THE 



SOUTHERN PLANTE 

DEVOTED TO 

Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts, 



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



J. E. WILLIAMS, M. D., 
Prof. WILLIAM GILHAM. 



Editors. 



AUGUST & WILLIAMS, 
Proprietors. 



Vol. XXI. 



RICHMOND, VA., JUNE, 1861. 



No. 6. 



For the Southern Planter. 
[PAPERS FROM THE NOTTOWAY CLUB.] 

Experiments with Wheat. 

Mr. President, — Being required to report an experiment, or present an essay 
on some agricultural subject, my response may, to some extent, combine the 
elements of both. On the general subject of experiments, I may suggest that 
there is too much proneness to confine ourselves to those which are successful 
It is frequently as advantageous, or more so, to report those which are unsuccess- 
ful, that they may be avoided, or corrected, in any deficiency. It is also im- 
portant to state the attending incidents of season, soil, and. special management. 
It is usual, in the beginning, to procure a small quantity of an article, and 
bestow upon it extraordinary attention, and thus attain results ensuring future 
disappointment. I was induced, by the wonderful accounts of the Bowers' 
wheat, to procure twenty bushels ; not that I expected to equal the success 
achieved by others, but because there were other recommendations, of early 
maturity, beardless head; and more especially of the white variety. The great 
difference in price now almost excludes all kinds of red wheat, although I now 
doubt whether, in every variety of soil and season, it is possible to procure a 
better kind than the early mountain purple straw (red) wheat. I bestowed no 
particular attention on the Bowers' wheat. It happened, in the progress of my 
operations, to be the first sown, on a g&pd tobacco lot, with the usual practice of 
turning it in with the single turning plow, followed by the large harrow, about 
the 15th of October — the balance of the lot having been sown continuously with 
the early purple straw; the growth of which is not as tall as other varieties. It 
is, however, fully equal to the Bowers' in that particular, rather surpassing it. 

I concluded, from my exp~r"**ent, that the purple straw was earlier by about 
21 



322 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

three days. The heads of the purple straw are much smaller than the Bowers' 
— the height of which is diminished by the weight of the heads. Another 
evidence that it is not as tall as other kinds, is plainly discernible in a mixture 
of other kinds, rising considerably higher. Not being remarkable for height, I 
did not discover that it was more inclined to tumble than other kinds, notwith- 
standing the size of the heads; nor is the straw as hard and strong as the purple 
straw. The joint worm was very perceptible, though not very destructive. I 
found, perhaps, more injury at the joint, in this, than in my low land; though, 
on the latter, the injury at the root was much more fatal. I fir.d much diversity 
of opinion, as to this injury at the root causing it to bunch like broom-straw, and 
throw up but few heads. By some it is considered the effect of the same worm 
at the roots. It certainly resembles much what I have always regarded the 
effects of fly, which, however, is more apt, generally, to attack the early seeding. 
I suppose the only remedy for joint worm, is to sow early on strong land, con- 
centrating the fertilizing applications on a smaller surface, and avoiding, as much 
as possible, small detached pieces, which seem more obnoxious to injury, in pro- 
portion, than large fields. In reference to the product, I will premise, that the 
quantity I sowed was so much mixed with other kinds, as to induce the necessity 
of picking over the whole, to preserve as much purity as possible ; and thus 
diminished, I found one acre, measured and threshed separately, to yield a 
fraction over thirty-two bushels, and another, a fraction under thirty-one, after 
passing through the fan-mill once — my operations being hurried to secure this 
variety before any other was put in the granary. 

The same lot was in the Coland, or Woodfin wheat, several years ago — the 
growth very much superior to the Bowers'. It was pronounced by Mr. Edmund 
Ruffin, the finest growth he had ever seen ; and according to his special desire, 
two acres were measured and threshed that year, and to my surprise, as well as 
his, the product of one was only 25£, the other 23 bushels; and it was still more 
surprising to me, that what I supposed the heaviest yield of straw afforded the 
smallest product. He regarded it as an evidence that growth secured by other 
lertilizing agents, was not as productive as from calcareous manures. I saw his, 
the same year, thus improved, which nearly averaged, through the crop, with 
one of my choice acres — though the appearance was less promising. Both of 
these acres were cut by one of Hussey's reapers in the eighth year of its per- 
formance, and still three bushels and one gallon of good wheat were gleaned 
from two acres — showing the great loss even in the most- careful management. 
The hand engaged in the operation, thought near double was gleaned from that 
cut by cradles. 

I will here remark, that much care is necessary in threshing wheat thus 
gleaned — as many tobacco stalks, sticks, &c, are collected. The necessity of 
threshing, cleaning and removing this variety, before any other is introduced into 
the granary — to prevent mixture — throws on my hands, for the first time in my 
life, my seed wheat in a cleaned condition, and*causes an appreciation of our 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



323 



association, in the opportunity of consultation as to the safest method of keeping 
it from heating, &c. I suppose its removal to some dry floor, and spread as 
thinly as possible, most desirable. Those whose machines thresh and clean in 
the same operation, may have some important experience. When in large bulks 
I have been in the habit of putting some large rocks in the centre, especially 
■when in hogsheads. It is,' no doubt, best, whenever circumstances allow, to 
leave seed wheat in the chaff; and, indeed, that for market also, until used. I 
may say, that my experiment of this kind of wheat has been satisfactory on good 
land. I must, however, try it further, and particularly on thin land, before I 
can corroborate the impressions of superiority entertained by others. Our great 
desideratum is to procure that which suits poor land, for most any kind will 
succeed on rich land ; and the lower growth of this indicates that it is not so 
suitable for ordinary land. 

I recollect a very sensible remark, in the address of the President of the 
Union Agricultural Society, in Petersburg, in reference to guano, that it came 
amongst us as a stranger, with high pretensions, and it was proper they should 
be fully canvassed before they should be passed upon. This is true as to any 
innovation; and, again, exhibits the value of our association, in making the 
experience of one the common property of all. 

In connection with this subject, I will be much gratified if any member of the 
club can suggest any machine, or any fixture, or arrangement of a machine, 
which will prevent the cracking of the grains — an annoyance and injury to 
which I have been subjected in every one I have yet tried.'' I regret that the 
meeting, occurring so early in the season, precludes a more full account of the 
general product of this crop, and a comparison with other varieties, which may 
yet be supplied. E. Gr. Booth. 

Jubj 12th, 1860. 



For the Southern Planter, 

Mr. Wm. Irby's Report, 1860, to the "Nottoway Club." 

Mr. President : — At our August meeting the subject for disenssion was, the' 
relative profits of tobacco, corn and wheat ; tobacco at $8 per cwt., corn at $3.50 
per barrel, and wheat at $1.40 per bushel. The following thoughts and calcula- 
tions were advanced, and at the request of the club, have been written off with 
the understanding that this shall be received as my annual contribution. 

These calculations are made on the supposition that the farm is cultivated on 
the four-field system, and as there are only two crops made in the four years, 
each crop should be charged interest two years on the estimated value of the land 
on which it is made, which I have put at $25 per acre. I have entered into 
minutiae at the risk of being considered tedious, in order the several items may 
be more readily corrected if found inaccurate. The charges for labor are on the 
supposition that hands, &c, are hired by the year, and not by the day. 



324 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 




[June 


TOBACCO ACCOUNT. 






To interest on $25, value of one acre of land, for 2 years, 


$3 00 




" ploughing one acre of land with double plow, 


1 25 




" raking, laying off, and ridging up do, 


2 00 




" planting and re-planting do, 


1 00 




" ploughing twice and raking once, 


1 50 




" working with hoes three times, . 


3 00 




" worming and suckering one acre, 


4 00 




" cutting and housing do, 


2 00 




" cutting wood for and curing, 


2 00 


* 


" stripping 700 lbs. tobacco, (estimated quantity for one 






acre,) at 40 cents per cwt., 


2 80 




" hanging up and packing down 700 lbs. ; • . 


75 




" prizing do, 


1 50 




" hoshead for do. and carrying do. to depot, 


1 50 




" burning, &c, plant land for one acre, 


50 




" manure or guano for do, 

To amount of expenses for one acre of tobacco, 


6 00 


$32 80 




CREDIT. 






By 700 lbs. tobacco at $8 per cwt., after paying commissions 


! 




and freight, ..... 


$56 00 




By benefit to land, .... 
By net profits from one~~acre in tobacco, 


2 00 


$58 00 




$25 20 


CORN ACCOUNT. 






To interest on $25 for two years, 


$3 00 




" ploughing one acre with double plough, 


1 25 




" raking, laying off and planting, 


1 00 




" ploughing once and raking twice^ 


1 50 




" working with hoes twice, 


1 50 




" gathering and shucking four barrels corn, 


1 50 




" damage to land, , 

To amount of expenses for one acre of corn, 


2 00 


$11 75 




f> V ■ ' <■ ■ 






" " ■ CREDIT. 






By four barrels corn at $3.50 per barrel, 


$14 00 




By value of short corn and shucks, (fodder not estimated, a? 






the labor of gathering, curing and damage to corn, is at 






least equal to its value,) 


2 00 


$16 00 


IC,6rt> 


i 




By net profits from one acre in corn, . •. 

WHEAT ACCOUNT. 


ft 

' J.S.N 


$4 25 


To interest on $25 for two years, . 


$3 00 




" ploughing one acre of land with double plow, 
Amount carried forward, . 


1 25 




$1 25 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



325 



Amount brought forward, 
To raking twice and sowing, 
" cutting and shacking wheat on one acre, 
" hau ing up, threshing and fanning out, 
" li bushel of seed wheat, 
" damage to land, 



To amount of expenses for one acre in wheat, 

CREDIT. 

By twelve bushels wheat, estimated produce for one acre, at 



gl.40 per bushel, 
By offal from do., . 



H 25 

40 

60 

75 

1 75 

1 00 



$16 80 
25 



75 



$17 05 
$8 30 



$25 
4 
8 


20 
25 
30 


65 


50 


25 


50 


66 


40 



Net profit from one acre in wheat, . 

RECAPITULATION. 

Net profits from one acre in tobacco, 

Net profits from one acre in corn, .... dg.f%: 

Net profits from one acre in wheat, .... 

Supposing one hand to cultivate 2J acres in tobacco, the net profits 

would be . 

Supposing one hand to cultivate six acres in corn, the net profits 

would be ....*.. 

Supposing one hand to cultivate eight acres in wheat, the net profits 

would be ....... 



Net profits from one hand would be, . . . $157 40 

In the several accounts I have made no estimate of the cost of enclosing for 
houses, nor for machinery. The tobacco crop would have the advantage of either 
of the others as to cost of enclosing, but its charge for houses would be greater 
than for corn or wheat. The corn crop would have the advantage as tt> cost of 
houses, but the cost of enclosing would be greater than for tobacco, and about 
equal to wheat. 

The wheat crop should not be charged as much for houses as the tobacco crop, 
but the cost of a threshing machine, &c, should be added. Taking this view, 
the charges against each of the crops would be about equal, and should be de- 
ducted from the net profits of each. Respectfully submitted, 

October 10, 1860. Wm. Irby. 



For the Southern Plantsr. 

Hungarian Grass— Tobacco. 

Mr. President : — Perhaps there is not a more pressing want with the farmers 
of this section of Virginia than a sufficient and easy supply of long forage for 
horses, &c. The oat crop is an uncertain one, and often not remunerative. At 
gathering blades from corn a hand will not generally earn more than he would 



326 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

__ n 

hire for per day. It is not only attended with considerable exposure to the 
heavy dews of autumn, but is thought by many to damage the corn more than 
the worth of the fodder at its usual price. I have tried clover, but as we some- 
times fail in getting a good stand, it would perhaps be unsafe to rely greatly on 
it. Moreover, I find horses will consume or waste in bulk, and probably in weight, 
of clover hay, thau they will of fodder. But with these drawbacks I consider 
it very valuable, as a large quantity may be cut in a day with a mower, and it is 
easily cured. The hay is the very best food for the winter feeding of sheep. 
The Chinese sugar cane has been highly recommended for winter forage, but on 
experiment I found the stalk so succulent that the blades would be ruined long 
before the stalks became sufficiently cured to stow away. 

Although I felt discouraged with these and other failures, I was induced last 
year to try the Hungarian grass. I fallowed an acre of land, sufficiently strong 
to produce pretty good clover. On it I used 150 lbs. Peruvian guano raked in, 
which leveled it for the seed, which were gotten in by a second raking, and then 
rolled, leaving the ground in pretty good condition. The seed were long in 
coming up, but when up, the grass grew off well and made a handsome appear- 
ance, but mine did not turn out as well as the advertisements promised. I 
threshed it, but as it was not dry, did not get it out clean. The acre produced 
about 16 bushels of seed. The hay is very good, but probably not worth as 
much per cwt. as oats. If this grass has any advantage over oats, it is that an 
acre requires only one-eighth as much to seed it as of oats, thereby saving seven- 
eighths of seed. Again : it is found that oats grown on very rich land are not 
as good in quality, nor does the yield correspond proportionably to those grown 
on moderately rich land. I consider my experiment with Hungarian grass pretty 
much a failure, but not being satisfied, have concluded to give it a second trial. 

As I consider the above experiment unsatisfactory, I will report another, 
although, it is equally, if not more so, but as two negatives are equivalent to an 
affirmative, perhaps two imperfect experiments may be taken for one good oue ; 
though, to be candid, I do not so consider them. The second one is as follows : I 
used last year on tobacco, at the rate of 200 lbs. to tne acre, the following fer- 
tilizers, viz: — Peruvian, American, Elide and Robinson's manipulated guanos, 
also Rhodes' superphosphate of lime, mixed with Peruvian guano by myself, in 
equal quantities. The tobacco dressed with superphosphate and Peruvian guano 
grew off much more rapidly than any other, and continued to be superior until 
it was topped. Up to that time I considered it the manure for tobacco. The 
strength appeared then to be exhausted and the tobacco did not mature as well, 
nor was it larger than the balance. At this result I was much disappointed, as 
it was reported that its superiority was in maturing the tobacco, and being a less 
evanescent manure than guano. I saw no very marked difference between the 
tobacco dressed with Peruvian, American, Elide and manipulated guano, but 
will remark that I found so much foreign matter in the American and Elide, 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHEEN PLANTER. 



327 



that I consider them nearly as costly as the Peruvian. I think the wheat, now 
growing where the manipulated was used, looks rather better than that on which 
any other guano was applied. 

Respectfully submitted, Wm. Irby. 

May 10?/*, 1860. 

For the Southern Planter. 

Comparative Value of Different Guanos. 

Mr. President : — The following experiments were made to test the relative 
value of Peruvian guano, Ruffin's phosphor guano, Petersburg manipulated 
guano, Ruffin's tobacco manure, and Peruvian guano and Ruffin's bone ash mixed 
in equal quantities at home. 

On a tobacco lot in good heart, but lightly dressed with farm-pen and stable 
manures, I applied the above manures at the rate of 167 lbs. per acre. Without 
freight, they cost as follows : Peruvian guano $57, Ruffin's Phosphor-Peruvian 
850, Petersburg manipulated §48, Ruffin's tobacco manure §45, Ruffin's bone 
ash and Peruvian guano mixed in equal quantities at home $41.50. Cost of 
each per acre, at 167 lbs , as follows : Peruvian guano $4.51, Ruffin's phosphor 
$4.17}, Petersburg manipulated $4.08, Ruffin's tobacco manure $3.75f, bone 
ash and Peruvian guano $3.46?. I intended weighing an equal number of 
plants from each, but as I saw no difference in color, form or size, though noticed 
at every stage of growth, both on the lot and on a piece of old field land on 
which there was no manure (other than the fertilizers) applied, I omitted, as I 
did not suppose at the time it would alter the result, which omission I now re- 
gret. The result of the experiments in one point of view are not satisfactory, 
as they did not accomplish the purpose for which they were designed, but I will 
say the tobacco, both on the lot and old field, was as good or better than I had 
any right to expect. As the effect of each fertilizer was so far as I could see 
equal, the only end accomplished is, that it shows the difference in cost of each, 
at 167 lbs. per acre, which is as follows: Ruffin's phosphor guano cost 33} cents 
less than Peruvian guano, Petersburg manipulated 43 cents less, Ruffin's tobacco 
manure 75 \ cents less, bone ash and guano mixed $1.04;! less than Peruvian 
guano. The bone ash and Peruvian is to be preferred, as it cost less than any 
of the others, and we may know what we are using. 

Respectfully submitted, Wm. Irby. 

November 8lh, 1860. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Value of Mixed Guanos. 
To tJie President of the Farmers' Club of Nottoway : 

As I have an experiment somewhat in connection with the subject to 



Sm- 



be discussed to-day, I will present it for the consideration of the Club. 

In the summer of 3 857 I fallowed up about two thirds of one of my fields, 
and the following fall seeded it to wheat, giving the land a dressing of Mexican 



328 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

and Peruvian Guano, mixed half and half, at the rates of two hundred lbs. per 
acre. The wheat came up well, and presented a healthy appearance during its 
entire growth, and was pronounced by several of my neighbors to be one of the 
finest fields of wheat in the neighborhood. In fact, it yielded better than my 
tobacco lots. The year 1859 the field rested and was Jightly grazed ; the veg- 
etation showing, I thought, a much more luxuriant appearance than I had ever 
seen on the same land before. Last winter I had the whole of the field fallowed 
with a two horse plow, and in the spring prepared and planted in corn. The 
corn now upon the land where the application of the mixed guanos were made 
to the wheat in the fall of 1857, is a hundred per cent better than the same 
land produced when last in corn, and fifty per cent better than that portion of 
the field that was not fallowed for wheat ; the portion fallowed for wheat having 
rested one year, and the other two. This experiment satisfies me that the mixed 
guanos are more permanent in their effects upon the soil, as I have never seen 
the same improvement from the application of Peruvian guano alone. 

Respectfully submitted, 

R. S. Hurt. 
September 10th, 1860. 



i 



For the Southern Planter. 

Winter Oats. 

To the President of the Farmers' Club of Nottoway : 

Sir — Some five or six years since, I procured a few bushels of oats, which 
were recommended as suitable for fall sowing. I sowed them, as directed, late 
in November. The winter was not unusually severe, but nearly all of the oats 
died. The next year I sowed a little earlier, with rather better success. In 
September, 185G, I seeded a piece of moist land in herd's grass, and scattered 
1 over it a few oats as a protection to the grass. The oats, as well as the grass, 
stood the winter remarkably well, both together yielding a heavy crop, which I 
'cut and cured as hay. Since that time I have adopted the plan of sowing oats 
and grass seed together, early in the fall, always getting a good crop of oats and 
a good stand of grass. 

In 1858 I sowed my winter oats in the spring. They did not turn out well ; 
not owing to the kind of oat, I think, but t» other causes. The season was un- 
favorable, and the cats were injured by an insect that infested the crop that year 
in all this region. 

In 1859 my crop was the best I ever made, and the best I ever saw grown on 
such land. Fifteen bushels seeded the 1st of October, on ten acres of very thin 
land, yielded 210 bushels, at the rate of 21 bushels per acre, or 14 bushels for 
every one sown. Eighteen bushels of the same kind of oats sown the 1st of 
March yielded, as nearly as I could judge, about the same quantity. Common 
oats in the same field, but on better land, did not yield half as much. 

The field that was in oats last year, I fallowed for wheat about the first of 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



September. On a portion of the field, finding the oats to come up thickly, I 
concluded not to sow wheat. The oats stood well, afforded good grazing for 
sheep during winter, and now give promise of a heavy crop. Oats that I sowed 
in October are also doing well. On northern hill-sides they were killed out, but 
not much more than wheat similarly exposed. f 

On the whole, the result of my experience is favorable to the winter oat. My 
failure for the first two years was owing, I think, to late sowing. When_sown 
early in the fall, I have never failed of a good crop. When sown early in the 
spring, I have found them much more prolific than the common oat. I would 
not recommend the sowing of the entire crop in the fall, for the two-fold reason 
that the time for sowing and the lime for cutting both occur at very busy sea- 
sons; the sowing interfering with the saving of tobacco and the sowing of 
wheat, and the cutting pressing closely upon the wheat harvest. When sown in 
the spring they are later in maturing than the common oats. But T would 
always sow enough in the fall for seed. I have invariably saved my seed oats 
from those that had stood the winter, and have been pleased to notice from year 
to year a gradual improvement in the quality of the grain. My oats this year, 
as tested by several of my neighbours, weighed 40 lbs. to the bushel. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Thomas W. Sydnor. 
• Oakland, April 12th, 1860. 

\ 

P. S. — February 14th, 1861. The above communication was read before the 

Club at their meeting in May last. From inadvertence on my part it was not 
handed to the Secretary. To what is said above I would add that my crop last 
year was not equal to that of the year before, either in quantity or quality, but 
regarded, nevertheless, as a good crojp for the land. My present growing crop 
is unusually promising, having stood the winter thus far even better than the 
wheat. H*fc. ^i* T - W - S - 

For the Southern Planter. 

