THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

33eboteS to Agriculture, ^ortfculturc, nWO tlie pamtseholti arts. 

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



FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor. 



P. D. BERNARD, Proprietor. 



Vol. XIII. 



RICHMOND, SEPTEMBER, 1853. 



No. 9. 



For the Southern Planter. 
MR. BOOTH'S REMARKS 

On the Trial of Reapers at Curie's Nedc, and 
also on Drilling Machines and Water Rams. 

Mr. Editor, — When I responded tb the re- 
quest of the Executive Committee of the 
State Agricultural Society in writing a com- 
munication on the subject of agricultural ma- 
chinery, I had no anticipation of commanding 
a notoriety so undesirable, except so far as 
benefit is conferred on the agricultural com- 
munity. 

The engagements of a profession, very dif- 
ferent, (unless in the similitude of "glorious 
uncertainty,' 1 ) preclude any judgment on such 
a subject, on which I would desire or advise 
any person to rely. While I cannot withhold 
any opinion when called for, which may be con- 
sidered useful, I will not be drawn into any 
controversy with any person. So far from being 
the pariiz*n of any particularmachine, I would 
be gratified to find one excelling all in use, or 
that the present inventors might, as it were, 
beat themselves by a degree of perfection not 
yet attained by them. I should have nothing 
more to say on the subject, but for the urgency 
of political as well as agricultural papers, and 
the possibility that some of my former stric- 
tures might seem, since the trial of reapers at 
Curie's Neck, to have inflicted injustice. 

It will be recollected that in reference to 
reaping machines I gave a decided preference 
to Hus-ey's over M'Cormick's, and stated as 
a sufficient reason that every one of M'Cor- 
mick's which I had seen or about which I had 
any reliable information, had been laid aside, 
(one or two I have heard from since performed 
better.) So far from retracting any thing I 
then said about the kind of machine referred 
to, I could confirm it by additional testimony 
Volunteered to me by a number of persons from 
different States, and none so strong as from 
Illinois, where their failure is reported by 
"thousands." The misfortune was that being 
regarded as the premium machine, and failing, 
not only did loss and disappointment ensue, 
but discouragement to try any other, thus pre- 
cluding the use of a most valuable implement. 
Previous to the trial at Curie's Neck, I had 
received intelligence from a distinguished and 
reliable source that rny essay bad produced 
the good effect of causing the manufacture of 
Vol. XIII.-9. 



a much better machine. There may be some 
mistake as to the cause, but none as to the 
fact. It affords me pleasure to stale that the 
machine which was operated by Mr. M Cor- 
mick at Curie's Neck, was not the kind con- 
demned by me; but a very superior one, aban- 
doning the principle I reprobated and embrac- 
ing that which I advocated. This was the 
subject of observation and remark by every 
person on the ground who knew anything 
about it. I still think the reel, pulley, band 
and light material objectionable, unless under 
very careful management; but so far from 
condemning that machine, I shall have much 
to say in its praise when I can hear that any 
considerable number has operated well for 
several years. 

I have seen too many machines suceeed for 
a short time and afterwards fail to be hasty 
in any recommendation. Although not the 
first nor the second in the estimation of the 
committee, its performance was very credita- 
ble, and it certainly gained mote reputation 
by the trial than either of the others, as the 
general failure previously left more room for 
it. 

In reference to Burrall's and Hussey's, I can 
only express the opinion that either one will 
surpass the other, according to the superiority 
of the manufacture and management of it. 
There is some transposition of machinery in 
Burrall's presenting a different appearance — 
a perpendicular instead of horizontal crank 
motion, a logger crank giving longer motion 
to the blades. As a general principle, there 
is a loss of power by a long crank, viz. it is 
easier to resist it. Never having seen Hus- 
sey's miss a head of wheat from this cause, I 
am not prepared to decide on any superiority 
on this account. The manner of laying the 
wheat is identical, as well as the structure of 
the blades. Every person engaged in the ma- 
nagement of Burrall's, while 1 saw it was en- 
titled to a premium for skill and fidelity. It 
is considerablyjighter than Hussey's last pat- 
tern (by three hundred pounds, 1 understand,) 
and pulls easier. This is certainly an advan- 
tage, where strength and durability can also be 
maintained. Hussey's latest improvement con- 
sists in making his machine heavier and harder 
to pull. I have worked two of them with two 
horses each; but all work better with four 
horses, as the motion is not so apt to be checked 
should any give back or slacken their gait. 



258 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



I don't think any judge of machinery will 
undertake to point out any essential difference 
between these two machines. I have been in- 
duced to give my preference to Hussey's from 
superior opportunities of testing it. During 
the last harvest, I started one in the fifth crop 
in the presence of gentlemen I might name, 
favorably known throughout the country. Its 
performance was perfect, and continued so 
through a considerable body of low grounds, 
with water furrows opened by a plough first, 
and then with the hoe. The repairs during the 
five years have not cost me one cent. My own 
blacksmith has probably done about two dollars 
worth. At the same time,anoiher was cutting 
successfully in clover, and performed as many 
as fifteen different days in wheat, clover, herds 
grass and timothy without any material inter- 
ruption or repairs. When four horses are 
hitched to any such machine, dragging it orer 
ground imperfectly prepared, and encountering 
various obstacles, some accident must reason- 
ably be expected sometimes. I don't consider 
it safe to run a reaper over any field which 
has not been previously especially inspected 
and prepared for it, particularly in clover, 
where the blades run very near the ground. 
Accidents occur from negligence in oiling 
some of its parts, causing them to wear out or 
expand by heat. When the same machine is 
intended both for grain and grass, close exa- 
mination is necessary, to ascertain whether a 
part is not prepared for grain and part for 
grass. I have known failure from this cause. 
Indeed, however simple machinery may be it 
should be adjusted right, to perform well. A 
friend and neighbor of mine was very near 
laying one of BurralPs aside under condemna- 
tion, from a cause removed in less than a mi- 
nute — its subsequent performance being suc- 
cessful. I mention this to show that the mere 
fact of failure to perform well is not always 
indicative of worthlessness or imperfection. 
I tried Hussey's with the side delivery, and 
don't think that the additional labor and more 
tangled condition of the grain is balanced by 
the benefit conferred. Some prefer the rear 
delivery, not only because of the greater regu- 
larity of the sheaves and facility of picking 
up, but because the necessity of removal be- 
fore the horses pass around is an incentive to 
industry on the part of the hands. The front 
wheels afford some relief to the wheel horses, 
but increase the difficulty of short turns. — 
They can be dispensed with if care be observed 
in so fixing the collars as to prevent the un- 
comfortable pressure of the tongue on the 
necks of the horses; or the front wheels of 
any two horse wagon will answer, by using 
a shorter axletree for the purpose— reducing 
rhe tread of the wheels at bottom to about four 
feet four inches outside measure. As all such 
wheels are not of the same height, care should 
be observed to give the proper elevation or de- 
pression to the blades, by means of the coup- 
ling pole which can be so bolted or confined 
to the frame as to accomplish this object; in 



addition to the reversal of the boxes in which 
the axle of the large driving wheel runs. 

The blades or shears in Burrall's and Hus- 
sey's being drawn with rapidity between irons 
fitting closely, rarely need sharpening, and 
will cut or break off the wheat even when dull. 
A file, however, is the most convenient mate- 
rial for sharpening. 

Since the introduction of guano, and conse- 
quent cultivation of old fields, clear of stumps, 
and the high prices of manual labor, the sub- 
ject of agricultural machinery in general and 
reaping machines in particular has acquired 
paramount importance. Where the wheat is 
very luxuriant and tangled, there is almost as 
much difference between reaping and cradling 
wheat as between threshing and treading. Ic 
was this conviction, and the further belief that 
the failure of M'Cormick's old reaper had 
prevented the use of others of great value, 
which induced the strictures in my former 
communication, and not any desire to injure 
its reputation undeservedly. I consider the 
agitation of the subject most fortunate, and 
that the Executive Committee could not other- 
wise have rendered more service to the com- 
munity than in causing this trial. I think the 
result, also, most fortunate; for instead of 
concentrating preferences on any particular 
machine, inducing haste and imperfection in 
their manufacture, it puts all upon their good 
behaviour in fidelity and perfection of con- 
struction. It also impairs the importance of 
any particular patent, precluding the onerous 
increase of price generally claimed. From 
what I have seen and heard of Manny's ma- 
chine, it will no doubt become a formidable 
competitor amongst the champions, as it em- 
braces the angular blades, cutting by lateral 
resistence like shears, which must always be 
successful under proper construction. It is 
impossible for any machine to cut by the mere 
resistence of the wheat when it is inclined or 
light, unless while the blade is very sharp, and 
every thing in perfect order. All the machines 
I have alluded to now embrace it in a more 
or less degree; and the man who first intro- 
duced it (I know not who he is,) is entitled to 
the whole credit of enduring successful per- 
formance, and the man who will first make a 
good, strong, substantial machine, to last a 
number of years, for a reasonable profit on the 
cost of construction, will be entitled to a pre- 
mium which nobody has ever yet secured. 
Hussey's, though the heaviest and conse- 
quently most costly, I think I have seen, I be- 
lieve is still the cheapest at one hundred and 
five dollars, wilhout wheels and mower— one 
hundred and fifteen dollars with mower — and 
he has promised to reduce when he makes 
some money, which he did not do when strug- 
gling into favor. 

I would like to see the drill encouraged 
more than it is but for the unreasonable price. 
I did not design to discourage the use of it by 
my former remarks — having witnessed favor- 
able results and performance. I only designed 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



259 



to express a less favorable opinion of it as a 
labor saving machine, because in reality the la- 
borreqaired in preparation for it, will frequently 
sow theerop. There is so much humanity in 
accomplishing arduous work without the ex- 
haustion of animal muscle, that I am fond of 
encouraging all within proper limits. The 
machinery described in former communica- 
tions, has continued in satisfactory perform- 
ance — particularly the combined action of 
steam and water, though there has been but 
little use for both lately. 

I have in recent operation a water ram sup- 
plying my dwelling, bath house and kitchen 
■with a good and constant supply of spring 
water, from a distance of three hundred and 
thirty yards, which could be accomplished at 
a cost not exceeding one hundred dollars, until 
a recent advance in the materials. Mine is 
of Field's patent, with a suction valve designed 
to use the water twice in working the ram 
where the supply of water is scanty. I don't 
think much of that part of it, and have not 
used any long enough to recommend it. But 
if it continues as at present and previously, I 
should think the investment every year fully 
repaid, bv the comfort, convenience, security 
against fire, saving of labor, &c. The fowls 
appear particularly grateful. Mine was con- 
structed under the supervision of Mr. S. J. 
Cralle, of Lunenburg, who can be relied on 
for faithful and successful construction. — 
Gatchell's patent is also operating finely in 
my neighborhood. Should any be attempted, 
great caution is essential for the joints, which 
must be air and water tight. The India rub- 
ber packing 1 , used for a steam engine, is the 
best material I have tried. 

I have designed this communication some- 
what as a review of my former article on the 
same subject, and as the trial of reapers was 
induced by it, it seemed appropriate and de- 
sirable by many it should be made, as the 
committee, composed of gentlemen selected in 
consequence of their acknowledged judgment,' 
had differed so much in their preferences. A 
peculiarity fancied by one man may be objec- 
tionable to another. One may prefer a light 
machine, which pulls easy, and delivers the 
wheat at the side; another may prefer a heavy 
machine, if in consequence of it greater 
strength and durability are secured, and may 
also prefer a smooth rear delivery to that at 
the side, if more tangled. So it is important 
to present the different peculiarities, that the 
predilections of each may be gratified. M'Cor- 
mick's and Manny's deliver at the side alone. 
I suppose a reel is indispensable to a convenient 
side delivery. Burrall's and Hnssey's are so 
constructed as to deliver more conveniently in 
the rear, though they ca.n deliver also at the 
side; but not so conveniently as the other two. 
Prompted by no other impulse than the pro- 
motion of agricultural benefit and a disposition 
to respond to any call made on me therefor, I 
hope I have said nothing at which any person 
9 i 



can take proper exception, as such was not 
my intention or desire. 

As matters stood when the subject was first 
agitated, no inventor would ever have sold 
many in this section, as what was regarded as 
the premium reaper had almost universally 
failed; though in justice, 1 may repeat that one 
or two had previously performed better than 
my information at that t^me allowed me to 
conclude. 

As circumstances now exist, I think it pro- 
bable that each inventor will sell more than 
he otherwise would had matters remained as 
they were, which I hope will be regarded as 
a sufficient atonement for any supposed injury 
my remarks may have inflicted. One of my 
most judicious and best calculating neighbors, 
who used one of Hussey's for the first time 
last season, remarked to me that where the 
wheat was very rank and much tangled, he 
thought the reaper would pay for itself, while 
securing six hundred bushejs, counting the 
amount saved in wheat and labor. Indeed, 
where they perform well, as they must do, un- 
less from imperfect manufacture or manage- 
ment, when anything will fail. There cannot be 
sufficient objection, having heard none concern- 
ing mine, except from my hog manager, who 
says "they are a cheat upon the hogs," leav- 
ing nothing for them. The recent improve- 
ments in threshing machines are also encour- 
aging to the agriculturist, as they now go to 
the extent of threshing and preparing for mar- 
ket, and afford great facilities for stacking the 
straw — all by a simultaneous operation. My 
observation and experience do not allow a 
particular description and recommendation; 
but I think it the duty of every farmer to con- 
tribute any information he may possess, pro- 
motive of general interest and benefit. 

Edwin G. Booth. 

Nottoway, August 1st, 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 
SHEEP. 

Mr. Editor,— To M. L. A. in your June num- 
ber, which, from absence and other causes, I 
have only recently seen, I answer, I must 
decline his proposal of trade, believing with 
him that the common sheep are unprofitable. 
As to the comparative expense of keeping, I 
will refer him to a communication to your 
journal in 1851 or 1852, by "Valley of Virgi- 
nia." I think probably the information is also 
given in the number for last March, but I have 
not the number by me. 

Price of Lambs. — 1 have always, though 
against my inteiest, advised against the pur- 
chase of lambs. They do not sometimes de- 
velop at a year old as they promised. Such I 
decline selling. Another reason — neither sex 
ought to be put to breeding until fall after one 
year old; it would then be too long tefore a 



260 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



•return could be had for the outlay. If breed- 
ing ewes were purchased, they would in the 
Coming spring bring lambs worth as much as 
the outlay, and then if the ewes themselves 
should die, they have left enough to remune- 
rate the expenditure. 

How to get them to Buckingham. — In cars to 
Baltimore in one day from'here; then to Rich- 
mond by steamboat, &c. or by rail road to Cul- 
peper, thence to be driven, or in a two-horse 
wagon. I have lately received your July num- 
ber containing a cut of "Matchless" and an 
answer to my communication in the March 
number, from Mr. Campbell of Vermont. I 
expect, of course, a difference of opinion on the 
comparative merits of the improved Cotswolds 
and the French Merino sheep, for surely Mr. 
Campbell, if convinced he had not the most 
profitable breed, would at once change — he 
would surely not sacrifice interest to a false 
notion of pride of opinion. 

He ascribes to me the expression "that they 
(the French Merino) will or are not allowed* 
to breed before they are three or four years 
old." I have not the March number by me, 
but am sure if Mr. Campbell will examine 
my communication he will find I said no such 
thing. The very quotation he makes, follow- 
ing the sentence, shows that it was not mine, 
but the remark of the communication I was 
answering from Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Cugnot's 
letters to Mr. Rives, and they were the owners 
of the French Merino from whom Mr. Camp- 
'bell procured his. Is it likely they would un- 
derrate them 1 ? I should think not. I said no- 
thing of the sheep of my own knowledge. It 
was their information to your Southern Planter 
I was extracting frdm and commenting on, 
tfcat "ihey were not permitted to copulate un- 
til three or four years old," "by means of the 
good care given them and the judicious selec- 
tions of rams to unite with the best ewes, there 
was obtained," &c. rams weighing, three years 
old, something under 200 lbs., ewes 132 lbs. — 
live weight of course. Now, Mr, Editor, re- 
duce this to mutton, and what would be the 
yield, his heavy head and immense horns, his 
fieece and other offal off? Do you suppose the 

* If we mistake not, it was ourself that said the 
French Merino sheep were not allowed to breed 
before they were three or four years old, and not 
Mr. Campbell of Vermont — so that we are in fault, 
if any one be, and not Mr. Campbell. Whence we 
derived the information we know not, and we did 
aot state it as an absolute fact, which it may not be. 

Col. Ware hardly does Mr. Campbell justice in 
imputing to him a desire to throw dust in the eyes 
of the Virginia farmers. He very distinctly states 
that for wool alone, or mutton alone, there are better 
eheep than the French Merino, but says that thpy 
are the best for the combination. In this we sus ■ 
pect he is right, though at the same time we think 
that the French Merinoes are one of the humbugs 
of the day; from which class we are sorry that we 
cannot exempt Col. Ware's New Oxfordshires or 
Cotswolds, so far, at least, as their merits are stated 
by the Colonel. — Editor Soothsbn Planteb. 



200 lbs. gross of that sheep will net 100, or 
any thing like it 1 ? or I may say even 801 A 
common sheep would scarcely do so without the 
immense horns. Now who made this statement 
quoted? — not I. I knew nothing about them; 
but from my experience of the improved Cots- 
wold, we should not at all be astonished at a 
yearling — fart bred at that — upon our ordinary 
treatment — no feeding (except when snow was 
on the ground) that would equal the three and 
four year old French Merino, gross, and beat 
him far, net; and yet their owners say it was 
all this management that "enabled" them to 
accomplish such weights. 

