(^r 



—■*■ 






S5 



VOL. XVII. 



[JUNE.] : 



Published Monthly. Ruffin & August, Proprietors 




FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor. 



TH E 




DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, 



AND THE 



HOUSEHOLD ARTS. 




PRINTED AT RICHMOND, Ya., 
BY MACFARLANE & FERGUSSON 

1857. 




CONTENTS 



The Soil, - - -321 

The Effects of the Exposure of Animals 

to a low Temperature and to Moisture, 331 
Improved Stock — Xo. 4, 

Proper Slopes for Drains and Ditches, - 335 
Short-Horns Rising, - - 336 

The New Cattle Market of London, - 337 
The Supply of Guano, - - 341 

The Guano Crisis, - - 342 

More about Osage Orange Hedges. — On 

Improved Farming, - - 344 

Nottoway Farmers' Club, - 346-352 

The Horse Charm ; or the Great Secret 

for Taming Horses.— Preserving Green 

Fodder, 
Cure for Fever and Ague. — Albemarle 

Tobacco. — Cattle Raising in the West, 
Haw's Woodpecker Saw, 
Improved Fence of Cheap Plank, 
Destroying Sassafras. — Crops in Loudoun 

and Prince William. — Mr. Jones in 

Reply to Major Shook, 
Wheat in Rockbridge.-Xorfolk Farming, 
Osage Orange Hedges, 



352 

353 
356 
357 



358 
361 
362 



A Trap for Catching .Sheep-Killing Dogs, 363 
Cooked Food for Hog, and Cattle, - 364 

Remedy for the Hoven, - - 365 

Reapers, - - - 366 

A Surge Pump. — Tethering Horses. — 
Virginia State Agricultural Society. — 
Mr. Gowen's Sale of Short Horns, 
To the Friends of the Planter. — Another 

General Notice, - - 369 

New Books, - - - 370 

Agricultural Professorship in the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, - - 372 
A Request to Mr. -J. J. Hite. — Simple 

Butter Cooler. — Natural Barometer, - 373 
The Strawberry, - - 374 

Products of our Orchards, - - 377 

Flowers Accessible to All, - - ,370 

How to make Tomatoes Produce Early. 
Tomatoes for Pickling. — Staking To- 
{ raatoes. — A Needed Caution, - 380 

| Watch the Worms.— The Morello Cherry. 

Caked or Inflamed Udder, - £81 

1 Advertisements, - 382-3 > 4 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 
Is published monthly, in sixty-four octavo pages, 
upon the following 

TERMS: 

TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS per an- 
num, unless paid in advance. 

Advance payments as follows : 
One copy, one year, 



and we wish it distinctly understood that we take the 
risk only when this condition is complied with. 
*■»•»* ■ 

ADVERTISEMENTS 
Will be inserted at the following rates: 
Business Cards of 5 lines or less, per annum, $5 00 



Six copies, do 
Thirteen copies, one year, 
Twenty do do 

One copy, three years, 



|2 

10 

20 

30 

5 



Each square 
of 10 lines or 

less, 



Half a pasre or 
One column, 



And one copy free to persons sending us the names 
and money for thirteen or more new subscribers. 

All money remitted to us will be considered at our 
risk only, when the letter containing the same shall 
have been registered. This rule is adopted not for our 
protection, but for the protection of our correspondents, 



1st insertion, - - 1 00 

Each continuance, 

6 months, ) without - 4 50 

12 l - 5 alteration, 8 00 

1st insertion, - 6 00 

Each continuance, - I 60 

6 months, ~) without - 25 00 

12 " ] alteration, 40 00 
1st insertion, - -10 00 

Each continuance, - 7 ji) 

6 months, ) without - 4U 00 

12 " 5 alteration, 70 00 



One page, 

alteration, 

Advertisements out of the city must be accompa- 
nied with the money or city references to insure inser- 
tion. 



Three-Quarter South Down Ram Lambs- 

We have for sale, at $15 each, six or eight very 
likely lambs of the above breed, of the stock of Mr. 
K. H. Dulaney of Loudoun. We last year advised 
those who affect this breed of sheep, to purchase the 
thorough breed at three prices instead of part-bred 
stock of our own or any one elses ; and do so still. — 
But those who will not do that, had better buy of us 
than continue to use natives. They are in-and-in ; 
bred — the she on his offspring, which we state, that 
those who dislike this mode ol breeding inav not be 
taken in. FRANK: <i. KITIT.V 



E. T. WINSTON & CO., 

Sole Agents in Richmond, Va., for 



GUANO, 



MANIPULATED 

April 1>37. — tf 



TH E 




Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts. 



Agriculture is tke nursing mother of the Arts 
— Xenophon. 


. 1 Tillage and Pasturage an 
the State.— Sully, 


; the 


two 


breast? 


of 


FRANK. G. RUFFIN, 


Editor. 


F. G. RUFFIN & N. 


AUGUST 


/Prop' 


RS. 


Vol. XVII. 


RICHMOND, 


VA., JUNE, 1857. 






No. 


6. 



The Soil. 

On examining the various soils in this or 
any other country, they will be found to 
consist generally : 

1. Of larger or smaller stones, sand, or 
gravel. 2. Of a more friable', lighter mass, 
crumbling to powder when squeezed be- 
tween the fingers, and rendering water 
muddy. 3. Of vegetable and animal re- 
mains (organic matter). 

On further examination of the several 
portions obtained by means of washings, 
we find, 

1. That the sand, gravel, and fragments 
of stones vary according to the nature of 
the rocks from which they are derived. — 
Quartz-sand, in one case, will be observ- 
ed as the predominating constituent ; in 
another, this portion of the soil consists 
principally of a calcareous sand ; and, in 
a third, a simple inspection will enable us 
to recognize fragments of granite, felspar, 
mica, and other minerals. 

2. In the impalpable powder, the che- 
mist will readily distinguish principally 
fine clay, free silica, free alumina, more 
or less oxide of iron, lime, magnesia, pot- 
ash, soda, traces of oxide of manganese, 
and phosphoric, sulphuric, and carbonic 
acids, with more or less organic matter. 

3. The watery solution of the soil, evap- 

Ai 1 



orated to dryness, leaves behind an incon- 
siderable residue, generally colored brown 
by organic matters which may be driven 
off by heat. In the combustible or organic 
portion of this residue, the presence of 
ammonia, of humic, ulmic, crenic, and ap- 
ocrenic acids (substances known under the 
more familiar name of soluble humus,) 
and frequently traces of nitric acid, will 
be readily detected. In the incombustible 
portion, potash, soda, lime, magnesia, phos- 
phoric, sulphuric, and silicic acid, chlorine, 
and occasionally oxide of iron and manga- 
nese, are present. 

All cultivated soils present a great simi- 
larity in composition ; they all contain the 
above chemical constituents. This simi- 
larity becomes still more apparent after 
burning, when nearly all soils will assume 
a red colour, which is due to the presence 
of oxide of iron. At first sight this might 
be regarded as opposed to the great diver- 
sity of soils ; but if we examine the rela- 
tive proportions in which the several con- 
stituents are mixed together, the state of 
combination in which they occur, and the 
manner in which the different soils are 
formed, we shall find that diversity is per- 
fectly compatible with a certain similarity 
in elementary composition. 

In all fertile and arable soils, organic 



322 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



matters, more or less decomposed, varying 
in quantity from ^ of a per cent, to 12 per 
cent, occur; and as in good garden-mould, 
the proportion of such organic matters fre- 
quently amounts to 20-24 per cent, of its 
own weight, and seldom is less than 10-12 
per cent., it was believed that the amount 
of organic matters in soils determined 
their relative degree of fertility. This, 
however, is a great mistake, for there are 
soils containing only 2 per cent, of organic 
substances, w T hich are, notwithstanding, 
greatly superior to others containing 6 or 
8 per cent. ; and, again, in peaty or boggy 
soils, belonging to the worst description, 
60 to 70 per cent, are by no means un- 
common. In soils celebrated as good 
wheat-soils we have found not more than 
3_3.i per cent, of organic matter ; whilst 
in far less productive land we have found 
as much as 10-12 per cent. That no reli- 
ance can be placed on the amount of or- 
o-anic matter in soils, as indicating their 
productive powers, is also clearly seen in 
the following determinations made by Dr. 
Anderson, in some of the best wheat-soils 
from different parts of Scotland. — (See 
Scottish Journal of Agriculture, for July, 
1850.) 





Percentage 


Percentage 




of organic 


of organic 




matter in 


matter in 




soil. 


s.ubsoil. 


Mid-Lothian wheat-soil 


10.1981 


4.8358 


East-Lothiam " 


6.3271 


5.8554 


Renfrewshire " 


7.3G25 


4.6932 


Perthshire 


8.5508 


6.8270 


Morayshire 


4.54(30 


3.7660 


Morayshire wheat-soil ) 




} Notde- 
f term'd. 


of a different de- J- 


3.47G0 


sorption j 




Berwickshire wheat-soil 


G.5700 


<< 



The organic matter in the soil is due, 
for the greater part, to the vegetable re- 
mains of former crops, and partly to ani- 
mal matters, derived from the decay of 
insects, or the excrementitious substances 
contained in manure. The vegetable and 
animal remains, under the influence of 
water, air and heat, gradually decay, pro- 
ducing a brownish or black powdery sub- 
stance, or rather a mixture of substances, 
which is known to practical men under 
the name of humus, or vegetable mould. 
There are principally two kinds of humus, 
brown and black, the former is contained 
in large quantities in the brown variety of 



peat; the latter, the result of further de- 
composition of the brown, is found in 
black peat. Brown and black humus have 
a very complex composition, which is 
changing every day as the decay of the 
vegetable remains in them proceeds. Du- 
ring this decay a number of peculiar or- 
ganic acids are formed ; as, for instance, 
ulmic, humic, crenic, apocrenic, and geic 
acids. These acids resemble each other 
very much in their general aspect, as well 
as in their composition. 

It is not our intention to enter into any 
lengthened discussion of the various theo- 
ries which have been advanced in regard 
to the action of humus on vegetation. It 
certainly plays an important part in the 
processes of nutrition of plants, but its 
functions cannot be explained by one action 
only, for it is evidently subservient to the 
luxuriant growth of plants in more than 
one way. Thus it exercises a beneficial 
action in condensing ammonia, as well as 
moisture from the atmosphere, and like- 
wise by furnishing a continual source of 
carbonic acid, arising from its decomposi- 
tion. Again, the vegetable remains in 
humus always contain a certain amount of 
inorganic matters, but the latter are not 
soluble in the fresh roots, stems, and other 
parts of plants, and only become available 
to vegetation during their gradual decay 
and conversion into humus. 

Notwithstanding a general similarity in 
the composition of arable soils, the ap- 
pearance and general characters of many 
soils, in every country, present striking 
differences which cannot fail to attract the 
attention .of even a superficial observer. — 
The forms and proportions in which the 
chemical elements usually constituting 
soils are mixed together, in different lo- 
calities, explain, in some measure, though 
by no means fully, the various appearan- 
ces and agricultural capabilities which they 
possess. These forms and proportions 
themselves depend on the causes and cir- 
cumstances under which they originated. 

The manner in which some soils are 
formed will not be long doubted by any 
one who has observed the appearance of 
large rocky masses, 'the clefts and crevi- 
ces they present, the bare surface of their 
smoother and harder parts ; the growth of 
mo'sses and smaller plants on the' more 
softened portions ; the accumulations of 
gravel, smaller fragments of minerals, and 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



323 



fine mud, with their luxuriant vegetation 
at the foot of these rocks, and in the val- 
leys of mountainous districts. These soils 
evidently have originated in the degrada- 
tion and decomposition of the solid rocks 
in their immediate neighbourhood, especi- 
ally of those which occupy the surround- 
ing eminences. But as rocks differ much 
in composition, the soils which are formed 
on their decomposition must necessarily 
present, in many cases, great differences 
equally with the rocks themselves ; and 
the study of the latter will therefore be of 
considerable interest to the cultivator of 
the soil. In other instances, however, the 
nature of the soils, in a given locality, par- 
takes nothing of the characters of the 
rocks in the immediate neighbourhood, nor 
even of those on which they rest. The 
causes which are instrumental in the for- 
mation of soils fully explain this apparent 
anomaly; and we shall, for this reason, 
draw attention to the various causes which 
give rise to the formation of arable soils. 
In some instances we can trace the chan- 
ces rocks undergo in the course of time, 
step by step, and refer them to their true 
causes ; in others, only the ultimate pro- 
ducts of decomposition are well described, 
and their primary causes less clearly un- 
derstood. This much is quite sure, that 
the causes which operate in the formation 
of soils are various, and often complicated. 
Some of them may be referred to chemi- 
cal forces and agencies — we call them 
"chemical causes;" others, which are 
based on purely mechanical principles, we 
shall distinguish as "mechanical causes;" 
and a few partake of the nature of both — 
they act partly chemically, partly mechani- 
cally. 

I: — Chemical causes of the degradation and 
disintegration of rocks. 

1. One of the principal agencies in ef- 
fecting a gradual disintegration of solid 
rocks, is the atmospheric oxygen. Oxy- 
gen possesses a great affinity for many mi- 
neral substances, and has, consequently, a 
powerful tendency to form new compounds. 
These compounds, or oxides, being always 
more voluminous, looser, and less com- 
pact, are the primary cause of the burst- 
ing of many rocks, particularly of those 
containing much iron. In the course of 
the formation of these oxides, the com- 
pact texture of the rock is broken up, and 



the whole mass of the rock gradually 
crumbles down. In basaltic rocks this 
process of disintegration can be well ob- 
served. Those sides of such rocks which 
are most exposed to the atmospheric influ- 
ences, will invariably be found on the sur- 
face softer and less compact than in the 
interior, whilst, at the same time, the 
brown coating of oxide of iron, which in 
the course of time grows deeper and 
deeper towards the interior, illustrates the 
action of the atmospheric oxygen to which 
we have just alluded. 

2. A second, and no less powerful che- 
mical agency, in the formation of soils, is 
the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, car- 
ried down by the rain. The affinity of 
carbonic acid for different mineral com- 
pounds varies greatly; the action which 
carbonic acid exercises on limestone and 
dolomitic rocks, on sandstones, clay, ba- 
salt, or other rocks, is not therefore the 
same in every case. Limestones, for in- 
stance, are easily attacked by rain water ? 
as the carbonic acid which the water con- 
tains dissolves the carbonate of lime, whilst 
pure sandstones and quartz-rocks are 
scarcely acted upon by rain water. In 
the formation of stalactites, which are ge- 
nerally found in caverns occurring in 
limestone-rocks, a familiar example of the 
dissolving action of rain water is present- 
ed. 

On felspar, granite, and other minerals 
consisting of silicate, carbonic acid and 
water exercise a highly important action. 
Under their influence these minerals are 
decomposed into alkaline silicates, which 
in their turn give rise to silica and carbo- 
nate of potash or soda, and into silicate of 
alumina, or pure clay. 

3. In the formation of soils from solid 
rocks, the lower order of plants and ani- 
mals take an active share. The seeds of 
lichens and mosses floating in the air at- 
tach themselves to the roughened and par- 
tially decomposed surfaces of rocks, and 
finding here sufficient food, germinate and 
throw out roots, which penetrate the little 
crevices in the rocks like wedges. These 
widening and multiplying the crevices, 
hasten the final disintegration of the rock. 
Mosses and lichens likewise retain the at- 
mospheric water, and keep the surface of 
the rock moist for a longer time, giving in 
this manner rain water a better chance of 
exercising its dissolving powers on the 



324 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



constituents of the rocks. Insects and 
other animals of the lower orders collect 
and feed on the lichens* and mosses, and 
both insects and plants in due time die, 
decay, and leave all the mineral matter 
which they have originally obtained from 
the rock behind, mixed with vegetable and 
animal remains, or humus. A thin layer 
of a more fertile soil is thus formed, on 
which plants of a higher order may spring 
up; in the course of time these die, and 
enrich and increase the soil in the same 
manner as the mosses. 

II. — Mechanical causes active in the forma- 
tion of soils. 

Generally the first stage in the disinte- 
gration of rocks can be referred to a che- 
mical force. The described chemical 
agencies, however, are often associated 
with mechanical ones, or followed by 
purely mechanical causes, which produce 
great changes in the appearance of rocks, 
and contribute much to the rapid forma- 
tion and the peculiarity of some soils. 

1. One purely mechanical agency in 
the formation of soils is the force of grav- 
itation. In the case of overhanging or 
steep precipitous rocks, when one or all of 
the chemical causes already mentioned 
have acted long enough to weaken the co- 
hesive force which keeps the rock togeth- 
er, so that the force of gravity preponde- 
rates over cohesion, the rock so influenced 
tumbles down, in obedience to the law of 
gravitation, and contributes to fill up the 
valley below with the disintegrated frag- 
ments. According to the nature of the 
rock, vegetation springs up on these debris 
more or less luxuriantly, often very rap- 
idly. 

2. The finer portions of the disintegra- 
ted rocks are easily moved by heavy winds 
when they are found covering the ground 
in unsheltered places. Heavy winds, in- 
deed, contribute much to change the as- 
pect of some localities, particularly those 
near the sea-coasts. On the shores of the 
Baltic, large tracts of arable land are an- 
nually covered with drift sand. On the 
south-west coast of France the dunes in- 
crease every year about seventy feet in 
breadth. 

3. Water, which acts, as we have seen, 
chemically in dissolving some of the con- 
stituents of rocks more readily than oth- 
ers, exercises likewise a most powerful 



influence in changing the nature of rocks 
in a purely mechanical way. The rain 
water absorbed by different rocks freezes 
in winter, and expanding in becoming ice, 
bursts the rock into many fragments.— 
Again, the rains continually wash off the 
fine particles from the decomposed higher 
rocks, and carry them down to lower lev- 
els ; and, in flood-time, not only Ihe finer 
particles, but gravel, larger fragments of 
minerals, and even heavy stones, are 
transported to great distances, and distri- 
buted, often in large quantities, over ex- 
tensive tracts of a country. Brooks and 
rivers carry along with them marks of the 
country through which they flow. In the 
stages of their movement the coarser ma- 
terials are first deposited, the finer mud 
moves along with the stream, and is final- 
ly deposited, more or less completely, at 
the mouths of the rivers, where the flow 
of the waters gradually becomes slower, 
at periods of comparative rest. These 
deposits form the alluvial soils of our river 
banks. The vast mass of materials depos- 
ited at the mouth of large rivers, such as 
the Mississippi, the Indus, the "Amazon, 
and the Rhine, alters the condition of the 
soils along the banks of the deltas of these 
rivers from a naturally sterile into a most 
rich and fertile one. 

4. The sea likewise plays an active part 
in changing the characters of the land 
near the shore, and in giving rise to new 
soils. Whilst, on the one hand, the con- 
stant motion of the waters is continually 
encroaching on the land in one place, 
washing away and carrying along with its 
waters the sands of the shore and the de- 
bris of the rocks at the sea coasts, it de- 
posits them partly again in other places 
on more sheltered shores. 

From some of the materials which th'e, 
sea water contains in solution, many ani- 
mals of the lower orders build up their 
skeletons and shells. Oyster banks and 
coral-reefs are thus produced below the 
surface of the sea-level ; gradually they 
rise above the water, forming often an ex- 
tensive island, on which at first but few 
plants spring up. These die and manure 
the soil with their remains ; a thin layer 
of a more fertile soil is thus produced, on 
which a greater variety and number of 
plants may vegetate. In the course of 
time, the decay of every succeeding gen- 
eration adds to the mass of the soil, and 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



325 



the originally sterile coral-reef gradually 
becomes more and more capable of sup- 
porting a healthy vegetation. 

5. Vegetable remains, to which we have 
already alluded, and especially animal re- 
mains, contribute more to the formation of 
some soils than might probably be expect- 
ed. The waters of the river, and especi- 
ally those of the sea, are animated by vast 
numbers of minute microscopic animals, 
called infusoria?, each class of which is so 
organized as to live in its own special ele- 
ments only. Near the mouth of rivers, 
where salt and fresh waters mingle, my- 
riads die daily, mix with the mud of the 
river, and are deposited with it along the 
banks, contributing much to the fertility of 
the alluvial deposits in these localities. — 
The skeletons, or envelopes of these infu- 
sorial animals, consisting chiefly of silica, 
after the death of the animalcules appear 
as a whitish slime, which, notwithstanding 
the fact that many billions of these little 
creatures are required to fill the space of 
one cubic inch, nevertheless increase con- 
siderably the fine mud which the river de- 
posits along its course near the sea shore. 
Thus, the mud which subsides on the 
shores of Northern Germany, and in the 
harbours along the coast, consists, for the 
greater part, of such organic remains. — 
Higher up the rivers their number decrea- 
ses, and in places beyond the reach of the 
tide none of them are found. In the Elbe, 
these animalcules have been observed as 
far as eighty miles above its mouth. In 
all tidal rivers — for instance, the Rhine, 
the Thames, the Wash, the Forth, and the 
Humber — the mechanical debris brought 
down by these rivers, on being deposited, 
are intimately mixed with these more fer- 
tilizing animal remains, and thus alluvial 
soils of the utmost degree of fertility are 
formed. 

Soils derived wholly from the rock im- 
mediately below them are confined to par- 
ticular situations, such as steep escarp- 
ment^, and high level grounds, whereas 
the class of soils which do not partake of 
the general character of the subjacent 
rocks are by far the most numerous. The 
above observations on the formation of 
soils afford a ready explanation of this ap- 
parent geological anomaly; for when the 
chemical causes have prepared the ingre- 
dients of the rock for constituting a soil, oth- 
er causes — for instance, the mechanical in- 



fluence of running water — may interfere 
to transport them to a distant bed of very 
different composition. 

On the Classification and Analysis 
of Soils. 

The arrangement of the various soils 
into a limited number of classes is attend- 
ed with great difficulty, arising from the 
circumstances, that in nature distinct lines 
of demarcation can nowhere be traced; 
and yet the arrangement of soils into class- 
es is of practical utility, inasmuch as it en- 
ables us in a great measure to dispense with 
local and general terms, such as hazel- 
loam, fat soil, brown loam, clayey loam, hu- 
mus soil, garden mould, and other terms, to 
which different meanings are attached in 
different parts of the country, and to sub- 
stitute for them terms admitting of distinct 
definition. It is owing to an indefinite- 
ness of this kind, as is well known, that a 
great deal of our local agricultural litera- 
ture is utterly useless to the general read- 
er. The terms used to describe the cir- 
cumstance of soil, &c, under which any 
agricultural experience arose, must be un- 
derstood, or the record of that experience 
is utterly useless, whether for guidance or 
for warning* 

Of all the different systems of classifi- 
cation, that which arranges soils according 
to the preponderance of one of its chief 
constituents, appears the most simple and 
practically useful. 

Soils in general consist of a mechani- 
cal mixture of the following four ingre- 
dients : 

1. Silica, silicious sand, and gravel. 

2. Clay. 

3. Lime. 

4. Animal and vegetable remains (hu- 
mus). 

There are few soils which consists of 
only one or two of these four substances ; 
most contain them all, but the relative 
proportion of each in different soils varies 
considerably. A natural division of soils, 
accordingly, may be founded on the pre- 
ponderance of one of these four chief 
constituents. 

Upon this principle, soils may be con- 
veniently classified as follows : 

1. Sandy soils, containing above 80 per 
cent, of silicious sand. 

2. Calcareous soils, containing above 20 
per cent, of lime. 



32G 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



3. Clay soils, containing above 50 per 
cent, of clay. 

4. Vegetable moulds (humus soils), con- 
taining more than 6 per cent, of organic 
matters or humus. 

5. Marly soils, or soils in which the 
proportion of lime is more than 5, but does 
not exceed 20 per cent, of the whole 
weight of the dry soil, and that of clay 
is more than 20, but less than 50 per cent. 

6. Loamy soils, or soils in which the 
proportion of clay likewise varies from 20 
to 50 per cent., but which at the same 
time contain less than 5 per cent, of lime. 

Agricultural writers sometimes adopt a 
greater number of classes of soils, by dis- 
tinguishing, for instance, sandy soils con- 
taining much lime as calcareous sands ; 
soils between clay and sandy soils, as 
sandy loams, &c. ; but as the classification 
of soils is thereby complicated, without 
offering any practical advantage, in de- 
scribing them, we shall confine ourselves 
to these six classes ; and we proceed by 
giving a short characteristic of each class. 
The results of chemical analyses which 
will be found following each description 
of soil, may be taken as examples illus- 
trating the different proportions in which 
the different chief constituents are usually 
associated together in each of the six 
classes into which we have divided soils. 



1. Sandy Soils. — They are generally of 
a loose, friable, open, dry character, and 
for that reason are more easily and less 
expensively cultivated than any other de- 
scription of soils. 

Many consist almost entirely of silicious 
sand and gravel, with but little alumina 
and calcareous matters. Such soils are 
almost absolutely barren, and in general 
termed hungry soils, from their tendency 
to absorb manures without any correspond- 
ing benefit to the land. Others contain a 
larger proportion of alumina andlime, which 
render them more compact and always 
more fertile. On these richer kinds of 
sandy soils, beans, pease, and spring-wheat 
succeed well ; and as turnips are frequent- 
ly grown with advantage on them, they 
are called 'occasionally turnip soils. San- 
dy soils are capable of improvement, which 
in many cases repays well the expendi- 
ture for labour and material. 

Clay, marl, chalk, and any other sub- 
stance which has a tendency to counter- 
act the loose texture and porous character 
of sandy soils, may with advantage be ap- 
plied to them. 

In England examples of sandy soils are 
found in soils resting on the old red sand- 
stone, the granite formation, the mill- 
stone grit, the sand of the coal formation, 



Analyses of Sandy Soils, by Dr. Sprengel. 





No. 1. 


No. 11. 


No. 111. 


No IV. 


No. V. 


No VI. 


Silicia and quartz-sand, 


90.000 


92.014 


90.221 


98.8 


96.7 


94.7 


Alumina, - - - - 


.500 


2.652 


2.10G 


.6 


.4 


1.6 


Oxide of iron, - - 


2.000 


3.192 


3.951 


.3 


.5 


2.0 


Oxide of manganese, 


trace. 


.480 


.960 








Lime, - - - - 


.001 


.243 


.539 


.1 


trace. 


1.0 


Magnesia, - - - 


trace. 


.700 


.730 


.1 


.1 


trace. 


Potash, - 


K 


.125 


.00G 




trace. 


1 * 


Soda, - 


it 


.026 


.010 




do 


Phosphoric acid, - 


It 


.078 


.367 




do 


trace. 


Sulphuric acid, - 


" 


trace. 


trace. 




do 




Chlorine, - 


— 


(i 


.010 




.1 




Organic matter (humus), •• 


1.499 


.490 


1.040 




2.2 


.5 




100.000 


100.000 


100.000 


99.9 


100.0 


100.0 



No. I. — Barren sandy soil, near Wattingcn, in Luneburg. 

No. II. — Sandy soil, near Drakcnburg, on the Wcser, producing very bad red clover. 
No. III. — Near Gandcrshcim, in Brunswick, growing luxuriant crops of pulse. 
No. IV. — Very barren drift-sand, near Mcppen. 
No. V. — Barren sandy soil, near Aurich, East Friesland. 

No. VI. — Fertile Sandy loam, near Brunswick, producing luxuriant crops of lucerne, sain- 
foin, lupins, poppies, &c. 

2. Calcareous Soils. — As the physical j chiefly on the relative proportions of lime 
characters of calcareous soils depend | and the other constituents which enter 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



327 



into the composition of this class of soils, 
it is impossible to give a short general 
characteristic. 

Whilst some are deep, dry, loose, and 
friable in their nature, and on the whole, 
as productive as some soils resting on the 
lower chalk formation, others are stony, 
poor, thin .soils, producing but a scanty 
vegetation. Leguminous plants, as beans 
and pease, sainfoin and clover, are grown 
with advantage on this class of soils. Ac- 
cording to the proportion of pure clay and 
silicia which are present in calcareous 
soils, they are called calcareous clays, 
loams, calcareous sands. 

Analyses of a Calcareous Soil from Southrop, 
Gloucestershire, (Dr. A. Voelcker.) 
Lime, - - - 52.33 

Magnesia, - .31 

Oxide of iron and alumina, 2.86 

Phosphoric acid, - - traces. 



Sulphuric acid, 
Silicia, 
Carbonic acid, 



do. 

.26 

44.70 

100.46 



3. Clay Soils. — The properties of clay- 
soils are diametrically opposed to those of 
sandy soils. Stiffness, impenetrability, 
great power of absorbing and retaining 
moisture, and great adhesiveness charac- 
terize this class of soils. They are con- 
sequently cold, stiff soils, which are ex- 
pensive and difficult to cultivate. When 
properly cultivated, some are turned into 
highly fertile soils. Their faults arise out 
of their mechanical structure, not out of 
their chemical composition, which latter 
alone is represented in the following anal- 
yses. The former may be corrected by 
drainage, burning, the use of bulky ma- 
nures, and the addition of lime, ashes, &c. 



Analyses of Clay Soils, near Cirencester, by Dr. Voelcker. 





No. I. 


No. II. _ 


No. III. 


Water, driven off at 212° Fab., 


_ 


5.539 






Organic mater and water of combination, - 


3.621 


3.38 


6.11 


Oxides of iron, 
Alumina. - 


: i 


3.070 


8.82 
6.67 


1 8.34 


Carbonate of lime, 




.740 






Lime, - - 


- 




1.44 


.41 


Magnesia, - - - 


- 


.605 


.92 


1.49 


Potash, - , 


- 


.269 


1.48 


•65 


Soda, - - - - 


- 


.220 


1.08 




Phosphoric acid, 


- 


.386 


.51 


04 


Soluble silicia, 


- 


1.450 


I 72.83 


80 69 


Insoluble silicates (fine clay), 


- 


84.100 




Chlorine and sulphuric acid, 


- 


traces 


traces. 


traces. 


Carbonic acid and loss, 






2.87 


2.27 




100.000 • 


100.00 


100.00 



4. Vegetable Moulds. — Any soil con- 
taining more than 6 per cent, of organic 
matter, whatever else its composition may 
be, is called a vegetable mould. Soils 
of the most opposite physical characters 
are thus grouped together in the class of 
vegetable moulds. These soils are clayey, 
loamey, or sandy, according to the pre- 



dominant character of the earthy admix- 
tures. Many are highly fertiie ; others 
are more or less - unproductive, but capa- 
ble of improvement; and others again 
contain so large a preponderance of orga- 
nic matter, that they are called peaty or 
boggy. 



328 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Analyses of Fertile and Infertile Vegetable Moulds. 





Mulder. 


Dr. Sprengel. 


. 


No. I. 


No. II. 


No. III. 


No. IV. 


No. V. 


No. VI. 


Organic matter and combined water ) 

(humus), j 


12.000 


12.502 


10.90 


16.70 


37.00 


90.44 














Potash, .... 
Soda, - 


L026 
1.972 


1.430 
2.069 


}. 01 


.06 


trace 


.01 


Ammonia, - 


.060 


.078 






do 


trace 


Lime, ----- 


4.092 


5.096 


1.00 


.13 


.32 


.55 


Magnesia, - 


.130 


.140 


.20 


.03 


.31 


.08 


Peroxide of iron, - 
Protoxide of iron, - 


9.039 
.350 


10.305 
.563 


l 6.30 


.64 


.52 


.12 


Protoxide of manganese, 


.288 


.354 










Alumina, - 


1.364 


2.576 


9.30 


.78 


.45 


.63 


Phosphoric acid, - - 


1 .406 


.324 


.13 


.11 


trace 


.02 


Sulphuric acid, - 


' .896 


1.104 


.17 


.02 


do 


.19 


Carbonic acid, - f 


6.085 


6.940 










Chlorine, - - - - 


1.240 


1.382 


trace. 


.01 


trace 


trace 


Soluble silica, - - • 


2.340 


2.496 


71.80 


81.50 


61.57 


7.96 


Insoluble silicates (clay) 


57.646 


51.706 






Loss, - - - - - 


1.006 


.935 


.19 


.02 








100.000 


100.000 


100.00 


100.00 


100.17 


100.00 



Nos. I. and II. — Fertile soils of a tract of land in North Holland (between Nieuve-sluis and 
Aerts-Woude), gained by embankment from the sea. 
No. III. — Rich vegetable mould, near Wayer, on the Weser, in Germany, flooded by the river. 
No. IV. — Poor sandy mould, near Brunswick. 
No. V. — Very infertile peaty soil, near Aurich, in East Friesland. 
No. VI. — Boggy, very sterile land, near Giffhorn, in Germany. 



5. Marly Soils — Marly soils resemble 
more or less in their characters calcareous 
and clay soils. They are always less re- 
tentive, less impervious than clay-soils, — 
but generally not so open and porous as 
many calcareous soils. On the whole, 
marly soils belong to the better, more pro- 
ductive, and generous soils. 

A sandy marl is a marly soil, in which 
a large proportion of clay is replaced by 
silicious sand. 

Clay-marl, on the contrary, is a marly 
soil, in which clay preponderates. 

Analysis of a marly soil, from the neighborhood 
of Cirencester, by Dr. A. Voelcker. 
Organic matter and water of com- 
bination, - 10.50 
Oxide of iron and alumina, - 11.92 
Carbonate of lime, - - 19.92 
Carbonate of magnesia, - - .25 
Potash, - - - - .62 
Soda, - - - - .09 
Phosphoric acid, - .38 
Sulphuric acid, - .04 



Soluble silica, - 13.45 

Insoluble silicates and sand, - 42.07 

Loss, - - ' - .75 

100.00 
6. Loamy Soils. — The term loam is re- 
served to all soils which contain the four 
chief constituents — silicious sand, clay, 
lime, and vegetable and animal remains, 
in a fine state of division, intimate mix- 
ture, and in such relative proportions that 
the quantity of lime does not exceed 5 per 
cent., nor that of clay 50 per cent. 

Loamy soils, next to the richer garden- 
moulds, belong to the very best soils. — 
They are easily cultivated, and yield abun- 
dant crops of almost any kind. Many al- 
luvial deposits, celebrated for fertility, be- 
long to this class. 

Sandy loams, clay loams, marly loams, 
&c, are terms applied to particular kinds 
of loamy soils, in which the physical pro- 
perties of silicious sand, clay, or lime, ap- 
pear more prominently than in others. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



329 



Analyses of Loamy Soils. 



' 








DR. 






DR. ANDER 










- 


PLAYFAIR 


- 


No 


I. 


No. II. 


No. III. 




Soil. 


Subsoil. 


Soil. 


Subsoil. 




Silieia, - 


63.1954 


61.6358 


74.3927 


73.6416 


81.26 


Peroxide of iron, 


4.8700 


6.2303 


4.7130 


4.9230 


3.41 


Alumina, 


14.0400 


14.2470 


5.5440 


9.3830 


3.58 


Lime, - 


.8300 


1.2756 


1.3913 


.7189 


1.28 


Magnesia, - 


1.0200 


1.3938 


.7468 


.8489 


1.12 


Potash, - 


2.8001 


2.1761 


1.7142 


.1540 


.80 


Soda, - ' 


1.4392 


1.0450 


.6788 


.0367 


1.50 


Sulphuric acid, - 


.0911 


.0396 


.1006 


.2060 


.09 


Phosphoric acid, 


.2400 


.2680 


.1460 


.1640 


.38 


Carbonic acid, - 


.0500 








.92 


Chlorine, - 


.0098 


.0200 


.0068 


.0060 


trace 


Organic matter, - 


8.5508 


6.8270 


6.3271 


5.8554 


2.43 


Water, - 


2.7000 


4.5750 


4.4260 


4.2510 


2.60 


Loss, - 










.63 




99.8364 


99.8621 


100.2423 


100.2185 


100.00 



The chemical analysis of all fertile soils 
we have seen, has established the pres- 
ence in them of the substances enumera- 
ted above ; and it is therefore a natural 
inference to expect in unproductive or 
barren soils a deficiency or total absence 
of one or more of those constituents which 
are highly conducive to the luxuriant 
growth of plants. A chemical examina- 
tion in such cases must prove of conside- 
rable utility to the practical man, inasmuch 
as it not only is calculated to point out the 
cause of infertility, but also to suggest an 
efficient means to raise its productive 
powers. In numerous other cases, indeed 
in the majority of instances, the low state 
of fertility or barrenness of soils cannot 
be traced to the deficiency or total ab- 
sence of an important soil-constituent, nor 
to the existence in the soil of a substance 
injurious to vegetation. The fault may be 
one, not of the existence, but of the ac- 
cessibility, of the requisite ingredients for 
the crop. All the substances needed by 
the plant may be present, and in sufficient 
quantity ; the soil, considered as a store- 
house, may be full; and the infertility 
complained of may simply be the want of 
the key. This is the case of a soil locked 
up in stagnant water, which only needs 



drainage to prove the fertility which one 
would expect from its analysis. But inde- 
pendently of this, we frankly confess, that 
as a general rule, even a minute chemical 
analysis, in which only the proportions of 
the several constituents are indicated, is 
of comparatively little, and often of no 
practical utility to the individual who has 
had an unproductive soil analyzed, with 
the view to have a remedy suggested by 
the analytical data for bringing it into a 
better state of cultivation. In the first in- 
stance, we would observe that those sub- 
stances, whose presence in the soil is of 
the greatest importance to the growing 
plant, are often found in it in quantities 
too minute to allow them being estimated 
by means of the balance. And yet these 
small traces may be quite sufficient to 
meet all the wants for a succession of 
crops ; and provided the general condition 
of the soil is such as to be conducive to 
the health of the crop, it will grow and 
come to perfection, though the chemical 
analysis exhibits a decided deficiency in 
an important fertilizing material. The 
truth of this will appear by a glance at the 
subjoined table, in which Professor Way 
has calculated the amount of mineral sub- 
stances which a ciop of wheat removes 



330 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



from the soil. In the first column are 
stated the quantities in pounds of the dif- 
ferent mineral substances required by a 
crop of wheat of Ihirty-five bushels of 
grain, and two tons of straw and chaff; in 
the second is shown the amount removed 
by twenty such crops ; and in the third is 
given the percentage of each which a soil 
must contain to furnish this last quantity: 



Silica, 

Phosphoric acid, 

Sulpuric acid, 

Lime, 

Magnesia, 

Potash, 

Soda, 



One 


Twenty 


Crop. 


