THE 

SOUTHEKN PLANTEE. 

Bcfcetrfc to &srfrulture, horticulture, ant! tin fgousehoin arts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts.' 
Xtwrpkon . 



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



FRANK: G, EUFFIN, Editor andPhoprietor. 



T. BAILIE, Publisher. 



Vol. XV. 



RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1855. 



No. 12. 



VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

The annual meeting of the Society was held 
at the African Church, in the city of Rich- 
mond, on Monday evening, the 29th October, 
1855. 

The President, Philip St. Geo. Cocke, 
Esq., called the meeting to order, and pro- 
ceeded to deliver an address — which was, on 
motion, laid upon the table and ordered to be 
printed. 

The Secretary, Charles B. Williams, next 
read the report of the Executive Committee, 
which was received, laid upon the table and 
ordered to be printed. It is as follows : 

Report of Executive Committee. 

The Executive Committee in rendering to 
the Virginia State Agricultural Society, a re- 
port of their transactions since the last annual 
meeting, would avail themselves of the occa- 
sion to congratulate the members on the peace- 
ful relations of our country, the general pre- 
valence of health, the abundance of the fruits 
of the earth, and the remunerating prices 
which the staple productions of Agriculture 
command. 

The first object to which the attention of 
the Executive Committee was directed in en- 
tering upon the. discharge of their duties, was 
the preparation of the premium list for the 
coming exhibition. The subjects which com- 
prise the different branches of the Schedule of 
Premiums, were referred to separate sub-com- 
mitter-s of our body, in order to ensure a 
careful revision of the whole, and such altera- 
tions and additions were made as were neces- 
sary to make it conform in its general outline 
to the expressed will of the Society, and in its 
particular features to the suggestions of ex- 
perience in respect to its former deficiencies 
The following synopsis will show the amounts 
appropriated to each department comprised in 
the schedule and the aggregate of the amount 
proposed to be distributed in prizes : 
Vol. XV— 12. 



To Experiments communicated in wri- 
ting, .... 

Essays or written communications, 

Earm Crops, - - - - 

Horses of their several classes, 

Mules and Jacks, - 

Cattle of various kinds, Foreign and 
Native, - - 

Sheep, Do. Do. 

Swine, Do. Do. 

Premium animals (additional premiums.) 

Poultry, --.. 

Agricultural Implements and Machinery, 

Domestic and Household Manufactures, 

Fruits, Flowers, Vegetables, Dairy 
Productions, &c, - ' - 

Special premiums for useful discove- 
ries, &c, - .-- , .... 

Miscellaneous Items, - - - 

And premiums on various subjects of- 
fered by individual donors, 



$950 
650 
630 
735 

195 

1856 
380 
297 
120 
98 
809 

iJO 1 

233 

1220 
290 

625 



Showing the aggregate amount offered 

as premiums to be, - - $9,419 

Under direction of a resolution of the Ex- 
ecutive Committee, a statement of the finan- 
cial condition of the Society was reported, 
embracing all items of pecuniary transactions 
from the origin of the Society down to the 
first of March last, separating and generali- 
zing the various elements so as to show at a 
glance what portion of its funds belong to its 
permanent endowment, from what sources re- 
ceived, and how invested, and what part consti- 
tutes the contingent fund applicable to the 
current expenses of the Society, and for what 
objects of expenditure the moneys of the So- 
ciety have been appropriated. This statement 
was published by order of the Executive Com- 
mittee, and is herewith communicated. The 
Treasurer's account, pursuing the same order 
of arrangement, may be regarded as a supple- 
mental report bringing down the particular 
statement of additional items to the present 



354 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



time. The following abstract of its contents 

is all that needs to be here cited. 

Total amount of permanent funds in- 
vested in bonds of city of Richmond §40,000 

Contingent funds invested as 
above, - - 5,250 

Loan to city of Richmond, 4,500 

— 9,750 

Cash on hand, - - 1,830 

It is proper to add in this connection that 
Mr. Wm. G. Crenshaw, who had been the 
Treasurer for nearly two years, and had served 
the Society with untiring assiduity at great per- 
sonal sacrifice aud with singular efficiency and 
fidelity, felt himself constrained by the force 
of his business obligations, to resign the office, 
not however until his skilful hand had sys- 
tematized the department and rendered simple 
and intelligible the details of its operations. — 
Mr. Charles B. Williams was elected to suc- 
ceed him and has executed a bond with ap- 
proved security in the penalty of ten thousand 
dollars conditioned for the faithful performance 
of the duties of the office. 

About the 20th of July, the Secretary, Mr. 
F. Gr. Ruffin, in notifying the members of the 
Executive Committee to attend a meeting on 
the 26th, took occasion to inform the members 
that an important part of the business of that 
meeting would be the election of his succes- 
sor, as it was his intention then to resign. The 
Committee met at the appointed time, but 
owing to the fact that there was but a very 
limited number in attendance, and that it was 
the almost unanimous opinion of the Committee 
that so important an election should not be 
made without a fuller expression of the choice 
of its members, it was determined as the sense 
of the Committee, that the election should be 
postpned, if the incumbent could be prevailed 
upon to continue in the discharge of his duties 
To this Mr. Ruffin assented so far as to engage 
to perform all the important duties of the of- 
fice, but not to incur the obligation of constant 
daily attendance. This he has done to the 
satisfaction of the Committee, and has de- 
clined to receive any compensation for his ser- 
vices rendered since that meeting. In fixing 
the time for the next meeting of the Committee 
a paramount object was to secure a full atten- 
dance. The Committee therefore fixed on the 
3d of October, as the earliest time at which 
it would be expedient to hold it for the pur- 
pose for which the meeting was specially ap- 
pointed. Mr. Ruffin then offered his resigna- 
tion, which was accepted, and Mr. Charles B. 
Williams was elected to succeed him, who 
very soon afterwards entered upon the dis- 
charge of his duties. Mr. W. Gr. Crenshaw 



and Mr. Frank Gr. Ruffin, have been both 
elected as members to fill vacancies in the Ex- 
ecutive Commitee, occasioned by the resigna- 
tions of Messrs E. G. Booth and J. Ravens- 
croft Jones, two of the early, devoted friends 
of the Society, whose sound judgment and 
wise counsels are held in high consideration by 
their associates, and caused their resignation 
to be felt as a loss to their body. Mr Wil- 
liam B. Harrison was appointed to fill one of 
these vacancies, but declined to accept. 

The subject of an economical arrangement 
for the publication of the transactions of the 
Society engaged the early attention of the com- 
mittee charged with that duty, and a contract 
was concluded with Mr. Thomas Bailie to 
print them upon satisfactory terms. The sec- 
ond volume of this work may, therefore be ex- 
pected when the contributions to the Society, 
together with the history cf its current pro- 
ceedings, shall supply the requisite amount of 
matter to constitute the volume. The com- 
mittee have not been unmindful of the pre- 
vailing and just expectation, that this Society 
is destined in its progress to become a fountain 
of useful knowledge, which shall send its fer- 
tilizing streams over the broad surface of the 
Commonwealth. But however anxious they 
might be to enlarge the sphere of its operation 
within the limitations of the constitution, and 
thereby to increase its usefulness, they have 
felt that the ultimate ends of the association 
could be best attained by the gradual and 
cautious developement of a system of opera- 
tions every feature of which should derive its 
useful and practical character from its adapta- 
tion to the wants and circumstances of the 
agricultural community, and fall within the 
pecuniary competency of the Society. 

Our resources applicable to current and 
contingent expenses, are derived from the an- 
nual contributions of members, gate fees and 
other incidents of our annual exhibitions, 
which are variable and uncertain in their 
amounts, and from the interest on a permanent 
fund, which, by the terms of its contribution, 
is sacredly devoted to agricultural improve- 
ment. Although the sum of these receipts has 
exceeded the demands upon them, and a con- 
siderable surplus has already accumulated, and 
is likely to be augmented by an excess of re- 
ceipts over expenditures, of the present exhi- 
bition, the committee is of opinion that the 
wisest policy would be to continue the prac- 
tice which has been hitherto pursued, of in- 
vesting in product ive stock, so as to secure its 
accretion, and to transfer, from time to time, 
from the contingent to the permanent fund, 
such amounts as would still leave to the credit 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of the former enough to cover deficiencies 
which may arise from fluctuations in the other 
sources of revenue. We may thus hope in 
time to build up a permanent fund, the inter- 
est of which will enable us to accomplish the 
broadest and most comprehensive plans indi- 
cated heretofore in the general meeting of the 
Society. 

In the meantime, the Society will proceed to 
accomplish by other means many of the most 
important objects of its institution. Our 
Annual Fairs, which have been already pro- 
ductive of such happy results, will continue to 
attract to the capital thousands of the most 
enlightened citizens of the Commonwealth. 

Our farmers will be stimulated to new ef- 
forts at improvement in raising the best breeds 
of stock, and the introduction of new pro- 
cesses in agriculture, and the inventive geuius 
of our mechanics and artizans will be quick- 
ened and excited to the production of such 
new and superior machinery as may be suffi- 
cient to supply the necessity arising from the 
scarcity and dearnes3 of manual labor. The 
Society will thus, though not accomplishing aH 
that could be desired, proceed in the fulfilment 
of its mission, until it shall at length achieve a 
triumph which will be as honorable to the as- 
sociation as beneficial in its effects on the pe- 
cuniary, moral and social condition of the 
State. 



Meteorological Observations. — B. Johnson 
Barbour, Esq., after a few pertinent remarks, 
offered the following resolution, which was 
adopted : 

Resolved, That this Society cordially ap- 
proves of the plan proposed by Lieut. Maury, 
in the August number of the American Far- 
mer, of extending to the land, for the benefit 
of Agriculture, the system of Meterological 
observations, which has done so much for the 
improvement of navigation and commerce, 
that we commend the plan to the favorable 
consideration of our brother farmers in other 
States, and request the members of Congress 
from our own State to procure for agricultural 
and sanitary meterology the same degree of 
encouragement which has been so wisely and 
beneficially extended to the seas — and that 
the President of the Society is hereby re- 
quested to forward a copy of this resolution to 
each member of the Congressional delegation 
of Virginia. 

Adjourned to Tuesday evening, at 71 
o'clock. 



Tuesday Evening, 30th Oct. 1855. 

The Society met pursuant to adjournment. 

The report of the Committee appointed at 
the last annual meeting, to revise the Consti- 
tution, was called for. 

Dr. Thos. P. Atkinson, the Chairman, 
stated that the Committee had performed the 
duty assigned them, that they had had a larg<; 
number of their report printed and placed in 
the hands of the Secretary for distribution 
among the members, and moved, in order to 
afford time for the examination of the report, 
that when the Society adjourns, it adjourn to 
meet in this place to-morrow morning, at 9 
o'clock, to receive and act upon the report. 

Mr. C. C. Lee moved as a substitute that 
the subject be laid upon the table until after 
the delivery of the annual address, which was 
adopted. 

Mr. Franklin Minor then delivered the. 
annual address — at the conclusion of which, 
on the motion of Dr. John R. Woods, the 
following resolution was adopted, viz : 

Resolved, That we have heard with feeling? 
of great pleasure the admirable address of 
Mr. F. Minor on this occasion, and that the 
publication of five thousand copies be ordered . 

The report of the Committee on the Con- 
stitution was then taken up, on the motion of 
the Chairman, who again proposed that the 
Society should meet at 9 o'clock to-morrow, 
for the purpose of considering it. 

Mr. Marshall, of Charlotte, moved as a 
substitute that the Society do now proceed to 
act upon the report, which was carried. 

Mr. B. Johnson Barbour, by request, then 
read the proposed Constitution, and Mr. Mar- 
shall moved its adoption as a whole. 

Mr. Lyons moved to lay the report upon 
the table — which, after a lengthy discussioD, 
in which Messrs. Lyons, Marshall, W. Ballard 
Preston, Atkinson, Page and Win. Smith, par- 
ticipated, it was laid upon the table and made 
the order of the day at 7| o'clock to-morrow 
night. 

Adjourned to Wednesday evening 



Wednesday, Oct. 3 1st, 1855. 

The Society met at the African Church 
pursuant to adjournment. 

The President stated that the order of the 
day was the report of the Committee on the 
revision of the Constitution. 

The report was then taken np and read by 
Mr. Lewi3 E. Harvie — which, after protracted 
discussion by Messrs. Bassett, Bondurant, 
Lee, Preston Lyons, Page and Branch, the 



356 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Society refused to postpone, and finally 
adopted. It is as follows. 

AMENDED CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

VIRGINIA 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

SECTION I. 

NAME AND PURPOSE. 

1. The name of this Society shall be 'The Virginia 
State Agricultural Society." 

2. Its object shell be to advance and improve the con- 
dition of Agriculture, Horticulture and the auxiliary Mining 
-rid Mechanic Arts. 

SECTION II. 

ANNUAL FAIR. 
The Society shall hold an Annual Exhibition, Cattle 
Show and Fair, at such time and place as the Farmer's 
,, Assembly shall designate, or in default thereof as may be 
designated by the Executive Committee. 

SECTION III. 

MEMBEBSHIP. 

1. The Society shall consist of such persons as shall 
pay to the Secretary of the Society, or other person duly 
authorized to receive (he same, an initiation fee of two 
dollars of life members, and of such as shall be elected 
Honorary Members thereof by the Farmers' Assembly. 

2. Every person so paying two dollars shall be account- 
ed and listed a member of the Society for twelve months 
from the next preceding first day of January, and shall be 
bound thereafter to pay an annual contribution of one dollar, 
unless he shall notify the Secretary of the Society of his 
wish to withdraw; such withdrawal shalt be duly record- 
ed by that officer, and take effect from the close of the cur- 
rent year. 

3. The payment of twenty dollars, at one time, shall 
institute a member for life, and shall exempt the payer 
from annual contriDUtions. 

SECTION IV. 

OFFICERS. 

1. The officers of the Society shall consist of a Presi- 
dent, eight Vice Presidents, and of ten other pers ns, (all 
being members of the Society,.) to constitute together the 
Executive Committee, and a Secretary and Treasurer, 
who shall be one person. 

2. These officers shall be elected annually by the Far- 
mers' Assembly for one year, and till their successors be 
appointed, and they shall be re-eligible to office, except 
that from and after the adoption of this constitution the 
same person shall not be President of the Society for more 
than three consecutive years. 

SECTION V. 

ELECTION OF FARMERS' ASSEMBLY. 

1. There shall be annually cleeted by the qualifie 
voters of the Society, in the manner hereinafter prescribed, 
a representative body, to be called " The Farmers' As- 
sembly." 

2. To that end the Executive Committee shall, at some 
convenient time in each year, proceed to arrange all the 
counties, cities, and towns of Virginia in which there are 
any known resident members of the Society, into Electo- 
ral Districts, in the following manner, viz : Each county. 
/■.ily, or town having more than fifty members resident 
therein shall make an Electoral District. Counties, cities, 
and towns, having separately fewer than fifty members 
resident therein, shall be arranged together so a^ to fur- 
nish a_s nearly as may be tint number of voters, and thus 
arranged shall constitute Electoral Districts. The voters 
of each county, city, and town shall be called together by 
pr. per public notice, to meet on the days of their respec- 
tive county or corporation courts, in September or October 
of euch year, and at such hour and place as may be pre- 
Kribed by the Executive Committee, and shall elect for 



each District, by plurality of votes cast, for every filly 
members of the Society therein, one representative to the 
Farmers' Assembly, and for every additi nal hundred 
members an additional representative. In case of failure 
to hold an election in any district, it shall then be compe- 
tent for such voters thereof as may be in attendance at the 
ensuing Annual Fair, at a time and place and before Com- 
missioners to be appointed by the Executive Committee, 
to elect a representative for such District; and such elec- 
tions shall have the same force as those held in the 
District. 

3. Elections to the Farmers' Assembly shall be c n- 
ducted by a commissi ner or commissioners appointed by 
the Executive Committee for each Electoral District, and 
shall be determined by a plurality of votes given by life 
members, and by every such adult male member of the 
Society (according to lists to be furnished them by said 
Committee) as shall satisfy said commissioner that he has 
paid his annual dues, or who shall then pay the same to 
said commissioner, or by any adult male person, who by 
then paying the prescribed fee shall become a member of 
the Society. In case of a tie, the commissioner, or a ma- 
jority, where more than one, shall have the casting vote. 
The certificates of the commissioners of elections shall en- 
title to a seat in the Farmers' Assembly. 

SECTION VI. 

POWERS AND DUTIES OF FARMERS 1 ASSEMBLY. 

1. The Farmers' Assembly shall hold its first meeting 
n the first day. of the next annual fair, at a time and place 

lo be designated by public notice by the President of the 
Society, and thereafter annually at such time and place as 
they may themselves fix. 

2. A majority of their whole number shall be a quorum 
for business. 

3. They shall elect their own Speaker and other officers, 
prescribe all needful rules and regulations for the trans- 
action of business, and decide all contested elections. 

4. They shall also have power to fix the time and place 
of holding the annual fairs. 

5. They shall also annually elect, by separate votes, a 
President of the Society, eight Vice-Presidents, and ten 
other Persons, (constituting the Executive Committee,) to 
go into office on the ensuing 1st January after their elec- 
tion, and continue therein one year, and until their succes- 
sors be appointed, and not more than two of whom shall be 
residents of any one county, town or city of the State. 

6. They shall, in like manner, elect also a Secretary 
and Treasurer of the Society, tj serve fof* one year, and 
until his successor be elected, (unless removed in the 
mode hereinafter pointed out,) and shall fix his salary. 

7- They shall also have nower to elect honorary mem- 
bers of this Society ; but no person shall receive that dis- 
tinction, except for eminent services rendered to agri- 
culture. 

8. All necessary expenses of the Farmers' Assembly 
shall be certified by the Speaker thereof to the Executive 
Committee, who shall pay the same in the form prescribed 
for other disbursements. 

9. All powers now possessed by the Society at large, 
and not inconsistent with the other provisions of this Con- 
stitution, are hereby transferred to the Farmers' Assembly, 
but,*except such as are electoral, shall, in default of being 
exercised by that body, devolve, provisionally on the Exe- 
cutive Committee. 

SECTION VII. 

TOWERS AND DUTIES OF PRESIDENT. 

1. The President of the Society shall preside r_t all 
general meetings of the Society at large. 

2. May, at his optjpn, make an annual communication 
to the Farmers' Assembly, with such recommendations as 
he may think expedient. 

3. Shall app int and have the direction i f all Marshals 
and other agents required to carry out and give effect to the 
plan and regulations prescribed by the Executive Commit- 
tee for the annual fair. 

4. Shall indicate proper places (at one of which he may 
himself preside) for the assembling of Sections of the So- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



557 



ciety every evening-, during the continuance of the fair, to 
hear discussions and conversations on agricultural subjects 
and designate the topics to be considered at each place, — 
and may invite persons eminent for knowledge in practi- 
cal o:- scientific agriculture, or kindred subjects, to address 
said Sections. 

5. Shall preside at all meetings of the Executive Com- 
mittee, and convene special meetings thereof when he may 
deem it necessary, or a quorum of their number request it; 
and, in addition to his vote as member thereof, shall, as 
Chairman, have the casting vote in case of a tie. 

SECTION VII [. 

POWERS AND DUTIES OF VICE PRESIDENTS. 

The Vice Presidents .shall be ex-offipio members of the 
Executive Committee — shall, in the order of their election, 
perform the duties of the President in the absence of that 
< nicer, and shall, in such manner as they may themselves 
determine, preside over the Sections ab ve provided for, to 
be held during the continuance of the annual fair, other 
than that at which the President may elect to preside. 



SECTION IX. 

POWERS. AND DUTIES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

1. The Executive Committee shall hold stated meetings 
at such time as they may fix. 

2. Shrill fill vacancies in their own body, as also in the 
cffice of Secretary and Treasurer. 

3. Shall procure and take charge of all such useful 
models, books, seeds, plants, or other property of the So- 
ciety, as they may deem fit, or may be transmitted to the 
Society, and take order for the proper preservation or dis- 
tribution thereof. 

4. Shall invite communications or essays from men emi- 
nent in agriculture, or in science or art auxiliary thereto: 
shall make provision for an Address to be delivered before 
the Society at large at each annual fair. 

5. Shall prescribe the manner of holding the annual 
fair, in such mode as to them shall seem best, determine 
the objects to which premiums shall be awar ed, and 
the manner in which the same shall be apportioned and 
paid, and generally direct everything appertaining to the 
said fair. 

6. Shall make an annual report to the Farmers' Assem- 
bly, of the condition of the Society, and of any other mat- 
ters they may deem pertinent; and may, at their discre- 
tion, publish such of the proceedings, essays, communica- 
ti.ns, it other matter as they may deem interesting to the 
Society, or calculated to promote its objects. 

7. Shall have power, by a vote of a majority of their 
whole number, to remove the Secretary and Treasurer, 
and appoint another in his stead, toserve till the next meet- 
ing of the Farmers' Assembly, and till his successor be 
appointed ; and shall record and report to said Assembly 
the causes of such removal 

8. Shall, subject to the control of the Farmers' Assem- 
bly, manage the funds of the Society, and direct their dis- 
bursements ; and shall invest all surplus moneys of the 
Society, hereafter received, in State stock. 

9 Shall, in the absence ot' the President and Vice Pre- 
sidents, be authorized to appoint a Chairman pro tem., and 
generally shall dp all acts not inconsistent with the pro- 
visions of this Constitution «r the acts of the Farmers' 
Assembly, which they may deem calculated to advance the 
interest and objects of this Society. 

Five members shall constitute a quorum of said com- 
mittee. 

SECTION X. 

POWERS AND DUTIES OF SECRETARY AND TREASUREr. 

1. The Secretary and Treasurer shall attend all the 
meetings of the Executive Committee, and keep minutes 
of their proceedings. 

2. Shall keep a list of the members of the Society, eras- 
ing therefrom, as occasion arises, the names of members 
dying, withdrawing or removing from the State. 

3. Shall carry on such correspondence with other Socie- 
ties and with individuals as he may deem calculated to 
further the objects of the Society, or as the Executive Com- 
mittee may direct. 



4. Shall collect, by himself or such unpaid or other 
assistants as he may be able to engage, all dues to the So- 
ciety, deposit them, or any other moneys of the Society 
coming to his hands, as received, in such bank as the Exe- 
cutive Committee may direct ; and disburse the same by 
checks drawn by the President, or in his absence by the 
Chairman of the Executive Comt-ittee, and countersigned 
by the said Secretory and Treasurer. 

5. Shall keep regular accounts of all receipts and dis- 
bursements, and report the same to every stated meeting 
of the Executive Committee, and perform all such other 
duties, not specially prescribed herein, as may be required 
of him by the said Committee. 

6. He shall keep an office in the City of Richmond, 
where shall be preserved the records of the Society, nn>l 
whatever else the Executive Committee may direct; which 
office shall be open daily, at convenient times, to the mem- 
bers .of the Society; and 

7. He shall give bond and security in such form, and for 
such sum, as the Executive Committee shall prescribe, 
conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties. 

SECTION XI. 



GENERAL PROVISIONS. 

1. All capital of the Society, now or hereafter invested, 
:hall be held a fund sacred to the cause of Agricultural 
mprovement, of which the income only shall be subject W 

appropriation. 

2. No member of the Farmers' Assembly, nor officer os 
the Society, elected under the th Section of this Constitu- 
tion, except the Secretary and Treasurer, shall receive 
compensation for his services, or any allowance for travel- 
ling or other expenses. 

3. The year of the Society, as regards elections, mem- 
berships, &c , shall be understood to be the calendar year ; 
except that the fiscal year shall terminate on the 30th day 
of September. 

4. Amendments to this Constitution may be made by 
the unanimous vote of the Farmers' Assembly ot any an- 
nual meeting — or if offered at a prior annual meeting, thea 
by a two-thirds vote of the members in attendance. 

Mr. F. Minor, from the Committee appointed 
to confer with the authorities of the State in- 
stitutions of learning as to the practicability 
of establishing at one or more of them a Pro- 
fessorship of Agriculture, tfce., read a report, 
which was laid upon the table and made tli-3 
order of the day immediately after the election 
of officers to-morrow night. 

A motion was made that each speaker should 
be limited to ten minutes in debate to-morrow 
night, which was laid upon the table as the first 
business of the meeting to-morrow evening. 

The Society then adjourned to meet to-mor- 
row night, at 1\ o'clock. 

Thursday Evening, Nov. 1st, 1855. 

The Society met pursuant to adjournment. 

The Secretary being absent, Mr. R. "YV. N. 
Noland was requested to act as Secret aiy pro 
tem. 

The unfinished business of yesterday even- 
ing was taken up. when the following resolu- 
tion, offered by Mr. V. Mason, was adopted : 

Resolved, That from and after the adoption 
of this resolution, no member of this Society 
shall be allowed to speak more than once on 
any one subject, and not longer than ten 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



rzinutes at a time, unless with the unanimous 
consent of the members present. 

Mr. R. W. N. Noland offered the following 
resolution, which was adopted : 

Resolved, That in the election of officers to 
be made to-night, no debate upon the nomina- 
tions shall be considered as in order. 

Mr. Stewart, of Fairfax, moved to reconsider 
the vote by which the new Constitution was 
adopted. 

Mr. S. not having voted in the affirmative 
on the passage of the Constitution, his motion 
was ruled to be out of order by the President. 

Mr. Stewart moved to pass by the order of 
tHe day, (the election of officers,) tor the pre- 
sent, and the question being taken it was lost. 

Mr. Edmund Ruffin, Jr., moved to proceed 
to the election of officers at once, and the ques- 
tion being put, was carried in the affirmative. 

Mr. Edmund P«,uffin, Jr., then nominated 
for the Presidency Mr. Willoughby Newton, 
of Westmoreland. 

Dr. J. K. Woods nominated Mr. Philip St. 
Geo. Cocke as President. 

Mr. Cocke peremptorily declined to serve if 
elected. 

Mr. Lewis E. Harvie was next nominated, 
but declined the use of his name. 

Mr. Vincent Witcher urged the President 
to allow the use of his name, but he again de- 
clined to do so, and trusted the Society would 
proceed quietly and calmly to elect an officer 
in his stead. 

Mr. G. W. Bassett nominated William C. 
Rives, Esq., of Albemarle. 

Mr. Noland moved that the Society elect all 
the present officers for one year longer, and 
put the question, which the President decided 
was voted down. 

On motion, Vincent Witcher, Esq., was 
called to the chair. 

Mr. Ruffin withdrew the name of Mr. New- 
ton. 

Mr. Noland renewed his motion, that all the 
present officers be re-elected for twelve months; 
&nd the question being put, it was carried in 
the affirmative ; so that the officers for the 
present year are : 

President — Philip St. George Cocke, of 
Powhatan. 

Vice Presidents — Edmund Ruffin, Sr., of 
Hanover; Lewis E. Harvie, of Amelia; Wil- 
loughby Newton, of Westmoreland; Thomas 
L. Preston, Washington ; John R. Edmunds, 
of Halifax ; Samuel F. Christian, of Augus- 
ta; and George W. Summers, of Kanawha. 

Executive Committee — William Boulware, 
of King & Queen; William G. Overton, of 
Hanover; William H. Richardson, of Hen 



rico; Richard Irby, of Nottoway; B. John- 
son Barbour, of Orange; William G. Cren- 
shaw, of Richmond; R. H. Dulany, of Lou- 
doun; Hugh M. Nelson, of Clarke; W. M. 
Radford, of Bedford ; and F. G. Ruffin, of 
Chesterfield. 

Secretary and Treasurer — Charles B. Wil- 
liams, of Henrico. 

On motion of Dr. Atkinson, the meeting 
then adjourned. 



THE FOLLOWING PREMIUMS AWARDED AT 
THE THIRD EXHIBITION OF THE VIRGINIA 
SATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Were anneunced from the stand on Friday 

the 2d of Novenber. 

Branch I. 

Premiums on Experiments. 

No. 6. For experiments in 1854 and 1855, 
in ascertaining damage done to corn by cutting 
off tops and pulling fodder 12 or 14 days 
earlier than usual, to Dr. R. Harrison, of 
Prince George, $25. 

Branch II. 
Essays or Written Communications. 

For essay on the soils of the Valley of Vir- 
ginia, to Prof. Wm. Gilliam, of Va. Military 
Institute, $50. 

Best essay on irrigation, to Wellington 
Gordon, Louisa, $50. 

2nd grade, sheep husbandry, to S. F. 
Christian, Augusta, $20. 

2nd grade, guano as a permanent fertiliser, 
to Dr. P. B. Pendleton, Louisa, $20. 

3rd grade, blue clay and sheep sorrel, to Ro. 
Harrison, Prince George, $10. 

Branch III. 

Best entire Crops of different Farms. 

For the best crop of clover, to Garland 
Hanes, Henrico, $20. 

For the best crop of oats, to Garland 
Hanes, Henrico, $20. 

For the best crop of turnips, to Billy W. 
Talley, Hanover, $20. 

For the best crop of corn, to Dr. E. P. White, 
Caroline, $20. 

For the best crop of wheat, to Dr. J. A. 
Chandler, Caroline, $20. 

Branch IV. 

Thorough Bred Horses. 

96. For best thorough bred stallion, Red 
Eye, to John Belcher, $50. 

97. 2nd best imported horse Don John, to 
A. T. B. Merritt, $25. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



359 



98. For best mare, Sarah Washington, to 
Thos. W. Doswell, $20. 

99. 2nd best mare, Nina, by Boston, to T. 
W. Doswell, 610. 

100. For best 3 year old colt or filly, bay 
colt by Childe Harrold, dam by Priam, to D. 
W. Haxall, $15. 

10!. For best 2 year old colt or filly, black 
colt by Childe Harrold, to W. D. Sims, $15. 

102. For best one year old colt or filly, bay 
colt by Childe Harrold, dam Sarah* Washing- 
ton, to Thos. W. Doswell, §10. 

Quick Draught Horses. 

104. Best stallion, Kossuth, to Henry J- 
Smith, §50. 

105. 2nd best, Ticonderoga, to Franklin 
Felton, $25. 

106. Best brood mare for quick draught, to 
John R. Allen, Richmond, $20. 

107. 2nd best do. Lilly, to Franklin Felton, 
$10. 

108. Best pair of matched horses for quick 
draught, to E. J. Burnett, Richmond, $30. 

109. For 2nd best pair do. to Henry An- 
derson, $15. 

1 10. For best single harness horse, mare or 
gelding, Black Hawk, to Wm. Taylor, $15. 

111. For 2nd best do. Lady, to Dr. Walke, 
Chesterfield, $10. 

112. For best 3 year old colt or filly, to P. 
St. Geo. Cocke, $15. 

1 1 3. For best 2 year old colt or filly, to W. 
D. Johnson, $15. 

1)4. For best 1 year old colt or filly, to 
Alex. Kerr, $10. 

115. For best suckling colt, a colt by Kos- 
euth, to Jno. T. Barksdale, $5. 

Heavy Draught Horses. 

1 1 6. For best stallion for heavy draught, 
Rattler, 6 years old, to Jos. D. Reynolds, 
Orange, $50. 

117. For 2nd best stallion, Morgan Cham- 
pion, to B. W. Green, $25. 

1 1 8. For best brood mare for heavy draught, 
bay mare, to H. H. Wyans, $20. 

120. For best pair of heavy draught horses, 
to Geo. Mowry, Augusta, $20. 

121. For best team of heavy draught horses, 
to Jno. W. Hurt, $20. 

Saddle Horses. 

1 26. For best stallion for saddle, for Bailie, 
to Foster & Crump, $50. 

127. For 2nd best do. for Cleveland Bay, 
Vj Geo. Puraell, %l5. 

128. For best brood mare for saddle, for 
Katy, to H. M. Folks, Chesterfield, $20. 



129. For 2nd best do. for Fashion, to Wm. 
Mansfield, Louisa, $10. 

130. For best saddle horse, mare or gelding, 
to R. Ragland, Petersburg, $15. 

131. For best 3 year old colt or filly, to Dr. 
R, H. Cabell, Richmond, $15. 

132. For best 2 year old colt or filly, to W. 
J. Carpenter, Hanover, $15. 

133. For best 1 year old colt or filly, to W. 
Thomas Pollard, Hanover, $10. 

1 34. For best sucking colt, to Wm. Allen, 
Surry, $5. 

Mules and Jacks. 

135. For best Jack, for Columbus, 6 years 
old, to Nimrod Branham, Albemarle. $50. 

136. For 2nd best, for Mamraduke, 3 years, 
to B. Marable, $20. 

137. For best Jennet, for Virginia, 13 years, 
to Nimrod Branham, $20. 

138. For 2nd best Jennet, to J. M. Botts, 
Henrico, $10. 

139. For best pair of mules, to be owned 
and worked 1 year preceding their exhibition, 
to K.euben Ragland, Petersburg, $20. 

140. For best team of mules, 4 or more, to 
be owned and worked 1 year preceding their 
exhibition, (team of 6 mules,) to H. T. Talia- 
ferro, Richmond, $30. 

141. For best mule colt, 3 years old, foaled 
in Virginia, Edmund Winston, Hanover, $15. 

Cattle. 

Short Horns or Durhams and, Hcrefords, 3 
years old and upivards. 

145. For the best bull, for Norfolk, 5 years 
old, to Mathews & Saunders, $30. 

146. For 2nd best bull, for Kirkleaventon, 
3 years old, to Dulaney & Irvine, $15. 

147. For 3rd best bull, for Red Rover, -I 
years, to Wm. C. Rives, $8. 

148. For the best cow, for Ellen Kirby, 8 
years, to Mathews &, Saunders, $30. 

150. For 3rd best cow, for Aurora, 3 years 
old, to R. H. Dulaney, $8. 

Under 3 years old. 

154. For best bull between 1 and 2 years 
old, for Highlander, to Mathews & Saunders, 
$15. 

155. For 2nd best bull between 1 and 2 
years old, for Jordan, to Mathews & Saunders, 
$8. 

1 56. For best heifer between 2 and 3 years 
old, for Flora, to Wm. B. Preston, $15. 

157. For 2nd best heifer between 2 and 3 
years, old to Mathews & Saunders, $8. 

158. For best heifer between 1 and 2 years 



330 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



old, for May Flower, to Mathews & Saunders. 
#15. 

159. For 2nd best heifer between 1 and 

2 years old, for Rose of Alleghany, to Mathews 
&j Saunders, $8. 

[The committee take pleasure in reporting 
that the exhibition of Durham stock on the 
present occasion evinces a marked improvement 
oa previous exhibitions. The character of the 
stock is generally of the highest order, and 
showing marked attention on the part of the 
breeders to purity of blood, and to the devel- 
opcment of the most valuable points both for 
the dairy and the shambles.] 

