHERN PLATER. 



*\ 



system of drawing upon the riches of the soil 
is closely followed, it will eventually render it 
so poor that plentiful and repeated manurings 
will scarcely be able to restore it to any thing 
like fertility. All land requires something more 
than fine tillage. A little manure, clover ley, 
plaster and rest are indispensable. By rest, I 
mean not only a suspension of cultivation, but 



an exemption from grazing. But how is this 
manure to be obtained'? By keeping up your 
hogs and cattle the whole year round. But 
the farmer is ready to say this will cost too 
much labor, and the profit of the stock will be 
greatly diminished. This is a question I would 
like to have discussed, and if any thing I may 
write will make farmers think on this subject, 
I will have gained my object. Suppose a far- 
mer has three hundred and sixty acres of 
arable land, divided into six fields; by keeping 
up his stock, he may dispense with his cross 
fences, which would 'amount to nearly one-half 
the whole fencing on the farm; which would 
be no small item saved in the account of the 
farm expenses. He should have a lew small 
lots for a small flock of sheep, his colts, and 
his brood sows; for they must not be confined 
in pens. What he would save by keeping his j 
ho^sout of secret drains, meadows and clover 
fields, you may learn, Mr. Editor, by inquiring 
of your intelligent friend Mr. Newman, of j 
Orange. The practice of soiling stock-instead j 
of grazing is quite common in the Northern 
States, and I have known it done in Virginia, j 
I do not propose to erect any costly fixtures j 
for keeping stock. A simple old fashioned 
cuppen that can be moved about to the most 
convenient places for water, litter and food, 
with a bush arbor built in it for shade, will 
answer a very good purpose. The food for 
the cattle, during summer, would be fresh clo- 
ver cut every morning and evening from the 

• rich spots in the clover field, and green corn 

• sowed broadcast for that purpose. One piece 
.of land will produce three crops in a summer, 

provided it is re-sowed as it is used off, so that 
iall the time there is a new crop coming on as 
the old one is being used. Three crops of corn 
taken from the land before the grain is formed, 
will not injure it as much as one crop, if al- 
lowed to mature. The hogs might be kept 
with the cattle, but a better plan would be to 
have permanent pens, with plank floors, a plen- 
tiful supply of clean water, with some arrange- 
ment for either soaking, fermenting or boiling 
'the grain which they are to receive. They 
would require but little grain, provided they 
received a plenty of clover, or turnips, pump- 
kins, potatoes, apples or any vegetables that 
could not be used more profitably. Litter the 
pens, and cler.n them out when required, throw- 
ing the manure in heaps, sprinkling it liberally 
with charcoal dust and plaster. Say there are 
thirty head of cattle and sixty of hogs, how 
. much manure could be made from these in 
six months, beginning with May, provided the 
farmer industriously collects leaves and vege- 
table mould from the woods, and the turf from 



the creek banks and the fence corners'! A 
greater quantity of vegetable matter can be 
converted into good manure during summer 
than in winter, on account of the more rapid 
decomposition that is caused by the increased 
degree of heat during summer. It has been 
estimated by Thaer and other agriculturists, 
that a cow or ox well littered with straw, will 
yield six four-horse wagon loads of manure 
in six months, and a hog one load. The same 
author goes on to state, that no average pro- 
portion can be given of the quantity of manure 
which cattle will produce, because when they 
receive an abundance of food containing a 
great proportion of succulent matters, the ma- 
nure they will yield, both in straw and litter 
and in excrement, will be seven or eight times 
as much as would be furnished if they were 
fed on dry food. In the former case, it is 
scarcely possible to give the cattle a suffi- 
ciency of litter. 

Cattle ean only be considered as machines 
that appropriate a very small portion of the 
fodder which they consume to their own sub- 
sistence, while they reduce the greatest portion 
of it to dung. By dung, we uderstand not 
only the larger excrements, properly so called, 
but also the urine, and some portion of the 
perspiration which is absorbed by the straw; 
I this dung is not entirely composed of the resi- 
l due of the fodder, but also contains some por- 
tions of the animal organization, which, in the 
course of nature, are detached, evacuated and 
I replaced by new formations. Thus the dung 
loses a great part of its vegetable nature, and 
acquires animal properties instead. Is it WH. 
fair to conclude that thirty head of cattle a> 
sixty hogs will produce four hundred four-horse 
wagon loads of" good manure in six months'? 
Is not this manure worth four hundred dollars 
as it is on the farm, and near where it is to Le 
applied"? Now, will not two men, with two 
horses and a wagon, attend to this stock, and 
do all the additional labor on the farm that this 
change of system would render necessary 1 
Would not two hundred dollars be liberal hire 
for the two men and the wagon and horses'? 
Then there would be a clear profit of two 
hundred dollars, to say nothing of the great 
saving of fencing. 

I hope our brother farmers will let us knowi 
what uiey think of our suggestions. 



For the Southern Planter. 
MAD ITCH. 

This is a disease which occurred some years 
ago in Indiana, and was desciibed as epidemic 

An affection like this was witnessed by many 
persons in Albemarle, at Mr. Benj. Wood's 
October, 1849. Every cow that had the dis 
ease, ran in Hie lot where liogs were fed on com 
upon the sialic cut green from the field. Th(- 
symptoms were, rubbing the lace and moutl 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



163 



against trees, or any rough object, till the nose 
bled, and the surface was raw. Throat swelled 
between jawbones and cud was lost. Made 
efforts as if to swallow now and then, refused 
to eat and drink, and died in two or three days 
from attack, in great agony, running about just 
before death as if mad. 

Post mortem. — Nothing wrong as far as 
examined, but the manyfold or many-plies, (the 
third stomach.) This was stuffed full of very 
dry matter, manifestly the fragments of corn- 
stalks, chewed quite fine, but apparently inca- 
pable of undergoing the preparations for pass- 
ing the manyfold. 

It was said that the cows ate the balls of 
cornstalk material which the hogs had chewed 
and spit out, attracted, perhaps, by the sailing 
which the hogs' saliva imparled. 

Mr. B. Ficklin, of Albemarle, also lost se- 
veral cows, under exactly the same circum- 
stances, some years ago. 

Mr. Fret well, of Albemarle, lost all the cows 
(1848,) that ran with hogs fed to "stalk and 
all,'' except a breachy cow which would net 
stay in the lot. 

Mr. Hugh Minor lost one (1849,) which was 
feeding in the same way, and which a neighbor 
told him would die if not removed. Mr. M. 
purposely left it there, and in a few days it did 
die in precisely the way described above, and 
the manyfold was found stuffed with the chewed 
stalks. 

In Loudoun county, 1850, a similar disease 
was very fatal on some farms, where there 
was no feeding on stalks. It was alleged to 
be epidemic, and depending, like all epidemics 
upon a specific miasm. 



For the Southern Planter. 

THE COST, PROFITS AND ECONOMY 
OF LABOR. 

There is nothing connected with the hus- 
bandman's occupation upon which his profits 
and success in his vocaiion so immediately 
depend, as on the labor employed by him, and 
his management of it; this is especially'true 
in a sparsely sealed country like ours, where 
lands are cheap, and the facilities of obtaining 
the means of living abundant, and the profits 
of well directed labor are large; and in Vir- 
ginia, where slave labor is used, the importance 
of this consideration is enhanced by the hi^h 
price of slaves, produced by the demand for 
that kind of labor in the cotton gro win" State* 
and by the increased wages paid fnHabor to 
be employed on the numerous public works 
now in progress in the State. Labor is the 
most costly item in our farm accounts at all 
times however; and in those sections of our 

Slate where free labor is used, either altogether 
or for the greater part, we find the most tmpie 
and satisfactory proofs of it— in the very small 
numoer of laborers kept regularly on the 

6 F 



farms— in the greater use of labor-saving ma- 
chines and contrivances of all kinds— in the 
cultivation only of such lands as will probably 
yield a profit on the tillage— in ihe use of a 
greater number of draugnt animals as a sub- 
stitute for manual labor— in the appropriation 
of many of their lands to grazing— and in the 
selection of such staple crops as require the 
least labor in their management. And slave 
j labor is by no means exempt from the charge 
of costliness, ahhough the owners of slaves 
do not give the same evidences of it in their 
economical use of them; but the greater cheap- 
ness of this species of labor over free labor 
may be clearly shown by a very simple calcu- 
lation, by which it is manifest that the expense 
ot rearing and mainiaining them, to an a»e 
when they become profitable, will make such 
labor from thirty to fifty per cent, cheaper than, 
free labor. 

To be profitable, labor must be directed by 
an intelligent eye to the end to be accomplished 
and with a proper adaptation of ihe means to 
the end ; it is the neglect of this rule in agri- 
cultural operations, which produces the disas- 
trous results so often wi messed among our fa lin- 
ing friends, by which whole families are beg- 
gared with the means of abundance with in their 
reach, and which has made the term "farming- 
profits" a bye-word and a reproach to its vota* 
nes. It has now become an established fact 
that (arming on poor land is a losing business 
(which, though generally true, has fortunately" 
some honorable exceptions;) even on land 
of average iertility, wiih ordinary management 
and economy, it is esteemed barely a decent 
living, and on rich land alone it is profitable • 
and this results, in a great measure, from the 
non-observance of this rule. How many in- 
stances do we see of large farms of poor land 
overrun with swarms of negtoes, who like 
locusts, consume everything made on the'land 
and not content with this, they go abroad 
"seeking whom they may devour." In such 
cases there is no adaptation of the means to 
the end— there is too much labor on the farm 
and even if diligent in their work, there is no 
profit made to be put to thecredit of either labor 
or land. Again, we see many farmers who 
cultivate large landed estates (in some cases of 
rich, in others of poor land,) with an amount 
of labor not equal to the proper cultivation 
ol one hall the surface; and in consequence 
over cropping, (and not unfrequently over- 
working,) with its attendant train of evils 
iollows.exhibiticghalf tilled crops, half fenced 
fields, and unchecked waste in all its forms 
buch management as this yields but little 
profit, and leaves both farm and laborcreditors 
to "a beggarly account." In other cases it 
often happens that farmers undertake to cuiti 
vate their lands with an insufficient team in 
manifest violation of the modern enlightened, 
policy, which substitutes draught animals as 
laras practicable, for manual labor, and the 
profits of labor is the necessary sacrifice And 
it is a mistake equally fatal to profitable farm- 



164 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



ing to use improper or unsuitable implements 
of husbandry, or such as are in bad order, as 
is too frequently the custom, and justify such 
a practice on the ground of economy, forget- 
ting that the plough, axe, or hoe is of little 
cost, compared with the labor by which they 
are made productive. Economy in agricultu- 
ral operations is indispensable to profitable 
results, but it is not economy in little matters 
alone, which secures this end, as many seem 
to think, (such as the use of a few barrels of 
corn, more or less in the year.) but economy 
in labor is the main lever in its accomplish- 
ment. There is nothing gained by this "saving 
at the spigot and losing at the bung" method 
of economy, and the fanner whose operations 
are conducted on such views of economy 
cannot reasonably expect to realize any profit 
from labor. It is as little to be expected that 
labor will yield any profit when it is applied 
to poor land, such as, unaided by manure in 
some shape, will not produce a crop more than 
sufficient to pay the interest on the cost of the 
l anc l_an enlightened system of agriculture 
should avoid the costly expenditure of labor 
on a soil, which does not pay the expense of 
cultivation, and it were better policy even to 
sink the small profit made on such land, (by 
leaving it waste) rather than incur the greater 
loss of sinking the profits of labor. An outlay 
of labor on such unproductive lands is justi- 
fiable, however, under some circumstances — 
such as the improvement of small spots of poor 
land in a field, or even the cultivation of poor 
fields on farms, having other productive lands, 
for the purpose of enriching them, and thus get- 
ting them in condition to be more profitable; or 
with a simultaneous dressing ol manure on 
them, which will insure a profit on the labor ex- 
pended on them, if not the first year, certainly 
in a rotation of crops. There are certainly 
many lands which are not "worth cultivating" 
unless improved, and their continued cultiva- 
tion cannot yield any profit to labor; but a 
moderate investment in labor and other means 
may soon put them in condition to yield a fair 
profit on the cost of the land and its improve- 
ment, in the shape of grazing profit, and such 
lands should be so treated. The various farm 
operations, even in their minutest ramifica- 
tions, all involve this question of the profits and 
economy of labor; and in view of this fact, 
it is not surprising that farming profits are fre- 
quently so small, when it is considered that 
these operations are so often left to the control 
of ignorant slaves, or to the direction of ma- 
nagers deplorably uninformed of the value 
and economy of labor, experience alone, with 
many such, being the only guide by which 
fhey regulate the complicated affairs of the 
farm. Hence it is that we see, in the execution 
of a small job of work, twice or thriVe as 
many hands sent as are requisite to perform 
it, and the surplus of labor thns emploved, 
and the time lost in travelling "to and fro" is 
a total loss. An indifferent, half-worn axe, 
or one too light or dull, is placed in the hands 



of a good axe-man, and a loss of ten, twenty 
or thirty per cent, is sustained; a like result 
follows the use of an indifferent scythe, cradle, 
or plough; and the use of a wheat machine 
out of repair, where frequent stoppages for 
repairs and fixing are required, often costs 
more in loss and labor than the price of a new 
one. Hauling bulky but light articles in small 
cart or wagon bodies, not adapted for such 
service, working one horse in a two horse 
plough or cultivator, is too often practised, 
whereby neither the driver nor team can earn 
fair wages; moving fences from one part of 
the farm to another for temporary purposes, 
and many of the other items of transportation 
on the farm, as they are usually conducted, 
are attended with a like waste of labor. All 
these smaller details of want of economy in 
farm labor (and many others not enumerated) 
make an amount of waste appalling to con- 
template; sufficient indeed to bankrupt any 
estate, and the systematic practice of very few 
of them will inevitably lop off all the profits 
of labor. Even the intelligent proprietorsome- 
times fails to disco ver the loss which he is thus 
sustaining in his farming operations, in time 
to save his estate from ruin; and this is owing 
chiefly to the fact of his entrusting the manage- 
ment of his farm entirely to overseers and 
negroes, (which system offers a premium upon 
laziness to the proprietor, and upon neglect 
and mismanagement to the overseer;) to his 
keeping no accurate (arm accounts, and strik- 
ing a balance of profit or loss annually; (and 
this because habit and education have so 
trained him;) and likewise to the fact that far- 
mers in Virginia, (where slave labor is exten- 
sively used) for the most part, own the Irfbor, 
by which their farms are tilled, and not having 
to pay fixed wages for it, by the day, week, 
month, or year, they naturally become careless 
as to the manner in which it is applied, and 
remain ignorant of what profit it yields them; 
and it requires a succession of disasters, the 
failure of income, the pressure of debt, or the 
stimulus of some other equally urgent cause, 
to open their eyes to their true condition. 

Thus it appears that want of economy in 
labor is the undoubted cause of unprofitable 
farming with a vast number of the craft, in 
spite of the pteponderating advantages which 
attach to slave as compared with free labor; 
and it is equally apparent that waste of abor 
is the natural tendi ncy of a system based on 
slavery; and it reqimes all the energy and at- 
tention of our best farmers to counteract it, 
and to show, as they sometimes do. a balance 
sheet, which compares favorably with the most 
profitable fatming in any country. 

How are these evils to be remedied'! and 
what can be done by the citizens and by the 
government of the State! are questions of 
grave importance, and should claim the matu- 
rest consideration ol every true-hearted and 
loyal son of the Old Dominion. The cases 
enumerated in this essay, in illustration of the 
want of economy in farm labor, naturally 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



165 



suggest their own retried} - ; but the tendency 
to waste of labor, arising from the institution 
of slavery, is especially to be guarded againsl, 
because its influences are secret and imper- 
ceptible, and are so interwoven with the fabric 
of society, that they are more difficult to be 
thrown off. A partial remedy for it, however, 
would be found in the keeping a regular ac- 
count with the farm and its labor, which would 
show, at short intervals, the profit or loss, in 
proper connexion, and thus enable the proprie- 
tor to correct his errors, and so alter his ma- 
nagement as to render it productive; this would 
be lmmedintely beneficial in the manner indi- 
cated, and in addition, would tend to increase 
his interest in his affairs, and stimulate him to 
a more diligent attention to all his farm opera- 
tions, which, of itself, would remove many of 
the causes producing waste of labor; but a 
radical cure for this evil tendency can only be 
made by the systematic and proper education 
of those who intend to pursue agriculture as 
a profession. Mnch has already been done by 
the farmers of Virginia, in their individual 
capacity, to elevate their profession and to 
make it lucrative; numerous examples are 
familiar to all. oi ?uch men, whose intelligence 
and energy have not only enriched their own 
farm^ ana filled their purses, and surrounded 
their fa r Ji,ies with the comforts and luxuries of 
life, b ,t, by their practice and precept, they 
have ' ;en instrumental in spreading the bless- 
ings of plenty and independence around them; 
much is now doing, and can still be done, by 
individual enterprise towards accomplishing 
the same result, nnd remedying the evil prac- 
tices by which agriculture is retarded and kept 
Jback; this may be accomplished, to a limited 
extent, iy the influence which every^good far- 
mer has it in his power to exert on his c le 
of neighbors arocmd him, and more widely, by 
coernunicatir.g to all the fraternity, through 
the pre< , whatever information of value he 
may possess, and by his pen exciting an inter- 
est and keeping alive a proper spirit, in the 
profession. And much more might bertone,in 
this behalf, by the associate effort of the far- 
mers of Virginia, if the zeal, so necs.ary to 
the s:i"?ess of everv undertaking, were not 
wanting; bat this method of improving the 
practice of agricu'ture has failed so often, and 
so signally in Virginia, that it would be scarce 
worth an. '.her trial, without strong and decided 
manifestations o r a better feeling. The State 
could do much for the advancement of agri- 
culture, (and doubtless would, if its councils 
were not so much infested with time serving 
politicians,) by re.noving the various draw- 
backs to the profits of farming, in the shape 
of oppressive fens:: laws, and the like; by an 
enH^' ned system ■ f public it , .overnents; 
bur, above all, by educating her citizens, and 
bv establishing scientific and practical agri- 
C tliural schools, in which those, who are di.- 
tine ' to till th- •joil, may be trained and qua- 
lified to develop the dormant resources ot 
Virginia, v. uh profit to themselves and advan- 



tage and honor to their kind and fostering 
mother — whose wisdom would manifest itself 
in thus "casting her brea'd upon the waters, 
that sbe may find it after many days." The 
wealth of a country consists, in a great mea- 
sure, in its population; on the character of 
this, on its moral and intellectual development, 
depend the prosperity of the Stale, and its in- 
fluence and position among the nations of the 
earth. Virginia has inexhaustable stores of 
wealth in her citizens — in her labor; she has 
fertilized her sister States from the outpourings 
of her abundance, and yet there is no fail in 
"the widow's cruse of oil" — how far she has 
come short of her true position, how far she 
has "hid in the earth the talent with which 
she was entrusted," how far her labor and her 
resources have been, and still are, permitted 
to run to waste for want of development, it 
well becomes her governors, her legislators, 
and berstatesmen to pause and enquire. Edu- 
cate the people, and the State is enriched. 
Educate the people, and the Slate must be 
improved and elevated to her irue destiny 
among nations. 

