Digitized by the Internet Archive 

in 2012 with funding from 

LYRASIS IVIembers and Sloan Foundation 



http://archive.org/details/southernplanterd26sout 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

3Deboteti to ^cjrCcuUure^ aioitfcuUurc, anti the 7i)ouseIiolt> ^rts. 



Agriculture is the nursing- mother of the Arts. 

Xcuoplion. 



Tillage and Pasturage arc the two breasts of the .Siaie. 

Sully. 



C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 



Vol. II. 



RICHMOND, JUNE, 1842. 



No. 6. 



For the Southern Planter. 

KING VVILLIAiM WORKING AGRICULTURAL 

SOCIETY. 

At a meeting of citizens of King William 
County, prompted by the recommendation of the 
Virginia Board of Agriculture, for the purpose 
of forming a Working Agricultural Society, at 
Acquinlon Church on the 16th April, 1842, Dr. 
Corbin Braxton was called to the chair, and 
Dr. William Gwathmej^, chosen Secretary. 

A committee appointed lo draft a Constitution, 
reported the plan proposed in the Farmers' Re- 
gister, December number, 1841 ; which, with 
some amendments, was adopted, and a Society 
organized by the election of Dr. Corbin Braxton, 
President ; Archer Brown, Vice-President ; Ed- 
ward Hill, Treasurer ; William Gwathmey, Se- 
cretary; and \Vm. S. Fontaine, Martin Drewry, 
Baylor Temple, and George Edwards, an Ex- 
ecutive Committee. 

CONSTITUTION. 

The Agricultural Society of King William 
County is instituted for the purpose of promoting 
the improvement of agriculture, and especially 
lo seek that end by inducing the making and 
reporting of careful and accurate experiments, 
for ascertaining doubtful, disputed, or new and 
useful facts in scientific or practical agriculture. 

1. The Society shall be composed of such 
persons as shall sign this Constitution, and pay 
such contributions as may be required by its 
provisions. 

2. The Society shall have two general meet- 
ings in each year, which, until altered, shall be 
held at Mulberry Hill Tavern, and such special 
meetings as may be galled by proper authority. 

3. The officers shall be a President, Vice- 
President, Secretary, and Treasurer, and four 
other members of the Executive Committee; the 
three former being members ex officio of that 
Committee ; all to be elected by the annual gen- 
eral meeting, and to serve for one year, or until 
another election shall be made. 

4. It shall be within the power and duty of 
the Executive Committee to order all things 
properly in fiu'therance of the objects of the So- 
ciety, and within its means; provided^ that such 
action of the Executive Committee shall not 
extend to cases provided for by the vote and ac- 
tion of the Societ}^, and shall never oppose any 
action or resolution of the Society. 

Vol. 2—16 



5. The President, Vice-President, Secretary, 
and Treasurer, shall have the powers and per- 
foriT) the several duties implied by the names of 
their offices, and both for the Society and for the 
Executive Committee, of which they are mem- 
bers ex officio. 

6. Each person on becoming a member shall 
piy to the Treasurer an admission fee of one 
dollar, and at each annual meeting of the So- 
ciety thereafter the further annual contribution 
of one dollar. 

7. Besides any other discretionary or volun- 
tary services, it shall be the duty of each mem- 
ber of the Society annually to commence, and 
attempt to complete, at least one experiment on 
some one or more subjects of practical agricul- 
ture, on some doubtful or disputed questions, and 
designed to throw light thereon ; which experi- 
ments shall be conducted carefull}' and accu- 
rately, to the best of the ability and the means 
of the experimenter, and the circumstances noted 
minutely, and with the results, be reported in 
writing, as simply and concisely as may be, but 
minutely and full}', at the next annual meeting; 
and whether the resuli be deemed successful and 
valuable, or discouraging, or the whole experi- 
ment be deemed a failure. And in default of 
such reports either of progress or of completion, 
of three experiments by each member, at each 
annual meeting, the defaulter shall pay to the 
Treasurer one dollar for each experinient want- 
ing. 

