THE 



SOUTHERN PLANT 




DEVOTED TO 



Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts. 



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

J. E. WILLIAMS, M. D., ) w / AUGUST & WILLIAMS, 

Prof. WILLIAM GILHAM, $ ^ DIT0RS - \ Proprietors. 

Vol. XXI. RICHMOND, VA., FEBRUARY, 1861. No. 2. 



From the British Farmer's Magazine. 

The Forces used in Agriculture. 

A paper by Mr. J. C. Morton, read at the Society of Arts, Wednesday, 
December 7, 1859. J. Bennett Lawes, Esq., in the Chair. 

[concluded.] 

It is plain, on a very short acquaintance with the suhject, that every system 
which has been, and I will say can be, devised, is liable to abuse. And this, 
moreover is also true — that each is liable just in proportion to its excellence in 
the hands of a well-disposed man. The direct payment of a stipulated sum of 
money for stipulated services to be rendered is, of any plan of wages, the least 
liable to abuse; but it is, at the same time, that which furnishes the least scope 
of any for the establishment of friendly relations between masters and men. 

Then, on the other hand, that system which gives food and fuel and accom- 
modation is the best of all, when administered with kindness; for the extras are 
worth to the labourer much more than the sum at which they would be valued 
to him in money payment; but there can be no doubt that it is more liable to 
abuse than the simple money payment. The abuse of the money payment, it is 
plain, does not affect the relation of labourer and employer at all; it lies in the 
scope afforded by it for the utter ignoring of the man in any other than this 
relation. The abuse in the case of payments of food, &c, does affect the due 
reward of labour; for, notwithstanding the agreement on this score, the quality 
of all these articles cannot be defined so exactly as their quantity. The payment, 
too, of all this household stuff as wages is a thing which affects householders 
only, and the young men who are leaving us are those whom we want to keep. 
5 



G3 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

To do so, then, as Mr. Mein, a large employer of agricultural labour tells us, we 
must just offer wages which will keep them. That is the simple truth. 

It is not, however, the whole truth of the matter. It must be admitted that 
the relation of master and servant is, by force of circumstances, mixed up in 
agriculture with much besides a mere bargain for the sale of services, with orach 
that is personal; that there is much more scope for the development of kindly 
personal feeling between the two than there is in the case of any other class, 
excepting household servants. Of course this personal feeling may show itself 
in much that is of great money value besides mere wages, and in much that is 
of higher value than money is capable of measuring. A young man will, not- 
withstanding lower wages, keep his place for the sake of advantages of greater 
value to him than the increased sum he might otherwise receive. He may see 
that his master takes an interest in him personally, showing it in helping forward 
his education, and by seeking ultimately a better position for him than he can 
offer for himself, and this is soon observed and thought of. But there is a reverse 
side to this picture, and just in proportion to the closeness of contact which the 
terms of service enforce between the two may be their recoil asunder as soon as 
they are once more free. 

If there be a plan which would strengthen the bond between the two more 
than any other, one would imagine it to be the very common one in England of 
lodging the younger labourers in the farm-house, and giving them partial board 
as well as cash. But what is the ordinary experience on this point? In the 
parish in which I reside, Old Michaelmas Day sees a complete sweep of the young 
men and lads who have lived during the past year in the house of their master. 
The evening schools, each winter, present a new array of faces — and the masters 
are, for a while at least, and necessarily, as much strangers to their lads and 
many of their men as if they had paid their wages through a clerk, and had as 
little opportunity of personal acquaintance as a manufacturer with his hundreds 
of mechanics. 

It is plain that it is not in the system, but in the administration of it, that 
merit and demerit lie, and that, while sufficient wages (that is, just as much as 
labourers can get) are given, a personal interest in the labourer, as a neighbor, 
is what will bind him to his master. 

If I had, in a single sentence, to describe the relation of master and servant 
in the agricultural world, it would be to assert that nowhere is it better and 
nowhere is it worse. The two are thrown close together, and character is on 
both sides known, and therein lies the explanation; the two are never — as is 
unavoidably the case when one man pays 500 — they are never indifferent to one 
another; they love, honour, and respect one another, or they distrust and hate; 
and while, in the former case, there is a noble scope for exerting a useful influence 
for their well-being over those who are employed — the latter, in the very close- 
ness which is the condition of agricultural service, has scope enough for 
bringing forth its fruit. 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 67 

The combination of sufficient wages, with a greater opportunity for personal 
good-will than any other trade affords, is what may, and often does, honourably 
distinguish agricultural labourers and employers amongst the multitude of 
English occupations. 

One further word and I have done. The whole value of the expression to 
which this good-will leads, arises out of its origin in a personal feeling — it can- 
not be disputed without altogether losing its character. Anything like the 
transference of my personal duty and pleasure in such a thing to a public society 
does, in my opinion, spoil the whole affair. 

There are societies, as we all know, long established in England for distin- 
guishing the worthy among agricultural labourers by public testimony to their 
worth. If that worth had shown itself in public-spirited conduct, nothing could 
be more appropriate than a public acknowledgment of it. When it is, however, 
only personal and domestic worth (far more worthy, let us all admit it, than the 
other), nothing can be more grotesquely out of place. 

These societies have, however, been established and are supported by a real, 
if unwise, philanthropy; and I would not say one word in discouragement of 
their object, however unwise may be their plan. Benevolent men have truly 
seen that the relationship of master and servant is but a part of the truth affect- 
ing them; and carrying the superiority of the employer over his servant into 
another field where no superiority exists, they have read the commandment as if 
it were addressed to the former only, and as if it said of the latter: "Thou shalt 
be a father unto him." The system of rewards for good conduct, for long servi- 
tude, and for morality, is founded on a mistaken idea of this kind. It is a mistaken 
idea — let me repeat it. Along with the paternal relationship, with its powers and 
responsibilities, wherever it really exists, there has been implanted the natural 
love of the father as the safe-guard of the child, and the docility and helplessness 
of the child as its counterpart. Neither of these conditions apply to the relation- 
ship of master and servant. The commandment has been miss-read. It is really 
addressed to both alike, and it prescribes a perfectly mutual and equal duty in 
words addressed to each — "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 

This is the law which supplements the bare relationship of master and servant, 
and makes the operation of it perfect. But I will not pursue the subject further, 
only adding as at once the natural corollary of this proposition, and as bringing 
us back more directly to the subject of this paper, that the more we encourage 
genuine individual manliness in our labourers, with its efforts after real self- 
improvement, in intelligence and skill, and its higher sense of individual respon- 
sibility, the more likely are we to attach the young men to us, and to obtain 
labour of the kind of which steam-power is rapidly proving the necessity. This 
is not to be done, either by taking all the difficulties of his position out of his 
way, or by offering rewards to him proper only to the qualities and condition of 
a child. 

As affecting the reception of these few words of criticism, allow mc to say one 



68 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

word of myself: They must not be deceived as if they came entirely from an 
outsider. I have for many years directed and paid the labour, on certainly a 
small farm, costing, however, about £700 a year in wages paid to the agricultural 
labourer. I claim to know the style and character of the man by many years' 
experience ; for I have a larger number of personal friendships in his class than 
in any other class of her Majesty's subjects. I mention all this merely as effect- 
ing the weight which might attach to what I have said on this — the last of the 
forces used in agriculture to which I have to allude. I have more than exhausted 
the time permitted me, and it only remains for me to indicate the probable 
results, so far as our subject is concerned, of that progress which we all see in 
English agriculture. 

That the services of the labourer will more and more require the combination 
of skill with mere force, and that a large number of well-qualified men is being 
and will be needed, seems plain. That horse-power will be displaced by steam 
at least two-fifths, I believe; and, as there are now at least 800,000 horses used 
upon our farms, there is scope enough, for many years to come, for all our 
agricultural mechanics. 

The grand result will, no doubt, be a continual increase of produce and fertility, 
and that which the Registrar-General puts as fulfilled prophecy into the mouth 
of the Englishmen of a century ago, may, with equal probability of truth, be 
uttered now : — 

" Our fertile soil sustains 21,000,000 of people in its whole length from the 
Isle of Wight to the Shetland Islands. We cannot — for the mighty power is 
not given us — say, let there be on the European shores of the Atlantic Ocean 
three Great Britains. But the means exist for creating, in less than a hundred 
years, two more nations, each in number equal to the existing population ; and 
of distributing them over its fields, in cottages, farms, and towns, by the banks 
of its rivers, and around its immemorial hills : and they will thus be neither 
separated by longer roads nor wider seas, but continue neighbours, fellow-workers, 
and countrymen on the old territory; wielding by machines the forces of Nature, 
that shall serve them with the strength of thousands of horses, on roads and 
fields and seas — in mines, and manufactories, and ships. Subsistence shall be as 
abundant as it is now, and luxuries, which are now confined to the few, shall be 
enjoyed by multitudes, for the wealth of the country — its stock and its produce — 
shall increase in a faster ratio than the people." 

The Chairman said it was now his duty to invite the meeting to discuss the 
very able paper they had heard read. It appeared to him that there was very 
little question that steam-power theoretically was a much more economical power 
than horse labour, and horse labour, again, more economical than manual labour. 
But the great problem to be solved in agriculture was, what were the proper 
proportions in which these three forces should be made use of? There could be 
little doubt that it would be found eventually that the proportions between those 
forces found to be most economical, would differ in proportion to the size of the 
farms, and also the quality of the land. The question whether steam-power 
would be found most economical upon heavy lands and small farms, or upon 



186].] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 69 

light lands and large farms, was one -which opened a largo topic for discussion, 
and upon which he was sure many gentlemen present would he anxious to express 
their opinions. 

Professor John Wilson would rather give a different version to the case. He 
thought they must look upon the man, upon the horse, and upon the steam-engine, 
not as sources of power, but as the media through which power could be com- 
municated. The real power existed in the material upon which those three forces 
were fed, and in this respect he thought he could show them that the whole 
question was one of pounds, shillings, and pence. They knew very well that a 
steam-engine could not work unless they gave it coals, and a certain amount of 
water; a horse could not work well unless it was well fed; and a man could not 
work unless he was properly nourished, because the force existed in the food 
which these three engines or machines, as they might be called, consumed. They 
had heard from Mr. Morton of the manner in which these three machines were 
fed. They knew it was to the interest of those who employed a steam-engine to 
have an efficient one, and a low-priced engine was a dangerous tool to play with. 
They knew Iiqw proud a man felt of a handsome team of horses, and how well 
they were fed and attended to. But did they pay that attention to the agricul- 
tural labourer ? Was it not the fact that he did not receive the same amount of 
attention as the other two forces of power mentioned ? If, therefore, the man 
was to be placed in competition with the machine, he ought to receive the same 
amount of attention as the machine did ; otherwise he was placed at a disad- 
vantage, and he thought it should be the policy of the employer to remunerate 
the labourer in such a manner as would enable him to get the largest amount of 
work out of him. He spoke, of course, of physical force — not mental. The 
mental force required another mode of treatment. The steam-engine could work 
without horses, but it could not work without the application, not only of a small 
amount of hand labour, but afeo of skill. They must, therefore, look upon these 
three applications of power as the media through which the power was communi- 
cated; the real generator of power was the substance supplied; and that was the 
subject of pounds, shillings, and pence — the real question for farmers to consider, 
for in that their principal interest was involved. He had heard, with some sur- 
prise, the statement as to the condition of the agricultural labourers in Wilt- 
shire. With regard to the north it was the fact that a very numerous body of 
that class of labourers, though not exactly on strike, were almost in that state, 
having had several meetings amongst themselves to discuss these matters. He 
hoped the good sense of the employers of labour there would come to the rescue, 
and lead them to give proper consideration to some strong points which had been 
brought before them, though he was no advocate for strikes. In all cases where 
they set men to hard work — such as that on railways, it had been found that a 
badly fed man could not exert the power which a well fed man did; and he 
thought no one could reasonably expect that a labourer at 8s. a week was capable 



70 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



of doing a full amount of work, so as to be fairly placed in comparison with 
either a well fed horse or a properly supplied steam-engine. 

Mr. Smith (of Woolston) stated the mode in which he had arrived at some 
of the returns furnished by him to the author of the paper, so as to explain any 
apparent discrepancies between his own and the other returns. He bore testi- 
mony to the great value of Mr. Morton's paper. According to the estimates 
given by Mr. Morton, in which he entirely concurred, the saving of steam-power 
over manual and horse labour amounted to nearly 50 per cent.; and upon the 
total number of horses at present employed in agriculture, there would be a sav- 
ing of 300,000, or equal £9,000,000 a year, one-half of which would be real 
gain to the eountry. If the other half went into the pockets of the labourers 
in the shape of increased pay, it would be a matter of gratification to him; for 
he believed the increased production of the soil under steam cultivation would 
still enable the farmers to secure their profits. 

Mr. S. Sidney thought that the time had scarcely arrived for working out the 
Chairman's suggestion, and ascertaining the comparative amounts of hand-labour, 
horse-labour, and steam-labour that could most profitably be employed on a farm 
of given quality and acreage. Steam cultivation had, within the last two or 
three years, been brought to the stage of an economical success; but until Mr. 
Fowler, Mr. Smith, and others, had fully supplied all the customers who were 
clamourous for steam cultivators, until it was as easy to obtain a sieam cultivator 
as a set of barn machinery, the calculation suggested by Mr. Lawes could not 
be made over a sufficiently wide area to give it any practical value. The high 
importance of Mr. Morton's paper lay in the fact that he had availed himself of 
his peculiar advantages, as editor of an established agricultural newspaper, to 
collect precise facts, showing the present state of British agriculture, and 
specially in reference to the employment of manual-power, horse-power, and steam- 
power. Thirty years ago the ratepayers of the kingdom were labouring under 
perpetual fear lest unemployed unskilled labour should devour in poor rates the 
whole substance of the land, and under the influence of this terror various 
expedients were proposed, by men eminent for rank, talent, and literary ability, 
to increase the amount of manual labour. The horse was to be dismissed, as 
working too much and too cheaply, and we were to retrograde to the spade. This 
was one of the theories of Robert Southey — cottage farms and spade cultivation 
— and it was supposed that there was a sort of magical influence in the spade, 
which would, in some mysterious manner, multiply without measure the fertility 
of the soil. A great name in political economy, Mr. John Stuart Mill, who, 
however, had failed totally whenever he approached practical questions of trade, 
colonization, and agriculture, had suggested pauper colonies in Ireland, where a 
number of five-acre farms were to be cultivated with borrowed capital, spades, 
and hoes. These terrors and these fallacies had past away. Mr. Morton had 
shown, by facts and figures, what every one one familiar with the agricultural 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



71 



condition of the country knew by common report. Instead of being deluged 
with labour there was a positive drought. Wages were rising, and farmers 
were consulting and contriving how to attract and retain the class who, thirty 
years ago, were treated by the poor law and its administrators as if they were 
some noxious vermin, whose increase was to be obstructed by every possible means. 
Mr. Morton had shown by figures, which were rather under than over the mark, 
that while the system of mechanical and intensive cultivation increased the 
demand for manual labour in those departments where machinery could not be 
employed had increased also; that wherever a horse could do a man's work, it 
was more rapid, more effectual, and consequently cheaper; and that wherever 
steam-power could be applied, it was even cheaper compared with horse-labour 
than horso-labour was when compared with that of man. It must be observed 
that economy in agricultural operations meant more produce. The exertions of 
agricultural engineers had destroyed the fallacy of the spade (most valuable in 
its place) as a means of raising the sustenance of the nation. He (Mr. Sidney) 
had made a few calculations, for the purpose of giving some idea of how much 
was gained by the improvements which had brought mechanical ability of a high 
order, and the science of the chemist, to assist in the cultivation of English 
farms of average size and fertility. Mr. Smith's farm at Woolston, in Bucking- 
hamshire, consisted of 110 acres of arable and 70 acres of grass, of good quality. 
The labour appeared to be performed by seven men and lour boys, equal to nine 
men, the number usually taken to represent in England 45 souls. These men 
lived, he undertook to say, better than the peasant cultivators of France and 
Germany. Were this farm divided into six-acre farms, it would probably sup- 
port double the number of peasant proprietors; it would keep no sheep, a goat or 
two, no ox-beef, but an occasional supply of the flesh of a worn-out milch cow. 
There would be, as surplus, a little wheat, rye, and perhaps, flax. The arable 
would be fallow every third year. But with hand-power, horse and steam-power, 
he Olr. Sidney) would undertake to say that the Woolston farm, being never in 
naked fallow, produced 6 quarters to the acre, but say 5 quarters on 27 acres, or 
135 quarters of wheat, 135 quarters of barley, and with clover and other green 
crops, roots and beans, at least seven thousand pounds of mutton from 100 sheep, 
two thousand pounds of pork, from say 10 pigs, and an increase on cattle, pur- 
chased or reared, of five thousand pounds of beef; in all, fourteen thousand 
pounds of meat, besides feeding the family of the farmer himself. These calcu- 
lations, very much under the mark, would show, not only that full-sized farms 
were necessary to support agricultural progress, but that it was on large farms, as 
distinguished from five-acre farms, that the nation must be fed. Mr. Morton's 
paper had conclusively shown that this progress had been obtained with positive 
benefits to the labouring classes, who had not been sacrificed, as was once feared, 
to machinery. He (Mr. Sidney) thought that the distressed classes now were 
the fanners, hard driven for labour, with high wages and low prices. He believed 
their only safety and resource lay in adopting steam cultivation, and tempting 



72 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



labourers to stay and increase by improved cottage accommodation. The wages 
question settled itself, and was beyond the power of laws. 

Mr. Edwin Chadwick, C. B., had rather expected that the discussion would 
have turned upon the points which the Chairman had suggested, namely, upon 
the comparative value of mechanical forces ; but he was glad to find that it had 
been directed to the social and economical effects either already obtained or pro- 
mised by the introduction of machinery into agriculture. It was most important 
to discuss the effects of machinery upon the great mass who had to use it — the 
labourers. In the statistics given by Mr. Morton of the rise of wages, he (Mr. 
Chadwick) submitted that one large and important fact was omitted. Mr. Mor- 
ton had stated the progress of wages in different counties, but he had not men- 
tioned another progress, viz., the pregress of the efficiency of the labourer; be- 
cause, according to his own inquiries, the efficiency of the labourer had borne its 
relation to the improved forces introduced. The farmer in Dorsetshire only paid 
8s., and the farmer in Lancashire and some of the northern districts paid 16s. 
a-week, and the latter got his work done cheaper at the higher wages than it 
could be done at the lower. Moreover, there was yet room for further improve- 
ment by the advance of wages to the operative class. Some time ago there was 
a notion of getting up a Land Improvement Company, the object of which was 
to improve particular districts, and to put the land into better condition, by em- 
ploying a better class of labourers. Those who were engaged in that project 
were good judges of labour, and they proposed, as the cheapest plan, to em- 
ploy, not the agricultural labourer, of the district, where the law of settlement 
and low wages prevail, but navvies whose wages were 3s. per day. Truly efficient 
labour, he submitted, could only be obtained by the advance of wages. The in- 
creased development of labour which the improved circumstances of the country 
would produce, would effect this object. The extensive emigration that annually 
took place, and the demand for labour in manufactures would raise wages; and 
he expected and hoped that it would bring this country into the condition of the 
American labour market, and give an immense stimulus to the introduction of 
machinery. With respect to what had already been done, he would take the 
opportunity of congratulating his friend, Mr. Wren Hoskyns, that in the intro- 
duction of steam for ploughing, which he had so long laboured for, the corner in 
the shape of profit over manual labour had been turned. He might mention, by 
way of contrast, looking to the state of things abroad, that in many parts of the 
south of France the constant price of ploughing by oxen was at the present time 
five francs a day for the men and the oxen to do the work, whilst the amount of 
work done was a quarter of an acre per day. That was paying at the rate of 20 
francs per acre, but it was a mere scratching of the surface of the soil some three 
or four inches deep, whereas steam-ploughing did the work much better at about 
one-third or one-fourth that price ; in other words, the light land which the 
farmer in France paid 20 francs an acre for ploughing in that way, could be done 
by the steam-ploughs now in use at 6s. per acre, and instead of being ploughed 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 73 

three or four inches deep, it would be ploughed seven inches deep. The 
economical, as well as the social part of the question was, he thought, well re- 
solved by a labouring man on one occsaion when he (Mr. Chadwick) went to see 
Mr. Smith's plough at work on the farm of the Prince Consort. Upon his asking 
the man how those steam-ploughs answered, the reply was that they answered ex- 
ceedingly well, as he (the labourer) got half-a-crown a day wages. He (Mr. 
Chadwick) was extremely desirous to see the use of steam culture extended, be- 
cause he was sure wherever the steam implement went two shillings or half-a- 
crown wages per day would go with it. But in contemplating the extended in- 
troduction of machinery, one important point must be considered, viz., the state 
of education of the class of agricultural labourers upon whom the management 
of these new steam implements would devolve. In the larger use of that same 
power in the manufacturing districts, it was the frequent remark of Mr. Fair- 
bairn upon coroners' inquests, when accidents occurred by the bursting of steam 
boilers, that for the proper management of the steam-engine a higher degree of 
education was required than had yet been applied to the labouring classes. If 
that were so in places where they were paying 20s. or 25s. a-week wages for the 
management of an engine, what must be the case in the agricultural districts, 
where the wages are so much lower? It was only by the exercise of intelligence 
and watchfulness that they could reach the highest order of economy. That had 
been peculiarly displayed in the case of the Cornish engine, in the use of which 
men were put upon piece-work, which was not the case in the north. There had 
been gTeat improvements in the steam-engine in Manchester, but in Cornwall they 
did as much work with 2£lbs. of coal as was done in Manchester with lOibs. It 
was found that farmers were frequently dissatisfied because their engines did not 
realize all the promises of the manufacturers of them. The answer to that was, 
that the fault was not with the engine, but with themselves, in not employing 
more intelligent men to superintend it, and in order to do that they must pay 
better wages. But unfortunately, in the present state of education in the agri- 
cultural districts, if higher wages were offered, the men were not to be found to 
do the work with the greatest amount of economy ; and in order to attain this 
end, their education must be improved. It was true that prodigious advances in 
that direction had been made. On going into one of the district schools that day, 
where a steam-engine was used to prepare the food, he found that boys were 
placed under the men for the purpose of being educated in working those en- 
gines. He thought this was largely an educational question. Besides the em- 
ployment of machinery, which was so valuable, he thought the small farmers 
should not attempt a too great use of steam-power, and that there were many use- 
ful lessons to be learnt from America, where labour was dear, and also from the 
continent, where coal wa3 scarce. He would conclude by expressing his high 
opinion of the remarkably able paper which had been read. 

