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community. If farmers would only attend a little more to this and some other points of rural economy, they might easily save enough to justify a system of improvement which they admit to be desirable, but from which they are frequently deterred by the want of funds. I am fully satisfied that there are but few farmers in our communitj' who do not waste more than enough to supply them with the means of effecting improvements, that in their turn would double their means of making others equally as profitable.

Go upon a large farm in Virginia, observe the niggardliness in providing fences, houses, and fixtures, and the correspondent waste in food, labor, and destruction of implements. Compare the management with that of a manufacturing or mercantile establishment, and you see at once why agriculture is not profitable. Such system, or rather such a want of it, would break down any other business in the world.

But I have been drawn off from the main object of this communication, which was simply to confirm the value of corn cobs, by relating to you a circumstance that came within my own knowledge. In the winter of 1816 corn was very high, and Peter Bedlock, of Dinwiddie, who is now an independent farmer, was a very poor man, but an excellent manager. Afraid that his corn would not last, he determined to try, and did, winter his horses upon com cobs alone, pounded in a common hominy mortar with his own hands. They received no other sustenance except long forage, as hay and fodder. Upon this they did their winter's work, and no man ever saw Peter Bedlock drive a poor horse.

To this fact I am ready to testify and you are welcome to give my name to any person who may feel sufficiently interested in it to ask for it.

Yours,

J. H.

For the Southern Planter. MANURE. C. T. Botts :

Sir, —I am most happy to witness your strenuous endeavors to improve the agriculture of our native State. No exertion has been wanting on my part, I assure you, to sustain your enterprise. I have not been satisfied with saying, that every farmer in Virginia ought, to take your paper, but I have made it my business to bring it to the notice of my neighbors, conceiving that in so doing I was benefitting them and myself not less than the Editor. The fruits of those exertions you have enclosed in a ten dollar note, for which you will please direct your paper to the following names

Nor is this all. From the columns of your little work, I am satisfied that I have reaped ten times the amount of my subscription already in a single article. I am, therefore, still your debtor,

and to repay the obligation, in a measure, I have concluded to give you my mode of managing manure ; a point upon which you very properly lay great stress, and one upon which an}' opinion derived from experience may be valuable. For the last ten years I have paid great attention to this subject, and have tried every plausible method recommended in the agricultural periodicals of the day. The result of those experiments has satisfied me that the difference between one mode and another is much greater than would be imagined, and that the greatest secret of good farming consists in discovering the best mode of preserving the valuable properties of manure.

The portions of dung which afford nutriment to plants are volatile and soluble. They are evaporated by heat and dissolved by rain. Dung is exposed to the pernicious effects of heat, either in a pile or when scattered, to the influence of the summer sun and atmosphere. How then is it to be preserved ? By applying it to a growing crop as soon as made. I have heard a great deal of the necessity of fermentation, and the injury done by fresh manure: that manure has a tendency to generate heat is certain, and that if applied fresh, in too great quantities, it may produce too much heal for the healthy growth of plants is certain; and it is certain also that you may subject it by time and exposure to a process by which it will be robbed of those properties, when you may apply it in any quantity with impunity, but with comparatively little benefit too. What would be thought of an invalid who would go to an apothecary and say, " Sir, I want some calomel that you have had in the house for many years, of which I can take a large quantity without danger," and what would be thought of the apothecary who would reply, " Sir, this, having lost its virtues and become comparatively innoxious, is much more valuable than the fresher article, and I must charge you a greater price per ounce for it?" It would be just as reasonable, as to assert that old manure is in any case better than fresh.

Satisfied of these facts, I pursue the natural and simple plan of making it the business of a particular boy, every morning, to collect carefully the deposits from my stalls, stable yard, hog pen, &c. and spread it thinly upon some one of my growing crops. If the crop is not out of the ground, and consequently the leaf not so expanded as to seize the gasses given out in the process of evaporation, I have the manure slightly covered with earth. Of course, if the ground is too wet to be trampled, I wait until it is dry enough for the purpose.

Now this may seem to some, who have been used to heaping manure, and making compost, a very theoretical mode of procedure. But let them try it, and they will find it highly practical—they will find, that they will obtain more than double the nutriment from the same quan-

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tity of dung, and they will also find that they are relieved from a great quantity of extra labor. Farmers are advised to accumulate large banks of dung, mixed with mud, weeds, &c. For what purpose ? That they may have on their hands the labor of scattering it again at the very busiest season of the year 1 Instead of accumulating the labor and running the risk of constant waste, let them scrupulously collect every thing they can find in the shape of manure and apply it as soon as made.

By this simple method they are relieved from the necessity and expense of a stercorary, the filth of a manure pile, and the uneasiness arising from the anticipated labor of putting out their manure. They certainly get all the benefit to be derived from their manure, and it would be hard for any other process to accomplish more.

The plan I recommend is so novel and so opposite to preconceived opinions, that I am deterred from putting my name to this article, for fear of the ridicule it will excite. I hope, however, that some one with more resolution will give it a fair trial, and report what I know he will find to be, the beneficial result. With the most ardent wishes for the success of your periodical, which deserves the support of every farmer in Virginia at least, I remain

Tours, A Farmer.

For the Southern Planter. CORN SHUCKS.

Sir, —I see that you recommend tlje cob of the corn as a food for cattle. There is another part of the corn that I have long thought was too much neglected. I mean the shuck. Ten years ago I was in the habit of throwing my shucks in the farm pen for litter. I now make a much better use of them. I pass them all through the cutting-knife, and feed them not only to my cattle but also to my horses. After the most satisfactory trial, I am fully convinced that they are the strongest part of the corn, next to the grain. My method is this. My shucks are cut up in the morning, and thrown into a half hogshead of water strongly impregnated with salt. In the evening, they are taken up in an open split basket, in which they are held suspended over the hogshead for a few moments, until the water is drained off; the moistened shucks are then mixed with corn meal and bran, and fed, as I said before, as well to my horses as my cattle. The morning meal is treated in the same way, beginning the preceding evening.

I have made careful experiments to asceriain the fact, and although a horse may refuse the shucks at first, I am fully satisfied that they make the very best cut food that was ever given to any animal. Give me a plenty of shucks, and L want no cut hay, fodder, or straw. Many people who acknowledge their value for cattle

and mules, are of opinion that they do not answer so well for horses. This is a great mistake I assure you, and arises from the fact that a horse, fed upon more dainty food, will turn up his nose at first at the smell of a shuck; just as a pampered fine gentleman would perhaps reject a solid dish of bacon and greens when it was first set before him. But give him nothing else, and his appetite will soon come to him, and he will find by experience that there is no other food upon which he can do his work so well. In a week, he will prefer it to any thing you can give him, and so will you.

Yours,

Economy.

For the Southern Planter.

C. T. Botts :

Sir, —I see that in answer to an inquiry of some correspondent, you give in your last number various modes of extracting stumps. Prevention is better than cure, and the best plan I have ever seen practised to get rid of the difficulty, is to have no stumps at all. I know some settlers in the western country, who never cut down a tree—they dig them up. It is much easier to do this than to dig up the stump. The very leverage, that you are so ingeniously devising to obtain by artificial means, is afforded by nature in the height of the tree. It is only necessary to fasten a strong rope to the upper limbs and go to work digging and cutting the roots upon the side opposite to that on which the rope is used, which will of course alwaj^s be applied with regard to the lean of the tree.

This method saves a great deal of time, and a great deal of valuable timber—for all timber getters know, that frequently the most valuable part of the tree is left in the stump. The plan is not new ; why then, if it has all these advantages is it not universally pursued? Simply because we are the most headlong and impatient people upon the face of the earth. A field can be gotten into cultivation sooner by cutting down than digging up the trees. That is sufficient for an American. Go ahead is his motto, and without regard to future consequences, he pursues the mode that gives him the quickest return. Nor am I prepared to say that there may not be many circumstances which justify such a course. Old father time is a cheap workman, and it is well enough to force the old destroyer to minister to the productions of the earth against his nature and his will. But I say to cut down a tree, and dig up the stump, is an egregious waste of labor, and that no artificial stump extractor is equal to the natural means here detailed.

A Timber Getter.

For the Southern Planter. Mr. Editor, —Finding a leisure hour upon my hands, with my scrap book before me, I have

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determined to make an extract from it, on the subject of carious plants, that may serve to fill, at your convenience, some unappropriated column in the Planter. A Naturalist.

CURIOUS PLANTS.

llcdysarum Gyrans. —This plant is a native of Bengal, near the Ganges. This is a wonderful plant, Linnrcus observes, on account of its voluntary motion, which is not occasioned by any touch, irritation, or movement in the air, but no sooner do the plants acquire their ternate leaves than they set in motion, this way and that, which motion does not cease during the whole course of their vegetation, unless they are exposed to too much wind or rain, when they become quiet, and then no art we possess is capable of exciting them to action.

Dictamnus. —This plant is a native of Germany, and is remarkable for the fine scent it affords. The pedicles of its flowers are covered with glands of a rusty red color, from which exudes a viscid juice, which exhales in vapor, and upon the application of fire in a dark place it will be seen to burn.

TropcEolum. —This plant belongs originally to Peru. In the evening, it is said, its flowers emit spontaneously at certain intervals, visible sparks like those of an electric machine. This was first observed by the daughter of Linnseus.

Lagetto. —This tree grows in Jamaica, and a natural lace of fine quality is found ready manufactured in its bark. This lace is so handsome that ruffles, a frill, and cravat, made of it, were once sent as a present to king Charles II.

Yucca. —An American plant sometimes called The Needle and Thread Plant, for by soaking in water, the fibres of the leaves may be separated from the pulp, without being torn from the hard, sharp point, so that when properly prepared, the leaves do really become needles, ready provided with a skein of thread.

Dioncea Muscipula. —This is an inhabitant of the marshes of South Carolina. This plant is endowed with so much irritability, that an insect which settles on it is generally crushed to death by the collapsing of the two sides of the leaf, which is armed with bristles. The Droseva or English Sun-Dew, is possessed of similar irritability.

Nepenthes Distillatoria. —This is a Chinese plant, sometimes known as the Pitcher-plant, in consequence of its leaves, which assume the shape of pitchers covered with lids, and are generally found filled with water, each one to the extent of half a pint, which both men and monkeys make use of to assuage their thirst.

Tillandria Utriculata. —This plant growing in South America and the West Indies, is also a reservoir of water, the traveller, Dampier, speak-

ing of this plant, says, "We stick our knives into the leaves just above the root and thus let. out the water, which we catch in our hats, as I have done many times to my great relief.

