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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

Demotes to Stgrtculture, horticulture, autt the j&oustholb Brts. 



Agriculture is the nursing- mother of the Arts. 

JCenophon. 


1 Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts uf the State. 

Sully. 


C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 


Opposite Merchants' Coffee House, Main Street. 


Vol. I. RICHMOND, 


OCTOBER, 1841. No. 9. 



DRAINING. 

We hope we shall not be considered pertina- 
cious in our frequent allusions to this improved 
mode of Agriculture. Satisfied of the impor- 
tance of the subject, we desire most earnestly to 
impress its value upon our readers. The follow- 
ing letter comes from the pen of the lamented 
Buel, one of the soundest minds and clearest 
heads that this country has ever produced. We 
shall not fail to avail ourselves of every oppor- 
tunity to second his views upon this important 
point : 

KEEP YOUR LAND DRY. 

The importance of draining is not duly ap- 
preciated, nor its practice well understood among 
us. Although water is indispensable to vegeta- 
tion, too much of it is as hurtful as too little. It 
is necessary to the germination of the seed, to 
the decomposition of the vegetable matter in the 
soil — to the transmission, of the food from the 
soil to the plant — to its circulation there — and to 
the maturity of the product. All these useful 
purposes are defeated, where water remains in 
the soil to excess — the seed rots, the vegetable 
matter which should serve as the food of the 
crop, remains unsoluble, in consequence of the 
absence of heat and air, which the water ex- 
cludes ; or, if the seed grows, the plant is sickly, 
for want of its proper food, and there is conse- 
quently a virtual failure in the harvest. It is not 
from the surface only that we are to determine 
whether land is sufficiently dry to support a 
healthy vegetation ; but we are to examine the 
surface stratum, into , which the roots of the 
plants penetrate, and from which they draw their 
food. If this is habitually wet — if it grows 
marshy plants — if water will collect in a hole 
sunk fifteen inches below the surface — the land 
is too wet for cultivated crops, and means should 
be adopted to render it more dry. From my 
partial acquaintance with this country, I feel 
assured that much of your best land is rendered 
unfit for tillage, or the growth of the finer grasses, 
by reason of the excess of water, which passes 
or reposes upon the sub-soil unnoticed by the cul- 
tivator. These lands are denominated cold and 
sour, and they truly are so. Cold, sour lands 
are invariably wet lands below, if not upon the 
Vol. 1—21 



surface. But if the superfluous water were ju- 
diciously conducted by efficient under drains, (for 
the construction of which you possess the best 
materials in abundance,) these lands would be 
rendered warm and sweet, and highly produc- 
tive, and the outlay would be repaid by the in- 
creased value of two or three of the first crops. 
Wet lands are generelly rich lands, abounding 
in vegetable matters, which water has preserved 
from decomposition, but which readily become 
the food of plants, when the water is drawn off. 
Let me imagine a case, which I am sure will be 
found to exist in many parts of your country. 
There is a slope of a little hill, half a mile in 
extent, terminating in a flat forty rods wide, 
through which a brook meanders. The soil on 
this slope and in this flat is of a light, porous 
quality, six to twelve inches deep, reposing on a 
sub-soil impervious to water, as clay, rock, or 
hard-pan. By soil, I mean the upper stratum, 
in which vegetable matters are blended with 
earthy materials, and which constitutes the true 
pasture of plants. Near the top of this slope, 
all along on a horizontal level, or perhaps lower 
down, spouts or springs burst through the sub- 
soil, a thing very common in hilly districts, the 
waters from which finding an easy passage 
through the loose soil, spread and run down the 
slope, and upon the sub-soil, and through the flat, 
till they find their level in the brook. A ther- 
mometer plunged down to the sub-soil, will indi- 
cate, at midsummer, a temperature probably not 
greater than sixty degrees, whereas to grow and 
mature many of our best farm crops, we require 
a heat in the soil of seventy or eighty degrees. 
How shall we remedy this evil, and render this 
land profitable to the occupant 1 ? Simply by 
making an underdrain or drains, in a gently in- 
clining direction ; a little below those spouts or 
springs, and, if practicable, somewhat into the 
sub-soil. These will catch and conduct off the 
spouting waters, and by laying the lower plane 
dry and permeable to heat and air, develope all 
its natural powers of fertility. 

I will suppose another case — that of a flat 
surface, underlaid by an impervious sub-soil. 
This is rendered unproductive or difficult to ma- 
nage, by stagnant waters. The rain and snow 
waters, penetrating the soil, are arrested in their 
downward passage, by the sub-soil, which not 
having slope to pass them off, they remain, and 
stagnate, and putrefy, alike prejudicial to vege- 



178 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



table and animal health. The mode of draining 
such grounds and rendering them productive and 
easy management, is, first to surround the field 
with a good underdrain, and to construct a sufrl- 
cientopen drain from the outlay to carry off the wa- 
ters. Then with the plough, throw the land into 
ridges of twenty to thirty feet in breadth, according 
to the tenacity of the soil, in the direction of the 
slope, and sink an underdrain in each of the fur- 
rows between the ridges, terminating them in 
the lower cross drain. The materials of the under- 
drain, which are generally stones, should be laid 
so low as to admit of the free passage of the 
plough over them. The superfluous water, by 
the laws of gravitation, settle into these drains, 
and pass off, and the soil becomes dry, manage- 
able and productive. An acquaintance called 
upon a Scotch farmer whose farm had been un- 
derdrained in this way, and being informed that 
the improvement costs sixteen dollars an acre, 
tile having been used, remarked that it was a 
costly improvement. " Yes," was the farmer's 
reply: " but it cost a deal mair not to do it," which 
he illustrated by pointing to an adjoining farm, 
like situated, which had not been drained, and 
was overgrown with rushes and sedgegrass, and 
then to his own fields teeming with luxuriance 
and rich in the indications of an abundant har- 
vest. 

I have dwelt upon the subject of draining 
with more detail, because I have personally re- 
alized its benefits, and am sure it may be exten- 
sively gone into with certain prospect of reward. 

Judge Bud. 



FLOWERS. 

We have repeatedly advocated the cultiva- 
tion of flowers. It is an innocent and elegant 
amusement, and although it may not be so pro- 
ductive of thrift, as some other modes of employ- 
ment, it is productive of refinement and happi- 
ness, which thrift cannot always procure. 

To the lover of flowers, and who does not 
love these beautiful gifts of nature, the following 
treatise will be extremely interesting. But the 
principles here laid down, for the proper assort- 
ment of colors, is general in its application, and 
will serve as well to guide the dashing belle in the 
arrangement of her wearing apparel, as the gen- 
tle maiden in the disposition of her flower garden: 

THE FLOWER GARDEN. 

Arrangement of Flowering Plants. 

In a recent number of the Gazette we of- , 
fered some observations on turning out flowering 
plants into beds and borders, with reference to 
soil and exposure ; and we shall now add some 
remarks on the arrangements of such plants in 



beds and borders generally, with a view to the 
colors of their flowers. 

All scientific directions respecting the arrange- 
ment of colors are founded on a law of nature, 
the truth of which every one can prove for him- 
self, viz. that every color has what is called its 
complimentary color, and which complimentary 
color, when placed adjoining it, affords most satis- 
faction to the eye, or, in the language of artists, 
contrasts better with it than does any other color 
whatever. To discover what color is compli- 
mentary to any other color, take a piece of white 
paper, say a page of letter paper, and place on 
the middle of it a round blotch or patch (a co- 
lored wafer for example,) of black, and also of 
the color of which you wish to find the compli- 
mentary one. Then fix the eye intently on the 
patch of black for a few seconds, and afterwards 
for a few seconds on the color for which you 
wish to find the complimentary one ; and on the 
white paper round the latter color, and close to 
it will be seen a faint shade of the complimenta- 
ry color. Suppose the circular patch to have 
been blue, then you will find it surrounded with 
a narrow zone of orange, which color is there- 
fore the complimentary one of blue, or that which 
pleases best when placed beside it ; or, in other 
words, contrasts best with it. In like manner 
red is the complimentary color of green, and 
yellow of purple. If we imagine the six primi- 
tive colors, together with white, which for gar- 
dening purposes, is to be considered as a color, 
placed as below, we shall form a source from 
which rules can be drawn for the arrangement 
of colors in every case that can occur in the 
practice of gardening. 



% 



o 
so. 



\ 



X 



# 



White. 






\ 



% 



In this diagram, or formula, white is placed 
in the centre, because it forms a suitable contrast 
with every other color, becoming in fact, to a 
certain extent, the complimentary color of what- 
ever color may be placed adjoining it. Suppos- 
ing you have a flower of any particular color, 



« 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



179 



and wish to know what other flower will best 
contrast with it, then look in the diagram for 
the color which comes nearest to that of the 
flower of your plant. Suppose it to be straw 
color, then yellow being the nearest color, look 
opposite to it, and you will find purple, which is 
its complimentary or contrasting color. In like 
manner blue will be found opposite to orange, 
which two colors assort better together than 
with any others, and so on ; white being in the 
centre, and as before mentioned, assorting with 
all. 

As far as mere color is concerned, therefore, 
colors may be placed in any order of succession, 
provided white is introduced between every two 
colors. If while is not introduced, then the or- 
der may be any variation which the planter 
chooses of blue and orange, purple and yellow, 
and red and green, or any of the shades of these 
colors ; but green being the color of foliage, it 
goes for nothing in the arrangement of living 
flowers, and, therefore, white must be used as a 
substitute for it. 

Thus far as to the harmony of colors seen in 
succession along a border of miscellaneous flow- 
ers, or in a row of one kind of flower, such as 
the dahlia or the pansy, of which there are se- 
veral colors. But in many cases, another source 
of beauty is required in the arrangement of co- 
lors, even in a line, or in a border — that source 
is regularity, or the repetition of the same colors 
at fixed intervals. There are various reasons 
why regularity in form or color, as in the suc- 
cession of sounds, is satisfactory to the mind ; 
but the principal one is, that it affords decided 
evidence of design or art on the part of man. 

The arrangement of colors in rows and in 
borders, if made judiciously, produces little effect 
on the eye of the spectator, compared with 
a good or bad arrangement of colors in masses ; 
whether in one large bed of miscellaneous flow- 
ers, or in a flower garden consisting of a num- 
ber of beds grouped together, so as to form a 
whole. If the colors do not unite in forming a 
whole, as well as the beds, the result will be un- 
satisfactory. 

Not to perplex the reader with too many rea- 
sons and details, we^shall briefly observe, that 
the two principal point sin arranging colors in mass 
in a flower garden successfully, are symmetry, and 
the preference of warm to cold colors. Warm 
colors are red, orange, and yellow ; while green, 
blue, and purple are cold colors. Green, there- 
fore, being a cold color, and forming a large pro- 
portion of the surface of most, flower gardens, it 
is not desirable to increase it, or to introduce 
either blue or purple flowers with it to any great 
extent. Every bed in a symmetrical flower 
garden, except the one which forms the centre, 
must have a corresponding bed, resembling it in 
color as well as in form and position. If the 
space between the beds are of grass, then red, 



yellow, and orange, or shades or compounds of 
these colors ought to prevail ; but if the intervals 
between the beds are of yellow gravel, then blue, 
purple, and white, with their different shades 
and variegations, ought to be most abundant, 
because these, being cold colors, contrast best 
with the yellow, or yellowish-brown of gravel, 
which is a warm color. 

Principles, which are applicable to the use of 
colors in the arts and manufactures, and even in 
landscape and flower painting, will in many 
cases, not apply in gardening, from the large 
proportion of green in some cases, and of dug 
soil and gravel- walks in others, which are con- 
tinually present ; but the following rules if at- 
tended to, will prevent any gross violation of 
propriety : 

1. In all borders of uniform width, that are 
planted with miscellaneous flowers, let the white 
flowers bear a considerable proportion : equalize 
the mixture as much as possible throughout, 
and see that the same plants and the same co- 
lors, or plants and colors as nearly resembling 
one another as possible, recur at regular distances. 

2. In borders irregular in width and in direc- 
tion, the disposition of the colors may be irregu- 
lar also ; but still to preserve harmony and pro- 
duce force of effect, white flowers should be in- 
terspersed throughout. 

3. In all merely regular flower-gardens, by 
which we mean gardens consisting of a repeti- 
tion of one or more forms at regular distances 
without any centre, the colors should be repeated 
in the same manner as the beds ; thus suppose 
a square spot laid out in twelve parallel beds, all 
of the same length and width, with grass paths 
between them ; then the colors may be — 1, red ; 
2, white ; 3, yellow ; 4, purple ; 5, orange ; 6, 
blue ; 7, red ; 8, white ; 9, yellow ; 10, purple ; 
11, orange; and 12, blue. 

4. In all symmetrical flower gardens, by which 
is meant such as have a centre, or centres ; in 
other words, an axis or axes of symmetry, ar- 
range the colors symmetrically. " Let one half 
the platform just reflect the other." Where the 
spaces between the beds are in turf, use chiefly 
warm colors, such as yellow, orange, and red, 
with their shades ; but where the space between 
the beds are of gravel, or paved, use a large 
proportion of cold colors, such as blue, purple, 
and white. — Gardeners 1 Gazette. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 

Upon an analysis of plants, so for as it has 
been carried, it appears, that the substances, ex- 
tracted from the soil, for their nourishment, dif- 
fer in different plants. Hence the necessity of 
cultivating, in succession, those plants that 
draw their nourishment from different sources. 
By this means the exhausted supply is re- 
gained from the store-house of nature, whilst 



180 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the rejected properties are now yielded to the 
new plant. Our knowledge of the chemical 
properties of plants is as yet very imperfect and 
there is no more important field of investigation 
in the science of agriculture. Enough has been 
discovered however to prove that substances en- 
ter into the composition of corn that are not 
found in clover, several in tobacco that are not 
found in wheat, &c. &c. But Professor Liebig 
has shown, that, even in this chemical analysis, 
regard must be had to the climate in which the 
plant was raised ; since, the same plant extracts 
different substances in different climates. How 
much study and observation are required to mas- 
ter the profound and intricate science of agri- 
culture ! 



