THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

Beboteti to Hgrfculture, horticulture, auto the ^ousdiolfc arts. 



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



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts 
of the State.— Sully. 



FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor. 



P. D. BERNARD, Proprietor. 



Vol. XIII. 



RICHMOND, FEBRUARY, 1853. 



No. 2. 



For lite Southern Planter. 
TOBACCO. 



Mr. Efli'or. — A very important part of mak- 
ing a crop of tobacco is to have an abundance 
of good plants in good time. Excepting the 
advent of a hail-siorm about the time when 
we intend to make the first large cutting, or a 
freshet when we have a fine crop growing in 
its reach, I know of nothing so vexatious to 
the planter as a scarcity of plants. Indeed 
this ought to be more mortifying to him than 
either of the above casualties; for they are 
unavoidable, while every planter who trill can 
always raise plants enough in good time. — 
Some years ago a very skilful and energetic 
planter told me that he would dismiss his 
overseer for a failure in plants as surely as for 
any other cause, and said that no man is ex- 
cusable for such failure. Then 1 thought his 
judgment harsh and unreasonable — but now I 
agree with him. An experience of seven 
years has convinced me that he was right, for 
in that time I have invariably succeeded while 
many around me have frequently failed; and 
I have had fine plant beds where no one else 
expected any thing but emphatic failure. 

Land bearing a virgin growth of small post 
oak, and sloping gently southward, is preferred. 
In this region such land is generally of thin 
soil, but very retentive of moisture, even on 
the ridges and hill tops. The wood for burn- 
ing should be hauled to the place before Christ- 
mas or as soon after as possible; and the bed 
should be burned the first suitable spell. The 
common practice of burning a long heap of 
logs, laid upon skids, is considered the safer 
plan; the firing ought to be begun very early 
in the morning, whenever the earth is dry 
enough. It cannot be too dry — but many beds 
are niHed by burning too wet. The first fire 
ought "to burn about an hour and a half— after 
that, one hour will be enough in a place if the 
fires be kept well burning. Great care should 
be enjoined on all hands to see that this is 
done, and that all leaves and trash are swept 
oflf clean in advance of the fires, and that the 
fires are not moved too far. Attention to 
these points is necessary to ensure a well 
burnt patch, and good burning is essential to 
success. 

It is good policy to born just so much in 
oae place as the force can complete in one 
Vol. XIIL— 2. 



day. By morning the earth will be cool and 
ready to be broken up. Upon the manner of 
doing this a great deal depends. Beds on the 
hills, if imperfectly broken, are very apt to 
fail in dry seasons. The operation should be 
performed by the most careful men, under the 
master's or manager's eye, (N. B.— The former 
is the bat,) not with the common hoe, but with 
grub hoes, long, strong and sharp. The hoe 
should be driven in up to the eye; then by 
using the helve as a lever the earth is easily 
loosened or broken up, and the hoe withdrawn, 
or rather lifted out, without inverting the soil 
or exposing the clay. The strokes of these 
hoes should be close, so that no unbroken in- 
tervals may remain. During this process a 
good many small roots will be removed. The 
next step is to chop the surface closely with 
hill hoes, the hands walking backward; then 
rake over. A second chopping and raking 
complete the preparation. Bui in large beds 
on hill-sides there ought to be one or more 
small drains opened through the beds. And 
all beds ought to be protected from washing 
rains by good trenches around them. 

Experience has taught me that double the 
usual quantity of seed ought to be sowed, and 
I never put on 100 yards less than a table- 
spoonful and a half, heaped slightly. Mix the 
seed thoroughly with clean, dry ashes, and 
sow one-half the mixture over the bed, and 
reluming on the first track, sow the other half. 
The bed must then be trod closely by the hands, 
and covered tolerably thick with straight, fine 
brush. I like to lay the brush up and down 
hill — tails up; and the buts of the second 
course upon the tails of the first. This ar- 
rangement tends to prevent washing, and on 
southern slopes lets in the sunshine better than 
any other. On level beds the brush should be 
laid north and south. 

If the soil be poor, it is well to put on a cart 
load of fine manure after breaking up the bed, 
and chop it in with the hill hoes. On all land 
this will give the plants an earlier start. But 
whether this has been done or not, the bed 
should be top-dressed soon after the plants are 
up well, and half the quantity of seed first 
sown ought to be scattered over at this time. 
If the first sowing give plants enough, the re- 
sowing will do no harm, for the first growth, 
will smother the last. But if by any accident 
the first be destroyed, the last may be forced, 
by frequent manuring, to the size for planting 



34 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



by the middle of June. The beds ought to be 
top-dressed several limes before any plants 
are drawn, and after every drawing. Fine, 
well-rotied stable manure, mixed with the 
sweepings of tobacco-house floors, may be 
u^ed. But I prefer a compost made in the 
stables, by littering them with tobacco stalks, 
and sowing a little plaster on the litter occa- 
sionally. This should be made in the spring, 
before any grass seed ripen; and the horses 
should be fed on corn fodder while the stalks 
are in the stable. When taken out it ought 
to be heaped under a shed, and when wanted 
for use a little beating and picking will make 
it very fine. 

When the above process has been faithfully 
applied to my beds they have not failed, even 
in the most difficult seasons, to yield from 10 
to 15 or 20,000 plants per 100 yards; and since 
I adopted it I have had an abundance of plants, 
and manv to spare every year but one. 

The land for tobacco, if it be an old lot, and 
particularly a clover lot, should be broken up 
close and tolerably deep in autumn. If the 
subsoil be a cold, wet or^tenacious clay, only 
the surface should;be inverted by the ploughs— 
and a subsoil plough ought to be run in the 
furrow of the turning plough. But if it be a 
dry red clay a few inches may be thrown up by 
the turning plough without injury. In any case, 
the land ought to be re-ploughed about mid- 
winter, say in January, for the better ameliora- 
tion of the soil, and still more for the destruc- 
tion of the cut-worm. I have not often been 
troubled by this pest except when this plough- 
in^ has been omitted. The best time to apply 
manure is at this ploughing— but if not applied 
then let it be put on by all means before the 
corn' crop is planted— and plough it in as fast 
as it is hauled to the ground. A heavy drag 
ou^ht to be run over the land just before it is 
bedded and the beds thrown up with one-horse 
ploughs. When ready to plant, send a steady 
fellow, with a three-foot stick in his hand, 
walking along the beds and testing his stride 
occasionally by the stick. Chop in his foot- 
prints with hill hoes, clap and plant thus in 
the beds. If the land has been prepared as 
early as indicated there will be season enough 
in it to plant any time in May, without a rain, 
and the plants will live better than when 
planted just after a rain; and if the weather 
continue dry after planting, there will be less 
danger of injury to the tobacco from the for- 
mat?on of hard lumps around the roots. If 
proper attention has been given to the plant 
beds the plants will be ready by the middle 
of May But if it should be necessary to 
plant in June, or to re-plant much in that 
month it is an excellent practice to put a good 
handful of dry wheat chaff upon the plant as 
soon as it is stuck. This covering is better 
than any other I have used, and so far as I 
know the credit of discovering it is due to an 
overseer in this neighborhood. The chaff 
must never be removed; every living plant 
will grow up through it in a few days, and 



thus all "missing" hills will be easily recog- 
nized in re-planting. 

Instead of "ridging down," or "scraping 
down," it is far better to put a little fresh earth 
to the plants at the first working. Run three- 
tooth cultivators twice in the row, and deep 
as one horse can draw them; and then let 
every hoe hand take one bed and work it as 
in weeding corn. As soon as the tobacco 
starts, or as soon as the grass begins to spring 
up, or whenever a crust forms on the surface, 
it will need a second working. I am disposed 
to think that the growth of the crop depends 
mainly upon this working. At any rate I 
have never seen a good crop made that had 
been slighted at this time: it is now that the 
plants take a set, either running up with slender 
stalk and narrow, short leaf; or spreading out, 
broad and leafy. It ought to be thoroughly 
stirred now, and this will be done best by run- 
ing broadfoot coulters close to the plants, two 
or four times in a row. Follow the coulters 
with small dagons, throwing the earth to the 
plants. Then with hoes dig deep in the step, 
and finish by putting up moderate hills. An 
old and skilful planter of my acquaintance 
says that fire may be prevented, in a great de- 
gree, by making small hills. He says facts led 
him to this belief, and be shows his faith by 
his works. The explanation is, that a large 
hill absorbs more water and retains it longer 
than a small one. It is probable that very 
deep ploughing is a better preventive. It is 
chiefly upon light soils underlaid by tenacious 
clays that the worst fire appears, and deep 
ploughing is certainly the preventive in such 
lands; but the two may be combined. 

After the second working, one or two slight 
scrapings up will complete the cultivation. 

These remarks, Mr. Editor, about the culti- 
vation of tobacco, are based upon either ex- 
perience or observation, and indicate the mode 
I intend to practise in future rather than that 
I have pursued. I have either tested in my 
own crop or seen in others the value of every 
part of the process, except the subsoiling. 

As to the proper time of cutting tobacco 
and housing it, or the best mode of curing and 
ordering it, I shall say nothing. These are 
matters, in my opinion, which every one must 
learn for himself by actual experiment. Gen- 
eral instructions indeed may be of some ser- 
vice, but would mislead as often as not. 

Yours, A Planter. 

Prince Edward, January, 1853. 



Fire Kindler.— Take a quart of tar, three 
pounds of rosin, melt them, bring them to a 
cooling temperature, mix wilh as much saw- 
dust, with a little charcoal added, as can be 
worked in; spread out while hot upon a board; 
when cold break it into lumps of the size of 
a large hickory nut. The composition will 
easily ignite from a match, and burn with a 
stong blaze, long enough to start any fire. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



35 



For the Southern Planter. 
PROFITS OF GRAZING IN FAUQUIER. 

Mr. Editor, — In a communication I had the 
pleasure to address yon, which appeared in 
the October number of the Southern Planter, 
an account was given of a crop of wheat 
grown upon my farm. I now send you another 
paper of which grazing, as a branch of Fau- 
quier husbandry forms the subject. Before, 
however, going into detail, allow me to say 
that the amount of profit exhibited is, by no 
means, remarkable in Fauquier or Loudoun; 
and even if it were, I should deeply regret to 
appear to boast upon such a theme. Authentic 
information, showing what //as been done in any 
department of agriculture, creating thereby 
proper and laudable emulation in others, is, 
certainly, to be desired. To this object I am 
willing to contribute; and, in passing, let me 
add, this is my apology for troubling you 
again. 

It is to be regretted that farmers in Virginia 
are so reluciant to publish accounts of the 
products of their estates,. For, however mo- 
desty may deter them from doing so, surely 
they are, nevertheless, withholding a body of 
valuable statistical information which might 
lead to increased attention to an occupation, 
which, having long held the front rank in in- 
dustrial pursuits, has, of late years, assumed 
a dignity and importance pertaining to the 
highest and most honorable vocations. 

In the autumn of 1851 I purchased sixty- 
three head of small-sized western stock cattle 
at a fraction over nine dollars per head, which, 
af er adding to the number two head of my 
own rearing, at nine dollars per head, averaged, 
at prime cost, to be exact nine dollars and 
nine cents per head. They were turned on a 
blue grass sod field of fifty-eight acres, and 
had access to another contiguous sod field of 
sixty acres. No other stock of any kind were 
allowed to run with them. As soon as winter 
set in, they were fed plentifully on wheat straw, 
and occasionally on chaff. About the first of 
March, feeding on what is called in this sec- 
tion of country, stalk-fodder, was commenced 
with them, and continued till the early part of 
May. They were not removed from the two 
fields from the time they first entered them till 
they were driven off to market, except for 
about a week, during which time they were 
turned on wheat stubble. They were regularly 
salted twice a week. No corn nor grain of 
any description was given them. These cattle, 
thus treated, I sold this fall, for twenty-four 
dollars ($24) per head, oX home. 

It will be perceived, therefore, that they 
yielded a net profit of fourteen dollars and 
ninety-one cents ($'14 91) per head, which will 
be found to be one hundred and sixty-six and 
two-thirds per cent, upon the money invested 
In them. My neighbor and brother-in-law, 
Major John Thomas Smith, surpassed this — 
having realized a profit of one hundred and 
2b 



seventy-five per cent, upon his sale of fat cattle 
this fall. 

At the risk of being tedious, and I fear, 
egotistical, I will dwell, for a moment, upon 
some of the tacts above stated, in order that 
inferences of a general and practical interest 
may be deduced therefrom. 

It will be found, upon calculation, that the 
prime cost of the sixty-five head of cattle was 
five hundred and ninety dollars and eighty-five 
cents, ($590 85.) They were sold, twelve 
months after the purchase, for fifteen hundred 
and sixty dollars, ($1,560.) If the former 
sum be subtracted from the latter, nine hun- 
dred and sixty-nine dollars and filteen cents 
($969 15) will remain — constituting: the profit 
upon the cattle. Now the value of land upon 
which they were grazed, rated at fifty dollars 
($50) per acre would be five thousand nine 
hundred dollars, ($5,900.) If to this sum the 
cost of the cattle be added, it will be found 
that the net profit (£969 15) realized upon 
them is equivalent to fifteen per cent, interest 
upon the estimated value of the land and the 
prime cost of the cattle combined. No other 
j element of expense, in my opinion, should be 
[ charged, because I think it will be conceded 
that the increased value of the land, from 
year to year, under a judicious system of 
grazing will more than compensate the cost 
of feeding in winter and the price of the salt 
consumed; while the land should no more be 
charged with an annual six per cent, interest 
than it would be in estimating its yield in 
wheat or corn or tobacco. 

Why, then, should the farming interest be 
branded as unprofitable? As yielding a hard- 
earned support and meagre revenue 1 ? The 
envses why farming in Virginia is unprofitable, 
if it be so, might be easily assigned ; but a full 
exposition of them would extend thiscommu- 
! nidation to an unreasonable length. Surely, 
however, such facts as are detailed above 
demonstrate that the croaking we sometimes 
hear is unsustained by the truth of the case; 
and should tend to cheer the desponding, con- 
firm the wavering, and animate to renewed 
efforts those who have been long and steadily 
toiling amid the pursuits of agriculture. 
Yours, truly, 

Jopn Marshall, 

Oak Hill, Fauquier, Dec. 6, 1852. 



WET FEET. 



I have only had three pair of boots for 
the last six years, (no shoes,) and I think 
I will not require any more for the next six 
years to come. The reason is that I treat 
them in the following manner: 

I put a pound of tallow and a half pound 
of rosin in a pot on the fire; when niehed 
and mixed, I warm the boots and apply 
the hot stuff with a painter's brush until 



36 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



neither sole nor upper leather will suck 
any more. If it is desired that boots 
should take an immediate polish, dissolve 
an ounce of wax in spirits of turpentine; 
to which add a tea-spoonful of lamp black. 
A day after the boots have been treated 
with the tallow and rosin, rub over them 
this wax in turpentine, but not before the 
fire. Thus the exterior will have a coat 
of wax alone, and shines like a mirror. 
Tallow, or any other grease, becomes ran- 
cid, and rots the stitching as well as the 
leather; but the rosin gives it an antiseptic 
quality, which preserves the whole. Boots 
and shoes should be so large as to admit 
of cork soles. Cork is so bad a conductor 
of heat, that with it in boots, the feet are 
always warm on the coldest stone floor. — 
Merchant's Magazine. 



two or three years, been much more success- 
ful: in fact, I got a field well laken in 1850, 
and another last year. The first on oat, and 
the last on wheat land, notwithstanding the 
drought in the spring of 1850 and that of last 
summer, while some of my neighbors lost their 
entire seed. My plan has been to harrow or 
brush in all my clover seed, both on the wheat 
and oat crop, and to give the oat crop ?.nd the 
upland wheat a heavy dressing of plaster as 
soon as the clover seed comes up. The har- 
rowing is rather a benefit than an injury to 
the wheat, although at the time it seems like 
"using it up," and it puts the clover seed into, 
instead of (hi the lop of the land, and below the 
action of the frost and bleak winds. The 
plaster is much more necessary to the supporS 
of the clover while it is tender and feeble than 
at a later period, and will sustain it even duiing 
a protracted drought. 

Respectfully, yours, W. P. S. 

Nelson, December, 1852. 



For the Southern Planter. 

HOW TO GET A STAND OF CLOVER. 

Mr. Editor, — The frequent failures to get clo- 
ver seed to " take" on thin land is, perhaps, one 
of the greatest sources of discouragement to 
many farmers, and one of the greatest draw- 
backs to the renovation of worn-out lands. It 
is exceedingly discouraging after having, at a 
considerable expense both of time and money, 
sowed a field down in clover to find after the 
first dry spell of weather in spring or summer 
that you have made an utter failure to get a 
stand. The mortifying reflection comes up 
that the land is annually getting poorer, and 
that in the next rotation the probability of not 
getting a stand will be still greater. What is 
to be done"? To the planter who requires all 
the manure he can raise for his tobacco lots 
the idea of a lop-dressing for an entire crop 
of wheat or oats is out of ihe question. With 
a debt, perhaps pressing upon him, he feels 
that to give up the culture of tobacco, the only 
sure crop by which he can raise money, would 
be ruinous, and to pursue a system by which 
his land gets every year worse and worse is 
equally so. This posture of affairs, I have 
no doubt, has often driven many a man to the 
conclusion, "I will sell out, pay out and move 
out." But suppose his condition is as mine — 
bound by ties not to be severed as long as the 
heart responds to filial obligations, and a home 
in the far, fertile west out of the question — 
what then must he dol "Root, little pig, or 
die." Such has been my inheritance, — poor 
land and indissoluble filial obligations. But 
my motto is, "Try again." Some six years 
ago, I bought a worn-out farm from an illus- 
trious predecessor, and made several fruitless 
efforts to get a stand of clover on thin corn 
land sown down in wheat, but it "could not 
quite come it." I have, however, for the last 



For the Southern Planter. 