Crops. 


lbs. 


lbs. 


170 


3400 


30 


600 


8 


160 


16 


320 


10 


200 


40 


800 


3 


60 


277 


5540 



Percentage 
of the soil 
remov'd by 
20 crops. 



.152 

.027 
.007 
.014 
.000 
.036 
.003 



.248 



It thus appears that the small percen- 
tage of 0.027 of phosphoric acid, and 0,036 
of potash, in addition to the other constit- 
uents mentioned in this table, are sufficient 
to meet the requirements of twenty crops 
of wheat; and, as we cannot determine 
with precision such minute quantities, it 
follows that an analysis, in which even a 
much smaller amount of potash or phos- 
phoric acid has been found, cannot entitle 
us to pronounce absolutely a soil of that 
description to be unfit for the cultivation 
of wheat. On the other hand,, there are 
soils in which the proportion of all the 
constituents required by a wheat-crop is 
much larger than that removed from the 
soil by twenty such crops, and yet these 
soils do not bear remunerative wheat- 
crops. 

Secondly, it is well to remember, that 
in the quantitative determination of phos- 
phoric acid and potash — the two most im- 
portant soil constituents — the limits of va- 
riation attending these determinations 
may amount from 0.1 to 0.2 of a per cent., 
or a quantity often equal to the whole 
amount of phosphoric acid or potash pres- 
ent in a soil. It is clear, therefore, that 
we cannot estimate the comparative fer- 
tility of two soils by the relative amount 
of potash or phosphoric acid which their 
analyses exhibit, for it is quite possible 



that the larger quantity of these substan- 
ces is not real, but only due to unavoida- 
ble errors attending the best analyses. 

In the third place, it follows, as a neces- 
sary consequence of the preceding re- 
marks, and, indeed, it is known to every 
intelligent farmer, that the dissimilarity in 
soils in regard to natural capacity of pro- 
ducing crops, cannot be accounted for by 
reference to a certain amount of chemical 
compounds ; on the contrary, it is certain 
that the combinations which the several 
substances may form in the soil, and which 
combinations are not generally indicated 
in the analyses : also that the power pos- 
sessed by different soils, of absorbing and 
retaining water, their colour and relative 
weight, position and many other circum- 
stances, may combine to give a superiori- 
ty to one soil over another. And this leads 
us to allude very cursorily to the physical 
properties of soils. Latterly, the chemi- 
cal composition of soils has absorbed the 
attention of the chemist so much that the 
study of their physical relations has been 
greatly neglected ; consequently, scarcely 
any progress has been made within the 
last fifteen years, and we are thus unable 
to make any recent additions to the labors 
of former observers. Formerly, the fer- 
tility or barrenness of a soil was consider- 
ed to depend entirely upon its physical 
properties, and no importance was at- 
tached to its chemical composition. At 
present, the tendency of scientific agricul- 
turists is to fall into the opposite extreme 
and to ascribe to the chemical composition 
of soils an undue importance. Although 
we believe the physical properties to be 
in nature subordinate to the chemical com- 
position, more especially if regard is taken 
to the states of combination in which the 
different mineral constituents occur in soils, 
yet it ought not to be forgotten that the 
physical conditions materially influence 
their natural productiveness. 

The more important physical properties 
of soils to which we would briefly direct 
attention and their density, their power of 
absorbing and retaining water, air, and fer- 
tilizing gases from the atmosphere, their 
adhesive power, their state of division of 
constituents, and their power of absorbing 
heat. 

The density or the absolute weight of 
different soils varies considerably, as will 
be seen by a glance at the following table : 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



331 



One cubic foot of dry silicious or calcare- 
ous sand, weighs about 101 lbs. 
Half sand and half clay " 95 " 
Of common arable soil, " from 80 to 90 " 
Of pure agricultural clay, weighs about 75 " 
Of garden mould, " " 70 " 
Of peaty soil, weighs from 30 to 50 " 

. The absolute weight of purely sandy 
soils is thus from one to three times as 
great as that of peaty soils, and it is due 
to these differences that the former are far 
less injured than the latter by the passage 
of carts and the treading of cattle in the 
ordinary operations of husbandry. 

Cyclopedia of Agriculture. 
[to be continued.] 



From the British Farmer's Magazine. 

The Effects of the Exposure of Animals 
to a Low Temperature and to Moisture. 

BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F. R. S- 

The readers of this magazine will, on many 
occasions, have noticed the effects produced on 
domestic animals from exposure to low and 
sudden transitions of temperature. The hol- 
low coughs which resound along the London 
cab-stands remind even the citizen of this 
truth. Does the reader remember any neigh- 
bour whose stock is allowed to lie out unshel- 
tered ? or perchance in an ill-enclosed un- 
drained yard? Does he not notice the staring- 
coats? the poor, spiritless condition of the 
animals? Is not their owner of the class 
sometimes very erroneously called " the un- 
lucky"? Is he not anxious to get the lives of 
his poor beasts insured in some defraudable 
Cattle Insurance ? or, failing that resource, is 
not a parish subscription attempted ever and 
anon, in behalf of the unhappy dispirited 
owner? It is true these startling instances 
are not usually found amidst the better classes 
of farmers; and yet amongst these, even with 
those who have laid all science under contribu- 
tion, the eifects of low and changeful tempera- 
ture may still be studied with advantage ; and 
at no period more practically so, than in this 
month of February — one of the worst, perhaps, 
in the calendar, for stock. 

But in gathering together a few facts on the. 
results of temperature, ike farmer must not 
consider that even the researches of the most 
profound philosophers have nearly made us ac- 
quainted with the effects of low temperature 
upon organized matter. Every now and then 
certain facts present themselves — new readings 
in Nature's exhaustless book, which excite in 
us the just suspicion that our theoretical ex- 
planations are yet far from the real truth — that 
they will one day have to 'give way to other 
perhaps still imperfect theories. Let me give 
an instance of these mysteries : We are 'all 



aware that in a temperature at or below the 
freezing point of water, all decomposition of 
organic matters ceases. The Russian.preserves 
his meat during his long winters merely packed 
in snow: during our English frosts the same 
effect of a low temperature is noted, wq one, 
till lately, has even suspected that by exposing 
the meat to a much lower temperature — that 
then the meat would begin to putrefy ; yet such 
are the phenomena which present themselves 
in the Arctic regions. Dr. Kane thus / briefly 
tells the story, in a work which will be read 
with deep interest for its many other valuable 
observations. After stating (vol. ii. p. 51) that 
on the 23rd of February they had been so for- 
tunate, on their frozen sea, as to kill a deer, he 
adds in his journal of the next day : " Bitter 
disappointment! the flesh of our deer is nearly 
uneatable from putrefaction. The rapidity of 
this change in a temperature so low as 35 de- 
grees below Zero seems indeed curious. But 
the Greenlanders say that extreme cold is 
rather a promoter than otherwise of the putre- 
factive process. Our buffalo hunteir, when 
they condescend to clean a carcass, do it at 
once. They have told me that the musk ox is 
sometimes tainted after five minutes' exposure. 
The Esquimaux in latitude 73.40, even in the 
severest weather, are in the habit of withdraw- 
ing the viscera of their game immediately after 
death." Even in such a frozen land of deso- 
lation the greater effect of certain kinds of 
animal food in keeping up the warmth of the 
living has not escaped the observation of these 
ice-encircled savages. When speaking of that 
curious animal, the walrus, the Doctor con- 
tinues : " Its delicately permeating fat — oh call 
it not blubber! — assimilate it rather to the fat 
of the ox ; it is beyond all others, and the very 
best fuel a man can swallow." That such food 
enables the natives to withstand their intense 
frosts is evident, for Dr. Kane tells us in an- 
other place that the Esquimaux will sleep in 
their sledges when the temperature of the at- 
mosphere is 93° below the freezing point of 
water. Well might he feel convinced that his 
gallant and unconquerable band of explorers 
were mere carpet knights beside these indomi- 
table savages ! 

Such facts will not be unproductive of ad- 
vantage if, I repeat, they serve to lead us to 
the conviction that Ave have yet other things to 
ascertain with regard to the most profitable 
temperature in which our domestic animals 
should be placed. I have already alluded to 
the trying nature of the month at which we 
have now arrived — the cold wet weather, which 
at this season mingles with the cold winds ; at 
a time, too, when the minimum temperature of 
the year, on an average of our seasons, has 
only just been passed. That annual minimum, 
at several places on the Continent of Europe, 
has been noted by Colonel Sabine; he records 
that the lowest temperature of the year on an 
average occurs — 



332 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



Afc Konigsberg about January 9th 

— Berlin .... between the 12th and 19th 

— Prague . . . between the 19th and 26th 

— Paris about the 15th 

— Turin " 3rd 

— 'Padua " 15th 

At Toronto, in Upper Canada, the minimum 
temperature is not attained till about the 12th 
or 14th of February. 

That exposure to cold renders it necessary 
for the animal to sustain itself by increased 
consumption of food, is evident enough from 
the effect of exposure to a low temperature on 
even our own appetites. The chemical expla- 
nation of this phenomenon has been given by 
Dr. Lyon Playfair. He observes^ [Jour. R.A.S., 
vol. iv., p. 217), after reminding us that the 
temperature of the bodies of our cattle is about 
100 degrees, or more than 40 degrees higher 
than the ordinary temperature of this climate, 
and that hence there must be some provision in 
the animal body to sustain the heat which the 
colder air constantly withdraws from it — after 
reminding us of these things, he asks the sel- 
dom considered question, " Whence, then, 
comes the fuel for the production of the heat?" 
That fuel, he proceeds to inform his readers, 
consists of those ingredients of food from which 
nitrogen is absent: these all contain carbon. 
We know that oxygen is continually inhaled 
in the air we breathe, and that it is never again 
expired as such. Expired air consists of car- 
bonic acid gas — a gas composed entirely of 
carbon and oxygen : in the body, therefore, the 
oxygen has united with carbon; or, in other 
words, it has produced the very gas which is 
obtained by burning a piece of charcoal in the 
open air. Now, the heat generated by the com- 
bustion of the carbon in the body must be ex- 
actly equivalent to that produced by burning 
the same amount in the atmosphere. It has 
been found by experiment that the carbon (14 
oz.) daily consumed on an average by a man is 
equal to the production of 197,477 degrees' of 
heat; a cow consumes about 70 oz. of carbon 
daily, and this must, according to careful cal- 
culation, produce by its combustion 987,385 
degrees of heat. Now, it is evident that the 
lower the temperature to which we expose an 
animal, the greater will be its demand of car- 
bon or food to retain its natural temperature; 
or as the Professor puts it — and his observa- 
tions serve materially to elucidate some of the 
phenomena on which we have been dwelling — 
" as the heat of the animal body is the same in 
all regions, it is obvious that the quantity of 
fuel (fuod) necessary to sustain the constant 
temperature of the uody must vary according 
to the nature of the climate. Thus less food 
is required for this purpose in India, where the 
temperature of the external air equals that of 
the body, than in the polar regions, in which 
it is very many degrees lower. But a benefi- 
cent Providence has arranged the produce of 
different countries so as to meet the exigencies 



of the climate. The fruits upon which the in- 
habitants of warm countries love to feed con- 
tain only twelve per cent, of carbon, while the 
train oil enjoyed by the inhabitants of arctic 
regions contains about seventy per cent, of the 
same element. ' Were we/ says Liebig, ' to go 
naked like certain savage tribes, or if in hunt- 
ing and fishing we were exposed to the same de- 
gree of cold as the Samoyedes, we should be 
able with ease to consume 10 lbs. of flesh, and:! 
perhaps a dozen of tallow candles into thei 
bargain, as warmly-clad travellers have related, 
with astonishment, of these people. We should 
then also be able to take the same quantity of 
brandy or train oil without bad effects, because 
the carbon and hydrogen of these substances 
would only suffice to keep up the equilibrium 
between the temperature of the external air 
and that of our bodies.' 

" We often wonder how the Greenlander or 
Russian can relish train oil ; we know perfectly 
that our own organs of digestion would refuse 
to receive it; but the cases are very different. 
In cold countries the air is much condensed, 
for we are well aware that the air expands by 
heat and contracts by cold. Hence the inhabit- 
ant of a cold region receives much more oxygen 
at each respiration than the inhabitant of a hot 
country, in which the air is expanded by heat. 
In a cold country, therefore, more carbon is j 
necessary to combine with the excess of oxygen j 
than in the hot country. As oxygen never es- | 
capes from the system, after having entered it, 
except in union either with carbon or hydro- 
gen, anything which tends to increase the 
amount of oxygen inspired will occasion a 
greater consumption of food. Thus exercise 
increases the number of our respirations, and 
consequent supply of oxygen to the system ; 
and the result is that, after exercise, we con- 
sume more food than we should have done had 
we not received it. The only use of clothes, 
in the abstract, is to economise food. They as- 
sist in retaining the heat of the body, and 
render less food or fuel necessary for this pur- 
pose. 

"In herbivorous animals the fuel used in the 
production of heat consists of sugar, starch, 
gum, and other ingredients of food which do 
not contain nitrogen. 

"In carnivorous animals, or those which 
live entirely upon flesh, the heat of their bodies 
is supported by the combustion of their own 
tissues. Hence it is that we see the hyena, 
pent up in the cage of a menagerie, move con- 
tinually from one side of the den to the other. 
These movements do not arise from an im- 
patience of confinement, but from the necessity 
of sustaining the temperature of its body by 
the combustion of its tissues. Its continued 
motions accelerate the waste of its body, and 
introduce more oxygen into its system by the 
increased rapidity of its respirations." 

What, then, are the practical ill results 
which arise from an inattention to these facts? 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



333 



the want of a supply of food adequate to the 
increased demands of the animals when the 
temperature of the atmosphere in which it is 
placed is low, or the warmth of the body di- 
minished by exposure to cold currents of air, 
or by the effects of the evaporation from a wet 
skin ? Mr. Finlay Dunn, an eminent veteri- 
nary surgeon, has gone over all these bad re- 
sults of carelessness with his usual ability. 
He told the stockowner — in a recent volume of 
the "Transactions of the Highland Society," 
when speaking of the results of poor diet and 
a low temperature — truly enough, that animals 
even before birth are affected by insufficient 
food : insufficient food during pregnancy, be- 
sides redering the young at the time of birth 
small and weakly, has also the injurious effect 
of curtailing the provisions necessary for its 
future sustenance : the milk secreted is small 
in quantity, or if it be considered in bulk, is 
poor in quality ; nor wrll even the most liberal 
aliment given after the birth of the young one 
always remedy the evil. Surely, then, it is 
a false economy to put pregnant cows to an 
over-restricted diet (see also the experiments of 
Mr. Horsfall, of Burley, in the last volume of 
the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society). 
There is no period in the life of an animal in 
which the effects of insufficient food are more 
prejudicial than in early years. This is far too 
often the case with regard to calves. The calf, 
after a week or ten days, should be liberally 
supplied with milk, and for six or eight weeks 
should receive only new milk, from eight to ten 
pints per day, divided into at least three meals; 
then skimmed milk may be gradually substi- 
tuted for a part of the new milk-^milk should, 
during three or four months, form its principal 
food ; then the calf may be gradually accus- 
tomed to other sorts of diet, especially to oil- 
cake. Calves should be housed at night before 
the weather becomes cold and inclement, after 
their first summer's grass. Young cattle are 
generally placed in sheds or courts, but their 
feeding often receives too little attention ; the 
result is unthrifty coats, lank limbs, and pot- 
bellies ; these again, when they are suddenly 
put upon a more liberal diet, become liable to 
various casualities, such as purgative, conges- 
tive fever, abortion, epilepsy, and various cere- 
bral affections. Then as to exposure to wet: 
Its most uniform effects are a tendency to diar- 
rhoea and muscular relaxation ; there is a 
marked tendancy to anarsaca, and cedamatous 
swellings observed amongst men and animals 
living in moist localities. Wet weather is apt 
to induce rheumatic enlargements of the joints, 
foul in the feet, and quarter-ill. In sheep, the 
ill effects of exposure to rainy weather are still 
more decided than in neat cattle: in them it 
produces diarrhoea, affections of the feet, en- 
largements of the joints, scab, braxy, and rot. 
Exposure to a moderate amount of cold, and 
for a limited time, increases the vital energies, 
and invigorates the organic functions. In ex- 



cess, it has an exactly opposite effect. It then 
exercises a sedative or depressing influence, in- 
ducing slowness of the circulation, feebleness 
of the respiratory organs, diminished power of 
generating heat, coma, and death. These are 
the symptoms which manifest themselves in 
severe winters, and are seen in all their stages 
by shepherds whose pasture grounds are un- 
sheltered, and exposed to piercing cold and 
scourging winds. Want of shelter exposes 
animals to sudden and excessive changes of 
temperature, and to the heat-abstracting in- 
fluence of cold currents : it necessitates the 
consumption of a very large allowance of food; 
and when, as is usually the case with animals 
badly sheltered'exposure to cold is conjoined 
with exposure to rain and all kinds of weather, 
the necessity for an increased supply of food 
will be still greater. In such circumstances, 
and unusually large quantity of materials is 
expended in the maintenance of the animal 
heat ; and if this extra expenditure be not com- 
pensated for by an increased quantity of food, 
the animal necessarily loses weight. Amongst 
the other diseases produced by exposure to cold, 
are rheumatism, pulmonary consumption, scro- 
fulous tumours, increased loss of ewes and 
lambs in the lambing season. 

The experience of the owner of live stock 
will well accord with these medical observa- 
tions. They all tend in one direction, that of 
proving that the more attention we bestow on 
the comfort of the animals committed to our 
care — the often er we vary with the seasons 
their food and the ventilation of their houses — 
the more profitable will be the food they con- 
sume, the better will they repay us for our 
labour and our capital. 



From the Country Gentleman. 

Improved Stock— No. IV. 

As for the yoke we have only the Devon and 
Hereford, so for the shambles we have only the 
Short-horn, Hereford and Devon : the Jerseys 
are no feeders, and make poor beef when fat; 
while the Ayrshires have no good qualities as 
beefing animals, which are not found in greater 
perfection in the Devon. In this country the 
Short-Horn, as yet, is almost the only cross 
which has been used for the exclusive purpose 
of breeding steers for beef. Ilcrefords have 
not been extensively introduced ; and the first 
importers and breeders of Devons turned their 
attention entirely to the development of their 
milking properties, But in England, the 
feeders, who are seldom breeders themselves, 
admit the superiority of each in its proper 
place, and select their steers of whichever 
breed is best suited to their particular soil and 
location. 

Let us now look at the merits of these three 
breeds under the several heads which we have 
pointed out as necessary to be taken into con- 
sideration in the choice of a beefing animal. 



!34 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



The first of these was aptitude to fatten.. This 
is as far as most feeders go in judging of the 
value of an animal ; they say whichever breed 
will make the most beef from a given amount 
of food, is the best ; but experience has pretty 
clearly shown that under different circum- 
stances each breed will have the advantage. 
No breed known will bear stuffing so well as 
the Short-Horn ; they are large eaters and 
naturally lazy ; so where they have only to fill 
themselves and lie down, they are placed under 
the most favourable circumstances. The Here- 
ford, being more active, travels about with 
more ease to himself: for this reason a great 
many of the feeders in England hold the same 
opinion as to the relative merits of Short-Horns 
and Herefords on this point, as that expressed 
by that eminently practical farmer and grazier, 
the venerable Mr. Hillyard, in a letter to the 
Mark Lane Express in 1842, wherein he says : 
" Having for many years fed well-bred oxen of 
both breeds, and feeling confident that I have 
no bias in favour of one breed over the other, I 
repeat here, what 1 have said on former occa- 
sions, that for grazing I prefer the Herefords, 
but tor stall-feeding the Durhams." For short 
pastures, again, the smaller, more hardy and 
active Devon will do the best ; laying on flesh 
where either of the larger breeds will scarcely 
hold their condition. On this point the ex- 
perience of English feeders is quite as applica- 
ble here as there ; and it would appear to show 
that, taking the same amount in weight of each 
breed, and putting them into scant pastures, 
where they will have to travel over a good deal 
of ground to gather' their food, the Devons will 
increase the fastest ; on strong pastures, the 
Herefords ; while in the stable, and fed as 
much as they will eat, the Short-Horn will 'do 
the best. 

As regards early maturity and actual weight, 
the Short-Horns undoubtedly stand first, though 
the best Herefords push them pretty hard in 
both respects, and the Devons arc improving 
very rapidly in the first point, steers of this 
breed being now got to a good weight and 
made fit for market at three years old. Early 
maturity is produced by high feeding, and if 
the Devons are to keep their present good 
qualities for hardiness and activity, it would 
not be well to endeavor to make them equal 
the Short-Horns in either this point or wcigiit: 
as far, however, as they can be improved in 
these respects without injury to their other 
good qualities it is doubtless desirable to effect 
it. 

As a general rule the grain of the meat is 
finer in small animals than in large. Game 
fowls are superior to Shanghais in this respect; 
the little sheep of Wales have long been cele- 
brated as the finest mutton in the world, a leg 
of which does not weigh over three or four 
pounds ; the same is true with regard to pigs 
and also cattle. Epicures in England will sel- 
dom eat any beef other than that of the West 



Highland Scots. On visiting the farm and 
stock connected with Woburn Abby, the seat 
of the Duke of Bedford, I saw a superb herd 
of Hereford cows in the park, and a number of 
fine steers of this breed in the boxes ; but was 
informed that the Duke never allowed any 
other than West Highland beef on his own 
table. We should, therefore, naturally expect 
to find the Devons also excelling in this point, 
as in fact they do. In looking over the Mark 
Lane Express for the past three months, I find 
the quotations at the Metropolitan (late Smith- 
field) cattle market to be : prime large oxen, 
from 45. id. to 5s. per stone of 8 lbs. ; prime 
Scots, &c, from 4s. Sd. to 5s. 6d. per stone; 
showing a difference of from a cent to two cents, 
a pound in favor of the small breeds. The fat 
and lean are also better mixed, or marbled as 
it is termed, in the Devon than in either the 
Hereford or Short Horn. The tendency of the 
Short Horn is rather to lay the fat on inter- 
nally, whence they yield a large portion of 
tallow; the Hereford inclines to pachiness, as 
is very noticeable in the great lumps of fat 
seen on the hips, rumps, &c, of many of the 
Hereford beasts exhibited at the Smithfield 
shows. 

As has been already mentioned, the prime 
pieces of beef are to* be found on the back of 
the animal ; these are worth more than twice 
as much as the others per pound. AY hen we 
look at the broad backs found among all three 
of these rival breeds, it will be difficult to say 
which of them has the advantage in breadth of 
hips, in proportion to their size ; the width is 
however carried forward better in the Devon 
than in the Short Horn, while the latter is 
broader behind the hips ; giving the Devon the 
superiority in the rib places, and the Short 
Horn in the round and rump. The Hereford 
may be placed between the two in both points. 
The bone of the Devon is the smallest, even, I 
think, in proportion to their size ; that of the 
Hereford the largest. 

From what we have now seen, I should re- 
commend the Short Horn cross, for beef, in 
those parts of the country where the climate is 
most moderate, and fodder of all kinds is cheap 
and abundant. Farther north or farther south, 
where the winters are severe and grain scarce, 
or where the intense heat of the summers dries 
up the pastures, the Devon will be found the 
most profitable. While the Hereford may be 
said to occupy ground between the two. 

Tn the above statement of the relative merits 
of the different breeds of cattle, I believe that 
X shall be supported, in the main, by those 
breeders who have paid much attention to the 
subject, and have made their examinations 
with a willingness to see both merits and faults 
wherever they may find them. However valu- 
able the judgment of a man who sees no good 
save in one breed, while he knows nothing of 
the others, may be with regard to the particu- 
lar merits of that breed, his opinion of its 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



335 



comparative merits is absolutely worthless. 
Each breed has its own peculiar good qualities 
in which it excels ; our country is large and 
embraces every variety of soil and climate ; 
we have room for them all; let each man then, 
as he advocates his favorite, admit the merits 
of the others, remembering that in doing other- 
wise he is only displaying his own ignorance 
to all well informed persons. 

With sheep I have but little acquaintance, — 
none at all with fine-wools ; I will therefore 
merely say that the Leicesters may be 'con- 
sidered the Short Horns of Sheep, while the 
South Downs are the Devons ; and this simi- i 
larity may be traced, I believe, to a consider-] 
able extent in their constitution, size and early 
maturity. 

I trust, Messrs. Editors, that you will excuse 
my having trespassed 30 largely on your space; 
I have been as concise as I was able, in my en- 
deavor to bring the whole subject of the im- 
proved breeds of cattle before the general far- 
mer. I have not, I know, stated anything 
new; that was not my object: but if I have 
succeeded in making the subject plain to any 
one who, heretofore through ignorance, has 
considered improved stock a humbug, I shall 
not have occupied that space in vain. As I 
found my article stretching out I have been 
obliged to omit a great deal which I had in- 
tended to say ; and were I to attempt to sub- 
stantiate my opinions by a recital of the facts 
on which they are founded, or to shoAv the full 
course of observation and reasoning by which 
I have arrived at my conclusions, I should need 
the whole of your paper for more than one 
number. W, C. S. 

, April 8th, 1857. 



Proper Slopes for Drains and Bitches. 

We think the following article from Wilson's 
Rural Cyclopedia with respect to the proper 
slope of drains for the discharging water, worth 
the full price of the Planter to all those who 
have much ditching to do, and we advise them 
to preserve the paper for future reference. 

The article on "Draining," from which this 
article is taken, is well worth the whole cost*of 
the work — some twenty dollars. — Editor of 
Southern Planter. 

With respect to the inclination or slope 
of drains, there are certain limits which 
must not be exceeded ; the slope must be 
such as will at least permit the water to 
be carried off with ' sufficient rapidity to 
keep its channel clear, but not so fast as to 
injure it by acting on the sides or bottom. 
Mathematically speaking, the water should 
pass away with any the smallest inclina- 
tion of channel, and even gradually ac- 
celerate in velocity. But we know that 



in fact this tendency to accelerate is 
speedily destroyed by the friction and 
other obstructions in the channel, and 
these increase in proportion to the small- 
ness of the quantity of water, so that great 
rivers are enabled to move with less de- 
clivity than is required for smaller streams. 
This has not been sufficiently attended to 
in the operations on the great English fens ; 
for, instead of uniting the upper waters 
into one capacious river, they have been 
divided and led away to different outfalls, 
greatly to the injury of drainage. Large 
and deep rivers run sufficiently swift with 
a fall ot about 1 foot per mile, or 1 in 
5,000 ; 'smaller rivers and brooks, with a 
fall of 2 feet per mile, or 1 in 2,500 ; 
small brooks hardly keep an open course 
under 4 feet, or 1 in 1,200 ; ditches and 
covered drains require at least 8 feet per 
mile, or 1 in 600 ; furrows of ridges and 
filled drains require much more ; the ele- 
vation of ridges measuring across, is, ac- 
cording to the soil, sometimes as high as 1 
in 10. Where the ground is level, and 
there is not in the direction of the smaller 
drains a fall equal to the above, it may be 
given in the formation of the drain itself, 
by cutting it deep at the outfall, which is 
preferable to widening merely. 

The limit to the increase of the fall depends 
on the cohesion of the stuff in which the 
drain is cut. Firm rocky bottoms may be 
supposed to bear water passing over them 
at any slope ; but, independent of the old 
adage, that even the drop wears the stone, 
the gravel and boulders, which are likely 
to be brought down by swift running 
streams, are by their battering and rubbing, 
equal to the destruction of the hardest 
rocks. In brooks and rivulets a fall of 1 
in 10 over rock, or of 1 in 30 over large 
stones, or of 1 in 50 over smaller stones, 
or of 1 in 70 over ordinary pebbles, or 
of 1 in 100 over small pebbles, has the 
velocity of a torrent ; a fall of 1 in 200 
over very small pebbles, or of 1 in 400 over 
fine gravel, has the velocity of a rapid 
stream ; a fall of 1 in 600 over coarse 
sand, or of 1 in 1,000 over common sand, 
or of 1 in 2,000 over muddy sand and clay, 
has the velocity of a gentle stream ; and a 
fall of 1 in 4,000 over mud, soft clay, and 
some aquatic weeds, or of 1 in 6,000 over 
ooze and many acquatic weeds, has a dull 
and sluggish motion, the slowest which 
belongs to flowing water. But in rivers, 



336 



THE SOUTHERN PLANNER. 



these velocities, over their respective 
beds, hre greater than in brooks and rivu- 
lets ; and in rilis and drains, they are 
less, — so that a declination of 1 in 4,000 
over mud or soft clay in a. small drain, or 
even sometimes in a large one, would 
practically be a dead level, and would 
cause perfect stagnation. Straight and 
even channels also permit the water to 
flow much swifter than where it has, with 
the same slope, to wind round the differ- 
ent sinuosities of the natural bed, to pass 
over shoals, or through narrows. It may 
be observed, that a bottom of fibrous bog 
will bear a greater velocity than any loose 
earth or gravel. The intermatting of the 
fibres prevents them from being torn away. 
Accordingly, bog drains stand well, even 
upon great slopes, if they are not cut to 
the under stratum ; but where that is the 
case, as it is generally found to be gravel- 
ly or sandy clay, the bottom speedily gives 
way with the stream, and the drains choke, 
or blow up if they are hollow. 

It appears, therefore, not only advisable, 
but even highly necessary, to draw in 
sloping ground the drains across the slope, 
so as to be nearly on a level, since a fall 
of 1 in 600, the greatest that is absolutely 
necessary, is not sensibly very different 
from the horizontal. This disposition of 
the drains at the same time enables them 
to catch and collect the water as it de- 
scends through the soil down the slope, 
and prevents the same water from succes- 
sive^ moistening lower and lower pieces of 
ground. This principle, however, is b} no 
means generally understood by common 
farmers, among whom, in many cases, the 
only idea seems to be to carry away the 
water as fast as they can; and this they 
attempt by perpendicular parallel drains 
running down the slope, or by many 
branches collecting rapidly into one main 
down the hollows. They do not observe, 
that, in these cases, the water which falls 
on the field, unless it happens just to fall 
over one of the drains, is not in the 
smallest degree assisted in its passage 
away ; for it will most probably descend 
through the loose arable soil, until it comes 
to the firm bottom, and then, as it can 
have no tendency to proceed sidewise into 
any of the drains, it must continue to 
trickle down the slope until it arrive at the 
bottom, in which situation a drain, though 
it may perhaps afford it a more unob- 



structed passage, can give no more fall 
than originally existed on the surface of 
the field. 

The dimensions of open drains will 
chiefly depend on the nature of the soil, 
and quantity of water to be conveyed by 
them. The best form for facilitating the 
passage of the water, is to make the slope on 
each side 16 inches of base to a foot of 
perpendicular height ; the breadth at bot- 
tom may be two-thirds of the depth of 
water, unless particular circumstances 
make it desirable to widen the chan- 
nel so as to lower the surface. As to 
water-way we have usually found the 
channels of rivers and streams running 
about two feet per second to contain about 
a square foot area of section for each hun- 
dred acres of drainage; but this will vary 
according to soil and climate. The usual 
size of the smaller ditches running through 
farms are three or four feet top, one foot 
bottom, and about three feet deep; but it 
is difficult to preserve the sides so steep. 

When the site is liable to be injured by 
foreign waters descending into it from the 
conterminous upper grounds, it is most ad- 
visable to cut them off at higher levels, 
before they descend into. the flats, which, 
by this means, will have only their own 
waters to discharge. For that purpose, the 
catch-water drain must be resorted to, being 
drawn along the boundary of the upper, 
grounds so as to intercept the springs and 
streams flowing from them, until a conve- 
nient opportunity be found of discharging 
them into the receiving stream. It fre- 
quently happens that the water which is 
thus procured affords sufficient power to 
work hydraulic machinery, by which the 
neighbouring low lands may be freed from 
their proper waters, even when they have 
no natural outfall. 



Short-Horns Rising. — The recent Short 

Horn sale of Mr. Lorimer of Banffshire, 

Scotland, resulted in ten animals calved in 

his herd within the last fifteen months, 

bringing a total price of 520 guineas, 

which shows an average of 53 guineas per 

: head, adding to this large sum 131 guineas 

for four heifers, all of them under two 

I years. The average value of the heifers 

lis thus very nearly ^£34 10s a head. The 

'bulls average about 12 guineas, and the 

heifers about four guineas a head more 

'than last year. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



The New Cattle Market of London. 

For about a year and a-half, old Smith- 
field with its seven acres of stalls, sties, 
and sheep-pens, which have been so long 
an abomination in' the eyes of living Lon- 
doners, has surrendered its uproarious ex- 
istence, and subsided into a dry dull desert, 
cheerless and voiceless. That border-land 
Df tap-rooms and topers, of early breakfast- 
houses and drowsy drovers, of harness- 
makers, whip-makers, sack-makers, and 
lealers in smock-frocks and wideawakes, 
and plushy red waistcoats, and boots and 
Bluchers an inch thick in the sole, and 
studded with a pound or two of iron — that 
archipelago of snug trading islets in a sea 
if mud, which begirt the over-crammed 
mart — has suffered a change almost amount- 
ing to dissolution, and is about to vanish in 
:oto, like the morning mist at the rising of 
\he sun. Bluff old Smithfield has walked 
m bodily to a country-seat in the suburbs, 
ind has squatted himself down for a per- 
petuity in what but a few short summers ago 
ivas pleasant Copenhagen Fields. There, 
vhere cricketers held holiday, and pitched 
heir milk-white tents in the sun — where 
)nce poor Hazlitt was wont to resort, to 
iquidate his stagnant bile with a game 
it rackets — where nursemaids handled their 
)abies, and boys flew their kites, and Cock- 
ley sportsmen made their first essays witft 
gunpowder — there the green grass turf has 
riven place to a floor of solid granite ; the 
vaving elms that overshadowed the white 
vails of the rustic inn are supplanted by a 
brest of stumpy sheep-pens; and monster- 
lotels, and long and lofty sheds, and a tall 
central clock-tower, rising in the midst of 
i low polygon-shaped mass of buildings, 
proclaim the new habitat of the London 
Battle-Market. 

The new market occupies, if we may 
;rust to such measurement as we can make 
tvith the eye, ajbout twenty acres of ground, 
md is therefore about three times as large 
is old Smithfield; but the corporation, 
vhose property it is, have secured land 
mough almost. to double its present extent; 
ind to whatever objections it may be open, 
want of space, for centuries to come, is 
lot likely to be one of them. It is bounded 
m the north by the open fields towards 
Highgate ; on the south, by a rapidly 
rising suburb lying between Islington and 
Camden Town ; on the east, by the Caledo- 
nian Road, in which stands the Model 
22 



Prison of Pentonville; and on the west, by 
Maiden Lane, which is undergoing a trans- 
formation into "The York Road." It is 
evident at a glance at the new undertaking, 
that the two things which have been 
especially studied in carrying it out are — 
convenience and permanence. To obtain 
these ends, the most lavish expense has 
been incurred. The whole of the soil was 
burned to the depth of several feet into a 
mass of red brick ballast, before the 
building operations commenced; and we 
shall not readily forget the wild, savage, 
and fearful scene which the whole district 
presented, when it was studded with a 
hundred flaming and smoking volcanoes 
while this preliminary process was going 
on. On this fire-baked scoriae was laid the 
granite pavement, and into that were deeply 
imbedded the iron pillars that form the rails 
and pens, the horizontal bars alone being 
of kyanized oak. The stone-work through- 
out is of corresponding mass and strength: 
and the same may be said of the brick 
buildings within the walls, which serve as 
hotels and public- houses, and which are 
leased to the old landlords of Smithfield. 
The market is crossed by a broad carriage- 
road, running east and west. The ground 
to the north of this road is alone devoted 
to the sale of cattle and sheep — that on the 
south being taken up with open sheds and 
lairs. Besides these, there are slaughter- 
houses, and the conveniences for a meat 
market. 