Plan for Bulking Tobacco when in Order for Prizing-. 

To the President of the Nottoway Farmers' Club : 

Sir, — I do not know that I could render a more acceptable service to the 
Club, than by giving, as my annual report, the -details of a plan, adopted and 
pursued for several years by me, in packing or bulking tobacco after it has been 
ordered, and for preservation and straightening it, until such a time as the 
owner may desire to press it. I have long thought that farmers are more 
deficient than all other classes men, in all those mechanical conveniencies by 
which labor may be saved and comfort, security, a?.d facility imparted to the 
indoor operations of the farm. In other departments, taste and skill, under the 
guidance of a judicious economy, have been so blended, as to give not only dis- 
patch, but also to lend a charm to the dry details of daily business. In ours 



330 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

the monotony is unrelieved, except by such variety as the avocation itself 
imposes. 

A frame of sills, 24 by 7, is first securely put together with sleepers, at such 
distance as may enable the floor placed upon them to bear considerable weight. 
The floor should be jointed and laid as tightly as possible, and the whole of the 
frame raised from 6 to 12 inches from the ground -floor of the barn, to prevent 
injury arising from the escape of moisture from the floor underneath. At inter- 
vals of from 6 to 8 feet along this frame, upright standards, or swords, are let in 
by mortise and secured by pins. These are from six to seven feet long, and 
bored thickly with pin-holes, over which a lever, ten feet long, is to work. A 
prize is then fixed in the middle of the bulk, made of blocks; or, what I think 
better, two parallel poles, on which are a few cross-pieces for the resting of a 
third one, which forms the fulcrum of the lever ; in the end of the lever is a 
pin to receive the weight, which consists of poles, either half or the whole 
length of the frame, and may be of such size and number as the operator may 
desire. The tobacco is bulked down, one bundle at a time, on the platform, 
(unless this word is now too odious to use in any sense,) and as the bulk 
advances, planks are stepped along inside the upright standards, so as to form a 
close box when the bulk is completed ; the top of the bulk should be thickly 
eovered with plank, or what answers equally well, tobacco sticks, to prevent 
injury from either exposure or the prize; the lever then being applied, and 
properly weighted, you hate your tobacco under a miniature prize, scarcely less 
powerful than the screw which prepares it for market. 

The advantages claimed for this mode over the old plan, are: First, the greater 
security of the tobacco from mould, either in the body or on the heads. Secondly, 
it is better straightened as the levers increase the power, which continue to 
operate as long as it is in bulk. Thirdly, the weights, instead of being applied 
to the bulk, are applied to the end of the lever, which is done with much 
more facility, and you avoid ,the injurious effect of dirty feet on the bulk. 
Fourthly, it maj' be taken up in sections, in any quantity, without injuring other 
sections or disturbing the general condition of the bulk, or exposing the remain- 
ing portion to injurious atmospheric influences. 

All of which is respectfully submitted, 

J. M. Hurt. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Tobacco. 

To the President of the Farmers' Club of Xotloicay : 

Sir, — In obedience to the requisition of our constitution, requiring each 
member to report, in writing, the result of some experiment, or farming operation, 
or an essay, I report to the Club, that for the year 1860, I cultivated, intobacco, 
a manured surface of 120,000 hills; the whole was manured with home-made 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



331 



manures ; aiming to make it as nearly equal as I could, having reference to the 
condition of the land. It was made up of three lots, two of thirty thousand 
each, and one of sixty thousand ; the two of thirty thousand each, had 
each been manured for a number of years; the lot of sixty thousand was 
manured for the first time. One of the old lots was grey land, the other 
mainly red; the new lot grey. One of the old lots, having grey land, had 
a dressing of about 2G0 lbs. of Peruvian guano per acre ; about one half of this was 
very fine tobacco. The whole averaging better than the other two lots, but the 
land was better and ought to have produced a better crop. The red lot had a 
dressing, on one half of it, of about 300 lbs. of Petersburg manipulated guano 
per acre; the other half, of the same quality, of an equal mixture of Peruvian 
and Sombrero guano, the mixture made at home. The half dressed with the 
Petersburg manipulated guano was the best; that, however, was the lightest 
portion of the lot, and I think the best land. The new lot of sixty thousand 
was manured, in different portions, with equal portions of Peruvian, Sombrero, 
and Peruvian mixed at home, and Petersburg manipulated guano. I saw no 
difference in the result, other than what might have been expected from the 
different qualities of the home-made manures used on the land. That portion of 
the land manured by summer cow-pens was best, — that with compost next, and 
the portion manured with farm-pen manure the most inferior. I am sensible 
that these results prove nothing, but I give them for what they are worth. 

Wm. R. Bland. 
April, 1861. 



For the Southern Planter. 



Report of T. F. Epes. 



I tried Peruvian guano, and Peruvian and Sombrero mixed, half and half in 
weight, on tobacco, and found no difference in result. 



For the Southern Planter. 

A Dung Hill Chicken. 

G-en. Knoxes' Head Quarters, 
Mortonville, N. Y., November 25th, 1859. 

Mssrs. Editors : — In your November number, pages 692 and 693, I notice an 
article signed J. J. Bowers, on the subject of poultry, and the mode of making 
fowls lay, &c. ; and as the conclusion I've come to, after thirty years' experience, 
are somewhat different from his, I will give them to you for the benefit of whom 
it may concern. Mr. Brown says, fowls don't want meat. Animal food is abso- 
lutely necessary for them. In summer they procure it in the shape of worms 
and insects, and lay eggs; and in winter, when deprived of it, they don't lay. 
But keep them warm and give them plenty of grain, and meat of any kind, and 
they will lay all winter; at le'ast, that is my experience, and that of some of 
my neighbors, who have followed that course. Mr. Brown says hay breeds ver- 



332 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



[June 



min, and tobacco stalks must be used. We raise no tobacco nortb, and IVe 
used hay, and not liad a chicken louse in any of my chicken houses during any 
part of the season for years past. It is the fowl that breeds the vermin, or rather, 
they breed on the fowl. I've had stacks and hay-houses of hay for thirty years 
past, and never knew of their breeding a single chicken louse. I've found, by 
keeping my chicken-houses and coops clean and well whitewashed with lime and 
salt, or pickle mixed with it, I am not troubled with lice or the gapes. 

While on this subject I would recommend you to republish an article on the 
gapes. You will find on page 305 of the October, No. 10, of the New York Cul- 
tivator, 1844, where you will find the disease and its cure described. Since that 
time, now 17 years, by following that mode, I've never lost a fowl with the gapes, 
though I've operated on hundreds of chickens, turkeys and goslins, though 
never a single one of mine ever had the disease. 

Mat 9th, 1861. 

I had written the above a long time since, but mislaid it till now, when — 
although you have seceded and turned traitors to your government, and made 
war on the North — I thought I would send it to you to publish, so that when 
"Abraham" and his hosts, like Moses of old, goes down South to expel the 
traitors from the lands, (sparing the women and children,) they might have 
broiled chickens for breakfast. I yesterday operated on twenty chickens, which 
are now all doing well, and racing about as if nothing had ailed them. I send 
you some of the gape-worms, which, though shriveled up, you can form some idea 
of what they are, when fresh from the bronchus or windpipe. 

I am in doubt whether this communication may not be considered traitorous, 
as affording comfort and aid to the .enemy and traitors ; but, as I expect those 
who are true to the stars and stripes, will have their full share of the poultry 
yards, when they go down South, to re-hoist our national flag, I've have con- 
cluded to forward it to you. I remain your subscriber, 

Charles F. Morton, late Capt. 2d U. S. Infantry, 

And for the last thirty years a Farmer. 



[Above we give our readers " verbatim et literatim " a letter from Charles F. 
Morton, "late Capt. 2d U. S. In'fy" of N. Y. 

We*are sorry to find that any man, who "for the last thirty years" has occu- 
pied so respectable a position as that of " a Farmer," has sunk so low as to be 
willing to do the dirty work of "Abraham and his hosts" — of dirty followers. 
We hope he is, for his own sake, and the gentlemanly dignity which should 
belong to manhood, in his dotage. If he is, then this contemptible effort to 
bandy insult, can readily be excused. If he is not, we are inclined to the 
opinion that the " women and children " of this section of the late U. S-, will 
prove more than a match for an innumerable army of such chicken-hearted 
"late Captain's." 

We are perfectly willing to believe that, like himself, many of those who are 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



333 



professing such devotion to the " stars and stripes," would greatly prefer the run 
of the " poultry yards;" and, if they can succeed without incurring any danger 
to themselves, ' : vritt hare their full share of the poultry" — but we are by do 
means certain that patience or patriotism, will restrain them until they "go down 
South," and we advise their neighbors to keep a sharp look out. , 

We had supposed that the entire breed of Dung Hill chickens had " run 
out," but there seems to be a " late Captain " of them still left, who will doubt- 
less scon follow his "illustrious predecessors," if he should come South in the 
hope of acquiring " broiled chickens for breakfast."] — Ed. 



For the Southern Planter. 

A Poor Farm made Rich. 



Facts may strike the atttention of farmers, even in these troublous times. So 
in accordance with your urgent appeals in the spirited editorials of the April 
number, allow me to relate a remarkable case. Mr. B. bought a farm 01 200 
acres, fuur miles west of Gordonsville, on the famous stage route to Charlottes- 
ville — reduced, except a few acres around the house, below the point of paying 
for cultivation. His neighbour, Mr. C, agreed to plow up and sow it in wheat, 
with 200 pounds of Peruvian Guano per acre, taking all the grain and leaving 
the straw — C. doing all the work, and furnishing the guano; B. at no expense, 
except the seed wheat, which is returned to him out of the crop. The result 
was highly satisfactory to both parties. The point of the case is, that Mr. B. 
took good care to sow the whole abundantly with clover and Timothy, and to let 
the land have the full henefit of these grasses, aided by plaster and rest. This 
farm, which, five years ago, was too poor to bring crop or grass, is now covered 
with rich verdure by this one effort, costing the owner a years interest on the 
seed wheat, besides the grass seed and Plaster. 

A part of this same farm, bought by General G., treated in like manner, paid 
in the first crop of wheat, (sold at $2.10 per bushel,) for the land, the guano, 
and a handsome profit over — but, without the grasses, was not much improved. 

The permanent improvement of land by grasses is certain ; and the great use 
of guano and other manures in Virginia farming, is to bring luxuriant crops of 
grasses where otherwise they would not grow. Then the patience, I might say 
sense, to let the land have the full benefit of them, is, I consider, the great de- 
sideratum with us. It is not the want of grass seeding, or of plaster, or even 
of guano — for all these are rather liberally given — but the fact that so i'ew do 
allow the land to profit by them as they should do. 

In horticulture, or even lotadture, as most Northern farming is, the land may 
be enriched by manuring the whole surface; but with us that is idle and imprac- 
ticable; we must sow, and nourish, and save the grasses on our large fields, and 
thus certainly enrich them. . M. 

, Albemarle, April 1G/A, 1861. 



334 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



Purifying 1 Agents. 

Ever since Messrs. Corme and Demaux proposed sulphate of lime and coal 
tar as a disinfectant, purifying agents have been the order of the day. The 
merit of the discovery was of course at first disputed; and every one who 
thought he could contrive some disinfecting compound, sent papers and samples 
to the Academy of Medicine er of Science. The last applicant is M. Boinet, 
well known by his works on iodine, who, in a paper read September 20th, before 
the Academy of Medicine of Paris, contends that the foulest sores can be ren- 
dered perfectly sweet by applications of tincture of iodine. There will be no 
harm in trying this agent, which, no doubt, has already rendered very great ser- 
vice. Mr. Grace Calvert, of Manchester, has addsessed a letter to the French 
Academy in reference to this subject, (noticed in our last under the head of 
" Disinfection of Sores,") pointing out the great variation which exists in the 
composition of coal tar, and the consequent necessity for more accurately ascer- 
taining to which of the constituents the disinfecting properties are really due, in 
order to insure the uniform action of the preparation. From the results of his 
own experiments he considers that the antiseptic properties of the tar are entirely 
due to the carbolic acid present. He states that a corpse, injected with a weak 
solution of this acid, was preserved from decomposition for several weeks j and 
that a piece of flesh, steeped in carbolic acid, was exposed to the weather for 
three years without change. He also states, that a small quantity added to urine 
will preserve it from decomposition for some weeks ; and that it is also capable 
of preventing the gallic fermentation from taking place in the solutions of tan- 
ning substances. — Chemist and Druggist. 



Gas, Stone, and Shell-Lime Compared. 
In reply to a query from a correspondent, the Working Farmer remarks, 
upon the difference of value between these limes, that " shell lime, in its natural 
state, is very superior to stone lime, for Agricultural purposes, as it contains a 
trace of phosphate of lime, in and about that portion of the shell where the 
valve or muscle is attached by which the oyster is enabled to. close its shell, and 
usually known as the heat. When shell lime, however, has been used for the puri- 
fication of gas, its value is materially deteriorated, if intended for immediate use, 
as large amounts of sulphuret of lime are contained in the refuse of gas lime. 
By exposure to the atmosphere for one or two years, this sulphuret changes to 
sulphate of lime, known as Plaster of Paris, and after such change, it may be 
used with propriety ; but before the chemical changes occur, above referred to, 
the sulphuretted hydrogen occasionally given off, is unfriendly to vegetation. 
Afterwards, however, it has greater value than stone lime. The stone lime, be- 
fore use, is materially increased in value, if slaked with salt water, or a strong 
solution of salt, before using — in the proportion of one bushel of salt to three of 
lime — thus forming the chloride of lime and carbonate of soda, we have so often 
described as the lime and salt mixture." — Southern Cultivator. * 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



835 



Curious Terms. 

As Drunk as a Loon. — Few persons understand the force of this figure. 
A loon (or Walloon) is an aquatic bird, about the size of the muscovy duck. 
It is speckled very much like the Guinea fowl. It is a great diver. It utters 
a dismal scream at the approach of rain. Its feet are not in the middle of its 
body, but quite behind. A western man would say it was a stern-wheel affair. 
If it wishes to pass over land its only way is to draw its feet far forward under 
its body, rise up and pitch forward on its breast, draw forward its feet again, 
and so make its way. To be as drunk as a loon, then, is to be so drunk as not 
to be able to take one step without falling. I liave spoken of the western or 
fresh water loon. That of the salt water is larger, and is otherwise different. 

Bucketed is a phrase often used to describe intoxication in its various stages. 
In the western country cattle are, in the spring, let into the woods, where, in the 
absence of suitable food, they sometimes find the balls of the buckeye, (the 
largest kind of horse-chestnut,) and eat them. A very few seem to do no harm ; 
but a considerable number intoxicate the cattle. A gorge will send them home 
reeling and staggering like a drunken man. The resemblance in the gait of a 
drunken man is as perfect as that of any quadruped could be. ' I have seen 
grown people laugh heartily, not at the misery of the brute, but at its mimickry 
of man. The poison' of the buckeye often kills. 



How Canada Prize Butter was Made. 

The winner, of the silver medal for the best butter shown at the Provincial 
Exhibition, at Hamilton, C. W. } gave the process of making it, as follows : " My 
dairy consists of eight cows, which are milked regularly twice a day. I use 
earthenware pans, which are scalded with hot water and then cooled with cold 
water every time they are used. I let my milk stand forty-eight hours; I stir 
my cream every morning; churn twice a week, and use a box churn. I bring 
my cream out of the cellar over night and let it stand till the temperature is 
about 60°, then it generally takes from forty to sixty minutes churning. When 
the globules of cream begin to break, I put a little cold water into the churn, 
and continue to do so until the butter is well gathered. I have my butter tray 
well scalded with boiling water, then rinsed with cold water, then take the butter 
out of the churn with a wooden ladle, and first work out the buttermilk; sec- 
ondly, wash it well with clear cold water, and thirdly I work in the salt in the 
proportion of about one pound of salt to twenty pounds of butter ; after which 
I wash it again with cold water, and let it stand in the butter tray in the cellar 
till evening, then work it again and leave it till morning, then work out all the 
water possible. It is then ready to pack in the firkin. 

The manner in which I prepare the firkin for use is as follows : I first put a 
handful of salt and one of bran into the firkin, and also one pail of scalding 
water, and cover it close for an hour, after which I empty it and fill with cold 
water, and let it stand a day, then empty and rub well with,salt; the firkin is 



336 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



full I put a cloth on the butter and cover the cloth with a thick layer of salt to 
keep the air from the butter. I use the common salt, rolled, and I consider it 
the best — Rural N< w Yorker. 



Cheap and Expeditious Method of Preserving Timber. 

The method pursued at Closeburn, by the late Sir Charles G. S. Mentcith, in 
preparing wood for the purposes of building, was to saw it into such lengths as 
the occasion demands; next, to plunge the planks or beams into a pond, of suit- 
able dimensions, having the bottom and' sides rendered water-tight. Before 
receiving the wood, a quantity of fresh-burned lime was thrown into a pond and 
well stirred with the water, to dissolve as much as possible of it. Into this 
strongly-impregnated solution of lime-water the planks or beams were then 
thrown. As lime-water absorbs carbonic acid from the air, the lime previously 
held dissolved in the water becomes insoluble and falls to the bottom, and 
becomes carbonate of lime. Hence the necessity of now and then throwing in 
fresh portions of recently-calcined lime, that the solution may maintain its 
strength. 

With respect to the time that it is necessary to soak the wood in lime-water, 
it must depend very much upon the thickness and texture of the wood; roofing 
timber of fir will require at least a fortnight ; larger and closer grained wood, as 
oak and other ship timber, ought to be steeped for three or four weeks, or even a 
longer time. - 

j^fter removing the wood from the lime-water pond, it must be allowed to dry 
and season before it is used. 

Among the benefits that this preparation of wood, by the late Sir C. G-. S. 
Mentieth, presents, we may safely enumerate the following, viz: 

1. The lime which is absorbed by the pores of the wood, appears to alter or 
destroy the albuminous and saccharine principles, and, destroyiBg the food of 
the worm, saves the wood from its ravages. 

2. The last elements, the albumen and sugar, having been so acted upon by 
the lime, there is less apprehension of the wood being infected by the dry rot. 

3. The wood soaked in lime ^vater becomes firmer in texture and more durable. 
It is the well-known property of waters holding lime in solution, called '• petri- 
fying wells," to penetrate and deposit upon all substances exposed to their in- 
fluence small crystals of carbonate of lime. When wood is plunged for some 
time in a strong lime-water solution, a slight petrifaction of the wood is observ- 
able. The carpenter who has to work up the wood taken out of the lime-water 
pond, complains grievously that the edge of his plane is constantly blunted, and 
requires to be again and again sharpened. This arises irom the small crystals 
of carbonate of lime covering the surface of the wood, and also from their having 
insinuated themselves into the pores of the wood; the plane coming in contact 
with these has its edge taken off. Were the wood, prior to being put into the 
pond, smoothed witfc the plane, this objection of the carpenter would be prevented. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



337 



For the Southern Planter: 

Rearing Calves. 

The method I have always pursued in rearing calves, has been to bring them 
up by hand instead of permitting them to run to the cow. As soon as the calf 
is a day old, or two days at the farthest, it is removed from its dam and confined, 
so that it can be readily caught. It is then taught to drink milk, and this is 
performed in the following manner: The dairy-woman holds the calf with one 
hand, whilst she introduces two or three fingers of the other into its mouth. 
When this is done, the bovine infant, under the promptings of instinct, immedi- 
ately commences sucking; its mouth is then immersed in a pail of milk just 
drawn from the cow, and as it continues to suck the finger it obtains the desired 
supply of food. After the calf has got fairly under way, in this agreeable and 
natural operation, the fingers ought to be gently withdrawn from its mouth; if it 
then, as it probably will do, raises its head from the pail, the process must be 
repeated until it has learned to " drink alone." But, ordinarily, in two or three 
times feeding this will have been accomplished, and then all trouble is at an 
end. 

There is considerable diversity in the disposition of calves in this respect, 
some learning to drink more readily and kindly than others. The exercise, 
however, of a little patience and gentleness will generally be rewarded with suc- 
cess. Although I have known a few individuals of tempers so stubborn and 
intractable that they could not be taught to drink, albeit the efforts to do so were 
seconded by 

....'• hunger and thirst at once, 
Powerful persuaders." .... 

But such cases are of rare occurrence. 

When the calf has learned to drink without the finger, it ought to be turned 
into a grass lot, (if the season permits,) as it will soon begin to graze. This 
method of rearing calves is attended with much less trouble than turning them 
to the cows morning and evening. I have occasionally reared one in that way, 
and it always gave more trouble than- a half dozen on the plan recommended. 
It is a considerable task to wean a calf which has gone to its dam morning and 
evening, daily, for six weeks or two months, so strong becomes the attachment 
of the mother to her off-spring. 