Palo de Vacca, or Cow Tree of South America, yields a copious supply of a rich and wholesome milk, which is obtained b}' piercing the trunk. At sunrise this milk flows most abundantly, and Humboldt informs us, that at this time the natives are to be seen hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk.

Jlrtocarpus, or Bread Fruit Tree, grows in the South Sea Islands to the size of a moderate sized oak. The fruit of this tree is about the size and shape of a child's head ; it is as white as snow and somewhat of the consistence of new bread. It must be roasted before it is eaten, after which it becomes very palatable.

DR. ARCHER'S ADDRESS.

Wc have received from a committee of the Agricultural Society of Elizabeth City a copy of the inaugural address of their President, Dr. Archer. It i3 with great difficulty we resist the temptation to publish this most excellent address entire. But the course which we have marked out for ourselves and the plan of condensation which we are determined most rigidly to pursue, forbid our doing more than giving a brief sketch and a few extracts from that, which we heartily wish every man in lower Virginia, at least, could enjoy the pleasure of perusing throughout.

The Doctor begins by ably arguing the value of agricultural associations and laughing to scorn the ignorant prejudices, which sometimes prevent their formation.

" The attempts which are every where being made to get up agricultural societies, he says, is only the embodying of the spirit of improvement which is abroad. This spirit, when once aroused, cannot easily be laid; it is this spirit, which prompted our ancestors, more than two centuries ago, to abandon the comforts of home, and in a frail Dark to traverse an unknown ocean and erect their altars at our Jamestown. It is this spirit, which prompts the young man to shoulder his axe, and bidding adieu to his paternal fireside and the graves of his relatives, to cut his way through the western forests to distinction and wealth. It is this spirit which an all-wise Providence has implanted in the breast of every human being, and without which the world would long since have returned to its original chaos.

M I have no hesitation in saying that agricultural societies, and periodical works on agriculture, have advanced the science in our country more wnthin the last fifteen years than it had been advanced by every other means within the previous fifty. Their influence is not confined to one locality, but disseminated, broad cast, throughout the land."

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Upon the subject of emigration he remarks:

" Our farmers have at last discovered the golden secret, that it is easier to improve a field, naturally fertile, but exhausted by bad cultivation, than to open a new one; and this single discovery, which I ascribe to the new lights that have been thrown upon the subject of agriculture, will tend more to arrest the tide of emigration than any one circumstance that could possibly have happened.

" It has been my fortune within the last few years to have visited a large district of our extensive country, from its southern limits on the Gulf of Mexico to the northern lakes—from the Atlantic to what a few years since was called the far west. I visited it with the eye of an agriculturist, and I declare to you most solemnly, that in lower Virginia we are blessed with a region incomparably superior, taking into consideration the reciprocal advantages and disadvantages, to any I have ever seen. You know not the happy lot with which a beneficent Providence has endowed you—you know not the value of the talent which has been committed to your care. We occupy the favored spot between the regions of seven months of continued ice, and seven months of parching heat; we enjoy, with few exceptions, the vegetable productions of each extreme. In point of health we have greatly the advantage over our southern, and will yield but to a certain extent, to our northern friends."

The Doctor then goes on to state that during the last summer he visited the valley of Virginia for the purpose of locating himself for life, fully impressed with the idea that he could do so there more advantageously than any where else in the Union. But, however much his eye might have been delighted with golden harvests, lowing herds, and substantial fences, his reason was satisfied, that upon a fair allowance for difficulties of cultivation and expense of finding a market, the light lands of the tide water of Virginia afford the greatest clear profit.

Happy in the result of his labors, the Doctor, in his pursuit of happiness, seems to have attained contentment, at least? He is not singular in the opinion that lower Virginia might be made the garden spot of America—that it is not so, he ascribes to the luxury and sloth that our favored clime engenders.

We particularly commend to our readers the Doctor's views upon the subject of education. Hear him:

"Intimately connected with the subject of agriculture is the subject of education. There never was a greater mistake upon the face of the earth, than that a good education was unnecessary for a farmer. Gentlemen, there is no knowledge or information of any kind that will not at one time or other avail him in his agricultural pursuits. If he is a lawyer, he will understand his own rights, guaranteed to him by law, and be the more ready to respect the rights of others. Is he a physician ? He can

alleviate the sufferings of his own household, and act the good Samaritan to his neighbor. Is he a chemist? He can analyze his soil and detect wherein it is deficient in those qualities which would render it productive. Is he a mathematician ? He wants no survej 7 or to mark his bounds or measure his fields. In short, there is no knowledge from the calculating an eclipse to the making of a horse shoe nail, that may not, at one time of other, be turned to the farmer's profit.

" How absurd then, how ungenerous is it for a father to say, ' this son is to be the doctor, and he must go to college, that is to be the farmer, and the old field school is good enough for him.' I tell that parent he makes an odious and unjust discrimination between his children, and one, for which his neglected son will have but little cause to honor his memory.

"In this country, where the highest honors in the State are open to the humblest individual, the want of that education which the ignorant father refused to his son might be the only barrier to his highest preferment. Look at the honorable instance in the cabinet of our present chief magistrate. The poor farmer boy, who toiled from sun to sun till he reached the age of manhood to provide means to go to school; would that lad have ever been a Senator or a Secretary of the Treasury, but for the education he snatched by piecemeal from the fruits of his own labor? No, my friends, he would have lived and died, as thousands and thousands of young men live and die, every day, unhonored and unknown.

"Again, were the great mass of farmers well educated, not only agriculture, but every interest in the State, would be incalculably benefitted; for, our councils, instead of being occupied by lawyers, and metaphysicians, and stump orators, talking themselves into notice for political preferment, too lazy to dig and too proud to beg, would be filled with plain, honest citizens of practical common sense ; men, who would labor for the benefit of the State, and not for themselves ; who would show that the great agricultural interest, the support of every other in the land, and embracing nine-tenths of our people, has been shamefully neglected, and needs looking to, unless we are prepared to see the 'old Dominion," 'the mother of States,' that once occupied the topmost round of the ladder, descend, step by step, until she becomes an object for the finger of scorn to point at."

" Gentlemen, a great outcry has been raised against book farming. I confess I do not understand the meaning of the term, unless it be that book farmers are those who can read, in contradistinction to those who can't read. Let me ask, whence did our wiseacres, that enlightened class who can't read, obtain their valuable information? Was it the fruit of their own prolific

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brain, or did they derive it from others % It could hardly be the first; for if they had the capacity, life is too short to have enabled them to originate or discover all they know. It must then have been derived from others, and I should like to know, again, if information, derived from others, is less valuable because those others have embodied their experience in a book 1 ?

" Few farmers have much opportunity for travel or observation beyond their own immediate neighborhood; now, the man, who reads, or if you choose to call him so, the book farmer, may stay at home and enjoy all the knowledge, derived not only from his own experience, but that of all the world besides. He puts in requisition the labors of thousands, each one of whom was perhaps superior to himself in intelligence; he thus lives, in a measure, the lives of a thousand men, with this advantage, that, constituted as the human mind is, no one man, had he lived from the creation of the world until the present day, could have concentrated in his own person all the information, that may be published through the investigations of the thousand in an ordinary lifetime."

If we have devoted to this address much more space than it is our custom to yield to any one article, we must point to the excellence of the matter as our excuse. If agricultural societies only met to listen to the words of truth and wisdom from the lips of learning and experience, the trouble of forming and sustaining them would be infinitely more than repaid.

For the Southern Planter. BERKSHIRE HOGS.

JWr. Editor, —It is amusing, soberly and aside, to watch the fatuity and folly which mark the mass, when lead away by a popular current. Are you, sir, aware what a Berkshire hog is ? and that a Berkshire is in truth no longer a Berkshire. Berkshire is the name appropriated to a stock, which, by judicious selection, has attained great perfection, derived from the name of the county in England which afforded the hog that was used as the substratum of the breed. But the present stock, which is so deservedly in high repute, was obtained by judicious selection. Mark that. Can it be continued by any other means'? No, sir, it has been already lost in America, or greatly deteriorated, by indiscriminate breeding. To continue and perfect the stock, not more than one individual in fifty should be kept as a breeder. Who kills forty-nine out of fifty of his Berkshire pigs, when they are selling readily at twenty dollars a pair ? None but a fool, of course. But who pays twenty dollars a pair for the forty-nine out of fifty of these pigs that any judicious breeder would exclude from the breeding stud ? None but a fool of course.

Berkshires are a production of art, not of nature, and, unless the same art is used to preserve

them that was exercised to produce them, they will retrograde much faster than they advanced. The breeder's rule, upon which all his operations are founded, is, that like begets like—he, therefore, carefully examines every litter; and where he finds a remarkably fine individual, he sets him or her aside to breed from. This, together with judicious crossing is the origin of every improved breed ; but no stock of hogs, or cattle, or any thing else, has yet been brought to such perfection that all the individuals produced are good and worthy of being made breeders.

Why then, it may be asked, cannot any individual take the native stock of a country and go on to improve it for himself by judicious selection ? So he may—but he will find it much cheaper to purchase a hog, who, by the care of others, has already been advanced to a certain state to begin his crossing with than to wait for the advancement to that point of his unimproved stock. No stock, in my opinion, affords finer individuals for this purpose than the Berkshire. But I can pick out many individuals fiom this, or any other stock, totally unsuited for the purpose of improving any breed. What is the Berkshire valuable for ? Simply because it contains a greater number of individuals than usual of that peculiarity of anatomy valued by the judicious raiser of hogs. But suppose an individual, as there must always be thousands, does not possess that peculiar anatomy, does it avail him, or you, who are his owner, that his mother, or brother, or third cousin does ? It is true, that if two individuals possess equal points themselves, he will be preferred whose kindred, or blood, is most celebrated ; and this, because animals not only breed after themselves, but sometimes, also, after their progenitors. But always give preference to propinquity of good points; that is, prefer to have them in the immediate to the remote progenitor. Yet, regardless of this simple truth, we daily see our people sending their money from home, purchasing any thing, no matter how indifferent in form, provided it may have been the offspring of a Berkshire sow. Now I would rather pay fifty dollars for a good selection, than ten for a pair taken at hap hazard.