8. The Executive Committee shall prepare a 
list of practical agricultural matters deemed 
questionable, and important to be investigated 
by the experiments of members of the Society, 
from which, or from other sources, each member 
may choose subjects for experiment. And the 
experiments of members shall be arranged and 
condensed by the Executive Committee, and the 
facts shown by the results published in the man- 
ner deemed most suitable. 

9. Of the funds of the Society not less than 
one- half of the whole amount shall be appro- 
priated as premiums offered for careful and well 
conducted experiments on subjects of practical 
agriculture. 

10. The Society will co-operate with each 
and exexy other Society having similar objects 
and general action, for the purpose of better for- 
warding their common and important object of 
inducing accurate investigation, eliciting useful 



122 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



facts, and exchanging and diffusing the know- 
ledge ihus acquired. 

Resolved^ That the Secretary be directed to 
forward a copy of these proceedings to the Edi- 
tors of Southern Planter and Farmers' Register 
with the request they will publish them. 

(Signed.) Corbin Braxton, PresH. 

W. GwATHMEY, Sedy. 



It is with great pleasure we insert the pro- 
ceedings of the "King Williana Working Agri- 
cultural Society," forwarded to us by their Se- 
cretary. We are more indebted to King William 
than to any county in the State for our subscrip- 
tion list, and she is therefore entitled, in a pre- 
eminent degree, to command our columns. 

The plan proposed by Mr. Ruffin, and adopted 
by this Society, is, we think, excellent in many 
respects. The feature requiring the members to 
make and report experiments we think particu- 
larly valuable. But we hope the system of pub- 
lic exhibitions will not be abandoned. The ob- 
ject of all such associations is to collect and 
disseminate knowledge. The mass of mankind 
are to be addressed only through the senses — 
seeing is believing. You must let them see, and 
for this purpose, you must collect them together. 
Our population is sparse, and our material for 
exhibition indifferent. It is hard to get up, 
much harder to keep up, that kind of excitement 
that is necessary to induce men to take a long 
ride to a county exhibition, where nothing is to 
be seen. More people will pay twenty-five cents 
to visit a monkey show, than will attend an 
agricultural exhibition at a County Courthouse. 
The necessary attraction is wanting. Hence 
the universal failure of our countj^ societies, not- 
withstanding their acknowledged beneficial ten- 
dency. In this, as in many other things, the 
difficulty is in the start. Take a county badly 
cultivated ; there, undoubtedly, improvement is 
needed most. A few individuals, inspired with 
a love of improvement, endeavor to establish an 
agricultural society, with an annual fair and ex- 
hibition. A few good exhibitions would awaken 
an interest and excite an emulation that would 
afford material for others. But how are the 
first to be obtained 1 They are never good. 
They are interesting only from the novelty and 
ephemeral excitement that may have been pro- 
duced by great exertion. A few indifferent ani- 
mals are exhibited, a few plain articles of do- 
mestic manufacture are shown, a long speech is 
made, and the countryman goes home disap- 



pointed and weary. The next time nobody at- 
tends, and the society sinks into oblivion. 

The same difficulty has existed even in the 
dense agricultural population of Great Britain. 
How is this to be remedied? We answer by 
exhibiting in a poorly cultivated district the pro- 
ducts of another highly cultivated. Let the 
Legislature of Virginia appropriate a certain 
sum to be distributed in premiums of handsome 
amounts, at fairs to be holden in certain large 
districts ; the fair to be holden at different places 
in the district in different years. Thus will the 
improvements of one part of the State be made 
manifest to, and stimulate another. The igno- 
rant countryman of one part will be satisfied of 
his inferiority, which will be a great point gained. 
His sectional pride will be roused, and his 
pocket-nerve excited. We repeat, "seeing is 
believing." You may tell men of improvements 
forever; until they see it, they will not believe 
that any mode is better than that to which they 
have been accustomed. 

Good premiums will ensure interesting con- 
tests, even where pride is wanting; each exhi- 
bition will be larger than the preceding; the 
attendance will be greater ; sectional pride will 
be excited, and the affair will obtain an eclat 
that will carry it through triumphantly. 