Why (immediately after quoting from.my 
communication "most probable that is desira- 
ble, if not necessary, to that breed of sheep," 
i. e. to "enable" them to accomplish such 
weights,) does Mr. Campbell go on to say "I 
would inform your correspondent that it is not 
necessary to wait three or four years before they 
will breed, (italics mine,) but, on the contrary, 
they are inclined to breed before the)' are one 
year old, nor is this all — many of them have 
twins— and will, if well kept, breed twice a 
year." Now could my communication bear, 
even by force, such construction'? Is this de- 
signed by Mr. Campbell to throw dust in Vir- 
ginia's eyes? — to humbug? Is there a Virgi- 
nian who cannot see through such a mist? 
Who doubts, that knows any thing about sheep, 
but that amj breed of sheep will go to the buck 
before one year old, or will occasionally bring 
twins— or will bring lambs twice a year under 
good management? It is not unusual, near 
cities, where there is demand for lambs, for 
ewes to be managed to accomplish that very 
object. My communication showed on its 
face that my comment was on the publication 
of the letter of Mr. Gilbert, &c. in the Southern 
Planter, stating that by keeping from breeding 
until three and four years old— by "judicious 
selections of rams" to go to the " best ewes" and 
by good treatment, "they were enabled" to 
accomplish such weights. I said then and be- 
lieve now, that give the same treatment to the 
common Merino and they will bring the same 
results. Will Mr. Campbell say they are not 
in fact the common Merino brought to their 
qualities in that way? I certainly did not say 
or express an idea that even by contortion 
would bear the idea that they would not breed 
until three or four years old, or any thing like 
it. Why infer or ascribe such to me? 

Again, Mr. Campbell says: "Now, sir, the 
French Merino will give at least as many 
lambs— which, at the lowest calculation, will 
sell at $100 each— $300— and if twins $600, 
besides a fleece of at least 25 per cent, more 
value than the improved Cotswold." It is a 
known fact that the Merino are not so prolific 
as the Cotswold. I have two ewes now whose 
mother at a birth produced three ewe lambs. 
These two were in the pen that won the highest 
prize at the Fair of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, the other was in the pen 
that won the second, and the next year the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



261 



same ewe produced three more ewe lambs. 
Now as to ihe comparison of the produce — 
can Mr. Campbell consider his position a fair 
one? Can he avoid seeing that it appears very 
much like a strong tendency to humbug the 
Virginia farmers] And if there is a Virginia 
farmer that cannot see Mr. Campbell is draw- 
ing a comparison between the sales of my 
part bred yearling muttons and the sheep he 
sells'" for breeding purposes he deserves no 
mercy from Vermont enterprise. Suppose I 
were to calculate the same way. I have sold 
a sheep for $500— in the three years three sheep 
for $1500— while he has sold three for $300, 
and where his sales amounted to $600, mine 
would amount to $'3000. Would this be a fair 
criterion to judge the value of breeds of sheep 
by for general farming purposes'? In nearly 
the commencement of my communication I 
said "I shall only calculate their profit for 
general farming purposes, sales as breeders 
not being a fair criterion." All do not raise 
bucks for breeding purposes; if so, who would 
be purchasers. All do, muttons. It seems to 
me Mr. Campbell has taken the bit between 
his teeih and run off with the subject. Can 
bethink he has stated my position fairly] My 
whole calculation was made in muttons alone, 
and they only part bred— only yearlings, car- 
ried throngh the winter on ordinary treatment, 
not fed — not pushed, and wlien sold to the butcher 
had only been fed two weeks; they were af- 
terwards fed until taken away. And this has 
been the case for years; nothing is more un- 
amimon than to find a two year old mutton of 
this breed in all this country; I do not know 
one; and nearly all the yearlings are gone al- 
ready; they are always taken up in their year- 
ling form by butchers. To prevent the possi- 
bility of my being misunderstood I repeated 
(I believe in the same page) "this statement, 
yon will see, is made solely in reference to 
mutton." Again, "do you think I have priced 
them high] Why, sir, I have used the Imuest 
given by butchers for even part bred year- 
lings." " I sold, last November, to them the 
wether Jambs that were lambed the preceding 
spring for over $8 10 each." So careful was 
I not to mislead that I took into my calcula- 
tion 'pari bred yearling muttons only. I did not 
even take into the calculation the muttons two 
and three years old I sold to a New York 
batcher for $25 and $35 each, whc*came to 
the farm and bought ihem after seeing and, han- 
dling them. I was offered $50 each for ihem 
if I would separate ihem from the yearlings, 
which I refused. All the sales were made on 
the farm, after the butcher had examined and 
handled thern— ihe farmer not bound to drive 
them one foot. Nor did I calculate offers of 
£100 each for muttons to be prepared for the 
butcher to a certain age, all as being extra, 
out of ihe scale of general farming operalions, 
lo accomplish my object of showing ihrir va- 
lue as yearlings over all other breeds. Mr. 
Campbell says, "one of our French ewes that 
did cot breed last season, got so fat by grass, 



that she was said to be worth $20 for the New 
York butcher." I gave no remark that might 
have been an idl'e one of a casual observer or 
even that of a good judge after handling, but 
actual sales, and the lowest ptices for years 
back. And none have ever purchased yet that 
did not desire to do so again. Is this not proof 
conclusive of their value for farming purposes'? 
But, says Mr. Campbell, "I have seen many 
a lamb in Mr. Cugnot's or Loroux's-sheepfold 
that at six months old would weigh 80 to 100 
lbs." and "it is no uncommon thing in France 
for sheep at eighteen months old to weigh 200 
lbs." (both live weights of course.) Of course 
I cannot gainsay this; I know nothing about 
them; but does it not seem "passing strange" 
that the very same gentlemen, owning the very 
same sheep from whom Mr. Campbell bought, 
in their correspondence with Mr. Rives, to 
give Virginia an idea of the great value of 
the sheep, should make no such statement] 
So far from it, they say "by means of the 
good care given to them and the judicious selec- 
tions of rams to unite with the best ewes, there 
was obtained from them rams which at three 
years old weighed" something under 200 lbs. — 
and this live weight. Does not this sound as 
their best, even at three' years* old] Do they 
recede in weight as they progress in age] or 
do they acquire 2$0 lbs. at year old and cease 
in growth after] But he further says, "By? 
continuing that exlra treatment he has raised- 
rams weighing at three years 275 lbs." — live 
weight. This certainly sounds like the very 
best, and this was by the extra keep, best selec- 
tions of rams and best ewes, and not per- 
mitted to copulate in that time. Mr. Camp- 
bell gives a cut of his French Merino buck, 
"Matchless," and says, "which was selected 
by myself from the flock of Mr. Cugnot, 
now four years old, and weighs two hundred 
and eighty pounds." He was selected from M r. 
Cugnot's flock by himself, had received all the 
advantages of high treatment, was the "best 
specimen of his hind," and only five pounds 
heavier than the heaviest that was instanced 
in France, and he only weighed two hundred 
and eighty pounds live weight — very fat — with 
his whole fleece on, with the large rolls of skin 
around his neck, his large head and immense 
horns— reduce this to meat, and would he, rid 
of all this offal, as well as the usual offal of 
all sheep, draw one hundred pounds. Why, 
sir, can it be possible that the "best specimen 
of his kind" with such keep for three years 
more, and all the advantage of growth of car- 
cass, skin, wool and horn, in that time can be 
brought to only eighty pounds heavier than 
the "no uncommon ones of eighteen months 
old," or only one hundred and eighty pounds 
heavier than "six months old lambs]" If this 
is all the improvement between the "no un- 
common" ones and "Matchless" "thebestspe- 
cimen of his kind," in three growing years, it 
would be curious to inquire what he weighed 
a yearling— his improvement must have been 
less, for he is unquestionably, I have no doubt, 



262 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



the best of his kind. Now, my buck, not claim- 
ing to be the best of his kind, no horns, and 
sheared, weighed four hundred and twemy 
pounds. I bought him a yearling — no doubt 
his treatment was good until then — after that 
the only food he had, except grass, was turnips, 
and that only when snow was on the ground; 
and every year he served a large number of 
ewes. How would they compare! Mine 
would be a heavy sheep — heavier, without 
any French necklace or head ornaments, than 
the best French Merino of his kind, with all 
his. What would mine not have been, if he 
had been raised like the French Merino 1 A 
Cotswold mutton has been brought to 300 lbs. 

' net — 20 lbs. heavier than "Matchless, the best 
specimen of his kind," head, horns, wool and 

, all. A lot of my imported ewes, just fourteen 
months old and just sheared, averaged 220 lbs. 
A piece in your July number (that contains 
thfe cut of "Matchless") from Mr. Allen, in- 
stances a less than fourteen months old buck, 
I let him have, that after sheared, and no horns, 
weighed 209? lbs. Now here is a yearling that, 
both to net meat, would probably equal, if not 
beat, the acknowledged "best French Merino 
of his kind," full grown, and I know he never 
eat a mouthful of grain until he went to Mr. 
Allen last winter. "Matchless," full age and 
every advantage of raising and care in breed- 
ing, with his heavy head, immense horns, rolls 
of his neck and fleece, weighing only 280 lbs. 
and a fourteen months old Cotswold buck, 
sheared clean, no horns or other offal of the 
kind, weighing 200| lbs. — add the weight of 
his fleece, 17i lbs. (this fleece is not common); 
total 227 lbs. — only 53 lbs. difference between 
the best of the French Merino full age and a 
yearling Cotswold. Horns and the extra rolls 
of the neck off the Merino, and you will see 
their live weights differ but little. Could not 
four of the Cotswold — such as Mr. Allen's— 
be sold to the butcher by the time "Match- 
less" came to this? Does it not prove my po- 
sition, even giving to Mr. Campbell in it, the 
best specimen of the French Merino'? Now, 
who can doubt which isthe profitable sheep to 
the Virginia farmer? 

Mr Campbell says: "At present the French 
sheep cannot be sold for mutton on account of 
the high price of them." The improved Cots- 
wold has been brought into this country for 
some years and the dema,nd for them is still 
so great that we cannot use the thorough-breds 
for muttons — indeed, has so increased that I am 
unable to supply the demand, and have been 
compelled to send to England this year for a 
lot of bucks to fill it, at a loss to myself; but 
can we not form some idea of the results from 
part breds 1 ? Has every person that bought a 
French Merino buck so many thorough-bred 
ewes that he cannot put him to other breeds'? 
My instances are altogether part breds. . 

Mr. Campbell and myself do not differ so 
widely about breeding sheep too young. I 
have always advised against breeding from 

either sex until the fall after one year old, for 



from their size there is always a tendency to 
do so from Cotswold lambs; and I have fre- 
quently refused to sell lambs to prevent it. 
And he is probably right (he knows more about 
them than I do,) about breeding from the 
French Merino only after arriving at maturity; 
hut if we had to delay breeding from improved 
Cotswolds until that age, it would materially 
impair their value in my estimation. Bat, sir, 
if French Merinoes are not matured enough for 
breeding purposes until four years old, are 
they matured enough for profitable mutton 
before? And if they do not mature enough 
until four years old, and the improved Cots- 
wolds do at one, do not the Cotswolds sell four 
muttons while the French Merino sells one, 
and at a higher price, too, than the French 
Merino at any age 1 ? 

Mr. Campbell, in your January number, 
says he claims "no such sleight" of hand" 
weights of fleece; "but think I would be 
justified in saying that flocks of the above 
breed, well kept, will shear an average of from 
six to ten pounds;" in the July number,, "for 
wool alone, I believe there are other breeds of 
the Merino quite as profitable to the wool 
grower." This seems to be giving up the idea 
Virginians had of their value for wool; if 
other breeds of the Merino are as profitable 
to the wool grower, and gives so much less to 
the fleece, it must of course be because it brings 
a much higher price per pound, on account of 
its fineness. I am offered at home forty-one 
cents per pound for my wool, and a gentleman 
in New York, after seeing a sample, says I 
can get fifty cents per pound there. This 
would place the French Merino wool in the 
same standard with the improved Cotswold, 
and where is the 25 per cent, more value 
in the French Merino fleece over the Cotswold'? 

You will recollect some time since in my 
communication to your paper, I mentioned the 
value of sheep manure; and you are well 
aware, also, that England raises principally, 
if not entirely, large mutton sheep as the pro- 
fitable sheep. I suppose she does not possess 
a Merino at all of any kind, though a near 
neighbor to France, and a manufacturer of 
broad-cloth— finding it more profitable to raise 
the mutton sheep and purchase the wool. 
She dates her agricultural improvement from 
raising them, and, consequently, turnips. I 
send you a letter from Mr. Burwell to the 
Alexandria Gazette, enclosing one from Mr. 
Lawrence, of Boston, to Mr. Barnard— please 
publish it with this. Mr. Burwell has been 
breeding for some years from bucks procured 
of me. It will sustain ray position of having 
instanced the lowest sales of muttons in my 
calculations. Mr. Lawrence's letter will show 
the value attached to the manure from such 
sheep by the English, and the value of their 
wool. Think of fifty million sheep averaging 
five and a quarter pounds washed wool, (all of 
them not Cotswolds,) and their manure valued 
at twelve millions of dollars. 
Virginia has the subject now before her— 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



263 



probably bought experience, though dear, may 
be best. I have done my part — Mr. Campbell 
his. She will act with her eyes open. 

Josiah W. Ware, 
Near Berryville, Clarke Co., Va. 
August, 1S53. 

RAISING SHEEP. 

To the Editor of tlie Alexandria Gazete: 

As my brother farmers' attention seems to 
be at this time particularly turned to sheep 
husbandry, it may not be deemed amiss in me 
to say a few words with regard to the profit of 
rearing (my favorite breed) ihe Cotswold. 

Mark you, it is only with regard to their pro- 
fitableness that I now write, for to the man of 
taste, and who can indulge it, they so till the 
eye and please the fancy, that it is not needful 
to hold out any other inducement. 

In proof of their profit, I will give my ex- 
perience of the last year, together with an ex- 
tract from a letter from my friend, Mr. Barnard, 
of Boston, to whose kindness I am indebted 
for having drawn the attention of Mr. Law- 
rence and others, to a fleece of my wool. I 
shall, also, send a copy of Mr. L.'s letter to 
Mr. B. 

I sold last Febrnary twenty-two muttons to a 
butcher from Philadelphia (two of which were 
old ewes not fit to breed, and nine of the others 
not two years old,) for ten dollars and twenty- 
five cents per head. My flock, consisting of 
breeding ewes and yearlings, yielded (at the 
lastclip)an average of nearly six and a quarter 
pounds of washed wool, which I sold for thir- 
ty-five cents per pound. Mr. Barnard says: 
I: The fleece of wool arrived in good order. 
Mr. Lawrence was much pleased with it, and 
has written me a letter, a copy of which 1 en- 
close. Since then it has been on exhibition in 
the office of Messrs. James Vila & Co., the 
first wool brokers in Boston. It has com- 
manded universal attention. An immense 
amouDt of such wool would sell for forty 
cents per pound." 

Should the above, together with Mr. Law- 
rence's letter (which I subjoin) prove of suffi- 
cient interest, please publish, and oblige your 
friend and subscriber, 

Nathaniel Bcrwell. 
Millwood., Clarke Co., Va., July 23, 1853. 

James M. Barnard, Esq., Boston: 

Deo.r Sir, — I have carefully examined the 
fleece from a Cotswold sheep, and can say 
with confidence that your friend is quite safe 
in getting up a flock of this breed. 

The wool is adapted for combing purposes 
specially, but can be used for other than worsted 
fabrics. The price for wool like this is not 
less than forty cents per pound, and millions 
of pounds beyond our home production are 
now required, to supply machinery already in 
operation. 
The carcass of this breed has great value. 



Within a few years in the great cities of this 
country, mutton has come into such favor, that 
it bears a price, when of prime quality, above 
the highest price for best beef. 

If you will look at your butcher's bills for 
two years past, you will find the prices from 
twelve and a half to sixteen and two-third 
cents per pound for mutton. 

You are aware that this country takes from 
abroad yearly, about thirty millions pounds of 
wool for consumption, and that the entire clip 
here is less than seventy millions pounds. 

We often hear wonder expressed at the enor- 
mous wealth of England. Among the thou- 
sand reasons why, I believe one to be her spe- 
cial attention to sheep husbandry. The United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland have 
over fifty millions of sheep, whose average 
weight of brook washed fleeces is five and a 
quarter pounds, giving over two hundred and 
sixty millions pounds of wool yearly. 

The annual drop of manure from these sheep 
is worth to the soil over which they run twelve 
millions dollars; with no other resources, that 
country is rich indeed. 

I firmly believe that no branch of industry 
in this country offers so many inducements as 
sheep husbandry, when it can be properly and 
skilfully attended to. 

If I can give you any information further, 
on this most interesting subject of great na- 
tional interest, I shall have much pleasure in 
doing so, and remain your friend, 

(Signed) t Samuel Lawrence. 

Boston, July 14, 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 

GOOD MANAGEMENT, NO MYSTERY— 
THE SECRET OF IT. 

