THlTsOTJTHEEN PLANTER, 

3csotrt to aavicultuvc, Kottfcultuvc, an» the JgousthoUians 



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



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



FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor. 



P. D. BERNARD, Proprietor. 



Vol. XIII. 



RICHMOND, JUNE, 1853. 



No. 6. 



For the Southern Planter. 
SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 

BT PROFESSOR GILHAM. 

NCMEER V. 

Continued from page 68, Vol. XIII. 

ON THE SOILS PRODUCED By PARTICULAR GEO- 
LOGICAL FORMATIONS. 

In our last number we discussed the subject 
ot the general origin of soils, the chemical 
conditions necessary to fertility, the most fre- 
quent causes of barrenness, &c, and alluded 
to the fact that the diversities in the composi- 
lion and other characters of the rocks which 
form the outer crust of the earth, give rise to 
great diversities in the character of soils. 
We are now prepared to consider this branch 
of our subject a little more in detail, and show 
what character of soils iesults from particular 
rock formations. 

There are two great classes of rocks: the 
stratified and the unstratified, or the aqueous 
and the igneous rocks. The stratified, or 
aqueous, wereoriginally deposited from water, 
at the bottoms of oceans, lakes, seas, &c; at 
first they were simple deposits of sand, clay, 
rnud, marl, &c, which were brought into the 
water by rivers, or removed from the shores 
by waves and tides, and spread over the bot- 
tom in successive layers or strata; or else they 
were' deposits of calcareous matter, which re- 
sulted from the breaking down of the shelly 
coverings of countless numbers of shell-fish ■ 
which inhabited the oceans, or of coral reefs, 
such as are found at this time in the seas of 
warm climates. These strata in the course of I 
ages became solid rock; longstanding, added 
to the heavy pressure of the ocean, sufficed to 
harden some, while others were cemented to- 
gether by mineral matter, such as carbonate 
of lime, oxyde of iron, &c, contained in the 
waters.' Thus deposits of sand became sand- 
stones, those of clay and mud became shales 
and slates, while the calcareous matter, whe- 
ther it was a confused mass of shells or broken 
coral, or of fine mud, in which all traces of 
its origin were obliterated, assumed the va- 
rious forms of marble, common limestone, or 
chalk. These deposits, which were made 
Voi. XIII.-6. 



and solidified long before the creation of man, 
were at last thrown out of the waters, to fur- 
nish by their disintegration the soils which 
supply food for him and the countless other 
animals that inhabit our globe. This being 
the origin of the sedimentary rocks, it will 
not be a difficult matter to determine the ge- 
neral character of the various soils produced 
by them. It must be remembered, that since 
most of these rocks were deposits made in the 
bottom of the ocean, they must all of them 
contain small quantities of all the substances 
found in the waters of the ocean. 

Sandstones necessarily yield sandy soils. 
When they are composed almost exclusively 
of silicious particles they produce very barren 
soils, little else than drifting sands; but if the 
sand is mixed with more or less foreign mat- 
ter, then the soils are fertile. Some sand- 
stones contain larse quantities of carbonate of 
lime : in such cases the soils are always more 
or less fertile— sometimes they are very much 
so. Dark colored sandstones get their color 
from the presence of oxyde of iron, which we 
have before seen is useful to the soil in va- 
rious ways. Sandstones are comparatively 
soft, and yield readily to atmospheric influ- 
ences; hence sandstone soils are generally 
deep. 

Shales and slates produce clay soils, which 
are sometimes very stiff and wet, and conse- 
quently cold and hard to work. But since 
these rocks were formed by the deposition of 
sediment, which must have been derived in 
most cases from a variety of sources, it fol- 
lows that the soils which result from them 
should contain every thing necessary to fer- 
tility. That such is the case is shown by the 
fact that some of these stiff soils are, by pro- 
I per management, such as draining aDd careful 
I cultivation, made very productive. 

Limestones produce soils of almost every 
shade of fertility. Some limestones are soft, 
and break down readily, forming deep soils, 
while others which are hard wear away very 
slowly, and produce very thin soils. They 
are, however, of pretty good quality generally, 
and are well suited to pasturage. Some lime- 
stones disintegrate as other rocks do, forming 
soils in which the carbonate of lime is abun- 
dant; and at first sight it would seem as if all 
limestones should yield soils rich in calca- 
i reous matter, or be true calcareous soils; bu 
I such is not the case. Many limestones ar- 



162 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



reduced to soil by the entire removal of all 
their carbonate of lime by running water 
charged with carbonic acid. The carbonate 
of lime being thus removed, the soil results 
from the clay, sand and other impurities of 
the rock. This explains how it is that lime- 
stones often produce very stiff clay soils, in 
which not a trace of lime in the form of car- 
bonate can be found. Most limestones, par- 
ticularly those which are impure, contain 
more or less lime in combination with silica, 
as silicate of lime, which is left in the soil 
after the carbonate has been removed by 
\cater; so that many limestone soils, which 
will not effervesce on the application of an acid, 
are nevertheless abundantly supplied with 
lime. This is the case with the soils of the 
Valley. Limestone soils are, as a general 
thing, well adapted to grazing and the dairy; 
this is because the grasses are lime plants, 
and always succeed best where the soil is 
well supplied with lime. As limestones re- 
sult from accumulations of the shells, &c. of 
marine animals, they generally contain a 
:.inall percentage of the phosphates, which of 
course are left in the soil when the rock is 
reduced. 

There is still another class of stratified 
rocks deserving of notice in this connection, 
as large areas in Virginia are covered by 
rocks of this class : we refer to what geologists 
call the primary stratified rocks. These rocks 
are often very hard, are crystalline in their 
structure, and are evidently a class of rocks 
which were originally deposited from water, 
as those we have been discussing were, but 
have at some subsequent period been sub- 
jected to great heat, by which they have been 
very much altered. This heat, while it was 
not sufficient to melt the rocks, was sufficient 
to soften them to the extent necessary to allow 
the particles to assume new .combinations, 
producing as they cooled a great variety of 
minerals, some of which are very beautifully 
crystallized. These rocks produce almost 
every variety of soil, from the most fertile to 
the sandy waste ; and a knowledge of the pre- 
dominant mineral substance or substances in 
the rock, will enable us in most cases to 
arrive at a pretty fair estimate of the quality 
of the soil, and will serve to direct us to spe- 
cific deficiencies. 

The first of these rocks in the ascending 
r.cale is gneiss, more commonly called granite. 
It is a combination of the three minerals, 
quartz, felspar and mica, cemented together, 
as it were, and differs from true granite prin- 
cipally in this, that it is a stratified rock, 
altered by heat, while granite is a true ig- 
neous roctt, one that was once in a state of 
fusion. _ The different minerals which com- 
pose this rock may be readily distinguished 
from each other; the quariz occurs in the 
form of hard transparent crystals, embedded 
in the felspar, which is softer, opaque, and 
usually of a whitish or light pink color; the 
mica, generally known through the country 



under the name of isinglass, appears in shining 
scales of various colors, as green, black, &c, 
very soft and easily picked out by the point 
ofa knife. Two of the constituents of gneiss, 
quartz and mica, are scarcely acted upon by 
the atmosphere; but the felspar, which is a 
combination of silica with alumina and po- 
tassa or soda, is slowly acted upon by the 
carbonic acid of the atmosphere, and the 
rock is gradually decomposed. The carbonic 
acid decomposes the silicate of potassa or 
soda, and forms the carbonate of one or both 
of these bases, which is very soluble, and re- 
moved almost as rapidly as formed, while the 
silicate of alumina is left in the form of clay. 

When the felspar is decomposed the quartz 
and mica fall apart, and are mingled with 
the soil, the former making it more or less 
sandy and gravelly, the latter sometimes ap- 
pearing in fine shining scales, producing what 
is sometimes called isinglass soil. If the coun- 
try is mountainous or hilly, the sides of the 
hills will be sandy, while, the valleys will be 
fine, stiff and cold clays. Soils formed from 
gneiss rocks generally have a sufficient sup- 
ply of the alkalies, but are almost invariably 
deficient in lime. 

Above the gneiss we have a series of slates, 
such as hornblende slate, mica slate, talcose 
slate, and clay or argillaceous slate, together 
with epidolc rock,' quariz rock or gnessoid sand- 
stone, and primary limestone. 

Hornblende slate derives its name from the 
predominance of the mineral hornblende, a 
dark colored or black mineral, which is com- 
posed of silica, alumina, oxyde of iron, mag- 
nesia and lime; its varieties contain quartz, 
felspar, mica, &c. This rock, when it disin- 
tegrates, leaves its alumina, lime, magnesia, 
and oxyde of iron in the soil, which make it 
very fertile, the oxyde of iron at the same 
time giving it a deep red or brownish red 
colof. In the disintegration of rocks contain- 
ing hornblende, some of the mineral usually 
escapes decomposition, and breaks down to 
fine black sand. The presence of this sand 
in the soil is, to those who have carefully ob- 
served it, a sure evidence of fertility. 

The mica slates are composed of quartz 
and mica principally; from what has been 
said in relation to gneiss, it is plain that they 
must produce most unpromising soils. 

The talcose slates owe their name to the 
presence of talc, a mineral which splits into 
thin, inelastic laminre, has a peculiar greasy 
feel, and is composed of silica and magnesia. 
Steatite, or common soapslonc, is a variety of 
thjs rock'. Soils from such rocks are apt to 
suffer from an excess of magnesia, and are at 
the same time deficient in several important 
particulars. 

Epidotic rock owes its name and color to 
the presence of epidote, a mineral of a light 
green color generally, which resembles and 
has been taken for copper ore; it is composed 
of silica, alumina, lime and the oxyde of iron. 
The proportions of lime and alumina are 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



163 



usually more than in hornblende; the soils 
produced are of a rich red color, plentifully 
supplied with lime, and often more fertile 
than those from hornblende rocks. 

Quartz rock, or gncissoid sandstones, and 
primary limestones, produce soils very much 
like those produced by some of the sandstones 
and,Jimestones already discussed. 

The rocks which compose this primary se- 
ries may all be regarded, with slight excep- 
tions, as combinations of quartz with other 
minerals, which, when examined chemically, 
are found to be silicates of one or more bases. 
When it is a simple silicate of but one or two 
bases, as in felspar, the resulting soils are apt 
to be deficient in some one or more consti- 
tuents necessary to fertility; but when the si- 
licate is one of several bases, as in horn- 
blende, and when, as is most generally the 
case, there are small quantities of some of 
the other silicates present, the soils produced 
are fertile, and some of them eminently so. 
As a general thing, those rocks of this class 
which contain a sufficient quantity of oxyde 
of iron to give the soil a dark red color, also 
contain a sufficiency of lime, magnesia and 
the alkalies; while those that are so destitute 
of iron as to leave a light colored soil, are 
almost invariably deficient in lime, and not 
unfrequently in the alkalies also. There are 
a few rocks which form exceptions to the first 
of these rules, the minerals which compose 
them containing some combination of iron, 
with no lime, or at most mere traces of it; of 
some of these we will speak further on. 

There is but a very small portion of Vir- 
ginia covered by true igneous rocks, still it 
may not be amiss to say a few words in rela- 
tion to them and to the soils produced by 
them. These rocks are of two kinds: the 
primary igneous, including granite, sienile, 
&c, and the trap rocks. 

The granites #e composed, like gneiss, 
of quartz, felspar and mica ; the felspar in 
these rocks, as in gneiss, is attacked by the 
carbonic acid of the air, and in time stiff cold 
clays occupy the valleys, while the hill sides 
are poor and sandy. Sienite is a rock com- 
posed of quanz; felspar and hornblende, or 
granite passes into sienite by the substitution 
of hornblende for mica. Sienite is generally 
taken for and called granite, but by careful 
examination the hard black crystals or grains 
of hornblende may be distinguished from the 
scales of mica. In the decomposition of the 
sienilic rocks, the hornblende as well as the 
felspar is decomposed, producing dark colored 
fertile soils. 

Some of the primary igneous rocks of Vir- 
ginia contain very considerable amounts of 
the mineral epidote before described, which 
by their disintegration yield soils which are 
often very fertile. 

The trap rocks differ materially in compo- 
sition from ihe primary rocks ; they are com- 
jMMd principally of felspar and hornblende, 
the latter mineral giving them a dark grey or 
6 r 



green color usually. The proportions vary- 
considerably, giving rise to several varieties, 
such as basalt, greenstone, &c. ; the soils 
formed from these rocks are generally very 
fertile, and some of them are unsurpassed. 

From the above brief description of the 
roeks which compose the crust of the earth, 
and of the soils which they produce, it will be 
seen that a knowledge of the rocks of a par- 
ticular district is of the utmost consequence to 
the agricultural community, as it points di- 
rectly to the cause or causes of infertility, 
wherever they exist, and also serves as a 
guide to judicious improvement. Many of 
the States of the Union have had complete 
geological surveys made, and have published 
detailed reports, with maps, sections, &c, so 
that every farmer may become familiar with 
the geology of his own neighborhood. In. 
our own State, surveys, and very complete 
ones, have been made, but the legislature does 
not see fit to complete the work by appropri- 
ting money for the publication of the final re- 
port upon our geology. 

In this connection, it may not be amiss to 
close with a few words upon the distribution 
of the various geological formations over the 
State. 

Commencing with the tide-waler region, 
we find this to belong to what is known as the 
tertiary period of geology, or the period which 
immediately preceded the placing of man 
upon the earth. Instead of a formation of 
solid rock, we find a succession of strata of 
sand, clay, marl, &c, and find them almost 
horizontal in position. The strata contain 
the remains of many shell-fish, sharks, &c, 
which show that the strata were depositions 
at the bottom of an ocean, which must have 
had its western shore somewhere in a line 
with the falls of the large rivers, as the James 
at Richmond, the Rappahannock, at Freder- 
icksburg, &c- Before any solidification took 
place in these strata they were raised out of 
the waters, and so gently raised as scarcely 
to disturb them in the least. 

The soils of this entire region are, we be- 
lieve, uniformly light, and from the great 
benefits experienced from the use of lime and 
marl, must, as a general thingf, be greatly de- 
ficient in lime. 

The entire country, from the falls of the 
large rivers, or from the head of tide to the 
Blue Ridge, is covered with the primary stra- 
tified roeks. We must, however, except a 
few patches of igneous rocks, and two or 
three belts of fossiliferous rocks of a much 
more recent date than those they are found 
to overlie. Over the different parts of this 
widely extended area we have every possible 
variety of primary stratified rocks, producing 
soils of every degree of fertility. Many coun- 
ties are covered almost Entirely by gneiss, or 
rocks of a gneissoid character, and their 
soils are rarely productive, being generally 
very light colored, deficient in lime, magnesia, 
&c. Some varieties of gneiss contain very 



164 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



considerable amounts of the bi-sulphuret of 
iron, which appears as bright yellow specks 
in the rocks; this undergoes decomposition, 
and communicates a more or less red linge to 
the soil, furnishing an exception to the rule 
that the presence of iron in the primary rocks 
is an evidence of the presence of lime, mag- 
nesia, &c. in the soil. Large areas are also 
covered by the various slates, and with rocks 
which partake of the characters of two or 
more of them, each and every one giving rise 
to a soil which is characteristic of the rock 
which produces it. In this primary region 
there are large extents of country, covered by 
soils of a dark red color, which, as we have 
before stated, result generally from the dis- 
integration of rocks containing hornblende or 
epidote, and such soils rarely fail, in their vir- 
gin state, to be abundantly supplied with lime, 
magnesia, and the alkalies. But if the dark 
color of the soil results from decomposed snl- 
phuret of iron, or from other minerals than 
hornblende or epidote, the soil is apt to be 
sterile, although it would be thought rich from 
its color. 

In various portions of the primary district 
we have protruded patches of granite, sienite 
and trap rocks, and wherever they occur the 
character of the soil is modified more or less. 
We also find in several places a series of 
si ratified rocks, of a much more recent date 
than the primary, and overlying them. A 
beit of this formation commences in Orange, 
and, continuing parallel to the Blue Ridge, 
runs up into Maryland ; another occupies a 
part of Chesterfield, Hanover, &c, running 
nearly parallel to the one first mentioned; 
there are also detached portions of this for- 
mation in Buckingham, Campbell and Pitt- 
sylvania. 

Much of this formation is sandstone, which 
produces by its disintegration the most sterile 
soils perhaps that are to be found in the state. 
The formation changes somewhat in its cha- 
racter as it approaches the Potomac, but we 
are not able to say whether the soils are 
ameliorated by the change. 

The Blue Ridge itself is, from one border 
of the state to the other, composed of igneous 
rocks. After what has already been said, it 
is not necessary to speak of the soils pro- 
duced by their breaking down. 

After crossing the Ridge, we come upon a 
succcessiqn of stratified rocks, embracing al- 
most every variety of sandstone, limestone, 
slate, &c. ; in proceeding westward from the 
Ridge, we come upon them in regular suc- 
cession, commencing wi,th the oldest, which 
flanks the Ridge, and terminating, after cross- 
ing the Alleghanies, in the great coal forma- 
tion, the last in the series. The first in the 
series is a fine white sandstone, which occu- 
pies a narrow belt on the western slope of the 
Ridge; it produces a light, sandy, and gene- 
rally a poor soil. The second formation in 
the series, and one of great consequence, is 
the limestone, which occupies the entire 



length and most of the breadth of the valley ; 
it produces clay soils which are generally fer- 
tile, and some of them are eminently so. 
From the Valley westward, until the Alle- 
ghanies are crossed, there are great great di- 
versities in the rocks, caused by their being 
turned more or less upon their edges, or dip- 
ping very much to the west. The ridges are 
frequently sandstones, while the valleys are 
often occupied by limestones, producing soils 
well fitted for grazing. West of the Alle- 
ghanies, the rocks, which, as we have before 
stated, belong to the great coal formation, are 
spread out more nearly in a horizontal direc- 
tion, producing greater uniformity in the soils. 
The immense forests of Western Virginia 
very plainly indicate what the character of 
her soils must be. 