WlLLtAM W. MtNOR, 
P. H. GoODLOE. 

Albemarle Co., January 18, 185*2. 



NUTRITION IN VARIOUS GRAINS. 

Wheat is one of the most important of 
our crops. The grain contains from fifty 
to seventy per cent, of starch, from ten to 
twenty per cent, of gluten, and from three 
to five per cent, of fatty matter. The pro- 
portion of gluten is said to be largest in 
the grain of quite warm countries. 

It is a singular fact that, in all the seed 
of wheat and other grains, the principal 
part of the oil lies near or in the skin, as 
also does a large portion of the gluten. — 
The bran owes to this much of its nutritive 
and fattening qualities. Thus in refining 
our flour to the utmost possible extent, we 
diminish somewhat its value for food. The 
phosphates of the ash also lie to a great 
degree in the skin. The best fine flour 
contains above seventy pounds of starch 
to each hundred. The residue of one 
hundred pounds consists ol ten or twelve 
pounds of gluten, six to eight pounds of 
sugar and gum, and ten to fourteen pounds 
of water and a little oil. 

Rye flour more nearly resembles wheaf- 
en flour in its composition than any other; 
it has, however, more of certain gummy 
and sugary substances, which make it te- 
nacious, and also impart a sweetish taste. 
In baking all grains and roots which have 
much starch in them, a certain change 
takes place in their chemical composition 



I 



is 



166 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



By baking, flour becomes more nutritious, 
and more easily digestible, because, more 
soluble. 

Barley contains rather less starch than 
•wheat, also less sugar and gum. There 
is little gluten, but a substance somewhat 
Jike it, and containing about the same 
amount of nitrogen. 

Oat-meal is little used as food in this 
country, but it is equal, if not superior, in 
its nutritious qualities to flour from any of 
the other grains; superior, I have no doubt, 
to most of the fine wheaten flour of the 
northern latitudes. It contains from ten to 
eighteen per cent, of a body having about 
the same amount of nitrogen or gluten.— 
Besides this, there is a considerable quan- 
tity of sugar and gum, and from five to six 
per cent, of oil or fatty matter, which may 
be obtained in the form of a clear, fragrant 
liquid. Oat-meal, then, has not only abun- 
dance of substance containing nitrogen, 
but is also quite fattening. It is, in short, 
an excellent food for working animals, and, 
as has been abundantly proved in Scotland, 
for working men also. 

Buckwheat is less nutritious than the 
other grains we have noticed. Its flour 
has from six to ten percent, of nitrogenous 
compounds, about, fifty per cent, of starch, 
and from five to eight of sugar and gum. 
In speaking of buckwheat or of oats, we, 
of course, mean without husks. 

Rice was formerly supposed to contain 
little nitrogen; but recent examinations 
have shown that there is a considerable 
portion, some six or eight per cent, of a 
substance like gluten. The per centage of 
fatty matter and of sugar is quite small, 
but that of starch much larger than any 
grain yet mentioned, being between eighty 
and ninety per cent.; usually about eighty- 
two. 

Indian corn is the last that we shall no- 
tice. This contains about sixty per cent. 
of starch, nearly the same as oats. The 
proportion of oil and gum is large, about 
ten per cent.; this explains the fattening 
properties of Indian meal, so well known 
to practical men. There is, besides these, 
a good portion of sugar. The nitrogenous 
.substances are also considerable in quan- 
tity, some twelve to sixteen per cent. All 
these statements are from the prize essay of 
Mr. J. H. Salisbury, published by the New 
York State Agricultural Society. They 
show that the results of European chemists 
have probably been obtained by the exa- 
mination of varieties inferior to ours; they 
have not placed Indian corn much above 



the level of buckwheat or rice, whereas, 
from the above, it is seen to be ( 'in most 
respects superior to any other grain." 

Sweet corn differs from all other varie- 
ties, containing only about eighteen per 
cent, of starch. The amount of sugar is, 
of course, very large, and the nitrogenous 
substance amounts to the very large pro- 
portion of twenty per cent.; of gum to 
thirteen or fourteen; and of oil, to about 
eleven. This, from the above results, is 
one of the most nourishing crops grown. 
If it can be made to yield as much per 
acre as the harder varieties, it is well worth 
a trial on a large scale. — Prof. Norton. 



For the Southern Planter. 
APPLICATION OF PLASTER TO CLOVER 

Mr. Editor,— I feel flattered by the compli- 
mentary notice of your correspondent of Lu- 
nenburg of my communication in the March, 
number of the Planter, and shall be much 
gratified, if by any suggestion of mine, my 
old friend and school-mate may be enabled to 
"cause two blades of grass to grow where 
only one grew before." As stated on a former 
occasion, 1 regard the successful culture of 
the artificial grasses (red clover, in particular,) 
as the basis of all agricultural improvement, 
upon an extended scale; and the farmer who 
neglects them, or esteems them even of se- 
condary importance in his annual operations, 
is doomed, in a large majority of cases, to 
witness the gradual, but sure, deterioration of 
his estate, and to the mortification of feeling 
himself become poorer and poorer every year. 
For the correctness of this opinion, I appeal 
to every district and to every farm in the State, 
dependent upon its own resources for the 
means of improvement. 

In the communication referred to, it is stated 
"the fall sowing of plaster, on land to be sowed 
in clover the ensuing winter or spring is pre- 
ferred, that it may be dissolved by the winter 
rains, and thus made available, to sustain the 
young clover during drought in spring and 
summer." Your correspondent wishes to know 
whether thisopinion is the result of experiment 
and observation— whether I have known plas- 
ter applied to clover in the spring to result in 
a failure, and when applied in the fall to the 
same or similar land, to prove decidedly bene- 
ficial— what is the general character of such 
a soil, whether red or gray, and whether defi- 
cient in lime or not. 

When I commenced the fall use of plaster 
with a view to a successful stand of clover, 
the general impression of the country was, 
that if applied in thespring it would cause the 
wheat to rust. Having, at the time, but little - 
personal experience in such matters, and con- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



167 



fiding in the correctness of this impression, I 
resorted to fall sowing to avoid the anticipated 
difficulty. The result exceeded my most san- 
guine expectations. There was in no instance 
any visible effect on the wheat, (and subse- 
quent observation leads to the conclusion that 
plaster does not act directly on wheat,) but the 
effect on the young clover the following fall 
and spriDg was most striking— though applied 
always to the poorest portions of a field, and 
to land, from its texture, least adapted to clo- 
ver, the thickness and vigor of the plants dis- 
tinctly marked the line of its application. If 
the plaster is sowed early in March and there 
should be sufficient rain to dissolve it iu time 
to act on the young clover as soon as it vege- 
tates, I perceive no reason why it should not 
answer the same purpose as fall sowing. But 
March and April are often cold and dry, and 
much of the young clover perishes in these 
months, in unfavorable localities, from the 
want of appropriate food to sustain it. Besides, 
there is no economy or other advantage from 
deferring the application of plaster till spring. 
While I have never applied it to young d/wer 
in the spring, it is my invariable practice to 
apply it at that period to clover of one and 
two years' standing, and have sometimes failed 
to secure its usual effects for that season, 
should the application be a little too late, and 
succeeded by dry weather. This result is 
obvious on my clover fields at this time, from 
not having applied the plaster at an earlier 
period. 

My farm lies wholly on the South-West 
I mountains and partakes of the general charac- 
ter of the red lands of that district. Much of 
^ it, the gravelly portions especially, are admi- 
rably adapted to the growth of clover; but the 
soil in other parts, and generally the more ele- 
vated, is comparatively free from stone, of a 
deep red color, and very light and spongy. It 
has been to land of this latter description only, 
that 1 have found it necessary to apply plaster 
in the fall, to secure the young clover. For a 
number of years I pursued the course recom- 
mended, as long as the necessity for it existed. 
My land has been plastered so often, and is so 
well stocked with clover seed, that recourse 
is had to fall sowing now, only when unim- 
proved land is brought into cultivation. But 
whenever resorted to, as before remarked, the 
result has been most satisfactory and as de- 
cided as could have been expected from an 
ordinary application of stable manure. It is 
believed the difficulty of procuring a stand of 
clover on our light, red lands results more from 
the mechanical than the physical constitution 
of the soil. Its want of adhesiveness and 
great porousness, render it highly pervious to 
solar heat. The surface soil becomes very 
dry, and the tender plant often perishes from 
the want of moisture, before its roots have 
penetrated to a sufficient depth to obtain it. 
Hence the valueof plaster to attractand retain 
moisture and the roller to give compactness 
to the soil. 



Lime is found by analysis to exist in sufficient 
quantity in the generality of our red lands, 
though I am not aware that this particulai 
description of soil has been subjected to expe- 
riment. It may be inferred, however, that it 
is to be found in it also, as I have observed no 
effect from applications of from forty to one 
hundred bushels per acre. In the midst oi 
o.ur red lands, and most frequently on the 
branches, there are occasional strips of gray 
or white land, very unproductive, on which 
lime acts with decided effect, particularly in 
increasing the crop of grass. 

Not being acquainted with the character of 
the land in Lunenburg, I, of course, can make 
no recommendation worthy of confidence, but 
beg leave to suggest to your correspondent the 
following experiment: After his laud has beer, 
well ploughed for a spring crop, spread on five 
contiguous acres ten, twenty, thirty, forty and 
fifty bushels of slaked lime respectively pd 
acre, and harrow well so as to incorporate the 
lime thoroughly into the soil. In the fall sow- 
wheat and immediately thereafter one bushel 
of plaster per acre— and the last of February 
or first of March following, one bushel of clo- 
ver seed to twenty acres or three pints to the 
acre. Jf the soil is very light, roll it with a 
heavy roller soon after the seed is sown. A 
comparison of the subsequent crop of clover 
on the several limed acres and on the unliined 
will, I think, indicate the wants of his soil and 
the extent of the deficiency, if it be lime, and 
lead to useful inferences. 

It sometimes happens that cloyerseed sown 
in thespringfailsfromdroughtand othercauses 
to vegetate, except partially, and this occurs 
most frequently on fresh or indifferently pre- 
pared land. In such eases the first crop is, to:: 
considerable extent, a failure, and the farmer 
erroneously supposes his seed lost. During the 
summer and fall of the first year, under more 
favorable circumstances, the seed sowed the 
preceding year and much that is deposited by 
the growing crop vegetates, and fills up the 
vacant intervals, presenting a well set and even 
crop the second year. This fact shows the im- 
propriety of the course pursued by some far- 
mers in ploughing in the first crop and ihe im- 
policy of adopting any system of rotation that 
does not admit of two full crops of clover — a 
shorterperiod than twoyears being insufficient 
to secure the full benefit of the clover system. 
Light applications of surplus wheat straw or 
other coarse litter to the more doubtful pans 
of a field as soon as the wheat is threshed, are 
highly beneficial in protecting theyoungclover 
from the scorching effects of the sun, and in 
preserving a greater degree of moisture. This 
is a valuable auxiliary to the success of clover, 
and should never be neglected by the provi- 
dent farmer. 

Having thus attempted briefly to answer the 
questions propounded, I will remark, in con- 
clusion, that I am happy to learn the taste of 
my old college mate has led him into agricul- 
cultural pursuits, and shall be pleased at ail 



168 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



times toexchange viewswith him through the 
Planter on subjects of interest to our profession. 
I apprehend my views, as expressed in the 
March number of the Planter, have, by some 
of your friends, been misconstrued. In that 
communication I did not recommend a quart 
of clover seed as sufficient to the acre. My 
recommendation was a bushel to twenty acres, 
which would be a fraction over three pints to 
the acre — equal, if I mistake not, to one grain 
of seed to every three-fourths of a square inch 
per acre. I stated, as my opinion derived from 
observation, that a quart of seed to the acre, 
aided by half a bushel or three pecks of plas- 
ter, was more to be relied on in a bad season 
than double the quantity of seed without the 
plaster, and in this opinion I am happy to find 
you concur. 

James Newman. 



For the Southern Planter. 
DO SHEEP IMPROVE LAND 1 ? 

Mr. Editor,— I see in your September num- 
ber, page 2G4, "Ignoramus 1 ' seems surprised 
at the idea that sheep improve land, that it 
■was contrary to what he has heretofore been 
taught and wishes to hear more about it— be 
says: "here in lower Virginia it is a prevail- 
ing opinion that land should never be grazed 
and that sheep are more injurious than any 
other stock. 1 ' I have been looking for a reply 
from some experienced farmer more able with 
the pen than myself on the subject; for surely 
no farmer possessing information sought by 
another ought to withhold it, and certainly no 
place is so desirable to record that information 
as in an agricultural journal, for it. is pre- 
sumed that farmers who take it, (and all ought,) 
will have the numbers bound, and thus hand 
down through their library to future genera- 
tions, all information acquired that may he 
useful. Had this course been pursued by our 
forefathers, much valuable information would 
have been preserved that has gone with them 
to the tomb. 

With this view I will try to satisfy "Ignora- 
mus," lamenting that some more able person 
had not taken up the subject. I will however 
say to "Ignoramus" that I cannot on paper 
explain to him my views as perfectly as I 
could in conversation. If he will give me the 
pleasure of receiving a visit from him (you 
can give him my name if he is disposed to 
do so,) 1 will be happy to welcome him and 
show him all 1 can. I heard an old and good 
farmer say once that when he visited for infor- 
mation, he always visited bad farmers and 
learnt from seeing the defects, that did no! 
exist among good farmers— "Ignoramus" may 
come probably and do likewise. The tact is, 
much more information might be gained and 
certainly no injury caused by a little sociable 
visiting among farmers. I have some experi- 



ence with sheep, as you know, and it proves to 
me that sheep certainly improve land greatly. 
No doubt " the prevailing opinion in lower Vir- 
ginia," is. to some extent, right; but that land 
should never be grazed, is carrying it too far, 
for a farmer must then depend solely on grain. 
If he is not willing to do (hat, and concludes 
upon grazing at all, he ought to conclude upon 
the animal most profitable with the least in- 
jury and greatest improvement to the land, 
horse, cattle or sheep; 1 suppose the farmer 
must have some of each, but I mean which 
will he select for profit— i. e. to make money. 
I consider the sheep the most profitable for 
various reasons; they require less care and 
trouble, less grass, less ground — the wool pays 
for the keep — the higher the keep, the more 
ample the remuneration — no other animal with 
us pays its keep with a fleece. But then the 
farmer must select that breed that is most 
likely to render the greatest profit in the 
shortest time, and be at least auxiliary to the 
farm. To make grazing profitable, and also to 
improve the land, it is necessary there should 
be an abundance of grass to support the ani- 
mal plentifully, without grazing the land too 
close. For if a farmer has barely a sufficiency 
of grass to support life, and in a drought a 
great deficiency, you may rely upon it, it would 
be a skinning process, that must ruin the land 
and the animal, and materially cripple the far- 
mer. It is not so much the fault as the abuse of 
the system, and if farmers will not confine 
themselves within proper limits, the skinning 
process must injure the land, the starving part 
the animal, and the two will skin the farmer. 
The English farmers recommend salt to be 
sown on land manured by sheep, to prevent 
the wheal from falling, by strengthening the 
growth of straw — so highly do they think of 
it; but then they neither overcrop or overstock. 
My conscience smites me for the length of this, 
but I cannot help saying to you, that in accord- 
ance with my views heretofore expressed, I 
made a visit in the spring of last year to that 
hospitable region, the famed Eastern Shore of 
Maryland, to that spirited farmer, Mr. James 
N. Goldsborough, near Easton. I wish the 
Old Dominion had many such— he has nearly 
every description of improved stock: the bred 
horse, improved short horn cattle, improved 
Cotswold sheep, improved hogs, and even im- 
proved poultry, of all kinds. Will you not 
agree with me that such a spirit is of incalcu- 
lable value to a community'? Here also was 
a helpmate worthy of him, for the order, 
arrangement and industry in her department, 
were by no means excelled in Iris. Mr. Editor, 
she was from the Old Dominion, I am proud 
to say — "think of that Master Brooke." But 
to my object — I was struck with the richness 
and sweetness of the milk and butter so 
abundant on the supper table, which I was af- 
terwards informed commanded the highest 
prices in market. In rambling over the fields, 
I inquired of Mr. Goldsborough how it hap- 
pened that the milk and butter on his table 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



169 



were so entirely free of the flavor of garlic, 
when his cows seemed to feed so freely on it; 
that my section of the country looked with so 
much horror on it, that its growth would ma- 
terially injure, if not entirely destroy the sale 
of a farm. He replied, he cared very little 
about it, the flavor was very easily expelled — 
when the maid returned from the cowpen, tbey 
poured (without measuring, for if not sufficient 
they added to it,) but a small quantity of boil- 
ing water in the milk, (not sufficient to affect 
its richness,) and being very volatile, it was ex- 
pelled at once, perfuming the whole room for 
a time, and that heavy manuring would de- 
stroy the weed. The first remedy was so sim- 
ple and seemed so efficacious, and the latter 
so admirable, being one of those experiments, 
that if it did not accomplish the object, (and I 
was assured it would by others,) would cer- 
tainly improve greatly the subject, that I deter- 
mined to communicate it to you. This eradi- 
cation of an enemy by kindness, is the scrip- 
ture mode of heaping coals of fire. 