This suggestion is derived, in part, from an 
address delivered before the New York Agricul- 
tural Society by Mr. J. B. Nott, which some 
friend has been kind enough to send us. The 
present Royal Agricultural Society of England 
has arisen, Phoenix like, from its ashes in con- 
sequence of its being remodelled after the plan 
of the celebrated Highland Societj' of Scotland. 
Like it, it goes forth annually, now to one place, 
and again to another, to bestow its golden pre- 
miums at the ploughing matches and cattle 
shows it has so wisely established. This, Mr. 
Nott thinks, is the preservative feature, that is 
destined to save it from the fate of its predecessors. 



COTTON. 

It has ever been the policy of England to 
produce, as far as possible, what she consumes. 
She has made many abortive attempts to supply 
herself with cotton from her East India posses- 
sions, so as to free herself from the heavy tribute 
she has been heretofore compelled to pay to the 
southern part of the United States for this im- 
portant article. During the winter of 1840, a 
Captain Bayles, with a party from Mississippi, 



\ 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



123 



was engaged to go out and superintend a cotton 
establishment in the neighborhood of Calcutta. 
Various surmises and reports have gone forth as 
to the result of this new attempt with American 
skill and enterprise. On the one hand, it is 
averred that the account from the Mississippi 
party is of the most favorable character ; that 
alread}^ many bales of the finest staple have 
been sent into England, and that from the cheap- 
ness of Indian labor, it is impossible that we can 
compete with it, when properly managed ; con- 
sequently, that the production of this great sta- 
ple must be greatly abridged in America, and 
that we have no resource but by means of a 
high tariff on foreign manufactures, to build up 
a home market for the raw material. On the 
other hand, it is contended, that these statements 
proceed from the tariff partly, and result wholly 
from an attempt upon their part to create a panic 
amongst the planters of the South. It is said, 
that the Bayles attempt must, like all others, 
prove a failure ; that the soil and climate of In- 
dia forbid the production of any but a short, 
coarse staple, and (hat the expense of transpor- 
tation from India to Britain, involving a voyage 
of three months, is almost as great as the cost 
of production and transportation from America. 
Although we greatly doubt the ability of India 
to compete with our cotton country, we believe 
that the article has been over-produced, and that 
a portion of the labor heretofore applied to it 
may be profitablj^ diverted into other channels. 



BREEDING AND RAISING SWINE. 
To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Dear Sir, — As the time seems at length to 
have arrived, when the attention of our honest 
farmers is awakened, and inquiry is afloat as to 
the best method of breeding and raising swine, 
I hope you will not deny me a place in one of 
your columns for the little knowledge I may 
possess, gleaned from agricultural papers and 
my own observation and experience. For the 
belter treatment of the subject, I shall divide my 
remarks into six different parts. 

1st. The choice of a breed. For my own 
part, I prefer the Berkshires; they certainlj^ can- 
not be surpassed for mildness of disposition and 
easiness of keep, and no other breed marks their 
progeny as distinctly as they do. Next to them, 
Mackay's breed is the best. 

2dly. Having chosen your breed, select your 
breeders. I will give you now a description of 
what I consider a perfect hog. Small head, 
small ears, thin neck, broad shoulders, long and 
round in the body, deep in the carcass, short legs, 
and hams rather square than round. 



3dly. The age at which they should breed. 
Many breeders say the}' should not go to the 
boar until twelve months old. I think it would 
be better for them to run until they are twelve 
months; but they are plenty old at ten months. 
The sow should go to the boar more than once, 
when he has not been used for some time before, 
or she will have nearly all boar pigs. 

4thly. To preserve them in good health and 
appetite, mix with their food a little pounded 
charcoal, once or twice a week, or throw it to 
them in lumps. 

5thly. The management and weaning of pigs. 
For the purpose of feeding little pigs, 1 have my 
pens so constructed as to permit them to go into 
their own apartment at pleasure, where food is 
always kept for them ; they thus becom.e accus- 
tomed to eating, and do not mind weaning at 
all. 

