TH E 




Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts'. 



ilturc is the noising mother of the Arts. 
[Xi 


Tiil.i. e the twi 

. — Si l.I.Y. 


J. E. Williams, Editor. AUGUST 1 WILLIAMS. SWm. 


Vol. XX. RICHMOND, VA., JUNE, 1860. • N* 0. 



' (he Rirhmond Whig. 

Address of Hon. A. H. H. Stuart before 
the Central Agricultural Society of Vir- 
ginia, at Richmond, Oct. 28th, 1859. 

Mr. I ' 

Agricultural Society : 

Tn obedience to your request, I appear 
■■ilc to you in behalf of 
iltural interests of our State. Al- 
though distrustful of my ability to offer 
anything worthy of the occasion, ( .r calcula- 
ted to interest or instruct the enlightened 
audience which now surrounds me t 1 am en- 
eourag ke the attempt, by the con- 

viction, that the Mine spirit of courtesy 
which prompted your invitation will induce 
you to look with indulgence on the imper- 
fections of my disc ■ 

In preparing for t! urge of my duty, 

the first difficulty I bad 
from the magnitude o\' my subject, and the 
multiplicity of if> relations to the other 

! 
self in so man; h attractive aspects, 

as to creiite embarrassment, in making a 
selection of those must appropriate to the 
present occasion. 

I know that it is customary, at anniv 
ries like the present, to speak of the impor- 
21 



tancc of agriculture, as one of the 
interests of Society ; — to trace its hi 
and progress; — to disco lations to 

the natural sciences; — to explain the di- 
versities of soil, and the systems of cultiva- 
tion appropriate to Sftoh ; — to indicate the 
proper rotation of crops, and the beat means 
of au^montin^ production ; — to descant on 
the charms and bonificent influences of rur.il 
life, and to bestow merited praise, on the 
public spirited projectors :md patTOttl 

it ions like that which 1 now have the 
honor to address. 

Either of \hc<o topics would present a 
theme alike attractive and instructive, hut, 
f»r reasons which 1 have deemed 
tory, 1 propose, on the present occasion, t i 
them all by, and to devote the hour 
that is allotted to me to th-; development of 

views of the relati 
riculture to the other great industrial inte- 
rests of our country. 

It is unquestionably true that Agricul- 
ture is the most important inter 

principal souree of produc- 
tion, and ifl re, the basis of all Other 
inters I inpplies the raw material for 

a large proportion of our -. and 

infuses life and activity into all the r | 
tions of commerce. It gives occupation to 



322 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



a larger per ccntage of our population than 
all others combined. But it is not an iso- 
lated interest. It cannot prosper alone. It 
is intimately connected with other interests, 
and its success or failure is, in a great de- 
gree, to be measured by the condition of 
those interests. 

He who limits his views of agricuture to 
production only, can have but an imperfect 
idea of the subject. He has looked at it in 
but one of its aspects. To comprehend it 
fully, he must embrace a much wider field of 
enquiry and understand, not merely how 
the earth can be made to yield its' richest 
returns to the husbandman, but, also, how 
those returns can be made most available 
for his comfort and happiness. 

Of what value is production, without con- 
sumption ? Of what use are abundant crops, 
unless some fair equivalent can be obtained 
for the surplus over the wants of the pro- 
ducer? 

A correct view of the agriculture of a 
country, therefore, must embrace the consi- 
deration, not only §f the modes by which 
the largest crops can be raised, but also of 
the means by which they can be best dis- 
posed of; or, in other words, how the best 
markets can be provided, and the best prices 
maintained. 

The function of agriculture is to produce 
— of manufactures, to convert — and of com- 
merce, to exchange. And, as it is obvious 
that a large portion of the productions of 
the soil are comparatively of little value, 
until they have been converted, by the pro- 
cesses of manufacture, into new forms, and 
the surplus has been exchanged for such 
commodities as the producer may need, it 
follows, as a necessary consequence, that 
there must be an intimate relation between 
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. 

It will readily be conceded, that if all the 
labor of the world was directed to the pro- 
duction of food, the surplus, above the 
wants of the producers, would be of little 
or no value, because there would be no de- 
mand for it. As every one would raise 
enough for his own use, he would not find it 
necessary to look to his neighbor for a sup- 
ply. The surplus above the wants of the 
farmer would therefore be useless, and left 
to perish in the fields in which it was pro- 
duced. To give value to it, a demand must 
be created for it. In the absence of such a 
demand it would soon cease to be produced. 
This demand can be created only by multi- 



plying the occupations of the citizen, or, in 
other words, by withdrawing a portion of 
the population from the production of food 
and directing their labor to other pursuits. 
When this is effected a demand is created, 
proportioned to the number of laborers, who^ 
are thus rendered consumers instead of pro- 
ducers, and the foundation is laid for the 
interchange, between the different classes of 
laborers, of the fruits of their respective 
branches of industry. This interchange con- 
stitutes, in the first place, the barter, — and, 
in the more advanced stages of its progress, 
the commerce of the world. 

The prosperity of the farming interest, 
then, depends upon the preservation of the 
proper relation between production and con- 
sumption. If an over proportion of the 
people are engaged in production, the supply 
will exceed the demand; the market for 
the products of the soil will be depressed; 
and the interests of agriculture must lan- 
guish. If, on the other hand, occupation 
can be given to a large portion of the pop- 
ulation, in the mechanic arts, in manufac- 
turing, in mining, in navigation, and in 
commerce, the demand for the fruits of ag- 
riculture will be increased; their prices en- 
hanced, and the farmer must prosper. 

The benefits resulting from this division 
of labor are two fold. It tends, not only to 
enhance the price of what the farmer has to 
sell, in consequence of the increased demand 
for it, but also to cheapen what he may have 
occasion to buy, because of the increased 
competition among those who furnish such 
commodities as he may need. 

These are elementary principles of social 
economy, which are, theoretically, familiar 
to every intelligent man. But, unfortu- 
nately, they are too much neglected in prac- 
tice. I hope, therefore, I shall be pardoned 
for presenting them in their simplest form, 
as they have an important bearing on the 
line of thought, to which I wish to direct 
your attention 

Whether the proper relation exists in 
Virginia, and the United States, between 
production and consumption, is a question 
which deserves your most serious considera- 
tion. The intelligent superintendent of 
the census of 1850 estimates that three-fifths 
of the adult population of the United States 
are engaged in the cultivation of the soil, 
and the statistics of our own State show that 
near one half of the adult male population 
are farmers, or in other words, producers of 






THE SOUTH KKX PLANTER 



Wi:\ 



provisions. In the term farmers, I do not 

include bind laborers, who are employed on 
farms, but ouly the independent proprietor! 
or tenants, who cultivate separate farms. 

The census tablet of I860 show that the 
whole number of white adults, in Virginia, 
engaged in the various professions and 
pation, at that date, was 226,876. Of 
, 106*807 were fanners, 46,989 labo- 
rers, 1,37-1 planters, and :),747 overseers. 

These figures would seem to indicate that 
too large a proportion of our people arc en- 
gaged in the production of food; and the 
present low prices of almost every article of 
provisions confirms this impression. A 
larger quantity is produced than can be sold 
for remunerative prices. Every improve- 
ment which may be made in the system of 
farming will tend to a still further depression 
of prices, by increasing the supply. And 
when we contemplate the rapid settlement, 
now in progress, of the almost boundless 
grain-growing region of the Northwest, a 
region of uuparalleled fertility, we must ac- 
knowledge, that the prospect is, by no means, 
encouraging to the farmer. High prices, in 
this country, have always been the effect of 
a foreign demaud. This demand will always 
be, as it has been, fluctuating; for it de- 
pends, not only on natural causes, such as 
the failure of crops abroad, but upon politi- 
cal events which may disturb the tranquility 
of Europe. American farmers are, there- 
fore, compelled to look more to the condition 
of things abroad than at home, in making 
their estimates, as to the breadth of laud 
they shall seed, and the probable prices they 
will receive for their crops. 

This fluctuation of prices is one of the 
most serious evils that can befall auy coun- 
try. It unsettles the value of every species 
of property. Wheu prices are high the 
tendency is to speculation, to incur debt, and 
to form habits of expenditure, which, al- 
though they might not be deemed extrava- 
gant, if high prices were to continue, must 
prove ruinous, when, by some change in the 
policy of the great powers of Europe, or 
other cause, the foreign demand is cut off, 
and prices sink to their natural level. 

The enquiry then forces itself upon our 
attention, how is this evil to be correct 

The most effective remedy that I cau sug- 
gest is, to diversify the occupations of our 
people ; to withdraw a large number of them 
from agriculture, and to direct their labor to 
other pursuits; to build up home 




. to stimulate ; »f ou r 

mineral retOUrc 

commerce, and all tin- mechanic arts, and 
thereby create a demand for the produ 
our farms at home. By adopting this policy 
we will diminish the number of prod 
— increase' the number of consumers — and 
make some progress towards the establish- 
ment of a more just relation between the 
supply and demand. 

And here, to prevent misconstruction, I 
wish to say in advance that 1 do not propose, 
• upon an occasion, and before an audience 
like tho present, to enter into a discussion 
of any of the controverted questions connect- 
ed with the jurisdiction of the federal gov- 
ernment over this subject — whilst I enter- 
tain very decided opinions on those ques- 
tions, and have not hesitated, under suitable 
circumstances, to express them, I desire 
carefully to abstain from introducing into 
this discourse anything that could offend the 
sensibilities of the most fastidious, or be 
regarded as invading a field, which, unfortu- 
nately for the best interests of the country, 
has been dedicated to partizan strife 

When, therefore, I speak of the encour- 
agement of domestic industry, I throw out 
of view, for the present, any legislation by 
Congress directed to that end, and limit my- 
self exclusively to such encouragement as 
can be afforded by the enlightened enterprise 
and public spirit of our own people, aided 
by the co-operation of our own General As- 
sembly. 

No one will deny that every furnace, and 
forge, and foundry — every woolen, and cot- 
ton and tobacco factory, — every shop for the 
manufacture of shoes, and clothing, and 
saddlery, — every mine that is opened, — ev- 
ery house that d, — every ship that 
is built, — in a word, every enterprise that 
gives mechanical employment to our people, 
tends to promote the interests of the farmer, 
by increasing the demand for what he has 
to sell. 

Let us, then, for a moment survey the 
extent of the field which presents itself for 
the employment of the labor of our coun- 
trymeu. 

The statistics of our foreign commerce 
show that the a I han- 

DBpOrted into the Tnit. d n the 

. in round uui J L-2 

millions of dollars, and in 1 i) 3-4 

millions of dollars. If we analyze the ta- 
bles, it will be found that of this latter 



324 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



amount, about 100 millions worth could be 
produced, and ought to be produced, in our 
own country, by the labor of our own peo- 
ple. For example, we import of — 

Copper, in various forms, $3,617,000 

Iron, 15,209,000 

Lead, 2,305,000 

Paper, 597,000 

Gloves, 1,559,000 

China and Earthenware, 4,037,000 

Linseed, 3,003,000 

Wine, in Casks, 2,448,000 

Wine, in bottles, 1,825,000 

Brandy, 2,527,000 

Grain Spirits, 1,125,000 

Molasses, 8,250,000 

Sugar, brown, 42,614,000 

Sugar, white and loaf, 154,000 

Tobacco, 1,358,000 

Cigars, 4,221,000 

Salt, 2,031,000 

Coal, 772,000 

Glass, 1,166,000 



Making an aggregate of $99,819,000 

Virginia alone could supply the iron, coab 
-copper, lead, salt, tobacco, glass and kollyrite 
'for china and earthenware for the whole 
Union. Louisiana, Florida and Texas ought 
;to produce the sugar, molasses and rum ; and 

• other States should produce the wine, bran- 
dy, distilled spirits, linseed, and many other 
articles now imported, in quantities sufficient 
for the consumption of our population. And 
yet, with a climate and soil adapted to the 
growth of all that we need, except tea, cof- 
Jfee and spices; — with mountains and val- 
"leys filled with iron, and coal, and salt, and 
.copper, and lead, and gypsum ; — we leave 
them all but partially developed, and draw 

• our supplies from foreign countries! 

An apt illustration of Virginia policy is 
ito be found in an incident, which will pro- 
bably be remembered by many of the in- 
habitants of this city, as it occurred with- 
in a short distance of the spot on which I 
•now stand. 

About twenty years ago, it became ne- 
cessary to erect a banking house in Rich- 
mond for the use of the Exchange Bank, 
then recently incorporated, and although the! 
structure is probably erected on a stratum! 

• of granite, and certainly stands within a' 
mile of the finest granite quarries in the 
'Union, the granite of which it is constructed ' 



was imported from Quincy, in the State of 
Massachusetts ! 

If the articles which I have enumerated 
among the imports were, as they shoud be, 
produced in the United States — if the labo- 
rers necessary to produce them were con- 
sumers instead of producers of provisions, 
it is easy to perceive what an increased de- 
mand would be created for the breadstuifs, 
live stock and other products of our farms. 
An ample and a steady market, would spring 
up at our own doors, for everything we have 
for sale, and prosperity and comfort would 
spread through all our borders. 

But this view of the interest of the far- 
mer, in the growth of domestic manufactures, 
and in the home market which they supply, 
would be very imperfect without a reference 
to other aspects of the subject. 

The prices of all commodities are regu- 
lated, not only by the laws of supply and 
demand, but, also, by the condition of the 
currency. Gold and silver are, by our Con- 
stitution and laws, the measure of value. It 
is of the highest importance that this stand- 
ard, by which the value of other commodi- 
ties is estimated, should itself be stable and 
uniform. Every one would understand, at 
a glance, the evils that would result from 
having a fluctuating standard of weights and 
measures, and the injustice of allowing par- 
ties to contract according to one standard 
and to fulfill the contract by another. The 
injustice, in this case, strikes the mind be- 
cause the standards — the. yard-stick, the 
pound weight, and the bushel, — and the 
subjects to which they are applied, are ma- 
terial and tangible. But the fluctuations in 
the measure of value, though less apparent 
are not less real nor less injurious than fluc- 
tuation's in the measure of quantity. If a 
party were to contract to deliver, at a future 
day, a hundred bushels of wheat, which, 
according to the present standard, would 
mean a quantity sufficient to weigh 60 hun- 
dred pounds, it would be iniquitous to allow 
the seller, when the day for the delivery ar- 
rived, to discharge his obligations by tender- 
ing a quantity that would weigh only 40 
hundred ; or, to compel him to deliver a 
quantity that would weigh 80 hundred, in 
payment. This would be palpable to the 
meanest capacity. Yet, how few realize 
the fact, that equal injustice is constantly 
beiug practised, in consequence of changes 
in the measure of value. In times of pros- 
perity, when the balance of trade is in favor 



I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTKK. 



325 



°f the United States, gold and silver ai 
cumulated in the eountry. Like every other 
article of opmmeroe, their value is affected 
to a great extent, by the ratio bet wren the 
supply and the demand. When the supply 
is increased, the demand remaining the same, 
the value is diminished, and on the other 
hand, as the supply is diminished, the value 
is increased. 

• Let us now look at some of the practieal 
effects of these fluctuations in the supply 
and value of the precious metals on the con- 
traets of men. If a farmer contract a debt 
of $1,000 to-day, when wheat is worth SI 
per bushel, he can discharge his debt by 
transferring to his creditor 1,000 bushels of 
wheat, or the price for which he can sell it. 
But, suppose he contracts a debt of that 
amount, payable in one or two years, and, 
in the meantime, the balance of trade has 
turned against the United States, — a rapid 
exportation of specie has taken place, and 
the quantity in the country is reduced one- 
half. It is plain, that the value of gold will 
have appreciated nearly in an inverse ratio 
to the quantity left. The measure of value 
will have changed ; one dollar will now buy 
what it would have required two dollars to 
buy the year before ; and the farmer will 
now have to give two thousand bushels of 
wheat, or its price, to pay the debt, which 
one thousand bushels would have paid, at the 
date of the contract. Thus, by a change in 
the condition of the currency, his debt is 
substantially doubled, because it requires 
double the amount of property to pay it. 

We had many striking illustrations of 
this proposition during the commercial re- 
vulsion of 1857. In that year, our imports 
greatly exceeded our exports, and it became 
necessary to send abroad a large portion of 
the coin of our country, to pay our foreign 
indebtedness. Heavy drafts were, accord- 
ingly, made on the specie in general circu- 
lation, and on the reserved stocks in the 
banks. These drafts were, for a time, 
promptly met, but at length they became so 
onerous, that the banks were compelled to 
suspend specie payments. A panic soon 
followed, credit was prostrated, those who 
had money hoarded it, and debtors found it 
almost impossible to obtaiu coin, to discharge 
their obligations. Gold was nearly doubled 
in value, and those who were fortunate 
enough to have it were enabled to buy Vir- 
ginia State bonds at 854 per share of $100, 
and all other property at similar rates of 



depreciation. Tho debtor, therefore, who 
relied 00 the sale of Virginia stocks or Other 
property to meet his obligations, found him- 
self under the necessity of selling twiee the 
quantity he he had anticipated to pay his 

debt. And the mischief was aggravated by 
the fact, that the low in all such eases, fell 
on those least able to bear it, and the profit 
accrued to the capitalist and the speculator. 

These revulsious in our monetary s\ 
have been of such frequent occurrence, and 
have been attended with such wide spread 
ruin, that it is time public attention should 
be directed to the discovery of the appro- 
priate remedy. In my judgment they can 
only be averted by making more at home, 
and buying less abroad. We should incur 
no foreign debt which the exports of our 
own productions will not pay. We should 
keep our gold and silver at home, and there- 
by maintain the stability of the standard of 
value. If it is to fluctuate at all, it is bet- 
ter that the fluctuation should be in favor 
of the debtor than the creditor — by a de- 
preciation in value, caused by too large a 
supply of gold and silver, than by a rise in 
consequence of a scarcity. This policy 
commends itself, especially, to the favor of 
those who are inimical to the extravagant 
system of credits, which has prevailed in 
our country. It will certainly tend to im- 
pose wholesome restraints on it by giving 
the creditor to understand that deferred 
obligations will probably be discharged in a 
depreciated currency. 

An abundaat supply of gold will also 
serve to develop new sources of wealth, and 
to stimulate industry and enterprise in ev- 
ery department of business. 

The present is an auspicious time for the 
investigation of the subject, in all its rela- 
tions and bearings. We are just recovering 
from the effects of one commercial crisis, 
and unless all the signs of the times are 
fallacious, wc are fast drifting on to another. 
The importations of the present year prom- 
ise to outstrip in amount those of 185G-'7. 
Already the clouds that indicate the ap- 
proaching storm are visible in the horizon. 
Heavy indebtedness has been incurred, and 
there is no foreign demand for our bread- 
stuffs Cotton will go far in liquidation, but 
it will not suffice to discharge it. L 
shipments of specie have commenced. The 
measure of value is being rapidly contracted, 
and prices have fallen, and will continue to 
fall, until they sink below the European 



326 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



level. The gold and silver, which should be 
employed at home, is going abroad to pay for 
articles -which ought to have been manufac- 
tured at our own doors. 

Let us refer, for a moment, to the statis- 
tics of the import and export of the precious 
metals. The export of specie from New 
York and Boston alone, in the first eight 
months of the present year, amounted, in 
round numbers, to fifty-seven millions of 
dollars. The receipts from California and 
all other sources, for the same period, were 
about twenty-eight millions. The difference, 
twenty-nine millions, has therefore been 
drawn from the banks and the general cir- 
culation of the country. 

On the 1st of January last, the banks of 
New York held about twenty-nine millions 
of specie, and at the close of August they 
held twenty-one and a-half millions. They 
lost, therefore, in the period referred to, but 
seven and a-half millions, and the difference 
between seven and a-half and twenty-nine 
millions, equal to twenty-one and a-half mil- 
lions, must have been drawn from the gene- 
ral circulation, or, in other words, from the 
pockets of the people. 

The farmers, in common with all other 
classes of society, but to a greater extent 
than any other, are now feeling the effects 
of this drain of the circulating medium from 
the country. The drafts are made, prima- 
rily, on the commercial cities. They, in 
turn, draw on their debtors in the interior. 
As long as the supply from this source con- 
tinues, the commercial centres can maintain 
their standing, but when it is exhausted, 
suspension and bankruptcy, and all the evils 
which follow in their train, are inevitable. 

The whole supply of coin in the United 
States was estimated, by the Secretary of 
the Treasury, (Mr. Guthrie,) in his report 
to Congress on the finances, in 1856-'7, at 
from ($200,000,000) two hundred millions 
of dollars to ($250,000,000) two hundred 
and fifty millions. If the export shall con- 
tinue to exceed the import as it has done in 
the last twelve months, it is plain that it 
will not require many years to exhaust the 
stock on hand. Need I pause to comment 
on the countless mischiefs that would result 
from such a condition of things ? 

When will our farmers begin to compre- 
hend their true interests, and to adopt the 
measures necessary to protect them ? When 
will they learn that their prosperity is inti- 
mately — nay, indissolubly — associated with 



the manufactures, and the commerce, and 
the currency of the country ? When will 
they understand that every dollar of gold 
and silver exported from the United States 
contracts the scale by which the prices of 
of their productions are to be regulated ? 

Gold is the medium of commerce, as well 
as the measure of value. By its agency all 
the exchanges of the subjects of commerce 
are effected. Withdraw gold from the coun-« 
try, and you at once depress the value of 
property — paralyze the arm of industry — 
stagnate the channels of commerce, and 
prostrate the interests of agriculture. 

I proceed now to the consideration of the 
second topic to which I propose to invite 
your attention, viz : the relation of agricul- 
ture to the labor of the country. 

In treating this branch of my subject, I 
do not propose to limit my observations to 
the labor which is directly employed in ag- 
ricultural pursuits, but to present a brief 
review of its relations to the whole system 
of American labor, in all its departments. 
And, in this connection, I desire to make 
some remarks on the two systems of labor, 
free and slave, which exist in the two great 
geographical divisions of our confederacy; 
and to enquire whether it be true, as has 
been asserted in various quarters, and on 
high authority, that there is an inherent, ne- 
cessary, and continuing antagonism between 
the two systems. 

As preliminary to this enquiry, it may be 
proper to glance at the origin of the system 
of slave-labor in the United States. 

History informs us, that more than a cen- 
tury elapsed, after the discovery of America, 
before any successful effort was made to es- 
tablish permanent settlements of the white 
race on the eastern coast of our country. The 
first Colony was founded at Jamestown, in 
1607, but for many years it had to struggle 
against such discouraging difficulties, that 
it barely maintained a precarious existence. 
A few years later, the Pilgrims landed on 
Plymouth rock, and, by degrees, sparsely 
populated Colonies spread themselves along 
the coast, from Maine to Georgia. The 
dangers and privations incident to the set- 
tlement and subjugation of a new country 
prevented rapid immigration to it ; and, 
notwithstanding the .strong inducements that 
were offered, in the form of liberal grants 
of land, the growth of the Colonies was, 
by no means, satisfactory to those inter- 
ested. The number of laborers was in- 



I860.] 



THE SOUTIIKKN PLANTER. 



327 



adequate to the efficient settlement and 
cultivation of the fertile buds. To sup- 
ply this demand, the Mother Country, 
about the year L620, retorted to the expe- 
dient of introducing into these Colonies a 

of involuntary immigrants, in th 
sons of Africans, who had been captured in 
the wars between hostile tribes, in their 
native country, and according to their usages, 
sold into slavery. This policy was approved 
and practised by the Colonies for more than 
a century. 

At the date of the declaration of our na- 
tional independence, this system of invol- 
untary servitude, or slavery, had become 
engrafted on the institutions of all the 
Colonies. I use the term all the Colonies, 
advisedly ; for, although an impression has 
very generally prevailed, that slavery never 
existed in some of the New England States, 
the fact is otherwise, as may be seen by 
reference to the census tables. According 
to the census of 1790, there were 158 slaves 
in New Hampshire, and 17 in Vermont, and 
the official returns of 1830 show that there 
were slaves at that time in every New 
England State, except Vermont. 

At the commencement of our national 
existence, therefore, a compound system of 
labor — partly free and partly slave — per- 
vaded the whole confederacy. 

This system continued, in all the States, 



Some of our brethren of the North are 
disposed, Like certain of the Pharisees of 

old, to thank God " that tiny ;u< D 
other men are," and to assume to ti 

I and their StstOi greet credit for dis- 
interestedness and beneTolenee iu liber 
their slaves. 1 am as little disposed as any 
other man to withhold from them the pi 
to which they are justly entitled, for their 
many acknowledged virtues. I take pie*- 
sure in bearing testimony to their intelli- 
gence, integrity, industry, frugality, public 
spirit and geueral benevolence. But. 
spect for the truth of history constrains me 
to deny their right to be regarded as the 
benefactors of the negro race. 

A general impression prevails, both in 
the North and South, that the people of 
the Northern States, influenced by a gene- 
rous spirit of philanthropy, and a noble 
devotion to the cause of human liberty, 
voluntarily emancipated their slaves, by 
legislative enactments. If their legislation 
had been such as is generally supposed, it 
might well be questioned, how far it would 
establish their just claim to any high de- 
gree of merit, in a moral point of view ; 
because, as I have already stated, it had 
become manifest, before any such laws were 
adopted, that the slaves of the Northern 
States were a burthen, rather than a benefit. 
The policy of those States might, there- 



until the drudgery of subduing the prime- fore, be fairly attributed, rather to a dispo- 
val forests, and clearing the country for cul- sition to rid themselves of an ignoraut, im- 
tivation and comfortable habitation, had provident and unprofitable population, than 
been accomplished. Then the citizens of | to a desire to do justice to a " down-trod- 
the northern and middle States began to j den" race. 

turn their attention to other branches of i But what are the facts of the case. My 
industry, and the discovery was soon made, professional duty has led me to investigate 
that while negro labor may be profitably the legislation of some four or five of the 
employed in pursuits which require mere Northern States, on the subject of slavery ; 
physical strength, it cannot compete, sue- : and I have yet to find a law of any one of 
cessfully, with white labor, in those avoca- them, by which a single slave has been 
tions in which skill, ingenuity and intellect, , made free. I think I may safely challenge 
constitute important elements. Experience . the production of any such law, from 
also demonstrated, at an early day, that the ■ archives of any Colouy or State of this con- 
negro race were physically unfitted to en- federacy. This is a bold proposition, but I 
dure the rigors of a northern climate, believe it to be true. As far as I have ob- 



These considerations led to a general con- 
viction, in the Northern Colonies, that ne- 
gro labor was unprofitable, and induced 
them to adopt measures to rid themselves of 
the incumbrance of an unproductive popu- 
lation. 

And here, it may be instructive to pause, 
and contemplate the means by which that 
object was accomplished. 



served, the whole system of Northern 1 
lation has been directed, not to the emanci- 
pation of slaves, but to the removal of the 
slave population beyond their limits. 
their laws on the subject were pi 
None of them, as far as I have been able 
to discover, operated to confer freedom on 
the slaves in being. They simply pro- 
vided, that the offspring of female stares) 




328 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



who should be born within the jurisdiction' 
of the States passing such laws, after speci- 
fied dates, should be deemed free. All who 
were slaves at the time remained slaves. 
The laws were intended to operate only on 
the after-born children, and the rights se- 
cured to these were altogether contingent, 
and could never vest without the concur- 
rence of the owner of the female slave. 
There was no prohibition of the removal of 
the females. If the owner thought proper 
to retain them in the State which had 
adopted such laws, her offspring, born after 
the appointed day, became free. Freedom, 
therefore, even to the after-born children, 
was not the effect of legislation alone, but 
of legislation and the concurrent action of 
the master, in retaining the female in the 
State, until the law could take effect on the 
children. Without the consent of the mas- 
ter, indicated by retaining her in the State, 
until after the prescribed date, the law 
would have been inoperative. 

It requires no great sagacity to see that 
this is the whole object and tendency of 
their legislation, as I have already stated, 
not to the emancipation of slaves, but their 
removal to other States. It amounted, 
simply, to a notice to the owner to sell his 
female slaves before a given day, under 
penalty of forfeiting her increase. The 
practical effects were such as might have 
been reasonably anticipated. The owners 
of the females took especial care to sell 
them southward before the laws took effect, 
and in this way the unprofitable slaves were 
transferred to the South, where the climate 
was more propitious, and the productions 
better adapted to their peculiar capacities 
for labor. 

This view of the effects of these laws is 
strongly fortified by facts derived from the 
census tables. We have no authentic means 
of ascertaining the number of slaves in any 
of the States, prior to 1790, and we cannot, 
therefore, institute all the enquiries which 
we might desire, but we do know that the 
policy of removal, miscalled emancipation, 
was adopted between 1776 and 1790, and 
was in full operation at the latter date. A 
reference to the census of 1790 shows, that 
the whole number of free negroes in the 
nine Northern States (including Maine) at 
that date, was but 27,109. The fact that 
the number of free negroes in those States 
was so small, in 1790, is very persuasive, 
at least, to prove, that under this much 



lauded system of legislation, freedom ac- 
crued to a very small proportion of the 
slaves of the Northern States. Much the 
larger number were sold to the people of 
the South, and the descendents of those 
slaves, now held under the warranty of 
title given by Northern venders, constitute s 
a large portion of the slave population of 
the Southern States ) and the purchase 
money paid for them by citizens of the 
South, contributed, in no small degree, to 
build up the manufactures and commerce of 
the Northern and Middle States. 

It is also instructive to observe how the 
anti-slavery legislation of the North has 
kept pace with the increase of the growth 
of the great staples of the South. 

It was not until the latter part of the 
eighteenth century, after Hargrave and Ark- 
wright had invented the spinning-jenny and 
Whitney the cotton-gin, that cotton became 
one of the important crops of the Southern 
States. As late as 1794, when G-en. Pinkney, 
of South Carolina, enumerated to John Jay 
the exports of South Carolina, cotton was 
not included in the list. 

The inventions of the great mechanics, 
above referred to, gave a vigorous impulse 
to the culture of cotton, and it has now be- 
come the most important article of Ameri- 
can commerce. 

Cotton is an article peculiarly adapted to 
negro labor. Its culture is simple, and re- 
quires but little skill. It can be produced 
profitably only in the Southern States., 
where the almost vertical rays of the sun, 
and the debilitating influences of the cli- 
mate, render it impossible for the white 
race to perform the labor necessary to till 
and secure the crop. The physical peculi- 
arities of the negro, on the other hand, fit 
him admirably for the work. Created with 
a system of pores and glands adapted to the 
tropical climate of his native country, he 
thrives and grows strong under the sultry 
heat of the planting States, which would 
cause the most athletic of the Caucasian 
race, to sink into hopeless prostration. 

When cotton became an important crop 
in the South, it opened a wide field for 
negro labor, and created a large demand for 
negro laborers. The opposite condition of 
things in the Northern States, where it had 
been ascertained by actual experiment, that 
negro labor could not be profitably em- 
ployed, naturally led both sections to adopt 
a policy which would tend to the transfer of 



860.] 



Til K SOUTH K KN PLANT K It. 



lave population from the Northern to 
the Southern St 

In view of thex- historical facta, and logi- 

cal deductions from them, it is idle to pre- 
tend that the legislation of the North was 
dictated by any sentiment of necrophilism. 
It was the offspring of an enlightened self- 
interest, and of those natural and OOOnomio 
laws, which lead to the adjustment of all 
things according to their just rclatious and 
affiniti 

Having thus examined the principles by 
which Northern policy, in regard to slavery, 
was guided, it is proper that I should now 
advert to the changes which have taken 
place in public opinion at the South, on the 
same subject. 

At the date of our Revolution, the agri- 
culture of the South was in a languishing 
condition, and many of our wisest men at- 
tributed its want of prosperity to the ex- 
istence of slavery. Washington, Jefferson, 
Madison, Mason, Edmund Randolph, and 
other sages of that day, were deeply imbued 
with anti-slavery sentiments. Jefferson, in 
his first draft of the Declaration of indepen- 
dence, and George Mason, in the preamble 
to the Constitution of Virginia, made it one 
of the grave causes of complaint agaiust 
the British sovereign, that he had, " by an 
inhuman use of his negative, refused us 
permission to exclude negroes, by law, from 
Virginia." In his Notes on Virginia, and 
other productions of his pen, Jefferson ex- 
pressed his opposition to slavery in the 
strongest terms, and, faithful to his princi- 
ples, after long and untiring efforts, hi 
ceeded in excluding it from the North- 
western Territory, by the ordinance of I 787. 

In 1788, George Mason, who had been 
a member of the Convention which framed 
the Constitution of the United States, in his 
letter to the Legislature of Virginia, ex- 
plaining his reasons for withholding his sig- 
nature from that instrument, assigned, as 
one of them, its failure to place an immedi- 
ate interdict on the African slave trade. 