Dcvons and Aldcrncys over 3 years old. 

160. For best Devon bull over 3 years old, 
to P. B. Pendleton, Louisa county, $30. 

161. For 2nd best do. do. to P. W. 
Dudley, Spottsylvania, $15. 

162. For 3rd best do. do. to Roger 
B.iooke, Jr., Maryland, $8. 

163. For best Devon cow, 3 years old and 
upwards, to T. W. Stonestreet, Maryland, $30. 

164. For 2nd best cow do. to Roger Brooke, 
Jr.. Maryland, $15. 

165. For 3rd best cow do. to A. B. Hutch- 
inson, Richmond, $8. 

Tinder 3 years old. 

169. For best Devon bull between 1 and 2 
years old, to Alex. Garrett, Louisa, $15. 

170. For 2nd best do. do. to T. W. Stone- 
etreet, Maryland, $3. 

171. For best Devon heifer between 2 and 

3 years old, to Dr. P. B. Pendleton, Louisa, 
#15, 

172. For 2nd best do. do. to Philip St. 
Geo. Cocke, $8. 

173. For best Devon heifer between 1 and 
2 years, to T. W. Stonestreet, Maryland, $15. 

174. For 2nd best do. do. do. do. $8. 

Ayrshires and HolstHns over 3 years old. 

178. For best Ayrshire cow over 3 years 
old, for Christmas, 10 years, to Peter Glenn, 
$30. 

Natives or Grades. 

190. For the best bull, 3 years old and up- 
wards, for Ben Bolt, to Thos. L. Farish, $30. 

191. For 2nd best do. to P. St. Geo. Cocke, 
$15. 

192. For 3rd best do. to C. G. Coleman, $8. 

196. For best bull between 1 and 2 years 
for Bellmont, to S. W. Ficklin, $15. 

197. For 2nd best do. for Romeo, to W. C. 
Rives, $8. 

198. For best cow 3 years old and upwards, 
to John L. Harrison, $30. 



199. For 2nd best cow do. Beauty, to Tho- 
mas L. Farish, $15. 

200. For 3rd best cow do. to S. W. Fick- 
lin, $8. 

201. For best heifer between 2 and 3 years 
old. to Dr. John R. Woods, $15. 

202. For 2nd best do. do. to R. B. Haxall, 
$8. 

203. For 3rd best do. do. to R, B. Haxall, 
$5. 

204. For the best heifer between 1 and 2 
years old, for Jenny Lind, to John L. Harri- 
son, $15. 

205. For 2nd best heifer between 1 and 
2 years old, for Pink, to W. C. Rives, $8. 

Working Oxen. 

238. For best yoke of working oxen over 4 
years old, to Blair Burwell, Powhatan, $30. 

239. For 2nd best do. do. to A. C. Crump, 
Powhatan, $15. 

Dairy Cows. 

236. For the best cow for the dairy, for 
Starr, to Wm. B. Preston, $30. 

Fat Stock. 

242. For best pair of fat steers, to Gordon 
C. Kent, $30. 

243. For the best fat cow, to James R. 
Kent, Montgomery, $15. 

244. For the best fat heifer, to David Mc- 
Gavock, Pulaski, $10. 

246. For the best pen of fat sheep, 4 or 
more, to John Lindsey, $15. 

Slaughtered Stock. 

249. For the best carcass of slaughtered 
sheep, to Jno. B. Coles, of Nelson, $10. 

Sheep — Fine Wools, Saxotis and their 
Grades. 

251. For the best buck, to Dr. H. W. 
Chaplin, $20. 

252. For the 2nd best buck, to do. do. $10. 

253. For the 3rd best buck, to do. do. $5. 

254. For the best pen of ewes, 3 or more 
to do. do. $20. 

Merinos and their Grades. 

260. For the best buck, to S. S. Bradford, 
Culpeper, $20. 

261. For the 2nd best buck, to A. G. 
Christian, Augusta, $10. 

262. For the 3rd best buck, to A. N. Doane, 
Prince William, $5. 

263. For best pen of ewes, 3 or more, to 
Rev. A. D. Pollock, Fauquier, $20. 

264. For 2nd best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 
to A. G. Christian, Augusta, $10. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



361 



. 265. For 3rd best pen of Ewes, 3 or more 
to S. S. Bradford, Culpeper, $5. 

266. For best pen of ewe lambs, 4 or more 
to Dr. Wra. A. Wight, Goochland, $5. 

267. For best pen of buck lanibs, 4 or 
more, to do. do. $5. 

268. For the best carcass of mutton of this- 
breed, to A. G. Christian, Augusta, $5. 

Middle Wools ; South Downs and their 
Grades. s 

269. For the best buck, to Richard H. 
Dulany, $20. 

270. For the 2nd best buck, to do. do. $10. 

271. For the 3rd best buck, to do. do. $5. 

272. For the best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 
to do. do. 320. 

273. For 2nd best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 
to do. do. 810. 

274. For 3rd best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 
to do. do. $5. 

Long Wools. 

277 '. For the best buck, native, to Dr. John 
R. Woods, 820. 

278. 2nd best imported Cotswold, to R. H. 
Dulany, 810. 

279' 3rd do. do. to J. W. Ware, $5. 

280. For best pair of ewes, 3 or more, Ox- 
ford-down, to William C. Rives, 820. 

281. For 2nd best do. do. imported Cots- 
wold, to J. W. Ware, 810. 

282. For 3rd do. do. do. grade, to J. R. 
Woods, 85. 

283. For best pen of buck lambs, 4 or more, 
to William C. Rives, 85. 

284. For best pen of ewes, 4 or more, to 
James Newman, $5. 

Cross Breeds. 

286. For 2nd best buck, to W. D. Sims, 
$10. 

288. For best pen of ewes, 3 or more, to 
Dr. J. R. Woods, 820. 

289. For 2nd best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 
to R. H. Dulany, 8 1 0. 

290. For 3rd best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 
to Vv r m. D. Sims, 85 

29 i . For best pen of ewe lambs, 4 or more, 
to William C. Rives, 85. 

292. For the best pen of buck lambs, 4 or 
more, to William C. Rives, 85. 

Foreign Sheep. 

293. For best imported Cotswold buck, to 
Col. -J. W. Ware, $20. 

293. For 2nd best do. do. to R, H. Dula- 
ny, 8 0. 

293. For best imported Cotswold ewe, to 
Col. J. W. Ware, 820. 



293. For 2nd best do. do. to do. do. 810. 

294. For best South Down ewe, to R. H; 
Dulany, $20. 

294. For 2nd best do. do. to do. do. 810. 

295. For best Oxford buck, to William C. 
Rives, $20. 

295. For best Oxford-down ewe, to do. $ 10. 

295. For 2nd best Oxford-down ewe, to do. 
$10. 

296. For best Saxon buck, to Dr. H. W. 
Chaplin, $20. 

Swine — Large Breed. 

297. For best boar over 2 years old, (Chi- 
nese and Chester, 2^ years,) to Peyton John- 
ston, $20. 

298. For 2nd best boar over 2 years old, 
(Irish Grazier and Berkshire 3|- years,) to 
Valentine Heckler, $10. 

299. For the best boar one year old, for 
Norfolk and Cheshire boar, to J. Sinton, $15. 

300. For 2nd best do. one year old, Chester 
county boar, to Dr. J. R. Woods, $8. 

301. For best boar over 6 months and 
under one year old, Berkshire, to R. H. Du- 
lany, $15. 

302. For 2nd best do. do. Surry, to Fendail 
Griffin, $8. 

303. For best breeding sow over 2 years 
old, (Delaware, Russia and Chester, 4 year.3 
old,) to Dr. J. R, Woods, $20. 

304. For 2nd best do. do. Norfolk, 9A 
years, to Peyton Johnston, $10. 

305. For best sow not legs than 6 and under 
18 months old, Berkshire 10 months, to R. 11. 
Dulany, $15. 

306. For 2nd best do. do. Surry, 8 months, 
to Fendail Griffin, $8. 

307. For best lot of pigs, not less than 2 
and under 5 months old, Delaware and Russia, 
5 months, to Dr. J. R. Woods, $20. 

308. For 2nd best do. do. to Dr. J. 31. 
Woods, $10. 

Additional Premiums to Premium Animals 

321. For the best bull of three years old, 
or more of any breed on exhibition, Durham 
bull, Norfolk, 6 years, to Mathews & Saun- 
ders, $20. 

322. For best cow of any breed on exhibi- 
tion (Durham cow, Ellen Kirby,) 8 years, to 
Mathews & Saunders, $20. 

323.. For best stallion of any breed on ex- 
hibition. (Red Eye by Boston,) to John Bel- 
cher, $20. 

324. For best brood mare of any breed on 
exhibition, (Nina by Boston,) to Thomas W. 
Doswell, $20. • 

325. For best buck of any breed on exhi- 



362 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



bition, (Cotswold buck.) to Col. J. W. Ware, 
810. 

326. For the best ewe of any breed on do. 
(Cotswold ewe,) to Col. J. W. Ware, $10. 

327. For the best boar of any breed on ex- 
hibition, Cheshire and Chester boar, to Peyton 
Johnston, $10. 

328. For the best breeding sow of any breed 
on exhibition, Delaware, Russia and Chester, 
to Dr. John R. Woods, $10. 

Poultry. 

329. For best pair (male and female) of the 
most profitable breed of chickens, Bengal and 
English Game, to James Duke, $10. 

330. For 2nd best pair do. do. Chittagong, 
to Jeremiah Porter, $7. 

331. For 3rd best do. do. Ebon Sumatra 
Game, to T. S. Wooldridge, $5. 

332. For best pair of turkeys, half wild, to 
John G. Lumpkin, $5. 

333. For best pair most profitable breed of 
geese, white geese, to James Devlin, $5. 

334. For 2nd best pair do. do. to John G. 
Lumpkin, $3. 

335 For best pair of ducks of the most 
profitable breed, Black Salem, to Geo. W. 
King, $5. 

336. For 2nd best pair do. do. Aylesburry 
White, to T. S. Wooldridge, $3. 

Branch V. 
Class 1. — Ploughs, Cultivators, SfC. 

339. For best single plough, to G. Watt 
&Co.,$8, ^ S 

340. For best shovel plough, to Nelson & 
Mott, $8. 

341. For best sub-soil plough, to J. J. Hite, 

342. For best new ground plough, to Geo. 
Watt & Co. $5. 

' 343. For best hill side plough, to IT. M. 
Smith, $5. 

344. For the best cultivator of corn, to H. 
M. Smith, $6. 

345. For the best cultivator of tobacco, to 
Nelson & Mott, $6. 

346. For the best cultivator for two horses, 
to Nelson & M ott, $6. 

347. For best harrow, to do. do. $8. 

348. For best treble, double and single 
trees, to do; do. $5. 

Class 2. — Drills and Broadcasters. 

350. For the best wheat drill, to Bickford 
& Huffman, $30. 

355. For the best attachment to drill for 
drilling guano, to Wm. A. Suddith, $15. 



Class 3. — Vehicles and their Incidents and 
Boilers. 

357. For the best wagon for farm use, (4 
horse wagon.) to John W. Hurt, $20. 

360. For best set of wagon harness, to John 
W. Hurt, $8. 

' 367. For best smooth roller, to H. M. 
Smith, $20. 

368. For best pegged roller, to H. M. 
Smith, $30. 

Class 4. — Horse Poivers, Threshers and 
Separators. 

371. For the best sweep horse power, to H. 
M. Smith, $30. 

372. For 2nd best do. do. to Baldwin, 
Cardwell & Co. $10. 

374. For the best threshing machine, to H. 
M. Smith, $15. 

375. For the best machine for threshing, 
cleansing and separating wheat at one opera- 
tion, to H. M. Smith, $20. 

376. For best separator or straw carrier, to 
Nelson & Mott, $5. 

Class 5. — Straw and Boot Cutters, Corn- 
shellers and Mills. 

377. For the best hay or straw cutter for 
horse power, to H. M. Smith, $10. 

378. For the best hay or straw putter for 
hand power, to H. M. Smith, $10. 

379. For the best corn-sheller for horse 
power, to H. M. Smith, $10. 

380. For. the best corn-sheller for hand 
power, to H. M. Smith, $10 

381. For best grist mill for horsepower, 
Woodruff's patent, to Rix & Mayer, $10. 

382. For best hominy mill, to B. Briden- 
dolph, $5. 

384. For the best corn and cob crusher, to 
Robins & Bibb, $10. 

Class 6. — Miscellaneous. 

386. For the best fanning mill, to Doyle & 
Sullinger, $15. 

388. For best stump machine, to Leroy R. 
Grant, $15. 

391. For the best hay fork, to H. M. Smith, 
$3. 

393. For the best dung fork and hoe, to H. 
M. Smith, $2. 

Class 7. — Miscellaneous. 
397! For the best levelling instrument, suita- 
ble for draining operations, to Dr. J. V Hob- 
son, $10. 

■ 399. For the best churn, to Harrison & 
Gallaher, $4. 

402. For the best washing machine, to 
King's Railway Machine, $2. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



363 



Agricultural Steam Engine. 

404. For best steam eDgine, (on wheels,) 
applicable to agricultural purposes generally, 
as a substitute for horse power, $50. 

The committee have been gratified to find a 
much larger number of steam engines on ex- 
hibition than on any former occasion — there 
being no less than five in operation on the 
grounds. These engines are all manufactured 
and exhibited by citizens of Eichmond, and 
are highly creditable to their makers, but only 
two of them seem to have been gotten up with 
a view to their adaptation to agricultural pur- 
poses, or a substitute for horse power. Messrs. 
Anderson, Delany & Co. are the makers and 
exhibitors of a sixteen horse power, and M'.ssrs. 
Talbott & Brother of a ten horse power, either 
of which will in the opinion of the committee 
not only afford a perfect and convenient sub- 
stitute for horse power, but will give a power 
so much superior, that but few years must 
elapse before steam will displace horse ma- 
chinery on all good and well regulated farms. 

The committee award the premium of §50 
equally to Messrs. Talbott & Bro. and Messrs. 
Anderson Delany & Co. §25 to each. 

For most extensive collection of Machines, fyc. 

405. For most extensive and valuable col- 
lection of useful machines and implements ex- 
hibited and made at any one factory, whether 
including subjects for other premiums or not, 
to H.M.Smith, $25. 

Ploughing Match and trial of Ploughs. 

407. For best two horse plough for clay 
land, as shown by work actually performed, 
and the test of the dynamometer, to "Wilson, 
Smithers & Barns, $20. 

409. For best 3 or 4 horse do. do. to George 
Watt & Co., $20. 

410. For the best ploughman with horses, 
to William Sheperson, $10. 

411. For 2nd best do. do. to Ben, a servant 
entered by Wilson, Smithers & Burns, $5. 

Branch VI. 
Traits and Fruit Trees. 

±\7. For the best and largest variety of 
apples suitable for Southern raising, each 
labelled, to Geo. W. Toombs, $10. 

4 1 8. For best and largest variety of pears, 
to Jos. Sinton & Sons, $8. 

4 i 9. For greatest number of choice varie- 
ties of different kinds of fruit, to Dr. Paul C. 
Venable. 

420. For best and largest collection of ap- 
ple trees, suitable for Southern raising, to Jos. 
Sinton &Sons, $10. 



421. For best pear trees, to Jos. Rennie, 
$10. 

422. For best peach trees, to Jos. Sinton & 
Sons, $10. 

423. For best grape vines, to James Via, $5. 

424. For best strawberry vines, to James 
Via, $3. 

Flowers. 

426. For the largest and choicest variety of 
flowers, to Mr Eggeling, Richmond, $10. 

430. For the best floral ornament, to do $5. 

431. For the best and largest variety of 
green house plants, to do $5. 

Vegetables. 

432. For largest and best assortment of 
table vegetables, to Frank Staples, $10. 

433. For the best dozen long blood beets, 
to H. J. Smith, $3. 

434. For the best dozen head of cabbage, 
to Joseph Retime, $3. 

435. For the best dozen carrots, to A. S, 
Sfcorrs, $3. 

437. For the best peck of onions, to Lewis 
Daily, $3. 

438. For the best dozen parsnips, to A. S. 
Stoors, $3. 

439. For the best bushel Irish potatoes, to 
J. C Burton, $3. 

440. For the best bushel sweet potatoes, to 
Frank Staples, $3. 

Branch VII. 

Butter and Cheese. 

441. For the best specimen of fresh butter, 
not less than ten pounds, to Mrs. M. McCaw,. 
$10. 

442. For 2nd best do. not less than five 
pounds, to Mrs A. Banbeck, exhibited by 
Hulst & King, $5. 

443. For best firkin or tub of salted butter, 
not less than 6 months old, to Mrs. Gamble, ex- 
hibited by J. H Walke & Co. $20. 

444. For 2nd best do. do. do. to Mrs. Lewis 
Baily, $10. 

445. For the best cheese, not less than 20 
pounds, to A. S. Lee, $10. 

Honey and Bee Hives. 

347. For the best bee hive, to Henry Gray, 
$10. 

Bacon Hams. 

448. For best ham cured by exhibitor, to 
Mrs. Ro. A Mayo, Henrico, $10. 

Household Manufactures. 

450. For the best quilt, to Mrs. Bumgard- 
ner, $5. 



364 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



451. For 2nd best do to Mrs Jno. Ruff, $4. 

452. For the best counterpane, to Mrs. 
Hightower, $5. 

453. For 2nd best do. to Mrs. Joel Cren- 
shaw, $4. 

454 For best pair home made blankets, to 
Mrs Boulware,- $5. 

455. For the best home made carpet, to 
Mrs Fanny Feild, $5. 

460. For best piece, not less than 10 yards 
winter clothing foi negroes, to be woven by 
hand, to Mrs. Patterson, $5. 

461. For the best piece heavy woollen jeans, 
to be woven by hand, to Mrs. Ro. Gray, $5. 

462. For 2nd best piece do. do. to Mrs. 0. 
T. Ellett, $3. 

463. For best specimen gf lindsey, not less 
than 7 yards, to be woven by hand, to Mrs. R 
H. Allen, $5. 

464. For 2nd best do. do. to Mrs. Lucy 
Barbour, $3. 

465. For best fine long yarn hose, to Mrs. 
F. Johnson, $3. 

466 For best fine long cotton hose, to Mrs. 
E. S M. Walker, $3. 

467. For best silk do. of home made silk, to 
Mrs John Sanders, $5. 

468. For best specimen of home made wine, 
to R. G- Tunstall, $5. 

469 For best home made bread, to Lawson 
Nunnally, $5 

470. For best home made pound cake, to 
Mrs. Joseph C. Burton, $3. 

471 For best home made sponge cake, to 
Mrs. S. Mitchell, $3. 

472. For best varieties of home made pic- 
kles, to Mrs E S. Taliaferro, $3. 

473 For best varieties home made pre- 
serves, to Mrs M. Cobbs, §3. 

474. For the best varieties home made fruit 
jelly, to Mrs. J. C Spotts, $3. 

475. For best sample home made soap, to 
Mrs. Lucy Miller, $5. 

Ladies Ornamental and Fancy Work. 

476 For best specimen of embroidery, to 
Mrs Scott, Dinwiddle, $3. 

477. For 2nd best do. do. to Miss Shelton, 
$6 

479. For best specimen of worsted work, to 
Mrs. Allen, of Surry, $8. 

480. For 2nd best do. do. do. to Mrs. Gard- 
ner, $6. 

481. For 3rd best do. do. do. to Miss J. 
Bruce Williams, $4 

482. For best specimen of crotched work, 
to Mrs. Waddell, $8. 

483 For 2nd best do. do. do. to Mrs. E S. 
Taliaferro, $6. 



484. For 3rd best do. do. do. to Mrs. Mary 
Coalter, $4. 

485. For best specimen of was work, to 
Miss Lucy Crouch, $8. 

486. For 2nd best do. do. to Miss Julia 
Turpin, $6. 

488. For best specimen of shell work, to 
Mrs. G. W. Deems, $8. 

491. For best specimen of ornamental 
leather work, to Miss J. H. Mayo, $8. 

492. For 2nd best do. do. do. to Mrs. Tal- 
cott, $6. 

494 For best specimen of block work, to 
Miss Virginia Watson, $8. 

495 For 2nd best do. do. to Miss L. Gor- 
don, $6. 

496. For 3rd best do. do. to Miss Jane C. 
Randolph, $4. 

497. For best specimen of knitting, to Mrs. 
M. C. Richardson, $8. 

498. For 2nd best do. do. to Mrs Bernard, 
$6. 

500 For best specimen of netting, to Mrs. 
Fulcher, $8. 

501. For 2nd best do. do. to Miss Isabella 
Gray, $6. 

502. For 3rd best do do. to Mrs. L. Harris, 
$4. 

503. For the most extensive variety of use- 
ful, ornamental and fancy work, not excluding 
articles which may have had premiums awarded 
them under any of the above specifications, to 
Mrs. Chaplin, of Wheeling, $10. 

Domestic Manufactures. 

504. For the best family flour, 
Gardner, Montgomery county, $10.^ 

Your committee award the premium for the 
best family flour to J R. Gardner, of Mont- 
gomery county, Va , brand " Fancy Mills." 
We further make mention of flour exhibited 
by George R Pike, of Falmouth, Va , and D. 
J. Houston, of county, brand, " An- 
thony J Rapp," as being of superior quality. 

508. For best piece of woollens, to Mrs. 
Jas. M. Patterson, $5. 

509 For best piece of cotton cloth, to Mrs 
Partlow, $5. 

511. For the best and greatest variety of 
coarse, strong and cheap shoes, to H. W. 
Quarlcs. $10. 

512 For the best and cheapest wool hats, 
to do. $5. 

Branch VIII. 
Honorary Testimonials 

To each individual of Virginia who pre- 
vious to 1854 has discovered, or introduced, or 
brought into use any principle, process or 



to J. R. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



365 



facility, or generally any improvement by* which 
important value has been gained for the agri- 
cultural interests of Virginia. 

1st Rev. Jesse S. Armistead, of Cumber- 
land, for a specific manure for tobacco; an ac- 
count of which may be seen in Southern Plan- 
ter for April and June, 1853. 

2d Mr. Thos F. Nelson, of Clarke county 
In relation to the error of guano destroying 
the germ of any seed grain in which it may 
come in contact. 

Branch IX. 

Special Premiums. 

516. For the best brooms and brushes 
made of broom corn, grown and manufactured 
in Virginia, at a factory still in operation, and 
conducted in approved manner and with pro- 
fitable results, a premium of $100 to Look & 
Lincoln of Montgomery county. 

'fyST Proof of the above to be furnished by 
Messrs Look & Lincoln. 

526. For the model, drawing and description 
of the best kind of tide-gj.te or trunk, for dis- 
charging the water from reclaimed marshes or 
other diked low land, and excluding the en- 
trance of the higher water (at other times) of 
tides or freshets, a premium of §20 to J. T. 
Redd, of Henrico. 

530 For the best plan of farm buildings, 
including barn, stable, cow shelters, &c , in 
reference to the comfort of the animals, econo- 
my of construction, and of labor and food, and 
to the accumulation and preservation of ma- 
nures, both solid and liquid, to be accompanied 
by full and accurate descriptions and drawings, 
to Samuel F. Christian, of Augusta county, 
$50. 

Discretionary Premiums. 

For 1 Durham bull -alf, 6 months old, to 
William Ballard Preston, $5. 

For 1 Durham bull calf, 5 months old, to 
Mathews & Saunders, $5. 

For 1 Cleveland stallion, 4 year3 old, for 
all uses, to Wm. C. Rives, $25. 

For 1 horse, (Bowser,) for great speed and 
perfect work, to J. L. Nottingham, $20. 

For 4 superior South Downs, to R. H. Du- 
lany, $5. 

For 3 fine capons, to H. J. Smith, $3. 

For 1 churn, (made with one hand,) to De- 
metrius Johnson, $1. 

For a specimen of sewing silk, to Miss Bet- 
sy Benson, $2. 

For 3 pair of ladies gaiters, to Mrs Jos. C. 
Burton, $3. 

For a box of edged tools, to Royal Allen, 
$8. 



For a patent fire place, to John F. Snyder, 
$10. 

For 4 circular, 5 hand, 1 cross-cut and 1 
hand saw, to Henry R. Burger & Co. $10. 

They further report that they consider the 
following subjects as deserving of special com- 
mendation, viz : 

A fine Khasibull, belonging to J. R. Woods. 

A 7 months old Khasi heifer, belonging to 
Lewis F. Bailey. 

One short horned Durham heifer calf, 4- 
months old, belonging to R. H Dulany. 

A self-yielding tyne, belonging to J. D. 
Willoughby. 

Best supply of catsup and sauces, belonging 
to Mrs Nuckles. 

Best lot of celery, belonging to Jno. Mutter. 

Best pumpkin, (weight 100 pounds,) belong- 
ing to A Stower. 

Two bushels Ruta Baga and White Norfolk 
turnips, belonging to Billy W. Tally. 

Lot of lemons, belonging to Miss R Light 
foot. 

Jar of cranberrys from Hanover county, 
belonging to Miss Lucy H Ball. 

A beautiful case of clothing, belonging to 
Groshong, Tupman & Co. 

One case of feather flowers, belonging to 
Mrs. E S Taliaferro 

Stand— imitation papier machie, belonging to 
Mrs. George Reid. 

One fine 4 horse wagon, belonging to John 
W. Hurt. 

One farm wagon, belonging to B. A. Nance. 

A specimen of Botetourt marble and work- 
manship, and Chesterfield granite and do. be- 
longing to John W. Davies. • 

Specimen of marble work, belonging to Jno. 
B Gaddes, Lynchburg. 

Two splendid French coaches, belonging to 
Alfred King. 

A beautiful Bible and ledger, belonging to 
J. W. Randolph. 

A lot of cement piping, belonging to J. B. 
& W. F. Poague,of Rockbridge. 



Premium Pejiort on Wheat Reaper and 
Mower. 
Specifications 414 to 416, inclusive. 
Judges — James Galt, Fluvanna. 

John R. Edmunds, Halifax. 

414. For the best wheat reaper, to be tested 
in such manner and at such place as the 
Executive Committee shall designate, a pre- 
mium of $50. 

415. For the best machine for mowmg 
clover and grass, to be tested as above stated, 
a premium of $50. 



$66 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



416. For the best reaping and mowing 
machine in one, a premium of $50. 

The Committee appointed to receive and 
test reapers and mowers by actual trial in the 
field, have to report that none were sent to 
them for trial. 

The Committee beg to suggest to the So- 
ciety, that in their opinion, it would be better, 
as less expensive and more convenient to the 
. manufacturers and agents of these machines, 
if the subsequent Committee were appointed 
from the neighborhood of the city of Rich- 
mond. While suggesting this, the members 

Go © ? 

of the Committee are, as they have always 
been, ready to afford every facility to those 
sending machines to them for trial. 

The Committee have examined the different 
machines exhibited, McCormick's, Manny's, 
and two self-raking, Palmer & Williams', 
and Wingfield's, all of which they believe have 
been tested here or elsewhere, and have 
proved valuable aids to the farmer. 

They would call the attention of the So- 
ciety to a new Reaper and Mower, a Virginia 
invention, patented by Robert J. Morrison, 
Esq., of the city of Richmond, differing in 
some important respects from others, which, 
after a careful examination they believe will 
prove a valuable machine. Among other im- 
provements, they would mention the covering 
and protection of the driving power from dirt, 
&c, preventing wear and tear and clogging. 
The facility with which it can be thrown out 
of gear, the peculiarity of the cutter, the 
upper lid having a slight vertical motion, but 
no lateral, forming scissors without a pivot, 
cleaning the cutter, and at the same time 
opposing a cutting edge to the cutting edge of 
the knife, &c. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

James Galt, Chairman. 

Nov. 1st, 1855. 



Report of the Committee on Essays for the 
Prize of $100. 

Prize of $100 for the best essay " On the 
connection of moral and agricultural improve- 
ment, and their reciprocal operation and 
effects." 

Four essays were submitted to the Commit- 
tee. Three of them, though distinguished by 
a high degree of merit both in style and seuti 
ment, appeared to the Committee not to re 
spond entirely to the terms of the proposition 
Suggested for discussion. That proposition, 
as the Committee conceive, is not so much the 
tendency in general of agricultural pursuits 



and rural life to promote good moral disposi- 
tions, habits and principle — in which aspect 
mainly the subject is treated by the three essays 
referred to — as the particular and reciprocal 
relation existing between an improved agricul- 
ture and improved morals; or, in other words, 
the tendency of improvement in agriculture to 
promote improvement in morals, and vice versa 
the tendency of improvement in morals to 
promote improvement in agriculture. It is 
this latter and specific sense in which the sub- 
ject is treated by the fourth essay, and treated 
with great closeness and logical precision, as 
far as the essay goes ; but as the writer him- 
self professes not to treat the subject fully, 
but only to throw out a few hints and sug- 
gestions upon it, the Committee have concluded 
that, in justice to the presumed views and 
intention of the proposer of the prize, it 
should be left open for farther competition on 
the part of the same writers, if they should 
think proper to pursue the discussion, as well 
as others who may be inclined to enter into it. 
The Committee recommend as a rule to be 
observed in the future competition for this 
prize, and all others of a similar character, 
that the competitors send in their essays under 
fictitious names, accompanied with their real 
names in corresponding sealed envelopes, which 
letter shall be opened only in the case of the 
successful competitor. 

W. C. Rives, 
B. J. Barboue. 



THE TAMARIND NOT GROWING IN WIN- 
CHESTER. 

In a late- No of the Planter, is an article 
taken from the Patent Office Report, stating 
that the tamarind tree is growing in Winches- 
ter, Va. This is no doubt incorrect. Wm. 
R. Prince, the well known nurseyman of 
Flushing, Long Island, referring to this report 

says " It is not true . that the tamarind is 

orowin"- in Virginia; it is too tender to stand 
their mildest winters." My son, Oliver Tay- 
lor, being in Winchester on business some 
time since, made enquiries respecting it, and 
was shown a tree that they called the tamarind, 
but which he immediately recognized as the 
honey locust, (the Sweet Locust, Gleditchh 
Triacanthos of Michaux.) 

Yardley Taylor. 



BUTTER MAKING. 

The newer and sweeter the cream, the sweeter 
and higher flavored will be the butter. 

The cream should not remain on ihe milk over 
thin y-six hours. 

Use nearly an ounce of salt to a pound of 
butter. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



367 




THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1855. 



TERMS. 

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which may be discharged by the payment of One Dollar 
enly, 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. 

J3F" No subscription received for a less time than one 
year. 

fSF*" Subscriptions may begin with any number. 

J^p* No paper will be discontinued until all arrearages 
are paid, except at the option of the Editor. 

£2^" Office corner Main and Twelfth steets. 
ADVERTISEMENTS. 

A limited number will be inserted at the following rates: 
For each square of ten lines, first insertion, One Dollar; 
each continuance, Seventy-five Cents. Advertisements 
out of the City must be accompanied with the money, to 
iasure their insertion. 

^^" It is indispensably necessary that subscribers or- 
dering a change should say from what to what post office 
they wish the alteration made. It will save time to us and 
lose none to them. 



' Postage on the Southern Planter, (when paid in 
advance,) to any part of the United States one cent and 
half per qnarter, or six cents per annum. 



FEMALE EQUESTRIANISM— ERROR COR- 
RECTED. 

It gives us great pleasure to admit the following 
letter from A New York Farmer, in correction of 
an error we fell into from copying an article we 
found in one of our exchanges. We are truly glad 
that the New York State Society had nothing to do 
with the disgusting exhibition we felt it our duty 
to notice. We haVe always had a high regard for 
that Society, and looked to it in the early stage of 
our own as a model from which we derived great 
benefit. 

But our respected correspondent will excuse us 
for saying, that though the responsibility does not 
rest on his Society, it yet remains with that portion 
of the people of New York who have tolerated and 
countenanced this nuisance, which we are happy 
to see birn reprobating as much as we do. 

Why will not he and others like hirn hunt it out 
of the land 1 

Mrt. Editor: — I see in your November No , just 
received, an article copied from the New York Tri- 
bune, cuing an account of a ladies (?) riding 
match, held at Ehnira last month. I desire to say 



to you, and I trust you will inform our brother 
farmers of Virginia, that the Annual Show of the 
New York State Society did not " close with a grand 
floral ball," as therein stated. Neither has our 
Society in any way, or at any time, countenanced or 
abetted balls, or horse races, or that most disgust- 
ing of modern shows, except baby shows, public 
female equestrianism. We meet for agricultural 
purposes only. 

The Society adjourned at 3 o'clock on Friday — 
and after sundown of that day had no control over 
the grounds which they had occupied, and of 
course could not prevent their use for any purpose 
the people of Elmira chose to put them to after 
that 

You cannot speak too strongly against such de- 
moralizing exhibitions But please to let me cor- 
rect the impression which has gone abroad, that 
our State Society had anything to do with them. 
A New York Farmer. 



Our columns are so crowded with the fine Address 
of Mr. Minor, and the formal proceedings of the 
Society at its late meeting, including the list of 
Premiums and the New Constitution, that we have 
no room for any extended editorial. 

Comment on the Fair is not necessary, the papers 
of the day having given full and minute details of 
it — and we at al! events would not be able to give 
it if it were necessary, as we were absent at Court 
in Albemarle, detained as a witness in an important 
suit during the whole time. 

But we may say that the Fair was not a failure, 
as some persons imagine it to have been. True 
the number of animals was much smaller than at 
any prior exhibition, and there were not as many 
hogs perhaps as there should have been ; but in all 
other things the small number was an advantage- 
It was due to an improved knowledge of stock. 
At first our people were not judges, and in conse- 
quence the show grounds were crowded with a 
number of inferior animals ; but as knowledge in 
that respect increases among us, the number exhi- 
bited will be much less, but of a much higher 
average of excellence. 



KING WILLIAM TURNIPS. 
We have received from our friend Richard 
Hawcs, of the Grove, King William County, several 
specimen turnips. The two largest weighed, he 
says, 13 lbs. each. Much obliged to our friend for 
the present and the compliment. "Will he not tell 
us and the public bow he made them, r.nd on what 
kind of land — all about the crop in fact. And is 
not Mr. Hawes satisfied that turnips in King Wil- 
liam, to say nothing of wheat and corn, are a bet- 
ter crop than law suits 1 We don't know how it is 
now, but a few years ago, a friend told us that there 
was only one new suit brought to a term of their 
Circuit Court, and that was for one hundred dol- 
lars against a man who paid the debt before trial 
could be had. Honor to King William. 



368 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



AN ADDRESS 

Delivered before the Virginia State Agricultural 
Society, at its Annual Fair, in November, 1855, by 
FRANKLIN MINOR, 
of liidgcvjay, Albemarle. 



