TH E 




Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts. 



Agriculture is the musing mother of the Arts. 

[XENOPIldN. 

J. E. WILLIAMS, Editor. 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of 

llic State. — Suij.Y. 

t 



AUGUST & WILLIAMS, Prop'rs. 



Vol. XX. 



RICHMOND, VA., FEBRUARY, 1860. 



No. 2. 



From Josiah Parkes' Essays on the Philosophy and 
Art of Land- Drainage. 

Influence of Water on the Temperature 
of Soils, &c, and the Physical Action 
of Water. 

* * * The importance of an inquiry 
into the physical properties of different soils, 
• and particularly into the causes affecting 
their state of heat and moisture, has been 
glanced at by various philosophers and agri- 
cult arista; but I am not aware that a sys- 
tematic pursuit of it has yet engaged the 
attention of any. British experimentalist. 
Mr; llandley. in his letter to Karl Spencer, 
which preceded the formation of the So- 
. has cited certain phenomena with 
which, it must be admitted, we are very in 



to much disregarded, evidently act an im- 
portant part in hastening and perfecting 
the maturity of plants, and the study of 
which appears to be at least as interesting 
to mankind as those scientific labours which 
have been exercised with so much "zeal to 
deduce the intensity of a central fire from 
experiments showing the increasing temper- 
ature of the body of the globe the deeper 
you bore into it." 

I have no pretension either to the ability 
or the knowledge to till up these vacua in 
the science of agriculture; it may appear, 
even from the following imperfect observa- 
tions, that the gaps are still wider than those 
above recited; yet, I would express my con- 
viction that there exist no obstacles which 



sufficiently acquainted; and he has pointed should discourage the possessor of land and 
out, as stiil remaining among the mysteries leisure from entering on this unexplored 
of nature', the action of several of her most; field of investigation; but, on the contrary, 
tnorgetic ; He observes, "The ex- : there is reason to anticipate that his labours 

perinu'ii'alist might be usefully engaged in would be made in a hind of promise, and 
determining the temperature of toe earth at that they would be abundantly repaid. . • 
its Surface, and to the depths accessible to! Previously to detailing my own and other 

the cultivator; the influences exerted !,\ very limited experiments on the tempera- 
beat, light, and air; how far they penetrate turo ef soils, it may be well to c< nsider 
into the s<>':l, and at what point me of the operations ol the husbandman, 

j the effects of different eul-| their intent, and tin- manmr in which tin- 

in promoting the absorption and reten- beal and moistun I rfi&j be affected 

tion of calorie; the < \tent and operation of j by tin m. The two principal agricultural 
capillary attraction ;-- -points which, hither-' pr- ipon which, perhaps, the fertility 

6 



63 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



of land depends as much as on the artificial 
aids now so scientifically and beneficially ap- 
plied to it, are drainage and pulverization.* 
These mechanical operations are practically 
known to be indispensable to the full de- 
velopment of the natural powers of soils, as 
well as to the profitable employment of the 
numerous and costly stimulants latterly in- 
troduced into agriculture; and it is my 
present object to show that the temperature 
of soil is • materially influenced by the per- 
fection of these processes; and that each 
particular soil is benefitted by them, accord- 
ing to the degree in which it may require 
to be artificially drained and worked. You 
have forcibly remarked, [addressing Ph. 
Pusey, M. P.,] that " all who are acquainted 
with improved husbandry are now agreed 
that, on wet land, thorough draining is to a 
farm what a foundation is to a house." 
Water, indeed, forms an essential element 
in soil, but there may be as much difference, 
in respect to fertility, between a wet soil and 
moist one— though they be identical in other 
respects— as between a swamp and a garden. 
By drainage ana pulverization the proper 
degree of humidity is to be attained in most 
soils; for, though it is wisely ordained that 
we cannot control the " precipitation of rain, 
we do possess the power of regulating, with- 
in certain limits, the quantity of moisture to 
be retained by the earth, and of adjusting 
it, as it were, to the quality of the soil and 
to the requirements of vegetation. 

Section I. 

Physical Action of Water. 

The consideration of the well-known ef- 
fect of drainage on soils surcharged with 
water, naturally leads to an examination#of 
the causes of the change produced in them 
by so simple an operation. A soil perfectly 
dry, or one perfectly wet, i. e., constantly 
drenched with water, would be nearly alike 
sterile ; and we may conceive that some 
certain proportions may exist between tW 
amounts of heat and moisture adapted, so 
fay as their agency is concerned, for bring- 



* The term drainage is here used in an exten- 
sive sense, not confining it to the construction of 
artificial conduits for water, nor to its applica- 
tion on those soils only which are reputed as 
wet. The mere acts of digging, ploughing, and 
working soils reputed as dry, do, in reality, ef- 
fect drainage, by opening channels for the de- 
scent of water from the superficial to the lower 
Mrata. 



ing a given soil, in a given latitude or situ- j 
ation, to its maximum state of fertility. The ! 
researches of different philosophers have j 
elucidated the laws which pertain to water, 
is! its several states, as a fluid, a solid, and a ; 
vapour or steam. There is, probably, no j 
naturaj substance which has been investi- 
gated with greater success, and there is, j 
perhaps, no other substance which performs j 
more numerous or more important parts in j 
its action on soil, and in the economy of 
vegetable life, than water. In its chemical 
relations to the solid, saline, and gaseous : 
constituents of soil, there may be still some- j 
thing to discover; but its physical properties I 
as regards heat, its operation as a solvent, .1 
and its mechanical laws, are sufficiently -as- 1 
certained to enable us to understand, and ex- 
plain satisfactorily, the various benefits that 
are afforded to wet soils by drainage. 

If a soil be saturated with water, the j 
nobler classes of plants cannot flourish; 
they vegetate more or less imperfectly, until 
the . quantity of water be so diminished as j 
to suit their habits. The reduction of the 
excess of water to • the due proportion can 
only be effected, naturally, by its gradual | 
evaporation, i. e., by its conversion into 
vapour ; and its transition from the fluid to 
the aeriform state is accompanied by the 
absorption of so large a quantity of heat 
from the soil in contact with it, that it may 
be convenient to consider its action in this 
respect first, and to^ endeavour to appreciate 1 
its amount. 

When water is set over a fire in an open 
vessel, its temperature, as indicated by the 
thermometer, cannot be made by any force 
of fire to exceed 212°, under the mean at- 
mospheric pressure of about 30 inches of 
mercury. The temperature of the water 
then becomes stationary, and the heat of 
the fire is afterwards expended in convert- 
ing the water into steam or vapour. The 
temperature of the steam continues to be 
precisely that of the water, and it has been 
found that it requires about six times as 
much heat to boil off any given volume of 
water as would raise the temperature of that 
volume from 50° to 212°. Hence it is con- 
cluded that the difference, or 162x6=972 
degrees of heat, have passed through the 
water, and entered into the composition of 
every atom of steam. Steam, therefore, 
has a much greater capacity for heat than 
water. These continual accessions of heat 
are absorbed by the steam in the act of its 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



formation, and become what is termed latent, 
i. e ., insensible to (he thermometer, which, 
plunged in the steam, marks only the same 
temperature as that of the water from which 
it was generated Viz. \ 212°. This latter is 
termed the sensible or thermomelrie. heat of 
the steam. That the whole of the heat 
thus expended in ©hanging water from its 
fluid into its gaseous state has entered into 
the steam, is proved, conversely, by con- 
densing a given weight of steam in water, 
when it is found that a pound of steam will 
raise about 6 lbs. of water from 50° to the 
boiling-point. 

Water is vapourizable at all temperatures 
when exposed to the atmosphere. Its ex- 
pulsion from the earth does even, under 
certain circumstances, continue when the 
atmosphere is replete with moisture, or at 
what is termed the dew-point. And it is 
most important to observe that, at however 
low a temperature the water in the soil, or 
that of the atmosphere incumbent on it may 
be, at which vapour is formed and expelled, 
the same amount of heat is carried off by a 
given weight of vapour as if it had been 
generated in the open vessel over the fire 
above referred to, or in the close boiler of a 
high-pressure steam-engine. A practical 
confirmation of the truth of this law has 
been obtained' by evaporating water under 
widely different pressures, when it appeared 
that the same weight of fuel (or measure of 
heat) was consumed in converting equal 
bulks of water into steam at all those dif- 
ferent pressures. It is ascertained that it 
requires as much heat as 2 or 3 ounces of 
coal will produce to convert 1 lb. of water 
into vapour; it is, therefore, evident what 
an enormous quantity of heat must be taken 
from the soil in cases where water is allowed 
to remain stagnant upon it till it evaporates. 

As heat is generally considered to be an 
imponderable body, we are without the 
means of ascertaining directly, by weight 
or measure, the quantity of heat absorbed 
from soil by the evaporation of water. The 
following illustration of it will, however, be 
familiar enough to the mind of the engi- 
neer, and will also, \ think, enable intelli- 
gent farmers to form an idea of its immense 
amount. 

If we suppose the rain falling on the sur- 
face of an acre of land in the year to be oO 
inches in perpendicular depth, it would 
amount to 108,900 cubic fcet=?>,038 tons; 
which, spread over a twelvemonth, gives an 



average of 298 cubic feet=8J tons, or 18,- 
047 lbs. per diem. This weight of water 
would require, for its diurnal evaporation- 
supposing it were all carried off by that 
means — the combustion of about 24 cwt. of 
coals, as ordinarily used under a steam- 
boiler, Or 1 CWt. PER HOUR PER ACRE 
throughout the year ! We thus obtain some 
idea of the abstraction of heat from land 
under the circumstances of perfect aqueous 
repletion and stagnation, and there are too 
many soils approaching to them. We may 
also imagine the depression of the terres- 
trial temperature consequent on the ab- 
straction of so much heat from the mass of 
the soil — a depression which must ever be 
in proportion to the excess of water present 
in the soil, over and above the due comple- 
ment required for the supply of vegetation. 
Soils in that state must necessarily be very 
cold in the spring months, and much colder 
at the time of the commencement of vege- 
tation, and throughout the summer, than 
well-drained or . naturally drier lands. If 
we knew the capacity for heat of any given 
soil, and the weight of water mixed with it 
in excess over the proper complement ne- 
cessary for vegetation, -it would be easy to 
determine, very nearly, the depression ' of 
temperature caused by its evaporation. 
W r e know that the heat of a pound of 
water in its gaseous state, that is, as 
steam, would raise the temperature of 
about 1,000 lbs. of water one degree; so 
that, if the specific heats of the solid and 
fluid bodies were alike, the evaporation of a 
pound of water would 'keep down the tem- 
perature of 1,000. lbs. of earth one degree; 
of 500 lbs., two degrees ; and so on. 

Secondly; excess of humidity obstructs 
the absorption of heat by the solid matter 
of the soil. Water, in a quiescent state, is 
one of the worst conductors of heat with 
which we are acquainted. If it be warmed 
on the surface — and it derives, when mix^d 
with soil, nearly all its heat from the sun's 
rays — water transmits little or no heat down- 
wards. 

If a mass of water be heated from below, 
the whole quickly attains an uniform tem- 
perature by reason of the motion excited 
amongst its particles. The lowest stratum, 
when heated, becomes of less specific grav- 
ity than that resting upon it, and the heavier 
superincumbent portions descend and push 
that which has been warmed upwards. In 
tli is manner rapid circulation is induced. 



68 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



If, on the contrary, it be heated from above, 
i. c. oir the surface, the film of warmed 
water floats on the top, by virtue of its su- 
perior levity, and no heat is conveyed be- 
low; there is no circulation from above 
downwards. Much of the heat of the sun's 
rays is, therefore, prevented by excess of 
water from entering into, and being- trans- 
mitted through, the mass of the soil. 

Thirdly; w T ater is a powerful radiator of 
heat, i. e., it cools quickly. All bodies, 
whether fluid or solid, possess peculiar pow-j 
erg, of emitting or radiating heat, and water 
was esteemed by the late Professor Leslie — 
in which opinion he has been joined by 
other philosophers — to stand at the head of 
radiating substances. 

The phenomena of the production of cold 
b}' radiation and evaporation are elegantly 
exemplified by the well-known experiment 
of exposing water, warm enough to give off 
visible vapour, in. one saucer, and an equal 
bulk of water drawn, from a well in another^ 
saucer. The former, on a sharp .frosty morn- 
ing, will be found to exhibit ice the soonest.* 
The cooling powers of evaporation and ra- 
diation combined, and of radiation chiefly, 
or solely, are represented in this experiment 
by the order of congelation in the two ves- 
sels in .time; but the difference in the quan- 
tity of heat emitted from each of them is 
immense, as appears from what is -stated 
above with reference to the constituent. heat 
of vapour. 

Fourthly; as the temperature of water di- 
minishes during the night, or in the day- 
time, according to the varying conditions of 
the atmosphere, by radiating its heat to the 
heavens, its specific gravity increases; and 
the superficial stratum, which is first cooled, 
immediately descends by reason of its aug- 
mented density. This film of cooled and 
heavier water is as quickly replaced by re- 
latively warmer and lighter portions, which 
become cooled in turn, and successively sink. 
Water, therefore, though a non-conductor of 
heat downwards when warmed on the sur- 
face, becomes a ready "vehicle of cold in 
that direction when cooled on its surface ; 
and this cooling process may even continue, 
under fitting circumstances, until the whole 
of a given mass is reduced to the low tem- 
perature of about 42°, at which point water 



* Boiling water thrown on the ground will 
freeze soonef-than.eold water. 



attains its maximum density. The further 
descent of cold through this process would 
then cease; but the refrigeration occasioned 
by it must affect all soils, to a greater or less 
degree, which hold water in excess, i. e., 
when in a state. of stagnancy near to trie 
surface. Those soils only can be exempt 
from this* chilling influence which are not 
naturally retentive of water, or which are 
artificially and deeply drained. 

Thus, excess of water conduces to the 
production of cold in soil, by means of sev- 
eral independent, vigorous and ever-active 
properties. 

On the other hand, when a soil is natu- 
rally so porous, or is brought into such con- 
dition by art, (viz., by drainage,) that rain- 
water can sink down into the earth, it be- 
comes a carrier, an alert purveyor, instead 
of a robber of heat; and tends to raise, 
permanently, the temperature of the mass 
of useful soil ; and this more particularly 
and beneficially during the vegetative sea- 
son. Fain-w r ater, at that time, conveys down- 
wards .the more elevated superficial heat of 
the soil, and imparts it to the subsoil in its 
course to the drains ; it leaves the soil in a 
fit state to receive fresh doses of rain, dew, 
and air, and in a better condition to absorb 
and retain heat, at the same time that it pro- 
motes, in other ways, its fertility and pro- 
ductiveness ; but a consideration of the 
chemical effects attributable to the continual 
circulation and renewal of water and air is 
foreign to the present discussion. 

In order to render the change of water 
perfect, and its action uniform throughout a 
field, all drains should be deeper than the 
active -or worked soil, and covered. If 
drains are open, much of the rain precipi- 
tated on the surface necessarily passes into 
them before it has permeated the whole 
mass; consequently, it carries off with it 
heat, which would have been usefully em- 
ployed in warmimg the lower strata; and it 
may, at the same time, remove fertilizing 
matter. If drains are not deeper than the 
worked bed, water remains below in a stag- 
nant state, which must chill the roots of 
plants, and diminish the temperature of the 
superincumbent mass. 

Gardeners and florists are well aware of 
the injurious influence of water when sup- 
plied constantly to the pan instead of to the 
surface of the soil in the flower-pot; and 
bottom water, as it is frequently and very 
appropriately called, produces the same ill 



1S60.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



69 



effects when stagnating too near the surface 
of the great agricultural bed. 

Superficial drainage is comparatively of 
little value, and is, perhaps, exemplified in 
its worst practical form by land tortured on 
the ridge and furrow system. When land 
is permanently cultivated in high ridges, 
the crowns can obtain but partial benefit 
from the action of rain. The gradation 
from the comparative dryness and warmth 
of the summit, to the suffocating wetness 
and coldness of the furrows, is commonly 
evidenced by the state of the crops grown 
on land so disposed.* 

To be continued. 



Omitting too Much. 
A green, good-natured, money-making, 
up-country fellow, who said everything 
drily, " got things fixed," and struck up a 
bargain for matrimony. Having no par- 
ticular regard for appearances, the party 
agreed to employ a not over-wise country 
justice to put on the tacking. He com- 
menced by remarking that •' it was cus- 
tomary on such occasions to commence with 
prayer, but he believed he would omit that." 
After tying the knot, he said " it was cus- 
tomary to give the married couple some ad- 
vice, but he believed he would omit that. 
It was customary, too, to kiss the bride, but 
he believed he would omit that also." The 
ceremony being ended, the bridegroom took 
the justice by the button-hole, and clapping 
his finger on his nose, said : " Squire, it's 
customary to give the magistrate five dol- 
lars — but J b'lete I'll omit that !" 



Let habits of. industry, honesty and per 
severance be the register of your life. 



* It would be OttflOUl — but, possibly, more cu- 
rious than useful — 10 learn the origin of this re- 
markable artificial configuration given to land, 
Which is, I fancy, peculiar to England and to 
particular counties. One would thinlc that this 
lystem must have been invented previous to the 
discovery that water wonld iind its way into cut 
drains; or, tin- inventor may have considered 
rain as his greatest enemy, and that he ought to 
present its entrance into the soil and get rid of 
it a-; soon as possiUlo. I once put the question, 
as totlie utility of this proeess. to ;i few limners 
in Cheshire with whom 1 was in company. 
Their notion was that an undulating, being 
greater than a piane surface, more Stuff would 
grow on it. It stood to rca-on that such must be 

the h-c! This was debated at great length, I 

Contending it was ;i fallacy. On a division I 
was left in a minority of I 



From Memoirs of the " Society *of Virginia for 
Promoting Jlgricxdtvre. 

Rotation of Crops. 
By W. C. Nicholas, Esq., Vice President 
of the Society. 
Richmond, October 2, 1818. 
Dear Sir : 

Through you, I offer to the Agricultural 
Society of Virginia, a paper upon the ro- 
tation of crops, and the importance of 
stock to complete the good effect that can 
be expected from any rotation. I am sure 
I need 'say nothing to impress upon the 
society the value of any system, that will 
give meat for our own consumption and to 
spare, increase the product of bread stuff, 
and give additional fertility to the lands of 
Virginia. 

With the most anxious solicitude for the 
success of our efforts, to improve the agri- 
culture of our country, 

I am, with great respect and regard, 
Dear Sir, your humble Servant, 
W. C. NICHOLAS. 

John Adams, Esq., } 

Secretary Agricultural Society of Va. J 

ROTATION OF CROPS. 

Of all agricultural subjects, this pevhaps 
is the most important, and to a Virginian, 
the most difficult. Experience affords us 
little light upon the subject. The practice 
in Virginia, heretofore, has been to culti- 
vate bur lands more with a view to imme- 
diate profit, than with any regard to the 
future. All the various soils in the coun- 
try eastward of the mountains, have been 
used in the same way, and the same crops 
have been cultivated by all, without regard 
to the fitness of the soil, or to the situation 
of the farm. Everything that could be 
drawn from it has been eagerly taken, with- 
out giving anything in return, by amelio- 
rating crops, manure, or even rest. Tho 
land has either borne, in succession, ex- 
hausting crops, or it has been as much or 
more injured by improper use of its pas- 
ture, as it is falsely called. 

In fixing on a rotation, a farmer should 
a<c(Mtain what crops arc best suited to his 
farm, and in what surtvssion such crop* 
ought to follow each other, so as to make 
the greatest possible profit, consistently, not 
, only with keeping his land in good heart, 



70 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



but in an improving condition. " A judi- 
cious rotation of crops is» the ground-work 
of -general improvement. If a judicious 
system be adopted and persevered in ; it 
cannot fail. No mode of execution can 
make up for a defective one. The same 
crops which under one system would be un- 
profitable and injnrious to the land, under 
another rotation, with intervening amelio- 
rating crops, might not only be profitable, 
but might promote its fertility ?' What I 
shall suggest to the Society upon this sub- 
ject, will be the result of my own experi- 
ence and observation, assisted by all that I 
have been able to derive from the English 
and Scotch writers — making the necessary 
allowance for difference of climate, soil and 
products. I have, without scruple, availed 
myself of their suggestions, whenever they 
appeared rational, and more particularly, 
when they were founded upon facts proper- 
ly vouched for. In speaking of the agri- 
culture of Great Britain, I cannot deny 
myself the satisfaction of expressing my 
warmest admiration of the exalted merit 
and patr'otism of the distinguished men of 
that country, who have, by devoting their 
talents, time, and money, to agricultural 
pursuits, brought that most useful art to a 
perfection unknown to their ancestors, or to 
the people of any other country. The 
Duke of Bedford, Mr. Young, Lord Karnes, 
Mr. Anderson, Sir John Sinclair, Mr. 
Coke, Lord Sommerville, and others, may 
have less splendour attached to their char- 
acters ; but I have little doubt, that they 
have been more usefully employed than 
Mr. Pitt, Lord Castlereagh, the Duke of 
Wellington, or Lord Nelson. I trust the 
people of Virginia will not be less atten- 
tive to the improvement of a country so de- 
servedly dear to them. 

I will consider, first, the principles on 
which rotations ought to be arranged; next, 
the various sorts of rotations which have 
been adopted in Virginia, for different pe- 
riods of two, three, four, five, six, or seven 
years ; and lastly, any miscellaneous par- 
ticulars connected with this branch of en- 
quiry. 

It is not believed that the same land, 
without some interval, will continue to yield 
the same plant to advantage ; there may be 
some exceptions, but they can only occur 
where the land is the richest alluvion soil, 
or is frequently and heavily manured. A 
farmer should, therefore, avoid frequent 



repetitions of the same articles in his rota- 
tions. The propriety of adopting any par- 
ticular rotation must depend on the cli- 
mate ; for it would be absurd to attempt to 
make gourd-seed corn and sweet potatoes in 
Greenbrier ; a light, sandy land should 
never be selected for grass, nor cold, wet, 
stiff land for corn; on the . situation of the 
farm in regard to markets, for some articles 
will pay in some situations that would be 
unsaleable in others; and upon the con- 
dition of the soil, whether fertile or ex- 
hausted. A farmer cannot carry on his 
business, unless he has various kinds of 
crops upon his farm. If he had nothing 
but wheat and tobacco, he might not be 
able to procure corn and hay. By having 
various articles, he does not run so much 
risk, either in regard to the season or the 
sale of his produce; and if he fails in one 
article, he may succeed in another. The 
crops should be so arranged that the labour 
gf plowing for. each, of sowing, weeding, 
&c, shall proceed in a regular succession, 
and the labour or business of the farm 
should not be too much crowded at any one 
season of the year, but that the crops pro- 
duced on the farm should be cultivated by 
the same hands, (except in harvest,) and 
the same teams. Avoid, as much as pos- 
sible, having two grain crops ; in this coun- 
try; a deviation from this rule must be ad- 
mitted ; so that small grain of some kind, 
must succeed corn : this is unavoidable, but 
must not recur too frequently. To raise 
those crops most likely to be productive of 
manure, the use of which cannot be dis- 
pensed with, under any rotation that can 
be devised. To arrange the crops so as to 
keep the land in good condition and in- 
creasing in fertility. Variations in the ro- 
tation will be found necessary and expedi- 
ent, as the condition of the farm ir.ay alter. 
Keeping these maxims in view, the va i- 
ous systems that have been practised in 
Virginia, shall now be considered. 

Two years rotation. 

When wheat was first made a crop for 
market in that part of the State that had 
been previously devoted to the culture of 
tobacco, the rotation was corn and wheat 
alternately. It was soon found that this 
course was too hard for the land, and that 
wheat and corn, in such rapid succession, 
gave precarious and scanty crops, and that 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



71 



even the river bottoms could not bear such 
a scourge. I am satisfied that nothing 
short of manuring, very heavily, the half 
that is in corn, will justify the expectation 
of either good crops, or preserving the fer- 
tility the land might have possessed when 
this course commenced. The impractica- 
bility of doing that without summer food 
for cattle, and with no winter food but 
what the offal of the wheat and corn af- 
fords, must cause this rotation to be reject- 
ed at once. .If it was possible to ensure 
a good crop of clover-, aft^r every crop of 
wheat, I believe alternate crops of wheat 
and clover would be made without injury 
to the land : but the clover crop is. too un- 
certain to be relied upon for this. It is 
rare that clover succeeds after a heavy crop 
of wheat, by which it is subject to be 
smothered; it is likewise liable to be killed 
by fronts and severe droughts, in its infant 
state, and it is said that land tires of it as 
soon as of any crop. 

Three years rotation. 



Corn, wheat, and pasture; this is the 
most common rotation practised in Virginia. 
Under this rotation, as under the last, the 
lands have grown worse yearly, as under 
that, most of the maxims upon which ju- 
dicious rotations are founded are violated. 
There is not a proper mixture of grain, and 
green crops ; the grain crops perpetually 
succeed each other, and the proportion of 
land in grain is too great, If the farm 
were in good order when this rotation com- 
menced, and the land regularly sown with 
red clover when in wheat, and plaistered 
the spring when the clover was sown, and 
the planter repeated the next year, and 
a sufficient stock kept to convert all the 
offal of the corn and wheat into manure 
it is possible that the land would not be 
rapidly injured. If this course were ob- 
served, the materials for making manure 
would be so abundant,, there is no ques- 
tion it could be made in large quantities, 
the whole produce of the farm contribu- 
ting to it; upon this plan much reliance 
must be placed upon soiling, which the 
experience of many years has taught me 
is a precarious dependence in this cli- 
mate. I am far from recommending this 
rotation except upon rich bottom land ; 
but if it be pursued, I do recommend it 
Upon the plan here BUggested, with the 
addition of some provision of grass land 



for early. and mid-summer pasture. One- 
twelfth part of the most suitable land on 
the farm cannot be more beneficially em- 
ployed than in this way. I consider cattle 
and hogs as an essential to every farm, not 
only for the purpose of making the ma- 
nure necessary for the farm, but as the 
only means of supplying the country with 
food from our own resources. A fa.mer 
should buy nothing that he can make or 
raise for the use of the farm. If where 
the three years rotation is practised, the 
farm should be thrown into four divisions, 
and one of them is kept in grass for pas- 
ture, and thrown out of the rotation for 
several years, the land may possibly im- 
prove in fertility, if there should be proper 
exertions to make and apply manure. 

Four years dotation 

Admits of greater variety in the succes- 
sion of crops. The course most approved 
.in the country below the falls of the river, 
which is generally denominated the corn 
country, from that grain being considered 
the staple of that district, is corn, wheat, 
and two years in clover. Its effects I have 
had no opportunity of judging of j it is re- 
commended in such strong terms by the 
president of our Society, that I can have 
no doubt of its advantages in that tract of 
country which is better adapted to corn 
than to wheat. It gives a greater propor- 
tion of corn and less of wheat, than I have 
been accustomed to make, or than it is ad- 
visable to attempt in a broken stony coun- 
try, inconvenient to market, and where 
manual labour does not abound. In a 
tract of country above the falls, and below 
the Blue Ridge, wheat is considered the 



staple. An increase of the quantity of 
corn is no compensation for a diminisl 
crop of wheat. One-fourth of a farm in 
wheat, and that after corn, when the 
crop is always worse than after fallow, is not 
considered enough. I once cultivated a : 
plantation in a rotation of four years. My 
course was corn, wheat, clover, wlreat, and 
the plantation evidently grew worse. I 
should remark, that during that experi- 
ment, tin- fields were not pastured, nor wai 
1 very smv< ssful with the clover crop, it 

having iailed more than once. Three i 
of grain in four years are too many for any 
high land. If the plantation had beer. 
laid off in five fields, and one field had 
been alternately thrown out of the course. 



72. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



as suggested in the three years rotation, the 
benefit to the land and to the stock from a 
portion of the land being for a number of 
years in grass*would be attained. So far 
as my experience or observation goes, wheat 
may succeed clover with every prospect of 
a good crop. Sir John Sinclair, however, 
states it to be the opinion of many of the 
most intelligent and successful farmers in 
Scotland, that clover land ought not to be 
sown in wheat. There may be some differ- 
ence in the climate or soil of the two coun- 
tries, that may make the difference upon 
this subject. However, it is proper that 
every judicious man should be on the look- 
out, as our experience has not been such as 
to be conclusive. When this rotation is 
practised, I would pasture moderately the 
clover field the last^year it is in grass. In 
every rotation where the land is to remain 
not more than two years in grass, I am de- 
cidedly of o'pinion, that clover-seed should 
be sown on every crop of wheat, at the rate 
of a bushel of clean seed to ten acres. The 
cost of the seed is no consideration in com- 
parison with the value of the crop or the 
improvement of the land from it. Many 
people believe, that after clover is once well 
taken, it is unnecessary to sow again ; land 
will sometimes re-seed itself, but it will 
more frequently fail. The famous Norfolk 
four years rotation, which has made that 
one of the most productive counties in Eng- 
land, is turnips, barley, clover, wheat; 
the land always manured for turnips, and 
the turnips fed off by sheep, which is a 
dressing twice in four years. 

Five years rotation. 

This is the rotation practised by Mr- 
Wickham upon his highly cultivated and 
productive estase upon James river. Its 
success recommends it highly on rich land. 
It has been in use for seventeen years; 
during that time his crops have been the 
best upon the river, and from what I hear, 
the average of the last nine years is at least 
double the first term. I have repeatedly 
seen his crops of wheat and clover from 
May to harvest, and I have no hesitation in 
saying, that they are the best, taken 
throughout, I ever saw. I have seen in 
other plantations, lots and parts of fields 
that were equal to his, but I never saw en- 
tire fields under as good crops, cither of 
wheat or clover. Before this land came 



into his hands, it had been cropped in the 
three years rotation. The succession of 
crops in his rotation is, 1st corn, 2d wheat, 
3d clover, 4th wheat, 5th clover. I con- 
sider his experiment as establishing, con- 
clusively, that by the free use of plaister 
of paris, and the proper exertions to make 
and apply manure, that five years rotation 
may be relied upon to give fine crops on 
lands in good heart, and to keep the land 
in a state of regular and progressive im- 
provement. Although the number of acres 
that are in grain by having six divisions in- 
stead of five, would be fewer, I believe the 
quantity made would not be lessened, and 
I am confident the land would improve 
faster, with the advantage of summer pas- 
ture for stock, and |the diminution of la- 
bour in seeding only one-third of the farm, 
instead of two-fifths, with the further ad- 
vantage of commencing, whenever tile ex- 
tra field was to be brought into the rotation, 
with a naked fallow; which I fear will be 
found indispensable. From the increase of 
strong . perennial plants upon our lands, 
since they have been less frequently than 
formerly planted in corn, I suspect we shall 
be obliged to resort to naked fallow once in 
six or seven years to keep them clear 
enough for wheat. For these reasons I 
should prefer six divisions ; the sixth field 
I would use as it is proposed the fourth and 
fifth should be used in the two preceding 
rotations, to be sown with a mixture of 
grass seed for pasture. 

Six years rotation. 

1st corn, 2d wheat, 3d clover, 4th wheat, 
5th clover, 6th clover ; this course of crops 
may be practised to great advantage upon 
weak or worn lands. It may be varied 
thus : divide the arable land of a farm into 
three fields, one of which for corn and clo- 
ver in equal parts, one in wheat, (half corn 
and the other half fallow,) and one in clo- 
ver. Under this course one-sixth of the 
farm would be in corn, one-third in wheat, 
and one-half in clover. That part of the 
clover that is in the inclosure with the corn, 
to be mowed for hay, and the produce of 
the field that is in clover to be applied to 
the support of stock in summer, by soiling 
and by being pastured. 

Seven years rotation. 

1st corn, 2d rye, 3d clover, 4th wheat, 
5th clover, 6th wheat, 7th clover. Perhaps 



18G0.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



r 3 



us beneficial a rotation with a view either 
to profit cr improvement' would be, 1st corn, 

2d rye, (the corn and rye to be consumed 
on the farm,) 3d clover, 4th wheat, 5th 
clover, 6th wheat, 7th pasture for six years, 
on which I would sow greensward, orchard 
and herds grass, meadow oat and red clo- 
ver. It will be remarked, that in this ro- 
tation the last crop in the course is wheat, 
and the first and second corn and rye, be- 
ing three crops in succession. It is sup- 
posed the land would be amply compensa- 
ted for this < by the entire crops of rye 
and corn b'eing consumed on the farm, 
and each field in its turn being in pasture 
six years. Where one-seventh of the land 
is manured for corn, the produce of two- 
fifths of the land that is in grain consumed 
upon it, and three-sevenths of the form in 
grass, there can be no doubt of produce and 
improvement sufficient to satisfy any reason- 
able man. I am informed the lands on the 
south branch of Potowmac are cultivated 
in corn six, seven, and eight years in suc- 
cession, after which they are pasturexl as 
long,' and in that time are supposed to be 
completely renovated. 

Of the foregoing rotations, I should pre- 
fer the five years rotation for good land, 
but- think it would be more perfect, if the 
farm was thrown into six divisions and one 
of them kept in grass the whole round. 
For weak or thin land, I should think the 
change I have suggested indispensable. 
With that variation one-half the land 
would be in grain, and the other in grass. 

To avoid repetition, I have purposely 
omitted mentioning tobacco, not from a be- 
lief that its culture should be abandoned ; 
on the contrary, I think it will be long one 
of the best articles of produce for a Vir- 
ginia plantation; at anything like the pres- 
ent prices, it unquestionably is so. Persons 
distant from market,, or those who can make 
tobacco of the first quality, will probably 
find it to their interest to continue its cul- 
ture for a great length of time. If it is 
Blade upon old land, it should be planted 
upon the lands that in tin; different rota- 
tions I have given, are allowed for com. 
Ft will be found an easier crop to the land 
than corn, and will invariably be bucci 
by a better crop of wheat. 