It is just about the glimmer of dawn, on 
a Monday morning late in October, when 
we approach the new Cattle-market, for the 
purpose of making a few observations on 
the mode in which the business is now con- 
ducted as compared with what it was in old 
Smithfield. The bleating, lowing, squeak- 
ing, and murmur of the market, pierces 
through the fog, and gives us note of its 
whereabouts at a quarter of a mile's dis- 
tance, while yet the high buildings and the 
clock tower are buried from sight in the 
mist. We are soon, however, in the midst 
of the tumult, and find ourselves involun- 
tarily congratulating both the beasts and 
their masters on the altered state of affairs. 
The first thing that strikes us is the superior 
accommodation for the oxen, and the utter 
impossibility that for long years to come 
such a cruel and disgraceful spectacle as a 
"ring-drove" will annoy the visitor. The 
stalls for the oxen are ranged in long 



338 



THE SOUTHEEN PLANTER. 



alleys, each bearing a number in legible 
characters; the alleys are of the width of 
an average mail-coach road, and they are 
entered from roads still wider. The beasts 
are tethered to the rails by the head on 
both sides of the alley, and between each 
row there is double the space left free for 
passengers. They low plaintively in answer 
to one another, but we hear none of that 
painful bellowing which used to distress 
us ; and, better still, we miss that incessant 
sound of blows, which made such devilish 
music in the old market. 

Proceeding northward we come upon the 
sheep-pens, which we find not so well con- 
trived in their space. They seem to differ 
very little from the old Smithfield .pens; 
and many of them are shamefully crammed 
with sheep, forced in by the dog and the 
goad, until some of them are literally una- 
ble to touch the ground, being borne up on 
the backs of others. We suspect, from 
what we can see, that this is owing to the 
penny-wise conduct of the man who has 
them in charge, and who prefers torturing 
the poor animals to disbursing the hire of 
an additional pen. In the old market he 
would have huddled these unfortunates 
together as an 'off-drove' in a neighboring 

O O CD 

street, and transferred them to the pens as 
fast as he made vacancies for them by the 
sale of others — a manoeuvre he ( cannot 
practice here. It ought to be a regulation 
of the market, that a sheep-pen should re- 
ceive no more than it can humanely ac: 
commodate. 

In the new market, the calves and the 
pigs, by a regulation in their favor, have the 
benefit of roomy pens, comfortably roofed 
in from the weather. On the basements of 
the pillars that support the roofs of the sheds, 
their portraits are cunningly sculptured 
— an honor which has not been awarded to 
the oxen and sheep. The swine have been 
the objects of further consideration, in that 
.the flooring of their sties presents a steeply 
inclined plane — a plan of which the matrons 
among them with large families show their 
decided approval by uniformly reclining at 
full length, with their noses at an elevation 
of some degrees. Each sty is furnished 
with a grating covering a drain, a provision 
which goes far towards maintaining cleanli- 
ness. We find the swinish multitude on 
this occasion forming a very small minority, 
and, like most minorities, they are in vio- 
lent opposition, and make more clamour 



than all the concurrents. Their example 
is not followed by the calves, which do not 
seem to know what to make of it, and 
await in silence the solution of the mys- 
tery. 

Approaching the great polygon from 
which rises the tall clock-tower, we find it 
to consist of a circular group of offices and 
shops, in one central spot, devoted to the 
transaction of the business of the market. 
There are three offices for inquiry, belong- 
ing to the principal railway-companies ; 
there is the electric telegraph office, in 
communication with all parts of the king- 
dom ; there are no less than six banks for 
the payment of moneys and settlement of 
accounts ; there is a shop for the sale of 
cattle medicines and drugs, and another for 
the sale of all articles for which there is 
likely to be a demand in the market, such 
as rugs, wrappers, horsecloths, over-caots, 
leggings, spatterdashes, brogues, fleams, 
knives, and reddle and coloring matter for 
the marking of sheep. In the midst of all 
these various marts, there is the office of 
the clerk of the market, who is the authority 
on the spot for the consultation or appeal 
in all matters where the interest of the 
Corporation is concerned, and who has the 
whole business, in a manner, under his 
control. For the satisfaction of the lieges, 
he exhibits on a board, at the entrance of 
his office, a notification of the state of the 
market from time to time. The state of 
the poll, as we pass by, happens to be as 
follows— beasts 5,367, "sheep, 27,485— by 
which we know that to-day's market is 
considerably above the average, and that 
we need not therefore look for an im- 
mediate rise in the prices of beef and 
mutton. 

A considerable influx of butchers' carts 
and traps has taken place while we have 
been making our rounds; they are ranged 
by hundreds in the hotel-yards f and their 
owners are doing business among the stalls 
and pens with a characteristic paucity of 
words and despatch of bargains. The 
beasts are coming in for a liberal allowance 
of punching and knuckling; and the -heep, 
invaded in their pens, submit to similar 
manipulation. When a butcher buys a 
beast — by which you are to understand an 
ox or a cow — he whips out a pair of scissors, 
and cuts his particular hieroglyph on the 
hide; when he buys a number of sheep, 
he has them marked with a signature or 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



339 



being the same characteristic border-land 
of coffee-shops, eating-houses, beer-shops, 
and appropriate trading establishments, 
whose disappearance from the old site we 
have referred to above. 

Thus far our survey of th° new Cattle- 
m a few hours, it is expedient that ! market is in all respects satidc/jL'Gi'y and 
they should be marked so as to be easily ; couleur de rose; but it has now to be looked 
distinguished when claimed; and it would at from another point of view, whence v? t 
appear that the ingenuity of the buyer has shall not find its aspect so pleasing. In. 
been taxed to the utmost limit to effect this the first place, the intolerable nuisance 
object. The pigs appear to be spared that which formed the grand objection to old 
familiar ^manipulation applied to their I Smithfield — namely, the enormous amount 



monogram by means of a ball of reddle. 
Some of these devices are exceedingly 
complicated, and cover the entire back of 
the animal, while others are a mere touch 
of the red mixture on a particular spot. 
Where so many thousands of sheep are 
sold 



of cattle-driving in the public ways — is 
not obviated by the new market. Butchers 
assert that the cattle-driving has increased; 
and, looking to the fact that large numbers 
of both oxen and sheep are driven through 
cannot be made from hand to hand between I the city from the south, east, and west, to 
buyer and seller, but only through a mar- arrive at the market, and have to be driven 
ket-banker. When a butcher has conclu-iback again after sale, their assertion is 



neighbors ; it is thought enough to stir 
them up with a stout stick, or to trot them 
out of their sties and in again, to afford an 
opportunity for a fair view. 

It is the law of the market that payments 



ded his purchases, therefore, he repairs 
with the -salesmen to the office of one of 
The bankers, who makes out an account of 
the transaction, adding to it the market- 
tolls, the salesman's commission, and his 
own, or banker's commission. These items 
increase the cost 'of a beast to a purchaser 
by the sum of 4s. 4d., and that of a score 
of sheep by from 12s. to 15s. The bank- 
er's charge is moderate, being 8d. per beast, 
and Is. 4d. per score of sheep. Ready- 
money is the order of the day ; but the 
bankers occasionally make advances for the 
convenience of their customers. 

When the butcher has settled his ac- 
count, he receives an order for the delivery 
of the animals. He can give the order to 
his own man-servant, or can hand it over 
to one of the licensed drovers, of whom 
there are in London nearly 1,000 connected 
with the market. The driver knows where 
to find the animals, and he knows, too, his 
employer's mark; and in a few minutes 
he will have the morning's purchase clear 
of the market ancf on its way to the abattoir 
in town. 

For the convenience of butchers attend- 
ing the market, there are omnibusses that 
run from the city at an early hour to one 
of the market hotels, and there is a special 
carriage attached to the trains of the North 
London Railway, which stops at a station 
very near. There is no lack of inns and 
public-houses in the market itself; and in 
the immediate neighborhood, On the north- 
western side, there is rapidly coming into 



probably true. Of the foreign cattle, the 
major part fc are landed in the neighborhood 
of the Westminster Dock, and have to 
traverse a crowded mass of narrow city 
thoroughfares and suburban by-roads before 
they can reach the market, lying nearly 
four miles off. Considerable numbers also 
come by way of Whitechapel from the 
south, traversing six or more miles of 
streets ere they reach the place of sale. 
The proportion of these that are again 
driven south and east after sale is the same 
as it used to be — with this difference, that 
they have twice as far to go. What is 
saved by the nearness of the market to 
those coming to town from the north is 
but a partial compensation, because the 
drovers continue to patronise the old lairs — 
driving the animals into the suburbs on the 
Saturday, and retracing their steps to the 
market about midnight on the Sunday. In 
one respect the driving nuisance is amelio- 
rated, inasmuch as the droves leaving the 
new market enter the city by more various 
and more commodious routes than those 
debouching into Smithfield, and are at once 
spread over a larger surface. The inhabi- 
tants of the quiet genteel districts which 
formerly lay out of the cattle-driving track 
were at first indignant at the innovation, 
and not without reason. If a gentleman 
floriculturist left his gate open, or the early 
milkman, when he deposited his matutinal 
tin-can under the scraper, by virtue of an 
agreement with the drowsy housemaid, 
left it open for him, it happened more than 



340 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



once that he was awakened by the rush of 
a score or two of sheep into his greenhouse; 
or, on looking out of window to ascertain 
the cause of the tumult, beheld a grove«of 
fashionable fuchsias vanishing down the 
throats of a party of shorthorns. Mrs. 
Grundy flew into a passion, and out of the 
neighborhood; declaring that it was per- 
fectly preposterous to attempt to force the 
poor dumb creatures to travel by a cross 
route after they had been used to the main 
road, to her knowledge, for the last tweety 
years at least ! Other people did the same ; 
and there is no doubt that one effect of the 
opening of the new market has been the 
depreciation of a certain class of house- 
propert} r in the channels leading to it, and 
the stoppage of a definite style of house- 
building in its near neighborhood. It was 
anticipated, while the new market was in 
course of formation, that a considerable 
proportion at least of the animals there sold 
would have been taken no further; and 
convenient abattoirs were therefore erected, 
available at every moderate fees — and space 
was also allotted for a meat market. That 
anticipation has proved all but a chimera. 
The reason is obvious : the dead weight of 
meat to be conveyed from Copenhagan 
Fields to the various parts of the city — 
some of it to a distance of seven miles and 
more — would hardly be less than 4,000 
tons weekly ; and we cannot expect that, 
so long as this vast weight is allowed to 
walk through the city alive, the butchers 
will voluntarily incur the expense of its 
transport as inert matter. The only means 
of putting an end to cattle-driving in the 
streets would be by the peremptory inter- 
ference of the legislature with a decree 
resembling that of Napoleon, who nearly 
fifty years ago forbade the appearance of a 
single ox, sheep, or pig, in the streets of 
Paris under penalty of forfeiture. Such a 
law would probably necessitate the estab- 
lishment of an additional new market on 
the southern side, and it would undoubted- 
ly increase sensibly the price of meat to 
the consumer. 

Another grand objection against old 
Smithfield was the cruelty to which, in 
various ways, the poor animals were sub- 
jected. We have seen that some of these 
cruelties are not practised, or, indeed, 
practicable in the market. Off-droves and 
ring-droves are abolished, and not likely 
to be resuscitated on an area which has 



already accommodations for 700 beasts, 
35,000 sheep, 1,500 calves, and 1,000 
swine, and which is capable, if need arise, 
of doubling its accommodations. Yet we 
have seen the pens overloaded with sheep, 
and crammed to suffocation, and been out- 
raged and disgusted by the unnecessary use 
of the goad in the hands of the drovers, 
The worst evil, however — and a cruel evil 
it is — is the want of water, of which the 
unfortunate sheep are mainly the victims. 
The beasts, after their long journey by road 
or rail, do get a little water at the lairs, and 
sometimes a wisp of hay ; but the sheep 
get nothing. It is easy to see, as they 
pant along the road, that they are in a 
fever of thirst; and by the time they are 
driven into their Monday morning pens, 
the majority of them are gasping for breath. 
Immense flocks of them neither taste grass 
nor water from the time they leave their 
pastures to the moment of their death — a 
period varying from two to four days. The^ 
barbarity of such treatment is disgracefully 
apparent; but the subject is full of difficul- 
ties, and the remedy not easy of invention 
or application. 

Talking the matter over with a humane 
dealer, who has frequented the cattle-mar- 
ket for nearly thirty years, we urged as 
strongly as we could, on the score of 
humanity, the poor sheep's claim for 
water, and expressed our surprise that no 
provision was made for watering them in 
the market. 

"I acknowledge that it is a bad and miser- 
able thing," he said, "but what are you to 
do? They come to town in such a state 
of thirst, that we dare not let them drink. 
You can't take twenty or thirty thousand 
sheep, and hand them 'glasses round,' or 
as much as would quench their thirst and 
do them good. The only way to water 
them at all is to drive them to a pond ; and 
if you do that, as sure as you are alive, 
they'll drink till they kill themselves. 
I've seen it tried. You can't get them 
away from the water; not with dogs or 
sticks, or anything else — they'll drink and 
drink till they drop, but they won't come 
out. I tell you, I've seen it myself." 

We suggested the practicability of some 
contrivance by which a sufficient quantity 
of water might be turned into a shallow 
basin, and allowed to be drained dry by a 
certain number at a time. 

He allowed that such a thing might be 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



341 



done, but shook! ais head significantly, and 
changed the subject. We cannot believe 
but that measures might be taken to avoid 
the perpetration of such barbarity as , our 
friend's statement of the matter points out. 
It seems to us that the graziers and breeders 
would but forward their own* interest in de- 
vising the means of sending their animals 
to market in a healthy and comfortable 
condition. It has been stated that a loss 
of not less than ten per cent, is suffered 
by the owners of sheep, as a consequence 
of the condition in which the average of 
them arrive at the market. Surely that is 
more than a sufficient amount to pay for 
reasonable care in their transport, and the 
supply of such food and water by the 
route as would prevent at once their suffer- 
ings and their decrease in value. But the 
proprietors of the animals must look to 
this business themselves, and not delegate 
it to the drovers, whom long habit has re- 
conciled to the old state of things. 

We have only to mention, in conclusion, 
that the horse-dealing is confined to the 
Friday's market; that the hay-market is 
still carried on in old Smithfield; and that 
the commission on the sale of all animals 
is a trifle heavier in the new market than 
it was in the old. — Chambers' Journal. 



Tiie Supply of Guano. 

There is a growing deficiency of supply 
in two very important articles of import 
and consumption — Cotton and Guano. — 
Notwithstanding a cotton crop last year 
of 3,500,000 bales in the United States, 
owing to the increased demands of other 
countries, and the greater quantity of the 
raw material worked up here and in 
America, we are left with a supply barely 
sufficient for seven or eight weeks' con- 
sumption. Supplies from other quarters 
come in but slowly; and in the meantime 
the Chairman of the Manchester Commer- 
cial Association states, that for want of 
cotton they are starving; and that one of 
two things must happen shortly : a number 
of spinners and manufacturers, and those 
the weakest, will be compelled to stop their 
works, and their workpeople will be thrown 
out of employment; or, we shall have 
completely used up our stock of cotton. 

The second deficiency is that in which 
our readers are more especially interested. 
The supply of Guano received is inadequate 



to the growing demands of the British 
farmer, notwithstanding the beds available 
are still ample, and the price too has 
recently been enhanced i22 per ton by the 
Agents of the Peruvian Government. 

We subjoin a return of the yearly im- 
ports of guano since the first introduction 
of that manure, some sixteen years ago, 
from which it will be seen that the receipts 
are very disproportionate to the increasing 
wants of agriculture. We have imported 
in that period something over two million 
tons ; but on the average of the last four 
years the annual imports have not exceeded 
215,000 tons. 

Other countries are pressing foward for 
supplies of Peruvian guano, to which 
quality we are now exclusively restricted. 
The continent takes some 40,000 or 50,000 
tons, the United States import 70,000 to 
80,000 tons, (the port of Baltimore alone 
taking half that quantity ;) the sugar and 
coffee growing colonies are also liberal cus- 
tomers ; and therefore, while the aggregate ' 
annual exports from the Chinchas are 
larger, we do not receive as much now as 
we did ten or eleven years ago. 
• Attempts have been made from time to 
time to do away with the present Govern- 
ment monopoly, which places the purchas- 
er, both as to price and quality, entirejy at 
the mercy of a trade which is alike unsat- 
isfactory to the merchant, the agriculturist, 
and the shipowner. 

If the trade were thrown open the con- 
sumption would be increased, without any 
probable reduction of price, or loss to the 
Peruvian Government. We believe the 
contract of the Messrs. Gibbs expires this 
year, unless it has been renewed. 

In addition to stocks being unusually low 
in the United Kingdom, the ships expected 
to arrive within the season are under those 
of- formeryears. In the month of Novem- 
ber, (the latest advices we have,) only 14 
British vessels, with about 9,000 tons, had 
loaded at the Chinchas, and this is not all 
available for home-consumption. The 
Scotch farmers have found great benefits 
from the use of guano; but instead of 
having, as usual, an available stock of 
3,000 to 3,500 tons in the Clyde, there is 
only 1,000 tons ready to be doled out to 
the agriculturalist. 

A year or two ago we called attention in 
our columns to the impending scarcity of 
this fertilizer, and stated "that in times 



342 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



when the necessities of millions of human 
beings are demanding more food — when 
prices are so high as to stimulate the farm- 
ers to grow as much^grain as possible, and 
so make hay while the sun shines — they 
are told they cannot have the quantity for 
either love or money." The observations 
made then are even more pertinent now, 
and we could beneficially use half as much 
more guano annually as is now supplied 
out to us under present rates. 

In all parts of the kingdom the subject 
is occupying prominent attention amongst 
farmers. At the last meeting of the High- 
land and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 
Dr. Anderson, Mr. Hall Maxwell, the 
Duke of Buccleugh, and other speakers, 
alluded to the failing supply, and ^o the 
necessity of looking out for substitutes. 
At Truro Mr. Nesbit was catechized by the 
farmers on the possibility of artificial fish- 
manures becoming available; and in other 
quarters sewage-manure is being again 
looked after. 

In 1852 an official report was published 
by the Peruvian government, which stated 
that an examination, made by a French 
engineer employed, gave the quantity of 
guano on the Chincha Islands at ahout 
16,500,000 tons. Taking the present gross 
ship/nents from thence at about 400.000 
tons per annum, with the probable increased 
demand, this supply will be exhausted 
before the end of the present century. 
As the Peruvian government netts some- 
where about £4 per ton for this guano, 
these deposits bring in a revenue of more 
than a million and a half per annum ; a 
sum exceeding the revenue of Hanover, 
Denmark, Sweeden and Norway, and 
many other of the Eropean states. The 
national debt of Peru, which is about 
£9,250,000, might be paid off from the 
proceeds of guano sales in six years. 

There can be no doubt that, with the 
progress chemical science has already made 
in various departments, the question of a 
beneficial substitute for guano as a fertilizer 
is capable of solution ; and we are dis- 
posed to believe that the refuse of the 
fisheries, properly prepared, may yet come 
in largely to the aid of the farmers. To 
discover new supplies of guano, or efficient 
substitutes in the form of manuring sub- 
stances in small bulk, it has been well 
observed, are worthy objects of mercantile 
and scientific enterprise, more especially 



in view of the rich rewards which would 
repay success by the extensive sale of an 
efficient fertilizer at home and abroad. 



MPORTS 


OF GUANO 


SINCE THE 


FIRST list 




TRODUCTION. 




Years. 


Tons. 


Years. 


Tons. 


1541 . 


. 2,881 


1849 . 


84.438 


1842 . 


. 20,398 


1850 . 


116,925 


1843 . 


. 30,002 


1851 . 


243,014 


1844 . 


. 104,251 


1852 . 


129,889 


1845 . 


. 283,300 


1853 . 


123,166 


1846 . 


. 89,203 


1854 . 


235.111 


1847 . 


. 82.392 


1855 . . 


•:05,061 


1848 . 


. 71,414 


1856 . . 


200,000 




Total 2, 


120,445. 






British Farmer's Magazine. 



The Guano Crisis. 

We are just now at the very height of 
our guano difficulty. That is to say, this 
is the season — a most favorable season, 
too — when above all others we need it; 
and there is none to be had. One of our 
most respectable manure-dealers was, for 
the first time, on Saturday, directly refused. 
They could not even promise him any 
further supply. When people have gradu- 
ally accustomed themselves to the matler- 
of-course use of anything, the unexpected 
want of it must be very severely felt. 
This is the case with the farmer. We 
want guano as a manure for our barley and 
oats, and as a top-dressing for our wheat. 
We have reckoned more or less on our 
customary allowance, and have conse- 
quently neglected proportionately, to pro- 
vide any substitute. With ordinary care, 
as we begin to see now when it is too late, 
we might have fallen back upon our own 
resources; as it is. however, there is an 
extraordinary and altogether unprecedented 
run on such manufactured manures as con- 
tain the ingredients required — ammonia 
and phosphates especially. The makers 
and dealers are at their wits' end to answer 
the orders pouring in upon them, and go 
from one to the other anxiously seeking 
the material to fulfil them. 

Each succeeding year turns up its pe- 
culiar subject for discussion. Last year it 
was agricultural statistics; this it is as 
assuredly the guano monopoly. Almost 
every one of our leading national societies 
have already touched upon it. The Farm- 
ers' Club, as we have shown, was the first 
to open the attack: and since then both 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



34?> 



the English and Scotch Agricultural Socie- 
ties have given it a prominent place in 
their proceedings. A fortnight since, Mr. 
Evelyn Denison, as President of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, was de- 
puted to confer with Lord Clarendon on 
the subject. We have yet, however, to 
learn what came of the interview. And 
only on Monday last a more numerous 
deputation from the Highland Society paid 
an official visit to Lord Stanley of Alderley. 
The object was of course to procure, if 
possible, a supply of guano from elsewhere; 
and the first point urged upon the attention 
of his lordship was the policy of obtaining 
possession of the Kooria Mooria Islands. 
These deposits, it will be remembered, 
have been brought into notice chiefly 
through the agency of Mr. Caird, who, a 
week since, at a general council Meeting 
of the English Society, dwelt at some 
length upon their value. The representa- 
tives of the Scotch agriculturist went on 
to ask for an exploring expedition ; at the 
same time they warned the Government 
from sanctioning any furthur monopoly, as 
it seems is to be the case with Captain Ord 
and the Arabian Guano. Still the princi- 
ple of monopoly is broken through when 
once we can establish an opposition to it ; 
and the possession of these Kooria Mooria 
Islands might work us good in a variety of 
ways. 

We believe such conferences as these 
to be all in the right direction — the first 
step to the attainment of what we seek. 
It is sheer absurdity to sa}^ we must not 
look too much, or depend much upon the 
Government here. On the contrary, this 
is just one of those cases that we must 
look to the Government; and, moreover, 
let them know that we depend upom them. 
Pray who is to help us, or to put such a 
trade as this upon a proper footing, if our 
own fla ! g does not? Was it any other bus- 
iness — Manchester, Brimingham, or Shef- 
field — so interested, their leaders would 
never stay their exertions until something 
was done. Neither must ours. The farm- 
er has surely some friends in either House 
who will keep the question alive for him. 
But what did these Houses or the Govern- 
ment ever do for the farmer yet? the4ess 
sanguine may enquire. Little enough, 
perhaps. A sufficiently good reason for 
their doing more now they have the oppor- 
tunity — and when they. may do it, not 



merely without injury, but with manifest 
advantage to themselves and the com- 
munity. 

Still, let us repeat, the agriculturist may 
do much for himself. We give in another 
part of our magazine (see page 161) a 
lecture delivered by Professor Anderson,, 
on Wednesday, before a full meeting of 
the Highland Society. The whole point of 
this paper is, as was the case at the London 
Club, that the farmer has not done enough 
for himself — that he has learnt to rely far 
too much upon the use of guano, when 
many other materials would often have 
served him as well or better. "I feel con- 
vinced that guano has been frequently used 
when other manures would have produced an 
equally good result at a less cost" The 
whole lecture is very plain and practical, 
and must be proportionately effective. It 
will be observed, the Professor dwells on the 
now common charge against the farmer, 
the waste and abuse of his own home-made 
manure ; while he hints at something more 
as likely soon to be a home-made article. 
The agriculturist is to be the manufacturer 
of his own superphosphate. 

This leads us to another point of view, 
taken by a gentleman, a communication 
from whom was read at this meeting. How 
is it, if the Professor and practice agree so 
well in this matter — how is it that people 
have come to such an indiscriminate appli- 
cation of guaao, "when other manures 
would have produced an equally good re- 
sult at a less cost?" Mr. Finnie himself 
helps us to the solution of his own query. 
The farmers have, as a rule, become afraid 
of other manures. They have so often 
been done ; so often been caught with 
what was warranted cheap and good, that 
they have prudently refrained from pursu- 
ing so dangerous an experiment. With 
all their faults, the Messrs. Gibbs have 
preserved their characters, and given us 
the genuine article ; while the best friends 
Messrs. Gibbs ever bad have been the 
adulterators. With all its puffing and 
quackery, there has been no time when 
people were more ready to pay a good 
price for a good article. 

The thing, however, may be carried too 
far — just as it has been. We should have 
continued to submit quiet enough to Peru- 
vian dominion, had there not, like Byron's 
Corsair, been 



No limit to their swar.' 



344 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



As it is, we are already in open rebellion. 
We are fighting our cause, moreover, with 
every precedent in history to assure us 
that tyranny pushed to its extreme has been 
ever fatal to him who exercised it. Like 
a pig swimming, monopoly going too fast 
a-head will only end by cutting its own 
throat. — lb. 



More About Osage Orange Hedges. 

Cake Mines, Henrico, 

April 23, 1857. 

To the Editor of tlic. So. Planter. 

As there seems to he some difference of opin- 
ion as regards the fitness of the Osage Orange 
as a hedge plant, I beg sufficient space in the 
columns of your valuable magazine to give my 
experience on the subject. 

In April 1854, I purchased of Gen. Richard- 
son and planted out one thousand one year old 
plants, opening a trench with a two horse 
plough in the centre of a five foot bed, previ- 
ously ploughed. In this trench I set the plants 
pressing the soil very firmly to the roots, spread 
stable manure liberally in the half filled fur- 
row, threw sufficient earth to the plants with 
the plough, on each side, to give a slight bed 
to the row, and left them. By careful exami- 
nation to-day, I find that only four plants in 
the thousand failed to grow off vigorously. — 
During the summer I gave the hedge one tho- 
rough weeding with the hoe. In the Spring 
following, and each Spring since, I have trim- 
med them severely and given them one hoeing. 
Next fall I shall remove the plank enclosure 
that preceded the planting of the hedge, and 
all trespassers, biped and quadruped, that can 
pass my hedge shall be welcome to all it en- 
closes. 

In the Spring of 1855, in a very hot and dry 
spell in May, I planted a second hedge of one 
thousand plants, taking the simple precaution 
of dipping the roots in a puddle of clay and 
horse dung intimately mixed, before setting 
them ; and even at this late period I lost very 
few plants, not 20 in all, and their progress 
thus far has equalled my first experiment. A 
third experiment of a few hundred last Spring- 
has furnished another evidence of the remark- 
able vitality of the plant, its almost infallible 
certainty to stand, its great thriftiness, and its 
defiance of intense cold. 

I am inclined to think that those who have 
failed to secure a regular stand of Osage Or- 
ange when using one year old plants, or who 
have failed to raise a vigorous hedge in four 
years, at furthest, must have sadly neglected 
that moderate but indispensable attention which 
is required. 

Our people are unfortunately too much given 
to conclude that where they have planted a pe- 
rennial they have fulfilled their part, and the 



plant must accomplish all else. This is em- 
phatically true with the whole class of fruit 
trees and vines in nine cases out of ten, and I 
suppose it is so with the Osage Orange. I will 
here remark in passing, that a very common 
error in transplanting trees, shrubs and vines 
is to. plant manure in actual contact with the 
roots. This is always detrimental, and in a 
very dry season is often fatal. Well pulveriz- 
ed earth, unmixed with anything calculated to 
make it very porous or spongy, should be 
brought into close and firm contact with the 
roots, and the manure, if any is required, 
should then be applied. 

As to the tendency of the hedge to draw se- 
verely upon the adjacent strip of land, I can 
only say that I have observed no difference be- 
tween the growth of vegetables in parallel 
rows five feet from the line of my hedge, and 
the growth of others more remote. I should 
think that deep coultering with a cutting edge 
within four feet of the line of the hedge ever}- 
Spring would prevent the lateral roots from 
poaching too much on the field, and at the same 
time arrest the growth of the Orange when its 
tendency is towards too robust stature. 

The increasing scarcity and enhancing value 
of timber for dead wood fences, an,d the inac- 
cessability of stone for that purpose, gives an 
increasing interest to the subject of live hedges 
especially in Eastern Virginia ; and it is to be 
hoped that the partial experiments now being 
made with the Osage Orange will receive the 
little patience and attendance which my expe- 
rience assures me is alone necessary to secure 
its general adoption for that purpose. As I 
deem it a good rule for writers on practical 
subjects to give the sanction of their names to 
what they offer to the public, 
I subscribe myself, 

Very respectfully, your obd't s'vt, 

JOHN J. WERTH. 



On Improved Farming. 

The rapidity with which our country has 
been cleared and settled is beyond all prece- 
dent. The exhaustion of large portions of the 
Atlantic slope by reckless cultivation doubtless 
hastened the settlement of the great West, and 
thus contributed no little to the extension of 
our original western boundary to the Missis- 
sippi instead of the Ohio river. Now, however, 
that our territory extends from ocean to ocean, 
it becomes us, who prefer to remain where our 
fathers first settled, to restore, if possible, our 
inheritance to fertility. The fact of its great 
exhaustion stares us in the face, so that one 
who had travelled much in foreign parts re- 
marked "that old Virginia was the oldest look- 
ing country he had ever seen." Its cause, too, 
is sufficiently evident — the extensive cultivation 
of corn and tobacco, with the very heavy rains 
of our climate, and the general neglect of any 
efficient means of restoration. The important 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



345 



question here arises — have we such means suf- 
ficient to effect the desired object ? This ques- 
tion was answered in the negative some thirty 
years ago by one most competent to decide — ex- 
cepting alluvials or other lands originally very 
rich, and such others as had ready access to 
marl or lime. This opinion was given not from 
any want of zeal or enterprise, but from a can- 
did, deliberate view of the case as it then stood. 
A third of a century in this fast age has made 
great changes, so that the poorest lands are 
said now to produce (with guano) most aston- 
ishing crops; and one would think from these 
reports that the golden age of farming had 
surely come. The spirit of agriculture has 
been aroused ; much has been nobly given for 
the good cause ; and immense outlays have 
been made — but unless properly directed, we 
fear there may be heavy losses, and a collapse 
from this high state of excitement, causing us 
to lose years of steady progress. 

For our direction to the true course in this 
important crisis let us review the history of im- 
proved agriculture in Virginia. 

About 70 years ago, Col. Thos. Mann Ran- 
dolph of Albemarle, then a student of medi- 
cine in Edinburg, afterwards governor of Vir- 
ginia, was led, perhaps by recollecting the fine 
lands he should, inherit, to observe and study 
the best systems and examples of British hus- 
band^. There, so far as applicable to our 
country, he introduced, and was in fact the pi- 
oneer in this cause. " Arator" thus alludes to 
him, p. 172 : 

" This classic system of agriculture has been 
introduced into Virginia by a gentleman of 
Albemarle, in a style completely adapted to the 
nature of the country, and which will be co- 
pied by those who shall not be discouraged by 
its perfection." 

The chief improvements introduced by him 
were superior plowing, the cultivation of corn 
on rolliug land in horizontal instead of straight 
rows, and the use of clover and plaster. — 
Among his numerous followers was Mr. John 
Rogers, who bought the half of a large estate 
adjoining Col. Randolph's, and adopted his 
plans of improvement with such skill and suc- 
cess as, besides more substantial profits, to en- 
joy the reputation of being the best practical 
farmer in our region. Then arose a still 
brighter star, not yet sunk below our horizon, 
Mr. Richard Sampson of Goochland, (son-in- 
law to Mr. Rogers), whose thorough knowledge j 
of all crops raised in our State, and of the best 
methods of arrangement and improvement, is 
perhaps surpassed by none. Indeed it should 
be made the business of some competent per- 
son to condense and perpetuate the valuable 
results of his large experience, close observa- 
tion and practical good sense. In the mean 
time arose scarcely lesser lights in other parts 
of the State — especially those combined in 
forming the Valley Agricultural Society. — 
Among these stood pre-eminent Mr. Henry S. 



Turner of Jefferson, combining the fullest the- 
oretical knowledge of that day with the high- 
est practical skill — taking, by general consent, 
the first prize for the best managed farm in the 
Valley. Next, perhaps, was Mr. Wm. M. Bar- 
ton, who left, at little more than thirty, a repu- 
tation as a farmer, a business man, and a use- 
ful citizen, which riper years would have made 
more extensively known, but could scarcely 
have enhanced with those who knew him well. 
A compeer of these in this Society was Mr. R. 
K. Meade, whose passion for improved stock, 
especially sheep, "rendered the State some ser- 
vice." Another co-laborer, Mr. Thos. Marshall 
of Fauquier, was noted nut only for his zeal and 
success, but for his enlarged and well digested 
views of agriculture. While the agricultural 
papers, and reports to societies were enriched 
by occasional communications from these lead- 
ing farmers ; it would yet be desirable now to 
have a fuller account of their views and prac- 
tices. Some of your numerous friends could 
perhaps furnish such notices of these and other 
remarkable men in our calling. Our State can 
as yet claim but two authors on agriculture. — 
1st — Col. John Taylor of Caroline, who pub- 
lished in 1814 our onty systematic work, " Ara- 
tor," and next Edmund Rufnn, of Hanover, the 
Drummond-Light of lower Virginia farming, 
whose essays on " Calcareous Manures," and 
" The Farmer's Register," have affected the 
Commonwealth's statistics by tens of thousands 
of dollars. Nor have his labors been confined 
to Virginia. The spirited State of South Car- 
olina enjoyed his services as State Surveyor, 
with the happiest results. 

Now what has been the teachings of all these 
worthies, and what may we consider as the 
leading principle of modern improved farming? 
Some system or rotation (and there are many) 
by which our fields may not only produce the 
best grain crops — but while resting from these 
may enrich themselves by a luxuriant crop of 
clover or other fertilizing growth. Manure of' 
any kind used simply for the benefit of grain 
crops, is as old as history or tradition. On en- 
quiring of a traveller, who had seen Mount Ar- 
arat, as to the agriculture of that region, he 
replied, "it was, he supposed, much as Noah 
had left it." They use wooden plows, and ap- 
ply such manures to their crops as they are not 
obliged to consume as fuel. Shall we with all 
the lights of experience and science go back to 
this antediluvian system of applying manures, 
and often at enormous expense, for grain crops 
alone — and not give the incidental, but rapidly 
increasing benefit of richer and still richer co- 
verings of grass? These, at the slight expense 
of seed and plaster, and no additional culture, 
will follow on and enrich the land — if just let 
alone ! It is written " the husbandman hath 
great patience," but this virtue seems almost to 
have deserted the earth, or rather those who 
cultivate it. Marl, manure and guano are won- 
derful agents, but for an increasing and perma- 



146 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



nent fertility, grasses are rehired, and above 
all, clover aided by plaster. This exclusive 
reliance on repeated manurings may be best 
for gardening, and to a great extent practica- 
ble on small farms in a thickly settled country 
dotted over with villages — but to talk of it on 
a large scale in 'Virginia reminds me of your 
story about Col. Bierne. When asked if he 
sheltered his cattle in winter — he replied, "I 
would like to see a man sheltering 1,400 head 
of cattle !" To manure this number of acres 
would be my hopeless task, while on the other 
hand, the more open land one has, the better 
can he avail himself of the modern plan of en- 
riching it by rest and grass. 

A great deal of idle breath has been wasted 
by knowing ones from the North in telling us, 
we should never enrich our lands till divided 
into small farms — whereas just the reverse has 
been practically true. Estates have been sub- 
divided and worn out till unable to support 
their owners, who have sold out and gone to 
the West, and these small farms have been an- 
nexed and improved by men of capital and 
more liberal views. The difficulty has been 
that thousands of acres have been so worn out 
as not to be recoverable by grass alone — be- 
cause even that will not grow on them to any 
available amount. How then to get the grass 
to grow is the question? Let manure, marl, 
and lime be used to the fullest extent, and the 
immense deficit made up by a judicious use of 
guano and plaster, till not an acre shall be cul- 
tivated without the honest intention and rea- 
sonable hope of improving it. Can this be 
done so? or in other words — will it pay ? To 
show this will require figures, which being ra- 
ther dull, I must ask a fresh hearing in your 
next number. M. 