I allude to these facts in no spirit of un- 
kindness to either section, but for the pur- 
pose of showing that neither section has 
been governed in its policy by the high 
principles of benevolence to which 
sometimes lay claim. The history of the 
world will prove that, while individuals may 
he, and often are, intluenccd by the nobler 
impulses of our nature, communities are 
controlled by their interest. The Northern 



and Southern divisions of the Union ('in- 
stitute no exception to this role. This fact 
should teach us a lesson of mutual charity 

and forbearance! 

The fact having been established, that 
negro labor is indispensable for the cultiva- 
tion of cotton, and that white labor can he 
economically substituted for it, in the pro- 
duction of cereals, live-stock, and every- 
thing that is grown in the Northern sad 
Middle States, there has been a uniform 
tendency of the labor of the country, te> 
adjust itself according to this standard. 
Slave-labor is rapidly concentrating itself in 
tue planting States ; while free-labor i- 
taking possession of the grain-growing and 
grazing States. 

Planting and negro labor have a natural 
affinity, which, legislate as we may, will 
eventually assert its power. Labor, like 
every other commodity, will seek the best 
market. It will go where it will command 
the highest price. This great principle of 
politieal^cononiy withdrew slave-labor from 
the wheat and rye fields of the North, and 
it is this principle which is now draining 
the slave population from the border or pro- 
vision States to the plantiug States. 

The high prices of the products of South- 
ern plantations enhances the value of slaves, 
and they are being rapidly sold to the plant- 
ers. The interest on the prices they now 
command in market is almost equal to the 
annual value of their labor when employed 
in farming, and hence the farmer finds it 
to his interest to sell them. 

The operation of this cause will be felt 
more sensibly every day. The acquisition 
of Texas, and the reclamation of the swamp 
lands of the Southern States, by enlarging 
the area of the cotton and sugar region, has 
tended greatly to enhance the price of ne- 
groes, and to withdraw them from Virginia, 
and the border States. Should additional 
territory be acquired in that quarter, the 
exportation of slaves will be accelerated, 
and at no distant day, it may become the 
pecuniary interest of Virginia to follow the 
It ad of the Northern States, and send her 
I slaves to the South. Everything seems to in- 
dicate a steady advance in the price of ne- 
groes. The demand for cotton is constantly 
iSing, and the failure of all attempts 
jto produce it elsewhere has shown, that the 
world must be dependent on the United 
States for its supply. By a wise provision 
| of nature, every country has the capacity 




330 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[June 



to produce the food necessary for its popu- 
lation. The price of food must, therefore, 
be regulated and restrained, by the general 
production of the world. But only a limit- 
ed district of country is adapted to the pro- 
duction of cotton. It can, therefore, have 
but little competition in the market, and as 
the demand increases more rapidly than the 
supply, the price of cotton, and of the labor 
necessary to produce it, must continue to 
advance. No one can yet predict the effect 
which the extension of commercial rela- 
tions with China, 5 Japan, and the East In- 
dies, is to have on the prices of the great 
staples of the South. 

These facts lead thoughtful men to en- 
quire, whether, at a future day, the line be- 
tween the free and slave States, may not be 
more sharply and distinctly defined, than it 
is at present, and the institution of slavery 
be restricted exclusively to the planting 
States. 

The tendency, is, certainly, in that di- 
rection at present, and a rise of twenty per 
cent, on the present value of slaves will 
lead to such an exodus, as has never yet 
been witnessed in Virginia, and the other 
grain-growing States. In this aspect, it is 
time that our people should ^consider whe- 
ther the interest of Virginia will be ad- 
vanced by the acquisition of additional ter- 
ritory adapted to the culture of cotton, 
when that acquisition is to be followed by 
the loss of a large portion of her effective 
labor. 

This brief review of the history and pro- 
gress of slavery is, I think, sufficient to 
show, that for the last seventy-five years, 
the tendency of labor of our country has 
been to adjust itself with reference to the 
productions of the different sections — free 
labor having acquired the ascendency in all 
the mechanical, commercial and farming de- 
partments of industry, and slave labor in 
those connected with the production of rice, 
sugar, cotton and tobacco. 

And here, we are naturally led to con- 
sider a doctrine, which has recently been 
presented to the country under the most im- 
posing circumstances. About a year ago, a 
distinguished Senator from the State of New 
York, in an address to the people of that 
State, expressed his deliberate conviction, 
that there is an inherent, and irreconcilable 
antagonism between the systems of free and 
slave labor. He said : 

" Hitherto the two systems have existed 



in different States, but side by side within 
the American Union. This has happened 
because the Union is a confederation of 
States. But, in another aspect, the United 
States constitute only one nation. Increase 
of population, which is filling the States out 
to their very borders, together with a new 
and extended network of railroads and other 
avenues, and an internal commerce which 
daily becomes more intimate, is rapidly 
bringing the States into a higher and more 
perfect social unity or consolidation. Thus 
these antagonistic systems are continually 
coming into closer contact, and collision re- 
sults. 

11 Shall I tell you what this collision 
means ? They who think that it is acci- 
dental, unnecessary, the work of interested 
or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephe- 
meral, mistake the case altogether. It is 
an irrepressible conflict between opposing 
and enduring forces, and it means that the 
United States must and will, sooner or later, 
become either entirely a slave-holding nation, 
or entirely a free-labor nation. Either the 
cotton and rice fields of South Carolina, and 
the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ulti- 
mately be tilled by free labor, and Charles- 
ton and New Orleans become marts for le- 
gitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye 
fields and wheat fields of Massachusetts and 
New York must again be surrendered by 
their farmers to slave culture and to the 
production of slaves, and Boston and New 
York become once more markets for trade 
in the bodies and souls of men. It is the 
failure to apprehend this great truth that 
induces so many unsuccessful attempts at 
final compromise between the slave and free 
States, and it is the existence of this great 
fact that renders all such pretended compro- 
mises when made vain and ephemeral. 
******** 

" I know, and you know, that a revolu- 
tion has begun. I know, and all the world 
knows, that revolutions never go back- 
wards." 

. The proposition is certainly a startling 
one, and it took the country by surprise. 

It involves an impeachment of the wis- 
dom of the fathers of the republic, and a 
condemnation of the Constitution of the 
United States, as an abortive effort to blend 
together in harmonious co-operation ele- 
ments essentially incongruous and antago- 
nistic. 

Is this proposition true ? Does it em 



I860.] 



THE SO FT UK UN PLANT i: II 



331 



1 lea flf :t "i, in the 

' ition of the term, or is it the 

'•m, addressed to the jealous 

prejudices of a section. 

[f the two systems of labor exi~ 

ii.> localities, competing and 
interfering with each other, maintaining a 

ut rivalry, arid provoking colli 
by constant efforts to supplant each other, 
there might be some ground for apprehend- 
conflict between them. But do the 
IM justify any such assump- 
tion F On the contrary, docs not the whole 
] history of the country negative the 

idea, and show that the tendency of the two 
ms is toscparation, — to the withdrawal 
of each from the field appropriate to the 
other, rather than to mutual aggression, col- 
lision and conflict? Where, then, is the 
evidence of antagonism between them ? — 
Upon what facts docs this orator, who is so 
swift to pronounce judgment of condemna- 
tion on Washington and Hamilton, and 
Madison, and Jay, rely, to maintain his mis- 
ihievons dogma ? If it be true, the alter- 
native he offers is submission or disunion ; 
abolition or revolution ! Is the country 
prepared tor such an alternative ? Do our 
northern brethren desire to press it upon 
The events of the next year may show. 
Their decision will derive new and fearful 
significance from events that have recently 
occurred within our borders. Should the 
sentiments of. the Senator from New York 
be endorsed and adopted by the people of 
the North, it will be time for the people of 
the South to decide what course their inte- 
. and their honor, and safety may re- 
quire them to pursue. 

I, for one, cannot believe that such an en- 
dorsement will be given. The solemn ad- 
monitions of W n have not yet been 
forgotten by his countrymen. His pro- 
phetic wisdom foresaw the character of the 
appeals which "designing men" would 
make to local prejudices, and, in his farewell 
address, he warned the people against them 
in these impressive wor I 

" In contemplating the causes which 
may disturb our Union, it occurs as ni 
of serious concern, that any ground should 
have been furnished for characterizing par- 
tics by geographical discriminations, .Y<>rth- 
ern and Southern, AHc 
whence desiguing men may endeavor to in- 
cite a belief that there is a real difference 
of local interest and views. One of the 



expedients of party, to acquire infl' 
with particular districts, i> to misi 
the opiaiottS &nd aims of other diet 
You cannot shield jonrteh much 

against the jealousies and heart-bur 
which spring from these misn 
They tend to render alien to each other 
who ought to be bound together by 
fraternal affection. " 

Let the people of the United States look 
on this picture and on that ! Here are the 
counsels of Washington — 'here the S-nator 
from New York. Let the people choose 
between them ! 

Washington teaches that while it may be 
the province of "designing men" to foment 
local jealousies — to array section against 
section — to divide, that they may rule, as 
heads of dominant factions, it is the higher, 
and nobler, and holier mission of the pa- 
triotic statesman, to reconcile differences of 
opinion — to bring order out of chaos — to 
blend opposing forces into harmonious ac- 
tion, for the public good. 

The idea that the tide of slavery, which, 
for three-quarters of a century, has been 
constantly receding from the North, is about 
to reverse its flow, is as absurd as to sup- 
pose that the waves of the Atlantic will 
again sweep over the crests of the Allcgha- 
nies. • The people of the North cannot be 
ed on by any such shallow sophistry. 
But looking at the question in another 
aspect — has the South anything to fear from 
Northern aggression. 

I answer, unhesitatingly, nothing what- 
ever ! This answer is dictated not only by 
a reference to the provisions of the federal 

tution, which forbid all such ag 
sinns, but by other and still HOT 
considerations. I know that constitutional 
lotions', and parchment guarantees, and 
the rights intended to be guarded by them, 
may be trampled under foot, and thei 
do not always present a safe bulwark of de- 
Hut there is another, and in deference to 
the nomenclature of the author of the doc- 
trine on which I am commenting, I will call 
higher law," which men never violate 
wilfully, and which will ever remain >ure 
and 8 tea Ifast : I mean, the la 

If all higher considerations should 
fail — if the men of the North should be 
to the appeals of justice — if they 
should prove regardless of all their con- 
stitutional and legal obligations, and feel 






332 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



disposed to violate the rights of the South- 
ern States, they would be restrained from 
doing so, by the knowledge of the fact, that 
the blow which prostrated the interests of 
the South would inflict an immedicable 
wound on the prosperity of the North. 

Where, then, I repeat, is the evidence of 
antagonism between the interests or the la- 
bor of the North and of the South ? Those 
who arc disposed to indulge in narrow and 
contracted views of subjects may fancy they 
see evidences of an " irrepressible conflict" 
between heat and cold ; light and darkness ; 
summer and winter ; the centripetal and 
centrifugal forces; and a thousand other 
objects in the material world, which seem 
to be irreconcilable ; yet, under the rule of 
a wise and benificent Providence, how beau- 
tifully all these apparently opposing ele- 
ments work together in harmony, to accom- 
plish the wonderful designs of Him whose 
hand directs the machinery of the universe ! 

When the scales are removed from the 
eyes of such as I have mentioned, they dis- 
cern that the only discord was in their own 
wicked hearts, and that the seeming antag- 
onism in the elements of nature was but 
harmony not understood ! 

So, it often happens, in regard to politi- 
cal affairs, that men whose minds are mis- 
led by local interest, or distorted by party 
prejudices, can see nothing in the progress 
of events but evidences of clashing inte- 
rests and u irrepressible conflicts," while, 
to those who survey the same objects, from 
a loftier stand-point, every element is seen 
to be performing its appropriate functions, 
for the development of some wise and ben- 
ificent result. 

How strangely must that mind be consti- 
tuted, which can perceive a tendency to an- 
tagonism in two systems which move in dif- 
ferent orbits, and have entirely different 
functions to perform ; systems widely sepa- 
rated, geogrophically, and whose influence 
is felt only in the benefits which they re- 
ciprocally confer on each other ! 

Southern labor is devoted to the produc- 
tion of articles unsuited to the climate and 
labor of the free States. Its great staples 
are cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice. Of 
these, but one, tobacco, and that to a small 
extent only, can be produced north of the 
Delaware. 

On the other hand, the labor of the free 
States is directed to the cultivation of grain 
and the feeding of live-stock, and to manu- 



factures and commerce, and other pursuits 
which are better adapted to the habits of 
their people, and the qualities and pecu- 
liarities of their soil and climate. 

How, then, can the labor of one section 
come into competition with that of the 
other ? Do not the productions of the" 
North find their best markets in the South ? 
Are not the slaves of the planting States 
the largest consumers of the coarse woolens, 
and cottons, and shoes, and hats made by the 
labor of the North ? Do not the planters also 
buy a large portion of the finer goods, and fur- 
niture, and hardware, and machinery, and 
carriages, and saddlery, and agricultural 
implements manufactured at the North ? 

And does not the the South supply the 
North with its cotton, and sugar, and rice, 
and tobacco, and other commodities, in their 
crude condition, ready to be converted by 
the labor and skill of the North, into the 
most valuable subjects of commerce ? How 
then can there be antagonism between two 
sections of country, and two systems of la- 
bor, whose productions, and whose avoca- 
tions, are so widely different ? Antagnism 
implies opposition,— rivalry,— competition,— 
the interference of one with the other. But 
here, there is nothing of the kind. Neither 
produces what the other can profitably pro- 
duce — on the contrary, each produces pre- 
cisely what the other cannot produce, but what 
the other needs. Each offers to the other 
a good market for what it has to sell. An 
exchange, mutually beneficial, takes place 
between them. Both are enriched by it. 
The product of slave labor helps to pay the 
wages of the free labor of the North, and 
the product of free labor helps to pay to 
the owner of slaves the expense which he 
incurs, and the profit which he makes, by 
his operations on his plantation. Each sec- 
tion, and each system, consequently, con- 
tributes to the prosperity and wealth of the 
other. They are mutual benefactors, in- 
stead of antagonists. The relations between 
the two systems have become so intimate, 
and so interwoven with each other, that they 
can no longer be regarded as separate, inde- 
pendent systems, but are, in fact, harmoni- 
ous elements of one great system of Ame- 
rican labor. The truth of this proposition 
will be manifest, if we will turn our thoughts, 
for a moment, to the consequences which 
would ensue from a disturbance of the re- 
lations, which now happily subsist between 
these elements. 



i 



Til E SO IT II I- R \ I' L A NT E R. 






If slavery were, by common con 
abolished throughout the United Bl 

wo cannot doubt that the eonsequ< 

: I'.' similar to tbOM ^s 1 1 1 < - 1 1 MloW- 

ipation in the British West India 

Is. Wherever the negro is found, 

tore is tl Then indisposition 

to labor has become proverbial. It exhi- 

. not only in their native country, 

ami in the sultry climate of the Smith, but 

midst the bustle and activity of the 

Northern and Western cities, in which they 
They labor only under the 
are of necessity, and only to the ex- 
tent which that necessity imperatively re- 
quires. As soon, therefore, as the discip- 
line and compulsory authority of the master 
was withdrawn, they would sink into habits 
of idleness, which would leave the plantations 
of the Southern States, like those of Jamai- 
ca, desolate and uncultivated. They would 
seek a precarious subsistence, by irregular 
effort, and by depredations on the property 
of those around them. The production of 
the great staples of the South, would rapidly 
diminish, and ultimately they would cease 
to be articles of export. White labor could 
not be substituted, because experience has 
shown, that the white race cannot endure 
the exposure to the sun and atmosphere, 
which is necessary for the production of 
cotton, tobacco, sugar and rice. The abo- 
lition of slavery would, therefore, be equiv- 
alent to the banishment of those articles from 
the manufactures and commerce of the coun- 
try. And what mind can conceive, or what 
pen portray, the consequences to the busi' 
and comfort, and happiness of the civilized 
world ! It would involve the destruction 
of countless millions of dollars of capital 
in the South, vested in lands, and in slaves 
and Btock and machinery necessary to cul- 
tivate them ; and in the North, in the fac- 
tories erected to work up the products of 
Southern labor, and to produce all the fa- 
brics necessary to supply its wants. It 
would involve the prostration of done 
trade, manufactures, and the mechanic arts 
— the stagnation of unmerce — the 

derangement of the balance of trade and 
rates of exchange — diaai nvulsioni 

in the monetary system — the serious injury 
of our shipping interest — I decline in our 
national resources — the paralysis of indus- 
try in all its departments — a general de- 
pression in the value of property, and 
>a scene of bankruptcy and ruin to which 



the history of our country affords no pa- 
rallel. 

Such would be some of the more promi- 
nent and direct results of that 
emancipation which deluded enthu 
selfish agitators would seek to accomplish. 

Hut the picture is, by no mi 
plete. It is plain thai the evils I have 
enumerated, would fall with more: crushing 

force on the interests and people of the 

North, than on those of the South. But, 
there are others peculiarly affecting thi 
States, which should not bo passed over in 
silence. 

Who, that has visited the Northern 
States, has failed to note, with pride and 
pleasure, the evidences of prosperity and 
comfort that greet his eye at every turn ? 
Well cultivated fields — ueat farm-houses — 
thriving villages — cities thronged with a 
busy and enterprising population — facto- 
ries, furnishing employment to thousands — 
harbors crowded with shipping — wharves 
loaded with the merchandise of the most 
distant lands — all bear testimony, which 
cannot be mistaken, to the material pros- 
perity of the people. Innumerable school- 
houses, and churches, and noble institu- 
tions, devoted to literary and benevolent 
purposes, in like manner attest the atten- 
tion which is bestowed on the culture and 
development of the moral and intellectual 
faculties of the citiz 

Explore the sources of all this wealth and 
prosperity — enquire what stimulates this 
industry into activity '.' — what gives vitality 
to this extensive domestic trade'/ — what 
freights these fleets of merchantmen, on their 
outward voyages, and supplies the means of 
buyingthe home-bound cargoes'/ — in aword, 
what sustains this whole system of industry, 
and equalizes the balance of trade between 
our own an 1 foreign countries f Every en- 
lightened man will answer that the produc- 
tions of the planting States, the fruit 

than all other 
alts! 

If, then, this system of labor should be 
:ly overthrown, by emancipating the 
9 roth, and the substitution of 
a Worthless, indolent, pauper population in 
disciplined, and vig- 
orous slaves who now supply the productive 
r of the South, who can compute the 
amount of injury that would accrue to 
the North ? Strike the single article of 



334 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



cotton from the commercial schedules, and 
what would become of the factories, and 
commerce, and navigation of the North ; 
and of all the interests dependent on them ? 
Let business men answer the question. 

But these are not the only evils, that 
would enure to the people of the non-slave- 
holding States, from such a policy. If the 
Southern slaves were liberated, they would, 
naturally, desire to remove from the scenes 
of their labor and humiliation, and seek 
abodes among the people of the North, 
whose sympathy had cheered them in their 
bondage, and whose homes and hearts, they 
would reasonably infer, were open to receive 
them. The three millions of liberated 
slaves, thus left free to choose their own 
places of residence, would soon scatter them- 
selves, in the Northern and Western States, 
in quest of the means of substance. The 
better class would at once come into compe- 
tition with the laboring population of the 
North, in all the more simple employments 
for which they were qualified, and the dray- 
men, hackmen, cartmen, porters, hotel-wait- 
ers, stevedores, domestic servants, day-la- 
borers, and others of like occupations, 
would doubtless find them formidable rivals, 
who would supplant them, or greatly re- 
duce the profits of their callings. Much 
the larger proportion, however, from their 
natural aversion to labor, would refuse to 
work, and with their families, sink into the 
lowest depths of destitution and wretched- 
ness ; and the jails, alms-houses, and peni- 
tentiaries of the North would be their only 
refuge from starvation. They would become 
an intolerable burthen, and all classes of 
society would rise up to expel them. Under 
these circumstances, I can readily see how 
the tendency to a " conflict" between the 
black and the white laborer would become 
" irrepressible." The white laborer whose 
avocation had, heretofore, been respectable, 
and who had been accustomed to receive 
wages adequate for the support of his family, 
would not tolerate the competition of those 
who would degrade the dignity of labor, 
and underbid him in his business. The tax- 
payers would not submit to the burthen of 
maintaining an idle and thriftless popula- 
tion. The land-holder would not be con- 
tent to have near his premises a class whose 
subsistence would be eked out by pilfering. 
A conflict would necessarily ensue — a con- 
flict of clashing interests, and hostile races 
brought into immediate collision — a conflict 



which must necessarily result in violence 
and bloodshed. 

Is this picture overdrawn ? I refer those 
who think so to the riots that have already 
occurred from these causes, in Cincinnati, 
Philadelphia, and other cities and townships 
in the non-slaveholding States. And whert 
it is remembered that but a few hundreds of 
free negroes, and these above the average of 
their race, for freedom is generally conferred 
on the most worthy, or acquired by the 
most thrifty, have led to such outbursts of 
popular indignation and violence, what 
would be the consequence of having three 
millions of them, of all ages, sizes, 
classes and conditions, precipitated on the 
non-slaveholding States ! . 

I maintain, therefore, that precisely the 
opposite of the proposition of the distin- 
guished Senator from New York is true. 
As long as slavery exists, it will retain the 
negro population in the Southern States — 
it will keep them separate and apart, and 
prevent their coming into competition with 
the laboring classes of the North — and the 
fruits of their labor will be auxiliary to the 
interests of the white race. 

But the moment they are emancipated, 
the present line of demarcation between the 
two systems of labor will be eradiated. 
The levee, which confines the negro race 
within the Southern States, will be broken 
down, and a deluge of free negro migration 
will pour its desolating flood over the whole 
North and West, sweeping before it the 
peace and happiness and best interests of 
the people. The Northern States will then 
discover, when it is too late to repair the 
mischief, that they have rashly and wickedly 
undone all that was done for them by the 
wise policy of their earlier statesmen. 

Were I a Northern man, therefore, and 
disposed to assume the championship of 
Northern interests, I would admonish my 
fellow citizens not to aid in the emancipation 
of the slaves of the South, but to remon- 
strate against it, and to resist it by all fair 
and honorable means, as fraught with incal- 
culable mischief to the free States. I 
would conjure them to leave the whole sub- 
ject in the hands of those immediately con- 
cerned, and of Him, who, although his 
purposes cannot be fathomed by human 
sagacity, we know, shapes the destiny of 
nations, and ordereth all things wisely and 
well. 

Let us, then, by common consent, discard 



I860.] 



THE SOUTH BRN PLANTER. 



:,3:> 



from our minds and our lu-nrts ill I 

■nfounded notions of asUgoBitB between 
different parts of our common country. 

itors have existed in i 
age — torj teaches oj an instructive 

i on this subject In the early d i; 
Christianity, we arc informed, the members 
of the church f Corinth were bl< 
above all others, with spiritual gifts. To 
one was given wisdom, to another know- 
. to another faith, to another the gift 
ding, to another the working of mini- 
to another prophecy, to another dis- 
cerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of 
tongues, to another the interpretation of 
tongues. All these gifts proceeded from the 
game spirit, and all were intended to work 
t together for one common object — the salva- 
tion of man and the glory of God ! But 
the possessors of these various gifts, mis- 
taking diversity for discord, began each to 
exalt himself above his neighbor, and to 
vie with him in the display of his endow- 
ments. A learned biblical commentator 
and historian (Thomas Scott) informs us 
that "this gave rise to vain glory, envy, 
corrupt emulations and repinings, which were 
equally opposed to piety and charity." 

Thus it would seem that the very abun- 
dance of the gifts bestowed on the Corin- 
thians became the chief source of danger to 
their spiritual welfare. 

This led the great Apostle to the Gen- 
tiles to administer to them a rebuke for 
their dissensions, full of wisdom and pro- 
fitable for instruction. After adverting to 
the munificent endowments which they had 
received at the hands of God, and the im- 
r use they were disposed to make of 
them, he said, (1st Corinthians, ohap. 12 :) 

•• Pot, as the body is one, and hath many 
Members, and all the members of that one 
body, being many, are one body, so also is 
Chrisi 

" For by one spirit we are all baptised 

into one body — whether we be Jews or Gen- 

— whether we be bond or free, and 

hav. all 1 to drink into one spirit. 

" For the body is not one member, but 
many. 

" If the foot shall say, because I am not 
the hand, I am not of the body, is it there- 
fore not of the body ? 

" And if the ear shall say, because I am 
not the eye, I am not of the body, is it 
therefore not of the body ? 

" If the whole body were an eye, where 



the hearing f If the wl. bear- 

ing, « h the m< U 

41 Hut now hath Grod Bel the members, 
every one of them, in the body as it hath 
pleased him. 

•• And if they were all one member, where 
were the bodj r 

11 Hut now are they many members, yet 
but one body. 

" And the eve cannot say unto the hand, 
I have no need of thee; nor again the head 
to the feet, I have no need of you." 

These words of counsel and admonition 
were addressed by St. Paul, eighteen centu- 
_:o, to the factious Corinthians. But 
they were written and incorporated into the 
Holy Scripture, for the instruction of all 
nations and all ages. May not the people 
of the United States learn a lesson of 
wisdom from them ? 

No nation ever possessed such a heritage 
as we enjoy. Providence has lavished on 
us every blessing in the richest profusion. 
With a territory stretching from the Atlan- 
tic to the Pacific ocean,' and almost from the 
Tropical to the Arctic region, we embrace 
within our limits every variety of soil and 
climate, and an aptitude for eve/y produc- 
tion essential to the comfort and happiness 
of man. If we were isolated from all the 
rest of the world, we have within our own 
borders every material element of national 
prosperity and grcatuess. And, as if with 
the design of securing perpetual harmony 
and union between the different parts, Provi- 
dence has wisely ordained a natural and ne- 
l y division of labor between them, by 
adapting each to particular staples and occu- 
pations which arc unsuited to the climate 
and soil of the others. The Southern States 
produce the cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco 
ary for the whole country. The 
North Mipplies the skill and labor to manu- 
facture the raw material into such fabrics as 
arc required by the other sections. And 
the Middle States furnish the food for the 
North and South. Neither can ■nooessfully 
compete with the other in its peculiar de- 
partment of industry. Each is benefitted 
by the exchange of its surplus productions 
for those of the others, and they thus re- 
ciprocally minister to caeh others I 
And by a remakable departure from the 
general law of nature, whieh requires large 
streams to seek their outlet to the ocean, by 
the iberteot route, the great father of rivers, 
id of flowing eastward to the Atlantic, 



336 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



pours his vast volume of waters in an al- 
most due southward course, from the north- 
ern limits of the Confederacy to the Gulf 
of Mexico, thus passing through all the 
great divisions of our country, and furnish- 
ing a highway for commerce between them 
unequalled in extent and excellence on the 
face of the globe. 

If the climate, soil and productions of 
our whole country were similar, competition 
and rivalry might engender ill feeling be- 
tween the different parts. But each has its 
separate gift and their natural diversities, 
instead of being elements of discord, are 
sources of union, harmony and strength. 

But, like the foolish Corinthians, some of 
our people are disposed to indulge " in 
vain glory, envy, corrupt emulations and 
repinings," which are alike opposed to truth, 
charity and patriotism. 

To all such may we not, reverently para- 
phrasing the language of the Apostle, say 

" For as the body is one and hath many 
members, and all the members of that one 
body, being many, are one body, so also is 

OUR COUNTRY ! 

" For by one spirit are we all baptised 
into one body, whether we be Jew or Gen- 
tile, bond or free, and have all been made 
to drink into one spirit — the spirit of the 
Constitution ! 

u For our Confederacy is not one mem- 
ber but many. If the North shall say, be- 
cause I am not the South I am not of the 
Union, is it, therefore, not of the Union ? 

" And if the East shall say, because I 
am not the West, I am not of the Union, is 
it, therefore, not of the Union? 

" If the ichole country were manufac- 
turing, where were the cotton and sugar 
growing ? 

" If the whole were agricultural, where 
were the commercial and manufacturing ? 

" But now hath the wisdom of our fa- 
thers set the separate States, every one of 
them, in the Union as it hath pleased them. 

"•And if they were all one State, where 
were the Union ? 

li But now are they many States, yet but 
one Confederacy . 

" And the East cannot say unto the 
West, I have no need of thee ; nor, again, 
the Northern States to the Southern, we 
have no need of you. 

" And whether one member suffer, all 
the members suffer with it ; or one member ; 



be honored, all the members rejoice with 
it!" 

These are the teachings of inspiration ! 
And I appeal to my fellow citizens in all 
parts of the country, if they do not convey 
to us an instructive lesson of practical wis- 
dom and patriotic duty ! 

Let us, then, in everything that affects 
the interests of our country, cultivate a 
comprehensive, catholic, national sentiment ! 
Let us discard from our confidence and our 
councils all " fanatical agitators " who at- 
tempt, by any device whatever, to array one 
portion of the Union against another. Let 
us remember that, while each section has 
its appropriate function to perform, each is 
essential to the welfare and security of the 
whole. Let us bear in mind that " the* 
liberty and independence we possess are the 
work of joint councils and joint efforts — of 
common dangers, sufferings and success." 
Instead of fostering local jealouses, and 
striving to inflame one section against 
another, let me urge you, fellow citizens, in 
the impressive language of Washington, to 
raise up your minds and your hearts to a 
just appreciation "of the immense value of 
your National Union, to your collective and 
individual happiness, so that you may 
cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable 
attachment to it — accustoming yourselves 
to think and to speak of it as a palladium 
of your political safety and prosperity — 
watching for its preservation with jealous 
anxiety — discountenancing whatever may 
suggest even a suspicion that it can in any 
event be abandoned, and indignantly frown- 
ing upon the first dawning of every attempt 
to alienate any portion of our country from 
the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which 
now link together the various parts I" 



To Measure Hay Stacks. 

More than twenty years since, the fol- 
lowing method for measuring hay, was taken 
from an old publication. I have b®th 
bought and sold by it, and I believe it may 
be useful to many farmers : Multiply the 
length, breadth, and height into each other, 
and if the hay is somewhat settled, ten solid 
yards make a ton. Clover will # take from 
ten to twelve solid yards per ton. 

Five hundred and twelve cubic feet in a 
compressed or well settled mow is regarded 
equal to a ton of good hay. 



I860.] 



T II E SOUTH E UN" PLANTER. 



887 



Kentucky University. 

[The I'MYKUsin of KENTUCKY was 
duly installed on th« -1st of September, 
I s "''.'. Among the interesting proceedings 
on the oocMiOQj Pb Millig \n de- 

'1 his inaugural address, the introduo- 
I art of which contains inch a philo- 
sophical train of thought upon tin; stil! 
comparatively obscure subject of education- 
al development, that we cannot resist the 
inclination to lay it before our readers. — I'll).] 

MICUOAN/fl AIHUtESS. 

Mr. President; Gentlemen of the Board of 

Cm 

furAy. 

It has already become a proverb, that 
" The present is the age of improvement" 
There M not a branch of science within the 
Wide range of human knowledge, that lias 
not been more or less enriched by contribu- 
tions from some of the master minds of the 
nth century. 

It is not, however, so much in the depart- 
ment of the sciences, as it is in that of the 
arts, that we excel our predecessors. It is 
not so much in the discovery of truth, as in 
ried applications to the practical pur- 
and conveniences of life, that we are 
in advance of all ] rations. Some 

of the most sublime die in science 

the Graliloes, the Koplcrs, the 
Bacons, the Lockcs, and the Xewtons of 
even the seventeenth century. But these 
discos re to most persons of that age 

what the gold mines of California were to 
the wild tribes of t 1 Very few then 

knew how to appropriate them. 

But BOW all is changed; or at let! 
rapidly ch ery thing is now as- 

suming a more highly practical tendency. 
Agriculture and the mechanic arts are 
greatly improved by the application of 
science ; our rivers, lakes, and oceans arc 
rated by the power of steam ; informa- 
tion is carried from city to city, and from 
continent to continent, with the velocity of 
lightning; and in a word, every thing is 
onward and upward and Westward. 

A UUSBtion then I here of very 

great interest to every true philanthr 
What IS the cause of all this v To what 
particular agency or instrumentality 
this state of universal improvement owe its 
origin and its progress? Why does the 
nineteenth surpass every preceding eentury 
22 



in all the elemental of wealth, \ 

civilization. 

This question h rently 

answered by different nlanonn or individuals. 
The mere politician who i- wont to contem- 
plate every thing through tin- medium of 
political glasses, ha- usually found his an 

in the great im p rov e ment! that have 
recently made in the SOiefl v.-rn- 

ment. But this does not satisfy the | 

enlightened and inquisitive metaphysician. 

Tlu' question still occurs to him, whence this 

great improvement in political science P It 
is an effect: and it must have I cause as 
Well as the recent improvements in agricul- 
ture, horticulture, and the other arts and 
sions. 