MwctHctfuout Ob §tk wftiont. 

Tt is obvious, that at the commencement 
of an improving system upon an exhai 



farm, or upon poor land, it is proper to be- 
gin with gentle rotations; when the soil 
is improved, it will bear more severe crop- 
pin- 

By the high price of wheat, fanners have 
been induced to cultivate too much land in 
grain, and tlyre is reason to believe, that 
stock, the great source of manure, being 
neglected or almost given up, the soil will 
be exhausted by the severity of cropping. 
The late change in Kurope to a state of 
profound peace, must cause 'the price of 
grain to fall, which, added to a decrease in 
the produce of the land, must bring distress, 
upon the farmer; stock of every kind must 
rise on account of its scarcity, a circum- 
stance which cannot be remedied for many 
years. The ready answer given by every 
man, when he is asked why he works his 
land so hard, is, that he must have the 
crop from all the land he cultivates, that 
less will not support his family and defray 
his expenses. Great and weighty consid- 
erations, I admit; but is it not a fatal er- 
ror to believe, that one hundred and fifty 
acres of laud, in an exhausted state, will 
produce more than a third, or at any rate 
half, the same land, well cultivated and im- 
proved by the manure that can be made, 
the free use of plaister and clover, and the 
proper mixture of ameliorating with ex- 
hausting crops ? Let these questions be 
tested by experience. 

John Wickham, Esq., when he purchas- 
ed his upper farm, I understand, could not 
expect more than from two thousand to two 
thousand five hundred bushels of wheat, 
annually, according to the season. His 
crop is now from four to five thousand 
bushels. Thomas Marshall, Esq., took pos- 
session of his estate, when two and a half 
barrels of corn, fiid five or six bushels of 
wheat to the acre, would have been thought 
good average crops ; he now makes from 
six to eight barrels of corn, and from fif- 
teen to twenty-five bushels of wheat ^p the 
acre. For these facts many of the mem- 
bers of this society can vouch. Little more 
than ha f Mr. Wickham's land, produces 
more than double the grain he used to make 
Upon two-thirds. Mr. Marshall has been 

equally successful. I hope those gentle- 
men will favour the public, through this 
Society, with a full statement vi' their im- 
provements, Sir John Sinclair says that 
the lands in some districts in Scotland, were 
formerly cultivated in grain, three year- in 



74 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



four; the rent was then from twenty-five to 
thirty shillings per acre ; the same lands are 
now in grain not oftener than three years 
in six ; they pay from five to six pounds 
rent, and make more grain from half than 
they formerly did from three-fourths of 
the farm. These great a#l important 
changes have been made in Scotland, in 
about forty years. 

A safe rule by which to proportion the 
crops of grain, is, not 'to suffer more than 
from a half to three-fifths of the farm to be 
in grain in one year. Let the land that can 
be manured, be the limit of the corn crop, 
to be succeeded by wheat, rye, or oats, ac- 
cording to the soil, and the relative value 
of each species of grain, and then com- 
plete the rotation by alternate crops of 
small grain and clover, allowing one field to 
be always in grass for pasture. I fear many 
farmers will be deterred from following this 
advice, from a belief that it is impractica- 
ble to accomplish what I propose. I pledge 
myself that any man who will make proper 
exertions, may make the quantity of ma- 
nure that will be necessary. A farm of 
three hundred acres in six fields will 
have six of fifty each ; twenty loads of 
forty bushels to the acre, will require 
a thousand loads for a field, to be spread 
over the surface equally. If the ma- 
nure be applied to the hill or the drill, 
one-Tourth of the quantity will be sufficient 
for the corn crop. The application.' in 
either' mode will give from two hundred 
and fifty to three hundred barrels of corn 
from the fields, as the year is favourable or 
otherwise, in one of these modes. I know 
it is in the power of every' man upon such 
a farm, to manure fifty acres : if he will 
provide winter and summer food for his 
stock, and use due dili^fence in making 
and saving manure, and consume all his 
wheat straw and corn stalks as litter for his 
stock. 

In this way, then, half the land will be 
made to produce the quantity of corn usu- 
ally made, with a great saving of labour, a 
certain and constant improvement of his 
farm, and a crop of wheat, double what he 
would make, when one-third of his hind 
was planted in corn, and all his wheat 
made upon corn land. 

The nature of the soil should have the 
greatest inflnencc in deciding upon the 
crops to be made. In most cases, that crop 
will pay best, that the land is best adapted 



to. If the distance from market is too 
great to transport grain of any sort, still it is 
made to great profit, for fattening stock and 
for distillation. On the south branch of 
Potowmac, corn is the principal crop. 
Where the lands are peculiarly adapted to 
corn, let that be made the staple ; so as to 
wheat, and every other plant which is cul- 
tivated. Upon the dry, thirsty uplands of 
the mountaineous country, corn is as preca- 
rious .a crop, as wheat is upon the light 
lands of the lower country. 

The great error in Virginia, heretofore, 
has been, that we have 'cultivated our lands 
without intermission; that we have attempt- 
ed crops without any attention to the qual- 
ity of the land, .or the fitness of its culture; 
that we have taken everything from the 
soil, without returning anything to it, and 
that even now, when there is a strong solici- 
tude to improve our lands, we are attempt 
ing it in a way that cannot succeed. I be- 
lieve that by the due application of plais- 
ter, and the proper mixture of clover crops 
if tile clover succeeds, good land may be 
kept in heart; but if our lands should tin 
of clover, or become clover-sick, as has 
happened in other countries, this resource 
will fail. Is there any man so credulous as 
to believe, that by clover and gypsum alone 
the gullied and exhausted lands of Vir 
ginia can be reclaimed ? I believe not 
if there should be, I can assure him he wil 
be disappointed. Before clover will per 
form its office, the land must be made capa 
ble of holding and sustaining it; nothim 
but manure will enable such land to do this 
and to have manure, there must be stocl 
on every farm, with a sufficiency of fooe 
for winter, and pasture for summer. Soil 
ing for some time, may be practised to ad 
vantage, but it is not to be relied upon ii 
this dry, hot climate, with any certainty 
for more than two months, and can scarce 
ly be practised at all in the harvest month 
from the middle of June to the middle o 
July ; because the farm hands are full; 
employed in securing the grain crops. In 
stead, then, of excluding stock from ou 
farms, they should be considered indispen 
sable, not only for the purpose of makinj 
manure, and for the necessary supply o 
the farmer, his family and labourers, witl 
meat, milk and butter, but as a means o 
affording income. Instead of Virginia hav 
ing a surplus of meat and horses, as sh 
ought to have, our supply is drawn to a ver 



I860.] 



TIIK SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



75 



serious and alarming amount from other 

States. A vasl proportion of the beef and 

pork consumed in our towns, and much of 
that which is mod in the country by the 
farmer-, i I t from other Stat. B. I 

am sure it is a reasonable estimate to 

that Virginia has paid, in the last five 
I eoble of tin- Western OOUtt- 

nd North Carolina, not less than a 
million of dollars a year for cattle, 1 
and hogs, nearly one-fifth of the value of 

our tobacco cr<>j>, thereby impoverishing the 

people, as well as the la ml of Virginia. 

1 have no scruple in Baying that at this 
day, there isle.-- pasture land and less stock 
in Virginia, in the country east of the Dine 

Ridge, than there was thirty years ago. 1 
i i;ot 1." understood to approve of the an- 
eient management of stock and pastures, 
when the stock was permitted to roam over 

the plantations, during the winter, and 
poach the earth, nibbling every atom of 
I ige that escaped the frost, and snatch- 
in;; every particle of the Spring growth, as 
feet as it was Wgh enough to enable them to 
bite it. Under this management, the land was 
injured and the supply of Ibod inadequate; 
the stock miserably kept through the win- 
i great loss in the spring of every 
year, half starved through the summer, and 
the manui* frail theil at all seasons, small 
in quantity and meagre in quality. Instead 
of which, I recommend the forming of lots 
for the spring we of milch cows, yearling 
>Its, and ewes and lambs; 
the more hardy stock to be kept upon dry 
food until the wotidl will sustain them. 

i they will do for two or three weeks 
in all the tapper and most of the lower 
country ; after which, towards the middle 
of May, the common pasture of the farm 
may and soiling commence. One- 

twelfth or (ifteciith of the farm of suitable 
land, in three or mora gfasi lota, <>n a farm 
of any size, to bo BOOn in greensward, or- 
chard and hei -. meadow oat and 

lover, will be 0I PS much value as the 

number i mi any crop, deduct- 

ing : : 6 of culture, that ought to 

.:■!_ d to ei bar grain or tot 
When the eoii.iii >n p;t>ture is open to - 
or when it shall be sustained by soiling, the 
up fr summer use— after 
the fust of Septerabi r tl rei a want 

of pasture. From that time until March, 
tin 1 Iota should not be depastured ; the fall 
th will be ver which will 



be valuable food in March and April, the 
top of it Only being injured by tho : 
Where there are two fie* ver in the 

rotation, perhaps a better DM for the land 
cannot be made of one of them, than to 

pasture with stock with due caution. Ex- 
dude evt rything until tho clover is in full 
bloom, OOtttinue the atOOfe upon it only long 
enough to make way for the second crop, 
excluding them always when the land i.- 
wet. There is no stock on a farm 
benefitted by clover, or teas injurious to it 
or the land, than 1" gB. Except for the 
comfort of resting themselves in wet or 
moist places, in Very hot weather; hogs will 
not root, particularly when the land is dry, 
\ if 'they can get plenty of food without it. 
They have the ability to procure sustenance 
in that way, but I am satisfied it is only 
necessity that makes them resort to it. By 
using one of the divisions of a farm for 
pasture-, with the aid of lots, I am satisfied 
\ that as much manure may be made and ap- 
plied every year to the field in corn as will 
make it a fine crop; that horses enough 
may be raised in Virginia for our own use, 
and that instead of purchasing a great pro- 
portion of the meat we consume, in a very 
few years, we should have a considerable 
quantity for exportation. 

Here 1 beg leave to call the atten ion of 
the Society to the effect of fattening stock 
'on 'the farm, with a proportion of its pro- 
duce. It is to make the land more produc- 
tive in everything from the vast quantity 
of the rich manures it affords, which im- 
parts its fertilizing power to ever)- part of 
the farm in its turn. If the crop of SOXO 
is consumed by cattle on the farm, there 
is no question but that the subsequent crops, 
both of porn and wheat, will be iucrea.-ed. 
by the application of the manure it will 
furnish, which excess may, of itajelf, pay a 

'good price for the corn so consumed. 11', 
in addition, you can obtain a fair price for 
the coin, by the fattening of cattle, with a 
saving pf the trouble ami expense of its 
transportation, the fanner would be doubly 

paid. I am warranted in recommending 
feeding stock by the success of the South 
Branch farmers, who have becopie in I 

. tin* most Wealthy in Virginia, by the 
culture of corn, wifhou 

potted from the district, one bushel in 
grain ; the whole erop being COnsumi 

the respective farms. In Great Britain, 

and propriety of this 



76 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



tice are so fully understood, that there is an acre, a field, a farm, a district, a province 



never more than from one-third to half 
their farms appropriated to grain. The 
vast product of potatoes, turnips, cabbages, 
and grass are applied to the feeding of 
stock on their farms. In this way they be- 
lieve, and I have no doubt of the fact, that 
they make more grain than they would do 
if a greater proportion of the land were 
made to produce it. In England, this 
practice is carried so far, that oil- cake is 
purchased and used for fattening cattle, 
with a knowledge that its chief benefit is 
derived from the richness it imparts to 
the manure, made by the cattle to whom it 
is fed. , 

The wisdom and economy of making as 
much grain upon twenty acres of land as 
they formerly made upon fifty, are there 
fully understood, and they are so rational 
as to believe it is better to have their farms 
improving than decreasing in fertility — and 
this is done by men who have only a short 
and temporary interest in the land, while 
we, the people of Virginia, who pride our- 
selves in being the lords of the soil, show 
so much indifference to its preservation. It 
is believed, and I fear justly, that our cli- 
mate is unfavourable to the product of po- 
tatoes and turnips, which I consider a 
misfortune ; but it is not pretended that 
either our soil or climate is at all so, to car- 
rots, parsnips, scarcity, Jerusalem arti- 
chokes, or the sweet potatoe, cabbage, rape, 
o: Swedish turnips. We have a great re- 
source, too, in pumpkins, not less valuable 
for the quality of the food, than any of the 
roots, and only made so by the time at 
which they must be consumed. Much of 
our grain, both corn and rye, might be fed 
to great advantage, by being ground and 
fed on cut straw, or steamed, and perhaps 
more profitably than to sell it in grain, at 
the common prices. 

The benefit to the farmer and to the land, 
from feeding stock, is so well understood in 
Great Britain, that it has become 'an agri- 
cultural maxim, that whenever a farmer 
discovers he can be as well paid, by culti- 
vating food for cattle as for man, he should 
prefer it, because of the increased quan- 
tity of manure it gives. Mr. A. Young re- 
marks, that " that country, that farm will 
be most improved, and most productive, 
Upon which the greatest quantity of cattle 



or a kingdom.' 

By providing food for a due proportion 
of cattle, hogs and sheep, the quantity of 
grain will be increased, and the " meat, 
cheese, milk, butter, wool, and leather, are 
so much additional produce gained from the 
land; by means of which the wealth, of a 
country and its power of providing for a 
numerous population, is enormously in- 
creased." 

I trust there is no possibility of my be- 
ing so far misunderstood as to have it sup- 
posed, that it is my desire to convert all 
our arable into grass land, or that I wish to 
increase the quantity of grass by diminish- 
ing the product of bread-stuff. I recom- 
mend stock as an auxiliary, whose agency 
is to be made to contribute to. the increase 
of the grain crop, and to be subservient to 
that object. It is essential to the utility 
and chance of profit from stock, that they 
should be abundantly fed through the year, 
and the quantity of stock kept proportion- 
eel to the food provided ; remembering al- 
ways, that it is better for every person that 
a farm should bo under than over stocked. 
In the neighbourhood of my estate in Al- 
bemarle, we have no resource for the sum- 
mer support of cattle, but those furnished 
by our arable lands. We are without 
swamps or marshes, and we are so fortunate 
as to be able to cultivate all our cleared 
lands in succession. I do not believe with- 
in eight miles of Warren, there are fifty 
acres of waste uninclosed lands. Under 
these circumstances, we must abandon stock 
or depend upon what can be derived from 
the farm by pasturage and soiling.* 

W. C. Nicholas. 



* The following is an extract of a letter from 
a gentleman of the first respectability, who is 
distinguished as a farmer, and who lias improv- 
ed highly a tract of land that had been very 
much exhausted. It is published to corroborate 
my opinion of the importance and value of stock, 
both with a view to the improvement of a farm 
and the profit to be derived from it : 

" I regret that it is not in my power to give 
anything like a satisfactory account of the an- 
cient mode of cuiti vating the soil which it ha* 
fallen to my lot to manage. The modern and 
more improved mode of farming had already 
been adopted in part, when I came here to re- 
side. The plowing, however, is deeper now, 
and better executed than formerly ; planter of 
j paris is used in greater abundance, and more 



and sheep are kept. This holds good, ofj manure is carted out upon the fields. Not long 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



77 



York Ob m. 

Lecture on Stock Feeding. 

At a late exhibition of the Highland So- 
s Show, of Scotland, Dr. Anderson, 
the Society's ( lliemist, during an able lecture 
ido the following; ic- 



on Stock Feeding, mi 
marks : 
!« All branch* 



agriculture are 



part of th( ited in the 

- to add to its weight. Now, the 

quantity absorbed depends upon the slate 

OT the animal — a lean beaflt thoroughly 
ha us ting its food, while, when it is nearlj 
fat, it takes only a small proportion. 
likewise, if the quantity of food 1)-' gr 
than the digestive organs can well di 



, of, -a certain quantity escapes digestion al- 
fcomi* through this phase of existence, and t - l J 



principles are being gradually established 
The feeding of stock is exactly one of those 
Subjects which can be most successfully ad- 
vanced by studying the principles on which 
it depends; and though these involve many 
most complex, chemical and physiological 
ioriS, we have obtained some founda- 
tion on which to go. The food which an 
animal consumes is partly assimilated and 
partly excreted, but, if it be properly pro- 
portioned to its requirements, its weight 
remains constant, and hence we learn that 



food does not remain permanently in the j 



jether, and it is practically lost. 

**The problem which the feeder has to 
solve is, how to supply his cattle with such 
food, and in such proportions, as to ensure 
the largest increase with the smallest loss. 
In solving this problem we must, in the 
first place, consider the general nature of 
the iood of all animals, the constituents of 
which may be divided into three great 
classes — the nitrogenous matters, wdii« ! 
to the formation of flesh; the saccharine 
and oily, which support respiration and 
form fat. It is sufficiently obvious that as 



body. If, now, an animal be 
food, it loses weight, owing 



deprived of 



.the two great functions of nutrition and 



tl e s b | res I H ' ratwtl lnusfc proceed simultaneously. 



Tithe most advantageous food wi 1 be that 
stances stored up in the booy bem^ used | ,. , ,. T^ . ' \ '. 

• . • ,i e • *• i which supplies them in the most read) v 

to maintain the process of respiration and . ., , . ] 1 ,. , . «*wu«j 

tl ■ . ,. ,,' .• m, if assimilable forms, and in proper pronor- 

the waste ot the tissues. Ihe course or .. ■ * ,' n n } }. . * ] 

•,i • ,i v i • c i itions. In regard to the first of these mat- 

events within the body is, so far as known,' .. ... , G , . . A .- . . _ .. 

• . r *i • i • j nti c i • r ters, it will be obvious that if two kinds of 
what of this kind. Ihe food is di-i,. { . . ., . , 

i i l j ■• *. .■ .*. v» a . • rood contain the same quantity or nutritive 

.. absorbed into the blood, a certain! , ., . j ' •> 

v • i . . . matters, but in one they are associated 

quantity being consumed to support, res-; ., \ . / /pi 

• ,• J t<. ?i i- a i i j- * i witli a larger quantity or woody fibre or 

piration. If the lood be properly adjusted , . •}• J L i J , .,, 

.i ,. a • l i "V ■ i . other non-nutritious matter, the latter will 

to the requirements ol the animal, its weight , ., ,, , . ' , "«*«ci w™ 

1 i i .i ,•/ i i i have considerably Jess value than the for- 

remains unchanged — the quantity absorbed , ,.,, J . - , , 

i ,i . /i .i j * »jcr. Ihe necessity ior a proper balance 

and that excreted exactly correspond to one 

another; but if we increase the food, a 



ssity ior a proper 
of the two great classes of nutritive con- 
stituents is also sufficiently obvious, for if, 
for example, an animal be supplied with a 
large quantity of nitrogenous matters, and 
• small amount of respiratory elements, it 
must, to supply a sufficiency of the latter, 
consume a much larger quantity ol' the 
former than it can assimilate, and there is 
practically a great loss. We may deter- 
mine the proper proportion of these sub- 
stances in three different ways: 1st, we 
may determine the composition of the ani- 
mal body; 2ml, we may examine that of 
dutod more effectually,, and. to prepare a good t } 1( , m []^ the tvpical food of the voun- 
for the wheat. Ihe surface ol our • ,i. -_j .> i ,i i. n 

animal; and ord, the results of actual feed- 
But, 



my arrival, my stock- of cattle was consid- 
erably diminished, with a view to give the land 
as much as possible the benefit arising from clo- 
i>a mere manure. For five or. 
six years 1 have been nursing my land carefully, 
an 1 have had some very poor folds to reclaim; 
but I am now able to fatten 50 or P>0 beeves :ui- 
Dtiuiiy for market, without sustaining any incon- ' 
: indeed 1 consider the grazing of those 
which I propose to fallow in any given 
>d advantage; l>edause I amen-] 

hy tin mean-, to have the [dewing exc- 



countiy is much broken and exhibits many poor . 

provemeht has no'l I in .^ r expenmeata may be examined 



where nti, 
far, which are not only a 'i\>-.\\ detriment to the however valuable 
app< arance, but a material drawback apon the these experiments 

i ofour wheat fields. Uj some Oft hoi 

, n i.i die habit of having m\ fan 

\ erj night, and others I have 



the data derived from 

may be, they are less 

important than those derived iron; actual 

feeding experiment*. In fact, it by m> 



■todeavouredto corerwith mannn ults weans follows that the proportions in which 



have been in ev< :tory.*' 



the different substances 



found in the 



78 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



animal are exactly those in which they 
ought to exist in the food. On the con- 
trary, it appears that while one-tenth of the 
saccharine and fatty matters are assimilated 
by the animal, only one-twentieth of the 
nitrogenous compounds, and one thirty- 
third of the mineral substances in the food 
are assimilated by the animal. On the other 
hand, however, it must be remembered that 
the particular compounds also exercise a 
very different influence. Thus a pound of 
fat in the food, when assimilated, will pro- 
duce, a pound of fat in the animal; but it 
requires about two and a-half pounds of 
sugar and starch to produce the same effect. 
The broad general principle arrived at is, 
that we must afford a sufficient supply of 
readily assimilable food, containing a pro- 
per proportion of each class of nutritive, 
substances. But there are other matters 
also to be borne in mind, for the food 
must not only increase the weight of the 
animal, but also support respiration and 
animal heat; and the quantity of food re- 
quired for this purpose is large. 

" It appears, from Bou'ssingault's experi- 
ments, that in a cow, eighteen ounces of 
nitrogenous matter are required to counter- 
balance the waste of the tissues — a quan- 
tity containe>i in about ten or twelve pounds 
of wheat flour; and it is well-known that 
an ox expires four or five pounds of carbon 
daily, to supply which one hundred pounds 
of turnips are required. We see from this 
the large quantity relatively to that used 
up, which is required for the maintenance 
of these functions, and the importance of 
adopting such measures as, by restraining 
them within the narrowest possible limits, 
produce a saving of food. The diminution 
of muscular exertion, and keeping the ani- 
mals warm, so that a small quantity of 
food may be required to act as fuel to 
maintain the animal heat, are the most im- 
portant considerations. Although the pres- 
ence of a sufficient quantity of nutritive 
matters is an essential qualification of all 
foods, their mechanical condition is not un- 
important, for unless its bulk be such as to 
admit of the stomach acting upon it pro- 
perly, there must be an appreciable loss; 
and there is no greater fallacy than to sup- 
pose that the best results are to be obtained 
by the use of those which contain their 
nutritive matters in a very small bulk. 

"As a practical question, the principles 
of feeding are restricted to determining 



how- the staple food produced on the fan: 
can be most advantageously used to fee< 
the cattle kept on it, and on this poin 
much requires to be said. It appears tha 
they Can be best made use of when com 
bined with more highly nutritious food 
such as oil-cake or rape; and, when this i 
property done, a very great advantage i 
derived. It appears from experiments tha 
sheep, which, when fed on hay only, attaii 
a weight of ninety pounds, reach a hundrei 
when rape is added. The subject canno 
be completed without referring to the valu 
of the clung produced, which has been vari 
ously estimated." 

The experiments referred to in the cours 
of the address, appear to show that, o 
food generally, about one-third to one 
fourth of the money value, and seven-eighth 
of the valuable matter, appear in the duns 
Dr. Anderson concluded by saying that h 
had by no means attempted to exhausl 
but had given only a sketch, trusting tha 
the observations of others might fill up th 
details. 



Form and Action of Saddle Horses. 

When a horseman sits on a good roadster 
he need not take the trouble to pick hi 
way when riding clown a rough country Ian 
or over broken ground, because the for 
feet of a clever saddle horse, be the pace 
walk, trot or canter, are always well forward 
and fall flatly and evenly on the ground 
and when in action the fore legs are sufil 
cient but not too much bent, the actioi 
coming direct from the shoulders. But th< 
most agreeable feature experienced in ridin< 
perfect saddle horses is, the ease and elasti 
city with, which they move in all their paces 
thereby sparing the rider any feeling of fa 
tigue. Not only is the number of hack: 
and hunters very limited, but those w< 
have — except a few in the hands of masters 
of hounds and members of hunts — are toe 
apt at an early age to display some of th( 
infirmities to which their race are now s( 
subject, in the shape of curbs, splints anc 
spavins, consequent upon the hurry the 
breeders are in to bring them into the mar 
ket before they arrive at a proper working 
age. Thousands of capital saddle horses arc- 
annually sacrificed from this very cause. ] 
partly attribute the downward tendency ol 
our breed of saddle horses, to the rage foi 
speed, which is now so prominent a feature 



18G0.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



7!i 



on the English turf; but when we take into 
leration what 1 idered and eare- 

lection on our turf has effected, when 
the sole object was speed, we may reasona- 
bly anticipate ;is important and bcie 
results from equally judicious eelei 
when oar object is to produce* b 
tig that line union of qualities 
tial to good saddle hoi • 

« There are a few people who know what 
constitutes good shoulders in a horse — a 
good many asserting that they should ftne t 
Leaning by this, lean at the withers. >t is, 
however, certain that the shoulders of a 
young horse, intended to carry weight, can 
hardly be too thick at that place, provided 
they are not too thick at the points or the 
lower ends, while inclining- their tops well 
back, and leaving a good space between the 
end of* the mane and the pommel of the 
saddle. There is a certain cross-beam which 
connects the lower end of the shoulder blades 
wi-th the horsg's lore legs, which very mate- 
rially affects his action. When this is too 
long it throws the fore legs too much back, 
log the horse to stand over like a cart- 
horse ; and such an animal, besides being 
unpleasant to ride, when at all tired, is very 
likely to come down. I am here stating 
what is well known to good judges, but I 
write for the many. I would also observe 
that the form of shoulders I here recom- 
mend only contribute to good action, they 
alone do not secure it. Good hind-leg ac- 
tion is as important as good action in the 
legs. The hock joints should bend 
well, when in action, bringing the hind feet 
well forward, but without striking the fore 
feet, commonly called over-reaching. 

It is a common practice to pay little at- 
tention to the action of the hind legs, BO 
lung as the horse possesses what is termed 
"fine knee-up action;" but all superior 
-, of whatever breed, are eminently 
characterized by good hind-leg action; lor 
be the shoulders ever so good, unless the 
action of the hind legs arc also good, the 
horse is uneasy to ride, because the action 
of the two sets of Legi are not properly 
balanced, and, no matter how ace tinpliahed 
the rider may be, it is with difficulty he 
can accommodate his scat to the action of 
Hiich a hmse. Such a horse is unsafe to 
ride, and his rider, if a judge of action, 
feels that he is so; but if the action of the 
hind or fore legs be properly balanced, the 
rider feels his horse firm under him, and 



that he cannot very well come down. 1(^ 

. in thi.> ca to be rid i t. 

hilt, while under oppo&ifc 1, he 

to be riding aoirn hill. One import- 
ant point which I consider bafbeen gained 
by the breeding of horses foi . the 

great length between the hip-bone end the 
hock, as exhibited in the grey-hound j and 
although the possession of this point u not 
so absolutely necessary, yet I, for one, should 
be inclined to give its possessor the \ 
eiice for a hunter of the present day, for 
the horse either is, or ought to be, capable 
of great speed. But our hunter had not 
formerly this shape, and did not so much 
require it. There is, however, one objec- 
tion against any excessive length between 
hip and hock, which is, that it frequently 
causes over-reaching, a most disagreeable in- 
firmity for cither hunter or roadster. A 
horse's hips should be wide, to carry weight, 
and his loins highly muscular, but the lower 
ends of his shoulders should be light, His 
chest cannot be too full, but it may be too 
wide for speed, as well as lor agreeable ac- 
tion, causing a rolling motion, very unpleas- 
ant to the rider. # 

Great depth of chest is a powerful recom- 
mendation, and the ribs before the girths 
cannot be too long, but the back ribs (when 
much speed is required) should be rather 
short. For very fine action, the shoulder- 
blades must be long, while they cannot be 
so without inclining well back. If a horse 
so formed has good hind-leg action, he will 
be very valuable as an active weight-carry- 
ing cob, because thus form of shoulders is, 
:ret to say, now rarely to be found 
among our saddle horses, a* in the majority 
of them that come within the pale of a 
moderate price, the girths arc continually 
slipping forward, causing the rider to sit on 
the horse's withers rather than on his back ; 
and this is one cause of horses tailing down, 
as the weight of the rider pressing <m the 
top of their shoulders seriously interferes 
with their free action, and when they make 

a slight tumble it is next to impossible to* re- 
cover their feet. The best height for h 
intended as hacks of the first .bout 

15 hands. Tall horses are not BO good for 

hacks as those of lower stature, BJ tie 
not move with so much ea>e aud light 
wearing their legs more, and causing more 
lie to their rider. The majority of tall 

hora i are now-e-dayi tall onlj they 

have long legs, which arc very objectiona- 



80 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



We, as they never wear well, and are mostly 
allied with a very shallow body. These 
horses may do well enough when a showy 
appearance is the only object in view; but 
they are not (calculated for hard work, or to 
ride in hilly country. I may dismiss this 
subject by remarking that I would not ad- 
vise the purchaser to reject a horse just be- 
cause he does not happen to possess all the 
good qualities I have here recommended, as 
they will remember the old adage, " That 
there never was a perfect horse." 

London Review. 



From the Rural Register. 

Bone Earth. 

We are anxious to see a more general use 
of crushed bones, as we believe that they 
are the most valuable manure (so far as per- 
manency is concerned) that can be used on 
most crops. The following from Prof. S. 
W. Johnson, to the Connecticut Agricultu- 
ral Society, will be read with interest : — 

Having lately been asked by several agri- 
culturists if there is any rftethod known of 
bringing whole bones into a pulverized con- 
dition, otherwise than by grinding or treat- 
ment with oil of vitriol, I take the oppor- 
tunity to communicate to the members of 
the State Society the process of reducing 
them into a convenient form by fermenta- 
tion. 

This process has been practiced in Eng- 
land, for ten years or t more, having been 
brought before the public there by Mr. 
Pusey, for many years the editor of the 
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
of England • but it appears not to have be- 
come very widely known in this country. 

The process depends upon the fact that 
bones consist, to the amount of one-third 
their weight, of cartillage, or animal matter, 
which under the influence of warmth and 
moisture, readily decomposes, (ferments or 
decays), and loses its texture, so that the 
bones fall to dust. 

From the closeness and solidity of the 
bony structure, decay is excited and main- 
tained with some difficulty. A single bone, 
or a heap of bones, never decays alone, but 
dries and hardens on exposure. If, howe- 
ver, bones in quantity be brought into dose 
contact with some easily fermentable moist 
substance, but little time elapses before a 
rapid decay sets in. 



So too, if fresh crushed bones are mixed 
with sand soil, or any powdery matter that 
fills up the spaces between the fragments of 
bone, and makes the heap compact, and 
then are moistened with pure water, the 
same result .takes place in warm weather, 
though more slowly.' 

Hhe practical process may be as follows : 
The bones if whole, should be broken up as 
far as convenient by a sledge-hammer, affd 
made into alternate layers with sand, loam, 
saw-dust, leached ashes, coal ashes, or swamp 
muck, using just enough of any one of these 
materials to fill compactly the cavities among 
the bones, but hardly more. Begin with a 
thick layer of earth or muck, and as the 
pile is raised, pour on stale urine or dung- 
heap liquor enough to moisten the whole 
mass thoroughly, and finajjy, cover a foot 
thich with soil or muck. 

In warm weather the decomposition goes 
on at once, and in ffom two to six or m©re 
weeks the bones will have neaflyor entirely 
disappeared. 

If the fermentation should spend itself 
without reducing the bones sufficiently, the 
heap may be overhauled and. built .up again, 
moistening with liquid manure, and covering 
as before. 

By thrusting a pole or bar into the heap, 
the progress of decomposition may be tra- 
ced, from the heat and odor evolved. 

Should the heap become heated to the 
surface, so that ammonia escapes, as may be 
judged by the smell, it may be covered still 
more thickly with earth or muck. 

The larger the heap, the finer the bones, 
and the more Stale urine or dung liquor they 
have been made to absorb, the more rapid 
and complete will be the disintegration. 

In these heaps, horse-dung or other rapid- 
ly fermenting manure may replace the ashes, 
etc., but earth or muck should be used to 
cover the heap. 

This bone compost contains the phos- . 
phates of lime in a finely divided state, and 
the nitrogen of the cartilage, which has 
mostly passed into ammonia or nitrates, is 
retained perfectly by the absorbent earth or 
muck. 

When carefully prepared, this manure is 
adapted to be delivered from a drill-machine 
with seeds, and according to English farm- 
ers, fully replaces in nearly every case, the 
superphosphate made by help of oil-of-vit- 
riol. 

Yale Analytical Laboratory, Nov. 22d. 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



81 



From the Boston Cultivator. 

On the Culture and Use of Root Crops. 

Messrs. Editors :— The business of raising 
roots in our country may be fairly said to 
be as yet in a state of infancy, when we 
come to compare the amount raised with 
what it is in many foreign conn tries. It 
may also be fairly argued, that we can never 
expect to cope with other countries in this 
branch of husbandry, owing in part to the 
enhanced price of labour with us, and possi- 
bly, in part, that our climate is not as favour- 
able to their growth, owing to its lack of 
humidity. Still there is not the slightest 
doubt in my own mind, but that we can pro- 
fitably increase the amount of this species 
of animal food in a large ratio. The far- 
mers of our region are loth to think that 
the fields from which an annual crop of a 
ton or two of hay per acre has been taken 
from time immemorial, can by proper tillage 
and. judicious fertilizing be made to produce 
in a year or two just ten times the same 
amount of good succulent winter food for 
his stock, though probably not as valuable 
as his hay, pound for pound ) yet in the 
aggregate, no one will deny, vastly more 
valuable. 