The following article was written previous 
to the adjournment of the Legislature, and 
has been long in type. It may be now not 
well-timed, and perhaps some of the remarks 
may be less appropriate than they were then : 

For the Southern Planter. 
THE INSPECTION LAWS. 



Inspections were originally established to 
facilitate trade and to guard against frauds, 
but they have been perverted in some instances 
so as to operate just the reverse — to obstruct 
trade and to legalize fraud. The appointment 
of inspectors, instead of being vested directly 
or indirectly in the local auihorities, who can 
best judge of the respectability and qualifica- 
tions of candidates, and who are, as members 
of the community, interested in sustaining the 
character of their inspection, is placed in the 
hands of an Executive, elected on political 
grounds and expected to exercise his patronage 
accordingly. Consequently the criterion of 
qualification of an inspector is apt to be, noi 
whether he is well versed in the quality of 
the article he is to decide on — not whether he 
is a man of high moral character, but whether 
he is a Democrat or a Whig, accordingly as 
the one or the other party happens to be in the 
ascendant, and how many voles he can in- 
fluence for his party. All other, and most es- 
sential qualifications are but secondary. Is 
not this felt and known by proprietors of some 
large establishments, erected at great expense 
for public purposesl 

The requirements of the inspection laws in 
some cases are not or cannot be carried out — 
for example, all fish barrels are required to be 
of the capacity of not less than twenty-eight 
gallons to pass inspection. They are now 
brought to market of less capaciiy, and do 
pass inspection with the qualification of "un- 
der size" — how much or how little, the buyer 
must judge for himself. The very process of 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



]65 



inspecting pickled fish is objectionable, be- 
cause the exposure and loss of brine causes 
thein to spoil the sooner, and as the month and 
year of inspection is not branded on the barrel 
the inspection is worse than useless, and is a 
tax on the consumer. In fact, the purchaser 
relies much more on the representation and 
respectability of the vendor than on that of the 
inspector, however correct he may be. 

Witboul inspection, he would have recourse 
on the vendor if he sold him an unsound or 
inferior article as a sound or good one; and 
the old adage that honesty is the best policy 
is applicable to the great mass of dealers who 
wish to, retain their customers, if they are not 
influenced by higher motives. 

The recent introduction of guano was seized 
on to constitute another inspection. The par- 
ties most interested do not desire it, and are 
unnecessarily taxed — for what"? A cargo of 
2000 or 3000 bags arrives from Baltimore or 
New York, where they were filled under in- 
spection on board ship direct from the Chincha 
Islands or some other designated place, as re- 
presented and guarantied by the importer and 
the sub-vendor. The continuance of the de- 
mand and success of the trade depends en- 
tirely on these representations being correct. 
The article cannot be adulterated on board 
ship, nor even on shore without detection; nor 
is there any inducement on the part of large 
dealers to deteriorate the quality, if it were 
practicable, and thus destroy their traffic. The 
inspector calls and takes a sample from two 
or three or more bags — decides on the quality 
of the 2000 or 3000— has his mark placed on 
the whole, and pockets his fee. 

Now if fraud was intended, dees this pre- 
vent it? Does it not legalize if? If the in- 
spection of one bag is necessary, so is that of 
ail — and if adulteration is intended, it can as 
easily be effected after inspection as before it. 
Wherever done it would betray itself. The 
inspection to be useful, should test every bag 
correctly. 

That the inspection of guano and plaster, 
as ai present conducted in Baltimore, is worse 
than useless is shown in the following extract 
from the Report of the State Chemist of Ma- 
ryland, contained in an article published in 
the Baltimore American, embracing also some 
other interesting paragraphs, which are here 
inserted: 

"State Chemist's Report.— We have re- 
ceived, through the attention of B. D. Danels, 
Esq. of the House of Delegates, a copy of the 
third Report of Dr. Jas. Higgins, State Agri- 
cultural Chemist, to the Legislature of Mary- 
land. The report occupies one hundred and 
sixty closely printed pages, and abounds with 
informaiion bearing on the agricultural inte- 
rests of the State. The contents of the re- 
port are thus classified by the author: 

" ' I shall in this report first consider the ori- 
gin and the mode in which soils have been 
formed; 3d, Their composition; 3d. The con- 
ditions on which the fertility of the soil depend s; 



4th. The nature and mode of action of differ- 
ent manures; and under this head shall offer 
such suggestions as the nature of the case de- 
mands, in relation to their inspection; 5th. The 
analysis of those soils, from different parts of 
the State, which are of general utility; 6th. 
A particular description of the various soils, 
limestone, marls, and other economical advan- 
tages of Washington county.' 

"The subjects discussed under these gen- 
eral heads are minutely sub-divided, and whilst 
the leading idea of the necessity of a close 
connection of chemical 'science with agricul- 
tural labor is preserved throughout, a mass of 
well-attested facts is presented that must be 
of great practical use, even to those who may 
dissent from some of the conclusions arrived 
at. In relation to the necessity for experi- 
mental farms, to show where careful analyses 
of soils are made — applied manures carefully 
analyzed, and the crops carefully measured 
-and weighed, — and the results frankly and 
truthfully given, Dr. Higgins makes the fol- 
lowing gratifying announcement: 

" 'I am happy to inform your honorable body 
that all, and more than all, which can be ac- 
complished by an experimental farm, at the 
public expense, I have made arrangements 
to accomplish, by the aid of several public 
spirited gentlemen of our State. Dr. Maddox 
of Washington county, Hon. F. P. Blair of 
Montgomery, Mr. T. S. Iglehart of Anne 
Arundel county, James Wallace, Esq. of Dor- 
chester, T. S. Holliday of Talbot, Dr. J. H. 
Turner of St. Mary's, have each agreed to set 
aside a portion of their farms for a series of 
carefully conducted experiments with different 
manures on different crops. These experi- 
ments will embrace: The analysis of the soil — 
the analysis of the manure — the time and mode 
of its application — the mode of cultivation— 
the exact product of the land, and the stale o»: 
the season. These facts will be most impor- 
tant to the people of Maryland, — they will 
form the first and only experiments yet made 
in our State, or elsewhere, where all the causes 
influencing the production of a crop will' be. 
estimated, and the separate value assigaad to. 
each. 

"'The well known intelligence, cars, and 
integrity of these gentlemen are guaranties 
that their statements can be implicitly relied 
on — whilst the different variety of soils owned 
by them will make their observation of ex- 
tended public utility.' 

'■'The present system of guano inspection is 
closely examined, its defects pointed out, and, 
remedies proposed. On these points, the re-. 
port says: 

'"So manifestly inferior has some of our 
No. 1 guano been to a practiced eye, that it 
has been returned to the merchant, as was the 
case of a part of the Howard's cargo. It was 
bought by several gentlemen of Kent county, 
and returned to the merchant, because deemed 
by them very inferior, by whom it was sent 
back, and a supply sent from another cargo. 



166 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



Yet it bore the mark No. 1, and by that mark 
was sold to somebody else, ignorant of its de- 
fects, who thus paid for an inspection, and on 
account of that, paid at least $16 per ton for 
an article worth only $33 75. I need not point 
out all the defects of the present inspection; 
to many of you they are already known. From 
the above it will be seen that it has fulfilled 
none of the requisites of an inspection; it has 
not been "an impartial umpirage between 
buyer and seller;" it has been no arbitration 
between producer and consumer; it has not 
shown the quantity of valuable matter in the 
article inspected; it has, instead of protecting 
the consumer, misled him to give a high price 
for an inferior article. It has, by not showing 
uniformity in that bearing the same mark, de- 
prived him of the benefits of his experience; 
for, though a particular quantity might be ap- 
plied with profit one season, the same quantity 
might be useless in another, though bearing 
the same mark, because of very inferior qua- 
lity. It has prevented the purchaser from in- 
vestigating for himself— exacted his money 
and given him less than nothing in return. 
The question, then, is, ought the inspection be 
modified as proposed in a bill which passed 
the House of Delegates, and whose principle 
was not objected to in the Senate, making the 
inspection show the quantity of valuable mat- 
ter in the article inspected"? or ought it to be 
abolished"? I refer to my last report for rea- 
sons for the inspection laws which I then re- 
commended. If it be abolished, the agent has 
stated to me that he will separate the damaged 
from the undamaged guano. Certainly, no 
change will be for the worse.' 

"The objections against the inspection of 
ground plaster are thus stated: 

"'First, That it is no umpirage between 
buyer and seller. 

"■'Secondly. That it is partial in its opera- 
tion, and acts with discrimination against those 
who are obliged to dealin Baltimore. 

"'Thirdly. That it does not show in any 
manner the quality of the article inspected; 
that it does not show, nor pretend to show, the 
quantity of plaster which is contained in the 
barrel. 

" 'It, therefore, does not fulfil any of the re- 
quirements of an inspection in its operations, 
is unjust, inefficient, and partial, and ought to 
be abolished. 

" : The quantity of ground plaster annually 
sold in Baltimore is about 30,000 barrels, and 
steadily on the increase.' 
. "We commend the report to the attention 
.of the agriculturists of the State; and we hope 
that the Legislature will make provision' for 
its liberal distribution." • 

Lime is another article taxed heavily and 
uselessly by inspection — about three per cent, 
on its value in casks, and more if loose. The 
inspector is to brand on each cask "slacked" 
(meaning slaked) or "unslacked," and 1st, 2d 
or 3d, but as no date is required to be branded 
on it (which might be simply done with a few 



figures, as 12, 3, 3, for 12th March, 1853,) the 
purchaser has to depend on his own judgment, 
not that of the inspector, to see if it is slaked 
or unslaked. The size of the cask in this 
case, as in that of fish, is prescribed by law, 
but the Thomastown folks consult their own 
interest or convenience, and here again, per- 
haps, the indefinite "under size" has to be 
adopted. Is it not presumable that every 
builder and other purchaser looks to the qua- 
lity and condition of the lime he purchases'? 
and it is well known that the lime brought 
from the north in bulk for agricultural pur- 
poses is not submitted to inspection — which 
would be a tax of 14 to 16 per cent, on the 
cost. 

If it be necessary to inspect lime and plaster 
of Paris, why not also to inspect each sack of 
salt that arrives from Liverpool and bacon 
from the west and north, and nails and licorice 
as well as tobacco, of which it now constitutes 
a large component in the process of manufac- 
ture. Why not inspect every article in general 
use! 

A more important article than any yet men- 
tioned is obvious to remark. The inspection 
of flour embraces many useless and injurious 
requisitions — and the only parties exempt from 
their evils are the bakers and consumers in 
the State. They may buy their flour on their 
own judgment, without having the barrels 
bored and an air hole made through the con- 
tents. 

An inspection of flour is, no doubt, neces- 
sary, but where the buyer and seller choose to 
dispense with it, they should be permitted to 
do so, as in New York. It is well known that 
Virginia flour, and particularly that of the 
mills at Richmond and of several others up 
James river, is preferred to any other for ship- 
ment to Brazil and to all markets on the Pa- 
cific, which have of late become very impor- 
tant. The United States Navy Department, 
in procuring flour for the Pacific squadron re- 
quires that the barrels shall not be bored, but 
as the inspection law says they shall, it be- 
comes necessary to seal up and cover with tin 
or lead the inevitable auger hole. Shippers 
to all these ports would prefer the same course, 
and would rely on the miller for the quality. 
Nor could the character of the inspection suf- 
fer when there was no inspection mark. But 
according to law the flour must be rendered 
liable to injury on a long voyage by having a 
hole bored in the barrel and a certain quantity 
of flour extracted from it. 

Since the opening of the California market, 
it has been found advantageous to put flour up 
in bags of 49 lbs. and 98 lbs. — equal to one- 
fourth or one-half barrel, for the convenience 
of transportation into the interior and moun- 
tainous region— but here the inspection law 
puts in its veto and relinquishes this advantage 
to the millers of New York and Boston — for 
Boston now has its mills. The practice has 
been introduced and allowed for the inspector 
to draw forth one augerful of flour, which he 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



i& 



does not look at, but retains as a perquisite, 
and then to draw a second, by which he judges 
the quality, and also retains that. Query — 
would not one be all sufficient 1 The inspec- 
tions of flour in Virginia have generally been 
well conducted, but the parties who deal in 
the article should be allowed to exercise their 
own judgment and to keep their packages 
perfect if they prefer it. 

As to the inspection of tobacco, it is ante- 
diluvian, when the present state, of that trade 
is coDsidered. It was very well formerly, 
when the buyer looked only at the inspector's 
receipt, and which could be issued only for 
sound 'merchantable leaf or stemmed tobacco^but 
now the purchaser sees the tobacco itself, or a 
sample of it, and does not care a jot for the 
opinion of the inspector, who is now bound to 
give a receipt for all sorts, good and bad. Leaf 
and lugs and ground leaves — primings and 
succors — distinguishing them as "passed" — 
"refused," or "too high" — which has no in- 
fluence on the buyer, nor does it prevent the 
exportation of the very worst trash. Of what 
use is such qualification'? 

If tobacco, brought from any western State, 
is offered for inspection in Virginia, the words 
"western tobacco," in large characters, must 
be marked on the cask, by way of stigma, that 
it may not degrade Virginia, to which, in a 
majority of instances it is probably superior, 
as it does not embrace primings, succors and 
the meanest trash which would not bear the 
expense of transportation. But the impolicy 
of this dislinction is most obvious. We are 
now authorizing the expenditure of millions 
to open a communication with the great west 
that we may attract its products to our market 
and we endeavor to degrade one of those pro- 
ducts, the very one most likely to seek a mar- 
ket here. 

What a vast and useless expenditure of oil 
and lampblack and of time also is wasted in 
painting four times on each cask in characters 
large enough for a sign board, "refused," "too 
high," "western tobacco." 

There is another requirement of the law 
which shows a degree of meanness, if not 
injusiiee, unworthy of legislative enactment. 
Tne hogshead of tobacco must be weighed 
before it is inspected, so that the planter has 
the full benefit of the weight of all the dirt 
that may adhere to it, of the surplus hoops, if 
any, and of any wet or damage, unless the 
inspectors are so very careful and particular 
as to note all these, which is almost impracti- 
cable. This injustice is of recent adoption, 
as are sogae of the useless requirements, al- 
ready mentioned. But these are all dispensed 
with if the tobacco is sent to market in a box 
or a crate, or a bundle or entirely loose. Then 
the inspector passes no opinion on it, but it is 
bought by the manufacturer and prepared for 
market, as cotton or wool may be. 

All that is now necessary for the regulation 
of the tobacco trade is that the inspector should 
receive, book and store the hogsheads as they 



are brought to the warehouse, and when re- 
quired, should sample, weigh and mark each 
hogshead, issue a receipt for it, and when re- 
quired, deliver it in good order. That he 
should store tobacco brought from other in- 
spections and sample them if required, stating 
on all receipts "sampled," with the date. 

If there is damage perceptible on any hogs- 
head inspected or stored, the receipt should 
mention it — leaving to the buyer and seller to 
ascertain the extent — and when tobacco is 
damaged in the warehouse, by exposure or 
carelessness, the inspector should be respon- 
sible for such damage. 

In some cases it is desirable to export leaf 
tobacco in bales or smaller packages than 
hogsheads, but the inspection law prohibits it, 
and, therefore, New Orleans and New York 
have the advantage of such trade. 

Again: a planter living on navigable water 
is prohibited from sending his tobacco to mar- 
ket in a vessel, but he may send it in a wagon. 
If, however, he chooses to pack it, in twists, 
in boxes or kegs, he can send it where and 
how fre pleases. 

Richmond, March 15, 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 
DR. BALDWIN'S SHADE THEORY. 

Mr. Editor, — In the last number of the 
Southern Planter is a communication from 
R. T. Baldwin, headed with this question : 
"Is barn-yard manure indispensable to the pre- 
servation of the fertility of cultivated lands"'' 
The Doctor takes the negative side of this 
question, and urges his favorite theory of 
"shade" in justification of his opinion. While 
this side of the question may be sustained by 
science and practice, 1 consider that this the- 
ory of "shade" is sustained by neither; 5n 
other words, while the Doctor's practice as 
an agriculturist is good, his theory is wrong. 
This may seem hardly worth contesting; but 
truth loses nothing by investigation, and sci- 
ence, the more it is looked into and examined, 
the more it will be found to correspond with 
good practice in agriculture, and the more it 
may be made to promote it. And though we 
maybe told that "the practical farmer" "need 
give himself no concern about the modus ope- 
randi," yet there is an inquisitiveness abroad 
that wishes to know the why and the where- 
fore of things, believing that when scientific 
agriculture is properly understood it will con- 
firm and promote good husbandry. 