Mr. Editor, — A few weeks ago, I had theplear 
sure, in company with some others, of riding 
over the farm of a gentleman who stands high 
on the list of successful planters, as well as 
on that of the best farmers in Virginia — and 
when I speak of good farming in Virginia, I 
admit no superiority to any State or nation 
that the sun shines upon — all the circumstances 
material to make up the issue being taken into 
consideration. I do not intend to give a de- 
tailed statement of what we saw there, or to 
enter into a minute description of the manage- 
ment of this farm, (this I hope you will enrich 
your pages with, from the pen of the proprietor 
himself.) My purpose at present is different; I • 
wish to give expression, if I can, to those reflec- 
tions which arose unbidden to the minds of my; 
companions and myself at the conviction of see- 
ing a superiority so marked in'our common pur- 
suit. Why is it that, as in this instance, one man 
seems to get trfe start of the farming commu- 
nity around him and "to bear the palm alone"!" 
And why is it that in every neighborhood iai 
the State some one individual takes up a po - 



264 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



sition in advance of his brethren and keeps it, 
and stands confessed by all the best manager 
amongst them'? It is easy enough to answer 
these questions, as I will show; but it is not 
so easy to answer another which grows out of 
them, viz. Why we, who see their good ma- 
nagement, do not profit by it, and "go and do 
likewise?" "Hie labor— Hoc opus est." But 
let us return to our first inquiry: Why is it 
that one farmer takes the lead of his fellows 
in the same pursuit and keeps it,unapproached 
and apparently unapproachable? He may be 
our own familiar friend. We may consider 
him inferior to ourselves in natural endow- 
ments, and far behind us in acquired know- 
ledge; and yet he outstrips us in the race of 
life. He takes the position of the "America," 
and "the rest of us are nowhere." Why is 
this? 1 said it was very easy to answer the 
question, and I will proceed to do so; and you 
will find that it involves many practical ques- 
tions, which your readers will do well to pon- 
der. It is known to yourself, sir, and to your 
readers, that the last and the present years 
have been the most unseasonable and unpro- 
pitious for the farmer which have occurred for 
a long time, throughout the planting region of 
Virginia. Not only have our corn and tobacco 
crops suffered a material diminution, both in 
quantity and quality, but in addition, the, ra- 
vages of the joint-worm threaten to extermi- 
nate the wheat crop. As in times of trial the 
statesman proves himself, so in difficult sea- 
sons the good farmer stands conspicuous. 
Whilst most of us yield without a struggle to 
a diminished income, because the seasons are 
-perverse and untractable, I have not been able 
to detect any sensible diminution in the pro- 
ducts of the good farmers of my acquaintance; 
and, sir, I have a good opportunity of judging, 
for my osvn farm adjoins and overlooks one of 
the best managed estates in Virginia, and I 
have the daily and hourly opportunity of wit- 
nessing the operations which lead to this suc- 
cess- and yet I continue complacently to fol- 
low my own imperfect and defective devices, 
as if they had never before resulted in com- 
parative disappointment and failure. 

The gentleman, whose management I al- 
luded to in the beginning of this article, as 
■well as my next neighbor, both raised full 
crops of tobacco last year; whereas most of 
tjs were content with from one-half to one- 
third of a crop. To one acquainted as I am 
with their management, there is no mystery 
about this. In the first place, they have their 
plants ready to embrace the early seasons, and 
in the second, their land is properly prepared 
and ready to receive the plants. The way to 
have good plants in time is as plain as the 
wav to market, and yet four-fifths of the plant- 
ersof Virginia neglect this, the first and most 
important step towards making a crop of to- 
bacco. These gentlemen, after-selecting suit- 
able land, ample in quantity, (allowing one 
hundred square yards for every seven or eight 
.thousand hills,) bum it thoroughly during a 



dry spell in winter, prepare it well, and manure 
it heavily with the best manure they can pro- 
cure, free of grass seed, at the time of preparing 
it, sow the seed, tread, and cover thickly. After 
the plants are up they are plastered, and occa- 
sionally before a shower, as much fine ma- 
nure as they will bear is carefully sown over 
them. These farmers always follow this plan, 
and their plants are always ready for the sea- 
sons and the hills for the plants. Their crop 
is growing and luxuriating in a July sun which 
parches and withers mine, because, being just 
planted, it has not yet rooted itself. The good 
manager excels just as much in the after ma- 
nagement of the crop. It is kept well tilled 
and clear of worms and suckers, and suffered 
to get ripe — then cured in the best manner, 
taken down in the right order, and never suf- 
fered to mould and funk in bulk; is then pro- 
perly assorted, neatly tied and packed away, 
and of course commands the highest markeL 
price. Now, sir, we console ourselves fo* 
short crops and low prices year alter year in 
some such way as this: "That we had a dry 
and cold spring, an unusual glut of worms, or 
a storm that blew and turned our crop, a warm, 
wet spell in spring caused our tobacco to 
mould in bulk, or it happened to get to market 
in rather soft or hard order," &c. Now one 
would think that in the course of the fifteen, 
twenty, thirty or forty years that some of us 
have been farming, we might have sometimes 
escaped these disasters; but the letters of our 
commission merchants show that we have had 
no such good fortune. If the sprins; has been 
so forward as to push the plants upon us and 
force us to set them out in good time, the crop 
has been neglected or mismanaged at some 
other stage, and we have the same beggarly 
account to give. There is no mystery — there 
is no secret in their management of this crop; 
and yet four-fifths of us are as defective in our 
practice as if we were trying some new and 
untried experiment and had never before seen 
or heard of the successful experience of our 
neighbor. Why is it that we do not follow a 
practice which we know is attended with uni- 
form success? Why do not we "go and do 
likewise?" This is a hard question to answer. 
Does the same relative superiority show itself 
in the other products of the well managed es- 
tate? As regards the crop of corn, they know- 
no such word as fail. An treasonable year 
they gather a crop which we would be satisfied 
with of a seasonable one. My neighbor ac- 
tually makes an average crop of ten or twelve 
barrels per acre, while I make six on land 
which I should be unwilling to acknowledge a3 
inferior to his. How is this? As in the case 
of the tobacco crop it is easy enough to them. 
The field for corn is deeply ploughed in win- 
ter, thoroughly pulverized and manured where 
it requires fertility. The corn is rolled in 
plaster and planted at the right time; taking 
care to use an abundance of seed, no replant- 
ing is required; and there are few missing 
stalks in the crop — the thinning is clone as soon 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



265 



as the com will bear it — the working is begun with 
coulters as soon as the crop is well up— then 
with the winged coulter next the corn, followed 
by cultivators — and lastly with the mould- 
board plough; the whole operation being ac- 
companied ia the interim by such hoe work 
as the crop seems to require. Other imple- 
ments are substituted by good farmers for those 
I have mentioned, but they answer the same 
purpose, viz. to keep the ground mellow, fine 
and moist, while the plant is small. The fod- 
der being gathered and carefully stacked, and 
the corn housed in cool, dry weather, we never 
hear any complaints from them of rotten or 
unsound corn. Now all this seems very plain 
sailing! — easy enough to do; "no mystery or 
secret" about it, and yet most of us go blunder- 
ing on from bad to worse through all the ope- 
rations, from planting to housing. We begin 
with a bad preparation, late planting, late 
•working, and late thinning, and often end the 
matter by putting the crop away in a green 
and uneured state, and for the Dext twelve 
months have to eat dark and musty bread, with 
the additional satisfaction of knowing that our 
horses and hogs are worse off than we are, 
as we have first choice. What is the reason 
that we neglect to follow a practice always 
before our eyes, and which invariably results 
in an abundant crop? But let us examine the 
good farmer's management still farther, and 
see if the other products of the farm corre- 
spond with the corn and tobacco. They do! 
The wheat crop, not so much under the control 
of the farmer as the other crops mentioned, 
for obvious reason, is yet, under the good far- 
mers management, comparatively certain. The 
past and present years they have reaped ave- 
rage crops, while the most fortunate of us 
have only reaped half a crop, and not a few 
have had to be content with a return of their 
seed. It would seem that Providence favors 
the good husbandman. There is no more 
"mystery and secret" in their cultivation and 
success in raising wheat than in the other crops 
already mentioned. They prepare their land 
perfectly and in time. They sow good seed on 
good land, naturally fertile, or made so by ma- 
nure or guano. The seed is well covered and 
the land rolled if at all cloddy, and all these 
operations are performed in the best manner. 
Their fields are green, while in ours, a few 
spires only can be detected here and there, 
struggling through the clods. Therefore, it 
should be no matter of surprise if after harvest 
shocks stand upon their fields as dozens do 
upon ours, and that they should count by thou- 
sands, and we by hundreds of bushels. Don't 
you agree with me that it is difficult to account 
for this state of things? Year after year we 
witness their good management and success, 
and yet we either sow defective seed, or loo 
much or too little of it, or our preparation is 
slovenly, or the covering is imperfect, or we 
pet our crop sprouted in the field, or injured 
in the stack, or heated in bulk. So that 
one good crop in our agricultural experience is 



regarded as an event which a combination of 
fortuitous circumstances brought about; but 
the chances are against their lecurrence, and 
we have no assurance of a continuance of our 
good fortune. The farmer who trusts impor- 
tant interests to the accidents of chance, is 
dealing with a whimsical and capricious jade 
and does not deserve to succeed. 

I have taken the three mosi important crops, 
corn, wheat and tobacco, and have drawn a 
hasty comparison of their management by the 
good farmer and the indifferent one, and if I 
am not mistaken the wayfaring man, though 
blind, can not only see the difference, but alse 
satisfy himself in what it consists. I shall 
briefly allude to some other points in their 
management, and the contrast will be found 
no less striking. The good farmer's houses 
are of the best construction and kept in repair, 
also his fences and roads; he has no vehicles 
overturned or broken down, no bulks of to- 
bacco or wheat leaked upon, no crop destroyed 
by slock. His horses and oxen are kept in 
condition to do their work — as the horses grow 
old their places are supplied by younger ones; 
(ours are suffered to get poor and die) his 
cows and oxen, as they grow old, are converted 
into beef, (whilst ours die of the hollow-horn, 
or another disease quite as fatal, which may 
be shortly described as — an emptiness.) He 
sells mutton, lamb, veal or pork— our lambs 
perish by neglect, or are destroyed by hogs; 
our calves die of starvation — our pigs come at 
the wrong time and are overlaid, or our stock 
hogs being mangy, are worthless. Now, sir, 
if we " look on this picture and then on that," 
does it not afford matter for serious reflection'? 
Is it exaggerated? I think not. You, Mr. 
Editor, will remember that at the meeting of 
the State Agricultural Society, held in Rich- 
mond in February last, when your delegation 
were requested to enumerate the good farmers 
of Albemarle, (the old banner county of the 
State in agricultural improvement,) twenty- 
five was the largest number which could be 
counted, and there were some of these few 
whose claim to the distinction was doubtful. 
The remaining four hundred and seventy-five 
farms in the county must be more or less mis- 
managed. Why is this? There is certainly 
as great an amountof information and general 
intelligence among the four hundred and se- 
venty-five bad as among the twenty-five good 
farmers of the county. The bad have the ex- 
ample of the good continually before them, 
and every conceivable inducement to follow 
their exam pie, because they have the evidences 
of their own senses, thai, by doing so, they can 
secure to themselves com fort and independence; 
but they don't do it, and if we may judge the 
future by the past, they never will. The ques- 
tion still remains- unanswered — I give it up in 
despair. If it is capable of solution, will you 
or your correspondents answer it intelligibly, 
and oblige 

Your friend, 

A Virginia Farmer. ' 



266 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



For the Southern Planter. 

A TEXT BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 

Mr. Editor, — Yours is the great calling for 
health, wealth, innocence and virtue, and lies 
at the foundation of every other occupation. 
Without it commerce must stagnate, cities 
decline, railroads become useless, and every 
interest languish and die; and yet a majority 
of the rising race think it beneath their notice. 

temporal O mores! Adam, in his innocence 
and abundance was directed to dress the gar- 
den of Paradise, and shall his degenerate sons 
and daughters be unemployed 'J A great man 
has said, "the idle man's head is the Devil's 
■workshop." And the Jewish proverb is, "he 
that raises his son without a trade teaches 
him to steal." There is a great disposition to 
seek after professions until they are overflow- 
ing with incumbents, and a growing dislike to 
manual labor, but that suicidal spirit should 
be met with decided opposition. 1 rejoice that 
we have yet in Virginia a few of the old Ro- 
man stock who are not ashamed to work, but 
consider it a shame for any man or woman to 
become a mere cipher in creation. The far- 
mer has, or may have, the whole world in 
miniature about him, and is independent of 
the universe for sources of pleasure and profit. 
Let every true patriot teach his sons to rise 
early, stay at home, discard their sports, attend 
to business, and walk in the steps of the great 
Washington, who was the father of husbandry 
as well as the father of his country. 

Columbia's sons, spurn not the rugged toil, 
Your country's glory is her cultured soil, 
Mount Vernon's patriot of unrivalled worth 
Increased his laurels while he tilled the earth. 

But I wish to make a suggestion about 
books and schools in relation to agriculture. 

1 wish to see a short system of agricultural 
science taught in our common schools, so that 
every boy in the State may have, if possible, 
some knowledge of it, and imbibe a taste for 
it. The book should give a sketch of botany 
and vegetable physiology — a description of 
soils and manures— an account of the various 
crops, and the best modes of cultivation — the 
comparative value of the different kinds ofstock 
and the best modes of fattening hogs, beeves, 
&c. — together with instruction upon draining, 
fencing, agricultural implements, &c. Per- 
.haps Stephens' Book of the Farm, abridged 
and adapted to farming operations in this 
country, might suit as well as any work, but 
it should have questions on the lower margin 

■ of each page adapted to the subjects. We 
should not calculate that children in school 
would thus learn in a few months to be good 
farmers, but they might learn , something va- 
luable upon a subject that is of more impor- 
tance than many other subjects they have be- 
fore them, and in times of recreation the most 
of them would be employed at home in its 



practical operations. Something has been said 
about agricultural colleges, but while possibly 
they might benefit a favored few, they would 
not suit the mass of the people. Few could 
afford the expense, and it would require the 
removal of the youth from the parental roof, 
and they might learn more evil than good. 
Let us have schools, books and papers for 
every family that may choose to avail them- 
selves of such advantages, and no doubt good 
will be done. I trust the recent organization, 
of the Virginia State Agricultural Society will 
give a new impulse to this great interest; but 
steps should be taken to organize societies in 
every county as soon as practicable. Could 
not the collecting agents of the "Southern 
Planter" visit our courts and address the peo- 
ple, both publicly and privately! 

Respectfully, yours, J. 

Rough Creek, Charlotte, Aug. 16, 1853. 



For the Southern Planter. 

REMEDY AGAINST CUT WORM. 

Mr. Editor, — I very much regret that I have 
neglected until now to communicate to the 
farmers of Virginia an item of information 
which might have been of infinite value to 
them if it had been communicated in proper 
time this season. The information to which 
I attach so much importance, and which I 
humbly conceive will produce an immense 
saving of labor and a great increase of grain, 
seems very simple and open to the discovery 
of the least experienced. 

About six years ago 1 ploughed up a grass 
lot of about six acres towards the close of the 
winter. Early in the month of April I planted 
it in corn in the usual drills. The seed was 
soaked for twelve or fifteen hours in a strong 
solution of saltpetre, and then mixed with tar 
and water, (a pint of tar to a gallon of very 
warm water,) pouring- the mixture on the corn 
and stirring the mass so as to coat the seed, 
when plasterin sufficient quantity was strewed 
over the whole until it thickly enveloped each 
grain of corn. Being immediately planted in 
furrows five or six inches deep, vegetation 
speedily ensued, and in four or five days my 
lot was beautifully covered with the early 
risen corn plants. In the evening, perhaps 
of the fifth day after planting, I saw, and was 
delighted with, its appearance, but on the suc- 
ceeding morning was shocked to find my ex- 
pectations utterly blighted, my entire crop be- 
ing prostrate on the ground, a victim to the 
ravenous cut worm, of which hundreds were 
found upon examination. It was very evident 
that to replant in the same rows would be ut- 
terly futile. 

Reflecting that all the worms infesting the 
land had congregated along the rows, and that 
if any means could be devised to keep them 
there, their farther depredations might be pre- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



267 



veined, I first strewed along those rows a small 
quantity of seed oats, the earth being slightly 
mixed by running a cultivator along with and 
upon them, and in two or three days after- 
wards rows were laid off for the corn between 
those first planted. The oats came up quickiy 
and seemed to afford an abundant supply of 
provender for the worms. In due time the re- 
planted corn made its appearance; but the 
ravages of the worms were confined to the oats, 
to the lines of which they had collected — not 
a stalk of corn was cut down, and I had the 
gratification to perceive that my seemingly 
simple remedy had been entirely successful. 
This experiment occupied three acres only: 
the other three were replanted in the usual 
way, with the use of the weeding hoe, and 
■were from time to time destroyed, and re- 
planted three times before the worms permitted 
the corn to remain. 

To make this plan available for the first 
planting, I would suggest that if there be cut 
worms in the field, which may be easily dis- 
covered by an examination of the surface, 
rows, the usual width of the corn rows, be first 
sowed in oats — they can be rapidly drilled by 
hand over a space of eight or ten inches, and 
covered with a small cultivator — and just as 
they begin to appear above ground, let the 
corn be planted. I have no doubt this will 
prove a remedy; and if it should, I shall con- 
sider myself well paid for the trouble of writing 
this article for those important members of 
society to whom, otherwise, the remedy might 
not have become known. 

C. P. McKennie. 

University of Virginia, Aug. 20, 1853. 



From the Farm Journal. 

THE STRAWBERRY CONTROVERSY. 

