Digitized by the Internet Archive 

in 2012 with funding from 

LYRASIS IVIembers and Sloan Foundation 



http://archive.org/details/southernplanterd18sout 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

29cbotetr to ^Qvicxiituvt, ?Bortfculture, anlr the JL^ouseftoltr ^rts. 



A^ric 


ulture is th 


e nursing- 


mother of the Arts. Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the State. 
Xertuphon. Sully. 


C. T. 


BOTTS, 


Editor. 




Opposite Merchants' Coflee House, 


Mail) Street. 


Vol. 


I. 




RICHMOND, 


SEPTEMBER, 1841. 


No. 8. 



GRASSES. 

From a discourse recently delivered by Dr. Darling- 
ton before the class of the Chester County Cabinet of 
Natural Science, we glean some important information 
upon the interesting subject of grasses. Dr. Darling- 
ton is a gentleman whose reputation for practical and 
scientific knowledgeicntitles his opinions to the very 
highest consideration. It will be perceived that in his 
estimation our favorite red top or herds-grass is ranked 
as low as No. 7, the next to the last in value of the cul- 
tivated grasses enumerated by him. Such an estimate, 
backed as it is by the opinion of many of our most ju- 
dicious farmers, of the lightness and inferiority of the 
herds-grass should certainly incline us to examine its 
pretensions to the place it holds in our meadows. Are 
none of the grasses pointed out by scientific investi- 
gations, as more valuable, equally adapted to our soil 
and climate? Or is this inferior article forced upon us 
by our indolence and ignorance, rather than by any of 
the provisions of nature. We are not content to stand 
so low in the scale of grass cultivators, and shall not 
cease our exertions to amend our condition until we 
are satisfied that the evil is irremediable. 

The extract to which we have alluded is as follows; 



" In an agricultural point of view, the superior 
value of the grasses as materials for pasture and 
hay, is owing to the large quantity of saccharine 
matter with which they abound about the time 
of flowering ; and which is the source of that 
rich, sweet odor, observable in well-preserved 
hay. This saccharine matter, which pervades 
the whole plant before flowering, and is most 
perfectly elaborated at that epoch, is designed to 
be ultimately concentrated and deposited in the 
seeds, chiefly in the form oi farina; and hence 
we find the herbage of comparatively little value 
after the fruit is fully matured. The skilful 
agriculturist, therefore, .when he wishes to have 
good haij, cuts his grass at the moment when 
the nutritious juices are most perfect, and while 
they are diffused throughout the plant. But 
when his main object is the seed^ as in our culti- 
vated grains, he of course postpones his harvest 
until the career of vegetation is finished. It is 
needless to enlarge on the importance of the 
herbage of the grasses, in supplying the food of 
our domestic animals, and, indirectly, the animal 
portion of our own food. I will, however, men- 
tion those species which are deemed of chief 
value in our meadows and pastures, naming 
them in what I consider the order of their ex- 
cellence. 1 The meadow, or green grass, er- 
VoL. 1—18 



roneously called ' blue grass,' in Kentucky {Poa 
pratensis^ L.) 2. Timothy, or the ' herds-grass,' 
of the northern States {Phleum pratense^ L.) 3. 
Orchard grass, [Dactylis glomerata^ L.) 4. Mea- 
dow fescue, {Festuca pratensis, L.) 5. Blue 
grass, {Poa compressa, L.) 6. Ray grass, {Lo- 
lium perenne, L.) 7. Herds grass, of Penna. of- 
ten called 'red top,' — the 'bent grass,' of the 
English, {^grostis vulgaris , L.) — and 8. Sweet- 
scented vernal gr3LSs^{Anthozanthum odoratum, L.) 
There are a few other grasses — native, or par- 
tially naturalized — to be found on our farms, — 
and which are more or less eaten by cattle, when 
the better ones are wanting ; but thej'- are of 
comparatively little value, and good farmers are 
always desirous to supersede them, as soon as 
possible, by some of those above named. It is 
remarkable, that all the grasses here enumerated, 
are believed to have been introduced into our 
country. They are all more or less extensively 
naturalized ; but some of them require to be re- 
gularly sown, to insure a full crop ; and are 
therefore known as artificial grasses. I'hose 
generally cultivated here, are the timothy and 
orchard grass, — and occasionally we see the ray 
and herds-grass, or red top ; though these last 
are not so much esteemed. The others are com- 
pletely naturalized ; and when the soil is either 
originally fertile, or adequately improved, the 
best of them, viz. the meadow grass and the 
fescue, soon appear spontaneously in our pas- 
tures, and supersede the artificial ones. ]\ow 
and then we hear of attempts to introduce new 
grasses to the notice of our agriculturists, ac- 
companied by exaggerated statements of their 
value, such as the Taller oat-grass, {Avena ela- 
tior^ L.) sometimes called 'grass of the Andes;' 
and a few years since, one of our coarse indige- 
nous grasses, called ' sesame' or ' Gama grass,' 
{Tripsaclim dacty bides ^ L.) was so extravagantly 
lauded in the journals, that many lovers of no- 
velties were induced to try the experiment of 
cultivating it, in place of the old approved plants ; 
but, like some other 'experiments' that we wot 
of in our day, it resulted in a total failure. It 
is indeed exceedingly doubtful, whether anj' other 
grasses are so well adapted to our climate and 
our wants, as those old and long-tried acquaint- 
ances of our farmers, which I have already enu- 
merated." 



154 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



For the Southern Planter. 

My Dear Sir^ — I have seen and examined, 
with much pleasure, the 'June number of your 
Planter, and my attention was particularly di- 
rected to a communication written by E. W. on 
the use of leaves and wood offal for compost. 
Notwithstanding I am young and inexperienced 
in the farming system", and in some respects agree 
with your experienced correspondent, yet in 
others, I regard him quite discouraging and 
rather defective than otherwise. 1st. He informs 
us, that he is satisfied of having completely im- 
poverished a valuable piece of wood-land by the 
annual removal, for several years, of the fall 
coating of leaves. Of this fact no doubt can 
exist in the mind of any practical or scientific 
man, inasmuch as a correct knowledge of the 
gaseous properties of vegetable matter, as 'well 
as experience, fully demonstrates it. 2d. He 
proceeds to give us his present plan, which is to 
remove the undecomposed vegetable matter from 
the land that he is clearing. None perhaps will 
call in question the utility of this plan. Now, 
I presume that E. W. intended his piece on this 
subject for practical purposes, and so ought every 
communication to be on the science of agricul- 
tural pursuits. So far as the plan of hauling 
leaves and litter into the farm pen is concerned, 
from land just cleared, none will disapprove. 
But has he told us how much land he clears 
annually, or whether he clears annually or not ? 
And the number of loads of litter he carries into 
his farm pen during the fall, winter, and spring, 
from the land he has cleared? I think not. 
Also, has he told us the number of loads of ma- 
nure made, and the number of bushels to each 
load, by pursuing his plan, and how, or in what 
way he appropriates this manure, and the benefit 
resulting therefrom to his land or crop? These 
are the facts that we wish to know as farmers, 
and this is the kind of information that we trust 
your experienced correspondent will give us in 
future. 

Again, Mr. Editor, it seems to my mind that 
E. W. has given us a one-sided view of this 
subject, and that too, connected with his own 
interest and peculiar situation in life. How, I 
would like to know, is the plan to be pursued 
by those farmers, who perhaps have not one- 
half or one-tenth part of the forest land to clear 
that he has. My own limited observation, both 
in Virginia and elsewhere, has long since taught 
me that many farmers cannot judiciously clear 
their forest land, nor cut down one stick of wood, 
except for timber or to burn. If this statement 
be doubted by E. W. I invite him to take a short 
excursion from home, and pass through central 
Virginia, and I will vouch for it, that he will see 
scores and hundreds of farmers, who are worth 
from one to fifty thousand dollars that are situated 
as above stated. What must they do for wood 
ofFal and leaves on his plan ? 



I will now, sir, present a case, through your 
excellent paper, for his disposal. A farmer has 
but two hundred acres of land — one hundred 
and fifty of which is ordinary land, and the re- 
maining fifty acres forest land. Of course it 
would be unadvisable in him to cut down and 
clear up the fifty acres, or any portion of it for 
the sake of the litter upon it, and yet the expe- 
rience of your correspondent has not suggested 
any plan for him to pursue, nor many others, in 
rather a worse condition. Herein I regard his 
communication deficient and still wanting much 
more of that experience of which he speaks. 
He has thrown the young farmers of our coun- 
try into a wide sea of uncertainty, without a 
helm to guide them, and without a bottom or a 
shore. I for one trust, that he will in future give 
us a better outfit, rather better accommodations, 
and direct us to some more certain and safer har- 
bor. I, Mr. Editor, do not set up any claims for 
having much experience in farming or improving 
land. Of this you are informed from the outset 
of my remarks, and yet young as I am, I will 
propose a plan to be pursued by those farmers, 
whose situations in life are not so enviable as 
E. W.'s is ; and if convinced in future that I am 
wrong, and a better plan is proposed, I will 
abandon it, as it is my purpose to elicit informa- 
tion on this, as well as many other subjects, and 
not controversy. Divide the above named fifty 
acres of timbered land into five equal parts. The 
result will be ten acres for each year during five 
years. The first year the farmer may haul into 
his farm pen the leaves and litter from the first 
ten, and the second year from the second ten 
acres, and so on for five years, until he gets over 
the fifty acres. Let the compost be annually 
applied to his comiuon land, and no doubt he 
will soon discover his thin land improving, 
while his forest land has not sustained any in- 
jury. This practice may be kept up in rotation 
for twenty years, (that is) taking off the litter 
every five years from either of the ten acres, 
without injury. These are facts that have been 
demonstrated by some of our judicious mana- 
gers and will be demonstrated again even if E. 
W. never does it. 

Now, Mr. Editor, as I am a friend to you and 
to your laudable and praiseworthy undertaking, 
in supplying the southern farmers and planters 
with such a valuable desideratum, let me sug- 
gest to you the propriety and importance of in- 
sisting on your numerous correspondents com- 
bining practice with their theory — to give de- 
monstrable proofs, stubborn and undeniable facts 
upon the different agricultural pursuits of the 
day. When your columns become filled with 
such communications as these, then I endorse 
for it, that your paper will have a wider and 
more extended circulation than any other of the. 
kind in the nation. Regard not this suggestion 
as being dictatorial on my part, as I am using 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



155 



my small influence in removing objections to 
your paper, and hope in less than one month to 
give you a stronger proof of my attachment to 
it, by swelling the number of your subscription 
list. 

I hope, sir, that the time is not distant when 
the Southern Planter is to find a warm and cor- 
dial reception in the house of every farmer and 
planter scattered over the length and breadth of 
this great republic. 

I remain, with high consideration, 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

A Young Farmer. 

We have a word or two to say upon the above. Like 
"A Young- Farmer" we desire to "elicit information 
not controversy." And we, therefore, sug-gest to our 
friend E. W. that there is no room here for the latter. 
We see no discrepancy whatever between the views of 
E. W. and our correspondent. E. W. asserts that his 
experience justifies the reasonable conclusion, that 
wood-land will be injured by an annual robbery of the 
leaves and ofllal, and "A Young- Farmer," ag-recing- 
with him, recommends, very judiciously, that the wood 
land for this purpose be divided into five shifts, so that 
no portion will be robbed but once in five years. Where 
a farmer is clearing- as much land as he needs for litter, 
as we suppose E. W. is, no such arrangement is neces- 
sary, and his course, we presume, is exactly what "A 
Young Farmer" would recommend. We do not know 
that "A Young- Farmer" has any rig-ht to find fault with 
E. W. because he did not g-o farther and tell us, as he 
has done, what would be the most judicious plan under 
other circumstances. 

What we most covet, is precisely the kind of com- 
munications to which "A Young- Farmer" alludes, 
plain, practical results of actual operations, as free as 
possible from all taint of abstract theories. We desire 
to make the Planter a record of such. 



DRILLING WHEAT. 

The following is entitled to the gravest con- 
sideration, not less from the importance of the 
subject than from the source from which it is 
derived. Drilling is the favorite mode of culti- 
vating wheat in England, but has been discarded 
here because of the supposed increase of labor. 
But if Mr. McClean, who seems to have con- 
ducted his experiments with great care, is right 
in concluding that thi^e times as much wheat 
may be made by only the additional expense of 
drilling, instead of sowing broadcast, a hundred 
contrivances, in these days of improved imple- 
ments, may be found to obviate any difficulty 
from this source. 

We had heard of the wonderful result of this 
experiment, and put ourselves to some pains to 
obtain an authentic statement of the particulars. 
When a fact so important is vouched for by such 
authority, we cannot permit ourselves to imagine 
that the farmers of this great wheat growing 
province will rank it with the numerous experi- 
ments that are hourly detailed, only to be for- 
gotten. We hope that thousands of farmers in 



this State, deeply interested in the production of 
this great staple, will, this fall, repeat this expe- 
riment for themselves. We will pledge ourselves, 
if it is successful, to furnish them with an im- 
plement by which the trouble of drilling shall 
be entirely obviated. 

This is the age of agricultural improvement, 
and we doubt not that we are on the eve of re- 
volutions, which are to enhance an hundred fold 
the profits of husbandry. 

What a noble exampie to the agricultural so- 
cieties of the State is afforded by the conduct of 
Dr. Archer. As the President of the Society 
for Elizabeth City he obtains and forwards to 
an agricultural paper a statement of an experi- 
ment, made by an individual in his district, that 
it may become common property. How much 
might be effected by this interchange of infor- 
mation, and to what more valuable purpose could 
an agricultural society be devoted than to the 
collection and publication of such important 
facts ? 

''Old Point Comfort, Aug. 22, 1841. 

" Dear Sir, — I enclose you a copy of a letter 
received from Mr. McClean on the subject of 
drilled wheat. His experiment is a very inte- 
resting and important one, and deserves to be 
prosecuted farther. I saw this wheat, and think 
I never saw a more luxuriant growth or one that 
promised a greater yield ; but Mr. M. omits one 
important fact — it suffered somewhat from the 
rust. 

" The objections urged to drilling wheat in 
this country, where land is cheap and labor high, 
are first, that the drilling is expensive, and se- 
condly, that to secure any advantage from drill- 
ing, the crop must be worked ; or in other words, 
that drilling is only to be resorted to, as it en- 
ables 3^ou to work the crop. If this were the 
fact, I should say, that no Virginia farmer would 
be justified in drilling his wheat: but the fact 
is the reverse ; for drilling is attended with no 
increased expense, (other than the cost of the 
drill) and the labor of working the wheat would 
be thrown away. The increase of product, 
therefore, arises from the more equal distribution 
of the seed, the uniform depth at which it is co- 
vered, the free circulation of air through the 
drill, and the better condition in which the land 
is left by the operation of the drill plough. 
Very respectfull}'. 