The Christian philosopher who stops not 
with the consideration of second causes, but 
who is accustomed to trace every event in 
the history of human progress up to the I >i- 
vinc will, or rather to the Divine nature, 
wdierc all true philosophy ends, will, of 
course, refer all this to the agency of Him 
who made the universe; who governs it; 
and who is now evidently directing all things 
to the Speedy introduction of that glorious 
era, when " the wolf shall dwell with the 
lamb ; and the leopard shall lie down with 
the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, 
and the fatling together, and a little child 
shall lead them." 

To this general solution of the problem, I 
no objection. It certainly j 
DJ a very just and rational conception of 
the whole matter. But it doei not meet the 
specific object of our present inquiry. Our 
lOt refer to Divine but. to hu- 
man agency. We do not ask, what ha- 1 1 I 
done, but what has man done, under the Pi- 
vine guidance, to bring about this happy 
( h\ to he still more par- 
ticular, what is the first link in the chain of 
human instrumentalities that has given 
to this wonderful or i all the ele- 

of modern civilization. 

Waiving for the p r es ent, the considers- 

!' all the merely speculative tl 
human progress, I hesitate not to affirm my 
solemn conviction, that the true I 
this question is to be found only in tl 
perior education of the nineteenth cent 
This is the grand "primum mobile'* the 
great efficient mainspring of all th 
that man has cv cuted for 

the elevation, civilization, and beatific 
of his race. 



538 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



But let me not be misunderstood here. 
We often differ in our conclusions, merely 
because we use different nomenclatures. 
We often use the same word to represent 
very different and distinct ideas. This is 
particularly true of the term education. But 
few words have a wider currency ; and yet 
very few are more imperfectly understood. 
The popular meaning of this term is ex- 
tremely erroneous. It is generally used, as 
you are all aware, in the sense of acquiring 
and storing away ideas ; which, like so many 
measures of wheat, oats, or barely, are to be 
retained in the graneries of the human mind j 
or to be dealt out to the highest bidder ac- 
cording lo the wholesale or retail prices of 
such gross commodities. 

But as its etymology denotes, it primarily 
and properly signifies a process just the re- 
verse of all this. It is not the treasuring up 
in the mind of any thing " ah extra;" but 
it is the developing, moulding, harmonizing, 
adjusting, polishing, and refining of that 
which is within the man himself. 

This idea is so fundamental, that I beg to 
illustrate it with all possible simplicity, even 
before this very intelligent audience. As 
the occasion is somewhat elementary, I will 
no doubt be excused for introducing, at this 
point, a few very plain arid elementary sug- 
gestions. 

Allow me then in the first place, and by 
way of illustration, to call your attention to 
the world of wonders, that lies concealed be- 
neath the surface of even the most simple 
organized substance. Who, for example, 
that has never witnessed the mysterious pro- 
cess of vegetation, could imagine, " a priori" 
that a single grain of corn is susceptible of 
such a development as we every year be- 
hold ? True, indeed, .without the influence 
of certain external agencies, its vital ener- 
gies would remain forever latent. This may 
be well illustrated by the grains of corn that 
are sometimes found in the Egyptian pyra- 
mids, and among the ruins of ancient cities. 
But, by the application of heat, light, mois- 
ture, and electricity, the germ is quickened 
into life. We have first the root; next the 
blade; then the stalk; after that the blos- 
som ; then the ear ; and finally the full- 
grown corn in the ear. It is now, allow me 
to say, an educated grain of corn. Whether 
it has been properly educated or not, de- 
pends of course, on circumstances. 

Now all this is very analogous to the edu- 
cation of the infant man. His is the most 



complex of all created constitutions. He is 
a perfect microcosm within himself. He 
has a material body ; an animal soul ; and a 
god-like spirit. These again are endowed 
with numerous and various faculties, each of 
which, by the use and application of proper 
stimuli, is susceptible of the most wonderful" 
and astonishing development. How amaz- 
ing for example, is the difference between 
the muscular powers of the child and of the 
full grown Goliah ! Or between the mental 
powers of the infant Newton, and those of 
the philosopher Sir Isaac, whom God 

"To mortals lent, to trace his boundless works 
From laws sublimely simple." 

We do not of course pretend, by any sys- 
tem of education, to make every man a 
Newton. There is a natural limit to the 
development of every organized substance, 
whether vegetable or animal, beyond which 
no created power can extend it. 

" For education ne'er supplied 
What ruling nature has denied." 

The educator creates nothing. He pro- 
duces neither mind nor matter. He merely 
develops, moulds, and polishes the raw ma- 
terial. But if he cannot make the moss 
bloom as the rose, if he cannot cause the 
daisy to tower aloft like an oak of Bashan, 
or like a cedar of Lebanon, he may never- 
theless develop every faculty in each par- 
ticular individual, to the full extent of its 
own natural capacity. 

This, then, for the sake of distinction, we 
may call the first element of education. 
But it is only in theory that we can separate 
the developing from the moulding, polish- 
ing, and refining process. While our latent 
powers, energies, and susceptibilities are 
being brought out from the deep recesses of 
our being, by each one's being exercised on 
its own appropriate objects, they all receive 
at the same time a particular cast ; they are, 
as it were, moulded in the types of the edu- 
cator : they are either brought into a state 
of more active and sympathetic harmony, or 
they are crushed beneath the fetters of the 
most inexorable and oppressive despotisms. 

This is so very obvious that it scarcely 
needs any illustration. It is a matter of 
daily consciousness, with every youth, that 
the performance of any one action begets in 
his system an increased facility for its repe- 
tition. This again, strengthens the same 
tendency, and so on till a corresponding 
habit is formed. We all remember with 



I860.] 



THE SOUT II E R \ I' L A \ T B K. 






what fear and trembling we made our first 

in the simple art of ohirography. 'I'" 

loiiu tlic first letter of the alphabet required 

at t lint time a verj considerable effort Bui 



When, therefore, a mans whole constitu* 
tion has been developed, moulded, polished- 
aiul refined t-> the fullest extent <»t ii 
pabilities; when all his facilities have 
:t almost forma itself; that is, it forme made to harmonise with each other, Md with 
:', if we have been bo fortunate a> to I the laws and principles of the physical, in- 
forms habit in harmony with the natural I tellectua), ami moral universe) when 
laws ami constitution of our chirographic mind has bees filled with knowledge, and 
But otherwise, the die is east. The his heart with wisdom; then, ami not till 
decree of habit is, Let the fully developed then, can it he said with propriety that he 



hand that IS cramped DOW, he cramped for 

This is a very simple and familiar illus- 
tration "1" the force ami power of habit over 
all our faculties of body, soul, and spirit. 
80 pla.-tic indeed is the infant constitution, 
that it may be easily cast into almost any 
mould whatever. We do not, of course, by 
tlii.-, intend to indorse the absurd dogma 
that '• .Man is a mere creature of circum- 
stances." Not at all. Such a hypothesis 
has no foundation whatever in fact. There 
identlj in the mind of every man a 
natural affinity for truth, just as there is in 
hi- body a natural tendency to assume the 
upright position. But we all know that the 
human* frame has in its infancy been distort- 
ed into a thousand hideous forms; and we 
are just as painfully conscious that the in- 
fant mind has been as often cast into false 
in> of politics, philosophy, morality, and 
religion. The present chart of the civilized 
World is a melancholy illustration of this 

How exceedingly important, then, it is 
that during the process of education all the 
(acuities of every youth should be so exer- 
ci-cd on their corresponding and appropriate 



has been perfectly educated. He may in- 
deed have a Btrong and athletic physical con- 
stitution; he may have been well instructed 

in many of the arts and sciences; but a per- 
fectly rational and Complete education lie 
has not received, while any of the t! 
specilied are wanting. 

You now comprehend what T mean, when 
I say that education, in it- proper and com- 
prehensive Bense, is the basis of all that 
tends to elevate, enrich, adorn, and refine 
human nature. And not only so, but I am 
sure that you also now fully acquiesce with 
me in the justness of the sentiment. In- 
deed, it is only necessary to state the premi- 
ses, and the truth of our proposition follows 
with all the clearness and force of a mathe- 
matical inference. For if matter is not ca- 
pable of self-improvement, if it is mind that 
discovers and that applies all the elements of 
wealth, power, and whatever else pertains ts 
the individual, the social, and the general 
good of mankind, then it clearly follows that 
- in all this mu.-t ever be in the 
ratio of its own education. Of what 11-e, 
foi example, is the gold of California, the 
coal and iron of Kentucky, or the diamonds 
of Golconda, to the man who has neither 



objee secure their full and complete the intelligence nor the wisdom that is ne- 

Oessary to appropriate them J 

VTe boast of our civil and pOStsical insti- 
tutions ; and well we may. for they arc the 
very best under the broad hcaven>. Hut of 
what use would they lie, with all their v. 
and multiplied excellences, to the sa 

tribes of the We.-t ! or even to our Mexican 
neighbors'' The fact is, that men always 
have had, and that they always mu.-t and 
will have, laws and institutions correspond- 
ing to their own mental ami moral develop- 
ment. Deprive the rising generation, there- 
fore, of what is properly implied in th 
and mystery of education, and you at 
render worthless all that \ 

by the blood of our Revolutionary fat! 

you virtually annihilate our whole scheme of 
civil govern. 1. ent ; you destroy our system of 



development, and BO as to form, at. the same 
time, habits in harmony with his own primi- 
1 oii.-titution, and with the relations that 
lu BUStainS to tin entire universe. This is 
a matter 014 which there ;.- no room for ex- 
ration. Here' it is that all the powers 
of language be© me utterly bankrupt, and 

every attempt at hyperbole falls far short of 
expressing the Bimple, eternal realitic- and 
thai are involved in the educa- 
tion of every boo and daughter of humanity. 
The third object I of education. 

is the acquisition of useful knowledge. 
Knowledge is the food of the soul : 

"Man lov(>< it dearly: and the beams of truth 

welcome touch hi* ondentanding'i 
Than all the blandishment* of sound, bifl car. 
Than ail of taste, his tongue.*' 



340 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



internal improvements, with fill 
comforts and conveniences of social life 
you seal the Bible ; shut up the fountains of 
human happiness; and convert this whole 
land, which is now beautiful as the rose of 
summer, and delightful as the fragrance of 
autumn, into one vast, dreary, and howling 
wilderness. 

The greatest problem, then, that man was 
ever required to solve is the problem of his 
own education. To show how human nature 
may be best developed and moulded, and in 
all respects adapted to the ends and objects 
of its being and destiny, is to do more for 
the elevation and general good of mankind 
than did Columbus by the discovery of a 
continent. And the man who does most for 
the execution of the plan is, next to its pro- 
jector, the greatest benefactor of his race. 

I have not the vanity to suppose that I 
have made the great discovery. An expe- 
rience of more than twenty years in this 
most difficult of all the arts, has convinced 
me that the problem is not yet fully solved. 
It remains for a second Peter, bearing the 
keys of the Kingdom, to reveal the mys- 
tery. 

Some things, however, follow very clearly 
from the premises now before us. If edu- 
cation consists, as I have said, not merely in 
the acquisition of knowledge, but primarily 
and chiefly in the development and proper 
discipline of all our faculties, then it is evi- 
dent, for example, that it must of necessity 
be a very long, laborious, and expensive pro- 
cess ; that there is in fact no royal road to 
it; but that it requires the combined in- 
fluence of the nursery, the common-school, 
the academy, the college, the church, and 
the university to complete it. These, I re- 
peat, are all essentials. Take away any one 
of them, and the chain of means is broken; 
our whole system of education is rendered 
inefficient; and the feeble, irregular pulsa- 
tions of society will soon indicate that a 
fountain of life has been exhausted, or, at 
least, that the stream has been diverted trom 
its proper channel. 

I am aware that all do not think so. I 
know there are some very honourable men, 
even in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 
who seem to regard our colleges and univer- 
sities as non-essentials, if not indeed as pub- 
lic nuisances. They refer us to a Franklin, 
a Washington, and a Clay, who, without a 
collegiate education, have gained for them- 



the varied selves a name and a reputation as enduring 
as the annals of our Republic. 

But these men forget that the sage of 
Boston, the hero of Mount Vernon, and the 
orator of Ashland were nature's favorite 
sons. They also forget that each of these 
illustrious patriots and statesmen deeply de- 
plored his own want of a thorough course of 
collegiate instruction and discipline. They 
forget that Franklin, strongly recommended 
the study of the ancient classics^ especially 
to professional men ; that Washington was 
the founder of a college which still does 



honor to his 



college 
name and 



memory; and that 



Mr. Clay was always the sincere friend and 
eloquent advocate of a thorough and liberal 
system of public instruction. 

But we need not the testimony and ad- 
vocacy of even a Franklin, a Washington, or 
a Clay, in behalf of our colleges and our 
universities. To test their real value and 
importance in a scheme of education, we 
have only to look into their own intrinsic 
merits ; we have only to inquire what has 
already been accomplished through their in- 
strumentality, and how much of the world's 
comfort, happiness, and prospective civiliza- 
tion still depends on them. 

For if education is a blessing to society, 
why should it not be made as general and as 
thorough as possible ? • Why stop with the 
instruction and discipline of the common- 
school and the academy, while there is so 
great a demand for the very best educated 
mind in all the relations of life ? — What 
would now be the condition of the world, 
had colleges and universities never been es- 
tablished as a means of education ? How 
^many would now have the Bible faithfully 
translated into their own living vernacular ? 
Where would now be the fifty million copies 
of the Word of Life that have revealed to 
all nations the strait and narrow way that 
leads to honor, to glory, and to immortality ? 
What would we now know of those polished 
arts and inventions that 

"have humanized mankind, 

Softened the rude, and calmed the boisterous 
mind?" 

Where would now be most of those stand- 
ard works of literature and science which 
are at once the guide of the farmer, the me- 
chanic, the pedagogue, the lawyer, the phy- 
sician, and the statesman ? — Is it not per- 
fectly obvious to every student of history, 
that nearly all the great improvements that 
have recently been made in the arts and in 






Til E SOUTH KliX PLANT K K . 



841 



i ither dii 
or indirectly, to minds thai haw bean 
thoroughly trained and disciplined in the 
halls of fur colleges and nnivi And 

iom to every man ft" re- 
ion, that apon such minds wo most el- 
i tor the preparation of 
rapply the wants of the nnrsery 
and the eoinrnonvschoo], to my oothii 

lution of thoae higher and note com- 
plicated problems on the demonstration of 
which must e?< r depend the progn 
Christian civilization r — Take. maple, 

popular text-booka thai are 

in the common-schools of Kentucky. 

Who are their authors and compilers? 1> 

not almost every child in tliis Commonwealth 
familiar with the names of a Wobsl 

Inch, an Olmsted, a Danes, a BdoGuffey, 

and many others wlio, haying graduated with 
the highest collegiate honors, devoted much 
of their subsequent labors to the preparation 
of text-booki for the education of youth 7 

rd this question, then, as we may, it is 
nt that the common-school is just S8 
dependent on the university as the univcr- 
- on the common-schooL 

Bui L liave no doire to introduce invidu- 

DS. I do not wish to array 

the hi inst the lower classes of our 

literary institutions; nor to discuss their 

comparative value as elementary parts of our 

;n. A- well might WC array the 

inel the heart, ami contrast their 
influence on the lire, the health, and the ac- 
tivity of the body. No, my fellow --citizens, 
let there be no en the nnr- 

the coiim odemy, the 

college, the church, and the univc: 

•. 1 let them al- 
in the grant work of quali- 

fying each sueeessi ition for more 

enlarged spin; isefulness and happi- 

ness on earth, as well as for the higher, 

purer, and holier enjoyments of heaven. 



now proposes a mixture which I coat 

Of paint that will dry Bf fa.-t M whit' R 

but leave ai durable and elastic a coat as 
that of oil. To prepare it. instead of more 

1 oil, a- iirually. lie add- to the paint, 
ground in oil, a BOlutlOn of wax and | 
in spirit.- of terpentine. The mixture thus 

prepared has the appears mmon oil 

and paint, and acts like Bttoh. On 

raporatiou of turpentine, it leaves a 

nrmciently hard to hear gentle rubbing 

without coming off. Barreswil has reported 

BOme experiments with this mixture, and 
finds, that although it becomes sufficiently 

dry and hard after a time, it docti not equal 

i oil coating in this' respect; but lie 

has no ckmbt that for some purposes it will 

and quite desirable, lie gives the 

following formula for its preparation: LO 

parts of pure yellow wax are dissolved in 
the same quantity of linseed oil, and 5 
parts of rosin in 8 of spirits of turpentine, 

at a slow heat, (in separate vessels.) until 
quite liquid, when they are taken from the 
tire and mixed, with constant stirring, until 
they thicken. In this condition the mix- 
ture serves for out-door and store work. If 
to be applied with ground paints, it is thin- 
ned with spirits of turpentine, as required. 

Dingier** Polytechnic Journal. 



A short time ago, 



A Timely Warning. 

we were sitting in our 
office, cogitating upon the depravity of 
mankind, when there came a loud and pe- 
culiar rapping at the door. Very politely 
we gave the invitation to 'come in,' the door 
d, and a gentleman in black entered, 
and handed US his card. The gentleman in 
black, the card informed us, was Mr. Satan | 

'• Mow dy'e do now-a-days?" said he. 
"Just tolerable thank you," we eMV 
1 and mist 
ncous?" he inked. 

W -i K : F :. " Yl responded; "about to write 

an article to delinquent patrons. 
To oil coats there is this objection, that .... . - ... .„ 

they ve,,ni,-e . , |,,n,tiv>!vl.,,, time to r W H?! •"""' ^1°". "T 

dry When oil ,'f tmpentin. ,, V.,, ..uhh,!, an excellent Fr er, h, 

the pain and although, by the ad- We felt Tied 

dition of some other ra . the drying opinion, and an- roud 

may be hantfinftd, it area then takes np toojof our ut cannot say the same of a 

much time, and leads to the .substitution of major! More than 

whitewash and other water. Mr. Alluyijhalf of them owe us." 



342 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June i 



" You astonish me," he exclaimed. "And," 
he continued, " can't you do anything with 
them f 

u It seems not," we answered. 

" Well," said Satan, " I am sorry I hav'nt 
made their acquaintance ere this. They'll 
just suit me! Make out the list: "I'll 
take them !" And with a polite bow, His 
Majesty of the " Iron- works" departed. 

— DeKnquent reader, this may be fiction, 
but we fear it will prove to be a reality. 
Take warning thereof, and pay the printer. 



Dress of the Japanese Women. 

The dress of the Japanese women is sim- 
ple, but graceful. The robe which crosses the 
breast, close up to the neck, or a little lower, 
according to the taste of wearer, reaches 
nearly to the ground, and has loose sleeves, 
leaving the waist free. This robe is con- 
fined round the body by a shawl, which is 
tied behind in a bow, the ends flowing. — 
Everything in Japan, even to dress, is regu- 
lated by law ; and the sumptuary laws have 
been very strict until lately, when contact 
with Europeans appears to be bringing 
about a slight relaxation. The color worn 
by all classes of men in their usual dress is 
black, or dark blue, of varied patterns ; but 
the women very properly are allowed, and 
of course avail themselves of the privilege, 
to wear brighter dresses. Yet their taste is 
so good that noisy colors are generally 
eschewed. Their robes are generally striped 
silks of gray, blue, or black , the shawl 
some beautiful bright color — crimson, for 
instance — and their fine jet-black hair is 
tastefully set off" by having crimson crape, of 
a very beautiful texture, thrown in among 
it. Of course we speak of the outdoor 
dress of the women — their full dress with- 
in doors is far more gay. — Amer. Ruralht. 



clover. If the clover was not introduced 
by the agency of the ashes, we know not 
how it was introduced ; for four years none 
was seen there before, or in any other part? 
of the field, and this was the only clover 
seen in said field the past season. Both 
grass and clover was more vigorous, green 
and lively within the top-dressed square, 
and just as visible all around was the ex- 
hausted crop, which said as audibly as grass 
could say, in its declining state, that it had 
received no such assistance from this indi- 
vidual fertilizer* 

" On the hill-side not at all renowed for 
its wealthy properties in soil, we planted 
the Davis Seedlings and Jenny Lind pota- 
toes, in clear coal ashes, half a shovel full 
in a hill. Below, on equally as good ground, 
we planted the same kinds of potatoes in 
compost manure, and the coal ashes, single 
handed, turned out the largest, best, fairest, 
and most numerous quantity of potatoes. 
In reality, they were the best raised on the 
farm. Almost side by side, in compost ma- 
nure, our potatoes were somewhat infected 
with rot; in the ashes they were all healthy 
and sound almost to a potato." 



Coal Ashes as a Fertilizer. 

Wm. Leonard of South G-roton, Mass., 
gives the following statement in the N. E. 
Farmer, of his experience with this mate- 
rial as a manure : 

" On an old mowing field too much run 
down, we top-dressed a square piece of 
ground fairly with clear coal ashes, early in 
the spring. While the crop was growing, 
at all stages the difference was perceptible. 
When ready for the scythe, it was more in 
quantity; and as to quality, it produced 
about equal parts of herds grass and red 



Renovating Orchards. 

The Gardners' Monthly says : " Estab- 
lished orchards, on thin or impoverished 
soil may be renovated in the following man- 
ner : If a tree has been planted, say fif- 
teen years, and attained the size we 
might expect in that time, get, say ten feet 
from the trunk, and dig a circle two feet 
deep all around it, and fill in with a good 
compost; the effect the next season will be 
quite marked. If the tree is older or 
younger, the distance to start with the cir- 
cle from the trunk, will of course be propor- 
tionate. A top dressing will also be of 
great assistance, as well as a vigorous pru- 
ning out of all weak or stunted branches. 
Moss and old bark should also be scraped 
off, and if the trunk and main branches 
can be washed with a mixture of sulphur 
and soft soap, much advantage will follow. 

" Old decayed bark on fruit trees is 
always a sign of a want of vigor. When a 
tree is growing thriftily it cracks this old 
bark so freely, as to make it easily fall off; 
but when the tree is weak and enfeebled, 
the bark often becomes indurated before it 
has got cracked, and in this state the tree 
becomes what gardners call l hide-bound/ 



I860.] 



THE S Or Til ERN PLANTER. 



::»:; 



and artificial means musl be aborded I 

tin* tl' 

In the cherry ami plum trees this i> easi- 
ly done, by making longitudinal incisions, 
through the bark with a sharp knife. In 
tli.' peach ami apricot, also, 1 have employ- 
td this process iriih advantage, in spite of 
learned theories, which hare attempted to 
show up the absurdity of the practice." 



The SedkelPear. 

A writer in the Minnesota TVnus, speak- 
ing of the fruits, gives the following ac- 
count o\' the Seekel Pear: 

About the year 1761, a Frenchman was 
banished from his native country, and set- 
tled on the "neck" below Philadelphia. 
This point of land, then deemed valueless, 
is a low marsh, lying between the Delaware 
and Schuylkill rivers, immediately above 
their confluence. He built his u cabin" on 
the bank of the Delaware. Some years 
after taking possession, he observed a small 
-rowing op near his door. lie guard- 
ed it with scrupulous care. It proved to be 
a pear tree. When of sufficient age to bear 
fruit, he found, much to his suprise, that 
the pears were of a superior quality and 
hseiouSBesa. Caning some to market they 
attracted attention, and were speedily sold. 
i two score years he derived quite a reve- 
nue from that source, obtaining fabulous 
| 

I have been told by persons fully acquaint- 
ed with the facts, that in BOmS instances he 

obtained thirty dollars a bushel. Prom the 

fa-t th.it u Peter/ 1 'his name) was in the 
habit of hanging his "sickle," a useful har- 
Miiplenient, on a branch of said tier, it 
took the name of the •• >ickle" tree. Mod- 
ern parlan lined said vulgarity into 
" Seckel." The art of grafting not being 
i tised then to any considerable extent, 
and " Peter" not wishing to impair his ex- 
clusive monopoly, permitted no one to ob- 
tain ikoots. When he died, in 182}, he be- 
queathed his possession to Stephen Girard. 
These Strang - had Inn- been 
neighbors; but a portion of the time invet- 
erate enemies. A reconciliation was brought 
about in the full" _ulir manner: 

Girard had a trench cut near the boundary 
line of " 1 depth, for 

the purpose of draining his land. When a 
u high tide" WSS in. this trench WSS nearly 
full of water. It so happened, one day, 



that u Girard' 1 tumbled in said ditch, 

WSS unable to extricate himself and called 
loudly for help. 

His enemy 1\ t. r # heard the dolOTOH 

and cautiously approached t" ascertain the 
cause. Girard \\;i- almost Buflbcated by the 

muddy water. It OCCUTred tu hu mind 
that it was a happy time to czort favordbh 

l- <>,,. He accordingly proposed his own 

somewhat BSlnsh terms. The well nigh 
drowned Stephen gladly acceded, and IVt- r 

signed and sealed the provisioni thereof by 

pulling his heretofore litter adversary out 
of the awful ditch. The peace bo unauspi- 
ciously inaugurated, was preserved inviolate, 
to the death of " Old Peter," and Stephen 
Girard became his sole heir. 

After Stephen (lirard became the fortu- 
nate possessor of old Peter's heritage he 
permitted grafts to be taken from the old 
Seckel tree. By this means the variety was 
extended. From this one tree all the nu- 
merous Seckel pear trees, throughout the 
length and breadth of the Union at the 
present day, originated. Probably but few 
even of our intelligent fruit grower 
aware of this indisputable fact. 



From the Amrrican Agricultvr 

Horses Need Air and Light. 

If anything can be done to add to the 
comfort and^ealth of the horse, no animal 
deserves more to have such an effort made. 
Our stables should be constructed with sp - 
cial reference to his comfort and health, ami 
to these all other ;i - must yield. 

Our fathers' and grandfathers 1 bams 
of the wide, old-fashioned sort, with all 
manner of loopholes and air-holes: between 
the vertical boarding you could put your 
whole hand. They were originally tight, 
but when well seasoned, there was light 

without windows, and the pore air circu- 
lated freely. Here was perfeol ventilation, 
and yet talk with those same men about the 
necessity of ventilating a stable, and they 
are ready to prove that tip kept 

- all their lives, who did well, v. 
well, were always in line health and B] 
and that a ventilator is only a fancy idea — 
one of the new-fangled notions of the 
sent generation. 

Our I in archi- 

t. ■ctural beauty, and in more permi 
form of construction ; they are plea-!: 
the eye, tight, proof against the wind 



344 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



weather, and with solid walls of brick and 
stone — all of which the poor horse would 
gladly exchange for the pure, fresh air, of 
which he is now deprived. 

In providing for the necessities of a horse, 
it would be well to ask ourselves, how we 
should like to be placed in the same situa- 
tion. If it is healthy for a man to live day 
and night in a close, damp cellar or under- 
ground apartment, then it is healthy for a 
horse. If it is healthy for a man to live on 
the lower floor, in an unventilated apart- 
ment, with a manure and root cellar beneath 
him, whose pestiferous miasmas are pene- 
trating every crack, mingling with the foul 
air he breathes, and rising still higher, per- 
meating the food he consumes, then it is 
healthy for a horse. But why argue against 
barn cellars and ill-ventilated apartments? — 
the proof is abundant to all who want it, 
and he that cannot be convinced, must cease 
to wonder why his horses have diseases of 
the skin, the lungs, the eye, etc., or the 
glanders, the grease, the scratches, and other 
diseases that are directly traceable to the 
impure atmosphere in which he compels 
them to stand and breathe. 

We would, therefore, in the construction 
of a stable, endeavor to provide against 
these evils. Build root cellars and other 
cellars entirely distinct from the barn — at 
least not directly under the horse stalls ; let 
there be a free circulation of jir under the 
floor, and particularly so throughout the 
stable apartments. Ventilate the horse sta- 
ble through the roof, and entirely indepen- 
dent of the other portions of the barn ; let 
the connection between the horse stable and 
the hay mow be closed tight, except when 
hay is being delivered. Ventilate the car- 
riage-house through the hay mow and roof. 

Let your horses' heads be towards the 
side or end of the barn, and provide the 
head of each stall with a fair sized window: 
a horse wants, under all circumstances, whe- 
ther tired, sick, or well, plenty of light. 
When there is light and plenty of fresh air, 
it is a common practice to turn the stalls 
the other way, and keep the horse some- 
what in the dark. A good horseman knows 
that a horse enjoys light and air as much as 
he does himself, and he will thrive better 
in the coldest winter on the lee side of a 
hay stack, than he will in a badly ventilated 
barn, however comfortable it may be other- 
wise. It is stated that, if the gases exhaled 
from a horse's body were confined around 



him by a gas-tight bag, they would cause 
his death in twenty-four hours, allowing him 
at the same time to have his head out and 
to breathe the pure air. 

If you want satin-skinned horses, in fine 
health and spirits, ready at all times to work 
or to drive, a thorough system of ventilla- 
tion will be one very important step to- 
wards it- 

A manure shed should be built outside, 
the stable, and sufficient only to afford pro- 
tection from wind ancl rain, with a door 
connecting with the barn, and running to 
the floor of the stable, which should only 
be open when the stable is being cleaned. 
The exhalations of the manure heap are 
then not permitted to return to the stable — 
nor should any of the gases generated in 
the stable, be allowed to pass into the car- 
riage room or hay mow. 

As a matter of economy, it is just as 
cheap to build a stable calculated to give a 
horse the greatest amount of comfort, as to 
build it in any other way. Cellars are handy 
arrangements, and in the first cost it may 
be cheaper to put them under the barn, but 
a few years' experience will show the hea- 
viest balance on the debit side. 

Geo. E. Woodward. 
New York, April 1860. 



Geological 

INFUSORIAL DEPOSITS WITHIN THE CORPO- 
RATE LIMITS OP THE CITY OP RICHMOND. 

At a recent meeting of the Boston Nat. 
Hist. Society, Prof. W. B. Rogers presented 
some masses of infusorial earth from the 
tertiary strata of Virginia and Maryland, 
and gave a description of the geological and 
other conditions in which this and the asso- 
ciated deposits exhibit themselves in and 
near Richmond, in the former of these 
States. 

The tertiary formations which underlie 
the wide plain extending from the seaboard 
to the eastern margin of the granitic and 
gneissoid rocks, approach their termination 
along this meridian, in a series of strata, 
which are separated by only a short inter- 
val from the irregular granitic floor. A lit- 
tle further towards the west they reach their 
boundary, partly by a rapid thinning away, 
and in part by abutting, along the hill-sides, 
against the indented shore of these ancient 
rocks, here rising to the level of the general 
upland surface. 



18G0.] 



THE SOUTH BEN PLANTER 



345 



In the deep ravines leading into the val- 
ley of Shookoe Cre< ily on its west- 
ern ude, we meet wiili several extensive 
exposures of the tertiary strata, one ol which 

embraces near!) the whole thiokness of l>"th 
the Eoeineand Meooine formations, as local- 
ly developed in this neighborhood. In all 
these localities, the In/utorial dqpotit is 
found occupying a position immediately 
above the upper limit of the Booine stra- 
tmn, or separated from it by a thin layer of 
whitish or of more or loss ferruginous clay. 
Like the associated bode, it fluctuates in 
thickness, as traced from one neighboring 
exposure to another, varying from twenty to 
upwards of thirty feet at the different locali- 
u the north side of the valley, and pre- 
senting, when measured some years ago on 
the opposite or Church Hill side, a thickness 
of nearly fifty feet. In addtion to the mi- 
tpiO fossils, which, in a more or less 
perfect condition, make up so large *U por- 
tion of the mass, this deposit presents a few 
of shells of well-known Meocine forms, 
of which the Astarte undulata may be men- 
tioned as of the most frequent occurrence. 
It also contains imperfectly preserved re- 
mains of a slender creeping plant, as well 
M fragments of woody stems and branches, 
flattened and converted into lignite, and in 
some cases filled in all directions with the 
perforations of a Teredo. 

The material of the Infusorial stratum is 

rally of a very fine tetxture, admitting 

of being bruised between the fingers into 

an almost impalpable powder, singularly 

free from gritty particles. 

Although usually of a light-gray, almost 
white color, it includes in some localities 
rs of an ashy tinge, which are, however, 
not inferior to the rest of the deposit in the 
abundance of their minute organic forms. 
It has throughout a tendency to lamination 
in a horizontal direction, and towards its 
upper limit is so distinct as to cause it rea- 
dily to separate in their crumbly plates. 
But of all its mechanical peculiarities, its 
great lightness is the most characteristic. 
From experiments made many year- 
Prof, liogcrs found that, when pure and 
quite free from moisture, this material, in 
ordinary state of compactness, has a 
weight only one-third ;i- is an equal 

bulk of water. The minute silioions I 
for which this deposit has long been noted, 
belong, as is well known, almost entirely to 
the family of Diatomaeea?, and includes a 



luge proporti inodiselBS 

allied forms, where exquisitely thin plates, 

in parallel positions in the mass, have 
probably contributed t<> the laminated etrue* 

ferred to. The numl . 
Such frustnles ami other silicious skeletons 
in each cubic inch of the pure material can 
only be reckoned by millions, and a cubic 
foot would contain a multitude far < \<< sd- 
ing in number the entire human population 
of the -!ol»e. — Annual of Scith 
coin r»j for 1*00. 