The statement of Mr Meehan, in the April 
number of the Farm Journal, alleging that he 
has observed the sexual characters of the 
strawberry flowers to be variously modified 
by culture, or different methods of treatment, 
has elicited some strong asseverations of opi- 
nion, in contradiction to that allegation of fact. 
One writer unhesitatingly declares the alleged 
change to be "utterly impossible;" and I under- 
stand that in the Q.neen City of the West they 
have had a public gathering, to deliberate on 
the subject, which resulted in a pronunciamenlo 
adverse to Mr. Meehan's statement — his facts 
and observations being rejected by a clear ma- 
jority of the voters present! The matter being 
thus Kitted by preamble and resolution, after 
the manner of political difficulties at a war 
meeting, it may seem to be out of order, now, 
to offer any remarks on the controverted topic. 
Nevertheless, as this is reputed to be a free 
country, I should like to be indulged with the 
privilege of submitting a tew suggestions— if 
not in arrest of judgment, at least as a plea in 



I mitigation of the sentence, against my friend 
Meehan. It is the remark of a vigorous and 
sagacious modern writer, that "no scientific 
question was ever yet settled dogmatically, nor 
ever will;" and I think the same may be espe- 
cially predicated of questions of fact in Namral 
History. I may here observe, that 1 was fa- 
vored with the opportunity of examining one 
of Mr. Meehan's specimens— in which there 
were certainly two scapes from the same root — 
I one bearing a cyme of pistillate flowers (with 
minute rudiments of abortive stamens,) and 
I the other a cyme of perfect or hermaphrodite 
flowers; and whether the specimen was the 
progeny of a pistillate, a staminate, or a her- 
maphrodite plant, I should think the inference 
plausible, if not irresistible, that the flowers on 
at least one of these two cymes, must have been 
a modification or altered product of the parent 
plant. It is this kind of change, in the cha- 
racter of the flowers, which I understand Mr. 
Meehan to announce, as having occurred in 
plants under his management. Now, in view 
of the countless modifications daily observable 
in the organs of plants — and especially in the 
fkrrol organs — I can perceive no sufficient 
ground for declaring the changes, reported by 
Mr. Meehan, to be "utterly impossible." The 
j modifications here referred to are a very dif- 
i ferent thiDg from the alleged transmutation of 
one kind to another — which is vulgarly supposed 
to take place in certain plants, just as the alche- 
mists formerly pretended was effected among 
the metals. They merely alter the texture, dis- 
tort the forms, or affect the development of 
organs; but do neither change nor annihilate 
those essential characteristics, by which the plant 
is rendered permanently distinct from every 
other genus and species. The floral organs of 
many plants are remarkably subject to modifi- 
cation, under the long continued influences of 
soil, climate and culture, or management. 
Sorne flowers are rendered double, as it is 
termed, by the expansion of stamens into pe- 
tals; others become imperfect, and even neu- 
tral, by the abortion or blighting of the stamens, 
or pistils, or both. The strawberry appears to 
be very liable to this kind of blight; and hence 
the much talked of sorts, among cultivators, 
of pislillales and staminates — though in all the 
pistillate flowers, which I have examined, 
there were vestiges, more or less obvious, of 
abortive stamens on the rim of the calyx. It 
also varies much under culture in some other 
features— especially in the development and 
character or quality of the receptacle, or what 
| is commonly regarded as fruit; but no one, I 
i believe, has yet seen a strawberry plant trans- 
| muted into a cinrjuefoil — though so nearly allied 
in habit. The organs of plants may be greatl v 
disguised by the influences above mentioned; 
but still the essential distinguishing traits are 
preserved — and there seems to be no insuper- 
able obstacle to prevent a plant, with modified 
or abortive organs, from reverting, under a 
' change of circumstances, to its original con- 
! dition, and resuming its pristine form and 



268 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



character. The normal, or what may be called 
the constitutional character of the strawberry 
flower is to be perfect — i. c. furnished with both 
stamens and pistils, (possibly such may be the 
true normal structure of all flowers;) and al- 
though many other plants, as well as the straw- 
berry, are found with imperfect, and even neutral 
flowers, every naturalist and careful observer 
knows that there is often an obvious effort and 
tendency in such flowers to a more complete 
development — i. e. to become perfect and regu- 
lar. We occasionally see diandrous flowers 
become didynamous, and didynamous plants de- 
veloping regular pentandrous flowers; and it 
is not at all unusual to find the staminate tassel 
ef the cultivated maize (JBta Mays, L. a monoi- 
cous plant,) bearing fertile flowers, and exhibit- 
ing a very successful attempt at the production 
of an ear — or cluster of ears — of Indian corn. 
These instances, I trust, (for it is needless to 
multiply them,) may suffice to show that there 
is nothing irrational nor incredible in Mr. 
Meehan's observations; and that it is rather 
strong phraseology, to declare such phenomena 
to be "utterly impossible." The polemic writers 
on this strawberry question, speak of the ne- 
cessity of staminate plants among the pistil- 
late to produce or perfect ihe fruit. No doubt, 
the pistils must be fertilized, in order to pro- 
duce seeds that will vegetate. But what do 
those gentlemen understand by the "fruit?" 
Do they mean the little single seed akenes or 
nutlets, which are sprinkled over the enlarged 
pulpy receptacle — or do they refer to the recep- 
tacle itself, which in popular parlance is in tended 
by the term "fruit?''' If they have reference 
to the real fruit — the nutlets which contain the 
seed — there is probably no question (as already 
intimated) about the necessity of staminate in- 
fluence to produce perfect fruit. But I have a 
suspicion, that by the term "fruit," they mean 
the delicious receptacle which bears the fruit, and 
if they mean to allege that the pistils must be 
fertilized by the stamens, inorder to produce that 
enlargement of the receptacle which affords an es- 
culent substitute for fruit, then I have only to say 
it is a question of fact, which I have had no ade- 
quate opportunity to determine, and concern- 
ing which I. for one, should be happy to receive 
reliable information. To ascertain the point 
satisfactorily, would require verv careful ex- 
periments and observations. Whether such 
have been made, I am not informed. I may 
remark, however, by way of analogy, that there 
are instances in which pistils, and even recep- 
tacles, are enlarged, where no staminate influ- 
ence has been exe'rted. The conglomerate 
coalescent pistils of the Osage orange (Ma- 
dura,) for example, attain to their full natural 
size (although the seeds are necessarily imper- 
fect,) where no staminate plant is in the neigh- 
borhood; and, what affords a closer analogy, 
the including receptacle of the pistillate fig is 
fully developed, when entirely free from any 
-staminate influence. Whether the receptacle of 
the strawberry ever enlarges, without the pistils 
being fertilized, (as already stated,) is more 



than I can tell; but I feel well assured that 
any competent authority, who may furnish the 
information, will make an acceptable contri- 
bution to physiological botany. 

W. D. 
West Chester, June 6, 1853. 

Dr. Darlington, of West Chester, Pa., is one 
of the most eminent botanists of the Union. 



PRATT'S DITCHING MACHINE. 

We find in the Ontario County Times 
some account of a ditching machine, in- 
vented by a Mr. Pratt, of Hopewell, in 
that county, which promises lo be valuable 
to the farming interest. Steps have been 
taken to secure a patenti The Times says: 

At a recent trial near Canandaigua, Mr. 
Pratt succeeded in digging twenty-five 
rods of dilch two feet deep, in two hours 
and a half with a single team; and those 
present were entirely satisfied with its ope- 
ration. If it will work one-half as fast as 
it is said to here, it will be an immense la- 
bor-saving machine. It is a difficult thing 
to describe, but we will attempt to give an 
idea of its appearance and mode of opera- 
tion. The plough which digs the ditch is 
attached to the bottom of a semi-circular 
tube of cast iron, resembling the box in 
which grain elevators load ihemselves. 
The elevators are of cast steel, twelve in 
number, and look like shovel ploughs; 
these elevators or spades are attached to 
a wheel, and when the machine is in mo- 
tion the wheel revolves and they take up 
the earlh as deep as the plough cuts it, 
carry it up through the cast iron tube, and 
when the dirt falls off' it strikes upon an 
inclined plane and slides off on each side 
of the ditch. There are handles for guid- 
ing it, like plough handles, and the bar lo 
which the team is attached has different 
holes for the clevis, so that it may be set 
to go deeper or more shallow, according 
to the nature of the ground in which it is 
to operate. Ditching is becoming an im- 
portant item in the fanner's expense ac- 
count, and any thing calculated to make if 
cheaper, will be received with favor. We 
trust that Mr. Pratt's ingenuity will be 
liberally rewarded. 



The Highest Price Yet.— A hogshead of 
tobacco was sold in our market yesterday by' 
Mi. D. E. Franklin, of this county, at the un- 
precedented price of $110 per hundred. The 
tobacco was purchased by Mr. William T. 
Booker, to be manufactured for his New Or- 
leans customers. — Lynchburg Virginian. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



269 



From the Farm Journal. 

GAPES IN CHICKENS. 

To the Editor of the Farm Journal, — Can you 
give any account of, or remedy for gapes in 
chickens, which, if not arrested, bids fair to 



destroy the best half of my young poultry. 
Improved as well as the common breed are all ' 
attacked, and die in a short time afterwards. 
Any information through your valuable jour- 
nal, will confer a favor on several of your sub- 
scribers in this section of the State. 
Erie county, Pa. H. Sill. 




In reply to our correspondent, we give an 
engraving of the worms magnified, which are 
generally believed to cause the disease in poul-, 
try, called gapes. The most simple and effec- 
tual remedy we know of, is to make a loop of 
horse hair, and introduce it down the wind 
pipe of the young chicken, when, by twisting 
the loop a few times, the worms can be very 
readily drawn oat We have seen this pro- 
cess tried, and with great success. In Be- 
ment's Poultry Book, is a comrrtunication from 
C. F. Morton, and containing some valuable 
suggestions, which v/e copy below. 

,: From all I have seen and heard on the sub- 
ject of what is called the gape.s in chickens, 
it is a disease which is not generally under- 
stood, I shall, therefore, give you my opinion 
on its nature and cure. This spring, having 
my chickens attacked as usual wiih the gapes, 
I dissected one that died, and found xtthrcnckus, 
or windpipe (not the throat,) filled with small 
red worms from half to three quarters of an 



inch long. This satisfied me that any particu- 
lar course of feeding or medicine given would 
not reach the disease. I therefore took a quill 
from a hen's wing, stripped off the feathers 
within an inch and a half of the end, trimmed 
it off with a scissors to about half an inch 
wide, pointing it at the lower end. I then lied; 
the ends of the wings to the legs of the chicken 
affected, to prevent its struggling; placed its 
legs between my knees; held its tongue be- 
tween the thumb and fore-finger of the left 
hand, and with the right, inserted the trimmed 
feather in the windpipe, (the opening of which, 
lies at the root of the tongue;) when the chicken 
opened it to breathe, pushed it down gently as 
far as it would go, (which is where the wind- 
pipe branches off to the lobes of the lungs, be- 
low which I have never detected the insect.) 
and twisted it round as I pulled it out, which 
would generally bring up or loosen all the 
worms, so that the chicken would cough ihem 
out; if not I would repeat the operation till alt 



270 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



were ejected, amounting generally to a dozen : 
then release the chicken, and in the course of 
:en minutes it would eat heartily, although 
previous to the operation it was unable to swal- 
low, and its crop would be empty unless filled 
with some indigestible food. In this manner 
I lost but two out of forty chickens operated 
on; one by its coughing up a bunch of the 
worms which stuck in the orifice of the wind- 
pipe and strangled it — the other apparently re- 
covered, but died several days after in the 
morning. In 'the afternoon, upon examining 
its windpipe, I found a female worm in it, dif- 
fering from the others by branching off at the 
tail in a number of roots or branches, between 
each of which were tubes filled with hundreds 
of eggs, like the spawn of a fish, and although 
the chicken died in the morning, the worm 
was perfectly alive in the afternoon, and con- 
tinued so for half an hour in warm water. 
While I was examining it in a concave glass 
under a microscope, it ejected one of its eggs, 
in the centre of which was an insectinembryo. 

From this fact, I have come to the conclu- 
sion, that when the female worm breeds in the 
chicken and kills it, these hundreds of eggs 
hatch out in its putrid body in some very mi- 
nute worms, which, probably after remaining 
in that state during the winter, change in the 
spring to a fly, which deposits its eggs on the 
nostril of the chicken, from whence they are 
inhaled and hatched out in the windpipe, and 
become the worms which I have described. 

There is one fact connected with this dis- 
ease — that it is only old hen-roosts that are 
subject to it; and I am of opinion, that where 
it prevails, if the chicken-houses and coops 
were kept clean and frequently white-washed 
with thin white-wash, with plenty of salt or 
brine mixed with it, and those chickens that 
take the disease, operated on and cured, or, if 
they should die, have them burned up or so de- 
stroyed, that the eggs of the worms would not 
hatch out, that the disease would be eradicated. 

I am also satisfied that the chicken has not 
the disease when first hatched ; several broods 
that I carried and kept at a distance from the 
chicken-house where the disease prevailed, 
were entirely exempt. And chickens hatched 
from my eggs where they had never been trou- 
bled with this disease, were perfectly free from 
it; and a neighbor of mine who built in the 
woods half a mile from any dwelling, and has 
raised fowls for six or seven years past, and 
has frequently set my eggs, has never had the 
gapes among his chickens. 

With my first brood of chickens, there was 
not one escaped the gapes. But all that have 
been hatched since I had the chicken-house 
and coops well white-washed inside and out, 
with thin white-wash, with plenty of brine in 
it, and kept clean, have been exempt from the 
disease, with occasionally an exception of one 
or two chickens out of a brood. 

In operating on the chickens, although one 
person can effect it, it is much easier done to 
have one to hold the tongue- of the chicken 



while the other passes the feather down its 
windpipe, and by having a small piece of mus- 
lin between the fingers, it will prevent the 
tongue from slipping, which it is apt to do, 
upon repeating the operation. 

Accompanying this, I send you drawings of 
the gape worms in their natural size, and as 
they appear when magnified. No. 1 are the 
male worms, and No. 2 the female; you will 
observe the heads of both male and female 
branch off in two trunks with suckers like 
leeches at the extremities of the trunks, one 
trunk longer and thinner than the other. The 
intestines extend from the branching of the 
trunks downwards towards the tail, and are 
perfectly apparent when magnified. The fe- 
male branches off like the roots of a tree at 
the tail, with intermediate tubes filled with 
small oval eggs. 

Yours, &c, 

C. F. Morton. 
Mill Farm, near Windsor, Orange Co., N. Y. 



For the Southern Planter. 

DR. VALENTINE'S ARTIFICIAL GUA- 
NO.— "THE OTHER SIDE OF THE 
SHIELD." 

Mr. Editor,— Last fall I obtained from Du- 
val of Richmond the ingredients for preparing 
half a ton of this so called fertilizer, and hav- 
ing carefully mixed them according to Valen- 
tine's recipe, about 1st October I sowed it on 
three acres of land, and harrowed it in with 
the wheat; on the adjacent parts of the field, 
all of it thin grey land, sowed one hundred 
pounds of Peruvian guano per acre. 

I have just threshed and delivered the 
wheat — the result was, less than four bushels 
per acre from the land sowed with the Artifi- 
cial guano, and nearly eight from that sowed 
with one hundred pounds of Peruvian. The 
whole field was much injured by the joint 
worm — while another field upon which I 
sowed two hundred pounds Peruvian Guano, 
per acre, yielded fifteen bushels per acre. 

B. H. Magrudsr. 

Glenmore, Albemarle, Aug. 2. 



Foi^the Southern Planter. 

BLOOD ON GRAPE VINES. 

Mr. Editor— Mr. Alex. Bruce, of Farm ville, 
has growing at his door one of the healthiest 
and most vigorous grape vines I ever saw, and 
the fruit mature very perfectly, and in abun- 
dance. He prunes, of course, pretty freely; 
but not as fully as others generally do. The 
sound and excellent condition of the vine and 
grapes is supposed to be owing to the use of 
beef's Hood, with the usual manures. I know 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



271 



that it would be impracticable to apply blood 
to a vineyard of any extent; but probably those 
who have a few vines might profitably collect 
the blood from beef and hog killings, and apply 
to the roots of the vine; and it may be that 
such an application, or that of the flesh of 
dead animals of any kind, might prevent the 
falling of the grapes, referred to by Major 
Yancey, in the August number of the Planter. 

W. 
Farmville, August 10, 1 853. 



CELERY. 



The production of good celery is a point well 
worthy the care of the gardener. Few vege- 
tables are more highly prized or require so 
much attention from the time the seed is sown 
till it is furnished to the table. The droughts 
of summer and the severe frosts of winter are 
alike injurious to it; and to insure a crop, the 
soil must be in the best condition. Moisture 
is essential to its cultivation, and a supply of 
well fermented manure or rich compost is 
one of the first conditions towards success. 
An open, free, loamy soil sufficiently rich in 
vegetable matter will suit it. Stiff tenacious 
clay is to be avoided, as it binds too much, 
and prevents the free development of the plant; 
such soil also induces canker, while free sandy 
loam, with a sufficient supply of well decom- | 
posed manure, will raise it, free from this. J 
As a large quantity of manuie must be sup- 
plied with the crop to insure its rapid growth, 
it is not essential that the soil should be pre- 
viously very rich, its physical condition is j 
more important. In choosing a piece of ground 
for celery it is advisable to take into conside- 1 
ration the nature of the crop that may follow, i 
so that the best advantage may be taken of 
the high cultivation generally applied to it. 
The ground where good celery has been raised j 
will be capable of producing any crop requir- 
ing highly manured soil, the following season. ' 
A very successful plan is adopted by some gar- ! 
deners to secure a shade for the young plants; 
they plant a row of peas or corn between the 
trenches, which is taken off the ground before 
the soil is required for earthing up. 

When the ground has been chosen, mark 
off a space of five feet in width, and open a j 
trench eighteen inches wide, throwing out the ' 
surface soil a spade deeper, spreading it over 
the ground equally. In the bottom of this 
trench deposit the manure or compost. Farm- 
yard manure, night soil, hog-pen manure, and 
Other well decomposed material, is the best for 
this vegetable, which depends for its perfec- 
tion on quick and luxuriant growth. This 
should be well incorporated with the soU and 
reduced to a fine state for the reception of the 
plants. Plant them in double rows in the 
trench at eight inches from plant to plant, and 
about four inches between the rows; the plants 



should be alternate in the rows. Care must 
be taken in removing the plants not to reduce 
the roots too much, they may be removed 
without being checked by lifting them with a 
garden trowel. The soil about the young 
plants should be made as fine and mellow as 
possible. The middle of July is quite soon 
enough to plant out the general crop of celery 
in this climate; they cannot endure a much 
longer summer, and by planting earlier nothing 
is gained. The soil must be frequently stirred 
to keep down weeds and admit the air. It is 
not advisable to earth up until the plants have 
attained a good size; as they do not keep well 
during the winter when they are earthed up 
too soon in the season. Very good celery is 
grown and blanched without earthing, until 
the final covering is put on for the winter. 
Such as is not required for use until the latter 
part of the season may be safely treated in 
this way, as it will be sufficiently blanched by 
being covered during winter. A portion ibr 
immediate use must be earthed up as soon as 
the plants attain a height of six or eight inches. 
This operation must be carefully managed, 
taking care to keep the soil from getting into 
the heart of the plant. The most certain me- 
thod is to fold the leaves closely together with 
one hand, while the soil is drawn up around 
them with the other. 