COMMON LIME-IS IT INDISPENSABLE 
TO THE FERTILITY OF A SOIL'S 

Mr. Editor, — In the January number of the 
Southern Planter I have read a very pleasing 
article from the pen of Dr. Morton of Cum- 
berland, which is in every respect so entirely 
to my taste, I beg you will allow me in the 
same benevolent spirit he evinces, briefly to 
respond to some of his inquiries and sugges- 
tions on the "action of lime." 

I will preface my remarks by saying it is in 
the form of lime, and not as a "carbonate of 
lime," that the earthy substance known by 
that name, is, in agriculture almost unani- 
mously applied to the soil. Limestone when 
pure is strictly a pure "carbonate of lime." 
But by the burning process (when complete) 
all the "carbonic acid" is driven off, so that 
simple lime — "quicklime," or "caustic-lime," 
as it is sometimes called — alone remains. — 
This lime before being applied to the soil is 
usually "water-slacked," by which operation 
it undergoes but very little change of any 
kind, chemically, but by the addition of the wa- 
ter in slacking it is merely brought from an 
"anhydrous" to a hydrated condition, so that 
each one hundred pounds of the powder that 
falls is made to contain about twenty-five 
pounds of water. In other respects the pow- 
dery mass is "quicklime," and nothing more. 
But when unslacked lime is for a long time 
exposed in the open air and allowed to "air- 
slack" spontaneously, it slowly but very par- 
tially becomes "carbonated," but it more, per- 
haps, while in the open air gets to be a pure 
"carbonate of lime," just as it was before it 
had been subjected to heat. 

In the experiment with lime alluded to by 
Dr. Morton it was in the form of lime, proba- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



37 



bly, and not as carbonate of lime, that the 
thirty bushels of shells per acre were applied. 
The result of this experiment is but in accord- 
ance with those of many others I have heard 
of, on land somewhat similarly located, and 
the question now becomes an extremely inte- 
resting one in this region. Whether or not 
lime acts that important part in vegetable nu- 
trition and decomposition, which has been 
almost universally ascribed to it — or if it do, 
and its presence in the soil in considerable 
quantities be absolutely essential to its fertility, 
whether or not that quantity be really present 
naturally, and the supply will be kept up for 
an indefinite period by natural agencies con- 
tinually eliminating that substance! 

That lime in the form of a carbonate is in- 
dispensable as a food for certain plants, as the 
clover for instance — and indeed for nearly 
every plant grown — chemical analysis has of- 
ten demonstrated — that it is indeed the "basis 
of all good husbandry," could not perhaps be 
successfullycontroverted.andthatin compara- 
tively large quantities it is absolutely essential 
to the fertility of a soil would seem to be pretty 
nearly proven, from the fact that no soil of 
known fertility and productiveness has ever 
yet been tbund wanting in a large percentage 
rela'tvely of lime, and by the converse, which 
is true, that no soil, barren under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, has ever been found to abound in 
lime. 

But the next question to be considered is, 
what quantity of lime in the form of a carbo- 
nate, is necessary as food? This will depend, 
of course, on the kind of crops grown. Sup- 
posing the crop to be clover, an average growth 
would probably absorb from the soil one hun- 
dred pounds, which, if taken off and never 
returned in the shape of manure, would, of 
course, deprive the soil of just one hundred 
pounds of its lime. Should corn follow the 
clover and the yield be fifty bushels per acre, 
the quantity of Time abstracted would probably 
be nearly fifty pounds more— and should wheat 
follow the corn, and the yield twenty-five 
bushels, some fifteen pounds more would be 
taken up— so that should this system be con- 
tinuously pursued, with the usual grazing al- 
lowed under the old three-field system, over a 
period of twenty years, it will be perceived 
that nearly a ton per acre of carbonate of 
lime would at the end of the twenty years be 
abstracted from the soil by the crops. But it 
is to be borne in mind that lime has a constant 
tendency to sink in the soil and to descend 
beyond the reach of the roots of plants, so 
that a soil which at first had two tons of car- 
bonate of lime might at the end of a twenty 
years' cropping and grazing contain no more 
than a mere "Irace" of that substance. 

In the analysis alluded to by Dr. Morton 
there was found but one-tenth of one per cent, 
of carbonate of lime, which is equal to no 
more than about six-tenths of the one-tenth 
of "lime"— and really this would seem to be 
in hardly a Homcepathic proportion, but, in 



truth, the aggregate quantity in an acre would 
be quite respectable, for estimating the depth 
of tillage at only six inches and the weight of 
soil per cubic foot at one hundred pounds, 
which is not too much if the soil contains as 
much as seventy per cent, of "silica," the 
quantity per acre would be about 2,250 pounds, 
or fully thirty bushels over and above what 
exists in the subsoil, from which the roots 
would more or less draw their supply of lime. 
But in some granite soils the supply of lime, 
though more abundant, is pretty well kept up 
by the degradation of certain rocks peculiar 
to that kind of soil — and such soils will bear 
cropping for a very long time, often without 
any material diminution in the quantity of 
lime, or apparent falling off in the yield of crop. 
Why the application of the thirty bushels of 
shells, alluded to by Dr. Morton, failed to 
make any sensible impression on the soil or 
on the crops grown, would not be so difficult 
to understand on the presumption that lime 
only serves as a food for plants, and that a 
sufficient quantity was already present in the 
soil. But theory indicates and the experience 
of the thousands who practice "liming" ex- 
tensively, demonstrates that it accomplishes, 
as a decomposer, another far more important 
end in the soil. The supposition of Dr. Mor- 
ton that the successful application of lime in 
the tide water section of Virginia may be at- 
tributable to its combining with phosphoric 
acid present in those soils, by which phosphate 
of lime (bone-earth) is formed, will not account 
for the one thousandth part of the lime there 
actually found necessary, and besides phospho- 
ric acid in a free stale is but seldom or never 
found at all in old and barren soils — but the 
small quantity found is mainly already in 
combination with lime, for which it has a very 
strong attachment. 

In soils abounding in inert vegetable matter, 
as insoluble humus or geine, an application 
of one hundred bushels of lime per acre, gra- 
dually converts the whole into a highly soluble 
humus or geine, said to be universally present 
in all fertile and productive soils, while for 
those apparently diseased soils which delight 
to grow a sour, unhealthy vegetation, large 
doses of lime prove a most potent and sove- 
reign remedy. Why it does not exhibit these 
peculiar and characteristic effects on all soils 
may depend on various counteracting influ- 
ences, which it would be tedious now to enu- 
merate. 

It is more than probable that the old lands 
in Virginia are generally almost quite ex- 
hausted of "phosphate of lime," and it is 
highly probable that these lands, from appli- 
cations of Peruvian and Mexican guano in 
combination, and under a liberal cultivation 
of the artificial grasses, might be brought up 
to a very remunerative state without any direct 
application odime, but yet never be made very 
permanently fertile without it, and for that 
reason the tide water lands, where marl (im- 
pure carbonate of lime) and lime are ever 



38 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



readily accessible to the farmer, must ever be 
more desirable for agricultural purposes than 
the uplands midway between tide water and 
the mountains, where neither "liming" nor 
"marling" can, as yet, be made practicable; 
but Providence, ever mindful of the "sons of 
toil," and as if to compensate, in some sort 
for these privations, has here blessed them 
with the purest water — a most salubrious air, 
and placed within the soil itself a sufficiency 
of lime to enable the industrious farmer to 
grow remunerative crops for a very long time 
without incurring the labor and expense of 
"liming," and when at last these fail, then by 
its own recuperative energies the soil begins 
afresh the great work of self-improvement by 
covering its sterile surface with a luxuriant 
vegetation of "old field pine" — and rapidly 
eliminating from its rocks by its own great 
digestive apparatus all the elements of fertility, 
speedily accomplishes the work of restoration, 
compelling the pine at last to give place to a 
sturdier and richer growth. 

P. B. P. 
Louisa, January 12, 1853. 



BREAKING COLTS. 

The breaking of a colt should be com- 
menced before he is twenty-four hours old. 
Handle him frequently — make a petof him. 
Bridle him young, and the winter when he 
is two years old, place a wagon saddle 
on his back, and buckle the girt loosely. 
Take it off at night, and after doing this 
a few times, add the breeching, and pur- 
sue this course with all parts of the har- 
ness, until the whole is familiar to him. 
Then add the whippletree, and while a 
careful person leads him, hold back so that 
he may feel the pressure of the collar or 
breastplate gradually. If he is high spi- 
rited, so much the better — if you do not 
beat him. Be resolute and firm with him, 
but not abusive. 

Let hirn understand that you are master, 
but a humane and reasonable one. Treat 
him in this manner, and ninety-nine in a 
hundred will need no other breaking. — 
Breaking is the word, no other will express 
the practice which has obtained. They 
have been broken, head, back and legs, 
until they were nearly valueless, and not 
from any fault of their own, but from the 
ignorance of the breaker! 

Colts do not refuse to work from any 
disposition not to earn a living, but because 
they do not understand what is required 
of them. They need to be educated, and 
this must be done gradually — not in a day, 
or a month, but months. These are only 



a few brief hints— study the animal your- 
self, and you will learn what course is re- 
quired to be pursued. — N. E. Farmer. 

We have never known the above plan, or 
something like it, fail in breaking colts. We 
take up the subject now because we wish to 
recommend our own winter practice in the 
matter. Attached to the house in which we 
strip tobacco is a fine large shed, in which, 
among other stock, colts are kept, in large 
roomy stalls. Every day that it rains, whilst 
the other hands are stripping, it is the business 
of one to handle the colts. He is a fine tem- 
pered negro, who never abuses or scolds them. 
Beginning with those that are eighteen months 
old, he bridles them and puts them in the break 
harness, as it is called. This consists of a 
bridle with a bearing rein and check rein, a 
harness bridle, in fact, without the blinkers, a 
crupper, martingale and surcingle; the latter 
well padded on top, and provided on each side 
with buckles, to which the reins are attached. 
After letting them stand until they become 
pretty well worried, which is manifested by 
profuse sweating, the reins being gradually 
tightened so as to bring his head into the pro- 
per position, he is released, and the harness 
transferred to another, and so on, taking first 
one and then another through the day. It is 
the business of the breaker to remain with 
them all the time and to rub, pat and gentle 
them. In this way the colt becomes gentle 
without any loss of time, and is afterwards 
taken through the other stages of breaking to 
harness and the saddle without difficulty. — 
Ed. So. Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 
EXPERIMENTS. 

Mr. Editor, — The following experiments 
were made by the request of the Nottoway 
Club, and when reported, it was ordered that 
an account of them be sent to yon for publica- 
tion in the Southern Planter. This was done 
in August, but as you informed me at the 
meeting of the State Agticultnral Society]that 
you had not received my communication, I 
will, in compliance with your request, write 
them off again and put them at your disposal. 

At the meeting of the Nottoway Club, June, 
1850, one of the members and myself were 
requested to seed three similar acres of land 
in wheat— to apply on one guano alone, on 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



39 



another guano and plaster, and on a third no- 
thing, and report the difference in the times of 
ripening, the weight per bushel, and product 
per acre, in order to test the expediency of 
combining plasterwith guano, and to ascertain 
the profit or loss by the use of guano. In ac- 
cordance with the above, I selected three ad- 
joining acres of gray, dry, thin land, of the 
same quality, judging both from the appear- 
ance of the land and from the growth of the 
corn then standing on it. On the first acre I 
applied 162 lbs. of Peruvian guano, on the 
second I applied the same quantity of guano 
and one and a half pecks of plaster, thoroughly 
mixed before sowing. On the third I applied 
nothing. The first and second acres were 
sowed the 5th and the third acre the 6th of 
November with early purple straw wheat, one 
bu>hel to each acre, (the wheat sowed first, 
the guano on it,) and all turned under with a 
single-borse plough, and then dragged. 

The wheat on both acres dressed with guano 
looked decidedly better during the spring and 
summer than the wheat on the unimproved 
acre. The wheat on the acre dressed with 
guano alone looked better than that on the 
acre dressed with guano and plaster, so much 
so, that I expected it to yield one or two 
bushels the most. The wheat with guano alone 
ripened about six days earlier than that on 
the unimproved acre, and about two days ear- 
lier than that on the one dressed with plaster 
and guano. The wheat from the acre with 
guano alone weighed 64! lbs.; that from the 
acre with plaster and guano, 64 lbs ; and that 
from the unimproved acre, 62! lbs. to the mea- 
sured bushel. The acre dressed with guano 
alone produced 15 bushels 15 lbs. The acre 
with plaster and guano produced 15 bushels. 
The unimproved acre produced 5 bus. 15 lbs. 

Charging 18 cents for 1J pecks of plaster, 
(which includes cost, freight and interest,) 
and adding to that 22i cents for 15 lbs. of 
wheat, at OOcents per bushel, (that being the dif- 
ference in favor of the acre dressed with guano 
alone.) it will be found that there was a loss 
of 40i cents to the acre, by combining plaster 
with guano. As there was only a difference 
of one peck of wheat between the two acres, 
I consider the difference accidental, but con- 
clude that it is inexpedient to combine plaster 
with guano. But perhaps the plaster may 
show its good effects by the future improved 
condition of the land, by having fixed the am- 
monia of the guano. In order to ascertain 
the actual profit or loss by the use of guano, 1 
will give credit for the production of each 
acre, then charge for rent of land and for all 
other expenses for each acre. The northern 
farmer invests his capital in land expecting 
to realize a profit by cultivating it with hired 
labor, while many of the southern farmers 
either make no estimate of their capital in- 
vested in land, considering it only as affording 
an opportunity for their negroes to earn as 
much as they would probably hire for; or 
they make no estimate for their labor, as they 



do not actually pay in cash for it by the day 
or month. These may be classed among many 
other-reasons accounting for our not being as 
thrifty as we should be. But this is a digres- 
sion, and I will return to the estimate, which 
is as follows: 

Cr. 
By 15 bus. 15 lbs. of wheat from 
acredressed withguanoalone, 
at 90 cents per bushel, $13 7?! 
By straw and chaff from do. 1 50 

Gross proceeds of the acre dressed 
with guano, .... $15 22! 

Dr. 

To rentofoneacreofland.no 

labor for fencing estimated, SI 00 

To J 62 lbs. guano, at $50 per 
ton, freight included, 4 05 

To interest on do. 24 cts. and 
to preparing and sowing do. 
20 cents, ... 44 

To 1 bus. seed wheat 90 cts. 
and forgetting in do. 75 cts. 1 65 

To cutting wheat on one acre, 
supposing two acres a day's 
work, ... - 60 

Togettingupandsbockingdo. 30 

To hauling up, threshing and 
preparing for market 15 bus. 
15 lbs. of wheat at 10 cents 
per bushel, 1 62j 

To cost of getting do. to mar- 
ket and selling do. 10 cents 
per bushel, - - - 1 62! 

11 29 



Net proceeds of the acre dressed with 



guano, 



$3 93| 



Cr. 



By 5 bus. 15 lbs. wheat from 

unimproved acre, at 90 cts. 

By straw and chaff from do. 



72! 
50 



Gross proceeds of unimproved acre, $5 22! 
Dr. 

To rent of one acre of land, 
as above, - - - $1 00 

To one bushel seed wheat 90 
cts. and getting in do. 1 65 

To cutting wheat on 1 acre, 
supposing 3 acres a day's 
work, .... 40 

Togettingupandshockingdo. 20 a 

To hauling tip, threshing, &c. 
as above, 5 bushels 15 lbs. 
wheat, at 10 cents, - 62! 

To cost of getting do. to mar- 
ket, &c. at 10 cts. per bus. 62| 

4 50 



Net profit from unimproved acre, $0 72! 

Leaving a clear net profit on one acre by the 
use of guano of $3 21. 



40 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



As the interest on the money invested in 
guano has been charged in the estimate for 
that acre, it should be added to the cletr net 
profit, as above, in order to ascertain the rate 
of interest on the capital invested in guano. 
Thus 24 cents added to $3 21, makes $'3 45, 
which shows rather more than 85 per cent, for 
one year on $4 05, the money invested in 
guano, after making all the above charges 
except for interest. The above estimate is 
made on ihe supposition that all the fertilizing 
properties of the guano are taken up in the 
production of the one crop of wheat, which I 
by no means admit, as it is contrary both to 
my experience and observation. 