GATHER UP ALL THE MANURE. 

All the manure, of every description, around 
buildings, should be removed to the field, and 
very rich soil, not wanted in its present place for 
purposes of cultivation, should be exchanged for 
pure earth, which will be more clean, pleasant, 
and healthy. All decaying vegetable matter, 
around or near the house has an unhealthy effect, 
which alone is a sufficient reason for cleaning up 
all around the dwelling, to say nothing of the 
advantage of collecting manure. 

Near some buildings are piles of ashes, which 
have been accumulating for years. They should 
be put on light lands. Ashes that have been 
leached, and have laid long exposed to rains, 
are still valuable. In such cases, a hard, smooth 
crust is formed over the top, that throws off the 
water, and protects the greater part of the pile 
from being drenched in rains. 

In order to keep the air pure and sweet, the 
mud and filth produced from the sink should be 
carried away. A farmer of good taste will be 
careful that neatness and order prevail around 
his premises. This can be done by every one, 
let his circumstances be what they may. It 
costs nothing but good management, which in 
the end always proves to be cheap. 

Yankee Farmer. 



WHEAT. 

We extract the following from an address 
delivered before a South Carolina agricul- 
tural society by Mr. J. B. Oneale, who seems to 
unite in his own person the two professions of 
farmer and miller. Speaking of wheat he says : 

11 The seed ought not only to be selected from 
a good variety, but it should be well prepared 
for being sown. In the first place, it should be 
thoroughly dried by the sun before it is put up 
for seed: this prevents weavils, and gives sound 
and healthy grains for vegetation. In the next 
place, sift the seed carefully with a good sand 



sieve: this will take out all the small immature 
grains. In the third place, for twenty- four hours 
before you sow it, soak your seed in a prepara- 
tion of water saturated with about one pound of 
bluestone to every five bushels of wheat. Be- 
fore you take out your seed wheat, which will 
be found at the bottom of the cask or tub, in 
which you soak it, skim off the floating grains 
and trash. When I have pursued this course, 
which was recommended to me by my friend, 
John S. Carwile, I have escaped the smut." 



SIMPLE CURE FOR COUGH IN HORSES. 

Two years ago (says a correspondent of the 
Cultivator, (one of my carriage horses had an 
extremely bad cough, which had continued for 
six or eight months ; different applications were 
made without effect. I applied to a man who 
I knew dealt in horses, and had paid some at- 
tention to their diseases, for a remedy. He at 
once told me that he had never found any thing 
so effectual for a bad cough as human urine, 
given a few times, by discharging into a bucket 
of water and letting them drink it, or on their 
food and eat. I directed my driver to do so, and 
in one week the horse was completely relieved. 
I have frequently had it tried with the same good 
effect. 



We copy the following from the Farmers' Ca- 
binet, verbatim, because, after a careful inspec- 
tion, we cannot find a word that could be omitted 
without loss. Such we generally find to be the 
style of Mr. Kinzer's communications ; from 
which we have formed a very high estimate of 
his character as an enlightened, judicious, and 
practical farmer ; 

From the Farmers' Cabinet. 
IMPROVED SYSTEM.— ROTATION OF CROPS. 

Mr. Editor ■, — Although my time and attention 
have already been sufficiently taxed in comment- 
ing on articles contained in the April number of 
the " Farmers' Cabinet," }-et I must say a word, 
by way of reply, to our agricultural friend who 
hails " all the way" from Hannibal, Missouri. I 
allude to John M. Johnson, who requests infor- 
mation under the above head, and is not too mo- 
dest to enrol his real name on our list, that he 
may be addressed, should occasion require. 

The very best rotation of crops, is a subject 
vastly more important than anj^ other one con- 
nected with the farming Business. As such, it 
has been for years to me a matter of deep anx- 
iety and interest, the object being, to digest a 
system, which shall in its detail, yield the greatest 
immediate return, and ultimately improve the 
fertility of the soil ; — to be an augmenting and 
ameliorating sj'stem — a desideratum to farmers 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



181 



of more intrinsic value than a remedy for the 
Hessian fly and " cause and remedy" for mildew 
combined ; because this system will prove, in its 
very operation, the best cure for all these evils, 
of any yet known. Farmers may expatiate as 
they please, about the cause and effect of all ihc 
ills that wheat is " heir to," yet in the main, the 
whole may be ascribed to a bad, exhausting, and 
depleting system of rotation. Take the seasons 
as they come, and is not the best grain found 



always on the richest ground, cultivation in other 
respects corresponding? 

The inquiring farmer of Missouri, proposes to 
lay off his farm in eight fields ; so I shall submit 
a system — that has cost some labor and expe- 
perience — in tabular form ; and which, if adopted 
in a proper spirit, may be enclosed in a frame 
for convenient reference. It will be observed, the 
ruinous practice of "wheat after wheat" is en- 
tirely obviated ; I, too, practise what I here preach. 





Field 


Field 


Field 


Field 


Field 


Field 


Field 


Field 




No. 1. 


No. 2. 


No. 3. 


No. 4. 


No. 5. 


No. 6. 


No. 7. 


No. 8. 


1st Year, - 


Wheat 


Rye 


Wheat 


Clover 


Corn 


Wheat 


Clover 


Oats 


2d " 


Rve 


Clover 


Com 


Wheat 


Oats 


Clover 


Wheat 


Wheat 


3d " 


Clover 


Wheat 


Oats 


Rye 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Corn 


Clover 


4th " 


Wheat 


Com 


Wheat 


Clover 


Clover 


Rye 


Oats 


Wheat 


5th " 


Corn 


Oats 


Clover 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Clover 


Wheat 


Rye 


6th " 


Oats 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Corn 


Rye 


Wheat 


Clover 


Clover 


7th " 


Wheat 


Clover 


Rye 


Oats 


Clover 


Corn 


Wheat 


Wheat 


8th " 


Clover 


Wheat 


Clover 


Wheat 


Wheat 


Oats 


Rye 


Com 



Where there is not sufficient available manure, 
the field of oats may be fallow ; but if the means 
of accumulating manure, on a good farm, be 
well husbanded, which can be done by compost 
to any extent, the wheat-stubble should and can 
be manured for corn, and the oat-stubble also for 
wheat. The second crop of clover is ploughed 
under, to manure the wheat. Corn, oats, and 
rye, all exhausting crops, it will be observed, can 
only occupy each field once in eight years, while 
each field is twice well manured with stable 
manure in the same term of years, in addition 
to the clover ploughed under. Barly may be 
substituted wholly or in part for oats. Being 
partial to the permanent pasture afforded by our 
native green grass, I keep an additional enclo- 
sure for that purpose, and mow both clover- fields, 
which, in addition to the corn-fodder, will winter 
a large stock, using the straw only for litter. 
Although formerly partial to timothy for hay, I 
would not now tolerate it, under the above sys- 
tem. My reasons arc plain ; clover hay made 
on the plan of curing in the cock (or shade,) in- 
stead of scattering it out to the breeze, sun, dew, 
and rain, I prefer to timothy hay for all pur- 
poses ; while the former, belonging as it does to 
the leguminous class of plants, is ameliorating, 
and a fertilizer, the latter being of the tuberous 
rooted or culmiferous class of plants, exhausting 
the soil by feeding on the specific food of wheat, 
is a sterilizer. I beg to ask one question of Mr. 
Johnson — why does he insist on the cultivation 
of roots for stock in a soil so exuberant that one 
hundred bushels corn may be raised to the acre, 
and with less expense and trouble ? Would the 
farmers of Europe, who occupy the beet zone, and 
raise beets, turnips, &c. more nutritious than we 
can by odds, " touch them with a ten-foot pole," 



as food for stock, if their climate would mature 
corn? Well, I myself have tried roots, and 
would not condemn them wholly; but I contend, 
the acre of ground forced by manure and culture, 
producing a good crop of beets, will under like 
circumstances, produce an equal, if not greater 
amount of solid nutriment, in the shape of corn. 
If Mr. Johnson must experiment with beets, they 
may be cultivated in his corn-field, without ob- 
structing the above system. But mark, if the 
S3 7 stem of rotation above described, on account 
of furnishing the best food for stock, summer and 
winter, and insuring good crops, while it im- 
proves the soil, does not meet general favor, long 
after the present mania and fever for beet culture 
shall have collapsed, to be noticed only among 
the things " that have been." Perhaps I ought 
to add, that it is necessary on some farms, to 
subject, parts of the land to tillage crops, to clean 
and clear them of binding grass before adopting 
this system, which was my case : it must be re- 
membered that lime is a great auxiliary to this, 
the same as to other systems. 

And now, Mr. Editor, aware of a partiality 
to beet culture for stock, I shall look out for a 
censorial notice from some ready pen ; neverthe- 
less, I shall not be easily driven from my ground. 
W. Penn Kinzer. 

Springlawn Farm, Pequea, ) 
Lancaster Co. May, 1841. / 



For the Southern Planter. 
SHELTERS. 



Mr. Editor, — Are farmers aware of the in- 
terest that may be obtained from a judicious 
outlay for good shelters ? 1 asked a friend, with 
whom I was riding the other day, why it was 



182 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



that our farmers did not spend more money in I 
providing coverings for their stock, implements, 
&c. He replied, that he could account for it 
only by the fact, that, generally speaking, those, 
who had been farmers for any length of time 
without such provisions, had necessarily gotten 
into that situation, that they had very little to ' 
spend in any thing. There was much of truth 
in that assertion. He can never be a thriving 
man who, permits his stock to suffer from the 
inclemency of the weather, or his implements to j 
be exposed to the destroying effects of alternate 
rain and sunshine. To say nothing of the in- 
humanity of the man, who fails to provide for j 
the comforts of the poor brutes entrusted to his 
care, can there be a more false economy than 
that which exposes them to suffering and dis- 
ease for want of the expense of comfortable 
housing ? Sir Jonah Barrington says, that, i 
sometimes, the surest way to avoid danger, is to 
meet it plump ; and so I say, that often the 
surest way of saving money, is to expend it. 

A prudent man wont have a pair of specta- , 
cles without providing a case for them, and a 
sensible farmer will not have a plough or a har- 1 
row, without having a covering for it. But | 
above all, let me entreat my brother farmers to 
provide good and comfortable quarters for their 
stock of all kinds. Let them be assured that 
they will find a most ample return, in their con- 
sciences, as well as pockets, for any expenditure 



that they may make in this behalf. The food 
that will be saved, the first winter, will more 
than pay the expense ; for it is a fact, and a rea- 
sonable one too, that an animal, kept warm and 
comfortable, will keep fat on half the food that 
is necessary to maintain one exposed to the rains 
and sleets of the pitiless heavens. 

In an early number of your excellent periodi- 
cal, which, I believe, is destined to be invaluable 
to the farmers of Virginia, a most excellent and 
economical plan of building is described. It 
was adopted by one of my neighbors, and has 
given him and his visitors great satisfaction. I 
know of nothing that can be made as cheap, 
that is likely to answer the purpose so well. 
But let it cost what it will, I repeat, he is no 
good farmer that is not provided with good sta- 
bling. If he cannot provide for all, the good 
man, or even the provident man, will dispose of 
some, that he may take care of the rest. 

When I speak of shelters, I do not mean the 
miserable affairs made of brush and corn-stalks, 
against which poor tucked up cattle are seen to 
creep for protection against the northern blast. 
Not at all. I mean good, warm stabling, in 
which an ox will neither know nor care whether 
it is snowing, raining, or blowing without. 

With many wishes for your unbounded suc- 
cess, I remain 

Your friend, G***** L***. 

Hanover . Sept. 1841. 



For the Southern Planter. 

GATE . 




Mr. Editor, — As you have in your early num- 
bers afforded me much information upon the 
subject of gates, in return, I send you what I 
have found, by experience, to be an excellent 
plan for setting gate posts. The drawing is in- 
tended to represent two posts, with the fixtures 
ready to go in the ground. Just above the butt, 
on each side, a piece of plank twelve inches 
wide, and two inches thick, is tenoned on the 



posts with a dove-tail ; the distance between the 
shoulders being, of course, regulated by the in- 
tended width of the gale. By this simple con- 
trivance, great permanency is obtained for the 
proper position of the posts. It is evident that 
they can neither approach nor recede, and, since 
the plank is sunk beneath the surface of the 
earth, which ought to be well rammed on both 
sides of it, the posts are guarded against the 






THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



183 



effect of a side blow, as from a wheel, by the 
mass of earth that must be moved before they 
can yield. 

Your readers will find this fixture, I assure 
you, worth ten times the additional labor it will 
cost them. 

Your obedient servant, 

A Countryman. 



For the Southern Planter. 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 

I am much pleased, Mr. Editor, with your 
suggestion of a frequent report from agricultural 
societies. I conceive that, if in every county a 
society was organized, and an executive com- 
mittee appointed, whose duty it should be to re- 
port monthly, for the columns of the Planter, an 
abstract of all the interesting facts that may have 
transpired in their district, a fund of information 
might be collected, valuable and interesting be- 
yond all precedent. I mention the Planter par- 
ticularly, because you were the first to suggest 
such a scheme, and because your paper, from 
its price alone, must soon be, if it is not already, 
the most widely disseminated in the State. Is 
it not practicable to organize such a system 1 
Will not the Executive Committee of Henrico 
set the example 1 So apparent would be the 
advantages, that I belieye it would be imme- 
diately followed throughout the State. Then, 
instead of having to rely upon hap-hazard com- 
munications, without a name, and often without 
foundation, you would be furnished, regularly, 
with facts from the most responsible sources. 
What a valuable record the Planter would be- 
come. It would be worth its weight in gold. 