The first earthing is the most important. If 
this is properly attended to, the succeeding 
ones are not so likely to be mismanaged. The 
five feet space is used for the purpose of cover- 
ing up for the winter. Where such space is 
left, it is not necessary to remove the plants 
from the trench, as is sometimes done; but 
they may be covered up as they stand. The 
great danger is from rotting when covered up 
in this way, and to prevent this the soil must be 
made so compact as to prevent any water from 
entering. In a very severe season, boards are 
placed over the ridges. When the stalks are 
removed from the trench they are placed on 
the ground upright, and hanked up with dry 
soil to a sufficient depth to exclude the frost, 
and covered with straw or boards. If covered 
when dry they are not likely to rot, and are 
well blanched by the latter erTd of winter. 
That portion of the crop for early use may be 
secured in a separate trench, and may be de- 
posited in a dark part of the cellar. 

There are only two or three varieties of 
celery cultivated to any extent in this vicinity, 
of which Seymours' White Solid is the most 
useful. The Red Solid is cultivated to some 
extent, but is not found so suitable as the 
While, and is not so much used now as 
formerly. There is a great difference in the 
quality of seed depending upon the stock from 
which it is grown. It is a seed which disap- 
points many persons in not germinating rea- 
dily; a bed sown one week may come up 
freely, while another sown the following, from 
the same package, and on similar soil, may 
disappoint. Moisture in the soil is import- 
ant. — New York Agricullor. 



272 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



FARMING ABOUT NORFOLK. 
Extract of a letter received from Princess Anne. 

To Gen. W. H. Richardson, Richmond, Va. 

We are nearly through with the shipping of 
Our vegetable crops. 

The potato crop was not a very large one, 
owing to the drought; it is, nevertheless, a 
very remunerating one. Oiher crops, viz. 
peas, tomatoes, cucumbers; and fruits, straw- 
berries, &c. &c. have turned out well and paid 
handsomely. 

I cultivated no vegetables for sale, save the 
potato. The yield this year on my farm, is 
one-third less than last year. Last year I 
sold from eight acres, one thousand and thirty- 
live dollars worth of potaioes, and produced 
a second crop from the same land, worth at 
least half that sum. Have not quite finished 
digging my second crop, shall do so in a day 
or two, but am near enough done to form a 
pretty correct idea of the quanity produced. 
My crop will reach one thousand barrels, which 
will give me net, that is, clear of barrels, 
freight, commissions, &c. a little upwards of 
two thousand dollars. This is the product of 
thirty acres of land, the greater part of which 
land is already planied in a second crop, (corn,) 
and the balance will be planted in a few days 
in Irish potatoes and rutabaga turnips. 

The prospect for a corn crop, provided we 
can have it seasonable, is very good. There 
is some complaint about the oat crop, which 
is now being out, mine, however, is a magnifi- 
cent crop, and will be fully equal to any I have 
ever raised. 

I regret exceedingly that my own affairs 
have so engrossed my lime as to prevent my 
doing much for the State Agricultural Society. 
I hope, however, to be able to do much more 
than I have done. You may rest assured of 
one fact however, and that is, that agriculture 
lies near my heart, and will always command 
my best exertions. 

In great haste, 

Your obedient servant, 

* Edward H. Herbert. 

Level Green, July 14, 1853. 



USE OF TOBACCO IN ENGLAND. 

In 1851, 28,052,978 pounds of this nauseous 
weed was consumed in Great Britain. The 
revenue on this was 3s. per pound, or-£I,485,758! 
nearly $22,500,000! Ii seems that the use of 
tobacco in the United Kinedom is greatly on 
the increase, being in the last ten years more 
than twenty-five per cent, over the increase of 
population. Theentire tax of England, Wales 
and Scotland for the year 1851 was about 
jO,225,000. Hence the revenue accruing from 
tobacco places in the coffers of &ue£n Victo- 
ria a sum nearly equal to half the taxes of the 



kingdom. King James I. wrote a look against 
the use of tobacco, in which he describes 
smoking as a "custom loaihsome to the eye, 
hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dan- 
gerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking 
fumes thereof, nearest resembling the horrible 
stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." — 
Indiana Farmer. 



From the Farmer and Planter. 

STRAW AS FEED FOR MULES. 

In the fall of 1345, whilst engaged in 
seeding wheat, I had the racks in my mule 
stables filled with good wheat straw at 
night, in addition to their full feed of corn 
fodder, thinking they .would partake of it 
slightly, but, to my surprise, the straw was 
consumed almost entirely every morning. 
By degrees I had the feed of corn fodder 
diminished every night, and the feed of 
straw increased. After the wheat crop 
was seeded, the feed of corn fodder was 
slopped entirely, and wheat straw given 
three limes a day with a regular feed of 
corn or hominy. I expected my mules to 
decline at first, but in this I was happily 
disappointed, for they continued in good 
order, although engaged in hauling marl 
and ploughing, during the entire winter. 
They were kept on wheat straw until the 
middle of March, and then the corn fodder 
was again given. I could perceive no al- 
teration in their condition after the straw 
was discontinued and the feeding with 
fodder commenced. It has been my prac- 
tice since that winter to commence the 
feeding of wheat straw to my work mules 
about the first of November, and discon- 
tinue its use about the first or middle of 
March — and after using it for seven win- 
ters, I can honestly recommend it as a 
winter feed for mules. Do not lessen the 
feed of corn and blame the wheat straw, 
but continue the usual feed of corn, and 
give the wheat straw in place of corn 
fodder: it will be cheaper even to increase 
the feed of corn a little. Should your 
mules refuse it at first, do not be discou- 
raged, but give a little fodder -and little 
wheat straw at first, and diminish the 
amount of fodder gradually. The best 
mode of feeding wheat straw is to run it 
through a good strawcutler,then to moisten 
it with a very weak brine, and mix the feed 
of hominy with it. In stacking or housing 
wheat straw, it should be sprinkled with 
strong brine as it/is put up. Farmers of 
the south — especially you who have to buy 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



273 



northern hay, try this plan, you can hut 
discard it ii' you dislike it. I sincerely 
hope, Messrs. Editors, that none of your 
subscribers are in the habit of buying 
northern hay. 

Thomas E. Blount. 
Sussex, Va. 



i'/ v *a- 




THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, SEPTEMBER, 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. 

U» Subscriptions may begin with any No. 

i^fNo paper will be discontinued, until all 
arrearages are paid, except at the option of 
the Publisher. 

O* Office on Twelfth, between Main and 
Cary Streets. » 



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



VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 

The State Agricultural Society is making 
very good headway in its preparations for an. 
Exhibition. We learn, for we have not been 
able to go to the ground, that the grading, 
buildings and fixtures are in a very forward 
state of progress, and tfiat every thing will be 
ready in time. With the public-spirited gen- 
tlemen who have charge of the work, Mr. 
Giles and Col. Tompkins, our Chief Marshal, 
we could not anticipate any thing else. Rich- 
mond has been liberal, her citizens generous, 
(one of them, Mr. Ballard of the Exchange 
Hotel, has given Jive hundred dollars — wi^l not 
the farmers encourage his house 1) an', the 
Executive Committee have worked like Lprses 
to have every thing of the right sort and rjjady. 
Shall all this money and work be thrown 
away; or will it meet with a response -from 
our farmers'? They have the stock to show, 
the crops to report, the sense to write essays. 
Will they have the spirit to move? will they 
have pride enough to rival their neighbors on 
both sides, North and South? or shall this be 
cited as another instance of the apathy and 
indolence of Virginia? We trust not. We 
will not believe it. We shall expect the far- 
mers to take some trouble to exhibit them- 
selves, their talents, their wives, their slock 
and their crops. Now, if ever, they must do 
it. Now or never, we may say, for if this ef- 
fort fails, who will make the next? 



POSTAGE ON THE PLANTER, 
When paid quarterly or yearly in advance. 
To any part of the United States \\ cents 
per quarter, or 6 cents per annum. 



WARNING. 
Those of our subscribers who are in arrears 
must not find fault with us if they find their 
bills in the hands of collectors for the full 
amount of our terms, SI 25 per annum. We 
canr.oi afford to print a paper at SI a year and 
pay tweny per cent, for collection. 



NOTICE TO EXHIBITORS. 

We would call the attention of persons de- 
signing to exhibit livestock at the Fair of the 
Virginia Stale Agricultural Society in Novem- 
ber, to the 6th Article of the Rules and Regu- 
lations published in the June number of this 
Journal, which is in the following words: 

"All persons who intend to exhibit horses, 
cattle, sheep or swine; or who intend to offer 
slock for sale, should notify the Secretary of 
such intention at least ten days before the 
commencement of the Exhibition, and furnish 
a list and description of such stork, in order 
that suitable arrangements may be made for 
their accommodation." 

The accommodations for this depajtment 
will be extensive and commodious, but as th.ere 



274 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



is reason to expect a large number of animals, 
it may become necessary to enlarge them, and 
hence the importance of a timely communi- 
cation from exhibitors, such as the above re- 
gulation proposes, that in the event of such a 
necessity, the materials may be procured and 
the additional accommodations erected before 
the opening of the Exhibition.- 

The Police, under the charge of the Chief 
Marshal and his aids, -Will be so regulated as 
to relieve persons, arriving with their stock or 
other articles, from all trouble or embarrass- 
ment 1 An Assistant Marshal, with a compe- 
tent Spree of select men, will be stationed at 
eachj'of the depots and public landings, to 
take'them in charge and conduct them to their 
proper destination. 

T£e Secretary will register them, and issue 
card > to be attached, bearing the number and 
description as entered in his office. A pamphlet 
copy'of the Rules and Regulations, Premium 
List, with the Judges, &c, is now ready for 
distribution, and will be sent by the Recording 
Secretary to persons who may apply to him 
for them. The premium list has also been 
published in hand-bill form for general cir- 
culation. 



REAPERS. 



On another page will be found the practical 
and judicious remarks of Mr. Booth of Notto- 
way on reaping machines. They prove alike 
his candor, his skill, and his good temper. 

In the March No. of the Planter for 1852, 
Vol. XII, p. 85, we stated an opinion which 
we have since repeated, that the price of reap- 
ers was a great deal too high, either for the 
work they did, or the materials their structure 
required. 

Having had no opportunity of inspecting 
any of these machines, and having but little 
knowledge of mechanical principles, in fact, 
constructiveness, to borrow a friend's phrase, 
is a hollow, not a bump with us, we arrived at 
our conclusion in a roundabout way. Taking 
the threshing machine as a datum of compari- 
son, and arguing from the axiom that a labor 
saving machine, that is a machine to save hu- 
man labor, should do for each horse the work 
of five men, and estimating the common price 
of threshing machines as having by competi- 
tion and the cost of making, been graded to 



the proper price in each community, we con- 
cluded that a good reaper could be afforded, 
at a handsome profit to the manufacturer, for 
$75. We have now the best means at hand 
for establishing the exact correctness of our 
conclusion. Mr. M'Cormick, not long since, 
made application to Congress for a renewal of 
the letters patent granted to him on the 21st 
day of June, 1834. Against that application 
certain citizens of New York presented a re- 
monstrance. In that remonstrance the ques- 
tion of profit to the inventor was argued; and 
it was shewn pp. 14, 15, 16, that Mr. M'Cor- 
mick had received on his machines a profit of 
$302,275. As to cost of construction, Harvey 
A. Blakesley, Mr. M'Cormick's book-keeper, 
testified under oath, that "the cost of the manu- 
facture of reapers is thirty-six dollars;" and Mr. 
Dorman, Mr. M'Cormick's partner, testified 
that the cost of their machines, including rent 
of establishment, was about $37 each, so that 
$75 would have left upon each machine a 
profit of one hundred per cent. 



"We take the following article in regard to 
rape from the Farm Journal, that our joint 
vjorm readers may decide if they will make 
trial of it as a substitute for wheat. As many 
of us have lands on which wheat will lodge 
when it has a 'fair chance, we do not see why 
it should not be grown upon such soils— a trial 
on a small scale can, at all events, do no harm, 
and may be the means of introducing among 
us a crop which has a threefold advantage as 
a seed bearer, a sheep feeder, and a manurer. 

RAPE OR COLZA.— BRASSICA CAM- 
PESTRIS. 

Rape Seed is not only an object. of the 
greatest importance and value, wherever it is 
raised for the sake of the seed, but it is like- 
wise extremely valuable as green food for cat- 
tle and sheep, in the fall or spring, or cured 
for hay for winter. 

The Colza or Rape is a plant which requires 
by preference, a strong soil, although it will 
come well on good sand or gravelly loams, be- 
sides careful cultivation. 

In Belgium, and the Northern parts of 
France, where it is raised in great abundance, 
it enters into the regular rotation on all good 
heavy loams, and is thought to be one of the 
best preparations for wheat, owing to the till- 
age of the soil, the manure applied for it, and 
the care taken to keep it clear of weeds. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



275 



The ground should be ploughed in Ihe fall 
and in the spring, and again a short time be- 
fore sowing, and well manured. Then the seed 
should be sown very thin in drills, and har- 
rowed in in June or July. As the plants come up, 
they should be weeded and thinned out, a foot 
apart. A superior mode is to sow the seed 
broadcast, on a good rich seed bed, prepared 
on purpose. When the stubble of any grain 
crop has been cleared off by the harrow, the 
land well manured and ploughed to a good 
depth, the plants are brought out, and set' out 
as cabbage plants are. This can be done the 
latter end of September, or in October, either 
by the dibble and by hand, setting them out in 
every respect like the plants of cabbage, in 
rows two to two and a half feet wide, and one 
foot in the row; or to save much time, labor 
and trouble, they can be put in furrows one 
foot apart, after the plough, taking care lo put 
them upright in the furrow, and to cover them 
by the return of the plough, leaving the leaves 
above ground, and after the piece is finished, 
going over it to dress all plants that might be 
covered too deep, which can be done by a man 
walking along the furrows and pressing his 
foot against the plant, or with the hoe. The 
intervals between the rows should get a hoe- 
ing, or the cultivator run in, or a small plough 
sent through, to give them an earthing up, 
killing the weeds at the same time, which 
should be doneas late in the fall as the weather 
will permit, in November or December. Thus 
they will remain all winter without injury from 
the frost. 

In spring, they should have the cultivator 
run between them again, and weeded, or ano- 
ther slight earthing given them, which will 
greatly strengthen the plants. 

The quantity of seed to be sown, should be 
from five to eight pounds per acre; and this 
should be sown in the bed or in the rows evenly. 
It is a great advantage, that the cost, of the 
seed is so trifling in proportion to the value of 
the crop. 

It is ready to cut and reap when the upper 
branches turn brown, which will be in June or 
July. Be sure not to let it be too ripe, for if 
the pods be too dry at reaping, they will shed 
the seed in the field, and cause much loss. 

It can be reaped in the same manner as 
•wheat, but the handfuls should be laid singly 
and light upon the stubble, behind the reapers, 
and thus it should lie without stirring, until it 
is ready to thresh out, which will be in a short 
time, particularly as generally at that time, \ 
the weather is dry and warm. 

When it is ready and perfectly dry, prepare 
a floor in the middle of the field, by levelling 
the ground, on which should be spread a large 
rnusdin cloth, twenty to thirty feet square; 
spread the rows round, and thresh round. 
One man or a boy to spread before the thresher, 
and another to turn; or it can be threshed by 
a threshing machine, in this case taking care, 
if the seed is intended to be threshed on the 
barn floor, to remove the plants on a large ' 



sheet spread on the wagon, to prevent loss of 
seed, by the jolting and shaking of the wagon. 

The seed can then be stored in a dry and 
airy granary until it is sent to be sold, or 
crushed. 

The Rape in good ground, well treated, does 
not fail to mate strong stems and succulent 
leaves, so that by the middle or latter end of 
November, it will be strong enough to bear^ 
pasturing; then turn in the sheep, but take 
care thev do not eat but just the leaves, which, 
they will crop first, not suffering them to touch 
the stalks, as that would be injurious to the 
plants. This will form one of the best pas- 
tures for your sheep, if you keep any, and will 
make them fat and in good condition; or the 
leaves can be gathered for hogs or cattle, but 
[ do not advise by any means to turn in horned 
cattle or hogs, for the damage they will do to 
the stalks. The only safe stock to turn into 
Rape, in my opinion, being sheep. 

The produce of an acre of Rape, will be 
according to the condition of the land, manage- 
ment and care, from twenty bushels upwards 
to fifty, which will command from three and a 
half to four dollars a bushel, in Philadelphia, 
New York, Boston, or Baltimore. The yield 
will be materially affected by the care given, 
to it in threshing it properly. A very full crop 
will be from fifty to sixty bushels, and upwards 
of eighty bushels have been and are raised fre- 
quency in Flanders. 

Great advantage may be derived from culti- 
vating it in the following manner: 

Take half an acre of good land, or make it 
so by manuring, and work it a little better 
than ordinary land, or as you should your gar- 
den. At mid-summer, (June or July) sow on 
this half acre, thirty pounds, or two pecks of 
Rape seed — this will produce a plentiful crop, 
as few grains will miss; let them grow until 
the middle of September; take eight or ten 
acres of wheat or oats, or early corn; plough 
the stubble, and let it lie a month or six weeks 
to rot, then plough it again; if the land has 
been manured previously, it will thus be in 
good condition. 