But perhaps it may be more satisfactory to 
some, in making an estimate of the profit or 
loss by the use of guano, only to charge for 
the guano, seed wheat, and getting in the same. 
No one can object to these charges, as each 
acre experimented on had sowed on it an equal 
quantitv of wheat, and each had an equal 
quantity of labor bestowed in getting in the 
same. It is evident that an acre producing 
15 bushels will yield more than three times 
the net profit of one, producing only 5 bushels. 
To occupy as little space as possible, I will 
say, deduct from $5 22£ the gross proceeds 
of the unimproved acre, as above, $1 65 for 
seed wheat and getting in the same, which will 
leave 83 571: then deduct from the gross 
proceeds ($15 22 ,J) of the acre dressed wilh 
guano $4 05 for guano, and $1 65 for seed 
wheat and getting it in, then will remain $9 
52£, from which deduct $3 57i, the net pio- 
ceeds of the unimproved acre, as above, and 
$5 95 will be the remainder, which shows 
147 per cent, on the capital invested in guano. 
This estimate, like the first, is made on the 
supposition that all the fertilizing properties 
of the guano are taken up by the one crop of 
wheat. 

In the above I have made no estimate as it 
regards the less liability of loss from rust, on 
account of the earlier maturing of the wheat, 
of the better quality of the wheat (as per above 
weights) nor of the improvement of the land 
by the use of guano. All these combined 
would not, I think, be over-estimated, if put at 
half the cost of the guano. 

From the above experiments (not to say 
anything of more favorable results as reported 
by others) I would say that on poor land (and 
especially exhausted land that was originally 
good, not encumbered with rock nor pestered 
with sassafras, &c.) a farmer cannot in any 
other way that I know of, make so profitable 
an investment as by using guano for wheat. 
Yours, very respectfully, 

William Irey. 
Lunenburg, Dec. 30, 1852. 



A man's nature runs either to herbs or 
weeds ; therefore let him seasonably water 
the one and destroy the other. 



USE OF GUANO ON SUMMER CROPS. 

The general opinion in Virginia is that 
guano will not pay on summer crops. Infer- 
ring the contrary from a statement made in 
the Germanto wn Telegraph by Mr. Wilkinson, 
Principal of the Mount Airy Agricultural In- 
stitute, we wrote to request his experience, 
which he has very kindly furnished us in the 
following letter. 

We are sorry, but not surprised, to learn, as 
we do in a private letter, that the Agiicultural 
School at Mount Airy has turned out an un- 
j profitable speculation, and that the Principal, 
who has been working there and elsewhere 
I for the last eight years without pecuniary profit, 
i is about to abandon the business. So long as 
it is thought by the agricultural community 
that farming comes by nature they will not 
receive much instruction from schools. The 
sordid bumpkin, ignorant as his beast, and 
hardly superior to him in taste, grows rich 
with his narrow income in spite of his bad 
farming. The man of liberal expenditure 
cannot, with his good farming, more than ba- 
lance his outgoings. The result, in a mere 
pecuniary point of view, is, perhaps, in favor 
of ihe former; and men of sense, as if habits 
and modes of life were to go for nothing, refer 
the art of growing rich to the possession of a 
lucky secret, and set down the practices of 
each class as equally commendable, or give 
the preference to the farming of the clown. 

For the Southern Planter. 

Mr. Editor, — In reply to a request in your 
epit-lle daied December 25, 1852, 1 would say, 
that it is my pleasure to communicate my 
experience in the "use of guano," particularly 
as applied "to summer crops, " for publication 
in your valuable journal. 'That experience 
has mainly been acquired in the five years 
last past, during which time I have used it 
more or less on nearly all my crops, and gen- 
erally wilh decided advantage — equally as 
much so on summer, as on winter crops. 

The quantity that I have applied has varied 
from 200 lbs. to 500 lbs. to the acre. 

I have used but two varieties, viz: the Pe- 
ruvian and the Patagonian— and I have used 
no Patagonian for the past three years, having 
found the use of the Peruvian the most relia- 
ble and profitable in its results. 

My general practice has been to use guano 
in conjunction with stable manure, though I 
have produced excellent crops of turnips, oats, 
potatoes (Irish), barley, ruta-baga, and even 
maize, with no other application than from 
250 to 400 lbs. of guano per acre. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



41 



My mode of applying it to the respective 
crops has been as follows: For turnips broad- 
cast I sow the guano and cultivate it in with 
what we call a ''gang plough,'"* to the depth 
of about four inches; then sow the turnip seed 
and harrow it in, completing the work by 
rolling the land. On oats broadcast I apply 
as above, except that I sow the oats and cul- 
tivate both oats and guano in at one operation. 
I have generally found from 100 to 150 lbs. 
sufficient for oats or barley. When I drill in 
any of the small cereals I sow the ground 
broadcast with guano and cultivate it in, as 
above; harrow the ground neatly, then drill 
in the seed as the last operation. In applying 
it to roots in drills I open the drills and make 
a calculation how much to apply in each drill 
to apply the desired quantity per acre: strew 
it by hand as suently as practicable in the 
open drills; then pass a cultivator, having but 
two teeth in it, and a wheel in front to steady 
it. The two teeth being made like little 
ploughs, so set that they close in the soil on 
both sides of the drill containing the guano; 
which operation covers it effectually, but does 
not mingle it with the soil sufficiently; and to 
do this I pass a common one-horse hoe with 
three teeth setting quite close to each other, 
twice through each drill. This operation be- 
ing completed, the land is left nearly level. 
The next operation is to pass a light one- 
horse plough drawn by two horses through 
what were the ridges before the operation of 
covering the guano was commenced, closing 
np the ridges over the guanoed bed; after 
which a light grader and clod crusher, drawn 
by one horse, is passed over the land, the ani- 
mal walking in the opened drill, and grading 
down two drills on each side of the horse at 
one operation. This last process either crushes 
or deposits all the lumps, stones, sods, &c. into 
the furrows between the ridges, leaving the 
ridges smooth, level and of uniform height, 
and in the best possible condition for the use 
of the dill-barrow, with which we plant the 
seeds of all our root crops, except carrots. 
Since I have given such a detailed description 
of my mode of applying guano in drills for 
roots, I would say that I pursue the same 
course when I apply fine stable manure or 
compost with the guano. To potatoes I apply 
the gvM.no compost* on the seed in the drills or 
furrows; but I have had the best success 

* The gang plougfc that I use is made by M'Kin- 
ney of New BrittoR, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. 
It costs twenty dollars, is drawn by two horses, it 
tills a belt of four feet in width at one operation, 
aBtl the depth may be modified or changed from two 
to five inches. 

t I use gnano in no other form than as a compost, 
prepared thus: screen the guano, crush the lumps 
with flails on the barn floor, add to one bushel of 
guano two bushels of fine charcoal, and one peck 
fine gypsum — thoroughly incorporate the three. — 
The coal is obtained from locomotives burning wood, 
and costs nothing bat the cartage. It completely 
absorbs the ammonia, and renders pleasant to sow. 



when 1 have covered the seed (it being placed 
on a subsoiled bed) with stable dung, (long,) 
and strewed about 200 lbs. guano per acre on 
the manure. I usually plant my poiatoe-s 
about four inches deep, as this depth will or- 
dinarily secure those two great requisites for 
success in the culture of this crop — humidity 
and uniformity of temperature. This depth 
will also perfectly prevent the escape and waste 
of any portion of that most volatile constituent 
of the guano, that in which its value as a fer- 
tilizer mainly consists — or if not mainly, in a 
great degree. 

Now, as to the mode by which I applied the 
guano to the corn crop, so indefinitely desctibed 

I in the reportof the "Farmers' Club, "published 

t in the Germantown Telegraph, of which you 

I desire a more definite description, I would say 

j that it was as follows: 

The land, a sandy loam, had been cropped 
within the last five years, thus: an orchard 

: grass sward was turned under with about thirty 

' two-horse loads of stable manure (principally 
from horned cattle) and one bushel gypsum 
per acre in planting potatatoes in the spring 
of 1848. The yield was 250 bushels per acre. 
The land was sown with wheat (Mediterra- 
nean) the following autumn. The yield of 
wheat was 3G 6-32 bushels per acre. The 

. stubble was turned under immediately after 
harvest, subsequently 300 lbs. guano, and 10 
bushels bone -'ust were cultivated in per acre, 
and 1 lb. purple top turnip seed sown broad- 
cast per acre, and narrowed in with 12 quarts 

, timothy seed per acre. The turnips, yielding 
420 bushels peracre, were pulled in the autumn 

' of 1849, and the ground was found to be well 
set with timothy. The timothy was mown for 
two successive years, (1850 and 1851,) and no 
fertilizer applied save one bushel gypsum per 
acre. The yield of timothy hny was about li 
tons per acre each year. During the autumn 
of 1851 it was pastured after mowing, but very 
little. In March (about the 25th) of 1852 "I 
sowed broadcast upon this lot about 150 lbs. 
of guano (composied as above) per acre, and 
allowed the grass to grow (which it did very 
rapidly) until about the 15th of May, when 
the ground was ploughed to the depth of eight 
inches, following the surface, with the subsoil 

! plough, to the depth of six inches more. The 
ground was rolled with a light roller imme- 

I diately after the ploughs — allo%ved to lie thus 
until the 25th of May, when the entire surface 

: was gang-ploughed to the depth of three inches, 
harrowed four times, furrowed out both ways 

, by a furrowing machine four feet each way, 
five kernels of mixed gourdseed and large 
yellow flint corn planted and covered with 
hoes about two inches in depth. "When the 
corn was all up, I applied one bushel gypsum 
per acre, and when the corn was from three 
to five inches in height, I passed a light one- 
horse plough through it, turning the furrows 
about four inches in depth from the hills, fol- 
lowing the plough and strewing 75 lbs. guano 
per acre in the furrows, and following imme- 



42 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



diately with a common horse hoe, or cultivator, 
incorporating the guano with the soil. This 
completed, the same process was repeated by 
passing through the crop the other way, and 
applying 75 lbs. more of guano, making a total 
of 300 lbs. guano per acre. The crop was 
subsequently cultivated four times with a new 
cultivator, which I used for the first time in 
this crop. It is so arranged that the earth 
may be turned to or from the hills at pleasure, 
and complete the operation by passing it but 
once between the rows. The hand hoe was 
not used in the culture of this crop, and yet it 
was kept in perfect order. The yield was 
about seventy bushels per acre of beautiful 
sound corn. I do not think the land would 
have produced more than fifty bushels per acre 
■without the guano, which was all the applica- 
tion that it had, save the large amount of 
grass, (the product of the first application of 
the guano,) which was at ploughing time suffi- 
ciently large to have cut a good swarth. 

I claim that much of the guano used by the 
usual mode, that is, by applying large quanti- 
ties at once, is lost, and the benefit derived 
from its use not in proportion to the quantity 
applied. Plants, like animals, require a cer- 
tain amount of food every day throughout 
their lives. No farmer would think of placing 
before his horse at one time food sufficient for 
a year, taking the chances for its waste or pre- 
servation, and expect the animal to be as well 
and economically kept as if the proper amount 
of food was daily administered; and yet the 
general practice is to supply to the soil an 
amount of vegetable aliment, almost entirely 
resolved into an available form, sufficient for 
the crop in all stages of its growth, and in 
case of disappointment in the crop it is attri- 
buted to "badltick," "unfavorable season" "adul- 
terated manure,'' or something else as foreign 
to the true cause as either of the above, allow- 
ing nothing for the dissipation or waste of a 
large proportion of the volatile food supplied 
before it is needed or can be taken up by the 
plants it was intended to nourish — and yet 
this occurs in most soils with the application 
of almost all substances used as fertilizers, 
but more especially in the use of guano; hence 
I am induced to endeavor to feed my plants 
and animals on the same principle, e.g. I ap- 
ply the guano at two or three different periods 
of the growth of the crop. I have tested this 
system by applying small quantities of guano 
(prepared as above) on grass land at three 
different times in one season and in the same 
field, applying the same quantity at once, and 
the direct effect from an application of 66 per 
cent, over the amount applied in ihree feeds 
was no more apparent, and the ultimate pro- 
duct far less, than that when the same amount 
was applied in three feeds. In order that a 
crop should have a proper supply of food 
during all the stages of its growth, those sub- 
stances designed for its pabulum should be so 
distributed through the soil that the roots in 
their ramifications in pursuit of food may 



come in contact with them, and the fertilizers 
applied should be of such a character, if all 
deposited in the soil at one time, that it will 
be gradually resolved as required, that no 
waste may result from so copious a supply 
being administered at one time. 

Hoping that you will esteem the above 
worth publishing, and that your subscribers 
will consider it worth reading, it is submitted 
with the profound respect of 

Your obedient servant, 

John Wilkinson, 
Ml. Airy Ag. Institute, Germanlomi, Pa. 



For the Southern Planter. 

ON THE USE OF SINGLE MANURES. 

Mr. Editor, — Observing the increasing de- 
mand for single manures, such as super phos- 
phate of lime, guano, &c. my mind has been 
directed to a question of some importance as 
to the tendency this will have to the fertilizing 
of our lands. It has often been observed that 
the use of these manures for one crop does 
admirably well, but if clover fail, no one can 
see any benefit. For two years past this has 
been the case, arising from the drought of 
summer in killing out our clover alter the 
wheat has been taken off, especially on poor 
land. Let any one, for example, sow 200 lbs. 
of guano on very poor land, especially if there 
is little mould, and all he will ever get is the 
little crop of wheat. But as these single ma- 
nures do not contain all the elements of a 
crop, then a further demand has been made 
on what was in this poor land to its greater 
depletion; and just as a man who has money 
can make money, so will the land thai has 
the power to make clover make more clover; 
but the power given to such land has been 
only equal to making one crop and has left it 
minus two. Now this would not have been 
the case had a sufficient quantity of stable 
manure been put on, because all the elements 
of fertility are in it. Now suppose 300 lbs. 
of guano had been applied to such land, it is 
probable that you not only supply the wheat 
crop, but you have a power left to extract 
from the minerals in the land of a refractory 
nature a supply of alkalies which will give a 
good crop of clover, but then it follows that if 
the clover be taken off, especially by grazing, 
you still keep up the depletion, for it is a fact 
that grazing is worse than mowing. The roots 
on an acre of good clover being weighed (dry) 
have been ascertained to be 3,630 lbs. while 
the weight of roots from a portion of the same 
field, which had been pastured, gave only 
1,433 lbs. Now if all the clover be returned, 
you give to the land not only the organic but 
likewise all the inorganic elements which are 
needed for future crops, and thereby convert 
into a rich mould what was before a barren 
field. I would now suggest the only plan I 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



43 



can think of in reference to a great deal of 
land in our country that will not by the appli- 
cation of even 200 lbs. of guano produce clo- 
ver after wheat. It is as follows: Plough up 
in the winter or early spring as much land as 
you can afford to operate on. About the last 
of May sow one and a half bushels of cow- 
peas, using at the same time 100 lbs. of guano 
to the acre. This quantity will give to poor 
land the power to produce a luxuriant crop of 
vines. When the pods are beginning to ripen, 
or rather a little before, turn them in, and then 
sow wheat on the land with 200 lbs. of guano; 
and you will have effected by this operation 
two things; or rather by helping yourself you 
have set nature to helping you in two ways: 
the pea-vine draws from the atmosphere a 
large supply, which, in the form of vegetable 
matter, is turned into the soil, and during its 
deeom position acts upon minerals which have 
locked up in them inorganic matter; these 
being set free will give your land a good pas- 
ture for all plants; for it must be observed 
that all vegetables have more potash in them 
when green than when dry. This you may 
have learned in noticing that unseasoned wood 
ashes make more soap than seasoned wood 
ashes. Hence if the greatest benefit is to be 
derived from a growth of vegetables you must 
tarn them in before they ripen, as they are 
more abundant in fertilizing elements at such 
a time, and decompose sooner when in the 
soil. A friend of mine assured me that on an 
acre of poor land he had, by the application 
of 300 lbs. of guano, made a crop of tobacco 
that brought him one hundred and fifty dollars. 
Now it would be to the tobacco-maker a wise 
plan to take ten acres of poor land in the 
manner I have above showed, viz: plough it 
up deep in the spring and put in one and a 
half bushels of cow-peas with 1 00 lbs. of guano; 
turn all in during the fall, and the ensuing 
spring sow 2 or 300 lbs.of guano, observing the 
following rule before putting on the guano, 
viz: lay off the land in lists the width of the 
tobacco rows; then sow the guano and reverse 
the lists: this will throw the guano where you 
would wish it to be, and incorporate it with 
the soil at the same time. And by taking the 
above quantity of land every year for your 
tobacco, you will after your tobacco have good 
crops of wheat and clover, for the plain reason 
that you have in the land all the ingredients 
necessary for these crops. On the other hand, 
if we proceed with special manures (as guano 
and bone dust are called) containing one, or 
only three at most, of the elements of fertility, 
it is evident that we can make no progress in 
fertilization unless clover or the pea vine be 
added. A few years ago I purchased at the 
University a large amount of ashes, applying 
them to a piece of land which 1 supposed des- 
titute of potash. To my surprise they pro- 
duced no effect commensurate to the expense. 
We used a good many of them for the purpose 
of making soap, but it was a tiresome busi- 
ness; and yet you know, Mr. Editor, that they 



use the very best of wood at the University. 
We have never found any difficulty in making 
plenty of soap from green wood, and yet in 
selling ashes I see no difference in price be- 
tween ashes made from green wood and that 
which is made from seasoned. It would ap^ 
pear, too, that the ashes of young wood and the 
ashes of old wood differs very materially, and 
hence it follows that clover roots amount in 
value to more than is imagined when used 
young than when old. as a fallow. 