I have no pigs for sale, and am actuated, I assure you, by no selfish motives in these considerations—indeed, from their very nature it must be evident that I can have no interest in effecting indiscriminate sales. But I have seen a great many Berkshire hogs, and I have long been a breeder of various kinds of cattle, and whilst I am satisfied that there is no other stock from which so many good individuals proceed as from the Berkshires, I know, also, that I daily see specimens, both raised here and brought into our ports, sold at the usual price, that are not half equal to specimens that could be selected even from our native stock. If the breeders of these hogs, of whom I believe there are several

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very judicious in this vicinity, really desire to benefit our native stock, and at the same time receive a fair reward for their skill, enterprise, and judgment, let them make shoats or pork of all their inferior animals, and keeping the extraordinary ones as breeders, hold them at a price that will be sufficient to effect their ends. This is the only way the breed of hogs can be improved by the use of Berkshires in the opinion of A Breeder.

RUST IN WHEAT.

Several very interesting and scientflic papers have lately appeared in the Farmers' Cabinet, on the subject of Rust or Mildew in Wheat. One is signed Agricola, and is very highly commended in the Medical Examiner, a journal of established reputation, as the production of a scientific gentleman, who has devoted great attention to the study of agriculture. The other is over the signature of Kenderton Smith, and purports to be the result of continued and repeated observation on the subject. Both gentlemen exhibit a great deal of ingenuity, and deserve the thanks of the community for the attention they have bestowed upon this important subject. Whilst their views upon many points are reconcileable, there is a very material one upon which they are directly at issue. They both concur in the established doctrine that an extraordinary increased action occurs in vegetation at the time of perfecting the seed. It is during this critical period of a few days that they imagine blight or rust is caused by circumstances occurring to impede this necessary and violent action of nature. Agricola conceives that a cool and clear atmosphere is required, whereby the exuberant moisture of the plant may be evaporated as fast as it is generated, and attributes rust to the presence of damp and heat in the air, whereby the vegetable heat and moisture, generated in the plant, are pent up and their healthy action stifled. Cool, dry weather during the period employed in filling the seed he conceives to be necessary to the perfection of the grain. That contiguous fields of wheat ripen at different periods, even within a few days of each other, he thinks sufficient to account for the fact that they are not equally subject to rust.

Common opinion sustains the theory of Agricola, that a damp atmosphere at the time of ripening is productive of imperfection in the grain, and occasions blight or rust. Whether heat is also injurious is another question. Upon this point, Mr. Smith differs with his learned antagonist. He presumes that nature calls all her powers into requisition in the hasty process of ripening, and that one of the most powerful of those agents is heat. Consequently, he deprecates the practice of sowing grass or clover with wheat, which, by shading the ground keeps

the roots and stalk moist and cool so as to counteract the important action of heat, when it is so much needed. He asserts that his opinion of this injurious effect has been verified by long observation, made by himself, and the repeated experience of others. In England, where the wheat is generally drilled and carefully weeded, he asserts that rust is almost unknown, and he cites many particular instances in proof of his opinion. He infers that although moisture and coolness may produce rust, even in clean fields of wheat, without extraordinary heat at the moment of ripening, it is impossible for wheat smothered with grass to be free from rust.

Various other articles have since appeared, of more or less ability, sustaining the one or the other champion. Amongst these, the most distinguished perhaps is a Mr. Gowen, of German-town who totally rejects the opinion that blight or mildew is ever caused by sowing grass or clover with wheat. On the contrary, he thinks the theory of Col. Smith, who it seems ranks high as a practical farmer, calculated to do much injury by checking the practice of this valuable mode of sowing clover. He.argues that if the grass or clover is injurious, so ought also thick wheat to be, which is not pretended. But most of all, he asserts, that a long and careful observation has furnished him with facts that refute the truth of this theory. Again, he asserts that the remedy is worse than the evil, and that it is better to run the risk of blight than to be at the trouble and expense of a separate seeding of grass or clover. He considers blight to be the effect of a sudden change from heat to cold, which frequently occurs at the critical moment of ripening, whereby the neck and head of the wheat are chilled and unable to elaborate the sap sent up by the less exposed parts below: hence, the bursting of the overcharged vessels and the appearance of rust upon the stalk, which is but the outward sign of disease that pre} r s upon the vitals within. The sun returns again upon the drooping, moistened plant, and with his scorching rays scalds and burns the sickly head until the grain is blasted and vitality destroyed. The only preventives he imagines to be early sowing, clean seed, and early cutting.

We have given these different views somewhat at large, because the subject is an important one and the source from which they come entitles them to great consideration. It is especially important to ascertain whether the opinion of Col. Smith, that the practice, which obtains so universally here, of sowing clover on wheat is the cause of blight. The only plan is to test a theory which is plausible hy facts. Many writers have come to his support with statements of facts, that would seem to corroborate his opinion. Will our wheat growers furnish us with then-opinions upon this important point 1 ? If they can establish Col. Smith's error, they may do

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much for the people of Pennsylvania at least, j long dormant under such circumstances? No

where his opinions seem to be gaining a strong foothold. The advantages of seeding clover on wheat are certain—the injury is doubtful, at least.

For the Southern Planter. HAY.

You very properly, Mr. Editor, reprove us in this part of the country for permitting a bundle of northern hay to enter the Richmond market. We have, I believe, some as fine grass lands as can be found in the world, and certainly there is no crop that pays better than hay. I do not believe, however, that our climate or soil is as well adapted to the red top, or herds grass, as the north, and I am induced to think that we have permitted them to render this grass, probably suited to their circumstances, fashionable amongst us beyond its deserts. The crop cut is not so heavy as timothy, nor is the hay near so nutritious. There is very little of our land upon which the herds grass will not, after affording two or three light crops, yield entirely to the broomstraw and sorrel.

I have been living for some years in the vicinity of the Chickahominy, though not upon it, and have wondered very much at what appeared to me the folly of the owners of land upon this stream, in forcing upon the soil this herds grass, to which it seems to have so great a repugnance. Although I believe you were once the owner of a tract of land, yourself, upon this stream, you are probably not as well acquainted with its peculiarities as I am, who have known it from my boyhood. I have seen a great deal of bottom land in different parts of this country, but notwithstanding that some portions of it are thin and sandy, I have never seen a stream of its size that afforded such extensive alluvial flats. Here are thousands of acres of the very richest bottoms, as indicated by the quantity and quality of the growth upon them, sufficient, if properly managed, to supply ten such cities as Richmond with hay. I am well aware of their liability to be overflown, owing to the want of fall in the stream and the lowness of the banks. I am well aware of their comparative worihlessness in their present situation, especially when forced into herds grass. But, in the first place, I believe concert and unity of action alone are wanting to render these lands free enough from water for all the purposes of tillage. This can never be done effectually by separate and individual action. To ditch and dyke each farm, costs more than it is worth. But any engineer will inform j^ou that by straightening, and opening, and removing obstructions, the river may not only be confined within its banks, but made navigable for many miles. Is there any other people under the sun, who would have lain so Vol. 1—13

survey, no report, no petition to the Legislature for aid, thousands of the most valuable acres suffered to lie waste and given up to the ravages of an insignificant stream, which might be reclaimed and made the garden spot of Virginia. Why, sir, our northern people would bail out such a rivulet with a washing tub, before they would suffer themselves to be deprived of such an inheritance.

But, sir, reclaimed or unreclaimed, I do not believe that the red top is the appropriate growth of these lands. There is a grass produced spontaneously upon these bottoms, against which I believe a most unfounded prejudice has been engendered. We know it hereabouts by the name of " Chickahominy blue grass." I do not know its botanical name, but it is entirely different from the blue grass of the upper and western country. It is strong and coarse, very succulent, and extremely luxuriant—indigenous to the soil, it delights in these wet bottoms, and, if permitted to remain, will root out every other vegetable. It will always admit of two cuttings, and will readily yield from two to three tons at each cutting—requiring no cultivation. With such an abundant yield, the only question can be as to its qualities. These, I believe, have been greatly underrated. It is not so dainty and delicate as the herds grass, but is, I think, stronger and more nutritious. When well cured, with salt, in a green and succulent state, horses will become very fond of it and thrive on it astonishingly.

I am aware, Mr. Editor, that much harm may be done by misleading people through agricultural communications, and as I wish to mislead nobody, I feel bound to state that the opinions expressed above have been derived from an experience not so full and satisfactory as I could have wished it. But as I know that there are some experienced individuals, who, having the fullest opportunity, Concur in these opinions, whilst many more entirely reject them, I hope that this communication will, at least, open the subject for discussion in your columns. If the nutritious qualities of this indigenous plant can be established, it will prove an invaluable article for man}^ other sections of country beside this immediate neighborhood.

Yours, Chickahominy.

For the Southern Planter. WHEAT. Mr. Editor, —I strongly suspect that the ( ' fly-proof wheat" of your correspondent, Mr. Gray, is neither more or less than the " white cone wheat" mentioned by Tull, which he says affords the greatest security against blight and the ravages of insects. This peculiarity he ascribes to the density of its straw, which is mors

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than double that of ordinary wheat. He thinks that insects and the effect of cold damps reach only the outer vessels, whilst the inner ones are left uninjured to nourish the grain. Of its qualities he speaks as follows:

" Cone wheat makes very good bread, if the miller does not grind too fine, or the baker make his dough too hard: a bushel of cone wheat will make more bread than a bushel of other kinds, and of the same goodness, but it gives a yellow cast to the bread."

This may prove a very valuable variety, and I, for one, feel much interested in its development. Will Mr. Gray be so good as to inform us of the character of the straw, upon which Tull seems with great reason to rest its virtues ? and oblige An Inquirer.

its roots, lasting properties may be thus imparted by the use of different fluids.

Qualities of durabily, incombustibility, color, &c. may undoubtedly be imparted to wood by immersion in fluids; provided, it is continued long enough, or provided artificial means are employed to force the liquid into the pores of the wood. This seems to be an insrenious device by which M. Boucherie has availed himself of an operation of nature lo steal in, where others have had to force their way.

The experiment is a very interesting one, and may be readily tried—flowers even, it is said, ma}' be colored by sprinkling the soil in which they are about to bloom with certain liquids

This fact, if substantiated,

it is evident,

lead to the most interesting and important results.

AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.

We are happy to announce the formation of an agricultural association in the county of Hanover, from whom we have received a copy of their proceedings and constitution—they seem to have embarked in the enterprise with a spirit and zeal that augurs well for their success.

The following gentlemen have been chosen as officers of this Society. Capt. Jesse Winn,' President; Henry Robinson, Esq. First Vice-President; N. L. Crenshaw, Esq. Second Vice-1 President; Capt. R. F. Derracott, Secretary; and Dr. R M. Carver, Treasurer. Mr. Edmund j Wickham has been requested to deliver the first, annual address. The Executive Committee is composed of C. W. Dabney, Esq., Col. Goodall, and Edmund Winston, Esq.

