SOUTHERN PLANTE 23ebote a to ^srtculture, horticulture, anS the ^ouseJioIU arts. Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. — Xmophon . Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the. State.— SuMy'. FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor and Proprietor. T. BAILIE, Publisher. Vol. XY. RICHMOND, JULY, 1855 No. 7. GREAT FRAUD IN GUANO. [We do not know to whom allusion is made in the following article which the Boston Cultivator copies from the Country Gentleman, but we think we do. It is proper though to warn people here in Virginia, especially, where our inspection laws are not wonh a cent. — En. Plant.] It is common to declaim against the caution of farmers in regard tfc the adoption of new things. If, as will not be denied, they have practiced an undue conservatism, it will be found on inquiry to be, in many instances, only the natural result of influences to which they have been subjected. They have so fre- quently been led astray ,by the false guides, that like the savage who became the victim of misplaced confidence, they are ready to ask — " How shall we know whom to believe, having been so deceived ?" The disposition to im- prove which has been manifest among a por- tion of the rural population, has opened the way for the practice of empiricism and decep- tion on a large scale, and the reaction which is the result constitutes a serious obstacle to the spread of truth. Thus the false friends of agriculture are in reality its worst enemies. The following article from the Country Gentleman exposes one of the ways by which base men aggrasdize themselves at the expense of honest fanners. The parties engaged in this new system of rascality are no " green hands," as many persons already too well know. — Eds. "Everyone acquainted with the guano trade of Great Britain is aware that adulteration is earried on to an enormous extent. The laws are stringent, and the penalties in case of de- tection severe, yet the profits are so large and the difficulty of proving the fraud so great, that numbers of dishonest men are willing to brave the chances of detection. The agricul- tural press, when in the hands of honest, inde- lent men, unjtrammelea hy business con- nections, is the great safe-guard against these and other impositions; but, though the British agricultural journals are mostly of a high tone and character, their price prevents an exten- sive circulation; and, indeed, comparatively few farmers take any agricultural paper what- ever. Under such circumstances, therefore, it is no wonder that fraudulent manure dealers- reap a rich harvest. We have long been convinced that there were parties in this country engaged in manu- facturing various artificial fertilizers which are of little value — and we have done our part towards exposing their fraudulent practices. We were also aware that inferior guanos are often sold under an assurance- that they are equal to the best Peruvian, but we had no idea that there was any one in this country engaged in the manufacture of guano. We are serry to say we have been deceived. Numerous as are our agricultural papers, great as are their circulation and influence, they are found in- sufficient to prevent unscrupulous men from attempting to palm off on the credulous far- mers of our broad domain a comparatively worthless article, at a high price, under a false name, and, what is most to be regretted, it is one of the professed friends and teaehera of scientific agriculture that i? engaged in this deception. How we discovered the fraud, we are not at liberty to state. Suffice it to say, that some six weeks ago, we were informed that an arti- cle known as Mexican guano was taken to*an establishment, near Neivark, N. J., 'and there mixed with plaster, salt, sugar-hcuse scum, Peruvian guano and quick-lime, the whole ground up together and put in bags, marked " Chilian Guano}'' Following the direction of our informant,, we proceeded to Newark, and there found a large heap, of about 250 tons of Mexican go, ano, and some 200 tons of the manufactured aruhcte in bags, ronrked "JDhilian guano," as 194 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, we had been informed. We had also learned that a considerable quantity bad already been shipped to New York and Boston, and one gentleman said he believed a good portion of it had been sent to England. In New York we were offered the Chilian guano, if we would take it in quantity, at $35 per ton. We took samples of both the Mexican and Chilian guano, and made careful duplicate analyses of them in the laboratory of Prof. Carr, of this city, chemist to the New York State Agricultural Society. The following are the mean per eentage results of the analy- ses: Mexican Guano. Sand, --..- o.o Organic matter, - - - 5.0 Phosphate of lime, - - - 26.0 Carbonate of lime, - - - 68.0 99.5 Chilian Guano. Water, ----- 4.0 Sand, ----- 2.4 Organic matter, - - - 15.3 Phosphate of lirne, - - - 24.5 Sulphate of iime, (plaster) - 9.5 Chloride of sodium, (salt) - 6.2 Carbonate of lime, (chalk) - .37.6 99.5 Ammonia, - - - 1.06 Having obtained thesu results, we proceeded once more to Newark, and there received the following account of the modus operandi, adopted in the factory: The bags are first marked "Chilian Guano;" they are .then moistened with water, and laid in a heap, in layers, with a quantity of Peru- vian gitano between each layer. The sugar-house scum is pounded fine. — Three barrowfuls, of "five half-bushels" each, are then mixed with six barrowfuls of Mexican guano. To this are added 1 \ bushels common salt, 1 bushel plaster, o bushels Peruvian gu- ano, and \ bushel of quick lime. When the Peruvian guano and lime are added, "they make it tremendously strong." In other words, the lime sets free the ammonia of the Peruvian gaano, and gives the manufactured Chilian guano a strong smell of hartshorn, which, to the unreflecting, is a sure indication of a valu- able guano. The floor , where the bags were filled, was covered with Peruvian Guano, in order to make the article look as like genuine guano as possible. What is Chilian guano, and why is this name given to it instead of the better known Peruvian guano? The only genuine Peru- vian guano in this country comes through the hands of Barreda Brothers, and has their mark upon it; so that it would not be easy to sell a spurious Peruvian guano. Chilian ga- ano is subject to no such regulations, and the books describe it, when " fine," — and the manufactured article is made fine by grinding — as a "very valuable variety, equal to that of the very best Peruvian." The name, there- fore, has been chosen with consummate cun- ning. The Oxtord (Me.) Democrat states that it has received a circular containing au analysis of " Chilian guano," made by Prof. Hayes, " Assayer to the State of Massachusetts," and which is " Endorsed by Prof. Mapes." This analysis represents the Chilian guano as con- taining 27.9 per cent, of "»azotized organic matter and fixed salts of ammonia." This is a much larger quantity than the sample we analyzed contained. The actual quantity of ammonia or nitrogen is not stated, and it is impossible to judge correctly of the value of the manure without it. Fermented saw-dust, or peat may be termed " azotized organic matter, with fixed s*lt of ammonia ;" and we can see no use of such phraseology except to deceive. Seeing it stated in the Southern Farmer % that Chilian guano was about to be tried on the Model Farm of the Union Agricultural Society, at Petersburg, Va., we wrote to the Superintendent, Mr. Nichol, for infoimation in regard to it. He replied that it was ob- tained from Messrs. Rowlett &, Harday, of Petersburg, who received it from Mr. S., of Boston. The price was $40 per ton. Mr. T.. S. Pleasants, the guano inspector at Peters- burg, informs us, that having made a chemical examination of the Chilian guano, he told Messrs. R. & H. that " it was a fraud." On this, Messrs. R. & H. wrote to Mr. S., who replied that the opinion of Mr. Pleasants " was very different from other gentlemen, mentioning the names of Dr. Hayes, and the Inspector at Richmond, Dr. Powell." We have now presented the facts in regard to this Chilian guano manufacture, so far as we have -been able to obtain them. Our read- ers can draw their own inferences. Even were the artiele itself valuable, it would be a gross deception to palm it off asgenu'ne guano; but the article is comparatively worthless, as oar analysis fully proves. Thus a ton of it con- tains 490 lbs. insoluble phosphate of Lime, which at two cents perpoinJ — a high esti- mate — is $9.80; 124 lbs. of salt, worth say Si; 190 lbs. plaster, 50 cents, and 21 lbs. ammonia at 12 cents per pound, $2,52. This ib $13,82 per ton Attow'ng that non-azot-- THE SOUTHERN PLANTER m ized organic matter and carbonate of lime is worth §1.18, we have fifteen dollars as the ■outside value of a ton of the so-called "Chilian guano." And for this the farmers are asked $40, and are told that it i* better than Peru- vian guano. Since writing the above, we have received the May number of the American Farmer, containing the report of the Inspector of gu- ano at Baltimore, Md. He says, "two lots, consisting of 100 bags each, were consigned from New York and Boston, purporting to be ' Chilian guano, ) and so marked. An average sample of that from New York contained am- monia 1.78 per cent. That from Boston con- tained 2.56 per cent, ammonia, and 21.10 phosphate of lime." This is a little more am- monia than we found, and a little less phos- phate of lime. The analyses show, however, that the article is comparatively worthless, even taking the highest figures.' 1 THE CHILIAN GUANO FRAUD. The American Farmer, published at Balti- more, Md., copies our article on the " Chilian Guano Fraud," and remarks : " Two lots of 100 bags each, of guano pur- porting to be " Chilian," were consigned to this market from Boston and New York in April, as will be seen by reference to the In- spectors' report for that month, published in our paper. These lots come highly recom- mended, with a printed circular and analysis signed by Dr. Hayes, State Assayer of Massa- chusetts, and endorsed by Dr. Mapes, Prof, of Agricultural Chemistry, Newark, N. J. Af- ter speaking of its peculiar qualities, they say: ' In any application where Peruvian guano succeeds, this guano may take its place, as its ammonia compound is sufficient in quantity and condition to render it a powerful fertilizer.' In a letter subsequently Written by the con- signor from Boston to his agent here,'af-'. ter receiving the analysis of the Inspector here, (making it comparatively worthless,) he says the Inspector must be in error, as he is assured by Drs. Mapes and Hayes, that it is equal to the best Peruvian, and that it com- mands a high price in England. At the re- quest of the Inspector, the consignee had an analysis made by Dr. Stewart, of this city — the result of which confirmed the analysis of the Inspector, and proved its commercial val- ue to be, as estimated by him, but $13 per ton, while it was held at $40, and said to be -equal to Peruvian. The result has been, that not one pound ha3 been sold in this market, tnd the exposition made m the Country Gen- tleman, confirms the written opinion given the consignee by the Inspector, that neither lot had ever been within 3000 miles of the coast of Chili." From the above, no one can doubt that the article manufactured near Newark, is the same as that sent from Boston and New York to Baltimore. We estimated ita*" out-side val- ue" at §15 per ton. Dr. Stewart estimates it at $13. We were told in Newark, that it had been sent to England, and the consignor avers that he was informed by " Drs. Mapes and Hayes, that it commanded a high price in Eng- land." Can any one doubt, therefore, that the " Chilian guano" referred to by Hayes and Mapes is the same as that described by us as manufactured near Newark ? Thanks to Messrs. Reese and Pleasant3, the guano inspectors at Baltimore and Petersburg, the " farmers of Maryland and Virginia have been put upon their guard against this worth- less stuff, which some one at Boston has en- deavored to palm off upon them, upon the au- thority, as he states, of Prof. Hayes, " As- sayer to the State of Massachusetts," and Prof. Mapes, of Newark. We trust, howev- er, that one of these gentlemen will be able to show that he has been in no wise accessory to this attempt at fraud. Our columns are open to these gentlemen, for any explanation they may wish to give, of their connection with this matter. We also call upon the gentleman at Boston, who sent this spurious guano to Petersburg, Richmond, Baltimore, &c, to inform the pub- lic whether he was deceived by the manufactu- rers of the article and by the analysis and re- commendations of Hayes and Mapes ; and if so, to come out and clear his character from the stain which cannot fail to attach itself to his "respectability," if he remains any longer silent. He knows where he procured the " Chilian Guano, ' and, if he was deceived re- specting its character, he can easily clear him- • self by exposing those by whom he was de- ceived. Will he do it? [Country Gent. To keep Flies from Troubling Horses. — It is said that walnut tea, a handful of the leaves infused in a quart of cold water over night, and then boiled a quarter of an hour, tpplied with a sponge when cool, will keep flies from troubling a horse. We have seen this thing one hundred times. — Please try it somebody. « Ed. So. Pl, 196 THE SOUTHERN PL AN TEE ON THE PEA CROP. The committee to v»hom was referred a re- port on the value of tne pea crop for food and for manure, have approached the subject with a full sense of its great importance to the whole system of Southern agriculture. It embraces within its influence results of the highest and most desirable character in the reproduction of soils, in rearing and sustain- ing all the domestic animals connected with the plantation, and furnishes a cheap, healthy and nutritious article for human consumption: Leguminous plants constitute an extensive family in the vegetable kingdom, embracing many genera and species, extending from the rattle-box, including clover, lucerne and sain- foin, to the locust of the forest. In Northern latitudes, clover has long held its proper place as an agent in the restoration of soil, and as food for domestic animals ; and like the pea, its high character not only de- pends on its nutritive properties, its porous and easily decomposed leaf and stem, but, as your committee will hereafter show, on a de- posit of certain substances to the soil, not ne- cessary to the perfect maturity of its seeds, but of the highest importance to the whole cereal crop, and particularly to wheat. The pea has long been cultivated in this district, and now forms no inconsiderable item in the provision crop; and yet, from the wasteful way in which the crop is consumed, its real value as food cannot be properly appreciated. To illustrate the value of the pea as food, the committee will give its value compared with other articles of food, as analyzed by different chemists. Einhoff gives the nutri- tive matter of peas compared with grain as follows, per bushel : wheat, 74.47 ; rye, 70.39 ; barley, 63.33 ; oats, 58.23 ; beans, 68,45 ; peas, 75.49. The same chemist, from 3,840 parts of beans, obtamed, starch 1,805 parts; albumen 85 1 ; mucilage, &c. 799 parts It is believed that the nutriment property of the bean differs but little from that of the pea. Dr. Playfair, whose analyses we will sub- mit, states that the nutrient principles of plants are gluten and albumen, and that they ohemically differ in nothing from the white of an egg, the muscle of an ox, or the blood of sheep. He divides food into two kinds : azotized and unazotised ; that is, with or without nitrogea ; the azotized is the prin- ciple forming muscular and other tissues, and the unazotized such as starch, mucilage, su- gar, oil, &c., the fat forming principle. From 100 pounds of peas he' obtained v/ater 16, organic matter 80', ashes 3£ ; from 100 pounds of beans he obtained, water 14, organic matter 82-£, ashes 3£ ; from 100 lbs. of oats he obtained, water 18, organic matter 19, ashes 3. The same chemist shows the equivalent value of several