In discussions upon any subject it is im- 
portant that there should be a correct under- 
standing of the meaning of the terms used. 
The Doctor, in assuming the negative of the 
question proposed, asserts that "even im- 
poverished land may be made exceedingly 
fertile without the application of manure ot 



168 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



any kind whatsoever." And in supporting 
his views he states that he considers it a 
■'scientific truth" "that there exists in the 
soil previous to cultivation a principle of 
fertility termed mould or humus, indispen- 
sable to the growth of all plants." Tttis is 
a truth that cannot be disputed; and if so, 
then this principle must be continued in the 
soil, if cultivation is to be continued success- 
fully. Let us understand what is meant by 
the term humus. Johnson, in his Agricul- 
tural Encyclopaedia, says, "Woody and vege- 
table fibre in a state of decay, constitutes the 
substance called humus," and this no doubt is 
the "principle of fertility" existing "in a soil 
previous to cultivation," that Dr. Baldwin 
considers a "scientific truth," yet he after- 
wards seems to be of a different opinion. He 
says, "In several numbers of 'The Plough, 
Loom and Anvil,' I have published the facts 
which induced the belief that this important 
fertilizing substance had been erroneously 
defined by scientific agriculturists. I will 
not now recapitulate those facts, but will 
merely remark, that a substance which can 
be readily formed in an impoverished" soil, to- 
tally independent of vegetable matter, cannot 
be correctly defined to be the residue of vege- 
table decomposition." Now, what is meant 
by "a substance which can be formed in an 
impoverished soil, totally independent of ve- 
getable decomposition V Is it humus, as ge- 
nerally understood by "scientific agricultu- 
rists," or is it something elsel This should 
be explained and understood, as an uncer- 
tainty in terms often makes a difference where 
none need be. If this "principle of fertility," 
acknowledged to "exist in the soil previous to 
cultivation," is not. the "residue of vegetable 
decomposition," what isitl I have not had 
the pleasure of reading the numbers of the 
Plough, the Loom and the Anvil, referred to 
by the Doctor, except partially, and may not 
have seen all the "facts" there presented in 
support of his theory; but what I have seen 
may be explained on known principles, and 
does not appear to me to support the- theory 
of shade at all. 

Some of these facts, if I remember rightly, 
were, that if "the surface of the earth be 
closely covered with any substance whatever 
it becomes exceedingly fertile," such as piles 
of stones, brush, leaves, boards, or any such 
substances. That land so covered will be en- 
riched is certain; but is it not as certain that 
this enrichment is the product of the decom- 
position of vegetable matter^ Look at a heap 
of stones for instance; this is a receptacle for 
vegetable matter carried there by winds, by 
small animals and insects that harbor there. 
These latter convey an amount of vegetable 
matter that would astonish many to see, arid 
would, if continued two or three years, supply 
an amount of humus sufficient to enrich the 
ground beneath, even if before impoverished. 
So with a covering of brush, leaves, boards, 
or any such substances. Where does the 



young angler resort to to find bait for his 
hook 1 He resorts to a moist place, and turns 
up a stone, board, piece of wood, or some such 
thing, knowing that worms harbor there; and 
these little insects do more in enriching the 
soil than many are aware of or are willing to 
admit. 

The fact of rich earth having been found in 
caves is considered by the Doctor as support- 
ing his theory, and may be what he alludes 
to in the Planter, where he says, "the earth 
itself experiences a similar change in loca- 
tions where vegetation never could have ex- 
isted." That vegetation never could have 
existed in such caves is more than probable; 
but it is not only probable and possible, but 
certain, that veeeiable matter is carried into 
such places. The great limestone valley of 
Virginia is known to be cavernous, and du- 
ring every heavy shower may be seen quite 
large streams of water running upon the sur- 
face, carrying with them earthy and vegetable 
matters, and precipitating themselves through 
the cavities of the rocks on the surface into 
the caverns below. These matters, settling 
into these caverns, would, if ever they should 
be brought to the surface, present just such a 
richness of soil as the Doctor alludes to in. 
support of his theory. Indeed he need not 
have gone so deeply into the earth; for the 
same thing is met with in mill ponds and 
places where earthy and vegetable matters 
are thrown together, and become enriched 
even without shade. 

If I understand the Doctor, he advances the 
opinion, and considers it "beyond the possi- 
bility of a doubt," that "if the surface of the 
earth be closely covered with any substance 
whatever, it becomes exceedingly fertile, no 
matter how poor originally, nor what the de- 
ficiency in its mineral constituents." It is the 
belief of "scientific agriculturists" that a fer- 
tile soil must possess certain organic and in- 
organic substances. The quantity of each 
substance is not material, so that a sufficiency 
of each is present; but here the assertion is 
made that "no matter how poor or deficient 
in its mineral constituents," a soil may be 
made "exceedingly fertile,"by merely "closely 
covering" it. The theory, if I understand it, 
is, that the earth, in such a situation, goes 
through a fermentation, and thereby becomes 
enriched. That soil having a proportion of 
vegetable matter in it, may, by being placed 
in such a situation, produce fermentation, is 
no doubt correct; but that it would produce 
fermentation without the presence of vege- 
table matter, is doubtful. The^ would no 
doubt be a disintegration of the mineral con- 
stituents of such soil, but this disintegration 
goes on in the surface soil without shade, and 
is not what I understand by the term fermen- 
tation, that precedes the putrefaction of or- 
ganic matter. 

The decomposition and fermentation of or- 
ganic matter in the soil accelerates and pro- 
motes the disintegration of mineral substances, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



169 



and as both are necessary in the growth of 
vegetables we see the beauty and harmony of 
Creative goodness in making this earth the 
abode of intelligent beings. The first pro- 
moting the second, and that accelerating the 
firsthand so on .in succession indefinitely, I 
have no doubt that the soil of our country 
may be made to produce an amount of pro- 
ducts far beyond what is now realized, and 
what would be now considered almost in- 
credible. 

If Dr. Baldwin will now give his practice 
in farming through the columns of the Planter, 
he at least will«gratify one, and may enable 
us to say that we can see good reason to con- 
clude that his practice is good, while we may 
be allowed to condemn his theory. 

Yabdley Taylor. 

Loudoun Co., Va., A.th mo., 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 

ACTION OF GYPSUM ON ORGANIC 
MANURES. 

EY PROFESSOR CAMPBELL, OF N. C. 

Certainly one of the most important ques- 
tions with the farmer, especially in the older 
States, is this — "how may fertilizers be best 
obtained, and made most profitable'?" 

Soils that have been long under cultivation, 
must necessarily become deficient in many of 
the elements of fertility, unless the exhausted I 
supply be restored from time to time by proper I 
applications. Without this restoration, farm- I 
ing would soon become a profitless business. | 
Labor cannot bring from a soil what is not | 
there. When you wish your horse to do long ! 
and faithful service, you feed him well; if you I 
do not, his strength soon fails, and whip and 
spur are insufficient to revive his drooping 
energies. So, plough and hoe are equally in- | 
efficient in reviving the energies of a starving 
field. Economy in sustaining or restoring the 
strength of soils, is no less important than eco- 
nomy in feeding horses and cattle. But, as an 
abundance of such nutritious food as may arise 
from the products of home culture is most eco- 
nomical in feeding slock, so the free applica- 
tion of home made manure, well collected and 
well kepi, ft the most economical of all fertili- 
zers. The farmer who goes abroad to buy 
guano, while he leaves at home masses of ma- 
nure, from which wind and rain are rapidly 
carrying off some of the very same elements 
that give to guano its value, is not acting more 
wisely, than he who leaves his hay to be 
drenched with rain and bleached by the sun, 
while he goes out to buy oats or barley to lake 
i he place of hay in bis next winter's feeding. 
Let what you have be made as available as 
-: then, if more is needed, it will be 
time to begin to look abroad for it. After all 
proper means have been resorted to for collect- 
ing and preserving your barn yard, stable and 



hog pen manures, ashes, soapsuds, &c, you 
can better afford an occasional ton of guano 
for the sake of an extra crop of wheat, and a 
succeeding "fair set" of clover. 

In collecting fertilizing materials for farm- 
ing purposes, two leading objects should be 
kept in view: 

1. To prevent, as far as possible, any loss of 
value in the material during the interval 
elapsing before it can be conveniently applied 
to the soil. 2. To increase its value, if this 
can be done profitably. 

My present wish is to state briefly, that 
which others have stated before, but in a dif- 
ferent form — what careful experiment dictates 
as the most efficient means of attaining both 
these objects. 

I am well aware how little confidence far- 
mers, generally, place in chemical theories 
and laboratory experiments, before their 
claims have been fully established by the un- 
erring test of practice . Hence, for the satisfac- 
tion and benefit of those whom it may concern, 
I have just concluded an experiment independ- 
ent of laboratory, crucible and retort — an ex- 
periment, involving nothing new or remarka- 
ble in the eye of one familiar with the princi- 
ples of chemical science, yet, important in its 
practical bearing. It was conducted as fol- 
lows: 

A barrel was filled with fresh scrapings 
from the stalls of horses. Over the manure, 
as thrown in, a little ground plaster was 
sprinkled from time to time. After the barrel 
had been compactly filled, it was allowed to 
stand some weeks, until it had gone through 
the heating process, found always to take place 
when newly collected manure is thrown into 
heaps. Butduringthis heating or fermentation, 
(as it may with propriety be called,) there was 
none of that "vapor" of strong odor which 
ordinarily arises from fermentimg manure 
heaps. When the mass had become coo), 
clean rain water was passed through it and 
collected at the bottom of the barrel. This 
water was found to contain one of the ele- 
ments* of plaster, and one of the volatile sub- 
stances (carbonate of ammonia) above alluded 
to. On emptying the barrel, a white powder, 
looking very much like plaster was found 
mingled with its contents. But, when tested, 
this powder was found to contain only one of 
the elements of plaster; while it contained 
also one element of the volatile carbonate of 
ammonia just mentioned. 

In order that those who are not familiar 
with the principles of chemistry may under- 
stand the foregoing experiment and fully ap- 
preciate its results, a little explanation is 
necessary. 

The volatile matter which escapes so ra- 
pidly from heaps of manure, and the presence 
of which is perceived by its odor about sta- 
bles where horses are fed, is called by chemi- 

* "Element" is not used here in its strict chemi- 
cal sense. 



• 170 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



cal writers "carbonate of ammonia," consisting 
of carbonic acid and ammonia combined. 

Plaster (gypsum) is, according to chemical 
nomenclature, a sulphate of lime; i. e. sul- 
phuric acid and lime combined. Liebigsays, 
"carbonate of ammonia and sulphate of lime 
(gypsum) cannot be brought together at com- 
mon temperatures without mutual decomposi- 
tion. The ammonia enters into combination 
with the sulphuric acid, and the carbonic acid 
with the lime, forming compounds which are 
not volatile; and, consequently, destitute of 
all smell." Thus, we get two new compounds; 
namely, carbonate of lime in very fine powder, 
and sulphate of ammonia, which is not vola- 
tile, and of course not liable to be lost in the 
same way as the carbonate of ammonia. 
This sulphate, however, is readily dissolved 
in water. Hence, in the experiment above de- 
tailed, it was carried out in solution by the 
water passed through the mixed mass of plas- 
ter and manure. 

What points, now, are illustrated by the re- 
sults of this experiment'? First, that ground 
plaster sprinkled about stables and over fresh 
manure, as it is collected into heaps, will ar- 
rest the escape of a most valuable portion of 
the fertilizing matter. Secondly, that if this 
manure be left unsheltered from the rain, the 
sulphate of ammonia generated by the action 
of the plaster will be washed away; and, thus, 
the sulphuric acid and ammonia, both of which 
are highly valuable as fertilizers, will be lost. 

What has been said above applies equally 
to all animal manures, and all decaying orga- 
nic matter from which carbonate of ammonia 
is set free. 

The proper course, then, to be pursued in 
the management of such manures, is entirely 
obvious. They should be thrown together in 
a convenient place— sprinkled with plaster as 
they are thrown up, and carefully sheltered 
from the rain until they can be conveniently 
applied to the soil. 

If the farmer who buys guano while he 
leaves his stable and yard manures exposed, 
would expend the cost of a single ton of guano 
in constructing shelters for these manures, he 
would, in a few years, realize in their in- 
creased value, the worth of ten tons of the 
imported manure with all its remarkable 
properties. 



For the Southern Planter. 

FALL OF RAIN. 

Mr. Editor,— 1 send you for the Planter the 
fall of rain during the last year. The quan- 
tity is so great and the number of days on 
which it rained so remarkable, that I send you 
my table in detail. In June, July and August, 
there was rain on 31 days. In the whole year, 
on 93 days. In 1850, it rained on 79 days, the 
quantity being nearly equal in each year. In 



1851, on 70 days with about 11 inches less of 
rain. 

It will be observed, that the rains of last 
}>ear fell at times most unfavorable to the hus- 
bandman, delaying very much his planting, 
reaping and threshing. They damaged the 
corn crops on low, wet lands — and a great deal 
of wheat was sprouted and lost in the fields. 
Respectfully, your ob't serv't 

Ed. F. Tayloe. 

Fall of Rain in 1S52 at Poiohalan Hill, King 
George County, Va. 



4.42b 



inches. 




'inches 


Jan'y 3, 0.01 snow 


June 29, 0.805 


G, .355 ' 


' 


30, .72 


18, .34 ' 


' 





31, .095 


' 


July 13, 0.105 





0.80 


14, 1.495 


Feb. 6, .02 
11, .435 




]5 j 2.55 


12, .02 




25, .165 


13, .035 




26, .08 


21, .51 




30, .075 


28, .825 










1.845 A 


Mar. 4, .54 




5, .535 


G, .08 




8, .135 


17, 1.31 




10, .62 


20, .02 snow 


11, .195 


24, .07 




12, .09 


26, .01 




17, 1.85 


27, .135 




21, .42 


31, .255 




23, .025 





2.42 


25, .055 


April 5, 1.965 




26, .535 


8, .545 




28, 1.16 


11, .01 







12, .19 




Sept. 3, .06 


15, .31 




10, .13 


18) 




11, .86 


19 } 2.495 




16, .065 


20) 







22, .035 




Oct. 10, 1.35 


23, .005 




12, .025 


25, .035 




14, .75 





5.59 


30, .37 


May 1,0.045 







12, .145 

15, .085 




Nov -6Ji.38 


17, .025 




12, .27 


19, .135 




18, .44 


23, .015 




22, 1:01 


27, .035 
g}.055 




gjl,6 





0.64 


Dec " I \ .585 


June 4, .135 




8, .93 




9, .075 


16, .82 




11, .315 


17, .045 




16, 1.25 


18, .135 




21, .145 


19, .015 




25, .525 


21, .065 


, 


!&* 


22, .225 




23, .01 




. 


24, .52 







4.47 



6.045 



1.015 



2.495 



4.7G 



3.215 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



171 



In January, 
February, 
March, - 


Inches. 

- 0.80 I 

- 1.845 

- 2.42 


q July, - - 
August, 
September, 

October, - 
November, 
December, 

inches. 

Snows. 
n. 6, 3 to 4 ii 
18, 14 


Inches. 

4.47 
i 6.045 

1.015 


April, - 
May, - 
June, - 


5.065 

- 5.59 

- 0.64 

- 4.425 


11.53 
2.495 
476 
3.215 




10.655 


10.47 


Total, - 

In 1850, - 

1851, - 

1852, - 


37.72-100 

- 37.95 

- 26 93 Ja 

- 37.72 ' 


I. deep. 

u 



For the Southern Planter. 

THE EFFECTS OF GUANO. 

Mr. Editor, — By way of whiling away the 
tedium of a rainy day, I have taken up my pen 
to add another laurel to guano. No section 
of our country has been more benefited by 
guano than ours; and no where has the face 
of Nature been more improved by its t»se. It 
has, indeed, come among us as a balm in Ci- 
lead, binding up and healing the wounds and 
bruises of our dyinsr mother earth, and giv- 
ing fresh vigor to the discouraged energies 
of us — her sons. Away in the interior, far 
from rivers and rail roads, and beyond the 
reach of lime, what could we do without 
guanol Surely, surely, it is a God-send to us. 
A. few years ago, groups of scrubby pines 
stared us in the face, from the highways, on 
one side— whole fields of sassafras and broom 
straw were waving gracefully to the breeze 
on the other side and all around, the jetty 
blackberries were glistening, beautifully, in 
the sun. As the traveller jogged slowly along 
our roads he was often wont to ask — how live 
this people on such lands'? And how did they 
live'? They were the sons of sires made rich 
in olden rimes by the sale of tobacco and 
brandy; and in the heedless exhausting sys- 
tems of cultivation, were fast consuming the 
patrimony of their fathers. But guano has 
come, and wrought a change; and such a 
change. Where once the scrubby pine grew, 
the broom straw waved, and the jetty black- 
berry glistened, the luxuriant corn now grows, 
the golden wheat now waves, and the beauti- 
ful clover now blossoms. Where once were 
seen the single plough, the scythe cradle, and 
the wheat ring, the triple plough, the wheat 
reaper, and the threshing machine are beheld. 
We have been roused up from our slumbers, 
and induced to practice systems of rotation, 
good ploughing, good hoeing and good guano- 
ing, in place of the slovenly and excessive 
systems of old. As to the various modes of 
application, the subscriber has tried all, and 



finds guano to answer well in spite of the 
mode. But, as moisture is indispensable to its 
solution and absorption, by the roots of crops, in 
deference to this principle of nature, it is best to 
harrow for winter crops, and plough deep for 
summer crops; the rationale being that there is 
absence of moisture at the surface in summer, 
when it may be present below. Harrow for 
wheat, plough deep for corn, is my motto. Did it 
ever occur to you, Mr. Editor, that guano ele- 
vated the small farmer with small means, to 
the level of the large farmer with large means'? 
Let us see. There are a few farmers with us, 
as yet, sceptical, as to the profit arising from 
guano. Some of these own farms worth eight 
thousand dollars, and the average of their 
wheat crop is four hundred and fifty bushels; 
the cost of this crop to them, is one-third of the 
interest of the value of the farm, (because, the 
wheat crop is all of any crop that can be obtained 
from one-third of the farm, annually) which is 
one hundred and sixty dollars— four hundred 
and fifty bushels of wheat, then, will cost these 
farmers one hundred and sixty dollars, inte- 
rest, on that portion of the farm producing the 
wheat crop. How is it with the small farmer 
and guanoisf? One hundred and fifty acres of 
land at five dollars per acre^ seven hundred 
and fifty dollars — interest on one-third: fifteen 
dollars — three tons of guano, at fifty dollars 
per ton— making one hundred and sixty-five 
dollars, cost of the wheat crop of the guanoist. 
on one-third of a farm, of one hundred and 
fifty acres. And what is the product of such 
a farm'? Is it ever less than four hundred 
and fifty bushels, the product of the eight thou- 
sand dollar farml No, never; but oftenerfive 
hundred, and five hundred and fifty bushels. 
Thus, without any allowance for extra seed 
wheat and labor to the small farmer and guano- 
ist, his riroduct is equal to the large farmer. 
In view of this profit arising to the guanoist; 
in view of the improved face of nature, and 
in deference to the call of mother earth, yet 
crying aloud, from a few galls and gullies, for 
food for her hunger, and raiment for her nu- 
dity — should not we all use if? 