Mr. Wren Hoskyns said, if he had wanted evidence what the general ad- 
vancement of agriculture in this country had been able to effect, it could not be 



74 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

more satisfactorily furnished than had been done in the eloquent and philosophi- 
cal paper they had heard that evening. He was struck with the tone of the 
paper; because, although the subject was a physical one, yet it went also into the 
metaphysical portion of the question, and all those who read it. whether connected 
with agriculture or not, could not but consider it as a most useful production, 
showing that agriculture had made other strides than in matters connected mere- 
ly with mechanical improvement. With regard to the remarks of the Chairman 
as to the desirability of establishing something like a specific relation between 
the forces now employed in agriculture, he (Mr. Hoskyns) had come to the same 
conclusion as Mr. Sidney, viz., that they had not yet sufficient data for the dis- 
cussion of that question, because he could not submit to the idea that they had as 
yet attained to the development of the steam-engine in the cultivation 
of the soil, which «they were destined to witness. Far be it from him 
to derogate from such splendid specimens of well-applied labour and employ- 
ment of capital with a courage and determination not surpassed in any depart- 
ment where human ingenuity had been applied, as had already been afforded by 
the use of the steam-engine in agriculture; but, for specific reasons connected 
with agriculture itself, he could not believe that the point at which they had now 
arrived afforded a true test of comparison between the steam-engine and horse 
and manual labour.. One reason why the problem was more difficult, was that 
the varieties of soil were so much greater than many people were aware of. The 
difference between the cultivation of light soil and stiff waxy clay was as great as 
possible, and any conclusion at present arrived at could only be of a very general 
character. For when they said a steam-engine would plough a shilling per acre 
cheaper by the ordinary method, it could only apply to some general average of 
the soil. But when they saw what horse labour could do upon light soils, where 
they could cultivate every day in the year, because the labour was less severe, 
and compared that with soil which did not allow of access to it, except for a 
month in spring and a couple of months in autumn, the comparison between 
horse labour and the steam-engine was most difficult. It had been stated by Mr. 
Mechi that a horse required sixteen hours of rest for eight hours of work. That 
was understating the case, because a horse required eight months of idleness for 
four months of work, on a soil which would not admit of the tread of his foot 
except when sufficiently dry for profitable cultivation to take place. He could 
not conclude without a word upon the condition of the agricultural labourer, as 
spoken of by Prof. Wilson. There was, no doubt, much truth in what the Pro- 
fessor had said. A fair estimation of what the labourer was able to do was not 
possible, because his powers were not entirely brought out — either in a physical 
or moral point of view. If they had more skilled and intelligent labour, they 
would have better results from the elements composing it, and especial y from 
that best element of all — the will. He did not know a better foundation for 
this than a juster distribution of the labourer over the soil, and increased facili- 
ties for restoring the due proportion of cottages for the residence of the labourers 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 75 

near their work. Owing to the imperfect laws which had reduced the means of 
living near their work, it was a fact that labourers did half a soldier's day's work 
in going to and from the farm. He hoped that residences would be provided for 
the labourers, in a way that would make them a better investment of capital than 
than they were at present. For some reason or other, which it was difficult to 
fathom, cottage accommodation could not be provided so as to make it profitable. 
One of the best inducements to provide this accommodation would be the power 
of doing so without loss to the landlord. 

Mr. James Howard (of Bedford) said he subscribed fully to the opinion 
that the general employment of steam-power in agriculture would tend to in- 
crease the employment of labourers. Within his own knowledge, it had in some 
degree extended the growth of root crops. He could refer to a case in which 85 
acres of roots were grown upon land which had never before been so cropped ; 
and if they grew larger root crops, they increased the crops of corn, and in. 
creased also the employment of labour. Looking at the increase of population 
in this country since the extension of steam-power in our manufactories, he was 
surprised to find that it took upwards of 200 years previously to the introduction 
of the steam-engine to gain an increase in the population of 2,000,000; whilst 
since it * introduction the population had increased 12,000,000. He thought 
there were no more effectual means of raising the intelligence of the farm labourer 
than a more general introduction of steam-power. A farmer who paid a man 
merely to swing a flail could not afford to pay for intelligence — it was nothing 
more than the exercise of brute force; but to a man who paid £500 for a steam- 
engine, a shilling per day additional would be a trifle in the wages of the men 
employed to direct that machinery. 

Mr. Alderman Mechi said he felt it nothing less than a duty to pay his tribute 
of thankfulness and admiration to Mr. Morton for his able paper. He entirely 
agreed with the tenor of it. He was q.uite sure that in his calculations of the 
economy of horse-power over human labour, and of steam over horse-labour, Mr 
Morton had not over-stated the case. He (Mr. Mechi) had employed a steam, 
engine on his farm for the last ten or eleven years, though it was regarded by 
his neighbours as an act of folly to use a steam-engine upon a farm of 170 acres. 
His experience during that period had convinced him that the employment of 
steam-power had not diminished the demand for labour, but had rather increased 
it, whilst it produced a most beneficial effect upon the profits of the farmer and 
the intelligence of the labourer. They were all creatures of prejudice; but he 
had yet to learn that agricultural prejudices were stronger than those of other 
people, and he hoped that the showing of Mr. Morton that £50 out of £100 
could be saved by the substitution of steam-power for horse-labour would tend 
very largely to remove all prejudice upon that point. With regard to the scarcity 
of labour, no doubt the cause had been correctly stated by Mr. Chadwick. When 
they looked at the vast increase that annually took place in the exports and im- 
ports of this country, they must see that the mere keeping the accounts, and the 



76 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

handling of the goods about, must absorb an enormous amount of labour. Look- 
ing at his own immediate locality, he found that men had been abstracted from 
agriculture to be employed in the manufacture of implements for foreign exports. 
He also found that the knowledge that better wages could be obtained in our 
colonial possessions induced many to emigrate, who had derived considerable ad- 
vantage from emigration. Still he thought a good master had not much trouble in 
getting good labourers. He had employed the same men for many years, and 
they had become intelligent by the improvements carried out upon the farm. 
Those men still remained with him, and he had no difficulty in getting-in his 
harvest at a moderate rate of wages whilst others complained on that score. He 
agreed with what had been said, that something more ought to be done than the 
mere payment of wages and the usiDg men as machines which could be laid aside 
at any time. There was the relation between the employer and the employed to 
be considered. With a proper regard for that feeling, and by a more general intro- 
duction of piecework, which was, after all, the cheapest, he experienced no diffi- 
culty in getting and retaining men of great physical and improving mental capaci- 
ties. With regard to the economy of horse-labour and steam, they must look at it 
not only in a pecuniary point of view with respect to the direct saving effected, but 
also to the amount of land that was set free for the production of human food by 
that substitution, namely, by feeding those 300,000 horses with coal instead of 
with corn and hay. He calculated that, at the lowest estimate, there would be in 
the United Kingdom 2,300,000 acres of land set free for feeding human beings 
instead of animals. That alone was a great desideratum in these times, when 
population was pressing so hardly upon production. With regard to the various 
applications of steam-power in the operation of a farm, looking to the improve- 
ments they might expect to be made, he saw no reason why, by improved arrange- 
ments, in addition to the turnips, &c, being cut up, the food should not be deliv- 
ered by the means of machinery, and why steam should not be made to do nearly 
everything upon a farm which was now done by manual labour. 

Mr. Thomas Scott said it was a gratifying fact which they had heard, that the 
great pioneers of steam culture — the inventors — had more orders upon their hands 
than they were able to keep pace with. The whole subject of this evening's dis- 
cussion had been in fact reduced to the great agricultural question of the day — 
steam cultivation; and when Mr. Hoskyns said it was judicious to wait a little 
longer, he (Mr. Scott) would only say that three or four years ago he felt for those 
great self-sacrificing inventors, but he was happy to add that no such feeling was 
now called forth. Having noticed the results of steam culture upon the crops, he 
found that they were such as justified any man in adopting the present machinery, 
even admitting it to be still far from perfect. A few days ago he entered into an 
examination of the cost of the operation by Fowler's steam plough, extracted from 
the carefully kept books of a farm, and he found it to be 4s. 4d. per acre as the 
actual cost, to which must be made a fair addition for repairs and allowance for wear 
and tear. If that were the fact, the cost of steam ploughing was very much less 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



77 



than that of the common ploughing, and the produce of the land was greater. It 
was therefore manifestly to the interest of the cultivators of the soil to abandon 
the present system, which entailed a daily loss, and to avail themselves of steam 
machinery, now that the opportunity was afforded to them of doing so. 
A vote of thanks to Mr. Morton concluded the proceedings. 



Horses— Directions to Purchasers. 

Of course every man wishes for a sound horse, without defect in the wind, 
limb or sight. The various imperfections which occur in each of these are here 
enumerated. 

The Eyes. — When the animal about to be purchased is at the stable door, 
before he is brought out, examine his eyes; the light coming upon them in that 
situation, will enable you to discover any defect that may exist. Remember that 
both eyes must be in an equal degree of light; and, regarding this, observe that 
there is no difference in the eyes, for if they be not alike, one must be diseased. 
If both eyes be clear, and hazel round the pupil, and the pupil itself be blue, 
and free from any white specks — if it contract in the light and dilate when in 
the shade, you may conclude the eyes are good. If the eyes be blue round the 
pupil, or the pupil itself be in the least degree affected with external specks, or 
deep-seated pearly whiteness, termed cataract; if it do not diminish, or enlarge, 
as the light is more or less upon it, in all these cases, it is a defective eye. All 
weeping, cloudy, dull-looking eyes are unsound ; and if there be the least appear- 
ance, in any, of disease in this very important organ, reject the animal. Imper- 
fect vision is often the primary cause of shying. 

The Age. — Next examine the mouth to ascertain the age. Yearlings and 
two-year-olds are alike in mouth, and must be judged by general appearance. 
At three years old, the horse has four horse-teeth, two above and two below, in 
front of the mouth, which supply the place of the sucking teeth. At four, he 
has eight horse-teeth, four above and four below, the corner being only sucking 
teeth. At five years old, these are gone, and the mouth is up, at least, with the 
exception of the inside of the backmost, which, especially in mares, sometimes 
do not rise until the sixth year ; that is, all the teeth are horse-teeth, and the 
tusk is up on eacb side of the mouth. A dark mark, or hollow, is generally ob- 
servable in all the teeth of the bottom jaw at five years old; and the tusks are 
concave in their inner surface. At six, the two middle teeth have quite lost 
their mark, and the tusk is higher up, and longer, and not so concave. At seven, 
the next two teeth have lost it, and the corner teeth only have the mark left in 
them. At eight, it has grown out of these, and no mark is left at all. The 
tusks also become longer, and instead of being concave in their inner surface, 
become convex ; the horse is then termed aged. There is, however, a great deal 
of difference in the mouths; some have lost their mark in all except the corner 
teeth, even as early as five yeais old; others have their front teeth in the top 
jaw projecting over the bottom teeth at the same age. You may form some idea 



78 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [Ffbruahy 

of the age from the appearance of the mouth in general, when the marks are no 
longer visible. If the corner teeth do not appear long and running forward, as 
it were, to the front of the mouth; if they retain their square shape, and shut 
well together; if the tusks are blunt, and have least concavity in their inner 
surface, you may conclude that the horse is not very old, particularly, if his head 
be not gray, and not very hollow above the eyes; though this latter shape some- 
times exists in young horses. A concave tusk is the most certain criterion of 
youth ; and as mares have no tusk at all, they must be judged with reference to 
what I have said about the corner teeth, except in some cases of what are called 
" shell teeth," from their resemblance to the plate-cakes of shells, and horses 
with these preserve the appearance of youth till ten or twelve years old. It is 
here necessary to mention, that the difficulty of acquiring accurate knowledge of 
the age of horses by their teeth is very much increased by the tricks that are 
practised. 

It is generally allowed that no horse is fit for work until at least five years old: 
and it is a common custom with great breeders in the north of England, and with 
•many dealers, to pull out the sucking teeth when the animal is rising to four 
years old ; the mouth is forced by these means, for the horse-teeth succeeding 
soon after the operation, the animal appears to be a five-year old. To detect such 
deception, regard must be paid to the tusk. Every horse upon attaining the 
full age of five, has the tusk completely up on each side of the mouth ; but in 
forced five-year old mouths, the tusk is only just making its way through the 
gums. There frequently exists also in the latter an irregularity in the front 
teeth, as well as backwardness in the growth of the tusk. Forced mouths vary 
in their appearance according to the time of performing the operation; and the 
habit of observing horses' mouths, will alone enable you to ascertain where any 
artifice has been practised. 

The Jugular Vein. — Mark that both jugular veins are perfect, and that a 
free circulation through them exists; as there are horses, which, from having 
been unskilfully blooded, and from subsequent inflammation, have lost (he vein, a 
defect of some consequence. 

The Position. — When a horee is brought out, allow him to be placed with 
his fore-legs up hill ; because if his joints be at all bent over, or his legs shaken 
you will best discover it in such a position. When the animal is placed with his 
fore-legs in a gutter or down hill ; or whenever the person showing him, is con 
tinually pulling at the bit to make him shift his legs, that he may stand advan 
tageously, be assured that his joints are impaired, and that he cannot stand firmly 

Knees. — As the horse stands, examine his knees, and ascertain that no marks 
exist in front of them. The marks are generally the symptoms of having keen 
down, and even were they occasioned by other means than falling, the blemish 
is the same, and almost equally detracts from his value. Next look inside of the 
leg just under the knee, and if scars be visible, or the hair stick up, you may 
conclude that he cuts in his speedy or fast places. Mark well that a similar scar 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



79 



does not exist at the ankle, or Lair appear brushed ; for such marks are solely 
produced by the act of cutting, which, as before observed, is generally a natural 
and therefore incurable defect in action. 

The Legs. — Take notice that the legs be not tottering, and inclined forward, 
either at the knee or at the ankle; and that the ankle joints be large in front. 
The back sinews, also, should not appear bowed out behind, nor feel thick ; the 
symptoms of their having sustained some injury. The legs should be flat, and 
not round; neither should they be soft and puffy, but wiry and hard. Both legs 
should be alike, for if one be larger than the other, it is an injured leg. Never 
buy a horse for a sound one with a big leg, even though he be warranted. You 
need not mind a splent, or a bony excresence on the shank, unless it be so situ- 
ated as to interfere with the suspensory ligament, or projectso much as to hit the 
other leg in going. Ring-bones, or enlargements on the pasterns and coronet, 
are easily perceived from a difference in the two legs; as it rarely occurs, even 
when both legs are affected, that they are affected equally. Incipient ring-bones 
will sometimes produce lameness, even before they are very observable. 

The Feet. — Be particularly attentive to the feet; for, according to the old 
saying, no foot, no Jiorse. First of all, observe that one foot should not be less 
than the »ther; and that they should not be indented, or hollow round the crust. 
The crust itself should not be brittle, and broken where the nails have been 
driven; nor should there exist in it any circular cracks, nor longitudinal fissures 
from the coronet downward, which last are termed sund-craclcs. The heels should 
not be drawn together, and contracted; nor should the frog be small and ragged, 
nor discharge of fcetid matter, which is a disease called thrush. The horn at the 
heels should be as high as the frog; for if lower, the heels will be liable to corns ; 
and the sole should neither be flat nor convex. It is obvious no horse can con- 
tinue sound with those imperfections in the feet; and it frequently happens that 
horses with very finely formed feet, are very lame from a hidden cause within 
the hoof. Some veterinary surgeons consider such description of foot lameness 
hereditary. Lameness in the feet (often erroneously taken for, and called lame- 
ness in the shoulder) frequently proceeds from a slight strain in the back tendon, 
which, on inflammation falling down to the sensible sole, produces navicular dis- 
ease, only curable by an operation, and which, fortunately, is a simple one, in 
really scientific hands, seldom failing to give relief. If the legs and feet be 
smooth, you may" imagine that all is right in the fore part of the horse. 

The Hocks. — Next examine the hocks; observe that, as you stand on either 
side of them, there be no projection at the back of the joint, called a curb ; and 
as you stand behind them, that the inside of the joint down below be free from 
little knots, or bony excrescences, which are called bone-spavins ; and on looking 
at them in a slanting direction, that there be no tumor above, or blood spavin. 
Look down between the horse's fore-legs for these defects, as it frequently hap- 
pens that they are better seen from lhat view. An enlargement of the cap of 
the hock dots not often cause lameness, though it is a blemish ; but enlargements 



80 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

on each side of it, which upon pressure fluctuate from the inside of the joint to 
the outside, are termed thorough-pins, which are in fact wind-galls, and often 
cause very obstinate lameness. 

The Hips. — Look that both hips be of the same height, as horses are met 
with having the defect termed down of a hip. 

Showing. — Having thus examined the horse as he stands, let him be run 
down slowly on a rough, or stony declivity, at the end of a halter, without any 
support to his head, or any whip near him. If he go boldly, with his knees bent, 
and his foot flat and firm to the ground, without dropping his head, you may con- 
clude that he is sound before; and if, on running him up hill, he go with his 
hocks regularly together, and not dragging the toe, nor drooping from the hip, 
you may buy him as free from lameness. If he go pattering on the toe, and 
feetiiig, let him not be bought for a sound one. 

How A Horse should be Shown. — Always have the horse you are about to 
purchase shown quietly ; because, when he is agitated, a slight lameness may 
escape your observation ; and always see him ridden, that you may judge how he 
wears himself, and how he uses his legs and feet; for many horses are pleasant 
to ride, that are unpleasant to look at when ridden; and dealers never fail to put 
you immediately on their backs, when their riding is pleasanter in the feel than 
in the appearance. Besides when you see him ridden, whatever pace the horse 
is continually kept in, that pace is the best; and whatever he is hurried out of, 
he cannot do at all, or be well assured that no opportunity would be lost of ex- 
hibiting it. 

Lameness — How Discovered. — Take notice, that in examining a horse for 
lameness, you may often detect it by only looking at his ears; for all horses that 
are lame before, drop their heads when they throw their weight on to the sound 
leg; and those that are lame behind, throw their heads up when the sound leg 
comes to the ground. 