" Man hath his daily work of body or mind 
Appointed, which declares his dignity." 

Milton. 



" The morning stars sang together, and all 
the eons of God shouted lor joy," to celebrate 
the work of creation. Nature in all her realms, 
experience in all its teachings, the heart and 
mind of man in every noblest mood, declare 
that "work alone is honorable." The anthems 
of the heavenly hosts, the ceaseless motion of 
Ihe spheres, the songs of the bards, and the 
precepts of the sage, re-echo the theme — "toil 
is our doom, and toil is our glory." The sun 
and the stars, the winds and the tides, the 
evening and the morning, cannot rest, nor 
cease to proclaim, in their daily rounds, the 
glory of the hand which made them. Nations 
rise to power and hsnor as they work, and sink- 
to weakness and to shame when they rest. 
AnJ 

" Man hath his daily work of body or mind 
Appointed, which declares his dignity." 

The glory of God is seen and felt and praised 
in all his worlcs, and man, the noblest of his 
creatures, must find his glory, too, in the fidelity 
with which he does his appointed work of body 
or mind. 

Brother farmers, what is our appointed work, 
and how are we doing it? The answer to 
these questions tells our shame or our glory. 
May I commune with you about it to-night, in 
the discharge of the duty assigned to me on 
this occasion by your Executive Committee, 
and in the friendly spirit of one who has a com- 
mon interest at stake with you in all that con- 
cerns the honor, dignity and prosperity of the 
Farmers of Virginia? 

Our work is not what our fathers' was; though 
theirs, like ours, was two-fold — a work of the 
body and a work of the mind. With brawny 
arms and 6tout hearts our ancestors set them- 
selves to subdue the earth — no easy task, 
where 

" Nature played at will her virgin fancies." 

A task which demanded more strength of limb 
than wit of head. In those days of bodily toil, 
a widow with eight children was richer than a 
princess, and had more suitors than Penelope. 



The husoandman needed to know little, but 
had to do much. When the forest was cleared 
of its immense growth, the magnum opus of 
husbandry was accomplished. The Indian 
squaw was the farmer's tutor in tillage, and 
lor many years he required no better. The 
soil was of such giant strength, that it scorned 
the aid of art — the handmaid of Nature. To 
clear, to dig, to plant, to reap, were the sum 
total of farming operations. The bounteous 
earth needed no courteous wooing to win her 
smiles. Unasked, she poured abundance into 
the laps of her children. She fed them of her 
riches, and claimed no nursing at their hand. 
'Tis strange, yet was it near to human nature, 
that those sturdy sons should be ungrateful, 
and oftimes dig too deep, and draw too hard, 
and deem too lightly of the wounds their feast- 
ing made on the fruitful breast which fed them 
plenteously. But it was their mission, and well 
they wrong-ht it. The primeval forest, with its 
monarchs of a thousand years, fell beneath 
their axes; the frightened savage fled before 
their rifles; the bosom of our great mother, the 
Earth, was opened to her sons, and thpy waxed 
strong and mighty on its exuberant fatness. 
This was their work of the body; long it 
claimed their toil, and long they gave it. Their 
work of the mind was not yet come, nor came 
to them at last, as it cometh now to us. But it 
came at length; and it was a noble work — and 
nobly, most nobly, they wrought it. It was a 
mighty work— the mightiest that e'er fell to 
human hands and heads and hearts to design 
and rear, in the land which their hands had 
subdued, a Temple of Freedom, whose lofty 
spires the world might see, and whose ever 
open doors should welcome the down trodden 
and oppressed of other lands to come and par- 
take freely of the blessings their wisdom had 
won. 

Sons of Virginia ! 1 need not tell you how 
your fathers wrought their work of the mind. 
Your throbbing hearts proclaim the glory of 
your sires; your grateful memories have em- 
balmed their deeds in undying love. If, while 
they did their work, no music of the spheres 
was heard — if the morning stars did not sing 
together as when God laid the foundations of 
the earth— it matters not: far sweeter music 
swells the breasts of their sons as they pay the 
homage of their praise to the wisdom, the va- 
lour, the patriotism of their god-like fathers. 
What though they had scarred the earth with 
many wounds : hath not the temple which they 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



369 



builded hid them all 1 They gave us the heri- 
tage ofl'reedom with all its blessings: nor head 
nor hand could have given us more. If we but 
do our appointed work of the mind as our sires 
did theirs, gullied hills and worn-out fields will 
soon grow green and blossom like the rose, 

The generation which succeeded the revo- 
lutionary era had the choice between emigra- 
tion to fancied El Dorados of wealth and the re- 
novation of the worn-out lands of their native 
State. Many chose the former alternative, and, 
voluntary exiles, planted the manners, customs, 
feelings and institutions of Virginia in the 
South and West. For them who remained a 
new work was opened — to repair the ravages 
of former injudicious culture, and to heal the 
bleeding wounds inflicted upon the earth. How 
they discharged the filial task ! shall not now stop 
to inquire ; suffice it to say, that, however much 
has been done, much remains to do. The 
work is still unfinished, and is become our 
work. We must accomplish it, or put it in the 
way of early accomplishment, else fail to win 
that dignity and regard which is the meed ol 
those who do well their appointed work. 

Our work, then, brethren of the plough, is 
not with stretched out arm to subdue the earth, 
but with patient toil, wise judgment, and all 
the lights of science and experience, to improve 
it — to husband its exhausted strength — to de- 
velope its unexplored energies — to call into 
action new or untried resources — and to repair 
wastsd powers. This is a work which de- 
mands every energy of the body, it is true; 
but it is pre-eminently an intellectual work — a 
work in which the thinking mind must play the 
chief part. In the olden time a fool with mus- 
cular arms could cut and dig as well as another. 
But the fool's vocation as a farmer is gone. 
The well stored mind, ripe experience, sound 
judgment, and scientific knowledge of men 
of the highest order of mental powers, are all 
called for, and will find a field wide enough for 
their largest operation in the work which now 
lies before the farmer of Virginia. ' 

What are the obstacles which obstruct our 
way; what the advantages which encourage 
us in our work? These are the themes on 
which I wish (o commune with you to-night. 
If we will come to the consideration of them 
with the single aim of discharging our duty to 
the day and generation in which we live, we 
shall not have spent a few moments together in 
vain. 

The obstacles which oppose agricultural pro- 



gress in Virginia are two-fold: physical and 
moral. I shall bring to your notice some of 
both characters, in the hope of showing that 
they are not insuperable, and that we have, only 
to be faithful to our "appointed work" to elevate 
the Old Dominion as high in agricultural, as 
she has ever been in political glory. 

The greatest of these physical obstacles* is 
lo be found in the present condition of the soil, 
impoverished by the greediness of man and 
riddled by the rains nf heaven. To remove it, 
the farmer must learn to work in harmony and 
conjunction with nature — a lesson which he 
cannot learn too soon nor practise too long, 
whether for pleasure or for profit. If exhausted 
lands be permitted to lie uniilled, in such con- 
dition superficially as not to be washed away, 
nature will in time restore them to their original 
fertility, by the operation of the same physical 
causes which made the soil at first; The length 
of time required for this process of natural re- 
novation may be shorter or longer in different 
localities, according to circumstances. In my 
own immediate neighborhood it is a period of 
twenty-five years, or thereabout. I will men- 
tion an instance of it which came under my ob- 
servation during the last summer. Calling at a 
neighbor's,* who is one of the most sensible 
and judicious men I have ever known, he 
pointed out to me a field of corn which pro- 
mised a very fine crop, and remarked, that 
about thirty years before he was walking 
through the field with a friend, and asked him 
if he thought it worth sowing in rye. His 
friend looked around, and replied that he 
thought the land too poor to sow in any thing. 
Nothing had been done for the land from that 
day till a few years ago it was brought into 
cultivation again; and when I saw it, it pro- 
mised to yield thirty bushels of corn to the acre. 
This is not a singular case ; similar ones have 
come under my own observation, and are fa- 
miliar, I doubt not. to many who hear me. 
Such renovation of the soil by natural causes is 
susceptible of easy explanation a priori, and 
without the test of experience. In the instance 
mentioned above, the worn-out land, when per- 
mitted to lie at rest, gradually clothed itself 
with a growth of pines, whose roots, descend- 
ing to the subsoil, brought up yearly supplies 
of the mineral elements which had been ex- 
hausted from the soil, and scattered them on 
the surface in annual showers of leaves, which 
eventually renewed the fertility of the land 

*Richd. Gambill. 



370 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



It has been ascertained by recent analysis made 
by Prof. Shepherd of Charleston, S.C. (vide 
Am. Far. for Aug. 1855,) that one hundred 
pounds of pine leaves contain a full supply of 
the phosphates necessary for the growth and 
perfection of one hundred pounds of corn, and 
more than a sufficient supply of the carbonates 
and organized silica necessary for the corn 
crop. From which analysis, even a shorter 
period than twenty-five years would seem long 
enough to restore such a degree of fertility to 
worn out lands, originally fertile, as would en- 
able the farmer to carry on the work of im- 
provement by judicious culture, and complete 
the renovation of the soil with a profit from 
annual crops. 

Another and shorter, but more expensive 
method of renovating exhausted lands, is by the 
immediate application of artificial fertilizers. 
Thisprocess is necessarily limited by the amount 
of capital at the disposal of the (armer. But 
the two methods are practicable together. Let 
him who owns such land, leave a portion of it 
to nature's care, lending such aid only as will 
prevent the soil, which she slowly but surely 
forms, from being lost by rains, while he devotes 
labor, skill and capital to the better cullure of 
a small surface, and not one generation will 
pass away before returning lertility and abun- 
dant harvests, will fill his granaries and rejoice 
his heart. 

A second physical obstacle which meets us 
here is the cost of artificial fertilizers. To re- 
duce the expense of some of these is less in 
the power of the husbandman than of the law- 
makers of the land, who assemble in a certain 
District, where, if reports be true, much old 
whiskey is drunk and sundry fat offices scram- 
bled for. Guano, for instance, which recent 
information inclines me to rank amongst the 
permanent fertilizers, has its price much en- 
hanced by legal enactments in foreign countries, 
which Congress has power in some measure to 
remedy. But I cannot advise you, brother far- 
mers, to delay the renovation of your impove- 
rished fields till the politicians find time to help 
you, lest you chance to tarry long and go away 
disappointed at last. You must put your own 
shoulders to the wheel, or stick in the mud. 
Hercules is stuck fast himself in the filih of the 
Augean stable at Hie metropolis, and cannot 
respond to our prayers. We must help our- 
selves. Our own State will furnish lime, gyp- 
sum, marl, and other valuable auxiliaries, if we 
only develope her vast resources of wealth by a 



wise and judicious system of improvements. 
And last of all, though first in importance, are 
our manure heaps, which may be doubled in size 
and value by greater care, skill and attention. 
I once made a calculation, based on my own 
and other persons' experience, which showed 
that labor and money spent in the preparation, 
saving and application of farm manures yielded 
more than thirty per cent, of annual profit. 
Greater attention to this vital branch of hus- 
bandry will soon reduce the cost of the fer- 
tilizing agents, without our going to that pool 
of corruption on which the angel of agricultural 
amelioration has never yet descended — whose 
angry and turbid waters, however, are daily, 
nay, hourly, troubled by the demon of party 
strife, and where hungry office seekers tumble 
in — whether for the healing of their sins or no, 
I say not. Let us not look thither for help: 
that source offers no hopes to the farmers. We 
must cherish and enlarge the manure-heaps at 
home — nurse with their fertilizing elements the 
lean and scattering spires of grass, and heal 
with stercoraceous poultice the bare sores and 
gaping wounds of mother earth. She will not 
repulse them who rightly sue for her favors, 
nor refuse her increase to him who, with frugal 
thrift and unfailing industry, feeds her with the 
offal, which, even in her lowest estate, she 
rarely fails to offer him. Care well bestowed 
will seldom fail to cover the sorest galls with 
some perennial grass; and how busily do the 
turf grasses work for the farmer! We too 
often think of them only as the soft and green 
carpets which nature spreads beneath our feet. 
But they have another and a higher office. 
They are the hod bearers of the great work we 
are engaged about; and they need no scourge 
to impel them to their toil. The gentle sun- 
shine evaporates the moisture which distends 
and stiffens their fibres, and the mighty power 
of vegetable life, mysterious as it is potent, 
sends up a fresh supply of fluid from below, 
loaded, by its solvent power, with every ele- 
ment of fertility. The roots of these industrious 
carriers have been traced to the depth of fifteen 
feet in the soil on which this city stands. The 
amount of mineral wealth which they bring to 
the surface is almost incalculable: for they rest 
not. When the sun shines they toil, and dewy 
eve brings them no slumber. 

The want of money capital in the Slate is a 
third obstacle, which, in the opinion of some, 
obstructs the march of agricultural improve- 
ment. How is this to be removed? Not, I 
beseech you, by a new litter of mother banks 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



371 



and branches, however good they may be ; 
but by economy, frugality and prudence, and 
by a judicious conversion of unproductive means 
into ready money, which may he applied to im- 
provements. Our farmers are too timid and 
cautious in their expenditure of money in the 
purchase of artificial fertilizers. European 
husbandmen often spend four times the value 
of our lands per acre in rmnures in a single 
year, and find profit in such outlay — nay, find 
no profit without it. This expenditure is ha- 
zardous, I grant you, for a sluggard or a fool; 
but none such have any business farming now- 
a-days. When directed by good sense, and 
carried out with energy, it is always remunera- 
tive. Some may say, " Better buy new land 
than expend the value of what we have in ma- 
nuring it." This may be true of ungrateful 
soils, which make no returns for kind treat- 
ment. But. very little of the soil of Virginia is 
of that character. I would fain believe. Most 
of our soils, if once well limed, marled or ma- 
nured, will continue to .mprove afterwards, 
under good culture, and a proper rotation of 
crops. I am persuaded, however, that there is 
less lack of capital for improvement than ol' 
skill and zeal in the work. I was recently at a 
farmer's who had not removed the manure from 
his stable-yard fur two years. There are other 
delinquents, but none so great as he, I fondly 
hope. Even our best farmers can increase 
their manure heaps far more easily than their 
bank credit. Composts are simple things, and 
money and labor spent on them are not likely 
to be followed by the harrasament of discount 
days and protests. Some how or other, I have 
come to believe that crops do not flourish well 
when there is a note in bank The turf seems 
to wither and the grain to shrivel at the bare 
mention of a notary public, or of that evanes- 
cent ; grace' which dies on the third day at a set 
hour. There is more valuable capital for the 
farmer in the banks of his ditches than in all 
the incorporated banks of the land. The weeds 
which disfigure them, and the mud which 
chokes their sluggish waters, made into a com- 
post with a sprinkling of lime, ashes and other 
simple ingredients, will give the farmer a bank 
on which he may draw without fear of protest, 
and renew his post notes without hearing of 
curtails. K>epyour ditch banks clean by com- 
po-ting their offal, and the fruits of the labor 
will enable you to keep clear of the city banks, 
and hush the cry for increase of capital. 

I shall detain you to notice but one more 
physical obstacle in our path, formidable in the 



opinion of many wise and judicious friends of 
agricultural progress: the difficulty of access to 
market. Now a good market, and one near at 
hand, appeareth to be a good thing for all men, 
and is a good thing, undoubtedly, for them who 
have nine hundred acres of land in wheat, six 
hundred and fifty in corn, and other crops in 
proportion, as Mr. Burgwyn ot North Carolina 
is said in the newspapers to have had last sum- 
mer. But I do not know any thing more over- 
rated than markets and access to markets. Un- 
fortunately every road has two ends, and while 
one serves the farmer to send his crops to mar- 
ket, the other serves the merchant to send his 
wares in pursuit of the farmer's gains. If the 
road be short the merchant has generally emp- 
tied the husbandman's pocket before he gets 
home. "Near to sell, near to buy," is, or ought 
to be, an old adage, for it is a very true one. 
More men fail to improve their lands by buying 
too much at the store, than by selling too little 
at the markf.t. When the market is near, the 
t'ashions are near, and they cost a mint of mo- 
ney. How many men have heard the iron horse 
snort for the first time by iheir doors with buoy- 
ant hopes of increased incomes, who. at the 
close of ihe year, when the balance sheet of 
receipts and expenditures has been struck, have 
found themselves no richer by being near to 
market. The outgo has grown as fast as the 
income. 

I fear you will set me down as anti-progress, 
and a foe to improvement. Yet you will do 
do me great wrong if you do. There is no man 
who is a more ardent friend of progress than I 
am. But I would have moral progress keep 
pace with physical. I want to be sure that we 
are progressing in ihe right way. A man may 
progress towards the devil as fast as any other 
way; nay. faster, if, as is said, the road to Old 
Nick's house is down hill. All I ask for is that 
we be sure we are going right before we go 
ahead and shout "lo triumphe." It mi^ht be 
well to stop, if we could, and inquire, whither 
this mighty wave of physical progress is driv- 
ing us — whether to the haven or the maelstrom ? 
But it is too late now. The steam is up, the 
station house is passed, Young America is 
aboard : may heaven defend us from a smash. 
From present appearances, the next generation 
will be born, the boys in boots and the girls in 
stays. What will the men and the women be? 
There must still be progress tor them too, and 
their descendants. Then how will their chil- 
dren's children arpear? Will they not have 



372 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



to start before they are born 1 Nay, think you 
not there is danger of some fast generation re- 
fusing to be born at all, lest the time lost in 
that old fashioned operation may enure to give 
their daddies the start of them ? I pray you, 
gentlemen, in this age of physical progress, 
look well to the early nurture of your sons and 
daughters, for it may come to be your last act 
of control over them. 

But to return to the subject of markets. How 
is it that the Valley farmers, so remote from 
market, grow so rich, and their lands, becoming 
richer and richer, command the highest prices 
of all the uplands in Virginia? Good land in 
Rockingham sells for nearly double what it does 
in Albemarle, yet the former is farther from 
market. The best land in Highland county 
commands about the same price it does in Nel- 
son county, or rather more ; and surely, if any 
people in the State are too far from market, it 
must be the Highland folk. The price of land 
I take to be a pretty fair criterion of the profit 
of farming it If so, then I apprehend that 
there is a good deal of humbug in the idea of 
getting nearer to market. It is not the market 
that enriches the farmer, but the having some- 
thing to send to market, and the bringing the 
proceeds home in the shape of fertilizers of the 
earth, that he may have more and more to send 
every year. When the farmer goes to market 
to sell, and tarries to buy, he should think of 
the field as well as the parlor, the guano bag as 
well as the coffee bag, and the machine shop 
as well as the music store. Let him buy to 
make mother earth glad, and she will give him 



tation, and i'ew there be who weather it; and as 
for railroads, they are wondrous fine things, if 
we look only at the thundering train of cars 
freighted for market; but the back loading is 
sometimes a spawn of vices and vanities, which 
breeds unnumbered ills to the simple home of 
the husbandman. When frugality is the house 
keeper, it matters little how the crops get to 
market — whether by wagon or railroad ; but 
woe to the luckless wight who lets the steam 
whistle scare him from his hearth. I am per- 
suaded that, if you will consider the matter in 
all its bearings, moral as well as economical, 
you will be ready to agree with me, that more 
importance is attached to proximity to market 
than it deserves, and that agricultural improve- 
ment needs depend very little upon it. 

The moral obstacles which impede the march 
of agricultural improvement are much more 
serious and insurmountable than the physical 
ones, because the minds of men arefar more per- 
verse than the ways of nature. Among the ob- 
stacles of this kind I note, as first in magnitude 
and importance, the low repute in which work is 
held. 

Every farmer who hath sons and daughters 
ought to engrave over the vestibule of his front 
door in large letters, " Work alone is honorable." 
Honest, faithful, enduring work, either of mind 
or body, is the only aristocracy a free republic 
should ever acknowledge. They are the true 
Nobles of the land who do best their "appointed 
work of body or mind." Woe to the land in 
which the loafer hath more of honor than the 
'aborer. By loafer I mean every class of do 



wherewithal to make his wife and children-, ' no tfii n gs whether rich or poor, high or low 
glad, and that not once, but year after year 



There is a curious fhing about this getting 
near to market. The distance, in some cases, 
if measured by time, has been almost annihi- 
lated. My own tobacco now is within ten hours 
of Richmond — it used to be nearly five days. 
But when the time was long the freight was 
low — three dollars a hogshead when I was five 
days distant, more than five dollars now that I 
count by hours. I do not quite understand 
this yet, and am patiently waiting for further 
developements; but, I confess, it looks some- 
what as if I had swapped the devil for a witch. 
I go quick, but pay roundly for the speed. I 
beg you, my brother farmers, not to sigh after 
proximity to market, nor delay the work of agri- 
cultural improvement till the railroad whistle 
awakes the slumbering echoes of your hills. 
Nearness to market is a fearful vortex of lemp- 



young or old. No man, and most of all no far- 
mer, "has a right to be idle. This state once 
produced a man when the world had need of 
such an one, to whom, if to any, thisc/o nothing 
right might have belonged— a man whose name 
[ need not call, your hearts anticipate me— that 
name which — 
" Hi<*h o'er the wrecks of men shall stand sublime 
A celumn in the melancholy waste, 
(Its cities crumbled, and ils glories past,) 
A monument amid the solitude of time." 

But he did not claim the drone's right 
Hie glory ever was to do his "daily work of 
body or mind appointed ", whether it summoned 
him to lead embattled hosts in freedom's cause, 
to lay the foundations of a new government in 
honesty, wisdom and patriotism— or to pursue 
the humbler occupations of a farmer. They 
know not all his glory who know him only in the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



373 



tented field or solemn cabinet. His agricultural 
letters, his farm journals, his directions to his 
managers, his care of his slaves, in short his at- 
tention to all the minutiae of farm work, declare 
his dignity and honor, no less than the loftier 
deeds which crowned his brow with wreaths of 
undying glory. * 

But we needed not this high and noble ex- 
ample to prove the dignity of enduring work. 
Work is honorable -in itself, because it is the 
prime law of that system by which God created 
and upholds the universe — because it is necessa- 
ry to the full enjoyment and developement of 
the powers of the body and the faculties of the 
mind with which man is endowed — and because 
it is our duty to ourselves, our children, and our 
country — a duty which none can neglect and 
hope for peace. There is no honor, there can be 
no happiness, without work. If the sluggard 
say that he finds enjoyment in sloth, I leave 
him with his rival the hog, than which he is 
so far more worthless a3 he has neither bris- 
tles on his back nor bacon in his hams. Work 
is honorable in all men. The Doctor, the Law- 
yer, the Merchant, the Mechanic find their dig- 
nity and their honor, as well as their prosper- 
ity in the fidelity with which they do their daily 
work. Neither the character nor the scene of 
our work can strip it of its dignity, if xce do il 
veil and in a faithful spirit. When Epaminon- 
das had conquered the foes of his country, and 
won for himself immortal glory, his envious ene- 
mies, in order to affront and degrade him, elec- 
ted him 'scavenger ofthe streets.' He accepted 
the office, and discharged the duties of it faith- 
fully. The glory was his, the shame recoiled 
upon his enemies. 

All work faithfully done is honorable. But 
some sorts of work are more agreable than 
other sorts. In this respect, which can be 
compared with ours ? In the open field and sba 
dy forest — at early dawn, and dewy eve — amidst 
the carols of birds and the music of nature — 
surrounded by all that is lovely and sublime 
who hath so sweet a work as the Farmer? May 
we not be pardoned if we sometimes exult over 
the penf.up Lawyers, Merchants and Mechanics, 
who toil in envious walla, with no songs, no dew- 
drops, no sunshine? Oh ! the farmer has a no- 
ble and a pleasant work. Why then is work in 
low repute ? Why is it thought genteel to have 
nothing to do? There is a screw loose some- 
where in our moral system, else so false a notion, 
so vile and pernicious a heresy, could never have 
found a place in it. 



It has been said that the existence of slavery 
among us makes work degrading. If this idea 
was entertained, only in that land of isms which 
lies North of us ,1 would not notice it! But some 
of our own sensible people have sanctioned this 
erroneous opinion. Even admitting slaves to be 
degraded, (which I by no means will do except 
for the argument's sake) I cannot at all compre- 
hend, how their doing a thing in itself honorable 
or indifferent can make it degrading in others to 
do the same thing, when duty calls on them to 
do it. Base men do such things every day with- 
out delering the good trom doing the same things 
Dr. Webster ordered fat turkey for his dinner 
the day before he was to be hanged, but ocular 
demonstration this day has assured many of ua 
that the murderer s taste has not yet driven that 
popular delicacy from the tables of the fashion- 
able and refined. Phineas T. Barnum sometimes 
makes temperance speeches, but, thank God, his 
leprous touch of that almost holy cause has not 
abated the zeal of our noblest men in the great 
and good work. Negro girls have been the nur- 
ses of white children in Virginia since time 
immemorial, but slave nursing has not made 
and never will make it, degrading for a mother 
to fondle and nurse her infant chdd. A thousand 
otherinstances might be mentioned, but. these 
suffice to show that the vilest wretch that crawls 
upon the earth, cannot make it degrading for an ' 
honest man to do what his duty demands, by 
having done the same thing before him from any 
motive whatever. 

Slaves do here what white men, called free, do 
elsewhere. If it is the colour of the hand which 
degrades the labour, then why is honest labour 
in as low repute at the north as at the south — 
nay lower, if we may judge from the shifts made 
to avoid it, as witness wooden nutmegs and deal 
hams? Will it be said that the slave has made 
work degrading, because he does it in obedience 
to the command of a master? Then I say that 
the while slave obeys a master loo, and oft-times 
far harder master than the black one. The north- 
ern hireling obeys a master who doles out to him 
the merest, pittance ofthe fruits of his daily toil, 
and gives him no love nor sympathy along with 
it. But obedience is not degrading. It is the 
first law of parental discipline, social order, reli- 
gions faith, and every thing excellent in heaven 
and on earth. Obedience to rightful authority, so 
far from being degrading, is honorable and enno- 
bling in all the highest positions of life. When 
an American officer in the revolution was com- 
manded to storm Stoney Point, did he degrade 



374 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



himself hy obedience? Far from it. He did as 
he was ordered, and won immortal glory. The 
highest functionaries of the land find honor in 
obedience. -The slave is not degraded by obey- 
ing his master; he is more ofa gentleman, and 
ought to have more honor and respect for every 
act of faithful obedience, than the white citizens 
of*Boston, who disregard the laws of the land, and 
by d lily acts of disobedience violate i he rights of 
others, and trample honesty, good faith, duty 
and justice under their feet. No matter what 
the work may be, it cannot ba degaading for any 
man to do it, when duty commands, and this 
whether it is usual to be done hy freemen or 
bondsmen. If any kind of work is degrading, I 
would take shoe-blacking to be so. But a high 
dignitary in one of the Virginia churches told me 
some years ago, that he once chanced to visit 
the bishop ofa northern state, a man ol learning, 
wisdom and exalted piety, who kept no man 
servant. The gentleman tarried all night, and 
when he looked outfVom his window in the morn- 
ng he beheld the venerable bishop seated on the 
steps below blacking his own and his guest's 
shoes. Since holy bishops have blacked boots 
and Epaminondas swept the streets, I think the 
degradation of any kind of work by slave labour 
may he set down a3 an antique myth or northern 
ism. 

Mischievous as have been the effects of the 
pernicious notion that slavery degrades labour, 
I think that even worse evil has come from the 
farmer of Virginia mistaking what his true work 
is. It is not the doing of any kind of work 
indifferently, that declares a man's "dignity and 
wins the regards of heaven on all his ways": 
But it is doing his "appointed work." A man 
may degrade himself almost as much by doing a 
wron^ work, as by doing none. Now the work 
of the farmer of Virginia is an intellectual, not a 
bodily work; and, it is because intellectual labor 
is much more difficult and repugnant to us than 
bodily, that we have chosen to mistake our true 
work, and toil with our hands more than with 
our heads. 

It is true that in some regions of Virginia, as 
is generally the case at the north, the husband- 
man must be, to a considerable extent, his own 
laborer. In all su<-h cases bodily work is the 
"farmer's appoinled work," and he finds honour 
as well as profit in doing it faithfully. But in most 
parts of this State the farms are large, and the 
slaved numerous, and on them the master's 
work is to know rather than to do — to order, di 
rect, control, plan and supervise all the compli- 



cated operations of the farm, wi h superior wis- 
dom and knowledge, and not to labor with the 
hoe and plough. This is a work of the mind, 
requiring much study, deep thought and pro- 
found science. It is a hard and responsible 
work, and even wise men shrink from responsi- 
bility ; hence comes it that the high intellectual 
calling of the Southern farmer is much too often 
relinquished for the easier and less responsible 
work oi'the body. 

Unfortunately for agriculture progress our 
youth commence farming generally with very 
imperfect training for the business, and with 
very vague notions of what a farmer's occupa- 
tion in Virginia ought to be, which almost comt 
pels them to get their head-work done second 
hand by neighbors and overseers as ignoran- 
and less interested than themselves. When we 
consider this we may well cease to wonder at 
the gullied hills, egregious blunders, and nume- 
rous failures which mark the careers of n any 
farmers ofVirginia. The captain of a man-of 
war does no work with his hands, he neither 
trims the sails, nor holds the helm, nor heaves 
the lead. Has he therefore no work to do? 
Is he a drone? Could the ship sail as well with- 
out him ? Far from it; he is the very soul of 
every operation on board. So should it be with 
the Southern farmer. His office is to know all 
that can be known about farming", (as the captain 
does about navigation) and to direct, superintend 
and control the execution of the farm work by 
them whose business is bodily labor. But it is 
so much easier to work with the hands than to do 
all this, and men are so prone to seek their ease, 
that the farmer too often surrenders his high 
office for a much ignobler one. The same indo- 
lent spirit would make the captain of a ship ex- 
change places with his boatswain. 

What a shame that any should wish to shun 
a high and noble work, which affords "ample 
scope and verge enongh " for the loftiest and 
brightest intellects ! When will our young farm- 
ers learn to know their true work, and endure the 
mental toil nessesary to win the glory of it ? Yet 
must they know too how to do all the bodily work 
of the farm, and that not theoretically only, but 
practically ; and the better they so know it, the 
better farmers they will be. Not because they 
shall do the work themselves, but that they may 
know how to have it done, and when it is done 
properly. Neither must they withold their hands 
from any kind of work, if duty calls them to en- 
gage in it. But their daily work, their "appointed 
work which declares their dignity," is of the mind. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



375 



Some men speak lightly ofheadwork as being 
easy. But I do not know any kind of work 
which we are more prone to shun, or which men 
do less of, or do worse. Of all my acquaintances 
among my brother farmers not one in four thinks 
closely, carefully and systematically about his 
business. The other three are copyists, or tread 
the beaten track of their forefathers— flaring up 
occasionally in fitful efforts ofsicklyand unfruitfu 
thought. Thinking is the hardest work men 
have to do, and hence we have so few real think- 
ers. Will any say "Farmers have no need to 
think"? Then why have agricultural journals? 
Why have this society ? Why these yearly ava- 
lanches of the people on this most hospitable 
city? Do men come here merely to glut their 
eyes with sight seeing, and gorge their maws 
with feasting? Do they bring hither with 
them no more thinking mind than the stalled ox ? 
Seeing do they see not, neither understand ? 
Surely, surely not. We come hither to get 
knowledge and to communicate it. The prime 
benefit of these gatherings is that they set U3 to 
thinking. Hence we get wisdom by hearing 
and seeing, because and in proportion as we 
have the power to think. Men learn to think by 
observation, experience and education ; and by 
intercourse with other men the latent sparks of 
thought are kindled, just as the fire of the flint is 
stricken out hy the steel. Agricultural progress 
advances with new and rapid strides as men 
acquire new powers of thought from observation 
and experience. When our fairs cease to afford 
them they will have become effete and worthless, 
and will do no good to any but premium hunters. 
"When their value becomes to be estimated in 
dollars and cents, they had as well be aban- 
doned. 

I. have said that the power to think may be 
acquired by proper educational training. I 
am quite sure it may: But it is much to be 
regretted that many of us begin our profession 
with such imperfect, preparation for the duties o^ 
it, that even after a life-time spent in the work, 
we have hardly acquired the faculties ofdeduc- 
tion and generalization which are necessary for 
the discovery of truth. Hence some in despair 
of establishing the science of agriculture on the 
firm basis of experimental truth, have abandon- 
ed the work, crying out with the Preacher. 
" vanity of vanities, all is vanity". But not. so. 
Truth, indeed, comes slowly, but she comes 
surely to them who seek her right. Men gnzed 
at the f-tarry firmament more than five thousand 
years before the red streaked apple, which fell 
at Newton's feet, suggested to his mind the law 



of gravitation, and revealed the mysteries of as- 
tronomy. Newton's mind was well stored with 
learning. Education had trained him to think, 
else had that red-streaked apple fallen in vain 
as unnumbered ones had fallen before by every 
autumnal wind. If we would catch the truths of 
agricultural science, we must train the farmers 
how to hunt for them. 