One advantage in raising this crop is, 
that they draw so large an amount of their 
sustenance from the atmosphere, and conse- 
quently, do not impoverish the soil to that 
extent that most crops of the same amount 
would be like to. The large broad leaves 
of the turnip show this especially, and I 
have yet to learn that a crop of roots ex- 
hausts the soil to a greater extent than a crop 
of corn or other cereal, while the produce of 
the former is immensely the greatest. 

Another advantage in their cultivation is, 
that by giving so large a yield, that when 
fed out, and the manure thus made properly 
saved and composted, more good, fertilizing 
matter is obtained, I will venture to say, 
than from any other crop raised on the farm. 
A man cannot take the product of an acre 
of roots, say from 15 to 20 tons, and feed 
them to his stock in the most careless man- 
ner without adding largely to the pile in the 
barn-cellar or yard. This I look upon as one 
of the greatest advantages arising from their 
culture, and when persisted in for a term of 
years, cannot fail of showing its effects in 
the increased fertility of the soil. 

Still another advantage is, that they come 
into use at a season when animals are dc- 
6 



prived of food of a succulent nature, and 
seem to be just what the system needs at 
that period — acting in a measure as a cor- 
rective and alterative, keeping the bowels 
loose and in a healthy condition. Especially 
are their good qualities manifested when 
fed to cows about the period of parturition, 
when the animal stands in need of food of 
a laxative nature. The good effects of car- 
rots are also shown when fed to horses in 
the winter, which are otherwise confined to 
dry feed, in giving them a fine, sleek coat, 
and a general healthiness of the system, act- 
ing with them both as a laxative and diu- 
retic. For colts especially are they highly 
beneficial. Having thus endeavored to show 
something of the practicability of the sys- 
tem, let us look for a moment to their cul- 
ture; and first, as to carrots: 

For this crop, a soil that might be termed 
a sandy loam, sufficiently compact however 
to retain manure, and resting on a clayey 
subsoil, is preferred. A field that was 
cropped the previous season with corn or 
potatoes and kept clean, should be chosen. 
Fall ploughing and manuring is pref#dble, 
though perhaps not essential, provided the 
land received two ploughings in the spring. 
As early in the spring as the soil becomes 
sufficiently dry to work, in April, if possi- 
ble, prepare the land by first giving it a 
good coat of manure, evenly spread and well 
pulverized. If you have both fine and 
coarse, use the coarse at this time. Plough 
to the depth of 12 inches, provided your 
land was previously in good tilth, if not, two 
or three inches less will answer, and be sure 
to see that the manure is well covered. If 
it is long and difficult to do this, have a man 
follow the plough and push it in the fur- 
rows, so it will not choke the plough. Twen- 
ty-five loads at least per acre should be ap- 
plied at this time. Allow the land to re- 
main as left by the plough until about the 
20th of May, when it should be again 
ploughed at the same depth crosswise, if 
possible, after which a dressing of fine ma- 
nure should be applied to the surface of at 
least 15 loads to the acre, (the amount limit- 
ed only by the supply,) and well cultivated 
in. It doubtless will be superfluous to men- 
tion the importance of bringing the soil into 
fine tilth for this crop. Not less than half 
a dozen applications with a good long thirty 
tooth harrow, or what is nnuli to M pre- 
ferred, a good two-horse cultivator on who As 
— such an implement as the farmers of 



__ 



82 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



having the teeth at suitable distances 
and drawn bv hand. The 



Western New. York use in preparing their 
ioil for wheat. The soil' will need to be per- 
fectly free from stones and lumps, as they 
are a great hindrance, both- in the sowing 
and in after cultivation. 

For marking out the land for the drill — 
which when the land has been thoroughly 
prepared, and in an as fine tilth as an onion- 
bed, it should be marked for the drills by a 
machine similar to an old fashioned horse- 
rake 

for the rows, and drawn by 
first rows can be made straight by drawing 
a line across one side of the field and allow- 
ing the outside tooth to follow it— and if at 
any time the rows become crooked, by using 
the line matters can become straightened 
out again. The proper distance for the 
drills to be from each other is about eigh- 
teen inches for carrots. Now, with your 
hand-drill, which should be first tried on a 
floor to see that it works well and discharges 
the proper quantity of seed, follow the marks 
carefully, and if your drill is provided with 
a gofi roller, as it should be, no other cov- 
ering will be found necessary, but if no 
roller, it will be needful to go over them 
with one separate from the drill. The pro- 
per time for sowing in our locality, is from 
the 20th May to the 10th June, according 
to the earliness or lateness of the seed sea- 
son. If sown quite late, however, they may 
be somewhat thicker, as they will not attain 
so great size. 

In just about three weeks from the period 
of sowing, if the weather has been favoura- 
ble, the plants will be up and of a proper 
size to begin the weeding, and now comes 
the tug of war ! For if the first weeding 
is not seasonably and properly done, your 
crop is half ruined ; indeed, two or three 
days procrastination here may cost you your 
crop. First, let a careful hand hoe between 
the drills as closely as possible, and the 
weeds in the rows must be taken out by 
hand, for there has not yet, in all Yankee- 
dom, been a machine invented that could 
distinguish between a carrot plant and a 
.weed. Beginners are very like to fail here, 
i. c., not to perform the weeding sufficiently 
early — for if postponed until weeds' and car- 
rots have both attained some considerable 
size, the plants will be very like to come 
out with the weeds. Care should also be 
taken here to get the roots of the weeds out, 
and not be content to allow the tops only to 
be eradicated. The second weeding usually 



comes from ten to twenty days from the first 
and should be performed in a like thorough 
manner. They will ordinarily need going 
over the third time. 

The plants should be allowed to occupy 
the ground until about the first of Novem- 
ber, as they make the most growth in the 
autumn months. 

As to the best mode of harvesting, I think 
it is to take long-handled spades, not shovels, 
strike them in the earth as close as possible 
to the roots in a perpendicular position, and 
pry the roots just loose with one hand and 
with the other grasp the tops and jerk them 
from their bed. After a slight experience, 
this can be done in a more rapid manner 
than one would suppose, and with a good 
yield, one man will dig in this way, having 
other help to do the topping, one hundred 
bushels in a day. Have never made out 
much in the use of the plough in digging, 
as some have suggested. Caution must be 
taken not to dig more than can be topped 
and housed the same day, as they are very 
susceptible to frost. If as yet you do not 
possess that almost indispensable apartment 
to the root grower, the barn-cellar, but are 
obliged to store them at the house-cellar, 
drive to the outside door or gangway, and 
having laid some loose plank over the stairs, 
allow them to roll down this, which will tend 
to dispossess them of much of the loose dirt 
likely to adhere to them, and at your leisure, 
throw them back to the spot designed for 
their reception. A mound-shaped pile in 
the centre is beet for a large quantity, and 
if -the cellar is properly ventilated, and the 
roots put in in good dry order, which is all im- 
portant, there will be no fear from heating 
in the pile. If, however, from any cause 
this should take place, it can he stopped by 
opening the pile and allowing the air to cir- 
culate more freely. 

As regards the cultivation of the ruta 
baga, or Swedish turnip, the mode of cul- 
ture is, in many respects, so similar, that 
only a few additional hints will be. needed. 
A light clover sward of one year's growth 
on the clayey loam, requiring a somewhat 
heavier soil than the carrot, is perhaps best 
adapted to the growth of this esculent. 

When the clover has attained 
and is part in blossom, say about the second 
week in June, the land should be well turned 
over at a good depth— not less than ten 
inches — and fine manure applied at the sur- 
face, amount limited only by the supply, 



its growth 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



83 



and thoroughly incorporated with the soil 
by the use of the harrow ; indeed, the ex- 
treme pulverization theory of Jcthro Tull 
conn;-; in play here, and nothing short of 
very thorough culture will answer. Mark 
with the machine as described for carrots, 
only let the drills be two feet distant from 
each other, and rjt this distance horse-labor 
maybe used i ■"Mnewhat in their cultivation, 
either by the cultivator or horse-hoc-*-the 
latter preferred, if of the right kind. 

As regards the amount of seed necessary, 
two pounds to the acre is about the right 
quantity, provided your machine distributes 
evenly, and, T should have stated before, 
two pounds of carrot seed per acre is used; 
more being better than less, but it must be 
stated,* one advantage in raising the baga is, 
that vacant places can 'be readily filled in 
by transplating. 

W. J. Pettee. 

"We feel pleasure in saying, our excellent 
friend, the writer of the above essay, took 
the highest premium on farms less than fifty 
acres at the Connecticut State Fair in 185G, 
owing mainly to his success in root culture. 

Eds. 



| he could not raise the watc/ within 10 feet 
'of the surface : moreover, if he should go 
to Quito, or Santa Fc de Bogota, in South 
America, or to Q-ondar, the capital of Abys- 
'sinia, he would not be able to raise it more 
'than 20 feet; while on the summit of the 
'highest ridge of the Himalayas, he could 
'scarcely raise it byGhe same means to the 
'height of 10 feet. 
• Without a knowledge, therefore, of the 
principles upon which the operation of the 
pump depends, he would be likely to get in- 
volved in as great mistakes as the Florentine 
pump maker ; and this simple case may 
serve well to illustrate the valui of science, 
[even in the simplest affairs of life, and its 
'absolute indvspeniabuity in directing our op- 
'erations under varying circumstances. 

At the level of the sea, the atmosphere supports 

a column of water'33 feet high. 
At '2j miles above the level of the sea. it will 

only support one 16J feet high. 
At 9 .4-10 miles above the level of the sea, it 

will only support 6ne 8^ feet high. 
At 8 miles above the level of the sea, it will 

only support one 4 feet high. 



The Common Pump. 

In the year 1641, a pump maker of Flo- 
rence made an atmospheric, or as it was then 
called, a sucking pump, the pipe of which 
extended from 50 to 60 feet above the sur- 
face of the water. When put in operation 
it was found incapable of raising the water 
to a greater height than 33 feet. The pump 
was examined for some defect in its con- 
struction ; but being found perfect in that 
respect, it was again set to work, without 
any better suce 

The difficulty having been submitted to 
Galileo for his advice and solution, and by 
him having been communicated to his pupil 
Toricolli, led to the discovery, by the latter, 
in 1643, that water is raised in pumps by 
the pressure or might of the atmosphere, 
and coteinporarily, to the invention of tlie 
barometer. 

Nearly every one now-a-days is acquaint- 
ed with the fact that water can not be raised 
from a greater depth than 33 feet by moans 
of the common pump : but suppose an arti- 
san, who had been brought up in New York 
or London, and was perfectly familiar with 
this fact, should go to the city of M« 
ana there construct a pump with a pipe $8 
feet in length, he would find, upon trial, that 



Artificial Manures. 
As sulphuric acid is largely employed in 
making superphosphates, and other Artificial 
manures, the quality of this acid is a sub- 
ject of considerable importance. Sulphuric 
acid in England and this country is chiefly 
manufactured from iron pyrites, in conse- 
quence of its greater cheapness ; but it 
would seem that most of the pyritic sulphur 
contains an amount of arsenic equal to from 
one five hundreth to one eight hundreth 
part of the acid. This arsenic is taken up 
by the plants to which the manure is ap- 
plied y and in a chemical analysis of vege- 
tables so manured, the presence of arsenic 
is clearly detected. Prof. Davy, of Dublin, 
has recently called attention to these facts, 
and urges upon manufacturers of superphos- 
phates the necessity of caution in the mate- 
rials they employ, as arsenic is a cumulative 
poison whioh is sooner or later destructive 
to the animal system. lie mentions an in- 
stance where sheep refused io eat turnips 
grown with superphosphates, evidently pre- 
ferring those grown with ordinary farm- 
yard manure. The Professor recommends 
the total •abandonment of sulphuric acid, 
paadc from pyrites, i'ov any agricultural pur- 
; and, the substitution, instead .»f acid 
made tVvin pu:v sulphur as, in his opinion. 
pyrites almost invariably contain arsenic. 



84 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



This plan is actually adopted by many 
manufacturers of superphosphates who stip- 
ulate that the acid must be made from pure 
sulphur. All pyrites, however, do not con- 
tain arsenic. That of the '^Belgian Pyrites 
Company, of Antwerp," has been repeated- 
ly tested without ever showing a trace of 
arsenic ; The Spanish pyrites are also said to 
be free from it. It is very desirable to have 
the pyrites, which are imported from differ- 
ent places, thoroughly tested, so that the 
manufacturers of artificial manures may be 
able to give satisfactory assurances that so 
pernicious an ingredient as arsenic is not 
contained in their otherwise useful produc- 
tions, which are now so extensively em- 
ployed. — Practical Machinist. 



From the Farmer and. Gardener. 

Take Care of the Implements. 

Mr. Editor : — Examining a Mowing 
machine a few days since, I observed > paint- 
ed upon a conspicuous part of it the words, 
"Keep your Knives Sharp" The manu- 
facturer had, I presume, learned to know 
that very many of the failures on the part 
of farmers to make their mowing machines 
work satisfactorily, proceeded from a want 
of attentiori to the injunction contained in 
the four words so conspicuously painted 
upon the machine. It seems strange that 
any such admonition should be necessary, 
but "facts are stubborn things," and it can- 
not be denied that too little attention is given 
to our implements, when in use, or when 
not in use. No nation expends so much 
money for implements as the American, and* 
none are so careless of them. In fact, the 
purchase of improved implements is one of 
fche-heaviest taxes imposed upon us : but it 
is equally clear that we double our taxation 
in this particular by our abuse of them. 
The leisure season of the farmer is at hand, 
and this is the proper time, therefore, to 
direct their attention to this matter. Where 
shall they begin ? With the first tool or 
implement they meet after reading this. If 
they have done with plowing and harrowing 
for the season, let every plow, harrow, and 
cultivator be taken to the implement house, 
presuming, of cou.se, that every well-con- 
ducted farm is provided with one of these 
indispensables. Every shovel, \ioe, spade, 
or rake should be similarly cared for, and 
the first leisure hour, or rainy day, appro- 
priated to putting them in proper order for 



use at any moment. By this I mean, that 
every part of every tool should be carefully 
examined ; every nut and bolt should be 
seen to; the adhering dirt should be washed 
from both iron and wood work; and this 
should be done before the bright eft polished 
parts, as mold-boards, &c, begin to rust. 
Apply a little tallow or oil to these parts ; 
procure Some good oil paint, (the best is the 
cheapest,) and give a coat of it to every 
part of the wood-work. One coat of paint 
is worth half a dozen of varnish, at least 
such varnish as is usually applied to agri- 
cultural implements. Examine the mowing- 
machine knives, file or grind out the nicks, 
put a good edge on them, and after oiling 
them to prevent' rust, lay them carefully 
aside. Remove all the gummed oil from 
the gearing and journals of your mowers, 
thrashers, corn-shellers, &e. ; have the blunt- 
ed harrow-teeth taken to the smith and 
pointed, and do not forget to have the plow- 
share laid anew, and the coulter or cutter of 
the plow sharpened. In a word, have every 
thing in such order that it will be ready 
when wanted. This, properly attended to, 
will save to one-half of our farmers one- 
half of the annual oufcly for implements. 
Try it for one season, and my word for it 
the system will be adopted by every one who 
has any disposition or desire to economise 
his expenditures. Abner Brooks. 



from the Farmer and Gardener. 

A Very Little More About Bones. 

Mr. Editor: — I promised in your first 
number, that I would probably have a word 
or two more to say about bones. True to 
my word, I wish to direct attention to a point 
which possesses some interest; and as my 
own mind is not at all clear upon the sub- 
ject, perhaps some of your scientific readers 
will relieve my doubts. What I wish to 
know is, whether bones, after being boiled 
or burned, are as valuable for manure as the 
r-aw tone ? We know that the analyses of 
scientific men give to the raw bone a value 
which the burned or boiled ones do not, and 
cannot possess. All the greasy, fleshy, and 
fibrous matter, of which boiling or burning 
deprives them, are regarded as valuable fer- 
tilizers, and it would seem but reasonable 
that when deprived of these ingredients, 
bone manure would be less valuable. Now, 
on the other hand, we have the practical 
experience of first-rate farmers, which goes 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



85 



to prove tli at the burned or boiled bones are 
superior to the raw. Here science and prac- 
tice are at loggerheads. Who shall decide ? 
Who of our farmers have tested the matter 
and are prepared to report ? We know that 
science is unerring. If it be science at all, 
it must be truthful. Science says raw bones 
are best j practice, or the results rather, of 
some practical experiments, makes an issue 
with science -upon this point, and insists that 
burnt or boiled bones are superior to the 
raw. How are we to settle the dispute ? 
Allow me to offer a suggestion. Both are 
right, I think, and both are wrong. The 
action of raw bones, which have not been 
deprived of their fat and gelatine, is less 
rapid than the burnt or boiled ones, hence 
the conclusions at which practice has arrived 
are based upon the more immediate action 
of the burned bones. Science, on the other 
hand, insists upon the truthfulness of her 
premises, and only asks a little more time 
for their verification. I do not offer this as 
an authoritative opinion, but simply ask a 
kind of compromise between the disputants, 
and with the hope that, if not correct, some 
of your learned readers will enlighten the 
rest of us on the subject. • A. T. B. 

10th Mo. 8, 1859. 



How to Use a Horse. 

It is not, after all, every one who owns a 
horse that knows how to use him, whether 
for his own pleasure or the horse's, which is, 
in other words, the owner's best advantage. 
Nor is it very easy to lay down rules how a 
horse should be used, considering the many 
different purposes for which horses are kept, 
the different natures and constitutions of the 
animals, and the different circumstances of 
their owners. 

Horses may, in general, be divided into 
two classes — those kept for work, and those 
kept for pleasure. In the former class may 
be included farm-horses, stage, coach and 
omnibus horses, team-horses, employed in 
the transportation *of goods, and moving 
heavy and bulky masses, carmen's horses, — 
and lastly, the road horses of all professional 
iiuMi, who, like lawyers, doctors of medicine, 
and the like, are compelled to drive or ride 
many hours per diem, regularly, in the per- 
formance of their busin< 

In the latter elass may bi included race- 
horses, match trotters, private gentlemen's 
saddle-horses, Carriage horses, or roadsters, 
and many other animals belonging to busi- 



ness men, which being employed during half 
the time or more in actual service, are used 
during spare hours on the road for purposes 
of amusement. 

With regard to the first class of these 
horses, the exigencies of the business to 
which they are applied are, for the most 
part, such as to supersede and override all 
rules. In some cases the natural hours of 
the day and night have to be reversed, and 
the animals are called upon to do their work 
by night, and to rest and feed by day. Un- ' 
der these circumstances, it may be laid 
down as an immutable law, that at whatever 
hour the horses are to be worked, they must 
have full time, beforehand, to digest their 
food and water; they must be carefully 
cleaned, and made comfortable ; they must 
have sufficient intervals for halting and bait- 
ing, on the road, must be cleaned and well 
fed during the intervals of work, and must 
have ample time for undisturbed repose. 
The distance which horses in perfect condi- 
tion can go upon the road, varies, greatly 
wi*h the powers of tho animal, the degree 
of pains bestowed upon him, the skill of his 
driver, and the amount of his load, as well 
as the state of the roads. But it may be 
taken as a rule, that 6trong, able horses, of 
moderate speed, can travel forty miles a day, 
with a moderate load, without distress, for 
many days in succession. It may be obser- 
ved, that it is the better way to start at an 
easy pace when on a journey, to increase it 
slightly in the middle of the day, and again 
to relax it before coming in at night, in or- 
der to allow the animals to enter their sta- 
bles cool, in good order, and ready, after a 
short rest,«and cleaning, to feed with an ap- 
petite. 

It may also be observed, in this point of 
view, that it is a mistake to fancy that horses 
are benefited by being driven or ridden very 
slowly when they have a long distance to 
perform. If a horse have to get over forty 
miles in a day, the roads being good, the 
temperature of the day pleasant, and the 
load not excessive, he will do it with more 
ease and less inconvenience to himself, go- 
ing at the rate of seven or eight miles the 
hour, and doing the whole distance in five 
or six hours. With a single Stoppage in the 
middle of the day, to feed and rest, than if 
he be kept pattering along at the rate of 
fpur qr five miles, and be kept out of his 
stable, hungry and thirsty, and leg-weary to 
boot, for a longer time. 



86 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



Farm-horses, whose work is necessarily 
slow and continuous, lasting ordinarily from 
sunrise to sunset, with the exception of a 
mid-day halt for baiting, are under different 
circumstances. Their work being always 
slow, and rarely, if ever, severe, at the mo- 
ment, or toilsome, except from its long du- 
ration, they need not be subject to the same 
condition as fast-working horses, of being 
fed long before they are put to work, and 
allowed to evacuate their bowels thoroughly 
before being harnessed. They may, there- 
fore, be fed and watered at the last moment, 
and put to slow work immediately, and will 
rarely lake harm from traveling on full sto- 
machs. In the same manner, when they are 
loosed at noon-day, being rarely overheated, 
after a slight rest and a slighter rubbing 
down — which, by the way, they rarely re- 
ceive — they may take their mid-day feed 
without delay, and without fear of evil con- 
sequences. In the like manner may be 
treated carmen's horses, and team horses, 
the labor of which is heavy and continuous 
rather than rapid All horses, however, 
whatever the work to which they are ap- 
plied, should have ample time to rest at 
night, and should be thoroughly rubbed 
down, dried, clothed and made comfortable, 
before feeding them and closing the stables 
for the night, — and the more so, the more 
trying the day's work. 

With regard to pleasure horses, which are 
usually in the stables, more or less, twenty 
hours out. of every twenty- four, which are 
only taken out for the gratification of the 
owner at such times as it suits his humor or 
necessity, they should never be taken out 
or driven fast on full stomachs ; which can 
always be avoided by letting the groom 
know, in case that they will be required at 
an unusual hour or for unusual work — when 
he can adapt his feeding hours to the cir- 
cumstances of the case. 

When harnessed and ready for a start, the 
driver should mount his seat quietly, gather 
his reins, and get his horses under way, 
slowly but gradually, by speaking or chir- 
ruping to them j never starting them with 
a jerk, or striking them with a whip, — 
allowing them to increase their pace by de- 
grees to the speed required, instead of for- 
cing it on a sudden. 

It is far better for horses, to drive them 
steadily at a regular pace, even if it be ten 
or twelve miles an hour, than to send Iheni 
along by fits and starts — now spinning them 



over the road at sixteen or eighteen miles, 
now plodding along at six or seven; and of 
two pairs of horses, driven the same dis- 
tance, after the two different methods that 
which is driven evenly will, at the end of 
the day,' be comparatively fresh and comfor- 
table, while the other will be jaded and worn 
out. 

In regard to punishment, £he less that is 
administered the better. A. sluggish or lazy 
horse must, .it is true, be kept up to his col- 
lar and made to do his share of the work, 
or the free-goer will be worn out before the 
day is half done ; and for this the whip 
must be occasionally used, Even good and 
free-going horses will occasionally be seized 
with fits of indolence, at moments, induced 
perhaps by the weather, and it may be ne- 
cessary to stimulate them in such cases. 
Again, at times when roads are bad, when 
time presses, and certain distances must be 
1 accomplished within certain times, recourse 
Jmust be had to punishment; as it must oc- 
casionally, also, in cases where the animals 
1 are vicious or refractory, and where the 
master must show himself the master. Still, 
as a general rule, punishment should be the 
last resort. It should never be attempted 
with a tired, a jaded, or an exhausted horse ; 
for to apply it in such cases is an utter bar- 
barity ; little or no immediate advantage is 
gained to the driver, while it may probably 
result in the loss of an excellent animal. It 
is common to see horses punished for stumb- 
ling, punished for starting; and whenever 
a new horse, which one may chance to be 
trying, starts off into a gallop after commit- 
ting either of these offences, one may be 
sure that he is an habitual starter or stum- 
bler, and that he has frequently undergone 
chastisement for them, and undergone* it in 
vain. It is altogether an error to punish for 
either starting or stumbling ; the one is the 
effect of fear, which cannot be cured by the 
whip, the other, in most cases, of malforma- 
tion or of tenderness in the foot, which cer- 
tainly cannot be treated successfully by 
chastisement, which, in fact, aggravates and 
confirms, instead of alleviating or curing. 

In speaking of driving at an equal pace, 
we would not, of course, be understood to 
mean that horses should be driven at the 
same gait and speed* over all roads, and over 
grounds of all natures. Far from it. A 
good driver will, while going, always, at the 
rate of ten miles — we will say — an hour, 
never, perhaps, have his horses going at ex- 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



87 



actly the same rate for any two consecutive 
twenty minutes. Over a dead level, the 
hardest of all things except a long continu- 
ous ascent of miles, he will spare his horses. 
Over a rolling road, he will hold them hard 
in hand as he crosses the top and descends 
the first steep pitch of a descent • will swing 
them down the remainder at a pace which 
will jump them across the intervening flat 
c* nd carry them half way up the succeeding 
hill ; and will catch them in hand again and 
hold them hard over the top, as we have 
shown before. 

Horses in work should be watered about 
once, with not to exceed two quarts, after 
every ten miles, or every hour, if one be 
travelling fast; and if travelling far, they 
should be well fed once in the middle of 
their journey. This point, however, has 
been discussed already under the head of 
feeding. 

In closing, we would say, always remem- 
ber, in using a horse, that it cannot be done 
with too much coolness, too much gentle- 
ness, too much discretion, or too much kind- 
ness. 

There is no better beast in the world than 
a horse, nor any one which, though often 
most cruelly misused by man, so well de- 
serves, and so amply, by his services, repays 
the best usage. Herberts Hints to Tforse- 
KeejH vs. 



Dying Hats and Feathers. 

To Pye Straw Bonnets Black. — 
Suppose there are two bonnets to dye, one 
leghorn and one straw. Put an Ounce of 
sulphate of iron into a vessel with two gal- 
lons of water; make the liquid boil, then 
put in the bonnets, and let them boil for one 
hour. Then take out the bonnets, and hang 
them on a peg to dry. When dry, rinse 
them in cold water. This portion of the 
prOoess of dyeing is called mordanting, the 
liquor being termed the mordant. After the 
bonnets arc thus mordanted, the mordant 
mu-t be poured out of the boiling v 
and two gallons of clean water made to boil 
in its place; into that liquor put half a 
pound of gall nuts (broken) and half a 
pound of logwood, together with the bonnets, 
and allow the whole again to boil, for one 

hour. Then take them out of the hot liquor, 

and hang them to dry as before, when they 
will be of dusky brown-black color. Chip 
bonnetts as a rule to not require so long as 



straw, because the chip takes the dye easier. 
The final process is to size or stiffen the 
bonnets, and put them into shape. This 
operation requires two ounces of best glue, 
put into two quarts of cold water overnight, 
and next day completely dissolved by boil- 
ing. Whori the glue is melted, strain the 
liquor (then called size) into an earthen 
vessel. Into this put the bonnets one at a 
time, till thoroughly soaked. When the bon- 
nets are taken out of the liquor all super- 
fluous size must be sponged off. They are 
then brought into shape as they get gradu- 
ally dry, or they may be dried on a block. 
After this sizing process the color of the 
dye is improved, and becomes black as jet. 
To Clean and Re-dip Black Feath- 
ers. — Feathers that have become rusty in 
color may be thus restored : First, well 
wash the feathers in soap and water, using 
the best mottled soap, and the water scald- 
ing hot tor the purpose; then thoroughly 
rinse them in clean water and dry them. 
Next, take half an ounce of logwood, and 
boil in a quart of water. When scalding 
hot, put in the feathers, and there let them 
remain till the liquor is cold, after which 
rinse them in cold clean water, and put 
them to dry. Finally, rub or brush over 
the feathers the smallest portion of oil, 
which simple operation brings out the glis- 
tening jet appearance in a remarkable man- 
ner. If you draw a long strip of paper 
between the thumb and a blunt pen-knife 
blade, the paper will curl up. Feathers 
may be treated in the same way, using only 
such tender care as may be expected to be 
required in " touching a feather." — Scien- 
tific American, 



Growing Potatoes nnder Straw. 

Having seen, in the Agricultural journals, 
more than twenty years ago, reports of ex- 
traordinary success in raising potatoes by 
covering them with straw, I was induced to 
try a small experiment, which 1 will relate 
for the benefit of some of your readers. 

A plat in my garden, about fifty feet 
square, of well manured clnyey loam, was 
nicely spaded up and made fine and smooth. 
It was then marked out in shallow drills, 
two feet and a luilf apart, and potatoes (of 
the pink-eye variety) planted whole, two 
feet apart in the drills, and barely POVCTcd 
with earth The whole patch was then 
covered with light, dry wheat straw— which 



88 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



had been very much broken by its passage 
through a thrashing machine — and the same 
spread lightly and evenly with a pitchfork, 
to the depth of about two feet. Several 
showers occurred soon after the potatoes 
were planted, which settled the straw very 
considerably, and in due time the vines 
came up through the straw, and soon covered 
the entire surface with the rankest vegeta- 
tion. 

Nothing more was done to the patch till 
the vines were killed by frost in autumn. 
Not a weed appeared among them. At the 
usual time of digging potatoes the dead 
vines were all pulled, and removed; then, 
with a potato fork, the layer of straw — which 
was pretty well rotted, and not more than 
four or five inches in thickness — was care- 
fully removed. To my great surprise, there 
lay the potatoes on the surface, literally cov- 
ering the ground, and almost as clean as if 
they had been washed. They were picked 
up and measured, but the quantity I do not 
remember. This much, however, I well re- 
collect, that I never raised so good a crop 
by any other mode of culture. They were 
of very uniform size, and of good quality. 
— S, Mosher, Latonia Springs, Ky, March, 
1858. 

Undoubtedly £he above method of grow- 
ling potatoes is worthy of future trial — espe- 
cially by those who live in warm latitudes. 
Protected by the straw from the scorching 
rays of the sun, the ground would naturally 
remain moist and cool — thus providing for 
the potato roots those conditions of soil best 
adapted to their growth. — Ohio Valley Far- 



For the Southern Planter. 

Management -of Tobacco Crop. 

Richmond, January, 1860. 
To the Editor of the Southern Planter : 

Mr. Editor, — At the request of several 
planters of the county of Fauquier, who 
have recently commenced the cultivation of 
Tobacco, and who have but little experience 
in the curing and management of this sta- 
ple, we hand you the following communica- 
tion from one of our most successful planters 
of the Southside. As we deem your valua- 
ble paper the most appropriate medium for 
its circulation, we hope you will give it a 
place in your next number. 
Resp'y, &c, 

Barksdale & Bros. 



Prince Edward Co., Va., ) 
Spring Creek, Dec'r 13th, 1859. j 
Gentlemen : 

Your favor of the 1st December is to 
hand. You desire me to give you a ■ de- 
tailed account of my management of To- 
bacco, from the time it is cut until it is 
prised in hhds. for market, which I here- 
with give as follows: 

All Tobacco should remain upon the bill 
until it is thoroughly ripe, which can be 
readily ascertained by its thickness and yellow, 
grayish, and brittle appearance. Cut when 
the sun shines dimly, if you can; but 
whether the sun shines dimly or not, (if 
proper care is observed), Tobacco will fall 
and unit sufficiently to handle, in warm 
weather, without breaking. From eight to 
ten plants upon a stick will be sufficient; 
eight plants, if the Tobacco is large, ten if 
medium size. Cut one or two houses-full if 
you can, less than a house-full cannot be 
cured to advantage ; and two houses can 
be cured more advantageously than one, 
as you will perceive during the process. 
Scaffold it about two days, to give it an 
elastic, tough quality, so much desired by 
all good judges of the article; after which 
time, commence housing, beginning at the 
top and placing the sticks from six to 
eight inches apart, coming down tier after 
tier, until you reach the first firing tier at 
bottom. In the same manner commence 
and fill another house. 

You are then ready for the curing pro- 
cess. Half-seasoned wood, oak or pine, is 
preferred. Build small fires all over the 
ground-floor of the house, four feet apart; 
let the fires he small, and, regardless of any 
thermometer, let the Tobacco be the guide 
in ascertaining the degree of heat to be kept 
up under it. Do not coddle, hum, or color 
it, but let the heat be sufficient to sap and 
dry it out in two or two and a half days. 
You may then raise the heat, by degrees, 
until the leaf is cured, which will take from 
two to three days more. Fire qply in the 
day time ; put out all the fires at night, aiid 
begin again early in the morning. 

After the leaf is cured and in supple 
order, the best plan is to re-%ang, putting 
the Tobacco of two sticks upon one, arid re- 
placing as before; ^giving as much room be- 
tween the sticks as at first. You may have 
the Tobacco as close upon the sticks as you 
can get it, but it is very essential to have 
space between the sticks. You need not re- 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



89 



gard swollen stems, or a few green ones; it 
will all cure up finely, if you follow out the 
plan land down. You may give it a little 
fire only in warm, damp weather. 

A great many planters object to re-hang- 
ing, on account of the time it takes ; but 
my experience convinces me that, in the 
end, it saves a great deal of time. It saves 
sticks, the time of one hand, and house- 
room j for you can thus put two houses of 
Tobacco into one, and then, by being jam- 
med one way, it will retain its original color. 

About the middle of November I begin 
to take down my Tobacco for stripping, 
which should be done in very supple order. 