Fencing. — Whenever a horse stands in the stable fencing, that is, with a foot 
out under the manger, it is a sign that something exists uneasy to him, and may 
give you just reason to suspect unsoundness. 

String-Halt. — String-halt, or a singularly high motion, or twitching up of 
the hind legs, is too glaring to escape observation ; it does not constitute un- 
soundness, though it lessons a horse's value, Bone-spavins not unfrequently occa- 
sion a similar method of going. But there are no horses with this affection tho- 
roughly bad. 

Wind. — With regard to wind, some horses naturally possess greater freedom 
of breathing than others; for instance, a horse with large, open nostrils, a wide 
gullet, a short neck, and a deep wide chest, has generally superior wind to one 
with the contrary shape. There are two kinds of disease injurious to the wind ; 
one is an affection of the wind-pipe, which creates whistling and roaring ; the 
other, an affection of the lungs, which produces broken-rcind. 

The usual way to discover the first of these imperfections, is to go up to the 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 81 

animal in the stall, and taking fast hold of bis head, flourish a stick about him 
suddenly, or strike him. If he groan he is a roarer. But this method will not 
detect a mere whistler ; the surest way, therefore, is to gallop the horse with a 
bridle tightly curbed, and at the same time agitate him as much as possible. If 
he make a wheezing noise, or blow with the same kind of sound as is produced 
by blowing upon a knife placed before one's mouth, he is not sound in his wind. 
The state of the wind is sometimes ascertained, and with great accuracy, by the 
sound of the cough; and in the following manner: Grasp the wind-pipe at the 
throat tightly, and then immediately let go the hold ; the horse is sure to cough. 
If he cough bullily, that is, if the cough sounds like the lowing of a bull, the 
disease I just mentioned is in existence. But this cannot be often done with the 
same horse, or it would produce the very disease in question, and is, indeed, a 
method so delicate and difficult as not to be tried without express permission of 
the owner, nor with it, if you possess any claim to humanity. If he cough short 
and hacking, the lungs are affected, and he is broken-winded ; but if the cough 
be long and shrill, the wind is good. Be careful to leave hold of the wind-pipe 
the moment you have compressed it; for if you hold it long, the horse will cough 
shrill even if he have imperfect wind. 

Always gallop a horse as well as make him cough ; a horse with the roaring 
or the short cough should be immediately rejected. 

By making a horse cough, another advantage arises, viz : that you may dis- 
cover if he be affected with a cold; in which case, upon compressing the wind- 
pipe, he will cough repeatedly. 

Injurious Habits. — Crib-biting is a bad habit to which many horses are ad- 
dicted. It consists in taking hold of the manger, and at the same time drawing 
in the breath with a gulping noise. The effect of it is loss of flesh and condi- 
tion in the animal, and sometimes injury of the wind. It is cured by a little 
salt, when it proceeds, nine cases out of ten, from acid in the stomach. 

Wind-sucking is nearly the same, only without taking hold of the manger. It 
is caused by the animal's desire to cool his interior, and a little salt in his oats, 
by removing the cause, often allows the habit to drop. 

As these habits are not always discoverable during the short time you are in a 
dealer's stable, it is advisable to have the horse you are about to purchase war- 
ranted free from these defects, in addition to the warranty of soundness, as the 
latter does not provide against them. 

It is also prudent to have the horse warranted free from restiveness; though 
you may discover this by riding him several times past his own stable door; if 
he be restive, he will manifest his self-will by endeavoring to turn in, and in rear- 
ing if you attempt to prevent him. 

Injuries of the Back. — Injuries of the back, which are not unfrequent, 
are discovered by backing the animal; and if he perform the retrograde motion 
with the least degree of difficulty, he has experienced some serious dorsal injury. 
6 



82 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

There are other imperfections which need not be mentioned, as none but the 
lowest description of persons would keep for sale horses possessing them. 

Horse Tamer. 



Cheese. 

We have seen the question going the rounds of agricultural papers — * What 
causes the strong, unpleasant flavor of American cheese ?" 

In the English market, great fault is found with American cheese, on account 
of an acrid or sharp, bitter taste that is often found in it. This subject deserves 
great consideration, as the credit of American cheese in the European market 
depends upon its solution. We could give our views on this question in a few 
words ; but we think more than statement of our opinion may be useful on the 
subject. 

We have often reiterated our remarks on this subject, that the quality of but- 
ter and cheese depends much on the character of the soil and herbage on which 
cows are pastured. Cows kept on low, wet ground, which produces coarse, sour 
herbage, will not give rich, sweet milk. The milk, and consequently the butter 
and cheese made from it, will partake of the nature and flavor of the herbage. 
For good butter and cheese, an old, dry pasture is best, and the shorter the herb- 
age, provided there is enough of it, the better. 

The first great difficulty, then, in American cheese is, the cows run on new, 
wild land, and in the dry season resort to the low, wet lands for their food, and 
the milk partakes of the sour qualities of the herbage. This flavors the cheese, 
and destroys the sweet, pleasant flavor of that which is made from milk secreted 
from sweet herbage. The remedy is, by underdraining, lime and good tillage, 
to convert these low lands into dry pasture. Kill out the wild grass, and substi- 
tute the blue grass, red top, sweet vernal, and other sweet and tame grasses. 

The other difficulty is, in manufacturing the cheese. This is often done by 
guessing, without any fixed standard. We may thus often find a great diversity 
in the quality of the cheese made by the same person, from the milk. This is 
owing to a want of system in adapting the quantity of salt and rennet to the 
milk, the proper temperature of the milk, and the preparation of the renDet. 

In every part of cheese-making, there should be a system. The milk should 
be weighed, and one hundred and twelve pounds of cheese may be counted on 
for every one hundred gallons of milk, by weight. If the milk has been skim- 
med for butter, the butter-milk should be put into the milk for cheese, as the 
particles of butter will greatly add to its richness. 

The rennets should be procured at least one year before they are used; turned 
inside out, and salted, and then packed down with a layer of salt between them, 
then covered with salt and shut from the air. Before they are used, they should 
be taken out, and fine salt sprinkled on them, and then stretched on sticks to 
dry. If used earlier, the cheese heaves and is full of holes. 

The milk should be at a temperature of about 80 degrees, when the rennet is 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



83 



applied, and enough, and no more rennet put in than will bring the milk to a 
curd in ene hour. If the curd is produced more rapidly, there will be less of it, 
and it will be tougher. The quantity of salt should be one pound of Turk's 
Island salt to forty pounds of curd. 

The strength of the rennet cannot be tested, accurately, except by experiment. 
Six rennets in two gallons of water or brine, is about the usual proportion, and 
the quantity of the liquid necessary to coagulate the milk in one hour, can be 
tested by experiment. 

The whey should be allowed to separate itself from the curd. If forced out, 
it will be of a whitish color, showing that the richness of the cheese is pressed out 
into the whey. If the whey is allowed to separate itself, it will be of a green- 
ish color. 

The great difficulty, then, aside from the quality of the herbage from which 
the milk is secreted, is a want of system in adapting the quantity of the rennet 
and salt to the milk; too much haste in "making the curd come soon," and in 
separating the whey from the curd by pressure, and in using rennets too soon 
after they are cured. 

To make the rind hard, and thus prevent its cracking, the English, as soon 
as a cheese is taken from the press, put it in strong brine for three or four hours. 

If these suggestions are attended to, we believe American cheese will rank 
with the best made in England. We hope our views will call out expe- 
rienced dairymen. — Ohio Farmer. 



"Southern Independence." 

The ridiculous farce of forever talking about, and never doing anything to 
develope our own Southern resources, is well satirized in the following: 

A Southern planter, who has been indulging in disunion notions, took an 
inventory of his household and plantation stock in trade, and the following is 
the result, as communicated to the N. Y. Journal of Commerce : 

" I have been a planter for a good many years, and I was considerably startled 
at the result of an investigation in my own family. On examination of my 
expenditures, one year with another, I find that nearly three-fourths of my 
income has either directly or indirectly, found its way into the hands of Northern 
men ; and I believe this to be true of a majority of the producing classes here. 

"I am aroused in the morning by the bell of a clock hailing from Connecticut. 
Leaving a bed which, with all its paraphernalia, is of Northern origin, I thrust 
my feet into a pair of Massachusetts shoes, and, as I join my family at the table, 
everything that meets my eye, except the faces so dear to me, is all, all Northern. 

" My coffee, which has paid toll to a Northern importer, been parched over an 
Albany stove, ground in a mill from Meriden, Conn., poured from a Yankee urn 
into a Yankee cup, sweetened with sugar refined in New York, stirred with a 
spoon of like origin — used to be drank without one emotion other than pleasing. 



84 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

" To church or to school a Northern hell invites us. In our devotions or our 
dances a Northern organ or a Northern fiddle lends its inspiring strains. 

" Whether we ride or walk, sit or sleep, we do all, my Northern friends, 
through your kind assistance. 

" I take a look at my sour visage in a Northern mirror, stamp my foot on a 
Northern carpet, and rush out of a house which was constructed with Northern 
tools, fitted with Northern doors, sash, blinds glass, &c, painted with North- 
ern paint, furnished and adorned throughout, from cellar to attic, with the 
work of northern hands. I mount a Northern saddle and I ride over a farm 
which is cultivated with Northern implements, by negroes clad in cloth made in 
Massachusetts, from materials furnished anywhere from Vermont to Ohio. 

" My cotton, prepared for market by a Northern gin and press, enveloped in 
bagging which has paid tribute to a Boston Indiaman, is hauled by a Northern 
engine to the sea port, whence it is shipped in a Northern vessel to its ultimate 
point of destination, paying, in its transport, commission, brokerage, insurance, 
exchanges, and a host of charges." 

It is a great pity (says the Georgia Constitutionalist) that Southern planters, 
and merchants of the South, have not been " startled" by these facts at an earlier 
day. They have harangued continually against the aggressions of the North, and 
yet instead of building up Southern mechanical and industrial enterprises, which 
would render this section truly independent and flourishing, they have given 
their patronage and their money to build up the institutions and fortunes of that 
section which they hate and abuse. If this policy of patronage to home industry 
had been adopted years ago, there would be no causes for disunion threats at this 
day — or, if there was a cause, the South would be in a position not only to assert, 
but to maintain her independence. Our institutions of learning would be more 
numerous, and the course of education more thorough. Our manufacturing 
establishments would be numerically increased, and their products at least equal 
to those of other sections. 

Our population in the cities and towns would be largely increased, because of 
the inducements to mechanics and operatives — who would, in turn, be so many 
more inducements to an increase of mercantile men and mercantile employments. 
We should have not only these, but we should have, too, armories, and foundries, 
and workshops for the manufacture of many things for which we are now com- 
pelled to send abroad. 

But our " Southern planter" was " startled" at the discovery that he had been 
sending abroad for things which his own section could have furnished him, and 
thus have enabled him to patronise and foster branches of industry that must 
and will benefit and even enrich the South. 

Thus he arises from a Northern made bed, when Piatt's factory, in this city, 
could have furnished him one equal to it, made in the South, and of Southern 
lumber. Some one of the Southern factories could have furnished him with the 
material for a mattress, and he could have had it stuffed with the great " staple 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 85 

* 
of the South." The same factories could have furnished his sheeting; and his 

pantaloon stuffs might have been purchased from the Ivy Mills of Georgia, made 

up by Southern tailors; while he could have encased his feet in shoes made by 

Southern shoemakers in any of our Southern cities, towns and villages, from 

Southern tanned leather. 

Our " Southern planter" having thus arisen from his Southern made bed, and 
arrayed in his Southern made clothes, might have greeted his family around a 
Southern made table — upon which might have been spread his neat tea set, 
manufactured at the Kaolin factory, near Augusta; and his coffee he could have 
procured from New Orleans importers, and his sugar from New Orleans refine- 
ries; while he could have had all of his breakfast cooked upon one of the stoves 
made in this city. 

When the hour for school or for church came, one of Alexander's Columbia, 
South Carolina, bells could have made the announcement for him, while Brenner, 
of Augusta, or Baker, of Charleston, could have furnished his church with its 
organ. His doors, window sashes, and blinds, could have been made in the 
South. In a word, more than two-thirds of that money which he sent to the 
North might have remained in his own section, enriched his own people, and 
helped to place them and him in a position of the most complete commercial, 
manufactural and political independence. But, unfortunately for the South, 
our people prefer to vent their spleen and their patronage upon other portions of 
the confederacy. — Southern Cultivator. 



From the Plantation. 

At Home. 

I write in one of the most retired rooms of the rambling old house in which I 
was born, and in which I have spent most of the years of my life. Of late, I 
have been a restless wanderer, but here I am, once more, sitting in the quaint 
old chair, connected by my earliest recollections with my grandfather — for this 
was long, almost the only seat he would occupy. The board on which I write, 
is the one on which his Bible used to rest. Beneath it is the little box which 
contained what seemed, to my childish imagination, a world of treasures and 
curiosities. My feet are on the foot-board on which I used to sit, and look up 
into grandfather's face, and listen to his tales and jests. It is a strange old chair 
— large, and apparently cumbersome — but so surrounded with various convenient 
appendages, so many places for books and papers, little tools, pipes and all an old 
man's notions, that it seems a habitation within itself. Oh ! the memories that 
throng around this old chair. Let me recall the past. Turn back, oh, my soul ! 
and review the scenes of childhood, of boyhood, of youth, and opening man- 
hood. What a retrospect ! 



86 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

"I dreamed of many a perished hope, 

Of many a spoken word, 
That, lost amid the wreck of time, 

Will ne'er again be heard. 
Oh, how the ghosts of buried joys 

Start up and haunt our gaze. 
When o'er the tomb of love and hope, 

We dream of other days!" 

Who can look back over his past life — its happy hours, its hopes, its aspira- 
tions, its ardent ambitions, its pleasurable excitements, and remain unmoved, 
while contrasting it with the present — its unhappiness, its ennui, its disappoint- 
ments, its gloom, its despondency ? 

"Ah, give me back the joyous hours. 
When I, myself, was ripening too. 
***** 

Give me the freedom of that hour, 

The tear of joy, the pleasing pain; 
Of hate and love the thrilling power; 

Oh, give me back my youth again!" 

Let it pass. I look around, and, on the walls, behold the same old ceiling* 
with its peculiar beaded strips, put up many, many years ago, according to the 
strange fancy of my eccentric grandfather. There is the same wide, old fireplace, 
with its massive andirons, and its quietly-glowing fire. The same cranky old 
tongs and the venerable fire-shovel maintain their position against the jambs. 
My mother sets her face against innovation, and she is right. This particular 
room she insists shall remain unaltered, and it stands, a memento — a living part 
— of a past age. On the mantelpiece, the old clock stands, with its constant tick 
echoing loudly in the silence of the room. Before the glowing hearth lies the 
white cat, favorite of my mother, with her calm, lazy purr, indicative of the 
most perfect contentment. 

In that corner stands the table on which my father once kept a few books and 
journals, so that he could read without going to the solitude of the library. The 
wind whistles by, and rattles the panes of a window which opened long before I 
came into existence. By the window, close to the cozy fireplace, day after day, 
for nearly half a century, my father used to sit, at certain hours, reading some 
favorite French author, or looking over the newspaper. The same old panes of 
glass which gave him light, still kept their place in the mouldy wooden frame. 

Opposite me, by this very window, sits my mother — relict of my departed sire 
— sole surviving link which connects me with a past generation. I gaze upon 
her placid, pallid brow, as she sits in the stillness and quiet of this, the Sabbath 
day, reading the. Book — the Word of Life — the inspired volume which now 
constitutes her cbief solace and delight. 

Now she removes the glasses from her eyes, shuts the sacred tome, and turning 
to the window, gazes out. The wind is howling dismally, and as it sweeps by, 



1861.] 



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87 



brings down the leaves in showers from the huge old oaks with which she has 
become so familiar, and which appear to be almost human in the companionship 
which they afford her. She looks out, abstracted, and unconscious even of the 
presence of me, her youngest born. Whither do her thoughts turn ? Is she 
communing with the past ? Do thronging memories come, bringing with them 
old faces, old scenes, old hours of happiness ? Or is she looking forward and 
upward, with vision brightened and perception made clear by the words of Holy 
Writ which she has just been perusing, to a blissful reunion with all those whom 
she has loved on earth ? 

Sure I am of one thing: that though she may occasionally look back through 
the dim vista of past years, her bitterest pangs are long since over, and her gentle 
mourning is now almost sweet, as she thinks of the happy home to which she is 
tending, and repeats to herself: 

"Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy! 
Ear hath not heard its deep songs of joy; 
Dreams cannot picture a world so fair — 
Sorrow and death may not enter there ; 
Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom, 
For beyond the clouds and beyond the tomb, 
It is there, it is there, tny child." 

H. W. 



Hints on the Care of Horses in Winter. 

I. During the winter months, those horses which are used for labor should be 
well shod. Unless, however, they are to be driven in such places as render them 
very liable to slip, the corks should not be very sharp. When a horse is newly 
shod, be a little careful when you drive him, especially if he feels well, or he 
may cork himself. Like men, it takes a few days for them to become accus- 
tomed to handling their feet with new shoes. 

II. See that the stables in which horses stand are strong, and so arranged that 
they cannot kick each other. In cold weather, if they are well fed and do not 
work much, they kick and paw, or bite their mangers for exercise. It is not 
viciousness that makes them do it, but frequently a want of exercise. Often a 
valuable horse is badly injured just for want of proper arrangement of the stalls. 
A little expense to-day often saves a good deal to-morrow. 

III. See that the floors are strong, and that the horse-barn is well banked up, 
to prevent the cold air from passing under the building and making the floor 
constantly cold. Every means ought to be taken to have the floor as warm as 
possible. A horse that has worked all day and has his. legs wet, often takes a 
cold because his legs are kept so during the night by a cold floor. Warm feet 
for horses is as important as for men. 

IV. A horse's bed is of some importance. We know a good many farmers 
who allow them to stand and lie on the hard floor all winter. They may get 



88 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

used to it, but what can be got used to, is not always the best. A good bed of 
straw, or some similar material, kept clean by frequent changing, should be fur- 
nished to all horses. They will frequently paw it from under them, but this is 
for amusement, and not because they do not wish for a bed. When this is the 
case, great pains should be taken to prevent it. 

V. Always clean out the droppings of your horses, both morning and evening. 
They ought always to be so far removed from the stable that the air will not be 
poisoned by the emanations from them, or the sills and siding of the barn will 
be rotted by coming in contact with them. We have always thought the prac- 
tice of throwing the manure into a heap by the side of the barn door slovenly, 
wasteful and detrimental to the health of the horse. With a broom, sweep out 
all dust that accumulates daily. 

VI. A horse should be groomed every morning when stabled. A good groom- 
ing is worth as much as half a peck of oats. Every barn should be supplied 
with a good curry-comb, card, comb for mane and tail, brush and stiff broom, 
for this purpose. It keeps the circulation in the surface vigorous, keeps the 
skin clean and in a good condition to withstand both heat and cold, and makes 
the horse look very much better. An ungroomed horse is like an unwashed boy, 
or a person who never attends to his toilet. 

VII. It is a question with some, whether a horse should be blanketed in the 
winter. If the stable is a good one, and sufficiently warm, we should not use 
the blanket, except when the horse is out of doors, or has been subjected to 
severe labor or exposure. If it is used when they do not need it, it will do them 
little good when they do need it. 

VIII. In a cold day of winter, when a horse's bits are full of frost, always 
warm them thoroughly before placing them in the mouth. Not to do this is very 
cruel. Touch your tongue or even a wet finger to a very cold piece of iron, and 
you can appreciate the importance of this hint. It may be a little trouble to do 
it, but it should be done. The frost may be taken out conveniently by placing 
the bits in water. 

IX. If you have no labor to perform with your horse, see that he has plenty 
of exercise daily. This is necessary to the health of the animal, as well as to 
his and your comfort. 

X. Do not allow him to drink very large quantities of ice-cold water at onee. 
Moderately warm water is best for animals, but a large quantity of very cold 
water is always injurious. Especially is this the case when they do not have 
moderate exercise immediately after drinking, or when the horse is warm or much 
wearied by hard labor. 