A. M. B. t 
Nevj Toion, King df- Queen, Va. 



For the Southern Planter. 

SHEEP. 

Mr. Editor, — I have read with very much 
interest a late communication in the Southern 
Planter, from Josiah W. Ware, of Clarke 
county, Virginia, upon the subject of sheep, 
and particularly the comparative merits of the 
"French Merino" and the Cotsv/old breeds, 
and am most wonderfully pleased with the ac- 
count which he gives of his astounding suc- 
cess with the improved Cotswold. If what he 
says be true — and I have no right in the world 
to question, even, a word he utters upon the 



172 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



subject, they are certainly, by far, the most 
profitable stock a man can have upon his farm. 
Now, so far as my limited experience goes, the 
business of sheep raising is not at all profita- 
. ble, for if we, in this region can get two pounds 
of wool upon an average, and fifty pounds of 
meat from a mutton, at any age, we are pretty 
well satisfied with the yield— whether satisfied, 
however, or not, it is about all the most of us 
get. I should like to trade my whole flock to 
Mr. Ware for some half dozen of his im- 
proved Cotswold.' Will he be so kind as to 
inform the readers of the Planter what the 
comparative expense of keeping them is, and 
what he can afford to furnish lambs at next 
fall: and how we, in Buckingham, are to get 
them from Clarke county. By giving the de- 
sired information, he will very much oblige 
one who read with much pleasure, and I trust 
with some profit — his very valuable commu- 
nication. 

M. L. A. 
Buckingham, Va., March 281 h, 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 

THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF 
AGRICULTURE, 

EXPLAINED BY "WAY OF Q.UESTION AND ANSWER. 

Lesson Second. 

NUTRITION OP PLANTS CONTINUED. 

Question. What are the organic elements of 
plants? 

Answer. Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and ni- 
trogen. "With these four elements has a 
' bountiful Providence composed the beautiful 
^ volume of the liviug world 1 ?" 

Q. From what source do plants derive the 
three last named elements'? 

A. They obtain their oxygen and hydrogen 
from water and from the atmosphere, and their 
nitrogen from ammonia and animal matter. 

Q. Which element forms by far the largest 
proportion of the vegetable world? 

A. Carbon. 

Q. Whence is this obtained? 

A. From carbonic acid. 

Q. What are the sources of carbonic acid? 

A. Decomposing animal and vegetable re- 
mains, the breathing of animals, and the pro- 
cess of burning. 

Q. How is the carbon separated from car- 
bonic acid? 

A. The carbonic acid is absorbed by the 
roots of plants, and transmitted to their leaves. 
When exposed to the light of the sun, it is 
here decomposed; one of its constituents, oxy- 
gen, being disengaged, the other, carbon, being 
retained for the purposes of the plant. 

Q. Is any one ray of light more energetic 
in this process than another? 



A. The purely green ray is known to° be so 
much more potent in promoting the growth of 
plants that the simple announcement of the 
fact is all that is requisite. 

Q. Is the reflection of any of tie colored 
rays the result of any quality inherent in 
plants? 

A. The natural and general impression is, 
that color forms a component part of natural 
objects; but it has been incontrovertibly proved 
that such is not the case. 

Q. To what individual are we indebted for 
the discovery that color is not a specific pro- 
perty of bodies? 

A. To Sir Isaac Newton. 

Q. Will you give a familiar example evinc- 
ing that color is not an inherent quality of 
plants; but that it is constantly varying, in 
obedience to the forces which act upon them? 

A. During a long continued spell of wet and 
cloudy weather, the color of plants will be 
observed to pass from a more or less pure green 
to a yellowish shade. When the weather be- 
comes dry and clear, they gradually resume 
their original tint. 

Q. Do not the colors of plants vary also 
with the varieties of soil? 

A. The deeper verdure of. the foliage, in 
limestone districts, contrasted with the paler 
tint of granite formations, furnishes a striking 
illustration of this truth. 

Q. Since then color is not a specific property 
of plants and the green ray of light so far sur- 
passes the others in energy of chemical action, 
have we no means by which we can impart 
this very important property when deficient, 
and thus secure the uniform and permanent 
influence of this particular ray? 

A. We have; in every instance in which 
ashes, lime, plaster of Paris, or any of the al- 
kaline salts, have given evidence of their 
action — this evidence has been visible in the 
uniformly deeper green of the growing plants 
to which they were applied. 

Q. Is this fact generally known and ad- 
mitted? 

A. It is the common proof— the test, by which 
their action is determined. 

Q. Why then has not the principle to which 
these results so clearly point, been recognized? 

A. "It not unfrequently happens, that the 
results of experience are extensively acted 
upon by practical men in reference to particu- 
lar operations, long before the principle con- 
cerned in the arrangement be distinctly recog- 
nized, or its application to objects under other 
circumstances be deemed either possible or 
expedient. On the other hand, the scientific 
naturalist frequently receives the first hint of 
his generalizations from those who have con- 
fined their attention to effects merely, and who 
have marked those under peculiarly confined 
limits." Thus it is that science and practice 
become mutual contributors to the march of 
improvement. 

Q. What does Dugald Stewart define to be 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



173 



the highest, or rather, the only proper object 
uf philosophy"? 

A. To ascertain those established conjunc- 
tionsof successive events which constitute the 
order of the universe, to record the phenomena 
which it exhibits to our observations, or dis- 
closes to our experiments, and to refer these 
phenomena to their general laws. 

Q. How is this mode of proceeding illus- 
trated in the case before US'? 

A. When we cast our eyes over a field of 
clover, or other growing plants, there is exhi- ! 
bited to our observation a certain appearance, 
a certain shade of color, and this particular! 
tint characterizes the field. If we now scatter j 
over a portion of this field wood ashes, or lime, 
or plaster of Paris, there will soon be disclosed 
to our experiment a striking difference of ap- 
pearance, a marked change of color — the 
plants have assumed a richer and purer green. 
The conjunction of these successive events 
has been long observed; it is indeed established 
by general consent. This being ascertained, 
the next step is to refer these particular phe- 
nomena, until the argument ends in the most 
general. Now there is no fact which has been 
more clearly ascertained, from observation 
and experience, than that the green color far 
exceeds every other in promoting the growth of 
plants. We have thus arrived at a principle — 
a general law, because our references cannot 
be carried any farther — in other words, it is 1 
the generalization of a fact. 

Q. Why do we, not unfrequently, miss ' 
science"? 

A. From a misapprehension of its proper ! 
aim and end, we either stop short of it or look 
beyond it. 

Q. Will you now recapitulate the series of 
events which appertain to the law of light in j 
respect of plants'? 

A. First — the known absence of any quality I 
in plants which would enable them to reflect, j 
per se, either of the colored rays of light. — 
Secondly — their uniform tendency in all the 
primary soils, where the available alkalies are 
unequal to the demands of too frequent culture 
to reflect one of the colors, intermediate be- 
tween green and yellow. Thirdly — the equally 
uniform tendency to reflect the pure green 
through the medium of the alkaline salts, 
either artificially applied, or naturally present 
in the soil in sufficient quantity. Fourthly — 
higher results under the third event in the se- 
ries than under the second. 

Q. How would you define the law? 

A. The law is, that in the order of the uni- 
verse, it has been so arranged by Creative 
Wisdom that the color of plants should be 
green — "the course of Nature, truly and pro- 
perly speaking, being nothing but the will of 
God, producing certain effects in a continued, 
regular, constant and uniform manner." We 
further learn from observation and experience 
that with the reflection of this ray of light is 
constantly and uniformly associated the high 
est activity of their functions. Hence, it fbl 



lows that every deviation from this color, 
whether inclining to the blue or yellow end of 
the spectrum, is the result of a disturbing 
force, which it should be our endeavor to pre- 
vent or to correct, and thus promote the great 
and beneficent design of the Lawgiver. 

Auauis. 



For the Southern Planter. 

EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL CLUBS 
ON PERMANENT IMPROVEMENT. 

Mr. Editor, — One of the By-Laws of the 
Prince George Hole and Corner Club requires 
that some article, selected from its proceedings 
or original, be sent to you monthly, for publi- 
cation. We, the Committee, whose duty it is 
now to act under that resolution, send you the 
following, to be succeeded by Experiment Ac- 
curately Tested, Reports upon Farms, and Es- 
says, if you may deem them worthy of a place 
in your mos> valuable paper. 

We believe this the oldest Club in the State, 
and that several others have been formed upon 
its plan. Our Constitution is very similar to 
that of the Albemarle Club, published in your 
March issue; therefore we will spare you the 
trouble of its publication. 

We meet once a month regularly, and as 
we have only twelve members, each farm is 
visited annually; upon such occasions, the 
farm is minuteiy inspected. Fences, stables, 
farming implements, stock, team, ploughing, 
sowing and reaping, all pass under review. 
After this close inspection, the Club return to 
the dwelling, and the, President then appoints 
a committee of two members to write a report, 
which is to be handed in at the next meeting, 
upon all they saw, in which they freely criticise 
all mismanagement and applaud whatever 
they may deem worthy. If the members 
generally concur in this report, it is copied by 
the Secretary in a bound book. 

In our walk over the farm, the members 
suggest any improvement, and make any in- 
quiries and censure and approve "ad libitum." 

We also discuss some agricultural topic in a 
conversational manner, and no other subject of 
conversation is allowed. Thus, you see, these 
meetings act as a grand stimulant to each 
member of our Club, and not only to him, but 
through him to his neighbor, who may not be 
a member; as we frequently find those not 
members betraying their rivalry by expressions 
like these: "Why, I beat any member of your 
Club in the yield of my corn." "None of you 
beat me farming, but so and so," naming one 
or two of our Club. But to give you more 
substantial proof of the benefit that has been 
derived from our association, we will cite the 
crops of the three members who offered last 
year for the premium. The first gentleman 
showed a profit per hand of $302; the second, 
of $285; the third, of $283; after deducting 



174 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



cost for all manures used during the year. 
Now we will contrast this report of crops for 
the year 1852 with the year 1845, (the year in 
which the Club was formed,) and also with 
i their crops in the year 1850, at which time our 
President, in his annual address, stated that 
the gain in the crops of the Club had been 166 
per cent. 

The wheat crop of the three farms mentioned 
above are as follows: 

Crop of 1845, 1850, 1852, 

No. 1. 957 bush. 2,396 bush. 4,000 bush. 
No. 2. 450 " 1,100 " 2,100 " 

No. 3. 400 " 480 " 1,000 " 

Showing an increase on No. 1 of 3,043 
bushels; on No. 2, of 1.650 bushels; and on 
No. 3, of 600 bushels. The gain being upon 
the Nos. 1 and 2 much over 400 per cent, and 
on No. 3, 250 per cent. Now, do you not con- 
cede that these statistics are proof positive 
of the benefit of an enlightened system of 
farming'? 

Now, on the largest of these farms no guan,o 
had been used; on the next largest, only two 
tons. This we mention not to underrate guano, 
as it is becoming in general use with all our 
members, but to show you that the increase 
has been obtained by substantial, permanent im- 
provement of the lands of our Club, and not 
by any quick and powerful stimulant, and that 
the capital in the lands of our Club have in- 
creased "pari passu" wilh our crops. 

In a social point of view, our Club meetings 
have been equally felicitous— nothing having 
transpired to hurt the feelings of any one during 
the eight and a half years of our existence; 
but on the contrary, the bonds of good fellow- 
ship and neighborly love have been drawn 
closer and closer, until we are a band of bro- 
thers, consulting, advising and sympathizing 
in all our daily labors. 

We send you this, Mr. Editor, as the pre- 
cursor of other matter, which would be deemed 
by many of more practical and important use; 
but if we succeed by this communication in 
inducing others to unite in like associations, 
we kwjv) we would have achieved great good, 
and we fear your praiseworthy and laborious 
efforts to form a permanent and useful State 
Society will prove vain unless you can first 
induce the formation of these practical neigh- 
borhood Clubs, as we are a people who must 
either be made to feel the cash in our own 
pockets, or know it to have been in our neigh- 
bors', before you can get them to join in any- 
thing new to them; though the scheme may 
have proven ever so beneficial to others; for, 
alas! all the old book-farming haters have 
not passed away yet; but, we are thankful to 
say, that they are fast disappearing from our 
midst. 

Fabian Armistbad, 
William F. Bowden, 
Josuh M. Jordan, 
Charles Friend, 

Publishing Committee. 



For the Southern Planter. 
CULTURE OF CORN, &c. 

Mr. Editor, — I have been promising myself 
for some lime to write you a short article on 
the culture of corn and the prospects of the 
wheat crop in this region. 

Corn land should be broken up deep, say 
from seven to ten inches, and made fine with 
harrow, and if very cloddy the roller may be 
used to advantage. Corn rows should be four 
and a halforfive feet wide. Seedcornshouldbe 
wet and rolled in plaster, and if the land is rich, 
should be dropped from twelve to fifteen inches 
apart, three or four grains in a place. As soon 
as the corn gets three or four inches high, com- 
mence the cultivation as follows: run a one 
horse mould board plough, with the bar next 
the corn twice in a row; follow with a stroke 
on each side of the corn near the edge of the 
furrow made by the bar of the mould board 
plough, with new ground coulter, then thin 
and brush away the clods and small grass with 
the hoe, and put a hoefull of fine moist earth 
on each side, leaving one stalk in a hill. If 
the crop should be threatened with the cut 
worm, it would be best to leave at least two 
stalks in a hill for a week or two. After cul- 
ture, should be as follows: run four times in a 
row wilh a wing coulter and throw the dirt to 
the corn, follow with hoes for the purpose of 
straightening up the corn, brushing about it, 
and putting a little dirt to it. After going over 
your crop in this way, there will be a list left in 
the middle of each row, which was made by the 
mould board plough in the first working. The 
next working, which I generally do after har- 
vest, run about four furrows with wing coulter, 
so as to finish the middle of the row, and the 
work is done and the land left nearly level. 

The wheat crop in this vicinity will be cut 
short more than one-half by the depreciations 
of the millions of fly and joint worm that are 
now preying upon it. This is the third time 
we have been visited by the joint worm. I 
have seen some fields that a scythe will not be 
put into. But for the guano, many farmers 
would not make seed. Even this has failed to 
resist the attacks of the enemy in many places. 
Yours, &c, 

S. B. J. 

Fluvanna, May I8lk, 1853. 



LOSS ON STOCK DRIVEN TO MARKET 

Several days used formerly to be occu- 
pied in driving to the London market from 
the county of Norfolk only, and it was 
found that, on an average, a sheep lost 
seven pounds weight, and three pounds 
inside fat, and a bullock twenty-eight 
pounds. These weights were ascertained 
by a series of trials — average animals 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



175 



being killed and weighed on the farm and I 
compared with the weight of similar ani- ; 
mals when slaughtered in London. This 
difference of weight was waste, entirely ! 
lost to every body. On the quantity of] 
stock annually sent out by Mr. Hudson, of 
Castle Acre, a distinguished Norfolk far- ; 
mer, the loss was equivalent in value to I 
upwards of £600 a year, nearly the whole 
amount of which now finds its way to the ' 
market, as the stock are put into the trucks I 
in the morning, and reach London in the ! 
afternoon without fatigue! — CairaVs Agr. I 

The above, says the New York Farmer, j 
is upon a subject of vast importance to the i 
stock growers and graziers of this country, j 
and one which attracts the attention more 
especially of drqvers and dealers in cattle, j 
It doubtless affects the agriculturists of; 
this country to a far greater degree than ^ 
in England and Scotland, to which the : 
above extract applies, on account of the j 
great extent of country, and the long dis- j 
tance over which the cattle have to be | 
driven or conveyed to market. In years 
bask, before the construction of railroads, j 
the driving of cattle was a large and te- 
dious business — the journey often extend- 
ing over hundreds if not thousands of miles, j 
From this State they are generally driven 
to New York, Brighton or Philadelphia. 
(*n the old turnpikes, during the fall, the 
droves used to extend for miles, and public 
farms, with pastures for cattle as well as 
food and drink for the drivers, were to be 
found within sight of each other. 

The loss on the cattle driven to market, 
depended, of course, very much on the 
travelling, the quality and quantity of the 
feed, and the care exercised in driving. 
But these old times have passed away and 
the occasion for long journeys, either for 
men or cattle by land, no longer exists. 
The railroads now supply the facilities for 
conveyance to market from all the New 
England States, New York, Ohio, and se- 
veral of the other States. They are con- 
veyed with great expedition and facility 
from the most remote sections of the coun- 
try, and arrive at their destination in good 
condition and without the loss of flesh es- 
timated above at seven po€nds for sheep 
and twenty-eight pounds for cattle. 

Thi3 in another of the many profits ac- 
cruing to the agricultural interest of the 
country from the very general construction 
of railroads, benefits which the agricultu- 
rists are seldom the first to acknowledge, 
but must sooner or later appreciate. — Wool 
Grower. 