Should any of your subscribers have a few 
acres of land too poor to put in corn with the 
rest of his field, as is often the case, he will 
find it a good plan to try the pea vine, as above 
described, lor a crop of tobacco. 

James Fife. 

Charlottesville, December, 1852. 

P. S. — We have on all lands lying between 
the South West mountains and the Blue Ridge, 
spots that defy the power of manure to make 
them rich. They are known by the name of 
chestnut lands. Sometimes you find an acre 
or more of this sort in a field on which clover 
will not take. There are, it appears to me, in 
this range three other soils — iron-stone, free- 
stone and felspar or granite. If a club could 
be formed to raise a sufficient amount to have 
these soils analyzed it would be of use to us. 
I throw out these suggestions to you, but wish 
you especially to say if you know whether an 
application of lime would not remedy those 
chestnut spots so as to alter the natureof them. 
In other words, do you suppose they are defi- 
cient of limel J. F. 

We cannot tell whether the spots spoken of 
are deficient in lime or not, though we rather 
think that want of lime is not the defect of 
any of our red mountain country soils. We 
know that it is not in the case of the red, puffy, 
chestnut lands of the South West mountains, 
commonly called blow lands, of which we 
have some specimens, first, because we have 
never known lime, though occasionally tried, 
to do such lands any good ; and next, because 
our friend, Major Gilham, subjected a sample 
of just such land to analysis at Shadwell last 
summer, with a view to exhibit the large pro- 
portion of sand and lime in it. Taking a table- 
spoonful of the soil, he poured over it in a 
saucer a small quantity of muriatic acid dis- 
solved in water, and filtered the mixture through 
inside (or white) sugar-loaf paper. The resi- 
duum was almost pure sand. To the filterer's 
solution was then added hartshorn, and upon 
re-filtering, the clay and iron was left in the 
shape of a gelatinous solution, as it is called, 
which, upon drying, shrank away to a very 
inconsiderable proportion of the sample. To 



44 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



the re-filtered solution — about a fourth of a 
pint tumblerful of perfectly clear water— were 
added a few drops of oxalic acid, which im- 
mediately changed it into a milky fluid, show- 
ing the presence of a large per centage of 
lime, which finally settled dowD, or was "pre- 
cipitated" on the bottom and sides of the glass, 
covering them completely. The analysis was 
not made with, any attempt at scientific accu- 
racy, either of elements or proportions, but 
merely to exhibit the abundance of lime and 
sand in a soil commonly supposed to be defi- 
cient in one and nearly destitute of the other. 
We, however, became satisfied, by ocular 
demonstration, that the reddest of our South 
"West mountain lands contained about 75 per 
cent, of white sand, (mostly in the shape of 
an impalpable powder,) and a large per centage 
of lime. The lime occurs, most probably, as 
a silicate, from which form it is slowly changed 
into a carbonate in quantities ample for the 
wants of the plant. See Johnson's Agricul- 
tural Chemistry, part 2, p. 307 — Art. Silicate 
of Lime. 

But there is a considerable difference be- 
tween our soil and Mr. Fife's, and we would, 
by all means, advise him and his neighbors to 
unite in an analysis of this and oilier kinds of 
soil. The cost will not be very great, though 
it will certainly exceed five dollars, the sum 
asked by the quacks and impostors, but the 
satisfaction will be worth the money, even if 
no practical result be obtained. We will take 
charge of the specimens and have them pro- 
perly attended to. 

One word, in conclusion. Is Mr. Fife per- 
fectly sure that the lands in question do not 
surfer fiom superfluous water? — Ed. Planter. 



CURE FOR ROSEBUGS. 

Messrs. Editors, — A subscriber wishes 
to know if any one can suggest a method 
of preventing the yearly incursions of the 
rosebug, and having heard considerable 
complaint among our neighbors at having 
their cucumbers, grapes and other fruit 
destroyed by these insects, I will suggest 
a remedy. Plant in the centre of your 
garden a few damask rosebushes, and 
they will never light on anything else. 
We have a large garden with almost every 
kind of fruit, vines, shrubbery, and flowers, 



with several kinds of roses, and in the 
centre we have lour bunches of damask 
rosebushes, and I never saw in the whole 
garden a rosebug on anything but the da- 
mask rose. When they are in blossom, I 
go into the garden once a day with a pan 
of hot water and shake the bugs from these 
roses into the water, and get about a pint 
at one time; this I practise for a few days, 
and then they will disappear. — Boston 
Cultivator. 



From the Farmer and Planter. 
PEAS AND PEA-HAY. 

As to a choice of varieties, we think it 
depends very much on the object for which 
they are grown. If the object is to feed 
negroes, we prefer either what is called 
the Crowder, the most prolific, of all kinds 
and mild to the taste, or the white pea, of 
medium size, with a black eye, which i& 
also a good bearer, and quite mild when 
cooked. 

For cows, if the pea is to be gathered, 
we again prefer first, the Crowder, and 
next the large, pale-yellow, called the cow- 
pea, from its excellent qualities for milch 
cows. But if the pea is to be left on the 
ground for stock of all descriptions, espe- 
cially when they are to be exposed for 
any considerable time to the weather, we 
decidedly prefer, first the black, and next 
the red, or "Tory." It is said the black 
pea will not injure stock of any kind; and 
if the deleterious effects are, as some sup- 
pose, owing to a chemical change they un- 
dergo in sprouting, or to the decomposed 
state in which they are when taken in the 
stomach, we believe they would be less 
apt to produce bad effects than any other 
variety, as from their peculiar quality 
they will lie in the ground throughout the 
winter, without imbibing the least particle 
of moisture, apparently. For the table, 
we use only what is called by some the 
lady, by others the gentleman pea; very 
small in size and white. If the object is 
vine, either for the improvement of the 
land or for hay, we are not aware that there 
is much difference, provided they are- 
planted at distances according to the size 
of the pea. The larger varieties will yield' 
more vine than the small, but the vine is 
usually coarse and more difficult to cure. 
The quantity ol vine, however, depends 
much on the time of planting. Early 
planting, the seasons being equal, will usu- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



45 



ally produce more peas — the late more 
vine. 

Time of Planting, $c— This should be 
done at the first or second working of the 
corn, and in the centre of the space be- 
tween the hills, and on the ridge. Peas 
never should be planted in the hill with 
the corn. We have seen much injury 
done the corn by this mode of planting. 
Nor do we like planting between the drills 
(in alternate rows with the corn,) because 
in ploughing, the finishing furrow is left 
open too near the corn. In other words, 
the bed on which the corn stands, is left 
too narrow. Light sandy lands may be 
safely planted much earlier than such as 
are stiff and cold. If the object is the im- 
provement of the land, they should be 
planted alone. Nor should they be planted 
with corn, if the object is to obtain the 
greatest amount of corn the land is capa- 
ble of yielding; for we are fully persuaded 
that even under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances of late planting, and not in the 
hill with the corn, they do it much more 
injury than is by most persons supposed. 

Gathering and Curing the Vine. — The 
ripening of the first pods indicates the 
proper time for cutting the vines. If cut 
earlier, the yield is less; if cut at a later 
period, the vine becomes woody and less 
nutritious, besides producing sometimes 
fatal effects on horses by lodging in the 
intestines. In this vicinage a farmer, a 
few years since, lost two fine horses from 
feeding on tough pea vines without cutting 
them up. On a postmortem exarninationhe. 
found pieces of partially masticated vine, a 
foot long, hanging in the folds of the intes- 
tines. These, from irritation, produced 
inflammation, mortification and death. 
The pea vine should never be 'pulled up. 
It is unpleasant enough to be under the 
necessity of robbing the land of its ameli- 
orating effects even by cutting off— much 
worse to pull and deprive it of not only 
the vine, but the root also. Our practice 
is, with sharp hoes to strike off the vine 
at or near the surface of the ground, with- 
out disturbing it otherwise, and there to 
let it lie one or two days, according to the 
weather, then to take up, pile, and, as we 
never gather very much, because we do 
not like to impoverish the land, haul di- 
rectly to the barn, or other shelters, under 
which it is secured in an open state, until 
cured enough to pack away. We cannot 
agree with our friends of the Conversa- 
tional Club in the preference of the pole 
over the rail pen mode of curing. If, as 



Mr. A. says, it is the most "economical," 
it is in our opinion economy only of labor. 
It is more convenient and more easily ac- 
complished no doubt — but there the eco- 
nomy ends. The article thus cured may, 
as some say of badly made hay, "spend 
better," but that is saying but little in its 
favor. If the weather is favorable, and 
the stack removed early to the barn, the 
food secured in this way is usually good — 
but under other circumstances, it is any 
thing else. A stack of pea vine made 
ever so well, unless capped by a better 
material for turning water than itself, of- 
fers but little resistance to the beating 
rains, and after being exposed, has more 
the appearance of a stack of charred sticks 
thiin of well cured hay. Nor do we think 
that some we have seen would be regarded 
by a horse or a cow as a "perfect nosegay." 
The making of rail pens is attended with 
more labor and inconvenience at the time, 
especially in large fields, but when once 
made and properly filled, (putting in a few 
rails every two or three feet,) it will con- 
tain as much as fifteen or twenty six feet 
stacks, and after being covered with either 
straw or boards, all is secured till it may 
suit the farmer's convenience to remove it. 
Cut the vines after the dew is off, and in 
this way they may be put up on the same 
day, and on opening, will be found as 
bright and sweet as the best made North- 
ern hay. 

Feeding. — Having invariably made oth- 
er provisions for fodder, we have not much 
experience in feeding pea vines to horses, 
we nevertherless know that when cut at 
the proper time and well cured, they are 
equal to the best clover hay. We have 
fed most that we have saved to our milch 
cows, calves and work oxen. The pea 
vines should never be fed to any animal, 
especially a horse, for the reason already 
stated, without first cutting them short. 
It affords us much more pleasure, however, 
to feed them to mother earth, from which 
they sprung, either as a mess of green sa- 
lad, or in their maturer and cooked state, 
after having passed through the digester 
of the genus lees. 

Notwithstanding the great value of the 
vine in fodder, and the pea as food for 
stock, we regard it as most valuable for 
improving exhausted soils. It will grow 
where almost everything else will fail. 
Land must first be made rich before it will 
produce clover, but a pine barren will 
bring quite a luxuriant growth of vine, 
and be benefited by the crop. It is said 



46 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of the late William Lowndes, that he be- 
came so impressed with the value of the 
cow pea, as a fertilizer, he took in special 
charge an experiment on poor lands near 
Charleston. The first year he gathered 
seven bushels of oats to the acre. Imme- 
diately after cutting, he sowed the field in 
peas, and in the autumn ploughed them 
■jnder. The next year he gathered four- 
een bushels of oats. Again as before, 
he sowed the pea and ploughed in the vine, 
and the following season took from the 
land twenty-eight bushels of oats. A third 
time he sowed and turned under the vine, 
and the succeeding harvest cut forty 
bushels to the acre. 

Our experience has not been quite as 
specific and systematic as this — but it lias 
been not less convincing. As an improv- 
ing crop for worn-out lands, in our judg- 
ment, the pea has no rival. If the peas 
are sown broad-cast — which practice we 
do not approve — we think a suggestion 
of B. H. Burgwin, which we published in 
volume first, as worth a trial, particularly 
on good land. He says: li As it is im- 
portant to give the peas a start over the 
weeds and grass, I soak them six hours 
i'ri water, and rub them in plaster of Paris; 
and, when they begin to leaf and branch, 
say, when twelve inches high, I sow plas- 
ter at the rate of a bushel per acre. This 
stimulates their growth, and they over- 
ower the weeds and grass." 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

FLAX CULTURE. 

There is much discussion in Great Bri- 
tain at the present time, as to the necessity 
of paying $45,000,000 to foreigners for 
flaxi, when their own climate is equally 
adapted to its growth as that of Belgium 
and other European countries. It is said 
that when wheat was from three to four 
dollars per bushel, land that was not well 
adapted to its growth was sown, and 
though the yield was small, yet, from the 
high prices obtained, it was profitable to 
grow it. But now, when wheat is but one 
dollar per bushel, this land can no longer 
be cultivated with wheat without serious 
loss. What, therefore, shall be done with 
it? The reply of many intelligent practi- 
cal farmers is, "cultivate oats, peas, beans, 
turnips and flax;" and there can be no 
doubt that if free trade continues, which it 
undoubtedly will, a much smaller area of 



j wheat will be sown in future in England. 
The same thing is true in relation to 
j France. Free trade wiih England pro- 
mised high prices for the surplus wheat 
and a large breadth of land was sown in 
consequence; but prices are so low that 
wheat culture in France is anything but a 
profitable business and will not be so ex- 
tensive as in the last few years. We 
therefore predict somewhat higher prices 
for the future. 

At the Penrith Farmers' Club, Mr. 
Rome, a practical farmer who has been 
engaged in the culture of flax for some 
time, gave a lecture on the subject, from 
which we will make a few extracts: 

"The value of a crop of flax, standing 
in a field, is from forty to sixty dollars an 
acre — the purchaser to pull the flax. The 
yreld of flax will vary from thirty cwt. to 
forty cwt. per acre; the produce of seed 
about sixteen bushels. The price of the 
flax, after threshing out the seed, fourteen 
to fifteen dollars per ton. 

"Soils. — The flax crop may be grown 
with advantage on all moderately cohesive 
soils, resting on a sound clay subsoil, pro- 
viding the land is naturally dry, or tho- 
roughly drained ; but gravels or very light 
soils, or lands upon a weak tilly subsoil, 
are not suited to its growth. 

'■'■Rotation. — Flax will succeed best af- 
ter clover sod, or oat stubble properly pre- 
pared on good land; and after a white crop 
following a green crop, or after potatoes 
or bare fallows on inferior land. 

"Preparation of Soil. — Deep plough- 
ing in early autumn by one plough follow- 
ing another in the same furrow, is neces- 
sary to the success of the crop under all 
circumstances, (except when the land has 
been previously subsoiled,) to break the 
crust or pan formed below the surface soil, 
so as to allow the roots of the flax and the 
surface water to go freely down; a second 
furrow will in some cases be necessary in 
spring before sowing, but generally run- 
ning through the soil with the cultivator 
will be found preferable. Dry lands should 
be laid into flats, but cold ground ought to 
be ploughed into twelve feet ridges, very 
slightly raised in the centre; the manure 
should then be applied, the land well har- 
rowed and rolled, the seed sown on the 
rolled surface and harrowed in with light 
seed harrows, taking care to keep the 
horses as much off the ridges as possible 
on cold land. It is very desirable that the 
ground selected for flax should be per- 
fectly clean to begin with. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



47 



••Manure. — Super phosphate of lime, at 
the rate of four bushels per acre, has 
proved to be the most suitable manure for 
the flax crop. Guano raises a soft inferior 
fibre and injures the crop; and farm-yard 
manure is not. approved of. The crop is 
found to derive most of its nourishment 
from the atmosphere and the subsoil. 

"Seed. — The best seed is Riga, or the 
produce of this country, grown from Riga 
seed the previous year. Great care is ne- 
cessary in the selection of the seed, so as 
to get it plump and heavy, and clear of 
the seeds of weeds. The seed should be 
sown at the rate of three imperial bushels 
on good land, and two and a half imperial 
bushels per acre on inferior land, as soon 
after the 20th of March as the land can be 
got into proper order, and the weather will 
permit, but not later than the 20th of April. 
Great care should be taken that the seed 
is distributed evenly over the surface. It 
is not desirable to sow grass with the flax 
crop, as it usually injures the fibre of the 
flax unless sown after the crop has been 
weeded. A crop of rape may be taken 
after flax with great advantage on good 
land, the same year, and the ground sown 
down with grass seed if desirable. 

" Weeding. — If clean land has been se- 
lected for the crop, and ploughed early in 
the autumn and exposed to the winter 
frosts, i'ew weeds will generally appear, if 
the seed used be thoroughly cleaned; but 
if there be any, they must be carefully 
pulled. This operation is best done by 
boys and girls properly superintended. It 
is necessary that they should always work 
facing the wind. 

"Pulling. — The crop is ready for pulling 
when the seed in the bolls is beginning to 
change from a green color to a pale brown 
color, and the stalk becomes yellow for 
about two-thirds of its height from the 
ground; this is rather a nice point to de- 
termine and requires attention, as pulling 
too soon or allowing the crop to get too 
ripe are both injurious to the fibre. In 
pulling, it is necessary to clean the flax 
from all weeds (if any,) to pull it when per- 
fectly dry, to keep the root ends even, and 
tie it up in small sheaves to be stooked up 
and stacked when perfectly dry and tho- 
roughly winned, which will be in the course 
of eight or ten days after pulling." 
, Some have thought the flax crop an ex- 
hausting one, but it is not considered so 
either by farmers who have cultivated it 
or by agricultural chemists. Dr. Ander- 
son, chemist to the Highland Agricultural 



Society, suites, it is scarcely possible that 
the flax crop should produce greater ex- 
haustion than a grain crop, certainly not 
greater than wheat; if a portion of linseed 
or oil-cake is consumed on the farm, we 
should have less exhaustion than from a 
grain crop. Mr. Brisco and Mr. Barker 
have both sown clover and grass seeds 
with flax and other grain crops — the 
ground occupied by the flax producing 
double the eatage in the following autumn 
of that produced where grain crops were 
sown, while ihe grass on the ground still 
remains superior. 