Mr. Editor, all this may be of no use to you, 
not worth its room in your columns; if so, 
there is a place in which it will create a flame. 
Consign it to its proper place, and the disposi- 
tion you may make of it, 1 assure you, shall 
be entirely satisfactory to its author. 

Valley of Virginia. 



Mr. Editor, — In my former, I stated my belief 
that sheep would improve land and in that 
agreed with the northern correspondent that 
■ Unoramus" referred to— then the question is, 
1 what breed of sheep improves or most im- 
proves it, and at the same time, renders the far- 
mer the greatest profit in the shortest time. Tarn 
satisfied the large improved breed of sheep is 
the profitable sheep for all such purposes; no 
doubt the northern correspondent would claim 
the Merino or small breed of sheep. To get 
at the profit, we must compare and see which 
is more entitled to the consideration of Virginia 
farmers, and the proper way to arrive at the 
truth is, not to see which commands the more 
money to the pound of wool, in that branch of 
the subject, but which gives more money to the 
fleece. In this calculation, I will give the 
Merino, or small breed of sheep, every advan- 
tage; I will give them the highest weight of 
fleeces and the highest prices, and to the large 
improved breeds, the lightest fleeces and the 
prices we sell at here in our own neighborhood. 
The finest wool I see quoted in New York at 
forty cents per pound, two and a half pounds 
to the fleece, (much more than claimed for an 
average flock,) would be one dollar to the 
fleece; but say fifty cents, and that only gives 
$1 25 per fleece; but give them one dollar per 
pound, and no person pretends to that, and 
they have $2 5D. All will admit this is doubly 
too much; besides, the fine wool is not suited 
to our countrv. We do not clothe our negroes 
with broadcloth, it is not suited to their com- 
fort or uses; and one of each of these commis- 



] sion and transportation must come as well as 

losses, for they must seek a northern market. 

Take the best breed of improved large sheep 

and take into the calculation only washed 

wool, of course, the fleeces are lighter, fair 

fleeces, (I mean sheared in proper time — the 

year's growth,) yielded as high as eighteen and 

| three-quarter pounds at thirty-three cents per 

pound, (the price I sell at here.) This would 

, buy three of the ordinary fine wooled sheep, 

; fleeces, bodies and all, at the average prices 

i and weights, of fleeces they in stock order; but 

I this would not be fair, it is a very extraordinary 

fleece — then take the lightest weight, six pounds 

I at thirty-three cents would be SI 98, and 

' would not be fair to the large improved breed, 

! but would render a Virginia farmer as much 

I clear money as the fine wool sold in New York 

i at one dollar per pound. Can the Virginia 

fanner hesitate as to which yields him the more 

| money per fleece. Of course he will bear in 

■ mind I allowed the fine wool every advantage; 

; the heaviest weight claimed in the dirt for it, 

and more than double as much per pound as the 

highest quotations in New York, lor the finest; 

I its opponent's lightest fleece calculated at home 

prices. 

Now let me call the attention of "Ignora- 
i mus" to their comparative value as muttons. 
j The ordinary or light breed of sheep require 
more age to mature, do not take on fat like the 
' large breed of improved sheep, and. (start not 
Mr. Editor,) do not require the quantity of 
i grass or feed that the smaller do; do not think 
j that I am throwing the glove to your more able 
| correspondent, "Anon," in the February No. 
j to meet with such defeat as his more able pen 
may give me, for we both may be right; it 
; may be that where grass is scarce and it is 
; necessary to ramble a great deal to fill them- 
j selves, it may require more food for the larger 
sheep, because the smaller sheep are better 
I travellers; but when that is the case, the far- 
mer is overslocked and his farm must suffer- 
from the skinning process, but give a suffici 
ency of grass to both, and I contend (from ex- 
' perience too,) that the large improved breed of 
j sheep will fatten in half, if not one-third 
the time of the small breed of sheep, and upon 
much less grass. They have a tendency to 
| take on fat and are always muttons, and it is 
; well known among persons experienced in 
j sheep, that a fat sheep will nothing like con- 
j sume as much as a poor one. The large im- 
proved breed of sheep are sluggish; they wan- 
der but little, fill themselves and lay down, and 
ruminate like cattle, and (where they get 
enough to eat,) when they get up, manure the 
ground like calves or cattle, and of that con- 
sistency, (not in small balls like other sheep,) 
as all admit is infinitely richer. The small 
sheep are always rambling-, travel their feed 
off instead of converting it into fat, and conse- 
quently require much more to fatten them; 
and when fattened, the taUow alone of the large 
sheep, even yearlings, will purchase the small 
one, out and out — wool, skin, carcass and tal- 






170 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



low. I have tried it and feel convinced, and 
so are others who have tried it, that we can 
fatten three, even yearlings, of the large im- 
proved breed of sheep, on the grain it takes to 
fatten one of the small breed of sheep, or the 
same in reference to an abundance of grass. 
As to profit, it is by no means uncommon for 
the muttons of the improved large sheep, even 
when yearlings and not grain fed, to sell at 
shearing time, after being sheared, for $7, never 
under $5 each, and ihey not thoroughbred — 
thoroughbred being too valuable to alter. 
Last summer was one of distressing drought 
in this country, doubtful if any corn would be 
made, and 1 sold my muttons in Avgust, [year- 
lings,) unfed with grain and not tlwrmigkbred, for 
39 each, never before, under $M5eack; the small 
she«p rarely sell, viell fed and four years old., 
over $2 50; thus, while the ownerof the small 
breed sellsone mutton for$2.50, 1 can have sold 
four for from $3o to $40, at that rate, upon in- 
finitely less trouble and feed — you know this 
is not theory, it is every year's experience. 
Can cattle, with no fleece to oay for their keep, 
render such profit clear to the grazier in one 
year, per head, with improvement, instead of 
injury to the land, and with such little trouble 
and feed 1 Another consideration is, the early 
maturity of this sheep renders it unnecessary 
to keep four lots of muttons on hand to sell 
one. They sell out clean every year as year- 
lings at high prices; if kept to a greater age 
they sell higher. I have sold some muttons 
for $35 each, and refused $50 each for others. 
They were thoroughbred and older. The 
small bred sheep must have age, and it takes too 
many to make a small sum of money, to be 
profitable to a farmer who connects farming 
with sheep raising. As to manure, in quan- 
tity and quality, there can be no comparison; 
the indissolvable little balls from the small 
sheep cannot compare with that from the large 
improved sheep, having the consistency and 
almost quantity of cattle. The Enarlish agree 
in its excellence, and recommend the sowing 
of salt on land manured from sheep, to prevent 
its lodging, by giving more strength to the 
straw; but then the English of course have 
reference to the large improved breed of sheep, 
having very few others. But in addition to this 
I will say to "Ignoramus," if he will on his 
poor hills or knolls, make an ample, though 
temporary shelter for sheep, allowing them to 
go in and out at pleasure, covered with straw 
or any other way, so as in the winter to ex- 
clude the air from every part but the south, 
and in the summer to make a shade, but to 
admit the air from all sides, and keep that 
shelter abundantly bedded with straw, leaves, 
or something else that will answer as well, and 
when trampled and saturated with droppings 
and urine, clean it out in a heap and make 
a new bed, he will be astonished to see what 
amount of manure of the best quality he can 
make in this way, and how thoroughly the 
knoll will be manured. What I write, Mr. 
Editor, is from experience, though in my plain 



farmer manner. I have tried other sheep, but 
you know, adopt for my uses the large im- 
proved breed of sheep, always taking care to 
get the best, though costly, and you can form 
some idea that I have not lost by this system. 
lu my calculation, I have not taken my stock 
sheep; my sales of breeders would not give 
fair play to the small sheep; therefore, I have 
counted the sale of muttons only. 

You know the good Old Dominion has many 
years, heretofore, been tributary to the North; 
and I am sure, Mr. Editor, you will feel grati- 
fied to learn that I have somewhat changed 
that state of things, and New York and Phila- 
delphia now seek their muttons of me in the 
Valley or Virginia. 



MANURES-FRESH AND FERMENTED. 

The leading agriculturists of England are 
discussing with much zeal the comparative 
advantages of fresh and fermented manure. 
Those that advocate the use of manure before 
fermentaiion or putrefaction takes place, ap- 
pear to realize the largest benefits from these 
iertilizers. ]f the principle of letting dung, 
urine, straw and other trash, wholly rot in the 
ground where crops ought to grow, be sound 
practice in the cool climate of England, it 
must be far more important in the warm cli- 
mate of our cotton-growing States. When 
green clover, pea vines, grass or vegetables of 
any kind are turned in with the plough, the 
soil receives all the nutrient elements con- 
tained in the plants; but if they were cut 
and rolted belbre they were mingled with the 
earth, their weight and substance would be 
reduced from fifty to seventy-five per cent. It 
is to avoid all loss by fermentation that fresh 
plantsand fresh manure are recommended. To 
illustrate this subject still further, we copy the 
following from a number of the London Far- 
mers' Magazine: 

Fermentation has been divided into three 
stages; the vinous, or sweet; the acetous, or 
acid; and the putrefactive, or the rotten. 
The first two are confined to saccharine 
plants; the last comprehends a wider range 
and includes almost every animal and vegeta- 
table. The three are not always necessary ; 
the acetous takes place without the vinous, 
and the putrefactive without either. Farm- 
yard dung undergoes the last two processes. 
By the putrefactive fermentation, very disa- 
greeable effluvia are produced, and the sub- 
stances are resolved into carburetted hydrogen 
gas, carbonic acid, ammonia, if nitrogen be 
present, water acetic in some cases, and solid 
carbonaceous matter. 

For a long lime past, farm-yard clung has 
been prepared for the use of green crops, by 
being carried from the feeding yards at con- 
venient times during winter, and laid in an ob- 
long heap of any required length, eight or ten 
yards in width, and about six feet high. The 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



171 



heap is formed of banks in the breadth of four 
or five feet, which are pulled from the carts, 
_ run back to the proper place, and the materi- 
' als are laid loosely together. Fermentation 
immediately goes on, and has wholly ceased 
when the application is made of the dung to 
turnips in the midsummer months. A more 
recent method consists in carting to a heap in 
the field at convenient times during winter 
and spring, the mixed straws and solid and 
urinary faeces of animals from the feeding 
yards which are mixed as well as possible in 
the wet and dry substances which will occur. 
The loaded carts pass over the heap, which is 
sloped at both ends, and the materials are 
spread evenly and thinly over the whole ex- 
tent. The pressure thus formed prevents the 
fermentation, and the heap is turned over and 
loosely compacted about ten days before the 
dung is required for the various crops. Then 
a very active lermentation commences, and 
during the utmost heat of it, the dung is laid in 
drills while smoking and steaming, covered 
immediately, and the turnip seed sowed and 
pressed close down upon the dung by a light 
roller. This way affords more bulk of dung 
than the first mode, and the use of a more ac- 
tive substance. 

Very much success has attended both these 
modes of preparing farm-yard dung, and with 
not much apparent difference, though the last 
must be preferred. My own practical experi- 
ence has been long, extensive and varied, al- 
most beyond the common lot of the middle 
age of man; and I adopted the latter plan, 
both on praciical and scientific grounds. The 
fsame experience afforded very ample means 
of making observations and noting results, 
and of drawing conclusions from experience, 
the only true source of human knowledge. 

Two wide ridges of a clay field of wheat 
fallow, of medium quality, remaining to be 
manured, after the fermented heap in the field 
was expended, I directed them to be covered 
by the newly made stable-dung of the summer 
by the horses eating vetches, and which ap- 
peared to be dry straw and some excrements. 
It was very rough, and when ploughed into 
the land, the bulk of it temained above ground. 
The rains of autumn tended to decompose the 
straw, and the seed furrow in October covered 
the bulk of it, which was again pulled up by 
the harrows, and torn along over the surface. 
From the first appearance of the wheat a su- 
periority was most evident of these two ridges 
beyond the rest of the field. The color of the 
blades was a darker green, the roots tillered 
more abundantly, and the stalks were more 
numerous. The crop was thicker planted du- 
ring summer, and attained an earlier matu- 
rity. The grain was more plump, and more 
golden in the color. The young grasses were 
more plentifjl and abundant, owing to the 
rich and finely comminuted matrix of mate- 
rials created by the harrowing in the spring 
of the mellowed earths and the decomposed 
dang. Hence the dung need not be fermented 



for wheat, and will be best applied in the early 
spring months as a top-dressing on the young 
wheat. 

When the quantity of fermented farm-yard 
dung allotted to a field of turnips has failed to 
complete the manuring of the extent, I have 
frequently directed the necessary quantity to 
be brought from the yard of the cow-shed, 
where it was carefully voided and had a 
limited mixture of straw. Being laid in the 
drills in the usual quantity, and treated like 
the other parts of the field, the fresh dung ne- 
ver failed to raise better turnips than the fer- 
mented manure; and the superiority appeared 
in the very first growth of the plants, and was 
maintained throughout the season, and at the 
end of it, the bulbs were larger and more nu- 
merous. Experience has shown me this fact 
more than once or twice; and hence farm- 
yard dung need not be fermented for turnips, 
but may be used in the freshest state, when 
the quantity will be larger and cover more 
ground. In order to obviate the constant ob- 
jection of not being able to cover in the ground, 
the fresh straw of rank growth, I have (seve- 
ral years ago) suggested that all straws used 
to litter, be cut into lengths of a few inches, 
which the turnip drills can easily receive; 
and the sowing of the seed will not be at all im- 
peded by the coulters of the sower catching 
the rough straw of the manure. Cutters will 
perform this process by being attached to the 
steam power of the threshing machinery. 

Bones are in the same predicament as farm- 
yard dung in respect of the fresh or healed 
condition. I have had them ground in the 
forenoon and sown in the forenoon; heaped 
for weeks, and naturally heated; and have 
had them mixed and heated with fine earths 
and quick-lime, water and urine. The results 
were nearly the same on the new red sand- 
stone soils of South Northumberland, the iron 
sands of Surrey, and on the loose poachy 
earths of Breconshire, where the soil immedi- 
ately reclines on a rock of the upper horizon- 
tal layer of the old red sandstone. Hence the 
fresh condition of bones is preferable, as it 
saves the expense of heating them. 

I have sent these remarks in consequence of 
the scoffiing taunts cast on Mr. Mechi's obser- 
vation "that the days of dung-heaps are being 
numbered." I have much pleasure in sup- 
porting him by the facts of experience: and 
the present discussion on covered stalls may 
be settled by covering over the whole farmery 
like the terminus of a railway. Agriculture 
has been much indebted to persons of Mr. 
Mechi's calibre, for they bring enlightened, 
and unbiassed minds to bear upon the subject; 
and if they often get wrong, they are some- 
times right. The education of a farmer con- 
sists wholly in a net work thrown over his 
mind, with meshes so strong and narrow, that 
no escape can be made from the prejudices 
which generaiion after generation has engen- 
dered and transmitted. The customs or prac- 
tices oi those who have gone before us, though 



172 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



it be ihe principle of a most dangerous nature, 
and very erroneous complexion, is seldom ex- 
cluded from any serious deliberation, and it is 
generally a power of too great strength for 
reason to grapple with; and pursues with the 
most unrelenting persecution, all those who 
doubt the truth, or question its authority. 
But gradual encroachments will continue to 
be made on its prerogative; as it exists, in 
many cases, on mere opinion and simple 
prescription. 

J. D. 



For the Southern Planter. 
POWHATAN AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 

The Powhatan Agricultural Club, at a pre- 
vious meeting, appointed lour of its members 
to report to the Club, at its April meeting, 
subjects for experiment. The gentlemen hav- 
ing been called on for reports, Mr. Hilary 
Harris read the following: 

The intelligent and practical farmer, when 
he looks abroad over the face of an extended 
and diversified country, cannot fail to be im- 
pressed with the fact, that within the last twenty 
years the relations of things have greatly 
changed; while the prices of our agricultural 
productions have remained stationary, (if they 
have not retrograded,) the price of labor has 
advanced from fifty to one hundred percent. 
This fact of itself must teach us that we must 
devise means by which our productions can be 
cheapened, or we must be driven from compe- 
tition with our more favored, more enterprising 
and more energetic neighbors. The wholesome 
balance which has hitherto existed between 
the price of labor and the worth of its produc- 
tions has been disturbed by causes which I 
shall not now attempt to explain: it is sufficient 
that we know the fact, in order to direct us to 
a remedy. The equilibrium must be restored, 
or we shall be crushed beneath the stroke of 
the vibrating beam. Let us call no longer on 
Hercules or the government, but put our shoul- 
ders to the wheel. Modern discoveries — the 
arts and sciences have taught how two bushels 
of wheat may be made to grow where but one 
grew before; and we are all sufficiently en- 
lightened in arithmetic to know that two bush- 
els of wheat at fifty cents produce as much 
money as one bushel at a dollar. This is a 
solution of the enigma — this the panacea that 
will cure the malady. How to raise the great- 
est amount of crop wilh the least amount of 
labor becomes now the greatobject of enquiry. 
This can be effected in two ways: by increasing 
the feriility of our lands, and thereby enlarging 
their capacity for production by the aid of a 
given amount of labor; and secondly by call- 
ing to aid those labor-saving improvements 
and appliances, (of which this age seems to 
be so abundatly prolific,) and thereby effecting 
wilh a given amount of force a double portion 
of labor. This state of things is common to 



every branch of human industry, in every na- 
tion, and under every condition of labor, with- 
out regard to political or social organization. 
We have seen the price of manufactured 
goods reduced from one hundred to five hun- 
dred per cent, while the artisan employed in 
their production has been demanding and re- 
ceiving higher wages with each succeeding 
year. How is this seeming paradox to be 
accounted for? It has been effected simply 
by the improvement in machinery; by enabling 
one man to accomplish what it used to take 
ten, fifteen or twenty to perform. Now, how 
is a like state of things to be arrived at in our 
profession'? Simply by using the like means 
to attain them. Look to the other industrial 
pursuits of life (for they seem to be "wiser in 
their generation than we,") and imitate their 
examples. Form associations, clubs or socie- 
ties for the promotion and accomplishment of 
your object. Break up from the seclusion of 
solitude, bring mind in contact with mind, and 
we shall presently witness those happy results 
which have accrued to other branches of labor 
from united action. An English calico weaver, 
who has been driving a successful trade in that 
article, suddenly finds himself underbid and 
supplanted in the market by a French dealer, 
and what does he do 1 ? Does he continue to 
struggle on as he was in this unprofitable com- 
petition until ruin and bankruptcy overwhelm 
him"? Or does he institute a careful supervi- 
sion of his labor and machinery, find out the 
defects and apply the remedy"? Aye, he does 
more; if his neighbor has found out some im- 
provement to which he is a stranger, an intel- 
ligent mechanic flies on the wings of steam 
to copy and adopt it. Modern improvements 
have produced cheap and speedy transporta- 
tion, and our marts of commerce will be flooded 
with the productions of distant and fettile re- 
gions. They have new and fertile lands to ex- 
haust; we worn-nut and exhausted fields to re- 
claim. Under this state of things what shall 
we do? Shall we abandon the homes of our 
childhood, the graves of our forefathers, and 
the proud laurels which Virginia has nobly 
won, in arts, arms and in government? Or 
shall we relinquish old habits and old pre- 
judices, (acknowledging no inferiority,) and 
resolve to maintain a fearless competition with 
all the world ? This we can do, and must do. 
Let every friend of agriculture lay his shoulder 
to the wheel and let us all make a long and 
a strong pull, and a pull altogether. Grains 
form the mountain and drops form the ocean. 
Let us divide out our labors and go to work. 
Let each member of our club tax himself with 
at least one experiment, and communicate the 
results accurately to the society. In further- 
ance of these views, I would suggest to the 
cl.ub the propriety of some experiments calcu- 
lated to cheapen the production of tobacco 
plants. Our present mode of raisins tobacco 
plants is laborious and expensive, and by the 
aid of guano, I have no doubt, would be greatly 
cheapened. I think on virgin lands that burn- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



173 



ing might be dispensed with, and thereby a 
great saving of fuel and labor be accomplished 

In all tobacco intended to be worked up in 
our markets, the labor of assorting it on our 
farms might be probably dispensed with, and 
could be much better done at the factory where 
they keep hands for that especial purpose and 
who understand its classification much better 
than we do. 

