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to three of oxygen. Common iron rust, formed whenever iron is exposed to air and moisture, is this same oxide. This is also the form in which iron generally occurs in the soil, in clays, &c. communicating to them the various shades of red and yellow. There is anoiher oxide, the protoxide, where the metal and oxygen are in the proportion of one atom of each; this is frequently in combination with sulphuric acid, constituting sulphate of iron, or common copperas.

Manganese is a metal which resembles iron in some respects; one of its oxides, the peroxide, is very generally diffused, but not in such quantities as the oxide of iron. The color of the oxide is black.

Chlorine is when pure an elementary, gaseous body; it has a yellowish green color, is very irrespirable, is a powerful bleaching agent, and is remarkable for its strong affinity for the other elementary bodies. Its combinations with the elements are called chlorides, some of which occur in nature. Chloride of sodium (common salt) is, as its name imparts, a compound of chlorine and the metal sodium. Chloride of calcium is a compound of chlorine and the metal calcium, the base of lime.

I have now given the names, and a tew of the properties of those substances most important to be known before entering upon our subject; in future numbers I will endeavor to show how these substances, under the influence of heat, light, and the principle of life, keep up a vegetation which beautifies the earth, and supplies food to the myriads of beings that dwell upon it.

Note to the word Affinity. — Affinity is the force to which all chemical phenomena are due, and it is the attraction exerted between dissimilar particles of matter when brought very near to, or in actual contact with each other. Alcohol and water, for example, have an affinity for each other, and after mixing, cannot be separated without the utmost difficulty, because affinity has established a true chemical union. But if oil and water, which have no affinity for each other, are mixed, the mixture may be agitated for any length of time, and still the moment it is allowed a little repose, the oil will separate from the water and rise to the surface.

Note to the word Equivalent. —The equivalent of a body expresses the relative proportion in which, this body unites with others. For instance, oxygen unites with hydrogen in the proportion of eight to one, with carbon in the proportion of eight, or some multiple of it, to

six, wih nitrogen in the proportion of eight, or a multiple, to fourteen, &c; the number eight is hence the equivalent of oxygen, that of hydrogen being regarded as unity. The equivalent is frequently called atom.

Note to the word Salt. —A salt is a compound body composed of an acid and base in chemical union, the base being in most cases the oxide of a metal. Common plaster is a true salt, the sulphate of lime, and its name is so framed as to indicate that it is a salt formed by the union of sulphuric acid and lime.

When a salt is composed of single equivalents of its constituents, it is said to be neutral, a super salt when the acid is in excess, and a subsalt when the base predominates.

For the Southern Planter.

GUANO.

Mr. Editor, —The article known as guano, variously pronounced (as guanno, gau-no,gwano, but whose proper pronunciation, according to the best authorities to which 1 have had access, is gwarno,) [whah-no — Ed.] has recently attained such importance in our country, as a fertilizing agent, that any information in regard to its origin, its early use, or its natural history, will doubtless interest the readers of your valuable journal. i

With a view of contributing to their amusement and of exciting them to a further investigation of the subject, I offer the following:

The celebrated naturalist Cuvier, in referring to an analysis of the article, by the renowned chemists, Fourcroy and Vauquelin, say, "This analysis has so great a resemblance to that of pigeon's dung that there is reason to believe, with Mr. Humboldt, who brought this guano to Europe, that it is nothing but the excrement of birds, which frequent the. islands of the South Seas, in immense numbers."

It had been doubted if the article was an animal substance; and if animal, whether it was composed of the decayed bodies as well as the excrements of the birds. By the investigations of the French chemists, and the still earlier researches of a learned Jesuit named Acosta, who published a work styled "The Natural and Moral History ofthe East and West Indies," as long ago as the year 1604, it was ascertained that while there are bodies of birds mingled, to some extent, with their dung,

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it is to this last named substance that the enriching property of die guano is mainly ^ ascribable.

The learned author, above referred to, whose book was published in London two hundred and forty-six years ago, does not say to what particular kind of birds the world is indebted for this valuable manure, j I have elsewhere seuii it stated ihai the bird itself was called guano. [We have heard that is the Span ; «h for dung.—En.] Whether this be oerrect or not I am not | competent to decide. However this may be, I believe it is conceded that the ierti-j lizing properties cf the article are owing to i the fact that the birds affording it, fed on Jsk.

The late Professor Benjamin Smith Barton, whose researches into the curious' were prosecuted with great ardor and per-severance, was of the opinion that it is the deposit of the dung from all the different species of sea fowl common to the coast of that region.

When we regard the enormous piles of the article, rising as they do to mountain heights, the opinion of the learned Professor appears to be founded in reason.

That your readers may have a proper

idea of the extent cf these accumulations,

I make the following extract from Acosta's

book. After spftaking of the birds of that

fcicountry, which were remarkable for their

^oeautiful plumage, he says'

1; There are other birds at the Indies, contrarie to these, the which serve to no ■other use but for dung, and yet perchance, they are of no lesse profitte. I have considered this, wondering at the providence of the Creator, who hath so appointed, that all creatures should serve man.

"In some islands or pkarts, which are joyntng to the coast of Peru, wee see the toppes of the mountaines all white, and to sight, you would take it for snow, or for some white land, bitt they arc heap es of dung of sea fowle, which go continually thither: and tbereis so great abundance, asitriseih many elles, yea many launces in height which seemes but a fable—they go with boates to these islands, only for the dung. for there is no other profile in them. And this dung is so commodious and profitable, «ss it makes the earth yeeld ereat aboun-dance of frmte. They cal this dung guano, whereof the valley hath taken the name, which they cal Limagvano, in the valleys of Peru, where they use the dung, and it is the most fertile of all that counirie. "The quinces, pomegranels, and other

fruites there, exceede all other in bountie and greatness; and they say, the reason is, for that the water wherewith they water it, passeih by a land compassed with this dung, which causeth the beauty of this fruite. So as these birdes have not only flesh to serve as meate, their singing for recreation, their feathers for ornament and beautie, but also their dung serves to fatten the ground. The which hath been so appointed by the soveraigne Creator, for the service of man, that he might remember to acknowledge and be loyal! to him from whom all good proceedes."

You will see from the above extract, Mr. Editor, that guano, although but recently introduced into this country, is "nothing new under the sun/" We may reasonably infer, as the heaps of the article were piled mountain high two and a half centuries ago and constant additions have been since daily made to them, that we need entertain no apprehensions that the supply will fail.

If the above shall serve to interest or amuse any of your readers who have experimented with the guano, I shall think that they will be under some obligation to render me an equivalent service. I will not, however, claim it in kind, but ask that it be paid in instruction.

I hope that some of them will, through your columns, inform me as to the result of their experiments with this manure, on corn and tobacco plants. I desire information as to the proper time and mode of -applying it as well as in relation to the effect produced.

I am your obedient servant,

Thomas P. Atkinson.

Danville, Va. June 1, 1852.

It is too late now to put it on either. On some future occasion we will publish directions, but very full ones may be found in the ba-jk numbers of the Planter for the last twelve months.

To Stew Ducks. —Take a duck, either wild or tame, split it down the back, make some stuffing with stale bread, the liver of the duck, spice, sweet herbs, onions, butter, pepper and salt, all chopped up together; fill up the duck with it and sew up the back; put it into a pot with water enough to cover it; stew it till the water is almost stewed away, then add a little wine and a lump of butter to what remains, which makes the gravy, and brown the duck

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For the Southern Planter.

MUTTON SHEEP—BREEDS AND

MANAGEMENT.

Mr. Editor,—As you expressed a desire for me to write you an article on the subject of the mutton sheep, I shall attempt it, not with the expectation of contributing one item to the information of those who have heretofore made it a study, but solely for the benefit of «uch as have not thought the subject worihy of investigation. For the information here attempted to be given I am indebted mainly to the various authors on sheep husbandry, partly to observation and a tittle experience.

The English have divided sheep into three classes: the long, middle, and short or fine woolled.

The two former of these embrace all of the breeds best adapted to the shambles, and therefore are emphatically the mutton sheep. The fine woolled sheep require very different management, and are designed by Nature for a different purpose, but with them I have nothing to do under this head.

The breeds which have been found most prpfi able in our State are the Lincoln, the Leicester, the Cotswold, the New Oxford (a cross of the two latter), and the South Down. All of the above breeds have their peculiar merits, and each has its admirers. All of them are long woolled except the South Down, which has a middle wool.

Of the Lincoln I know very little, except that like all other animals of iis native shire it is remarkably large. The Leicester is a very finished sheep, both in form and fleece, and was perhaps the favorite breed before the introdurtion of the Coiswold. The Leicester, or Bakewell, possesses all the requisites for a mutton sheep, save that it is delicate in constitution.

The pure blood Cotswold has been, in a measure, eclipsed by the New Oxford (a combination of the Cotswold and Leicester)— This is now, perhaps, the most highly approved breed in the United States. Its enormous carcass, capacity lor fat, early maturity and weight of fleece, justly entitle it to high consideration from the farmers of the Stale. Its wool, though in length frequently from ten to fifteen inches, is yet comparatively fine, and is used in the manufacture of monslin de lain and worsted fabrics. This breed has been brought to great perfection in our own Slate by Messrs. M'Cormiek, Dr. William M'Guire and Col. Josiah W. Ware of Clarke county. No care or expense has been spared by Col. Ware in the improvement of his flock. Not content with the best blood to he obtained in the United States, he has imported from England at very high cost the Successful competitors for prizes at the Royal Agricultural Show at Exeter. These sheep are beyond doubt the best in the world, as they are beyond competition. The fl.ece of the improved Cotswold

varies from len to eighteen and a half pounds of washed (on sheep's back) wool, according to the age and sex o( the animal, and the carcass vaties fiom one hundred and thirty to two P'* hundred pounds neat, when well fattened.

The South Down is inferior to eiiherof the above described breeds in size of fleece and carcass. It is, however, generally considered greatly supetior in the quality of its mutton. Such is the estimation in which this mutton is held boih in England and Scotland, I am lold, that epicures buy it at a high price when the butcher leaves the head on the carcass, so as to certify his blood. The wethers at two years old, and well pastured, will weigh from eighty to one hundred and ten pounds neat, and the fleece, which is next 10 the Merino in lex-lure, varies from five to eight pounds, according tosex and age. The writer isof opinion that as much mutton can be made from a given amount of pasturage and food from the South Down as from either of the larger bieeds, *iih the ordinary management which we give to sheep in this Stale. The Scili Doun from his closeness of fleece will endure cold and wet far hetler, and his greater activity enables him to live on thinner herbage.

In determining upon a breed of sheep it is of superlative importance that the breed should be adapted to the nature of the farm they are to inhabit—the kind of keep they will have, and the market they are designed for.

It must be remembered that the largest breeds require the most luxuriant pasturage in summer and the best lood and shelters in winter. They must be kept^>n land which is dry and at the same time easy to travel over,>|si as their size and construction impede locomo-" lion greatly. The size of the flock must be proportioned to the extent of range they will have, most especially wiih the mutton sheep, as they are the most fastidious of all animals in taste, and will suffer great hunger before they will eai anything soiled by the hoof or otherwise.

It is impossible to state what quantity of land is necessary to graze one hundred sheep, as everything depends on the quantity of herbage the land will afford. It is sufficient to say that the muiton sheep requires an abundance at all times to bring him to perfection.

MANAGEMENT OF THE MCTTON SHEEP.

In i his climate the strict observance of a fevr simple rules is siiffiVieni to ensure success with any of the breeds of thi> variety. For the sake ol convenience I will divide these into summer and winter management; premising as of fir^t impoitance that no huck should he allowed to breed to his own offspring, and therefore il is most convenient to change him every two years. It has been well ascertained that the best economy is to buy the best bred and best formed bucks, wiih little regard to cost, as the prime ci st will be amply repaid in the su-peiiority of the first set of 1 imhs. The time required to bring a flock to perfection, by the

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use of thoroughbred bucks, is less than half tehere only grades are employed. Ihfc Winter management commences with the ^period when the buck should be put with the ewes. Supposing that he has been kept separate from the ewes the previous summer, and lhat (he lambs had been weaned on the first of September previous, the best time for this purpose, all things considered, is the fifteenth of October. The period of gestation is about five months; the lambs may therefore be ex peeled about the tenth of Ma.vh. A buck in bis prime will serve, on good pasture, seventy ewes in three or fuur weeks; at the expiration of which time he should be removed and put with the wethers in a secure field, until again wanted the following year. A greater number of ewes may be seived by patting them to the buck in small numbers, say four or five at a time, and blacking the breast of the buck with Jampblack and oil, by which means he will teavc his mark. He should be well fed on grain during this lime.

Sheep require very little dry food in winter, when the ground is not covered with snow, it they have a clover field or timothy meadow . to range upon. The best dry food is clover hay or corn lodder; the next is oat or wheat straw or chaff. My experience is decidedly against timothy hay, particular!" for pregnant ewes, having found it consn'pating, and there-fere very dangerous. Shelters should be provided nsainst bad weather, and where there are not better, those made with straw, so as to keep off the rain, are all sufficient. Too much

Wins cannot be taken to shelter sheep dun'ng iny or snowy weather, more especially those breeds that carry heavy fleeces, which when saturated with water, will freeze, and thereby destroy the constitution of the animal, if not cause its immediate death.

I am satisfied that more than three-fourths of all the disease that the sheep is heir to, is referable to exposure in bad weather. When the ground is frozen or covered and access to green or succulent food cut off, it is all important to supply them with a i'ew potatoes or apples cut up, cabbages, or pine tops. Where ii is practicable, ihey should have the grazing of a wheat or rye field until the ground becomes soft. They will not do the slighesl injury 10 the crop; on the contrary, if th?re is fly in the wheat the grazing will be very advantageous to it. Salt must be given once per week.