Action of the Soil on Vegetation. 
The late Professor Gregory left the fol- 
lowing summary of recent views relative to 
the action of soil on vegetation : 

1. Way, and after him, Liebig, has shown 
that every soil absorbs ammonia, and also 
potash, from solutions containing them or 
their salts, generally leaving the acid, which 
takes up lime, &c, from the soil in solution. 
The ammonia and potash, which are absorb- 
ed in very large proportion by arable soils, 
are rendered thereby quite insoluble. 

2. Arable soils absorb also silicic acid in 
very considerable proportion, and it also be- 
comes insoluble. 

3. Arable soils also absorb the phosphoric 
acid of phosphate of lime, or of ammoniaoo- 
magnesian phosphate, apparently soluting 
the acid, which also becomes insoluble. 

4. llcnce^the soluble ingredients of ma- 
nures cannot be conveyed to the plants in 
the form of a solution percolating the soil, 
(suoh as liquid manure, or a solution formed 
by rain-water with the acid of carbonic 
acid,) since such a solution is deprived of 

1 ingredients by filtering through 
a very moderate amount of soil. 

5. Hence, also, as the food of plants must 
thus be fixed in the soil in an insoluble 
form, it is plain that it ean only enter the 
plant in virtue ol' SOBM power Of agency in 
the roots, which decomposes the insoluble 
compounds in the soil, and thus renders 
soluble the nccc»ary matter. 

(I. 'fhe absorbent power of soils is partly 
chemical and partly mechanical, as ps the 
ooal. 

7. The quantities of alkalies, of phos- 
phates of ammonia, \c. capable of being 
supplied to plants by rain-water, after it has 

been percolated through the .-oil, even sup- 

_ the whole to be assimilated, dot 
amount to *nore than a mere fraction of 
what the plants contain. 



346 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[June 



8. The theory of the transference of am- 
monia, potash, silica, phosphates, &c, from 
the soil to the plant, is not yet understood; 
but the old theory, that the rain conveys the 
food to the plant directly, is certainly not 
the true one. — Ed in. New Phil. Journal. 



Diseases of Plants. 

Great obscurity attends this department 
of botany, and much remains to be done ere 
a system of vegetable nosology, (nosos dis- 
ease G-r.) can be completed. It is, however, 
of great importance, whether we regard its 
bearing on the productions of the garden or 
the field. Some have divided the diseases 
of plants into general, or those affecting the 
whole plant and local, or those affecting a 
part only. A better arrangement seems to 
be founded on their apparent causes, and in 
this way have been divided by Lankester 
into four groups. 1. Diseases produced by 
changes in the external conditions of life ; 
as by redundancy or deficiency of the in- 
gredients of the soil, of light, heat, air, and 
moisture. 2. Diseases produced by poison- 
ous agents, as by injurious gasses, or mias- 
mata in the atmosphere, or poisonous mat- 
ter in the soil. 3. Diseases arising from the 
growth of parasitic plants, as Fungi, Dod- 
der, &c. 4. Diseases arising from mechani- 
cal injuries, as wounds and attacks of in- 
sects. ^ 

Plants are often rendered liable to the at- 
tacks of disease by the state of their growth. 
Thus cultivated plants, especially such as 
become succulent by the increase of cellu- 
lar tissue, appear to be more predisposed to 
certain diseases than others. Concerning the 
first two causes of disease, very little is 
known. Absence of light causes blanching, 
which may be looked upon as a diseased 
state of the tissues. Excess of light may 
cause disease in plants, whose natural habit- 
at is shady places. Excess of heat is some- 
times the occasion of a barren or diseased 
state of some of the organs of the flowers, 
and frost acts prejudicially on the leaves, 
stem and flowers. By excess of moisfure, 
a dropsical state of the tissue is induced. 

Concerning the influence of atmospheric 
changes on plants, very little has been de- 
termined. Many extensive epidemics seem 
to depend on this cause. Thus, the late 
potato disease must be traced, apparently, to 
some unknown miasma conveyed by the air, 
and operating over large tracts of country ; 



the disease probably affecting some plants 
more than others, according to their state of 
predisposition, and in its progress leading to 
disorganization of the textures, alteration in 
the contents of the cells and vessels, and the 
production of Fungi, &c. In the early stage 
of the disease, a brown granular matter was 
deposited in the interior of the cells, begin- 
ning with those near the surface. For some 
time the cell walls and starch-grains remained 
uninjured, but were ultimately attacked, the 
former losing their transparency, and the 
latter becoming agglomerated in masses. 
Subsequently to this, parasitic organisms of 
various kinds made their appearance, cavi- 
ties were formed, and rapid decay took 
place. Among the vegetable parasities were 
detected species of Fusisporium, Oidium, 
Botrytis, Capillaria, Polyactis, &c. The 
prevalence of hot or cold weather, the 
amount of- light and moisture, changes in 
the atmosphere, and electrical conditions of 
the air and earth, are in all probability con- 
nected with epidemic diseases. By some, 
the late potato disease is attributed to sup- 
posed evaporation and transporation, depend- 
ing on the hygrometric state of the atmos- 
phere. The vessels and cells are said to be- 
come charged with fluid, stagnation of the 
circulation takes place, and thus disease and 
death are induced. 

Gangrene in plants, is caused by the al- 
terations in the contents of the cells, leading 
to death of a part. In succulent plants, as 
Cactuses, this disease is apt to occur. Some- 
times excision of the diseased part checks 
the progress of the gangrene. Canker, 
which attacks apple and pear trees, is a 
kind of gangrene. Some of the most im- 
portant diseases of corn and other agricultu- 
ral crops, are owing to the production of 
Fungi. These have been divided into : 1. 
Those attacking the grain, as Uredo foetida 
or pepper-brand. 2. Those attacking the 
flower, as Uredo segetum or smut. 3. Those 
attacking the leaves and chaff, as Uredo Ru- 
bigo or rust. 4. Those attacking the straw, 
as.Puccinia graminis or corn mildew. 

Smut-balls, pepper-brand or blight is a 
powdery matter, occupying the interior of 
the grain of wheat, &c. When examined 
under the microscope, it consists of minute 
balls, four millions of which may exist in a 
single grain, and each of these contains nu- 
merous excessively minute sporules. It is 
caused by the attack of the Uredo Caries, or 
foetida. In this disease the seed retains its 



INK).] 



THE SOUTH KKN PLANT E R 



347 



form and appearanoe, :in<l the parasitic fun- 
jas haa a peculiarly foetid odour, hence eall- 
Icing rust. 

it du»t-brand, hi i sooty powder, 
baring no odour, found in oats and barley, 
and produced by [Jredo segetum. The die- 
self conspicuously before the 
ripening of the crop. Bauer says that in 
1-1 60,000th part of a square inch, he count- 
ed 19 sporea of the uredo. 

/.'< '. la an orange powder, exuding from 
the inner chaff scales, and forming yellow 
or brown spots and blotched in various parte 
of corn plants. \t owes its presence to the 
attack of Uredo Rubigo. It is sometimes 

d rust) and red 
Some consider Mildew (Uredo linea- 



called red gum 



rag. 



as another state of the same disease. 
Those fungi which are developed in the 
interior of plants, and appear afterwards on 
the surface, are called entophytic (ento» with- 
in, and Phuton a plant Grf.) Their minute 
sporules are either directly applied to the 
plants entering their stomata, or they arc 
taken up from the soil. Many other Fungi 
grow parasitically on plants, and either give 
rise to disease, or modify it in a peculiar 
way. Among them may be mentioned 
species of Botrytis, Fusisporium, Depazia, 
Sclerotium, Fusariumand Krysiphe. Fusis- 
porium solani is considered by Martins as the 
of a certain disease in the potato. In 
the recent potato disease the Botrytis infes- 
tans, a species of Fusarium and other Fun- 
gi, committed great rava. ading their 
lium or spawn through the cells of the 
- and the tubers, and thus accelerating 
their destruction. Berkeley, Bforren, and 
Town ley consider the Bot.ytis as the cause 
of the disease. Various of Hotrytis 
also attack the Tomato, Bret, Turnip and 
Carrot. A species of Depazia sometimes 
causes disease in the knote of Wheat 
A die P Rye and other gi 
called ergot, owes its production to the pres- 
ence of a oi Spernuedia. By the 
action of the fungus the ovary hecomes dis- 
eased and altered in its appearance, soaa t<> 
be dark-coloured, ml project from the chaff 
in the form of a spur. Hence the name of 
spurred rye. The nutrition.- part of the grain 
is destroyed, and it acquires certain qualities 
of an injurious nature. 8pontan 
grene is th living for some 
time on diseased rye. Erg<»t has ' 

in Lolium, perenne and arvense. Festucald ar to have been successful, 

pratensis, Phleum, pratense, Pactylis glome- although reported favourably to the French 



rata, A n t In ..\a nt h inn odoratUWi, 1'halaris 

arundinacea, Ac. 

Fruits when over-ripe are liable I 
of Fungi, which cause rapid decay; wood 
also, especially Alburnum or sap-wood, is in- 
jured by the production of Fungi. Dry rot 

is the result OT the attack of .Mciulius I 
mans, which in the progress of growth, de- 
stroys its texture, and makes it crumble to 
pieces. Some kinds of wood are much more 
liable to decay than others. 

The diseases caused by attacks of Fungi 
may be propagated by direct contact, or by 
the diffusion of the minute spores through 
the atmosphere When we reflect on the 
smallnessof the spores, the millions produc- 
ed by a single plant, and the facility with 
which they are wafted by the wind in the 
form of the most impalpable powder, we can 
easily understand that they may be uaiver- 
sally diffused and ready to be developed in 
any place where a nidus is afforded. Perhaps 
some of the diseases affecting man and ani- 
mals may be traced to such a source. Que- 
kett found that he could propagate the ergot 
by mixing the sporules with water, and ap- 
plying this to the roots. 

In order to prevent these diseases, it has 
been proposed to steep the grains in various 
solutions previously to being sown. For this 
purpose, alkaline matters and sulphate of 
copper have been used. In all cases, the 
seed should be thoroughly cleansed. Smut 
and pepper-brand have been averted by 
means. Tn the case of the latter, dis- 
eased grain- are easily removed by being al- 
lowed to float in water, and the grains that 

remain are washed with a solution of lime, 
common potash, or substances containing 
ammonia, which form a soapy matter with 
the oil in the fungus. A weak solution "i' 
Sulphate of copper acts by destroying the 
fungus. To prevent wood from dry rot. the 
process of kyanizing and burnetizing have 
been adopted : the former consists in making 

a solution of oorrosive sublimate enter into 
the cells and v ess e l s ; the latter, in im] 
nating the wood with a solution of chloride 
of zinc. Creosote has aiso been HI 

preserve wood. Boucherie p 'hat a 

solution of pyrolignite of iron BhouW he in- 
troduced into ti«.- before being felled, by 
making perforations at tie' the 

trunk, and allowing the absorbing 

lis and vessel- to i plan 



348 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 






Academy, and also recommended by Mr. 
Hyctt. 

Other diseases in plants owe their origin 
to insects. Earcochles, purples, or pepper- 
corn, is a disease affecting especially the 
grains of wheat. The infected grains be- 
come first of a dark green, and ultimately of 
a black colour. They become rounded like 
a small pepper-corn, but with one or more 
deep furrows on their surface. The glumes 
spread open, and the awns become twisted. 
The blighted grains are full of moist white 
cottony matter, which, when moistened and 
put under the miscroscope, is seen to consist 
of a multitude of minute individuals of the 
Vibrio triciti, or eel of the wheat. The 
animalcules deposits their eggs in the ovary, 
and their young are hatched in eight or ten 
days. Henslow calculates that 50,000 of 
the young might be packed in a moderately 
sized grain of wheat. The Vibrio retains 
its vitality long. It will remain in a dry 
state for six or seven years, and when mois- 
tened with water will revive. The Wheat- 
fly, or Cecidomyia tritici, is another destruc- 
tive insect. It deposits it oggs by means of 
a very long retractile ovipositor, and is seen 
abundantly in warm evenings. T^he Cecido- 
myia destructor, or Hessian fly, also causes 
injury, and is said to be very destructive to 
wheat in America. These insects are de- 
stroyed in numbers by the Inchneuraons, 
which deposits their ova in their bodies. 
The Apple-tree mussel, or dry-scale Aspido- 
tus conchiformis, attacks the bark of Ap- 
ples, Pears, Plums, Apricots, and Peaches. 
Many of the Coccus tribe are highly inju- 
rious to plants. One of this tribe, in 1843, 
destroyed the whole orange trees in the is- 
land of Fayal, one of the Azores. Many 
insects cause the rolling up of leaves. Tor- 
tricida viridana acts thus on the leaves of 
the Oak, and various species of Losotaenia 
do so with other trees. Sacchiphantes abi- 
etis is the aphis which causes the leaves of 
the Spruce-fir to be united together, so as to 
have the appearance of a cone. 

Many insects, called miners, make their 
way into the interior of leaves, and hollow 
out tortuous galleries, sometimes causing an 
alteration in the colour of the leaves. Galls 
are caused by the attacks of species of Cy- 
nips, which are provided with ovipositors, by 
means of which they pierce the bark or 
leaves with the view of having a nidus for 
their ova. These galls arc very common on 
the Oak, and are called oak-apples. Some- 



times they have one cavity, at other times 
they are divided into numerous chambers, 
each containing a grub, pupo, or perfect fly, 
according to the season. Galls are produced 
on the twigs, catkins and leaves of the Oak. 
The artichoke gall of the Oak depends on 
an irregular development of a bud, caused by 
the attack of insects, and consistsof a num- 
ber of leafy imbricated scales resembling 
a young cone. On examining the galls of 
commerce, the produce of the Quercus in- 
fectoria, some are of a blue colour, contain- 
ing the larva of the insect ; others are pale, 
and are marked with a perforation by which 
the insect has escaped. Extensive ravages 
are committed in Elms and other trees- by 
the attacks of Scolyti. The presence of I 
much moisture, such as the rapid flow of 
sap, destroys them. Mr. Robert found that 
the flow of sap might be promoted by taking 
off the suberous layer of the bark, and he 
proposes this as a method of getting rid of 
the insects. Some galls are formed in the 
substance of leaves, and burst through the 
cuticle in the form of ovate bodies, with cre- 
nate borders and opercula, which are perfo- 
rated in the centre. These galls resemble 
parasitic fungi. Oak-spangles are galls of 
this nature. They are attached by a central 
point to the under surface of the leaf, the 
inner side being smooth — the outer red, 
hairy, and fringed. Each contains a single 
insect, which retains its habitation till March, 
long after the leaves have fallen to the 
ground. 

It is impossible in this place to enumerate 
all the insects which attack plants. Almost 
every species has certain insects peculiar to 
it, which feed on its leaves, juices, &c, and 
often cause great injury. Those which are 
common to hothouses and greenhouses, have 
called for the- special attention of horticul- 
turists, and various means have been sug- 
gested for their removal or prevention. 
Among them may be enumerated, vapour of 
tobacco, and ammoniacal liquor of gas- 
works, to kill aphides; vapour of sulphur, 
for the red spider; vapour of turpentine, for 
the wasp ; vapour of crushed laurel leaves, 
for the white-bug; coal-tar, for the wire- 
worm, &c. — Balfour's Botany. 



Every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he 
that seeketh findeth ; and to him that kuock- 
eth, it shall be opened. 

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, 
beholding the evil and the good. 



I860.] 



Til E BOUTH ERN PLANTER. 



:;ii) 



mer't Mag 

Feeding Statistics. 

Sik, — A-'hiilturists have beta called up- 
on feS believe that great 1 1 isn iViTU-s ha\ 

ceiit'.v been Bade in tin- soience and prac- 

llng of animals. To use the 
of one of the most notorious of the 
Dew lights on this subject: — "The manu- 
facture of an alimentary and eondinicntal 
compound tor the seasoning of the food of 
Btock, is one of the most important ad- 
3 in applied science which the pen of 
the agriculturist lias to record." 

Being largely interested in the feeding of 
stock tor profit, and haying devoted a great 
deal of time and money in inquiries to ob- 
tain fixed data relating to the feeding of 
animals, the conclusion to which 1 have ar- 
rived is, that no proof has yet been given 
that these new foods have any practical va- 
lue whatever in an economical point of 
view. Nor does a knowledge of the compo- 
sition of these foods add anything to what 
Mas previously known on the subject of 
feeding. 

To enable those who are practically en- 
1 in feeding stock to judge for them- 
- what profit they are likely to derive 
from the use of food costing from £40 to 
£50 per ton, I propose to call attention to a 
few facts connected with the snbjeot of feed- 
ing, which have been established by the rc- 
of my own experiments. 

The first question to consider is, what is 
the probable amount of saleable incrc.i 
meat, that may be calculated upon as the 
produ* < of a given amount of ordinary good 
fattening food"' Thesecond is, what is the pro- 
bable value of the manure/ In offering a very 
few brief observations on these two points, 
1 shall no! attempt here to give any 

mparative feeding pro- 
3 of different foods, but merely state 
the average quantity of ordinary mixed 
foods of rccogi 1 quality, required 

to produce a given amount o\' gross in 
or of carcass weight. I shall, hoi 
estimates of the comparative Value of the 

maining for manure, from a 
weight of a number of the most impo 
of our stock-foods. 

If feeding experiments are comb, 
over a sufficiently long period of time — if 
they include a sufficiently large number of 
animals to neutralize the influence of indi- 
vidual peculiarities, and if they are in all 



other respects performed with sufficient < 

results will be obtained from which there 

would be but little deviation whenever the 
experiment was repeated. Resell 

Mined may be cxpn d in a lew fig 

which, for all the practical purposes 01 

era! estimates, may be safely taken to ivpiv- 
sent the average result of well man 

itock-feeding. 

My own experiments show th:it oxen and 
sheep, led liberally upon good fattening food 
composed of a moderate proportion of oakc 

Or com, a little hay or straw chaff, together 
with roots or otjier succulent food, will yield 
over a considerable period of time, one part 
of increase in live weight, for from eight to 
ten parts of dry substance supplied in such 
mixed food. The quantity of dry substance 
of food required will Vary between 
limits according to the exact character of 
the food and other circumstances; but nine 
parts of dry substance of food, for one of 
increase in live weight, may be taken as a 
very fair average result for oxen and sheep 
with good food and good management. The 
dry substance of the fattening food of pigs 
contains much less indigestible woody fibre, 
and a larger proportion of assimilable con- 
stituents than that of oxen and sheep, and 
in their case one part of increase in live 
weight should be obtained from the con- 
sumption of four to five parts oi' dry sub- 
Stanoe in their fattening food. By the " dry 
si//, stover. " of food is meant that portion 
which would remain after driving off, by I 
suitable heat, all the water which in their 
natural state they contain. Per practical 
purposes it may be Besomed that oil C 
and foreign corn will, on the average, con- 
tain rather less than one-seventh, and home- 
grown corn, hay, fee., rather more than one- 
seventh of their weight of water, the re- 
mainder being the so-called u dry *>/!>.«/■< 
of the food. In the same sen.-e the com- 
moner sorts of turnips will, on the avci 
contain more than nine-tenth-, and BW< 
mangolds, Ac., less than nine-tenths of their 
weight of water, the remainder being dry 
Bubstance. Potato - consist i F ah at one- 
fourth dry Substance and three-fourth- 
ter. From these data the fanner will be 
able to judge for himself whether or d 
proper increase in weight or live 
tor the food c on s um ed j and from compara- 
oan decide whether or 
not he gets an adeqeateh rats of in- 

crease by mixing with his other food some 



350 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



of the mixtures offered to him at £40 or 
£50 per ton. To aid him still further in 
his calculations on this point, it may be 
stated, that owing to the fact that during 
the fattening process the saleable carcass in- 
creases very much more rapidly than the 
internal and other offal parts, it may be reck- 
oned that nearly 70 per cent, of the gross 
increase of oxen and sheep fattening over a 
considerable period of time will be saleable 
carcass. Calculations of a similar kind, in 
regard to pigs, show, that of their increase 
in weight whilst fattening, little pigs less. 
than 90 per cent, may be reckoned as sale- 
able carcass. 

So much for the means of estimating the 
value of the increase in live weight of fat- 
tening food stock. I now turn to the ques- 
tion of the probable average value of the 
manure obtained from the consumption of 
descriptions of food. 

The valuation of the manure resulting 
from the consumption of different foods is 
founded upon estimates of their composition, 
and upon a knowledge, experimentally ac- 
quired, of the probable average amount of 
those constituents of the food valuable for 
manure, which will be obtained in the solid 
and liquid excrements of the animals. In 
the estimates of the value of the manure 
from different foods, given in the following 
table, I have based my calculations upon 
what I consider the average composition of 
several articles, when of good quality. 

TABLE, 

Showing the estimated value of the Manure obtain- 
ed from the consumption of 1 ton of different ar- 
ticles of Food ; each supposed to be of good quality 
of its kind. 

Estimated money value 
Description of Food. of the Manure from 1 

ton of each Food, 

1. Decorticated Cotton-seed Cake, £6 10 

2. Rape Cake, 4 18 

3. Linseed Cake, . 112 

4. Malt-dust, 4 5 

5. Lentils, 3 17 

6. Linseed, 3 13 

7. Tares, 3 13 6 

8. Beans, 3 13 6 

9. Peas, 3 2 6 

10. Locust Beans, 1 2 6(?) 

11. Oatfl 1 14 6 

12. Wheat 1 13 

13. Indian Corn, 1 11 6 

14. Malt, 1 11 6 

15. Barley, 1 9 6 

16. Clover Hay, 2 5 

17. Meadow Hay, 1 10 



18. Oat Straw, £0 13 6 

19. Wheat Straw, q 12 6 

20. Barley Straw, 10 6 

21. Potatoes, 7 

22. Mangolds, 5 

23. Swedish Turnips, 4 3 

24. Common Turnips, 4 

25. Carrots. 4 0- 

It will be seen how enormously the value I 
of the manure from one ton of different foods i 
varies according to the composition of the' 
food itself. Now, from the actual analyses 
that have been made of several of the ex- 
pensive " condimental" compound foods, as! 
well as from a knowledge of the chief arti- 
cles used in their manufacture, it may be 
safely asserted that a ton of few, if any of 
them, would yield a manure of anything 
like the value of either of the first nine j 
articles in the above list. In the case of the 
majority of these new foods, the value of 
the manure from a ton of the food would 
certainly be much less than that from a ton 
of any one of those nine articles. 

To conclude : No experimental evidence 
upon indubitably trustworthy authority has 
yet been brought forward to prove that the 
use of the foods, costing from £40 to £50 
per ton, will so improve the rate of increase 
of fattening stock upon a given weight of 
dry substance of food, as to compensate for 
the heavy cost of these condimental addi- 
tions. Any intelligent farmer can, how- 
ever, by the aid of the information which 
has been given above, satisfy himself on 
the point, if he will rigidly rely upon scales 
and weights, instead of upon merely casual 
observation. And with regard to the value 
of the manure, the figures in the above table, 
and the observations we have made upon 
them, will show him how much of his £40 
or £50 he may expect to recover in the 
form of manure. 

J. B. Lawes. 

Rothamsted, Jan. \%th. 



A gentleman once introduced his son 
to Rowland Hill, by letter, as a youth of 
great promise, and likely to do honor to the 
University of which he was a member; 
" but he is shy," added the father, " and I 
fear buries his talents in a napkin." A 
short time afterwards the parent, anxious for 
his opinion, inquired what he thought of 
his son ? "I have shaken the napkin," 
said Rowland, " at all the corners, and there 
is nothing in it." 



_ 



I860.] 



Til K SOUTH KKN PLANTER. 






Did'nt Think. 
Walking in the country one mornio 
curly Bpring-time near an orchard gate, verj 
1 b large man banging to the 
top-roost limbs of s small apple tree with 
one band, while with the other be wa 
tin u off twigs and branches. We bade him 
morning. Be answered cheerfully; 
and we ventured to hint that the tree he 
hail climbed, bore a heavy burden. u \ 
] rid, the trees all mail pruning, hut I 
can ">nly attend to a tew of them. The 
others would'nt bear my weight." 

k> Why don't yon fasten your saw to a pole, 

stand mi the (ground, and prune vSiich liinhs 

as most require it?" we asked. 

"Well, I declare," he answered, that 
would do — 1 did'nt think of it." 

There was a valuable lesson in that oon- 
fession — "did'nt think of it." It explained 
why in many respects, the fanner was not 
prosperous He was a hard worker, lie 
endeavored to he economical ; hut he was 

always behind. His orchard did'nt yield 
abundantly — his cattle had diseases — his 
grain was often poor —and he could only 
sell at a low price, became h> <ti<ln't think 
lie had never learned fore-thought — he did 
not understand how judicious head-work 
jists hand work. 

Did'nt think — that is the sorry explana- 
tion of much error — of many a crime — of 
many a failure — of many a hardship, and 
many an abuse. 

Little boys and girls, bear in mind tlmt 

whatever advantages you may have at home, 

ohool, in business, or in society, unless 

you think, your lives will he sad and your 

efforts mo al. Learn, then, while 

you are young, the art of thinking. To be 

id, you must understand the 

art of reflection, a- well as appreciate the 

pleasure of memory. — Rural Register. 

* ♦•» » 

New Agricultural Product. — Mr. 

Louis Baker, of this city, has succeeded in 
raising the kk Japan pea," a desideratum 
which has not before been obtained. The 
seed which he planted were brought to the 
Unitfjd States by Commodore Porter, but 

have heretofore always failed to germinate. 
The pea which has just been raised has a 

pod of all varieties of length up to thirty - 
one inches, the whole of which is palatable 
and rich. It is very prolific, and when in- 
troduced will form a valuable agricultural 
product. — Wash, States. 



Parasite Plants. 
Parasite plants, a- the name im] 
/•a, beside, and $itos, Food — I 

whioh derive their food from other plant- — 
sending prolongations of their tissue into 
other plants, and preying upon them. Many 
fungi, for instance, develop their s 
(seeds), and spawn (mycelium) in the inte- 
rior of living ot dead plants, and thus • 
rapid decay. The disease of com (edible 
grains in general, and wheal in particular)) 

called smut and rust, and the dry rot in 
WOod, are due to the attacks of these para- 
sitic fungi. The minute dust, or powder 
produced by these plana, consists of millions 
of germs, Which are easily carried about 10 

the atmosphere, ready to nx themselvi 

any plants where they can find a nidus. 
There are also flowering plants which -row 
parasitically, and they may be divided into 
two classes: — 1. Those which are of a pale 
or brownish color, and have scales in place 
of leaves; and 2. Those which are of a 
green color, and have haves. The former, 
including Orobanche, or broom-rapes, Lath- 
raea, or tooth-wort, Cusouta, or dodder, de- 
rive their nourishment entirely from the 
plant to which they are united, and stain to 
have little power of elaborating a peculiai 
sap; while the latter, as Loranthus, Yiscum 
or Misletoe, Myzodendron^Thesium, Euphra- 
sia, Milampyrum, and Buchnera, expose the 
sap to the action of air and light in their 

i, and thus allow certain ehangi 
take place in it. The Misletoe, from its 
power of elaboration, is able to grow on dif- 
ferent Species of plants, as on the apple, 
beech, oak, &o. Some ot' these par 

•tached to the roots of plants by means 
of suckers, as in the ease of Broom-i 
Tooth-wort and Thesium; while oth< 
Dodder, Misletoe, &C., \'*<d upon the stems. 
The plants to which the parasite- a' 
tached give origin frequently to their specific 

names. The species of Cuseuta,or holder, 

inhabit all the temperate and warm pail 
the globe, and are peculiarly destruc; . 

el.ver and lint flax | They are pr» 
from seed which at fust germinates in the 
soil like other plants; but after the 
has coiled closely round another plan:. 
becomes attached to it by met 
then all connection with the -oil c 
the Dodder continues its life as a pai 

A remarkable tribe of parasites, called |J ;i f. 

I, has been found in Sumatra ami Java. 

They are leafless, and produce brown-colored 



' 



352 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



flowers, which are sometimes three feet in 
diameter. On account of their only pro- 
ducing a flower and root, they are denomi- 
nated Ritzanths, (ritata, a root, and anthos, a 
flower — Gr.) — Balfour's Botany. 



On the Essential Manuring Constituents 
of Certain Crops. 

At the Aberdeen Meeting of the British 
Association, Professor Voelcker detailed the 
results of certain field experiments, having 
special reference to the turnip crop, which 
had extended over a period of four years. 
These are the most important points cited : 

1. That fertilizers destitute of phosphoric 
acid, do not increase the yield of this crop. 

2. That phosphate of lime applied to the 
soil, in the shape of soluble phosphate (su- 
per-phophate), increases this crop in an 
especial manner, and that the practical value 
of artificial manures for root crops chiefly 
depends on the relative amount of available 
phosphates which they contain. Thus it 
was shown that three cwt. of super-phosphate 
per acre produced as large an increase of 
turnips as fifteen tons of farm-yard manure. 

3. That ammoniacal salts and nitrogenized 
constituents, yielding ammonia on decompo- 
sition, have no beneficial effect upon turnips, 
but rather the reverse. 4. That ammonia- 
cal salts, applied alone, do not promote, as 
maintained erroneously, the luxuriant devel- 
opment of leaves; but that they produce 
this effect to a certain extent when salts of 
ammonia are applied to the land in conjunc- 
tion with the mineral constituents found in 
the ashes of turnips. 

The report likewise states that numerous 
analyses of turnips have been made, from 
which it appears that the more nutritious 
and best ripened roots invariably contain 
less nitrogen than half-ripened roots, or tur- 
nips of low feeding qualities. In the latter 
the proportion of nitrogen was found, in 
several instances, two to two and a half 
times as high as roots distinguished for their 
good feeding qualities. Similar experiments 
upon wheat showed that nitrogenized ammo- 
niacal matters, which proved inefficacious in 
relation to turnips, increase the yield in corn 
(grain) and straw very materially, and that 
the increase of wheat was largest when the 
ammoniacal constituents were associated with 
mineral matters. — Annual af Scientific Dis- 
covery, 1860. 



< • • » » 



Open rebuke is better than secret love. 



Farmers— Take a Hint. 

It is very surprising to see how slow men 
are to take a hint. The frost destroys about 
half the bloom of the fruit trees ; everbody 
prognosticates the loss of fruit ; instead of 
that, the half that remains is larger, fairer^ 
and higher flavored than usual, and the 
trees, instead of being exhausted, are ready 
for another crop the next year. Why don't 
the owner take the hint and thin out his 
fruit every bearing year ? But no : the 
next season sees his orchard overloaded, 
fruit small, and not well formed ; yet he 
always boasts of that first-mentioned crop 
without profiting by the lesson it teaches. 

We heard a man saying, " the best crop 
of celery I ever saw, was raised by old 

John , on a spot of ground where the 

wash from the barn-yard ran into it after a 
hard shower." Did he take the hint, and 
convey such liquid manure into trenches to 
his garden? Not all; he bragged about 
that wonderful crop of celery, but would 
not take the hint. 

We knew a case where a farmer subsoiled 
a field, and raised crops in consequence, 
which were the admiration of the neighbor- 
hood ; and for years the field showed the 
advantage of deep handling. But we could 
not learn that a single farmer in the neigh- 
borhood took the hint. The man, who acted 
thus wisely, sold his farm, and his successor 
pursued the old system of surface scratching. 
* A staunch farmer complained to us of his 
soil as too loose and light; we mentioned 
ashes as worth trying. " Well, now, you 
mention it," said he, n I believe it will do 
good. I bought a part of my farm 'from a 
man who was a wonderful fellow to save up 
ashes, and around his cabin it lay in heaps. 
I took away the house and ordered the ashes 
to be scattered, and to this day I notice that 
when the plow runs along through that spot, 
the ground turns up moist and close-grain- 
ed." 

It is strange that he never took the hint ! 
There are thousands of bushels of ashes 
lying not far from his farm, about an old 
soap and candle factory, with which he 
might have dressed his whole farm. 

A farmer gets a splendid crop of corn or 
grain from off a grass or clover lay. 

Does he take the hint ? Does he adopt 
the system which shall allow him every year 
just such a sward to put his grain on ? No ; 
he hates book farming and scientific farm- 






Til K SOUTH K R N I' LA N T K R. 



:;:,:; 



iug, ami this " potion of rotation," an d 
on the old waj, 
A fen 3 our fanmers got roundly 

in debt, ami they have worried and sweated 
under it, till sonic of them have grown 
r, and added not a few wrinkles to 
their faces. Do they take the hint '." Arc 
they not pitching into debt again? — Fruit, 
F/uircis, a in/ Firm in;/. 