Prom the Kentucky Cultivator. 

\ PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS. 

FUNCTIONS OF LEAVES. 

• 

The sense of the beautiful, in every be- 
holder, receives an exquisite gratification 
in gazing upon the foliage, the mantle of 
living green, in which the vegetable world 
is arrayed during the season of growth and 
development. Few, however, are aware 
of the important functions which those 
countless leaves perform, in the growth of 
plants. To the common eye they but ap- 
pear as the lavish ornaments which beau- 
tify the vernal landscape, and invest each 
tree and shrub with a garment of !oveli+ 
ness. Their secret but vital functions are 
disclosed only to the eye of science. They 
are to the plant what the lungs, the stomach 
and the skin are to the animal. It is 
through them that the important functions 
of breathing, digestion and perspiration 
are accomplished. Plants, like animals, 
breathe, digest their food, and throw off 
their surplus moisture, and perhaps a por- 
lion of the substances contained in their 
fluids, by perspiration ; and those vital 
operations are all performed by the leaves 
which adorn them. 

The sap, which is absorbed by the roots, 
constantly ascends up the vessels of the 
plant, during its growth, to the leavep. 
Here it undergoes a change analogous to 
that effected in the food of animals, in the 
process of digestion. The superfluous wa- 
ter is thrown off by the perspiration of the 
leaves, while that which remains is con- 
verted into the juice called the true sap, 
which, like the blood of animals, in its after 
circulation, furnishes the various substances 
found in plants. 

The leaves, as intimated, are the per- 
spiratory organs of the plant. The office 
of perspiration ortranspiration is performed 
by the under side of the leaf, and may be 
almost entirely stopped by spreading var- 
nish on that surface. The quantity of 
moisture thus thrown oft' is much larger 
during the day than during the night. Dr. 
Hales found that a cabbage transmitted 
daily a quantity of water nearly equal to 
half its weight. 

The leaves of plants absorb from the 
atmosphere carbonic acid, in the form of 
gas. This acid is a combination of car- 
bon or charcoal with oxygen, one of the 
constituent gases of the atmosphere. The 
acid is decomposed, the carbon being re- 
tained by the plant, ajid composing a large 



176 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



part of its substance, while the oxygen is 
emitted. The absorption of carbonic acid 
takes place in the light, the influence of 
which is essential to the process. This 
l^ict explains the phenomenon that plants 
cease to grow, and that they languish and 
perish when deprived of light. It is as- 
certained that trees derive a large portion 
of their carbon or woody substance from 
the carbonic acid absorbed by their leaves 
from the air. Van Helmont planted a wil- 
low which weighed 5 lbs. in a pot contain- 
ing 200 lbs. of earth. This he watered j 
for five years, and at the end of that time 
the tree was found to weigh 169^ lbs. while 
the earth in which it had stood was found ! 
to have lost only two ounces. From whence j 
did the tree derive that large mass of car- 
bpn which constituted the chief portion of j 
its increased weight? Undoubtedly from j 
the atmosphere, — the carbonic acid ab- ! 
sorbed by its leaves — the waler with which 
it was supplied, holding a portion of carbon . 
in solution, may have furnished a part of; 
it; but the carbonic acid of the air must 
have been the chief source of supply. 

Plants during the day emit oxygen, the 
vitalizing element of our common air, 
through their leaves. This is derived from 
the carbonic acid, as it is decomposed; for 
vegetables are found not to emit oxygen, 
unless carbonic acid be present. During 
the night the leaves of plants absorb oxy- 
gen, and form with it carbonic acid, a part 
of which they emit, and a part is retained. 

By this process of absorption of carbonic 
acid by the leaves of plants the atmosphere 
is purified of that portion of it which, in 
the form of gas, is so noxious, and when 
concentrated, so fatal to animal life, it being 
the noxious air found in deep wells, and 
which arises in the fumes of burning char- 
coal. Thus is this substance in Nature, 
breathed into the atmosphere from the 
lungs of myriad animals, and diffused from 
the decomposition of animal and vegetable 
substances, and which, if not diminished, 
would render the air we breathe unfit to 
sustain life, absorbed and converted into 
the firm substance of innumerable trees 
and shrubs, while its oxygen is returned 
to the atmosphere to revivify it. 

Finally, the leaves of plants absorb wa- 
ter, as well as carbonic acid and oxygen. 
It is found that a plant which is dying for 
want of moisture at the root, will revive 
and grow when a branch, with its leaves, 
is placed in a vessel of water. A beautiful 
illustration of this fact is also beheld, in 
the renewed greenness of the leaves, after 



a summer shower; the parched landscape 
appears to smile with gladness, as if con- 
scious of the blessing it has received. 



For the Southern Planter. 
GRAZING. 

Mr. Editor,— In the interesting communica- 
tion from Mr. R. T. Baldwin in the last number, 
he asks the question, " Is barn-yard manure in- 
dispensable to the preservation of the fertility 
of cultivated lands'?" I will ask him another 
question: Is not judicious grazing indispen- 
sable to the preservation of the fertility of cul- 
tivated lands'? 

I well remember a conversation of some 
old farmers when Col. Taylor's Aralor made 
its appearance. The late Gen. Henry Young 
observed that Hochneck, a farm on the Matta- 
pony, then belonging to the late Col. L. Smith, 
had been inclosed for a number of years, and 
grew less and less productive ; and he thought 
the non-grazing system would impoverish any 
land. Hochneck has been grazed of late 
years, but it is to this time the most unpro- 
ductive farm on the river. It will not produce 
wheat after corn, and only very poor crops of 
rye. 

There is very little doubt that we can in- 
jure land by grazing too much and also by 
not grazing at all. Such has been my own 
experience and that of some others in th« 
light land of Eastern Virginia. What say 
you, Mr. Baldwin, on the subject"? 

Yours respectfully, 

Temple Walker. 

King rf- Queen, May 2, 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 
BLACKBERRY WINE. 

Mr. Editor, — It may not be known to many 
of your subscribers that they possess in the 
blackberry, grown so. unwillingly by them in 
their fields, the means, at once, of making an 
excellent wine and a valuable medicine for 
home use. To make a wine equal in value to 
Port, take ripe blackberries or dewberries and 
press them, let the juice stand thirty-six hours 
to ferment, skim off whatever rises to the top, 
then, to every gallon of the juice, add a quart 
of water and tlfree pounds of sugar, (brown 
sugar will do) let this stand in open vessels 
for twenty-four hours, skim and strain it, then 
barrel it until March, when it should be care- 
fully racked off and bottled. 

Blackberry cordial is made by adding one 
pound of' white sugar to three pounds of ripe 
blackberries, allowing them to stand for twelve 
hours, then pressing out the juice, straining it, 
adding one-third part of spirit, and putting a 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



177 



'easpoonful of finely powdered allspice in 
every quartof the cordial, it is at once fit for use. 

This wine and cordial are very valuable 
medicines in the treatment of weakness of the 
stomach and bowels, and are especially valua- 
ble in the summer complaints of children. 

As this is the season of such disorders, and 
as the blackberry will soon be ripe, 1 have 
thought it necessary to make known these 
recipes. Yours, &c, 

Economist. 




We have given up all our space to contri- 
butors, leaving no room for ourselves. We 
do not know that this is to be regretted, but 
some persons thinking much more highly of 
the Editor than he does of himself, do not be- 
lieve they have got the worth of their money 
unless he "states his views" in every number. 
For the benefit of such we make the expla- 
nation. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, JUNE, 1853. 

TERMS. 

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

IBr Subscriptions may begin with any No. 

0*No paper will be discontinued, until all 
arrearages are paid, except at the option of 
the Publisher. 

JS* Office on Twelfth, between Main and 
Cary Streets. 



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

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



It is indispensably 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. 



WHEAT AND TOBACCO CROPS. 

From what we can learn the wheat will not 
be first rate any where, though generally it is 
a fair crop. But we are sorry to say, that in 
regions infested with the joint worm, it is very 
little if any better than last year, whilst the 
area of its depredations has sensibly widened. 
From that cause and fly combined, we learn 
that there will not be half a crop of wheat 
made in the Valley from the lower part of 
Rockbridge to Shenandoah; we hear also that 
it has done great harm in the neighborhood of 
Fredericksburg and has doubtless crossed the 
river and got into the Northern Neck. We 
know from actual observation that it has 
got into tide water on James River, for we 
ourselves saw it — gathered three heads of it — 
ai Whitby, six miles below Richmond. It is 
just possible that the insect may have been in 
our crops always, and from its rarity may not 
have been noticed, though always apparent to 
close observation; but we think not. We fear 
it has just begun to migrate from the infected 
districts. The farmer who searches now may 
easily find it. On the outer edges of the field, 
most probably near an old stubble, a hedge 
row, a ditch bank, a fence, or woods, it may 
first be observed. It gives the wheat, at a 
little distance, the appearance of being slightly 
pulled down or bent by partridge pea, but on 
examination it will be found that it is bent by 
a knot at the joint, in which, at present, no 
maggot can be discerned. But this is only 
an evidence of the harm that has been done, 
and of itself constitutes a very small part of 
the injury. 

We are sorry to say, that so far we have 
been unable to hear of any remedy for this 
thing. Several gentlemen in Albemarle and 
Orange wrote to Dr. Harris of Cambridge and 
offered him 8100 to come on and investigate 



178 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the habits and history of the worm, or fly ra- 
ther, and point'out a remedy; but he declined 
coming, on the ground that Dr. Cabell and 
himself had ascertained precisely what insect 
it was, and that no other remedy than those 
he had previously indicated could be adopted. 
Of those remedies the simplest was to burn 
the straw and stubble. This will not answer. 
The straw can't be spared, aud the stubble 
won't burn. 

The prospect for the tobacco crep is not a 
good one. There has never, we believe, been 
so great a scarcity of plants. In many eases 
they have been entirely destroyed by the fly, 
or bug, or, more properly, beetle; and many of 
our best planters have not yet begun to plant, 
and cannot begin until their more fortunate 
neighbors have secured "a stand." This has 
induced many to curtail their crops very con- 
siderably; and afew have planted theirtobacco 
land in corn. This state of things exists as 
far as we can ascertain, over the whole to- 
bacco region of Virginia and Carolina, and 
also in the tobacco districts of Kentucky. We 
therefore feel very confident that the Planter 
who has good tobacco still on hand, can afford 
to keep it until next season. If put up in 
keeping order it is bound to be a good specu- 
lation. 



SAVING CLOVER SEED. 

The correspondent who asks us to slate the 
best mode of saving clover seed, including the 
threshing, is referred to the August number of 
the Planter for 1851, volume 11, p. 22G. He 
will there find the whole subject fully and ably 
treated by a friend whom we engaged to do 
it. The article is well worth republishing, but 
the crowded state of our columns forbids it at 
present. As our correspondent says he has 
been a subscriber to the Planter for years, we 
hope he has preserved the numbers. If not, 
we shall be glad to hear from him again under 
his proper name. 



ERRATA. 



the State Agricultural Society, Branch VI., 
Class No. 2, for best broadcasting machine for 
sowing "grain" read for sowing guano. Class 
No. 5, for best straw-knife for cutting down 
"stalks" read stacks. 



In the letter of Mr. Williams, published in 
our May number, for "4 lbs. of meal," read 
four barrels, and for "Horse and driver," page 
142, read hire of, fyc. In the premium list of 



For the Southern Planter. 

VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 

To the. Farmers of the United Stales: 

The first Cattle Show and Fair of the 
Virginia State Agricultural Society, will 
be held in the city of Richmond, on the 1st, 
2d, 3d and 4th days of November, 1853. 

By the enlightened and public spirited 
liberality of the Common Council of the 
City of Richmond, the Society will be pro- 
vided with mosteligibleand ample grounds 
within the corporate limits of the city, and 
with every requisite fixture for the accom- 
modation of the Exhibition and Fair. 
These fixtures will be arranged in accord- 
ance with a well digested plan and design, 
so as to combine the utmost accommoda- 
tion and convenience, with a tasteful and 
pleasing architectural effect. 

The premium list of the Society here 
appended, will be found to contain a very 
extensive range of prize subjects, and the 
premiums offered are believed to be fully 
equal to those of any other society in this 
country, whether regard be had to the ag-* 
gregate amount of these premiums, to the 
value of prizes assigned to individual sub- 
jects of competition, or to the variety of 
subjects embraced in the list. The Soci- 
ety throws open the field of competition 
for its prizes to the citizens of every sec- 
tion of the Union, and designs thus to in- 
vite, a free, spirited and generous rivalry 
in every department of the exhibition; on 
the sole condition that competitors shall 
pay the small fee required to place them 
on the fooling of members of the Society, 
and that they otherwise conform to the 
regulations of the Fair. 

Great care will be taken in the selection 
of judges or committees for awarding 
prizes; with an eye single to having the 
most competent and impartial persons to 
discharge the delicate and difficult func- 
tions of those offices. 

The accommodation upon the grounds, 
will be ample and commodious for the use 
of exhibitors in every department. Hay 
and straw (subject, however, to regulation) 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



179 



will be furnished gratuitously, for the use 
of all animals on exhibition. 

We have reason to believe that the vari- 
ous rail road and other transportation com- : 
panies, in this and the neighboring States, j 
will extend their usual liberality, in pass- 
ing free of charge, all animals and articles I 
to and from the exhibition, and that their 
charges for persons going and returning 
will, also, be reduced. 

Manufacturers of agricultural machines ' 
and implements of every description, are : 
invited by a liberal scale of premiums, to | 
join in the Exhibition and Fair: besides, 
there can be no better mode of bringing 
their various inventions and improvements 
to the notice of the public, and of insuring 
the reward due to their skill and enterprise. 

Farmers of Virginia! we appeal more 
particularly to you, as a matter of personal 
aDd professional, as well as of State inte- 
rest and pride, to prepare for this first 
Exhibition! 

Come from the East and from the West, 
from the North and from the South of our j 
glorious Old Dominion. Come with your 
wives, with your sons and your daughters, j 
Come with your horses, with your cattle, 
with your sheep and with your swine, with 
your implements of agriculture and with 
the products of* your soil. Rally in mass, 
and come up one mighty host of farmers, 
inspired by the progressive spirit of the j 
age. Come prepared to show what the; 
agriculture of our State now is, and what 
you design it to be in that splendid future, I 
in which, sloth will be a crime, mediocrity , 
a reproach and ignorance a disgrace; and ■ 
when knowledgeand virtue, industry and 
abundance, wealth and happiness shall 
cover our goodly land "as the waters co- 
ver the great deep." 

Ladies of Virginia! we call upon you 
to show forth your handy works in the va- 1 
rious departments of household economy j 
and manufactures, in horticulture and \ 
floriculture — in short, in all the domestic ! 
and rural arts which you know so well how , 
to cultivate and to adorn; and above all, ' 
we crave your fair presence to impart the 
moat potent charm, and to add the greatest ; 
splendor to our assemblage. 

Philip St. George Cocke, 
PresH Va. State Agricultural Society. \ 

The Executive Committee met at the 
Exchange Hotel on Thursday, the 19th of' 
May, 1853. Present, Philip St. George! 
Cocke, President; Eooth, Frby. Boulware, 
Overton, F. G. RufTin and Williams. 



Wm. Allen, Esq. of Claremont, having 
obligingly tendered to the Virginia State 
.Agricultural Society the use of his fields 
at Curie's Neck for the trial of Reaping 
Machines in the coming harvest: 

Resolved by the Executive Committee, 
That Messrs. D. W. Haxall, E. Ruffin, Jr., 
A. P. Crenshaw, Robert Douthat, W. A,. 
Selden, James B. Jones and Henry Cox be 
appointed a Committee to superintend the 
trial of Reaping Machines at Curie's Neck, 
on James river, during the coming harvest, 
and that the makers of all such machines 
be, and are hereby invited to send their 
machines 1 here, and have them ready punc- 
tually at the time, to be hereafter more 
particularly designated. 

Resolved, That Messrs. Wm. F. Gaines, 
M. D., John R. Garnett, M. D., Richard 
Irby, Edward O. Watkins, Ro. M. Taylor, 

Samuel Ball, and Baylor of Sandy 

Point, be a Committee, with power to fill 
vacancies occurring in their own body — 
(not less than five of whom to act) — who, 
after testing, by a full and fair trial, the 
comparative merits of the different ma- 
chines offered for such trial, on a plain and 
on an undulated surface, on wheat of a 
tall and luxuriant, as well as of a shorter 
and thinner growth, and also, if practica- 
ble, on wheat of a lodged or a tangled 
condition, shall award the premium of fifty 
dollars, offered by the Society, to the in- 
ventor whose machine, under the varied 
circumstances of trial, shall prove, in their 
judgment, the best and most effective in its 
operation, and that they make report to 
the Executive Committee of their award, 
setting forth the principal reasons which 
shall have influenced them in the premises ; 
which report shall be read publicly, with 
the other reports on premiums at the Fair 
proposed to be held by the Society in No- 
vember next. 

The Common Council of the City of 
Richmond having, with commendable libe- 
rality and enlightened public spirit, ten- 
dered to the Virginia State Agricultural 
Society the use of eligible and commodious 
grounds within the limits of the City, and 
having likewise offered to erect the build- 
ings and fixtures which may be found ne- 
cessary for the accommodation of the Fair 
proposed to be held by the Society next 
fall, 

Resolved, That the Executive Commit- 
tee, on behalf of the Society, gratefully 
accept the generous offer of the City 
Council, and that the first Annual Cattle 
Show and Fair be, and it is hereby ap- 



180 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



pointed to be held in the City of Rich- 
mond on the first, second, third and fourth 
days of November next. 