Your obedient servant, 

R, Archer." 

''Elizabeth City County, Jlug. 17, 1841. 

"Dr. Robert Archer, 

President A. Society Elizabeth City County: 

''Dear Sir, — Late in October ult. I thought I 
would experiment a little by drilling two-thirds 
of an acre of wheat, believing that drilling a 
full crop would pa}^ me much better than a crop 
sowed broadcast. 



156 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



"In this two-thirds of an acre, the rows fifty I 
to sixty yards long, there were sixty-three rows ' 
seven inches apart, and seventy-four rows four- ' 
teen inches apart. I 

"If any difference in quahty or quantity of, 
wheat in these rows, it was in favor of those I 
seven inches apart, where five pecks were drilled 
to an acre. 

"At the rate of ten pecks, were drilled on two 
beds drills seven inches apart : this I found by 
far too thick : the wheat did not produce so well, 
and looked sickly from the time it first came up. 

" The wheat came up well, but looked no 
better than my crop in general, until it began to | 
head. Early in April I ran a large harrow over | 
it ; thought it improved its appearance ; latter j 
part of April or first of May I ran a cultivator j 
between the drills (fourteen inches apart) on two | 
beds ; but at reaping time I found no material 
difference between that worked and that un- 
■worked. The weeds were completely kept un- 
der where the drills were close; not so with 
those fourteen inches apart. 

" On this two-thirds of an acre I made four- 
teen bushels, and had it all been drilled seven 
incites (which produced as well or belter than 
the fourteen inches) I would have made twenty- 
one bushels, a yield of thirty-one and a half 
bushels to the acre — three times as much as my 
general crop averaged. 

" I am so confident of the success of drilling, 
that I intend to drill thirteen acres this fall. I 
have a machine made by Mr. Jabez Parker, of 
Richmond, invented by Mr. Andrew Bartle, of 
this county, by which wheat can be drilled with 
less trouble than it can be sowed broadcast, pro- 
vided the wheat is to be ploughed in. 

" This drill can in a few minutes be attached 
to any plough by any common hand. 

" I shall be able, after my crop of thirteen 
acres is reaped, to give more on this drilling 
system. 

I am, most respectfully, yours, 

A. B. McCl.EAN." 



HAY. 



We commend the following to the attention 
of our hay makers. To the community in this 
neighborhood, it woujd be unnecessary to speak 
of Mr. Sydnor's character for judgment and ge- 
neral intelligence. To those to whom he is un- 
known we undertake to say, once for all, (for we 
hope to bear frequently from him) that it is un- 
disputed. He is by profession a hay maker. 
fie cuts probab more blue than herds-grass, 
?ind is therefore uninfluenced by interested mo- 
tives in his view of the subject. 

Mr. Sydnor insists that the herds-grass of the 
Rprth is arj entirely different article from the one 



we cultivate under that name. This may ma- 
terially affect the conclusions to be drawn from 
Dr. Darlington's estimate, noticed in another 
place. The greatest confusion, we know, pre- 
vails upon this subject, soon to be dispelled, we 
hope, by the laudable efforts of Mr. Curtis and 
the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 

To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Sir, — In looking over the table of contents to 
the July number of the Planter, my attention 
was drawn to an article headed Hay — and as a 
school boy's notice is first directed to the pictures 
in his book, so I, invariably, read first in every 
agricultural work I meet with, every thing that 
has any connection with this valuable crop. In- 
deed, sir, I consider hay as a " sine qua non" to 
the farmer — an article, absolutely and indispen- 
sably necessary for the comfort and well being |j 
of his stock, for the purpose of making manure, ! 
and, as a necessary consequence, the improve- 
ment of his land. 

Having premised thus much, I will proceed 
to review, in my plain and rude manner, the ar- 
ticle alluded to, signed " Chickahominy" — and 
I hope by so doing, to induce some one, over his 
proper signature, who is more skilled in farming, 
as well as writing, to come out on the subject, 
and give his views of the facts. Your corre- 
spondent, after speaking of the immense quan- 
tity of Chickahominy bottoms and their rich 
soil, proceeds to compare the different kinds of 
hay, usually cultivated on these bottoms, as to 
their value and adaptation to the said lowlands. 
It seems that your correspondent forms his con- 
clusions not from actual practical knowledge, 
but from casual observation and the opinions de- . 
rived from others. Were I not well acquainted j 
with the different kinds of hay cultivated on 
these bottoms I would not dare express any opi- 
nion, much less make assertions in opposition to 
the opinion of Chickahominy ; but having lived 
on this creek or river (as it may be termed) for 
the last eight j^ears, and turned my attention 
almost exclusively to the cultivation of hay, I 
feel privileged to say something, inasmuch as I 
conceive Chickahominy to be in an error, and 
may possibly lead others into the same. 

Chickahominy, I have no doubt, is correct in 
his opinions as to the extent and value of these 
lowlands; but as to the comparative value of 
blue grass, herds or red top and timothy, and 
their adaptation to Chickahominy lowgrounds, 
I must beg leave to differ with him. My expe- 
rience in the matter satisfies me that as fine 
timothy and herds- grass can be raised on Chicka- 
hominy bottoms as on any other unmanured 
lands in lower Virginia, and that three, four, and 
sometimes many more heavy crops have been 
and may be token from the land without re- 
seeding. As a general thing, however, it wjll 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



167 



be found best to fallow up and re-seed about 
every fourth year. I have some herds-grass 
meadow, now eight years old, which yielded this 
year a fair crop, at least between three and four 
thousand pounds to the acre — and the quality, 
at any rale, merchantable. True it is, there 
are many spots on the river, and some I have no 
doubt on every farm, which are better adapted 
to blue grass than either of the others under 
contemplation. Blue grass delights in low, 
moist, and indeed wet situations, where the other 
two would not live, and it will not grow well 
any where else — whereas a large portion of these 
bottoms, so far as they are now cleared, are 
sometimes too dry even for herds-grass. On 
such places as blue grass seems to flourish, I 
would recommend its encouragement^ not cultiva- 
tion, for it requires none ; and all that is neces- 
sary to encourage it, is to cut it down twice a 
year — not with the expectation, however, of 
getting three tons per acre at each cutting ; but 
about half that quantity, I suppose, may be 
calculated on with some certainly. 1 would 
here observe that blue grass, when growing, and 
even when being mowed, is very apt to deceive 
one not well acquainted with its growth. Like 
fodder when green and growing, it makes a 
large show, but when cut, cured, and secured in 
a stack or barn, the bulk as well as weight is 
most materially lessened. Indeed, it loses more 
in curing than any other hay I have ever seen, 
not excepting clover. 

Admitting for one moment that a blue grass 
meadow will yield annually as much per acre 
as herds-grass or timothy, a fact which I have 
never witnessed, and supposing the lands to be 
better suited to its growth, a part of which only 
is in reality, the harvesting is double, the qua- 
lity inferior, (salt or no salt*) and the price in 
market about one-fiflh less than any artificial 
hay within my knowledge. 

W. B. Sydnor. 



For the Southern Planter. 

SLAVERY. 

NO, II. 

My Dear Sir, — With your permission I will 
resume my observations upon the subject of slave 
labor. I have endeavored to show that it is in 
general the cheapest labor that this country af- 
fords, both because of its effectiveness, arisingfrom 
subordination and continuance, and also because 
its price is victuals and clothes of the cheapest 
kind. I have said that labor obtained for mere 
food and clothing was the cheapest that could 
be afforded in any country. Hence unless there 
is labor in Europe (which it is not to be doubted 
there is) worse fed and clothed than our negroes, 
we have the cheapest labor in the world : cer- 

♦ Chickahominy says it should be salted. 



tainly none can be afforded in our own country 
at so low a rate. This is true in ihe general, 
but is very dependant upon the management of 
those who have charge of this particular species 
of labor. It is always to be fed, and must be 
always at work. This a good manager will 
effect. The advocate of white labor contends 
that the farmer only wants labor occasionally, 
and that the expense of supporting the slave 
when he is not at work more than compensates 
for the additional price of white labor. This 
argument points out most strongly the manner 
in which alone it can be refuted, viz. to provide 
work for every day in the year. A good ma- 
nager will take care that no hand on his farm 
eats the bread of idleness for a single day, and 
if our farmers would only calculate upon each 
rainy day the clear loss upon the hands not at 
work, such contingencies would be more gene- 
rally provided for. A little system will readily 
obviate this dithculty. 

Good management consists not only in pro- 
j viding work for your laborers but in the manner 
' in which the laborers themselves are controlled. 
Upon this important point, there is much error 
ariaing, either from ignorance or want of sys- 
tem. Negroes are like any other ignorant 
men in a state of subordination : they re- 
quire to be managed with kindness, tempered 
with the greatest firmness. The m.ost exact 
discipline is as necessary as in a school or on 
board a ship. Too much attention cannot be 
paid to their necessities, and the humane master 
will find a thousand opportunities of exhibiting 
the kindness of his disposition to his slaves. 
But his orders, which should not be variable, 
must be obeyed, or punishnient must follow. 
With a strict observance of this rule, punish- 
ment will soon be unnecessary, because there 
will be no disobedience. Under such a system, 
the negro is the most cheerful, grateful, and 
faithful laborer upon the face of the earth. It 
may be argued that few men are calculated ta 
command and control others, to the greatest ad- 
vantage. This is true ; it is no common qua- 
lity, but one extremely valuable to the southern 
cultivator, and where it is not possessed by na- 
ture, it is often obtained by study and practice. 
System, order, and management are every thing 
upon one of our large landed estates, and call 
forth, in their exercise, no ordinary powers of 
mind. 

I would by all ineans advise our farmers to 
eschew hired labor, under our system. The 
habit of permitting the hireling, at the end of 
the year, to choose his own home, leads to a 
change of labor, that renders a slave at least 
twice as valuable to his master as to an indivi- 
dual hiring him. Besides the change of mas- 
ters, from the subjection to a variety of systems, 
renders the slave unfixed in any ; moreover, the 
pride of ownership on the part of the slave (a 



158 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



southern man will understand what I mean) is 
lost, and the power of changing his place gives 
him a degree of independence incompatible with 
necessary subordination. I once heard a very 
learned gentleman, who had very little expe- 
rience, descanting very eloquently upon the dif- 
ference between white and slave labor. I asked 
him whether, in speaking of slave labor, he al- 
luded to hired slaves, or such as were owned 
by the operator. He replied that he had never 
heard of such a distinction, and did not know 
there was any difference. Although I did not 
tell him so, his reply satisfied me that he had 
very little practical information upon the subject 
on which he was talking so learnedly. 

I conclude by asserting that under the con- 
trol of good and judicious men, the southern 
master and slave should neither desire to ex- 
change situations with any other similar classes 
upon the face of the earth. 

Yours, J. S. 



For the Southern Planter. 
MANURING. 

Mr. Editor, — I have seen much in your va- 
luable periodical, which, by the by, I hope will 
soon be in the hands of every practical farmer 
in Virginia at least, on the subject of manuring ; 
a great deal that I think very excellent, and 
some things that I do not entirely approve. You 
well remarJc that the subject is all-important, and 
as any statement of facts may be desirable, I 
will give you some that have induced me to dif- 
fer with the generality of farmers upon the use 
of long provender. 

I was at one time in the habit of passing all 
of this through the stomach of cattle, to be con- 
verted into manure, and actually undertook to 
winter other people's cows for the benefit of their 
offal. A very shrewd, unlettered old neighbor 
used to laugh at me a good deal for supposing, 
as he said, that 1 could give some to my neigh- 
bors' cattle and have more left ; which he called 
working subtraction by the rules of addition. 
Moved more by the ridicule than the argument 
of my old friend, I at length, to show him how 
absurd his theory was, carried out several stacks 
of straw in the fall, and spread them upon my 
corn land. In the following summer, I turned 
it under, and sowed my wheat upon it in the 
fall. Since that crop, I have never wintered 
other people's cattle, and any of my neighbors 
may take as many of mine as they please. 

1 do not know that I ever would have been 
induced to admit that my neighbor's practice 
was better than mine, notwithstanding the in- 
crease of my crops under the new system, had 
I not discovered that he had attributed the effect 
to the wrong cause. The improvement is not 
so much owing to my turning in the whole of 
my straw, as to the covering it affords the land. 



Now, I am not exactly philosopher enough to 
account for this well known fact, which I have 
never seen explained, but certain it is, that the 
mere covering of the land makes it wonderfully 
productive. A galled spot, upon which a few 
planks are laid, will become extremely fertile ; 
and the places over which our fodder stacks are 
placed are proverbially productive. So it is with 
the land covered with straw, and I am inclined 
to think, this principle, well exaniined and car- 
ried out, would lead to a great revolution in our 
methods of improvement. At any rate, I was 
highly gratified to find, that if I had erred, it 
was not so much because I worked arithmetic 
badly, as my neighbor maintained, as that I was 
ignorant of a fact unknown to him. 1 am now 
thoroughly satisfied, that, if any one will try the 
experiment fairly, he will reduce his stock to the 
number absolutely necessary for his purposes, 
and haul out all his extra fodder, straw, leaves, 
&c. as a covering for his land. It is worth three 
times as much to him, used in this way, as when 
it is digested in the stomachs of other people's 
cattle, or even cut to pieces in his ow^n farm 
yard ; for although, in the latter case, he may 
get as much of the nutritive properties of the 
straw, eventually, he loses the benefit of the 
cover, which is infinitely more valuable, in the 
meantime. 

Yours, W. W. 

This we look upon as a very important suggestion 
of our correspondent. We have often had our atten- 
tion called to the fact he mentions, the well known va- 
lue of a cover to land. We think with him the princi- 
ple is worthy of investigation. He is a practical and 
successful farmer, whose name is at the disposal of any 
one who chooses to make private inquiry for it. 



CHARCOAL. 

Since the publication of Dr. Liebig's" late 
work upon " Chemistry applied to Agriculture," 
some very interesting experiip.ents have been 
made upon the fertilizing powers of powdered 
charcoal. That from the pine, used in our black- 
smiths' shops, has so far proved the most valua- 
ble. Mixed with the soil in difierent proportions, 
it has been found to promote the growth of 
healthy, and to restore the drooping powers of 
sickly plants. This article is so readily obtained 
as to offer an inducement to our farniers and 
gardeners to try some most interesting experi- 
ments for themselves in this comparatively un- 
explored field of agriculture. 



SALTPETRE TO PEACH TREES. 