Try, Mr. Editor, and see if you cannot, to a 
certain extent at least, effect this desirable object. 
Your friend, D. S. 

The plan proposed by our correspondent is 
certainly the one, above all others, calculated to 
enrich the columns of the Planter, and of course 
to benefit its readers ; these, we hope, will soon 
compose the great mass of the agricultural com- 
munity in the State of -Virginia. So far, there- 
fore, patriotism, as well as self-interest, leads us 
to hope that his' views may be realized. The 
plan is certainly feasible, and the object most 
important. Its value to the agricultural interest 
of Virginia can hardly be estimated. It only 
needs a little spirit and enterprize to effect it. 
Shall they be wanting in such a cause 1 For 
our part, we will furnish twenty copies of the 
Planter, gratis, to any society whose executive 
Committee will undertake to report to us a month- 
ly summary of agricultural memoranda. 

There will be no difficulty or trouble in making 



such a report. Practice will soon render it per- 
fectly simple. To general statistical facts, may 
be added any thing of particular interest. For 
instance, about this time, might be reported the 
quantity of wheat, rye, and grass seeded, at least, 
whether the quantity is more or less than an 
average — whether the seeding has been late or 
early — the quantity of corn harvested, &c. with 
a relation of any particular fact or experiment 
that may have come to the knowledge of the 
committee. Several societies, both in this coun- 
try and in Europe, are in the habit of publishing 
such monthly reports at considerable expense, 
and they have been found to be records of the 
most inestimable value. We propose a cheaper 
mode of effecting the same object, and, although, 
we certainly remain the obliged party, still the 
authors of these reports will find themselves 
amply remunerated for what they afford in what 
they mutually receive. 



SMUT MACHINE. 

The Editor of the American Farmer speaks 
in the highest terms of a machine, lately in- 
vented by a Mr. Barrett, for separating smut, 
garlic, dirt, &c. from wheat. If the machine is 
all that it is described to be, the inventor will 
obtain a suitable reward for his ingenuity in 
bringing it to this market. Our millers are pro- 
verbially enterprizing and liberal. 



CARRION. 



How few there are who fully appreciate the 
value of carrion ; and, instead of making a suita- 
ble and profitable use of it, carry it out into their 
pastures, or perhaps leave it uncovered near their 
buildings, where it will pollute the air and raise 
an offensive stench, until the action of the at- 
mosphere has destroyed its use, or the fowls of 
the air or some animal has eaten it up or carried 
it away. 

Now a wise man, if he has a horse, a cow, a 
hog, or sheep to die, will not leave them to rot 
where the stench will be offensive or draw them 
off, and let them lie uncovered, where there is 
no prospect of their carcase enriching the ground : 
no — but he will dig about his fruit trees and 
there bury them. The body of any small animal 
will do more good placed at the roots of an ap- 
ple tree than they were worth when alive, as 
will be seen by the growth of the tree so favored, 
when the body of theanimal has become putrified. 

Those who have been in ihe habit of wasting 
carrion may not believe this statement ; but I 
can assure them that they will find it true ; and 



184 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



if they will but once try the experiment, they 
will be convinced of the fact at once. Let the 
unbelieving- try it. — New England Farmer. 



SOILING CATTLE. 

By soiling is meant feeding cattle in their 
stalls or yards, with green grass cut for the pur- 
pose, instead of suffering them to feed at large 
in the grass field. We find in the Nashville 
Agriculturist a very interesting article on this 
subject, extracted from an English agricultural 
paper. The writer asserts, and, we think, proves, 
that three cows may be provided with food in 
the house all the year from the same quantity of 
ground which will scarcely feed one under pas- 
ture for the summer ; that one cow so fed in the 
house will give as much as three fed in the field ; 
and that each cow fed in this way will produce 
as much manure as three fed in the ordinary 
way ! We speak from some little experience of 
our own, when we affirm that soil-feeding pos- 
sesses all. the advantages claimed for it, espe- 
cially on small farms. One hand, in two hours 
every evening, can cut and haul grass enough, 
from a convenient field, to feed twenty or twenty- 
five head of cattle a day. Suppose it requires 
three hours daily labor, and then calculate the 
gain. On land much requiring manure, the ad- 
ditional manure saved would more than pay for 
this labor. Then there is the great advantage 
of making a small farm equal to one double the 
size, conducted on the other plan ; or the advan- 
tage of being able to dispose of half one's large 
farm, and make as much as before, on what re- 
mains. Think of it, and decide how far the 
situation and nature of your farm may permit 
you to adopt the soiling plan. — Louisville Journal. 



we can, as the farmers put little value upon them. 
When we commence feeding, we have a large 
kettle in which we can heat water, and a basket 
holding the quantity we intend for each animal. 
We then take the shucks to a common cutting 
box, and cut them as you would hay or oats, 
and scald them a few minutes in the kettle. 
Then take them out and sprinkle three quarts of 
meal to the bushel of cut shucks, and you will 
have a better feed than three gallons of corn or 
meal, fix it as you will. When I was last in 
Mississippi, the corn crop was very short, and I 
suggested this waj 7 of feeding to some of my 
! friends, for feeding mules and horses as well as 
milch cows, and before I left, was told the cows 
had improved very much in the quality as well 
as the quantity of their milk." 

American Farmer. 

We can, from our own experience, fully sus- 
tain the assertions of Mr. Grimes. 



NEW WAY TO MAKE FRUIT TREES. 

Two of the best farmers in the range of our 
knowledge, one a resident of Coos county, and 
the other in Orange county, Vermont, have com- 
municated to us the manner in which they se- 
cure their fruit. It is this: they dig at some 
distance from the body of a favorite tree, until 
they find a root, which they cut off. The part 
disjointed from the tree is turned up so as to ap- 
pear above the ground. It sends forth shoots 
the first season, and bears, in a few years, fruit 
precisely like that upon the parent. Let those 
whose trees are decaying, or who wish to in- 
crease good varieties, try the experiment. 

N H. Whig. 



ELDER. 

We have seen it stated somewhere, that elder 
branches, intermixed in their layers between 
bundles of oats, &c. will prevent rats from de- 
stroying the grain. Will any body vouch for 
it? 



! 



WHEAT. 



SHUCKS. 



Mr. J. A.Grimes, of Horrodsburgh, Kentucky, 
gives the following as his method of feeding 
milch cows: 

" We procure in the fall, all the corn-shucks 



The Germantown Telegraph, which has much 
credit for its agricultural articles, speaking of the 
crop of Mr. Lukens, of Pennsylvania, says : 

" From the appearance of the straw, we should 
judge that the crop had been cut at a proper 
time — we mean early — earlier by a week than 
most farmers are in the habit of entering their 
grain fields. Indeed, we have long been of the 
opinion that the generality of farmers almost 
always cut their grain too late, and subject them- 
selves, in consequence, to heavy losses, from the 
injury, and in some cases, the destruction of their 
crops, by mildew and rust ; for it is a fact, sus- 
ceptible of the clearest proof, that nearly all the 
harm received by the wheat and rye, from these 
causes, is effected after the crop has sufficiently 
matured for cutting. 

"Farmers should not be afraid of cutting loo 
early. We have repeatedly known grain to be 
cut while in its milky state, and to produce as 
heavy and handsome a berry as a miller would 
wish to grind, with not a speck on the straw to 
mar its golden hue. While on the very next 
farm, where they were ' not going to be such 
fools as to cut grain before it was ripe,' and de- 
layed harvesting it a week or ten days longer, 
nearly the entire crop was destroyed by rust. 
Let the experiment be tried, at least in a small 
way, by our agricultural friends, when each one 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



185 



can judge for himself; and let the result be com- 
municated to us, that the farming interest ge- 
nerally may reap the advantage of it, whatever 
it may be." 



TOBACCO. 



A writer in the Farmers' Register maintains, 
that tobacco is not more exhausting in its nature 
than any other great staple, extensively culti- 
vated. He esteems it the most profitable, indeed 
the only reliable, crop for Eastern Virginia, es- 
pecially that portion of it, which would be con- 
tained between two lines from the Atlantic to 
the Mississippi, passing through the towns of 
Raleigh and Fredericksburg. This, he says, 
has been designated, par excellence, the tobacco 
country. The cheapest mode of making tobac- 
co, he says, is the one pursued by Mr. Old, of 
Powhatan. He keeps two lots, which are al- 
ternately cultivated in oats and tobacco. The 
oats rolled down, when perfectly ripe, and, if con- 
venient, ploughed in. If the lots are rich when 
the system is commenced, they will yield, every 
other year, at least one thousand pounds to the 
acre, and continued to improve. 

The author is evidently a sensible and plea- 
sant writer, and one very highly spoken of by 
the Editor of the Register. 



desirous to make preparations for this excellent 
plan of fencing. The description alluded to 
may be found at page 20, vol. 1 of the Planter. 



VINEGAR. 



To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

My Dear Sir, — I am much pleased with an 
article that appeared in one of your early num- 
bers, on the subject of a post and rail fence, and 
have determined to try it. I am in want of a 
morticing axe, such as you describe, and will 
avail myself of your offered services to procure 
one. I have already gotten together a large 
quantity of posts, for winter work, and hope to 
show you a pretty line of post and rail fence 
when you visit me next spring. 

Yours, * * * *. 

The above is an extract from a private letter, 
but as we have had several applications for the 
morticing axe, some of which may appear to 
have been neglected, we will avail ourselves of 
this opportunity, to say, that we ordered a lot 
from Mr. John Hitchcock, some time ago, to 
meet the wishes of our friends. The necessary 
delay attendant on an extensive establishment for 
the manufactory of edge tools, which he is 
erecting in this city, has prevented their comple- 
tion. We have, however, every assurance that 
they will be ready, now, in a few days, when 
we shall be happy to supply all those who are 
Vol. 1—22 



In the Detroit Farmer, Mr. Holt gives the 
following statement of a mode of obtaining vine- 
gar from the sugar beet : 

" The last season I grated about a bushel 
of the sugar beet to a fine pulp, and pressed the 
juice therefrom, of which I obtained six gallons. 
I put the samein a vinegar barrel, which was 
entirely empty, and in less than two weeks I 
had as good and as pleasant vinegar as I ever 
obtained from cider, and was equally as strong 
and clear. I see no reason why our farmers 
cannot have good vinegar as abundantly as if 
they had a plenty of apples for making cider." 



LIME. 



An ingenious writer in the American Farmer 
has ventured the suggestion, that the beneficial 
action of lime and plaster of pans is to be attri- 
buted to the acid, rather than to the bases, of 
these substances, and infers, that a series of ex- 
periments should be made with different acids. 
He states that gardeners, in the neighborhood 
of London, are in the habit of watering their 
cucumbers with a weak dilution of sulphuric 
acid. He also attributes a peculiarly green and 
healthy appearance he once observed in a por- 
tion of a corn crop, to the fact, that that portion 
of the seed had been steeped in a solution of 
sulphate of iron, to prevent the depredations of 
the crows. 

As the writer himself suggests, the theory 
needs observation and farther facts to confirm it. 



HESSIAN FLY. 

From Silliman's Journal, a work of unrivalled 
reputation, we extract the following, the conclu- 
sion of a minute examination into the history 
and nature of the Hessian fly : 

"A few suggestions may be made respecting 
the best modes of preventing the ravages of the 
Hessian fly. They have all been published be- 
fore, by others, but they are of such a nature 
that there is little probability that any of them 
will ever exterminate the insect. The stouter 
varieties of wheat ought always be chosen, and 
the land should be kept in good condition. If 
fall wheat is sown late, some of the eggs will 
be avoided, but risk of winter killing the plants 
will be incurred. If cattle are permitted to graze 



186 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the wheat fields during the fall, they will devour 
many of the eggs. A large number of the pu- 
pae may be destroyed by burning the wheat 
stubble immediately after harvest, and then 
ploughing and harrowing the land. This me- 
thod will undoubtedly do much good. As the 
Hessian fly also lays its eggs, to some extent, 
on rye and barley, these crops should be treated 
in a similar manner." 



SUCKERS. 



The following is an extract from a letter re- 
ceived from Mr. D. P. Curtis, of Warwick coun- 
ty, Virginia : 

" I perceive that farmers differ much as re- 
gards the propriety of suckering corn. My own 
experience teaches me that suckers, which spring 
from below the first joint of the mother stalk, 
will put forth surface roots and produce as good 
corn as the stalk itself. Provided the season is 
favorable, and the com too thinly planted, this 
may prove an advantage. But it seems to me, 
that a good farmer would plant his corn as thick 
as his land would bear, and keep off the suckers." 



TRANSPLANTING. 
We are pleased to find from inquiries ad- 
dressed to us, that our suggestions about the 
advantages of a good orchard have not been 
unavailing, and as this is the proper season for 
transplanting, we will take the liberty of warn- 
ing our friends against the common error of set- 
ting trees too deep. They should never be set 
deeper than they were before removal. In that 
case, the upper roots will be very near the sur- 
face. A stake, rather than extra depth, should 
be relied on to stay them. Dig a hole four feet 
square and two feet deep — fill it up, to within 
five or six inches of the top, with rich mould, 
taking care to cover the bottom of the hole with 
two or three layers of small stones. This will 
serve to draw off the superfluous moisture, and 
wonderfully improve the growth of your trees, 
as well as the quality of your fruit. Be careful 
not to bruise the tender roots, but let them as- 
sume the position nature assigned them, and you 
will not lose one tree in a thousand. 



