THE 



SOUTHERN PLANTE 

lOciJOtcti to agriculture, E^orticulturr, auti the g^ousclioin Ens. 



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



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



FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor and Proprietor. 



P. D. BERNARD, Publisher. 



Vol. XV. 



RICHMOND, MARCH, 1855. 



No. 



For the Southern Planter. 
ON THE HORSE. 

PAET I. 

Classijkatioii, Nomenclature arid Breeding 
of tJie Different Varieties of Useful Horses 
in England, ■particularly Yorkshire, the 
great Horse-hreeding District of England. 
The Percheron Horse of France. 

New York, Jan. 15, 1855. 
My Dear Father:* 

* * * li: *- 

The Agricultural Soefety of Yorkshire, the 
principal horse-breeding district in England, 
for their prizes, divide horses into four classes. 
(See the Prize List enclosed.) 

Coach, Coaching or Carriage Horses; 

Hunters ; 

Roadsters ; 

Horses for Agricultural Purposes. 

In coaching or cai-riage horses the largest 
dealers in Yorkshire for the stud are William 
Burton, residing just outside the walls of York, 
and Jonathan Shaw of Acomb Hall. The 
former breeds most of his coaching stallions 
and travels (or as we say stands) them, as well 
as thoroughbred, cart and roadster or nag stal- 
lions. The latter does not breed any of his 
hor.ses, but buys coaching and roadster entire 
colts at a half year old, and rears them from 
that age chiefly on a farm at some distance 
from York. Both these men quoted to me the 
-aying of the District of Cleveland, — the low 
lying district extending from the York Moors 
to the River Tees, — that " a Clevchmd h(^se 
of the old race lias neither 6lood nor black.''' 
The meaning of 'this is that, according to tra- 
dition, tliere are horses of the aboriginal tribe 
of Cleveland which have not been crossed with 
either the race horse or the cart horse, — the 
color of the old English cart horse being gen- 
erslly black. Burton showed me three mares. 



Vol. XV.- 



* W. C. Rivr.«^ Esq. 



two. very old, which he said were of the un- 
mixed ancient race, and I afterwards saw one 
on the estate of Stewart Marjoribanks, Esq., 
M. P., in Hertfordshire. Though very highly 
valued by their owners, I thought they needed 
some refinement for quick work. Burton has 
bred his exclusively to pure blood horses of 
the most superior style— latterly to a brown 
I horse called Postemper. Rubens, mentioned 
in the letter of the Inspector General of the 
Agriculture of France to you, the finest 
horse Shaw says he ever owned or saw, who, 
of the coaching or carriage stallions, received 
the first prize ©f the Royal Agricultural So- 
ciety, was bred in this way. This prize was a 
"local prize" of £30, awarded at the York 
Country Meeting in 1848, celebrated for the 
finest show of horses ever brought together in 
the Kingdom.* At that tune there was a dis- 
tinct prize for a '■ Cleveland stallion."' The 
Yorkshire Agricultural Society, I am informed 
by Mr. Watson, the Assistant Secretary, only 
award prizes for " coaching or carriage horses;" 
but allow the old " Clevelands" to compete in 
the same class. The distinction now abolished, 
but which was formerly drawn, for the purposes 
of premiums, between a "coaching" stallion 
and an old " Cleveland," was that the former 
was derived from an engrafting of more or less 
of the blood of the racer on the original British 
stock of the vale of Cleveland, while the latter, 
according to tradition at least, was not, within 
the memory of man, of mixed lineage. At 
present coaching stallions are fre<|uently called 
Improved Clevelands or New Clevelands. Low 
(recently Professor of Agriculture in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh) contends that all Cleve- 
lands were formed by the progressive mixture 
of the blood of oriental horses, — not directly, 
but through the intervention of the English 
thoroughbred, — with that of the native parent 
stock of Cleveland. He, with several other 

* See Journai oi'tlie Royal .Agricultural SocietyiiviJ 



66 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



writers, asserts that the race horse is of mixed 
liuoage, and says, " The basis [of the race 
horse] was the ancient horses of the country, 
wliicli were modified after the Norman conijuest 
by progressive changes, and at length by a large 
infusion of the blood of the horses of Africa 
and Western Asia. Tlie mixed progeny thus 
formed being made to breed only with one an- 
other, or with the races of the East, to which 
they were already allied in blood, have assumed 
the common characters of a race."' While it 
is certain that every modern race horse may be 
traced back to, some Arabian, African or Tur- 
kish ancestry, or all three mixed, (assuming 
tliat they are sub-varieties of one and the same 
race, — a doubtful point,) I am not satisfied 
there is any evidence that Eastern mares were 
imnorted with or soon after the first staUions, 
so as to furnish an uncrossed breed. But I 
do not intend to discuss the vexed questions of 
the origin of breeds or the unity of species at 
a very remote period or the beginning of time.* 

The female progeny of an " old Cleveland 
mare,'' — one at all events in which the native 
blood of Cleveland, if not piire, is largely in 
excess, — by a thoroughbred horse. Burton 
breeds to a stallion, in whom the blood of the 
race horse and that of the old Cleveland bay, — 
the latter predominating, — have been well in- 
termixed. The descendants, formed in this or 
a kindred manner are then bred with one an- 
other for successive generations to produce the 
breed of the New or Improved Clevelands, and 
to establish and maintain constancy and per- 
manency in their characters. In order further 
to fix the type when the dash of blood is not 
remote, breeding in-and-in is occasionally re- 
sorted to, but to a very limited extent. I have 
been thus particular in describing Burton's 
practice, for, from the number of stallions he 
owns and travels, he must exercise a marked 
influence on the breeding of Yorkshire. 

Among Burton's New Cleveland horses, I 
saw two stallions of high repute, both by Rim- 
phon, (now the property of the King of Prus- 
sia,) who was highly commended by the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England in 1848, and 
mentioned by the Inspector General of the 
Agricultui-e of France in his letter to you. 
They are magnificent animals, standing with 
shortish legs sixteen hands and one or two 
inches, — the favorite height, f One of these 

•* " England's breed" oi' men, now very distinct, 
was formed by the successive commingling of a 
great variety of races. Its tongue owns a cross- 
bred origin. . 

•j- Some blood horses get up to sixteen hands, 
though in that case they are prone to be too slim 
bodied and leggy, or, as the English say, too slen- 
der timber. 



stallions. Aristocrat, particularly conformed to 
a Yorkshire criterion of excellence, in being 
short on top (that is in the back) and long 
underneath. Your Cleveland horse's half bro- 
ther on the dam's side, — le poulabi enorme^ 
mentioned by M. Ste Marie, — was bought by 
the Queen of Spain. Before the war, the Em- 
peror of Russia annually purchased coaching, 
as well a,s blood horses, in Yorkshire, chiefly 
through Mr. Kirby, to whose stables Burton 
has succeeded. It is universally admitted in 
Paris that all the finest horses for the carriage 
(carrossiers) and fov private yehicles, from the 
Emperor's down, of every description, — except- 
ing our- American trotting wagons, — as well as 
for the saddle, the chase and the turf, and for 
the service of the ofiicers of the army, come 
from England. These facts in connection with 
the importations of the French government for 
the stud {haras) sufficiently attest the pre- 
eminent esteem in which the coaching horses 
of England are held in* the various countries 
of Continental Europe. 

I was exceedingly struck with the certain 
and harmonious result of mixing the blood of 
the racer with that of the Cleveland Bay in 
any proportion, — a result which may be-owing 
to the fact, if Low's supposition be correct, 
that the tvro breeds have been for a long time 
allied, and may, therefore, be further brought 
together without any violence in crossing. I 
found that the Hunters in the neighborhood of 
Ripon (where some of the most prized horses 
in England are reared) owed their stoutness 
and power to a dash of the Cleveland blood, 
on the part of the dam more commonly.* 

* AVhile the more general practice in crossing in 
Yorkshire is to have the superior size of race on 
the side of the mare, on the doctrine that there 
would not otherwise be sufficient room for the un- 
cramped development of the fa-tus and for facility 
of parturition, Spooner prefers the converse course 
in breeding, as tending more to refinement; and 
Stephens, if my memory serves me, likewise dis- 
credits generally the theory of the dependency of 
the size of the fcctus on the size of the sire, instead 
of its depending exclusively on the capacity and 
functions of the'organs containing and nourishing 
it, bv a provision of nature, (as in the case of an 
over-fat and, therefore, inwardly contracted female,) 
while he admits that, after it has come into the 
world, it tends in growing to approach or attain the 
dimensions of the larger parent. It does not follow 
that a small foal will be a smalj horse; and fre- 
quently animals of great size are the issue of small 
females by large sires, and were small, compara- 
tively, at the date of their birth. M. Malingi6 
Nouel,* who founded the celebrated French race 
of sheep, De la Cfiannoisc, by crossing heavy im- 
ported Kentish (Romney Marsh) tups on ewes, of 
mixed indigenous breeds, less than a faurth of the 

* Di?» Bete."! i laine, p. 43. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



(57 



Some tenant-farmers in Yorkshire keep two or 
three mares of the old or new Cleveland race 
as animals of aU work, and at the same time 
with a view to profit in rearing /torses for Lon- 
don use, or mares for which there is a great 
demand, under the general denomination of 
" Yorkshire mares," for breeding purposes, in 
most parts of the Kingdom. 

2. Hunters at this day do not exist as a 
distinct breed. All stallions exhibited at the 
Lincoln Country Meeting of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society, as adapted to ge*: Hunters, 
according to the terms of the special prizes of- 
fered, were thoroughbred. 

3. The third class embraces Roadsters, whose 
merits I was perhaps not in the best condition 
to appreciate, having just seen the much more 
stately and imposing Clevelands, and Flying 
Dutchman, Chanticleer, and other renowned 
tJwroughbreds, at the Rawcliffe Paddocks. 
Roadster, in Yorkshire, is the synonyme of 
Nag; and I infer from an account of the last 
Yorkshire Agricultural Society's meeting, from 
what Burton told me, and from other sources, 
that it is likewise the sj-nonyme of Hack or 
Hackney, as the term is frequently used in that 
part of England by the tenant-farmers. It is 
alleged that the Roadsters constitute a distinct 
breed. The trotting horses of the county of 
Norfolk, I should judge from the specimens I 
Baw, are a family or sub-variety of this Road- 
Bter race, which is probably a modification and 
improvement of the best character of the old 
English pack horse. The Roadster is a plain, 
strong, compact and rather low horse, not ex- 
hibiting in his appearance indications of any 
share of oriental lineage, and very frequently 
having cloven quarters {croupe dmtbJe) like the 
Cart Horse. His only smart action is a trot. 
He bends his knees and lifts up his feet, throws 
them out and puts them down well in this gait. 
I saw none of this breed except stallions and 
mares, at York, stallions at the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society's meeting at Lincoln, and a mare, 
called a Roadster, of the Messrs. Hall at Dud- 
weight of the tups, .states that in over two thousand 
cases but one single accident v.-as occasioned in 
yeaning by the size of the lambs, and yet after 
their birth they grew so rapidly that before they 
were weaned they had become larger than the 
evre*. No one who visits the great market of Eng- 
land of live stock for the shambles, — Smithfield,— 
tan fail to be struck with the vast preponderance 
of cross-bred animals. Their male parent.n arc, in 
most instances, of the very largest races, for exam- 
ple, Short-Horn bulls and Cotsv/old and Leicester 
tups. This, compared with the reverse method in 
breeding, has superior economy, for a breeder can 
keep more good small animals on the same ground 
than large one.s, and the breeding females are in 
the proportion of sixty to one of the males. 

c 3 



ding Hill, used by them for driving to cover, 
in the hunting season."" This last auunal is a 
capital trotter and a good •' stepper," but ex- 
ceedingly plain in appearance. The Roadster 
was formerly and is still chiefly used ns a. ic- 
yiant-farmer'' s (not a landed proprietor's) sad- 
dle horse, but not without being called upon 
occasionally to do light work in ]iarness, — for 
example, in a gig, drosky, or light marketing 
vehicle. He is a degree above the Cob, (£?oi/- 
S/e^jo^ey,) who, I suppose, is tlie accidental re- 
sult of crosses between sturdy pony stallions 
and small cart mares, or mares of the old Pack 
Horse English race. The Roadster I take to 
be the substitute of tlie old Road Horse, of 
whom Low spoke iji 1840 as follows: -'Not 
only has the system of public conveyance by 
coaches called forth a lighter and more agile 
race of horses, but it has acted in another way 
on the saddle horses of the country. By al- 
tering the mode of performing journeys it has 
diminished, the inducement to cultivate parti- 
cular kinds of horses. Few persons now make 
distant journeys on horseback, and are willing 
to travel at the rate of five miles an hour when 
they can be carried forward at the rate of ton 
or more. A horseman vjilh his load of soxldlc 
bags is nmv almost as rare a sight as a/i ele- 
phant. A class of saddle horses, accordingly, 
formerly used for journeys, has now almost 
disappeared. They were termed Road Horses. 
and were suited to their employment. They 
were strong, useful and safe, but had little or 
no breeding. Their paces were the walk and 
trot; and the canter and the gallop were nearly 
as much out of place with th.em as with the 
Cart Horse. The Cob, too, a little squat horse 
fitted for drudgery, is with some difficulty to 
be procured. For the shorter journeys now 
in use, and for all the usual services of the 
equestrian, animals of lighter form and more 
easy paces are preferred, and few habitual riders 
are satisfied with horses that have not more or 
less of breeding.'" 

I also quote below what the same author 
says of the Hacknej',t expressing, however, my 
dissent from his description, if it were intended 
to apply at the present day, unless he means 
the tenant-farmer's Hackney, alias Roadster, 
alias Nag, for now the pleasure hack or the 
park hack has generally fully as much breeding 
as the Hunter, (if not more,) and lieight also 
frequently, and would probably be used as a 
hunter or harness horse if lie liad sufficient 
"stoutness," which is strength coupled svitli 



* The more usual custom is to ride '' Racks" to 
cover. 

t This word is doubtless derived from the T-'rcncli 
Haqunic.': 



68 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTEE. 



constitutional vigor, bottom and general powers ' 
of endurance.* 

" The term Hackney, in common use, is em- 
ployed to denote a kind of horse fitted for gen- 
eral services; and is, therefore, understood to 
exclude the horses of the highest breeding, as 
the Thoroughbred horse and Hunter ; and there 
is further associated with the idea of a Hackney, 
an annual of moderate size, not exceeding fif- 
teen hands, and possessing action, strength and 
temper."' But he adds — "The Hackneys of 
the present day [1840, and much more so in 
1855,] are of lighter form than those formerly 
sought for, and -there is greater difficulty in 
obtaining them to suit the services required 
from our present mixed varieties of half-bred 
horses, than when horsemen were contented 
with the older class of Hackneys of stouter 
form but inferior breeding." It is important 
to bear in mind that Low, in the passage just 
cited, means part-bred by half-bred, and that 
the English apply the term half-bred to every 
horse with any degree of breeding, no matter 
how minute, if it be appreciable, nor how gr-eat, 
provided it be short of full blood. 

The term saddlc-Iiorses sometimes signifies 
only Hacks, — no body now-a-days taking the 
trouble to say Hackneys, — but it is commonly 
employed in a more general sense to embrace 
Hunters and Chargers as well, but not Race 
Horses, although they go under the saddle on 
the turf. Horses for the field or the chase are 
Hunters. Horses used only for road purposes 
under the saddle, or for road riding in contra- 
distinction to both field-riding and turf-riding, 
are Hacks. The most showy and elegant va- 
riety of Hacks are called Park Hacks, the no- 
bility and gentry of the British Empire riding 
them in Hyde Park in Rotten Row during the 
London season. Han-y Hieover,t if I recol- 
lect rightly, divides Hacks into three classes, 
and gives his opinion of them respectively, in 
substance, as follows : 

" The thoroughbred or nearly thoroughbred 
Hack," whose trot is nothing to boast of, and 
whose chief gaits are the walk, canter and gal- 
lop. This is, according to the English phrase, 
a most " gentlemanly horse" in appearance. 

" The general Hack," not so highly bred as 
the foregoing, but with general paces, — one who 
canters and gallops well but does not "slip 
along" like the thoroughbred or nearly tho- 

=» On the turf .stoutness is used in contradistinc- 
tion to mere speed; and it is applied to a horse 
who can run and win long races, and many of them 
to an advanced age, with heavy jockeys, on deep 
ground, and, if need be, make his final brush with 
advantage up hill, 

•f Practical HorsemaDsbip. 



roughbred, and also trots well, but not like the 
Trotter or Trotting Hack, next to be mentioned. 
This is quite a gentlemanly-looking animal, and 
entirely a gentleman's horse. 

The Trotting Hacks or Trotters [resembling 
the Yorkshire Roadsters] diSer a good deal in 
their breeding, but are not as highly bred as 
the first two classes. Harry Hieover- evidently 
thinks the riding a strongly pulling trotter at 
his fast pace presents a very vulgar and butcher- 
like appearance. He likes, however, fast trot- 
ters in harness in light vehicles, and considers 
their looks in action then not imgentlemanly. 

Under ail circumstances Harry Hieover unites 
with the French in condemning as abominable 
the gait of the amble or pace to which some of 
our Virginians at the present day are so par- 
tial.* He complains of the term Cob as a 
hacknied one, and it is plain from his under- 
current of opinion that he dislikes the whole 
class of Cobs as ungentlemanly brutes. Cobs, 
fi'om the docility and quietness of their tem- 
pers and their nearness to the ground [pres de 
terre) are well adapted to the service of inactive 
and old men, — old fogies, as Yoimg America 
would disrespectfully say. I remember to have 
seen Lord Lansdowne, among others, riding a 
Cob, taking care, however, to have the sorry 
figure he made redeemed, in a measure, by an 
attendant groom mounted on a horse of the 
most distinguished style. 

The Rev. John M. Wilsonf speaks of the 
Hunting Horse as the country gentleman's sad- 
dle horse, and of the Hack or Hackney as a 
riding or road horse of any kind. He adds — 
" The common saddle horse, technically a Hack- 
ney, may possess any character intermediate 
between that of a well-tempered, easy-going 
and long-enduring Hunter, and that of the 
most miserable road hack. The farmer's saddle 
horse is, in some instances, a Hackney, in some 
a Hunter, but in the great majority, a horse of 
all work, adapted equally to the saddle and to 
draught." 

I have not the English or any unmutilated 
edition of Youatt, but I believe he speaks of 
" the farmer's horse," and describes him as half 
Hackney and half Cart Horse. He probably 
refers to a horse very similar in character to 
the heaviest Yorkshire Roadsters or the old 
Road Horses mentioned by Low. Cecil and 
other well known English writers, I think, em- 
ploy the term Roadster in so vague a sense aju 
to embrace every thing of the horse kind that 
can go out of a walk, and is used on the road, 
whether in harness or under the saddle, in eon- 

* The tx-at Virginia horsemen of the old school 
did not ride -pacerd. 

f Kara! Cyclopedia — Sdinburgh afld Loadon. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



69 



tradistinction to the field and tlie tm-f;* and 
Nimrod occasionally employs the word road- 
horse as synonymous with stage coach horse. 
It must be confessed that there is much con- 
fusion in hippological nomenclature, partly iu 
consequence of the modern change and con- 
tinued advance to a lighter standard of all the 
classes and varieties of English horses for quick 
movement. 

Although Yorkshire is the most decided 
breeding coimty of the Race Horse in the 
Kingdom. — the Rawclifie Paddocks Company 
alone having the past season forty-three, and 
Sir Tatton Tykes thirtj'-seven, racing foals, — 
the Agricultural Society leave him out of view, 
(except as the progenitor of Hunters.) as hav- 
ing other patrons in abundance, and perhaps 
as not falling strictly within the description of 
a "useful"' horse, and recognize but the three 
distinct classes of horses for service out of a 
walk which I have considered, — Coaching or 
Carriage Horses, Hunters and Roadsters; but 
you will have perceived that one of these classes, 
that of Hunters, is not a breed by itself. 