Under the treatment described above calves soon acquire a degree of self-reli- 
ance that enables them to shift for themselves, and whilst they may not present 
the sleek and pampered appearance of those carefully " wet-nursed," they will 
be equally thrifty and more hardy, so that when entirely deprived of milk they 
loose but little flesh. 

I continue to give them milk until at least two months old ; after the first 
three or four weeks, however, skimmed milk may be substituted as their food — 
and it promotes the thrift of the caif to add to it a small quantity of scalded 

corn-meal or ship-stuff. 

22 



338 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

Calves are sometimes deprived of milk when but a month old, and although 
they will generally survive this harsh treatment, yet it is a plan not to be com- 
mended, as it renders them pot-bellied and unsightly, and for a long time stunts 
their growth, if the animal is not permanently injured by this infantile starving. 
If, when their supply of milk is discontinued, the calves are turned into fresh 
and nutritious pastures their growth will scarcely sustain a perceptible check. 

As the time of the parturition of domestic animals is in a great measure 
under the control of the farmer, he ought to provide for having, most of his 
calves at least, in the spring, from March to June. Calves coming at this season 
will not only have an abundant supply of green food as soon as they can avail 
themselves of it, but will, by the beginning of winter, have attained such age 
as to enable them to resist its severities without much suffering or injury. 

I am well satisfied from my experience that the best mode of wintering calves 
is upon a field of winter grain, wheat or rye. I think any one having ten or a 
dozen calves to winter, where early seeding is impracticable, would find it econo- 
my to sow a few acres of rye, the last of August or first September, for their 
special benefit, even if he should plough it up in the spring for some other 
crop. 

I had ten calves all last winter upon about fifteen acres of rye. They were 
never fed except when the ground was covered with snow, and then a little corn- 
fodder was thrown them. They were removed from the rye on the 6th of this 
month, in as fine condition-as I would wish them, fat and thrifty. 

I am in the habit of salting calves regularly and bountifully. It seems more 
grateful to them even than to grown cattle, and they will consume nearly as 
much per head. 

The method of rearing calves I have recommended in this paper, is predicated 
upon the idea that they are the offspring of cows kept for milking. Where the 
herd is maintained for the sole purpose of rearing cattle, the owner of course 
would not incur the labour of drawing the milk from the cows in order to feed 
it to the calves. 

The male calves ought to be castrated at an early age ; the younger they are 
when this operation is performed, the better, both upon considerations of hu- 
manity and interest. When allowed to run, as is often the case, until a year or 
more old before emasculation, the horns become thick, the neck heavy and "dew- 
lapped like Thessalian bulls," impairing very considerably the intrinsic, as well 
as the exchangeable value of the animal. The heifer calves, which are not in- 
tended to be reared for cows, ought to be spayed. An operation more safely and 
easily performed when the calf is but a few months, or even weeks old, than if 
postponed until it is a year old, or upwards. Spayed heifers are valuable, be- 
cause they fatten more easily and rapidly, and make better beef than steers. 

The only disease calves are subject to in this part of the State is what is 
called " black-leg," or " quarter evil." But this is, I think, much less prevalent 
now than formerly. It rarely attacks them after they have reached the age of 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



339 



twelve or fifteen months. It is most common during winter among calves of the 
preceding spring. The general impression is, which is probably correct, that it 
more frequency attacks fat and thrifty calves, than those in inferior condition. 
And I have sometimes known farmers to excuse the "lean, guant, and hungry" 
appearance of their calves upon this hypothesis. This disease runs its course 
rapidly. The first intimation of its presence often being the discovery of one of 
it3 victims stretched in the fence corner. I know no remedy for it. Nor am I 
aware that any individual has ever recovered from an attack, but there may be 
such cases. When the skin is removed from an animal dying of this disease, 
one quarter, rarely more, is found blackened by the extravasated blood, hence 
the name " black-leg " given to the malady. I have lost very few calves from 
this disorder, and hence my observation is much too limited to enable me to 
speak with confidence in reference to it. How far my habit of regular and 
abundant salting may have operated as a preventive, I know not, yet I am in- 
clined to place considerable confidence in its efficacy in that respect ; like a quiet 
conscience, it " helpeth digestion," and thus promotes the general health and 
well-being of the animal. T. 

Augusta, April ~[§th } 1861. 



Wise Sayings. 

The Cranes of Ibycus. — This is a proverb well known to the Greek scholar. It 
had its birth in a story so remarkable and of so deep a moral interest, that we 
shall not hesitate to repeat it. Ibycus, a famous lyrical poet of Greece, journey- 
ing to Corinth, was assailed by robbers; as he fell beneath their murderers 
strokes, he looked around to see if any witnesses or avengers were nigh. No 
living thing was in sight, but a flight of cranes soaring high over head. He 
called on them committed the avenging of his blood. A vain commission, as it 
might have appeared, and as no doubt it did to the murderers appear. Yet it 
was not so ; for those sitting a little time after in the open theatre at Corinth, 
beheld this flight of cranes hoveriDg above them, and one said scoffingly to 
another, "Lo, there, the avengers of Ibycus." The words were caught up by 
some near them ; for already the poet's disappearance had awakened anxiety and 
alarm. Being questioned, they betrayed themselves, and were led to their doom, 
and " the cranes of Ibycus" passed into a proverb, very much as our " murder 
will out," to express the wondrous leadings of God, whereby the secretest thing 
of blood is continually brought to light. 

It is easy to go a-foot when one leads one's horse by the bridle. — How exquis- 
itely delicate is the touch of this French Proverb. How fine an insight into the 
inner workings of the human heart is here. It is easy to stoop from state, when 
that state may be resumed at will; easy to part with luxuries and indulgences, 
which he only parts with exactly so long as it may please himself. No reason, 
indeed, is to be found in this comparative easiness for the not " going afoot;" on 



£ 



340 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

the contrary, it may be a most profitable exercise; but every reason for not 
esteeming the doing so too highly, nor setting it in value beside the trudging 
upon foot of him who has no horse to fall back on at whatever moment he may 
please. 

He who says what he likes, shall hear ichat he does not like. — This is an 
English proverb, and gives a motive for self-government in speech; and this 
Spanish one is in a higher strain : 

The evil which issues from thy mouth falls into thy bosom. — Nor is it enough 
to abstain ourselves from all such words ; we must not make ourselves partakers 
in those of others, which it is only too easy to do ; for, as the Chinese have said 
very well : He who laughs at an impertinence, makes himself its accomplice. 

There is no worse robber than a bad book — This is a proverb from Italy. 
Other robbers may spoil us of our money, but this one of our "goods;" of our 
time at any rate, even assuming the book to be only negatively bad; but of how 
much more of our principles, our faith, our purity of heart, supposing its badness 
to be positive, and not negative only ? 

A child may have too much of its mother's blessing. — Yes, for that blessing 
may be no blessing, but rather a curse, if it take the shape of foolish and fond 
indulgence ; and in the same strain is this German : Better the child weep than 
the father. — Trench. 

Sowing Grass Seed in the Fall. 

P. Morrill, in the Maine Farmer, offers the following reasons for sowing grass 
after harvesting the grain crop, instead of with it in the spring : 

Grass seed should be sown in the fall, because it is the natural time; and as 
much so as winter rye or wheat. By turning under the stubble of your grain 
crops to prepare for sowing grass seed, you give your grass seed the clean pos- 
session of land. If sown with grain in the spring, the tender grass plants are 
crowded, above and below grouud, by grain and weeds above, and their roots 
below, and for three months have a hard struggle for life in the shade. Is there 
any other plant that would sustain life so crowded and shaded as grass plants are 
when sowed with grain ? All plants derive the chief part of the bulk and value 
through their leaves, and when grass seed is sown with grain at the time of har- 
vesting the grain by mowing, as is now the common practice, the grass 
leaves are nearly all cut of, leaving the bare stalk suddenly exposed to the 
scorching, withering rays of the sun to struggle for life. Can it surprise any 
one that, after such exposure and trial, his crops of grass, on which his hopes of 
a good crop are strongly based, should prove short and thin ? 

His method of preparing and sowing is as follows : — Plow the land just deep 
enough to cover the stubble completely, harrow with a light harrow, then sow 
the grass seed, and brush it in thoroughly. 






The broken word, the sped arrow, past life, and neglected opportunity, never 
return. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



311 



Timothy and Clover, and Winter Wheat. 

HOW TO PREPARE CLAY AND LOAM SOILS TOR TIMOTHY AND CLOVER — HOW TO 
PREPARE GROUND FOR WINTER WHEAT. 

I was asked not long since, by a neighbor farmer, the best mode of preparing 
our clay and loam soils, for stocking with timothy and clover, with the request 
that I would, through the Farmer, solicit its readers to give their experience in 
the matter, and also their experience in preparing the ground for winter wheat, 
and to give the matter a start, I will give mine. 

It has been my custom, instead of summer fallowing the ground and lying out 
of a crop, to break my sod in the_ spring;^ about eight to ten inches deep, and 
sot on oats. T take much pains to break the ground well, and cover all the 
grass. I sow three bushels to the acre. As soon as I can after harvest, I plow 
my stubble into eight-paced lands, and manure it as well as I can, and give it a 
thorough harrowing, and sow one and a half bushels of wheat per acre ; and if 
I sow timothy alone, I put on twelve quarts per acre; if mixed with clover, I 
sow eight quarts of timothy when I sow my wheat, and in March following, I 
sow clover, and in so doing, I have never failed to get my ground well seeded. 
The past fall I prepared six acres as above, and it looks well. 

I tried an experiment on a piece of five acres, as follows : — After oats, I 
plowed and managed it the same as the six acres, except the manure. I had on 
hand about seven hundred and sixty pounds. I gave directions to sow on two 
bags broadcast, leaving one land unsown, to see the difference, if any should be 
apparent. Instead of sowing two bags, as ordered, my man sowed five bags, 
harrowing the ground before sowing. On sowing the piece, I gathered up in 
lumps that I found, about one bagful. The result so far is, that the wheat and 
oats that sprouted up is a perfect swamp, and in many places lodged down ; 
while, on the land that was not sown with guano, the wheat looks apparently 
weak and feeble. The grass seed sown on the land where the guano was sown, 
is alike forward. My greatest fear is that my wheat will be so rank next season 
as to be worthless. While, on the other hand, if a suitable amount had been 
put on the land, I might look for a great crop of wheat. 

• I would like to inquire also, if any of your readers have tried sowing peas, 
instead of oats, to prepare the ground for wheat? Let us hear from some of them 
on the above. — Chester Palmer, Mulberry Corners, 0. — Ohio Farmer. 



How the Chinese make Dwarf Trees. 

We have all known, from childhood, how the Chinese cramp their women's 
feet, and so manage to make them " keepers at home," but how they contrive to 
grow miniature pines and oaks in flower pots for half a century, has always been 
much of a secret. With the breaking down of their famous wall, and of their 
exclusiveness, this, among other curious nonsense, has been partly discovered and 
understood. It is the product chiefly of skilful, long continued root pruning. 



342 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

They aim, first and last, at the seat of vigorous growth, endeavoring to weaken 
it as far as may consist with the preservation of life. 

They begin at the beginning. Taking a young plant, (say a seedling or cut- 
ting of a cedar,) when only two or three inches high, they cut off its tap-root, 
as soon as it has other rootlets enough to live upon, and replant it in a shallow 
earthen pot or pan. The end of the tap-root is generally made to rest on the 
bottom of the pan, or on a flat stone within it. Alluvial clay is then put into 
the pot, much of it in bits the size of beans, and just enough in kind and quan- 
tity to furnish a scanty nourishment to the plant. Water enough is given to 
keep it in growth, but not enough to excite a vigorous habit. So, likewise, in 
the application of light and heat. As the Chinese pride themselves, also, on the 
shape of their miniature trees, they use strings, wires and pegs, and various 
other mechanical contrivances to promote symmetry of habit, or to fashion their 
pets into odd, fancy figures. 

Thus, by the use of very shallow pots, the growth of tap-roots is out of the 
question ; by the use of poor soil, and little of it, and little water, strong growth 
is prevented. Then, too, the tap and side roots being within easy reach of the 
gardner, are shortened by his pruning-knife, or seared with his hot iron. So, 
the little tree, finding itself headed off on every side, gives up the idea of strong 
growth, asking only for life, and just growth enough to live and look well. Ac- 
cordingly, each new set of Jeaves becomes more and more stunted; the buds and 
rootlets are diminished in proportion, and at length a balance is established be- 
tween every part of the tree, making it a dwarf in all respects. In some kinds 
of trees this end is reached in three or four years, in others ten or fifteen years 
are necessary. Such is fancy horticulture among the " celestials." 

American Agriculturist. 



Abuse of Old Horses. 

I feel a deep sympathy for old horses. It is a common practice in this country 
to make old horses break the colt, and too often work with them for years. It 
is hard for an old horse to work with a colt, or a young, active horse. Old 
horses, like old men, are often capable of performing more hard work than some 
young ones, who can beat them for an hour or more. The old man wants to 
take a moderate jog, and can hold out all day; but a little over exertion for a 
few minutes, unstrings him perhaps for all day. An old horse, driven at the 
top of his speed a few miles, spoils the day's journey. When once made sore or 
strained, the result is stiffness the next day. The old horse should not haul his 
load to town, and then be forced to trot back. It does not injure him as much 
to do the heavy work with slow motion, as to do the light jobs, at the fast gait. 

Again the old horse requires more time to eat his meals, and rest his nerves. 
Of all animals, the old horse is the worst abused. Although he has been our 
most faithful and profitable servant, yet in his old age, the lash is applied to 
force out his youthful vigor. The older he grows, the more he feels the lash. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



343 



He is often turned out of doors, to give place to the colts. Too often the neg- 
lect and abuse he is subjected to, because he is a little old, results in a greater 
loss, than is made up in the care for the young horse. The last part of a 
horse's" life's may be more profitable, if rightly used than the first part. There 
is more comfort and less danger, in working old horses. We understand them, 
and they understand us ; and we should be as willing to conform to their nature, 
as they are to conform to our wishes. It would be more humane, as well as more 
profitable, to use them as they should be, as long as it would pay, and then take 
them out and shoot them down. But the wicked practice is to knock them about 
as much as they will bear, and pay well, and then trade them off to some more 
inhuman wretch than themselves. The old servant is gone among strangers, and 
he receives no sympathy in his last extremity. We do not blush to say, that the 
man who has enjoyed the profits and pleasures of a good horse, as long as he 
was profitable, and then shoves him off among inhuman jockeys, is an inhuman, 
treacherous and a suspicious friend. The man who does so withont regard to 
how his horse may be cared for, is, in my estimation, of a suspicious character ; 
and I never see a horse abused, so as to excite pity, but my sympathies are di- 
rected to the man's wife, and children, also, (if he has them.) Gentle reader of 
the Ohio Farmer, I am not alone in entertaining these sentiments ; they are 
perhaps more general than you are aware, but it seems my lot to express them. 
Hoping this admonition may redound to the comfort of some old horse, I am — 
W. Pierce, Ravenna, Ohio. 

[We endorse every sentiment of the above. A good farmer who would sell 
an old horse to get rid of him, would sell an aged parent just as readily.] 

Ohio Farmer. 



The Use of Raw-Hide. 

How few persons know the value of raw-hide. It seems almost strange to see 
them sell all of their " deacon" skins for the small sum of thirty or forty cents. 
Take a strip of well-tanned raw-hide an inch wide, and a horse can hardly break 
it by pulling back — two of them he cannot break any way. 

Cut into narrow strips and shave the hair off with a sharp knife, to use for 
bag strings ; the strings will outlast two sets of bags. Farmers know how per- 
plexing it is to lend bags and have them returned minus strings. 

It will out-last hoop iron (common) in any shape, and is stronger. It is good 
to rap around a broken thill — better than iron. 

Two sets of raw-hide halters will last a man's life-time — (if he don't live too 
long, j 

In some places the Spaniards use raw-hide log-chains to work cattle with, cut 
into narrow strips and twisted together hawser fashion. It is good to tie in for a 
broken link in a trace chain. It can be tanned so it will be soft and pliable like 
harness leather. Save a cow and " deacon pelt," and try it. 

Country Gentleman. 



344 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

Old Horses. 

The term old, as applied to horses, is generally intended to convey not only 
the statement of their age being past marks in the mouth, but also the common 
impression that comparatively they are of little value, if past eight or nine 
years. Now, if we rightly understand it, the horse has not attained his full 
growth and perfection of bodily frame, until he has passed his seventh year; 
and until that growth is attained, he is just as unfitted for extreme hard labor ad 
a man before arriving at full manhood. In this country, the practice of putting 
horses to work at two and three years usually results in their becoming broken 
down by over-driving or over-straining before they have attained firmness of 
muscle, and capacity for enduring labor. Thus it is, that horses are often, with 
us, rendered comparatively valueless before they have in truth arrived at an age 
of full powers and endurance. We have owned a number of horses, and when- 
ever we have had one that had not been injured before arriving at maturity, we 
have found him more capable of performing regular labor at from ten to fifteen, 
than those of four to seven years. In our opinion, therefore, judging from 
observation, we consider the horse in his prime at from nine to thirteen years of 
age, always remembering that previous to his having attained his growth, say at 
seven years, he has not been over-driven, strained, or otherwise injured by rea- 
son of high stimulating food or abuse. — Ohio Farmer. 



What We are Made Of. 

The following is from an article by Oliver Wendell Holmes : 
If the reader of this paper lives another year, his self-conscious principle will 
have migrated from his present tenement to another, the raw materials even of 
which are not yet put together. A portion of that body which is to be, will 
ripen in the corn of his next harvest. Another portion of his future person he 
will purchase, or others will purchase for him, headed up in the form of certain 
barrels of potatoes. A third fraction is yet to be gathered in the Southern rice- 
field. The limbs with which he is then to walk will be clad with flesh borrowed 
from the tenants of many stalls and pastures, now unconscious of- their doom. 

The very organs of speech with which he is to talk so wisely, plead so elo- 
quently, or speak so effectively, must first serve his humble brethren to bleat, to 
bellow, and for the varied utterance of bristled or feathered barn-yard life. -His 
bones themselves are, to a great extent, in posse, and not esse. A bag of phos- 
phate of lime, which he has ordered for his grounds, contains a large part of 
what is to be his skeleton. And more than this, by far the greater part of his 
body is nothing at all but water — the main substance of his scattered members 
is to be looked for in the reservoir, in the running streams, at the bottom of the 
well, in the clouds that float over his head, or diffused among them all. 



Never insult misery, nor deride infirmity. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



345 



From the Northwestern Farmer. 

How much Pork will a Bushel of Corn make. 

We have seen of late several statements as to the yield of pork from a bushel 
of corn. One of seventeen pounds net, and another of twenty pounds to the 
bushel. We have to say in the beginning, that the animal, its health, and adap- 
tation to fattening, or taking on flesh, have much to do with this subject — also 
its age and maturity. 

We have before us a report of an experiment made by Mr. Lawes, of Eng- 
land, and published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. 

Thirty-six pigs, three in each pen, weighing as nearly as possible to 140 lbs. 
each, were obtained. These were fed Egyptian beans, lentils, corn-meal and 
bran. From the report we condense the following table : 



No. of Pen. Kind of Food. Weight of food for 8 weeks. 

1. Bean and lentil meal, 1,512 lbs. 

2. " " " and corn meal, ^>W^ 

3. " " " bran, 1,31)4 
4- " " " bran and Ind. corn meal, 1,428 

Each series represents the feeding of twelve pigs, three in each pen. 
above but little corn meal was given. 

5. 
6. 
7. 



Indian corn, 1,086 lbs. 

* and of bean and lentil meal, 336, total, 1,401 
« bran, 336, total, 1,399 



it 



bran, bean and lentil meal, 672, total, 1,586 
9. ") These experiments were with bran chiefly, in 

10. y which 3,000 pounds were fed, and a gain 

11. 3 realized, on nine pigs, of 

12. This pen', eat of bean and lentil meal 684 lbs., 

Indian corn meal 616 lbs., bran 71 lbs., 



Increase. 

303 lbs. 
336 " 
200 " 
252 " 

To the 



221 lbs. 
298 ft 
309 " 
347 " 



392 " 
356 " 



It will be seen by this table that pen 5 gave a net increase of 221 lbs. for 1,086 
lbs. meal, being little over 10 lbs. to the bushel. 