In assorting I make five grades: long 
bright) short bright, long dark, short dark, 
and lugs. Tic four leaves to the bundle of 
the long, six of the short, and eight of lugs, 
using the shortest and inferior part of the 
crop to tie with, but always tie with a whole 
leaf. Straighten and pack down at night 
what is stripped during the day, with two 
bundles together, and weight only with to- 
bacco sticks. After the Tobacco has re- 
mained in bulk from two to three weeks, re- 
bulk in supple order, straightening only one 
bundle at a time, and keeping the hands of 
those engaged in straightening well greased 
with hog's lard, or fresh grease of any kind. 
After your bulk is of sufficient height, cover 
with tobacco sticks or plank, and weight 
heavily with rock or anything else conveni- 
ent. Let it remain thus under weight until 
the last of March, when it should again be 
hung up, about twenty-five bundles to the 
stick, and four inches space between the 
sticks, to order for prizing. It will dry out, 
leaf aud stem, in a few days, if the weather 
is favorable; if not, it should be dried out 
by fire. The first season that comes after 
this, take down in dry order, when the stem 
will crack fr6m end to end, which isj)rizing 
order. • 

When it is taken down in prizing order, 
coop it, tail and tail, as high as you can reach, 
and then bulic again, straightening four 
bundles at a time. Weight your bulks as 
before, and in two or three days you may 
commence prizing, which should be done in 
the month of April, if it suits, but should 
be done, at any rate, by the 20th of June, 
and delivered in market. 

You also request me to give my mode of 
cultivation. I could easily do this, if every 
year were precisely the same, and every 
season alike; but the years and seasons dif- 



fer so widely, it is unsafe to rely upon any 
particular plan for the cultivation of a To- 
i.acco crop. Suffice it to say, that you should 
plant as early after the 20th of May as you 
can, and be sure to have a living plant in 
every hill by the 20th of June. Cultivate 
well with plows and hoes, and never let the 
grass defeat you. Stop plowing and hoeing 
about the middle of August, and keep down 
the suckers, and keep off the horn-worms. 
Yours in friendship, 

D. F. Womack. 
To Messrs. Barksdale & Bros., Corn- 
merchants, Shockoe Slip, Richmond, Va. 

[The foregoing plan, and mode of curing 
Tobacco, was submitted by Capt. D. F. Wo- 
mack to two distinguished and successful 
planters of his neighborhood, for their 
opinion, with the request that they would 
make any suggestion they might deem im- 
portant, which we append to this.] 

We, the undersigned, have read the fore- 
going plan and mode of curing Tobacco, 
from the time of cutting until it is ready 
for prizing, and concur in the directions 
given, and think it as good as any, if not 
the best plan practised in the management 
of the article. 

Signed, Samuel F. Hunt, 

Wm. A. Womack. 



From the Brvish Farmer's Magazine. 

The Lois Weedon System of Husbandry. 
Its Importance to the Farmer. 

A few numbers back a review appeared 
in this journal of a work on the Tullian 
system of husbandry, as revived and illus- 
trated in the practice of the Rev. Samuel 
Smith, of Lois Weedcn, Northamptonshire, 
despite the ridicule and abuse of those who, 
like the late Sir William Curtis, are "quite 
satisfied with things as they are." This 
gentleman has now given the system a trial 
of twelve consecutive years, during which, 
without a particle of manure, he has grown 
wheat, year after year, upon half the land, 
reaping an average produce of thirty-five 
bushels per acre. The method of Mr. 
Smith is well known to our readers; the 
land having been kept open by the spade to 
a subsoil depth, three rows o£ wheat are 
planted or drilled, at one foot distance be- 
tween the rows, of course occupying three 
feet. The next three feet of land bring 
left vacant, three more rows are planted on 



90 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



the other side of the void spaces, and so on 
throughout the whole field. One great point 
in this husbandry is, keeping the interven- 
ing fallows well tilled with the spade, and 
clear of weeds, during the growth of the 
crops upon the planted parts, and using the 
horse-hoe freely between the rows of grow- 
ing corn. As soon as this is reaped, the va- 
cant spaces are at once planted ; and so on, 
year after year, without any change of crops, 
application of manure, or cessation in the 
course. 

It is not a little remarkable, that after 
all the efforts that have been made, with 
the aid of modern science, capital and skill, 
to raise the fertility of the earth to the 
highest pitch it is capable of— -after all the 
money expended in the manufacture and 
purchase of manure, in order to draw from 
the soil the* greatest possible amount of pro- 
duce- — after the publication of innumerable 
books to prove that if you put nothing into 
the land you cannot expect to obtain any- 
thing out of it, and that for every cereal 
crop of grain grown,, it is necessary to com- 
pensate the soil for the loss of elementary 
matters by a fresh supply in the form of 
manure;— it is, we say, remarkable that we 
are called upon, in the very zenith of our agri- 
cultural glory, to retrace our steps, and re- 
vert to the practice of a speculator, who, a 
century and a half ago, started a principle 
upon which, if true, the restoration of the 
fertility of the soil is based. Namely, that 
the atmosphere alone contains an abundant 
and everlasting supply of all the elements 
of fertility necessary for the growth and 
sustenance of plants. 

This perfect competency of the atmos- 
phere to furnish a supply of food for plants 
must be accompanied with an attractive 
power in the soil itself to absorb and modify 
these substances, and thus reduce them to a 
form in which their assimilation by the 
plants is promoted. On no other principle 
can a result so contrary to all the hitherto- 
received opinions and practice of agricul- 
turists be accounted for. Every modern 
writer on agriculture, whether scientific or 
purely practical, has maintained the neces- 
sity of a constant application of manure, in 
order to compensate the soil for the exhaus- 
tion of a cereal crop. It is for this purpose 
that herds o# cattle and flocks of sheep are 
kept on our farms, it being almost universally 
asserted by farmers that they only repay 
the expense of their' maintenance by the 



manure they produce, by which the produce 
of cereal crops is increased. Without ab- 
solutely endorsing this assertion, we may 
safely assume, from all experience, that, on 
the present system of farming, it would be 
impossible to grow corn profitably without 
manure; and that a constant succession of 
cereal crops, without it, would exhaust the 
most fertile soil in the world. We must 
therefore conclude that the secret of the 
success of the Lois Weedqn system, which 
is a copy of Tull's, lies in the constant stir- 
ring of the soil under fallow, in order to 
promote the absorption of the elements of 
fertility. And moreover, the proportion of 
that success depends upon the degree aud 
the depth to which the soil is stirred and 
comminuted. A remarkable corroboration 
of this opinion has occurred during the 
present season on the land laid down with 
Halkett's guideway-cultivator, at Wands- 
worth. This land had been deeply sub- 
soiled, and communited with the Norwegian 
harrow and planted with potatoes, without 
manure. On each side of it the land was 
tilled in the common way, and also planted 
with potatoes. The latter produced one 
bushel per rod; but the former yielded 2? 
bushels per rod, being an excess over the 
other of 240 bushels per acre. This 
amounts to 7£ tons, which, at £5 per ton, 
is £37 10s. A similar result is obtained by 
Mr. Stnith'-s spade-husbandry over that of 
the plough, as practised by seven other ex- 
perimenters on the Tullian system. Their 
average produce was 24 bushels 3 pecks per 
acre, whilst Mr. Smith's was 35 bushels. 
Their highest prod ace, also, was 27£ bush- 
els per acre, whilst Mr. Smith's was forty 
bushels. It is further worthy of observa- 
tion that this system is so far from impov- 
erishing the soil, that it seems to improve 
it; and that the produce, after twelve con- 
secutive years' trial, has increased rather 
than diminished, that of 1858 being forty 
bushels per acre. This is a very remarka- 
ble feature in the system, as it demonstrates 
the fact that tillage alone, by stimulating 
the soil and promoting the absorption of ele- 
mentary matters from the atmosphere, "is 
sufficient to sustain its fertility. 

It is evident that if the Lois Weedon or 
Tullian system is what it has been repre- 
sented to be — and there is not the slightest 
reason to suppose that any deception or mis- 
representation has been practised — the ex- 
pense of farming upon it must be much less, 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



91 



and the profit much greater, than on the 
common system. Accordingly we find that 
whilst the profit upon a four-course rotation, 
according to Bayldon, (" On Rents and Til- 
lages,") does not exceed £1 5s. 3d. per acre 
per annum, that of the Tullian system is' 
£4 2s. per acre per annum; being in ex- 
cess of the other of £2 16s. 9d., or consid- 
erable more than double. This, too, is un- 
der plough culture ; but Mr Smith's spade 
culture is still more profitable; for whilst 
the average produce is 35 bushels per acre, 
which at 7s. per bushel (Mr. Smith's esti- 
mate) is £12 5s., his expenses amount to 
only £6 Os. 4£d., leaving a balance of £6 
4s. 7od. per acre, without reckoning the 
straw, which, as no manure is required, may 
be sold to increase still more the profit. 

The question then remains to be solved — 
can this system, which is so profitable on a 
small scale, be made applicable on a large 
one with an equally favourable result ? We 
see no reason whatever to doubt the facts 
that are stated in the work we have referred 
to, derived as they are from sources beyond 
the suspicion of deception, and corroborating 
each other. It is a pity that the subject is 
not taken up seriously by the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society or the Central Farmers' 
Club, and experiments on a large scale in- 
stituted, in order to bring the system at once 
to the test as the most useful and profitable 
to the farmer, and consequently to the pub- 
lic. 

There is one other question involved in 
these experiments, we think, worthy of notice 
— namely, whether manures do not act more 
indirectly as stimulants and absorbents of 
the alimentary matters in the atmosphere 
than directly as fertilizers 2 )er se ? We 
know the affinity of many chemical sub- 
stances, which causes them to unite when 
placed in juxtaposition. Thus common salt, 
if placed on a reeking dung-hill, or on any 
substance emitting ammoniacal matters, will 
be found to effervesce strongly. This js 
caused by the absorption of the ammonia; 
and it will continue until the salt is super- 
saturated, when it ceases, and the union 
thus formed is nothing less than the sal- 
ammoniac of the chemist. This is a sub- 
ject worthy the attention of the scientific 
farmer, who will know how to turn it to his 
advantage, by applying the principle to his 
every-day practice. 



-«--•"•-♦-•- 



From the British Farmers Magazine. 

The Implement Trade at the Cape of 
Good Hope. 

In the middle of last month [November] 
the great iVgricultural Society of the Cape 
of Good Hope held its annual exhibition at 
Cape Town. As with us, it was a show of 
both stock and implements, imported cattle 
and sheep valued at upwards of a thousand 
pounds being entered. Considering the 
prices at which animals leave England, this 
is not perhaps saying much. The display 
of machinery was more imposing, and esti- 
mated at least four times the sum of that 
of the beasts. That is to say, there were 
four thousand pounds' worth of implements 
on the ground for the Cape farmers to pick 
and choose from. Amongst these there 
were no less than forty-two varieties of 
ploughs ; and we can picture the colonists 
going through the old controversy of How- 
ard. Ransome, or Hornsby; or Hornsby, 
Ransome and Howard — Page, Ball, or Bus- 
by; Busby, Ball and Page. We might 
even go so far as to imagine that the several 
representatives of these houses could have 
been spared for so agreeable an autumn trip, 
and that Mr. Sutton, Mr. Barrett and Mr. 
Cole were on the scene, politely distributing 
their catalogues, and descanting on the pre- 
miums they had taken and the wonders 
they had done. Alas! however, it is too 
well known that some of the finest flights of 
our poets, and some of the grandest efforts 
of our artists, have been to depict their he- 
roes in actions that they really never took a 
part in. And so would it be with our paean 
over what Grantham, Ipswich or Bedford 
did at the Cape Town ploughing match — 
for there was not one of them there. Of 
these forty-two varietie's of ploughs for the 
English colonists to purchase, every one of 
them was of American manufacture. In 
the whole four thousand pounds' worth of 
machinery there was scarcely anything what- 
ever of English make. There were Eng- 
lish horses of course, for the breeders out 
there are beginning to take to them very 
warmly at last, and, as we have already 
heard, there were English cattle and Eng- 
lish sheep. Bujt with all our knowledge of 
business, our different plans of pushing a 
trade, and more than this, with all our fierce 
opposition one to the other here at home, 
there was not an English plough on the 
ground ! We begin to fear wc shall yet 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



ve to qualify what we set out with, about 
3re being no people so strongly imbued 
th the spirit of commercial enterprise, 
d to put America before them. It is al- 
>st incomprehensible how they can have 
much anticipated us in this direction; for 
it was worth the while of Ihe United 
ates to send forty-two sorts of ploughs, it 
ght certainly have been worth the atten- 
n of the United Kingdom to send a few. 
e can, indeed, very readily echo the com- 
mtary of the Judges on making their 
r ards, and " the surprise they expressed at 
iing English manufactures so badly rep- 
sented." 

Surely, this is a matter worth looking to. 
ith some of our best blood to go on, the 
mericans already declare that they shall 
3n " grow " better Shorthorns than we can. 
leir horses, by the same system, are often 
ual to our own, as it is. The first fa- 
urite for the Derby at this very time is a 
It brought over by Mr. Ten Broeck ; and 
Yankee pugilist is coming to fight our man 
t the Championship. In some descrip- 
>ns of machinery even, we only follow 
eir lead, and the best of our reapers and 
owers are either invented or improved up- 
l by Americans. But they are too 'cute a 
lople to slight any hint or wrinkle they 
ight take from us. At the Agricultural 
ur held at New York, just about the same 
ne as this meeting at the Cape, the en- 
ies for implements were kept open to the 
iry day previous to the show, with the es- 
:cial view of allowing strangers every op- 
)rtunity for attending. We gave the time 
id place of this gathering, one generally 
iowii as that of the American Institute, in 
ir List of Meetings to come. We have 
)t yet heard how it was responded to ; but 
. due course we shall have the report from 
ir own correspondent in those parts. There 
, at any rate, scarcely a celebration of the 
md on this side of the water but a Tians- 
-lantic friend has some new discovery to 
low us ', or, armed with a pencil and a let- 



just completed the first of a batch of eight 
locomotive engines which they have been 
commissioned to make for the railway at the 
Cape of Good Hope, the first sod of which 
was recently cut by Sir. G. Grey. This en- 
gine has been making trial-trips on the New- 
castle and^ Carlisle railway line, and it is 
built on a new principle," and so on. Might 
it not be worth the while of other celebrated 
engine-builders to ascertain what is wanted 
at the Cape ? An agricultural meeting at 
this date rarely depends upon ploughs only, 
and there are ail kinds of inventions which 
the Cape farmers might patronize if they 
only had the chance of doing so. We have 
been rather inclined to pride ourselves for 
some time past on having as a whole by far 
the best collection of agricultural machinery 
of any people in the world. We hold some- 
what to this opinion still, and are so unwil- 
ling to see ourselves " cut out " in any quar- 
ter, but more especially amongst our own 
kith and kin. Depend upon it, if it will 
pay American houses to send forty speci- 
mens of ploughs to a Cape show, it might 
answer the purpose of an English firm to 
try a bout with them. 



r of introduction. 



something 



to 



remem- 
hoine 



;r to remember" when he 



It must not either be supposed that all 
ur leading manufacturers are as much above, 
r simply as indifferent to the Cape market 
3 our implement 'makers appear to be. It 
i only during this very week that we see 
lat the " Messrs. Hawthorne, the celebrated 
ngine-builders of Newcastle-on-Tyne ; have 



Poisoning Land. 

BY PROFESSOR E. PUGH, PH. D., F. C. S. 

■ 

Notwithstanding all that has been said 
and written during the last few years, upon 
the subject of agriculture, the ideas of the 
great mass of the people, upon many points 
of the highest importance to agriculturists, 
are very much confused. Upon no ques- 
tions is this more marked than upon those 
suggested by the words, nutriment, stimu- 
lant and poison, in reference to the growth 
of plants. 

Many farmers think that certain sub- 
stances stimulate the land at first, and over- 
tax its powers, and ultimately poison it. 
Such ideas originate in conceptions obtain- 
ed from false analogies which men are too 
prone to draw between animal and vegeta- 
ble life. The earlier vegetable Physiolo- 
gists were, for a long time, deceived as to 
the true character of vegetable growth in 
the same manner ; but at present, scientific 
men are aware that no aid is obtained in 
studying vegetable physiology by the appa- 
rent analogies afforded by animal physiology. 
A difference of opinion sometimes exists, 
as to what is the correct definition of a 
in regard to animal life. And a 



J 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



93 



more difficult question might arise on the 
same subject with regard to vegetable life. 

But waiving these difficulties we may get 
at a practical definition oi what nutriment, 
stimulant and poison, applied to vegetable 
food may mean, which will throw some light 
upon the subject we are considering. 

First. Nutriment, 

Under this may be included all those ele- 
ments, and combinations of elements] that 
are essential to healthy and vigorous vege- 
table growth, whether obtained from the 
soil or the air, which enters into the plant 
to form part of its substance. 

These embrace about 13 different elements, 
all of which enter the plant, more or less, in 
combination with each other; eight of them 
must come from the soil, and the remainder 
may come from the soil, or from the air, or 
from both. Independent of vegetable growth, 
there is all the time a more or less active 
interchange of these latter elements between 
the soil and the air, so that it is difficult to 
decide how far they are obtained by the 
plant directly from the air through the 
leaves, or indirectly from it at the roots, 
through the soil ; consequently while all 
scientific men admit that these eight sub- 
stances must always be present in the soil, 
to ensure its fertility,, there has been a dif- 
ference of opinion as to how far it is neces- 
sary to add son^e of the remaining five to 
the soil to ensure conditions "amply suffi- 
cient for the purposes of agriculture." If 
all of these 'substances are not accessible to 
the plant in the soil, or the air, it cannot 
grow. At times some of them fail in the 
Requisite quantity, and it becomes the duty 
of the farmer to find which they are, and 
to apply them in manures to the soil. 

Secondly. Poison. 

All substances may be considered poison- 
ous which are not included above (that is 
which do not enter the plant to form a part 
of the increase during healthy growth,) and 
which when placed in contact with growing 
vegetable matter, are absorbed by it, and 
prove injurious or 'destructive, to vegetable 
growth. This may include many combina- 
tions of elements, which combined in other 
proportions or in different circumstances, 
might be nutritious ; acfts or alkalies might, 
when alone, act as poisons, when in the 
combined state they would be nutritious. 
Th&'products of decomposition of vegetable 
matters are, no doubt; in some instances, 
poisonous to vegetable growth ; the ultimate 



cause of the disease to which some plants, 
as the potato or the clover, the vine, &c, 
in America and Europe are liable, may be 
due to poisonous products formed in the 
soil. 

The theory of the rotation of crops, which 
at first was explained, simply by supposing 
different plants absorbed different substances 
from the soil, and while those of one plant 
were being, removed by it, those of another 
were accumulating, has become more com- 
plicated of late, by certain considerations 
which seem to' indicate, that substances poi- 
sonous to one plant and not to another, may 
disappear from the soil, during the growth 
of the latter, and hence leave the land in 
a state adapted to the wants of the Farmer. 

All substances which are nutritious to 
plants in ordinary circumstances, will prove 
destructive to them if presented in too large 
quantity, and hence it is not always easy to 
decide what is a poison in the sense of the 
definition just given. 

Thirdly. Stimulants. 

None of the substances which are usually 
considered stimulants, are such in the sense 
that this is applied to animal life. Nothing 
is more absurd and ludicrous than the com- 
mon notion that certain substances, as guano, 
or plaster of paris, stimulate the land in any 
sense of the word. 

It is not easy to apply this term to sub- 
stances affecting vegetable nutrition, yet if we 
must use it, substances like lime, which do not 
afford nutriment directly to plants, in the 
same degree that they promote their growth, 
could more appropriately be called stimu- 
lants, than those just noticed. Some chem- 
ical substances which promote the sprouting 
and early growth of plants without affording 
them any nutriment, might also be called 
stimulants, and others which retard this action 
might be called sedatives; but as these 
terms convey improper meanings, and imply 
that we know a great deal more about vege- 
table physiology than we do, it is best to 
discard them altogether. 

Practical Considerations. 

From the above we might infer, 
1st. That soil to be productive must con- 
tain every one of about eight different sub- 
stances, and four to five other substances 
must be present in the soil or the air. 

2nd- That if any one of these fails in the 
soil, barrenness will result, no matter how 
much of all the others may be present. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



hough 



a sufficient number of all the other 
ibstances were present to produce crops lor 
le hundred years, did it not fail, the ab- 
nce of this one would render the soil barren. 

3rd. If the soil contain a limited quanti- 
■ of any one of these substances, and no 
ore be added during successive years, in 
hich crops are grown and removed from 
ie land, this substance must ultimately all 
) removed, and barrenness must result. 

4th. If a soil be barren owing to any of 
ie above causes, the addition to it of the 
iling element w^ll restore its fertility again, 
id in consequence of this fertility new 
ops may be raised, and hence new quan- 
ties of all the other seven substances re- 
oved from the soil. If this process be 
speated, and by successive additions of the 
■iling element, successive crops be raised, 

second and a third element, will all be 
smoved, and these, too, must be replaced 
t the same manner as the first, in order to 
aintain fertility. The soil icill be poorer 
her the addition of these failing elements, 
'.cause with them we are enabled to raise 
•ops which remove from' the land, not only 
,e element added, but about seven other ele- 
ents that were in it before. 

4th. The substances usually called stimu- 
,nts are simply such as afford to the soil, 
irtain elements of nutrition, which are not 
resent in an available form for the de- 
an ds of vigorous growth. They do not 
reduce the crop, but, united with other 
ibstances in the soil and air, they do pro- 
ace it. They form a "part of a whole, 
ithout which the plant cannot grow, just 
5 the axle-tree of a wagon forms a part of 
ie wagon, without which it could not move. 
Without the axle tree the wagon could not 
3 worn out, yet it would be a strange kind 
? logic which would infer, that because the 
itire wagon was worn-out after the addi- 
on of the axle tree, that therefore the 
de tree had acted as a stimulant upon 



ie was;on, and worn it out 



or 



that 



3cause the same result could not be ob- 
ined with the old wagon as with the new, 
lerefore, the axle-tree had poisoned the 
agon. Absurd as this kind of logic would 
iem, the farmer may rest assured that it is 
aite -as rational as that which supposes cer- 
,m substances to stimulate or poison the 
nd. And the farmer might, quite as ra- 
onally, refuse to replace the broken axle of 
is wagon, because after doing so the wagon 
ould be worn out, as to refuse to supply 



the failing element in his land because the 
crops that would follow would exhaust the 
land of the substances that it already pos- 
sesses. 

These considerations may be illustrated 
by an example. 

Suppose a soil to contain enough of nn 
element A to raise wheat for four years ; 
enough of an element B to raise wheat for 
six years ; enough of C for eight years ; 
enough of D for ten years ; and enough of 
all the other substances S required for 
twenty years. If such a soil had been 
grown with wheat since 1856, we would 
have in 

1860, all the A exhausted, 

sufficient B for two years, 
" C for four years, 
" I) for six years, 
* S for sixteen years. 

This soil is barren now for want of A; let 
us add sufficient of A to last two years, and 



then we 
have in 

1862, 



get two more crops, and we will 



all the A again exhausted, 
u B exhausted, 

sufficient C for two years, 
" D for four years, 
u ' S for fourteen years. 

The soil is now barren for want of A and 



B ; let us add 



enough 



of each for two 



years, 



and then we will have in 



1864, all the A again exhausted, 

u J3 'it it 

" C " " 

sufficient D for two years, 
" S for twelve years. 
Now the soil is barren for want of three 
elements, A, B, and C. If these were add- 
ed, we would have in 

1866, all the -A again exhausted, 
u B a u 

it Q it it 

a J) a a . 

sufficient S fonisfcen years. 

Fertility can now only be restored by the 
addition of four elements, A, B, C, and D. 

Now, a farmer flbmmencing to work such 
a soil in 1856, might have supposed that it 
was inexhaustible, but . in 1860, it becomes 
barren. 

The addition of the manure A to it, then, 
restored its fertility, he now might get the 
idea that A would do to restore the fertility 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



95 



of all worn out land ; but after two years 
more, A ceases to be of any perceptible 
use; he might then conclude that A had 
poisoned the land, but on the addition of B, 
ne restores fertility. He would, doubtless, 
now recommend B to all his neighbors; but 
soon B becomes inoperative, and must be 
set down as a poison. We need not here 
dwell upon the fallacy of such conclusions, 
yet they are entertained by farmers all over 
the country. 

I have avoided the use of the names of 
the elements of fertility to soils, in order to 
meet the tastes of those who do not like to 
be troubled with scientific terms. On some 
future occasion we may discuss the charac- 
ter of soils in relaiion to these substances, 
and to manures, the value of which must 
be dependent upon how much of them it 
contains. 



From the Farmer and Gardener. 

Physical Condition of the Soil. 

BY WILLIAM BRIGHT, LOGAN NURSERY, 
PHILADELPHIA. 

Too little attention is given by farmers, 
gardeners, and amateur cultivators of all 
classes, to the physical condition of the soil. 
Everybedy is hunting after manures and 
special fertilizers, but few think enough of 
the great advantage to be derived from a 
proper plowing and cultivation of the soil. 
It has been recently proved by careful ex- 
periments made in England, that deep plow- 
ing, and thorough cultivation, is fully equal 
to free manuring, even in poor or exhausted 
soils. One class of chemists tell us that 
there is mineral matter enough in all soils 
to meet the wants of crops for a hundred 
years, if this mineral matter could be ren- 
dered soluble and fit for the food of plants. 
. Another class of chemists J;ell us that if 
you have' mineral matter in proportion in 
the soil, plants can assimilate carbonic acid 
and ammonia enough from the atmosphere 
and rain to stimulate them to the highest 
degree of perfection. Now we know, as a 
practical fact, that when soil is constantly 
stirred, and the particles of matter are fre- 
quently thrown into new relations to each 
other, chemical motion takes place more ra- 
pidly than when the particles remain for a 
long time in one position ; and hence, much 
soluble mineral matter is produced by this 
chemical action or process of decomposition. 



Thus a barren soil may be rendered fertile, 
simply by deep and thorough plowing and 
cultivation with the roller, harrow and other 
implements. ' It may require a little time 
after such plowing and cultivation, for the 
chemical processes to become perfected, but 
a good result must follow such practice. 

But soil must not alone be plowed, rolled 
and harrowed, to disturb the relation oi 
particles ; it nmst£|*lso be shaded from the 
direct rays of the sun, to produce the best 
effects. To this end it will be highly useful 
in all efforts to improve a poor soil, instead 
of leaving it fallen and uncovered, either tc 
mulch it all over during summer with long 
litter, or to sow it with some plant /which 
shall not only shade it, but promote the de- 
composition going on in the field by the 
influence of its roots, and furnish a mass oi 
green vegetable matter, for after mulchinp 
or turning under. Decomposition of soil 
can only go on when it is moist, warm, and 
shaded. Light, dryness, and cold, all tend 
to prevent decomposition. Clover is, be- 
yond all question, the best green crop thai 
can be grown for improving exhausted soils 
But sometimes soil is so poor that clovei 
will not grow successfully, and in such case* 
resort must be had to corn sowed broad-cast, 
or the southern field pea, or the little soup 
pea of Jersey and Delaware, which, will 
grow, without manure, on blowy sand, and 
produce several tons of green matter pei 
acre. 

Soil in its most perfect state should be 
wrought into a condition of the most mi- 
nute divisions of particles; it should be light 
and porous, and of a friable character, free 
from lumps and sodden masses; dry, yet 
moist ; sweet, but not strongly alkaline : 
and so supplied with sand, or other opening 
substance, that it will not bake upon the 
surface. 

And here we come to the main point oi 
this article, which is to warn all young cul- 
tivators of the soil not to work it, or ti> 
tramp it, or run horses or carts over it when 
wet or frosty but not frozen. More harm 
is done in this country, by the careless work- 
ing of the soil when wet and slicky than 
can be repaired by the best cultivation and 
the most expensive manuring. To the 
young farmer and gardener we say 'strongly 
and earnestly, never work your soil or allow 
your men or carts to run over it when it is 
wet and mucky. No matter how r backward 
may be the season, tcftiY, wait till the soil k 



96 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



in a condition to be worked before you at- 
tempt to plow it, or put in your seed. The 
whole advantage of plowing is destroyed by 
" bunging up" the soil in wet weather. You 
may break up the old lumps of soil, but for 
every lump .so broken you create a dozen 
balls of earth as hard as a mass of mortar, 
which years of after culture will scarcely 
reduce to a state of fine divisions suitable 
for the resting place of plants. Work your 
soil freely and constantly in fine, dry wea- 
ther, when not too windy, and you will be 
richly repaid for improving the physical, 
and mechanical condition of your land; 
but beware how you touch it, or tread upon 
it even, when wet and pasty. We know of 
no error so fatal to good farming or garden- 
ing as this of working wet and half-frosted 
soil. 



and it is supposed that ammonia and nitric 
acid are formed by the mutual decompcsi- 
tion of this air and the moisture of the soil 
— heat also being evolved by the changes. 

7. Pulverization of the surface of soils 
serve to retain the moisture in the sub -soil, 
and to prevent it from being penetrated by 
heat from a warmer, as well as from radia- 
ting its heat to a colder atmosphere than 
itself. These effects are produced by the 
porosity of the pulverized stratum, which 
acts as a mulch, especially on heavy soils. 

8. Pulverization, also, as the combined 
effect of several of the preceding causes, 
accelerates the decomposition of the organ- 
ic matter in the soil, and the disintegration 
of the mineral matter ; and thus prepares 
the inert matter of the soil for assimilation 
by the plants. — Genesee Farmer. 



Advantages of Pulverizing the Soil. 

The effects of pulverization or stirring the 
soil are numerous : 

1. It gives free scope to the roots of ve- 
getables ; and they become more fibrous in 
a loose than in a hard soil, by which the 
mouths or pores become more numerous, and 
such food as is in the soil has a better chance 
of being sought after and taken up by them. 

2. It admits the atmospheric air to the 
spo^igioles of the roots — without which no 
plant can make a healthy growth. 

3. It increases the capillary attraction or 
sponge-like property of soils, by which their 
humidity is rendered more uniform ; and in 
a hot season it increases the deposit of dew, 
and admits it to the roots. 

4. It increases the temperature of the soil 
in the spring, by admitting the warm air and 
tepid rain. 

5. It increases the supply of organic food. 
The atmosphere contains carbonic acid, am- 
monia, and nitric acid, — all most powerful 
fertilizers and solvents. A loose soil attracts 
and condenses them. Rain and dew, also, 
contain them. And when these fertilizing 
gases are carried into the soil by rain water, 
they are absorbed and retained by the soil, 
for the use of plants. On the. other hand, 
if the soil is hard, the water runs off the 
surface, and instead of leaving these gasses 
in the soil, carries off some of the best por- 
tions of the soil with it. Thus, what might 
be a benefit becomes an injury.' 

6. By means of pulverization, a portion 
of the atmospheric air is buried in the soil, 



Advantages of Moistened Food over that 
which is Ury, 

Besides the benefit secured by causing 
the ground grain to adhere to cut hay or 
straw when wet, it has been ascertained by 
Boussingault in some well conducted exper- 
iments, that soaked fodder forms a more 
suitable food than that which is dry. He 
found that heifers fed with soaked hay gain- 
ed in weight over those fed during the same 
time with dry hay. By reversing the order 
of feeding, the results were the same. The 
experiments referred to appear to have been 
simply to test the advantages of moistened 
food over that which is dry. Notwithstand- 
ing the moistening of hay will render it 
more readily digestible, yet the advantages 
gained would hardly warrant the labor. But 
in ruminating animals a great advantage 
results from feeding the grain in combina- 
tion with the hay or straw, and this can 
only be done^by grinding the former, and 
cutting and wetting the latter. But to do 
this economically all the necessary appli- 
ances must be at hand for grinding, cutting, 
wetting, &c. With these, arranged as they 
may be, a large number of cattle may be 
fed with no great increase of labor. This 
system of feeding in stalls affords the ad- 
vantage of saving and making a greater 
quantity of manure than by any other, 
which ought to be, if it is not, a matter of 
the first importance to every farmer. 

Valley Farmer. 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



97 



For the Southern Planter. 

Advice to Young Farmers. 
In a former article we told our young 
farmer friends of the importance of steady 
government, both of one's, self, and of his 
household. We told him of our preference 
in regard to the style of building dwelling 
houses, negro quarters, and the importance 
of cleanliness about that department of his 
premises. We told him how we would 
place our stables, and of the style of Con- 
struction, — and now we will go *on to speak 
very briefly of the cow houses, the corn 
houses, wheat barns, wagon sheds, wagons, 
carts, &c, tobacco houses, the preparation 
of plant beds, the cultivation and manage- 
ment of the tobacco crop, the cultivation 
and management of the corn crop — to- 
gether with the manner of feeding it and 
other grains. We will talk about the cul- 
ture of wheat, not theoretically, chemi- 
cally, but as we have seen it cultivated, 
and cultivated it ourselves; of making and 
applying manure, — then of sheep, hogs, and 
other stock. But lest we tire them with the 
enumeration, we will jump right into the 
midst of things, and continue our sage re- 
marks — sage, we say, because all old men 
think their observations and practices are 
sage. . % 

COW SHELTERS. 