If we are not much mistaken a Old Hanover" will be second to none in her devotion to the great cause of agricultural improvement, which is going so gloriously forward throughout, the State. We know the material of which she is composed. There are few that can vie with the fruits of her alluvial soil, whilst her Clay is known throughout the world.

NEW MODE OF PREPARING TIMBER. A plausible statement is going the rounds with respect to a new process for coloring and otherwise operating upon wood, said to have been discovered by M. Boucherie, of Bordeaux. It simply consists in the application of fluids to the pores of the living wood, which it is said will be taken up and disseminated with the flowing of the sap. It may either be applied to an incision made at the bottom, or the but end of a tree recently cut may be immersed in the liquid; in either case, the fluid, it is said, will ascend and penetrate every part of the tree, except the heart, imparting to the trunk, leaves and branches, its own hue and qualities. In the living tree this effect is obliterated in a few days by vital action. But, if the tree has been severed from

GRAFTING. A Mr. Houtt, in the "Union Agriculturist," recommends the following , to us, novel mode of grafting". He says:

"When yon commence grafting, you have nothing to do but dig around the root of the tree, in whose root you intend to set—when you find a root, half an inch in diameter, cut it loose from its mother and raise the outer end of it a little, so that you can make a split in it about an inch or more from the end—then sharpen the graft just at the joint, with one side a little thicker than the other, and open the split end of the root, and slip the graft therein, with the thin side towards the small end of the root—cover it even with the surface with fine earth, and it will sometimes grow to the height of six feet in one summer.

" You may in like manner cut at or a little below the surface, any scion whose root is unconnected with the mother stock, and make a split in its stump, and sharpen your graft in the same way, and open the split and set it in the stump about half an inch below where it is cut; taking care to set your graft so as to cross the bark of the stump, and not perpendicular—the last process perpendicular is so apt to miss taking the sap ; but if you set your graft cross or quartering, you cannot miss. You will be careful to cover it with fine earth two or three inches deep, and you may depend on success."

BERKSHIRES.

Mr. Robinson, who is not less remarkable for his practical common sense- than for the forcible quaintness of his style, gives the following excellent advice to the breeders of Berkshires:

11 Experience is an excellent teacher—as I have been taught a little 1 will impart it to others engaged in breeding pigs. Great care is necessary with this breed, to guard against the temptation to use them too young. They are so large and fine at eight or ten months old, that

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many suppose they are plenty big enough to breed. It is a great mistake. The boar should scarcely be used until twelve months old, and then but sparingly until eighteen. A sow should never be allowed to have pigs until a year old, and then only in warm weather—and it would be better that they were sixteen months old— nature cannot be forced with impunity. The period of gestation in a sow is exactly sixteen weeks. Now of my experience—I had two sows last fall on the passage from Albany, got with pig at about four months old. On the first day of January, one of the coldest of the season, one dropped seven and the other two, and as the sows had little or no milk, and were too young to mind their pigs, all died in spite of all that human care could do.

" Yesterday, another sow, just one year old, dropped eight pigs. She is one of the kindest, most careful, and sensible hogs I ever saw ; and as the weather is warm, the pigs are all as lively as could be wished. It, is characteristic of Berk-shires, that they are great breeders, and fine milkers. But do not be tempted to use them too young. But above all things, do not be tempted to do without them.

Solon Robinson.

Lake C. H., la., April 2."

HOMMINY MORTAR.

Mr. Editor, —In the second number of the Planter, page 26, } r ou have given us a representation of a contrivance for the economical use of a small water fall. I send you a rude drawing of an apparatus for a similar purpose, which I have seen in operation, and know to answer the purpose excellently well. The cut represents it as applied to a pestle and mortar, which may be used for pounding corn and cobs, or any purpose of the sort for which it may be wanted. It is almost too simple to need description, yet it may be worth while to say, that a section of a spout is represented emptying a stream of water into a trough, dug in one end of a beam resting upon

a cross piece, the other end attached to a pestle working in a mortar, burnt out of the stump of a tree. The cross piece, to which the beam is attached, revolves on two pivots at its extremes, working in journals formed in the uprights. When the trough is filled with water, that end of the beam descends, until enough water is emptied out to give preponderance to the pestle, when the trough again ascends within the sphere of the water. The spout is placed obliquely to the trough, so that the trough, in its circular descent, may be carried within and so miss the fall of water which would otherwise keep it down all the time.

This machine works well, I assure you, and is so simple and cheap that it may be made by the plainest hand at an expense of four or five dollars.

Yours, O. K.

We were aware of this application of the principle when we gave the other. A representation, almost exactly similar to the one now afforded, is given in the first volume of the old American Farmer. But we conceived that the simplicity and cheapness of the present form was more than counterbalanced by the superior excellence of the former.

SEEDS.

A Mr. Risley, through the Genesee Farmer, recommends the following mode of treating garden seeds. He says he has pursued this plan for the last six years with eminent success:

" First, soak the seeds in water from six to twenty-four hours—some seeds being slower to admit moisture than others, is the difference in the time required. After soaking, drain off the water, and mix the seeds with a sufficient quantity of earth to absorb the moisture remaining on the seeds: stir them often that they may vegetate evenly, and keep them in a moderate degree of warmth and moisture until they are sprouted, when they are ready to be put into the ground. If the weather should be unfavorable, put the seeds in a cool place, which will check their growth.

"One great advantage of this practice would seem to be, that the plants quickly appear above the surface, so that the hoe, cultivator, etc. can be used easily, before the weeds start."

For the Southern Planter. RAT TRAP.

Mr. Editor,— The following plan of a rat trap is much used in this neighborhood, but is not, I believe, so generally known, at least used, as it deserves. Take a common barrel, and cut a circular board rather smaller than the upper head, which must be removed. Suspend this circular board at the mouth of the barrel on two pivots, so that it will revolve freely, but maintain a balance horizontal position when undisturbed. Pour water into the barrel six or eight inches

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deep, and put a block in the centre, so that the top will appear just above the surface. Provide a board from the floor, or some other means by which the rats can get on the swinging board, which must be strongly baited with some tempting article, secured to it. As soon as a rat places his weight upon it, he is plunged into the reservoir below, when the board regains its deceitful position, and all is again fair without. In the meantime, the rat gains the block, when his distressing cries attract the attention of his sympathising companions. Thus, by means of the combined operation of sympathy and gluttony, two very powerful motives, you have another and another added to the number of the deluded wretches, who fall a prey to this insidious trap. Yours, A Rat Catcher.

Mr. C. T. Botts.

To the Editor of the Southern Planter: STRAW CUTTER.

J\Iy Dear Sir, —I am requested by my friend and neighbor, Mr. Hansberger, to procure one of your straw cutters for him, like the one I purchased of you last year.

Being satisfied that it is by far the best article of the kind I have ever seen, and being desirous of seeing such a labor-saving machine in general use, especially in my own section, where so much straw is cut, I hereby request you to publish in the Southern Planter my certificate of its simplicity, strength, and efficiency. Notwithstanding its price, I would advise every farmer, who has straw to cut, and who desires to save money, to purchase one without delay. I would not be without the one 1 have, if I could not get another, for one hundred dollars. There is not the least difficulty in keeping it in order, and I consider it one of the most valuable labor-saving machines I ever saw.

Your obedient servant,

Peter Hanger.

Augusta Co. near Waijnesborough.

PLANTING TREES.

We have noticed several communications lately in our exchange papers reprehending what is said to be a common error of setting trees too deep in the ground. It is advised to set the roots no deeper than is necessary to sta}?- and support the young tree. This may be effected with much less depth than is generally used, especially if every tree has, as it ought to have, a stake firmly driven alongside to which it may be tied. Neither seeds nor roots should be placed beyond the genial influence of the sun and atmosphere.

SALT. Salt, at the rate of twenty bushels to the acre, is highly recommended by the gardeners of Eng-

land, particularly for cabbages and beets. It is said also to be extremely beneficial to flowers, especially the hyacinth, whose bloom, it is asserted, will never be perfect at any distance from the sea without it.

For the Southern Planter. EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE.

Chesterfield C. H. June 25, 1S41.

Mr. Editor,—I avail myself of the opportunity, afforded by the establishment of your paper, to apprise my brother farmers of a very singular circumstance, that occurred in this couniy last spring. My father, Jeremiah Hobbs, owns a cow that last 3 T ear brought a calf, that died suddenly on the third day after its birth, although, up to that time, it was apparently thrifty. In nine da} T s from the time the cow produced this calf she had another, an uncommonly fine one, which is now living and doing well. The oldest persons in this neighborhood never heard of a similar instance, and it would be interesting to hear if any of your readers ever knew an occurrence of the kind. The fact can be confirmed by the testimony of the Rev. C. W. Friend, and Dr. P. H. Anderson.

Our crops of corn, wheat and grass look very fine.

I hope your paper will be greatly patronised in our county. I have already procured some subscribers for 3 r ou, and, if you will send me a prospectus, will get more without any charge of commission.

Yours, &c. John E. Hobbs.

We are very much obliged to Mr. Hobbs for his politeness, and will be very happy at all times to afford him an opportunity of communicating -with his profession. The fact he mentions is a very singular one and worthy the attention of the naturalist.

YYOBURNS vs. BERKSHIRES. Dr. Martin, an extensive breeder in Kentuck}\ contends, that a stock of hogs, obtained by crossing the Woburn on a large breed of English white hogs, which he calls Berkshires, is superior to the imported black stock generally known by that name. Mr. Fanning of the Agriculturist doubted the fact, and accepted a challenge from the Doctor to feed against him. The Editor was beaten all hollow, the Doctor nearly doubling him in weights. One of the Doctor's pigs gained three pounds a day, and weighed 242 lbs. at six months. This is certainly prodigious, and we believe much beyond what any body else has effected with any other stock. Still, we protest against any conclusions being drawn from a contest of this kind between a farmer and an editor. Mr. Fanning ought to have, known that the airy visions of an editor's brain were too unsubstantial to fatten even Berkshires, and we think it is probable, from his own account, that his got little else.

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The result, like the generality of such experiments, proves nothing, except, that Dr. Martin possesses a stock which is capable of attaining extraordinary weights at early ages ; but as we have no account of the quantity of food given to both, or either, we can form no idea of the relative merits of the two, nor can we know at what expense the Doctor gets his meat. This after all is the true question.

From Youatt's Treatise on Cattle, pages 544—5. MANAGEMENT OP COWS AFTER CALVING.