" It is stated in regard to this pen, that during the first fortnight one of the 
pigs gained over 2 lbs. per day, while the other two gained only about half as 
much. Before the end of the first period, it was, however, observed that this 
fast gaining pig, and one of the others, had large swellings on the side of their 
necks ; and, at the same time, their breathing had become much labored. ' It 
was obvious that the Indian corn meal alone was, in some way, a defective diet.' 
Though Indian corn is comparatively poor in nitrosreneous as well as in mineral 
matter* it was thought that in this case it was the latter, rather than the former, 
which was deficient, and accordingly the pigs were supplied with a mixture of 20 
lbs. finely sifted coal ashes, 4 lbs. common salt, and 1 lb. superphosphate of lime. 
A trough containing this mixture was put into the pen, and the pigs soon began 
to lick it with evident relish. From this time the swellings or tumors, as well as 
the difficulty in breathing, which probably arose from the pressure of the for- 
mer, began to diminish rapidly. Indeed, at the end of the second period, they 



346 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

had disappeared entirely. The quantity of this mixture consumed by the three 
pi*s, was nine pounds, during the first fortnight or period of its use; six during 
the second, and nine during the third. The quality of the meat of these Indian 
corn fed pigs, we should suppose, was excellent, — for it is said that a dealer 
in pork, with a practical eye, selected and purchased the carcass of one of these 
pigs which had been diseased, from among the whole thirty-sixty, after they had 
been killed and hung up." 

In these experiments it was ascertained that feeding 449 lbs. of bean, lentil 
meal, and corn meal, gave 100 lbs. increase of live weight. Further experiments 
prove corn meal superior to any other feed for hogs. 

Towards the close of this lengthy detailed report, we find the following: " to 
produce 100 lbs. of pork consumes 491 lbs. of Indian corn." We presume this 
is taken from the result with pen 5. 

We do not consider it safe for any pork grower to estimate upon over ten 
pounds of pork to each bushel of corn consumed — especially if fed in the ear as 
is usually practised in Prairiedom. The general tenor of this report evidences 
that no one food is best alone, or as productive in flesh as when mxed with other 
food. 

Mr. Richard Thatcher, in New York Tribune, gives details of experiments on 
Chester County Whites, which gave a result of 16 J and 17 J lbs. to the bushel. 

Amboi/, III. * H. W. G. 

Importance of Salt in Agriculture. 

If we should ask why so enormous a quantity of this inestimable gift of salt is 
distributed throughout the earth.; why three-fourths of the surface of the planet 
designed for the home of man is covered with it ? the answer would be : in order 
to preserve the work of nature, to enable man the more readily to sustain him- 
self, and to make him wealthier and better. It has become an indispensable con- 
dition for the existence of man, and his civilization. In all organic beings we 
meet with two processes — that of life and that of decomposition — the latter be- 
ginning its full activity after the former Las achieved its end, at the moment 
when organic beings are dissolved into those constituents from which the plant 
was formed and nourished. 

If, however, we intend to check, or, at least, delay decomposition, we must em- 
ploy acids, for we know that the Creator formed of the sea-salt a mighty barrier 
against the immeasurable mass of water becoming putrid ; we know that our 
stocks of flesh, grease, &c, are preserved by the application of salt ; that cab- 
bage-water, acids in general, and kitchen-salt are the means employed by the 
agriculturist against septic diseases in our domestic animals, and against diseases 
of the mouth and feet. The separation of milk and deposit of meat will be in- 
creased by the application of salt, thus forming an essential means for the promo- 
tion of cattle-raising. By the application of salt, the fruits, especially wine, will 
become much better; and even the ancients were in the habit of throwing salt 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



347 



on their grounds, their vineyards, and fruit trees. Agricultural chemistry informs 
us that the simplest comhinations through which nourishment is conveyed to 
plants consist in acids, alkalies, and alkaline substances. Animal chemistry shows 
that free muriatic acid and kitchen-salt form the principal constituents of the 
contents of the stomach. 

In a French prize paper, by Dr. Desaive, on the manifold advantages of the 
use of salt in agriculture, the following results have been laid down by the cele- 
brated French veterinary surgeon, Grogniez : 

Common salt serves as a preventive of the fermentation and heating of hay, 
which has been heaped up in large stacks during wet weather. Forty quintals 
of hay require fifteen pounds of salt, to be strewn among it in alternative layers. 

This effect is much better shown iu straw, which, if intended to be used as 
fodder, by being moistened with salt-water, may be preserved for a long time, 
when it can be given to cattle instead of hay, a method in use among the an- 
cients. 

Leaves of trees, when put in ditches with salt, may be prevented for a long- 
time from putrefactive fermentation, and will even make good forage. Intelli- 
gent farmers of the Mont d'Orlyonais are in the habit of thus preserving their 
vine leaves as fodder for goats. 

Fodder of inferior quality, for instance, straw, or other kinds, soaked and 
bleached by rain and sun, cured too late, or become woody, may be rendered 
more palatable and easy of digestion by being saluted. A pound of salt in three 
quarts of water is required for a quintal of bad hay. 

The sharp taste which the milk of cows usually assumes in consequence of 
beets, turnips, and white cabbage being continually fed to them, can be removed 
by salting those vegetables. 

In Flanders, common salt is strewn on new and wet oats, to be fed to horses, 
and, thus prepared, will not be dangerous to the animals. The same application 
may also be made to hay newly harvested, to prevent injuries when it may be- 
come necessary to feed such hay, the moisture of which has not been fully evap- 
orated. 

Though the bad qualities of dusty, muddy, or moldy fodder, after having been 
washed and threshed, are not entirely removed, yet, by giving a sprinkling of 
salt-water, they will be diminished to a considerable degree. This fact will be of 
advantage to the farmer whenever he may be in want of appropriate fodder. 

By means of salt, such water as otherwise could not be used for cattle for 
drinking, will be rendered proper. 

The great advantage to be derived from common salt with regard to the health 
of cattle have been clearly shown by many experiments made by that learned 
and celebrated agriculturist of Alsace, M. Boussingault. Cattle, by being fed 
with salt, receive a soft and glossy skin, their digestion and appetite are in good 
order, and they increase in flesh and strength. Cows thus fed yield much milk, 
while those treated otherwise have dull skins, with rough hairs, exhibit less appe- 



348 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



ti'tc, produce a smaller amount of flesh, and yield not only an inferior quantity, 
but also quality, of milk. 

Manure from cattle fed with salted fodder is also of a better quality. 

Finally, manuring with salt will banish mosses and hurtful parasital plants 
from meadows. — U. S. Patent Office Report. 



Meteorology for the Farmers Again. 

Three or four months ago, when Lieutenant Maury was in England, he was 
consulted on behalf of the government there, on the subject of giving, for the 
benefit of shipping, warning by telegraph of approaching storms. His opinion 
as to the importance and value of the magnetic telegraph as a meteorological 
implement, which has for several years been so often expressed in the columns 
of the Ohio Farmer, was reiterated, and a detailed account of the plan given 
in a letter addressed last December to the Royal commission on Light Houses, 
&c, showing how, through them and the' telegraph, timely warning might be 
given of many a storm. The plan is now in practice there ; and on the 7th ult, 
the Admiral in charge of this new system of meteorology, telegraphed to the 
principal ports of the realm to look out for a storm on the 9th. And sur 
enough, those shores were on the 9th visited by one of the most furious and de- 
structive storms ever known. 

These warnings are as important to the farmer, and indeed to all classes of 
citizens whose pursuits or avocations are at all affected by the weather, as they 
are to ships and seamen. We hope the new administration will enable Lieut. 
Maury to carry out his plans. Other nations have tried, approved and adopted 
them, so that they are now pressed upon us with the lights of experience. 

We perceive that he has recently addressed a letter to the new Secretary of 
the Navy upon the subject, which we are gratified to learn has been favorably 
received. The American Telegraph' Company, whose lines extend from Nova 
Scotia to New Orleans, have in the most liberal manner tendered to Lieutenant 
Maury their co-operation. 

We hope the farmers will take the matter up, and encourage this move: for 
by discussing it in their clubs, and before their Agricultural Societies, the plan 
will find such favor with the people as to ensure an order by the government for 
its adoption. 

The following in commendation of it, is from a recent number of " The 
Scotchman," of Edinburgh : 

Captain Maury, of the Washington Observatory, on the prediction of storms 

along our coasts. 
•The lately appointed British Royal Commission, to inquire into the whole sub- 
ject of the purposes, uses, construction and management of lighthouses, has had 
a questioa before it which no previous Lighthouse Board, we believe, ever had, 
and which may fairly be taken as a sign of the progress of physical science in 






1861.] 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 



349 



the age io which we live. The question stated formally is : " In the event of 
telegraph wires being laid down from the Board of Trade to each lighthouse, 
what sort of meteorological information should be transmitted for the purpose of 
being signaled to passing ships ?" 

Answers to this question have been sought by the Commission from the most 
eminent men of science in this country; and not satisfied with such information 
as our own island could supply, they have sought advice and counsel from an 
eminent American, who has made the dangers of nautical life a subject of care- 
ful study. This gentleman, we need hardly say, is Captain Maury, of the Uni- 
ted States Navy, known in reading circles as the author of the " Physical Geog- 
raphy of the Sea/' and known and honored in every sea that is sailed over by 
ships, either European or American, for his admirable " Wind and Current 
Charts" — charts which are founded on a comparison and systematic discussion of 
a large number of nautical observations than, we may safely say, were ever be- 
fore collected, compared and discussed by any man, living or dead. 

The subject came before Captain Maury at a time when the critical condition 
of his country had claims upon his attention, which might have excused him had 
he postponed its consideration. But no sooner did the communication of the 
British Royal Commission reach him, than he entered into the subject earnestly, 
and wrote out a copious and instructive reply, which we are unable to insert. 
But it may interest nautical readers to learn that he is anxious to see the plan 
adopted, of communicating the approach of storms by signals to ships from every 
light-house. He holds, that, though storms cannot be predicted in all cases, they 
may in many; and this by the establishment of a central office to which meteo- 
rological observations should be transmitted by telegraph from a wide circle o ' 
surrounding stations, and compare together. He points out that, taking a gene- 
ral view of the world, the coasts of Britain are peculiarly dangerous, for they 
seldom fail to present a lee-shore to the sailor in any and every wind that blows. 

On the other hand, the geographical position of these islands is such as would 
enable them to give early and valuable warnings to countries eastward, of western 
storms. Predictions of weather founded on observations at any one point would 
exhibit uncertainty and confusion, but when derived from observations at many 
and distant points, instantaneously communicated and combined, order and se- 
quence appear, and the progressive march of special storms can be traced. 
Hence a central meteorological office is in a vastly more favorable position for 
ju'lping of the weather than any single ship, though steered by a scientific com- 
mander, amply provided with barometers and thermometers. To every ship, 
therefore, when it comes into the neighbourhood of our iron-bound shores, after 
its solitary voyage through the watery waste, it would be one of the greatest 
boons conceivable if each lighthouse hung out a signal, intimating what Captain 
Maury well Calls " the invisible dangers of the atmosphere," thereby indicating 
to the mariner from what quarter he may presently expect a storm to break forth, 



350 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

which coast will be dangerous, and which safe for him, to be found in the neigh- 
bourhood of — — . 

Had any such system been in operation when that magnificent Australian 
liner, the Royal Charter, with its hundreds of passengers, came in sight of our 
shores, after the long voyage, with its precious freight from the other side of the 
world, the dire calamity which ensued could never have occurred. That sad 
wreck shocked the public mind for a moment grievously, yet it is but a drop in the 
great aggregate of the nation's losses in the same manner, and from the same 
causes, as the public notifications of more than a thousand weeks in the year 
testify. Is it not a duty then to endeaver, by such means as science puts into 
our hands, to lessen the number of such calamities ; and shall we not unite our 
efforts with those of the public-spirited American who gives us the aid of his 
abilities and his immense experience in the laudable enterprise. — Ohio Farmer. 



Nutritive Properties of Peas and Beans. 

The Maine Farmer, in evidence of the value of peas and beans for support- 
ing the animal system, makes the following abstract from observations made in 
England, some years ago, by Dr. Buckland : 

" The seeds of leguminous plants," says he, " especially peas and beans, are 
loaded with the constituents of muscle and bone, ready prepared to form and 
maintain the muscular fibre of the body of animals. Hence, the rapid restora- 
tion of the shrunk muscle of the exhausted post horse by a good feed of oats 
and beans, [the English horse bean is here meant.] Hence, the sturdy growth 
of the Scotch children on oat cake and porridge, and of broth mode of the meal 
of parched and kiln-dried peas." On this he avers a man can live and do a good 
day's work on 1J penny a day; while the children of the rich, on the finest 
wheat flour, and on sage and rice, butter and sugar, may appear fat and sleek, 
but would often die, as they sometimes do, on such non-nutritious food were it 
not for the mixture of milk and eggs they eat in their cake and puddings. 

He further remarks that an old laborer of Axbridge complained to his master, 
Mr. Symonds, that laborers feeding there on potatoes, could not do so good a 
day's work now as when he was young and fed on peas. " Peas, sir," said he, 
" stick to the ribs." In this he uttered the very truths of organic chemistry. 

In beans we have vegetable " caseine," or the vegetable element of cheese. 
What is more grateful to a man when fatigued by labor or a long walk 1 Sepoys, 
on long voyages, live exclusively on peas. The working and healthy man and 
beast want muscle, and not fat. Fat incumbers and impedes activity, and every 
excess of it is disease. We seldom see a fat soldier, except among the sergeants, 
who sometimes eat and drink too much. 

We have thus abridged some of Dr. Buckland's remarks for the benefit of 
our readers, some of whom are beginuing to look upon beans and peas, especially 
bean porridge and pea porridge, as very unfashionable and vulgar food. Flour, 
flour, superfine flour, must be the bread, morning, noon and night, and thus fool- 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 



351 



ishly throw away the most nutritious food — food that every muscle and every 
hone in our hodies is begging for, and supply them with that which satisfieth not 
all, for fashion's sake. We will not say that the man who invented the modern 
■ bolt/' or sifting apparatus, by which the most nutritive part of the wheat is 
separated and cast one side, while the "superfine" part is saved and made the 
staple food, ought to have been hung — but we do say that he was far from being 
a benefactor to his race. He pandered to a sickly and suicidal sentiment, that 
fine, people must eat fine flour. He helped to bring about a degeneracy in the 
physical strength and powers of the people, which is in strange contrast with 
the enduring and stalwart frames of our fathers, and which can only be re-pro- 
duced by a return to the more substantial diet upon which they fed. 



From the Farmer and Planter. 

Observation. 

Mr. Editor : — I heard a somewhat amusing dialogue between two friends, 
which is suggestive of the importance of observation. One was an enthusiast, 
and always full of some one idea; the other clear-headed and practical, and 
always looking for facts. 

" You need not talk to me," says Mr. Enthusiast, "about it — I know I am 
right. Why, I have tied strings around cotton forms and blooms, and examined 
them twenty times a day." * Yes, and you might have examined them a 
hundred times," retorted Mr. Practical, "and then know nothing about it." 

The gift of observation is a precious one. I have seen some men who could 
boast of very little intellect or intelligence, yet they observed a great deal, and 
did it well; and I have seen others remarkable for their good sense and learning, 
who would cultivate a farm for a life-time, without picking up an idea in the 
field. 

I am inclined to think the greatest obstacle in the way of our agricultural reform, 
13 this very matter of a want of observation. If we would study the results of 
experiments more carefully in the field, if we would watch nature's operations, 
and take a little more pains to understand the methods she uses to restore her 
exhausted energies, and the efforts she makes to overcome the difficulties we 
throw across her path, we would, I think, arrive at more practical conclusions 
than we often do, by poring over the analysis and investigations of the faculty. 
I am beginning to lose faith in those learned professors who, awhile back, 
promised so much. They have led me into many labyrinths, and left me there 
to work my way out as I best could. 

We are all too much in the habit of following in the footsteps of our prede- 
cessors, of believing they were right because they were successful. We don't 
look at the field and study its wants — why it failed last year, or succeeded this; 
we don't study the seasons, and their influences upon the crops, near as much as 
we ought to do. If we did there would be more pleasure, as well as profit, in 
our business. Now, here is a case in point. 



352 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

I have a field upon which I had failed to get a stand of corn in 1848 and 
1849. It was always either eaten up by the bud-worm, or it never came up. In 
1849, after a failure to get a stand of corn, in June I drilled peas on it; got a 
pretty good stand. I cured vine and all in October, and found it good food. In 
March, 1860, bedded the field up for Sorghum, 3 feet distance, but finding it 
mellow, and in better condition than I ever found it before, (was it the result of 
the peas ?) crossed it 5x3, and contrary to everybody's opinion and my own too, 
planted on the bed. I got a fine stand, and it has outgrown any corn on the 
plantation. It is a stiff clay field, with a tenacious yellow or white clay subsoil 
running under it, that holds water like a jug. 

The other day I had a big rain, and it swept like a creek through a part of 
the field (where an old road once ran), cutting down into the subsoil, and expos- 
ing the corn roots. And here was the whole matter explained. There were 
hardly any roots within three inches of the top of the bed; they began to 
spread out below that, and right over the yellow clay subsoil were spread out 
that beautiful net-work of delicate roots which feed the corn. 

Now, what were these corn roots doing away down there, spread out like a 
spider's web over the pipe-clay ? Did they go there to avoid the water on the 
surface 1 Did they go there to be ready to drink up the fertilizing solution 
which came down through the bed and could not get through the pipe-clay ? Or 
did they go there to keep out of the way of the plow? Their healthy condition 
showed that they made something by the visit, and their deflection from the 
horizontal direction they first took from the stalk, showed that they went there, 
I think, on purpose. 

I saw a remark from some great Agricultural Chemist lately, perhaps Liebig, 
saying it was all nonsense to say that roots went in search of food; that they had 
any preference, or exercised, as it were, any discretion. It may be so, but I 
would like to know why it is that you cannot apply manure to roses or shrubs in 
a yard amongst forest trees, but the roots of the trees will find it out and reap 
the benefit. 

But to return to my corn. I was surprised to find that, in every instance, 
with large stalks and small ones, the extent of the limbs corresponded with the 
extent of the roots, and when dried and cleaned, the roots weighed a few grains 
more than the leaves and stalks. If I could have taken them all up, I think 
they would have outweighed the tops considerably. The germ root, after having 
performed its function, grows very little — there are very few fibres connected 
with it. Above it other roots strike out, getting regularly higher as the corn 
advances towards maturity, and the last roots are the brace roots and dew roots. 
It is an interesting and instructive feature, that the roots grow longer and spread 
more and more through the soil, as the plant advances toward maturity, and 
would seem to indicate unmistakably that the cultivation should be adapted to 
their progress, by plowing shallower and farther off from the corn as it grows. 

One of my neighbors (an old farmer too) thinks that you can't plow corn too 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



353 



deep or too close — cutting the roots does more good than harm, he says, anyhow; 
but I think that it is getting to be the generally received opinion, among intelli- 
gent farmers, that cutting the roots is a necessity, or rather a choice between two 
evils — the grass must be killed, and as everybody plants more than they can 
cultivate well, the most expeditious means must be used to smother up. Now, if 
the soil can be kept loose and the grass down, common sense would say super- 
ficial culture would be the best; but if our spring rains pack the earth together? 
it may become necessary to plow deep, and if we let a corn field stand four 
weeks it certainly will be some trouble to kill the grass. 

I have spun you a pretty long yarn, Mr. Stokes, but it may set somebody to 
looking a little closer into things, and deriving some instruction as well as 
pleasure from it. A. P. M. 



How we Waste Manures. 

The collection, management and application of manures, is perhaps, the most 
important branch of farm practice. And is equally true, it is one which is in 
greater need of improvement, than almost any other. For a number of years 
past, agricultural chemistry has explained the proper method of managing ma- 
nures, but thus far, its teachings have had but a partial effect. The fact is, if 
there were no other cause for the deterioration of our soils, and consequent an- 
nual diminution of our crops, the waste of manures would sufficiently accout for 
it. No one at all familiar with the subject, will, we presume, pretend to dis- 
pute the assertion that in this direction at least, we are more wasteful than any 
other nation in the world. Were the same unthriftiness practised by the Chi- 
nese, with their dense population, or even by the German States of Europe, the 
result would be actual starvation, if, as at present, the people were dependent 
upon the products of their own soil for support. It is almost impossible for an 
American farmer, who has, not had the opportunities for personal observation, to 
form anything like a correct idea of the jealous care with which the smallest 
particle or shred of every manurial substance is collected and husbanded by Eu- 
ropean nations generally. It is asserted ®n good authority, that at least one- 
third of the nutritious value of food used by the people of the United States, is 
lost either in its preparation, or, by actual waste; and it may be as safely as- 
serted, that fully one third, (we were about to say one half,) of our available fer- 
tilizing material is also wasted and lost. Unlikely as this may at first glance 
appear, we have abundant evidence to sustain it, and did space permit, it would 
.not be a difficult matter to satisfy every reader, that we annually waste nearly as 
much manure as we use. Our limits will only permit a brief reference to one or 
two of the principal sources of waste. 