A Good Way to Grow Potatoes. 

I plant medium-sized sets in good dry 
loam, about the first of April, and do not 
cover them more than two inches. Afl 
as the tops come through the ground, I com- 
menee moulding, and never allow the tops 
their free liberty to the light of night till 
the month pf May is about to say farewell, 
by which time my crops are nearly or en- 
tirely moulded up, and no more labor is re- 
quired from me on their account, till 1 find 
it necessary to pick off the blossom. So 
now the green tops are generally appearing 
over the face of the ground, let me recom- 
mend to hand- scarify or fork the ground 
lightly between the rows; and as this is 
proceeded with, cover those young tops 
which show themselves completely, though 
slightly, over head with mould, and by con- 
stantly attending to this earthing over head 
and ears, the mere chance of frost pinching 
them is done away with ; and another con- 
sideration, by frequently attending to this, 
90 of immense advantage to the future 
of the plants in regard to the openness of 
soil and the circulation of air Jo their 
roots; the earthing over process thus be- 
conn - greet completed when in the 

generality of cases we see it about to be be- 
gun. 

Besides, the early earthing-over plan, as 
I will call ir. offen another great advantage, 
by securing a vigorous growth in the tubers. 
It is easily to be supposed th -hould 

JSarily be formed before their leav 
should those of a hyacinth, in order to in- 
sure a first-rate flow < ps are 
allowed to take an undue precocity they are 
drawing too hard upon the supplies, and 
nearly ruining the pros a crop in 
order to satisfy an extravagant ambiti u. — 
Now, by repeatedly earthing them over head 
in their infancy, this growing parade is 
checked and smothered, and the formation 
of young tubers consequently accelerated, 
and by the latter end of May, when the 
23 



tops are allowed their full freedom, the tn- 

lio begin to insist on their share of 
nourishment from t b o >m- 

biued, which cheek all undue extravag 
in the branch, and the result beeomes 

ciprocal action for both? Is it not SO 7 At 

an3 r:lt(> > I M:m ' n, ' v ' '" had grander 
since 1 adopted this method. 

In finishing off the earthing over, m 

them to present broad shoulders, slightly in- 
clining towards the stem.-' ; thus insuring 
moisture, and the largest hod? of Boil 

sible for the tubers to form and -row in 
within reach of atmospherical warmth aud 

its influence, for bj the delectable pointed 

right angular moulding* generally seen, this 
is rendered impossible. And SO we will 
now suppose ourselves well on in June, with 
young potatoes every day for dinner, which, 
between ourselves, is bv no means an un- 
pleasant idea. — Correspondent American 
Ayr (tuft nr I *t. 



Underdrainage. 

WHY IT MAKES SOIL MOISTER IN DRY WEA- 
THER. 

Every one can understand why the drain- 
age of land should leave it dryer after rains. 
It is because the excess of water is carried 
off through the tiles. Fanners experienced 
in the cultivation of drained lands, who 
have drained extensively and tried the 
fects, agree, nem. eon. t that it makes the 
soil moistcr in times of drouth. But why 
this is so, they cannot exactly see. If we* 

can make the following undent 1, they 

will see that, by the laws of nature, an in- 
crease of moisture in dry times, i- ju 

much a natural consequence of drainage, se> 

a diminution of water in wet tin 

All soils have, in different degrees, a rela- 
tive power over water; that is, they hold a 
certain portion of water, after all ha- drained 
out that will. Sands hold the least A mo- 
derately compact loam holds twice as much 
'id ; a stiff clay three times as much, 
and some peaty soils four tinSj - 
When you supply a soil with water beyond 
ipaeity to hold it, the exo ss flows off", 
I if unobstructed, and leaves the soil with 
lonly so much i y for 

— in other w< )i . and 

|no more. Thus, if you pack your 
each with a hole in its bottom, o>>^ with 
a common loam, one with clay, and one with 
peat, each of these soils having, been tho- 



354 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



roughly dried, and then by slow degrees 
pour a pail full of water on each, you will 
find that nearly all the water will pass 
through the sand; less through the loam, 
still less through the clay, and very little 
or none through the peat. 

In a heavy rain any soil is more than sa- 
turated — has in it for a time more water 
than it can hold — but the water soon drains 
off, in case no obstruction is presented, and 
leaves the soil with its appropriate quantity 
of water; that is, so much as it can hold 
and yet be in a sound condition, such as to 
feel solid under your feet, and not to poach 
when the cattle walk over it. 

But while the soil remains full of water, 
as while a heavy rain is falling, the air is 
pressed out, and then, as fast as the excess 
of water settles away into the earth, the air 
follows, and occupies its place. The soil 
examined in this state would appear to be 
made up of particles, each particle moistened 
with water, and air circulating through the 
intervening spaces. The difference between 
this and a soil that is water soaked, is that 
the spaces in one case are completely filled 
with air, in the other with water. 

It is a well established fact, that air ai- 
rways contains more or less watery vapor, 
varying from half to one and a half per cent, 
and averaging about one per cent. The 
more air is heated, the more water it can 
hold in solution ; and if it is suddenly cooled, 
it gives up a portion of its water to any ob- 
ject it comes in contact with. For illustra- 
lion, you set a tumbler of cold water upon 
your dinner table, on a dry summer's day. 
You may wipe the outside as dry as you 
please, but soon it will be wet. The chil- 
dren say the tumbler sweats. But the truth 
is, the heated air coming in at the door and 
windows, as it passes by the tumbler is 
■ cooled; its capacity for water is lessened; 
and it deposits a portion of its water on the 
• cool surface of the tumbler. 

Just so, when a soil is open and porous, 
with a free circulation of air among its par- 
ticles, the air aoming into the soil in a heat- 
ed state, is cooled by contact with the par- 
ticles, and deposits on their surface a por- 
tion of its watery vapor, precisely as on the 
tumbler, in the other case. It will not do 
to say that these particles of water, thus 
deposited, are too small to amount to any- 
thing. * On the millions of particles in a 
single spadeful of soil, they amount to a 
great deal, equal, throughout the body of 



the soil ; in the course of a day, to a pretty 
good shower; and this is the reason why 
farmers who underdrain, and plow deep, and 
stir the soil often, seldom or never suffer 
from drouth. — Lid. Farmer. 



From the Charlottesville Review. 
Tobacco Fertilizers. 

Holkham, April 19, 1860. — You were 
so polite as to solicit me to say something 
occasionally through your paper on the sub- 
ject of agriculture, and I embrace this op- 
portunity of urging upon the growers of to- 
bacco the propriety, I might say the abso- 
lute necessity, of selecting good soil only, 
and cultivating at least one-third less ; con- 
centrating their manures, home-made and 
bought, on a smaller surface, and making 
larger, heavier and richer tobacco, which in- 
variably commands a remunerative price, 
because so few planters have the sagacity to 
adopt the only sure mode of raising this de- 
scription of tobacco. 

At this time the price of ordinary tobacco 
is so low, that no one can afford to grow it, 
while large, rich, heavy tobacco pays well. 
Some planters will doubtless say their soil 
is too poor to produce tobacco of this de- 
scription, not so, however, except in but 
few instances. The writer of this has gen- 
erally as good tobacco as his neighbors, 
whose lands are held from fifteen to twenty- 
five dollars per acre higher — overcoming 
the great inferiority of soil which this fact 
will indicate, by a greater concentration of 
manures and giving to its cultivation and 
general management, that attention, which 
could not be given to a 1 trge and full crop. 

It may be said that if every one adopts 
this plan, the best tobacco will likewise 
come down to a ruinously low price. I 
grant it; but this can never be the case, as 
the farmers (generally with but few excep- 
tions) seem to prefer groping in Egyptian 
darkness, and rarely abandon the error of 
their wtiys. Having received a great num- 
ber of inquiries by letter and otherwise, as 
to the fertilizers I shall use on my soil for 
tobacco, to save much trouble I will here 
state, that I shall apply one half-barrel to 
the acre, of plaster, containing 10 per cent, 
potash, which I procure of Samuel Sands, 
Esq,, of Baltimore, editor of the Rural Re- 
gister; and in addition to this, from one 
hundred and fifty or two hundred and fifty 
pounds of a preparation made by R. H. Sta- 



1*00.] 



Til E SOUTH Ki: \ PL A XTER 






bier, Esq , for 

andrin, containing two. thirds Peruvian (lu- 
ibo, and Soluble Phosphate, made 

l>y treating Sombrero Guano, with Bulphric 

1 ased tliis 1 istj on my wheat last 

19 did several of my neighbors, ami 

from present appearances, T consider ir an 

dingly valuable fertiliser. All of the 

simj-le phosphates, unless treated with sul- 
phuric acid, are too insoluble, I fear, to pro- 
duce any perceptible effect on the imme- 
diate crop, and especially these grown en- 
tirely (hiring the Summer and Pall. 

Experiments have been repeatedly made 
in England, (where there is so much more j 
humidity than here.) establishing the fact 
that one bushel of soluble phosphate will 
produce as great an effect on the crop as five 
in the crude insoluble state. 

Many short-sighted farmers will doubt- 
m using the above fer- ' 
tilizer to the extent which I have recom- 
mended ; but who should hesitate one mo- 
ment, when an expenditure of from eight 
to ten dollars per acre, will ensure a crop, 
in ordinary bi >rth from $125 to 

|150 per acre, and afterwards a good crop! 
of wheat and stand of grass. 

1 shall experiment, also, with some Elide 
or California (Juano, applying at the same 
time the preparation of Plaster and Potash, 
which I consider highly important, what- 
ever else may be preferred. 

Tn writing the above, no one, I trust, 
will be induced to suspect even, that I wish 
to disparage other preparations, of which 
there are now such a Dumber, nearly all of 
which seem to have produced good effects 
. and with some p< rsons. As 
an humble miner, in my plain way I have 
1 to respond to these who have 
been so kind as to deem my opinion and 
practice of some value. 

Such as they are, very hurriedly written, 
I seuu them for publication, trusting that 
, at least, who have induced me to pre- 
pare them, will properly appreciate my mo- 
tives. 

If acceptable to your readers, I may per- 
haps say mere to t! tonally, en sub- 
jects interesting to Agriculturists 
In haste most truly yours, 

JOHN It. WOODS. 



Let your light so shine before men, that 
they may see your good works, and glorify 
your Father which is in Heaven. 



Cooking by the Sun's Rays. 

BY 1 NET, 

Were it not for the erial si 

surrounds our earth, all parts of its .«ur- 
faee would probably I 

night, by radiation into space, as tie- polar 

regions are during six months 1 

the sun. Tie- mode in which the a: 

phcrc retains the heat and inoi tem- 

perature of the earth's surface may be illus- 
trated by an experiment originally made by 
Suassure. This physicist lined a cm 
wooden box with blackened cork, and, after 
placing within it a thermometer, closely cov- 
ered it with a top of two panes of glass, 
separated from each other by a thin Btl 
of air. When this box was exposed to the 
perpendicular rays of the sun, the thermome- 
ter indicated a temperature within the box 
above that of boiling water. The same ex- 
periment was repeated at the Cape of ('< •< i 1 
Hope, by Sir John Herschel, with a similar 
result, which was rendered, however, more 
impressive by employing the heat thus ac- 
cumulated in cooking the viands of H 
•tive dinner. The explanation of the result 
thus produced is not difficult, when we un- 
derstand that a body heated to different de- 
grees of intensity gives off rays of different 
quality. Thus, if an iron ball be suspended 
in free space, and heated to the temperature 
of boiling water, it emits rays of dark heat, 
of little penetrating power, which are en- 
tirely intercepted by glass. As the body is 
heated to a higher degree, the penetrating 
power of the rays increase, and finally, when 
the temperature of the ball reaches that 
of a glowing white heat, it emits rays which 
readily penetrate glass and other transparent 
to noes. The heat which comes from the 
sun, consists principally of rays of high in- 
tensity and great penetrating power. They 
readily pass through glass, are absorbed by the 

blackened surface of the cork, andas this 

stance is a bad conductor of heat its te; 
ture is seen elevated, and it in turn rad 
heat, but the rays which it gives off are of 
a different character from these which it rc- 
I, They are voluminous, and have lit- 
tle penetrating power ; they cannot i 
through the glass, and are retained within 
the box, and thus give rise to the accumula- 
tion of the heat. The limit of the increase 
of temperature will be attained when the 
radiation from the cork is of such an inten- 
sity that it can pass through the glass, and 



350 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



the cooling from this source becomes just 
equal to the heating from the sun. The 
atmosphere which surrounds the earth pro- 
duces a similar effect. It transmits the 
rays from the sun and heats the earth be- 
neath, which in its turn emits rays that do 
not readily penetrate the, air, but give rise 
to an accumulation of heat at the surface. 
The resistance of the transmission of heat 
of low intensity depends upon the quantity 
of vapor contained in the atmosphere, and 
perhaps also on the density of the air. The 
radiation of the earth, therefore, differs very 
much on different nights and in different 
localities. In very dry places, as for ex- 
ample, in the African deserts and our own 
western plains, the heat of the day is ex- 
cessive, and the night commensurably cool. 
Colonel Emory states, in his Report of the 
Mexican Boundary Survey, that, in some 
cases, on the arid plains, there was a differ- 
ence of 60° between the temperature of 
the day and that of the night. Indeed, the 
air is so permeable to heat, even of low in- 
tensities, in this region, that a very remarka- 
ble difference was observed on some occa- 
sions when the camp ground was chosen in a. 
gorge between two steep hills. The inter- 
radiation between the hills prevented in a 
measure the usual diminution of tempera- 
ture, and the thermometer in such a situa- 
tion stood several degrees higher than on 
the open plain. — ScieMtific American. 



The Tendency of Inventions to Mitigate 
Huinan Toil. 

The application of machinery is the ex- 
tension of man's mechanical powers. With 
the levers and pullies of his own mechani- 
cal frame, he can raise a given weight, or 
transport a burden through a given space. 
But how limited the extent of his unaided 
efforts ? How soon must all his native en- 
ergies be exhausted ? But seizing nature's 
elements, and applying nature's mechanical 
laws, he extends his powers to inanimate ob- 
jects, so that instead of his mind directing 
the machinery of his own hands, or his own 
mechanical system only, it becomes the di- 
recting agency of a vast and complicated 
machinery, effecting results beyond the ca- 
pability of thousands of his species. With- 
out artificial machinery, the efforts of the 
human mind must be limited by the efforts 
of the human hands; but with the full de- 
velopment of mechanical inventions, the 



mind will be enabled to establish a most ' 
comprehensive supremacy over the world of 
matter. How feeble the power of the hu- 
man hand, compared with the stroke of the 
steam-engine, and yet these hands can direct 
all its movements. How diminutive is the 
helmsman when contrasted with the mighty 
ship, which he directs in her course through 
the waste of waters ; and yet it is but the 
extension of his moral and physical power 
over the varied parts and movements of this 
vast machine. How apparently insignificant 
are the operations in a spinning mill, com- 
pared with the magnitude of the machinery 
by which they are surrounded ; and yet all 
these wheels, and shafts, and spindles, are 
.but an extension of their own mechanical 
system, presided over, and directed by men- 
tal being. The desired results are increased 
ten thousand-fold, and yet, the amount of 
manual and" mental exhaustion is proportion- 
ally diminished. It is thus, that by me- 
chanical inventions, man establishes his su- 
premacy over elements of nature, in order 
to employ them in his service, and render 
them subservient to his interests. 

How different is the amount of physical 
force required in a modern quarry, with 
powder for rending the hardest rocks, with 
levers and cranes for lifting the huge masses 
— with railway tracks to remove them to a 
distance, and machinery to prepare and place 
on the building — compared with ancient 
times, when hundreds of slaves were yoked 
to a block of stone, to remove it from the 
quarry to the destined building ! Similar 
changes have occurred in every other de- 
partment of operative production. The 
plow rapidly effects what a whole community 
cculd not accomplish with the spade. The 
sickle, the scythe, and the modern reaper 
cut down the yellow grain with a velocity 
which the hands of the whole population, 
unfurnished with an implement, could never 
have attained. Thus labor is set free from 
the agricultural world, to meet the demands 
of the commercial, without a diminution of 
the food raised, or the capability of preserv- 
ing it. Nay, so divinely regulated have 
been the agricultural and manufacturing 
implements, that modern draining, sub-soil 
plowing, reaping, threshing, grinding and 
baking machinery, stand contemporary with 
the steamship, the spinning mill, the power 
loom and the railway. And thus, there is 
division of labor upon an extensive scale, 
each department is found keeping pace with 



I860.] 



Til E SOUTH Ki: N PLA NT E II. 






cquently, the increa 

the nam an family, ot their ad van cement in 

one or other department of civilised comfort 

thf amount of requisite pro- 

; yielded by the nil. Nor even where 

sion is inere wed a thousand-fold, 

i of toil press heavier upon 

the peasant or 1 1 1 . * agriculturist. Pro 

and invention are constantly 
balancing between the amount of produee 
required, and the amounl of toil ; so that 
the latter is gradually diminishing in each 
department, while the former is steadily ta- 
ring throughout the wh 
Thus, it i^ manifest, that in every depart- 
ment of labor, machinery is taking the place 
ami performing tin 1 office of human hands. 
The products of the mineral, vegetable, and 
animal kingdoms are assuming the place, in 
the region of toil and accomplishing the 
purpose of men under a former system. In 
the spinning mill, the power-loom, and the 
railway, the steam-engine is the substitute 
for animal strength. A pint of water and 
a pound of coal originate a power and Mi- 
tain a motion which would soon wear out 
the human system of the strongest operative. 

The metal fingers moved with exham 

_;. and devouring Bpeed, set at defiance 
all attempts at manual competition. A steam 
engine ot one hundred horn power has 
computed at the strength of eight hundred 
and eighty men." This is sufficient to pro- 
duce and sustain the motion of fifty thous- 
and spin i producing a separate 
thread of a mile and a quarter in length in 
twelve hours. Thus every twelve hour- of 

fifty thousand will produee sixty- 

two thousand five hundred miles of thread, 
a leng two-and-a-half times 

round the globe. In ordinary practice then 
fifty thousand spindles require seven hun- 
dred and fifty to superintend their 
operations; but, by the aid of this machi- 
nery, propelled by the power of steam, they 

ean C00V4 it as mueh raw cotton into yarn as 

would have required two hundred thousand 
us by the former method of spinning. 

Thus, by the aid of inventions, which is 

simply the employment ich water, 

and OOal, and iron, tin : one indi- 

vidual is made equal to the combined efforts 

of two hundred and twi nty->ix. This h<»l<l> 
true in a greater or • of every other 

department of machinery where steam is cm- 

• Instincts of Industry. 



1 ; the r.i ductiou i 

oomplished by the of human 

How remarkably is this illustrated by the 
railway, which i<. indeed, the 
valor ot' human strength ! \\ 
same distance is traversed by walking 
even by the best Diodes of locomotion 
viously introduced, bow - on would tb 
man system weardowu under the opera! 
But the entire sum of physical Btn 
would he utterly inadequate to meet modern 

demands; henee, all that has been obb 

beyond the powers of walking, must he put 
to the account of human inventions. Nor 
is the amount alone affected ; this entire iu- 
crean of locomotive power ha- been obtain- 
ed while there has hceu a eorrespondin 

crease of bodily fatigue. 

The reduction of human labor might be 
illustrated by the history of each individual 
mechanic, as well as hy the productive 
power of all combined. The human mind 
is gradually planning and constructing some 
implement of industry which may i° 
the human hands. Thus the mind is gain- 
ing supremacy over matter — the mental is 
directing and controlling the material. The 
higher ami nobler faculties of man are ex- 
panding, while the physical powers are re- 
lieved and his toil diminished. But this 
— will not he completed by merely 
transferring the burden of toil from the 
physical to the mental. The ultimate ten- 
dency i- t.i relieve the whole man from toil 
as a burden, and to make neoeSBBJy labor a 
plea-ant ( I 1 n the rapid progn 

the present age may be seen signs of a] - 
preaching deliverance from the evils 

dent to manual labor. Already are the hea- 
vier kinds of work transferred to untiling 

machinery, n that by mere* direction, one 
man can accomplish what previously hun- 
conld not have effected. 

oiun no*. 

" Why has not the introduction of mod- 
ern inventions already produced the n 

El it not a fact that tfa 
Hon of our cities is as busily OCCU] 
lore the introduetion *A' spinning millfl 
railways?" It is fully admitted that the 

fruits of modern inventions are but part 

developed, and the community a- a wl 

is more bosily occupit d than even under the 

former system. But thi 

and >'>cial reasons sufficient to ac 

the fact. The moral state of tin 






358 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



not yet such as to admit of that full measure 
of relaxation which machinery is calculated 
to afford, while there are social revolutions 
sufficient to account for the seeming paradox, 
that while machinery's doing the work of man, 
humanity itself should be more occupied. 
It must be observed that in connection with 
this rapidly increasing power of production 
at home, new nations have been springing 
up abroad, at once absorbing the operative 
classes and increasing the demand, in ac- 
cordance with the powers of production ; 
while national wealth and comfort have been 
increased to all Besides, the covetous spirit 
of man may and will pervert the choicest 
blessings. The race for riches has kept 
pace with the newly developed means of ac- 
quisition, and consequently, that release from 
grinding toil, which ought legitimately to be 
awarded to the operative, has been either 
wasted in fruitless competition or turned into 
channels of personal aggrandisement. But 
though, in the present progressive state of 
transition, in the social history of the world, 
and in the earlier efforts of mechanical in- 
vention, the demand may seem to keep 
ahead of the increasing speed of produc- 
tion ; and though this at first sight would 
seem to indicate that no release from toil 
can be expected by the introduction of me- 
chanical inventions, yet, viewing the subject 
as a whole, it. is evident, that when machi- 
nery has attained its climax, and when the 
various departments have been balanced and 
adjusted, and when the entire system of 
manufacture and commerce shall be directed 
and regulated by sound moral principles, the 
necessary tendency of machinery must be to 
emancipate the operative classes, and thus to 
equalize the privileges of those who employ, 
and those who labor. Even under all the 
disadvantages resulting from a transition 
state, and in spite of the covetousness of the 
age, the hours of toil are already abridged, 
and the physical system so far relieved as to 
encourage mental culture. The ultimate 
result of this must be the revival of social 
and domestic affections, which are ready to 
expire under the exhaustion of physical 
slavery. Enlightened legislation has judi- 
ciously fixed the age as well as the time, be- 
neath and beyond which grasping employers 
shall not be permitted to protract the hours 
of toil in public factories. This legal 
movement has been succeeded by another, 
still more praiseworthy, as it presents a no- 
bler aspect of mutual interest between em- 



ployers and employed, in which merchants 
and shopmen have voluntarily agreed to 
abridge the hours of daily attendance, be- 
sides, in many notable cases, adding the Sat- 
urday half-holiday as preparatory to the Sab- 
bath. Let the covetous learn that " a man's, 
life consisteth not in the things that he pos- 
sessed •" and let the avaricious be taught 
the benevolence of the gospel ; then shall 
the Saviour's definition of a day.be taken 
as a standard, and all classes shall enjoy 
the domestic bliss of the evening. " Are 
there not twelve hours in the day ?" was the 
interrogation of Him who set the sun in the 
firmament. Will any man be prepared to 
say, that this is not a sufficient time to de- 
vote to the pursuits and objects of this pres- 
ent world ? The aid of machinery renders 
the abridgment of the period of labor prac- 
ticable. It is avarice alone that gives rise 
to a spurious competition, and encroaches 
upon the privileges of domestic life. It is 
evident that even now the long-hour system, 
opposed as it is to the claims of nature and 
grace, is doomed. That God who made the 
sun to rule the day, also framed the human 
constitution in accordance with this physical 
arrangement, and that which the introduc- 
tion of sin has deranged in the past history 
of man, the grace of the gospel will rectify 
in the coming Millennium. * * * 

THE TENDENCY OF INVENTIONS TO ALLE- 
VIATE HUMAN MISERY. 

It has been previously established that the 
whole tendency of machinery, legitimately 
applied, is to reduce the quantity, and im- 
prove the character of manual labor. The 
transferrence of the heavier portions of hu- 
man toil to mechanical inventions, is the di- 
rect method of cutting off a vast amount of 
physical suffering. Indeed, under proper reg- 
ulation of machinery it is possible to remove 
all that constitutes actual suffering in legiti- 
mate labor. But it is very evident that the 
mitigation of mental and physical exhaustion 
must be accompanied by a reduction of dis- 
ease. The substitution of activity in super- 
intending machinery for the patient endur- 
ance of grinding toil, must necessarily tend 
to the health of the mental and physical 
system. 

Mechanical inventions also tend to pro- 
mote health, and to alleviate human misery, 
by removing these physical causes which 
produce disease, especially in towns and 
cities. The improvements of modern times 



1800.] 



THE SOUTH K R X PL A NT BR. 






in arc . in the formation of streets, 

in the introduction cf water, the subterra- 
nean Bewerago, the burning of smoke, the 
disinfection of putrid substances, the light- 

rontilation and construction of public 
buildings ami private habitations, mu>t all 
tend to improve health, prevent disease, and 
mitigate Buffering. The progress of medi- 

lience, aided by chemical investigations, 
i increasing success to thepharma- 

iu of Nature, while, already, the im- 
peovemenl of Burgical instruments, in con- 
junction with the uae ef chloroform, and 
other narcotic agents, has mitigated the ex- 
cruciating pain formerly endured under sur- 
gical operations. Besides, the discovery of 
this agent, lias marked a new epoch in the 
healing arts, by giving a wider range to hu- 
man ingenuity, by Bparing the feelings of 
the operator, as well as the pangs of the 
Bubject Is it not a remarkable fact that 
this secret should be disclosed in Britain at' 
the very time when it may be most extensive- 
ly employed in dressing the wounds, and am- 
putating the shattered limbs of her soldiers, | 
upon a distant field of battle? Are these 
if coming deliverance from a vast 
amount of physical evil? What the achiev-j 
menta of the future may be, none can pre- 
dict, but enough has already been realized 



to warrant the h 



)pe 



that a&enta Buch as 



these may be rendered available in mitigat- 
ing all those forms of suffering which are in- 
cident to the nature of man in a fallen state. 
The mind must be skeptical indeed, th;it re- 

cogniies not the band of God in the discov-l 

nd improvement- of medical aoieni 
readily as that hand is seen in the forms of 
disease. I>>> a reo now, behold in 

the triumphs of the present age tin- harbin- 

if that blessed future, which the poet 
anticipated under the sanction of inspiration. 
and 01 which he say- : — 

•-<■ was norfo; the VokM of war for: 

The sword, n share, a pruning hook, the .-pear. 

jjrew and multiplied upon the earth, 
And tilled the city ami tli ath 

waiting for the lapse of tardy nge 
That mocked birn Long." — Pol; 

n$. 



Blessed are they whi< I cuted for 

right. . for their- is the King- 

dom of J leaven 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 

shall see ' I 



Agricultural Letter. 
W : rj be! - on? readers tin- fellowii 
port* to "The Nottoway Club," which, have been 
kindly furnished us tor publication in tin- J'lnn- 
ter, by tin- permission of it- members^ 

WV an- under obligations to tliein ft)T many 
similar favors, hitherto bestowed: ami we hope 
that we shall he their debtOI for a great many 
more, in future. 

Would that Virginia could justly boast of many 
Slich " Clubs" in her borders ; they would af- 
ford strong protection to her agricultural inter- 
ests, ami prove a mighty weapon with which to 
combat, and beat down ignorance, prejudice 
sloth. 

For Sott. Planter, from the Nottotvuy Club. 

Brickland, Va., May 9th, 1800. 
To Richard Irky, Esq. 

I>"ir Sir, — 1 am in receipt of yours in- 
viting me to a meeting of the Nottoway 
Agricultural Club, on to-morrow, at the Not- 
toway Foundry, to celebrate its tenth anni- 
versary. 

It would be very agreeable to me to ac- 
cept your kind invitation, if it did not inter- 
fere with jfcior engagements. 

Agricultural reunions have gotten to be 
an institution at the South, and their benefi- 
cial influence is obvious throughout the 
whole planting regions They extend social 
relations, engender rivalry and imitation — 
diffuse information more impressive and 
practical when aided by our valuable peri- 
odicals, and the Nottoway Club is doing its 
work like men and pah: 

With a diversified soil of "Chinquapin" 
. where every ounce of manure 
y<»u the .American weed, with vaih J 
Chocolate loam and numerous streams bor- 
dered with flat, rich bottoms, it may well be 
questioned whether it would be prudent to 
exchange fbl the blue limestone lands of 
our mountain valleys, or the deep, wide al- 
luvial soils of the " great Father of Wal 
Yonr lots with with- hanging tobaCOO, and 
gracefullv waiving wheat tields, and lawn.- 
well endued with grass ami clover, att 
the attention and favorable mention of the 

traveller, and attest the benign influence of 

your society. Yonr county is entitled ; 
banner in the C D for the 

quantity of tobaOCO to the hand, and 1 . 
. initiation and application of mani; 
The cultivator of JOUT chiiejurpin r 
have I buying out the river bel- 

aud mountain valleys. 



360 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



My earliest lessons in planting were given 
to me by the Fitzgeralds and Irbys — The 
first said, " to make good crops, or succeed 
in planting, give your fields a daily gaze" — 
accompanying the injunction, by applying a 
finger to the under lid of each eye, exposing 
a pair of as large, intelligent black eyes as 
any man ever had. Who could forget such 
natural teaching? 

The second, to my question, " Do tell me 
the secret of your success in the manage- 
ment of Overseers ?" Replied, " do not ex- 
cite their prejudices; teach them their char- 
acter is their capital, and that your interest 
and theirs is identical. Why sir, my over- 
seer has been living with me five years and 
has never owned a saddle; he thinks the 
grass would get an advantage of him if he 
went to the Courthouse." In those days, 
Overseers boasted of their right to visit 
monthly courts, and that practice sometimes 
gained them a blood shotten eye, and always 
grassy crops for their employer. 

This gentleman was justly regarded as a 
worthy model of the Virginia planter, and 
by the zealous exercise of his sound, good 
sense, in every department, and by the " ac- 
cumulation and application of manures," he 
produced a high degree of improvement, 
and demonstrated that the system may be 
carried too far and imperil health. Supera- 
bundance of vegetable matter, breeds ani- 
malcules, fungi and malarious fevers. His 
experiment proved there should be limits to 
the vegetable application to soils; and, doubt- 
less, he was a martyr to the successful and 
profitable application of his farming theo- 
ries. 

The mission of your society is based on 
just ami benevolent principles, to improve 
the condition of a copartnership of labor; 
the stock contributed on the part of the 
white man is mind, and that of the black 
man, muscle. 

The fulness of the corn-crib and smoke- 
house, is common property, and should cre- 
vasse or drought come, the black man knows 
he will be amply fed, clothed and cared for, 
unless " Masser" has lost his credit. Then 
he is ready and willing to form a new co- 
partnership. 

The white partner is sovereign to the ex- 
tent of his domain, and is responsible for his 
administration to good neighbourship and 
the laws of society; his interest, feelings and 
humanity alike, inducing him to give ample 
protection to his negroes, abundant ; whole- 



some food, good clothing, with the best nur- 
sing and medical skill when sick. The black 
man is best off, when restricted to his own 
log cabin literature ; — the moral teachings 
of example; his religious exercises; — the 
excitement of the dance. He is naturally 
religious, and his implicit faith makes him 
the better Christian and slave. The white 
man has more individuality and care ; the 
black man more faith and contentment. 

It is a system that is progressive ; it must 
and will last forever. Tobacco and cotton 
have become to be necessaries, and the world 
will have them. Tobacco has lived and got- 
ten into general use, in despite of govern- 
mental prohibitions and taxations, and all 
the fulminations of fanatical clergymen and 
doctors of medicine. The wants of man re- 
quire cotton and will have it. The white 
man never has made cotton, nor will he ever 
do it. As the tropics are as a wall of fire 
to the whale, so is the climate of the cotton 
growing belt to the laboring white man. 

African labor must and will continue to 
furnish tobacco, cotton, sugar and coffee, — 
utilitarian progress will crush out abolition- 
ism. It is the foundation of a new sociolo- 
gy, and will preserve the individuality of 
man, our federative system and self-govern- 
ment. 

Agriculture is the great desideratum of 
Americans, Professors, Lawyers, Doctors, 
Merchants and the Sailor regard their voca- 
tions as the pedestal, Pisgah's Top, the 
attainment of which is to enable them 
to retire to the comforts and mellow in- 
fluence of a good plantation — Washington, 
Jefferson and a host of great men, hastened 
from the highest pinnacle of fame, to wear 
away their three score years and ten on their 
own farms. If the " old man eloquent" had 
have owned a. plantation in Nottoway, well 
stocked with African laborers, as Nottoway 
plantations generally are, he would not have 
died " in harness." 