FATTENING. 

We copy the following excellent rules for fat- 
tening animals from the Albany Cultivator. We 
would only add to them the requisition of com- 
fortable quarters, good straw beds, and cleanli- 
ness, with occasional irritations of the skin. 



Close attention to these directions will ensure 

success. 

"1st. The Preparation of Food. — This should 
be so prepared that its nutritive properties may 
be all made available to the use of the animal, 
and not only so, but appropriated with the least 
possible expenditure of muscular energy. The 
ox that is obliged to wander over an acre to get 
the food he should find on two or three square 
rods — the horse that is two or three hours eating 
the coarse food he would swallow in fifteen mi- 
nutes if the grain was ground, or the hay 
cut as it should be — the sheep that spends 
hours in making its way into a turnip, when if 
it was sliced it would eat it in as many minutes — 
the pig that eats raw potatoes, or whole corn, 
when either cooked, could be eaten in one quar- 
ter of the time now used, may indeed fatten, but 
much less rapidly than if their food was given 
them in a proper manner. All food should be 
given to a fattening animal in such a state, that 
as little time and labor as possible, on the part 
of the animal, shall be required in eating. 

" 2d. The food should be in abundance. — From 
the time the fattening process commences, until 
the animal is slaughtered, he should never be 
without food. Health and appetite are best pro- 
moted by change of food rather than by limiting 
the quantity. The animal that is stuffed and 
starved by turns, may have streaked meat, but 
it will be made too slowly for the pleasure or , 
profit of the good farmer. 

" 3d. The food should be given regularly. — This 
is one of the most essential points in feeding ani- 
mals. If given irregularly, the animal indeed 
consumes his food, but he soon acquires a rest- 
less disposition, is disturbed at every appearance 
of his feeder, and is never in that quiet state so 
necessary to the taking on of fat. It is sur- 
prising how readily any animal acquires habits 
of regularity in feeding, and how soon the in- 
fluence of this is felt in the improvement of his| 
condition. When at the regular hour, the pig 
has had his pudding, or the sheep its turnips, 
they compose themselves to rest, with the con- 
sciousness that their digestion is not to be un- 
seasonably disturbed, or their quiet broken by 
unwonted invitations to eat. 

"4th. The animal should not be needlessly in- 
truded upon between the hours of feeding. — All 
creatures fatten much faster in the dark than in 
the light, a fact only to be accounted for by their 
greater quiet. Some of those creatures that are 
the most irritable and impatient of restraint while 
feeding, such as turkeys and geese, are found to 
take on fat rapidly when confined in dark rooms, 
and only fed at stated hours by hand. There is 
no surer proof that a pig is doing well, than to 
see him eat his meal quickly and then retire to 
his bed, to sleep or cogitate until the hour of 
feeding returns. Animals while fattening should 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



187 



never be alarmed, never rapidly driven, never be 
fed at unseasonable hours, and above all things, 
never be allowed to want for food." 



WHEAT. 



From the same paper we copy the following- 
observations on the preparation of seeds : 

PREPARATION OF SEED. 

Next to having good seed, in our estimation, 
is the preparation of it previous to sowing. This 
should never be neglected. Washing it assists 
materially in freeing it from all foul seeds, de- 
stroying the ova of insects that may have been 
deposited upon it, and the alkaline solutions 
which should always be used, act a most im- 
portant part in aiding the germination of the 
seed. Among the experiments which have been 
made to test the effects of various washes or 
steeps, the following from Young's Annals of 
Agriculture, and which have been frequently 
repeated and varied, but with similar effects, may 
be considered the best and most conclusive : 

"December 7th, sowed fourteen beds with the 
same seed wheat, as black with smut as ever I 



any. 



Results condensed. 



Smutty ears. 



Bed No. 1, sown dry, nothing- done to it, had 377 

" 2, washed well in clean water, - - 325 

" 3, " in lime water, - 43 

,( 4, " in a lye of wood ashes, - 31 

" 5, " in arsenic and salt mixture, 28 

" 6, steeped in lime water four hours, had 12 

" 7, " in lye four hours, had - 3 

" 8, " in arsenic four hours, had - 1 

" 9, " in lime water twelve hours, had 6 

t: 10, " in lye twelve hours, had - 

" 11, " in arsenic twelve hours, had 4 

" 12, " in lime water 24 hours, had 

" 13, " in lye twenty-four hours, had 

" 14, " in arsenic twenty-four hours, had 5 

M. Dombasle, the celebrated French agricul- 
turist, prefers a wash made of Glauber salts, the 
seed to be soaked in this three or four hours and 
then dried in caustic lime. This would not be 
materially different from the practice now so 
common of washing or rather soaking the seed 
wheat in brine, and then drying it with quick 
lime, a practice we can unhesitatingly recom- 
mend to every wheat grower. Let the brine be 
strong enough to float all light or defective seeds, 
and after a thorough soaking, drain the seed 
slightly, pour it upon a floor, and dry it with 
newly slaked lime, as on the causticity of this, 
much of the benefit of liming is depending. We 
have tried drying brined wheat with gypsum 
instead of lime, but so far as the smut was con- 
cerned, it was a decided failure. That part of 
the field sown with the gypsumed seed was 
about the smuttiest wheat we ever saw, while 
that part which was limed was perfectly free and 
pure. In addition to the advantages of liming 
wheat for the prevention of smut, we are con- 
vinced that alkaline substances, such as lime, 



soda, wood lye, &c. perform an important part 
in aiding the germination of the seed, by con- 
verting the deposit of nourishment which nature 
has provided in the seed itself in the shape of 
starch, flour, gum, or mucilage, into a substance 
suitable for the food of the young plant, more 
quickly than would be done if not thus aided. 
Every person who has made the experiment with 
seeds prepared with lime, and those unprepared, 
must have been surprised at the difference in the 
time of their coming up, and the vigor of their 
growth. Thus beet or turnip seed soaked and 
part dried in lime, and the other sowed without, 
has been found to have the advantage altogether 
on the side of the limed part ; and the same re- 
sult will be had in the preparation of wheat. 

M. Maltereu, in a series of experiments on the 
germination of seeds, found that they germinated 
much quicker in alkaline solutions than in acids; 
that they germinate sooner at the negative or 
alkaline pole of a galvanic battery, than at the 
positive or acid one ; and as galvanic or electric 
agency is now known to exert a powerful influ- 
ence over" vegetation, it can scarce be doubted 
that the alkaline agency is exerted in this way 
in the chemical changes necessary to fit the 
starch, gum, &c. for the food of the young plant. 



PINE SAW DUST. 
A Mr. White, from Mississippi, inquires, in the 
Cultivator, with what benefit pine saw dust can 
be applied as manure. It may be, as the Editor 
suggests, that it can be used advantageously in 
stables to absorb the urine, but we are satisfied, 
from our own experience, as well as the testi- 
mony of others, that the saw dust of the southern 
pine will lie in the ground for years without an 
approach to decay. It is esteemed, hereabouts, 
rather injurious than otherwise, and we have 
known the manure from stables, where it was 
used for bedding, refused as a gift. 



REMEDY FOR THE TURNIP FLY. 
Mr. B. P. Johnson, in the Cultivator, says, 
that he has tried with great success the plan, 
recommended by Mr. Parsons, of soaking turnip 
seed for twenty-four or forty-eight hours in tan- 
ners oil, and then rolling them in plaster, to fa- 
cilitate the sowing. It is an effectual preventive 
against the ravages of the fly, or flea, that is so 
much dreaded by the cultivator of turnips. 



PRESERVATION OF TIMBER. 
To the Editors of the Cultivator. 

My name having been unexpectedly asso- 
ciated with the publication in your columns of 



188 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



the discoveries of M. Boucherie, relative to the 
preservation of timber, by the infusion of various 
antiseptic fluids into the previous circulation of 
the tree, it seems proper that I should communi- 
cate a few explanatory facts. 

There seems to be some doubt in the minds 
of many of the practicability of infusing liquid 
substances in the manner recommended. To 
such I respectfully suggest, if they happen to 
have a favorite ash or oak growing near their 
dwellings, to bore a few holes with an auger 
near the place where trees are usually cut with 
an axe — entirely into the heart of the tree — fill 
the hole with the preserving or coloring sub- 
stances, plug up the holes carefully, and mark 
the progress of the fluid by means of the leaves. 
This is a very cheap and easy process, and is a 
practical remedy for those who apprehend any 
difficulty in placing large timbers in tanks and 
saturating them by external applications. 

Under Kyan's patent, (obtained in England, 
throughout the most of Europe, and in this coun- 
try,) corrosive sublimate has been used for pre- 
serving from the dry-rot, timber and textile fa- 
brics. This salt combines with the fluids of the 
timber, and forms solid precipitates that are not ca- 
pable of absorp ion from the atmosphere of either 
nitrogen, oxygen, or ammonia. Many cheap sub- 
stitutes have been suggested, and as early as 
six years ago, Dr. Woollastan proposed sulphate 
of copper, or blue vitriol ; and some trials were 
reported to the House of Commons. The whole 
evidence produced and submitted to that assem- 
bly is important ; it seems to prove beyond dis- 
pute that Dr. W.'s discovery is more important 
than Kyan's, and was suggested by his ac- 
quaintance with the copper mines, where he 
had noticed that wood subjected to the ope- 
ration of the cupreous waters had been pre- 
served many years, while those in the iron 
and lead mines soon decayed. He has since 
made numerous trials with various salts, and has 
■uniformly found that sulphate of copper is the 
best preservative. Since his experiments have 
been successful, Mr. Margery has taken out a 
patent for the exclusive right of using sulphate 
of copper for this purpose, and it has excited 
much interest in the English journals. A pa- 
tent, I understand, has been refused in this coun- 
try, either on account of the individual not being 
a citizen, or of his not being the inventor. 

In the Boston Daily advertiser, of a few weeks 
back, you may find a copy of Margery's specifi- 
cation. I have not the paper by me, but the 
following is part of the specification : " To one 
pound of sulphate of copper add four gallons of 
water; let it be for about two days, frequently 
stirring it ; then let it run upon the wood or other 
substance intended to be preserved, which should 
be allowed to remain in a tank, and be kept un- 



der the fluid two days more ; it should be sub- 
mitted in a perfectly dry state." 

Respectfully, fee Caleb Carmalt. 
Friendsville, Susquehanna co., Pa. ) 
7th month 26, 1841. j 

We have frequently noticed the colored wa- 
ters of the upper part of the Chickahominy river. 
It evidently proceeds from some mineral, which 
we have heard suggested, with no great likeli- 
hood, to be copper. In this water, many trees 
and shrubs are growing. Can any of our Hano- 
ver friends inform us, whether the wood of this 
growth is tinged with the color of the water, or 
whether any peculiar quality has been imparted 
to it ? The subject is very curious, and any in- 
formation will be interesting. 



We should as soon expect to find a good nut- 
meg made of wood, as the delicate flavor of our 
favorite herb extracted from an American weed; 
But nothing is too difficult for Yankee ingenui- 
ty. We find the following novel announcement 
in the Farmers' Visitor : 

AMERICAN TEA. 

Loudon, JV. H., July, 1841. 
To the Editor of the Farmers' Monthly Visitor. 

As there are many inquiries respecting the 
gathering and drying our native American tea, 
I would observe that this tea has mostly been 
used for a medicine as a remedy for pleurisy, 
which has given it the name of ribweed : there- 
fore the best method of drying it to make it pa- 
lateable has been little studied. My method has 
been to strip the leaves from the stalk with the 
hand in the field as it stands — put them in tin 
pans and set them in a warm oven till wilted — 
then dry them on blankets in the shade. Great 
improvements may be made on this method, I 
have no doubt. 

Habit has a strong hold on man : there are 
those who have taken this tea at first as medi- 
cine, and who prefer it to the tea imported from 
China after using it for a while. This plant may 
be found in almost every part of New England — 
it has all the exhilarating properties of foreign 
tea, and may be secured with little expense. 
Respectfully yours, 

Shaduach Cate. 

The Chinese had as well knock under at once. 
The lazy louts will find Yankee enterprize more 
difficult to contend against than British oppres- 



ASSOCIATION. 

The advantages resulting from association are 
universally admitted. Man is by nature grega- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



189 



rious. Union is the guardian spirit of our in- 
stitutions. Its strength has been exemplified by 
JEsop with a bundle of rods. All classes but 
the agricultural have felt the benefit of united 
action. It is true, they are more separated than 
other classes, and possess less facility of commu- 
nication. But until that difficulty is overcome, 
until farmers erect themselves into a class, and 
pursue their profession as such, they will never 
bring their art to the perfection which it is ca- 
pable of attaining. Individual and isolated ac- 
tion needs the stimulant of public exhibition. 
The gratification of an honest pride, the applause 
of friends, are nobler, and we believe stronger 
incentives than pecuniary interest. In England, 
where the landed interest is the great support of 
a wealthy aristocracy, the annual meetings of 
their agricultural associations are gotten up with 
great splendor, and with great effect. The time 
is a jubilee and a holiday, throughout the land. 
The farmers meet in thousands to witness the 
great exhibitions of agricultural improvements, 
and, probably, in a few days, he learns more 
from the wisdom of others, than his individual 
exertions have obtained for him during the year. 
It is true, that these meetings are gotten up and 
supported by the aristocracy, who are identified 
with agriculture. But we too have an aristo- 
cracy, much more numerous, and much more 
powerful than any that exists in Europe. We 
all belong to that class, and the interest of all is 
identified with agriculture. It is the primevial, 
natural, occupation of man, and its supremacy is 
absolutely necessary to the existence of free insti- 
tutions. Let us, then, all unite in sustaining this 
great art, by which all others are sustained. Let 
us form associations and annual exhibitions ; not 
poor, meagre shows, unworthy of attention, but 
let the powerful and wealthy landed proprietors, in 
every district, unite in getting up an annual ex- 
hibition, worthy of the name. The mechanics 
lately held a fair in the city of Boston, at which 
there was an attendance of seven thousand per- 
sons on the first day. Associations are spring- 
ing up all around us. Let us not be behind our 
sister States. Every little paper in South Ca- 
rolina is crowing over us, with its published list 
of seventeen agricultural societies. Give us a 
list of twenty, and we will publish it at the head 
of our paper. 