"Attention after Calving. —Parturition having been accomplished, the cow should be left quietly with the calf; the licking and cleansing of which, and the eating of the placenta, if it is soon discharged, will employ and amuse her. It is a cruel thing to separate the mother from the young so soon; the cow will pine, and will be deprived of that medicine which nature designed for her in the moisture which hangs about the calf, and even in the placenta itself; and the calf will lose that gentle friction and motion which helps to give it the immedite use of all its limbs, and which, in the language of Mr. j Berry, ' increases the languid circulation of the | blood, and produces a genial warmth in the half! exhausted and chilled little animal' A warm mash should be put before her, and warm gruel, or water from which some of the coldness had been taken off. Two or three hours afterwards, it will be prudent to give an aperient drink consisting of a pound of Epsom salts and two drachms of ginger. This may tend to prevent milk fever and garget in the udder. Attention should likewise be paid to the state of the udder. If the teats are sore, and the bag generally hard and tender, she should be gently but carefully milked three or four times every day. The natural and the effectual preventive of this, however, is to let the calf suck her at least three times in the day if it is tied up in the cow-house, or to run with her in the pasture, and take the teats when it pleases. The tendency to inflam* mation of the udder is much diminished by the calf frequently sucking; or should the cow be feverish, nothing soothes or quiets her so much as the presence of the little one.

"The Cleansing. —The placenta, or after-birth, or cleansing, should be discharged soon after the calving. It soon begins to act upon the uterus as a foreign body, producing irritation and fever; it likewise rapidly becomes putrid and noisome, and if it is then retained long, it is either an indication of a weakly state of the cow, or it may produce a certain degree of low fever that will interfere with her condition. Every cowleech, therefore, has his cleansing drink ready to administer ; but it is too often composed of stimulating and injurious drugs, and which lay the foundation for after disease. The aperient drink

recommended to be given after calving, with the addition of half a pint of good ale to it, will be the best assistant in this case and the only thing that should be allowed.

"Should the cleansing continue to be retained, some have recommended that a weight of six or eight ounces should be tied to the cord, the gentle and continual action of which will usually separate the placenta from its adhesions, without any risk of hemorrhage; but if the after-birth should still remain in the womb, and decomposition should evidently commence, the hand must be introduced into the passage, and the separation accomplished as gently as possibly.

"There is, however, a great deal more fear about this retention of the after-birth than there needs to be, and it is only the actual appearance of inconvenience or disease resulting from it, that would justify a mechanical attempt to extricate it."

SMALL BIRDS.

In a report made to the Legislature of Massachusetts, at the session before the last by the Rev. Mr. Peabody, he remarks, that "to exterminate birds which do a little harm occasionally, is to protect ourselves from a small evil at the expense of a greater, and in fact securing the fruit at the expense of the tree. Means may be devised to prevent the ravages of birds, but none have yet been discovered to prevent the ravages of insects. The birds guard our fields and gardens from the insect; and if they, now and then taste of the fruit which they have preserved, we can better afford a share to them than the whole to their creeping enemy. To give some idea of the service which birds are able to render, Mr. Peabody notices the computation of Wilson, according to which, a red winged blackbird devours on an average fifty grubs a day— a pair of them, in four months, will consume more than twelve thousand—and allowing a million pair of black-birds to New England, (which is but a moderate estimate,) they will destro}' twelve thousand millions of the grub. He also notices the statement of Kalm that after some States had paid three pence a dozen for the destruction of black-birds, the consequence was a total loss, in the year 1749, of all the grass and grain, by means of insects which had flourished under the protection of the law allowing bounties on birds."

CHEAP MANURE.

The Louisville Journal recommends, as a cheap mode of manuring, the turning in, in the spring, a green crop of rye, seeded thickly for the purpose the fall preceding. Or if the crop to be planted is a late one, and the lwe has been neglected in the fall, a crop of oats may be sowed for the same purpose early in the spring. In this way, it is asserted, by turning in a green

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crop the land may be cultivated every year, not only without deterioration but with an increase of fertility. It is recommended to turn in the green crop two or three weeks before putting in the crop that is to be gathered.

This recommendation has been extensively j quoted and generally approved. But, with all due deference, we think that upon this subject' much is to be said and some nice calculations, to be made. Under most circumstances, this,: which is the old doctrine of improvement by | green crops, will be found to resolve itself into this question. Is it economy to bury in the earth a crop, which, in a few weeks, might be gathered and garnered. Is it not better, if improvement alone is considered, to let the crop remain, and bestow the proceeds of it, when matured and sold, upon the land in another, way 1 We believe that, generally, ripe crops j are more valuable than green ones, any way they can be used, and should dislike very much: to destroy a field of rye that promised an abun-dant harvest in a few weeks. It will be answered, that some fields must be kept for corn and other spring crops, which, if not sowed in, rye, would lie barren through the winter and! spring, and that this is only a mode of keeping a good servant always at work. This is true, and might be a good argument if there was any stint of land in our country. But we must remember that here the farmer always has more fields than he can cultivate every year, and whilst land is so cheap, it is proper that he should. Now, whilst he was ploughing and sowing a field intended for corn, in rye, to be turned in, in the spring, he might have been sowing another field in wheat or rye to be gathered in the spring; so that the question at last, as we said before, will be, whether he shall sow a crop to be matured and gathered, or whether he will make more by a crop which he cannot permit to come to maturity, but will be com-l pelled to plough under whilst it is green. We apprehend that, upon fair consideration, there will be no hesitation about his choice; for if he concludes green crops, ploughed in, to be more j valuable than ripe ones, gathered, we presume he will go on to turn in all his crops, and gather none; the consequence of which will be, that, contrary to Parson Turner's maxim, the farmer will grow poor, as his land grows rich.

DAIRIES.

From a well written essay on the Management of Dairies by Mr. Jos. How, published in the Transactions of the Essex Agricultural Society, we make the following extracts:

" The first and most earnest point to be gained is to obtain good cows. It costs no more to feed a good cow, than a poor one.

" The quality of the milk is a consideration not less important than the quantity. Those, who

never have tried the experiment of setting different cows milk separate have very imperfect ideas of their comparative value. I have known some cows that five or six quarts of milk would raise sufficient to make a pound of butter. I believe this was stated to be true of the Oakes cow, from the milk of which was made twenty pounds of butter a week for several successive weeks; and I have heard the same of oihers. But ordinarily, it takes ten quarts of milk to yield a pound of butter. It, therefore, becomes a point of great importance, in selecting cows for the making of butter, to obtain those whose milk is adapted to this purpose.

" The manner of milking also demands attention. Cows should be milked about the same time each day, and they should be milked quick and clean. If a portion of their milk is suffered to remain, this will soon diminish the quantity, and the cows will dry up. It is bad policy to trust milking to children, for they usually do it moderately and imperfectly, and more is lost thereby than would pay the best of laborers.

" The place for the setting of the milk is also worthy of attention. This should be cool, well ventilated, and exclusively appropriated to this purpose. For if it is permitted to be occupied in part for other purposes, some things will find their way there which will be injurious to the milk. It should also be properly lighted. Cream will rise more favorably in the light than in a dark room and the quality will be better. Therefore a dairy room above ground is preferable to a cellar. The room should be carefully guarded, by the use of wire gauze, or some other substance at the windows, against the approach hf insects or intruders of every kind. The milk should be set in pans uncovered ; as the cream will not rise so freely when there is a cover over the pans. Care should be taken not to fill the pans full, especially in warm weather, as the cream will rise quicker and better when the milk is spread over a large surface. The sooner it rises and is removed from the milk the better; and this should always be done before the milk begins to turn sour. When the cream is taken off, it should be kept in tight covered vessels, in cool places, until the churning process ; and this should always be before any sourness is discoverable.

''Much care should be taken to separate the butter milk thoroughly from the butter. More depends on this than any other part of the process in making good butter. Unless this is done, it will be impossible to preserve it sweet and good ; if our dairy women would apply double ihe labor to half the quantity of their butter, and thereby remove all particles of the butter-milk, this one half would be worth more than the whole in the condition which it is usually sent to market. As this is a matter that interests every farmer, and every lover of good butter, (and who does

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not love it when it is fair and nice?) I have presumed to forward these remarks. You will use them as you think proper.

"Respectfully yours, Joseph How.

"Metheun, Jan.' 6, 1841.

" Note. —What I have said in relation to the ■ working of buttter, is to be understood, in rela-| tion to such butter as had the proper previous management. For if the butter becomes soft, j it may lie worked ever so long, and not become j hard and good; although it may be improved by working. But if it is to be kept, care should be taken that the butter-milk is thoroughly removed.

"It was my intention to have said something on the feed of cows. But my remarks have already extended so far, I will simply say, that there is no feed on which cows can be kept, that will make better butter, than a first rate pasture; such as abounds with English grasses. When this supply fails, let the deficiency be made up by green corn-stalks. Farmers will do well to plant some corn extra, for this purpose.

" The present winter, I have boiled roots for my cows, such as turnips and sugar beets, to which I add a little Indian meal. This food, when properly prepared and seasoned with salt is well received by the cows, and improves the flavor, and increases the quantity of the milk.

J. H."

We copy the following- excellent article from the American Parmer. We have not a doubt that the substitution of a lighter diet for the vast quantities of meat consumed in this country would be both wholesome and economical:

CONSUMPTION OF MEAT.

There are few things in the habits of Americans, which strike the foreign observer with more force, than the extravagant consumption of food—and more especially of meat. Truly we may be called a carnivorous people. With all our outcry about hard times, the quantity of provisions consumed in America would support, in health, treble our population in Europe. The vast consumption of meat is not only wasteful, but injurious to health, and to activity of body and mind. The body if made of iron, would be unable to perform all the functions imposed upon it at one time—especially is it, we should suppose, without pretending to any science on the subject, deleterious to eat meat suppers—or to eat a heavy meal immediately preceding any necessary action of body and mind. How well this is proved by the experience of the turf. Suppose a race to be made for a heavy sum, half forfeit, and on going into his stable, the trainer finds that although he is sure that his nag is the belter horse, the groom has been bribed to give him a gallon of oats and water at pleasure, would he not at once withdraw, and

pay forfeit sooner than encounter the certainty of paying the full amount ? May it not be averred that one half of the provisions consumed in this country might be saved with certainty of avoiding the numerous diseases thai arise from plethora, impaired digestion and disordered blood? Let the heads of any fan ily examine the subject, and they will find that a substitution of oread and vegetables and milk for three-fourths of the meat consumed, would be attended with economy and better health.

COOKED FOOD.

A Mr. Seldon, of Massachusetts, stated, in a recent agricultural meeting in Boston, that from a bushel of cooked meal he had obtained twelve pounds of pork, whilst the same quantity of uncooked meal would not give more than eight pounds.