Summer Managemmt. —The next important period in course is that of yeaning. The flock should now be placed in some convenient field, where they tnav be seen several times during everv day. The fields should be free from ditches or creeks, as they are very liable lo pet into these in so helpless a condition thai ihey will die before relief can he afforded — Hogs must be kept away as they will eat the lambs as fast as ihey are dropped. Crows are al-o very destructive to young lambs by picking out their eyes Ewes frequently require assistance in bringing their lambs, and there-

in

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fore should be watched closely. Yeaning usually requires from three to four weeks; this accomplished, the next thing to be attended to is castration and docking. This should not be postponed, as is usual, till shearing time, the wea.her being then frequently loo warm; besides which the lambs should have time to recover from the woinds belore shearing season. Castration may be performed thus: The lamb being laid on his back, the person holding him catches one fore leg and one hind leg in each hand the operator places his foot upon the tail; he then cuts off one-half the testicle bag and presses the testicle out, until the outside skin can be split sufficiently to allow the testicle to slip out; he then separates the skin at the connecting point, and drawing the testicle gently out, scrapes back the outside skin until the cord is reduced to a thread, when it must be severed. When both testicles are thus removed, the wound must be wellsmeaied with a mixture of train oil and tar; a vessel containing which should be previously provided. Thisdone tire lambshotild be removed to a block close by, to be docked—the same person holding him on bis back as belore, lays the tail straight across the block; the operator then lakes an axe and (ays it across the tail, one and a half inches fiom the root; he then strikes the axe with a mallet sufficiently hard to sever the tail at one blow. The oil and tar are immediately applied as before. If the owner uses an ear-ma ik it should be now given; but the writer is decidedly opposed to such marks, {unless marie with a pun.h,) as nothing is more disfiguring to the animal than cropping the cars. The operation of docking contributes greatly to the featity, cleanliness and health of the animal, and should be performed on all the flock in the manner above described. It may as well be omitted entirely as to leave a greater length of tail than one and a half inches.

At this time it is necessary 1o perform another act of mercy to the flock at large; this is lasging, which must be carefully and thoroughly performed with shears, removing all the wool between the hind legs, in danger of being cloaged with manure, or which has already been saturated with blood at lam! ing, in order to keep off the m?g?ot fly which isever ready to attack the sheep upon the smallest pretext in warm weather.

Wash ing sheep reqniies much care and judgment. The state of the weather, and the d. n-rliiion of the animal, mu^t be well considered. From the first to the fifteenth of May, we generally have weather suitable for this operation. A vat, t j n feet Uns, three fei t d.'ep, and f>ur feet wide, made like- the fort bay of a mill, with a draw-rate at each end, and fixed in the bank of an ice-pond, will answer the •foni'le purpose of a waste gate and sheep tub. A close pen beine made near the pond, the sheep should be put into it with as little exercise as possible, and all pains taken to avoid heating the animal before he is put into the

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water. The hands employed can stand outside the vat, and wash three at a time, not more than five minutes being necessary for them to remain in the water. They must then be kept on a clean grass field for several days, until quite dry. Shearing is usually performed in a slovenly manner, which is bad economy. The writer prefers shearing on a clean floor; providing each shearer with a bag filled with straw as a cushion, and seating him on the floor, the sheep is taken into his lap with his head under the shearer's left arm, the shearer then opens the jacket along the middle of the belly, up to the cheekbone, carrying his clip all the way every time. This is done until be reaches the backbone, when the animal is turned over, and the operaiion reversed until he again reaches the backbone, and the job is done. I never tie sheep while shearing, finding they struggle much less and are more easily handled not tied, after the operation is commenced.

The fleece taken off should be removed to a table and spread out (clean side down) to its natural size. The side should then be folded over to the middle; the shearer then mounts the table on his knees, and begins rolling up the fleece as lightly as possible, until he rolls up two-thirds. The remainder of the fleece should then be twisted into a rope by an assistant, wrapped tightly around it, and tacked under. Fleeces thus put up, may be very conveniently handled, and sent a long distance without coming untied. After shearing, a mark may be put on the sheep with a paint brush, which will last a long time. After shearing, the wethers and bucks should be put on the best pasture the farm will afford, while a more inferior one will answer for the ewes and lambs. They require no further attention if in good health until the first of September, save salting once a week.

On the first of September, wean the lambs by placing them in a field where the buck will not have access to them. These lambs are not to be put to the buck until their second fall, when they will be about seventeen months old.

The flock of breeding ewes should be picked over every fall, and the oldest and most inferior ones sent to market. As a general rule, a ewe should not be retained as a breeder (unless a very fine one,) longer than five years.

As a protection against dogs, I have for six years found bells to answer admirably. At least one-third of the flock and all the wethers should have bells on. Sheep managed well, I consider the most profitable of all farm stock, and will contribute more to the improvement of land, when not allowed to eat off the young clover. With regard to the diseases of sheep, it is far better to rely on the means of prevention, (viz: good food and shelter,) than of cure; but for further information on this subject, 1 will recommend Morrell's American Shepherd as containing "all things necessary" to sheep husbandry.

My article is decidedly long, and I would fain curtail it, but that 1 do not see where to-do so. It is likewise, "flat, stale and unproti-#t-table" to those who are already informed on the subject; but all are not so, perhaps, who* tead the Planter.

C.

For the Southern Planter.

THE LAW OF ENCLOSURES.

Of all the evils which depress the agricuf-tural interest of our State, none are inore severely felt than those which have been entailed upon it by the unwise legislation of our forefathers; and, yet. if any thing like a general interest could be imparted to the farmers of Virginia, none could be more easily removed. Controlling by its vast majority over all other combined interests in the Stale, the entire field of legislation, it has 'protected every other interest, but its ovni, and whenever, through its representatives, a statute is originated, having ir» view the protection of " the nursing mother of the arts," those watchful guardians of out-interest have not even the sagacity to give their act of legislation a proper title. Thus, the law regulating enclosures any sane man would have entitled, "an act to auIliorize trespasses of cattle on neighboring proprietors, and to prevent all indemnification therefor;" and this particular act confirms the justice of the foregoing remarks. Though no intelligent farmer in Eastern Virginia, not a candidate for public favorJ/fo denies that the increasing scarcity of fencing-material and cost of labor demands some modification of this law, yet such is the apathy of the sufferers, that no efficient steps have heretofore been taken to abate this evil. By it, all Virginia is declared a common, except such portion of its arable surface as has a line of fortifications around it. The sacred right of property has been brought by it into dispute and contempt. The widow, the orphan and the poor farmer, all especial favorites of the law, have been impoverished by its operaiion. Who can fail to account for the amalgamation of so many of the small freeholds, and the consequent loss to the State of its best citizens? Does not every neighborhood contain some large estate in the hands of a weal thy proprietor, composed of these small freeholds which have been worked without profit and sold at a sacrifice, because the labor of fencing was too greatalax upon their poor proprietors 1 And after the contribution of atleastone-twelfth of the labor of the farm, and the conversion of its best timber into rail?, what is the farmer's guarantee against loss? The law directs a fence to be made of a specified height throughout, and in case of his sustaining a trespass from neighboring stock, throws upon him the whole burthen of proof. Admitting that a fence can be constructed from our ordinary materials, every panel of which is sufficiently strong to defy

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vibe most persevering assaults of stock, whose l^energies are quiekened by famine, and capa-5Jole of withstanding high winds and storms, yet trespassing stock will find their way into his fields, and then what is his recourse? He obtains from a magistrate an order for the survey of his fence, and while this is being made at one end i the owner of the trespassing stock can secretly make gaps in the other, if he is evil disposed, and wishes to avoid the payment of damages. And how is it possible to determine the exact amount of damage which has been sustained by a wheat or corn crop, the dense cover of which may have harbored hogs for days before they have been discovered ? All the provisions of the law are inoperative, and not one case of trespass in a hundred is tried before a justice of the peace. Unless considerations of mutual courtesy and friendship induce farmers to restrain their stock, they are maimed or killed as the only means of protection, thus engendering those deadly animosities which destroy the harmony of whole neighborhoods. I find it impossible to conceive any better right which a neighbor, who keeps more stock thaD he can feed, has to turn them out to forage upon me, than to pursue the same course with his slaves, and allow them to gain a sustenance by appropriating the surplus of his neighbors. And if the Legislature wishes to abolish the right of property, and lend their countenance \o the existence of a system of communism, such as was never conceived of even by the most thorough-going disciple of -Proudhon, let it engraft upon this act concerning enclosures, a foither provision, compelling all farmers to keep a certain number of locks upon their corn houses and barns, and preventing him from recovering damages, if lie has left any means of access to rogues. After this Jong summary of the evils resulting from the existence of this law on our statute book, the question will be asked "cuibono?" Some great counterbalancing advantage to so ranch evil lo one elas*, must of necessity result to another. One would imagine that the State so far from having to depend upon the West for a large portion of their supplies of pork and beef, exported largely, and yet in no country on earth, can there be found, such a number of lean, worthless, "praise God barebones" slock, as in Virginia. Were they assessed for taxation underthe ad valorem system the commissioner could not act upon them iw I ivi dually, so small is their value-, but having to depend upon their own resources for a support from their earliest infancy, they will yield to no stock in the world, in point of general information, cunning aud perseverance.

As the tide wafer section suffers more than any other portion of Virginia, I suggest that an effort be made to obtain r.uch a modification of the pre-^t law, as will accomplish the objects sotiidn for, to be applied lo that portion of the State first. I am convinced, thatonce adopted in any one county or neighborhood, the f ivo-raide result of wch a modification, as would

restrain hogs and cattle, upon the agricultural interest, would insure the repeal of this law in all Eastern Virginia. The importance of this subject will excuse the length of this communication. You can give no more effectual aid to the cause you advocate, Mr. Editor, than by encouraging the agitation of this reform, and I hope you will give your subscribers, your own views on the subject.

J. B. M'C. Nelson county, May 17, 1S52.

From the Cultivator.

HAY AND FODDER-CUTTING AND CURING.

It may be safely averred that there is not a single operation on a farm that cannot be, and that ought not to be conducted upon scientific principles. Hencetheutility, the necessity of a scientific education of farmers. If the remark be true of farm operations generally, it is more especially so of the subject of hay-making. In this we require a knowledge of vegetable physiology, of chemistry, of pharmacy. Vegetable physiology will teach us the nature and functions of the various organs and parts and juices of the plants with which we have to do; chemistry will leach us the theory, and pharmacy the art of curing and saving the article in the best manner. There is no doubt that a very iarge portion of the nutritive matter of hay, and all kinds of fodder, is lost by a want of knowledge of this kind. The writer of this has never seen a hay-field at haying time, that he was not forcibly impressed with this truth. To illustrate this subject—suppose a pharmaceutist, the Shakers, for example, were to gather their medical herbs, and cure them, and house them in the same way that hay and fodder are usually gathered, cured and saved—what, let us ask, would they be worth? Gathered at very improper seasons, cured in such manner as to ferment and evaporate all their intrinsic virtues, and at last housed in a place, and in a condition, to make assurance of its destruction "doubly sure," it may well be conceived they would not be worth much. There are certain rules to be observed in this, as in all things, to attain ihe highest degree of perfection. Every kind of hay and fodder will be good or good for nothing, according to the degree of attention to these rules. The grase should be allowed to attain the highest degree of per-

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fection before it is cut, and that desrree is found to be at the time of flowering or blooming, just before the seed begins to form. It being a herbaceous plant, ihe whole natural object of it is to make seed, and afl its juices are, at the time of flowering, in their richest state. This is the time to cut it. If cut before this lime, the juices are imperfect, and ihe fibrous mat'er immature; and if delayed beyond this lime, more or less of ihe richness of these juices is expended in making seed. If ihe seed is allowed to become ripe, the hay is com paratively worthless. We never saw a load of hay in the market for sale, that did not exhibit unequivocal signs o\' having had a very large portion of its rich qualities exhausted, either before it was cut, or in curing. When it is understood, thai if allowed to ripen seed perfectly, ihe grass loses all its rich juices, nnd becomes mere dry straw, woody fibre, a little silicate of potash, and a very trifling quantity of vegetable extractive matter, the importance of cutting it at the right lime will be apparent.

And here it is proper to mention another error of almost, if not quite equal importance. It is that of mixing different kinds of grass together. There are scarcely any two grasses that flower at the same time, exactly, and if two be mixed that flower at different times, one or the other will be greatly deteriorated by being cat too soon or too late. All grasses should, therefore, he kept in distinct meadows.