We prefer these to be open sheds, closed 
up on the north and west side. Like the 
stables, these also should be built on posts ; 
eight feet apart; seven to eight feet pitch- 
in front; let into the ground two and a half 
or three feet; twelve feet wideband as low 
behind as will cause the water to run off 
readily. These shelters should be divided 
into at least three compartments, for the 
milch cows, for the oxen, and for the young 
cattle. They should also be built adjoin- 
ing, or as near to the stable and the fresh 
water as possible, for the double reason, 
that this kind of stock are especially liable 
to suffer for water, and because the master 
can take all these things into his eye at a 
glance — without which eye daily, 'tis vain 
for you " to sit up late, or cat the bread of 
carefulness." Suffice it — 'tis more than 
corn or foddering to the poor beasts ! 

CORN HOUSES. 

We would build these at loast twenty by 
twenty feet, in order that full room might 
be had in front for shelling, &e. ; this outer 
7 



apartment, however, might be covered over- 
head with plank, so that the. corn thrown 
in through an upper door may fill overhead 
in this space. We prefer these houses 
framed in the usual manner, with strong 
studding six or eight feet apart, and strip- 
ped perpendicularly on the inside, with 
strips four inches wide and one thick. 
Ten or twelve feet pitch will admit of a 
wagon shelter on each side of it sufficient 
for two or more of these important imple- 
ments in good husbandry. Be sure, how- 
ever, to have these sheds built so as that it 
is easier to leave the wagons in them of 
a night than 'tis to leave them out, or 
you will find the shelters comparatively use- 
less, as negroes don't understand how expo- 
sure can hurt these things. 

But we have something more to say about 
wagons, carts, &c. Will our young friends 
be warned by us, who .have had thirty 
years experience, against buying old wa- 
gons, old carts, or anything old that runs on 
wheels ? Aye, and we will heartily, most 
heartily, extend the warning against any- 
thing that walks on legs, either two or four. 
No, we know they will not, nevertheless 
we will sound the warning ! When (we 
were younger then than we are now) Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee were considered the 
" far west," we knew a very observant old 
man, who had made the trip thither and 
back some thirty odd times in the removal 
of families in his wagons, who remarked to 
us while talk ng on the subject, " I make it 
a rule to get me a wagon at ,• a. fa- 
mous wagon factory, and never to run 
it after the screws become loose in the 
taps ; I sell it immediately, — calculating, 
from my experience, that when they come 
to the patch, they are the most costly pro- 
perty a man can own." This advice was 
from an old wagoner who had done nothing 
else for thirty years; and with our thirty 
years experienec, we testify to the truth of 
the declaration. Some great writer, (Car- 
lylc, we think,) sa3's, ° Experience is an 
excellent teacher, but he does charge such 
a high price !" We'll suppose, however, 
that our young friends will be warned by 
our old wagoner friend, Carlyle, and our- 
self, — and that because of their apparent 
cheapness he has not been taken in, but 
has had good, new vehicles, of all sorts, 
made by faithful workmen, — he will find 
these sheds worth to him fifteen times the 
cost of them in the twenty years that a 



98 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



[February 



good wagon will last, if he will only pitch 
the wheels or*ce in a summer or two, and 
keep the running-gear all tight. 

WfrEAT BARNS. 

Every farm should have on it one or 
more of these convenient receptacles for 
grain. We prefer them small, and in num- 
ber according to the size of the plantation. 
We would build them with the boarding 
nailed perpendicularly, because it takes less 
framing, and because the weather-boarding 
lasts longer, especially when rough-dressed 
and painted. 

TOBACCO BARNS. 

We prefer these to be built according to 
the convenience of the material — either of 
logs cut for the purpose from the woods, 
or with posts set firmly into the ground, 
and weather-boarded as in the manner pre- 
scribed for our other buildings, — leaving 
off the stripping, however, but having the 
plank straight-edged and pressed closely to- 
gether in order to allow for shrinking. 
This latter is much the cheaper plan of 
building, if the lumber can be obtained 
near and cheaply. We think the size 
generally preferred is twenty by twenty feet 
in the clear, with four firing tier, and what 
is called the ground tier. This with a steep 
roof will house with ordinarily large to- 
bacco from 1000 to 1200 sticks, with from 
eight to twelve plants on a stick. 

PREPARATION OF PLANT BEDS. 

It is with diffidence we speak upon this 
subject, for, while we have tried all the va- 
rious plans suggested by others, as well as 
those, suggested by our own observation, 
we must confess that we have found it an 
unce tain' business. Our failures have gen- 
erally, however, been owing to our not 
; havmg burned land enough. We can say 
this, though, without the fear of successful 
contradiction, that no man can make a crop 
of tobacco unless he has more plants than 
he wants ; hence I would say that if your 
land is light and rich, and moist, and tho- 
roughly burnt, and carefully covered, that 
one hundred yards to every 10,000 hills 
would be a safe dependence ; but if the 
land is of a contrary character, no matter 
how well burned or covered it may, (and 
I -have found the covering to be of the 
greatest importance,) the 10,000 hills will 
require at least one half more plant land. We 



have found no substitute for hard-burning 
and very heavy covering, in the preparation 
of plant land, whilst others have found this 
substitute in guano. The quantity of wood and 
trash necessaiily consumed in yearly prepa- 
ration of plant land is immense ; but if the 
young planter, in opposition to the advice 
of our most esteemed friend, Gen. Cocke, 
will make the " noxious weed," let him go 
at it say we, as he should at all things else 
of the kind he may undertake, with the 
determined resolution to succeed if fore- 
sight and industry will take him through. 
Having, then, as soon after Christmas as 
possible, or during the month of December, 
prepared his beds on any other but a red 
stiff soil, and sowed them, let him be sure 
to keep them well tramped, well covered, 
and the leaves off; and have them in the 
woods if it can be so, because the fly eat 
them less. The land on which he plants 
it should, if possible, be gray, or at any 
rate not red and stiff; and before setting 
out the plants, which ought to be done 
certainly by the 10th or 20th June, the 
land should be thoroughly pulverized; if 
new land, every root got out, and if old 
land, every clod reduced, until there can be 
no probability of the root of the young 
plant coming in contact with obstacles of 
this kind. If it does, you not only lose the 
plant which is of vast import, but the sea- 
son also ; and this makes it important, too, 
that the plants be stuck with great partic- 
ularity. 

Having had the land gotten into 
good tilth with manure, or guano, or some 
aid of this kind, (for all lands almost, how- 
ever rich,, want somethiug of the kind to 
quicken the plant in the ripening process,) 
you will find that if it has been planted, 
and has grown as fast as a well prepared 
soil should make it grow, that it will have 
to be stirred with the hoe, if possible, but 
certainly with the plow just a few days be- 
fore the harvest in Eastern Virginia com- 
mences. This must be done, or it will be 
all overrun with weeds and grass before the 
wheat is secured; and just at this stage of 
the crop, let me assure our young friends, 
it is especially needful that they remember 
that one stroke of the hoe or one hour's la- 
bour is worth at least ^line at another sea- 
son. If he intends to be quick at any time 
during the year, just about this time he 
should be stirring. Neither overseer nor 
negroes will be able to comprehend the im- 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



99 



portance of this rush; but let the master 
be caught once with a full crop of tobacco 
spreading the hill, at this season, un work- 
ed, without even ever so little stirring, 
and he will afterwards remember it, and 
follow our advice, if he has to do it by 
moonshine. A single furrow, or two at 
most, struck in the centre of the row, will, 
at this stage of the crop, greatly expedite 
the few chops which will be sufficient now 
for each hill. After harvest, as soon as 
possible, it should be worked thoroughly 
both with plow and hoe, and if large 
enough to top, it should be primed, or have 
the bottom leaves taken off about from five 
to six inches from the ground, and then 
topped according to the quality of the land 
or the fancy of the planter; the high top- 
ping having a tendency to make it fine,, 
and the low topping making it coarse. Old 
planters say that a plant topped to eight 
leaves will make more in weight than when 
topped to any other number. If this se- 
cond working has been efficiently done, un- 
less under adverse circumstances, it will 
rarely be found necessary to do more to the 
crop than chop it over again. When plant- 
ed, as the crop should have been, pretty 
much at the same time, (and in this is 
showed the necessity of an abundance of 
plants,) the land having all been prepared 
with equal care, the crop will come in about 
half and half, — that is, when the first half 
is ripe, the other half will just about allow 
you time to get that in and well cured 
down, when you may proceed to take in 
the remainder. Another advantage of 
making but two cuttings of a crop is, that 
it is cured with much more uniformity) both 
as regards colour and' quality. We prefer 
to let it all stand, however, unless it fires, 
as long as the season will justify, being 
fully persuaded that we much oftener cut 
it, at last, green than ripe. From the hot 
sun of the season — latter part of August 
and first September — when the first cutting- 
is made, the tobacco will burn frequently 
before it will fall enough to take up ; great 
diligence should be used, therefore, to pre- 
vent this, as ft destroys the plant entirely 
if thus suffered to be sun-burnt; better run 
the risk of breaking it than burn it. It 
may either be hung at this stage, and put 
on scaffolds in the field for a week or ten 
days, if the weather will permit, or taken 
immediately to the house as it is hung from 
the piles, and pkccd away there. If this 



latter plan is adopted, however, not more 
than a day or two at farthest should be suf- 
fered to elapse before little bark fires, a 
double handful in a place, should be kin- 
dled all oyer the floor, so as to create in the 
house about as much warmth as is produced 
by a warm sun of a summer's day. Under 
this process, in the course of a day or two, 
the tobacco will have become sufficiently 
yellow to begin to cure, when these little 
fires may be increased, carefully, however, 
as the tobacco cures until they may take 
large logs on them, or the heat may be so 
great that 'tis disagreeable to be in the 
house. In from four to five days from the 
time of commencing to cure, the operation 
will have been completed. W r hen begin- 
ning to cure, the heat should be increased 
gradually, and the tails of the tobacco 
watched carefully, as to the lower tiers, for 
the slightest extreme of heat will coddle or 
turn them black. Before any of this pro- 
cess begins, we should have remarked, the 
house should have been made tight, by. 
cramming mud into the interstices of the 
logs. If the planter cure by charcoal or 
by flues in the house, the same temperature 
will have to be observed during the whole 
process, as if he had used the common wood 
fire plan. 

A very great advantage, which we omit- 
ted to mention in the proper place, of suf- 
fering the tobacco to stand in the field to 
as late a season as circumstances will ad- 
mit, is that, the riper the plant becomes, 
the more disposed it is to become yellow, 
and the more easily is it made to assume 
that colour after being housed. Indeed, its 
being of that colour is generally considered 
by the purchaser as evidence of the stam- 
ina, or full maturity of the plant. This, 
then, is an important consideration in suf- 
fering the tobacco to remain in the field as 
long as circumstances will admit. Being 
entirely cured, 'tis well to take it down in 
November or December at farthest, and 
pack it away in a tight room to prevent it 
" going and coming," and thereby losing 
much of its qualities. To take it down, a 
warm season should be sought, and care 
taken that there is not too much moisture 
in it. The planter need never fear its spoil- 
ing if the stems will crack when the fingers 
are applied to them. 

If our advice in regard to the manage- 
ment of the article lias been careful 1 
served, and the tobacco nicely assorted and 



LOO 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



tripped, and grown on the right sort of 
and, we will introduce our young friend to 
he gentleman who will pay him from $20 
o $59 per hundred for his crop, if he will 
x>me to us in the month of June next. 

But, fie ! fie upon us ! we have been so 
yordy upon this subject, the which is so 
>bjectionable to some of our readers that 
ve wot of that we shall not now be able 
o talk on those other subjects to the ex- 
ent we wished. We would like to say a 
vord to our young farmer friends about 
aaking and applying manure, which is to 
he farm what Mrs. Jenkins said " grease" 
vas to religion. t( Ah, Mary," says she, 
•remember there is no religion without 
;rease !" So there is no farming without 
nanure. We would like to talk about 
heep, about tjie hogs, the attention needed 
or each kind of stock ; then we should 
lave to talk of the culture of wheat and 
orn — whew ! Will our dear young friends 
uffer us to bore them with another trea- 
ise, devoted to these inexhaustible themes ? 
>Ve will risk it. 

Jan. 7th, I860. L. M. 



Che Early English Agricultural Authors. 

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

That the early inhabitants of our island 
>ractised agriculture is well known. That 
he districts bordering on the English Chan- 
lel were better cultivated than those of the 
nterior of the island, we learn on the autho- 
ity of Caesar. After his expedition to Eng- 
and, B. C. 55, he described the Cantii, or 
nhabitants of Kent, and the Belgse, inha- 
>iting our counties of Hants, Wilts, and 
Somerset, as the most advanced of our 
sland tribes in the habits of civilized life, 
rhey cultivated the soil, employed marl as 
\ manure, stored their corn unthrashed, and 
eparated it from the chaff and bran, only 
is their daily demands required. The inte- 
•ior inhabitants lived chiefly upon milk and 
lesh, being fed and clothed by the produce 
)f their herds. "The country," adds Caesar, 
* is well peopled, and abounds in buildings 
•esembling those of the Gauls, and they 
iave a great abundance of cattle. They 
tre not allowed to eat either the hen, the 
;oose, or the hare; yet they take pleasure 
n breeding them." Cicero, in one of his 
etters, remarks, " There is not a scruple of j 
noney in the island; nor any hopes of i 
)ooty but in slaves" — a description that the| 



industry and intelligence of succeeding agea 
have rendered singularly inapplicable. 

Such are the earliest yet meagre allusions 
to the farming of our island, in our posses- 
sion. There is no doubt but that our ances- 
tors had more agricultural knowledge than 
we are always willing to believe. And that 
this skill in the art of tillage, did not dimin- 
ish in succeeding Saxon and Norman days, 
is equally certain. To the very earliest ex- 
isting notices of the farming of Saxon times 
I do not, however, propose now to direct the 
reader's attention. My intention is to com- 
mence these retrospective glances, with somo 
of those writings or official notices which 
appeared from the ninth or tenth centuries 
to about the year 1532 — the year when old 
Fitzherbert published his work on the Eng- 
lish farming of those days. 

The conciseness and spirit with which 
these early English writers addressed their 
contemporaries is well worthy of our notice. 
They had evidently little faith in the effect 
of long arguments or haif measures. Their 
works could only be known in manuscript. 
Printing was, in the days to which I refer, 
either unknown or merely rudely commenced. 
Our earliest authors, therefore, imitated, al- 
most of necessity, the terseness of our early law 
givers, who practised brevity to admiration. 
Now it is in the statute books of England, 
Wales, and the sister-kingdoms, that we find 
some of the earliest notices of the agricul- 
ture of our islands. And it is not only an 
amusing but an instructive inquiry, to trace 
in these laws the primitive notions of our 
ancestors with regard to husbandry — how 
bravely former English senates endeavoured 
to teach farming by acts of parliament; 
tried to keep not only the prices of food be- 
low its' market value, but of labourers' wages 
also; how they earnestly strove to protect 
his growing corn from vermin, from tres- 
passes of all kinds, excepting game, and 
how they even endeavoured to teach the 
men of those times what they should eat, 
what clothes they should wear, and in what 
rural sports they should indulge. 

Their very limited knowledge of the true 
principles of political philosophy, indeed, 
more recent senates have not always ex- 
ceeded, and modern parliaments have rarely 
equalled in their Jaws even the vigor of 
those of the Houses of Plantagenet and 
Tudor. 

The reader when he is following me 
through some of these early legislative 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



101 



writings, must remember that in those days 
the population of England was in all proba- 
bility not much larger than that of London 
now. That the country was undrained, ill 
cultivated, and that only the richest portions 
of the land were enclosed, commons and 
forests occupying the remainder. Of the 
produce of that portion under the plough, 
every notice which has escaped to us be- 
trays the poverty. For instance, in 1387, 
on the manor farm of Hawstead in Suffolk, 
66 acres of wheat produced 69 quarters of 
grain, 26 acres of barley yielded 52 quar- 
ters 2 bushels of seed. And about the 
same period the manor farm of Dorking, in 
Survey, produced from 30? acres of barley 
41 quarters 4 bushels of grain, 28 acres of 
oats only 38 quarters 4 bushels. 

The writers, whose works I propose to 
hereafter notice, are Greathead or Grote- 
head and Fitzherbert. But previous to this 
it will be well to take heed of the laws 
which before and during their time were 
made to regulate the proceedings of the 
farmer. 

The value of his corn early attracted the 
attention of our parliaments. In a statute 
supposed to have been made in 1266, the 
51st of Henry III., the municipal authori- 
ties of towns were thus directed : — " First, 
they shall enquire the price of wheat, that is 
to wit, how a quarter of the best wheat was 
sold the last market day,and how the second 
wheat, and how a quarter of barley and 
oats." 

In 1360, by the 34th Edward III., c. 20, 
the exportation of corn was prohibited. It 
was 33 years after that time, that in 1398, 
by 17 Richard II., c. 7, all the king's sub- 
jects were allowed to export corn to any but 
to the kind's enemies. This act was not 
repealed till the year 1603. 

In 1436, 15 Henry VI., wheat was allow- 
ed to be exported when it was 6s. 8d. per 
quarter at the place of shipment, and the 
preamble of the act indicates that the pro- 
duce of wheat had increased beyond the 
demands' of the population, since it says, 
when alluding to the restrictions on the ex- 
portation of corn, " For cause whereof, far- 
mers and other men which use manurement 
of their land, may not sell their corn, but of 
a bare price, to the great damage of all the 
realm." 

It is evident from this statute that only 
6ome of the most enterprising farmers then 
manured their corn land. Still they did not 



so increase the produce of grain as to render 
their country quite independent of foreign 
corn; for only a quarter of a century after- 
wards, we find the first symptom of protect- 
ing duties. 

In 1453, by the 3rd of Edward IV. ; c. 2, 
it was declared that " the labourers and oc- 
cupiers of husbandrie, within the realme of 
England, be dayly grievously endamaged by 
bringing of corn out of other lands and 
parts, into this realme of England, when 
corn of the growth of this realme is at a 
low price. " It then proceeds to enact that 
corn shall not, under pain of forfeiture, be 
imported into England, until wheat exceeds 
in price 6s. 8d. per quarter, rye 4s., and 
barley 3s. 

Our old Briti h ancestors long before this 
time had, however, absolutely prohibited the 
exportation of corn. 

By the old laws of Wales, made certainly 
not later than the tenth century, (Ancient 
Laws and Institutes, p. 655,) it was ordered 
that "three things are not to be conveyed 
to a foreign country, without the permission 
of the country and the lord — gold, books, 
and wheat. And three things that an aillt 
(alien) is not to sell without the permission 
of his proprietory lord, Jest he should want 
to buy them of- him — wheat, money, and 
horses. And where his lord shall not buy 
them of him, he is at liberty to sell them 
wherever he willeth, so that he do not sell 
them to a foreign country." 

In 1533, the act of 25 Henry VIII., c> 
2, for a time put an end to the exportation 
of English corn, and absurdly enough gave 
the lords of the council the power to declare 
by proclamation the prices at which farmers 
and others should be compelled to sell their 
commodities, although, as the preamble of 
the act much more wisely allows, " dearth, 
scarcity, good cheap, and plenty of cheese, 
butters, capons, &c, and other victuals, hap- 
peneth, riseth, and chanceth, of so many 
and divers occasions, that it is very hard 
and difficult to put any certain prices to any 
such things." 

Long before the resolute days of stout old 
Harry the VIII., the legislature had been 
at work heartily endeavouring to reduce the 
price of piovisions below their market value, 
for in 1266, by the 51 Henry III., it was 
ordained (and this statute was not repealed 
until the 8th of Ann, c. 18) that " when a 
q' arter of wheat is sold for lid. then waste! 
bread of a farthinsr shall wciah 6 lbs. and 



02 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



3 pennyweights, (a pennyweight round and 
ithout any defacing, was to weigh 32 wheat 
>rns in the midst of the ear, and 22 pen- 
ies do make one ounce, 12 ounnes a lb.") 
.nd by the same statute it is provided that 
when a quarter of wheat is sold for 3s., or 
3. 4d., and a quarter of barley for Is. 8d., 
r 2s., and a quarter of oats for Is. 4d., then 
rewers in cities ought, and may well afford 
) sell two gallons of beer or ale for a penny, 
ad out of cities three gallons for a penny." 

The parliament of those times were evi- 
ently in earnest in their endeavours to keep 
le bakers and brewers in order, for during 
le same year (1266) was passed the "stat- 
te of the pillory and tumbrel," which also 
Dntinued in force till the time of Queen 
jine. This, like all our early statutes, es- 
liewed all unnecessary verbiage. The stout 
arons of that year thus commenced their 
st : " If a baker or brewer be convict be- 
xuse he has not observed the assize of bread 
nd. ale, the first, second, and third time, he 
rail be amerced according to the offence, if 
. be not over-grievous; but if the offence 
e grievous and often, and will not be cor- 
seted, then he shall suffer punishment of 
le body, that is, to wit, a baker to the pil- 
>ry, the brewer to the tumbrel or some 
ther correction/' 

We may suspect by this marked distinc- 
on between the punishment of the bakers 
nd the brewers, that even then brewers 
ere held to be in a larger and more digni- 
ed way than the bakers, since they were to 
e allowed the privilege of riding in a 
imbrel. 

A certain degree of humanity was dis- 
layed by the legislature, even in punishing 
iscally bakers, for by another statute made 
bout this time, (Ruffhead, vol. i., p. 186,) 
; was provided that a baker should only be 
merced "if his bread be found lacking one 



irthing in two-and-sixpence :" but if his 
hort weight exceeded 



this, he was to be 
laced in the pillory. And further, it was 
umanely provided that " every pillory, or 
Wretch neck, must be made of convenient 
:rength, so that execution may be done 
pon offenders without peril to their bodies." 
'he unprincipled butcher, by another stat- 
te, (ibid, p. 187) was subjected to the same 
unishment, "who selleth swine's flesh mea- 
led, or flesh dead of the murrain." 

The lawgivers of the iron days of Cressey 
nd Poitiers had evidently an interest in 
ther viands beyond mere beef and mutton, 



for in the act of 1363, (37 of Edward III., 
the statute of Westminster, made by the 
king, lords, and commons,) we- find that 
,' for the greath dearth that is in many 
places of the realme of poultrie, it is or- 
dained that the price of a young capon shall 
not pass threepence, and of an olde capon 
fourpence, of a pullet one penny, of a goose 
fourpence, and in places where the prises of 
such vittailes bee less, they shall holde with- 
out being enhanced by this ordinance. Anj} 
that in the townes and markets of upland, 
they shall be soulde at a less prise according 
as may be agreed upon between the seller 
and the buyer." This wise law was not re- 
pealed until the year 1624. 

More than two centuries after this absurd 
poultry statute, we find the parliament imi- 
tating this necessarily abortive attempt to 
run counter to market prices, by an act to 
regulate the price of butchers' meat. In 
the year 1532, by the 24 Henry VIII., c. 
3, an act which was not repealed till the 



year 



1541, it was declared in "an act con- 



cerning flesh to be sold by weight," that all 
beef, mutton, veal, and pork, should be sold 
by "haberdepois" weight, and moreover 
that no person should thereafter take " for 
any pound weight of flesh of the carcasses 
of beefe or porke, above the price of an 
halfpenny, and of mutton or veale, above 
the price of one halfpenny and half farth- 
ing," and after endeavouring to enforce 
these prices by a penalty of 3s. 4d., it grave- 
ly continued : " Provided alwaies that the 
heads, necks, inwards, purtenances, legs, nor 
feet, shall be counted no part of the car- 
casses aforesaid, but such to be sold for a 
lower price." 

The parliament were not content with 
fixing the price of calves' meat: they even 
declared what a butcher should not kill; fijr 
instance, in 1529, we find in the old statute 
books (the 21st Henry VIII.), "An Act 
against the Killing of Calves" for three 
years, because, as the framers of the Act 
gravely inform us, "of late yeeres now pass- 
ed the breeders of such calves, of their 
covetous minds, have used to sel their calves 
young sucking to butchers, weining, rear- 
ing, and bringing up few or none, whereby 
the increase of the old cattell is marvelously 
minished and decreased." A penalty of 6s. 
8d. is then imposed upon any one who 
should kill a calf during the next three 
years. 

As might be reasonably expected, the far- 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



103 



mers evidently evaded this act very exten- 
sively. But the Legislature was not to be 
turned aside from their grave resolves; so 
in 1532, by the Act of the $tth Henry 
VIII., c. vii., after explaining in its pream- 
ble that the act of 1529 was intended to 
provide "that calves once wained should 
not be put to slaughter before they were of 
convenient yeeres and meete for beefe," but 
that since the last act divers bad persons 
had continued " to kill young beasts called 
wainlings, steers, bullocks, and heifares, of 
one or two yeeres old, or little more/' it goes 
to enact that no person shall, under a penal- 
ty of 6s. 8d., cause any cattle to be killed 
under two years old. 

Then, again, the same parliament had 
evidently discovered another mare's nest ; 
they deemed the increase in the price ofi 
mutton to have arisen from the flocks ofi 
England having become too large : so, as 
usual with them, they Were prompt in at- 
tempting the remedy of an Act of Parlia-I 
ment. 

In 1533, therefore, the 25th Henry VIII, 
c. 13, is an act entitled, " Concerning the 
number of sheep one should keep." After , 
describing at some length the several en or- I 
mities that do ensue by the greedy desire 
of having many sheep— some persons then 
having 24,000 and 20,000 sheep— " by 
which a good sheep for victual that was ac- 
customed to be. sold for 2s. 4d., or 3s. at 
most, is now sold for 6s., or 4s., or 3s. 4d., 
at the least;" it goes on to enact that no 
one shall have more than 2,000 sheep in 
future, under a penalty of 3s. 4d. for every 
sheep above that number. And b}' sec. 14 
ef the same act, it is provided that no one 
shall hold more than two farms, under a 
penalty of 3s. 4d. per week they shall hold 
any land contrary to the act. 

And the legislatures of those days were 
not content to regulate the number of sheep 
a farmer should keep, and the price he 
should obtain for his mutton, but they reg- 
ulated the trade in his wool. It was not to 
be exported, or, when it was allowed to be 
sent out of the kingdom, it was carefully 
provided that it should be sent only to the 
staple at Calais. I have not found in the 
English statute-book any direction as to 
how he should sh ear his sheep; but the 
Scotch government early issued directions 
similar to that of the Irish parliament of 
1634. 

The public acts of those days inform us 



that even as late as the seventeenth century 
the flockmasters of Ireland and Scotland 
had a summary way of gathering the wool 
from the sheep, which their rulers were en- 
lightened enough to restrain. Thus, by the 
act of the Irish parliament, (11 and 12 
Charles II, c. 15,) entitled " An act against 
plowing by the tail and pulling the wool off 
living sheep," it is declared that " in many 
places of this kingdome there hath been a 
long time used a barbarous custome of plough- 
ing, harrowing, drawing, and working with 
horses by the tayle, whereby (besides the 
cruelty used to the beast) the breed of 
horses is much impaired in this kingdome. 
And also divers have, and yet do use the 
like barbarous custome of pulling off the 
wool yearly from living sheep, instead of 
clipping or shearing them." These miser- 
able practices were then declared to be ille- 
gal, and to be punishable with fine and im- 
prisonment. 

It is evident, however, that there had 
been a previous Irish ordinance on this sub- 
ject, since such a reformation is referred to 
in a letter written to his Scotch council by 
King James, in 1617, Chambers' (Annals 
of Scotland, vol. i., p. 471,) gives an extract 
from a curious entry in the Scotch Privy 
Council Record. The document states that 
" In some remote and uncivil places of this 
kingdom an old and barbarous custom was 
still kept up of plucking the wool from sheep 
instead of clipping it." The king hearing 
of the practice, wrote a letter to his Council, 
denouncing it as one not to be suffered ; tell- 
ing them that it had already been reformed 
in Ireland, under a penalty of a groat on 
every sheep so used, and was " far less to be 
endured in you." The Council immedi- 
ately (March 17, 1617) made an order to 
the same effect; and after stating that 
many sheep died in consequence of this 
cruel treatment, concluded with a threat of 
severe fines on such as should hereafter con- 
tinue the practice. " It is remarkable," 
adds Mr. Chambers, "that in the Faroe 
Islands there is to this day no other way of 
taking the wool from sheep than that which 
was then only kept up in remote parts of 
Scotland." 

It was as early as the year 1337 that we 
find the exportation of English wool pro- 
hibited. The same measure of injustice to 
the farmer was conferred in 1521. And in 
1696 the wisdom of Parliament was evinced 
by the prohibition of the export of wool 



104 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



from England, or even from Ireland into 
England. It was not till the year 1824 
that the Acts of Parliament restraining the 
exportation of wool Avere repealed. 

The Scotch Parliament were by no means 
to be outdone by that of England ) for so 
late as the year 1581, in the seventh Par- 
liament of James VII., of Scotland, it was 
enacted, " That no manner of wool be 
transported, or put in schippes or boates to 
be transported, furth of this realm in time 
cumming." A law had been previously 
made, in 1467, that no cattle or sheepe 
Bhould be sold out of the realm of Scotland ; 
and again in 1535, by the fourth Parliament 
of James V., of Scotland, it was directed, 
with all becoming gravity, " That na man- 
ner of men in time dimming sell nolt, 
sheepe, or other cattle, auld nor young, to 
ony English-men, be himselfe or ony other 
mediate person, nor have nor send the 
samin in England to be sauld." 

It sounds strange in our ears ta read in 
these Scotch acts the title of " James, by 
the grace of God, King of Scotland, Eng- 
land, France, and Ireland." 

We have seen how, previously to 1634, 
the Irish were wont to fasten their 'horses to 



hard meat all the summer season, used com- 
monlie be personnes of mean estaite, cowp- 
pers of i%terjtion to make merchandise of 
the said horsis, being for the maist part 
smajl nagges, and na horses of service." 

The parliament who, in 1533, regulated 
the number of sheep a farmer should keep, 
had more enlightened views in regard to the 
encouragement of the linen manufacturers. 
They erred strangely, however, when they 
tried to enforce the cultivation of flax on 
all soils. It was in 1532 that, by the 24th 
of Henry VIII. (repealed in 1592 by the 
35th Eliz., c. 7), it was enacted, after a well- 
drawn preamble, setting forth the advanta- 
ges of encouraging the home manufacture 
of linen, that every person having arable or 
pasture land " apt for tillage" should every 
year for every sixty acres in their possession 
sow " one rode or one quarter of an acre 
with line-seed, otherwise called flax-seed or 
hemp-seed." 

Here, again, the Scotch parliament had 
long preceded that of England in regulating 
the husbandman's crops. In 1426, by the 
fifth parliament of James I. of Scotland, it 
was enacted that " ilk man tailand with a 
plauch of aucht oxen sail saw at the least 



the plough by their tails ; and there is some ilk zeir a firlot of quheate, half a firlot of 
reason to conclude, from a print in a Saxon i pease, and forty beanes, under the paine of 
manuscript, now in the Harleian collection,.! ten shillings to the baronne of the lande 
that our Saxon ancestors did the same. I that he dwellis in." 



find no act in the English or Scotch statute- 
books, relating to so barbarous a custom: 
not but that the Caledonian senate legislated 
upon the horse ; they regulated his shoeing, 
and restrained his owner from over-feeding 
him. For in 1477, by the tenth Parlia- 
ment of James III., it was enacted,." be- 
cause ignorant smithes, through ignorance 



When the English Parliament regulated 
the crops and the prices of the farmer's pro- 
duce, they proceeded to consider what (hey 
deemed the enemies of his growing corn. 
We find, indeed, that they thought of the 
crows, for in 1532, by the 24th Henry VIII. 
c. 10, intituled " An Act for the Destruction 
of Crows and Rooks," the nreamble informs 



or diiinkeunesse, spillis and enrickis mennes;us that " Forasmuch as innumerable num- 
horse," that a smith shoeing a horse in thejbers of rooks, crows, and choughs do daily 
quick should pay the cost of the horse till breed and increase throughout this realm, 



he be whole, and furnish the owner with 
another; and if the horse will not mend 



which do yearly destroy, devour, and con- 
sume a wonderful and marvellous great quan- 



that the smith hold the horse. And in j tity of corn and grain of all kinds, in the 
1581, by the seventh Parliament of James sowing, ripening, and hemelling, and over 
VI., of Scotland, " that none under a baron j that a marvellous destruction and decay of 
or landed man, worth a thousand merks of the covertures of thatched houses, barns, 
yearly free rent, keep horse at the hard! reeks, stacks, and other such like, to the 
meat after the 15th of May, or take them 'great damage and undoing of a great num- 
in before the 15th of October, on pain of.ber of all the tillers, husbands, and sowers 
forfeiting the horse." And the reason as- 'of earth;" it therefore provides that every 
signed is "that amangis the monie uther^own and hamlet shall provide crow-nets; 
occasions of deurth of victuallers, there is and that takers of crows have two-pence a 
an e speciallie very unprofitable to the com-! dozen by way of reward. This sage law 
monweill, quhilk is the holding of horses at ( was repealed in 1576, by the 18th Eliz., c 



- 1 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



105 



15. It is noticeable that a century before 
this the Parliament of Scotland had made 
an onslaught on the poor rooks, for in 1424 
was passed an act against the u bigging of 
Ruikes in Trees," because, as the statute 
adds, they " dois greate skaith upon cornes." 

Straying cattle were not neglected. It 
might be moreover concluded, from the 
great minuteness with which the damage 
done by stray cattle is specified in our old 
Welsh laws, that either the farmers', fences 
in those times were generally in a dilapida- 
ted state, or that the Welshmen were as 
litigious then, as sometimes they are suppo- 
sed to be now. By the laws of Howell 
Dda, made in the early part of the tenth 
century, it is provided that, " to release an 
animal impounded, money payment only is 
due — a penny for a horse, a half-penny for 
a bullock, for a colt 14 days old one penny. 