Mr. C. Bedell, Berlin. Mahoning county, 
Ohio, writes us his method of raising flax, 
and the one usually adopted in northern 
Ohio. "If on sod ground, plough very deep 
in the spring, as early as frost will allow; 
harrow well till it is mellow; then sow 
about three pecks of seed per acre, and 
drag it lightly. We think three pecks lit- 
tle enough on sod ground, but less might 
do on corn stubble or fallow. It is less la- 
bor, covers the ground from the scorching 
rays of the sun, and leaves the soil in a 
better preparation for wheat than the old 
plan of summer-fallowing. We get on an 
average ten bushels of seed and four hun- 
dred pounds of dressed flax per acre. 
The seed sells here for $1 25 per bushel, 
and the flax for seven cents per pound. 
So that a crop yields us $4(1 50 per acre. 
Some seasons, if the soil is well prepared, 
we get sixteen bushels per acre, and 600 
to 700 pounds of dressed flax. 1 do not 
think it impoverishes the land so much as 
a barley or an oat crop." 



RECIPE FOR CURING SORES. 

A writer in a late number of the Gene- 
see Farmer, who signs himself 'R. R.' and 
dates at Centre Lesle, gives us the follow- 
ing recipe for curing sores: 

Take two and a half drachms of blue 
vitriol, four drachms of alum, and six 
drachms of loaf sugar; or, we will say, 
blue vitriol of the size of a walnut, alum 
a size larger, and sugar the size of a hen's 
egg. Pulverize and turn into a glass bot- 
tle. Add one pint of good vinegar and 
one table-spoonful of honey. Cork, and 
shake the mixture three or four times a 
day. and when dissolved, it is fit for use. 

This wash will remove the film from 
horses' eyes; will cure king's evil; and 



48 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



most kinds of fever sores; will destroy 
proud flesh, and cause the sore to heal. 

It is good for hoof rot in sheep, and may 
be applied to any sore with safely. The 
sore should be kept clean, and washed 
twice a day with the mixture, until com- 
pletely healed. For the eye it may be di- 
luted in cold wafer one half, but should in 
all cases be used as strong as the patient 
can bear. For hoof rot in sheep, add as 
much gunpowder as vitriol, pare away all 
the affected part of the hoof, wash freely 
every few days, turn the sheep into fresh 
pasture, and you have a cure. 



For the Southern Planter. 
EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE. 

Mr. Editor, — As there is such a diversity of 
opinion with farmers in regard to the system 
of farming, manuring, &c. it seems necessary 
that every thing should be tested by experi- 
ment, in order to a correct understanding of 
the subject. In 1850 I fallowed a piece of 
land for wheat. In the month of October I 
seeded it in wheat with one hundred pounds 
of Peruvian guano. The yield of wheat was 
twenty to one. After the wheat was taken 
from the field it was gleaned by the hogs; the 
field was to go in corn the next year. In the 
month of October I concluded to turn in the 
stubble and weeds; and did so on nearly one- 
half of the field. I had a strip of cow pens 
across the field. The first three pens were 
cow penned, and ploughed in at the time the 
other land was; the second was not ploughed 
until thespring; the third and last was ploughed 
at the time of the first, and penned on after- 
wards. Now for the result, as near as it can 
be given by the eye. The stubble land that 
was ploughed produced much better corn than 
the adjoining land with a heavy manuring; 
and while nearly every hill stood of ihe former, 
the latter was destroyed by the worm, and a 
large portion planted three limes over. The 
first and second cow pens were about equal, 
while the third was very inferior. Although 
it produced a very heavy cover of crab grass. 

My views on the above are these: First, I 
believe that the weeds and stubble turned in 
at that season have time to decay before cold 
weather, and is food for the corn plant in its 
early growth. Secondly, there is no harbor 
for insects; and thirdly, the decayed vegetable 
matter is where it ought to be, a little below 
the roots; and here I would remark that, from 
observation and experience, lam fully satisfied 
that manure for grain should be ploughed in, 
and for grass, top-dressed. I mean manure 
that is available for the young plants; it would 
be unavailing to turn in coarse wheat straw, 
corn tops or stalks, because the infant plant 



could not get hold of it. It would prove an 
obstruction to the feeble roots, turning them 
out of their course when in search of food. 
All such rough material, if used in that state, 
should be applied 10 the surface. It was pre- 
dicted by some that in case I made better com 
by the operation I have imperfectly described, 
that it would injure the land. It will be re- 
membered that this was fallowed two years 
in succession, one for wheat and one for corn, 
both crops very good ones. It is now in wheat, 
having the same treatment as the balance of 
the field, and I think the wheat is rather better. 
Had the prediction, above referred to. been 
true, yet I should not have lost by the opera- 
tion, for the crop would fully have reimbursed 
for all injury. I hold the opinion that any 
good crop ex traded from land without manure, 
leaves the land more destitute than it was 
before. 

C. C. Snow. 
Northumberland, Jan. 12, 1853. 



For the Southern PlanJer. 
LOSS OF BACON IN CURING. 

IMPORTANT APPLICATION OP THE SYPHON 
PRINCIPLE. 

Mr. Editor, — 1 promised you some time ago 
a memoranda I made of the loss sustained in 
curing pork into bacon. On hunting up the 
paper I find it was in 1832 that I took six 
hogs which weighed 1,080 lbs and after cutting 
them out I weighed the different parts sepa- 
rately. They weighed as follows: 
The heads weighed ... ]05 lbs. 
The feet weighed - - - 37." 

The backbones weighed - - 84 " 

The fat weighed ... 83 " 

The ribs and small pieces weighed 22 " 

331 " 

The hams, shoulders and middlings, 749 " 
The 20th May, after smoking, weighed 021 " 

Loss in curing .... 128 " 

The memorandum does not say at what 
time they were killed or hung up, though it is 
not important; but I remember it was very 
good pork. 

While I have my pen in hand I will give 
you some account of my syphon, as some one 
may wish to convey water in that way, and 
be as much at a loss as 1 was. I inquired of 
many persons and could find no one that had 
ever seen or heard of water being conveyed 
any distance in that way. I determined lo try 
it, and have succeeded, contrary to the expec- 
tations of all my neighbors. I have the water 
coming to my house from a spring 440 yards 
distant. It comes over a hill 22 feet higher 
than the spring and about 50 feet higher than 
the house, in a leaden pipe three-quarsers ol 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



49 



an inch in diameter, and has been running 
since last April. It affords water enough for 
all ordinary purposes at the house, kitchen, 
stable, &c. I had some difficulty in starting 
it to work, and after trying various plans, I 
laid the pipe down the branch and let it run 
full of water, then stopped up the discharging 
end and put it in place. It is 3§ feet under 
ground, and is rather warm in the heat of 
summer. The cost, besides the work of my 
own hands, was seventy dollars. To any one 
wanting further information it will afford me 
pleasure to give it. 

Your friend, 

H. Minor. 
Charlottesville, Jan. 20, 1S53. 




THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, FEBRUARY, 1853. 

TERMS. 

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sent free of postage within six months from 
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STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

There will be a meeting of this Society on 
the 23d of the present month (February,) to 
take into consideration the possibility of having 
a Cattle Show and Agricultural Fair in Octo- 
ber or November next. A circular has been 
prepared and forwarded to a few zealous far- 
mers in each county of the State asking their 
cooperation in procuring subscriptions to the 
State Society, and we urgently appeal to every 
farmer whose eye falls on this paragraph, to 
come to Richmond on the 23d if he can do so 
without great inconvenience. Let us not be 
forever laggards. A spirit of improvement 
has sprung up among our people. Let us che- 
rish it, and let us determine to have this an- 
nual tryst of farmers, that each returning year 
may bring fresh evidence of the value and 
advantage of our Association. 



All communications for the columns of this 
paper, and all letters of inquiry, to insure 
prompt attention, must be addressed to Frank: 
G. Ruffin, Shad well, Albernare County, Va. 

All business letters connected with the 
Planter must be addressed to P. D. Bernard, 
Richmond, Virginia. 



It is ind ispensably necessary that subscribers 
ordering a change, should say from, what, to 
what post office they wish the alteration made. 
It will save time to us and lose none to them. 



NEW ENGLAND HOUSEWIVES. 

Many a time have we heard the matrons of 
Virginia bemoan their lot. The ordinary trou- 
bles of a family are to them aggravated by 
what they think the hard responsibilities of 
their condition in the midst of slaves, whose 
labors in many cases they must direct, whose 
well being it is at all times a part of their 
duty to consult, and whose comfort in sickness, 
in infancy and in age, it is, or ought to be their 
special province to provide for. We have 
never sympathized with their repinings, be- 
cause we have always thought that such la- 
bors were good for them — that slavery had 
done them a decided benefit in giving them 
something to do; and that something equally 
well calculated to employ their hands and to 
engage their hearts. We have always re- 
garded it as one, and by no means the least, 
of the blessings which we ascribe to slavery 
and which makes us love the word, that it 
compels us, by interest, if you choose, to dis- 
pense the charities of life with no niggard 
hand, and to contribute so much of the poor 
rates without municipal requirement. 

We have sometimes heard these ladies com- 
pare their state with the imaginary comfort of 
free soil dames, and, from mere weariness of 
spirit, wish themselves surrounded by the same 



50 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



circumstances of ease, comfort, and exemption 
from domestic care. We have combated this 
notion with them, have represented to them 
their superiority in the very particulars which 
formed the topics of their disparagement, and 
have exhorted them to patience and thankful- 
ness. Of late we have been aided in these 
views by the two novels of a very charming 
writer, and have shown them how, both in 
Q,ubechy and The Wide, Wide World, the 
authoress, having by her pictures of New 
England Rural Manners, shown its unfitness 
for the abode of the highest lemale refinement 
has, in each case, translated her heroines to 
England in order that they might continue to 
maintain the highest graces of country life. 
Still our friends have been incredulous. These 
were but novels, they said, and the lady that 
wrote them, charming as she was, and no 
doubt sincere, filled too with the most beautiful 
sense of propriety, and refined to the utmost 
tension of female delicacy, was yet rather 
high strung, and may have pushed her fasti- 
dious imagination into matters of fact. But 
what can be said, when, (as in the following 
extracts from the address of Mr. French, as- 
sociate editor of the New England Farmer, 
from which paper we have taken it, an address 
accredited to us by the regular editor as one 
of the three best that he had ever seen,) "the 
peculiar station which woman occupies in 
New England society 1 ' is made the subject of 
stringent comment in a public speech. We 
shall not attempt to add one touch to this pic- 
ture by a native limner, familiar with the scene 
he paints, and endorsed for accuracy by one 
of the leading agricultural journals of his sec- 
tion. We offer this picture to the contempla- 
tion of our lady readers. It is not of our 
drawing. Let them ponder it— let them con- 
sider that "a majority of the wives of respectable 
New England famveis, aye, and of men of all 
other classes," in the country, are expected by 
their husbands "to be at the same time cook and 
chaniJiermaid, lady and serving girl, nurse and 
sempstress and governess, laundress and dairy- 
maid;" and then let them ask themselves, first, 
if they would change places with the New 
England matron 1 and second, if their hus- 
bands would impose as much labor on four 
slaves as the men of New England require of 
one wife! 



COMPARATIVE MERITS OF FRENCH 
AND ENGLISH HORSES. 

EY THE HON. WM. C. RIVES. 

The following letter from Mr. Rives proves 
that he has not been idle whilst in Europe, nor 
unobservant of agricultural matters. As in 
his letter on the French Merino sheep, which 
we published a short time since, he goes fully 
into the subject he treats of, and shows that 
he does not take up the pen to conciliate the 
agriculturist, but to please himself and to con- 
tribute, as far as he may, to the advancement 
of a pursuit in which he has always taken 
the liveliest personal interest. 

We had written to Mr. Rives on the pro- 
priety of importing the Norman horse to Vir- 
ginia rather than the Cleveland Bay, of which 
latter breed he has, as he states, and as we 
know from actual inspection, introduced a 
very fine specimen. The answer to that letter 
we publish for the benefit of the readers of 
the Planter. 

We had not, as Mr. Rives supposes, derived 
our ideas of the Norman horse altogether 
from Youatt; but partly from the observation 
of two gentlemen from Albemarle who had 
travelled behind them in France, and some- 
what from accounts we had elsewhere seen of 
their speed, strength, hardiness and docility. 
Mr. Rives, it will be seen, gives the palm to 
the Cleveland Bay in these particulars, and 
in some other very important ones; such, for 
instance as their being, what the Devons are 
among cattle, of "a type" so "thoroughly defined 
and long established" as to enable them, with a 
good deal of certainty, to transmit their pecu- 
liar qualities to their offspring— a matter of 
the first importance in any breed. 

Mr. Rives is a horse fancier, we know, and, 
being born and bred in the Ancient Dominion, 
must be taken for a judge, if not a jockey, 
and be allowed, not only with respect to the 
individual, but the race also, 

"Betwixt two horses which doth bear him bravest, 
**** * * *** 

To claim indeed some shallow spirit of judgment j" 

and though we ourselves are of like tastes and 
origin, and do not count ourselves altogether 
"stupid" "in these nice, sharp quillets of the 
law" of steeds, we yet yield to his superior 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



51 



opportunities for observation, and the weight 
of authority that he brings to bear against us. 

Paris, December 24, 1852. 

My Dear Sir, — I had the satisfaction, some 
few days ago, to receive your letter of the 19th 
ultimo. I proceed, with great pleasure, in obe- 
dience to your request, to give you the results : 
of my observation on ihe horse in Europe. No 
subject, out of the line of my official duties, i 
has engaged so much of my attention since J 
my residence here as this — not merely from 
the strong bent of my own tastes and predi- \ 
lections, but because I have felt that much yet 
remained to be done with us for the regenera- 
(ion and improvement of the most useful, as 
well as the noblest, of the domestic animals. 

Horses here are generally divided (putting 
out of view, for the present, the race-horse,) 
into four distinct categories or classes, accord- 1 
ing to the nature of the service they are re- 1 
quired to perform. There is, 

1st, The heavy draught horse, {cheval de gros \ 
trait,) used in towns for the dray or cart, and 
in the country for coarse farm work or the 
transportation of produce and merchandise. 

2dly, The lighter draught horse, (cheval de 
trait leger,) usually employed in public vehi- 
cles, the diligence, or post-chaise. 

3dly, The coach or carriage horse, here 
called the carossier. 

4thly, The riding or saddle horse, sometimes 
called the cheval de route, sometimes the cheval 
de setie. 

These several descriptions of horses have 
strongly marked characteristics, differing in 
general widely from each other, and are ordi- 
narily supplied by separate and distinct races, 
which derive their appellations from the dis- 
tricts or provinces in which they are usually 
bred. 

It is the race called Eoulonnnis, originating 
in the country about Boulo?ne-sur-mer and in 
the aneient province of Picardy, which sup- 
plies, for the most part, the horses for heavy 
draught. This race is very large and clumsy, 
with coarse limbs, short neck, very heavy and 
ngly head, and distinguished by their bushy 
manes and long and coarse tufts of hair con- 
stituting the fetlock. They are, doubtless, of 
great power, but excessively slow and sluggish 
in their movements. 

The second class of horses (those for lighter 
and quicker draught) is furnished mainly by 
two races, the Breton and the Pcrcheron, the 
former so called from the ancient province of 
Brittany, in which it had its origin and is yet 
chiefly bred; the other deriving its denomina- 
tion, for the same reasons, from the district of 
PerrrM, which under that name formed a part 
of ihe ancient province of Maine. These two 
races of horses are really of great value in 
reference to the particular service for which 
they are employed. They are very hardy and 



muscular, of short but quick movement, mak- 
ing at the rate of from eight to ten miles the 
hour with the diligence or post-chaise, under 
a system of relays averaging about five miles 
each. They are round-bodied and compact, 
short and rather low, rarely exceeding five 
feet in height. They are disfigured, like the 
Boulonnais horses, by a big, heavy head and 
short, thick neck, which is owing, in part, 
to a circumstance common to both classes of 
horses — that they are almost always unaltered. 

The carriage or coach horse in France, so 
far as it is obtained from the native stocks of 
the country, is supplied almost exclusively by 
the 'Norman race, coming chiefly from Lmrer 
Normandy. This race is of a much more 
distinguished appearance and character than 
either of those abovementioned. It bears a 
general resemblance to the coach horse of 
England, but is decidedly inferior, both in 
beauty and power, though of late years it has 
been progressively improved by crosses with 
the highest English breeds. It has not yet 
been brought to such a degree of perfection 
as to satisfy the demands of Parisian taste 
and luxury, and most of the superior carriage 
horses you see in Paris are still imported di- 
rectly from England, or otherwise from Meck- 
lenburg in Germany. 