This brings me to the consideration of anoth- 
er moral obstacle in the way of Agricultural 
progress, which is the want of scientific know- 
ledge. By "scientific knowledge,'' I mean all 
that knowledge of farming operations which a 
man may acquire, either from books or from 
other men, independent of his own practical 
observation or experience. This may be a 
broad definition of Agricultural science, but I 
think it, nevertheless, the true one. The science 
of any profession is what men have learned 
about it — what has been settled by repeated 
experiment and observation. It is so of Law 
and Medicine, only they have become more 
emphatically book sciences and professions than 
farming — not from any substantial difference in 
the professions themselves, but because men 
have been trained and educated for those pro- 
fessions and have not yet been for farming- 
When the barbers were the surgeons, there 
were few if any books about surgery ; nor is it 
likely the barbers could read what there were. 
Law is perhaps the oldest book profession, but 
was once an unwritten science, as farming now 
is. Science is nothing but garnered" knowledge ; 
and that men have not better garnered up the 
'reasures of agricultural observation and ex- 
perience, has not arisen from there being no 
fixed principles of husbandry, but rather from 
this, that men have never been taught husbandry 
as a science before they entered upon the prac- 
tice of it as a profession; and perhaps, partly from 
this circumstance, too, that nature does so much 
of the farmer's work for him that he has been 
ashamed to record his own mite. But this state 
of things is fast passing away; whether it be 
that nature is growing more, churlish, or man 
more conceited. I know not. Agriculture is fast 
becoming a written science in the most enlight- 
ened States of Europe, and it advances in impor- 
tance as it does so. " Mr Colman in his able re- 
port on European Agriculture, made in 1844, 
describes only nine Agricultural schools, though 
others then existed on the continent of which he 
was not probably aware. " Dr. Edward Hitch- 
cock in his report to the legislature of Massachu- 
setts in 1851 on the same subject reports three 
hundred and fifty two schools, most of which had 



376 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



come into existence since Mr. Colma n 

Men have erred of late years, it seems to me, 
in ihe importance they give to some branches o! 
agricultural science. Thus, a patriotic citizen 
of the State of Georgia lately gave $20,000 to 
the Georgia University to endow a professor- 
ship of Agricultural Chemislry. Now agricul- 
tural chemistry is a good thing, but bears about 
the same proportion to the whole science of ag- 
riculture, that contingent remainders and ex- 
ecutory devises do to the science of law, or 
Materia Medica to the science of medicine. — 
Agricultural science is made up of the experi- 
ence men have gained in the culture of the 
earth ; and there are certain fixed principles of 
that culture, established by experience, just as 
of any other branch of human knowledge. That 
there are not more of them, is our shame ; and is 
due mainly to men not studying the theory of 
agriculture, just as ihey do the theories of law 
and medicine, before beginning the practice of it. 
How long would it have taken law and medicine 
to have accumulated facts enough to make book 
sciences of them, if the Lawyers and Doctors 
had never looked into a book before commencing 
the practice, and scorned to look into one after- 
wards? If we made our attorniesand physicians 
as we do our farmers, they would make sad 
havoc, of our property and carcases. Some 
persons rail at book learning in farming matters: 
But do these same men think lawyers less wor- 
thy of trust in important business, or confide 
their lives to Physicians with less confidence 
because they have read the books which contain 
the observations and experience of other Law- 
yers and Doctors? Far from it. Then why 
rail at agricultural reading? If a few conceited 
asses have read Leibig's Chemistry, and com- 
mitted foolish blunders, does it therefore fol- 
low that clever men will derive no profita- 
ble knowledge by studying the principles of 
natural science, which explain the phenomena 
of the vegetable kingdom? Science is a 
deep well, from which men draw according 
to the strength of their understandings. Wis- 
dom lies at the bottom of it, and it takes deep 
and long draughts to pluck her up. The 
surface is covered with the intoxicating froth 
of conceit, which too many have sipped and 
gone mad, and hence the stupid prejudice 
against scientific agriculture. As well call the 
chicanery of the pettifogger the science of law, 
or quackery the science of medicine, as the 
blunders of a Cew smatterers in agricultural 
chemistry the science of agriculture. 

All that our fathers knew about farming would 
now be at our command if agriculture were a 
book science. Will the sneerers say our fathers 
knew nothing? Who that has read the early 
volumes of the old American Farmer will admit 
if? There is wisdom and experience enough in 
"Skinner's American Farmer" and in " Muffin's' 
Farmer's Megister" alone, to make auriculiure 
a written science, if we had some agricultural 
Maury to examine and digest these scattered 
stores of knowledge, and reduce them to the form 
of practical farming directions. When Mathew 



F. Maury modestly applied to the Secretary of 
the Navy for leave to examine the piles of old 
moth-eaten log-books which cumbered the bu- 
reaux of the department who could have foreseen 
that the "sailing directions'' would have been 
the result of his patient labor? Already has the 
world derived such advantages from Lieutenant 
Maury's investigations and discoveries, that his 
name is ranked among the greatest of the living 
benefactors of our race, and the crowned heads of 
Europe vie with one another in heaping scientific 
honors upon him. They whose interest it is to 
know best, tell us that the "sailing directions of 
the wind and current charts," have done more to 
advance commerce than any other thing since the 
discovery of the mariner's compass. Now these 
" sailing directions and wind and current charts," 
are not the creations of a single mind, bat the fruit 
of a patient and toilsome investigation of what in- 
dividual sailors had seen and observed in their 
separate voyages. The experience was all there 
before Mr. Maury began his great work : but it 
was wholly valueless, because not digested and 
prepared for use. His industry and genius have 
found a treasure which has enriched the world, 
where other men dreamed not there was a farthing's 
worth. 

So it is now with agricultural experience : what 
they who went before us did and knew about the 
culture of the earth, lies useless, because scattered 
through the journals of their day in fragmentary 
and undigested essays. I should rather say that 
some of their knowledge is in s-uch journals. 
Much the larger part of their experience, which 
would now be so invaluable to us, perished with 
themselves, because there wasno garner into which 
it might be gathered, and no lettered priesthood of 
agricultural knowledge to harvest and secure it. 
When shall this shame cease? Is all lue know too 
to die with us, and are our children to grope in 
darkness as we have groped? Will no Maury of 
the land arise, and do for the farmers of Virginia 
what one of her sons has done for the sailors of the 
world 1 Is the race of public benefactors extinct 1 
No, no. Men call Virginia old, and the envious 
mock at her — forgetful that when freedom's fires 
grew dull on the earth, and a high priest was 
wanted to re-kindle and tend them, Virginia gave 
birth to him; and now, when commerce had 
grown weary of her winding ways upon the path- 
less seas, Virginia has given the world another son 
to lay his hand " on old ocean's mane," and mark 
with sign-boards his unfathomed waters. Virginia 
is not old. This dear commonwealth cannot grow 
old. God, in mercy to the. world, will never, never 
smite her womb with barrenness. 

Brother farmers, the want of scientific know- 
ledge is a huge obstacle in the way of our doing 
our "appointed work." It may not be so with 
the ten acre farmers of the North, who have to do 
their own hoeing and ploughing ; but that is not 
our work, and we need mental culture not less for 
profit than for pleasure. During the past summer 
f heard an intelligent Pennsylvanian say, that the 
fanners of his State never read anything but 
newspapers. May God help them. Intellectual 
starvation must be the sure doom of any people 
who live on such mental food. It is not only the 
pride of the Virginia farmer to read the journals 
of the day, that he may know what the world is 
doing, but he has a library, and reads the wisdom 
and the lore of ancient and modern times ; but the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



377 



agricultural shelf of his library is still too scantily 
filled. It is his mission to know, and not to plough, 
and how shall he know without books 1 There is 
no legerdemain — no " open sesame,"' by which the 
treasures of knowledge can be unlocked in an in- 
stant. The books are the only keys of that 
princely store-house, and none enter to the feast 
who slight them. Many, however, handle the keys 
who do not unlock the ponderous doors, for they 
do not handle them aright. Reading a book is a 
small matter, and often brings with it no fruit of 
knowledge or wisdom. Some of the stupidest 
men I know have read the most books. Reading 
is not always a work of the mind, but sometimes 
of the body alone, in which the eyes only are en- 
gaged, while the sentient mind is dosing, or far 
away wool-gathering. It may be this sort of read- 
ing which has brought book-farming and agricul- 
tural science into disrepute with some of the clever 
farmers of Virginia. It does not, however, prove 
that books are humbugs and ought all to be burned 
by the hangman ; but only that all men have not 
been properly taught to use them, and should 
waru us to better training of our sons and daugh- 
ters. Train your children to think, and to know 
and comprehend what they read ; and, when they 
are grown up, they will not disgrace book learning 
either in farming, house-keeping, or anything else. 
"Wisdom is the principal thing : therefore, get wis- 
dom ; and with all thy getting, get understanding. 
For the merchandize of it is better than the mer- 
chandize of silver, and the gain thereof than fine 
gold.'' 

Another moral difficulty in the way of our on- 
ward march will be found in the fact that the Vir- 
ginians are still an applause-loving people. Our 
young men of good parts are alwpys inclined to- 
wards those professions in which the world will 
see what they do. The bar and politics have 
heretofore absorbed too large a share of the ta- 
lents of the State. The occupation of the hus- 
bandman is domestic and unobtrusive, and has but 
little tinselled pageantry about it, while the lawyer 
and the politician are thrown more into public 
gaze. Men love the hot applause of the multi- 
tude. It is more fascinating and exciting, because 
it B eems to be more real ; while in fact it is oft- 
times as ephemeral as the shouts that utter it. 
At one time politics swallowed up every thing 
else ; no honors were won except on that theatre. 
But that day is passing by. Some years ago a 
great beast, named " King Caucus," came along 
from New York, and blasted with his foul breath 
all the garlands of politics. The private station 
is becoming more and .more the post of honor. 
The bar, however, still claims and receives an un- 
due proportion of talents. But I hope for better 
things — "sunt vestigia nonnullaretrorsum." Some, 
grown weary of their long novitiates, and despair- 
ing of the slow-paced honours of the forensic 
arena, are turning back to the more independent 
but less notorious life of the husbandman. This 
■will increase, as the intelligence of the farmers in- 
crease*. When the young men of the State see 
♦.bar, there is the widest scope for genius in farm- 
ing, our profession will rival the bar in its drafts 
upon the talents of the land. But I would not 
seek to rob the bar of its due share of genius. 
The !egal profession is one of the safest bulwarks 
of frr-edom, and always has been so. The motto 
" s/.are decuis" stamps on the bar the character of 
conservatism, which is a good thing where men 



are free. I honour a lawyer who does his ap- 
pointed work faithfully. If he could study Lord 
Coke and Fearne iu the open air, with the birds 
and the clouds and the sunshine to pour love into 
his heart while he fills his head with learning, his 
vocation would be almost as good as a farmer's. 
But, however that may be, we are gaining fast on 
the bar, and need only a little more book learning 
to catch up with and surpass it in inducements and 
allurements to the talents of future generations. 
We have this great advantage over it : our field is 
wide, while the lawyers begin to crowd one an- 
other ; and though, like hemp stalks, the strong 
smother the weak, yet nobody, not even the weak, 
likes to be smothered. The bar is losing its 
charms, and becoming less popular, while agri- 
culture is only in the bud season of her beauty, 
and has not yet put on her full robes of loveliness. 
When the clever sou comes to the plough as he 
now goes to the bar — when genius is wedded to 
tillage— she will adorn herself richly for the bri- 
dal, with sweet-scented flowers, and the green 
blade, and the full sheaf, and the ripe corn iu the 
ear, and then no rival shall stand before her. 

Akin to this obstacle, is the disposition to emi- 
grate, which I need not speak of, as it was most 
eloquently discussed at the last fair by Mr. Pres- 
ton, who then addressed us so instructively on this 
and other topics. It would be fool-hardy in me to 
attempt to follow him, even after the lapse of 
twelve months; and, besides, I fear I am fatiguing 
you with this tiresome enumeration of the obstacles 
which obstruct our way. They are all stereotyped 
and stale, and* must fall on your ears like a thrice 
told tale. I believe them all more formidable 
in appearance than in reality, and likely to vanish 
away soon before the good spirit which is now 
roused up, and looms over the land from the surf 
of the sea to the summits of the mountains. I 
turn from them with delight to consider very 
briefly the advantages, motives and hopes which 
cheer and sustain us in our "appointed work." 

Compared with what our forefathers had, the 
agricultural implements now in use are vastly im- 
proved, and afford a very striking instance of the 
advantages we have for our work. It is quite 
amusing to hear the olden time farmers talk of the 
kinds of implements they used: sledges instead of 
carts— thornbushes for harrows — forked sticks for 
hoes — shingles for spades, and ploughs after the 
model in Virgil's Georgics. The wonder is, how 
they cultivated the land at all. A friend,* as dis- 
tinguished for his wit as for his zeal and intelli- 
gence as a farmer, has often told me of the sale of 
a deceased man's estate, at which the land, ne- 
groes, stock, &c, brought over $50,000, and the 
farming implements only fifteen shillings. Such 
a bill of disparities has not been heard of since 
FalstafFs " intolerable deal of sack to one half- 
pennyworth of bread." How different and how 
improved the tools we have. The exhibition of 
farming implements on our fair grounds excites 
our amazement at the powers of inventive genius. 
So numerous and diverse are its productions, that 
many of us have to learn their names and uses 
from the inventors. I believe that a laborer now 
can accomplish more work, and do it better, in -a 
day, than one did in a week fifty years ago. No- 
thing tends more to the improvement of land than 
thorough tillage, which would seem to have been 

* Wm. W Gilmer. 



378 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



entirely impossible with the imperfect implements 
of a former age, but easy with such as we now 
have. 

More than a year ago, I instituted a series 
of experiments, with the view of testing the ab 
sorbent powers of the soil aDd subsoil of two ad 
jacent spots in the same field, one of which was 
sterile and the other fertile. The results of the 
experiments, I think, demonstrated that there 
is a very important connection between the me- 
chanical condition of the earth, and its fertility. 
It is proper to premise, that several efforts had 
been made by the application of farm manures, to 
equalize the fertility of the land which was the 
subject of the experiments, and that for a few 
years the poor spot would produce fine crops, but 
after a while would fall back again into sterility. 
The experiments disclosed this singular condition 
of things: the absorbent power of the fertile soil 
was greater than that of the sterile soil in the pro- 
portion of 8 to 1. While the reverse was the case 
with the subsoils, though the difference was not so 
great; showing clearly, that when the hasty show- 
ers of summer fell, the poor soil would absorb 
them but one-eighth as fast as the rich, and in the 
long winter rains, when the water percolated to 
the subsoils, carrying with it the elements of fer- 
tility, that of the rich land would retain them, 
while that of the poor would not. The experi- 
ments were made by putting the different soils in 
small flower-pots, and watering both on the top 
and at the bottom. It may seem a little remark- 
able to them who have not tried such experiments, 
that the moisture ascended as fast when the water 
was applied below, as it descended when applied 
above. The difference in the absorbent powers of 
the earths experimented on, is due mainly, I sup- 
pose, to their mechanical condition and texture, 
which depends very much upon the thorough and 
complete tillage of the soils and subsoils. The 
absorbent power of the earth, in respect to mois- 
ture, is not more important and worthy of the 
farmer's attention, than in respect to the atmo- 
sphere. The air which surrounds us is as neces- 
sary to the fertility of the soil as to the support of 
animal life, by a process which we may call 
terrene respiration. Old mother earth has lungs, 
and breathes the vital air through interstitial 
throats, which the husbandman must keep in 
healthy condition by good culture, if he would 
see her put on her festive robe of verdure in the 
spring, or have her brow adorned with golden 
sheaves in autumn. She ever draws her deepest 
inspirations of health and profit for them who till 
her with most assiduous care. 

We have another advantage over our predecessors 
in the increased profits of farming. The day has 
been in Virginia when more fortunes were spent 
than made by farming. The living was simple and 
plain, and yet a few generations often ate up both 
the land and the negroes of an estate. I am sure I 
know farms on which five times as much money 
is expended now in furniture and other luxuries, as 
when I was a lad ; and still, at the end of the year 
there is more clear money made from the farm than 
there was formerly. On farms where the owners 
used to bring home their annual supplies of groce- 
ries in their saddle-bags, they are now brought by 
the cart load; atnd mahogany and rose wood have 
taken the place of pine and poplar. There are 
pianos and other musical instruments enough in 
some counties of the State to pay for all the house- 



hold and kitchen furniture that was in them fifty 
years ago ; and the buggies, carriages and other 
vehicles of pleasure cost more than the horses 
would have sold for half a century since. Univer- 
sal bankruptcy must have followed such an in- 
crease of expenditures without a corresponding 
increase of the profits of the farm. Judicious far- 
mers now who are out of debt, are generally 
money lenders ; they used to be often borrowers. 
I do not stop to inquire why profits are larger : 
I deal with the fact only, which I think can- 
not be questioned, and which is exerting a great 
influence in increasing the capital engaged in far 
minsr, and thereby advancing its progress. The 
reverse of all this must be occurring in New 
York. The State census shows in some of the 
best farming districts of that State a considerable 
decrease in the farming population, and an in- 
crease in the village and manufacturing population. 
So wags the world. The proud and boastful New 
Yorkers are abandoning their farms and collecting 
in towns and villages to live on each other; while 
the Virginians are adding annually to the value of 
farming capital, and deriving more and more prof- 
it and pleasure from their farms, although worked 
by slaves. Our northern brethren sometimes 
turn up their noses at us poor southern folks, and 
greet us in the market-places with pharisaical pity. 
ISut, if they are happy, back-biting one another in 
country villages, weaving cloth in looms for us, 
and making cheap brogues for our negroes, we envy 
them not. We live on our farms in quiet and con- 
tentment, independent as princes, neither back- 
biting any body nor envious of any, nor spinning 
nor weaving nor hewing, nor drawing for any body 
unless we choose. They thank God they are not 
as we poor publicans are; we will simply pray to 
God to make them as happy as his great bounty 
has made us, and the slaves whom we love, and 
who love us. 

A man who is faithful to his business will be a 
better farmer at three-score years of age than he 
was at five-and-twenty ; because each year of his 
life ought to correct the errors and add to the ex- 
perience of former ye'ars. Although we have very 
imperfect means of collecting and accumulating 
this individual knowledge, yet some of it, like 
other traditionary lore, floats down to succeeding 
generations. Thus have we an advantage over 
our ancestors, in having learned some things of 
them, and know more about the culture of the 
earth than was known to them half a century ago. 
In hardly any respect have we been more bene- 
fitted in this way, than in finding out that less la- 
bor will make crops of many kinds than used to 
be deemed necessary. I think we" may safely say 
that the corn crop, for instance, may be made with 
less than half the labor once bestowed on it, if we 
measure labor by the time consumed in it. I am 
not a very old farmer, and yet I have seen a crop 
of corn ploughed five times and hoed as often. 
Now we often make more per acre with one or 
two ploughings- and no hoe-work — in part, no 
doubt, because of the more thorough tillage be- 
fore planting; but mainly because we have found 
out that such numerous workings were not only un- 
necessary but injurious. In harvesting corn, too, 
nearly half the labor of former days is now saved; 
and so of many other branches of husbandry. 
The stream of knowledge and experience, though 
feeble, comes to us laden with some stores of ad- 
vantage. It forms a part, nay, a prominent part, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



379 



of our appointed work, to widen and deepen that 
stream, and freight it with cargoes of experience 
and wisdom for our posterity, better ensured 
against damage and loss. It is a great shame, 
that so much of the knowledge and experience of 
our fathers should be unavailable to us. It 
springs, I am sure, from man's repugnance for in- 1 
tellectual labor, and from the fatal mistake, al- 1 
ready alluded to, as to what our true work is. If j 
every farmer would keep a diary of his farm ope- 
rations, not five years would elapse before it would I 
become a storehouse of invaluable knowledge to 
himself, and at last it would go down to his sons 
as among the richest of his treasures — a treasure 
which extravagance could not waste nor use con- 
sume. I know something of this by experience. 
My honored father, than whom agricultural im- 
provement never had a move ardent friend, kept 
such a farm journal for many years ; and as he 
left six sons, all wishing to be farmers, and all 
wanting the journal, the law of primogeniture 
had to decide the matter, and the oldest son* is a 
long way the best farmer of the family, (if I may 
say it, few are better in any family,) and owing 
very much, as I believe, to the experience and 
knowledge contained in the old farm journal of 
our father. If we think we know any thing, bro- 
ther farmers, let us put it in black and white for 
future use, and for the benefit of our children. 
You need not be afraid of making your children 
too wise ; for we have the highest authority for 
be.ieving that the "fruit of wisdom is better than 
gold, yea, than fine gold; and her revenue than 
choice silver/' Write journals and diaries for 
them, and your sons shall be wiser than their 
fathers, and richer and happier. Put up sign- 
boards along the path-way of life, as beacons for 
your children: "Here I turned to the right, and 
did well" — your son may follow you and do like- 
wise. " Here I took the left, and failed " — your 
son will turn to the right, and prosper. Such a 
chart of a well-spent life would be a richer heri- 
tage than broad acres and overflowing coffers. 

•Farming has always been a respectable calling 
in Virginia. The character of the settlers from 
England made it so at an early day in our history. 
But it has not always been as agreeable an occu- 
pation as it is now-a-days. In former times, the 
life of the farmer, as of every pioneer settler, was 
an exceedingly rough one. A log cabin was his 
home, and no effort was made to do more than 
barely make it habitable. The farmer's work was 
of the body, and afforded no scope for intellectual 
powers nor mental enjoyments. Science availed 
little, or not at all; hard licks with the axe and 
hoe were the tests of farming capacity. It is very 
different now, and the difference deserves to be 
noted in an enumeration of the causes which pro- 
mote agricultural progress; for man will always 
seek professions which afford pleasure as well as 
profit. Agriculture, combining as it now does, 
profit, pleasure, and honor, must soon successfully 
compete with all other professions. And why 
should it not 7 ? All that can captivate and allure 
cluster around it. The healthful exercise of the 
field, and the scientific investigations of the study, 
arc equally necessary for its successful pursuit. 

It gives the amplest bcope for physical and intel- 
lectual excitement. The farmer is in partnership 
with nature ; she helps him in all his labors, and 
asks no division of the fruits. His occupation 

* Hugh Minor. 



opens to his heart a thousand avenues of love and 
charity, which are the highways to happiness. 
All that is beautiful and grand, the poetry and the 
eloquence of nature, surround him in his daily 
work. His gains are not the bitter dole of other 
men's good-will, but come fresh from the treasury 
of heaven, watered by its showers and glittering 
in its sunshine. The unbought fruits of mother 
earth load his board with amplest fare, and make 
a generous hospitality as much the pleasure as 
the duty of his life. His home is no longer the 
cheerless and unsightly cabin, but a stately man- 
sion, beautified with sweet-scented flowers and 
adorned with umbrageous trees. The progressive 
civilization which characterizes the age has thrown 
enough of refinement around the life of the farmer 
to charm and enliven his toils, without poisoning 
his virtues with cold-hearted and selfish luxury. 
The witer he becomes, the better he learns to read 
that lesson, which is written all over the earth — 
"God is love." And no man ever yet read that 
good lesson aright, and was unhappy. Well did 
the heathen poet exclaim — 

"Oh! for^unatos minium sua si bona norint 
Agricolas." 

If I should attempt a full enumeration of all 
the advantages which now cheer the farmer of 
Virginia in his appointed work, it would lead me 
far into a rich and wide field of speculation on the 
blessings which have flowed from the long peace 
that succeeded the French Revolution — the longest 
the civilized world has known — during which sci- 
ence has burst from the limits of the closet, and 
diffused her benign light over all the employments 
of men. But I must forbear, before you warn me 
to stop, in the words of the Trojan hero — 

"jam nox hurnida coelo 
Praecipitat, suadentque cadenlia sidera somnos." 

I beg your indulgence, however, while I speak 
of one other advantage, to me the most cheering 
of all, I mean the spirit of combination which is 
abroad among us. What would not Madison and 
Marshall and Taylor and Nicholas and Barbour 
and Garnett, and the host of other ardent friends of 
agricultural improvement, have given, to see the 
successful operation of a State Society, as we now 
see it; and to have witnessed the scene which oc- 
curred in this city two years ago, when, in a single 
night, the farmers of Virginia pledged the sum of 
forty thousand dollars for the cause of agricultural 
progress. They had toiled in the good work, and 
hoped almost against hope. Since their day, an- 
other band of enthusiastic men endeavored to es- 
tablish a State agricultural society. A meeting 
was held in the capitol, at which the Governor of 
the State presided ; a committee was appointed, 
with an ex-minister at its head; glowing speeches 
were made, and good resolutions adopted. But 
the hour was not come yet, 

"quae sera 
Respexit tamen, et longo post tempore venit." 

The farmers of Virginia awoke at last? from 
their lethargy, and by a long pull, and a strong 
pull, and a pull altogether, with a spirit which 
gladdened the hearts of us all, put the fate of our 
society beyond the chance of a failure. The Vir- 
ginians are a very independent people, particularly 
the farmers. Living very much on their farms, 
where their authority and control are supreme 
and absolute, they acquire a spirit of self-reliance 



380 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



and independence which is excellent in itself, and 
very ennobling, but which often retards great 
movements, because adverse to combined efforts. 
I hope we are now fully aroused, and, linked to 
one another in an indissoluble union, Intend to 
keep alive the spirit which has breathed the 
breath of life into the dry bones of former days. 
Harmony and concord are necessary to do this. 
If we quarrel over details, our zeal will soon 
slacken and die. We must give our hearts to 
the work, and push it onwards and upwards for 
ever. What though every wheel may not turn 
just as each one of us likes : it matters not, if the 
work goes forward. I see, however, one breaker 
ahead of us : we have grown rich. " Ubi mel, ibi 
apes." Our money will soon attract the keen 
scent of avarice, and shoals of office-hunters will 
follow our track, as sharks do the wake of a well 
freighted vessel. We must look to this danger, 
and shun it. We need but few officers, and fewer 
still of them with large salaries. I fondly hope 
that the noble fruits of the all-glorious and ever 
memorable night in November 1853 will not be 
frittered away on any ephemeral object, but ap- 
propriated in such manner as to build up a mo- 
nument of our liberality as enduring as time. If 
our funds are too small now, let us nurse them, 
and hand them down to our children, that they 
may double them; and so shall they accumulate, 
till they grow ample enough to accomplish some 
great work, whose fruits shall last as long as the 
blue hills of our State remain. What that great 
work should be, I do not now presume to say ; 
but, I beg you, let us have some great aim in 
view. As long as we have none, our funds will 
be slipping through our fingers, and ere long will 
take unto themselves wings, and flee away. Above 
all, let us not think our work Is done, and, like 
the fool in the parable, say to ourselves, " Soul, 
thou hast much goods laid up for many years, 
take thine ease," lest our doom be like his. Our 
work is not done. One generation cannot do it. 
It yokes us, by a bondage whose chains are free- 
dom, to the car of human progress, in all that is 
good and great. We shall be recreants if we 
stop. With our harness on, we must bequeath 
our work to our children, and bid them urge it 
on for ever. 



TREES— THEIR GENERAL CHARACTER AND 
ADVANTAGES. 

BY WILSON FLAGG. 

Every careful observer of nature must have 
remarked that there is an endless variety in 
the forms and foliage of trees, and these dif- 
ferences and their expression have, from the 
earliest ages, been a favorite study for the 
painter and the poet. The Psalmist compares 
the godly man to "a tree that is planted by 
rivers of water, whose leaf shall not wither," 
seeisg in the stateliness and beauty of such a 
tree, an emblem of the nobler virtues of the 
human heart. Trees are distinguished from 
one another by their grandeur or by their ele- 
gance; by their primness or by their grace; 
by the stiifhess of their branches and foliage, 
or by their waving and tremulous motions. — 



Some stand forth as if in defiance of the wind 
and storm ; others, with long drooping bran- 
ches, find their security in bending to the gale, 
like the sleuder grassses at their roots. 

Although a perfect tree, of any species, is 
regular and symmetrical in its outlines, there 
are but a few in which this symmetry prevails 
in the arrangement of their branches. The 
deciduous trees generally send out their bran- 
ches at irregular distances, and at different an- 
gles. In the evergreens of the fir tribe the 
branches are given out in whorls, leaving spaces 
between each whorl either naked or covered 
only with a few abortive and inconspicuous 
shoots. In every perfect tree of this tribe there 
is a single trunk that grows undivided to the 
very summit, the branches extending horizon- 
tally, or nearly so, and always at the same an- 
gle in the same whorl with the perpendicular 
trunk, and gradually decreasing in length from 
the root to the summit of the tree. This man- 
ner of growth causes it to assume a pyramidal 
form, which is more remarkable than in any 
other species. These trees, when perfect, are 
clothed with branches down almost to their 
roots. 

The deciduous trees divide their trunks in- 
to several branches, after attaining a certain 
height and these are seldom given out horizon- 
tally, or at regular distances. Hence their 
regularity is generally not formal; and is more 
apparent in their outlines than in the arrange- 
ments of their branches. In trees of the conif- 
erous tribe, we look for symmetry and geome- 
trical beauty; in the diciduous trees for ele- 
gance and grace, without formality. Hence 
the latter may lose much of their general pro- 
portions, and still be pleasing objects to the 
sight; but any imperfection in the shape of the 
former, as in a geometrical figure, is fatal to 
their beauty, and renders them worthless as or- 
naments of highly cultivated scenery. It is on 
this account that the coniferous evergreens are, 
for the most part, in better harmony with rude 
and mountainous situations, than with richly 
decorated landscapes. 

The value of trees as beautiful objects would 
be greatly diminished, if they never changed 
their appearance. In this habit consists the 
superiority of the deciduous trees, as compared 
with the evergreens. The latter are more or 
less wearisome to the sight, by wearing forever 
the same dark-green sombre foliage. The 
evergreens, however, are the charm and the 
glory of winter; and the landscape that is desti- 
tute of them, at this season, is tame and cheer- 
less, wanting in what is most beautiful to the 
sight and suggestive of out-door comfort and 
protection from the cold. Not only by their 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



381 



verdure do they relieve the desolate aspect of 
winter, but by their contrast they make the 
splendor of the autumnal tints more remarka- 
ble in the decline of the year. Our northern 
evergreens, consisting chiefly of the coniferous 
species, bear no conspicuous flowers — a deficien- 
cy that adds still greater monotony to their 
general appearance. 

Forming a pleasing contrast with the ever- 
greens, the deciduous trees, varying with the 
seasons of the year, pass through a succession 
of changes, by which they are constantly as- 
suming new attractions. There is no tree that 
affords a better -example of these changes than 
the common red maple, which, in the course of 
the year, exhibits five different aspects. In 
early May, when it "is in flower, it is filled 
throughout with bright crimson blossoms, that 
render it a magnificent object when beheld at 
a little distance. As the blossoms fade, theten- 
der leaves are put forth, in plaited folds, of a 
light green, shaded with purple. The third 
change exhibits the tree in summer, arrayed in 
one uniform canopy of darker green. In Sep- 
tember the whole foliage assumes a bright 
crimson hue, which it retains until the fall of 
the leaf. We can hardly conceive of any 
greater beauty of tints than that presented by 
the different species of maples during Septem- 
ber and October. Other trees are clad in 
comparatively dull and inconspicuous hues; 
and it is the maple that yields the principal 
charm to American forest scenery in autumn. 
The last change assumed by the maple redu- 
ces it to the nakedness of winter, when, by 
the gracefulness of its proportions and the 
neatness and elegance of its branches, it at- 
tracts the attention of every beholder. 

Not only in the forms of trees but in their 
motions, when swayed by the wind, do we no- 
tice a great dissimilarity. The branches of 
certain kinds of trees are so stiff and unyield- 
ing, that they scarcely bend perceptibly to the 
breeze. This stubborn quality is. particularly 
remarkable in the firs and spruces, in which 
the leaves' are entirely motionless, and the 
branches immovable except by a strong current 
of wind. As the beauty of a tree consists 
in its motions no less than its form and propor- 
tions, it is rendered worthless for ornamental 
purposes in proportion as it is wanting in this 
graceful quality that assimilates it to a living 
creature. 

The leaves of almost all trees are more or 
less tremulous; but in this respect there is a 
great difference between them. Some species 
when exposed to the passing breeze, exhibit 
merely a waving of the branches, which yields 
a singularly graceful appearance to the common 



American elm and the weeping willow. Oth- 
ers exhibit less waving of the branches ; but 
when the wind passes through them their fo- 
liage is put into rapid motion, making au 
agreeable rustling sound as if the tree was 
full of life. This trembling of the leaves is 
proverbial in the aspen, and in many other 
poplars; and it distinguishes the pear tree 
from the apple tree, and the common white 
birch from its kindred species. The leaves of 
most trees whose foliage is remarkably tremu- 
lous, are heart-shaped, and smooth on their up- 
per surface, like those of some of the ever- 
greens. 

Besides these natural dissimilarities in the 
forms and habits of trees, there are others 
which may be termed accidental. In a forest, 
the trees are so closely set as to lose much of 
their individual peculiarity, growing up to a 
great height and prevented from spreading out 
their lower branches by the close vicinity of 
other trees. Hence writers have made this 
distinction between a forest and a grove. In 
the latter the trees are sufficiently far apart to 
admit of their full development ; in a forest 
they are so thickly planted as to to run up 
like great pillars, their branches making an 
even canopy of foliage above our heads. A 
grove, therefore, approaches more nearly to a 
state of cultivation than a forest, in which we 
seldom find a perfect tree. 

The public, at the present day, is very gen- 
erally convinced of the importance of plant- 
ing trees by the road sides and around their 
enclosures. Not only do they afford U3 shade 
and shelter, but they tend to equalize the 
temperature of the atmosphere at all seasons. 
It is well known to travellers that the forests 
are cooler in summer and warmer in winter 
than the open plains, and that the equability 
of the climate would be improved in propor- 
tion as the whole continent should be covered 
with trees. And how many barren road sides, 
where one is scorched with the fervid heat of 
the summer at one season and chilled with 
the bleak wintry winds at another, might be 
bordered with millions of beautiful trees, to 
yield comfort and protection both to the trav- 
eller and the dweller in their vicinity. 

The consequence of depriving a country of 
its wood, is the drying of the soil in about the 
same proportion; and were a country to be 
completely deprived of its timber, in the inte- 
rior of a large continent, it would be converted 
into a dry desert. Trees not only check evap- 
oration from the soil, but they attract the 
moisture of the atmosphere and concentrate 
it in their own neighborhood. They are like- 
wise, when planted at a proper distance from 



332 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



our dwellings, a protection against lightning. 
Trees are good conductors, and where they 
are very numerous, they prevent the accumula- 
tion of electricity in the atmosphere, by silent- 
ly conducting down the the fluid from the im- 
pending clouds. It is also well known that 
the foliage of trees produces a constant pu- 
rifying influance upon the vital element that 
surrounds us, and aids other natural agents in 
reproducing what living creatures have con- 
sumed. But setting all these considerations 
aside, the beauty of trees would alone be 
a sufficient inducement to cultivate them; and 
more than all, they serve to attract the sing- 
ing birds around our dwellings, through whose 
sweet voices nature is always communicating 
to us some agreeable sentiment or cheerful 
emotion. 

Among the advantages of trees, it would 
be idle to omit to mention their fragrance. — 
No man of imagination would despise a per- 
fume. It is a part of the universal language of 
nature, and aids us in interpreting many of her 
laws. If we conversed by odors, instead of 
sounds, the sense of smelling would be ranked 
with the intellectual senses. And how intimate- 
ly associated is the terebinthine odor of pines 
with pleasant languor of summer noon-day, with 
the gathering of wild fruits in the pastures, 
with the pensive notes of the solitary thrushes, 
and with the few beautiful and singular flowers 
that dwell like nuns in their cloistered soli- 
tudes. 

But the most evident cause of the sensation 
of beauty with which we contemplate a grove 
of trees, is the idea of the protection they af- 
ford us during the languid heat of summer. 
Connected with this are the sounds of wind 
through their foliage, the hum of insects 
among their ulossoms, and the warbling of 
birds among their branches. All these come 
vividly to the fancy while looking upon their 
beautiful forms, the variety of colors unfolded 
to the sight during the development of their 
foliage, from the first tender plaited leaves of 
April, with their hues of yellow and purple, 
to the dark green hues of summer, and the 
gorgeous splendor of autumn that precedes 
their final decay. 