4. The horses for agricultural purposes, the 
plough or the cart, in Great Britain, are inca- 
pable of any other than a walking draft, and 
are divided into the three following classes: 

The Suifolk Punch horses are characterized 
by general uniformity of color, varying, how- 
ever, in shade. In England they are called 
"red"' and "chestnut;"' but we should, for the 
most part, designate them as of a light yellowish 
sorrel, with lighter manes, tails and legs. They 
have often a blaze in the face and some white 
feet, and are vary plain in appearance, being 
pig-eyed and having heavy, coarse heads. Their 
strong predisposition to the numerous heredi- 
tary diseases of the hock, and indeed unsound 
legs and feet generally, are such insuperable 
objections to the Suffolks, according to the old 
proverb of "no feet no horse,"' that it would 
not lie worth while to criticise them further, 
more especially as I believe I am entirely sup- 
ported in this estimate by Mr. Yager, the com- 
petent and intelligent agent whom our public 
spirited friend, Mr. Dulany, despatched to Eng- 
land to bring over horses for him. I should 
infer — it is impossible to know — from a com- 
parison between the Suffolks of the present day 
and the descriptions of the preexisting breed, 
that crosses upon the original stock of that 
name with a view to their elongation, to give 
them a more adequate stride, or enlargement 
for additional weight in the collar, had not in 
the aggregate result been successful, but had 

* A " Roafl.ster" in the northern portion of tlie 
United Statcfi h a horse vaed in a light pleasure 
▼eiiic'.f' 



caused them to lose much of their former en- 
ergy and pluck. At the last Annual Country 
Sleeting of the Royal Agricultural Society the 
Suiiolk stallions were badly beaten. 

The other English race of agricultural horses, 
usually designated the " Cart Horse," is va- 
rious in color, but more frequently black. The 
largest specimens are seen in the brewers' drays 
in London, and, as you are aware, are the hea- 
viest horses in the world. This race was, to a 
certain extent, modified by crosses of native 
stallions ixpon some mares which Bakewell im- 
ported from Holland. The horses of this breed, 
I presume, would be dissolved by our sun in 
summer, and are moreover only adapted to cir- 
cumstances in which no sort of activity but 
merely massive power is required, — very smooth 
flat land and perfect roads and the slowest 
draught. 

The Scotch horses, the Clydesdales, of dif- 
ferent colors, are for us, I am satisfied, the best 
horses of the British Islands in the class of 
exclusively walking draugJd. It is a signifi- 
cant fact that the distinguished President of 
the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 
Mr. Pusey, employs them, and that General de 
Lamoriciere* states that, from experiments 
made in France, they despatched their work 
much more quickly than either the Suffolks or 
the indigenous races of France. They are 
handsomer and more active than the Suffolks, 
with longer limbs and longer bodies. This 
conformation gives them a greater stride by 
which they make more rapid progress, but it 
may augment the expensiveness of their keep. 
Tradition refers the origin of this breed to an 
importation, by one of the Dukes of Hamilton, 
of Flanders stallions which were crossed on the 
native mares of the county of Lanark, in the 
vale of the Clyde. 

Though the French have occasionally im- 
ported British horses, which are larger than 
their own, for agricultural purposes, I found 
the universal opinion in France to be that they 
had nothing to envy the British in the way of 
horses for slow draught, {gros trait,) and that 
they prided themselves very much on a valua- 
ble, hardy and energetic race, mostly of a gray 
color, properly called Percheron, from their na- 
tive district Le Perche, but which our Ameri- 
can writers have vaguely styled Norman, (as 
the synouyme of French, perhaps,) from the 
fact of having first seen them in the diligences 
in Normandy on the way to Paris. While 
many of the larger animals of this breed, which 
pass by insensibe gradations into the Boulon- 
naLs, (the biggest and coarsest horse ofFrana • ) 

"Happwx au eoniw'il d')b Hara.s 



■70 



THE SOUTHERN PLANT'ER. 



are used for the heaviest draught, the smaller 
and more agile are employed throughout the 
Empire in the diligences, — an intermediate 
draught [trait intermediaire — trait moyoi) 
■which does not exist either in England or in 
the United Stintes, — for the simultaneous trans- 
portation of passengers (with their luggage) 
and merchandise, at a pace between that of the 
English stage coach and tlie heavily laden 
wagon. To secure the requisite energy and 
quickness for this special and severe labor, it 
is necessary to employ stallions; and I do not 
believe that geldings, — from the peculiaritj^ of 
the race in losing much of their power, spirit 
and endurance on castration, — would answer 
in our country except for slow work. Indeed, 
T never saw or heard of French gentlemen 
riding; or driving Percherons; and I mention 
them only, because they may be deemed the 
archetj'pes of the French horses and are the 
dominant race employed in the public vehicles 
and in rural labor. The French prefer their 
horses for all private rapid uses {chevaux de 
luxe) to be of the blood of the races distln- 
guees, which they are compelled to seek either 
across the channel or the Mediterranean.* 
Crosses with Percherons vulgarize for many 
generations the English stock for quick draught 
[trait legcr, by which is meant every draught 
from that of the coach or carriage inclusive to 
that of the lightest vehicle) and for the saddle, 
by shortening their necks, (which is fatal to a 
saddle horse and to the stjde of a harness 
horse, ) by enlarging their heads, clodding their 
shoulders, drooping their rumps, cleaving their 
quarters, putting hair on their legs, or other- 
wise marring their symmetry, beauty or activity. 

[To be continued.] 



» • For the Southern Planter. 
REMARKS 

Oil the dispiitcii ijinstUm, whether the OroirUi oj Sorrel 
is Prevented hy l/i€ Soil being Made Calcareous — 
and on the facts oAdnced as opposing evidcacr. 

Some months past, there appeared in die 
Southern Planter a coiiimunication from Dr. P. 
B. Pendleton, ol" Louisa county, in whicli was 
opposed and condemned my doctrine of acid 
soils, and also questioned my position tliat the 
making of acid soils (or those so termed) calca- 
reous, will prevent the growlh of field or sheep- 
sorrel. This article has been republished in the 
last American Farmer. (February, 1S55,) ac- 

* It is true that France, of i.cccssity, imports a 
good many liorscs from Germany, not for the pur- 
pose of reproduction, however. Tlicy are not ill 
looking except that they frequently have the Ro- 
man nose, (TV^e A?/.s(/?,:(V,) hnt it is said tliey soon 
sink under fatigue. 



companied by another by the editor of that pe- 
riodical, uniting in the slrictures, and presenting 
other and more remarkable testimony to sustam 
his designed refutation of my positions, assumed 
in the Essay on Calcareous Manures. Deeming 
that I have already j)ressed upon the public no- 
tice these views of mine at as much length as 
the circumstances required, or would excuse, I 
had at first determined to make no reply to these 
strictures. And it is with reluctance now that 
I shall even partially depart from my first de- 
signed inaction. It is only as to my fads which 
are disputed that I propose to answer; and even 
this would be unnecessary if the actual results 
in question were fully known to the readers of 
the strictures. As to the theory of acid soils, or 
any merely theoretical opinions of mine, I shall 
say nothing more in their defence. They will 
be left to stand or to fall by what I have before 
set forth. If all that has been already adduced 
in their support is insufficient, I will not weary 
the public by repetition, or by attempting to fur- 
nish other and more convincing proof 

But while thus declining to argue in defence 
of any theoretical opinions, it is proper to re- 
mind my opponents, and their readers, that these 
views were formed on observations made en- 
tirely in the tide-water region; and so fearful 
was I of extending my doctrines farther than 
the observed facts authorized, that my assumed 
positions were limited in expressed and guarded 
terms, to the tide-water region of Virginia. The 
preface to the earliest separate publication of 
the essay in question, commenced with the fol- 
lowing saving clause, and which has been re- 
published in every succeeding edition: 

'•Tlie object of this Essa}- is to investigate the 
peculiar features and qualities of the soils of our 
tide-u-at<:r district, to show the causes of their gen- 
eral unproductiveness, and to point out means as 
yet but little used, for their effectual and profitable 
improvement. My observations are particularly 
addressed to the caltivators of that part of Virginia 
which lies bctn-ceyi the sea coast and the falls of the 
rivers, and are generally intended to be applied only 
within those limits. By thus confining the appli- 
cation of the opinions which will be maintained, it 
is not intended to deny the pro{)riec3' of their being 
farther extended. On the contrary, I do not doubt 
but that they may correctly apply to all similar 
soils, under similar circumstances : for tlie opera- 
tions of Nature are directed by uniform laws, and 
like causes must every where produce like effects. 
But as I .shall rely for proofs on such facts as are 
either sufficiently well known aireadj-, or may easily 
be tested by any inquirer, I do not choose to extend 
my ground so far, as to be opposed by the assertion 
of othtr facts, the truth of which can neithur he estab- 
lished nor overlhroim by any available or sufficient 
testimony." 

These sentences certainly and strictly should 
confine any controversy on my propositions to 
facts and proofs furnished within my own pre- 
scribed limits. My reasoning should be met by 
opposing facts within these limits, and not drawn 
from '-Middle Virginia," in which Dr. Pendleton 
maintains that such opposing facts, of vegetable 
growth, &c. are presented. But Avhile I claim 
to have thus limited my assumed ground, in re- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



71 



gard to known facts, and strict reasoning there- 
from, it is readilyadmitted that I had alsoinferred 
(and still infer,) that the same doctrines will ap- 
ply elsewhere, under like conditions of soil, &c.; 
and that like facts will appear as the effects of 
the like causes, in any other locality. The diffi- 
culty is to know when the conditions or causes 
are alike, or che same — and whether the assumed 
facts and premises are correctly and fully known, 
or otherwise have been incorrectly observed, 
and are, therefore, mistaken in their operation; 
and their report, as evidence, of no value what- 
ever. It Is entirely proper and legitimate that 
inquirers, or doubters of my propositions, should 
apply my proposed tests oi' soils in other re- 
gions — and if finding different results, to declare 
that my doctrines were not sustained by the 
facts in that locality. But it is not legitimate 
reasoning, to apply views designed especially 
for and limited to one region, to another very 
different in important characteristics. If my 
alleged facts are false, or questionable, they 
should be assailed, and their weakness exposed. 
But it should be by conflicting facts and testi- 
mony furnished in the same region. Of facts 
and testimony on the subject, there is no scar- 
city, among the hundreds of experienced marl- 
ing farmers in lower Virginia. Among all these, 
I doubt whether one can be found who will not 
fully confirm the particular position which the 
supposed fact.? of Dr. Pendle'on and the editor 
are brought to disprove — which is. that sufficient 
marling (and, by necessary inference, also lim- 
ing,) will speedily destroy the growth of sorrel, 
and also render the land incapable of producing 
that plant. And if it be required to know what 
I mean riy "sufficient" marling or liming to pro- 
duce this preventive effect, I answer, that it is 
not any certain quantity, but y\st so much as will 
leave everywhere in the soil, after thorough in- 
termixture by tillage, the smallest excess of re- 
maining and free carbonate of lime. \C correct 
analy.^es of soil, after marline: or liming and suf- 
ficient tillage processes for thorough intermix- 
ture, will truly exhibit a genera! remaining ingre- 
dient of carbonate of lime of but one-fburtfi of 
one-hundredth part of the tilled soil, that soil, 
(as I believe) will be sufficiently calcareous lo 
prevent the growth of field or sheep-sorrel. 

It is true that there may exist in print little or 
no direct testimony, other than my own, main- 
taining this opinion in the general; and it is so, 
precisely because there are no persons in the 
marling region to question the flict asserted, or 
to rpquire its further proof by additional evi- 
dence. If some one were to assert that rna- 
nuridg v/a.-? injurious to the growth of tobac- 
co, it may be doubted whether Dr. Pendleton 
could prove the contrary by adducing existing 
testimony to maintain this tact of universal ad- 
mission, and which, as no one of any experience 
or knowledge on the .subject had ever questioned 
its truth, so no one had deemed it necessary di- 
rectly to affirm it. However, "vlr. VVilloughhy 
Newton, in his review of the Essay on Calca- 
reou Manures, (published in Southern Planter.) 
thou .'h rjol deeming it required to affirm directly 



ray opinion in regard to lime destroying sorrel^ 
does so incidentally and fully to the purpose — 
and would seem to rely, for the producing of 
this effect, on much smaller quantities of lime 
than I have usually applied in the form of marl, 
I could not refer to any witness on the subject 
whose opinions, founded on practice and expe- 
rience, are entitled to or will command more re- 
spect, than this distinguished and successful 
liming farmer. 

I have additional reason to protest against my 
views being tested'-by such facts (of the growtft 
I of sorrel) as are adduced by both my censors, 
I because of my personal experience of how ini- 
j perfectly and incorrectly similar facts have been 
j observed, and, therefore, incorrectly reported, 
! and applied to this question. Long ago, when 
: the doctrine of lime preventing the growth of 
sorrel was novel, and was doubled by many, I 
have heard of many particular and limited facts 
of the growth on apparently well limed, or cal- 
careous soil — and also have seen and investi- 
gated some of the most remarkable of such facts, 
and apparent contradictions of the doctrine re- 
ferred to. But every such fact of apparent ex- 
ception that has come under my personal obser- 
vation was susceptible of explanation, so as to 
show abundant reason why the supposed con- 
tradiction, though apparent, was not real. In 
Priace George county, ivhere many such sup- 
posed contradictory facts have been noticed, and 
served at first to strengthen doobtti, probablv 
not a single marlii:;g farmer, at ilii;. time, could 
be found to question the truth of the rule that 
sorrel is certainly destroyed by sufficient marling. 
When, after marling or liming, sorrel still crowa 
generally over the land, the fact merely indicates 
that there had not been applied enough lime to 
combine with the add, and then to leave ther 
least surplus of tree lime, or carbonate of lime. 
If on land certainly well or sufficiently marled 
or limed, on the general average, sorrel stili 
grows, and ever so luxuriantly, on particular 
spaces, it is ov/ing to irregular spreading of the ■ 
L.anure, or want of its thorough intermixture 
with the soil by subsequent tillage. A field gen- 
erally may be too heavily and injuriously marled 
or limed, and yet any small .<fpaces, left unsup- 
plied by irregular distribution, would produce 
sorrel as freely as before. Further, I and many 
others have seen, and at first with astonishment, 
sorrel growing vigorously on heaps of highly 
calcareous marl, which had been dropped, and 
remained for some rronths before being spread 
on sorrel-producing land.* No stronger oppos- 
ing cases in appearance, could be presented. 
Yet tkese strongest apparent contradicfionrr^, 
when carefully scrutinized, so far I'rom disprov- 
ing the existence, afibrded additional confirma- 
tion of the antagonistic qualities of marl and 
sorrel. I found, on examination, that plants so 
growing sprang out of the natural .soil below. 

* Two difT'.Tcnt communication.^, from correspondents ol 
such facts, were published in different part.s of the Far 
mers' Rcjristcr, accompanitd by the investigation of similar 
facl.s, and explanation of the appareot contradiction?, bv the 
present writer. 



72 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



The covering of ground with a heap of marl, 
Bix or more inches thick, did not intermix with 
or affect the constitution of the covered soil — and 
(Kould not, until the marl was scattered, and not 
effectually until after tillage. The hardy plants, 
springing in the still favorable (i. e. acid) soil 
below, pushed upward through the liiarl, as 
through a mere inert and mechanically opposing 
mass of matter, without leaving in the marl a 
single living lateral rootlet, or deriving Irom it 
the least supply, whether nutritive or poisonous. 
But however numerous have been these and 
other apparent exceptions and contradictions to 
the rule, there is no agricultural fact or rule bet- 
ter established in the now widely extended 
marling region of Virginia, than that sorrel 
always disappears, speedily and entirely, from 
properly marled lands. Lime, different from 
marl, is applied in light dressings, and never 
enough at the first time of application, and, 
therefore, will rarely at first make an acid 
soil calcareous, even to the least excess of re- 
maining free lime. Therefore, sorrel would not 
be always removed by one application. But I 
maintain, and no one will deny, that lime, when 
serving to make soil equally calcareous, must 
have the same effect on sorrel as marling. 

It is not for me to judge of the opposing facts 
stated by Dr. Pendleton and the editor of the 
American Farmer, as reported from their own 
observations — and still further removed, and less 
capable of being tested, are those reported to 
them by other and anonymous witnesses. But, 
if properly scrutinized by the actual observers, 
I am confident that all these reported cases of 
contradiction would have been found to be of as 
little value for evidence, as were all of the many 
other cases referred to above, as within my own 
reach of observation or scrutiny. 

But besides the many such alleged and mis- 
taken facts, and things correctly named but mis- 
understood, which serve to confuse inquiry and 
mislead deductions, there are other prevalent 
errors in names which cause even true and cor- 
rectly observed facts to mislead and deceive. 
The common sorrel, niniex acetocella, so far 
referred to, is called sheep-sorrel in lower Vir- 
ginia. Another kind (which, however, is not of 
ihe "same family," as Dr. P. supposes,) o.ralis 
acetocella, is there called horse-sorrel. The for- 
mer has leaves shaped like narrow and barbed 
arrow points — and its growth indicates land 
destitute of carbonate of lime, and deficient in 
lime of any kind. The horse-sorrel is a trefoil 
and pod-bearing plant, and its general growth 
indicates a good soil, naturally rich, or other- 
wise highly calcareous. Yet in many cases, 
these two very different plants, are confounded 
by their common name, and facts in regard to 
one are applied most erroneously to the other. 
Still worse — I have recently learned that in 
some parts of upper Virginia, these two vulgar 
.'^la.iies are reversed. This confounding, and 
still more the exchange, of these names would 
alone beenough to throw thediscussionof ihesub- 
iect into utter confusion in regard to facts asserted 
by witnesses applying the names differently. 



Again: Pines readily and certainly form the 
entire second growth of nearly all the exhausted 
fields, turned out of tillage, in the tide-water re- 
gion; and also on much of the like lands of the 
next adjacent higher region. These trees are 
in both regions termed "old-field" pines. Yet 
it is a remarkable fact, v.'hich however obvious 
and plain, is not known or observed by many 
persons, that the "old-field" pine, which makes 
the almost universal second growth of the ex- 
hausted lands of the tide-water region and a 
little higher, is a different species from the pines 
as generally covering old fields still higher up 
the country — as, for example, in Cumberland 
county, where my attention was first drawn to 
this difference. The second-growth pines there 
all are of the same species of the first or forest 
growth of both that and the tide-water region — 
i. e. the "woods" or "pitch" or "yellow" or 
"short leaf" pine, (pi7i7/6'rari"aii7('s?) The "old- 
field" pine of the tide-water (pimis tceJa?) has 
longer leaves, larger cones, and is almost wholly 
of sap-wood. Further, on our yellowish clay 
soils, originally of more fertility than the ordi- 
nary and more sandy soils on tide-water, the 
second growth is as generally of pine, but of 
still a different kind — the "spruce," "river" or 
"cedar" pine, (pinus inops?) having the shortest 
leaves and smallest cones of all here named. 