Nottoway Earmers' Club. 
Our friends of the Nottoway Farmers' Club 
have again favored us with a series of their 
papers, from which we extract the following. 
So many of them are experiments with regard 
to manures or crops, and are therefore appro- 
propriate to the present season, that we publish 
in this No. more than a proper proportion ; in 
the hope and belief, however, that each one 
will be found interesting. If all other clubs 
of the State would follow the example of our 
friends of Nottoway, not only in making, but 
in publishing experiments, the number of facts 
thereby obtained could not fail to be of great 
value to agriculture. 

j (NoTl.) 

TOBACCO-ITS HISTORY AND VALUE. 

To the Members of the Agricultural Club of 
Notioivay.. 
Gentlemen. — I have selected the Tobacco 



Plant as the basis of a few desultory remarks 
on the present occasion, (the termination of 
the period for which you called me to preside 
over the deliberations of the Agricultural 
Club of Nottoway.) 

It would be a work of supererogation, if 
not an evidence of presumption in me, to un- 
dertake to give my fellow members any infor- 
mation on the cultivation, management, and 
sale of this staple of Virginia ; your superior 
success, gentlemen, in all these respects, mani- 
festly attests your thorough knowledge and 
experience on the subject. I shall pass this 
over, and refer you to the many invaluable ar- 
ticles to be met with in the agricultural jour- 
nals of the day. 

The Tobacco plant is a native of America, 
and was found in general use by the Aborig- 
ines, on the first discovery of this continent, 
as a highly esteemed luxury, and an agreeable 
stimulus. It was introduced from this coun- 
try first into Spain and Portugal, by a Span- 
iard, in the year 1559, and is supposed to have 
been introduced into England in 1585, by Sir 
Walter Raleigh or Sir Francis Drake. Which 
of those worthies is entitled to the credit, if a 
blessing, or the malediction of an evil, history 
has not clearly settled. It soon began to grow 
into general use, and was received with great 
enthusiasm as a remedy for indigestion, colds, 
rheumatism, low spirits, and most of the ills 
to which human nature is heir to. Probably 
from the abuse of the article, it soon met with 
great opposition, both from Church and State, 
throughout all Europe. The Pope issued his 
bull against it. James the first of England 
wrote a most violent philippic against its use; 
the Sultan made it a capital offence; and in 
Switzerland its prohibition was added to the 
Decalogue. See Farmers' Register, Vol. II. 

All this array of power, the combined ef- 
forts of Church and State, proved utterly pow- 
erless to arrest what these high dignitaries 
and potentates believed, or professed to believe, 
a great moral and national evil. The taste once 
acquired and the habit formed, the use of the 
Indian weed continued to increase, and spreads 
among all ranks of society from that time to the 
present, and is, at this day, the most fashionable 
and universally esteemed luxury in use in the 
known world. How and why this magic 
power over the taste and propensities of 
man, savage and civilized? It is not because 
the article is really palatable and agreeable, 
as sugar, wine, and alcoholic liquors ; not be- 
cause it is nutricious and necessary to the 
growth and development of our physical na- 
ture as vegetable and animal food. On the 
contrary, it is hot, pungent, bitter, noiseating, 
and to all 'tastes offensive at first. It is not 
the result of habit, for the taste and the desire 
for the article is acquired before the habit is 
formed, and the system accommodated to its 
use. 

The only solution to the inquiry that occurs 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



347 



to my mind as plausible is, that the desire, 
taste for, and use of Tobacco, alcohol, opium, 
and other artificial stimulants, if not one of 
the laws of our fallen and corrupt nature, is 
at least, one of the results of that depravity 
induced by the fall ; and hence its univer- 
! sality. The untutored Indian, with but few 
wants, and those easily satisfied, removed be- 
yond the influence of civilization and its vices, 
feels the need of some artificial stimulus — 
some excitant, to rouse up and bring into ac- 
tion the dormant energies of his mental pow- 
ers, and, directed by instinct, or guided by 
reason, he found in the Tobacco plant a pa- 
nacea for all his wants ; and while inhaling the 
exhilarating, stimulating fumes of the sweet 
aromatic oronoco, realizes the fact that all the 
softer and kinder feelings of his nature are 
aroused and brought into active operation ; the 
rough and crooked paths of life made smooth 
and straight for the time ; suspicion, enmity, 
and revenge give place to confidence, kind- 
ness, and hospitality, and the calumet is of- 
fered and received as the emblem of friend- 
ship, and the sign manual of peace. 

The indolent, sensual, enervated Turk re- 
sorts to the inspissated juice of the poppy from 
the same feeling of want, — it may be neces- 
sity,- — and with the same results. 

Nor is the white man, the civilized, refined, 
intellectual, Christianized inhabitant of Eu- 
rope and the United States, exempt from, or 
removed beyond, this same universal law of 
necessity, and unconquerable desire for artifi- 
cial stimulus. Yea, it would seem that where 
mind predominates most over mere physical 
matter, there the desire is strongest, and the 
necessity greatest ; consequently, the white 
man has superadded to the Tobacco of the In- 
dian, and the opium of the Turk, the juice of 
the grape, the fermented and alcoholic liquors 
of Christendom. 

The Tobacco plant has been extensively cul- 
tivated since the settlement of this country ; 
it was peculiarly adapted to a fertile wilder- 
ness country, such as our forefathers found 
this to be. Their true policy was, to cut down 
and open the lands, in the earliest and most 
expeditious way ; and had they stopped the 
desolating system, and stayed the axe at the 
right time, it would have proven not only a 
profitable employment of labor, but a judicious 
investment of capital. Tobacco was their only 
staple, — the basis of all their commercial and 
financial operations ; with it they paid their 
tax and tithes, their foreign and domestic 
debts. In short, it was almost the on]y me- 
dium of exchange in those days ; and the true 
policy was to make Tobacco, and to make all 
they could at any sacrifice. This policy was 
right in its commencement, and only wrong in 
its too long continuance. 

Many crocodile tears have been shed over 
the pretended waning fortunes of Virginia, — 
her exhausted and gullied fields, her verv bad 



and wretched husbandry ; her sparse popula- 
tion, and her defective system of education. 
In a majority of instances, these tears 
flow from eyes blinded by prejudice, and in- 
flamed by malice, and not hearts warmed by 
sympathy and melted with love ; they come 
from a region cold, barren, and unproductive 
in everything that is good and great : where 
nothing but herecies and isms flourish and 
grow to maturity. Tobacco and its concomi- 
tant, slavery, are the great causes of all this 
social evil, moral and agricultural desolation, 
which these self-constituted fogies and would- 
be philanthropists so much deprecate and 
mourn, and which they so anxiously are en- 
deavoring to avert by their officious interfer- 
ence with our domestic institutions. To the 
one, as Virginians, we will continue to devote 
that measure and portion of our time and atten- 
tion which to us seems most conducive to our 
interests. To the other, as Southerners, we will 
cling with death-grasp. 

We said the Tobacco crop was the basis of 
all the operations of our forefathers ; it is now 
intimately connected with our habits and in- 
dustrial pursuits ; it is one of our principal 
exports ; we could not do without it ; we must 
continue to grow it as a monied crop. Not to 
the detriment of our farms, not as the ail-ab- 
sorbing interest of our vocation as farmers, — 
but as an auxiliary, as a second resource to 
meet our pecuniary wants. As a cleansing and 
preparatory crop in any rotation adapted to 
our immediate section of country, it is unsur- 
passed by any other, and is less liable to casu- 
alties and more certain than any other. 

The abuse of anything is no argument 
against its use. We are not reluctant to ad- 
mit that the injudicious cultivation of the To- 
bacco crop was, in gone-by days, attended with 
many disastrous results ; but what other crop 
could have been cultivated to the same extent 
in this or any other country with the same 
slovenly recklessness and the same indifference 
to consequences that would have been less de- 
teriorating and ruinous to the country ? And 
what other crop could so long have sustained 
and supported Virginia aristocracy and chi- 
valry in her colonial days ; and Virginia hos- 
pitality, generosity, and magnanimity of char- 
acter from the revolutionary epoch, to the 
present time, the wonder and admiration of all 
who are familiar with her history or acquainted 
with her people. 

If Tobacco is the blight of all that is fair 
and lovely, leaving in its train sterility and 
desolation, from whence has Virginia been 
enabled to send out such vast colonies and 
treasures to subdue and populate the South 
and South-western portions of these United 
States, causing the wilderness to blossom as 
the rose, and to crowd the halls of legisla- 
tion, and to fill the offices of honor and profit 
with so many of her gifted and talented sons, 
both in the State and Federal departments ? 



348 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



How is it, if slavery and Tobacco are so de- 
moralizing, so offensive 4 in the sight of high 
heaven, and so obnoxious to the charges pre- 
ferred against them, that Southern altars are 
not as frequently desecrated, and our jails and 
penitentiaries are not so crowded with felons 
and convicts as some others, where Tobacco is 
not cultivated, and African slavery is not tol- 
erated ? Tobacco, as now being embraced in 
our rotation, under the improving spirit of the 
day, may not only be profitably but advanta- 
geously cultivated on our improved lots and 
flat lands, — rendered more productive by the 
application of manure from domestic sources, 
with the aid of artificial and foreign fertilizers, 
— guano, bone-dust, phosphate of lime, &c. &c, 
than the virgin lands are or ever were. 

I do not think that it is hazarding too much 
to venture the opinion, that the capabilities of 
middle Virginia to raise Tobacco are any less 
now than fifty or a hundred years ago, while 
at the same time the use of the article is di- 
minishing, and that the present relation of 
supply and demand is likely to continue for 
some time to come, — and that we shall con- 
tinue to realize remunerating prices for the ar- 
ticle. Let Eastern Virginia continue to give 
all her attention to cereal and leguminous crops, 
and all other advantages with which a bounti- 
ful Providence has so abundantly favored her. 
Let Western Virginia open up and bring into 
market the rich and inexhaustible fossil and 
mineral resources of her mountains ; open and 
improve her meadow and mountain lands so 
admirably adapted to grass and stock of every 
kind, employ her unsurpasssed water-power, 
and increase her manufacturing operations to 
their legitimate extent. We, gentlemen, will 
not rival them in their pursuits, or envy them 
in their prosperity. 

It is the true policy of Middle Virginia, the 
finest portion of the State, to stick to her old 
staples, — corn, wheat. Tobacco, — her soil and 
climate are admirably adapted to their pro- 
duction. No country can boast of three richer 
staples ; they are identified with our habits ; 
they are adapted to our wants ; they have 
borne us on to wealth and prosperity through 
evil and through good report; and especially 
let us cling to the Tobacco plant. Let it be 
the emblem, the motto of Virginia. It should 
occupy a conspicuous place on the banner of 
the Old Dominion. Every Virginian should 
have a luxuriant Tobacco plant painted and 
hung up in his drawing-room, a memento of 
what it has done for us in gone-by days, and 
as identified with our present and prospec- 
tive agricultural and financial pursuits and in- 
terests. 

Gentlemen, I am aware that I have already 
trespassed too long on your patience, but I 
cannot conclude without congratulating you on 
the prosperity of our enterprise, the success 
of our Club in all the essentials which we 
had in view at its formation. There can be no 



doubt but that we are better farmers, individu- 
ally, than we were previous to our association. 
Our example has had a beneficial effect on our 
neighbors and the community at large. The 
influence which we are exerting on the agri- 
cultural classes, though silent and unobtru- 
sive, is extensive and potent for good. The 
results of our good or bad management arrest 
the attention of our neighbors, and they are 
large beneficiaries by our experiments, and 
they follow on in our wake, without incurring 
the danger of pioneers ; they profit by our suc- 
cess, or are admonished by our failures. A\ r e 
have awakened the spirit of inquiry, and 
quickened the energies of the agricultural 
public. Our association is eminently calcu- 
lated to promote social intercourse among the 
citizens of different and remote parts of the 
country, and a free interchange of opinions 
and practice in our industrial operations, 
bince our organization, some of our members 
have left us ; but it is a source of gratification 
to believe, that they have left with us their 
warm regards and .best wishes for our pros- 
perity and ultimate success ; and we now ten- 
der to them our thanks for their efficient aid 
in the formation and advancement of our Club 
while they remained with us, and our best 
wishes for their present and future happiness 
and prosperity. 

A. A. CAMPBELL, President 
of the Agricultural Club of Nottoway Co. 
May 8th, 1856. 



(No. 2.) 

Report of Experiments icitJi Peruvian Guano 

and DeBurg's Superphosphate of Lime. 

In the fall of eighteen hundred and fifty-four 
I applied at the rate of 200 pounds of DeBurg's 
Superphosphate of Lime to the acre, on some 
old field land upon which I had raised a crop 
of corn the previous summer, and to which I 
had applied a hundred pounds of guano in July. 
At the same time, upon similar land, I applied 
two hundred pounds of Peruvian guano per 
acre ; the guano was applied before breaking 
the land and the superphosphate afterwards, the 
whole broken up with two horse ploughs — the 
whole was then seeded to wheat and put in 
with a cultivator. The result was in favour of 
the superphosphate, not only in the wheat, but 
in the subsequent crop of clover, more especi- 
ally the latter, which is very greatly superior to 
that grown upon the land where the guano was 
applied. 

Last spring I again tried both manures upon 
corn and tobacco, and although I was well 
pleased with the action of superphosphates, my 
experiments were too inaccurate to warrant a 
detailed account. I tried again upon wheat 
last fall, but the whole crop was so indifferent 
and so nearly alike, I can come to »o conclu- 
sion with regard to'the comparative merits of 
the two. As I design seeding; the same laud in 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



349 



wheat again, I did not sow clover seed upon it, 
so I cannot test it in that way. 

Respectfully submitted, 
June 3, 1856-. ' T. R. Blandy. 



(No. 2£.) 
Experiments with DeBurg's, Jordan's and Du- 
val's Superphosphate of Lime. 

I used last year on tobacco, one ton of De 
Burg's Superphosphate of Lime, one ton of 
Jordan's Superphosphate of Lime, and about a 
half a ton of Duval's Superphosphate of Lime. 
With each of them I mixed one-fourth (by 
measure) of No. 1 Peruvian guano, and applied 
in the drill at the rate of 200 pounds per acre. 
Jordan's and DeBurg's were used on the same 
land in strips — applied at the same time and 
planted the same day. The difference was very 
great in favour of Jordan's, which grew off 
rapidly and made very good tobacco. The to- 
bacco on which DeBurg's and Duval's was ap- 
plied was so indifferent, that to save the crop I 
bad to make an additional application of Pe- 
ruvian guano, from which it improved very ra- 
pidly and made a good crop. I could not per- 
ceive the slightest benefit from DeBurg's and 
Duval's Superphosphate, as the guano mixed 
with them would have made as good a yield 
ilone. Respectfully submitted, 

April 9, 1857. Wm. J. Harris. 

(No. 3.) 
Peas Sowed w ith Oats — Superphosphate of Lime 
and Peruvian Guano in combination for To- 
bacco. 

In compliance with the injunction of our 
constitution, requiring each member to report 
in writing the result of some experiment made 
or process executed, I have to report that I last 
Spring, on two different pieces of land, sowed 
peas with oats at the usual time of seeding 
oats ; on one piece I used the .common black- 
3ye pea, on the other the Oregon or Chickasaw; 
the black-eye peas were sown and turned in 
with the oats, with a one horse turning plough, 
rhey came up thinly (which I attributed to 
their being buried too deeply), but stood the 
cold late Spring without injury, and after the 
oats were taken off, grew to be nearly knee 
high ; the Oregon peas were harrowed in with 
i 24-tooth drag, and came up much better, and 
after the reapiDg of the oats, gave a respecta- 
ble cover to the land. These experiments were 
made to see if peas could be sown with oats, 
so as to give a cover to the land after the oat 
crop was reaped. 

I also made an experiment with the view of 
comparing the effects of a combination of su- 
perphosphate of lime and Peruvian guano, with 
Peruvian guano on tobicco; that portion of the 
bhe tobacco which received both the phosphate 
and guano, was, in my opinion and that of my 
overseer, decidedly superior to that dressed 
with guano — both applications were made to 



land well manured with home made manures. 

The whole is now in wheat, but it is too early 

to say anything of their effects upon this crop. 

Respectfully submitted, 

April 10, 1850. Wm. R. Bland. 



(No. 4.) 
Comparative cost of Improved Land by "Trash- 
ing" and by Peas — Mulching Com with Pine 
Trash — Peas Sowed with Oats. 
My experiment for this year *vas made first, 
with a view of ascertaining the comparative 
cost of improving poor lands by hauling vege- 
table matter on it, and in turning in pea crops, 
both plans in connection with the use of gua- 
no. Secondly — To ascertain whether corn can 
be grown by mulching with pine beards. And 
thirdly, whether peas will succeed sowed with 
oats. I hoped the above would have proved 
interesting, but from my own carelessness, the 
inferior quality of the guano used, and the very 
unfavorable seasons, I have been disappointed. 
Last Spring I laid off two contiguous acres 
of poor land for the above experiments; on one 
I used 200 pounds of Peruvian guano broad- 
cast, and turned it under w T ith a tw r o horse 
plough, planted it in corn, one part in drills 5 
feet apart, and the other 3 feet apart, and cov- 
ered the whole with pine beards about 1 inch 
thick. The corn suffered very much in the 
early part of the year for the want of thinning, 
but more from the long rainy spell in June, 
which caused such a growth of grass and weeds 
as well nigh destroyed it. I will state just 
here, that I made a similar experiment in 1851, 
on a perfect gaul, and think a yield of three or 
four barrels of corn per acre may be reasona- 
bly calculated on — moreover, I found the plan 
a most excellent one for curing gauls, and can 
confidently recommend it, where pine beards 
or wheat straw are at a convenient distance. — 
On the second acre I sowed April 18th, If 
bushels oats, 1 bushel black peas and 100 lbs. 
Peruvian guano — and turned all under togeth- 
er with a one horse plough. The peas came 
up about half as thick as they should have 
done, and were very much injured by the frost 
and cold weather in May. They, however, 
looked much better in August than I expected. 
The oats on this acre were cut. The peas turn- 
ed under about the 1st of October. I intend 
sowing both acres in wheat this fall, and herd's 
grass next Spring — measure the wheat from 
each acre, and notice the comparative improve- 
ment. The following is the account current 
for each acre : 
1st Acre. 
To 200 pounds guano, - - $5 00 
To ploughing and planting, no 

other work done after, 
To hauling and spreading pine 
beards — 1 cart, 1 man, 1 wo- 
man and 2 boys — 3 days, $3, 9 



2 50 



00 



$16 50 



150 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



00 



Cr. 
By 1} bushels corn and If 
bushels nubbins, and for 100 
pounds fodder and shucks, 

2nd Acre. 
To 100 pounds guano, 
To ploughing, &c, 
To if bushels oats, 75 at cts., 
To 1 bushel black peas, 



Cr. 

Ry 849 lbs. of oats, at 75 cts., 6 36 



$13 50 



■$2 


50 


■ 1 


50 


1 


12 


1 


25 



$6 37 



01 



Difference, - - - - $13 49 

Had the acre in corn produced as much as I 
supposed it reasonable to expect from experi- 
ment in 1851, the Dr. and Cr. sides would 
have been about equal. 

Respectfully submitted, 
Nov. 8, 1855. Wm. Irby. 



(No. 5.) 

Experiment on Planting Com late with Guano 

in the Drill. 

In 1855, in consequence of the dry weather 
and the hardness of a piece of land which I 
had failed to have broken up in the winter, I 
could not break it until the first of June, when 
we had seasonable weather. I then had it bro- 
ken and well harrowed, and on the 9th of June 
had it planted in corn, one grain in a hill, with 
from 50 to 75 pounds of guano sowed in the 
drill, as the land was rather thin and below 
average quality of the rest of my field. The 
corn came up well and grew off well, and did not 
seem to need any work until it was about a foot 
high. I then had it thinned, and one furrow 
run with a trowel-bar plough on each side of 
it, and when about three feet high had the 
whole row plowed with the turning plow, 
throwing the dirt to the corn, but not ridging 
it high. That was all the work of any kind 
that it had, and it made a very fair yield, ave- 
raging with most pieces of corn. 

Travis II. Epes. 

Nottoway, May 8, 1856. 



(No. 6.) 
Comparative Product of Level and Ridged Cul- 
ture of Corn. 
By the request of the Club I last Spring pro- 
ceeded to test the cultivation of corn by the 
use of the turning plough exclusively on a se- 
ries of lands, and in competition the exclusive 
use of the Cultivator in same manner, side by 
side. I laid off 6 strips of land, containing 3 
rows of corn each. On the first strip I used 
the turning plow, on the second the Cultivator, 
and alternate throughout. I gathered the 
middle row of each strip as the fairest test of 
the product — and the yield the three rows cul- 



tivated with turning plows, was 63 bushels. 
— of the rows cultivated with Cul- 
tivators was - - 10 " 
A difference in favor of the level cultivation of 
about 38^ per cent. 

I did not notice the fodder — in fact no fodder 
was pulled. The soil on which the experiment 
was made is light, second low grounds. The corn 
was planted about the 10th of May, and was 
manured with guano, at the rate of 100 pounds 
to the acre. I may here add that my whole 
crop of high-land corn, was cultivated exclu- 
sively with the cultivators, and I think was 
throughout the season in as good condition as 
I have ever had one — never having been too 
hard for a cultivator to fail to do good work. — 
The experiment only confirms my previously 
formed opinion, that if land is well prepared, 
the level cultivation is most advantageous and 
productive, and is less injurious to the soil — 
and moreover leaves the land in much better 
condition for receiving a crop of wheat or other 
in. 
Respectfully submitted by 

Richard Irby, 
One of the Committee. 



(No. 7.) 
Plan to take Annual Census of the Wheat Crop 

— Suggestions about Prizing Tobacco, and 

about County Insurance. 

As I have no experiment, for the present 
year, sufficiently accurate to be valuable to the 
Club, I will offer suggestions on several suot 
jects, which, if they meet the approbation and 
support of the Club, I think may be carried 
into practical operation. 

The first is a plan for ascertaining the 
amount of wheat raised in the State of Vir- 
ginia every year, and in time to render the 
information available to the farmer before his 
crop is thrown on the market. Some plan of 
this kind seems to me the only mode of pre- 
venting the fluctuation of prices, caused by 
false estimates and reports, generally made 
and circulated for the benefit of individual op- 
erations. If the plan is found accurate on 
trial, it will be adopted by other States, and 
it will soon acquire the confidence of buyers 
and sellers, so that both will have, I think, the 
best approximate estimate to govern them for 
the ensuing season, 

I do not claim for the plan originality, as 
I believe a similar one has been tried in Scot- 
land, and found to work admirably well. The 
plan I propose is as follows : the Executive 
Committee of the State*Agricultural Society 
shall appoint annually a committee of three 
or more persons in each county of the State, 
and notify said committee of their appointment 
before the first da}- of May, and instruct them 
to appoint sub-committees of three or more 
for each Magisterial district in their county ; 
the members of the sub-committee to see 
every farmer in their district between the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



351 



irst of July and the first of August, and as- 
certain from him the number of bushels of 
tfheat he thinks he will have for market. A 
1st to be kept, and the name of the person and 
iraount of crop to be entered, and this list 
;o be reported to the committee at August 
xmrt, and the aggregate product then forwar- 
led to the Executive Committee for publica- 
tion in the public papers. 

Every farmer knows that he can make a 
more correct estimate of his wheat in the 
mock than at any time before or afterwards 
jmtil it comes to the test of the half-bushel. 
A.nd when the estimate is carefully made, it 
tvill vary very little from actual measurement; 
:he slight errors of bad judgment will gener- 
ally offset each other. I am satisfied that, if 
? aithfuliy done, (and the farmers are more in- 
vested in the faithful execution than any 
)ther persons,) it will soon acquire the confi- 
lence of all parties, and we will not see esti- 
mates varying fifty millions to distract buyers 
md sellers, — thus causing a fluctuation in 
price of from fifty to a hundred per cent. 

The second suggestion is in regard to priz- 
ing Tobacco. The average crop of Tobacco in 
Virginia has been generally estimated at forty- 
five thousand hogsheads, and the hogshead 
supposed to weigh fifteen hundred pounds. 
But planters, from carelessness or by making 
tobacco with guano alone, have made a very 
material difference in the average weight of 
their hogsheads. Last summer it was ascer- 
tained by the first of August, that the crop of 
Tobacco in Virginia would reach between fifty- 
five and sixty thousand hogsheads, — or from 
ten to fifteen thousand more than an average 
crop. The buyers immediately became alarm- 
ed, and prices immediately fell from one to 
two dollars per hundred. Well, this was* a 
false estimate, and caused by the farmers them- 
selves. The crop proved to be fifty-seven 
thousand in Virginia ; but I have been, in- 
formed by several persons engaged in buying 
and selling Tobacco, and who were regular at- 
tendants at the " breaks," that they did not 
believe the hogsheads of Tobacco inspected 
last year averaged one thousand two hundred 
lbs. So, taking that as the average, and de- 
ducting three hundred lbs., or one-fifth, from 
the number of hogsheads inspected, to bring 
them up to the old fashion average of fifteen- 
hundred lbs. per hogshead, and we have only 
forty-five thousand six hundred hogsheads as 
the actual crop of Virginia. I think, there- 
fore, that every plar.ter should make his hogs- 
heads average at least fifteen hundred lbs. If 
that weight is tjo much for good Tobacco, that 
may be fixed to weigh less, and the inferior 
Tobacco and lugs made to make up the aver- 
age; so that in the aggregate, every hogshead 
shall count fifteen hundred lbs. 

The third suggestion is, to institute a Mu- 
tual Insurance Company, ou the plan of the 
" Washington Mutual Insurance Company," of 



New York. This company to insure only in 
the county, and to a limited amount. In that 
way the losses would be so light, and conse- 
quently the rate of insurance so small, that I 
think every farmer in the State would find it 
to his interest to be insured by it. The plan 
requires so little actual capital, that the great- 
est difficulty would, be to procure honest 
agents. Whether or not this should be under- 
taken by the Agricultural Society, or left to 
private enterprize, I leave to wiser heads. I 
merely throw out the suggestion for others to 
act upon ; being well satisfied that it would be 
a valuable institution, if properly managed. 
Respectfully submitted, 

Wm. J. Harris. 
Nottoway, April 21st, 1856. 

(No. 8.) 
Period of Gestation in Mares. 
The report I wish to submit to-day, in accor- 
dance with a rule of the Club, is one connected 
with that noble animal, the horse, which may 
be considered one of the most valuable assist- 
ants of the farmer in the conduct of his pur- 
suits. Though the observations to be made 
upon this subject are more properly within the 
province of Physiological science, yet they are 
not without some practical bearing on the in- 
terests of agriculture. If it is a source of ben- 
efit to the farmer to become acquainted with the 
scientific relations of plants and spils, it is also 
the case with the knowledge to be obtained 
from the study of the nature of those animals 
which perform an important part in the suc- 
cess of his operations. The rearing of colts, 
while it is with us a matter of minor conside- 
ration, yet possesses sufficient practical interest 
to make it worthy of such inquiries and obser- 
vations as will tend to render it most success- 
ful and profitable. After a mare has been let 
to a horse, it may become a question of some 
moment to her owner, at what time to expect 
her to bring forth her foal. There is a tradi- 
tion among us, to the effect, that this event 
takes place, if I mistake not, at the end of ele- 
ven months, with as many days added as the 
mare numbers years of age. How nearly this 
period would conform to actual results in the 
multitude of cases, I am not prepared to deter- 
mine. But from some observations which I 
have been enabled to make and researches into 
natural history to which my attention has been 
drawn, it would seem that there are many cases 
in which it bears but a faint semblance of truth. 
In the year 1848, 1 put two mares to a Jack on 
the same day, the 5th of May, and without be- 
ing put again, they foaled respectively on the 
14th and 25th of April following. In the one 
case 11 months and 9 days, and in the other 
11 months and 20 days. One mare supposed 
to be G years old, and the other was S years 
old about the time of foaling. In the year 
1855, one of the same mares was put once 
again to a horse and brought forth her foal in 



352 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



12 months and 1 day at the age of 15 years. 
These personal observations coincide with the 
investigations of Tessier, the naturalist, in 
showing the inconstancy of the period to which 
the mare, in common with some other animals, 
carry their young. The investigations of the 
latter inquirer led to the following conclu- 
sions : 

" In 277 mares, with foal for the first time, 
23 foaled between the 287th and 329th days, 
average 322 days; 226 between the 329th and 
360th days, average 346 days ; and 28 between 
the 360th and 419th days, average 372 days ; 
average of the whole, 347 days ; difference be- 
tween the extremes 132 days. 

"In 170 mares which had foaled before, 28 
foaled between 290th and 329th days, average 
321 days ; 128 between 329th and 360th days, 
average 341 ; and 14 between the 360th and 
377th days, average 370; average of the whole 
341 days ; so that between the shortest and 
the longest period, there was a difference of 
97 days, more than | of the mean term*" 
Respectfully submitted, 

George Fitzgerald. 

Jan'ij 8, 1857. 



The Horse Charm ; or the Great Secret 
for Taming Horses. 

The horse-castor is a wart, or excrescence, 
which grows on every horse's fore legs and 
generally on the hind legs. It has a peculiar 
rank, musty smell, and easily pulled off. The 
ammoniacal effluvia of the horse seems peculiar- 
ly to concentrate in this part, and its very 
strong odor has a great attraction for all ani- 
mals, especially canine, and the horse him- 
self. 

For the oil of cumin, the horse has an in 
stinctive passion — both are original natives of 
Arabia, and when the horse scents the odor, 
he is instinctively drawn toward it. 

The oil of Rhodium possesses peculiar pro- 
perties. All animals seem to cherish a fond- 
ness for it, and it exercises a kind of subduing 
influence over them. 

The directions given for taming horses are 
as follows : 

Procure some horse-castor, and grate it fine. 
Also get some oil of Rhodium and oil of cu- 
min, and keep the three separate in air-tight 
bottles. 

Rub a little oil of cumin upon your hand ; 
and approach the horse in the field, on the 
windward side, so that he can smell the cumin. 
The horse will let you come up to him then 
without any trouble. 

Immediately rub your hand gently on 
the horse's nose, getting a little of the oil 
on it. You can then lead him anywhere. 
Give him a little of the castor on a piece of 
loaf sugar, apple or potato. 

Put 8 drops of oil of Rhodium into a lady's 
silver thimble. Take the thimble between the 



thumb and middle finger of your right hand, 
with the fore-finger stopping the mouth of the 
thimble, to prevent the oil from running out 
whilst you are opening the mouth of the 
horse. 

As soon as you have opened the horse's 
mouth, tip the thimble over upon his tongue, 
and he is your servant. He will follow you 
like a pet dog. 

Ride fearless and promptly, with your knees 
pressed to the side of the horse, and your toes- 
turned in and heels out; then you will always 
be on the alert for a shy or sheer from the 
horse, and he can never throw you. 

Then if you want to teach him to lie down, 
stand on his nigh, or left side ; have a couple 
of leather straps about six feet long ; string 
up his left leg with one of them round his 
neck : strap the other end of it over his 
shoulders ; hold it in your hand, and when 
you are ready, tell him to lie down, at the 
same time, gently, firmly and steadily pulling 
on the strap, touching him lightly on the knee 
with a switch. The horse will immediately 
lie down. Do this a few times, and you can 
make him lie down without the straps. 

He is now your pupil and friend. You can 
teach him anything, only be kind to him, be 
gentle. Love him, and he will love you. Feed 
him before you do yourself. Shelter him well, 
groom him yourself, keep him clean, and at 
night always give him a good bed, at least a 
foot deep. 

In the winter season, don't let your horse 
stand out a long time in the cold, without shel- 
ter or covering; for remember that the horse 
is an aboriginal native of a warm climate, and 
in many respects, his constitution is as tender 
as a man's. 



Preserving Green Fodder. 

According to the Rural Encyclopedia, the 
following mode of preserving fodder has been 
adopted in Germany and some parts of Prussia: 

Pits are dug into the earth from 10 to 12 
feet square, and as many deep ; these are lined 
with wood, and puddled below and at the sides 
with clay. They may obviously be made of 
any other suitable dimensions, and lined with 
brick. Into this pit the green crop of grass, 
clover, or vetches is put just as it is cut. Four 
or five cwt. are introduced at a time, sprinkled 
with salt at the rate of 1 lb. to each cwt.; and 
if the weather, and consequently the crop, be 
dry, two or three quarts of water to each cwt. 
should be sprinkled on each successive layer. 
It is Only when rain or heavy dew has fallen 
before mowing that this watering is considered 
unnecessary in East Pussia. Much, however, 
must depend upon the succulency of the crop. 
Each layer of 4 or 5 cwt. is spread evenly over 
the bottom, is well trodden down by five or six 
men, and especially is rammed as close as pos- 
sible at the sides with the aid of wooden ham- 
mers. Each layer is thus salted, watered (if 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



353 



necessary,) and trodden down in succession till 
the pit is perfectly full. Much depends upon 
the perfect treading of the grass for the exclu- 
sion of air ; and, therefore, for a pit 10 feet 
square 4 cwt. is as much as should be put in it 
at a time. Between each layer must be spread 
a handful of straw, in order that when empty- 
ing the pit afterwards for the daily consumption 
of the stock, the quantity taken out may be 
known without the necessity of a second 
weighing. When the pit is full, the topmost 
layer is well salted, the whole then covered 
with boards or a well-fitting lid, and upon these 
a foot and a half of earth for the more perfect 
exclusion of the air. A pit 10 feet square, and 
as many deep, will hold about 5 tons of fresh 
grass ; and each pit should if possible not be 
filled in less than two days. When covered up 
the grass speedily heats and ferments ; and 
after the lapse of six days, when the fermenta- 
tion has ceased, the whole has sunk to about 
half its original bulk. The lid must be ex- 
amined during its fermentation at least once a 
day, and the earth, as it sinks, carefully re- 
placed whenever crevices appear ; for if the air 
be allowed to gain admission, a putrefaction 
will come on, which will impart a disagreeable 
odor to the fodder, though it will not prevent it 
being readily eaten by the cattle. When the 
first fermentation has ceased, the lid may again 
be removed, the pit again filled with fresh 
grass — trodden in, salted, and covered, as be- 
fore. A pit 10 feet square, when perfectly full 
of this fermented grass, will contain nearly 10 
tons, equal to two or three tons of dry hay. 
The grass when thus fermented has the appear- 
ance of being boiled, has a sharp acid taste, 
and is greedily eaten by cattle. The pits should 
be kept covered for at least six weeks, after 
which they may be opened as successively as 
required, and may be kept open till their con- 
tents are consume'd by the cattle, without any 
injury from the contact of the atmospheric 
air. Of the feeding qualities of this salted 
fodder one experimenter says, that by giving 
only 20 lbs. a day of it, along with chopped 
straw, he kept his cows in condition during the 
whole winter. His green crop was vetches; 
and the 20 lbs. of salted fodder were equal to, 
or would have made less than 4 lbs. of hay. 
Another experimenter says, that on a daily al- 
lowance of 28 lbs. of his salted fodder his cows 
gave a rich and well-tasting milk. — Boston Cul- 
tivator. 



of a beautiful lawn," but last year it 
seems to have been successful in setting 
" the shakes" at defiance. Some years 
ago much was said of the different uses 
to which the Sun Flower might be put, 
but we do not recollect that this was one 
of them. Could not the advocates of 
" Chinese sugar Gane," include it also 
among the merits of that sugar, dye, ci- 
der, forage, molasses, and tallow-candle 
producing plant ? Will some one answer, 
who has a tew seeds left? — Country Gen- 
tleman. 



Cure for Fever and Ague. 
Lieut. Maury has been planting " a belt 
about 45 feet broad around the Observa- 
tory [at Washington] on the marshy side, 
and from 150 to 200 yards from the build- 
ings," with Sun Flowers. This is "to 
protect them from Fever and Ague." He 
says it is " at the risk of spoiling the looks 

23 



Albemarle Tobacco— Highest Average this 
Year— Ivy Creek Land Ahead. 

Mr. R. W. N. Noland, of this county, sold 
his tobacco crop through Messrs. Deane & 
Hobson, Richmond, at the following prices : 

Two hogsheads at $11 37 ; 2 do $14 25 ; 5 
do $16, and 4 do $16 25 ; making an average 
of $15 09 for the entire crop, which is the 
highest average price for a crop of tobacco re- 
alized by any planter in Albemarle this year. 
Ivy Creek Land, we think, is very desirable 
property. 

i m » m > 

From the Ohio Cultivator. 

Cattle Raising in the West. 

The great Decrease of Stock in Ohio, Indiana, 
and probably other Western States — The 
Causes of this Decrease — Encouragement to 
Stock Raising instead of to Wheat Growing. 

The census of 1850 exhibited the fact that 
the agricultural productions of the United 
States, used for human food, did not in-. 
crease in proportion to its population. The 
increase of population from 1840 to 1850, 
was 36 per cent., of cattle 24 per cent., 
of hogs 15 per cent., of sheep 13 per cent., 
cent., of wheat 20 per cent., and of corn 57 per 
cent. — the last article only being greater than 
the increase of the people, while all the others 
were far below it. This fact was an important 
one, because it assured the farmer that the 
prices of his productions must assume a per- 
manent advance gradually independent of those 
temporary causes, such as wars or short crops 
in Europe, which so frequently and greatly in- 
crease prices. But this fact has yielded to 
another one still more important, disclosed by 
the annual agricultural statistics of Ohio and 
Indiana, and that is, thai stock is decreasing in 
these greatest of Agricultural States. It is the ob- 
ject of this article to show this fact, to enquire 
into the causes, and state the results that must 
follow from it. 