articles of food by analysis. From 100 pounds of flesh he obtained gluten 29; from 100 pounds of blood he obtained gluten 29; from 100 pounds of peas he' ob- tained gluten 29, unazotized matter 51 J; from 100 pounds of beans he obtained gluten 29, unazotized matter 52; from 100 pounds of oats he obtained gluten 10|, unazotized matter 68. The analysis of Indian corn by Dr. Dance gave to the 100 pounds, starch, sugar and oil 88.33; 100 pounds gluten and albumen 1.26; 100 water, 9.00; 100 pounds salts, 1.31. From the above analysis it is most apparent that the pea is not surpassed in value for food by any known article, when the flesh and fat forming principles are taken together. The usuul way of feeding the pea, in an uncrush/sd state lessens its value as food, and is sometimes dangerous from the high fermen- tation which takes place before and during assimilation ; the large quantity of carbonic acid gas disengaged frequently produces cho- lic and inflammation of the intestines, which would never occur if the pea was crushed into meal and fed with cut straw. Nature uses the surface of the earth as a great laboratory, in which there is a constant chemical action sjoing on in the restoration of the soil and in the production of certain sub- stances necessary for the support of organic life, vegetable and animal. The earth is in- organic, possesses no positive life, no period of growth, perfection or decline; is governed by no law, except that of affinity, and is hence completely under the intellectual and physical control of man, in the application of those substances necessary to its greatest fer- tility. Vegetable matter is more or less valu- able as a manure, in proportion to its suscep- tibility to decomposition, and the gases and other constituents they impart to the soil. Ligneous fibre is insoluble in water, and in almost any other menstruum, under ordi- nary circumstances ; the acids are decomposed on it, and a change of color is the only result. When perfectly dried, it resists fermentation altogether, and air and water decompose it exceedingly slowly. Although the gramineous and cereal classes are destitute of the ligneous fibre, so large a quantity of silex enters into the composition of their epidermis to give strength to the plants and protect them from the ravages of parasites and. insects, that they are as impervious to the agents of decom THE SOUTHERN PLANTEK 197 position as the firmer ligneous fibre ; and the small quantity of medullary matter they con- tain renders the whole an inconsiderable means of reproduction, when taken alone, and unmixed with other manures. Vegetable earth or mould, depends on vegetable organi- . ation. It is then the business of the agri- culturist to select such plants, in connection with the profits of the plantation, as oppose the least resistance to the laws of putrefac- tive fermentation, and afford the greatest amount of nutrient constituent to the soil, of which the pea stands preeminent, and seems intended by nature to be the principal restorer r ads in this climate. According to the experiments of Beceari, gluten, so absolutely necessary to the perfect maturity of the whole cereal crop, does not form a constituent of the seeds of leguminous plants. May not that vegeto-auimal substance te thrown off by the excretory action of the roots, or remain unappropriated, with the stems and leaves, to be returned to the soil by decomposition, and the well known fitness of the soil for wheat after peas or clover de- pend on that fact ? Flour of good appearance sometimes will not rise ; and the effect is generally attributed to the mill, or an unskilful miller ; when in truth the land on which the wheat is grown is at fault, affording none of the material of which gluten is formed, or the grain has been injured by slight fermentation, the effect of unskilful stacking, or other causes. The pea erop in such lands never fails to restore the exhausted constituents of the soil, and insures a well matured grain crop. Plants of the same species or kind should never follow each other. The wide-spread ruin, common to every plantation in the dis- trict, may be attributed to the planting cotton after cotton, till the over-taxed soil refuses longer to produce. Your committee are of opinion that a judicious rotation of crops aided by ditching, subsoil ploughing and ma- nuring, would speedily change the face of the district — that worn-out spots and gutties would disappear, and every acre of Ian 3 retirn an ample reward to the laborer. There can be no doubt but that the pea should be made the basis of that rotation. The pea is of rapid growth, comes quickly to perfe tion, . v nary circumstances, I -■ ■ -'-,■•.- i t beaver; and is particularly rich ir> those constituents on which the for- !/-', :,: - '- . ids. It yj cae of those plants possessing fleshy leaves, a soft and porous stem, a d makes large demands on the atmosphere for food It not caly leaves the soil unexhausted for a grain crop, but adds to its fertility. It protects the surface of the ground from the hardening effects of the summer sun, and leaves the land more permeable to every fertilizing agent which may be brought in contact with it. P. Moon, Chairman. From the Germantown Telegraph THE OSAGE ORANGE. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILADELPHIA SO- CIETY FOR. PROMOTING AGRJCULTCILE. To the Editor of the Germanlown Teh- graph. — In the report of the last meeting of our Agricultural Society, it is stated I ex- pressed the opinion that the Madura or Osage Orange, pruned with the severity recommend- ed by Dr. Warder of Cincinnati, in his address on that occasion, would not be long-lived. My opinion, founded on the experience of many years, is precisely the reverse : I believe it to be in a remarkable degree adapted to hedging purposes — perhaps more so than any other plant. The doubt I did express,- im- perfectly heard by the reporter, was, whether the Honey Locust was of similar value ; and I do very much doubt its adaptation to bodges, to which it has been applied. While on the contrary the Maclura has every good quality to commend it : hardiness, vigorous growth, endurance of the shears without disease or morbid growth being induced, acrid juice which protects it against the attack of insects, pungent spines, and disposition to branch when "cut in" — these and other qualities indi- cate it as a plant which, it might almost be said, nature had designed for protecting the labors of the huebandmar. While on this subject, will you indulge me with space for a few incidental remarks on the original application of the Maclura to hedging purposes ? During the administration of Mr. Jefferson the Western Exploring Expedition, known historically as Lewis & Clark's, was made, and resulted, among other things then considered of vastly more importance, in the discovery of this tree, in the Osage country, which, from its use by the Indians, they named "bow wood." A few seeds collected by them reached Philadelphia, and from one of those seeds was produced the noble specimen still standing in the rear of my father's old home- stead on Federal street. Its pendent branches and deep g,^een glossy foliage, which no insect Would approach, was for many years the ad- rogation of all who visited the nurseries. For same considerable time the enly mode of its 198 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER increase was by cuttings of the root, placed in pots under glass, and in that way some thousands were produced, which, from their great variety, were deemed of sufficient im- portance to be exported to Europe in charge of a special agent sent out by' the late D. & 0. Landreth, who disposed of them in London, and they now doubtless decorate the pleasure grounds of our ar^stoeratie cousins. The pa- rent tree in course of time flowered and pro- duced abundance of fruit, which, from the circumstance of the specimen being pistilifer- ous, was imperfect. At a later period, an- other tree "of similar origin, planted at the seed grounds on Fifth street, produced stauii- niferous flowers; which, as an experiment, were cut off with the branches attached, carefully wrapped in sheets, and conveyed to the female tree, a distance of two miles, when, greatly to the delight of all made acquainted with (he fact, many bushels of "oranges," each with perfect seed, was the result ! About the same time, trees at McMahon's nursery also pro- duced seed, and the supply of plants vapidly increased, faster than the demand for orna- mental purposes, to which they had hitherto been solely devoted. My father, perceiving the pronii^e of the Madura as a hedge plant, used some hundreds of surplus ones to (ill open spaces in hedges of English hawthorn, which he had set out in accordance with his early tastes, many years previously. As he had anticipated, they formed an impenetrable mass, and established it in his opinion, as the best of all plants for hedges. Many. thousands were produced with a view to their sale for that purpose, and at- tention was called to them in various ways ; among others, I (then a youth) wrote several articles on the subject, which were widely re- published, especially in the west, where the means of enclosing prairie binds were of pri- mary interest. This may have been about 1828. Really, my dear Mr. Editor, I fear you and I are approaching that state which "young America" irreverently terms "old fogies."* Since then the ; Madura has been slowly gaining in popular favor, and the seeds and plants have become articles of considerable trade. The former are now annually collected in Arkansas and Texas, to the extent, it is said, of thousands of bushels, and from reli- able statements it is supposed two hundred- thousand dollars are yearly expended in this country, principally in the west, for the seed * Our correspondent will oblige us by speaking for himself, and not nitixing «« up in Ms affairs alone. The plants are also raised in large quantities, and set out and trained at a stipu- lated sum per rod, by parties who travel from farm to farm. The attention of Europeans is also directed to it, and it is presumed for the same purpose, as within a few weeks I have filled an order from the " continent" for a con- siderable quantity of seed. Thus, Mr. Editor, from an accidental cir- cumstance, have important results ensued; and we may, in reference to it, apply one of the early lessons — "Big oaks from little acorns u'row.' 1 DAVID LANrJRETH; Bfoomsdale, March 24, 1855. CAD EFFECTS OF GRASS OK COLTS. When horses are turned out to grass m the spring of the year, the succulent nature of the food causes them to purge, often to a great extent, ; this is considered by many persons a most desirable event. — a great misconception. The herbage is overcharged with sap and moisture, of a crude, acrimonious nature, . to • such an extent that all cannot be taken up by the organs destined for the secretion of urine, or by the absorbent vessels of the body ; the superfluous fluid therefore passes oft* through the intestines with the indigestible particles of* food, and thus the watery faeces arc thrown off. Flatulent colic or gripes is a frequent attendant. The system is deranged ; but the mischief does not terminate here. If the purging is continued, a constitutional relax- ation of the bowels is established, very debili- ' tating to the animal, and often difficult to • control. I am so decidedly opposed to an unrestricted allowance of luxuriant grass Ur horses at any age, that nothing could induce me to give it to them. After the. second year hay should form a considerable portion of the daily food in summer to every animal intended for hunting or riding. If a horse is supported entirely upon the grass which he collects in a rich pasture field, or upon that which may bo cut and carried to him in his paddock, he must consume a much* greater bulk than- of hay in an equivalent time, to afford nourishment to the system. Grass being very full of sap and moisture, it is very rapidly digested, consequently the horse must be continually eating it. This distends the stomach and the bowels, and the faculty of digestion is impaired; for the di- gestive powers require rest as well as other organs of the body, if they are to be preserved in perfect condition. By the custom of graz- ing, the muscular system is enfeebled, and fat is substituted This mav escape the notice ~s~" THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 199 of superficial observers, who do not mark the distinction between the appearance of a fat and a muscular animal ; who conceive, so that the cones are covered and the points are rounded, all that is requisite has been at- tained. But that is a very fallacious impres- sion. Let any person who is sceptical on this point ride a horse in the summer which has just been taken out of a grass field, along with another kept on hay and corn, at the moderate rate of seven or eight miles in the hour ; the grass-fed horse will sweat profusely, while the other will be perfectly cool and dry. This proves that the system of the one eating grass over-abounds with fat and those portions of the blood which are destined to form that deposit. Those who advocate grazing will no doubt exclaim, " Oh i this is a test of condition which is not required in young and growing animals.'' I beg to state that it is highly im- portant if the acme of condition is to be at- tained by animals of mature age, that the growth and gradual development of their frames should be composed of those healthy and vigorous elements upon which the struc- ture of future condition can be raised. Ani- mal substances are to a very great extent subservient to the nature and quality of the food with which the individuals are nourished. I believe farmers would find it much to their advantage if they were to consider this sub- ject with reference to feeding cattle and sheep, BO that they might select those kinds of food which abound with properties more conducive to fie3h than fat. There is no kind of food which the horse consumes which has not a tendency to deposit fat. It is a substance which must exist to a certain extent : but as it ie muscular power, not a disposition to adi- pose rotundity, which enhances the value of the animal, the reasons are obvious what guide should be taken in the selection of food. I have on a former occasion hinted the pro- priety of bruising the oats, and I will now state my reasons for doing so. The first I will mention is economy. Three bushels of oats which have undergone that process are equivalent to four which have not, and the animals which consume them derive greater benefit. Various schemes are adopted to in- duce horses to masticate their corn, all of which are ineffectual. Scattering them thinly over the surface of a spacious manger, mixing a handful of cut hay or straw with each feed, aad such like devices, will not cajole the ani- mal to the performance of mastication. A horse that \?. di=po°ed to oclt his com, how- ever carefully it may be spread along his manger, will soon learn to drive it into a heap with his uose, and collect as much with his lips as he thinks lit before he begins to masti- cate. Whatever food enters ihe stomach of any animal, and passes away in an undigested form, may be considered as so much dross or extraneous matter, which, not having afforded nourishment, is prejudicial, to tkf creature which consumed it. A mistaken notion of economy is often the incentive to turning horses out in summer, to be entirely depen- dent upon grass for their support. A few re- marks will surely dispel that error. Twenty- two bushels of oats — allowing one bushel per week from the 15th of May to the 3.6th of October — may be as the produce of half an acre of land, and half a ton of hay that of another half acre, although a ton and. a half per acre is not more than an average crop. It requires at least an acre of grass land to support a horse during the period above named. — Mark Lane Express. MANAGEMENT OF GREENHOUSE PLANTS. BY AN EXTENSIVE PRACTITIONER. * Greenhouse plants should never be supplied with much water in wet or frosty weather, and none unless the soil in the pots becomes dry. This rule must be particularly attended to, from the beginning of November till the end of February. In March, the plants may be occasion- ally syringed overhead to clean and refresh the leaves, but always select fine days for the pur- pose ; and let this, as well as the general wa- terings, be done in the morning, from the mid- dle of September to the beginning of May, and at all other times in the evenings. As the season advances, and the weather becomes milder, increase- the quantity of air, until, by the middle of May, a large portion of air may be left on all night, except in case of severe frost. And this rule of admitting air must be attended to throughout the winter at every convenient opportunity ; but always make a practice of shutting up early in the afternoon. Always keep the plants clean, and perfectly free from dead leaves and weeds ; this naust be particularly attended to in the winter season. About the beginning of March repot all the plants that require it, and top-dress the re- mainder with good fresh soil. Some free-grow- ing kinds may require potting two or three times in the course of the summer, but the last potting should never be later than the mid- dle of September. 