IVow, as the seeds of all these kinds must be 
carried far by the winds, and plentifully diffused 
everywhere, the almost entire possession of some 
lands by either kind, and exclusion of the other 
kinds, in the same climate and like exposures, 
must indicate different chemical constitution of 
the soil, or very different conditions as to pro- 
duction. My observations of soils, &c. were 
made, and views as to their improvement were 
deduced, in the region where our "old-field" 
pine (P. tada) was the almost exclusive second 
growth. I deduced the opinion (which re- 
mains unaltered,) that wherever the "old-field" 
pine thus grew, generally and vigorously, that 
lime was certainly and greatly deficient in the 
soil, and that its application would certainly 
cause speedy and great improvement and in- 
crease of fertility. I went farther, and still main- 
tain, that nothing else, without lime, would there 
efi'ec't profitable and enduring ferlility. Still 
farther, I maintained that on such soils, witiiout 
liming or marling, clover could not be grov.-n 
successfully, and that gypsum would have no 
effect. But I freely confess that 1 erred in too 
much generalizing my indications and rules, 
and erroneously inferred the same to be strictly 
true as to pine-bearing lands in general. I did 
not then know that the "old-field" pines so 
plenty on the red lands of some of ihe counties 
of mid-land Virginia were of a different specie.? — 
that those lands refused to bear our "old-field" 
pine — and also 1 have since learned that clover 
succeeds there, and gypsum general!}' operates 
well, and that lime has rarely been found bene- 
ficial, on these higher pine-benring, as well as 
other lands of that region. Such v.'ere my mis- 
takes, caused by too limited observation, and too 
hastily reasoning from particular facts to general 



J 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



laws. There is much yet to be learned from 
observation on these and connected subjects, 
and on which, correct observation would learn, 
as furnished by the trees and other plants grow- 
incT most freely, indications of the peculiar che- 
mical conditions and wants of ditierent soils. It 
would be very interesting to have observed and 
made known any such facts — and especially the 
irregular line of division (which is noi identical 
with, but somewhere above, the line of the falls 
of the rivers,) between the regions of the two 
different "old-field" pine-second growths — and 
whether this line is, or is not, identical with that 
which separates the lower lands improvable by 
lime and not by gypsum, from the upper lands 
improvable by gypsum (in many cases,) and 
rarely, as it is reported, by lime. I invite Dr. 
Pendleton, and every other competent agricul- 
turist, residing near to these lines of separation, 
to observe and report upon these facts.* I am 
attempting to pursue this investigation, and will 
be glad to add my contributions to those asked 
for from other observers. 

Until receptly, I had known almost nothing 
of the facts just referred lo, of the region above 
the falls; and my personal observations have 
been very limited even since their being so di- 
rected. Scarcely any satisfactory information 
is to be derived from foregone observations, by 
inquiries, because scarcely any one has noticed 
these differences with care or correctness. But 
even from my previous very slight and general 
means for information, and with scarcely any 
aid from personal inspection, I had reached the 
conclusion that there existed important and gen- 
eral differences in the chemical constitution of 
the soils below and those farabove the falls of the 
rivers, in regard to the proportions of lime con- 
tained naturally — and, inversely, their degrees 
of want of applications of lime — and also of the 
relative capacities of the lands of these different 
regions to be enriched by aid of gypsum, and 
by putrescent manures, without previous liming. 
These views were stated generally and con- 
cisely, but distinctly, in the last (5th) edition, 
pages 160, 161 of the Essay on Calcareous Ma- 
nures. 

EdMCND PwUFFlN. 

Marlhourne, Feb. 7. 1855. 



! A GOOD PLAIN CURRY. 

i Cut up undone or fresh veal, rabbit, or fowl : 
j if the latter, take off the skin. Roll each piece 
I in a mixture of a large spoonful of flour and 
I half an ounce of curry powder. Slice two or 
three onions, and fry them in butter, of a light 
j brown. Then add the meat, and fry all to- 
I gether till the meat begins to brown. Put all 
into a stewpan, pour in boiling water enough 
to cover, and simmer very gently for two or 
three hours. A little broth is used instead of 
water, for cooked meat. Serve with pl.njn boiled 
rice. 



APPLE JELLY. 



Wash and cut the apples in two m '.-liree 
pieces, to see if there be any worms in them ; 
put them in a bright brass or porcelain lined 
kettle, and cook until the apples are done; take 
out and strain the juice from them, and put 
them on the stove again, and boil until they 
begin to look dark ; then add one- third as much 
sugar, by weight, and boil until they become 
a jelly; put into cups or tumblers, and tie pa- 
per over the tops. This is excellent for making 
jelly cakes. Try it. — Ohio Cultivatw. 



Penny and penny laid up will be many. 

* To aid new observers of the desired fads, of the pre- 
sence or absence of different kinds of pine?, I will offer 
the most certain marks of distinction of the species eorn- 
mon in either lower or middle Virginia. The "old-field" 
pine of the lower country, {P. ta:da?) has leaves growing 
three to^'ether i« each sheath. The "yellow," "pitch" 
or "woods" pine, (/-". variabilis?) and the "river" or 
.spruce' pine, (P.inops?) have their leaves growing two 
in a sheath. These last two differ so much in general ap- 
pearance, that no observer can mistake one for the other. 
The only other pines in lower Virginia, are the "slash" 
pine and the "long-leaf" or Southern pine. The last is 
seen onlv -n part of the somhcrn margin of Virginia— and 
the precedli.g grows only in ponds or wet and poor forest 
land. The long-leaf pine (.P. palmtris or australis) has 
iu leaves three in a sheath, and also, I believe, the slash 
p^ne I P. n^rotina?) 



[Published by order of the Executive Committee.] 

Washington College., Lexington, Va. } 
October 27, 1854. S 

To the Committee of the Virginia State 

Agricultural Society on Written Essays, &c. 

Gentlemen, — I herewith send you a report 
of some investigations made on the potato, so 
far as those investigations have been completed. 
Had there been time after the maturity of the 
potato crop, I would have given you a complete 
analysis of both the specimens examined; but 
I have been under the necessity of confining 
my examinations to those ingi-edients of the 
ash, most likely to be materially influenced by 
the fertilizers employed. If you do not con- 
sider my labors worthy of one of the premiums 
offered please hand the manuscript over to the 
editor of the Southern Planter, as a communica- 
tion to that paper. 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. L. Camfbell, 
Prnf. Chemistry Washington College. 

ON THE INFLUENCE OP ASiJES, GYPSUM AND 
COAIMON SALT ON THE CHEMICAL CHARAC- 
TER OP THE POTATO. 

In the spring of 1852 I applied to a certain 
portion of a small lot of potatoes, a mixture 



74 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



of wood ashes, gypsum and salt — using four 
bushels of leached ashes, one bushel of gyp- 
aum and half a gallon of salt. The applica- 
tion was made soon after the tops began to 
make their appearance above the surface of the 
ground. Only a part of the lot was treated 
with these fertilizers, while in all other res- 
pects the whole was cultivated alike. The 
part to which the fertilizing mixtm-e was ap- 
plied, produced not only a more abundant crop 
than the other, but potatoes of much better 
quality. 

Tliis led me to try a similar treatment of 
the greater part of my little crop in 1853. 
The preparation in this case was varied, by 
using a gallon of salt instead of half a gallon. 
The application, too, was somewhat modified. 
To one portion, it was applied directly to the 
tubers when planted ; to another portion it was 
applied on thj surface after the tops had 
appeared above gi-ound. The result this year 
was more satisfactory than it had been the year 
previous, although the season v/as unfavorable. 
There was, however, no perceptible difference 
between those having the fertilizers applied at 
the time of planting and those having it 
subsequently applied on the surface ' of the 
ground. 

Such was the effect of this mode of treat- 
ment upon the growth and quality of the po- 
tatoes, that I resolved to subject to a chemical 
examination, specimens cultivated both with 
and without the application of these fertilizers. 
This was prevented, by unavoidable circum- 
stances, until recently. 

In the spring of the current year, (1854,) I 
prepared for potatoes two small plots of ground, 
both alike in character and fertility, but both 
of a stiif clay soil, unfavorable to a good crop. 
After the ground had been broken up, trenches 
were opened 2^- feet apart, and about 3 or 4 
inches deep. The potato tubers were drilled 
in the bottom, and the trenches then filled up 
with a mixture of broken straw and stable ma- 
nure. Over this the mixture of ashes, plaster 
and salt was applied on one of the portions of 
ground, at the rate of about twelve bushels per 
acre ; while it was entirely withheld from the 
other portion. The subsequent cultivation was 
the same in both cases. The resulting crop 
was about as one to five in favor of that to 
which the mineral fertilizers were applied. 

I deem it unnecessary to give farther details, 
, as to the mode of cultivation, results in quan- 
tity, (fee. as the object kept chiefly in view was 
a chemical investigation. This investigation 
Is not yet as fully carried out as I desire, and 
intend it shall be ; but I have thought that the 
results, as far as attained, might possess some 



intereet in the mind of the intelligent agricul- 
turist, and probably lead directly to more 
extended and more accurate practical experi- 
ments. 

Specimens of the tubers cultivated under 
both the modes of treatment above given, have 
been examined — 1. With respect to the quan- 
tity of ivater contained in each ; and, 2. With 
respect to the influence of the fertilizing mix- 
inrc employed^ on the relative jyroportioii of 
certain inorganic elements. 

For the sake of brevity, we will designate 
the specimen cultivated with the mineral ma- 
nures by the letter A, while we will call that 
cultivated with organic manure alone, B. 

The specimen A, carefully cleaned, cut into 
thin slices, and dried at the temperature, 212° 
Fahrenheit, lost 77.50 per centum of its weight; 
showing the presence of that proportion of wa- 
ter not combined chemically with other sub- 
stances. The specimen B, dried in the same 
way, lost 82.20 per centum of its weight- 
Thus A was found to contain nearly five per 
cent, more than B of the solid, nutritious, va- 
luable part of the tuber; that is, of starch, 
gum, &c., which make the potato valuable as 
an article of food. 

After being thoroughly dried, A yielded 
4.15 per cent, of ashes; while B yielded but 
4.00 per cent. 

When brought under analysis the ashes of 
A and B were found to vary considerably in 
the proportions of some of their elements. 
They have been examined only with respect to 
the relative quanities of ^;otassa, soda, sulphuric 
acid and chlorine contained in each. It will 
be remembered that wood ashes afford, even 
after ordinary lixiviation, an abundance of po- 
tassa, together with several other valuable fer- 
tilizing substances, as liine, phosjjhoric acid, 
&c. Gypsum gives an abundant supply of 
snlplturic acid and lime. Common salt, (the 
chloride of sodium,) is the source of chlorine 
and soda. 

It is unnecessary to give the process of ana- 
lysis in full detail, as it was that ordinarily 
pursed in such investigations. Solutions of like 
portions of the ashes of A and B, carefuUy 
weighed, were made in dilute hydrochloric acid. 
From these solutions every thing, except the 
chlorides of potassium and sodium, was sepa- 
rated by the use of solution of baryta, and af- 
terwards of ammonia and carbonate of ammo- 
nia. The solution containing these was eva- 
porated to dryness, the residuum ignited and 
weighed. The chloride of potassiiun was then 
separated and weighed as platino-chloride of 
potassium. The remainder, after subtracting 
the weight of the cliloride of potassium thus 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



76 



determined, from the original weight of the 
mixed chlorides, was regarded as giving the 
quantity of chloride of sodium. From these 
chlorides, the quantity of potassa and soda 
may be readily deduced. 

The sulphuric acid was separated from solu- 
tion with chloride of barium, and weighed as 
sulphate of baryta. 

The chlorine was obtained from solutions in 
veiy dilute nitric acid by precipitation with 
nitrate of silver, and estimated from the result- 
ing chloride of silver. 



The following table will present at once a 
view of the results obtained by the above in- 
vestigation, together with the results of analyses 
made in other parts of the world. The figures 
represent the proportions of the several sub- 
stances obtained from 100 parts of the ashes. 
The columns marked A and B give the results 
comparatively of the analysis of the two spe- 
cimens under consideration. The numbers in 
the third and fourth columns are taken from 
Johnston's and Norton's Agricultural Chemis- 
tries respectively. 



100 grains of Ashes gave — 

Of Potassa 


A 

50.91 
3.49 
9.60 
3.30 


B 

49.75 
.65 

6.27 
1.98 


Johnston's 

55.70 

1.90 

13.60 

4.20 


Norton's 
51.50 


Of Soda 


a trace 


Of Sulphuric Acid 


7.10 


Of Chlorine 


2.70 








67.30 


58.65 


75.40 


61.30 



Tnfereiices. — From the relative quantities of 
water found in the above specimens, we may 
infer, 

1. That the presence of inorganic fertilizers 
has an influence on the character of the organic 
part of the tubers, 

2. We may infer that the inorganic part of 
the potato may vary considerably, according to 
the excess or deficiency of certain elements, 
not generally abundant in soils that have been 
long under cultivation. 

3. We may infer the advantage of applying 
near to the root of the growing potato those 
substances taken up by it in considerable quan- 
tities. 

Remarks. — 1. The quantity of phosphoric 
acid found in the ash of the potato, points to 
lone earth and other phosphates, as a useful 
addition to the mixture used in the foregoing 
experiments, especially on soils which have been 
much exhausted by the growth of wheat and 
Indian com. 

2. Wood-ashes afford an appreciable quan- 
tity of soluble silica, and render soluble some 
portions of that already existing in the soil. 
This gives a healthful growth to the stems, and 
probably has the effect of preventing some dis- 
eases. Diseases ha\'ing their origin in the 



stocks of plants, often reach both the root, a3 
in the potato, and the grain, as in the rusting 
of wheat. 

3. It should be stated that the variety of 
potato used above, was that known here as 
the " long red." This variety contains a larger 
per centum of water than is found in other va- 
rieties generally, when maturely grown. Po- 
tato tubers contain more water, too, in a dry 
than in a wet season. This is owing to their 
imperfect growth. This result, however, maj^ 
obtain in an extremely wet, as well as in an 
extremely dry season; the cause being in both 
cases immature growth. 

J. L. Campbell, 
Lab. of Washington College, Va., Oct. 1854. 



LIVE AND NET WEIGHTS OP MUTTON, 



The following are the live and net weights 
of the slaughtered mutton, exhibited at the 
Maryland State Agricultural exhibition, in Oc- 
tober, 1854. The slaughtered mutton were 
weighed and exliibited with the head and feet 
on, and 7 lbs. is deducted from the weight of 
each one, for the head, and feet taken off just 
below the knee, and is believed to be a full 
deduction : 



Thomas Hughk-tfs Cotsvvold 

Mr. Meade, of A'irginia, Mixed Breed . . . . 
A. Castleman's Cotswold and South Down . 

M. T. Goldsborough's South Down 

■William Keybold'.s Oxfordshire 

J. N. Goldsborough's Cotswold 







Dead, with 




Live 


head and 


Age- 


weight. 


feet. 


18 montlis 


182:V 


120i 


3 years 


160 


108 


4 years 




136 


3 years 


183 


131 


2 years 


195 


127A 


2 years 


165 


124A 



Net, head 
and feet off. 



Rate per cent, of 
net to live weight, 
head and feet off. 



113i 

101 

129 

124 

1201 

117* 



62 per cent. 

63 per cent. 

67^ per cent. 
61 J per cent. 
61| percent. 



. The above weights were accurately taken on the ground, by the exhibitor of Fairhank's 
Scales. — American Farmer. 



76 



THE SOUTH EKN PLANTER. 



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

In the Southern Planter for the 9th month 
(September) last is an essay by R. T. Bald- 
win, of Winchester, headed "Eleven Chemical 
Changes." This essay is intended to advocate 
the Doctor's theory of shade, as the best means 
of improving land, and most worthy of the at- 
tention of "practical farmers." While giving 
full credit to his practice as a farmer and one 
that has done much in improving his land, we 
may be permitted to call in question the sound- 
ness of his theory. Some may say, no matter 
what his theory is if his practice is good, but 
he gives us his theory instead of his practice; 
and as the one without the other may mislead 
others, the design of this essay is to induce him 
to give his practice. 

The substance of his theory is contained in 
liis last paragraph: "That the surface of the 
earth itself when closely covered with any sub- 
stance whatever, will readily undergo a chemi- 
cal change is plainly manifest, for it is changed 
in color, consistency and fertility," &c. That 
the vegetable or organic matter in a soil will 
undergo "a chemical change," is doubtless true, 
but that the inorganic materials in such soil will 
do so is by no means certain. For a soil desti- 
tute of vegetable matter will not underg-o any 
"chemical change," however well it may be 
shaded. Why is not the soil just below the 
depth of the plough not made rich? It is "in 
a close, cool, damp and dark location." It may 
be replied that it has not a proper contact with 
air, but organic matters placed in such a situa- 
tion will undergo "a chemical change," though 
not perhaps as rapid!}- as if placed nearer the 
surface. 

This essay of the Doctor's is teo theoretical; 
too much in technical language; too much as if 
lie wanted to show his learning. To be readily 
understood by the generality of "practical far- 
n:iers," we want something that we can easily 
comprehend. He "begs leave to present his 
individual opinions without reference to those 
entertained by scientific writers." This is well 
enough. A man should examine for himself 
and entertain his opinions, and should be allowed 
full liberty to express them; but when he gives 
tliem to the public, and they conflict with (he 
opinions of others, he may very properly be 
called upon for evidence in their support. "Of 
eleven chemical changes enumerated by che- 
mists to which vegetable and animal substances 
are subject during their decompositions," he enu- 
merates, as "most important," fermentation, ere- 
macausis, combustion and putrefaction, as four 
distinct and peculiar "chemical processes, be- 
cause they require different circumstances to 
produce them, and leave products entirely dissi- 
milar." He describes "decay, decomposition, 
eremacausis," as "that chemical change which 
all animal and vegetable matter undergo when 
exposed upon the surface of the earth to the vi- 
cissitudes of the weather," and says "that the 
ricks of hay and straw which the farmers, in 



their barn-yards convert annually into many 
loads of valuable manure, if subjected to this 
process, form a trifling residue, destitute of fer- 
tilizing properties." Now, if he had said that 
if ricks of hay and straw were left untouched 
until they were entirely rotten down, they would 
make but little manure, while, if placed in barn- 
yards where stock frequented, and their manure 
and urine were incorporated with it, they would 
make a far greater portion of valuable manure, 
every one would have understood him. "It is 
a well ascertained fact," he asserts "that the- 
body of a horse or cow, located properly for pu- 
trel'action, yields manure enough to produce 
thirty bushels of wheat," and that wood, "when 
properly putrified, makes good manure." The 
assertion of these facts, if true, are of no impor- 
tance to the "practical farmer," unless he is 
made acquainted with the process by which the 
result can be realized, and it is to be hoped that 
we shall be informed on this point. 

The Doctor considers "the residue" resulting 
from the "putrefactive process" as alone capa- 
ble of feeding "all plants in all soils in every 
variety of climate," and asserts, "It is itself in- 
capable of experiencing any other chemical 
change, and is consequently indestructible." — 
Are these assumptions true? Does the living 
plant in assimilating the various substances ne- 
cessary in perfecting its organism, perform no 
chemical change? Are all these taken up and 
deposited precisely as they existed in the earth 
within reach of the plant, or is not the growth 
of the living organism the result of chemical 
changes. What is meant by its being "inde- 
structible" is difficult to conjecture. Philosophers 
tell us that in the dissolution of matter nothing 
is lost; that the decomposition of substances 
form new compounds; and that the destruction 
of one generation furnishes material for the 
growth of the next. He considers that "the 
fertilizing properties" of the "residue of putre- 
faction" "does not depend upon the ammonia 
which it contains," and instances the "poudrette 
prepared by the French chemists," from which 
he says, "every particle of ammonia is expelled 
by quick lime." Does this manure contain no 
ammonia? and would not the materials of which 
it is composed, be far better fertilizers, if they 
could be used without being thus manufactured? 
Chemists tell us that nightsoil, from which pou- 
drette is mainly prepared, contains carbonate, 
sulphate and chlorate of ammonia. The addi- 
tion of quicklime might decompose the carbo- 
nate, appropriate the carbonic acid to itself and 
liberate the ammonia, but in decomposing the 
sulphate, sulphate of lime would be formed, and 
that substance, we are told, will retain the am- 
monia, and form a compound not volatile. What 
would be the value of guano as a fertilizer if it 
was deprived of its ammonia? Will Dr. Bald- 
win inform us? All practical chemists exclaim 
against mixing lime with it. 

Another view that appears objectionable is, 
that a substance that under one form of appli- 
cation is injurious to vegetation is not a manure, 
though under other forms it may be a good fer- 
(ilize'r. "Ashes, when recently made, prove in- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTEE. 