Begin at one side, plough a furrow, set the 
plants in the furrow, at the distance of a foot, 
leaning against the side of the furrow ; set the 
plough and make another furrow, at two feet 
distant from the first, and in returning it will 
cover the first furrow planted, and continue so 
until the whole field is set. 

If the land, as I suppose it is, is good, i. e. 
has been properly manured for the previous 
crops, wheal, oats, &c. there will be no occa- 
sion to manure it now, but if not, have your 
manure laid in heaps, and throw a little at the 
root of every plant, a handful will be suffi- 
cient; or, which is preferable, by throwing a 
handful of guano, previously well mixed with 
four times its bulk of earth or a good handful 
of any good chemical fertilizer, at the foot of 
every plant, the produce will be large, and the 
seed of good quality; in transplanting it will 
tell all the better in the crop, to roll the roots 



276 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



of the plants in plaster of Paris, or ashes, or 
both mixed. 

When the Rape is reaped, then sow turnips; 
thus three profitable crops can be got out in 
twd years from the same piece'of land, and 
the two last will improve your land. 

As observed above, Rape ontland makes one 
of the best preparations for wheat, but in this 
latter instance, I prescribe a crop of turnips 
after it, if following probably wheat, or at 
least a grain crop. 

The above is the Vianagement of Winter 
Rape; there is another variety, called Spring 
ox March Rape — this is cultivated and handled 
in every respect as the former, with this dif- 
ference, that it is sown early in the spring, 
March or April; hence its name, Spring or 
March Rape or Colza. 

It does not yield quite so large a produce as 
the Winter Rape, but as it can be sown in 
spring, and harvested at the latter end of the 
summer, or early fall of the same year, it thus 
has great claims to our attention and care. It 
requires the same quantity of seed as the 
Winter Rape. 

The Rape plant is not only of great value 
in the economy of the farm, as one of the best 
plants for fodder, as after threshing the seeds 
out, the plant is valuable, and yields a large 
quantity of nutritious fodder, relished by all 
kinds of stock, but it is as invaluable as a 
plant yielding one of the best and most prolific 
of all oleaginous seeds, that is to be considered 
and employed, and must attract our most 
earnest and diligent attention, besides the cul- 
tivation of it being, as observed above, a good 
preparation of the land for cereal or grain 
crops. 

The Rape is likewise extremely valuable 
for the residue or cake left after expressing oil 
from the seed, which is used extensively for 
feeding and fattening cattle. It forms like- 
wise one of the most powerful manures, being 
extensively used in England and other coun- 
tries, and the effects of it are as immediate 
and powerful as the best and most concen- 
trated manures hitherto known. It is as im- 
mediate and powerful as guano, with this dif- 
ference, that it benefits after crops more than 
guano does. As a feed for cattle, it cannot be 
surpassed in its fattening qualities; pound for 
pound it has a greater effect lhan the fresh 
seed itself. 

It is in the manufacture of oil from its seeds, 
that it deserves to have a distinguished place 
among the profitable crops, profitable not only 
from the pecuniary advantages derived di- 
rectly from its cultivation, for in supposing that 
only a minimum crop of twenty bushels should 
be raised, still, as the price is generally nearer 
and sometimes over $4, than $3 \; such a low 
crop even at $70 gross per acre, is certainly 
no despicable figure, when taken into account 
that the value of this fodder will go nearly to 
pay the expense of its cultivation, but the ma- 
nufacture of its seeds into one of the best and 
most valuable oils, gives it claim to great pre- 



eminence, by the great services it thus renders 
to agriculture, and to manufactures. 

The Rape Oil is one of the most valuable 
oils known in the arts of manufactures; at 
once serviceable for burning, eating, fulling, 
for the tanner, for the soap boiler, for ma- 
chinery, &c. &c. 

This oil used for machinery, properly pre- 
pared, does not gum as other.oils do. 

Already has the attention of government 
been directed to it, to supply our light-houses 
on the coast, with a good burning oil, as fish 
oil is constantly raising in price, and whale 
and sperm fish getting scarcer every year, and 
particularly should it happen, in the natural 
course of events, that the price of fish oils gets 
affected by the political changes which occur 
often (against all calculations) of such a na- 
ture as very materially to affect and enhance 
the price of all articles and produce which we 
derive through our navigation, and which 
would particularly affect the price of oils, and 
raise them. 

In the article of oils, the prices would rise im- 
measurably, not having as yet established the 
cultivation of plants, to supply us with this, 
an article of the first necessity. 

We may then, and that at a profit of mani- 
fest advantage, establish among us the cul- 
tivation of a most valuable plant, for which the 
soil and climate of this country are favorable. 

Any one desirous to make a trial with one 
acre or more, can obtain the seeds, either of 
the Spring or Winter Rape, from me, either of 
D. Landreth, 65, Chestnut street; C. B. Rogers, 
29, Market street; or Paschall Morris & Co., 
380, Market street, Philadelphia, at twenty-five 
cents per pound; at either of which places I 
may be addressed. 
.Any other information as regards the mani- 
pulation, the produce in gallons, or bushels, 
the fitting up an oil mill, and process of manu- 
facturing the oil from the seeds, I will impart 
to applicants for a moderate and reasonable 
compensation. 

As has been shown, the raising of Rape 
Seed is very profitable when carefully attended 
to; the manufacturing the seed into oil is not 
less so, so that to a certain degree, combining 
the two together, can not fail to be highly re- 
munerative, and as worthy the attention of the 
capitalist as any agricultural product with 
which we are acquainted. 

F. A. Nants. 

P. S.— I will in a short time prepare a short 
treatise on Madder, of which I will have seed 
for sale next fall. F. A. N. 



SUPER-PHOSPHATE OF LIME. 

We invite attention to the advertisement of 
C. B. De Burg's Super-Phosphate of Lime, 
which can be had of R. W. Allen, at 189 and 
191, Water street, New York City. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



277 



AN EXCUSE. 

To those who think that an editor should 
■write an essay for each number of his paper, 
and prefer, as some do, what he can write to 
something better of another's which he can 
select, the Editor begs leave to say that he 
has been very busy in another agricultural 
capacity, working as hard, and doing, he 
hopes, as much good, as if he had penned 
every line in the Planter. 



DE BOW'S REVIEW FOR JULY. 

This number introduces the XV volume. It 
is printed in an entirely new style, in large 
type and on superior paper. It is published at 
New Orleans, at $5 per annum. Embracing 
two volumes of about seven hundred pages 
each. The present address of the editor is 
Washington city. 

TAELE OF CONTENTS. 

Art. I.— Slavery Extension, by Dr. Van 
Evne, Washington, D. C. 

Art. II.— The East India Islands, 

Art. III.— Valley of the Amazon, by Lieut. 
Maury. 

Art. IV.— Resources and Progress of Phila- 
delphia, by Job R. Tyson, LL. D., of Phila- 
delphia. 

Art. V.— The Great West, by J. W. Scott, 
of Ohio. 

Art. VI.— Free Trade and Other Things, by 
Dr. Francis Lieber, of S. C. 

Art. VII.— Tennessee, Past and Present. 

Art. VIII.— Improvement of the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers. 

Art. IX.— Mississippi Valley Coal Fields. 

Art. X —The Cotton Plant. 

Art. XL— The Progress of France. 

Art. XII.— The Glueen's Dream; a Sequel 
to Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

Art. XIII.— The City of Savannah. 

Art. XIV— Editorial Department. 

The first fourteen volumes of this Review, 
are condensed info-three, entitled "Industrial 
Resources of the South and West," price ten 
dollars— postage free. Every Southern man 
ought to take a copy. 



"Chide not severely, nor punish hastily." 



PROGRESS OF RAILROADS. 

At the commencement of the present year 
there were completed in the United States 
13,227 miles of railroad— 13,000 more were 
under construction, and 7,000 under survey — 
making a total of 33,000 miles. The cost, 
call ins the average cost per mile, $30,000, would 
be $990,000,000. This is a sum greater than 
the value of all the live stock in the Union, 
by the last census, thirteen times greater than 
the total expenses of the United States govern- 
ment for the last year, and equal to about one- 
fitih part of the cash value of all the farms in 
the United States according to the last census. 

The Erie railroad, with its furniture, is offi- 
cially staled to have cost $30,000,000. It is 
446 miles long, and including double tracks, 
side tracks, &c, has 701 miles of rails. There 
are engaged upon it 140 locomotives, 131 pas- 
senger and baggage cars, and 1,885 freight 
cars. The annual wear and tear of locomo- 
tives alone is stated by the President to be no 
less than $311,311 16. 

Railroads in Virginia. — The roads now 
completed in this State amount to about 6C0 
miles; and 610 miles more are in progress. 
When all are completed, we venture to say 
that every acre of arable land along their 
whole extent will be doubled in value; and 
thus, so far as the State is concerned, be prac- 
tically paid for before the starting of the first 
locomotive. — Richmond Dispatch. 



WARWICK & BARKSDALE'S MILLS. 

The brands of flour manufactured in Rich- 
mond have long been celebrated in ourdomes- 
tic and foreign wheat markets for their purity 
and superiority. They are but little affected 
by changes of climate, and readily command 
the highest market prices. One of these 
brands, termed the Gallego, is manufaciured 
by Messrs. Warwick & Barksdale, in their 
immense mills, fronting on the lower side of 
the basin. 

The present main wheat mill was erected 
in 1847, immediately after the burning of the 
old mill, and is 1G4 feet long by 94 feet deep. 
Height from the basement facing the canal, 90, 
and from the lower pavement, 118 feet. It 
contains seven distinct stories. To the left of 
the mill is a large store-house, and to the 
right, still connected with it, is the corn mill. 
This main mill contains 20 pair of Burr mill- 
stones for grinding, and 4 pair for cleaning 
and smutting wheat. They are turned by a 
volume of water from the basin, equrl to 225 
horse power. From lf)00 to 1,200 hurrels of 
flourcan be turned out in 24 hours; and, ihrough 
the medium of some improvements now being 
made in the mill during the present slack time, 
it is expected that when work commences 
again upon the new crop, say in a couple of 
weeks, that a still larger quantity of flour will 



278 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



be ground out and barrelled daily. During 
the year, ending the 1st of July, 1853, between 
700,000 and 800,000 bushels of wheat were 
ground, making about 140,000 barrels of No. 1 
quality of Gallego flour. Estrnating the value 
of the flour at the average market prices, $6, 
$6 50 and $7, the total value of the flour would 
amount to nearly a million of dollars. Nearly 
one hundred men, including draymen, are em- 
ployed during the business season about the 
mill. 

Last season Messrs. W. & B. purchased a 
building located about a mile and a half up 
the canal, and set to work seven pair of Burr 
mill-stones, upon wheat, turning out about 250 
barrels on a good working day. Some 20,000 
barrels was the result of the labor at this mill 
up to the 1st of July. New improvements are 
also being made to this mill for future use. 
This would augment the amount of the finest 
quality of flour milled last year to 160,000 
barrels. — Richmond Dispatch. 



WASHING BY STEAM. 

Many of the mechanical inventions and 
improvements of the present day are of 
practical utility in the every-day business 
of life, so that the labor of individuals or 
of families is materially diminished. One 
of this character is that denoted by our 
title. 

The following account is a description 
of the wash-room of the St. Nicholas Ho- 
tel of this city, from a personal examination 
by the editor of the Tribune: 

"A strong wooden cylinder, four feet 
diameter and four and a half feet long, is 
mounted on a frame, so as to be driven by 
a band on one end of the shaft. This 
shaft is hollow, with pipes so connected 
with it that hot or cold water, or steam, 
can be introduced at the option of the per- 
son in charge. The cylinder being half 
full of water, a door at one end is opened, 
and three hundred to five hundred pieces 
of clothing are thrown in, with a suitable 
quantity of soap, and an alkaline fluid 
which assisO in dissolving the dirt and 
bleaching the fabric, so that clothes after 
being washed in this manner increase in 
■whiteness without having the texture in- 
jured. 

"When the cylinder is charged, it is put 
in motion by a smalj steam engine, and 
made to revolve 6lowly, first one way a 
few revolutions and then the other, by 
which the clothes are thrown from side to 
side, in and out and through the water. Du- 
ring this operation the steam is let through 
a double-mouthed pipe, which has one 



mouth in and one mouth out of water; the 
steam entering the water through the im- 
meresed end and escaping through the 
other, by which means it is made to pass 
through the clothes, completely cleansing 
them in fifteen or twenty minutes. The 
steam is now cut off, and the hot water 
drawn through the waste pipe, and then 
cold water introduced, which rinses the 
articles in a few more turns of the cylinder. 
They are now suffered to drain until the 
operator is ready to take them out, when 
they are put into the drying machine, which 
runs like a millstone; and its operation 
may be understood by supposing that mill- 
stone to be a shallow tub, with wire net- 
work sides, against which the clothes being 
placed, it is put in rapid motion; the air 
passing in a strong current into the top 
and botlom of the tub and out of the sides, 
carries all the moisture with it into the 
outside case, from whence it runs away. 
The length of time requisite to dry the 
clothes depends upon the rapidity of the 
revolving tub. If il should run three thou- 
sand revolutions in a minute, five to seven 
minutes would be quite sufficient. When 
there is not sufficient steam to run the dryer 
with that speed, it requires double that. 
In washing and drying, there is nothing 
to injure the fabric. Ladies' caps and 
laces are put up in netting bags, and are 
not rubbed by hand or machine to chafe 
or tear them in the least, but are cleansed 
most perfectly. 

"It can readily be imagined what a long 
line of wash-tubs would be required to 
wash five thousand pieces a day, and what 
a big clothes-yard to dry them in; while 
here the work is done by four persons, who 
only occupy part of a basement room, the 
other part being occupied by the mangle 
and ironing and folding tables. Adjoining 
are the airing frames, which are hung with 
clothes, and then shoved into a room, steam 
pipe heated, when they are completely 
dried in a few minutes. 

"Small Family Machines.— Almost the 
first thought, after witnessing die operation 
of this machine, was, can washing be done 
upon the same principle in small families? 
To our inquiries upon this point, we have 
received the following satisfactory infor- 
mation: 

"For common family use, hand machines 
are made to cost from forty dollars to fifty 
dollars, with which a woman can wash 
fifty pieces at a lime, and complete five 
hundred in a day without laboring severely. 
For the purpose of washing, without driv- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



279 



ing the machinery by steam, a very small 
boiler will be sufficient. It is not necessary 
to have a head of water, as that can be 
found in the cylinder, which can be turned 
by horse or any other convenient power. 
The plan of cleansing clothes by steam is 
not a new one, but it is contended by the in- 
ventor that his process is an improvement 
upon all heretofore applied to that purpose." 
The washing of this hotel varies in 
amount from three thousand to five thou- 
sand pieces a day. It is all done by one 
man and three women, with less work for 
each than two dozen pieces in the ordi- 
nary mode of hand-rubbing or by wash- 
ing-boards. 



CHLOROFORM FOR BEES. 

Mr. D. Smith, in a letter to the Edin- 
burgh Courant.thus describes hisdiscovery 
of "Chloroforming Bees:" — "The quantity 
of Chloroform required for an ordinary 
hive is the sixth part of an ounce; a very 
large hive may take nearly a quarter of 
an ounce. My mode of operation is as fol- 
lows: I set down a table opposite to, and 
about four feet distant from, the hive; on 
the table I spread a thick linen cloth; in 
the centre of the table I place a small shal- 
low breakfast plate, which I cover with a 
piece of wire gauze, to prevent the bees 
coming in immediate contact with the chlo- 
roform. I now quietly and cautiously lift 
the hive from the beard on which it is 
standing, set it down on the top of the ta- 
ble, keeping the plate in the centre; cover 
the hive closely up with cloths, and in 
twenty minutes or so the bees are not only 
sound asleep, but, contrary to what I have 
seen when they are suffocated with sulphur, 
not one is left among the combs; the whole 
of them are lying helpless on the table. 
You now remove what honey you think fit, 
replace the hive in its old stand, and the 
bees, as they recover, will return to their 
domicil. A bright, calm, sunny day is the 
best, and you should commence your ope- 
rations in the morning, before many of 
them are abroad." 



TO DESTROY UNDER-BRUSH. 

"What ia the best time to cut under- 
brush, &c?" In the June number bf the 
Farmer the above question is proposed by 
-A Subscriber," to which I propose to give 



an answer, combining both a little experi- 
ence and a little theory. Having been 
brought up on a farm, I used 1o hear much 
said by farmers in regard to the "best 
time" for cutting bushes, &c, and remem- 
ber well the many uncertainties that ex- 
isted, and the various opinions given on 
the subject. Some recommend to cut them 
at one season, some at another. Some re- 
gard the "moon," others the "signs," &c. 
I also remember that the same kind of un- 
der-brush, if cut at one season, would start 
again and grow luxuriantly; but, if cut at 
another, would be completely "used up." 
I have also within the last few years, had 
opportunity to notice the same facts; and 
the conclusion to which I have arrived is, 
that different shrubs or bushes, trees, &c, 
may be cut at different seasons of the year. 
Some are killed by cutting as early as the 
first of July; others by the first of August; 
and so on till October or even November. 
The rule is this: "Cut any plant, or shrub, 
about the time that it has done growing 
for the season, and its destruction is almost 
certain." If cut before this time, it will 
generally start again the next year. The 
exceptions are few. So much for the facts, 
now for the theory. ft 

1st. In the spring of the year, all roots 
are vigorous. Hence, if a tree or shrub 
be cut at this time, or while in full growth, 
the root will send forth a new set of shoots. 
The exceptions are — 1st, Evergreens gen- 
erally, as pine, hemlock, spruce, &c. 2d. 
Those that have a copious flow of sap in 
the spring, as the maple, birch, &c. Yet, 
even some of these will start again if cut 
soon after the buds have opened; i. e. after 
the spring flow of sap has ceased; except 
in the case of old or large trees, in which 
the root appears not sufficiently vigorous, 
or the evaporation from the new stump too 
rapid to allow of the formation of new 
shoots. 