200 THE SOUTHERN PLANTEK As greenhouse plants differ materially from each other in habits, so also the soil suitable for them must vary in proportion.- For a gen- eral idea on the subject, the following, with some few exceptions, will probably be found pretty near the mark : All plants whose branches are fragile, and roots of a fine thready fibrous texture, with general habits like Erica, as Diosma, Ancler- sonia, Epacris, etc., will require the same soil (peat earth,) and very similar treatment to Cape Heaths. Those whose wood and general habits par- tially differ, and whose roots are of a stronger texture, as Accacia, Ardisia, Stenocarpus, etc., will require a portion of sandy loam — in many cases about equal parts ; and where the habits, etc. differ materially from the heath, only a small portion of peat earth will be re- quired, and the compost maybe made a little rich by the addition of well rotted dung. Almost all Cape and other bulbs, as Spar- axis, etc., thrive best in a mixture of light rich sandy loam, leaf-mold, and a little peat. Shrubby and herbaceous plants, with luxuriant roots and branches, as Myrtus, etc., require rich loam, lightened with leaf-mold Plants with powerful roots and but slender heads, as Veronica, Senecio, etc., require a light sandy soil, mixed with a small portion of leaf-mold and very rotten dung. Never pot the plants in a soil too wet ; it is better to keep the soil rather dry than other- wise. Nor ever sift the soil, but. chop and break it as fine as possible, because sifting de- prives it of the fibrous particles, among which the roots grow very rapidly. Always in pot- ting give a good drainage with broken pots. In the beginning of June the plants may be removed to their summer station, out of doors. Always place them in an aspect screened from the effects of the mid-day sun, but yet where they will be able to receive the sun mor- ning and evening ; while in this situation they must be supplied with water as often as they require it. In the beginning of September again exam- ine them throughout, and pot all that require it, and top-dress the remainder ; by no means let this be done later than the middle of Sep- tember, or the plants wdl not have time to re- cover before winter. Not later than the first week in October, prepare to remove them back into the green- house. Clean and properly tie them up, pre- vious to setting them on the stage. After they are removed again to the house, give them abundance of air, day and night, and continue gradually to d< crease it as the wea- ther becomes colder. Propagation. — The propagation of green- house plants must be performed at different times of the year, according to the nature and habits of the plants, and the state of growth in which the cuttings will strike with the great- est freedom. Some grow the best when the wood is quite young and tender, as Fuchsia, Andcrsonia, Ad&tdndra, etc.; others when it begins to as- sume a brownish color, called half ripened, as Heliotropium, Goodeneia, Pimelia, etc.; and others when it has become quite hard and ripe, as Araucaria,,. Aulax, Melaleuca, etc. — But as a general rule, half-ripened cuttings will do the best. Some plants, however, wdl not grow from cuttings of the stem at all ; these are propagated by cutting off large pieces of the roots, planting them in pots of" soil, and plunging them in a little bottom heat, as some species of Accacia, etc. All hard-wooded plants make roots best in clear sand, but soft-wooded kinds should be planted in a mixture of loam ; therefore after well draining the pots or pans intended to re- ceive the cuttings, fill them, according to the nature of the plants to be propagated. On no account plant soft-wooded and hard-wooded cuttings in the same pot. Some sorts will not grow readily without a little bottom heat. Plunge the pots in a cu- cumber frame, or pit of any kind, where thej will receive the benefit of warmth. After putting in the cuttings, give them a gentle sprinkling of water through a fine rose ; keep the frame as cfosely shut down as can be until the cuttings are struck, which will be in about three weeks or a month, with some few exceptions. Look them over, and water as often as they require it. Those sorts requiring to be covered with bell or hand glasses will require to have the glasses taken off occasionally and wiped, to prevent the cuttings from being injured by damp. When the cuttings have struck root and are beginning to grow, then pot them in small pots filled with soil suitable to then* nature ; replace them for a while in the frame, and gradually expose them to the air. until they bear the tem- perature and treatmeut of the other plants in the greenhouse. Sow the seed of greenhouse plants in pans or pots filled with a light soil, as early in tin 1 spring as possible ; place the pots in a very gentle heat, keep the soil damp by covering with moss, and occasionally sprinkling with water ; and when they are about an inch high, pot them oft' into small-sized pots, and treat them in t]iftfl»njafat6jaiiei '.s ewttirigs. — ■FloHadt'i ral Cabinet. THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 2QI For the Southern Planter. USEFUL HINTS FOR VIRGINIA GARDENERS. BY E. G. EGGELHSG. The mouth of July is one of the hottest of the year, but is nevertheless important to the gardener as the season of preparation for all the crops of the fall and winter. Celery. — The season for setting out the plants is about the first of August, but the beds in which they are to be placed should be made now. Dig trenches six or eight inches deep and from four to five feet wide, with spaces between the beds equal to the beds themselves. In removing the soil from the trenches throw half to each side, to be used in earthing at the proper time. After the trench is opened fill with good old manure to the depth of four or five inches and spade it in, pulverizing the ground thoroughly. The bed is then ready for use. It is probable that a crop of weeds will spring up between this and the planting season. If so, they can be eradicated by hoeing, and it is much better that they appear now than afterwards. Cabbages.- — This is the best period for planting cabbages for fall and winter use. In setting out plants in this month it is advised to select soil moderately rich, worked very deep. The disadvantage of putting cabbages at this season into very rich soil is, that they naature too early, and either burst after they have headed or rot. If the plants arc not Set out in this month, then rich soil is best to hasten their growth. Let the rows be three fret apart, with two feet between each plant. To make sure '•:' every plant that is set out, the following very simple process should be adopted: Make a hole in the ground and fill with water, add soil thereto and stir and mix together until a thick mud is formed. Then take the plants and dip them into the mud moving them about therein until every root of every plant is coated with the mud. Then put the plants in their places and they will thrive despite the heat of the sun or the drought. By attending to this direction gardeners will be spared the necessity of replanting, a- ;i plant thus treated rarely fails to grow. Cucumbers. — Such as are planted at this season are not intended for table use but for pickling purposes. The old fashion of planting them is to make hills, but there i another and as wo think better way. Our custom is to open a furrow with the plow six or eight inches deep. Into this is put very old Manure, three or four inches thick, which is well mixed with the soil by the spade. Then run a furrow on each side of this trench, which throws the dirt over upon it and makes a ridge, which is finished off with the hoe. On this ridge the seed are put, about an inch deep and from six to eight inches apart. To prevent the soil over the seeds from encrusting, cover lightly with old tan or manure or trash, and in two or three days the plants will be up. Should all come up they will need to be thinned so as to leave them twelve inches apart. This, however, should not be done until they begin to run, as many are likely to die out. The Pickling Cucumber should be sown as best suited for the pickling tub. Iu like manner may be sown inuskiueious, cantelopes and gherkins, but in different parts of the garden, or else the seeds will be deteriorated. Egg Plants. — These were planted last month. They are liable to the attacks of numerous insects, whose approaches and ravages must be prevented. The only agencies which have been found useful are trash tobacoo or soot. These should be applied before the insects appear, as when once they have obtained a footing among the plants they are not easily dislodged. Here, indeed, ;< an ounce of pre- vention is worth a pound of cure." Irish Potatoes. — Every year the people of our Virginia cities are compelled to rely upon importations from the North for their supplies of this excellent root, when a little care and prudence would enable Virginia fanners and gardeners to raise any quantity. Those that were planted early in the year mature about this time and will not keep through the winter. At this time, however, they may be planted. and such as are will keep just as well as any that are brought into the State, from abroad. One thing deserves to be noted in cOnnectibh with planting the seeds. Many persons eut the potato iutp as many pieces as there are eyes and put them at once into m ground 1 : There is no harm in cutting the potato, but the pieces should be kept exposed to the. atmosphere until the wounded part is healed, that is, until the cut place has dried : otherwise, the pieces are apt to rot, and the decay invari- ably begins just where the sap remains upon the cut surface. . It is usually very difitcult, at this season of the year, to procure potatoes for planting, and many persons believe that it is impossible to preserve them in our climate through the summer. These are mistaken. They can be kept, as we shall show in a future issue of the Planter. At present these directions would avail nothing. All that we say now is, plant potatoes for the. winter. 202 THE SOUTHERN PL ANTE. Tomatoes. — It is usual with most persons to let the vines lay upon the ground, much to their injury, and to the injury of the fruit during the hot season. To obviate the evil to which we refer, without the great trouble of staking the mass of vine, we merely raise the vines and place under them brush, which answers just as well. The brush, which, till now, has supported the pea vines, may be used. Strawberries. — It is very much the fashion in this region, with cultivators of strawberries, to neglect the strawberry beds, when the fruit of the year has been gathered. Walk in some gardens and look at the beds, and not a plant is to be seen because of the weeds. This is a fatal error. The beds should be kept scrupu- lously clean, and the surface of the ground loose and light to assist the runners in rooting. This occurs during the month, and to have fruit of good quality from the new plantations the spring after they are made, care should be taken to plant out only one runner from each of the old plants, and that the first one which appears. Others will make their appearance but they should be cut off, so as to give the one that is allowed to root all the nourishment which it can derive from the parent stock. It may be, however, that the gardener does not wish to make new planta- tions, and in that event none of the runners should be spared, but as fast as they appear they should be removed. SILESIAN MERINO SHEEP. In oar last week's paper, mention was made of the shearing of some Silesian Merino sheep, on the farm of Wm. Chamberlain, Esq., of Red Hook, N. Y. As this variety of sheep will probably occupy for time to come, a pro- minent position with the wool-growers of tin's country, we deem it proper to note some points in regard to its history, in connection with facts having more special reference to the spe- cimens which came under out- examination on the occasion alluded to. In 1851, Mr. George Campbell, of West Westminster, Vt., in company with Mr. Wm. R. Sanford. of Orwell, in the same state, tra- velled through Spain, France, and several of the German States, for the purpose of seeing the fine wooled sheep of those countries. In Germany they were so fortunate as to obtain the personal aid of Mr. Charles L. Fleischman, then American Consul at Stutgard, whose thor- ough knowledge of the sheep husbandry of that region was of great importance to them iu accomplishing their object. Among the cele- brated flocks thev examined, was one in Prus- sian Silesia, owned by Messrs. Fischer (father and son,) the foundation of which — one hun- dred ewes and four rams — the senior partner procured from the Infantado Nfgretti flock, in Spain, in 1811. From this selection, the pre- sent flock has been wholly bred — no blood from any other sheep having been admitted for forty-four years. This item deserves par- ticular attention from its influence in estab- lishing a peculiar character for the flock, and as showing that benefit may result from a ju- dicious course of breeding from animals moro or less allied by consanguinity. The flock has latterly averaged 600 head, the surplus being annually disposed of at nigh prices to breeders from Hungary, Russia, and other countries. Messrs. Campbell & Sanford purchased from the flock of Messrs. Fischer, forty ewes and several rams, which they brought to this country. We had the opportunity of exami- ning these at Troy, N. Y., shortly after their arrival, while they were on their way to Ver- mont. Although then in low condition from • the effects of their long confinement, we were struck with the many valuable traits txTey ex- hibited, and in an article written at that time expressed the opinion that they would prove an acquisition to the country— an opinion which subsqquent experience has fully confirmed. We quote the following as giving a good de- scription of these sheep, from Mr. Sanford's notes of his European tour, published in the Albany Cultivator, in 1851 : They (the breeders) have always had two things uppermost : constitution and weight of fleece. These sheep have more good points than any that I have ever met with before. They are clothed in wool from the nose to the hoof. The wool is thickly set. and an even surface. They possess what all good breeders in Germany consider very essential — a perfect wool staph-. The wool hair being of the same size all the way — the wool as thick on the out'end as it is near the body. They are very careful about keeping up the thickness of the wool, in ord-er to get the greatest weight of fleece. They prefer wool about the medium length. If they get it too long it becomes thin and flabby, parts on the back, and they lose in weight. They say it is much easier to get length than it is to retain thickness. — The sheep will shear as much according to the weight of carcass, I am sure, as any sheep I ever saw. There is no waste space on them, and the wool is quite fine for Merino, and very thickly set. The wool is very clean and white on the inside, but quite dark on the outer ends. We believe Mr. Chamberlain was connected with Mr. Campbell in the importation above referred to. Since then these gentlemen have associated with themselves Mr. Wm. H. Ladd, of Richmond, Jefferson county, Ohio, for fur- ther importing and breeding these sheep. Mr. Chamberlain has been himself to Silesia, and made additional purchases from Messrs. Fis- THE SOUTHERN PLAN TEE. 208 cher, i A partoi' the late importations have been taken to the farm of Mr. Ladd, in Ohio, part are kept by Mr. Campbell, and the re- mainder by Mr. Chamberlain. Some rams have been sold and taken to different sections of the country. There are 101 ewes and sev- eral rams at Mr. Chamberlain's. About sixty of the ewes had lambed at the time of our visit. A few lambs had been lost, but the loss was more than made up by twins, so that the lambs reared would outnumber the ewes. We examined many of these sheep very closely before they were shorn, noticed partic- ularly their shape and appearance after the wool was taken off, and carefully examined their fleeces before they were tied up. The sheep appear to excel in the following points : 1st, the thickness of the wool as it stands on the skin, growing to an unusual extent on the belly, aud covering every part, giving an un- common weight of fleece in proportion to the size of the carcase; 2d, the fineness of the sta- ple considered in reference to the weight of fleece ; 3d, the uniform character of the fleece, the wool on the belly and thighs approximating, to a remarkable degree, the quality of that on the back; 4th, the fullness (uniform size of the pile throughout its whole length.) even- ness, aud elasticity of the staple. On parting the wool on the body of the animal, it appears, to use Mr. Fieisehnian's expression, " as a uni- formly woven' cloth."