VOL. XVIII. 



[JANUARY.] 



*p 



ublisiied Monthly. 



Euffin & August, Proprietor? 




FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor 



TH E 




devoted to 



agriculture, horticulture, 



AND THE 



HOUSEHOLD AKTS. 




PRINTED AT RICHMOND, Va., 
B,Y MACFARLANE & FERGUSSON. 

18 i.8» 




CONTENTS 



Objections to Col. Cocke's Proposed Dona- 
tion to the University of Virginia, 
"Cattle Dying from Eating Corn-Stalks 
that Hugs have Chewed. What Causes 
it?"— The Southern Literary Messen- 
ger.— The Merinos at the Universal Ex- 
hibition (French) of 185G, 
Tea Cakes, - 

" The Mechanism of Steam Culture," 
Horn-Dust.— To Collar Beef, 
The Drilling of Part of every Pea Crop, 

both a Benefit and a Necessity, 
Breeding In and In, &c, - 
Experiments in Feeding Farm Horses, and 
in Ascertaining the Yield of Flour from 
Wheat, - 
The Cold-House Grapery, - 
Multum in Parvo.— Log Fence, 
To Clear Steep Land.— The Past and the 

Present, - 
Mechanical Value of Bones, 
Fattening Animals, 
Hot Beds— How Made, 
How much Corn, or* Hay, is requ red to 
produce one Pound of Meat, 



i 

9 

10 
10 

17 

19 



20 
21 
22 

23 
24 

25 
20 



The Potato always Uncertain, 
Interesting Chemical Discovery— Agri- 
cultural Department of the General Go- 
vernment—Strictures, &c. 
Recipe for Making Soap, - 
Dairy Management, 

A Cheap Board Fence.— The Japan Pea, 
On the Nutrition of Plants, 
On Breeding Stock of any Kind, 
On the Exclusive Use of Guano, 

A Fowl Establishment, 

Profits of Fruit Culture at the South, 

Cure for Chapped Hands, - 

Gearing Teams according to Principle, 

True Principles of Hitching Teams 
their Work, 

On the Composition of some Soils on which 
Red Clover Succeeds and Fails, 

Farm-Yard Manure, 
| Women and Flowers, 
! Beauty an Element of Value, 
| Shall it Always Continue Thus?— Cape 

Jassamine, 
I A Communication. — The Lawn, 



to 



2S 



29 
30 
31 
33 
34 
30 

40 
42 
42 
43 

44 

40 
52 
5G 

59 

01 
03 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 

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LIME— LIME— LIME. 

To Farmers, Bricklayers and Others. ! 

HAVING made arrangements for a 
regular supply of Shells, I am prepared 
to furnish any quantity of well burnt Shell 
Lime, as low or lower than can he procured 
elsewhere. It will be delivered to farmers at 
anv of the railroad depots, nnd to customers 
in the City wherever they may desire. 

Application to he mane at my Lime Kilns, 
opposite Tredegar Iron Works, at Mr. John G. 
Worth's office, corner 10th Street and Basin 
Hank, or at Messrs. Smith & Ilarwood's Hard 
ware Store, Main Street. Richmond. 

.!„„ i WM. SMITH. 



BEAUMONT 
FEMALE SCHOOL. 

The second term of this School, of the Ses- 
sions of 1857-8, will commence on tin 1st day 
I of February nest ensuing, and close the last of 
I June. A few additional pupils can he entered 
if early application he made. The school is lo- 
cated at my residence in Orange county, three 
miles north of Cordonsvillo, in n very beauti- 
ful and healthy region of the State. 
For further information, address 

JAMES L. JONES, M. D., 
Jan 1858.— It Gordonsville, \a. 




Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. [Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of 
— Xenophon. ; the State. — Sully. 



FRANK. G. RUFFIN, Editor. 



F. G. RUFFIN & N. AUGUST, Prop'rs. 



V6L. XVIII. 



RICHMOND, VA., JANUARY, 1858. 



NO. 1, 



Objections to Col. Cocke's Proposed Do- 
nation to the University of Va. 

That portion of our readers interested in the 
proceedings of the Farmers' Assembly at the 
late Fair of the Virginia State Agricultural 
Society, are aware that that body adopted the 
recommendation of a committee, which pro- 
posed that the Farmers' Assembly petition the 
General Assembly to compel the Visitors of the 
University to receive Col. Cocke's donation, 
which the Visitors had previously, by unani- 
mous vote, twice declirfed to receive. 

This action of the Farmers' Assembly, if 
not amounting to an implied censure of the 
Board of Visitors, certainly raises a direct is- 
sue between the parties, and places the Far- 
mers' Assembly in an untenable position, as 
we shall attempt to show. 

Before entering upon the argument, we may 
state that the Farmers' Assembly acted in this 
matter without authority. By the Constitution 
of the Virginia State Agricultural Society, it 
is declared in Section VI, Clause 2, that " a 
majority of their ivliole number shall be a quo- 
rum for business." This " whole number" 
amounts to 128 delegates, of whom only 119 
were elected. The vote on the recommenda- 
tion of the committee was 36 for, and 25 against 
1 



it ; showing an aggregate of only 61, — or four • 
less than a quorum. According to this test, 
less than one-third were favourable to the pro- 
position. Clearly, then, it cannot be the ac- 
tion of the Farmers' Assembly, or the wish of 
the Society. 

Be this as it may, however, the subject haa 
got before the Legislature, and we shall meet 
it there on its merits. These involve three ques- 
tions : of principle ; of policy ; and of expe- 
rience. 

If " principles not men" be accepted as a 
cardinal maxim in affairs of government, a for- 
tiori, one would think it sound to say " princi- 
ples not money ;" and to deduce as a corollary 
from that, that no individual shall purchase a 
private interest in a public Institution. 

The organization of the University, as plan- 
ned by Mr. Jefferson, is wholly and altogether 
public, and the property of the State. It looks 
altogether to State management ; and nowhere 
provides that a private individual shall pur- 
chase an interest in it, or a right to control any 
part of it. It is managed by a Board of nine 
Visitors, appointed by the Governor for a term 
of four years, to whom is entrusted the ad- 
ministration of all its affairs. These Visitors 
are not removable by him, except for failure 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



to attend to their duties for one whole year, 
and are not accountable to the Governor, nor 
to the Legislature, for the mode in which they 
exercise their trust. Among their duties is 
that of electing Professors. 

The deed of Col. Cocke, which it is proposed 
to compel the Visitors to accept, goes in the 
teeth of this organization, and proposes to 
change it by reserving to that gentleman at 
present, and after his death to the Farmers' 
Assembly, the nomination of the particular 
Professorship which his donation is to be used 
" in endowing." Sensible men will under- 
stand at once that the right to nominate is 
equivalent to the election, and will as rarely 
fail to result in the election of the nominee, as 
does the nomination of an Executive officer of 
the United States. So far, then, as this pro. 
position goes, it changes the organization of 
the Board of Visitors, and affords a precedent 
for further innovation in the same direction. 

Now why was the Board of Visitors of the 
University made a perfectly independent body 
during the term of incumbency of its mem. 
•bers, and placed beyond the control of the 
Governor or the Legislature except by a change 
in the law establishing it ? Obviously, to keep 
the interests of the University beyond the 
reach of political control or popular clamour : 
and not less obviously because it was deemed 
wise to vest the whole administration of an 
institution of learning in a body of gentlemen 
of character and experience, selected within 
wide limits, not numerous enough to form par- 
ties, and yet not too few to benefit by consul- 
tation. In this it differs not at all from other 
things, in which special interests, not within 
the proper scope of politics, have to be man- 
aged. In all such cases, Presidents' and Beards 
of Directors are chosen ; and if they are held 
to a more direct account, and within shorter 
periods, it is- because the subject matters of 
such agencies are more liable to abuse. 

The history of the University proves the 
wisdom of its plan of organization. Estab- 
lished thirty-four years ago, it was not until 
1845 that any portion of its administration was 
arraigned before the public. In that year 
it had the misfortune to incur the displeasure 
of a gentleman of some prominence, whose vi- 
olent denunciations caused the appointment of 
a joint committee of the Legislature, which 



repaired to the University to invite charges and 
institute an examination into alleged miscon- 
duct. That committee looked into the com- 
plaints, and reported them utterly groundless. 
Since then there has been no whisper of cen- 
sure that we have heard of. So far from it, the 
success of the University has been signal, and 
the reputation of its Professors draws every 
year an increasing number of students from 
other States, and particularly from the South. 
For what reason, then, is the principle of ap- 
pointment to Professorships sought to be 
changed? Where no abuse is charged against 
the management of an institution, which is 
the best of its age in the round world, why 
change it? We ask sober and conservative 
men, what is the reason? What the advan- 
tage to be gained ? Is agricultural science so 
recondite that one gentleman can discover it 
when nine cannot? If so, why not confine 
it to one for the future, and why devolve it 
upon so numerous a body as the Farmers' As- 
sembly ? If one be a better elector than 
nine, are not nine better than a hundred and 
twenty-eight. Is the Legislature of Virginia, 
with its talent, experience, and length of ses- 
sion, competent to ascertain the relative fitness 
of competing candidates for Professorships ? 
Nobody saj^s so. Then in what is the Farmers' 
Assembly, meeting and dissolving in three 
days, and never presenting a quorum, superior 
to the Legislature of Virginia? Can the. 
Governor appoint proper Professors ? No. 
Then how can any other gentleman be sup- 
posed better able to do it ? Is it that " the ex- 
ample would lead to other contributions to the 
same great object." How? Presumably on 
the same terms, to wit : the right to nominate, 
alias elect, the Professor, — for that is " the ex- 
ample" set. What then becomes of the unity 
of government at the University? Who is re- 
sponsible for the government where one party 
nominates to office and the other controls the 
appointee ? What sort of a farmer would he 
be whose overseer was chosen by another man? 
But suppose " the example" shall prevail. If 
it be desirable in agriculture, it must be equal- 
ly so in other things, and is likely to be fol- 
lowed in some things. Suppose religious de- 
nominations, with the best motives in the 
world, establish Professorships, not of theol- 
ogy, but of other things, to get a footing there 
May we not have sectarianism, or a war of 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



sects ? Shall a subtile Jesuit be inducted on 
the nomination of a Catholic Bishop ? May it 
not happen in the two or three hundred years 
that the University is to last, that independent 
Professorships shall outnumber the State's 
quota, and individuals may control the learn- 
ing, as they now control the money and the 
internal improvements of the State? It is 
plain that the proposition of the Farmers' As- 
sembly tends to change the whole organization 
of the University, and expose it to all the risks of 
individual management or mismanagement to 
obtain what the committee calls " a valuable 
acquisition." 

Even if it were " a valuable acquisition," in 
the sense of a sufficiency for its object, the 
farmers of Virginia should not invoke the Leg- 
islature to punish the contumacy of the Visi- 
tors and compel their acceptance. For the Leg- 
islature to do so would be to usurp authority, 
and to overstep the boundary of their legitimate 
action as defined by themselves. The distribu" 
tion of powers of government is systematically 
established ; and this proposition goes to break 
down those barriers which statesmen have 
erected, and confounds an act of administra- 
tion with an act of Legislation. Under a just 
distribution of powers, the Legislature would 
have no right to do more than enact a general 
law, under which this donation might be ac- 
cepted. To do more would be to judge in each 
case of the propriety of the particular step, 
which it is absurd to suppose they could do, 
though each man were a Solomon. If the 
Legislature should think differently, and act ac- 
cordingly, they would soon find themselves 
called upon to fix the politics of the Professor 
as well as his special accomplishment, and to 
breast or bow to the clamour which some par- 
tizan or some malignant would raise at decis- 
ions of the Visitors which might not please his 
prejudices or his temper. 

But were this donation not repugnant to 
sound principles, it would be to sound policy, 
— one of whose maxims is, never to pay more 
for a thing than it is worth. 

Twenty thousand dollars is not sufficient to 
establish a Professorship of Agriculture. The 
terms of Col. Cocke's grant require two scho- 
larships at his control. Here is one hundred 
and fifty dollars per annum expended at once. 
The Professor must have a residence worth 



three hundred dollars per annum. Fuel and 
servants' attendance for the lecture room are 
worth one hundred dollars more. These three 
sums represent a capital of $91G6, — leav- 
ing only $10,834 of the donation applicable to 
purposes of instruction. Those best acquaint- 
ed with the costliness of a complete equipment 
for a lecture room in any of the sciences, can 
easily imagine that the purchase of models of 
agricultural implements, of coloured engrav- 
ings for illustrations, of specimens, of costly 
drawings of domestic animals to show their 
points, of apparatus, and of other things 
which cannot be specified or foreseen, will 
easily absorb the remainder, and leave noth- 
ing, if not w r orse than nothing, wherewith to 
pay t.:e Professor's salary. 

At the lowest estimate then, nothing is gained 
to the University by Col. Cocke's offer. In fact, 
it is entirely impracticable. So fully aware of 
this was the Committee which w r as appointed 
to negotiate the acceptance of this donation, 
that it felt itself called upon to present to the 
Board of Visitors "& projet for the establish- 
ment of the proposed school." 

This projet is presumed to be from the pen 
of the accomplished Chairman, the Hon. Wm. 
C. Rives. No doubt his observation of the 
schools of other Countries has given him un- 
usual facilities for preparing such a projet, 
whilst his prudence and sagacity would prompt 
him to present it upon a scale sufficiently re- 
duced to make it practical and practicable. It, 
then, is what he, and the rest of the Committee 
thought necessary to make Col. Cocke's dona- 
tion operative. Let us inquire, upon the basis 
of this projet, what will be the actual cost to 
the University of accepting this donation. 

(I.) The University receiving only $1200 a 
year, is to guarantee $3000 to the Professor, 
with a house, or the equivalent allowance for 
house rent, which is $300 a year. To do this 
without a tax upon the College Treasury, re- 
quires 80 agricultural students, paying $25 
each. It is certain that that number would not 
attend for several years. 

(2.) The existing Professors, whose co-opera- 
tion will be required, being already supported, 
it would not be fair, in estimating the cost to 
the University, to include their salaries ; but 
every one would require expensive means of 
illustrating his lectures. As an instance, it 
may be stated that the specimens of compara- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



tive osteology alone will cost more than $2000. 
So the additional chemical apparatus will cost 
some $3000. And, altogether, it may be safely 
said that $10,000 will be required at once, and 
immense additions from year to year. 

(3.) The farm now owned by the University 
is to be given up as a model and experimental 
farm. That is now believed to be worth $15,- 
000. The additions, in the way of buildings, 
enclosures, draining, &c, cannot be less than 
$15,000 more. 

(4.) The salary of " an intelligent and skil- 
ful agriculturist," who is to demonstrate all 
the best rural processes, cannot be less than 
$1000 per annum, which will represent a Capi- 
tal of, say, $16,000. 

It may then be very safely stated from the 
above data, that in the deliberate judgment of 
able gentlemen, fast friends of the measure, 
not less than $60,000 will be required to start 
the experiment, in addition to $20,000 granted 
for the same purpose by Col. Cocke. 

Now it may be asked with what justice can 
the Farmers' Assembly claim that the Trus- 
tees of the State shall be called on to surrender 
the appointment of a Professor who is to be 
the head of a particular department, to a gen- 
tleman who contributes only one fourth of the 
amount deemed necessary to create that de- 
partment Would they not be faithless to their 
trust should they agree to the proposition ; 
and would not the Legislature act most un- 
wisely should they demand its acceptance ? 

The University now owes a heavy debt, in- 
curred in repairs and the erection of buildings 
which its success has rendered indispensable to 
its daily demands — the very sum which Col. 
Cocke offers, is money due to him on its bonds. 
Never a favourite with the State, it has been 
compelled to meets its own liabilities. With a 
parsimony at once unwise and discreditable, 
the Legislature has shaved the Professors' sal- 
aries to make revenue, thereby driving compe- 
tition from intellect. It has also required, as a 
popular feature, and, therefore, a bad one, that 
it should give gratuitous annual instruction to 
some fifty young men, who are injured thereby. 
With such burdens, so unreasonably imposed, 
how can it be expected that it shall appropri- 
ate $60,000, (or one cent,) to make $20,000 
available ; especially, when by the very terms 
of the grant, the donation, which they are not 



to be allowed to control, must revert to the 
donor should it fail of its object ? With what 
show of reason can the Committee of the Far- 
mers' Assembly ask the Legislature to enforce 
a subscription of $60,000 ,of public money to 
the experiment of a private gentleman? 

If still another argument be needed, we 
may state that a similar measure has prevailed 
in the State of Georgia, where a public spirited 
gentleman paid $20,000 and made a Professor. 
We have heard from two reliable sources, that 
the experiment is a dead failure. Why should 
we repeat it on a similar scale ? 

We do not mean to be understood as opposing 
a Professorship of Agriculture at the Univer- 
sity on a wide basis. If the Legislature shall 
think proper to establish one or more there, we 
should hail it with joy and delight. 

Although we have been more happy in our 
agricultural associations than Gov. Wise, who 
with rare good manners, has twice told the 
Farmers of Virginia, who invited him to ad- 
dress them, that he had derived more informa- 
tion on agricultural subjects from " old ne- 
groes," than all the Farmers of the State put 
together ; yet no man, except Gov. Wise, and 
one other gentleman, knows as well as we do 
how much Agriculture needs intellect, syste- 
matically devoted to it. Our relations with the 
Farmers are of such a character, as to assure us 
of it with a strength of conviction which per- 
haps no other man can feel. Though there are 
gentlemen of fine talents and thorough educa- 
tion, who have devoted themselves to farming 
as a profession, yet there are many minds of a 
high order, now " rusted by a vile repose," 
which might find ample exercise and develop- 
ment in that " divine philosoph/," which pre- 
sides so variously over field and forest. We 
would see this reformed, but not inadequately, 
or at the expense of principle. 

Neither do we mean to be understood as un- 
dervaluing the noble liberality of Col. Cocke. 
We beg him and all his friends to be assured 
that we honour his high motives of patriotism 
and public spirit. Bat we have so much re- 
spect for him, as to believe that he will equally 
appreciate in us the feeling which impels us to 
oppose a scheme that we know he has much at 
heart. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



"Cattle Dying froift Eating* Corn-Stalks 
that Hogs have Chewed. What Causes 
it?" 

The above question is asked us by our friends 
of The Valley Farmer, who copied our remarks 
on the cases of Mr. Effinger's, of Rockingham- 
cattle. We cannot answer the question. But 
we know the fact ; and have given instances in 
the Planter in which the experiment was tried 
on cattle, one at a time, with a fatal result. 
The disease, commonly called mad itch, is not 
due solely to corn-stalks previously masticated, 
but has been known to occur in a cow eating 
pea-vines, who died not of simple hoven, as 
might be supposed, but with the peculiar 
symptoms of mad itch. Food, then, of a very 
high degree of succulence may, but rarely does, 
produce it. Nor does it seem due to the dry- 
ness of the material taken into the stomach, 
(or rumen, the seat of the disease,) for dry 
straw and stalks, which many cattle live on all 
winter, are not known to produce it. Possibly, 
though it is unphilosophical to guess, the dis- 
ease is one of a very high degree of inflam- 
mation of the rumen ; the fibre of the corn- 
stalk, whose pith has been thoroughly broken 
down, and its juice extracted, by mastication, 
presenting a number of irritating points, as 
sharp as so many splinters, to the coats of this 
organ, may so irritate them as to produce at 
once acute disease with attendant indigestion. 
We have had an opportunity, on several occa- 
sions, to see a similar state of things on cut- 
ting open cattle that have died of red water, 
(or bilious fever?) In such cases, where death 
has occurred prior to diarrhoea, the contents of 
the paunch have always been exhibited in a 
compact dry mass ; and there has been a high 
degree of inflammation of their receptacle. 
Sheep, we have been told, are sometimes af- 
fected in the same way when fed on very hard 
and dry forage, such as over-ripe timothy hay, 
which has been known to pierce through all 
the coats of their paunch. 

Cannot the Valley Farmer persuade some of 
its grazing friends to sacrifice a scrub to science 
next fall, and have a regular physician to make 
a post mortem? 

We warrant the scrub dies. 

On the principle of "one good turn," &c, 
will the Valley Farmer, whose judicious re- 
marks on cooked food for" hogs we have read, 
tell the public something about steamed corn 



for horses and mules? Mr. Hedges advises it ; 
and he is no doubt a very honest man, but he 
may be, unconsciously, like the shoemaker who 
said there was nothing like leather for a forti- 
fication, English experiments are raiiier against 
cooked food for horse ; but to steam whole corn, 
shelled or on the cob, is a problem that may 
have elements not embraced in those they as- 
sumed to solve. 



The Southern Literary Messenger. 

It seems to us that if anything could quicken 
the zeal of Southern men for this old estab- 
lished Periodical of Virginia, it would be the 
determination of Northern literary men to out 
law the South. 

The following from " The Atlantic Monthly," 
a new literary Magazine started in Boston, and 
to be supported by the ablest talents of that 
city, should arouse us, if anything can, to dis- 
card such journals altogether and build up and 
support our own. 

It is the merited reproach of the South, in 
political matters, that though often defining 
the, casus belli, she never presents a casus 
pugnandi. The spirit of forbearance may plead 
her cause with the world, under the wrongs 
she has endured so patiently at the hands of 
her enemies at the North. But what can hide 
her shame at continuing to sustain a class of 
periodicals who never lose a chance to express 
for us either pity, contempt, or detestation. 

Is their language the expression of amity or 
enmity. 

"No antiquity hallows, no public services 
consecrate, no gifts of lofty culture adorn, no 
graces of noble breeding embellish the coarse 
and sordid oligarchy (the slave States) that 
gives law to us. And in the blighting shadow 
of slavery letters die and art cannot live." 

i — — 4 i i m » — 

The Merinos at the Universal Exhibition 
(French) of 1856. 

(TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF J. CLAUDE ZOL.) 

With propriety we may ask why Spain, 
the country of the Merinos, was not repre- 
sented at our recent Exposition ? The 
Arabs and Moors of Spain are said to have 
collected and handed down numerous 
documents of antiquity to the revival of 
letters, and also to have transported and 
multiplied in Spain the breed of Merinos. 
The existence of the Merinos amongst 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the most civilized people of antiquity is 
attested by many sculptures : the horns, 
so remarkable of the statue of Jupiter 
Ammon were no others than those of a 
Merino (Ovis ammonides). That fine race, 
destined foi* the sacrifices of the ancient 
festivals, and for the manufacture of stuffs, 
purple was originally from India. It 
would have disappeared in the midst of 
the distractions which accompanied the 
accession of Christianity, but for the inter- 
vention of the Moors — the descendants of 
the Phoenicians, who were not interested 
in the precepts of the rising church. At 
present — thanks to the generosity of the 
kings of Spain — the Merino is spread 
throughout all Europe. It is, therefore, to 
be regretted that Spain did not come to 
gather, at our Great Exposition, the most 
valuable of premiums — gratitude. 

Two sub-races — or rather, two very dis- 
tinct productions — were there exhibited : 
the reproductive types of Austria, Hun- 
gary, Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, &c, on 
the one hand ; and on the other, the Meri- 
nos of France, divided into two classes — 
the product of the mountainous districts, 
and those of the plains. An elegant 
building had been constructed in honour of 
the Electoral race of Saxony. Rambouil- 
let and Gevrolles had also their exhibition 
apart. Tiie sheepfold of Rambouillet be- 
longs to the house of the Emperor ; that 
of Gevrolles is in the jurisdiction of the 
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. 
I have not to speak of the Imperial sheep- 
fold of Montcuvrel, which is chiefly occu- 
pied by English breeds and their crosses. 
The English have exhibited only a 
small number of Merinos. The spirit of 
he cross-Channel breeders is at present 
urned to the precocious production of 
butcher's-meat. Thanks to this new doc- 
t rine, we now find in England neither 
beef nor mutton, but only veal and lamb. 
One breeder confessed, that for himself 
and friends, he fatted his animals at 
four years old, in order to be able to eat 
real beef and mutton, which was not to be 
obtained at any price from the English 
butchers. The regimen of convalescence 
6 which a great nation has yielded itself, 
hreatens us also ; for the English doctrine 
as, with us, admirers amongst the zoolo- 
gists who frequent the office of the Minis- 
er of Agriculture. There were, there- 
ore, only two exhibitors of English Meri- 



nos, Messrs. Dorrun ajid Sturgeon, both of 
the county of Essex, on the English coast. 

Amongst the German exhibitors, I have 
heard a prince and shepherds protest 
against the designation of " Negretti," 
given in the catalogue to their Merinos, 
which many pretend to be originals from 
the Escurial. The Prince's were of this 
number. Amongst the Merino-breeders 1 
shall place Princes Esterhazy, who posses- 
ses 162,000 sheep ; Princes Schwartzen- 
berg, Auersberg, Schaumbourg, Obkawitz, 
and Kinski. These gentlemen sent the 
finest animals of their flocks. Counts 
Larisch, Zichi Ferraris, Breuner Enko- 
vitch, Wilhelm de Homspetsch, Valdstein, 
H. Daun, Oswald-Thun, Frederic Vallis, 
Hungadij, Stephankarolis, Miko, &c, &c. 
All these counts, as w T ell as a legion of 
barons and great lords whom I shall not 
undertake to enumerate, had exhibited. 

The French breeders, both of the plains 
and of the mountain districts, raised in 
their sheepfolds the animals destined for 
the different exhibitions. They shared 
equal care and equal allowances of barley 
and sainfoin. Never leaving the fold, the 
animals are unaccustomed to the influ- 
ences both of the mountain and the plain ; 
nor did we observe any difference between 
these two classes. Messrs Guenebaut, 
Godin, Achilie Maitre, Mouniot, Chaudeen 
Rousselet, and Gontard represented the 
mountain — that is to say, the Chatellonais, 
which is the centre of a country very pro- 
ductive of sheep. The Yonne and the 
Haute-Marne are dependencies of the 
circle of which Chatillon is the central 
point. 

Messrs. Simphal, Hutin de la Lage, 
Hutin de Lessart, Lami. Conseil Lami, 
Colleau, Dutfoy, belong to the plain. 
The centre of their productions is in the 
department of l'Aine. There is also 
another circle there, which contains fine 
flocks. 

Messrs. Boilleau d'llliers, Richer and 
Noble.t have for their chief place Ram- 
bouillet. It is to be regretted that Messrs. 
Gilbert a Vitteville, Cugnot alaDouariere, 
Lefevre a. Sainte Escabille, who supply 
the rams for La Cote d'Or, have neglected 
the exposition. It is supposed that they 
did not wish to compromise themselves 
withjthe descendants of their rams. All 
these gentlemen belong to the circle of 
Rambouillet. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 







I am far from having enumerated all the 
breeders of France, any more than those 
of Germany, .who figured at the celebra- 
ted Exposition. They were in appearance 
as two armies, one representing the noble 
(Electoral race — so-much-boasted ani — 
'mals — of delicate form, with short but 
(fine wool, and of middling height ; the 
jother of the race called French, of large 
frame, and with long, thick wool, but 
[rather less fine. The German shepherds, 
|the Schafmeister, the princes, all profess 
a degree of contempt for this French race, 
which has not preserved the delicate type 
of the Merinos of Saxony. The French 
breeders, laughing in their sleeve, say, "It 
is far better to have the frame paid for by 
the butcher, and to have the wool doubly 
and trebly long and thick, because the 
wool-stapler does not trouble his head 
about the fineness. In fact, the wool of 
France is itself of a fine quality, approach- 
ing near to that of the Germans." This 
comparison is modified by an "almost;" 
but, in reality, the difference in fineness is 
scarcely perceptible, whilst the amount of 
produce is at least double. Besides, the 
French race is no longer found at Ram- 
bouillet ; for that place produces short- 
wools. The French race is in full pros- 
perity in the centres of production which 
I have already enumerated. 

The German Merinos have a particular 
aspect. The surface of the fleece is j 
blackish, and matted ; the interior grease 
is rose-coloured. I have seen it orange (it 
must be well understood that I do not 
speak of the Hampshire). In the sheep- 
folds of the King of Saxony, they esteem 
such ; whilst an adept of the Cote d'Or 
prefers white grease, and makes no ac- 
count of the black, muffled surface. 

Amongst the German sheep whose 
aspect approaches the nearest to the Meri- 
nos of France, I shall cite those of Prince 
Schwartzenberg; and amongst the French 
sheep, the lot No. 1,812, of M. Hutin, 
had, above all others, the ruffled and 
blackish surface of the German Merinos. 
That lot was admirable. 

I have spoken of tvVo armies : but their 
combats were pacific. In the meanwhile, 
the Schafmeisters had displayed too much 
dignity in not admiring the French boxes 
before which they passed gravely. On the 
other hand, some words of a shepherd of 
the plain districts will describe the small 



account which our countrymen made of 
the Saxony Electoral race. "If I saw," 
said he to me, " such a ram in my flock, I 
would hunt him like a wolf, for fear he 
should cover one of my ewes." And yet 
that ram was one of the occupants of the 
chief pen. 

Rivalry was manifested under various 
forms. The French breeder estimated his 
ram at 6,000 francs; the German breeder 
raised his price to 15,000 francs. There 
was nothing but vanity in both. In reali- 
ty, the price of a good ram ought not to 
reach that of a fine bull. A fine rarn is 
worth from 100 to 300 francs. All beyond 
that is pure fancy. I have seen two Dur- 
ham bulls, equal in beauty, for one of 
which 20,000 francs was refused, whilst 
the other was sold for 1,200 francs. The 
latter was the true value. Because a 
millionaire has the fancy of having, at 
whatever price, a ram for which he pays 
6,000 francs, is it to be said that similar 
ones are worth 6,000 francs ? Such, how- 
ever, is the error — very excusable, it is 1 
true — of certain breeders interested in the 
question. A very praiseworthy practice, 
of which these gentlemen reserve to them- 
selves the secret, consists in not giving 
more than thirty ewes to a ram, and of not 
using the ram more than two years. Upon 
this excellent principle, the produce of a 
ram will be sixty lambs. Now the hire of 
a ram of 15,000 francs is worth 250 
francs ; while that of a handsome bull, of 
the best French race, is only 75 cents. 
The folly of prices is displayed by this 
single comparison. 

In* short, this Exposition will be as pro- 
fitable to Germany as to France. Messrs. 
the Princes would wish to share the ad- 
vantages of the French race. Our breed- 
ers will make a point of not swerving 
from primitive types, the bearers of fine 
fleeces. Each will have gained by it. 
Perhaps the government itself would, in 
the midst of the vast ovine production of 
France, preserve some of the more pure 
of the Merino race of the Escurials, in 
order to check the errors of opinion, and 
lead in the path of perfection that impor- 
tant branch of the national agriculture. 
[British Farmer's Magazine. 



Tea Cakes. — Six eggs, 3 pints of flour, J 
pound of butter, | pound of sugar, 1 teaspoonful 
of soda in a glass of wine or brandy, 1 nutmeg. 



10 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



From the British Farmers' Magazine. 

"The Meckanism of Steam Culture." 

Of the varied questions now attracting the at- 
tention of agriculturists, none perhaps possesses 
so much interest as that of " steam culture." 
Men anxious for the advancement of that which 
is the most creative of all the arts, see in it a 
new power, by which they will be enabled, not 
only to receive a greater increase of products 
from land already under cultivation than that 
which it now yields, but by which they can 
bring to the service of man the waste places of 
the earth, raising tracts now gloomy with sad 
sterility to smiling corn-fields and to pleasant 
pastures. In view, indeed, of the wonders which 
the power of steam has effected in other depart- 
ments, and of the triumphs which it has enabled 
man to gain over obstacles otherwise insurmount- 
able, it is not surprising that the mere idea of its 
application to the purposes of land culture should 
call forth the most sanguine expectations of those 
interested in the development of so powerful an 
aid. It is a theme which is calculated to awaken 
the dullest intellect, and send it forth to roam in 
the fields of conjecture; it is pregnant with 
interests alike to the man of science, the politi- 
cal economist, and the philanthropist. In truth, 
it is impossible to over-rate the importance of the 
question of steam culture; and although men 
may, in the first blush of the new thought, run 
riot in conjecture as to its powers, and claim for 
it triumphs which it may never realize, yet the 
very least service which it is capable of per- 
forming — not here asserting that such can or 
cannot be effected in their own day and genera- 
tion — will be so great, so pregnant with import- 
ance to us as a nation, that they may be allowed 
a little license in anticipating its triumphs or in 
describing its powers. The field of inquiry 
which it opens up is wide enough to compass all 
the nights of the fanciful, or the hard-working 
thoughts of the matter-of-fact man. To glance 
then at the projects and propositions which have 
been recently brought before the public in con- 
nection with this important department of .agri- 
cultural economics, and the prospects which they 
afford of success, may be useful and suggestive 
to our readers. 

From the title of our paper it will be observed 
that we propose to notice the mechanism of 
steam culhire — not that of steam ploughing merely. 
The distinction, be it noted, is an important one. 
The first term is thoroughly comprehensive ; it 
includes all mechanism by which the land is to 
be cultivated, whether this may be simply an 
adaptation or modification of existing imple- 
ments and machines, or constructed on entirely- 
new principles: it includes plans for adapting 
the new power to the old plough, and those in 
which this implement is condemned, and a new 
mode of operation, founded on new principles, 
proposed to be substituted for the peculiar work 
which it performs. The term, then, is wide 
enough to comprehend plans the most diverse in 
character and distinct in prineiple. The other 
term — steam ploughing — on the contrary, denotes 
at once the specific character of the plan adopted 
or proposed : it is a necessity of the implement 



employed, and defines or should define, without 
any vagueness, the character of the work per- 
formed. 

For the purpose of our paper, the mechanism 
of steam culture may be divided into two clas- 
ses — first, that which comprises mechanism ar- 
ranged to prepare land in a manner essentially 
distinct from the operation of the plough, "rotary 
cultivators" and "digging machines" coming 
under this class, these being either worked by 
the power of horses, or made to progress over 
the land by that of steam specially applied; 
secondly, mechanism by which the cultivating 
implement, "plough," "rotary cultivator," or 
" digging machine," is dragged over the land by 
the power of steam. In the first of these classes 
the steam-engine which works the implement 
passes over the land, the progressive motion be- 
ing adjusted to the rate of working the cultiva- 
tor: in the second class the steam-power is 
stationary, the cultivating implement alone hav- 
ing motion. Leaving for after-consideration the 
principles involved in cultivating land, and the 
discussion of the best method of carrying these 
principles into practice, whether by means of 
the plough or by rotary or digging apparatus, we 
now proceed to the description of the most im- 
p :>rtant of the patented plans of steam culture 
coming under the first of our divisions. 

It may be as well here to note that in offering 
these descriptions we do not intend explaining 
their arrangements o*. the principles of their 
action, or to make comparisons between what 
may be called "rival plans;" the object of our 
paper being to supply the reader with a record 
of what has been attempted. The utility of this 
record we have endeavoured to illustrate and 
enforce in the first paper of the present series. 

The reader desirous of information with refer- 
ence to the early patents (the date of the first 
patent being as long ago as 1630) may consult 
with advantage a lucidly drawn-up list prepared 
by Mr. Burness, well known to our readers for 
his mechanical abilities, appended to Mr. Fow- 
ler's paper " On Cultivation by Steam, its Past 
History, and Probable Future," delivered before 
the Society of Arts, Feb. 1, 1856. We propose, 
for the economization of space, to notice patents 
of comparatively recent date only, the first 
selected being that of Mr. James Usher of Edin- 
burgh, 1849 being the date of his patent. Al- 
though this machine has been already fully de- 
scribed in this journal, a brief recapitulation of 
its peculiarities may be useful here. The culti- 
vating part of the machine consists of a series 
of what the inventor calls "ploughs," attached 
to plates or discs fixed on a central shaft. These 
ploughs have a strong resemblance to the ordi- 
nary plough, inasmuch as the mould-board, share, 
and coulter are all represented; but their action 
in the soil is essentially different. Understand- 
ing as the peculiar and unvarying result of the 
common plough the turning over of the slice of 
the earth, and laying it at a certain angle, the 
"tilling" part of the machine now under con- 
sideration can scarcely be called ploughs, as the 
work they perform is essentially distinct from 
that of the ordinary plough, As the discs to 
which those tilling parts are affixed revolve, the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



11 



points of the shares and coulters penetrate the 
earth, tear it up, pass it over the mould-board, 
and leave it in an inverted state on the soil. The 
action is therefore more, as we understand it, a 
stirring than a ploughing of the soil. There are 
three tilling parts attached to each disc, each of 
which comes successively into action; and as 
there are several discs on the main shaft, each 
with its set of "tilling parts," the "ploughs" are 
so arranged that no two of them come into action 
at the same time. These "tilling parts," how- 
ever, serve a double purpose: they act as pro- 
pellers also ; for as the paddles of a steamboat 
enter into and are resisted by the water carrying 
the boat along, so in like manner do the tilling 
parts of Mr. Usher's machine enter the earth; 
which offering a resistance, causes the machine 
to which the tilling parts are attached to progress 
over the land. Thus by the ingenious adapta- 
tion of a mechanical necessity two important 
purposes are attained — first, progression over the 
land to be ploughed bringing successive portions 
of the soil under the action of the ploughs ; and 
secondly, the accurate self-adjustment of the 
speed of progression to that of the ploughing or 
tilling implements. It is unnecessary here to 
describe the gearing by which the motion of the 
engine is communicated to the central shaft bear- 
ing the plough discs: suffice it to say, that the 
inventor seems to have well considered the whole 
of the mechanical arrangements, so as to meet 
all the inquirements of practice. Thus, for in- 
stance, by a simple arrangement the depth to 
which the ploughs penetrate the soil can be 
easily adjusted; or they can, if necessary, be 
lifted up completely out, of contact with the soil. 
An arrangement is also provided, by which the 
machine when at the headlands can be turned 
in a comparatively small space. 