77 



junons to all vegetation, consequently cannot be 
manure. When incorporated with earth, how- 
ever, i: does possess the power oi' fertilizing it." 
Is not this a distinction without a difference." 
Are not all manures recommended to be well 
mixed with earth to give them t'ull effect. May 
Bot stable manure be so applied as to "be inju- 
rious to vegetation." Guano, we know, may. 
and are they to be considered not lo be manures, 
because of such improper effect. Is not this 
darkening caused by words without knov/- 
ledge? 

He goes on to explain the ••modus operandi" 
of the -'putrefactive process." "Vegetable sub- 
stances, when ploughed under, are favorably 
located for putretaction; that is, they are placed 
in a close, cool, dark a?jd damp location. There 
IS, however, one circumstance wanting which is 
known to be indispensable to the generation of 
the putrefactive proces.= ; that is a contact with 
air." Will the Doctor attempt to make us believe 
that when "vegetable substances are ploughed 
under," all that is wanted is a contact with air? 
Substances placed in such a situation cannot be 
excluded from it. We who are "practical far- 
mers,"' know very well that vegetable substances 
so ••ploughed under," ahvays are converted into 
manure, provided they can be kept sufficiently 
wet; but if they cannot be so kept, no contact 
with air will answer the purpose. The past 
season gave ample testimony to this fact. All 
that is wanted is sufficient moisture to insure 
•'the putrefactive process" going on without any 
necessity of alluding to the "oxides of calcium, 
potassium, or sodium," as being capable ot 
■'completing the chain of circumstances." 

-Now if Dr. Baldwin will come out and give 
his experience as a farmer, the quality of his 
.goil. the means he employed in his renovation, 
in a plain way, so that all may see how to follow 
his practice, he will confer a favor on the agri- 
culture of the country, far beyond what he can 
ever hope lo, by publishing such essays as the 
one ander .!;eview. 

Y.A.RDLEY Taylor. 



For ihe Southern Planter. 

ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 

Mt. Editor, — I observe a remark in the Jan- 
uary number (v;hich I have just received) to 
which I will invite your attention. Accompany- 
ing an article from the Michigan Farmer, oh 
the -Analysis of Soils," you say "that stimu- 
lants exhaust in proportion to their power of 
producing an unnatural yield." I have noticed 
•/ery many similar exfiressions. Dr. Stuart, of 
Balt.more, in an address before the Agricultural 
Society of .Maryland. October. 18.53, speaking 
of the effects of guano, says, '-And the effect of 
this variety of manure is admitted by all good 
authority to be merely to stimulate the plant to 
extend its roots and gain nourishment from a 
larger amount of soil." Mr. Edmunds, in his 
addre.^3 before the first meeting of the Virginia 
Society, encourages the yo-jng men of Virgi- 



nia who have to deal with soils exhausted by 
scourging adtivaiion.'' Ke tells them "that the 
foundation of improvement may be laid in the 
use of guano and other .special manures." But 
1 think he "chills the enthusiasm" he creates 
when he telle them "that the effect of this class 
of manures is, to cause a heavy production with- 
out supplying all the ingredients which the crops 
need, and unless ameliorating crops, occur veg- 
etable litter be supplied, exhaustion of the land 
will follov." their continued use." I have heard 
others say that the effects of guano on the soil 
were similar to those produced on the stomach 
of a dyspeptic by a glass of brandy and water, 
leaving the organ in a more enfeebled condition. 
There seems to be a remswliable confusion of 
ideas on this subject; some say the plant is un- 
naturally stimulated — others, the soil. 

Now, what do Dr. Stuart and his authorities 
mean? Stimulate a plant to gain nourishment. 
Are not all stimulants nourishment lo plants? 
and is there any other mode of stimulating a 
plant than by nourishment? If two hundred 
pounds of guano will stimulate or nourish one 
acre of corn, imparting such vigor and strength 
as to enable the plant to send its roots all over 
the neighborhood in pursuit of food, will not 200 
lbs. more supply all its wants, supersede the ne- 
cessity of this frtdtless chase, (for the Doctor is 
speaking of a poor, barren soil,) and produce a 
full crop. What does Mr. Edmunds mean? If 
the land is already exhausted by ^'■scourging 
cultivation" how can it be exhausted by guano? 
and how can a heavy production be made ou 
exhausted land, unless all the necessary ingre- 
dients be supplied? And what, Mr. Editor, may 
I ask, do you mean, when you say. "that stimu- 
lants exhaust in proportion to their power of 
forcing an unnatural yield?" Is there not false 
analogy in all this? Do not such terms and 
such effects of stimulus presuppose organic, ner- 
vous structure? 

On the question, whether science is doing any 
thing for agriculture is rather, whether chemis- 
try is rendering any practical benefit, I may 
again invite your attention to Dr. Stuart's ad- 
dress, in answer. I will here make one or two 
suggestions on the subject of guano. It is com- 
plained that this manure is not a permanent im- 
prover. 

Query 1. In the u.se of all expensive, or 
"bought" manures, does not true economy re- 
commend that just the amount necessary for the 
current crop should be used and no more? 

Query 2. If 200 lbs. guano will produce 20 or 
25 bushels of wheat on land that would not pro- 
duce 5 bushels without, (see Mr. Newton's state- 
ment,) is it not ungrateful and unreasonable to 
talk about re&iduuni for permanent improve- 
ment? and is it not unjust not to give credit for 
the straw as a means of improvement? 

Our wheat crop.? are looking backward and 
badly. , 

Very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

PiANKE Tank. 

Glvucesier. Jan. 20. 1S55. 



78 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



For the Southern Planter. 
USEFUL HINTS FOE VIRGINIA GARDENERS. 

BY E. G. KGGELING, FLORIST. 

March , the first of the spring months, is of 
great importance to the gardener. Many pro- 
cesses must be performed, if the weather per- 
mit, and not a few vegetables put into the 
earth. The amount of labor to be performed 
will vary, of course, as the season is more or 
less forward; but in any event, he who would 
have his garden produce plentifully in the corn- 
ins; months, must be diligent during this. The 
following hints should be followed without fail, 
in the 

KrrCIIEN GARDEN. 

A^j^aragits. — This is the best time to make 
riew beds, but we cannot now stop to describe 
the manner of making them. Supposing the 
beds to have been made in a previous year 
tlicre is work for the gardener. The chief is 
to loosen the eartli about the plants. Care 
must be had that in performmg this, the roots 
are )iot wounded, or in any wise disturbed. 
The gardener should provide liimself with a 
fork, prongs to be one inch wide, with blunt 
points. A connnou dung fork will answer. 
Thus provided, pass over the beds, forking 
tJieni well, so tis to loosen the soil to the depth 
of sevei'al inches, and moving the manure with 
the soil. A few radish and lettuce may be 
sown upon the bed after the forking is done 
and before the raking. If too many be not 
put in, no injury will ensue to the asparagus. 

Bect&. — To have these early recj^uires a very 
rich soil. Sow the seed in drills opened from ten 
to fifteen inches apart and one inch in depth. 
After they come up the plants sliould be thinned 
out, leaving a space of five inches between each 
plant. ^langel wur;;el and sugar beet should be 
put in drills eighteen inches to two feet apart and 
twelve inches in the rows. 

Beans. — Those desiring to have early snap 
beans may sow a few in the latter part of the 
month, but not even then unless the}' can se- 
lect a spot exposed to the sun and secure from 
the cold winds which often prevail in Marc'i. 

Cehnj will flourish best in a deep, moist 
soil, friable, and inclinifig to lightness, and 
withal very rich. It should have been sown 
in February. If it was not done then, let it 
be done at once. The earth should be prepared 
very much like tobacco plant-beds are. It 
iiourishes best in a deep moist, I'ich, friable soil. 
It is of prime imporiance that the spot selected 
be free from weeds, as the plants when young 
are very " delicate and easily destroyed. The 
seeds arc put in broa,dcast and scattered thinly. 



Cabbage Plants which are growing in the 
hot-beds should be cautiously introduced to 
the outer air, to render them hardy and fit for 
transportation. This process may be performed 
about the last of the month. From and after 
the 15th of the month beds maybe sown in 
the opei-i ground. 

Egg Plant. — If sown this month should 
be in a hotbed, with a view to forward them. 
When from five to six inches high the plants 
should be pricked up and planted in the bed, 
to prepare them for the final removal to the 
open ground. 

Lettuce should be sown without delay where 
they will have a warm southern exposure, and 
should be transplanted at the earliest possible 
period. 

Onions. — Sow white Portugal onions. These 
produce the finest for pickling purposes. If the 
buttons have not been planted, let it be done 
without delay. 

Parsley should be sown this month. It 
makes a very pretty border if sown in single 
rows on the edge of the square. , This is the 
most economical method, and while it econo- 
mizes space it ornaments the garden. 

Peas. — This delightful vegetable rec|uires 
careful cultivation. To hare them early, sow 
without delay, in ground well prepared for the 
reception of the seed. Continue to sow every 
two weeks, and thus a constant supply may be 
secured throughout the season, for as one set 
of vines cease to bear another will begin. 
About the last of the month the soil should 
be drawn up to the plant to shield and protect 
it and aftbrd nutriment. When the plants have 
attained the height of six inches let them be 
supplied with sticks. The best method of stick- 
ing peas is to form a species of lattice work, 
by putting the sticks into the earth. 

Potatoes. — Plant without delay. 

Peppers, Red, may be sown on a warm bor- 
der. When the plants have attained a sulficient 
size, they should be removed and planted out 
in rows about twelve inches apart. 

Radish. — Sow at this season where there is 
a warm, sunny exposure, and if it be desirable 
to have a constant supply, let the sowing be 
repeated every ten days. 

Radish, Horse. — The best method of culti- 
vating this is as follows: dig a trench eight to 
nine inches deep and fill the bottom with 
manure; cut the roots into small pieces 
about four inches long and drop them 
eioht or ten inches apart. In five or six weeks 
the plants will make their appearance. 

Salsify should be sown the last of the month 
in drills about an inch deep and twelve inches 
distance between the driUs. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



79 



Tomatoes. — At this period sow in a hotbed, 
to forward the plants. When the pLxnts have 
attained five or sis inches height, they should 
be pricked up and set out in the bed, to pre- 
pare them for final transplanting to the open 
ground. They should be placed about six 
inches apart, and so soon as. the weather be- 
comes settled the plants should be removed to 
the position they are to occupy in the garden. 

These suggestions are designed particularly 
for gardeners about the vicinity of Richmond, 
but they will be found generally applicable for 
gardenins throughout Virginia and North Ca- 
rolina. They have been very hastily put to- 
gether, but they are the results of many years' 
experience, and, so far as thej- go. may be im- 
plicitly relied upon. In the future numbers 
of the Planter we may give fuller information 
to guide the operations of the Virginia gar- 
dener. 

FLOVv'EPi. GAE.DEN. 

Yery little can or ought to be done among 
the flowers during the present month. ' Next 
month there will be more occasion for work in 
this department, and full directions will then 
be given. No homestead should be without 
its flower garden, and a very moderate share 
of attention will add largely to the attractive- 
ness of Virginia houses. Surely such labor 
were well bestowed. 

WORK I.N' THE ORCIL\E.D. 

All kinds of fi-uit trees should be pruned 
immediately. In doing this, remove all the 
inside shoots, as these absorb sap to no profit. 
The outer branches are the only ones that pro- 
duce, and they will absorb all the juices which 
are drawn up from the roots of the tree. 
Whatever there is consumed by these useless 
appendages of the trees tend only to impo- 
verish the fruit bearing branches. Judicious 
pruning not only improves the fruit, but causes 
the tree to bear earlier and prolongs its life and 
the period of fruitfulness. Thus a tree kept 
well pruned will bear double as long as one 
that is neglected. In pruning, tlie branches to 
be removed should be cut oif close to the body 
of the tree, and the cut should be made smooth 
by a very sharp knife. This should never be 
neglected where the branches are more than 
one inch thick. Be careful to have the branches, 
so that one shall not cross another, and all with 
the extremities pointing upward. It is desira- 
ble in most cases that the scar made by the 
pruning knife be covered with a composition, 
made of er^ual parts of beeswax and tallow or 
lard. This causes it to heal more readily. 

Peach Trees are often injured by what is 
termed the cancer worm. A winged insect de- 



posits its eggs at the base of the tree and just 
below the surface of the earth. The eggs are 
deposited in July, become larvre in the fall, and 
the next spring are worms. They not unfre- 
quently destroy Avhole orchards, and nowhere 
are they more common than in this region. 
These scurges are easily destroyed by the fol- 
lowing process : Make a small basin' or trench 
around the tree and fill it with air slaked lime 
or leached ashes. This not only prevents the 
deposit of the eggs, but effectually destroys 
worms or larva; which may already be 
there. 

Gooseberries. — The method generallj- pur- 
sued with gooseberries in Virginia pre^'ents 
anything like success in cultivating this de- 
lightful berry. The grand mistake is in the 
manner of propagation. Let any gardener fol- 
low the directions here submitted and he will 
be astonished at the result. Gooseberries should 
be propagated from cuttings. Select wood of 
the growth of the last year. Make cuttings 
from six to eight inches long. Carefully pinch 
off all the eyes, or 1)uds, from the bottom to 
within two inches of the top. Insert the cut- 
ting thus prepared in the earth, burying it up 
to the point to which the eyes were removed. 
Roots will put out wherever there was an eye, 
and the stock will grow up clean and comely 
like a tree. It will not be troubled with suckers, 
and while much iiiore ornamental than goose- 
berry bushes usually are, will produce much finer 
fruit. The writer can show berries nearly equal- 
ing iu size a partridge-egg, and produced sim- 
ply by following the plan herein suggested. If 
others will do likewise, they will find the pro- 
duce of their gooseberry nurseries very much 
improved. It remains to add, that gooseberries 
should be placed where they will have plenty 
of sunshine. They do not thrive well in the 
shade. 

Ciirranls. — The remarks concerning the 
propagation and cultivation of gooseberries are 
equally applicable to currants. They should 
be treated in precisely the same manner and 
haye the same freedom of access to the rays 
of the sun. 

StraU'berrlcs. — The beds should be well 
cleaned during this month from all litter and 
weeds, and the earth well loosened with the 
hoe. After this has been done the plants should 
be covered over with pine tags or wheat straw; 
the former is the better. The object of thus 
covering the strawberry plant is to keep the 
fruit from contact with the soil. Some persona 
erroneously suppose that litter is spread for the 
purpose of protection. Nothing of the kind 
is needed and the only good purpose subserved 
is that we have noted. 



80 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



For the Southerrf" Planter. 
BUCKWHEAT. 

2Ir. Editor, — A writer iu the last January 
Planter said some ''good words"' for the grain 
placed at the head of this article ; yet he seemed 
to give into the generally received opinion that 
it is a great exhauster of tlie soil when sown 
for the grain and not for the purpose of being- 
ploughed under, when green, as a fertilizer. I 
wish, with your permission to say a word or 
two in vindication of buckwheat, from the. al- 
most universal opinion that it is, in an unusual 
degree, an impoverisher of the soil. 

I am much inclined to think this opinion 
and the prejudice against the grain arising 
therefrom, is, in a great measure, owing to the 
clean and naked condition in which it leaves 
land — literally destroying every other kind of 
vegetation, and leaving "no green thing," con- 
sequently giving to the field a most " poverty- 
stricken'' appearance. But I think appear- 
ances in this, as in many other cases, are against 
the truth, and for the following reasons : The 
roots of buckwheat do not strike deep into the 
ground, but are confined chiefly to the surface, 
which materially narrows the extent of soil laid 
under contribution by the growth and maturity 
of the plant. Again : it grows better than any 
other crop on poor or exhausted soils — making 
a good yield on lands that will scarcely produce 
wheat or corn at all. Whether this is owing 
to the fact that it requii'es less nutriment for 
its maturity than other grains, or derives it 
mainly fi"om the atmosphere, is not worth while 
to inquire, the main point being that the soil 
is called upon but for a small contribution to 
its growth and maturity. I think the fact that 
it succeeds best when sown on thin lands, con- 
clusive that it is not a great exhauster. 

I have not been an extensive grower of buck- 
wheat, yet as far as my experience goes it con- 
firms the opinion expressed above. Neither 
iny experience nor observation furnishes me 
with any evidence that it impoverishes the soil 
more than any other grain crop. 

T. 

Av."i(sta, Jan. 29. 1855. 



For the Souther)i Planter. 

CULTIVATION OF INDIAN CORN. 

Mr. Editor, — As the time has now arrived 
for tho farmers to be malting preparations for 
a corn crop for the present year, I think it 
bighly important that they should interchange 
opinions, (through the Planter, by and with 
your consent.) of their different modes of pre- 
paration and after culture of this important 



crop ; and first of all, the kind of land as all 
farmers know all land cannot be successfully 
farmed in the same way. The land in this 
section is limestone with a considerable quan- 
tity of sand and in many places gravel; also a 
good clay subsoil. My mode of preparation is, 
when I have sod, to plough as early in the 
winter as possible, that the land may undergo 
a thorough freezing. About the middle of 
April, after hauling all the well rotted manure 
I can get, harrow to a fine tilth ; lay off both 
ways four feet, drop a small quantity of ashes 
and plaster in each hill ; then drop from three 
to five grains in a hill and cover from two to 
three inches deep. As soon as the corn is well 
up, drop some of the same mixture on each 
hill; then harrow with a two-horse harrow, the 
middle teeth a little raised, one horse walking 
in each row. Replant and thin as soon as pos- 
sible, leaving two stalks in a hill; I then com- 
mence ploughing with double shovel ploughs; 
plough three times before harvest, if possible, 
and once directly after, which finishes the cul- 
tivation. 

When I have stubble land to prepare for 
corn I haul all the rough manure on the land 
before I plough it; harrow and lay off in the 
same way, except that I first lay off with the 
single shovel plough, and then in the same fur- 
rows with a ripper, from twenty to twenty -two 
inches long, made of a bar of iron two inches 
wide and one inch thick ; I then drop the mix- 
ture as before stated; harrow the same way, 
and then use the rippers in ploughing both 
ways twice in each row, as near the corn as 
possible — twice with the double shovels bef:>re 
harvest, and once after. 

I hope this will cause you to give your ex- 
perience in the culture of corn, also many others. 
I propose, at the same time, if the present size 
of the Planter is not sufficient to give the sub- 
scribers an opportunity of publishing their dif- 
ferent modes of culture, that it be issued semi- 
monthly. 

"Yours, respectfully, M. E. K. 

Prcdrrlr]: Co'_. Va.. Jan. 26, 18-5.5. 



EGGS, CONVENT FASHION. 

Boil four eggs for ten minutes, put them in 
cold water, peel asd slice thin one onion, put 
into a frying pan' one ounce of butter ; when. 
melted, add the onion, and fry white: thtm add 
a tea-spoonful of flour, mix it well, add about 
half a pint of milk, till forming a nice white 
sauce,, half a tea-.spoonful of salt, and a quarter 
ditto of pepper; when nicely done, add the 
eggs, cut into six pieces each, crossways, toss 
them up — and when hot through, serve on toast. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



31 




THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 

RICHMOND, MARCH, 1855. 



TERMS. 

One Dollar and Twexty-pive Cents per annum, 
which may be discharged b}- the payment of One Dollar 
only, if paid in office or sent free of postage within six 
months from the date of subscription. Six copies for Five 
Dollars; thirteen copies for Ten Dollars, to be paid 
icrariably ia advance. 

^^^ No subscription received for a less time tlian one 
year. 

' Subscriptions may begin with any number. 
' No paper will be discontinued until all arrearages 
are paid, except at the option of the Editor. 
ly Office corner Main and Twelfth steets. 

ADVERTISEMENTS. 

A limited umnber will be inserted at tlie 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 
insure 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. 

NOTICE. 

^^ If subscribers do not order a discontinuance of the 
Planter before the commencement of a new year, or volume, 
it Will be considered as a renewal of their subscriptions, 
and they will be charged accordingly. 



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

MECKLENBURG. 