In woods we delight to ramble in early 
youth, charmed with their pleasant seclusion, 
with the variety of flowers and plants in their 
under growth, the soft carpet of moss that 
covers their knolls, and the many peculiar 
sounds that to the ear of childhood are strik- 
ing and romantic. In later years the wood 
becomes an enchanted spot, where we are, as it 
were, carried back to the days of our youth by 
he genial influence that is breathing around 



us. Here is the theatre of the pleasures of 
many a holiday; the trees under whose boughs 
we have watched the gambols of the squirrels 
and the flitting of birds, or listened to the mur- 
murs of their lofty branches when swayed by 
the winds. 

It needs, therefore, no elaborate argument 
to prove that on the character of our trees and 
woods depends a great portion of the happi- 
ness of the people. In them resides, in a 
high degree, that quality which lends a moral 
influence to the landscape. To them are we in- 
debted for what is most beautiful in prospect, 
and most agreeable in a rural walk. Trees are 
like so many old friends, each possessing a 
different character, and speaking to us a dif- 
ferent language of pleasant and sad remem- 
brances. How does the weeping willow awaken 
the tender melancholy that attends us in a 
country churchyard: and as it waves its branch- 
es to the wind we seem to listen to the sighs 
of some invisible watchers over the silent 
slumbers. The gracefulness of the poplar, 
with its green tremulous leaves, the grandeur 
of the wide-spreading oak, and the majestic 
beauty of the elm, are each calculated to in- 
spire the mind with serene, lively, tender or 
sublime emotions, and are so many aids to us iu 
our efforts to recall the pleasant memories of 
the past, or in cherishing those feelings that 
elevate the mind with aspirations for something 
better than the plodding business of life. 

As a supplement to these general remarks 
on trees, it may be well to make a few sugges- 
tions concerning a very important point in 
practice. In these days men are seldom 
cuilty of the folly of removing trees, without 
as far as practicable, saving the entire root. — 
But they commit another error which involves 
consequences quite as important, I allude to 
the practice of digging up trees for transplan- 
tation indiscriminately from the forest. A 
perfect tree can seldom be found in a wood, 
and the only way of insuring the acquisition 
of good trees, native as well as foreign, is to 
procure them from a nursery. Nursery trees, 
if proper care has been taken of them, are 
more perfect in their form and proportions, 
than those which have grown up spontaneous- 
ly among the crowded trees and undergrowth 
of the woods. These remarks are parlicular- 
ly applicable to the coniferous evergreens, 
which are worthless if they have lost their 
lower brandies. The greater number that 
have attained the height of six _ feet in the 
woods, have met with this loss, which can never 
be remedied. 

There is the same difference between the 
trees from the nursery and the trees from the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



383 



wood, that may bo observed between the stout 
cabbage plants that are grown separately in a 
good soil and properly weeded, and others that 
have become slender and elongated by growing 
thickly and crowded among tall weeds. — 
Neither the elongated cabbage plants, nor the 
slender saplings from the forest can form good 
heads. The nursery trees have another advan- 
tage over the wild ones, in having been accus- 
tomed from their first appearance above the 
soil, to what we may call artificial habits. — 
They submit, therefore, more kindly to the 
treatment they are to receive. The wild- 
growers are to be ''broken in," or naturalized, 
and many of them must perish in the opera- 
tion. It is a sort of penny wisdom that would 
advise one to dig up poor puny saplings from 
the woods, because they can be had for no- 
thing. The greater amount of labor required 
in procuring them from the woods, with good 
roots, will make the expense in the end equal 
if not greater than that of purchasing them 
from a nursery, without taking into account 
the greater comparative number of the former 
that will perish. — Hovet/s Magazine. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Pamunkey River, Nov. 21, 1855. 

Mr. Editor — Dear Sir : In looking over 
your journal of October, I was pleased to see 
that Dr. W. H. Macon has recommended Mr. 
John Haws' machine so highly ; still I do not 
think he has said as much of it as it deserves, 
In recommending the machine, I shall differ 
in some things with the Dr. I have been 
using different kinds of threshing machines 
for the last thirty years. I am writing from 
experience, but I never have seen any machine 
operate so well as the one I used this year of 
Mr. Haws. The Dr. thinks with 1 6 mules or 
horses he could make one to thresh 1000 
bushels per day — here the Dr. and myself 
differ. This season, with ten small mules, I 
threshed GOO bushels, and I do think the ma- 
chine waited one-third of the day. I do not 
think it is for the want of so much team. 
Just put two men to feed the drum, and with 
ten or twelve mules the work will be done. 
The machine is one of the most perfect that 
ever has been made in the United States, in 
my humble opinion. This season I threshed 
between four and five thousand bushels of 
wheat, and I do not think I lost one half hour 
from any part of 'the machine getting out of 
order. I would advise every farmer in Vir- 
ginia, instead of going to the North to get 
machines, just come to old Hanover. Even 
small farmers would find it to their interest 



to get one of these machines, as it is such a 
great labor-saver — you have no trouble in the 
world but just to take the machine to any 
part of your farm, and, in one or two hours 
you can go to work, and o\ ! how sweetly 
every thing moves on — every wheel, every 
cog, and every band knows its place — and 
best of all is this : I do think that a very 
large majority of my wheat was just in order 
for the vessel as it came from the fan. As to the 
worth of Mr. Haws machine I have not words 
to express it. I hope Mr. Editor, you will give 
this a place in your journal. By so doing you 
will confer a great favor on your friend — 

An Old Pamunkey Overseer. 



AMERICAN WOOL IN ENGLAND. 

Sometime since P. A. Browne, Esq., of Phil- 
adelphia, obtained from different parts of the 
United States samples of wool, which he for- 
warded to the Society of Arts of London. 
The agent for the Commissioners of the per- 
manent Exhibition of objects of Arts and In- 
dustrv, in a letter to Mr. Browne, acknoledg- 
ing the receipt of them, says:-"The collection 
of samples of American Wools is of the high- 
est value and interest, and I feel extremely 
obliged for your kind aid in collecting them." 
In a circular addressed to American wool- 
gixnvers, Mr. Browne remarks : 

The deposit of these specimens of fleece in 
this Museum, (where they can and will be ex- 
amined by thousands of visitors,) I cannot help 
regarding as highly imporant to your interest, 
and the result will, I feel assured, prove cred- 
itable to this nation. 

The consumption of wool in England is 
vast and increasing: last year the woolen man- 
ufactures of that kingdom amounted to 150,- 
000,000 of dollars: and yet they do not raise 
one pound of wool fit for making the best 
broadcloths. The finest wool successfully pro- 
duced in England, is from the South-Down, 
for the Merino is not suited to their climate. 
Formerly the British manufacturers depended 
for their supply on Spain — afterwards on Ger- 
many, and lastly upon Australia; from which 
latter place were brought in one year, upwards 
of 47 millions of pounds. 

So soon as they ascertained, by inspecting 
these specimens, that the United States can 
raise wool quite as fine if not a little finer 
than any other country in the world, the de- 
mand will be extensive and lasting. So it 
was with American cotton, so it will be, I pre- 
dict, with fine wool; and our wool-growers 
should prepare themselves steadily, for this 
great event. The agricultural disturbances, 
occasioned by the war in Europe, has injured 



384 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Germany sheep breeding; and the pursuit of 
gold in Australia, has had its effect upon this 
portion of agricultural industry in that region, 
so that Great Britian will naturally turn her 
thoughts ,to this extensive Continent, where 
sheep may be raised, almost to any extent that 
can be contemplated. The farmers of the 
United States have only to be careful to form 
their flocks from the best breeds, and to keep 
ihcm pure — no crossing of species, — and they 
will garner a golden harvest. — Country Gen- 
tleman. 



RICHMOND MARKETS, DEC. 1. 

Bacon — We quote Western Sides 15i cts. '$ lb.; Shoul- 
ders 14@14Ac; Hams 13@15 cts.; Smithtield h g round 
15 cts. — nominal, none in market, city cured none in mar- 
ket The market is nearly here of Sides, which have ad- 
vanced 1 cent. 

Coffee— Rio 10£@llfc. ; Laguayra 12@12|c; Java 
14A@15c; Mocha i5|c. 

Cotton Yarns — 16@18 cts. Cotton Cordage 20 cts. 
fib.. 

Corn — 95 cts. f bushel — small parcels Si. Sales of 
new Corn at 75c. 

Flour — The market has been very quiet the past week 
with limited transactions. Country Superfine generally 
held at $]0, which is above the views of buyers. Not 
more than $9 50@9 75 can be had from shippers for fair 
to choice lots. Extras $10@ 10 25. We quote to the trade 
for consumption, 89 75@10 lor Superfine; $10 50@11 for 
Extras, and $11 5fJ@12 for Family. 

Fish — Herrings, none in first hands. Mackerel — No. 1, 
820; No. 2, $11 50@12; No. 3, new, $5 75@6. 

Guano — Stock of Peruvian small; held at $60. We 
quote Mexican at $30@35. 

Hay— $1@1 121 f rom wharf; $1 25 from store. 

Molasses — None in market. Syrup 45@50c. 

Oats— 40@42Jc. ^ bushel, supply better. 

Potatoes — Supply fair— selling at 62@75c. f bushel, 
wholesale. 

Rye— We quote 95@1 05 f bushel. 

SUGARS — Fair to strictly prime N. Orleans S@3~c; 
Cuba, none in market; Coffee Sugar 9@10c; Loaf lfaj@ 
lie; Crushed and Powdered 10@10Jc. 

Tobacco — We quote inferior Lugs at $4 75@5 25; 
good and fine $5 50@6. Common Leaf $7@7 75; good 
SS8@9. No fine Shipping in market. New Loose Tobacco 
has advanced also; Lugs $2 50@3 75. 

Wheat— We quote S2 15@2 20 for good to prime red; 
$2 20 to -$2 25 for good to prime White. Inferior and 
ordinary $1 50 to $2; fair $2 05 to $2 10. 



CONTENTS OF NO. XII. 

PAGE. 

Report, List of Premiums, &c. of the Va. 

State .Agricultural Society 353 

Female Equestrianism 367 

King William Turnips % 367 

Address of Franklin Minor 368 

Trees — their general character and advantages 380 
American Wool in England 383 



RICE & MORRIS, 

MANUFACTURERS AND DEALERS IN 
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, MA- 
CHINES, SEEDS, &c— Keep constantly on hand a 
general assortment of all articles in their line. Agents for 
Herring's Champion Firs and Burglar Proof 
Safes. Agricultural and Seed Store, 

Oct— tf 46 and 48 Light at. Baltimore, Md. 



PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

From September SOtk. 



Lewis Teel, Jan '56 $1 On 

Jno O Harris, Jan '56 2 0,1 
Rev. A L Holladay, 

May '56 1 00 

N W Elsohri, Julyj'56 1 00 

J H Burnley, July '55 2 00 

S W Martin, July '55 1 00 

M B Jarman, Jan '56 1 00 

R B Watkins, Oct '56 1 00 

S W Lackland, Apl '56 1 00 
Rev. W Crawford, 

January '56 1 ( 

C T Graves, Sept '56 1 00 

J S Cowherd, Jan '5 1 00 

A G Binford, Jan '56 1 00 

A L Mills* July '66 1 00 

W S Dulaney Jan '59 3 00 

Dr A Dold, July '56 2 Of 

Geo Stillman, Sept '56 1 00 

D J A pplebu. y, Jan '56 2 00 

J W Downing, " '57 1 00 

L Strange, A ov '56, 1 00 

J B Newman, Sept '56 1 00 
Col B Davenport, 

Jan '56 1 00 

.las Nassett, Jan '56 3 00 

H M Brentz, Oct '50 1 00 

Col G Scott, Jan '56 5 00 

D O Bass, Jan '57 1 00 

J A Selden, Jan '57 3 00 

Dr W Fuqua, Jan '55 1 00 

P S Coles, July '56 2 00 

S T Barclay, Jan '57 3 00 

Gen Patterson, Jan '57 1 00 

S W Lyle, Jan '56 4 00 

J M McCue, July '56. 2 00 

J B Lightfoot, Jan '57 2 00 

Jas Barbour, July '56 1 

John Johnson, Sept '56 2 00 

J M Adams, Sept '56 1 00 

J Fontaine, Jan '57 2 00 

Dr R H Nelson, Jan '57 1 00 

J II Coleman, July '56 2 00 

Thos A Bell, Oct '56 2 80 
Dr W N Wellford, 

Jan '57 5 00 

W P Smith, Jan '57 2 00 

J T Dupey, Oct '56 1 00 

J Wysnng, July '56 1 00 

J J Locke, Oct '56 1 00 

Dr D Janey, July '56 1 00 

A Kennedy, " '56 1 00 

Thos Scott, Jan '56 1 00 

J E Woltzer, Oct '56 2 00 

Dr J H Latain, Jan '56, 1 00 

W C Latane, Jan '56 3 00 

R V Watkins, July '55 1 00 
Col W W Milner, 

May '56 3 00 

John Seldin, July '50 1 00 

VV G Maury, Jan '56 1 00 

T Robinson, July '56 1 00 

Jos Mead " '56 1 00 

Jos Smith, Jan '57 1 00 

C Glover. June '56 3 00 

B T Douglass, July '56 3 00 

J S Magill, July '55 2 00 

F K Nelson, Jan '57 1 00 

Dr E L Peagh, Ap'l '5'i 3 00 

John Massie, Jan '56 1 On 

Jno W Goss, Jan '57 1 00 
Capt E T D uglass, 

September 1855, 1 00 

W Rodes, July '55 1 00 



F Gilliam, Jan '57 1 00 

A Douglass, Oct '56 1 00 
C Anthon}', Oct '56 1 00 
C H Lyi:ch, Jan '57 1 00 
Dr R H Stuart, Jan. '57 2 00 
T Betherton, May '56 2 00 
Dr W A Hill, Dec '55 1 50 
T B Herchins, Nov '56 1 00 
WTH Pollard, Aug'56 1 00 
G W Pollard, July '55 2 00 
R Meadow, Oct '56 1 00 
Corbin Warwirk, 

July '56 1 00 

W P Bryant, Jan '56 1 00 
J S Hughtower, Sep '56 2 00 
W G Trippe, Oct '56 1 00 
S Dickinson, Oct '56 1 00 
BShannonkoun,Oct'56 1 00 
F B V\ hiting, Jr " '56 1 00 
P R Page, Jan '57 3 00 

H R Cook, Oct '55 1 50 

D B Stegel, July '56 2 00 
W Gordon, Oct '56 1 00 

J O Morriss, Jan '56 1 00 
P J Grigg, May '56 1 00 

J H Taylor, Sept '56 2 00 
J M Ransom, " '56 1 00 
W C Scott, July '56 1 00 
W Malone, July '57 1 00 
E Brummell, July '52 2 00 
H C Worsham, .lan'56 1 00 
Jas A Bell, Jan '56 1 00 

C L Crocketts, Jan '56 1 00 
W T Barrett, Oct '56 1 00 
James Via, Jan '56 1 00 

RD Wimberly, Jan '56 1 00 
W P Waring, Jan '56 2 00 
G R Gibbons, Jan '56 1 00 
Dr P Henry, May '56 1 00 
T Coles, Jan '57 1 00 

D H Pannill, Jan '57 2 00 
A S Matthews, July '56 2 00 
R A Wilson, Jan '57 1 00 
WT Scott, Jan '56 1 00 

Dr R P Waller, Jan '56 5 00 
Dr E A Coleman, 

Sept 1856 3 00 

T P Crawford, Aug '56 1 00 
R Allen, Sept '56 2 00 

M P Moyer, April '56 2 00 
Mai B Craig, Sept '56 1 00 
A D Sprout, Sept '55 3 00 
Dr W S McChesney, 

Oct '56 1 00 

J B Townly, Jan '56 2 00 

1 Kyre, July '56 5 00 
H C Williams, July '56 1 00 
E C Jordan, Jan '57 2 00 
D Walden, Jan '57 1 00 
J D Isbell, Jan '57 2 00 
Dr T Nelson, July '56 1 00 
Dr W S Fowler, Oct '56 2 00 
A Brown, Sept'57 5 00 
Dr W H Macon, Sep '56 1 00 
Dr L C Holland, 

January 1856 3 00 

Jno Wumble, July '56 1 00 
W Winfrey, Jan '57 2 00 
Gen W Macon, July '56 1 00 
S J Hart, Jan '56 2 00 

HLShacklef.rd Ap'56^1 00 
N Branham, Oct '56 1 00 
John Toole, Jan '56 2 00 
» Edge, July '55 1 00 



INDEX. 



A. 



Agricultural Commissioner, Report of the 5 

Analysis of Garden Vegetables, 14 

Apple Molasses, 24 

Analyses of Soils, 24, 138 

Analysis of Soils 77 

American Horses for British Cavalry, 85 

Agricultural Science, , .89 

Analysis of Soils, Communication by Dr. J. 

Higgins, 138 

Albemarle Insurance Company 147 

Ants, 150 

Appeal to the Agricultural Inlerest of Vir- 
ginia, by Lieut. Maury, , .161 

Agricultural Professorship 216 

Accomack County, 232 

Agricultural Science, 247 

Agriculture, Principles of. .261 

Alpaca, or Peruvian Sheep, ,282 

Agricultural Writing and Reading, 283 

A Convenient and Wholesome Food, 293 

Animals, Care of Working 293 

Are we Progressing ? 339 

Amended Constitution of the Virginia State 

Agricultural Society, 356 

Address by Franklin Minor, 368 

B. 

Buckwheat , 19, 80, 338 

Bible Bones,. 91 

Rook Farming 92 

Borer, The Peach Tree 103 

Baking, Discovery in 105 

Boxes, Capacity of. 107, 153 

Beavers in Virginia, 115 

Butter, , 116 

Broadcasting Machine, Seymour's Patent. 116, 153 

Blue Clay, Essay on, by R. Harrison 142 

Breaking Colts and Oxen . 148 

Butter-Worker, Dickey's 149 

Bones? Will Ashes dissolve 157 

Brown Bread, Wheat Bran, 165 

Blackhawk Horses 184, 230 

Barren Heifer, The 233 

Bilious Fever in Cows 239 

Butter from Green Rye Feed, 246 

Baldwin, Remarks on Premium offered by Dr. .284 

Birds and Insects, 319 

Back Band, Proper use of. 338 

Blood Stock, what is it? 340 

C. 

Clover 14 

Cattle Raising, '. 19 

Chincha Islands, Interesting from the 20 

Cattle Trade, The 25 



Cement for Seams . 44 

Cobs or no Cobs, 44 

Cherry, Cultivation of, on the Mahaleb Stock,. .59 

Corn, 60 

Candles, Cheap and Excellent 61 

Campbell's, J. L. Communication from 73 

Corn, Cultivation of. 80, 117, 172 

Clover Seed, Sowing 86 

Creole Butter, .92 

Cut Worm 92 

Chloroform for Domestic Animals, 107 

Capacity of Boxes, 107, 153 

Compost Manures, Stock Yards, &c 108 

Cultivator, A New Jill 

Corn Fodder, Ill, 269", 309 

Cooking Food . . .112 

Chinch Bug, The 112, 218,313 

Corn-Cutting Machine, A New 149 

Clover, Cutting for Hay, 156 

Crops in Virginia, Prospects of. 176 

Curing Clover Hay,. 178 

Chilian Guano Fraud, 195 

Camphor v. Pea Bugs 207 

Capillary attraction of the Soil, 212 

Compacting Soils,. 225 

Cows, Diseases of. 242 

Copperas, 244 

Currant Wines, 246 

Communication from B. H. Jones, 251 

Crop Prices, &c, The 257 

Colic in Horses, 260 

Cows, Hay for, in Summer 871 

Chinch Bug, Remedy for , 275 

Crops and Exports 277 

Communication from Yardley Taylor, 284 

Cheap Furniture for Rooms, 292 

Catterpillars, To get rid of. .292 

Cutting Wheat prematurely, 305 

California Quaries, 319 

Corn Field Pea, Feeding Stock on 345 



D. 



Ditch Digger, Pratt's 48, 342 

Dr. Baldwin's Shade Theory, 76 

Distemper among Cattle, 118 

Dogs, Jefferson County. 148 

Dickey's Butter-Worker, 149 

Drainage, Test for Expediency of. 168 

Drills, Wheat * 183 

Drumgoole Mulberry, The .233 

Distemper in Cattle, .236 

Damp Wheat, To Dry 243 

Dead Horses of Paris, The 266 

Destroyers of our Grain, The 267 

Dwarf Pears 281 

Drainage, 306 

Droughts, Benefit of, to Land, 317 



386 



INDEX. 



Dairy Statistics,. . . , 341 

Draining Land by Wells 350 

E. 

Emery's Seed Planter and Drill Barrow 207 

Economy in Feeding Horses and Mules, 230 

Enemies of Plant Lice, 235 

• 
F. 



Fruit 7 

Flax Cultivation in the West, 12 

Fruit Trees, Manure for 13 

Facts for Farmers, 15 

Furniture, Home-Made , 16, 292 

Fertilizers on Grass , 26 

Fence, How to build a good 45 

Fruit Trees and Fruit Culture 50, 87 

Farming in Virginia, 56 

Farmer's Mode of Living, 57 

Freezing, does it destroy Vegetables 58 

Fowls, To Fatten 60 

Field Pea , The 105 

Farms in England, Size of. Ill 

Fodder, Corn Ill 

Fine Wool, 177 

Flies, to keep from troubling Horses, 195 

Fraud, The Chilian Guano 195 

Fruit, Cultivation of. 210 

Feeding Horses and Mules, Economy in 220 

Fair of the Seaboard Agricultural Society,... .242 

Fodder, Effect of pulling 244 

Furs, Keeping in Summer 246 

Fruit Trees, New Mode of raising 265 

Fruit, Preservation and Ripening of 285 

Food consumed by different kinds of Stock,... .301 

Fattening Animals, 344 

Female Equestrianism, 367 

Franklin Minor, Address by 363 



G. 



Guano, The Trade in 9 

Garden Vegetables, Analysis of 14 

Grass, Fertilizer of. 26 

Guano and Superphosphate for Corn, 43 

Guano, Congressional Legislation upon 47 

Grape Vines casting their Fruit, Remedy for.. .52 

Guano, A new deposit of, discovered, 60 

Gas Tar in Horticulture, 106 

Galls from the Harness or Saddle, 107 

Grain, 122 

Grape Mildew, Cure for 145 

Green Corn for Soiling and for Hay, 146 

Grass, Reason asked for a failure in a stand of 151 

Guano, 166, 172, 275 

Guano, Great Fraud in 193 

Grass, Bad effects of, on Colts, 198 

Greenhouse Plants, Management of 199 

Guinea Fowls vs. Rats 207,243,306 

Gas Tar for Seed Corn, 216, 312 

Grasses and Grazing, 253 

Gaps in Chickens, Remedy for 294 

Grasses, Sheep, &c, 308 

Grain Crop of 1855 326 

Green Manuring 341 

H. 

Hop Trade in Wisconsin,. 43 

Horse, Essay on the. 65, 97 



Hitching the Tail to the Plough , .84 

Horses, American, for British Cavalry .85 

Hot-Beds, Making .9.1 

Household Measures, 92 

Flow to Shoe a Kicking Horse, 117 

Horse, Lecture on the, by Zadock Pratt, 129 

Harrowing Wheat,. . , 140 

Honey, To make ] 40 

Hay in the Stack, Measurement of 140 

Holcombe, Death of Chauncey P 153 

Hens, How we Keep our. 175 

How to Move a Sullen Ox, k 210 

Hams, To Broil ' 222 

Hydrangea, The 234 

Horses, Management of 251 

Horses, On the Management of Young 263 

Harness, How to keep , 270 

Hay for Cows in Summer, 271 

Horticultural Quackery 302 

I. 

Indian Corn , Cultivation of. 80 

Ice Houses, 86, 117 

Indian Corn, quantity produced, 141 

Improvement of Land in the Piedmont Region 

of Virginia 163 

Insects, To Destroy 348 

J. 

Journal of Transactions of Virginia State 

Agricultural Society 123 

Jars in Families, 166 

Joint Worm, The 189, 221, 261 

L. 

Lime 43, 84, 105, 145,335 

Limewater in Baking Bread, 85 

Lice on Cattle, Ill 

Locusts, 183 

Lucerne, Culture of. 230 

Lime and Salt, 247 

Labor, 267 

Light Bread Raiser, 271 

Lady Millicent, 299 

Letter from Phillip St. Geo. Cocke, 312 

Ladies, Riding and Driving Matches by 336 

M. 

Manure for Fruit Trees, 13 

Model Farm, , 19 

Management of Tobacco, 39 

M'Cormick's Reaping and Mowing Machine,.. .42 

Mutton, Live and Net Weights of. 75 

Mushrooms and Hogs, 104 

Moles, &c, to prevent from destroying Corn,. .123 

Manure from the Sea, 169 

Mulberry, The Drumt'oole 233 

Mule-Bearing Mare, Points of a Good 244 

Mulching with Wood Shavings 245 

Moisture in Soils, 262 

Mad Dog, Remedy for Bite of 263 

Mapes and the Guado Fraud, ,280 

Manure, Animal refuse as 329 

Manuring, Green 341 

N. 

New Corn-Cutting Machine, 149' 

New Feature for Virginia Farmers, .277 

New Shade Tree,. 334 



INDEX 



387 



O. 

Orange Water Melon Seed, 50 

Ornamental Planting, 53 

Oats, Experiment in Seeding 90 

Onions, How to Raise 140 

Olive versus Lard Oil, 145 

Osage Orange, The 197 

Oats, Winter 254 

Overseers, 313 

Ornamental Planting, 331 

Ox and Horse Labor, Comparative Value of. ..341 

P. 

Prince William Agricultural Society 25 

Profits and Wastes of Agriculture, 33 

Peruvian Guano for Tobacco Plant Beds, 40 

Pratt's Ditch Digger 48,342 

Ploughing,. . . , 53 

Potato, On the influence of Ashes, &c, on the 

chemical character of the 73 

Peach Tree Borer, 103 

Postcript to Remarks on Effect of Lime on 

Sorrel 110 

Plough, Construction of. 137 

Parson Surely's Experiment, 144 

Potatoes, Irish 157 

Pickles, American 1G8 

Peach Worm, Peach Trees from Seed, &c.,. . .170 
Peas, sowing, as a Preparation for Wheat,. . . .177 

Poultry xMania, The 181 

Pork Trade of 1854-5 185 

Pea Crop, The 196 

Peas, Successful Experiment with 207 

Premiums by Individual Donors, 210 

Pumpkins and Squashes 213 

Peaches, 220 

Plant, Lice Enemies of 235 

Pithusian Wheat, 242 

Points of a good Mule-Bearing Mare, 244 

Principles of Agriculture, 261 

Paris, The Dead Horses of. 266 

Ploughing for Wheat 272 

Pears, Dwarf. 281 

Preservation and Ripening of Fruit 285 

Preserving Fruit by Hermetical Sealing 296 

Paint, Antiseptic 316 

Pea Weevils, 335 

Production and Consumption 347 

R. 

Report of the Agricultural Commissioner to 

Committee of State Agricultural Society, 5 

Rumination, 21 

Remarkable scarcity of Insectivorous Birds, 

&c, last year 40 

Remarks on the Effects of Lime on Sorrel, 70 

Rain, The Philosophy of 106 

Rescue Grass 113 

Piidgelings, 153 

Rats, Method for Destroying 154 

Reply to Mr. Ruffin, 173 

Richardson, W. H. Letter from 221 

Rooster, An Unfortunate 235 

Remedy for the Bite of a Mad Dog, 263 

Rusting, To keep Metals from 266 

Rye 275 

liain, Evaporation and Filtration, 300 

Reply to Yardley Taylor, 311 

Ripening of Apples and Pears 315 

Riding Horses, On increasing supply of, &c.,. .321 

Rye and Oats mixed,. .*. 337 

Rate of Interest, 346 



Recipes: 

To keep Flies off Glasses, &c, 45 

To Fatten Fowls ,,, 60 

To Make Candles; Pot-au-Feu; to Cook 
Cabbages; to Improve Tea; Water-Proof 

Composition, ~. 61 

A good plain Curry; Apple Jelly, 73 

Cheap Soap 85 

Eggs, Convent Fashion,, 86 

Borax in Washing, 104 

A good Soap, Ill 

A good common Cake, Ill 

A good kind of Corn Bread 112 

Ginger Cakes, 112 

To cure Sheep Skin with the Wool on 149 

Soap, White Lead and Oil 190 

Flies, to keep from troubling Horses, 195 

Lemonade, &c, 276 

Domestic , 286 

A Convenient and Wholesome Food 293 

Washing Laces, 294 

Beef Pudding 350 

Rendering Lard, 350 

Sheep Skin Mats 350 

Butter Making 366 



Shade and Superficial Manuring, 53 

Sorrel, whether its growth is prevented by the 

Soil being made calcareous, 70 

Shade Theory, Dr. Baldwin's 76 

Scrofula, Certain Cure for 83 

Sowing Clover Seed 86 

Scratches in Horses, 107 

Smut, A New Remedy for 107 

Sorrel, Postcript to Remarks on Effects of 

Lime on 110 

Self-Regulating Windmill, 112 

Seeds, number of in given Weights, 112 

Smut in Wheat, 122 

Spavin, 136 

Salt and Ashes for Wire Worms 145 

Stocking Knitting Machine 148 

Sheep 152, 245 

Sore Shoulders in Horses, 166 

Sheep Breeding, 167 

Sheep, are large or small more profitable? 168 

Sowing Peas as a Preparation for Wheat, 177 

Silesian Merino Sheep, 202 

Short Horns as Milkers. 205 

Salt in Feeding Cattle, 206 

Successful Experiment with Peas, 207 

Smut In Wheat, Remedy for. . ; .216 

Short Horns, great sale of, in England, 221 

Soap, Labor Saving 221 

Sheep, Shearing by Machinery, 245 

Sheep, Winter Management of. 265 

Stacking Wheat Straw, 271 

Stump Puller, Patent 276 

Saving Seed 277 

Synopsis of an Agricultural Discussion 279 

Sweet Potatoes, Keeping 282 

Strawberries and their Culture,. . . : 289 

Silk, How to keep 292 

Short Horns, their Pedigrees and Milking 

Powers, 295 

Salt and Guano, 298 

Seymour's Broadcast Sowing Machine, 307 

Sheep, Grasses, &c, 308 

Stock, Cost of Keeping, 316 

Steam Plough in England, Performance of 330 

Steam Plough, Newly Invented 342 

Sheep Feeding, 343 



388 



INDEX 



T. 

Tobacco, The Cultivation and Management of.. .1 

Turkeys, Fattening 39 

Tobacco, Management of 39 

Tobacco Plant Beds, Peruvian Guano for 41 

Transactions of the Virginia Stale Agricultu- 
ral Society, Journal of the 123 

Tartarian Sheep, 152 

Turkeys, Breeding 155 

Three Field System and Standing Pasture,. . . .204 
Turnip Fly, Remedy against Ravages of the. ..239 

Tamarind in Virginia, The 246, 319 

Tobacco Plant, Analysis of 313 

Threshing Machine, Mr. John Haws' 314, 383 

The Logan Grazier, a Poem, 314 

Two Acre Farm, 317 

Turnips, 344 

Tamarind not growing in Winchester, 566 

Trees, 380 



IT. 



Useful Hints for Virgina Gardeners,. .78, 124, 156 
167,201,243 



Virginia State Agricultural Society, Journal 
of the Transactions of the 123 

Virginia State Agricultural Society, Financial 
Statement of, fop 1st March, 1855,. ....... .186 

Virginia State Agricultural Society,. , . .. ,304, 353 



W. 

Wheat Trade, 23, 217 

Wire Fences, 46 

Wheat Reaper and Mower, newly invented,. . . .49 

Wool, 58 

Weights of Measures,... 107 

Windmill, Self-Regulating 112 

Wheat Reaping Invention, 113 

Wide Beds for Low Grounds, 114 

Wire Grass, 135 

Wool, Depot of the Messrs. Crenshaw, 150 

Wheat Crop, Statistics of 154 

Wate'r Melon, The...... ..157 

Wheat Gleaner, 176 

Wool, Fine , 177 

Wool-Growing, Test of the Profits of 178 

Wheat Drills, 183 

Weevil, Preservation of Wheat from the At- 
tack of 207, 318 

Wheat Crop in Virginia, 208 

Weights and Measures,, 927 

Wagon, The , 234 

Wheat Crop, The, and the Price of it 240 

( Wheat, to dry when damp, 243 

Winter Oats, 254 

Wood, Best mode of Raising 265 

Wheat, ploughing for, 272 

Wheat, how to secure in Wet Weather, 293 

Working Animals, Care of 293 

Whitewash for Houses and Fences, 294, 303 

Wheat, An English Experimenter on 297 

Wheat Crop, The, and its Enemies 310 

Weevils, Pea 335 

Wool, American, in England ?•••.. 383 



ADDRESS 



OF 



GEN. LEWIS CASS 



DELIVERED 



Before the Kalamazoo County Agricultural Society, on 
Friday, October 11, 1850. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



" In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread .' " Memorable w ords these in the 
history of our race, spoken by him who alone might speak them, and upon a memorable 
occasion. He, who created man after his own image, pronounced this curse of labor 
upon the primitive sin of disobedience, and drove him forth from the garden of Eden 
" to till the ground from whence he was taken." But His judgments are tempered 
with mercy ? and we read this beautiful attribute of his character, equally in the book 
of nature, and in the book of revelation. And it is written in letters of living light upon 
this dispensation of His divine will. The curse has become a blessing — the penalty a 
mercy; and man, who went forth from a dwelling without care, into a world to be re- 
claimed by toil and trial and trouble, and there to wage a perpetual conflict with the 
obstacles of nature, row finds this rugged warfare essential to the development of his 
physical and intellectual faculties, and to that dominion over the works of nature around 
him, which he was designed by the Creator to exercise. Without motives for exertion, 
without labor to occupy, and its rewards to stimulate us, what were life, but the perfor- 
mance of animal functions, common to us and to " the beasts that perish ?" If we had 
harrvest without seed-time; if nature spread before us, all and always, the spontaneous 
products of the earth; if food and clothing were the gifts of her bounty, instead of being 
the result of human industry, we might still walk erect in the image of God, but we 
should look round upon the fair face of nature, almost equally indifferent to this work of 
his hand, and tothe great purposes of life. In the tropical regions of the globe, magnifi- 
cent and exhaustless in their productions, where man does nothing and the earth every- 
thing, the human race is scarcely elevated above the animals, their co-tenants of the 
forests, who equally find their means of subsistence in the same exuberant fertility. 
But where nature requires the aid of man in the work of ministering to his wants, and 
where, at every step of his life, he finds that its tenure depends upon mental and physi- 
cal energy, there his true characteristics are developed, and he maintains the station, 
where God first placed him, at the head of creation, with duties here and hopes hereafter, 
furnishing at once the motives and the recompense of his actions. 