Boxes for prizing would be much cheaper 
and better than hogsheads. They would re- 
quire less timber, would keep the tobacco 
straighter, and less mechanical skill in their 
construction. Probably some method of bal- 
ing might be cheaper and more portable than 
either. 

Some experiments calculated to test the 
propriety of priming or not priming. 

Some experiments calculated to test the re- 
lative merits of the different varieties of to- 
bacco adapted to our soils and culture. 

The success of experiments calculated to 
test the value of guano as a fertilizer for to- 
bacco, has been various and contradictory. 
I would suggest that experiments be carefully 
and accurately made with regard to the pro- 
priety or impropriety of its use in the produc- 
tion of that crop. 

The brute force employed on our farms is 
an expensive but powerful auxiliary in the 
performance of farm labor. Some experiments 
calculated to test the relative merits of the 
horse, the mule and the ox could not fail to 
elicit valuable information. 

The wheel carriages on our farms are ill 
adapted to many of the uses to which they are 
applied, and subject us to great loss of time 
and labor, particularly in the transportation of 
bulky articles. 1 think for many of our pur- 
poses the height of the wheel might be dimin- 
ished and the length of the axle increased. 
A great advantage might be thus gained in 
the increased load, and a great diminution in 
the amount of labor necessary to make the 
load. 

The subjects of fuel and fences demand a 
searching inquiry. Thev absorb a large por- 
tion of our labor and inflict upon us a great 
deal of wear and tear of body and mind. 
Tight houses and stoves, I should think, would 
be the remedy for the one; the fence law for 
the other. 

Some experiments calculated to find out the 
cheapest and speediest method of curing sailed 
lands would be highly profitable and interest- 
ing to the community. A very large portion 
of our lands, which were originally best, re- 
quire to be reclaimed from that condition be- 
fore they can be brought under cultivation. 

The advantages ot deep ploughing have 
never, as I have known, been subjected to ac- 
curate experiment. This is loo important a 
subject to be left to conjecture, and should no 
longer be left to battle with old prejudices and 
errors. These have in all countries too suc- 
cessfully choaked the growth of improvement 

The rotation of our crops and fields ought 



to come under careful revision. The practi- 
cability of now getting concentrated manures 
and the facility of their application, seem to 
demand it. Our lands must no longer be left 
to the recuperative powers of nature, which 
acts slowly, much too slowly for this age of 
steam, and thereby subjecting us to a greatly 
increased amount of labor to bring them into 
suitable tilth for the production of crops. 

After the reading of the report, on motion 
of Mr. P. St. George Cocke, it was resolved, 
unanimously, that Mr. H. be requested to fur- 
nish the secretary with a copv of the same for 
publication in the Southern Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 
RAINY-DAY THOUGHTS. 

Mr. Editor, — The necessity of a thorough 
improvement in the agricultural condition of 
Eastern Virginia is admitted by all. Our 
lands, originally rich, have been so greatly 
impoverished that they hardly repay the cost 
of ordinary cultivation; and we must either 
abandon them for more fertile region^, or adopt 
improved methods of cultivation and manage- 
ment. The latter will be preferred by every 
true Virginian; and it is fortunate for all such 
that a few men, of greater sagacity and energy 
than the mass, have established the fact that 
our exhausted fields may be made productive 
by the judicious use of means within the reach 
of all. Among these, besides the manures 
that can be made on every farm, are guano, 
plaster, lime and clover, -thorough draining 
and deep ploughing. It is true that many are 
unable to procure lime at prices that would 
warrant its free use; and it may be true that 
without lime many portions of old Virginia 
cannot be permanently improved; but the 
facilities for transporlion are increasing, and 
this difficulty will probably be diminished. In 
the meantime, it is certain that we can employ 
the other agents enumerated, with confidence, 
and that they will quickly repay their cost and 
leave a surplus of profit to be expended in 
lime for more permanent improvement. 

My object, however, is to notice some other 
means for the renovation of ourfallen fortunes, 
not so frequently mentioned as the above, but 
hardly less important. It is beyond doubt that 
one prolific source of the evils to be remedied is 
the practice of entrusting our lands to the care 
of hired agents unfit for the task. Many of 
them are both ignorant and dishonest. 1 do 
not use the latter epithet in its restricted sense, 
as a synonym with thievish, but in its more 
enlarged signification, as implying the oppo- 
site of that virtue which prompts its possessor 
to do to all others as he would have them do 
to him; which prompts an agent, not merely 
to refrain from doing a positive injury to his 
employer, but also to promote his employer's 
interest to the utmost of his ability. Ii' the 



174 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ageni fail to exert all his skill and energy, or 
if he waste his time in gadding about, he is 
surely not acting as an honest man: for he is 
paid to promote the interest of the principal, 
and to devote to it all his time. Certainly this 
is his simple duly; and it is readily conceded 
that some overseers have a disposition to do it. 
But the many do not come under this excep- 
tion; and some who do, have zeal without 
knowledge. Now, if the owner would cast 
away all false pride and selfish indolence, and 
apply himself to the knowledge of his interest, 
and the management of his business, such 
agents might be dispensed with: and who can 
doubt that the change would be productive of 
vast benefit! Here and there is a planter or 
farmer, who by necessity, is obliged to rely 
upon an overseer: let him employ one; but 
let him select a man qualified for his business, 
and pay him such wages as an efficient and 
faithful manager merits. Other landholders 
are able to give a partial supervision to their 
estates, and such might employ lads, (if in this 
age of steam, progress and emancipation, any 
of that class of mankind are extant) and di- 
rect them in all things. But whenever practi- 
cable, the owner should manage his estate 
without the intervention of a stranger between 
the master and the slave. 

Another means is suggested by the fact that 
the farmers of Eastern Virginia buy, annually, 
large supplies of beef, butter, hogs and horses 
from the West. If we would raise, every 
man his own supply of these, the gain would 
be great. We would consume upon the land 
more of its products, and would be enabled to 



strength of union. The old fable of the bundle 
of slicks must be acted out by the landholders 
of Easiern Virginia, ere our hearts shall be 
gladdened, by seeing the promise of the sup- 
pliant candidate redeemed by the independent 
representative. But more than this is to be 
effected by organized associations. The ef- 
fects already faintly shadowed forth, would 
soon mount up to a crowniDg triumph: agri- 
culture would be placed, where it ought to be, 
in the public esteem. She would take her 
merited rank in front of the secular avocations, 
and her professors, as truly "professional men," 
as lawyers and doctors who affect to look 
down upon them, would wield then the power 
to which their numbers entitle them now. 
The respectability of agriculture would be re- 
cognized, and the talent and intelligence of 
the young, would no longer seek other paths 
to distinction: for agriculture would be a 
POWER in the State, controlling all other 
powers. 

Yet, another means, potent for the regene- 
ration of Virginia agriculture, must be men- 
tioned: it is the liberal and hearty support of 
a journal, ably conducted by a Virginia agri- 
culturist, and devoted to our interest. You 
must pardon me, Mr. Editor, if I make you 
the trumpeter of your own praise: it is not tor 
Ccesar, but for Rome. The Planter is the 
journal intended. During its brief existence 
it has doubtless repaid its patrons ten fold; and 
some who sneer at it would be surprised, if 
they would look into the matter, to find that it 
had given them good for their evil! Some 
judicious suggestion they have had, or some 



return to the soil what we now sell for money importantexperiment they have gotknowledge 



to pay the western grazier. No surer mode of 
impoverishing laud can be invented than the 
practice of exporting beyond its limits every- 
thing it produces. Such is not nature's method : 
the vegetation of this year's growth derives 
support from the decay of the last year's crop, 
and the forest sheds its harvest of leaves to 
repay the earth for its bounty, and to provide 
new stores of food for the coming spring. 

Another means of promise is the association 
of agriculturists in county societies, subordi- 
nate to a State society, for the purpose of cre- 
ating an agricultural interest in the State, simi- 
lar to the great manufacturing interest of the 
North: an interest to be felt in popular elec- 
tions and in the halls of our General Assem- 
bly. We want many things which we are not 
likely to get without such an interest. We 
want an agricultural chemist, and a board or 
bureau of agriculture. We want inspectois 
of guano, plaster and other mineral manures, 
who can ascertain their true value. We want 
the means of inducing the application of sci- 
ence and industry and skill to the invention of 
machines, and the discovery of better prac- 
tices in agriculture. We want relief from 
what the demagogue terms the poor man's 
law, (the fence la w ;) and we want a universal 
relief from demagogues in general. We shall 
not have these wants supplied till we learn the 



of, from a subscriber to the Planter, has had 
its origin in the "book" they ridicule. 

But the disposition to sneer is passing away, 
for it is becoming manifest to all that book 
farmers are the best farmers. An intelligent 
traveller said to me, as we rode by a dilapi- 
dated church in a county not famous for good 
morals, that he always estimated the character 
of a community by the condition of its houses 
for worship; he was sure of finding a moral 
and orderly population around well built and 
well preserved meeting-houses, and the reverse. 
It is a safe rule; but not safer than it is to es- 
timate the character and condition of an agri- 
cultural community by the degree of support 
they give to agricultural journals; and if the 
Planter fail for want of subscribers, I, for one, 
shall despair of Virginia, at least, for one ge- 
neration. To become successful farmers we 
must be enlightened farmers. 
Respectfully, 



T. T. T. 



March 31st, 1852. 



Reducing Bones for Manure. — The Ame- 
rican Farmer gives the following method of 
reducing crushed bones without sulphuric acid. 
Mix two bushels of ashes and one of salt, with 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



175 



each bushel of crushed bones; moisten the 
bones, and leave the whole in pie four or five 
weeks before using the mixture, shovelling it 
over two or three times during that period. 
' This is certainly a very economical method of 
dissolving bones. 



From th* Farmer and Planter. 
BROOMSEDGE. 

Messrs. Editors,— In your last issue I 
noticed a call for information in regard to 
the management of sedge land. The im- 
provement or reclamation of this land has 
received a good portion of my time and 
attention for some three or four years. In 
this portion of Virginia, where the lands 
are poor, we find them covered with broom- 
sedge or poverty grass, and running briers. 
When covered with the former, we consi- 
der them readily improved, of the latter 
always a hard case to manage. My system 
of reclaiming worn-out lands covered with 
sedge is as follows: The land is checked 
off for marling in the fall ; the marl is then 
hauled to the land and a heap of five bush- 
els deposited in each square — giving to 
each acre, if well set in sedge, from three 
hundred to four hundred bushels of marl. 
The land is then ploughed up by a good 
two-horse plough, to the depth (not regard- 
' ing the poverty of the soil,) of seven or 
eight inches, taking care to lift the plough 
around the heops of marl. As soon as the 
land is fallowed, the marl is regularly 
spread over the surface, permitted to re- 
main in this situation until March, when 
(if I have time) it is well harrowed — it is 
then laid off and planted in corn. My ob- 
ject in applying marl in this way is to keep 
it near the surface, that it may be subject 
to the influence of the atmosphere, frosts, 
&c. I have never had it to fail to act well 
on the first crop when thus applied. To 
carry out this improvement, I reserve all 
the peas I can spare and seed them among 
the corn the last working. These are 
turned in, in September or October, and 
the land seeded down in wheat and clover, 
if I can seed by the 10th of October, if 
not, the clover seed are sown in February 
following. Now permit the land to have 
two years' rest, and my word for it (stiff or 
light soil,) you will find at the end of two 
years your field not only improved, hut in 
fine heart, capable of producing remune- 
rating crops of corn, wheat, &c. In regard 
to the clover, keep all stock from it for the 



first year, and the second year you will be 
able to cut a fine crop of hay from every 
acre, especially if the soil is stiff— on light 
soils it is more difficult to secure a stand of 
clover, yet, as a means of securing a stand 
of clover on light soils, seed in September, 
and apply one bushel of plaster per acre 
in February or March. The clover will 
not only be benefited thereby, but it will 
add materially to the yield of the wheat 
crop. I differ with you, Messrs. Editors, 
in regard to "burning off the sedge on 
light soils." I would thank no man to 
carry fire into a sedge field of mine, let the 
land be ever so light, that is, if I intended 
to carry out the system of improvement 
here detailed. I do not know how it would 
answer under any other circumstances. — 
But the question naturally arises before the 
inquiring mind: What would be the cost 
of this improvement? Suppose the land, 
now poor, to be worth two dollars per acre. 
Cost of marling (one mile carriage) six 
dollars per acre; clover seed, one gallon 
per acre, seventy-five cents; one bushel of 
plaster, fifty-five cents; two years' rent of 
land, when at rest, four dollars — the rent 
is put down at the probable rent before im- 
provement — total cost, eleven dollars and 
thirty cents. Suppose the land before the 
application of marl would yield eight 
bushels of corn at sixty cents, four dollars 
and eighty cenls — after the application, 
only ten bushels the first year, six dollars; 
yield of wheat before the application of 
marl and return of pea fallow, five bush- 
els, five dollars; after the application, &c. 
eight bushels, eight dollars. The cost of 
improvement, eleven dollars and thirty 
cents; increase of crops, worth four dol- 
lars and twenty cents; actual cost of im- 
provement seven dollars and ten cents. — 
Value of land after improvement ten dol- 
lars. The cost of peas and worth of peas 
and worth of clover crop, I neglected to 
take into the above account, which your 
readers can figure out at their leisure. 

The above is no imaginary case — the 
writer can show lands that before the im- 
provement generally gave the above yield 
of corn (never being wise enovgh to risk 
the wheat crop on such lands) that now 
give a return of thirty to thirty-five bushels 
of corn and ten to fifteen bushels of wheat — 
the lands are still improving. Wherever 
I have carried out the above system on 
moderately stiff soils I have never failed 
of being amply remunerated and gratified, 
by seeing such lands rapily coming to a 
state of fertility. 



176 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



If the above will benefit you or your 
readers, my object will be accomplished. 

The present. — I am now engaged in ap- 
plying litter and mould gathered from the 
forest with hilling hoes, (from lands which 
I never expect to bring into cultivation.) 
to my corn shift for this year. This is 
evenly spread, and turned in by a large 
two-horse plough running from seven to 
eight inches deep, followed by a subsoil 
plough, drawn by two stout horses, running 
from ten to twelve inches deep — average 
depth of stirred land from sixteen to twenty 
inches. It is my intention to treat my en- 
tire corn shift in this way; to accomplish 
which it will take from twelve to fifteen 
days — the land is poor and light, fine clay 
subsoil, about six or seven inches below 
the surface. It is my purpose to apply 
lime to the surface this spring and next fall ; 
sow peas last working of the corn — seed 
down in wheat and clover in September 
and October, applying at the same time 
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
pounds of <iuano per acre. I have told 
enough, so I will bid you adieu. 
Your obedient servant, 

Thos. E. Blount. 
Burleigh, Sussex Co. Va. Feb. 1851.' 



FLAX AND COTTON. 

Governor Farwell, of Wisconsin, has 
written a lucid and forcible letter to the 
State Agricultural Society, urging the 
propriety of a far more extensive cultiva- 
tion of flax in that State. Wheat has 
proved a very uncertain crop there, and 
some other staple must be extensively sub- 
stituted. Governor Farvvcll shows clearly 
that the climate and soil of Wisconsin are 
admirably adapted to the growth of flax; 
that twenty-five dollars per acre would not 
be a large average yield, while forty dol- 
lars per acre may be obtained; and that 
the importation and sale of ten thousand 
bushels of seed at a cost of fifteen thousand 
dollars, would secure a crop worth at least 
two hundred and fifty thousand dolkus for 
the present year, and not less than two 
million dollars the next year. 

Mr. John Galbraith, who has grown flax 
tn Waukesha county, in each of the four last 
years, has had three good crops and one 
middling one. [During those four years, 
we believe there have been two or three 
signal failures of the wheat crop.] An 
efficient braking machine is now in opera- 



tion at Beliot, where flax straw is regularly 
purchased by the ton, rotted, dressed, and 
sent eastward to market. And if the Go- 
vernor's recommendation is seconded, there \ 
will soon be similar establishments in 
nearly every county, with oil mills, where 
seed may likewise be sold for cash. 