It has been doubted whether the advantage of cooking balanced the expense, but the economy of modern conveniences for this purpose has. we believe, settled the question with the most skeptical.

AGRICULTURE IN VIRGINIA.

We extract the following- judicious observations from the Lynchburg Virginian:

" To the cultivators of the soil in this part of Virginia we submit the following suggestions : Our best and most beautiful lands have been cut down, worked and worn out, and then deserted for the South or far West. It is a fact, and we record it with pleasure, that there are some planters and farmers, who, with the aid of clover and plaster, have enriched their lands, and rendered them highly productive. We know some farms, which, a few years since, produced only one to two barrels of corn to the acre, that now yield eight to ten. The same ground produced only six bushels of wheat, now yield twenty to twenty-five. And this has been done when plaster cost from twelve to twenty dollars per ton. The uncertainty of the wheat crop for past years makes it prudent, that the agriculturist should raise a mixed crop of wheat and tobacco. The time for planting tobacco is at hand ; no land should be planted but the richest lots, the richest flats, and the new land that is annually cleared. Plant early ; never under any circumstances top over eight leaves; and never cut tobacco until it is thoroughly ripe. The great error of the upper country and South, is, that nineteen out of twenty planters cut their tobacco unripe. Hard firing is another common error, and ought to be avoided. Some fire is necessary for all tobacco that is exported; but many planters fire their tobacco until the oil is removed and the leaf made stiff and starky.

"The completion of the James River Canal to Lynchburg, has opened a new era, and will

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operate favorably to the agriculturist of this part of the State. We now procure plaster at $8 per ton, which will soon be reduced to $6 or $6 50. The time is propitious for improvement, and nothing will prevent it, but the want of enterprise and industry on the part of the sons of the Old Dominion. Our tobacco will be superseded by that of the West, unless we abandon its culture in poor land and raise such as will compete with any exported. This can be done; for we have soil, climate, and seasons not surpassed by any State in the Union. The science of agriculture should be studied both in theory , and practice, it being the foundation of national |

wealth and prosperity. No pursuit, says the Father of his couniry, is better calculated to promote independence, health, virtuous habits, and a peaceful contented mind. The visionary dreams of wea.lth, by emigration to the South and West, we are happy to state, are rapidly passing away, and a better day is dawning upon our beloved Virginia. Look upon the mass of the whole earth, and no country can be found where nature has been so bountiful in her provisions ; but truth requires us to add, where man has done so little towards appropriating them to his use."

For the Southern Planter.

COMPENSATION HINGE.

Mr. Editor, —You and your correspondents have, in my opinion, given us some invaluable hints upon the important subject of farm gates. Whilst, I think you have brought the gate itself almost to perfection, I do not admire the hinge you seem to recommend. The wooden hole or iron ring maybe strong, but they are clumsy and unsightly. I send you a representation of a hinge which I adopted some time ago from the "Scottish Husbandry" and which I have found to deserve all the commendations bestowed upon it. It is called the " compensation hinge," and was first used, I think, by a man with the name of Parker. An iron rod, flattened at one end, works around a pivot or journal inserted securely in the top of the gate post, the other end terminates in a screw and nut, and the round part is passed, as represented, through three rings attached to the gate. A similar fixture, not represented, where a hook in the side of the gate post is used instead of the pivot on top, secures the heel of the gate. Here, the rod merely

passes through the back upright in the gate, and ends like the upper one in a screw and nut. Now, if the gate swags or sinks in front from any cause, you have only to unscrew the lower nut a little and screw up the upper one, and the gate is immediately raised and restored to its proper position. I have added a roller, which revolves on a plate around the extreme edge of the gate post, which, I think, adds greatly to the support of the gate, and, of course, causes it to revolve with greater ease. For a front gate, where ornament is desired, and where a small expense is not regarded, I know of no hinge superior to this.

Yours, Rusticus.

NECESSITY OF SOUTHERN PAPERS. C. T. Botts :

Sir, —I am much pleased with the plan of your work, and most sincerely hope it will receive the patronage to which it is entitled. We have long needed in the southern country a cheap

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work, adapted to our peculiar circumstances. For want of it we have been driven to papers published at the North by men ignorant of the first principles of southern agriculture. What can they know, with their little garden farms, of the principles adapted to our extensive system. They are a commercial, we an agricultural, people ; and whilst we may take some lessons from them upon minor points of rural economy, nothing is more absurd than to seek information from them upon the subject generally of southern agriculture. Our climate, soil, and institutions are not only different, but entirely opposite. No experiment made at the north is a test, of what may be done at the south, and the difference in the nature of the labor employed in cultivation is sufficient, alone, to vary the system entirely. But, the fact is, they know nothing about farming—they cultivate little patches for amusement, but nature has provided them with another and more profitable employment.

I concur most heartily with you in the opinion, that as much agricultural information lies undeveloped in the bosom of our own State as can be furnished by any other in the Union. It must of necessity be so. We are the oldest agricultural people in the Union. It was here, that the bounties of nature attracted the early settlers; and it is here, that agriculture has been pursued with all the zeal, and all the talent, that has marked Virginia in the councils of the nation. From whence have the farmers of the south and west been furnished, but from Virginia soil ? Whence come the great agricultural staples, with which the importations of northern merchants are paid for in Europe, but from the sunny lands and skilful hands of the south? And shall such a people, furnishing all, engaged in the active pursuit of agriculture, seek the frigid climate and barren soil of the north for agricultural information? As well might the experienced sailor, who traverses the ocean, ask advice of the timid citizen, that paddles a cockle boat on a fishing excursion.

I hope that your paper will be devoted exclu-srvely to southern agriculture, and that it will be supported, if not exclusively , at least universally by southern men.

Yours, M. E. S.

[We have already declared that the object of our establishment was to foster and cherish southern agriculture. What we can get from our friends of the north, (and there is much that they can teach us in rural economy, as our friend expresses it,) we shall adopt thankfully and without hesitation. But beyond those minor points, which are common to all systems, our readers will see from our extracts, we derive but little assistance from our northern exchanges. Their experiments are made generally upon so small a scale, and under such peculiar circum-Vol. 1—14

stances, that they are more apt to mislead, than guide, the great farmer of the south. Many of those reported are, we know, made upon farms of less than an acre, and under circumstances totally incompatible with the engagements of our agriculturists. What does a little farmer in Rhode Island know of a system, which exhibits an hundred acres of corn in a single field, or which puts fifteen or twenty thousand dollars per annum in the pocket of one individual? A system, which, instead of employing some half dozen white men only at a particular season, must look constantly to the employment of hundreds of negroes ? A system, in short, which differs totally in its great essentials from the one he has been taught to practise ? It was seeing and feeling this, that we embarked in the humble attempt to collect and scatter information more appropriate to the south, at an expense that would make it accessible to all. As southerners and patriots then, we call upon southern men to aid and support this enterprise. Give us the information that you possess, and we so greedily covet. It rests with you to sustain and support a paper devoted exclusively to your interests, whose cheapness must alone secure it the most extensive circulation. So far our support, in the way of subscriptions, has been of the most liberal kind, and far exceeded our most sanguine expectations. We have hundreds of friends, for whose warm exertions we return our most cordial thanks, both in our own person and as an humble representative of the cause of agriculture. Our list, large as it is, furnishes us however no return as yet for our labor, nor did we expect it would. It must be evident, from the priceof thework,thataverylargesubscription alone would remunerate the Editor. His labors are much greater than would be imagined, and require his whole time. To study, condense, and furnish some sixty articles with all the attendant attention to the mechanical portion of the work, is no small labor for the month. W 7 e would not " spur a willing horse," and hope that our friends, who have been already so kind, will not consider us impertinent in bringing these facts to their attention, and in requesting them not to relax their exertions in our behalf.

If, in this article we have displayed a little egotism, we hope it will be remembered that this number completes our half volume, and that we have not been thus guilty hitherto.]

From the Farmers' Cabinet. GLANDERS IN MEN. Sir, —There is a highly interesting article in the London Sporting Magazine for January last, upon this frightful disorder, which, until lately, had been considered peculiar to the horse, the mule, and the ass: late experience, however, has shown, that the poison is not confined to these, but that the human subject is as liable to

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be affected, as either of the animals above mentioned. This is a truth of great importance to those whose business and profession call them much amongst this kind of stock, and it cannot be too well or too extensively known, that many instances of death in its most awful shape have unquestionably taken place from contact with the animal while under the efFects of glanders. M. Waldinger was the first to direct attention to the liability ot man to be thus affected; urging the greatest precaution in going amongst glandered horses, as the severest injury, and even death, often arises from inoculation. He relates, that a groom had his fingers affected with inflammation in consequence of operating on a diseased horse; tumors, precisely similar to those observed on the horse, were soon developed in his limbs, and he was at length cured by filling the wounds with small pieces of lint or cotton steeped in turpentine. Sidon, another veterinary surgeon, states that-glanders is transmissible from the horse to the man, causing the worst kind of ulcers ; and even mentions a case where a horse took the disease from a farrier, who had a glandered sore on his hand, which came in contact with the animal while he was giving him a ball: both died of the disease ! A groom slept in a stable at Paris, occupied by a glandered horse; some days after the death of the animal, the groom was attacked by the same disease, which was characterized by pustular and gangrenous sores over the body, the nose, and the throat, below the ears, on the glands, and on the feet. He died on the 12th of February, 1840 ; and on the evening of his death, a small quantity of matter was collected from the gangrenous wounds, with which a foundered mare was inoculated: in three daj 7 s the disease had commenced progress, and at the end of twenty-one days from inoculation, the wretched animal was put out of its misery, covered with gangrenous ulcers, which had prevented her from opening her mouth to take food. Thus it was proved, that it was the glanders the man died of, as a horse, otherwise healthy, had been impregnated with that disease by matter taken from him after death. It should be borne in mind, that this unfortunate man only slept in the stable, where had died a glandered horse; he must therefore have taken the disease by contagion. This conclusion should serve as a warning to all, how careful and cautious they ought to be, when necessity compels ihem to have any communication with glandered horses. M. Leone, a veterinary surgeon in a dragoon regiment, in perfect health, was called upon in his professional capacity to operate upon a glandered horse in the regiment: alter the operation, he introduced his finger into the wound, to explore the extent of the sore; he had unfortunately a slight bruise on his finger at the time, which in a few days became much swollen; it was ex-

tremely painful, and soon covered with fungus-like growths: the wound was cauterized, when he felt the presence of several painful, hard ! swellings, in several parts of his body, which formed abscesses ; and six weeks after the opera-! tion, they had extended to the knee-joint and j instep. He had the assistance of many physi-I cians, but. without any success: tumors formed and soon broke, and still remain open.