Mr. Littleton Physick, in a late com- 
munication to the " Cultivator," states, as the 
result of experiments continued for the last five 
years, that he has found an application of salt 
and saltpetre to peach trees an effectual cure for 



TEIE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



159 



the canker worm. Mr. Physick applies a half 
pound of the mixture, in the proportion of one- 
fourth or nnore of saltpetre to the surface of the 
soil, in contact with the trunk of the tree, about 
the month of April, and if there are indications 
of the worm, he repeats the process with about 
two-thirds of the quantity again in June and 
September. Every second or third year he 
sows the mixture, broadcast, over his orchard, 
at the rate of about two bushels to the acre. 
By this means, he restored, to the surprise of 
himself and neighbors, an orchard full of worms, 
which he was advised to give to the axe. He 
finds not only renewed vigor imparted to his 
trees, but increased flavor given to his fruit. 
When he sets out young trees in the spring, he 
applies, as soon as he is done planting, about 
one ounce of the mixture, and repeats it in June 
and September. 

Mr. Physick thinks that this application in 
the spring will retard the developement of the 
bud, and thereby save the fruit from frost. Mr. 
P. lives in Maryland, and of course as to the 
periods of time specified, allowance must be 
made for the difference in climates. 

With a plate of this delicious fruit by our 
side, we cannot refrain from pressing upon the 
attention of our orchardists any thing which has 
a tendency to ensure us the grateful refreshment 
of its luscious juice, during the exhausting heat 
of our summer months. In addition to its value 
as a most acceptable luxury, it is well worthy 
of regard as a source of profit. To satisfy our 
farmers of that fact, it is only necessary to state, 
that fine peaches are readily bringing, in our 
market, from two to four dollars a bushel, and 
that large quantities might be annually sold to 
our city ladies for domestic purposes. 



low priced articles, made for sale, without suffi- 
cient regard to the workmanship ; thus offering 
a premium to the workshops of the north to 
slight their work. To fit and finish well requires 
time, which always commands money, and wc 
have often seen articles in this market that we 
knew could not be well made for double the price 
at which they were offered. Still they sold rea- 
dily, because they were loio^ and no doubt gave 
rise to such complaints as we have received. 
There can be no economy in a cheap tool. If 
you cannot afford to buy a good one, wait until 
you can. You never can afford to buy an in- 
different one. 



PLASTER OF PARIS. 

A writer in the Farmers' Cabinet strongly re- 
commends the use of powdered plaster of paris 
on stable floors. It has been found, as stated by 
Professor Liebig, to absorb the ammonia arising 
from urine and thereby to render stables where 
cattle are confined perfectly sweet, health}', and 
inodorous. Without it the ammonia that arises 
is not only lost, as far as vegetation is concerned, 
but is productive of weak eyes and other dis- 
eases arising from the stench of foul stables. 
One bushel per month is considered sufficient for 
this purpose, though much more might be used 
to advantage, as there is no better way of pre- 
paring the plaster for the purposes of vegetation. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 

We have received a complaint, well founded, 
nodoubt,of theserious inconvenience experienced 
by farmers from the neglect of the m.akers of 
agricultural implements generally, especially of 
ploughs. Our correspondent points out the ex- 
cessive delay and vexation of being compelled 
to go to the shop tq repair a bolt, imperfectly 
made or fitted, to open a wrench too small in the 
eye, and a thousand other imperfections, arising 
from the carelessness of the manufacturer. 

There is no doubt that our farmers suffer ex- 
tremely from such slight causes, and that from 
the fact of their not being mechanics, they are 
egregiously imposed on by the makers of these 
implements ; but w^e think they themselves are 
somewhat to blame, and that they have the re- 
medy in their own hands. If they want good 
work, they must be willing to pay fair prices, 
and they may be assured whenever they pur- 
chase a low priced implement they have gotten 
an indifferent one. They jump too readily at 



For the Southern Planter. 
BERKSHIRES. 

My Dear Sir, — I have seen and heard much 
of the Berkshires and have no doubt that for 
some purposes they are the most improved hog 
now known to the agricultural world. But I 
maintain that they are not calculated for this 
particular region. My objections are that they 
fatten too easily and arrive at a heavy weight 
too early. With the exception of a few jockey 
pigs, raised about the house, we must continue 
to range our hogs, and hence they must ever be 
exposed to depredation. Now a round fat sleek 
Berkshire presents a temptation that the pilfering 
propensities of our negroes cannot resist. Our 
only safety is in your long legged lean and hun- 
gry alligator, w^hich he could not catch if he 
would, and would not if he could. If any man 
attempts to keep a large number of Berkshires 
iu this neighborhood, he must house them every 
night under lock and key. 

Again, as to the bacon they make, t am old 
fashioned in my taste, and prefer a Virginia ham 
to any other eating in the world. Now I do 
not believe that a prime ham can be made of the 
true flavor out of any hog less than two years 
old, or from any except a poor hog just fattened 
up. But your Berkshire never gets poor, and 
at the end of two years is an overgrown mass 



160 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of grease, well adapted probably to making gross 
meat for negroes, but totally unfitted for the de- 
licate highly flavored table ham. That new- 
flesh affords the most delicate food is no new 
idea, but one well recognised amongst beefeaters, 
who all admit that the most delicate eating is 
obtained from an old worn down ox just fat- 
tened up. 

Remember, sir, I am speaking of the delicacy 
of bacon without regard to the expense of making 
it, which by the by no true lover of bacon will 
ever regard. My devotion to the article may 
make me over particular, but I must confess I 
look upon one of your overgrown Berkshires 
with great distrust, and set down to my favorite 
ham with a melancholy foreboding that its deli- 
cate sweetness is destined to yield to the greasy 
rankness of the new breed. 

An Amateur Bacon Eater. 

JS'eio Kenij Virginia, 



BREEDING. 

Many of our farmers seem to consider that it 
is suflficient for them to purchase a good stock, 
and that the system of scientific breeding is much 
too complicated for them. We assure them that 
they may continue the plan of importation until 
all their means are exhausted — their stock will 
continue to degenerate unless they learn to sus- 
tain and improve it by judicious crossing. To 
assist them in effecting this object we quote the 
following remarks from a work of Mr. Cline's, 
who was one of the most celebrated anatomists 
and authors England ever produced : 

"Although the form of domestic animals has 
been greatly improved by selecting with care 
those possessed of the best shape for breeding, 
yet the theory of improvement has not been so 
well understood, that rules could be laid down 
for directing the practice in every case ; and al- 
though the external form has been much studied 
and the proportions well ascertained, these are 
but indications of internal structure, — the princi- 
ples of improving it must, therefore, be founded 
on a knowledge of the structure and use of the 
internal parts ; and of these, the lungs are of the 
first importance ; it is on their size and sound- 
ness that the strength and health of an animal 
principally depend, the power of converting food 
into nourishment being in proportion to their 
size, an animal with large lungs being capable 
of converting a given quantity of food into more 
nourishment than one with smaller lungs, and 
therefore having a greater aptitude to fatten. 
The external indications of the size of the lungs 
are, the form and size of the chest, but a deep 
chest is not capacious, unless it be proportionally 
broad. 

" The pelvis is the cavity formed by the junc- 



tion of the haunch-bones with the bone of the 
rump, and it is essential that this cavity should 
be large and capacious ; its size is indicated by 
the width of the hips and the breadth of the 
twist — which is the junction of the thighs — the 
breadth of the loins being always m proportion 
to that of the chest and pelvis. The head should 
be small ; the length of the neck in proportion 
to the height of the animal ; the muscles and 
tendons large, the strength of the animal de- 
pending more on the muscles or tendons than 
on the bones : many animals with large bones 
are still weak, and those that are imperfectly 
nourished during their growth, have their bones 
often disproportionately large. A compact, round 
made body, a deep, full chest, a broad loin, full 
flank and straight back, a small head and clean 
chaps, with fine tapering neck, limbs and bones 
not coarse and large, a soft but not thick skin, 
with soft and fine hair, are amongst the chief 
marks of a good kind. 

'It has been generally supposed, that the 
breed of animals is improved by the largest 
males : this opinion has done considerable mis- 
chief, and probably would have done more, if it 
had not been counteracted by the desire of se- 
lecting animals of the best form and proportions, 
which are rarely to be met with in those of the 
largest size ; experience has proved that crossing 
has only succeeded, in an eminent degree, in 
those instances in which the females were larger 
than in the usual proportion of females to males, 
and that it has generally failed when the males 
were disproportionately large. If a well formed 
large buck be put to small ewes, the lambs will 
not be so well shaped as their parent ; but if a 
good small buck be put to larger ewes, the lambs 
will be of an improved form : the improvement 
depends on this principle, that the power of the 
female to supply her offspring with nourishment, 
is in proportion to her size and the power of 
nourishing herself from the excellence of her 
constitution. The size of the foetus is generally 
in proportion to that of the female parent, and, 
therefore, when she is disproportionately small, 
the quantity of nourishment is disproportionately 
small, and her oflfspring has all the disproportions 
of a starveling: but when the female, from her 
size and good constitution, is more adequate ta 
the nourishment of a foetus of a male smaller 
than herself) the growth will be proportionately 
larger; the larger female has also a greater 
quantity of milk, and her oflfspring is more 
abundantlysupplied with nourishment after birth. 
To produce the most perfectly formed animal, 
abundant nourishment is necessary from the 
earliest period of its existence, until its growth 
is complete. 

" To obtain animals with large lungs, crossing 
is the most expeditious method, because w^ell 
formed females may be selected from a variety 
of a large size, to be put to a well formed male 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



161 



that is ralher smaller ; by such a mode of cross- 
ing, the lungs and heart become larger in con- 
sequence of a peculiarity in the circulation of 
the feet us, which causes a larger proportion of 
the blood, under such circumstances, to be dis- 
tributed to the lungs than to other parts of the 
body, and as the shape and size of the chest 
depend upon that of the Lrngs, hence arises the 
remarkably large chest, which is produced by 
crossing with females that are larger than the 
males: but this practice must be limited, for it 
may be carried to such an extent that the bulk 
of the bodj' might be so disproportioned to the 
size of the limbs, as to prevent the animal from 
moving with sufficient facility, so that, where 
activity is required, this practice must not be ex- 
tended so far as in those which are intended for 
the food of man. 'I'he kinds of animals selected 
for cross-breeding ought never to be of very dif- 
ferent habits and sizes, for notwithstanding the 
confessed advantages derived from cross-breed- 
ing, yet, great or sudden changes are highly 
improper, that having oflen been found injurious 
to the health and character of the stock: the 
use of bucks of the pure Dishley or Bakewell 
stock has, with several coarse flocks of sheep, 
been attended with no sensible advantage, owing 
to this cause, the characters and habits of the 
breeds being so widely dissimilar. Whenever, 
then, cross-breeding is attempted, care ought al- 
ways to be taken to do it gradually, and to rear 
the progeny in a proper manner ; and when the 
matching is conducted progressively, and with 
due attention to the diversity of habit in the ani- 
mals, it succeeds well ; the chief art being, to 
begin gradually at first, and in process of time, 
as the blond of one family is diminished, that of 
the other will be increased, till improvement to 
the degree wished for be attained by gradual 
approximation. 

"The great improvement of the breed of 
horses in England arose from crossing with 
those diminutive stallions, Barbs and Arabians ; 
and the introduction of Flemish mares was the 
source of improvement in the larger breed of 
cart horses ; the form of the swine has also been 
greatly improved by crossmg with the small 
Chinese boar: but when it became the fashion 
in London to drive large bay horses in carriages, 
the farmers in Yorkshire put their mares to 
much larger horses than usual, and thus did in- 
finite mischief to their breed, by producing a 
race of small-chested, long-legged, large-boned, 
worthless animals ; and a similar project v.^as 
adopted in Normandy, for the purpose of en- 
larging their breed of horses, by the use of the 
Holstein stallion, by which the best breed of 
horses in France would have been spoiled, had 
not the farmers discovered their mistake in time, 
by observing the offspring much inferior in form, 
to that produced by their own horses." 



Vol. 1-19 



TREATMENT OF COWS. 

A writer in the New England Farmer asserts, 
that experience has satisfied him of the impro- 
priety of high feeding before parturition. It 
leads, he says, to swollen bags and difficulty of 
labor. On the contrary, by a more meagre diet 
for several weeks, these difficulties are avoided, 
whilst an equal quantity of milk can be pro- 
duced by a generous after keep. 



BUG— TO DESTROY. 

We are informed, upon good authority, that a 
certain preventive against the striped bug, so in- 
jurious to vines, has been discovered by the wa- 
ter melon growers of " old Hanover." An onion 
button placed in each hill produces a plant at 
which these gentr}^ turn up their noses, and walk 
off. Th\s\suo humbug. Remember, next year, 
to plant onions and save your vines. 



SILK. 

Mr. John Fox, who in a letter to the Editor 
of the Western Farmer speaks knowinglj^, de- 
clares, that there, are, already, silk machinery 
and fabrics in this country equal to any in France 
or England. He alludes particularly to the su- 
perior brilliancy of the American silk. The 
chrysalis, he says, should be killed with a fumi- 
gation of sulphur ; great injury is frequently 
done by baking and steaming the cocoons — the 
former draws out the staple from the silk, the 
latter causes it to flake off when reeling. He 
recommends Dennis' silk manual and the Bur- 
lington feeding frame above all others. 



CLOVER— A RENOVATOR. 

We extract the following- from a long lettei from 
Mr. A. Beattv to the Editor of the Farmers' Register 
on the Preservation and Renovation of soils: 

"Soils which have beeen reduced by cultiva- 
tion, where they have not been injured by wash- 
ing rains, may be easily renovated. This must 
be done by again suppl_ying them with those 
fertilizing ingredients of which they have been 
deprived by bad husbandry. This may be ac- 
complished in part, by the application of manure ; 
but it is to the atmosphere we must look as the 
great storehouse whence we are to draw ihe ne- 
cessary supply of vegetable food. To this end, 
those green crops should be freely cultivated, 
which derive most of their food from the atmos- 
phere. In soils adapted to it, red clover is the 
most suitable for this purpose. It is by far the 
most convenient and the cheapest method of re- 
novating exhausted soils. It not only supplies 
a great deal of vegetable matter to soils that 
have been much reduced, but it is admirably 
calculated to pulverize and reduce its component 



162 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



parts to a finely divided state, and thus to pro- 
duce a condition favorable to a connbination with 
those elementary principles which are furnished 
by the atmosphere ; and also greatly increases 
its capacity for absorbing- moisture. Care should 
be taken also to suffer as few weeds to ripen 
their seeds as possible. These, previous to the 
time of ripening their seeds, derive nearly the 
whole of their nutriment from the atmosphere. 
By destroying them before ihey seed, nearly their 
whole product of vegetable matter is a net gain 
to the soil. Exhausting grain crops should be 
sparingly cultivated till the soil is completely 



renovated, and then should bear only such a 
proportion to the green crops as the soil will 
heuY without deterioration. It should be a fixed 
principle never to suffer the soil to deteriorate, 
for as it costs as much to cultivate a soil pro- 
ducing only half or two-thirds of a crop, as if it 
produced a full crop, it is perfectly clear that it 
is the interest of the cultivator to keep his land 
always in good heart. Besides, it is less diffi- 
cult to keep land in a state of fertility than to 
renovate it after it has been exhausted by care- 
less husbandry. But it is time to bring my de- 
sultory speculations to a close." 