* . It should be added that the sheep are well shaped ; they Lave ra- ther small bones, and the body is symmetrical and pleasing to the eye. The different indi- viduals also bear a close resemblance to each other, showing that their characteristics are thoroughly in-bred. They appear to have very good constitution?. Mr. Chamberlain is in- clined to think they would bear the usage com- monly giyen flocks iu the country, better than the French sheep, and this opinion is the re- sult of several years' experience with both. We took the following memoranda in regard to seven ewes. They were unwashed — the jreiglit of carcase was taken after shearing : No. ■';! : 3 years old.; fleece ;U months growth, weighed. 8 lbs. 3 ■>■/. : carcass, 70 lis.; weight of her lamb, dropped 20th December last, 51 Ids'. N©". 100: 2 years old; fleece 11 months growth, weighed 7 lbs. 8 bz; carcass 73 lbs.: weight of her lamb dropped 20th December last, 54 lbs. .No. 111:2 year* old; lleece 11 months growth, weighed 8 lbs.; carcass 78 lbs.; .,« ight of hei lamb propped 2d Marcn la>t, 25 Fbs. No. 150- 3 years old ; fleece 11 months growth, weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz; carcass 771bs.; weight of her lamb dropped 13th December last, 45 lbs. _ '&. 8 years old; fleece 11 months growth, ghed lb'- , i : '■') lbs., iarab dropped 17th *,Pafcent V - ieporifo: l84T,p27& December last, was suckled till April 2d. when it die a. No. 89: 2 years old; fleece 11 months growth, weighed 7 lbs. 12 ox.; has not yet lambed. No. 326: 3 years old ; fleece 11 months growth, weighed 9 lbs. 5 6z.; carcass 84 lbs • her land-) drop- ped 23d April, not weighs d. These were all the ewas whose fleeces we took particular note of. They were not shear- ed very closely ; in some instances it was thought half a pound more wool might have been got from a sheep. None of the lambs were weaned. The following was the only ram weighed : No. 13: -5 years old: got over 100 lambs last fall — fleece 13 months growth, weighed 1,4 lbs, 12 oz.-. carcass 125 lbs. Messrs. Chamberlain, Campbell >x Ladd desire to state that they would cleanse the fleece of this ram, and put it in market for dollars and cents in proportion to weight of carcass, against any fleece of thirteen months' growth taken from any ram in America the present season. The wool in all the above fleeces was clean, for unwashed. Mr. Ladd, who has, had much experience, both as a producer and dealer in wool, thought a deduction of thirty per cent. would bring the fleeces into u merchan table condition — a condition in which wool of that quality has sold for the last ten your,- at fifty to sixty cents per pound. It is claimed that, with most fir As of the country, a cross of a Sile^iau ram t,u ewes of any other variety of Merinocs. will increase I he weight of fleece in the progeny a pound per head, or upwards, over the stock to which the ewes belonged, and that, except with the finest Saxon, the quality will be improved. Mj. Chamberlain, has crossed the Silesem with the French,, and Mr. Campbell with both the French and Spanish — the latter b^jrjng been long hi the country — anjd fcljpj assure us that the jjesults correspond to the above statemenj:. In corroboration of their sfpjtearents, we take the following from remarks made at one pf the agricultural discussions at the State HousPj in this city, last year, by Mr. llnssell, represen- tative from Pittsfield. The pojn.avks '\e,\; pub- lished by us at the time : jh' (Mr. ft.) spoke of the .vii. ■-■ i ;ht •;.. ..inch he regaided perfect as to form, v, ii h ■ ■■ , of hay, therefore, produced 143 lbs. of in- crease of animal. The second lot, which received no salt, av- eraged at the commencement of the experiment 896 lbs; at the end of 13 months. 1,890. In- crease 994 lbs. They consumed per head 14,553 lbs. of hay. Or one ton of hay pro- duced 137 lbs. of increase of animal. The steers receiving salt • produced 6 lbs, more increase for each ton of hay consumed than those which were not allowed salt. This may be considered only a slight advantage, and in France did not pay for the cost of salt r in this country, however, where it is much cheaper, 'its use will doubtless, be profitable. — Boussingault remarks " the salt exercises no considerable influence on the growth, yet it ap- pears to exert a beneficial effect on the appear-, ance and condition of the animal." Up to- the first fourteen days, no perceptible difference v, -as observed between the two lots ; but in the course of the month following, the difference was visible even to the unpracticed eye. I* the beasts of both lots, the skin to the touch was fine and sourfd, but the hair in the steers having salt " was smooth and shining; that 6? the others dull and erect." As the experiment progressed, these signs became still more pro- minent. " In the animals of the second lot, after they had had no salt for a year, the hah? was matted, and the skin here and there' de- void, of hair. Those of the first lot on the contrary, retained the look of stall kept beasts. Their liveliness and frequent indications of the tendency to leap, contrasted strikingly witli the heavy gait and cold temperament obserr i ved in those of the second lot. " There' can bo no doubt," Boussingault adds, "that a higher price would have been obtained in the market for the oxen reared under the influence of salt." THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 207 PRESERVATION OF WHEAT FROM THE AT- TACK OF THE WEEVIL. Numerous remedies Lave been proposed to protect wheat from the destructive ravages of the weevil, but most of them have been impracticable or too expensive. M. Caillat, in France, recommends the use of tar, as a certain and economical agent for their destruc- tion. He says : a The efficacy of tar in driving away the weevil and preserving the grain, is an incon- testible fact. My father had. a long time ago, his granaries, barns, and the whole house, infested with these insects, so much so, that they penetrated into all the chests, and among the lirren. He placed an open cask impregna- ted with tar in the' barn, and then in the granaries ; at the end of some hours the weevils were seen climbing along the walls by myriads, and flying in all directions away from the cask. On moving this tarred vessel from place to place, the premises were in a few days completely cleared of these troublesome and pernicious guests. The agriculturist who wants to get rid of weevils, may, as soon as he perceives their presence, impregnate the surface of some old planks with tar, and place I them as required in his granaries. Care must be taken to renew the tar from time to time in the course of the year, to prevent the return of the insects/' — Comptes Readus. SUCCESSFUL EXPEPJMENT WITH PEAS. ' A gentleman well known in the South, aowed a field in oats, so poor that it yielded only 7 bushels per acre. As soon as the oats were off, the land was plowed and sowed in peas, which were turned in when at their rankest growth. The next year it was sowed in oats again, and produced fourteen bushels to the acre. They were again immediately fol- lowed by peas, and the next season oats, which gave a product of twenty-eight bushels per acre. This was followed by a third crop of peas, and a yield of over forty bushels of oats to the acre. The land was raised by three coats of peas, fron seven to forty bushels per acre. Farmers, read, practice, improve. This must become an important branch of your system of manuring. Let it be com- bined with some methodical plan of saving, collecting and applying every material about the premises that will enrich the land, and in four years every poor farm on which the sys- tem is adopted and faithfully carried out, will double, and in some instances, quadruple its productions EMERY'S SEED PLANTER AND DRILL BARROW. I have used this drill in planting corn the list two years, with great advantage. It plants the corn with accuracy, dropping from one to five grains at distances varying from three inches to eight feet, as desired. It opens the furrow, drops, covers and rolls the corn, at one operation ; is an easy draught for one horse, and' will plant from five to ten acres of land per day. This year I planted 170 acres, with two drills in fifteen days, saving each day one bushel of corn, and the labor of two horses and four hands. At a. fair calculation the saving in labor and corn would be $5 per day, or $75 for fifteen days, The drill cost me in Richmond, two years ago, $ , and I consider it one of the best implements that I have ever used. We owe its introduction into Virginia to that able and ardent agriculturist, L. E: Harvie, Esq. If the patentee, H. L. Emery, Albany, N. Y., would make his drill rather stronger, lift the stilts, and establish an agency in Richmond, it would be greatly advantageous to himself and the State. Full directions accompany the drill. Wm. H. Harrison. CAMPHOR vs. PEA-BUGS Having observed in the Horticulturist ati inquiry relative to seed-peas damaged by bugs, I will offer a remedy, perhaps not new, but new to me. Four years ago, last spring, my seed- peas were more than half destroyed by bugs, the largest and best varieties being most in- jured. The summer following, I had boxes made, one for each variety, with a cover ; and when the peas were gathered, I put into each box, with a quart of peas, from six to eight bits of gum-camphor, the size of a large pea, and mixed them together, and closed the box. The next spring there was not a pea injured. I have pursued the same course every year since, and have not had one pea. affected by bugs. — Plow, Loom and Anvil. Guinea Fowls vs. Rats. — A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, who was very much annoyed by rats, tried shooting, poisoning, and everything he could think of; but they defied the whole cat-egory. He then heard that they would not remain where Guinea fowls were kept, and procured several, and now says that for over two years he has neither seen nor heard a rat about the premises. We doubt the above rat remedy, and should* be glad to hear from others who have tried it to know whether it is effectual. — American Agriculturist. THE SOUTHEBH PLANTER. THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. RICHMOND, JULY, 1855. . . TERMS. One Dollar and Twenty-five Cents per annum, which may be discharged by 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 invariably in advance. §3^° No subscription received for a less time than 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. ' Office corner Main and Twelfth steets. ADVERTISEMENTS. A limited number will be inserted at the following rates: For each square of ten lines, first insertion, One Dollar; each continuance, Seventy-five Cents. Advertisements out 'of the City must be accompanied with the money, to insure their insertion. UP* It is indispensably necessary that subscribers or- dering a change should say from what to what post office ibey wish the alteration made. It will save time to us and lose none to them. ' Postage- on the Southern Planter, (when paid in advance,) to any part of the United States one cent and half per quarter, or six cents per annum. THE WHEAT CROP OF VIRGINIA. ■ It is very common, as we all know, when men change an opinion, to compensate by as much error on one side as they had in the first instance com- mitted on the other; and farmers, whose revenue depends entirely on their crops, are perhaps more given to this oscillation than other men. It is particularly exemplified as to them in the present harvest. But a few weeks ago the whole of Virginia, except in a few circumscribed localities, was suffering from a drought which, in duration and intensity, so far surpassed any other that had been known as to threaten a famine. The wheat orop especially was pronounced the most complete failure that had ever occurred. But rain fell after the fields had headed, and then ensued an unex- pected improvement- Comparing the state of the wheat then with what it had just been, and not with what it ought to have been at that season of the year, the farmer cast aside despondency aad proclaiming that he never had seen wheat improve so much, declared that he really thought he would make an average crop. That seems to be now the general opinioa- among commercial men hereabouts, and it is very natural that those whose gains depend on a wide margin between' purchases and sales, should entertain it honestly and propagate it widely and in good faith. But we think they are mistaken as to the extent of improvement. The rains came too late — the wheat had not branched sufficiently, it had not attained the requisite height so as t# get a fair exposure to the sun , had consequently too many underling heads in it, and having begun to "fill," or form grain before the rains commenced, and accommodating itself to the existing state of things, had formed shorter heads and fewer grains in the mesh, as it is called, than is usual for an average crop. The effect of this state of things has been all along very obvious to minute inspection, and yet might easily escape a less par- ticular observation, as may he very easily under- stood by those who know that lime on lands that need it will sometimes add twenty per cent to- a crop without showing any increase to the eye so- long as it is growing in the field. But this state of things is the case mainly on the good or guanoed lands, where there was exemption from the insect pests which have devastated so large a portion of the wheat region of the State. On the poorer lands the case is still worse ; on them, as all fanners know, rain, and a plenty of it, at the proper time, is indispensable to the scanty crops they generally make, and such rains they did not get. The consequence is extremely short crops in such situations. The product, it is true, will be considerably increased over our calculation in the last Planter, but we must continue to think that a very short crop, but little if any, over one half, will be made in Virginia, and we come to this conclusion after as much information as colloquy with casual visiters and a pretty extended private correspon- dence can afford. Since beginning this article we have heard of two large crops, samples doubtless of many others, which have not turned out as well as was expected, and the rains of this and the last week, [it is now raining steadily — June 25,] must operate injuriously both as to quality and yield of what