The flax culture fn this country will be 
considerably extended this season.. Hon. 
H. L. Ellsworth, formerly United States 
Commissioner of Patents, will sow five hun- 
dred acres (his season. As seed will doubt- 
less be dear for a year or so, it is computed 
that thirty dollars per acre may be obtained 
from good land well cultivated in the East- 
ern States. The labor is hardly equal to 
that required to secure an average yield 
of Indian corn. Twenty bushels of seed 
have often been grown on an acre, and 
this alone will probably be worth twenty- 
five dollars; while the straw will range 
from five dollars to ten dollars per ton, as 
it shall be further from or nearer to brak- 
ing machinery. Twenty bushels of seed 
and two tons of straw are considered a 
fair yield per acre in England. 

Four companies are now engaged in the 
manufacture of linen thread in this coun- 
try — at Cohoes, New York; Wilmantic, 
Connecticut; at Clinton, Massachusetts; 
and at Andover, Massachusetts. The Co- 
hoes thread was never excelled in Great 
Britain, nor anywhere else. (There are 
probably others; but these we know.) W 
And a company has just been formed to 
manufacture linen fabrics at Fall River, 
Massachusetts, with a capital of five hun- 
dred thousand dollars. There ought to 
be thirty such companies organized and 
operating forthwith, and if the tariff of 1842 
were still in force, there would be. 

In England, the business goes on pros- 
perously. One land owner will sow two 
thousand acres of flax this year. Claus- 
sen's flax-cotton machinery is evidently 
saining favor. His works at Stepney, near 
London, are a focus of public interest. — 
There the cotlonizivg process (splitting 
the flax fibre by saturating it first in a so- 
lution of soda, and then one of sulphuric 
acid,) is completed in a few minutes, and 
at a trifling cost. It has previously been 
steeped, however, in a cold solution of 
caustic soda, for some twenty-four hours. 

In England, flax straw costs, as yet, 
some fifteen dollars to twenty dollars per 
ton, delivered, while it may be profitably 
grown in this country for five dollars. We 
trust its production will henceforth be ra- 
pidly extended. — New York Tribune. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



177 




THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, JUNE, 1852. 



TERMS. 

One Dollar and Twenty-five Cents per 
annum, which may be discharged by the pay- 
ment of One Dollar only, if paid in office or 
>ent free of postage within six months from 
he date of subscription. Six copies for Five 
Dollars; thirteen copies for Ten Dollars, 
to be paid invariably in advance. 

I^T Subscriptions may begin with any num- 
ber. 

jfNo paper will be discontinued, until all 
irrearases are paid, except at the option of 
he Publisher. 

O" Office on Twelfth, between Main and 
2ary Streets. 



fcCr Communications for the Southern Plan- ' 
^upon other l/ian business matters, may be ad- 
(Jessed to the Editor, Frank: G. Ruffin, Esq. 
t Shadteeli, Albemarle Co., Va., which will in- 
.ure their being more speedily attended to. 

C'siness letters will be directed as here- 
ofore to "The Southern Planter," Richmond, 
fa. 

!3f Postage prepaid in all cases. 



TIMELY WARNING. 

All subscribers who do not order a discon- 
inuance before the commencement of the new 
ear or volume, will be considered as desiring 

coniinuance of their papers, and charged 
ccordingly. 



POSTAGE ON THE PLANTER. 

The following are the rates of postage on 
le Planter, per (piarler, for the distances an- 
exed — to be paid quarterly in advance: 

Not over 50 miles, 1$ cents. 

Over 50 and not over 300 miles, 2icents. 

Over 300 and not over 1000 miles, 3.| cents. 

Ov»r 1000 arid not over 2000 miles, 5 cents. 

Over 2000 and not over 4000 miles, 6fc cents. 

Over 4000 miles, 7§ cents. 



HARVEST. 

The far-famed harvest is approaching, that 
annual crisis in the farmer's hopes and labors 
which determines, to a great extent, the profits 
of his yearly products. Though we expect 
but a small return from our own investment 
this year, owing to the destruction by the joint- 
worm, we hope that many of our subscribers 
may reap an abundant harvest, and we shall 
give them some few hints about its manage- 
ment. 

The first and most important thing to look 
at is the condition of the cradles, to see that 
they are properly constructed. They should 
be made of light and seasoned, but sound and 
strong materials. A great improvement on 
the old mode of making them, though one but 
little known, is the substitution of wire braces 
to the fingers for the wooden ones in general 
use. These are to be made of wire about the 
size of a large goose quill, with a screw thread 
cut on each end: one end screws into the finger 
and the other passes through the post with a 
tap on each side of it. The fingers of a cradle 
require to be let out or taken up, according to 
circumstances. When the wheat is wet from 
dew or a slight shower, they must be drawn 
in, and let out as the grain dries. Now this 
necessity of drawing them up occurs the very 
moment when the wooden braces have become 
wet, swollen and unmanageable. But the 
screws are worked equally well at all times. 
Besides hardly any two men cut with a cradle 
hung in the same way and with the fingers set 
out exactly in the same manner, and in this 
way of fixing them each man can in a very 
short time, and without trouble alter his cradle 
to suit himself. They are lighter also, and do 
not cut up and weaken the fingers by the large 
holes which the wooden braces require for 
their reception. And lastly, they are cheap 
and durable. 

We would urge that the operation be com- 
menced as early as the grain will bear it; and 
in deciding upon the proper time to begin the 
farmer should be governed rather by the con- 
dition of the grain than of the straw. Wheat 
will sometimes be in the dough state when 
the straw is partially green. Such wheat can- 
not gain by delay; while there is still sap in 
the straw it will cut so much more easily that 
fifty per cent, more may be saved in a day 



178 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Jhan when the straw becomes dry and hard, 
and when cut before it is ripe and the heads 
hang down there is much less loss from shat- 
tering. If a full force cannot be commanded 
to secure the crop in good time, it may be 
economy to lose a little in the beginning by 
shrinking rather than to risk the loss of more 
both by shattering and shrinking. Grain cut 
before perfect maturity, diminishes in the size 
of the berry but not in the weight per bushel. 
After the grain once becomes dry standing in 
the head, it softens with every night's dews, 
and lightens as it dries in the day, and the 
daily loss is quite serious in this way: and if 
drenched by heavy rains it will lose two or 
three pounds to the bushel. On the whole it 
should be an object to have the crop secured 
as soon as possible, and the farmer should not 
be too nice in calculating what he may save 
where he risks so much, not only from these 
causes but from the chance of storms. 

When the harvest commences some steady, 
good reaper should be selected to lead the 
gang, with orders to take a steady, moderate 
gait that will allow all the other cutters to 
keep up their rows, to lose no time, to wait 
for no one, and when he has cut out his row 
to walk back and commence another without 
delay. Each cutler should have his place as- ! 
signed him with a positive prohibition from 
crowding the man immediately in front of 
him. The best cradlers cut wider rows, the ; 
inferior cut narrower, and thus all keep to-! 
gether. 

Each cradler should be followed by a binder 
•who is to bind the wheat in good sized bundles, 
as large as can be tied with a single length of 
straw. When tied let him drop the bundle 
smartly on the butt end so that most of them 
will stand erect. This will ascertain if the 
bundle is well tied and insure detection if it 
is not. The binder must keep up. Some peo- 
ple do not bind their wheat, but we prefer the : 
plan decidedly; it is heaped and shocked 
much more easily and handled throughout with 
less loss. The binder should be followed by 
heapers, and they by shockers to put the wheat 
in "dozens" or shocks according to the con- 1 
dition of the grain, care being taken if it is 
"dozened" to put as many of them logether 
as will afterwards make a good sized shock 
containing from two and a half to five bushels 
of wheat. 



Some recommend that a revolving horse- 
rake follow immediately after the heaping to 
glean the scatiered wheat. But we doubt the 
policy of this. It encourages careless cutting, 
and it rarely saves much wheat. What it 
does get is so tangled that it can hardly ever 
be put up so as to be sheltered from rains, and 
as the rake generally comes after the shocks 
or dozens it is frequently left on the ground, 
where it is almost sure (o be caught in rain, 
and even if saved is so full of gravel, small 
stones and diit as to injure the sample, and 
sometimes the wheat machine. When the 
hogs can be got into the field speedily they 
make the best gleaners, and when they cannot, 
and considerable waste is unavoidable, as it 
sometimes is, a raker had better follow after 
each pair of binders. 

By propetly proportioning the work and by 
selecting a good leader each hand is tasked 
throughout the day, every falling back is in- 
stantly observed, and the operations are sim- 
plified because they are systematized. 

How many acr^s per day should be cut to 
the hand depends so much on the state of the 
wheat as to ripeness, its standing up, &c. and 
on the weather, thai it is impossible to say ac- 
curately. We know a case where a gang of 
nine cradlers,not selected but belonging solelf 
to one estate, averaged five hundred and tifte? 4 
bushels of wheat to the cradle in eleven days, 
cutting over three and a half acres per day, 
but this was an extraordinary feat. It was 
supposed that three of them cut two thousand 
bushels of the grain. As far as it is allowable 
to speak of anything so uncertain we may say 
that two and a half acres is a fair average. 

Care should be taken as to the diet. The 
meals should be regular, without too much, 
fresh meat or vegetables. Upon the disuse of 
ardent spirits we have substituted coffee twice 
a day. It is most refreshing to an exhausted 
man. Rice is the best vegetable, and to induce 
them to eat it, it should be cooked in various 
ways and with various condiments— (we must 
usually give it to them as a dessert.) Its 
somewhat constipating quality guards against 
diarrhosa. They should not have too much 
fresh meat or vegetables for the same reason 
that a horse at a period of unusual exertion; 
should not have grass or green corn. Supper, 
of bread and molasses, or something of thei 
sort, should be given in the field when they 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



179 



quit work. From dark to daylight at that 
tason is only eight hours, and a laborer re- 
stores the whole for sleep and should not be 
Inquired to seek his supper after he gets home. 
Frequently, as harvest is a season of excite- 
ment with them, negroes will sit up at their 
sports or their prayers nearly all night after a 
bard day's work, but this should on no account 
be permitted. They are on the next day nei- 
ther as fit for work nor as safe from atiacks of 
sickness. Time is gained by giving two hours' 
rest at dinner. Sixteen hours a day of such 
violent labor is too much for human muscles 
and sinews to endure for many days together. 
As a drink we would recommend the fol- 
lowing, though as we have not access to the 
recipe we are not sure that the proportions are 
:xactly right: Ten gallons water, one gallon 
nolasses, two quarts of vinegar, and one pound 
)f ginger. We prefer ice water as cold as it 
an be made. Many persons who have not 
fried it may think it will be death, but it is a 
tniitake. An overheated man cannot drink 
lis fill of ice water, and it is rather the quan- 
;ity taken into the stomach than the tempera- 
;ure that produces cramp. In Albemarle it 
lasbeen customary to use it for at least twenty 



fear 



they put forth all their strength for us, and is a 
time of some enjoyment with them, it is a pity 
to use harsh means if they do not absolutely 
require it. Good temper, conciliation, and a 
little management will usually effect more 
than harsher measures. 

If the farmer permits his overseer to ride, 
which nine times in ten he ought not to do, he 
should at all events dismount him in the har- 
vest field, and set him the example by dis- 
mounting himself. Both can superintend the 
wo r k much better on foot. 

We always give them a grand dinner at the 
end of harvest and invite the hirelings to the 
feast, also a day's holiday. It increases the 
spirit with which they work, and we have 
never found that we sustained any loss by it, 
even in the busiest and most backward lime. 



Iqp we have never had a negro cramped or 
nade sick in the harvest field from that or any 
Hher cause. 

But as sickness may come from some pre- 
iisposition to it, even where every precaution ! 
las been used, we advise that a sufficient num- 
Jer— a small box— of pills, made after the fol- ' 
owing recipe, be constantly carried in the 
jocket to be used when the first symptoms of 
:ramp or diarrhoea appear — one will generally 
tuffice if taken at that time and an additional 
jne, except in a very severe case, will hardly 
ver fail to produce relief. We know nothing 
)f them ourselves but they are recommended 
>y a friend in whom we have great confidence, 
Hid who assures us that, having commenced 
heir use from medical advice, he knows their 
ifficiency from experience: Pulverized opium 
18 grains, pulverized capsicum (red pepper) 
18 grains, gum camphor 12 grains, made into 
>.i pills. 

An appeal to their pride, and kindness, never 
Displaced on the slave when judiciously ma- : 
lifested, should be the main agents in getting) 
he work out of them. As it is a season when 



THE JOINT-WORM. 

This dreaded enemy of wheat has again 
made its appearance in Albemarle, in Nel- 
son also, as we hear, and we presume in all 
the other places that it infested last year. — 
We understand from the few farmers we have 
seen that it has already done them more harm 
than it did last year. Our own wheat we have 
just examined, and we would gladly compro- 
mise for half a crop from present appearances. 

As it may have made its appearance in 
some new places we would say for the infor- 
mation of those who have never seen it, that 
the wheat which may have been looking very 
well, all at once in the course of a few days 
begins to fall back, and presents a peculiar 
sedgy appearance. Occasionally one or two 
stalks will rise in a bunch above the rest as 
green and vigorous as if nothing had hap- 
pened, and will head much in advance of the 
rest, many of which will never head at all, or 
the head will be unable to escape from the 
boot. Many of the blades are mildewed, and 
sometimes splotches of a whitish mould will 
be seen upon them. A few stalks will be bent 
in the joint at angles of various degrees of 
inclination, and just where the bend occurs 
there will be a thickening of the Made, accom- 
panied with transverse wrinkles on its upper 
side. Wi:hin, the stalk will be shrivelled and 
moulded to the altered form of the blade. The 
nidus of the maggot which is deposited can 



180 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



be discerned in the shape of light colored 
ovoid elevations generally on the inside of 
the blade. The maggot itself, if it is hatched, 
cannot as yet be seen by the naked eye. 

We have had some correspondence on the 
subject with Dr. Harris of Cambridge, Mass. 
perhaps the best entomologist in the United 
States, and he is now examining several spe- 
cimens that we have sent hiin. 

In a letter written to us before he had seen 
these he tells us that he supposes it to be iden- 
tical with a similar fly which several years 
ago made its appearance in Massachusetts in 
the barley and caused the culture of that grain 
to be discontinued for a season. The differ- 
ence was that that insect penetrated the straw, 
and this the blade; but Dr. Harris supposes 
that to have been accidental. But we think 
it is not well settled yet that ours does confine 
itself to the blade. 

We are very well assured, from inspection 
of our wheat, to-day, (20th May,) that the 
stalk has been penetrated in numerous in- 
stances, though for want of a microscope we 
cannot be absolutely certain. We know, how- 
ever, that the stalk is affected, to all appear- 
ance, as the blade generally is. 

We presume the fact to be that at the time 
when the mischief is most plainly exhibited 
the stalk is too hard for the fly, which is at 
that time restricted to the blade, but that the 
sedgy wheat which never rises has had its 
stalk penetrated and the productiveness thereof 
destroyed when its tenderness was no obstacle 
to the ttibe of the fly. 



We are thoroughly convinced that he will do 
so far more faithfully than it will be done by; 
the majority of those who offer to do it at tit ' 
North. If we are not very much mistaken ht? 
has already by the analyses we published last 
month of some specimens of marl, thrown 
more light on that question than all the other 
analysts put together. We know that Mr. 
Edmund Ruffin, without pretending to decide 
absolutely upon their truth or precise value, 
has already begun to act upon the deductions 
they justify. We hope that every farmer who 
wishes his marl analyzed will send them 
without fail to Major Gilham. 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 

In the July number of the Southern Planter 
Major Gilham of the Military Institute at 
Lexington will commence a series of familiar 
essays on the very important subject of Agri- 
cultural Chemistry. From the study which 
Major Gilham has devoted to the subject we 
have reason to believe that he will treat it 
with ability, and invest it with sufficient in- 
terest to make it attractive. We bespeak for 
it, in advance, a careful and candid perusal 
In this connexion we would again call the at- 
tention, as we do without solicitation, of all 
of our friends who wish their soils analyzed, 
to the fitness of Major Gilham for the task. 



SOUTHDOWN SHEEP. 

It will be seen by reference to our adver- 
tising columns that Mr. Raleigh Colston of 
Albemarle, has for sale two rams of this cele- 
brated breed of sheep. They are very fine 
animals. We were so much pleased with 
them that we obtained one of their brothers for 
our own use. For ordinary lands, if not foi 
all, they are, in our judgment, preferable to 
the Cotswold, or New Oxfordshire, or Bake- 
well, getting their living on a more inferioi 
pasture, being hardier, vastly superior as m^'.; 
ton, and making the best lambs for the butcZVJ 
Their wool is also finer, though of course the 
fleece is not so heavy. 

Mr. Colston's sheep are no doubt quite as 
pure as many that a northern man would speak 
of as thoroughbred and ask fifty dollars apiece 
for. And it is quite a merit in our eyes thai 
they are bred in Virginia, by a Virginian, and 
are advertised in a Virginia paper, and en. 
dorsed by a Virginia editor. Why should we 
send to the North for anything which is to be 
had as low and of as good blood or quality 
right at home"? 

But nothing in the above is to be considered 
as disparaging to Aaron Clement of Philadel 
phia. If persons are determined to buy fronr. 
home, .(and many will be compelled to do so,' 
let them trust to him and they will not regret it 



MARYLAND STATE CATTLE SHOW 

The Maryland Agricultural Society have, 
fixed upon the last Tuesday and three following 
days of October for their Cattle Show in 1S52 






THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



181 



TO CONTRIBUTORS. 

kin a very kind notice which was recently 
taken of the Planter by "The Dispatch," the 
Editor says, truly, that we have endeavored 
to draw oat the abundant talent and ample 
experience of our own farmers without re- 
sorting to the essays of Northern farmers who 
do not understand our wants. That has really 
been our design, and until lately we have been 
tolerably successful in it; but our friends are 
beginning to forget us. Let us beg them to 
aid in supporting the stand they have already 
enabled the Planter to take. It is a matter in 
which their character is as much concerned 
as ours. 



CLOVER. 