XL A horse's food can never be exactly measured to him. Sometimes he 
needs more than at other times. Give him as much as he needs, and exercise 
judgment in regard to the matter. At all times give as much good, bright hay 
as your horse can eat. If the weather is very cold, the horse needs heat-pro- 
ducing material, and corn is as good grain as you can give. Grind it and feed 



1861.] 



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89 



wet and mixed with a little cut hay or bright straw. When it is warm, oats is 
the best of grain for horses, and for laboring horses notbing is superior to them. 
Oats is to the horse what steak is to the laboring man ; it furnishes the material 
for muscle. 

XII. Young colts should not be stabled in winter, but protected from cold 
storms and winds by sheds, or be kept in unexposed situations. They need to 
be kept where they can move about as much as they desire. It gives them better 
constitutions and better locomotive power. Give them a little grain daily, and 
domesticate them by treating them kindly and handling them frequently. 

XIII. Brood mares, unless they are worked, should be allowed to run out, 
except when the weather is severe. Give them plenty of hay and a moderate 
allowance of oats. A few roots occasionally are good, but never feed frozen 
roots, or those very cold, to them or any animal. It is like putting so much ice 
in the stomach. — Ohio Farmer. 



Southern Patronage to Southern Imports and Domestic Industry. 

CONCLUDED. 

"We again repeat that the lack of home patronage to domestic industry is appa- 
rent in every department of Southern life. Nothing exemplifies it stronger, than 
the neglect of our own nurserymen, engaged in raising fruit-trees, roses, and 
ornamental shrubbery for sale. That class of men have had a long and hard 
struggle for existence, and are just now beginning to get a foothold. Notwith- 
standing, it is a well-known fact, among intelligent fruit-growers, that there is a 
disease likely to exterminate the peach-tree at the North, and that, in the course 
of time, must lead to its destruction here, if we continue to send there for our 
trees. Scarcely a vessel arrives in our Southern ports, during the fall, winter, 
and spring months, that is not partly freighted with bundles of fruit-trees from 
the North ; and you may see them at every railroad depot and express office at 
the South, from November to March. 

We have the finest climate and soil in the world, for the propagation and 
growth of that delicious fruit — the peach. And there is no reason why we can- 
not be supplied with any number of trees by our own nurserymen. We have 
the native seed to plant, for grafting and budding, which ought to secure us 
against the destructive diseases with which the Northern trees are infected. Our 
native peach-trees, if properly taken care of, will live and bear fruit for half a 
century, while those imported from the North may not be expected to last longer 
than twelve or fifteen years. We have an example before us, of healthy, thrifty 
trees of native growth, which were bearing twenty-three years ago — while we 
have orchards of Northern-grown trees ten and twelve years old, that are dying 
out, and which we are obliged to prune down every year to half a crop, in order 
to keep them alive. 

Aside, from the patriotism that should prompt Southern men to purchase from 



90 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

each other, a knowledge of the above facts prove it to be " penny-wise and pouud- 
foolish," to attempt such economy in the establishment of an orchard, as the 
saving of three to five cents a tree. Fine grafted and budded trees are sold at 
all the Southern nurseries at twelve and fifteen cents, some as high as twenty 
cents. But where they are sold by the quantity, fifteen cents should be the out- 
side price, and some now sell at twelve cents. 

Yet thousands of orders go to New-Jersey, where they are bought for eight 
cents, and by the time they are delivered at Columbia or Augusta, they will have 
cost twelve cents. It should be known to every one, that large nursery establish- 
ments arc springing up all over the South, and they require nothing more than a 
reasonable patronage from our own people, to render that branch of industry 
thrifty and prosperous. We will take the liberty of naming a few establish- 
ments, from which we have purchased trees, and know *o be reliable and able to 
furnish all kinds and varieties of choice fruit-trees, either to supply amateur fruit- 
growers with extra choice small collections, or in quantities to plant orchards. 

Those of whom we have practical acquaintance, are Messrs. Wm. Summer, of 
Pomaria, Newberry District, S. C. ; Peters, Harden & Co., Atlanta, Ga. ; P. J. 
Berckmans & Co., Augusta, Ga. ; Thomas J. Fentress, Greensboro', N. C. ; West- 
brook & Mendenhall, Greensboro', N. C. There are, no doubt, others as reliable 
as those named, and it only needs the patronage of those now planting orchards, 
to rear up nurseries all over the South, which will not only fully supply us, but 
will eventually turn the current of trade from South to North. We predict the 
time when we will see the Jersey peach millionaires digging up their sickly 
orchards, to be replanted with Southern trees, thus carrying out the advice of 
the lamented Downing on this subject. 

He recommended this as the only means of curing the disease known as the 
yellows, which has already nearly destroyed the peach orchards of New-Jersey 
and Delaware ; and has within a few years cut off an immense source of income 
to peach-growers, railroads, and steamboats, the extent of which, would seem 
marvellous to relate in detail. We have a published statement before us of one 
grower, who realized in a few years over a million of dollars, principally on 
peaches. He, besides chartering a steamboat for the season, paid upward of 
twenty thousand dollars railroad freight, to carry his crop to market. Many re- 
alize gross incomes amounting to twenty, thirty, and even fifty thousand dollars, 
for a single peach crop ; paying enormous transportation expenses, say, some five 
thousand, some eight thousand, and others ten and twelve thousand dollars, rail- 
road freight during the fruit season. 

If we were to pursue the subject, naming in detail all the neglected articles 
and occupations in our Southern country that might be adduced, a much larger 
space would be required than is allotted to these articles. 

We trust that we have shown to the conviction of our readers, that much in- 
justice has been done to the enterprising individuals who have embarked in man- 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 91 

ufacturing at the South. And by such injustice a wound has been inflicted on 
the whole country, which no ordinary skill can heal. 

But shall we stop at this point — may we not proceed to show that our impor- 
ters have been also unjustly dealt with ? A public sentiment has been allowed to 
grow up against theui, and in favor of Northern men of that class, and by that 
means our strength has not only been impaired, but we have interwoven our 
pecuniary and commercial affairs in the meshes of Northern commerce to our 
own detriment, and thereby have added vigor and strength to Northern political 
power. 

The political sentiment of the South is decidedly and universally against the 
North, but the more powerful pecuniary and commercial sentiment has shown 
itself to be with the North and opposed to the South, and if continued will lead 
to our ruin, both economically and politically. It is so thoroughly interwoven in 
the body politic, that it may be seen in the every-day acts of our people, from 
the lowest grade of society to the highest. If additional evidence is necessary, 
to prove the positions above assumed, what better proof do we want than the 
fact that an humble, unpretending country or village merchant, who has not the 
means of going beyond Charleston, to lay in his stock of merchandise, should 
consider it necessary to obliterate every mark on a box, which would betray the 
fact that his stock of goods wa3 purchased in Charleston, and not in New-York. 
It has, for year3 past, been a common thing for country merchants to request 
that their packages should be so marked as to leave no clue to their having been 
bought in Charleston. Does not every one know that a widespread public senti- 
ment has long existed all over the South, which has caused a preference to be 
given to articles purchased at the North ? It was quite a plume in the cap of a 
trader, to be able to say he was just from New-York, and had purchased his 
supplies there. So highly has that advantage been esteemed, by all classes. of 
men, that the idea of enabling a merchant to go to New-York, to lay in his stock, 
would enlist the kindly friendship of rich endorsers, and if anything could induce 
a board of bank directors to make any extraordinary effort to accommodate, it 
would most surely be in the good cause of enabling a neighbouring merchant to 
transfer his custom from Charleston to New York. That such a course is wrong 
all must see and admit; yet matters have been suffered to run so long in that 
direction, that a commercial and political power has been created at the North, 
which now threatens to annihilate us. 

Why should a Southern country or village merchant go to New York to pur- 
chase his supplier? Almost every country merchant who visits Charleston has 
a through ticket to New York in his pocket. Some buy a few boxes of goods in 
Charleston ; others will be drifted on North by meeting with the slightest im- 
pediments in the way of trade in Charleston. And many, from a desire to mix 
in the great whirlpool of fashion, sight-seeing, &c, pay their $30 passage money 
to and from New York, and cannot resist the temptation of doing something- 
more than is embraced in the stale idea of buying a stock of goods in South 



92 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

Carolina. While others, under the delusion that they can buy cheaper in New 
York, go there year after year to get cheated every time and never find it out. 

To those acquainted with the nature and complicated operations of commerce, 
it is plain enough to be seen that Charleston can undersell New York, even if 
the goods be first landed there, and pay a duty to the New York custom-house. 
Goods are either imported by large dealers, or sent out by foreigners to agents, 
to sell by the case or large quantity. These importing houses, or agents, are 
bound to the jobbing trade not to break packages, or sell in such small quanti- 
ties as to interfere with their customers. Any importer, or foreign agent, who 
violates this rule, must expect to lose the custom of the jobbing trade, not only 
of New York, but of Charleston, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville, 
Nashville, and other jobbing cities and towns scattered over our vast country. 
Now, we wish our readers to understand the groundwork : That imported goods 
first come into hands that are bound by the strongest ties to the wholesale dealer, 
more commonly termed jobbing merchant, who purchases by the package and 
retails out to merchants, a class of smaller dealers, located in towns, villages, and 
country places; this class of men sell immediately to the customer. The jobber, 
in turn, is bound to this latter class of merchants not to interfere with their cus- 
tomers, by selling small quantities. 

We will now try to illustrate the subject by following a Southern merchant to 
New York, where he may desire to purchase an assorted stock of goods amount- 
ing from ten to thirty or fifty thousand dollars; even the last named sum will 
not procure him admission into an importing or agent's stock. If he insists on 
buying from such houses, the price will be fixed at much higher rates than the 
jobbing merchant pays, and the custom of not breaking packages will almost 
invariably rule him out; and he is, of necessity, thrown into the hands of the 
jobbing merchants of New York, the keenest and most adroit dealers known iu 
the world — men who live by their wits, and who cannot sustain themselves ex- 
cept by exorbitant profits. Just for a moment look at things as they really are. 
A jobbing merchant in New York, paying from fifteen to thirty thousand dollars 
a year for store rent; clerk hire, from one to six thousand dollars a year; hav- 
ing two or three partners in the concern, each living in palaces at the most 
princely expenditure — compare this picture with the same class of merchants in 
Charleston, where the most commodious and best-located stores rent from fifteen 
hundred to two thousand dollars, and where clerks are now begging for situa- 
tions; willing to pay their own board, work, and receive no pay for the first year 
or two, while the most expert receives for their services but from five hundred to 
two thousand dollars a year. Can you not see that the Charleston jobber is able 
to sell cheaper than the New Yorker ? 

Merchants of the city, town, village, and country ! consider, and say whether 
you have not been treading unprofitable paths, which, if persevered iu, will ulti- 
mately lead your country to ruin. Your notions of mercantile thrift are warped 
by errors as glaring as those by which abolition fanaticism is urged on at the 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



93 



North. The Charleston wholesale merchants, as a class, have as good credit as 
any in the world. They purchase largely, and procure their stocks at the lowest 

rates. 

The trade of New York is of a different class altogether; one half and pro- 
bably three fourths of them live from hand to mouth, under exorbitant and ex- 
traordinary expenses; they buy to-day and sell to-morrow, are in many instances 
reckless of character, and pay higher prices for their goods than good reliable 
merchants do. If they cheat a man this year who lives fifteen hundred miles 
off, and lose his custom, what do they care ? — the next year brings two in his 
place. So great are the profits made by merchants in New York, that every six 
or eight years of fair sailing, and undisturbed commercial prosperity, transforms 
a large number of those men of straw — jobbing merchants — into millionaires. 
But when a monetary crisis overtakes them, they are swept off into bankruptcy 
by hundreds. 

New York is the last place to which an experienced, impractical merchant 
should venture to purchase a stock of goods, and there is no reason whatever 
why Charleston, New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Augusta, should not be- 
come points of distribution, and be relied on entirely for supplies. Charleston 
can become so without waiting to establish lines of steamers to Europe. If she 
can obtain her fair proportion of the jobbing and distributing trade, she will 
soon number 200,000 in population, and the lines of steamers will follow, and so 
will the ability to build railroad outlets. 

The mere importing business cannot make a city. If New York were to lose 
the jobbing trade, which rightfully belongs to Southern cities, she would imme- 
diately retrograde in population, or remain for a long time stationary. If her 
commerce was confined to importing houses and foreign agencies, that city would 
settle down to be the Liverpool of the United States, instead of the " London 
of America." 

In order to render Charleston a great centre of distribution, and a fortress of 
political power, all that is requisite is the assurance of receiving in future all 
the trade that naturally belongs to her, with the hearty co-operation and patron- 
age of Southern merchants ; with this she would be prepared to make a doubled 
or quadrupled trade. 

The present merchants would most willingly enlarge their trade fourfold, and 
the prospect of increased business would induce others to embark, and the 
money power would follow in the train. That portion of the money capital that 
belongs South, and which has centred in New York to buy up Southern mer- 
chants' paper with, would, as a matter of course, be transferred to Charleston, 
and an extended jobbing trade would bring with it large direct imports, of the 
heavier articles not sent to agents in this country, such as iron, salt, coffee, and 
many Europeon articles made only to supply orders. 

"We are rejoiced to see the work of reformation already commenced, and we 
trust that such assurances of permanent increase of patronage to Charleston 



91 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

merchants will be given, that their usual fall stock may be doubled. And 
although it is said that some of the hotel keepers feed their guests on turkeys 
and chickens fattened in abolition Ohio, and brought to Charleston by the way 
of New York, the change in the mercantile currents, which are so devoutly de- 
sired, will, no doubt, bring us back to poultry of our own raising, with which 
our back country abounds. 

But, how is this change to be effected ? It can be done only through the 
people— the great body of consumers. They should meet in primary assemblies, 
and put the mark of reprobation and proscription on every merchant who will 
not obey the call to abstain from a traffic that leads to our impoverishment 
and political ruin. Each individual who buys a coat, a silk dress, a piece of 
muslin, or any article from a home dealer— and gives his orders to a Southern 
mechanic and nurseryman, instead of sending it to the North — lends his or her 
aid in cutting off some of the springs. And the whole South, collectively act- 
ing together, will dry up many considerable branches, if not the great stream 
which carries away millions of our treasure, and is fast drifting us commercially 
and politically into the vortex of Northern power. To be politically independent 
of the free States, we must render ourselves commercially so, for commerce holds 
the sceptre that rules the world. The despots who have for ages swayed their 
power over nations of Europe, have been compelled to give way to it, and all 
nations bow to the unbounded power of commerce — which has whitened every 
sea with its sails, and driven by the wings of steam power, is now traversing 
every country known to civilized man. Her power will subdue and overrun the 
Chinese empire, and will ultimately civilize and Christianize benighted Africa, 
as well as every other inhabited portion of the globe. One of the greatest des- 
potisms on earth has been forced into a strife for pre-eminence in manufacture 
and commerce. 

The wise men who have the power of control in Russia, have very consider- 
ately come to the conclusion, that by agriculture alone, their country cannot keep 
pace with the growing power of manufacturing and commercial nations; hence 
the immense efforts of that nation to introduce manufactures, railroads, and all 
the appliances necessary to an extended commerce with the world. 

In all civilized nations, the political power has yielded to the sceptre of com- 
merce ; and no nation in modern times has become commercial without the aid 
of manufactures; and so surely as we follow up the system which is advocated 
by many, as the true policy of the South of remaining an exclusively agricul- 
tural people, neglecting all other industrial occupations, and buying from others 
the commonest necessaries of life, and wearing out and exhausting our soil as 
fast as we can, so surely will we become vassals to some power. If we release 
ourselves from one, we must immediately fall into the hands of another. 

To be independent, we must be our own merchants. Let us, then, set about a 
reformation that shall disenthral us from the tyranny of the North. Let us 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 



95 



resolve to patronize no merchant who will refuse his aid toward building up a 
distributing city at the South. Let us encourage the extension of manufactures, 
and by all means encourage and give our patronage to every article the product 
of Southern domestic industry. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Loudoun County, Va., December 26th, 1860. 

Respected Friends — Permit me to inquire, through the Planter, what has 
become of Professor Campbell, of the Washington College. In reply to my 
criticism on his views on " Vegetable Physiology," in the April number of the 
Planter, he professes to be " a learner— a mere gleaner in the great field of 
scientific research;" and voluntarily says, " Willingly, therefore, would I sit at 
the feet of Mr. Taylor, or any one prepared to give me instruction," &c. Having 
thus placed himself under my instruction, and as I gave a few lessons for him to 
look over at his leisure, in my reply to his essay, I, as teacher, am anxious to 
know how my pupil is coming on in his studies. Is he earnestly endeavoring to 
solve the problems presented, or is he behaving truant and taking no notice of 
his lessons. Being so highly honored with so illustrious a pupil, I cannot think 
of "-iving him up. If he has found any difficulty in those problems presented, 
and will point them out, I will readily endeavor to assist him in his difficulties ; 
it is the duty of teachers to give all proper instruction to pupils. 

Will the editors be so kind as to inquire, whether the Professor is studying the 
facts presented by me in opposition to his theory, for he freely offered, that if I 
would bring forward facts well authenticated, and by a legitimate process of 
reasoning, based upon these facts, could show him that he was entertaining 
erroneous views, or advocating unsound theories in any department of science, 
instead of quarrelling with me, he would tender me his sincere thanks, and class 
me among his real benefactors. I shall hold him to this position. I consider that 
I gave him facts, in support of my views, that set his theory aside, and unless he 
can show that these facts are not true, or are not applicable, he must, if consistent, 
acknowledge their correctness. It will not do for him to say he has not time to 
attend to it, he had time to reply to my first essay, and an earnest seeker after 
scientific truth, will only seek the more earnestly after truth when he meets with 
a fact, or idea, that crosses what he considered the line of that truth. 

I wait for a reply. Yardley Taylor. 



Yorkshire Pudding.— Mix five spoonfuls of flour with a quart of milk and 
four egg3 well beaten; butter a shallow pan, and bake under the meat; when 
quite brown, turn the other side upwards, and brown that. It should be made in 
a square pan, and cut into pieces to come to tabic. It is a good plan to set it over 
a chafing-dish at first, and stir it some minutes. 



96 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

On the Sources of the Nitrogen of Vegetation; 
With Special Reference to the Question whether Plants Assimilate free or vn- 
combined Nitrogen — By John Bennet Lawes, Esq., F.R.S., F.C.S.; Joseph 
Henry Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S.; and Evan Pugh, Ph.D., F.C.S. 

[From the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London for June 21, I860.] 

After referring to the earlier history of the subject, and especially to the con- 
clusion of De Saussure, that plants derive their nitrogen from the nitrogenous 
compounds of the soil and the small amount of ammonia which he found to ex- 
ist in the atmosphere, the Authors preface the discussion of their own experi- 
ments on the sources of the nitrogen of plants, by a consideration of the most 
prominent facts established by their own investigations concerning the amount 
of nitrogen yielded by different crops over a given area of land, and of the rela- 
tion of these to certain measured, or known sources of it. 

On growing the same crop year after year on the same land, without any supply 
of nitrogen by manure, it was found that wheat, over a period of 14 years, had 
given rather more than 40 lbs. — barley, over a period of 6 years, somewhat less 
— meadow-hay, over a period of 3 years, nearly 40 lbs. — and beans, over 11 
years, rather more than 50 lbs. of nitrogen, per acre, per annum. Clover, 
another Leguminous crop, grown in 3 out of 4 consecutive years, had given 
an average of 120 lbs. Turnips, over 8 consecutive years, had yielded about 
'45 lbs. 

The Graminaceous crops had not, during the periods referred to, shown signs 
of diminution of produce. The yield of the Leguminous crops had fallen con- 
siderably. Turnips, again, appeared greatly to have exhausted the immediately 
available nitrogen in the soil. The amount of nitrogen harvested in the Legumi- 
nous and Root-crops was considerably increased by the use of "mineral ma- 
nures," whilst that in the Graminaceous crops was so in a very limited degree. 

Direct experiments further showed that pretty nearly the same amount of 
nitrogen was taken from a given area of land in wheat in 8 years, whether 8 
crops were grown consecutively, 4 in alternation with fallow, or 4 in alternation 
with beans. 