has not been secured. We were lately asked what we meant by a half crop. We mean just this, and presume that every. p farmer in Virginia attaches the same significance to it : that a half crop is only half of what a man's • land may be reasonably expected to yield in a fair season ; and when we say that a county, Powhatan^ for instance, will make but half a crop of wheat, we mean that the average product of that coui,tyi taking low grounds, upland and forest, will be only half as much as a reasonable man would expect it to be on an average of seasons ; and so as to the State at large As to predicting the THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. □amber of bushels of wheat to be made in Virginia, that cannot be arrived at from any data that we know of; with the many outlets for produce and the blunders in the census tables, it is impos- sible to get at anything like an estimate of an average crop, numerically speaking. It is said that a much larger breadth of land was sowed in wheat last fall than is usual. But we cannot learn how that fact has been ascertained, and do not believe it. The price only rose extrava- gantly in the latter part of summer, and it was too late then to make preparation for a much heavier seeding than usual ; farmers cannot in a moment change all their plans, and adapt their rotations to the speculations of a merchant, and if they had — as they have not — the labor and teams that would enable them to rot-ate according to the market, they are too wise and wary to try such ventures. Besides, the fall was so dry that in the most extended wheat regions the trouble was to plough and sow the accustomed quantity of land. In other States the crops are said to be good, but we have yet to learn that they are anywhere better than an average. In the West, Northwest and North, the winter was very hard, and the spring late, dry and cold, circumstances particu- larly unfavorable to the full yield of spring wheat, which is largely sowed in those regions. Passages like the following from the Ohio Farmer, are continually meeting our eye : "Within the last two weeks, great and abundant rains have refresh- ed the parched earth, and changed the gloomy antici- pation of the husbandman, into bright prospects of a rich harvest , and a bovmti id tn m for the year's '.ml." But this is all a mistake ; a fortnight's reasonable weather never yet made "a rich har- vest" out of well founded "gloomy anticipations," though a three days rain has ruined many a bright prospect, and may yet in this particular instance, if our present weather invades the later crops of the free States, where the weevil also threatens to divide the crops with the sickle. It is true that more wheat has been sowed in the Northwest than usual, but under the impetus of immigration rather than high prices ; and that will doubtless affect the quantity somewhat, but not much, we think, as far as price is concerned, in view of circumstances which did not exist at the last harvest, and certainly not to such an extent as to operate a fall on the principle of over produc- tion. The prospects of the crop abroad, as far as any indications are yet afforded, are not very good, as may be seen, more fully in an article of the Mark Lane Express, which we take from that very valua- ble Journal, the New York Economist, (which should be in the hands of every producer in the country.) As to "how the markets will rule'' the coming season, that is ticklish ground, and very few are entitled to tread it confidently ; but from all we can see we have no doubt that wheat, however it may start, will be higher this year than it was last, and we advise farmers not to be in a hurry to sell. The price now is so much higher than here- tofore, that a man, sure of more than lie dreamed of two years ago, can afford to risk something for the sake of a rise such as we anticipate. We,— and the fact is mentioned that the motive may not be misunderstood — mean to sell early ; because we want money, having failed to get more than one-seventh- part of the eleven thousand dollars due us from the gentlemen who labor under the delusion that they patronize the Southern Planter by owing it an aggregate debt of more than S&000. Our opinion in this regard is based on the class of facts that will be found in the above referred to- article from the Mark Lane Express, and from other considerations which lead us to believe that prices will never again come down to "old levels." Wheat has never risen, in any era, on an average of prices, to the proportional rates of other pro- ducts — perhaps providentially, as it is the main breadstuff of so large a part of mankind— but it has always felt the fluctuations of other staples, and risen, if it was at a lpwer rate, as they have risen. We think it will do so now, and thus give the farmers some of the benefits of^the great gold supply, which all other classes seem now to be en- joying. It will also derive some advantage indi- rectly from the same thing. Within the last year more wheat was consumed in England, though the prices were higher, than the year before ; and everywhere the demand for other food at enhanced rates was increased, and is still increasing, but not exactly in the ratio of wheat. This would seem to shew that the condition of the great consuming class is improving, and that high prices are in part the result of competition among the buyers as well as of a scarcity of the article sought. The Board, too, is now clear : there is no surplus wheat in the world, and we begin the sale of the crop now with at least a chance of short crops in several countries, which, if they do fail, will need supplies, and must look mainly to us to furnish them. These are our opinions and the grounds of them. But every reader owes to himself even more than to us, to examine them well for himself, and not to act upon them unless he is fully satisfied of their correctness. If we thought that our opinions were to guide the farmer we would be very chary of expressing them generally, and would perhaps be absolutely silent, if we could suppose that by taking our advice without proper reflection «n his own part, he should make us wholly responsible for the amountof his revenue. 210 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER PREMIUMS BY INDIVIDUAL DONORS. The following letter of Dr. It. T. Baldwin, of Winchester, offering premiums on three subjects of very important, practical and scientific interest, ex- plains itself. We are authorized also to state in regard to that class of premiums, that the premium of $100 for the best essay on the connection of moral and agricultural improvement, and their reciprocal operation and effects, is again offered as before, with the exception of a slight change in the com- mittee, which will be announced in the proper place : Winchester, June 13, 1855. Dear Sir :—hi accordance with the rules and regulations of the Virginia Agricultural Society in relation to premiums offered by individual donors, I offer the following premiums : 1. A premium of one hundred dollars for any fact or facts derived from experiment, which prove conclusively that "woody fibre in a state of decay is the substance called humus." 2. A premium of one hundred dollars for any fact or facts, derived from experiment or observa- tion, which prove satisfactorily that any substar.ee whatever possesses the fertilizing qualities of manure, except the residue of putrefaction 3. A premium of one hundred dollars for any fact or facts, derived from experiment, which prove that the surface of the earth itself is incapable of experiencing the putrefactive process. The awards to be made at the November meeting of the Society, 1856. j Yours, &c, R. T. Baldwin* HOW TO MOVE A SULLEN OX. " Did you never observe/' said a plain man, a friend of ours, a few days since, as we were dri- ving a dog out of the cow-pen, to prevent his ta- king refuge behind us — as the cows took it by turns t0 chase him over the lot — " did you never observe that a cow never will make friends with a dog"?'' "Often." "Well, the best way you ever tried to make steers rise when they get sullen, and lie down, is just to bring a dog and drop him down on them. It will make them jump up when noth- ing else in the world will." We seized the hint at once for the benefit of our friends who own such pests as obstinate oxen, and give it to them now. — We believe there is no antipathy so universal and inveterate as that of cattle against dogs, and it strikes ns that when all other means fail, that will answer. NEW PAPER ENTERPRISE. It will be seen in our advertising columns that Mr. Grierne, of this city, long connected with the newspaper press of this city, proposes to publish a newspaper mainly devoted to commercial and statistical subjects. LANDSCAPE GARDENING. Mr. E. G. Eggeling proposes to visit the upper country this summer, and on his tour will be glad to give his assistance to those wishing to improve their homesteads. To all such we recommend him with pleasure as just the man they want, and very moderate in his charges. CULTIVATION OF FRUIT To the Editor of the Planter : Sir — As you are aware, I have been for several years past, a devoted cultivator of fruits and fruit trees. It is with pleasure that I witness the inter- est taken in this branch of husbandry, and the columns of the Planter occasionally graced by the communications of friends to the cause, able and willing to impart instruction. I hope those corres- pondents will not look back, now they have put forth their hands to the plough. There are many points in fruit culture not yet settled even by scientific cultivators, and theories and practice are variant. Let us compare notes, let us commune freely, let us give our several modes of cultiva-»- tion, and by all means, endeavor to ascertain what varieties are best adapted to our soil and climate, and i id our orchards of the worthless sorts with which many are now filled. There are several large nursery establishments eminently deserving patronage, in addition to those enumerated in the February number of the Planter, by my friend, Captain Henry B. Jones, of Rockbridge ; of which I shall merely mention that of Mr. Oliver Taylor, of Loudon county. There is no difficulty now in getting home raised trees of the best quality and of varieties corresponding with the present improved state of fruit culture. A few years ago this part of the State %vas overrun by tree pedlars and grafters. Those who patronized them are now reaping the harvest of their impositions. Their trees were generally the refuse of Northern nurse- ries, and if of suitable varieties for cultivation here, were stunted, badly treated, hauled in open waggons with the roots exposed to all the vicissi- tudes of the weather during a long journey. One person bought two hun'rjd peach trees, under assurance that they contained all the finer varie- ties from the earliest to the latest. After planting and nursing them for several years they came into bearing, and it was then found that all were of one sort, ripening at the same time. Other impostors have traversed the country, professing to have grafts of the most celebrated apples, which by putting on old trees would soon come into bearing, and strange to say, many farmers patronized them, and their orchards were ruined. It is now appa- rent that they carried grafts from one Jarm to another, and often grafted a tree with its own sort. These are Yankee tricks, and as long as our people think "the pleasure is as great Of being chealed, as to cheat," we shall not have an end of such impositions. Nurserymen, in general, have too much work at home to allow them to travel and dispose of their trees. They generally advertise, and furnish catalogues and information to their customers, and this is as much as can be expected. There are establishments at the North that may be character- ized as tree 'manufactories. They are root grafted — THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 211 small pieces of roots being used, and the tree looks very well while young, but when transplant- ed they do not strike root freely, and they soon become worthless. A thrifty, good apple or pear tree can only be had when grafted or budded upon an entire plant whose tap root has been shortened ; it then will send out lateral roots and make a good tree. There are. also nnrseries at the North where there is honest dealing and good trees. When I commenced planting apple trees in March, 1845. not knowing of any nurseries in the State, I had to send to Newark, N, J., for what I could not obtain in Washington. I continued for the next two years to plant from the nurseries at that place, and better bearers or more thrifty trees I have never seen here or elsewhere. I was awarded at the •first Annual Fair of the State Agricultural Society, the premium for the largest and best variety of apples, and if I attend this year, he who takes the premium over me will deserve it. I am collecting the finer varieties : of Virginia apples, and there are a great many fine ones, mostly natural seedlings, which have a local popularity, and I wish to bring theni .together and compare them with my Northern varieties. I should be happy to receive information of the best local varieties, and will exchange grafts with any orehardist or nurseryman in the State. I raise my stocks from the seeds of the Denizen apple, which I am told is a native of this county, and is only a good cider apple, but the trees are remarkable for their vigorous growth and longevity. I have nearly one hundred varieties, Northern and Southern, under experiment, and in the course of ten years I hope to be able to decide which are the best varieties for general cultivation. Your correspondent S., whose acquaintance I doubtless made at Richmond in 1843, publishes a ' recipe which he recommends as a remedy for the peach worm. I think, however, if he applies this pemedy extensively, he will find that it will not interfere much with the worm ; but as his prescrip- tion imparts nitric acid and potash, chlorine and soda to the soil, the vigor of his trees will be pro- moted, and the effects of the worm overcome. The amplest and best remedy that I have used to dr-stroy the worm is scafdfag water. For this purpose, Thavea small furnace, which I take bv hand through the orchard ; when I find where the worms have colonized, 1 heat a tea kettle of water over a charcoal fire, make a basin like cavity with earth around the collar of the tree, and pour in the boiling water. A little salt and tobacco may be added. The application should never be made in freezing weather, but in the spring or summer; it does not m the least injure the t»ee;. in fact it will restore its health and luxuriant growth. I have never <;cen a single case of the "yellows" in this State, and what is termed so with us will, without doubt, prove to be starvation. A neglect- ed tree on exhausted soil will linger for a year or two, inviting, as all diseased trees do, insects and other enemies, and finally die, but not of the yellows; that is a very different disease, often attacking awhole orchard under good culture. To keep this dreadful malady from extending within oar borders, should be a leading consideration with every fruit culturist. With care it can be done. Let nurserymen never raise two crops of trees in succession on the same ground. They should plant no kernels except from hardy, healthy young seedling trees, au/l never from a yellow variety" The yellow peaches are more liable to over-bear- ing and to disease than the pale-fleshed sorts, and indeed it would be to the interest of the peach grower to discontinue planting yellow peaches as much as possible. If it be desirable to keep a few for the sake of number and variety, the following are the best, having regard to the excel- lence of the fruit and habit of the trees. Free- stones : Crawford's Early, Crawford's Late, Yellow Rareripe, Smock. Clingstones : Kennedy's Caro- lina, or Lempn Cling-stones, Tippecanoe, and Algiers, or Yellow Preserving. To these, for a good collection, may be added : Pale-fleshed — Freestones : Walter's Early, Coles Early, Chan- cellor, Oldmixbn-free, Large Early York, Grosse Mignonne, or Royal Kensington. La Grange, Presi- dent. Clingstones: Old Newington, Oldmixon, Rodman's Red, Heath. The Columbia, sometimes called the Georgia peach, and in that State the Indian peach, is a slow growing, long lived variety, and deserves a place in every collection. There are other peaches of merit, such as the Early Tillotson, Druid Hill, Morris Red Rareripe, Haines' Early and George IV, (if true,) which may be cultivated as market peaches. Out of upwards of fifty varie- ties by name in my orchards, the above are all that I think really worthy of general cultivation. Those that I omit to mention, though good, ripen with the above and have no special quality to recommend them. In our genial soil and climate the peach is so easily raised, and all are so fine that it is a hard task to say what should be excluded from an orchard. lean name but three which I would condemn to banishment, viz: Red Cheek. Melocoton, Morris' White, and Kenrick's Heath ; and yet these are popular market fruits. There are many accidental seedlings, having a local popu- larity and fanciful names, to be found on some catalogues, but I cannot say that it would be desirable to extend their cultivation. I have raised several myself, slightly varying from the parent tree, but while we keep the originals free from deterioration there seems to be very little propriety in bringing forward a brood of seedlings. The peach obeys the same general law that influence all other vegetables. If fertilized by the pollen of another variety we may expect a cross breed, yet in a majority of cases there will be a decline in the merits of the fruits. Winds and insects scatter the polien of the peach, as is done with different varieties of corn, melons and other annual plants growing in close proximity, causing them to mix. It can be artificially per- formed, as was done by Mr. Knight, President of the London Horticultural Society, to whose skill in cross budding we are indebted for some of our best fruits. There are some varieties of peaches. the Columbia, Oldmixon Cling and the Heath, in particular, whose individual character is so strongly impressed upon them that they appear to refuse a union with others, and hence they will in a majority of cases reproduce themselves from their own kernels. The Heath has been in my father's family for more than sixty years, grown all the time from the seed. In Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas, where he cultivated it, it is called the "English peach." from the circumstance that Col. Hamilton, who is mentioned in Lee's memoirs as an officer in the revolutionary war, and afterwards Consul at Norfolk, having brought stones of this peach from Scotland, distributed them among his 212 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, old neighbors in Caswell or Person County, North Carolina, where he had been a merchant previous to the war. Coxe ascribes the introduction of this peach from the Mediterranean to a Mr. Heath. The two peaches are identically the same, and its constant habit of reproducing itself without variation, proves its universal popularity, and tends to confirm the history of its appearance in this country at two points remote from each othei. A seedling Heath makes the best stock for budding of any of our fine varieties. There can be no good object attained by relying alone on seedlings for an orchard. The uncertainty of getting good fruit ripening in succession throughout the season, should deter any person from attempting it when our nurseries contain so many fine varieties, such well grown trees, and so very cheap. I find, Mr. Editor, that this communication is much longer than I had intended. I wished to speak more of the apple, my mode of planting and cultivation, and the theory on which my practice is founded. But this I must defer until some other time, if you can find room for me in the Planter. Woodford, » Near Falls Church P.O. I H. ('!. Wiu.iams. Fairfax County, Va. } June 17, 1855. CAPILLARY ATTRACTION OP THE SOIL. Prom numerous observations which have been made at different times on the peculiar appearance of the surface of soils, clays, &c, during the warm summer months, and the fact that they, when covered with boards, stones, or other mate- rials, so as to prevent them from supporting vege- tation, become in a comparatively short time, much more productive than the adjacent uncovered soil, led to the belief that the soil possessed some pow- er within itself, aside from the roots of plants — of elevating soluble materials from deep sources to the surface. Dr. Alexander II. Stevens, of New York, was, I think, the first to suggest this idea. He speaks of it in his address delivered before the State Ag- ricultural Society of New York, on the Food of Plants, in January, 1848. No accurate experi- ments were performed, however, to fix it with a degree of certainty, till those made which appear in this paper. To throw some light upon the subject, in May, 1852, 1 sunk three boxes into the soil — one 40 inches deep, another 28 inches deep, and a third 14 inches deep. All three of the boxes were 10 inches square. I then placed in the bottom of each box three pounds of sulphate of magnesia. The soil was to be placed in the boxes above the sul- phate of magnesia, was then thoroughly mixed, so as to be uniform throughout. The boxes were then filled with it. This was done on the 25th of May, 1852. After the boxes were filled, a sample of the soil was taken from each box, and the per centage of magnesia which it contained, accurate- ly determined. On the 28th of June, another sample of surface soil was taken from each box, and the per centage of magnesia carefully obtained as before. The result in each case pointed out clearly a marked increase of magnesia. On the 17th of July, a sample of the surface soil was taken for a third time from each box, and carefully examined for the magnesia. Its per centage was found to be very perceptibly greater than on the 28th of the preceding month. On the 15th of the months of August and September fol lowing, similar examinations severally were made, with the same evident gradual increase of the mag- nesia in the surface soil. The following are the results as obtained : Box Box Box 40 in. 28 in. 16 in high. high. high. Per centage of Magnesia : May 25th, 0.1 S O.lfe 0.13 June 28th. 0.55 0.30 0.32 July 17th, 0.52 0.46 0.47 Aug. 15th, 47 0.53 0.54 Sept. I5tli, 0.51 0.58 0.61 Before the middle of October, when it was in- tended to make another observation, the fall rain* and frosts had commenced ; on this account the ob- servations were discontinued. The elevation of the magnesia, as shown in the above experiments, evi- dently depends upon a well known and quite uni- versal property of matter, viz : — the attraction of solids and liquids, or what is commonly denomi- nated capillary attraction, or the property which most liquids have to rise in tubes, or between plane and curved surfaces. This may be clearly illustrated by taking a series of small capillary glass tubes and insert one extremity of them in a solution of sulphate of magnesia, or chloride am- monium, and break or cutoff the upper extremity, just below the height to which the solution rises. Expose them to the sun's rays. The water of the solution evaporates, and the fixed sulphate of magnesia will be deposited just on the upper ex- tremity of the tube. As the solution evaporates, more rises up from below, keeping the tubes constantly full. Yet no sulphate of magnesiapasses off; it all, or nearly all remains at, or rises just above the evaporating surface. Just so in the soil ; as the water, evapo- rates from the surface, more water pregnant with soluble materials from below, rises up to supply its place; as this evaporation goes on, it leaves the fixed materials behind in the surface soil at the several points of evaporation. This explains why we often find during the months of July, August and September, a crest of soluble salts covering the surface of clay deposites which are highly impregnated with the alkalies or any of the soluble compounds of the metals, earth, or alkaline earths. Also, the reason, in many in- stances, of the incrustations upon rocks that are porous and contain soluble materials. It also helps to explain the reason why manures when applied for a short or longer time upon the surface of soils, penetrate to so slight a depth. Every agricultu- rist is acquainted with the fact that the soil direct- ly under his barn-yard, two feet below the surface, (that is any soil of any ordinary fineness) is quite as poor as that covered with boards or otherwise, two feet below the surface, in his meadow ; the former having been for years directly under a manure heap, while the latter, perhaps, has never had barnyard manure within many rods of it. The former has really been sending its soluble materials to the surface soil, the latter to the sur- face soil and the vegetation grown near ; or upon it, if iincovered. The capillary attraction must vary very much in different soils; that is, some have the power of ele- vating soluble materials to the surface from much deeper sources than others. The pores or intersti- ces in the soil correspond to capillary tubes. Thp -*-*- THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 213 less the diameter of the pores or tubes, the higher the materials are elevated. Hence one very im- portant consideration to the agriculturist, when he wishes nature to aid him in keeping his soil fertile — is to secure soil in a fine state of mechanical di- vision and of a high retentive nature. Nothing is more common than to see certain soils retain their fertility with annual addition of much less manure than certain others. In fact, a given quantity of manure on the former, will seem to maintain their fertility for several years, while a similar addition to the latter quite loses its good effects in a single season. The former soils have invariably the rocks, minerals. &c, which compose them, in a fine state of division; while the latter have their parti- cles more or less sandy and coarse. — 3. M Salis- bury. M: D., in Prairie Farmer. PUMPKINS AND SQUASHES. We know of no vegetable genus in which, there i3 so much confusion of names and characters among cultivators, as the Pumpkin and Squash tribe, or Cucurbita of Botanists. Their common name have so multiplied, that a farmer wishing to grow some for his stock, or his table, can hardly tell what to ask for at the seed stores, or what will be the character of his crops when obtained. Knowing that T. W. Harris, the distinguished Entomologist of Massachusetts, had been paying special attention to this subject, with the view of some reliable and scientific classification, we ad- dressed him the following queries, to which he has most kindly responded: Tc ! 'i£ Edi'or of the Farm Journal : — In your com- munication, you request to be informed what is <: the distinction, if any, between the Boston and Vegetable Marrow Squash, also between the Com e t'cufc Field Pumpkin and the cheese Pump- kin ; what is the Valparaiso Squash, and is it a de- sirable variety ; what are the distinctive marks of the Winter and Summer Crook-neck Squash, Early Egg or Apple Squash, Pattypan Squash, Turban Squasli, Cashaw Pumpkin, Mammoth Pumpkin, Acorn Squash ; what are the correct names and synonymes of these kinds ; which of them is most valued in New England for pumpkin pies, and which for stock and field culture ?" In September, 1834, Mr. John M. Ives, of Salem, Mass., exhibited in Faneuil Hall, Boston, a new squash, to which he subsequently gave the r,ame of the '"Autumnal Marrow Squash." It was figured and described in Fessenden's New England Far- mer, vol. XIII, No. 16, Oct. 29, 1834, page 122, and again in Fessenden and Teshemacher's Horticul- tural Register, vol. I, No. 3,- March, 1835, page 93. This fruit thus introduced and brought into notice, soon became a great favorite, and has ever since been extensively cultivated for table use, as a sauce and for pies, in the vicinity of Boston. So popular has it become in the market of Boston that it may be well be called "the Boston Squash," though I never heard that name applied to it. — Mr. Ives, in his description of it, called it a variety of Cucurbita melopepo, which is an error. If not a mere variety of Commodore Porter's Valparaiso Squash, it doubtless descended from the same stock as the latter. It must not be confounded with the kind cultivated in England under the name of " Vegetable Marrow," a very poor vegetable, as I am assured by friends who have eaten it in Lon- don, and apparently one of the sorts which in N^w England would be called Summer Squashes. The "Autumnal Marrow" is eaten only when fully ripe ; the "Vegetable Marrow," like your " Cymlings/'is eaten only in unripe state. The former cornea into eating in September, but may be kept with care till March. When pure or unmixed by crossing with other kinds, it is considered as the very best autumnal and winter squash in New England. — Many cultivators have allowed it to degenerate or become mixed with the larger and grosser Valpa- raiso, so that we do not often find it in entire purity in our markets. It generally has only three double rows of seeds'. For a description of it, -ee the works before cited, also Cole's New Eng- land Farmer, vol. I, No. 12, May 26, 1849, p. 185. I am not sure what is the fruit denominated Connecticut Field Pumpkin, and the Cheese Pump- kin 13 unknown to me except by its name in cata- logues. The Valparaiso Squashes, of which there seem to be several varieties, known to .cultivators by many different names, some of them merely local in their application, belong to a peculiar group of the genus Cucurbita-, the distinguishing characters of which have not been fully described by botan- ists. The word squash as applied to these fruits is a misnomer, as may be shown hereafter ; it would be well to drop it entirely, and to call the fruits of this group pompions, pumpkins, or potirons. It is my belief that they were originally indigenous to the tropical and subtropical parts of the western coast of America ; they are extensively cultivated from Chili to California, and also in the West In- dies, whence enormous specimens are sometimes brought to the Atlantic States. How much soever these Valparaiso pumpkins may differ in form, size, color, and quality, they all agree in certain peculiarities that are found in no other speciea^r varieties of Cucurbita. Their leaves are never deeply lobed like those of other pumpkins and squashes, but are more or less five-angled, or almost rounded, and heart shaped at base ; they are also softer than those of other pumpkins and squashes. The summit or blossom-end of the fruit has a nipple-like projection upon it, consist- ing of the permanent fleshy stile. The fruit-stalk is short, nearly cylindrical, never deeply five-fur- rowed, but merely longitudinally striated or wrinkled, and never clavated or enlarged with pro- jecting angles next to the fruit. With few excep- tions, they contain four or five double row of seeds. To this group belong Mr. Ives' Autumnal Marrow squash (or pumpkin) before named, Commodore Porter's Valparaiso squash (pumpkin), the 30-call- ed Mammoth pumpkin or Cucurbita maxima of the botanists, the Turban squash or Acorn squash, Cucurbita jnliformtr, of Duchesne, the Cashew pumpkin, Cole's Connecticut pie squash, Stetson's Cuba squash, and his hybrid called the Wilder squash, with various others. The variety introduced from Valparaiso by Commodore Porter, became known' to me about the year 1830, since which time it has been more or less cultivated in New England both for the table and for stock. It is of an oblong, oval shape, of a pale reddish yellow color externally when ripe, nearly smooth, and very slightly furrowed, and often grows to a large size. It readily mixes with the Autumnal Marrow, but is inferior to it in quality. It may prove better and more valua- ble in the Middle and Southern Stateu than in New England. — — - 2J4 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. The Turban, sometimes called also the Acorn squash, because when the fruit is small it resem- bles somewhat an acom in its cup, seems to be the C ucurbita pit 'if ormis of Duchesnw. The middle lower figure of the group on page 283 of