Every crop that a person shall harvest he 
is to look after, and the cattle are free. By 
the crop is understood corn after it is sever- 
ed from the land, wherever it grew, the pro- 
duce of an orchard, cabbage, flax after it is 
cut, or in a garden uncut, tedded hay, thatch 
for houses, and their fences, leeks, and eve- 
rything that pertains to a garden. " Let 
him fence so strong about his garden that 
beasts cannot break into it ; and if he do 
not, and it should be broken into, he is not 
to be compensated ; except for the trespass 
of poultry and geese, because it is not possi- 
ble to fence, so as to exclude them, since 
they can fly." Then t e law continued : 
" The barns are to be open from the time 
the first sheaf is brought into them until the 
calends of winter, to admit the air; and if 
the corn be damaged during that period, the 
owner is to be compensated. From the ca- 
lends of winter onwards, the barns shall be 
closed in the manner required : they are to 
be closed by three eatherings on the sill, and 
a wattle upon the doorway, with three bands 
thereon, two on the back, and one on the 
front; and if that be broken, the corn and 
the barn are to be compensated, flie corn in 
the barn by giving a whole sheaf for every 
damaged sheaf." (Ancient Laws and In- 
stitutes, p. 158.) 

Former, and indeed, all subsequent Par- 
liaments, have treated other enemies of 
growing crops, viz., game, much more gin- 
gerly than they did the cattle and the crows. 
This is shown by their forest and their game 
laws. The abhorrence of poachers, in fact, 
amongst the landowners of those iron days, 



was evidently as great as in our more silken, 
or cotton times. They took very decisive 
measures, however, in the 13th century to 
abate such unqualified destroyers of game. 
In 1293, by the 21st Edward I., it was en- 
acted, " To the intent that trespassers in for- 
ests, chases, parks, and warrens, may more 
warily fear hereafter to enter and trespass in 
the same than they have heretofore," that 
they might be killed if they refused, on de- 
mand, to sunender themselves to the keeper 
or his assistants. This slaying, however, 
the statute gravely and humanely provided, 
must not be done by the keepers out of 
malice, and merely on the pretence of a 
trespass. 

A century afterwards, we find that even 
slaying poachers did not stop poaching, for 
in 1494, 11th Henry VII., c. 17. It was 
provided, that no one should set " snares, 
nets, or other engines," to take " fesants or 
partridges." And a quarter of a century 
nearer our own time, by another act, that of 
1522 (14th and 15th Henry VIII., c. 10), 
the hares were protected, since it was then 
rendered felony to kill hares by tracing them 
in the snow ; the fine being 6s. 8d. upon all 
breakers of the law. 

The treatment of the farm labourers in 
the times of which I am speaking was evi- 
dently harsh and unfeeling. They were, in- 
deed, serfs, who only very slowly participa- 
ted in that freedom for which the Commons 
of England so long, and at last so success- 
fully struggled. But the state of the poor 
labourer from the time of which lam speak- 
ing down to the days of Henry VIII., was 
still that of serfdom. Runaway idlers were 
to be enslaved ; sturdy incorrigible beggars 
might be executed as felons. This unhappy 
state of the poor labourer in husbandry 
must be remembered, when we read the 
harsh statutes by which their work, their 
wages, and even their dress, was regulated 
by grave acts of the rude Parliaments of 
other days. The labourers were then not 
even allowed to abstain from work when they 
did not require to be hired ; for 1349, 23rd 
Edward III., by " the statute of Labourers," 
it was provided, as the preamble states, in 
consequence of the great pestilence having 
carried off so many of the ploughmen, and 
labourers having increased their demands 
for wages, that u every person able of body 
under the age of 60 years, not having to 
live upon, being required, shall be bound to 
serve him that doth require him, or else 



106 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



committed to the gaol until he find surety to 
serve/' at the old wages. And he was not 
allowed to learn any craft or trade ; for in 
1388, by the 12th Rich. II., it was ordered, 
that whosoever served in husbandry until he 
was twelve years of age, should so continue. 
The Irish Parliament in 1447 passed an act 
to the same effect ; and in 1425, the Scotch 
Parliament, to prevent idlers in rural popu- 
lations, made a law " that ilke man of sim- 
ple estate that suld be of reason labourers 
have onther (either) halfe-an-oxe in the 
pleach, or else delve ilk day seven fute of 
length and seven of breadth under the paine 
of ane oxe to the king." 

Seldom was the husbandman to have the 
market value of his labour, for in 1350 by 
the Act of the 25th Edward III., c. 1, 
which remained unrepealed until the year 
1563 (Eliz. c. 4), it was enacted " That car- 
ters, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, 
sheapheardes, swineheardes, and all other 
servantes, shall take liveries and wages ac- 
customed the soil twenty yeeres, or four 
yeeres before (by the previous acts of the 
same reign), so that in the country where 
wheat was wont to be given, they shall take 
for the bushell ten pence, or wheat at the 
will of the giver, till it is otherwise ordain- 
ed. And that they be allowed to serve by 
an whole year, or by the other usual termes, 
and not by the clay. And that none pay in 
the time of sarcling or heiemaking but a 
penny the day; and a mower of meadowes 
for the acre fivepence, or by the day five- 
pence; and reapers of corn in the first 
weeke of August twopence, and the second 
weeke three-pence, and so on till the end of 
August ; and less in the country, where less 
was wont to be given, without meat or drinke 
or other courtesie to be demanded, given, or 
taken. And that all workmen bring openly 
in their hands to the merchant towns their 
instruments, arid there shall be hired in a 
common place and net private. Item — That 
none take for the thrashing of a quarter of 
wheat orrie over 2id., and the quarter bar- 
lie, beans, peas, and otes ljd. if so much 
were wont to be given ; and in the country 
where it is used to reape by certain sheeves, 
and to thresh by certain bushells, they shall 
take no more, nor in other manner than was 
wont the said twenty yeare and before. And 
that the servants bee sworne two times in 
the year before lord stewards, bailliffs, and 
constables of every town, to holde and doe 
these ordinances. And that none of them 



go out of the towne where he dwelleth dur- 
ing the winter to serve the summer, if he 
may serve in the same towne, takeing as 
before is said. Saving that the people of 
the counties of Stafford, Lancaster, and 
Derby, and the people of Craven, and of 
the marches of Wales and Scotland, and 
other places may come in the time of Au- 
gust and labour in other countries, and safely 
return as they were wont to do before this 
time. And that those who refuse to take 
such oath, or perform that that they be sworn 
to, or have taken upon them, shall bee put 
in the stocks by the said lord stewards or 
constables, by three dayes or more, or sent 
to the next gaol, there to remaine till they 
will justifie themselves. And that stockes 
be made in every towne by such occasion 
betwixt this and the feast of Pentecost." 

By the same statute, threshers, "tylerand 
other coverers of feme or strawe, were to 
have 3d. per day, and their knaves Id." 
We might reasonably conclude with such 
wages there could be little fear of the labour- 
ers decking themselves in fine garments ; 
but it seems that the Parliament of that time 
thought differently, for in 1363, by the 37th 
of Edward III., it was enacted u That cart- 
ers, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, oxe- 
herds, kowherds, shepherds, and all other 
keepers of beasts, threshers of corne, and all 
manner of people of the estate, of a groome 
attending to husbandry, and all other people 
that have not fortie shillings of goods nor 
chattels, shall not take nor wear no manner 
of cloth, but blanket and russet wool, of 
twelve pence, and shall weare the girdles of 
linnen, according to their estate, and that 
they come to eate and drinke in the manner 
pertaineth to them, and not excessively ; 
and it is ordained, that if any weare or doe 
contrary to any of the points aforesaid, that 
he shall forfeit against the King all the ap- 
parel that he hath so worne against the form 
of this ordinance." This wise statute was 
not repealed till the year 1533, 24th Henry 
VIII., c. 13. The Scotch labourers in hus- 
bandry were probably more economical in 
their dress, for it was not till about a century 
after this English Act, that the Parliament 
of Scotland in 1457, resolved " That na 
labourers nor husbandmen weare on the 
warke day, bot gray and quhite, and on the 
halie daie bot light blew, greene, redde ; and 
their wives right swa, and courchies of their 
awin making, and that it exceed not the 
price of xi pennyes the elne. And that na 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



107 



woman cum to Kirk nor mercat with her 
face mussalled or covered that she may not 
be kend." 

But not only, it seems, did the English 
peasantry of that time indulge in fine 
clothes; but they had, it seems, a taste for 
wearing arms and bucklers, and for certain 
amusements. As, in 1388, (by the 12 Rich- 
ard II., c. 4, made at Canterbury,) it was 
enacted that " no servant of husbandrie or 
labourer tjiall henceforth wear any buckler, 
sword, or dagger; .... but such servants 
shall have bowes and arrowes, and use the 
same the Sundayes and holy dayes, and 
leave off playing at tennis or football, and 
other games, called coytes, dice, casting of 
the stone, kailes, and other such importune 
games." 

As time wore on — it became necessary to 
alter in some degree the wages of the rural 
population and to decide the length of their 
working hours. So the Parliament again 
interfered; aud in 1513, by the 6 Henry 
VIII., cap. 3, (repealed very soon, however,) 
the wages of a bailiff were slightly raised to 
20s. 8d. per annum, and meat and drink, 
with 5s. for clothing ; and a common farm 
labourer IGs. 8d., and meat and drink, and 
7s. for clothing ; but then the labourers of 
those days were evidently not very fond of 
their hard work, so it was resolved to try 
and stimulate them by a section of the Act, 
in the following word: " And furthermore 
were divers artificers and labourers retained 
to work and serve, waste most part of the 
day and do not deserve their wages, some- 
times in late coming to their work, early de- 
parting therefrom ; long sitting at ther 
brakefaste, at their dinner, and at their 
noone meate, and long time of sleeping at 
afternoone to the lossc and hurt (of their 
masters.") It then proceeds to enact, that 
from the middle of March to the middle 
of September every labourer " Shall bee at 
worke before five o'clock in the morning, 
and that he have but half an hour for his 
breakfast and an hour and a hallo for his 
dinner, at Mich time as he hath season for 
slcepe appointed him by the said statute, and 
at such time as it is herein appointed that 
he shall not slcrpe ; tlien he to have but an 
hour lor his dinner, and that he depart not 
from his work till between the hour of seven 
and eight in the evening." And then the 
labourer was not to give up his service with- 
out due notice to his master. There was 
no provision, however, against the mi 



suddenly discharging his labourer; but in 
1444, by the Act 2S Henry VI., cap. 12, it 
was ordained that all servants in husbandry 
.should give warning before they left their 
service, and that the wages of a bailiff' should 
be 24s. 4d. by the yeare, and clothing price 
of five shillings, with meate and drinke; of 
a chiefe hind, a carter, or chief shepherd, 
20s., and clothing -4s., with meate and drinke; 
a common servant of husbandry 15s., and 
clothing 3s. 4d. ; a woman servant 10s., and 
clothing 4s., with meate and drinke." 

Long before this time — even as early as 
the tenth century — the laws of "Wales regu- 
lated the ploughman, placed a value upon 
his gear, and protected him at his work. 
One law says, " There are three common 
protections: Trrc protection of a session, or 
court of country ; the protection of a place 
of worship ; and the protection of a plough 
and team at work." — Ancient Laics and In- 
stitutes of Wales, p. G66. 

By another law it was ordained that "the 
legal value of a yoke and its bows shall be 
one legal' penny, a beam Id., a coulter 4d., 
a cleansing hurdle Id., a cleansing spud Id., 
a harrow Id., a thorn harrow Id." — Ibid., 
p. 150. 

By a third law it was declared that nei- 
ther horses, mares, or cows were to be put 
to the plough ; and again, " No one is to 
undertake the work of a ploughman, unless 
he know how to make a plough, and nail it; 
for he ought to make it wholly from the first 
nail to the last, or from the smallest to the 
largest."— 7^7;., p. 150. 

The value of domestic animals was also 
fixed by the ancient laws of the Cymri, 
(Ibid., p. 128.) A foal till fourteen days 
old was to be deemed worth 4d.. afterwards 
2s. ; at a year, 4s. A working horse that 
shall draw a car and a harrow, 60 pence ; a 
cow calf, 4d. ; of a cow ready to ealvc, 40 
pence; of a steer, lOd. ; a lamb, Id.; of a 
sheep, 4d. ; of a sucking pig, 2d. ; of a 
jug, Is. 3d.; of a kitten Id.; of a eat, 2d.; 
of bees, an old stock, 24 pence; of a 1st 
swarm, Is. Id. , of a " bull swarm," Is. ; of 
the 3rd swarm, 8d. 

The old Welsh laws also limited the 
amount of grass land which a farmer should 
hold, and the trees he should cut down. By 
one law: "No one exeept a lord was to 
have QlOre than two ivservcs of grass — a 
field and a meadow , land appropriated for 
hay only, and enclosed by a Pence;) ami if 
he will to keep it, let him obtain a I 



108 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



from the lord ; and, under sanction of that, 
let him keep it." — (Ant. Laws of Wales, 
p. 160.) Another declares that there are 
'" three trees, that it is not free to cut with- 
out the permission of the Countre.y and the 
Lord an acorn tree or oak, and a birch tree, 
with a witch elm. "—(Ibid., p. 676.) 

The breadth of the ancient roads of our 
island, as fixed by the ruling powers, indi- 
cates the limited extent of the traffic they 
were intended to accommodate. One law 
declared that " The measure of a lawfull 
road is a fathom and a half, (9 feet ;) of a; 
.bye-road, seven feet. Every habitation 
ought to have two footpaths, one to its 
church and one <to its watering place." 

I have continued my notices of these le- 
gislative interferences with the farmer and 
the labourer down to the time of G-roteland, 
Fitzherbert, and Henry the Eighth. Be- 
fore their age there were no English writ- 
ings on agriculture that can give us any ma- 
terial information with regard to the prac- 
tice of our early husbandry. (Of Grote- 
head and Fitzherbert I shall speak in a sub- 
sequent paper.) Those doings of our early 
Parliaments, which I have been endeavour- 
ing to trace, do not give us, it is true, a very 
elevated opinion of either the state of the 
tillers of the soil in the olden times of Eng- 
land, or of the wisdom of their Parliaments. 
These, however, yield us not only considera- 
ble information with regard to some of the 
practices and habits of farmers at a distant 
period ; but, moreover, they may well serve 
to warn the Parliaments of after and more 
enlightened times that the less the agricul- 
turists of England are interfered with by 
acts of Parliament, the better it will be for 
their prosperity, and that of the country 
they so admirably cultivate. 



From the American Stock Journal. 

Importing Stock instead of Breeding: it 
at Home. 

Editor American Stock Journal : 

As it is supposed that none but animals 
of superior excellence are imported, it will 
be understood that the following remarks 
apply to animals procured on account of 
apparent superiority, which however may or 
may not ultimately prove to be a matter of 
fact. We are one of many who deny that 
either as to appearance, quality, size, health 
or intrinsic value, the average of British 



cattle are superior to the average quality of 
those in our midst. But admitting that su- 
perior results in the niceties of form, quali- 
ty, color, or all of them, have been wrought 
out by English breeders, are there not rea- 
sons, cogent and numerous, against generally 
importing thorough-bred cattle ? 

It is the prevalent sentiment of most com- 
petent English breeders and judges, that no 
national improvements have for several years 
been effected in the three old breeds o£ Here- 
fords, Devons and Short-Horns; and it was 
the accumulated evidence of this fact which 
led to a change in the long established poli- 
cy of the Royal Agricultural Society — such 
change consisting in the offering of premi- 
ums for specimens of new breeds, instead of 
limiting their patronage to those in which 
no further real excellence appeared likely to 
be developed. It is contended that not only 
has no improvement of importance been 
effected by giving white faces, for instance, 
to the Herefords, — which, however, does not 
affect their intrinsic value ) and greater ten- 
derness, probably resulting from more gene- 
ral confinement, with a slight increase of 
size, perhaps, in the Devons, but that actual 
deterioration has taken place in the Short- 
Horns — the most numerous of the whole. 
In view of this result, the Royal Agricultu- 
ral reviewer, Robert Smith, in his review of 
the Chester exhibition, says of this breed, 
that " it would be well if more attention was 
paid to their lean meat, and less to superflu- 
ous fat. * * * Rather than to encour- 
age male animals of a smart heifer-like cast, 
without lean meat-quality with substance be- 
ing really essential." This to our view is 
affirmation, not only of depreciation but also 
of the necessity of an improved method of 
breeding the Short-Horns. And if the 
British breeders, whose skill we so much 
patronize, have committed such radical er- 
rors, what can be expected of the imported 
animals so bred ? What but the repetition 
of similar errors, already abundant here ? 

If, however, the present standing of these 
breeds was entirely satisfactory, still the fact 
remains that for many years they have been 
bred in sufficient numbers in this country to 
admit ample selections being made, without 
risking deterioration from too close breed- 
ing. Thus for years there has been no par- 
ticular necessity requiring the importation of 
animals for the sake of new or better selec- 
tions. But if there were' such a necessity, 
there is still the fact of inevitable deteriora- 



18G0.] 



THE SOUTH Eli N PLANTER. 



109 



tion generally in the animals thus introdu-/ 
ccd, not necessarily so much in consequence 
of excess as of peat changes in the natural' 
quality and hulk of feed, unless in seme ex- 
cepted instances, from favorable local resour- 
ces and great care, is to be checked for at 
least a while, and in instances such as here 
contemplated deterioration be partially pre- 
vented, the product of breeding in such con- 
ditions would not be a means of general im- 
provement, because similar deteriorations 
from causes oi' the same nature must inevi- 
tably befall such animals when transferred 
to our general quality of feed and conditions 
of climate; and, moreover, animals produ- 
ced in unusually favorable conditions obtain 
a fictitious reputation that could not accrue 
to them nor be justified under less favorable 
but more usual circumstances. 

It is reported that Mr. Alexander, of Ken- 
tucky, — the largest breeder in the South — ■ 
believes he has bred a better bull for his 
purpose (which is that of raising stock for 
breeding from,) than he could import; and 
in this he is most likely correct, and certain- 
ly his spirit and judgment in this matter are 
most admirable, and cannot be imitated 
without advantage on all hands. The gen- 
eral superiority of the American horses is 
admitted, of which the creditable achieve- 
ments of some of them on English Turf is 
an illustration at hand. Then as to fine 
wooled sheep, England itself is certainly not 
up with us. If we consider the extent of 
intelligence and capital of our successful 
horse breeders — generally by no means of 
unequalled amount — what in these respects 
is lacking to prevent our breeders of good 
cattle achieving equal, or even more impor- 
tant improvements 1 All that is attainable 
by importing the old breeds is novelty — not 
improvement — a mere economical fiction. 
For no material advance having been made 
in them for years in England, it is absurd 
to anticipate, further advantage from that 
quarter, except on the principle of 'Might 
from no light," which is equivalent to hug- 
ging a most egregious illusion. 

"We export pork, and beef, and grain in 
large quantities. Should we not rather con- 
vert a portion of our grain into improved 
stock, and export it in a more concentrated 
and living form, equally for economical rea- 
sons, and to illustrate American skill in 
breeding animals, as entitled to rank with 
that of other arts? Must American breed- 
ers of stock accept a position not only de- 



pendent as to British skill, but also a secon- 
dary, as practical men in their own day and 
country 1 We hope not, for wc believe that 
from its number and aggregate value, evt ry 
le ding branch of agriculture should be dis- 
tinguished by the skill displ ycd in t as 
much beyond that of other professions as it is 
more general and vital in importance in every 
respect. 

"When improvement is a probable result, 
he importation of animals of new breeds 
cannot reasonably be objected to; but on the 
other hand, caution and judgment — such as 
Sanford Howard appears to have exercised in 
making examinations and selections of recent 



importations, are 



highly 



deci- 



nexessary in 
s or improvement: 



ding on the probabilities 
for as failure will ensue in some cases, it is 
necessary to know beforehand the reasons 
why success should follow in others. Im- 
porting under such circumstances, is not a 
one-sided dependent policy, like that of 
constantly importing old established breeds, 
for reasons frequently humiliatingand absurd. 
Importations of this character are made 
either because Britain is supposed to have 
greater skill, or a better climate, if that of 
England be really better — of which we say 
nothing here — then it is nothing less than 
sheer recklessness to transfer their animals to 
the inferior and consequently deteriorating 
conditions of a different climate, and the ne- 
cessarily equal different character of its pro- 
ductions — devoted to feeding stock. A 
little credulity is doubtless a very good 
thing, because the " pleasure is as great of 
being cheated as to cheat." But to say thai 
a great stock country like this, can most ad- 
vantageously import, instead o£ produce su- 
perior animals for the purpose of general 
improvement — which construction is justi- 
fied by the present practice — is a little too 
much trifling and dallying with a too con- 
fiding credulity, 

The policy of importing, having too slen- 
der grounds to avail by reason of 'he nu- 
merous weighty objections against it, ought 
to be changed as that of the Royal Society 
has been — a precedent for you, M< 
breeders — or more properly, reversed. And 
this because while imported stock will inev- 
itably eonifnue to deteriorate generally, stoek 
sent from here to Kngland would as certain- 
ly improve, and consequently create a de- 
mand tor more of our animals. This would 
result l>eeau.-e their erisp, watery, sweet and 
tender rool feed and grasses must produce 



110 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



greater bulk and rotundity in the animal, 
and more tenderness and juciness, though 
not nutriment, in his meat. The handling 
qualities of American animals would gene- 
rally much improve with English feed, from 
the increase of suppleness in their hides, 
and mellowness of flesh, resulting from, and 
corresponding to, the greater nutrition of 
feed. Moreover, the manufacturing "beef 
eaters" of England would be sure to pay 
iC Brother Johnathan" a good price and find 
him a steady market for a superior article. 
A creditable degree of spirit, and the gen- 
eral interest alike dictate the policy of at 
least reciprocal exchange, rather than ex- 
clusive importation on our part ; and if 
American breeders cannot produce cattle 
with equal skill to that of English breeders, 
and with points and qualities peculiarly 
American, after a fair trial, let us know the 
reason why? for a great flock country like 
this, ought to produce its own breeders, and 
at least some peculiar breeds, and the sooner 
this is done the better it will be for the gen- 
eral stock interest and all parties concerned. 

J. W. CLARKE. 



Vegetable Ivory. 

The Ivory Nut Tree, or, as it is popularly 
called by the natives of South America, the 
Tagua Plant, is common in that country, 
and we believe also in the southern portion 
of our State. If this should prove to be 
the fact, and from the testimony before us 
we have no reason to doubt it, it will even- 
tually form no small element among the re- 
sources of ou» : still wealth-prolific country. 
It is a tree which belongs to the numerous 
family of palms ; and in one division of that 
order denominated by botanists, the Screw 
Pine Tribe. In South America, where they 
are found in great abundance the natives use 
them to cover cottages, and from the nuts they 
make ornaments, buttons, ani various other 
articles. In an early state, the nuts contain 
a sweet, milky liquid, but afterwards assume 
a solidity nearly or quite equal to ivory, and 
will admit of a high polish. Europeans and 
our own countrymen call it the Ivory Nut 
Tree, or Vegetable Ivory ; and itf has re- 
cently been introduced into the bone and 
ivory manufactories of both England and 
the United States, where it is brought into 
use quite successfully, for various purposes 
as a substitute for ivory. — Ex. 



The "Prof." Done Over. 

A few weeks since we copied from the 
Homestead, a sterling agricultural paper 
published at Hartford, Conn., the analyses 
by Prof. S. W. Johnson of four specimens 
of Prof. Mapes' Super-phosphate of Lime. 
It was the report of Prof. J. to the State 
Agricultural Society of Connecticut. 

In that table Prof. J. demonstrated that 
the actual value of Mr. Mapes' compounds 
ranges from $12 10 to $22 24 per ton, 
while the price charged for t' e same by 
Mr. Mapes is from $40 to $50 per ton! 

For placing this reliable and valuable 
information before our readers, Mr. Mapes 
addressed a long communication to us charg- 
ing us with attacking him, asking us to pub- 
lish a column or two in laudation of this 
same compound, which Prof. Johnson had 
shown to be worth not half the price charg- 
ed for it. 

In reply, we assured Mr. Mapes, that 
should he furnish the Homestead with the 
evidence of error on the part of Prof. John- 
son, we should take pleasure in transferring 
such communication to our paper. Mr. 
Mapes saw fit to forward to the Homestead 
the paper addressed to us. We therefore 
give him the full benefit of the article, with 
the commentary of the Homestead. 

Prof. Johnson tried Mr. Mapes' super- 
phosphates in the crucibles of the Labora- 
tory of Yale College. The lesults are far 
more favorable than in the experiments we 
made ourselves in the great laboratory of 
nature. In our greenness with such special 
manures, we paid Mr. Mapes one hundred 
dollars for two tons of his "super-phosphate 
of lime," and caused the same to be care- 
fully applied to various crops, but without 
the evidence that the first dollar of benefit 
was derived from its use. 

In applying it to the corn crop, two rows 
through the middle of a large field were 
omitted in its application. At harvest these 
two rows, with the two beside them, were 
carefully husked and measured separately, 
and without the first half bushel's difference. 
The application was made by the "Prof.'s" 
own rule ! No more advantage was seen in 
its application to any other variety of crop, 
as it was applied to several. Science and 
nature decide against it. 

"We purchased, the same season, super- 
phosphate prepared in Connecticut, which 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



111 



gave a decided increase to the crops where 
it was applied. 

What Mr. Mapes chooses to call "a his- 
tory" of Prof. Johnson's "conduct towards" 
him, is substantially the history of the con- 
duct of the editors of a large number of the 
loading agricultural papers of our country 
for years past, Till now, we have remained 
silent — Eds. Obscrtoet. 

MAPES ON PROFESSOR JOHNSON. 

TVe have recently received a letter from 
" Prof." Mapes, of super-phosphate (with 
the super-phosphate left out) notoriety, re- 
questing us to publish an article addressed 
to the editor of the New York Observer, 
'who some weeks since transferred to the 
columns of the Observer the report of the 
chemist of the Connecticut State Agricul- 
tural Society, upon a class of fertilizers, of 
somewhat varying qualities and prices, which 
are known as u Mapes' Super-phosphates of 
liimQ." This* report originally appeared in 
The Hojntstead, and was, as our readers re- 
member, in no way calculated to increase 
the confidence of the public, either in the 
manufactures or the representations of the 
Mapeses, father or son. 

Mr. Mapes writes: "You have seen pro- 
per to attack me in your paper." We at- 
tack no one, but comment freely on the 
public statements, actions, and pretensions 
of men, as well as the principles they advo- 
cate, and the facts they adduce in support 
of their views. If a man proves himself a 
charlatan, it is no attack if we show up the 
truth so that he can deceive Fewer people. 
We beg our readers (and Mr. Mapes is one 
of them) 1o note our position ; it is purely 
defensive, in warning the public and putting 
farmers and others on their guard against 
just such abominable impositions as those 
exposed in the report referred to. Errors 
of theory or practice, however, we are always 
happy to attack, acting on the offensive as 
long and as far ad there is any fight loft in 
them, or as there is any advantage to accrue 
to Our readers. 

As for the testimonials, so far as wo know, 
they are from very respectable people: 
ral of them we are personally acquainted 
with; but what are they worth? Are they 

testimonials in favor of the application of 
ammonia to certain soils? Fes. Are they 

in favor of the action of sulphuric acid f 
Yes. Of gypsum ? Yes. Of soluble or 



Mitoer-phoaphare of lime? -In some c. 
yes; in others, probably no— for we know- 
that the material sent to Hartford and sold 
by J. \V. lloycc <fc Co., had no super-phos- 
phate in it, at most no appreciable amount. 
Ail these various substance-, each valua- 
ble where needed, arc in Mapes' manures; 
they may be of very great agricultural value 
if needed, but of very little if not needed. 
Nobody doubts their value, but the question 
only is, are they worth $13, or $50. A ton 
of plaster may be applied so as to increase 
the yield of grass land, or other crops, the 
value of $100; yet who will say that mail 
is not a knave, who sells plaster to the owner 
of such land for $50 per ton ? 

But Mr. Mapes attacks with misrepresen- 
tations and false imputations a gentleman, 
and man of science, who, even in these days 
of elastic consciences, is as firm and inflexi- 
ble for right and truth, as if he got bless- 
ings instead of curses for it. Our readers 
know and respect Prof. Johnson, and we 
publish this letter that they may the more 
effectually know Mr. Mapes. 

Editors of the Ni w York Observer : 

Gentleman : — * * * Taking it for 
granted that in common with many others 
you have suffered yourselves to be deceived 
by Prof. S. VV. Johnson, I beg to give you 
something of a history of his conduct to- 
ward me. 

In the early part of 1853, one of the im- 
itators of my Phosphate caused to be pub- 
lished an analysis, (a) said to have been 
made by Prof. S. AY. .Johnson, of Yale 
College, (b) of my Phosphate, in which he 
makes the value to be -Stt), for which I 
charge $50j ami also statiug the sulphate of 
lime necessarily forincd by the action of 
the Sulphuric acid on calcined bones, in 
the making of Super-phosphate, as Plaistcr 
of Paris; leaving it U.) be inferred, that L 
had added crude plaster in the manufac- 
ture. 1 wrote to Prof. Silliuian, senior, to 
ascertain who Prof. Johnson, of Yale Col- 
lege, was, and then learned that no p< 
of that name held a Professorship in Vale 
College, nor was there even a student in 
the College of that name. ,<, 1 subse- 
quently learned that tl 1 (b) 

Professor S. \Y. Johnson, was a student in 

the analytical laboratory in the yard of 
Yale College, the im' of which had been 
given to Mr. Porter, to enable him to re- 



112 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



ceive pupils in chemistry. The associate 
pupil of S. W. Johnson was Mr. Sol'n 
Mead, who informed me that Johnson was 
a fresh student at chemistry, and that this 
analysis was among the first that he had 
made, and that he acknowledged to Mr. 
Mead that my phosphate was better than 
any of the otheis he had tried, which in- 
cluded two specimens of English phosphates. 
This analysis by Mr. Johnson was full of 
evident errors, (d) all of which were point- 
ed out by Dr. Charles H. Enderlin, the 
former associate of Baron Liebig, and a 
well known chemist of high standing. 
This paper will be found in the Working 
Farmer, vol. v. p. 121, and most clearly 
shows S. W. Johnson to be egrcgiously in 
error. For a long time this gentleman was, 
we believe, absent in Europe; on his re- 
turn, vituperation seemed to be his aliment, 
and he immediately published a statement, 
that although my phosphate was of exceed- 
ing good quality when he first examined it, 
it had deteriorated, giving a new analysis, 
and evidently repeating the errors pointed 
out by Dr. Enderlin ; he also attachted the 
result of my experiments carefully made on 
my own farm, with the mineral phosphates 
from Dover, Crown Point, and elsewhere, 
which I pronounced to be valueless in prac- 
tice, and which have proved so in England 
and elsewhere, where they have been ship- 
ped. In a book lately published by Prof. 
Johnson, called his " Essays on Commercial 
Manures," (e) he clearly states that min- 
eral phosphates are as valuable as those 
from bones; consequently, in his opinion, 
the chlorapatite or phosphatic rock of New 
Jersey, containing ninety per cent, or more 
of phoshate of lime, must be superior in 
quality, when finely ground, to the best 
bone dust ; instead of which these mineral 
phosphates, even after being finely ground 
and treated with sulphuric acid, have no 
value as manure. 

All the attacks of this gentleman we 
have passed by unnoticed, not only those 
written over his signature, but his anony- 
mous communications published in the 
Homestead. (/) We published* the affi- 
davit of the foreman and all the workmen 
at the factory, that no change in quality 
had ever taken place in the Phosphates 
there manufactured, and supposed this to 
be an entire refutation to the assertions of 
S. W. Johnson, founded upon an analysis, 
the correctness of which had been entirely 



disproved, not only by the communication 
of Dr. Charles H. Enderlin, but by the 
analysis (g) of Dr. Enderlin, Prof. Hos- 
ford, of Cambridge, Dr. A. A. Hayes, of 
Mass., Dr. Antisell, and others, and by the 
opinion of Prof. Shepard, formerly of Yale 
College, Prof. Higgins, of Baltimore, and 
others, and still further disproved by the 
certificates of hundreds who had used the 
Phosphates for a series of years. 

In the article referred to in your paper, 
Prof. Johnson commences thus : 

" Of all the many fraudulent aud poor 
manures wnich have been from time to 
time imposed upon our farmers during the 
last four years, there is none so deserving 
of complete exposure and sharp rebuke, as 
that series of trashy mixtures known as 
Mapes' Superphosphate of Lime. It is in- 
deed true that worse manures have been 
offered for sale in this State, but none have 
ever had employed such an amount of 
persistent bragging and humbuggery to 
bolster them up, as has been enjoyed by 
these." 

Now permit me to ask whether this lan- 
guage is befitting the office of a chemist 
who wishes to do a service to the public, 
or that of a special puffer, which Prof. 
Johnson has most undeniably proved him- 
self to be, of volcanic Guanos, which are 
valueless as compared with Superphos- 
phates. In his recount writings he has lost 
no opportunity for puffing these misscalled 
guanos, and his late book is but a card for 
the venders of these inferior products in 
his neighbourhood. He then says : 

" Seven or eight years ago, Mapes' im- 
proved Superphosphate was almost the only 
manure of the kind on sale in our north- 
ern markets; then it was of good quality," 
etc. 

He afterwards says : 

" And had a value (calculated on pres- 
ent prices) of $44 per ion; it was sold at 
$50 per ton." 