Taking the results of 6 separate courses of rotation, Boussingault obtained an 
average of between one-third and one-half more nitrogen in the produce than 
had been supplied in manure. His largest yields of nitrogen were in the Legu- 
minous crops; and the cereal crops were larger when they next succeeded the 
removal of the highly nitrogenous Leguminous crops. In their own experiments 
upon an actual course of rotation, without manure, the Authors had obtained, 
over 8 years, an average annual yield of 57.7 lbs. of nitrogen per acre ; about 
twice as much as was obtained in either wheat or barley, when these crops were, 
respectively, grown year after year on the same land. The greatest yield of 
nitrogen had been in a clover crop, grown once during the 8 years; and the 
wheat crops grown after this clover in the first course of 4 years, and after beans 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



97 



in the second course, "were about double those obtained when wheat succeeded 
wheat. 

Thus, Cereal crops, grown year after year on the same land, had given an ave- 
rage of about 40 lbs. of nitrogen, per acre, per annum; and Leguminous crops ' 
much more. Nevertheless the Cereal crop was nearly doubled when preceded 
by a Leguminous one. It was also about doubled when preceded by fallow. 
Lastly, an entirely unmanured rotation had yielded nearly twice as much nitrogen 
as the continuously grown Cereals. ^ 

Leguminous crops were, however, little^benefited, indeed frequently injured, i 
by the use of the ordinary direct nitrogenous manures. Cereal crops, on the j 
other hand, though their yield of nitrogen was comparatively small, were very 
much increased by direct nitrogenous manures, as well as when they succeeded a 
highly nitrogenous Leguminous crop, or fallow. But when nitrogenous manures 
Itad been employed for the increased growth of the Cereals, the nitrogen in the 
immediate increase of produce had amounted to little more than 40 per cent, of 
that supplied, and that in the increase of the second year after the application, 
to little more than one-tenth of the remainder. Estimated in the same way, 
there had been in the case of the meadow grasses scarcely any larger proportion 
of the supplied nitrogen recovered. In the Leguminous crops the proportion so 
recovered appeared to be even less ; whilst in the root-crops it was probably 
somewhat greater. Several possible explanations of this real or apparent loss of 
the nitrogen supplied by manure are enumerated. 

The question arises — what are the sources of all the nitrogen of our crops be-^ 
yond that which is directly supplied to the soil by artificial means 1 The follow- 
ing actual or possible sources may be enumerated : — the nitrogen in certain con- 
stituent minerals of the soil; the combined nitrogen annually coming down in 
the direct aqueous depositions from the atmosphere ; the accumulation of com- 
bined nitrogen from the atmosphere by the soil in other ways; the formation of 
ammonia in the soil from free nitrogen and nascent hydrogen ; the formation of 
nitric acid from free nitrogen ; the direct absorption of combined nitrogen from 
the atmosphere by plants themselves ; the assimilation of free nitrogen by plants. 

A consideration of these several sources of the nitrogen of the vegetation 
which covers the earth's surface showed that those of them which have as yet 
been quantitatively estimated are inadequate to account for the amount of nitro- 
gen obtained in the annual produce of a given area of land beyond that which 
may be attributed to supplies by previous manuring. Those, on the other hand, 
which have not yet been even approximately estimated as to quantity — if indeed 
fully established qualitatively — offer many practical difficulties in the way of such 
an investigation as would afford results applicable in any such estimates as are 
here supposed. It appeared important, therefore, to endeavour to settle the ques- 
tion whether or not that vast storehouse of nitrogen, the atmosphere, affords to grow- 
ing plants any measurable amount of its free nitrogen. Moreover, this question 
had of late years been submitted to very extended and laborious experimental 
7 



98 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

researches by M. Boussingault, and M. Yille, and also to more limited investiga- 
tion by MM. Mene, Roy, Cloez, De Luca, Harting, Petzholdt and others, from 
the results of which diametrically opposite conclusions had been arrived at. Be- 
fore entering on the discussion of the own experimental evidence, the Authors 
give a review of these results and inference ; more especially tbose of M. Bous- 
singault who questions, and those of M. Georges Ville who affirms. the assimila- . 
tion of free nitrogen in the process of vegetation. So 2)<r Ty^^feM^, jU C^>*r, 

The general method of experiment instituted by Boussingault, wbich has been 
followed, with more or less modification, in most subsequent researches, and by 
the Authors in the present inquiry, was — to set seeds or young plants, the amount 
of nitrogen in which was estimated by the analysis of carefully chosen similar 
specimens; to employ soils and water containing either no combined nitrogen, or 
only known quantities of it; to allow the access either of free air (the plants 
being protected from rain and dust) — of a current of air freed by washing from 
all combined nitrogen — or of a limited quantity of air, too small to be of any 
avail so far as any compounds of nitrogen contained in it were concerned ; and 
finally, to determine the amount of combined nitrogen in the plants produced 
and in the soil, pot, &c, and so to provide the means of estimating the gain or 
loss of nitrogen during the course of the experiment. 

The plan adopted by the Authors in discussing their own experimental results, 
was — 

To consider the conditions to be fulfilled in order to effect the solution of the 
main question, and to endeavour to eliminate all sources of error in the investiga- 
tion. 

To examine a number of collateral questions bearing upon the points at issue, 
and to endeavour so far to solve them, as to reduce the general solution to that of 
a single question to be answered by the results of a final set of experiments. 

To give the results of the final experiments, and to discuss their bearings upon 
the question which it is proposed to solve by them. 

Accordingly, the following points are considered : — 

1. The preparation of the soil, or matrix, for the reception of the plants and 
of the nutriment to be supplied to them. 

2. The preparation of the nutriment, embracing that of mineral constituents, 
of certain solutions, and of water. 

3. The conditions of atmosphere to be supplied to the plants, and the means 
of securing them ; the apparatus to be employed, &c. 

4. The changes undergone by nitrogenous organic matter during decomposi- 
tion, affecting the quantity of combined nitrogen present, in circumstances more 
or less analogous to those in which the experimental plants are grown. 

5. The action of agents, as ozone; and the influence of other circumstances 
which may affect the quantity of combined nitrogen present in connexion with 
the plants, independently of the direct action of the growing process. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



99 



In most of the experiments a rather clayey soil, ignited with free access of 
air, well-washed with distilled water, and re-ignited, was used as the matrix or 
soil. In a few cases washed and ignited pumice-stone was used. 

The mineral constituents were supplied in the form of the ash of plants, of the 
description to be grown if practicable, and if not, of some closely allied kind. 

The distilled water used for the final rinsing of all the important parts of the 
apparatus, and for the supply of water to the plants, was prepared by boiling off 
one-third from ordinary water, collecting the second-third as distillate, and redis- 
tilling this, previously acidulated with phosphoric acid. 

Most of the pots used were specially made, of porous ware, with a great many 
holes at the bottom and round the sides near to the bottom. These were placed 
in glazed stone-ware pans with inward-turned rims to lessen evaporation. 

Before use, the red-hot matrix and the freshly ignited ash were mixed in the 
red-hot pot, and the whole allowed to cool over sulphuric acid. The soil was 
then moistened with distilled water, and after the lapse of a day or so the seeds 
or plants were put in. 

Very carefully picked bulks of seed were chosen ; specimens of the average 
weight were taken for the experiment, and in similar specimens the nitrogen was 
determined. 

The atmosphere supplied to the plants was washed free from ammonia by 
passing through sulphuric acid, and then over pumice-stone saturated with sul- 
phuric acid. It then passed through a solution of carbonate of soda before en- 
tering the apparatus enclosing the plant, and it passed out again through sul- 
phuric acid. 

Carbonic acid, evolved from marble by measured quantities of hydrochloric 
acid, was passed daily into the apparatus, after passing, with the air, through the 
sulphuric acid and the carbonate of soda solution. 

The enclosing apparatus consisted of a large glass shade, resting in a groove 
filled with mercury, in a slate or glazed earthenware stand, upon which the pan, 
with the pot of soil, &c., was placed. Tubes passed under the shade, for the 
ingress and the egress of air, for the supply of water to the plants, and, in some 
cases, for the withdrawal of the water which condensed within the shade. In 
other cases, the condensed water was removed by means of a special arrange- 
ment. 

One advantage of the apparatus adopted was, that the washed air was forced, 
instead of being aspirated, through the enclosing vessel. The pressure upon it 
was thus not only very small, and the danger from breakage, therefore, also 
small, but it was exerted upon the inside instead of the outside of the shade; 
hence, any leakage would be from the inside outwards, so that there was no 
danger of unwashed air gaining access to the plants. 

The conditions of atmosphere were proved to be adapted for healthy growth, 
by growing plants under exactly the same circumstances, but in a garden soil. 
The conditions of the artificial soil were shown to be suitable for the purpose, by 



100 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

the fact that plants grown in such soil, and in the artificial conditions of atmos- 
phere, developed luxuriantly, if only manured with substances supplying com- 
bined nitrogen. 

Passing to the subjects of collateral inquiry, the first question considered was, 
whether plants growing under the conditions stated would be likely to acquire 
nitrogen from the air through the medium of ozone, either within or around the 
plant, or in the soil ; that body oxidating free nitrogen, and thus rendering it 
assimilable by the plants. 

Several series of experiments were made upon the gases contained in plants 
or evolved from them, under different circumstances of light, shade, supply of 
carbonic acid, &c. When sought for, ozone was in no case detected. The 
results of the inquiry in other respects, bearing upon the points at issue, may be 
briefly summed up as follows : 

1. Carbonic acid within growing vegetable cells and intercellular passages 
suffers decomposition very rapidly on the penetration of the sun's rays, oxygen 
being evolved. 

2. Living vegetable cells, in the dark, or not penetrated by the direct rays of 
the sun, consume oxygen very rapidly, carbonic acid being formed. 

3. Hence, the proportion of oxygen must vary greatly according to the posi- 
tion of the cell, and to the external conditions of life, and it will oscillate under 
the influence of the reducing force of carbon-matter (forming carbonic acid) on 
the one hand, and of that of the sun's rays (liberating oxygen) on the other. 
Both actions may go on simultaneously according to the depth of the cell; and 
the once outer cells may gradually pass from the state in which the sunlight 
is the greater reducing agent to that in which the carbon-matter becomes the 
greater. 

4. The great reducing power operating in those parts of the plant where ozone 
is most likely, if at all, to be evolved, seems unfavourable to the oxidation of 
nitrogen ; that is under circumstances in which carbon-matter is not oxidized, 
but on the contrary, carbonic acid reduced. And where beyond the influence of 
the direct rays of the sun, the cells seem to supply an abundance of more easily 
oxidized carbon-matter, available for oxidation should free oxygen or ozone be 
present. On the assumption that nitrates are available as a direct source of 
nitrogen to plants, if it were admitted that nitrogen is oxidated within the 
plant, it must be supposed (as in the case of carbon) that there are conditions 
under which the oxygen compound of nitrogen may be reduced within the 
organism, and that there are others in which the reverse action, namely, the oxi- 
dation of nitrogen, can take place. 

5. So great is the reducing power of certain carbon-compounds of vegetable 
matter, that when the growing process has ceased, and all the free oxygen in the 
cells has been consumed, water is for a time decomposed, carbonic acid formed, 
and hydrogen evolved. 



1861.] THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 101 



The suggestion arises, whether ozone may not be formed under the influence 
of the powerful reducing action of the carbon-compounds of the cell on the 
oxygen eliminated fiom carbonic acid by sunlight, rather than under the direct 
action of the sunlight itself — in a manner analogous to that in which it is ordi- 
narily obtained under the influence of the active reducing agency of phosphorus? 
But, even if it were so, it may be questioned whether the ozone would not be at 
once destroyed when in contact with the carbon-compounds present. It is more 
probable, however, that the ozone said to be observed in the vicinity of vegeta- 
tion, is due to the action of the oxygen of the air upon minute quantities of 
volatile carbo-hydrogens emitted by plants. 

Supposing ozone to be present, it might, however, be supposed to act in a more 
indirect manner as a source of combined and assimilable nitrogen in the Authors' 
experiments, namely — by oxidating the nitrogen dissolved in the condensed 
water of the apparatus — by forming nitrates in contact with the moist, porous, 
and alkaline soil — or by oxidating the free nitrogen in the cells of the older 
roots, or that evolved in their decomposition. 

Experiments were accordingly made to ascertain the influence of ozone upon 
organic matter, and on certain porous and alkaline bodies, under various circum- 
stances. A current of ozonous air was passed over the substances for some time 
daily, for several months, including the whole of the warm weather of the sum- 
mer ; but in only one case out of eleven was any trace of nitric acid detected, 
namely, that of garden soil ; and this was proved to contain nitrates before being 
submitted to the action of ozone. 

It is not, indeed, hence inferred that nitric acid could under no circumstances 
be formed through the influence of ozone on certain nitrogenous compounds, on 
nascent nitrogen, on gaseous nitrogen in contact with porous and alkaline sub- 
stances, or even in the atmosphere. But, considering the negative result with 
large quantities of ozonous air, acting upon organic matter, soil, &c, in a wide 
range of circumstances, and for so long a period, it is believed that no error will 
be introduced into the main investigation by the cause referred to. 

Numerous experiments were made to determine whether free nitrogen was 
evolved during the decomposition of nitrogenous organic compounds. 

In the first series of six experiments, wheat, barley, and bean-meal were re- 
spectively mixed with ignited pumice, and ignited soil, and submitted for some 
months to decomposition in a current of air, in such manner that any ammonia 
evolved could be collected and estimated. The result was, that in five out of 
the six cases, there was a greater or less evolution of free nitrogen — amounting, 
in two of the cases, to more than 12 per cent of the original nitrogen of the 
substance. 

The second series consisted of nine experiments ; wheat, barley, and beans 
being again employed, and, as before, either ignited soil or pumice used as the 
matrix. In some cases the seeds were submitted to experiment whole, and 
allowed to grow, and the vegetable matter produced permitted to die down and 



102 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

decompose. In other cases, the ground seeds, or " meals," were employed. The 
conditions of moisture were also varied. The experiments were continued 
through several months, when from 60 to 70 per cent of the carbon had disap- 
peared. 

In eight out of the nine experiments, a loss of nitrogen, evolved in the free 
state, was indicated. In most cases, the loss amounted to about one-seventh or 
one eighth, but in one instance to 40 per cent of the original nitrogen. In all 
these experiments the decomposition of the organic substance was very com- 
plete, and the amount of carbon lost was comparatively uniform. 

It thus appeared that, under rare circumstances, there might be no loss of 
nitrogen in the decomposition of nitrogenous organic matter; but that, under a 
wide range of circumstances, the loss was very considerable — a point, it may be 
observed, of practical importance in the management of the manures of the farm 
and the stable. 

Numerous direct experiments showed, that when nitrogenous organic matter 
was submitted to decomposition in water, over mercury, in the absence of free 
oxygen, there was no free nitrogen evolved. In fact, the evolution in question 
appeared to be the result of an oxidating process. 

Direct experiments also showed, that seeds may be submitted to germination 
and growth, and that nearly the whole of the nitrogen may be found in the veg- 
etable matter produced. 

It is observed that, in the cases referred to in which so large an evolution of 
free nitrogen took place, the organic substances were submitted to decomposition 
for several months, during which time they lost two-thirds of their carbon. In 
the experiments on the question of assimilation, however, but a very small pro- 
portion of the total organic matter is submitted to decomposing actions apart 
from those associated with, growth, and this for a comparatively short period of 
time, at the termination of which the organic form is retained, and therefore but 
very little carbon is lost. It would appear, then, that in experiments on assimi- 
lation no fear need be entertained of any serious error arising from the evolution 
of free nitrogen in the decomposition of the nitrogenous organic matter neces- 
sarily involved, so long as it is subjected by the ordinary process of germination, 
and exhaustion to supply materials for growth. On the other hand the facts 
adduced afford a probable explanation of any small loss of nitrogen which may 
occur when seeds have not grown, or when leaves, or other dead matters, have 
suffered partial decomposition. They also point out an objection to the applica- 
tion of nitrogenous organic manure in such experiments. 

Although there can be no doubt of the evolution of hydrogen during the de- 
composition of organic matter under certain conditions, and although it has long 
been admitted that nascent hydrogen may, under certain circumstances, combine 
with gaseous nitrogen and form ammonia — nevertheless, from considerations 
stated at length in the paper, the Authors infer that there need be little appre- 
hension of error in the results of their experiments, arising from an unaccounted 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



103 



supply of ammonia, formed under the influence of nascent hydrogen given off 
in the decomposition of the organic matter involved. 

Turning to tbeir direct experiments on the question of the assimilation of 
free nitrogen, the Authors first consider whether such assimilation would be most 
likely to take place when the plant had no other supply of combined nitrogen 
than that contained in the seed sown, or when supplied with a limited amount of 
combined nitrogen, or with an excess of combined nitrogen ? And again — 
whether at an early stage of growth, at the most active stage, or when the plant 
was approaching maturity ? Combinations of these several circumstances might 
give a number of special conditions, in perhaps only one of which assimilation 
of free nitrogen might take place, in case it could in any. 

It is hardly to be supposed that free nitrogen would be assimilated if an ex- 
cess of combined nitrogen were at the disposal of the plant. It is obvious, how- 
ever, that a wide range of conditions would be experimentally provided, if in 
some instances plants were supplied with no more combined nitrogen than that 
contained in the seed, in others brought to a given stage of growth by means of 
limited extraneous supplies of combined nitrogen, and in others supplied with 
combined nitrogen in a more liberal measure. It has been sought to provide 
these conditions in the experiments under consideration. 

In the selection of plants, it was sought to take such as would be adapted to 
the artificial conditions of temperature, moisture, &c, involved in the experi- 
ment, and also such as were of importance in an agricultural point of view — to 
have representatives, moreover, of the two great Natural Families, the Grami- 
nacese and the Legurninosa?, which seem to differ so widely in their relations to 
the combined nitrogen supplied within the soil — and finally, to have some of the 
same descriptions as those experimented upon by M. Boussingault, and M. Gr. 
Ville, with such discordant results. 

! Thirteen experiments were made (4 in 1857 and 9 in 1858,) in which the 
plants were supplied with no other combined nitrogen than that contained in the 
original seed. In 12 of the cases prepared soil was the matrix, and in the re- 
maining one prepared pumice. 

Of 9 experiments with Graminaceous plants, 1 with wheat and 2 with barley 
were made in 1857. In one of the experiments with barley there was a gain of 
0-0016, and in the other of 0.0026 gramme of nitrogen. In only two cases of 
the experiments with cereals in 1858, was there any gain of nitrogen indicated; 
and in both it amounted to only a small fraction of a milligramme. Indeed, in 
no one of the cases, in either 1857 or 1858, was there more nitrogen in theplants 
themselves, than in the seed sown. A gain was indicated only when the nitrogen 
in the soil and pot — which together weighed about 1500 grammes — was brought 
into the calculation. Moreover, the gain only exceeded 1 milligramme in the 
case 'of the experiments of 1857, when slate, instead of glazed earthenware 
stands were used as the lute vessels; and there was some reason to believe that 



104 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

the gain indicated was due to this circumstance. In none of the other cases was 
the gain more than would be expected from error in analysis. 

fThe result was then, that in no one case of these experiments was there any 
such gain of nitrogen as could lead to the supposition that free nitrogen had been 
assimilated. The plants had, however, vegetated for several months, bad in most 
cases more than trebled the carbon of the seed, and bad obviously been limited 
in their growth for want of a supply of available nitrogen in some form. Dur- 
ing this long period they were surrounded by an atmosphere containing free ni- 
. trogen ; and their cells were penetrated by fluid saturated with that element. 
It may be further mentioned, that many of the plants formed glumes and paleae 
for seed. 

It is to be observed that the results of these experiments with cereals go to 
confirm those of M. Boussingault. 

■' The Leguminous plants experimented upon did not grow so healthily under the 
artificial conditions as did the cereals. Still, in all three of the cases of these 
plants in which no combined nitrogen was provided beyond that contained in the 
; original seed, the carbon in the vegetable matter produced was much greater than 
.' that in the seed — in one instance more than 3 times greater. In no case, how- 
ever, was there any indication of assimilation of free nitrogen, any more than 
i there had been by the Graminaceous plants grown under similar circumstances. 

One experiment was made with buckwheat, supplied with no other combined 
nitrogen than that contained in the seed. The result gave no indication of as- 
similation of free nitrogen. 