I>r. 'WiLLtAM H. .JoNE.s IS our agetit for the county 
of Mecklenburg. Our friends in that county will 
please call a.nd j^ay him, and they would add gi-eatly 
to the obligation if each one would bring two ad- 
ditional .sub.scribers when he comes to pay hi.s due.s. 
Is that too much to ask in behalf of the Planter! 



SOUTHERN FARMER. 

We omitted, accidentally, to notice in our last 
isjue that the Southern Farmer has jjassed into the 
hand.s of the Union Agricultural Society of Virgi- 
nia and North Carolina, without, however, a change 
Of editors, Messrs. Pleasants & Nicol still remaining 
at it.s head. We wi.sh it all po.ssible success under 
i' ' r-w auspice.'.. 



ENLARGING THE PLANTER. 

A kind friend, in a letter lately received, pro- 
poses that we shall double the size and the price 
of the Planter, and offers his subscription and in- 
fluence in aid of the scheme. We have had the 
same thing proposed to us several times before by 
a verj' few of the more public spirited of our far- 
mers, and nothing would be more agreeable to us, 
for several reasons, than to adopt the suggestion. 
But we fear it will not answer. The fashion of cheap 
publications and the fondness of "reading for 
the million," which renders it difficult for any pa- 
per, unless devoted to politics and general news to 
sustain itself, especially here in the South, would 
seem to make it a hazardous experiment; and with 
tlie lights at present before us we would rather de- 
cline to try it. Still if a sufficiency of the friends 
of agricultural improvement shall think differently, 
and will sustain the attempt and insure against loss, 
we are willing to receive suggestions in regard to 
the enlargement. 

The advantages of such a publication would be 
very great. Take one item as an example — the 
effect of information as to the state of the markets 
of the world on a farmer's profits. We here do not 
study that question at all. We rarely look into it, 
or even at it. The great object here is to get our 
wheat into market as soon as we can thresh it, and 
many, in their hast«, thresh it damp and in bad 
order. Yet it is a fact the February and March 
marlvet, especially in Richmond, is as good, if not 
better, than earlier in the season; and for these 
reasons : that then tlie supply is pretty generally 
exhausted, and the millers, anxious to ruafull time- 
up to the close of the season, are willing to pay 
more, whilst the channels of supply in the North 
and West, which have been closed up by the win- 
ter, are still unopened, and there is a demand for 
freights to Europe. This indifference to the mar- 
ket is not felt anywhere else that we know of. In 
the South, certainly the planter watches the fluc- 
tuations in cotton and the probable range of prices 
quite as keenly as the speculator or tlie factor, and 
to ciuite as mucli purpose. In England The Mark 
Laiie Express, an agricaltiiral journal and at the 
same time the leading paper of the corn-growing in- 
terest, is read not less eagerly by the farmer than the 
com factor, and he is as well versed in all the term.-, 
of the market, and as skilful in taking advantage 
of them. We cannot agree with the general opi- 
nion that the best plan is to sell a crop as soon after 
its maturity as it can be prepared for market, or, 
as a very eminent and successful farmer .says, that 
the only use a farmer has for his wheat after cut- 
ting it, is to sell it to the miller. We do not see 
why he, if he has the same means of forming an 
opinion that the buyer possesses, cannot as weli 



82 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



judge of the best time to sell. We have a case in 
point in our own experience, which we hope it will 
not be egotism to quote in illustration. There was 
no more able or sagacious merchant than the late 
General Bernard Peyton, who was our commission 
merchant. The fall before the great Irish famine 
he had on consignment some three hundred barrels 
of flour for us. At that time flour was low, and 
he was anxious to sell as fast as the tiour came to 
hand. Generally and habitually we deferred to his 
opinion, which we knew to be better than ours; 
but it so happened that at that time we read regu- 
larly the money articles of the Union newspaper, 
which were written by Thos. P. Kettell, the present 
editor of the New York Economist, a valuable com- 
mercial journal. In these articles ho predicted the 
famine so clearly, and the rise of prices so confi- 
dent!}', that we chose him for our guide, and re- 
sisted repeated advice from our friend to sell, as 
prices rose from S4, $4 50 to $5, and upwards, 
until at last we closed doubtfully at ;S6 26, and 
made enough on the consignment to pay many 
times over all the subscriptions v>-e ever expect to 
pay for newspapers. 

We do not mean that the farmer should under- 
take to speculate on his crops; that is a risk for 
anyone; but that he should be guided by more 
rules than the single one of getting out his crops 
with all haste, and to the neglect of other things 
of possibly more importance at the time. 

J^or do we pretend to that scope of vision whicli 
shall enable us to scan the commercial future with 
prophetic ken, and predict to the farmer the best 
time to run his crops into market. But, like any 
one else with equal opportunities, we can collect 
the views of men who study such things and lay 
them before him, leaving him free to form his own 
opinions upon the data given. 

Another and an equal advantage of an enlarged 
paper would be, that we would have greater room 
for selections, and space for more lengthy and ela- 
borate articles on questions of agricultural theory 
or farming practice, which are now excluded by 
their length from our columns, though in many cases 
of the greatest interest and utility. Such commu- 
nications as are now offered to the State Society 
are generally of that character, and we* mean to 
put them in the paper, but then that, on the other 
hand, involves, pro tanto, the exclusion of other 
articles of more interest to the desultory reader. 

Still another advantage would be in the creation 
of a horticultural department and the conveying 
instruction on what is now one of the greatest 
wants of the Southern farmer. Independent of the 
cultivation of the national taste, which needs all 
the nurture it can have, and is intimately dependent 
on horticultural pursuits, and independent of all 
hygienic considerations, the profits of this depart- 



ment are worth attention. It has recently been 
shown by our friend, Mr. Hubbard, of Bucking- 
ham, that the South, which is natural to all the 
best fruits of the country, surrenders to the North 
nearly all the revenue derivable from the supply 
of horticultural products. 

jRural architecture, too, should form a part of 
every well conducted agricultural journal; yet it 
is necessarily excluded in its larger features from 
so cramped a publication as the Southern Planter. 

But we have said enough on this head, and the 
reader, who has not anticipated our remarks, can 
follow up the above suggestions with his own re- 
flections. We shall be glad to hear from such of 
our friends as take interest enough in the subject 
to consider it. 



HORTICULTURAL. 

We have been frequently asked by our friends, 
why we do not give more frequent essays and ex- 
tracts on horticultural and kindred subjects. 

Heretofore there have been two reasons for it. 
The first is, that cramped as we are for room, we 
find it generally difficult to get in all the original 
articles that are sent to us. The second reason lies 
in a defect of ours, (v.'hich we are ashamed to con- 
fess in the face of that public which expects every 
editor to be a rmiversal genius and will not tolerate 
at the head of a farming paper anything but a liv- 
ing encyclopedia of agriculture,) but whicli candor 
nevertheless compels us to admit. It is that 
there cannot be found probably in Virginia any far- 
mer of our station who knows less about such 
things than we do. In all the niceties of hotbeds 
and forcing frames, of egg-plants and lettuce, male 
and female strawberries, and in that still nicer dis- 
crimination of fruits and fruit trees which detects 
the hundreds of varieties of apples, peaches, pears, 
apricots, nectarines, cherries and figs, in all these 
things we are a dunce, and have a very well grounded 
doubt of our ability to instruct. This has made it 
a matter of delicacy to enter upon these grosser 
subjects, and a matter of conscience to touch 
roses of any hue or perfume. We might, to be 
sure, like Mr. Alexander Pope, who, De Quiocey 
tells us, studied Greek, (and never became a Gre- 
cian,) after he had contracted to deliver the Iliad 
to subscribers, cram for the occasion and fill our- 
selves to repletion with horticultural lore, but, like 
Pope, we should be offering a translation of whose 
merits we could not judge, and, in many instances, 
run the risk of misleading our readers. 

Still we admit the wants of the farming public 
in these matters, and have accordingly made an 
effort to supply them in a more satisfactory manner 
than we ourselves could do. We have engaged the 
services of a professional gardener, residing near 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



83 



Richmond, who Tvill furnish us eacli month with 
the appropriate practical horticultural reading for 
the season. We cannot speak of the accomplish- 
ments of Mr. Eggeling, or his fitness for the post 
we have induced him to assume, for we have just 
confessed ignorance of the things he deals in. But 
a very slight acquaintance has impressed us so fa- 
vorably with him that we have felt no scruple in 
soliciting him to aid us in this minor, but most im- 
portant and interesting, department of rural eco- 
nomy. 

With this announcement of another new feature, 
and we hope improvement, in the Planter, and this 
introduction of Mr. Eggeling we leave him now 
and hereafter to speak for liimself We hope and 
believe he will do it satisfactorily. 



SEEDS FROM THE PATENT OFFICE. 

Those of our friends who have not been supplied 
with samples of the above seeds according to their 
requests by letter are informed that the supply was 
exhausted almost as soon as it was announced. 
We have written for a fresh batch, but having failed 
thus far to hear from our application, we fear we 
shall get, no more. We could distribute a bushel 
j if we had them. By the way, it was a misprint to 
► speak of Mr. Peabody of The Soil of the South, as 
i remarkable for his success with the cranberry. It 
I should have read strawberry. Of this fruit Mr. 
■ Peabody raises and sells with directions, we believe. 
I for management, perhaps the most prolific straw- 
beiTies in the world. The only instance of success- 
ful cranberry culture in the South, except in the 
mountains beyond the Alleghanies, that we know 
of is that of Mr. Riddle, about six miles from Rich- 
mond, on the ChickahomiBy, who has lately em- 
barked in their culture. He exhibited samples at 
the Fair last fall, and tells us that the average 
acreable value of his present very small plat was 
about eight hundred dollars. 

P. S. Since writing the above we have received 
several packages and distributed nearly the M'hole 
of their contents. 



A CERTAIN CURE FOR SCROFULA. 

Our friends of the faculty will bear witness that 
we rarely tre.spass on their domain by publishing 
" infallible recipes.'' We are afraid to do it. We 
know too well how little we know to tamper with 
life and health and feeling by such a course. Be- 
lieving, religiously, in what a dear friend of ours 
calls "the triumphs of medicine,'' and in good 
nursing, we generally pas.s by the ten thousand 
"cures" we sec in the papers, sorry for those that 
cnt them out, and grieving for the patients they 
are to be tried on. But scrofula is a privileged 



question, that is to say, any one is privileged to 
." discuss" it if ho can. 

Like the watch of the portly gentleman in the 
Pickwick Papers, which every pickpocket in Lon- 
don had had a pull at, thousands have tried their 
hands, ineffectually, on scrofula, and it has resisted 
with equal stubbornness the assaults of the quack 
and the "triumphs of medicine." Whether it is 
left for Mr. Longworth and Captain Ilarkness to 
extract it from the system by a final" cure," %ve,of 
course, cannot say. But we would advise, if suc- 
cess in what " he undertakes " be the object of 
the " famous Millionaire," that he should confine 
himself to his Catawba wines, though his Cham- 
pagne is none of the best. There at least, except 
perhaps before a jury of teetotallers, he cannot bo 
convicted of malpractice. 

A Certain Cure for Scrofula. — Nicholas 
Longworth, the famous Millionaire and wine 
grower of Cincinnati, publishes the following cure 
for scrofula : 

Put two ounces of aquafortis on a plate, ou 
which you have two copper cents. Let it remain 
from eighteen to twenty four hours. Then add 
four ounces of clear strong vinegar. Put cents 
and all in a large mouthed bottle, and keep it 
corked. Begin by putting four drops in a tea- 
spoonful of ralD water, and apply it to the sore. 
Make the application three times a day, with a 
soft hair pencil, or made of rags. If very painfvl 
put in more water. As the sore heals apply it 
weaker. 

I request editors, in all parts of the Union, and 
abroad, to copy this, and to republish it quarter 
yearly; it may save many lives. 

N. LONGWORTH . 

Cincinnati, Ohio, November 18, 1854. 

P. S. Captain Harkness, of our city, the first 
person cured by this remedy, applied it without 
water and he informed me that he thought it 
would burn his leg off; but the next day it was 
cured. His was a small .sore, and had beea 
attended to for months by one of the best phy- 
sicians, without any benefit. 



PAY UP ELEVEN THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND 
NINETY-ONE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. 

On the first day of February the dues to ths 
Southern Planter amounted to $11,691 50. Since 
then we have received, including new subscribers, 
about three hundred dollars, or one-fortieth part of 
the debt, and the payments of January and Febru- 
ary are generally heavier than in any other months 
of the year. Now we ask our subscribers, in all 
candor and good nature, if they think this is right"? 
We are compelled to trust them, and we do not re- 
gret that necessity, for we suppose we have the 
most solvent newspaper list in the State; but we 
do regret that so many worthy and substantial men 
should, from mere carelessness or indolence, put 
off the payment of a sum of money, small in nearly 
everj' individual case, and, therefore, of little mo- 



84 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ment to the debtor, but in the aggregate, as the 
above figures show, of a vast deal of importance 
to the creditor. We shall this month send out ac- 
counts in all cases where we have not regular local 
agents, and we beg those indebted, to remit us the 
money without delay. We have contracted engage- 
ments which must be complied with or we will 
suffer by them. Will the hoiie and sinnu permit 
that, when bare justice on their parts will prevent 
it? We hope and we beg that they will not. Pay 
up now, like honest men and good fellows. 



HITCHING THE TAIL TO THE PL©UGH. 

The other day we received a new paper called 
the "Practical Farmer," just started in Vincen- 
nee, Indiana. While looking over it our eye 
caught an article copied from the "La Fayette 
Courier," headed "Plough Presentation." It 
contained remarks of Woodford Stringfield, of 
Kentucky, who was authorized by Messrs. Brin- 
ley & Co. of Kentucky, to present the Hon. H. 
L. Ellsworth one of their best ploughs. We 
were much interested both in the address of Mr. 
S. and the answer of Mr. Ellsworth, but not a 
little surprised when we came to the following 
remark: "1 cannot omit to notice the wonderful 
change between ancient and modern farming. 
A rude crooked stick, fastened to the oxen's tails 
was the cruel practice that once prevailed in the 
north part of England, and such was the at- 
tachment to this practice, that it required an act 
of Parliament to remit the barbarous torture to 
the poor animals; and more lately I have no- 
ticed, while in JSiew England, in the purchase 
of horses for a southern market, a preference 
"was shown to those which had strong docks and 
long tails, that the plough could be attached di- 
rectly to the long hair!" 

Really! we should like to know in what part 
of New England Mr. Ellsworth found himself 
It must be that the Yankees had all died out, 
and their places been supplied with the ghosts 
of some of the old Druids. — Exchange. 

And we should like to know another thing. Whe- 
ther Mr. Ellsworth supijoses that any one will be- 
lieve that horses are hitched by the tail to ploughs 
in any part of the South 1 No one knows better 
than Mr. Ellsworth that the statement is a libel on 
i^outheni farmers. — Ed. So. Pl. 



LIME AND ITS CHEMICAL CHANGES. 

A reader of the " Rural" desires us to give 
an article on the chemical changes which take 
place in burning and slaking lime, &c. Lime 
is not, as was once supposed, an dement, but 
consists of the metal calcium united with the 
gas oxygen, and is properly an oxide of cal- 
cium, just as potash, soda and mag-nesia are 
oxides of potassium, sodium and magnesium. 
It is never found pure in natui-e, except occa- 



sionally in the craters of volcanoes, but is usu- 
ally united with carbonic acid gas for which it 
has a strong attraction. In this state it is 
neutral, and insoluble in pure water. When 
lunestone or any other form of carbonate of 
lime is exposed to a sufficiently high tempera- 
ture with access of air or moisture, the carbonic 
acid gas is driven off, and the lime which re- 
mains is called quick or caustic, from its strong 
alkaline reaction. When such lime is plunged 
into water for a short time, or water is potired 
upon it, heat is evolved, the lime swells, cracks, 
gives off much watery vapor, and finally falls 
to a powder. This powder, or slaked lime, is 
a hydrate of lime, water being chemically com- 
bined with it. In this state it is stilb caustic, 
though somewhat m.ilder than when fresh from 
the kiln. 

The rise of temperature is so great when 
large heaps of good lime are suddenly slaked, 
as to inflame gunpowder and scorch wood; it 
certainly exceeds, accordingly to Pelletier, 500°, 
and when the operation is performed in a dark 
place light is also evolved. All sorts of ima- 
ginary causes have been assigned to account 
for these phenomena. They are referable, how- 
ever, to a very simple and universal law. All 
substances during their change from a gaseous 
to a liquid, or from a liquid to a solid state, 
evolve heat, and xice versa. The intense cold 
produced by liquefying ice or snow by admix- 
ture with salt is a familiar instance of the lat- 
ter; and the heat evolved in solidifying car- 
bonic acid under intense cold and pressure is 
sometimes dangerous evidence of the former — 
the expansion of air consequent on the sudden 
liberation of heat from the carbonic acid in 
the moment of congelation, not unfrequently 
shattering the vessel to atoms. 

Lime in slaking will absorb one-fourth its 
weight of water; but the slaked lime is not 
more moist than before. The water unques- 
tionably, therefore, is chemically combined with 
the lime and becomes solidified; and it is sim- 
ply owing to this solidification and chemical 
combination of the water that heat is evolved. 

Caustic lime has a strong affinity for water 
and carbonic acid. When kept in a dry place 
it gradually slackens; cracking, splitting and 
crumbling to powder with the evolution of 
heat — which, however, is not so perceptible on 
account of the length of time during which 
the process is extended — ^just as though it had 
been slaked by pouring on water. In this case 
the luue has obtained the 25 per cent, of water 
it needs to slake it from the atmosphere. There 
is this difference, however, between air slaked 
lime and that which is water slaked. The for- 
mer is slaked precisely as the latter by the ab- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



85 



sorption of water, but it also absorbs carbonic 
acid from the air, and instead of being simply 
a hy^atc of lime, as when water slaked, it is 
a definite compound of hydrate and carbonate 
of lime, 42.6 per cent, of the former, and 57.4 
of ;he latter. Air slaked lime, therefore, is far 
from being so caustic as water slaked — upwards 
of one-half of it being reconverted into the 
same chemical state it was in before bui-ning. 

After the lime has absorbed sufficient water 
and is completely fallen to pieces, carbonic acid 
is absorbed much less rapidly, especially in 
damp situations. In fact, though there is a 
constant tendency in lime to return to the state 
of carbonate in which it existed previous to 
burning, yet, by mere exposure to the air it 
does not attain this state in any assignable 
time. In some walls six hundi-ed years old, 
the lime has been found to have absorbed only 
one-fourth of the carbonic acid necessary to 
convert the whole into carbonate; in others, 
built by the Romans eighteen hundred years 
ago, the proportion absorbed has not exceeded 
three-fourths of the quantity contained in na- 
tural limestone. 

When slaked in the ordinary way, by the 
application of water, Hme falls to pieces with 
the absorption of but little, if any, carbonic 
acid. But when slaked and exposed to the air 
the absorption of carbonic acid is at first very 
rapid, but it gradually becomes more slow, and 
probably the same definite compound of hy- 
drate and carbonate of lime is formed as in 
the case of air slaked lime. 

The original limestone, or any other form of 
carbonate of lime, then, is perfectly mild. By 
driving ofi" the carbonic acid by heat, we get 
lime which is very caustic. By slaking this 
with water, we get a less caustic substance — 
hydrate of lime. By allowing it to air slake, 
we get a still less caustic compound, a definite 
compound of hydrate and carbonate of lime. 
And by exposing it to the air for a sufficient 
length of time, we ultimately get the whole re- 
converted again into its original mild form of 
carbonate of lime. — Rural New Yorker. 



LBIEWATER IN BAKING BREAD. 

In bread-making, the vineous fermentation 
sometimes passes into the acid, thus rendering 
the bread sour and disagreeable. Liebig has 
lately performed a series of experiments to im- 
prove the preparation of bread, from which he 
comes to the conclusion, that the only effective 
and innocuou.s means of improving the quali- 
ties of wheat and rye bread, is limewater. In 
making dough he advises one pint of clear lime- 
water to be used for every five pounds of flour. 