We hear complaints from some sections of the 
country that the calling of the farmer is in dis- 
repute. It is not so here. W T e are a great agri- 



cultural people. Manufactures and commerce 
are looked upon as subsidiary to the great art, 
which calls them into being. The cultivator of 
the earth is the lord of the land. The wealth, 
refinement, and information of the State are to 
be found in this class. Indeed it is the cynosure 
of all eyes. It is the haven of rest that all seek. 
Amidst the busy mart, in the toil and dust of 
the streets, the weary merchant, the exhausted 
artisan, lays the flattering unction to his soul, 
that he will, one day, be enabled to rank with 
the easy, stately, and dignified farmer he has 
just passed in his hasty walk. It behoves all 
such to lend their aid in perfecting the science 
to which they are looking for repose, and as the 
best means to effect it, to contribute their assist- 
ance to the support of agricultural societies. 

FALL PLOUGHING. 

The following article, from the Genesee Far- 
mer, on the subject of fall ploughing, seems to 
us judicious and well timed. It coincides, too, 
with our previously formed opinions on the sub- 
ject, which, we believe, are those also of a ma- 
jority of farmers. And yet, we understand that 
some of our most practical men, and best in- 
formed farmers, are opposed to the system. Mr. 
William Wickham, we understand, condemns 
it, and Mr. E. Winston expressed to us his de- 
termination to abandon it. We should be much 
pleased to learn the objections of either of these 
gentlemen to a system that is so generally ap- 
proved. It may be, that their land is of the po- 
rous character alluded to in the last paragraph • 
at any rate, we should be glad to be informed 
upon the subject. 

The following are the reasons given in favor 
of fall ploughing : 

" The l Practical Farmer' says, the more scien- 
tific opinion is in favor of fall ploughing, because 
to the action of air and moisture, it adds that 
of frost, whose sceptic or dividing quality is se- 
cond only to that of the plough itself. In clay 
soils the preparation should never be omitted ; 
because on those the action of the frost is greater, 
and because one ploughing of this kind, may 
save two in the spring, when time is every thing. 

"The Monthly Genesee Farmer, vol. 1, page 
180, in an article on this subject, says : 

"1st. It is one of the established principles of 
philosophical agriculture, that the soil derives 
much of its productive property from the air, and 
that chemical changes and combinations are 
constantly going on, by which fertility is much 



190 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



increased. These alterative effects of the at- 
mosphere, and these changes of the qualities of 
the soil, are the more active and efficient as new 
surfaces are exposed to new action. For in- 
stance, much greater quantities of carbonic gas 
will be absorbed by a given surface of earth, if 
the earth is frequently stirred, than if it was al- 
lowed to remain with a single saturated surface. 
Ploughing, by exposing new surfaces to the ac- 
tion of the atmosphere must be productive of 
essential benefit ; and as fall ploughing gene- 
rally takes place after crops which have par- 
tially exhausted the surface of some of its nu- 
tritive and absorbent qualities, its service in aid 
of spring crops is greatly enhanced. 

' : 2d. There is always on land more or less 
grass, weeds, stubble, or other vegetable matters 
convertible into mould by fermentation and de- 
composition, a process which is greatly aided by 
being turned under the surface of the earth. 
Fall ploughing renders such substances much 
sooner available in advancing the growth of 
crops, than they would be if left uncovered during 
the winter, independent of the great loss neces- 
sarily sustained by the washing away of the 
lighter materials and their dispersion by the 
winds. 

" 3d. Nothing acts more efficiently on moist 
soils in promoting vegetation, than high pulver- 
ization ; and fall ploughing aids this operation 
most essentially. Lands that if ploughed in the 
spring only, will remain in large cakes or lumps, 
defying the efforts of the farmer to reduce them 
suitably, will, if ploughed in the fall, be found 
loosened in texture and fitted for early operations 
in the spring of the year. Frost is the most 
efficient disintegrator of the soil with which the 
agriculturist is acquainted, and he should avail 
himself of its valuable labors in all practicable 
cases. 

" 4th. The earlier the ground can be prepared 
for the suitable reception of spring crops, such 
as corn, spring wheat and barley, the better it 
will be found for the cultivator ; and in nine 
cases out of ten, early sown crops are the hea- 
viest and most productive. 

"5th. Ploughing land acts more effectually in 
destroying insects than any other mode of treat- 
ment, and fall ploughing for this purpose is pre- 
ferable to any other. Those insects which pro- 
duce the most mischief to the farmer, such as 
the fly, cut worm, grub, &c. cannot resist the 
frost of our winters, if prematurely exposed to 
its action by a foil ploughing. The cut worm 
which accumulates in such numbers in old mea- 
dows and pastures, is thus destroyed, and crops 
planted on them saved. 

" Lastly. Our summers are so limited in dura- 
tion, that unless the time allotted to vegetation 
is fully occupied by the growth and ripening of 
plants, the certain failure of crops may be anti- 
cipated. Hence the farmer usually is more hur- 



ried by his work in the spring than he ought to 
be, in order to avoid having his crops caught by 
the frost and snow. It should be the object of 
the farmer to have his necessary labor as nearly 
equalized through the season as possible, and 
thus avoid all pressures at inconvenient seasons 
of the year. Experience shows that the farmer 
in most cases, has more leisure hours in the fall 
of the year than at any other time, and he who 
would work it right, should employ this time in 
advancing his next spring's work, for such fall 
ploughing emphatically is, and thus preventing 
the pressure of business then usually felt. 

" On soils very porous, those composed of gra- 
vel or sand, in which, for the want of a retentive 
sub-stratum manures are apt to sink, and their 
good effects to be lost ; or on lands liable to be 
washed, as side hills, where the finer particles 
of the soil are in danger of being carried off by 
every rain, or the melting of the snow, fall 
ploughing may not be admissible, but on most 
others we are confident its adoption will be at- 
tended with beneficial effects." 



To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Sir, — In looking over the September number 
of your very useful and valuable paper, I was 
struck with the article by W. W. on manuring, 
in which he advances the very singular doctrine 
that " the mere covering of the land makes it 
wonderfully productive," and asserts " that a 
galled spot on which a few planks are laid will 
become extremely fertile." Now, sir, I agree 
with him in thinking that a heavy top dressing 
of straw is better for the land than the usual 
quantity of manure ploughed in, so soon as it is 
hauled out. But I account for it in a totally 
different manner. I do not think that the mere 
covering has much, if any thing to do with the 
increased improvement which that mode of using 
it effects; but that it is brought about by the 
straw remaining on the land during the whole 
spring and summer, and of course each rain 
carrying fresh nutriment from it to the roots of 
the clover or other grass, which very much in- 
creases its growth, thereby affording a much 
larger quantity of vegetable matter for turning 
in on the fallow fields. But. if he will pass, the 
straw, which he now places unrotted on his land, 
through his stable yard, and have it there well 
decomposed, before he hauls it out, he will find 
it at least one-third more efficient, provided, he 
will use it in the way which he now uses his 
straw, that is, if he will top dress the fall before 
he fallows for wheat. In one way, and in one 
way alone, do I conceive the covering of the 
land to be valuable, and that is as a protection 
to the roots of the clover from the winter's frosts, 
giving an earlier start than it would otherwise 
have, which is of course desirable. 

As for the planks, if W. W. were to use them 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



191 



extensively, he would find it rather an expensive 
mode of improving his land, and if he can ever, 
or by any process make his " galled spots ex- 
tremely fertile," he entirely beats all of my farm- 
ing- acquaintances, the most of whom have long 
since given up every hope of succeeding in the 
cure of any of their regular galls. 

Sept. 27, 1841. A Hanoverian. 

We were aware that the plan of our esteemed 
correspondent, " W. W." would meet with much 
opposition, on account of its variation from the 
established mode. We are glad to see that it 
has excited interest, and hope the subject will 
be thoroughly discussed. If any of our sub- 
scribers can bring their evidence to the support 
of W. W. we shall be glad to get it. "A Hano- 
verian" has friends enough — his is the established 
mode, and so far has the merit of common con- 
sent. We have shown the communication of 
"A Hanoverian" to " W. W." and he says, that 
he has no theory to advance, he only repeats the 
fact, that having tried both modes, he finds his 
farm much more productive under the system he 
advocates, than the trampling method, generally 
used. We can assure our readers that "W. 
W." is not a man likely to make a mistake about 
his own interest ; he can calculate dollars and 
cents as closely as any man, and we hardly 
know one upon whose judgment we would 
sooner rely. 

We arc sorry to hear "A Hanoverian" say 
that his friends know no method of making 
galled spots productive. There are a good many 
11 galled spots" in old Hanover, that we hope one 
day to see covered with verdure. One of the 
most productive spots we ever saw had been a 
gall, reclaimed by a cover of old leather, and 
other animal matter. There are many ways 
certainly of reclaiming galls, dependant upon 
the cause from which they proceed. Generally, 
they arise from the washing away of the upper 
surface or mould, leaving exposed an impervious 
and unproductive clay sub-soil. Here an ad- 
mixture of sand, lime, and vegetable matter may 
be necessary. We should be in a bad way, in- 
deed, if galls could not be made fertile. As to 
the theory of " covering" we do not know much 
about it, but have been under the impressiom, 
that any thing, even a plank ^ which covered the 
ground, made it productive. If we err in this, 
we shall be glad to be corrected. 



TO OBTAIN WATER. 
In our August number appeared a notice of 



an article in the Albany Cultivator, upon the 
subject of obtaining water in dry situations, by 
artificial means. We expressed our.sclvcs a lit- 
tle sceptical at the time; our suspicions of ita 
being an entire humbug have been confirmed by 
numerous reports from correspondents, who are 
unanimous in stating that they have tried it on 
a variety of soils, invariably without success. 



LEVEL 




To the Editor of (he Southern Planter: 

My Dear Sir, — I have lately become a sub- 
scriber to your agricultural periodical, and rejoice 
much to find that we are gradually extending 
the list of home productions. We have now, I 
think, no occasion to cross the Potomac for an 
agricultural paper. But I well know that empty 
compliments will not pay the expenses of print- 
ing. I am, therefore, employed in obtaining for 
you a list of subscribers, which I will send you 
as soon as it is complete. Such exertions arc 
necessary in the infancy of every paper, and I 
hope every friend to the cause of agriculture in 
Virginia will stir himself in your behalf. Wc 
can and will sustain a cheap periodical in the 
Old Dominion, provided, it is of the right cha- 
racter, and if you, sir, will continue to bestow 
upon your work the same labor that marks its 
pages to this period, you need be under no ap- 
prehensions for want of a liberal support- 
But the main object of my taking pen in hand 
was to express my approbation of your efforts 
to introduce into Virginia that most valuable sys- 
tem of under draining. A little experience on 
the subject has convinced me that it is entitled 
to all the encomiums bestowed upon it. It is 
absolutely necessary to relieve lands from super- 
fluous moisture to make them productive. Most 
of our lands are underlaid with a retentive sub- 
soil, and are of the very kind to be most bene- 
fitted by this system. Of open draining I have- 
done a great deal, and assure you I have found 



192 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



my account in it. I am certain that thorough 
draining will often quadruple the product, and, 
indeed, it is calculated to render some lands, now 
productive only of noxious weeds, the most fer- 
tile in the country. 

It has been found by experience, that, to carry 
off the water, a fall of at least three inches in 
every fifteen feet is necessary, and as it is use- 
less labor to make it more than is required, this 
is the proportion I have adopted in my draining 
operations. To guide me in effecting this ob- 
ject, I use the common span level, figured at the 
top of this article. But in my mode of using 
it, I lay claim to a little originality. The feet 
are exactly fifteen feet apart, and one of them 
three inches shorter than the other. The in- 
strument is now placed upon a perfect level, and 
the place where the bob line falls on the cross 
piece is marked plainly. This is, of course, out 
of the centre, one leg being shorter than the 
other. My instrument is now completed. I 
have only to set the shortest leg in the direction 
in which I want the water to run, and lower it, 
until, the line falls on the mark, and I have, of 
course, a fall of thee inches in fifteen feet. I 
now move the long foot of the level to where 
the short one stood before, and again make the 
bob play in place. Of course, the fall is con- 
tinued. 

This will be found to be a very simple and 
efficient instrument, and may be placed in the 
hands of a man of the plainest understanding. 
In making water furrows, it is frequently a most 
valuable auxiliary. These directions, simple as 
they are, are not useless, for there are many 
overseers, aye, and proprietors too, who are ig- 
norant of the use of a span level. If I shall 
enlighten a single cultivator of the soil, I hope 
you will esteem this worth the place it will oc- 
cupy. A Drainer. 



STUMPS— TO REMOVE. 

We published an article, some time since, in 
reply to enquiries for a stump extractor.- In ad- 
addition thereto, we copy the following plan 
from the Western Farmer. It possesses the 
great recommendations of cheapness and sim- 
plicity. 