Taking the patent machines in the order of 
their dates, we come now to describe the "rotary" 
cultivator of Mr. Bethell (Dec. 3, 1822, No. 949; 
the cost of the specification of this patent is 
lOtjd.; it is illustrated by three plates). The 
general arrangement of the machine is some- 
what similar to that of Mr. Usher's. The dig- 
ging part of the apparatus — consisting of a drum 
or shaft, round which, are arranged in a vertical 
direction a number of prongs or tines — is placed 
behind the machine, and receives motion from a 
horizontal steam-engine, through the medium of 
drums and belts. The depth to which the tines 
of the digger operate is regulated by a screw 
shaft, worked by a handle, as in the machines 
above noted. On the end of the fly-wheel shaft 
a pulley (a), or drum is fixed, round which passes 
a belt, giving motion to a pulley, a little in ad- 
vance, and below the fly-wheel shaft. This 
second pulley (b) is fixed on the shaft or axle of 
two lever arms, at the outer end of which the 
shaft of the digger is placed. A pulley (c) on the 
digger shaft receives motion by means of a belt 
or rigger from the pulley (b). As the depth to 
which the tines work is lessened or increased, 
the lever arms fall or rise accordingly, and the 
relative position of the two pulleys (b and c) are 
maintained, so that the belt is always tight. 

The inventor stated at the recent meeting of 
the Society of Arts, that he had been experi- 



menting for three years with this machine, at a 
large expenditure of money; but the experience 
he obtained was such as to induce him to believe 
he had succeeded: he stated also that he had 
designed a new engine, which would work as 
high as 100 B5s. to the inch. The following is an 
extract from the inventor's statement: " It dug 
like Parkes's forks, and left the ground in a per- 
fect state of tilth after one operation ; it threw 
the earth up into the air, the earth falling first 
because the heaviest, and the weeds coming up 
upon the surface. They had no difficulty in working 
about four or five acres a day with that machine. 
It dug down to the depth of nine inches, and^far- 
mers who had seen it working had stated that 
it did as much in one operation as would re- 
quire two or three ploughings to perform,' be- 
sides scarifying, harrowing, &c." The estimated 
cost of its working was about 9s.. whereas 23s. 
was stated to be the cost under the ordinary 
mode. The machine is hauled over the ground 
by horse power, that of the steam-engine being 
employed to work the diggers only. A complete 
adjustment therefore between the progressive 
velocity of the machine over the land, and the 
rate of working of the diggers, is not attained. 
It will be noted also that the action of the 
machine is such as to leave the weeds upper- 
most — a questionable result. Not the least im- 
portant office, as some think, performed by the 
ordinary plough, is the complete inversion of the 
soil, so as to bury the surface material." 

In continuation of our subject, we now 
come to describe the general arrangements and 
mode of operation of Mr. Romaine's machine, 
so well known through the exertions of Mr. 
Mechi, who, on its first introduction into this 
country — for it is Canadian in its origin — augured 
great things to agriculture from its use. It has 
also attracted considerable attention, from the 
fact that it is the machine which is aided by 
funds expressly voted by the Canadian Legisla- 
ture, anxious as it is practically to promote cul- 
tivation by steam. It is as well to note here, 
that although the expectations of the inventor 
and his friends have not been fully realized, still 
every effort is being made to perfect the details 
of the apparatus; and the inventor is sanguine, 
we believe, of success. At the Agricultural Ex- 
hibition at Paris, although not fully prepared to 
exhibit, Mr. J. Evelyn Denison, M.P. (who drew 
up the Report of the Exhibition at the request of 
our Government), reports to have seen it in a 
field near Paris " carrying its own boiler and 
engine, travel by its own locomotive power 100 
yards up the field, and break up and cultivate 
the land in its course." 

Mr. Romaine's machine is secured by two 
patents, one under date May 10th, 1853, No. 
1151; the other Jan Gth, 1S55 (the price of the 
specification of the first Is. 2^d., the second Is. 
Id.). In the first patented machine, the steam- 
engine, as in Mr. Bethell's (described in No. IV.), 
worked the diggers only, the progression over 
the land being effected by horse-power. This 
defect — for defect assuredly it is, for employing 
steam as a mere auxiliary to horse-power is but 
half work — was obviated in the second patent, 
in which means were secured by which the 



12 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



steam-engine gave locomotive powers to the ap- 
paratus. The. arrangements of this second im- 
proved machine we shall alone describe. 

The motive power consists of two horizontal 
engines, between which a vertical boiler is 
placed, the digging apparatus working in front 
of these engines, but at a lower level than the 
framing on which they are supported, the fram- 
ing branching downwards to afford a bearing for 
it. The framework is supported at one end by a 
drum working on a horizontal shaft, this drum 
serving at once as a " land roller" and to sup- 
port a portion of the weight of the apparatus 
when at work. In advance of the digging appa- 
ratus, and nearly in a line with the centre of the 
vertical boiler, bearings are provided in the 
framework for two large loose wheels ; these 
have very broad tires, in order to prevent them 
sinking into and poaching the soil. The whole 
framework vibrates on the axles of these driving 
wheels; and a tipping apparatus is provided, 
by which the end can be raised or lowered, thus 
adjusting the depth to which the cultivating cut- 
ters enter the ground. In contact with these 
main driving wheels, two rollers, a little longer 
than the breadth of the tires, work: the peri- 
pheries of these rollers are covered with india- 
rubber or other elastic material. These rollers 
are made to revolve by the action of the steam- 
engine ; and the friction arising between these 
peripheries and those of the main driving wheels 
causes the latter to revolve; a progressive motion 
is thus given to the maclr'ne, and the cutters of 
the cultivating part are kept up in the soil on 
which they are to operate. By proper gearing 
the rollers can be made to revolve in an opposite 
direction, thus causing the main driving wheels 
to revolve backwards, and to release the cutters 
from operating on the soil. 

The digging apparatus consists of. a cylinder 
supported on a central shaft, working at right, 
angles to the length of the frame work; to the 
cylinder are bolted a set of radiating arms, these 
cleansing the knives or cutters which act on the 
soil. The radiating arms are set at equal dis- 
tances in the cylinder, and the knives or cutters 
are so arranged that in the revolution of the 
cylinder they are most favourably disposed for 
entering the earth — they are set either to run 
parallel with the shaft or axle of the cylinder, or 
to run spirally or inclined thereto. The knives 
may be formed in double irregular lengths, so 
as to present points and inclined surfaces to the 
earth during working. The digging cylinder is 
worked by the engine as follows — the bearing? 
which support the horizontal axis of the cylinder 
affords space above for two "stops,'' in which 
the lower ends of two vertical shafts revolve, 
the upper end revolving in pedestials attached 
to the horizontal part of the general framework. 
To the upper extremities of these shafts cranks 
working horizontally are keyed in, lo the crank 
pins of which the connecting rods of the two 
horizontal engines are jointed. Mitre or bevel 
wheels are keyed into the lower extremities of 
the vertical shafts, and locked into similarly 
pitched bevel or face wheels, fixed to the ex- 
tremities of the axle of the cutting or digging 
cylinder. These latter wheels arc connected 



within the open ends of the digger cylinder, so 
that the latter can work close to the ground with- 
out interfering with the action of the gearing. 
The vertical shafts also give motion to the rollers 
previously described, which act upon the main 
driving wheels.. This is effected through the 
medium of mitre-wheels keyed on the vertical 
shafts at a point near the middle of their length; 
these take into bevel-wheels of like diameter, 
keyed on the end of horizontal shafts revolving in 
bearings projecting from the sides of the frame- 
work. These horizontal shafts have clutches 
and double-bevel pinion arrangements for driv- 
ing intermediate bevel-wheels in alternate direc- 
tions. These intermediate wheels are keyed on, 
one to each extremity of the shaft, on which the 
rollers with India-rubber peripheries are fixed. 
By means of the clutch the main driving-wheels 
can be driven either backwards or forwards : 
keeping the cutters up to their work, or releasing 
them from their action in the soil. 

We now come to notice the steam cultivator 
patented by Mr. Candos Wren Hoskens, well 
known as the author of "Talpa, or the Chronicles 
of a Clay Farm.'' (Patent dated Aug. -13th, 1853; 
No. 1899. Price of specification 8^d.) The 
principle upon which the machine works is so 
graphically described in the work above alluded 
to, that we cannot do better than here extract it: 
" Imagine such an instrument (a revolving-toothed 
instrument, with a space as broad as a hay-ted- 
ding machine or Crosskill's clod-crusher), not 
rolling on the ground, but performing indepen- 
dent revolutions behind its locomotive, cutting 
its way down, by surface abrasion, into a semi- 
circular trench about a foot-and-a-half wide, and 
throwing back the pulverized soil (as it flies 
back like the feet of a dog scratching at a rab- 
bit-hole) ; then imagine the locomotive moving 
forward in the hard ground with a slow and 
equable mechanical motion, the revolver behind, 
with its cutting points (case-hardened) playing 
on the edge or land-side of the trench as it ad- 
vances, and capable of any adjustment to cause 
a fine cutting; moving always forward, and leav- 
ing behind, granulated and inverted by its re- 
volving action, a seed-bed seven or eight inches 
deep; never to be gone over again by any imple- 
ment, except the drill, which had much better 
follow at once, attached behind with a light 
bush-harrow, to cover the seed." Reserving for 
future discussion this principle of action, we 
shall proceed very briefly to describe the method 
by which the inventor proposes to apply it practi- 
cally to the cultivation of land, as illustrated in 
the patent to which we have already alluded. 
The framing of the machine is supported at one 
end by two main driving wheels of broad tire, 
and at the other by two steering wheels, also 
with broad peripheries. At the back end of the 
frame the steam-engines, of the horizontal class, 
are placed; the boiler — a vertical one — being at 
the opposite i-nd. near the steering wheels. The 
framing near the engines takes a burst forward 
and downward, and provides, at its lowest ex- 
tremity, bearings for the horizontal shaft of the 
" tiller J ' this consequently works a little below 
the centre of the main driving wheels, and at 
some distance in advance of them. The shaft 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



13 



of the tiller works at its extremities in bushes, 
which are not permanently fixed in the framing, 
but slide up and down in guides or slots made in 
it. To these bushes screwed rods are connected, 
these being carried upwards, and provided at 
their upper extremities with screw wheels, which 
take into endless screws keyed to the extremities 
of a horizontal shaft revolving parallel to the 
shaft of the digger. A winch or lever is at- 
tached to this horizontal shaft, by turning which 
the endless screws actuate the screw-wheels, and 
raise or lower the bushes in which the shaft of 
the tiller revolves; by this means the depth to 
which the cutters penetrate the soil can be 
easily regulated. Motion is given to the tiller 
or digger shaft by means of an endless gearing- 
chains, which pass over drums keyed to the end 
of the main shaft of the steam-engine, and to the 
ends of the digger shaft. The relative speeds 
of the engine-driving shaft and that of the dig- 
ger may be regulated by changing the diameter of 
the charge wheels. The progressive motion of the 
machine is maintained thus: to the axle of the 
main driving wheels a large bevel wheel is 
keyed, this gears with a smaller wheel keyed to 
the lower end of a shaft set angularly, to the 
upper end of which a screw wheel is fixed, this 
taking into an endless screw in the centre of the 
main driving shaft of the steam-engines. The 
motion of the cutter or digger, and the progres- 
sive motion of the machine, being thus deriva- 
ble from the same shaft, an accurate adjustment 
is capable of being made between them. Means 
are provided by which the revolving action of 
the cutter or digger can be maintained whilst 
the progressive motion of the machine is stop- 
ped. The "tiller" is formed by a series of discs 
fixed in a central shaft ; each disc carries at the 
extremities of a diameter two cutters, the ex- 
tremities of which are shaped like the cutting 
tool of a paring or slotting machine. These cut- 
ters move in slots made in the arms of the disc, 
and are capable of adjustment — that is, of being- 
brought nearer to, or further from, the periphery 
of the disc. The discs are so arranged on the 
shaft, that the whole breadth of the cutters which 
they carry act in succession in the soil ; by this 
means they have a self-cleaning action, and, as 
they lap with one another, no interspace of soil 
is allowed to escape unsevered from the land- 
side, or transferred to the back of the trench, 
which is thus kept clean by the action of the 
Instrument In bringing the machine into ope- 
ration, the cutter, or digger, is placed clear of the 
wound; the engine is then set to work, causing 
:he digger to rotate. The winch, or handle, of 
he endless-screw shaft is then worked so as to 
jause the bearings of the tiller shaft to descend 
n the guides; the cutters are thus brought gradu- 
dly in contact with the soil, and the trench 
efcmed. The locomotive gear is then put in 
iction, when the progressive motion of the 
nachine commences; and as it advances over 
he land, the cutters abandon the soil in its pro- 
cess. "This adaptation," says the inventor, * of 
he motion of progression to the velocity and capa- 
cities of the tilling instruments forms a promi- 
ent feature of my invention, and without it a 
iroper degree of cultivation cannot be effected." 



We now turn our attention to the machine of 
Mr. Ford,* which has for its object to cultivate 
the ground by a series of spades or forks, to work 
which the power of steam is applied. The 
mechanism by which the movements are effected 
is peculiarly ingenious, and well deserving the 
attention of the agricultural inquirer; it is so 
complicated, however, that drawings will be 
necessary, to make them clear to the reader. In 
the absence of these, we must be content with 
presenting a short abstract of its principal move- 
ments. 

The trenching three-pronged forks are attached 
to a central axis (a), which revolves on bearings 
or collars (b), these being supported by and capa- 
ble of sliding up and down, in the slots of a 
curved frame (c). The sides of this frame have 
racks into which endless screws (d) take, the 
screws revolving on studs in the collars or bear- 
ings (b). The extremities of the screws (d) are 
fitted with small bevel wheels, which take into 
a similar wheel fixed on the ends of the shaft or 
axis (a), this being provided at each extremity 
with, a small hand wheel (e). By turning either 
of the hand wheels (e), the endless screws (d) 
are made to revolve, which take into the racks 
hi the inside of the curved frame (c). By this 
means both ends of the shaft or central axis on 
which the diggers are fixed may be raised or 
lowered simultaneously, and its parallelism in- 
sured. The curve of the frame (c) is struck 
from the fly-wheel or crank shaft (p) of the hori- 
zontal steam engine (g). The digging frame is 
composed of a pair of wheels (h) fixed on the ex- 
tremities of a hollow axle, revolving freely on 
the central axis (a) ; the arms of these wheels 
are slotted or grooved, the shafts of the spades 
or forks sliding up and down in these'. The peri- 
pheries of the wheels (h) are provided with 
ratchet teeth, into which levers or pa*lls (i) gear; 
these levers are actuated by eccentrics or cranks 
(j) fixed on the main shaft (f). The throw of 
the eccentrics (j) is so arranged- that each up- 
stroke of the levers or palls (i) shall lift the 
spades or forks from the ground, and bring for- 
ward the next set of spades or forks, ready to be 
pushed along the groove or slot of the arms of 
the wheels (h. The spades are pushed into the 
earth in a manner corresponding with the action 
of the foot in "hand-digging," by what the in- 
ventor calls "treaders;" these work in guides, 
the extremities of which bear on and work 
loosely upon the crank shaft (f) and the collars 
(b). The "treaders" have the necessary reci- 
procrating movement in the slides given to them, 
by means of cranks fixed on the main shaft (f). 
As the wheels (h) revolve, they lift the forks and 
their portion of earth upwards; and another 
movement of the machine turns the shaft of the 
fork round, so as to completely turnover the slice 
of earth. This turning-over movement of the 
forks is effected as follows — to the shank of the 
fork turning sockets are fixed, and the upper ex- 
tremities of which are fitted with small toothed 



* Patent dated June 12th, 1855, No. 134.3; price 
of the specification 2s. lOd. The letters within 
brackets, as (a), are added to facilitate reference 
to the various parts of the mechanism. 



14 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



wheels (k); these are actuated by sliding bars 
provided with racks (l) jutting into the teeth of 
the cog wheels (i/). The sliding bars are moved 
by guides or grooves (m) fixed to segments (n), 
which form guides or rests for the traverse of 
the spade-bar after it has been pushed into the 
ground by the "treader." These guides (n) are 
attached to and carried forward by the wheels 
(h). This groove or slot (m) being stationary 
with respect to the revolution of the digging 
frame (h), will impart, a lateral motion to the 
sliding bars with their racks (l), when their 
ends pass above that portion of the grooves (m) ; 
but they will be held stationary when passing 
along or over that part of the groove (m) which 
is straight or parallel to the plane of revolution. 
This groove or slot (m) is aj,so carried beyond the 
segments (n), by fixing it to the collar (b), so as 
to work the sliding bars through the entire revo- 
lution of the digging frames; or inclined bars 
(o) may be made to project from the inside of 
the wheels (h) of the digging frame, and- then 
as they revolve, made to come in contact with 
lugs projecting from the sliding bars or racks (l). 
The inclination of the bars (o) is such as to 
actuate the sliding bars (l) a sufficiently long 
time that the rack may turn the cog wheels (i/), 
and of course the fork shafts to which they are 
keyed, completely over or half round; and then 
to turn them a quarter of a revolution back 
again. They are held in this position until they 
pass edgewise between clearers (p). These are 
fixed on the shaft of the leavers or palls (i), 
and have thus a reciprocating motion given to 
them. On the forks passing through between 
the clearers, they are passed with the slots of 
guides in the arms of the wheels (h) ; when by 
another inclined surface in the guides or grooves 
(m), or by the inclined bars (o), they are turned 
into the proper position to enter the ground, and 
are passed down the slots and made to enter the 
ground by the action of the " treaders." 

The direction in which the forks are made to 
turn over may be changed as desired, in order 
that they may either turn over towards each 
other in pairs, or in any other direction, and 
thereby deposit the sods or spits so as to form 
furrows or ridges, or leave the ground flush or 
bare. This is effected by having an upper or 
under bar (m) with rack gearing into the cog- 
wheels (i/) at opposite ends of their diameters; 
so that the direction in which the diggers turn 
depends upon whether the upper or under bar is 
in gear with the toothed-wheel (i/). 

The diggers are kept up to their work by giv- 
ing an intermittent traverse motion to the whole 
machine; this is obtained from eccentrics or 
cranks in the main shaft (f) working rods, in the 
extremities of which are palls working into 
ratchet-edged pulleys fixed on the main driving- 
wheels. 

When the machine is to be transported from 
one place to another, motion is to be given to it 
by a belt passing over a small pulley in the main 
driving-shaft (f) of the engine, with a larger 
pulley ou the axle of the driving-wheels — an ar- 
rangement of pulleys and belts being used to 
drive the main or front wheels, which arc used 
to steer or guide the machine in its progress. 



Mr. Ford, in the same patent, describes other 
arrangements of mechanism, by which the ope- 
rations of harrowing, clod-crushing, forming oi 
furrows, and hoeing may be performed by the 
power of the steam-engine which works the dig- 
gers already described. The various imple- 
ments necessary to perform the above operations 
are capable of being easily adjusted to the curved 
frame (c). In removing an implement from 
this frame, it should be lowered by the small 
wheels (e) and screws (d) until it touches the 
ground; and then the working gear of the main 
shaft detached, and the sides of the" curved slot 
removed by unbolting — the process being re- 
versed when an implement is to be put into the 
curved frame (c). We here give a brief notice 
of the peculiarities of the different implements; 
and first of the ' : cleaning harrows." A series 
of projecting prongs or spikes are fixed to a num- 
ber of bars, these being jointed at the ends to 
two endless gearing chains, supported by and 
running upon two pulleys. One of these is at- 
tached to the upper end of the curved frame (c), 
the other to the lower extremity of a bar jointed 
to the frame at its upper end. This bar pro- 
jects at an angle from the frame, so that its lower 
extremity is in advance of and considerably be- 
low the level of the upper pulley. A set of 
cleaning chains are placed on the outside of the 
bars of spikes, one on each side of every row. 
These chains pass in direct lines from pulley to 
pulley, not at one point; the gearing chains, 
with their attached bars, pass over a small pul- 
ley, which causes them to be lifted up, passing 
the spikes from the crown to the point along the 
cleaning-chains, which thus free them from all 
adhering matter. A receptacle is provided for 
the weeds; and the lower pulley can be raised 
or lowered by a winch, so as to regulate the 
depth to which the spikes work. 

The ' : clod divider" consists of a horizontal 
shaft revolving in bearings provided in a hanger 
or bracket suspended from the curved frame. 
Motion is given to it by a belt passing over pul- 
leys, one of which is keyed on the main shaft 
(a), the" other to the centre of the horizontal 
shaft. To the latter a series of prongs or cut- 
ters are attached, these revolving between other 
cutters which are iixed to t.h% hanger or bracket. 
The clods brought up by the action of the re- 
volving cutters pass between them and the fixed 
cutters, and are divided, the fixed cutters tending 
also to relieve the revolving ones of extraneous 
matter. Three bars are provided between the 
cutters, to prevent the clods flying too much, or 
being scattered by the rapid rotation of the re- 
volving cutter. 

Of the steam-cultural implements invented by 
Mr. Ford, we, at the conclusion of our lastarticle, 
described two, the revolving or "cleaning har- 
row." and the "clod divider." We have next 
notice the arrangement of mechanism, which he 
terms a "furrower." From the description oi 
the steam-digging or trenching apparatus, which 
we have already given, it will be seen that the 
land will be left without any of the regular di- 
visions of surface which are the result of ordi- 
nary ploughing. To give these to the land dug 
or trenched by his steam-digger, is the work of 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



15 



the "furrower" invented by Mr. Ford. To the 
lower end of the curved frame of the principal 
part of the machine containing the motive power, 
two brackets (a a') are suspended at a short dis- 
tance from each other; these carry two bars 
(b b / ) which are thus parallel to each other. The 
two brackets (a A / ) are joined to the framing, 
and to the inside of the parallel bars (b) a lever 
or rod ((/) is fixed, the upper end being fixed to 
the main shaft of the machine (marked C in our 
former description). By turning the shaft the 
lever (8 / ) may be raised or lowered, and with it 
the lower extremities of the brackets (a a 7 ) and 
the parallel bars (b b / ). A series of double turn- 
furrows, the lower extremities of which are 
shaped like the letter V, is connected with the 
bars (b b / ), turning at one end, in a vertical 
direction, in eyes through which the bar (b') 
passes, the other ends being adjusted by pins in 
the second bar (b). By raising or lowering the 
brackets (a a') by the lever (c), and by adjust- 
ing the turn-furrows on the bars (b b'), furrows 
of different sizes and depths may be obtained. 

The hoes, which can be attached to the main 
machine whenever this operation is required to 
be performed, are of two kinds, the "horizontal 
revolving" and "vertical revolving." In the for- 
mer a series of vertical spindles (a) revolve in 
bearings or sockets attached to two horizontal 
bars (b c) placed one above the other. The lower 
extremities of the spindles carry (a) the hoe-cut- 
ters (d), of a circular, curved, or straight form; 
these cutters being also supported and the spin- 
dles (a) steadied by guard-brackets fixed by 



nature of our article precludes us from noticing; 
but we name them here, as they may interest 
some readers who may wish to consult the speci- 
fication. 

We now come to the consideration of the 
second class of steam cultural mechanism — 
namely, "mechanism by which the cultivating 
implement, 'plough,' 'rotary cultivator,' or dig- 
ging machine, is dragged over the land by the 
power of steam." Before, however, proceeding 
to describe the patented machines by -which this 
"traction" is proposed to be effected, we deem it 
advisable to describe a few of the implements 
which seem to be peculiarly, or are specially, 
adapted for this method of " steam traction." 
These wall comprise rotary cultivators, and 
special arrangements of grubbers, scarifiers, or 
ploughs. 

The first machine of this class to which we 
direct the attention of the reader is that invented 
by Mr. Bernhard Samuelson,* the well-known 
agricultural implement maker, of Banbury. It 
enjoys considerable reputation as a good pul- 
verizer, and a "cleaner" of the soil, bringing the 
couch-grass and other weeds to the surface, ready 
to be collected by the harrows or by hand. 

In this machine, the tines or forks are intended 
to act after the manner of the trenching-fork or 
spade, and are made of steel (cast or double- 
shear steel, not hardened) throughout — at least, 
at the parts exposed to strain in passing through 
the soil. A curve is given to them, so that the 
extremities shall enter the ground almost perpen- 
dicularly; and their section is square or diamond- 
shaped, set on the angle, so as more easily to 
extraneous substances (as stones) 
which they may meet with in the ground. Their 
extremities are pointed, like a fork or like a 
chisel, being more of less acute, according to the 



Screw bolts to the lower bar (b). A shifting- 
piece joined to each guard-bracket is so adjusted! break any 
that the cutter just touches it while revolving.'" 
By this arrangement the cutter is kept clean. 
This cleaning of the cutter is also further at- 
tained by making it revolve within a short dis-j soil to be dealt with and the depth to be pene- 
tance of the bottom of the guard-bracket. A ! trated. The fork-point has, however, been found 
rapid motion is given to the spindles (a) by an to act well on all soils. These prongs or forks 
endless belt passing round and between small I are found to penetrate the soil by the mere weight 
wheels or pulleys fixed to the spindles ; this belt; of the machine; the inventor stating that, with 
receives motion principally from a larger pulley j a weight of 18 cwt., the prongs are forced into 
fixed on the main shaft of the machine. By ! the ground, in ordinary soils, to a depth of 10 
means of a lifting lever attached at one end to inches, and that, at this depth, their strength is 
the horizontal bar (b) and to the main shaft of such as to resist any strain caused by the draught 
the machine, the depth to which the hoes cut of as many horses as can be practically applied 
can be easily regulated. As the lifting of the to the machine. The steel -forks or prongs (a) 
hoes, however, by means of the lever, would are fixed at their upper ends between two discs 
cause them to rise from the ground in a curve, ; (b), bolted together, six pairs being apportioned 
the centre of which would be the centre of the j to each pair of discs. The prongs are made in 
lifting lever, means are provided, by the applica- pairs, with a curved junction, so as to be more 
tion of jointed levers resembling the parallel firmly bedded between the discs. A number of 
motion of the beam steam-engine, by which the these discs rotate freely on a central shaft (c) ; 
hoes, however raised from the ground, always i and between each pair, and rotating on the same 
maintain a vertical position. The arrangement central shaft, a ring (o) is placed, which keeps 
of the mechanism of the revolving hoe presents j the discs apart, and clears their side-surfaces 
a strong resemblance to the spindles and bobbins j from adhering soil. The circumferences or peri- 
of the cotton roving or stabbing frame. In the pheries of the discs are also kept clean, and the 
vertical hoe the working of the earth is effected j soil kept clear from the prongs, by "cleaners," 
by a series of three-armed discs, keyed on to a (e) hung freely on a shaft (f) placed above and 
horizontal shaft, the extremities of the arms be-! a little behind the shaft (c) on which the digging 
ing provided with cutters: shields are provided j wheels (b) rotate. Each "cleaner" (b) is in con- 
to hold down the earth while the hoes are work- j tact with the circumference of two half-centres 

ing through it. The patent also describes a hay- - — ~ ——— ■ 

collecting and haymaking apparatus, and a| * Patent dated November 2nd, 1852; No. 621. 
machine for digging deep drains: these the Price of the specification, 9jd. 



16 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of the discs (b), and is also provided with a pro- 
jecting tongue, which passes into the space be- 
tween adjacent centres, and limits its lateral play 
upon the shaft (f) on which it is hung. The 
cleaners (e) are provided with weights at their 
extremities, to keep them to their work. 

The "digging discs" (b), the "rings" (d), and 
the "cleaners" (e), are all connected to an inner 
frame (g), which is itself hung to a front bar, 
which front bar connects two frames (h h), one 
on each side. These frames are provided — at 
the end opposite that at which the horses are at- 
tached — with toothed quadrants (i i), and sup- 
port the wheels (k k) on which the whole 
machine travels from place to place, and which 
also serve to regulate the depth to which the 
prongs are allowed to enter the ground. At the 
back part of the "inner frame" (g), which bears 
the diggers (b), a shaft (l) revolves in suitable 
bearings. At each end of this shaft (l) pinions 
(m m) are keyed, which take into the toothed 
quadrants [i i]. Near one extremity of the shaft 
[l], a bevil wheel [n] is keyed, which takes into 
a bevil pinion [o] lixed on the end of a shaft [p], 
which is turned by a handle [r] at its extremity. 
By turning this handle [r] the bevil wheel [o] 
causes the shaft [l] and the pinions [m m] to re- 
volve, the latter ascending or descending, accord- 
ing to the direction in which the handle [rJ is 
made to revolve the tooth quadrants [i i], and 
causing the inner frame [g] to be raised, with its 
discs [b], rings [d], and cleaners [e], nearer to or 
further from the ground. The inner frame [h] 
and digging wheels [b] can be maintained in 
any desired position with relation to the travel- 
ling wheels by a "pawl" [s] taking into a ratchet 
wheel [t], cast on to one of the pinions [m m]. 

On proceeding to its work, the digging discs or 
wheels [b] are raised sufficiently by the means 
above described, to keep the prongs from contact 
with the soil ; and are kept in this position by 
the "pawl" [s] catching the ratchet wheel [t.]. 
On reaching the place to be dug, this pawl is 
thrown out, when the weight of the inner frame 
[g], with its digging discs [b], &c, will cause the 
pinions [m m] to run down the toothed quadrants 
[i i], and the digging prongs or forks [a] to enter 
the ground. The degree of penetration requi- 
site is regulated by the handle [r], so as to de- 
press the inner frame [g] less or more. The 
utmost extent of depression given is that, which 
depresses the prongs up to the centre plates or 
discs; in this position the travelling wheels are 
lifted off the ground, and maintained by the 
pawl [s]. 

As the machine is dragged forward, the resist- 
ance offered by the earth in front of the prongs 
causes the latter to revolve, and portions of the 
soil to be detached, which are thrown back, 
after being lifted and broken up, by the action of 
the cleaning bars [k]. As before-mentioned, n 
full-sized lnaehine weighs nearly a ton, and 
breaks up to a depth not exceeding ten inches, a 
breadth of three feet at a time, equal to that of 
four ploughs, mid equivalent to about five acres 
in seven hours. The price of the inaehine is 
.£27 10s. The draught required varies with the 
nature of the soil from four to seven horses. A 



smaller implement is made for occupations where 
the borse-power is limited. 

With reference to the cultivating capabilities 
of the machine, Mr. Samuelson, in a paper read 
before the British Association, remarked: — "I 
think it right to state that it possesses, in com- 
mon with all other rotary implements hitherto 
made, or proposed, this disadvantage, as com- 
pared with the plough — that it does not com- 
pletely invert the soil. I believe, however, that 
the occasions for such inversion are much more 
rare when we work with an instrument which 
leaves the ground broken, hollow, and mixed, 
like the digging machine, than with one which, 
like the plough, cleaves off a slice and exposes 
its superfices only to the air; there being, in 
fact, this essential distinction between the two 
machines — that one allows the air and water to 
descend ; whereas, in the other, fresh soil must 
always be brought up, if it is to be acted upon 
by the elements." 



Horn-Bust. 

Very considerable variety occurs in the 
quality of this substance, owing to the inter- 
mixture of sand and other impurities. The 
two analyses which follow to illustrate this 
very clearly : — 

i. 
Water, • - - - - 8.17 

Organic matter, 



Phosphates, 
Carbonate of lime, 
Alkaline salts, - - 
Sand, 



- 85.11 - 

- 3.58 - 

- 1.15) 

- 1.35/ 

- 0.64 -. 



n. 

- 9.85 

- 65.17 

- 3.84 

- 4.85 

- 16.29 



100.00 - - 100.00 
Ammonia, - - - 15.68 - - 10.89 
The first consists entirely of horn in a state of 
great purity, but the second contains 16 per 
cent, of sand, and a much smaller quantity of 
ammonia. The former, reckoning the ammonia 
and phosphates at the usual rates, is worth ex- 
actly £9 per ton, and the latter only £6, 7s. — 
British Journal of Agriculture. 



To Collar Beef. — Take a long piece of 
brisket, bone it, rub it with saltpeter, let it lay 
till the next day — then rub it with salt and a 
little sugar and molasses— then cover it well 
with salt and lot it remain four days — then put 
it in a cold strong brine made of salt only, to 
lay three weeks, then let it be taken out and 
wiped dry. Sprinkle it with herbs, spices, 
pepper, aud sale; then roll it very tight and 
tie close with a strong twine and boil it till 
tender— then take it out and while hot press it 
with heavy weights ; when perfectly cool take 
off the weights and trim it. 

Apple Pudding. — Pare and core as many ap- 
ples as you can conveniently bake in a dish, 
sprinkle over them a little sugar and spice and 
partly bake them ; when half done pour over 
them a batter such as you make for light pud- 
dings, and bake it quickly. To be eateu with 
sauce. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



17 



For the Southern Planter 



The Drilling of Part of every Pea-Crop, 
both a Benefit and a Necessity. 

In the three years which have passed since 
my communicating to the Virginia State Agri- 
cultural Society an article on the "properties, 
value, and culture of the Southern Pea/' my 
experience and observation have enabled me to 
correct some of my then errors of opinion, and 
of practice. Such errors, and the consequent 
false teaching, when likely to mislead other 
persons to their loss, it is the duty of every 
writer to correct — as I will now attempt. 

When forjuerly treating this subject, I pre- 
ferred and practiced broad-cast culture, with- 
out exception. For while admitting the superior 
productiveness, in seed, of drilled and tilled 
ground, I then supposed that broad-cast sow- 
ings would always yield enough seed for the 
next crop, and a better general return for the 
labor employed altogether. This opinion was 
then opposed to the general practice of North 
Carolina, which was drill-culture, wherever 
the pea-crop occupied the ground exclusively. 
While still preferring broad-cast to drill-culture 
for the larger portion of the pea-crop, and 
when it is especially designed as a manuring 
crop, I have latterly learned to admit my for- 
mer mistake, and the superior advantages of 
drill-culture, for a portion of the crop — and for 
all very early seeding, and for as much of the 
field as will supply plenty of seed, or as is 
desired to be gathered. 

When land is in the best condition of pul- 
verization, tilth, cleanness, and degree of 
moisture — and the weather is warm enough, 
and the season far enough advanced, for peas 
to sprout quiekty, and then to grow rapidly — 
it will be safe, and also the cheapest and best 
mode to sow broad-cast. Especially is this 
mode preferable, under these circumstances, 
when the crop is wanted merely to be ploughed 
under, as mauure for the land, and preparation 
for the next succeeding crop of wheat, or cotton. 
Under the favorable conditions stated, and with 
ploughing and sowing not too early, a good 
growth and cover may be expected, and a clean 
crop, to be obtained by this most rapid and 
least costly mode of preparation and seeding, 
and without any subsequent labor or care. It 
is true, that the richer the land, and the thicker 
and ranker the growth of vines, the less abun- 
dant usually will be the product of perfect pods 
and seeds — if not absolutely less, at least rela- 
tively, or in proportion to the general growth 
of vines. This deficiency, however, may not 
bo very important, when all the product is to 
be ploughed under for manure. 

But even when all the conditions for seeding 
are deemed favorable, wet and cool weather, 
succeeding the sowing, may check the growth, 
and cause the fox-tail grass, on stiff soil, and 
rag-wort and other worthless weeds of lighter 
soil, to spring among and out-grow the pea- 
2 



plants — and, in proportion to their prevalence, 
to take their place, and prevent the production 
of the crop of peas. And this substitution of 
worthless weeds for a valuable crop, will be 
much more general when (as is unavoidable In 
many cases of large sowings,) the conditions 
of time, season, and soil, were more unfavor- 
able. Hardy as is the pea-crop after it has 
been well started in growth, it is ill able to 
withstand cool weather when very young. And 
a cloddy (though w r ell ploughed and clean) 
soil, if hot and dry, is as injurious to the spring- 
ing of late-sown peas. When this crop is 
sown broad-cast largely, or occupies one field 
and year of the rotation of the farm, it is 
almost impossible to prevent a large portion 
suffering from one or both of these different 
evils. In the climate of lower Virginia, (or of 
the lands next below Richmond,) it is too 
hazardous to sow peas (broad-cast) before the 
20th of May — and it is much safer, and better 
for the crop, if the sowing is embraced in all 
the month of June. If beginning any earlier, 
a cold spell of weather may soon after occur, 
and suspend the growth of the young plants, 
while the hardier weeds and grasses, less im- 
patient of cold and wet, grow and get ahead of 
the peas, and prevent much of what otherwise 
would be their subsequent growth and luxuri- 
ance. Still more, there are innumerable small 
bugs, (spotted beetles,) which prey upon the 
leaVes of the young pea-plants, eating holes 
through the seed-leaves, and from whose depre- 
dations scarcely a leaf escapes under these 
circumstances. This is the only insect plague, 
or disease, that I have observed to damage the 
pea-crop. These insects always attack the 
young peas, especially when in the seed leaf. 
But when the weather is warm, and the young 
plants are growing rapidly, these depredations 
are scarcely perceived, and cause no appreci- 
able injury. But when cold weather checks or 
stops the growth, the insects are very destruc- 
tive, and (with the aid of the fast-growing 
weeds,) will nearly destroy a previous thick 
stand of pea-plants. If, to avoid this frequent 
ill consequence of early sowir.g, the farmer 
waits for settled warm weather, he is as liable — 
indeed almost sure — to meet the equally great 
evils of soil too dry for good preparation, a 
cloddy seed-bed, and consequent failure of 
numerous seeds to sprout, or sprouting merely 
to die for want of moisture for their as yet 
superficial roots. Besides, in all June there is 
so much of other and important labor required, 
that no farmer can then prepare for, and sow, 
an entire field in peas. And after our wheat 
harvest is begun, nothing else can be attended 
to, until it is finished. Afterwards, it is too 
late to sow peas, for their full maturing, and 
their best manuring products. Still, (on wheat- 
stubble especially,) all other conditions are so 
entirely favorable to the ploughing, seeding 
and growth, that our cleanest and most profit- 
able covers of broad-cast peas, for preparation 



16 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of the discs (b), and is also provided with a pro- 
jecting tongue, which passes into the space be- 
tween adjacent centres, and limits its lateral play 
upon the shaft (f) on which it is hung. The 
cleaners (e) are provided with weights at their 
extremities, to keep them to their work. 