"We would not be understood as fully en- 
iorsing the following views contained iu an 
agricultural address of Mr. Gowan of Mount 
Airy, near Philadelphia. But we present them 
as the doctrines of a farmer who has fairly 
;arned a title to respectful consideration on 
any subject of practical agriculture. But his 
lotion of the unimportance of turning under 
?S>en clover simply because it is green, was 
;he notion of John Taylor of Caroline: 

"While treating of plaster, clover, from 
association, naturally presents itself; and 
as time will not permit to enter upon crop- 
ping and culture. I feel inclined to make a 
passing remark upon it here. There is a 
prevailing opinion that clover is favorable 
to the land as a non-exhauster, if not an 
;nricher of the soil. If it derive this cha- 
racter from the idea that it draws more 
louri.-hment from the air than the soil, I 
»eg leave to dissent. I am not much of a 
jeliever in the doctrine of atmospheric nu- 
:rirnent, and yet I am not prepared to re- 
ect it in toto. A close observation will 
jstablish. I think, that it is owing to the 
ihade the clover imparts to the land that 
t exhausts so little of the soil. Buckwheat 
urnishes another instance, with this dirfer- 
ince, that the supply required to fill the 
lead or mature the grain in the buckwheat, 
s greater than what is needed to form the 
lowers of the clover. Shade is a wonder- 
ol conservator of soil; and this suggests 
low careful we should be to expose our | 



land as little as possible, in a bare or naked 
state, to the severity of our summer suns 
and winter frosts. But to shade may be 
reckoned the loss sustained in the clover, 
end consequent gain to the land, from so 
much of it being left on the field at hay- 
making, especially when thecloveris grown 
with timothy, a practice that cannot be too 
strongly condemned. The top-dressing 
thus given involuntarily to the land, from 
the best and strongest parts of the clover — 
the fine leavesand flowers strewn around — 
contributes in no small degree to the good 
condition claimed for the soil after crops 
of clover; add to this, the quantity of clover 
roots spewed out upon the land through 
freezing and thawing, left to rot upon it, 
and you have almost the sum total of the 
causes which lead to the hypothesis that 
clover is a non-exhauster, or improver of 
the soil. If this be the case, is it not pro- 
per we should look closer into cause and 
effect, and not blindly follow illusive prac- 
tices, so subversive of our own prosperity? 
I must not be understood as condemning 
the practice of growing clover: I condemn 
it not, but insist ihat every crop grown 
should be well husbanded, and put to its 
proper use, and not wasted on the field 
where it is grown. And here it may not 
he out of place to explain why clover and 
timothy should not be grown together. — 
One ruling objection is, they do not ripen 
at the same time. If the clover be cut 
when ready for mowing, the timothy cut 
with it is of little account, not having at- 
tained its growth; it shrivels astonishingly 
in the sun while drying; what is of it is 
acid, disagreeable in taste, and unwhole- 
some, from not having matured or elabo- 
rated its sap. If, on the other hand, the 
timothy is left to ripen, the clover then is 
almost a total loss, nothing of it reaches 
the barn fit for cattle, or even fit to supply 
the place of straw. Independently of this, 
if a fine sod is desirable, as it undoubtedly 
should be, it never can be found with timo- 
thy and clover. Why? Because, from 
the start at growing till the end of their 
respective terms, they are in habit, taste, 
and condition uncongenial, and, therefore, 
inappropriatelyput together. While grow- 
ing together the first season, the bushy 
head of the cloverpusb.es aside or smothers 
the tiny blades of the young timothy; next 
spring, much of the clover has been forced 
from the ground by the frosts of winter, 
leaving the stems and roots of the timothy 
sadly exposed to the freezing and thawing 
of March, with its occasional chilling 



1S2 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



winds; and hence the impossibility to find 
a continuous, compact sod, on any field 
thus cropped. And who takes the pains 
to calculate the loss on spaces left bare 
where the clover stood, or reflects on the 
impropriety of wasting land and labor? 
When timothy is required, it should be 
sown alone, and permitted to mature suita- 
bly for hay. Orchard grass and clover 
may be sown together, because they ripen 
at the same time, and delight in the same 
soil; but where a good, well-set sod is 
wanted, to last for several years, no red 
clover should be sown with the timothy or 
orchard grass. The clover should be kept 
by itself, and confined to fields or patches 
intended soon to be broken up. 

"There is another remark, however it 
may conflict with preconceived opinion or 
established usage, a sense of duty compels 
me to make; and that is, of all the time- 
wasting, land-cheating practices, none is 
more to be deprecated than that of turning 
in green crops, as a succedaneum for ma- 
nure. In whatever place this is practised, 
however strong the land may be at the 
start, the system, if persevered in, must 
inevitably bring the land, its owners and 
the country into a slate of poverty. No 
good husbandman would think of pursuing 
such a course. Think of the time lost in 
preparing ground for a crop, seeding it, 
and instead of allowing it to mature, to be 
gathered to the barn, ploughing it under, 
to serve as manure to the land on which 
it was raised! Manure, indeed! To call 
the acidulated water, which the decom- 
position of partly grown clover, buck wheat, 
&c, produces, manure, would be a misno- 
mer — the calling of a thing by the wrong 
name. Where a winter crop in the spring 
shows nnmistakeable signs of proving a 
failure, a clever farmer should, and would 
plough it in, and substitute a summer crop 
in its stead, so as to provide against loss 
of time producing, and to get what he 
could for the manure he had bestowed upon 
the winter crop the previous fall. It is in- 
tolerable, the cant of want of vegetable 
matter in (he soil, as excuse for turning in 
green crops. No soil that is well supplied 
with barn-yard manure, and laid down to 
grass occasionally through a judicious ro- 
tation, can be destitute of vegetable matter. 
If the turning in, year after year, scant 
crops of clover and the like, be persisted 
in, the land so treated must, in a brief pe- 
riod become not only destitute of vegeta- 
ble mould, but of every other organic in- 
gredient necessary to fertility." 



ERRATUM. 

A mistake occurred in the last number in. 
ascribing an article sent us by a gentleman 
from King George, on the Culture of Corn, to 
the Prince George Hole and Corner Club. — 
The introduction to that article was mislaid, 
and the Prince George article was the one 
written by Mr. Russel. 



Our subscriber of Western Branch, whose 
paper goes to Portsmouth, failed to subscribe 
his name to his letter of May 11th, inclosing 
one dollar for subscription to this paper for 
the year 1852. He will please send it that 
we may give him credit. 



DE BOW'S REVIEW. 

The June number of this valuable periodical 
has been received. We have not yet had an 
opportunity to read it. When we have done 
so, we will speak of its merits. 



From the Rural New Yorker. 
HAWK CATCHING. 

A singular but effectual method for de- 
stroying hawks, that greatest terror to all 
poultry yards, has recently been commu- 
nicated to me. My informant says he took - 
no less than seven the first day. They had 
previously been so frightened with powder 
and ball, that he could no longer reach 
them with his rifle. The world will not be 
much the wiser, or fowls generally more 
safe, on account of his discovery, unless it 
be published; and, should you deem it' 
worth publishing, you may give it to your 
readers. 

It is simply to erect, in an open field near 
by, a post a few inches in diameter made 
square at the top, and say five or six feet 
above the ground. Place on this, a smart 
steel trap, fastened with a short chain. 
The intruder will be sure to take his stand 
there, it being a capital spot to make hi3 
observations; he sets foot on treacherous 
ground, is easily captured, and should be 
removed soon so as not to alarm others. 



Lansing; Michigan, 1851. 



J. M. C. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



183 



I 



From the Southern Cultivator. 
MURRAIN IN CATTLE. 



I Mr. Editor, — Distemper in cattle seems 
. :o be caused in this section by undue ex- 
: josure to the hot sun. A bare pasture, 
' vith but little shade, is therefore unfavora- 
jle. The cattle are thus compelled to feed 
n the heat of the day ; and this evil is some- 
imes increased by their passing through 
i long lane to the cow-pen before sunset, 
ind reluming after sunrise in the morning. 
It is found that when an animal is first 
ittacked. he separates himself from the 
lerd, seeks some retited spot, hangs his 
lead, and ceases to ruminate. If he can 
)e discovered within four or five hours after 
his symptom appears, the disease maybe 
irrested by drenching with a decoction of 
joke root. The urine is now reddish; a 
Tew hours later it is bloody, and at this 
;tage of the disease no cure is known. 
He expires in less than twenty-four hours. 
When cattle are furnished with an un- 
imited supply of clean, strong ashes and 
fait, they usually escape. Of this mixture, 
say one of salt to twenty of ashes, 1 have 
known my cattle require a pint a day on 
in average, to each animal for weeks in 
succession. Air slaked lime and salt have 
itso been used as a preventive; and a dis- 
Vfuished agriculturist in this State con- 
fers this as infallible. By mixing a little 
meal with it it is made more palatable. 

The disease usually breaks out here in 
June, where precautionary measures have 
been imperfectly attended to, and no sub- 
sequent care or attention will arrest it. I 
ve lost several by it the present year. 
Unless the ashes are clean, cattle will not 
tburh them; and the owner may be de- 
ceived in supposing they have a plentiful 
supply, when, in fact, they are suffering. 

The plan pursued in preparing the 
drench, is to put a double handful of the 
poke root in a half gallon of water, and 
boil down to a quart. Give it milk-warm, 
and repeat the dose in eight or ten hours. 

J. A. 
Near Bealtvford, N. C. Oct. 1851. 

Mr. Editor. — In your August number I 
see an article over ihe signature of G. W. 
L. requesting that some of your readers 
would furnish a recipe for the cure of the 
murrain. I would recommend him to 
drench the animal with a strong decoction 
of peach-tree leaves, produced by boiling; 
use say from one quart to one gallon. I 



have myself tried it and have known it 
tried with great success. 

Before discovering the above remedy I 
resorted to the treatment of the veterinary 
physicians of England without success; 
which is depletion by blood-letting, and 
purgatives, and changing the cattle to 
poorer pasturage. What is called the mur- 
rain in the portion of the South with which 
I am acquainted, differs widely from what 
is called the murrain in Europe. It is there 
considered entirely inflammatory; in the 
South it is inflammatory to some extent, 
but not so much so as in Europe, conse- 
quently requires a different treatment. 

James Davis. 
Evergreen Hill, Polk Co. Texas, Sept. 6. 

Mr. Editor, — In the August number of 
the Cultivator I offered an inquiry in re- 
j ference to the treatment of Murrain in 
Cattle. In the September number you 
have expressed a desire that I will favor 
you with a full description of the symptoms 
of this disease which has proved so fatal 
\ to the cattle in a large district of Madison 
county. I will here remark, that I have 
had some experience and made some ob- 
servations with my own stock, and those 
j of my neighbors since the year 1S45, for I 
j have escaped its ravages one year only 
j since that time up to the present. The 
cause that produces the disease is so ob- 
( scure that I believe no one, at least in my 
knowledge, has, as yet, been able to detect 
it; it remains a mystery hidden in the ar- 
j cana of nature, to be discovered only by 
patient research and philosophical induc- 
j tion. It is possible that chemistry, assisted 
j bv physiojogy, may yet reveal the mystery. 
Almost every farmer who has observed 
this disease has some favorite theory, and 
unfortunately for the advancement of truth, 
scarcely any two of us will agree. Among 
the popular causes assigned for this dis- 
ease, I will mention a few: the extensive 
broomsedge fields unenclosed, that in a 
great measure supply our cattle with pas- 
turage during the spring and summer 
months. Others attribute it to the im- 
mense number of ticks that adhere to our 
cattle, while others say it. is for want of 
salt; these, with a thousand other causes, 
are assigned, which are too frivolous to 
mention. 

I am salisfied that the causes assigned 
above, together with all others I have heard 
ascribed, are unfounded, destitule of any 
foundation in truth. They are mere opi- 



184 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



nions hastily formed, and are as often, as 
they deserve to be, nastily discarded. It 
has been among my cattle since 1S45, as I 
before remarked, every year except 1848, 
and during that year I pastured my cattle 
on broomsedge alone, and they were never 
healthier; they were fat all the season and 
as fine beef as our market affords. Now 
if the pasturing on broomsedge will pro- 
duce murrain, why were my cattle free 
from it when they grazed on broomsedge 
and that alone? During that season one 
of my neighbors in sight lost thirty-two 
head; they grazed as my stock did, and 
drank the same kind of water, (limestone.) 
To attribute it to the ticks is equally un- 
founded, if not ridiculous, for I have had 
my cattle to die of it that never had a tick 
on them. It cannot be regarded as conta- 
gious, for I have known the cattle of one 
man to pass directly among those of an- 
other which had it, and graze round Ihe 
dead carcasses of those which have died 
of it, and yet escape its ravages. There 
are two kinds of murrain — the bloody and 
dry; the bloody is generally most fatal — 
the symptoms are not materially different. 
Symptoms. — The eyes are weak and lan- 
guid, the horns are cold generally and 
hollow, excessively prostrated, and in at- 
tempting to walk they stagger as though 
they were under the influence of buck-eye 
or ivey. The whole nervous system ap- 
pears to be prostrated and the faculties of 
the secretory organs suspended. A cow 
may milk well in the morning, and if at- 
tacked during the day no milk will be found 
secreted in the udder at night. In a few 
hours after the attack, the ears hang as 
though the animal had neither the energy 
nor ability to elevate them. They are not 
disposed to eat or drink. On a post-mor- 
tem.examination, the brain is disorganized, 
altered in appearance and color; the kid- 
neys in a high state of inflammation; the 
bladder filled with urine of a bloody hue ; 
the stomach frequently disorganized, and 
filled with a red or yellow fluid ; in fact the 
whole animal organization presents an ap- 
pearance differing widely from those that 
die with any other disease. This disease 
appears to be peculiarly fatal to milk cows. 
I have never known a cow attacked while 
giving milk, that ever recovered. I need 
not mention any of the remedies that I 
have used, as none of them have ever been 
successful. I have attempted to sketch 
briefly the developments of this fatal dis- 
ease; if I have been Successful in any de- 
gree, so that any of your correspondents 



can offer any antidote that may result in I 
arresting it, 1 shall feel that I have accoix^i 
plished that which I greatly desire. t i 



J. W. L. 



From the Herald and Free Press. 

HILLING INDIAN CORN. 

Mr. Iredell, — It is a mooted question in 
the agricultural world, and will probably, 
long remain an undecided one, whether 
Indian corn should be "hilled." For my 
own part, I must confess that both obser- 
vation and experience have convinced me 
that it should not. I do not intend to dis- 
cuss the subject philosophically, in this 
paper, but merely to state the result of ex- 
periments. In the summer of 1850 I had 
a piece of corn — comprising about on* 
acre — half of which I hilled up with a, 
broad, conical hill at the last hoeing, the 
other being left flat. Both plans were de-J 
cidedly good, and both had received thai 
same quantity of manure, and precisely 
the same cultivation, with the exception j 
above named. In July there came a heavy j 
tornado, and the corn in both pieces was ] 
much prostrated, but on examining I found 
that the hilled piece was broken off, in I 
many cases, indeed in almost every htfLl 
while the unbilled or level part, had I 1 ! 
caped. The consequence was, that thei 
plants on the latter rose, while those oil 
the former did not, but retained, to a great 
extent, the recumbent position they had 
been compelled to take by the wind. There 
was also a very perceptible difference in 
the quantity of the crop in favor of the for- 
mer. Now let us examine the reason for. 
this. When fresh soil is brousht up around 
the corn stafk, it induces a fresh evolution j 
of brace or lateral roots, and this every 
time fresh accessions of dirt are made. 
But the brace roots do not tend in a very 
powerful degree, to the support of the 
plant; they are too superficial — the soil is] 
light, and they sway with the swaying of 
the plant. Besides, the effect of the dirt- 
is to blanch and render brittle the portion 
of the stalk around which it is placed, and I 
consequently liable to snap off before even 
a moderate wind. If no dirt was to be 
brought up, the original laterals or brace 
roots would extend themselves, acquire 
size and energy, and be capable, by their 
magnitude and strong hold upon a firm 
soil, of supporting the plant in any wind; 
My plan is to plant so as to have the rows 



, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



185 



rn both ways of the piece, i. e. cross each 
tfher at right angles, which admits of 
orking the crop with the harrow or culti- 
'tor, and to keep the surface entirely 
%vel. There is no philosophy whatever, 
n making any elevation above the roots 
10 far a 
erned 

very reflecting person, that the exposure 
»f an extra extent of surface, in a dry time, 
s in the case of hilling, must increase the 
Sect of drought. 

Ageicola. 



all are made from the wood of the tree. 
His spoons, his forks, his basins, his mugs, 
his salt-cellars, his jars, his child's money- 
box, are all constructed from the shell of 
the nut. Over his couch when born, and 
over his grave when buried, a bunch of 



s the support of the plants is con- j cocoa-nut blossoms is hung to charm away 
and it must be obvious, I think, to ! evil spirits. — Dickens' Household Words. 



SUGAR FROM INDIAN CORN. 



THE COCOA-NUT PALM TREE. 



A patent was granted in 1850 for making 
sugar out of com meal, which is worthy 
I of notice. Twenty-five bushels of corn 
I meal are mixed with one hundred and fifty 
! gallons of water, at a temperature of one 
When the Cingalese villager has felled ! hundred and seventy-five degrees, and to 
ne of these trees after it has ceased bear- j this is added twenty-five pounds of vitriol, to 
ng. (say in its seventieth year.) with its which, after stirring well, fifty more gallons 
runk he builds his hut, and his bullock j f water are added, and the whole run into 
tall, which he thatches with its leaves. ; a boiler, (a leaden one we presume,) when 
■lis bolts and bars are slips of the bark; | the contents are boiled by high pressure 
y which he also suspends the small shelf 1 steam. The boiling is continued until, by 
vhich holds his stock of home-made uten- j the trial of a little iodine, with a portion of 
Is and vessels. He fences his little plot; the mixture in a saucer, it does not turn 
f chillies, tobacco, and fine grain, with i blue, which shows the operation to be com- 
be leaf stalks. The infant is swung to : plete. Chalk is then added to neutralize 
'eep in a rude net of coir-string, made any of the free sulphuric acid, when the 
om the husk of the fruit; its meal of rice : whole liquor above the sediment- at the 
nd scraped cocoa-nut is boiled over a fire j bottom, is run oR'and concentrated to chrys- 
f cocoa-nutshells and husks, and is eaten tallize. This is one of the wonders of 
)Qh dish formed of the plaited green leaves j chemistry; sugar is now made of corn, by 
if^he tree, with a spoon cut out of the ■ boiling it along with a virulent acid. — Sci- 
ut-shell. ! eniijic American. 