" Procure a dry red-elm lever, about twenty 
feet long, and about six to eight inches in diam- 
eter — a good stout log chain, with two yokes of 
oxen ; this is all the machinery that is necessary. 
The mode of operation is thus : wrap the log 
chain around the stump a little above the 
ground, and make what is called a log-hitch ; 
lay the lever horizontally on the giound, the 
large end next to the chain and against the 
stump ; make the other end of the chain fast to 
this end of the lever, drawing the lever tight 
against the stump ; the cattle are hitched to the 



small end of the lever, and driven around the 
stump in a circle of which the lever is the ra- 
dius. One revolution of the oxen round the 
stump will generally twist out the largest of 
them ; but should not the power thus applied be 
sufficient to move the stump, the side roots may 
be uncovered and cut partly off; after this is 
done, the stump will be easily removed. You 
will find this plan much preferable to any " pa- 
tent stump extractor," that you may have seen 
puffed in the papers." 



EGGS— TO PRESERVE. 

A patent has been obtained in England for 
the following method of preserving eggs, which, 
it is asserted, will keep them sound and fresh 
for several years. 

One bushel of quick lime, 32 oz. salts, 8 oz. 
cream of tartar. Mix the same with as much 
water as will reduce the composition to a con- 
sistency that will swim an egg. Put in your 
eggs and keep the top covered. 



HESSIAN FLY. 
A Mr. Oglesby of Pennsylvania asserts that 
he has discovered an infallible preventive of the 
ravages of the Hessian fly, as we learn from the 
following paragraph in the Harrisonburg Tele- 
graph. 

" Passing the farm of Mr. Oglesby the other 
day, our attention was called to a field of wheat 
of extraordinary promise, on which we were 
informed he had applied his preventive of the 
Hessian Fly. At a short distance from it on 
ground equally good, we were shown a field, 
where the remedy had not been applied, that 
was greatly injured by the fly. It would 
not, we thought, produce one-third part of the 
other field per acre. In the former field the fly 
has not been seen since the wheat came up, 
while in the latter it was visible in the fall, win- 
ter and spring. These have been the test fields 
for the season, and they still more conclusively 
satisfy Mr. Oglesby that he has made the im- 
portant discovery that must result in an incalcu- 
lable benefit to the country. He has proposed 
to Congress that a committee be appointed to 
test the remedy, and if they find that it is an in- 
fallible one, of which he has no doubt, that they 
will allow him a proper compensation, and then 
publish the discovery to the world for the bene- 
fit of all. 

" What is important in the matter, is, that the 
remedy is within the reach of every one. Mr. 
O. informed us that it docs not cost him more 
than ten cents per acre." 

Such is the fane}' of the farmers in this coun- 
try to be represented by the legal profession; 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



193 



that wc doubt whether Mr. Oglcsby can find a 
committee in Congress who can tell a Hessian 
fly from a cock-sparrow. At any rate we would 
advise the committee to look sharp, for many, as 
wise as Congressmen, have been fooled with 
remedies for the Hessian fly. If Mr. Oglesby 
has really made the discovery, and will declare it 
to the world, he is entitled to all the honors and 
emoluments due to a benefactor of the human 
race. 



SOILS. 



We have lately met with an excellent ex- 
tract from "Morton on Soils," the purport of 
which is, that the proper qualities of soils are 
deducible from a correct understanding of the 
office they perform. The soil itself affords no 
nourishment — it serves only as a great spring 
to receive and give up water, air, light, heat and 
decomposed vegetable and animal matter, the 
great elements of plants. There are three great 
earths the due admixture of which goes to 
make up a productive soil. Silex or sand, alu- 
mina or clay, and lime. Organic matter, whe- 
ther vegetable or animal, should be kept in an 
active slate of decomposition, because it is only 
.the substances which are evolved in the process 
that afford food for plants. 

It is the property of silex or sand, to decom- 
pose the manure bestowed upon it. So far it is 
useful ; but unless tempered with a due admix- 
ture of clay, the porousness causes evaporation 
and waste. 

A dry, light, sandy soil, on a clay subsoil, is 
more productive than on a sandy, gravelly sub- 
soil, which permits the sinking of the valuable 
qualities of the manure. The clay underneath 
also affords a ready opportunity, by deep plough- 
ing, of tempering the sand. 

A tenacious, compact clay is even less pro- 
ductive than a soil composed of sand. In such 
a soil decomposition goes on very slowly, whilst 
in sand and gravel, the process is very rapid. 
Adhesive clay is also impervious to water, which 
is collected and retained in too great quantities 
for the purposes of vegetation. 

Calcareous matter forming a soil is, gene- 
rally, a carbonate of lime. It attracts moisture, 
and chemically combines with it. When burnt 
lime is slacked, whether by exposure or other 
process, it takes up one- fourth of its weight of 
water, and is as dry and powdery as the finest 
flour. When it is exposed to the atmosphere in 
this state, it soon absorbs the carbon, which was 
expelled from it by burning, and becomes of the 
same nature as it was before it was burned, 
namely, a carbonate of lime, but only finely di- 
vided. In its caustic state, that is before it has 
attracted the carbon, it is a powerful decomposer 
Vol. 1-23 



of animal and vegetable matter ; afterwards, it 
has a tendency to preserve these substances from 
decay. 

The decomposition of organic matter, be it re- 
membered, forms the chief food of plants. The 
free ingress and egress of light, air, heat and 
moisture, are necessary to this process. We see 
then the necessity of frequently opening and 
moving the earth. We also see the necessity 
of a due admixture of the primitive earths — 
the sand to promote decomposition, and correct 
the tenacity of the clay — the clay to prevent 
too hasty evaporation and loss, and the car- 
bonate of lime to attract moisture. Wc see 
also the value of a clay subsoil, and the neces- 
sity, so frequently urged, of subsoil ploughing. 
What should be the proportion of the diffe- 
rent constituents of a productive soil, have been 
variously stated by different authors, and will, 
of course, depend much upon the moisture or 
dryness of the climate : according as it is moist, 
the soil should be friable and porous, as it is dry, 
it should be adhesive and retentive. Under 
these circumstances the proportions may vary 
from 50 to 70 per cent, of silicious matter; 
from 20 to 40 of clay, or aluminous matter, and 
from 10 to 20 of calcareous matter. The de- 
composable vegetable or animal matter should 
not exceed one-fourth of the weight of the 
earthy constituents. 

We desire to draw attention too, to the oppo- 
site effects of caustic and carbonate lime, a 
point too little regarded in experiments made 
with this article. It is not an uncommon prac- 
tice to spread lime on the manure heap, with 
very different results as reported. Now, if the 
lime is used before exposure, it hastens the de- 
composition of the organic matter, and although 
some of the gases evolved may be retained by 
the lime, the probability is, the greater part are 
lost. The carbonate, on the other hand, pre- 
vents the natural decay, and preserves these 
qualities for the growth to which they are to 
be applied. But if administered in too great 
quantities, it will retard decomposition beyond 
the period when it is desirable that it should 
take place. Lime is like an edged tool, which 
although invaluable in the hands of a skilful 
operator, may prove very injurious when wield- 
ed by an unpractised hand. 



AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 
The inquiry has often suggested itself to us, 
whether if capital and enterprise were thrown 
into agriculture in the same way as manufac- 
tures and commerce, it might not quite as often 
prove to be profitable, and lead to great improve- 
ments in this art which lies at the foundation of 
all others. It is quite evident that in this coun- 
try, agriculture often fails for want of capital. 
In every other employment, capital is lavished 
with a liberal hand • but it is stinted out to this 



194 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



in meagre pittances, and there is comparatively 
but little interest taken in improvements which 
tend to abridge labor, and in the acquisition of 
knowledge in regard to the art of cultivation. 
Even results are often not attended to at all, and 
while every thrifty mechanic, manufacturer and 
merchant, knows precisely the amount of his 
outlay, and income, and the exact cost of pro- 
duction, very few farmers pay a careful attention 
to these statistics. 

In England capital is devoted as liberally to 
agriculture, as it is to commerce and manufac- 
tures, and is even a more favorite investment 
with the nicely calculating capitalist than either 
of these last. 

Another thing in which our agriculture fails, 
we apprehend, is. a disregard of the proper divi- 
sion of labor. To entire success in any occu- 
pation it is necessary that the whole power of 
mind should be thrown into it. The mechanic 
who should undertake to learn many different 
trades, and to make his own shoes, hats, cloth- 
ing, household furniture, &c. would surely fail 
of success ; and the different branches of agri- 
culture, are separated by quite as distinct and 
broad a line as the various mechanic arts. There 
is not a single vegetable, useful to man or beast, 
the careful cultivation and preservation of which 
is not sufficient to employ the whole study and 
attention of a lifetime, and in relation to which a 
man may not every year be learning something 
new by close observation and experiment. 

Our opinion, founded on theory and observa- 
tion, is that with a greater division of labor, far- 
mers would make much more money. We do 
not suppose they will agree to this ; many ob- 
jections will be brought against it, which we 
have not time now to notice ; but there is no 
doubt that the time will come, w T hen the belief, 
now so common, that a farmer must raise a little 
of every thing, will be numbered with old and 
exploded errors. Sufficient confirmation of this 
is found in the simple fact, those farmers who 
concentrate their attention upon a few articles, 
now almost without exception succeed the best. 
To carry out this system, a different division of 
farming lands, to some extent will be required ; 
those engaged in careful tillage, will require, 
comparatively, but a few acres, while those en- 
gaged in the raising of stock, &c. may need 
their hundreds and thousands. 

The above is taken from the " Newburyport 
Herald" and is worthy of deep consideration. 

It is undoubtedly true, that many of the arts 
owe their high degree of perfection to the divi- 
sion of labor, by which, the whole intellect is 
concentrated on a small part. Nothing is more 
conducive to the attainment of excellence as 
well as economy of production. How far the 
principle is applicable to the peculiar art of agri- 



culture, is the question. If one man could em- 
ploy his capital in the constant production of one 
crop, and obtain, with facility, the articles he did 
not produce, it would, most manifestly, be to his 
interest to confine himself to the single produc- 
tion ; but the art of cultivation, unlike any other, 
is dependant upon the season. When a crop is 
planted, the action of nature must be awaited. 
She is the handmaid, whom it is the farmer's 
business to keep constantly employed. Her con- 
tract is to mature one crop at a certain period, 
and another at a different one ; and the stubborn 
jade will not be driven from her resolution, even 
to afford an opportunity of exemplifying the 
great principle of the Editor of the " Newbury- 
port Herald." Most happy would it be for the \ 
art of agriculture, if it were otherwise — if, like 
other arts, it could be subjected to the complete 
dominion of man, to be, like them, subdivided 
and allotted out in special departments. None, 
but those who are familiar with mechanical • 
operations, are aware of the vast effect produced '■ 
by a minute subdivision of labor. It often leads 
to a reduction of nine-tenths of the cost of an 
article. It is by this process, that a paper of 
pins is produced, at a cost, that would hardly 
cover the price of a single pin, if wholly manu- 
factured by one individual. To the fact that! 
advantage cannot be taken of this principle, to | 
its fullest extent, in agriculture, we chiefly as- 
cribe the retarded progress of this noble science. 
But, although, we cannot here avail ourselves 
of the skill and facility that are acquired by even 
the commonest mind in the constant repetition! 
of the same simple operation, we may carry it 
to a much greater extent than is commonly prac- ,1 
tised. Whenever an operation is to be repeated, j 
the farmer should be careful to employ those j 
hands, who may be supposed to have acquired! 
some skill by a former process. As far as prac>. ; 
ticable, his drivers, ploughmen, wood cutters, &e. 
&c. should be well taught, and kept each at his 
specific business. Every hand should know 
precisely the duty of the day, which should be, 
as near as possible, that of the day before. 
Great loss of time is occasioned by a change 
from one occupation to another. The mind, as 
well as the body, has to be turned into a new 
channel — another set of tools has to be looked 
up, and it frequently requires a new hand longer 
to get ready, than to do a job. 

Morever, we think that a farmer should con- 
fine himself to as few productions as the nature 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



195 



of things will permit. The general opinion, we 
know, is, that he should raise all that he needs 
for consumption. There are certainly many ad- 
ditions to his main crops that may be made with 
labor that would otherwise be idle, and all such 
it is, of course, the farmer's policy to produce. 
There are also some necessaries that it is cheaper 
to raise for himself, because of the inconvenience 
and expense of procuring from market, but, al- 
though the arbitrary arrangements of nature 
prevent his concentrating all his energies on one 
crop, still, he should consider the diffusion of his 
powers a necessary evil, and should carefully 
guard against its extension further than is ne- 
cessary. There is much wisdom in the old say- 
ing, " A Jack-of-all-trades is good at none." 



To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Dear Sir, — I come now to the profit of the 
hog. Aye % the profit, the profit % " that's the 
rub." And if I can succeed in convincing my 
brother farmers, that the hog is indeed a profita- 
ble animal to raise, I doubt not that in these 
pinching times, hogs will soon become " thick 
as blackberries." 

But before entering formally on this subject, 
we must settle a few preliminaries. And here 
I would state in general, that I pretend not even 
to conjecture, much less to know the ultimate ef- 
fect, which the great and rapid multiplication of 
bogs would have upon the market. Its imme- 
diate effect, I doubt not would be, just what I 
aim at in these essays — to arrest the present im- 
mense importation of pork from the west, and 
the immense drain of our money from the east, 
which is rapidly reducing us to poverty. So 
that, to avoid starving, many of us are com- 
pelled to sell out our patrimon}'-, and go to the 
west, where meat is cheap. Their present pro- 
fits will not enable them to buy meat, at a high 
rate, and remain where they are. 