The limewater is first added to the flour, after 
which a sufficient quantity of common water is 
added to work the whole into good common 
dough — the leaven being mixed with water can 
be prepared by sthring some quicklime in a 
vessel containing pure cold water, then allowing 
the sediment to settle. The clear is then to be 
pom-ed oil", and kept in bottles for use. No 
care is required respecting the quantity of lime 
to be stii-red in the water, as it will only take 
up a certain quantity of lime, and no more. 
Those who use saleratus (bicarbonate of soda) 
in the raising of bread, are recommended to 
cease its use, and employ pui-e baker's yeast 
and a little limewater. Our bones are com- 
posed of the phosphate of lime, and those who 
use fine flour require for their health a little 
more lime than is contained in their food. 
Cream of tartar and carbonate of soda are in- 
ferior to common yeast for making healthy 
bread. — Scientific American. 



CHEAP SOAP. 



A correspondent of the " Southern Banner" 
gives the following recipe for soap-making, and 
adds, that it would be worth one thousand dol- 
lars in the hands of a selfish person, and the 
world would have to untie the purse string to 
get it, but here it is free gratis : 

Take six pounds of potash - 75 

Four pounds of lard - - 50 

One-fourth pound of rosin - 25 



All amounting to - - - $ 1 50 
Beat up the rosin, mix all together well, and 
set aside for five days, then put the whole into 
a ten gaUon cask of warm water and stir twice 
a day for ten days, at the expiration of whicli 
time, or sooner, you will have one hundred 
pounds of excellent soap for $1 50. 



AMERICAN HORSES FOR BRITISH CAVALRr. 

During the Canadian rebellion, the English 
sent over to those provinces a considerable body 
of cavah'y. Many of these horses died on the 
voyage, and they were compelled to mount their 
men by purchases in New York, Vermont and 
New Hampshire, along the borders of Canada. 
These animals I saw in Montreal, in exercise. 
They were specimens of the middling sized 
Morgan, with striking marks of blood; and 
Col. Shirley, of the 7th Hussars, informed me 
in 1842 that they were the best cavalry horses 
for all work that he had ever seen ; so good, he 
said, that they were not to be sold when the 
regiment went home, but to be taken to Eng- 
land for u«e. — Address of ,/. Prescott Hall. 



86 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 



For the Soutliern Planter. « 

SOWING CLOVER SEED. 

Mr. luditor, — I have seen several communi- 
cations in your paper recommending clover seed 
to bo sown late in the spring. I concur in that 
suggestion, which is sustained by several years'- 
experiencc in my farming operations. I sow 
my clover seed late in April, after all danger 
of hard frosts is over, and roll or harrow it in, 
having first sprinkled it with water and rolled 
it in plaster. Last spring I sowed several 
bushels about the first of May on some very 
late wheat, and harrowed it in with a two-horse 
harrow. The wheat was not injured, and a fine 
stand of clover was secured on very poor land, 
baked nearly as hard as a brickbat. The har- 
row did not tear up sufficient ground to cover 
half the seed. The whole field was plastered 
iipmediately after harvest, at the rate of half 
a bushel to the acre. On oat-land I sow the 
clovei- seed sometimes after the first harrowing 
and harrow it in, and sometunes after the oats 
are two or three inches high, and roll it in — 
always dressmg the field with plaster as soon 
as the clover is up. The plaster is nearly as 
beneficial to the oats as the clover. 

The object is to avoid the late spring frosts, 
which frequently kill the young clover, to put 
the seed in the ground where it can grow, and 
to nourish it while young with its specific food, 
plaster. 

As an experiment I sowed a few acres of 
wheat early in September last with clover seed. 
It came up well and has thus far stood the 
winter finely. A large farmer in the neighbor- 
hood has practised early fall sowing of clover 
for several years with general success. I, how- 
ever, decidedly prefer late spring sowing, as 
more certaua. If the fall is dry or the winter 
earty and severe, you are apt to lose 3'our young 
clover. 

C. C. B. 

tJ-'Mrldsr. Jim. (iO. 185-J. 



For tlio Soutliern Planter. 

ICE HOUSES. 

There are many conflicting opinions, even 
among people of experience, about the proper 
construction of ice houses. I venture to siib- 
mit my views, with all due deference to those 
of others. 

Chemistry and common sense would teach, 
that the ice house, above the ice, ought not to 
be too hot for a man to stay in, and that the 
external atmosphere ought to be excluded from 
the ice. True, ice exposed to the open air wiU 
keep better, perhaps, than will ice in a box in 



the open air, without being enveloped in a non- 
conductor of heat. I have tested the matter. 
A lump of ice suspended in a basket that will 
let off the water without being wrapped in any 
thing, will melt less than it will in such a box. 
Evaporation is a cooling process, and there may 
be something in the evaporation from the basket 
so suspended. 

Everybody knows that ice standing in water 
will melt ; hence the custom of digging a pit- 
hole at the bottom of the house to receive the 
dribbling water from the ice. But too little 
care is taken to prevent the infiltration of wa- 
ter from the surrounding earth. There ought 
to be a high roof just above the eaves and ex- 
tending under the gable ends of the house. 

There ought to be as free a ventilation as 
possible above the plank floor of the house. 
This may be easily accomplished by slats after 
the fashion of window-blinds, opposite each 
other, in the gable ends. 

My ice house was constructed many years 
ago. It never did keep ice well until the year 
1854. One of my predecessors had, in addi- 
tion to a sink hole at the bottom to receive the 
water, cut a blind ditch leading through a steep 
blufi", as additional security against water. In 
1846 I filled the house heaping full. It only 
held out until July. Thinking that possibly 
the blind ditch might have got choked I dug 
down to it, and opened and poured water into 
the house until I saw it running through the 
ditch at the outlet. I again filled, and still it 
did not last through the summer. T next got 
a notion that the warm atmospheric air, regur- 
gitating from the blind ditch, might be at fault. 
I filled the sink hole with solid clay nearly to 
the top and just above where the blind ditch 
opened into it; then threw in stones, pebbles 
and sand a foot and a half deep, with corn- 
stalks, and my ice kept nearly to October. If 
I had had my high roof and slats above the 
floor constructed early in th-e spring, I believe 
that I could have had it at Christmas, for be- 
fore I constructed them the infiltration from 
the dripping eaves had melted the ice on two 
sides down to the bottom. I took the addi- 
tional precaution of putting sheds sloping just 
beneath the slats in the gable ends down to the 
■height of a man's head,'' and found that they 
not only answered the purpose of breakmg the 
force of the morning and afternoon's sun, but 
furnished convenient shelters for carts, ploughs, 
&c. . Two hands constructed them in two or 
three hours, the materials being ready. 

Fixed air, or more correctly speaking, car- 
bonic acid gas, sometimes settles in ice houses, 
as well as weUs, rendering them incapable of 
supporting respiration. This evil may be very 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



87 



easily remedied by running a bush, wetted with 
strong lime water, up and down a few times. 
Indeed being heavier than atmospheric air, fixed 
air may be dipped out in a close vessel, except 
at the top, gently let down and drawn back 
and carefully tilted over outside. 

One of my servants came near dying from 
this cause. I went to the ice house and found 
that a candle became extinguished about six 
feet below the surface. The limewater and 
bush were run up and down a few times rapidly, 
then the candle immediately burnt brQliantiy 
to the bottom. 

An Irish well-digger lost liis life in my neigh- 
borhood from a disregard of my advice. With- 
out knowing the man I passed him one after- 
noon, and heard a brisk talk between him and 
another Irishman about the air in the well 
which he was digging not being pure enough 
to support the blaze of a caudle. I halted and 
cautioned the poor fellow against going ia there 
until he could get a burning candle or lamp to 
the bottom, assuring him of the complete effi- 
cacy of the bush and limewater. I know, said 
he, •' that wUl do for a mine but it won't do 
for a well." I assured him the cause was the 
same and the remedy the same in both cases — 
again cautioning him to follow my advice at 
the peril of his life. His reply was, -'By 
Jazus, I'll bet you a dollar against ten cents 
that I am right." He went in recklessly the 
next mommg, in spite of the remonstrance of 
his employer, and lost his life by it in an in- 
stant. I passed the place two or three hours 
afterwards and found a crowd around the well, 
trying to get out the dead body. One had 
advised burning chips, and another a chafing- 
dish of burning charcoal — all making the mat- 
ter worse and worse. I went up and with some 
difficulty prevailed upon the other Irishmen 
present to try the bush and lime. A few passes 
of the bush enabled the caudle to burn to the 
bottom, and the dead body was drawn up. So 
much for bigotry — so much for chemistry. 
Some knowledge of it seems necessary, from 
the cook-shop to the palace. Even a good 
cook is a pretty good chemist, without knowing 



Fefrruary 4, 18.5.5. 



T. H. A. 



For the Southern Planter. 
FRUIT TREES AND FRUIT CULTURE. 
Fkank: Gr. RuFFiK, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — The icy hand of winter has been 
on us for the past twenty-three days; the earth 
has been bound up with frost, and the ground 



covered with snow. The cattle have picked 
their food clean, and up to this time have win- 
tered well. The most of our fat beeves have 
gone to market, at prices ranging from %7 to 
$9 50 at home. Up to the 22d of January 
my sheep were not fed a handful, and looked 
remarkably well, being regularly salted once a 
week with other stock. The winter has been 
uniformly di-y and our roads good. Yesterday 
and last night we had a good rain ; the snow is 
disappearing, and a smoky atmosphere indicates 
a thaw. The birds are singing this morning, 
and we may now look for a more genial season. 
The spring is approaching, and I have con- 
cluded to send you a further list of select fruits, 
from which the amateur farmer and all lovers 
of good fruit may select, with the assurance 
that in due time they wiU reap an abundant 
harvest, if tliey labor and faint not. But let 
me admonish them that simply sticking a tree 
in the ground will avail them little, withom 
good after-culture. They may, with the same 
chance of success, plant a field of corn and 
leave it to the grass and weeds. 

To begin right, select your orchard lot, and 
enclose it well with a good fence. I like the 
Jefferson fence best, or a better fence from 
wood is made by a heavy hewed or sawfed post, 
4 mches thick and 9 inches broad, bored with 
a 2-^ inch auger, for 5 large broad rails, with 
the hearts up, well fitted; the posts set in the 
ground 2 feet deep, and the upper rails pinned 
with an inch auger through the post. Such a 
fence, well put together, of locust or cedar 
posts and chestnut rails, will need little repair 
for twenty years. Cherry Grove, the farm now 
owned by Mr. Mc Clung Patton, formerly the 
residence of the late Col. James BIcDowell, 
one mile above Fairfield in our county, has such 
a fence, not of as heavy material as I have de- 
scribed, or as well put up, which I have known 
for thirty-five years; how long it Avas put up 
before I saw it first, I cannot say, but perhaps 
ten or fifteen years ; it is now going to decay, 
but with repairs might yet last ten years. The 
material is chestnut and locust. Col. McDowell 
was an eminently practical man, of great good 
common sense, and one of the best magistrates 
known in the county of Rockbridge. 

I make the Jefierson fence by cutting my 
stakes 62 feet long, sharpening the lower end, 
and make a pin 2 or 2^ inches on top, to fit a 
cap, usually made of chestnut, 1 2 inches thick, 
and bored by a 2 or 2-J- inch auger. These are 
my wet day jobs. The stakes are better to 
be seasoned. Let every thing be prepared in 
winter, or of wet days, and ready for use. 
When needed, take a heavy crowbar 4 or 5 
feet long, a little shiarpened, and one good hand, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



with a correct eye, can set and cap the posts or 
stakes as fast as two men can build the fence. 
I pnt a rock 4 or 5 inches thick between the 
posts, which saves a rail, and keeps the fence 
off the around for a few years. Seven or eio-ht 
rails, with the rock, will make a good fence, 
which should have a worm of 2^ or 3 feet. 
The top rail should be put on the cap. The 
pin of the stake above the cap should be S to 
10 inches. The stakes should be put in the 
ground IS inches. Rails should be made of 
good size, particularly, if made of chestnut, as 
they are not so liable to spring or warp. 

Your orchard being properly enclosed, lay 
off the rows at right angles for peach trees, 
one rood apart, is a good distance; for apple 
trees 30, 35 or 40 feet from each other, owing 
to the quality of the land. On thin lands 30 
feet does very well, but on good lands, with the 
orchard well cultivated and manured, 40 feet 
is better. Some of my trees, planted 20 years 
ago, at 33 feet, are now lapping together where 
the gi'otmd is good. Corn grew here last sum- 
mer 1 and 1-2 feet high. On the hillside there 
is yet ample room. 

3Iy land is generally poor, with occasional 
good spots. It starved out the original pro- 
prietors, who moved to Missouri, and are all 
dead. By a better rotation of crops, two of 
grain and three of gi-ass, and again three of 
gram and two of grass, with a regular appli- 
eation of barn-yard manures, plaster and lime, 
not forgetting the hen-house, my land, after 
twenty years' close application, is paying in 
fair crops, with a fine supply of choice fruits. 
r have labored much of this time with my own 
hands, and have given personal superintendence 
to every part of my business. We are some- 
what systematic in oiu" habits, eating and sleep- 
ing regitlarly, working constantly, but mode- 
rately, and never after night, if to be avoided. 
My family making free use of fruits and vege- 
tables the year round, we have enjoyed almost 
tininterrupted good health. Leaving out mid- 
wifery fees, in twenty years I have not paid 
twenty dollars for medical service, in a family 
ranging from fifteen to twenty persons. 

But I have digressed from the subject in 
hand, and will say to the fruit grower, make 
your holes in which you set your trees large, 
4 feet square and IS inches deep, throwing 
away the subsoil. Fill the holes half full of 
virgin soil or compost manure; set your tree 
in well, about as deep as it formerly stood in 
the nursery; bind it with a wisp of straw to a 
stake, to keep it straight. Keep your trees 
clear of grass, and occasionally work around 
them, cropping and manuring them carefully, 
and in a few years you may e.^pect to enjoy 



the fruits of yotir labor. By the way, the first 
fruits are not always a fair sample of what you 
may expect in after years, being often knotty 
and ill formed when the trees first come into 
bearing. 

I will now present to your readers some se- 
lect varieties of fruit, as raised by myself, or 
highly recommended by others, ripening in 
succession : 

Selection of CJiMce Pears, to lipen from 
Juhj to April. — Madeline, Bloodgood, Dear- 
bon's Seedling, Bartlette, White Doyenne, Sec- 
kle, Surpasse Yirgalieu, Dunmore, Beurre 
Bose, Dix, Columbian, Winter Nelis, St. Ger- 
main. 

Of Peach.— EvLvly Tillotson, 't\Tiite Impe- 
rial, Early Newingtou, Royal George, Grosse 
Miznonne, George lY., Crawford's Early, Ber- 
gen's Yellow, Brevort, Malta, Heath, Large 
White Clingstone, Druid Hill, Lemon Cling- 
stone, Washington, Crawford's Early Malaco- 
tan, Crawford's Late Malacotan, Columbia, 
Prince's Red Rareripe, La Grange, Morris' 
White Rareripe. 

Of Nectarines. — Early Yiolet, Hardwick's 
Seedling, Elrudge, Boston, Hunt's Tawny, Ro- 
man, New White, Newington, Pitmaston's Or- 
ange, Yiolette Hative. 

Of Plums. — Royal Hative, Hudson Gage, 
Green Gage, Jefferson, Huling's Superb, Pur- 
ple Gage, Coe's Golden Drop, Lawrence's Fa- 
vorite, Washington, Coe's Late Red. 

Of Cherries. — Early Pui-ple Guigne, Ban- 
mann's Early, Knight's Early Black, May Duke, 
Bigarrcau, Tartarian, Downer's Late, Belle de 
Choisy, Kentish, Morello, Montmorency. 

Of Currants. — Red and White Dutch, Mayo 
Yictoria, Knisjht's Large Red. Knight's Sweet 
Red. 

Of Gooseberries. — Red Washington, Crown 
Bob, Keen's Seedling, Yellow, Woodward's 
Whitesmith, White Honey, Yellow Ball, Tay- 
lor's Bright Yenus, Pitmaston's Green Gage, 
Green Walnut, Parkinson's Laurel. 

Of Straicberries. — Large Early Scarlet, 
Hovey's Seedling, Ross's Phoenix, Hudson's 
Bay, British Queen, Red and White Alpine, 
Prolific Hautbois, Elton, Old Pine. 

Of Grapes. [Natives.) — Catawba. Bland, 
Ohio, Lenoir and Isabella. 

Of Raspherr]/. — Red and Yellow Antwerp, 
Cretan Red. Franconia. Ohio Everbearing. 
Yictoria. 

Of Apricots. — The Large Early, Breda, 
Peach and Moorpark, are the best. 

I will close this communication by adding a 
list of apples as recommended by Do'ivmng for 
summer, autumn and winter, and would remark 
that trees to pay well must, like corn, be kept 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



89 



clean of gi-ass, and the gi-ound be stirred around 
them occasionally. 

For Summer. — Early Harvest, Red Astra- 
can. Early Strawberry, Drap d'Or, Early Red 
Margaret, William's Favorite. 

For Autumn. — Porter, Fall Pippin, Ross 
Nonpareil, ]NIaiden"s Blush, Jersey Sweet, Fall 
Harvey, "Golden Sweet, Summer Sweet Para- 
dise, Gravenstein, Rambo. 

For Winter. — NewtowTi Pippin, Baldwin, 
Dutch Miznone, Swarr, Esopus Spitzenburg. 
{printed in your February number Cooper), 
I Ladies" Sweeting, Northern Spy, Boston Rus- 
j set. Lady Apple, Rhode I.slaud Greening, Yel- 
low Belie Fleur, Peck's Pleasant, Hereford- 
ghire Pennain. Male Carle, Wine Apple, Ro- 
man Stem, Golden Ball, Green Newtown Pippin. 

Much of the fruit herein named is such as 
I have in cultivation. Other varieties I have 
selected from Downing's Fruit and Fruit Trees 
of America. 

I have a few vines of the Isabella grape 
which have always done well, rarely casting 
their grapes or being mildewed. I usually 
prune in winter, mostly in February, leaving 
three or four eyes. I have sometimes had my 
vines gi-ow twelve or fifteen feet in a season, 
but I cut all away in February except fifteen 
or twenty inches, which throws out the fruit 
bearing vines after the spring frosts ; and with 
a little attention you rarely fail in having a 
crop of grapes. The ground should be kept 
clear of grass and occa.sionally spaded. 

When the season comes romid for making 
apple butter — an article much used in our 
Valley, Pennsylvania and further North — if 
alive and well, I will give you an article on 
that subject. If well made it will keep for 
years. I consider it a most capital prepara- 
tion, of cider, fruit and spices. Fifty gallons 
of cider with six bushels pared and well cored 
apples, will make about twenty gallons, if well 
V^iiled. 

Your obedient servant, 

Henry B. Jones. 

Brmcnxburg . Va... Ftb. 7, 185o. 



For the Soulhern Planter. 
AGRICULTURAL SCIEXCE. 

The .science of agriculture is a practical sci- 
ence; it Is based upon experiment and obser- 
vation, and notliing whatever that contradicts 
the experience of the practical fanner deserves 
one moment's serioixs consideration. 

The infinite goodness and wisdom of the 
Creator are strikingly illusti-ated in -this fact, 
that althoujfh ho has condemned man to earn 



his bread by the sweat of his brow, yet he has 
adapted " the art of deriving from the earth its 
most valuable organic products" to the compre- 
hension of the plainest understanding. Nothing 
more appears to be requisite than good sense, 
industry and attention. Accordingly our ob- 
servation teaches us, that in all civilized coim- 
tries this class of men compose the yeomanry 
of the land — honest, frugal and industrious, 
they form the bone and sinew of every com- 
munitj- — inured to labor, active and enterpris- 
ing, they are always the pioneers in the settle- 
ment of new countries, the most valuable citi- 
zens and the most successful farmers in the old. 
Would this class become better practical far- 
mers if they could receive a collegiate educa- 
tion"/ I think not. Unused to labor during 
the time requisite to complete their educations, 
and conscious of the mental superiority which 
education necessarily inspires, they would never 
consent to return to the drudgery of field labor. 
They would feel themselves better qualified to 
make a livelihood by the efforts of their brains, 
than by the labor of their hands, and they 
would never become practical fanners. 