When he goes a fishing by torch-light, \ 

lis net i3 of cocoa-nut fibre; the torch or 

hule is a bundle of dried cocoa-nut leaves 

nd flowerstalks; the little canoe isatrunk 

f the cocoa palm tree, hollowed by his 

>wn hands. He carries home his net and 

lis string offish on a yoke, or pingo, formed 

»f a cocoa-nut stalk. When he is thirsty 

le drinks of the fresh juice of the young . 

fat; when he is hungry, he eats its soft requested to give immediate notice of the 

ternel. If he has a mind to be merry, be , omission, in order that the correction may be 

a glass of arrack, distilled from the J made in the next issue: 
ermented juice of the palm, and dances | Braxton Davenport, to January, 1853, 
the music of rude cocoa-nut castanets; j ac kson & Williamson, to Jan. 1853, 
f he be weary, he quafi's toddy of the un- j George H. Toler, to April, 1853, 
ermented juice, and flavors his curry with j E. Jacobs, to January, 1854, 
,-inen'ar made from this toddy. T. Y. Tabb, tcr July, 1853, 

Should he be sick, his body will be rub- ! William Sydnor, -to April, 1853, 
)ed with cocoa-nut' oil; he sweetens his i £ B - St0 J, all > ^January, 1853 
„ffee with ja SS ery, or cocoa-nut sugar, | ^ ^fcjg* A P n , !853, 
md soitens it with cocoa-nut milk; it is i w w Michau ' x to July 1853 
»p;,ed by the light of a lamp, constructed j James ' M . Bosher, to January, 1853, 
rom a cocoa-nut shell, and led by cocoa- j Dr . W. A. Fuqua, to January, 1853, 
lutoil. His doors,hiswindovvs,his shelves, | Dr. W. S. Easley, to May, 1853, 
its chairs, thewater gutter under the eaves, | John F. Link, to April, 1853, 



PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

From May 1st to June bth, 1852. 

All persons who have made payments early 
enough to be entered, and whose names do 
not appear in the following receipt list, are 



$1 00 
1 00 

1 00 
4 00 

2 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 



ISO 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



George Poage, to August, 1852, ftl 00 

J. W. Bell, to July, 1853, 1 00 

J. B. Breekenridge, to July, 1853, 1 00 

S. B. Brown, to January, 1853, 1 00 

R. N. Trice, to January, 1853, 1 00 

Arthur Brown, to September, 1852, 1 00 

H. Chandler, to September, 1852, 1 00 

Joseph W. Hutt, to September, 1852, 1 00 
Presley Saunders, to September, 1852, 1 00 
T. H. Bowcock, to September, 1852, 1 00 
Landon C. Berkeley, to September, 1853, 1 00 

1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
5 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
5 00 
1 00 
1 62 
1 00 
1 00 

1 00 

2 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
77 



Thomas Betterton, to May, 1852, 
Peter Boisseau, to January, 1853, 
William Pollard, to January, 1853, 
Robert Harvey, to May, 1853, 
Robert Roades, to January, 1853, 
John Carroll, to January, 1853, 
William Morton, to May, 1853, 
Capt. Jacob Morton, to June, 1853, 
Orris Moore, to January, 1852, 
R. A. Kidd, to January, 1853, 
J. L. Thomas, to January, 1853, 
Col. W. B. Davis, to January, 1853, 
Paul Jones, to May, 1853, 
B. W. Belsches, to Januarv, 1852, 
Dr. D. C. Winfree, to May, 1853, 
Dr. George W. Morris, to June, 1852, 
Garrett Cunningham, to January, 1853, 
Warner Lewis, to January, 1853, 
Capt. W. A. Lee, to January, 1851, 
B. C. Jones, to January, 1853, 
Dr. A B. Hooe, to January, 1853, 
Col. James S. Dillard, to April, 1853, 
R. T. Bibb, to January, 1853, 
Daniel Hatcher, to January, 1853, 
John H. Sandford, to May, 1853, 
William C. Graves, to July, 1853, 
Mrs. E. B. Murphy, to April, 1853, 
\Ym. M. Harrison, to January, 1853, 

A. C. Hartman, to July, 1852, 
Albert G. Green, to April, 1853, 
George W. Claiborne, to April, 1853, ) 
William S. King, to April, 1853, S 
Edward A. Carter, to April, 1853, ) 
Joseph M. Fowlkes, to April, 1853, 1 
Thomas B. M'Gehee, to April, 1853, [ 
William G. Bradley, to April, 1853, ) 
Howsfin A. Clarke, to April, 1853, ') 
Thomas Harvey, to April, 1853, 
Henry M. Vaughan, to April, 1853, j. 
Major T. H. Staples, to April, 1853, | 
T. D. Bichardson, to April, 1853, J 
James Sims, to January, 1853, 

H. B. Brightwell, to April, 1853, "1 
H. G. Richardson, Jr. to April, 1853, | 
W. A. Armistead, to April, 1853, | 

B. H. Brightwell, to April, 1853, 
John W. Ritchie, to April, 1853, 
Richard W. Dalby, to April, 1853, 
John B. M'Gehee, to April, 1853, ! 
William II. Carter, to April, 1853, { 
F.P.Wood, to April, 1853, 
Thomas H. Almond, to April, 1853, j 
Thos. E. Perkinson, to April. 1833, j 
Wm. E. Bradshaw, to April, 'l853, 
Joseph Blanton, to April, 1853, 
James B. Anderson, to April, 1853, J 



2 25 



2 25 



85 1 
00' 



10 78 



George W. Ranson, to April, 1853, 3 
Isaac Pleasants, to April, 1853, 
John Thompson, to April, 1853, 
Pike Powers, to April, 1853, 
Thomas J. Michie, to April, 1853, 
D. Burkheart, to April, 1853, 
John J. Grantham, to April, 1853, 
Frank T. Forbes, to April, 1853, 
James Henshaw, to July, 1852, 
R. F. Grimes, to January, 1854, 
John A. Fleet, to January, 1853, 
John Walker, to May, 1853, 

D. W. K. Bowles, to January, 1853, 
Joseph S. Perkins, to May, 1853, 
John White, to January, 1853, 
Thomas J. Rains, to April, 1853, 
Ed. Y. Hamlin, to January, 1853, 
John D. Brown, to January, 1853, 
Adams Suchbaugh, to April, 1853, 
Gideon Flippo, to July, 1853, 

Col. M. M. Payne, to April, 1853, 
C. S. Wainwright, to June, 1853, 
Col. T. J. Boyd, to January, 1853, 
Dr. John S. Trible, to January, 1853, 
Robert W. Fernihough, to Jan. 1853, 
George W. Philips, to January, 1853, 
David C. Belfield, to January, 1853, ' 
Orville Jeffries, to January, 1853, 
W. A. Love, to May, 1853, 
John P. H. Russ, to April, 1853, 
William S. Wright, to January, 1852, 
William M. Tate, to April, 1853, 
R. H. Harrison, to January, 1853, 
Joseph H. Skelton, to January, 1853, 
W. A. Binford, to January, 1852, 
Thomas B. Martin, to Januarv, 1853, 
George W. Kyle, to January, 1853, 
Dr. Wm. P. Mosely, to January, 1853, 
Mrs. L. W. Barlow, to January, 1853, 
A. R. Spencer, to January, 1853, 
Samuel D. Morton, to January, 1853, 
John B. Spencer, to April, 1853, 
Cornelius Gooch, to January, 1853, 
William T. Wright, to January. 1853, 
John W. Paxton, to January, 1853, 
Charles C. Highiower, to January, 1853, 
Capt. N. N. Witcher, to April, 1853, 
J. O. Pollard, to January, 1853, 
Capt. Sterling Lipscomb, to Jan. 1853, 
H. B. Littlepage, to January, 1853, 
Edwin G. Scott, to May, 1853, 
William S. Thornton, to May, 1853, 
Daniel Mayes, to May, 1853, 
Robert P. Taylor, to January, 1853, 
William Britiingham, to January, 1853, 
Isaac Rose, to January, 1853, 
Elbert F. Redd, to Mav, 1853, 
John H. Parkhill, to Januarv, 1853, 

E. M. Jones, to January, 1853, 
A. K. Shepard, to January. 1852, 
William Mann, to July, 1851, (in full,) 
N. F. Cabell, to January, 1853, 

Dr. B. M. Francisco, to October, 1852, 
John Chandler, to January, 1853, 
Elijah D. Hundley, to April, 1853, 
W. Land rum, to January, 1853, 
A. D. Toot, to January, 1853, 



V< 
01 
0' 

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00 
00 
00 
00 
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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



187 



James Fife, to January, 1853, 
K. S. Nelson, lo January, 1853, 
/T. Oscar Rodgers, to July, 1852, 
JW. A. Rogers, to June, 1853, 
ffcev. A. L. Holliday, to May, 1853, 
"Benjamin Estes, to May, 1853, 
James T. Alexander, to January, 1853, 
Albert Branch, to January, 1854, 
James S. Walker, to June, 1853, 
Julian Harrison, to April. 1854, 
John H. Barksdale, to May, 1853, 
Wm. Weaver, to May, 1853, 
N. B. Hill, to May, 1853, 
Col. J. Hargrave, to January, 1853, 
W. Parsons, to January, 1853, 
R. F. Dillard,'to January, 1853, 
Adolph Dill, to January^ 1853, 
James E. Williams, to May, 1853, 
Dr. W. S. Morton, to May, 1853, 
Stephen Hicks, to May, 1853, 
Thomas J. Stevens, to May, 1853, 
Richard Jones, to January, 1853, 
John M'AlisteV, to January, 1853, 
David H. Clarke, to January, 1853, 
John Hughes, to January, 1853, 
Robert Moore, to July, 1853, 
T. M. Washington, to May, 1853, 
George G. Tyler, to May, 1853, 
Dr. Carr Bowers, to January, 1853, 
Dr. C. B. Stuart, to May, 1853, 
Dr. John B. Grayson, to May, 1853, 
Wm. W. Monroe, to May, 1853, 
D. H. Gamble, to April, 1853, 
A. T. Goodwin, to January, 1853, 
Thomas R. Gresham, to January, 1853 
Corbin Watkins, to January, 1853, 
. \ F. Carl'on, to Januaiy, 1653, 
S*. W. Diggs, to January, 1853, 
James Jones, to January, 1854, 
Wm. Doswell, to July,"l853, 
Joseph J. Dnval, to July, 1852, 
John B. Oniohundro, September, 1852, 
C. Glover, to June, 1853, 
Wm. M. Branch, to May, 1853, 
Estate of Samuel Finch, dec'd (in full. 
Wm. O. Fontaine, to January, 1853, 
James Chesher, to May, 1853. 
Goodrich Wilson, to May, 1853, 
J. W. Ware, lo January, 1853, 
John D. Turner, to July, 1852, 
Marshall Hairston, to January, 1853, 
Wm. Cleaveland, to June, 1853, 
Richard I. Cocke, to June, 1853, 
Joseph Payne, to June, 1853, 
Baylor Temple, to July, 1852, 
T. B. Hamlin, to January. 1853, 
Josiah W. Dewberry, to May, 1853, 
Thomas R. Bridgefonh, to May, 1853, 
William Weeks, Jr. to May, 1853, 
William J. Pngh, to May, 1853, 
William H. House, to June, 1853, 
W. Colwell, to January, 1853, 
B. Dickman, to January. 1853, 
Thomas W. Lowry, to January, 1S53, 
Hugh Chandler, to May, 1853, 
Thomas L. Jones, to January, 1853, 
Corbin Warwick, to January, 1853, 



SI 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
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1 00 

2 00 

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2 00 
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1 00 

2 00 

1 00 

2 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 

1 00 

2 00 
5 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
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, 1 00 
1 00 
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3 00 
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From the American Agriculturist. 

THE DOG DISTEMPER AGAIN. 

The best remedy is the simplest. The 
distemper in the dog is an inflammation of 
the lungs and the membranes which sur- 
round them. It is something akin to con- 
sumption in the human system. The 
stomach of the animal, in distember, is al- 
ways oppressed with a large quantity of 
mucus, which keeps the lungs, membranes, 
&c. in a state of constant irritation. 
Hence the severe cough which accompa- 
nies this disease — the cause removed, of 
course the effect ceases; and the patient 
recovers. Take a handful of flue table 
salt, hold open the dog's mouth, pour it 
down his throat, and hold his jaws to- 
gether until the salt is all dissolved and 
swallowed. In about a nitnute he will 
vomit, and throw up great quanties of mu- 
cus, and in many cases will throw up a 
little bladder, about the size of a pigeon's 
egg, which he should by no means be al- 
lowed to swallow again. The salt maker 
the dog very sick, but it only lasts a fes- 
minutes, and it is not in any way dangew 
ous; this process should be repeated every 
other day for a week, diminishing the dose 
at each time. This never injures the con- 
stitution of the animal, as sulphur most 
certainly will, if he is exposed to wet wea- 
ther. Salt is the remedy which 1 always 
use with my pointers, and it never fails. 
A Constant Reader. 



AGRICULTURAL, WAREHOUSE. 

THE subscriber continues to manufacture 
Agricultural Machines and Implements, 
such as Horse Powers, Threshers or Drums, 
Fan Mills, different patterns; Seed Drills, dif- 
ferent patterns; Corn Mills, Corn and Cob 
Crushers, Straw Cutlers, Corn Shellers, a va- 
rietv; Hill Side and Sub Soil Ploughs, Culti- 
vators, Harrows, Grain Cradles, Reapers, &c. 
&c. all of which will be made in the best man- 
ner, and of approved patterns. My Horse 
Power and Drum, with self-oiling box, have 
been tested three seasons, and uniformly pro- 
nounced to be the best in use. 

Machines repaired in the best manner. — 
Castings in Iron and Brass furnished at short 
notice. H. BALDWIN, 

ap— 3t 148, Main street. 



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

WM. H. RICHARDSON. 

Richmond , Jan. 1, 1852.— 3 1. 



18S 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



DEVON BULLS FOR SALE. 

THE subscribers, having lately eniered upon 
the business of Breeding Devon Cattle, 
now, tor the first time, offer tor sale some of' 
their Bull Calves. Theirstock is all recently 
imported from the celebrated herds of Messrs. 
George Turner and James duartly, Devon- 
shire, England, who are well known as ihe first 
breeders of Devons in the world; and being 
in no way related to the older importations 
into this country, their bulls will afford a good 
opportunity for crossing the old slocks. 

Those we now offer are Uncas and Keokuk; 
the first, calved March 19th, 1851 — the other, 
February 17th, 1852; their pedigree is the 
same, viz: sire, " Megunticook," grandsiie, 
"Prince Albert," dam, "Non-Pareille," by 
" Lord Lynedock." " Megunticook" won the 
first prize at the American Institute in 1850, 
and at the New York State Show in 1851. — 
"Non-Pareille" won the first prize at Barnsta- 
ble, Devonshire, in 1810', and at the New York 
State Show in 1851. "Prince Albert" and 
"Lord Lynedock" were both favorite prize 
bulls of Mr. Gluartly. Also "Red Jacket, calved 
May 5th, 1852; sire, " Megunticook," dam, 
"Meadow Lilly," by " Baronet," grand dam, 
"Helena," bred by Mr. James GUiartiy. — 
"Baronet" has won four first prizes, including 
that at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show, 
at Norwich, England, in 1849. 

Several animals from our herd will be exhi- 
bited at the New York State Show, to be held 
at Utica in September next, and at the Ame- 
rican Institute in October. They may all be 
seen at any time on our place, two miles north 
of Rhinebeck Landing, on the Hudson river. 
(As yet we have not any heifers for sale.) 
W. P. & C. S. WAINWRIGHT. 

Rhinebeck, Duchets county, N. Y. 

je-3t 

PILKINGTON'S OR LUCK'S 
IMPROVED PATENT SMUT MACHINE. 

THIS Machine has proved itself to be one 
of unrivalled excellence. It is warranted 
to answer every purpose of the most complete 
and expensive machinery of screens, rubbing 
stones, fans, &c. and will thoroughly clean the 
most smutty wheat. It is the best contrivance 
to take out chess, onions, and heavy grit, that 
has ever been used by millers. This machine 
is provided with selecting oil feeders to the 
journals, and requires to bev,i'. j i but once a 
week. It wholly does away with the small 
fan. It runs at the rate of one thousand revo- 
lutions per minute, requiring but little power. 
We have sold a large number of these ma- 
chines, and they have in every case given en- 
tire satisfaction. Price JjifiO. 

A B. ALLEN & CO. 
New York Agricultural Warehouse, 189 and 

191 Water street, New York. 

Jane, 1S52— 3t 



PLANTATION BOOK. 

JW. RANDOLPH, Richmond, Virginia 
• has just published the Plantation anri 
Farm Instruction, Regulation, Record, Inveifi 
tory and Account Book, for the use of ma- 
nagers of estates, and for the better ordering 
and management of plantation and farm busi- 
ness, in every particular, by a Southern Planter. 
Order is Heaven's first law— Pope. Price g'2, 
or six for $10; a larger edition for the use ol 
cotton plantations, price $2 50. 

Contents. — Actual number of pounds to a 
Bushel of Wheat, Articles received for use ol 
Plantation, Brick-Kiln, Births of Negioes, 
Balance Sheet, Cows, Cultivation, Contents of 
a Corn Crib, Clothing to Negroes, Diameter 
of a Horse Mill, Deaths of Negroes, Directions 
how to use this Book, Expenses and Sales for 
the Year, Form of a Contract with Mansger, 
Force of a Draught Horse, Horses, Hogs, 
Instructions to Managers, Implements, Jour- 
nal or Daily Record, Medicines, Manure Ta- 
bles, Mechanical Power, Effect of the Labor 
of an Active Man, Inventory of Negroes, Ox~n, 
Washington's Letters to his Steward, Planta- 
tion Management, Police, Ploughing Rules, 
Planting Distances, Physicians' Visits, Q.uan-' 
tity and Value of Produce Made. Quantity of 
Work of a Man and Two Horses, Ri il -s r orthd 
Government and Discipline of the Negroes, 
Rotation Tables for Cultivation of Crops, 
Rural Economy, Sheep, Steam Engines, Stock 
and Implements, Tools, &c. used by the Ne- 
groes, Weight of Materials, Weights and 
| Measures, Wind Mills, Water Wheels, When 
a Horse Draws to Advantage, do. &c. j 

There are extra sheets for mon*hly .'ffiijl 
yearly reports, for ihe use of those who do not 
live on their farms. The Book wi 11 be sent 
by mail free of postage to auy one who will 
remit the price in money c postage stamps. 