Resolved, That the President be re- 
quested to correspond, at discretion, with 
gentlemen eminent for knowledge of prac- 
tical and scientific agriculture, for the pur- 
pose of enabling him to appoint a suita- 
ble person who will engage to deliver the 
Annual Address before the Society in 
general meeling at the Fair. 

Resolved, That the supplemental report 
of the Committee appointed to enlarge the 
Scheme of Premiums, &c. on Rules and 
Regulations for the Fair, be, and it is here- 
by adopted, arid that the Recording Se- 
cretary be directed to publish the same in 
the Southern Planter and the newspapers 
of this City. 

Ch. B. Williams, Rec. Sec'y. 

RULES AND REGULATIONS. 

1. All members of the Society, and all 
persons who shall become members, pre- 
vious to or at the Fair, will be furnished 
with badges which will admit them and 
their families to the Exhibition at all times 
during its continuance. 

2. All exhibitors at the Fair must be- 
come members of the Society, or else be 
required to pay an entrance fee of three 
dollars to entitle them to that privilege, 
and, also, the privilege of admittance to 
the Exhibition at all times during its con- 
tinuance. In every case, exhibitors must 
have their animals or articles entered at 
the Secretary's office before taking them 
into the inclosure. 

3. All those who intend to compete for 
the premiums at the Fair, should have 
their animals or articles on the ground on 
or before Monday, the 31st day of Octo- 
ber, so that they may be arranged and in 
readiness for examination on Tuesday 
morning, the 1st day of November. This 
regulation must be strictly adhered to, 
otherwise the Society will not be respon- 
sible for the omission of any animal or arti- 
cle on the lists. 

4. No animal or article entered for exhi- 
bition can be taken away before the close 
of the Fair, except by permission of a mem- 
ber of the Executive Committee; and no 
premium will be paid on animals or arti- 
cles removed in violation of this rule. 

5. Animals or articles intended for ex- 
hibition, will have cards attached with 
the number as entered at the Secretary's 
office, and exhibitors should, in all cases, 



obtain their cards previous to placing their 
animals or articles on the show grounds. 

6. All persons who intend to exhibit 
horses, cattle, sheep or swine; or who in- 
tend to offer stock for sale, should notify 
the Secretary of such intention at least ten 
days before the commencement of the Ex- 
hibition, and furnish a list and description 
of such stock, in order that suitable ar- 
rangements may be made for their accom- 
modation. 

7. On the first day of the Exhibition, 
none but members and their families will 
be admitted, in order that the Judges may 
have suitable opportunity of viewing sub- 
jects of exhibition, and when anything 
is exhibited to the Judges which they shall 
deem meritorious, but beyond their power 
to award a premium to, they shall furnish a 
note of the same to the Committee on 
Discretionary Premiums for their conside- 
ration and action. 

8. On the succeeding days of the Exhi- 
bition, an entrance fee of twenty-five cents 
will be charged for persons not entitled to 
badges of free admittance, and for chil- 
dren under twelve years of age, under pro- 
tection of their parents or others, half 
price. 

9. Editors and their families will be ad- 
mitted free. 

10. The Agricultural Societies of other 
States, and District and County Societies 
within this State are invited to send dele- 
gates to the Fair. Such delegates will be 
furnished with a badge and admitted free. 

11. The Annual Address will be de- 
livered at 12 o'clock, M., on Friday, the 4th 
day of November, and immediately after 
the address, the reports of the Viewing 
Committees or Judges will be read and 
the premiums awarded and distributed. 

12. The Executive Committee will take 
every precaution for the safe keeping of 
articles exhibited, and will be respon- 
sible only for loss or damage that may oc- 
cur during the Fair from want of due care 
on the part of its officers, agents or ser- 
vants. They desire exhibitors to give at- 
tention to their articles, and give notice to 
them of anything they may see amiss. 

13. A marshal shall be appointed at a 
salary to be agreed upon, whose duty it shall 
be to see that the committees act on the arti- 
cles belonging to their respective depart- 
ments, to keep order, and execute the com- 
mands of the Executive Committee. He 
may call to his aid as many deputies as 
may be found necessary to give efficiency 
to his department — to whom reasonable 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



181 



compensation will be allowed by the Exe- 
cutive Committee. 

14. Chairmen of viewing committees are 
requested to be in attendance on Monday, 
the 31st of October, and report themselves 
to the marshal. 

15. No premium shall be awarded unless 
the animal or article exhibited shall be 
deemed worthy. 

16. No person shall be allowed to inter- 
fere with the judges while examining and 
comparing animals or articles submitted 
to them for adjudication. Any competitor 
so doing, with a view to unduly influence 
or bias their decision shall be excluded 
from receiving a premium. This regula- 
tion, however, is not to be so construed as 
to prevent competitors from freely giving 
to the committees any information which 
they may think proper to ask for. 

17. The marshal and his aids shall give 
parlicular attention to the proper arrange- 
ment of all articles exhibited in their re- 
spective departments, point out the differ- 
ent articles or animals to the judges, and 
attach prize cards or flags to the successful 
animals after the judges' reports shall 
have been made up and delivered to the 
secretary, and duly certified to by the sdme. 

18. Hay and straw will be furnished 
gratis for all animals entered for premiums, 
and grain will be provided at lowest cost 
price for those who desire to purchase. 

, PLOUGHING MATCH. 

19. The ploughing match will take place 
on Thursday morning, the 3d of Novem- 
ber, at 10 o'clock, A. M. on the most eli- 
gible ground which can be procured near 
to the place of the exhibition. 

20. All Experiments submitted for pre- 
miums shall be compared as to merit, 
whether they relate to one or to different 
subjects._ The superiority of merit or value 
of any experiment, or series of experiments, 
in comparison with others, will be decided 
in reference to the nearest approximation 
to the following conditions: 1st The com- 
parative extent and completeness of the 
processes of experiment, and the apparent 
accuracy of the procedure; and 2d. The 
clearness of the report. 

21. Essays. — The form and manner of 
each is left to the discretion of the writer. 
The award of superisrity will be made in 
reference to the probable utility of each 
writing to agricultural interests, as well as 
to the ability of the treatment of each 
subject. In matter designed to instruct or 
to guide practical labors, clearness and 



fulness of details, will be deemed a high 
claim to merit — and next, conciseness. — 
Nothing necessary for direction should be 
omitted, and nothing included that can be 
omitted without injury to the value of the 
instruction. 

22. Best Farms. — Competitors for these 
honors must furnish a sufficiently minute, 
yet concise general statement of the former 
and present condition and products, the 
mode of improvement and course of gene- 
ral management, so that the statement 
may be instructive to other farmers, who 
can avail themselves of the like means of 
improvement. 

'23. Heaviest Average Product of Crops. 
— To compete for these premiums it is re- 
quired that the field producing the crop 
shall have been accurately measured, (by 
survey) and the crop also, if of grain, by 
cubic contents, or otherwise. Crops of 
grass, &c. may be estimated by the actual 
weight of a small measured space, not less 
than one twenty-fifth part of the whole 
field. 

The general management of the crop 
in preparation of the soil, manuring and til- 
lage, should be stated concisely in writing. 

24. Live ■ Stock.— The judges will be 
expected in all cases in making their re- 
ports, to give the reasons of their decision; 
embracing the valuable and desirable qua- 
lities of the animals, to which premiums 
are awarded; and in,the case of fat cattle, 
which wiiy>e required to be weighed before 
they are placed upon the show grounds, 
they will take measures to give the super- 
ficies of each, as it is believed that all other 
things being equal, those are the best cat- 
tle that have the greatest weight in the 
smallest superficies. 

25. Machines and Implements. — In judg- 
ing of comparative merits, regard will be 
had not only to the effectiveness and im- 
portance of the operation, but also the du- 
rability and the cost of the machine or 
utensil. , 

26. Any animal, machine, or utensil, 
which shall have a premium awarded it 
once, as being thebestof its kind exhibited, 
shall not thereby be debarred from claim- 
ing and obtaining the like distinction, eo 
long as the particular subject shall still be 
deemed the best at subsequent exhibitions 
of the Society. But in such cases, after 
two premiums, in different years, may have 
been awarded to the same subject, any sub- 
sequent honor to the same may be a testi- 
monial only of its continued superiority. 



182 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



No other subjects except the above named 
shall obtain a premium more than once. 

27. The kind of admissible testimony in 
the case of farming crops, experiments, 
&c. can not be described in ad vance. The 
committees for examining claims for pre- 
miums on subjects of this class, must judge 
of the value of the testimony offered, as 
well as of the value of the claim in other 
respects. As no other witness is usually 
available in such cases, the claimant must 
testify in his own case, unless he has ob- 
tained and prefers to differ the testimony of 
others also. 



For the Southern Planter. 

REPORT ON THE FENCE LAW, 

Read before the Brunswick Agricultural 
Society at its meeting lQth March, 1853. 

Your Committee, to whom was referred 
the resolution of inquiry, "Whether any 
change or modification of the present law 
of enclosures was necessary, and if so, 
what are the best means of effecting the 
passage of such change or modilication by 
the Legislature," have had the same under 
consideration, and beg leave briefly to re- 
port, that they have had reference to the 
various statutes upon this subject as far 
back as our Colonial House of Burgesses 
at Jamestown, under the reign of Charles 
I. in 1631-2, to the present revised statute 
of 1850. That in 1631-2 it was simply 
declared "that every planter should have 
a sufficient fence around his cleared land, 
or plant at his own peril." This mere de- 
claration seems to have been regarded 
sufficient, and remained without amend- 
ment until 1646, when it was enacted that 
this sufficient fence should be 4 -J- feet high 
and close down to the bottom. When 
proven to be in that condition satisfaction 
for trespass and damage might be reco- 
vered, and to be awarded by two honest 
men appointed by a commissioner. If not 
in accordance to the statute, then damages 
to be recovered for injury done to stock, 
and if killed the offender to be assessed in 
double the amount of then- value. 

No material change seems to have been 
made until about 1819, when a fence to be 
legal, was required to be 5 feet high, or a 
ditch 2 feet deep and a fence upon that 2 
feet high, which is the same as the present 
law. The important fact is hence pre- 
sented that for upwards of two centuries 



the only material change which has been 
made is the elevation of the fence six 
inches, or the substitution of a ditch, that 
in all other essential particulars the colo- 
nial law may be regarded in force, and 
certainly as summary in the recovery of 
damages as the present. That in 1646 
was passed when the arable lands, or plan- 
tations, were mere specks in the wide hea- 
vily timbered forest every where present- 
ed to view, when necessity and interest 
prompted the laying waste of that forest; 
when there was no value attached either 
to wood or timber, and when, too, popula- 
tion and stock were few in numbers. That 
now a totally different state of the country 
is presented. That wide forest has well 
nigh yielded to the destroyer's axe, leaving 
in many parts of the State large, tracts of 
land with but little, if any, durable mate- 
rial of enclosure. What remains is, for 
the most part, indifferent, perishable, and 
has often to be transported at long dis- 
tances, with a remunerative value, for all 
sorts of timber and wood, and with an im- 
measurable increase of population and 
stock. 

• Your Committee cannot regard it either 
in accordance with the principles of sound 
legislation or with the dictates of reason, 
that almost identically the same law, 
passed in totally different states of the 
country can or ought to be relied on as 
efficient for the protection of that interest, 
now as extended and varied as a compa-* 
rison of the two different conditions of the 
country. Nor does the present law, in the 
judgment of your Committee, with all the 
guards which legislative wisdom has sought 
to throw around it, answer the object of its 
passage. It is difficult, nay, almost im- 
practicable, under its provisions, to secure 
an award of damages for trespass and in- 
jury. It is at variance with any improve- 
ment in the different breeds of stock, as it 
imposes little or no barrier to the ingress 
or egress of any lawless animal. 

It is the cause of numberless feuds and 
broils in neighborhoods, and often of long, 
vexatious and expensive lawsuits. 

It renders many tracts of land valueless 
because of the want of the material of en- 
closure, and in its hard exactions, secures 
often the injury, if not the ruin, of the 
widow and orphan.. 

It is subversive of any extensive im- 
provement of our soil, as it admits the 
right of commons to all lands except en- 
closed by a 5 foot fence. It imposes an 
annual drain upon our scanty forest of the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



163 



best timber, now every where an article of 
profit and extensive and growing demand. 

It entails the heaviest expense upon 
agriculture, in the labor of making and 
repairing fences, and especially afflicts the 
poor man in the difference of expense and 
labor in enclosing a large and small piece 
of land, and fixes upon him the certain 
destiny, as all experience and observation 
prove, of having to buy provisions for the 
greater part of the year, whilst in its ex- 
actions it robs him of a just remuneration 
from his labor to pay for them. 

It reverses the natural order of things, 
because it demands an enclosure of that 
which is armed with no property or power 
of injury, and turns loose with its only 
feeble barrier every warring enemy to the 
interest and labor of agriculture. 

And, finally, may not a question of the 
unconstitutionality of the law itself arise 
in. the mind of the enlightened jurist, inas- 
much as this statute mainly repeals the 
great fundamental principle of the right 
to enjoy entire and undisturbed possession 
of property Iegally«acquired, condemning, 
under certain contingencies, much of our 
lands to common use without any equi- 
valent? 

Your Committee are of the opinion that 
the present law of enclosures ought to be 
modified or repealed, and further believe 
if ir/should be totally repealed and no sub- 
sequent statute enacted, that the principles 
of the common law would afford a much 
better protection to the agricultural interest 
than it now enjoys. 

Your Committee in closing their labors 
under the first part of the resolution, though 
not regarded as their duty, cannot forbear 
the expression of an opinion which they 
believe to be founded in truth, that if the 
present law of enclosures was examined 
in connection with taxation, the following 
results would Be shown: 

1st. That it imposes a quadruple tax on 
the planting interest. 

2d. That the whole of that interest in- 
vested in fences cannot be less than fifty 
millions of dollars, requiring an annual 
outlay of six or eight millions to keep them 
in repair, amounting, in the aggregate, to 
more, it is believed, than all the houses in 
the State have cost. 

3d. That if all the timber and labor in 
making and repairing fences were annually 
entimaied, an amount would be shown suf- 
ficient to construct all the public works and 
educate all the poor in the State, and if! 
applied to the payment of the State debt, I 



would extinguish it sooner than the most 
perishable panel of fence would rot down. 
That these facts ought to be sufficient to 
arouse the indignation of the people to de- 
mand of the Legislature redress from this 
onerous tax and grievance. 

Your Committee approach the second 
part of the resolution with no little diffi- 
dence, inasmuch as many of the ablest 
minds in Eastern Virginia have been en- 
gaged for nearly half a century, in endea- 
voring to procure for the agricultural in- 
terest some amelioration from the hard- 
ships of this statute'. Yet no desirable 
result has crowned their efforts. History 
presents no parallel to this question. It 
can no where be shown where freedom of 
the press and liberty of speech exist, that a 
measure practically embodying the highest 
interest of that best, noblest and most im- 
portant occupation of man, aided, too, and 
pressed forward by the talents and influ- 
ence of a country, should in this long time 
have made no advance towards suecess. 
Essay after essay has been thrown to the 
public through our agricultural and politi- 
cal journals, and numberless petitions have 
been sent to our Legislature, and yet no 
responseever made that even echoesa hope 
of success. 

It»is not the purpose of your Committee 
to review the many causes which have at- 
tended the failure of this important mea- 
sure. The radical error, in their opinion, 
has been a too great reliance upon the Le- 
gislature, and a neglect to disabuse the 
minds of the sovereign people of the pre- 
judices and misrepresentations with which 
this subject is surrounded. It will every 
where be conceded that the enlightened 
mind of Eastern Virginia has long been 
made up upon the necessity and utility of 
this measure, and the present condition of 
the question must be due to that neglect. 
Why then write essays when they are not 
read? Why send petitions to the House 
of Delegates when they neither command 
attention or receive respect? Your Com- 
mittee believe the only way to treat the 
question is by constant agitation, and re- 
commend that efforts be made through our 
Corresponding Secretary to secure the aid 
and cooperation of all the Agricultural So- 
cieties and Clubs throughout the State — 

1st. To the establishment, in the city of 
Richmond or Petersburg, of a cheap penny 
paper, monthly published for gratuitous 
distribution, pledged to the modification or 
repeal of the present law of enclosures. 

2d. That emissaries be sent out by the 



184 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



different Societies and Clubs to address 
the people wherever an opportunity offers. 
3d. That at a proper time candidates be 
brought out for a seat in the Legislature 
pledged to the passage of such a law as 
the friends of agriculture may require. 
All of which is respectfully submitted, 
H. B. Worsham, 
J. Ravenscroft Jones, 
William B. Price. 



For the Southern Planter. 

DRAINING. 

Mr. Editor, — The spring has arrived, and so 
far, brought but little promise to the farmer. 
For the continued rains, reaching from the 
close of the fall, through ihe winter, into the 
opening of spring, throws a damper on the 
spirits of all who derive their support from the 
soil. Who has looked upon the year as being 
so far fraught with promise'? May we not 
want in vain some of the water we have been 
so surfeited with this past winter before the 
summer is over'? However, it is unwise to 
grumble, though the best of us do. Let us 
rather hope that with a yet propitious season, 
the help of marl, guano, and other stimulants, 
the yield may not be so bad after all. But 
here again, some may complain that the ex- 
cessive wet has stopped all marling operations. 
That is true; but maybe from necessity they 
have cut ditches where none were ever cut 
before, and thus "love's labor" has not been 
"lost." On the contrary, a wonderful deal of 
good has been done, to the surprise of those 
who thought they were working for the benefit 
of the elements. Men are more slow in 
awakening to agricultural improvement than 
any other of the time; and for some strange 
reason, are more tenacious of what their fa- 
thers did before them on this subject than any 
other. Because one's father never ditched a 
certain piece of land, they thought it useless— 
"The old man always got on very well." 
Granted. But how much better may not you 
do by opening your ditches, and arousing your 
energies. Because your ancestor drove a 
coach and four, and worked on his broad es- 
tate wooden ploughs with one miserable horse, 
and so died, leaving you debts and mortgages, 
is that any reason why you should not put four 
horses to a twelve inch iron plough, ride in a 



debts," without selling the old acres'? Why, 
sir, that is what some have done; and more, 
let us hope, will do. These four horse ploughs 
amongst those who believed the "past better 
than the present," are as troublesome as 
were the ploughs of "Triptolemus Yellowly" 
amongst the Hebrides a century ago. 