With thanks to yourself and the commit- 
tee, and the hope that your society may con- 
tinue to achieve good results, 
I am, very truly, 

Sterling Neblett. 



For So. Planter, from the Nottoway Club. 

Experiments with Peruvian and Som- 
brero Guanos. 

In the spring of 1859, I determined to 
make a comparison of the results of the ap- 
plication of Peruvian and Sombrero Guano, 






T II E SO I'T II E R X V LA NT E R 






and of the tw<» iii combination ; t'> that end 

my feobaOCO l<»t was as nearly equally manur- 
o.l, with borne made manures broadcast, as 
I could aceompuah it, nearly the whole of the 
ndreaeed with a mixture of equal 
quantity s of Peruvian and Sombrero < I nano, 
at the rate of 260 pounds bo tin" acre in 
the drill ; through the middle of the lot, I 
then drilled ten rows with 260 pound pet 
of Peruvian Guano unmixed, and im- 
mediately along side, ten lows with 200 

pounds per acre <>f" Sombrero Guano. In 

the fall, -ay 1st of October. I cut one hun- 
dred plants of tobacco from eaoh expori- 
ment, taking the plants as they stood with- 

lection, they were placed on marked 
sticks and lay in the same room; in the 
month of January, 1860, theywere stripped 
and Weighed tlie same day ; the one hundred 
plants manured with the mixed Peruvian 
and Sombrero weighed •! i pounds, or at the 

!' 1360 pounds per acrej those man- 

Tired with Peruvian Guano, weighed i- 
pounds, or at the rate of 1680 pounds per 
acre : the one hundred plants manured with 
Sombr I do, weighed ! ;| pounds, or at 

the rate of 1600 pounds per acre. To the 
eye, the tobacco manured with the mixed 

Suano Beamed to lie largest, hut. to my sux- 

lied least] that manured with the 

Peruvian Guano, when Stripped, was mani- 
ri chest and h( 
Respectfully submitted, 

Wm. 11. Blakb. 

April 12th, V 



For the Soul/urn Planter, from Xottaicay Cluli. 

Reciprocal Relations of Farmers and 
Millers. 
Mr. I'im.-ii.knt: 

In discbarge of my annual obligation, 1 
propose to discuss a subject of much more 
importance than is usually attached to it. 1 
refer to the reciprocal relations of fanners 
and millers. Owning three mills myself. I 
can take the liberty of • opin- 

ion that there IS no4 a more fruitful eourcc 
of imposition and injusti 
such operations are nsuelly conducted. I 

claim no exemption for my own, hut if any 
imposition be practised, I desire to furnish 
the means crtion. Injustice is fre- 

quently visited on the miller by the usual 
practice oi^ selecting a mill-hot without any 
regard to his honesty or carefulness. T have 
knotvn turns to leave the mill with the I 



of the miller, for favorable turn 'out, bu 

depleted by depredation before reaching the 
owmr. complaint Such occur- 

the necessity and pro] 
of some uniform standard of management, 
precluding such results. The plan I re- 
commend is, tor the termer first u< Becure 
what is termed a sealed half bushel measure, 
with iron strij the top, to pi i 

abrasions from the friction of measurement, 

or variation from the convexity or concavity 
of the striker; that the owner should for 

one time at least, attend to the measurement 

of the corn, (even 1. that he accom- 

pany it to the mill, and see in person to the 
tolling and grinding — that he shall measure 
the product at the hopper, and again at 

home, the quantity being slightly h ssened by 
the agitation and compression of the remov- 
al ; that he shall then measure out for each 
person on his farm, the requisite quantity 

tor a day or week, and ascertain thus exact- 
ly how much corn will make the requisite 
quantity. This being once done, will ans- 
wer for life, and tend to preserve the satis-' 
factory, mutual intercourse of the parties, as 
well as check any proclivity to dishonesty on 
the pari of the miller or mill-boy. For the 
benefit of those who may not Bod it suitable 
or convenient to superintend the process, 1 
will present some resultsis a measure super- 
ceding such necessity. A bushel measure is 
generally considered to contain huts ^ :l \. 
Ions, hut it will he found generally to con- 
tain near 1" gallons, and properly ground 
will yield 13 gallons of meal at the hopp 

1 it asnot an unreasonable calculation on 
the part of the farmer, that after paying i 
fqr toll, he should reeeivi hack in hulk J ac- 

ii in meal. If properly ground the 

hulk is not reduced by the | f sift- 

ing, as it lie- lighter after that operation. 

The calculation should always be made by 
an even measure, as the heaping may be ir- 
regular. Perhaps the safer plan would be 

to weieji all, though there is a n< 

duction in weight from evaporation, 

Where there is regularity in tlje 
quantity aunt and -round, and at regular in- 
tervals, the miller can tell when i' 
ed, whether there IS any material diminution, 

and can refuse to i g the 

.ml the p' ; to mill can do the 

same, and when it is understood that such 
particularity is mutually observed, no dif- 
ficulty is likely to U 
. This regularity abo ensures a cot 



3G2 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



supply, otherwise some suffering will result 
from sudden exhaustion. I am persuaded 
that a regard for these regulations is essen- 
tial to a proper and friendly understanding 
and intercourse with all concerned, and that 
no person can properly and safely complain 
without them I am farther persuaded that 
no person in the usual negligent arrange- 
ments of the country, loses less than the 
amount of his annual taxes, or will save less 
by a proper observance of these necessary 
precautions. This discussion might be ad- 
vantageously extended as. to the proper sys- 
tem of management in providing and dis- 
tributing supplies for servants either by the 
day or week, and on which I would be grat- 
ified by the views of others, preparatory to 
a decision, and most judicious selection. 
J% 10th, 1860. E. G. Booth. 



Report on Guanos. 

Last year I tuied several different kinds 
of guano. I laid off rows of corn, and ap- 
'plied on alternate rows Peruvian and Amer- 
ican in equal quantities, as nearly as practi- 
cable, at about the rate of 200 lbs. to the 
acre. The early part of the season being 
wet and favorable to the growth of corn, the 
crop took • a rapid growth, the Peruvian 
bringing it forward much the most rapidly, 
and the American showing quite plainly. 
The latter part of the season proving dry, 
the Peruvian gave back, and at the matur- 
ing of the corn, there was no perceptible 
difference between that and the American 
— neither of them, owing to the peculiar sea- 
son, proving of any material benefit. There 
have been seasons in my experience, where 
Peruvian will do more harm than good, and 
this was one of that sort. 

I also tried Mexican and Nevassa guanos, 
and Superphosphates of Lime, Rhodes', and 
one made in Philadelphia, Twell's. I could 
observe no material difference between them, 
all of these being used in combination with 
Peruvian guano on Tobacco. The season 
being very wet, I am disposed to think none 
of them had a fair chance to show their 
merits, and I am doubtful whether I was re- 
paid for their cost. 

Respectfully submitted, by 

Mnj, 10th. Richard Irby. 



If ye forgive men their trespasses, your 
heavenly Father will also forgive you. 



Manufacture of Wafers. 

The mode of making the best quality of 
wafers, as practiced by the English manu- 
facturers, is as follows : — Fine wheat flour 
is taken, and mixed with white of eggs and 
isinglass into a very smooth paste; this is 
spread over tin plates evenly, and dried in 
an oven, several of the plates being placed 
one over the other to communicate a glossy 
surface to the wafers. When dry, the 
sheets of paste thus formed, are laid up in a 
pile, about an inch or more in depth, and 
cut into circular pieces by a hollow punch, 
which, allows the wafers to pass up its tubu- 
lar cavity and discharge themselves side- 
ways as the cutting proceeds, which is 
effected with great rapidity. The variety 
of colors that are ordinarily communicated 
to wafers, is given to them in the paste, by 
the usual pigments in the dry powder state, 
or previously dissolved in the water employ- 
ed. The French isinglass wafers, made in 
France, are formed of isinglass dissolved in 
water to the proper consistence, which is 
poured out upon plates of glass provided 
with borders, and laid upon a level table; 
to prevent the blue from sticking to the 
plates, a little ox-gall, or other, suitable ma- 
terial, is robbed over them. Previous to 
the isinglass becoming quite dry, they are 
cut through along the borders. The leaves 
are then removed and cut with hollow 
punches, as in the case of other wafers. The 
various colors are also communicated to 
them by pigments while in the fluid state. — 
Scientific Artisan. 



Cutting Glass without a Diamond. 

A subscriber to the Agriculturist, A 
Mead, N. Y., writes that glass may be read- 
ily cut with a file, by keeping it wet with 
spirits of turpentine, which gives it a "bite." 
We have seen the following process recom- 
mended for dividing circular vessels as 
bottles, jars, etc. Fill the vessel with any 
kind of oil up to the point where the divi- 
sion is to be made. Heat an iron rod to 
redness, and slowly introduce it into the top 
of the oil ; the glass will crack in an exact 
circle around the surface of the liquid. 
The heat imparted to the oil, causes the 
inner side of the jar to expand rapidly, and 
thus makes a break. 

[Remarks. — The last recommendation 
is of doubtful utility. We have often cut 
off glass bottles readily by first filing a small 



I860.] 



THE SOUTH K UN PLANTER 



:;.,:; 



irting point, and then applying 
a hot iron [ it slowly 

bark ill*- fine whei 

; the cra< k. By k. eping the iron 
the break, yon c in / ad it in any 
lesired, bo a- to eat off the bottle 

When at work in 

itory, we often made extempore 
tumblers For holding various substances, by 
thus cutting off the unp< r part of 1" 
of which the necks baa been broken. We 
have also made gas transferrers, etc., by 
cutting off the bottom of cracked bottles, 

and main body whole, 
with the bottom open. After i little prac- 

ny one can, with a hot iron, lead a 
crack in a bottle, tumbler, or along Qui 

in any desired direction. The sharp edges 
can be smoothed or rounded with a fine tile, 
or by grinding. We have often out a pane 
of glass nearly true across, by filing a Blight 
notch in the edge, laying on cold iron, or 
even a strip of wood for a rule, and then 
MBsiog a hot iron back and forward, along 
the place where the fracture is desired. — 
Ed.] — -1/-" rican Agru ulturalist. 



Hake the Best of Everything. 



Can't Afford It. 

Those who are counting the cost of dis- 
solving the Union-, may close their calcula- 
what after the fashion of the old 
a in the subjoined anecdote : — M A 
: having occasion to visit an old couple 
in Durham, of extremely penurious habits, 
found them holding counsel together upon a 
matter which apparently 1 heavily 

I minds of both, and thinkii 

the probable dissolution of 

the i trously ill, 

them all the consolation 

in hi- cut abort by being 

inform. .1 that I y the Bub- 

they were one which 

afrlicr. d them still more deeply; viz: the 

mere! ; and, t tonish- 

. tin y continued th tly calcula- 

tion- until every item in the catalogue, from 
eofhn t" night cap. had I 

with much grumbling at the rapacity of 
'the undertakers,' when the bright thought 
radd< nlj struck th 1, and he 

claimed — -Well, .) . y..u may m>t 

die alter all, ye ken.' 'Band, and 1 hope 
t,' replied his hel] i low, 

feeble voice, 'fori am quite sore that we 
canna afford i; 



An important lesson t<> I I the 

earlier it is learned in life the 1 ■■ 
make t/i< I verytAing. As th 

. " It is no use to cry 
milk." Misfortunes that have already hap- 
pened cannot be prevented; therefore, the 
man, instead of wasting the time in 
Ls, will Bet himself to work I 

his losses. The mistakes and follies of the 
may teach OS to be more cautions 
for the future; but they should m\ 
allowed to paralyse our i "r surren- 

der us to weak repiningS. A retired mer- 
chant relates that, at one period early in his 
career, he had got almost to tie 

bankruptcy; "but." says he, "I ploughed 

a deep keel, and kept my own count 
and by these means he BOOU reCOV< 
Had this man given way to despair, had he 

sat down to bewail his apparently impend- 
ing ruin, he might now have been old and 
poor, instead of having retired in a splendid 
position. He adds, that a characteristic 

v, a-, that through life, in all circumstances, 

he did the best that he could, whatever that 
was, consuming no time in useless regrets 
over misspent time or bad speculations. 

The rule holds good, not only in mercan- 
tile affairs, but in the whole conduct of 
life. The man who is bom to indifferent 
circumstances will never rise, if, abandon- 
ing himself to envy of those more blessed 
by fortune, he goes about sullenly and com- 
plaining, instead of endeavouring to ui 
the best of his ability what few advanl 

a. The patriot deploring the dec-line 

of public and private morals, \s;il neVCI 

succeed in reforming the commonwealth, if 
tickles for visionary or impracticable 
measn more modi 

..tie- that are really attainable. The irieiid 
will BOOB have no intimates at all, if, mak- 

D > allowances f^r the infij 
human nature, he judges too harshly of the 
Conduct of his ac.|Uaintanees. Me 

matrimonial quarrel might be av< idea, if 

husband and wife, instead of taking offense 
bother on alight prov< 

dwell rather on the good trait- the 

displays. The t a few 

now living in retirement, who m 

still gratified their ambition by serving 

public, if they had under-; 1 the 

fatigues and disappointments of public 






3G4 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 






Report of P. T. Tyson, Esq., Maryland 
State Agricultural Chemist, on Bones. 

Bones were firsUused as a manure in Ger- 
many, and afterwards, in the year 1771, were 
introduced into England. Little use how- 
ever, was made of them prior to the begin- 
ning of the present century, since which pe- 
riod their use has rapidly extended through- 
out Great Britain. 

The high prices of bones in England have 
drawn, aud continue to draw, them from al- 
most every part of the world j even the 
bones of the soldiers who fell at Waterloo, 
and at the siege of Sevastopol, have contri- 
buted to enrich the soil of Great Britaiu. 

The first bones used for manure iu this 
country, it is believed, were crushed at the 
establishment of Mr. Win. Trego, and sold 
to farmers in Harford and Montgomery coun- 
ties in the year 1836. 

They were sold for some time at 33 to 35 
cents per bushel, or about half their present 
value. The prices in England are about 40 
pr. ct. higher than they have yet reached in 
this country. 

When I first applied bones in Harford 
county, in 1839, the operation was watched 
with interest by my neighbors, some of whom 
thought they would prove an extravagant 
and useless application; and there were those 
who appeared to have formed theories in ref- 
erence to manures which ruled bones out of 
the list, because, as they believed, they were 
of " too dry a nature." 

Their good effect, however, soon became 
manifest, and the result was to produce* heavy 
crops upon soils which had been long lying 
idle, after having been rendered sterile by 
improvident planting and farming of former 
times. 

The use of bones soon extended, and my 
old neighbors are now perfectly willing to 
pay double the prices which were then 
thought extravagant.. 

Whilst in Harford during May last, I had 
an opportunity to notice the durable effect 
of bones which I applied to land from sev- 
enteen to twenty years since. All the fields 
to which they were applied continue* to pro- 
duce heavy crops under the judicious man- 
agement of the present owner, Mr. Hanway. 

There was one fiel 1 of 10 acres upon 
which I applied 300 bushels of crushed 
bones. He enlarged it, and applied 15 
bushels to the acre over the whole, but find- 
ing the 10 acres which I had manured as 



above so much more productive than the rest, 
he applied to the latter (which I had not 
taken in) 18 or 20 bushels more per acre. 
He expected, by this means, to equalize the 
fertility of the whole enlarged field. He in- 
forms me, however, that his expectation in 
this regard was not realized, and he was sat-" 
isfied would not be until he shall apply an- 
other manuring of bones, as he intends to 
do, to the part upon which I had applied 
none. 

•Loudon, Joinston and other writers, in- 
form us that the effect of heavy dressings 
with bones are clearly shown in England to 
endure for forty or fifty years. 

We shall be prepared to discuss the cause 
of all this after having described the chem- 
ical and physical constitution of bones. 

A bone may be described in general terms 
as a spongy structure, made up in part of a 
frame-work of phosphate and carbonate of 
lime, whose interstices are filled with^ani- 
mal matter analagous to gelatine, and a small 
portion of fat or oil. A piece of bone long 
exposed to dilute muriatic acid will be de- 
prived of its phosphoric acid and other min- 
eral matters, and leave the cartilage or gela- 
tine in nearly original form. If we expose 
a bone in an open fire until it shall burn 
white, its form will not be changed, but the 
animal matter will have been burnt away. 
If, however, the bone be exposed to heat in 
a close vessel, all its animal matter, except 
a portion of the carbon, will be driven off. 
The remaining carbon, with the earthy 
matters, constitute what is called animal 
charcoal, ivory black, or bone black. 

We have on record numerous results of 
analysis of bones of different animals, but 
the following, which gives the composition 
of the bones of the ox, will answer our pres- 
ent purpose :- 

Animal matters analogous to gelatin 
and albumeD, called azotic com- 
pounds, .... 33.30 
Phosphate of lime, . . . 55.85 
" " magnesia . . 2.05 
Carbonate of lime, . . 3.85 
Fluate of lime, . . . 2.50 
Soda, common salt, &c, . . 2.45 

• The above are the results obtained 
from a fresh clean peace of bone. Those 
collected by the bone '.crushers, cannot 
but have more or less of dirt adhering 
to them, and after being crushed, they will 
absorb a portion of water. This adds to 



I860.] 



Til E so IT II i:i;.\ PLANTER. 






tlx-ir weight probably about ."> perct, and, 

portion of the 

it will l>< 
that IQO lbs. of ground or crushed 
ontain an av< 
tmount of gelatine end other i 
pounds, .... 32 lbs 

i* lime. 
Of this last th< re isphosphorio 
acid ... 

ad limn, .^ 281 

Tl. ion of ammonia produced by 

m position of the animal matters 
may be estimated to average about 7 parts 
of the above 82, 

We may, therefore, assume the value of 
loo lbs. of crushed bones to consist »n : 

Ammonia, 7 lbs. 

Phosphoric acid, 245 ) r o u 
Lime, . . 28.5 j ' 

I " if lime, . . 3 " 

Fluate of lime, . 2 

Phosphate of ia . . 2 " 

Bods, muriate of tfoda, Ac., . 2\ u 

In addition to the above, there arc car- 
bonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen, pro- 
duced by the decomposition of the animal 
matt 

It has been stated to me that crushed 
bones had, in Borne instances, been adulter- 
ated with ' reign matters, but I have 
met with no certain evidence of the fact; 
on the contrary, an examination of a num- 
ber of > mipli-s which farmers had received 
nYoan Beresal different sources, showed them 
to be practicable with an arti- 
cle of that kind. 

There are difficulties in the way of adul- 
terating ground bones, occasioned by the 
fact: d of foreign matters 

can be readily with a good pocket 

lens which ev r ought to | 

They arc not injured if boiled m 
long enou | the grease tin 

tain, bur if the boiling be continued until 
more or less of the gelatine be removed, 
their valu it is from 

the gelatine that the annum, laced. 

Pure fresh bonne should lose from 
per cent, of tlnir weight, when burned in 
nn open vessel until they become white. — 
Uut if they have been robbed of p*d 
their gelatine they will lose less weight by 
burning. 

Prof. Johnston, in his Agricultural Chem- 
istry, refers to a discussion which sprang up 



which of 
ostitnenU attribute 

their value. Spren ted thai il 

to their phosphates onlyj and this opinion 

! by Liebig. < ):' 
all the credit to the smrooni from 

their animal matter. It wonld, in my oph> 
ion, fa if time to gi?e to 

nteatanrs. 
Both aides certainly knew that all soils 
which are deficient in phosphoric acid, arc 
rendered more fertile when it is supplied; 

and it would be certainly difficult to find a 

long in cultivation whose productive- 

wqnld not be increased by the use of 

ammonia, pro?] r more of the < 

•itl elements be not deficient or altogether 

absent. 

It seems strange that men ■ question could 
have been raised by distinguished men in 

the present day, when there is certainly no 
room to doubt for one moment the efficacy 
of both phosphoric acid and ammonia as con- 
stituents of manure. 

Much difference of opinion has prevailed 
from the first use of bones, as to the best 
mode of applying them. In. Germany it 
was for a long time the practice to burn 
them. "Whether this was owing to ignorance 
or the want of bone crushing mills, we do 
not know. I believe, however, that this 
practice has ceased, and that crushed bones 
are now used in both Germany and in 
France. 

ckhardt, in his Agricultural Chemis- 
try, laments that, owing to the want of ap- 
ition of bones in Germany, they are 
largely exported to England for manure*. 

In England they are crashed or ground 
fine, when they are to be drilled in with 
turnip seed ; but a rati; r kind is 

ist. 
In this, country they are also crushed, but 
the kind suited for drilling in is not 
tditional c 
There are three modes of applying CTU 
bones to the soil : 

1. In the dr . I purchase 1. 

2. 'n sulphuric acid. 

8. C in incipient decay, or, more 

correctly, putrefaction of their animal mat- 
ter. 

If the object is the ] 
ment of the soil, without anting so much 
about a maximum growth of the first crop, 
the crushed bones may be applied in the 



THE 



SOUTHERN 



PLANTER. 



[June 



dry state, without any previous preparation. 
This was the least expensive mode. (1.) 

When they are applied for the benefit of 
only one or two crops, without looking to 
the permanent improvement of the soil, the 
phosphate of lime may be made soluble by 
means of sulphuric acid or oil of vitrol. (2.) 

When the object is to have the bones in 
such a state as to produce an immediate 
effect upon the first crop, and which will be 
continued during many years, it is better to 
treat them as will be hereafter shown, so as 
to bring their animal matter into an incipi- 
ent state of putrefaction, improperly called 
by some fermentation. (3.) 

I have had some experience in the appli- 
cation of dry bones to land, and have also 
been able to collect the opinions of many 
who have extensively applied them in this, 
manner. It has the advantage of saving 
time and labor, but requires a larger dose 
to produce a given effect upon the first 
crop. Its effects, however, are more lasting, 
and will continue during a long series of 
years. This method may answer when the 
ground is intended to be kept permanently 
in grass. Gypsum should always be mixed 
with them in the proportion of I bushel to 
10 of bones. 

The system of dissolving in acid, I have 
been always satisfied, is less advantageous 
than the putrefactive process, and therefore 
I have never used the dissolved bones. 

In a paper read before the meeting of 
the British Association, at Dublin, in 1857, 
Sir W". Murray claims that he was the origi- 
nator of the practice of using dissolved 
bones more than forty years ago. Long 
experience, however, in the use of them 
has induced him to change his opinion upon 
that subject, and he now objects to the use 
of dissolved bones. He states that he finds 
" the soluble phosphates too soluble ; that 
they melt too fast, and are carried into 
the subsoil or pass off into streams during 
rains." 

He adds that tl his present views result 
from many years experience," and " ttfat 
they have been confirmed by a long series 
of experiments, carried on for him by the 
governor as well as the gardener of the 
Richmond (England) Lunatic Asylum." 

The prompt action of dissolved bones 
upon crops brought them prominently into 



notice, and induced many farmers to pre- 
pare and use them, and, besides, induced a 
host of parties to prepare them on a large 
scale to save the farmers the trouble of so 
disagreeable a process, and not without 
danger. I am fully convinced that if any. 
one will take the trouble to make proper 
comparative experiments with dissolved and 
putrified bones, and notice the results, 
during five or ten years, they will come to 
the same conclusion as Sir J. Murray did, 
who has the candor to acknowledge the 
errors into which he has led his brother 
farmers. 

The books and periodicals for years past 
contain numerous directions for dissolving 
bones, and it is remarkable that they should 
differ so greatly in the proportions of acid 
required. 

In the Patent Office Report of 1856* Mr. 
Brown recommended the use of five pounds 
of sulphuric acid to 100 lbs. of bones, and 
to compost them with muck. 

An article in the Country Gentleman of 
the 28th October, 1858, by Prof. Gil- 
ham, .of the Va. Military Institute, re- 
fers to an article of Prof. Norton, which re- 
commends 50 or 60 lbs. for whole bones 
and 25 and 45 lbs. for ground bones, and 
adds that he (Prof. Gilham) found even 100 
lbs. of acid were not sufficient to dissolve 
100 lbs. of bones. 

The real state of the case is, that if it 
be desired to dissolve all the phosphates in 
100 lbs. of bones, or about two bushels we 
must apply 59 lbs. of sulphuric acid, whose 
specific gravity is 1,85, diluted with three 
times its weight of water. And to effect a 
complete solution they must be frequently 
stirred during three or four weeks. If the 
bones be whole it will require many months 
to dissolve all their phosphates. 

If it be desired to dissolve a part only, a 
less proportion of acid may be used. My 
own opinion is, the less, the more economi- 
cal to the farmer in the long run. 

We must not omit to count the cost of 
applying sulphuric acid to bones, which, of 
course, will be modified by the proportions 
used. 

Let us first ascertain the cost of effecting 
a complete solution of the phosphate of 
lime in bones : 



! 



Til E SOI Til Ki; N PLA ME II. 



367 



1 . i I B | I I 1 1 

50 " sulphuric acid (8ct8.), 1.77 
We shoo Id add fof libor and the 
\ it or tub, which IS 

destroyed, freight on acid, 

08 



2nd. If we use aeid sufficient to dissoWe 
hah the bi q< b, the cost will be as follows : 
100 lbs. boo . . . 11.46 

BO « sulphuric acid (3 cts.), .90 

Labor, &o.j as before, . . .08 

12.44 

As a bushel of bones will average in 
weight 45 lbs., we have to deduct 5") per 
cent, to get at the cost of one bushel ; 
therefore, 

One bushel fully dissolved will cost SI. 40 
One bushel half dissolved will cost 1.10 

It will be seen, therefore, that by dis- 
solving we much more than double their 
eost, and if but half dissolved, their COSt is 
increased more than two-thirds in amount. 

It is true that. a smaller quantity will suf- 
for an immediate effect, which may suit 
a temporary tenant, but let the land-owner 
bear iu mind that the whole ultimate benefit 
is iu proportion to the weight of bone* ap- 
plied. It is true the action of the acid 
upon the earb -nate of lime produces a por- 
tion of gypsum, but so far as that article is 
concerned, we can purchase it at less than 
one-fifth the cost of making it. 

When bones or phoepbatie guanoes are 
dissolved in acid it is usual to add ab- 
sorbent materials, so that it may be d 
sufficiently dry to admit of being spread. 
Neither lime DOr ashes should be used for 
this pttrp it would precipitate 

the phosphate and neutralize the eff 
the sulphuric acid. 

Great care should be taken when the acid 
is poured into the water, which must be 
done before the bones are added. It must 
be done very gradually, because it generates 
heat above the boiling point, and is apt to 
jbe thrown into the faces and on the clothes 
lof the workmen. 

Sir J. Murray thinks there is much loss 
by the soluble phosphates being carried off 
by water ; but there is good reason to be- 
lieve that the cause of their effects being so 
slight after one or two crops, is more owing 
to certain known chemical reactions in the 



soil. Soluble llnmina and iron, 

ially the I from 

soils, and when a soluble pho P lime 

comes in contact with , the 

horic acid is precipitated a^ pho*] 
of iron or alumina. I * < * 1 1 » 
cording to Bischoff, are among the most in- 
soluble substances known in water and 
bonio aeid But some experiments «•(" Dr. 
>t prove that they arc soluble in alka- 
line silicates*. 

Whilst it does not seem proper to apply 
sulphuric acid to bones, yet I think it pro- 
bable that we may advantageously use either 
that or muriatic aeid in small proportion to 
some of the phosphatic guanoes, especially 
to those containing phosphates of iron and 
alumina. 

It remains now to notice the third mode 
of preparing bones, which consists in 
Causing putrefaction and decay. 

This mode has been evidently coming 
more into use within a few years past, and 
we often find directions in the agricultural 
jounMlp for effecting j r> most generally by 
making them into composts with stable 
manure or other matter. I have, however, 
met with nothing in that way that apt 
likely to answer a hotter purpose than that 
practiced by me li) years ago, after experi- 
menting to some extent. And as inquiries 
have been made in answer to which I had 
found it necessary frequently to describe the 
process, it will now be repeated in full. 

Having smoothed over the surface of the 
ground (under a shed, if convenient), place 
thereon evenly, a layer of 8 in. of gT 

-. and then an even layer of good fine 

J soil or earth, free from stones or sticks. 

'Give a good sprinkling of gypsum owe? 
layer of earth. Another layer of boni 

applied upon tho layer of earth, and the 
same alternations are to be repeated with 
. peum until we have four of each I 
.rth, and the height of the pile will 

l 1 1 incl i. n.1 the bones are usually 

each layer should be well moist 
with water or better with nrsne, in order to 

i the process. It is proper to place 
iks in the pile reaching to 
which should be freqm ntly 
amined by feeling them, in order to jn Ige 
of the degree of heat produce! [f the 
weather be warm they will begin to heat in 
a few days, and in a week or two they will 
become hot. When upon taking out the 



368 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



sticks they feel unpleasantly hot, the pro- 
cess should be checked by chopping or 
spading down the mass from top to bottom, 
which, if carefully done, mixes the mate- 
rials well together, and they are ready for 
spreading. 

If the process be commenced during cold 
weather it may be hastened by placing at 
the bottom a layer of fresh horse dung 
about six inches thick, and covering the 
pile with straw or fodder to retain the heat. 

There is much testimony in favor of 
using salt as a manure, and it cannot be 
applied more advantageously than with the 
bones, because it promotes their solubility. 
It would be better to place the proper dose 
of salt with the gypsum upon each layer of 
the earth. 

In reference to the quantity of bones to 
the acre, I may say, that after trying them 
in quantities from 80 bushels down to 10, 
I came to the conclusion that 10 bushels to 
the acre was the most advantageous quan- 
tity. I became satisfied, also, that this 
quantity, prepared as I have just indicated, 
and uniformly sowd, will be as effective for 
a year or two as double the quantity applied 
in the dry state. 

Should the soil be dry when wheat ground 
is dressed with dry bones, and continue so 
for some time after, but little effect will be 
produced by them upon the autumn growth. 

The effect of the putrefied bones will be 
obvious within a few days after the young 
wheat appears above the surface. The pu- 
trefaction in the first case goes on very 
slowly ; but when the bones have been once 
heated it will proceed more readily, and of 
course furnish an earlier supply of the 
much needed ammonia, as well as phospho- 
ric acid. 

One great advantage of bones over am- 
moniated guano arises from the fact that 
putrefaction and decay have progressed in 
the latter until nearly all the ammonia 
which they are capable of yielding has 
been already formed. And as it is very 
soluble in water, much of it is rapidly 
washed off during heavy rains, leaving a 
portion, which is absorbed and retained in 
the soil. This is going on whenever the 
ground is wet, so that when the soil is not 
frozen in winter, the ammonia is passing off 
and there is no crop growing to appropri- 
ate it. 

When bones are applied, either dry or in 
the manner I have suggested, (3,) they are 



giving out their ammonia as the crops re- 
quire it, but in cold weather the putrefaction 
is nearly or quite suspended, according to 
the temperature, and again resumed in the 
Spring ; at first slowly and then rapidly in 
hot weather, when it is most wanted by the 
crop. 

I have very rarely met with those who 
have used bones for manure without being 
satisfied with their effects. Experience has 
shown, however, that their effects are not 
so promptly evinced in stiff clay soils as in 
those of a more porous character. The com- 
pactness of very stiff soil prevents sufficient 
access of air to assist in the decay of the 
bones. When applied to very wet soils the 
animal matters decompose so slowly as to 
produce little benefit to crops. 

BONE BLACK OR ANIMAL CHARCOAL. 

In former days bullock's blood was 
largely used in refining sugar, but in the 
improved modern process very little blood 
is used. The principal reliance is upon 
animal charcoal, through which the hot 
syrup is filtered for the purpose of being 
decolored. It is coarsely crushed or ground 
and the finer portions and dust sifted out, 
which would otherwise clog the filtering 
cloth or pass through with the syrup. Af- 
ter each operation the charcoal is again ex- 
posed to heat in closed iron vessels, and the 
dust, etc., sifted out as before. It is this 
material that is sold for manure under the 
name of bone black. 

All the animal matter, except a portion 
of carbon, has been expelled by heat, leav- 
ing the carbon with the phosphates and 
other earthy matters of bones, and is, of 
course, valuable as a manure. 

I have been informed that the refineries 
in Baltimore dispose of their bone black to 
manufacturers of fertilizers in Philadelphia ;> 
the whole amount being annually about 
half a million of pounds. 

A sample which I obtained from Doug- 
herty & Woods, of Baltimore, was analysed 
by Dr." Piggot, with the following results, 
viz. : 



Phosphate of lime, . . 70.10 

Phosphate of magnesia, . .15 

Carbonate of lime, . . 11.85 

Charcoal (animal), . . . 10.98 

Oxide of iron and alumina, 3.01 

Sand, .... 2.83 

Soluble salts, . . . .41 

Soluble organic matter, . .13 



I 



tii i: so it ii BRN r i- \ ntki: 



It ii to be regr< tted thai this large amount 
of phosphate of, lime should be earned oufl 
of our State instead of being used at home. 
TIuto is no doubt of it being valuable for 

manure, ai its constituents olearty indicate, 
I r the phosphate and earboni 

it contains. Its earboo also will prove 

rbonic acid in the soil. 