The curing process is. however, of much the most importance. No matter at what times the grass be cut, if it be not proper ly cired, the hay will be worthless, in proportion to this imperfection. Two tons of iiay shall be taken from the same field, the one cured properly, the other carelessly— and the one shall be worth twenty dollars, while the other will be dear at any price, except for mere straw. Let us descend to particulars, for the subject is sufficiently important to authorize it. Nearly the whole nutritious properties of the hay are in a fluid, or semi fluid state, highly susceptible of fermentation; and if fermentation takes place, they will be immediately dissipated in vapor. The object to be attained is to cure the hay, by evaporating the water only, of these juices, leaving the saccharine and other principles in a solid stat in the body of the grass. But if the juices of ihe grass be altowed to ferment, then all these principles are rapidly changed, and pass off' with the water in

vapor. The usual n ethod of curing hay, especially in the Middle States, permits th^ green cut hay to lay ir> masses till it gelt" more or less heated, especially the under ponion of it. This heat is produced by fermentation. We usually see the hay-in the swath till the next < ay, and then it is merely turned over, and even thai very carefully. The underside will then be found to be very warm. Now, all this is wrong. The hay should he shaken up lightly, and loosely, so lhat none of it wilt lay in compact masses, and that the at? may pass freely through it. It should be gathered into winrows as late as possible in the evening, and these should he well opened and turned, and loosened, early in the morning, so as to avoid spontaneous fermentation. If ihe weather he fair, the hay cut yesterday will he fit for cocking this afternoon, but it is not ready for housing or stacking. A great error is often committed in cocking hay. in allowing it 1a> remain in these small stacks too long. When cocked, the hay is merely wilted, not. cured, and if allowed to remain in rocks, will ferment there. The}' should he opened and spread about, and re-cocked several times before being permanently stacked or housed. Shaking hay about has a great effeet in curing it, much more than is generally supposed. It exposes ifo to fresh air, which carries off the watef y ' and the ofrener it is shaken up, the sooner and better it will be cured. Many object to shaking up the hay while the dew is on it in Ihe morning. This is an error. A sroood shaking at this time will effectually dry it.

G. B. S.

For the Southern Planter.

D5SEASE IN THE HEAD OF SHEEP.

Mr. ErIUnr, —By comparison of views, we may arrive at useful result.-, and (trust your correspondent R in your March number, page 85, will not take offence at my expressing through your columns, my impression lhat he is mistaken, as lo Ihe disease of sheep In his communication, he says he nsver saw the sack he mentions, the use of the lenon saw always bursting it. He will never see it in my opinion—nor will he ever see one recovered by the remedies lie mentions as used by the Ruropeans. The disease is what is called in this pari of the country the stretches, and is caused by the conMipaiion of the bowels, brought on by the want of green and succulent food. Il mostly atiacks theep in the best

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^.condition, because of fuller habit, and rarely * (in comparison ai least,) afflicts maiden ewes, ' wethers, bucks, or ewes nursing lambs, but is much more frequent with inlamh ewes. The remedy is to be applied upon the first appearance of the symptoms—bleed freely, and get an operation on ihe bowels as soon as possible; a copious discharge will relieve them, if not too far gone; a large dose of flax seed tea, including Vie seed, is a good medicine—a full pint, if not more. In a very violent ease, 1 should he disposed to givea small dose of cro-ton oil (ihough I have never done so,) as the most active medicine for the purpose. Sails, I am disposed to think, is more active with sheep, given in a dry than in a liquid stale—but prevention is better than cure I am inclined to think R. never saw a case in spring sum-mi-r or fall, when sheep could get grass; it occurs only in the winter months, when neither grass or succulent food of any kind could be gathered by them.

To keep their bowels in a wholesome state, I have sometimes .succeeded in keeping them in that state by a little Epsom salts, mixed with their salt; but the best preventive is to feed them on turnips, (Ruta Bnga,) cut up; as a snbsiiiute, potatoes raw, cut up; beets, parsnips any roots, oreven eabbageleaves assmall feed of either every day, or twice a day; if not fancied bv them, sprinkle a little salt over them until palatable. The disease is not known in England, because they use the Ruta . Ba?a there freelv—the manure made by it Pimply remunerates the cultivation of the crop.

Valley of Virginia. June 20, 1852.

For the Southern Planter.

SUPERIORITY OF THE FARMING PROFESSION.

Mr Editor, —It is much the habit of most persons to indulge a complaining temper, as it regards their own lot in life, and many are disposed to ihink thai disappointments and untoward events befal them more certainly, and with more oppressive energy, than others who stand around them. This is an unjust complaint against Providence, arising oui of the foet thai we know more of our own trou-b'es than we c^n do of any one else's, and as it is we who are hurl by ihem, we feel them much more keenly than when endured by another. Now, there is no class of our community, who indulge this complaining spirit to a greaierextentthan ihe planter and fanner of Virgmia; and none, I am assured,have less reason for it. L"nk to ihe planter's employment in what aspec you may, whether as to the effect it has on his moral being or social enjoyment, or whether as a source of sustenance to a growing family, aod a sure means for the

future settlement of that family, and I contend that it stands unrivalled by any of the industrial pursuits of the country. Let us examine it in the various views presented, and 1 appeal lo the honest experience and sober reflection of every candid man in the community for the truth of my position.

When God created Adam, he placed him, in his state of purity and innocence, in the Garden of Eden, and ordered for his employment the cultivation of the earih as one besi suited and most congenial to his unconupted nature. So long as he remained innocent, his employment afforded him occupation and delight. When his fall came, the labor in which he before took delight, became a painful burden, sent by Providence as a bitter curse upon his transgression And ihough many of the pleasures of agriculture are blackened and marred by man's disobedience and mora! ruin, yet many beauties still cluster around it; such as a pleasing sense of dependence on a good Providence for the genial rains, and a strong feeling of gratitude when they are sent. His social qualities are cultivated, be'ause there is nothing to interrupt or retard their growth. He envies no one, and is envied of no one. His swelling bulks and replenished garners have taken nothing from his neighbor; hut are the result of his own toil and God's kind Providence. Not so with other pursuits. The doctor quarrels with his neighbor doctor, because he imagines that the patients placed under his care should have fallen into A?'s hands. The lawyers quarrel over theirneighbors' troubles at the rate of fifteen shillings ahead ; and the smooth, smiling, complaisant merchant has a hitter enmity rankling in bis heart, because his neighbor meichant sells a few cents lower in the yard ttan he does. And so on through all the pursuits of life. It will he found that they are calculated to kindle and foster unkind feeling.and to disturb social harmony. From all these the planter is measurably exempt.

That it is the best, surest and cheapest means of supporting a family, is so generally con* ceded, thai it has almost become an axiom. Take an instance: Let a man with a wile and three or four children, (by no means a rare attendant on matrimony in these parts) go on a small farm, worih three thousand dollars, work three hands, and the other usual appliances of cropping in this country. Say his means reach five thousand dollars, all told— the interest on which is three hundred dollars. If he be industrious and judicious, (aid most of our young men born to small expectations are so,) he will rai~e enoush not only to support his fiimilv, hut to do it in a style of comfort and abundance, not surpassed by many of thesmall potentatesof Europe. Placeanother individual, like circmsianced, in town; (for you must cut him off"entirely from agriculture to make a fair comparison,) let him pay his rent.ruv his fuel his marketing of every sort, and all the other little drippings resulting from such a situation, and al the end of five years

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the interest of his five thousand dollars will be consumed, and the principal gone along with it. And during the time his living wilt have been infinitely lesscomfortable and abundant than his country friends. But this is too plain a proposition to be debated, and 1 pass lo the next.

That it is the surest means for the future settlement of a family is of easy demonstration, if the sound lessons of experience have not faded from the memory of all observing men. Look around through the land, and see who are the aiost independently seabed young men in the commonwealth, and I venture to say, that with an occasional exception, they will be found to be the sons of planters. AH planters who are sober, industrious and judicious, more or less succeed in their pursuits. Do all doctors do so? here and there, one by ihe foreeof high qualifications,andsurrouaded by fortuitous circumstances, attain to comfortable independence, and some to wealth. But when you look at the poor and hungry crowd, which drag out a miserable existence, wailing for their turn to come, we must deter mine against this as a calling for life. Do the lawyers do so? here and there one towers above his humbler brethren, in the career of reputation and wealth, while many, very many of his associates in the profession carry to their graves, and carry only that, the sreen bag with which they first tank their seats in ihe bar. Will this picture do? I think not. Do all merchants succeed in their pursuits? 1 After a long life of labor and toil of body, of anxiety and solicitude of mind, when his executors are called to make out bis balanee sheet, he is too often found to have passed into a bankrupt's grave. It has been ascertained, by a careful examination of the htistory of the mercantile operators in the city of New York, which city boasisof :i community of merchants, who stand as high for mercantile shrewdness and acumen as any in the world, that a large portion die bankrupts, very many never improve their estates, and that not more than five in one hundred die or retire from business with enhanced fortunes. Does this present a picture comparable to that of the Virginia farmer, or one at all calculated toinvite our acceptance? I have selected these as the leading pursuits of life, those to which all our young men are attracted, whohave the means; with what good judgment, if the above statement is true, 1 leave the reader to determine. Why then should agriculture be neglected and despised. The doctors may have their patients, the lawyers may wrangle over their cases, and the merchants may pinch the profits on their yard sticks; but give me a soft, fern'le, generous soil, with all the necessary appliances to make it productive, and a few tons of sruano lo quicken its failing energies, and I will far outstrip them all in the career of contentment, happiness and wealth.

South Side. Mecklenburg, Virginia.

From the Albany Cultivator.

THE DIFFERENT HAY PRESSES.

*"

Messrs. Editors, —In reply to the inquiries of your correspondent in regard to pressing hay, I will give you theexperience of farmers in this neighborhood, (Durham, New Hampshire,) where the raising market hay is the chief agricultural business. Hay was pressed for the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, marker, in this town twenty-five or thirty years ago, and the first press, and only one lor several yeaFs, was on the farm of N. Woodman. That press was constructed on the model of an old cotton press, then ased at Portsmouth far packing hay. It was an upright bos, eight or ten feet high, with one large wooden screw coming down in the centre through a beam at the top; this was stationary. Next was used an upright box with two smaller screws, one at each end, and abeam across, which was brought down by the screws. This was portable, and was carried about among the farmers, and the only one in town for some years. Either of these presses, with four hands and a horse, usually pua up twelve bales of hay per day, or about two tons. About 1830, a new patent press appeared. The box was horizontal, or upon the side on the ground. The power • was applied with east-iron wheel and pi-£ nion work. About three cog-wheels and pinions were used. It was precisely on the Baodel of the small jack screw, used in loading cotton ships at the south. Next was U3ed the same form of box, with the power of a lar^e rope over pulleys, instead of the wheel works. In both these presses, four hands and a yoke of oxen put up, commonly, from twenty-five to thirty bales per day. or about four tons. Both were portable. Next appeared an upright box, in which the hay was pressed down front the top as in the first two above mentioned. The power was applied by chains winding on axles, turned with same power of wheel and pinion work. This was portable and did good service. Five men turned out thiriy-five or forty baf.« a day, or five ions and more. Next came the presses now in use. One is called the Railroad Press, and patented; the other is called the Elbow Press, and is understood not to be a patent. Both have an upright box, and press the hay from the bottom upwards, and the bale is taken oat above, on a staffing, and weighed, and hoisted away with fackle andfall. The raiiroad press has for its power^ two. heams coining near together

i

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under the box, and there attached with a hinge joint to a strong mass of wood, called a "follower," lhai moves up and down the box. The other ends reach out in opposite directions, and rest upon an iron rail on a strong timber, and are made so as to move easily over it, by a solid iron truck at the end. As they stand, they form something like the letter A, only more flat. Then by chains, and a windlass and wheel in the centre, the lower ends are drawn up till | they are along the rail nearly perpendicu- I ]ar to the ground, and parallel to each | other. So the power rapidly increases as it is most required. The elbow press is in the main constructed in the same way, except that the power is applied by two toggle joints, (the joints of iron, and the arms of wood,) standing, when the follower is down, not unlike two V's placed opposite. ( <£> ) They are then drawn together by a chain passing round a truck in the arms just below the joints, and wound upon a windlass in the centre, which is turned by a stout yoke of" oxen drawing out a rope wound on the circumference of a large wheel attached to the windlass. Five hands, with a yoke of oxen, where the hay is conveniently situated, will usually press from forty-five to sixty bales per day, or from seven to nine tons. Both these are portable. One yoke of large oxen is sufficient to work either, or to move them from place to place over an ordinary road.

The elbow press is called the best, and is here preferred to the other. Both are used extensively. Durham is chiefly an agricultural town. It has about fifteen hundred inhabitants. In 1830, about one hundred tons of pressed hay may have been sent to market. In 1840, as much as five hundred tons were sold; and at the present lime, 1852, no less than two thousand tons of pressed hay are annually sent to market. Lee, Newbury, Greenland, Stratham, Rollinsford, and other neighboring towns, are largely interested in the same product.

To secure the bales, small withes of withewood, gray beach, or alder, are used, about an inch through at the but, and from six to ten feet long. Two, of sufficient length, are twisted, and the tops lapped and wound strongly together, making a band long enough to reach around the bale and tie. Five bands are put on a bale. The withes, trimmed ready for use, cost from thirty to forty cents per hundred. The price for pressing hay is

one dollar and fifty cents per ton—everything requisite, use of press, oxen, withes, &c. included.

The cost of the elbow press is from one hundred dollars to two hundred dollars, according to the excellence of the material and the work. The railroad press may be a little more.

If any, among your numerous subscribers, know of a better way of pressing hay, or of securing the bales, (for this now takes all the time of one good hand, besides the cost of the withes,) we should be glad to have him give us the information through your columns,as any improvement in this matter would be hailed with pleasure and satisfaction by the farmers in this neighborhood.

C. F. W.

Durham, N. H. Feb. 1852.

CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO THE MECHANIC AND FARMER.