In regard to the whole of the experiments in which the plants were supplied 
with no combined nitrogen beyond that contained in the seed, it may be observed 
that, from the constancy of the amount of combined nitrogen present in relation 
to that supplied, throughout the experiments, it may be inferred, as well that 
there was no evolution of free nitrogen by the growing plant, as that there was 
no assimilation of it; but it cannot hence be concluded that there would be no 
such evolution if an excess of combined nitrogen were supplied. 

The results of a number of experiments, in which the plants were supplied 
with more or less of combined nitrogen, in the form of ammonia-salts, or of 
nitrates, are recorded. Ten were with Cereals; 4 in 1857, and 6 in 1858. Three 
were with Leguminous plants ; and there were also some with plants of other 
descriptions — all in 1858. 

In the case of the cereals more particularly, the growth was very greatly in- 
creased by the extraneous supply of combined nitrogen ; in fact, the amount of 
vegetable matter produced was 8, 12, and even 30 times greater than in parallel 
cases without such supply. The amount of nitrogen appropriated was also, in 
all cases many times greater, and in one case more than 30 times as great, when 
a supply of combined nitrogen was provided. The evidence is therefore suffi- 
ciently clear that all the conditions provided, apart from those which depended 
upon a supply of combined nitrogen, were adapted for vigorous growth ; and that 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



105 



the limitation of growth where no combined nitrogen was supplied was due to 
the want of such supply. 

In 2 out of the 4 experiments with cereals in 1857, there was a slight gain of 
nitrogen beyond that which should occur from error in analysis; but in no one 
of the 6 in 1858, when glazed earthenware instead of slate stands were used, 
was there any such gain. It is concluded, therefore, that there was no assimila- 
tion of free nitrogen. In some cases the supply of combined nitrogen was not 
given until the plants showed signs of decline; when, on each addition, increased 
vigour was rapidly manifested. In others the supply was given earlier and was 
more liberal. 

As in the case of the Leguminous plants grown without extraneous supply of 
combined nitrogen, those grown with it progressed much less healthily than the 
Graminaceous plants. But the results under these conditions, so far as they go, 
did not indicate any assimilation of free nitrogen. 

The results of experiments with plants of other descriptions, in which an ex- 
traneous supply of combined nitrogen was provided, also failed to show an assimi- 
lation of free nitrogen. ^ 
Thus, 19 experiments with Graminaceous plants, 9 without and 10 with an 
i extraneous supply of combined nitrogen — 6 with Leguminous plants, 3 without 
and 3 with an extraneous supply of combined nitrogen, and also some with other 
: plants, have been made. In none of the experiments, with plants so widely dif- 
ferent as the Graminaceous and the Leguminous, and with a wide range of con- 
ditions of growth, was there evidence of an assimilation of free nitrogen. 

The conclusions from the whole inquiry may be briefly summed up as follows: 
The yield of nitrogen in the vegetation over a given area, within a given time, 
especially in the case of Leguminous crops, is not satisfactorily explained by ref- 
erence to the hitherto quantitatively determined supplies of combined nitrogen. 
/ The results and conclusions hitherto recorded by diiferent experimenters oh 
| the question whether plants assimilate free or wwcombined nitrogen, are very! 
conflicting. 

The conditions provided in the experiments of the Authors on this question 
were found to be quite consistent with the healthy development of various Gram- 
inaceous Plant3, but not so much so for that of the Leguminous Plants experi- 
mented upon. 

It is not probable that, under the circumstances of the experiments on assimi- 
lation, there would be any supply to the plants of an unaccounted quantity of 
combined nitrogen, due to the influence either of ozone, or of nascent hydrogen. 
It is not probable that there would be a loss oi any of the combined nitrogen 
involved in an experiment on assimilation, due to the evolution of free nitrogen 
in the decomposition of organic matter, except in certain cases, when it might 
be presupposed. 

It is not probable that there would be any loss due to the evolution of free 
nitrogen from the nitrogenous constituents of the plants during growth. 



106 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

-*" 

In numerous experiments with Graminaceous plants, under a wide range of 

conditions of growth, in no case was there any evidence of an assimilation of 
free nitrogen. 

In experiments with Leguminous plants the growth was less satisfactory, and 

: the range of conditions was, therefore, more limited. But the results with 

these plants, so far as they go, do not indicate any assimilation of free nitrogen. 

It is desirable that the evidence of further experiments with such plants, under 

conditions of more healthy growth, should he obtained. 

Results obtained with some other plants, are in the same sense as those with 
Graminaceous and Leguminous ones, in regard to the question of the assimilation 
of free nitrogen. 

In view of the evidence afforded of the non-assimilation of free nitrogen by 
plants, it is very desirable that the several actual or possible sources whence they 
may derive combined nitrogen should be more fully investigated, both qualita- 
tively and quantitatively. 

If it be established that plants do not assimilate free or uncombined nitrogen, 
the source of the large amount of combined nitrogen known to exist on the sur- 
face of the globe, and in the atmosphere, still awaits a satisfactory explanation. 



For the Southern Planter. 

The Supposed Calcareous Character of Certain Rocks and Soils in Florida 

Practically Tested. 

Beechwood, Prince George Co., Ya., Jan. 19th, 18C1. 
Messrs. Editors — Having been called to Florida recently, I had designed 
to use the opportunity thus afforded to see something of the country, and to 
investigate some curious and obscure questions in relation to the soils. Several 
causes for disappointed effort, or delay, among which were an unusual prevalence 
of rainy weather, and my own indisposition, produced by exposure on my journey, 
allowed me but a few days for my designed examinations and inquiries. These 
particular examinations were confined to a few plantations, in one neighborhood, 
in Marion county. More slight and general views were added on my journeys 
from Fernandina to Marion, and thence to Tallahassee. Though I am inclined 
to believe that the very remarkable facts which I observed in a limited locality 
are general through a large portion of Florida, I will not assume so broad a 
position on so limited an amount of actual observations. But I will assume as 
true and general, for the neighborhood in which my personal observations were 
made, the particular and peculiar qualities of soil which I observed. That area 
embraced the pine-land estate of Gen. Wm. Owens (and his residence,) the Fort 
Duane plantation, belonging to him and his brother Col. S. Owens, and the inter- 
mediate pine forest land, all stretching some 12 miles. The Fort Duane land is 
very extensively known, owing to its having been settled, as a sugar plantation, 
by Gen. Clinch, before the Seminole war, and to the place being occupied as a 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 107 

military post during that war. This plantation also is strongly illustrative, in its 
character, of the peculiarities of soils and rock of which I shall speak. Thus, 
by reference to the Fort Duane lands, so well known to many, the importance of 
my observations may be made more impressive. And many may be ready to 
admit that if qualities of soil, so entirely different from what were universally 
supposed, are true as to the Fort Duane lands, and their vicinity, they may well 
be true as to all of Florida, where the like apparent qualities of rocks and soils 
extend. 

This was my first sight of Florida — and I had never before had an opportunity 
to examine even a hand specimen of its soil or rock. But as far back a 25 
years, the descriptions published of the soils and products had presented to me 
puzzling or incredible propositions, which I had never before been able to examine 
and scrutinize by actual experiment. The opportunity, now incidentally afforded 
by the main pursuit of other and now more important political objects, limited 
as it Was, was used for this purpose ; and though having but little leisure or 
inclination, at this exciting time of political revolution, for other studies or 
discussions, I will constrain myself to write some hasty statements of my obser- 
vations, before they may fade from my frail memory. 

The general description of the lands of Florida, as given by all visitors and 
residents, and without exception, so far as I have known, has been that the land 
was generally underlaid with "rotten limestone/' on a very hard marl, which rock 
often cropped out at the surface, and was seen in detached masses on almost all 
the lands, in greater or less abundance. The quantity of this rock was greater 
on the rich hammock lands, but it was not wanting on the poorer pine lands. No 
resident, or planter, had doubted that these rocks were generally calcareous, or 
that the soils were necessarily generally and also abundantly supplied with lime. 
Indeed, certain bad results of cotton culture on some of the richest lands, and 
their failure to produce good cotton, were ascribed to the excessive quantity of 
lime in these soils. 

From all the numerous and intelligent witnesses, testifying to the like general 
facts, and concurring in the same inferences and conclusions, I myself could 
never have doubted their correctness, except that they contradicted (for all the 
great extent of the pine lands,) my theoretical views of the antagonism of cal- 
careous soil and healthy and natural pine growth. Because of the contradiction 
of the universally believed facts to my theoretical doctrine, I could not admit the 
alleged facts. And when, at last, I was enabled to test their accuracy, in places 
where they were deemed most certain and undeniable, I found them, without a 
single exception, so far as observed, to be mistaken, and fallacious. 

In my first drive by day-light, and otherwise than on a railway, from Micanopy 
to Gen. Owens' residence, I was soon furnished with enough apparent proofs of 
the correctness of the general opinions. The scattered surface rocks, to my eye, 
seemed like the hard calcareous rock of Marengo, Ala., or of Charleston District, 
S. C, and fully as calcareous as these, which contain from 70 to 90 per cent, of 



108 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

carbonate of lime. I saw such rock on pine-land as well as hammock. I saved 
specimens for accurate testing by the touch of acid — but with little expectation 
of finding any contradiction to what appearances indicated to the eye. 

In this hasty sketch I cannot state particular qases — and it would be useless, 
inasmuch as the general results were found to be all alike. It is enough to say, 
that in trying, by the touch of muriatic acid, numerous specimens of soils, both 
of pine land and hammock, and of the surface or buried gravel, or of the surface 
stone, and on soils supposed by the intelligent owners to be most certainly and 
strongly calcareous, I did not find any carbonate of lime, in either soil or gravel, 
or rock — nor was lime in any other form indicated to be present in any of the 
surface stones, or in any near the surface, except in the numerous depressions, or 
" lime-sinks," in which the lower lying stone was always found to be calcareous, 
whether very pure, or impure as more usual. Yet, the stones at or near the 
general surface, not only in their color, soft texture, and general form, 
seemed to be calcareous, but many of them are full of the impressions, (or 
casts,) of shells, and some even of the harder shells (pecten and ostrsea,) remain- 
ing in form. These strange results were sufficient to re-establish my here contro- 
verted doctrine that pine trees would not naturally grow and thrive on a cal- 
careous soil — or, at least, that there is no evidence to disprove that doctrine 
presented in the growth of the pine forests of Florida. Also, my testings and 
observations, limited as they were in extent of surface, were enough to prove, 
for these lands at least, that the universal opinion of the abundance (or excess) 
of lime in these soils is entrely mistaken. I infer that no soil which I examined 
has too much lime, and that all the pine lands would be much benefitted by 
having more lime added. And this essential ingredient of good soil, though 
absent at and near the surface, is to be found at some moderate depth, where 
indicated by " sink-holes," on sundry different partsof almost every plantation 
in Marion county, if not of most lands of the whole state. I brought away some 
specimens of the rocks, which obviously had been calcareous at some former 
time, but are no longer so, which will be sent with this writing, for inspection, 
to the office of the Southern Planter. 

It is proper for me to state that Dr. Robert Archer, then a Surgeon in the U. 
S. Army, and stationed at Fort King, in Florida, in 1833, made observations 
similar to mine, in regard to that locality, and which were induced by the like 
causes, and led to the same conclusions. I noticed, with great and personal 
interest, this statement of Dr. Archer's, when he favored me and the public by 
the communication containing it, and which I then published in the Farmers' 
Register, (vol. iv., p. 185, for 1836*). Rut the facts stated, important as they 

* Extract of Dr. Archer's letter, above referred to: 

"The country about Fort King is called a lime-stone country. The pine lands, which 
constitute four-fifths of this region, to all appearances, are very little more than barren 
sands, producing scarcely any undergrowth but rank [coarse] grass, and interspersed, 
in every direction, with what has been called rotten lime-stone, containing the impression 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 109 

were, probably attracted no notice of any of the cultivators or proprietors of 
Florida lands, 'who were so deeply interested in the question. And the general, 
if not universal calcareous character of the soils and rocks of Florida has 
continued, since as before, to be the universally accepted opinion of the residents 
and cultivators of the country. . 

I believe that the surface and higher-lying under beds of the peninsula of 
Florida were, at some remote ancient era, calcareous, both the rocks and soils, as 
they are now erroneously believed to be. The low-lying rock, probably extending 
under the whole of the Peninsula, is still of lime-stone. As of all lime-stone 
formations, this great under-bed is penetrated by innumerable hollow passages 
and caverns, many of which are channels of rapid and bold streams, or even 
considerable rivers, and all of which are full of water, if not being actual open 
communications between the numerous lakes and large ponds. By some 
great and long-continued operation of Nature, which I do not pretend to explain, 
it seems that the carbonate of lime has been removed from the soils, and the 
carbonate and probably all other forms of lime from the rocks, and for some or 
many feet of depth from the surface. 

That such a change may take place is even more evident from other facts 
which I have observed elsewhere. In St. Matthew's Parish, and elsewhere in 
Orangeburgh District, S. C, I had long ago seen numerous and unquestionable 
evidences that soils and rocks, and especially numerous shells, had lost their 
former calcareous ingredients, and received instead, and in precisely the same 
form, as to the shells, silicious in place of the lost calcareous parts. There are 
there found beds of silicious rock or earth, which manifestly were once beds of 
shell marl. The shells (of the eocene era,) are perfectly preserved, and where 
imbedded in sand (as at Legare's mill,) are separate and distinct, and in many 
cases are as perfect in form, even to the most delicate and sharp edges, and the 
minutest prickle, as if the living animal were still enclosed. Yet these perfect 
and beautiful shells are entirely silicified, and contain not the least remains of 
lime. 

There are other peculiar and remarkable characteristics of Florida which well 
deserve notice, and which perhaps I may speak of at some other time, when 
more leisure and convenience may permit. Edmund Ruffin. 



Lime. — Lime will descend down as far as the earth is pulverized, and it should, 
therefore, be placed on the top of the ground. 



of various marine shells. Pursuing still the inquiry how such immense forests of pine 
should grow in a soil evidently calcareous, I concluded to analyze it, and, to my surprise, 
found that it did not contain one particle of carbonate of lime. This appeared the 
more extraordinary, as the rotten lime-stone was all around me in large masses, as well 
as disintegrated. I then undertook to ascertain what proportion of the carbonate was 
contained in this rotten lime-stone ; and to my still greater surprise, could not detect the 
existence of the smallest quantity." — p. 186. 



110 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

Man cannot Act upon Nature, 
Or appropriate her forces to his own use, without having on ultimate acquaint- 
ance with her laws. 

An equal appreciation of all branches of mathematical, physical and natural 
sciences, is a special requirement of the present age, in which the 'material wealth 
and the growing prosperity of nations are principally based upon a more enlight- 
ened employment of the products and forces of nature. The most superficial glance 
at the present condition of Europe shows that a diminution, or even a total anni- 
hilation of national prosperity, must be the award of those States who shrink 
with slothful indifference from the great struggle of rival nations in the career 
of the industrial arts. It is with nations as with nature, which, according to a 
happy expression of Goethe, "knows no pause in progress and development, and 
attaches her curse on all inaction." The propagation of an earnest and sound 
knowledge of science can therefore alone avert the dangers of which I have 
spoken. Man cannot act upon nature, or appropriate her forces to his own use, 
without comprehending their full extent, and having an intimate acquaintance 
with the laws of the physical world. Bacon has said that, in human societies, 
knowledge is power. Both must rise and sink together. But the knowledge 
that results from the free action of thought, is at once the delight and the inde- 
structible prerogative of man ; and, in forming part of the wealth of mankind, 
it not unfrequently serves as a substitute for the natural riches, which are but 
sparingly scattered over the earth. Those States which take no active part in 
the general industrial movement, in the choice and preparation of natural sub- 
stances, or in the application of mechanics and chemistry, and among whom this 
activity is not appreciated by all classes of society, will infallibly see their pros- 
perity diminish in proportion as neighboring countries become strengthened and 
invigorated under the genial influence of arts and sciences. 

As in nobler spheres of thought and sentiment, in philosophy, poetry, and the 
fine arts, the object at which we aim ought to be an inward one — an ennoble- 
ment of the intellect — so ought we likewise, in our pursuit of science, to strive 
after a knowledge of the laws and the principles of unity that pervade the vital 
forces of the universe ; and it is by such a course that the physical studies may 
be made subservient to the progress of industry, which is a conquest of mind 
over matter. By a happy connection of causes and effects, we often see the use- 
ful linked to the beautiful and the exalted. The improvement of agriculture in 
the hands cf freemen, and on properties of a moderate extent — the flourishing 
state of the mechanical arts freed from the trammels of municipal restrictions — 
the increased impetus imparted to commerce by the multiplied means of contact 
of nations with each other — are all brilliant results of the intellectual progress 
of mankind, and of the amelioration of political institutions, in which this pro- 
gress is reflected. The picture presented by modern history ought to convince 
those who are tardy in awakening to the truth of the lesson it teaches. 

Nor let it be feared, that the marked predilection for the study of Nature, and 



1S61.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Ill 



for industrial progress, which is characteristic of the present age, should ne- 
cessarily have a tendency to retard the noble exertions of the intellect in the 
domains of philosophy, classical history, and antiquity ; or to deprive the arts by 
■which life is embellished of the vivifying breath of imagination. Where all 
the germs of civilization are developed beneath the regis of free institutions and 
wise legislation, there is no cause for apprehending that any one branch of know- 
ledge should be cultivated to the prejudice of others. All afford the State, pre- 
cious fruits, whether they yield nourishment to man and constitute his physical 
wealth, or whether, more permanent in their nature, they transmit in the works 
of mind the glory of nations to remotest posterity. The Spartans, notwithstand- 
ing their Doric austerity, prayed the gods to grant them " the beautiful with the 
good." — Humboldt's Cosmos. 



Curiosities of the Patent Office. 

Among the thousands of marvelous inventions which American genius has 
produced within the last few years, are the following, compiled in an abstract 
from the Patent Office Report : 

The report explains the principle of the celebrated Hobb Lock. Its " unpick- 
ability" depends upon a second or false set of tumblers, which prevents instru- 
ments used in picking from touching 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 fruitless work, or fears that the explosion will bring to view his ex- 
periments more witnesses than he desires. 

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 recently been patented, 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 thermometer 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 pa- 
tents. A man who had made a slight improvement in straw-cutters, took a model 
of his machine through the Western States, and after a tour of eight months, 
returned with forty thousand dollars. Another man had a machine to thresh 
and clean grain, which in fifteen months he sold for sixty thousand dollars. 
These are no ordinary cases — while such inventions as the telegraph, the plan- 
ing machine, and India rubber patents are worth millions each. 

Examiner Lane's report describes new electrical inventions. Among these is 
an electrical whaling apparatus, by which the whale is literally " shocked to 
death." Another 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. 



112 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

There is a " sound gatherer," a sort of huge ear-trumpet to be placed in front 
of a locomotive, bringing to the engineer's cars all the noise ahead, perfectly 
distinct, notwithstanding 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 of cigar-making, taking in leaves and 
turning out finished cigars. 

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

There is a parlor chair patented that cannot be tipped back on two legs, and a 
railway chair that cannot 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 1,900 persons, and costing over 82,000,000. 



Young America "Wonders. 



Wonders why mamma keeps Bridget at home from church to work all day, 
and says it is wicked for me to build my rabbit house on Sunday ? 

Wonder why our minister bought that pretty cane with the yellow lion's head 
on the top, and then asked me for my cent to put in the missionary box ? Don't 
I want a jewsharp just as much as he wants a cane ? 

Wonder what makes pa tell such nice stories to visitors about hiding the mas- 
ter's rattan when he went to school, and about his running away from the school- 
mistress when she was going to whip him, and then shut me up all day in a dark 
room because I tried, just once, to be as smart as he was ? 

Wonder why mamma tells pa he is cross when he comes home at night and 
says his tea is weak, and ties a handkerchief over my mouth so that I can 
neither speak nor breathe because I happen to say she is cross ? 

Wonder what made pa say that wicked word when Bessy upset the ink all 
over bis papers, and then slapped my ears because I said the same thiug when 
my kite-string broke ? 

Oh, dear ! there are lots of things that I want to know ! How I wish I was 
a man ! 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 113 

Alderney or Jersey Cattle. 