The best native riding horse of France is 
supplied by the Limousin race, so called from 
the ancient province of that name which was 
formerly much celebrated for its breed of horses 
adapted to the saddle. The Limousin horse 
is of Arab origin, as are almost all the horses 
in the South of France, and partakes of the 
characteristic lightness and agility of his ori- 
ental ancestor. From neglect and other causes, 
this peculiar race of horses has been very 
much reduced in numbers, and it is not often 
that you meet with a Limousin steed of the 
ancient strain and qualities. There is another 
race in the same part of France bearing a 
considerable resemblance to it, and also very 
much esteemed for the saddle, called the A«- 
varrin, from the native country of "Henry of 
Navarre," (the ancient province of Beam.) in 
which it is bred. Both of these races of horses 
are subject to the objection of being under- 
sized; and the larger Anglo-Norman horse, 
produced by a cross with the thoroughbred 
English horse, is now more used than either. 
But almost all the fine riding horses you meet 
with in the capital are imported directly from 
England, being generally one-half or three- 
quarters bred. 

Besides the abovementioned uses, there is a 
great demand in France, as in the other coun- 
tries of Europe, for horses to supply the wants 
of the army. The cavalry horse is drawn 
from the one or the other of the two last named 
classes of horses, that is, the carriage and the 
riding horse, according as he is wanted for 
the heavy or the light cavalry, for the officers 
or the men. This being the case, no separate 
classification is made hereof the cavalry horse^ 
though he is always taken into cons 



» LIBRARY 
y 



52 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



in estimating the aggregate wants of the coun- 
try and the interests of its production. 

From this review of the principal breeds 
and actual condition of the horse in France, 
you will see that this country is not particu- 
larly distinguished at present lor the possession 
of any very superior race. England is par 
iniincnce the country of the horse, and nowhere 
is this more felt and acknowledged than here. 
The attention and solicitude of this govern- 
ment have been earnestly and systematically 
directed for years past and at great public 
expense to the improvement of their native 
breeds. A special administration, composed 
of the ablest men, guided by the combined 
lights of science and experience, has been 
constituted to preside over and direct the work, 
and the avowed basis of their operations is 
the uncontested superiority of the English 
blooded horse and his various crosses, and 
the necessity of imitating the example and 
practice of the English breeders.* 

The valuable work of Youatt has made 
most persons in America so familiar with the 
varieties of the English horse that any detailed 
description of them, to you especially, is wholly 
unnecessary. The thoroughbred English race 
horse is an old personal acquaintance of most 
of us in Virginia, and we know him by heart. 
Then comes, next to him in blood, the Hunter, 
and then the Hackney or riding horse, and then 
the splendid Coach horse. Of the horses ordi- 
narily employed for heavy draught, leaving 
out of view the mammoth London Dray horse, 
the two breeds now most popularand generally 
known in England are the Suffolk and the 
Clydesdale. Each of them has its special ad- 
vocates and patrons. The Suffolk is the fa- 
vorite of the Royal Agricultural Society, and 
generally carries off the prizes at its annual 
shows. It must be borne in mind, however, 
that the prizes in question are offered for 
horses "for agricultural purposes" merely, and 
none but horses belonging exclusively to that 
particular class enter into the competition. 

There is a remarkable breed of horses in 
England which combines in itself the quali- 
ties and capabilities of the Hunter, the Hack- 
ney, the Coach horse and the Draught horse. 
This is the Cleveland Bay, bred in Yorkshire, 
the great horse-breeding county of England, 
from which are derived the best specimens of 
both the useful and the elegant English horse. 
In the language of Professor Low, author of 
the great work on the Domestic Animals of 
the British Islands, the Cleveland Bay is the 
horse which, "uniting the blood of the finer 
with that of the larger horses of the country," 
combines, in the highest degree, "action with 
strength." He gives the history of the origin 
and formation of the breed in the following 
words: 

"It has been formed by the progressive mix- 
ture of the blood of the race horse with the 

* See Corrvpte Rendu of the administration of 
the Haras for the year 1849. 



original breeds of the country. To rear this 
class of horses, the same principles of breeding 
should be applied as to the rearing of the race 
horse himself. A class of mares, as well as 
stallions also, should be used having the pro- 
perties sought for. The district of Cleveland 
owes its superiority in the production of this 
beautiful race of horses to the possession of a 
definite breed, formed, not by accidental mix- 
ture, but by continued cultivation." 

Youatt shows how by uniting this horse, 
which is peculiarly the type of the elegant 
coach horse, with mares of various degrees of 
breeding, you may produce, at will, the Hun- 
ter, the Hackney, the JVlachiner, the Poster 
and the common carriage horse; and, in 
point of fact, it is by the instrumentality of 
! the Cleveland Bay, thus applied, that all 
I those varieties of the horse are produced in 
: the highest perfection in Yorkshire. That, 
! under proper modification, by crossing with 
jgood common mares, this breed of horses is 
J also the best for farm work, I have bad fre- 
quent opportunities of satisfying myself by 
] personal observation, both in England and 
Scotland. By far the most efficient, as well 
as noblest-looking farm horses I ever saw, 
were in the fields of a most intelligent and re- 
spectable farmer whom I visited in the neigh- 
borhood of Perth, who told me that all of his 
horses, without exception, were of the Cleve- 
land stock, and that from long and close at- 
tention to the subject in a wide sphere of prac- 
tical observation, having, as land agent, the 
supervision of a hundred farms of the Duke 
of At hoi, he was convinced there was no 
breed of horses equal to them, whether for 
the farm or the road. 

After three years of the most attentive study 
of all the varieties of the horse in this country 
and in Great Britain, I came, unhesitatingly, to 
the conclusion that the Cleveland Bay is the 
horse best adapted to the whole range of our 
wants in Virginia, and suited in an especial 
manner to correct those errors of breeding by 
which our Virginia horses have become very 
much deteriorated. We were formerly in the 
habit of breeding almost exclusively from the 
full-blooded race horse, the consequence of 
which was that our horses lost substance and 
size, and the bone necessary for serviceable 
uses. To correct these defects, we have of 
late years gone to the opposite extreme, and 
have bred, in some parts of the country, al- 
most entirely from the large, coarse horse, 
without blood and whooly destitute of action. 
Of these two errors, both of them very serious 
ones, the latter, in my opinion, is the most 
mischievous and fatal. "Some blood is de- 
sirable even for the farm horse," Youatt (re- 
cognized as the highest authority on the sub- 
ject both here and in England) tells us. Blood, 
in a larger proportion, is desirable in the coach 
horse, in the saddle horse, (or the Hackney, 
as he is called in England,) and in the Hunter; 
and yet each one of these descriptions of 
horses may be injured by having too much 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



53 



blood. In regard to the Hackney or riding 
horse, for example, Youatt says, "when ap- 
proaching to thoroughbred, he may be a splen- 
did animal, but he will scarcely be fitted for 
his duty. His legs will be too slender; his 
feet too small; his stride too long; and he will 
rarely be able to tret." 

The Cleveland Bay hits the medium between 
too little and too much blood; and being of a 
well defined and long established race, (a con- 
sideration of the highest importance in breed- 
ing,) he may be counted upon to transmit his 
distinctive qualities with the greatest certainty. 
Having made up my mind, upon long and 
careful examination and comparison, in favor 
of this breed, my next object was to obtain 
the purest and best specimen of it. In this 1 
esteem myself very fortunate. The French 
government, which spares no expense in ob- 
taining the best types from abroad for the im- 
provement of their native races, bought of two 
of the most celebrated breeders in Yorkshire, 
in 1849, a stallion and a brood mare of the 
purest Cleveland stock, and placed them in 
the National Haras at Versailles. The colt 
you have seen at Castle-Hill is the progeny 
of these two English parents foaled at Ver- 
sailles. I bought him directly of the Govern- 
ment at the age of fifteen months, and have 
thus the highest possible guarantee for the 
genuineness and purity of his descent. I saw 
both his parents, and nobler animals for power, 
symmetry and action combined, I never saw. 
Being a thorough believer in the principles of 
breedins, the moment I saw them I determined, 
if possible, to become the owner of their off- 
spring; and I have the most sanguine hopes 
that he will fulfil all the expectations I then 
formed. 

You suggest the expediency of buying a 
Norman horse here and sending him out to 
Virginia. You will have seen from what I 
have already said that the Norrnan horse, pro- 
perly so called, is of the same general descrip- 
tion as the Cleveland, but decidedly inferior 
to him, in the opinion of the French themselves, 
as all their standard treatises on the horse 
abundantly prove. The particular character- 
istics you mention as belonging to the Norman 
horse are in reality the distinctive attributes 
of the Brtt/m and the Percheron races, of which 
I have spoken with some detail in the first part 
of this letter. You had in view, I have no 
doubt, the description of a peculiar and valua- 
ble race of French horses contained in an 
extract given by Youatt from the work of 
Monsieur Houel on the varieties of the Horse 
in France. From the connection in which 
Youatt introduces that extract, it was quite 
natural that you should consider it as applying 
to the Norman horse, but it is applied by the 
writer himself to the Breton and Percheron 
hor=e. 

These two races of horses are very valuable 
for the particular service in which they are em- 
ployed here— that of the diligence and the post- 
chaise; and are, doubtless, excellent also for 



farm work. They are the only races of great 
practical value which can be considered at this 
time as peculiar to France. But there are two 
considerations which, in my opinion, render 
it very doubtful whether the benefits of their 
introduction into the United States would jus- 
tify the trouble and expense of attempting to 
transplant them. In the first place, they are 
not of a thoroughly defined and long established 
type, and you could not count, therefore, with 
any degree of certainly on their reproduction. 
Monsieur Gayot, the late Inspecteur-General 
of the Haras here, and who, of all the French 
writers on the horse, unites in the highest de- 
gree science and experience, says expressly 
that neither of them have that essential cha- 
racter of a type — the faculty of reproducing 
itself constantly and certainly out of the sphere 
of the local influence and particular circum- 
stances which created and fashioned it.'* In 
the second place, if you could count upon the 
reproduction and transmission of the breed, 
its uses would be limited to one particular 
service, and that of the rudest and coarsest 
kind, whereas the actual condition and wants 
of our country seem to call for the introduc- 
tion of some master type, from which by suita- 
ble modifications we can obtain horses of the 
best quality adapted to all the various pur- 
poses of social and domestic life. 

If, however, these considerations should not 
have the weight in the minds of our friends 
which I attach to them, nothing will afford 
me more pleasure than to be of use to them 
in procuring, as I think I should be able to do 
through competent persons, good specimens 
of any of the races of the domestic animals 
which may have aitracted their attention here. 
The highest gratification to me, in my present 
separation from my native land, is to have an 
opportunity, however slight, of showing the 
deep interest I feel in the daily pursuits and 
fortunes of my countrymen, and especially 
those of my brother farmers. 
I remain, my dear sir, 

Very truly and faithfully yours, 

W.C. Rives. 

F. G. Ruffin, Esq. 



IRISH POTATOES. 

We regret very much that the query of our 
eorrespondent came too late to be answered in 
this number, the Editor not having received it 
until the 24th instant, when he had no time, 
consistently with other pressing editorial en- 
gagements, to give it proper consideration. 
An answer of some sort will certainly be fur- 
nished by March, which will not be too late 
for the main crop. 

* See Etudes Hippologiqaes, Vol. III. p. 174-6. 



54 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



TO AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES, CLUBS 
AND ASSOCIATIONS. 

By a resolution offered at the late meeting 
of the State Agricultural Society by Mr. 
Lewis C. Harvie, it was made the duty of the 
corresponding secretary "to procure a list of 
all societies, clubs, or associations, connected 
with agriculture in Virginia, and report them 
to the Executive Committee." 

We call attention to this resolution, and re- 
quest the proper officers of such bodies to re- 
port with all convenient dispatch to the editor 
of this paper, who is the corresponding secre- 
tary of the society. 

There are many associations in the State 
unknown to us, and we are therefore compelled 
to take this method of addressing them. We 
hope it will be all that is required to elicit an- 
swers from the individuals addressed. 



Q.UERY RESPECTING ARTIFICIAL 
GUANO. 

"Will you permit me to inquire through the 
Planter whether or not any practical farmer 
has used artificial guano made according to 
the recipe frequently published in your paper"? 
If so, on what crops, and on what kind of land, 
and how applied; whether ploughed in, har- 
rowed in, or applied as a top-dressing, or any 
other information relative to the article that 
may be thought useful?" 



UNIVERSITY PIGS. 

"How you have improved during your resi- 
dence at the University!" is a very common 
and agreeable salutation to the returned stu- 
dent, who looks sheepish because he is con- 
scious of having brought away "a sheepskin" 
■with him. We think the remark would not 
be misapplied to these "little pigs," as our 
friend, Col. Kemper, calls his young Rhino 
ceroi — little pigs! A friend of ours told us one 
day that his father, living in Alabama, not far 
from Buzzard Roost Post Office, was telling 
a newly arrived Yankee of a hog he had 
slaughtered not long before which weighed 
750 lbs. "That was a good pig," said the 
stranger. "Pig!" replied the old gentleman 
in unfeigned astonishment, "pig!! I should 



like to know how big the hogs grow in your 
country." One is tempted to make the same 
comment on the Colonel's remark, who ought 
to have more gratitude in him than to be be- 
littling his hogs in that style. They certainly 
do credit to their raising, as the saying is, and 
show the advantage of collegiate education, 
beating "the learned pig," in the main point 
for a pig, all to pieces. 

We can, however, assure all who confide 
their boys to the watchful care of our friend, 
"the Proctor and Patron," that he never per- 
mits the students " to make such hogs of them- 
selves." 

In conclusion, we will say, in simple justice 
to Colonel Kemper, what we have known for 
some time, that he is the only Proctor, who, by 
superior judgment and skill, has made the 
University farm pay for its cultivation, sup- 
port all the hands and teams employed about 
the establishment, and produce a small surplus 
for market, with means that have been here- 
tofore wasted, and amid the pressure of daily 
and arduous engagements, he is going on to 
enrich the land; and will make a fine farm, 
as he now makes good crops, out of a very 
indifferent soil. 

University of Virginia, Jan. 6, 1853. 
F. G. Rupfin, Esq.: Dear Sir,— We killed 
our little pigs to-day, and find their weights as 

follows: 3G2 lbs. 

370 " 
410 " 
412 " 
457 " 

2,011 " 

Making two thousand and eleven pounds — 
averagingfourhundred and two pounds. They 
were a little under two years old, without any 
extra keeping, having run at large until about 
the first of December. If there are any of 
your subscribers who can beat this, I would 
be glad to hear from them. 

Respectfully yours, 

W. S. Kemper. 



The Wool Grower and Stock Register. — 
We invite the attention of our readers to the 
advertisement of this work, in another column. 
It is a valuable woik for all who raise or own 
stock of any kind. It is published at 50 cents 
per annum in advance. Specimen copies can 
be seen at this office. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



55 



SPECIFIC MANURE FOR TOBACCO. 

The following recommendation of a specific 
manure for tobacco, we find in a letter printed 
in the Richmond Enquirer. We knownothing 
of the manure or the writer, and give the pre- 
scription for what it is worth; but it cannot 
hurt to try it at all events, as we mean to do. 
Should others do the same, we shall be glad 
to hear their results. 

"The best preparation I have ever known 
for the tobacco crop is made of a mixture of Pe- 
ruvian and Mexican guano, salt, and Kettle- 
well's potash and plaster. Last spring I mixed 
as follows: 2 bushels sifted Peruvian guano, 
1 bushel salt, well incorporated with it, 2j 
bushels Mexican guano, and I J bushels potash 
and plaster; the whole were well mixed in a 
close one-horse wagon body, and sown on an 
acre — the land had been previously pretiy well 
dosed with farm-pen, stable and pit manures 
The tobacco that was planted in good lime was 
the largest I ever saw, and so said every one 
who saw it. If the land were thin, I would 
add to these quantities, say 150 pounds Peru- 
vian guano, IJ bushels salt, 200 pounds Mexi- 
can guano, and 200 pounds potash and plaster. 
The cost would be about S8 50 per acre, and 
I am sure it would add more than four times 
that sum to the product." 



M'CORMICK'S REAPER. 

In publishing, as we do with pleasure, the 
following letter from an esteemed correspond- 
ent, we merely wish to state our own position 
and that of the Executive Committee with re- 
spect to all such things. 

The Planter is of no party in the matter of 
Reapers or any other machine, or agricultu- 
ral process. It seeks only the best, and will 
neither commence nor carry on a war against 
any; but will only, as all, we are sure, will 
approve, express its candid opinion, when 
called on, as to the merits of each. But the 
Planter has stated, and we think proved, that 
all reapers sell for more than they are worth, 
whether we consider the reward to the inventor, 
the cost to the constructor, or the service to 
the farmer. A comparison of them with 
wheat machines as to cost of construction and 
saving of labor will prove this to any one. 