Chemistry possesses also great interest from its application to the arts of daily life. It is the object of industry in acting upon the outward world to produce two classes of changes in the materials which it employs. The first are mechanical changes, which influence only the forma of matter, as in the operations of cabinet making and cotton spinning; the second are chemical changes, wrought in the nature of the substances used, and altering their properties, as in glass making and tanning. In both these cases the changes which take place, are governed by certain fixed principles or laws, to which the workman must conform if he would operate successfully. The principles cf mechanics, taught by natural philosophy,are quite generally understood; indeed, as this science considers only the relations of masses of matter which readily strike the senses, it was very naturally investigated earlier, and has always been a more popular study than chemistry, which inquires only concerning the relations of invisible atoms. Yet the laws which control chemical action are as unchangeable as those which hold the planets in their places; every kind of matter is subject to them, and no vocation in which they are concerned can be pursued to the best advantage unless ihey are clearly understood. The farmer, the miner, the metallurgist, the paper maker, the bleacher, the dyer, the druggist, the soap manufacturer, the painter, and innumerable other craftsmen,

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vre constantly acting upon chemical sub-st mces—constantly deal'ng with chemical Jaws—and hence, it is clear, require to know what they are. The greatest economy of process ami perfection of product can only be obtained where ilie. principles of a <namifacture are distinctly comprehended. In such case the skilful operator is enabled to work with the natural laws, and not against, or regardless of them. It is said that in civil affairs it is always beat to keep the law on our side, but in dealing with nature this is vastly more important; because, when natural laws are violated th 're is no such thing as escaping the penalties.

A most instructive illustration of the effect of neglecting chemical principles, while th ee of mechanics are thoroughly understood and applied, is afforded in the present condition of the United States ca-pitol at Washington. The architectural beauty and mechanical excellence of that edifice are well known; but the freestone (sandstone) of which it is constructed was selected without due attention to its chemical and physical properties, and is totally unfit for its purpose, being rapidly acted upon and crumbled to dust by the common atmospheric agents. This destructive process has been partially arrested by the free use of paint; but the Secretary of the Interior has informed Congress that this expedient is ineffectual, and that unless scientific men come to the rescue, and invent some new preparation, which, by being applied to the stone, shall completely protect it from the action of the air, the whole structure will he reduced to a mound of sand in one-fifth the time that it would last if built ol common marble. It is thus seen that chemical principles are involved even in avocations most purely mechanical; so that the best reasons exist for making them objects of universal study.

Among the various occupations which require a knowledge of this science to be successfully carried on, that most noble, useful, and universal of all human pursuits, agriculture stands prominent. The farm is a srreat laboratory, and all these changes in m-Uter whi'-h it is the farmer's chief hu-Binoss to produce, are of a chemical nature. He breaks up and pulverizes his soil with plough, harrow and hoe, for the same reason that the practical chemist powders his minerals will) pestle and mortar; namely, to expose (he materials more perfectly to the action of chemical auents. The field can only be looked upon as a chemical

manufactory; the air, foil, and manures are the farmer's raw materials, and the various forms of vegetation are the products of manufacture. The farmer who raises a bushel of wheat, or a hundred weight of flax, does not fabricate them out of nothing; he performs no miraculous work of creation, hut it is by taking a certain definite port'O.i of his raw material and converting it into new substances, through the action of natural agents: just as those substances are again manufactured in the one case into bread, and in the other into cloth. When a crop is removed from the field, certain substances are taken away from the ground which differ with different kinds of plants; and if the farmer would know exactly what and how much his field loses by each harvest, and how in the cheapest maimer that loss may he restored, chemistry alone is capable of giving him the desired information. To determine the nature and properties of his soil, its adaptation to various plants, and the best methods of improving it; lo economize his natural sources of fertility; to test the purity and value of commercial manures, and of beds of marl and muck; to mingle composts arid adapt them to special crops; to improve the quality of grains and fruits; to rear and feed stock, and conduct the dairy in the best manner, farmers require a knowledge of this science. Nor can they, as a class, much longer afford to be without it; for it has always been found that the application of scientific principles to any branch of industry puts power into ihe hands of the intelligent to drive ignorance from the field of competition; so that as discoveries multiply, and informat on is diffused, those farmers who decline to inquire, in'o the principles which govern their vocation, or who prefer the study of politics to that of agriculture, will have occasion to groan more deeply than ever over the unprofitableness of their business.— Youmans.

THE DAIRY—MAKING BUTTER.

As the dairy season is now fairly upon ns, a few thoughts upon butter m >kiug, with espcial reference to the quantity which may he made per cow, and the mode of doing it, may he profitable, hnd we hope interesting. Those persons who have gone on for years, satisfied with a yield of from one hundred to one hundred and tweniy-five pounds per cow, supposing that about

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the maximum production, may not. thank us f'>r disturbing their repose, and will probably reply that the cases to which we shali refer, are extraordinary ones, or perchance doubt the correctness o! the state-me-its altogether. To such we have ordy to say, if you are satisfied with your present doing, others have no right to com plain, beyond the general desire for ati improved system of management, and wish to elevate tie character of the New York dairies, to thehighest point of improvement.

Twenty years ago, good managers were content with one hundred to one hundrpd aid twenty-five pounds per row, of buttc r Tap standard has been going higher and higher since, until now, the dairymen who mikes less than one hundred and fifty lbs. is rather ashamed to name the quantity. and can seldom recollect exactly how much he did make. He usually has : 'a large family to use the milk and butter," and his "cows are, many of ihern heifers, and he did not expect much from them," or some si niter excuse.

In this age of improvements, we insist tint one hundred and fifty pounds should bs ihe minimum, even of poor dairies, while no good dairymen should be satisfied short of one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred pounds. This proposition may startle some who are slow to believe, but as the doctrine, that what has been done can be done again, holds good in this, as in other matters, there can be no good reason why such results should not be attained.

This brings us to a statement of a Cew in-tancesofsuccessful management, which have come to our knowledge, instances which are worthy of being held up as examples, before the thousands who have never reached equal successful results.

The instances to which we refer, may not be the most remarkable which have been reached, but they are certiirdy respectable, and we will thank any of our readers who have don°, better, to communicate the (acts for publication.

VVe chanced a few days ago. to call on three farmers in the same neighborhood, within sight of each other, all of whom have beenquiiesucc.essful in butiermaking. The first was our old friend Lewis Sames, of Lee. who. several years ago, used to make about one hundred and eighty lbs. per cow. from a dairy well selected and well managed. He has however, since let out his dairy, and has not now so good z. Jot of cows as formerly, having pur-

chased several to increase the number, to correspond with the increased size of his farm. He last year made (from we think near twenty cows) an average of over one hundred and seventy pounds per cow, to sell, besides the quantity ci.n.-umed in the family. His dairy is now increased to twenty-eight cows.

Mr. George Hitchcock, npar by, from ten cows, made to sell over 1,S00 pound? of butter, on an average of a little more than one hundred and eighty lbs. per cow. Among hi- cows, were one two years old, and two three years old heifers. Mr. PL feeds a little meal to his cows in the spring, UMtil the orass affords a full bile, and in the autumn as ihe feed fails, feeds cornstalks, from corn sown broadcast and cut, and fed green. This he considers a very profitable practice.

Mr. Roswell Spinning, also in the immediate vicinity, milked last season, fourteen cows, and made to sell an average of one hundred and ninety-seven pounds of butter per cow. He feeds during the spring from two to three quarts of meal, a mixture of corn ground with the cob and oats, per "day, until good feed is afforded in the pastures, and, like his neighbors!, takes good care of all his cows all the year. ~

Here then, are three examples of successful results in butter making, showing what may he dune with good coWs, good feed, and. good management. Now who will undertake to say that this system is not more profitable than that usually practised. Those who have so successfully tried it have no doubt upon die subject, and they certairdy are the best qualified to judge.

Let us look a moment at the value of the products of these cows. There is no exact date to shew the amount used in the families, hut taking the average, of these three dairies and the amount made, it is not much, if any less than two hundred pounds per cow. The average sales we<-e about fifteen and a half cents, but we will say two hundred pounds at fifteen cents, amounts to $30. Add value of same same for pork, which is variously estimated, hut which is certainly with good management, worth three dollars per cow, and we have a total of thirty-three dollars, a result far above that usually reached by dairymen, and affording a very handsome profit on the business.

If it is asked how this is accomplished, I the answer is given in few words. Have

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none but good cows, keep them well winter and summer, and take good care of the milk and butter. The very system which produces such large quantities,also ensures a good quality of butter, and consequently a fair price and ready sale.

Such are a few facts, hastily prepared, which may be serviceable to the readers of . the Farmer. That they may at least awaken a spirit of inquiry is our earnest wish. [New York Farmer.

--■ r J -' ■'. V£-..-s»!S*i

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. RICHMOND, JULY, 1852.

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WHEAT-THRESHING AND CATTLE-SHELTERS.

FOUR THINGS WORTH KNOWING.

There are three things which always bother a farmer in threshing wheat: the suffering of himself and his hands from the dust; the worrying of his oxen from heat; and the wear and tear of his horses from the constant strain of working the machine. But these three things are easily remedied.

1st. The dust may be entirely excluded from the nose and lungs by simply adjusting a moist sponge, made to fit like a muzzle, to the mouth and nostrils. It is not troublesome or difficult to make—only make a tolerably thick, close fitting muzzle out of a sponge, stuff small pieces of the sponge into the larger holes and stitch them in with a thread, fasten it on by tape strings above the head, (twine strings will cut,) and keep it moist by rinsing it as often as it becomes dry. The philosophy of it is simply this: the pores of the sponge are very crooked and irregular, and the dust in its permeations settles on the moist surface and becomes mud. One can breathe and speak through this new style of respirator perfectly well, and will sustain only the inconvenience of some little increased heat about the mouth, but nothing comparable to the trouble from the dust. Every hand whose business keeps him near the threshing box should have one, and be made to wear it, or— be threshed himself.

2d. The distress of the oxen from the heat may be entirely obviated by working them under covers, like horse covers, kept moist. A piece of coarse oznaburgs, such as come around bales of raw cotton, fitted with strings lo tie to the bottom of the ox bo w, with a rude girth and as rude a crupper, answers every purpose. Wet it thoroughly, put it on wet, and keep it so, as far as possible, by giving the ox a shower bath with a bucket of water, or taking it off and soaking it. It is astonishing what relief it gives. At first the oxen may be refractory and attempt to kick it off, but they soon come to understand it and relish it very much. Our friend, Mr. Newman, with whom we dispute the originality of this invention, uses it on his oxen in hauling his wheat, some five miles, lo market, and finds his account in it. Let the skeptical try it on one

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ox in a team and see how speedily he will iJake in his tongue. Any gentlemen who has ^fgver had a wet jacket will easily comprehend that a bullock may experience the same coolness that he has done from evaporation at the surface. 3d. The wear and tear of horses in working ; the wheat machine may be greatly mitigated by changing the teams; that is, if there are four horses working the machine, and four hauling up wheat, let them swap work every four hours, or about that interval. By doing it the horses will keep up their order and do more work than by the common plan. And their buttocks will not, by distressing and disfiguring scars, indicate, as they too often do at the close of threshing, how greatly their powers have been overtaxed. The number of consecutive hours that the horse works is a matter of much more importance to his durability, and consequenily, to his health and his master's interest, than is commonly supposed. There is one case recorded, of coal hauling in Scotland, where by the device of breaking up eighteen miles of travel into four stages of four and a half miles each the quantity hauled by each horse in a team of four went up from three tons two hundred weight to seven tons Weekly, a difference of very nearly four tons per horse.

Many of our readers will remember the astonishing ride of Col. Fremont in California, of eight hundred miles in eight days including all stoppages and nearly two days' detention. This feat, of one hundred and twenty miles a day with the first relay, and one hundred and twenty-five miles a day with the second, was performed by means of frequent changes, each of the parly having for his own use three horses, which were successively caught and put under the saddle at distances of about twenty miles.

So much for these three things, as to each of which we speak from actual experience. Now for the cattle-shelter. Most persons, as the straw is threshed, put it up in round stacks or in long ricks on level ground. This should by no means be done, but it should be slacked so as to form a good shelter for cattle, as it may be without difficulty, trouble or expense. Select a site on a sloping hillside, if convenient, if not, build ' a wall, (of stone is best,) from east, to west

about two feet high: then draw a parallel line about eight feet from it. At proper distances in this line, say ten feet, insert strung posts showing four or five feet above the ground and about two feet in, well rammed: mortise strong plates upon these posts, (the mortising may be done with a two inch auger.) Across this parallel place stout poles, twelve to fourteen feet long, leaving just the intervals that you would in a rack; in fact, you have only made an enormous rack with an upward inclination of two feet in eight. Upon this elevated grating your straw should be stacked, and it will afford your cattle a fine shelter which they can gradually consume without troubling any one to feed them and the straw will at the same time be kept out of the mire. For the back wall a strong double fence to be stuffed with straw may be substituted, but it should be very strong or it will break down with the weight of straw. Of course, where a farmer has been sensible enough to have good shelters for his cattle these remarks do not apply.

OUR PROSPECTS.

A year ago we took charge of the Planter. Since-then there has been added to our list about 1,400 subscribers, when we should have had in the same time 14,000. About five-sevenths of these we ourselves have obtained in such spare time as we have had and by some pretty hard electioneering, or, in plain words, begging. There is hardly a paper at the North of the same rank which does not boast its 30,COO or 40,000 subscribers, and it is somewhat mortifying to see Virginians so backward in this business, to see them require coaxing where Yankees volunteer. But we hope this will be corrected after awhile.

It is very desirable to enlarge the Planter, and we have several times been asked why we have not done it. It is evident that with so small a list of subscribers it is out of our power. Some persons have proposed to us to double the size and the price of the paper; we are willing; but we suspect we should lose more than half our list were we to attempt it, and as for new subscribers, they could not be had. It is worth a dollar now in many instances to get that amount subscribed, and

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when the price is raised ihe difficulty would be increased in geometrical proportion.