The "digging discs" (b), the "rings" (d), and 
the "cleaners" (e), are all connected to an inner 
frame (g), which is itself hung to a front bar, 
which front bar connects two frames (h h), one 
on each side. These frames are provided — at 
the end opposite that at which the horses are at- 
tached — with toothed quadrants (i i), and sup- 
port the wheels (k k) on which the whole 
machine travels from place to place, and which 
also serve to regulate the depth to which the 
prongs are allowed to enter the ground. At the 
back part of the "inner frame" (g), which bears 
the diggers (b), a shaft (l) revolves in suitable 
bearings. At each end of this shaft (l) pinions 
(m m) are keyed, which take into the toothed 
quadrants [i i]. Near one extremity of the shaft 
[l], a bevil wheel [n] is keyed, which takes into 
a bevil pinion [o] fixed on the end of a shaft [p], 
which is turned by a handle [r] at its extremity. 
By turning this handle [r] the bevil wheel [o] 
causes the shaft [l] and the pinions [m mJ to re- 
volve, the latter ascending or descending, accord- 
ing to the direction in which the handle [r] is 
made to revolve the tooth quadrants [i ij, and 
causing the inner frame [g] to be raised, with its 
discs [b], rings [d], and cleaners [e], nearer to or 
further from the ground. The inner frame [h] 
and digging wheels [b] can be maintained in 
any desired position with relation to the travel- 
ling wheels by a "pawl" [s] taking into a ratchet 
wheel [t], cast on to one of the pinions [m m]. 

On proceeding to its work, the digging discs or 
wheels [b] are raised sufficiently by the means 
above described, to keep the prongs from contact 
with the soil ; and are kept in this position by 
the "pawl" [s] catching the ratchet wheel [t.]. 
On reaching the place to be dug, this pawl is 
thrown out, when the weight of the inner frame 
[gJ, with its digging discs [b], &c. will cause the 
pinions [m m] to run down the toothed quadrants 
[i i], and the digging prongs or forks [a] to enter 
the ground. The degree of penetration requi- 
site is regulated by the handle [r], so as to de- 
press the inner frame [g] less or more. The 
utmost extent of depression given is that which 
depresses the prongs up to the centre plates or 
discs; in this position the travelling wheels are 
lifted off the ground, and maintained by the 
pawl [s]. 

As the machine is dragged forward, the resist- 
ance offered by the earth in front of the prongs 
causes the latter to revolve, and portions of the 
soil to be detached, which are thrown back, 
after being lifted and broken up, by the action of 
the cleaning bars [e]. As before-mentioned, a 
full-sized machine weighs nearly a ton, and 
breaks up to a depth not exceeding ten inches, a 
breadth of three feet at a time, equal to that of 
four ploughs, and equivalent to about five acres 
in seven hours. The price of the machine is 
£21 10s. The draught required varies with the 
nature of the soil from four to seven horses. A 



smaller implement is made for occupations where 
the horse-power is limited. 

With reference to the cultivating capabilities 
of the machine, Mr. Samuelson, in a paper read 
before the British Association, remarked: — "I 
think it right to state that it possesses, in com- 
mon with all other rotary implements hitherto 
made, or proposed, this disadvantage, as com- 
pared with the plough — that it does not com- 
pletely invert the soil. I believe, however, that 
the occasions for such inversion are much more 
rare when we work with an instrument which 
leaves the ground broken, hollow, and mixed, 
like the digging machine, than with one which, 
like the plough, cleaves off a slice and exposes 
its superfices only to the air; there being, in 
fact, this essential distinction between the two 
machines — that one allows the air and water to 
descend ; whereas, in the other, fresh soil must 
always be brought up, if it is to be acted upon 
by the elements." 



Horn-Bust. 
Very considerable variety occurs in the 
quality of this substance, owing to the inter- 
mixture of sand and other impurities. The 
two analyses which follow to illustrate this 
very clearly: — 





i. 


ii. 


Water, ----- 


- - 8.17 - 


■ - 9.85 


Organic matter, 


- - 85.11 - ■ 


■' - 65.17 


Phosphates, - - - 


• - 3.58 - 


■ - 3.84 


Carbonate of lime, 


■ - 1.15 { 

■ - 1.35/ 


■ - 4.85 


Alkaline salts, - - 


Sand, 


■ - 0.64 -. • 


■ - 16.29 




100.00 - 


■ 100.00 


Ammonia, - - 


• 15.68 - 


• 10.89 



The first consists entirely of horn in a state of 
great purity, but the second contains 16 per 
cent, of sand, and a much smaller quantity of 
ammonia. The former, reckoning the ammonia 
and phosphates at the usual rates, is worth ex- 
actly £9 per ton, and the latter only £6, 7s. — 
British Journal of Agriculture. 



To Collar Beef. — Take a long piece of 
brisket, bone it, rub it with saltpeter, let it lay 
till the next day — then rub it with salt and a 
little sugar and molasses— then cover it well 
with salt and let it remain four days — then put 
it in a cold strong brine made of salt only, to 
lay three weeks, then let it be taken out and 
wiped dry. Sprinkle it with herbs, spices, 
pepper, and sale; then roll it very tight and 
tie close with a strong twine and boil it till 
tender — then take it out and while hot press it 
with heavy weights ; when perfectly cool take 
off the weights and trim it. 

Apple Pudding. — Pare and core as many ap- 
ples as you can conveniently bake in a dish, 
sprinkle over them a little sugar and spice and 
partly bake them ; when half done pour over 
them a batter such as you make for light pud- 
dings, and bake it quickly. To be eaten with 
sauce. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



17 



For the Southern Planter. 

The Drilling' of Part of every Pea-Crop, 
both, a Benefit and a Necessity. 

In the three years which have passed since 
my communicating to the Virginia State Agri- 
cultural Society an article on the "properties, 
value, and culture of the Southern Pea/' my 
experience and observation have enabled me to 
correct some of my then errors of opinion, and 
of practice. Such errors, and the consequent 
false teaching, when likely to mislead other 
persons to their loss, it is the duty of every 
writer to correct — as I will now attempt. 

When forjnerly treating this subject, I pre- 
ferred and practiced broad-cast culture, with- 
out exception. For while admitting the superior 
productiveness, in seed, of drilled and tilled 
ground, I then supposed that broad-cast sow- 
ings would always yield enough seed for the 
next crop, and a better general return for the 
labor employed altogether. This opinion was 
then opposed to the general practice of North 
Carolina, which was drill-culture* wherever 
the pea-crop occupied the ground exclusively. 
While still preferring broad-cast to drill-culture 
for the larger portion of the pea-crop, and 
when it is especially designed as a manuring 
crop, I have latterly learned to admit my for- 
mer mistake, and the superior advantages of 
drill-culture, for a portion of the crop — and for 
all very early seeding, and for as much of the 
field as will supply plenty of seed, or as is 
desired to be gathered. 

When land is in the best condition of pul- 
verization, tilth, cleanness, and degree of 
moisture — and the weather is warm enough, 
and the season far enough advanced, for peas 
to sprout quickly, and then to grow rapidly — 
it will be safe, and also the cheapest and best 
mode to sow broad-cast. Especially is this 
mode preferable, under these circumstances, 
when the crop is wanted merely to be ploughed 
under, as mauure for the land, and preparation 
for the next succeeding crop of wheat, or cotton. 
Under the favorable conditions stated, and with 
ploughing and sowing not too early, a good 
growth and cover may be expected, and a clean 
crop, to be obtained by this most rapid and 
least costly mode of preparation and seeding, 
and without any subsequent labor or care. It 
is true, that the richer the land, and the thicker 
and ranker the growth of vines, the less abun- 
dant usually will be the product of perfect pods 
and seeds — if not absolutely less, at least rela- 
tively, or in proportion to the general growth 
of vines. This deficiency, however, may not 
bo very important, when all the product is to 
be ploughed under for manure. 

But even when all the conditions for seeding 
are deemed favorable, wet and cool weather, 
succeeding the sowing, may check the growth, 
and cause the fox-tail grass, on stiff soil, and 
rag-wort and other worthless weeds of lighter 
soil, to spring among and out-grow the pea- 

2 



plants — and, in proportion to their prevalence, 
to take their place, and prevent the production 
of the crop of peas. And this substitution of 
worthless weeds for a valuable crop, will be 
much more general when (as is unavoidable in 
many cases of large sowings,) the conditions 
of time, season, and soil, were more unfavor- 
able. Hardy as is the pea-crop after it has 
been well started in growth, it is ill able to 
withstand cool weather when very young. And 
a cloddy (though well ploughed and clean) 
soil, if hot and dry, is as injurious to the spring- 
ing of late-sown peas. When this crop is 
sown broad-cast largely, or occupies one field 
and year of the rotation of the farm, it is 
almost impossible to prevent a large portion 
suffering from one or both of these different 
evils. In the climate of lower Virginia, (or of 
the lands next below Richmond,) it is too 
hazardous to sow peas (broad-cast) before the 
20th of May — and it is much safer, and better 
for the crop, if the sowing is embraced in all 
the month of June. If beginning any earlier, 
a cold spell of weather may soon after occur, 
and suspend the growth of the young plants, 
while the hardier weeds and grasses, less im- 
patient of cold and wet, grow and get ahead of 
the peas, and prevent much of what otherwise 
would be their subsequent growth and luxuri- 
ance. Still more, there are innumerable small 
bugs, (spotted beetles,) which prey upon the 
leaves of the young pea-plants, eating holes 
through the seed-leaves, and from whose depre- 
dations scarcely a leaf escapes under these 
circumstances. This is the only insect plague, 
or disease, that I have observed to damage the 
pea-crop. These insects always attack the 
young peas, especially when in the seed leaf. 
But when the weather is warm, and the young 
plants are growing rapidly, these depredations 
are scarcely perceived, and cause no appreci- 
able injury. But when cold weather checks or 
stops the growth, the insects are very destruc- 
tive, and (with the aid of the fast-growing 
weeds,) will nearly destroy a previous thick 
stand of pea-plants. If, to avoid this frequent 
ill consequence of early sowirg, the farmer 
waits for settled warm weather, he is as liable — 
indeed almost sure — to meet the equally great 
evils of soil too dry for good preparation, a 
cloddy seed-bed, and consequent failure of 
numerous seeds to sprout, or sprouting merely 
to die for want of moisture for their as yet 
superficial roots. Besides, in all June there is 
so much of other and important labor required, 
that no farmer can then prepare for, and sow, 
an entire field in peas. And after our wheat 
harvest is begun, nothing else can be attended 
to, until it is finished. Afterwards, it is too 
late to sow peas, for their full maturing, and 
their best manuring products. Still, (on wheat- 
stubble especially,) all other conditions are so 
entirely favorable to the ploughing, seeding 
and growth, that our cleanest and most profit- 
able covers of broad-cast peas, for preparation 



18 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



for wheat, are obtained from such sowings, 
made immediately after removing the previous 
wheat crop, and not later than July 10th. But 
because of the heavy demands for labor, at 
that time, on a wheat farm, this excellent 
practice cannot be extended over much space. 
Oi these grounds, while I still prefer, and 
recommend to others, broad-cast sowing for all 
land sown in settled, warm weather, and in 
good and clean order, I now advise drill sowing, 
and some subsequent cultivation, for all the 
earlier (and otherwise too early) seeding. The 
ready objection to this is the greater amount of 
labor required. It is true, that, for the space 
sown, drill-culture requires much more labor; 
but much less, if compared with the amount of 
crop grown, and the ease of securing it for use. 
If, by too early sowing, (for any particular 
season,) part or all of a fieid sown in peas is 
Over-run by tall weeds, and but few pea-plants 
survive, it may by courtesy, be designated as 
" pea-fallow ;" but, in fact, it is merely a weed- 
fallow, on which the labor of preparation and the 
sowing of peas, have been expended almost 
uselessly. No kind of cu'ture can be more ex- 
pensive and losing than this, no matter how 
small the outlay to the acre. And in this way, 
to more or less extent, every extensive broad- 
cast sower of peas must suffer in every year. 
On the Marlbourne farm, in some years, the 
the very general over-running, or smothering, 
by weeds, of the earlier-sown pea-crop, has oc- 
curred on from one-third to more than one- 
half of the whole field, or greater breadth of 
sowing. In such cases, the loss of the crop as 
manure is not all. At least twice as much 
seed is required for broad-casting as for drill- 
ing — and the vines thus over-topped by weeds, 
will not yield enough peas to pay for the gather- 
ing. And even on the parts of the ground 
where the growth of pea-vines is clean and un- 
mixed with weeds, yet if it is very thick and 
luxuriant, there are often too few pods and 
seeds to be worth the cost of.gathering, Such 
is generally the case this year — and almost 
entirely on the farm mentioned. 

If, then, the diiferent labors of broad-cast 
and drill culture are compared, (not as to the 
extent of surface severally so treated, but) in 
regard to the products from each, it will be 
found that the drill mode of culture, for all 
early sowing, is much the cheapest and most 
profitable. For it is safe to drill some length 
of time before it will do to trust to broad-cast 
sowing. In either case, the young plants are 
equally checked by cold weather — and while 
so suspended in growth, are equally liable to 
the depredations of bugs. But, during this 
time, while hardy weeds are growing equally 
among and over topping both, they will remain 
to smother the broad-cast peas, but will be de- 
stroyed by the slight subsequent tillage of the 
drilled plants. If these but barely keep alive 
until warm weather comes, and they are then 
tilled, the weeds are killed, and the peas will 



grow and thrive well. I witnessed this pro- 
cess, with these results, this year, in a row of 
peas planted very early, and of which the 
young plants were so damaged by cold and 
insects, that they would have died if left with- 
out weeding. But with very slight and early 
tillage, this row not only speedily and entirely 
recovered, but was remarkable for its good pro- 
ducts. 

Now, I do not advise the abstracting of a 
single day from the time proper and safe for 
sowing peas broad-cast, to be given to the 
slower method of drilling and subsequent til- 
lage — but only the earlier time„ which would 
be unsafe for broad-casting. Whatever may 
be the time deemed safe to begin the latter 
operation — whether May the 20th, or June the 
1st, — drilling might have been begun safely 
some ten days earlier. For so much of the field 
as could have been drilled in this time, the land 
might have been ploughed at any leisure time 
of the preceding winter or early spring ; and 
these ten days, so given to drilling, would be 
a time when there is much less demand for 
labor than afterwards, and during which noth- 
ing else could have been safely done in seeding 
peas. These ten days, and thus in advance, 
would enable a farmer to drill one- fourth of his 
field. So when the time for broad-cast sowing 
arrived, (and otherwise the earliest safe time 
for seeding,) his general and former labors of 
seeding would be lessened by as much space as 
he had already drilled. His entire seeding 
would be so rauih the sooner completed, and 
the more likely to be all performed in good 
conditions of soil and weather. This earlier 
finishing, if by five days, will atford that much 
time (then or later,) for running cultivators, or 
ploughs, over the drilled peas, and giving the 
slight hand-hoeing or weeding necessary to 
destroy the first weeds. If nothing more should 
be done, the crop will be much cleaner and 
better than of the later-sown broad-cast peas. 
And a second and later and shallow ploughing, 
would be all that would be desired for the best 
production. There would be, indeed, consider- 
ably more cost of tillage. But, in compensa- 
tion, there would be a saving of seed, a clean 
and full crop of peas, and the pods so much 
more abundant and perfect, that twice as many 
seeds could be gathered as is usual or practica- 
ble from broad-cast vines. This is the testi- 
mony of the largest pea-farmers of North 
Carolina, who raise, and gather by hand, 
nearly all the peas that are sold in our markets. 
There is another aspect of this subject which 
deserves notice. Drill culture, to whatever ex- 
tent it may be convenient to be adopted on any 
farm, will always be early seeding, and induce 
earlier maturity of the pea-crop. Thus, if 
serving to advance the maturity of the latter 
portion of the general sowing, by ten days, it 
may double the manuring value of the pro- 
ducts of that latter portion of the crop. For 
unless the seeds are fully grown, I believe that 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



10 



the best manuring value of the pea-plant has 
not been formed. I would expect but little of 
manuring benefit from a cover of peas ploughed 
under before any pods were grown — or (as some 
closet-farmers earnestly enjoin as essential,) 
when the plants are Justin blossom. In our Pied- 
mont region, the trials of the pea-fallow have 
been, as generally found, or supposed to be, of 
no benefit, as they have been certainly bene- 
ficial in the tide-water region. I do not dis- 
pute these alleged facts of failure, sundry of 
which are of the experiments of farmers whom 
I know well, and than whom there can be no 
better authority. Neither can I pretend to ac- 
count for this want of benefit so different from 
all experienced and reported elsewhere. But 
this is certain : the best growing (or hot) sea- 
son, is too short, even in lower Virginia, for 
the best production of the pea-crop — and still 
less favorable is the climate as the mountains 
are approached. I thence infer, that in most 
cases of trial in the higher country, the pods 
and seeds were not enough advanced in growth 
to have reached their mature and important 
value as manure. This may not be the only 
reason for the comparative inefficacy of the pea- 
crop in the upper country. But so far as the 
late maturing is an obstacle to profitable pro- 
duction there, the drilling would go far to re- 
move that objection. If, by this means, -the 
time of seeding could be safely advanced ten 
days, and thereby as much the time of matur- 
ing, the profitable production of the crop may 
be extended one hundred miles farther North 
and West, beyond the previous limits of broad- 
cast culture. 

In this and the preceding year, the broad- 
cast pea-crops have been very unproductive in 
grain. Broad-cast culture has been greatly ex- 
tending in late years, and consequently the de- 
mand for seed has been greater than the sup- 
ply. Peas which formerly were sometimes as 
low as 40 cents the bushel, were, last spring, 
as high priced as $1 40 to $1 50. If every 
farmer, who sows peas, would drill but one- 
tenth part, (and that of the poorest part) of 
his field, he would not fail to obtain a plenty 
of seed, and could gather them at half the 
labor otherwise to be incurred — or for one- 
third of the cost of buying them, at recent 
prices. As long as broad-cast sowing is the 
general course, the price of peas must continue 
high — and that will render the crop of grain 
(or seed) profitable, not only for home use, but 
for market, for all drill culturists, who are 
favorably situated as to soil and climate. 

It is proper to add, that while I have had 
abundant experience of the stated disadvant- 
ages of broad-cast culture, when it was too 
early or very extensive, and the attendant 
failures of products, both of grain and vine, I 
did not try drill culture while I continued to 
be a practical farmer — and that I derive from 
information, and the experience and observa- 
tion of others, all the facts above stated of the 



superior products of drill culture. The reason- 
ing upon and deductions from these facts, for 
which I am responsible, the judicious reader 
may decide upon as well as the author. 

EDMUND RUFFIN. 
Marlbourne, Nov. 6th, 1857. 



For the Southern Planter. 



Breeding In and In, &c. 

It has been said if you continue to raise 
from the same species, for a number of years 
together, your stock will degenerate, and will 
become useless. 

I will now give my experience ; and we will 
see, if by being particular in selecting the an- 
cestors, the result is not the reverse of the 
above. My first experiment was at a hen- 
house, a mile from where I live ; my stock of 
fowls then were the Black Mexican. I turned 
out six hens and a cock, from my first year's 
raising, and to all appearance they were as 
fine, trim made fowls as any I ever saw. The 
second year I found my chickens losing size ; 
then I selected a tall spare-made cock, as being 
the finest chicken in the lot, and thought be 
would give them height; whilst the hens, 
which were low in stature, would give them * 
size enough ; but to my mortification the 
chickens became tall and slender, and in four 
years were not to be compared to the original 
stock. Now, at the same time I was trying an 
experiment where I live, in one of my lots, on 
the Earl of Derby fowls, and to my surprise 
they improved in form and some in weight. 

I selected four pullets of good size and large 
bone ; the cock I selected from chickens 
hatched in March — he was broad across the 
breast, back short and round, wings long and 
strong, feet small, legs large and straight, and 
in symmetry unsurpassed ; then I gave him the 
run, and raised from him two years, though I 
turned out a cock the first year ; and when I 
saw the chickens, the most of them wanting 
height, I selected the hens, not the cock, with 
long legs ; and in that way I can keep a stock 
pure for any length of time without degenera- 
ting. My "stock of Derbys' are finer to-day 
than they were when I got them. 

Late chickens should never be turned out to 
raise from, unless you intend to cross them, 
for that will, of itself, make your chickens small. 
March chickens are preferred by me to any 
other month. 

Now, how to raise them after you have them 
hatched: as soon as the chickens are strong 
enough to run, say one day old, take the hen 
and chickens and put them in a warm hovel, 
with some trash tobacco put on the ground ; 
then feed them on dough and grease from the 
kitchen, &c. ; the second or third day grease 
the hen well with lard and spirits turpentine 
under her wings, and her breast and head ; 
after the chickens begin to feather grease them 
lightly ; and after they are a month old give 



20 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



them another greasing ; and if you keep some 
assafcetida in the water they drink, it will, in a 
measure, free them from vermin. 

You should never keep many chickens 
crowded in one hen-house, especially during 
August and September, for it will be sure to 
give them the distemper. The distemper is 
known by the chickens discharging a watery 
mucus from the nostrils, and the head looks 
pale, and the chicken has no appetite. 

The first thing to be done is to grease them 
well ; then mop the throat with spirits turpen- 
tine, and give them some meat of any kind, 
once or twice a day, for a week ; then mop 
again, and by paying attention they will be 
relieved in ten or twelve days. 
I am, respectfully, 

J. McL. ANDERSON. 

Caroline County, Va. 



'[Commimication to the Virginia State Agricultural 
Society.] 

.Experiments in Feeding- Farm Horses, 
and in Ascertaining the Yield of Flour 
from Wheat. 

BY W. C. KNIGHT, OF NOTTOWAY. 

[Premium Essay.] 

Among the subjects suggested by the Execu- 
tive' Committee of the Virginia State Agricul- 
tural Society in their schedule of premiums for 
the present year (1857) are the following : 

•" 5. In Feeding Farm Horses — the best and 
most economical mode of feeding farm horses ; 
the cost to be stated." 

" 19, The Yield of Flour from Wheat— For 
the. best experiment to show what ought to be 
the proportion of flour yielded by a given 
quantity of wheat." 

I propose to submit to the Committee on Ex- 
periments, my information on both of these 
subjects ; but deem it proper to state that I 
have conducted no experiment with the view, 
at the time, of presenting the results for the 
premium offered by the Society. My knowl- 
edge on both has been derived from experi- 
ments made for my own personal satisfaction, 
and from practice and observation for a series 
of years. 

1. As to the best and most economical plan 
of feeding farm horses. 

Four years ago, being scarce of proven- 
der — having for a large portion of the year 
nothing but wheat-straw and corn-shucks, 
neither of which my horses would eat kindly 
in their ordinary state, I determined to use 
meal instead of the unground corn. The 
shucks and straw were cut up with a good 
straw-cutter and thoroughly dampened with 
salt-water, and after placing a sufficient quan- 
tity of provender in each horses' trough, a half- 
gallon of meal was sprinkled over it. When I 
say meal, I do not .mean fine meal, such as is 



ground for bread, but coarse meal, such as the 
millers will take half toll for. I found, from 
close observation, that the coarse was preferable 
to fine. When the meal is too fine, it clogs the 
horses' mouth by adhering to the roof of it — 
causing annoyance and fretfulness whilst feed- 
ing ; and for this cause some horses eat it un- 
kindly, and others, after a time, refuse it alto- 
gether. In the coarse meal there is sufficient 
dust which adheres to the wetted provender 
to make that palatable, and the coarser 
parts are masticated, and for this reason pre- 
ferred by the horse, which, by nature, is a 
granivorous animal; and it appears that grain, 
to have its best effect, must, to some extent, be 
masticated. In feeding with meal, it should 
never be mixed with the cut-stuff before it is 
put into the feed troughs. Each horse's allow- 
ance should be spread over his feed in the 
manger ; and in this way there is no loss, and 
the animal gets his due quantity. This expe- 
riment in feeding with straw and shucks for an 
entire year was so satisfactory, both as regards 
the condition of my horses and economy in 
grain, that I determined to continue it. There 
was a saving of at least one third of the grain 
required when fed in the ear. This fact was 
easily ascertainable, because the grain was 
ground at my own mill, where there was a re- 
cord kept for every customer ; so that the 
quantity of corn consumed by my horses was 
known to the bushel. I have continued this 
method of feeding, (wheat and oat-straw, and 
corn shucks with meal,) for four years, and my 
teams have always been in excellent condition, 
notwithstanding there has been scarcely a day, 
(Sundays excepted,) when they have not been 
in the plough or wagon. I have found too that 
a meal made of one measure of corn and too of 
clean oats results in a still further saving of 
grain, and greatly cheapens the cost of feeding. 
It has, consequently, been my practice never to 
feed oats in the sheaf, but to thresh out the 
grairv and use the straw as cut-stuff. The 
quantity of meal from these mixed grains, which 
I have found sufficient to keep a horse in good 
condition under hard work, is two gallons a 
day, to be given as follows: half a gallon at the 
morning and mid-day feeding, and one gallon 
at night. The cost, therefore, of the grain for 
one horse per day, (putting corn at one dollar 
the bushel, and oats at fifty cents,) sixteen 
and two-third cents. The saving as compared 
with the usual mode of feeding corn in the ear, 
can now readily be seen. I believe it is gene- 
rally conceded that a horse cannot perform 
hard work with le&s than ten ears at a feed, 
which makes 30 ears per day. Taking 110 
ears to the bushel, we have the day's feed 
equal to 3-G6 parts of a bushel, which is 
equivalent to 28 cents ; thus making a saving 
of* 11^ cents per day, or $41 '30 per each horse 
per year. These figures may be relied on as 
correct. The quantity of grain consumcl is a 
matter of record in my mill-book, and the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



21 



method of feeding has been pursued for four 
years, and during this time I may put down in 
round numbers the average amount of grain 
consumed by each horse at 5 barrels of corn, 
and 50 bushels of oats, and the annual cost at 
$40. The whole result, then, of these experi- 
ments, and my corroborating experience is, 
that by grinding corn alone and using it with 
the cut-stuiF in the manner designated, there is 
a saving in grain of 33£ per cent ; and by 
making a meal of corn and oats together, there 
is a saving in cost of 50 per cent, in grain. 

2. As to the Yield of Flour from Wheat. — 
On this subject I think I can furnish reliable 
information. At the Nottoway Mills, the pro- 
perty of myself and neighbor, W. P. Dickin- 
son, Esq., it has been the rule to keep a tabu- 
lar statement of the wheat received from 
every customer, and to note in separate 
columns the yield from each parcel in all 
grades of flour, also of bran and other offal. 
From this record, so kept for the years '55 and 
'56, I have made an estimate of the average 
yield, which is as follows : 

Family Flour 51 per cent, weight Of Wheat. 

Superfine " 18 

Middling „ ^ ft , (l t( 



and Fine 

Shorts " L} 

Ship-stuff " 32- 
Bran " 1§§ 

Loss in screa- 
ning and dust 
in grinding 

luu" 

These papers are respectfully submitted to 
the Committee on Experiments. 

I do not so much desire that a premium shall 
be awarded as to furnish the Society with such 
information as I possess on two matters of great 
practical importance. W. C. KNIGHT. 

Inwood, Nottoway Co., Oct. 16th, 1857. 



For the Southern Planter. 

The Cold-House Grapery. 

This is an improvement in modern horticul- 
ture, which, if known in Virginia, has been 
confined to a very limited extent in practice. 

The merchant princes of New England, in 
imitation of the nobility of Great Britain — 25 
or 30 years ago — had glass structures to raise 
grapes and tropical fruits, by the means of ar- 
tificial heat, and produced grapes as fine as 
any in the work. By hastening their matu- 
rity, they widened the season for this luxury 
several months — even to six months in the 
year — instead of two or three, the ordinary 
length of the natural season, in the most fa- 
vored grape growing countries. 

But this forced state of things, called the 
Hot-Rouse grapery, in contradistinction to the 



' Cold-House grapery, is only attainable by an 
expensive apparatus to generate steam or heat, 
and circulate it by a complicated system of 
metalic pipes through the apartments of a 
crystal palace, within which the temperature 
must be regulated by the Thermometer, requir- 
ing the skill and vigilence of a scientific agent 
night and day for months in succession, to 
regulate with accuracy the artificial climate, 
necessary to success. Of course, such an ex- 
pensive luxury, can only be indulged in by 
the very rich. 

But the triumphant genius and common- 
sense tact of our Yankee brethren, has con- 
verted this unattainable regal luxury into a 
cheap and simple improvement, within the 
reach of every one, who can afford to encoun- 
ter the cost of a four horse wagon and gear — 
for a cold-house grapery can be erected for less 
than the cost of that article, of sufficient ca- 
pacity to afford 5 or 600 lbs. of grapes in the 
utmost perfection — and, if the matter is to be 
judged of by dollars and cents, worth at the 
lowest estimate 50 cts. p«r lb., and in the neigh- 
bourhood of any market would thus more than 
indemnify the outlay yearly, besides supply- 
ing the family with an abundance of the best 
fruit in the world. 

The first step in the construction of the cold- 
house grapery, is to dig a pit three feet deep — 
gently sloping in the ■ bottom from the side 
where the wall is to be raised, upon which the 
roof is to rest — tke best position for the wall 
is the north or north-western side of the pit. 
The pit being dug to the required depth, and 
the bottom formed to the proper declining 
grade, say at least 8 or 9 inches to 30 feet, it 
must then be filled to the depth of six inches 
with broken stone, brick bats, and if to be had, 
a large mixture of oyster shell, or any old 
lime rubbish — the remaining thirty inches of 
the pit to be filled wtih the following compost 
of soils and manures : -J alluvious sandy soil, 
(the more sandy the better,) J well rotted sta- 
ble, or cow house, or hog pen manure, and £ 
common soil of best quality — and while mixing 
these thoroughly together, add 5 bushels of 
lime, 5 bushels of bone dust, 5 bushels of drift 
ashes, 1 bushel of salt, and 1 bushel of peru- 
vian guano, to every one hundred cubic yards 
of the above compost, incorporating it care- 
fully with the mass for the pit, or bed in which 
the vines are to be planted. 

The wall of stone, brick, or cobble, must 
rise 15 feet above the surface of the bed of 
soil when filled up to the prescribed level — 
covered with a wall- plate to sustain the rafters, 
upon which the glazed sashes rest, which form 
the roof — the rafters to be placed every three 
feet upon the wall-plate — the roof projecting 
from the top of the wall at an angle of forty- 
five degrees with the wall, over the pit, or bed 
of soil, and the rafters being about 15 feet in 
the clear, at the above angle, will cover a bor- 
der next to the wall about ten feet wide — here 



22 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



a line of upright or perpendicular sashes, fill- 
ing the space from a light sill sunk a little 
within the surface of the prepared soil, and 
extending up to a light plate supported by- 
studs corresponding to each rafter, meets the 
inclining roof composed of glazed sash work, 
filling the space between the rafters, and hav- 
ing its drip just clear of the light plate, com- 
pletes the glass work of the cold-house grapery. 
But for the protection of the vines and fruit, 
between it and the wall, the gable ends must 
be closed. This will be best and most econom- 
ically done, with the same material of the 
main wall, with a tight door in one or both 
ends if desired. 

The extent of the pit, beyond the space cov- 
ered by the glass, must be double, at least, to 
that within the glass — the vines are to be plant- 
ed just within the sill which holds the upright 
or perpendicular sashes — and one wire to each 
rafter only — and being placed as directed, may 
shoot their roots freely into the warm bed un- 
der the protection of the glass or the more ex- 
tensive one without — with the further advan- 
tage from this position of each vine, that it 
may be more conveniently trained back to its 
own rafter. 

The upright sashes between the sill and light 
plate, for the convenience of ventilation, are 
hung upon central pivgts, so as to be thrown 
open or closed at pleasure ; and so likewise the 
upper tier of sashes on the roof, for the same 
object of ventilation, are made moveable ; but 
in this case they are let down or drawn up by 
sash cords and pulleys, which are worked 
within the house. 

With these simple arrangements and a mod- 
erate share of attention, to guard against the 
fluctuations of our climate, with proper water- 
ing and ventilation, all of which a little expe- 
rience will soon teach — all the advantages of a 
hot-house grapery may be secured, save the 
single one of ripening the fruit a few weeks 
earlier. 

A cold-house of half a dozen rafters will 
more than supply the largest family. I saw 
one of 16 rafters this summer in Providence, 
R. L, loaded with fruit, estimated at six hun- 
dred pounds, worth in that market from 80 cts. 
to a dollar. 

Note. — Glass covering may be put down at 
90 cts. to a dollar the superficial foot. 

Deeming the foregoing worth public notice, 
if you agree with me I hope you will give it a 
place in the Southern Planter. 

Yours, Respectfully, 

John H. Cocke. 

Frank G. Rvffin, Esq. 
Ed. So. Planter. 



Carrot Pie. — Wash and scrape the carrots, 
boil till soft, sift and prepare like pumpkin 
pies ; many think them superior to pumpkins. 
They may be made with or without eggs. — 
E. E. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Multum in Parvo. 

My sons I send you this greeting. 

AVrite whilst you are resting. 

A man who stays at home and labors dili- 
gently will make a clear profit of about one- 
tenth of his labor ; but a lazy man, or gad-a- 
bout will be half-starved about half his time. 

" He who does not provide for his household, 
has denied the faith, and is worse than an infi- 
del." You see from this what a curse there is 
on the lazy man. 

He who during the day has done more than 
he expected is a hero ; he who has done less, is 
a lazy dog. 

Cabbage is an excellent food for cows. 

Cabbage and asparagus are properly marine ■ 
plants, therefore should be fed plentifully with 
water and salt. 

Shun law, a gun, and a fishing hook. 

Let no lick be lost, but always strike in the 
right place. Suppose A makes all his licks 
perfect, and B makes a misslick every tenth 
strike. Suppose it takes 100,000 licks to make 
a support; you will see that B must m-ake 
110,000 licks to obtain his bread, whilst A with 
the same number of licks has made a clear 
profit of ten per cent, on his labor. 

Obtain the best tools, and keep them in good 
order. Don't be beating out your lives by hard 
licks, with sorry or dull tools. 

If you sow oats on rich land, and intend to 
feed the straw, sow five or six bushels to the 
acre; the straw will then be of fine quality. 

Orchard grass and clover, and evergreen and 
clover ripen together, therefore should be sow- 
ed together. 1 doubt the propriety of sowing 
clover alone for any purpose whatever. 

Lean your fences up hill, so that if they fall, 
they fall upward. 

Did you ever know a negro or other ignora- 
mus to set a stake perpendicular on a hill-side. 

Remember that any thing which is worth do- 
ing, is worth doing well. 

There is much difference between manure and 
stimulant. A stimulant is, properly speaking, 
matter applied directly to a crop. A manuring 
is, properly speaking, the application of mat- 
ter directly to land not in cultivation. It is a 
question of mature consideration, whether it is 
best to manure or stimulate. 

If land which will produce twenty bushels 
of corn to the acre is worth ten dollars, what 
is that land worth which will produce forty 
bushels to the acre? I am really in earnest 
when I request one of my sons to answer this 
question ; but take care I do not pronounce 
your cyphering wrong. OLD MAN. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Log Fence. 

Large and Round Logs. 
To make a log fence on level ground, cut a 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



23 



small trench in the earth, in which lay your 
foundation logs, the ends touching. Cut notches 
in these logs, in which place blocks of wood 
about two feet long. On these blocks cut other 
notches,. in which lay other logs; and if your 
logs are large your fence is complete; but if 
not, add other blocks and logs. The larger the 
logs the better, and two should suffice, other- 
wise the fence is more liable to tumble. 

To run a log fence around a hill or mountain 
side, place your foundation as above directed ; 
then instead of the blocks, place small logs 
from six to ten feet long, on which put other 
logs until your fence is complete. 

A fence of logs running up hill (perpendicu- 
lar) cannot be made to stand. 

Place your blocks or cross logs from two to 
four feet from the ends of the logs immediately 
above, so that gravity may be equalized. 

No matter how knotty, crooked, or twisting 
the logs, and no matter as to length, all can be 
made to answer the purpose. 

No pig can pass a well made log fence, no 
cow or horse can push it down, no wind can 
blow it over, no fire can burn it when made of 
chesnut ; it will last from fifty to one hundred 
years ; and lastly, where timber is convenient 
it is the cheapest fence which can be made. 
ZA. DRUMMOND. 