1. The following statistics of Ohio were 

compiled from the annual reports of the Audi- 

j tor of State, by the Ohio Cultivator, and of 

Indiana, fcom the reports of its Auditor of 



354 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



State. The latter do not exhibit the true 
amount of the whole number of animals, be- 
cause the person who prepared the assessors' 
lists, did not understand his business, and mis- 
lead them by the heading — many taking the 



annual increase only, while most of them, as 
the law directs, took the whole number. But 
this defect runs through the several years alike, 
and therefore gives a sufficiently correct return 
to exhibit the annual increase or decrease : 







r- O rH ■* 










rt 


O 






od 


HO^iOeO 








O H" 






iC o^o-t^ 








o ■>* 




cd 








CD 






/: 


iflOHN 






3 


o oo 


# 


co 


O CO r— oo 






to C5 




3 


r-^'* r-^O 






*<§ 


F-oo 


fc 


m 


exfoo c<f h-T 




O 

o 


k 


r-Tco" 


O 




ONOCO 








1— 1 1— 1 




OO CO t^ OJ 




۩ 


O 




oo cs co oo 






C<J t^ 




CO 

o 
HI 


rH -rt P$3 CN 




CO 


O <M 




cT co" cf to~ 






r <B 


C7i i— I 






COCONO 






r3 


i-Tco" 




haooi^ 






CO 


i—l to 












3 


00 Ol 






— ~— r^-Tof 






CO to 




DO 


Tt< t— I O O CO 
«r — i — « - — i C=>"i — r+-f 

b- CO iHM^ 














•^ -* 




CD 










CI i— 1 




.3 


cq"oc*os"as"os" 






CD 


CO to 




CO 


O r-H rH O tO 






■SJ 




h 


3 


O H OO O CO 






cfoo" 


H 


M 


of b-"r-"os"Gs~ 






MS 


OO CO 

1^- oo 




(^HHHr-l 




H 






to co to co 








£ 




ir^ac os b- 






CO 




K 




<M O 




o 


T^r-Tlfih-r 






£ 


CO 


to -—1 
OS t^ 




o 


C^(MNO 








'o 






<1 


i — Ti — Ti — Ti — r 








oo 

3 


00 CO* 
to t— 






igONINOO 


cd~o" 






CO 03 00 CO o 








CD 

3 


OC^tJ^io,© 










) 






00 CT 






o"i^-"co"— Too 








OS Os 




13 


Os Ol to CO CO 






CD 


OflO 


co 


> 


O t- tb^iA Gfl 






3 


■^Os* 


o 

o 




WOW M K 









"a 

> 


r-t cq 




CO <M to Os - 


wo^ 


HH 


6 


-1^ a> h co w 

Os"oo"r^"to">— ~ 




CO 

o 


to" CO* 




(M rj^ 




OS OS 00 OS «3 




rH 




t-- C^J 






q<l •<* oc^i-^oc 




. 


to i— I 






HC-fofcir 


> 


o 




o 


oc~t-~ 






oh^o: 


CO b- 






oo as to cm •— i 






CO (M 




CD 


CO CO 00 00 "^ 


fe 






cfcf 




r-TocTr- ""^"os" 


<1 






o t- 




"3 


x-*xoo 




CD 


r— co 


pj 


!> 


»o ■* o o o 


H-l 




vt 


co^t- 


w 




• tojcTsiauo to" 






r a3 


t-"l-* 






OOffitOH 


ft 


cC 


k 


CO CO 




OliOOOTtoO 




N 


OS oo 


Zfl 




1^ Tf h C: C 




w 






6 


o"Tt"ida-"co" 


w 

co 


6 


t- oo 

OS OS 






OhQOWO 










co"t)"h/' ^"co" 

oo O O CO o 






cfoo" 

OO CO 






oc oo 






O — tOCCN 








O to 
O CO 




CD 


oc^oo co^o^o^ 










J3 


b-"co"to"o-"to" 






CD 


C^(N 




ci 


o -en os o H 






3 


ocTi— r 


Hi 


K- 


O O Os^Os^ 

OJh^Ooai-r 




w 




to cO 


H 
■0 

o 




H H (M H CI 




H 
H 


b-"co" 




OON050 
OOOXH 


»& 






Os C<1 


d 


CO -* t~ os oo 




o 


d 


rH lO 

oc'csf 






r- 1 cO t-nfc—cO 






Os 00 






r- 'i—Tr- Tr-Tt— T 








t- t- 






• to o» CO rf t— 


CO 

w 
►J 




^ (M 






OHOOOCl 






r-o 




CD 

a 


h<OfliOH 
co"tJ~ of to" rH 




CD 

3 


OO tO 
l~-"o0 




j3 


CO "<* i— 1 •— 1 CO 




a 




tO CO 


CO 

W 

co 
M 
o 
i— i 


CO O0_to_-* <N 




r 3 

> 


35 cb 

co"^"" 




<—t CI CO oo c 







£ 




G^" -1 




iCOOOOo 









OOOCfc'*'* 




CO 




CO to 




d 


CO O/O ^"^ 




w 




(M to 




of >o~ cf-t~ r-T 




CO 

Pi 


d 


o_o 




O H CO CI N 




o 


^ 


•*f*o 






■^ CO cO CO cO 




a 


O Os 









CO 


^.N 










r-< C-l co "* tO 








Tl- 


tf. 








to wo »o to to 








tO t« 
OOOO 






OO OO OO OO 00 












i— 1 f-i 1— 1 rH - 


H 








I— 1 


1— 





THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



355 



We have given the statistics of Ohio for 
several years, to show the increase and decrease, 
but only the last two years of Indiana, because 
we had not the returns of 1853. Oar remarks 
shall be confined to these years in both States. 

The decrease in Ohio between 1854 and 1855, 
has been as follows : Horses, 3,303 ; cattle, 
103,479; sheep, 824,262; hogs, 344,645. In 
Indiana, as follows : Horses and mules, 7,373 ; 
cattle, 16,267 ; sheep, 43,999 ; hogs, 391,448. 

These returns show a remarkable decrease, 
and one that is of great importance to every 
stock raiser. Are they correct ? Those of 
Ohio are as much relied upon as other statis- 
tics, and we know of no error in those of Indi- 
ana, except the one already referred to. But 
their general correctness is sustained by the 
high prices of stock, and by the returns re 
ceived at Cincinnati of the number of hogs 
slaughtered in the West. It will be seen that 
there are a few more hogs in Indiana than in 
Ohio. The decrease in Ohio was 344,645, in 
Indiana 391,448 — a proportion approaching the 
difference in the whole number. Again : upon 
the supposition that one-half the whole number 
of hogs is slaughtered every year, then the de- 
ficiency of this past season should be about 
one-half the whole deficiency reported by the 
assessors. This is the case, for in Ohio it is 
169,339, and in Indiana 154,838 ; and, making 
the proper allowance for the hogs sold from 
Indiana at Cincinnati, it would make the de- 
ficiency greater in Indiana, and both together 
would be nearly the one-half of the whole de- 
ficiency reported by the assessors. Thus : 

Whole deficiency reported by Asses- 
sors 736,093 

Whole deficiency from these two States 
reported by the Cincinnati Price 
Current 324,177 



Leaving 87,737 

To represent the deficiency of those retained"at 
home for home use. The assessors' returns are 
thus sustained by the number of hogs slaugh- 
tered the past season. And if they are sus- 
tained as to hogs, there is no reason to question 
their correctness as to other stock. And if 
horses and cattle and sheep have proportionate- 
ly decreased In other Western States as their 
hogs, then there is a heavy decrease of stock in 
all these States. 

2. What are the causes of this decrease ? 
They are several, and among them are these : 
The readers of the New York Tribune know 
how persistently that paper has sought to keep 
the price of the best beef down to ten cents in 
New York. Its course called out one of the 
Renicks in answer, in- which he showed the 
greater profit twenty to thirty years ago to the 
cattle feeder, when beef was six cents in New 
York, than ten could be at the time he 
wrote. Land and labor, he showed, had ad- 
vanced from 200 to 300 per cent., while beef 



had advanced but about 60 per cent. The 
sanie causes had been gradually operating to 
lessen the profit of all farm stock ; and when 
from 1850 to 1854, the States of Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois were covered with their net-work 
of Railroads, the prices of land and labor still 
far more rapidly advanced, and a market was 
opened for grain crops. High European prices 
stimulated the production of the latter, so that 
stock was neglected. Every one sought to 
profit by the favorable market for broadstuffs. 
The Prairie Farmer, more than a year ago, 
cautioned its Illinois readers against the aban- 
donment of stock raising for wheat growing. 
Besides this general cause, there were other 
minor but not unimportant ones. The raising 
of mules lessened the number of brood mares, 
which operated to decrease horses. In Indiana, 
we have no means of determining the num- 
ber, for horses, mules and asses are embraced 
in the same column. In Ohio in '52, '53, '54, 
and 1855, the increase was about 70 per cent. — 
the whole number in 1852 being 3,002, and in 
1855, 5,315. In Indiana the increase was pro- 
bably greater than this, but mule raising, we 
think, must now be decreasing here. The 
severe winters of 1855 and 1856 destroyed 
large numbers of pigs. So far as my personal 
information extends, the loss by the last winter 
has been unexampled, and must present a still 
further decrease of hogs in the returns of the 
assessors for 1856. The hog cholera is de- 
stroying its thousands. 

But there is another and a much more gene- 
ral cause than any or all these, that is rapidly 
diminishing animals that are used for food — 
the increased consumption of animal food. 
Ten years ago, if a merchant in any of our 
small towns bought a barrel of molasses for sale, 
it required a long time to sell it out. But, until 
recently, its consumption so rapidly increased, 
that every merchant or grocer had several bar- 
rels always by him. The general statistics 
showed how rapidly the quantity consumed 
had increased. So it has been with fresh 
meats also. Ten years ago, one beef was the 
weekly supply of our good inland towns, and 
now, regular markets, for three of the several 
days of the week are held, in which beef, 
mutton, pork and .veal are regularly sold. Ten 
years ago no one here slaughtered sheep or 
calves, and now no one rejects either. Better 
living is found every where, even in Europe, 
and I will be pardoned for the following ex- 
tract from the London Post of Jan. 27th. In 
adverting to the increased production of gold, 
the rapid improvement of all classes in socie- 
ty, as shown by the increased consumption of 
cotten goods, manufacturers of leather, etc., 
that paper says : 

" Not less is the deficiency in the better class 
of food beginning to make itself felt. In that 
country (France) the price of butchers' meat 
has risen to an extent to give some uneasiness 
to the government; not because there are 



356 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



fewer beasts or less forage, for agriculture 
never was so flourishing in France as it is now, 
but because there are a greater number of peo- 
ple who can afford to pay for the more expen- 
sive sort of food ; and the like cause in this 
country produces the like effect, and causes 
that dearness of which we hear so many com- 
plaints ; and there are many other indications, 
too, that the requirements of civilization have 
reached a point they never before attained. 
We believe the prosperity which enables men 
to wear better clothes and more of them — to 
consume better food and plenty of it — to live 
in better houses and still apply much money to 
literature — to have its source in the greater 
perseverance, energy and application displayed 
in the industrial arts — to science applied to 
agriculture and augmenting production — to 
self-restraint and sobriety, and especially to 
commerce." 

What is true in France and England is much 
more so in the United States ; and the encour- 
agement which this bettered condition of man- 
kind gives to our farmers, clearly points to 
stock raising as one of the best paying branches 
of agriculture. 

The New York Tribune, following up its ac- 
customed efforts to depress the cattle market, 
intimates in a recent article that the scarcity of 
horses was owing to a greater attention paid to 
raising cattle. It says : 

" Then came transportation of beef cattle by 
railroad, and a very great increase of price, 
and consequent conviction that raising and 
feeding bullocks was more profitable^ than 
raising colts and selling horses." 

Yet the statistics I have given show how 
much greater has been the decrease in cattle, — 
a fact that would not have been exhibited by 
the assessors' returns, if " raising and feeding 
bullocks had not been more profitable than 
raising colts." But this is the same paper that 
represented the great West as covered with 
cattle, last fall, ready to beg a market in New 
l r ork and other Eastern cities, at the lowest 
prices. These statistics present an unanswera- 
ble refutation to all such declarations, and for 
that reason the Tribune will not touch them. 

?>. I have intimated that a result of this de- 
crease of stock and increased consumption of 
animal food, will be in making the raising of 
stock the most profitable branch of farming. It 
will of course have its brisk and dull times, 
like all other pursuits, but the facility of over- 
production is not great, while it is easy to bring 
it down to profitable limits. It will not im- 
poverish the soil, as grain raising and exporta- 
tion does. On the contrary, it will better fit 
our lands for casual heavy crops of grain, 
when European demand largrly advances 
prices. The States of Ohio, Indiana and 
Illinois are therefore acting wisely in giving so 
great encouragement to the introduction of the 
best breeds. 



The present price of wheat indicates that 
the supply is greater than the market demands. 
Although the greater portion of the United 
States is embraced in the drouth region of 
1856, which is without vegetables or fruits, and 
with corn hardly sufficient to feed stock, yet 
wheat is dull at one dollar. It is obvious that 
the grain market cannot be relied upon, espe- 
cially under the Reciprocity treaty, by which 
Canadian wheat comes into our Eastern cities 
free of duty. The farmers of Ohio and Indiana 
must place their chief reliance upon stock ; and 
with their market facilities, their spirit of im- 
provement of breeds, which is to be found in so 
many portions of both States, their soil, cli- 
mate, and energy, success is certain. 

LEWIS BOLLMAN. 

Bloomin t gtost, Ind., May, 1857, 



Haw's Woodpecker Saw. 

Several correspondents have written to us to 
know the price, performances, &c. of Haw's 
Woodpecker Saw. The following letter from 
Dr. Carter Wormley of King William gives 
more information than we can give in regard to 
it. We know nothing whatever of the ma- 
chine. We never saw it. But we know Messrs. 
Haw & Gresham, and Drs. Wormley and 
Macon, and underwrite them all. Mr. Haw's 
address is given in Dr. Wormley's article, and 
gentlemen wishing farther information are re- 
ferred to him. 

Dear Planter : — In compliance with a 
promise made you a few weeks since, and 
from a desire to do justice to a most wor- 
thy and estimable citizen, and one of the 
most ingenious, honest and obliging me- 
chanics of my acquaintance — one of whom 
his native State may well be proud, I 
write this communication to add my testi- 
mony to what was written by Mr. Gresh- 
am in the April No. of the Planter in re- 
gard to " Haw's Woodpecker Saw."* It 
Ts not only "indispensable in preparing 
plank for fencing, &c, as you remark in 
your editorial in the May No. but it will 
saw as smooth and true a line in any kind 
of timber, and plank of any thickness 
from \ of an inch to scantling, as any saw 
now known, whether it be driven by steam 
or water power. 

I purchased the first saw made by Mr. 
Haw — his experimental saw (and he has 
made many improvements in it since) and 
have now worked it two seasons with per- 



fect success, 
faction. 



and it has given entire satis- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



357 



A friend was present a few days since 
and timed the saw cutting in tough white 
oak, a line 18 inches deep and 18 feet 
long (27 feet) — the line was cut with 7 
mules to the machine in four minutes and 
45 seconds with the most perfect ease to 
the team. 

My saw is attached to the horse power 
of my wheat machine and is all under a 
shingle roof. I haul the logs up with a 
carry-log at convenient times, and in bad 
weather I have occupation for my hands 
and mules in sawing, which time would 
otherwise be lost. With a driver and a 
hand to assist the overseer, who manages 
the saw, I generally saw 12 or 1300 feet 
of oak timber per day — but with addition- 
al force to assist in placing the logs on the 
carriage, I have no doubt that 2000 feet 
could be sawed daily, with six good mules, 
with perfect ease. 

The machine is perfectly simple and 
can be managed by any one who has half 
an allowance of brains. It is very strong, 
well made and not at all liable to get out 
of order. 

I am now making all of my fences of 
plank. I am inclosing one field every 
Spring, and hope at the end of five years 
to have every fence on my estate made of 
plank, the advantages of which I need not 
mention. I find that four planks six 
inches wide with a good bank thrown up 
with a plough and shovel, are sufficient to 
turn any kind of stock. My posts are 
cedar and locust — this year I am using 
Catalpa. By the bye I have often won- 
dered that Catalpa has not been cultiva- 
ted by our farmers in Virginia. It is ea- 
sily raised, of very rapid growth and more 
lasting than cedar or locust. Did you ever 
see any person who ever saw a piece of 
decayed Catalpa? I have often made the 
enquiry, but never yet heard of a piece 
of rotten Catalpa. 

But I have wandered from the subject of 
my communication, and conclude by re- 
commending with perfect confidence to 
the farmers of Virginia, a Virginia imple- 
ment made by native Virginia workmen — 
" Haw's Woodpecker Saw." 

I believe Mr. Haw has already orders 
for more saws than he can make this sea- 
son, but those wanting them by sending 
their orders in time will be "first on 



His P. O. is 



docket" for another season. 
Old Church, Hanover Co. 

Respectfully, 
Carter W. Wormley. 
Manskin Lodge, > 
King William Co. \ 
May 11th, 1857. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Improved Fence of Cheap Plank. 

Mr. Editor. — Having lately proposed 
an improvement in fencing, that I deem 
of much importance to planters of this 
State, and the South generally, lest you 
did not, in the little conversation we then 
had, fully understand me, I now propose 
to say a few words from my own actual 
knowledge and experience. The labor and 
expense of fencing in this country, where 
stone cannot be had for the purpose, as at 
the North, has been, is, and ever must be, 
a heavy drain upon the profits of the 
farmer ; so much so, that a less amount 
is found than would be desirable and con- 
venient on most of our farms. Now, if 
a more economical method of fencing can 
be devised, all may be benefitted, and all 
would be pleased. I propose a fence 
without rails, posts, logs, spikes, or hails ! 
— but simply of boards and stakes ! — ' 
boards about seven-eighths of an inch 
thick, and say twelve feet long, with 
stakes from five to six feet long ; two . 
stakes to each pannel after the first, which 
takes three stakes. The stakes being set 
after an iron bar, a proper distance from 
each other, and the boards woven into 
them. I claim the following advantages 
for this kind of fence : First. It will take 
but about one-third as much lumber from 
the forest to build a given distance ; for 
the upper part of a tree that cannot be 
mauled into rails, is as good for fence 
boards as any. Second. One acre of land 
is saved in each mile of fence, that is lost 
with the zigzag fence. And my fence 
being on a straight line, leaves no corners 
for bushes, briars, and weeds to grow 
where the plough cannot reach them. 
Third. In building, or rebuilding, in case 
of moving a fence, which is often desira- 
ble, the labor and expense is but about 
one-third as much as with rails. Fourth. 
A fence of the kind I propose, four feet 
high, will be found as effectual to stop 
cattle, fee*, as a rail fence five feet hisrh 



358 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



and a ditch and embankment are the same 
advantages with my fence as with any 
other. The reason that this fence is 
more effectual to turn " unruly cattle" 
is, they cannot see through ii, and if it be 
just high enough that they can't see over 
it, they do not press. Who ever saw an 
unruly creature attack the side of a build- 
ing that was close covered, even with 
these splits or boards ? while they will 
throw down a rail fence however heavy. 
Fifth. The same kind of lumber, say 
" old field pine," wili last probably three 
times as long for the boards of this fence 
as for rails ; and a cedar or other endur- 
ing wood, three and a half inches thick, 
will make two good stakes. I will antic- 
ipate the greatest objection, which is the 
cash for sawing the boards. Most of the 
rails are mauled by the hands at a leisure 
season. But I insist, if but one tenth of a 
farmer's work is thus saved, he can sell 
one-tenth of his help for cash, and pay 
his sawing bill. I would be glad to 
do his sawing for what labor and ex- 
pense it would actually save him, leav- 
ing him a clean field, a more enduring 
fence, and one that would more effectu- 
ally secure his crops from the ravages of 
cattle, sheep, and hogs. 

In haste, C. 

Proctor's Creek, Chesterfield, May, '57 



like enough. Most of the labor and ex- 
pense of grubbing can be saved, and the 
work as well done with scythes as in the 
manner we now practice. One good 
hand will mow five acres in a single day, 
if not more thickly covered with bushes, 
briars, weeds, #c, than the average of 
fields I have seen in this State. And 
suppose it be necessary to mow it three 
times a year, the cost is but about one 
dollar per acre, for a clean field, and a 
fair chance for a good crop. A word to 
the w T ise is sufficient. 

C. 
Chesterfield, May, 1857. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Destroying Sassafras. 

Mr. Editor. — In looking over the 
April No. of the Planter, which a friend 
loaned me, — for I am not a subscriber, — 
on page 218, I find a method for destroy- 
ing sassafras derived from the late John 
C. Page, E^q. I doubt not the efficiency 
of that mode of destroying such a pest; 
and the same treatment in amount with 
other pests, would be crowned with the 
same desirable results. It is simply cut- 
ting off all the bushes and trees, and then 
keeping all the sprouts closely cut until 
the roots are dead, which will be in a 
short time. Frequent cutting will very 
soon destroy all kinds of trees, bushes, 
briars, and weeds that afflict the farmer 
and diminish his crop. The common 
grass scythe is the best instrument for 
this purpose, if used often — so often that 
it is sufficiently strcng. The truth is, we 
do not use the scythe enough, — nothing 



For the Southern Planter. 

Crops in Loudoun and Prince William. 

Southern Border of Loudoun Co. Va. > 
April 25th, 1857. ) 
Frank G. Ruffin, Esq. : 

Dear Sir. — The present prospect of the 
growing wheat crop in this portion of 
Loudoun county, and the upper portion 
of Prince William county, is bad, and 
worse than that. Many farmers will not 
reap more than they seeded; and few, if 
any, much more. I understand that the 
prospect throughout the upper portion of 
Loudoun and Fauquier counties, generally, 
is still worse. I am pretty well satisfied 
that Prince William will beat Loudoun 
acre for acre. 

Old Prince William is getting out of 
the ashes fast ! The wheal crop may pos- 
sibly come out yet pretty well, but it is 
not at all probable. 

Bull Run. 



Mr. Jones in Reply to Major Shook. 

Pursuing the rule in courts, which allows 
one party to open his case, the other to reply, 
and the first to conclude, we admit Mr. Jones' 
reply to Major Shook on the point in dispute 
between them. This, so far as this paper is 
concerned, closes the controversy, which we do 
the more willingly, because Mr. Jones has not 
introduced any new matter into his argument, 
but confines himself strictly to what his oppo- 
nent had relied on in his defence. 

Near Brownsburg, May 18, 1857. 

Mr. Editor. — In the Southern Planter 

for ihis month I find an article over the 

eiinrature of Jacob Shook. I am aware 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



359 



that the columns of your journal is not 
the proper place to discuss the difficulty 
between Major Shook and myself; but as 
he has appealed to the bar of public opin- 
ion through the planter, I ask alike indul- 
gence ; and while he accuses me of seek- 
ing public notoriety, I think the charge 
comes with an ill grace from one who is 
publishing himself and his business at redu- 
ced rates, in the prominent journals of the 
State. 

Personally, I have no unkind feelings 
to the Major. I have partaken of his hos- 
pitality, in the way of a lunch. "He is 
said to live like a prince, and like Dives 
of old, fares sumptuously every day. I 
pray that his end be not that of the rich 
man. 

He has set himself up as an agent to 
serve the public for a consideration, and 
his acts are open for criticism. If a pub- 
lic agent treats me badly, his proceedings 
deserve to be made known. If he can 
justify his course, there is an end of the 
matter. 

I will endeavor to be as brief as possi- 
ble in what f have to say ; yet I fear my 
article will be more lengthy than could be 
wished. 

The Major sets out by saying my article 
in the April number of the Planter is ab- 
surdly unjust and rather vindictive, bol- 
stering up himself and his far-fetched ideas 
by slanderously assailing a certain cattle 
agent in this city. 

When I wrote the article in the Planter, 
my object was to serve the public engaged 
in the cattle and stock trade, and not to 
injure Major Shook, provided he so man- 
aged his business as to satisfy the public. 
For the prosperity of Richmond, the 
more trade that can be made to centre 
there, the better for the place. 1 was of 
opinion, and am glad to see that you agree 
with me, that good, well managed packing 
houses located at Richmond, would be cal- 
culated to keep a more regular market, 
and more uniform prices. I do not com- 
plain of the low price of beef, for in real- 
ity beef and other meats, have for years 
past been too' high. What I wished to 
see was uniformity of price. Not up one 
week and down the next. Some favored 
and heavy dealers, realizing fine profits, 
and the small drovers, often suffering loss. 
Further, T have some state pride, and 
would be glad to see Richmond, the capi- 



tol of my native State, spreading out on 
every side, and her population ten fold 
what it is. Our main lines of improve- 
ment once completed, are destined at a 
future day, to throw an immense trade in 
your midst ; and if you are prepared to 
receive, and dispose of the herds of fine 
cattle, which, in their season, pass down 
our valley to Baltimore and Philadelphia, 
it will be an item of trade worth securing. 

Major Shook says further, " Now let 
me give a true statement of the cause, 
which led Mr. Jones to perpetrate his effu- 
sion on the { Richmond Cattle Market.' 
In the month of December, 1856, Mr. 
Jones wrote me he had a drove of cattle 
he wished me to sell. I advised him 
when to start ; he did so. Other droves, 
which were ahead of him, cut him out of 
his turn. Mr. Jones came to see me, and 
insisted that his cattle should come in 
ahead of others, which were ahead of 
him. To this proposition I could not con- 
sent, but first come, first served. Mr. 
Jones would not, however, take the mil- 
ler's turn. I, however, appointed a day 
on which his cattle should come in. They 
came, the market was so full, and prices 
so low, that I was neither able to get a fair 
price, nor willing to sell at a reduced 
price. He then, according to my advice, 
drove back a short distance from the city, 
&c." (I have not quoted the precise 
words, but have given the substance of 
the Major's article so far.) 

Now let me give a true statement, also, 
and judge between us. I left home with 
a lot of 65 cattle at the time appointed by 
Major Shook, a lot from my immediate 
neighborhood preceded me two days. I 
drove carefully, got to Charlottesville Sat- 
urday evening, and rested over Sabbath. 
Monday proceeded on, and arrived in vi- 
cinity of Richmond Thursday. Stopped 
with Mr. Keck; found here 45 cattle which 
were to go in on Friday. This day met 
the drover who had preceded me two 
days, he had sold out promptly at eight 
dollars. Left my cattle with Keck, and 
went in with Mr. Pence and his lot of cat- 
tle, which were sold this day. Leaving 
none near Richmond save my lot, so far 
as I could learn. [ saw Major Shook and 
wished him to sell my cattle on Saturday. 
He said it would not do, the.butchers were 
now full ; I must wait — he would let me 
know when to come in. Saw him again 



360 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



on Monday, asked him about the market, 
&c. He told me McCue's cattle would be 
in Thursday, but they were sold at $10. 
He told me to bring in my cattle on Tues- 
day. I brought them in as proposed — 
placed them in the Major's hands and 
stood aloof. After an hour he came to 
me to say that he could do nothing, was 
only offered $6^ per hundred nett and he 
knew I could not take that price, &c, &c. 
That I must go back to the country, and 
he would let me know when to come in 
again. 

I drove to the county, but though I took 
no part in trying to make sales while the 
cattle were in Major Shook's hands, I now 
determined to see what I could do myself, 
and before I saw Major Shook again, I had 
sold out one half of my cattle at fair pri- 
ces ; sales averaging about $7^ nett. On 
Friday morning I met Major Shook on the 
street, and told him what I had done. He 
appeared pleased, said he felt greatly in- 
terested for me, and was gratified at my 
sales. Said he thought he could help me 
out with a lot that da}*, and advised me to 
go out and bring in a lot of my best cattle. 
Upon his suggestion I brought in a lot of 
13 head. When they arrived, he was on 
the ground, and told me he had received 
an order from Hampton that morning for 
eight cattle, and he would take them of 
me. 1 wished him to take the entire lot; 
he, however, refused, and I finally per- 
suaded him to take nine, at $7 nett. There 
was nothing said with regard lo pay, or 
any charges on the cattle till after they 
were driven from the pens. I, of course, 
concluded it a cash sale, as in all my other 
transactions, I either received the cash, 
or negotiable paper at 30 and 60 days, as 
agreed on. 

The next day I called on Major Shook 
for a settlement, being on my way home. 
When he presented his bill, I objected to 
it, and we soon got into an angry discus- 
sion ; I told him to his teeth that he ap- 
proached me as a friend, and now to pre- 
sent such a bill was out of the question. 
That if his friendship was to be measured 
by dollars and cents, I wanted nothing 
more to do with him. He retorted by 
saying he charged every body alike, that 
he would settle by that bill, and no other, 
and I was compelled to pay it, or not get a 
settlement. 

In truth, I did not expect any charges 



to be made by Maj. Shook ; nor do I now 
think, he had grounds on which to base 
any. The cattle he purchased from me, 
was an accommodation to his Hampton 
friend. There were no other cattle than 
mine in the Richmond market unsold. In 
his last article in the Whig, he denies 
buying cattle. Now, if he did not buy 
my cattle, who did buy them? I knew no 
other person in the transaction but Maj. 
Shook. I sold them to him as I would 
have sold them to any other butcher ; and 
when they passed from my hands to his, 
he certainly has no right, so far as I can 
see, to charge me with the expenses to 
Hampton ; and I had no one to look to for 
payment but himself. He says in his Jast 
letter, he only charged me with hall* the 
expenses, (6.12). Now if he had the 
right to charge the half, he had the same 
right to charge the whole expense. Agree- 
able to the laws of trade, (if I know any 
thing about the matter,) his Hampton 
friend was the proper person to foot the 
bill of expenses. 

It is not the pitiful sum of $18.36 that 
I care about, but it is the principle in- 
volved in the transaction. To be ap- 
proached under the guise of friendship, 
and then fleeced to the tune of $2 04 per 
head on my cattle, and to be ridiculed for 
exposing the transaction, is a little gaul- 

The Major again says — I "did feel in- 
terested enough in his behalf to fill an or- 
der for Hampton," (in his last letter). 
As before stated, he could not fill his 
order without coming to me. Indeed, 
with all the parade the Major makes about 
a glutted market, there were no good 
cattle in market unsold for ten days, ex- 
cept Col. McCue's and my lot, in all about 
one hundred and sixty head. The butch- 
ers were pretty well supplied, and pork 
and fowls were in good supply, conse- 
quently beef was rather dull. 

With regard to the Major's comment on 
caterpillers, he has misquoted me and, 
altogether, his comments are contemptible. 
So with chinch bug and tobacco worm. 

Major Shook has called my veracity in 
question. I would just remark, that I 
have been in rather active business for 
more than forty years, during which time 
thousands of dollars have passed through 
my hands annually, and I do not recollect 
during this long period, that my veracity 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



301 



has ever been called in question before ; 
or that I have ever been called on the 
second time for a dollar, with regard to 
my own business transactions. 

As to my ignorance, and other exple- 
tives the Major thinks proper to indulge 
in, they may pass for what they are worth. 

Other paragraphs I will not notice. 

The Major having come down to his old 
charges, and having associated with him 
in business a gentleman of good stock, I 
hope their journey through life may be 
prosperous. And as the steam is now 
pretty well blown off, T hope no evils to 
him, or myself, will result from internal 
expansion. 

H. B. JONES. 



Wheat in Rockbridge. 

" We are in the midst of corn planting, 
some two or three weeks behind our usual 
time. The wheat is looking better, but is 
far from a good crop, except on well ma- 
nured lands. The forest trees are begin- 
ning to bud, the apple trees are generally 
in blossom. There are some peaches, 
cherries, prunes, nectarines, and smaller 
fruits. 



NORFOLK FARMING. 

The readers of the Planter may recollect to 
have seen in the accounts of the Premiums 
awarded at the first Exhibition of the Virginia 
State Agricultural Society, an account of the 
farming of Mr. Wm. Sayre, then of Norfolk 
county, now of Hanover. In a late trip to 
Norfolk we visited one or two of these Norfolk 
farms, and were so struck with what we saw 
and heard, that we applied on our return to 
our friend Col. E. H. Herbert, of Princess 
Anne, the public spirited President of the Sea- 
board Agricultural Society, for the Report of 
that Society's Committee on Farms, that we 
might shew to our readers in an authentic form 
some of the results of farming in the finest part 
3f Virginia, though it is almost a terra incog, 
nita to the rest of the State. At Col. Herbert's 
request the Secretary of the Society, Thos. C. 
rabb, Esq., has very obligingly furnished me 
the following Report: 

To those who may doubt the accuracy of the 
lifferent statements, should any be so skeptical, 
we have this conclusive answer : at the first ex- 



hibition of the Sea Board — then the Norfolk 
county Agricultural Society — Mr. Cox, one the 
persons who takes the second and third premi- 
ums in this . report, took the first premium. 
On a question raised as to the accuracy of 
his statement then, which did not, by the 
way, at all impugn his veracity, it was observed 
that Mr. Cox's land was all rented, and he had 
to settle with his lessor by the statement he 
submitted. Of course he would take all possi- 
ble pains to prevent errors, which, if allowed, 
would cause him very considerable loss. 

REPORT ON FARMS. 

To the Executive Committee of the 

Seaboard Agricultural Society. 
Sirs : — We, the committee appointed to 
examine the farms in Norfolk Co., which 
should be offered for premiums to be awar- 
ded by the Seaboard Agricultural Society, 
at its annual Exhibition in 1856, beg leave 
to offer the following report : 

Four farms have been entered. Three 
by Mr. Cox, on the Western Branch ; and 
one by Mercer & Joins, on Scott Creek. 

On the 29th Oct. we examined one of 
Mr. Cox's farms, known as the "Arm- 
stead Farm." It contains 100 acres, and 
has been under a lease to Richard Cox 
for 12 years, ending with 1856. 

It was furnished with horses, imple- 
ments, &c, in the beginning, and the 
amount of farming capital has remained 
the same. The land was very poor, but 
by heavy manuring and proper cultivation, 
the fertility of the soil has been greatly 
improved— over one hundred per cent. 
The products of the farm are almost en- 
tirely trucks, consisting of tomatoes, peas, 
cucumbers, potatoes, &c. ; and the labour 
is performed, principally, by hands hired 
from the North by the day or month. 

Mr. Cox gives us the amount of his sales 
and statistics of his farming operations du- 
ring this year and they are as follows — 
The amount of gross sales, $17,125,28 

or an av'ge of $171,25 per acre. 
Expenses including every thing, $6,534,50 

or $65,91 per acre. 

Net Profit, $10,534,50 

or $105,34. 

On the same day we visited the " Fair 
View Farm," where Mr. Cox resides, 
which he purchased of Mr. Sayre ; and 
this is the first year of his management of 
it. It contains 100 acres. The crops are 
the same as those on the " Armstead 
Farm." He attributes the lar<re amount 



362 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER 



of his expenses that will appear to his out- 
fit or farming capital of horses, forage, 
boxes, barrels, &c. 

On this farm the amount of gross 

sales are $13,852,81 
or an av'ge of $138,52 per acre, 

Expenses including every thing, $6,500,00 

or $65,00 per acre. ■ 

Net Profit, $7,352,81 
or an average of $73,52 ct. per acre. 

On this farm the amount of farming 
capital is nearly established. Mr. Cox is 
now draining it to some extent, which im- 
provement has been almost totally neglec- 
ted heretofore, and which will tend great- 
ly to the improvement in the quality of 
the land, and will adapt it more to truck- 
ing with greater profit. Although both 
farms consist of sand and sandy loams, 
yet the draining of all lands, in the opin- 
ion of your committee, is highly necessary 
for the early vegetation of crops in the 
Spring, increase of crops, and lasting 
improvement of soils. He is now en- 
gaged also in erecting a large barn and 
stables, and improving his premises; and 
this farm bids fair to vie with any in this 
section of country. 

On the 3rd day of Nov. we visited the 
farm entered by Dr. Mercer & Joins, which 
they lease of Capt. Carter, on Scott 
Creek. This is the second year of their 
lease, but has been in trucks for the last 
12 years. It contains 20 acres soil, sandy 
loam, forces good, draining neglected, 
field clear and partly ploughed. The 
amount of farming capital is now estab- 
lished and no credit is given for it in our 
estimate. » 

The amount of his gross sales were as 
follows — 

Gross sale, $6,000,00 

or $300 per acre, 

Expenses, $2,500,00 

or $125 per acre, 

Clear Profit, $3,500,00 

or $175 per acre. 