This Book is by one of the best and most 
systematic farmers in Virginia; and experi-i 
enced farmers have expressed theopinion, that 
those who use it, will save hundreds of dollars. 

"Every farmer who will get one of these 
Books, and regulate all his movements by its 
suggestions, cannot fail to realize great bene- 
fits from it. We cannot too highly commend 
it to the consideration of agriculturists.*! — 
Richmond Whig. 

"It will prc's a most valuable assistant to 
the planter, manager or oversepr, and a work 
that will facilitate them grea.iy in the trans- 
action of business." — Richmond Dispatch. 

"The Book we should suppose to be indis- 
pensable to any one having thr- management 
of a large estate." — Richmond Republican. 

" We hope many farmers will cuy the work, 
and make an effort to keep things straight." — 
Southern Planter. 

" It is full of useful information and is well ! 
calculated to induce a methodical system, in- 
dustry and energy especially vital to a suc- 
cessful and profitable cultivation of mother' 
earth." — Richmond Enquirer. June— tf 



] 



; 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



189 



EWI3 G. MORRIS' Third Annual Sale, 
by Auction, of Improved Breeds of Do- 

stic Animals, will take place at Mount 

•dham, Westchester County, (11 miles 
Citv Hall, New York,) on Wednesday, 
ne 9, 1852. James M. Miller, Auctioneer. 
Application need not be made at private 
"e, as I decline in all cases, so as to make it 

object for persons at a distance to attend, 
ale positive to the highest bidder, without 
serve. 

Numbering about fifty head of Horned 
ock, including a variety of ages and sex, 
nsisting of Pure Bred Short Horns, Devons 
d Ayrshires; Southdown Buck Lambs, and 
very few Ewes; Suffolk and Essex Swine, 
atalogues, with full Pedigrees, &c. will be 
ady for delivery on the 1st of May— to be 
tained from the subscriber, or at the offices 

anv of the principal Agricultural Journals 

stores in the Union. This sale will offer 
e best opportunity to. obtain very fine ani- 
als I ever have given, as I shall reduce my 
rd lower than ever before, contemplating a 
p to Europe, to be absent a year, and shall 

t have another sale until 1854. 
It will be seen by reference to the proceed- 
gs of our State Agricultural Society that I 
as the most successful exhibitor of Domestic 
Dimals at the late State Fair. 

I will also offer a new feature to American 
■eeders — one which works well in Europe, 
»t is, letting the services of male animals; and 

II solicit propositions from such as see fit to 
it. 

Conditions. — The animal hired to be at the 
,k of the owner, unless by some positive ne- 
or carelessness of the hirer; the expense 
transportation to and from to be borne 



wishes them, and they must be returned to me 
again on or about Chiistmas day. By this 
plan the party hiring gets rid of the risk and 
trouble of keeping a Buck the year round. 
All communications by mail must be prepaid, 
and I will pre-pay the answers. 

L. G. MORRIS. 
Mount For dham, March, 1852 — 3t. 



at 



LIVINGSTON COUNTY PLOUGH. 

riAHE subscriber having greatly increased 
I his facilities for manufacturing the above 
Ploughs, will be able to supply orders for 
Ploughs or Castings on a larger scale of the 
following numbers and sizes: 
No. 1. One Horse Plough "\ 
No. 2. Light 2 Horse Plough / 
No. 2J. " " " " 

No. 3. Heavy" " " i 

No. 4. Three Plorse Plough J 
No. 4. Heavy 2 Horse Plough 
No. 5. Three Horse Plough 
No. 6. Four Horse Plough; but 

generally used for 3 horses. ) 

These Ploughs are now displacing all others 
in many counties in Virginia. They are com- 
posed entirely of cast iron, wilh chilled points, 
&c. b'rom the simplicity of their construction, 
and the ease with which they are kept in order, 
they are peculiarly adapted to lave labor. 

Personsdesirous of further information con- 
cerning these ploughs are referred to the fol- 



Right Hand. 



Left Hand. 



lowing gentlemen, who now have them in use: 
Wm. A. Woods, Esq Charlotte County, 
G. S. Harper, Esq. Appamattox County, 
David Anderson, Jr. Louisa County,. 
F. G. Ruffin, Wm. Garth and P. H. Goodloe, 
Esqrs Albemarle County, Virginia. 
Persons disposed to deal in the Livingston 
■; the term of letting, to be one year or | Covnty 'Plough, in neighborhoods wh^re they 
ss. as parties agree; price to be adjusted by j are no t already introduced, and on sale, will 
Hies— to be paid in advance, when the Bull i please address M. BRYAN, 

taken away; circumstances would vary the j Steel's Tavern, Augusta Co. Va 

ice: animal to be kept in accordance wilh ■ ■ . 

ttra'ciions of owner before taking him away. ' DAILY AND WEEKLY DISPATCH. 
I offer on the foregoing conditions three i HnHE Daily and Weekly Dispatch, publish- 
lebrated Prize Bulls "Major." a Devon,! JL ed' at the office on Governor street, near 
ne years old; "Lamartine," Short Horn,! Main. Richmond, Virginia— commenced in 
ar ye?rs old; "Lord Eryholme," Short October, 1850— have reached a very astonish- 
on", three years old. Pedigrees will be , ing popularity. The Daily Dispatch is a 
ven'in Catalogues. ■ penny paper and has an immense circulation 

At the time of my sale, (and I would not ! in Richmond and contiguous towns. Itaffords 
rtwi'h them before.) I shall have secured ; the best medium for advertising. Subsciibers 
o or three yearly setts of their progeny; I in the country furnished wilh the paper at the 
! as I shall 'send out in August next a ne'w I low price of Four Dollars per annum. 

The WEEKLY DISPATCH is published 
at On.j Dollar Per Annum, and is therefore 
one of the cheapest Newspapers ever publish- 
ed. It is a handsome sheet and contains the 
News of the Day, together wilh Literaiy Se- 
jectfons from tne very best st tirces. The list 
is already very large and constantly increasing. 
e yearling Bucks, winners also, bred by me, j No paper wth be sent until paid for in advance. 
>m Bucks and Ewes imported direct from Hugh R. Pleasants is the chief contributor 
e above celebrated breeder; they will be let j to the editorial columns of the Daily and 
the same conditions as th» Bulls, excepting t Weekly dispatch. Address the Proprietor, 
at I will keep them until ihe party hiring! Richm nd, v 



iportation of male animals, I shall not wan 
e services of either of these next year. I 
>uld not sell them, as I wish to keep control 
their propagating qualities hereafter. 
[ also have one imported Buck, the prize 
inner at Rochester last fall imported direct 
jm the celebrated Jonas Webb; and also 



Virginia. 



190 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



AUSTRALIAN WHEAT.-VERY SUPERIOR. 
rPHE berry of this grain is extra large, and 
JL makes the best of flour. It produces a 
greater average crop than any other variety 
now grown in New York. Several years' ex- 
perience in its cultivation, proves that it is less 
liable to rust or mildew than other kinds; and 
as the stalk is large and strong, it is also less 
liable to blow down or lodge. Price, $4 per 
bushel. ( Hher varieties of wheat, such as the 
"White Flint, Mediterranean, Black Sea, &c. 

Also Agricultural Implements of all kinds, 
and Field and Garden Seeds. 

A. B. ALLEN & CO. 
189 and 191 Water street, New York. 

june — 3t 



EAGLE FOUNDRY. 

THE subscriber having removed to the 
large Foundry, just erected by him and 
fitted out with machinery of the latest and most 
approved style, is, in addition to the manufac- 
ture of Tobacco Flattening Mills, prepared to 
receive orders for Stationary Steam Engines, 
Saw and Grist Mills, Agricultural Machines, 
Tobacco Piesses of every detcription.and all 
kinds of Iron and Brass Castings. He pledges 
himself to execute faithfully, and with dis- 
patch, all work entrusted to him, and respect- 
fully solicits a call from his friends and the 
public generally. 

The highest cash prices paid for old cast 
iron, brass and copper. 

PHILIP RAHM, 
je — ly Cary, between Pearl and 15th sts. 



COCHIN CHINA AND SHANGHAE 
FOWLS. 

THE subscriber has for sale a few pairs of 
Pure Blooded Fowls, from the above 
stock, originally imported by himself, war- 
ranted true to their name, and not surpassed 
by any other stock, for good qualities, in the 
country. Reference given in regard to them 
if desired. 

Orders addressed to the subscriber for the 
same will receive attention. 

CHARLES SAMPSON. 
West Roxbury, Mass. June, 1852. — 2t 



2 SOUTHDOWN BUCKS FOR SALE. 

THE subscriber has for sale Two Bucks of 
the Southdown Blood. These Sheep are 
descended from the best Southdown stock in 
England. They are grandsired by the buck 
imported by Bishop Meade from the flock of 
Mr. Webb, and they are sired by an equally 
good and well bred sheep, obtained of the late 
Dr. M'Caulay, near Baltimore. This sheep 
has a long pedigree of illustrious ancestors. 
My Lucks are seven-eighths Southdown and 
the remainder Cotswold and Bakewell blood, 
and are now one year old, and ready for ser- 
vice in October next. 

RALEIGH COLSTON, 
Near Woodville Depot P. O. Albemarle. 



VALUABLE AGRICULTURAL] 
WORKS for sale by NASH & WOOD- 
HOUSE, Eagle Square. 

The Complete Farmerand Rural Econorr^| 
and New American Gardener, by T. J. FeslH I 
den, in one volume, about 700 pages, clotij I 
gilt— SI 25. 

Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry — a new 
edition, in one volume, l2mo. cloth, gilt — SI 25, 

Johnston's Elements of Agricultural Che- 
mistry — 50 cents. 

Johnston's Practical Agriculture, one vol 
cloih — 75 cents. 

Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener, cloth— 
75 cents. 

Hoare's Treatise on the Cultivation of the 
Grape Vine on open Walls — 50 cents. 

Sheep Husbandry, by H. S. Randall— SI 25. 

Stephens' Book of the Farm, complete— $4. 

Browne's American Poultry Yard, tenth edi- 
tion— SI- 

Allen's American Farm Book, one volume- 
Si. Mail edition— 75 cents. 

Allen's Diseases of Domestic Animals, one 
volume — 75 cents. 

Chemistry Made Easy for Farmers, paper— 
25 cents. 

Southern Agriculture; or, Essays on the 
Cultivation of Corn, Hemp, Tobacco, Wheii 
&c— Si. 

Dana's Prize Essay on Manures — 25 cents, 

Miner's American Bee Keeper's Manual—' 
SI. Mail edition— 75 cents. 

Brown's American Bird Fancier— 50 cents. 
Mail edition — 25 cents. 

Canfield on the Breeds, Management, Strut- 
ture and Diseases of Sheep— SI. 

The American Architect, the cheapest 
best work of the kind published in the wor/d,l 
complete in 24 numbers, at 25 cents each, (j 
S'5 for the work complete — S6 bound in two 
volumes. 

Youatt and Martin's Treatise on Cattle,; 
with one hundred illustrations, edited by Am- 
brose Stevens, Esq.— SI 25. 

Youatt on the Breed and Management oil 
Sheep, with illustrations — 75 cents. 

Elements of Agriculture, translated from the j 
French, by F.G. Skinner, adapted for Schools— | 
25 cents. 

Gunn's Domestic Medicine; or, Poor Man'i 
Friend in Affliction, Pain and Sickness — $3 

mar — ly 

UNION AGRICULTURAL WAR& 
HOUSE AND SEED STORE. 

EALPH & Co. No. 23 Fulton street, New 1 
York, near Fulton Market, Dealers in al 
the most approved Agricultural and Horticull 
tural Implements, Imported and America!] 
Field and Garden Seeds, Ornamental Shad* 
and Fruit Trees, Guano, Bone Dust, PourlretM 
&e. Wrought Iron Ploughs, T7ucks, Barrows 
&c. &c. always on hand. Also, the Excelsioi 
or California Plough. mar 3l j 



nM 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTE 



191 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS, &c. 

THE undersigned is prepared to execute 
the analyses of Soils, Guano, Marls, Pias- 
ter, &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 GILHA.M, 
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 suppiy those who 
may favor him with orders with good Plants 
at reasonable prices. 

Catalogues will be published soon and can 
be had on application. Address 
, JOSEPH RENNIE, Richmond, Va. 



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

The business of Watktns & 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 the staple products of 
the country, viz: Tobacco, Wheat, Corn, Flour, 
Cot! on, &c. 

We return our thanks for the liberal patron- 
age that has been bestowed on our concern in 
Petersburg, 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 y. 



Petersburg, Va. 



TO AGRICULTURISTS. 

MORRIS & BROTHER have received the 
following valuable Books, pertaining to 
Agriculture: 

Elements of Scientific Agriculture, or the 
connexion between Science and the Art of 
Practical Farming. This was the prize essay 
of the New York State Agricultural Society; 
by J. P. Norton, M. A. 

Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and 
Geology; by Jas. F. W. Johnston. 

American Agriculturist, for the Farmer, 
Planter, Stock Breeder, and Horticulturist; 
by A. B.Allen; numerous plates. The 8th 
and 9th volumes of this most valuable work are 
received, also complete sets. Every farmer 
should have this work. 

American Farm Book, on Soils, Manures, 
Drainings, Irrigation, Grasses, Grain, Roots, 
Fruit, Cotton, Tobacco, Sugarcane, Rice, and 
every staple product of the United Slates. — 
This is a perfect farmer's library, with upwards 
of 100 engravings; by R. L. Allen. 

Farmer's Manual, with the most recent dis- 
coveries in Agricultural Chemistry; by F. 
Faulkner. 

A Muck Manual for Farmers; by S. L. 
Dana. 

Farmer's Land Measurer, with a set of use- 
ful Agricultural Tables; by Jas. Pedder. 

American Husbandry. — Series of Essays on 
Agriculture, with additions; by Gaylord and 
Tucker. 

Farmer's Encyclopaedia; by Cuthbert W. 
Johnson. 

Productive Farming, with the most recent 
discoveries of Liebig, Johnston, Davy, and 
others. 

European Agriculture, from personal obser- 
vation; by Henry Coleman. This is a very 
popular work. 

Johnson's Chemistry and Geology, with their 
application. 

Johnson's Dictionary of Gardening; by Da- 
vid Landreth. 

London's Gardening, for Ladies; by A. J. 
Downing. 

Squarey's Agricultural Chemistry, Botissin- 
gault, Rural Economy, Buist's Kitchen Gar- 
dener, Landscape Gardening, and Rural Ar- 
chitecture; by A. J. Downing. 

Fessenden's American Gardener. 

American Fruit Book, with full iustructions: 
by S. W. Cole. 

Downing on Fruit Trees. 

Theory of Horticulture; by Lindley. 

Florist's Manual; by H. Bourne; 80 colored 
engravings. 

Bridgtnan's Kitchen Gardener. 

In addition to which, Morris & Brother have 
all of the late Works on Agriculture, Horti- 
culture, and Raising Stock, of any celebrity. 

Richmond., March 12, 1851.— ly 



102 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



CONTENTS OF NUMBER} VI. 

FAOE 

The Law of Newspapers 1G 1 

The Improvement of Land 161 

Mad Itch 162 

The Cost, Profits and Economy of Labor. 163 

Nutrition in Various Grains 165 

Application of Plaster to Clover 16' 

Do Sheep Improve Land? 16 -. 

Manures — Fresh and Fermented 17 ) 

Powhatan Agricultural Club 176 

Rainy- Day Thoughts 173 

Broomsedge 175 

Flax and Cotton 176 

Harvest 177 

The Joint- Worm J 7ft 

Agricultural Chemistry 180 

Southdown Sheep 180 

To Contributors 181 

Clover 181 

Hawk: Catching 182 

Murrain in Cattle 183 

Hillin? Indian Corn 184 

The Cocoa-Nut Palm Tree 185 

Sugar from Indian Corn 185 

Payments to the Southern Planter 185 



* 



WILLIAM P. LrADD, 
^QTHECARY AND DRUGGIST, 
HO, head of Broad Street, Shockoe Hill, 
V-Pwiehmond, Virginia. 
,ER in English, Mediterranean, India 
andfilt'Foreign and Domestic Drugs and 
Medicines 1 ;, also, Paints, Oils, Varnish, Dye 
Stuffs, Window Glass, Putty, &c For sale 
on the most accommodating terms. 

;r?r Orders from Country Merchants and 
Physicians rbankfully received and promptly 
attended to. 
ja 1851— tf 



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 States, for which a r 
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— « 



GREAT REDUCTION IN PRICES OF 
HATS AND BftOTS. 

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, aftd his cus- 
tomers feel satisfied. Below is a list of his 
prices, which will be strictly adhered to: 
Best quality moleskin, - - $3 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 I 
gentlemen is respectfully solicited, as they are j 
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 onel 
price - se — ly 

H MIE RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG j 
± RAIL ROAD COMPANY respectfully 
inform farmers living on the Roanoke River i 
and on the line of the Raleigh an& Gaston j 
Rail Road, that they are transporting tobacco] 
and other produce between Richmond and PjMfl 
tersburg with promptness and despatch, ru;i \ 
ning daily trains of eight wheel covered cats, 
securing tobacco and go^d| from damase.l 
Tobacco consigned to the care of J. Lynch,j 
Rail Road Agent, Petersburg, will be for- j 
warded, free of commissions, io Richmond. 
Goods purchased kr Richmond and consigned? 
to the Rail Road Agent at Gaston will be for- 
warded up the river without charge for for-1 
warding. THOS. DODAMEAD, 

Sup't R. & P. R. R. 
Jwm 24, 1851— tf 



BOOKS, PIANOS, MUSIC, &C. 

NASH & WOODEIOUSE, Wholesale and 
Retail Dealers in Books, Piano Fortes, 
Stationery, Music, &c. 13!), Main St. Rich- 
mond, Virginia. 

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



VIRGINIA AXES. 

THE undersigned, in connexion with their j 
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, -y R. ARCHER & CO. 



U. ARCHER, -\ 

A. D. TOWNES, F 

R. S. Archer, ( 

C. DlMMOCK. J 



OCt — lv 



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



4