November, 1857. 



For the Southern Planter. 

To Clear Steep Land. 

By standing on the lower side of the trees 
they may be handily cut near the ground, on 
the upper side. Begin to clear on the lower 
side. When a tree is felled, cut off the limbs, 
and it will roll to the bottom. Much of the 
brush will also be tumbled into the general pile 
by the logs. In this way at least five times as 
much clearing can be done as in the usual 
mode. ZA. DRUMMOND. 

November, 1857. 

N. B. — If you have any business below, send 
a lazy man about it, and if he gets killed by a 
log, not much dhference. Z. D. 



From the Richmond Whig. 

The Past and the Present. 

THE CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY IN 1857 

WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 

It is difficult to realize the terrible financial 
pressure that has been experienced, with all its 
consequent embarrassments, and with the na- 
tion at large in possession of such immense 
wealth. It is at least certain, that we are infi- 
nitely better off than in 1837, and that a decid- 
ed improvement may be anticipated in the 
course of a very short time comparatively speak- 
ing. It is quite possible, nay, it is true, that 
we have imported too much, and that we have 
lived too fast. But it is equally certain, that 



we possess many of the most substantial ele- 
ments of wealth and prosperity, and that the 
panic aside, we have experienced nothing in the 
way of a national calamity. What then, are 
the facts, as relates to the two periods ? Accord- 
ing to the Cincinnati Gazette, the commercial 
crisis of 1837, was attended by the following 
marked and leading features : — 

1st. By the reduction of the tariff of 1832. 

2d. By the great and rapid extension of for- 
eign commerce. 

3d. By the great and rapid extension of Bank 
Discounts, attendant upon the extension of 
commerce. 

4th. By great and general land speculations. 

5th. By the heavy drain of gold to meet the 
demand from Europe, and the payment for 
lands. 

6th. By the rapid curtailment of Bank Dis- 
counts to meet the demand for coin. 

7th. The general suspension of Banks, in 
consequence of their inability to meet that de- 
mand. 

8th. By the failure of the States of Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Arkansas, and 
Florida, to meet their obligations. 

9th. By the efforts of State Legislatures, 
through Relief laws, and other temporary de- 
vices, to remedy the general disorders of finan- 
ces and the embarrassment of debtors. 

10th. The banks of New York resumed spe- 
cie payments in 1838, and all the banks in Jan- 
uary, 1839. 

11th. In September, 1839, all the banks South 
and West of the Delaware suspended a second 
time. 

12th. In February, 1841, the Pennsylvania 
Bank of the United States failed, and the banks 
of Philadelphia and Baltimore suspended again. 

And according to the Washington Union, our 
position at the present time is as follows : — 

The balance of trade is in our favor. Eng- 
land is in our debt. It is immaterial to the 
question that some of her capitalists have cho- 
sen, from time to time, to invest large sums of 
money in our railroad companies. Their biting 
misfortunes with the stocks of Mississippi 
years ago projected them 'heedlessly upon cor- 
porations. If they had put their money in 
State stocks, it would have been safe. All that 
is thus vested will be found to be so. The in- 
terest which those loans will draw from the 
country will be comparatively small. But the 
actual indebtedness of England will be more 
than a counterbalance for any drain which may 
be made by her citizens for interest upon loans. 
We at this moment stand fair and equal with 
all nations, and have nothing to oppress or even 
to annoy us from abroad. What, then, is our 
condition in regard to our home resources? 
We shall simply speak in round numbers, but 
within the minimum of the true figures. 

Our cotton crop of last year was one hundred 
and thirty millions. It will be now worth one 
hundred and sixty. 



24 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Our tobacco crop this year will produce twen- 
ty millions of dollars. There are twenty one 
States in this Union which grow tobacco, and 
the crop of this year is an average one. 

Our wheat crop in 1850 was one hundred 
millions of bushels, and estimated that year at 
an equal amount of dollars. Since then a very 
great stimulous has been applied to wheat- 
growing. Then we had only eleven millions of 
acres in wheat. Now we have not less than 
twenty-five. It is seven years since then, which 
is an item to cause increase, and must be added 
to that of years, and the greater demand now 
than then. The product of wheat, we have no 
doubt, will be two hundred and twenty-five 
millions of bushels. It may be rated at an 
equal sum in dollars. 

California Avill produce forty-five millions of 
gold. This will not leave us as heretofore. 
Then four fifths of it went away. This year 
four-fifths of it will remain. 

Our crop of corn in 1850 was estimated at 
two hundred and sixty-six millions of dollars. 
This year we shall have eight hundred millions 
of bushels. It will be worth more than the 
sum of that year. 

Besides these staple articles, we have a long 
list of exports, which would swell the aggre- 
gate amount to an immense number of mil- 
lions. 

The contrast, the reader will perceive, is at 
once striking and encouraging. Surely, then, 
we may indulge a. hope, and with reason, that 
the existing troubles will prove but temporary, 
that light will soon dawn, and that the excite- 
ment, the anxiety and the panic will speedily 
pass away. They have, we admit, lasted much 
longer than we at first supposed, but the crisis 
is over, and the revival, however slow, cannot 
but be sure. 



Mechanical Value of Bones. 

The utility of the present age is fast 
proving the triteness of that ancient ism, 
" nothing is lost." % As proportions of our 
sphere of natural phenomena enlarge, how 
many substances heretofore considered 
valueless become suddenly imbued with 
new being, and spring up into articles of 
beauty and usefulness. Pre-eminent among 
these stands the bone. 

Among the earlier uses to which refuse 
bone was put, was the formation of the 
exposed portions of destructive weapons. — 
Arrows, clubs, spears, and all the parapher- 
nalia of savage warfare, received in the 
finishing process the ca ing and ornament- 
ing of bone. The spinous bone in the 
back, fins and tails of various fishes, and 
the serrated teeth of sharks, furnish exam- 
ples of the manner in which rude nations 



avail themselves ior the fa bricationof offen- 
sive material. 

The male economists of the culinary- 
department would fain prove that the re- 
moval of the meat from the joint in which 
the bone forms the nucleus, was but the 
first step in gastronomic science. They 
tell us that compounds as delicate and nu- 
tritious can be charmed as readily from 
that seemingly worthless ossification as 
from the best joint that ever graced 
the larder of the gourmand. Soups and 
jellies have been obtained from bones by 
subjecting them to powerful heat, not only 
dissolving the gelatine or fatty matter of 
which they are in part composed, but the 
bones themselves. The fact that they con- 
tain this ingredient, and the ease with which 
it is extracted when the bone is powdered 
or scraped, has led to the employment of 
the merest shavings resulting from the 
product of manufactured articles. These 
scrapings, shavings and sawdust are used 
by the pastry cooks of Paris in the pre- 
paration of jelly. This can be obtained 
equal to the best " calfsfoot," and has, as 
argument in favor of its use, the ease with 
which it can be kept — no deterioration of 
quality being perceptible through age. — 
So long, however, as nations maintain a 
tolerable degree of prosperity, we do think 
that the great advantages claimed for the 
systems of Papin, Boyle and D'Arckt 
will be recognized by the general adoption 
of their schemes. 

Bone is used as a substitute for wood 
and stone, being harder than the first and 
less brittle than the latter. For ornamental 
purposes the finer kinds, such as the teeth 
of the narwahl, walrus, tusks of the ele- 
phant and hippopotamus, have been em- 
ployed to almost an unlimited extent. 

By combustion of bones in close vessels 
chemical products are obtained. Ammo- 
nia results from the hydrogen and nitrogen 
contained. When the other gaseous ele- 
ments are evolved the residue is known 
as animal charcoal — that from bone taking 
the name of " bone black" — from ivory, 
"ivory black." The latter is a pigment, 
and is used by artists for coloring; the 
former is an ingredient in the material used 
for clarifying sugar. The ash — when every- 
thing else is extracted — has also its pur- 
poses of utility. Ground to powder, cupels, 
for assaying, are constructed from it ; when 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



25 



great excellence is the result 

Thus we may perceive how much may 
be wrought apparently from nothing — that 
simplicity is not the synonym of worthless- 
ness nor complexity, but anotHer word for 
value. — Moore's Rural New Yorker. 



washed and cleaned a polishing powder of] ed towards small breeds maturing early, 

with comparatively little fat. According 
to late writers, the large Leicester and 
Cotswold are going quite out of fashion. 
When we give $3,000 for a Durham bull, 
it is rot that his progeny are " intrinsi- 
cally" more valuable to that amount, but 
the increased value and the fashion to- 
gether, make up the difference. And it 
is thus, that while Du; hams and Herefords 
are preferred for ships and packing, Dev- 
ons are high in repute for private families. 
The joints are smaller, but the meat has 
a peculiar richness, probably found in no 
other kind of stock ; and the proportionate 
waste is said to be less than in any other 
breed. Thus in the London market, the 
Scotch Kyloes, and then the Devons, (the 
former even smaller than the latter,) bring 
the highest price because preferred by the 
aristocracy. So in Dublin, spayed heifers 
are sought for. But the breed also regu- 
lates the profit. There is nothing more 
certain than that one kind of animal will 
fatten to a given point on much less food 
than another, and as fattening our stock is 
only another mode of selling our grain and 
grass, those animals are to be preferred 
which come to maturity soonest, and fatten 
on the least food. The difference in hogs 
is very great and important. While some 
breeds must be fed for two, or even three 
winters, others are full grown and fattened 



Fattening" Animals. 

There are certain principles which ap- 
ply to the feeding of all animals which we 
will shortly notice. 

1. The breed is of great importance. A 
well bred animal not only affords les-5 
waste, but has the meat in the right places, 
the fibre is tender and juicy, and the fat 
is put on just w 7 here it is wanted. Com- 
pare the hind leg of a full-blood Durham 
ox, and a common one. The bone at the 
base of the tail extends much further in 
the former, affording more room for flesh, 
and the thigh swells out of convex or 
circular shape ; while in the common ox 
it falls in, dishing and hallow. Now the 
" round" is the most valuable cut, and is 
only found in perfection in high-bred stock. 
The same is the case over the whole body. 
So well do eastern butchers understand 
this, that their prices are regulated by the 
breed, even where two animals are equally 
fat. They know that in a Durham or 
Hereford ox, not only will there be less 
offal in proportion to weight, the greatest 
quantity of meat will be where it brings jatlen months old 
the highest price when retailed, and will profit is enormous 



be of a richer flavor, and more tender 
fibre. The same is the case with hogs. 
A large hog may chance to make more 
meat on a given quantity of food than a 
small one, but the meat of the first will be 
coarse and tasteless compared with the 
other; and in the east, flavor and tender- 
ness greatly regulate prices. Consequent- 
ly, moderate sized, short-legged, small- 
headed hogs, always, in the long run, beat 
large breeds out of favor. In preparing 
for a market, " fashion and taste" must be 
as much considered by the farmer as by 
the tailor. This one fact is at present rev- 
olutionizing the English breed of sheep. 
The aristocracy always paid high for small 
Welch and Scotch mutton ; but the great 
consumers, the mechanics, preferred large 
fat joints. The taste is now changed. 
In Manchester and other such cities, these 
large joints have become unsaleable ; and 
all the efforts of the breeder are now turn- 



and the difference in 
We cannot go into 
particulars, but the following rules may be 
considered as applying to all : An animal 
may be expected to fatten easily when it 
has fine soft elastic skin, with thin or silky 
hair ; the head and legs short, the " bar- 
rel" large, but chest and lungs small ; and 
when it is quiet, sleepy and easy in tem- 
per. An unquiet, restless, quick-tempered 
animal, is generally a bad feeder,- and un- 
profitable. 

2. Much depends in fattening on out- 
ward and mechanical management. Fat 
is carbon, or the coal which supplies the 
body with heat. If we are exposed to 
cold, it is burnt up in our lungs as fast as 
it is deposited by the blood ; but if we are 
kept warm, by shelter or clothing, it is 
deposited throughout the body, as a supply 
on hand when needed. Warm stables and 
pens are a great assistance in fattening, 
and should never be neglected. So also 
quiet and peacefulness are important. 



26 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Every excited action consumes some part 
of the body which has to be supplied by 
the food, and detracts from the fat. In 
the climate of Michigan, warm stables, 
regular feeding at fixed hours, and kind 
treatment, with perfect cleanliness, save 
many a bushel of grain. Animals fed at 
irregular times are always uneasy and 
fretting. 

3. Ground and cooked food fatten much 
more profitably than raw food. Mr. Ells- 
worth found that hogs made as much flesh 
on one pound of corn ground and boiled to 
mush, as two pounds raw unground corn ; 
though the first did not fatten quite as rap- 
idly, as they could not consume as much 
food in the twenty-four hours. By grind- 
ing and smoking, ten hogs will each gain 
100 pounds in weight, on the same food 
that five would do if it were raw. 

4. A change of food helps in fattening. 
Thus an ox fed entirely on corn and hay 
will not fatten as fast, or as well, as one 
which has root, pumpkins, ground oats or 
buckwheat, &c, fed to it at regular peri- 
ods. The latter may contain intrinsically 
less nourishing matter than the corn, but 
the change produces some unknown effect 
on the stomach and system, that adds to 
the capability of depositing fat. The best 
feeders change the food very frequently^ 
and find that they make a decided profit 
by so doing; Salt should be given wiih 
every meal to cattle — say an ounce a day. 
It preserves the appetite and prevents tor- 
por of the liver to which all fattening ani- 
mals are subject. This torpor, or disease, 
is to a certain extent conducive to fat ; but 
carried too far the animal sinks under it. 

5. In cattle the skin should be particu- 
larly attended to. A fat animal is in an 
unnatural state, and consequently easily 
subject to disease. Taking no exercise, it 
has not its usual power of throwing off 
poisons out of the system, and if the skin 
is foul, the whole labor is thrown on the 
kidneys. It is found by experience that 
oxen, regularly curried and cleaned daily, 
fatten better and faster than when left to 
themselves ; and if the legs are pasted 
with dung, as is too often the case, it seri- 
ously injures the animal. 

6. Too much rich food is injurious. The 
stomach can only assimilate a certain quan- 
tity at once. Thus an ox will prosper 
better on 30 lbs of corn and 30 lbs of cob 
ground together daily, than on 40 pounds 



of ground corn. These mixtures are also 
valuable and saving of cost for hogs when 
first put in the pen. If an animal loses 
its appetite, the food should at once be 
changed, and if possible roots, pumpkins, 
or steamed hay may be given. 

7. Oxen will fatten better if the hay or 
stalks are cut for them, but care must be 
taken not to cut too short. An inch in 
length is about the right size for oxen, 
half or three quarters of an inch for 
horses. — Farmer's Com. and Horticultural 
Gazette. 



Hot Beds— flow Made. 

Farmers like other people are fond of 
early vegetables. But it is too generally 
the case, that they neglect to raise them. 
People in the city will have the earliest to 
be obtained and willingly pay exorbitant 
prices for them. 

Farmers could raise, even in the hot 
bed, the earliest vegetables, at very little 
cost. The hot bed requires attention early 
in the season, when their is but little 
other work on hand, and consequently 
could be attended to, about as well as not. 
We propose to inform our readers how 
they are made. 

SELECTION OF GROUND. 

The ground upon which a hot bed 
should be made, should have a southerly 
or southeasterly inclination. It should 
be fully exposed to the sun and out of the 
shade of trees, building. &c. A dry place 
is preferable — where water will not stand 
in pits one or two feet in depth, after a 
rain. 

THE FRAME AND SASH. 

The frame or box which supports the 
sash is generally about 4 1-2 or 5 feet 
wide and may be made of any desired 
length. The frames are generally made 
so as to be covered with from three to five 
sashes, each sash being commonly about 
40 inches wide, and four and a half or 
five feet long. The frame may be made 
of inch plank — the side exposed to the 
north being 6 or 8 inches higher than the 
southerly side, so as to have pi oper slope 
to the sun. 

The smallest sized glass should be used 
in the sash — certainly not larger than 7 
by 9. The smaller the size the better, as 
a small pane of glass is not so liable to be 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



broken as a large one and can be more 
cheaply repaired. No cross bars are used 
in the sash — the panes of glass overlap- 
ping each other about a quarter of an inch, 
like the shingles of a house, and resting 
on bars that run lengthwise of each sash, 
just the right width for the panes to rest 
on two bars. The bars upon which the 
panes of glass rest should be an inch and 
a half or two inches wide. 

PREPARATION OF THE BEDS. 

It is a good plan to dig a pit from one 
to two feet deep where the bed is to be 
made, although this is not always done. 
Over this pit must be placed the frame. 
Now fill in half full with some fresh horse 
stable manure which has not been exposed 
to the rains, and which, within the last 
two weeks, has been turned over two or 
three times. If the manure is rather 
dry, water should be sprinkled upon it. 
The sashes of glass may now be placed 
upon the bed frame and the bed left for 
about 12 hours when air should be given 
it, and it should be closed again. In three 
or four days the soil may be put on this 
bed of manure. Fine garden mould 
should be used, and it should be spread 
to the depth of six or eight inches evenly 
over the bed. In one or two days the 
seed may be sown. If sown as soon as 
the soil is put on, the soil is said to burn 
so as to destroy the germ of the seed. 
Therefore air should be given to the bed 
once or^ twice before the seed is sown. 
After the seed is sown the bed should be 
sprinkled with water from the watering 
pot daily till the plants appear. Air should 
be given daily when the weather will 
permit so as to make the plants strong 
and hardy. The bed should be kept at 
the temperature of about 60°. The out- 
side of the frame should be banked up 
with manure so as to keep the bed warm. 
In c6ld, freezing weather the beds will 
need to be protected by being covered 
with mats or straw. — Valley Farmer. 



Wheat, although considered by some as 
a native of Sicily, originally came from 
the central table-land of Thibet, where it 
yet exists as a grass, with small, mealy 
seeds. 

Rice was brought from South Africa, 
whence it was taken to India, and thence 
to Europe and America. 



How much Corn, or Hay, is required to 
produce one pound of Meat. 

Messrs. Editors. — What guide have we to 
form an estimate, or an opinion, as to how 
much meat may be produced by feeding cer- 
tain kinds of food to animals? This question 
is one of much interest, and worthy of more 
attention than has been given it. With the 
present high price of meats, it is a matter of 
much interest to know how much meat may be 
produced by feeding a bushel of corn, or a ton 
of hay ; and if either, or both of these be fed, 
what quantity, and what proportion of the one 
to the other, ought to be given to produce the 
best results. From the best information which 
the writer has been able to gather, it is as- 
sumed that, as a common measure of food for 
animals, Indian corn should be the standard, 
and that it possesses double the value of hay 
by weight — that, in nutritive value, one pound 
of corn meal is equal to two pounds of good 
hay — and that, with good stock in fair condi- 
tion, eight pounds of corn, or its equivalent in 
other food, will produce one pound of beef, and 
that one-fourth less will produce one pound of 
pork, when the animals are fed under cover. 
It is obvious that the quantity of food required 
by an animal daily, depends on its weight, in 
a great measure ; and it is found that one and 
a half per cent of the live weight of the ani- 
mal, in corn, or its equivalent amount in other 
food, is necessary as food for working horses, 
working oxen, animals being fattened, or cows 
giving milk. A certain portion of hay, or 
other fodder, is necessary for an animal being 
fed with corn-meal ; and a bullock weighing 
ten or twelve hundred pounds live weight, 
should not be fed more than three to five 
quarts, or six or ten pounds, of corn-meal 
daily, and the balance of his food should be 
made up with hay, or other green fodder. A 
larger proportion of corn or corn-meal than 
this, will not be fully digested or assimilated ; 
for when a larger quantity of corn-meal is fed, 
a portion of it may be detected in the drop- 
pings of the auimals. 

By an experiment made on two lots of steers, 
each fed thirteen months wholly on hay, Bous- 
singault found the one lot averaging 955 lbs. 
at first, at the end of thirteen months weighed 
2,090 lbs. Increase, 1,135 lbs. They con- 
sumed, per .head, 15,972 lbs. of hay ; and one 
ton of hay produced 143 lbs. of increase of an- 
imals, or 14 lbs. of hay increased the weight 
of the animal one pound. The second lot, at 
the commencement of the experiment, averaged 
896 lbs. each ; at the end of thirteen months, 
the aggregate increase was 994 lbs. They 
consumed, per head, 14,554 lbs. of hay ; and 
one ton of hay produced 137 lbs. of increase 
weight of animals. The second lot of steers 
were not allowed salt, which the first lot got. 
Thus the steers receiving salt increased 6 lbs. 
more on a ton of hay than those which were 
not allowed salt, and the coat and hair on the 



28 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



steers 'having salt were much smoother and 
more shining than the coat of those not hav- 
ing had salt. 

It will be found from these data that the 
steers consumed about 37 lbs. of hay per day, 
and gained daily about 2% lbs. If, however, 
instead of being confined wholly to hay, they 
hod been allowed a suitable portion of hay, or 
corn fodder, with corn meal — say 8 lbs. corn- 
meal and 21 lbs. hay daily — it is probable that 
their gain would have shown a larger per cent. 
From the above data, as per first lot, we have 
to conclude that 14 lbs. hay, or 7 lbs. corn- 
meal, will produce one pound of beef. There- 
fore, if we assume the price of corn fifty-six 
cents per bushel, cr one cent per pound, and 
hay ten dollars per ton, or one-half cent per 
pound, the cost for feed in the production of 
beef would be seven and four-tenths cents per 
pound. Thus, 

Feed for one day, 8 lbs. corn-meal, at 

one cent per pound, 8 cts. 

Feed for one day, 21 lbs. hay, at one- 
half cent per pound, 10£ 

J.8J cts. 

Cost of feed for one day, eighteen and one- 
half cents, and this producing 1\ lbs., would 
make the feed, per pound of meat, cost seven 
and four tenths cents. Are there not among 
your many readers, some practical farmers 
who have useful data or remarks to offer on 
this subject? S. G. 

Lebanon, Pa. Genesee Farmer. 



The Potato always Uncertain. 

The potato was introduced into Ireland, 
and was becoming' comparatively well 
known about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century. Indeed, so early as 
1629-30, when there was a dearth in Eng 
land, according to a writer in the " Philo- 
sophical Transactions," " the potatoes 
were a relief to Ireland probably in their 
last famine ; they yield meat and drink." 
But by whatsoever alias we call the root — 
whether, as in Virginia, M open awk," or 
in botanical jargon, " solanum tubero- 
som," or in Anglo-Irish of various pe- 
riods, " potatee," " potado," " pora- 
tee," " pratea," "potata," or "phot- 
tie," the root has invariably been very 
precarious. In Scotland the adoption be- 
longs almost to our own day. It may 
have baulke ' the soldiers of Cromwell, 
because it was buried under ground, and 
they could not extirpate it so readily as 
they could have cut and carried growing 
corn. But if the potato was clever at de- 



ceiving the m proud invader," it has been 
quite as clever a traitor at deceiving the 
Irish themselves. So early as 1739-40, 
we hear of a great destruction of the po- 
tato by severe and long continued frost, 
after a wet summer and autumn. In- 1741, 
the people were cautioned against eating 
potatoes, as they were believed to be d s- 
eased, and they produced disease in men. 
There were failures again in 1765, when 
potatoes were scarce and small, as they 
were in 1829 ; in 1770, when there was 
a " curl," the disease in the leaves ; and 
in 1779, when Arthur Young found the 
people sprinkling their land with lime to 
prevent the " black rot." There is, in- 
deed, reason to believe that the black rot 
was the same as we have witnessed in 
our own day. As time advances, the fail- 
ure became more frequent. In 1784 the 
potato was called " spuggaun," from its 
diseased softness. There were failures 
again through excessive wet or excessive 
drought in 1795, and 1800, the curl ; in 
1801, freezing of the setts in the ground ; 
1807, frost ; 1809, the curl ; 1811, excess- 
ive wet ; 1812, failure of the plants ; 1816. 
the black rot ; 1817, scarcity ; 1820, inun- 
dations ; 1821, rot, and souring in some 
places ; 1825, scarcity and high price ; 
1829, excessive wet ; 1833, potato failure, 
with famine and pestilence ; 1832, epi- 
demic in the potatoe ; 1833, the curl, and 
probably the rot ; 1834, a partial failure ; 
1835-6, a scarcity ; 1838, general remarks 
on "inherent constitutional weakness," 
and deterioration ; 1839, black rust. In 
1839-42 there were failures also in the 
island of Arran and Scottish Highlands; 
a "dry gangrene" of the potato in Ger- 
many. After these dates we have, be- 
tween 1841 and 1851, more or less of un- 
favourable seasons of every year, with 
partial or local failures, in the three sub- 
sequent years. The total failure and fam- 
ine oi 1846 is in the memory of every- 
body. This mere recital of dates is suffi- 
cient to show how impossible it is to de- 
pend upon the potato as the staple food 
of a nation. We are not, indeed, to sup- 
pose that the Irishman will instantly re- 
linquish a root which is, in many respects, 
so immediately convenient; but a com- 
plete knowledge of its untrustworthy 
character will assist in removing it from 
the false position of being the staple upon 
which the whole body of the people is to 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



29 



rely, and restore it to its proper place as 
an auxillii 
the table. 



an auxiliary among other vegetables for 



Interesting Chemical Discovery. 

It is notorious that horses, more especi- 
ally racers and hunters, are subject to in- 
flammatory disease, and it is observed that 
grooms are short-lived. This has been 
ascribed to the air of unventilated stables 
being strongly impregnated with ammo- 
nia, an alkali that may be classed amongst 
the most powerful stimulants, the con- 
stant respiration of which predisposes to 
affections of the lungs. Various means 
have been tried with a view to the ab- 
sorption of this subtle poison, but hitherto 
without attaining the desired resuit. Dur- 
ing the last session of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society of England, a paper was 
presented to the council by Mr. H. Reece, 
descriptive of a plan for purifying the 
air of stables, by a mixture of gypsum or 
sawdust with sulphuric acid. This mode 
is said to be at once safe, simple, and ef- 
ficacious. Mr. Reece made some expe- 
riments in the extensive stable of Mr. 
Evans, of Enstone, the results of which 
are stated to be quite satisfactory. The 
stables were, in the first instance, strewn 
with gypsum (crystallized sulphate oi' 
lime) coarsely powdered ; but though the 
ammonia was evolved with the wetted 
straw, no trace of it was visible after two 
days' exposure, when examined with 
slaked lime. The stables were then strewn 



one part of sulphuric acid to fil'teen of 
distilled water. The ammoniacal salt 
makes an excellent manure, but it should 
not be mixed with the straw until after re- 
moval from the stable. 
Farmer. 



New England 



From the Farmer and Planter. 

Agricultural Department of the General 
Government— Strictures, &c. 
Mr. Editor.— In the May No. of the Far- 
mer and Planter you copy, approvingly, from 
the Working Farmer, remarks from Professor 
Mapes, urging the farmers to demand of the Na- 
tional Authorities, an "agricultural department 
of equal dignity with the other departments of 
the government/' " We are the only nation, " 
says he, '• whose government is without a de- 
partment devoted to agriculture. The farmers 
have a right to, and should claim, the appoint- 
ment of a Secretary of Agriculture, bearing 
even rank with the Secretary of State, Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, &c, who should be a 
Cabinet officer, and whose department should 
be so organized as to render every new truth 
discovered in agriculture, the common property 
of all. We should no longer be put off with a 
clerk subordinate to a Bureau officer, and lo- 
cated in an obscure corner of the Patent 
Office." 

I was aware that some portion (and I fear a 
large one) of the Northern people have such a 
purpose in view, because, petitions in favour 
of such an object, have been presented to Con- 
gress, from time to time, from that section : 
but I confess to a feeling of surprise and re- 
gret, to see the scheme endorsed by a Southern 
.Agricultural Journal. I have often been 
amazed at the ignorance of constitutional lim- 
itation, manifested by even distinguished men 
with gypsum, moistened with sulphuric j of the North. The case before us is directly 
acid; and when examined next morning, I in P oint - }. am unwilling to fan the fires of 



hatred and malevolence which already burns 
so fiercely in the two sections, and I therefore 



every portion was found to have absorbed! 

sufficient ammonia to emit its peculiar j readi] allowed thafc the 

pungent odor when brought in contact with j honefit and conscientious, and would not wil- 
fully violate their constitutional obligations ex- 
cept in so far as they are blinded by envy and 
passion on another question. It has puzzled 



slaked lime. The stables had lost their 
close, unhealthy smell, and, to use the 
words of the groom, appeared to be quite 
sweetened. As it was evident the gyp- 
sum acted merely mechanically, affording 
a convenient absorbent surface for the 
acid, some further experiments w 7 ere made, 
substituting sawdust for gypsum, which 
were attended with still more favourable 
results. The prepared mixture should be 
laid upon trays, as the acid is considered 
likely to injure the horses' feet. One part 
of sawdust will readily absorb three times 
its weight of acid solution, which should 
be mixed- in the proportion by measure, of 



me to account for this general ignorance in 
that section of our organic laws, but I have 
concluded that it originates in the fact that the 
North is the majority section, and can take 
care of their own interests, and hence they 
set little or no value upon the constitution. 
Indeed it does not protect, but restrains them 
from doing some things they would gladly do. 
Hence their indifference, not to say dislike, 
of this sacred instrument. Prof. Mapes I dare 
say never read the Constitution ; certainly ho 
never read it attentively with reference to this 
measure of an Agricultural Department ; for, 
if so, he could not urge the Government to a 



30 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



step which it has not the shadow of authority 
to take. Does he, or does he not know, that 
ours is a limited government, — limited to the 
express grants of power in the organic law, 
with incidental authority to do whatever is ne- 
cessary to execute them. He will search the 
Constitution in vain for any grant of power, 
either direct or implied, to organize such a 
department, or even to justify a "clerk of ag- 
riculture in an obscure corner of the Patent 
Office/' to which he sneeringly alludes. The 
8th Section of the 1st Article of the Constitu- 
tion, enumerates the powers of the Congress, 
and amongst them authorizes it " to promote 
the progress of science and useful arts, by se- 
curing for limited times to authors and in- 
ventors the exclusive right to their respective 
writings and discoveries." This is the unsub- 
stantial foundation upon which the present 
Agricultural Clerkship is built, and is that, of 
course, upon which it is proposed to erect " an 
Agricultural Department of equal dignity with 
that of Secretary of State." In the name of 
our venerated fathers, I protest against so 
shameful a violation of the sacred compact un- 
der which we live as a nation. It has been a 
cherished fancy with me, that Providence mer- 
cifully concealed this continent from the know- 
ledge of mankind,, in order that, in these last 
ages, we might have a fair field on which to re- 
construct society on a new and better basis. 
The chief ingredient in this better foundation 
is a written Constitution, clearly defining the 
powers of government and the rights of the 
people. Such a Constitution our fathers 
framed. Let it be disregarded, violated, and 
trampled under foot, and, I do not think it ex- 
travagant to say, that the last hope of man is 
swept away. Especially is it the interest of 
the South to see to it, that it is observed to the 
nicest punctilio ; for it is the only panoply 
that has and will protect us from intolerable 
oppression, or revolution. As the minority 
section it is valuable — it is everything to us. 
Let us, therefore, not wink at the slightest vio- 
lation of it, even for a good object. " From 
day to day the fatal precedent will plead." 
Aye ! it is the fatal precedent of the Agricultu 
ral Clerkship, "in an obscure 'corner of the 
Patent Office," that now pleads for an "Agri- 
cultural Department of equal dignity with 
that of Secretary of State." But it would not 
be expedient if it was constitutional, to estab- 
lish such a Department. Mankind have been 
governed to death in all the past ages. Gov- 
ernments have usurped the guardianship of 
the people, and assume to direct their pursuits 
and regulate their industry ; whilst the latter, 
with their spirit and self-reliance crushed out, 
look imploringly up to their perfidious guardi- 
ans. This, more than any other cause, hasj 
stayed the substantial progress of the world. , 
The true office of government is, to protect us 
in our persons and property, and leave all else 
to individual or voluntary associated effort, j 



The Patent Office Report, annually sent out by 
the government, is a valuable book ; but is 
produced at a ruinous cost to the people of 
hundreds of thousands of dollars. The same 
work could be done better by private enterprise 
for a tithe of the money. The Agricultural 
Department, if organized, would add to the 
splendour of the over-shadowing central gov- 
ernment at the expense of the people. It 
would be controlled by the majority section 
for their own special benefit, whilst we of the 
South would continue to hew wood and draw 
water. Nay, nay ! I have only one prayer to 
offer to the Government, and that is, protect 
me and let me alone. 

Respectfully yours, L. B. Mercer. 



Recipe for Making Soap. 

The following recipe for making soap is by 
a lady who took the Premiums for a very su- 
perior article at the late Fair of the Virginia 
State Agricultural Society. We think it will 
be found good : 

Have ready hickory ]je, strong enough to 
bear an egg, showing the size of a dime above 
the surface of the lye. To three pounds of 
clean fat, after being melted, add two gallons 
of the lye and a bit of lime the size of a wal- 
nut; boil it fast, and stir frequently. When 
it has boiled an hour stir in two gallons more 
of the lye ; continue to stir it often, and always 
one way. After it has boiled for several 
hours, take out a spoonful and cool it on a 
plate; if it does not jelly add a very little 
water; if this cause it to jelly, add water to 
that in the kettle, — stir very quickly while the 
water is poured in, till you perceive that it 
ropes on the stick, or becomes heavy. When 
this is the case, you have what is called jelly 
soap, (or soft soap by some.) To make it hard, 
stir one quart of salt into the kettle, and let it 
boil ten minutes longer ; set it by to cool. 
Next day cut the soap out of the kettle and 
clarify it by melting it over, adding water 
enough barely to cover it ; let it just come to 
a boil, and set it away. When perfectly cool 
and firm, turn it out of the oven, scrape off 
any of the residuum that may adhere to the 
cake of soap, cut it in pieces and place it on 
boards to harden. 

To make this soap fit for toilet purposes, it 
is only necessary to cut it into thin shavings, 
place it in a very nice tin-pan, add a little 
water, scarcely enough to cover the shavings ; 
set it on some embers and stir and beat, it with 
a nice spoon till it becomes a smooth jelly ; 
while in this state, if you wish to colour it, 
dissolve Chinese Vermillion in a little water, 
and stir it in till you get the desired hue ; take 
it off the fire, and add oil of lavender, bcrga- 
mot, sassefras, or any other essential oil, the 
scent of which you like ; and while it is some- 
what liquid, pour it into moulds. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



31 



From the Farm Journal. 

Dairy Management. 

FEEDING COWS FOR BUTTER— NEW 

VIEWS. 

BY J. S. HOUGHTON, M. D., PHILADELPHIA. 

The true art of feeding animals, with a 
view to produce flesh, bone, fat, power of 
endurance in labor, speed of motion, or 
mere bulk and weight, is a very nice and 
complicated study, and requires for its 
exact elucidation not only an intimate 
knowledge of chemistry and physiology, 
but many and careful practical experi- 
ments. 

The common and almost universal opin- 
ion among both scientific and practical 
men has been, that butter was to be 
expected from cows fed freely with 
substances containing starch or sugar, 
(starch in the process of fermentation or 
change being converted into sugar,) or 
with substances of carbonaceous or oily 
nature, as corn meal, linseed meal, and 
the like ; for the reason that such sub- 
stances aid the formation of fat in the 
animal organism, or prevent its removal 
even in cold weather, when once deposi- 
ted. Hence potatoes, being composed 
largely of starch, sugar-corn fodder, mo- 
lasses, Indian corn, linseed meal, malt, 
(barley in a state of change into sugar) 
have been relied upon in dairy manage- 
ment as the chief agent for the production 
of butter. These substances were not, of 
course, used alone, but in conjunction 
with hay, roots, corn, fodder, &c. 

But a new and most important scientific 
and practical fact has recently been de- 
veloped in England, in regard to the 
economy of the dairy, where butter is the 
tnain object, by the experiments of Dr. R. 
D. Thomson, lecturer on chemistry in 
the University of Glasgow, which were 
undertaken, it appears, by order of the. 
British government to ascertain the rela- 
tive butter-producing qualities of barley, 
malt, molasses, linseed meal and bean- 
meal, employed in various combinations, 
with the addition of good hay to furnish 
bulk of food for the .stomach of the cow, 
as well as nutritive and fat forming; e le- 
ments. 

In these experiments, which are very 
carefully conducted, bean-meal and hay 
produced more butter than any combina- 
tion of the other articles of food above 



named. "These facts," says Dr. Thorn" 
son, '*are not agreeable to the common 
opinion that the amount of butter afforded 
by a cow, is a test of the amount of oil 
contained in the food ; and hence we are 
entitled to recommend oily food as pre- 
ferable, for the production of butter, to 
food which experience teaches us will 
accomplish this object though less rich in 
oleaginous matter." 

Bean-meal is set down by scientific men 
as chiefly a nitrogenous or flesh-forming 
food, closely allied in its nature to the eo^, 
the oyster, lean mutton and beef in ani- 
mal life, and to cabbage and the cereal 
grains in vegetable life. 

Dr. Thomson explains the unexpected 
,value of bean-meal, as a butter producing 
'agent, by suggesting that it contains not 
'alone the flesh-forming substances, but 
| the "actual constituents or milk and butter 
in the proper proportions," especially 
| when given with hay, which is similarly 
organized. 