A correspondent of the New England Farmer, speaking of Mr. Fay's sale of 
Alderneys, remarks : 

A few years ago this breed was introduced into Exeter, N. H., and many half- 
blooded heifers have been bred from a full blood bull on all sorts of cows. The 
universal opinion, I think, in that neighborhood, is, that this is the best cross 
that has ever been tried by the farmers there. 

The half-bloods seem to take the hard and more compact form of the dam, 
with the milking qualities of the breed of the sire. It is remarked that the 
heifers came in very early, often before they are two years old, that their milk 
yields far more butter than that of common stock, and that the quantity is also 
large. I know of none more than four years old in that region, so that the ex- 
periment is not yet fully tried. The general characteristics of the breed are, 
that they are small, somewhat delicate, yielding a fair quantity of milk daily, 
keeping in milk nearly or quite all the year, surpassing all other breeds in their 
butter-making qualities. They are not the milkman's cow, because they do not 
give water enough with their milk, and do not weigh heavy when turned off for 
beef. Their butter is yellow as gold, and many English dairies keep one Jersey 
cow to about four others, to give rich color and flavor to their dairy products. 
So much for the full blood. "What the grades may do for us is a question of 
importance. 

I will close with a tolerably good story, of my own experience. I had a calf 
from an ordinary red cow, by a Jersey bull, dropped April 9th, 1857. She had 
her first calf, which she picked up in the pasture from a half-bred Jersey bull, 
April 1st, 1859. She gave a fair quantity of milk through the season, which 
was not measured or used separately from that of the other cows. She was dry 
about five weeks, and dropped her second calf about May 31st, 1860. In June, 
during one week, she made about ten pounds of butter, and we estimated that 
she made nearly that quantity weekly ; then she was sold at auction with my 
other goods and chatties, on the 28th of July last, when she and her calf 
brought S61.15. I sold her first calf, at about six months old, for $16. My 
impression is that it will pay to raise half-blood Jerseys, if this is a fair speci- 



Poverty Not so Great a Curse. 



If there is anything in the world that a young man should be more thankful 
for than another, it is the poverty which necessitates his starting in life under 
very great disadvantages. Poverty is one of the best tests of human quality in 
existence. A triumph over it is like graduating with honor from West Point. 
It demonstrates stuff and stamina. It is a certificate of worthy labor, creditably 
performed. A young man who cannot stand the test, is not worth anything 
He can never rise above a drudge or a pauper. A young man who cannot feel 
8 



114 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

his will harden, as the yoke of poverty presses upon him, and his pluck rise 
with every difficulty poverty throws in his way, may as well retire into some 
corner and hide himself. Poverty saves a thousand times more men than it 
ruins ; for it only ruins those who are not particularly worth saving, while it 
saves multitudes of those whom wealth would have ruined. If any young man 
who reads this, is so unfortunate as to be rich, I give him my pity. I pity you, 
my rich young friend, because you are in danger. You lack one stimulus to 
effort and excellence, which your poor companion possesses. You will be very 
apt, if you have a soft spot in your head, to think yourself above him, and that 
sort of thing makes you mean, and injures you. With full pockets and full 
stomach, and fine linen and broadcloth on your back, your heart and soul ple- 
thoric, in the race of your life you will find yourself surpassed by all the poor 
boys around you, before you know it. 

No, my boy, if you are poor, thank God and take courage ; for He intends to 
give you a chance to make something of yourself. If you had plenty of money, 
ten chances to one it would spoil you for all useful purposes. Do you lack edu- 
cation ? Have you been cut short in the text book ? Remember that education, 
like some other things, does not consist in the multitude of things a man pos- 
sesses. What can you do ? That is the question that settles the business for 
you. Do you know your business ? Do you know men, and how to deal with 
them ? Has your mind, by any means whatsoever, received that discipline 
which gives to its action power and faculty ? If so, then you are more of a man, 
and a thousand times better educated than the fellow who graduates from col- 
lege, with his brains full of stuff that he cannot apply to the practical business 
of life — stuff, the acquisition of which has been in no sense a disciplinary pro- 
cess as far as he is concerned. There are very few men in this world less than 
thirty years of age, unmarried, who can afford to be rich. One of the greatest 
benefits to be reaped from great financial disasters, is the saving a large crop of 
young'men. — Timothy Titcomb. 



A True Woman. 
When a man of sense comes to marry, it is a companion he wants, Dot an 
artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint and play, sing and dance j it 
is a being who can comfort and counsel him — one who can reason and reflect, 
and feel and judge, and discourse and discriminate — one who can assist him in 
his affairs, lighten his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his principles and 
educate his children. Such is the woman who is fit for a mother and the mistress 
of a family. A woman of the former description may occasionally figure in the 
drawing-room and attract the attention of the company ; but she is entirely unfit 
for a helpmate to a man, or to train up a child in the way he should go. — Maine 
Farmer. 



The best way to humble a proud man is to take no notice of him. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



115 



The Trust Providentially Committed to the South in Relation to the Insti- 
tution of Slavery. 

[On the occasion of a public thanksgiving appointed by the Chief Magistrate 
of Louisiana, for the 29th of November last, the Rev. B. M. Palmer, P. D., de- 
livered a sermon to the people of his pastoral charge on the existing crisis in our 
public affairs, from which we make the following extract in relation to the obli- 
gations of the South, to conserve the trust providentially committed to them, 
M and to perpetuate the institution of Slavery as now existing," &c. As his views 
are striking, able, and somewhat original, we have thought it would prove accep- 
table and instructive to our readers who are slaveholders, and who, of course, are 
anxious to know the nature of the obligations they are under in their relations to 
this institution that we should lay that part of the sermon before them.] — Ed. 

Extract. — It is my purpose, — not as your organ, compromiting you, whose 
opinions are for the most part unknown to me, but on my sole responsibility, — to 
speak upon the one question of the day; and to state the duty which, as I be- 
lieve, patriotism and religion alike require of us all. I shall aim to speak with 
a moderation of tone and feeling almost judicial, well befitting the sanctities of 
the place and the solemnities of the judgment day. 

In determining our duty in this emergency, it is necessary that we should first 
ascertain the nature of the trust providentially committed to us. A nation often 
has a character as well defined and intense as that of the individual. This de- 
pends, of course, upon a variety of causes operating through a long period of 
time. It is due largely to the original traits which distinguish the stock from 
which it springs, and to the providential training which has formed its education. 
But, however derived, this individuality of character alone makes any people 
truly historic, competent to work out its specific mission, and to become a factor 
in the world's progress. The particular trust assigned to such a people becomes 
the pledge of Divine protection, and their fidelity to it determines the fate by 
which it is finally overtaken. What that trust is must be ascertained from the 
necessities of their position, the institutions which are the outgrowth of their 
principles and the conflicts through which they preserve their identity and inde- 
pendence. If, then, the South is such a people, what, at this juncture, is their 
providential trust? I answer, that it is to conserve and to perpetuate the institu- 
tion of domestic slavery as now existing. It is not necessary here to inquire 
whether this is precisely the best relation in which the hewer of wood and drawer 
of water can stand to his employer ; although this proposition may perhaps be 
successfully sustained by those who choose to defend it. Still less are we re- 
quired, dogmatically, to affirm that it will subsist through all time. Baffled as 
our wisdom may now be, in finding a solution of this intricate social problem, it 
would nevertheless be the height of arrogance to predict what changes may or 
may not occur in the distant future. In the grand march of events, Providence 
may work out a solution undiscoverable by us. What modification of soil and 
climate may hereafter be produced, what consequent changes in the products on 



116 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

which we depend, what political revolutions may occur among the races which 
are now enacting the great drama of history ; all such inquiries are totally irrele- 
vant, because no prophetic vision can pierce the darkness of the future. If this 
question should ever arise, the generation to whom it is remitted will doubtless 
have the wisdom to meet it, and Providence will furnish the lights in which it is 
to be resolved. All that we claim for them and for ourselves is liberty to work 
out this problem, guided by nature and God, without obtrusive interference 
from abroad. These great questions of providence and history must have free 
spope for their solution ; and the race whose fortunes are distinctly implicated in 
the same is alone authorized, as it is alone competent to determine them. It is 
just this impertinence of human legislation, setting bounds to what God only can 
regulate, that the South is called this day to resent and resist. The country is 
convulsed simply because "the throne of iniquity frameth mischief by a law." 
Without, therefore, determining the question of duty for future generations I 
simply say, that for us, as now situated, the duty is plain of conserving and trans- 
mitting the system of slavery, with the freest scope for its natural development 
and extension. Let us, my brethren, look our duty in the face. With this in- 
stitution assigned to our keeping, what reply shall we make to those who say that 
its days are numbered ? My own conviction is, that we should at once lift our- 
selves, intelligently, to the highest moral ground and proclaim to all the world 
that we hold this trust from God, and in its occupancy we are prepared to stand 
or fall as God may appoint. If the critical moment has arrived at which the 
great issue is joined, let us say that, in the sight of all perils, we will stand by 
our trust : and God be with the right ! 

The argument which enforces the solemnity of this providential trust is simple 
and condensed. It is bound upon us, then, by the prmcipfe of self-preservation, 
that " first law " which is continually asserting its supremacy over others. Need 
I pause to show how this system of servitude underlies and supports our material 
interests ? That our wealth consists in our lands and in the serfs who till them ? 
That from the nature of our products they can only be cultivated by labor which 
must be controlled in order to be certain ? That any other than a tropical race 
must faint and wither beneath a tropical sun ? Need I pause to show how 
this system is interwoven with our entire social fabric ? That these slaves form 
parts of our households, even as our children ; and that, too, through a relation- 
ship recognized and sanctioned in the Scriptures of God even as the other ? 
Must I pause to show how it has fashioned our modes of life, and determined all 
our habits of thought and feeling, and moulded the very type of our civilization ? 
How, then, can the hand of violence be laid upon it without involving our exist- 
ence ? The so-called free States of this country are working out the social prob- 
lem under conditions peculiar to themselves. These conditions are sufficiently 
hard, and their success is too uncertain, to excite in us the least jealousy of their 
lot. With a teeming population, which the soil cannot support — with their 
wealth depending upon arts, created by artificial wants — with an eternal friction 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



117 



between the grades of their society — with their labor and their capital grinding 
against each other like the upper and nether mill-stones — with labor cheapened 
and displaced by new mechanical inventions, bursting more asunder the bonds of 
brotherhood; amid these intricate perils we have ever given them our sympathy 
and our prayers, and have never sought to weaken the foundations of their social 
order. God grant them complete success in the solution of all their perplexities ! 
We, too, have our responsibilities and our trials ; but they are all bound up in 
this one institution, whieh has been the object of such unrighteous assault 
through five and twenty years. If we are true to ourselves, we shall, at this crit- 
ical juncture, stand by it and work out our destiny. 

This duty is bound upon us again as the constituted guardians of the slaves 
themselves. Our lot is not more implicated in theirs, than is their lot in ours; 
in our mutual relations we survive or perish together. The worst foes of the 
black race are those who have intermeddled on their behalf. We know better 
than others that every attribute of their character fits them for dependence and 
servitude. By nature the most affectionate and loyal of all races beneath the 
sun, they are also the most helpless; and no calamity can befall them greater 
than the loss of that protection they enjoy under this patriarchal system. Indeed 
the experiment has been grandly tried of precipitating them upon freedom 
which they know not how to enjoy; and the dismal results are before us in sta- 
tistics that astonish the world. With the fairest portions of the earth in their 
possession, and with the advantage of a long discipline as cultivators of the soil, 
their constitutional indolence has converted the most beautiful islands of the sea 
into a howling waste. It is not too much to say that if the South should, at this 
moment, surrender every slave, the wisdom of the entire world, united in solemn 
council, could not solve the question of their disposal. Their transportion to 
Africa, even if it were feasible, would be but the most refined cruelty ; they must 
perish with starvation before they could have time to relapse into their primitive 
barbarism. Their presence here, in the presence of the vigorous Saxon race, 
would be but the signal for their rapid extermination before they had time to 
waste away through listlessness, filth and vice. Freedom would be their doom ; 
and equally from both they call upon us, their providential guardians, to be pro- 
tected. I know this argument will be scoffed abroad as the hypocritical cover 
thrown over our own cupidity and selfishness ; but every Southern master knows 
its truth and feels its power. My servant, whether born in my house or bought 
with my money, stands to me in the relation of a child. Though providentially 
owing me service, which, providentially, I am bound to exact, he is, nevertheless, 
my brother and my friend ; and I am to him a guardian and a father. He leans 
upon me for protection, for counsel, and for blessing; and so long as the relation 
continues no power, but the power of Almighty God, shall come between him and 
me. Were there no argument but this, it binds upon us the providential duty 
of preserving the relation that we may save him from a doom worse than death. 

It is a duty which we owe, further, to the civilized world. It is a remarkable 



118 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

fact that, during these thirty years of unceasing warfare against slavery, and while 
a lying spirit has inflamed the world against us, that world has grown more and more 
dependent upon it for sustenance and wealth. Every tyro knows that all branches 
of industry fall back upon the soil. We must come, every one of us, to the bo- 
som of this great mother for nourishment. In the happy partnership which has 
grown up in providence between the tribes of this confederacy, our industry has 
been concentrated upon agriculture. To the North we have cheerfully resigned 
all the profits arising from manufacture and commerce. Those profits they have, 
for the most part, fairly earned, and we have never begrudged them. We have 
sent them our sugar and bought it back when refined; we have sent them our 
cotton and bought it back when spun into thread or woven into cloth. Almost 
every article we use, from the shoe-latchet to the most elaborate article of luxu- 
ry, they have made and we have bought; and both sections have thriven by the 
partnership as no people ever thrived before since the first shining of the sun. 
So literally true are the words of the text, addressed by Obadiah to Edoin, " All 
the men of our confederacy, the men that were at peace with us, have eaten our 
bread at the very time they have deceived and laid a wound under us." Even 
beyond this, the enriching commerce which has built the splendid cities and 
marble palaces of England as well as of America, has been largely established 
upon the products of our soil; and the blooms upon Southern fields, gathered by 
black hands, have fed the spindles and looms of Manchester and Birmingham 
not less than of Lawrence and Lowell. Strike now a blow at this system of 
labor and the world itself totters at the stroke. Shall we permit that blow to 
fall ? Do we not owe it to civilized man to stand in the breach and stay the 
uplifted arm ? If the blind Samson lays hold of the pillars which support the 
arch of the world's industry, how many more will be buried beneath its ruins 
than the lords of the Philistines ? " Who knoweth whether we are not come to 
the kingdom for such a time as this ?" 



Easy and Safe Method of Removing Grease Spots from Woolen. — 
Fuller's earth, or tobacco pipe-clay, being first wet, on an oil spot, absorbs the oil 
as the water evaporates, and leaves the animal or vegetable fibres of the cloth 
clean, on being beaten or brushed well. When the spot is caused by tallow or 
wax, it is necessary to treat the part cautiously by an iron on the fire, while the 
cloth is drying. In some kinds of goods, bran or raw starch may be used to 
advantage. 



Horace Mann says : " To put your children on a short allowance of fresh 
air, is as foolish as it would have been for Noah, during the deluge, to put his 
family on a short allowance of water. Since God has poured out an hemisphere 
fifty miles deep, it is enough to make a miser weep to see children stinted in 
breath." 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



119 



For the Southern Plantei. 

Guano and Fertilizers on Corn. &c. 

Messrs. Editors : — While travelling through the State during the past year, 
I have gained the following information in relation to the use of G-uano and Fer- 
tilizers on corn, &c. : 

An intelligent gentleman, in Spotsylvania county, told me that a spoon full of 
guano to the hill, on their lands, gave corn a quick start and enahled them to 
make good corn on land that would not pay for cultivation without it. While 
passing through that section I halted to ask a stranger about the roads, &c, and 
asked how such land, as then surrounded us, produced. Oh, says he, we could 
not make bread in this country if it were not for guano. I was shown corn that 
had been treated with a small quantity to the hill, which promised well, it then 
being about three feet in height. One of the largest users of guano, of different 
sorts, in all Eastern Virginia that I met with, (and I met with some persons who 
used from ten to eighty and ninety odd tons per year,) told me guano pai d as 
wel l, if not better, on corn than on any other crop, and that, for the future, he 
should grow large crops of corn with guano, and aim at very small crops of 
wheat. I met with persons who had used No. 1 Peruvian Guano and Fowle & 
Co.'s Phosphated G-uano, with satisfactory results, on wheat and tobacco. In ) 
the Valley of Virginia I spent a night with an intelligent gentleman, who told 
me he had used a good phosphate of lime at the rate of 175 lbs. per acre, as -\ 
nearly as he could come at it, in the hill and broadcast, and that he had the corn | 
carefully measured, and the increase over the corn without phosphate was three J 
barrels (15 bushels) peracre — and the broad-casted porti on measured rather the 
mos t. A gentleman in Frederick county used No. 1 Peruvian Guano and Fowle /* 
& Co.'s Phosphated Guano of equal quantities on his corn last spring, he was 
equally satisfied with the effect from each, and ordered five tons of Fowle & Co.'s 
Phosphated Guano for his wheat crop last fall, being $8 or $10 the cheapest. I 
saw a field of corn myself that had had about half a gill of Fowle & Co.'s Phos- 
phated Guano applied to the hill after it was eight or ten inches above the ground. 
It was sprinkled on and around the hill for a foot, — it killed fully half the 
blades, there being little or no rain for five weeks ; but in the fall, the rows so 
treated were easily distinguished, being better in every respect. I saw oats to 
which the same had been applied at the rate of 75 pounds per acre, as nearly as 
it could be come at; the effect was very marked over that on each side of it. I 
met with persons who thought it wonderful, how bones enough could be had to 
manufacture so much phosphate of lime. They fell upon the plan of soaking 
and washing a pan full to satisfy themselves, as well as they could, what propor- 
tion would dissolve in the soil. The result was, tbat they found a fair proportion 
of it would not dissolve in water, and they were .at a loss what to call that part, 
and finally concluded it was nice sand, designed to glaze well the stalks of corn 
and wheat. I witnessed an experiment myself of the sort about three years 
since, and what we could not dissolve in water we concluded was stone-coal — 



120 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

charcoal and possibly stone-coal ashes, we could not exactly tell. Notwithstand- 
ing these experiments, a large proportion of the phosphates produced good re- 
sults last season — J. J. & F. Turners, especially. I advise every farmer to test 
any manure he may purchase to his own satisfaction, with water, and if he finds 
sand or stone-coal in it, not to use it. 

A few years since a friend of mine and myself used largely of a phosphate 
that did us no more good than if it had been all sand, while others near by made 
fine crops with an article with the same stamp on it. I believe the lot I got was 
stone-coal ashes, dashed with charcoal and sand, and then powdered with guano. 
I saw a crop of wheat, in June last, that had been drilled in on sandy land. 
There was a good road through the field dividing it into two parts ; the owner 
requested me to view it, remarking that one side had 60 lbs. of No. 1 Peruvian 
Guano put in with the wheat, and the other had 60 lbs. of Fowle & Co.'s Phos- 
phated Guano to the acre. I thought the field would average 18 or 20 bushels 
per acre. He asked me to say which was the best. The wheat was then ripen- 
ing. I told him the part with Fowle & Co.'s guano I thought was the best; he 
replied, I am of the same opinion. 

If this statement, in your opinion, will do you, the farmers, or the manufac- 
turers of fertilizers any good, you are at liberty to publish it, with my name at- 
tached. I. I. Hite. 

P. S. — I neglected to state that I met with an experienced farmer from Louisa 
county, who contended guano had proven an injury to his land, but said plaster 
improved it rapidly. As an offset to this, a gentleman in Frederick county 
told me he had put §25 worth of ground bones per acre, on two acres, and 200 
lbs. of guano per acre along side of it, and that the guanoed portion showed as 
much improvement as that with $25 worth of bcnes per acre. He also stated he 
had used guano for six or seven years, and his land improved all the time — that 
he had galls now covered with grass that were always naked until he commenced 
the use of guano. He also stated, guano brought in late varieties of wheat so 
as to be harvested as early as early varieties could be without it. This he said 
was a great recommendation to guano, as our late varieties of wheat, when they 
can mature without rust or blight, invariably produce the most per acre. 

1. 1. H. 



[For {lie Southern Planter. 