That diffifulty will be considerable at all events for some time to come; for are we not just in the beginning of a Presidential election"? And every farmer will read his Whig paper or his Democratic paper—how few alas! read both—and will read it with as lively an interest as if he was the director and not the puppet of the poliiicians. Happy man, he thinks he rules ihem, at least helps to do it. The Planter is now to be handed to the lady of the house, whilst the husband hastens to see if "those rascals" have succeeded in proving Scotta "Sewardite"orPearce a drunkard.

We fear that it will be vain to ask Parmer A to subscribe to the Planter. He has just taken '-The Campaign," a cheap pnper to last during the canvass. You need say nothing now to B about your remedy for the joint worm, for he is on "the committee of vigilance," lias no time to attend to such things, and the joint worm wont come again until after the election. Nor ask C about his tobacco; he has not seen it for a week, having been to hear "a great stump speaker" "give it to" or "catch it from" another stump speaker, and had for several days before been overhauling the file's of "The Crisis" or "The Yeoman," to get "an important fact" f..r the said stump speaker, to wit, how many more editors of newspapers President So and So had appointed to office than President Tims and So: Nor tell D the hogs are in his cornfield, for he will only refer vou to the overseer, he himself being just about to start to "the mass meeting:" Nortalkio E of subscribing two dollars to the Stale Agricultural Society, for he has just come from the great State Convention, has paid his own expenses and subscribed five dollars to the Central Executive Commit tee fund for "circulating documents and for olh-r expenses of the election," and worse than all has found out that his wheat has been heated to the tune of ten cents in the bushel by "the carelessness of my manager:" Nor propose 10 F to join a county agricultural society, for he is a member of the Democratic Association and has to watch "a clique that are trying to control it:" Nor to G to aid in forming a Hole and Corner affair, for he is a member of the Scott Club, and has to he'p to sing the "glees!"

Such impottant business as this, that is to say the business of working in ttaces, with lifi privilege of swelling the while, is destined \ c occupy the time of so many this sumn er and fall, that we hardly expect to do more th: n keep the hold we have, trusting to mend it when "the excitement" is cooled down. And is it not right and reasonable it should be sot For did not the Virginia delegation bring forward Franklin Pearce, with rarest concord, each man of said delegation, except two, originating the nomination? And are not Virginia WhiiSbound todefeal thisman with "the gallant Son of 'the Old Dominion'?' "

Poor Old Virginia! Mother of States and of statesmen, and mother too of some children of quite other calibre, how Ions will these children neglect their own interests and your glory? When will they cease to bow their necks to the yoke of aspiration 1

TOBACCO—ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"A Subscriber" from Gordonsville desires to know "if it would do to take a crop of oats from land which brought tobacco the preceding year, and as soon as the oats are gotten offflW plough up the stubble, put in a crop of buckwheat and turn it under, so soon as it attained its green growth, to serve as a tnantning for a crop of tobacco the succeeding spring; or if it would be better to turn the oats under and let the buckwheat alone."

As to the buckwheat we cannot say much, having no experience with the crop; but we shoul I not recommend its use this way, or in any other as a gteen manuring crop where clover will grow, as, we presume, it will all about Gordonsville and Orange C. H. As far as we could venture to advise when we are enliiely ignorant of the quality of the land and the rotation pursued, we would say that the better plan in our ju Igment, would be to save the oat crop, then "stubble up" the lot for rye or wheat to be followed with clover, and lake a fresh piece of land far tobacco, to he manuied ' with the ordinary manures of the farmer, or ' with guano ploughed in in the fall. If any buckwheat is to be used as manure for tobacco, let it he on another piece of land. j This latter crop does not bear repetition well,

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except on very rich lands; anil if it did, it ftlpuld be bad farming to repeat it. The improvement of the land is one of the most valuable features of the tobacco crop when well managed, and the first object after getting the crop off, should be to get the land that pio-duced it well lateen in clover. In thisinstancei it would have been better farming to have seeded clover with the present crop of oats. The most highly improved estates in Albemarle have been managed in that way.

DEATH OF HENRY CLAY.

The " Farmer of Ashland" is no more. He Hid in Washington Ciiy on Tuesday, June 29th, at half past tleven o'clock. For monihs past the public mind has been prepared for Ihe painful intelligence, but its realization

as necessary to show with what intense feeling of sorrow the uation would receive it. The mournful "minute gun"—the solemn toll of the church bell—the almost entire suspension of business—the weeds of mourning in every mansion—the gloom depicted in every countenance—.he sorrowful throb of every jfcm, speak in unmisiakeable languaee that ' a mighty man has fallen in Israel!" For |half a Cintury he served his countiy wiih a patriot's heart and a giant's mind—and he has gone down to the -'City of the Dead" with the grateful tribute of a nation's tears. Others have filled a higher official position, but none have left a more honorable renown or a more stainless name. It is no part of our duty hereto record his services—the nation acknowledges them. His historv belongs to hK country—his fame to posterity. They will judge him by his merits. Peace to his ashes!

REPUBLICATION OF DeBOW'S REVIEW.

In our adverti-ing columns will be found a pro-pectus of the lepublication of the back numbers of the above review in a condensed foim. As the sole repository of southern and ■western statistics we consider it a work ol value. The greatest want we encounter is the want of josi snch information as is here otTcred. To the large class of formeis in Vir-

ginia who look beyond the naked details of their business, and would compare it with other pursuits, we should think this woik, the only one of its kind, must be necessary.

SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE.

We call attention to the first number of Major Gilham's Essay on Scientific Agiicul-ture, which will be found on another page.

We know loo little of such matters to speak with confidence of Major Gilham's ability to treat this very important subject in a satisfactory mannet; yet, we have confidence in him, because he is Professor of Chemistry in a Slate Institution of high rank, and because v.e believe him to be a thorough gentleman. We again entreat our friends who wish their soils analyzed to send them to him, in preference to sending them out of the Slate.

From the Albany Cultivator.

INACCURACY IN FARMING.

We are unwilling to believe the frequent remark that farmers are less intelligent than other classes of the community, or that their business is less perfect than that of many other professions. A great deal of uncertainly and conflicting views exist, it is irue, with regard lo many points in their practice. But we must not forget that even what are termc', by way of eminence, the learned profesek ns. furnish plenty of examples of similar differences of opinion. The 'glorious uncertainty of the law' is proverbial, in spite of the thousands of *vise heads which have exerted their shrewdness for centuries 10 establish uniform justice; for even at the present dfiy the most prolound jurist is in some cases at a loss to say whether he may not be actually commiliing a crime against the law; and ihegreaiest giant in legalachieve-ment is he who can creep through the smallest keyhole of techiical evasion. If we look at medicine, we shall hardly regard all difficulties! settled, when there are almost as many systems for keeping ihe corporeal machine in repair, as there are in Parisian fashions—while cold water, hot water, steam and red pepper,alternately exert their powers on ihe same disease; and cakes of ice and caniharides, mineral poisons and vegetable poisons, mercury

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are denounced. J\or snail we, in taking large masses of people together, find more general intelligence among carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, bricklayers and butchers, than in the agricultural community. All of them furnish occasional examples of brilliant mental achievement, and many of singular stupidity.

But there is one par'icular in which the farmers are decidedly in the back ground. It is one in which they have no adequate idea of the immense i.iss they are sustaining. A thorough reformation in this particular, the country over, would effect as great a change as steam engines have in travelling, or in manufactures. The deficiency we here refer to, is the want of rigid accuracy, by weighing and measuring, in conducting the various operations on a farm, and recording the results systematically.

The correction of this evil would immediately do more to improve and render profitable this great art of arts, than all that chemistry, botany, geology, s.ubsoiling and tile draining could ever accomplish without it. It would be perfectly astonishing what an amount of fog and cobwebs would be cleared away from agriculture in a few years if it could be thoroughly and universally applied in practice. We have heard of a certain Yankee ship-captain who kept his "reckoning" upon a shingle; which answered a very good purpose in connexion with some shrewd guessing, until a fellow-countryman on board, in an idle hour thoughtlessly whittled it all away. Yet he possessed a decided advantage over many farmers, who keep no reckoning whatever. They find out perhaps at the end of the third year at furthest, by the amount of their debis, which way their vessel is drifting, or whether they are making any progress; but what ii is that gives the impetus,—whether favorable gales, turned to the best advantage,—or beating against the wind to great disadvantage,— or even rowing with main strength with no wind at all,—they have an exceedingly indefinite knowledge at best.

To come a little more to particulars. There is not one farmer in a hundred but will apply his most skilful mathematics in reaching: the precise value of what passes out of his hands—the produce dealer cannot defraud him of a single half-dime. The most accurate balance, and the most correct measure, give the true account of all he sells. But in all the transactions with his own farm—transactions in which

it is of the highest moment that he should \ know whether he is gainer or loser—eve#f| rything is enveloped in the darkness of un-?', * certainty. He may not know after years of trial whether his profits or losses preponderate in the making of pork,—in the fattening of beef,—in the manufacture of cheese,—in the cultivation of grain,—in deep or shallow ploughing,—in coarse or fine wool sheep,—in rounded Berkshires, or clipper-built hand-pikes,—orinanything else which may be done or managed in two ways. A good farmer informed us that he had found a decided benefit in a dressing of leached ashes to his field; but the measured amount of benefit or the number of bushels applied per acre, were hid in the mists of conjecture; consequently be was unable to say whether it would pay to draw ashes for manure two miles or ten. Another had used shell marl under the same circumstances and with a like unknown result. A third had found an increase in his crops from the use of swamp muck, but whether this increase would pay the expense, double or quadruple it, remained locked up with the secrets of the unknown.

What should we think of a railroad company that should conduct nil their internal arrangements by guesses; whiot/; should spend days at the end of each ha*' 1 year in discussing, arguing and trying to estimate the profits of the road, with a view to declaring a dividend? The balance sheet of a bank or other corporation must not contain an error of a single cent; why should not the farmer know all his accounts with his fields with a faint degree of the same accuracy ? The cotton manufacturer can tell to a fraction the cost of his fabric; but how few even among our best agriculturists know how much a certain animal, or a bushel of grain, has cost them ; and what seems still more surprising, is, that after numerous premiums have been offered hy agricultural societies, we are still very much in the dark about the comparative value of roots and grain, of ground and unground food, of the best way of raising potatoes, and of a multitude of other points of great importance, and of which weighing and measuring would furnish at least a proximate knowledge.

If a single farmer would expend fifty dollars a year in the time and labor required to measure his fields or portions of them ; to reckon accurately the amount of manure applied to each portion ; to record faithfully the quantity of labor expended;

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and the number of bushels yielded ; if he Savould try some of the best modes for the J 'feeding and management of cattle, horses, sheep and swine, in connexion with different breeds or fragments of such breeds. he could scarcely fail to possess in ten years an amount of knowledge not at present enjoyed by one in ten thousand. What then would be the condition of the art, if every intelligent cultivator should adopt a similar course—what an accumulation of valuable knowledge would be thrown together; what a sun-light would be sent into every dark corner of doubt, and the dim objects of twilight become clear and obvious in full glare of day.

Nearly the whole expense for beginning this proposed improvement is a weighing machine like a hay scale, in which cattle, loads of hay. ccc. may be quickly examined; to which may be added a common grocer's or miller's balance for smaller objects ; baskets of accurate measurement, half-bushel measures, a tapeline for measuring land, and cart-bodies and wagon-boxes with accurately estimated contents. Weighing animals once a week during the various experiments in fattening could be quickly accomplished with such convenient scales; and the small platform balance irould enable one in a moment to deter-

ine the weight of a cow's milk or butter, a fleece of wool, or a bushel of grain. It is the want of facilities of this kind deters many from accuracy.

If any of our readers wish definite di-reciions how to keep clear and distinct accounts, they will find the outline of an admirable specimen on pages 509, 510 and 511. of the last volume of Colman's European Agriculture, which we earnestly commend to their aitention.

%5mi

Prom the Plough, Loom and Anvil.

ON THE REARING OF CATTLE.

BY C. W. WOOD, OP WOODHOUSE, ENGLAND.

How Cew farmers are there who understand the rationale, the why and wherefore of most of their agricultural operations; and what chance is there for improvement •when they are content to follow blindly in the beaten track of their predecessors, without inquiring if there be not a better path? What chagrin and disappointment might have been avoided, and how much time saved, by many importers and purchasers of improved cattle, had they read and acted

upon the following advice, which we consider one of the best, because one of the most practical and comprehensive contributions ever made to the agricultural press.

The heading of this article formed the subject of a paper read by Mr. Wood at the June Quarterly Meeting of the Loughborough Agricultural Association. Mr. Wood confined himself strictly to the subject, not of breeding or of fattening, but of rearing stock; treating it under the following heads: 1. The Constitution and Economy of Agricultural Cattle. 2. The State and Condition in which they Exist. 3. Their Food and Genera! Management.

In the consideration of the substances which compose the animal frame and their qualities, a key may be found to many secrets in the general management of young cattle, particularly as regards their habits and their lood. Science points out to us a framework of bones, (the principal ingredients of fibrin and gluten,) to give form, uprightness, stability and strength to the machine; next, an attachment of muscle, (composed chiefly of fibrin and gluten) to give motion and activity to the body: and lastly, a respiratory and circulating apparatus, to supply heat, nourishment, and life to the whole, in order to resist the chemical powers from without. Seeing, therefore, that we have a mixed machine to deal with, it is self-evident that mixed or combined means are needed to cany out the first intentions of nature, and without which life could not exist. We must have, first, starch or sugar, to supply carbon for respiration; second, fat or oil, to keep up the fat which exists, more or less, in the bodies of all animals; third, gluten or fibrin, to supply muscle and cartilage; fourth, earthy phosphates, for the supply of bones; and fifth, saline substances, sulphates and chlorides, to replace what is daily rejected in the excretions.