A moment's reflection will show that 
this remark is a sensible one. The cow, 
even when confined in the stable, (as was 
the case in the experiment above alluded 
to) being irritated by flies and other 
causes, exerts her muscular powers to 
1 some extent, and hence a waste of the ni- 
trogenous part of the body, (lean flesh.) 
Again, in all milk there is casein or 
curd, (the cheese-forming substance, close- 
ly allied to animal flesh,) without which, 
of course, perfect milk containing butter, 
I cannot be produced. Now, says Dr. 
I Thomson, "bean-meal restores the waste 
| of the animal system, in the cow, while 
producing milk, in the proper propor- 
tions," and hence the quantity of butter 
J will not only be relatively greater, under 
'the use of such food, but the cow will be 
kept in better general condition. 

I will not here attempt to give the de- 
tails of the experiments of Dr. Thomson, 
j Those who wish to inform themselves 
! fully upon the subject will find it useful to 
consult the entire report " On the Food of 
'Animals," published by C. M. Saxton & 
Co., Aew York. I will only add, that the 
\ work is so strictly scientific, it will prove, 
| probably, interesting only to those readers 
'who are already familiar with the leading 
principles of physiological chemistry. 

The scientific investigations of Dr. 
Thomson have received interestins: con- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



firmation, as to the soundness of the 
leading principle, from another series of 
experiments of a practical, though highly 
intelligent and somewhat scientific nature, 
made by a member of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society in England, and now in 
course of publication in the Farm Journal. 
The first part of this report was inserted 
in the October number, and will be con- 
tinued, I am informed, in the present 
number. 

It will be seen from the report, that a 
mixed diet is recommended for dair}' cows, 
where the object is to keep the cattle in 
the best possible condition, consisting of 
bean-straw, oat-straw, hay, wheat, bran, 
bean-meal, turnips, cabbage and rape-oil- 
cake. In the production of butter, the 
highest value is given to bean-meal and 
bean-straw, and rape-oil-cake, which last 
is similar to linseed-cake. - The superior 
influence of the bean-meal and bean-straw, 
in contrast with linseed cake, is especially 
worthy of notice. 

Now leaving every reader to study that 
report for himself, I come to the impor- 
tant practical deduction to be made irom 
these new views in reference to feeding 
dairy cattle. The common idea is, that 
dairy stock can only be sustained on the 
richest grass- growing and grain producing 
land, and that poor, sandy soils, are unfit 
for dairy farms. Science and experience 
now tell us a different story. 

Upon the theory and practice here ad- 
vanced, common meadow hay or clover, 
corn fodder, bean-straw (bean vines,) rye 
bran (which last is oily,) turnips, carrots, 
parsnips, and if you please, a little In- 
dian corn meal, would furnish food for 
dairy cattle capable of producing the 
gr^a'est possible quantity of butter, and 
keeping the cows in the best possible con- 
dition as respects fle-h and fat. 

All the substances here presented, as 
food for dairy stock, can be grown upon 
sandy soils, such as we find in New Jer- 
sey/ Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, &c. 
And upon worn-out farms, where there is 
usually some low land, or meadow, or 
even without the soil containing much 
vegetable matter, by the use of small 
quantities of artificial manure. 

There are no soils so poor, (even the 
worst flowing sands of New Jersey,) that 
will not produce beans, or their equiva- 
lent, the cow pea, or field pea, now so 



much employed in the South as a renova- 
tor of exhausted soils. Beans or field 
peas can be produced on such soils in 
profitable abundance without manure, but 
still better by the aid of lime, plaster of 
Paris, guano or superphosphate of lime. 
The field pea, (which is in reality a bean) 
gathers much of its vegetable matter and 
probably nitrogen from the atmosphere, 
('especially when aided by plaster) and its 
various inorganic Salts, (mineral sub- 
stances) from the subsoil being a vigor- 
ous grower, and sending its roots far and 
wide and deep into the earth in search of 
food. It rarely suffers from long continued 
dry weather, and will remain green and 
healthy at a time when corn leaves are 
curled up as if burnt with fires. In nine- 
ty days it will make mpre fodder, per 
acre, than a first rate crop of Clover of 
the second year's growth. Its grain, as 
will be seen from the experiment alluded 
to, is equal if not superior as food for 
dairy cattle to any oily food, and, of 
course, far cheaper than corn meal, rape,, 
or linseed. It may be proper to state 
that I have tested the southern field pea 
in New Jersey, for three years, and speak 
of its qualities in this climate, from posi- 
tive experience. It is said that on rich 
clay soils, it will make an excess of vine 
and w ; ill not mature its seed. It should be 
planted as early as Indian corn, sown 
broadcast for fodder, and in drills for 
seeds. Seed may be obtained from a 
broadcast crop. It requires about two 
bushel of seed pei acre broadcast, less for 
drills. 

If meadow hay cannot be obtained on a 
sandy soil, clover can, after turnips or 
field peas. Rye also grows profitably on 
sandy soils, especially after a green crop.of 
peas turned under. Few soils are so poor 
as not to produce corn fodder, or they 
may be made to do so by the aid of a- 
green crop, or a little guano, or nitrogen- 
ized super-phosphate of lime. Turnips, 
carrots and parsnips are readily produced, 
In immense abundance on sandy soils, by 
the use of super-phosphate of lime alone, 
or even ground bones. These root crops, 
indeed, with the field pea, form the basis 
of good dairy food for a sandy soil ; and 
with their use, clover, timothy, herd grass, 
orchard grass, corn fodder will speedily 
be produced, if the manure of the cattle 
be carefully and properly saved and judi- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



33 



ciously applied* The red Indian corn and 
whpat even, may soon be produced, at a 
profit, by such management. 

The bean straw, or vines, it will be ob- 
served, were steamed before being fed to 
the cows, in the experiments of the Royal 
Society ; and much of the other food was 
also steamed or cooked. Dr. Thomson, it 
is presumed, fed the bean-meal in the 
raw state. Bean-straw is a harsh, dry 
food, unless steamed or soaked in hot! 
water. j 

If the dairyman on sandy soil, had no] 
pasture at first, it would follow, under the 
system of management here suggested, 
that he would be compelled to keep his 
cattle constantly in the* stable, after the 
method called V soiling," feeding them in 
the Spring partly upon dry hay, and 
partly upon green oat or rye-straw, green 
corn fodder, &c, (or dry fodder if he had 
it,) until such times as pasture could be 
produced upon restored land. This, it is 
presumed, could not profitably be done, 
except near large cities, where milk and 
butter were easily marketed, and sold at 
retail prices: but in such instances it 
coul 1 be done with profit, if the soiled 
and liquid manure were all properly saved 
and mixed with muck or leaves, or only 
sprinkled freely with Plaster of Paris, as 
the rapid improvement of the land would 
pay the extra cost of stall feeding over 
the economy of pasturing with the loss of 
manure consequent upon the latter method 
of feeding. To say the least, the article 
here referred 1o, and the views which I 
have presented, afford man} r valuable sug- 
gestions to the dairyman, which he may 
improve to much advantage, whether loca- 
ted upon a sandy or barren soil, or upon 
one more favorable to the production of 
grasses and Indian corn. 

I will take the liberty to add, that 
although I have had no practical experi- 
ence in feeding cows, yet my knowledge 
of chemical and physiological principles, 
and my investigations into the subject of 
human food, long ago led me to believe 
that the only food in large proportions, 
was not so highly important in feeding 
milking-cows, as was generally supposed, 
and that a butter producing food of the 
best quality could be obtained from a 
sandy and worn-out soil with positive 
profit. In the Farm Journal for Decem- 
ber, 1854, I published an article on the 



uses of the field pea, as food for milking- 
cows, in w r hich I remarked in conclusion, 
as follows : 

" I think pea-vines and corn fodder, 
served as cut food for milch cows, in 
winter, with a little corn and pea-meal, 
would furnish an admirable and highly 
economical food ; and if to these articles, 
carrots and parsnips would be freely 
added, it would leave nothing to be de- 
sired by the milkman, or the maker of 
butter or cheese. The only thing I can 
think of, which it would be desirable to 
purchase occasionally, where butter was 
the object, is oil-cake if it could be 
cheaply obtained." 



A Cheap Board Fence. 

A cheap fence can be made in the fol- 
lowing manner: — Take posts three by 
four inches, not set in the earth, but placed 
on stone; three feet frona each post a 
hole is made in the ground, in which an 
oak stake four inches square at the top 
and eight high is firmly driven with a 
beetle ; to this a board six inches wide is 
nailed, and thence to near the top of the 
post ; another is nailed to the bottom 
of the post, and to the opposite side of 
the stake ; the boards are then nailed on as 
is usual. This fence stands firm. Much 
good fence is removed and new built in its 
place, merely because the posts are rotting 
off, which might with a little labor be made 
to stand as firm as when first built. 

E. S. Buck. 

Elba, .AT. Y., June, 1856. 



The Japan Pea. 

We think this Pea has been much un- 
derrated, especially at the North, where 
the season is too short to grow it in per- 
fection. Here it grows luxuriantly and 
matures perfectly, yielding an extraordi- 
nary return, when propeily cultivated. — 
They should not be gathered until the pods 
begin to shrivel, when they may be carted 
to the barn or other out house, and threshed 
with the flail. They are very excellent 
for the table even when a year old, if pre- 
pared as follows : — Soak in water over 
night, and boil next day three or four 
hours ; serve up with butter, or place 
them in the oven, with a few slices" of ba- 
con, until slightly browned, like baked 
beans. 



34 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



On the Nutrition of Plants. 



BY PROF. 8. W. JOHNSON. 

The experiments of Boussingault, detailed in 
a farmer communication, sufficiently demon- 
strates the importance of nitrogen in assimila- 
ble form, for the normal development of vege- 
tation. We know that ammonia and nitrate 
are both available sources of nitrogen to the 
plant, and that if, in addition to one of them 
•we supply the substance found in the ashes of 
plants, we have, with the water and carbonic 
acid of the atmosphere, all the food of vege- 
tation. 

Several years ago the writer furnished to the 
Country Gentleman an account of some re- 
searches by Ville, a Frenchman, which appear 
to prove that the free nitrogen of the atmos- 
phere could be absorbed and assimilated by 
growing plants. Boussingault, however, has 
made numerous experiments with reference to 
this question, and his trials have invaribly 
failed to detect any assimilation of free nitro- 
gen. But these experiments of Boussingault 
were made in a manner different from those of 
Ville, less liable indeed to certain sources of 
error; but the latter claimed that they failed 
to give results agreeing with his, because the 
plants were grown in unnatural conditions. 
During the past summer, however, the trials 
have been most carefully repeated in the Lawes' 
Testimonial Laboratory at Rothamstead, Eng- 
land, by my friend Dr. Evan Pugh of Lan- 
caster, Pa., with a costly apparatus furnished ^losophers, who maintained that organic mat- 



periments that will be presently adduced leave 
no shadow of doubt as to their being indispen- 
sable constituents of vegetation. 

This is a proper place to notice a confusion 
in the use of certain constantly employed terms, 
which has led to serious misunderstandings 
and long controversies. 

The words organic and inorganic are what I 
allude to. In a general sense, the former is 
synonymous with vegetable and animal, used 
as adjectives; the latter with mineral. But it 
is customary to speak of animal and vegetable 
substances as containing an inorganic part. It 
is said that where we burn a vegetable or ani- 
mal body, the organic portion disappears, while 
the inorganic matter is incombustible, and re- 
mains behind as ash. 

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, are 
the ingredients of the combustible or organic 
portion, and hence have been called " the 
organic elements;" while the elements of 
earths, oxyds, alkalies and mineral acids, found 
in the ash have been classed together as " the 
inorganic elements." (Johnston.) Carrying 
out the same division, the mineral matters of 
soils and manures have been called the inor- 
ganic food of the plant, while carbonic acid, 
ammonia, nitric acid and water have borne 
the name of the organic food of plants. They 
are indeed the food which build up the organic 
part of plants, but themselves are inorganic 
substances. All the food of the plant is inor- 
ganic, said Liebig in opposition to the old ph-i- 



by the liberality of JVIr. Lawes ; and though 
the experiments are not yet completed, Dr. 
Pugh writes me that they promise to confirm 
the view of Boussingault, viz., that vegetation 
is incapable of growing at the expense of the 
free nitrogen of the atmosphere. In due time 
Dr.. Pugh's researches will be given to the pub- 
lic, and will doubtless settle this vexed question. 
In this article it is proposed to review the 
question of the importance and functions of 
the ingredients of the ash of plants. It is 
generally admitted that these bodies are neces- 
sary to the perfection of vegetation ; but doubt- 
less our ideas on this subject have not that de- 
gree of definiteness which amount to a full ap- 
preciation, and which is needful in order to 
make them enter directly or advantageously 
into our actual theory of farming. 1 say theory 
of farming, for every man who is capable of 
thought has a theory of some sort or other, 
which guides his practice. I am of the opinion, 



possess tolerably accurate notions of the con- 
dition and prospects of agricultural science, 
they will be ardent in enc >u raging and sup- 
porting its further cultivation, and will be 
grateful to every one who assists in bringing 
these subjects before them. 

Some have recently gone so far as to doubt 
whether the ash-ingredients of plants are essen- 
tial, or are all o^ them essential ; but the ox- 



ters (humus, geine, &c) were the pabulum of 
vegetation. Lawes and Gilbert, and almost till 
English students of Agricultural Chemistry 
accustomed to Johnson's definitions, therefore 
inferred that Liebig denied or ignored the value 
of ammonia, which they were accustomed to 
consider an organic body, and this is the origin 
of the unfounded idea that Liebig's " mineral 
theory" taught that if we supply plants with 
the ingredients of their ashes, they will flourish 
without other manure. 

Now it is important to be able to distinguish 
from each other by some general term, the ele- 
ments or substances out of which the plant 
organizes its organic part, and the others which, 
are the ingredients of its ash. The most accu- 
rate and at the same time most important dis- 
tinction, is this, that at ordinary temperatures 
the former exist as gases — are volatile: while 
the latter are solid — fixed. At high tempera- 
tures, too, the com poii nds of the former are de- 



too, that as soon as the farmers of our country gjtroyed, they themselves being vniatized, while 

the compounds of the latter arc fixed. 

We may therefore designate carbonic acid, 
nitric acid, ammonia and water, as the volatile 
food, and potash, s<:<ia, lime, magnesia, oxyds 
of iron and manganese, sulphuric, phosphoric 
and silicic acids, as the fixed fond, of plants. 
The former are also very correctly termed the 
atmospheric Jbod, while the latter are often 
spoken of as the ash ingredients of plants. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



35 



To resume our subject, not merely has the 
constant presence of the ash-ingredients, as 
revealed by analysis, demonstrated their indis- 
p'ensableness to the development of vegetation ; 
but, latterly, a long and laborious series of 
synthetical trials has been carried out, which 
gets the subject in a stronger light, and whose 
continuance promises to reveal to some extent 
the special function of each ingredient of the 
fixed plant food. 

It is to a noble German, Prince Salm Ilorst- 
mar, that we are indebted for these beautiful 
and excessively laborious investigations, some 
of the results of which I shall lay before the 
readers of the Co. Gent. 

It was necessary of course to grow the plants 
which were the subject of experiment, in a 
medium of itself, entirely free from ash in- 
gredients. For the first trial, the coal of the 
purest crystalized sugar candy was employed. 
It was prepared with the utmost care, to avoid 
any contamination. 

The pots were made of tin, had no opening 
at the bottom, and were coated interiorly with 
wax. THe plants were watered with distilled 
water, and grew in an otherwise unoccupied 
room, into which the sun shone at mid-day. 

Results of Experiments with White Oats. 

1. The plant grown in the sugar-coal with- 
out any addition, was perfect in form and pro- 
portions, but of very diminutive size, and bore 
no blossoms. It derived its food' from the seed 
and from the atmosphere. 

2. The plant grown without addition of ash- 
ingredients, but with addition of nitrogenous 
food (nitrate of ammonia,) was dispropor- 
tioned; its leaves were relatively longer, and 
had a deeper green color, and it developed one 
flower. The plants in both these trials were of 
equal weight. 

3. In a soil composed of sugar-coal to which 
was added the following ash-ingredients in 
soluble form, viz., silica, potash, lime, magnesia, 
phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid* without any 
nitrogenous body, the oat plant grows far 
better, — attains four times greater weight — 
than when nitrogenous matters, but no ash- 
ingredients are added. 

4. Plants grown with addition of certain ash- 
iDgredients, and with nitrogenous matters, 
were very healthy and well developed. Those 
which received the same quantity of nitrogen- 
ous food but no ash-ingredients, died in the first 
leaf. 

When some of the ash-ingredients which, 
used together, produced healthy plants, were 
not supplied, the plants either perished in their 
early stages, or were smaii, pale, and irregu- 
larly developed. 



* These bodies existed in the following forms, 
viz., silicate of potash, carbonate of lime, carbo- 
nate of magnesia, phosphate of Vv.v.e } sulphate 
Of lime. 



5. Larger quantities of certain ash-ingredi- 
ents added to the sugar-coal, the nitrogenous 
additions remaining the same, caused a thriftier 
growth and the development of more flowers. 

From the preceding results, it is just to con- 
clude that the oat plant requires for its normal 
and full growth, that the soil contain fixed 
bodies (ash-ingredients) which are an indispens- 
able part of its nourishment. 

It also appears, in accordance with the later 
results of Boussingault, that the oat-plant can- 
not thrive unless it receive supplies of nitro- 
genous food. 

The Prince Salm Horstmar made numerous 
similar trials with barley, wheat, and rye, and 
all his results establish in the most conclusive 
manner, the absolute idispensableness of the 
ash-ingredients, and of all the ash-ingredients 
of these plants. In the continuation of this 
subject, will be given a few of his results re- 
garding the effect of individual members of the 
group of bodies which we have classed together 
as ash-ingredients. It will be quite impossible 
to communicate all his conclusions, the con- 
densed statement of which occupies 30 octavo 
pages, and are drawn from the observation of 
more than 150 carefully conducted experi- 
ments. 

Before concluding, let me add a remark on 
one of the deductions drawn by Boussingault 
in his article, the translation of which is found 
on page 138, viz: — "That the supplies of as- 
similable nitrogen which the atmosphere is able 
to furnish, are too small to determine an abun- 
dant and rapid vegetable production in the ab- 
sence of nitrogenous manures/' 

In Boussingault's experiments the plants 
were sheltered from all rains and dews ; they 
were therefore deprived of what assimilable- 
nitrogen, (nitric acid and ammonia) might thus 
be supplied to them, and consequently the con- 
clusion, although highly probable, is not proved. 
Again, what is true of one plant may not be 
true of another. It is still possible that a slow 
growing pine, rooted in the sand of some moun- 
tain summit, may derive enough nitrogen from 
the air to determine what is for it an abundant 
development. "We want, therefore, a new trial 
with the helianthus, grown in the soil of pure 
sand, mixed with cloverash, phosphate of lime, 
and bicarbonate of potash; but exposed to thfr 
dews and watered with rain water. And this 
kind of experiments ought to be extended with 
plants having other habits of growth — for Lie- 
big raised excellent grapes in a barren gravel, 
using only the ashes of the vine as a ferti- 
lizer. — Country Gentleman. 



Millet, one species is a native of Indi«%. 
another Egypt and Abyssinia. 

The Grasses are mostly native plants, and 
so are the Clovers, except Lucerne, which is a« 
native of Sicily. 

The Gourd is an Eastern plant. 



30 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



On Breeding Stock of any Kind. 

Prize Essay — Kentucky State Agricultural 
Socie ty — Fits t Exhib it ion. 

BY DR. R. J. BRECKINRIDGE, OF FAYETTE 

COUNTY, KY., TO WHOM WAS AWARDED 

THE SECOND PREMIUM. 



The particular stock to which the fol- 
lowing remarks more immediately relate, 
is the Shorthorns, commonly called Dur- 
ham cattle. But the great principles 
laid down apply to all kinds of domestic 
quadrupeds. The Shorthorns are selected, 
because they are at the head of all races 
-of cattle ; and therefore, in a country the 
basis of whose husbandry is grass, they 
are at the head of the live-stock interest. 
Anything which promotes their intelligent 
•culture, must promote, in the highest 
degree, the agricultural interest of the 
State. The single point herein discussed 
is breeding — that being the only one em- 
braced in this particular theme, as assign- 
ed by the State Agricultural Society. 
And the object aimed at is, to state, briefly 
■and clearly, the great principles which 
breeders must understand and adopt, if 
they would breed with certainty, and with 
.profit. 

LAWS OF NATURE. 

There are two natural laws which lie at 
the foundation of this whole subject, both 
of which we must steadily regard. The 
first is, that like produces like. What we 
expect and desire in offspring, we must 
find in the parents. This stability and 
uniformity of nature is the very founda- 
tion of the whole order of the universe. 
We are not entitled to expect that it will 
be departed from for our advantage, nor 
need we have any fear that we may not 
trust implicitly to its force. What we 
mean by pure blood, or high bred, is, that 
the animals thus designated belong to a 
family that carries very far, and that has 
carried very long, the power to produce 
other animals having the particular qual- 
ities we prize and seek. This great law 
of like after like is subject, like every 
other law of nature, to be weakened, or 
to be increased in its power, and is liable 
to operate to the great injury, or the great 
advnntage of man. But its existence, and 
its fundamental importance, must be re- 



cognized in every step the breeder takes* 
The second of the two great natural 
laws, alluded to above, may be thus stated: 
Culture is capable of modifying th$ great 
lavj of like after like, both for good and for 
evil, to the utmost extent compatible with 
the enduring power of the law itself. It is 
impossible to set limits to the injury, or to 
the improvement that everything which 
exists is capable of, while yet remaining 
essentially the same. While the first law 
teaches us that we can improve every- 
thing that exists. These two laws give to 
the breeder all the control that is possible, 
or desirable, over the subject. Absolute 
unity, certainty, and steadfastness in the 
thing, and yet almost boundless variety in 
the modes of its manifestation — these are 
the two grand truths which the breeder 
must operate with, in all his endeavors to 
perpetuate, or to improve any race of an- 
imals. 

FUNDAMENTAL RESULTS OF THESE LAW'S. 

In the first place, it is utterly impossible 
for us to perpetuate artificial peculiarities 
of any kind whatever. A horse, nicked 
or foxed, never begets a nicked or foxed 
colt. In the second place, natural pecu- 
liarities — congenital, as they are called — 
when they are uniform in the particular 
race, will be propagated with like uniform- 
ity ; thus, no Shorthorns is of any color 
but white, or red, or a mixture of both — 
In the third place, these natural peculiar- 
ities, even when they are personal to the 
particular animal, are, to a certain extent, 
.propagated in its offspring; thus, a bull, 
born without a tail, or with a very coarse 
head, may be expected to have some calves 
with similar defects, and following up, we 
might at last establish a family thus acci- 
dentally originated by nature. In the 
fourth place, we may, by perseveiing 
neglect, or ignorance, or design, greatly 
seduce nature to originate these accidental 
varieties, and torture her into the produc- 
tion of deformed, or barren, or monstrous 
animals. In the fifth place, we may, by 
docile, assiduous, and" kind waiting on 
nature, so learn her wayj>, and so win her 
smile, that our wise and experienced en- 
deavors to help her efforts, will be follow- 
ed by abundant rewards in the increased 
beauty, excellence, and value of all we 
rear. In the sixth place, our wisdom is, 
therefore, to avoid carefully all those pecu- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



37 



liarities which are merely personal to par- 
ticular animals, and to select animals, for 
their general perfection in the peculiari- 
ties common to the race ; for in the for- 
mer case, we are liable to an excessive 
special development, while, in the latter 
case, w r e may expect general excellence 
and improvement, which is what we want. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOUNDED ON THESE 
LAWS AND RESULTS. 

A vast amount of injury is done to do- 
mestic animals, of all sorts, by crossing 
various races of each kind upon one an- 
other. No man can guess of what race, 
or of what mixture of races, the common 
cattle, horses, sheep, or hogs of the coun- 
try originally came ; but every man can 
see how few capital animals are to be found 
amongst any of them. This promiscuous 
method of oreeding one variety upon an- 
other subverts the first law, and resists 
the uniform endeavor of nature, as applied 
to the whole subject of breeding. We 
cannot even keep up a race of half-breeds 
by breeding half-breeds to each other. — 
How, then, can a race, with a multitude 
of different crosses in it, possibly be 
either uniform or valuable ? To adhere 
tenaciously to an unmixed blood, is the 
very first requisite in all breeding that 
aims to preserve the excellence we have 
already secured, or to increase it, in any 
race of animals. 

2. The question of pure blood, as applied 
to every race of animals, has already been 
explained as a matter of principle. As a 
matter of fact, ia the case of each partic- 
ular animal, while we are left, in a great 
degree, to depend on the testimony of 
owners and traders for extended .pedi- 
grees, yet there are natural marks well 
known to experienced breeders, and clear- 
ly laid down in all books which treat of 
the different races of animals, which ren- 
der gross imposition impossible on those 
who understand their business. A thor- 
ough-bred Shorthorn is as easily dis- 
tinguished from other races of cattle as a 
Saxon sheen is from a Cotswold, or a 
race horse from a cart-horse ; and unless 
we will put ourselves to the trouble of 
being qualified to do this, we must be con- 
tent to trust our ignorance to chance. — 
With regard to herd books, we are liable 
to form very erroneous opinions. Those 
books are of great value, precisely as any 



other means of advertising is, and also 
very much as a record office of land titles 
is. But it is very idle to suppose that all 
advertisements are strictly true, or that 
all lands with a perfect title are rich lands. 
Many herd-book pedigrees are, on their 
face, condemnatory of the animals adver- 
tised, and not a few are incorrect. That 
breeders do not guard against such evils, 
or that they are not sufficiently informed 
to do so, are amongst the reasons why 
they are so often disappointed in the stock 
they breed. 

3. It is one evil result of the various 
errors already alluded to, that any counte- 
nance should be given to attempts to ele- 
vate high grade cattle to something like 
an equality with those of pure blood. — 
Shorthorns are a distinct and very ancient 
variety of cattle : for our purpose in Ken- 
tucky, and in the West generally, incom- 
parably the best race of cattle. High grades 
are, no doubt, a very great improvement 
on the common cattle ; but to dignify 
with the name of full-blooded, and to 
allow 7 them to be considered as a near ap- 
proach to the pure-blooded, is a serious 
error, which can work nothing but injury 
to the stock of the country, and which 
can impose on none but ignorant breeders. 
If the Shorthorns were a race made by 
crossing several races — which some have 
ignorantly pretended — even then it would 
be useless for us to work the race over 
again by new crosses. But seeing it is a 
distinct, peculiar, and very perfect race, 
created, perhaps, at first, and very ancient- 
ly? by natural congenital peculiarities in 
certain animals, and afterwards most care- 
fully bred and improved by Culture 
through many centuries, and now widely 
diffused and multiplied in all the finest 
portions of the earth, it is mere wantonness 
for those who are interested in this noble 
race to connive at practices so injurious to 
its reputation and value. If full-blooded 
means anything else than thorough bred, 
then it means grade, and ought to be so 
called ; but if it means to place the grade 
on a level with the pure, then it is mere 
folly or imposture. 

4. Thus separating the pure from the 
grade, produced by itself, and from all 
mixture with other races, no matter how 
excellent, we are restricted in breeding 
to animals of the one race, and this uni- 
versally in all breeding that aims at per- 



38 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



manent improvement. Pure breeding is, 
therefore, necessarily in-and-in breeding, 
to a certain extent. How far that princi- 
ple should go, and by what means we can 
best avoid its supposed evil results, are 
questions upon which great difference of 
opinion exists. In this country there is a 
general prejudice against in-and-in breed- 
ing; and breeders of Shorthorns generally 
liave accustomed themselves to keep their 
bulls only for a few years, and to seek 
breeding animals as remotely related to 
their own herds as they could obtain. It 
is this same feeling which has created and 
sustained such constant and excessive im- 
portations of Shorthorns from England; 
although, in the judgment of those most 
qualified to judge and who have had the best 
opportunities of forming an opinion, we 
have in Kentu< ky larger herds and better 
animals than exist in England. The most 
Certain and the most obvious effect of this 
method of breeding is to deprive any par- 
ticular herd of any distinct character pe- 
culiar to itself. The general improve- 
ment of all might possibly be promoted in 
this manner, if all breeders were skilful 
and experienced. But the special im- 
provement of any, to a Very high degree, 
is nearty impossible, under such a system, 
by which every breeder guarantees, in a 
manner, the skill and knowledge of all the 
rest, and at the same time deprives him- 
self habitually of advantages obtained by 
his own skill or good fortune, at the very 
moment those advantages are most impor- 
tant. 

5. As a matter of fact, experience has 
clearly proved, that while in-and-in breed- 
ing, followed ignorantly or indefinitely, 
may produce much injury, at the same 
time in-and-in breeding has been so fol- 
lowed as to produce not only the very 
finest animals, but the very finest herds 
of the race. As a matter of principle, as 
has been already intimated, in-and-in 
breeding is but another name for pure 
breeding; for all pure breeding is confi- 
ning ourselves to one race, while in-and-in 
breeding is but confining ourselves to a 
few, or to a single family of that race. U 
we will be guided by nature, her proceed- 
ings are invariable as to the method by 
which she keeps races distinct, and car- 
ries them to perfection. For all animals 
that pair, pair out of the same litter from 
generation to generation ; and amongst 



all gregarious animals, not only does the 
same herd continue itself, but it happens 
necessarily and continually, that the very 
closest in-and-in breeding, both up and 
down, and collateral, is the very rule of 
her work. In both instances, the results 
she produces is a uniformity and a perfec- 
tion in every species, up to the highest 
points permitted by the circumstances of 
each. The general truth undoubtedly is, 
that by skilful in-and-in breeding, we in- 
tensify the prevailing blood, whatever 
that is ; we get rid of all subordinate mix- 
tures and tendencies ; we give increased 
stability and uniformity to the peculiar 
characteristics of the race ; and we estab- 
lish, in the firmest manner possible, all 
the qualities of the race, whatever they 
may be. It cannot be too distinctly un- 
derstood, that this question depends essen- 
tially upon another already spoken of. If 
the Shorthorns be a distinct and a pure 
race, in-and-in breeding is a certain way 
to perfect it ; but if it be a made race, 
in-and-in breeding is a certain way to 
break up as mixtures, and to bring out the 
prevailing races which compose it. As 
there can be no doubt that it is a pure 
race, the popular prejudice against in-and- 
in breeding, as applied to it, is unfounded 
and injurious. 

6. There is some difference of opinion 
as to the age at which animals should be 
put to breeding. The prevailing opinion 
among the best breeders is, that heifers 
should bring their first calf at about three 
years of age — some respect being had to 
the season of year at which the calf 
should come; and that bulls may be 
allowed to serve a few cows without inju- 
ry to them, at fifteen or eighteen months 
old. The average time of gestation for a 
cow is two hundred and eighteen days. — 
Nearly all heifers will bring their first calf 
at two years of age, or even younger, if 
permitted, the effect of which is apt to be, 
to retard the complete development of the 
cow, if not to injure her permanently in 
size and appearance. Under all circum- 
stances, this race of cattleffippears to be 
liable to occasional barrenness in both 
sexes ; and to compensate for it, by occa- 
sional excessive fecundity, twins being far 
more common than barren animals — both 
of which facts, if not peculiar to this race, 
are far more common than in any other. 
There is no reason to believe that the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



39 



offspring, either of the cow or the bull, 
depend? upon the age of either parent for 
its excellence, except so far as the health 
of the parent, and its adequate vigor, may 
be considered as influenced by its time of 
life. As a race, the Shorthorns are vigor- 
ous, healthful, and long-lived. Among 
them, as amongst all creatures that exist, 
there is reason, to believe that hereditary 
qualities, that are personal, descend most 
surely across the sexes, to wit : from the 
male parent to the female issue, and vice 
versa. A remarkable fact, of the very 
highest importance, of which all ages and 
conditions of men have had a vague con- 
viction, which nothing but experience can 
establish, and which well deserve a more 
serious examination than it has received. 
It would add many millions to the 
wealth of Kentucky, if all her cattle could 
be supplanted by this race of Shorthorns, or 
even by high grades of them. Even the 
permanent establishment of numerous 
herds *of pure blood, and high excellence 
in her unequaled grass region would open 
a mine of wealth to the State. The cul- 
ture of them, moreover, besides being 
amongst the most remunerative branches 
of rural economy, is one of the most ra- 
tional and beautiful parts of the farm life of 
landholders. The great attention, there 
fore, which is paid to them, by all our Ag- 
ricultural Societies, is one of their most 
beneficial acts; and this little attempt to 
promote their objects will be accepted, at 
least, as a token of the satisfaction and 
good wishes of an old breeder. 



On the Exclusive Use of Guano. 

From the very favourable results obtain- 
ed from the use of guano and other porta- 
ble manures, and the high price of grain 
at present, some gentlemen have adopted 
a system of farming which, however profi- 
table it may be in the mean time, is sure 
to be attended ultimately with the deterio- 
ration of their, soil. There are to be found 
in particular districts proprietors, who, ig- 
norant of the details of farming, and un- 
willing to give that attentive oversight so 
necessary to its successful prosecution, 
have thought it better to keep no animals 
of any kind on their farms. White crops 
only are grown, the tillage of the land is 
done by contract, a liberal dose of guano 
is sown with the crop, and the whole is 



rouped off standing. For the last two 
years this has paid well. The practice 
has been followed principally in districts 
where there is a demand for straw, from 
the number of dairies established uncon- 
nected with any farms ; and where the 
soil is unsuited for the growth of green 
crops, two white crops are raised with a 
liberal allowance of guano, and then the 
field is sown out with grass, which is let 
to the dairy-keepers or graziers. Of course 
such a system could only be pursued where 
there is a demand for the straw. 

As guano and other portable manures 
have really some most extravagant admi- 
rers, whom no arguments will convince, 
we will not attempt the task of proving 
to them the injuriousness of the practice 
refered to above, but will simply direct 
their attention to the effects of the exclu- 
sive use of guano when cominued for a 
time. We are told by M. Villeroy, in the 
Journal d'Agricultuie Pratique, that there 
are farms in Saxony on which there are 
no animals, and on which the labour even 
is hired, and no manure but guano used. 
This has been continued for more than ten 
years ; but it is found that they are now 
under the necessity of increasing the quan- 
tity of guano on those farms where it has 
been used exclusively. Where, for in- 
stance, they employed about 4 cwt. per 
acre, they are now obliged to apply about 
4£ cwt. to produce the same results. He 
also mentions that there is an impression 
among the farmers in Saxony that guano 
is unsuitable for the growth of clover. 

The above fact is deserving of all atten- 
tion from farmers, particularly those who 
may pursue the system to which we have 
alluded before. It is also found here that 
much larger doses of guano are now requi- 
red to produce results equal to those ob- 
tained when guano was first introduced 
into this country. This may no doubt 
arise from the guano now used being of 
inferior quality ; but we do not think that 
there is such a difference in the quality as 
to cause such a disparity in the results. 
The true place of guano is as an auxiliary, 
not as a substitute for the ordinary man- 
ure of the farm. ,And it would be a pity 
if this, one of the principal aids to fertility, 
were to suffer at all in the estimation of 
farmers by its injurious use. — Journal of 
Agriculture. 



40 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Romaine's Steam Cultivator. 
A trial of this machine took place on 
Friday the 11th ult., in a field near Cross- 
kill's Agricultural Implement, Works, Bev- 
erly. It differs from all others hitherto 
brought before the public for the purpose 
of applying steam power to the cultivation 
of the soil, in entirely dispensing with the 
use of plows, ropes, or auxiliary imple- 
ments. It is a, 14-horse portable steam- 
engine, capable of propelling itself, com- 
bined with, and giving motion to a rotary 
digger^ which is said to pulverize the land 
completely to any required depth. The 
engine and boiler are constructed in a 
similar manner to the portable agricultural 
engines now in common use, and are car- 
ried by a pair of high, broad wheels, and 
two smaller wheels in front. The large 
wheels are driven round by the engine, 
and the front wheels used for steering; 
but by a simple disengaging arrangement, 
the latter are left perfectly free when the 
machine has to be turned round ; and by 
driving one of the large wheels while the 
other remains stationary, the implement j 
can be turned completely round in its own j 
length. The cultivating part of the ma- 
chine is carried by a strong frame attach- 
ed to the boiler, and consists of a hollow 
cylinder six feet six inches long, and two 
feet six inches in diameter, armed with > 
knives or cutters, on its outer surface. 
The cutters are of wrought iron, and suffi-i 
ciently strong to enter the land, and en- 
counter roots, stones, or other obstacles, 
without injury; but in case of accident, 
they can be readily replaced at small cost, 
and without delay, as each is secured sep- 
arately by bolts, to the outside of the cy- 
linder. 

The machine is the invention of Mr. 
Robert Romaine, a Canadian, and was 
shown at Paris at the great exhibition of 
1855. It there attracted the attention of 
Mr. Crosskill, who induced the inventor to 
bring it to Beverly, and during the last 
two years two machines have been con- 
constructed at the Beverly Iron Works, 
and experiments carried out for the pur- 
pose of fully developing- the principles of 
the invention, and perfecting the details 
of the machinery. 