Very recently, a } 7 oung man, a groom to a nobleman, who had the charge of a glandered horse, was in the habit of wiping the face of the animal with his pocket-handkerchief, by which the disease was contracted, and he died in one of the hospitals in excruciating; agon} 7 , every bone in his head being perfectly carious ! These melancholy details lead to the conclusion, that a man is liable to the infection of glanders—a disease hitherto supposed to be peculiar to the horse, the ass, and the mule. It is also ascertained, by inoculation, that the farcy is only a modification of glanders, and may co-exist with that disease. But inoculation is not absolutely necessary for the production of glanders, either in man or beast, for sometimes the simple coming in contact with glandered animals produces this disease; from which we infer that it is contagious, and that glanders in a severe form is an incurable disease, both in man and beast.

The writer had once the charge of a great number of horses on a rail-road, amongst which was one suspected of being glandered : she was a very valuable mare, but the moment suspicion fell upon her, she was removed to other quarters. A veterinary surgeon, on examination, pronounced the disease to be a slight case of glanders, proposing at the same time to bleed and physic the whole number of horses on the road, about fifty in number, as a precautionary measure, and to take the mare into a regular course of treatment. It was thought to be the most regular course to shoot the mare at once, which was done out of hand, and there was an end of all anxiety and expense ; the doctor himself admitting that by these measures he had been deprived of a long and fat job, amounting to the value of many glandered horses.

J. P.

CREAM.

The peculiar rich cream of Devonshire, England, called clouted cream, is obtained by using zinc pans of a peculiar construction, consisting of an upper and lower apartment. The milk is put into an upper apartment; and after it has stood twelve hours, an equal quantity of boiling water is introduced into ihe lower one. At ihe end of another twelve hours the cream is taken cfT much more easily and perfectly ihan in the common way, and is also more abundant and richer. The result of twelve experiments care-

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fully made, was as follows:—Four gallons of milk treated as above, gave in twent}'-four hours, four and a half pints of cream, which yielded, after churning fifteen minutes, forty ounces of butler; four gallons treated in the usual way, gave in forty-eight hours, four pints of cream, which yielded after churning ninety minutes, thirty-six ounces of butter. The increase in the quantity of cream is twelve and a half per cent.

The same principle may be applied in the use of common pans. It would be easy, for instance, to prepare some kind of trough, of tin, perhaps, or even wood, into which the pans could set, and hot water afterwards be introduced.

As a close trough would be much better than an open one, you may have a cover in which to set the pans. An ingenious Yankee tinman

would soon make a range in this way, sufficient for a common dairy, at no great expense. It would last indefinitely. If it is true that you would thus get some two pounds more butter a week from each cow, the apparatus and trouble would soon be paid for,—to say nothing of the time saved in churning. We do not see why zinc pans—which are said to be decidedly preferable to any other for the dairy— with the tin range as above, would not be quite as good as the complicated and expensive Devonshire pans. And it would be easy for the dairy woman to satisfy herself respecting the principle, without either. By using cold water instead of hot, the range would serve to keep milk sweet in warm weather.— Vermont Farmer.

HAY HOUSE.

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We have been at some expense to have engraved, in very pretty style, a combination of two plans, which together, we conceived, would form an excellent hay house. Some years since, we saw, upon the farm of a practical and successful agriculturist of this State,'numerous stacks of hay, covered by very chsap roofs supported on four corner posts securely planted in the ground. Tho proprietor, with whom the

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hay crop was a very important one, informed us, that he greatly preferred this to ihe usual form of an extended roof, which he had formerly used as a receptacle for all his hay. The detached skeletons were equally as cheap, one could be erected in a few hours ; there was much less loss in case of fire, and less risk of heating in detached stacks than in a compact body. He, moreover, had, In this way, an opportunity of

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separating his different kinds of hay, and getting at any with facility that he might require.

Struck with these advantages, it occurred to us, that with this form of house might be combined a plan very highly recommended by Sir John Sinclair, in his Code of Agriculture. In Scotland, he says, it is common with the best managers to build their stacks of hay around an open pyramidical frame supported on a platform raised from the ground. By this means the hay is secured from the moisture of the earth, whilst, by means of horizontal blocks on the side of the uprights, which support the platform, the ascent of vermin may be prevented. The open pyramid, formed by perpendicular pieces of timber, serves to admit the air into the centre of the stack, and prevent the heating, so much to be deprecated.

The engraving shows for itself how we have conceived the two plans might be usefully and economically united. We ask for the objections, or approval, of more experienced agriculturists.

For the Southern Planter. A CURE FOR WARTS. JSIr. Editor, —Being much troubled with warts on my hands, I was advised to rub them with milk, or as it is sometimes called, snake weed. Accordingly, I cut the plant, and rubbed the warts with the milky juice that exudes from it. After rubbing them once or twice a day for five or six days, they totally disappeared, nor have I ever had a return of these troublesome visitors. I have since heard of several similar cases where it was equally efficacious.

Yours, J. C. Wren.

Poivhatan.

ADDRESS OF THE REV. J. H. TURNER.

We promised in our last to take some farther notice of this excellent address, delivered before the Henrico Agricultural Society at its spring meeting. Since that time, the Society has published the address in pamphlet form, and as it will in that shape probably be distributed amongst a large portion of our readers, our notice of it will be much more brief than we had intended.

With that portion of the address which was devoted to the agitating question of a currenc}', we have nothing to do, at least in this particular sphere. It was the agricultural portion of the production we had intended to review.

The main object of the address is to describe a well managed farm, and the first point the Parson touches is the fencing. He deprecates the common worm fence as expensive and insecure; where the situation justifies it, he advises the stone, and of wood, he prefers the post and rail. Although amenable to censure in many respects, we cannot agree with the Parson in blaming our legislature for the necessity that

exists of providing extensive fences against the depredation of ranging stock. This, the author intimates, might be remedied by a legislative enactment, which should prohibit the ranging of cattle. Now, we apprehend that however desirable such an enactment might be to some individuals in some portions of the country, yet a large majority would very properly be opposed to it, since, if they were required to keep their stock in their own enclosures, they would be compelled either to enclose extensive ranges, or be forced to forego altogether the benefit of those ranges, which now afford food for their stock for more than half the year. We repeat, that such a remedy in the present state of the country, is neither practicable nor desirable. In our opinion this is precisely one of those errors induced by applyingnorthern instructionstosoutherncircumstances. At the north, where population is much more dense and where there is much less uncultivated land, it is wise and proper to restrain the practice of permitting stock to go at large,because the convenience of a large majority is thereby consulted. But at the south, the reverse of this is the case, and consequently the same reasoning does not apply. But, if we are so unfortunate as to differ with Mr. Turner on this point, we are happy to give our most cordial assent to his next proposition, viz: that a good manager may be known by the use he makes of manure. Upon this subject he says:

"After worrying myself with the vexed question of the best mode of application, I have concluded to dispose of the whole affair in the following summary way—take such manures as you can get, and apply them at such time, and in such manner as j^ou may find most convenient, and I have never seen any lands but would be benefited by the process. If, however, I were to recommend one mode above another, it would be to top-dress the grass lands, and the next year, or the year following, to submit the same to a com crop."

The Parson insists, that if the alchymists of old had looked in the manure pile, they would have found the long sought for philosopher's stone.

We would recommend the agricultural portion of this address to our readers. It may be had in this city for the trifling sum of 12£ cents.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE.

We have received a circular, informing us that the fourteenth fair of this institution will be held in the city of New York, in the early part of October next.

These exhibitions, which are to be reckoned amongst the most imposing and interesting ever held in our country, have, we doubt not, been productive of incalculable good by the emulation they have excited in the agricultural and mechanical arts. They are now so well known as

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frequently to induce, and amply repay, visits from the most distant parts of the Onion. More than one hundred thousand visiters have been admitted ; and more than fifteen thousand specimens of domestic products exhibited, at a single anniversary.

We are happy to see that the Legislature of New York, aroused to the importance of the cause in which it is embarked, has appropriated to this institution the sum of nine hundred and fifty dollars per annum, for five years, to be distributed in premiums. This, however, is rather by way of compliment and approval than for the purpose of support, which the institution does not. need, as their receipts or entrance money has amounted to the enormous sum of $25,000 at one exhibition.

BEE BREEEING IN THE WEST.

We acknowledge the receipt of a little work with this title, from the office of the Western Farmer. We handed it to a gentleman, who takes great interest in the subject, and he assures us it is the best treatise upon this subject he has ever seen. In our next, we shall probably express our own opinion of its merits.

OXEN.

Although, in our climate the ox can never be used as extensively and to such advantage as at the north, yet, even here, he is an useful animal, and should form a portion of the stock of every farm. For irregular farm work he is invaluable. From a letter to the Yankee Farmer, written by Mr. A. G. Sheldon, for whose practical knowledge, especially upon this subject, the Editor vouches, we make the following extracts:

11 The following I give as my opinion concerning the marks of a good working -ox:

"1. Long head, broad and oval between the eyes, the eye keen, full, and pleasant. Such marks denote ability to receive instruction, and readiness to obey.

" 2. Fore legs should be straight, toes straight forward, hoof broad, not peaked, distance short between the ancle and the knee. These enable the ox to travel on pavements and hard ground.

" 3. Full breast, straight on the back, round rib projecting out as wide as the hip bones. These are indications of strength and good constitution.

" When the toes turn out, the knees bend in. The crooked kneed ox is apt to become lame by holding heavy loads down hill.

11 The gx with horns very large near the head is apt to be lazy, and will not stand the heat of the day. The black eyed ox is apt to run away."

Mr. Sheldon is either a very fanciful gentleman, or a very minute observer.

" The best way to feed oxen for hard work is

to give each ox two quarts of meal, wet, and mixed with chopped hay, three times a day, and what hay his appetite naturally craves besides. This is the highest feed the working ox ought to have, and will enable the good ox to work ten or twelve hours every day. I think rye and Indian meal mixed together is better than all Indian. Farmers, who do not work their oxen hard, have no need of giving them so much meal.

"From experience, I do say, in my opinion, steers, broke quite young, are worth for- hard labor twenty-five per cent, more than oxen that have come to their growth before they are yoked."

LIME.