SWEET POTATO KEEPING. 




The following- is the sequel to a communication, on 
the subject of the sweet potato, published in the second 
number of the Planter. The article at the time at- 
tracted g-rcat attention, and was extensively circulated. 

The keeping- the potato is attended with more diffi- 
culty probably than tlie cultivation, and we will only 
repeat here that Mr. Bernard is as remarkable for his 
success in the one as the other. 

SWEET POTATO KEEPING. 

J\ly Dear Sir^ — In compliance with the pro- 
mise I made last winter, I now proceed to detail 
for the Planter my method of keepino; the sweet 
potato. I beg here to repeat my unshaken con- 
fidence in the superiority of this vegetable over 
every other root I have ever known as a food 
for man and beast. 

The popular objection, viz. the difficulty of 
making and keeping was for soiTie time an in- 
superable one with me, and it was not imtil after 
years of experience and trial, in which I was 
sustained by a consciousness of their great va- 
lue, that I was enabled to succeed to my satis- 
faction in either. I now find no difficulty in 
either the one or the other. ' 



I will premise a few words as to the proper 
mode of harvesting. When my potatoes are 
fully matured, which is generally about the 2Cth 
of October, I commence digging them. My 
first operation is to cut off" the vines upon the 
tops of the ridges, (see p. 18) with an instru- 
ment not unlike a reap-hook, with a sharp, 
smooth edge. These vines I deposite in the 
centre between the rows. I then proceed with 
a single plough to run deep furrows on the sides 
of the ridges, turning the earth over on the vines. 
Then, with a broad hoe, set a little slanting, I 
strike at the bottom of the ridge containing the 
potatoes, and raising the earth on the hoe seize 
the top with one hand, when with a little exer- 
tion all the roots are disengaged from the earth, 
frequently in a cluster. The same day they are 
assorted ; the small ones saved for feeding, and 
the large ones separated, to be packed away for 
winter use. At all times, great care is taken to 
prevent their being bruised. - 

To preserve potatoes a warm, dry atmosphere, 
in the strictest sense of the word, is absolutely 
necessary. The warmth cannot well be ob- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



163 



tained out of a cellar, and I found for some time 
great difficulty in obtaining the requisite dryness 
in one. To effect this object, the walls must be 
protected from the dampness of the earth lying 
against them, otherwise, the water oozes through 
and produces dampness, in spite of you. After 
trying drains of every description without effect, 
I fully succeeded by sinking a narrow ditch 
alongside of the wall and puddling it well with 
good clay, intermixed with a little coarse gravel. 
This method I would strongly recommend to all, 
whether in town or country ; for, a dry cellar is 
not less conducive to health than convenient for 
domestic purposes. 

My cellar is provided with windows for the 
admission of light and air, and with a fire-place 
to warm and dry the atmosphere when necessa- 
ry. In this cellar I have two wooden bins, four- 
teen feet long and seven feet wide, with a con- 
venient passage between ; the sides are four and 
a half feet in height, next the wall, from which 
they are distant three or four inches. The front, 
next the passage, is reduced to fourteen inches. 
The floors are made of plank and raised a few 
inches from the ground. The bottoms are strewed 
with well dried rye straw, and a coating of the 
same is interposed against the sides, as the bins 
are filled. I handle the potatoes one at a time, 
and commencing at the back part of the bin, 
place them on end, with the stems upwards, as 
they grew in the earth. This, from experience, 
I believe to be the best way of placing all vege- 
tables that it is intended to keep. The figure at 
the head of the paper will more clearly exhibit 
the position of the potatoes and the shape of the 
bin. By this means, openings are preserved 
from the top to the bottom, by which they are 
completely ventilated, whilst a sufficient warmth 
is created by the bulk to prevent their freezing. 

1 am careful to keep a good fire burning in 
the cellar, with the windows open, whilst I am 
sorting and packing, that I may drive off the 
dampness created hy the potatoes themselves. 
After the bank is completed, and begins to heat, 
I cast over the top a little sand, which soon be- 
comes dry from the heat of the bank, when 1 
move a broom lightly over the top, displacing 
the sand and causing it to fall into the bank. 
This is repeated three or four times, as the heat- 
ing may require, after which, I leave a thin 
coat on the top as a winter covering. 

I am aware that many who may read this 
article will come to the conclusion, that my me- 
thod of packing is difficult and tedious : the cor- 
rectness of which I am ready to admit, but the 
vegetable is delicious and valuable. I myself, 
however, can pack about a hundred bushels a 
day after they are prepared to my hand. I know 
of no other method by which they can be pre- 
served with as much certainty. 

I wmII mention for the benefit of those who 
may not have cellars suitable for keeping vege- 



tables, that I have succeeded remarkably well, 
by putting iheiTi in small parcels in a hill, out of 
doors, made in the following manner. 1 chose 
high ground for the location, and raised the plat 
of the hill a few inches above the surface by the 
use of a broad hoe. Upon this plat 1 laid corn- 
stalks, and upon them straw or pine beards, on 
which J. placed my potatoes, raising them in the 
shape of a sugar loaf, as steep as I could, then 
covered them over well with straw ; upon the 
straw I then placed corn-stalks, up and down, 
thick enough to prevent the pressure of the dirt 
upon the potatoes, and then I covered the whole 
with a light coating of earth ; after which, I set 
up planks around the hill to ward off the rain 
and prevent the dirt from cracking or washing. 
It so remained until the weather become cold, 
when I added as much earth as would secure 
the potatoes from freezing, and replaced the 
planks. In this manner I have kept them free 
from injtuy, but it should be borne in mind, that 
large parcels would be apt to spoil from the heat 
they themselves would generate. 
Your obedient servant, 

Joseph Bernard. 



FRUIT. 



The season for setting out young trees is ap- 
proaching, and we desire most earnestly to im- 
press upon the minds of southern farmers the 
advantages of a good orchard. We have in this 
vicinity nurseries of the most thrifty trees, of 
every variety. We know the proprietors of two 
at least, upon whose honesty the most implicit 
\ reliance may be placed. AVe shall be happy to 
attend, personally, for a small percentage, to any 
i orders that our friends ma}^ forv/ard. We hope 
I that they will not let the season pass wi;hout 
'obtaining a supply from some source. It may, 
undoubtedlj'-, with great advantage to health, be 
' substituted for more expensive food, both for man 
I and beast. Upon this subject we extract the 
following from an address delivered by Mr. I. 
1 Breck before the Westboro' Agricultural Society: 

" There can be no doubt in regard to the pro- 
! fit which may be derived from raising good fruit. 
I " The best policy is to have none but the very 
finest varieties of fruit on the place, such as will 
I find a ready sale at the best prices. The wind- 
, falls and unsound fruit should be fed to the swine 
j or converted into cider for vinegar. C'rchards 
may be set out expressly for the use of swine 
and other stock. We know of a number of 
fine, thrifty young orchards of sweet apples, set 
out by men who have long used them to great 
advantage for feeding their swine, and who con- 
sider a bushel of them equal to a bushel of po- 
I tatoes : they are valuable also for cows and 
, horses. 
I " One great advantage arising from the culti^ 



164 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



vation of fine fruit is, that a free use of it is fa- 
vorable 10 health. In the Annals of Horticul- 
ture, the advantages of it are set forth in the 
following language: 

" ' One of the best aliments and the best 
adapted to the different ages of life, is that 
which our fruit affords. They present to man 
a light nourishment, of easy digestion, and pro- 
duce a chyle admirably adapted to the functions I 
of the human body. Thoroughly ripe fruit eaten \ 
with bread, is perhaps the most mnocent of all ali- 1 
ments, and will even insure health and strength. ; 
" ' There are fruits which when perfectly ripe, 
can be eaten to excess, without inconvenience, 
such as grapes, cherries, and currants ; the other 
kinds never occasion dl consequences, if they are 
eaten only to satisfy the demands of nature.' | 
"As fiir as my own observation goes, 1 fully | 
agree with the above writer. For, not having 
had the taste vitiated by tobacco or ardent spirits,^ 
I have always retained the high relish for fruits, 
which seems to be inherent in our natures, and 
have habitually used it freely when it has been 
in my power to obtain it. When toiling in the 
sun in our warm summer days, I have found 
there was nothing so grateful or refreshing as 
fruit. A plate of strawberries, currants, cherries, 
or a melon, with a little bread and cheese, for a 
lunch, taken under a tree, fanned by the pure 
country air, is a luxury indeed ; and will be 
found more effectual in recruiting the exhausted 
frame and quenching the parching thirst, than 
any thing else that can be named, even were the 
whole list of aliments or stimulating drinks called 
over. With fruit, a very little drink, even of cold 
water will be found necessary. Flaving had an 
abundance of cherries for a number of years 
past, 1 have eaten them in their season almost 
to excess, and found that health was improved 
by the use. I have eat them in the morning as 
soon as 1 have risen and could get to the trees, 
and at all times of the day. I have frequently 
made my breakfast on bread and cherries, or 
strawberries, with a little milk or coffee, and 
found myself equally refreshed as if I had taken 
more substantial food ; and it is my candid opi- 
nion that if fruits were more generally raised, 
and formed a part of every meal, it would be 
found by all to be beneficial to health and at the 
same time a saving to the purse. A writer in 
the Medical and Surgical Journal says, ' That 
instead of standing in any fear of a generous 
consumption of ripe fruits, we regard them as 
positively conducive to health. The very mala- 
dies commonly assumed to have their origin in 
a free use of apples, cherries, melons, and wild 
fruit, have been quite as prevalent, if not equally 
destructive in seasons of scarcity. All natural- 
ists will testify to the importance of fruit seasons 
to the lower animals, particularly birds. When 
there is a failure or an insufficient supply, the 
feathered tribe are less musical, less numerous, 



and commence their migrations much earlier 
than when amply supplied with the delicate nu- 
trition designed for them at certain periods of the 
revolving year. 

" ' There are so many erroneous notions enter- 
tained of the bad effect of fruit, that it is quite 
time a counteracting impression should be pro- 
mulgated, having itsfoundation in common sense, 
and based on the common observation of the in- 
telligent. 

" ' We have no patience in reading the end- 
less rules to be observed in this department of 
physical comfort. No one, we imagine, ever 
lived longer or freer frorr. the paroxysms of dis- 
ease by discarding the delicious fruits of the 
land in which he finds a home. On the con- 
trary, they are necessary to the preservation of 
health, and therefore 'caused to make their ap- 
pearance at the very time when the condition of 
the body, operated upon by deteriorating causes, 
not always understood, requires their grateful 
renovating influence. Tj^ssot, in his advice to 
people upon their health, says : 'There is a per- 
nicious prejudice with v;hich all are too generallj^ 
imbued. It is, that fruits are injurious in the 
dysentery, and increases and produce it. There 
is not perhaps a more false prejudice. Bad fru its 
and those which have been imperfectly ripened 
in unfavorable seasons, may occasion cholics and 
sometimes diarrhoea, but never epidemic dysen- 
tery. Ripe fruits of all kinds, and especially 
those of summer, are the true preservatives 
against this malady.' He farther says, 'that 
whenever the dysentery has prevailed, I have 
eaten less animal food and more fruit. And I 
have never had the slightest attack. Several 
^ physicians have adopted the same regimen.' 
i "'I have seen eleven patients in the same 
house; nine were obedient and ate fruit ; they 
recovered. The grandmother and a child which 
she was partial to, died. She prescribed to the 
child burnt wine, oil, powerful aromatics, and 
forbade the use of fruit: it died. She followed 
the same course, and met the same fate.' 
{ " The strawberry is considered by many me- 
'dical men as a valuable medicine in many dis- 
eases ; particularly for putrid fevers and pulmo- 
nary consumption. A free use of strawberries, 
it is said, will both prevent and cure the rheu- 
matism. The celebrated Linnaeus cured himself 
of the gout by persevering in a regimen of straw- 
berries." 



FREE MARTIN. 

Our readers are aware that this term is ap- 
plied to the female twin of a cow when the other 
is a male. It has been universally received as 
a singular fact in natural history that in the case 
of such a twin production, although the male 
grows up to be a perfect and productive animal, 
the female is invariably barren, and medical 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



1G5 



writers have used many exertions to remove the 
prejudice which, reasoning from analogy, has 
sometimes unjustly attached lo members of the 
human family similarly related. An instance, 
probably the first upon record, has happened in 
this vicinity of a "free martin" being the mother 
of a calf The mother and offspring are both 
doing well, and she is probably destined to be 
the progenitor of a long line of descendants. We 
have this fact, which is worth}^ of record, from 
the owner of the cow, a gentleman of the high- 
est respectability, for whose verticity and parti- 
cularity we are ready to vouch. 



We invite particular attention to the following- com- 
munication. We hear on all hands that Mr. Turner 
has every thing connected with his stock in apple pie 
order, and we promise ourselves, as soon as our avoca- 
tions will permit, the pleasure of a visit to his piggery ; 
when, perhaps, we may be able to supply the deficiency 
indrawingof which he complains, and thereby treat our 
readers with a view of some of his " beauties." 

To the Editor of the Southern Planter. 

Dear Sir, — In pursuance of my plan, I now 
proceed to treat of the accommodations, which 
I conceive are best calculated to insure success 
in the rearing of the hog — for although the ani- 
mal of which I treat is a brule, and that brute a 
poor degraded hog, still I think oar own interest, 
is concerned, in providing for him comfortable 
accommodations. 