the vol- ume on "Timber Trees and Fruits," in the "Libra- ry of Entertaining Knowledge," seems intended for the Turban squash. It sometimes grows to a large size, measuring 11 or 15 inches, in transverse diameter, and looks like an immense Turkish tuf& ban in shape. Specimens raised in my garden in 1851 were little more than ten inches in diameter, and weighed ten pounds or more, having very thick and firm flesh, and but a small cavity within. They proved excellent for table use, equal in quality to the best Autumnal Marrows. They keep quite as well as the latter. The earliest account of the Cashew pumpkin that has fallen under our notice is contained in the English translation of Du Pratz's History of Lou- isiana, (vol. II, p. 8.) where it is called Ciishaw. In the original French work, the name given to it is Giromon. Du Pratz described two varieties ; one round, and the other curved, or of the shape of a hunter's horn. The latter was considered the best. The Cushaw or Cashew pumpkin is not cultivated or much known in New England. I raised some specimens of the crook-necked variety, (which has only three double rows of seeds), a few years ago, from seeds received from New Jersey. They did not ripen well, and many of them rotted before half ripe. They are evidently too tender for a New England climate. From the account given of them by Du Pratz, they seem well suited to Louisiana, where the are much esteemed. See his work. The genuine Mammoth pumpkin, or true Potiron {Cucurbita 'maxima,') may be considered as the. typical species of this group, having rather soft, roundish heart-shaped, and entire leaves, a short cylindrical fruit stem, a permanent fleshy stile, and five carpels or double row of seeds. Tlie form of the fruit is an oblate spheroid, depressed at the blossom and stem ends, and marked with ten or more wide meridianal furrows. It sometimes grows to an immense size, two feet or more in di- ameter, and sixty pounds or more in weight, being light in proportion to its size, on account of the large hollow within. It is known to vary much in color and size, and somewhat in form. In some of its_ variations, it may have lost its original char- acteristic form, so far as to be no longer recognized. If this be true, Cole's Connecticut pie squash, the round Valparaiso squashes, and several others. may be merely varieties of the Mammoth pumpkin! To some of the varieties of this fruit the name Giromon or Girovwnt, otherwise written Giraumon and Giraumout signifying a rolling mountain, seems originally to have been applied, in allusion to the form and size. French writers subsequent- ly transferred this name to certain varieties of the Cucurbita pcpo. The plants of the foregoing Valparaiso, or Potiron group, are more tender and less hardy than those of the common pumpkin or Pcpo group ; they are also much more subject to the attacks of worms or borers (JEgeria cucurbita;) at the roots. Their fruits, compared with common pumpkins and winter squashes, have a thinner and more tender rind, and finer grained, sweeter, and less strongly flavored flesh, on which accounts they are preferred by most persons for table use. The second group contains the common New England field pumpkin, Bell-shaped and Crook- necked Winter squashes, the Early Canada Winter squash, the Custard squash, and various others, all of which (whether rightly or not cannot now be determined,) have been generally referred by bo- tanists to the Cucurbita pepo of Linnaeus. This group is readily to be distinguished from the first one by the following characters. The leaves are rough, and more or less deeply and acutely five- lobed. The fruit has only three carples or doubre row of seeds, and the stile drops off with the blossom. The fruit stem is long, and clavated or enlarged next the fruit, where it spreads out into live claw- like projections ; and is five-angled and deeply five- furrowed. The fruit is eaten only when fully ripe, and may be kept with care throughout the winter. The rind, though sometimes quite hard, never be- comes a woody shell, and the flesh remains juicy and succulent till it rots, never drying up iuto a spongy or fibrous substance, in which respects these fruits differ from what are called Summer squashes. The seeds are not so broad, thick or plump, and white as those of the potiron group, but are smaller, thinner, and of a greyish color. The common field pumpkin of New England, which formerly was extensively raised for stock, and is still used for the same purpose, and of which our pumpkin pies and pumpkin sauce were made, till the winter crook-neck and autumnal marrow came to be substituted therefor, has a form somewhat resembling that of the mammoth pump- kin, but its longitudinal often exceeds its trans- verse diameter, its color is of a deeper yellow or orange, the furrows on its surface not so deep or broad, and its rind much thicker, and in some va- rieties quite hard. Its flesh is rather coarse, of a deep orange yellow color, and of a peculiar strong odor. Baked pumpkin and milk, pumpkin suace, and dried pumpkin for winter use, have had their day, and gone out of fashion ; and pumpkin pies are now mostly made of the autumnal marrow and crook-necked winter squashes, except by some of the old folks, who still prefer the pumpkins, baked in a milk-pan, and without any pastry. The New England " crook-neck squash,'' as it Is commonly but incorrectly called, is a kind of pumpkin, perhaps a genuine species, for it lias preserved its identity to our certain knowledge ever since the year 1G8G, when it was described by Hay. It has the form and color cf the Cashaw, but is easily distinguished therefrom by the want- of a persistent stile, and by its clavated and furrowed fruit stem. Before the introduction of the Autuin rial Marrow:, it was raised in large, quantities for table use during the winter., in preference to pump- kins, which it almost eutirely superseded. Many farmers use it now instead of pumpkins for cattle; the vine being more productive, and the fruit con- taining much more nutriment in proportion to its size! It varies considerably in form and color. The best kinds are those which are very mucli curved, nearly as large at the stem as at the blossom end, and of a rich cream color. Some are green variegated with cream colored stripes and spots Some are bell-shaped, or with a very short and straight neck, and are less esteemed than the others ; for the neck being solid and of fine texture, is the best part of the fruit. These crook-necks can be kept all winter, if not exposed to frost, and I have eaten of them when a year old. On account of its hardiness, its fruitfuluess, and its keeping it k V, . THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 215 qualities, this is perhaps the most valuable variety to the New England farmer. It is said to degene- rate in the Middle and Southern States, where probably Commodore Porter's Valparaiso or some kindred variety may be better adapted to the climate. The Early Canada squash seems to be a preco- cious and dwarfed variety of the common crook- neck. It is smaller, with a short and often straight neck, and is of a dark and dirty buff color exter- nally. It comes into eating early, quite as soon as the autumnal marrow, and was, indeed still is. much esteemed as a table vegetable. The custard squash pr pumpkin is an oblong, deeply furrowed, and prominently ten-ribbed fruit., with a pale buff and very hard (but not woody; rind, and fine, light yellow flesh, much esteemed in the making of pies and puddings. For a figure and description of- it, see Cole's New England Far- mer, Vol. Ill, No. 4, Feb. 15. 1851,-page 59. From seeds received from Paris, under the name of Patagonian squash, I raised a fruit exactly like the custard squash in form and size, but of a dark green color externally and entirely worthless as an article of food. Nevertheless I infer that the cus-. tard squash is merely an improved variety from the same original stock. The fruits belonging to this second group pro- bably originated in the eastern and central parts of the two Americas. They were cultivated by the In- dians.and were found here in their gardens and fields by Europeans on the first settlement of the country. Pumpkins, or bell-shaped squashes (as New Eng- ianders would now call them), were found as far north as Saco, by Champlain, in 1605 and 1606. A similar variety was cultivated by the Iroquois In- dians, and still bears their name in France. Pump- kins were found by Raleigh's Colony among the In- dians in North Carolina, and by early voyagers in the West Indies. There are indigenous kinds in Brazil ; ana we have seen that even Patagonia has added another to the common stock. Cultivation has doubtless improved their qualities., and has caused them to sport in numerous varieties, so that it is now difficult, if not impossible, to determine which of the known kinds are typical species, and which are mere varieties. A third group remains to be described. The representatives of it are the Cvcurbita Melopepo, verrucosa, and ovifcra, of Linnaeus. It includes all those kinds called in New England Summer Squashes, becuase they are eaten onlv during the summer, while they are soft and tender, and in. an unripe state. These are the only two Squashes if regard be had to the origin of the name, derived from the language of the Massachusetts Indians by whom, according to Roger Williams, this kind' of friut was called " Askutasquask, which the Eng- lish from them call Squashes:' From the same lutbority, and from other sources, we leam that the Indians of New England cultivated this kind )f fruit or vegetable, and used it for food: that some of their squashes were "of the bigness of ap- Jles, of several colors," while others are represented >y Champlain, as being considerably larger, turbi- lated, and more or less puckered on the margin, md of the same- form as that which in France is Sued Bonnet -,. aeilk at a dollar and a quarter a bushel, a planter ias pretty strong inducemehfe to Gtiidy economy in feeSitife this grain to his Lc.'sos and mules. The writer has recently been c'xpefiriientrag alittle in the way of testing the relative value of boiled and dry corn for the nourishment of a working horse. The result is a gain by boiling varying from 20 to 25 per cent. We had rather feed four bushels of soaked and" partly cooked corn than five bushels of the grain dry, particularly where one has very little "hay, straw, blades, or other "roughness," to give with the corn. It is well worth while to heat water boiling hot, and pour it over cut feed and ground grain to facilitate the extraction of their alimentary pro- perties in the stomachs of working animals. If is not enough to fill the digestive apparatus with coarse forage, or the seeds of cereals, if we would secure the best attainable results for the food con- sumed. It must be so prepared as to yield up its life-sustaining virtues in a speedy and perfect manner. Asa general thing, grain fed to "horses is quite imperfectly digested; so much so, indeed, that not a few hogs and cows in and near villages and cities, subsist mainly or> the droppings of horses that travel the streets. Over 60 per cent, of corn is siarch, which is insoluluble in cold water, and not very soluble in juices of the stomach. By boiling or baking, starch is transformed into a kind of gum, which dissolves readily in water, and is easy of digestion. If grain keeps up to anything like its present market price it will soon be as common to bake bread for horses as for men. Unlike the ox, the horse has a small single stomach ; and these is not one argument in favor of cooking food for persons that does not apply to its equal preparation for horses. Scotch farmers have been some years in the practice of baking bread for their plough teams when hard at work. It is soon eaten, agrees well with the stomach, and gives a fatigued animal the maximum or time to lie down on a good bed and rest. This kind of feed, designed to make good blood, and a plenty of it, does not supercede the necessity of cut hay, fodder, or straw, whote bulk is important for the due expansion, and vigorous action of the digestive organs. Our practice is to boil corn some three or four hours, and salt it about as much as for hominy or bread. It swells to twice its original volume, which is no inconsiderable advantage. Horses fed mostly on green rye, barley, corn, clover, or lucerne, do best when a part of the water in such ' succulent plants is dried out before they are eaten. Even cows giving milk like half cured new hay better than perfectly green grass. A young corn plant two feet or so in height, has about 90 parts » of water in 100 of its stem and leaves. This fact does not prevent its being nutritive at that early stage of its growth, for it has very little wood, or woody fibre, which is indigestible. Dry matured plants yied their nutrient elements sparingly to horses, as compared with oxen and other rumi- 1 nants. Corn alone is too heavy feed for both horses and oxen ; and among the thousand and one inventions r for crushing and grinding corn in the ear, we doubt t whether there is anything equal to the " Little Giant Corn and Cob Mills," advertised by Messrs. !& Garmiphael &Bean, in the pages of this journal. — « fi "■ "Hence in feeding corn and cob meal has' Remonstrated' it& economical value. The cobs do*' aot yield any notable amount of positive sustenance; but they serve to render all nutritive elements in the com available for the support of animal life, and when fodder is scarce, as it new is, rru.shed THE SOUTHERN PLANT!!- 221 cobs, if sound and not weathered, mix admirably with pure meal. To work poor mules, oxen, and horses, or waste their expensive food, is bad economy; and one way 10 keep teams poor is to use dull, worthless ploughs and harrows, which require man and twast to go three times over a field to effect a de- gree of tillage which, with really good implements, might have been better done at one ploughing or harrowing. Every step in agriculture ough to tell ; bat it cannot, with bad tools, and badly kept work- ing cattle and servants. — Southern Cultivator. GREAT SALE OF SHORT HORNS IN ENG- LAND. Last week we noticed Mr. Tauqueray's sales of Short Horns, at Hendon, on the 24th of April. It would seem hardly possible, had we not facts and figures, that from a. single herd there should be sold, at one time, 101 animals — consisting of 77 cows and heifers and 24 bulls — at an average price of nearly $400 each. Some of the English journals .itribute the high prices to American buyers who, they say, are getting away their best stock. They add, that we have the advantage of them in the associations formed here, by means of which the expense is divided, and the influence of superior animal* more widely ex- tended. At the Hendon sale, however, the competi- tion was chiefly between Messrs. Morris & Be- ar and Mr. Spencer, of New- York city, and Mr. Gunter, a young grazier of Brompton, England. Mr. Gunter obtained the highest price animal (500 guineas,) after which the American buyers seemed to have their own way, as they secured a majority of the best animals, and Mr Gunter's name ap- pears afterwards only as the purchaser of one of the bulls. However, Mr. G. now cwns more of the Duchesses and Oxford** — the highest priced families of the Short Horns — than any other breeder in England, and English breeders now turn to him as being re- rponsible for keeping at home any of these bet- er animals. [Am. Agricult. Labor Saving Soap. — The wife of an Am- irican Agriculturist has been experimenting >n soaps, and finds that the addition of three- juartcrs of an ounce of borax to a pound of oap, melted in without boiling, makes a sa- rin? of ore-half the htbor in waeUfi}?. •nc h teness oi the fabrics; ■ ■ • ff< el is removed, left with a peculiarly . ing nothing more to f. Qi. ;-'.