The Executive Committee does not mean 
to endorse or be held responsible for what they 
permit to be published, and would not think 
for a moment of settling the merits of men or 



machines by "an order of publication." They 
are merely the medium of communicating to 
the public certain essays which seem to them 
to possess merit. To alter or amend these 
essays would be to judge not only for them- 
selves and for the public, but for the author 
also, which is more than they can undertake 
to do. As to the terms which an essayist 
chooses to employ, they are to a great extent 
matter of taste and opinion, and cannot be pre- 
scribed. For ourselves personally, we are will- 
ing to say that we do not consider Mr. M'Cor- 
micka humbug at all, but a very ingenious and 
meritorious citizen; and such, in view of what 
he has done is, we presume, the opinion of the 
whole of the Executive Committee, including 
Mr. Booth, who, we have no doubt, used the 
term "Humbug" in the hurry of composition 
without intending to reflect injuriously on Mr. 
M'Cormick. The question whether or not 
there is a superior machine is a very different 
question; and the discussion of it will not at 
all affect Mr. M'Cormick's claim to originality 
and acknowledgment of service. We very 
much doubt if it will be in the power of the 
State Executive Committee to make such a 
trial as Mr. Grigsby indicates, however desira- 
ble it may be. But we promise, if it be prac- 
ticable, to do all in our power to bring it about. 

Rockbridge, December, 1852. 

Mr. Ruffin: Dear Sir, — I have just re- 
ceived the Southern Planter of this date, 
and am sorry to find in it, what seems to 
me, a partisan attack on M Cormick's 
"Virginia Reaper," and the more so, as it 
is endorsed by the approval of "the Exe- 
cutive Committee of the Virginia State 
Agricultural Society"— so far at least as to 
have ordered its publication. Now, as the 
patentee of that reaper is my county-man 
and personal friend, I beg, in hie absence, 
to appeal in his behalf to the Virginia 
State Agricultural Society itself to afford 
him a fair trial of his reaper in competition 
with Hussey's and all others — not for "a 
half hour or half day," but for weeks, or 
as long as the material, whether wheat, 
oats, or grass, can be found to operate on. 
But as I fear that Society, for want of le- 
gislative aid, may too soon be numbered 
with "the things that were," I also appeal, 
through you, to Mr. Booth and the Execu- 
tive Committee, to give Mr. M'Cormick a 
chance to rescue his "magnificent and 



56 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



costly humbug" from condemnation on 
mere hearsay evidence. Let that commit- 
tee organize an agricultural club to meet 
at Brandon, or any other place on James 
river, where large fields of heavy wheat 
and oats may be found, at the beginning 
of next harvest; offer an appropriate pre- 
mium for the reaper that proves itself the 
best on trial of two entire days at least, 
and as much longer as the club may de- 
sire; invite competition, with the promise 
of a good harvest dinner; and I guarantee 
that Mr. M'Cormick and his reaper will be 
there, and that whether victor or van- 
quished he will so demean himself as to 
merit and meet the cordial approbation of 
the club. This is not written for publica- 
tion, far from it, for there may seem to be 
something of the partisan in it, and such 
con tests should never appear in the Planter; 
it should make friends, as its editor does, 
whenever and wherever known. But I 
ask you, as a friend, to use your editorial 
influence to have justice done Mr. M'Cor- 
mick; he is my friend, and worthy of the 
friendship of all. My motto in his case 
is, fair play and the public good. 

I send with this a collection of extracts 
from English papers, which, I hope, may 
allay the fear of Mr. Booth that the pre- 
mium awarded Mr. M'Cormick at Ihe 
World's Fair will "strip America of the 
incidental renown." Make what use you 
please of them. 

Remembering you with much regard, 
I am yours, respectfully, 

R. Grigsby. 



lost much of their value. Mr. Duval's not 
having been subjected to any such process are, 
of course, superior. 

The advantage of the "dust" over the 
"chips" is in their more minute subdivision, 
and consequent more immediate action on the 
crops to which they may be applied. It will 
consequently take a less quantity, say one-half, 
to produce Ihe effect. But the chips will last 
longer. 



BONE MILL AT RICHMOND. 

We are happy to inform our readers that 
there is a Bone Mill now established in 
Richmond by Mr. R. R. Duval. We have 
visited and inspected this mill, and can recom- 
mend it to such as want bones. There are 
two qualities of bone dust ground, the one, 
which is quite fine, nearly all in dust and the 
balance in minute particles, is called dust, and 
the other, which consists of coarser particles, 
should be called chip,. Mr. Duval separates 
these by a sieve, and sells them at different 
prices. The first at 75 cents the bushel, and 
the hitter, which is in fact the common Balti- 
more article, at 55 cents the bushel. We 
think the bone dust of Baltimore is nearly all 
made of bones that have had all the animal 
matter extracted from 'them, and have thereby 



STRAWBERRY CULTIVATION. 

Those who know anything about the mag- 
nificent strawberries and the immense quan- 
tity of them raised in a bed thirty feel by forty, 
for several years past, in the garden formerly 
owned by me in King street, may like to know 
the process by which I cultivate them. I ap- 
plied about once a week, for three times, com- 
mencing when the green leaves first began to 
start, and making the last application just be- 
fore the plants were in full bloom, the follow- 
ing preparation— of nitre of potash, of glauber 
salts and sal. soda, each, one pound; of muri- 
ate of ammonia, one quarter of a pound— dis- 
solved in thirty gallons of rain or river water. 
One-third was applied at a time; and when 
the weather was dry, I applied clear soft water 
between the times of using the preparation — 
as the growth of the young leaves is so rapid 
that unless well supplied with water, the sun 
will scorch them. I used a common watering 
pot and made the application towards evening. 
Managed in this way, there is never any ne- 
cessity of digging over the bed or setting it 
out anew. Beds of ten years old are not only 
as good, but better than those two or three 
years old. But you must be sure and keep the 
weeds out.— Friends' Review, Philadelphia. 

I made a solution and applied it by the 
above directions to a strawberry bed nineteen 
feet square, in the spring of 1852, and notwith- 
standing the season was unfavorable for the 
strawberry, I gathered two bushels and a half, 
(even measure,) of the finest berries I evei 
saw; some of them weighed over a half an 
ounce, and measured between four and five 
| inches in circumference. 

P. D. Bernard. 



Marl.— Mr. R. M. Bridges, of White 
Chimneys, Caroline, Virginia, has left a spe 
cimen of marl at this office, which, from its 
rich appearance, we have no doubt will be i 
mine of wealth to him. Those who know the 
value of marl, are requested to call and see it 

p. D. E. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



57 



EXTRACT FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 

" I am glad to see Virginia awaking to some 
interest in agricultural improvement. From 
my observations in this State, I am led to the 
conclusion, that what you most need in your 
State to bring up your land to a fair value, is 
a better support of your Agricultural Journals, 
and the multiplication of agricultural societies 
in the several counties of your Slate; and if 
your wealthy landholders would each sub- 
scribe for fifty copies of your journal, for free 
distribution among those who will not sub- 
scribe, they could make no better investment 
for the advancement of their interests. 
Very respectfully, 

George Vail." 

Troy, Xew York. 

PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

From January Islto February 1st, 1853. 

All persons who have made payments early 
enough to be entered, and whose names do 
not appear in the following receipt list, are 
requested to give immediate notice of the 
omission, ia order that the correction may be 
made in the next issue: 
John H. Bibb, to January 1851 
Wm. W. Minor, to January 1854 
Dr. F. Carr, to January 1854 
Dr. W. G. Carr, to July 1854 
Robert Campbell, to January 1854 
Thomas Page, to January 1854 
M. B. Brown, to January 1854 
John McAlister, to January 1854 
Edward Tarry, to January 1854 
R. G. Cottom, to January 1853 
Nathaniel King, io January 1854 
Anderson Edwards, to January 1854 
E. F. Pinchback, to January 1853 
E. S. Aeree, to January 1854 
Volney Walker, to January 1854 
Joseph T. Henley, to January 1854 
Dr. P. Howard, to January 1854 
J. R. Mann to January 1851 
Dr. N. B. Fleet, to July 1853 
Georee R. Trant, to January 1854 
R. M'. Bridges, to July 1853 
Colin Clarke, to January 1854 
I. Irvine Hite, to January 1854 
R. A. Higginbothatn, to July, 1853 
Daniel Jones, to January 1854 
Wm. M. Marshall, to January 1854 
B. M. Jones, to January 1854 
John 8 i dims, to January 1854 
Wrn. D Bennett, to January 1854 
J. H. Dejarnett, to January 1854 
John England, to January 1854 
James M. Wood, to January 1854 
James M. Walker, to January 1854 
Josiah Higgics. to January 1854 



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F. W. Connor, to January 1854 ! 

Joseph Damron, to January 1854 
Wm. Massie, to January 1854 
Rev. Peyton Harrison, to July 1853 
N. C. Crenshaw, to July 1854 
W. D. Clopton, to January 1854 
Henry W. Wood, to Januan 1854 
R. H. Pollard, to January 1854 
Dr. John M. Garnett, to January 1854 
R. M. Garnett, to January 1854 
Dr. R. T. Baldwin, to January 1854 
Charles A. Hundley, to January 1853 
Robert Ritchie, to January, 1853 
Charles McClung, to September 1853 
John A. Tate, to September 1853 
Murat Willis, to January 1853 
E. W. Shepherd, to January 1854 
Dr. T. Davis, to January 1854 
Jared Chamberlin, to June 1853 
Dr. E. P. Williams, to January 1854 
J. B. Stovall,?to January 1854 
Thomas Leigh, to January 1854 
W. W. Guy, to January 1852 
Peter S. Trible, to January 1853 
L. H. B. Whitaker, to January 1854 
Wm. Hawkins, to January 1854 

B. R. Wilson, to January, 1854 
Thomas H. Saunders, to January 1854 
Benjamin Holladay, to January 1854 
J. M. Hite, to January 1854 
Edward S. Russell, to January 1854 
Howell Chastain, to January 1854 
E. Wortham, to January 1854 
Thomas Hackett, to January 1854 
John H. Walker, to January 1854 
John W. Paxton, to January 1854 
Dr. N. T. Green, to January 1854 
Maj George Wilson, to January 1854 
R. A. Higginboiham, to July 1854 
William N. Tunstall, to January 1854 
Carter Ball, to January 1854 
Dr. N. M. Osborne, to January 1854 
William G. Rogers, to January 1854 

C. C. Curtis, to January 1854 
M. T. Campbell, to January 1854 
G. Boulware, to January 1854 
William Gravat, to January 1854 

| S. C. Sutton, to January 1854 
I Thomas Lumpkin, to January 1854 
Col. G. Durfee, to January 1854 
P. Woolfotk, to July 1853 
' Jourdan Woolfolk, to January 1854 
J. W. Taylor, to January 1854 
' H. L. Abraham, to January 1854 
Thomas N. Green, to January 1854 
\ F. B Welton, to January 1854 
' Col. S. M'D. Reid, to January 1854 
1 B. S. Scott, to November 1853 
Edwin Edmunds, to January 1854 
Dr. R. Shore, to January 1854 
R. F. Ward, to January 1854 
R. P. Graves, to January 1854 
J. B. Lightfoot, to January 1854 
Jos. P. Terrell, to January 1854 
Archie Brown, to January 1854 
Wm. M. Waller, to January 1854 
Wm. Worsham, to January 1854 



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58 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



A. K. Fulton, to January 18.34 
Rev. W. H. Peace, to January 1854 
Col. B. L. Barrow, to January 1854 
Capt. W. J. Barrow, to January 1854 
Wra. Thomas, to January 1854 
Wm. T. Justice, to January 1854 
S. M. Kennedy, to January 1854 
W. A. Bonner, to January 1854 
Col. Isham Trotter, to January 1854 
Capt. E. Haskins, to January 1854 
Jos. Jones, to January 1854 

David W. Barton, to January 1853 
H. J. Butt, to January 1854 
Jos. Turner, to January 1854 
Thomas Wynne, to January 1853 
Charles H. K. Taylor, to January 1854 
Robert Garland, to January 1854 
Jos. C. Boxley, to January 1854 
George W. Hunter, to July 1854 
Henry Hill, to January 1854 
Wm. G. Crenshaw, to July 1853 

B. W. Bass, to January 1854 

R. L. Gurganious, to January 1854 

John A. Fleet, to January 1854 

Allen Melton, to July 1853 

Col. J. W. Ware, to January 1854 

Wm. J. Robertson, to July 1853 

Wm. H. Cosby, to September 1853 

Dr. R. H. Stuart, to January 1854 

Col. Win Bailey, to January 1854 

James Young, to January 1854 

W. H. Clarke, to January 1854 

Jacob Ham, to January 1854 

B. F. T. Conway, to January 1854 

John Thorn, to January 1854 

James T. Twitty, to January 1854 

Dilmas J. Appiebury, to January 1854 

George W. Clarke, to January 1854 

Adam M. Shultz, to January 1854 

James Trice, to January 1854 

James W. Glenn, to January 1854 

G. H. Brown, to July 1853 

Capt. Robert Eastham, to January 1854 

R. D. Carter, to January 1854 

Adolphus Goddin, to September 1852 

Dr. H. Curtis, to January 1854 

L. N. Davis, to January 1854 

P. St. Geo. Cocke, (9 copies) to Jan. 1854 

Dr. R. W. Royster, to January 1S53 

John R. Moore, to January 1854 

Dr. Thos. B. Anderson, to January 1854 

Dr. S. P. Christian, to January 1854 

Capt. James Lindsay, to January 1853 

Daniel Hatcher, to January 1854 

Wm. S. Harris, to January 1854 

Dr. Austin Brockenbrough, to Jan. 1854 

Major Yancey, to January 1853 

J. G. Taurman, to September 1853 

John S. Coles, to January 1853 

J. Strieker Coles, to July 1853 

Capt. Joseph Phillips, to January 1854 

Vincent Phillips, to January 1854 

Jeremiah K. Pitzer, to January 1854 

Thomas S. Watson, to January 1855 

H. J. B. Clark, to January 1854 

Wm. H. Hall, to January 1854 

Joel H. Kidd, to January 1854 



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Robert Grattan, to July 1853 
Wm. F. Walters, to January 1854 
Dr. B. P. Morris, to September 1853 
Mrs. L. W. Barlow, to January 1854 
\V. C. Carrington, to January 1853 
L. L. Lee, to January 1854 
Capt. Thomas Nelson, to January 1854 
Wm. G. Friend, to January 1852 
Col. John Chowning, to January 1854 
Wm. A. Scott, to September 1853 
Robert Gentry, to January 1854 
J. W. Shiflett, to January 1854 
R. L. Walker, to July 1853 
W. L. Wallace, to September 1853 
George W. Nelson, to January 1854 
Wm. R. Taylor, to January 1854 
Wm. K. Perrin, to January 1854 
John Trimble, to July 1853 
Wm. Guthrie, to August 1853 
A. T. Gilkeson, to September 1853 
Wm. R. Segar, to January 1854 
Jos. S. Spangler, to September 1853 
James Brown, to July 1852 
Joseph W. Morriss, to January 1854 
A. Nicol, to January 1854 
Thomas C. Law, to January 1854 
Col. Thos. C. Dennis, to January 1854 
C. W. Montague, to January 1854 
Thomas B. Montague, to January 1854 
Thomas Hardy, to January 1854 
Wm. N. Williams, to January 1853 
N. P. Fitchett, to January 1853 
James B. Scott, to Januaiy 1853 
John R. Fitchett. to January 1853 
Dr. J. J. Simpkins, to January 1853 
Thomas A. Downs, to January 1853 
Nathaniel S. Goffegon, to January 1853 
Charles C. Hightower, to January 1854 
Wm. Thornton, to January 1854 
Dr. Peter Williams, to January 1854 
Emanuel Gerst, to May 1854 
Wm. R. Scarlett, to January 1854 
Stephen Dickenson, to January 1854 
Thomas Watkins, to January 1854 
J. R. Watkins, to September 1853 
R. T. W. Duke, to September 1853 
John S. Cocke, to September 1853 
John Dossey, to September 1853 
J. W. Ware, to January 1855 
A. T. Maxey, to January 1854 
Powhatan K. Page, to January 1854 
Thos. B. Saunderson, to January 1854 
Wm. C. Hall, to January 1854 
Geo. F. Harrison, to July 1854 
Raymond R. Minor, to January 1854 
Dr. E. J. Harrison, to January 1854 
David Johnson, to January 1854 
R. H. Harwood, to January 1854 
Lewis C. Botts, to January 1854 
J. B. Whitehead, to January 1854 
Mrs. Mary E. Durham, to January 1854 
P. W. Grubbs, to July 1853 
Col. A. Joyner, to January 1855 
John Parker, to January 1854 
Aaron Neal, to July 1853 
Capt. Wm. A. Lee, to January 1854 
Jacob H. Anderson, to January 1854 



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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



59 



C. C. Tinsley, to January 1854 



S3 00 I 



00 

00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
1 00 



Dr. Aaron B. Haskins, to January 1854 1 00 
L. Bemons, in full, 3 00 

M'Laughlin & Carter, to January 1854 1 00 
Win. Gordon, to January 1854 1 00 

J. M. Laidley, to January 1854 1 00 

Wm. P. Eppes, to January 1854 1 00 

James Venable, to January 1854 1 00 

Albert W. Johnson, to January 1854 1 00 
John N. Shields, to January 1854 1 00 

John T. Anderson, to January 1854 1 00 

J. Winfield, to January 1854 ^ 

F. Jackson, to January 1854 
J. P. Goodwyn, to January 1854 

B. F. Eppes, to January 1854 i , 
John W. Hunnicutt, to January 1854 f 
T. A. Field, to January 1854 
M. R. Disosway, to January 1854 
A. Aldridge, to January 1854 J 
Dr. Cyrus'M'Cormick, to October 1854 2 00 

C. C. Snow, to January 1854 1 00 
"Wm. M. Tate, to April 1854 1 
John T. Glasscock, to July 1853 I 
Pleasant Sowell, to September 1853 1 
Mrs. M. J. Minor, to January 1854 1 
Raleigh Colston, to July 1853 1 
Mrs. S. J. Colston, to September 1853 1 

A. G. Binford, to January 1854 1 
Wm. Thornhill. to January 1854 
Isaac Rose, to January 1854 
Garland Hanes, to January 1854 1 00 
J. R. Warren, to January 1854 1 00 

B. B. Keesee, to January 1854 1 00 

James P. Marshall, to January 1854 1 00 

Miss Nancy Perkins, to January 1854 

Wm. A. Love, to May 1854 

Martin James, to January 1854 

Z. C. Vaughan, to January 1854 

Col. T. F. Wingfield, to January 1854 

Rev. W. Timberlake, to January 1854 

James M. Dillon, to January 1854 

James Wilson, to January 1854 

Edward Hill, to January 1854 

James T. Redd, to January 1853 

R. M. Higgins.'to July 1853 

James Newman, lo January 1854 
M. B. Carrington, to January 1854 
George W. Cabell, lo January 1854 
Moses Tredway, lo January 1854 
G. N. Gatewood, to January 1854 
W. H. Gnode, to January 1854 
H. B. White, to January 1854 
Edward S. Coleman, lo January 1854 1 00 
Col. Jos. Martin, to July 1853 1 00 

Robert W. Williams, to January 1854 1 00 
Asa D Dickinson, to September 1854 3 00 
Wrn. C. Rives, Jr. to January 1851 1 00 

W. M Coy, to January 1854 1 00 

J. B. Chandler, to January 1854 1 00 

C. M Adkisson (cor.) to January 1854 1 00 
S. Ba^ett French, to January 1854 1 00 

R. G. Morriss, to January 1854 1 00 

John H. Bidgood, to January 1854 1 00 

William Grimes, to January 1854 1 00 

J. T. 3. Mason, to January 1854 1 00 

Col. J. Hargrove, to January 1854 1 00 

R. F. Dillard, to January 1854 1 00 



1 00 



THE WOOL, GROWER AND STOCK 
REGISTER. 