First, we have the drainage of our cities and towns. This is composed mainly 

of the rich dirt from the streets, the wash-waters from the kitchens, the refuse 

of manufactories, the cleaning of water-closets, together with a variety of other 

substances, rich in manurial ingredients. 
23 



354 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 



The following statistical fact in relation to the sewerage of London, will con- 
vey a better idea of the immense waste of valuable fertilizing material^ than any- 
thing we could say upon the subject 

"By carefully conducted experiments, and very accurate gaugings, it has been 
found that the chief London sewers convey daily to the river Thames about 115,- 
000 tons of mixed drainage, consisting on an average computation of one pajt 
solid and 25 parts absolutely fluid matters ; but if we allow one part in 30 of this 
immense mass, to be composed of solid substances, then we have the large quan- 
tity of more than 3,800 tons of solid manure, daily poured into the river from 
the city of London alone. Allowing twenty tons of this manure as a dressing to 
the acre, the annual waste is equal to the full fertilization of 50,000 acres of the 
poorest land. This, with a fair average yield, would maintain at least 150,000. 
And this enormous waste flows from one city only, and refers only to the solid 
matter. The fluid portion is also rich in fertilizing matter, containing, as has 
been proved by chemical tests, full 16 per cent, of animal matter, salts, &c, 
combined with the water." 

Now the same estimates may be made with reference to all our American cities 
and towns, with this differen-ce in favor of our superior prodigality, that our peo- 
ple being better fed than the majority of the peopk of London, or of England 
generally, and permitting more of our food to go to waste, either before or after 
preparation for the table, our sewerage is consequently richer in ingredients, and 
the waste of course greater. 

Is it not a striking comment upon our farming economy, that while we are 
Sending our ships to the remotest parts of the world for guano, 'with which to 
maintain the fertility of our souls, we are permitting millions upon millions of 
dollars' worth of equally valuable material to flow past our very doors, and pour 
itself into the sea? Nay, we do more, we puzzle our brains to devise the most 
effectual method of getting rid of it, with the least possible expense and trouble. 
The Agricultural Chemists and Engineers of London,* have given the subject 
their attention, and a movement is now on foot to arrest the further progress of 
this enormous and heedless waste of manure, so far as that great city is con- 
cerned. A celebrated English writer, in answering to the inquiry, What is 
Sewerage ? says, " In it the chemist recognizes rounds of beef and basins of 
turtle, cargoes of sugar, coffee and port wine, millions of four pound loaves, and 
thousands of tons of cheese and butter. Therein are not only all the alimentary 
productions of our own country, but also our enormous alimentary imports, alter- 
ed in form it is true, but scarcely altered in utility or value. It is truly a well 
known, but unworked mine of gold, equal in value to one half the interest of 
our national debt. We might call it a stream of liquid guano. It exists in a 
form of peculiar availability and almost self-portability ; its fertilizing powers are 
enormous. We may estimate its value by the sums expended to compensate for 
its loss. We pay for our guano two million of dollars annually. For unprofita- 
ble oil cake and corn to feed our manure-making animals, many millions and vast 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



355 



sums are annually abstracted from the agricultural pocket for phosphates and 
other artificial manures." 

It is not for us to point out in what manner this unpardonable extravagance is 
to be checked. " Necessity is said to be the mother of invention," and when 
we have exhausted all our other manurial resources, then, perhaps, some plan 
will be devised for bringing into profitable use this immensely valuable material. 

But let us turn our attention nearer home for a few moments, and see whether 
we are as economical of the manures of the farm as we should be. It is to be 
feared that a strict investigation in this direction would develop little if any less 
prodigality than in the sewerage of our cities and towns. 

We have already adverted to the unceasing attention given by the Chinese to 
the collection and careful preservation of every substance, however trifling, which 
will in any degree serve to enrich the soil and increase their crops. We might 
profitably imitate the example of " John Chinaman " in this particular, for cer- 
tainly no department of farm practice has been as grossly neglected. Many of 
our farmers absolutely waste as much manure as they apply beneficially; or, in 
other words, permit one half of it to go to loss through downright neglect or 
mis-application. 

This neglect is shown in a variety of ways. We see it in the location and 
construction of our barn yards. Were it a special object with the farmer to ex- 
pose his manure heap to the fullest action of the sun, wind and rain, and to 
afford the most complete outlets for all the liquids, he could not accomplish it 
more effectually than by following the plans of tens of thousands of , farmers in 
our own and adjoining States. The barn yards, as a general thing, slope from 
the barn or stables, and as a consequence, the liquid manure soon accumulates at 
the lowest point. The first rain causes it to overflow the trifling barrier some- 
times raised to prevent its escape, and away it goes to the nearest rivulet, to the 
horse pond, or into the public highway, to be lost to its owner forever. Few who 
have not studied this subject, are aware of the immense quantity of fertilizing 
material that accompanies the little black stream that oozes so quietly and steadily 
from the majority of our barn yards. If such careless farmers were to behold 
gold dollars rolling from their pockets as rapidly as gold dollars worth of liquid 
manure flows from their manure heaps, what immense activity would immediately 
be manifested, and how energetically would they go to work to stop the drain. 
Its apparent insignificance is the reason why it is permitted, for if farmers under- 
stood, as they undoubtedly should, the actual dollar and cent value of the mate- 
rial they are thus permitting to escape them, this, another one of the every day 
errors of farming, would be speedily corrected. 

The fact is, true economy points to a complete reformation in the management 
of our manures, and more particularly the manures of the farm yard. How 
many farmers are there, who give a single thought to the importance of protect- 
ing their manure-heaps from the injurious effects of exposure to the sun, wind 
and rain. True economy points to the covered barn yard ; to the properly pre- 



356 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

pared manure pit; to the indispensable tank for the surplus liquid manure; to 
the protection of the manure-heap from the deluges of rain water, which aTe 
poured upon it from unspouted barn roofs, and other buildings, every time a rain 
falls. Agricultural chemistry has conclusively demonstrated the absolute neces- 
sity that exists for attention to these points, if the farmer desires to save from 
total loss, a very large proportion of his manure. It teaches him that a loss of 
manure is equivalent to a diminution of his farm products. If permitted to con- 
tinue, it can result only in either gradually impoverishing the farm itself, or what 
is equally unfortunate, the pockets of the farmer himself. 

It should be a cardinal principle with every farmer, to allow no portion of fer- 
tilizing material, however minute, to go to waste. The scrapings of the road- 
side, old shoes, woollen rags, hair, bones, the wash-water of the kitchen, soap- 
suds, the contents of the water-closets, unripe weeds; in fact, a thousand little 
matters, which are not only permitted to go to waste, but are in many cases re- 
garded as nuisances, and the disposition of which is often times a source of an- 
noyance and inconvenience to the farmer, all possess a high manurial value, and 
one of the most common of our every day farming errors, is to permit them to 
be lost, instead of adding them to the compost or manure heap. If neglect to 
preserve and apply these valuable materials is the result of indifference, it pro- 
perly belongs to the class of every day errors. If, on the other hand, it proceeds 
from ignorance of their value, the sooner this want of information is supplied 
by the teachings of Agricultural Chemistry, the better it will be for the interests 
of the country at large. — Farmer and Gardner. 



From the Farmer and Planter. 

"Peeps Over the Fence." 

"Procrastination is the thief of time." 

How many of us, Mr. Editor, sitting upon a slab bench in a country school 
house, by the dim light of a log-cut-out window, have written over this copy a 
thousand times, with a very poor appreciation of its wisdoni. There never was 
penned a more important lesson, morally or physically, mentally or agriculturally. 
Did you ever know a boy, who intended to begin studying hard next Monday 
morning, that made a good scholar ? Did you. ever know a good farmer, who 
never had time to do anything, and was waiting for next week, when he in- 
tended to fix up ? Now, there is my neighbor, Capt. Bustle ; he is undoubtedly 
the busiest man I ever saw — never has time to do anything — always has a dozen 
irons in the fire, but he intends, so he has been saying ever since I knew him. 
H as soon as he gets a little time, to straighten out things wonderfully." The 
other morning I found him in a terrible stew; a heavy rain had fallen — he 
wanted the hoes to clear out some ditches which had overflowed, froni a neglect 
to clean them out at the last plowing. 

" Where are the hoes 1" cries Bustle. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHEBN PLANTER. 



357 



The negroes run here and there, and after an hour's search, a few old stumps, 
loose on the helves, are paraded. 

"Can't you find a better hoe than that, Jack?" 

"No, sir." 

" "Well, I'll get some new ones the first time I go to the village." 

Next Monday, mind you, Bustle was to begin to chop out cotton. But every- 
thing about Bustle's premises told the same old story of putting off for to-mor- 
row what should be done to-day. 

He was in a great fume about neighbor Fussy's pigs rooting up a field of corn 
—"the prettiest stand you ever saw" said Bustle. And Fussy said he had told 
Bustle, over and over again, that those old water racks of his wouldn't keep out a 
yearling, but he was always waiting for "a spare time to fix up things." 

Bustle lost a fine horse a few years ago, by his getting hung in a stable door 
which could have been fixed in half an hour, and the worst of it was, he owns 
a very good smith. 

Bustle is scarce of corn, yet his hogs have eat up a wagon load by drawing 
the ears through a break in the floor, while he has been waiting for a time to fix 
it up. Go into his field when you may and you will find his plow hands banging 
with a rock at the plow-handles, or tieing them on to the beam with a withe — 
all because the smith has not time to make a staple. 

Bustle has no back-bands on his mules, and the plows go bobbing about every 
way — he can't take time to make them; he never can take time to make muz- 
zles, and the mule, nipping at this and that stalk, staggers over and knocks down 
a good many barrels. 

Bustle has a very good cutting knife, but can never find time to cut up his food 
— says the overseer says he has not time to do it. 

But yesterday his wife was in a terrible stew about her Irish potato patch 
being rooted up — all for the want of a nail in a gate slat — one nail in gate slat 
vs. many messes of good Irish potatoes. Make the calculation, reader, and profit 
by Bustle's being too busy. 

'Bustle's wheat wants cutting, but he can't take time till he gets over his cotton, 
and many a bundle will, when cut, tumble down and spoil before the busy fellow 
can find time to haul it in. 

Bustle's stables have no hasps on the doors — there are holes in, the roof 
through which leaks may destroy tons of provender; his gates are ricketty, and 
yet there never was a more industrious, energetic, get-up-by-3-in-the-morning, 
and go-to-bed-at-10-in-the-night fellow in the world. 

It is a whoop and a hurrah with him from year's end to year's end; as he 
often says, " well it is hip and thigh with us, but some of these days we'll get 
out and fix things up right." And Bustle believes it — he knows his failing, and 
the fellow intends to "fix it all right," but the longer he lives the less time he 
finds to fix up. 

Snub. 



358 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

A Practical Paper upon Gardening-, Ditching and Improving Land. 

BY D. WYATT AIKEN. 

INTRODUCTION. 

In agriculture, theory and practice are by no means correlative terms. Theory 
depicts the planter's life one of ease, and portrays his arduous labors a task of 
leisure, while it flatters the sluggard, equipped vyith a little scientific knowledge, 
that planting, of all other pursuits, should be his. In theory " Paul may plant 
and Apollos may water," and the increase follows ex necessitate. 

Theoretically, stimulating manures have only to be heaped upon all lands in- 
discriminately, and fat harvests will be reaped ; or gullies are prevented by tap^ 
ping the subsoil ; or the level has only to be applied, and hill-side ditches are 
located. Theoretically, grain must be sown in level furrows, or seed must be 
planted upon horizontal beds, to prevent the escape of the virgin soil. In fact, 
theory in agriculture attaches plausibility to the most visionary schemes. 

How different is the result of actual practice ! Practically, agriculture climbs 
high in the scale of sciences; it developes thought, matures judgment, and re- 
quires, for execution, untiring energy, perseverance and industry. The skillful 
planter stops not to theorize about the result effected by certain means applied ; 
plow in hand, he grapples with the soil, sows his seed, vigilantly watches the 
progress of his growing crop, and after assiduous cultivation, at harvest time an- 
ticipates a yield commensurate with, his unabated zeal. It is he who understands 
best the caption of this essay, and knows that the improvement of land consists 
in increasing its productive capacity. Nor does any one know better than him- 
self that this end is attained in three ways : 

1st. By Ditching, i. e. hill-side ditching, draining and bottom ditching. 

2nd. By cultivation, i. e. horizontal and grade culture. 

3d. By rotation of crops and manuring. 

The first step, then, towards improving any plot of exhausted undulating land, 
is the location of a series of ditches, so arranged as to empty, with least detri- 
ment'to the land, all the surplus rain-water into the creek or branch bottoms be- 
low, or into the adjacent forests, or in some direction out of the field. To do this 
effectually the land must be studied. Its elevations and depressions must be 
studied ; they must first be seen by the eye, and then made more perceptible by 
applying the level. The most practised eye should never venture to locate a ditch 
without the assistance of the level, in hilly lands, and the more moderately un- 
dulating the land, the more difficult the task, and the more judgment required to 
accomplish it successfully. It often happens that the particular inclinations of a 
large field are westward, while the general declination of the land is eastward, 
and vice versa, so that the level, when giving sufficient fall to the ditch, seems to 
the eye to be laying off a perfectly level line. 

The nature of the land being understood, the next question is, where shall be 
the mouth or the source of the ditch. If the mouth be determined upon, com- 
mence there, and wi^ ' mn backwards or up the ditch, always following, 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



359 



and never straining or forcing the level from its indicated direction. If the 
source can be more easily fixed, apply the level there and run towards the mouth, 
always observing one absolute requisite in hill-side ditching, viz : never let any 
part of the ditch near the source have a greater fall than any portion between 
this point and the mouth ; for if such should be trie case, the water in this steep- 
er portion, having an accelerated motion, becomes retarded as it reaches the 
leveler section, deposits its rolling sand, and heaps up upon the water in advance, 
and most probably causes a break in the ditch-bank just there. Where sudden 
curves occur in circling abrupt knolls, the ditch should be made wider and not 
steeper than the succeeding portions. 

The general directions of all ditches, if practicable, should be down the branch ; 
for the water must, sooner or later, reach the bottom, and the lower down the bot- 
tom it is emptied from the ditches, the less injury sustained by the bottom lands 
above. 

The distances between ditches should be best known by the planters upon 
their respective farms, depending upon the declivities of the land and the nature 
of the soil. On steep hill-sides ditches should be distant from each other from 
twenty to thirty yards ; upon gently inclined planes, from sixty to two hundred 
yards; upon stiff clay lands, close together; upon loamy soils or sandy lands, 
further apart. In a similar way should the fall of each ditch be determined, 
varying from two to four inches in every twelve feet, always observing to have 
the first or upper half of the ditch slightly more horizontal than the last or lower 
end. 

Where the land is to be horizontalized, the ditches should have somewhat more 
fall than where the grade system is adopted, simply because where the horizon- 
talization is complete, not enough water flows in the ditch to wash it into a gully ; 
and when a freshet occurs, any water-furrow filling up and breaking over, pro- 
duces a " wash" from this point in a slraight line to the ditch below, and empties 
into the ditch at right angles to its bank a column of water which will certainly 
wash away the bank, unless sufficient fall is given to the ditch to change the 
direction of the water before this result is produced. In the grade system, where 
the ditch receives constantly the rain-water as soon as it begins to flow in the 
water-furrow, the injury to the ditch bank is not so great, because the ditch car- 
ries off the water gradually from its commencement to flow. 

To make a hill-side ditch, run the first furrow with the level; or the upper 
side and close to this furrow run three other furrows with a common shovel-plow. 
Draw the earth from these four furrows, with hoes or scoops, to the lower side of 
the first furrow. Then require all hands there at work to walk several times the 
entire length of the ditch upon this earth, thereby compacting it for a bank, 
while the plowman is running three more furrows just where the last three were 
run. Treat this earth the same as before, and run two more furrows on the up- 
per side of the ditch, draw out the dirt, walk the bank thoroughly, and the ditch 



5 SO 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



is complete, with an almost level bottom ; there being a. slight depression on the 
side next the hill. 

If a ditch should withstand the ordinary rains of a season, and break over 
during an extraordinary freshet, it should not be abandoned, but should be deep- 
ened for ten or fifteen feet on either side of the " break," sufficiently to furnish 
earth for a new bank and to fill up partially the " wash" recently made, as far as 
the earth can be thrown with the shovel. These sinks in the ditch act as depo- 
sits for the soil otherwise washed away, and can be emptied at leisure by scatter- 
ing the sand in the wash below, which, when mixed with the clay previously 
thrown there, produces an improved soil. 

DITCHING WET LANDS. 

Wet lands cannot be drained by hill-side ditches, but must have drains dug for 
the purpose; either blind or open drains. From the lowest spot of the wet plot 
(found by the level,) run a straight line to the nearest point where an exit from 
the field or into the creek can be obtained ; along this line dig the ditch, circling, 
if necessary, any intervening or immoveable obstruction, and when complete ob- 
serve if 'the water follows the course of the ditch. From the point where this 
drain began, continue the ditch through the wet spot until its source reaches the 
opposite side, or perhaps the highest point of the wet land. To be most effectual 
the ditch shauld be left open. If necessary to be closed, lay tiling in the bot- 
tom and throw the dirt back upon this tiling. If tiling is not at hand many 
substitutes can be had by the planter. Three pine poles pealed, (the larger the 
better,) and two of them laid in the bottom of the ditch, and one just over these 
two, make a capital underground trough. An occasional rock thrown into the 
ditch covered with slabs, the sawed face downwards, answers a good purpose. 
The ditch half-filled with small stones, these covered with brush, and the ditch 
filled with dirt, is the best method of underdraining. 

I once owned a sour spot of land contiguous to a road, in which there was 
always a mud-hole. Along the edge and through the whole length of this sour 
spot, parallel to the road, I dug a ditch three feet deep and eighteen inches wide. 
From the middle of this ditch, and at right angles to it, a similar ditch was dug 
across the road, opening into the hill-side below. These ditches were filled eigh- 
teen inches deep with small stones, and the earth previously taken from these 
ditches returned upon the stones. To this day the road is dry in moderately wet 
weather, and that sour spot of land mellow, fertile and productive. 

In draining wet spots on bottom lands, the draining ditch should always be 
run in a straight line to the creek or branch, entering the same at an acute 
angle, and the dirt from this ditch invariably thrown on the lower side of the 
ditch. 

DITCHING BOTTOM LANDS 

The protection of bottom land by a successful system of ditching, involves an 
outlay too heavy to be borne by the majority of planters, particularly in the mid- 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



361 



die and upper Districts of our State ; and hence the unsightly banks of sand, 
the decayed and dying timber, the crooked streams, and the prevalence of sick- 
ness on almost every plantation containing more or less of these valuable bottoms. 
Many planters, too, are prone to charge their willful neglect in this matter upon 
their next neighbour below. They say, " he will not ditch below, and hence, 
ditching mine is only digging a ditch to be rilled up with sand." Such a plea 
is unwarranted, because any bottom worth the labour to be bestowed can be suc- 
cessfully ditched, and protected in cultivation, regardless of the bottoms above 
or below. 

Before the main ditch is dug, drains should be cut on each side of the bottom, 
through its entire length, and just where the adjoining hill-side and bottom come 
together. The size of these drains is, of course, dependent upon the quantity 
of water flowing from the hill-sides after a heavy fall of rain, or upon the uses 
to which they may be put. If the bottom is to be enclosed with a fence, these 
drains may be three and a half feet wide at top, one foot at bottom, three feet 
deep, and all the dirt thrown on the lower (or branch) side. Upon this bank an 
economical fence may be built, while the drain answers the purpose of carrying 
off the rain water coming from the hill-sides. If care is taken to give these 
drains a fall of one inch in twenty feet, and their exits made at the lowest ends 
of the bottom, the water they contain is kept entirely from the volume which 
usually flows in the branch. These drains finished, the main* ditch must be dug, 
which should only follow the channel of the branch when it is in the lowest part 
of the bottom, (which is not always the case,) or when it is nearly straight. The 
ditch should always be straight in the lowest bed of the bottom, and large enough 
to draw the water of all ordinary rains. Unless from necessity, it should never 
run through the middle of the bottom, but have at least two-thirds of the bot- 
tom behind the bank, there being but one bank to the ditch; then if the ditch 
has to encounter a freshet, only one-third of the bottom crop is liable to be over- 
flown, as the water in this third must be as deep as the ditch bank before the 
two-thirds behind the bank can be injured. If the ditch be in the middle of 
the bottom, only one-half the crop is protected ; and if the dirt be thrown on 
each side of the ditch, making two banks, either, or both are liable to be de- 
stroyed and the entire crop lost. These ditch banks should be made solely of 
earth, unless a foundation cannot be obtained without the use of logs. Logs 
and brush put into a bank, made to confine running water, are oftener than 
otherwise an injury to the bank. At such places leakage is almost certain, and 
where either the logs or the brush project from the face of the bank, the con- 
stant laving of the water will, sooner or later, undermine the bank or percolate 
through behind the logs, and ultimately create a " crevace." If properly ditched, 
no lands remunerate the planter more handsomely than his bottoms. If improp- 
erly ditched, no lands subject him to a greater and more useless expense. 