The second proposition requires to be clearly defined, viz ; the state or condition of animals. We find this to be three-fold, each of which requires our anxious attention. We have, first, a fcctal state, or one in connexion with the mother, which exists before birth; secondly, a state of growth or development, which comprehends the period from birth to maturity; and thirdly, the state of the full grown animal.

We have no control over the condition of the foetal animal, except through the medium of the mother, of the general management of which I shedl speak pre-

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sently. Of the second condiiion, Niture must be closely observed and carefully imitated, in order that the third or ultimate condition may be healthy, full grown and useful—the great object of the farmer, to repay him for all his expense, anxiety and toil.

It is a very false economy to stint the allowance of food to a young animal. New milk, or the flour of all leguminous plants, such as beans, peas, &.c. which contain casein, with an infusion of oil-cake,* to promote fat, seems nearly to approximate to the composition of ordinary milk — skimmed milk hei'g destitute of the principal ingredient required by nature for the support of respiration. Thib, in addition to warmth and cleanliness, will always keep the vital powers predominant over chemical—the cardinal point in the rearing of cattle.

I now come to my third position, viz:— '•'their food and general management;" and a more important and profitable sub ject cannot engage your attention. It must he considered in detail. I will begin, therefore, as I proposed, with the foetal condiiion of the animal, and take a calf as a general example. It, like hII other animals, is supported and nourished by the blood circulating from the mother through

iisown body, from the moment of its ear- ' quantity ol blood is increased, more oxygen liest formation up to the time of its birth; is taken in the lungs, and consequently which blood contains, ready formed, all the more carbonic acid is given oft. A certain various substances which are necessary proportion of bone and muscle must also for its own sustenance and existence. The be supplied to the voting animal by the cow forms a new and complete animal; it <™'l given t" the mother, or the bones and also secretes food fbr this new animal, muscles ol the mother herself will belaid which is to sustain and increase it for a under contribution to supply it. This must considerable time after its birth; for the be effected by the quantity of phosphates, milk, line the blood, is the most perfect food gluten, fibrin, or cas< in. which arc and contains every substance of which the

and then, forsooth, to expect a fine healthy, ii offspring, with an abundance of milk for/' its sustenance? And if such brilliant ex- '' pectations are not realized, the fault is to lie laid upon the poor beast—"She is not a good milker;" or to the land—"It will not do for rearing, or for dairy purposes;" in short, upon any thing rather than upon their own stupid, ignorant and thoughtless minds. Breeding stock, gentlemen, cannot be kept too well; they are, in truth, feeding stock to others, and ought to have the best a farm affords; the best pastures in the summer, with cabbage and commen tunips in the autumn: Swedes, sweet straw, oilcake, [corn meal,] and hav in the winter; and in the sprinrr after calving, some mangel-wurzel, steamed potatoes and hay until the grais time again.

To nourish the young animal in the wombofits mother, an additional quantity of food must be given, and this quantity must be increased as the state of pregnancy advances; and the kind of additional food must readily supply the materials of the growing bones and muscles of the foetus, and contain a larger quantity of starch or sugar also, than the mother in herordinary state would require. This is required by the circumstance that the mother must now breathe for herself and her young; the £ quantity of blood is increased, more oxygen^.'

bo ly is built. When sucking is at an end, should we not invtate nature, a sure fcnd unerring guide to philosophic truth? Any animal—whether cow, horse, sheep, or pig—having its own existence to support, (I will add in agricultural language, ''in good condiiion ') a new animal to form,

given in the (ood with which ihe mother is fed. An animal thus kept, will be in the most profitable condition to rear its young; and bear in mind, that as the calf grows rapidly, the I'od it requires increases da ly with its hulk, and the demands upon the mother every day hecome greater. At this period, therefore, the cow must obtain larger snp-

and one also to feed, is, to say the least of pi'" of food to sustain herself and to produce a sufficient quari'ity ol milk tor her calf. If, then, adequate supplies are not

it, in a most important and interesting condition. Is such an animal to be sent, to feed upon a scanty pasture, io be turned into a miserable and wet farm-yard, or kept, upon straw and an occasional turnip, until she is little better than a bag of bones;

* Indian corn, the glory of American agriculture, is more ihnn an equivalent for this main-stay of the British feeder.— Ed.

given, a portion is daily laken from her own substance which causes her to be lean and feeble, and heryoungstinted and puny in its growth.

What has been said regarding the food given to the cow. will be more or less effective in promoting the growth of the young animal solely on milk; whep richer

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*

*

in rurd, it will promote more muscle; when richer in phosphates, more bone; anil in butter, more fat. Milk is a perfect food lor a growing animal; nothing is wanted in it. The mother selects all the ingredients of this perfect food from the substances which are mingled in her stomach from the food she eats; she changes them chemically in such a degree as to present them to the young animal in a s'ate in which it can most easily, and with least labor, employ ihem for sustaining its body, and all this at a given and appointed moment of time. In due time, the young animal begins to feed for itself, and then the mother improves in condition. Warmth, exercise and good food are all that then is required; always bearing in mind that, as nature prepares the food for young animals in a state in which they can most easily digest it, so we should prepare by boiling or steaming all dry food and roots for the same purpose. In the crowing animal, the food has a double function to perform— it must sustain and it must increase the body. Hence, whatever tends to decrease the sustaining quantity, (and cold, exercise and uneasiness do so.) will tend in an equal degree to lessen the value of a m'ven weight of food in adding to the weight of an animal's body. To the pregnant and the milking cow, the same, remarks apply.— The custom of allowing young cattle to remain during the whole winter in straw-yards, exposed to all the variations of weather, cannot be t<->o loudly condemned.— Oil-cake, it is true, which is sometimes given in la rue quantities, makes some small amends by the supply of carbon to the system; but if a warm, drv and clean shed was substituted, with turnips instead of cake the condition and quality of the ani nial would be very much improved, and a considerable savin? of expense be effected, to j.ay nothing of the improvement of the manure.

All vegetables contain, ready formed, (which they extract from the food on which they live.) the Fubsfanc s of which the parts of animals are composed The animal consequently draws, ready formed. the materials of its own body from the vegetable food it eats. The starch, sugar and gum ia vegetables are to supply c.ar-b n for respiration. Carnivorous animals obtain it from the fat of the food; starving animals from the. fit of their own bodies; and young animals, which live upon milk. by the sugar it contains. In the young animal we find an excess of life; it has to

increase as well as sustain ih-elf. In the full grown animal we find the daily waste ol substance, which is carried out of the body in the excretions, made up by the gluten, phosphates and saline s-ubstnticea in the food, and a balance kept up between the powers of life and the bodily struc'ure; it. simply has to sustain itself In the old animal, v\ hen life is diminished', we obst rve a proportionate decrease of bodily substance.

It is interesting and wonderful when we j thus trace the existence of the bodily structure of all animals ready formed in the ( vegetable, which property in vegetables is formed during their growth—is derived from sourcts purely gaseous and inorganic, by chemical, mechanical and physical j operations. It is the duty of the practical ; farmer to adopt these methods for improving the sod; hut this forms no part of my subject.

Sheep.— The additional value to your flock by this mode of management, and especially in giving them some dry food, such as hay or corn, before lambing, is very great. It gives firmness <f fibre, and adds greater vigor to life, a greater activity to the vital powers, by which alone if is capable of resisting disease, and of arriving at an early maturity. The improvment of the fleece, by such a course, will be fifty per cent. The old breed were kept from two years to two years and a half old before Fold, and rarely exceeded ten pounds, or fifteen pounds a quarter. It is true, breed has much to do with this question; but in sheep of the same breed, kept in different ways, a difference of twenty-five per cent, may be frequently observed. To insure a healthy offspring, a good fleece of wool and of sound staple, sheep require to be kept well, in the spring months particularly.

I'ips. —Pigs ought never to lose the fat or condition they receive from the mother, which is easily kept up by milk, peas or beans, and all of which contain flesh. A >rnall quantity of oil-cake, once or twice a day, in addition to turnips, mangel-wurzel, or any vegetable food; fed in this way, many months are saved in time, and vou have the advantage of summer feeding, which, on account of the warmth, is by far the best period for this purpose.

Horses. —I need only say that where great muscular development is required, as in the case of race horses which run for the two-year old stakes, they are corned very high as soon as they can eat it; and

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it is astonishing to see the strength and activity resulting from such a plan. Early maturity is very profitable here. Give your yearlings plenty of oats and beans, with steamed potatoes during the winter, and you gain a complete year in time, besides the increased value you put upon the animal; and in summer feed them upon rye or clover, the best possible iood for horses. The sooner they are broken in the better; their tempers become quieter, and they thrive more. I wish to mention here the great value of salt to all young animals; it destroys bols and worms; it promotesdigestion,and assists thesecretion of healihy bile, the medium through which respiration is supported; this, however, should be given in moderate quantities.

Having now spoken upon the general management of the various kinds of cattle usually reared by the farmer, I shall conclude with a lew remarks upon their food; and I deem you will not consider this out of place. The amount of food, either for man or beast, which a given acre will produce, depends considerably upon the kind of crops which is raised. Thus a crop of thirty bushels of wheat will yield only ahout foruteen hundred pounds of fine flour, while a crop of six tons of potatoes will give about four thousand four hundred poundsof an agreeable,dryand mealy food.

It is said, on the authority of the Board of Agriculture, that a crop of clover, tares, rape or potatoes, cabbage, or turnips, will furnish at least three times as much food for cattle as an equal breadth of pasture-grass of medium quality. This, however, being but a hint, I will at once give you a table of the nutritivequalities of the various sorts of food now in common use. It is selected with some care from the various tables published, and has direct reference to the subject before us, on account of the proportion of gluten, starch and oil which each ai tide contains.

In the root crops I place—first, carrots; second, mangel-wurzel; third, Swedes; fourth, potatoes; fifth, cabbage; sixth,common turnips.

In the green crops—first, dills; second, rye; third, clover; and fourth, grass.

In the corn crops—first, beans; second, peas; third, lintels; fourth, wheat; fifth, barley and Indian corn; sixth, oats; seventh, rye; eighth, buckwheat.

In the straw crops—first, pea straw, which is nearly equal to hav; second, oat and barley straw; fourth, wheat and straw; fifth, rye straw; and sixth, bean straw.

Three pounds of oil-cake are equal to about ten pounds of hay. ^

THE PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL PLEASURES OF FARMING.

We are unable to resist the temptation to transfer to our pages the following communication from Frederick Holbrook, one of the associate editors of the New England Farmer, to the columns of that paper, in answer to the queries of a correspondent.

Mr. Holbrook's connected style rarely allows of the selection of detached passages. So closely do what precedes and what follows depend one upon another, that a fragment gives as little idea of the whole, as a Philadelphia brick would give of a Chestnut street block. "Good wine needs no bush." So, without any palaver, we let our friend speak for himself.— Ed. Journal of Agriculture.

I come now to a direct practical answer to your question—"In what does the secret consist of finding any real substantial pleasure in the operations of farming?" Among other things you name "the monotonous business of holding the plough from early in the morning to late in the evening." As too commonly conducted, I grant the ploughing is not a particularly agreeable business, and that you have described it quite tersely. Too many plough-/)"! men, having little or no thought about the true philosophical principles of their business, are more anxious to get over the greatest possible breadth of land in a day, than to do proper and the best work.— They cut their furrows too shallow, and as wide as, or wider than the plough can possibly turn them, and what portion cannot be got over with the plough aided by the foot of the ploughman, rolls back into its bed again, and the next time round its "grass sidp up" is put out of sight by the "cut and cover" operation, making a high ridge of earth with a deep hole beside it. The furrows are also very crookedly cut, and, therefore, do not match together at all well. The ploughman twists and turns himself in all manner of shapes, is vexed with his plough, scolds at and whips his team furiously, labors and tugs and sweats away, "from early in the morning to late in the evening," and can show you as big and as mean a day's work as you could wish to see, with hardly a rod square of passably good work in the whole piece. I would not allow such a workman to plough a day for me if he would do the work for nothing and pay ten dollars for

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER

217

the privilege. But if properly conducted, 6ay for ten hours in a day, which is all a | /nerciful man will require of his animals of draught, however he may be disposed as to himself, ploughing is one of the finest and most exhilarating employments in the world.

Did you ever investigate the accurate philosophy of the plough and of ploughing? Take a highly improved modern plough, and study it. Look at it as a whole implement, and at its several parts, and reflect what a world of profound study it lias cost to produce that same implement. What high mechanical principles it in-Tolves, and how beautifully do they combine together to produce an exact and most valuable result. There is the mould-board alone, although an exact mathematical combination, yet it is a problem for you, (I speak advisedly,) which, if you have not solved it, its solution will give you a pretty sharp brush, with all your mathematics. Then, too, a combination of mathematics, a little varied to suit each case, will give you the best form of mould-board for sandy and gravelly soils, for clay, and heavy moist soils generally, and for best working stubble land. The plough best adapted to sandy, and generally light, dry soils, will lay flat furrows, accurately • shut in beside each other, thus preventing p<too great natural tendency to evaporation, incident to such soils. Your mathematics will show you that a coulter set bevelling to the land, an inclined landside 1o the plough, and a concave-lined mould-board, all contribute, to facilitate the laying of flat furrows, and that it. would be difficult to drop the edges down accurately beside each other without these several provisions. The plough best adapted to clay and other heavy or moist soils, cuts rectangular furrows and lays them at an inclination of forty five degrees to the horizon. Your mathematics will show you that this is the best position for the furrows of such soils to be placed in. It can be undeniably demonstrated that none but rectangular furrows, whose depth is to their width as two is to three, can be laid at an inclination of forty-Jive degrees; that rectangular furrows, whose depth is equal to two-thirds their widih, and which are laid at an inclination of forty-five degrees, present, in their projecting angles, a greater surface of soil toiheameliorating influences of the atmosphere, and greater cubical content? of soil for the harrow to operate on in raising a deep fine tilth, or seed-bed,

and permit underneath them a freer circulation of air, and passage from the surface of superfluous moisture, than furrows of any other form or proportions that are practicable to be turned. The plough in the very best manner adapted to the working of stubble lands, will bo higher in the beam to enable it to pass obstructions, and shorter in the turn of its mouldboard than either of the preceding, will have a greater depth of iron in the back parts of the mouldboard, which will tend to throw its loose stubble furrow all over to an inverted position, and leave a perfectly clean channel behind it for the reception of the next furrow. Thus you see there is quite a philosophy in ploughs and ploughing, which the intellectual farmer is bound to understand.