And here I will frankly state that I have been 
induced to pay considerable attention to this 
subject, from the fact that I have embarked in 
the rearing of the hog, as a matter of business 
and profit. After reading therefore all that I could 
command on this subject, and after reflecting 
much more, I ultimately fixed upon a plan, with 
which, upon trial, I am very well satisfied. In 
arranging my pens, I had two distinct objects in 
view — the first was the comfort of the tenants, 
and the second was, my own profit in keeping 
them. With these two objects in view then, I 
erected two lines of pens parallel to each oiher^ 
which of course formed a lane between them. 
This lane may be of any width that fancy dic- 
tates, but I find that 20 feet is wide enough. 
At one end is a gate communicating with one 
of the common highways through the farm — 
at the other end is another gate leading into the 
farm-pen, and thence into the woods. VV^hen 
the gates are shut I have a space completely 
enclosed 88 feet long and 20 wide. This place 
answers a great variety of valuable purposes. 
By keeping it constantly covered with litter, 
I here raise a considerable quantity of manure. 
It is at all times a play-ground for the pigs, 
and when thirty or forty, (as is often the case,) 
are sporting their mock fights, or indulging in 
their playful gambols, it presents a scene of very 
lively interest. I also use it, more or less every 



day, as a place of exercise for the larger hogs. 
Here also the cart passes along loaded with lit- 
ter, which is distributed to the right and left, and 
thus the pens are supplied with this very neces- 
sary article. In the same njanncr the manure 
is removed, when it has accumulated to a suffi- 
cient quantity. And here I will remark, that 
by frequently putting in fresh litter, and thereby 
removing the whole, as soon as it is converted 
into manure, there is never the least ofi"ensive 
smell issuing from the establishment. Lice and 
flics, and vermin of avery sort, are completely 
banished from the place, by frefjuently strewing 
small quantities of tobacco trash in the beds, 
and after answering this purpose, the tobacco 
makes the very best manure. 

But to return to the pens — each pen is fur- 
nished with a door opening into the lane, by 
which I let in and let out the hogs. And this I 
find a great convenience, for by it I avoid the 
vexatious trouble of catching and lifting them 
when I wish to change their position. My 
doors are all hung on hinges and fastened with 
an iron hook on the outside, but a sliding door 
to slip up and down will be cheaper and answer 
the purpose nearly as well. 

I have often regretted, that in the little edu- 
cation which it was my good fortune to receive, 
I was not instructed in the beautiful art of draw- 
ing. Were I competent to the task, I \vould 
with much pleasure present a sketch of my pig- 
gery. As however I have no talent in this way, 
I must content myself with a simple description. 

In constructing my pens, I used strong boards 
16 feet long. You will then conceive a square 
16 feet in diameter both ways. This is divided 
in one direction by a partition running the whole 
length of the square. We now have two pens 
each 1 6 feet long and 8 wide. These are again 
divided by another partition running in the con- 
trary direction so as to form two other smaller 
pens, the one, (which I call the outer) 10 feet by 
8 — the other (the inner) 8 by 6. Thus the whole 
original square is divided into four departments — 
two outer, each 10 by 8, and two inner, each 8 
by 6. Between the outer and the inner there 
is a hole about 2 feet square through which the 
hogs pass in and out at pleasure. The outer 
and larger pen is uncovered. Here I feed and 
water the hogs, and this is their workshop in 
making manure, here also they bask in the sun 
and otherwise enjoy themselves when the wea- 
ther is pleasant. The inner and smaller pen is 
covered with a roof sloping to the outside. 
Here the hogs retreat when the weather is cold 
or otherwise bad — this is also their chamber; 
' and here they find a shade when the sun shines 
' hot. I will observe further, that all the pens are 
furnished with a floor made of pine poles laid 
close together and covered with dirt, and in con- 
structing them I was careful that the floor should 
j slope to the lane, so that all the liquid of the 



166 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



pen is conveyed to the lane and there absorbed 
by the litter. 

My practice is when I wean the pigs (which 
ought not ordinarily to be done under two monihs 
old) to put about twelve in one of these pens and 
there they remain together until they become so 
large as to incommode each other whilst eating at 
the trough. Six are then removed to another pen, 
and this I find is about the proper number to 
keep together, I close my account of the pens, 
by stating that the whole establishment is wa- 
tered from a cistern, situated about midway of 
the lane, and this is supplied with water from a 
well at no great distance from it. 

These small pens, occupied by a small num- 
ber of hogs, have, as I think, a decided advan- 
tage over pens of larger dimensions. Every 
thing is here brought into a small and conve- 
nient compass. Your litter is concentrated, and 
therefore more speedily wrought into manure. 
The hogs are all divided according to age and 
condition. The sow with pig, and the sow 
suckling her pigs, are kept apart from the rest. 
The small and w^eak are put by themselves, and 
thus are not annoyed by the large and strong. 
You feed some more, and others less, according 
as they need it. And in one word every thing 
goes on with system, economy and comfort. 

Now go to a large pen and mark the differ- 
ence. There the boar and the sow, the full 
grown hog, and the suckling pig, and all the 
variety of grades between them occupy one 
common promiscuous place. In eating, the fat 
and strong get more than they need, whilst the 
poor and weak are stinted in that which is ab- 
solutely necessary for them. It follows there- 
fore, that whilst the fat become fatter, the poor 
will constantly decline and thus become poorer. 
Besides as these large pens are never floored nor 
covered, they become in wet weather intolerably 
filthy, not from manure which might be removed 
and turned to good account, but from the mud 
which is not worth removing. I have known 
hogs kept for several months and even fatted, in 
a large pen, from which no more manure was 
obtained, than I get, as I verily believe, from one 
of my small pens. 

I have now detailed my plan for accommo- 
dating my hogs, and I can say from experience, 
that thus far it works well. But were I in a 
different situation ; that is, were I further from 
market, I could adopt a plan, which 1 doubt not 
would work still belter. It is this — 1 would 
have just such fixtures as I have described 
above, but attached to them should be clover 
lots, or other lots well set in grass of some kind, 
with a stream of water passing through them. 
And then to complete the picture, I would have 
a grove of shady trees (a fruit orchard would 
be a most invaluable addition) to which the 
hogs might have access at pleasure. In the day 
(say from the first of May till late in the fall) 



I would suffer them to luxuriate on the grass 
j and fruit, or bathe and cool themselves in the 
water, or lie under the shade, just as they were 
inclined. In the evening after regaling them- 
selves all day, I would collect them in their lane, 
and thence distribute them, according to age 
and condition, in their respective pens. Nor let 
it be objected, that the hog cannot be reduced to 
^ this state of discipline. A little patience on the 
part of the hog-herd, and a few lessons given to 
his charge, will make the whole easy. John 
Taylor, of Arator memory, has said in one of 
I his essays that " pigs are as tractable as pup- 
pies." When I first read this, I really thought 
that this pioneer of improved farming was jest- 
j ing. But a further acquaintance with the sub- 
ject of my essays, has convinced me that there 
is much propriety in the remark. Every morn- 
ing, before leaving their pens, and every evening 
after returning to them, I would give the hogs 
a plentiful feed of such things as I could com- 
j mand, of which, corn in some form, should as 
j often as possible, form a considerable part. I 
think it of great consequence, that the hogs 
I should be regularlj^ herded in their pens every 
, night. Several important objects will be found 
to result from it. 1'hey will thus be rendered 
j more quiet and tractable; and above all, they 
will thus contribute largely to the stores of ma- 
nure, which are of so much value to the farmer. 
They will thus also be maintained continually 
] in a good thriving condition. The young will 
' grow rapidly, and the older will be found to have 
I made great progress towards becoming fat ; so 
I that comparatively little corn will be needed to 
complete this important but usually expensive 
process. The remainder of the year, that is 
during the inclement season, I would confine 
them, closely to their pens, merely allowing 
them the indulgence of occasional exercise for 
the sake of their health. 

Now contrast what I have said with the mode 
in which hogs are usually treated. In summer 
no food whatever is given to them, nor have 
they vexy frequently an}^ pasture of any kind, 
but are turned out to pick up what precarious 
subsistence they can find. Can it be wondered 
at then, that thej^ are the thievish wretches we 
often find them to be ? In winter they fare 
still worse. With food enough barely to keep 
soul and body together, without shelter, without 
comforts of any kind, they drag on a miserable 
existence, mere objects of loathing to the owner 
and terror to the neighborhood. But I am 
making my paper too long for practical pur- 
poses, I will therefore stop. In my next I pro- 
pose to consider the profit of the hog. 



Yours, &c. 



J. H. Turner. 



HORSE SHOEING. 
My Dear Sir, — I observed in the last Planter 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



167 



an article upon horse shoes, that puts ine in 
mind of a circumstance from which I derived a 
good deal of benefii, and which I will relate for 
the good of 3^0 ur readers. 

I happened, several years ago, to be at the 
blacksmith shop where I get my work done,when 
an old gentleman of the neighborhood rode up, 
accompanied by a negro man with several horses, 
who wanted shoeing. The smith had been very 
lately introduced into the neighborhood and had 
great reputation. I offered to defer to the old 
gentleman, although he was the last comer, but 
he was too managing for that ; he insisted upon 
it that I should have my horse shod while he 
looked on. Accordingly, the smith proceeded 
with his operations. The old man seemed to 
be pretty well satisfied, until the smith, having 
fitted the shoe and driven the first nail, began to 
twist the end off. This he protested against, 
and by ocular demonstration, showed the diffe- 
rence between wringing the nail off and break- 
ing it by bending backwards and forwards. In 
the former case, the part of the nail in the hoof 
is twisted, and a round hole is cut, which is filled 
only with its own dust: no wonder the nail in 
such a hole would soon work loose. Moreover, 
in twisting the nail, the corner edge is frequently 
presented to the hoof, and does not clinch half 
as well. From that time to this, I have never 
permitted my sniith to " wring a nail," and I as- 
sure you I have found my profit in it. 

This to be sure is a small matter, but there is 
not one smith in fifty who is not guilt}^ of the 
error here exposed ; and small errors are some- 
times productive of serious evils, especially, as 
we all have heard, in the matter of a horse shoe. 



Yours, 



H. T. 



From the Kentucky Farmer. 

HORSE DISTEMPER. 

It is an inflammatory disease, and shows it- 
self in young horses b)^ the want of appetite, 
the dull, languid look of the animal, his cough, 
and then a running at the nose. This disorder 
always affects the head more or less ; it is dis- 
tinguished into the false or genuine, and the ma- 
lignant ; the first is less a disorder than a puri- 
fying of the humors, necessary to all young 
horses. When the running of the nostrils is not 
abundant, a tumor is formed under the lower 
jaw that opens, sooner or later, and discharges a 
great quantity of matter. That is the genuine 
or benign distemper ; the false or malignant is 
derived from the first, when it has not been well 
cured, and re-appears, and is a malady of the 
same kind, with the same symptoms. If it is 
not cm-ed thoroughly, it turns infallibly into the 
glanders, very seldom cured, and devotes the 
animal to a certain death. The malignant dis- 
temper is accompanied with a high fever, a 
swelling of the head, hard breathing ; and the 



running at the nose is so thick that it comes 
with diiTiculty ; the animal must immediately 
be bled, in order to abate the inflammation. The 
nostrils must be injected with mullen or flax-seed 
tea, or both combined ; it prevents the ulceration 
of the inside of the nose, and facilitates the 
running of the matter, particularly if a fumiga- 
tion is added to the above. It is made in the 
following manner; boil oats in the mulkn lea, 
or flax seed, or bran, or any other substance 
which, when thick enough, retains long a sufli- 
cient degree of heat ; put a small quantity of 
this wash into a bag two and a half feet long, 
and large enough to admit part of the horse's 
head ; a thong of leather or rope fastened to the 
bag goes over the head like a headstall. The 
wash must not be too hot as the horse could not 
bear the steam ; much less too cold, or it would 
have no effect. When, after a certain time, it 
is partly cooled, take off the bag, and begin of- 
ten the same operation again during the day, ob- 
serving to take the bag off to let the horse snort 
out the matter, if he is so inclined, and put it on 
again if still warm enough. 

If the tumor under the lower jaw opens of 
itself. It should be rubbed with the following 
ointment: beat one or two yellows of eggs with 
spirits of turpentine, and put some of it on a 
bunch of tow, held fast by a sort of covering or 
bandage to keep the cold from the sore; it is ne- 
cessary to observe that any open sore or wound 
should be covered to exclude the external air 
and all kinds of msects. This dressing must be 
done every day exactly. When the horse is 
cured, he must be purged once or twice, in or- 
der to carry off the remains of any venemous 
matter. Care must be taken to water the horse 
out of a bucket, if during his sickness he could 
not stoop his head to drink as usual ; as he is 
feverish, the want of water would increase his 
sickness and his sufferings. During the horse's 
sickness, he must be dieted in the following 
manner: cut straw and bran ; his drink, mullen 
or flax-seed tea, with a handful of bran, sorrie- 
times a little salt given milk warm. If the 
weather be cold, a sick horse ought to be cover- 
ed, if possible, or at least sheltered from the cold. 

Grass-founder or melted fat is an inflamma- 
tion of the inner soft membrane of the bowels, 
lined with a mucous substance that lubricates 
them in that disease, and looks like melted fat ; 
it is most common in summer after too much fa- 
tigue and over feeding, or too strong a physic. 
It is the dysentery of horses ; the animal dungs 
with effort, and the excretions are mixed or co- 
vered with a sort of jelly, and sometimes slight- 
ly bloody; the animal is very thirsty, looks to- 
wards his sides, which beat violent 1}^ ; loses his 
appetite, grows poor, and may lose his life if not 
cured in time. As soon as the disorder is known, 
the best remedy is injections of mullen, bran, or 
flax-seed ; very little hay, no grain. Bran and 



168 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



water, injections and drinks of slippery elm, if 
the first injection could not bo procured. Boiled 
barley, mixed with honey in small quantity, 
makes a cooling diet and is used with success. 
I am, with esteem, yours, 

M. Mentelle. 



MANGE IN DOGS. 

The tollowing- recipe comes from an old sportsman, 
one well skilled in all that pertains to horse and hound. 

My Dear Sir, — A love of that faithful ani- 
mal, the dog, induces me to send you the fol- 
lowing remedy for the mange or scratches, as it 
is sometimes called, a disease with which he is 
very often grievously afflicted. 

Give 50 grains of arsenic twice a week ; mix 
equal quantities of red precipitate and venice 
turpentine in hogs lard, with which he should 



improvements are lost to the world, barely for 
the want of publicity. Oihers may have dried 
the tomatoes wiih a recipe, however, less suc- 
cessful. Very respectfully, 

H. L. Ellsworth. 
Hon. J. S. Skinner. 

Take six pounds of sugar to one peck (or 16 
lbs.) of the fruit. Scald and remove the skin of 
the fruit in the usual way. Cook them over a 
fire, their own juice being sufficient, without the 
addition of water, until the sugar penetrates, 
and they are clarified. They are i hen taken out, 
spread on dishes, flattened and dried in the sun. 
A small quantity of the syrup should be occa- 
sionally sprinkled over them whilst drying; after 
which, pack them down in boxes, treating each 
layer with powdered sugar. The syrup is after- 
wards concentrated and bottled for use. They 

be anointed two or three times a week. Repeat | ^.^^P '''f .^^'^"^ y^^' '^. l^^'^ ^''^ '^'^^^ ^^/P^-i- 
the arsenic and the ointment, takin- care to rub N'"^'^^ '\^'' flavor, which is nearly that of the 
the latter in well, until the do- is cured. This , best quality of fresh figs. The pear-shaped or 

r single tomatoes answers the purpose best. Or- 
dinary brown sugar may be used, a large por- 



will be evidenced by the healthy appearance 
his coat, and the increased liveliness of the ani- 
mal. It will generally be effected in two or 
three weeks. I have after much practice found 



it infallible. 