But we have another class of farmers, a pe- 
culiar race to be found, I believe, nowhere upon 
earth except south of Mason & Dixon's line. 
These men having completed their education 
at the best seminaries of learning, with culti- 
vated minds and liberal views return to take 
possession of their farms provided with abun- 
dant slave labor. They know nothing of prac- 
tical agriculture, it is true, but by careful ob- 
servation and attention, and by the perusal of 
the works of the best authors, in a few years 
they acquire sufficient knowledge of the subject 
to become successful, practical farmers. This 
is the gentleman farmer — a man ijualified by 
education to adorn the councils of a great na- 
tion, and compelled by circumstances to attend 
to the details of farm operations. These con- 
.stitute the only nobility of a free people. God 
forbid that this race should ever cease to exist. 

If the advantages conferred upon the prac- 
tical farmer by a collegiate education were as 
great as they have been represented, this fact 
would have been more strikingly manifest in 
Virginia than in any other State. Gentlemen 
thoroughly acquainted with all the sciences 
usually taught in the best seminaries of learn- 
ing, have settled in every county and in almost 
every neighborhood. These long since would 
have demonstrated to their uneducated neigh- 
bors, the great benefits conferred upon the 
practical farmer by a collegiate education in 
the improved culture of their farms and in the 
increased products of their crops, they would 
liave exhibited the great advantanjes to ha do- 



90 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



rived from the application of science to practi- 
cal agriculture. 

But so far as my observation extends this is 
certainly not true. A methodical training in 
early life of the uneducated farmer in habits 
of industry and attention, appear to me to have 
given him the most decided advantages over 
his scientific neighbor. 

The science of agriculture has no " kindred 
science." It claims no affinity, no relationship 
with any other science whatever. In vain have 
I sought for one single fact which proves con- 
clusively the benefits conferred upon agricul- 
ture by any other science. 

The science of chemistry " enables us to 
discover the peculiar properties of all natural 
bodies either in their simple or compound state." 
This is an important science, and one which 
has undoubtedly conferred inestimable benefits 
on mankind. But how can this science promote 
the interest of agriculture ? Of what benefit 
would it be to the practical farmer to under- 
stand that sugar and wood are composed of the 
same elementary substances differently com- 
bined, when his business it is to rear plants to 
perfection at the least labor and expense "? 

If the farmer wishes to know what poisonous 
substance is contained in tobacco, the analysis 
of the chemist would demonstrate it to his en- 
tire satisfaction. He would separate the nico- 
tin from it and prove this to be the poisonous 
principle; but this science certainly would not 
enable the farmer to grow better crops of to- 
bacco, or even teach him how to cause the plant 
io produce a greater rjuantity of this narcotic 
poison. 

The science of chemistry has no relation to 
the science of agriculture, and consequently I 
believe there is no such science as that of agri- 
czdtiiral chemistry, for reasons which I shall 
Eow assign. 

1 . It contradicts the experience of the prac- 
tical farmer in the assertion that diiferent plants 
requii'e difierent kinds of nutriment, for every 
practical farmer knows that however poor land 
may be, if well manured it will perfect any 
crop that ever grew in Virginia. 

2. The analysis of all similar vegetable and 
aaimal substances are alike, whether they be 
obtained from the north pole or under the equa- 
tor, nor do the results of analysis differ with 
the quality of the food consumed by them during 
life. 

3. The processes of digestion and nutrition 
are chemical processes. This is strikingly ex- 
emplified by budding the lemon upon the orange 
tree. It would be as vain for the chemist to 
attempt by analysis to demonstrate the existence 
of the citric acid of the lemon in the sap of tlio 



orange tree, as to show the presence of wine of 
vinegar in the juice of the grape previous to 
the vinous or acetous fermentation. 

4. If the mineral salts found by analysis in 
the ash of plants are the same which were de- 
rived from the earth dm-ing tlieir growth, this 
would prove that they did not serve as nutri- 
ment to the plants, not being chemically changed. 

5. Combustion being a chemical process, the 
analysis of the ash of plants cannot possibly 
demonstrate the same salts which existed in 
them previous to combustion. 

6. These mineral salts cannot be proved to 
be the food of plants when separate from the 
ashes which contained them. 

7. All soils, no maticr how poor, or by iviiai 
jjrocess exhausted., inay he made exceedingly 
fertile loithout the addition of any substance 
■whatever. 

With a soil naturally exceedingly fertile and 
a climate most propitious, with labor cheap and 
efficient, and a farming population, intelligent, 
energetic and industrious, why is it that the 
lands in Virginia are so deplorably impover- 
ished ? I answer, because the Virginia farmer 
attempts that which he is unable to perform — 
he attempts to preserve the fertility of his cul- 
tivated land by manure made on the land, 
which no labor, no energy, no industry, can 
possibly enable him to accomplish; it is inevi- 
tably doomed to ultimate exhaustion. 

This is the true cause of the impoverished 
condition of the land, not only in Virginia, but 
in every other country in which it has been 
cultivated in large tracts. I believe that no 
example can be found in the v/orld of the pre- 
servation of the fertility of land under culti- 
vation, except in those countries where they 
have been cultivated in very small tracts. 

If the farmers of Virginia will discard all 
erroneous opinions with regard to the collection 
and application of manure, and rely solely upon 
the restoration to the soil of that natural pro- 
vision for vegetable life, mould, that is, manure 
made of the earth itself, caused by shade, \ 
confidently predict that in a few years Virginia 
will become one of the most fertile, as well as 
one of the most beautiful countries under heaven . 
R. T. Baldwin-. 

Winchester, December, 1854. 



Friiin tlie Southern Farmer. 

EXPERIMENT IN SEEDING OF OATS. 

Messrs. Editors, — As the time for seeding 
of oats is near at hand, I take the libertyof 
sending you tlie following experiments with 
their results, which were given me by the Prince 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



■ 91 



George Hole and Corner Club, No. 1, at its 
February meeting, 1854, of which I was then 
a member. If you think them worthy of no- 
tice, you may make them public. Being a 
farmer of limited means, I was unwilling to 
risk a larger outlay for manures than is shown 
below; nevertheless, small as it is, it may be 
of some benefit to the farming community. 
Very respectfully, yours, 

JoHX Batte. 
Prince George, Jan. 11, 1855. 



EXPEKIMEXT 
To Ttsi the Relative Vcdue of Superphosphate of Lime 
and Peruvian Guano applied to Oats; also, Ihe 
Relative Value of Different Quaniities of Manure 
as well as Thick and Thin Seeding of Oats, made 
by Johri Batte, by order of the Hole and Corn':r 
Club, yo. 1, of Priiiec George Covjity. 

No. 1. — Quarter acre, 84 lbs. seed 13| 
cents, 50 Ib.s. superphos. at 345 per 

2000 lbs. 51 12i cents SI 20i 

Yield 176 lbs. oats at SI 25 per 100 

lbs S2 20 

Deduct cost of seed and superphos. 1 26} 

Profit of No. 1 93i 

No. 2. — Quarter acre, 8i lbs. seed 1.3f 
cents, 50 lbs. Peruvian guano, -at 

S55 per 2000 lbs. SI 37^ 1 51 i 

Yield 389 lbs. of oats, at SI 25 ... . 5 34 

Deduct cost of seed and guano 1 51i 

Profit of No. 2 3 82? 

No. 3. — Quarter acre, 8j lbs. seed, at 
13f cents, 25 lbs. guano, at $55 per 

2000 lbs. 631 cents 82i 

Yield 256 lbs. oats, at $1 25 3 20 

Deduct cost of seed and guano 82^ 

Profit of No. 3 ." 2 371 

No. 4. — Quarter acre, 5| lbs. seed, at 9i 
cents, 25 lbs. guano, at ff^oo per 

2000 lbs, 68| .. 78 

» Yield 275 lbs. oats, at Jfl 25 3 44 

Deduct co.st of seed and guano 78 

Profit of No. 4 2 GG 

I would here state that these experiments 
were made on a spring fallow, after oats. 

J. B. 



should be twice as high' as the front, say the 
back 9 feet high, the front 4 feet 6 inches high. 
A few inches space should be left behind the 
back for the insertion of horse-dung to rai.se 
the heat — a top or frame must be made to 
stretch the cotton cover over, to be attached 
by hinges for the convenience of being raised. 
up to give air to the plants. The cotton is to 
be oiled when tacked on — yellow pine is the 
best plank to use for the purpose. 

The hot-bed can either be made on the .sur- 
face, or by sinking the frame a few inches. 
The manure should be horse-dung, and it should 
be turned over, shaken and well mixed with a 
dung fork as being put in on the bed; every 
now and then beat it down with the back of 
the fork, continue this process until the dung 
is about 4 feet in depth in the frame, when it 
must be left to settle down 6 or 7 inches, \vhieli 
it will do in 8 or 10 days. When the dung is 
put in, lower down the frame to raise the heat. 
When the heat is sufficiently raised, then put 
on 4 or 5 inches of dry mould or earth, rake 
it smooth and even, and then your hot-bed will 
be fit to receive any seed that you desire to 
sow upon it. When the bed is first made, fill 
up the space behind it with horse dung. 

Time of Smving the Seeds. — Nearly all 
Kinds of plants are ready to set out in from 6 
to 8 weeks from the time of sowing, and by 
keeping this fact in mind you can very easily 
regulate the time of sowing your seed, making 
the time when in your locality the plants may 
be safely set out, the governmg point as to the 
time of sowing the seeds. As an average of 
time, it would, perhaps, be best to allow but six 
weeks for the growth of the plants. 

ManagcmeJit of the Hot-Bed. — On every 
good day in mild weather, the sash should be 
raised a few inches in mid-day, to admit air 
and graduate heat. Of nights and in cold, 
bad weather in the day time, the hot-bed should 
be covered with matting or straw. — Am. Far. 



MAKING HOT-BEDS. 

That all may know how to get up a cheap 
hot-bed, we will point out an inexpensive plan 
to such as may object to glasa frames on the 
tcore of expense. To such we will remark, 
that the glass may be very advantageously sub- 
stituted by cotton cloth, which will be found 
en trial to' be a very effective conductor of light 
andyheat. 

For most families a hot-bed 12 feet long the 
width of the border will answer. The border 
should have a warm southern exposure. Such 
a frame can be made by any person who can 
nail planks together. The back of the frame 



BIBLE BONES, 



An old man once said, " For a long period I 
puzzled myself about the difficulties of the 
Scripture, until at last I came to the resolu- 
tion that reading the Bible was like eating fish. 
When I find a difficulty, I lay it aside and 
call it a hone. Why should I choke on the 
bono, when there is so much nutritious meat 
for me? Some day, perhaps I may find that 
even the bone may afford me noui'ishment.'' 

Would that there were less ai incldtTg of 
hones., and more of feasting -on the substantial 
food with which Infinite Love has spread the 
spiritual board ! — Parish Visitor. 



92 



THE SOUTHERK PLANTER. 



BOOK FARMING, 



SpeakiDg upon this subject, the Hon. Ken- 
neth Rayner, in his address before the North 
Carolina State Agricultural Society, says : "At 
the time this prejudice was first excited, I am 
inclined to think there was some reason for it." 
It attempted (we do not quote his exact words) 
to bring foreign practices into countries with a 
different soil and climate, as well as different 
wants. But science, united with practice, Soon 
exposed the fallacy of such book farming as 
this. Because turnips, and beans and hops are 
among the most profitable crops in England, is 
no reason why they should be so here. Be- 
cause blue grass is so valuable a crop in the 
limestone regions of Kentucky, is no reason 
why we should exhaust our energies in trying 
to establish its general culture in North Caro- 
lina. Such errors as these, such book farming 
as this, it is the purpose of scientific agriculture 
to point out. — Rural New Yorker. 



may, not a hill needed replanting or setting. 
This experiment, however, 1 do not consider a 
fair test. All the seed here used was "doctored" 
as above, and non constat that the result would 
not have been the same, if no ointment had been 
wsed; but this it does, it settles that the prescrip- 
tion does no injury. This is more than cart Se 
said of every body's prescription. 

Of another field, neither so foul nor wet. which 
was planted without preparing the corn, I had 
to replant portions more than once, and then did 
not secure a good stand. 

The object of this note is to ask the attention 
of corn planters to the proposed remedy, in the 
hope that some will try it and report the result. 
The friend above referred to is not only one of 
the best farmers in the county, but you will not 
find a more reliable man inside of God's crea- 
tion. What he says you may regard as a fixed 
fact. I hope "Dick" may be induced to give 
the experience of his warfare against the cut- 
worm. 

S. Bassett Fhench. 

Whitly, Feb.l, 1855. 



CREOLE BUTTER. 

The neighbors of a certain lady in the Fourth 
District of New Orleans, have recently disco- 
vered the nature of something that has seemed 
a miracle, for months past. They knew the lady 
had but one cow, says the Crescent, and they 
knew also that the lady's two little negroes ped- 
dled as much Creole butter daily as could be 
produced by half a dozen common cows. In- 
quisition got so high on the subject at last, that 
the lady has let out the secret, and in its travels 
it ha.s reached us. She told a friend that her 
cow was only a common cow, and did not pro- 
duce any butter, but yielded milk enough in 
which to re-cliurn any quantity of strong Goshen 
butter, which she buys by wholesale at the gro- 
ceries, and converts by liie said re-churning in 
nevi milk, to that pale, sweet delicacy known as 
Creole butter, whicfi always commands the 
highest of prices. She added, also, that by this 
process she had made a clear profit, since June 
last, oi' twelve hundred dollars! One cow is not 
much, but one cow and Yankee ingenuity toge- 
ther are considerable. Our authority in this 
matter is indisputable, and the speculation is 
worth imitating. — Petersburg Ex-press. 



For the Southern Planter. 



CUT-WORM. 



Air. Planter., — A friend of mine once informed 
me that be believed if you would tar your seed 
corn and then roll it in fine salt you would find 
a remedy against the ravages of the cut-%corm. 
I tr'ed this recipe last year (1854) on a very low 
ano wet bottom, aiming to drop five grains to 
ihe hill. Every grain, 1 verily beheve, grew off 
and so continued until thinned. Be this at it 



HOUSEHOLD MEASURES. 

As all families are not provided with scales 
and weights referring to ingredients in common 
use by every housewife, the following may be 
useful : 

Wheat flour, one pound is one quart. 

Indian meal, one pound two ounces is one 
quart. 

Butter, when soft, one pound one ounce is 
one quart. 

Loaf sugar, one pound is one quart. 

White sugar, powdered, one pound one ounce 
is one quart. 

Best broflm sugar, one pound two ounces i^ 
one quart. 

Eggs, average size, ten eggs are one pound. 

Sixteen large table-spoonfuls are half a pint, 
eight are one gill, four half a gill, &c. 



CONTENTS OF NUMBER HI. 

Essay on the Horse, part I - - 
Remarks on Growth of Sorrel, by .E. RuSin 
Growth of Pines 

A pjood plain Curry ' . _ . 

Apple Jelly . . - - 

Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato, by 

Prof J. L. Campbell, 
Live and not Weight."* of Mattoa 
Dr. Baldwin'.s Shade Theory 
Analysis of Soils . - - . 

Useful Hints for Virt;iiiia Gardeaers 
Buckwheat _ - - - . 

Cultivation of IndiaiB Gorr, 
Egirs, Convent Fashion 
Enlargini^ the Planter 

Horticultural - _ . . 

A certain cure for Scroi'ttlio. 
Pay up — To doliaqsLente 



PAGE 

65 
70 
73 
73 
7-3 

73 
75 
7S 
77 
78 
80 
30 
. 80 
81 



THE 



SOUTHEEN PLANTER. 



93 



Hitching the tail to the Plough 

Lime and its Chemical Changes 

Lime Water in baking Bread 

Cheap Soap - - - 

American Horses for British Cavalry 

Sowing Clover Seed - 

Ice Houses - . . 

Fruit Trees and Fruit Culture 

Agricultural Science 

Experiment in Seeding Oats 

MaMng Hot Beds 

Bible Bones - - - 

Book Farming - - - 

Creole Butter 

Cutworm - ~ - 

Household Measures 



84 
84 
85 
85 
85 
86 
86 
87 
89 
90 
91 
.91 
• 92 
92 
92 
92 



PAYiVJENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 

To the -ISlk of February, 1855. 

All persons who have made payments early enough to 
le entered, and whose names do not appear in the following 
eceipt list, are requested to give immediate notice of the 
mission, in order that the correction may be made in the 
lext issue : 



r. R. Thompson to January 1856 

'apt. Samuel Haraway to September 1855 

0. Scott to January 1856 
Fohn Jacob to January 1856 
r. Kosson to January 1856 

E. Bowles to January 1856 
'ames B. Jones to January 1856 
7. H. Roy to January 1855 
. R. Mottley to July 1855 
1. Brown to January 1856 
'. Preston to July 1856 
)r. J. 0. Leary to January 1856 
V. G. Rogers to January 1856 

P. Fickle to September 1855 

Houser to January 1856 
V. H. Leavitt to January 1856 

Whitehead to January 1856 

Harris to Januai-y 1856 
)r, J. N. Faulcon to September 1855 

01. W. Crawford to January 1856 
Foote " " 
W. B unveil " 1855 

(avid Neff' to March 1856 ' 
iobert Pollard to January " 
erij. Sumner " " 

ol, R. W. Carter 

Clark 

lobert L. Brown '• ' 

niliam Gordon " 

. G. Tur]-,in 

enj. Vaughan to April '■■ 
apt. J. Lucius Davis to January 18Si6 
ames R. GillcHpie '•' 

ol. J. B. Lindsay 
W. Baxter « 

imer-) Williams " 

ohn W. Bovd " 

. W. Notling « « 

r, J, B. Harvie ■" 1857 

irae-s V. Kirkpatrick U. October 1855 
3hn Binton to January 1856 
•".muel F. Chri.stian to November 1865 
A. McPhetc-rs to January 1866 
. T Lanie- ' " 

P. Smitb " ISiij 



1 00 



m 



W. S. Harris to January 185G 

Robert Norfleet " " 

Wm. W. McGee " 

Rev. John T. Clark " 

Samuel T. Miller " " 

Chiswell Winston " 1865 

S, S. Alsop " 1856 

Dr. J. E.Hardy 

Dr. J, C. McDowcl " " 

J. J. Erwin " " 

R. F. Ward 

Dr. R. Shore 

R. H. Boston to September 1855 

D. A. Saunders to January 1856 

Alex. Brown " " 

Col. W. A. Dozier '= 1859 

Daniel Jones '" 1866 

11. L. Patterson to July " 

Jos. R. Gillespie to January " 

J. T. Tabb to July 

W. VY. Hancock to January " 

J. W. L. Fauntleroy '• " 

J. G. Ambler to September 1855 

Col. Chas. Blue to January 1856 

Robert Carmichael " " 

Capt. David Pugh " " 

Col. Thos. Carscadon " '• 

W. S. Major " " 

G. W. Key 

William Houchins " 

Henry Hughes 

Warner T. Cooke 

Robert Beverly to July 1855 

Dr. R. N. Hew'itt to January 1856 

Thomas C. Chandler " '' 

Thomas L. Page " " 

Col. J. Hargrove 

Thomas S. Watson 

J. R. Barksdale 

Gen. 0. G. Clay 

William Woodson " " 

George E.Geddv " " '\ 

W. L. Taylor " " { 

L.J.Waller " " ' 

M. M. Martin " " { 

Felix Pierce " " 

B. F. Piggott " " J 

A. D. Martin 

Wm. Grimes 

W. T. Sledge « 

Dr. S. Patrick to January 1856 

Gen. ■'. B. Harvie to July " 