Why should Prof. Johnson calculate 
present prices on an article which he states 
was sold at $50 per ton seven or eight 
years ago. (A) In his accompanying analy- 
sis, after admitting the presence of sulphu- 
ric acid, he denies the presence of soluble 
phosphates. This is, as he is well aware 
chemically impossible. 

My answer to the whole of this tirade is, 
that the sale of Superphosphate in the very 
district where he resides, and where the 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



113 



paper is published in which he has written I 
most, namely, Hartford and New Haven, 
have been five times as great in the year | 
1859 as any former year, (v) and the fol-l 
lowing certificates from men of the highest! 
standing as agriculturists in his .State and ! 
elsewhere, received within the current j 
year, are better evidences of the value of 
the Phosphates, than any analysis or opin- 
ion which may be offered by this self-con- 
stituted servitor of the public. (Jc) 

As you have given place to this unwar- 
rantable attack upon me, I ask in common 
fairness that you will publish the above, 
together with the following abridged cer- 
tificates: (I) 

Yours, respectfully, 

James J. Mapes. 

NOTES. 

a. This analysis was made by Mr. John- 
son when he was an assistant in the Yale 
Analytical Laboratory, shortly after the 
publication of sundry papers on manures 
by Prof. Way, chemists of the Royal Ag- 
ricultural Society, (if we mistake not,) in 
which papers the author adopted certain 
standards of valuation for the different in- 
gredients of high priced fertilizers ; and 
the analyses referred to were made with a 
view to apply the rule suggested, and com- 
pare American superphosphates with Eng- 
lish. The importance of the knowledge 
obtained to agriculturists led Mr. J. to send 
them for publication to the Country Gen- 
tleman. We are familiar with the facts be- 
cause we were at that time connected with 
the College. 

h. The title Professor was by error given j 
to Mr. Johnson at that time in some agri- 
cultural paper in which the article was pub-| 
lished. He never med the title till he was 
elected to the chair he now so ably fills, 
though previously he had occupied a posi- 
tion which would have authorized its use 
had he chosen. [What college is " Prof." 
Mapes a Professor in ?] 

c. He was an assistant, not a student. 
A mere quibble to draw attention from the 
real issue. 

(1. This analysis was the best for the man- 
ufacturer ever made- of any manure bearing 
Mapes' name, BO far as we have seen pub- 
lished analyses, for the reasons that, first, it 
showed it to be a first rare article, and sec 
ond, it was expressed in the simplest possi- 
8 



ble form, names being used that everybody 
understood, and the statement was so ex- 
plained that everybody could understand it, 
just as they now can understand every analy- 
sis which we publish from Professor John- 
son's Laboratory. Dr. JEnderfin was cm- 
ployed by Mr. Mapes to find the analysis 
and the statement of it at fault, and did his 
best to do so. All the basis for fault find- 
ing was in the use of simple terms instead 
of chemical terms, and the doctor succeeded 
in throwing some dust in the eyes of a few 
people, perhaps. The analysis was not only 
scientifically accurate, but it conveyed to 
every one who read it exactly the just view 
— a very favorable view too — of the manure. 
Mr. Mapes did not know enough to know it; 
and so went directly counter to his own in- 
terests, in employing a chemical attorney ■, so 
to speak, to do for him what he thought 
ought to be done, but could not do himself. 

e. See Prof. Johnson's reports in the 
Transactions of the Conn. State Agricultu- 
ral Society, 1857 and 1858, and the same 
embodied in the work alluded to, published 
by Brown & Gross, Hartford— -the most val- 
uable publication on manures ever issued 
from the American press. 

f. No anonymous communications from 
Prof. Johnson have ever appeared in our 
columns. 

g. Were they analyses of the can samples 
or of the manure as found in the market ? 
For the fact must be known to our readers 
that Mapes furnishes samples in cans of a 
very fair quality for trial, and far superior to 
the common stock in market. Whatever 
certificates of actual trial on the land or of 
chemical analyses of his manures Mr. Mapes 
publishes hereafter, or now asks us to take 
in evidence, he must prove that he has not 
had them prepared as he did the can sam- 
ples, of a superior quality to what he offers 
for sale in the market. How a man who 
was caught doing such a trick as that has 
the face to ask us to publish juich an article 
as this, we cannot conceive. We do not 
doubt Mr. Mapes can make an article of 
super-phosphate equal to anything in the 
world, or that anybody in the world can 
make, and can get it analyzed, etc., — but the 
question i<, /)n<s he send ft to market ? and 
to this we answer, A r ^, he does not; and 
more than that, he does send an article which 
ilcs'M-ves the criticism of Prof essor John 
which Mr. Mapes sees tit to quote. 



***#* 



114 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



h. In order to compare it better with that 
in market now, arid calculated on present 
prices, of course. 

i. This may be true, but the sales have 
been very small in Hartford at any rate, 
amounting to only four tons all told, as sta- 
ted by Mr. Mapes f s agents here. 

h. The State Agricultural Society, in ap- 
pointing Mr. Johnson their chemist, impose 
upon him certain definite duties, in fulfilment 
of which he certainly is no se£/*-constituted 
servitor of the public. 

I. We shall not publish the certificates, 
except as an advertisement, if Mr. Mapes 
chooses to present them to our readers in 
this form. The Connecticut men from whom 
they come are — A. Bagley, New Haven ; 
Morris Ketchum, Westport; John S. Beach, 
New Haven ; Nathaniel Weed, Darien ; 
Nathan Moore, Jr., Stafford, and A. Wet- 
more, Jr., Stamford. We should be happy 
to hear from these gentlemen as soon as con- 
venient, or from any other, in regard to their j 
use of this manure — where they obtained it, i 
of whom they obtained it, how much they 
used, the character of the soil, its previous 
culture, manuring, etc., the effect of plaster, J 
lime, guano, or any other concentrated or spe- 1 
cial manure on the same, if known, etc. 
\N. Y. Observer. 



Poultry House. 

A good, warm poultry house for fowls in 
winter, and a cool one in summer, is a use- 
ful structure to every man who keeps a dozen 
or more fowls. 

We annex some good suggestions from 
one of our exchanges, as follows : 

"In selecting a site for a poultry house, 
attention should i:e paid to the quality of 
the soil on which it is to be erected, as also 
its aspect. The soil should be of a warm 
and dry character, and gently sloping from 
the front, that the wet may easily run off. 
The aspect should be such as will secure the 
greatest poss^ple average quantity of daily 
sunshine ; ana it should be as sheltered as I 
possible from sharp or biting winds, or from 
the driving rain. Every house should be 
provided with a sufficient quantity ot small 
sand j or, if such cannot be procured, clean j 
ashes are a good substitute ; pieces of chalk 
are also a useful— nay, necessary adjunct; 
crude lime acts, however, as a poison. Some 
horse-dung or chaff, with a little corn through 
it ; is also a source of amusement to the 



birds; and recollect, that amusement, even 
in the poultry yard, is materially conducive 
to health. The ashes and litter should be 
frequently changed, and had better also be 
kept in little trendies, in order that they may 
not be. scattered about, and may not thus 
contribute to give a dirty or untidy appear- 
ance to the yard. When, however, your 
fowls Jiave run in a garden or field, of aver- 
age extent, this artificial care will be repla- 
ced by nature. 

If the court be not supplied with a little 
grass-plot, a few squares of fresh grass sods 
should be placed in it, and changed every 
two or three days. If the court be too open, 
some bushes or shrubs will be found useful 
in affording shelter from the too perpendic- 
ular beams of the noonday sun, and proba- 
bly in occasionally screening the chicken 
from the rapacious glance of the kite or 
raven. If access to the sleeping room be, 
as it ought, denied during the day, the fowls 
should have some shed or other covering, 
beneath, which they can run in case of rain; 
this is what is termed " a storm house;" and 
lastly, there should be a constant supply of 
pure, fresh water. 

Keep your yard as clean as possible. 
Fowls frequently suffer much annoyance 
from the presence of vermin, and a hen will 
often quit her nest, when sitting/in order to 
get rid of them. This is one of the uses of 
the sand or dust bath ; but a better remedy, 
and one of far speedier and more certain 
efficacy, has been discovered at Windsor by 
her Majesty's feeder. The laying nests at 
Windsor are composed of dry heather (Erica 
tetraix) and small branches of hawthorn, 
covered over with white lichen. These ma- 
terials, rubbed together by the pressure and 
motion of the hen, emit a light powder, 
which, making its way between the feathers 
to the skin, is found to have the effect of 
dislodging every sort of troublesome para- 
site; 

Lichens may easily be collected from rocks 
and trees, and the nests furnished with them. 
Rotten wood, thoroughly dried, produces a 
powder equally destructive to vermin. 

The fowl house should also be frequently 
and thoroughly cleaned out, and it is better 
that the nests be not fixture?, but formed in 
little, flat wicker baskets, like sieves, which 
can be frequently taken down, the soiled 
straw thrown out, and themselves thoroughly 
washed ; hay is objectionable, as tending to 
the production of a parasite of the louse 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



115 



tribe, the annoyance of which will often 
drive the hen from her nest. Fumigation 
at no very remote intervals, is also highly to 
be commended. Nothing is of more impor- 
tance to the well-being of your poultry, than 
a good, airy walk. 

Cleanliness, a £rce circulation of the air, 
and sufficient room, with proper kinds and 
quantity of food, are the conditions on which 
success in raising poultry principally de- 
pends. 

Among the most necessary appendages to 
every poultry house, is the Hen Ladder. 
This is a sort of ascending scale of purches 
one a little higher than the other ; yet not 
exactly above its predecessor, but somewhat 
in advance. By neglecting the use of this 
very simple contrivance, many a valuable 
fowl may be lost or severely injured, by at- 
tempting to fly down from their roost — an 
attempt, from succeeding in which the birds 
are incapacitated, in consequence of the bulk 
of their body preponderating over the power 
of their wing. This would not, of course, 
take place among wild birds ; but we are not 
to forget that our improvements in the breed 
of all animals tend to remove the varieties 
on which we expend our care, gradually far- 
ther and farther from their primitive condi- 
tion, and conduce to deprive them of much 
of their native activity, and as our improve- 
ments proceed to render them ultimately 
almost useless ; hence the necessity for such 
artificial aids as the hen ladder ; and per- 
haps, even in the stable, this accessory is 
more absolutely required than in less hum- 
ble poultry houses, on account of the great 
height of the roosting-place." — Southern 
Homestead. 



Results of Art and Science. 

Sir David Brewster, the eminent 
Scotchman, whose successful researches into 
natural science have covered his name with 
universal honor, was lately inducted into the 
office of Principal of the University of Edin- 
burgh, to which he had been unanimously 
elected. On that occasion he addressed the 
professors, graduates, and matriculated stu- 
dents of the University, as well as a large 
crowd of other dwellers in the Scottish 
metropolis. What he said upon the indebt- 
edness of mankind to the arts and sciences 
is so true, that we take pleasure in present- 
ing it here. Speaking to the students, Sir 
Lavid Brewster said : 



" There is only one other branch of 
study to which I am anxious to call your 
attention. The advances which have re- 
cently been made in the mechanical and 
useful arts, have already begun to influence 
our social condition, and must affect still 
more deeply our systems of education. — 
The knowledge which used to constitute a 
scholar, and fit him for social and intellec- 
tual intercourse, will not avail him under 
the present ascendency of practical science. 
New and gigantic inventions mark almost 
every passing year ; the colossal tubular 
bridge, conveying the monster train over 
an arm of the sea; the submarine cable, 
carrying the pulse of speech beneath two 
thousand miles of ocean ; the monster ship, 
freighted with thousands of lives; and the 
huge rifle-gun, throwing its fatal but un- 
christian charge across miles of earth or of 
ocean. New arts, too, useful and ornamen- 
tal, have |prung up luxuriantly around us. 
New powers of nature have been evoked, 
and man • communicates with man across 
seas and continents, with more certainty 
and speed, than if he had. been endowed 
with the velocity of tjie race-horse or pro- 
vided with the pinions of the eagle. — 
Wherever we are, in short, art and science 
surround us: They have given birth to 
new and lucrative professions. Whatever 
we purpose to do they help us. In our 
houses they greet us with light and heat. 
When we travel, we find them at every 
stage on land, and at every harbor on our 
shores. »They stand beside our board by- 
day, and beside our couch by night. To 
our thoughts they give the speed of light- 
ning, and to our time-pieces the punctuality 
of the sun ; and, though they cannot pro- 
vide -us with the boasted lever of Archimi- 
des to move the earth, or indicate the spot 
upon which we must stand could we do it, 
they have put into our hands tools of match- 
less power, by which we can study the re- 
motest worlds ; and they have furnished us 
with an intellectual plummet by which we 
can sound the depths of fce earth, and 
count the cycles of its endurance. In his 
hour of presumption and ignorance, man 
has tried to do more than this; but though 
he was not permitted to reach the heavens 
with his cloud-capt tower of stone, and has 
tried in vain to navigate the aerial ocean, it 
was given him to ascend into Empyrean by 
chains of thought which no lightning could 
face and no comet strike ; and though he 



116 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[February 



has not been allowed to grasp with an arm 
of flesh the products of other worlds, or 
tread upon the pavement of gigantic 
planets, he has been enabled to scan, with 
more than an eagle's eye, the mighty crea- 
tions in the bosom of space, to march intel- 
lectually over the mosaics of sidereal sys- 
tems, and to follow the adventurous Phae- 
ton in a chariot which can never be over- 
turned/' — Christian Observer. 



The Farm and the Farmer. 

a Much of the character of every man 
may be read in his house." This was a re- 
mark of the late Dr. Downing, and though 
true in the main, must be taken with some 
modification. Many, had they the ability, 
would cause their houses to tell a far differ- 
ent story of their character than they now 
do. The log cabin or the cottage that has 
weathered the storm for a score of years, 
would soon come down, and on. its ruins a 
mansion would arise bespeaking its owner a 
man of taste and munificence, with a spice 
of vanity and love of display. In one half 
the cases, persons who build are dissatisfied 
with the work after it is completed, rnd too 
late to make a change without subjecting 
themselves to great expense. The house 
may show the character of the architect, 
but not of the proprietor, unless it is accord- 
ing to his taste. Not- one in a thousand, if 
under the necessity of rebuilding, would 
make the second house like the first, while 
many who build fine hou3e3, have little to 
do with the work aside from furnishing the 
means. 

The character of the farmer, however, 
may be read in his farm, in the most un- 
mistakable language. He may write most 
elegantly and truthfully, lay down the best 
of rules, and exhort all to observe them 
with energy and zeal; he may talk most 
fluently, deliver agricultural lectures for the 
■enlightenment of his fellow farmers, which 
all may hear ^th profit ; lay down maxims, 
which, if followed, would make every man 
.a good farmer, but all this tells not the 
character or the man. He may violate his 
own rules, disregard his own maxims, and, 
like the drunkard who preaches temperance, 
be a living example of the evils which he 
condemns. But the farm tells the charac- 
ter of the man in language so truthful and 
.unmistakable that " he who runs may read." 



There is no opportunity for concealment- 
no chance for disguise. If the farmer is 
an enterprising, diligent man, it is told by 
the horses and cattle in their rounded 
forms, sleek coats and bright eyes ; in their 
playful, happy freaks, and in their quiet, 
comfortable repose. It is read in the grow- 
ing crops and the well filled barns — related 
,to every traveller by the fences and the 
gates, the barns and the stables. It is 
heard in the lowing of the sheep, and satis- 
fied grunts from the pig-pen, and proclaimed 
from the very house-top in the clarion notes 
of the cock. It is seen in thrifty orchards, 
in* the air of neatness and thoroughness 
that pervades the whole domain. The farm 
may be small, the land naturally none of 
the best, the buildings cheap j but natural 
difficulties are, as far as possible, overcome, 
and the owner, it is very plainly to be seen, 
is the master, instead of the slave of cir- 
cumstances. 

The. slothful, negligent farmer cannot 
hide himself. His character and his faults 
are emblazoned on the dead tops of his 
orchard trees, chattered by the loose boards 
that dangle in the wind; bleated by the 
half starved calves ; told in the pitiful looks 
and speaking eyes of forlorn horses and cat- 
tle. The poor fences and poorer crops, the 
fine weeds among the corn and potatoes, 
and finer thistles in the meadow, speak in 
jliving words the habits and character of 
| the owner. The farm may be naturally 
the best in the county, the buildings costly, 
but these things only set off in more bril- 
liant colors the forlorn n ess that pervades 
the whole. Were this truth ever remem- 
bered, that the character of the farmer is 
seen in the farm, we think many would 
strive to have their farms speak for them 
better things than they now do. — Rural 
New Yorker. 



Thick Wind. 

BY G. W. BOWLER, V. S. 

This disease, though very common in the 
United States, is more particularly confined 
to those horses owned by farmers. 

It is an affection which prevails more or 
less in every village, and the true nature of 
the disease appears to have been buried in 
obscurity. The causes assigned by many 
authors, are too numerous to mention. A 
horse may be what is termed thick winded 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



117 



from a threat many different causes. But 
what I allude to, is the affliction under which 
animals are suffering to such an extent at 
the present time. c 

We have horses that are thick winded or 
as they are termed, roarers ; which arises 
generally from a malformation of the larynx. 
Again we see horses so affected arising from 
a collection of lymph in the trachea, thereby 
acting as an impediment to the free passage 
of air into the lungs. 

We also see it in cases where the lungs 
are slightly tuberculous. But the common 
every day thick wind arises from no such 
cause. It is simply brought on by the neg- 
lect of the person who raises or has charge 
of the animal. This may at first sight appear 
rather strange, and saying a great deal. 
But from my own personal observations, I 
have found that the greater number of 
cases of thick wind, arises from no other 
cause. We have other diseases before us 
daily which arise from similar neglect, but 
take on a different form : I allude to staggers. 
Some animals are affected by this treatment 
earlier, and in a different form to others. 



That the staggers, as it is termed, arises 
from overloading the stomach, does not 
admit of a doubt. And in the same way is 
thick wind brought on. The stomach and 
intestines become overloaded with food, 
which has the effect in course of the time, 
of increasing the capacity of both the 
stomach and intestines, from their being 
continually overcharged with a mass of un- 
digested food. Evidence of this may be 
seen, if we only observe the vapor which is 
so frequently passing from the animal. 

The enlarged states of the stomach, and 
intestines, has the <. fleet of causing pressure 
on the diaphragm and lungs, thereby caus- 
ing an impediment to the free action of the 
lungs, and producing the difficulty in respi 
ration which is observed in animals thus af- 
fected. The continued exertion to inflate 
the lungs with air, has tlie effect in some 
oases of producing a rupture of the air 
cells, and when this has taken place the 
animal is forced to suffer en, so long as he 
lives. Let more attention he paid to feed- 
ing your stock at regular hours, and with a 
reasonable quantity of food, ami you will 
soon find, that thick winded horses will be 
as scarce as gold at Pike's Peak. — Farmer, 
and Gardner. 




%\t &oui|j*rn planter. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



Diseases in Horses. 

SWINNEY. 

We take it for granted that every Virginian 
(as he ought to be) is fond of horse-flesh, and 
that he is always glad to have "a new wrinkle" 
added to his stock of knowledge in veterinary 
science. Consequently, we owe no man any 
apology for devoting some of our time ajid 
space to an endeavour to improve the condition 
of that most noble animal, the horse. In speak- 
ing of "swinney," we do not propose to do 
more than explain the philosophy of the causes 
which lead to the disease : the existence of 
which, to our utter amazement, is entirely ig- 
nored by some English veterinary surgeons of 
acknowledged eminence in their profession. It 
is hard, however, to convince a man that a 
thing does not exist, when his eyes so often 
prove to him the contrary, and a satisfactory 
cause is presented for the phenomena to which 
his attention is directed. Every man in Vir- 
ginia, who has ever owned a horse, knows that 
"swinney" is of frequent occurrence, particu- 
larly on farms whose '• force ? " is composed of a 
negligent overseer and careless negroes. Horses 
and mules, improperly geared, with collars too 
large, and employe*] at any hard labor, are 
almost sure to have it. 

Causes. — Pressure applied to 'the shoulder at 
improper points, produced by large collars, or 
badly adjusted haines; lameness from any inju- 
ry, or ' ; Splint," which may "throw him off kit 
feet : ' for a while. 

Tims, if a horse stands foi any length of time, 
with one forefoot resting, he is ulnio.-t sure to 
have- " swinney " : in the shoulder of that side. 

Anything which obstructs the proper circu- 
lation of tho blood through the muselea of the 

•boulder, will M surtdy bring 00 u swiuin 

a failure to take food in proper quantities, and 



118 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



at the times, when the system demanded it 
would produce emaciation. Every muscle is 
nourished and fed by the blood which runs 
through its blood-vessels 5 and, of course, when 
this supply is cut off, "swinney" results as a 
natural consequence, since the disease is simply a 
wasting or emaciation of the muscles — a want of 
the accustomed nourishment. 

Treatment. — The first indication to be observ- 
ed, with a view to restoring the diseased parts 
to a natural condition, is, to re-establish a proper 
"circulation" through the parts, by giving to the 
muscles a supply of their natural sustenance, 
which shall be capable of supplying the waste 
they have undergone. The first thing to be 
done, then, is, to use a remedy which will bring 
to the spot a flow of blood, and this can be 
effected easily on the principles, well known to 
medical men, that "wherever there is an irritation 
there will be a flow of blood." 

Blisters and counter-irritants, liniments and 
frictions, are, therefore, the remedies generally 
employed. The old-fashioned remedy of insert- 
ing a "split" of wood under the skin, and 
separating the skin from the cellular tissue and 
muscle, is so barbarous that it should be always 
discountenanced by every humane man. 

The remedy easiest of application, and as 
effective as any other we have ever seen tried 
is, to make a small incision or puncture through 
the skin, at the lowest point of the disease, into 
which put the end of a quill, and blow up the 
skin thoroughly. This operation is almost pain- 
less, and may be repeated as often as may be 
desired with very little trouble, while the skin 
by the process is very thoroughly lifted by this 
aerial pressure from the muscles. The next 
step is to produce as active an inflammation as 
possible, between the skin and muscles, which may 
be brought about by injecting with a small 
syringe, through the puncture, any stimulating 
mixture. Tincture of cantharides is perhaps 
the best article, or diluted tincture of iodine. 
A strong decoction of red-oak bark, with some 
whisky or brandy added thereto, would answer 
as a substitute for the other articles where they 
could not be conveniently procured. The effect 
of* the application of these remedies will be the 
establishment of an active inflammation ove r 
the whole surface of the injured muscles, which 
will be speedily followed by suppuration of a 
healthy character, the deposit and organization 
of lymph, by which the sunken places will.be 
filled up, and the horse brought again to a so.und 
and useful condition. 



The worst case of "swinney" we ever saw 
was cured by this method, which, although not 
new, is known to comparatively few horse 
owners. Mk 

" HOOP BOUND." 

This name is given to a thickening of the 
crust, or external wall of support to the foot. A 
great many cases of lameness are produced by 
it, which are usually attributed to other causes. 
The horse with his foot in this condition, is able 
to move about as well only as a man would do 
who wore boots smaller than his feet. There 
can be no expansion of the foot whatever when 
his weight is thrown upon it, and he is conse- 
quently compelled to limp, and when he does 
move, to go in the most cramped and stiff man- 
ner possible. 

The cause may be either the fault of the 
blacksmith, who neglects to rasp the hoof pro- 
perly, or to trim the heels; but by far the greater 
number of cases are produced by keeping them 
on plank floors, and paying no attention to moist- 
ening the feet. The hoof begins to grow thick 
becomes perfectly dry. and to have a white rim 
visible around its top, next to the hair of the 
leg, by which it is often concealed from view. 

Remedy. — Rasp the "quarters" of the hoof 
until, upon pressure being made from side. to 
side, it is discovered the heels can be easily 
moved towards each other. In fact, rasp the 
hoof until the unnatural pressure of the thick- 
ened crust is removed. Trim the heels low, 
and if the horse is to be used, have the shoes 
slightly bent downwards at the back part, so as 
to allow the heels to expand as much as they 
can. At each successive shoeing, have the 
shoe made a little wider at the heels, until the 
hoof is thus gradually brought into its natural 
shape, viz: about as wide at the heels as it is 
at the toe. 

The dryness of hoof may be overcome by 
having the horses' feet "stopped" e\ery night 
with cow-dung, and using a little oil on the out- 
side of the hoof occasionally. A less trouble- 
some and better plan, we think, is to remove a 
portion of the dirt floor of a stall, which should 
be re-filled with clay, to which cow-dung and 
salt may be added, and after it is well chopped 
up with a hoe, add water in sufficient quantity 
to make the whole floor into a consistent paste- 
The horse should be kept in this stall during 
the day, and at night (for the sake of cleanli- 
ness) be removed to a dry stall. 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



119 



The Farmer and Gardener. 

We are indebted to the Farmer and Gardener 
an excellent monthly, published in Philadelphia, 
for the very interesting article written for that 
paper by Professor E. Pugh, on '• Poisoning 
Land," for which credit was omitted inadver- 
tently in printing the article for this number of 
our paper. We are also indebted to that paper 
for a very good article on the Physical Condition 
of the Soil, by Wm. Bright, Logan Nursery, Phil- 
adelphia. 

« •»»»■ 1 

Errata. 

In our January number, two provoking errors 
occur in the article of Mr. Ruffin on "Slavery 
and Free Labour," &c, which the reader is re- 
quested to correct. For "rates of improvement," 
occurring near the middle of the seeond column, 
page 8, read ratio of imprisonment, and 18 lines 
above — whole number of " [negro]" criminals, 
&c, strike out the word negro. 



United States Agricultural Society. 

The Eighth Jlnnual Meeting of this society' 
was advertised to be held at the " Smithsonian 
Institute" in Washington, D. C, on the second 
Wednesday in January, 1860, for the election of 
officers and the transaction of business. 

We regret that we received its announcement 
too late for our January number. Especially as 
it was intended to have public discussions on 
various agricultural topics — among them "the 
establishment of a Department of Agriculture;" 
Physical Geography in its relation to Agricul- 
ture; The Steam PIjw; Under Draining, &c, 
&c. 

As* soon as we learn the particulars of this 
meeting, we will, with pleasure, lay them be- 
fore our readers. 



Below, our readers will see the views of a 
Massachusetts Editor,as to the course we should 
pursue, to develop our resources, and secure the 
prosperity of our section of the Union. He is 
undoubtedly right in his opinions, except as they 
relate to the character of our laborers. 

We believe that it is to our system of negro 
slavery alone that we owe our entire exemption 
from all those " isttu" which at present so strong- 
ly war against all the dictates of Christianity, 

common sense, and good citizenship, in those 
parts of the United States, where the "laboring 
population is free and intelligent! !" albeit they 



nre in so many instances such slaves to factious 
prejudice and evil passions. 

What a Massachusetts Editor Thinks. — The 
people of Virginia and other sections of the 
South, in their ill feeling toward the free States, 
talk of establishing manufactories and direct 
commercial communication with Europe for 
themselves. If such should be the effect of the 
late foray — as unfortunately it will not be — there 
would great good come out of evil. The dis- 
solution needed by the South is not of the poli- 
tical union of the States, but one that shall give 
them greater independence in their industry. 
Let them manufacture cloth and shoes and hats ; 
let the cotton of the South be worked into fab- 
rics where it grows, the iron be laid-in rails over 
the soil beneath which it now rests, the gold of 
the Carolinas and Georgia be melted and wrought 
in those States, the wood of Texas be turned 
into the new built factories of that vigorous com- 
monwealth, while the timber of Florida and 
Virginia is made into ships to sail from and to 
their ports, if so the South will. It is such a di- 
versity of pursuits that is needed to make the 
Southern section of this country the most pros- 
perous land in the world, and such it would be 
if its laboring population were free and intelli- 
gent. — Newbury port Herald. 

Trade of Nt:w England with the South. 

The Boston Post contains a long and able ar- 
ticle showing the extent of the trade between 
New England and the South, from which we 
make the following extract: , 

The aggregate value of all the merchandise 
sold to the South annually we estimate at some 
$60,000,000. The basis of the estimate is, first, 
the estimated amount of boots and shoes sold 
which intelligent merchants place at from $20,- 
000,000 to $30,000,000, including a limited 
amount that are manufactured with us and sold 
in New York: In the next place we know from 
merchants in the trade, that the amount of dry 
goods sold South yearly is many millions of dol- 
lars, and that the amount is second only to that 
of the sales of boots and shoes. In the third 
place, we learn from careful inquiry, and. from 
the best sources, that the fish of various kinds 
sold, realize $3,000,000 or in that neighborhood. 
Upwards of $1.00( ),()()() is received for furniture 
sold in the South each year. The Southern States 
are a much better market than the Western for 
this article. It is true since the establishment 
of branch honsfs in New York, Philadelphia 
and other cities, many of the goods manufactur- 
ed in New England have reached the South 
through those houses ; but still the commerce of 
New England with the South, and this partieu- 
|;ir section of the country receives the main ad- 
vantage of that commerce. And what shall we 
say of New England ship building, that is so 
generally sustained by Southern wants? What 
shall we say of that laTgC ocean Meet that by 
being the common carriers of the South have 
brought so large an amount of money into the 
pockets nf our merchants I We will not under- 
take to otimatc the value of these interests 
Supported directly by the South. if many per- 
sons have not become very rich by them, a very 



120 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



large number have either found themselves 
well-todo, or else have gained a living. 

Now, what does New England buy of the 
South to keep her cotton and woollen mills in 
operation — to supply her lack of corn and flour, 
to furnish her with sugar, rice, tobacco, lumber, 
etc 1 Boston also received from the slave States 
in 1859 cotton valued 'at $22,000 000; wool 
worth $1,000,000; hides valued at $1,000,000; 
lumber $1,000,000, flour $2,500,000; corn $1,- 
200,000; rice $500,000; tobacco estimated at 
$2,000,000. We thus have $3 1,200,000 in. value, 
only considering eight articles of consumption. 
Nor have we reckoned the large amounts of por- 
tions or all of these articles which arrive at 
Providence, New Haven, Hartford, Portland and 
other places." Nor have we reckoned the value 
of other articles that arrive at Boston, very con- 
siderable though it be, such as molasses, naval 
stores, beef, pork, lard, and other animal pro- 
duce ; hemp ; early vegetables ; oysters and 
other shell fish ; game, peaches, etc. May we 
not estimate then, with good reason, that New 
England buys of the South her 1 raw materials 
and other products to the amount of some $50, 
000,000 annually? In 1858, about one third of 
all the flour sold in Boston was received from 
the commercial ports of the Southern States, and 
in the same year seven-twelfths of all the corn 
sold in this city, was received direct from the 
States of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. 
The value of the product of sugar and molasses, 
principally produced in Louisiana in 1858, was 
about $33,000,000, and though but a small por- 
tion of it came to New England, nearly one-half 
the crop is consumed in the Northern States 
reaching the points of consumption by the Mis 
sissippi river. 



For the •Southern Planter. 

Loudoun County Agricultural Society. 

Middlbburg, Dec. 17,. 1859. 

Mr. Editor, — In your notice of the Agricultu- 
ral. Societies of the State, in the December No. 
of the. Planter, you omitted one which I think 
deserves notice — the "Loudoun County Agricul- 
tural Society." 

I enclose a paper containing a detailed report 
of its. last exhibition, from which you will ascer- 
tain that this Society is in a very flourishing 
condition. We have at our exhibitions some of 
the best stock in the United States. The exhi- 
bition of horses, by far, the best in the State. 
The other departments very good. 

We own a lot of ten acres — well arranged 
and substantially improved — nearly paid for. 
We expect at our next fair to be entirely free 
from debt, and to distribute a much larger 
amount in premiums. This year we gave up- 
wards of five hundred dollars in premiums. 

The officers of the Society are, Col. Norborne 
Berkeley, President; Thomas Edwards, Esqr., 
Secretary and Treasurer. 

The Colt Club we call the "Upperville Union 
Club," for improving the breed of horses; and 
as its name imports, comprises several counties: 
Loudoun, Clarke, Warren and Fauquier. The 



latter county, perhaps, contributing a majority 
of members. 

The officers are, Col. Norborne Berkeley, Pre- 
sident; Dr. Joseph G. Gray, Vice President; 
Alexander Grayson, Secretary and Treasurer. 

J. Z. G..H. 

Our correspondent will pardon us for publish- 
ing this note, which so well expresses the in- 
formation as to the Society therein mentioned, 
inadverdently omitted in the article to which he 
alludes, in our December No. — Editor. 



Lectures on Agriculture, 

To be given during the Agricultural Convention, at 
New Haven, February, 1860. 

Agricultural Chemistry ; Prof. S. W. Johnson. 

Lecture 1. Composition of the Plant. The 
Organic Elements — Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydro- 
gen, and Carbon. Lee. 2. Proximate Organic 
Principles of the Plant — Cellulose, Starch, Dex- 
trine, Sugar, Gluten, Albumen, Casein, Vegeta- 
ble Oils and Acids. Lee. 3. Atmospheric food 
of Plants— Water, Carbonic Acid, Ammonia and 
.Nitric Acid — their sources and supply. Lee. 
4. The Ash of Plants — Potash, Soda, Lime, 
Magnesia. Oxyd of Iron, Oxyd of Manganese, 
Chlorine, Sulphur, Phosphorus. 

Etomology • Dr. Asa Fitch. 