A few years since, a young man came into 
possession of a farm, on which was a large 



proportion of flat land and some swamp land. 
A certain piece of meadow, which for half a 
century had been held exclusively by the 
muskrats and sora, also was the source of 
much malaria, he drained, and after a time, 
commenced to break it up with a four horse 
M'Cormick plough, which did fair work. — 
When an ancient neighbor or two heard of it, 
forthwith they came to see the "marsh" 
ploughed. One said "you may try it, sir, but 
it won't answer." The other thought "the 
beds might be ploughed;" but at the next, the 
owner of the team "would wish them on high 
land." The result was that neither of them 
proved a prophet; but they went home angry. 
The landed proprietors of the past gave more, 
or as much, per cask for wine as we, their de- 
mocratical descendants, pay per ton for guano. 
They of old improved their cellars. "\Ve,like 
the importers of the waltz into Britain, im- 
prove "ourlifing'stock." So that although we 
are not quite as aristocratical as they were, yet 
in real merit we are a shade ahead — and so 
hope we to progress. Now, in a moral point 
of view, can't say we are at all ahead ; but as 
far as understanding things aright, and in 
making use of them, we are their superiors. 
Where they once had indigo mills, we now 
excavate and elevate mail, exhume fossil re- 
mains of animals antecedent to Adam — when 
reptiles inhabited this earth of a size and shape 
not found in the Zoological Gardens, unless 
some of the denizens of the Nile are there— 
which would puzzle the anatomist to classify, 
as some of the super strata of earths do our 
chemists to analyze. Nevertheless, to get 
them (the earths) but of the way, they are put 
on the fields, and generally improve— the most 
satisfactory analysis to the farmer. It would 
be gratifying to know though, how much to 
put; if valuable, not to waste; and how far 
such would pay the hauling. Jupiter bid the 
clown, when his cart mired, to help himself — 
and so we must, too. Only the remoteness and 
inaccessibility of distinguished chemists is 
such, one would lose a crop before they could 
receive an analysis. We want enlightenment 
amongst our agriculturists, an agricultural 
science and mechanics. Go amongst the far- 
mers of the tide-water, and you will find them 
shrewd, well informed on politics, and some 
highly educated men; yet you find them com- 
paratively witless to improvement. The most 
highly educated as frequently as the unin- 
formed, careless of, or doubting the applica- 
tion ,of science to agriculture. This should 
not be— yet it is. They are alive to steam on 
their rivers, and daily read the reports of the 
magnetic Telegraph in the papers. But any 
new manure, or improved mode of drainage, 
or labor saving farm implement, they croak 
about, and say it suits some parts, but here it 
will not answer. Why 1 ? Because your pre- 
judices won't let you use it. When any " ism" 
or "ology" comes on from the North, they 
laugh, but they listen. A "table moving" will 
collect a neighborhood, a St. Lawrence trot- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



185 



ting pony stop a court green. But a new 
machine will have some few curious ones to 
pry around, whilst the rest either laugh at the 
examiners, or pass unheeding on. 'Tis said 
"when things get 10 their worst, they sometimes 
mend." The time for mending has come in 
agriculture, and every good citizen should 
contribute his mite, in some way or other, to 
shove it forward. 

W.A. B. 
March. JO, 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 
TO KEEP TIRES TIGHT ON WHEELS. 

Mr. Editor, — I wish to communicate to 
the public a method by. which tires on 
wheel carriages may be kept tight. I 
ironed a wagon, some years ago, for my 
own use, and before putting on the tires, 
I filled the felloes with linseed oil; and 
the tires have w r orn out and were never 
loose. I ironed a buggy, for my own use, 
seven years ago, and the tires are now as 
tight as when put on. My method of fill- 
ing the felloes with oil is as follows: I use 
a long cast iron oil-heater, made for the 
purpose, (a pattern of which I have left 
with Messrs. Taylor & Sowell, of Char- 
lottesville) the oil is brought to a boiling 
heat, the wheel is placed on a stick, so as 
io hang in the oil, each felloe one hour, for 
a common sized felloe. 

The timber should be dry. as green tim- 
ber will not receive oil. Care should be 
takeD that the oil be made no hotter than 
a boiling heat, in order that the timber be 
not burnt. Timber filled with oil is not 
susceptible of water, and the timber is 
much more durable. I was amused, some 
time ago, when I told a blacksmith how to 
keep tires tight on wheels, by his telling 
me, it was a profitable business to tighten 
tires; and the wagon maker will say, it is 
profitable to him to make and 'repair 
wheels — but, what will the farmer, who 
supports the wheelright and smith, say? 

If you think the above worth communi- 
cating to the public, you can do so; if not, 
throw it under the table. 

T. H. Brown. 

Brown's Cove, March 23d, 1853. 

Our good friend, Thomas H. Brown is well 
known to us as a man of very fine mechanical 
genius. He can make anything he pleases 
oat of wood or metal, and whatever he advises 
is worth doing.— Ed. So. Planter. 



HORIZONTAL PLOUGHING AND THE 
HILL-6IDE PLOUGH. 

THEIR ORIGIN IN VIRGINIA. 

Mr. Editor, — I received your note yes- 
terday, enclosing a communication from 
Mr. N. T. Sorsby, of Alabama, asking in- 
formation respecting the invention or intro- 
duction among us of the system of hori- 
zontal ploughing and the bill-side plough. 

With respect to the former, Ihe late Col. 
Thomas M. Randolph first practised it 
among us early in the present century — at 
least as early, I think, as 1810. He aban- 
doned it for a time ; beaten from its use by 
the storm of ridicule which the innovation 
encountered. In a few years, perhaps five 
or six, he resumed its practice, and perse- 
severed thenceforward in its use, till it 
gradually gained ground, and is now uni- 
versal, I believe — at least through Eastern 
Virginia. This period will bring about 
the date mentioned by Mr. Jefferson, and 
quoted from "Plough, Loom and Anvil," 
by your Alabama correspondent. I have 
tfften heard Col. Randolph make this state- 
ment. While he was a member of our 
lately defunct county agricultural society, 
1 think during his presidency of that body, 
he addressed a memoir to it on the subject 
of horr/ontal ploughing, embracing these 
facts. What has become of the memoir. 
I do not know, as the early records of the 
society, during the secretaryship of the 
late Peter Minor, have been lost. I am 
under the impression that he did not claim 
to be the inventor of the system, having, I 
think he said, witnessed the practice in 
Scotland, while in that country attending 
the medical lectures at Edinburgh, under 
the auspices of Cullen, Black, the Munroes, 
&c. Be that as it may, he certainly de- 
serves the credit of having introduced it 
into Virginia, and the agricultural society 
of Albemarle recognised the fact by an 
unanimous resolution awarding him a piece 
of plate, with an inscription commemora- 
tive of it, and acknowledging Ihe great 
benefit conferred by it on our agriculture.* 
Perhaps you can ascertain among his fa- 
mily what has become it. It will speak 
for itself. 

* I was myself the mover of the resolution, and 
with the late Th. K. Randolph and Th. W. Maury, 
constituted the committee to carry its object into 
effect. I mention this as giving some ground for a 
reasonable confidence in my statements, which, 
depending on a consciously failing memory, may 
stand in need of it.— F. C. 



186 



THE SOUT/HERN PLANTER. 



With respect to the hill-side plough, I 
never have heard that he (Col. R.) claimed 
for himselfj'or any one for him, that he was 
the inventor. I am under the impression 
that the invention is due to one of the 
Rhodes' of this county, (perhaps Ryland 
Rhodes.) Of this, however, I know nothing. 

If I have been able to give you any in- 
formation at all satisfactory, make use of 
it in any form you may see convenient. 
Frank Carr. 

Albemarle, May 20th, 1S53. 



For the Southern Planter. 
JOINT WORM. 

Mr. Editor, — The Planter is just to 
hand, and so is the joint worm ! Non nos- 
ceaturasociis, say 1; (is that the grammar 
for it?) Our early wheat was unusually 
promising, all headed; and behold! the de- 
stroyer is upon it! At present, to make a 
rough guess, I should say from six to eight 
stalks to a square yard, bent at right angles, 
with as pretty a knee joint as you ever saw; 
the proportion may be greater — it is cer- 
tainly not less in my crop. But I have 
examined many of them, opened the knot 
and split the straw, and can see nothing in 
the shape of egg or fly; and the circulation 
and general condition of the whole plant, 
so far, seems to be perfectly healthy. I see 
no evidence as yet that guano is any safe- 
guard, as our friend Barbour thinks; except 
so far as that the application producing a 
heavier yield, of course more is saved, 
unless all fell before the monster. I have 
a lot guanoed with upwards of two hun- 
dred and fifty pounds to the acre, where 
the destruction seems to be about the same 
in proportion 'as elsewhere. I enclose you 
a joint. 

I hinted to you that I intended to "prent" 
some "notes" on the subject of Kettlewell's 
Renovator. I see Dr. Meaux has antici- 
pated me, and as my own experience tallies 
so beautifully with his, I give it to you at 
once. In the fall of 1851, I applied five 
barrels of the renovator — which cost me 
at my landing twenty dollars — to about 
four acres of very poor land. By the'side 
of it, I applied guano upon about ten acres, 
at the rate of two hundred pounds per 
acre. I did not measure, but am very 
confident that the four acres did not yield 
more than it would have d6ne "on its own 
hook" — say five or six bushels of wheat to 
the acre; whilst the ten guanoed averaged 



at least fourteen or fifteen bushels. There 
is now a stand of clover upon the whole: 
that from the guano greatly superior to the 
other. And I will mention here, though 
not properly belonging to the subject, that 
of the ten acres guanoed, there were six 
upon which I applied the guano mixed with 
plaster. I could not see much difference, 
but I thought there was a little in favor of 
the plaster — the clover on the plastered 
portion is certainly more vigorous than the 
other. Well, so much for the renovator 
per se. In the fall of 1852, 1 purchased a 
ton of the renovator, costing me twenty- 
five dollars, mixed it with half a ton of 
Peruvian guano, and sowed the mixture 
at the rate of three hundred pounds per 
acre. The difference between the crops 
now growing where this application was 
made and that produced by guano alone, 
at the rate of two hundred and two hundred 
and fifty pounds, is what, any farmer, at all 
familiar with the effects of guano, would 
readily expect to see from the respective 
rates of one hundred, two hundred and 
two hundred and fifty pounds of guano. 
So, Mr. Kettlewell having pocketed some 
fifty dollars of my money, for which I have 
received nothing, he can take my hat. My 
old acquaintance, Dr. Meaux, has supplied 
him with a coat, and the rest of your sub- 
scribers can follow suit, if they (shoes) 
choose. (Excuse the pun, ladies.) 

While my hand's in, I'll mention that 
I've taken one share in the "Artificial" 
Guano stock. The prospect of a dividend 
is very slim. I purchased the materials 
this spring for a ton; manufactured it ac- 
cording to directions, with the addition of 
another barrel of plaster and one of ashes. 
I sowed two-thirds of the ton on less than 
three acres of worn-out broomstraw sand}" 
land, (about double the rate prescribed by 
Dr. Valentine.) By the side of it guano, 
two hundred pounds per acre, on three or 
four acres, same quality of land. The 
whole sowed in oats about the 20th of April. 
At this time, (May 14th,) the artificial is 
no more like the Simon Pure, "the stuff/' 
as a neighbor of mine calls it, than chalk's 
like cheese. But I'll give you the result 
when I get it. 

Till then, I am yours, truly, 

G. F. H. 

Elltora, May Uth, 1853. 



Merit, like a virgin's blushes, will be most 
discovered when you most try to hide it. — Ex- 
change paper. 



* 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



187 



PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

From 25th April, to 1st June, 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, in order that the correction may be 
made in the nest issue: 

$1 00 
1 00 

1 00 

2 00 
2 00 
2 00 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 
4 00 
1 00 



W. Landrum to January 1854 

Benjamin Vaughan to April 1854 

Wm. W. Eustace to January 1854 

James C. Roy to January 1854 

Dr. J. Duval to January 1854 

James Hart to January 1854 

Charles D. Peitus to January 1854 

Fendol Chiles to January 1854 

James H. Chowning to January 1854 

Green Hill to January 1854 

John T. Mills to January 1854 

Simeon Allen to July 1854 1 00 

Richard Cauthorn to January 1854 1 00 

Tucker Coles to January 1851 1 00 

Michael Whitmore to September 1853 2 00 

William M'Corkle to June 1853 1 00 

Dr. J. B. Garrett January 1854 1 00 

C. J. Meriwether, Jr., to May 1854 1 00 

Col. J. S. Dillard to April 1854 1 00 

Edmund Townes to January 1854 1 00 

S. Gonldin lo January 1854 1 00 

John W. Gouldin to January 1854 1 00 

John Currie, Sr., to May 1854 1 00 

John Fray to July 1853 1 00 

Thomas Wood to July 1853 1 00 

Archibald N. Douglas to July 1854 2 25 

John Massie to January 1854 1 00 

John R. Jenkins to April 1854 1 00 

Gideon Flippo to July 1854 1 00 

Washington Swoope to July 1853 2 00 

Waller Holladay to January 1854 2 00 

George I. Gardner to January 1854 1 00 

C. J. Craddock to March 1854 1 00 

Dr. W. J. Pendleton to January 1854 1 00 

Hon. Willoughby Newton to Jan. 1853 2 00 

William S. Williams to April 1854 1 00 

I^aac T. Brette to April 1854 1 00 

William S. Graves to January 1854 1 00 

R. W. Goodwin to January 1854 1 00 

Col. Thomas Loyall to January 1854 1 00 

Thomas L. Page to January 1854 1 00 

J. C. Lupton to September 1853 1 00 

William D. Lumsden to May 1854 1 00 

R. W. Lewis to January 1854 1 00 

Col. William Crawford to January 1854 1 00 

J. II. Barksdale to January 1854 1 00 

William G. Clarke to January 1853 1 00 

Rev. Charles Wingfield lo July 1853 1 00 

William A. Dickenson to January 1853 1 00 

Garrett C. Trevillian to October 1853 1 00 

Dr M. L. Anderson to July 1853 1 00 

Edward Coles to September 1853 1 00 

Rev. A. B. Davidson to January 1854 1 00 

W. P. R. Leigh to April 1804 1 00 

Ed. M. Andenon to January 1854 1 00 

John D. Hunt to May 1854 1 00 

L. C. Tirnberlake lo January 1854 1 00 



Rand. Keatts to January 1854 $1 00 

J. D. Howie to May 1854 1 00 

J. C. Clements to May 1854 1 00 

Richard T. Green to January 1854 1 00 

Dr. C. Whitaker to January 1854 1 00 

John H. Marshall to January 1854 1 00 

Dr. D. W. Mosely to September 1853 2 00 

Joseph Farrar to January 1854 1 00 

Robert A. Kidd to January 1854 1 00 

A. L. Anderson to January 1853 1 25 

P. S. Smithson to May 1854 1 00 

Joseph S. Payne to May 1854 1 00 

John Walker to May 1854 1 00 

John T. Childrey to January 1854 1 00 

Col. Thomas Perkins to January 1854 1 00 

William B. Jenkins to April 1854 1 00 

Peter D. Lowry to January 1854 1 00 

Preston Lipscomb to January 1P54 1 00 

Ambrose White lo January 1854 1 00 

Capt. James H. Cook to January 1854 1 00 

James S. GLuesenberry to January 1855 2 00 

Jolin.Steuart to January 1854 1 00 

George Keyes to February 1854 1 00 

John Wight to January 1854 100 

Dr. Miles George to January 1854 1 00 

R. D. Warwick to January 1854 1 00 

James Chesher to May 1854 I 00 

A. W. Gray to May 1854 1 00 

John A. Mosby to April 1854 1 00 

Jared Chamblin to July 1853 1 00 

Col. William A. Dozier to Jan. 1855 2 00 

Charles E. Kent to January 1854 100 

James W. Walker to July 1854 2 00 

Alvin L. Jude to January 1854 1 00 

Rev. John Cook to January 1854 5 00 

Capt. Thomas Hardin to January 1854 1 00 

Thomas H. Perkins to January 1854 1 00 

Samuel G. Burnley to January 1854 5 00 

Dr. J. M. Hurt to January 1854 1 00 

Gen'l Alex. Brown (2 copies) to Jan. '54 2 00 

William S. Ligon to January 1854 1 00 

William W. Dickinson to July 1853 1 00 

Boling Vaughan to May 1854 1 00 

John B. Crenshaw to Januarv 1854 1 00 

Rev. Porter Cleaveland to Jan. 1854 1 00 

E. B. Hunter to January 1854 1 00 

Thomas J. Blake to January 1854 1 00 

James H. Madison to April 1854 1 00 

Thomas W. Garrett to January 1854 1 00 

John G. Norvell to September 1853 1 00 

James Neblett to June 1854 1 00 

J. P. Taliaferro to January 1854 1 00 

S. S. Lea to January 1855 10 00 

George E. Welsh to January 1854 1 00 

Capt. Wm. F. Wilkinson lo Jan. 1854 1 00 

William C. Bell to January 1854 5 00 

James Howison to January 1854 1 00 

Allen Howison to January 1854 1 00 

E. M. Jones to January 1854 1 00 

James T. Jones to January 1854 1 00 

Dr. B. F. Terry to January 1854 1 00 

Estate of B. Boisseau, dec'd, (in full) 6 00 
Rev. Alfred F. Carlton to January 1854 1 00 

Edward Carter to January 1854 100 

Thomas J. Stevens to May 1854 1 00 

Robert Tinsley to January 1854 1 00 

Z. D. Tinsley to January 1854 1 00 



18S 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



$i oo 



J. H. James to April 1854 
Francis Modena to July 1854 
Nathaniel W. Ford to January 1856 
Dr. E. F. Gunter to January 1854 
Dr. W. A. Smith to January 1854 
William Murray to January 1854 
James Woods to July 1853 
C. P. M'Kennie to April 1854 
Col. John R. Jones to January 1853 
Charles G. Goodman to January 1853 
R. W. Anderson to March 1854 
M. B. Jarman to January 1854 
James M. Wright to January 1854 
A. M. Boulvvare to January 1856 
Frank Fry to January 1854 
C. R. Boulware to March 1854 
Charles L. Ruffin to April 1854 
Sam'l W. Somerville to Sept'r 1854 
John Hendren to April 1854 
Francis Thompson to January 1856 
S. B. Jones to January 1853 
J. Warwick to January 1854 
Dr. W. R. Nelson to January 1854 
F. L. Royall to April 1854 
J. D. Ligon to May 1854 
Thomas Betterton to May 1853 
Rev. E. W. Roach to January 1854 
J. deVlaming to January 1854 
H. E. Sipes to January 1854 
William M. Smith to July 1852 
R. D. Simms to July 1853 
Dr John R. Woods to July 1854 
Joseph Alsop to January 1853 
John Fernevhough to July 1854 
F. T. Forbes to May 1854 
Thomas J. Massie to January 1854 
William Fretwell to April 1854 
Howson C. Fowlks to January 1854 
A. L. Anderson to January 1854 
Dr. Charles Brown to July 1853 
Allen W. Hawkins to January 1853 



THRESHING MACHINES, REAP- 
ERS, &c. — The Subscriber continues to 
manufacture Stationary and Portable Thresh- 
ing Machines, with or without horse-powers, 
made in the most substantial manner. He 
would call especial attention to his new porta- 
ble horse-power, made to suit four, six and 
eight horses. 