We have assembled here to-day to commune together, upon one of the great depart- 
ments — the greatest indeed — of human employment. In the task assigned tome, I shall 
not enter into the practical details, which belong to this vast subject ; interesting to all, 
however diversified their avocations in life. I feel my incompetence to perform the part 
of a teacher in the great art of agriculture ; the art of directing and aiding nature in the 
performance of those functions, which were designed by Providence for the comfort and 
subsistence of man. A large portion of this intelligent assembly unite experience with 

Towers, printer, Washington City. 



^ 



" 



2 

observation, an intimate knowledge of practical operations, with a just theory of their 
application, and a full appreceation of the value of combining personal experience with 
those enlarged views, which are essential to progressive improvement. But omitting 
those practical details, which a familiar knowledge of the subject can alone furnish, 
there are still many general and important considerations, as well moral and statistical, as 
historical, which are neither inappropriate to the occasion, nor unworthy ofyoui attention, 
and some of these I propose to present to you. 

The more active portion of my life has been devoted to other and harsher duties ; and 
much of it to ranging the forests in the pursuit of the red man in time of war, and to 
counsel with and restrain him in time of peace. And this is not the first time 1 have 
been here. I have been here, when he who now speaks, if he had spoken then, would 
have found no hearers. When the silence of the forest was unbroken by the cheerful 
hum of human industry, and its solitude uninterrupted, but by the wandering Indian, 
and the animals, thatministered to his wants — when a world of primitive, gigantic vege- 
tation extended its sway across our own beautiful Peninsula, and on to the very shores 
of the Pacilic, where our fathers flag and our own now waves in the breeze, that comes 
from the continent of Asia. 

He alone, who has traversed these regions, day after day, in the freshness indeed, but 
in the silence and solitude of nature, almost appalled by a sense of loneliness and insig- 
nificance, amid these wonders of creative power, can justly appreciate the efforts of man 
in subduing and reclaiming the prairie and the forest, and preparing them for those scenes 
of improvement and cultivation, which cheer the eye and gladden the heart of the travel- 
ler- and, above all, of the traveller, who preceded the march of civilization, and now fol- 
lows it in its glorious progress. Never has human industry achieved a prouder triumph, 
than in this conflict between nature and man. As in the exodus from Eden, he has 
been " sent forth to till the ground," and in the " sweat of his face" has he thus far 
fulfilled his mission. And a proud one it was ; aye, and yet is ; for, though it has done 
much, it has still much to do. It began at the beach ol Jamestown, and the rock of 
Plymouth, where its first labors were broken by no sound but the surges of the Atlantic, 
and they will finish only, when the last echo ol the woodman's axe shall mingle with the 
surges of the Pacific. i)o not these miracles of enterprise resemble the fictions of an East- 
ern imagination, rather than the sober realities of human experience' Do they not speak 
to us in trumpet tones of the value and dignity of labor, for by labor have they been 
wrought — persevering, unyielding, triumphant labor. There is no lesson more important 
to be taught to our young countrymen than that, which is taught by this great characte- 
ristic feature of American history; the immense conquest, which man has achieved, over 
the world of matter, that opposed his progress, and the scanty resources he brought to 
the work. His own exertions, and the axe and plough, have accomplished this mighty 
task ; always indeed with toil and exposure, and sometimes under circumstances of 
privation and suffering, before which the stoutest resolution might give away. But if 
time brought its trials, it brought also its reward ; it converted the wilderness into a gar- 
den, and spread over the face of the country, those beautiful habitations, and those fer- 
tile and productive fields, such as this region offers to view, and which are at once, the 
evidence and the recompense of that industry and enterprise, which quail not, before 
toil or danger, but still go on preparing this goodly heritage, as well for ourselves, as 
those, who are to iollow us, when our task is done. 

And how would this great work of subduing nature and preparing the forest for 
the residence of man have been accomplished in the older regions of the globe, so long 
the theatre of human exertions | The answer to this pregnant question describes by a 
single trait the great marked difference between the condition of agricultural labor in 
the Eastern and in the Western hemisphere ; between the laborer for others, and the 
laborer for himself. Across the water, which dpeg not separate us more widely in 
space, than do the position and prospects of the pepple in their condition, great enter- 
prises are never concerted, and conducted by the mass of the inhabitants. Counsel 
and capital are furnished by the few and fortunate ; " the sweat of the face " by the 
many and the wretched. And the profitable results belong to the former ; while the 
latter eke out a scanty and precarious subsistanee, as poor and depressed at the termi- 
nation of the most successful and gigantic undertaking, as at its commencement. Here 
it needs not that any one should tell you the difference. He, who runs, may read it in 



the history of our whole progress, individual and national. The forest has fallen before 
those, who established their habitations in its dark recesses; dark till their toil made way 
for the light of Heaven to shine upon them. They labored themselves, and for them- 
selves. No taskmaster directed their work, and no speculator garnered the profits. And 
thus exertion was stimulated by the most powerful motives, which can operate upon human 
nature; by the necessity of present subsistence, and the hope — the certainty, I should say, 
of future competence and comfert; and therefore it is, that upon the immense domain from 
Lake Erie, almost to the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, a vigorous, intelligent, and en- 
terprising people have fixed their residence, and by their own labor, and for their own 
advantage, have prepared it for all the purposes of civilized life. And the time, within 
which this has been done, is not the least extraordinary feature in this great national mi- 
gration — a migration going forth to invade the forest, and to fulfil the first command of 
the creator, "to replenish the earth and subdue it," and not, as in the history of human 
conquest, to lay waste, and destroy, having before it fertile and flourishing regions, and 
behind it ruin and desolation. The man yet lives, who was living, when almost the 
first tree fell before the pioneer's stroke in this magnificent region, and the man is now 
living, who will live to see it contain one hundred millions of people. I have myself 
known it for half a century, and in that space, long indeed in the life of man, but brief 
in the life of communities, our own region of the Northwest, marked with its distinct 
boundaries upon the map of nature, by the Lakes, the Mississippi and the Ohio, has 
risen from infancy to manhood, from weakness to strength, from a population of a few 
thousands, to five millions of people; of freemen, owning the soil they occupy, and which 
they won by their industry, and will defend by their blood. Where, in the long annals 
of the human race, can you find such an augmentation of the resourses and numbers of 
a country, gained in so short a period, and under such circumstances of trial in its pro- 
gress, and of prosperity in its issue ? And may we not well say, that the mighty agent, 
which has built up this monument of productive power, deserves the gratitude and the 
fostering care of the American people' And that agent is labor, and our duty is to 
elevate it in the scale of employment. To show what it has done, and is doing, and is 
destined, I trust, yet to do. It has not founded a monarchy indeed, whose burthens 
are for the rejected, and its benefits for the chosen; whose splendor dazzles the eye, 
while its oppression sickens the heart. But it has laid the foundation of a Republic, 
broadly and deeply in the rights of man; whose equal protection covers all, as its equal 
honors are open to all; and whose career, if not checked by our own folly, or by the 
just judgment of God, promises a glorious and encouraging spectacle to the lovers of 
freedom through the world — aye, and an example too for long ages to come. 

Human occupation should be measured by iis useful consequences and by its moral ten- 
dencies, and by the principles and conduct of those, who are devoted to it, and whose char- 
acter is formed by its pursuit. Tried by this standard, where shall we find :in employ- 
ment more worthy of honor and regard, than that which drew from Sir William Jones 
the eloquent panegyric, that " he'who makes two spears of grass grow, where but one 
grew before, is a public benefactor, far in advance of the noblest chieftians, who, aided 
by armies and the enginery of war, sack cities, carry conquest onward, only to 
conquer, and subjugate and desolate Kingdoms'" And yet so wayward is human 
nature, and so unjustly are its honors distributed, that the temple of Mars is thronged 
with the votaries of fame, while silent are the altars of Ceres, and those, who 
worship there must find their reward, not in public renown, but in the consciousness 
of a duty, self impised and faithfully performej. But a better day has begun to 
dawn. Many old things are passing away, and with them is waning that military 
glory, which has so long led captive the best affei-tions of our nature. The time is com- 
ing when the supporter of human life will find his station far higher in the world's esti- 
mation, than the destroyer. We are beginning to learn, that the splendor of victory is 
a fearful pageant, while conquest over the earth, and the multiplication of its products 
are acceptable sights in the eyes of God and man He, who puts his hand to the plough, 
and does not look back upon more brilliant, but less useful employments, will not fail 
to find his reward in a happy and honorable life What a perversion of terms, or rather 
what a perversion of m >ral sentiment does it exhibit to talk of the dignity of indolence, 
the dignity ot doing nothing, and the un worthiness of useful honest labor! Whatever 
of this feeling there is among us, and there is -iome, is exotic, not indigenous; imported 



whence many other notions, equally unreasonable anrl injurious, have come, to exercise 
a baneful influence upon our social system. Labor, when associated with political and 
personal degradation, carries with it human sympathy, but not human respect. It is 
not a condition, which any right-minded man would seek, except under the pressure of 
overruling necessity. And this stale of things often meets the eye of the traveller in the 
old world, and once met mine, under striking circumstances in the oldest region of it. 
I was standing on the banks of the .Nile, the Nile of Joseph and of Pharaoh, as well as 
of Mahomet Ali, in the city of Cairo, upon the point of embarking in a boat to visit the 
Pyramids, those monuments of human labor and folly, equally useless and indestructi- 
ble. No crew had been provided, and it requires a numerous one, for the vessels are' 
unwieldly, and the current of that mighty river is rapid and powerful. But the Egyp- 
tian police was there, and had been oedered by the Government to render the pilgrims 
from the far West to the shrines of the East, any assistance that might be necessary for 
the objects of their voyage. And this duty they fulfilled in their own peculiar way. 
There was a crowd upon the shore, gazing on the strangers and their preparations. Two 
turbaned agents seized the ends of a rope and passing rapidly into the assembly, enclosed 
within it a sufficient number for the purpose, serving this Mahometan writ as coolly, and 
with as little resistance, as would attend the proceedings of a constable in this country, 
who should summon a man before a Justice of the Peace, for a debt of five dollars. 
And this new press-gang, acting upon the English principle, that the Government has 
a right to command the services of its people in its own way, put the crew on board, 
and we departed for those mighty structures, which go back to the days of Moses. And 
still more characteristic was the inattention to the subsistence and compensation of these 
oppressed Fellahs, to their "leeks and their onions," for human manners are unchange- 
able in the East, and while the task- masters in our own times, as in those of the Patriarchs, 
say that "not aught of your work shall be diminished," they add now as then, "get 
your straw where ye can find it." Before our excursion was over, however, we were 
upon the best terms with our Egyptian friends, who were willing to go with us to the 
very confines of Abysinia, had we desired to take so long a journey. So much for the 
oppression and insecurity of the laboring classes in those seats of primitive civilization! 
And yet I have heard high men in hij:h places — in the halls of legislation, indeed, of this 
happy country — I have heard them call the Government of the United States the most 
despotic Government on the face of the earth; and these words, I fear, fell sometimes on 
willing ears; willing to believe this strange paradox, contradicted by the experience of 
every American, and by the knowledge of the world; by the whole history of its oppres- 
sion in every period of society, from the creation to the day, when the ungrateful asser- 
tion first arrested public attention, as one of those signs of an approaching storm, which 
is now happily passing away, leaving us a bright and peaceful atmosphere. 

A despotic Government; an oppressed country; a ruined people! Let him, who 
thinks so, seek a happier residence elsewhere, and he will return, if return he can, cured 
of this monomania, for it is nothing better; and thanking Providence for this best 
refuge for down trodden humanity. If he does not, I will confess, that when I looked 
down from the top of the great Pyramid of Cheops upon the old and fertile valley of the 
Nile, made fertile by God and not by man, and contemplated what had been done 
and suffered there, and thanked the Giver of good, that I was born far away, across 
the Atlantic, in a spirit of gratitude and not of boasting, I knew neither my own 
oppression at home, nor the freedom and happiness of the people around me, and whose' 
misery I thought I saw at every step of my journey. But all this is the very extrava- 
gance of a morbid feeling, or of something worse. And we should be far more likely to 
preserve our blessings, if we felt and acknowledged them, and thanked God for his 
mercy, who enabled our fathers to acquire them, than by this eternal system of com- 
plaint, of sectional reproach, of attempts to show how much better our condition might 
be; all which may ascend to Heaven, like the murmurs of the Israelites in the wilder- 
ness, and provoke the divine wrath, if they have not done it already, against another 
"stiff-necked people." 

It would be far better and wiser, if each portion of our country would look more at 
home, and less abroad, and set the example of useful philanthropy in its own domestic 
circle; for there is yet every where enough of moral and natural imperfections to engage 
the zeal of the most disinterested friend of human nature. It would be well to remem- 



5 

ber and convert to out own profit the memorable rebuke of the Saviour, when he said to 
the Scribes and Pharasees, " He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a 
stone at her." When we have performed our own duties, then we shall be better fitted 
to instruct others; but even then, words of instruction, if not words of peace and kind- 
ness, will increase the very evil, which engages our solicitude. 

There is one great error, to which public attention is now directed, and which ought long 
since to have found a corrective, and that is, the too prevailing impression, that education, 
at least to any considerable extent, is unnecessary for those,who intend to devote themselves 
to the pursuit of agriculture. And in this connection, that some of the other professions are 
more respected, if not more respectable, than is the life of the independent farmer. And 
we find in the writings of Swift, a close observer, though a cynical judge, of the prevail- 
ing manners, a singular illustration of this prejudice in the remark, that many a man 
has broken his head against the pulpit, who would have made a respectable figure at the 
plough tail — yes, as respectable as the ox at the plough beam- For it is evident he was 
regarding the same property in the team, that draws the plough, and the man, who holds 
it; the mere mechanical power to labor, and that, too, in situations, where intellect is lit- 
tle better than instinct. A more unreasonable and unju-t prejudice than this, for it can- 
not be dignified with the name of opinion, it would be difficult to find in the whole circle 
of human errors. This class of our population are the natural guardians of our repub- 
lican institutions; sentinels in safety, defenders in danger. Covering the face of our 
country — its highest hills, its lowest valleys, its broadest prairies — their interest and their 
influence extend everywhere, and these will only be exerted for the general welfare, 
whose first great aliment is indissolubly connected with the prosperity of agriculture. 
There can be no combinations, no sectional alliances to sway this great department of 
productive and political power. How important is it, then, that education should lend 
its aid to the performance of duties, upon which so much depends? 

If to delve the earth were all the farmer had to do, he might be left to do that, without 
the deep stake in his intellectual improvement, which the State now possesses. But he 
has other duties, lequiring as high a range of cultivation, as most of the employments, 
which go to make up the social system. He is wanted, as a citizen, to understand the 
Constitution and laws of his country, to perform intelligently the important functions of 
an elector, and to mingle in the various questions, which, from time to time, and at all 
times arise, for discussion and decision. He is wanted to take his part, a prudent and 
an efficient part, in the administration of public affairs, in all the duties, which belong to 
our complicated system, municipal, state, and general, and which, while each is kept 
within its proper orbit, form together one harmonious sphere. And who can look back 
upon our past history, or round upon our present condition, and not feel proud at the 
proofs, which meet his eye, that the highest honors and rewards of his country are not 
only open to all, but that they are attained by all, be their pursuits in life what they may? 
Labor, every department of labor, has sent its contribution to the public service, in its 
highest and most responsible grades. We have now at the head of this Republic, the 
first truly elective office in the world, an able and intelligent chief magistrate, whose 
early years were years of manual labor, and who was enabled by his own industry to 
acquire an education, and thus to day the foundation of that eminent position, he has 
attained. 

My own experience may not be without profit to some who hear me; certainly not, if 
it furnishes motives for encouragement or hopes to stimulate to exertion. It is fifty years 
and more, since I crossed the mountains on foot, a young adventurer, seeking that land 
of promise, which has been to me, as to so many others, a land of performance. I had 
many difficulties to contend with, many obstacles to encounter, and many privations, in 
peace and in war, to endure; and I have probably undergone as large a share of fatigue 
and exposure, in the early part of my life, as often falls to the lot of our countrymen. But 
thanks to the nature of our institutions, to their glorious equality, and thanks above all 
to the favor of my countrymen, I have had a measure of political prosperrty, far beyond 
what I merited, or even dared to anticipate. The youthful emigrant, now in the decline 
of life, communicating to his youthful hearers the result of his experience, that they may 
go and do likewise — in all but the errors he committed — has been borne onward by his 
generous fellow-citizens to the high posts of the nation, and has represented his country 
at the court of Kings. And he has returned with the conviction, as abiding as his life, 
that the sun never shone upon as happy a region as this confederation embraces; nor one 






where human freedom meets less opposition, or the human intellect less restraint ; nor 
where there are such powerful motives for exertion, or such distinctions for its reward. 

Our history furnishes many striking examples of this progress from unprotected self- 
dependence to public confidence, and to the highest honors. The Father of his country 
commenced life as a land surveyor, and he died, leaving the brightest name that mere 
man has left in all the long annals that record the days and deeds of the human race. 
Greene, his friend, and undoubtedly his most confidential general, a distinction he well 
merited by his courage and conduct, was a blacksmith, and laid down the hammer, when 
he girded on the sword. Putnam, the very impersonation of hardihood and intiepidity, 
was driving his plough, when the musketry at Lexington aroused a Continent. He 
left that plough in the furrow, and mounting his horse, repaired to Boston, and joined 
the throng of patriots who, with a devotion to freedom as true and holy, as ever animated 
the human breast, entered into a contest more unequal perhaps than any, which oppres- 
sion has ever waged against power. And we learn from the Holy Scriptures, that the 
chosen champion of a higher warfare, the prophet Elisha, when summoned to his mission, 
was found by Elijah in his field, " ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and 
he with the*twelfth." Morgan, the most, enterprising partisan of our revolution, was a 
wagoner; Starke, whose memorable defeat of the British at Bennington, prepared the 
way for the capture of Burgoyne and his army, was, in early life, a field laborer. Roger 
Sherman, equally renowned for the power of his intellect, and his active and efficient 
axertions in the councils of the nation, was a shoemaker ; and Franklin, whose name 
recalls his world-wide reputation, and the deeds in the Arts, in Science, and in the ser- 
vice of his country, which he did to acquire, and to deserve it, was a Printer, laboring 
assiduously at his work, during many years of his life. But I need not add to these illus- 
trious names. It would be easy to do so, were more examples of success required. But 
sufficient are these for all, who desire to profit by this characteristic and encouraging 
chapter of our history. Young men, whom I see around me, ponder over the lives of 
these great men of the past generation. Follow their course with probity and perseve- 
rance, and you will follow them also in their useful career. You cannot all, indeed, 
attain the highest stations, but you may all attain respectability and prosperity, and 
enough of both to satisfy the measure of a reasonable ambition. 

But besides these considerations, connected with education, which are derived from 
our political institutions, there are others, peculiarly applicable to the condition of the 
agriculturist, who has ne wish to exchange the quiet and contentment of his farm for any 
public duties whatever. The improvement of the intellectual faculties, in all the stages 
of life, constitutes one of the most rational and active sources of human pleasure. It 
enlarges our views of the works and designs of Providence ; it opens new channels of in- 
formation ; it removes those prejudices, we are so prone to entertain, when circumscribed 
within a narrow horizon, and it extends the sphere of our utility, as well for others as for 
ourselves, by that increase of knowledge, which is the greatest element of power, or 
rather, as Lord Bacon says, which is power itself. And, above all, the very employment 
of agriculture demands the faculty ot observation, invigorated by application and experi- 
ence ; an acquaintance with the progress and condition of this greatest of human arts, 
that we may not be behind our competitors in the race of improvement ; and some 
knowledge of the various branches of study, for there are few of them, which may not 
lend their aid to the farmer in the annual round of the seasons, bringing with them their 
appropriate duties The care of his domestic animals in health and in sickness; the 
improvement of the breed, that miracle of modern agricultural progress; the quantity, 
quality, and preparation of their food ; the nature of the soil, which is the theatre of his 
labors ; its adaptation, or the want of it, to any peculiar mode or article of culture ; and 
a vast variety of similar demands upon his industry and judgment, which 1 have no time 
to recapitulate, nor you to hear ; all these require a sound intellect aided and improved 
by reading and reflection. If the duties of the cultivator were merely mechanical, edu- 
cation, so far as respects the exercise of his employment, would be comparatively less 
important. But the trust committed to him involves much higher functions. The pro- 
cess of vegetation is among the most admirable operations of nature. The soil of the 
earth is a vast laboratory, whose chemical action is forever going on, and whose final 
object is the production of plants for the support of animal life. How these can be 
improved in their quality and increased in their quantity is always a subject of earnest 
inquiry, and becomes more so, as the continually augmenting population of the world 
demands a greater supply. To effect this object, a knowledge of the laws, which regu- 



late vegetable life, becomes indispensible, and these can only be discovered by experiment 
and by enlightened observation. 

Plants are not merely organized matter ; they have conferred upon them a species of 
life, and possess organs, deriving nourishment from the soil where they grow, and en- 
dowed with the property of elaborating the supplies thus obtained into their support and 
their growth. It is evident, that to make any satisfactory progress in our agricultural 
researches and improvements, we must study the operations of nature, and ascertain, as 
far as we can, the laws she has imposed upon this great department of creative power, 
in the structure and composition of plants, and in the functions they perform. Modern 
chemistry has directed its analytical investigations, with success, to this great field of 
inquiry, and has revealed to us many important facts, enlarging our knowledge of vege- 
table economy. It has taught us much of the apparatus of vegetable life, and of the 
process employed, and we have thus learned the nature of its gums, sugars, starch, oils, 
acids, and of the other objects it supplies, and which are so important to man. And we 
have gained much insight into the food of plants, and into the best mode of furnishing it 
by the application of manures suitable to the soil, and to the product to be raised. One 
of the most remarkable proofs of the advantage of chemical knowledge, when applied to 
great practical objects, is to be found in the discovery of the valuable properties of the 
beet root for the purpose of making sugar; a discovery, not merely accidental, but the 
result of experiments wisely directed and skilfully pursued, and undertaken for the 
express purpose of ascertaining, if some of the plants cultivated in the extra tropical 
climates, could not supply saccharine matter enough to make their cultivation profitable 
for the manufacture of sugar, and thus to render those regions independent in the pro- 
duction of this important article of human consumption. A new branch of industry, and 
a new source of supply have thus opened in some of the countries of Europe, and have 
grown into national importance. 

And in good time, the introduction of these periodical assemblages, collecting together 
the true farming interest of the various local districts, has come to exert a happy influ- 
ence upon its progress and prosperity. Such co-operative associations are tributes of 
acknowledgment to the advancing spirit of inquiry, which is the marked characteristic 
of our own age. Those, who take part in them, are animated with kindred views, and 
an emulation is aroused, which is productive of the happiest effect. All, who are in- 
terested in the pursuit of agriculture, eiiher as observers or participators, are brought 
together, and mutual intercourse makes known the condition of the district, and the 
improvements, that have taken place. Stock, seed, implements, all, indeed, that the 
farmer seeks to raise or employ, are exhibited to public inspection, and each can com- 
pare the result of his own labor with that of others ; alternately improving and improved 
by the exhibition. And a deeply interested public is there to encourage by its presence 
and participation those most useful displays, not of wealth and power, but of the objects 
amd means of that great department of human industry, without which no other could 
exist. The distribution of prizes is admirably suited to the occasion, and, indeed, the 
plan is so obviously useful, that it goes back to the remotest ages, for we are told by 
Xenophon that Cyrus delivered premiums with his own hands to diligent and successful 
cultivators, and claiming himself to be a zealous practiea 1 farmer. And there is one use 
of an emblem of royalty, recorded in poetry if not in history, to which an American even 
would not object, and that is found in a picture drawn by Homer, where an ancient 
Grecian King, employed with the reapers, is pointing with his sceptre to somethirg he 
desires to have done. Sceptres, in ovr days, have no sueh primitive work to do. The 
devotion of the early Romans to the tillage of the ground, and the honors they bestowed 
upon those engaged in it, are among the finest traits in their history. And Pliny, in 
consonance with these sentiments, remarks: ''■ The lands were cultivated by Generals, 
and the earth delighted to be ploughed by a share adorned with laurels, and by a plough- 
man who had been honored with a triumph." 

The first want of man, and a continually recurring one it is, is the want of food, and 
the great source of its supply is the earth, from which he was taken, and to which, in 
common with all the objects of organized matter, he must return. The system of crea- 
tion is one of perpetual production, destruction, and reproduction; by which individuals 
appear and disappear in succession, while the species remain to perform the great work 
assigned to them. From this law there is no exemption. It pervades the wjiole world 
of matter, and its unity and universality demonstrate, that for wise purposes it has been 
made one of the conditions of existence. Its execution is but a question of time ; and 



though the period assigned for the life of an insect which is circumscribed within the 
passing hour, and that, which is occupied by some of those wonders of the vegetable 
world, whose growth and decay extend through centuries, and which in the Eastern 
Hemisphere are solitary survivors of extinct forests, witnesses of events, it may be, almost 
coeval with history, is startling to the imagination, still the irreversible decree is pro- 
nounced upon all, "Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return." 

The time, required to attain the magnitude that trees sometimes reach, is a subject of 
controversy among scientific botanists; but though actual precision cannot be expected, 
still we know, that the rate of increase diminishes as the size augments, and that many 
centuries are required to produce these wonderful monuments of the vegetable creation. 
And this power of longevity affords Isaiah an expressive illustration of the duration of 
God's chosen people. '.' As the days of a tree," says the prophet, repeating the promise 
of the Lord, "As the days of a tree shall be the days of my people." 

In Oregon pines are found upwards of 300 feet high, and in other regions trees are 
produced not less remarkable for their prodigious circumference ; like the Plane tree 
in the valley of Bouyouderck near Constantinople, which measures 150 feet in girth. 
Some have attained historical celebrity, and have been associated with remarkable events in 
the progress of nations. In the Province of Oaxaca is a cypress 122 feet round, said to 
have been mentioned by Cortez in his despatches, and to have afforded shelter from the 
sun, to the whole of his Mexican army. To this class belong the Parliament Oak in 
Clipstone Park, in England, under which a parliament was held in 1290, during the 
reign of Edward the First; the Ankernyke Yew, at Staines, which witnessed the 
conference between King John and the Barons, and in sight of which Magna Charta 
was signed ; aud the Sycamore Maple in the Orisons, beneath whose branches their 
Grey League, the foundation of their freedom, was ratified in 1424. 

At Morat, in Switzerland, was fought the great battle where Helvetian patriotism tri- 
umphed over the oppressor, and secured that liberty, which makes its dwelling place 
in the fastnesses of the Alps. A Linden tree, contemporary of this desperate conflict still 
mark the site where it occurred, and is approached with reverence by the Swiss patriot, 
when he peforms his pilgrimage to this high place of his country, to recall the deeds and 
the dead, which gave her a station among the nations of the earth, and gave her also 
those equal rights, and a determination to defend them, in weal and in woe, which have 
made the name of Switzerland a name of honor through the world. 

But the most interesting relic of the ancient vegetable creation is to be found upon one 
to the ridges of Lebanon, not far from the renowned temple of Baalbec. It consists of 
twelve gigantic cedars, the remains of the primitive forest, which once covered that great 
mountain chain of Syria, and which yet rear their heads; prodigies of vegetation, and each 
surmounted with a dome of foliage overshadowing the sped ator, as in the time of Biblical 
story. One of them is 45 feet in circumference, and all, both in size and height, tell of 
the long ages, that have swept over them, leaving them the most striking natural monu- 
ments, that the eye can rest upon. What interesting associations cluster round them! 
They have been consecrated by history, religion and poetry. Their beauty has been re- 
corded by Ezekiel, and their excellence and perfume by Solomon, who placed them at 
the head of the vegetable creation, when he discoursed of trees " from the cedar, which 
are in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." Could these mute 
memorials of bygone times tell of the scenes, that have passed in the shadow of their 
foliage, what lessons of power and of instability might they not teach, in the long inter- 
val that has elapsed, since these hills resounded with the noise of the workman, prepar- 
ing the timber for the Temple of Jerusalem, to the solitude, which establishes its dwell- 
ing place, wherever the Moslem plants his standard. 

I have worshipped in many of the high places of the old world; in the Cathedral of 
Christendom, the Basalic of St. Peter, when the Sovereign Pontiff, the head of the 
Catholic Church, ministered at the altar; and though educated, as I have been, in the sim- 
plicity of the Presbyterian faith, yet I could not look upon the imposing solemnities, 
without feeling a reverential awe pass over me, as though I were in the presence of Him, 
whose visible glory descended upon the Temple of Mount Moriah. And yet a naked 
Greek mass, for it happened to be an annual fete when I was there, celebrated under the 
patriarch cedar, before a rude altar of unwrought stones, by a poor Priest surrounded 
by a little band of worshippers, with the cliffs of Lebanon around them, and the canopy 



9 

of heaven over them, this act of primitive devotion, in a Temple not made with hands, 
has left traces upon my mind and memory, more powerful than the most gorgeous cere- 
monies, and which no subsequent event can eradicate. 

And this power of association, which seems to make us almost contemporary with the 
earliest and the latest incidents of history, with Socrates and with Washington, is not 
confined to the giants of the forest, throwing out their broad branches for the sun to vivify, 
but it is connected with seeds, deposited in the dark recesses of the catacombs, compan- 
ions of the bodies of the mum mies of Egypt, which poor human nature attempted to res- 
cue from destruction, and which for more than thirty centuries have found there a rest- 
ing place. Seeds have been taken from these receptacles of the dead, with the power of 
germination yet existing, and have borne plants, the immediate descendants perhaps of 
those growing in the days of Abraham. This very season, it is said, a small plat of 
ground in Caithness, in Scotland, planted with wheat, thus resuscitated from its ceme- 
try, produced a crop honorable to the character of Egyptian agriculture in the days of 
the Pharaohs, yielding, such is the report, a thousand fold; two seeds only having been 
planted upon every three feet square — a degree of fecundity heretofore unknown in mod- 
ern husbandry. 

The human imagination loves to revel in facts like this. It is interesting, as illustra- 
ting one of the most wonderful laws of nature; and it calls into action that beautiful and! 
beneficent faculty of association, which enables us to withdraw ourselves from the pre- 
sent, by connecting it with the past, and seems to make us spectators of events in the 
earliest periods of recorded time. This Scottish wheat may be the offspring of grain 
taken perhaps frcm the granaries of Joseph, where was gathered corn, as the sand ef 
the sea against the seven years of famine. But this triumph of the intellect, by whieh 
time and space are annihilated, is rebuked at the very moment it is achieved. The ef- 
forts of man to preserve the body, when death had done its work, and thus to reverse 
the decree of Providence, have signally failed. The misshapen matter is but earth, 
more revolting to the feelings, than if left to its natural decomposition. It will awaken 
into being but at the sound of the last trumpet, which will gather together the scattered 
members of every human bady, however separated and however changed, as easily as it 
will rouse into life the mortal remains of Cheops, so long reposing in solitary magnifi- 
cence, and guarded by the Pyramids erected for that purpose. But the little seed obeys 
its law. Time passes harmlessly over it, and it is ready to start into life, whenever 
placed in a favorable position. The> lesson is a pregnant one — may it prove a profitable 
one, teaching us to confine our operations to aiding the laws of nature, and not to en- 
deavor to reverse them. 

In the never ending conflict between life and death, man takes his part, and levies con- 
tributions upon all the objects, which can minister to his comfort and subsistence. His 
earliest efforts were no doubt confined to stretching forth his hand, to gathering the fruit 
that a bountiful nature oflered him; t>ut he must have been soon taught by experience, 
that this supply was too scanty and precarious for his wants, and reason and necessity 
have united to induce him to join his own exertions to those, which nature was making 
around him. This state of society precedes authentic history, though tradition has pre- 
served the remembrance of the transition in the divine honors, which were rendered to 
Triptolemus, the gieat benefactor, who first taught mankind the use of wheat, and its 
superiority, as an article of food, over acorns, which till then had formed the most im- 
portant part of their subsistence. It is impossible to look round upon external nature, 
without being struck with that beneficent dispensation, which tempering the wind to the 
shorn lamb, a'ds the efforts of man in his exertions for subsistence, and partially supplies 
them, where hi3 ignorance and condition have left him yet to acquire the necessary les- 
son of self dependence. 

The Buffalo in their annual migrations almost from the tropical to the polar circles, 
taught by an instinct more unerring than reason, where the grass of the prairies is most 
abundant and succulent, are followed by our own aboriginal race ; while the Bosjesman 
follows the locusts in their periodical flight across the sandy deserts of southern Africa, 
and both find the means of subsistence in those countless moving colonies, among the 
most wonderful works of Providence. 

Indeed, the regularity and immensity of the living columns, which traverse earth, sea, 
and air, to fulfil the purposes of their own existence, and to furnish do man the means of 



1G 

support, are witnesses of the existence of a Creator, which none can withstand but " the 
fool, who sayeth in his heart, there is no God." They are offered equally to the human 
race, whether civilized or barbarous ; but unfortunately the life of the savage is a life of 
abundance and want, of repletion and destitution. Suffering does not bring wisdom, nor 
experience precaution. Even among the Indian tribes upon our own frontiers, many of 
whom have been in contact with a superior race for generations, I have been amazed at 
the utter improvidence, which makes part of their habits, I might almost say of their 
moral constitutions, Recklessness and indolence concentrate their lives in the present. 
The past furnishes no profitable lesson ; the mture no rational anticipation. The little 
corn they rudely plant is almost consumed before maturity, but when the trial comes, 
and it comes otten, and continues long, if they do not know how to avert it, they know 
how to meet it ; for they suffer and die with rare equanimity ; of which indeed we read 
examples in the lives of the ancient Stoics, but of which modern society exhibits few 
instances. 