Yours, 



Joshua Goode. 



POTATOES. 

Mr. Albert Hobson, of Henrico, called on us 
to state, that, last spring he planted two parcels 
of potatoes under exactly similar circumstances, 
except, that one was several inches deeper than 
the other — the shallower being about 4 inches 
deep. He found the deep planted to stand the 
drought, and turn out in every respect, much 
better than the others. 



tion of which is retained in the syrup. 



The following' recipe has been going- the rounds, and 
as the season for this valuable fruit is not yet over, v^^e 
copy it from the American Farmer either to be used 
now or remembered for another year. 

TOMATO FIGS. 

Patent Office, July 10, 1841. 

Dear Sir, — The medicinal qualities of toma- 
toes have greatly increased their cultivation, and 
every new preparation of the article is deserving 
consideration. A sample of "tomato figs" have 
just been deposited at the Patent Office of a very 
superior qualit3^ From the taste, I should sup- 
pose all the good qualities of the fruit are re- 
tained. In appearance the drum of tomatoes 
resembles one of figs so nearl}'', that they might 
be easily mistaken for the same. 

The sample is deposited by Mrs. Steiger, of 
this city, and the recipe transmitted with it is 
enclosed for publication. It is deeply to be re- 
gretted, that since the periodicals of the day are 
open to communications, that so many valuable 



PRISON LABOR. 

We see that the New York mechanics are 
stirring upon the grievance they sustain in the 
application of convict labor to mechanic arts. 
This has been a subject of loud complaint in 
this metropolis. The subject is the more inte- 
resting to our agricultural community, because 
the convicts in our Penitentiarj'- are devoted 
chiefly to the production of agricultural imple- 
ments. 

Two grounds of complaint are urged by the 
mechanics. First it is contended that the honest 
and industrious citizen is driven out of the mar- 
ket by the cheaper labor of the worthless convict, 
and, secondly, that their profession is degraded 
and corrupted by forcing into it the lees of so- 
ciety. 

The first objection would seem to enure to the 
advantage of the agricultural community. The 
mechanic can only be driven out by means of 
cheaper labor, and of this cheaper labor, the 
farmer, here at least, gets the benefit. I'his, 
however, is a pecuniary view, and if the far- 
mers of Virginia thought that this system 
benefitted their pockets only at the expense 
of the morality and independence of their bro- 
thers, the mechanics, we do not hesitate to 
say for them, that they would spurn it indig- 
nantly. But are they benefitted ? "VVe think 
that, upon closer examination, it will appear 
that their interests are materially injured, and 
that they should wage common war on this 
subject with the mechanical profession. What 
is the effect of a system, which enables the 
slate, by means of convict labor, to come into 
successful competition with the laborious arti- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



169 



san? It is to remove hiin beyond the baleful 
inliuence of the system, and to bnild up a mo- 
nopoly within it. Fair competition, which en- 
genders skill, iugenuiiy, and activity, is lost, and 
in these arts a stationary if not retrograde posi- 
tion is produced. The quick-sighted, vigorous 
and sharp-witted artificer is exchanged for the 
inert, listless, and unpractised convict. From 
the changeable nature of the labor too, which 
generally is retained too short a time to become 
perfect, the workmanship is that of unwilling 
apprentices, and with such, the communit}^ must 
be satisfied. These facts we know are fully ex- 
emplified in our own community. There are 
one or two mechanical trades, especially that of 
wheelwrights, that has been almost driven from 
our city. Our metropolis, which should be the 
focus of the arts, can hardly furnish a road 
wagon, except such an one as may be found at 
the store-house of the Penitentiary. The con- 
sequence is, that our farmers sutfer for many 
improvements in hubs, axles, &c., known and 
used to the north, and are compelled to drag the 
heavy, cumbrous, and unimproved vehicle that 
killed up the horses of their forefathers. We do 
not mean to underrate the work of our own in- 
stitution. We believe that none could he in 
better hands, and are sure that the people of the 
Commonwealth are highly indebted to the ener- 
gy and management of its worthy and ingenious 
superintendant. We only mention these facts 
as inherent difficulties of the system, as it at 
present exists. But this difficulty is easily re- 
medied and we maintain that the remedy is 
loudly called for by both the mechanical and 
agricultural interests. Let the Legislature, at 
its next session, fix a scale of prices at which 
articles manufactured at the Penitentiary shall 
be sold, without regard to the cost of production : 
and let those prices be such as will afford a profit 
lo the out-door manufacturent equivalent to the 
ordinary profits of mechanical pursuits. And if 
the institution be brought in debt, be it so — better 
that the State bear the whole expense, than that 
the great mechanical or agricultural interest of 
the country suffer the least jot or tittle of injury. 
The second objection, viz. the swelling the 
ranks of any particular profession with the con- 
victs of the country, is one of much greater dif- 
ficulty. We respect the feeling which induces 
the mechanic to spurn the imputai ion thus thrown 
upon his caste, and to scorn the alliance thus 
forced upon him. But these convict gentry must 
be made to work, and they must have given 
them the means of making an honest livelihood, 
for the want of which, perhaps, they were led 
into temptation. Now, if their occupations should 
be changed, any other branch of industry would 
have the same right of complaint, and we should 
be driven either to abandon the sj^stem of labor, 
or tolerate the evil complained of. 



Vol. 1—20 



EVERLASTING PEA. 

In the course of conversation, a few days since, 
Gen. Overton, of Louisiana, formerly of Virgi- 
nia, informed us, that he thought a pea, culti- 
vated in his State, would be a great acquisition 
to this country. He says it is called the ever- 
lasting pea, that the vine is so luxuriant that it 
frequently runs lo twenty feet, and the pea so 
hardy, that it will lie either on, or under, the 
ground for the whole v; inter without rotting, thus 
affording a continued and most luxuriant pas- 
turage. Its fertilizing properties are such, that 
two crops turned in are found to make the land 
too rich for the cultivation of cotton, anil one, 
even after it has been pastured, is sufficient to 
restore the original fertility after the cultivation 
of the most exhausting crop. 

We should be extremely obliged to any of our 
subscribers in Louisiana, who will contrive ug a 
few of the seed of this valuable plant. 



For the Southern Planter. 
RYE. 

Mr. Ediioj'j — How very fond of novelties we 
are, and how apt to neglect things, with which 
we have grown familiar, for others that are pre- 
sented under the imposing recommendation of 
being neio. For many years I have never failed 
tocultivate a crop of rye, and I haveoften thought, 
if I could only give this old fashioned article a 
new name, with half ihe recommendations to 
which it is entitled, that I could sell the seed for 
three dollars a bushel, or, possibly, for five dol- 
lars a head. Suppose I w^ere to advertise it as 
a new variety of gi'ain, called " Siberian rye," 
which yielded a great product on poor land, its 
straw the most nutritious ever used, and its grain 
one of the very best articles for horse feed, and 
invaluable in raising pigs — "price five dollars a 
bushel." Wouldn't I make a fortune before it 
was discovered that it was an old thing with all 
the properties described ? I have heard some 
object to it that their horses would not eat it. It 
is true, that horses greatly prefer it ground and 
mixed. I have owned a variety of horses since 
I commenced using it, but I have never found 
one that refused a mess of rye straw cut and 
well mixed with rye meal. My own opinion is 
that those crops that perfect their seed, although 
they require more labor, and are more exhaust- 
ing, are more profitable too. The grain obtained 
will always afford the means of restoring more 
than it takes away. Therefore, I prefer rye and 
oats, as crops, to hay and clover. "Alanure 
highly, and crop closely" is my system. 

Yours, Arator. 



OATS. 

The Editor of the Farmers' Visitor records 
the fact that during a severe drought this spring 



170 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



he made twelve tons or three hundred bushels of 
oats from four acres, which he ascribes princi- 
pally to their being thinly seeded. He says : 

"Land which yielded less than half a ton of 
hay to the acre in the summer of 1839, was 
ploughed np in the sward about the 20th of 
May, 1840 — about forty loads of manure were 
spread to the acre ; a portion of it was turned 
under the sod — a portion was ploughed in to the 
depth of four inches, and a portion was simply 
harrowed under; and the land produced a very 
decent crop of Indian corn and potatoes. The 
original sod was hardly disturbed either in the 
last year's cultivation or the ploughing of the 
present spring. The land was simply ploughed 
once the present spring, and six bushels only of 
oats sowed upon four acres. The oais came up 
so thin that several persons pronoimced there 
would be nothing of them early in June: they 
branched and spread in the course of the sumujer 
so that they were as heavy upon the ground as 
if double the quantity had been sowed. Some 
of them were five feet in height, and the straws 
of the size of pipe stems. The whole piece, 
with the exception of the tramping and rolling 
over in some spots by three unruly boys upon 
the Sabbath, stood np well — much better and 
stronger than it would have done had the blades 
been more numerous." 



THE EFFECT OF UNDER DRAINING. 

There is a field on the estate of the Earl of 
Leicester, at Longford, in this county, which 
some years ago was occupied by Mr. John Sher- 
ratt, and brought forth rushes in such abundance, 
that the occupier gave leave to any body to carry 
them away who would be at the trouble to mow 
them. Three 3^ears ago the field was drained, 
under the direction of Mr. T. Harper, of Foston ; 
and this year, we are told, the present occupier, 
Mr. T Robinson, has cut three tons an acre of 
as nice herbage as ever grew. 

Derbyshire Chronicle. 



ASPARAGUS. 

The New^ Genesee Farmer gives the follow- 
ing method of cultivating this popular vegetable : 

"An observant neighbor proposed to us, the 
other day, to recommend plantmg asparagus in 
a single row, each plant two feet apart ; in beds, 
the plants crowd each other, and as if surrounded 
by weeds, send up more slender stems. These 
remarks agreed entirely with our own observa- 
tions ; for though we have been at the expense 
of mnking deep beds of the best materials, our 
finest asparagus grows in common soil where 
the seed was accidentally dropped. In beds it 
is difficult to remove such seedlings as spring 
up, without injuring the roots of the older plants^; 



but from a row this may be easily done ; and all 
plants that intrude on them should be treated as 
weeds. 

" To raise the plants : separate the seeds from 
the berries, and sow ihem in a bed late in thefall^ 
(not in the spring) covering them with fine earth 
half an inch deep. If put in rov/s, so that the 
hoe can pass between them the next season, they 
may be kept clear of weeds more conveniently ; 
and when one year old, if they have had plenty 
of room, they may be transplanted. One long 
row may be the best. And be careful that not 
more than one plant is set in a place. 

"The cropping that asparagus endures, is very 
severe ; and it seems reasonable that the plants 
should be strengthened by the growth of three 
years before they are molested. To cover the 
stools in the fall with stable manure, and to rake 
off the coarser parts in the spring, is an old and 
excellent practice : it protects them from the frost 
of winter and manures them at the same time. 
Strewing salt over them liberallj^ in the spring, 
also adds to their vigor. In a few years, an as- 
paragus plant, neither crowded on by others nor 
over-cropped, will form a stool from twelve to 
eighteen inches across." 



The lovers of sweet flowers may derive ad- 
vantage from the knowledge, that sandy or gra- 
velly soils promote the secretion of aroma. Those 
flowers of the richest perfume, are natives of 
sandy lands, Persia, Arabia, &c. and those in 
pots should, therefore, be supplied with a portion 
of sand or gravel. — Western Farmer. 



PEACH TREE BORERS. 

Our readers will remember to look to the roots 
of their trees at this season for eggs and young 
worms which are preparing to make their entry. 
Boiling water, strong ashes, lie, or lime, applied 
to the bod}^ near the root, will destroy all that 
have been there deposited during summer; and 
we ma}^ trust to Providence to convert all the 
old worms in the tree to batches of flies, in which 
state they do no harm to the trees. 

Boston Cultivator. 



CORN STALKS. 

A correspondent in the S. C. Advocate writes as fol- 
lows: 

"JVfr. Editor^ — I have often wondered, that 
farmers have not more generally adopted the 
plan of using corn stalks, after the fodder is ga- 
thered, as foo<] for horses, mules, and hogs. I 
have followed the practice for many years, and 
aiPi convinced that it has effected a saving of not 
less than a hundred bushels of corn annually. 
And yet I am persuaded, that if I could get my 
overseers to attend m.ore particularly to my di- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



171 



rections, that I could save double what has been 
done. The on\y danger in their use with horses 
or mules, is the tendency to produce colic or lax- 
ness, which may be easily prevented by brining 
the stalks after being chopped up, and mix oats 
or some other dry food with them. But in feed- 
ing hogs with them, no precautions are necssa- 
ry. It is well known that corn stalks, when 
near maturity, especially if grown upon manured 
lands, contain a considerable portion of saccha- 
rine matter, the property which renders the su- 
gar beet so valuable as a food for cattle; and it 
is supposed that molasses will fatten hogs faster 
than any other food ; and hence it may be ac- 
counted, why the corn stalk proves to be a va- 
luable food. It is, however, not useful for this 
purpose, until about the time the fodder is ripe, 
and then, not longer than until about the time 
the stalk begins to become dry. Yet, as plant- 
ers generally cultivate fields, or lots of different 
ages, they may always have a supply for the 
months of August and September. 

" My plan for using the green corn stalks for 
horses or mules, is to cut down the corn stalks 
even with the ground, and chop stalk and ear 
about two inches long, with a hatchet, upon a 
block of wood, brine them, and throw them in | 
one part of the trough, and chopped oats in an- i 
other part, and to keep a constant supply of the | 
green corn stalk by the horse or mule. U they | 
are worked, to give them a little old corn at 12 | 
o'clock. This plan will keep a horse, not worked j 
hard, fatter than old corn and fodder. I estimate j 
a stalk of corn, with its ear made upon manured | 
land, equal to three ears without the stalk : and, 
if the summer is dry when produced, to four or 
five ears ; because, when the ear is injured by 
drought, the stalk is always more saccharine 
and nutritious. 

" To feed hogs, it is sufficient to cut stalk and 
ear after the fodder is pulled, and throw them 
over the fence whole, and let them eat them at 
leisure. One stalk each day in a crab-grass 
field, if the stalk is from manured land, will keep 
an old hog fat, if the stalk is in its juicy sac- 
charine state." 



Our attention has just been broug-ht to the following- 
in the July nunnber of the Farmers' Cabinet: 

CURING OF BACON. 