The Eight Horse Machine can be moved 
with a common farm wagon without changing 
the common body, and can be loaded or un- 
loaded by three hands. 

I am manufacturing the following valuable 
machines: Bamborough Wheat Fans, Behel's 
Patent Wheat Fan, and common Fans of dif- 
ferent sizes — Straw Cutters, Corn Shelters, 
&c; and have for sale the usual variety of 
Agricultural Machines. 

Hussey and M'Cormick Reapers and Mow- 
ers, both highly approved and extensively 
used. Information furnished in respect to 
either on application by letter or otherwise. 
H. M. SMITH, 

je— 2t Corner Main arid 19th Sts. 



2 00 


5 


00 


1 


0(1 


3 00 


1 00 


1 


00 


1 00 


1 


00 


1 


00 


1 


00 


1 


00 


1 


00 





00 


1 


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1 


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1 


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1 


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3 00 


1 


00 


i 


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1 


00 


1 


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1 


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00 


5 00 


1 


00 


1 


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n 


00 


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00 



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: Sodas, - - 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, 6, 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 
Slate. R. R. DUVAL & BRO. 

Chemists and Druggists, Bank Square, Rich- 
mond, Va. oc — tf 

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 
ou the most accommodating terms. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



ISO 



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 to throw harness on a 
horse, can fasten the Hames very readily. 

£^" This improvement can be attached to 
hames now in use at small cost. These Hames 
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 oi 
the subscribers, MOTT, LEWIS & Co. 
Sign of the Plough, 3 doors below City Hotel, 
Richmond, Va. 

fe— 3t 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS, &C. 

THE undersigned is prepared to execute 
the analyses of Soils, Guano, Marls, Plas- 
ter, &e. &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; 

CHOICE POULTRY. 

THE subscriber offers for sale the following 
varieties of pure //boded Fowls, viz: Cochin 
China or Canton Fowls; Black, White, 
Bltp and Brown Shanghais; Chittagjngs 
or Gray Shanghais. 

The above are the largest and best variety 
of fowls bred in this country, and are from 
stock originally imported by the subscriber. 
Gentlemen, Poultry-keepers and others, desir- 
ous of procuring choice Poultry may depend 
upon the above slock being purely bred and 
warranted true to their name. Address 
CHARLES SAMPSON, 

West Roxbury, Mass. 
The different varieties of these beautiful 
fowls may be seen at my residence on First 
Street, between Main and Cary Streets. 

W. A. BUTTERS, 139 Main Street. 
Richmond, Nov. 1, 1852 — ly 



BOOKS, PIANOS, MUSIC, &c. 

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

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



ANALYTICAL LABORATORY 

FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SOILS, &c— 
The undersigned announces, that through 
the liberality of the Planters of the adjacent 
counties, there has been established, in connec- 
tion with the Department of Chemistry in Ran- 
dolph Macon College, an Analytical Labora- 
tory, for the analysis of soils, marls, plaster, 
guano, minerals, &c, and lor instruction in 
Analytical Chemistry. The Laboratory will 
be furnished with the most approved appara- 
ratus and choice re-agents, with every desira- 
ble facility. He has associated with him Mr. 
William A. Shepard, who was recently assist- 
ant to Professor Norton, in the Yale Analyti- 
cal Laboratory, and who comes with ample 
testimonials of skill and capacity. Young men 
can pursue any studies in the College they 
may wish, while they are receiving instruction 
in the Laboratory. Copious written explana- 
tions will always accompany the reports of 
analysis. The charges for analysis and in- 
struclion will be moderate — the design being 
to make the Laboratory accessible to the peo- 
ple at large. Packages left with Messrs. 
Wills & Lea or Smith & Dunn, Petersburg, 
Virginia, will be forwarded, free of charge, to 
those who send them. For further information, 
address CHAS. B.STUART, 

Professor of Experimental Sciences, Randolph 
Mo con College, Va. oc — tf 



AGENCY FOR THE PURCHASE AND 
SALE OF IMPROVED STOCK. 

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

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



R IDG WAY SCHOOL The next ses- 
sion of my school will begin on the 15th 
of August, 1853, and end on the last Friday 
of June, 1854. There will be a vacation of 
three weeks at Christmas. The expenses of 
a whole session, including all charges for, tui- 
tion, board, lodging, washing, fuel, lights, &c, 
are $200. If a pupil is engaged for less than a 
whole session, I charge for the time he at- 
tends, at the rate of $22 a month. 

My whole time and attention are devoted to 
the school. I have two assistant teachers, Mr. 
W. N. Bronaugh and Mr. T. A. Minor, of 
whose qualifications I have the amplest assu- 
rance. Greek, Latin, French, German, Ita- 
lian, Mathematics, the rudiments of Chemis- 
try and Natural Philosophy, and all the 
branches of English are taught in the school. 
My Post Office is Charlottesville, Va. 

fe— 2t FRANKLIN MINOR. 



190 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



MCCORMICK'S VIRGINIA REAPER 
AND MOWER. 

I AM now proving practically that in every 
respect Hussey's Machine is inferior to 
mine, as the question appears now to be be- 
tween these Machines. 

Some of the important points are, lightness 
of draught, speed at which the horses in Hus- 
sey's must be driven to insure efficient working 
of the machine, superiority of cutting appara- 
tus and performance in damp grain or grass 
or other adverse circumstances, side or back 
delivery, &c. 

Mr. Crenshaw, near Richmond, (to whom I 
am authorised to refer,) got rid of Hussey's 
Machine to get mine, with which he has now 
cut some 60 acres of clover, and is still mow- 
ing in a very satisfactory manner. 

Wherever opportunities offer, I design prov- 
ing in this way the superiority of my machine, 
as I have done in the West, where machines 
are sought for more of necessity, and where 
mine are sold by thousands to the almost en- 
tire exclusion of Hussey's, although Mr. H. 
went to Chicago, (my place) and with his 
partner established a large factory, from which 
he pretty soon made his escape, leaving only 
his name in large capitals on the building. 
His partner having abandoned Hussey's prin- 
ciple, is now (in a small way) infringing my 
principle. 

Mr. H. M. Smith, of this city, has a few of 
my Machines for sale, and 1 should be glad 
to take half the field, (rough, and smooth) and 
begin in the morning dew, and have an occa- 
sional Utile shower, and each of us a pair of 
good horses, and see how McCormick's and 
Hussey's Machines will compare, with as 
much variety as we can find. Farmers on 
James River who can afford good opportuni- 
ties for such trials, will do me a favor. 

My Machine and Hussey's worked nine 
days in the same hands upon the "Royal Agri- 
cultural farm," England, last season, resulting 
in a complete triumph in my favor. I will in 
this connection remark, that Manny & Sey- 
mour & Morgan, who are now offering Ma- 
chines to the public, infringe my patents, and 
I now caution the public against these pirati- 
cal concerns. I have now a large verdict 
against the latter. 

I may be addressed at the Columbian Ho- 
tel, Richmond. 

WM. S. McCORMICK, 
for C. H. McCormick. 

June 1st, 1853. 

P. S. Since writing the above, I have seen 
Hussey's handbill, in which he refers to the 
" Earl of Zetland," of the Cleaveland Society, 
England, with a great flourish, as one of his 
Patrons. Lord Zetland is a distinguished man 
and agriculturist, and Hussey knows that last 
year his Lordship was so sick of his (Hussey) 
Reaper, that he applied to me to re-construct 
it, and ordered one of mine — Mr. Hussey and 
I both in the field at the time— Mr. H. beiDg 



armed with his certificates as usual. Should 
Mr. H's. memory net serve him, I can furnish 
a copy of my pamphlet, widely circulated in 
England, a copy of which 1 sent Mr. H., con- 
taining Lord Zetland's testimonial in 1852— 
one year after Hussey quotes him. 

When in England last year 1 challenged 
Hussey repeatedly to a trial by the day publicly, 
and invited him privately, but he was too cun- 
ning as well as too "modest"' for such a trial. 
Finally, the Royal College (which had two of 
his machines) made the trial referred to of 
nine days. je— It W. S. McC. 

AN ESSAY ON CALCAREOUS MANURES, 

BY EDMUND RUFFIN, a practical Far- 
mer of Virginia from 1812; founder and 
sole editor of the Farmers' Register; Member 
and Secretary of the former State Board of 
Agriculture; formerly Agricultural Surveyor 
of the State of South Carolina, and President 
of the Virginia State Agricultural Society; 
fifth edition, amended and enlarged. 

Published by J. W. Randolph, 121, Main 
street, Richmond, Virginia, and for sale by 
him and all other Booksellers; fine edition, 
8vo., printed on good paper,and strongly bound, 
library style $2: cheap edition, 12mo. SI 25 — 
copies sent by mail, post paid, to those who 
remit the price. 

A large proportion of this publication con- 
sists of new matter not embraced in the pre- 
ceding edition. The new additions or amend- 
ments serve to present all the new and impor- 
tant lights on the general subject of the work, 
derived from the author's later observation of 
facts, persqnal experience and reasoningfouhd- 
ed on these premises. By such new additions 
the present edition is increased more than one- 
third in size, notwithstanding the exclusion of 
much of the least important matter of the pre- 
ceding edition, and of all portions before in- 
cluded, that were not deemed essential to the 
argument and necessary to the utility of the 
work. 

"This work is from a Virginia gentleman, 
whose contributions to agricultural science 
have already given an extensive popularity. 
Mr. Ruffin is a practical farmer, of great in- 
telligence, and is eminently competent to im- 
part information on the subject, which has 
for so many years engaged his attention." — 
Methodist Quarterly Review. i 

The Southern Planter, in speaking about the 
cultivation of Irish potatoes and liming, says: 

"But for the details of that business, we 
would refer our correspondent to a book, which 
if he has not now, we beg for his own credit that 
he will get as soon as he goes to Richmond. We 
mean the final edition of the Essay on Calca- 
reous Manures." 

"The farmers of Virginia have just reason 
to thank both the.aulhor and publisher for this 
enlarged and improved edition of a most valu- 
able book." — Hon. Willoughby Newton. 

je— tf 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



191 



PLANTATION BOOK. 

JW. RANDOLPH, Richmond, Virginia, 
■ has just published the Plantation arid 
Farm instruction, Regulation, Record, Inven- 
tor}' and Account Book, for the use of ma- 
nagers of estates, and for the better ordering 
and management of plantation and farm busi- 
ness, in every particular, by a Southern Planter. 
Order is Heaven's first law^Pope. Price $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, Inventory of 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, Gluantity 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 
Aleasures, 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 be 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 
suggestions, cannot fail to realize great bene- 
fits from it. We cannot too highly commend 
it to the consideration of agriculturists." — 
ffichmond Whig. 

"It will prove a most valuable ss^istant to 
the planter, manager or overseer, aDd a work 
that will facilitate them greatly in the trans- 
action of business." — Rickmiad Dispatch. 

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

"We hope many farmers will buy the work, 
and make an effort to keep things straight." — 
Hovihern PJyi.nl/ir, 

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



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. — 
Thisis a perfect farmer's library, with upwards 
of 100 engraving?; by R. L. Allen. 

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

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

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

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

Farmer's Encyclopaedia; by Cuthbert W. 
Johnson. 

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

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

Johnson's Chemistry and Geology, with their 
application. 

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

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

Squarey's Agricultural Chemistry, 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 



192 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



NOTICE. 

To those who have recently subscribed for 
the Planter, and requested us to send the 
back numbers from January, 1853, we are 
sorry to say, it is out of our power to do so. 
The back numbers (January, February and 
March) are entirely exhausted. 



CONTENTS OF NUMBER VI. 



PAGE 

Scientific Agriculture, No. 5, by Professor 

Gilham 161 

Inspection Laws 164 

Dr. Baldwin's Shade Theory 167 

Action of.Gypsum on Organic Manures, 
by Professor Campbell of N. Carolina. . 169 

Fall of Rain 170 

Effects of Guano *.-171 

Sheep 171 

The Science and Practice of Agriculture 
Explained by way of Question and An- 
swer jA- • • -172 

Effect of Agricultural Clubs on Perma- 
nent Improvement. .> 173 

Culture of Corn, &c 174 

Loss on Stock Driven to Market 174 

Phisiology of Plants 175 

Grazing 176 

Blackbeiry Wine 176 

Wheat and Tobacco Crops 177 

Saving Clover Seed 178 

Errata 178 

Virginia State Agricultural Society 178 

Report on the Fence Law 182 

Draining 184 

To Keep Tires Tight on Wheels 185 

Horizontal Ploughing and the Hill-Side 

Plough 185 

Joint Worm 186 

Payments to the Southern Planter 187 



PURE BRED MALE STOCK 

At Private Sale at Mount Fordham, Westchester 
County, 1 1 miles from City Hall, New York. 

I WILL sell and let from 10 to 12 Short 
Horned Bulls and Bull Calves, 4 Devon 
Bulls and Bull Calves, and from 12 to 15 
Southdown Rams. The annual sale by auc- 
tion will be omitted this year, as I wish to re- 
serve all the females, having recently pur- 
chased another farm to enable me to increase 
my breeding esiablishment. My Hog stock, 
including all the spring litters, are engaged. 
Catalogues, with full description and pedigrees 
of above Bulls and Southdown Rams, with 
the prices attached, can be obtained by the 
15th April inst., from the subscriber or at any 
of the principal Agricultural Stores, or from 
the Editors of the principal Agricultural Jour- 
nals. L. G. MORRIS. 
April 1, 1853— 3t 



AGENCY. 

I AM willing to assist gentlemen in purchas- 
ing and selling farms, stock, and poultry of 
every description; to attend to receiving and 
properly forwarding animals; also, to procure 
suitable overseers and laboring men for farm- 
ers and planters: all of which will be attended 
to for a small commission. My position as 
Marshal of the Maryland State Agricultural 
Society gives me advantages of knowing ma- 
ny men, and most good stock, which with my 
genera] knowledge of land induces me to ex- 
tend the agency to land, men and stock. I 
have some fine farms to sell in Talbot county, 
and several in Baltimore county: subject to 
my order a number of prize animals, saddle 
and other stallions, and a few fine mares; 
Durhams, Devons, -Alderney, and Ayrshire; 
pure long wooled sheep from the best"fiock in 
the United Slates; Chester and Suffolk pigs; 
Shanghai and other new and large fowls; also", 
two fine Jacks. All letters post paid, will re- 
ceive prompt attention. 

MARTIN GOLDSBOROUGH. 
HarrisonviUe, Baltimore Co., Md. 
Refer to 

C. B. Calvert & C. Hill, Washington City; 
G. W. Hughs, West River, Md ; J. N. Golds- 
borough, Easton, Md.; R. McHenery, Emer- 
ton, Md.; S. G. Fisher, Philada., Pa.; C. P. 
Holcomb, Wilmington, Del.; Col. J. W. Ware, 
Berryville, Va.; I. G. Wright, Wilmington, N. 
Carolina; J. W. H. Brownfield, Charleston, S. 
C.j McGill Robinson, Louisville, Ky.; Wm. 
A. Lake, Vicksburg, Miss.; Dr. Henry M. 
Robinson, Huntsville, Ala.; T. Hayward and 
Maj. R. Hayward, Tallahassee, Florida. 

mar — tf 



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 school 
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 Jul v. 

JOHN H. PITTS, 

ja— tf Ayktl's P. O. King William.