However dull and monotonous the business of ploughing may be to you, it is not at all so to me. Starting my team a-field of a bright spring's morning, with my plough all bright and clean from its winter quarters, I feel as honest a pride and pleasure at the thought of my occupation as I ever do when engaging in any employment. I strike out my lands with a furrow as straight as an air line. .After this is accomplished I gauge my plough to cut deep furrows, and as narrow as is possibly compatible with the depth, and then take them off the land of uniformly exact depth and width, never allowing a crooked furrow to be seen in my ploughing. To me it is very exhilarating to see the furrows roll off my polished mouldboard, and lay beside each other with as accurate a finish as though they had been joined by a carpenter's tools, and to think, as my eye surveys the smoking soil thus prepared, how mother earth always delights in bountifully rewarding the careful husbandman,—that she invites a liberal, intelligent and accurate cultivation, by returning as compensation a greatly increased crop. I say to myself that I am one of the number engaged in an operation without which man would not have bread, civilization could not advance or be sustained, and which was one of the fundamental operations early contributing to elevate man from the barbarous state, and fix him in the abodes of civilization. I remember that the plough has been regarded with a sort of sacred-ness by men in every age, (hat even far back—

" In ancient times, tlie sacred plough employed, The kings, and awful fathers of mankind;"

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

and that now, it employs many of earth's choicest spirits. This occupation brings me tine health, refreshing slumbers, and while engaged in it, I can think as accurately as under any other conditions whatever. Indeed, if I were called upon to prepare a public address, an article for the press, or to engage in any other intellectual exercise, I could fix upon and arrange my subject, and bring to it quite as much vigor of thought and shape it into as logical an arrange,nent, as under any other circumstances.

My friend, you will find more or less philosophy connected with the proper performance of almost any of the methods of agriculture; and that many subjects, requiring further scientific inquiry, existeven in the commonest operations of husbandly. Your soils need to be fully understood that you may supply iheir wants and correct their superfluities. The various ingredients or properties of your manures must he known, together with the theory of composting, and must be applied properly. The properties that go to make up your crops must be founJ '>ut, so that you may best adapt the crops to the soil, or if your eoil is deficient in ingredients requisite to the raising of some desirable crop, they must be supplied by proper manures and cultivation. Fruits, for home use and for sale, must be produced, and a world of scientific investigation may be well employed, in finding out their best management, the character and habits of insects injurious to them, and the best means of preventing their depredations. The wet lands must be properly drained, which requires a combination of science wi'h practice. Irrigation produces wonderful effect?, may perhaps he within your reach, and its theory and best management must be found out. The philosophy of breeding domestic animals, a beautiful and interesting study, generally poorly understood and miserably practised in our oountry, must be investigated. ******

I have been thus earnest in stating the ca-^e as I understand it, because our agriculture has been quite long enough cursed with a prevailing sentiment that the farmer does not need much knowledge, and could not use it practically and profitably if he had it. It is claimed by many that the principles of correct cultivation are few, and all found out; that farming is a mere monotonous routine, for physical labor to conduct; that he is the best farmer who

can do the b ; ggest day's work with his hands, who can skin his farm the cleanest and put the proceeds of his fertility at in- 0 terest, spending little or nothing for the improvement of himself and family, and nothing to make home attractive.

Talk to many of our people of the advantages of applying the sciences to the cultivation of the ground, and about better educating the farmer, and they will tell you that it is simply ridiculous nonsense. I I say that these things are a curse to agri-| culture every way; and particularly so because| many of our brightest and most enterprising young men, sickening at the thought of engaging in a pursuit ihus advocated and practised, and unwilling

"To drudge through weary life without the nid Ol intellectual implements and tools,"

go off to other pursuits, when, if they could have had one-half the thorough | training to fit them for farming which they I were obliged to go through to be prepared I for some other pursuit, we should now see much more of correct, profitable cultivation than is seen.

I have to say to you, in conclusion, my i young friend, that if you wish for a field | of honorable usefulness, second to no other, for a naturally dignified pursuit where ^ ! cultivated intellect may find full scope,*' I where, by a practically judicious applica-I tion of the natural sciences which illustrate agriculture, you may wield a large influence for good to others then stick to your i farming. True, it will not bring you great i wealth; that is with difficulty attained, by j comparatively a lew; it usually requires | of him who seeks it the devotion of his every energy, while it is not his greatest good, but sometimes proves an evil either to himsell'or children. But an enlightened cultivation of ihe earth will give you a competence, and will prove favorable to mental culture and viitue. Your home, though modest and inexpensive, may be adorned in many little ways which will teml to make it the tasteful and fitting abode of virtue. A moderate outlay will, in these days of improvement, furnish you an assortment of the very best books, so that, seated bef ire your hearth you may commune with the choicest thoughts of gifted men. While abroad in the fields, nature will give you lessons of the deepest import. Your lands will furnish you a laboratory for the testing 1 and practical application of science. These things are

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER,

219

within your reach—not like wealth, d ffi-cult, and hard to be won, and only .by a few,—they are

" No special boon Fer high and not fi>r low, for proudly grace A: d nit fiir meek .■(" heart. The smoke ascends T" heaven as lightly from the collage hearth As r r >m the haughty paUce. He whose soul Tenders this true equality, may walk The fields of earth with gratitude and hope."

F. HOLBROOK.

PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, Fiom Jane blh,, to July 1st, 1852.

All persons who have made payments early enough to be enteied, and whose numes do n >t appear in the following receipt list, are requested to give immediate notice ot ihe omission, in order that the correction may he ( made in the next issue:

W. F. Lewis, to July. 1854, S3 00 I

Mrs. Charlotte Carver, to Jan. 1853, Joseph Ricks, to May, 1853, Div-id H. Claik, to Jdnuaiy, 1854, William P. Ncwliill, to January, 1853, Dr. N. K. Foster, to September, 1853, James Allen, to June, 1853, William P. Forbes, to May, 185?, V. M. Eppes, to January, iS53, James K. Wright, lo January, 1853, William Jeter, to July, 1852, Robert A. Kent, to July, 1852, Samuel Tunstall, to January, 1853, ."j^'^mes Brown, to July, 1851, I ar Rob't Henderson, to January, 1853, Gen'l C. Braxton, to July, 1852, Dr. W. P. Braxton, to January. 1855, Thomas Durrett, to January. 1853, Joseph Allen, to Januatv, 1853, Hush Rileigh, to July, 1852, William Palmer, to July, 1852, William C. Menniss, to January, 1853, Dr B. M. Jones, lo Januaty, 1H52, William H.'nkins, to July, 1852, William S. Dnpree, to July, 1852, James R. Dnpree, lo Julv, 1853, John D. Priddy, to July, 1853, William Hankins, to Julv, 1853 Capt F. Letter, to July, 1*53, William S. Dupree, to July. 1853, George L. Bayne, to July, 1853, Capt.G. A. Wood, to Julv. 1853, C. O Lipscomb, to Julv, 1853, William H Eubank, to J> ly, 1853, J)seph L Watkins, to Julv, l«&3. Capt. R. H. Williams, to July, 1853, P. K Wood, to July. 1853. Lan^sfon Arvin, to July, 1853, Col Alexander Fleet, to Januarv, 1853, Col. M M Millner, to Mav, 1853, Richard E G. Adams, to May, 1853, Je-se H Heath, to June, 1853, C J. Meriwether to Janti?rv. 1853, T. J. Taylor, to January, 1853,

1

y 10 oo

i no i oo

1 (10

1 oo i on 4 oo

J

A S. Jones, to January, 1853, John W. Old, to January, 1853, A. K Yancey, to January, 1853, Nathan Parker, to January, 11-53, James Fontaine, lo January, 1853, James Paxton, to January, 1853, S. B Atvvill, to July, 1853, J W. Scott, to July, 1853, John S. Cowherd, to January, 1853, John H. M'Kitmey, to January, 1&53, Archibald Gills, lo July, 1853, Thomas W. Bradlev, to May, 1853, J H. Eihendge, lo January.1853, William Payne, Sr. to January, 1853, Lemuel Turner, to January, 1853, Thomas W Downer, to July, 1853, Mose D. Echols, to January, 185 S, John G. Hughes, lo September, 1853, John Ituff, Sr. to June, 1853 Peyton Gryrnes, to July. 1853, Ro Morrison, lo June. 1853, Hugh W. Mackey, to June, 1^53, John Currie, Sr. to May, 1853, James H. Bowyer, to June. 1853, John A. Cress, to June, 1853, Robert Allen, lo June, 1853, G A. Baker, to June, 1853, Major J. C Huiton, to June, 1853, Roherl Sterrett, to June, 1853, James A F. Randolph, to June, 1853, • Andrew Lindsay, to June, <H5:s, J. L Campbell, to June, 185.N, William Ackerly. to May. 1853, Reuben Grigsby, to May, 1853, John M'Coiltle, to June. 1853, John G. Pole, to June, 1853, M. H Effinger, to June, l!-53, ■ John W. Hamilton, to June, 1-53,

Matthew White, lo June, 1-53, ' Ro. C. M'Clure, lo June, 1853, John F. Harper, lo May, 1853, 1 John C. Laird, to June. 1853, R. C. Noel, to June 1853, John C Bell, lo June, 1853, W. F. Poague, to June, 1853, Joseph Sieele, to June, 1853, Dr. William M. Gold, lo June, 1853, James Montgomery, to June, 1S..3, John Hamilton, lo June, 1853, John G. Hamilton, 10 June, 1853. Dr W. A. Wilkinson, to June, 1853, William Clark, lo June, 1853, Dr. D. S. Morgan, to Jui e 1853, H. M. Bowver, to June. 1853. Ro. B. Moorman, to June. 1853, Dr. John A. Davidson, to June, 1853, Dr. F. E. Luckett, to June, 1853, James T. Marshall, to June, 1853, Samuel W. Marlin, to July, 1852, Jonathan Leathers, to Septeml er, 1852 H. Z Shacklef'ord, to April. 1853, John O. Harris, lo Ja'Uiarv, 1853, | A F. Terrill, lo January. 1853. ■ Edwin Thurnian, to January. 1853, i J^mes W. Twyman, to Julv 1853,

Emanuel Gersi, to May, 1853, I Thomas Hardin, lo January, 1853,

SI 00 2 OO

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2 00 5 00 5 (.0 1 00

1 00

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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

BeBow s s Industrial Resources

AND PROGRESS OP THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN STATES, in three large and closely printed volumes, small type, double columns; handsome print, paper and binding,—being a digest and abridgement of ihe 12 volumes of DeBow's Review. Price 5510, or S3 33 per volume.

Defirous of supplying the large and continually increasing demand for the complete scries of(he Review, in 12 volumes, now exhausted, and which it would require a very large outlay to reprint, the editor has been induced to make a selection of all the important and valuable papers contained in them from the beginning, condensing, re-arranging and completing to date, and throwing the subjects after the manner of the encyclopaedias, into alphabetical order. In this manner everything of interest and importance will be preserved in a convenient form for reference; and the volumes will constitute the only repository for the shelves of the library, of such information, which by means of the monthly numbers hereafter will always be brought down to date.

The Volumes will embrace ihe gistof everything that has appeared in the Review relating to the Southern and Western Stales. (An imperfect index of which will be found at the opening of the 10th volume.)

To wit: Their History, Population, Geography, Statistics; Agricultural Products, of Cotton, Sugar, Tobacco, Hemp, Grains, Naval Stores, etc. etc.— Manufactures; detailed accounts, statistics and history of all branches,— Internal Improvements; complete statistics of Rail Roads, results profits, expenses, costs, advantages, miles in projection, construction, completed, etc.; Plank Roads, Canals, Navigation, etc.— Statistics of Health and Diseases, ivealth and progress; relative condition, whites and blacks; Slave Laws and Statistics, management and amelioration of slavery, — origin, history and dcfeiiccs of slavery and slave institutions; the valuable treatises of Harper, Hammond, Dew, on slavery, etc.; Commerce op the South and West in all of its minute particulars, etc. together with an historical and statistical sketch of each of the stales and cities, —the domestic and foreign trade, resources, manufactures, etc. of the United Stales;-the Census Returns from 1790, with the complete statistics or the census of 1850.

The volumes will be issued in September, October and November, 1852, and orders are solicited in advance, payable on delivery to Merchants, or to the parties themselves.

DeBow's Review, of which this is a condensation, is published monthly in New Orleans, and other southern and western cities, 112 to 140 pages, small print, fine paper and engravings, and treats of all the great industrial matters relating to the Southern and Western Slates, and incidentally of the North and the Union. Terms $5 per annum.

The volumes hereafter will be uniform with the condensed series.