It would be an interesting and instructive subject of historical speculation to trace the 
progress in the various branches of human food, as well the improvement in their quality, 
and the increase in their quantity, as the successive discovery of their adaptation to the 
purposes of subsistence, whether as mere condiments, or substantial articles cf support, 
and their migration from their original regions, and acclimation in the other portions of 
the globe. Some plants from their habitudes are confined to peculiar districts, and cli- 
mates, while others, and those fortunately the most valuable, are universal travellers, if I 
may so speak, and establish themselves, wherever man is found to need their aid, with a 
wonderful facility of accommodation to the natural circumstances of their new position. 
All the cereal grasses we cultivate in the United States, wheat, rye, bailey, rice, almost 
all the fruits, as well as the cbjfcts of horticulture, are emigrants from the old world, and 
most of them from the oldest portion of it, where the human family was first planted, and 
whence they went forth to " replenish the earth, and subdue it." But we have one pre- 
cious indigmous gift of nature, the Maize or Indian corn, admirably adapted to the wants 
of a new country, and without which indeed the progress of ours, and especially of the 
vast regions on the Missi'sippi and its tributaries, would have presented far greater ob- 
stacles to the enterprising settlers, than those they have surmounted ; and surmounted 
with such results, both of population and prosperity, as find no parallel in the history of 
human emigration. Our American grain, for such it is emphatically, has furnished food 
not only for man, but for his faithful co-laborers, the domestic animals, that have taken 
part in his work ; and scarcely does he open a nook in the forest, before the harvest 
comes to meet his wants. Let other regions boast their treasures in the bowels of the 
earth; we find ours in the productions it sends forth, and in the life of industry and vir- 
tue, which their healthful pursuit assures and preserves. 

The change, which cultivation has made in the characteristic properties of plants, is 
one of the most curious subjects of inquiry. There is no reason to doubt, but that all of 
them have been greatly improved in their qualities by the care of man ; we know that many 
of them have, and some indeed to such an extent, as would seem to indicate a change of 
structure, whose laws are beyond our reach. The Upas tree, dealing death to all around 
it, that creation of a monstrous imagination, has no prototype in nature. But there are 
many plants with poisonous qualities, destructive of animal life, and several varieties of 
these have been divested of their noxious properties, and rendered safe articles of food. 
Among them is the peach, which in its wild state belongs to this family ; transferred and 
cultivated, it becomes one of our most delicious fruits. And so with respect to the celery 
plant, originally a poisonous vegetable, but now converted into an edible one, and pecu- 
liarly acceptable, because it comes when our horticulture has no other fresh supplies to 
offer us. 

The laws, which regulate this conversion, as well as those, which adapt the structure 
of poisonois vegetables, to the performance of their peculiar functions, are yet and per- 
haps will ever remain mysteries to human science. The seeds of preservation and des- 
truction lie side by side together. How properties so different are elaborated under cir- 
cumstances to our observation so similar, or rather identical, is among those wonderful 
agencies, whose effects are forever before us, while the process of their operation may be 
impenetrable to human sagacity. The same food, which supplies the growth of the 
most nutritious grain, furnishing the principle of life to the animal creation, supplies also 
the growth of the most baneful plant, furnishing the principle of death to every living 
creature. Who can tell why or how the edible mushroom, a pleasant and healthful arti- 



11 

cle of subsistence, is found in direct contact with its congener of the same family, the 
poisonous fungus, so destructive to animal organization.Jand escapes its contamination 1 
As in many other operations of nature, we have only to believe and wonder. 

The sun and the planetary spheres, which float around it in the regions of space, and 
still more the wonderful extent of creative power, which the researches of modern astro- 
nomy have revealed to us, and which human wisdom can neither measuie nor compre- 
hend, awaken conceptions of the divine attributes, that would seem rather to belong to a 
higher state of existence, than to the imperfect condition in which we are here placed. 
And yet, when we survey our own earth, and contemplate the infinite varieties of animal 
and vegetable life on its surface, from the simplest structure to the most complicated or- 
ganization, everywhere fulfilling their appropriate functions, we find that, near and re- 
mote, we see equally the hand of God, even if we have not faculties to understand his 
purposes, or the laws he has imposed on the system of nature. How wondeiful the va- 
rious species of animals, having each its appropriate duties, and each forever kept within 
the sphere assigned to it ! 

And equally wonderful is the diffusion of vegetable organization, as seen in its vast 
Tariety, and in its extent in all regions of the globe. But, who shall count the indivi- 
duals composing these families, and tell the number of animals ;>nd plants, now in exist- 
ence, and made and sustained by the same Creator, who placed us here, with powers, 
not indeed to fathom his designs, but to see darkly, what we shall see clearly, when our 
pilgrimage is ended. 

Naturalists have estimated, that there are 1200 different species of quadrupeds ; 6,800 
of birds; 1,500 of reptiles and amphibia; 8,000 of soft or molluscous animals ; 3,000 
of fishes ; 50,000 of insects, which are known to exist ; and there are probably not less 
than 200,000 different species of animals, besides perhaps 100,000 of animacules, invisi- 
ble to the naked eye. Of plants, more than 56,000 varieties have been collected, and 
the whole number in the earth and seas may not be much less than half a million. 

And as continual investigations extend our knowledge, we are daily adding to our ac- 
quaintance with the mighty mass of living nature, whose boundaries are known only to 
him who " looketh to the ends of the earth and seeth under the whole heaven." And 
dominion over all these objects was committed to man by the Creator, " over the fish of 
the sea and the fowl of the air, and the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 
creeping thing, that creepeth on the earth." And this dominion he has exercised for six 
thousand years, and where is he ? He has scarcely reached the fromiers of his own king- 
dom ! He is familiar with some of the objects, with which he has been placed in con- 
tact ; but what does he know of the properties, of the purposes, of the uses indeed, even 
for himself, of this immense creation, teeming with life, " the wondrous works of Him; 
which is perfect in knowledge?" Almost all he knows he learned by accident ; isolated 
facts, acquired without investigation, and employed without combination. Recently, 
however, and especially within the present century, a spirit of inquiry has been 
awakened, and science has directed her researches to this great field of observation. 
Many of the principles of animal, as well as of vegetable organization, are ascertained 
with useful precision. The domestic quadrupeds, both as laborers and as contributors to 
food, have engaged the attention of acute and zealous enquirers, and their useful proper- 
ties have been impr.oved in a degree, that seems almost to approach towards creative 
power. 

Bakewell, the most renowned name in this branch of agricultural economy, possessed 
rare powers of observation, with that devotion to his favorite pursuit, which is sure to lead 
to excellence, and by watching the qualities of individuals, and selecting those only for 
breeding stock, which exhibited commendable points, he succeeded in laying the founda- 
tion of that eminence, which F'ngland has attained in this useful depaitment of know- 
ledge. And he thus produced vaiieties, possessing in a wonderful degree the property of 
abundant supplies of flesh, of fat, of wool, the capacity to improve, with the least expen- 
diture of food, and a kindly disposition, ensuring easy management, whether for labor or 
for the other purposes of the stock department of the farm. And not les3 encouraging 
has been the advance in vegetable physiology, and especially in the knowledge of the 
composition of plants, which chemical analysis hat afforded, to which I have already 
alluded, and of the analogy, which exists between them and animals, in the necessity 
for food, and in the increase and application of it by properly prepared manures, and by 
improved processes of cultivation, which have wonderfully increased the productive power 
of the land, and augmented the quantity of human subsistence in a ratio without previous 
example in the history of husbandry. 



12 

Chemistry, especially, has furnished the most efficient aid, and has done more than any 
other agent to give a scientific character to the pursuits of the farmer. And navigation, 
too, has contributed its share, and among other benefits has brought the exuviae of a^bird 
from the islands of the Southern ocean, and gypsum, heretofore a useless rock, from the 
regions of fie north, to increase the natural fertility, where it exists, and to confer it 
where it is wanting. And well is it for the countries of the earth, more so indeed for 
many others, than for our own, that improved systems of tillage are adding wonderfully 
to the cnpacity of production, and thus preparing subsistence for an augmented popula- 
tion, whose increasing necessity is continually pressing upon the existing means. 

Here, and for ages, we can have no such fearful conflict to apprehend between the 
supply and the demand ; until, indeed, our whole vast domain shall be occupied and de- 
voted to its great purpose of human support. But, elsewhere, among many of the na- 
tions of the old world, the quantity of land in tillage cannot be sreatly increased, and it 
is only by improved modes of culture, that it can be made to feed the people, who will 
occupy it. But, after all, who so presumptuous as to undertake to limit the field of dis- 
covery, and to pronounce the decree thou shalt go no further, iu our investigations into 
the adaptation of organized matter to the purposes of human subsistence, in quantities 
and under circumstances to justify its employment 1 

What we have already done in the exercise of our " dominion" over the works of na- 
ture, insignificant indeed, when compared with what we have left undone, is still an en- 
couragement to go on, and an augury of future success. We may now answer the ques- 
tion put to Job: " Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here 
we are." Yes, we have subdued that terrible element, and made it the messenger of 
man. And we have " drawn out Leviathan," and we have learned many of the " or- 
dinances of Heaven." May we not yet teach the Unicorn to " harrow the valleys after 
us," and make our " conquest" of other animals, now either unknown, or unknown as 
objects of human food 1 And have we no further discoveries to make in the vegetable 
world ? No new plants to find, and no new qualities or modes of application in those 
already known to us ? Have we reached the boundary of agricultural improvement, or 
shall we not be able by increase of knowledge more and more " to satisfy the desolate 
and waste ground," and " to cause the bud of tender herb to spring forth" where never 
herb grew before, and multiply it a hundred fold, where it already grows? It is equally 
our duty to avoid the extremes of presumption and of despondency ; to follow the career 
before us, fulfilling our own assigned task, and leaving events to him *' who sealeth up 
the hand of every man, that all men may know his work." 

We have an indigenous plant in our own regions, that judicious cultivation might 
change into an important object of supply, and which, from its habits, might occupy posi- 
tions unsuited to any other vegetable production. It is the wild rice, which grows in 
many of our small northwestern lakes, and furnishes an agreeable and substantial article 
of food, that I have been glad to procure from the Indians, when in their country, and 
whenever their supply, always indeed very limited, was not exhausted by waste or neces- 
sity. Fortunately they cannot consume the seed, as they often do of the few plants they 
cultivate, when under the pressure of temporary want; less provident than the beaver, 
from whom they might learn a profitable lesson ; for the wild rice is self-propagated by 
the annual fall of the grain, which buries itself at the bottom of the water, to germinate 
at the proper season. It is gathered by the squaws, who pass over the liquid fields in 
their canoes, bending the stalks, and striking the heads, a small portion of whose con- 
tents is thus secured ; leaving, with characteristic indifference, the rest of the immense 
harvest to the birds and to the water. Among all our aboriginal tribes, who preserve 
their primitive manners, the women are the laborers, as there are but two duties the men 
can perform without disgrace, the pursuit of their enemy, and the pursuit of their game. 
For such is the law, which savage power imposes ill defence of its own indolence. But 
this superiorly of condition is not confined to a barbarous state of society. Its privile- 
ges are maintained with slow yielding tenacity, even where Christianity and civilization 
have established their sway, and we are told by the earliest English writer on agriculture, 
Fitzherbert, a venerable judge of the Common Pleas in the sixteenth century, and in the 
quaint language of his day, that " It is a wife's occupation to winnow all manner of corn, 
to make malt, to wash and wring, to make hay, shere (an ancient word for reap) corn, 
and in time of need to help her husband to fill the muckwain or dung cart, drive the 
plough, load hay, corn, and such other. And to go or ride to the market, to sell butter, 
cheese, milk, eggs, chickens, capons, hens, pigs, geese, and all manner of comes." The 



13 

fair portion of my audience will probably agree with me, that the improvement in man" 
ners, since that period, has not been less striking or commendable than the improvement 
in agriculture. 

In the distribution of plants, there are many valuable ones, whose habi!9 man has not 
yet been able, and perhaps never will be, to adapt to very different climates ; and there 
are others, whose almost universal cultivation in certain districts, give a peculiar charac- 
ter to their agriculture. Predominant among the former, for its value and the antiquity 
of its culture, is the Olive, and it was only in its natural country, that I learned how pre- 
cious it was to man. It was the symbol of peace in the ancient pagan world, and its 
principal product, oil, associated with wine, is the figurative representation of prosperity 
and rejoicing in the poetical language of Scripture. I found in Greece, that the fruit was 
an acceptable substitute for meat, and that a few olives, with bread, constitute the ration 
of the soldier. The tree approaches, if it does not equal, the cedar in longevity ; for 
there is a plantation yet bearing at Terni, in Italy, which, it is thought, is composed of 
the same trees, described by Pliny, as growing there in the first century. 

The Mount of Olives, which overlooks Jerusalem, derives its name from these trees, 
existing there in the earliest ages, and at its foot, divided from it by thp brook Kedron, is 
the garden of Gethsemane, forever memorable as the scene of the passion of our Saviour. 
Eight olive trees, bearing every mark of extreme age, are yet growing there ; and tradi- 
tion has invested them with a sacred character, as contemporaries of the life and death of 
Jesus Christ. No believer in Christianity can gaze upon them, as I have done, without 
feeling tbe most powerful emotions ; without feeling that force of association, which con- 
nects us with names and deeds, long since passed away, when we stand upon the places, 
they have made immortal. The world contains no such spot as this, where the mission 
of the Redeemer was fulfilled, and where he pronounced its termination in the emphatic 
declaration, " It is finished.'' 

The fig tree, the date-bearing palm, the cocoa-nut tree, the bread-fruit tree, the banian 
and the banana tree in the warmer regions of the earth, and the chestnut tree in the 
southern portions of Europe, each furnishes a harvest for the population ; useful food that 
takes the place of bread, and goes far to make up the consumption of the country. 

Here, where everything is new, and human enterprise is left unshackled by law, habit, 
or prejudice, it is difficult to form just conceptions of the immense value of certain pro- 
ducts, whose culture is appropriated by peculiar districts, almost to the exclusion of every 
other article of agricultural industry, and by which division of labor, superior skill is 
acquired, the result of which is exhibited in the superior quality and quantity of the fa- 
vorite production. Such is the grape in the wine-bearing regions, the tea-plant in China, 
the hop in some districts of England, barley in others, and yet in others clover, or the 
leguminous plants; and the high state of tillage in that country may perhaps be better 
appreciated by a single fact, than by the most labored panegyric, and one such fact is, 
that sixty tons of turnips have been raised from a single acre. That most useful vege- 
table, and the family of clover have been called the main pillars of English agriculture, 
which have contributed more to preserve and increase the fertility of the soil, as well as 
to enlarge and improve the breed of domestic animals, than any other production of the 
farmer. The existing condition of our own country, both with respect 10 labor and 
capital, render this high state of tillage inapplicable to many portions of it, and especially 
to our new regions, just passing from the dominion of. the forest to the dominion of the 
plough. In England, comparatively speaking, land is everything, and labor nothing. 
Here the position is reversed, for labor is everything, and land nothing ; and the emi- 
grant, who reclaims his farm from its natural condition, is required by the stern law of 
necessity to tax its productiveness to the utmost extent. But as industry is almost sure 
to bring prosperity, and with it augmented means, agriculture feels the effect of the gene-" 
ral improvement, and in turn partakes of it and contributes to it. 

Upon the continent of Europe especially, and to some extent in England, I was struck 
with three principal facts, which, though they have hardly found their way into the 
books of travellers, as characteristic of the features of the country, yet give to it a pecu- 
liar, and to some extent, an unpleasant aspect to an American. These are, if not the 
absence, the paucity of forests and offences, and also of farm houses, indicating by their 
appearance, that they belong to the owner of the land. Not that these objects are en-> 
tirely wanting, except in certain districts, but they are often " few and far between." In 
many portions of the country, trees, except fruit tiees, do not meet the weary eye in 
many a long mile, and woods are so limited in extent, when they do occur, and the trees 



14 

are so inferior in size and grandeur to those in our own mighty forests, that they excite 
no admiration, and give little pleasure to the traveller from this land of gigantic vegeta- 
tion. The country often looks naked, fatiguing to the view, though rich in its cultivation 
and in all that labor and capital can procure. Nor is it relieved by the neat and beauti- 
ful farm houses, which with us almost always variegate the prospect, and afford resting 
places, where the eye loves to repose, and the mind to contemplate the prosperity and 
independence of the proprietor, the type of that large class of intelligent farmers, who 
constitute one of the main pillars of our social and political edifices. And this is more 
particularly the case upon the continent, where the rural laborers cluster in villages, a 
custom probably derived from those unquiet feudal times, when violence gained strength 
by the weakness of the law, and the population collected together under the protection 
of the Manorial castle, generally constructed in a position to be most easily defended. 
But whence soever came this general practice, it leaves large districts of open land, and 
essentially mars the beauty of the country. 

Splendid and magnificent residences, looking out upon extensive lawns and noble 
parks, and encompassed with all the heart of man can desire, and often seen through long 
vistas of trees, are stately sights in Europe, which our country nowhere presents, and I 
trust never will present. So much magnificence, if not the cause, is the sure handmaid 
of misery, and cannot well exist without it, as its contributions must be levied upon the 
productive means of the nation. Let industry, with its rewards, be open to all, but 
in their exertion or application, let us avoid those evil tendencies, whether legal or tradi- 
tional, which favor a system of family accumulations, and thus distribute God's blessings 
so unequally, that the great mass of a people would seem to be made to minister in 
wretchedness to the pride and pleasures of a fortunate class, which, with the disposition, 
possesses the power to maintain its privileges, cost what they may of human hippiness. 

This inequality of distribution can be better illustrated by a single fact, than by the 
most labored description — a fact as conclusive as it is lamentable. Out of a population of 
15,000,000, which England contains, there are scarcely 30,000 land owners; only one 
person with a right to tread the soil of his country, except in the public highways, to be 
found in every 500 inhabitants! What a deplorable element of danger and distress is 
this in the statistics of national property ! And the future holds out no solace for the 
present. The power of acquisition belongs only to riches, and the estates are augmented 
by continuous additions, thus diminishing their number, while their extent is fearfully 
spreading, at the expense of the best interests of the country. No exertion of intellect, 
no effort of industry can pass the barrier and enable the man, who commences life in 
poverty, to finish it in the proprietary possession of one of those beautiful farms, which 
variegate the surface of England, and which are cultivated by tenants, and not by own- 
ers. I say that neither intellect nor industry can look forward to such a result; for 
though it sometimes happens, it happens so rarely, as to furnish no rational motives for 
perseverance, and but proves the extent of the principle by the very paucity of the excep- 
tions. France exhibits a much more healthful condition, thanks to the political agita- 
tions, which have swept away the feudal privileges and feudal tenures, and have rendered 
the acquisition of land so accessible to the great body of the people, that there are now 
more than 4,000,000 of separate real estates, each held by its own proprietor. How diff- 
erent from England is the spectacle, which our system presents to the world ? Here land is 
easily attainable, and is equally open to all, and though a young man in the West, may 
now, by steady industry, become the owner of a farm, more readily than in any other 
age or region of the globe, yet public opinion seems to be rapidly settling into the con- 
viction, that it would be equally politic and just to increase the facility of proprietorship 
by gratuitous grants of lands to actual setters, without the immediate means of purchase; 
thus enabling them to direct their energies unembarrassed to the support of their families, 
and to the conversion of the forest to the great purposes of improvement and production. 

And nowhere else on the face of the globe, is man invoked by stronger motives to 
fulfil the great duty of cultivating the earth, and of elevating that duty to a higher stand- 
ard, by associating with it the cultivation of the human intellect, and the general diffu- 
sion of an adequate and suitable education. We have already taken a survey, a mere 
glance rather, of the vast field of labor, including all organized and unorganized matter, 
which is committed to the care of the cultivator, and where the highest intelligence may 
find full employment, with reasonable certainty of success. It is time to banish the last 



15 

traces of that ignorance, which introduced many superstitious notions in agriculture, 
both as articles of faith and practice, and which are well denominated " heavy fetters" 
by Lord Kaines, binding the human intellect in their folds. 

The strong man has at last awakened, if not aiisen, and as the faculties are enlight- 
ened, these bonds are broken, and looking back upon the past, especially from this coun- 
try, we find it difficult to appreciate the restraints they exercised upon mankind; and 
they furnish the most irrefragable proofs of the lamentable ignorance of those, by whom 
they were forged and borne. Many of these delusions, for such they are, yet survive, 
few of them, however, among us; but wherever they prevail, they are the companion 
and cause of ignorance; operating to the injury of agriculture, and to the oppression of 
the intellect. A chapter upon this subject, containing a brief review of those notions, 
many of them superstitious, and all of them weak and injurious, would be an instructive 
portion of history, and would teach us to rejoice the more, that education had come to 
dispel the darkness, in which alone they can maintain their sway. Where the opera- 
tions of nature are properly viewed and studied by enlightened communities, if the laws, 
that govern them, are not fully developed, still their exercise is so well comprehended, as 
to prevent superstition from establishing iis empire among them. There is no need of 
fabulous deities and spirits, af supernatural agents, to account for what is known to be 
regulated by established principles, wisely ordained by Him, who is God over all, though 
the whole piocess may never be revealed to us. A belief in the spontaneous generation 
and transmutation of plants, in lunar periods, in lucky and unlucky Cays, and in many 
similar errors, existed in the earliest times. And these and kindred notions are not 
wholly eradicated. A conviction of the dominion of the moon and of the celestial signs 
was once universal, and though circumscribed, it is not yet wholly annihilated. We are 
told in the "Husbandman's Practice or Prognostications," that we must "set, sow 
seeds, and plant, the moon being in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn. And all kinds of 
corn in Cancer. Graft in March at the moon's increase, she being in Taurus or Capri- 
corn." 

And poetry, too, comes 10 enliven, if not to enlighten, this grave subject, for in Tuper's 
Five Hundred Points of Husbandry, under February, we have the following lines, 
equally creditable to the judgment and imagination of the author: 

" Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the moone, t 

Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone, 
That they, with the planet, may rest and rise, 
And flourish with bearing, most plentiful wise." 

Before, however, we condemn these illusions with too severe a judgment, let us re- 
collect the contents of our own almanacs, preceded by a great figure, exhibiting a naked 
man, showing the influence of the celestial signs on the human body, and followed by 
regular prognostications of the state of the weather, from January to December, arranged 
with wonderful precision, "about these days," and where many an enquirer, anxious 
for an appointed excursion on a pleasant day, seeks to anticipate the result, and believes 
in the wisdom of the astrologer, especially if he find the prediction agrees with his own 
hopes. 

Here, in this country, however, where there are few of these errors to correct, which 
lead to much practical injury, education is not the less necessary for higher purposes ; 
though not indeed to redeem our husbandry from a practice, which, in some of our earlier 
settlements in this State, prevailed to a considerable extent, as I have been told by those 
who witnessed it, that of drawing the manure from the barnyard to trie ice of ihe river, 
that it might be carried off in the Spring with the least trouble to the farmer, who was 
thus enabled to commence his agricultural operations with clean premises. It needs no 
instruction to change all this, but it needs it to carry mental improvement, where such 
improvement would produce the most important results. 

The portion of our population engaged directly or indirectly in the culture of the soil 
is equal, perhaps, to two-thirds of the whole number of our inhabitants, and the career of 
advancement open to them is equally gratifying to the patriot, the philanthropist, and the 
politician. What a glorious subject of contemplation would be a community, stretching 
along these vast frontiers, each family occupying its own farm, and with all the elements 



16 

of prosperity and intelligence within their reach ! I trust that a patriotic and liberal pol- 
icy, suited to our age and circumstances, will enable every man to become a landholder, 
thus adding the bonds of interest to those of affection, which bind us to our country, and 
adding also to the stability of our institutions, which well and wisely extend to each the 
care of all. Men are more valuable than land, or rather land is only truly valuable, 
where possessed by men for the purposes of cultivation. 

In the whole range of public duties I know of no one more important, than the prepa- 
ration of a well-digested system, which would ensure to every one, desirous of occupying 
and cultivating it, a tract of land in our immense national domain, which his industry 
might reclaim, and where he and his family might be prosperous and contented. Talk 
of adding to the wealth of a nation — what would add more to it, than such hosts of pro- 
ducers, laboring for themselves, and where the soil and climate offer their richest rewards 
to human industry? Talk of adding to the strength of a nation — what would add more 
to it than armies like these, ever ready to defend their country ngainsi all dangers, 
whether from foes without, or from foes within? Talk of adding to human happiness, to 
the progress of human intelligence, to the elevation of man in the scale of being — what 
would add more to all these elements of power and prosperity, so dear to every man, who 
loves his country and his countrymen ? Talk of adding to national glory — what would 
be more truly glorious, more encouraging, indeed, to the lovers of freedom through the 
world, than such a measure, flowing from such motives, and leading to such consequen- 
ces ? • The power of acquiring land with ease and certainty; the power to manage it, 
uncontrolled by legal or traditionary embarrassments; the right of descent, without the 
invidious and unjust distinction of primogeniture ; exemption from tithes, from commons, 
from manorial privileges, and especially from that curse of an agricultural district, the 
game laws; the absence of tenantry, unknown as a class among us, where the owner is 
his own tenant ; the right to aspire to the highest offices and honors of the country, not 
a mere barren political declaration, but a right practically enjoyed, as we know from the 
experience of every day — all these advantages, and many more, indeed, are possessed by 
the farmer in this country, and elevate his condition far above those whose lives are de- 
voted to the cultivation of the soil of England. 

My fellow citizens, I come to you from a scene far different from this ; from a scene 
where there was neither eye nor heart for the peaceful and prosperous laborers of agricul- 
ture ; but where great interests were committed to doubtful and excited legislators, and 
where there was too much reason to fear, at one time, that we should sow the wind, 
while you would reap the whirlwind. And such would have been the harvest of calam- 
ity, had not a mighty voice been heard, when the tempest raged the loudest, and speak- 
ing louder than the tempest, said, " Peace, be still,"— and all was still. But this voice 
did not issue from the seat of your general government; it came there, borne upon the 
four winds of Heaven; from the East and from the West, from the North and from the 
South; from the American people, and almost the whole people, who, feeling the peril 
of their country, rose up in their power, and rebuking their servants, commanded them, 
promptly, and by wise legislation, to restore peace and harmony to the Republic — and 
it was done. The great cause of freedom and self-government, not for us alone, but for 
the whole human race, has been tried and gained. 

Many an eye watched us in Europe. Many a heart throbbed with hope or fear. 
With hope or fear, as he who watched us, believed that man was made to govern him- 
self, or to be governed by hereditary rulers, knowing that for long years to come, for 
ages indeed it may be, the great experiment was on trial here, and if it failed by our in- 
testine divisions, it failed for mankind, till again renewed by time and blood, and oppres- 
sion. Great was the danger, and great is the success. Blessed be the God of our 
fathers and our own God, we are yet one country, one people, one government, and so 
may we continue, till human institutions shall have fulfilled their functions, and have 
been succeeded by the advent of that period, foretold by prophecy and foreseen by faith, 
when "The Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of his 
Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." 



Supplement to the Southern Planter. 



LIST OF PREMIUMS 



OFFERED AT TH£ 



THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBITION 



OF THE 



VIRGINIA 



STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



HBI,D, 



30th and 31st October and 1st and 2d Novsmbbb, 



1855, 



RICHMOND : 

PRINTED 87 THOMAS BAILIB. 






1 



THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBITION 

OF THE 

VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SCHEDULE OF PREMIUMS 

Offered by the Virginia State Agricultural Society, far the Annual Meeting and 

Exhibition of 1855. 



BRANCH I. 

Premiums of First Grade of Experiments. 

1 to 5. For each of five best series of experi- 
ments, each series to include not less than 
eight difierer.it matters of trial, observation, 
measurement or correct estimate or compari- 
son of results, and each series to cover not 
less than four acres of land — on any important 
and doubtful or disputed question or ques- 
tions of practical agriculture ; and which ex- 
periments, by their proper direction, variety, 
accuracy of performance, and the careful and 
full reports of procedure and results thereof, 
shall serve to furnish valuable instruction for 
practice on the several subjects investigated: 
for each series, whether on the same or on 
different subjects, a premium of - - $100 

Second Grade. 

6 to 15. For each often other next best series 
or single experiments, of similar character 
and merit with the above described, but falling 
short of the full requisitions for the foregoing, 
a premium of .-_... 25 

Third Grade. 

15 to 35. For each of twenty other accurate 
and instructive experiments, or series, on one 
general subject, of merit and useful value, a 
premium of- - - - - - -10 

Remarks., and Special Rides for Branch I. 

The superiority of merit or value of any two 
series of experiments, claiming the same or like 
premiums, will be decided in reference to the 
nearest approximation to the following conditions: 

1st. The comparative extent and completeness 
of the processes of experiment, and the apparent 
accuracy of the procedure. 

2d. The clearness of the report. 

8d. The utility of the information so conveyed. 

Exact measurements of results always will add 
pinch value to reports of experiments, aud should 
got be omitted whc.iever the case may require 
such exactness. But in many other cases, esti- 
mates of comparative results, or products, by the 
eye, may serve, if sufficient for the case and for 
reaching correct conclusions. 



BRANCH II, 

First Grade of Premiums for Written Communi- 
cations. 
36 to 40. For each of the five best essays or 
written communications, whether on the same 
or on different subjects of practical agricul- 
ture, or on scientific agriculture, strictly and 
usefully applicable to practice, of high order 
of merit and utility for instruction — of not 
less than twenty pages of ordinary writing in 
length, and otherwise conforming to the re- 
quisitions of the general rules on this subject, 
a premium of ----- - $50 

Second Grade. 

41 to 50. For each of ten of other and next 
best essays or written communications as above 
described, but which may be of lesT extension 
or otherwise falling short of the requisitions 
for the higher ojfers, a premium of - - $20 

Third Grade. 

51 to 70. For each of other twenty next best 
instructive written communications of new 
facts in agriculture, a premium of - - $10 



Remarks 



and Special Rides for, Branch II. 



ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS. 

Essays and other written articles on practical 
subjects, must be founded mainly, and on scien- 
tific Subjects at least partly, on the writer's prac- 
tical experience and personal observation or inves- 
tigation ; though portions of each may rest on 
other authorities, to be stated particularly or gene- 
rally, as required by the case. 

The award of superiority to any one writing 
over others on the same subject will be made in 
reference to its probable greater utility to agricul- 
tural improvement or profit, as well as to the 
ability with which the subject is treated. 

In matter designed to instruct or to guide prac- 
tical labors, clearness and fulness of details will 
be deemed a high claim to merit — and next con- 
ciseness. Nothing necessary for instruction should 
be omiltec 1 , and nothing included that can be 
omitted without injury to the value of the instruc- 
tion, 



THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE 



It was required by the former regulations, though 
not properly carried out by the committees of 
awards, and it is here repeated, that all written 
communications to the Society, received at any 
'previous time and published by the order of the 
Executive Committee, and which have not been 
duly considered; and eteniec; pregjjums. by the 
judges, Shall be still held and considered as claim- 
ing, and in competition with any more recent wri- 
tings for premiums offered, and for which any such 
writings .may be suitable, and further — even the 
previously published writings, which had been du- 
ly considered by the judges at the preceding Fair, 
and to which premiums were denied, shall still be 
held under review a;hd consideration, by thejudges 
for the next year's premiums, not to again be 
placed in competition, but for the purpose of being 
compared as to degrees of merit with the later wri 
tings then under consideration and adjudication 
fotfpremiums. 

Written communications to the Executive Com- 
mittee, sent in at any time, and even if 1 published 
by order, previous to the Fair, shall not thereby 
have impaired their claims' ;p premiums at the 
next Fair. And all original essays, or other writ- 
ten communications ' to L ' the Society, which have 
been published by order of the Executive Com- 
mittee shall be deemed by the appropriate commit- 
tees of awards, as submitted to their judgment. The 
earlier such communications are received by the 
Executive Committee and published, if that be 
deemed proper, the earlier, and better service' will 
they render, and the more strictly may they be 
scrutinized, and their degrees of merit be estima- 
ted more correctly. 

When a premium has been awarded at a previ- 
ous time to an essay, any other and later essay, or 
written communication on that subject, to obtain a 
premium, must be either deemed to have impor- 
tant additional valuecompared to the former one 
so honored, or otherwise be very different in mat- 
ter, or mariner of treatment, as well as of a suffi- 
ciently high order' of merit. 

All written communications to which may be 
awarded premiums wi.il be published in the Tran- 
sactions of the Society. And any others offered to 
compete for premiums, and not obtaining that 
honor, will be published in like manner, if deemed 
worthv bv the Executive Committee. • ■ 



BRANCH III. 

BEST ENTIRE CROPS OF DIFFERENT TARMS. 

For the best product averaged to the acre, of 
each of the following crops, raised in 1854 or 1855, 
on a bona fide farm, and for an' entire crop of the 
farm, according to its usual or designed rotation, 
the annexed premiums': 

71. Best average product of Indian corn, $50 

72. Best average product of wheat, ' - 50 

73. Best average product of clover, - 30 

74. Best average product of tobacco, - 30 

75. Best average product of oats, - 30 

76. Best average product Of peas, (South- 
ern or corn-field, either among corn or 'Sepa- 
rate,) in grain or in green manure, comparing 
each to each of like 'kind, -•••'.' ■-'■■. 30 

77. Best average product of rye, - - 30 

78. Best average product of barley, - 30 

79. Best average product of timothy, herds- 
grass, or other hay of artificial grass or clover, 30 



And for entire crops, though not occupying an • 
entire shift of the farm, or making one full mem- 
ber of the regular or designed rotation, but yea 
being a subject of large culture on a bona fide 
farm, a premium of $20 for the largest average 
production of all the following crops : 

80. Corn, not less than 75 bushels to the acre. 

81. Wheat, not less than 30 bushels to the acre. 

82. Clover, not less than 2 tons of hay to the acre. 

83. Tobacco, not less than 1000 pounds. 

84. Qats. 

85. Eve. 

86. Barley. 

87. Southern peas, (as above stated). 

88. Cotton. 

89. Sweet potatoes. 

90. Irish potatoes. 

91. Turnips. 

92. Pumpkins. 

93. Buckwheat. 

94. Hemp. 

95. Flax. 

Remarks on and Special Rules for Branch III. 

No crop will be deemed a subject of large cut- 
ture, or as. having any claim for one of the latter 
stated premiums, unless it occupies at least oner 
fifteith part of all the arable land of a bona fide 
farm, whether large or small — and further, that it 
shall appear to the judges from the extent of cul- 
ture or otherwise that such crop was cultivated 
for its expected farming profit, and not especially 
aided by greater expenses incurred n;erely to obV 
tain a premium. 

Crops, and other agricultural or horticultural 
products, must be the growth of the persons for 
whom, respectively, premiums may be claimed. 

Crops of corn, tobacco, or an}' others of which. 
the amounts' cannot be usually ascertained in the 
year of their growth, or before the time for awar- 
ding premiums, are proper subjects for premiums 
if of the growth of the year previous to the 
awards being made. ' 

Crops offered as largest products, must have had 
their amounts fixed with sufficient accuracy— and 
for the whole, if of grain, toba'eeo, cr other mar- 
ket crops. But grass, roots, or 'other' provender 
products, designed mainly for home consumption, 
and not suitable for being wholly measured or 
weighed, may be estimated by the accurate' "meas- 
urement or weighing of the product of one or 
more average acres, or of a known proportion of 
the whole product.' 