2d. In autumn, when a shrub or tree has 
done growing for the season, the active 
energies of the root cease, being, perhaps, 
somewhat exhausted by its summer action. 
If then, the bush or tree be cut after it has 
done growing, but while the stem and 
leaves are fresh and full of sap, the vital 
force of the root will rarely be sufficient to 
cause a new growth; but if left till the fo- 
liage is dead or dying, ihe energies of the 
root are restored by the return of the sap, 
and are ready for action again as soon as 
the season of growth shall return. Hence, 
too early or too late cutting will be equally 
unsuccessful. 



280 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Cut your under-brush, then, at the time 
abovespecified and it will rarelystartagain. 
If it doosj the growth will appear stinted 
or sickly", and soon die of its own accord, 
or a second cutting at the proper time will 
insure success. The same rule applies to 
all other plants, as Canada thistles, milk- 
weeds, &c, &c, with greater or less cer- 
tainty, according to the greater or less vi- 
tal force, or tenacity of life, peculiar to the 
root of each kind of vegetable. 

The '-proper time" can easily be deter- 
mined by observing whether new leaves 
continue to appear at the end of the pro- 
minent branches. _ When the end leaves 
are of full size, and a bud is seen at the 
end of the branch, then (or soon after) is 
your lime to cut. If deferred long beyond 
this time, or till the leaves begin to turn 
yellow, or fall, cutting will be of little use, 
as the root will be "strong" for a new 
start on the opening of a new spring. — Cfe- 
nesee Farmer. 



SOILING CATTLE. 

In an extract r rom a sketch of the life of 
Josiah GluiQcy. /rii'.enfor [he Massachusetts 
Ploughman. 

"Between the years 1813 and 1821," 
says Mr. Q,uincy, "I managed my farm, 
according to my own judgment, with sa- 
tisfactory success." From the nature of 
his farm, he was early led to practice the 
soiling of his cattle. By "soiling," he 
says, I understand "the keeping cattle in 
the barn and feeding them with green food 
during the summer months, allowing them, 
daily, only a few hours' liberty of a yard, 
instead of feeding them in pastures." His 
farm being smooth and free from stone, he 
could easily practice this system, which is 
European in its origin. European writers 
maintained that six distinct advantages 
were to be attained by such practice, over 
pasturing cattle in the summer viz: "it 
saved land, it saved fencing, it economized 
fuel, it kept the cattle in better condition 
and greater comfort, it produced more milk, 
it increased immensely the quantity and 
quality of the manure." Mr. Q,uincy thinks 
that the great profit of the system is the 
abundance of the manure which it insures, 
of the best quality at the cheapest rate. 

Mr. Q,uincy wrote and published two 
essays on the subject of soiling, which 
appeared in the "Repository," Vol. VI, at 
ifie request of the Trustees of the Massa- 



chusetts Agricultural Sociely. A later 
essay on the same subject he published 
last year, which was communicated to the 
Trustees of the Norfolk Agricultural So- 
ciety. In these essays he developed the 
system of the soiling of cattle, and gives 
his own experience and success in his 
practice of it for many years. Under this 
system, he has kept from thirty t') thirty- 
five milch cows since 1847, when he re- 
sumed the management of his farm, after 
submitting it, from necessary public labors, 
to the superintendence of others lor about 
twenty-five years. 

Among the advantages of this system, 
he has found that one acre "soiled from," 
will produce as much as three acres pas-, 
tured, that it renders all interior fencea 
useless — that cattle will eat in the stall 
what they reject in the field, that they have 
a more regular supply of food, and a shade 
and greater protection from flies, dogs, etc., 
while eating it, and that he has a full equi- 
valent for all the labor and expense of 
raising, cutting and bringing in the food, 
feeding, currying and other care of the 
cattle, from the increased quantity and va- 
lue of the manure. 

It has been objected to this mode of 
keeping milch cows, that want of exercise 
must affect injuriously the health of the 
animal. To this, European writers, some 
of whom have kept in this way large herds, 
reply, that they "never had one sick, or 
one die, or one'miscarry," in consequence 
of it. "After more than eight years' pur- 
suance of the same practice," says Mr. 
Quincy, "my experience justifies me in 
uniting my testimony to theirs on this 
point." 

To the objection that the milk will not 
be as good through want of exercise on 
the part of the cows, the subject of this 
sketch replies as follows: 

"Nothing can have less foundation in 
fact. Cows, in the pasture, unless under 
some temporary excitement, use very little, 
comparatively no exercise. They usually 
walk a short time slowly, collect their food 
and lie down to ruminate. The difference 
between this habit of theirs and the exer- 
cise obtained by walking about an hour or 
two hours in the day in a yard, and being 
employed in rubbing themselves against 
walls or posts, is little if any less than they 
get in the pasture. This exercise (a daily, 
thorough currying being added in their 
stalls') is quite as efficient to produce a 
healthful action of the system as any ex- 
ercise, as it is called, in the pasture." 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



281 



As to the quantity of land to be culti- 
vated, he says, according to my experience, 
one square rod of land, of rich loam in 
high tilth, in erass, oats, barley or Indian 
corn, is enough for the support of a cow a 
day, if cut and delivered to her in the barn. 
To provide for all emergencies of drought, 
etc., it is safe to cultivate one and a half 
square rods for each cow. From these 
data it can be easily estimated how much 
land should be cultivated to support a cow, 
or a herd of cows for a season. 

To produce a sufficient quantity or suc- 
cession of succulent foods, he gives the 
following directions. 

"Sow as early in April as the state of 
the land will permit, oats, at the rate of 
four bushels to the acre. About the 20th 
of the same month, sow in like manner 
either oats or barley; proceed in the same 
mode early in May. Between the 10th 
and loth of May, sow Indian corn in drills; 
about the 25th of May, sow corn again; 
and again, the 5th of June. After this 
date, sow barley. 

"The oats sowed in April will be ready 
to cut for 'soiling' between the 1st and 5th 
of July, and will usually remain succulent 
until the 12ih or 15th of this month. The 
other crops will ripen and be ready at such 
times th'-it the cattle will have a supply of 
food until early in November, at which 
time, and often before, the tops of roots, 
carrots, beets, or turnips, are a never failing 
resource/' This system of soiling that 
teeems to have been a favorite one with 
Mr. Q.uincy, a sort of pet, he regards as 
worthy the attention of those farmers who 
have but a small quantity of land, say ten. 
fifteen or twenty acres. He says: "a 
practical knowledge of the productive 
power of the soil, and of the mode of 
making its yield the most, \v\\\ not only 
create in them content, but will prevent 
them from running into debt for more land, 
a practice of all others, the most embar- 
rassing and ruinous to that class of farmers. 
That this class may obtain distinct and 
practical knowledge of the mode of ope- 
rating on a small scale, on this system. I 
state that I have known two head of milch 
cows ke.pt. in full milk and high condition 
through the summer on one acre of land, 
and some food left from it for winter use." 

Of course, tiic system of "soiling," of 
which a sketch has been given, cannot be 
equally well introduced upon all farms. 
Mr. Q.nincy'3 farm being nearly all adapted 
to cultivation, and being of a rich loam 
and free from stone, as well as smooth, is 



peculiarly adapted to this mode of cultiva- 
tion. But many farms have land that is 
good for nothing else but pasturage, and 
others have much land that is too stony or 
too rough for successful "soiling." A little 
study and a reasonable share of common 
sense will enable the farmer to judge 
whether the system may be successfully 
introduced upon his farm, be it large or be 
it small. 



RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 

"We are now about to notice one of our most 
mischievous birds, the Red-Winged Blackbird. 
He has long been known to the farmers as a 
sad thief, and was regarded by the I.idians as 
a troublesome fellow, long before he was 
known to us. And here, with the permission 
of the reader, we will step aside, and turn 
back for the purpose of relating the past his- 
tory of the blackbird, as found in Roger Wil- 
liams' Key to the Indian Language, published 
in 1643, and to furnish an account of the me- 
thod pursued by the Indians, to protect their 
corn from the depredations of these birds. 
Mr. Williams says, "of the black-birds, there 
be millions, which are great devourers of the 
Indian corn, as soon as it appears out of the 
ground; unto this sort of birds, especially, 
may the mysticall Fowles, the Divclls, be well 
remembered, [and so it pleaseth the Lord Jesus 
himselfe, to observe, Matthew 13,] which 
mysticall Fowle follow ihe sowing of the 
word, and pick it up from loose and carelesse 
hearers as these black-birds follow the material 
seed. Against these birds, the Indians are 
very carelull, both to* set their come deep 
enough, that it may have a strong root, not so 
apt to be pluckt up [not too deep, lest they 
bury it, and it never comes up:] as also they 
put up little watch-houses in the middle of 
their fields, in which they, or their biggest 
children lodge, and early in the morning pre- 
vent the birds," &c. The red-winged black- 
bird is a summer resident in the whole of 
Norlh America, and is found in the greatest 
abundance. It is probably one of our most 
mischievous birds, and many suppose that 
very little can be said in its favor to recommend 
it to the protection of the farmer. But we 
shall find when we are better acquainted with, 
the habits of the red-wings, that the benefits 
derived from them much more than counter- 
balance the mischief they occasion. Mr. 
Wilson, the ornithologist, who appears to have 
noticed witn care the habits of the bird under 
consideration, as they appeared to him in the 
Middle States, says, "they arrive in Pennsyl- 
vania late in March. Their general food at 
this season, as well as d Bring the early part of 
summer, consists of grub-worms, caterpillars, 
and various other larva — the silent, but deadly 
enemies of all vegetation, arid whose secret 
and insiduous attacks are more to be dreaded 



282 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



by the husbandman than the combined forces 
of the whole feathered tribes together. For 
these vermin, the red-winged blackbirds search 
with diligence; in the ground, at the roots of 
plants, in orchards and meadows, as well as 
among buds, leaves and blossoms, and from 
their known voracity, the multitudes of these 
insects which they destroy must be immense. 
Let me illustrate this by a short computation. 

"If we suppose each bird on an average to 
devour fifty of these larva in a day [a very 
moderate allowance,] a single pair in four 
months, the 'usual time such food is sought 
after, will consume upwards of twelve thou- 
sand. It is believed that not less than a mil- 
lion pair of these birds are distributed over 
the whole extent of the United States in sum- 
mer, whose food being nearly the same, would 
swell the amount of vermin destroyed to twelve 
thousand millions. But the number of young 
birds may be fairly estimated at double that 
of their parents; and as these are constantly 
fed on larva for at least three weeks, making 
only the same allowance for them as for the 
old ones, their share would amount to four 
thousand two hundred millions; making a 
grand total of sixteen thousand two hundred 
millions of noxious insects destroyed in the 
space of four months by this single species! 
The combined ravages of such a hideous host 
of mrmin would be sufficient to spread famine 
and desolation over a wide extent of the rich- 
est and best cultivated country on earth." 

All this, it may be said, is mere supposition. 
It is, however, supposition founded on known 
and acknowledged facts. "I have," continued 
Mr. Wilson, "never dissected any of these 
birds in spFing, without receiving the most 
striking and satisfactory proofs of these facts; 
and though in a matter of this kind it is im- 
possible to ascertain precisely the amount of 
the benefits derived by agriculture from this 
and many other species of our birds, yet in 
the present case, I cannot resist the belief that 
the services of this species, in spring, are far 
more important and beneficial than the value 
of all that portion of corn which a careful and 
active farmer permits himself to lose by it. 
Mr. Audubon, who was perhaps better ac- 
quainted with the habits of our birds than any 
other person, says the red-winged blackbird is 
so well known as being a bird of the most ne- 
farious propensities, that in "the United States 
one can hardly mention its name without 
hearing such an account of its pilferings as 
might induce the young student in nature to 
conceive that it had been created for the pur- 
pose of annoying the farmer. That it de- 
stroys an astonishing quantity of corn, rice 
and other kinds of grain cannot be denied; 
but that before it commences its ravages, it 
has proved highly serviceable to the crops, is 
equally certain. The million of insects which 
the red-wings destroy at this early season, are, 
in my opinion, a full equivalent for the corn 
which they eat at another period." 

Mr. Nuttall, our own New England orni- 



thologist, fully endorses the opinions of Wil- 
son, in regard to the utility of the red-wings 
in destroying insects, and adds, Kalm re- 
marked, that after a great destruction made 
among these and the crow blackbirds, for the le- 
gal reward of three pence a dozen, the Northern 
States, in 1749, experienced a complete loss of 
the grass and grain crops, which were now 
devoured by insects. In a former communi- 
cation upon the value of the'lndian corn, we 
alluded to a tradition among the Indians that 
the red-winged blackbirds first brought the 
maize or corn into New England from Mexico. 
This belief induced them to spare the lives of 
these birds, although they undoubtedly caused 
them much trouble in their little corn fields. 
Now we are not disposed at this late period, 
and with nothing but the shadowy evidence of 
an Indian tradition, to attempt to establish the 
claims of the red-wing, in introducing that 
most valuable plant, the Indian corn, and per- 
haps thereby obtain a silver whistle, from the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, lest a 
rival from some unexpected quarter should 
arise, and contest the prize with our bird. 
And judging from the blackbird's love of In- 
dian corn, and their boldness at all times, and 
in all places, in appropriating it to their own 
use, we should suppose the birds themselves 
believed the tradition, and that they were but 
honestly taking what in part belonged to them. 
Finally, in view of all that has been said in 
favor of the red-wing, we may justly claim for 
them exemption from the cruel assaults of 
idle gunners, truaru school-boys, and from the 
necessity of witnessing the vain attempts of 
honest farmers to frighten them with scare- 



EDUCATED WHEAT. 

A singular discovery has been made in 
France, by a M. Fabre, an humble gar- 
dener of Ayde, but of some local note as 
a botanist. The herb cegilops, heretofore 
considered as' worse than useless, grows 
abundantly on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean. It produces a species of grain re- 
sembling wheat in form, but much smaller. 
In the year 1839, M. Fabre sowed a quan- 
tity of this grain, and he was struck by 
observing that the produce of it seemed to 
bear a close affinity to wheat. That pro- 
duce he sowed the next year, and the yield 
was still more like wheat. He went on 
sowing the yield in this way year after 
year, and each year found a marked im- 
provement in the produce, until at last he 
had the satisfaction of getting as fine a 
crop of wheat, and of as good quality, as 
could wish to be seen. At first he produced 
his crops in a garden, but his latter sow- • 
ings were made broadcast in an open field. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



283 



Thus, then, a wild and mischievous herb, 
which is particularly destructive to barley 
crops, can be educated into excellent 
wheat — Literary Gazette. 



PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

From 1st to 26th August, 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 next issue: 

W. W. Brickell to January 1854 $1 00 

F. Foote to January 1850 1 00 

Dr. J. B. Grayson to May 1854 1 00 

Edmund Berkeley to January 1854 2 00 

S. A. Bnckner to July 1854 1 00 

T. D. Edmunds to January 1854 1 00 

F. B. Scruggs to January 1854 8 00 
Dr. Henry Hunt to July 1854 1 00 
Capt. S. D. Tucker to July 1856 5 00 
Dr. W. A. Fuqua to July 1854 1 00 
A. R. Spencer to January 1855 2 00 
Col. R. W. Wyatt to January 1854 5 00 
John D. Rawlins to January 1854 1 00 
Wm. M. Sowers to July 1854 1 00 
J. M. Jeffries to October 1854 2 00 
John Motley to July 1854 1 00 
Col. W. Cardwell to January 1854 2 00 
John B. Spencer to April 1854 1 00 
Robert S. Ellis to January 1854 1 00 
S. Hansbarger to January 1854 1 00 

G. W. Kemper to January 1854 1 00 
Enos Sillings to September 1854 
J. R. Depriest to January 1854 
Murat Willis to January 1854 
G. W. F. Smith to July 1854 
Wm. D. Shepherd to June 1854 
Gen. H. T. Washington to Jan. 1855 
S. B. Atwill to July 1854 
Dr. T. Nelson to July 1854 
R. & L. W. Carter to July 1853 
Jas. T. Alexander to January 1854 
Col. L. B. Seward to January 1853 
Walter Healv to January 1853 
W. C. Eustace to January 1854 
James Hiler to July 1854 
Dr. W. T. Maclin to January 1854 
Hezekiah Potts to July 1855 
Jacob Sanger to January 1854 
Wrn. T. Wright to January 1854 
Wm. F. Pogue to June 1854 
Robert Wilson to July 1854 
George H. Toler to April 1854 
S. D. Fisher to July 1854 
Dr. J. B. Anderson to January 1854 8 00 
Geo. P. Keese* to January 1854 1 00 
P. H. Hurt to July 1854 1 00 
Jacob Miehanx. to July 1854 1 00 
Mos*s Fnqna to July 1854 1 00 
David Wells to July 1854 1 00 
James Newbold to January 1852 1 00 



00 
25 
00! 
00 
00 ! 
4 00 
1 00 j 

1 00 

2 50 

1 00 

2 00 



00 
50 
00 

00 
00 
00 

00 

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Chas. R. Slaughter to July 1854 
A. R. Venable to January 1854 
John J. Grantham to April 1854 
Thomas Henderson to July 1854 
Dr. A. T. B. Merritt to April lb54 
R. A. Farenholt to July 1854 
W. H E. Merritt to July 1854 
John Foster to July 1854 
John C. Baugh to August 1854 
Williams & Fulton to July 1854 
T. N. Gee to January 1854 
Dr. William Cain to July 1854 
L. H. Knight to July 1854 

E. Y. Hamlin to January 1854 
James Collins to June 1854 
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W. J. Young to April 1854 
Wm. Hocker to September 1853 

A. H. H. Bernard to March 1854 

F. W. Brown to June 1854 
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George R. Rogers to July 1854 
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Robert Anderson to January 1855 
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Mrs. J. A. Holladay to July 1855 
William H.Robinson to September 1853 1 
Dr. G. A. Garth to July 1853 
George W. Macon to July 1854 

B. H. Magruder to July 1855 
William Catterton to January 1854 
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Colin Catterton to July 1854 
David Hancock to January 1854 
James H. Burnley to January 1854 
Robert W. Bragg to January 1854 
R. B. Moon to July 1853 
Dr. John W. Rice to July 1854 
Z. Shirley to July 1854 
Edmund Rosenberger to July 1854 
Benjamin Hoover to July 1854 
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Martin F. Miley to July 1854 
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Robert Snapp to July 1855 
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James M. Carter to July 1854 
Robert M. Wright to January 1854 
Benj. Henson to January 1854 
W. T. Parrott to January 1854 
Richard Irby to July 1854 



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284 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



NEW PLASTER AND BONE MILL. 
riAHE subscriber offers for sale fine Ground 
JL 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 Duf t, 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: Sodee, 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 — observe the pro- 
portions in making small or large quantities. 
The above receipt will make one ton, which 
will manure seven and a half acres of land. 