CKACkNILS OH QBXA1 

This material consists of the tissues and 
other matters remaining after the melting 
and straining off the fat of animals. 

At one establishment in Baltimore (the 
Butchers' Hide and 
there are 100,000 lbs. 

dnced per annum, all of which is sold at 
one cent per lb. to parties in Philadel- 
phia, to be used in the manufacture of 
ssian blue. I have no means of know- 
ing the whole amount produced in Balti- 
more, but it must be considerable. 

Boussingault determined the proportion 
of nitrogen to be 11.88 per ct which will , , 
produce during the decay of the material . hatic g wU1 have had tbcir d and 

per ct. of ammonia, or nearly j cease to bc in dcmand by &rme „ j Jlt lcast 

i where they have been tried. That sonic por- 

Paci- 



B iprcs- 

sioo thai we have any " | . reju- 

againsl the article, On the contrary, 
we would gladly oommend it in th 
terms, oOuTd we do so consist' i our 

own Views. Wt dislike as much as any one, 
the monopoly of Peruvian guano, and would 

be right glad if American farmers o »uld dis- 
pense With its use altogether. We C 

heartily wish that all that, is claimed for the 

" American guano " might prove to be below 
its real merits. Tt would be a national ; 
ing, of more value than all the gold of Cali- 
fornia. Several enterprising nun have devo- 
Tallow Association) ted their time and m tQ it3 iDtrod.iction, 

'"I and, so far as we know, they have done this 
in the belief that they arc doing the country, 
as well as themselves, good service, in hunt- 
ing up and bringing these fertilizers here. 

But, as we have said to some of them per- 
sonally, we think they are guided by an in- 
correct theory in regard to the wants of our 
soils and crops; and our present opiuion is, 



equal to the amount in the best Peruvian 

guano. It seems therefore, that it would I UoM^oFt^e n 

be worth more than one cent a pound for fic Islandg prove moderately useful, is 

manure if it were powdered or otherwise I bab , for wc have scen specimcnp wbich 
reduced to such a fine , state of division as; contained pumc i e nt ammonia and other or- 
would admit of its being properly mixed. • con . stituents to warrant , tbc M{ei tbat 
with the soil. As it comes from the press ! th WQuld be beneficial to crops . Aml this 
Bakes are about three feet square and m ]n . accQunt for the fact that some 
about six inches thick, which are easily perrons hare heen pleased with their firat trial 
transported without being packed It is in nf Arncrican 0> Wc bavc examined a 

faet almost as solid as wood itself, and will (l)/ , n different specimens of the material, in 
require suitable machinery to bring it into, Us unground) umnixe d state, and found them 
a proper State for manure I of varioug composition, running all the way 

It is but very recently I learned that it from a nenr ly pure phosphate, up to o, 

taining a valuable admixture of organic mat- 



■as produced in quantities worthy the at- 
tention of farmers, but it is my iutention 
to examine further into it as early as prac- 
ticable. 

A mixture of cracknels and the bone 
blaek of the sugar refiuers would constitute 
a very valuable manure. 



tcr including a considerable pet 
ammonia. Now any person chancing * 
tain a sample of the last named quality would 
doubtless see sufficiently good results to lead 
him to try it further, and to commend it to 
others. We have seen certificates from 
persons. But how many are there in the 
"Shall I buy 'American Guano?' " country who have reaped no benefit f We 
Duri;. it few montha, this question ba?e heard of many such, yet no on< 

has been addrei lm collecting and setting forth the 

sonally and by letter, a great number of times, i cases of failure, and fanners, as ■ classes*!- 
In fact we expect thatev minutes du-,d° m write out their experiem it is 

ring the day, some one will knock at our door drawn from them, and BO m get the 

and almost invariably a;*k on entering, dark side.* 
"'What do you think of this American gu- 
ano 



We therefore offer a general reply 
24 



♦An illustration may be given of the (Vt re ferred 
to above. A few years since, one of the apecial 



d< 







THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[June 



We have hesitated to discourage the intro- 
duction of the American guano, because we 
have hoped, that in the progress of the enter- 
prise, there would be found deposits contain- 
ing organic material enough to verify at least 
a portion of the expectations indulged on the 
part of the importers, and the public. This 
may yet turn out to be the case, and we ad- 
vise those enlisted in the enterprise to turn 
their attention specifically to the discovery 
and introduction of organic deposits; for we 
are firm in the conviction that the purely min- 
eral or phosphatic guanos, such as are now 
mainly brought here, will not prove profitable 
or satisfactory. We are aware that the sell- 
ers take a different view, and have on their 
side many scientific men ; but we are quite 
willing to put our opinions on record to 
be tested by time and experience. In the 
meanwhile, we must caution not only farm- 
ers but the importers themselves, not to in- 
vest too largely in a material which is at 
best of doubtful utility. In our last article 
on manures (No. 4) we stated, perhaps 
fully enough, our reasons for calling in ques- 
tion the supposed value of mineral manures 
generally, including the phosphates. 

But whatever may be the character of 
some of the American guanos already intro- 
duced, or of those yet to be found and 
brought here, we will now only consider the 
general character of those offered, remarking 
that the chief excellence claimed for them 
by those interested, is that they abound in 
phosphates. We have been furnished with 
the following recent analyses of several car- 
goes, and the remarks thereon by Prof. S. 
W. Johnson, who conducted the experi- 
ments'.. 



pleaders for super-phosphate visited a New-England 
town, and lectured so strongly in favor of the use of 
this material, that the cultivators at once made up 
orders for some 80 tons, at a cost to them of nearly 
$4,000. It proved a failure, and we believe not a 
pound of it has since been sold there. But the buy- 
ers quietly pocketed the loss, acknowledged them- 
selves sold, and discarded all scientific teachings in 
reg'ird to agriculture. But no one of them ever 
took the trouble to collect and publish the facts. On 
the other hand, in another town, one man obtained, 
or thought he obtained, good results, (perhaps he 
had an extra good sample,) and on application he 
gave his certificate in its favor. That certificate, 
and a few others of similar character, were pub- 
lished all over the land by interested parties, and 
very many persons bought super-phosphate or the 
strength of them. We only mention this as an il- 
tian of how one-sided Btatementfl may some- 
times go forth, and further to invite those who try 
any new fertilizers t;o report their failures in all 
cases. Let us have both sides. 



Yale Analytical Laboratory, ) 
New-Haven, Conn., March 16, 1860. } 

John B. Sardy, Esq. — Dear Sir : This 
may certify that I have inspected the dis- 
charged guano cargoes of the ships Gosport, 
Rambler, and Polynesia, late from Jarvis 
Island, have had average samples taken in 
my presence, and have submitted the same 
to chemical analyses, with the following re- 
sults. The table also includes analyses of a 
sample of the Victory's cargo, Jarvis Island, 
and of a specimen from Baker's Island. 



Gosport 

do 

Rambler 

do 

Victory 

do 

Polynesia 

do 

Baker's Island 

do. do 



2 
o 
tfi" 


§9 

Is 


3 

CD 


2 

o 

CO 


£ c 
S'-S" 


ft Cu 

3 2 


c 






3" 


£ c 


o-n 




a> « 










S" 


a. 






a. a 


o 3 


': 


<3 

5s 




> 


: p 

: ° 


* 5" 

: «> 




<t ST 




o 


• 51 


• &> 




r> i 




a. 


• ^ 






: e> 






: o 
: 3 


: 3 

: p 


9 33 


: & 
13 37 


33.88 


81.81 


20-33 


w 


9 24 


13 22 


33 59 


22.01 


20.33 


1.6 i 


13 22 


8.39 


34 17 


19 10 


25.07 


.05; 


12 69 


8.97 


33.68 


19.18 


25 07 


.41 1 


7.08 


7.75 


36.31 


25.67 


21.75 


1 54 j 


8 85 


6.65 


36 33 


25.12 


21.75 


1.60! 


12 00 


.7.70 


34 83 


26.47 


15.85 


3.15/ 
1 58 * 


12.41 


7 34 


34.67 


28 15 


15 85 


3.57 


8.25 


41.54 


39.24 


2.16 


5.24 > 


3.58 


9.02 


41.09 


38.24 


2.16 


5.91 | 



- 3 S 

M CD » 

HI 

"■ * £■ 

r s 

47.47 
41.47 
55 01 
59.17 
83.93 



These cargoes together show an average 
of Phosphoric Acid equal to 50 per cent, of 
Bone Phosphate of Lime, which is suffi- 
cient to constitute a valuable fertilizer, es- 
pecially since the material is, on the one 
hand, very finely divided, and on the other, 
contains considerable organic matter, and 
Sulphate of Lime, which, being themselves 
easily decomposable or soluble, must leave 
the Phosphate of Lime exposing a great sur- 
face to the solvent action of the soil water. 
Simple calculation shows also that in the 
Jarvis Island Guano, by far the largest share 
of the Phosphoric Acid exists in the form 
of what is commonly called neutral Phosphate 
of Lime, which is characterized by a much 
greater solubility than is possessed by the 
Bone Phosphate. For these reasons this 
guano must manifest greater activity than 
other guanos which are more compact, and 
consist mainly of Bone Phosphate of Lime. 

SAM'L W. JOHNSON, Prof, of ' 
Analytical and Agricultural 
Chemistry, Yale College. 

Probably Prof. Johnson designed the 
above simply as a professional private busi- 
ness letter ; he should have stated the re- 
sults differently, if for the general reader. 
The second column, " Organic matter and 






Til E SOUTH ERN PLANTER. 






ined wat< i no valuable infor- 

d. We are left entirety in doubt ai 
to hoa much of it m ,k combined w 

and A-'- rut* matter." Bo 

do indication whether the or- 

r is simply useless or nearly uee- 
>U8 material, or whether it 

oontaini an appreciable amount of useful 

nitrogenous compounds. 

We liave oonfidenee in Prof. Johnson's 

skill and integrity U an analytical chemist, 

but we must differ with him in regard to 
atta o hee to these gaanos, and 

to phosphoric aeid generally. lie estimates 
soluble phosphoric aeid as worth 12 j eents 
per lb., and the vn^olubl . nts per lb. 

Upon this basis the "Sombrero guano" 
imported into southeastern Connecticut quite 

largely, was estimated to be worth over |30 
pel ton. Many of the farmers who bought 
it upon this estimate, and h;ive tried it, 
would not now buy it at any price, 

Prof. Johnson, very guardedly says 
above : u Simple calculation thow$ } 
But we think tlnse calculated values of 
} h sphoric aeid are not to be depended upon 
filiating its real value as a fertilizer. 
If the phosphoric acid in Peruvian guano 
really constitutes the estimated part of the 
value of that material, then we admit the 
calculated value of phosphoric aeid m other 
fertilizers; but we attribute the beneficial 
effects of Peruvian guano, bones, etc' 
mainly to the organic matters, and especially 
to the ammonia they contain. 

The above analyses show the elements 
of a notable amount of sulphate of lime 
(plaster of Paris) in the first four specimens 
This is highly valuable upon some soils and 

crops, while on others it i< nearly or quite 
d surprising p 

from the use of only •Jen li s. «.f plaster to. 
the sore. And here is another mode of | 
accounting for the "d result.- 

obtaiued last season from the American 
guano. The use of 300 to 600 lbs. of this 
to the 1 fnrnish plaster euough to 

alone give lases. Put 

farmers cannot afford to buy pla>t<>r in the 

form of American guano el $80 I 

per ton, when the simple, unmixed pi 
is abundant at ?•'> to S 10 per ton. 

To sum up : the American guano is re- 
commended and sold maiuly as a fertilizer 
aboundiug in phosphoric acid, and this in 
our opinion is of only moderate value at 



best * — not 60 bO at all w 

importation from the Paoifio Oeean. I 
results have sometii d obtained by 

the use of the American guano, especially 
where it has chanced to contain abundant 
organic matter, and also where it has 
n-i-A freely enough to supply plaster to the 

soil. Hut the results have not been uni- 
formly good by any means, and the p' 
importations do not contain organic matter 

enough to be taken largely into account in 

estimating their value. Then fore, 1 

our opinions in part, upon the considerations 

stated above, mid in part upon the reports 
of the results of its use thus far, we are re- 
luctantly forced to answer those asking our 
opinion, that we cannot advise fanners to 
purchase the American guano in quantity, 
until something is offered of different . 
nil character and composition from that now 
sold Limited quantities of it may be tried 
by tbe side of other fertilizers. 



"What Manures Shall I Buy?" 

" If you do not advise to use the manu- 
factured super-phosphates, or the manipu- 
lated guanos, or the Sombrero, in short, any 
of these mineral fertilizers, pray tell us 
what manure we shall buy? " 

Perhaps you need not buy any. If on 
the better class of prairie, or on other lands 
where there is plenty of vegetable mold up- 
on the surface, then a good plow and a good 
harrow, to break up and pulverize the .sur- 
face well, so that the air may have free ac- 
to decompose the organic matter, may 
be the best ''manuring" you can give this 
year. An application of Alkali, in the 
form of ashes OT lime, mingled with the 
soil, is frequently good to remove son 
and hasten the decomposition of the or- 
ganic materials, and prepare them to 
the plants. Alkalies are good 0U all ft Id, 
wit. or sour lands, wherever located. 

On the poorer lands, especially in the 
ohler sections of the country. 
oanic manures that are accessible. < lood sta- 
ble manure is always the hest, and u-ually 



* There i- om view <>f the value of poluhle phos- 
phoric aoid which . : that 
like ntlier acids it may act as an ab- 
taincr of ammonia, aid as hi u naaj be valt ahle to 
nd 'iii- Bay aeoount f<>r the c-o.i.i retail 

ruin th« Dl 
in any form in which piioepbortc aeid ft : ocessiUe, 

vast'y more than m'phuric acid, which i? a 
notah'e "fixer" or retainer of ami; 



;72 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[June 



the cheapest, where it is to be had. Next to 
this we esteem finely ground unhurried bones 
— not so much for the phosphoric acid they 
contain, as for their organic matter. We 
have this Spring bought of Messrs. A. Lis- 
ter & Co., of Tarry town, N. Y., 1£ tons of 
dry bone saw-dust, for 1£ acres of ground 
which we wish to cultivate very highly. — 
(We mention this to show that we " prac- 
tice what we preach." 

Next to unburned bones we esteem pure 
Peruvian guano, the kind that costs $60 per 
ton — not the " manipulated," nor the " No. 
2," which is sold at a less price, after going 
through some process of reduction. This 
sown in the drill at the rate of 
100 to 500 pounds per acre, and well har- 
rowed into the surface, or scattered as 
a top-dressing, is usually a paying applica- 
tion. The amount per acre depends upon 
the poorness of soil. For high culture, as 
in gardens, 600 lbs. or more per acre will 
not be amiss. 

Next to Peruvian guano, try — well, we 
hardly know what to recommend, for there 
is little else in market always worth buying 
at the price asked, and the transportation 
There are several varieties of animal com- 
pounds, made in limited quantities, which 
are sometimes cheap at the prices asked for 
them, and sometimes not. We hardly dare 
recommend them for general use. Among 
them are : the blood and wool manure, when 
purely blood and wool, and not mixed up 
with sand; the poudrettes, when not too 
liberally compounded with muck, and when 
the excrements, from which they are made, 
have not been taken from cess-pools where 
a constant flow of water has washed out the 
most valuable portions. A fuller descrip- 
tion of the fertilizers above alluded to, and 
others, will be given in the regular chapters 
upon manure. 



A List of Wonders. 

Among the thousands of marvelous in- 
ventions which American genius has pro- 
duced, within the last few years, are the 
following, compiled in an abstract from the 
Patent Office Report. Read them over, 
and then say, if you can, that there is no- 
thing new under the sun : 

The report explains the principle of the 
celebrated Hobb lock. Its " unpickability " 
depends upon a secondary or false set of 
tumblers, which prevent instruments used 



in picking from reaching the real ones. 
Moreover, the lock is powder proof, and 
may be loaded through the key hole and 
fired off till the burglar is tired of his fruit- 
less work, or fear that the explosions will 
bring to view his experiments more wit- 
nesses than he desires. 
. Doors and shutters have been patented 
that cannot be broken through with either 
pick or sledge-hammer. The burglar's 
" occupation's gone." 

A harpoon is described which makes the 
whale kill himself. The more he pulls the 
line, the deeper goes the harpoon. 

An ice making machine has been pa- 
tented which is worked by a steam engine. 
In an experimental trial, it froze several 
bottles of sherry, and produced blocks of 
ice the size of a cubic foot when the ther- 
mometer was up to eighty degrees. It is 
calculated that for every ton of coal put 
into the furnace, it will make a ton of ice. 

From Dr. Dale's- examiner's report we 
gather some idea of the value of patents. 
A man who had made a slight improvement 
in straw cutters, took a model of his ma- 
chine through the Western States, and after 
a tour of eight months, returned with forty 
thousand dollars. Another man had a ma- 
chine to thrash and clean grain, which in 
fifteen months he sold for sixty thousand 
dgllars. These are ordinary cases — while - 
such inventions as the telegraph, the plan- 
ing machine, the India rubber patents, are 
worth millions each. 

Examiner Lane's report decribes new 
electrical inventions. Among these is an 
electrical whaling apparatus, by which the 
whale is literally " shocked to death." An- 
other is an electro-magnetic alarm, which 
rings bells and displays signals in case of 
fire and burglars. Another is an electric 
clock, which wakes you up, tells you what 
time it is, and lights a lamp for you at any 
hour you please. 

There is a " sound gatherer," a sort of 
huge ear-trumpet, to be placed in front of a 
locomotive, bringing to the engineer's ears 
all the noise ahead ; perfectly distinct, not- 
withstanding the noise of the train. 

There is an invention that picks up pins 
from a confused heap, turns them around 
with their heads up, and sticks them in 
papers in regular rows. 

Another goes through the whole process 



I860.] 



THE SOUTH ERN PLANT!'.!!. 






of cigar making, taking in loaves and turn- 
ing out finished cigars. 

One machine cuts cheese; another scours 
knives and forks; another rocks the cradle ; 
and seven or eight take in washing and 
ironing. 

There is a parlor chair patented that 
cannot be tipped back upon two logs, and a 
railway chair that can be tipped back in 
any position, without any legs at all. 

Another patent is for a machine that 
counts passengers in an omnibus and takes 
their fares. When a very fat gentleman 
gets in, it counts two and charges double. 

There are a variety of guns patented that 
load themselves; a fishing line that adjusts 
its own bait, and a rat trap that throws 
away the rat, and then baits itself and 
stands in the corner for another. 

There is a machine, also, by which a man 
prints, instead of writes, his thoughts. It 
is played like a piano forte. And speaking 
of pianos, it is estimated that nine thousand 
are made every year in the United States, 
giving constant employment to one thou- 
sand nine hundred persons, and costing over 
two millions of dollars. — Baltimore Ex- 
change. 

4 » » » * 

From the Country Gentleman and Cultivator. 

Value of Corn Cobs. 
Messrs. Editors — In the Country 
Gentleman for Feb. 16. p. 113, I find an 
inquiry by A. W. Parsons, on the subject 
of corn-cobs for feed. As my mind has 
been somewhat exercised on that subject, I 
propose to give you briefly my conclusion, 
and the process by which I arrived at it. I 
had been in the habit of getting my corn 
and cobs ground together, as was the case 
with the most of my neighbors ; but I was 
not exactly satisfied that it was a paying 
business, for, to look at a basket of cobs, it 
seemed to me that there could be but little 
nutriment contained therein— not much more 
than in a nice basket of chips. I concluded 
that the analysis of the cob must settle the 
question, aud on consulting authorities, 1 
found that aeeording to the analysis of Chas. 
T. Jackson of Boston, Mass., the cob con- 
tained three and one-fourth "per cent, of nu- 
tritive matter. According to the analysis 
of Sir Humphrey Davy, the corn contained 
seventy seven per cent, of nutritive matter. 
Here then was a basis for calculation. If 
one hundred pounds of corn gives seventy- 
seven per cent., and one hundred pounds of 



cobs gains three and one-fourth ]• r 
then one hundred pounds of corn if irorth 
as inueh as twenty -threi hundred and i 
nine poundi of ccbt. Well, now, think- I 
to myself, that would make a pr 
sized pile of cobs. Now suppose a cow, or 
an ox, or a horse, to be a thinking re 
ing being, and then place the two piles 1 
them — the one hundred pounds of corn, and 
the twenty-three hundred and sixty-nine 
pounds of cobs, and tell them there is just 
as much nutriment in one as the other, 
which do you suppose they would choose ? 
Would they not revolt, and justly^o, at 
the idea of eating all of that monstrous pile 
for what little it contained. And then the 
wear and tear, for it seems to me it would 
take a cast iron stomach, or something as 
strong, to digest the cob. 

I believe the millers generally charge 
more for grinding when they grind the cob, 
so that in reality, we pay them all, or more 
than all the cob is worth for their work. 

I shell my corn, and use the cobs for fuel, 
and I think they will nearly pay for the 
shelling of the corn if used in that way, for 
they not only make a good fire, but they 
make a large quantity of first rate ashes, and 
and then the convenience of handling the 
corn after it is shelled is no inconsiderabh 
item. John F. Ovenshire. 

Bradford Co., Pa. 



Following the Copy. 

The Printers' rule is to follow the copy if 
it goes out of the window. It seems that 
the manufaeturers of England are equally 
rigid in their regulations and in both i 
the responsibility of mistakes which - 
times occur rests with those who furnish 
u the pattern." 

.\ i > .< vithmit EhmdUt — The Railway Re- 
view reports that the managers of the (J ran 1 
Trunk Railway sent I pattern fed Kngland of 
the Hi - Deeded to cut wood for their 
in Canada, and ordered 2500 of the irtioles 
made. The house receiving the order went 
immediately to work to fill it, and i 
months ago shiped to the managers of the 

mad at Montreal the axe> ;is ord 
I'pon reoeiying their property, however, the 
BCientfie men found that not one I 

2500 had a hole in it to reeeiv. 
handle. They were made accordi 
order — "exactly like tie 
have these axes for sale now in Montreal. — 
V York Obi 



374 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 




%\t $n\{\mx planter. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



Editors. 

It is a very general impression among " the 
public" — who of course are uninitiated in the 
mysteries of the " Sanctum " — that the post oc- 
cupied by the class whose name heads our page, 
is one of great pleasure, profit and idleness. 
The place of all others, where a man may secure 
for himself position, influence and wealth — to- 
gether with a perfect exemption from the little 
vexations, labors and cares which beset other 
people, by a sacrifice of — nothing: Honors and 
profits are yours without the trouble of asking 
for them ! • Oh, ye Knights of the Pen, the Scis- 
sors and the Press ! the public must know your 
condition, your character, and the minutse of 
your ''daily walk;' 1 the ''secret springs of ac- 
tion " which vibrate in so many bosoms, and 
which are only unknown to yourselves : your 
gross receipts, and your net profits ; that being, 
editors, you are of course rich, idle and "sassy," 
for the "public" has had many dealings with 
you, and can bring up "many witnesses," out of 
whose mouths must be established " a proper 
conclusion." 

But we know that you " are not like other 
men," and have concluded "to bring you up to 
condign." In short, to give you a trial, and to 
" show you up " fairly. 

Accordingly we abandon the Chair, and count 
ourselves out, to avoid personality and to secure 
impartiality. We claim the privilege of an out- 
sider, and as such, proceed to help you " see 
ourselves as others see us." 

Stand up like men, and answer to the "pub- 
lic's" charge — if you can. 

You are, in feeling, hard and callous, for " like 
the old woman's eels," you are used to being 
,( touched upon the raw." 

You utter so much "cop/" every day, or 
month, as the case may be, with no higher am- 
bitional motive than to gain for yourself " rest 



for a troubled mind," and to appease the restless 
inquietude of " the devil," who can subsist on 
no other food. 

In consequence of these, your professional 
idiosyncrasies, you are not sufficiently alive to 
the censure, the praise, the utter indifference) 
the sympathy and kindly regards of your fellow 
men — subscribers especially. 

Speak now, ye gentlemen of the craft, for we 
will question you, and tell us if there be a man 
among you who has not felt his bosom swell? 
his breathing grow short, and a strong desire 
pervade his right arm to grasp the hand of some 
honest, manly fellow — one of Nature's noble- 
men, who has given you evidence of his capa- 
city "to feel another's woes," by making you 
the recipient of an unsolicited and unselfish 
kindness? Wipe the ink from your faces, that 
when you answer we may see whether truth is 
patent as your mouth opens. We have an in- 
terest in you- -no matter what your condition is, 
and will give you the suggestions appropriate 
to your case, kindly volunteered by Mr. " World- 
ly-Wise," for the present occasion. 

As you do not conceal the fact that you are 
often " seeking rest, and finding none," we can- 
not help wondering whether such men be "sin- 
ners above all these," whose "lines are cast in 
pleasant places." 

What right have you to lead a life of self- 
denial or industry; to work for the "common 
good," and the benefit of every class in the 
community ? Can't you attend to your own con- 
cerns, and let other people's business alone? 
'Twould better suit the spirit of this progressive 
age not to be so " old fogyish," and to " take it 
easy." 

You do feel anxious, do you, about your " Ta- 
ble of Contents," and the "opinion of the 
world?" How' can you be so nervous? You 
should preserve a "stiff upper lip" and a more 
independent equanimity. 

You feel irritated and mortified, too, whenever 

you catch a gratuitous "fling," or get an unde- 

erved kick. Why don't you always cherish a 

more Christian spirit ? Your flesh is weak ; then 

in these times of muscle try to be more manly. 

You do not fill your columns up with a suffi- 
ciency of original matter now, and sometimes you 
talk too much. 

Because you are inclined to the opinion that 
"there's nothing new under the sun," is that 
any reason why any one man, in this "free 
country," shouldn't think the other way, or both 
ways, if he chooses? 






Til E S or T II BRN PL A NT K R. 



875 



n, who wants ■ paper filled with your 

thoughts ;i i present :i 

filled WJtfa the very best ihougfa 

"others," which you Ban arrange hy lahor ami 

. artistically, to mil every bodj 
have oal] to .<tiVd the matter, that is all. 

Why should you, (who arc only an Editor — 
Oiu.- of* that clftM who should fttl DOthlOg, knv.ir 

even/ thing, and u-ant little.) feel concerned sboul 

your li-t of mm-)>niji>i>z tubicribtrt to whom you 

your paper regularly for years per- 

Don'l you know that they hare only 

"taken it" to "' ytmt" Why be con- 

eemed at all about the state of your family! 1 
Are they not participants of your fortunate lot ; 

can't you blot out from your remembrance the 
that your exchequer is empty, that printers 
will want pay for sending your papers to those 
who ''encourage" you, that '"bills payable" 
mus1 be u met" if they can't be conquered; 
ami that you must M renew " when you can't 
u take up;" that "the devil'' will creep close 
to your elbow again, crying " copy," while an 
echo from a "delinquent subscriber" replies, 
"copy if you dare!" Can't you, I say, very easi- 
ly dispose of all these little troubles by — goin 
to sleep. Go on, then, and we will give you a 
■swim ing lullaby. 

We suppose we know something of you now, 

we have questioned and examined you 

od we think you are a "liar! 

entitled to 1 '" hard lot" by " force of position" — 

but time fails and we must draw our labors to 

ie. We have given you "a patient and 

impartial hearing}" and having mingled with 
that great world outside of the " sanctum," 
while we were not overburdened by the weight 
of our "working clothe-." we have taken upon 
us that broad mantle of Charity, which she ever 

- to lend — the folds of which we spread 
over you. Having thus covered up your multi- 
tude of sins, our heart softens and goes out to- 
ward you, ami from its inmost depth ai 
warm aspiration for your happiness here and 
hereafter: since we arc inclined to believe it is 

Me that you may be "more sinned against 
than sinning," and that sometime- you may of- 
fer excuses for, and explanations of imperfee- 



ha\ e little hope of 

ftoiaJ results from the kindly BUf rein 

remove that '• stumbling 
block" which causes our "brother to ol 
Therefore, we say to all MtrcasonapZ*, mm-pajfing 
tubicri 

■■ Delinquent i <>n the Printer* $ booki 
('an never enter lt<<i> 



Attention Farmers. . 

You would confer a great favor on the editOl 
of this paper, and we verily believe would do 
much good to one another, if you would write 
regularly your experience in your farming opera- 
tions. 

.Men who have never written a line for OS, 
or any body else, so far as we know, complain 
that we do not have " communications enough 
from Virginia farmers." Whose fault is it, we 
would ask, if we do not ! We have begged you 
to write — we have printed what is written, and 
like " Oliver Twist," we have always politely 
asked " for more." 

Gentlemen, it lays with you to provide the 
proper remedy, and to take away a reproach 
that criminates every one of you who can gain 
access to paper, pen and ink. Again we tay 
unto you, write! wkitk 1 WRITE. 



The Virginia Farm Journal. 

Mr. Crockett has announced already the dis- 
continuance of this paper, and the arrangement 

made with as to supply those, whose subscrip- 
tions to it are unexpired, with a copy of the 
Southern Planter in its stead. 

It remains f.r u? to express our sincere regret, 

that the Journal should be discontinued lor the 

want of sufficient support ; it was well edited, 

published weekly, and offered at the low price 

BI annum. 

It is mortifying to know, that while Vxr 
furnishes subscribers enough to papers published 
out of the State to support half a dozen g"<"/ Oft** 
at home, she has ever dealt with a close hand 
with those of her own sons. We do not find fault 

with the support extended by our ov 

we could name, which are pub- 
which are human: that your lot will be I Iished i )t . ynm i llt . r bordcrs^-tliey hy of 



much improved when -'the wioked eeaee from 

troubling," and your u form " is "setup" in a 

bett r ■ case " on high. 

We leave the end to turn to the first cause of 



I >o highly do we esteem them, that we 
would to-day subscribe for them, did we i 
joy the pleasure of reading them regularly, 
through the courtesy of their ed.: 
all romplaint against y<>\> . As a skilful physician through the customary exchange. But, in all 
could not expect to cure the disease while the (candor, we are sorry that there is so much truth 



bssW 



376 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[June 



in the proverb, " A prophet is not without honor 
save iii his own country." 

We shall mail the present number of the 
"Southern Planter" to the address of each sub- 
scriber furnished us by Mr. Crockett — except 
those who are already subscribers to our paper. If 
these gentlemen should wish to have two copies of 
the Planter sent them, they will give us notice, 
and we will cheerfully furnish them. 

We request the favor of those who do not like 
the arrangement, to notify us at once to discon- 
tinue it. 



Super-phosphate of Lime. 

As it has been a matter of controversy lately, 
among some of our agricultural brethren, as to 
the merits of super-phosphates as manures, and 
the quantity of water which they may or should 
contain, without being subjected to a charge of 
adulteration, on account of their per centage of 
water, we publish the following article from the 
Charleston (S. C.) Mercury. 

Messrs. Rhett & Robson are the agents for 
" Rhodes' Super-phoshate," and have published 
in the Mercury the analysis of an average sample 
of this manure, made by G. A. Liebig, of Balti. 
more. 

For ourselves, we must candidly say, that we 
have had a very limited experience with super- 
phosphates of any kind; but as we are entirely 
convinced of the necessity for supplying the soil 
with this ingredient, so important to most of our 
crops, in some available form, we expect to be- 
come "better posted" by-and-by. 

We are glad to say we follow farming for a 
livelihood, and because we love it as a profession — 
therefore, we say to all farmers, we are proud to 
be ranked "as one of them ;" and we shall ad- 
vise no man to follow where we would be afraid 
to lead. Perhaps we spoke too fast in saying 
"£o all farmers" — we acknowledged "equality 
and fraternity" — for we are sorry to say, that in 
this time-honored profession, may be found spe- 
cimens of the idle, lazy, and "old fogy" crass 
of men ; some Who "don't take the papers," and 
who by neither any force of example, precept, 
or sympathy, extend aid to the zealous support- 
ers of agricultural improvement. We believe 
that " farming will pay/' and that the judicious 
expenditure of money upon the lands, for rea- 
sons based upon common sense and the expe- 
rience of prudent, sensible men, and the scien- 
tific developments of the present age, will as 
surely lead to increased profits to the farmer, as 



any other class can reap from capital employed 
in other callings. 

If we are wrong, we shall have the penalty 
to pay, as we don't expect to abandon this idea, 
or a farm, as long as we may continue in pos- 
session of "one red cent." 

While we strongly urge upon all farmers the 
propriety of using all manures which may in- 
crease their crops or benefit their land, at the 
same time we commend caution, and prudent 
experiment on a small scale, with concentrated 
fertilizers, until they ascertain whether they are 
adapted to their particular soil, since there can 
be no doubt that the same article produces dif- 
ferent results in different soils. 