Three days in Chester County, Pa. 
Allow me instead of another Essay on Improved Farming, to offer you some 
account of the real thing itself, as lately seen on a short visit to this famous 



farming region. 



The soil of Chester and Delaware counties — except just along the Dela- 
ware river — is quite rolling and even hilly, much like our Albemarle lands, 
but not so red and with decidedly more sand. In old times the exhaust- 
ing effects of rude cultivation were almost destructive ; and tradition says, the 



1861.] THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 121 

first efforts at improvement were accompanied by the introduction of clover and 
plaster. These, with their great attention to manures, grasses, &c, stimulated by 
ready access to market, have carried them rather ahead of any locality I have 
seen. In reaching and passing through this region, one is delighted with the 
scenery no less than the fertility — but scarcely hoping to convey any adequate 
impression I must come to particulars. 

1st day. This was devoted chiefly to reviewing a farm of 300 acres which I 
had visited just 33 years ago. It was then, I thought, the most highly cultivated 
and improved I had seen — belonging to Mr. Abram Starpless — now to his son of 
the same name. What first struck me on approaching the neat and substantial 
stone house was, the see the hill which it crowns all covered with the richest 
growth of trees, chiefly evergreens of several choice kinds — planted almost en- 
tirely by the present owner — a boy when I was there before. This lesson should 
not be lost on us. The comfort, as well as ornament of such a grove is readily 
appreciated when seen — but how few of us begin in time to enjoy it. Then the 
grass ! not only on this lawn and in favored lots, but literally over the whole 
surface of the farm, excepting, of course, that in actual crop. To give some 
idea of their estimate of good grass, I may state, that some of these fields which 
I saw in clover and timothy 33 years ago, have never had a plow in them since. 
They are now covered with green sward like the corners of fences in our best 
fields ; and the cattle in grazing, rather avoid the most luxuriant parts. An 
Englishman lately ia walking over these fields stamped his foot on the turf and 
said, " I have seen no better grass in England than this!" 

Their usual rotation is simple — corn, oats, and wheat, chiefly Mediterranean — 
then 5 to 7 years in grass. 

With farms of from 100 to 300 acres, and from 7 to 10 fields, they cultivate 
thoroughly, manure highly and raise good crops, though not much better than 
our good ones — but their grass is quite another thing. The clover heads in the 
first crop seem packed together, and after a year or two the Timothy is immense. 
After several years cutting for hay, it is then devoted to pasture. They get 
from two to three tons of hay per acre through the field — high land and low land. 

Their farm buildings are most capacious and substantial. The barn is usually 
of stone, on a hill side, with a mound or bridge for loaded wagons to drive into a 
passage in the second story, with immense hay mows on either side, stable room 
underneath for horses, cows and fattening cattle.. The spring-house too, with its 
floors covered with water and filled with vessels of milk, is well worthy of notice. 
The churning by horse power is the usual custom. 

The superior fat cattle — they work oxen — such as I may have seen at a fair, 
but never on a farm before ; the improved farming implements and various other 
objects of interest, made my visit very satisfactory. 

The 2nd day being Sunday, I attended a well filled village church. Its his- 
tory — as indeed that of most churches — was full of interest; what would our 
country be without them ? The only strange thing to me was, amongst the chil- 



122 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

dred baptized, to hear one named John Fremont ! Out of our latitude decidedly. 
It reminded me of some I had known called Aaron Burr, and of others called 
after some French apostles of Liberty — such liberty as proved a curse instead of 
a blessing, or as a statesman once said, " suicidal to themselves and others." 

The 3rd day I saw several choice specimens of farming, beginning with one of 
about a mile square under a thorough English manager with a salary of §700 to 
$750. He says that when a youth he left his father and other good farmers 
making 30 bushels of wheat to the acre ; but in a late visit there, he found them 
raising 60 bushels. 

This, though not entirely new to me, I never could realize so fully, till in my 
own harvest I observed a spot which looked as if you had gathered both armsfull 
and drawn them together till the straws almost touched. This was where a brush 
pile had been burned in fallowing the field, and gave me some idea of a 60 bushel 
crop. The English farmer does his part well — at least so that I saw no fault. 
His management of some freshly cleared ground was peculiar. After cutting a 
heavy growth of timber from a rich flat, he ditched the springy places, and filled 
up other low parts so that the water could drain off, and by grazing and the briar 
blade kept down the sprouts and weeds till it formed a natural turf. This is 
often practised as you go North. He used Atkin's Raking Reaper, and Ketch- 
man's Mower ; but they prefer Manny's machine if one only is kept for both 
purposes. 
yS My friend, who was kindly taking me around to see these farms, and who had 
been with us in Virginia many years ago, had pressed me very hard to know 
■ why we could not manure ALL our lands as they did, and to my surprise asked 
me to state our system of farming as I had done before to him. This in few 
words I did. We put our land in corn, then wheat with guano, sowing clover 
and plaster : fallow the first or second year for wheat, and then let the grass 
stand as long as we could, plastering fully and helping thinner places by cover- 
ing with straw and coarse manure — grazing very little and that on the older 
grass— the finer manure used chiefly for tobacco. 

The Englishman said, " he did not see how we could do better in our circum- 
stances." My friend then said, " if John Bennington sajs so, I give it up." 
"** Our next visit was to Mr. Caleb Bunton, whose house stands on a height over- 
looking the Brandywine. The approach is on a broad ridge through a superb 
lawn of perfect green sward, ornamented by some fine Southdowns and a few 
choice cattle. His pasture land is in the low grounds extending to Chadds' 
ford, and has been unbroken, so far as he knows. I saw a lot of cattle just pur- 
chased at $52 dollars round, on which he expected to make 830 each by letting 
them run there till November. The beauty of this place is striking. After 
dining at my friend's house, who has a nice farm and the best water ram I have 
seen, we visited their model farmer, Mr. John Starpless. His father was to them 
what Mr. John Rogers was to us ; and after being improved for 70 years by 
father and son, it is indeed a pattern farm. In showing me his cornfield — the 



1861.] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 123 

best of course — my eye was attracted by one adjoining in the first year's grass, 
and I asked him the history of that. He said, when he put that in wheat, he 
had so much use for his manure nearer the barn, that he guanoed this, 500 lbs. 
to the acre, and sold from the 20 acres 800 bushels of wheat ! I saw his cows — 
about 40 — each with brass knobs on their horns, and driven in and out with the 
help of a shepherd's dog. They yield about 250 lbs, of butter per week, and 
fatten on the butter-milk I dont know how many Chester County pigs. Here 
is where they come from. His farm of about 400 acres brings him in about 
87,000 per annum; he is still buying land. One of his lots having a remark- 
able turf of green sward neither he nor his father had ever broken up. Our 
friend Barbour, in his eloquent phrase, sets us a task to perform, " to improve our 
lands till gulleys should be traditional, and broomstraw be reckoned a fabulous 
growth." 

This task has been here accomplished — for in this day's ride of 20 miles, I 
did not see a gully, nor could I make them understand what broomstraw was. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Tranquilla, Madison Co., January 5th, 1861. 
Gentlemen : — I want some information in regard to building a Tobacco House 
to cure from eight to ten hogsheads of Tobacco — can you inform me what size 
house it will take, and the best manner of putting it up? Any information with 
regard to this matter will be thankfully received by a subscriber to your most 
valuable paper. If you can give the desired information, be good enough to give 
it in the January number, as I want to go on with the building. 

Yours very respectfully, A Subscriber. 

One house is too large for the purposes of holding this quantity of Tobacco, 
because there is always some risk of fire. More than one house will be necessary. 

Note. — The above letter was received too late for insertion in our January 
number; since it3 receipt we have requested a friend — whose tobacco houses we 
think are the best we have ever seen — to furnish us with his plans and estimates 
for publication. He promised to comply with our request, and hand them in in 
time for insertion in the present number, but failed to do so. We will see to it 
ourselves that they shall appear in our next issue. If any of our subscribers will 
furnish us with plans of good and suitable buildings for the purposes mentioned 
in the above letter, we will cheerfully give them place in our publication. 



When Aristotle was asked what were the advantages of learning, he replied : 
" It is an ornament to a man in prosperity, and a refuge in adversity." 

As the world grows more polite it grows more hypocritical. Truth is not 
always palatable, and it is so easy to varnish it over with a little of that com- 
pound which society calls " good breeding." 

Solitude and society are the two great magnets which attract mankind, and 
both have exclusive claims to merit, and both have their votaries. 



€lit0i' 




Horticulture. 

In order to keep our readers in mind, that the Planter is a journal devoted to 
Horticulture as well as Agriculture, and because this is the season to put in 
practice any suggestions that we may make upon the subject, we propose to de- 
vote a small space to the discussion of horticultural matters. 

In what we have to say on this subject, it is not our design, at this time, to 
enter into the practical details of gardening, fruit growing, &c. ; our aim will 
be to show their importance, and to urge upon our readers the propriety of giv- 
ing them more attention than they ordinarily receive. Every farm has its gar- 
den, and most farms of any pretension at all, have their orchards ; but how few 
of these farms or gardens are what they should to be ; how few of either, even 
on well cultivated farms, bear the same marks of care and attention that the 
farm does, or that their importance demands. Certain vegetables and fruits — 
the great staples, if we may so express ourselves — are, it is true, always produced 
in sufficient quantity for home consumption ; but how few farmers gardens are 
capable of supplying the family with a constant succession of the finest fruits 
and vegetables, from early spring until its return, such as we see displayed in 
our city markets. Now, if it were a difficult matter for the farmer to make a 
provision, which all must admit is calculated to add so much to the comfort, plea- 
sure, and even health of the family, we should be content to say but little on the 
subject; but when we know how easy it would be for the great majority of our 
readers to enjoy, in perfection, the comfort and luxury of both the garden, and 
orchard, we feel that we are doing good service in calling attention to it. 

To those who, having an indifferent vegetable garden, and yet are desirous of 
knowing how they may have a constant succession of the finest vegetables, we 
would say, get such a work as Buist's Kitchen Garden and go to work without 
delay ; prepare your ground, procure good seed — the best of its kind — plant, 
and cultivate, and our word for it, you will thank us for our suggestions. 

But while we would thus urge attention to the kitchen garden, we would, 
witb still greater earnestness, counsel the cultivation of fruit. Only those who 
enjoy the luxury of good fruity from the first dish of strawberries and cream in 
May, until the disappearance of the last of the apples the following spring, can 
thoroughly appreciate the importance of giving some attention to the fruit gar- 
den and the orchard. Plants and young trees of the very best varieties, and 
suited to our climate, can be had from reliable nurserymen all over the country, 
and at such prices, that their expense can be no argument against their cultiva- 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



125 



tion, even among farmers of the most limited means. A small bed of say 
200 strawberry plants, such as Hovey's or Wilson's seedlings, properly taken care 
of, will, in the second year after planting, afford as many fine large strawberries 
as a common sized family can possibly consume ; from 50 to 100 raspberry 
bushes, such as the Red Antwerp, will in the same time yield an equally abun- 
dant supply of raspberries. A few grape vines properly selected and cared for, 
will soon reward the grower with an abundance of luscious grapes ; and so will 
peaches, pears — dwarf pears — cherries, plums, &c. ; while a small orchard of 
well-selected apples, standard pears, &c. would leave nothing to be desired. 

In this connection we would most cordially recommend Barry's Fruit Garden, 
wherein the processes of propagating, cultivating, and preserving fruit trees, &c, 
&c, are fully discussed, and where all who are interested in such matters, may 
learn with how little trouble or outlay, a constant supply of delicious fruit may 
be secured. 

There is another argument in favor of fruit growing — we will only detain our 
readers long enough to advert to it ; the ease, rapidity, and certainty with which 
now the most delicate fruits may be transported from distant points to our 
large cities, makes the growing of certain kinds of fruit a matter of great pe- 
cuniary importance, and an orchard of well selected trees frequently becomes by 
far the most profitable portion of the farm. At this moment, a barrel of good 
apples is worth almost as much in Richmond, as a barrel of flour — and as to 
pears, why they cant be had at any price. 



Farm Arrangement. 

"We have several times had occasion to express our views of the importance of 
a radical change in some of our farming customs, particularly as regards manu- 
ring in such quantities as will greatly increase the crop on a given surface. La- 
bor has commanded such prices, for several years past, that he must be a good 
manager indeed, who after hiring a few hands on his farm, and receiving our 
current rates for produce, can make buckle and tongue meet at the end of the 
year. 

Good management requires something more to explain it than the mere act of 
doing well some of the most necessary and important services of the farm, such 
as plowing, &c. There must be a systematic arrangement of the work to be 
done — that each job of work may have its own hour, or day, as the case may 
require. By the exercise of this forecaste, all confusion is avoided ; and if a 
man chooses to take the trouble, he can know weeks and months ahead what 
oujrht to be done on his farm, how long it will take to do it, and when he has a 
better right to expect a few days of limited employment during some month or 
other, for reasons more tangible than the uncertainties of the weather. 

Every farmer should have a list of work to be done, and as each item of it is 
accomplished, let it be marked off. This list should be carefully revised, for the 



126 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [Ffbruary 

purpose of classifying the different jobs, that some may be postponed to a more 
convenient season, others getting that precedence of attention which their im- 
portance demand. 

Perhaps the best winter arrangement a farmer can make, is to get ready du- 
ring the cold and inclement months every implement which will be needed du- 
ring the year. See first, that every wagon and cart is in perfect order for haul- 
ing out the manures which have accumulated about the stables and barn yards. 
Having these properly cared for, have every part of the plantation harness over- 
hauled, repaired, and fitted snugly to the animal which is expected to work in it. 
If this is not done, in all probability the farmer who neglects it, will have a pared 
of teams more dead than alive — with shoulders galled, backs skinned, and 
mouths badly cut. Apart from the positive loss which must accrue to every 
man who owns stock who are thus maltreated, we think he is justly liable to 
censure for such gross carelessness, on the score of proper humanity. 

With the present number of labor saving machines, ( i. e., machines which 
substitute the labor of horses and mules for that of men), on most of our farms, 
it is absolutely necessary that our Teams should emerge from Winter Quarters 
fat, strong and healthy, since they are likely to have little rest until winter sets 
in again. 

To secure for them proper condition to stand hard work, they should be weU 
fed and thoroughly groomed, besides having a warm comfortable stable all winter, 
since they cannot take on fat, if they are allowed to suffer with cold, because the 
amount of food they consume will be required to furnish them with animal heat. 
Without a good team, all the operations of the farm^must be badly conducted : 
therefore, we would advise every farmer to rid himself of every indifferent ani- 
mal he possesses. 

The next thing in order, is to overhaul all the ploughs, cultivators, &c. Put 
on points and landsides to the former and strengthen and renew handles and 
rounds. Harrows and cultivators should have their teeth sharpened, any miss- 
ing teeth replaced and wedged up tightly and thoroughly. A full sett of 
swingletrees should be made for each and all of them, and properly secured to 
them by lap links, so that all of these implements may be started into the field 
at any day, upon half an hour's notice. The man who neglects to take these 
precautions, will certainly lose much valuable time, which he cannot overtake, 
and instead of pushing his work, will find throughout the year that his work is 
sorely pushing him, thereby subjecting him to grievous discomfort and annoyance. 

The first genial weather of Spring more properly belong to " seed time," than 
to a period of the year when a farmer can afford to wait for any thing or any 
body, for even a short while. " Everything is to do," and we all want to make 
good headway as soon as the frost is out of the ground. It is important, there- 
fore, that all the farm " fixing up" should be gotten through with before our 
busy season sets in. Winter work is usually not very abundant with the me- 
chanics who do our repairing, and they have time enough to turn out for us " a 



1861 .] THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 127 

good job/' which we are by no means sure of getting later in the season, when 

work pours into their shops, and is always wanted directly. 

From the time March sits in (to say nothing of January and February) until 

Christmas arrives, there is plenty of work for the farmer, 

" To plow and to hoe, 
To reap and to mow , 

And there is no time for anything but the regular work. 

Another hint as to the preparation for Spring work and we have done. Mark 
out a plan of your farm in such a manner that your overseer and yourself will 
understand the drawing, and it does not matter if no one else does. Lay off on 
your plat all your fields and patches, and write on each field represented, the 
crop it has now on it, or that you expect to sow on it, and also mark down any 
job of work which is particularly wanting there — grubbing, or draining, for in- 
stance, or manures of certain kinds which you expect to apply at some future 
time. 

A plat of this sort will be a mutual benefit to the farmer and overseer, as it 
enables the latter to understand the plans for the year, and serves as a memo- 
randum of jobs which can be executed at leisure times, if any such occur. 



Just as we were finishing up the last " form" of our present No. of the Plan- 
ter, the mail brought us the interesting account of a visit of our friend Dr. 
Meriwether to Chester Co., Pa. We congratulate our readers that it is in time 
for their perusal in this issue. 

We think the rule of the H. and C. Club, applying to visiting members, a 
good one, and wish that all farmers would consider themselves under a like obli- 
gation whenever they travel. Were this the case, we should have much infor- 
mation and amusement afforded us, which we now loose, besides an occasional 
spur given us to tempt us to try and overtake some enterprising and strong think- 
ing brother farmer. 

If all men are " imitation animals," it is well for us to have a plenty of good 
examples to look at occasionally. 

The farm accounts offered by Mr. T. J. Randolph, Jr., which were kindly 
sent us also by the Club, came to hand at an opportune season, and will appear 
in our next issue. The " old fashioned farmers" of Virginia must wake up, and 
put a new spoke in their wheels. We must all know what we are doing — and 
we cannot know this vAthout farm accounts — or soon we shall find our occupa- 
tion, or at least its profits, gone. 

Let us turn over a new leaf for 1861, and see if we cannot better our condi- 
tion by a fresh stock of caution and industry, with a keen glance at the papers 
sometimes — once a month at all events. 



JBsaT Persons wishing to forward packages to Major Wm. Gilham, containing 
substances for analysis, are invited to leave them at this office. Such packages 
should be small, and need not contain more than a few ounces. 



128 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

Fruit Trees. 

We tender our grateful acknowledgments to George W. Johnson, Esq., of 
Milton, N. C, for a very acceptable present of choice fruit trees. We wish 
every nurseryman of our acquaintance could have had a look at the bundle, 
which was so neatly and thoroughly put up as to afford them a sample worthy of 
general imitation, if so be any of these gentlemen should prove at any time, 
either unskilful or negligent in their manner of securing trees for shipment. 

We shall take great pains in setting out these trees, and in their after culture. 
We hope we shall yet have the pleasure of eating some of their fruits in com- 
pany with Mr. Johnson, at our own home. 



The Hog Premiums of our late Fair. 

A subscriber calls our attention to a report of the Committee on Swine, at the 
exhibition held last fall in this city, under the joint auspices of the Virginia 
State and Central Agricultural Societies, which he has seen published in The 
American Farmer as a copy of a report published in this paper. The only pre- 
mium for swine which we did publish, was one for the best pen of fat hogs. 
The premiums on other classes were submitted to the Executive Committees of 
the two Societies for final settlement, and they have as yet made no report. 

We suspect our neighbors of the American Farmer got the report alluded to 
from one of our daily city papers, probably the DisjMtch, and the printers (as we 
know they are very apt to do) made a mistake in crediting copy. 

by the way, the show of good swine at our Fair was the very best we ever 
saw, and it is a hard task to decide the premiums in any class of animals where 
the competition is as spirited as it was in several classes of animals exhibited at 
that time. 



Pennsylvania Farm School. 

We are under many obligations to Evan Pugh, Esq., of this Institution, for 
some interesting agricultural pamphlets, extracts from which we propose to lay 
before our readers in our next number. 

We are glad to learn that this school has reason to expect a liberal patronage, 
and hope it may certainly receive it. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Inquiries. 

Those who have experimented with the Drill putting in fertilizer and wheat at 
the same time, and can speak for or against the use of the Drill, in comparison 
with broad-casting the same quantity of fertilizer per acre, will oblige many far- 
mers, who want information, by giving their opinions, based on experience, 
through the columns of the Planter. 

If there be any farmers in the State who have used a Subsoil Plow for five or 
more years in succession, and who uses clover and plaster as improvers, they will 
oblige a number of inexperienced farmers by giving their opinions, after long 
experience, through the columns of the Planter. 

Information is wanted among wheat growers as to the success of Manny's com- 
bined Reaper and Mower as a self-raker the past season. A Farmer.