The implement commenced operations 
at one end of a field of strong clay stub- 
ble, and traversed its entire length, trans- 
forming a breadth of 6£ feet into a perfect 



seed-bed, equal, it is said, to what could 
have been produced by twice plowing and 
harrowing, or clod-crushing. On its arri- 
val at the headland.it turned round in less 
space than would have been required by 
two horses with a common plow, and re- 
turned along the side of the work already 
done. The cultivation of the field was 
thus proceeded with, no vacant space be- 
ing left except the two small headlands, 
that could easily be finished by the ma-, 
chine after the rest of the ground was 
done. 

i The machine is said to be capable of 
cultivating from five to seven acres per 
day, at an expense (including engine-dri- 
ver and assistant, coals, man with horse 
and cart to fetch water, and wear and tear 
of machine,) not exceeding 35s. to 40s. 
per day. — Mark Lane Express, 



A Fowl Establishment. 

The following is a description of an es- 
tablishment belonging to a Frenchman 
near Paris. We do not know where the 
article first made its appearance, or to 
whom the credit of its translation is due. 
We* give it as we find it, without assuming 
any responsibility as to its statements — 
our readers will take them at their own 
valuation, but may be interested in the 
story : 

A Mons. de Sora has recently discover- 
ed the secret of making hens lay eggs 
every day in the year, by feeding them on 
horse flesh. The fact that hens do not 
lay eggs in winter as well as in summer, 
is well known, and the simple reason ap- 
pears to be, that they do not get the sup- 
ply of meat in winter which they readily 
obtain in the warm season by scratching 
the ground for worms and insects. 

M. de Sora was aware of all these facts, 
and living at the time upon an old dilapi- 
dated estate, a few miles from Paris, the 
acres having been bequeathed to him a 
few years previously — he set himself 
earnestly at the task of constructing a 
hennery, which should be productive 
twelve months in the year. He soon as- 
certained that a certain quantity of raw 
mince meal given regularly, with other 
feed, produced the desired result, and 
commencing only with some three hun- 
dred female fowls, he found that they 
averaged, the first year, some twenty-five 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



41 



dozen eggs each, in the three hundred and 
sixty-five days. The past season he has 
wintered thus far, about one hundred 
thousand, and a fair proportion of male 
birds, with a close approximation to the 
same results. During the spring, summer, 
and autumn, they have the range of the 
estate, but always under surveilance. In 
the winter their apartments are kept at an 
agreeable temperature ; and, although they 
have mince meat rations the year round, 
yet the quantity is much increased in cold 
weather. They have free access to pure 
water, gravel, and sand, and their combs 
are always red. To supply this great con- 
sumption of meat, M. de Sora has availed 
himself of the constant supply of super- 
anuated and damaged horses, which can 
always be gathered from the stables of 
Paris and the suburbs. These useless an- 
imals are taken to an abbattoir, owned by 
M. de Sora himself, and there neatly and 
scientifically slaughtered. The blood is 
saved, clean and unmixed with offal. It 
is sold for purposes of the arts, at a re- 
munerative price. The skin goes to the 
tanner — the head, hoofs, shanks, &c, to 
the glue-maker and Prussian blue manu- 
facturer; the larger bones form a cheap 
substitute for ivory with the button-maker, 
while the remainder of the osseous struc- 
ture is manufactured into ivory black, or 
used in the shape of bone-dust for agri- 
cultural -purposes. Even the marrow is 
preserved ; and much of the fashionable 
and highly perfumed lip-salve and pomade, 
so much in vogue, was once closed within 
the leg bones of old horses. Uses are 
also found for the entrails — and in fact no 
portion of the beast is wasted. 

The flesh is carefully dissected off the 
frame, of course, and being cut into suit- 
able proportions, it is run through a series 
of revolving knives, the apparatus being 
similar to a sausage machine on an im- 
mense scale, and is delivered in a homo- 
geneous mass of mince meat, slightly sea- 
soned, into casks, which are instantly 
headed up and conveyed per railroad to 
the egg plantation of M. de Sora. 

The consumption of horses for this pur- 
pose by M. de Sora, has been at the aver- 
age rate of Iwenty-tWo per day, for the 
last twelve months, and so perfectly eco- 
nomical and extensive are all his arrange- 
ments, that he is enabled to make a profit 
on the cost of the animals by the sale of 



nothing deliver- 



are built around a quadrangle, 
about twenty acres, the court in 



the extraneous substances enumerated 
above, thus furnishing to himself the 
mince meat for less than 
ed at his hennery. 

It has been ascertained that a slight 
addition of salt and ground black pepper 
to the mass is beneficial to the fowls, yet 
M. de Sora does not depend upon the>e 
condiments alone to prevent fermentation 
and putrefaction, but has his store rooms 
so contrived as to keep at a temperature 
just lemoved from the freezing point 
through all months of the year, so that 
the mince meat never becomes sour or of- 
fensive ; the fowls eat it with avidity ; 
they are ever in good condition, and they 
lay an egg almost daily, in all weathers 
and in all seasons. 

The sheds, offices, and other buildings 

enclosing 
the cen- 
tre forming the general feeding ground. 
The latter is subdivided by fences of open 
paling, so that only a limited number of 
fowls are allowed together, and these are 
arranged in the different compartments ac- 
cording to age, no bird being allowed to 
exceed the duration of four years of life. 
At the end of the fourth year they are 
placed in the fattening coops for about 
three weeks, fed entirely on crushed 
grain, and sent alive to Paris. 

As one item alone in this immense busi- 
ness, it may be mentioned that in the 
months of September, October, and No- 
vember last, M. de Sora sent nearly one 
thousand dozen capons to the metropolis. 
He never allows a hen to set ! 
The breeding rooms are warmed by 
steam, and the heat is kept up with re- 
markable uniformity to that evolved by 
the female fowl during the process of in- 
cubation, which is known to mark higher 
on the thermometer than at any other pe- 
riods. A series of shelves one above the 
other, form the nests, while blankets are 
spread over the eggs to exclude acciden- 
tal light. The hatched chicks are remov- 
ed to the nursery each morning, and fresh 
I eggs are laid in to supply the place of 
'empty shells. A constant succession of 
| chickens are thus ensured, and moreover 
j the feathers are always free from vermin. 
Indeed a lousy fowl is unknown upon the 
| premises. 

M. de Sora permits the males and fe- 
males to mingle freely at all seasons, and 



42 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



after a fair trial of the various breeds, has 
cleared his establishment of every Shang- 
hai, Cochin-china, or other outlandish 
fowl, breeding only from old-fashioned 
barn-yard chanticleers, and the feminines 
of the same kind. He contends that the 
extra size of body and eggs pertaining to 
those foreign breeds, can only be produc- 
ed and sustained by extra food, while for 
capon raising, the flesh is neither so deli- 
cate or juicy as that of the native bird 

The manure' produced in this French 
establishment is no small item ; and since 
it forms the very best fertilizer for many 
descriptions of plants, it is eagerly sought 
for at high prices by the market gardeners 
in the vicinity. The proprietor estimates 
the yield this year at about one hundred 
cords. He employs nearly one hundred 
persons in different departments, three- 
fourths of whom, however, are females. 
The sales of eggs during the past winter 
have averaged about forty thousand do- 
zens per week, at the rate of six dozens 
for four francs, bringing the actual sales 
up to $5,000 in round numbers, for every 
seven days, or $260,000 per annum. The 
expenses of M de Sora's hennery, includ- 
ing wages, interest, a fair margin for re- 
pairs, &c, are in the neighbourhood of 
$75,000, leaving a balance in his favour 
of $185,000 per year, almost as remunera- 
tive as Col. Fremont's Mariposa grant. 
Boston Cultivator. 



From the Rural American. 

Profits of Fruit Culture at the South. 

Friend Miner: — I am forcibly impressed 
with the deficiency of fruit — especially of fresh 
fruit, &c, in the Southwestern States in the 
winter season. Persons are often desirous of 
purchasing-, and would pay good prices for 
fresh apples, or any kind of good mature fruit; 
but they cannot find any to purchase. Now, I 
would simply ask if the farmers and horticul- 
turists were to devote more attention to the 
culture of fruit of all varieties, and such atten- 
tion it woild secure an abundant yield of fruit 
every year, and keep good supplks during 
winter, would it not pay, and that well ? 1 
think it would. Friend farmers, all of you 
that have never tried it, try it at once, 
and see if it wont pay ; and especially you of 
the Southern States. I think your climnte is 
well adapted to the culture of fruit as the 
Northern States. Many in the Northern 
States raise large quantities of fruit for mar- 
ket, and they say it pays large profits. Why 
would it not do the same here; are you afraid 



to devote any time to any thing but a hog, a 
tobacco-plant and a corn-stalk t Are you afraid 
of losing the little time and expense it would 
require to give it a thorough trial? I hope 
you are not afraid of that ; for how do you 
know but that it would doubly and trebly re- 
munerate you for all the time and labor ex- 
pended on it? I think that the demand for 
fruit in this section (Tennessee) is far greater 
in both winter and summer than the sup- 
ply, and I have no doubt that if you would 
increase the quantity, and improve the quali- 
ty, you would increase tihe demand and 
enhance the price. I, for one, would be 
highly delighted to see farmers in this 
country try the experiment of raising fruit 
for market. If they are afraid that there 
would be no demand here, let them set their 
orchards and have them in good bearing condi- 
tion by the time our railroads are completed 
and in good operation that are now being 
built. 

Njw, friends, I conclude this brief article in 
the hope thai you will no longer lend a deaf 
ear to appeals of this kind, but will awaken to 
your interest and the demands of the country 
in which you live. M. W. ADCOCK. 

Clarksville, Tenn., Nov. 10, 1856. 



Cure For Chapped Hands. 

Most of our juveniles during the winter 
season, are troubled with chapped hands ; 
for the benefit of mothers, who are obliged 
to listen to the endless complaints, we 
publish the following recipe for chapped 
hands : — 

" Take 3 drachms of camphor gum, 3 
do. white beeswax, 3 do. spermaceti, 2 
ounces olive oil — put them together in a 
cup upon the stove where they will melt 
slowly and form a white ointment in a few 
minutes. If the hands be affected, anoint 
them on going to bed, and put on a pair of 
gloves. A day or two will suffice to heal 
them. 



Ought a Sleeping or Dwelling Room ever to bb 
Tjuilt without a Chimney ? — Professor Faraday has 
shown the chimney to possess very important 
fund ions in sanitary economy. Thus, a parlor 
tire will consume in twelve hours forty pounds 
of coal, the combustion rendering -42,000 gallons 
of air unlit to support life. Not. only is that large 
amount of deleterious product carried away, and 
rendered innoxious by the chimney, but live 
times that quantity of air is also carried up by 
the draught, and ventilation is thus effectually 
maintained. Will hotel builders please look to 
this? 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



43 



Gearing Teams according to Principle. 

We invite the attention of our readers to the 
tt\ r o communications which will be found below 
on the principles of draught and the gearing of 
horses and oxen according to them. They will 
be found worthy of reflection by those who will 
reflect on the subject. They are written by a 
friend of ours, to whom the farmers are indebt- 
ed for very substantial services ; and they em- 
body the result of a great many experiments 
which he has worked out for himself. lie has 
our thanks for what he has written in his own 
rough-hewed but nervous way. The quotation 
about " two blades of grass," &c, is tolerably 
well known, and has been pretty w r ell acted on 
in Virginia. But is not something due to him 
who teaches us how to save our grass and corn 
as well as make it? And surely if we can do 
our work with one-third less expenditure of ani- 
mal power, we may estimate a saving of half 
that amount in feed, to say nothing of the 
pleasure which every humane heart will feel in 
saving the wear and tear of his animals, and of 
the enjoyment which every intellect will expe- 
rience in its successful application to the me- 
chanics of agriculture. 

PROPER GEARING OF OXEN AND HORSES. 

Many suppose that there is but one way 
to gear up an ox, because he is worked 
with a yoke around (he neck. 

The ox, like the horse, has his correct 
\ and incorrect lines of draught from which 
he pulls to advantage or disadvantage. In 
both the horse and the ox, to pull to the 
best advantage and with the greatest ef 
feet, both the weight and the power of 
each must be applied directly. For ex- 
ample — take that point on the shoulder of 
the horse which proves to be the centre of 
pressure on it for the pulling point, or the 
point where the traces should connect with 
the hames, and extend it back at right- an- 
gles with the hame or shoulder, until that 
line strikes the earth, and you will have 
the line of that horse's power, or the line 
on which he can exert the greatest amount 
of power, and with the greatest ease to 
himself. There would be very few baulky 
horses, if all were geared in this way, be- 
cause it is so much easier to the animal to 
perform his required labors when correct- 
ly geared than when not — and so it is with 
the ox. But it is more difficult to deter- 



mine the pulling point on the ox than the 
horse. In the case of the ox with the use 
of the yoke, he pulls partly by yoke and 
partly by the bow, and consequently it is 
only by repeated experiments that the 
pulling point can be determined. North- 
ern men have put the pulling point on the 
ox, at about one-third of the depth of his 
neck from the top where the bow works. 
But this seem a fraction too low down, 
causing the bow to press too hard on the 
lower point of the shoulder. I think one 
fourth from the top is nearer right than 
one-third. But either is a thousand times 
better than the ordinary way of working 
the straight yoke, which virtually throws 
the power and weight of the ox under, and 
not directly against the burden or load. 

Now to construct a yoke so as to make 
the pulling point strike one-fourth from 
the top of the neck, supposing the neck to 
be 16 inches deep where the bow works — 
so shape it that when a line is drawn from 
one bow across to the other 4 inches from 
the top of each neck, (or the under part 
of the yoke where it rests on the neck,) 
said line w r ill strike the exact point on the 
staples of the yoke against which the rings 
or hooks pass when they are pulling the 
load along. Thus constructed it will be 
needless to put one-half of the load on the 
necks to enable the team to carry it more 
easily thereby. 

The wheel is an endless lever, and les-. 
sens the burden on the team in proportion 
to its diameter. Therefore put every 
pound on the wheels instead of the necks 
of oxen or backs of horses, and nover pull 
on a pivot or centre in the yoke — for no 
two oxen Working together are equal in 
strength or speed, and no man is compe- 
tent to make allowances for the inequali- 
ties in the difference in the ends of the 
yoke— therefore have two pulling points 
instead of a central one from which to 
pull — make on the yoke a stretcher, simi- 
lar in principle lo the ordinary stretcher 
used in working horses to a wagon. Let 
this rule guide you — divide that part of 
the yoke measuring from the centre of 
each bow into three equal parts, and where 
the dividers touch the yoke, put in each of 
the two places a slaple similarly fixed to 
the centrte one, and pull on these with a 
forked chain instead of a single chain to 
the centre of the yoke, use the centre ring 
and staple to hold up the tongue of the 



44 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



cart, and to pull from and not to pull to. — 
To the tongue fix permanently a forked 
chain to pull to. 

With such fixtures, having two oxen, 
one of them with 1.500 pounds of power, 
the other with 1,000 of power, (if they are 
well broke,) you can carry 2,500 pounds, 
each ox exerting his whole power without 
affecting the other; whereas if you pull 
the same oxen on a centre or pivot, you 
can only carry from 1500 to 2000 pounds, 
because the strong ox can only balance 
the weak by an equal pull with him. 

This plan is not only a means of carry- 
ing greater burdens, but it prevents oxen 
from pressing against and pulling from 
each other, from fighting whilst at work, 
from starting badly and baulking, and will 
keep up a steady even pull all the while. 

The bow for an ox should be broad or 
flat where it rests against the shoulder, so 
as to press on a wide surface, and it should 
fit the neck ; it should also be made wide at 
bottom and narrow at top. Again, whilst 
it should fit the entire neck it ought not to 
touch the throttle in the least, for if it does 
it will obstruct the breathing, and the cry 
of short wind will be heard, and the fine 
animal will be branded as worthless by an 
ignorant owner. 

The best way to make ox bows is to get 
them as you do hames for horses, from the 
stumps or roots of trees, get them out in 
halves as you do hames — carefully fitting 
the neck from the throttle around the low- 
er circle, and on the side of the neck up 
through the yoke, leaving about 1£ inches 
space just between the lower ends at the 
throttle — thus formed, get an old carriage 
or other spring £ of an inch thick, and suf- 
ficiently wide to give it strength, and rivet 
it well on the outside at the bottom so as 
to hold them permanently together. This 
will give you a most durable bow that will 
fit well every where, and never, check 
the breathing in the least. Be sure in mak- 
ing this bow that the bottom be at least two 
inches in diameter: for then the space for 
the throttle will be ample — and we will 
venture that no judicious, intelligent far- 
mer will ever work oxen in any other way, 
even if these fixtures must be procured at 
double their value. 

In respect to gearing horses, we say, in 
a single word, that the traces should run 
back from the hames exactly at right an- 
gles, until the}" reach the back band, which 



should be placed on his back exactly where 
the saddle naturally rests, both the back 
band and the belly band should be fasten- 
ed just at this point permanently to fit 
well. Then if the traces be hitched to any 
thing higher than the straight line of its 
direction from the hame to the back and 
belly banks, the animal will be enabled to 
exert his power to the best advantage un- 
der the circumstances, whereas if the belly 
band did not hold it down at that point, 
the trace would straighten, and the conse- 
quence would be that the hame and collar 
would choke the horse and destroy his 
power, besides throwing the pulling line 
above the centre of his weight and power, 
the reverse would produce the reverse ef- 
fect. OBSERVER. 



True Principles of Hitching Teams to 
their Work. 

Brother farmer, what per cent, of power 
do you think is gained by hitching four 
horses abreast to a plow or railroad car 
over and above the mode of hitching them 
in the ordinary way, of two before two ; 
thus placing the two front horses four or 
five times further from the load to be 
moved, than the other two ? 

I have selected the plow, and the rail- 
road car, because the. pull from the plow 
is different from that of the car, for which 
reason it suits my purpose best. 

I suppose nearly all of you will readily 
sa} 7 a very large per cent, will be saved 
by hitching all four horses abreast to the 
car. But to the plow if all four be hitch- 
ed abreast, one or two of them will 
have to walk on the plowed ground, 
which in itself is so worrying and objec- 
tionable', that it is best to hitch two before 
two, and thereby make them pull the hea- 
vier burden, than to hitch a great deal 
nearer, and saved a large per cent, of pow- 
er, thereby at the expense of walking on 
plowed ground. 

Farmers differ a great deal on most sub- 
jects — but on this particular subject I am 
almost sure they are nearly all agreed. A 
very large majority believe that they can 
do as much work with three horses abreast 
as they or any one can with four, two 
hitched before two. Now, brother farmer, 
it is a thing simple and easy to test : but 
simple and easy as it is, not one of you 
in one thousand ever tested it correctly, or 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



45 



the 



has any idea of what is correct in 
premises. 

Go to work yourself, and by accurate 
experiment prove what is correct. Any 
of you can do it. Here is a plan for solv- 
ing the problem, and though many of you 
may look upon it as a matter of moon 
shine, to understand and practice it will 
become a matter of gold shine 

As it is more difficult to make this test 
with the plow lhan with the car, we will 
gear up four horses abreast and make them 
pull a car by a chain one foot long attach- 
ed to a dynamometer — the car and load 
shall weigh 4,000 pounds, and the chain 
one foot long shall weigh two pounds. — 
The car moves as the team starts forward, 
and the dynamometer shows that the team 
has to exert, we will suppose, 800 pound? 
of power exactly to overcome the friction 
or resistance. 

Now instead of the one foot of chain 
which attaches the team to the dynamom- 
eter, and that to the car we will add 20 
feet more of chain, making 21 ft. of chain 
in this experiment, to see how much the 
resistance is increased, by removing the 
team a greater distance from the car to 
which they are pulling, we have already 
seen, that the pull (with one foot of chain) 
of 4,000 pounds shows a resistance or 
friction of 800 pounds, now with the same 
load and 20 feet of chain added, weighing 
40 pounds, we will start up again. The 



dynamometer agfJn shows the resistance 
or friction to be 808 pounds and no more. 
Why this small increase of 8 pounds re- 
sistance when 20 feet of distance was add- 
ed and 40 pounds ? 

The reason is obvious, if 4,000 pounds 
in the first trial showed a resistance of 800 
pounds, 4040 would naturally show a resis- 
tance of 808 pounds, for the friction is in 
the proportion of 1 pound to 5 pounds of 
weight to be moved. The distance 1 foot 
or 20 feet from the car, effecting no change 
whatever. 

A word of caution just here may be ne- 
cessary in reference to a similar test being 
attempted to be made with the plow; for 
it must be understood that in removing the 
teams an increased distance from the plow 
it will necessarity be made to run much 
deeper, and the increased depth of furrow 
will cause an increase of resistance. Now, 
broiher farmer, am I humbugging you — 
lry it yourselves, and see if this state- 



ment be true If true, apply it to practical 
purposes. Apply it to the plow, and have a 
beam sufficiency long to cause it to run stea- 
dily. Apply it to the plow in the hitching 
of your teams, and if you can spare a driver 
extra never doubt but that you # can do one 
third more with four horses than with 
three — and if these ideas are not true cor- 
rect them by a published statement that 
all may have the benefit of them. 

OBSERVER. 

As our friend "Observer" is hardly explicit 
enough in the conclusion of his remarks, we 
will venture to expand them a little. We pre- 
sume he had in his mind the idea which pre- 
vails very extensively, and, as plough teams 
are usually attached, very properly, that throe 
horses abreast will plough nearly if not quite 
as much in surface and in depth as four horses 
can working two and two. Whether the opin- 
ion is correct to the full extent is immaterial, it 
being, we conceive, true in the main, that the 
fourth horse and the extra driver do not pay by 
any, if any, very small increase in the width 
and depth of the furrow slice. Two reasons 
are given for this opinion : — 1st. That the length 
at which the lead horses are hitched from the 
plough — being at the end of a chain which 
comes from the end of the beam — makes the 
beam itself, in effect, that much longer, and of 
course gives the. plough a certain tendency to 
burrow into the ground ; whilst the point from 
which the hindmost pair of horses work — at the 
end of the true beam, is, relatively* a short beam 
with a tendency to a level furrow, or, in some 
cases, a disposition to run out of the ground. 
Supposing the plough to have a proper "pitch" 
for either pair, it must have a Wrong pitch for 
the other pair, because each works with a dif- 
ferent line of draught. Consequently if the 
plough is pitched io the leaders, the wheelers, 
if we may so call them, will take it off the 
ground : if pitched to the wheeler, the leaders 
will bury the mould board. But as neither 
prevails, because counteracted by the other, 
there must be an irregular, wavy motion of the 
plough and a loss of power in its alternate dip 
and rise, or in the operation necessary to over- 
come it. In one word the plough is attempted 
to be worked the same depth with two different 
lines of draught. This argument is correct in 
the main as applied to the visual mode of at- 
taching the team to the plough. 



46 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



The second reason is, that the lead horses 
are hitched too far from their work, and that 
the mere distance between the power and the 
weight to be moved is a separate element to be 
taken into the calculation of this dynamical 
problem. This is demonstrably an error, as 
"Observer" claims. 

We have said " as plough teams are usually 
attached." But there is a mode of obviating 
the diiiiculty ; and a very simple one. It is to 
get two different points of attachment, each ad- 
justed to the same depth of furrow, so that 
each pair of horses shall work in the same line 
of draught. These points, one higher and the 
other lower on the clevis, can only be ascer- 
tained by experiment on each class of ploughs, 
but when ascertained are certain for all ploughs 
of that class and pattern. This has been done, 
so far, by only one plough maker that we know 
of. But it has been done by him very satisfac- 
torily. We allude to Mr. Geo. Watt of Rich- 
mond. [Ed. So. Planter. 



On the Composition of some Soils on which 
Bed Clover succeeds and Fails. 

BY PROF. ANDERSON, M.D., CHEMIST TO THE SOCIETY. 

In the Transactions of the Highland and 
Agricultural, Society for January 1850 ; I 
published, several analyses of soils, which 
appeared to throw some light on the cause 
of the failure of the red clover, a subject 
which at that time had attracted conside- 
rable attention. These result-, though 
presenting several points of interest, illus- 
trated very strikingly the difficulty too of- 
ten encountered in the analysis of soils, 
for they led to negative rather than posi- 
tive inferences. The most obvious con- 
clusion deducible from them was. that they 
did not lend support to that view which 
attributes the failure of red clover to the 
deficiency or absence of gypsum in the 
soil, and which Sir Humphrey Davy had 
found to exert so powertul an influence 
upon (hat crop. In two instances sulphu- 
ric acid (which has generally been sup- 
posed fo be the active constituent of the 
gypsum) was more abundant where the 
clover failed, although the difference was 
not sufficiently great to justify the suppo 
sition that it had any effect either favoura 
ble or unfavorable. The most remarkable 
conclusions were deduced from the analy- 
sis of a. shale, and of the material com- 



posing the waste heaps of a coal-pit, con- 
taining above 10 per cent, of gypsum, and 
which produced a most luxuriant crop of 
clover, although the application of gypsum 
itself to the same soils had been entirely 
without effect As it was clear that in 
this case it could not be the gypsum which 
produced the increase on the clover, I w r as 
led to attribute the effect to sulphate of 
magnesia, of which the substance contain- 
ed about 5 per cent., and referred to a very 
interesting experiment by Mr. Maclean of 
Brainwood, in which the application of 
sulphate of magnesia produced nearly four 
times as great an effect as the same weight 
of gypsum. 

Since these analyses were made, I have 
had no opportunity of submitting this sub- 
ject to experiment, for the purpose of see- 
ing whether the conclusions then arrived 
at would be borne out by further inquiry, 
until the present summer, when Mr. C. 
Lawson, jun. directed my attention to an 
instance in which the contrast between a 
good crop of clover on one part of a field, 
and its absolute and total failure on anoth- 
er part, was so striking as to merit careful 
examination The field on which it oc- 
curred is on the farm of Thurston Mains, 
East-Lothian, lying on the old red sand- 
stone, about three miles from the sea, at 
an ele\ation of 417 feet, and has an east- 
erly exposure. It was drained in 1852, 
and appears to have been limed, although 
the time at which this was done is not 
known. The cropping for the last ten 
years has been as follows : 



1847, 




Black crop. 


1848, 


- 


White crop. 


1840, 


- 


Part black, part fallow. 


1850, 


- 


White. 


1851, 


- 


Pasture. 


1852, 


_ 


Oats. 


185:}, 


- 


Turnips. 


1854, 


- 


White. 


1855, 


. 


Turnip*. 


185G, 


_ 


Wheat. 


1857, 


- 


Hay. 



The clover and grass seeds were sown 
along with the wheat in 1856, and no ma- 
nure nor top-dres ing of any kind has 
been applied since the turnip crop of 1855. 
At the west end of the field the clover is 
good ; at the east end there is actually 
none ; but the treatment of the whole field 
has been perfectly alike in all respects. — 
The samples submitted to analys s were 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



47 



taken about 30 feet apart. No. 1 is that 
on which the clover succeeds ; No. 2 that 
on which it fails. 

Soils. 





No. 1. 


No. 2. 


Water, 


2.76 


1.40 


Organic matter, 


7.95 


11.36 


Alumina, 


5.30 


2.69 


Peroxide of iron, 


1.93 


5.91 


Carbonate of lime, 


2.56 


1.72 


Magnesia, 


0.78 


0-25 


Potash, 


0.22 


0.26 


Soda, 


0.92 


0.71 


Chlorine, 




0.004 


Sulphuric acid, 


0.21 


0.034 


Phosphoric acid, 


0.01 


0.049 


Soluble silica, 


0.56 


0.40 


Insoluble silicates, 


76.83 


74.66 



100.09 



99.437 



Subsoils. 





No. 1. 


No. 2. 


Water, 


2.01 


2.52 


Organic matter, 


4.43 


1.98 


Alumina, 


1.43 


2.43 


Peroxide of iron, 


, 7.70 


1.32 


Lime, 


0.64 


1.10 


Magnesia, 


0.17 


0.27 


Potash, 


0.24 


0.25 


Soda, 


1.24 


0.48 


Chlorine, 


0.01 


0.007 


Sulphuric acid, 


0.12 


0.062 


Phosphoric acid, 


0.03 


0.090 


Soluble silica, 


0.36 


0.281 


Insoluble silicates, 


. 81.76 


88.64 



100.14 99.430 

When these analyses are compared with 
one another, they present a very close 
similarity. The most prominent difference 
lies in the quantities of peroxide of iron 
and alumina, ior though the sum of those 
substances is nearly the same in both soils, 
amounting to 7.29 per cent, in the first, 
and to 8 60 per cent, in the second, by far 
the greater part consists of alumina in the 
former, and of peroxide of iron in the lat- 
ter case. But though this difference is 
sufficiently conspicuous, we cannot attrib- 
ute to it any influence upon the crop, for 
all our knowledge tends to show, that 
iron, when in the state of peroxide, pro- 
duces no effect either beneficial or other- 
wise upon vegetation. I must not be un- 
derstood to assert that it is a useless con- 
stituent of a soil, for that it certainly is 
not, because we know that it must be ab- 
sorbed to a small extent by all plants, and 
through them must be conveyed into the 



animal frame of which it is an essential 
part ; but simply that as in all soils its 
quantity is greatly ir. excess of the possi- 
ble requirements of plants, variations in 
its proportion are practically of no impor- 
tance. On looking to the substances more 
immediately important to the plants, we 
find but little to attract attention. Both 
are well supplied with lime and magnesia, 
and in this respect surpass many soils of 
acknowledged excellence. The. propor- 
tion of alkalies is not only large, but is so 
nearly the same in both, that it is very 
clear that they can have no influence what- 
ever in producing the failure of the clover, 
fn regard to the acids, we are at once 
struck by the small proportion of chlorine, 
which amounts only to a barely apprecia- 
ble trace in No. 1, and in No.* 2 to 0.004 
per cent., or less than 90 pounds per acre, 
which quantity, however, is found in the 
soil on which the clover fails. On the 
other hand, the quantity of sulphuric acid 
in the first soil is more than six times as 
large as in the second ; and from this we 
might derive a confirmation of the view 
so commonly maintained regarding the im- 
portance, of sulphuric acid for this crop, 
which, how 7 ever, the experiments already 
referred to as having been made some 
years since, are very far from supporting. 
The phosphoric acid of the soil on which 
the clover fails, is about five times as large 
as in the other; and Ihe result is thus op- 
posed to the opinion expressed by a writer 
in the Farmers' Magazine some years 
since, who mentions that since he had em- 
ployed dissolved bones, clover sickness 
had disappeared from his farm, from 
which fact it had been supposed prob- 
able that it might be due to deficiency of 
phosphoric acid. By thu> passing in review 
all the different constituents of these two 
soils, we only see more distinctly how sim- 
ilar they are. In point of fact, there 
can be no doubt that had the samples been 
taken from different parts of the portion 
on which the clover succeeded, as great 
differences in composition would have been 
observed ; and it is not unimportant to no- 
tice, that had any one been asked to de- 
cide as to the comparative values of these 
two soils, he would give the preference to 
No. 2, which contains so much more phos- 
phoric acid than the other. 

The observations which have been made 
with regard to the soils, apply with almost 



48 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



equal force to the subsoils, as far at least! 
as those constituents which form the im- 
portant parts of the food of plants are 
concerned. But there is a marked differ- 
ence in the quantity of iron and alumina, 
the sum of the two amounting in the sub- 
soil No. 1 to 9.13 per cent., and in No. 2 
to no more than 3.75. This indicates that 
Ihe first is a much heavier and more re- 
tentive subsoil than the last, and it is pos- 
sible that this may have some effect upon 
the success of the crop, for in a dry sea- 
son the soil, which rests on a retentive 
subsoil, would not suffer so much from the 
drought, as that resting on a more open 
substratum. This is probably not sufficient 
to account for the very remarkable differ- 
ence in the crop. 

We are constrained, therefore, to admit 
that these analyses Jead to negative re- 
sults ; but they are nevertheless very in- 
structive. The case being one of the most 
complete failure in one part of the field, 
contrasted with as complete success in an- 
other part, afforded a most favourable op- 
portunity of ascertaining whether the clo- 
ver sickness can be attributed to any pe- 
culiarities in the chemical composition of 
the soil, and, taken along with the analy- 
sis of soils recorded in the number of the 
T/a?is fictions already alluded to, there can 
be little hesitation in arriving at the con- 
clusion that it does not depend upon this 
point; but whether it is due to any physi- 
cal peculiarities of the soil, it is impossi- 
ble, in the present state of our knowledge, 
to ascertain with any degree of certainty. 

The failure of some of our most impor- 
tant crops is a subject of the highest im- 
portance to the farmer, and any ihforma-j 
tion bearing upon its cause, however limi- 
ted it may be, has its importance to him.: 
The extent to which it occurs in some 
plants seems to preclude the possibility of. 
attributing it to the chemical composition; 
of the soil, for it is found to an equal ex-, 
tent even where that differs excessively. 
There seems no doubt, however, that it is 
connected in some way or other with the 
too frequent recurrence of the same crop 
on the same soil ; but the most singular 
and mysterious fact is, that it does not oc- 
cur equally with all our cultivated crops. 
It is observed most conspicuously in clo- 
ver and the turnip, while little or no inju- 
ry appears to result to the cereals in the 
same way. A good, or, at all events, an 



average crop of wheat may, by good ma- 
nuring, be obtained for any number of 
successive years on the same land, and no 
failure of it or any other grain, at all com- 
parable to the faiiure of clover, has ever 
been observed, although all of them recur 
more frequently in the ordinary course of 
rotation than those crops which surfer so 
much. The cause of this merits investi- 
gation ; but we must not conceal from our- 
selves the difficulties of the inquiry. We 
can understand how it is that a crop like 
the turnip, which, when cultivated, is in 
so entirely an artificial state, but it is not 
so easy to see how a forage plant, which, 
though cultivated, is still in a natural con- 
dition, should be so liable to injury. On 
the whole, we must admit the importance 
of a more minute study of the habits of 
clover, and particularly of the influence of 
various salts on its growth. Even the ef- 
fect of gypsum requires to be examined, 
and additional experiments with sulphate 
of magnesia would be a matter of interest, 
for it is remarkable that Mr. M'Lean's 
trials of that salt, which proved so suc- 
cessful, have not been repeated by any 
other experimenter. 

Some Suggestions for Experiments upon 
the most economical mode of using Phos- 
phates as M'mure. 

When the use of artificial manures be- 
gan to become general in this country, 
some ten or fifteen years since, the com- 
mon opinion among our most skilful far- 
mers was almost universally in favour of 
those which contained a larger quantity of 
ammonia. But though the value, and in- 
deed the necessity, for an abundant sup- 
ply of that constituent of the food of plants 
is as fully acknowledged as ever, there has 
been of late years a considerably increas- 
ed tendency towards the employment of 
the phosphatic manures. The consump- 
tion of superphosphates of different kinds, 
and other phosphatic manures, has for the 
last five or six years been increasing in 
Scotland in a much more rapid ratio than 
that of Peruvian guano ; and during the 
last two seasons the increased price of 
the latter lias greatly stimulated the de- 
mand for the former manures. The con- 
sequence has been, that many farmers 
who were formerly the most staunch sup- 
porters of Peruvian guano, have begun to 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



40 



find that they may with safety, sometimes' 
even with advantage, diminish the quanti- 
ty of that substance employed by them, 
and replace it with some of the more 
phosphated manures. Whether this 

change of opinion be due to the fact, that 
formerly the Peruvian guano was used 
with but little consideration, and in such 
quantity that part of its ammonia was 
practically lost, or whether it be that a 
soil is benefited by a change of manure 
just as a change of crop is required, it is 
not necessary for us to consider here. It 
is enough that the change has taken place, 
and with it. has arisen the necessity for a 
more careful determination of the most 
economical mode in which those substan- 
ces may be appl ed to the soil. 

Phosphoric acid, as is well known, is 
employed agriculturally in two different 
states of chemical combination, either as 
the ordinary phosphate of lime, such as 
occurs in bones, and which is insoluble in 
water, though readily dissolved even by 
w T eak acids ; or as the bi-phosphate of 
lime, into which the former is converted 
by treatment with an acid, and distinguish- 
ed by its ready solubility in water. All 
natural phosphatic manures contain their 
phosphoric acid in the first of those condi- 
tions. Bones, coprolites, bone-ash, &c, 
are entirely insoluble, and though some 
guanos, and in particular Peruvian, contain 
a small quantity of soluble alkaline phos- 
phates, their proportion is in general only 
a minute fraction of that which is insolu- 
ble. Now it is an admitted fact that all 
substances which are to become food of 
plants can enter into their system only in 
the soluble form, and, by some means or 
other, the insoluble phosphate of lime 
must be made soluble in the soil. The 
agent by means of which this important 
change is produced, is the carbonic acid 
of the air, or, in all probability, to a still 
greater extent that which is developed by 
the slow decomposition of the organic 
matters of the soil itself. But as carbonic 
acid is the weakest of all acids, its action 
upon the phosphates is necessarily slow 
and imperfect, and when the substaqces 
are of a compact nature, or are employed 
in fragments of considerable size, its sol- 
vent power is still further restricted. — 
Hence it is that bones, when employed in 
the shape of inch or half-inch bones, pro- 
duce a comparatively limited effect, and 



coprolites, even when ground, act so slowly 
as to possess but little value to the farmer. 
In these cases it is necessary, in order to 
bring out the full effect of the phosphates, 
to reduce the bones to a fine powder, by 
which means a far more immediate and 
striking result is produced. It is obvious, 
however, that the only effect produced in 
this wa}' is that of affording an increased 
amount of surface for the carbonic acid to 
act upon, and that the finest pulverization 
must yield to the chemical processes 
which convert the phosphates into a con- 
dition in which they are soluble and fitted 
to enter directly into the plant. In this 
lies the great importance of Liebig's sug- 
gestion of converting the common insolu- 
ble phosphate of lime into the soluble bi- 
phosphate, and which has proved so im- 
portant an assistance to modern agricul- 
ture. The amount of economical advan- 
tage derivable from the action of the sul- 
phuric acid must unquestionably depend, 
to a very large extent, upon the condition 
in which the phosphates originally existed. 
Thus, for example, ground bones, although 
containing only the insoluble phosphate of 
lime, may be used with advantage; while 
coprolites, even when well ground, pro- 
duce comparatively little effect. Bones 
are naturally comparatively soft, and, ow- 
ing to the decay of their organic matters 
in the soil, are easily disintegrated, and 
their phosphate of lime is consequently 
brought into a high state of division, and 
is readily acted upon by the weak acids of, 
the soil ; while coprolites, on the otfarer 
hand, are extremely hard and compact, 
and can only be affected by slow degrees. 
Hence it is that sulphuric acid does more 
for the development of the manurial ac- 
tion of coprolites than of bones ; in fact 
the latter, unless dissolved by means of 
acid, are of comparatively small practical 
value. 