A few sets of the complete work may be had at the office, in 12 large and handsomely boun£? volumes. Price $42. Single numbers supplied to make up sets, and binding furnished on reasonable terms.

f^-Orders on Commission Merchants in cities or towns, payable on sale of crops, received as cash.

J. D. B. DeBOW, Ed. DeBow's Review, Merchant's Exchange. New Orleans, July, 1852—6t

PIEDMONT FEMALE ACADEMY. npHE Second Term of the First Session of JL this Institution will commence on the 20th of July. The subscriber is making an improvement by which he will be enabled to take five or six more young ladies after the 20th of next month. Terms SCO for five months for board and tuition in all the English branches and alsoin the French language. An additional fee of $15 will be charged those who take lessons in music. Address the subscriber at Gordonsville, Orange County, Virginia. July—2t 'J. W. GOSS.

ANALYSIS OF SOILS, &c.

THE undersigned is prepared to execute the analyses of Soils, Guano, Marls, Plaster, &c. &c. at the Laboratory of the Virginia Military Institute. Packages may be forwarded through Webb, Bacon & Co. Richmond, or Echols & Pryor, Lynchburg. m Persons desiring further information wit* please address

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

DAILY AND WEEKLY DISPATCH.

THE Daily and Weekly Dispatch, published at the office on Governor street, near Main, Richmond, Virginia—commenced in October, 1850—have reached a very astonishing popularity. The Daily Dispatch is a penny paper and has an immense circulation in Richmond and contiguous towns. It affords the best medium for advertising. Subscribers in the country furnished with the paper at the low price of Four Dollars per annum.

The WEEKLY DISPATCH is published at One Dollar Per Annum, and is therefore one of the cheapest Newspapers ever published. It is a handsome sheet and contains the News of the Day, together with Literaiy Selections from the very best sources. The list is already very large and constantly increasing. No paper will be sent until paid for in advance. Hugh R. Pleasants is the chief contributor to the editorial columns of the Daily and Weekly Dispatch. Address the Proptietor, Richmond, Virginia.

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

221

AUSTRALIAN WHEAT-VERY SUPERIOR.

^HE berry of this grain is extra large, and makes the best of flunr. It produces a ater average crop than any other variety now grown in New York. Several years'experience 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, S4 per bushel. Other varieties of wheat, such as the While 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 targe Foundry, just erected by him and fitted out with machinery of the latest and most approved style, is, in addition to the manufacture of Tobacco Flattening Mills, prepared to receive orders for Stationary Steam Engines, Saw and Grist Mills, Agricultural Machines, Tobacco Presses of every description,and all kindsof Iron and Brass Castings. He pledges himself to execute faithfully, and with dispatch, all work entrusted to him. and respectfully 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.

&,>CHIN CHINA AND SHANGHAE FOWLS.

THE subscriber has for sale a few pairs of Pure Blooded Fowls, from the above Mock, originally imported by himself, warranted 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 Roxbunj, 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 srrandsired by the buck imported by Bishop Meade from the flock of Mr. Webb, and they are sired by an equally pood and well bred sheep,obtainecl 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 service in October next.

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

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

The Complete Faimerand Rural Economist and New American Gardener, by T. J. Fessen-den, in one volume, about 700 pages, cloth, gilt—SI 25.

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

Johnston's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry—50 cents.

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

Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener, cloth— 75 ci j nts.

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

Sheep Husbandry, by H. S.Randall—$1 25.

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

Browne's American Poultry Yard, tenth edition—SI.

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

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

Chemistry Made Easy for Farmers, paper— 25 cents.

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

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, Structure and Diseases of Sheep—SI.

The American Architect, the cheapest and best work of the kind published in the world, complete in 24 numbers, at 25 cents each, or S5 for the work complete—So' bound in two volumes.

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

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

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

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

mar—ly

UNION AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSE AND SEED STORE.

EALPH & Co. No. 23 Fulton street, New York, near Fulton Market, Dealers in all the most approved Agricultural and Horticultural Implements, Imported and American Field and Garden Seeds, Ornamemal Shade and Fruit Trees, Guano, Bone Dust, Poudrette, &c. Wrought Iron Ploughs, Truck's, Barrows, &c. &c. always on hand. Also, the Excelsior, or California Plough. mar 3t

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

DEVON BULLS FOR SALE.

THE subscribers, having lately entered upon the business of Breeding Devon Cattle, now, lor the first time, offer lor sale some ol their Bull Calves. Their stock is all recently imported from the celebrated herds of Messrs. George Turner and James GLuattly, Devonshire, England, who are well known as he 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

thjse we now ofier are Uiicas and Keokuk; the first, c,lived Mtrch 19th, 185!—the other, FeDru.iry 17th, 185 2; their pedigree is the same 1 , viz: sire, " Megunticook, : ' grandsiie, "Prince Albert," dam, " Nou-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 Barnstable, Devonshire, in I84ti, and at the New York State Show in 1851. "Prince Albert" and " Lord Lynedock" were both favorite prize bulls of Mr Ct'ianly. Also "Red Jacket, calved May 5th, 1852; sire, " Megunticook," dam, " Meadow L'lly," by " Baronet," grand dam, " Helena," bred by Mr. James 0,'iartly.— " Baronet" has won four first prizes, including that at the Royal Agricultur il Society's bhow, at Norwich, England, in 1849.

Several animals from our herd will be exhibited at the New York State Show, to be held at Utica in September next, and at the American 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. WAINVVRIGHT.

Rhinebeck, Duckets 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. Il is the best contrivance to take out chess, onions, and heavy grit, that has ever been used hynrllers. This machine is provide! with s»lf-acfing oil feeders io the journals, and requires to he oiled bin once a week. It wholly does away with the small fan. It runs at the rate of one thousand revolutions per minute, requiring but little power. We have sold a large number of these machines and they hive in every case given entire satisfaction. Price $00.

A. B. ALLEN & CO. N:w York Agricultural Warehouse, 189 and

191 Water sireet, New York.

Jtine, 13j2 —3t

TO THE AGRICULTURAL PLANTERS OF VIRGINIA

C Compound Chemical, Manures. —John fQjft J tlewell's (late Kettlewell & Davison'S, y Agricultural Depot, Baltimore, Maryland Renovator, Generator, Biphosphaies, Mixiurc of Potash and Plaster, Pure Ground Plaster, with every description of Chemical residium for the improvement of Crop and Land.

The undersigned, after five years'experience and a very considerable outlay of capital, has finally triumphed over every obstacle of doubt and prejudice, and is prepared to demonstrate that, for Crop and Land, he can present to the public the cheapest and best manure known to the age.

His Compounds contain Ammonia, Potash, Diphosphate Soda, indeed every Chemical element, in a powerfully concentrated foim, which the soil requires. Any one who doubts this tan have his Salts an: lyzed at ihe expense of the undersigned, and if they fail in ihe test, he will return the money, if purchased.

In Wheat, he is willing to admit, that so

powerful a stimulant as Guano, will, in many jj

soils, pioduee a larger first crop, but veiy far

less in a third crop, than his Salts. In Corn

J and Glass, he challenges a fair trial, upon any

soil with Guano or any o her manure—and

for any forfeit that would make ilie experiment

interesting For Corn and Grass, he avers

j tbat ihere is no Manure equal to his from a

j first to a fourth crop; and he is able to estab.

! lish it by experimental proof.

His " Biphospiiates" are pure, dissolved

with the strongest s-ulphuric Acid, and #■> Bones fresh. In England, no manure i.-Pfti higher favor, or more sought after lor Crop and Land.

His " liENOVATOit" is a Compound of every Chemical which science and experience have shown to be necessary to renovate worn-out land.

His "Generator" is a compound made ex*' pressly for Tobacco, and is wor.hv the most careful investigation of the Planter,

His "Plaster and Potash" is also manufactured for the growih of the Tobacco Plant and when the almost absolute necessity ol Potash is known, for the growth of prime leal Tobacco, th' % value of this article may be tea.-dilv est mated.

His "Ground Plaster" is so well known and so eagerly sought from the most distant sections of the Union, that he deems it only necessary to say, that below the standard he has adopted, the undersigned will never permit it to go. There is no article which the Farmer buys ihat he is more imposed upon, than in 1 this one. of universal use.

In the January number of the American Farmer, the following reply is made by the ediior of that valuable paper, in reply to the enquiries of a correpondent.

' Were we to plant Corn in land so poor,' that when unaided by manure, would only

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER

223

' wduce five bushels ot' Wheat, we certainly 7ouid not rely upon less than four hundred

r".nds ol' Guano, producing a good rrop.' r .<o*', not relying upon less than four nun red pounds would certainly imply that an dditional hundred pounds would do no harm.

Those four hundred pounds of Guano, with ransportation, woufi cost the Farmer not less fiau teu dollars per acre, which, with the excuses of cultivation, would require "a very ood crop" 10 temunerate, provided no durable enefit was rendered to the soil. Now, what ermanent benefit does Guano render to the and ? What is its value, except <he firs: crop? )oes it operate like a similar powerful slimu ant upon the human mind? with prodigious, lmost delirious excitement? to be followed y a commensurate depression and exhaustion? s Guano a stimulant or a manure?

These questions the experience of the Farrier ran best answer. But at the present rices of grain they are of vital importance lihough in agriculiural journals hut little iscu>sed. In Pennsylvania, the most lasting lanure is called the best—further South, the rst yield is the standard. Now, when these Salts are intended lor Corn, the undersigned ever recommends more than one barrel tothe ere, (three dollars.) if applied in the hill—or wo barrels for the poorest worn-out land. If lie Corn crop is to he followed wim a Wheat rop one harrel in the hill, and one broadcast ? recommended, slightly harrowed in—in this ray, 'he Salts are more efficacious than when pp'ied ivilb the Wheat at seeding lime. For a»ting benefit to Land, these Salts are only '4-iirdinate to fresh lime. As a top-dressing iiey are certain and valuable

The price of the triphosphates are four dol-ars per barrel; the Renovator three dollars )er harrel, or twenty one dollars per ton.

The price of the Tobacco Generator is four lollars per barrel; the Mixture of Potash and Sronnd Plaster two dollars and fifty cents per >arrel; valuable for anv crop, hut indispensa )le for prime tobacco leaf. There is one dol-ar and fifty cents' worth of Potash in every >anel

His Plaster is sold exclusively by Messrs. Deane & Brown of Richmond, and Messrs. Walkin-; & Morton of Peleisburg.

Freight from Baltimore to Richmond and Peter^iurg, seventy-five to eighty-seven and a lalf rents per ton—transportation not being more expensive, coaming te; ms and laborers, if as much so. as hauling out barn-yard ma mre. No man need make an extravagant ;xperiment; therefore, no great risk is neces sarv to make a trial. The Agriculturist can Drder from the undersigned, to he shipped to Richmond or Petersburg, and to the care o each particular Agent, upon whom the under signed can draw free of expense

All -urns under fif.y dollar*, rash; over fifty dollais, four monihs. over one hundred doi lars, six months, for acceptances,

Instead of publishing certificates, which is

' more expensive and less satisfactory, the un-

Idersigned begs leave to refer to the following

'names. He has taken this liberty without

consul ta lion or permission ot tl e parties named,

i but from their intelligence, success and enter-

I prise as Agriculturists, and their character as

gemlernen of the highest respectability and

I honor, he has no doubt but what they would

cheerfully impart their experience and infor-

mution, many of them having largely used

these Salts. The postal direciion of each

1 party is affixed. It may be proper to observe

. that the Salts do not produce as heavy a stalk

' in Corn, as Guano. For its yield the farmer

' must look to the grain of the Corn.

REFERENCES.

Professor Higgins, State Chemist of Mary-| land, Baltimore, for its Chemical constituents; ' Rev. J. S. Armistead, Stony Point post office, Cumberland county, Va ; Joseph W.Twyman, Esq. Earlysville, Albemarle counly, Va.; John M. Dow, Esq. Washington City, D. C ; Dr. Win, Mosher, Catonsville, Bakimoie county, ' Md.; Dr. William Kiikwood, Prince Georges county, Md.; Wm.H Herbert, Esq. Beltsville, Prince Gporires county, Md.; Seih W. War-field, Esq. Sheriff Howard District, Mr.; Dr. Wm. J. Saddler, Saddlersville, Queen Anne county, Md ; W. W. W. Bowie, Esq. Prince Georges county, Md.; George E. Yeaunan, Warrenton, Fauquier counly, Va ; General Henry S. Stiles, Cecil county/Md.; EL E. Bate-man, Esq Easion, Talbot counly, Md.; Arthur M'Court, Baltimore; Dr. Robert Dor.-ey, of Edward, Franklin, Baltimore county, Md.; I John L Stavesberry, Treasurer of Raltimore counly, Baltimore; Peter Gowan, Esq. Laurel, Howard counly, Md.; Col. Horace Capron, ; Laurel, Md ; Carrville S. Stansbury, Esq Baltimore county, Md., with hundreds of other names, but the above is amply sufficient for all practicable purposes. I he Messrs. Bar-bours of Orange county. Va. have also used the Salts, with what effect the undersigned has never heard.

Pamphlets will be furnished to all who feel

I interest enough to investigaie; and who are

j willing to believe ihat there may be progress

J in Agriculture, equal to other branches and

enterprises of life.

JOHN KETTLEWELL.

Office at the Wholesale Drug Store of Ober & M'Conkey,cornerof Lombard and Hanover streeis.

Factory, Federal Hill, Baltimore, where, for personal investigation, I inviie all persons lhai take an inierest in Agricultural pursuits, who virit Baltimore, and to whom I wi 1 cheerfully explain my whole process. There is no secret in it.

Orders addressed to DEANE & BROWN, Richmond. Va. will be promptly attended (o for John Ketllewell. mar 3i

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