What, therefore, I undertake to prove is that 
as matters now stand, it would be cheaper for all 
farmers in ordinary circumstances, to raise their 
own meat, than to buy it. And in regard to a 
large portion of them, it would be to their inte- 
rest to raise a considerable surplus for market. 
The proposition being thus stated, I proceed to 
settle the preliminaries alluded to above. The 
first is the usual price of corn, and the second is, 
the common price of pork. If it appear upon 
inqniiy, that the man pays more for his pork, 
than he can get for the corn necessary to raise 
it, the matter is at once settled, for it will then 
be evident, that in buying the former and selling 
the latter, he is doing a losing business. I am 
fully aware that the price of these two articles, 
is subject to considerable fluctuations. But I 



presume it will be conceded, that sixty cents the 
bushel or three dollars the barrel for corn ; and 
six dollars the one hundred pounds for pork, is 
about their fair average price. Last year com 
was cheaper and pork higher. The probability 
is, that this year, corn will be dearer and pork 
cheaper. It will also be conceded by all practi- 
cal farmers, that a hundred ears of corn of the 
common size, will make a bushel. Now I do 
affirm, and that not upon theory but upon the 
trial actually made hundreds of times over, so 
that now it is reduced to a regular rule — that 
two ears of corn a day, with other auxiliary 
food, is not only sufficient, but a liberal allowance 
for a hog for the first six months of his life ; and 
that four ears is a plentiful supply for the next 
six months ; so that three ears will be the ave- 
rage for the year. Beyond this age, I do not 
think it advisable to keep the hog. Indeed I 
generally dispose of him at from six to nine 
months old. Now, as the year consists of 365 
days, three times that number, or 1,095 or say 
1,100 is the number of ears that a hog will eat 
in a year. 

The next inquiry is — to what weight can you 
raise the hog in that time ? And here for an 
answer, I will not go to Doctor Martin with his 
Woburns, or to the Editor of the Kentucky 
Farmer with his Berkshires, but I will go to my 
own hog pen, where (till lately) I had none but 
the common hog of the country ; and I do affirm, 
that with the above amount of corn, and no 
clover lot to run in, my hogs did, not in one in- 
stance only, but in many instances, reach 200 
lbs. But as I intend not to be extravagant in 
any case, but to limit my calculations to the 
concessions of every practical farmer, I will put 
down the weight at 150 lbs. These prelimina- 
ries being settled, the arithmetic will stand thus. 
For 1,095 ears of corn, or say eleven bushels, 
you get a hog weighing 150 lbs. which at the 
price settled above is worth $9. Eleven bushels 
of corn at 60 cents, amounts to $6 60 — that is, 
for corn which in market (leaving out of view 
the expense of carriage, commissions, &c.) would 
bring $6 60, you have a hog worth $9. The 
difference of $2 40 is the profit on each hog. 
And upon a hundred hogs, the profit, at the same 
rate, would be $240 — a sum not to be despised 
these hard times. 

Now, let it be borne in mind, that throughout 
the whole of the above calculations, I have as- 
sumed nothing, stated nothing, that can be con- 
strued as even bordering on the extravagant. I 
have taken the common hog of the country for 
my subject, nor have I stretched him a whit be- 
yound his proper dimensions. So far from it I 
have actually gone below what a moderate and 
accurate estimate would warrant, and }-et the 
result is a handsome profit. 

But suppose, instead of our t: land pikes and 
alligators," we take Dr. Martin's Woburns, or 



196 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the Kentucky Farmer's Berkshires, what would 
be the result % The Doctor made some of his 
pigs gain 4 lbs. or more a day, whilst the Far- 
mer's (as I suppose would be the case with most 
farmers) fall considerably below. Some one, I 
see has recently beat the Doctor with a half 
Berkshire. But all these I consider as extraor- 
dinary cases. I am content at present with the 
very moderate calculations made above. 

But were I to stop here, I do not feel that I 
should do the justice to my proposition to which 
it is entitled. It is a fact that we have what 
every body admits, is an improved breed of hogs 
among us. And it is also a fact, that this breed 
is rapidly supplanting the common hog every 
where. So eager are the farmers to obtain the 
Berkshire, that they suffer themselves, in many 
instances, to be imposed on by a spurious article 
from the north. This is always to be suspected, 
where the price is even one cent below twenty 
dollars the pair. If you must get your pigs 
from the north, the best plan is to send on your 
agent and let him make judicious selections. 
Nor do I say this because I am a breeder. All 
my pigs have thus far been engaged as fast as 
they made their appearance, and many of them 
long before. 

We will suppose, then, and as the man said, 
I really think it a " very reasonable supposition 
to suppose" — that instead of the "land pikes 
and alligators" constituting, as they now do, the 
common hog of the country, the graceful and 
thrifty Berkshire will have this honor, then may 
we not, in all moderation, estimate the weight 
of our hog at from 200 to 300 lbs. at a year old % 
We will fix on the lowest number as a safe es- 
timate. And how do matters stand now on the 
score of profit ? We here have a hog worth 
$12, and we have got him for corn which in 
market would bring us only $6 60. On this 
hog, then, we have a clear profit of $5 40, and 
on a hundred such hogs, the profit would be 
$540. 

But you will inquire, do you allow nothing 
for the extra food of which you have spoken 
more than once? — for the time and trouble in 
taking care of them ? To this I reply that for 
all these, I make the most ample allowance. 
But before I tell what it is, I beg leave here to 
define what I call extra food. And that I may 
state the matter in as luminous a form as possi- 
ble, I will mention the different kinds which I 
consider most valuable, and also the different 
periods of the year when they ought to be used. 
I will begin then with the month of May, when 
(if I lived at a distance from a hay market) I 
would turn all my hogs on a clover lot, but as I 
can't afford this indulgence to my hogs, I come 
as near to it as possible in a more economical 
way — that is, I have cut and carried to them as 
much clover as they will eat. A small spot of 
clover with its first and second growth, will ge- 



nerally supply extra food from first of May till 
about the middle of July, at which time the 
cymlin crop (of which I am careful to have a 
pretty large one) begins to be fit for use. The 
cymlins, witti beet or cabbage leaves, weeds, 
purslin, &c. last till first September, when I be- 
gin to gather pumpkins freely from the corn field, 
and these are now my dependance till the end of 
the year. During the remainder of the winter 
I depend on the sugar beet — and during spring, 
up to the first May, my dependance is on the 
ruta baga turnip. Now my compensation for 
clover, cymlins, pumpkins, beets, turnips, time, 
care and all, is the manure of my hog ; so that 
for all extra food and attention, he pays me, and 
I think amply, in his manure, and for his corn, 
he pays me with his carcass with the profit 
stated above. 

In conclusion, please give my respects to Mr. 
"Amateur Bacon Eater" and say to him, that 
as he seems to have a decided preference for the 
"long legged, lean alligator," and my preference 
is equally strong for the short legged, fat Berk- 
shire, that I propose an exchange with him : and 
as I am somew 7 hat keen to drive a bargain, I 
will even give him two for one, and my hearty 
thanks to boot. This proposition must, however, 
be accepted, before the next killing time. After 
that, it will be too late. 

In the next, which will probably be the last 
of these hog-essays, I shall offer my views on 
the proper treatment of the hog. Wishing you 
all possible success in your laudable undertaking, 
allow me to subscribe myself your very sincere 
friend, J. H. Turner. 



WOOD CUTTING. 
The Editor of the Boston Cultivator repre- 
hends the practice, which is common here too, 
we think, of permitting trees to get old before 
they are cut. The consequences are indifferent 
fuel, and a great destruction of the surrounding 
growth in the falling of the tree. On the con- 
trary, if the thick young growth is occasionally 
trimmed out, you have infinitely better fuel, and 
the stump will put up many more vigorous 
shoots. The Editor compares the man, who 
permits his fuel trees to get old, to one who fails 
to eat his fruit until it begins to decay. By the 
improved system, it is maintained, a much greater 
growth can be obtained from the same quantity 
of "round. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Mr. Editor, — Flowers have been called " the 
stars of earth," "the alphabet of the angels," and 
" the smiles of God." The love of flowers has 
been esteemed the joy of infancy, a charm for 
maturity, and the source of delightful souvenirs 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



197 



for the rest of life. The study of flowers is said 
to fill our mind with agreeable ideas, to lead us 
through paths of pleasantness and ways of peace, 
and to fill us with a love of nature and nature's 
God. If these things are so, you still perhaps 
may find a place for some other curious plants 
from the scrap book of A Naturalist. 

CURIOUS PLANTS. 

Rhinanthera Coccinea. — This plant is the gem 
of flowers. It is found in the greatest perfection 
in the woods of Cochin China, where it so in- 
terlaces and festoons the trees that the whole 
forest becomes one mass of crimson and gold, 
of so intense a color that the eye can scarcely 
look upon it, exhaling a fragrance as refreshing as 
its colors are brilliant. This is a parisitical plant. 

Jluena Sterilis is a variety of oat, and is grown 
as a curiosity, under the name of " Animal Oat," 
on account of its singular hygrometrical proper- 
ties. After its seeds have fallen, the strong beards 
are so sensible of alteration in the atmosphere, 
as to be kept in an apparently spontaneous mo- 
tion, when they resemble some grotesque insect 
crawling on the ground. 

Rhus Vemex. — This plant furnishes the true 
Japan varnish. The whole shrub is in a high de- 
gree poisonous ; and its poison is communicated 
by touch or smell. In forty-eight hours after smell- 
ing or touching this plant, inflammation appears 
on the extremities, attended by burning and itch- 
ing pustules. 

Cocos Nucifera, or cocoa nut tree, grown in 
most places within the tropics. Some of these 
trees are deprived of their fruit buds in order 
that they may produce a drink called " Paviah 
Arrack." It is the employment of a certain 
class of men to climb to the top of these trees, 
in the evening, with earthen pots tied to their 
waists, which they fix there to receive the juice, 
which is regularly carried away before the sun 
has had any influence upon it. This liquor is 
sold by the natives under the name of toddy — in 
this state it is drank with avidity : after being 
kept a few hours, it begins to ferment, acquires 
a sharp taste, and a slight intoxicating quality. 
It is used for yeast, and forms an excellent sub- 
stitute. A variety of this tree growing in the 
Sechelles Islands produces leaves from 12 to 15 
feet long, and 7 to 8 broad, so that a single one 
is used to cover a whole family. 

Jisclepias. — One species of this plant, growing 
in Sierra Leone, has a juice of the color of blood, 
and Lindley says " if that plant had but grown 
in Palestine, it might be supposed to represent 
the enchanted tree which so surprised Tancred 
in the sorcerer's wood. 

'When dreadful to his view 
'The wounded bark a sanguine current shed 
'And stained the grassy turf with streaming- red.'" 

Achras Mammosa. — This tree, a native of 



South America, grows thirty or forty feet high ; 
it has leaves a foot long, and three inches wide ; 
its flowers are cream colored, and are succeed- 
ed by large oral shaped fruit, covered with a 
brownish skin, filled with a thick luscious mar- 
malade, in consequence of which, the tree is 
called the American Marmalade tree. 

Sarvacamia Flara. — This is called the side- 
saddle flower, from the resemblance of its stig- 
ma to a woman's pillion. Its leaves are tubu- 
lar, and hold water, and are furnished with lids 
which are said to close over them in dry wea- 
ther, so as to prevent the exhalation of the wa- 
ter, and in great droughts animals and birds 
have been seen to resort to them for drink. This 
plant grows in the bogs of Virginia and Carolina. 



A STEAMER. 




_, 






B 



B 

e e 



T 



B 



\±\.\±j> 



B 



^±j= : Z7 7 



Mr. Editor, — As you seem to attach some 
value to a potato steamer, I send you a sectional 
drawing of one of the most useful culinary arti- 
cles I have ever seen. It is probably the only 
one in this country, having been brought by my 
father from England, many years ago. It has 
been fitted to an ordinary cooking stove, and is 
now in daily use. 

A is an iron pot in which the steam is gene- 
rated. B B E are a continued range of tin ves- 






19S 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



sels, fitting, the first on the pot A, the balance 
in one another. Thus we have several apart- 
ments, in which various kinds of food may be 
cooked, and all, by the steam generated in the 
pot. Nor is there any possibility of a commin- 
gling of the one with the other, for, whilst the 
steam is made to pass through all, the flavor of 
the one can by no possibility get to the other. 
Thus, the steam generated in A passes through 
the side holes in the pipe (c) into the lower part, 
d d of the vessel B. e e is a false bottom, pierced 
with holes, upon which the food rests, and through 
which the steam finds its upward passage. The 
same process is continued through as many 
ranges as you choose to fit to your boiler. But 
the holes in the pipe (c) are an inch or two above 
the level of the real bottom d d of the tin vessel, 
consequently, the drippings from one vessel are 
caught in the bottom of the same, and can never 
gel into the food below, without rising to the 
height of the holes in the pipe (c). 

From the use of this vessel I have learned, 
that steaming was the best mode of cooking 
many other vegetables besides potatoes. If your 
readers, who are fond of good cooking, and that 
done with the greatest convenience, will only 
incur the trouble of providing themselves with 
this simple implement, I will guarantee they 
would not be without it for four times its cost. 
Yours, J. B. 



around the insertion of a bud in the peach tree. 
He says he has lost several fine trees from this 
cause. 



MAD DOGS. 

The Editor of the American Farmer states, 
that the practice of worming dogs renders them 
innoxious to the poison of rabid animals. He 
says he knew a wormed dog to be bitten thir- 
teen times by others, laboring under hydropho- 
bia, without taking the infection. We never 
heard before that worming would do more than 
prevent the generation of disease in the natural 
way, and were inclined to consider even that a 
popular superstition. But here we have the most 
respectable testimony to the contrary. Surely if 
this fact were generally known, or even gener- 
ally believed, no dog would be free from this oper- 
ation, which we understand to be a simple one. 
If there is any preventive for this horrible disease, 
which almost mars the value of the noble ani- 
mal who is the subject of it, it is well worth the 
while of medical men to test it. The friend of 
humanity would rejoice at the establishment of 
a principle, that would free mankind from the 
fear of this revolting malady. 