When the mode of action of sulphuric 
acid is attentively considered, we observe 
some points which merit a more general 
consideration than they have hitherto ob- 
tained. It is particularly to be noticed 
that by means of its action, the insoluble 
phosphate of lime is converted into another 
compound, which is very readily affected 
by the constituents of the st>ii, and by 
them brought back into an insoluble form. 
This occurs, of course, most rapidly in 
calcareous soils, in which the large quan- 



50 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



tity of carbonate of lime soon reduces the 
phosphate of lime to its ordinary condi- 
tion ; but even soils which are not of the 
calcareous variety, contain a sufficiently 
large quantity of lime and magnesia, as 
well as of other bases, to produce this ef- 
fect. A soil containing only one per cent 
of lime, which is probably rather under 
than over the average, contains per acre 
six tons of lime, and is consequently ca- 
pable of easily converting into the insolu- 
ble form many times the quantity of su- 
perphosphate usually applied to it. The 
rapidity with which this change takes 
place must depend upon a variety of cir- 
cumstances; but that it does occur cannot 
be doubted ; and it is clear that a conside- 
rable part of the value of the process of 
solution must depend, not so much on its | 
bringing the phosphates into a state in; 
which they can be directly absorbed by the | 
plants, as simply on their reduction to a! 
higher state of division, and their more j 
complete and thorough dissemination! 
through the soil. In fact the rain, in the | 
first instance, dissolves the bi-phosphate of | 
lime which is thus conveyed to all parts of i 
the soil, and there rendered insoluble; and| 
hence the action of sulphuric acid is real- 
ly, to a great extent, a means of disinte- 
gration much more perfect than is practi- 
cable by any mechanical process. 

It comes, then, to be a question of oreat 
practical importance to determine whether! 
the soluble is always the most economical 
| form in which phosphates can be- employ- 1 
ea. That it often is so cannot be doubted; 
but it may be questioned whether there 
are not instances in which insoluble phos- 
phates, in a sufficiently high state of divi-j 
sion, may not be made use of with equal 
if not wiih superior advantage. It seems j 
probable, indeed, that superphosphates are j 
often employed without any fair and com- 1 
plete comparison with other manures of; 
the same class, and on looking to the re- j 
suits of field experiments, we cannot fail 
to be struck by the small amount of defi- 
nite informaiion they present on this point. ; 
Abundance of experiments exist in which 
the effects of Peruvian guano are contrast-, 
ed with those of bones, or dissolved bones, j 
but very few indeed in which the effects 
of the latt'ei, and more particularly those, 
kinds which are manufactured from copro- | 
lites or bone-ash. are compared with those 
of the better class of phosphatic guanos, 



or generally with insoluble phosphates. — 
The subject is one which merits further 
and careful experiment; and the conside- 
rations on which we are about to enter will 
serve to show its importance. 

In order that the matter may be fail ly 
illustrated, it is necessary for us to call to 
mind that the price paid for the ordinary 
phosphate of lime amounts, at the present 
moment, to from L.7 to L.10 per ton ; but 
when converted into the soluble form, its 
value has been variously estimated by dif- 
ferent persons at from L.25 to L.32 per 
ton. Hence the cost of rendering phos- 
phate of lime soluble is from 200 to 300 
per cent, of its value, and it is possible to 
buy three or four times as much insoluble 
phosphates for a given sum as of soluble 
phosphates. The question which the far- 
mer has to solve is, whether the produc- 
tive power of phosphate of lime is increas- 
ed three or four fold by solution in sulphu- 
ric acid. The experiments on record do 
not enable us to come to satisfactory con- 
clusions on this point ; but their tendency 
is to show that the increase in manurial 
effect is not generally so great as this. In 
the case of coprolites, it is probable that 
the increase in value is in this, or possibly 
even in a higher ratio, because in their 
natural state they act very slowly ; but if 
we confine our attention to the more pul- 
verulent varieties of phosphates, we 
should in all probability be led to an oppo- 
site conclusion. If, for instance, we com- 
pare a highly phosphatic guano, such as 
Saldanha Bay, which contains about 56 
per cent, of phosphate, with a superphos- 
phate containing 20 cent, of soluble, and 
10 or 15 per cent, of insoluble phosphates, 
it may be doubted whether the effect pro- 
duced by the latter is as much greater 
than the former as would be expected upon 
this principle. For if we assume the 
manurial value to be estimated by the 
price, then the 20 per cent, of soluble 
phosphates in the superphosphate should 
be equivalent to 80 per cent, insoluble, and 
the whole quantity of phosphates should 
produce nearly twice as great an effect as 
the 56 per cent, in the guano — a result 
which in practice would not in all proba- 
bility be obtained; and when the effect on 
future crops of the quantity of phosphates 
not taken up by the first is reckoned, it 
may be questioned whether the advantage 
is not in favour of the latter. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



51 



It is unnecessary to remark that, if it 
were possible for us to dispense to any ex- 
tent with the expensive process of dissolv- 
ing in sulphuric acid, the result would be 
a very material economy in the cost of 
manuring with phosphates. Raw bones 
are at present sold from £6 to £6 10s. per 
ton ; but when ground to fine dust, they 
cost from ^8 15s. to £9; so that the cost 
of grinding is upwards of £2 per ton. — 
That of solution in sulphuric acid is still 
greater, for a ton of bones yield about one 
and a half tons of superphosphate, which 
would be sold at not less than £9 per ton ; 
and the one and a half costing thus £13 
10s., no less than £7 must be paid for dis- 
solving one ton of bones ; or, in other 
words, the price of the bones is more than 
doubled by the process of solution ; and, 
moreover, not more than half of the phos- 
phate of lime would in this case be brought 
into the soluble form. 

Experiment has shown that the more 
finely bones are ground the more rapid is 
their action. But even when reduced to 
the finest dust, they are a comparatively 
coarse powder; for the toughness confer- 
red upon them by the large quantity of ge- 
latinous organic matter which they contain, 
prevents their being brought into a high 
state of subdivision ; and hence, even in 
the finest dust, they are coarse when com 
pared with guano 



gether, consumed by tha superphosphate 
manufacturers. Two analyses were then 
given, which, however, indicate a much 
lower value for the bone-ash than samples 
since imported. The subjoined table gives 
the results of a larger number of analyses 
of different cargoes: 



6 


• 
Water. 


Charcoal. 


Phosphates 


Carbonate 
of Lime. 


si ^ 


GO 


1 


9.64 


1.39 


79.23 


5.44 




4.30 


2 


10.20 


4.38 


58.03 


4.23 


0.88 


22.48 


3 


17.03 




47.78 


9.37 




25.82 


4 


8.08 


1.63 


81.68 


5.02 




3.59 


5 


7.16 


1.29 


81.30 


6.10 




4.15 


6 


1.78 


1.38 


81.21 


7.07 




8.56 


7 


1.89 


3.98 


81.89 


*6.79 




'5.45 


8 


0.72 


1.23 


' 90.65 


3.40 


.... 


4.00 


9 


8.61 


2.39 


73.39 


5.02 


0.33 


10.26 


10 


5.96 


2.51 


79.08 


6.01 




6.44 


11 


11.41 


3.19 


73.57 


5.91 


1.05 


4.87 


12 


12.04 


3.72 


57.*43 




6.21 


20.60 


13 


5.07 


1.57 


75.86 


4.45 




13.05 


14 


6.101 0.91 


70.17 


13.65 




9.17 


15 


5.65 


0.85 


75.65 


7.25 


.... 


10.60 


16 


10.45 


2.63 


64,77 


11.53 


1.08 


9.54 


17 


8.00 


! 2.35 


73.30 


4.00 


0.80 


11.55 


18 


8.90 


! 4.45 


1 52.35 


6.05 




I 28.25 



We see now that this article, when of 
good quality, contains above 70 per cent, 
of phosphates, and the practice is to sell 
it according to the percentage,^ per ton. 
and if compared with! being the price of a sample containing 70 
ample of the latter substance of the i per cent. Now, if this be compared with 
same composition, we should, on theoreti-i Saldanha Bay, or any similar guano, which 
cal grounds, anticipate a more immediate would at present be sold at about £9 per 
effect from the guano. On the other hand, \ ton, it must be considered as a cheap source 
the application of an acid to the bones j of phosphates. Of course it is not in the 
would in all probability make them sur- same state of division, but it is to be re- 
pass the guano ; but then the price of the membered that it can be ground with great 



bones is thereby doubled ; and the ques 
tion which the farmer has to consider is, 
wh-etherthis cost is justified by the results. 
This point can be determined only by ex- 
periment ; and I propose, therefore, to sug- 
gest some trials which might be advan- 
tageously made in the field; and I am in- 
duced to do so by the small amount of in 
formation f have been able to extract from 
the experiments on record, and the fact 
that some forms of phosphates have come 
to be imported into this country which de- 
serve to be compared with guano and su- 
perphosphate. 

Some time since I directed attention to 
the importation of bone-ash, which I be- 
lieve has hitherto been almost, if not alto- 



ease, and at a price which would not ex- 
ceed from 10s. to^l per ton. The farmer 
would thus obtain a well-ground article, 
containing 70 per cent, of phosphates, for 
less than £8 per ton ; and if this were 
mixed with a small quantity of sulphate 
of ammonia, or of Peruvian guano, it ap- 
pears probable that very good effects would 
be obtained from it at a very moderate 
rate. A mixture of 17 cwt. of bone-ash 
and 3 cwt. of Peruvian guano, supposing; 
both of fair quality, would, at a cost of un- 
der £8 per ton, yield a manure containing • 
65 per cent, of phosphates, and 2.5 of am-, 
monia; and it would be extremely ii 
esting and important to have a set ofo 
ful experiments, in which its effe^^s for- 

LIBRARY 



C5 



/ 



52 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



two or three years were compared with 
those of a superphosphate at the same 
price. 

So likewise the reduction of bones by 
fermentation requires to be submitted to 
careful experiment, and the results com- 
pared with those of superphosphate. But 
here the risk of loss of the nitrogen of 
the bones requires to be guarded against, 
by conducting the process with great care, 
and stopping it before the decomposition 
has advanced too far. Some analyses 
made lately in' the laboratory show that, 
when this is not attended to, the loss may 
be considerable ; but if the fermentation 
is limited, it is very trifling. The follow- 
iing are the analyses of a sample of bones 
before and after fermentation, which are 
.almost identical in composition : 



Water, 

'Organic matter, 
Phosphates, 
Carbonate of lime, 
Alkaline salts, 
iSand, 



.Ammonia, 

Here, there is practically no loss of am- 
>monia. But I do not give this as a per- 
fectly satisfactory case, tor the fermenta- 
tion was conducted on a small quantity, 
.and had not advanced very far. The same 
bones when fermented on the large scale, 
after the addition of 2 cwt. per ton of sul- 
phate of ammonia, gave, on analysis — 



Jnfermented. 


Fermenti 


6:90 


6.59 


29.70 


29.91 


54.30 


55.95 


4.00 


3.80 


0.25 


1.25 


4.85 


2.50 


100.00 


100.00 


4.23 


4.13 



Water, 


7,10 


Organic matter, 


27.30 


Phosphates, 


56:40 


Carbonate of lime, 


3.95 


Alkaline salts, 


1.85 


Sand, 


3.40 




100.00 


Ammonia, 


3.90 



In this case the results are very remark- 
able, for the whole of the ammonia of the 
sulphate, along with a small quantity of 
that originally present in the bones, has 
disappeared. I have no doubt, however, 
that by judicious fermentation of the bones 
alone, they might be reduced without any 
materiaMoss. In this case the addition of 
the sulphate of ammonia before fermenta- 
tion must be considered as having been 
injudicious. 



It only remains for me to suggest some 
experiments, which would be of much 
value in the coming season. I propose, 
therefore, that any person desirous of do- 
ing so, should try ground bone-ash, mixed 
with Peruvian guano in the proportions al- 
ready indicated, in the proportion of 5 
cwt. per acre; the same quantity of bone- 
ash alone, and of superphosphate of good 
quality. Saldanha Bay guano, or some 
variety of similar composition, should also 
be tried. On the other hand, equal weights 
of finely ground bones, of fermented bones, 
and dissolved bones, should be used. — 
These should be applied on portions of 
land which have got no other manure, and 
should be compared with an entirely un- 
manured plot and a plot which has receiv- 
ed the ordinary quantity of farmyard ma- 
nure. Such experiments, if made in sev- 
eral different localities, would add much 
to our knowledge of the principles -on 
which these manures may be most advan- 
tageously used. — Transactions of the High- 
land and Agricultural Society of Scotland. 



Farm- Yard Manure. 

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

We can hardly too often recur to the 
subject of manure. It is only by the aid 
of fertilizers that man maintains the in- 
cessant contest which is ever going on be- 
tween his crops and their soils. If he is 
skilful and industrious in the application 
of dressings, his lands are rendered at 
least as fertile by tillage, and commonly 
more so, than when left to nature's care. 
But if he is either careless in their prepa- 
ration, or ignorant of the common-sense 
results of neglect, his manure is impover- 
ished, and his farm becomes diminished in 
value. The preparation of his farm-yard 
manure is the most generally important of 
all his dressings. It is here that many 
mistakes are apt to be made, not only by 
the farmer, but by those laborious chem- 
ists who have, during the present genera- 
tion, so materially promoted the advance- 
ment of agriculture. 

These errors are, in some degree, at- 
tributable to the natural difficulties of the 
subject. The merely procuring a fair 
specimen of farm-yard manure for analy* 
sis is no easy task. It is often very dif- 
ferent in composition, on different sides of 
the same yard. Some specimens, even 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



53 



from the same spot, contain more straw 
than others, or different kinds of straw ; 
others abound too much in the dung of 
one kind of animals. Then, again, one 
yard is cooler or drier than another, has a 
favourable or unfavourable aspect. In one 
the stock are better fed, in anothei the 
food is oftener changed. These and many 
other sources of variation ever render 
comparative chemical examinations of 
yard-compost le^s valuable than when we 
are examining other fertilizers. Still these 
are not reasons why we should abandon 
those valuable investigations. They are 
the very arguments why we should extend 
and verify our trials. Of that opinion is, 
evidently, the enlightened professor of 
chemistry at Cirencester ; and what Mr 
Voelcker has recently been illustrating 
will well repay my reader, on some No- 
vember evening, for the most careful con- 
sideration. He may perhaps, in reading 
the professor's valuable paper " On Farm- 
Yard Manure, and the Drainage of Dung- 
heaps," {Jour. R. A. S. vol xvm , p. Ill,) 
find some practical conclusions to which 
the results of his own experience may be 
opposed. But let such an inquirer reflect 
upon the varying influences under which 
farm-yard compost is prepared ; and, in 
any case, let him not forget that it is only 
by repeated and patient inquiries after 
truth that her confines aie even ap- 
proached. Two very material questions 
here engaged this accurate chemist's at- 
tention : the loss of ammonia during 1, 
the preparation of yard manure ; and 2, 
after it had been made into compost heaps. 
We shall see that he was not unmindful 
of either its gaseous emanations, or of its 
loss in the drainage water. 

It is satisfactory to find, from these re- 
searches, that the loss of ammonia from 
fermenting dung is commonly not so con- 
siderable as is sometimes believed. We 
are, in these inquiries, perhaps too ready 
to be deceived by careless observation. 
" There are man)' people, (observes Mr. 
Voelcker,) who run wild with the idea 
that everything that smells strongly must 
contain free ammonia ; but that is far too 
sweeping a conclusion. In the case of 
horse dung, for instance, we are too apt 
to believe this loss to be far greater than 
it really is. Yet, (as the professor adds,) 
although in fermenting horse-dung the 
proportion of nitrogen is larger than in 



fresh, which agrees well with previous 
analysis of fresh or rotten common yard- 
manure, yet in perfectly*fresh horse-dung 
the amount of free ammonia is scarcely 
weighable, it being only about 3 parts in 
every 100,000 parts of dung, or 3 lbs. for 
every 40 tons; the same description of 
manure in an active state of fermentation, 
yields somewhat more, but still a very in- 
considerable quantity of free ammonia. — 
Thus under the most favourable circum- 
stances 100,000 parts of horse-dung yield 
only 49 parts of free ammonia; or in other 
words, 40 tons in round numbers yield, 
on long-continued boiling, 49 lbs. of am- 
monia. It must not be supposed, how- 
ever, that this quantity of ammonia is dis- 
sipated into the air during the fermenta- 
tion of the dung, for it is only in the inte- 
rior of the dung-heap that ammonia is lib- 
erated. It is, indeed, only on turning a 
heap that ammonia escapes at all, an any 
perceptible degree ; but as soon as the ex- 
ternal layers have become cooled down to 
the ordinary temperature of the air, its 
escape is arrested. There can, therefore, 
be not the slightest doubt that but a very 
minute quantity of ammonia passes into 
the air, and the remainder is fixed in the 
heap, provided the heap is kept in such a 
manner that rain cannot remove from it 
much of the soluble matters, and with them 
ammoniacal salts. 

"The strong smell which is observed, 
on turning a dung-heap, no doubt has led 
many greatly to over-estimate the amount 
of ammonia which escapes from farm- 
yard manure in an active state of fermen- 
tation. But I would observe that nothing 
is more fallacious than the estimation of 
the amount of ammonia by the pungency 

off from fer- 
matters. Such matters 
often give off a very powerful smell, which 
is due to peculiar volatile organic combi- 
nations — to some sulphuretted and phos- 
phoretted hydrogen and a great variety of 
[gaseous matters, amongst which there is 
I ammonia gas in very minute quantities. — 
|The smell of this highly complicated and 
but scantily examined mixture of gaseous 
| matters as a whole is ascribed by the pop- 
ular mind to ammonia. From these pro- 
ducts of putrefaction, however, ammonia 
jean be completely separated, without in 
the least destroying the peculiar offensive 
'smell which emanates from organic mal- 



of the smell which is given 
menting animal 



54 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ters in a state of decomposition. If, for 
instance, dilute sulphuric acid is added to 
farm-yard manure or liquid manure, the 
smell of these substances, instead of be- 
coming neutralized by the acid, in reality 
becomes more offensive. This arises in 
great measure from the liberation of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen. Hence acids are not 
well adapted for disinfecting cesspools or 
night-soil. As dilute sulphuric acid neu- 
tralizes instantly free ammonia, forming 
with it an inodorous salt, which is not vo- 
latile at the ordinary temperature, it is ev- 
ident that the foetid smell of putrefying 
matters has much less to do with ammo- 
nia than is generally believed." 

We see then, from the result of such 
examination, that in the preparation of 
dung, if the heat generated is not exces- 
sive, that then the ammonia evolved is far 
from being considerable. 

But if we have attended to this, if we 
have cayefully prepared the dung, still 
another care then arises, its preservation 
from rain, and consequent impoverishment 
by drainage. Mr. Voelcker alludes to the 
too frequent neglect of this precaution, 
when he tells us that " in many places in 
England, especially in Devonshire and in 
some parts of Gloucestershire, it is a com- 
mon practice to place manure-heaps by 
the road-side, often on sloping ground, 
and to keep these loosely erected heaps 
for a considerable length of time before 
carting the dung on the field. On other 
farms, the manure is allowed to remain 
loosely scattered about in uncovered yards 
for months before it is removed. Heavy 
showers of rain falling on manure kept in 
such manner, by washing out the soluble 
fertilizing constituents of dung, necessa- 
rily greatly deteriorate its value. It is 
well known that the more or less dark-col- 
oured liquids which flow from badly kept 
dung heaps in rainy weather possess high 
fertilizing properties. According to the 
rain which falls at the time of collecting 
these drainings, according to the character 
of the manure, and similar modifying- cir- 
cumstances, the composition of the drain- 
ings from dung-heaps is necessarily sub- 
ject to great variations. The general 
character of these liquids, however, is the 
same in dilute and in concentrated drain- 
ings. Several samples of dung-drainings 
were recently examined by me, and, from 
their analysis, it will be seen that they 



contain a variety of fertilizing constitu- 
ents which it is most desirable to retain in 
dung-heaps. 

" According to the analytical results ob- 
tained in these different determinations, 
an imperial gallon of these drainings con- 
tained, — 

Volatile and combustibe constituents 395. G6 
grains. 

Viz :— 
Ammonia driven out "1 

on boiling, . . . . 36.25 I Together. 

Ammonia in the state > 39.36 
of salts decompos- 
ed by quick lime, 3.11 J 

Ulmic and humic acid, . . 125.50 
Carbonic acid, expelled on 

boiling, 88.20 

Other organic matters, (con- 
taining 3.59 of nitrogen),. 142.60 

395.66 

Mineral matters (ash) 368.98 grains. Viz: 

Soluble silica, 1.50 

Phosphate of lime, with a 

little phosphate of iron,. . 15.81 

Carbonate of lime, . . . . 34.91 

Carbonate of magnesia, . . 25.66 

Sulphate of lime, 4.36 

Chloride of sodium, . . . . 45.70 % 

Chloride of potassium,. . . 70.50 

Carbonate of potash, . ' . . 170.54 



Total per gallon in grains 



368.98 



764.64 



" These analytical results suggest the 
following remarks : 

" 1. It will be seen that these drainings 
contain a good deal of ammonia, which 
should not be allowed to run to waste. 

" 2. They also contain phosphate of 
lime, a constituent not present in the urine 
of animals. The fermentation of the 
dung-heap thus brings a portion of the 
phosphates contained in manure into a 
soluble state, and enables them to be 
washed out by any watery liquid that 
comes in contact with them. 

" 3. Drainings of dung-heaps are rich 
in alkaline salts, especially in the more 
valuable salts of potash. 

"4. By allowing the washings of dung- 
heaps to run to waste, not only ammonia 
is lost, but also mubh -soluble organic mat- 
ter, sails of potash and other inorganic 
substances, which enter into the composi- 
tion of our crops, and which are necessary 
to their growth. 

"A dung-heap composed chiefly of 
mixed fresh horse's, cow's, or pig's dung, 
furnished the material for another analy- 



TII'E SOUTHERN" PLANTEK. 



55 



sis of drainings. This liquid was much 
darker than the two preceding liquids, pos- 
sessed an offensive smell, although it con- 
tained no sulphuretted hydrogen, and was 
collected at a time when no rains had fal- 
len for several weeks, which circumstance 
accounts for its greater concentration. It 
was submitted to the same course of ana- 
lysis as the first drainings. 7,000 grains 
evaporated to dryness produced 135f 
grains of dry matters; and this quantity, 
on burning in a platinum dish, furnished 
62£ grains of mineral matters. 

"The following table represents the 
composition of the solid substances found 
in one imperial gallon of drainings from 
fresh manure : 
Composition of Solid Matters in one Gallon of 
Drainings from Fresh Farm-yard Manure. 
Ready-formed ammonia, (principally ~) 

present as hnmate and ulmate of > 15.13 

ammonia), ) 

Organic matters, 716.81 

* * Inorganic matters, (ash), . . . . 625.80 

Total amount of solid matter in one ) i«k« »a 

gallon of drainings, ) 

Containing nitrogen, 31.08 

Equal to ammonia, 37.73 

* * 625.80 of ash consisted of: 

Silica,' 9.51 

Phosphates of lime and iron, . . . . 72.65 

Carbonate of lime, 59.58 

Sulphate of lime, 14.27 

Carbonate of magnesia, 9.95 

Carbonate of potash, 297.38 

Chloride of potassium, 60.64 

Chloride of sodium, 101.82 

" It w:ll be observed that these drain- 
ings contain about double the amount of 
solid matter which was found in the liquid 
from the first heap. The composition of 
this solid matter compared with that of 
the solid matter in the liquid from the first 
heap, moreover, presents us with some 
particulars to which it may be advisable 
briefly to allude. 

" In the first place I would remark that 
notwithstanding the greater concentration 
of the third liquid, as compared with the 
first, the proportion of ammonia present in 
the form of ammoniacal salts is less than 
one half; for, whilst the first drainings 
contained in the gallon 39 grains of ready 
formed ammonia in round numbers, the 
third drainings contained only 15 grains 
per gallon. 

" It thus appears that drainings from 
manure-heaps in an advanced stage of de- 
composition contained, as may be natu- 



rally expected, a larger proportion of 
ready formed ammonia than the liquid 
which flows from heaps composed of fresh 
dung. It is further worthy of notice that 
the first drainings contained nearly all the 
nitrogen in the form of ammoniacal salts, 
whilst the drainings from fresh dung con- 
tained the larger proportion of this ele- 
ment in the form of soluble organic sub- 
stances. The most important constituent 
of farm-yard manure, i. e , nitrogen, thus 
is liable to be wasted in tha drainings, 
whether they proceed from rotten or fresh 
manure, for in either case it passes off in 
a soluble state of combination." 

Now, how do these laboriously obtained 
results accord with what we see in our 
own homesteads? If there must be un- 
covered yards, if the rain must shower 
down over their contents, do we always 
strive to diminish this as much as possi- 
ble ? Do we reflect that if our farm-yard 
buildings cover an acre of ground, that 
upon that acre of slate or thatch about 
2,500 tons of rain water annually fall? 
Do we not know that if proper eaves 
troughs are not provided, that then this 
large amount of water needlessly and in- 
juriously mingles with the farm yard 
dung? and that too in addition to the 
2,500 tons of rain water per acre which 
fall on those uncovered yards? It may be 
true that it is difficult to entirely prevent 
this loss, but there are few T cases in which 
it may not be diminished. And then the 
placing the compost heaps in bad situa- 
tions, or in "pies" too large, are errors 
equally easy of being avoided. It is only 
by such small savings, let us ever remem- 
ber that considerable accumulations are 
made ; no one can feel this more than the 
agriculturist, for he is ever surrounded by 
other sources of waste (besides those on 
which I have been dwelling) ; insects, 
weeds, vermin, parasites of all kinds, 
haunt his footsteps ; he does not always 
even see these robbers at their work ; he 
traces them, like the march of other ma- 
rauders, only by the fields they have laid 
waste, the food they have destroyed; just 
as, in the subject of this paper, the en- 
riching gases and soluble matters of the 
manure unnoticed steal away to perhaps 
carry disease and discomfort to ploces to 
which they ought rather to have conveyed 
fertility and happiness. — British Farmers 1 



Magazine. 



5G 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



lortiralfural I^wtmmi 



E. G. EGGEXJmG, Contributor. 



Women and Flowers. 

Wordsworth, we believe it was, who is re 
ported to have said, " that there were three 
things which he expected and desired to find in 
heaven, children, sunshine, and flowers," and 
certainly the association is pure and pleasant 
enough to convert the dreariest desert into a 
paradise. It was a pleasant fancy at all events, 
thus to link together this trinity of blessings : 
and with something of a kindred spirit, we 
have been accustomed ever to associate in our 
minds, women and flowers, so that one invaria- 
bly suggests the other. They are blended to- 
gether in our thoughts, and we never look upon 
a well stocked, well kept flower garden, but 
that we forthwith conclude that there is a mem- 
ber of the gentler sex residing on the premises. 
It is told of a traveller through some of the 
counties of Eastern Virginia, some years ago, 
that on passing sundry and numerous resi- 
dences on his road, he remarked to his com- 
panion, (who was familiar with the country, 
and knew the correctness of each guess,) — 
" There lives a widow." 
This occurred so often that the other in as" 
tonishment asked: 

" How is it, that you, a stranger here, can 
so readily tell when you pass a farm owned 
and occupied by a widow V* 
To which the other replied : 
" When I see a large orchard, with a still 
house close at hand, I do not venture much in 
supposing that the owner did not live many 
years in that vicinity." 

So, but for other reasons, when we pass a 
homestead, about which we see shade trees, 
evergreens, and flowers, we judge that a wo- 
man lives there, that there is a home, in the 
truest and best sense of that significant word, 
and that the gentle ministry of " God's last, 
best gift to man," is there bestowed, to 

"Render the paths of peevish nature even, 
And open in each heart a little heaven." 

jRw Contra. When in our travels, we have 
passed by a farm house, which stood a short 



distance from the stable and barn, with th 
wheat field, or corn field, or tobacco lot, coming 
close up to the door of the dwelling, without 
shade or anything else to relieve the dreariness 
of the scene — from this absence of everything 
like grace, polish, refinement of taste, and 
beauty, we have argued the denizen of the 
dwelling to be a sour, repulsive, crusty old 
bachelor, whose lodging place was most appro- 
priately put in close proximity to that of "the 
beasts of the stall," and the event has general- 
ly proved the correctness of our judgment in 
the premises. 

The unamiable occupant of such premises as 
the preceding paragraph describes, would very 
likely reply, that it is fitting to combine in one 
sentence, women and flowers, because they are 
alike merely ornamental, and subserve no use- 
ful purpose ; but we tell him that each occupy 
that sphere for which the Creator designed 
them, and that the world is better for both ; 
that it would be less desirable as the abode of 
a race of intelligent and rational beings if it 
were deprived of either. Without these, the 
world might answer as well for the abiding 
place of brutes, and all the rest of the anima- 
;ed creation, but man would find it cold, chill- 
ing, and uncongenial. 

But we depart from our main design, which 
was to insist that every man in the State that 
has a daughter, ought, for her sake, to have at- 
tached to the homestead a flower-garden. — 
When we say, a flower-garden, we mean what 
we say, and not that there should be in the 
kitchen garden, among the vegetables, a few 
flowers, though that is better than no flowers 
at all. But that will not satisfy us. We go in 
for nothing less than a bonajide flower-garden, 
one large enough to contain roses, hyacinths, 
tulips, poppies, violets, chrysanthemums, ma- 
rigolds, verbenas, and other floral beauties and 
treasures. This is what our farmers ought to 
have, a flower-garden, a garden dedicated to 
the cultivation of flowers, whether the space it 
occupies be smaller or larger. 

We say that there should be such an appur- 
tenance to ever}' homestead, where there are 
girls, and we have used this language design- 
edly. True, our preference would be, for a 
flower parterre on every farm, without regard 
to the sex of the occupants, but there are pecu- 
liar reasons why there should be a flower-gar- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



cjen attached to the farm whose owner has 
daughters. These have need of it, and will be 
greatly benefited by it. The crying need of 
the young ladies of Virginia is employment — 
something that will give occupation to their 
hands and heads, besides the eternal stitching 
and crocheting, with which they spoil their eye- 
sight and impair their constitutions. The young 
ladies of the State require some occupation 
which will take them oftener into the open air, 
which will give them more out-door engage- 
ments, which will require effort, exertion, and 
exercise, beyond the compass of their parlors 
and chambers. 

Any well informed medical man in your 
vicinage will confirm the truth of these obser- 
vations. He will tell you that the extreme 
delicacy of our young ladies, their fatal sus- 
ceptibility to the changes of our climate, their 
liability to coughs, consumption, and other 
dangerous and painful forms of disease, their 
inability to meet and endure the trials of mar- 
ried life, and the early decadence of youthful 
bloom and beauty, is largely attributable to 
their habit of staying in-doors, and to their 
lack of healthful exercise, beneath the bending 
skies. The English girl, whether of noble or 
ignoble birth, is the very opposite of the Amer- 
ican girl, in respect to exercise out of doors. 
She spends much time in the open air, gains 
elasticity and vigour by inhaling plentifully 
the pure, balmy breathing of the winds, and 
grows up vigorous, hale, rosy (fheeked, bright 
eyed, and with her physical nature well devel- 
oped, presenting a perfect contrast to the pale, 
delicate, sickly products of our American hot- 
house traiuing, and protected from a vast deal 
of suffering to which her American sisters are 
subject. 

This high, healthy physical development is 
not to be despised. It is as essential to happi- 
ness in this life, as proper mental or moral de- 
velopment, and neither can be neglected with 
impunity. The want of either, gives us an 
imperfect, incomplete character, wanting in 
some element of a well rounded, full formed 
human being ; and yet while fathers and mo- 
thers are earnestly solicitous to surround their 
daughters with an. atmosphere of influence, 
which will conduce to mental and moral devel- 
opment, but few there are who are at all con- 



cerned about the physical education of their 
children. Fatal folly ! 

With this folly, however, we have nothing to 
do just now, only in so far as it may serve to 
impress the lesson which it is our intention to 
inculcate, that the flower-garden on the farm, 
connected with the homestead, is highly impor- 
tant, regarded as an educational institution, or 
if the phrase please any better, as the means 
of securing to females of the family that occu- 
pation and exertion in the open air which their 
physical well being requires. Regarded from 
this stand-point, it seems to us that floraculture 
will commend itself to all thoughtful men, with- 
out taking into the estimate those peculiarly 
pleasing emotions, which contact with the 
beauteous forms, tints, and aromas of flowers, 
are so well calculated to produce. 

The care of the ffower garden, may, with 
peculiar propriety, be devolved upon the fe- 
males of the family, and indeed, with most la- 
dies, there is no need to issue a command to 
this effect. Generally they are not only will- 
ing, but anxious to have the supervision and 
superintendence of the flower-garden. Ladies 
generally love flowers, and one can scarcely be 
found, who does not esteem it a great pleasure 
and privilege to be permitted to cultivate them, 
and perhaps most of our male readers can bear 
witness that it requires some exertion of au- 
thority to restrain their wives and daughters 
from the indulgence of their taste for flowers. 

Taking it then as established, that, provided 
you will allow your daughters to have a flower 
garden that the}' will superintend its cultiva- 
tion, we have next to show that such superin- 
tendence will necessarily carry them much into 
the open air, and furnish them with healthful 
exercise. The proposition hardly requires 
elaboration. It is patent to the apprehension 
of every man who is in the least degree con- 
versant with the culture of flowers, or indeed, 
with any culture of the soil whatsoever. Every 
farmer knovws that to succeed with his crops, 
he must be diligent in his vocation, in the pre- 
paration of the soil, in scattering the seeds, in 
the cultivation of the plant when in the earlier 
stages of its development, and that all this re- 
quires a watchful eye, a discriminating judge- 
ment, and ceaseless and unremitting vigilance. 
All this is essential to the successful cultiva- 
tion of flowers, and as the performance of these 



58 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



duties carries the farmer over his fields, so 
would the young lady be necessitated to make 
frequent visits to her flower-garden. Indeed, 
her flowers would require much closer atten- 
tion from the farmer's daughter than oats, and 
wheat, and tobacco require at the hands of her 
father, because while a general direction would 
enable the labourer to comply with his master's 
commands, in respect to the staple products of 
the farm, she would find that nothing could be 
properly done among her flowers without her 
immediate personal attendance and supervi- 
sion. Thus, then, the young lady would be 
drawn often into the open air, and would find 
among her flowers those roses for the cheeks 
which are the crowning glory of youthful 
beauty. Besides which, it will be remembered, 
that many of the lighter labours of floracul- 
ture could be, and would be performed by the 
young lady in her own proper person. The 
labours which she would thus feel herself 
called on to perform are manifold. If she se- 
cured a choice rose, which she prized highly, 
she would fear to entrust it to the blunderings 
of a servant, but with her own fair hands would 
she commit it to ike soil. So, also, in the pro- 
pagation of roses and other plants, by layers, 
slips, and seeds, in the pruning of roses and 
flowering shrubs, in the training of honey- 
suckles and creepers, and so of a thousand and 
one things which would need to be done in the 
garden, and w T hich her *pride of success, and 
fear of failure would prompt her to perform. 
All these opportunities of useful, pleasant em- 
ployment, concurring with their native, inhe- 
rent love of the beautiful blossoms wherewith 
the Almighty Hand has adorned and beautified 
the earth, would inevitably conduce to the 
healthy development of the physical natures 
of our daughters, tend largely to brace and 
strengthen the nerves, and to give them that 
vigorous health which they so much need. 

By such considerations, do we reach the con- 
clusion, that a flower-garden attached to your 
homestead, would prove a great benefit and 
blessing to your daughters ; and if in this Ave 
have not erred, then you are prepared to go 
further, and admit that the larger the space 
devoted to this culture and the greater the va- 
riety of plants introduced into the garden, the 
larger the measure of benefit which your 
daughters are likely to reap from it. Be not 



stingy and parsimonious in this matter, but let 
your liberality be such, that your daughters 
will have an honest and laudable pride in their 
flowers, else you will defeat the very object 
which you had in view, in the establishment of 
the flower-garden. Nor, on the other hand, 
must you treat with churlish indifference, or 
cold contempt, their petitions for assistance in 
the performance of the labours of the flower 
garden. There are labours to which their 
strength is inadequate, and for which they 
must draw upon your liberality. Meet these 
demands with cheerful alacrjty, show by your 
ready response, that you approve of all that 
3'our daughters are doing in this behalf, and 
the temporary inconvenience to which you may 
be subjected will be more than compensated 
by the increased healthiness of the female 
members of your. family ; and your actual sav- 
ing in doctors' fees, and apothecaries' bills, 
will more than repay the cost of the labour 
thus expended. 