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

Chemists and Druggists, earner above the Ame- 
rican Hotel, Richmond, Va. oc— tf 



FOR SALE OR TRADE. 

A FINE FARM, containing over 500 acres, 
lying in Hanover County, Virginia, and 
one for sale in Buckingham County, containing 
over 800 acres; also a number of the finest 
Cotswoid Sheep, and the best lot of improved 
fowls in the United Slates. 
Address (post paid) 

MARTIN GOLDSBOROUGH, 
Agent. 
Ilarrisonville, Baltimore Co., Mi. au— tf 



GARDEN BOOKS— Buist's Family Gar- 
dener — 75 cents. 
Fessenden's American Gardener — 75 cents. 
Bridgeman's Gardener's Assistant— SI 50. 
Bridgeman's Gardener's Instructor— 50 cents. 
The American Kitchen Gardener— 25 cents. 
M'Mahon's Gardener's Calendar— $3. 
Downing's Landscape Gardening— $3 50. 

FARMING. 
Fessenden's Complete Farmer— 75 cents. 
Allen's American Farm Book— SI. 
Stephens' Book of the Farm — $4. 
Johnson's Practical Agriculture— 75 cents. 
Saxton's Rural Hand Book, 2 vols.— $2 50. 
Thace's Practical Agriculture— $2 50. 

GRAPE VINE. 
Buchanan on the Grape— 50 cents. 
Spooner on the Grape and Wine Making— 38 

cents. 
Hoare on the Culture of the Grape— 50 cents. 

FRUITS. 
Thomas' American Fruit Culturist— SI 25. 
Cole's American Fruit Book— 50 cents. 
Lindley's Guide to the Orchard — SI 25. 
Downing's Fruit and Fruit Trees— SI 50. 
Barrey's Fruit Garden— SI 25. 

AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry— SI 25. 
Gray's Agricultural Chemistry — $1. 
Norton's Elements of Chemistry — 50 cents. 
Brown's Field Book of Manures, or American 

Muck Book— SI 25. 
Dana's Prize Essay on Manures — 25 cents. 
Dana's Muck Manual— SI. 
CATTLE. 
The American Cattle Doctor, just published — 

Si. 
Youatt & Morton, on Cattle— SI 25. 
Allen's Domestic Animals — 75 cents. 
Saxton's Hand Book of Domestic Animals — 

SI 25. 

SHEEP. 

Youatt on Sheep — 75 cents. 

The Shepherd's Own Book, by Youatt, Skin- 
ner and Randall— .S2. 

HORSES. 

Youatt and Randall on the Horse- SI 25. 

Youatt and Skinner on the Horse— $1 50. 

Richardson on the Horse — 25 cents. 

Mason's Farrier— SI 25. 

Hind's Farrier— SI. 
Also, a complete assortment of Books on 

Rural Architecture and AGRICULTURE. 
For sale by NASH & WOODHOUSE, 
ap — 6m Eagle Square, Richmond, Va. 



AGENCY FOR TFJE PURCHASE AND 
SALE OF IMPROVED STOCK. 

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



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



285 



TO THE FARMERS ANP AGRICUL- 
TURAL COMMUNITY OF VA. 

THE subscriber is desirous to make known 
to the above, an article of manufacture of 
Chemical notoriety, namely, SUPER-PHOS- 
PHATE OF LIME, allowed to be one of the 
most efficacious Manures ever yet adopted in 
this or any other country, for its well known 
properties of regenerating and fertilising the 
barren and worn-out soil. Its first introduction 
was into England, some ten years since, when 
from its then pronounced magic effect, a pa- 
tent right was granted to its inventor, the cele- 
brated Professor Law, of London, who stands 
now unrivalled as one of the first Chemists of 
the day. Having had the honor of graduating 
under him, and together with some years of 
practical experience in the manufacturing of 
this article with him, gives a sufficient confi- 
dence to state that the A No. 1 of my present 
manufacture cannot be equalled in this vast 
continent, being the sole inventor and intro- 
ducer of it into this country. Should there be 
a doubt as to its truthfulness, my Diploma, re- 
ceived from the New York American Institute, 
will fully attest of the correctness of my state- 
ment, together with a host of the highest tes- 
timonials from the Farming and Agricultural 
consumers of my Manure for the last twelve 
months while there. 

I can aho state with pleasure having re- 
ceived many kind letters from mere strangers 
to me, requesting of me to refer any one who 
may feel skeptical of the powerful influence 
it has over the most barren or useless land that 
can be found — in a great many instances, par- 
ties were dubious of buying more than some 
50 or 100 pounds to make trial; the same par- | 
ties now purchase in Tons, and feel proud in 
making it known to their surrounding farming 
neighbors, who seemed quite astounded at the 
crops producer! by the application of this mi- \ 
raculous process, which enters into the com- ! 
position of all plants, and the importance of 
invaluable constituent to the agriculturalist 
will be easily understood, when the reader is 
informed that no plant will grow upon a soil 
denuded of it. Phosphates of lime is being 
continually removed and abstracted from the 
soil, and taken up by the plants in solution for 
their nourishment, and unless such an equiva- 
lent be returned, diminution of fertility must 
naturally be the issue. I apprehend the effi- 
cacy of ground or crushed bones on the soil is 
well known to the American farmer. 

I will presume to point out the advantage 
Super-phosphate of Lime has over bones. 
Bones are insoluble in water, and have first to | 
be decomposed before they can be incorporated 
with the soil — such decomposition taking a 
long time. From, authenticated writers and 
scrupulous experimenters, it has been acknow- 
ledged that twenty bushels of Super-phosphate 
of Lime, will have the desired effect of 100 
bushels of unprepared bones. The reason of 
such fact is on account of its being in a state 



of solution shortly after having been applied 
to the soil, and taken up by the plants, which 
derive their strength and growth from the soil 
in no other form. 

The subscriber offers his manufactured Su- 
per-phosphate of Lime as a chemically pure 
and genuine article; a perfect Super-phosphate, 
with the addition of guano and other fixed 
salts, &c, only known to himself— containing 
ammonia and other constituents necessary to 
furnish to the soil that which it has been 
robbed of by previous growth. It is quite as 
effective as Guano, but much more durable as 
a manure, and less volatile than any other. 

To be obtained in bags or barrels, of 

C. B. De BURG, 
Agricultural Chemist, Williamsburg, L. I. 
Where purchasers may rely upon obtaining a 
warranted, pure and genuine article, styled A 
No. 1. 

To prevent deception being practised hence- 
forward, all packages will be branded with 
the manufacturer's name. 

C. B. De BURG. 

Affixed are the names of gentlemen of ac- 
knowledged celebrity and standing as Analyti- 
cal Chemists, who have passed their judgment 
upon it. 

JAMES R. CHILTON, Esq.., M. D., 

THOMAS ANTISELL, Eso.., M. D., 

WILLIAM W. ELLETT, Esq.., M. D., 

ISAIAH DECK, Esq.., M. D , 

JOHN H. CURRIE, Esq., M. D. 

P. S.— My representative, Mr. J. P. O'Neil, 
shall do himself the pleasure of visiting Vir- 
ginia on a lour of business, when he shall be 
most happy to receive orders and impart such 
information as may be required of him rela- 
tive to this matter — he shall also bring on with 
him a supply of Pamphlets, with full particu- 
lars, which will be found most essentially use- 
ful to the agricultural community. 

PRICE— $45 for 2,000 lbs. from the manu- 
factory. 

Williamsburg, L. I. 

S. M'GRUDER & SONS, 

July — 3m Agents, Richmond, Va. 

EAGLE FOUNDERY. 

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

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

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



286 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



ATKINS' SELF-RAKING REAPER. 

THIS machine is now offered to the public 
and warranted to be a good self-raking 
reaper. It is also believed to be a good mower, 
but not yet having been sufficiently tested in 
grass, (though it soon will be) it is not war- 
ranted to be equal to a machine made mainly 
or wholly to mow. 

The raking apparatus is of novel and very 
simple construction, and not liable to derange- 
meni, and every farmer who has seen it in the 
harvest field, says it performs the raking better 
than a man can possibly do it. 

Price of machines at Chicago, $175, of 
which, $75 must be paid on giving the order, 
$50 upon successful trial, and $50 in note pay- 
able 1st December. 

The machines are thoroughly built and 
warranted. 

|£jf Descriptive circulars, with cuts, sent to 
post-paid applications. 

J. S. WRIGHT, 
" Prairie Farmer" Warehouse, Chicago, June, 
1852. July— 3t 



ANALYSIS OF SOILS, &c. 

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

Persons desiring further information will 
please address 

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



CHOICE POULTRY. 

THE subscriber offers for sale the following 
varieties of pure blooded Fov;ls,v\z. Cochin 
China or Canton Fowls; Black, White, 
Buff and Brown Shanghais; Chittagjncs 
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 stock 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. 
Michmond, Nov. 1, 1852 — ly 

BOOKS, PIANOS, MUSIC, &C. 

NASH & WOODHOUSE, Wholesaleand 
Retail Dealers in Bo. ks, Piano Fortes, 
Stationery, Music, &c. 139 Main St., Rich- 
mond, Virginia. 

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



FOR SALE. — A fine farm near Marysville, 
Buckingham county, Virgjnia; well tim- 
bered, has good drinking water, fine grass, and 
is a desirable location for health and comfort. 
Farms in Talbot county, Eastern Shore of 
Maryland, on the salt water, in healthy sec- 
tions. Also, in Baltimore county, within 12 
miles of the city. 

Cotswold Rams, Ewes, Ram and Ewe 
Lamb* from the best flocks in the United 
States. Also, Southdown Ram Lambs from 
fine flocks. 

Shanghai Fowls from different importations, 
and as grown by Professor James M'Clintock, 
for which, I am the only Maryland agent. 

Moor's Patent Premium Wheat Drills, on 
more accommodating terms, with the improve- 
ments. 

Letters of inquiry and orders, post paid, will 
receive prompt attention. 

MARTIN GOLDSBOROUGH, 
Agent, Harrisonville, Baltimore Co., Maryland. 

July— tf 



THE SUBSCRIBER has for sale yearling 
and two year old BUCKS, of the New 
Oxfordshire or Cotswold breed, which he will 
sell apy time when called for, and has no hesi- 
tation in sayingthis breed of sheep are superior 
to all others, for large carcass, heavy fleece, 
early maturity, constitution, and defies all 
other breeds for profit. This flock has been 
bred from the best ever imported, the sire hav- 
ing clipped eighteen pounds of well washed 
wool; and a small amount of wethers, 
slaughtered in Philadelphia, in February, 
weighed as follows: 

Live weight, 374, 309, 307, 285, 271, 254 lbs. 
Dead " 2G9J 213, 203, 201, 181, 1G0| " 

No. 1 being the heaviest sheep ever slaugh- 
tered in the United States. 

f^T Persons are invited to call and see for 
themselves, or communicate By mail to 

WILLIAM REYBOLD, 

Jul}' — 3t Delaware city, Delaware. 



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



THE DAILY EXPRESS, published at 
Petersburg, Va. is the cheapest daily pa- 
per published south of James river, Virginia. 
It is devoted almost entirely to news matters 
of every description, and eschewing politics, 
may be emphatically styled a "Newspaper." 
Three hundred and twelve copies, which em- 
braces the whole year (Sundays only excepted,) 
will be furnished at the unprecedented low 
price of four dollars per annum. Address 
AND. F. CRUTCHFIELD & Co. 
ap— tf Petersburg, Va. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



287 



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 ot 
Practical Farming. Thiswas the prizeessay 
of the New York State Agricultural Society; 
by J. P. Norton, M. A. 

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

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

American Farm Book, on Soils, Manures, 
Drainings, Irrigation, Grasses, Grain, Roots, 
Fruit, Cotton, Tobacco, Sugarcane, Rice, and 
every staple product of the United States. — 
This is a perfect farmer's library, with upwards 
of 100 ensravings; 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 Tablej; by Jas. Pedder. 

American Husbandry. — Series of Essayson 
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 iustructions; 
by S. W. Cole. 

Downing on Fruit Trees. 

Theory of Horticulture; by Lindlev. 

Florist's Manual; by H. Bourne; SOeolored 
engravings. 

Bridgman's Kitchen Gardener. 

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

Richrrwru), March 12, 1851.— ly 



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, l2mo. 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 ihe general subject of the work, 
derived from the auihor's later observation of 
facts, personal experience and reasoningfound- 
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. 

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 notnow, 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 author and publisher for this 
enlarged and improved edition of a most valu- 
able book." — Hon. WiU.ov.ghby Newton, je — tf 



SCHOOL, FOR SMALL, BOYS. 

HAVING employed a competent teacher 
to educate my children, 1 wish to get five 
or six boys, not more than twelve years old as 
boarders. The whole number of pupils will 
not be allowed to exceed twelve or fourteen. 
The teacher is a good classical and mathema- 
tical scholar and a gentleman in whose capa- 
city, fidelity and high character I have entire 
confidence. The school will commence the 
first of October and terminate the middle of 
August, with a short recess at Christmas. 
Terms— $130 per annum for every thing. 

FRANK: G. RUFFIN, 
July, 1853. Shadwell, Albemarle. 



283 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



CONTENTS OF XUMBER IX. 

PAGE 

Mr. Booth's Remarks on the Trial of 
Reapers at Curie's Neck, and also on 
Drilling Machines and Water Rams.. .257 

Sheep ....259 

Good Management no mystery— the Secret 

of it.... 263 

A Text Book of Agriculture 266 

Remedy against Cut Worm 266 

The Strawberry Controversy 267 

Prati's Ditching Machine 268 

Gapes in Chickens 269 

Dr. Valentine's Artificial Guano 270 

Blood on Grape Vines 270 

Celery ; 271 

Farming about Norfolk .' 272 

Use of Tobacco in England 272 

Straw as Feed for Mules 272 

Virginia State Agricultural Society 273 

Notice to Exhibitors 273 

Reapers 274 

Rape or Colza 274 

Da Bow's Review for July 277 

Progress of Rail Roads 277 

Warwick & Barksdale's Mills 277 

Washing by Steam 278 

Chloroform for Bees 279 

To destroy Under-Brush 279 

Soilin- Cattle 2H0 

Red- Winged Black Bird 281 

Educated" Wheat...'. 282 



No. 1 SUPER-PHOSPHATE OP LIME. 
rilHIS valuable,. fertilizer has been used for 
J. several years in England and other parts 
of Europe, and next to Guano, holds the high- 
est rank in popularity, and the extent to which 
it is used among farmers. Its introduction in 
this country has been more recent; but the 
progress it has made in the estimation of the 
public has not been less marked or successful 
than abroad. It is now extensively used 
throughout the. Northern States, after a full 
trial and investigation of its m-riis; and it is 
rapidly becoming, like its predecessor, guano, 
a favorite manure at the South and West. 

It is composed of crushed or ground bones, 
decompiled by the addition of about one-fifth 
their weight of sulphuric acid, diluted wiih 
water, to which is added a due proportion of 
guano and sulphate of ammonia. The latter 
is the active and one of the most efficient 
agents in the best Peruvian guano. 

It is suited to a*y soil in which there is not 
already a full supply of the phosphates, which 
is seldom the case. All crops are benefited 
by its application. 

For sale in large or small quantities, in bags 
of 150 pounds each. No charge for packages. 
All bags will be branded "C. B. De Burg, 
No. I Sur.er-Phospha'e of Lime." 

For sale at R. L. ALLEN'S Agricultural 
Warehouse and Seed Store, 189 and 191, Wa- 
ter street, New York. se— 4t. 



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 
general 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; 
Durbams, Devons, Alderney, and Ayrshire; 
pure long wooled sheep from the best flock 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. 
Harrisonville, Baltimore Co., Mi. 
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 lDc] ; Col, J. W.Ware, 
Berrvville, Va.; I G. Wright, Wilmington, N. 
Carolina; J. W. H. Brownfield, Charleston, S. 
C; McGill Robinson, Louisville, Ky.; Wm. 
A. Lake, Vicksbnrg, Miss.; Dr. Henry M. 
Robinson, Huntsville, Ala.; T. Hayward and 
Maj. R. Hayward, Tallahassee, Florida. 

mar — 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- 
Stuffs, Window Glass, Putty, &c. For sale 
on the most accommodating terms. 

fj* Orders from Country Merchants and 
Physicians thankfully received and promptly 
attended to 
ja 1851— tf 



SUFFOLK PIGS. 

THE subscribers are prepared to receive 
orders for pure Suffolk Pigs, bred from 
stock imported in 1848 by the late William 
Stickney, also by the subscribers in January 
last. Address 

JOSIAH STICKNEY, 

Waterton, 
Or, ISAAC STICKNEY, 
Boston, Mass. 
Boston, August, 1853— Gt.