1865 
1865 



1857 
1866 



CLnB 



Dr. R. E. Lewis 
Capt. F. Doyle 
Wm. C. Powell 
R. C. Rives 
E. 0. Fitzgerald 
Capt. Wm. Thomas 
Wm. FellOD 
Wm. Small 
C. W. Word 
M. P. Hatherway 
Peter Williams 
Jas. H. Hyatt 
Jos. Morrja 
W. White 
G. W. Brooks 
Wm. Newbold 



1 



1 CO 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


63 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


3 75 


1 00 


1 00 


4 00 


1 00 


2 00 


1 CO 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


ioo 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


2 50 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


2 00 


1 oo 


1 00 


2 00 


1 90 


1 00 


2 00 



5 OO 



1 00 
1 00 

1 00 

2 00 
1 00 



to January 1856 5 00 



to Janaary 1866 9 OO 



J 



Benj. M. Hamblet t* January 1866 1 00 

G. A. Hallo way " " 1 00 

James Haya, Sr. to September 1866 1 00 

Dr TignaU J^oues to Janoaxy 1868 3 00 



94 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Dr. N. S. Waller to January 1856 

L. Partlow 

O. M. Crutclifield 

F. K. Nelson 

H. B. Styren to December 1855 

Br. R. H. Macon to September 1855 

M. R. Kaufman to January 1856 

S. A. Buckner to July 1856 

Dr. 0. F. Baxter to January 1856 

Geo. C. Hannah " " 

John H. Steger " " 

Robt. A. Wilson 

Samuel P. AVilson September 1855 

J. A, Dalby to January 1856 

H. G. Richardson to July 1856 

E. N. Price to January 1856 

Maj. J A. AVatson " 

J. J. Walker 

H. J. Venable 

B. F. Terry " " 

J. A. Scott 

H. A. Puryear " " 

Siach & Boza " " 

Br.Thos. J. William " " 

Beirerly R. Jones " " 

A. IDunlap " " 
E. Gresham " " 

B. W. Bailey 

Dr. A. T. B. Merritt to April 1855 
A. H. Drewry to January 1855 
T. Foster " 1856 

G. W. Kemper " 1855 

C. 11. Moseley " 1856 
Wm. K. Perrin " " 
W. A. Sweet 

Colin Bass " " 

Mrs. A. L. Ingles 

H. J. Graves " " 

R. B. Winfree 

John T. Gresham " " 

Sam'l Cocke to March " 

W. H. Vaughan to January " 

Wm. B. Lee 

John Hodges " " 

Archibald Gills to July 1855 

N. W. Harris to January 1856 

Wm. Anderson " " 

Wm. J. Martin , ," " 

J. J. Scott to December 1855 

E. W. Scott to January 1856 
Mrs. Dr.W. B. Smith " 

C. A. Morton " " 

Wm. E. Bradshaw to April " 
P. S. Smithson to May " 
C. C. Read to March 1855 
W. II. Venable to January 1856 
Robert Maddox " " 

Peter McGehee to July 1855 

F. Eppes to January 1856 
■ Dr. J. W. Eppes " 

John T. Goodwin • 

Dr. R. E. Haskins " 

Bcnj. Wigginton " 1853 

Wm. Cowherd " 1850 

Col. Clias. Couno:- ■' 

Dr.W. A. Christian ' 

S. Hansberger " 

Peter F. Boisseau '' 

0. T. Jones 

Isaac B. Edwards ■ 

R. W. Griswold 

Wm. .Anderson ' ■' 



1 00 


3 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


2 00 


1 00 


1 00 


4 00 


2 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


4 75 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


3 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 70 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 


I 00 


1 (10 


1 00 


1 00 


1 00 



Moses T. Hughes to April 1855 
P. B. Jones to July 1855 
Thos. R. Dew to January 1856 
Rev. Sabel Taylor to January 1856 
Mrs. C. L. Armistead to January 1856 

A. J. Grayson to January 1856 

Col. W. II. Sandford to January 1856 
Archer W. Womack to January 1856 
Asa D. Dickinson to September 1856 
J. M. McNutt to November 1856 

B. S. Scott to November 1855 
Richard V. Watkins to January 1856 
Fred. Jackson to January 1856 
Wm. G. Maddox to January 1856 
Richard B. Lyne to January 1855 
John Smith to July 1855 

James Martin to January 1856 
W. D. Mansfield to January 1856 

C. C. Curtis to January 1859 
W. D. Blanton to October 1855 
Jos. C. Burton to January 1855 
Rev. Thos. Kennerly to January 1856 
G. W. Massey to January 1856 

Jos. Kennerly to January 1856 
R. Cauthorn to January 1856 
Peter D. Samuel to January 1858 
Chas. H. Winfree to January 1856 
Absolom Rowe to March 1856 
Joseph Kenderson to January 1856 
S. R. Hollins to January 1856 
James Sale to January 1856 
John W. Wilson to January 1856 
F. N. Watkins to January 1856 

F. P. Wood to April 1854 
J. D. Ligon to May 1856 

Dr. J. T. Spencer to January 1856 
Thos. Goode to January 1850 
Edward Tarry to January, 1856 
Jos Venable to July 1855 
C. C. Baldwin to July 1854 
Annanias Hancock to January J.856 
John H. Clarke to January 1850 
Mrs. Lucy C. Binford to March 1856 

G. A. Smith to January 1850 
John AVilson to September 1850 
Isaac Ilincle to January 1850 
W. Sayre to November 1856 
Jas. T. Calhoun to January 1856 
Dr. D. Patteson " " 
Lewis C. Botts " " 
Wm. Mays 

Hiram Hansborough " " 

J. Smith 

J. B. French, 

Col. John H. White to July 1855 

Robert J. T, White to September 1855 

P. H. Jackson to January 1856 

W. M. Womack 

Rev. J. H. C. Leach " 

Melville M. Jones " 1857 

S. B. Scott " 1856 

Wm. T. Johnson 

T, N. Gee " 1857 

Wm. A. Scott to September 1855 

M. W. AVoods to Januarv 1855 

James C. Gates " 1856 

Chas. S. Thompson to July 1855 

John Trimble " " 

Col. Jose))h Dupuv to January 1850 

Edward Hill 

J, W. Taylor 

Thos. Henderson to July 1855 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



95 



apt. H. C. Patterson to July 1855 
("endol Chiles to January 1856 
rolin A. Fleet " " " 

Tames H. McKinnev " 1855 

rohn Chandler " " 1856 

B, McGehee to April 1853 

H. Madison " 1856 

V. A. Armistead " •■ 
V. H. Carter . " '•' 

G. Perkinson " '"' 

Vlaj. E. F. Eedd to January 1856 

. F. Morton . " " 

?rancis Fitzgerald " '■ 

fm. H. Whiting " 

OS. Purkins '• '■ 

B. Jones ■ '• 
arshall L. Harris '■ - " 

C. Dickinson " 1855 
lenj. C. Watkins, to Sept. " 
acob Morton to June " 

I. H. Osborne to January 1856 

N. Talifaro 

T. Alexander, " " 

[ichael Whitmore to Sept. 1855 
ohn L. Henshaw to January 1856 

H. Suttle 



10 00 



SUFFOLK SWINE.— The same stock that took 
J the fir.«t premium at Baltimore, 1853 — '54, New 
ork, State Fair at New York, Vermont, at Battle 
!oro' and at Greenfield, Mass., 1854, being eshibi- 
i(l at no other places. 

The present stock is the product of seven differ- 
Dt importations, from different parties and has 
ever in any instance been bred-in-and-in to the 
ime relations, and contains more desirable points 
lan any other stock in Europe or America. Refer 
) Charles B. Calvert, Riversdale, Md., Thomas A. 
iardy, Esq., Norfolk, Va., and Martin Goldsbor- 
nsh, Baltimore, Md. 

mh2t GEO. W. WILSON, Maiden, Mass. 



i,T ERINO .SHEEP.— Having increased my flock of Me- 
Vj. rino Sheep on my farm, in Orange county, to over 
JO I am now prepared to sell a few choic» yearling Bucks 
id Ewes. To all who have any acrjuaintance with Col. 
enry S. Randall of" New York, and the reputation of his 
x;k, it 13 only necessary to say that the yearhngs I pro- 
;st selling are the product of ewes purchased of him when 
2 sold out last year, and selected by him personally as the 
;st in his flock. I have his letters, saying that he was 
Ferf d the same price for his ewes by his neighbors, but 
at in starting the growth of fine wool in Virginia it was 
:ry important to have good sheep, and as he knew these 
ere superior, he preferred selling them to go there. I 
lall sell no bucks excep' such as show marks of supe- 

rity. All who want to raise their flocks to a high Btand- 
d at once will do well to apply early, as I have but a 
aited naraber for sale. Address by mail, or apply to 
WM. G. CREN.SHAW, or 
CRENSHAW & CO., 

cnc— tf North side of the Basin, Richmond, Va. 

M'CONXELT. & BURTOK, 

DENTISTS, 

ain Street, between 9th and 10th Street-?, Richmond, Va. 

torm MCONNELL. W. LEIGH BUBTON. 

^F^'f 

iNE HUNDP.ED THOUSAND PEAR TREES.— 
/ Or Pear and Qnince roots for sale by 

0. VV. WILSON, Maiden, Mass. 
l^' Refer to Thos. A. 'lardy, E.sq., Norfolk, Va., 
tiarles B. Calvert, Riv'-.^idtle, Md., and Samuel 
H)de, Baltimore. mh2t 



DR. McLANE'S VERMIFUGE. 

.1N0THEB MEDICAL WITNE.SS. 
It is no small evidence of the intrinsic value of tliis 
great Vermifuge, when even physicians, who are generally 
prejudiced against patent medicines, voluntarily come for- 
ward and testify to its triumphant success in expelling 
worms. Read the following: 

Harrisokville, Shelby Co., Ky., April 2, 1849. 

J. KiDD & Co. — I am a practising physician, residing 
permanently in this place. In the year 1843, when a resi- 
dent of the State of Missouri, I became acquainted with the 
superior virtues of Dr. McLane's Vermifuge. At some more 
leisure moment, I will send you the result of an e-\periment 
I made with one vial, in expelling upwards of 900 worms. 

L. CARTER, M. D. 

Subpurchasers will be careful to ask for "Dr. McLane's 
Celebrated Vermifuge," and take none else. All other ver- 
mifuges, in comparison, are worthles.s. Dr. McLane's genu- 
ine Vermifuge, also his celebrated Liver Pills, can now be 
had at all respectable Drug .Stores in the United States and 
Canada. 

A GREAT BLESSING TO THE AFFLICTED. 

|.^y The number and formidable character of diseases 
of the Liver have long challenged the attention of medical 
men. Some of these diseases, classed under the general 
term of Consumption, have been supposed incurable and 
the unhappy patient allowed to die without medical science 
to offer him a hope of recovery. Happily this can no longer 
be the case. A remedy has been found which will cure all j. 
complaints, of whatever character, arising from derangement ' 
of the Liver. The Pills discovered by Dr. McLane, of Vir- 
ginia, act directly on the Liver; and by correcting its ope- 
ration and purifying it from disase, cuts off and e.xtirpateB 
the complaints which have their origin in the diseases of 
this organ. Remedies hilherto proposed for liver complaints, 
have failed to operate upon the seat of the disease; but Dr. 
McLane's Pills make themselves felt upon the action of the 
Liver, and by cleansing the fountain, dry up the impure 
streams of disease which thence derive their existence. 

[J!^' Purchasers will be careful to ask for Dr. McLane's 
Celebrated Liver Pills, and take none else. There are other 
Pills, purporting to be Liver Pills, now before the public. 
Dr. McLane's Liver Pills, also his Celebrated Vermifuge, 
can now be had at all respectable Drug Stores in the United 
States and Canada. 

For sale by PURCELL, LADD & CO. 

malt Corner Main and 14th streets, Richmond. 

lELD, GARDEN AND FLOWER SEEDS, AGRE- 
CULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL IMPLE- 
MENTS, &c. — The subscribers have established, in con- 
nection with their extensive Agricultural and Horticultural 
Implement Establishment in Philadelphia, a Seed Farm, for 
growing all kinds of seeds for Farm and Garden, which 
they are now able to supply, fresh and genuine, in every 
variety. Merchants and Dealers supplied at a liberal die- 
count. A choice selection of rare Flower Seeds — 20 fine 
varieties, neatly put up in fancy boxes, for one dollar. 

They are also prepared to supply, either by wholesale or 
retail, every description of Agricultural and Horticultural- . 
Implements, with all the recent improvements, being sole 
agents in Philadelphia for many of the best ones now in 
the market, for which they received over seventy premiuins 
at the la.st Pennsylvania State Fair, 

They have also for sale Red and White Clover, Timothy, 
Herd's Grass, Kentucky Blue Grass, Rye Grass, Orchard 
Grass, Alsike Clover, Lucerne, Sainfoin, Sweet Scented 
Vernal, Foxtail, F'escues, and other Foreign Grasse.s. 

Implement, Seed and Nursery C,atalogue.s furnished to 
all post-paid applications. 

PASCHALL MORRIS & CO., 
Agricultural Warehouse and Seed Store, 

fe3t N. E corner 7th and Market, Philadelphia. 



SAMUEL S. COTTRELL, SADDLE AND HARNESS 
MANUFACTURER, Wholesale and Retail, No. 118 
Main Street, Richmond, Virginia, having received the first 
premium at the Fair of the Virginia Mechanics Institute, 
feels confident he can plea.^.e all persons in w.int of any ar 
tide in Lis line. fely 



96 



THE SOUTHERA^ PLANTER. 



RURAL PUBLICATIONS.— The Illustrated An- 
nual Register of Rural Affairs and Ciiltivator 
Almanac for 1855, embellislied with more than one 
iaindrcd engravings, 1 vol, 12 mo. 144 pp. — pi^ce 
25 cents in paper covers — bound, 50 cents — sent 
prepaid by mail. 

The Illustrated Annual Register has been pre- 
pared with special regard to the wants of our rural 
population, and we hazard little in saj'ing that 
it will afford more valuable information on the 
several subjects of which it treats, than has ever 
before been presented at so small a cost. The 
chapters on Country Dwellings — Improving and 
Planting Grounds, and the Culture of Fruit, have 
been prepared by Mr. J. J. Thomas, with his usual 
taste and ability, expressly for this work, and are 
each well worth more than its cost. 

The Country Gentleman, a Weekly Journal for 
the Farm, the Garden and the Fireside, forming 
yearly two large and beautiful quarto volumes 
of 416 pages each. Price, $2,00 a year — Three 
copies for S5. 

This journal, which has now been published 
nearly cwo years, combines in one large sheet, 
an A,gricultural, Horticultural and Family Journal, 
furnishing, besides its large amount of practical 
matter on Rural Affairs, in its Fireside Department, 
a choice collection of articles peculiarly adapted 
to interest and exalt the views and aims of the 
family circle, together witli a careful digest of the 
news of the week, and a full report of the produce 
and cattle markets. 

•'I consider the Country Gentleman decidedly the 
I'Cft Agricultural paper in the country." — A sub- 
scriber in Ohio. Another, in the same State saj's: 
" I consider it tJu best of sixteen agricultural papers 
vrhich I take.'' 

• By far at the head of the Agricultural Jour- 
nals of the United States.'' — A subscriber in 
Vermont. 

'•Your paper is indubitably ihc best paper in the 
country." — A subscriber in Massachusetts. 

"Decidedly the best Agricultural publication in 
the country." — Hudson Gazette. 

"It is without a rival." — 'Winsted Herald. 

''■ The neatest and the best paper of its kind.' — 
Woonsocket Patriot. 

We could easily fill a column with similar com- 
mendatory notices from subscribers and the press. 

The C xiltivator — a monthly Journal for the Far- 
mer and the Horticulturist, beautifully illustrated 
and forming an annual volume of nearly 400 pages, 
at -50 cents a year. Clubs of 20, will be furnished 
with The Cultivator and The Illustrated Annual 
Register, to each, for SIO. 

This work, which has now been published for 
twenty years, is too well known in every part of 
the Union, to need commendation. It is believed 
that it is not too much to say that it has always 
enjoyed the reputation of ranking as the first of 
onr monthly rural journals. 

Specimens and Prospectuses sent to those dis- 
posed to act as Agents. Address the publisher, 

mhlt LUTHER TUCKER, Albany, N. Y. 

BADY ON THE lOTH OP MARCH.— History 

of the Hen Fever, by George P. Burnham, 20 

Illustrations. An original humorous account of 

the Poultry Mania, by one who has been there. 

Price SI, 23 in clotli, S1,00 in paper by mail. 

Everybody who loves to laugh, buys it. Address 

JAMES FRENCH & CO., Publishers, 

mhSt Boston, Massachusetts. 



READ, CONSIDER AND ACT WISEIiY. 

IMPORTANT TO FARMERS! 
What is thai , ^ , Ah ! Massa, dis de Wells' Seed 
Sower — de berry best ting in de 
world to sow de clober and de 
timoty seed, de plaster, de go- 
110, and de wheat. I 
sows 25 acres in one 
Jay massa — try 



you have got 
there boy, and 
what doin""? 




It is only by the use of vaiuaoie improvements that wc 
can reasonably expect to keep up with the age in which 
we live, and public opinion everywhere has placed M. D. 
"VVells' Improved Patent Seed Sower in the first class of 
agriciUtural implements. The above drawing exhibits it 
in use, and ahy ordinary mind must at once be impressed 
with the certain conviction that it is an indispensable im- 
plement of husbandry, and that every good farmer should 
have it. By its use you save time, which is money and 
labor which costs money, and experience in using it proveg 
you will not be driven from the field unless by very rough 
weather, and the almost mathematical precision with which 
the seed is distributed, compared with hand sowing, renders 
it self-evident in the opinion of the best farmers that a sav- 
ing or gain of two dollars per acre is made i« t-wo crops of 
grass and the succeeding crop of wheat, one year's inte- 
rest on an acre of land at $33^, and sowing three acres 
pays for a machine with lid at $6. 

The first premium was recommended for this machine 
at the late 'Virginia State Fair, and four of the committee 
(all having use for it) engaged one each; and we think if 
governed by vour interest you will do likewise. 

MOTT, LEWIS & WILLSON, 
Sole agents for Richmond — Agricultural Implement 

fe— t f Store, No. 36, Main Street.^ 

ROWE'S UNRIVALLED PRIZE CRUSHER has had' 
its patent extended for seven years from the 24th of 
April, 1854. It is generally acceded that this is the only 
Crusher worthy <^ the name. It has never failed to take 
all the first Honors and Premiums whenever exhibited, or 
brought in competition. It may be truly said, it has no rival. 
It is the olny mill in the world that crushes to powder and 
mixes thoroughly. Corn, Cobs and Shucks or Straw; an- 
swering the treble purpose of Mill, Crusher and Straw- 
Cutter. It is unrivalled for pulveriz.ing Piock-Plaster, Shells, ; 
Tanbark, &c.; and will outlast, in wear, ten of any other | 
Crushers. For particulars address { 

JAMES ROWE, Patentee, 1 
Bainbridge, Decatur Co., Georgia, j 

I will furnish machinery for pulverizing Quarts and su-i 
perintend the erection for $1000, and warrant the mill to! 
crush a ton per h|(ur of running time. This does not in-j 
elude the engine belt or pulley on the motive power. Any 
wanting Portable Fence, strictly practical, adcb'ess as above. 

ma2t* 



GREEN MOUNTAIN MORGAN.— A thorough 
bred 'Vermont Morgan Horse, a beautiful bay, 
of fine seize and remarkable bone and muscle, 
will make his next season, commencing 1st 
April and ending 30th June, at the stables of 
his owners, Col. T. J. Randolph of Albemarle and 
R. B. Haxall, Orange County, near Gordonsville, 
at S12 payable during the season, S15 if not paid 
before 1st July; $20 insurance, payable as soon as 
the mare proves to be in fold. 

Green Mountain Morgan has made two seasons 
in Virginia and his yearling colts are very .superior 
and held at higher prices. mh4t