All this, it will be observed, is aside from 
those moral influences which floraculture un- 
doubtedly exercises over its votaries, from that 
moral training which familiarity with the 
beautiful flowers (one has aptly termed them 
foot-prints of angels,) ensures to the heart and 
its affections. Upon this inviting field we can- 
not enter, but can barely touch it. Space per- 
mits us to do no more than suggest that all our 
associations, whether painful or pleasant, and 
whether with animate or inanimate creatures, 
impresses us for good or evil, tends to our mo- 
ral elevation or degradation, and that all are 
agreed that rational association with objects of 
beauty, rightly used, tends always and ever to 
our advancement in goodness and purity. And 
among all the phases of the beautiful, there is 
none which exerts a more refining and eleva- 
ting influence, than the beauty of nature as 
seen in forest and field, in the changing hues 
of the foliage, and the transient glories of bud 
and blossom. Many and beautiful are the les- 
sons which the heart learns in quiet commu- 
nion with the flowers, and the Bible, the wri- 
tings of good men in all ages, the best produc- 
tions of our poets, and the genial volumes of 
our most admired essayists, all bear testimony 
to this aesthetic value of flowers. 

Add to all this, the air of refinement and ele- 
gance which a well stocked, well arranged, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



59 



well kept flower-garden gives to the humblest 
homestead, the delicious aroma which the sweet 
smelling Mignionette, the humble violet, the 
delicious heliotrope, the citron aliee, the calia- 
canthus, and other fragrant plants and herbs 
cast upon the summer winds, and the orna- 
ment and beauty of buds and blossoms on the 
mantel, in the windows, and about the room, 
and we submit that our plea for flower-gardens 
admits of no denial or disputation. Squared 
to the strictest rule of utility, without appeal 
to the poetical instincts of our humanity, 
judged by the same rules of judgment which 
you bring to bear upon the introduction on 
your farm of a new product, a hitherto untried 
fertilizer, or a newly invented labour-saving 
machine, we claim that the flower-garden mer- 
its your approval, if not for your own advan- 
tage, certainly for that of the female members 
of your family. Will you have it ? 



Beauty an Element of Value. 

There is a large class of men, especially 
among the agriculturists of the country, who 
affect to despise everything which is ornamen- 
tal, and who account everthing worthless and 
foolish which is not, according to their modes 
of thinking, useful. These are par excellence 
the practical men of the community, — men 
who contemn the JJ\\j of the Valley and the 
meek-eyed Daisy, and cherish the Sun-flower 
and castor bean, because the first serve merely 
for beauty, and the others give out oils and 
furnish an excellent food for poultry. It is 
this class of men who scoff at the advice to 
plant shade trees about the dwelling, to paint 
the house and keep it neat, to adorn the 
grounds with turf and evergreens and flowers, 
and who tell you with an earnestness of speech 
which attests their sincerity, that a manure 
pile in one corner of the yard is a far more at- 
tractive spectacle to a prudent, sensible far- 
mer, than all the evergreens and flowering 
shrubs which have been planted from the days 
of Noah until now. 

With all due respect for such persons, who 
are honest and well-meaning in the main, they 
are scarcely less blameworthy than that other 
class of simpletons, who despise the useful and 
affect only the ornamental. — who pass by the 
substantial in their hot pursuit of the showy. 
They have read to little purpose the book of 



nature spread out before their eyes day by day, 
who have not learned that beauty is an ele- 
ment of value, and that the true philosophy 
despises neither the ornamental nor the useful, 
but blends them together in happy union. 
Thus has the Creative Hand united this twain 
and that man is not wise, who would disunite 
them. 

Even the strictest utilitarian among our 
readers will admit, that to a healthy eyfi, beau- 
ty is a more pleasant spectacle than deformity 
— thus, that a perfect, handsome, well-devel- 
oped female, is a far more agreeable object 
than one ill-shapen, deformed, and hopelessly 
homely ; and what is this but saying, that to 
a woman beauty is an attribute of value? 

It will not be disputed, that a horse well 
formed, quick, sprightly, clean-limbed, and 
with bright, clear eyes, is worth more in the 
market than a heavy, awkward, slow, stupid 
animal ; and here we find, that in a horse mere 
beauty is an element of value. 

Two cows, of the same stock, — in every re- 
spect the same, except that one is handsomely 
formed, has a clean, glossy coat, and the other 
ungainly and dull ; and every purchaser will 
prefer the handsomer animal of the twain, — 
and she will actually bring more money in the 
market. Again, then, we find beauty to be an 
element of value. 

Two slaves are offered to the farmer, one a 
bright, active boy, with a pleasant countenance, 
intelligent eye, and neat, cleanly person ; the 
other his counterpart in every respect, except 
that he looks untidy and uncleanly; has a dull, 
stupid countenance, and a sleepy, listless eye ; 
and of the two you infallibly take the former, 
and will pay a larger sum of money for him. 
What is this but an admission that beauty is 
an element ot value ? 

You go to purchase a vehicle in which to 
carry your wife and little ones to the country 
church, and two are shown you, which differ 
only in this, that one is handsomely painted, var- 
nished and polished, and adorned with plain, 
neat trimmings, — while the other is rough, un- 
polished and unadorned. You choose the first 
infallibly ; and thus again declare that mere 
beauty is an element of value. 

Thus, then< in several very usual positions 
you act upon the assumption, that the doctrine 
for which I am contending is true, and these 



60 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



illustrations might be extended forty times 
with equal facility. Let us, however, consider 
another and even more striking illustration. 

You have one horse more than you need to 
have, and determine to sell one. Do you take 
him from the plough or wagon, low in flesh, 
rough-coated, and unseemly, and offer him for 
sale? Not so, you are not fool enough for 
that. <ile is put in the stable, fed, curried, 
rubbed, until the coat is bright and glossy, and 
his form rounded and full. Why all this care, 
labour, and expenditure of food. Only this, 
that you may improve the appearance of the 
animal in order that he may sell for more 
money. Are you not acting upon the pre- 
sumption that beauty is an element of value ? 
Undoubtedly you are, and you would pro- 
nounce thab man a fool who should tell you 
that you were doing an unnecessary or useless 
thing. 

If, then, in all these situations you find that 
beauty is an element of value, why shall you 
account it otherwise when you come to speak 
of your dwelling and your farm ? Do you say 
that your family can dwell as comfortably in a 
house, the outside of which has not been 
painted? So could they ride to church as 
pleasantly in a vehicle innocent of paint, var- 
nish, or polish. Say you that your farm will 
yield as much without shade trees and fruit 
trees, grassy lawns and beds of beauteous 
flowers. So could your horse draw as heavy 
loads without a glossy coat, or so much flesh 
upon his bones. 

Nay, good friend, an unpainted 'house and 
an ill-kept, unadorned farm, are not so desira- 
ble as those which display the contrary attri- 
butes. They are not worth so rnu'ch money in 
the market. Like the slave, the horse, the 
carriage, and the woman, the farm is the more 
desirable and attractive the more it is adorned 
with everything suitable and appropriate. 
You have never drained a low, wet spot; cover- 
ed with vegetation a bare naked spot; planted 
an apple, peach, or pear tree, — arranged and 
improved a flower garden, lawn, or carriage- 
drive, — planted an evergreen, flowering shrub, 
or shade tree about your dwelling, — done any- 
thing which tended to please the eye of good 
taste, or to hide and conceal unsightly objects, 
but that you were doing that for your farm 



which the stabling, feeding, and dressing did 
for the horse which you intended to sell im- 
proved its appearance and so enhanced its 
value. 

Are you still doubtful if this be true, learn 
its truth from what men say as they pass your 
gate, and that of your neighbour. Is it not 
always with words of praise that they refer to 
his place ? Did you ever know an individual 
to pass his house that he did not say, " that 
is a handsome place, I would like to own it," 
or " that is a desirable place," or words to that 
effect ? Nay, I put it to you, my practical 
friend, if you ever in your life passed by a 
farm house, which, neatly painted, stood in the 
midst of well-kept, handsomely ornamented 
grounds, without an emotion of pleasure as 
you looked upon it, and without a desire to be 
the owner of the place and the occupant of the 
dwelling? And will you not learn from all 
this, what it so distinctly and emphatically 
teaches, that the ornamental is useful, and 
beauty valuable? Will you now understand 
that you have all along been possessed of a 
false notion of utility, and that your practical- 
ity is a delusion, a cheat, and a humbug? 
— and that he is truly the practical man who 
neglects nothing which will improve the ap- 
pearance of his farm and render it more at- 
tractive and desirable in the eyes of all men ? 

It is the recognition of this truth and its 
constant practice b} T agriculturists, in the 
Northern States of this Union, and by the 
farmers of England and France, which has 
caused' the whole country to present the ap" 
pearance of well-kept flower gardens, which 
challenge the admiration, of all travellers. 
Take up what book of travels you will, and 
you read rapturous descriptions of the scenery 
presented by English farms, until your heart 
yearns for a view of a land presenting so much 
of beauty to attract and fasten your admira- 
tion. And can we doubt, that the great value 
of lands is in some sort attributable to the at- 
tention which is given to the ornamental? In 
view of the facts and reasonings already sub- 
mitted, can any one question this ? And if 
these be not enough, let us consider that here in 
our own State, it holds true universally, that 
in localities where a due degree of attention is 
bestowed upon the ornamental by the farmers, 
that land commaiuLs higher prices than in 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Gl 



other localities where the ornamental is alto- 
gether neglected. 

From all which, we would have the reader 
gather, that money invested in shade trees, in 
fruit trees, in flowering shrubs, iind flowers, 

and in neatly arranged houses, and in paint 
for all the buildings on the farm, is not money 
wasted, but a judicious and profitable expendi- 
ture, which not only pays in the pleasant emo- 
tions such good taste excites, but also in dol- 
lars and cents, whenever the homestead shall 
be by the changes of the future forced upon 
the market to find a purchaser. 



Give our farmers this willingness to act, and 
he answer to the caption of this article must 
be in the negative. 



Shall it always Continue Thus ? 

Passing down town a few days since, we 
saw at the door of a confectioner some nice 
looking apples, — and it occurred to us that we 
would ask whence they came. " From New 
York/' answered the dealer, giving just the 
reply which we expected that he would give. 
A few squares lower on Broad street, we ad- 
dressed a similar question to a dealer, and re- 
ceived from him a similar answer. And then 
on Main street, at four different establishments, 
all of them extensive, a like response followed 
our inquiries. 

The result occasioned us n*> surprise, nor 
will it surprise any reader of this paper, who 
remembers what we have heretofore written on 
this subject. More than once we have endeav- 
Dured to impress our farmers with the belief, 
that there is a lar^e demand for apples every 
year in our Virginia cities, and that immense 
urns of money are sent North every year to 
the fruiteers of that region to supply this de- 
mand. We have long known and long deplor- 
ed the fact, and our present purpose is merely 
o ask, if it shall go on thus forever ? Will 
somebody tell us why this state of things 
should continue ? Is there any good and suffi- 
cient reason why our dealers in fruit should be 
constrained to look to New York for their sup- 
plies of fruit? Can we not grow as good ap- 
ples here as are or can be grown at the North? 
[s there not land enough to produce apples to 
supply this demand ? 

To ask these questions is to answer them. 
Every intelligent cultivator in the State is pre- 
pared to answer affirmatively to each of these 
several inquiries, and all that is lacking is the 
lisposition to do what we are capable of doing. 



Cape Jassamine. 

Louisa Co., Va., Oct. 21, 1857. 

Mr. Eggeling. — I was so much, pleased with 
your article on the cultivation of the Rose, in 
the September No. of the Planter, that I have 
determined to ask you for some information 
about Cape Jassamine- I have been trying 
for several years to raise some, but cannot get 
them to look thrifty. They look yellow, grow 
but very little during the summer, and none 
at all in the green-house. I have never been 
able to obtain more than half a dozen blossoms 
to a plant. Please inform me, through the 
Planter, what kind of soil is best suited to 
them, and if they require to be kept in the 
shade. Do they ever grow large in our green- 
houses? Mine are not over a foot in height, 
and are three years old. 

Answer. — Of the Cape Jassamine, as it is 
sometimes called, its proper name being Gar- 
dinia Florida, there have been two kinds culti- 
vated for many years. One is narrow-leaved 
and produces a great many flowers, of rather 
small size ; the other has broad leaves and 
large blossoms, but fewer of them. In both 
the flowers are white and remarkably odorife- 
rous. There is yet another variety, called 
Dwarf Cape Jassamine, which never grows 
tall, but produces a quantity of flowers, which 
are smaller than the flowers borne by either of 
the first mentioned kinds. Within the last few 
years, Mr. Fortune, a celebrated English bo- 
tanist, has introduced into England from China 
two new varieties of the Jassamine, which are 
called Fortuni and Japonica. We have seen 
but little of these, but those which we saw, 
the leaf was very much like our ordinary 
large-leaved Cape Jassamine, but the flow- 
ers much larger and in every way very supe- 
rior. 

There is no hard-wooded green-house shrub 
which is more easily propagated from cuttings, 
if the following directions be observed. Get 
river sand, or any other which has little clay 
in it, and then wash it in clear water until 
every particle of clay has been extracted from 
it, and nothing but the pure sand remains, 
which will be indicated by the clearness of the 
water after the sand has been washed in it. 
So long as the sand gives out earthy particles 



62 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



o the water thus discolouring it, of course it 
holds some clayey particles, all of which it is 
the object of the washing to remove. Having 
thus cleaned the sand, take a small box, or 
pot, two or three inches deep, and fill it with 
the wet sand, pressing it down into the box un- 
til it is firm and solid. In this, plant the cut- 
ting, burying it an inch or two in the sand, and 
pressing the sand about the wood until it is 
tight and firm. 

For cuttings, we always select small, short- 
jointed branches, the wood of which is hard 
and knotty, which root more readily than those 
which are greener and more sappy. The wood 
is perhaps two inches long, and before plant, 
ing, we usually crop the leaves of about half 
their length. This is the whole process of 
making cuttings, and planting them ; and after 
planting, place over them a glass, — a tumbler 
or pane of glass will answer, — set them in a 
very shady place, and keep them moist all the 
time. 

The usual time for putting in cuttings, is 
about the first of August, and in from five to 
six weeks they will take root, and by pursuing 
this plan we rarely fail. After they have 
rooted, leave them in the sand for a month or 
two, until a mass of roots have been formed, 
and then they are to be planted in very small 
pots. 

The proper kind of soil for the Cape Jassa. 
mine, is what is termed peat, usually found in 
low, swampy places, where vegetation is abun- 
dant. It is always of a very black hue, and 
ought to be well mixed with sharp sand, — and 
when it does not contain this, the sand should 
be added. Where this peculiar soil cannot be 
procured, a compost made of sand, leaf-mould, 
or woods earth, and powdered or pounded char- 
coal, in equal proportions, well mixed together, 
will answer the same purpose and produce the! 
like desirable results. 

Take, now, a very small pot, not more than 
two or three inches square, and place in the 
bottom a few chips of oyster shell, or small 
bits of crockery, to promote drainage; then 
fill with the peat or compost before described, 
and cover the roots of the plant, pressing the 
earth firmly about it. Keep it moist, leaving 
it in these small pots through the winter and 
until the following spring. Sometime in the 
spring, about May or June, the plant will prob- 



ably begin to need more room, and should be 
transferred to a pot double the size of the; 
former ; and, as before, there must be some- 
thing in the bottom to facilitate drainage. If' 
the water accumulates about the roots, the 
plants will become yellow, become sickly, and 
finally die. The plant will need shifting thufr 
annually, and about the period already men- 
tioned, — but care must be observed not to give 
the plant too much space, as in that event toe 
much water will be held in the earth, and the 
plant will sicken and die inevitably. An ad- 
dition of one to two inches per year to the size 
of the box or tub, is, in general, amply suffi- 
cient, — and where more is given, oftener thai 
otherwise the plant will be injured rather thai 
benefitted. 

During the summer, the Cape Jassamint 
ought to be kept in a spot where it can catcl 
the dews of night, receive the beams of th( 
morning sun, but where it will be shielded 
from the fierceness of the noonday. Under a 
tree is not a proper place, because there it will 
be kept from the dew ; but a wall, or some 
thing of that kind, which will give sheltej 
from the noontide heat, and yet leave it free U. 
the earlier and gentle rays of the morning 
and to the visits of the balmy dews, is a suit 
able situation. 

In the winter, the Cape Jassamine require! 
to be kept in a green-house, basement room 
cold frame, or anywhere that it can be pro 
tected from freezing, and should be removec 
to such place not until the severe cold weathei 
sets in. 



Our correspondent will observe that the fore 
going remarks are fully responsive to most o 
the inquiries contained in her letter ; and ir 
reply to others, we have to say, that planti 
three years old ought to be two feet high, anc 
that we know plants in Richmond which art 
fully twelve feet high, producing hundreds o: 
flowers during a summer; and have at presen 
in our grounds a plant which is not less thai 
seven feet high, and which had this summei 
more than a hundred blooms. We gatherec 
from it as man}' as eighteen flowers in one day 

We cannot, of course, tell our corresponded 
what is the difficulty with her plants, but mos- 
probably it is owing to one of three causes — wan 
of a proper soil, insufficient drainage, or mayb* 
they are in pots or tubs which are too large fo; 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



G3 



them. This latter fault sometimes leads to 
rapid growth of wood without the production 
of many blossoms, — but oftener in slight 
growth and few or no flowers ; but there is 
nothing affects these plants so injuriously as 
insufficient drainage. They require a great 
deal of water, but it must pass rapidly off, for, 
should it stand about the roots, damage and 
injury to the plants is inevitable. With a 
proper soil, proper drainage, and proper care, 
our correspondent may have large plants and 
multi udes of flowers. 

Persons desiring to propagate only a few 
plants, may accomplish it by making layers, 
as we have described the process in our article 
on rose culture, in a previous number of the 
Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 

In the " Horticultural Departmennt" of the 
December No. of the " Planter" are two arti- 
cles, one entitled "Apples," and the other 

Root Pruning/ 7 which seem to me not alto- 
gether consistent with each other in their rea- 
soning and recommendations. The object of 
the first named of the. articles alluded to, is to 
enforce the necessity and illustrate the advan- 
tages of manuring apple trees. 

In this piece the position is maintained that 
an annual dressing of manure will secure a 
crop of apples every season. That the general 
barrenness of orchards each alternate year, is 
owing to no natural law, but to the fact that 
the " energies of the trees have been exhausted 
by the production of a crop of fruit, and that 
they can be recuper l ted in time for a crop the 
next year by a good manuring." And there- 
fore every reader of the Planter is confidently 
assured that all he has to do to ensure the 
pleasure of gathering a fine crop of apples 
every fall, is to invigorate the energy and in- 
crease the luxuriance of his trees by a heavy 
dressing of manure during the winter. 

Now, Mr. Editor, as I subscribe to the Plan- 
ter for the purpose of deriving from its pages 
useful information and instruction, I always 
endeavor to bring to its perusal a docile and 
teachable spirit. Hence I was much pleased 
with this simple, easy and effectual method of 
securing a crop of fruit every year. All that 
was necessary being to enrich the soil and 
thereby secure to the trees the necessary vigor. 

In this happy frame of mind I encountered 
the article on " Root Pruning," in which to my 
great surprise, I read that trees of great vigor 
and unsubdued energies would often produce 
no fruit until by the application of a " sharp 
chisel" to the " top or other leading "root, the 
amount of nourishment drawn from the soil by 
the tree was diminished, thereby stunting its 



growth and so producing fruitfulness." And 
in farther illustration of the principle that a 
diminution of vigor is favorable to the produc- 
tion of fruit, it is stated that the frequent re- 
moval of young trees hastens the time of their 
bearing fruit, because by so doing, the growth 
of the tree ia "impeded." In expressing the 
opinion that if one of these articles is sound in 
its reasoning and correct in its recommenda- 
tions, the other cannot be so, I may be only 
exhibiting my ignorance of the sciences of Ar- 
boriculture and Pomology. Nevertheless, it 
seems to me that if manuring adds to the fruit- 
fulness of trees by increasing the amount of 
nourishment they derive from the soil, " Root 
Pruning" cannot accomplish the same end by 
diminishing that supply. If "Root Pruning" 
increases the fruitfulness of trees by diminish- 
ing their vigor and luxuriance, it seems to me 
it would be the part of wisdom to plant orch- 
ards upon poor land, and thus secure the requi- 
site degree of " stunting" without having to 
resort to the laborious and tedious operation of 
"chiselling" off the roots. 

A good dressing of manure every winter, 
would, (upon the reasoning of the article on 
" Root Pruning,") I should fear in a few years 
prove as disastrous to the production of fruit, 
as the site of a "deep well that had been filled 
up." It is, however, consoling to reflect if any 
reader of the Planter should, by following the 
recommendation of the first article alluded to, 
induce such a vigorous growth of his trees as 
to forbid the production of fruit, he can reme- 
dy the injury by an application of the "sharp 
chisel" to the " top or other leading root" as 
prescribed in the second. TYRO. 

December 1th, 1357. 



From the Ohio Farmer. 

THE LAWN. 

On the Development and Cultivation of an Ele- 
vated and Correct Taste among the Farming 
Community, through the medium of their 
Amusements. 

The Great West, with its prairies, groves, 
lakes, flora and soil, is a most perfect garden of 
itself, on a scale so unlimited and in a style so 
inimitable that all attempts of man at changing 
or improving look like puerile efforts at mar- 
ring the beauties furnished him at the hand of 
his Creator. As it could not be preserved as a 
whole, but is subdivided and allotted to indi- 
viduals, it is appropriate that each one should 
endeavor to adorn and improve in the best man- 
ner his portion. Every farmer in locating his 
houses, buildings and fields, should appropriate 
a suitable extent of ground for the purpose of 
a lawn. At their periods of leisure, he and his 
family should study the best means and modes 
of stocking and cultivating it. This subject 



G4 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



was so ably treated upon in the November num- 
ber of the Horticulturist that I would solicit 
its perusal by every farmer, not only inthe 
State, but in the Union. I trust that its editor, 
Mr. Barry, will- pardon the freedom with which 
I extract from it. He observes: " We wish to 
see farmers' homes — the farmers' life made 
more attractive. Hitherto, as a general thing, 
the improvements which have been made are of 
the useful kind ; having reference mainly to the 
supply of man's physical wants. Most of our 
farms must be regarded as mere manufactories 
of food and clothing ; very little has been done 
to gratify the intellect, taste or feelings— the 
higher and nobler attributes of our nature. — 
And this is one reason beyond a doubt, that 
many young persons who have, by means of 
education, reading and society acquired a cer- 
tain degree of refinement, became dissatisfied 
with agricultural life and have sought the city. 
Intelligent, educated men cannot surely remain 
satisfied with being growers of grain and breed- 
ers of stock — they must love their home ; and 
to merit their love and attachment, that home 
must possess something of beauty, for the love 
of the beautiful is an instinct of man's nature. 
A large portion of the population is constantly 
on the move ; the old home has no hold on their 
affections — or at least not enough to overcome 
the novelty of a new one. We see the popula- 
tion diminishing in the very heart of the finest 
agricultural districts in America, where nothing 
is so much needed as human beings. It is at 
certain seasons impossible to procure laborers 
enough to do the work. This state of things 
is unfavorable to the development of the coun- 
try's resources, and equally unfavorable to the 
attainment of a higher, a happier social condi- 
tion. It is not unreasonable, we trust, to ex- 
pect and even to urge some reform on this point. 
Make home attractive — cultivate the taste and 
feelings and affections as well as you do your 
fields. Why should a wealthy farmer, with his 
50, 100 or 200 or 300 acres of land, content 
himself with a rod or two of door yard and a 
dozen or two of shade trees, shaped and mana- 
ged after the precise fashion of a village plot ? 
Why can he not just as well have a park and 
pleasure ground of several acres around his 
house, broad glades of lawn and groups of 
trees, separated from the cultivated portion of 
the farm by green hedges ? This, with a well 
stocked orchard and good ample kitchen gar- 
den, would come up to our ideas of a country 
home ; and it would be impossible for children 
to grow up in such a home, without becoming 
attached to it, and having their taste expanded, 
their feelings refined, or without appreciating 
the comforts and blessings of a country home. 
But some careful farmer will ask us, ' How can 
we afford to layout parks and pleasure grounds 
and keep them in fine condition? It would 
cost us more than the whole labor of our farms. 
Only think what an expenditure of money and 
labor this hedging, and planting, and mowing 



this pleasure ground would involve. It would 
be all very well if we could afford it ; but we 
cannot, and we must leave it to retired gentle- 
men who have made their fortunes in town and 
come out into the country to spend them.' But|U 
we reply, ' You can carry out our plan without 
incurring a heavy expense.' Fence off withf 
Osage Orange or Buckthorn, at a cost of about 
twenty to twenty-five cents a rod, five or ten 
acres of land immediately around your door- 
way. Seed it down, and it will produce good 
crops of hay. You can get plenty of young 
maples, elms, tulip-trees, bass-wood, ash, and 
other native trees in the woods, which can be- 
taken up and planted at leisure intervals in the 
fall, when the farm labor is over, and early in 
the spring, before it commences, and even in 
winter, in mild weather. Until the trees are 
established, it will be necessary to cultivate the 
soil around them. It will not be necessary to 
cover the whole ground' with trees, but merely 
to scatter them here and there in groups, and 
singly to give it a park-like character, which 
will distinguish it at once from the cultivated 
fields. A little can be done now, and a little 
again, as leisure affords, and in a few years the 
work will show. Meantime, the land is crop^ 
ped profitably, for hay is always a paying crop, 
and an indispensable one. The ground nearer! 
the house, may be planted with some rarei|| 
trees — a portion of them evergreens. A small 
portion of the ground near the house, might 
be separated from the main body of the park, 
by a wire fence, or movable hurdle fence, and 
kept mowed ; and if embellished with a few 
flowering shrubs, and a few beds of flowers, alJ 
the better ; but these, for economy's sake, can 
very well be dispensed with. When the plant! I 
ing is finished, and the trees fairly established 
the park might be pastured with sheep, as manv 
parks are in Europe, and thus it would always'! 
have a closely cut surface, without the expensed 
of mowing, and the sheep would be an inter- 
esting feature in the scenery." 

With the foregoing views of the editor of the 
Horticulturist, we entirely coincide, except irj 
the requisites for rendering the farmer's houie 



what it should be. The lawn is essential, bu| 
there are other appurtenances required to give 
it a finish — to which we shall subsequently 
allude. 

In our proposed domestic agricultural schools.! 
books on the subject of the lawn, should be all 
command. Much valuable information on this* 
subject, is contained in London's Suburban! 
Gardener, and Downing's Landscape Garden- 
ing. Smith's recent edition of Michaux and 
Nuttal, embraces a description and figure oi 
most of our forest trees. These works are. 
however, costly, and beyond the means of manjl 
farmers. As a substitute, the cheap, well ar-fi 
ranged, and very valuable work of Thomas! 
Meeham, entitled " the American Hand Book ol| 
Ornamental Trees," should be found in the 
library of every farmer. 

I 



SOUTHERN PLANTER.— ADVERTISING SHEET. 



SEEDS! SEEDS!! 

THORBURN'S! 

v Descriptive Catalogue of Vegetable, 
Field ;;nd Fruit Seeds for 1858, 

fith directions for 6tiltivating"vegetables will 
>ublished dining the presenl month, and will 
lent to applicants enclosing a 3 cent, stain]). 
■ subscribers also otter of the growth of 18.57, 

of the finest qualities, their usual extensive 
.rtnient of SEEDS, comprising every tested 

rable variety known in the several depart- 
lts of Vegetable. Field, Flower, Tree and 
it Seeds. They would particularly call the 
ntion of cultivators and amateurs to the f'ol- 
ing choice 



TRA EARLY DANIEL O'ROURKE, which 

ias been tested by us last season, and proved 
he earliest and in every respect the best Pea 
or first crop. ^ . I] 

TRA EARLY LANGSTERS, No. 1, a great 



avonte. 

TRA EARLY EMPEROR, 



already well 



mown. 

:TRA EARLY TOM THUMB, very desirable 

growing but 8 inches high. 

,RLY SEBASTOPOL, new. 

[AMPION OF ENGLAND, one of the very 

H'St. 

VARF AND FALL SUGAR, edible pods. 
V1RS DWARF MAMMOTH, superb. 
PRISONS GLORY AND PERFECTION, 
:iew and very productive. 

\.POLEON AND EUGENIE, both new and 
early wrinkled. 
ITISH QUEEN, extra fine 
'PS' MONARCH. ) Both new and su- 

>PS' LORD RAGLAN. $ perb. "^ 

Pith 30 other standard sort for which see Cata- 
ue. ALSO. 

VRLY PARIS and NONPARIEL CAULI- 
FLOWER. 

VRLY WAKEFIELD and OX HEART CAB- 
BAGE. 

VRLY and GIANT WHITE SOLID CELERY. 
£TRA EARLY TURNIP BEET. 
£TRA CURLED PARSLEY. 
IPROVED NEW YORK PURPLE EGG- 
PLANT. 

VRGE RED SMOOTH TOMATO. 
JLLS NOSE and other PEPPERS. 
/VRLY CURLED and other LETTUCE. 
ARLET TURNIP AND LONG SCARLET 
RADISH. 

HITE and RED ONION SEED and SETS. 
ARLY WINNINGSTADT CABBAGE. 
ARLY WHITE KOHLRABI. 
INTER CHERRY OR STRAWBERRY TO- 
MATO. 

RENCH MIXED LAWN GRASS. 
H1NESE SUGAR CANE. 
SAGE ORANGE SEED. 
A VAN A TOBACCO. 
AHALEB CHERRY PITS. 
PPLE SEED. 
EAR SEED. 



With thousands of other SEEDS of the same 
superior qualities as have heretofore afforded 
such universal Satisfaction, and which can be re- 
commended with ihc tidiest confidence as unsur- 
passed for their genuineness. 

Orders by mail have immediate attention. 
J. M. THORBURN & CO.. 

15 John St., New York. 

N. B. — Applicants for Catalogues will please 
state whether our general and complete Cata- 
logue is wanted, or a wholesale trade list. 

January 1858. — 2t 

A RARE OPPORTUNITY. 

I offer for sale my North Devon Bull, BEN BOLT, 
having hied from him four years, ami having a num- 
ber of heifers of his pelting, from which I wish to 
breed, I am flisposed to sell him. It is seldom indeed 
that an opportunity presents of procuring so perfect 
and valuable a Bull of this the best breed of cattle. — 
He is now six years old, is in full vigour, and will be 
valuable for service for six or eight} ears to come. — 
He has never been pampered, having been kept only 
in that condition best fitting him for service, and has 
never had a cover on his body to improve his coat, 
and is perfectly haidy and healthy. Since he was a 
yearling he has been exhibited at eight different Cat- 
tle Shows, once at Baltimore, twice at Richmond, 
once at Petersburg, and four times near Norfolk, and 
has always been the best Bull, and been awarded the 
highest premium of the class in which he competed ; 
and since he was three years old. he has, with one 
single exception (and that was by mistake) been inva- 
riably the premium Bull, at those shows, in the class 
of premium animals. I had his pedigree, hut have 
lost or mislaid it ; if I had it, it would be of no use to 
give it, for those who can see him, as he carries his 
pedigree about him, in the pefeclion of his " points," 
and his alu ost unequalled symmetry and beauty. He 
has been uniformly pronounced by connoisseurs who 
have seen him (both from the North and the South) 
to be the best Devon bull they had ever seen. His 
' escutcheon" indicative of his being a getter of good 
dairy stock, is larger and more fully developed than 
I have ever seen on any hull ; and his heifers are ac- 
cordingly, uniformly superior milkers. He can be 
seen at any time, at my place adjacent to Norfolk ; 
and "ill he on exhibition at the Cattle Show of the 
Seaboard Agricultural Society on the U)th to the 1 lib 
November prox. 1 have also for sah a pure bred De- 
von Bull Calf, about 4 months old, sired by Ben Bolt, 
and a grade Bull Calf, (three-quarters Deton blood) 
about 6 months old. 

One very fine Essex Boar, 3 years old. 

One very fine Suffolk Boar, 3 years old. 

One large Chester Canny Boar, 3 years old. 
And several Essex and Suffolk Sows, and a number 
of Essex and other varieties of pig*. 

THOS. A. HARDY, 

Jan 1858— It Norfolk. 



TOR SALE, 

My FARM, in Powhatan County, 7 miles 
South-west of the Courthouse, on the Appomattox riv- 
er, containing 667 1 acres, nearly halt in original woods, 
with a great quantity of fme timber. Improvements, 
a brick dwelling of two stories, built of the hest ma- 
terials, under my own direction -all other buildings of 
suitable dimensions, and arranged according to my 
( wn taste. 

As a residence it is not inferior to any in the countv, 
whether in regard to pleasantness <>r health. Col. 
H. I-. Hopkins resides on the premises, and is autho- 
rized to contract fer the sale of the same. 

martf A BNElt CRUMP. 



SOUTHERN PLANTER— ADVERTISING SHEET. 



3MCr- Liefebvre's School 

Corner of Grace and Foushee Streets, RICHMOND, VA. 

The next Session of this Institution will open on the FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER, 11 

and close on the First Day of July, 1858. 

TERMS FOR THE SCHOLASTIC YEAR, 



For Board, - 

For Washing, - 

For Lights, - 

For English Tuition, 

For Modern Languages, (each,) 

For French, when, studied exclusively of 

the English branches, 
For Latin, - 

For Music on Piano, Harp, Guitar, Or- 
gan or Singing: 

For one lesson (of an hour), a week, 



S200 

£0 

G 

40 

20 

40 
20 



40 



For two lessons (of an hour) a week, 
For three lessons (of an hour) a week, 
For four lessons (of an hour) a week, 

For the use of Piano, 

For Drawing, from Models, 

For Drawing, from Nature, 

For Painting in Water Colors, 

For Oil Painting, 

Primary Department — for Children un- 
der II years of age, 



REFERENCES: 



The Patrons of the School. — Right Rev. Bishop Meade, Right Rev. Bishop Johns, Right Rj 
Bishop Elliott of Georgia, Right Rev. Bishop Cobbs of Alabama, Rev. Moses D. Hoo-e, 
D., Rev. Charles H. Read, D. D., Rev. T. V. More, D. D., Rev. B. Gildersleve. The Clei 
of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. 



HUBERT P. LEFEBVRE, A. M, Principal. 



Ret. H. S. Keppler, 
William G. Williams, a. m 
John P. Little, M. D. 
R. A. Lewis, M. D. 

Eliodoro Camps, 



John A. Calyo, 
C. W. Tiiilow, 
AV. F. Grabau, 
Mrs. A. E. J. Gibson, 
Miss Mary Gordon, 
MAD'ELLE L. VILLEMET, French Governess 
All letters to be directed to Hubert P. Lefebvre, Richmond, Va. 



Miss E. Bartlett, 
Mrs. M. Taylor, 
Mad'me M. Estvax, 
Mad'ei.le Lacy, 
Charles II. Roseen 



[July '57— Id 



C3rlo33."tiv£tr SJolxool. 

This is a School for girls, entirely under the instruction and superintendence of Mrs. B. 
myself. My aim is to teach what the girls sent to me are prepared to learn— giving special attention to ft 
dainenlal branches, and sparing no labor necessary for teaching thoroughly. 

The girls are treated as members of our family; and have such daily religious instructions, as christi 
parents give to their own children. 

The friends whose names are below will give information as to the sort of influence likelv to be exe 
ed in mv family : 

Gen. John H. Cocke of Bremo; T)r John R. Woods, Albemarle ; Rev. B. M. Wailes. Greenfield ; Re 
Pe>ton Harrison, R. J. Morrison and Mrs. Juliet Drew, Richmond; Win. B. Harrison of Brandon; R< 
Geo. I). Armstrong. [Norfolk; Rev. Wm. S. White, Lexington ; Rev. S. B. Wilson, D. I)., Hampton Sydne 
Geo. F. Harrison. Goochland. 

The present Session clcses on 3d July next. Number limited to 14. There will be several vacancies 
1st February next. For terms, &c, address 

; , - , IiEV. S. W. BLAIN, 

Dec lSo7 — ly Greenwood Depot, Albemarle Co., Va. 



Fruit Trees and Shrubbery* 
SOUTHERN GREENWOOD NURSERY; 

Having on hand a choice variety of FRUIT 
TREES of my own raising, and grafting sufficiently 
lurge for transplanting, 1 respectfully call the atien- 
of tin public to them. 

My Nursery is located one and a half miles North- 
east from the Old Market, where I will take pleasure 
in showing them. 

All orders addressed to, or left at mv agents, Messrs. 
Van Lew, To V lor & Co., No. 19 Main St., Richmond, 
Va.,or myself, will meet with prompt attention. 

Sepi 1857—6** LEWIS 'ITDOR. 






OVERSEER WANTED. 

I wish to employ fur a gentleman near Ric 
moml, an Overseer, to manage a small farma 
To n person who thoroughly understands 
business and can cofue well recommendecL li 
crnl arrangements will be offered. Address 

N. A I CI'ST 
Office" So. Planter. 153 Main Streg 
Dec lS57._3t.