The Editor of the Southern Planter says, in 
his number for May, that everybody in Virginia 
knows how to make good bacon, and if any of 
his northern friends will cross the Potomac, he 
will satisfy them that the art is confined to the 
south. What a happy law of our nature it is, 
that we are all pretty sure to be endowed with 
enough of self-complacency to make us con- 
tented with our own ways! But did the 'Planter' 
ever cross the Delaware — did he ever eat of a 
real Jersey ham, fed, cured, and cooked in old 



Gloucester? Why there is as much difference 
between the rich delicacy of its taste and flavor 
and those of a Virginia ham, as there is between 
veal cutlet and fried sturgeon — between a young 
capon and a five year old rooster ! Did he ever 
taste real Jersey pur/c ? We do not go the whole 
hog here, in relation to bacon, as they do down 
south ; they smoke all — we cure the side differ- 
ently from the ham, shoulder, and jowl ; these 
we smoke, the side we eat as pork. I remember 
being once very seriously asked, if it was true 
that we Jerseymen ate a part of our swine's 
flesh without smoking? and the answer was 
received with incredulity ! But this is a digres- 
sion, 

I started to give friend Botts, through the Ca- 
binet, the Jersey mode of curing hams; and if 
it is once properly tried, he may lay that of his 
correspondent ' D.' quietly oi} the shelf; but as 
' D.'s' recipe will accompany this, the readers of 
the Cabinet can choose between them. The 
Jersey mode is, to every 80 lbs. of haius, take 4 
ounces brown sugar, 3 ounces saltpetre, and one 
pint of fine salt ; pulverize and mix them tho- 
roughly ; .rub the hams well, and lay them on 
boards for 36 or 48 hours ; then pack them in 
casks, adding two quarts fine salt to every 80 
lbs. of hams. In 15 days they may be hung 
up to smoke. 

The Virginia mode is, " Put to each joint a 
large tea-spoonful of saltpetre ; rub each piece 
well with salt on both sides, and pack them away 
in a hogshead with holes at the bottom, to let 
off the brine ; let them remain for five or six 
weeks; then take out, brush off the salt, rub 
well with hickory ashes, and hang each piece 
in the smoke-boi:ise so as not to touch each other. 
Smoke eight or ten daj^s, successively, and oc- 
casionally in damp weather ; use small chips, 
but avoid pine." In my opinion, small chips of 
green hickory or apple-trees, form the best ma- 
terial for smoking; and the best mode of keep- 
ing through summer is to tie up in bags with a 
little hay on the flesh side, suspending them out 
of the way of rats and mice. 

If the ' Planter' would come over about new- 
year's, we should be able to show him some 
real Jersey hogs — like those thirty which were 
slaughtered last year at the Burlington County 
almshouse, averaging over 4( lbs. each ; or 
those of which Homer Eachus speaks in the 
number of the Cabinet for May, one Aveighing 
9665 lbs. after being neatly butchered, and the 
three averaging 925 lbs. which, although not 
exactly what we are in the habit of calling 
" lovely creatures," yet well deserve this special 
notice. T, Z. 

We have heard and seen a g-ood deal of the assurance 
of mankind, but tliat anyone could be found with ef- 
frontery enoug-h to deny the supremacy of a Virginia 
ham, we had never dreamed ; and then to oppose to its 
delicate pretensions the gwes properties of greasy 



172 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Jersey Pork, faugh! '"The oftence is rank." But "'an 
ounce of fact is worth a pound of assertion." If this 
unlinown T. Z, has a name, he has a palate also. Now 
if he will g-ive us the one, we will tickle the other with 
a ham of our correspondent's curing, that shall induce 
him to abjure fat Jersey Pork for the balance of his 
life. Thus the creation of anew desire, which he will 
not be always able to gratify, shall be his punishment 
for tlie treasonable doubts he has dared to express. 



With great pleasure we comply with the request of 
the Hanover Agricultural Society to give circulation 
to the following report of their proceedings with respect 
to their spring exhibition. We hope to have the 
pleasure of recording many similar ones in other parts 
of the state before the period arrives. 

HANOVER SPRING FAIR. 

At a meeting of the Hanover Agricultural 
Association held at Negrofoot, on the 12ih of 
August, 1842, the meeting having been called 
to order by the President, the Executive Conn- 
mittee reported the following schedule of pre- 
miums which was adopted. 

PREMIUMS; 



^or 


the best Saddle Horse, 




$5 00 


(( 


(C 


Span of Farm H 


orses, 


5 00 


u 


a 


Brood Mare, 




5 00 


l(. 


u 


Colt 2 years old, 




2 50 


u 


(1 


Filly do. do. 




2 50 


(( 


" 


Bull, 




5 00 


(( 


« 


Milch Cow, 




5 00 


(( 


(C 


Yoke of Oxen, 




5 00 


C( 


(( 


Boar, 




5 00 


(C 


(( 


Sow and Pigs, 




6 00 


(( 


a 


Buck, 




6 00 


(( 


(( 


Lot of 6 Ewes, 




5 00 


u 


(( 


Domestic Carpet 
than 25 yards. 


not less 


5 00 



" Domestic Sewing Silk not 

less than 1 lb. 2 50 

" Domestic Cloth not less 

than 7 yards, 2 50 
" Domestic Counterpane, 2 50 

" Do. Silk Hose, 2 50 

" Do. Flannel, not less 

than 7 yards, 2 50 

" Blotter not' less than 5 lbs., 2 50 

Jack, 5 00 

" Pair of Mules, 5 00 

" Plough, 3 00 

" Wheat Fan, 5 00 



Churn, 



2 00 



2. Every competitor for any premium, shall 
file with some member of the Executive Com- 
mittee, his intention of competing for any pre- 
mium, at least sixty days before the lime of ex- 
hibition ; and those who enter for the different 
stock premiums, shall at the same tmne furnish 
the pedigree and age of the animal, as far as 
practicable, with a schedule of its keep, and all 
other particulars calculated to afford any know- 
ledge interesting or beneficial to the Society. 

3. The different Committees in awarding pre- 
miums, shall take into consideration the age, 
keep, form and size of the different animals en- 
tered for premiunris, and award the premiums to 
those which are best, relatively considered. 

4. Should the Committee or any of them 
deem the slock or articles entered for a premium 
unworth}^ of a premium, it may be withheld. 

On motion, the Committees for awarding pre- 
naiums were chosen as follows: 

Committee on Cattle — N. Cross, W. D, Wins- 
ton, Edwin Snead. 

Committee on Horses and JMiiles— George N, 
Clough, Wm. L. White, Boling Vaughn. 

Committee on Siuine — Moses Harris, Carter 
Berkeley, Jas. T. SiUton. 

Committee on Sheep — R. B. Hendrake, Edw. 
Sydnor, Albert S. Jones. 

Committee on Dom. Fabrics — Jos. Tally, Jas. 
Winston, H. M. Wmgfield. 

Committee on Farm Implements — Jno. Haw, 
Jos. Hooper, Chas. Vest. 

Committee on Products of the Dairy — C. B. 
Jones, Thos. H. Godwin, Wm. H. Howard. 

Committee on Essays — Edmund F. Wickam, 
Jno. D. G. Brown, Edm. Crenshaw. 

Committee on Wine — Wm. Carter, Jno. P. 
Harrison, Roscoe Lipscomb. 

On motion, Resolved^ That Jesse Winn, Hen- 
ry Robinson, Richard F. Darracott, Wm. H. 
Howard, Jas. T. Sutton, C. W. Dabney and 
Jno. D G. Brown, act as Delegates from this 
Association to the Henrico Agricultural Fair, to 
be held the 20th October next. 

On motion, the meeting adjourned to meet 
again on the 28th day of September next, at 
Hanover Court House, court day, at 11 o'clock, 
to consider matters interesting to the Society, 
and especially to fix on the place of holding the 
Fan- next spring. 

Richard F. D.\rracott, Sechj. 



" " Specimen of domesticWJne, 

1 gal, 2 50 

" " Essay on Root Culture, 5 00 
" " Essay on Making, Preserv- 
ing and Applying Manures, 5 00. 
The Committee further reported the following 
rules which were agreed to. 

1. No one but a member of the Society or 
iheir household shall be allowed to contend for 
any premium. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 
THE TARE CULTURE. 

At a late meeting of the Philadelphia Agri- 
cultural Socieiy, a member inquired if any one 
present could speak experimentally on the cul- 
ture and value of the tare or vetch, which is in 
such very general use in England, where the 
summers-oiling system is adopted j remarking, 
that from all accounts the plant must be aston- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



173 



ishingly productive as well as nutritious. Hav- 
ing myself employed it for that purpose very 
largely, and for many years, I would say, its 
productiveness has never yet been overstated, or 
its value overrated, as food for all kinds of cattle. 
Horses, milk cows, fatting beasts, sheep, and 
hogs, will grow fat while feeding on it, and the 
older it grows the more valuable it becomes, as 
the seed when formed in the pod, is far superior 
to oats or SLny other grain for the purpose of cat- 
tle feed ; the seeds are black, and the size of very 
small peas. The crop is used for soiling by 
cutting while green and taking it to the stables ; 
it is sometimes fed off by sheep, confining them 
on it by means of a temporary fencing or hur- 
dles ; cattle are not liable to become hoven 
while feeding it in any stale of its growth; on 
good land it has been known to reach the height 
of three feet and even more, producing as much 
as twelve tons of green food per acre, which, 
when well dried, will yield three tons of the most 
valuable hay on the farm. The first sowing 
takes place as soon after harvest as possible in 
England, upon land designed for the wheat crop 
the next autumn, with the winter variety of seed, 
which can easily be distinguished from the sum- 
mer tare, as it is smaller, rounder, and blacker; 
these will bear the severity of the winter ; rye 
is often mixed to enable the crop to stand up, 
when it attains a considerable height, but a 
sprinkling of wheat has been found best for this 
purpose, as it remains longer succulent in the 
summer. The crop from this sowmg will be fit 
for cutting for soiling in May, and the stalks if 
left in the ground will afford a second growth 
for sheep feed ; but as the tare is a fallow crop, 
it is the best management to cut all off and 
plough the land deep as soon as the crop is re- 
moved, well working it and cleaning it during 
the summer, preparatory to wheat sowing, early 
in the autumn, after a dressing of well prepared 
compost, if this has not been given to the tares — 
a far better arrangement for both crops. The 
next sow^ing is with the summer variety of the 
tare, as early in March as the season will admit, 
on land that has been ploughed preparatory in 
the autumn or winter; again in April another 
crop is sown, and, if ^necessarj^, two other sow- 
ings might take place, the last so late as the end 
of Jime, that so a succession of this most va- 
luable crop might be secured for the >hole of 
the summer, and until the end of September. 
Such crops produce im.mense quantities of ma- 
nure, which is carried from the sheds and com- 
posted for dressing others ; turnips, for instance, 
which may be sown on the land from which the 
first crop of tares had been carried, and fed off 
in time for wheat sowing in the autumn. It 
must not be forgotten that the richer the land, 
the greater will be the crop of tares, and none 
will pay so amplj' for manure; but when the 
crop is very heavy, there is less chance of ob- 



taining good seed, and if that be the object, it is 
recommended to mow the first crop early for 
soiling, and permit the second growth to stand 
for seed, which is sometimes a precarious busi- 
ness, nothing being more uncertain ; I have pur- 
chased seed at a guinea and a half a bushel, 
and sold the next years produce obtained from 
it at six shillmgs a bushel! When the price of 
seed is moderate, the quantity sown is two 
bushels or two and a half per acre, but what- 
ever the price may be, it will be repaid in the 
crop, if the land be in good heart. As much as 
thirt}^ bushels of seed per acre has been obtained, 
but fifteen bushels, and often half that, is more 
common. Under a heavy crop of tares, the land 
will be found perfectly clean and mellow, and 
will turn up like an ash heap: and there is no 
question wi'h me, that the crop may be raised 
with success in this country, if well cultivated 
on good land, rather stiff in its nature, and lying 
cool. 

With regard to the value of the tare for soil- 
ing, it had been calculated that ten tim.es more 
stock might be kept on them than on an}^ other 
commonly cultivated crop; horses require no 
corn or any other food, and cows give more but- 
ter while feeding on them than on any other 
food whatever. Is it not strange, that no regular 
experiment on an extensive scale has yet been 
made on such an invaluable crop in this country? 

Can any of our readers tell us of any experi- 
ments made on the cultivation of tares? 



The following is the recipe of Dupuytren, the 
celebrated French physician, to prepare a poma- 
tum to prevent baldness, and promote the growth 
of the human hair. It is much esteemed by 
the medical faculty, one of whom furnished it 
for the columns of the Planter. Since its re- 
ceipt, it has been applied, with great success, to 
an inveterate tetter on the head of a little boy 
in the Editor's own family. 

Take of Beef Marrow, (well tried,) 8 oz. 

Sugar of Lead, (well pulverized,) 1 drachm. 

Old Brandy, 1 oz. 

Oil of Cloves, 15 drops. 

Tincture of Cantharides, (Spanish 

Flies,) 15 scruples. 

Mix intimately^ and rub the bald part, or that 
likely to become so, every evening. 

M. D. 



THE FARMERS' ALMANAC. 

We have received from the Editor of the 
Western Farmer a little work of an hundred 
pages to which the above is the most appropriate 
title. Instead of the comic foolery which is 
usually added to the necessary details of an al- 
manac w^e have here a capital fund of agricul- 
tural information illustrated by a number of ex- 



174 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



cellent engraving's. The work is very attractive 
in appearance and could no doubt be extensively 
sold in this market at the low price at which it 
is afforded. 



NORTHERN SEEDS. 
It is generally known that plants from seed 
brought from northern latitudes will mature 
much more rapidly, at a given southern latitude, 
than plants from seeds produced in the same 
souihern latitude; and, vice versa, that seed 
brought from the south to north vegetate and 
mature much slower, than the seed of the same 
description produced in the north. We this year 
planted muskmelon seed from South America, 
and watermelon seed from Palestine ; and the 
latter were about three or four weeks later in 
ripening than the watermelons from the seed of 
this latitude, while the muskmeJons, we should 
judge, are full five or six weeks later than those 
from the ordinary seed. Wheat from the Black 
Sea escapes the rust much better than our na- 
tive wheat and the reason assigned is, that, being 
from a cold climate, it matures before the hot 
and rainy weather which produces rust sets in. 
We advise the formers in the west and south to 
get their seed wheat as far north as possible. 
Wheat from Maine, New York, Michigan, or 
Wisconsin, would be almost certain to escape 
rust in the more southern States, and would not 
be troubled by the fly in the spring. Irish po- 
tatoes for seed should also be brought from high 
latitudes. The produce will be earlier and better 
than from the potatoes of the neighborhood. 
Louisville Journal. 



TO KEEP BUTTER. 