On the same day we examined the 
c( Wilson Farm," the 3rd offered by Mr. 
Cox, but managed by Mr. Wm. C. Fox. 
This has been leased for 6 years. It con- 
tains 25 acres, and lies on Scott's Creek. 
This farm has been greatly improved in 
fertility and neatness during the lease 
The amount of farming capital is estab 
lished. The fences" are as good as need 
ful, but draining totally neglected hereto 



fore. The soil has been greatly improved 
in fertility, and the crops consist of the 
same trucks as those named above. 

From this farm the gross sales were $7,584,62 

or an av'ge of $216,70 per acre. 

Expenses including every thing, $3,371,45 

or $96,32 per acre. 

Net profit $4,213,17 

or $120,37 per acre. 

From what we have seen, and from the 
facts by which we can form a correct judg- 
ment, we deem it just and proper to award 
to Mercer & Joins the first premium of 
$25 for their farm ; and we award to Mr. 
Richard Cox the second premium of $&0 
for his Wilson Farm managed by Mr. Fox, 
and we award to Mr. Cox also the third 
premium of $15 for the Armstead F^rm. 
Respectfully, 

J. E. READ, 
Chairman of Committee. 



Osage Orange Hedges. 

Fincastle, Va., April 1857. 
Editor of the Southern Planter, — 

In your April number of the Planter 
there is an article over the signature of 
Wm H. Richardson, concerning: the Osage 
Orange as a hedge for fencing. I have 
had some little experience in planting 
Osage Orange myself, and do believe, with 
Mr. Richardson, that all failures are owing 
to the manner in which they are cultiva- 
ted. I have no doubt the greatest cause 
of failure is the want of trimming or cut- 
ting back, as it is called ; unless that is 
done, the hedge wont be thick enough in 
the bottom. Four years ago this spring I 
planted a young orchard of choice fruit 
trees, of several varieties, about two and 
a half acres, two sides of which, or about 
40 rods in all, I wished to grow an Osage 
Orange hedge as a fence. The same 
spring I planted my orchard, I procured 
from New York one quart of Osage Orange 
seed ; and after preparing in my garden a 
bed well manured, I sowed the seed in 
drills, according to directions that came 
with the seed. They came up very well, 
and was no more trouble than to keep 
them clean during the summer. By fall 
the plants were from three to five feet high. 
In the letter of Mr. Sigenor, from which 
you made some extracts, he says, " that 
plants should be full two years old before 
the knife is used, or cut, off;" but I did 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



3G3 



not treat mine so. The following spring, 
after I planted the seed, as soon as the 
ground was in order, I think the last of 
March, or first of April, I plowed up a 
bed with a two horse plow as deep as I 
could plow it with two horses, where I 
wished to have my fence. I made my 
bed about six feet wide, then manured it 
with stable manure and harrowed it. I 
then took a shovel plough and ran a deep 
furrow in the centre of the bed, where I 
intended to plant the hedge, and perfectly 
straight. I was then ready for planting. 
I then dug up the plants out of the plant 
bed, and with a pair of pruning shears, 
made for the purpose, I cut them off clean 
just above the ground and planted them in 
a single row twelve inches apart. Of 
the 2000 plants that it required to make 
the hedge, I do not think there was one 
that failed to grow. They soon sprouted 
out and grew very fine. During the sum- 
mer I plowed and howed them several 
times to keep the insects out. By fall 
they had grown three or four feet. The 
next spring I cut them.back within a foot 
of the ground: it was not close enough. 
Six or seven inches would have been 
better. That summer was very dry and 
hot in this part of Virginia ; they did not 
grow as much as the year before, owing 
to the drought in the following spring. I 
cut them back to about eighteen inches, 
and in July to three feet of the ground. 
This spring, the fourth year since the seed 
was planted, my hedge presents a very 
formidable appearance : it is from four to 
eight feet high, and thick enough to turn 
any kind of slock, especially where the 
ground is rich. A very important thing 
in growing a hedge is to have the land 
rich. Some portions of my hedge is plant- 
ed on rather poor ground. Though I ma- 
nured it all alike, the hedge is much bet- 
ter on the land that was rich and loose. 
My own opinion is, that the Osage Orange 
will succeed well if rightly managed. 
They are cheap, easily planted, and very 
hardy ; and I may say very pretty I think. 
I shall plant more of them around some 
lots I have. 4-s to it standing our winters, 
I am perfectly satisfied on that score. The 
two last winters have been the coldest in 
this part of Virginia ever known. My 
hedge has not suffered one particle from 
the frost. I have also made on my farm 
a good deal of wire fence, which has been 



in use for five or six years, and to my en- 
tire satisfaction. I may say something 
on this subject at some future time. 

I am unusued to writing for a journal. 
If you can make any thing out of the 
above, you can do so ; if not worthy, kick 
it under the table. I have read the Planter 
for four of five *years, and like it very 
much. I cannot do without an agricultu- 
ral paper. I commenced the Albany Cul- 
tivator in 1836, two years after it was 
commenced by J. Buck, and have taken 
and read it ever since. I have them all 
bound; and often take the back volumes 
and read them with profit. 

I have said more than I intended at the 
outset. For fear of worrying your pa- 
tience, 

I remain your obt. serv't, 

Daniel Ammen. 



A Trap for Catching Sheep-Killing Dogs. 

Make a pen of fence rails, beginning 
with four, so as to have it square, and as 
you build it draw in each rail as you would 
the sticks in making a partridge trap, un- 
til your pen is of sufficient height, say 5 
feet. In this way you will construct a pen 
that, ."when finished, will permit a dog 
to -enter at top at pleasure, but out of 
which he will find it difficult to escape 
should he have the agility of an antelope. 
All that you have to do to catch the dog 
that has killed your sheep, is to construct 
the trap, where a dead sheep is left, as 
directed, as soon as possible after an at- 
tack has been made on your flock, put a 
part or the whole of a sheep that has been 
killed in it, and remove the balance to 
some other field. In a majority of cases 
the rogue and murderer will return the 
succeeding night, or perhaps the next, and 
you will have the gratification next morn- 
ing of finding him securely imprisoned. 
Some may object to the plan perhaps on 
the ground that you might catch an inno- 
cent dog. 'If so, he can content himself 
by not trying it. For my own part, I 
should pronounce the sentence of guilt on 
any dog caught on my farm within three 
nights after my sheep had been killed and 
execute the law speedily without any 
qualms of conscience. 

I will only add that the above plan is 
not original with me. I was told about it 
by a friend in an adjoining county who 
had tried it successfully, and I have had 



364 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



occasion to my sorrow to try it myself 
very recently, but had the pleasure of 
catching the very dog that 1 suspected. 
W. J. Pendleton. 



Cooked Food for Hogs and Cattle. 

Why cooked food should be so much 
more nutritious for man or animals, than 
that which is uncooked, has furnished 
matter for some enquiry among the obser- 
vers of nature. That it is so, every intel- 
ligent farmer, we believe, is willing to ad- 
mit. From a number of accurately con- 
ducted experiments it has been ascertain- 
ed that a given quantity of corn meal made 
into pudding or mush, of a proper consis- 
tence, will make nearly as much pork as 
twice the same quantity of meal fed .un- 
cooked. In some countries of Europe 
where food for man and animals aie 
scarce, food not only for hogs is cooked, 
but even the meal that is fed to work 
horses and oxen is made into bread, and 
is broken up and fed with hay and straw. 

It has long been known to those who 
feed cattle or horses, that ground food will 
go further than that which is unground ; 
for this reason we see that wheat bran and 
shorts are readily bought up at the flour- 
ing mills at prices far exceeding their rel- 
ative value, by analysis, when compared 
with oats or corn. With the present im- 
provement in flouring mills the " offal" is 
left with but a very small per centage of 
the more nutritive portions of the grain in 
it, yet what it does contain is so readily 
available that it is digested with compara- 
tively little loss, and the animals fed on it 
appear to thrive so well, renders it in great 
demand. A knowledge of these facts has 
led many of the most intelligent farmers 
to supply themselves with suitable mills 
for grinding the grain for their stock. 

The introduction of the iron corn and 
cob mills, which require no expensive ma- 
chinery to run them, has brought them 
within the reach of every farmer, and into 
very general use ; and although they only 
crush, or but imperfectly grind the corn, 
for a certain class of stock there is evi- 
dently great economy in their use ; yet if 
the same corn was ground to the fineness 
of common meal, the advantage derived 
from them, no doubt, would be double that 
from the corn which is only crushed. 

Why is it that the crushed corn for stock 



is better than that which is whole ? We 
answer — because, while it is minutely di- 
vided it is more readily and effectually act- 
ed upon by the digestive fluid of the stom- 
ach, a larger portion of it is rendered 
available for nutrition ; and the finer the 
meal is ground, the more of it will be di- 
gested and assimilated and converted into 
flesh. Yet even corn when ground into 
fine meal and fed uncooked to healthy ani- 
mals is not all digested, but a large portion 
of it passes off and is loss. 

The fact is clearly proven, and the cause 
illustrated, why cooked food is so much 
more valuable than what is uncooked, by 
the researches of Detrochet, Dumas, and 
more lately by Raspail, who has devoted 
much time, aided by the best microscopi- 
cal instruments, to the discovery of the 
original nutritive particles in food and the 
change they undergo in the process of 
preparation for nutrition. 

According to this philosopher, the nu- 
tritive matter in grain or roots, is compos- 
ed of, or rather is contained in minute, 
smooth, white globules, different in size in 
the different grains or roots. Thus, in 
wheat they are 2-1000 parts of an inch ; 
in the potato double this size — while in 
buckwheat they are only l-10000th part 
of an inch in diameter. Pure flour or 
starch would be but a mass of these glo- 
bules in their natural state. Raspail as- 
certained that these minute globules con- 
sist of an envelope and an inclosed ker- 
nel, constituting the nutritive matter. — 
These globules are insoluble or unalterable 
in cold water, but require a heat of 122 deg. 
to expand the kernel and burst the envelope, 
yet at this degree of heat the substance is 
not decomposed. It is these coating en- 
velopes that constitute the starch of the 
laundr}'. The investigations of these phi- 
losophers seem to have established the fol- 
lowing facts as stated by Raspail : 

" 1st. That the globules containing flour, 
meal or starch, whether contained in grains 
or roots, are incapable of affording any 
nourishing as animal food until they are 
broken. 

"2d. That no mechanical method of break- 
ing is more than partially efficient. 

>' 3d. That the most efficient modes of 
breaking the globules by heat, by fermen- 
tation, or by chemical agency of acids or 
alkalies. 

" 4th. That the dextrine, (the nutrient 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



365 



part,) which is the kerne], as it were, of 
each globule, is alone soluble, and therefore 
alone nutritive. 

"5th. That the envelopes or shells of the 
globules, when reduced to fragments by 
mechanism or heat, are insoluble, and 
therefore not nutritive. 

"6th That though the fragments of these 
shells are not nutritive they are indispen- 
sible to digestion, either from their dis- 
tending the stomach or bowels, or from 
some other cause not understood, it hav- 
ing been proved by experiment that nour- 
ishment, such as cane sugar, essence of 
beef, or ozmazome, cannot long sustain 
life without some mixture of coarser and 
less nutritive food. 

" 7th. That the economical preparation 
of all food containing globules of fecula, 
consists in perfectly breaking the shells, 
and rendering the kernel or dextrine con- 
tained in them soluble arid digestible, 
while the fragments of shells, are at the 
same time rendered more bulky, so as the 
more readily to fill the stomach." 

That great advantages are derived from 
cooking meal for stock, we think these 
tacts, and hundreds of experiments that 
have been made, clearly demonstrate ; 
'and the only question that presents itselt 
for consideration is, whether the saving 
in grain by cooking is equal to the labor 
and expense of the operation. Two points 
must determine this question ; first — the 
market value of grain, and second, the 
perfection of the apparatus for cooking and 
feeding. At the present price of corn, 
(and we have no reason to suppose that it 
will ever permanently be less,) we believe 
it -will be found that there will be a saving 
of at least twenty-jive per cent in cooking 
the grain fed to hogs. 

Steam will be found the most conve- 
nient and economical agent for this pur- 
pose. The process is simple and compar- 
atively cheap. A vat or steam box, and 
an ordinary steam boiler supplied with 
guage cocks and safety valve will consti- 
tute the apparatus for cooking. These in 
capacity must be in proportion to the num- 
ber of animals to be fed. Meal sufficient 
to feed two hundred hogs, for a day, can 
easily be cooked at one time. The boiler 
should be arranged, so that it can be read- 
ily supplied with water. The vat can be 
made of plank and secured firmly together 
with frames around each end, and keyed 



up so as always to be tight; it should be 
so situated that the slop can be drawn off 
into cooling vats, and from these directly 
into the feeding troughs. The steam is 
conveyed from the boiler into the vat 
through an iron pipe, one inch in diame- 
ter; this should pass into the box at the 
bottom and make several'turns, each run- 
ning nearly the whole length of the bot- 
tom ; the end of the pipe should be closed, 
and in the top of the pipe that is within 
the vat, small holes should be drilled three 
inches apart for the discharge of the 
steam. 

Portable steam engines are now coming 
into use to considerable extent among the 
larger farmers, taking the place of the 
horse powers for threshing, and are also 
employed for grinding corn, cutting hay 
and straw, breaking hemp, sawing wood, 
&c. On any considerable farm they will 
be found cheaper than horse power for 
any of these uses. One of these engines 
may be employed to the best advantage 
in steaming food, when the steam is not 
required to run the engine. Under this 
arrangement, the whole fixtures for all the 
power required for performing these vari- 
ous offices, as well as the cooking, may 
be secured at comparatively low rates. 

When we began this article, it was our 
design to give the whole plan and dimen- 
sions in detail of the apparatus, but this 
is unnecessary, because any mechanic 
who is competent to do the work can plan 
it. We will, however, remark, that the 
greater the capacity of the steam vat with 
a boiler in proportion, the less fuel will be 
required to cook a given quantity of food. 
Valley Farmer. 



Remedy for the Hoven. — Cattle pas- 
turing on clover in a w r et state, are apt to 
become bloated. I have relieved them in 
a short time, by simply placing a straw 
band in their mouth as a bit, and tying it 
over the head In their endeavors to get 
it out, the wind is expelled from the stom- 
ach. 



A farmer near 
year, in order to 



Binghamton, N. Y., last 
convince a neighbor of 
the usefulness of birds, shot a yellow bird 
in his wheat field, opened its craw, and 
found in it 200 weevils, and but four grains 
of wheat, and in these four grains the 
weevils had burrowed. 



36C 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 




THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



TERMS AND CONDITIONS. 

Two Dollars and Fifty Cents per annum, or Two 
Dollars only, if paid in Advance. 

Subscriptions may begin with any Number, but it 
is desirable that they should be made to the end of a 
volume. 

Subscribers who do not give express notice to the 
contrary on or before the expiration of their yearly 
Subscription, will be considered as wishing to con- 
tinue the same ; and the paper will be sent accord- 
ingly. 

No paper will be discontinued until all arrearages 
are paid, except at our option. 

Subscribers are requested to remit the amount o 
their Subscription as soon as the same shall become 
due. 

If Subscribers neglect refusorto et ake their papers 
from the Office or place to which they are sent, they 
will be held responsible until they settle their account 
and give notice to discontinue. 

If Subscribers remove, change their offices, or per- 
mit their paper to be sent to an office that has been 
discontinued, without directing a change of their pa- 
per, and the paper is sent to the former direction, they 
will be held responsible. 

All Payments to the Southern Planter will be ac 
knowledged in the first paper issued after the same 
shall have been received. 

All money remitted to us will be considered at our 
risk only when the letter containing the same shall 
have been legistered. This rule is adopted not for our 
protection, but for that of our correspondents; and we 
wish it distinctly understood that we take the risk 
only when this condition is complied with. 

It is indispensably necessary that subscribers re- 
mitting their Subscription, should name the Office to 
which their papers are sent; andlthose ordering a 
change should say from what to what post office they 
wish the alteration made. A strict observance of this 
rule will save much time to us and lose none to them 
besides insuring attention to their wishes. 

Postmasters -are requested to notify us in writing- 
as the law requires, when papers are not taken from 
their Offices by Subscribers. 

RUFF1N & AUGUST, Proprietors. 



Office : No. 153, Corner Main and Twelfth Streets. 



Reapers. 

Before another issue of this paper we shall 
all be cutting wheat. All who can afford it, or 
who have land that will at all admit of their 
use, it is hoped will use reapers. What pre- 
cise sort is not material, if the particular ma- 
chine happens to be made well. We say 
"happens/' because, some how or other, it 
seems to be an accident if one gets a really 
well made reaper. Undoubtedly there is a 



good deal of choice in these machines, but any 
of them are good that are well made. 

In working the teams, be sure to have 
enough hordes or mules to change them often. 
Every two hours is better than three times aday, 
though it will be hard to make many people, 
especially overseers, believe that they save time 
and team by such frequent changes. The reason 
of it, however, is plain. The w5rk, so far as 
mere draught is concerned, is not so much 
harder than a plough-team is accustomed to, 
but all the machines are "geared too low," i. e. 
it requires too much speed in the animals to 
give motion to the cutting apparatus. Inven- 
tors say this is unavoidable ; we are not a suffi- 
cient judge of such things to contradict them : 
but we don't believe it. 'So they said that 
speed of team was necessary to give motion to 
the drum of a threshing machine ; and many a 
poor beast baVe we seen the drivers " whip 
through in a hard walk," as a Georgia stage-dri- 
ver once said he did on his line. But we have 
worked for several years a machine of J. B. & 
J. E. Smith, of Louisa, which had as many 
revolutions per minute as any other, and hardly 
required a horse to move faster than an ox. 
The pull was harder, to be sure ; but what of 
that? The team was accustomed to it. That 
is just the difficulty with reapers. The team is 
kept at a higher speed than they are used tov; 
and it is just that that kills them up. Every 
farmer knows that it is trotting a work-horse 
that uses him up, though he may tug at a three- 
horse plough all day for weeks at a time and 
hold his own. Therefore, " merciful man," 
change your team often. 

Use no grease about your machine, and no 
dirty oil. Use only the best oil ; and you will 
be paid for that kind of extravagance, as Mr. 
Pennywise might denominate it. Your ma- 
chine will not be as apt to heat in any part, 
and all the gearing will last longer. 

Never cut round and round, or in a circle, 
nor across ridges and water furrows ; but 
let the machine cut down the row, make a 
wide turn, cross the bed on stubble and come 
square up to its work on the opposite side of 
the parallelogram. This will give the raker, 
should your machine require one, an opportu- 
nity to leave his seat and avoid the cruel jolts 
that he is subjected to when he rides across the 
water-furrows. It will be safer too, for he is 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



367 



then less apt to be thrown off by a jolt — a 
tiling which has produced some dreadful acci- 
dents. The machine, also, will lose less by 
wear and tear. 

Cut always, when practicable, in parallelo- 
grams, whose long sides shall be proportioned 
fco the force that you have to follow the reaper ; 
and whose ends shall not be so wide as to 
cause loss of time in getting from one side to 
the other. There are several advantages in 
this plan. 1st. In cutting round and round, 
even where there are no beds to cross, it is 
impossible to preserve the proper curvature at 
the turns, so that a hand must be called from 
:)ther work to round them occasionally, or 
kept constantly at that work with irregular 
Bmployment for himself and a binder, and con- 
fusion to the work of the other binders ; or if 
such an extra hand cannot be spared, the cor- 
ners become very irregular, and in turning, 
much wheat is pulled down and trodden upon 
Dy the machine and horses ; or wider circuits 
ind more frequent turns must be made, caus- 
ing loss of time to all hands : whereas, in cut- 
ting as we propose, the reaper drives straight 
)ut, turns with a wide sweep, and comes up to 
;he next swath perfectly square, overrunning 
no wheat, and causing no trouble, confusion, 
)r loss of time. 

2nd. It is the best arrangement for a proper 
lisposition of the hands. When the wheat is 
' sheafed/' as it is called, or tied up in bun- 
lies, we believe the usual custom is for the 
lands to follow the reaper round. If, for in- 
stance, an area of six hundred yards in cir- 
cuit is cut around, and six binders — or one to 
jach hundred yards — be employed, then, as 
3ach hand binds the hundred yards — by which 
;ime the reaper will have overtaken him — he 
;akes the new track of the reaper from that 
point, advancing another hundred yards ; and 
so around, coming nearer to the centre at each 
hundred yards of his circuitous progress, and 
idvancing each time upon the work of the 
hand ahead of him. Under this mode it is im- 
possible to see that each hand does his proper 
work, or does it in a proper manner. The 
sheaves of all are so mixed that it will be im- 
possible to find who ties up a sheaf that drops 
to pieces, and who fails to glean well ; there 
will be no interval of rest for the industrious 
hands, and no means to detect the lazy ones. 



We found these objections tp that arrangement 
for two years, but think they may be very 
greatly mitigated by the plan we have since 
pursued, which is this : Suppose a parallelo- 
gram of three hundred yards by thirty-two, 
and a reaper that cuts a row six feet wide. — 
Suppose six binders to be able to follow the 
reaper. That gives three, on each side of the 
land to be cut over, or one binder to the hun- 
dred yards, as before. Now it is plain that by 
the time the reaper has gone around, the hand 
will have had time to sheaf his hundred yards, 
and will have a few moments to rest if he has 
been diligent. Let him stand his ground, and 
as the reaper passes him bind back to the mark 
he started from, and stand again. This time, 
as the reaper meets him at his mark, he binds 
after it as at first. When the reaper comes up 
once again he binds back to his mark; and so 
he alternately follows and meets the reaper, 
advancing always towards the central swathes 
as the reaper" does, but never advancing in the 
direction of its line of progress further than 
his hundred yards. Sixteen rows on each side 
finishes the work, and the hands meet at the 
close without confusion. By this plan accoun- 
tability is secured, because one hand's work 
cannot be mixed with another's ; due diligence 
is attained, because each hand has his task; and 
each is endburaged to do his task, because a 
short rest, brief it may be, but still acceptable, 
awaits him at his goal. If some hands are 
quicker than others, as they are sure to be, for 
there is great slight in sheafing, their relative 
lines should be lengthened and shortened ; 
and no one submits more cheerfully than a 
negro to this equitable distribution. If, ow- 
ing to the inequalities in the crop, or to other 
causes, one or more of the bands have more 
than a necessary time for rest, they can be em- 
ployed in setting up the sheaves or in heaping 
them. 

It may be that the hands will not be as con- 
stantly employed in this way, as in other plans; 
but we believe more work will be done, and 
done better. System and accountability have 
as much to do with the amount of work done 
at any business as hard driving. The fox hun- 
ter who gets the brush generally does the least 
hard riding; and he will shew you, if he will 
not tell you, that a judicious horseman is as 
necessary as a good horse. 



368 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



A good many persons prefer a " side delive- 
ry." So we did once, and imagined that a 
" rear delivery" would be useless to us. 'But 
experience has now satisfied us to the contra- 
ry ; and we would rather purchase a "rear de- 
livery" than accept as a present a " side delive- 
ry" with the obligation to use it. There are 
very few plantations which do not aiford hands 
enough to work after a "rear delivery," and 
keep up the shocking ; but where it is other- 
wise, we would greatly prefer to postpone the 
shocking to regular intervals when the cut- 
ting should cease altogether, than to have the 
wheat swathed by a "side delivery," to be 
bound up afterwards. If the reaper does the 
work of six men, which is about as much as it 
does accomplish, it is no difficult matter for six 
rather inferior hands to follow it ; and when 
the wheat is heavy it will rest them to stop and 
shock up. But we do not mean to condemn a 
side delivery for other purposes. When it 
gathers up the wheat like Atkins' s,elf-raker, and 
deposits it ready for the binder, it is very well; 
but for all useful purposes it would be still 
better if it delivered it behind and directly in 
the track of the next round of the machine. 



A Surge Pump. 

A surge pump is nothing but a squirt applied 
to a new purpose. It is made of 'tin. It is a 
cylinder about two and a half feet long, one 
and three-quarter inches bore, with a piston rod 
of wood wrapped around with tow at the bot- 
tom. The cylinder is provided with an en- 
largement at bottom, like the base of a china 
or plated candlestick, pierced with holes to ad- 
mit the water, and having a spout, like the 
spout of a coffee-pot, starting just above the 
perforated base, and running up as high as 
the cylinder itself. This spout is provided at its 
mouth with a triangular piece of tin, so curved 
as to flare the water as it is forced out by the pis 
ton, and make it fall in a smart shower. It will 
work in two inches depth of water, and will 
force it forty or fifty feet. We have worked 
one this afternoon — the 15th of May — and wa- 
tered a large strawberry bed with it, making 
the ground quite muddy in about a half hour. 
.For such purposes, and especially for watering 
plant beds, it is a very valuable implement, and 
so cheap — $1 50 — that it will not break any 
man to buv it, and not ruin him if he breaks 



it. In ordinary situations, it is as effective as a 
garden engine that costs from $25 to $60. A 
friend, to whom we shmved it a few evenings 
since, said he considered it good to him for 
150,000 hills of tobacco. At $1 50 insurance, or 
the one-thousandth part of a cent to each hill, 
he gets them low enough. If not to be had in 
the country — any tinner can make them, they 
can be bought in Richmond of Mr. William S. 
Wood, Market Bridge, Richmond ; of D. & C. 
R. Weller, Main Street, below the St, Charles 
Hotel, and very probably of other tinners in 
the city. 



Tethering Horses. 
The article we wrote on this subject last 
month was not understood by two very intelli- 
gent gentlemen, and may not have been by 
others. As we deem it very important to some 
sections this year, especially to those which 
have been devastated for two or three years by 
chinch bug, and are buying Northern hay in 
such quantities, we will be more clear. If one 
shall not like Mr. Fontaine's mode of tethering 
by a rope too large to cut the animal if he 
shall become entangled and struggle to get 
loose, and shall prefer the plan which we gave, 
not as preferable, but as a choice, let him con- 
nect two poles together — a mule can't tangle 
himself up in them — and tie the mule to one 
end of one pole, and fasten the end of the other 
pole to the ground, in any way he pleases. That 
is the whole affair — two poles secured together, 
end to end, a mule at one end of these, and a 
" tob" at the other. 



Virginia $tate Agricultural Society. 

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of 
the Virginia State Agricultural Society, on the 
28th of April, 1857, it was 

Besoh'cd, That the premium for " the best 
wagon body for hauling wheat in the sheaf, or 
hay, or straw," may be awarded on the exhibi- 
tion of a model, as the article itself cannot be 
conveniently transported from a distance, and 
that the Secretary be requested to publish a 
notice to that effect in the Southern Planter. 

Teste, C1I. B. WILLIAMS, Sec'y. 

Mr. Gowen's sale of Short Horns. 

A geutlaman who knows Mr. Gowen's stock 
of cattle and esteems them very highly asks n« 
to call the attention of our readers to the ad- 
vertisement of them to be found in this number 
of the Planter. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



3G9 



To the Friends of the Planter. 

It is now six months since we enlarged the 
Planter. In the endeavor to moke the paper not 
only more creditable in appearance to the great 
interest it represents, but substantially more 
useful, we have extended the quantity of read- 
ing matter to more than double its former 
amount; and its quality and variety have been 
increased in still greater ratio. It is needless to 
specify the particulars of this improvement. 
We are happy to state that these efforts are ap- 
preciated by our subscribers, a large number 
of whom have testified their approbation in 
distinct form, and cheered us in our labors. 
But praise, valued as it is, is not all that an 
editor requires to enable him to make himself 
useful. If we had the means which a little 
exertion on the part of each subscriber would 
soon confer, we should be enabled to make still 
greater improvements. In many matters, dia- 
grams and illustrations would be of great ben- 
efit ; and in some cases they are indispensable 
to the demonstration of particular things. In 
the matter of draining, for instance, than which 
there is no branch of our agriculture so much 
neglected, it is impossible to teach the true 
principles of it without such diagrams and 
maps. But their cost is greater than we can 
incur. For this reason instruction is not given 
in a subject, the true understanding of which 
would put thousands of dollars into the pock- 
ets of many who now lose every cent of it. 
Other improvements of this sort, which it were 
tedious to enumerate, might be made, if we had 
the means. And we do not think we shall be 
deemed importunate in asking aid when our 
object is the public good, of course coupled 
with a natural regard to our own private inte- 
rests. Nor do we think it amiss to remind our 
friends, in this connection, that many a Nor- 
thern publication numbers thirty and forty thou- 
sand subscribers. We do not expect such a 
number here upon a request that they be sent 
us ; we doubt if it would be wholesome for us 
to have that number suddenly thrust on us 
iat any rate. It might serve us, as old Mr. 
Watson said clover did his low grounds, " it 
made the land run mad." But we could stand 
m increase of a few thousand without danger 
of such deplorable consequences^ and would 
gradually become enured to a heavier increase. 

As a preparative, we now propose that any 
24 



one who chooses, for himself or friend, can 
take the paper for six months, if he commen- 
ces with the July number, by paying one dol- 
lar for the half year, and discontinue in De- 
cember if he pleases. Try that. Both parties 
can then get accustomed to their lot — he to the 
effulgence, we to the money. 



ANOTHER GENERAL NOTICE. 

During the last six months of the past year, 
we kept a standing "General Notice" in our 
columns notifying delinquents that we should, 
on the first of January, drop from our list all 
subscribers who were then in arrears for two 
years or more. In consequence of the change 
in the " Planter," which took place at that 
time, and for reasons satisfactory to ourselves^ 
we did not carry that resolution into effect. We 
now give notice that we shall, from this date, 

DISCONTINUE THE PAPER TO ALL WHO ARE IN- 
DEBTED FOR IT TO THE AMOUNT OF FIVE DOL- 
LARS, that sum being, in our opinion, large 
enough for any subscriber to be in arrears for 
a paper published at the low price of the 
" Planter." This rule, so plain, " that he 
may run that readeth it," and which we hope 
will be understood by all, is now upon our 
Statute Book; and like " the law of the Medes 
and Persians, which altereth not," will remain 
hereafter unaltered and unchanged. 

Unpleasant as it is under any circumstances 
to discontinue the paper of a subscriber, it is 
especially mortifying to be compelled to do so 
in consequence of his indebtedness. 

Most gladly would we give unlimited credit 
to our subscribers were we in a condition to 
do so ; but our necessities, and the numerous 
and frequent demands upon us, require the 
adoption of the foregoing rule, and we hope 
that a strict adherence to it will render a simi- 
lar notice unnecessary hereafter. 

We are now, and have been for some time 
past, engaged in sending to our subscribers cir- 
cular statements of their accounts, to which we 
hoped they will respond cheerfully and prompt- 
ly. If it should so happen that we send a bill 
to any subscriber who has paid us, or any au- 
thorized agent of ours, we request that he will 
forthwith report the fact and we will at once 
make the proper credit.. 

Subscribers who had made payments beyond 
the 1st of January last under, the former terms 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of the " Planter/' are entitled to the paper in 
its present form one half of the time of such 
advance payment, (one paper or one year of 
its present size being equivalent to two of the 
former.) This explanation is made that sub- 
scribers may understand why their accounts do 
not correspond with their receipts or former 
credits. 



Hew Books. 

We have received from C. M. Saxton & Co., 
of New York, through the hands of J. W. Ran- 
dolph, of Richmond, "The Chinese Sugar 
Cane and Sugar Making : Its history, culture 
and adaptation to the climate, soil and econo- 
my of the United States. With an account of 
various processes of manufacturing sugar, 
drawn from authentic sources," being one of 
Saxton's Rural Hand-Books. Price 25 cents. 

We recommend this book to the various per- 
sons who are going. to make their own sugar 
and molasses, as containing, in a convenient 
form, an account of the troubles they are going 
to take upon themselves. 

We have also received from the same, The 
Cotton Planter's Manual, which we have not 
wasted our time on, as we would not in any way 
encourage any one in Virginia to try and hurt 
himself making cotton. 

Also Dr. Geo. II. Dadd's Anatomy and Phy- 
siology of the Horse, which we noticed a 
month or so ago. 

Also Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener, a 
fair book, but not equal to White's Gardener 
for the South, by the same publisher, which 
every Southern lady who tills a garden ought 
to have. 

Mr. Saxton, as an agricultural bookseller, 
keeps as good a supply as anyone in this coun- 
try ; and we thank him for it. As an agricul- 
tural book publisher he issues, with occasional 
exceptions, such as Dr. Dadd's work, the merest 
catch-pennies that can be imagined. 

From Moore, Wilsback, Keys & Co., of Cin- 
cinnati, we have received Hooper's Western 
Fruit Book. A compendium of facts from the 
notes and experience of successful fruit cultu- 
rists arranged for practical use in the Orchard 
and Garden. This seems to be an excellent 
book and is admirably arranged. How far it 
would suit our latitude Ave cannot say. It is 



illustrated with four admirable coloured en- 
gravings, being one sample each of the apple, 
the pear, the peach and the cherry, and with a 
hideous frontispiece in lithograph of the eleven 
principal fruit growers of Cincinnati. They 
are, as represented, the roughest looking set of 
men we ever saw. 

The Italian Bride: A Play in Five Acts. 
Written for Miss Eliza Logan, and publish- 
ed for private distribution. Savannah : John 
M. Cooper & Co. 1856. 

The author of this production has modestly 
abstained from placing his name on the title 
page, but is understood to be S. Yates Levy, 
Esq.', a member of the Savannah Bar. We 
have just risen from its perusal and confess 
that we ean see no good reason why he should 
not openly have avowed the paternity of an 
offspring which reflects much honor upon the 
taste and poetry of its progenitor. 

The plot of the Italian Bride is simple. A 
noble Venetian, (Clodio,) is fondly attached tc 
Venetia, the pure and lovely daughter of Gio- 
vanni; an old and wealthy citizen, and his af 
fection is returned with all the ardor of hei 
clime. Her father places in his hands a wil 
bequeathing to him and his intended bride al 
his wealth, which although declined, is pressec 
upon Clodio, who places the document in hh 
bosom. 

The charms of Venitia have attracted anothei 
suitor, a "bold bad man," Lorenzo D'Arpa, be 
longing also to the Venitian aristocracy, whosi 
suit has been rejected by the father, and whosi 
disappointed pride urges him to revenge. Clo 
dio, apprehensive of the consequences, upon be 
ing informed by Giovanni of his rejection o 
Lorenzo, urges him not to go forth that day.— 
Finding his efforts in vain, Clodio entreats hin 
to take the dagger which he wears, that if at 
tacked he may defend himself, to which Gic 
vanni consents, although incredulous of harm 
Clodio proceeding to meet Giovanni at eveninj 
on the Rialto, by accident finds a dagger sheatl 
near the quay richly adorned with jewels 
which he unwittingly places in his breast, an 
at the same moment a cry is raised that Gic 
vanni is murdered. Clodio is near the fata 
scene ; his hands and clothes are stained wit! 
the blood which unknown to him was on th 
sheath. The guards surround him and th 
evidence of his guilt being strengthened by th 



X 






THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



371 



discovery of the will, which falls from his bo 
som, he is arrested and charged with the mur- 
der of Giovanni. He is condemned on this 
circumstantial evidence to suffer upon the rack, 
and is only rescued at the last moment by the 
confession of Larenzo who has been slain by 
Hugo, the friend of Clodio, while attempting 
by force to carry off the nearly frantic Venetia. 

Mr. Levy, it will be perceived, has not relied 
upon any startling stage effects or brilliant 
"tours de force;" but has with much skill 
contrived to keep up the interest of the drama, 
by appealing only to the heart of the spectator, 
in language at times extremely beautiful, and 
always well chosen and refined. 

The rythm is for the most part remarkably 
smooth and flowing, and either indicates con- 
siderable practice, or gives promise of future 
achievements, which will place the author upon 
a very elevated pedestal. 

In support of our opinion we give some ex- 
tracts from the work. 

In the first scene Hugo is rallying Clodio on 
his passion for Venitia, and good humouredly 
exclaims : 

" 0, Clodio, Clodio, how I pity thee." 

Clodio. — And why? 

Hugo — Because I see thou art in love. 
Trust me a lover sees not with his eyes; 
But blind and dazzled by his passion's glare, 
And all his senses in confusion tost, 
He sees and listens through the heart alone. 
So all thy sense is gathered to thy heart ! 

Clodio. — I would not have it elsewhere : I 

would trust 
Soul, thought, life, sense, heart — everything on 

earth, 
Aye, and hereafter to her guardian care. 
Believe me, Hugo, 'tis a worthy trust — 
For there is not a surer path to Heaven 
Ihan where a virtuous wife points out the way, 
And leading gently down the path of life, 
Makes love the guide to Immortality. 

Hugo, the devoted friend to Clodio, reluctant 
bo believe him guilty, but staggered by the chain 
if circumstances, informs Venetia of her fa- 
ther's murder and the arrest of Clodio. The 
whole scene is well sustained and presents a fa- 
vorable specimen of the author's power. We 
extract a part of it. 

Hugo (sorrowfully.) 
Lord Clodio is in bonds. 

Venetia (fiercely.) In bonds, in bonds. 
Who dares to chain a free Venetian noble? 



In bonds ! for what? Thou tell'st me first my 

Lord, 
My father's dead, and now this monstrous tale 
That he whose name reddens the City's cheek 
With mantling pride, gives his free limbs to 

chains? 
In bonds ! for what? 