In a long 1 letter, from Dr. Wm. Darlington, of Pennsylvania, in answer to certain inquiries propounded to Him by the late Judge Buel, he expresses the following opinions upon the use of this wonder working article :

" Lime, undoubtedly has a good effect in soils which are sandy,—even where sand predominates ; but I believe its meliorating properties are most conspicuous in a clay soil,—or rather in a stiff loam, A good proportion of decomposed vegetable matter adds greatly to the beneficial effects of lime ; and hence our farmers are desirous to mingle as much barn-yard manure as possible with their land dressings, and to get their fields into what is called a good sod, or turf—full of grass roots. Then a dressing of lime has an admirable effect* The soils indicated by a natural growth of black oak, (quer-cus tinctoria) walnut, (juglans nigra) and poplar, (liriodendron)—and those in which such grasses as the poas and festucus best flourish, are generally most signally benefitted by the use of lime. In short, I may observe, that lime has been found more or less beneficial in every description of soil in this district. It is most so on hilly, or rolling lands where clay predominates,—less permanently so among the mica slate,— and least of all, on the magnesian rocks. The soil on these last is rarely worth cultivating.

" The quantity of lime, per acre, which can be used advantageously, varies with the condition and original character of the soil. Highly improved land will bear a heavier dressing than poor land. On a soil of medium condition, the usual dressing is forty to fifty bushels per acre. A deep, rich soil, or limestone land in the great valley, will receive seventj T to eighty—(and I am told even one hundred)—bushels to the acre

" * The yard manure is not usually mingled with the lime, when the latter is first applied. The practice i-to lime the Indian corn ground prior to planting t' * grain on the inverted sod,—and the ensuing sprin -et manure the same field for a barley crop—or to r^eilh the manue until the succeeding autumn, and i to the wheat crop. It is not well settled which ; ' an a-is the better practice. Each has its advocatesjMed, is most usual to reserve manure for the wheat. n .

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with advantage. On very poor land twenty to thirty bushels to the acre, is deemed most advantageous to commence with. It is usually repeated every five or six years—then every time the field comes in turn to be broken up with the plough ; and as the land improves, the quantity of lime is increased. The prevailing practice here, is to plough down the sod, or clay, in the fall or early in the spring,—harrow it once—and then spread the lime (previously slaked to a powder) preparatory to planting the field with

Indian corn. Every this kind of dressing

field.

# in rotation receives and as our farms are

mostly divided into about half a dozen fields, the dressing of course cgmes once in six years, more or less, according to the number of the fields. Some enterprising farmers, however, give their fields an intermediate dressing, on the sod, after they come into grass, which I consider an excellent practice—tending rapidly to improve the condition of the land.

" It is usually applied, as already intimated, to the crop of Indian corn, in the spring of the year—say month of April. Occasionally it is applied previously to sowing wheat in autumn. When used as a top-dressing, on the sod, it is generally applied in the fall—say November. The prevailing impression is, that it is most advantageously applied to the Indian corn crop; and hence the general practice. But the truth is it is highly advantageous at an} 7 , and at all seasons, and our shrewd old farmers have a saying, 'Get your lime on for your corn if you can— but be sure to get it on the land, some time in the year.'

"As already stated, after the sod is ploughed down for Indian corn, it is usually narrowed once, to render the surface more uniform. The lime is spread as equally as possible over the field, and then the ground is well harrowed in different directions, in order to incorporate the lime with the soil. Soon afterwards the field is marked out, and planted with corn. The plough is rarely if ever used for the purpose alluded to. I have mentioned above, that lime is occasionally used as a top-dressing for grass. It appears to be particularly beneficial to that crop; and answers extremely well when applied in that manner. The practice of applying it to Indian corn as above related, is however, chiefly followed ; and the application of a dressing to each field in rotation causes as much labor and expense every year, as our farmers generally are willing to incur. Lime has rarelj been used as a top-dressing to grain crops, within my knowledge.

" I have already intimated that vegetable mat-Cls, and especially yard manures, are highly the -, r f ant j n conjunction with lime. Both are raH - le, even when used separately, but when respec^ the effect is most complete. If to this

to plough only so much ground as can be well manured—the stale of agriculture may be considered nearly perfect.

" Lime is in some instances added to earthy composts, preparatory to distribution on the fields: but it is doubtful whether the extra labor of this method is compensated by any peculiar advantage. It is not generally practised.

" There is no soil in this district deemed worthy of cultivation, on which lime is wholly inoperative as a fertilizer. On some sterile, slaty ridges, and on irmgnesian rocks, it has indeed but a slight effect; and even the benefits of barnyard manure are very transient. In low, swampy grounds also, unless they are previously well drained, the labor of applying lime is pretty much thrown away."

blam,

fided the great secret of good farming, viz

NEW PLAN OF HORSE SHOES. A Frenchman by the name of Jony, now resident in Poland, has invented a new method of shoeing horses, for which the Emperor has awarded him fifty thousand rubles, besides an exclusive patent. Jony covers the entire hocf with iron, and the bases of his shoe, or, as it is called, sandal, is perfectly smooth. This method of his is being adopted in all parts of Russia. It requires neither nail nor screw ; it is extremely cheap, and has the important characteristic of great lightness. Horses whose hoof have been destroyed by bad shoeing, are, by the use of these "hippo sandals," resiored in a short time to their former state of efficiency, and may be used as soon as provided with them. Some horses have been brought to Mr. Jony's smithy, which could scarcely limp along, and with their hoofs in so lamentable a slate, that the common mode of shoeing could not have been applied to them; but after performing a slight operation upon them, and putting the new sandal on their feet, they were sent back to their owners in a comparatively sound state, and fit for work.

FATTENING FOWLS WITH POTATOES.

There is great profit in feeding geese, turkies, and fowls of every sort, with potatoes and meal mixed ; they will fatten in nearly one half the time that they will on any kind of corn, or even meal itself. The potatoes must be bruised fine, while hot, and the meal added, when the mess of Arts.

is given to them.— Soc

A NEW AND RAPID METHOD OF SALTING MEAT.

A new mode has been invented of curing meat in a very short time. The meat to be cured is placed in an iron vessel of considerable strength, connected by a pipe and a stop-cock with lhe brine tub, also with an exhausting pump. The cover having been screwed down on the vessel, the air is extracted and a vacuum established, whereupon the stop-cock being properly turned,

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the brine rushes in and takes the place of the air, filling the pores of the meat, and penetrating ' thoroughly the animal substance. Lest, how-, ever, some parts of the meat might not have been impregnated with the pickle by this re-ac-1 tion and the common atmospheric pressure, more ' of the liquid from the tub, prepared to taste with salt alone, or with saltpetre, or sugar, or spice, | or alum, in the case of hides, is pumped in by a I small condensing engine (connected, of course,' also with the iron vessel) until a pressure of from 150 to 200 lbs. on the square inch be at-] tained. Now, the animal substance is allowed to remain under pressure for about ten minutes, and the process is complete. The meat, when taken out, is thoroughly saturated with brine; the full flavor of which is imparted to it, and well cured, as it is termed.

MISCELLANY,

THE FARMER'S LIFE.

The following- from the pen of Colman is not less just than beautiful:

"What a means of imparting pleasure is an improved agriculture. How many charming examples present themselves among us of improvements which every eye gazes upon with unmingled delight. Let a man, according to his power, take his ten, his twenty, his fifty, his hundred acres. Let him comb the hair, and wash the face of nature Let him subdue, clear, cultivate, enrich, embellish it. Let him smooth the rough places, and drain the wet, and fill up the sunken, and enrich the barren. Let him enclose it with a neat and substantial fence. Let him line its borders and road sides with ornamental trees, and let him stock every proper part with vines and fruits. Let his fields and meadows wave with their golden harvest, and let his hills be covered with the herds rejoicing in the fulness with which his labors, under the blessing of God, have spread their table, and who, when he goes among them, hasten from all sides to meet him and eagerly to recognize in him a friend and benefactor, and lick the hand which is accustomed to feed and fondle them. Here now let us see the neatly painted cottage with its green shades, its piazza trellised with vines, its sides covered wiih the spreading elm, or flowing acacia, with here and there the beautiful fur to shade the picture, and the mountain ash showing its rich clusters of crimson fruit among the deep green foliage, and the smooth and verdant lawn stretching its soft and beautiful carpet to view ; then look again and see the parents at the close of day, resting from their labors and enjoying the calm evening, with their pledges of mutual and devoted affection rioting before them in all the buoyancy of youthful innocence and delight; and if, at such an hour as this you

can hear the hymn of grateful praise rising from this humble abode of peace and love, and its charming notes mingling with the music of ihe gurgling brook that flows near by, or broken by the occasional shrill and hollow notes of ihe gentle and fearless birds, which deem themselves loving members of this loving household ; if then, whether traveller or sojourner, your heart is not touched with this charming and not unusual picture of rural felicity, cease to call yourself a man. If still you sigh for ihe bustle and the noise and the confinement of the city, with its impure water and its offensive odors, wiih its despicable affectations, wiih its heartless formalities, with its violent excitements, with its midnight festivities, with its utter destitution of sympathy, wiih its low estimate of human life, wiih its squalid poverty, its multiplied forms of wretchedness and crime, its pride, its vanity, its ambition, its pomp, its servility; ihen go back to your gilded prison house, and to pleasures which an uncorrupted and refined taste, accustomed to drink in the free air of heaven, and to appreciate its freshness, its purity, and its salubrity, will find no occasion to covet or envy. The man who by his cultivation and good husbandry presents such a picture to the passer by, shall he not be called a benefactor to the community? Has he not done much to improve and bless society by his example? Has he not built a monument to his own honor more eloquent than the marble?"

ENTERPRISE.

There are many points of similarity in the character of the Scotchman and the Yankee. The same spirit of enterprise, the same care for thrift, the same sound practical sense which is characteristic of Sawney marks the character of Jonathan.

A late notice of an American who from a poor sailor boy has risen to be an admiral in the Russian navy reminds us of the following anecdote equally illustiative of Scotch enterprise related by Dr. Anderson:

"The Russians and Turks, in the war of 1739, having diverted themselves long enough in ihe contest, agreed to a treaty of peace. The commissioners, for this purpose were, Marshal General Keith, on the part of Russia; and the Grand Vizier, on that of the Turks. These two personages met, and carried on their negotiations by means of interpreters. When all was concluded, they rose to separate; the marshal made his bow with his hat in his hand, and the vizier his salam with h;s turban on his head. But when these ceremonies of taking leave were over, the vizier turned suddenly, and coming up to Marshal Keith, took him cordially by the hand, and in the broadest Scotch dialect, declared warmly that it made him, 'unco happy to meet a countryman in his exalted station.' Keith stared with astonishment, eagr-r for an explanation of this mystery, when the vizier added, ' Dinna be surprised, mon, I J m o' the same coun-