GUM ON TREKS. 
A subscriber requests us to inquire for a re- 
medy for the gum, which so frequently collects 



For the Southern Planter. 

We are all very anxious, Mr. Editor, to secure 
a good Secretary of the Treasury for the Na- 
tional Government, and look upon the financial 
department as one of the most extreme impor- 
tance. In a Secretary we seek an individual 
who will, in the best manner, by hook or by 
crook, provide the means to meet the necessary 
expenses of the government. Suppose our coun- 
try politicians who are, no doubt, as much de- 
voted to their hobby as my uncle Toby was to 
his, should seek to indulge their favorite propen- 
sities in a similar manner — let each of them erect 
his own farm into a model government, and 
let him dub himself Secretary of the Trea- 
sury. Let him remember that the ways and 
means to carry on his government must be pro- 
vided, and that his character as a politician is at 
stake to see that they are not wanting. Here 
is an opportunity afforded every individual to 
conduct a government on exactly his own prin- 
ciples, and to prove to his unbelieving neighbors 
that his system is the best that can possibly be 
devised. The man that the people reject may, 
by this means, prove to them what a genius they 
have lost, whilst the country is sure to be bene- 
fitted by his operations, which cannot always be 
predicated of those who play the part of public 
politicians. 

But jesting aside, Mr. Editor, I do consider 
this universal devotion to politics the besetting 
sin of the country. If the genius that is annu- 
ally wasted in empty political brawlings was 
only devoted to the advancement of agriculture, 
if the general excitement, which is felt upon this 
subject, was turned upon one much more worthy 
of it, how greatly would the wealth and happi- 
ness of the country be increased. 

I do not mean to say that a man should be 
ignorant of, or indifferent to, great political ques- 
tions ; but I do mean to assert, that many hours 
are bestowed upon heated and fruitless discus- 
sions that might be much more profitably em- 
ployed. What a glorious day it will be for Vir- 
ginia when her sons, who have ever been dis- 
tinguished for their sagacity and wisdom, can be 
induced to permit agriculture to share at least 
with politics in their consideration. The same 
zeal, the same depth of thought, and the same 
indomitable spirit which have caused her to rank 
first in politics, would place her also in the front 
rank in agriculture. And, sir, the clay, thank 
God, is coming, when this consummation, so de- 
voutly to be wished for, will be attained. At 
this moment, the road to ambition lies through 
the fields of agriculture. Such is now the spi- 
rit abroad for this noble pursuit, that he who dis- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



199 



tinguishes himself in it, will be greeted with 
the applause of his admiring countrymen, and 
the time will shortly come, when the individual 
most distinguished for his knowledge of agricul- 
ture, will command a position superior to him 
who has attained the highest pinnacle of politi- 
cal fortune. 

Yours, R. G. H. 



VIRGINIA AXES. 
We have, at our office, a specimen of axe 
manufactured by Messrs. J. F. Barnes & Co. of 
this place, which will compare, we believe, in 
point of finish, with any northern production 
whatever. Most heartily do we rejoice to find 
that so many of our wants are about to be sup- 
plied, and so well supplied too, by our own peo- 
ple. There are many manufacturing establish- 
ments in this city well worthy the farmer's no- 
tice, to which we intend, at a more convenient 
opportunity, to call his attention. In the mean, 
time, we invite him to examine this beautiful 
production from the factory of the Messrs. Barnes. 
There are many advantages in purchasing an 
article made at home. The manufacturer, who 
warrants the article, is on the spot, and his pride 
and interest are most deeply excited to furnish 
you a good one. There is a great deal of re- 
pairing to be done, and specific orders to be 
given, that can never be supplied, without great 
inconvenience, by the foreign manufacturer. In 
short, the advantages of home establishments 
are so numerous, and so obvious, that we take 
it for granted, that the preference will always be 
given to the home producer, where the article is 
equal in quality, and not greater in price. These 
requisites are fully satisfied, by the article under 
consideration. 

MISCELLANY. 

BLUNDERS. 

It so happens that some remarkably fine paint- 
ings in the world are defaced by most extraordi- 
nary oversights in the artist. These defects are 
sometimes not less singular, than amusing : 

" In the chapel of one of the principal colleges 
in Paris, there was a picture representing the 
general-in-chief of the army of Egypt, attended 
by some of his aides-de-camp, paying a visit to 
the plague hospitals. Since the restoration of 
the Bourbon family to the throne of France, 
Bonaparte has been converted into Christ, and 
his aides-de-camp into apostles. The artist who 
has made these alterations, has not, however 



thought it necessary entirely to change the cos- 
tume, and our Saviour appears in the boots of 
Napoleon. 

" But, of all the blunders which artists have 
committed, none is perhaps so great as that of 
the painter, who, in a picture of the Crucifixion, 
represented the confessor holding out a crucifix to 
the good thief who was crucified with our Sa- 
viour." 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S BOOK, 

Is the title of a periodical laid on our table 
by Messrs. Randolph & Co. It is beautifully 
gotten up, and in its list of contributors enume- 
rates some of the most distinguished names of 
the city of Philadelphia. From an observation 
of its contents, w T e are inclined to rank this little 
work very far above the great mass of trash, 
that flows from the monthly press. Its articles 
are w r ell written, handsomely illustrated, and aim 
at something more than the mere gratification 
of a morbid desire for amusement. We extract 
the following as a specimen of the truths it in- 
culcates : 

PUNCTUALITY. 

There are few particulars in which Washing- 
ton may not serve as a model to the youth of 
America. He was a great and noble character, 
formed by self-instruction. One of his most 
striking traits was his remarkable punctuality. 
Many anecdotes are related of him which all go 
to establish the fact, that he regarded punctuality 
as a high moral duty. It undoubtedly is ; and, 
moreover, it is one of the most important means 
of success in life. In both these points of view 
we would commend it to our young readers, and 
we wish to urge upon them the importance of 
forming early in life the habit of rigid punctuality. 

Let us suppose the case of a young man set- 
ting up for himself in business. If he has formed 
this habit, its practice is easy. He keeps every 
appointment which he makes, without any pain- 
ful effort. Every order for work or merchandize 
is executed on the very day and hour agreed 
upon ; and every person who has dealings with 
him, learns to count upon his punctuality with 
the same confidence that he counts upon the 
daily rising of the sun. Whenever an order is 
to be given which imperatively demands despatch 
and certainty, he receives the preference ; and 
he not only finds his business increasing among 
the most valuable customers, but his character 
is every day rising in the estimation of his fellow- 
citizens. 

Look now at the reverse of this picture. A 
young man commences business with a sound 
capital and a host of friends. Confident of suc- 
cess, he neglects the duty of punctuality. He 
decides that a trifling omission in keeping his 



4 



200 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



engagements is easily overlooked and readily 
forgiven ; and, so it is, for a time. But the cus 
torner, who is willing to be disappointed once, 
loses all patience when he has been disappointed 
ten times. He begins to compare notes with 
others, who have suffered in a similar manner, 
and the result is, that the delinquent is pronounced 
to be a person, on whose promise no dependance 
is to be placed. When things come to this pass, 
his character as a man of business is lost ; and 
all the world knows that capital and friends are 
not long retained after character has departed. 
If he is not summarily ruined, he has to strug- 
gle through life against a thousand adverse in- 
fluences ; and can never know the happiness of 
ease and security. 

To all our young readers, therefore, we say 
form in early life the habit of punctuality 
Be punctual at school, in the performance of 
your tasks, in the keeping of your engagements 
with your parents, your teachers, and even your 
play-fellows. Be punctual of your own accord, 
even where punctuality is not exacted by others. 
The habit is what you should form. What is 
habitual is easy ; and if you begin early and 
resolutely, the formation of a habit of punctu- 
ality is just as practicable as the formation of a 
habit of negligence. One leads to honor and 
prosperity, the other to failure and disgrace. 



NAMES ALTER THINGS. 

A few years since, a tract of land belonging 
to North Carolina, was ceded to South Carolina. 
A young lady very wisely observed, " I am sorry 
father's plantation is in that tract; for every 
body says North Carolina is more healthy than 
South Carolina." 



Richmond Markets, October 7 th, 184:1 



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

Coal — 12 a 16 cents per bushel. 

Cotton — 10 all cents per pound. 

Cattle Market — Cattle on the hoof, $5 a $7 per 
hundred pounds according- to quality. Rough Fat 5 a 
7 cents per lb. Mutton $3 a $6, according to quality. 

Fish— Mackerel, No. 3, $7. Herrings, No. 1, N. C. 
$3 50 ; No. 2, $3 ; Potomac cut, $3 25. Shad $8 50 per 
barrel. 

Flour — Receipts arc still small, and sales are con- 
fined to city dealers. Good brands arc wanted for ship- 
pers, and would bring $6 25. The returns of our In- 
spector show a deficiency of 20,000 bbls. compared with 
the same quarter last year, which was also short. City 
Mills is held at $7 50. 

Grain — Wheat $1 20 a Si 25 for red and white of 
the better qualities— merchantable may be quoted at 
Si 15 a $1 20. Corn — sales at 65 cents per bushel. 
Oats — much wanted, and good parcels would bring 40 
a 42 cents. 

Lumber— Clear white pine $36 ; refuse clear $32 — 
merchantable $22; refuse last sale at $14 ; flooring $15 
a $25 per M. 

Lime — $1, and dull— supply good. 

Meal — 70 cents per bushel. 

Provisions — Bacon — Smithfield, 8 cents for a prime 
article; inferior 7 a 7 1-2; Western sides 5 a 6 1-2, as 
to quality; shoulders 4 a 6 cents. Stock of all kinds 



good— demand fair. Lard, 8 a 8 1-2— demand only for 
retail purposes. 

Plaster — Last sales at $3 25 at Rocketts. 

Salt— $1 90 a $1 93 3-4 by the cargo. 

Tobacco — Sales have been a little animated this week 
with a shade of improvement. It is thought the frost 
has materially injured the crop in the mountainous 
districts. 

FREIGHTS. 

Foreign — Rates to London 30s. and to Liverpool 25s. 
Continent 30s. a 32s. 6d. 

New York — Flour, per bbl. 25 cents— very little go- 
ing. Coal, 6 1-2 cents per bushel. Tobacco, $2 50 per 
hhd., boxes 20 cents, kegs 25 cents. 

Philadelphia — Flour, none going. Tobacco, $2 50 
per hhd., 20 cents for boxes, 25 for kegs — none going. 
Coal, 7 cents per bshel, Richmond measure. 

On the Canal— To Lynchburg and intermediate 
places, 10 cents per 100 lbs. 

EXCHANGE. 
Foreign — On London 13 a 13 1-4 per cent, premium. 
Domestic — New York Checks, 3 1-2 piemium. 
Philadelphia, 1-2 a 3-4 premium. 
Baltimore, 1 1-2 a 1 3-4. 
North Carolina Bank Notes, par. 
Do. do. do. under $10, 1 discount. 

South Carolina, par a 2 premium. 
Savannah. 3 discount. 
Augusta, 2 discount. 
Alabama, 7 discount. 
Tennessee, 8 discount. 
Specie, 2 1-2 premium. 
Northern exchange scarce and in demand. 



CONTENTS OF NO. IX. 

Draining — Letter on, from Judge Buel, p. 177. 
Flowers — Rules for disposing, p. 178. 
Rotation of Crops— Advantages of, explained, p. 178. 
Manure — Should be carefully gathered up, p. ISO. 
Wheat — Directions for the preparation of seed, p. 180. 
Cough in Horses — Cure for, p. 180. 
Rotation of Crops — Mr. Kenzer's system, p. 180. 
Shelters — Economy of. p. 181. 
Gates — Arrangement of posts, p. 1S2. 
Agricultural Societies— Urged to contribute to the 
Planter, p. 183. 

Smut Machine — Mr. Barrett's, notice, p. 183. 

Carr ion— How it may be usefully employed, p. 183. 

Soiling — Advantages of, p. 1S4. 

Grafting— New plan of, p. 184. 

Shucks — Recommended as food for cattle, p. 1S4. 

Elder — Said to keep off rats, p. 1S4. 

Wheat — Should be cut early, p. 1S4. 

Tobacco — Not exhausting if properly managed, p. 185. 

Fence— Post and rail, approved, p. 185. 

Vinegar — Obtained from the sugar beet, p. 185. 

Lime— Theory of, p. 185. 

Fly — Plan for le?scning, p. 185. 

Suckers — Mr. Curtis's opinion of, p. 1S6. 

Transplanting — Directions for, p. 1S6. 

Fattening — Principles of, p. 186. 

Wheat — Preparation of seed, p. 1S7. 

Sato DuU—Ya\\xc of, p. 187. 

Turnip Fly — To prevent ravages of, p. 1S7. 

Timber — New mode of preserving, p. 187. 

American Tea — A new article, p. 188. 

Association — Advantages of, p. 189. 

Fall Ploughing — Its merits canvassed, p. 1S9. 

Manuring— W. W.'a plan for, objected to, p. 190. 

Level — The method of using a span level, p. 191. 

Stumps — Plan to remove, p. 192. 

Eggs — Recipe to preserve, p. 192. 

Hessian Fly — Remedy for, discovered, p. 192. 

Soils— Their nature and character, p. 193. 

Agriculture — American, p. 193. 

Hog — Essay on, by J. H. Turner, p. 195. 

Wood Cutting — Proper system of, p. 196. 

Curious Plants — From "A Naturalist," p. 197. 

Steamer — Description of, p. 197. 

Mad Dogs— Prc\ entive of, 198. 

Gum — Inquiry for a remedy, p. 198. 

Agriculture — To be preferred to politics, p. 198. 

Axes — Virginia manufactory, p. 199.