Hugo. — Charged with the murder of 

Venetia (laughing historically.) 
So now the mockery 's ended, 'tis complete ; 
My Clodio charged with murder. Oh! 'tis rare, 
Confess my Lord that all this is a jest. 

Hugo. — Alas ! 'tis true, all true. 

Venetia. — Thou tell'st me this ! 
Thou who wert wont to cail my Clodio friend. 
Did'st thou stand by and see him led to prison, 
And did'st not lift thy hand in his defence ? 
Oh ! friendship, what a mockery art thou ! 

Hugo.— What should I do ? 

Venetia. — Fie ; fie ; what should's thou do ? 

Summons thy vassals — raise thy spotless ban- 
ner, — 

Cry "Corelli to the rescue," — and set on. 

If thou had'st lov'd thy friend, thou had'sfc not 
asked. 

Hugo. — Defy Saint Mark ! why this is utter 
madness. 
Besides, e'en if I wished, the proofs of guilt — 

Venitia. — The proofs are what? Thou dGst 

not think him guilty. 
My Lord thou dar'st not! Call thyself his 

friend 
And doubt his faith ! Hugo, I am at best 
But a frail woman : but were I a man 
Who had a friend, and such a friend as he, — 
Did an archangel come down from the skies, 
Radiant with glory, hand in hand with truth, 
And call'd him murd'rer, I should think, my 

Lord, 
A demon had usurped the Heavenly form 
And would have answer'd — " Liar." 

The passionate eloquence and unaltered con- 
fidence of Venetia in the honor and innocence of 
her lover, succeed in removing from Hugo's 
mind every lingering suspicion ; he pledges 
himself to do every thing for the safety of his 
friend, and nobly does he redeem the pledge. 

We could multiply extracts from the poem, 
but deem it unnecessary, as we hope it is within 
the reach of our readers, although published 
for private distribution only ; and we should be 
reluctant to forestall the enjoyment which we 
feel sure they will derive from its perusal. We 
hail with pride this evidence of Southern taste 
and poesy, and hope the author will not rest 
contented with the laurels he has won, but go 
on and accomplish new achievements. 



72 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Agricultural Professorship in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia. 

Belmead, May 15th, 1857. 
Hon. Wm. C. Rives, 

Dear Sir : — Your report of the result 
of the interview of the Committee of the 
Farmer's Assembly, uith the Rector and 
Visitors of the University, respecting the 
proposed endowment of a professorship of 
Agriculture in that Institution, appeared 
whilst 1 was on a visit to the South, from 
which I have recently returned. 

It seems to me to be proper that I 
should explain to yourself and my other 
friends of the committee, as well as to the 
public, the position in which I conceive 
the proffered donation to stand, since the 
recent action of the Visitors of the Uni- 
versity. 

Your Committee was the organ of the 
Farmers' Assembly, charged of course 
with the duty of representing them. The 
Assembly did me the honor to place me 
on the Committee, and had 1 been present 
at your conference with the Visitors, I 
should have held myself bound, as doubt- 
less you and your Committee conceived 
yourselves bound, to adhere to the views 
of the Farmer's Assembly, as indicated 
by their resolutions and proceedings in 
respect to any and all conditions annexed 
to the endowment. 

This would have been the duty of the 
Committee, although they might not have 
concurred in the views of the Farmers' 
Assembly. But in my case there is ano- 
ther and higher obligation, if possible, to 
adhere literally and absolutely to the terms 
and conditions of the endowment; for 
these terms and conditions were essential 
part and parcel of the donation proffered 
by me to the Assembly, and accepted, ap- 
proved and adopted by them, and there- 
fore not to be changed by me without 
their consent, without a violation on my 
part of an honorable good faith. For [ 
might just as well withhold the fund, or 
direct it to some other purpose, as to con- 
sent to yield up the control, and some of 
the chief benefits of it, without the con- 
sent of the Assembly, or the final failure 
of the whole scheme. It follows, there- 
fore, that I cannot remove the objections 
raised by the Board of Visitors to the 
terms of the endowment — nor, in my 
humble opinion, can your Committee or a 
majority sf them. The Farmer's Assem- 



bly and myself concurring, could alone 
modify the term| of the endowment. 

But I infer from the resolutions of the 
Board of Visitors that they do not regard 
themselves as at liberty to qualify their 
general power of appointing professors, as 
contemplated in the scheme which I sub- 
mitted to the Farmers' Assembly, and 
vi Inch was made by them the basis of their 
application, through your Committee, to 
the Rector and Visitors — and this is the 
only reason assigned by the Visitors, in 
their resolutions, for declining to accept 
the proffered endowment. 

I am not aware that exception was ta- 
ken to the scheme of endowment in any 
other'particular, though it contained other 
provisions deemed important by myself, 
and, as we may infer, by the Farmers' 
Assembly. 

The objection to the power to nominate, 
if it go not beyond this absense of autho- 
rity on the Rectors and Visitors to consent 
to it — may be removed by an enlargement 
of their powers, which, in their applica- 
tion, the Legislature would probably ac- 
cord. 

It must be confessed, that looking to 
its probable effect in enlisting private lib- 
erality on behalf of literary institutions — 
such a power might be judiciously com- 
mitted to their patrons — it may indeed be 
expedient to regulate by law, this power 
to nominate — so as to guard against offi- 
cial vacancies, and perhaps further, that 
no appointment could be made, but with 
the consent of the appointing power. If 
so regulated, I do not see how the power 
could be abused to the prejudice of the 
public. Whilst its acquisition would hold 
out inducements, to public spirited associ- 
ation and individuals, to ally themselves 
with, and beneficently to expend their 
means in support of the literary institu- 
tions of the State. Nor would all this be 
without example or precedent — for, if I 
mistake not, we have the highest authori- 
ty in the practise and experience of grant- 
ing similar privileges connected with the 
endowment of professorships in the lite- 
rary institutions, both of this country and 
of Europe. 

I confess it is a cherished wish of mine 
to connect the Farmers' Assembly with 
the proposed Professorship of Agriculture, 
and thereby, to form an enduring interest 
and alliance between the organized agri- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



373 



cultural education in our State University. 
Hence I have asked that, after my death 
the nominating power connected with the 
professorship may be accorded to the As- 
sembly, — and that they shall also have the 
power of appointing to the reserved schol- 
arships. 

And in case of an unexpected failure of 
the school of agriculture — it was also fur- 
ther provided by me, that the fund should 
revert to the State Agricultural Society, 
" the principal to be undiminished and 
the" interest to be devoted to the diffusion 
of agricultural " knowledge or the pro- 
motion of agricultural education" under 
the special sanction of the Farmers' As- 
sembly. 

The Board of Visitors having expressed 
themselves as " prepared to co-operate to 
the full extent of their powers," in the 
establishment of a school of agriculture in 
the " University, upon a footing equal in 
all respects to that of the other schools in 
the institution," I would most respect- 
fully, but earnestly suggest that the Com- 
mittee of the Farmers' Assembly apply to 
the Visitors at their next meeting in July 
to ask of the Legislature the passage of an 
act authorizing the establishment of the 
Professor of Agriculture, in accordance 
with the unanimous wish and application 
of the Farmers' Assembly as communi- 
cated through their Committee. 

I remain sir, very truly, 

Your most obedient, 
PHILIP ST. GEO. COCKE. 



myself and young family, I will be much 
obliged to Mr. Hite for a full report on the 
subjects above. 

Respectfully, yours, &.c. 

A Farmer. 



A Request to Mr. J. J. Hite. 

Editor Southern Planter, 

Sir — Seeing in your very valuable work 
the Planter, of November, 1856, a letter 
from an enterprising and successful farmer, 
J. J. Hite, Esq., of his then flattering 
prospect for a crop of wheat, in which he 
speaks of having used the various fertili- 
zers, as well as the different farm manu- 
res, &c. ; also of his success in a crop of 
corn the past season from subsoiling, will 
you be kind enough to ask of Mr. Hite, 
through your valuable journal, his present 
prospect for a crop of wheat, and a report 
of effects of the different manures on the 
crop, as well as the result of subsoiling on 
the wheat crop, and any other information 
on the subject of farming he may deem 
worthy of note. Being a young farmer, 
and dependent upon it for ,a support for 



From the Scientific American. 

Simple Butter Cooler. 

Melted butter is all very well in its right 
place, but when butter is put upon the tea or 
breakfast table, having the appearance of be- 
ing just out of the oven, it is anything but cre- 
ditable to the housekeeper, and far from satis- 
factory to those who eat it. Dry toast is posi- 
tively spoilt if spread with soft butter; indeed, 
if butter cannot be brought to table at least 
firm, if not hard, it is better to keep it away 
altogether. Fortunately, however, it is not 
necessary to proceed to such desperate meas- 
ures, as butter can be kept nice and cool in the 
hottest weather, and that in a very simple man- 
ner. Procure a large, new flower-pot of a suffi- 
cient size to cover the butter-plate, and also a 
saucer large enough for the flower-pot to rest in 
upside down ; place a trivet or meat-stand (such 
as is sent to the oven wben a joint is baked) in 
the saucer, and put on this trivet the plate of 
butter ; now fill the saucer with water, and turn 
the flower-pot over the butter, so that its bottom 
edge will be below the water. The hole in the 
flower-pot must be fitted with a cork ; the but- 
ter will then be in what we may call an air- 
tight chamber. Let the whole of the outside 
of the flower-pot be then thoroughly drenched 
with water and place it in as cool a spot as you 
can. If this be done over night, the butter 
will be as " firm as a rock" at breakfast time : 
or, if placed there in the morning, the butter 
will be quite hard for use at tea hour. The 
reason of this is, that When water evaporates, 
it produces cold ; the porous pot draws up the 
water which in warm weather quickly evapo- 
rates from the sides, and thus cools it, and as 
no warm air can now get at the butter it be- 
comes firm and cool in the hottest day. 

Septimus Piesse. 



Natural Barometer. — Chickweed is 
an excellent barometer. When the flower 
expands fully, we are not to expect rain 
for several hours. Should it continue in 
that state, no rain will disturb the sum- 
mer's day. When it conceals its minia- 
ture flower, the day is generally showery ; 
but if it entirely shuts up, or veils the 
white flower with its green mantle, let the 
traveler put on his great coat. 



Carrots consume 197 pounds 
acre ; turnips but 90 pounds. 



of lime to the 



374 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



lottimifnral Department 



E. G. EGGELING, Contributor. 



The Strawberry. 

Among all berries, by universal consent, the 
Strawberry is ranked chief, — being more deli- 
cious and wholesome than all others. The 
name is supposed to have originated from a 
common practice of laying straw between the 
plants to keep the fruit clean. However this 
may be, from whatever circumstance the name 
may have arisen, there are few that will not 
agree that, 

"A dish of ripe strawberries smothered in cream," 

is a delicacy not to be surpassed. 

The Strawberry is supposed by some to be 
a native of temperate climates, but we are not 
sure 1 that this is entirely correct. Three spe- 
cies have been found growing wild in theUnited 
States, — one in Ohio, one in Virginia, and an- 
other common alike in the Southern, Middle, 
and Northern States. In Great Britain, two 
species have been found indigenous to the 
soil ; and in most countries, and in nearly 
every variety of climate, it is known and 
esteemed. 

These wild berries, however, will not com. 
pare in any respect with those which have 
been improved by the process of hybrideyation. 
No plant which has a place in our gardens 
owes more to the care and skill of man than 
this. To instance, Hovey's Seedling, — which 
is admitted to be the finest in the country, 
whether the size of the berry, or the produc- 
tiveness of the plant be considered, — was pro- 
duced entirely by this process ; owing all its 
celebrity thus, to the fostering care of the 
Messrs. Ilovey, of Boston. Mr. McEvoy, also, 
of Cincinnati, has, by the same process, pro- 
duced a number of fine plants, among which 
is McEvoy's Superior, which, after several 
years experiment, we are satisfied, deserves its 
name, being indeed superior. Another, called 
the Princess Alice Maude, is equal, we think, 
to cither of the above mentioned ; and to those 
who wish to cultivate large berries of fine fla- 
vour, we particularly recommend these three 
to be mainly cultivated. In order to prolong 
lie season, there is another Strawberry, which 



ripens some two weeks earlier than the above' 
called the Large Earty Scarlet, which should 
be planted also, and while there are many 
other varieties, some good, and many worth- 
less, these are all that any person need care 
to have. Amateurs, may select a few other 
varieties, as Black Prince, Myatt's British 
Queen, and Elton. 

The plants are propagated from the runners, 
which are always taken to form new planta- 
tions. The Strawberry runner is very well 
known to all persons who have cultivated the 
plant ; but to such as have not, we can only 
describe it, as a string shooting off from the 
plant, from six to sixteen inches, on the end of 
which a bunch of leaves is soon formed. This 
falls down upon the earth, and very soon be- 
comes rooted in the soil. Sometimes from 
this, another string shoots out, and soon 
forms another sett of leaves and roots, and in 
very wet seasons, as many as three or four 
runners will thus be formed. Where this is 
the case, however, good cultivators take only 
that runner which is nearest to the plant, and 
reject all the others. These runners begin to 
develope themselves about the time that the 
plant begins to bloom, and is stout enough to 
bear transplantation by the first of August- 
If a good stand of plants is obtained at that 
time, they will produce a pretty fair crop of 
berries the next year. 

In removing these runners, the first step is to 
cut the string which. joins them to the parent 
plant, and then the runner is to be taken up 
with a trowel or small spade, and not dragged 
up by the hand. Very much depends on this. 
Pulling them with the hand is very likely to 
injure the roots most seriously, and it is all 
important that the roots be disturbed as little 
as possible. To this end, a good share of 
earth must be taken up with the plant, and 
this care will ensure a rich reward in an early 
crop from the plants transplanted. 

The soil best adapted to the culture of the 
Strawberry, is deep, rich loam. Deep and 
rich it must be, if large berries and plentiful 
crops are desired ; and nothing less than this 
will satisfy any one who pretends to cultivate 
Strawberries. "When the soil is not naturally 
deep and rich, trenching and manuring is the 
appropriate remedy, and must by no means 
be neglected. The manure must not be fresh 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



375 



md green, as in that event it will bring a 
)lentiful crop of weeds, and for the Straw- 
jerry, the desideratum is, to keep it clear of 
veeds. If the manure is old and well-rotted, 
laving gone through a fermentation, the seeds 
)f weeds, for the most part, will have been de- 
stroyed, and there will be comparatively Ut- 
ile trouble. 

The soil having been thus enriched where 
I was poor, it is then to be broken very deep 
vith a spade, the clods well mashed and bro- 
ken, and with the hoe and rake made as fine 
is practicable. 

In laying off the ground for new planta- 
tions, some persons make beds three or four 
:eet wide, leaving narrow alleys between the 
beds, — but the best mode, in our opinion, is to 
lay it off in rows, leaving from two and a half 
to three feet spaces between the rows, and 
3hecking the land across about fifteen inches 
ipart in the rows where the runners are to 
be planted. This will give sufficient room for 
the plants to grow, and also for persons to 
walk along to clean about the plants, and to 
gather the fruit. 

The plants having been removed as directed,, 
if it can be done, put them in the earth with 
the soil sticking to the roots ; but where this 
cannot be done, as where they are brought 
from a distance, the runners are to be planted 
pretty much as cabbage plants are, using a 
trowel, or something of the kind, to open the 
holes into which the roots are to be put. The 
roots should be well put into the earth, but 
not deep enough to cover the bud, which 
ought to be just resting upon the top of the 
soil. The subsequent growth and success of 
the plant depends in no small measure upon 
the treatment which it receives at this period, 
— a remark by the way, which is equally ap- 
plicable to all transplanting. If the weather 
is dry when the runners are planted, dip the 
roots in a tolerable thick mud before planting 
and then water them until they grow off. 

Here, then, we have the plantation made 
larger or smaller, according to the wishes and 
desires of the cultivator. The next and most 
important direction which we have to give is, 
to keep the plantation entirely clear of weeds 
and grasses. This is absolutely indispensable, 
and must, on no account, be neglected. So 
important is it in our judgment, that we ad- 



vise, without hesitation, that unless the plants 
are to be thus cared for, that no attempt be 
made to raise them at all. It will occur, then, 
to every one, that the ground selected for the 
Strawberry plantation ought not to be foul, 
but such as has been carefully prepared with 
special reference* to destroying the weeds, and 
then it must be kept clean, by 'the liberal and 
constant use of the hoe. This is the chief 
cultivation required for the Strawberry, and 
for the want of it, many persons fail to make 
a crop. Where the weeds are allowed to 
grow, the plants become spindling and weak, 
and will bear but few berries, if any at all. 
This direction, be it remembered, is to be ob- 
served with respect to all plantations, whether 
new or old. At all times they must be kept 
clear of weeds. 

About the first of November, the Strawbeny 
plants are to be covered, not as some persons 
suppose, to protect them from the winter's 
cold, but for other purposes, which will pres- 
ently more fully appear. To prepare for this, 
our custom has always been to haul, during 
the summer, a quantity of " pine tags," and 
throw them into the stable ; and then put it 
altogether in a pile, to produce fermentation, 
so as to. have the manure well rotted. At 
the proper period, (that before mentioned,) 
we take an asparagus fork, or a three-pronged 
hoe, and stir the ground well just around the 
plants, making the soil fine and light, — and 
then put on the manure- as before directed. 
This manure is placed on the plant, which is 
covered with it to the depth of one or two 
inches. The rains and snows of winter will 
dissolve the manure, and sink all its fertilizing 
qualities into the soil to feed and nourish the 
plant, and at the advent of the spring, there will 
be nothing on the surface but the " pine tags" 
which were mixed with the manure. These 
are to be allowed to remain, to serve as a pro- 
tection against sand when the berries ripen. 
Some persons are silly enough to remove this 
litter from about the plants, and, as a conse- 
quence, when the fruit is ripe, it falls on the 
earth, and every shower of rain covers it with 
dirt and sand, and renders it totally unfit for 
the table, whereas, the litter would have pre- 
served the fruit from contact with, the soil, 
and kept it clean and nice. Wheat or oat 
straw might be used, were it not for the fact 



376 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



that it is almost sure to rot completely during 
the winter, and so fails to answer the purpo- 
ses specified ; and, besides, when it does be- 
gin to rot, it has a musty smell, which it im- 
parts to the fruit, whereas the " pine tags" 
are tough and do not rot easily ; and being 
washed perfectly clean during winter, in no 
wise affect the -fruit. Saw-dust, spent, tan- 
bark, and other things are sometimes used, but 
nothing, we believe, answers the purpose so 
well as " pine tags." 

At the same time that the soil about the 
plants is stirred, we are accustomed to ma- 
nure the alleys between, aqd to spade them 
very deep, and use them to make some crop 
which will be out of the way early in the 
spring. A crop of spinach or lettuce may 
thus be raised in the Strawberry planta- 
tion without the slightest detriment to the 
plants. 

The plantation is now done for until the 
spring, and then commences again the process 
of removing the weeds. With this difference, 
however, that until the fruit season is over, 
the hoe cannot be used to remove the weeds, 
but they must all be taken away by* the hand. 
And for the obvious reason, that if the hoe be 
used, the soil will become mixed with the 
litter, and so the good to be obtained from 
that will be lost. 

As soon as the plants begin to blossom, let 
water be given them freely, as was directed 
in our article in the Mny number of the 
Southern Planter, at page 318. 

Persons who rear Strawberries for market, 
will find it much to their interest to leave long 
stems to each berry, instead of plucking them 
short; as is too commonly done. Two points 
are gained by this. The berries are less likely 
to get mashed and bruised, because the stems 
will serve as a protection ; and secondly, 
they are prepared for the table with far less 
trouble. 

About the time that the plants begin to 
bloom, runners begin to develope themselves, 
and they should be removed as fast as they 
come throughout the year, as they operate upon 
the plant as suckers do on fruit trees, — take 
away sap and so impair its fruitfulness. They 
should, therefore, always be removed except 
where they are wanted to use in making new 
plantations. 



Every Strawberry plantation requires to be 
renewed once in five years from the time that 
ijt first comes into bearing ; and in order that 
a supply of fruit may be kept up, the new- 
plantation should be made during the third 
year. The fact that this renewal is requisite, 
is generally conceded, indeed we may say uni- 
versally, but the why is not so well know r n, 
and in our judgment a vast deal of twaddle 
and nonsense has been written and printed 
in this connection. Volumes have been writ- 
ten about male and female plants, stamanates, 
pistallates, and hermophradites, without cast- 
ing much light upon the subject, whereas the 
explanation of the difficulty is to be found in 
a simple fact, which is familiar to all, or with 
which all may acquaint themselves with very 
little trouble. When the runner is first planted, 
the roots by which it feeds are fibrous roots, 
clinging to a sort of neck, and are all of a light 
colour ; the second year this neck elongates, and 
changes its colour, becoming quite dark, as do 
also the fibrous roots to which we have already 
alluded, and they cease to perform the func- 
tions which they performed originally, and a 
new set of roots are found just above the 
former, which also change as the others did, — 
and so the third year another set of roots are 
formed, which pass through like stages ; and 
the fourth year, these fibrous roots are found 
growing almost on the surface of the soil? 
where they cannot obtain that sustenance from 
the soil which the plant requires. Of course, 
then, the plant becomes partially or totally 
barren, and may as well be removed immedi- 
ately. This simple statement, which any of 
our readers can verify, by examining the 
plants in their gardens, gives the real solution 
of the fact which everybody has observed, that 
the plants in a few years become barren ; and 
it may serve to direct all in purchasing plants, 
and prevent the imposition sometimes attempt 
I ed, of selling plants two or three years old as 
new plants. If any of the roots are dark, 
the purchaser may rest assured that the plant 
is a year old, if no more. 

The simplest, cheapest, and best method of 
making new Strawberry plantations, is that 
which we have adopted for many years, and 
which we recommend to all. It will be re" 
collected that we directed, that between each 
row of Strawberry plants, an alley be left* 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



two and a half or three feet wide ; and that 
we suggested its use for the rearing of some 
early crop. If this space is kept well manured 
and raked year by year, it will be in capital 
condition for making the new plantation. In 
the third year, take the runners from the old 
plants and set them out in the middle of these 
alleys, and by the next year, when the old 
plantation is becoming worthless, these will 
begin to bear, and then the old plantations 
may be spaded up, and there will be no in- 
terruption to the crop of Strawberries ; and 
this process may be repeated from time to 
time indefinitely. 

There is an infallible rule by which per- 
sons buying Strawberry plants may ascertain 
whether they are good or otherwise. Take 
the plant and examine the neck, — by which, 
we mean that portion of the plant to which 
the roots are attached, and if it is found to 
be small and puny, the plant is worthless, and 
should be rejected; whereas, if it is found to 
be large and full, the plant is good, and may 
be safely selected. If that neck be cut open 
with a knife, there will be found inside the 
embryo blossoms from which the future fruit 
is formed ; and if they are large, healthy 
looking embryos, they will produce fine, large 
berries ; whereas, on the other hand, if they 
are small and weak, the berries will be small 
and indifferent. The Strawberry is, in this 
respect, like hyacinths, and no person need 
be taken in who will have his eyes open. 

Thus far, our observations have been di- 
rected to those who cultivate only a few Straw- 
berries for family use ; and we would now ad- 
dress a word to those who cultivate them for 
market. Let a level piece of land, near a 
running stream, or where water can be pro- 
cured easily, be selected as the place for the 
extensive plantation. As the chief expense 
consists in keeping the land clean, the culti- 
vator should take care to have his land well 
prepared before planting. To effect this, sow 
a crop of rye in the fall of the year, which, in 
the spring of the ensuing year, say about the 
first of May, will be sufficiently grown to be 
turned under with the plow. Sow, immedi- 
ately, a crop of peas, which are to be also 
turned under in the fall of that year, say 
about September. This will have the double 
effect of cleaning the land of all weeds, etc, 



and of enriching the soil sufficiently to pro- 
duce a crop of Strawberries. The land being 
thus ready, let the directions for planting, &c, 
heretofore given, be pursued. 

In conclusion, we would urge all persons 
to cultivate this delicious crop, especially per- 
sons living in the vicinage of our cities. It 
always commands good prices, and since the 
introduction of the custom of putting up 
fruits and vegetables in self-sealing cans, 
Strawberries may be profitably cultivated now 
by persons living in remote rural districts. 
Put up in these cans, they command a ready 
sale, at remunerative prices, and many of our 
farmers might swell their annual revenues by 
giving more attention in this direction. 

Products of our Orchards. 

The value of the orchard products in this 
country for any given year is very considera- 
ble. The report of the Superintendent of the 
Census shows this value for the year 1850 to 
have been $7,723,326. This is the aggregate 
value of the product of all the orchards in the 
United States for a year not- by any means re- 
markable as a fruit yea*. 

It may be profitable and interesting to see 
how this amount is distributed among the sev- 
eral States and Territories of the country. — 
Maine claims $342,865, New Hampshire $248,- 
563, Vermont $315,255, Massachusetts $463,- 
995, Rhode Island $63,994, Connecticut $175,- 
118, New York $1,761,950, New Jersey $607,- 
268, Pennsylvania $723,389, Delaware $46,574, 
Maryland $164,041, District of Columbia $14,- 
843, Virginia $177,137, North Carolina $34,- 
348, South Carolina $35,108, Georgia $92,776, 
Florida $1,280, Alabama $15,408, Mississippi 
$50,405, Louisiana $22,359, Texas $12,605, Ar- 
kansas $40,141, Tennessee $52,894, Kentucky 
$106,230, Ohio $695,921, Michigan $132,650, 
Indiana $324,940, Illinois $446,089, Missouri 
$514,711, Iowa $8,434, Wisconsin $4,823, Cal- 
ifornia $17,700, New Mexico Territory $8,231. 

From this it would seem that eleven States 
are ahead of Virginia in the amount and value 
of their orchard products. They are Maine, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Illinois and Missouri. All the rest are 
behind Virginia, though two or three are very 
nearly equal with her. 



oi 8 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



It is worthy of note, however, in this con- j 
nection that Virginia leads all the slave States 
except Missouri, in productions of the orchards, 
and that all the free States are far ahead of 
the slave States in this respect. 

This may seem singular. How shall we ac- 
count for it, that little Vermont, with its cold 
rude climate and comparatively barren acres, 
produces fruits nearly double the value of those 
grown in Virginia? Several solutions might 
be given, but the true one, in our judgment, is 
found in the fact, that our farmers are accus- 
tomed to think that nothing is worthy their at- 
tention but the staples, corn, wheat, oats and 
tobacco, and further South, rice, cotton and su- 
gar. Living in temperate latitudes where na- 
ture deals so bountifully with the human race, 
our people do not feel called on to take every 
possible advantage of the circumstances sur- 
rounding them as those living in less generous 
climates do. The farmer at the North is an 
economist every way, and studies to get from 
the soil all that it is capable of producing, and 
is thus led to cultivate many things which the 
agriculturist of the South deems unworthy his 
consideration. 

It may well be doubted, however, whether 
the course pursued by us, is wiser than that 
universally adopted at the North. The neglect 
of little things makes our farming far too cost- 
ly, and diminishes the profits which might be, 
and ought to be received by the cultivator, and 
puts the Virginia consumer at the mercy of 
Northern farmers. There is to instance the 
article of apples, which at this present writing 
are selling in the Richmond market at six dol- 
lars the barrel, and selling readily at that, and 
only to be had from the Northern producers. — 
See you not how the Virginia consumer is thus 
made to support the Northern farmer, and how 
the profits of Northern farming are enhanced, 
by the stupid neglect of Southern producers. 
What hinders such a cultivation of apples in 
Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Caroli- 
na, and other States of the South, as would 
make us entirely independent of Northern pro- 
duction. 

It will be seen that we address ourselves 
equally to the farming community in all the 
Southern States, and it is fitting that we should, 
because there is not one which is not equally 
capable with our own State, and none which 



may not greatly improve in these respects. In 
all the rearing of fruits is too little cared for, 
the orchard is too much neglected. Yet what 
farm is complete without a well stocked, well 
kept orchard? Who can realize all the pleas- 
ure and profit of farming without this ? 

Aside from the profit which would arise from 
the sale of the fruits from the orchard, there 
are other considerations which in this general 
view of the subject must not be overlooked. — 
There is the delight and gratification which 
the farmer's family always derives from the 
orchard. It cannot well be ascertained. — 
Children, visitors and others find the fruits of 
the orchard an unfailing source of pleasure, 
and we speak what all well informed medical 
men certify to be the truth, that health is 
greatly promoted by the use of apples, peaches, 
pears and other fruits; and there is little doubt 
but that the visits of the doctor would be less 
frequent to our families if we used these arti- 
cles of food more largely than is customary. — 
If instead of the sugared desserts so common 
on our tables, and which clog our stomachs, we 
would use these health giving products of the 
orchard, we should find our account in it, in 
improved health and the avoidance of doctors' 
bills and nauseating drugs and medicines. 

There is this other fact too which well de- 
serves mention, that butter and milk, both are 
much improved, where the cow is occasionally 
fed with apples, and when it is considered how 
largely these things enter into the family con- 
sumption, and how' much of the pleasure of 
eating depends upon having them sweet and 
well flavored, and it will not be deemed an un- 
important item of the value of an orchard. — 
Besides which it will be admitted that all stock 
feed gratefully on the products of the orchard, 
so that however the crop produced that there is 
never need that it be wasted. 

By all these considerations then, and by oth- 
ers to which we cannot now even so much as 
allude, we urge all farmers in this and other 
Southern States, to devote more space and la- 
bour to the cultivation of fruits. 
1 But be it understood that we recommend to 
no man to rear any except the best fruits. — 
Time was in Virginia when any apple tree that 
would bear was deemed good enough for the 
farmer, because his object was not so much to 
raise fruits fit for food and for sale in the mar- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



579 



ket, as to get an annual supply to be converted 
into brandies. Hence in some sections we 
could find orchards extensive enough ; but 
among the hundreds of trees, there would not 
be one producing a fruit fit to be eaten and de- 
sirable as an article of commerce. While it 
may be admitted that apples cultivated solely 
with the view of converting them into vinegar, 
will pay the producer well for his trouble, we 
believe it is susceptible of the clearest proof, 
that it will pay much better to raise good ap- 
ples for sale in the markets. 

Time and space would both fail us should 
we attempt to set forth all the reasons which 
enforce the propriety of having good orchards 
in this and the other Southern States. Nor is 
it perhaps necessary. Surely no man can 
read the statement with which this article open- 
ed without feeling that our section of the coun- 
try is culpably neglectful in this respect. Sec- 
tional and State pride alone, — the mere ambi- 
tion to be first in everything — might well en- 
force our exhortation, even if there were no 
higher considerations impelling the farmer to 
cultivate the choicest fruits. 



Flowers Accessible to All. 

There is a widely prevalent sentiment that 
flowers are luxuries which are well enough for 
the rich, but which the poor have no concern 
with. Nothing could be more fallacious, as 
will be readily conceded when the sentiment is 
thus broadly and unequivocally stated. Its 
absurdity strikes every mind ; every one re- 
members that flowers spring up spontaneously 
everywhere, as well on the scanty lands and 
about the houses of the poor, as upon the 
broad acres and around, the mansions of the 
rich. God has scattered them profusely over 
the earth's surface to beautify and adorn it, and 
like the all-surrounding and all-embracing at- 
mosphere, they are the common property and 
heritage of all the sons and daughters of Adam. 

True enough it is, that conservatories, green 
houses and such like contrivances for the culti- 
vation of rare plants are only Avithin the reach 
of men who are well to do in the world, and 
there was a period when a collection of choice 
roses cost far too much money to be within the 
reach of men of moderate means. But there 
never was a time when the poorest might not 
have brought from the woods the graceful and 
fragrant jessamine, the exquisite honeysuckle, 



and a thousand other bright and beautiful 
blossoms, which meet the eye in field and 
wood wherever the foot may stray. And these 
despised and neglected gifts of God, vie 
ofttimes in beauty and fragrance with the most 
costly and rare products of the green house, 
and want only the stamp of fashion to make 
them the favorites of the flower garden. Be- 
sides, it is no longer a matter of difficulty and 
heavy expenditure to have a small collection of 
rich and choice roses. This queen flower of 
our gardens can now be bought for a small 
price, and there is no farmer in Virginia so 
poor that he cannot have them if he will. 
Plants which once sold for two and three dol- 
lars, can now be purchased for a twentieth 
part of that sum, and so of other flowers which 
we might mention. 

Thus it will be seen that, however, in times 
past, many of our choice garden-plants were 
beyond the reach of the humble farmers of the 
country, now no man can plead poverty as an 
excuse for neglecting to cultivate them about 
his dwelling. It is well. The family of the 
poor man has to endure privation enough with- 
out being cut off from these simple enjoy- 
ments which seem to have been designed for all 
men everywhere. If the girls of such a family 
cannot have the advantage of schools and 
music and refined society, they can at least 
have their natures impressed by contact and 
communion with the buds and bloss.oms of 
spring and summer, and nature is ever a kind- 
ly teacher, and her lessons never unprofitable 
to her pupils. 

In all sobriety and seriousness, we urge our 
readers to rear flowers themselves, and to en- 
courage the rearing of flowers in their respect- 
ive localities. A patch of flowers is a potent 
educational agent, and he that induces a family 
to make one about a dwelling, has done some- 
thing towards the elevation and refinement of 
that family, and something towards the pro- 
motion of virtue in the world. Intercourse and 
companionship, with all gentle and graceful 
forms and beings, has the tendency to elevate 
and refine human nature, and this the great 
office which music, poetry, flowers, children 
and women have to perform in the world. All 
these in the Divine economy are so many edu- 
cators, training the heart for virtue and happi- 
ness here, and for the hioher and better estate 



380 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of heavenly happiness hereafter. All of us 
are witnesses to the truth clearly revealed to 
us by our personal experiences, and we know 
that this is no fanciful speculation, but the 
teaching of soberness and truth. 

Let us, then, one and all, love flowers, and 
teach our children and our neighbours to love 
them. Our children indeed will not need to be 
N taught this, if we will only give them the op- 
portunity by planting flowers around our 
dwellings ; for there is that in the heart of 
childhood which turns to flowers as the plant 
turns to the light. Meet this natural affection 
with proper objects, brought from the field or 
forest, or from the nursery of the florist, and 
great shall be your reward. 



How to Make Tomatoes Produce Early. 

Persons who plant large crops of tomatoes, 
can easily make them produce ten or twelve 
days earlier than they would otherwise do by 
stunting the growth of the plant by a process 
which we will now proceed to describe. The 
plant usually grows up perpendicularly to a 
height of eighteen inches more or less, when a 
bunch of bloom appears, from which the fruit 
is to be formed. Then from this point another 
shoot grows off, on which, in course of time, 
other blossoms would appear. But to produce 
the result of which we have spoken, this shoot 
must be pinched off, which will have the effect 
of throwing all the vigour of the plant into the 
first developed blossom, and will so hasten their 
maturity as to give fruit ten or twelve days 
earlier than it could otherwise be attained. Of 
course it would not be prudent to treat all the 
plants thus, as it certainly diminishes the pro- 
ductiveness of the plants, but it is very well to 
treat a few plants thus, in order to have early 
fruit. 

Tomatoes for Pickling. 

At this time sow a crop of pear-shaped toma- 
toes for pickles, either yellow or red, or both, 
according to fancy. Most persons do their 
pickling in the fall, and by sowing these toma- 
toes now, they will come into bearing just at 
the right season. Persons often depend upon 
what they call volunteers for tomatoes for pick- 
ling, but we advise all persons to plant special- 
ly for that purpose, and by all means, to use 
the pear-shaped tomatoe. It makes a beautiful 
pickle, and is really an ornament to the dinner 
• table when carefully and nicely prepared. 



Staking" Tomatoes. 

Very many persons, we know, think it need- 
less to stake tomatoes, but we would advise that 
this be done invariabty. When it is neglected, 
two difficulties almost invariably occur. One 
is, that during the hot season the earth be- 
comes very much heated, and so much of the 
fruit as is lying directly on the ground, is like- 
ly to be scalded and rendered unfit for use ; or 
when this does not happen, the first being cut 
off from the sunshine by the vines, and they 
ripen slowly, and even when ripe, are not so 
well flavored as where they are so staked as to 
have the sun freety. 

Two methods of staking have been practised 
by us, either of which we can confidently re- 
commend to our readers. 

First, take pea brush and lay it down by the 
tomatoe plants and let them run over it, which 
will keep them from the ground and support 
them while bearing. This is specially commend- 
ed to those who plant tomatoes largely. The 
other is designed for those who cultivate but a 
few vines, and who can therefore give them 
more attention. Take four stakes and put 
them in the ground all around the tomatoe 
plant, and then fasten to them a barrel hoop, 
just high enough to support the plant. As the 
plants grow higher, add other hoops, until the 
support is high enough to support the plant in 
the more advanced stages of its growth. This 
method will answer every purpose for which 
staking is recommended, and will besides, in no 
small measure, preserve the fruit from the 
attacks of fowls, Avhile, at the same time, it is 
believed by many experienced cultivators that 
this treatment will much enhance the pro- 
ductiveness of the plants. 