-• v,y the most ambitious washerwo- For the Southern Planter. A statement of the financial condition of the Virginia State Agricultural Society ap- pears in the June number of the Southern Planter, and I wish to say through the same channel, that of the amount of commission to which I was entitled as General Agent of the Society, as set forth in that exhibit, there re- mained, after defraying the various expenses incurred by myself and my son, less than $400 to me, and $217 to him; as is more fully stated in my report to the Executive Commit- tee, a part of which is published as an adden- dum to the financial statement. For this, however, the Executive Commit- tee is in no degree responsible. The canvass conducted by myself and others employed by me, was arranged with the President of the Society, and had commenced with considerable success before the meeting of the lOthof March, 1S53, when the subject was first submitted to the Committee. They undoubtedly wished and intended to make the compensation as liberal as they felt themselves justified in do- ing ; it was entirely'satisfactoiy to me, and I have neither desired nor would have received more. The President himself had offered in the first instance to guarantee a larger amount from his own purse. The operations of my agency were conduct- ed without instructions or control from any quarter; the various expenses incurred was my own voluntary act, and so directed a* in my own judgment was best calculated to build up a great State Society. My motive for en- tering upon this agency was rather to render what service I could to a great cause, than tc make money by it I relied for a support upon other business in which I had previously engaged, and thought it would be in my power- to render this service also without detriment to my private interests. The pecuniary re- sult was, as before stated, and without going further into matters merelypersonal to myself and my son, I only wish to state the fact. Wm. H. RlCHARPSO*.. For the Southern Planter. JOINT WORM— SUBSOILING ANDMANURIMG. A communication in the June number again recommends destroying wheat straw and stub- ble as a sure means of shortening the reign c:' that ever powerful enemy to the wheat crop., the joint worm. Under the above head I will venture a few suggestions which can do no injury to the crop if it docs none to the joint worm. I believe the joint worm will have its day, and for all we know, it may be a very long dar ; but I think the fact that they are so v-. merous and increase' -■' fasr, is an indie.'.''': THE SOUTHERN PLANTER that they will have but a short reign. But be this as it may, no means has as yet been devised for their destruction. I now propose, instead of perplexing ourselves about them, that we farmers, one and all, get into a good humor aud join at once in the race of irradication. — Moisture, shade, &e., is said by some writers to shorten their lives; if that be so, let's pre- pare for them as early every spring as possi- ble. This, i suggest, can be done by seeding the earliest varieties of wheat, which may be brought to maturity much earlier than it now is by early or summer fallowing, subsoil- ing, and a moderate usd of superphosphate of lime, or guano, drilled in with the wheat at the time of seeding. I have observed this season a field of 40 acres of wheat, which is now estimated at 20 bushels per acre, which was plowed very early last season and seeded in Mediterranean wheat. This field is sepa- rated at one point by a • narrow lane from a field that was very much injured last year, and is now in white, smooth wheat and cannot make one-fourth as much as it did last season, whereas the joint worm was scarcely percepti- ble in the 40 acre field last season, and the present crop is said to be better than the last. After seeding this (40 acres,) a 60 acre clover fallow, which was plowed after the stubbie, was seeded in the same way with a drill, with the addition of 3 tons of guano, and the addition of o\ tons of plaster in December. The joint worm is more numerous in this field than I ever saw them, and much the larger portion will scarcely be worth cutting ; it was bound- ed by a public road, by grass land and a corn field. I account for this difference from the fact that one was plowed early and seeded first — the other being regarded a good chance for 25 bushels per acre without the guano or » plaster, was fallowed last and seeded late, and it being very dry, came up very late. A few months since I had a conversation with a gen- tleman residing in Washington City, who owns 450 acres of land in Scotland, which he had recently hired, and more recently visited. I asked him if they were annoyed in his country by joint worm? "Yes," he replied, "with all sorts of worms. ' ' I then asked, ' ' what do you do to guard against them, or can you raise good crops of wheat ?" "Yes," was his reply, "our farmers make from 40 to 60 bushels per acre." "Pray, how do they do it?" he replied, " they plow well, for every crop, about 7 or 8 inches deep, and fallow with a subsoil plow, about the same depth, which disturbs the soil on an average about 15 inches, and they manure heavily for every crop with phosphate of lime, bone dust, or any good manure? they may have." I then asked him what land rented for ; he replied, "that land was never tenanted out in that country for less than 19 years, and that no rent was paid the first year, but double rent was paid the last year, which was done to enable the tenant to purchase manures and put the land to clover and grass the first year; and that land rented at from $15 to $30 per acre, it mattered not whether it was kept exclusively for grazing or cropped. He also mentioned that many of the best farmers would not permit a sheep to come upon their land, because they regarded them as being the most injurious stock to grass, or clover, it be- ing their habit to take the bud out of every plant in earty spring they had access to, which if it did nothing more kept it back a month later. * The joint worm, fly, &c., together with the droughts we are now-a-days liable to, will, I think, force us to reflect upon the course we have been and are yet pursuing, and also to enquire into the manner of preparation, &c, in those wheat growing countries that outstrip us so far in the growing of that most beautiful of all crops. I have been unable to account for the want of success on the part of those few farmers in Virginia who have attempted to subsoil their land, but am inclined to think that it must be for the want of an effective and reliable subsoil plow. Since the joint worm has become so bad, many farmers who do not feed it to cattle keep their straw over one year and then spread it very thinly over the young clover, which im- proves the clover and the land too, by the time it conies to' be a fallow. I have long wanted to subsoil for corn, but could never find th§ time, (as I thought,) but the last spring, I re ; solved to subsoil 25 acres, and actually sub^ soiled 60 or 65 acres out of 100 I put in corn, and had it planted by the 2nd of May. I in- tend to subsoil a portion of my fallow for wheat, and I request all who can to do like- wise every spring and fall, until we Virginians can, in some degree, rival the smaller yields of Scotland, Whose soil is not to be compared to the average soil of Virginia. We have the soil and the climate, and we have a number of good farmers who have labor without paying hire, and we have the means (or the credit) to purchase manure; then why not raise better crops despite of the joint worm? LI. Him , White Post P. O., Clarke Co., Va., June 18th, 1855. To broil hams properly, the slices should be | t first soaked in hot water, dried in a cloth, and broil- i ed on a gridiron over a clear fire THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 22c RICHMOND MARKETS, JUNE 28, 1855. Apples — Va. 85 per bbl. none in market. Bacon — City cured,- none in market ; Western Sides (new) held at lie, new Shoulder?, lOalOjc, Hams, 10Jal2 c, Smithfield hog round, llje. Queen City Hares, 13j. Butter — Mountain 24, to 2S cts., Roll 20 lo 25 cts., do Goshen 25a23 cts , old and inferior, SalOJ cts. Beeswax — 25ia26£ per lb. Cotton — 12* cts. per lb. Cotton Yabns — UalS ?ts., cash; Cotton Cordage 20 cts., per lb. Corn — We quote lOoallO .;,<.. per bushel. Corn Meal— Si 30al 3a. COFi'EE — Rio lOJalH cts, Laguyra llf c, Java 15* Moclia 15lc. Flock — We quote country superfine at 811all*. extra 811*, family Sl2al2*. Stock very light-, and very little arriving". Flaxseed — We quote at Si 62; per bushel. Feathers — Live geese 40 cts. per lb. Fish— Herrings, N. C , clipped, none in firsr hands ; Halifax, clipped, No. 1, 85*; No. 2, 85. Shad — Last sales 89; Mackerel, No. 1, -S2l'per bbl., No. 2, 812 50, No. 3, mall, 84 50aS, No. 4, 84 SOaS, medium 5 50a6, large 9 25 9 "50. Ginseng— 25 cts., per lb. Grass Seeds — Clover SO '■'r^.l per bushel, Timothy 4a4 25, Herds' Grass 81 25al 50 per bushel. Gdano — We quote 850 from wharf, 850 50 delivered, Tor Peruvian, Mexican Guano §30a835. Gunpowder— Dupont's and Hazard's Sporting, F, FF, nd FFF, 84J, Blasting, S2,75aS3 per keg. Hoop Poles — We quote at 87 per thousand. Hides — Slaughtered 61 cents per lb., green weight ; calf kins, gr»en, Si. No Spanish Hides in market. Hay — Sales from store 8 1 50. Iron and Nails— Pig Iron, 832a840. Swedes 8107 50, English refined and Tredegar 895, Common English 580, American country 835. Cut Nails 4a4|c. Liquors— Brandy, Otard, Dupuy & Co. 83a5 per gal ; L Seignette, 82 25a84; Sazerac, S3 25a 84 50; Hennessey, 3 95a85; Peach, scarce at $1 25a82; Virginia Apple, 60c. ,85c; do. old, 75c.aSl 50; Northern do, 55a75c; Imitation, 5a4.£c. Rum, New England, 45c. Gin, Holland, 8 1,20a 1/5; American 45 cts. Lead— Pig 6|a7|c., cash and time. Labd — Prime Lard, inbbls. 12c, scarce, in Kegs, 12al3? r , l pails, 14c. Leather— Good stamp 20a22c., per lb., damaged 13c, oor 15a 17c., upper leather 81 50a83, as in size" weight nd quality, the latter price only for superior heavy sides. kirtir.g and harness Leather is more plenty with less emand. We quote 20 to 29c, as extremes, principally ale3 22a26c. Lime — $1 37 in store, 84 311 from vessel. Molasses — New Orleans 32a35c. per gallon. Cuba, 3. Porto Rico, 35. Oats — Stock very light— sales at 70a75cts. per- bush. Offal — Bran, 25c. per bushel; shorts, 32*c; brown stuff", Sc. shipstufT, 75c. Potatoes— No demand for old and nothing doing. Piaster— Ground 89 per ton, calcined 825 per bbl. Rte — 81 30 per bushel. • Rice — New ~l\ cts. per pound. Salt— Liverpool tine Si 60 per sack from wharf! Sugars — Fair to .;trictly prime New Orleans 5|a7 cts., loffee Sngar 7fa8f, refined loaf 9|a Iff j, crushed and ordered 9a9fc. Shot — 7a7£ cts. per lr.. Teas— Imperial and Gunpowder 55c.a8l 20. ToBAcf 0— The breaks of Tobacco are very much crow- ed at ibis time and receipts laTge. We ouote inferior ige a; t5 5 >a6 ; good and fine, 96 25a7 ; inferior leaf, 88a ; good, Yj 5QalO 50; \r shipping, 812 50aI5 ; fine iao„. ictttring, 8' '••?>. " '- ' '— T*o or three limned conlrac-s for the new rop ban been made recently (v.e believe lor July tt**ry) at 82 per i-.uhel; but this, we sup ose, unot be regarded a* an iadb.-tfion of the opeiing rates |pl ' new whea; beena >.o cme '.-.. Wines Port, Burgundy, gla2,50, Port Juice S2,50a 4, Madeira, Sicily, 45a81,75", old Madeira, S2,50a4, Sherry, Permartin, Duff Gordon and Amontilado, 82a6,50. Wood — Oak. 83 50 per cord, 82a2 25 for Pine, retail S4 50 for Oak, $3a3 25 for Pine. Wool — Small parcels of tub-washed sold at 27c ; Unwashed 18al9c. No sales of firm fleece made as yet. Beef- - 3 50,a4."0, per cwt. gross, which is $9a7 net. Hogs — H't'i per hundred, supply moderat « Sheep — Mutton sells for 83a5 a piece for ordinary and superior Sheen Lambs S S. a 3 50 each. PAYIi1ENtS~f0" _ THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, To the 2.7th of June, 1855. All persons who have made payments early enough to be entered, and whose names do not appear in the following receipt list, are requested to give immediate notice of the omission, in order that, the correction may be rr_p.de in the next issue : si 00 Rev. W. Tiraberlake to January 1856 J. McMulIen to September 1855 Dr. R. H. Nelson to January 185*. John Tyler to January 1856 N". Edmonds to January 1856 Jno. T. Bland to January 1859 J. J. Hite to January 1857 H. Hudgins to January 1856 S. B. Spratley to January 1856 W. H. Hughart to January 1856 Gen. H. B. Woolhouse to January 1856 II. F. Woolhouse to January 1856 N. B. Richardson to January 1856 Ro. II. Vest to January 1856 Dr. D. S. Green to September 1855 Capt. II. Jones to January 1857 Dr. W. S. Morton to May 1857 F. Grayson to January 1856 W. W. Alyis to January 1856 Jas. C. Cook to April 1856 H. G. Argule.te to January 1856 Morgan Wood to Jauuary 1855 J. D. Massenburg to January 1856 H. B. Counsel to January 1856 Ed. Walden to January 1855 B. G. Harris to January 1856 Capt. C. Lowndes to January 1856 Geo. Taylor to January 1856 Col. B. P. Walker to January 185C Bev. Hutcheson to June 1856 Jas. F. Harper to May 1856 Dr. W. R. Holt to January 1856 W. A. Kearnev to April 1855 W. Fretwell to April 1856 Dr. W. Selden to January 185C B. F. Tardy to June 1856 W. W. Harris to January 1856 J. R. Gates to January 1867 Samuel A. Darden to June 1856 W. Wheeler to January 1856 0. Moore to Janue.ry 1856 J. Matthews to January 1856 S. D. Fisher to July 1855 W. M. Hannah to January 1857 Geo. E. Welsh to January 1856 J. A. Montague to January 1856 A. J. Bracey to January 1856 W. C'ullingsworth, Jr. to January 1856 C. H. K. Taylor to January 1856 Ed. Towns to January 1856 Jos. W. Campbell to July 18o.» &.'¥. Sampson to July 1856 A Foster to October 1855 W. Wooter to June 185C 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 5 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1.00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 2 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 2 00 1 00 2 00 1 00 1 00 2 00 2 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 4 50 2 00 1 00 3 00 1 00 1 00 1 00 224 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER N. Matthews to J une 185G "Warner Lewis to January 1850 Jas. Hite to July 1855 Dr C. W. Wormley to January 180b Geo T. Thomas to September 185o Jno. H. Barksdale to January 18o6 Wm. Applebury, 3x. to January 18oL J. T. T. Hundley to January Ibob Jas. Eaugeley. Jr. W. A. Love to May 18o6 B. Winston to June 1856 B. V. Iverson to January 185t' e' D. Brown to January 1856 Geo. M. Carter to January 1856_ Estate Beni Brown to July ;1855 H. A. Watkins to January 185fa Dr. H. T. Minor to January 185t> J. R. Pulliam to April 1856 Richard Baylor to January 18of. E. F. Redd to May 1856 C. E. Redd to January 1856 C. Middleton to January 1850 J. Munsey to January 1856 Jos. A. Peck to January 1856 Br S. S. Griffin to January 18ot Col. Jos. Martin to January 18oG P B. Sledge to January 1856 e'. M. Anderson to January 1856 f' Lecler to January 1850 Wm. Leith to July 1856 Geo. L. Aiken to January 1™< Jno. B. Downman to January l»ot) Daniel Hatcher to January 1856 A. Cheatham, Jr. to July 18 Q., 14 miles 0& tantf om Warren con, and 8 miles from .Littleton Depc ton the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad I having the advantage of the Norfolk, Petersba^and Rich. mond markets-near 2,000 acres of the upland u in native growth of Oak, Hickory and ,MM There are 3 creeks running through the land on which are about 800 actes of low grounds of fane 00 00 bo oo oo 75 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 op 00 00 op 00 00 00 2 00 5 00 1 00 1 00 Fan consists — 1st, 60 00 separating the impurities quality, one halfof which is cleared and canalled. and throughly drained;the other half ism ongma forest and heavily timbered This land ^produces finely, the various staples of the region ( corn wbj and tobacco;) and is equal to, l not the best trac in the two counties off the Roanoke river The county of Warren is celebrated for its heal hfu Iness and for the refinement of its sotiety. The improve ments consist of a two story dwelling house with four rooms, and all the necessary out houses. Also 25 excellent tobacco barns. This land will be sold *ery low and upon accommodating terms For further information apply to N. AUGUST, General Agent for sale of lands &c. v— 4t Southern Planter Office, Richmond J M — RICE & NORRIST" A Dealers in. Agricultural Implements, Machines, far- min« and Garden Tools, Seeds, Independent teeth Horse Rakes ; a general assor ra ent of garden ^i^J^^ Proof Agents for Herrin XnO rdess attended to with P™- P tne^and despaW- jy- -tf