A majority of butter makers are opposed to 
washing their butter in water soon afier it is 
churned, and fancy they would injure it by the 
operation; they therefore endeavor to separate 
the butter-milk by working the lump of butter, 
by repeatedly changing the position of the par- 
ticles of matter so as to let it run off. Some 
beat pound lumps in their hands ; others use 
little shovels and fear to let the butter come in 
contact with the warm hand, for all melted par- 
ticles are found to be injurious. Salt is mixed 
in, and much precaution is used to exclude this 
matter which is so liab'e to sudden putrefaction. 

But a far better mode of casting out this foul 
matter is now practised by those who best un- 
derstand how butter should be prepared to be 
kept. The Dutch know it, and the Scotch have 
excelled in it ; and butter has been so put up 
that it has been for 3'-ears kept sweet. It must 
be admitted by all who consider the subject, that 
as oil, or any thing oilv will not unite with wa- 
ter, we need not fear that we can wash out any 
of the goodness of the article. We may use 
water enough to wash the butter away, but we 



can wash no goodness out of it. When the 
butter is first gathered in the churn, the butter- 
milk must be turned off and cool fresh water 
turned in, and then the butter should be dashed 
again in order to get out all the particles of milk 
that remain in the little crevices or eyes of the 
butter. This water may be then turned out and 
a fresh supply substituted for it. This must be 
dashed hke the first, and you will find but little 
milky matter in it. This dashing in two wa- 
ters will be found sutficient, though more will 
not hurt the butter. 

Now, as this operation has taken place while 
the butter was soft, all parts of the butter have 
come in contact with this flood of water, and if 
any moist particles are still left in the crevices, 
they will consist chiefly of water. Then salt 
the butter, and this water becomes brine. You 
have brine, therefore, if anjnhing, as a substitute 
for that milky matter that soon grows putrid if 
left among the butter ; and brine, made well, is 
the best thing with which butter comes in con- 
tact. Yet, as this brine is not always perfectly 
free from the milk, it can be wholly absorbed by 
any other substance, we feel more sure our butter 
will keep sweet. We, therefore, make the salt 
as dry as possible. We let all the moisture 
evaporate from it, either while we place it in the 
sun or let it stand by the fire. This salt will 
then absorb all the remaining moisture in the 
butter, and leave us nothing but purity and 
sweetness. 

As the cream before churning may not have 
been well tended or stirred every day as it should 
be, or as some sour particles may adhere to our 
lump of butter, it is prudent to use a very small 
quantity of saltpetre and of sugar in our salt. 
One tea-spoonful of saltpetre and two of loaf 
sugar will be sufficient for a dozen pounds of 
butter, and these will tend to correct an}^ acid or 
impurities that may have intruded. 

Cultivator^s Almanac. 



A CERTAIN CURE FOR FOUNDER IN HORSES. 
Take a large kettle of water and make h boil. 
Lead the horse to the kettle, if he be able to 
walk ; if not, take the water to the stable. 
Commence with a swab and wash the left fet- 
lock before, then the right, then the fetlocks be- 
hind, then wash the legs in the same manner, 
then the shoulders and body, rub the horse dry 
and he will be well in a few hours. There is 
no danger of scalding the horse, if the above 
direction be pursued. This remedy is on the 
authorit}'- of one of the best farriers in this place, 
and is worth lo every firmer double the price of 
his subscription to this paper. 

Jacksonville Jllinoian. 

We have used hot pot-liquor as above directed with 
prcat ctTcct, and think it very probable that the virtues 
of the remedy are to he attributed to the warm bath 
rather than to any peculiar properties of the liquor. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



176 



APPLES FROM THE SEED. 
The g-eneral opinion has been that there was no cer- 
tainty of obtaining- a particular apple by planting- the 
seed. We extract the following- singular statetner.t on 
this subj( ctfroin Deane's Georg-ical Dictionary, a scarce 
work of very g-reat and deserved celebrity: 

"It is a general complaint, that the finest ap- 
ple trees of this country have degenerated, and 
that many of the best sorts have entirely disap- 
peared from our gardens and orchards. It would 
not be difficult to show that every successive 
grafting deteriorates the part engrafted ; or to 
point out an effectual method of retaining good 
apples in this country without the trouble of 
grafting, as in every perfectly ripe apple there 
will be found one and sometimes two round seeds; 
the others will have one or more flatted sides. 
The round ones will produce the improved fruit 
from which they are taken, and those with the 
flatted sides will produce the fruit of the ciab 
upon which the graft was inserted. It requires 
not a long time to ascertain the difference; for 
if a circle is drawn in rich ground, and the tlat- 
sided seeds planted therein, and the round seeds 
in the centre, the variation of quality will be 
discovered in two or three years. The first will 
throw out the leaves of a crab, and the latter 
the leaves of an improved tree, distinguished in 
shape and fibre, and with a woolly appearance; 
and in due time the fruit of each will put every 
thing beyond doubt. It is observed that the 
seeds of crabs (being originals) are mostly if not 
altog-ether round.'''' 



MISCELLANY. 



TOBACCO. 

We collect the following curious account of 
this celebrated plant from a history published by 
Mr. Thos. Harriott, who made a voyage to Vir- 
ginia, along with Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1586, 
It is a little singular, that tobacco, which is now 
considered so injurious to the health, should have 
been recommended, at that day, for its medicinal 
qualities. It only proves that then, as now, no- 
velties were invested with charms, for which 
they were indebted to the imagination of the 
first discoverers, rather than to their intrinsic 
merits. 

It is a curious fact that when the civilized 
man met the savage, the result should have been 
a mutual interchange of one great inebriating 
stimulant for another. In exchange for our gift 
of " strong water," they returned us the curse of 
tobacco. 

The following is the extract to which we 
have alluded. 

"There is an herbe which is sowed apart b}' 
itselfe, and is called by the inhabitants uppowoc: 
in the West indies it hath divers names, accord- 
ing to the several countries and places where it 
growethj and is used : the Spanyards call it to- 



bacco. The leaves thereof being dried and 
brought into powder they use to take the fume 
or smoke thereof, by suckmg it through pipes 
made of clay into ihryr siomack and head : from 
whence it purgeth superfluous fleame and other 
giosse humors, and openeih all the pores and 
passages of the body: by which means the use 
thereof not only preserveth the body from ob- 
structions, but also, (if any be, so that they have 
not beene of too long continuance) in short time 
breaketh them: whereby theyr bodycs are no- 
tably preserved in health, and know not many 
grievous diseases, wherewiihall we in England 
are oftentimes afHieicd. 

"This uppowoc is of so precious estimation 
amongst them, that they thinke theyr gods arc 
marvelously delighted therewith: whereupon 
sometime they niake hallowed fires, and cast 
some of the powder therein for a sacrifice: be- 
ing in a storme upon the waters, to pacific 
theyr gods, they cast some bj^ into the ayreand 
into the water: so a weare for fish being newly 
set up, they cast some therein and into the ayre: 
also after rfn escape of danger, they cast some 
into the ayre likewise : but all done with strange 
gestures, stamping, sometimes dancing, clapp- 
ing of hands, holding up of hands, and staring 
up into the heavens, uttering therewithal, and 
chattering strange words and noises. 

"We ourselves during the time we were there 
used to suck it after theyr manner, as also since 
our returne, and have found irany rare and won- 
derfull experiments of the vertues thereof: of 
which the relation would require a volume by 
Itselfe : the use of it by so many of late, men 
and women of great calling as else, and some 
learned phj'sicians also, is sufficient witnesse." 



FATTENING. 

The influence of food in promoting extraordi- 
nary growth is not confined to the inferior ani- 
mals as was proved by the cruel experiment of 
Dr. Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne. He selected 
an orphan child of the name of Macgrath, and 
by dint of feeding, at the age of sixteen he had 
grown to the height of seven feet, and his weight 
was in proportion, but his organization, says our 
author, had been so exhausted by this forced 
process, that he died in a state of moral and 
physical decay at the age of twenty. 



ELEGANT REPROOF. 

The rudeness so well reproved in the following: anec- 
dote is not yet banished from the convivial board, and 
often affords an opportunity for a repetition of the story. 

Lord Kelly, celebrated in the last age for his 
love of music, was "not only witt}^ in himself, 

but the cause of wit in others." Mr. A B 

, a Scotch advocate, a man of considerable 

humor, accompanied by great formality of man- 



176 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ners, happened to be one of a convivial party, 
when his lordship was at the head of the table : 
after dinner he was asked to sing, but absolutely 
refused to comply wiih the pressing solicitalion 

of the company ; at length, Lord K told 

him he should not escape ; he must either sing 
a song, tell, a story, or drink a pint bumper. 

Mr. B , being an abstemious man, chose 

rather to tell a story than incur the forfeit. "One 
day," said he, in his pompous manner, "a thief, 
in the course of his rounds, saw the door of a 
church invitingly open ; he walked in, thinking 
that even there he might lay hold of something 
useful: having secured the pulpit cloth, he was 
retreat mg, when, lo ! he found the door sh«t. 
After some consideration, he adopted the only 
means of escape lefi, namely, to let himself 
down by the bell rope ; the bell of course rang ; 
the people were alarmed, and the thief was ta 
ken just as he reached the ground. When they 
were draging him away, he looked up, and em- 
phatically addressed the bell, as I now address 
your lordship. " Had it not been," said he, " for 
your long tongue^ and your empty head^ I had 
made my esca-peP 



TIGHT LACING. 

We congratulate the female world upon the 
dawning prospect of their emancipation from 
the cruel shackles of the tyrant Fashion. We 
congratulate Beauty and Health upon the great 
victory they are about to achieve, through the 
aid of science and reason, over the ogres oi 
Distortion and Disease. 

Let us lend our feeble aid to our mothers, 
daughters and sisters, in the mighty effort they 
are making for emancipation. At least, let us 
cheer them on in the glorious struggle. The 
Citadel of Paris, the stronghold of Fashion, has 
already surrendered. A correspondent of the 
National Intelligencer writes from that city, 
" The artists of taste in Paris have resolved to 
leave Dame Nature to her own discretion, and 
from this out the fair sex are to breathe freer 
and easier. The most cruel bondage under 
which the sex have so long groaned is broken ; 
the female lungs can now run riot in the room 
which is left them to play, and the heart has 
'scope enough and verge to beat.'" 

The march of freedom is onward, and we 
hope soon to see her bright face dispelling the 
thraldom of our own dear and beautiful coun 
try women. 



EDITORIAL. 



We must beg to plead the indisposition of our en- 
graver as an apology for the paucity of cuts in the pre- 
sent number. On this account wc have been com- 
pelled to lay over several interesting communications 
requiring illustration. 



Richmond Markets, September l^rlh, 184:1. 



Brandy. — Otard, Dupuy & Co. Si 75; A. Seignette 
Si 35 to SI 40; Imitation 25 a 28 cents; Virginia Ap- 
ple 55 a 60, Slock light, demand fair; Northern Apple 
29 a 32; Peach dull at 75 cents a Si 50. 

Butter. — Mountain Butter, wholesale 12 1-2 a 16 c. 
for firkin ; 20 cents for roll. 

Cattle Market. — Cattle on the hoof, $5 a 87 per 
hundred pounds according to quality; Rough Fat 5 a 
7 cents per lb. Mutton S3 a S6, according to quality. 

Fish.— Mackerel, No. 3, S7 ; Herrinsrs, No. 1, N. C. 
S3 50; No. 2, S2 87 1-2; Potomac cut $3 25; Shad, 
$8 50 per barrel. 

Flour. — No recent sales of City Mills. Holders ge- 
nerally ask S7 for country — light sales yesterday and 
to-day at S6 75. 

Grain. — Wheat, Si 30 a Si 35 per bushel; Corn 65 
cents per bushel; Oats, 42 cents per bushel. 

Lumber. — Clear white pine S3G ; refuse clear S32 ; 
merchantable $22; refuse, last sale at Sl4 ; flooring Sl5 
a S25 per M. 

Meal 75 cents per bushel. 

Provisions. — Bacon, Smithfield, of good quality, is 
scarce, and would command Scents; Todd's 7 1-2 a 8; 
Western, of good quality, 6 1-2 a 7; Extra sides 6 a 7; 
shoulders 4 a 6 cents. Demand fair and supply not 
large. Lard, Baltimore, No. 1, 8 a 9 cents; retail de- 
mand only. Virginia cured 8 1-2 a 9 cents. 

Plaster. — Last sales at $3 50. 

Tobacco. — Market very heavy, with decline in prices. 

Clover Seed S7. 

Orchard Grass S2 75. 

Timothy $4 50. 

Heeds Grass Si. 



CONTENTS OF NO. VIII. 

Grasses — Dr. Darlington's estimate of, p. 153. 

Leaves — Recommended for manure, p. 154. 

Wheat — Result of an experiment in drilling, p. 155. 

Blue Grass — Objected to, p. 156. 

Slavery — Essay on. No. 2, p. 156. 

Manuring — Recommended lo spread straw and long 
offal, p. 158. 

C/iarcoai— Experiments with recommended, p. 158. 

Canker Worm — Destroyed by Saltpetre, p. 159. 

Implements— No economy in cheap ones, p. 159. 

Plaister of Paris — To be used on stable floors, p. 
159. 

Berkshires — Objected to, p. 159. 

Breeding — Principles of, p. 160. 

CoxDs — Treatment of, p. 161. 

Bug — To deter from vines, p. 161. 

Si7A'— American, superior, p. 161. 

Clover — Best renovator, p. 161. 

Siccet Potatoes — Mr. Bernard's mode of keeping, p. 
162. 

Fruit —Healthy and economical food, p. 163. 

Free Martin— An instance of being productive, p. 
164. 

Hog— Essay on by J. H. Turner, No. 3, p. 165. 

Shoeing — Proper mode of, p. 166. 

Distemper — Treatment of in horses, p. 167. 

Mange — In dogs, to cure, p. 168. 

Potatoes — An experiment with, p. 168. 

Tomatoes — To make into figs, p. 168. 

Prison Labor — Essay on, p. 168. 

Pea — Everlasting, a fertilizer, p. 169. 

i?»/e— Highly recommended, p. 169. 

Oats — Large crop by thin seeding, p. 169. 

Draining — E fleet of, p. 170. 

Asparagus — Method of cultivating, p. 170. 

Peach Trees — To destroy borers, p. 170. 

Corn Stalks — Value of^ as food, p. 170. 

Bacon — Answer to T. Z. p. 171. 

Pair — Hanover, announced, p. 171. 

yarcs— Reconunended highly, p. 172. 

Farmers^ Almanac — Reviewed, p. 173. 

Seeds — Northern, earliest, p. 174. 

Butter— To keep, p. 174. 

Founder — To cure, p. 174. 

Apples— To raise from seed, p. 175. 

Miscellany, p. 175.