Leg. 1. Great losses sustained from depreda- 
ting insects ; their classification, structure, met- 
amorphoses, habits, and means of destruction. 
Lee. 2. Insects injurious to grain crops, with a 
particular account of the wheat midge and Hes- 
sian fly. Lee. 3. Insects injurious to fruit trees, 
with a particular account of the Curculio and 
the apple tree borer. 

Vegetable Physiology ; Daniel C. Eaton, Esq. 

Le'c. 1. The vegetable cell — its form, size, 
structure, contents, origin, and mode of growth. 
Lee. 2. The seed, root, and stem. Nature and 
growth of seeds. Structure of roots. General 
structure and minute anatomy of stems. Lee. 
3. Arrangement of leaves ; their parts, forms, 
structure, and economy. Food of plants. Re- 
lations of the vegetable kingdom. Lee. 4. 
Flowers and Fruits. Arrangement of Flowers : 
their parts and offices of parts; development of 
fruit. 

SECOND WEEK.— PROMOLGY, &c. 

Pear Culture ; Hon. Marshall P. Wilder. 

American Pomology ; the best method of pro- 
moting it : with practical suggestions on the 
cultivation of the pear. 

Grapes; Dr. C. W. Grant. 

Lec. 1. Preparation of the soil, and propa- 
gation of the vine. Lec. 2. Culture of native 
varieties, with account of different varieties and 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



121 



their qualities. Lee. 3. Foreign varieties ; cul- 
ture and treatment. 

Berries ; B. G. Pardee, Esq. 

Lec. 1. Strawberries, Raspberries, and Black- 
berries ; soil, cultivation, varieties. Lec. 2- 
Currants, Gooseberries, Cranberries aud Whor- 
tleberries ; soil, cultivation, varieties. 

Fruit Trees ; R. G. Pardee, Esq. 

Lec. 1. Propagation and treatment of Fruit 
Trees in the Nursery. Lec. 2. Transplanting 
and management of Trees in the orchard and 
garden. 

Fruit ; Lewis F. J lien, Esq. 

Lec. 1 and 2. The Apple. Lec. 3. Uses of 
Fruits economically considered ; profits as farm 
crops ; their consumption as food for man ; as 
food for stock ; value for exportation. 

Arbouriculturc ; 'Geo. B. Emerson, Esq. 

Lec. 1. Character of various Forest Trees, as 
found growing in the forests of Europe and 
America. Value for various purposes. Forest 
culture. Lec. 2 Shade and Ornamental Trees ; 
modes of cultivation. 

Agricultural Chemistry, continued ; Prof. S. W. 
Johnson. 

Lec. 5. The soil ; its chemical and physical 
character. Lec. 6. The mechanical improve- 
ment of the soil by tillage, fallow, and amend- 
ments. Leo. 7. The Chemical and Mechanical 
improvement of the soil by manure. Lec. iS. 
The conversion of Vegetable into Animal pro- 
duce. The Chemistry and Physiology of Feed- 
ing. 

THIRD WEEK.— AGRICULTURE PROPER. 

Drainage ; Hon. Henry t\ French. 

Lec. 1. The sources of moisture. What 
lands require drainage. Drainage more neces- 
sary in America than in England. Lec. 2. Va- 
rious methods of Drainage. Direction, distance, 
depth and arrangement of Drains. Lec. 3. Ef- 
fects of Drainage. Drainage promotes pulveri- 
zation, warmth, absorption of fertilizing sub- 
stances irom the air. Lec. 4. Over-drainage; 
obstruction of drains ; remedies ; effects of 
drainage on streams and rivers. 

Grasses ; John Stanton Gould, Esq. 

Lec. 1. Amount and value of the grass crop. 
The great increase practicable ; destruction of 
the Grasses ; obstacles to profitable culture. 
Lec. 2. Classification and description of Grasses. 
Lec. 3. On the principle! of laying down and 
seeding meadows and pastures. Lec 4« On ir- 
rigation and drainage of meadows. 

Cereals ; Joseph Harris. Esq. 

On the cultivation of Wheat aud Indian Corn. 

Hoot Crups ; T. 8. Gould, Esq. 

The field Turnip. Ruta Bags, Beet, Carrot. 
Parsnip ; varieties, sod. culture, composition, 



uses. Root culture essential to high fanning. 
Preservation and feeding of roots. 

Tobacco and Hops ; Prof. Whi. H. Brewer. 

Lec. 1. Range of Cultivation ; preparation of 
soil; care of plants ; gathering and curing ; ad- 
vantages and disadvantages of cultivation. Lec. 

2. Hops, ditto. 

Sandy Soils ; Levi Bartlett, Esq. 

On the cultivation of Winter Wheat, and the 
management of sandy and other light soils. 

English Agriculture • Luther H. Tucker. Esq. 

Lec. 1. Causes of its pre-eminence. An out- 
line of the chief improvements accomplished. 
Lec. 2. Examples of English Farming; High 
Farming; visits to great Dairy establishments ; 
remarkable results of Irrigation. Lec. 3. The 
Agricultural Shows of '59. Improvement of 
Stock. Lessons of English Agriculture. 

German Agriculture ; Dr. Evan Pugh. 

President Pennsylvania Agricultural Society. 

Agricultural Statistics and Education ; Prof. Jno. 
A. Porter. 

FOURTH WEEK.— DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Cattle ; Cassius M. Clay, Esq. 

Lec. 1. On the five leading breeds, with no- 
tice of some other varieties. Lec. 2. Breeding 
as an Art. 

Stock Breeding in the United States : Lewis F. 
Allen, Esq. 

Lec. 1. Cattle, Sheep, Pigs ; their various 
breeds; adaptation to climaie.,soil and purpose. 
Lec. 2. Best methods of breeding, physiologi- 
cally considered. Present condition of stock 
breeding and rearing in the United States, as 
compared with some portions of Europe. Lec. 

3. Poultry, economically and aesthetically con- 
sidered ; varieties, as adapted to climate and 
locality; utility and markets. 

The Dairy • Charles L. Flint, Esq. 

Lec. 1. Breeds and breeding of Stock with 
special reference to the Dairy. Lee. 2. The 
management and economy of the Dairy. 

Horses ; San ford Howard, Esq. 

Characteristics of Breeds, and Breeding for 

special purposes. 

Bre'aking and Training Horses; Dr. Daniel F. 
Gulliver. 

On the methods of subduing and educating 
the Horse. The Handier and Rarey Systems. 
Great enhancement of intrinsic and market 
value of Horses by these means. 

Sheep ; T. S. Gold, Esq. 

Lie. I. History and description of tbs 

riOUS breeds ; localities and u>es to whieh they 
are adapted* Lec. 2. Winter, Spring and bu m 






122 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



mer management of Sheep. Diseases Adap- 
tation of our country to Sheep raising. Com- 
parative advantages of Sheep husbandry. Care 
and sale of wool. 

Pisciculture ; John C. Comstock, Esq. 

Lec. 1. Decrease in natural supply of Fish. 
Reasons. Application of artificial fish breed- 
ing to renewing supply. History of Piscicul- 
ture. Lec. 2. Raising Fish in private waters. 
Practical questions. Accounts of experiments 
in Fish breeding in this country. Importance 
of Fish breeding as a branch of agriculture. 
Fish as an article of diet, &c, &c. 

Agricultural Associations ; Mason C. Weld, Esq. 

Organization and uses of Agricultural Socie- 
ties and Farmers' Clubs. 

Rural Economy ; Donald G. Mitchell, Esq. 



ARRANGEMENTS. 

An average of three Lectures per day will be 
given from February 1st to Februrary 25th, in- 
clusive, making sixty-six lectures in all. For 
the accommodation of persons desiring to spend 
Sunday at home, there will be no lecture Satur- 
day afternoon or Monday forenoon. Each lec- 
ture will be followed by questions, and a dis- 
cussion. Persons attending the lectures will 
have the liberty of introducing other topics be- 
sides those of the above list, and thus eliciting 
information adapted to their own case. Among 
other distinguished gentlemen, besides the lec- 
turers, who will attend, John Johnston, Esq., of 
Geneva, the pioneer in American Tile Drain 
age, will be present during the Third week of 
the Course, to give any information desired as to 
his own experience in Drainage. This Course 
of Lectures will be made intelligible and useful 
to beginners in Agriculture, as well as to expe- 
rienced farmers. Applications for Tickets have 
already been received from nearly half the 
States of the Union Early application is ad- 
visable. Board at very reasonable prices can 
be engaged beforehand for early applicants. 
Tickets for the whole Course, -$10 00 ; for any 
single week. $3 00. Single, lectures, 25 cents. 
For further information, address 

PROF. JOHN A. PORTER, 

Mew Haren, Conn. 



The Year Book of the Farm and Garden, for 
1860. Beautifully illustrated. Price 25 cents. 
A. M. Spangler, 633 Market St., Philad'a. 

This is another valuable addition to the libra- 
ry of the farmer, gardener, and house-keeper, 
and everybody who is either the one or the 
other, ought to have it. 

We know of no publications, offered at a 
small price, which contain so much information, 
valuable to the persons we have mentioned, and 
the "rest of mankind," as this "Year Book," 



now offered by Mr. Spangler, and the "Annual 
Register," published for several years by L. 
Tucker & Son, Albany, N. Y. 

These books contain something of everything 
useful, and we know they must give satisfaction 
to every sensible man, who is fortunate enough 
to possess one. 



The " Valley Farmer" and " Country Gentleman," 
Two of our most highly prized Exchanges — 
make their appearance this year in new dresses. 
We congratulate the editors of these papers, as 
cordially on their good taste in "getting up" the 
outside of their respective sheets, as we com- 
mend and admire the good sense, dignity and 
ability with which they have ever filled up the 
inside. Success to both of them. 



The American Stock Journal. 

We are glad to see that D. C. Lindsley, the 
competent editor of this paper,. who is already 
well and- favorably known to the stock breeders 
of the United States, has secured the services of 
Dr. George H. Dadd, (editor of the Veterinary 
Journal,) to conduct the veterinary department 
of the paper. 



The Journal of the New York State Agricultural 

Society 
Is received, for which we return our thanks to 
B. P. Johnson, Esq., the able Secretary of the 
Society. 



The Ohio Farmer 

Comes out for 1860 in a new dress, and with 
a promising "bill of fare" for all those who are 
desirous of becoming participants in an agricul- 
tural "Entertainment" of a literay and practical 
character. We append his terms : 

REGULAR TERMS IN ADVANCE. 

Single copy, one year, - - - $2 00 

Three copies, " - - - 5 00 

Five copies, " - - - 8' 00 

Ten copies, " - 

One copy, six months, 
Five copies, " - 

Ten copies, " 

A club of five subscribers, at $8, will entitle 
the person making it up to a copy for six months; 
a club of ten, at $15, to a copy for one year. 

Prospectuses, Posters and Samples sent free 
to any address. 

Tho. Brown, Cleveland. 0. 



- 15 00' 

- 1 00 

- 5 00 

- 8 00 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



123 



The Horticulturist, 

Published by the well-known house of C. M. 
Saxton & Co., we are glad to welcome to our list 
of exchanges. 

This is an able and well sustained paper. 
Price $2 per annum. Address C. M. Saxton, 
Barker & Co., 25 Park Row, New York. 



We commend the u Advice to Young Farmers" 
by L. M., to our readers. We hope we s ball 
have the pleasure of hearing from him very 
often. Our columns will always give him a 
place, and if they are crowded at any time, we 
will gladly make room for any article he may be 
kind enough to send us. 



We return our thanks to Charles L. Flint 
Esq., the author of that capital work on Dairy 
Farming, and Secretary of the State Board of 
Agriculture of Massachusetts, for a copy of the 
Circular issued by them, offering aid to farmers 
in establishing Farmers' Clubs. 



The Labour and Profits of a Dairy Farm 

In the previous chapter we endeavoured 
to give a fair idea of the amount of land, 
buildings and labour which would be re- 
quired to supply a herd of forty milch cows 
with food and shelter, together with the la- 
bour necessary for their care and manage- 
ment. We have now to deal with the in- 
door work, incident to the changing of the 
raw products, into the manufactured article 
fit for merchandize. 

What amount of labour will be neces- 
sary for the manufacture of milk into cheese 
and butter ? Much will depend upon the 
conveniences and fixtures furnished by the 
proprietor; and also whether the proprietor 
himself can superintend the whole manufac- 
turing process, or has to entrust it to an ex- 
perienced cheesemaker, either male or fe- 
male. We believe that with the vats, boil- 
ers, milk and whey conductors, washing and 
cleansing apparatus, hot and cold water 
pipes, cheese presses, shelves and tables, all 
arranged with a design to economise work, 
that one smart experienced woman with the 
assistance of another to be had at the usual 
rate of wages, would be abb; to do all the 
manufacturing. But where the dairy busi- 
ness forms only part of the business of the 



farm, much of the work must be done by a 
man. The labour of the manufacture w T ould 
consist, therefore, of a man's time for two- 
thirds of the year, and of a woman for the 
same time. Their whole time would proba- 
bly be occupied in the business of the farm, 
but only this proportion should be charged 
to the cost of manufacture. 

As to the plan of milk rooms, cheese 
rooms, and the fixtures, with the best me- 
thods of manufacturing either cheese or but- 
ter, they do not belong to the matter now in 
hand, which is only to inquire into the cost 
and profit of a dairy of forty cows in this 
State. 

What should be the average produce 
of the forty head of cows for the season, 
and what amount of cheese should be yield- 
ed from their milk • and what would be 
their other preducts ? 

In starting a dairy it will not be found 
possible, the first year, to have all the cows 
come in at just such seasons as may be most 
desirable ; but after that, by a little atten- 
tion and proper management, the calving of 
the whole lot may be regulated so that all 
may be in full flow of milk by the 15th of 
May ; and from that time to the first of Au- 
gust, the whole forty should average twelve 
quarts each per day ; which, for the 77 days 
would be 9,240 gallons. The usual yield of 
cheese per gallon, for this season of the 
year according to the records furnished by 
the best Herkimer county dairyman, ranges 
from a pound to one pound two ounces, the 
largest yield of cheese being in the spring 
and summer months. According to this 
ratio, therefore, there should be made 10,- 
395 pounds of cheese in the first 77 days. 
For the next term of three months the aver- 
age yield of each cow will decrease at least 
one-fourth, leaving it at the rate of nine 
quarts per day. This would afiord 8,100 
gallons of milk for the whole of this second 
term, giving at the rate of one pound one 
ounce of cheese per gallon, or a total of 8,- 
006 pounds of cheese. This would bring 
the cheese-making season to an end about 
the first of November, from which time until 
the cows are dried off, the manufacture of 
butter would be probably most profitable, as 
at that, season the milk is richer in oil, af- 
fords less curd, and fresh butter commands 
the highest price. 

The whole product of cheese for the year 
would be as follows : 



124 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



77 days, 9,240 gallons of milk»at 18 oz. 

per gallon, , , 10,395 

90 days, 3,100 gallons of milk at 17 oz. 

per gallon, 8,606 

Total cheese made from May 15 to No- 
vember 1, •. 19,001 

From November 1 to March 1, the aver- 
age produce of milk per day may be calcu- 
lated at four quarts from each cow; some 
of course will yield more; but if from a 
herd of 40 that amount is obtained from the 
first of November till the first of March, 
they may be considered a good lot, and well 
taken care of. The total amount of milk 
for this third term will be 19,200 quarts, or 
38,400 pounds. If we take the ratio of 
milk to butter as given by Mr. Thomas Hos- 
kins in the Farmer for April, or one pound 
of butter from 25 pounds of milk, we would 
have 1,536 pounds of butter. But milk at 
that season should give a greater proportion 
of butter, and with feed in kind and quan- 
tity, suited to promote the production of 
butter, it might be that a pound of butter 
would be produced by every 20 pounds of 
milk, which would make a difference of 20 
per cent. 

For the third term, from March 1st to 
the middle of May, the whole produce must 
be considered as belonging to the calves, 
and to be in part- repaid by their sale. 

The whole yield of the 40 head, in butter 
and cheese, would be as follows : 

19,000 pounds of cheese at 9 cents, $ 1,710 00 
1,920 pounds of butter at 18 cents, 345 60 



$2,055 60 
This would make an average of $56.14 
per cow, or 475 pounds of cheese, and 48 
pounds of butter from each cow per year. 
This is not an extraordinary yield. A. L. 
Fish, of Herkimer, N. Y., reported to the 
New Yord State Society, that in 1844, the 
produee of his dairy was at the rate of 700 
pounds of cheese per cow, and in 1845, it 
was as high as 775 pounds of cheese from 
each cow of his herd. 

Mr. J. C. Morton gives 500 pounds as the 
annual yield of a cow in the celebrated 
cheese district of Gloucestershire, England. 
In the Ayrshire districts the average is 
something above this, whilst in some places 
of Great Britain the average does not reach 
much over 350 pounds per annum. This 
difference arises from local systems of man- 
ufacture, feeding and other causes. 

Cheese and butter, however, • are not all 



that the dairy yields. There are, besides 1 
the whey, the skim-milk, and the butter- 
milk, which ought all to be used in the man- 
ufacture of pork of the best and sweetest 
kind sent to market. This offal of the dai- 
ry is not to be relied upon alone ; it too re- 
quires management, and to be mixed with 
the offal of grain, and a certain proportion 
of grain itself. No dairy should be without 
a piggery attached to it. The number of 
hogs which may be kept by a dairy will vary 
according to the fancy of the proprietor for 
the small quick maturing breeds, such as 
the Improved Essex, the Suffolk or the 
Chinese, or for the large breeds, such as the 
Leicester, the Byfield or the Berkshire. 
The number of pigs which may be kept will 
also vary with the season. In the summer 
there is a demand for lean light young pork, 
or pigs that will dress from 100 to 150 
pounds, by the butchers of the large cities. 
It should be a point with the dairyman to 
to thin out his young stock, as they increase 
in size, by fitting those most suitable for the 
butcher. This leaves the store hogs a larger 
share of food to each, as they increase in 
size. It is plain therefore, that the dairy- 
man may begin in the spring with some 
fifty young suckers from four to eight weeks 
old, and thin them down with profit to him- 
self, to fifteen or twenty. For this kind of 
feeding we incline to favour the Suffolk or 
Essex breeds", or high grades of them. Of 
the laro-e breeds, one hog of three or four 
months old to two cows will be found al- 
most as many as the offal of such a dairy 
will sustain. 

For the food of these hogs, there should 
be calculated that at least 75 per cent will 
be the quantity of the offal which will be 
available, and which, during the time from 
May to November, should be equal to 80 
gallons per day. .This slop, with an average 
of four quarts of mill feed to each, count- 
ing them at 20 head, should give a fair 
growth of pork that will make a considera- 
ble addition to the receipts of the dairy, as 
will be seen by the following estimate, which 
only includes the store hogs, and does not 
make any allowance for the pig-pork sold 
during the summer and fall seasons : 

20 six weeks pigs, worth on the I5ih 

May $1.50, $30 00 

Use of a five acre clover pasture for the 

season, 15 00 

4 quarts of feed per day to each hog, for 

280 days, being 7 tons at $12 per ton, 84 00 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



125 



8 quarts of marketable corn to each hog 
for 50 days c being nearly an average o,. 
six bushels to each hojj, given when 
put up for fattening, and worth 35 cents 
per bushel, 48 00 



Total cost of 20 .hogs besides the dairy 

slop, $177 00 

We do not believe it would be unreasona- 
ble to calculate that each of these hogs, af- 
ter being kept in this manner for nine 
months, should weigh 255 pounds when 
killed and dressed ; and if they are sold at 
five cents per pound, each one would bring 
$12.50,' or for the whole $250, leaving for 
labour and for the whole offal of the dairy 
$73, or a profit on each hog of over $3.50. 
We consider, however, that where either the 
Essex or the Suffolk breeds are kept, or high 
grades of either of these, the same amount 
of feed and care would enable the dairyman 
to keep thirty instead of twenty, and that 
instead of a profit of only $73, he would get 
from his hog-pen, if rightly managed, $200 
for the offal of the dairy. Mr. J. S. Tib- 
bits of Livonia, has stated to us that he has 
raised at the rate of two pigs to each cow, 
following a method somewhat similar to the 
above, and he had most of his store hogs 
reach 300 pounds within the time specified. 
He also stated that the calculation with re- 
gard to his hogs, when he was in the dairy 
business, was, that they should pay for the 
v abour of making the cheese. 

We come now to the subject of esti- 
mating the whole cost of the conduct of a 
dairy of 40 cows, and to a comparison of 
that cost with the estimated income. 

The cost of buildings to accommodate the 
cattle, and the cheese and milk rooms, in- 
cluding horse powers, cutting machines, 
boilers, milk vats, presses, and all the appa- 
ratus and fixtures necessary for economical 
feeding, and the most perfect manufacture 
of -cheese and butter, should not cost over 
$800, and the interest on this for wear and 
tear and use of capital, would probably be 
12 per cent., making an annual average rent 
of' $90 to be charged to the dairy. Mr. 
Paris Barber, of Homer, New York, erected 
a barn for his 50 cows, a cheese room and 
milk room, with all the requisite apparatus, 
for $583.92, as reported to the New York 
Society in 1851. Mr. Moses Eames, of Jef- 
ferson county, in the same year, gave the 
plan and cost of a very extensive cheese 
house, with copper boilers, caldrons, vats of 
tin, and all the necessary fixtures, which 



amounted to but $432. It will thus be seen 
that our estimate will certainly cover the 
whole cost, and is within reasonable bounds. 
The following table will give a recapitu- 
lation of the money or market value of the 
various .crops grown for the use of the dairy, 
the labour incident to the work outside and 
inside, and of the returns which the various 
productions will yield. 

Interest and wear of buildings, - - - $96 60 
Summer feed : 

40 acres of pasture, at $5 per 
acre, $200 00 

Cultivation of 3 acres of sor- 
ghum or millet, at $6 per acre, 18 00 

Cultivation of 5 acres of green 
rye for spring feed, at $3 per 
acre, 15 00 

Value of meadow pasture in 
the fall with pumpkins and 
other feed, 100 00 

One ton of mill feed, - - - 12 00 



Winter feed : 
50 tons of hay, at $6 per ton, $300 00 
40 tons of com stalks, at $4, 160 00 

443 bushels of corn at 35 cts., 155 05 
10 tons of straw, a $3 • - - 80 00 



345 00 



645 05 



Total money value of food required 
during the year for 40 head or cows, 
being at the rate of $25 per head, $1,086 05 
Labor : 

The labor incident to feeding and out- 
side work, is equal to 444 days of one 
man at 75 cents per day, $333 00 

240 days of one horse, at cost, 
30 cents, ------- 72 00 

Labor in cheese room, half a 
man's time, for one year, at 
10s. per day, 225 00 

Time of one woman at $5 per 
month, an I board, the same, 120 00 

750 00 






Total money value cost of carrying on 

a dairy of 40 head of cows, "- - $1,836 05 

Against this estimate of the expense, we 
have the following as the estimated income: 
The cheese and butter sold as per rates 

above given, $2,055 60 

The profit on the amount of hogs sold, 73 00 
30 calves led during the time between 
the 1st of March, and the commence- 
ment of cheese-making, principally, 

at $3 per head, -' - 90 00 

Money value of three hundred loads of 
manure made by the rows nnd hogs, 
at 5(t cents. - - , , 150 00 



Total value of products, - - $2,363 60 
Balance, the actual elear profit after a 
fair market value has been allowed 
on every article consumed, - - - $527 5 



!75ft 



126 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



In placing these statements before our 
readers, it has been for the purpose of show- 
ing what are the real profits of the dairy 
business. There is no single item in the 
above estimates, which has not been care- 
fully compared with the printed or verbal 
reports of practical men of our own State, 
or of the great dairy districts of New York, 
or of Great Britain, so far as was possible. 

We were led into it, by meeting with a 
practical friend, who, with a farm of four 
hundred acres, was about to " rush" into the 
dairy business for the first time, and wanted 
to know how much of his farm we thought 
it would take to keep the number of cows 
he had then on hand, and whether we 
thought it " would pay."' In passing through 
the agricultural districts we come in contact 
with many such questions, and much practice 
that is adapted to the West alone, and they 
can find expression and answer usefully only 
in the form we have above given. 

It is too much the practice of many far- 
mers to jump from one department of their 
business to another, without considering 
whether they have strength to carry a some- 
what encumbered body over the fence or 
not. The above brief estimates of land, 
of labor, of capital and profits involved in 
the management of a dairy farm, are there- 
fore submitted with the hope that they Will 
be of use, and also that they will draw out 
observations and experience from those who 
are interested in this complicated division of 
farm labor. Of the care, skill, constant at- 
tention, and exercise of judgment requisite 
to make a first rate cheese, it is impossible 
to give an adequate idea; that must be 
learned by actual practice and observation, 
with the aid and example of competent in- 
structors. — Michigan Farmer. 



From the Columbus Times. 

A Suggestion to Planters. 
I have been long convinced that every 
consideration of benefit and advantage to 
owners and managers, recommended a 
change in the employment of overseers — 
making the year to commence and end on 
the first of October, instead of the first of 
January. All that remains of the year's 
work on the first of October, are cotton 
picking and corn gathering. A manager 
taking charge at that time, would prosecute 
them with more energy and care, than one 
who expected to leave at the end of the 



year. He would hurry the cotton picking 
in order to have all -the time possible to 
prepare for next year's crop. He would 
gather and carefully house the corn, with 
an eye to its use by himself. He would 
put down the crops of small grain with 
more care, expecting himself to reap them. 
He would more carefully fatten the pork- 
hogs, expecting himself to use the bacon. ' 
The plough and grazing stock would be 
taken in charge at the commencement of 
winter, and he would feel, in taking care of 
them, more interest and responsibility, than 
if he had to carry them half through it and 
then turn them over to a successor. 

Between the first of October and first of 
January there is much time that cannot be 
devoted to cotton picking, this he would 
feel more interest in appropriating to re- 
pairs, ditching, &g., preparatory to the 
next crop, than would one who expected 
to leave at the end of the year. Again, 
thus taking charge on the first of October, 
his means of ascertaining the capacities of 
the plantation and the force upon it, would 
be far superior to what they would be under 
the present plan. 

But I forbear to extend this article, be- 
lieving that I have said enough to call the 
attention of the planting community to it. 
It is easy enough of accomplishment. Will 
not the Southern Cultivator, the Soil of the 
Smith, the agriculturalists soon to assemble 
at Atalanta, and the Cotton Planter's Con- 
vention of Houston county, give these sug- 
gestions such consideration as their import- 
ance seem to demand, in the opinion of, at 
least, one Planter. 



A word on training oxen. 



Training Oxen. 

I have found 
that by far the best time to (rain steers is 
when they are calves, say the first winter. 
Oxen that are trained when quite young, 
are much more pliable and obedient, and 
this adds much to their value. Steers that 
run until they are three or four years old, 
are dangerous animals to encounter. They 
are always running away with the cart or 
sled whenever there is a chance for them, 
and often serious injury is the result. I 
would not recommend working steers hard 
while young, as it prevents their growth; 
there is a difference between working them 
and merely training them. I have observed 
that very little attention is paid by our far- 
mers to train their steers to back, but as 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



12: 



they become able to draw a considerable | grass would keep three bogs, and add a hun- 

loa'd forward, they are often unmercifully dred pounds to the weight of each, that 
beaten on the head and face, because they' would be $12 for the acre of pasture, reek- 
will not back a cart or sled with as large atoning the three hundred pounds gain at four 
load as they can draw forward, forgetting cents a pound, live weight, 
that much pains has been taken to teach 



them 



to teach 



The particular point which this pastoral 
letter is ambitious to inculcate is this : grass 



to draw forward, but none 

them to draw backward. To remedy «Hgr* £ d { and fitable to ^^ 

>n as 1 have 1 ,, °,. ° , , , i° .1 / ., ., . , . >. 
,, i I attention should be paid to the furnishing 01 



occasion of this thumping, as soon 
taught my steers to be handy, as it is c 
and to draw forward, I place them on a cart 
where the land is a little descending; in 
this situation they will soon learn to back it. 
Then I place them on level land, and exer- 
cise them. Then I teach them to back -a 
cart up land that is a little rising, the cart 
having no load in it, as yet. When I have 
taught them to stand up in the tongue as 
they ought, and back an empty cart, I next 
either put a small load in the cart, or take 
them to where the land rises faster, which 
answers the same purpose; thus in a few 
days they can be +aught to back well, and 
know how to do it, which, by a little use 
afterward, they never forget. This may 
appear of little consequence to some, but 
when it is remembered how frequently we 
want to back a load, when we are at work 
with the cattle, and how convenient it is to 
have our cattle back well, why should we 
not teach them for the time when we want 
them thus to lay out their strength? Be- 
sides, it often saves blows and vexations, 
which is considerable when one is in a 
hurry. I never consider a pair of oxen 
well broke until they will back well with 
ease any reasonable load, and I would give 
a very considerable more for a yoke thus 
trained. — Charles A. Hubbard, in Netv 
England Farmer. 



Hog Pasture. 

It being generally understood that hogs 
live by " special providence" until it is time 
to fat them, there is little attention paid to 
the most economical way of growing them 
up. Certain it is, that a good, easy-keeping 
variety will make commendable progress on 
grass, and it is worthy of investigation whe- 
ther .hog-raising may not be profitably car- 
ried on in any section of country by the aid 
of good pastures and other appliances. It 
may be safe to calculate that a good-sized 
thrifty pig will gain in six months, on grass, 
a hundred pounds or more. If an acre of 



an abundance of it, and of the best quality, 
to these animals. Instead of being forced 
to bite twice at a short, dirty and battered 
spear of June grass by the road side before 
getting any oif, imagine a clean and comely 
Suffolk in a fresh green pasture, just four 
inches high filling himself with evident 
relish. That looks like gain. 



Don't Know Beans. 

A correspondent of the Chicago Times 
relates the following joke at the expense of 
an agricultural paper : 

I was in the cars going to the State Fair 
at Freeport some time ago, and unintention- 
ally overhea*rd a conversation. The parties 
to the conversation were a farmer from Lake 
county, and an agricultural -correspondent. 
When near Nevada, the member of the 
"staff" was in the height of an animated 
explanation of how " we" had benefited trie 
farming interest by having agents always 
travelling, reporting the prospects of crops, 
&c. ■ just at that moment a field of buck- 
wheat in bloom attracted his attention. 

" What a fine field of white beans that 
is," exclaimed the traveling editor. 

" Beans !" said the farmer, " that is buck- 
wheat." 

" Oh ! what a beautiful white grain it 
has j I must make a note of it, and write a 
letter from Freeport about it. Ruck wheat 
like that is not to be found at the East! The 
specimens I have been accustomed to see 
produced a very dark flour." 

"Why, of course; this buckwheat will 
produce a dark flour," rejoined the farmer, 
k% what you saw was not the grain — that was 
the blossom !" 

" Oh ! Ah !" said the editor, who quickly 
closcd his " notes on buckwheat," and short- 
ly after went into the smoking car. — Rich 
maud Dispatch. 



128 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 




For the Southern Planter. 

Onward. 

Strive like a man ! though youth's morning be 
cheerless, 
Though ill-boding clouds thy horizon o'er- 
spread, 
Stand thy ground! be patient, courageous, and 
fearless, 
For all will come right — be a man! go ahead! 

Yield not a moment to useless repining, 
But press firmly on, in the battle of life, 

Hope's star, though obscur'd now, will yet, 
brightly shining, 
Illumine thy pathway — faint not in the strife- 

Thy motto be Duty, in Gor> be thy strength ; 
No step backwards trace, and with honour ■ 
He'll crown 
TRy brow, if thou quail not; thou shalt conquer 
at length, 
Though poverty sting, and misfortune may 
frown. 



I Love This Glowing Southern Clime. 

BY FRA^K MYRTLE. 

I love this glowing Southern clime, 

With skies so mildly bright; 
Where reigns one constant ^weet spring time, 

So full of fond delight; 
Where flowers are blooming all the year, 

As beautifully fair 
As if the floral queen had made 

Her fragrant palace there. 

I love the Southern songster's note, 

The balmy zephyr's breath, 
Where perfumed strains of music float 

From out the forest's depth ; 
Where blithesome hearts are warm and true 

As ever breathed a prayer, 
And where enchanted pleasures woo 

The soul to linger there. 



I love the Southern twilight hour, 

It breathes a holy spell, 
While musing 'neath the orange bower, 

Or in some fairy dell ; 
I love its starry heavens by night, 

Its dewy moonlit eves, 
Where Luna's silvery beams of light, 

Gleam through the orange leaves. 

You speak to me of happy homes 

Far in the snowy North ; 
I know the heart where'er it roams, 

Will love its native hearth ; 
But say, is not this Southern clime, 

So beautifully fair, 
More lovely in its sweet spring time 

Than aught you cherish there? 

[Memphis Eagle and Enquirer. 



Go for the Right, whatever Betide. 

BY W. M. MARTIN. 

Though beauty entice you 

With laughter and smiles, 
And strive to ensnare you 

With charms and with wiles; 
Oh ! pass them by lightly, 

Their powers deride, 
And go for the right, 

Whatever betide. 

Though wealth may allure you 

With diamonds and gold, 
The strength of your manhood 

Must never be sold ; 
Bid riches a vaunt ye, 

With power and pride, 
And go for the right 

Whatever betide. 

Though power oppose you 

With strength and with might, 
Oh ! ne'er be disheartened, 

Though hard be the fight; 
Oh ! never be conquered, 

Nor e'er turn aside, 
But go for "the right 

Whatever betide. 

In archives of glory 

Your name be enrolled, 
In songs and in story 

Your brave deeds be told, 
Along with the heroes 

Who fought and who died, 
Who went for the right 

What'er might betide.