VOLUME IV— FOR 1852-'3. 

THIS Journal is the only one published in 
America, primarily devoted to the inte- 
rests of Wool Groweis, Stock Breeders, Gra- 
ziers, Dairymen, &c. and should be in the 
hands of every owner of domestic animals. 

The fourth volume, commencing July, 1852, 
will embrace a vast amount of useful and re- 
liable information in regard to wool and stock 
which can be obtained from no other source. 
It is conducted ably and independently, pub- 
lished in the very best style, and illustrated 
with beautiful aDd costly engravings, — em- 
bracing Portraiis from life of Sheep, Cattle, 
Horses, Swine, Poultry, &c. — Designs of Farm 
Buildings, &c. &c. with proper descriptions. 
Each number contains a carelul review of the 
Wool and Cattle Markets. 

Terms— Only Fifty Cents a year; Five Co- 
pies for Two Dollars; EightforThree Dollars; 
Eleven for Four Dollars; Twenty for Seven. 
Dollars — in advance. Back numbers and vo- 
lumes furnished. 

The Wool Grower and Stock Register is 
published in a form suitable for binding— each 
number containing sixteen large ociavo pages, 
with title page, index, &c. at the close of each 
volume. Specimen numbers sent free to all 
applicants. Subscription money, properly en- 
closed, may be mailed at our risk. Address 
D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 

fe— It 



TAYLOR'S PATENT HAMES. 

PUBLIC attention is called to this valuable 
improvement in Hames, which is both 
simple and effective in design, from which 
numerous advantages result, both to the owner 
and driver of horses, being a saving of expense 
as well as time, as they can be fastened as 
readily in the dark as light, and can be done 
with gloves on. If a horse falls down or gels 
entangled in harness, by this improvement he 
can be instantly relieved. A boy, female or 
any one that is able lo ihrow harness on a 
horse, can fasten the Hames very readily. 

|3" This improvement can be attached to 
hames now in use at small cost. These Hames 
1 00 , were exhibited at the Maryland and Pennsyl- 
vania State Fairs and were universally ap- 
proved of, and a premium was awarded them. 
These Hames and fixtures can be had only of 
the subscribers, MOTT, LEWIS & Co. 
Sign of the Plough, 3 doors below City Hotel, 
Richmond, Va. — fe 3t 

FOR SAL.E.— A thoroughbred Bull of the 
Ayrshire and Durham breed, in fine health 
and vigor — color rich red, with slight white 
spots in the flank, characieristic of the Ayr- 
shire breed. Said Bull is immediately de- 
scended on boih sides from Imported Stock. 
For testimonials of stock, &c. enquire of the 
Editor. oc— tf 



60 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



CLASSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL 
SCHOOL. 

RUMFORD ACADEMY, KING WIL- 
LIAM, VA.— This school is about two 
miles from Sharon Church, on the stage road 
between Richmond and Tappahannock. So 
healthful is the location, that but few cases of 
serious sickness have occurred in the scheol 
since its establishment in 1804. No expense 
is spared in providing for the physical com- 
forts of the pupils; treated in every respect as 
young gentlemen, they are required to conduct 
themselves as such. 

The subscriber, who has been engaged eight 
years in guiding and instructing youth, will be 
aided by competent assistants. 

The usual English Course, including Che- 
mistry and Philosophy, an extensive course 
of Mathematics, and the Latin, Greek and 
French Languages will be taught. A recess 
of one week will be given at Easter. 

Terms.— For board and tuition, with every 

necessary except lights and stationery, from 

15th of January to 1st of July, $84; payable 

one-half 1st of May, the other half 1st of July. 

JOHN H. PITTS, 

ja — tf Ai/lctt's P. O. King William. 



AGENCY FOR THE PURCHASE AND 
SALE OF IMPROVED STOCK. 

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

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



EAGLE FOUNDERY. 

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

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

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



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



NEW PLASTER AND BONE MILL. 

THE subscriber offers for sale fine Ground 
and Calcined Plaster, both of the best 
and purest quality; he has also a Bone Mill 
attached, and intends to keep a supply of 
Ground Bones, fine and pure. Farmers and 
others are invited to call and examine for 
themselves. His prices shall be as low as the 
same quality articles can be bought for, North 
or South. The highest cash price will be paid 
for dry bones, delivered at his Mill adjoining 
the Paper Mill, 
oc— tf R. R. DUVAL. 



DR. VALENTINE'S RECIPE FOR 
MAKING ARTIFICIAL GUANO. 

No. 1. Dry Peat,* - - 20 bushels 

No. 2. Wood Ashes, 3 bushels 

No. 3. Fine Bone Dust, 3 bushels 

No. 4. Calcined Plaster, - 3 bushels 

No. 5. Nitrate of Soda, 40 pounds 

No. 6. Sal Ammoniac, - - 22 pounds 
No. 7. Carb Ammonia, 11 pounds 

No. 8. Sulph: Soda;, - - 20 pounds 
No. 9. Sulph: Magnesia, - 10 pounds 

" 10. Common Salt, - - 10 pounds 

* If peat cannot be obtained, use garden mould, 
or clean virgin soil instead. 

Directions for Mixing. — Mix Nos. 1,2, 3, 
together — mix Nos. 5, 0, 7, 8, 9, 10, in four or 
five pails of water, or enough to dissolve the 
ingredients. When dissolved, add the liquid 
to the mixture, (1, 2, 3,) and mix as in making 
mortar. When thoroughly mixed, add No. 4, 
(the calcined plaster,) which will absorb the 
liquid and bring the whole to a dry state. Mix 
under cover in a dry place — pack so as to ex- 
clude air — observe the proportions in making 
small or large quantities. The above receipt 
will make one ton, which will manure seven 
and a half acres of land. 

Having furnished the above to a number of 
farmers who have tested its qualities— many 
thinking it equal to natural guano — the sub- 
scribers have made arrangements to furnish 
any quantity during this season, and will sell 
the ingredients exclusive of the Peat, Wood 
Ashes, Plaster and Salt, (articles on every 
farm,) at the low price of $10 per ton. One 
sugar hogshead will hold ingredients enough 
for five tons. All orders will be carefully and 
promptly executed, and sent to any part of the 
State. 

R. R. DUVAL & BRO. 

Chemists and Druggists, under the American), 
Hotel, Richmond, Va. oc — tf 



OSAGE ORANGE PLANTS FOR LIVE FENCES, 

THE best and most durable enclosure for 
farms, gardens or lots. 1 have some of 
these plants for sale — SI per hundred — and 
would be glad if those who want them would 
inform me as soon as convenient, 
de— 4t WM. H. RICHANDSON. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



61 



PLANTATION BOOK. 

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

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

There are extra sheets for monthly and 
yearly reports, for the use of those who do not 
live on their farms. The Book will he sent 
by mail free of postage to any one who will 
remit the price in money or postage stamps. 

This Book is by one of the best and most 
systematic farmers in Virginia; and experi- 
enced farmers have expressed the opinion, that 
those whouse it, will save hundredsof dollars. 

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

"It will prove a most valuable assistant to 
the planter, manager or overseer, and a work 
that will facilitate them greatly in the trans- 
action of business." — Richmldd Dispatch. 

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

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

" It is fnll of useful information and is well 
calculated to induce a methodical system, in- 
dustry and energy especially vital to a suc- 
cessful and profitable cultivation of mother 
earth." — Richmond EnqvArer. june — if 



TO AGRICULTURISTS. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Farmer's Encyclopaedia; by Cuthbert W. 
Johnson. 

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

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

Johnson's Chemistry and Geology, with their 
application. 

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

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

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

Fessenden's American Gardener. 

American Fruit Book, with full instructions; 
by S. W. Cole. 

Downing on Fruit Trees. 

Theory of Horticulture; by Lindley. 

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

Bridgman's Kitchen Gardener. 

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

Richmond, March 12, 1851.— lv 



62 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



63 



one operation— being simple in construction, 
economical to the farmer, and will thresh more 
in a given length of time than any Machine 
in use. This Machine took the premium over 
some five or six machines at the Maryland 
State Fair, in October, 1852, by acclamation. 
We manufacture them from 2 horse-power up 
to 12 horse-power. We also manufacture 
Ploughs, Cultivators, Harrows, Grain Cradles, 
Wheat Drills, Corn and Cob Crushers, Corn 
Shellers, Straw Cutters of different kinds, 
among which are Smith's Virginia Patent, 



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

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

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

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

Johnston's Practical Agriculture, one vol. 



being cheap and simple in its construction, cloth— 75 cents. 

Revolving Horse Rakes, Premium Wheat Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener, cloth- 
Fans. We will also keep for sale Reapers, ! 75 cen ts. 

Mowing Machines, and all kinds of useful Hoare's Treatise on the Cultivation of the 
implements, such as are used by Farmers, j Grape Vine on open Walls— 50 cents. 
Planters and Gardeners. We would call par- Sheep Husbandry, by H. S. Randall— SI 25. 



ticular attention to the Wiley or Mott Pre 
mium Double Pointed Cap Plough, of compo- 
sition metal. One of these Ploughs will last 
as long as three or four of any other kind now 
in use, and the metal will stand rocky or 
stumpy land as well as .steel wrought shares— 
the shares only costing from 25 to 45 cents 
each— will plough from 20 to 30 acres each— 
the cap fitting right in the wear of the mould- 
board, the cap costing only from 25 to 45 cents. 
This Plough can be kept in order by the farmer 
or any of the hands, from five to six years. 
With this Plough the farmer is his own black- 
smith. The Ploughs all warranted, and also 
warranted to put the ground in better order 
than anv Plough now in use. Also Wrought 
Share Ploughs, both Right and Left; among 
which are the Improved M'Cormick's, with 
Cast Landside and Heels; Livingston County 
Plough, of all sizes; Subsoil Ploughs of the 
best patterns. 

N. U. Mott being a practical and an expe- 
rienced workman for fifteen years in the dif- 
ferent branches of the business of manufac- 
turing of implements, we feel safe in saying 
that articles purchased of us will prove of 
superior workmanship. Call and examine 
for yourselves, when we will be happy to ex- 
hibit our goods. 

MOTT, LEWIS & Co. 
Sign of the Plough, 36 Main Street, 3 doors 
below the City Hotel. 

fe-3t 

WILLIAM P. LADD, 

APOTHECARY AND DRUGGIST, 

No. 319, head of Broad Street, Shockoe Hill, 

Richmond, Virginia. 

DEALER in English.Mediterranean, India 
and all Foreign and Domestic Drugs and 
Medicines; also, Paints, Oils, Varnish, Dye- 
Stnffs, Window Glass, Putty, &c. For sale 
on the most accommodating terms. 

15" Orders from Country Merchants and 
Physicians thankfully received and promptly 
attended to. 
ja 1851— tf 



Stephens' Book of the Farm, complete — S4. 

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

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

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

Chemistry Made Easy for Farmers, paper — 
25 cents. 

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

Dana's Prize Essay on Manures — 25 cents. 

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

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

Canfield on the Breeds, Management, Struc- 
ture and Disease 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 
S'5 for the work complete — $6 bound in two 
volumes. 

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

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

Elementsof 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 — S3. 

mar — ly 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS, &c. 

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

Persons desiring further information will 
please address 

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



64 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



CONTENTS OF NUMBER II. 



PAGE 

Tobacco 33 

Profits of Grazing in Fauquier 35 

Wet Feet 35 

How to get a Stand of Clover 3C 

Common Lime — Is it Indispensable to the 

Fertility of the Soin 36 

Breaking Colts 38 

Experiments 38 

Use of Guano on Summer Crops 40 

On the Use of Single Manures 42 

Cure for Rose-Bugs 44 

Peas and Pea-Hay 44 

Flax Culture 46 

Recipe for Curing Sores 47 

Experiments in Agriculture 48 

Loss of Bacon in Curing. — Important Ap- 
plication of the Syphon Principle 48 

State Agricultural Society 49 

New England Housewives 49 

Comparative Merits of French and English 

Horses, by the Hon. Wrn. C. Rives 50 

Irish Potatoes 53 

To Agricultural Societies, Clubs and Asso- 
ciations 54 

Query respecting Artificial Guano 54 

University Pigs .54 

The Wool Grower and Stock Register 54 

Specific Manure for Tobacco 55 

M'Cormick's Reaper 55 

Bone Mill at Richmond 56 

Strawberry Cultivation 56 

Extract from Correspondence 57 

Payments to the Southern Planter 57 



SeBaw's Industrial Resources 

AND PROGRESS OF THE SOUTH- 
ERN AND WESTERN STATES, in 
three large and closely printed volumes, small 
type, double columns; handsome print, paper 
and binding, — being a disrest and abridgement 
of the 12 volumes of DeBow's Review. Price 
$10, or S3 33 per volume. 

Desirous of supplying the large and conti- 
nually increasing demand for the complete series 
of the li'r-vicw, 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 man- 
ner of the encyclopaedias, into alphabetical 
order. In this manner everything of interest 
and importance will be preserved in a conve- 
nient 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 the gist of every- 
thing that has appeared in the Review relating 
to the Southern and Western States. (An im- 



j perfect index of which will be found at th 
opening of the 10th volume.) 

To wit: Their History, Population, Ge- 
ography, Statistics; Agricultural Pro- 
ducts, of Cotton, Sugar, Tobacco, Hemp, 
Grains, Naval Stores, etc. etc. — Manufac- 
tures; detailed accounts, statistics and his- 
tory of all branches,— Internal Improvements; 
complete statistics of Rail Roads, results pro- 
fits, expenses, costs, advantages, miles in pro- 
jection, construction, completed, etc.; Plank 
Roads, Canals, Navigation, etc. — Statistics of 
Health and Diseases, wealth and progress; rela- 
tive condition, whites and blacks; Slave Laws 
and Statistics, management and amelioration 
of slavery, — origin, history and defences of slavery 
and slave institutions ; the valuable treatises of 
Harper, Hammond, Dew, on slavery, etc.; 
Commerce of the South and West in all of 
its minute particulars, etc. together with an 
historical and statistical sketch of each of the 
slates and cities, — the domestic and foreign trade, 
resources, manufactures, etc. of the United States; 
the Census Returns from 1790, with the com- 
plete statistics of 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 con- 
densation, is published monthly in New Or- 
leans, and other southern and western cities, 
112 to 140 pages, small print, fine paper and 
engravings, and treats of all the great indus- 
trial matters relating to the Southern and 
Western States, 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 bound 
volumes. Price $42. Single numbers sup- 
plied to make up sets, and binding furnished 
on reasonable terms. 

f^rOrders on commission merchants in ci- 
ties or towns, payable on sale of crops, re- 
ceived as cash. 

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



BOOKS. PIANOS, MUSIC, &c. 

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

Constantly on hand, a full supply of stand 
ard Agricultural Works. 



1853. 

BEST PERUVIAN GUANO.— 1 am now 
prepared to receive orders from customers 
for best Peruvian Guano, at reduced prices. 
Those who wish to secure a supply for Spring 
crops, would do well to send in their orders 
without delay. 
fe-3t HUGH W. FRY.