The testimony required will be the best that the 
nature of the case may admit, and such as will be 
satisfactory to the judges. 

BRANCH IV. 



Thoroughbred. 
1 

9G. For the best thoroughbred stallion, - $50 

97. For the second best'thorougbred stallion, 26 

98. For the best thoroughbred mare, - 20 

99. For the second best thoroughbred mare, 10 

100. For the best! 3 year old colt or filly, - 15 

101. For the best 2 year old colt or filly, - 15 

102. For the best one year old colt or filly, - 10 

103. For the best sickling colt, •" ' -• - 5 



VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



■> ■ • == 

Quick Draught Horses. 
104. For the best stallion for quick draught, $50 
L 105. For the second best stallion for quick 
•draught, ------- 25 

106. For the best brood mare for quick 
■draught, -------20 

107. For the second best brood mare for 
<;uick draught, ------ 10 

108. For the best pair of matched horses 

for quick draught, - - - - - 30 

109. For the second best pair of matched 
horses for quick draught, - - ~ 1*> 

110. For the best; single harness horse, mare 

or gelding, -------15 

11£. For the second best single harness 
horse, mare or gelding, - - - - 10 

112. For the best 3 year old colt or fiUy, - 15 

113. For the best 2 vear old colt or filly, - 15 
ili. For the best 1 year old colt o? filly, - 10 

115. For the best suckling colt, - - 5 

Heavy Draught Horses. 

116. For tlie best stallion for heavy draught, $50 

117. For the second best stallion for heavy 
draught, - - - - -■ - 25 

118. For the best brood mare for heavy 
draught, - - - -.-.-- 20 

119. For the second best brood mare for 
heavy draught, - - - - - -10 

120. For the best pair of heavy draught") 
horses, ------ [. 20 

121. For the best team of heavy draught f 
horses, four or more, - - - I 30 
• [To be tested on the fair grounds, accord- 
ing to such plan as may be prescribed by the 
Committee.] 

122. For the best 3 year old colt or filly, 15 

123. For the best 2 year old colt or filly, 15 

124. For the best 1 year old colt or filly, 10 

125. For the best suckling colt, 5 



Saddle Horses. 
the best stallion for the saddle, 
the second best stallion for the 



the best brood mare for the saddle, 
the second best brood mare for 



126. For 

127. For 
saddle, 

128. For 

129. For 
the saddle, - - 

130. For the best saddle horse, mare or 
gelding 

131. For 

132. For 

133. For 

134. For 



the best 3 year old colt or filly, 
the b^st 2 year old colt c'r (illy, 
the best 1 year old colt or filly, 
■the best suckling colt., 



MULES AND JACKS: 

135. For the best" jack, ... 

136. For the 2nd best jack, 

137. For the best jennei,. - 

138. For the 2nd best jennet, - , - 

139. For the best pair of mules, to be owned 
and worked 1 year preceding their exhibition! 

140. For the best team of mules, '4 or more, 
to be owned and worked 1' year preceding their 
exhibition, - - - - 

141. For the best mule colt 3 years old, 
foaled in Virginia, - 

142. For the best mule colt 2 years old, 
foaled in Virginia, - 

143. For the best mule colt 1 year old, 
foaled in Virginia, - 

. 144. For the best mule colt, a suckling, 
foa'ed in" Virginia, - - 



$50 

25 
.20 

10 

15 
T'5 
15 

10 



$50 

20 
20 
10 

20 



15 



15 



10 



CATTLE. 

Short Horns or Durhams and Herefords, three years old 
and upwards. 

145. For the best bull, - - - $30 

146'. For the 2nd best bill, - - 16 

147. For the 3rd- best bull, - - 8- 

148'. For the best cow, - -' -. 30 

149. For the 2nd best cow, - - 15- 

150. For the 3rd best cow, - 8 

Short Horns or Durhams and Herefords, under three 
years old. 

151. For the best bull between Swo and three 
years old, - - - - -■ - $16 

152. For the 2nd best bull between two and 
three years old, - ■ ■•■ - — ■ ■ - 8 

153. For the 3rd best bull between two and 
three y^ars old, - - - ■ - " - 5 

154. For the best bull between one and two 
years old, - - - - .- - 15 

155. For the 2nd best bull between one and 
two years old, - - - - - 8 

156. For the best heifer between two and 
three years old, - - - - 15 

157. For the 2nd best heifer between two 
and three years old, - - - 8 

158. For the best heifer between one and 
two years old, '15 

159. For the 2d best heifer between one and 
two years old, ----- £ 

Dcvons and Aldrrneys, over three years old, 

160. For the best Devon bull three years , 
old and upwards, ----- $30 

161. For thS 2nd bast Devon bull three 
vears old and upwards, - - - - 15 

162. For She 3rd b»st Devon bull three 
years old and upwards, - 8 

163. For the b*st Devon cow three years 

old and upwards, - - - - - 30 

164. For the* 2nd • best Devon cow three 
years old and upwards, - - - -15 

105. For the 3rd best Devon cow three 
years old and upwards, - S 

Aldernfys same premiums as Devons. 

Dcvons and Alderneys, under, three years old. 

166. For the best Devon bull between J,wo 
and three years old, - - , - - $15 

167. For the 2nd best Devon bull between 
two and three years rrld, - - - - 8 

168. For the 3rd best Devon bull between 
two and three* years old", 6 

109. For the best Devon bull between one 

and two ye>rs old, ----- 15 

170. For the 2nd best Devon bull between 
one and two years old",' 8 

171. For the best Devon heifer between two > 
and three years old, 15 

172. For the 2nd best Devon heiter between 
two and three years olfl, - - - - 8 

173. For the best Devon heifer between one • 
and two yenrs old, - -.-.,- 15 

174. For the 2nd best Devon heifer betwoen 
one and two years old, - 8 

Alderneys same premiums as Devoi.s. 

Ayrshire* and. Holsleins, over three years old. 

175. For the best Ayrshire bull three years 

old and upwards, - - , - - . $:10 

176. For the 2nd best Ayrshire bull three 
years old and upwards, - - - f5 



THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE 



177. For the 3rd best Ayrshire bull three 
years old and upwards, . - - 8' 

178. For the best Ayrshire cow three years 
old and upwards, ----- 30 

179. For the 2nd best Ayrshire cow three 
years old and upwards, - - - - 15 

180. For the 3rd best Ayrshire cow three 
years old and upwards, - 8 

Holsteins same premiums as Ayrshires. 
Ayrskires and Holsteins, under three years old, 

181. For the best Ayrshire bull between 
two and three years old, - $15 

182. For the 2nd best Ayrshire bull be- 
tween two and three years old, 8 

183. For the 3rd best Ayrshire bull be- 
tween two and three years old, ... 5 

184. For the best Ayrshire heifer between 
two and three years old, 15 

185. For the 2nd best Ayrshire heifer be- 
tween two and three years old, - - - 8 

186. For the best Ayrshire bull between 
one and two years old, 15 

187. For <the 2nd best Ayrshire bull be- 
tween one and two years old, - - - 8 

188. For the best Ayrshire heifer between 
one and two years old, 15 

189. For the 2nd best Ayrshire heifer be- 
tween one and two years old, 8 

Holsteins same premiums as Ayrshires. 
Natives or Grades. 

190. For the' best bull three years old and 
upwards, ------- $30 

191. For the 2nd best bull three years old 
and upwards, ------ 15 

192. For the 3rd best bull three years old 
and upwards, ------ 8 

193. For the best bull between two and 
three years old, ------ 15 

191. For the 2ni best bull between two and 
three years old, ------ 8 

195. For the 3rd best bull between two and 
three years old, ------ 5 

196. For the best bull between one and 
two years old, ------ 15 

197. For tue 2nd best bull between one and 
two years old, - - - - - - 8 

198. For the best cow three years old and 
upwards, -------30 

199. For the 2d best cow three years old 
and upwards, ------ 15 

200. For the 3rd best cow three years old 
and upwards, ------ 8 

201. For the best heifer between two and 
three years old, ------ 15 

202. For the 2nd best heifer between two 
and three years old, ----- 8 

203. For the 3rd best heifer between two 
and three years old, ----- 5 

204. For the best heifer between one and 
two years old, ------ 15 

205. For the 2ad best heifer between one 
and two years old, ----- 8 

Imported Stock. 
206 to 235. For the best imported Short Horns, 
Herefords, and Devons, the same premiums as arc 
awarded above in their respective classes. 



DA'RY cows. 

236. For the best cow for the dairy - - $30" 

237. For the second best cow for the dairy, 15*. 

Working Oxen. 

238. For the best yoke of trained oxen oyer 
four years old, ------ 30 

239. For the 2nd best yoke of oxen over 
four years old, ------ 15 

240. For the best yoke of oxen under four 
years old, -------30 

241. For the 2nd best yoke of oxen under 
four years old, ------ 15 

The oxen to be tested according to rules to be 
prescribed by the Executive Committee. 

5 FAT STOCX. 

242. For the best pair of fat steers, - $30 

243. For the best fat cow. - 15 

244. For the best fat heifer, - 10 

245. For the best fat calf, - 6 

246. For the best pen of fat sheep, 4 or 
more, --------15 

247. For the best pen of fat hogs, 10 or 
more, - - - - - - - -15 

[The owner will be required to state the mode 
of fattening in all cases.] 

SLAUGHTERED STOCK. 

248. For the best carcass of slaughtered 
beef, - - - - - - - - 15 

249. For the best carcass of slaughtered 
sheep, - - - - - - - -10 

250. For the best carcass of slaughtered 
hogs, --------10 

SHEEP. 

FINE WOOLS. 

Saxons and their Grades. 

251. For the best buck, - $20 

252. For the second best buck, - - 10 

253. For the third best buck, 

254. For the best pen of ewes, three or 
more, -------- 

255. For the second best pen of ewes, three 
or more, ------- 

256. For the third best pen of ewes, 3 or 
more, -------- 

257. For the best pen of ewe lambs, 4 or 
more, -------- 

258. For the best pen of ram lambs, 4 or 
more, -------- 

259. For the best carcass of mutton of this 
breed, --- 5 

Merinos and their Grades. 

260. For the best buck, - - - - 

261. For the second best buck, 

262. For the third best buck, 

263. For the best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 

264. For the second best pen of ewes, 3 or 
more, -------- 

265. For the third best pen of ewes, 3 or 
more, -------- 

266. For the best pen of ewe lambs, 4 or 
more, -------- 

267. For the best pen of buck lambs, 4 or 



5 

20 

10 

5 

5 
5 



$20 

10 

5 

20 

10 

5 



more, - - - - - - "." 

268. For the best carcass of mutton of this 
breed & 



VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MITDLE ^TOCLS. 

South Downs and their Grades. 

253. For the best buck, - - - - $20 

270. For the second best buck, - - 13 

271. For the third be.'t buck, - - - 5 

272. For the best pen of ewes, 3 or more, 20 

273. For the second best pen of ewes, 3 or 
more, --------10 

274. Foi the third best pen of ewes, 3 or 
more --------5 

275. For the best pen of ewe Iambs, 4 or 
more. --------5 

276. For the best pen of buck lambs, 4 or 
more, --------5 

LONG WOOLS. 

277. For the best buck, - - - - $20 

278. For the second best buck, - - 10 

279. For the third best back, - - - 5 

280. For the be;t pen of ewes, 3 or more, - 20 
231. For the second best pen of ewes, 3 or 

Eaore, --------10 

282. For the third best pen of ewes, 3 or 
more, - - -•- - - - -5 

283. For the best pen of buck lambs, 4 or 
mere, --5 

284. For the best pen of ewe lambs, 4 or 
more. .--5 

[The longwooled breed include Bakewell, Cots- 
wold, Lincoln, Leicester, New Oxfordshire, and 
their grades.] 

Cross Breeds. 

285. For the best buck, - - - - $20 

286. For the second best buck, - - 10 

287. For the third best buck, ... 6 

288. For the best pen of ewes, three or 
more, -----_-20 

289. For the second best pen of ewes, three 

or more, -.--.--10 

290. For the third best pen of ewes, three 

or more, ------- 5 

291. For the best pen of ewe lambs, four 

or more, - ... 5 

292. For the best pen of buck lambs, four 

or more, -- 5 

This class of sheep are crosses of the pure and 
established breeds. 

Foreign Sheep. 

293. For the best imported buck of each 

of the above several breeds, - $20 

294. For the second best imported buck of 
each of the several breeds, - - - - 10 

295. For the best imported ewe of each of 
the several breeds, - - - - - 20 

296. For the second best imported ewe of 
each of the several breeds, - - - 10 



30?. For the best breed ; ng sow over two 
yea'-s old, ...... 'J) 

304. For the second best breeding sow over 
two years old, ------ 10 

305. For the best sow not less than six 
mollis and under eighteen months old, - 15 

306. For the second best sow not less than 

sis months nnd under eighteen months old, - 8 

307. Fur the best lot of pigs, not less than 
two and under five mor.ths old, - - - 20 

308. For the second best lot of pigs, not 
less than two and under.five months old, - 10 

The large breed includes Chester, Berkshire, 
Russia, Bedford, Woburn, Grazier, Duchess Coun- 
ty, and their grades. 

Small Breed. 

309. For the best boar over two years old, $15' 

310. For second best boar over two years 
old, - ... ----- 8 

311. For the best boar over one year old, 15' 

312. For the second best boar over one 
year old, ....... 8 

313. For the best boar six months old, - 15 

314. For second best boar six months old, 8 

315. For the best breeding sow over two 
years old, ------- 15 

316. For the second best breeding sow over 
two years old, ------ 8 

317. For the best sow, not less than six 
months nor mo;e than eighteen months old, 15 

318. For second best sow, not less than six 
months nor more than eighteen months old, 8 

319. For the best lot of pigs, not less than 
two and under five months old, - - - 15 

320. For the second best lot of pigs, not 
less than two and under five months old, - 8 

The small breed includes Neapolitan, Suffolk, 
Chinese, and their grades. 

ADDITIONAL PREMIUMS TO PREMIUM ANIMALS. 

321. For the best bull of three years old 

or more of any breed on exhibition, - - $20 

322. For the best cow of any breed on ex- 
hibition, - - - - - - - 20 

323. For the best staliion of any breed on 
exhibition, ------- 20' 

324. For the best brood mare of any breed 

on exhibition, ------ 20 

325. For the best buck of any breed on 
exhibition, ------ 10 

326. For the best ewe of any breed on 
exhibition, -------10 

327. For the best boar of any breed on 
exhibition, -------10 

328. For the best breeding sow of any breed 

on exhibition, ------ io 



Large Breed. 

297. For the best boar over two years old, $20 

298. For second best boar over two years 
old, 10 

299. For the best boar one year old, - 15 

300. For the second best boar one year old, 8 

301. For the best boar ove;- six months and 
under one year old, 15 

302. For the 2nd best boar over six months 
and under oue year old, ... 8 



329. For the best pair (male and female) 

of the most profitable breed of chickens, - $10 

330. For second best pair (male and fe- 
male) of the most profitable breed of chickens, 7 

331. For tl.ir J best pair (male and female) 

of the most profitable breed of chickens, - 5 

332. For the best pair of turkeys, - - 5 

333. For the best pair of the most profit- 
able breed of geese, ----- 5- 

334. For the second best pair of the most 
profitable breed of geese, 3- 

335. For the best pair of clucks of the most 
profitable breed, ------ 5' 



8 



THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE 



386. For the second best pair of ducks uf 
the most profitable breed, .... 3 

337. For the best collection of poultry ex- 
hibited by any one person, - - - 30 

338. For second best collection of poultry 
exhibited by any one person, - - - 20 

Remarks and Special Rules for Branch, IV. 

If a competitor claims anything on 1 the score of 
the breed or purity of blood of an animal, he must 
submit the pedigree or other statement, in writing. 

Awards of superiority of animals should be given 
for their superior utility or profit for farm purposes, 
or stated use in the offers of the premium's. Neither 
unusually large and useless size, nor excessive fat- 
ness of animals, (unless fattened for slaughter, and 
exhibited as such,) will he deemed points of value 
or merit. No unprofitable animal will be a proper 
subject to receive a premium. 

BRANCH V. 

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.' 

Class I. 
Plows, Cultivators, <$-c. 

339. For the best single plow, - - S8 

340. For the best shovel plow, ... 8 

341. For the best sub-soil plow, 5 

342. For the best new ground plow, - - 5 

343. For the best hill side plow," - -"','§ 

344. For the best cultivator for corn, . 6 

345. For the best cultivator for tobacco, - 6 

346. For the best cultivator for 2 horses, - 6 
847. For the best harrow, 8 

348. For the best swingle bars of novel 
construction and superior value to those in 
common use, - - - - -' 5 

Class II. 

Drills and Broadcasters. 

349. For the best broadcasting or drilling 
machine for sowing grain and grass seed, - $30 

350. For the best wheat drill, - - 30 

351. For the best broadcasting machine, 

for sowing guano, - - - - - 30 

352. For the best lime spreader, - - 30 

353. For the best corn planter, - - -10 

354. For the best seed drill, - - - 5 

355. For the best attachment to drill for 
drilling guano, - - - - - 15 

356. For the best implement for sowing 
peas among corn, at of immediately following 
the last tillage, and either with or without 
guano, ------- 20 

Class HI. 

Vehicles and their incidents, and Rollers. 

357. For the best v?agon for farm use, - $20 

358. For the best wagon body for hauling 
wheat, in the sheaf, hay or straw, - - - .5 

359. For the best dumping wagon, - - 20 

360. For the best set of wagon harness, - 8 

361. For the best ox-cart, with body for 
hauling corn in the shucks, - . - - - 10 

362. For the best ox-cart body for hauling 
wheat in the sheaf, hay or straw, - - - 5 

363. For the best ox yoke, ... 4 

364. For the best horse cart, 8 

365. For the best harness for horse cart, - 5 

366. For the best horse collar for farm use, 4 
3€'7. For the best' smooth' roller, -" -' 20 



368. For the best pegged roller, - - 30 

369. For the best clod crusher, - - 20 

370. For the best farm gate, - - - 10 

Class IV. 
Horse Powers, Threshers and Separators. 

371. For the' bsst sweep horse power, - 30 

372. For the second best sweep horse poWer, 10 

373. For the best railway power, - - SO 

374. For the best threshing machine, - 15 

376. For the best machine for threshing, 
cleansing and separating wheat at one opera- 
tion, - 20" 

376'. For the best separator or straV carrier, 

Class V. 
Straw and Root Cutters, Cornshellcrs and Mills. 

377. For the best hay or straw-cutter, for , 
horse-power, ------ $10' 

378. For the best hay or straw-cutter, for 
hand-power, ------ 10 

379. For the best cornsheller, for horse- 
power, - - - - - - - 10 

380. For the best cornsheller, for hand- 
power, - - - - - - l'O 

381. For the best grist mill, for horse- 
power, ..-.,-. -, - - - - 10 

382. FW the best hominy mill, - - 5 

383. For the best saw-mill, for farm use, 10 

384. For the best corn and cob-crusher, 1Q 
3&5. For the best root-cutter, - - 6 

Class VI. 
Miscellaneous. 

386. For the best' fanning mill, - - -$15 

387. For the best hay-press, - - - 15 

388. For the best stump-machine j - - 15 

389. For the best ditching machine, - 19 

390. For the best rotary digger, - - 15 

391. For the best hay-fork, " - 3 

392. For the best knife for cutting down' 
hay or straw-stacks, ----- J 

393! For the best dung-fork and hoe, - 2 

394. For the best brier-blade, - - 2 

Class V II. 
Miscellaneous. 

395. For the best water-ram in operation, $10 

396. For the best scoop or scraper, - 4 

397. For the best leveling instrument, suit- 
able for draining operations, ., - - r 10 

398. For the best stove or furnace for heat- 
ing rooms, ------- 10 

399. F,or the best churn, 4 

400. For the best apple-peeler, J? 

401. For the best meat cutter, - - 2 

402. For the best washing machine, - 3 

403. For the best sewing machine, - - 10 

AGRICULTURAL STEAM ENGINE. 

404. For the best'steam'engihe, (on wheels) 
applicable to agricultural purposes generally, 

as a substitute for horse-power, - - - 50 

FOR THE MOST EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COL- 
LECTION 

405. Of useful machines and implements ex- 
hibited and made at any one factory, whether 
including subjects for other premiums or not, 

a premium of ------ 25 J 



VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



■j PLOUGHING MATCH AND TRIAL OF PLOUGHS. 

406. For the best two-horse plough for 
gandy land, as shown by work actually per- 
formed and the test of the dynamometer, $20 

407. For the best two-horse plough for clay 
laud, as shown by work actually performed 
and the test of the dynamometer, - - 20 

408. For the best three or four-borse plough 
for sandy land, as shown by work actually per- 
formed and the test of the dynamometer, - 20 

409. For the best three or four-horse plough 
for clay land, as shown by work actually per- 
formed and the test of the dynamometer, - 20 

410. For the best ploughman with horses, - 10 

411. For the 2d best ploughman with horses, 5 

412. For best ploughman with steers, - 10 

413. For the 2d best ploughman with steers, 5 

WHEAT REAPER AND MOWER. 

41-4. For the best wheat reaper, to be tested 
in such manner and at such place as the 
Executive Committee shall designate, a pre- 
mium of -.--.--50 

415. For the best machine for mowing clo- 
ver and grass, to be tested as above stated, - 50 

416. For the best reaping and mowing ma- 
chine in one, ...... 50 

Remarks and Special Rules for Branch V. 

All machines, implements, or other products of 
mechanical art, must be exhibited by or Tor their 
respective makers or inventors or improvers, to or 
for whom only premiums for such articles must be 
awarded. E.ersons who hold such articles by pur- 
chase, or as matters of traffic, will have no claim 
to a premium. 

Every machine or implement offered for premium, 
must be designated by the offerer by its commercial 
name, or otherwise such other concise description 
be given as will serve to identify it to future pur- 
chasers ; and also the then selling price of the ar- 
ticle must be stated and marked on the labels and 
in the published reports of premium articles. 

The judgment of superior value must have due 
regard to the cheapness and durability of any ma- 
chine or implement, as well as to its more effective 
operation while in good working order. 

BRANCH VI. 

FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 

417. For the best and largest variety pf 
apples suitable for Southern raising, each 
labelled, ' - $10 

418. For the best and largest variety of 
pears, - - - - -" - -8 

419. For the greatest number of chojee va- 
rieties of different kinds of fruit, - - 10 

420. For the best and largest collection of 
apple trees, suitable for Southern raising, - 10 

421. For the best pear trees, - - 10 

422. For the best peach trees, - - 10 

423. For the best grape vines, 5 

424. For the best strawberry vines, - - 3 

425. For the best raspberry plants, - 3 



426. For the largest and choicest variety of 
flowers, ----...10 

427. For the second largest and choicest 
yar.ety of flowers, - - - - - 5 



428. For the best and greatest variety of 
dahlias, ----...5 

429. For the best and greatest variety of 
roses, ---.---5 

430. For the best floral ornament, - - 5 

431. For the best and largest variety of 
greenhouse plants, ..... 5 



10 
3 
3 
3 



VEGETABLES. 

432. For the largest and best assortment of 
table vegetables, ..... 

433. For the best dozen long blood beets, 

434. For best dozen head of cabbage, 

435. For the best dozen carrots, 

436. For the best dozen egg plants, - - 3 

437. For the best peck of onions, - - 3 

438. For the best dozen parsnips, 3 

439. For the best bushel Irish potatoes, - 3 
44.9. For the best bushel sweet potatoes, - 3 

BRANCH VII. 

BUTTER AND CHEESE. 

441. For the best specimen of fresh but- 
ter, not less than ten pounds, r - - $10 

442. For the 2nd best specimen of fresh 
butter, not less than 6 pounds, ... 5 

443. For the best firkin or tub of salted 
butter, not less than 6 months old, - - 20 

444. For the 2nd best firkin or tub salted 
butter, not less than 6 months old, - - 10 

445. For the best cheese, not less than 20 
pounds, - ------10 

The methods of making and preserving the but- 
ter and cheese, to be stated by the exhibitors. 

Honey and Bee Hives. 

446. For th.e best specimen pf honey, not 
less than JO pounds, - - - - - $5 

The honey to be taken without destroying the 
bees — the kind of hive used, and the manage- 
ment of the bees to be stated by the exhibitor. 

447. For the best bee hive, - - ' - $10 

Bacon Hams. 

448. For the best ham cured by exhibitor, $10 

449. For the 2nd best ham cured by exhi- 
bitor, 5 

Manner of curing to be described by exhibitor, 
and the hams exhibited to be cooked. 

Household Manufactures. 

450. For thp best quilt, - - r - $5 

451. For the 2nd best quilt, 4 

452. For the best counterpane, 5 

453. For the 2nd best counterpane, 4 

454. For the best pair home-made blankets, 5 

455. For the best home-made carpet, - 6 

456. For the best home-made hearth rug, 3 

457. For the best set home-made curtains, 5 

458. For the 2nd best set home-made cur- 
tains, ...---. 3 

459. For the best piece, not less than 7 
yards home-made negro shirting, - - 3 

460. For the best piece, not less than 10 
yards, winter clothing for negroes, to be wo- 
ven by hand, ------ 5 

461. For the best piece heavy woollen jeans, 

to be woven by hand, 5 

462. For the 2nd best piece heavy woolen 
jeans, to be woven by hand, ... 3 

463. For the best piece linsey, not less than 

7 yards, to be woven by hand, 5, 



20 



THIRD ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE 



464. For the 2nd best piece linsey, not less 
than 7 yards, to be woven by hand, - - 3 

465. For the best fine long yarn hose, - 3 

466. For the best fine long cotton hose, - 3 

467. For the best silk do. of home-made silk, 5 

468. For the best specimen of home-made 
wine, ....-.-5 

469. For the best home-made broad', - 5 

470. For the best home-made pound cake, 3 

471. For the best home-made sponge cake, 3 

472. For the best varieties of home-made 
pickles, -------3 

473. For the best varieties home-made pre- 
serves, ....-.-3 

474. For ihe best varieties home-made fruit 
jelly, 3 

475. For the best sample of home-made soap, 
the process of making to be described by the 
.exhibitor, ------- 5 

Ladies Ornamental and fancy Work. 

476. For the best specimen of embroidery, $8 

477. For the 2nd best specimen of em- 
broidery, -------6 

478. For the 3rd best specimen of em- 
broidery, .-.----4 

479. For the best specimen of worsted work, 8 

480. For the 2nd best specimen of worsted 
work, --------6 

481. For the 3rd best specimen of worsted 
work, ----..-4 

482. For the best specimen of crotched 
work, - - - - - - -8 

483. For the 2nd best specimen of crotched 
work, - - -- - - -6 

484. For the 3rd best specimen of crotched 
work, - - - - - - -4 

485. For the best specimen of wax work, - 8 

486. For the 2nd best specimen of wax 
work, _.._..-6 

487. For the 3rd best specimen of wax work, 4 

488. For the best specimen of shell work, 8 

489. For the 2d best specimen of shell work, 6 

490. For the 3rd best specimen of shell 
work, - - 7 - - - -4 

491. For the best specimen of ornamental 
leather work, ------ 8 

492. For the second best specimen of orna- 
mental leather work, 6 

493. For the third best specimen of orna- 
mental leather work, ----- 4 

494. For the best specimen of block work, 8 

495. For the 2nd best specimen of block 
work, .__._.. 6 

496. For the 3rd best specimen of block 
Work, ....... 4 

497. Fo>- the best specimen of knitting, 8 

498. For the 2nd best specimen of knitting, 6 

499. For the 3nd best specimen of knitting, 4 

500. For the best specimen of netting, - 8 

501. For the 2nd pest specimen of netting, 6 

502. For the 3rd best specimen of netting, 4 

503. For the most extensive variety of useful 
ornar.ental and fancy work, not excluding ar- 
ticles which may have had premiums awarded 
them under any of the above specifications, 10 

DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 

504. For the best family flour, - - $10 

505. For the best manufactured tobacco, 10 

506. For the best pair bed blankets, - 5 

507. For the best pair servants' blankets, 5 

508. For the best piece of woollens, - - 5 



509. For the best piece of cotton cloth, 

510. For the best cotton cloth or webbing 
suitable for horse collars and harness, 

511. For the best and greatest variety of 
coarse, strong and cheap shoes, - 

512. For the best and cheapest wool hats, 

513. For the best dozen baskets of differ- 
ent kinds, made in Virginia, of Virginia grown 
willow or osier, 



10 
5 



10 



BKANCH Till. 

Honorary Testimonials to each individual 
of Virginia who, previous to 1854 has discovered 
or introduced or brought into use, any principle, 
process or facility, or generally any improvement 
by which important value has been gained for the 
agricultural interests of Virginia. 
BRANCH IX. 

Special Premiums for any useful subjects not 
embraced under any of the foregoing heads. 

514. Discovery in Virginia of mineral phos- 
phate of lime in sufficient quantity to be valu- 
able for sale and distant transportation as 
manure, a premium of .... $5© 

If more than one claimant, the most valuable 
discovery to have the award. 

515. To the first individual in Virginia who 
shall establish and maintain in successful ope- 
ration for six months, a factory for tubular 
draining tiles, on the most improved plan, a 
premium of - $100 

516. For the best brooms and brushes, made 
of broom corn, grown and manufactured in 
Virginia, at a factory still in operation, and con- 
ducted i:i approved manner, and with profitable 
results, a premium of ----- 100 

517. For the best drained farm, or part 
thereof, the formerly wet and then well drained 
portion of land to be not less than one hundred 
acres. The superiority of claim to be deter- 
mined by the extent and labor of the works, 
their fitness and successful results, the amount 
of benefits produced, and of profits made by 

the operation, a premium of ... 100 

518. For the best of like drainage labors, 
^to be judged as the foregoing, if not embra- 
cing more than thirty acres, a premium of - 30 

To obtain either of these two last named 
premiums, it is required that the claimant shall 
present an accurate map, or ground plan, of his 
drained land, and of the principal drains, with 
approximate and sufficiently correct representa- 
tions of all necessary minor points ; also profiles or 
levelled lines of cross-sections and the principal 
lines of drains ; together with a sufficiently clear 
written description of the whole work and the gen- 
eral results thereof. 

519. For the discovery, proved by sufficient 
practice, of any tillage, process or other means, 
by which the growth of wire grass (Cynodon 
Pactylon) will be enough checked and re- 
strained to prevent the ordinary great diffi- 
culties caused by the presence of that grass 

to cultivation and to cops, a premium of $ 500 
The means of prevention used to be suffi- 
ciently cheap for profitable use, in an ordinary and 
proper rotation of crops — and not to be either long 
continued tillage or permanency of particular crops, 
or in unusual cessation of cropping. The means 
to be applicable to and proved by practice in lower. 
Virginia. 

520. For the discovery and process of any 
means with Hike conditions as above, for ths 



VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



eradication and extinction of wild garlic or 
onions, - $'50 

521. For the discovery and process of means, 
and with like conditions as above, for the 
eradication and total exitrpation of living 
sassafras bushes and roots, - - - 30 

522. For the most successful management 

of tobacco plant beds, to be stated in writing, 10 

523. For the best essay on the use of corn 
sowed for soiling and for fodder. To state 
particularly, 1st, The proper kind of land, cost 
of preparation, quantity of seed per acre, and 
-mode of cultivation ; 2d, The quantity neces- 
sary to be sowed for a given number of horses, 
hogs and cattle; 3d, The proportion to be 
sowed at different times ; 4th, The intervals of 
seeding necessary for a succession of crops ; 
5th, The mode of feeding it; 6th, The plan of 
curing it for hay ; 7th, The kind of seed best 
adapted to the latitude of Virginia; 8th, The 
quantity, as near as may be stated, of green 
feed and of hay per acre. - - - - 20 

524. For the discovery of some efficient and 
available remedy, such as maybe judiciously 
used by farmers, to secure the wheat crop 
against the ravages of the joint worm ; to be 
tested in such manner as may be satisfactory 
to the committee, and to be presented in time 
to be tested in the next crop, or longer, if 
necessary, -..-... 500 

525. For the best treatise on gardening, 
suited to the climate of Virginia, to be not less 
than one hundred pages, - - - - 25 

526. For the model, drawing and descrip- 
tion, of the best kind of tide gate, or trunk, 
for discharging the water from reclaimed 
marshes or other diked low land, and exclu- 
ding the entrance of the higher water (at 
other times) of tides or freshes, a premium of 20 

527. For the fullest and best chemical an- 
alysis of the whole vegetable product of any 
good manuring variety of the southern pea, in 
vines, leaves, roots and pods, at the time of the 
first pods beiDg ripe — or of each of these pro- 
ducts separately, and their relative dry weights 
stated — and also separately of another sample 



1 of like ripe seeds of the same variety — with 
the results (and particularly of nitrogen) 
stated, together and in comparison with the 
results, heretofore ascertained and published 

; by chemists, of Indian corn, wheat, oats, Euro- 
pean peas, clover, &c, a premium of - $30 

528. For the most successful management 
[ of watere'd meadow, not less than 15 acres, to 

be accompanied by a drawing and full written 
! account of the plan and process of irrigation, 30 

529. For the best plan of preserving wheat 
[ from the time of harvest until it is sent to mar- 
| ket, including shocking, stacking and securing 
i against weevil — to have been tested by satis- 
| factory personal experience, and to be accom- 
i panied by full and accurate written descrip- 
tions and drawings if necessary, - 30 

530. For the best plan of faim buildings, in- 
cluding barn, stable, cow shelters, &c. in refer- 
ence to the comfort of the animals, economy 
of construction, and of labor and food, and to 
the accumulation and preservation of ma- 
nures, both solid and liquid — to be accompa- 
nied by full and accurate descriptions and 
drawings, 50 

BRANCH X. 

PREMIUMS OFFERED BY INDIVIDUAL DONORS. 

Premiums to be proposed of not less than twen- 
ty dollars value by any public spirited individual 
or association of individuals, who may thus desire 
to induce experiment, investigation, or discussion, 
on any particular subjects of inquiry which shall 
come under the general objects of the Society. In 
any such case the premium shall be offered in and 
by the name of the individual donor, or associa- 
tion, but shall be awarded, as all other premiums, 
by the Executive Committee, acting under the 
general regulations of the Society. Offers under 
this branch may be made at any time, admit- 
ting of sufficient public notice thereof being given 
previous to the day of award. 

In addition to the premium offered in 524, Wm. 
Boulware, Ph. St. Geo. Cocke, Edmund Ruffin, 
Lewis E. Harvie, Wm. G. Crenshaw, and F. G. Ruf- 
fin, offer for the same subject a premium of $500 



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