362 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

SYSTEMS OF CULTURE. 

Some agricultural writers are accustomed to speak of the different systems of 
culture. I incline to the opinion there should be but two systems of culture, 
viz : the horizontal and the grade systems. To speak of the up and down hill 
method of destroying land as a system, is akin to calling ours a system of stock- 
raising, when our cattle and stock generally are turned out to seek a sustenance 
upon the unenclosed pasture lands of our neighbors. The one is as systematic 
as the other, and both equally condemned by charity and science. 

Perfect horizontalization is certainly practicable, bat that it is sure protection 
to both land and crop against freshets, however great, I hold to be an error. 
Innumerable causes, which 'the vigilant eye of the most skilful and energetic 
planter cannot prevent, will at one time or other produce " breaks" upon the 
hill-side, and often upon a comparatively level plot of land. A tree, a stump, a 
rock, an unfinished furrow, irregular plowing, and most of all, shallow plowing, 
are all obstacles in the way of the horizontalizer. That these should discourage 
him, is no argument, however, against the horizontal system of cultivating our 
crops. 

The prime necessity in preparing a field for horizontalization is, to protect it 
perfectly from all water except what falls- upon it from the heavens above. The 
adjoining forests, or roads, should be so ditched as to prevent any water flowing 
into the enclosure, fpr it is most often the running water, and not the falling rain, 
which destroys the labor of the horizontalizer. 

This prevention being effected, the planter is ready for his work, and begins 
horizontalizing by finding with his level, the highest part of the field, and the 
longest row, or bed, that passes through this point. The first corn or cotton bed 
may not be over ten feet long, and must be straight. On each side of this 
straight bed two or three more must be " laid off," each bending inwards at the 
ends, until it meets a fellow at the opposite side of the straight row. The plow 
team must never stop until the ends do meet, for stopping the team before the 
shovel reaches the end of the bed, leaves a mould in the water-furrow, which 
diminishes its capacity to hold water, and often causes a "break." This irregular 
plowing will certainly be done, unless each plowman is instructed as to his certain 
duty; i. e. } never to stop his mule until his shovel reaches the extreme end of 
the bed. 

The few being finished, at a distance from the last bed equal to the space occu- 
pied by a couple of beds, apply the level. It will, directly, as you follow it, 
diverge from the last bed, und assume a direction possibly the reverse of that 
indicated by the eye. But the horizontalizer should always bear in mind, he is 
to follow the level, and not the level follow him. This guide-row now laid off 
by the level, may reach the opposite side of the field six or eight beds distant 
from the row from which it was but six feet at the commencement. This diver- 
gence, which is strictly a sperical angle, must be filled up by short rows, the first 
being "laid of" parallel to the short completed bed, observing, as above, to make 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



363 



their angles of union complete, and not allow the plow to stop as the team reaches 
the end of the row. 

This much done, the planter begins again with his level three, four, five, or 
six (never more) rows below the lower end of the last guide-row, and follows 
his level in the opposite direction from the row last run. This row may diverge 
and its end be five and twenty beds distant from the beginning of the row above. 
If so, the level is again applied in the angle, and several short rows run, when 
the divergencies are filled in as directed above. If this method is followed, the 
lowest point of the field wMl ultimately be reached, and none of the work of to- 
day injured by trie rains of to-night. The same direction should be followed in 
the cultivation of the crop — always begin on the highest point. If the planter 
begining to horizontalize at the foot of the hill, and» climbs the hill, all the labors 
of to-day may be destroyed by the rains of to-morrow. If galled places are to 
be encountered, the horizontalizer should not be deterred, but follow his level 
across them; it knows how to manage broken as well as smooth surfaces, and 
will turn the planter as he approaches, and down as he recedes from these 
spots, without the assistance cf a thought. If gullies are met with, they should 
be filled up by dams of stone, brush, pine-tops, with thier straw pointing up the gully, 
or by driving stakes a few inches apart, across the gully, and interlining with willow 
or green limbs. The last span or two of the level being inclined slightly towards 
the gully, will, after a few heavy rains, furnish earth enough to partially fill an 
ordinary gully. 

A field in small grain stubble, or one previously cultivated in corn or cotton, 
is more easily horizdntalized than one freshly broken up, because the smooth, 
worn stubble land, or the regular and equal undulations of the cotton or corn 
beds, do not present so many irregular depressions as the newly plowed field- 
The surface, moreover, is firmer, and does not yield to the weight of the level. As 
the field is laid off horizontally, it should be bedded " out and out" immediately, 
or the irregular ridges between the horizonal furrows, not being themselves hori- 
zontal, will occupy the space which should be occupied by water after a rain, and 
a break is often the consequence. 

When one bed yields to the water, this running water does not stop until it 
reaches the hill-side ditch below. Its passage across the beds may be a straight 
line, or it may be a ziz-zag rill, washing through one bed here and another there- 
To prevent these overflows entirely, is practically impossible, for sometimes, falls 
of three, four or five inches of rain occur in a single afternoon ; and this quan- 
tity of water will fill up the water-furrows and overflow the beds before the most 
thoroughly pulverized soil can absorb the half of it. On the 15th, 16th, and 
17th, of last May, my plantation was flooded by successive unusually heavy rains. 
My cotton, in stiff clay land, had been planted in a scooter furrow on the bed, 
covered by a double-footed scooter plow, and harrowed off as it was nearly all 
coming up. This harrowing had made the land comparatively level, and these 
heavy rains overflowed the entire crop in a sheet of water, without a perceptible 



364 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [Juke 

injury to the land. Some of my corn was in sandy, loose land, planted on the 
top of very high beds, hut had not been -worked. The liiyb. horizontal beds 
became so satured with water, and the subsoil failing to absorb it rapidly enough, 
they actually slipped, in regular land-slide fashion, down against the b«d next 
below, without even diverting the young corn from its erect growing position. 
No system of horizontal culture can survive such freshets. But they do not 
often occur, and their evil effects must be remedied afterwards, which I propose 
doing thus: Just where the break first occurs across any bed, a rectangular hole 
is dug, say eighteen inches wide, and three, four, six or ten feet long, (as the 
damage done may require,) parallel to the bed, and deep enough to furnish 
earth to replace the broken places in the next beds below. The distance between 
this hole and the next hill-side ditch below, is divided into so many equal parts, 
and at each point of division a similar rectangular hole is dug, furnishing earth 
for the breaks below, and so on to the ditch. Should the ditch break over, the 
same kind of hole is dug in the ditch to procure earth for a new bank. These 
holes will, in time, be filled up by the constant plowing beside and near them, 
and by the rain-water draining into them from the adjacent water-furrows, briBg- 
ing along with it more or less soil or sand. The hole in the ditch will, after the 
first rain, be filled with excellent soil to be scattered upon the washed spots below. 
If such rectangular holes be dug across gullies at small intervals from each other, 
and the dirt thrown on the lower side, they will rapidly fill up a gully, as the 
rain will soon fill the holes to their original level with sand. 

GRADE CULTURE. 

The grade culture is best adapted to hill-sides and wet spots. If the wet 
places are higher than the branch, they may sometimes be dried sufficiently for 
cultivation by deep plowing and a gradual fall given to each row towards tfie 
branch. Such places are generally dried by blind ditches. But on hill-sides 
this system is more feasible than the horizontal system, because it is impossible 
for a horizontal corn or cotton bed, on a steep hill-side to contain all the water 
that falls into it. In practicing this system of culture a furrow should be 
run by the level, with one inch fall to every span of the level, beginning at 
the highest point of thediill, on the side where the ditches empty, and running 
in a direction crossing ditches, and not stopping until the Jiill is circled or the 
bottom reached. Fill in the angle as directed for horizontalizing, and, if short 
rows occur, they must have a slight inclination in the same direction. The rea- 
son for beginning these furrows at the mouths and not at the source of the 
ditches, is obvious. If a row with one inch fall begun at the source of a ditch 
having three inches fall, they must diverge from each other, and a furrow so run 
form the source of the second ditch ; for instance, upon a hill-side, would very 
soon strike the first ditch above on the lower side or behind the bank, and hav- 
ing a descending grade would empty its water against the bank and form a gully. 

There are circumstances under which the horizontal is the most destructive 
system of culture. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



365 



In the first place, if the planter is not indefatigable and unceasingly watchful, 
all the little breaks over his horizontal beds will soon become gulleys, never to be 
obliterated. 

Second — If the seasons are too wet, his corn fires, and his cotton grows too 
much to weed. And if too dry, the roots of both corn and cotton are scorched. 
During the past season horizontalizing bas been injurious to my own crop. An 
excessive drought of eleven weeks and three days baked the land until any little 
shower would deposit puddles of water in my horizontal water furrows, which, 
when heated by the scorching sun, burnt the surface roots of both corn and 
cotton. 

And thirdly — Horizontalizing requires the planter to be content with moderate 
crops and an improving plantation, or large crops and speedy emigration. 

THE LEVEL. 

The level being among instruments the planters' reliance, a description is pro- 
bably requisite of the one I use, and so often spoken of in this essay. Several 
kinds of levels are recommended — some too tedious to handle, and others too 
complicated for plantation purposes. I use simply a rafter level of twelve feet 
span, made by my own negro carpenter, and altogether accurate enough for the 
planter. A plummet is ordinarily attached to this level, but where perfect accu- 
racy is required a spirit level is hinged upon the cross-bar of the level, one end 
being made stationary by a hinge, and the other free to move up and down. 

In using the level, I take with me into the field a small boy with a hoe. Plac- 
ing the level where I wish to begin, he is made to dig a hole in front of each 
foot of the level. Starting in the direction I wish to go, the rear foot of the 
level i3 placed where the front foot stood, and as soon as the proper pitch or level 
is found, " chop" is cried by myself, and the boy digs another hole in front of 
the foremost foot of the level. This proceeding is continued- to the end of the 
row or ditch. The fresh dirt from these holes can be seen for many yards, and 
are plowed through by myself, leading my gentle mule, and a trusty plowman 
holding the handles. I lead, following the course of the holes, and he holds the 
plow erect; no line is used at all. I greatly prefer this extra labor,to the "gee" 
and "haw" movements of the very best plowman. Some planters use little 
sticks instead of digging holes with the hoe. The hoe is easier carried than an 
armful of sticks. If the level is followed, 'and never driven, it will never lead 
the planter astray. 

The third, and probably most important point in improving lands, is the rota- 
tion of crops, and the accumulation and application of manures. A few words 
will suffice for my views (which is my practice) on these subjects. 

ROTATION. 

Divide the plantation, as far as practicable, into four equal parts — as many 
fields as you please. Upon one of these fourths plant cotton, upon another corn, 
upon a third small grain, (wheat, rye and oats — let the barley and turnip patches 
be pel lots near the house,) and allow the last fourth to rest. Prepare this rest- 



366 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

ing-fourth properly and thoroughly in the fall for cotton the next spring. Plant 
corn next spring where cotton was this year, and sow small grain this fall upon 
the corn land of this year. The stubble land of this year rests next year. 

A similar rotation may be made of the pet patches near the house. Put one 
in potatoes, 'one in barley, and one in turnips; let the fourth rest. Sow turnips 
on the rested lands; follow turnips with barley and barley with potatoes. Sow 
peas on the resting lands, and when ripe, plow under peas, vines and all. 

MANURING. 

To improve land by manuring every vestige of vegetable matter left on the 
land after harvesting should be plowed under and nothing should be burned. 

If foreign manures are to be used, or guano or phosphates, they should be 
rolled in moistened cotton seed. The lint will absorb the manure, and afford the 
easiest method of scattering it. This composition, when used on small grain, 
should be sowed broadcast in such quantities as the planter thinks he can best 
afford. For cotton or corn it should be drilled. I have always found the heavier 
the manure, ceteris paribus, the more abundant the yield. 

From thirty to fifty bushels of raw cotton seed per acre, broadcasted, is fine 
manuring for small grain ; and from twenty to thirty in the drill, is equally good 
for cotton or corn. My experience is, that cotton seed, composted with any 
kind of manure, is more profitable than the same quantity of cither applied alone. 

All home-made manures should be applied broadcast. A large bulk in this 
way covers but a small area of ground, but that area is productive for several 
years , it matters little what is planted upon it. In the drill or in the hill such 
manures benefit the immediate crop, but they must be applied often to produce 
lasting effects. 

A minute description of the modus operandi necessary to enlarge the manure 
heaps does not properly belong to this essay, but the general methods of making 
manure may not here be inappropriately related. 

In the first place, stated times and regular hands shouh^be employed to collect 
trash, leaves and litter for every spot where every kind of stock is required to 
stand or rest, night or day. The stables, the cow-house, the hog-pen, the sheep- 
house, and the lots surrounding these houses should be regularly littered. When 
this litter was well trampled in the lots, it should be raked up into large heaps, 
under shelter, during dry weather ; it should never be touched in wet weather. 
These heaps composted with cotton seed early in the spring, make the best possi- 
ble manure for cotton. Stable, cow-house, or sheep-house manure, or all manures 
made under shelter, should be moved but once, directly from the shelter to the 
stubble land upon which cotton is to grow the following season. This stubble 
resting the entire year, may be manured or "broken up" whenever time and 
the season will admit. Manure hauled out in dry weather (for in wet weather 
neither wagon nor hoof should enter a field) during the spring, or summer, or 
fall, and throw in heaps of ten bushels each, will remain upon this stubble until 
time can be had to scatter and plow it in without a material loss of any of its 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



367 



virtues. It is, however, easier and more economical to scatter manure from the 
wagon and plow in as scattered. 

In the second place, no rainy days should be lost on a plantation, unless the 
rain falls very heavily and, constantly. The simplicity of machinery has super- 
seded the cotton-card and spinning-wheel, so that it is cheaper to buy than make 
thread. The time heretofore devoted to such indoor work should be spent ihak- 
ing manures — either turning over that already made, or raking trash for new 
heaps. To expose negroes in this way, however, is only economy when they are 
glad for the occasion. An oil suit can be made or purchased cheaply for each 
hand, which will in one winter save time enough to pay for itself, and it will last 
five or six years. 

In the third place, a sink should be dug in some convenient place and shel- 
tered, into which is thrown the chips and trash from the wood-yaid, sweepings 
from the house-yard, slops from the chamber, kitchen and wash-tubs, bones, occa- 
sionally a little lime, salt and sand, and every chicken, pig, turkey, and in fact, 
everything useless about the premises that can be made to rot. This sink will 
furnish the plantar annually with an amount of excellent manure, incredible to 
those who have never tried it. 

In the fourth place, no planter should keep more stock than he can conve- 
niently pen every night in summer, or house every night in winter. Too much 
stock will irrecoverably impoverish any plantation, and be themselves always 
poor. Just enough stock will furnish droppings and compost manures, worth 
infinitely more than the gleanings of which they have robbed the plantation. 
Every horse should be made to pay in manure for the fodder and hay he eats 
during the year; sheep and cattle for the shucks they eat during the winter, and 
each hog for one-third the corn he eats after being penned for fattening. 

And, in the fifth place, if the planter's object be the reclamation of land, 
nothing should be lost — neither time nor labor, nor must he lack judgment or 
energy. Indeed, he must possess all the cardinal virtues. Patience must be 
added to his perseverance, idleness subtracted from his industry, carefulness 
multiplied by his vigilance, and his expenditures divided by economy. 

Respectfully submitted, D. Wyatt Aiken. 



fig?" "I want something for a broncritical affliction," said Mrs. Partington to 
Dr. Restieaux. The doctor, with that smiling urbanity which has become a 
feature at the north end, told her what he thought would help her.* Filling a 
small bottle, he handed it to her. "This isn't the Pictorial Syrup, is it?" she 
inquired; "because," continued she, "that creates a nashua, and raises my ex- 
pectations. I only want a simple lucrubation for the throat." He assured her 
it was just what she wanted. She thanked him, aud departed. 



Tea Cake. — One pint new milk, two pints flour, two eggs, two table-spoonful 
butter, one do. of soda, do. of cream tartar. 



368 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

Early Breakfast. 
Breakfast should be eaten in (he morning, before leaving the house for labor 
of any description ; those who do it will be able to perform more work, and with 
greater comfort and alacrity, than those who work au hour or two before break- 
fast. Besides this the average duration of the life of those who take exercise 
or work will be a number of years greater than those who do otherwise. Meet 
persons begin to feel weak after having been engaged five or six hours in then- 
ordinary avocation ; a good meal reinvigorates ; but from the last meal of the 
day until the next morning; there is an interval of some twelve hours; hence 
the body in a sense is weak, the stomach is weak, and in proportion cannot re- 
sist deleterious agencies, whether of the fierce cold or mid-winter, or of the poi- 
sonous miasma which rests upon the surface of the earth, wherever the sun 
shines on a blade of vegetation or a heap of offal. This miasma is more solid, 
more concentrated, and hence more malignant about sunrise and sunset, than at 
any other hour of the twenty-four, because the cold of the night condenses it, 
and it is on the first few inches above the soil in its most solid form ; but as the 
sun rises, it warms and expands and ascends to a point high erfcmgh to be breath- 
ed, and being taken into the lungs with the air, and swallowed with saliva into 
the stomach, all weak and empty as it is, it is greedily drank in, thrown immedi- 
ately into the circulation of the blood, and carried directly to every part of the 
body, depositing its poisonous influence at the fountain head of life. When in 
Cuba, many years ago, we observed that the favorite time for travel was mid- 
night; and the older merchants of Charleston may remember that when deadly 
fevers prevailed in hot weather, they dared not ride into town in the cool of the 
morning or evening, but mid-day was accounted the safest. We know, from 
many years' living in New Orleans, that it was when the evenings and mornings 
were unnsually cool, balmy and delightful, the citizens prepared themselves for 
still greater ravages of the deadly epidemic for the first few days following. 

If early breakfast was taken in regions where chill and fever, and fever and 
ague prevail, if in addition, a brisk fire were kindled in the family-room, for 
the hour including sunset and sunrise, these troublesome maladies would 
diminish in any one year not tenfold, but a thousand fold, because the heat 
of the fire would rarefy the miasmatic air instantly, and send it above the breath- 
ing point. But "it is " troublesome" to be building fires night and morning all 
summer, and not one in a thousand who reads this will put the suggestion into 
practice, it being no " trouble," requiring no effort to shiver and shake by the 
hour, daily for weeks and months together ; such is the stupidity of the animal 
man ! — Hall's Journal of Health. 



Rice Pudding. — Half-pint of rice boiled : drain off the water, and let the 
rice get cold ; two ounces butter, four ounces sugar, one quart rich milk, five 
eggs beaten very light, a table-spoonful of nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir all to- 
gether. 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



369 



From the North Carolina Planter. 

Fixed Facts in Agriculture. 
These may be assumed as fixed facts in agriculture : 

1. All lands on which clover, or the grasses are grown, must either have lime 
in them, naturally, or that mineral must be artificially supplied. It matters but 
little, whether it be supplied in (he form of stone lime, oyster-shell lime, or marl. 

2. All permanent improvement of lands must look to lime as its basis. 

3. Lands which have been long in culture, will be benefitted by applications 
o? phosphate of lim.c, and it is unimportant whether the deficiency be supplied 
in the form of bone dust, guano, native phosphate of lime, composts of fish, 
ashes. — or in that of oyster-shell lime — or marl — if the land needs liming, also. 

4. No lands can be preserved in a high state of fertility, unless clover and the 
grasses are cultivated in the course of rotation. 

5. Mould is indispensable in every soil, and a healthy supply can alone be 
preserved through the cultivation of clover, and the grasses, the turning in of 
green crops, or by the application of composts, rich in the elements of mould. 

6. All highly concentrated animal manures are increased in value, and their 
benefit prolonged, by admixture with plaster, salt or pulverized charcoal. 

7. Deep ploughing greatly improves the productive powers of variety of soil, 
that is not wet. 

8. Subsoiling sound land, that is, land that is not wet, is eminently conducive 
to increased production. 

9. All wet lands should be drained. 

10. All grain crops should be harvested from 7 to 10 days before the grain is 
thoroughly ripe. 

1 1 . Clover, as well as other grasses, intended for hay, should be mowed when in 
bloom. 

12. Sandy lands can be most effectually improved by clay. When such lands 
require liming, or marling, the lime or marl, is most beneficially applied, when 
made into compost with clay. In slacking lime, salt brine is better than water. 

13. The chopping, or grinding of grain, to be fed to stock, operates as a saving 
of at least twenty five per cent. 

14. Draining of wet lands, and marshes, adds to their value, by making them 
produce more and better crops — by producing them earlier, — and by improving 
the health of neighborhoods. 

15. To manure or lime wet lands, is to throw manure, lime and labor away. 

16. Shallow ploughing operates to improverish the soil, while it decreases 
production. 

17. By stabling and shedding stock through the winter, a saving of one-fourth 
of the food may be effected — that is, one fourth less food will answer, than when 
such stock may be exposed to the inclemencies of the weather. 