A Needed Caution. 

The season has been so backward, the cold 
weather has continued so long, that probably 
very little has yet been done in the flower 
gardens, and we must refer to the articles in 
the last number of the Planter. If seeds were 
sown sometime ago, it is very likely that they 
have failed to germinate, or having appeared 
above ground have been cut down by the cold. 
Wherever this has happened, of course the 
flower seed must be resown, else there will be 
no flowers as the spring and summer advances. 
Owing to the same causes, all farm work is 
considerably behindhand in most localities m 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



381 



and for that reason, unless the ladies are 
watchful of their own interests, their husbands 
will be very likely to neglect the flowers alto- 
gether. This our fair readers must by no 
means allow. If it be important to raise 
wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, and other staple ag- 
ricultural .products, it is scarcely less desirable 
to have roses, pinks, violets, pansies, sweet 
williams, mignoinettes, and a hundred other 
bright and beautiful blossoms which the all- 
wise Creator has given us for our good. One 
feeds and clothes the body and puts money into 
the pockets ; and the others cultivate the taste, 
refine the emotions, and feed the soul. As we 
are not all pocket and body, but have mind 
and soul as well, let us give to each what is 
fitting and convenient, " that we may be per- 
fect and entire, lacking nothing." 

Watch the Worms. 

As the warm season advances caterpillars 
and other vermin will begin to show themselves 
in the trees of the orchard. Have an eye to 
them, and so soon as they are discovered, biush 
them off and kill them. It is the easiest thing 
imaginable to keep clear of all such pests by 
timely effort, and nothing is more difficult than 
to get rid of them when once they have grown 
numerous. In this, as in everything else about 
the farm, "a stitch in time saves nine," and he 
little deserves pity who neglects to exterminate 
the vermin from his fruit trees while they are 
yet few and far between, and who finally has 
his hopes blasted by ravages he himself has 
invited. He reaps only the reward of his own 
folly, or as the lawyers would say, he suffers 
by his own laches. If, then, you would pre- 
serve your orchards from the scourge of the 
vermin, heed the words which heads this arti- 
cle, "Watch the Worms." 



The Morello Cherry. 
Mr. Editor: — There is growing in my yard 
a common Morello cherry tree, planted, I sup- 
pose, some eighteen years ago. I have known 
it for the past twelve years, during that time, I 
am confident that it has never borne two quarts 
of fruit, in any one season, save the present. 
During the heavy sleet the past winter, it was 
broken down, turned up entirely by the roots, 
and would have fallen flat to the ground, had it 
not lodged on the garden fence near which it 
was growing. On discovering its situation, my 
first impulse was to have it dug out entirely, 
.and burned as a cumberer of the ground, but 
on second thoughts, I concluded to restore it to 
its original position, prop it up, and note the 
consequences. And Well have I been reward- 
ed for my forbearance ; for this season it has 
produced as heavy a crop and as fine fruit as is 



usually seen on that species — the effect no 
doubt of the severe root priming that resulted 
from the accident. However, let the cause of 
its fruitfulness this season be what it may, the 
fact is an interesting one. 

As I am speaking of fruit, it may be as well 
for me to go a little further and give you an 
account of one or two other trees that have re- 
warded my skilful culture, in a very different 
manner. I allude to two beautiful apricot 
trees, which I had, one a Peach, and the other 
a Moor Park. These had always been pruned 
every winter by " shortening in," notwith- 
standing their luxuriance made them put forth 
branches of enormous length, giving them as 
I thought, a straggling, unsightly appearance ; 
to remedy this, and make them form dense, 
handsome heads, I cut off from three-fourths 
to four-fifths of the end of every new branch ; 
as a consequence, each of them is now at this 
present, writing as dead as a hammer. Some 
think they died from the severity of the win- 
ter. I scarcely think so; a Blenheim apricot, 
a year younger, pruned in the same way, is 
dead ; but a Royal apricot of the same age as 
the Blenheim, not so severely pruned, is alive 
and flourishing. This season for the first time, 
it shows fruit, now nearly ripe, and as beauti- 
ful as eye ever rested on. 

Very respectfully, yours, &c. 

HUGH M. NEILSER. 

Summerville, June 15, 1856. 

Root pruning has been practised with much success 
to induce the pear tree to fruit. It is done in this wise — 
a circle is described around the tree, and then a trench 
dug around with a sharp strong spade. The surface 
roots are cut, and during the healing process, and the 
formation of new roollers, the tree being in a state of 
comparative rest, forms fruit buds instead of wood. 
This no doubt was the case with your cherry tree. 
The loss of the apncot trees, was no doubt owing to 
severe pruning. There was too great a hole made in 
their lungs. Had you checked out your over-luxu- 
riance by root pruning, and shortened in only enough 
to form handsome heads, your trees would have been 
as lively as a trip hammer, and giving fine crops of 
fruit, barring the curculio. — Ed. 



Caked or Inflamed Udder. 

The spring season is that part of the year 
when many cows are very liable to have caked 
udder. We therefore commend to the atten- 
tion of our readers the application of tincture 
of arnica as a wash, which the Connecticut 
Homestead states has been found to be a reme- 
dj. One of the subscribers to that journal 
says "that he had a cow last season that came 
from the pasture with her bag swollen and very 
hard, in such severe pain that she would not 
allow- any one to touch it, but gave evidence of 
being in the most excruciating agony. She 
was held, and her udder bathed with cold wa- 
ter sometime, without producing any effect, and 
other usual applications were resorted to; final- 
ly, knowing the effect of tincture of arnica on 
pain with the human subject, he brought some 
and applied some of it to the bag. The cow 



382 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ceased struggling, j)>nd almost immediately gave 
evident manifestations of pleasure, allowing 
the swollen and hard mass to be rubbed and 
kneaded. After again applying the arnica and 
again rubbing, a complete cure was effected. — 
In a few days she regained her milk and is now 
in as good case as before. 



EVERY MAN HIS OWN ARCHITECT. 

The way 

To Build a Country House 

is to get 

RICH'S AMERICAN ARCHITECT. 

Price $6. 

Published by C. M. SAXTON # CO. 

No. 140 Fulton-st., New York. 

RURAL AGRICULTURE. By L. F. Allen. Em- 
bracing Out Buildings as well as Cottages and Farm 
Houses. Price $1 25. At 

SAXTON'S No. 140 Fulton-st., 

LAY OUT YOUR GROUNDS by DOWNING'S 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. Price $3 50. Pub- 

l C. M^ SAXTON & CO-, No, 140 Fulton-st., N. Y. 

POULTRY— LOOK OUT FOR YOUR CHICK- 
ENS ; and the best way to do that is told plainly in 
THE AMERICAN POULTRY YARD. 
Price $1. 
Published bv SAXTON & CO., 

"No. 140 Fulton-st., N. Y. 

PUT UP GOOD GREENHOUSES THIS 
SUMMER, 

And get readv for Winter. 
LEUCHAR'S HOW TO BUILD, 
Gives full directions. Price $1 25. To be found at 
SAXTON & CO.'S, No. 140 Fulton-st-, N. Y. 
|5p Sent free of postage on receipt of price. 
June 1857— It 



NEW PIANOS FOR OLD ONES. 

The undersigned will give full 8 

"iff 



value for Old Pianos in exchange 
New ones, 

No one will offer greater inducements to purchasers 
of Pianos than myself. I have been engaged in the 
business for more than twenty years, and no one can 
say that I ever sold a bad one. 

E. P. NASH, 
Book and Piano Seller, 
Petersburg, Va. 
June 1857— tf 



PLOUGHS. 



THE following numbers of PLOUGHS and 
PLOUGH CASTINGS always on hand : 
Minor & Horton. Nos. 18, 18*. 19, 19$, 20, 21 and 22. 
Mayher & Co. and John Moore, of same numbers, 
including 10L1U, 12, 13* and 1$. 

Wiley, double point, 3, 4, 5|, 56, 76, 8$, 11. 
Livingston County, Nos. 1, 2, 2|, 3 arid 4. right hand. 

" Nos, 4, 5, 6, left hand. 
Wilson & Smither's Improved Livington, Nos. 2,2$, 
3, 4. for right and left hand, for wrought point" 



' McCormiek, Nos. 6, 7, 8,9, 10, 12, wrought point. 
»-is, 9, 10. 12, wrought, 9 and 10 cast. 



Dav 



Prouty & Meat and Rugglcs, Nourse, Mason &. Co., 
several sizes, 2 and 3 horse. 

Cosby s, Grants unci Saunders Grain Cradles, Glean- 
ers and other Implements to suit the season. 

WM. PALMER, SON & CO. 

June 1857 — 3t 



PUBLIC SALE OF 
Imp roved Short Horns (Durham Cattle.) 

James Gowen will sell at Public Sale, on WED- 
NESDAY, the 10th of June next, at Mount Airy, 
Philadelphia, a choice Herd of SHORT HORNS, 
consisting of Cows, young Bulls, Heifers and Calves, 
bred expressly with the view of establishing the fine 
Milking and easy Feeding properties of the "Durham 
Breed." ^ 

Catalogues with pedigrees will be furnished in due 
time. 

("Sp 3 " Sale to commence at 11 o'clock. 

June 1857— It 



Valuable tract of Land for Sale at 
Public Auction. 

On'Wednesday the 8th of July next, will be sold on 
the premises, without reserve, a valuable tract of land 
situated on Banister river in the county of Halifax, 
one mile from the Richmond and Danvilie Rail Road, 
and eight miles from the Court House. 

The tract contains SEVEN HUNDRED AND 
TWENTY FOUR AND A HALF ACRES, of which 
Two hundred and Seventy five are best river low 
grounds, and the balance fair high land. The land is 
well watered with lumber sufficient for all plantation 
uses. 

Having purchased a dower interest, which has here- 
tofore been an incumbrance on the land, I can now 
make a perfect title. 

Presuming that persons wishing to purchase will 
see the land before the day of sale. I deem farther 
description unnecessary. The terms will be one third 
cash and the balance in two equal annual installments, 
with interest from day of sale. Secured by a deed on 
the land or by good personal security. 

THOMAS BRUCE. 

Jnne 1857— 2t 



Double Screened Rockaway. 
J. MONTGOMERY & BROTHERS 

CELEBRATED PA- 
TENT DOUBLE 
SCREEN ROCKA- 
WAY WHEAT FAN, 

which since the late 
Improvement has ta- 
ken the first premium 
at all »f the Agricultn- 
al fairs at which it 
has been exhibited, and 
at the Fair of the Vir- 
ginia State Agricultu- 
ral Society last fall, had awarded to it the first premi- 
um after a most thorough trial with the most celebra- 
ted fans now manufactured. 

'The subscribers agents for the Patentees have made 
arrangements for a full supply for the approaching 
season. 

WM. PALMER, SON & CO. 
June. 1857— 3t 




HORSE TONIC 

For improving the condition of Horses and 
Mules, giving them an appetite, relieving them of 
Hidebound, Botts, Surfeit Worms, Mange, Chronic 
Cough,- Roaring, and all internal diseases, and improv- 
ing their skin and hair. Can be left off* after the ani- 
mal is improved without his falling back to his first 
poor condition. Can be used without regard to work 
or weather. Warranted to be no quack humbug, but 
put up and sold only by the manufacturers. 

DUVAL & NORTON, 
Agricultural Druggists and Chemists, 

Mar 1857 — tf Richmond, Va. 



SOUTHERN PLANTER.— ADVERTISING SHEET. 



38- 



HYGEIA HOTEL, 

Old Point Comfort, Virginia. 

This most delightful Summer Resort — the 
" bright particular" locality of all the sunny So:itli — 
is now ihe sole property of the undersigned and will 
be opened on the 1st of June next, and each succes- 
sive June following. I engage to make it to the seek- 
ers for health, recreation, gayety, and good living, su- 
premely attractive. 

For health, no mountain retreat can be safer, at any 
season of the year. It is as exempt from disease in 
August, and September, and October, as in April, 
May, or June. Indeed, the first three are infinitely 
the most pleasant of the season. The weather is mil- 
der, the sea breeze balmier, and the luxuries of the 
salt water, are to be had of finer quality, and in greater 
profusion. There is no more inviting spot on the whole 
Atlantic Seaboard. It is strictly true of it, what the 
Poet hath said : 

"Oh! if there be an Elysium on earth, it is this, it is 
this!" 

That visitors may safely seek its attractions at all 
seasons of the year, I submit the following letters of 
Drs. Jarvis, Archer, Semple, Shield, Hope, Mallory, 
Simkins and Vaughan, and of James S. French, Esq., 
who, for nearly ten years, was the proprietor of the 
establishment. My own experience and observation 
for more than thirty years past, are to the same effect. 
JOS. SEGAR, Proprietor. 

Old Point Comfort, April 25, 1857. 

Fort Monroe, Va., Feb. 11, 1857. 

My Dear Sir — I acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of yesterday asking; my opinion as to the "char- 
acter of Old Point Comfort for health, and particularly 
as to its exemption from diseases of a bilious charac- 
ter." 

A residence of three years at Old Point Comfort as 
the Surgeon of this Post, enables me to bear full tes- 
timony to its well known salubrity, and the reputation 
it has heretofore enjoyed in its exemption from the or- 
dinary forms of disease, especially those of a malarial 
or febrile nature, usually prevailing during the spring 
or autumnal months in other sections- of the country 
and neighbourhood. 

The records of the military hospital for years past 
further confirm my own experience, not only in this 
fortunate exemption from that class of disease ordina- 
rily arising from malaria, but in the less frequency as 
well as diminished severity of those epidemics that 
have, from time to time, prevailed in almost every por- 
tion of our country. 

1 remain yours, very respectfully, 
N. S. JARVIS, M. D., Surgeon U. S. A. 

Jos. Segar, Esq., Roseland. Va. 

Richmond, Aug. 7, 1856. 
My Dear Sir : — Your favor requesting my opinion 
as to the general healthiness of Old Point Comfort, is 
received, and I hasten to reply. 

I resided nt Old Point, as Post Surgeon and as 
Physician, upwards of twenty yenrs, and I have no 
.hesitation in saying, that there are few, if any locali- 
ties in the United States, more healthy at all seasons 
of the year. 

1 know of no place more exempt from bilious dis- 
eases, and 1 have never known acase of intermittent le- 
ver to originate there. 

In fine, I consider visitors from any climate as safe 
from disease, at Old Point Comfort, during the autumn 
months as they would be Mi the mountains ; or any 
wnere at the North. 

Very respectfully, vour obedient servant, 
R. ARCHER. 
Josepm Segar, Esq., Old Point Comfort. 



Hampton, Aug. 18, 1856. 

Dear Sir: — It gives me pleasure to comply with 
your request to : ; tate my opinion of the salubrity of 
Old Point Comfort, during the summer and autumn. 

Having practised medicine for the last ten years 
among the residents and visiters, and having been fre- 
quently employed to attend the Garrison, 1 um entire- 
ly satisfied that the place is entirely exempt from 
bilious fevers of all kinds — the very few such cases 
which have fallen under my treatment, having been 
clearly traceable to exposure at some notorious mias- 
matic locality. 

Visitors at Old Point are as perfectly safe, at any 
season, from intermittent and remittent fever, as they 
would be in any mountainous region. Patients suffer- 
ing in such regions from bronchial affections, particu- 
ly asthma, are uniformly benefitted by a visit to Old 
Point. 

I can also state that several army surgeons have in- 
formed me that the sick reports snow less sickness at 
Fort Monroe than any military post in the Union. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
G. WM. SEMPLE, M. D. 

Joseph Segar, Esq., Hygeia Hotel, Ohl Point Com- 
fort. 

• Hampton, Aug. 23rd, 1856. 

Dear Sir : — Yours of yesterday's date, asking my 
opinion of the health of Old Point Comfort, is before 
me. 

I have been practising medicine in Hampton and 
Old Point for 15 years, and consider it as healthy a 
place as any that I know on the face of the earth. I 
do not remember having seen there a case of remittent 
or intermittent fever that was not contracted else- 
where. Verv respectfully, 

S. R. SHIELD. 

Joseph Segar, Esq., Hygeia Hotel. 

Hampton, Aug, 22nd, 1856. 

My Dear Sir: — In reply to your queries contained 
in your note of the 7th inst., it gives me pleasure to 
state that, in my opinion, Old Point Comfort is as 
healthy a locality as any on the Atlantic coast. 

Persons from any part of our country may remain 
there through the entire year with perfect safety. 
The endemic diseases of all this region, I may add. have 
become very much modified of late, as any one at all 
familiar with the causes which produce them, might, 
upon the slightest observation, perceive. An ordinary 
case of bilious fever seldom requires more than two or 
three days' treatment. 

I have not, during a practice of more than five years 
in this vicinity, seen a case of intermittent or bilious 
fever which originated at Old Point. 

Yours, truly, JESSE P. HOPE. 

Joseph Segar, Esq., Roseland. 

Norfolk, Va., Aug. 25th, 1856. 

Joseph Segar, Esq., Hygeia, Hotel. 

Dear Sir :— in regard to the health of Old Point, I 
have only to remark, that having been familiar with 
the place ever since my boyhood, I speak confidently 
when 1 declare it to be among the healthiest spots on 
the Continent of America. Bilious and ague lever 
are unknown there, while in all our epidemics it has 
escaped unharmed. I would sooner take my chance 
at Old Point to avoid those diseases in summer and 
fall than the mountains, nr even at the White Sulphur. 
For 8 years i resided in the vicinity of Old Point, and 
for the remainder of my life in Norfolk, thus affording 
me ample opportunity of ascertaining the fact in ques- 
tion. Since 1819, when the extensive public works 
were commenced, Old Point has contained quite a 
large population, made up of the Military and persons 
connected with the Engineer Department, to say 
no'hing of other citizens and visitors. These have en- 
joyed, at all seasons, an unexampled share of excel- 
lent health. 



384 



SOUTHERN PLANTER.— ADVERTISING SHEET. 



The U.S. Government has, on several occasions, sent [known is Old Point C"mfort ; and this I sav after 



troops to Old Point from other stations to recruit their 
health, and with the desired effect. What induced 
this was, doubtless, the favorable reports of the Army 
Surgeons as to the sanitary character of the place. 
We cannot account for tastes nor can we control fash- 
ion ; but it has always been a rnatjsr of surprise to me 
that visitors should leave the Point just at the time 
when it is most pleasant. The latter part of Au- 
gust and the whole of September are among the 
healthiest and most agreeable periods to remain at 
Old Point ; for the air is bracing and yet mild during 
the day, and at night you sleep comfortably under a 
blanket. Hog fish and oysters are of much finer flavor 
than in July, and the fishing far better than in the ex- 
treme heat of the summer. No one within the broad 
limits of the Old Dominion can have failed to appreci- 
ate the beauty of our [ndian Summer (so called). 
This, while it endures some few weeks in other locali- 
ties, lasts the whole fall at the Point, commencing 
about the 20th of August. I can give no stronger 
proof of the earnestness and sincerity of my convic- 
tions on this head, than by declaring that if the au- 
thorities would grant me permission to erect a cottage 
on the beach' I would gladly avail myself of the pri- 
vilege with a view to residing there all summer and 
fall with my family. But I wjll not enlarge on this 
topic. There is, and there can be, no dispute on the 
subject, since all who know the place will endorse 
every word I have uttered. The health of Old Point, 
and its exemption from the fall diseases of our climate, 
are facts too well established to admit of cavil or 
doubt, indeed, to quote the words of a conspicuous 
politician, it is a "fixed fact.'''' 

Very respectfully, vour obedient servant 
F. MALLORY, M. D. 

Norfolk, Aug. 24, 1856. 

Joseph Segar, Esq. : Dear Sir — Having spent my 
school-boy days in the immediate vicinity of Old Point, 
and somewhat familiar for many years with the hygeaic 
condition of the people — residents and guests, who an- 
nually assembled there — 1 am enabled to answer your 
enquiry with entire confidence in the correctness of 
my own conclusions. This experience has satisfied 
me that no locality, in our latitude, can be more heal- 
thy. Unconnected with " the main," save by a narrow 
strip of beach land, which is only partially covered 
with a stunted vegetation ; its sources every where 
washed by the salt ocean wave, and without a single 
sunken spot where vegetable humus can gather, it 
seems to me utterly impossible that malaria can be 
generated there, or that noxious airs can reach it from 
my portion of the adjacent country. Come from what- 
ever point of the compass the winds may, they are sea 
breezes still, and could scarcely waft a poisonous ex- 
halation from the distant shores abroad. 

In my estimation, fevers of a bilious, remitent or in- 
termittent type might as soon be expected to originate 
on the highest peak of the Blue Ridge as on the clean, 
barren sand plane on which the Hvgeia Hotel is built. 
Yours, truly, J. J. SiMKINS. 

Hampton, Va., March 30. 1857. 
My Dear Sir — I have received your letter req nest- 
ing my opinion of the general healthiness of Old Point 
Comfort* and particularly as to its exemption from 
bilious diseases. 

In reply to vour inquiry, it gives me pleasure to 
state, that I know of no place in Virginia with which 
Old Point Comfort will not, in that respect, favourably 
compare; and 1 do not remember ever to have seen a 
case oj bilious fever which originated at that place. 
Yours, respectfully, 

W'M. It. VAUGIIAN, M. D. 
Jos. Segar, Esq., Roscland. 

Alexandria, Aug. 25, 1^56. 

My Dear Sir — In reply to yours of 30th instant 

can only say, that the healthiest spot I have ev 



residence there of eight or nine years. A very mista- 
ken notion prevails as to its health in August and the 
fall months, and there are persons who deem it unsafe 
to remain there at such times. My .own experience 
teaches me that, for comfort and health. Old Pouit is 
far more desiruble in August and the fall months than 
earlier. Fish and oysters are in greater perfection, 
and no climate can be purer or, more delightful, or 
healthier. At any season of the year, Spring, Sum- 
mer, Autumn or Winter, I would as soon take my 
chance for health there as at the White Sulphur 
Springs, or any watering place in America. 
Yours, verv truly, 

JAMES S. FRENCH. 

Jos. Segar, Esq., Roselar.d, Eliz. City Co., Va. 

May 57— 5t 



AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 

The Subscribers offer the following seasona- 
ble seeds, the growth of last year, and of unsurpassed 
qualities Dealers and others requiring large quanti- 
ties, will be served at prices considerably below the 
rates quoted. 

Best quality Red Top Turnip 75 cts. per lb. 

Red Top Strap Leaf 
Large White English Globe do 

Do do do Norfolk 

Long White Tankard 



rnip 


75 


do 


75 


do 


50 


do 


50 


do 


75 


do 


75 


do 


75 


do 


75 


do 


50 


do 


50 



Yellow Stone 

Yellow Aberdeen 

Best American Improved 

Ruta Baga 
Imported do 

Do Purple Top 

And 12 other fine varieties of Turnips 

from 50 cts. to $1 00 

Early Scarlet Horn Carrot 50 cts. to 1 00 
Improved Long Orange do 50 cts. to 1 00 
Long White do 75 

White Sugar Beet do 50 

Yellow do do 50 

Long Red Mangel Wurt- 

zel do 

Yellow Globe Wnrtzel do 
Fine Mixed French Grass Seed for 

Lawns 
And other Mixtures for Lawns $3 and 4 00 

Also the finest qualities of Red, White, Dutch, Lu- 
cerne and other Clovers — Timothy, Red Tops, Blue 
Grass, English and Italian Ray Grasses, Orchard — 
Sweet Scented Vernal — the Fescues, and other Grass- 
es, with a large and complete assortment of Vegkta- 
jjle, Flowkr and Field Seeds of the best qualities 
at reasonable rates. 

JAMES M. THORBURN & CO., 

15 John Street, New York. 

ISP^ Catalogues on application. 

Mav 57— 2m 



50 " " " 
50 " " " 

$5 00 per bush. 



PORTABLE GAS APPARATUS. 

HAVING received the exclusive agency for 
the State of Virginia from the Maryland Portable Gas 
Company, for the sale of their machines, we are now 
prepared to contract for their erection. 

The machine is remarkable for its extreme simplici- 
ty', its safety and economy ; one half a cent per burner 
for an hour a consumption, is a large estimate for this 
Gas, while in illuminating qualities it is not surpassed 
by the Coal Gas of any city in the Union. It is well 
adapted for Private Houses. Factories, Schools, Col- 
Leges, Churches and watering places, and provides, 
what in cities is considered an indispensable luxury, 
a good pas light, at much less expense than is paid 
for Oil or Candles. 

Anv information on the subject may he obtained by 
addressing S TEBBINS & PULLEN, 

May 57— ly 101 Broad St., Richmond, Va. 



!: 



SOUTHERN PLANTER.— ADVERTISING SHEET. 



W. W. DINGEE & CO., 

RE manufacturing for the present season, 
me and two horse Railway Powers and Thresh- 

Our powers are longer than formerly — the cogs 
e pinions are chilled, which prevents them wear- 

The band wheel goes on either side of the Fow- 
[he plat tor in has a covering of inch holders, and 
r*ower is mounted on a pair of wheels for conve- 
ne of moving. Our Threshers are overshot, the 
ider is entirely of iron, and will last a life time in 
tant use. The boxes have self-oiling cups, which 
i the journals constantly oiled, thus preventing 
ing and consequent wear. The wheels and gear 
e horse power are oiled by a similar device. The 
er is driven by the main belt, and takes less than 
the power used in the old method- The shaker 
=;ys tits on the power, and may be used for ma- 
es requiring slow motion as a Corn Shelter or a 
w Cutter. Our two-horse Machine, with 3 hands, 
pable of threshing: 175 bushels of Wheat per day. 

complete two-horse Machine will consist of a 
de railway power, 29 incti cylinder thresher, a 
;er, 30 feet of India Rubber Belting, Fixtures for 
ing Clover Seed, hooks for fastening the Thresher 
ie floor, a pair of self-feeding oil cans for the pow- 
ivrench, oil can, and covers for oil cups. Price 
), delivered in Baltimore. With the one-horse 
hine will be sent a 24 inch iron cylinder thresher 
all the fixtures enumerated above. Price §125, 
yered in Baltimore. All work warranted. 
or further information. address W. W. DINGEE &. 
, YitKK, Fa., and secure circular. 
ayj)7— 6t 

WHEAT FANS. 

s Patent Grain Cleaner! 

SIXTEEN PREMIUMS ! ! 
'HE Double Screening Separator has added 
:s list of Premiums, the first Premium at the Vir- 
I Agricultural Fair, Richmond, Va.; also at Pe- 
burg and Fredericksburg Va., and Washington, 
at Knoxville, Tennessee. This Improved Fan 
patented April 20th 1852, and has become very 
ular wherever it is known, proving by its utility in 
editiously cleaning all kinds of grain, to be the 
; Grain Cleaner now in use. Those in want of a good 
i would do well to call at Doyle's &, Snllinger's 
tory, in Fredericksburg, Va.,and examine for them- 
es. 

'hese Improved Fans will be furnished to any 
it within fifty miles of the Factory, and further by 
■roads and Steamboats. Communications address* 
to the undersigned at Fredericksburg, Va., will be 
mptlv attended to. 
lav 57— 6m DOYLE & SULLINGER. 



>oyle' 



h. DESIRABLE FARM FOR SALE. 

CITE Subscriber offers for sale a desirable 
■m in Cumberland County, on Willis' River, at 
won, ten miles above Cariersviile. It contains 228 
res, of which 135 are open, and 93 in woods. The 
d is in a good state of improvement. There is on 
place an abundance of plant laud, water, and tim- 
; a good landing with verv good navigation, a 
[1ST AND SAW MILL within one fourth of a 
e of the house. 

|*he Improvements consist of a Dwelling with 5 
ms and 2 Porches, Kitchen, Icehouse, Stables. To- 
co Barn, sufficient to cure 10,000 pounds, Negro 
)ins, &c. 

twill be sold on a credit of 1 and 2 years with in- 
J8I from date, of sale. 
''or further information apply to 

N. AUGUST, 
Agricultural Registry Office. 
No. 153 Main Street. 
lay 57 — tf Richmond, Va. 



C. S. WAINWRIGHT'S 

FIRST PUBLIC SALE OF 

THOROUGH-BRKD NORTH DEVON 
CATTXE. 

To be held at " The Meadows," on (he 17' th day of 
June 1857. 

The subscriber in tends holding hie first pub- 
lic auction of North Devon Cattle on the above men- 
tioned day, at his residence, "The Meadows." 4 miles 
north of Rhinebeck station, on the Hudson River Rail- 
road. The animals to he sold will number between 
20 and 25 head, males and females, from calves to full 
grown; all of which have been either bred or import- 
ed by himself, and have perfect Herd book pedigrees. 
As it lot, he believes he may say with truth, they art- 
fully equal to any ever yet offered to the farmers of 
the U. S. Among the number will be the imported 
bull Mav-Bov (75), and the imported cows Nonpareil 
(924), and Moss-Rose (004). 

Catalogues containing full pedigrees and all neces- 
sary information are now ready, and will be sent, on 
application, to all desiring them. The subscriber will 
be happy to have gentlemen vi-it his herd at any time 

All the sales will he bona Jide, and no animals on 
the Catalogue will be disposed of until the auction. 
C S. WAIN WRIGHT, 
" The Meadows," near Rhinebeck, N. Y. 

May 1857— 2t 

S. M cGRUD E R ' S SON S , 

COMMISSION MERCHANTS. 

JUOILVOXD, VA. 

Pay particular attention to sales — Corn, Wheat, 
Flour, Tobacco, &-c. Aug. 56 — 1 

1,000 Bushels Clay and Shinney Peas 
Sale, 

Planters wishing a supply had best forw! 
their orders promptly. 

THOS. BRANCH & SONS, 
May 1 — 3t Petersburg. 




VALUABLE TIMBERED LAM) FOR 
SALE. 

I offer for sale Seven Hundred and Thir- 
ty-Two and one-quarter (7'.12i) acres of valuable tim- 
bered Land, lying immediately on the Norfolk and Pe- 
tersburg Railroad in the county of Sussex. The whole 
tract is in original growth of Pine and Oak, principally 
Pine, and offers great inducements to Lumber getters. 

Terms liberal. For further particulars apply either 
by letter or personally, to 



Mav — 4 m 



WM. C. JONES. 
Surry Courf-House P. ()., Va. 



REAPING MACHINES. 

Persons wishing Hussey's or McCormick's Reap- 
ers for the comim; harvest will please order early. — 
McCormick's Reaper is warranted to cut 1£ acres an 
hour, and to save three-fourths of the wheat scattered 
bv ordinary cradling. 
'April :it ." II. M SMITH. 

JOHN MORTON, Florist, 

West end of Grace Street, hlCHAJONl). VA. 

Roses, Camelias, Ornamental Trees, Ever- 
greens, Shrubs, Grape Vines. I 

Bouquets tastefully nrranged. S^Blv 

MITCHELL dTTYLER, 

DEALERS IN 

Watches, Clocks, Jewelry, Silver and Plaled 
Ware, Military and Fancy Goods. 
HIC1IMOXD, VA. 
Sept 1S5G— ly 



SOUTHERN PLANTER.— ADVERTISING SHEET 



3,100 Acres of Albermarle Land 
for Sale. 

The undersigned offers for sale privately, on accom- 
modating terms, the several farms described below. If 
not sold by the 1st of September next, they will then 
be sold at public auction. Possession given in time 
to seed a wheat crop. 

140 acres of land, a part of the Bloomfield firm, ad- 
joining the lands of Peter McGehee and W. W. Gil- 
mer, one-third Ivy Creek Low-Grounds, and 15, acres 
of pillaged wood land. Price $60 per acre. 

Yates', a part of Bloomfield, adjoins the D. S. farm, 
is within five miles of the University, contains 400 
acres, one-fourth well-timbered, and can be had cheap 
at $33 per acre. 

Vernlem, Miss E. D. Gooch's farm, adjoins Bloom- 
field and the lands of R. VV. N. Noland, contains 920 
acres, 600 of which are cleared, has on it a handsome 
new dwelling, with nine large rooms, just finished, and 
all necessary out buildings. Price $33 per acre. 

Higginbotham, the property of Dr. W. F. Gooch, is 
a beautiful farm of 468 acres, adjoining the lands of 
R. W. N, Noland and Peter McGehee. and has on it 
an ample supply of wood and buildings. Price $33 
per acre. 

These four tracts of land, all lie within less than 
two miles of Woodville Depot, on the Central Rail- 
road, in a refined neighborhood, and convenient to 
Charlottesyille, the University, and to Bloomfield Male 
Academy; which, in future, will be conducted by 
Messrs, W. LeRoy Brown, and VV. VV- Te ;=bs, and 
will be one of the very best preparatory Schools in 
Virginia. 

Richards', lies on the Blue Ridge, on both sides of 

afcthe line*, between Albemarle and Rockingham, a little 

North of Brown's Gap. and contains over 1,100 acres 

of valuable land, only 100 acres of which are cleared. 

Price $5 per acre. 

On the 1st of September the undersigned, at Bloom 
field, will commence to sell, at public auction, all the 
personal property, except the negroes, belonging to 
the above mentioned farms. 

'Post Office, Woodville Depot, Albemarle countv, 
Va. P. H. GOODLOE. 

June 1857— tf 



Botetourt Land for Sale. 

The subscriber wishes to sell some TWO OR 
THREE THOUSAND ACRES of Land lying in the 
vicinity of Fincastle on CATAWBA CREEK and the 
North Fork, one of its tributaries. The Land will be 
divided into five or six parcels, each with a good sup- 
ply of water, timber, and arabic land- 

One Division will embrace the 

CATAWBA MIJXS, 
now in good repair, with an ample supply of water, in 
a good neighbourhood lor custom, and for the pur- 
chase of wheat. 

Another parcel will include an excellent 

DWELLING HOUSE, 

with eight rooms, Kitchen, and a large Barn, Stables, 

A good DWELLING HOUSE, with four rooms ; a 
large Barn with Stables sufficient for stabling 40 head 
of Cows, with water-power for SAW and CHOPPING 
MILL, will lie included in another subdivision. 

On the other subdivisions there are nn improvements 
of any value, but each will include tine and never 
failing Springs, excellent Timber, and as GOOD 
TOBACCO LAM) as is lobe found in the County. 

As the subscriber is anxious to sell, In; would like 
all in search of land, to see him before purchasing 
elsewhere. 

For further information, address 

CARY BKECKENRIDGE, Fincusile. 

June 1S57— if 



THE SUBSCRIBER having discontinue 
the Grocery business, will from this date devc 
his attention exclusively to the Commission businerf 
for the sale of all kinds of Country Produce, W T heJ 
Corn, Tobacco, &c ; also, to the Purchase of GuaJ 
Groceries. &c. 

He has associated his nephew, W. G. MILLE 
with him. who will give his particular attention tot 
sales of Tobacco. 

He will also take this opportunity lor returning I 
heartfelt thanks to his many friends for the liberal p 
ronage extended to him for so long a time, and hor 
bv strict attention to business to mept a continuarl 
of the same. ALEX. GARRETT. 

Office for the present at his Old Stand. 

June 1857— ly 40 Main St 

AGRICULTURAL WAREHOUSE 




THE Subscribers continue to manufacture at t 
large New Factory on Cary Street, between 
and 10th, all kinds of Agricultural Machines and 
plements of the latest and most approved patto 
which will be made of the best materials and of s 
rior workmanship - They are now prepared to ret 
and execute orders for the same. 

They ask attention to "Cardw.ell's double and 
gle geared Horse-Powers and Threshers," which I 
taken a premium at ever-. Fair at which they 1 
been exhibited, also to " Croskill's Clod Crusl 
" Mannv's Patent Reaper and Mower" tin- best in 
Horse Raker, Corn Shellers from $10 to $35. W 
Drills, Straw Cutters, Rick's patent iron Beam PI 
of various sizes, Seymour's and Sage's Patent B 
Cast Sowing Machines, Fan Mills, various patt. 
Corn Planters, Hay Presses, Grain Cradle, and ah 
every other machine and implement required bv PI 
ers." BALDWIN, CARDWELL & CO 

April, 1857. St ore 148 , Main 8 

City Savings Bank of Richmoii 
Chartered in 1839. 

Continues to receive deposits, on which intere 
paid at the rate of per cent, per annum, ifreinai 
on deposit six mouths, and 5 per cent, for shorter 
riods. HORACE L. KENT, Pre* 

ALEX. DUVAL, Sec'y. 

II. BALDWIN, Cashier. 
DtRRC rORS. 

John N. Gordon, Samuel Putney, I. Davenport, 
Chas. T. Wortham, Hugh VV. Fry, Wellington ( 
din. April 185 

Reese's " Manipulated" Guan 

For Tobacco. 

This Guano has been used with uneqitttlted re: 
on Tobacco. Both theory and experience show 
be peculiarly adapted to that plant. 

JOHN S. REESE & CO., 
No. 10 Exchange Building, Baltimore, M 
April 1 857— :ti 

MACFAIILANE & FEKGUSS0N'! 

BOOK, JOB, FANCY and ORNAMENT 

PRINTERS.