We are well aware of the fact that there is 
an incidental benefit to B. M. Rhodes & Co. in 
copying the article referred to, and we do not 
wish to be understoood, t in any sense, as the par- 
tizan of their super-phosphate, or the partizan 
of any concentrated fertilizer whatever. On this 
subject every man must form his own opinions > 
but as Dr. Liebig, from his position as an analy- 
tic chemist, must be considered as competent 
authority, we publish his letter as instructive on 
the subject of super-phoshphates generally. 



Mr. Editor, — We hand for publication a report 
from Professor Liebig, of Baltimore, on Rhodes' 
Super-phosphate Lime, which Mali be' found of 
interest to those who have used it — as correct- 
ing some erroneous impressions, and also giving 
some suggestions as to its mode of application. 

The extensive use of guano and artificial fer- 
tilizers, and the worthlessness of many, render 
it necessary that the planting interest should be 
protected against imposition, and secured in get- 
ting them of the uniform quality and standard 
they are represented to be. This can only be 
done by subjecting samples, taken indiscrimi- 
nately from parcels, after arrival here, to analyze 
by chemists of established reputation here and 
elsewhere. This report fully confirms that of 
Professor Sheppard, published some time since, 
from samples taken from the same lot of 1,500 
barrels in our warehouse. 

Respectfully, 

Rhett & Robson. 

Baltimore, 67 South Gay Street, > 
April 13th, 1860. $ 

REPORT OF ANALYSIS OF RHODES' SUPER-PHOSPHATE, 
FOR MESSRS. RHETT & ROBSON, CHARLESTON, S. C. 

A sample of the above, averaged from a lot 
of 1,500 barrels, was sent at my office, and found, 
upon analysis, to be composed as follows : 




Til K S or Til RUN PLANT EB 



877 



Sulphuric acid 

Lime 

Phosphoi io acid 

Phosphate ad alumina 0.61 

Chloi i< nil 0.41 

\ mbined ... l 8.59 



Sand mi. I carbon 5.60 

Which eonstituemts are combined as fellows: 

Bipbosphate of Lime 14.70 

Containing of Phosphoric Acid.. 

I Li mi e 

Water 

; Arid L&79 

Phosphoric Acid. . 11.11 

Containing of Water 

Sulphate of Lime hydrated 57.13 

Containing of Sulphuric Acnl . . 

( Lime 18 

Containm V, r 1 1. '.'.') 

Phosphate of Iron end Alumina 0.31 

Chloride of Natrium "••! i 

;iinl Animal parboil 5.60 

Mnistors 5.76 

1 00.00 

The free Phosphoric Acid in this article, 
amounting to li.u per cent*, is equal to 18.80 
per cent. of Super-phosphate) of Lime, rendering 
thr whole amount to thirty-three and a half per 
cent, of Super-phosphate of Lime. 

These numerals speak for themselves, and 
show that this article r ep re sen ts the m< - 
centrated Super-phosphate manufactured from 
Bones, which is the most reliable and uniform* 
sour sphoric Acid. 

The well-deserved name, "Standard* 1 which 
thi- Super-phosphate has attained, since its first 
introduction to ing to 

at uniformity. 

The results v. huh I have obtained by analyz- 
ing many samples, either sent to me from differ- 
or drawn by myself from the differ- 
d indeed from the Bsetory itself, 

•pond SO nearly, or are within such limits, 
lly can he maintained by the greatest pos- 
sible care and attention in the management of 
iishment 
In a -ample which I took warm and smoking 
from the workmen of the establishment, not 
Waiting for the usual dryii I found the 

amoiu " per cent. 

(26.) This is th hich I 

ed. 
The ' in the consumption of this 

article iiently, the inoreasing de- 

mand, has ma iry the budding of a 

second mammoth series of oil vitriol apparatus, 
which i- indeed the best proof of I 
this fertil 

I ha v Cithern paper that th^ 

■water determination 10 ri-e to 

and suspicion of adultern 

ainted with chemical formulas, might well 
be surprised by the apparently high per eentage 



Of wai II only remark that they mil* 1 

make u dUti notion between chemically com- 
bined ami mechanically mixed \ 

The superphosphate of lime belongs to that 
r salts wb ndant 

on i oertain per bemically 

combined. It i- impossible to produce this sent 
with lees than 1 5.38 pat ce ■• n in Che- 

mically pure Mate. 

The driving Of the water. Which ll only pos- 
sible by calcining at ■ high heat, would totally 
alter the nature (if the ^alt by forming a . 

[uently sease to be a soluble super-phos- 
phate of lime, therefore the ad^ lined 
by treating bone- with sulphuria acid would be 

entirely lost. (See Berzelius : (. nemi-trv, p. 107, 
vol. 3.) 

All finely powdered substanocs are hygi 

ptc, that is, they draw with avidity moisture 
from the air; therefore every finely powdered 
bi phosphate of lime, coroirig dry bom the facto- 
ry, will absorb water from the air. and cannot 
be found with le.-s than limr per cent, of hygro- 
scopic water. 

I do not think it inappropriate here to say BO 
you a few words in regard to the application ol 
these niann 

The English and Belgians sow but one-third 
the quantity of luper-phosphate intended for a 
field, and spread the other two-thiras when the 
plants are beginning to Sprout, or when they 
have appeared above the surface. 

The advantage to be derived from this method 
is two-fold : 1st. The exposed snper-phoephate 
being in contact with the atmospheric air, will 
have much greater opportunity ^i absorbing 

ammonia from it. 2d. Haiti and dew dissolving 

the super-pl t descends below the sur- 

face, and none of this valuable fertilizer will be 

i the fine ibres are ready to absorb it by 

this time. 

I feel convinced that no farmer desirous of 
improving \\\< land and increasing his crops. 
ought to be afraid of the trouble, i r to n 

• trial in this method of applying this in- 
valuable manure. 

G. A. LBJBKh »°*« Vr. 
Successor to Hr. Charles Bickel. 



The I ilsssJ esse 1 f is m iti t i~nn able 

interesting family paper, filled with matter I 

licial. amusing and instructive to both ti 
and young members of the fan Pub- 

1 rgia, wee: ■ > Dol- 

lars a year in ash 

. K T 
talented and well-known editor of tl 
/ • y Ma $e nper for man J 

i i and Fire- 

an I we do m 
ipcr to all id to 

the rest of mankind." 






878 




THE 



S OUT HE UN PLANTER 



[June 



Z. Drummond, of Amherst. 

The venerable agriculturist whose name heads 
this article is no more, lie has been a subscri- 
ber to the Southern Planter probably from its 
commencement, and there is soarcely a volume, 
until within the last two years, when probably 
prevented from writing by advanced aye and 
increasing infirmities, which does not contain 
one or more sound, practical and instructive ar- 
ticles, on some well-chosen subject in agricultu- 
ral economy, from his facile pen. For many 
years he was a constant contributor to the agri- 
cultural department of the Lynchburg Virginian, 
and his valuable communications did not fail to 
invest that always well-conducted paper with 
additional interest for the ^country reader, even 
when in its palmiest days, it could well boast as 
its editor the gifted and lamented Toler! 



Our Farm of Four Acres, and the Money we made 
by it. New York: C. M. Saxton, Barker & 
Co. From James Woodhouse, Esq. 

The peculiarity of this book is the plain com- 
mon sense shown in it. 

Two ladies leave London for the country, and 
manage by skill, attention and economy to ob- 
tain a larger share of health and comfort from a 
little farm of four acres than could have been 
believed possible. Their experience is pleas- 
antly recorded. In well-written English they 
narrate how they learned with difficulty to make 
butter, to keep cows, pigs and poultry; they 
give valuable recipes for making bread, curing 
bacon and managing a kitchen, garden, and 
wind up the book by showing how cheaply a 
.^ony can be kept in the country, and. how much 
comfort there is in having one. 

We commend the book to our readers; if they 
do not require the instruction, it will at least 
amuse and interest them. One lesson all may 
learn from it, for it is the central idea of the 
book — if you wish business well done, do it 
yourself. 



Flint's Milch Cows and Dairy Farming. 

We tender our thanks to Chas. L. Flint, Esq., 
the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, 
rhusetts, for a copy of the last edition of 
this very valuable book. We think every cattle 
breeder should have it, as it is sold at a mode- 
rate price, ('$1.25,) and contains a great deal of 
usefnl information on every subject connected 
with the dairy, breeds and management of cat- 
tle, making and preserving butter, &c, &c. 



For the Southern Planter. 

King & Queen Co., Va. 

Mr. Editor : I have a nursery of young fruit 
trees which have looked well and flourishing 
until recently. They are infected with small 
bugs or lice, similar to those on cabbage in fal| 
of the year. They must, from appearances at 
present, kill all, or at least, nearly so, and thus 
end my crop of trees for one year. I have close- 
ly examined and watched them, but failed to 
discover their origin. I observe • very many 
small redish bugs, called, I think, the "lady 
bug," also a long, ugly fly. Will you, or some 
other friend of the farmer, tell us the name and 
description of bug or insect that propagates 
these vermin? — we may thus destroy them by a 
strike at their origin- — and oblige, 

A Friend. 

We hope some of our friends engaged in the 
nursery business will reply to this query, and 
oblige us — Ed. 

« ♦ > • > 

Erratum. 

In Mr. Hill Carter's address, published in our 
May number, an important typographical error 
occurs, which the reader will please correct. 
Page 274, 3rd line from the top, for pure white 
" lands " read sands. 



We return our sincere thanks to H. I. 
Smith, Esq., for a present of asparagus, which 
was very acceptable, and which we disposed of 
as he intended, by filling up the gaps in our 
ribs. Thirty stalks of this asparagus weighed 
only half an ounce less than five pounds. 



Substitute for Guano. 

The late Professor Johnston of Edinburgh pro- 
posed the following recipe as a substitute for 
Guano : 

Seven bushels of bone dust, '. . 315 lbs. 

Sulphate of ammonia, . . . 100 " 

Pearl ash (or 80 B5s. of wood ashes.) 30 " 

Common salt, 80 " 

Dry sulphate of soda, . . . 20 " 

Nitrate of soda, . . • 25 «• 

Crude sulphate of magnesia, . . 00 " 



610 



The News, 

Published at Independence, Va., by Thomas 
Pugh and Lundy, a weekly journal, neutral in 
politics. Price, 1.50 in advance. 

We place on our exchange list and tender our 
cordial greetings, and best wishes to the pub- 
lishers. 






T II i: BOUT II K UN PL A NT BR. 



:;:'.• 



• Horizontal Culture. 

many 
things to be taken into consideration thee- 

lly and practically applied t«) lands 

that soras, that 

iljy, and need bringing to a level, in 
order to retain the - 

Tlif iii>t thing to l'c (l<»no is branoh- 
ditches, conductors, to I straight as 

; with the spade, and large enough 

to hold all the water that the hill-aide ditches 
iiiiiv empty into them, this done, the next 
thing is the hill-side ditches, these will re- 
quire some skill, patience and knowfc 
hut before you can commence, yon must 

liavc some kind of an instrument to I 

uro the grade for the ditch, for this I have 
found nothing to Burpasi the rafter-level. 
The first thing then is the construction 
and description of an instrument absolutely 
; sary to lay off the work correctly — the 

Opinion of many that they can lay off as 

b ditch or ran as level i row l>y the 

eye, to the contrary notwithstanding. Take 



trips of plank 1 inoh thick. 

• ml by letting into each other at such 

as that the other ends will be just 12 

■part from outside I i take 

l' othi is width and thick- 

niffioient length, and let the 

end of '»ne into tie | third from 

the top, or crown, and the other end one-third 
from the f.»ot of tin* opposite or othi i 

The other piece mibt be I 

the same way from the opposite aide piece 

which will canes them to cross each other, 

where they must he let into each other, the 
whole put together with ioob screws firmly. 

Then draw a line from the outer corner ol' 
one fool to the outer corner of the other, 
mark and saw oil', this will make the instru- 
ment Hat on its feet, when raised upon them. 
It should have two good coats of paint to 
protect the wood from the influence oi' the 
weather. You can cither attach a spirit- 
level to it, or you may BS6 plumh and line; 
(J use the plumb,) fasten the line at the 







crown of the instrument, and on a strip 

attached to the under>ide of the two 

sight across from one to the 

Other, get your level marked hy placing the 

instrument on some level rarj 't the 

marks, place a block one inch thick 
under one of the feet, then mark the inch 
under your plumh line, and so on until you 

it her way M you d 
Now the instrument is ready for operating 
with. 

The next thing is to lay off the hill-side' 
ditches — examine the hill or slope that you. 
wish to operate on, consider where the ditch 



ought to commence, where it should 

run and where it should empty, so as 
to have the ditch where it might to he, 
hut at no time give your ditch less or more 
fall in order to get it empty at a certain 
place, always commence the ditch some dis- 

ihove all the wa.-hes in the laud SO as to 
•top all the water that collects ami a 
off the soil. But if th 
in the field you wish to hill side il 
till them up so M you can more readily 

thcin with your ditch. 

i can commence your ditch cither at 
the emptying place, or at the top or upper 



380 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



end of the ditch. "With new beginners, 
they had better begin at the top and carry 
the gn.de down. First select your place to 
begin, all ready on the spot, a good plowman 
with a good strong mule and good turn- 
plow. Now commence laying off your 
ditch and let the plow follow after you. 
The first three strides of your level give 
three inches fall to a stride, (without there 
should be a large quantity of water caught 
at the start,) then give one and a half 
inches every strike for the first 200 yards, 
if your ditch is longer, (though it should 
not be if it possibly could be avoided,) the 
first 100 yards give one inch, and the next 
100 yards half inch. If your land should 
be very sandy, give less fall, and make the 
ditch wide with a high bank. Now your 
ditch is laid off, it has but one furrow, have 
another good plowman with a good and large 
turn-plow and strong mule ; have this plow, 
or as many more as are necessary, plowing 
out the ditch. Run three furrows close 
and deep as mule can well pull the plow, 
above the first furrow or the furrow that 
the ditch was laid off with, which will make 
four furrows, and in the fourth furrow run 
another furrow in order to get the ditch 
the deepest on the upper side. Always in 
plowing out the ditch, throw the dirt to the 
lower side ; to do this, you will always have 
to drag back the plow, without you should 
be fortunate enough to be supplied with 
hill-side plows. 

For every hundred yards, after the first 
hundred, increase your ditch in size one 
furrow in the width for the bottom. Say 
for the first hundred yards four furrows, for 
the second hundred yards five furrows, and 
so on. The great fault of many in making 
hill-side ditches, they make them too small, 
they soon become filled up, break and 
do much harm to the land in the way of 
making gullies, carrying off the virgin 
soil, &c. 

In laying off hill-side ditches, there are 
many things to be kept in consideration, 
the quantity and force of the water, that 
will fall into the ditch that you are about 
making, you will have land that has but 
little descent; then in a few strides it will 
be steep and full of gullies that you have 
previously filled up, here give your ditch 
more fall, especially when you cross the old 
gulley, in order to run off more readily, for 
at all such places the water comes quicker 
and with more force into the ditch. Con- 



sider the quantity of water that will flBw 
into your ditch at the heaviest rains that 
may fall on your fields, and make your 
ditches accordingly. Now your ditch is 
laid off and plowed out the first time, 
and the hoes should follow and drag the 
plowed up dirt out of the ditch, bring- 
ing it all to the lower side of the ditch, 
this done, cause the plows to follow after 
the hoes and plow out the ditch again close 
and deep with one furrow less ; but be cer- 
tain to run the extra furrow in the last 
furrow on the upper side in the bottom of 
the ditch — this will cause the ditch to be 
deeper at the upper side than the lower 
side, which is a very necessary thing, so as 
to cause the water not to- bear too heavily 
on the fresh bank below. Now cause the 
hoes to draw the dirt out of the ditch the 
second time. At this time you may, and 
generally can, complete the ditch, have the 
loose dirt, and all bumps that may be in the 
bottom of the ditch dragged out clean, 
roots and grubs cut out smooth, large stumps 
and trees you can shun by observing them 
in time, and grade and make the ditch so 
as not to wash or break over at them, or by 
the alteration that you will have to make. 
Leave nothing close about the ditch that 
may fall into it, such as brush, old grass and 
weeds. Re certain to make your ditch 
large enough to carry off all the water that 
may fall into it. Make it wider and with 
a stronger bank at all the gullied places, 
for at these places the water will always 
come with some force, and here the ditch 
is more apt to break, and when broken it 
becomes very troublesome, for it washes out 
the old gulley that you have laboured hard 
to fill up, then your work in this line is all 
to do over, and you have less dirt to do it 
with, also your ditch bank at this place is 
to make up again. Always recollect hill- 
side ditching is worth doing ; and " what is 
worth doing, is worth doing well." 

Your ditch is now completed. Now you 
must consider where the next ditch will be 
necessary. Here you must exercise some 
judgment; first consider the quantity of 
water that falls at the heaviest rains, and 
the distance below the ditch that you first 
laid off that the water will commence car- 
rying off the soil, (t. e., the surplus water 
that your runs will not retain,) here, as 
near as possible, make your next ditch, and 
so on until you make all the ditches neces- 
sary on this slope or hill-side, and also 



I860.] 



THE SOUTH K K X PLANT Kit. 



381 



wliriwiT a ditoh ii needed in the laid, or 
in any field that you have, until you have 
every spot of ground in your plantation 
that washes the least, or is likely to trash, 

icil bj a hill-side ditch. II. 
would remark, the proper time to bill-side 
ditch y<»ur land is when it is just cleared ; 
whenever you harve your new ground ready 
for the plow you should first lay off and 

nil the hill-side ditches that shall ever 
be needed — this done, the next thing is to 
run iff your land in rows to a perfect level, 
and ever afterwards keep them so. 

Having your field or fields hill-side 
ditched, the next thing in consideration is 
the level or horizontal culture, or the means 
by which to arrive at it. Take your instru- 
ment where you wish to commence laying 
oft' your rows, have a b ll-toqgue plow this 
time to run oft' with. It is beet to com- 
mence near the top of the hill; be certain 
to commence bo as to catch all the rolling 

Btart with your level, carry it to a 
perfect level, cause the bull-tongue plow to 
to follow after you, run on until you come 
to a ditch, do not cross it with your rows, 
for if yon do the plows will soon fill it up; 
but when you get to the ditch your first 
guide row is done, then go twenty, thirty, 
or forty yards according to the slope, the 
jer the guide rows must be. 
So, at the proper distance commence your 
second guide row, run BS the. first, and so 
on until the field or the whole of your 
plantation i> levelled. You may start plows 
to laying off aa soon as you gel two guide 
row> run ; but it i- i run all your 

guide rows first, so that when you coni- 
; be there with your 
any errors, and bo ready to 
run in new gui thai may be m 

in filling up between the 

In laying oft' the rows, give each hand 
[plowman) a rod just bj -you wish 

the width of your rows, so they may h 
guide ; they will soon learn the proper width 
by th ■ ej . Cause one plowman to coin- 
mencc laying oft' rows on tin i<le of 

ii the upper side of 

tide row next below— i tween 

the laying off will 

meet in the middle. This they will do first 
at places where there is moae slope in the 

land, and at more level plea will be 

corners that must be run off; these will be 
mostly short rows, Tf by this time the level 
is lost, you must run in more -level or guide 



rOWS, and l;iy oft' from them so astO have all 

your rows from one end to the other on a 
perfect level ; ami i;i tak- 

ing up the guide rows until your fi< Id is com- 
pleted, or the whole of your plaiitati- 
put in rows to a perfect level. '1 ' 
Opinion among many that this cannot be 

done, it is impossible) they think, to get every 

row from one end to the other t«i a perfect 
level! It can be done, and should be done 
by every fanner that cultivates hilly land; 
but to Jo it requires a great deal of patience, 
and a Btrong determination that there shall 
not be the least wash in bis plantation. Keep 
land, in this portion of the country, from 
washing and it increases in the ingredients 
that give food to plants, for the soil has a 
self-sustaining principle, and cannot be worn 
oh,,. if well hill-side ditched and cultivated 
on a level with a proper rotation of crops, 
and th 1 in accordance to 

the laws, that naturally govern each and 
every plant that we cultivate. For an ex- 
ample take a poor hill side, that is almost 
murdered, ghost-'.ikc staring you in the face, 
put it under a proper system of horizontal 
culture — when you plow, plow deep ami on 
a level ; how soon it is reclaimed. Nature 
will do her part, and soon, instead of a gul- 
lied and galled hill-side, you have one that 
will produce good crops. The great object 
in view is to retain the rain water where it 
fall* out, so as to have food in store for the 
plants during drought. 

To keep your level or guide rows, in lay- 
ing off tin 1 rows, the one next to to the row 
that you run with the level, make a little 
wider than the usual width of your rows, 
and when you sow the land in small grain, 
Of break it up, hap two furrows on your guide 
row. This ridge will remain distinct . 
when you wish to run oft' the land in | 
agadn, you will not have to run oft' guide 
rows. Always plow to a level, and never 
plow across the hillside ditches. Empty all 
your hill-side ditches into your OOflduCl 

by no means ever let them empty under the 

fence into the road. This mas hole, 

and SOOn ruins the road. If you should 

have a ditch running the same coarse of the 
other ditch' ,duc- 

tors, let it empty into a hillside ditch that 
nipty into a conductor. 
I have, in a hurried manner, written out 
the plan (by which I have been operating 
for the last seven or eight year-, on the 
plantation where I have been doing busi- 



382 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



ness,) of Horizontal Culture. Land that I 
could make produce but two to three 
hundred pounds of cotton per acre, now pro- 
duces over one thousand pounds per acre 
without one speck of manure. 

Daniel Woffard. 

REMARKS BY TfiE EDITOR. 

The foregoing excellent, because practi- 
cal article, though not written in that helle- 
lettre style, that may please the fancy of 
some readers, is eminently worthy of the 
study and adoption of every man in this 
country who cultivates but ten acres of land. 
Mr. Woft'ard understands the philosophy and 
true principle of properly placing land un- 
der the hvel culture system. Every position 
is distinctly taken and clearly described, so 
that no practical man need err in its appli- 
cation on the field. All of our old subscri- 

' bers will distinctly trace through all this ar- 
ticle the teachings of the " Cotton Planter." 

* Years ago, (in 1844) when we put the level 
on our rows at LaPlace, but one writer, (Mr. 
Hardwick; of Georgia,) that we now recol- 
lect, stood firm with our position. Why did 
we take that (then extreme) position ? — 
The answer is found in this sentence from 
our correspondent, viz : — " The great object 
in view is to retain the rain water, where it 
falls out, so as to have food in store for the 
plants during drought." Mr. Woffard i§ a 
manager or overseer, and has, by this system, 
on the land of his employer, in the short 
space of seven or eight years, so improved 
it, that on land which produced but 300 J 
pounds of seed cotton when he commenced 
operating on it, now produces, under this 
level culture system, that retains rain water 
where it falls, one thousand pounds of seed 
cotton. It is not surprising that such an 
overseer should have remained thus long in 
the management of the same plantation. 
Every plantation in the cotton States can be 
treated in the same manner and to the same 
advantage. The comparatively level not less 
than the hilly. So level your culture and, 
deepen your plowing whether on level or 
hilly land, as to retain the rain water where 
it falls ! — From American Cotton Planter 
a ml Soil of the South. 



Common sense can accomplish much 
without talents ; but all the talents in the 
world can accomplish very little without 
common sense. 



For the Southern Planter 

To the Vine Growers of the United 
States. 

At a late meeting of the " Aiken Horti- 
cultural and Vine Growing Association," it 
was resolved: That a committee of five be 
appointed to open a correspondence with the 
various Vine Growing Associations in the 



United States, and to ascertain the practi- 
cability of holding a Vine Growing Conven- 
tion in Aiken some time next summer; and 
if found practicable and expedient, that the 
committee take such measures to secure this 
object as they may think proper, and that 
they report the result of their proceedings 
to this Society at its meeting in May next. 

The following gentlemen were appointed 
the committee : Messrs. A. DeCaradeuc, 
Chairman ; McDonald, Ravenel, Redmond, 
and Wood. 

It is perhaps proper to state the object of 
the Association in proposing such a Conven- 
tion, and to point out a few of the advan- 
tages to be derived from it. In the first 
place, it is necessary to come to some under- 
standing about the names of the Grapes now 
under cultivation, as it is evident that great 
confusion exists in that respect. Most of the 
vines being known in different places by dif- 
ferent names; the Black July, for instance, 
having five synonyms. Thus it often hap- 
pens that a Vine Grower reads or hears great 
praises of a Grape whose name is unknown 
to him, and a description of which tallies 
with none that he has; he procures it at 
great expense, cultivates it with care for two 
or three years, and ultimately discovers it is 
identical with some other he has had a long 
time. This is discouraging, and has deter- 
red many from procuring new and valuable 
varieties, which it would have been advan- 
tageous to have cultivated more or less ex- 
tensively. This difficulty can only be obvi- 
ated by a Convention such as is proposed — 
the best written description never being so lu- 
cid as to convey an exact idea of a fruit. 

The meeting will take place at a season 
when the fruit at the South is ripe ; all Who 
attend are invited and requested to bring 
samples of their Grapes, ripe if possible, and 
green if otherwise, with a leaf and a piece 
of the wood, and names and synonyms at- 
tached. Those who cannot attend are re- 
quested to forward samples as above. Thus 
if we are assisted by the good will of a ma- 
jority of Vine Growers, most of the varie- 



18G0.] 



TIIK BOUTH KKN PLANTER. 



>:; 



i the States will be represented ; their 
qualities, names, synonyms, - 
mat&u and b vast 

amonnl of invaluable information derived. 
Naur agreed upon, accepted or re- 

authority, will, 

also, be requested to bring <>r si-ml samples 
of the wild from weir neighborhood 

in the same manner, that the different ft] 
may be finally determined upon and each 
grape prop< rly classed under its ewe head or 

an ohjec it importance to tin* 

Botany of the country ana; perhaps, finally 
to the making of wine from them. We are 
daily Iditions to bur fist of natives, 

and u rrreet nomenclature and 

be at once m nlo, we will be thrown 
into inextricable confusion, cxpen.-ive ami 
troublesome to the growers. Another object 
of tin' Convention is to determine upon some 
manner of naming the different Wines. The 
; r way of calling them by the name of 
the grape is in direct contravention to the 
I rules of wine growing countries. 
It has always been customary to classify 
wines by the name of a State, Province or 
District^ with the different brands attached 
to tin m. according to the name of the par- 
ticular locality. Thus the general name 
•Wines Of the Rhine" comprises many par- 
ticular brands, such afl 1 1"ckhcimcr, Johan- 
•., etc. Bordeaux wines include 
Vfargaux, St Julien, La Hose, etc. 
The reason for this is very obvious. The 
same grape will make totally different wines 
in different planes. And, again, in most wine 
conn? | we will, no doubt adopt the 

same are mixed. A wine 

made from a mixture of Catawba, Isabella 
and Warren could not be called by either of 
• 

nt we have a hundred dlfi 

o two of them alike. 

>priety of the name 

of the fruit in favor of the rian honored 

naming after the State, l> ; 
or River, with brat ivate nam* 

localities. Purchasers will then know at 
DUOS what they they arc buying, and will DOt 

be prejudiced against Catawba or Warren 
wine, because they have tasted worthies 

tawba or Warren wine. 

Independently of thei! heamount 

of information i meet- 

ing in Buch a Convention as we pr 

would truly be worth " Millions to tb 
tion," and would tend more to develop that 



rich culture than all that could bo written. 

We call, then, upon all who cultivate the 

ther for the table ot for wine, or 

culture, the committee in 

their object — a Convention of I 

from all the Vine < trowii ttiona in 

sited States.^nd of private and 
orate Vine Growers. Let :ill who - 
determine at oner to meet in Aiken, S 
on the Third Tn- .«f(t)/ in August in 
there to assist in the good work — to compare 
their fruit and their views. 

Aiken h;^ bci n selected as bein 

from all quarters — North, South, bSast 
and West — being, at all times, unexceptioo- ^ 

able as to beabh, and a delightful summer WP 
resort for the neighboring cities, and well 
pmvided with ample accommodations. 

tretarles of the different Associations 

connected with the Vine Culture, would con- 
fer a favor by forwarding to this office, or to 
citnaf of the uentlemen of the Committee, 
the names and localities of their Societies, 
and all other information they may think 
proper. 

A. DI CakADIT/C, Chairman, "Woodward, 

B.C. 

Pr. J.C. W. Mcik>NNAL9, Woodward, 
S. C. 

H. W. RAYIir^L, Aiken, S. C. 

B. .1. C. Wood, Aiken. S. C 

1>. Kf.dmiim), Augusta, Ga. 
February, 1^ 



MUSTARI — The word mustard is said to 
have originated in the French phi 
"Moult me tarde," (1 wish ardently.' which 
the motto of the l>uke of Burgundy. 
He obtained L000 men Dijon, in return for 
which assistance he permitted that town to 

bear his armorial ensigns with this motto. 
The devi< over the prii 

in time the middle word 1 i 
!. and the other two were printed <>n 
abels which the merchants | 
with this commodity, and sent all 
>rld. 



Let each man attend to his own calling ; 
so that decision of character ma\ 
mind <>f the public mass. 
Do not cherish any feeling of ft 
animosity, in order that you may 
alue upon human li: 



384 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 




The Rights of Women. 

The rights of woman, what are they? 

The right to labor, love and prayf 

The right to weep with those that weep, 

The right to wake when others sleep. 

The right to dry the falling tear ; 

The right to quell the rising fear ; 

The right to smooth the brow of care, 

And whisper comfort in despair. 

The right to watch the parting breath, 

To soothe and cheer the bed of death; • 

The right, when earthly hopes all fail, 

To point to that within the veil. 

The right the wanderer to reclaim, 

And win the lost from paths of shame ; 

The right to comfort and to bless 

The widow and the fatherless. 

The right the little ones to guide 

In simple faith to Him who died; 

With earnest love and gentle praise 

To bless and cheer their youthful days. 

The right the intellect to train, 

And guide the soul to noble aim; 

Teach it to rise above earth's toys, 

And wing its flight for heavenly joys. 

The right to live for those we love ; 

The right to die that love to prove; 

The right to brighten earthly homes 

With pleasant smiles and gentle tones. 

Are these thy rights'? Then use them well ; 

Thy silent influence none can tell. 

If these are thine, why ask for more'? 

Thou hast enough to answer for. 

Are these thy rights? Then murmur not 

That woman's mission is thy lot: 

Improve the talents God has given: 

Life's duty done, thy rest is heaven. 



Life's Harvest. 

Twilight had gathered in the sheaves of day, 
Which time had scattered thickly here and there; 
And night, pule eight, had bound them,onebyone, 
With the long braids of her own raven hair. 



Silent and still, an angel floated down, 
And bore the sheaves, the gathered sheaves away; 
Ah ! some were golden with the ripened grain, 
And some were black and blasted with decay. 

Yes, day by day we sow, and twilight comes 
And gathers in the full sheaves, one by one ; 
And, by-and-bye, will come life's evening hour, 
And we shall see the work our hands have done. 

Lizzie G. Beebe. 
Ohio Farmer.] 

m 

From the New York "Spirit of the Times" 

The Proof Reader. 

BY "SPINNING BAIT." 

Ye whom the fancy causeth to indite 
Or prose, or rhyme, in measure long or short, 
Think of his labors, also, as you write, 
Whose ready eye the long correction sought. 
With fev'rish care he grammar scans, and spel- 
ling ; 
The writing cramped and hurried — care com- 
pelling — 
And words omitted, where the sense obscure • 
Puzzles his brains to place another sure. 
Within his "den," far off from sunny ray, 

Full oft he passeth more than half his life, 
Or search eth on by candle's feeble ray, 

By changing errors to support his wife. 
Think of his brain, how busy — and his eyes 
That read of what he pines for — gorgeous skies! 
Fair flowers and forms. Alas! but now and then 

Aught save "a grimy devil's face" may greet 
his sight, 
Who, standing at the doorway of the " den," 

Shouts, " Copy, sir, nor keep us here all night!" 
Thinkest thou, writer, whose most piercing eye 
An error typographical may sometimes spy, 
Of all the toil and trouble, time and care, 
That takes to make your article thus " fair?" 
Dost never make an error in thy haste? 
Or think beyond the word thy pen hath traced ? 
Leaving to printers, with invention quick, 
To find the word to fill's composing stick? 
Ponder the cobwebs, traced in pain, 

That young apprentices have caused him too 
Oppressing more his ever-working brain; 

Besides the labor he still has to do. 
Think of all this! and if some faults you scan, 
Reflect that he is human, poor, frail man! 
Nor pour the " vials of your wrath " all o'er, 
Nor haunt him till his heart is wounded sore; 
But with a laugh— -or leastways with a grin- 
Say, " here's an error, pshaw ! a venial sin" 

Grove Hill, S. C.