18. A bushel of plaster per acre, sown broadcast over cbver, will add one 
hundred per cent, to its produce. 

24 



370 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

19. Periodical applications of ashes, tend to keep up the integrity of soils, by 
supplying most, if not all of the inorganic substances. 

20. Thorough preparation of land, is absolutely necessary to the successful 
and luxuriant growth of crops. 

21. Abundant crops cannot be grown for a succession of years, unless care be 
taken to provide, and apply an equivalent for the substances carried off the land 
in the products grown thereon. 

22. To preserve meadows in their productiveness, it is necessary to harrow 
them every second autumn, apply top-dressings, and roll them. 

23. All stiff clays are benefitted by fall and winter ploughings; but should 
never be ploughed while they are weft If, at such ploughings, the furrow be 
materially deepened, lime, marl, or ashes should be applied. 

24. Young stock should be moderately fed with grain, in winter, and receive 
generous supplies of long provender, it being essential to keep them in fair 
condition, in order that the formation of muscles, bones, &c, may be encouraged 
and continuously carried on. 

25. Milch cows, in winter, should be kept in dry, moderately warm, but well 
ventilated quarters, be regularly fed and watered three times a day, salted twice 
or thrice a week, have clean beds, be curried daily, and, in addition to their long 
provender, should receive succulent food, morning and evening. 

26. Full complements of tools, and implements of husbandry, are intimately 
connected with the success of the husbandman. 

27. Capital is not only necessary to agricultural success, but can be as profit- 
ably used in farming, as any other other occupation. 

28. Punctuality in engagements, is as necessary to an agriculturist, as it is to 
a merchant. 

29. Every husbandman should carefully read, and digest matters connected 
with his business; his success being as dependent upon a full knowledge of its 
principles and details, as is that of the lawyer, or physician, with a knowledge 
of the science of law, or physic. 

30. Wheat, rye, oats and barley, should never follow each other in a course of 
rotation ; there should always be an intervening hoe crop between them. 

31. Weeds should never be permitted to mature their seed on a farm, but be 
pulled up or cut down as often as they show themselves, such being the only 
effectual method of eradicating them. To ensure this result, the ground should 
be planted in corn, and that kept clean. 

32. Time and labor devoted to the collection of materials, to be converted into 
manure, are the most fruitfuv sources of profit in the whole range of farm 
economy. 

33. The orchard, to be productive of good, fair fruit, requires to be fed as 
much as does a field of grain. The soil of each requires that the substances 
abstracted by the crops should be restored. The soil should be kept clean, and 
open to the meliorating influences of the sun, the dews, the rain and the air, — 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



371 



the bark of the trees should be kept in a healthful condition, by scraping when 
necessary, and by alkaline ashes. 



From the American Agriculturist. 

Tim Bunker on Seed. 

" Where you get de seed of dem big beets you raise last year, Massa Bun- 
ker ?" said Jim Baker to me this moroing. " Never seed sich beets down South 
in all my life. Reckon dey come from Africa, or somewhere dey git up airly in 
de morning." 

" No, Jim, I got them from New York, where they lie abed badly in the morn- 
ing, I am sorry to say. Half of them don't get their breakfast till nine o'clock." 

" Can't be, Massa. Must have come from some place close by sunrise, or dey 
never growd so big. I watch 'em last Summer, and I declare fur sartin, I tho't 
dey never would stop growin." 

Jim Baker, though he has been with us but two or three years, is one of the 
institutions of Hookertown, as much so as Mr. Spooner, or the school master. 
He was liberated by his master, a few years ago, with all the rest of the negroes 
upon the estate, and sent out to Liberia. He had made himself useful upon the 
plantation as cooper, in preparing sugar and molasses casks. He went out to 
Liberia with rather elevated notions of that land of promise, and of the freedom 
he was there to enjoy. Feeling rather above digging for a living, and not find- 
ing much demand for a cooper's labors in that new country, he became homesick, 
and took the first vessel bound for the States. Some of his shipmates hailed 
from this place, and Jim brought up here, and considers himself settled for life. 
He take3 naturally to gardening, and often excites the envy of Jake Frink, by 
beating him on garden sauce, and a rude kind of joking, which Jake calls "sassy." 
Jim takes note of all the best gardens, as he goes round doing odd jobs among 
the villagers, and is an appreciative beggar of good seeds. He turns up the 
white of his eyes at an extra sized patch of onions, and if he cannot get a dozen 
of the bulbs to set out, he wants just a pinch of the seed to plant. With his 
hat under his arm, and that deferential air which marks the well bred servant, 
he i3 pretty sure to get what he wants. "Nebber could see, Massa Bunker, 
what's the use planting poor seed. Sartin to git jest what you plant." 

Jim's philosophy, and Jake Frink's, do not belong to the same school. Jake 
thinks a seed is a seed, just as a cow is a cow, whether she is a skeleton, or have 
five hundred weight of beef laid in between her skin and bones. Jake has no 
idea but what old seeds are just as good as any, and so he keeps his old stock on 
hand from year to year. He has an old basket in his pantry for this purpose, 
and there you will find of the cucumber, squash, pepper, corn, beans, onion, 
cabbage, turnip, nasturtium, and a little of everything else that ever grew in his 
garden. They have no labels, and there is no means of ascertaining the age of any 
package in the basket. Some he has begged, a few he has bought, but the most 
he has raised upon his owb premises in that slipshod way that marks everthing 



372 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

about the establishment, and which has long since passed into a proverb. If you 
were to say a thing looked frinky, every man in Hookertown would know just 
what you meant. 

The last three or four cabbage stumps, or turnips, he happens to have left in 
the Spring, are set out without any regard to quality or variety. So his cabbage 
is neither Early York, nor Drumhead, Red Dutch, nor Savoy, but a mongrel 
stock, showing streaks of everything he has raised. His turnips and other tap- 
roots follow the same law, for they have all been cultivated upon the same sys- 
tem. Jake has no idea of the mixing of varieties in the blossom, or of their 
running down by b d cultivation. 

With Jim Baker, a seed is not a seed. " Tell you what, Massa Bunker, every- 
ting 'pends on what you plant. Iniquities of de faders visited on de children, 
and no mistake." Jim lives up to his philosophy, as a good many people who 
talk more, do not. The best beets are selected, and planted in a good rich soil, 
and the seeds are carefully labelled and put away where they can be found in 
planting time. Dinah cleans out the old basket Fall, and nothing but the seeds 
of the squashes, and other vines, are allowed to remain over a second year. 

I raise but few seeds myself, because I have found it better economy to buy 
such as I want at the large agricultural ware-houses in the city. As a rule, the 
men who devote their time to raising seeds, will get a better article than4hose 
who have other business constantly upon their hands. Their success in business 
depends upon their fidelity, and they are generally careful to give the public a 
good article. Well established firms in the city have extensive arrangements, 
with seed growers in all parts of this country and of Europe, to furnish the best 
articles in their respective lines of busines. If I want twenty varieties of gar- 
den seeds, it is much less trouble to send an order for them by express, than it is 
to try to raise them, and take care of them. 

This month I always lay in my stock of seeds, the best varieties, and enough 
of them. I know just how much ground I am going to plant in each crop, and 
can tell within a few ounces of the quantity I shall need of each variety. If it 
is put off til planting time, when everything is in a hurry, the best time for 
planting often goes by before you are ready, and you get only a partial crop. 
The best investments I have ever made in a small way, have been in this article. 
if Take particular notice. Never buy cheap seed. 

Yours to command, Timothy Bunker, Esq. 

Hookertown, Feb.. 1861. 



Custard. — Five eggs, three cups new milk, grated rinds, and juice of three 
large lemons, five cups sugar, one table-spoonful of rice-fiour. Mix all well to- 
gether, excepting the whites, which should be frisked until light aod added last 
of all. Bake on rich crusts. This is enough for five pies. 

Cracker Pie. — Eight crackers pounded fine, on which pour boiling water to 
soften, 8 tea-spoonsful of vinegar, 8 of sugar, 1 lemon ; if too stiff, add water. 



To our Subscribers. 

The general prostration of business and financial convulsions precipitated upon 
us by the extraordinary derangement and difficulties in our political affairs have 
well nigh dried up the sources from whence the life-blood of the Southern 
Planter has hitherto flowed. " In other departments men can take in sail, or 
cast anchor, until the storm is over ; but to newspapers there is no cessation and 
no abatement of cash expenses, while difficulties are multipled." Such has been 
our experience. The payments to the Southern Planter, with outstanding bal- 
ances in Virginia alone of more than §8,000, have not for the last three months, 
been equal to the expense of issuing one monthly number, and for a month past 
all payments have been, we might almost say, entirely suspended. What then 
shall we do in such a trying emergency? Shall we appeal to the sense of justice 
and the principles of common honesty of our delinquent subscribers for the re- 
paration of the wrong they have done us, in withholding from us the just con- 
sideration which is due to us, for the faithful fulfilment of our engagement, in 
the regular transmission of our paper to them, at whatever sacrifice forced upon 
us by the failure of their remittances ? If such an appeal were promptly an- 
swered by sending in the small sums, we will not say unjustly, but negligently 
detained from us, and which make up so large an, aggregate, our difficulties 
would be at once at an end, the expenses of publication promptly and regularly 
met, and the interests of the paper placed upon a basis of permanent usefulness 
and prosperity. But the experience of the past does not warrant us in resting 
our faith upon so uncertain a contingency. We have lived upon "hope de- 
ferred" until the " heart is sick," and yet have realized but very little indeed 
of the substance of the things hoped for. What then shall we do ? It is for you to 
determine whether we shall be the victims of cruel injustice, and have, at last, to 
suspend by your withholding our just dues, or whether, by jour prompt payment 
of them, we shall be enabled to go on our way rejoicing, seeking to do good and 
to communicate through the pages of the Planter as heretofore. 

We send out our bills in the present number. If mistakes are found in any 

of them they will be corrected as soon as reported to us, and we shall be most 

happy to acknowledge the receipt in full of such as are found correct. To those 

who find it difficult or impossible to pay all, at this time, we will say, do what yov, 
i an . 

Possibly some of the bills sent to subscribers may have been paid by them to our 
agents and not been reported. In all such cases, please overlook an unavoidable 
mi-take on our part, and consider yourselves excepted from the call which is 
made only upon delinquents. 



371 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



E&" Bills Sent Out.=^a 

The amount due us in the State of Virginia alone, as proved by the lifts which 
we send out in our present number, is upwards of Eight Thousand Dollars. 

We know that large numbers of our subscribers are in camp, and that those 
who are doing military service, will not see these bills. We therefore ask the 
favor of their families to attend to them in every case where it is possible to do 
so, and carefully to retain them when this is not done. 



To our Northern Exchanges. 

We are in frequent receipt of Agricultural papers, portions of which are filled 
up with wholesale abuse of our own beloved old State, and threats of a disgust- 
ing character as to the disposition which is to be made of us and our lands by 
the United States Government, i. e., Abraham Lincoln, when he " disperses " 
the present " mob." In taking leave of them, we beg to say a few words for 
ourselves and for our State. First, we have never tried to stir up hatred and 
malice between the citizens of different States, who should be brothers. We have 
loved "the Star Spangled Banner " and "the Union" as it was, and as our 
forefathers intended it shoidd be — a union of hearts, of destinies, of equal rights 
and equal glory. We have felt proud of being a citizen of the United States : 
wc feel prouder now of being a citizen of Virginia. " Rebels " we may he — 
Traitors, never. We have seen within the last two years our State invaded by a 
band of Northern fanatics, whose errand was one of Murder, Robbery and Trea- 
son, not only to this State, but to the United States. Our citizens were mur- 
dered in cold blood, and this was done by men in the name of God, and under 
the cloak of religion, while many of your citizens, calling themselves Christians, 
excused, defended and applauded their act. Wc saw Virginia, calmly and with-, 
out passion, give these assassins a trial, which, even they acknowledged to be fair 
and impartial; and we saw her punish them according to law. When "Black 
Republicanism " selected a candidate for the United States Presidency upon the 
sole ground of his hatred to the South and her interest, and he and his party 
determined to " manage our Union as we please," and to let the South have no 
farther connection with it than as submissive Provinces, — except to pay taxes 
for the support of "Government; — so strong was Virginia's attachment to "the 
Union," "the Constitution" and the "Star Spangled Banner," that she not 
only kept her own place in the Confederacy, but came forward, foremost, to try 
to conciliate all causes of difference between sections, and to restore peace and 
"good will to men" of all parties. At the same time she said the power of the 
"Government" should not, with her consent, be used as an engine of oppres- 
sion and war against the citizens of any State. 

She has tried every honorable means to avert civil war — to remain in the Union; 
but, when the President of the United States declares that he has no intention 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



375 



to invade any State, while, at the same time, he is sending fleets to blockade our 
ports, and soldiers into our forts and navy yards, to How them up, instead of "oc- 
cupying and holding " them, and is calling for thousands of mem to "subjugate" 
and " exterminate " the South, while the organs of trie party, who elected him, 
are holding out to recruits the inducements of " Booty and Beauty," and the di- 
vision of the property of Southern men (proposing to " spare the women and 
children") she sees, as will the whole civilized world see, the falsehood, the 
treachery and duplicity of the " Administration," and its utter contempt for 
" the Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws," except such 
laws as are the offspring of its own will, and which do not at all accord with 
Truth, Justice, Honor, Humanity or Civilization. Virginia takes up arms in 
self-defence alone, and appealing to God and the world for the justice of her 
cause, she accepts the issue which is presented to her. To all such Despotisms 
as that of Abraham Lincoln, she has always been, and ever will be, a Rebel. 



Inquiries. 

CLOVER, SHEEP HUSBANDRY, &C. 

Cartersville, April 16th, 1861. 

Messrs Editors : — Being a subscriber to your valuable paper, I will take the 
liberty of making an inquiry of you in regard to red clover. 

We all know that clover sown on rich land in the Spring of the year with the 
wheat or oat crop, will, the second year, by an application of about one bushel 
of plaster to the acre, towards the last of March, make a fine quantity of hay in 
June, if the soil be at all adapted to clover ; but what I wish to know is, would 
a clover lot from which the clover had been thus cut the second year produce as 
good a crop of hay the third year, by a like application of plaster, without any 
other manure as a top-dressing, provided a hoof is not allowed to go upon the 
clover; my object being, if practicable, to keep something like a standing clover 
lot near my stable for the convenience of cutting and feeding the clover to the 
horses in the green state, or soiling, as some call it, before the crop gets ripe 
enough to make a final cutting. 

Also, how many years is it generally before clover dies out in the same place, 
unless the land be cultivated in some other crop and then sown in clover again, 
and whether it is a benefit or disadvantage to the clover crop to graze it at all — 
whether in the Fall of the first year, the Fall of the second year, or the "Winter 
at any time, notwithstanding a poor horse or cow.(a) 

Also, whether grazing sheep on clover during the Winter or any other time 
will give them the rot, as my neighbor' W. II., lost some very fine sheep with 
the rot last winter whilst grazing on clover, which he attributed to the clover.(J) 

Being something like our State Convention at Richmond in regard to old Abe 
in making a final effort, a last final effort, and lastly and finally, an ultimatum, I beg 
leave to make another inquiry or two about sheep. Which is the best breed in (c) 



b!6 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

Eastern Virginia for wool or for mutton ? When is it the best time to castrate 
lambs, wben very young or nearly grown ?(d) Which is the best kind of pas- 
ture for them — an old field, a pasture the second year after wheat or oat crop, a 
clover field, or a fresh pasture immediately after the wheat or oat crop has been 
removed ?(e) Being a young farmer and inexperienced in regard to the above 
subjects on which I requested information, you will do me a considerable favor 
by replying either by letter or through the columns of the Southern Planter. 
Having gone far enough for the present, I must now close. W. J. P. 

REMARKS. 

(a) Red clover ( Trifaolium pratense) is a biennial plant. If sown early in the 
Spring, and not too much shaded by other crops, it produces a few blossoms the 
first season* When allowed to grow the next year to full maturity, without cut- 
ting, it dies; but if it is cut or pastured, so as to prevent it from coming to full 
maturity, it lives throughout a third or even a fourth Summer, and retains vigor 
enough to produce a tolerably fair crop. But its heaviest product is always in 
the second season of the sowing. — (Campbell's Agriculture, p. 293.) — Our cor' 
respondent may rest assured that a top-dressing of plaster, " without any other 
manure," will not be sufficient to secure " a good crop of hay the third year." — 

* The fertility of the land under successive mowings can only be maintained by 
, liberal surface applications of nutritive manures. The frequent removal of the 
growth of clover — a very exhausting process — requires a timely compensation to 
the soil to arrest its rapid deterioration and ultimate sterility.~B uA L^-i "Y&*Ltt4jt 

(b) Whether grazing sheep on clover in Winter or any other time will give 
them the rot, " depends upon the soil or state of the pasture. The disease is 
confined to wet seasons, or to the feeding on ground moist and marshy at all sea- 
sons. It has reference to the evaporation of water, and to the presence and de- 
composition of moist vegetable matter. It is rarely or almost never on dry and 
sandy soils and in dry seas&ns; it is rarely wanting in boggy or poachy ground ; 
except wben that ground is dried by the Summer sun, or completely covered by 
the winter rain. On the same farm there are fields on which no sheep can be 
turned with impunity. There are others that seldom or never give the rot. v — 
(Youatt, as quoted by Randall in his Sheep Husbandry in the South, p. 233.) 

(c) With respect to the question, "which is the best breed in Eastern Vir- 
ginia for wool or mutton ?" we have to remark that its solution depends upon a 
careful comparison of the amount of food consumed by the different breeds, with 
the productive capacity of the land on which they are to be supported. As the 
food consumed by a full grown animal generally bears a definite proportion to its 
live weight, it will be easy for the observant farmer to determine by these crite- 
ria whether it will be best to introduce the larger, the medium, or smaller-sized 
animal on his pastures. Whether mutton or wool, with reference to their greater 
profit, shall control him in the choice of breeds, must depend on proximity o r 
remoteness of market. A near market, affording a demand for mutton about 



186].] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



377 



equal to the supply, must determine the question of profit in favor of the car- 
cass, but one more remote, involving expensive transportation, must turn the 
scale in favor of the fleece. 

(<7) At an early age, it is undoubtedly best to castrate ram lambs, whether re- 
ference is had to the safety of the operation or the early development of the car- 
cass and its maturity for market. 

(e) Short grazing upon an old field pasture affording a good supply of grass 
is best for sheep, though they do well in stubble-fields after oats or wheat, if the 
time of their introduction into such pastures is judiciously chosen. From the 
general tenor of our remarks, our correspondent must not be led to infer that we 
recommend clover as a grass particularly adapted to sheep husbandry ; there are 
several of the grasses common to Eastern Virginia to which we would give a 
decided preference over it. — Editor. 



For the "Southern Planter. 



Sassafras. 



Messrs. Editors — If any of your correspondents can give us any information 
as to the best method of exterminating Sassafras bushes, in cultivated fields, we 
will be much pleased to hear from them. N. W. R. 

We invite replies to this query, as we know of no other method than that 
practiced in Albemarle county, viz : Grazing them off, during spring and sum- 
mer, by putting a herd of cattle into the fields infested with them, and grazing 
them into the ground. It is death to the Sassafras, and is very little less to the 

cattle. — Ed. 

f 

American Stock Journal. 

We return our sincere thanks to the Editor of this paper for bound volumes 
of his Journal for 1860. We hope, some day, to reciprocate his kindness. 

We have always felt, since we have had the pleasure of knowing him through 
the columns of his paper, a cordial respect for himself, and a lively interest in 
the success of his " Journal," which has well deserved the support of every 
Slock owner — and we take this occasion to say, that though he and we may live 
and die under different " Flags," he, nevertheless, has our best wishes for his 
health, happiness and prosperity. 



The Craft. 

Devoted to Typographical Interests. Published monthly, at 50 cents per 
annum. By J. Gr. Hague, Baltimore, Md. 

This little paper is so well gotten up as to reflect credit on the craft engaged 
in the enterprise. We wish it success. 



378 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 



From the American Agriculturist. 

Hints on Starting Garden Plants Early in Spring. 

Various methods may be resorted to for procuring early vegetables and flow 
ers, in all climates, and especially in the colder regions of the most Northern 
States, and of the British Provinces, as well as for securing the growth of those 
plants which will not ordinarily mature where the season is very short. Green- 
houses, hot-beds, and cold frames, are the most desirable, and these are destined 
to come into more extensive use, when people generally learn how simple, cheap, 
and valuable they are. Of these we speak from time to time ; here we will only 
refer to one or two methods that may be adopted by all. 

First, let it be remembered, that a soil deeply dug and thoroughly drained, is 
in a condition to receive seeds or plants much earlier than an ordinary soil, no 
matter how dry it may be. A free admixture of fermenting manure, like that 
from. the horse stable, also tends to warm the soil. 

The smaller seeds — lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, tomatoes, many of 
the flower seeds, etc., may well be sown in cheap earthen pots, or in boxes of 
earth. These boxes, if water-tight, should have gimlet-holes in the bottom to 
drain off excess of water ; an overdose of water, with no drainage, will often 
stop or greatly retard the growth. Though not indispensable, it is always pre- 
ferable to water at the bottom, letting only so much soak in as will naturally rise 
by capillary attraction. While the weather remains cold during the day, these 
boxes or pots may be kept in a warm, light cellar, or, better still, in a room 
slightly warmed by fire heat. But as soon as the out-door temperature during 
the day is above the freezing point, they should be left in the sun, and only be 
brought in at night when there is a prospect of frost. It answers very well to 
leave them on the South side of a barn during the day, and remove them to the 
barn floor at night, covering with straw, if needed, to keep out frost. By a very 
little care of this kind, any one may have an abundant supply of plants, ready 
to be transferred to the open ground when danger of frost is past. 

Another method, which has been highly commended by some, is this : Cut 
turf or grass sods into square blocks, or in long pieces ; if grass sods, pare off a 
little of the grass side. Invert the pieces and plant in them various seeds, such 
as cabbage^ lettuce, cucumbers, melons, corn, turnips, radishes — indeed anything 
which is desired to grow early. These can be laid closely together on the South 
side of the house, or barn, taking care to apply, from time to time, just water 
enough to keep them barely moist. On cold nights they can be covered with 
old carpeting, or blankets, and straw, until the plants begin to appear, after 
which the pieces should be temporarily removed to the cellar whenever there is 
danger of frost. As soon as the condition of the soil and weather renders it 
safe, the sods or turf may be cut into small pieces, each one containing one or 
more growing plants, and then set them into the open ground. There is a dou- 
ble advantage in this process : a gain of one to three weeks in time is secured, 



1S61.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



379 



and the sod or turf is an excellent material for promoting future growth and 
fertility. Any one who will try this method for a single season, will not be 
likely to omit it afterwards. Three or four hours of time expended in this way, 
will secure a considerable supply of extra early products of various kinds. 

Those who have a few old baskets will find the following plan a good one : 
Put into the baskets a quantity of good soil, with rotten chips, with or without 
some well-rotted manure, as may be needed by the soil used. Plant in each 
basket a few melon, cucumber, squash, or pumpkin seeds. The baskets can be 
carried in or out, according to the state of the weather. After the plants are in 
vigorous growth, and the weather suitable, set the baskets in the soil, one in a 
hill, without disturbing the contents. If the sides and bottoms of your baskets 
be not pretty open, a number of holes should be punched through. The roots 
will find their way out into the surrounding soil. By starting early, so as to 
have large ^vigorous plants growing in the baskets of earth by the time the 
weather is settled, you may have cucumbers ready for the table almost as soon as 
other people have plants coming up, and melons and other products proportion- 
ately early. 



Wheat Planted in Hills. 



We noticed, a year ago, the experiment of D. Yant, of Bolivar, O., in plant- 
ing an acre of wheat in hills, using a little over five pounds of seed to the acre. 
The hills were 20 by 15 inches apart, with five kernels in each. He now re- 
ports the result in the Ohio Farmer, from which we learn that the grubs and 
cut- worms destroyed full one-half of it, and that it yielded at the rate of 17 
bushels per acre, or 204 bushels for one of the seed. Mr. Y. says : " It stooled 
•enormously; thirty, forty, sixty, and seventy large, well-filled heads from one 
grain were common, and I have 112 stalks of wheat that grew from a single 
seed, yielding about 4,000 grains, and a rye plant that produced 183 heads, 
containing over 10,000 grains. About this there is neither mistake nor guess- 
work. Wheat put fifteen inches apart in the drills will not lodge ; and to what 
extent liberal manuring, with some cultivation, may carry the yield, has yet to 
be tested." 



Advice to the Volnnteers— How to prepare for the Campaign. 

A writer who signs himself " An Old Soldier," gives the following advice to 
young soldiers : 

1. Remember that in a campaign more men die from sickness than by the 
bullet. 

2. Line your blanket with one thickness of brown drilling. This adds but 
four ounces in weight, and double the warmth. 

'■'>. Buy a small India rubber blanket (only 81 50) to lay on the ground or to 
throw over your shoulders when on guard duty during a rain storm. Most of 



380 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[June 



the Eastern troops are provided with these. Straw to lie on is not always to be 
had. 

4. The best military hat in use is the light colored soft felt; the crown being 
sufficiently high to allow space for air over the brain. You can fasten it up as a 
continental iu fair weather, or turn it down when it is wet or very sunny. 

5. Let your beard grow, so as to protect the throat and lungs. 

6. Keep your entire person clean. This prevents fevers and bowel complaints 
in warm climates. Wash your body each day, if possible. Avoid strong coffee 
and oily meat. Gen. Scott said that too free use ot these, together with neglect 
in keeping the skin clean, cost many a soldier his life in Mexico. 

7. A sudden check of perspiration by chilly or night air, often causes fever 
and death. When thus exposed, do not forget your blanket. 



From the Virginia Herald. 

An Affecting Incident at the Election in Fredericksburg. 

The venerable John Tayloe Lomax, known as the Christian Judge, whose 
talents, as manifested by his legal treatises and by his judicial decisions for 
twenty-five years, have excited the admiration of the legal profession in and out 
of his native State, and who is venerated for his wisdom and his Christian 
character, appeared on Thursday at the polls, his health impaired and enfeebled 
by recent sickness; with tottering steps, supported by friends, and with feeble 
voice from weakness and emotion, assigned the motives that influenced him in 
what he was about to do. The entire assemblage preserved the deepest silence, 
and all who heard him shed tears of sympathy with his feelings. It was a scene 
well calculated to produce a deep impression, and the words of this sage and 
patriot should be widely spread. 

The following is mainly the substance, or spirit of the remarks he made when 
about to vote on the Ordinance of separation: 

He spoke with feelings of the profoundest veneration of the State of Virginia; 
the land of his nativity, the land of his forefathers, among the earliest Colonial 
settlers, the birth-place of Washington ; this good old State, by her influence 
and by her magnanimous donation to her sister States, mainly established the 
Confederacy of them all. It was mainly by her exertions that that Confederacy 
was strengthened in the bonds of a Constitutional Union, the most glorious that 
the world had ever beheld or admired, and it has ever been her zealous effort to 
preserve and maintain it. It was an union of peace, prosperity and brotherly 
love throughout the land, and of glory at home and of glory abroad; that Union 
has now been broken up into distinct Confederacies, in consequence of the aggres- 
sions of the North on the South. That South has desired and sought only a 
peaceful separation. Virginia has, to the last moment of exhausted patience, 
been in vain importuning, by every appeal she could make to her Northern con- 
federates, to stay their aggressive spirit, and to restore the Union and the Con- 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



381 



stitution in its administration, to their pristine peace and harmony, and prosperity 
throughout all the sections of our country. 

In sympathy with my noble State, said he, my soul has struggled with hope 
against hope, to behold the reformation of the policy of our NortLorn confeder- 
ates;»the awful question is now presented to the people of Virginia, whether 
she will continue her allegiance to the fragmentary confederation of the North, 
now practically changed by fanatics and party and sectional politicians, into a 
conspiracy against the liberty and rights of Virginia and the South, and is pre- 
paring to pour down upon them a desolation such as the world has seldom or 
ever witnessed. 

« 0! how can'I, in the duty which I owe to this beloved and honored Common- 
wealth, vote her continued allegiance to this baleful dominion ? Our Union and 
Constitution have been my delight and the object of my affections, hardly less 
than idolatrous, from my earliest boyhood through " the years of a long life," 
which has been most graciously protracted. Now I come to perform, in my old 
as;e, the most distressful duty of my whole life, to vote her out, to vote her 
entire separation from the dominion of what remains of the Federal United 
States of America. With Christian faith I will trust in Divine Providence to 
overrule her destinies in the change which is now to take place, and what- 
ever that change may be, to brighten her destinies with the beams of Divine 
favor, and to guide our people in the path of righteousness to their safety and 
peace, and to the Divine glory. I must, I mast, in deepest convictions of duty, 
vote my dear old State out; and to secure separation from the United States, I 
must vote for the ratification of the Ordinance for that separation. 



Hints for Gardeners. 

Never train or support a plant unnaturally. Climbers will not succeed hang- 
ing about. Trailers will do no climbing. Grow it as it would grow naturally, and 
supply in such case where nature does not. 

Carefally preserve the fallen leaves of trees, and procure as many as you can; 
when rotted into mould — they are invaluable. 

Keep your seeds, bulbs, tubers, etc., in a place where neither heat, nor frost, 
nor damp can reach them; for either of these would destroy many. 

Do not waste rain water; save all you can, for it is the best for plants. 

Never allow weeds to bloom. One day devoted this year may save a month's 
labor next. 

Whenever a plant suffers a Iosb of root, pvune off a corresponding portion of 
the head. 

Encoura^ t iuds and robins (unless you have pet cherry trees). They gain 
i ■. ifciir living \>) destroying insects. — Exchange. 



Ginger Crackers. — One point of molasses, one cup of sugar, six ounces 
butter, cloves and ginger to taste, flour enough to roll out and cut. 



382 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [June 

Death of Martin Tilghman Goldsborough. 
Died at " Ellensborough,* the place of bis residence, in Talbot county, Md., 
on tbe lOtb of March last, M. T. Goldsborough, in the forty-ninth year of his 
age. Tbe death of so distinguished a farmer, philanthropist and Christian, 
deserves to be chronicled in a paper devoted especially to agriculture, that his 
memory may be held in grateful remembrance, and his name handed down as a 
benelactor of his profession. " He retired," says one of our exchanges, " at a late 
hour on Saturday night, cheerful and apparently in perfect health, and at 3 A. 
M., on the following morning," was found "struggling with apoplexy, which 
terminated his useful life in a short time after." " This sudden and unexpected 
demise," says another of our exchanges, "of this excellent citizen*, has shrouded 
in gloom this whole community." * * * " It is not meet that the dea.th of 
such a man should be simply announced. Some small record of his many virtues 
and great worth should be made, for the benefit of those among whom he spent 
his useful life, and as a right example fur their imitation. In his early youth 
Mr. Goldsborough desired to enter that noble military institution, West Point. 
Failing to obtain a Cadetship he took private lessons of instruction at this school 
of the nation, with a view of fitting himself for the duties of civil engineering, 
a profession then opening bright prospects to the ambitious and enterprising 
young men of tbe country. He subsequently perfected his studies at Geneva 
College, in New York. Immediately on finishing his course of preparation, he 
obtained employment under the then celebrated engineer, John Randall, upon a 
rail road near Ithaca, in New York. At the close of his engagement on this 
road, without even visiting his relatives and friends at home, he entered upon 
duty on the Wilmington and Weldon Pail Road, in North Carolina, under Maj. 
Walter Gwynn who is now the superintendent of the fortifications in the harbor 
of Charleston. He soon won the confidence and warmest friendship of this dis- 
tinguished officer, by his devotion to duty and his proficiency in his profession. 
He was rapidly advanced, and employed in high and responsible positions in the 
location and construction of this road. He was unusually beloved and esteemed 
by the people of this then undeveloped region; and the now flourishing and 
populous town of Goldsborough, the capitol of Wayne county, North Carolina, 
.was called after our deceased friend, and will always remain a monument of the 
high appreciation in which he was held. His constitution suffered severely in 
tbe fearless and untiring discharge of duty at this time; and on his marriage, in 
18-iO, to a lady of his own State, be relinquished his heretofore cherished pur- 
suit for that of agriculture, in his native county of Talbot. His usefulness and 
unceasing labor, as an agriculturist, have not been confined to the limits of his 
own county. He was a distinguished officer of the State Agricultural Society, 
and as a writer, the agricultural journals of the country uttered his high intelli- 
gence and devotion to his newly adopted profession. As a practical farmer, his 
beautifully embellished homestead, his rapidly improved and renovated lands, 
and their superior culture, have elicited the unusual commendation of his fellow 



1861.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



383 



comity men. For fifteen years he was the faithful Secretary of the time-honored 
Agricultural Board of the county; and for the last five years its accomplished 
President. As a member of this Board his labors were always industrious, well 
directed and useful; whilst the suavity and urbanity of his manners endeared 
him to all his fellow members. Of our friend, as a Christian, husband, father, 
brother and master, we need not speak here, where he was so well known. In 
the bleeding and sorrowing hearts of surviving kindred, in all these endearing 
relations of life, and in the unmistakeable sorrow of his servants, is found the 
surest and best record of his worth. In him the church has lost a true friend 
and steadfast member. For fifteen years he faithfully acted as vestryman and 
register of his Parish, and during most of this period served as lay-delegate in 
her conventions. His heart was ever open to the appeals of charity, and the 
poor he never turned away. The enterprising and meritorious in all stations of 
life — the ingenious machinest and inventor, struggling with the want of means, 
sought him not in vain. His high reputation in all the departments of Agri- 
culture, caused many from a distance to visit and appeal to him; and in him 
they found the kind approving friend and ready helper. He was an active 
officer and a generous patron of our volunteer military organization, and his loss 
to the company, of which he was an efficient commander, will not be easily sup- 
plied. In the midst of his career of usefulness, he is cut down and removed 
from among us; but his bright example and memory will always be affectionately 
cherished in our county." 

The above was intended for insertion two months ago, but was inadvertently 
laid aside and overlooked. — Ed. So. Plan. 



Cultivation of the Dahlia. 

They are propagated from the tuber. The proper season for setting out is 
May or June. Sandy loam is the best soil. Trim two feet from the ground, 
and allow only one stalk in a place. They are easily cultivated, though a very 
dry season is almost always fatal to them. The tuber will keep where potatoes 
will, and they should be , taken up before the frost comes. The dahlia is of 
Mexican origin, and was introduced into England in 1790. The demand for 
these flowers has increased very much during the last few years. Mr. Soyez 
remarked that he raised a large number of plants, some years ago, from the seed 
that he brought from Europe. Very few of the flowers were perfect. He found 
that the varieties could not be reproduced from seed ; the only successful way to 
raise them is from the tubers; these always reproduce their own kind. To pro- 
duce dwarf plants, cut the bulb transversely and plant the crown or upper part. 

The application of manure is injurious, as it is too heating and drying. Many 
of the plants raised from seed produced double flowers the first season, and 
several that had single flowers doubled them the second year. Mr. Holden said 
his dahlias flourished best in red clay; they produced more, larger and hand- 
somer flowers. He had used white pine stakes to tie his dahlias to, which had 



,84 THE SOU'l : TtN PLANTER. [June, 18G"i 



been dipped in hot coal tar. They had lasted tl -en years, and w a still 
good. — Exchange. 

Vegetable Garden. 

Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Brocoli, are now set out for fall crops, and Endive 
sown for winter Salad. Lettuce, also, for summer and fall use. This, However,* 
must be sown in very rich soil, and in a partially shaded situation, or it will go 
to seed. Peas, beans, and other crops, should be sowed every two weeks. They 
do much better than when a crop is sown at one time, and then have too many 
on hand at one time to go to waste. 

In the cultivation of garden crops, the hoe and vake should be kept con inu- 
ally at work. Weeds should be taken in hand before they are barely out of t' e 
seed-leaf, and one-half the usual labor of vegetable gardening will be avoi It 
Hoeing, or earthing up of most garden crops, is of immense advantage in nearly 
every case. 

One would suppose that in our hot climate flat culture would be much more 
beneficial ; but a fair trial, say on every other row of a bed of cabbages, will 
show a great difference in favor of the earthed-up plants. — Gardener's Monthly 



Saving Matches. 
They cost less than half a cent a paper, perhaps, but two gross of papers 
wasted, would, if saved, pay for the Agriculturist a year; besides, c 
lessness is a bad habit, however small the matter involved. Let the girls | . 
boys roll up " lighter" of waste paper, to be used after the fire is once burnina 
it will take but little time to prepare them, the children like the sport, and vi 
be kept out of mischief while thus employed ; there will also be avoided muc' 
of the unpleasant smell of phosphorous and brimstone, so offensive to most 
persons. A subscriber recommends another plan that we have seen in use, which 
is qui*e convenient, and saves the trouble of m.iking the paper lighters. Keep, 
say two tflblespoonfuls of cheap alcohol in a small bottle: to the cork attach a 
wire, long enough to reach the fluid, with a bit of cotton fastened on its end. 
The fluid on the cotton is always ready to be lighted, and will burn long enough 
to light several lamps. 

De Bow's mortality statisticg , compiled from the last census, show that the 
people of the United States are the healthiest on the globe. The deaths are 320,- 
000 per year, or one and a-half per cent, of the population. In England the 
ratio is near two per cent., and in France nearl} three per cent. Virginia 
and North Carolina are the healthiest of the States, and have 638 inhabitants 
above 100 years of age. 

Molasses Cake. — One quart molasses, half pint thick milk, one teaspoonfil 
soda, quarter pound of shortening (butter and lard), ginger and cloves to taste, 
flour sufficient to roll out. 




^iJ^JUu, 'e^f^U 2-Z 7 ~2Vi m &^Y^a (?*3dp lfjut,. 



* I 



SOUTIMN^LANTE^ 

\J*miFm*3gff*!. 0F \ HOSPITAL FOR SLAVES 

HATS AND BOOlo. 

Vrom 15 to 20 per cent, saved 
.urribiVn Hotel Bnilchng. 

■ B d ooSrJ3i; 5 FineCaf fs kia Sewed 
" Sh J ° e H S2 ANTHONY has made ar- 

fnd'ome and substantia Calf-skin Sewed BOUl, 
ISB? ^ -11 at ^e «n,.cede„ted .ow Pnce of 

T/jree Doll ars and a H afr 



I 




Three ifouar»ava "■ f f. - — 

Southern Clothing House 

RICHMOND, VA. 

— The subscriber keeps con- 
stantly on hand a large and FasV- 
ionabie assortment ofKeady-made 
Clothing, of his own manufacture, 
of the latest and most approved 
Styles. Also a large assortment 
of'Gentl<*nen's furnishing Goods, 
such as Ha^dk'fs, Cravats, Neck 
Ties, Shirts, Drawers, Gloves and 
Suspenders, Collars, Umbrellas. 

In addition to which be keeps a 
large and general assortment ot 

flfrlfl-T-rW- -*"" G Tt d „ S maket me^.^ 
.i-«unnest notice and in tne oe^ ^ SP/WNCE. 
July 59-lp ' « Main and 13th tots. 




"fvSVnd bea'thfulls of position, to the purr 

„V^b A ^? I TheSu,e f andr u> J0ve r 

this institution have alreaJy been p ^ 

^who'ma^e^f^e^lrmation. 

Surgical °Pf ^'Tfhe cttv g For fanlir inform 

FRS. W. HANCOCK, M- D. 

Main St., bet. 3d and 4th, or No. 130 Main 

ST. GEO. PEACHY, M. D., 

Exchange Hotel, or Grace st., bet. 5th and 6 

R. S. VEST, M. D., 

Franklin Street, below Ballard Hon 

PHILIP S. HANCOCK, M. 
Resident Physicit 

CYRUS BROOKS, 

Resident Assistar 



July><)_iy 



RHODES' SUPER PHOSPHATE 

The Standard Manure. 

i OR TOBACCO, COTTON, COM AND WHEAT CULTURE, ROOT CROPS, 

;1 Manufactured under the supervision of Emfrient Manufacturing Chemists, and warra 
'■ pure and free from all adulteration." 

DB. M. RHODES <fc CO., 

Office 82 South Street, Boibly's Wharf, Baltimore, M. 



JGENTS IN VIRGINIA. 



1 chmond— SCHAER, KOHLER & CO, 
1 otersburg— VENABLE & MORTON. 

THOS. BRANCH & SONS. 
1 ynchburg— M. HOLLINS & CO. 
N wfolk— B. T. BOCKOVER. 
(Mexandria— WM. H. MAY 



Fredericksburg— HUGH SCOTT. 

Farmville— HOWELL E. WARREN. 

Blacks & Whites— JEFFERSON & WILLIA& 

SON. 
Clarksville— JAMES E. HASKINS. 
Jan. 60— tf 



IMPROVED STOCK FOR SALE. 

South Down Bucks, 2 years and 1 year old. Devon Bulls, 4 years old, and Bull calves. C 
1 / Kossuth, 4 years and 3 years old, unaltered. A Morgan, 3 years old, unaltered. Morgan, 1 
t i ire, and John Henry colts, 3 years old geldings. Morgan fillies, 4 years old and 2 years old. 

I will sell any of -the above stock at moderate prices, .deliverable at Gordonsville, Orai 
I aunty. 

The colts and fillies are out of fine mares. 

April 61— 4t R. BARTON HAXAT.T., Richmond, Xt 



&tiaz wltt 



-^i.v^fi 







! 



C°Hege of William and zjfrfary 




THE EARL GREGG SWEM 
LIBRARY