6thly. Cures for diseases to which swine are 
subject. Measles. The existence of this dis- 
ease can only be known by the animals not 
thriving like the rest. Give him a clean, dry 
bed, and mix sulphur or a little antimony with 
his food. Catarrh in pigs. Castor oil is very 
good, but wood-ashes is an almost certain cure. 
Blind staggers are caused by costiveness; give 
a dose or two of Castor oil. Mange or quinsy. 
Boil poke root with pot-liquor, and season with 
meal, vegetables, &c. and let the hog eat hearti- 
ly ; give him this once or twice a week until he 
is well. As to fattening, but little need be said ; 
the whole matter consists in feeding but little at 
a time, ofien, and with regularity. 

I hope if you think these remarks will be of 
service to any of your readers, you will publish 
them from Your friend, W. 



BADEN CORN. 
Mr. Thos. N. Baden, of Maryland, who has 
acquired great reputation for his corn, which he 
has cultivated into a distinct variety, gives the 
following directions for its management, in a 
letter to the Editor of the Anaerican Farmer: 

" But, Mr. Editor, if your friends will be care- 
ful to get the genuine seed, and prepare their 
land well, and lay it off five feet apart each 
way, and plant it the three or four last days 
of April, or two or three first da3''s of May, 
and leave two stalks in each hill — and if 
the land is rich they may leave three stalks in 
each hill — and work it once in twelve days, or 
at most not let it exceed fifteen days, and keep 
up this rule until they lay by their crop, and 
pull off the suckers that put up from the roots 
when they get a foot or eighteen inches hiizh, 
and they will be certain of raising a good crop, 
agreeably to the strength of their land. Plough 
your corn three times after it comes up, and you 
may work it over the balance of the time as 



124 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



you please. Some persons contend the cultiva- 
tor is best, but I differ frona them. Let them, 
however, for experiment, try a part of their field 
each way; then they will be better able to judge 
for themselves. I will undertake to say, if they 
work their field entirely with the cultivator, if it 
should be a wei season, they will be pretty well 
overrun with grass ; though 1 use the cuhivator 
sometimes. 

If you think, sir, this is worth a place in your 
useful and interesting paper, you are at liberty 
to put it in some spare corner. 
I am truly yours, 

Thos. N. Baden." 



PICKLE VINEGAR, 

A friend writes us, " A lady in Orange sent 
me a nice pot of pickles, last winter, the vinegar 
of which I think is particularly good, and as 
she has sent me the recipe, I hand ii over to the 
readers of the Planter." 

" Ten gallons water — one gallon whiskey — 
one gallon molasses — one pint yeast — put all 
together in a warm situation the first warm 
weather in June, and in six weeks it will be 
ready for use. Put a sheet of foolscap paper in 
the vessel." 



GUANO, THE PERUVIAN MANURE. 

The rocky coast and inlets that exist in the 
desert district between Peru and Chili, are the 
great resort of millions of sea birds, gulls, &c. 
and their manure which has been accumulating 
for ages now forms masses of great thickness, 
and which is constantly increasing. As these 
birds feed principally on fish, and other marine 
matters, the. guano^ as the manure of these de- 
posits is called, contains large quantities of phos- 
phates of lime, ammonia, and other products of 
animal matter, and as it rarelj^ rains on this 
coast, the masses have not undergone the bleach- 
ing or draming they v/ould have done in other 
places. Thus constituted, this substance is one 
of the most active of manures; and has for a 
long time been used by the Peruvians in ihe 
culture of corn. A writer in a foreign journal 
gays in passing on horseback along the coast 
he frequently saw the natives driving an ass or 
two into the interior, with a package of this 
guano on each side, and when asked how ihey 
used it, they said they put a pinch of it in each 
hill of corn at the time of planting. A number 
of ship loads of this native poudrette have been 
carried to England, where it commands a high 
price as a fertilizer^ and present indications de- 
note that the importation of the article will 
hereafter be extensive. The English farmer un- 
derstands his true interests, when he extends his 



expenses for manures. From the United States 
he collects ashes, bones, &c. — from the Mediter- 
ranean, crude nitre, soda, &c. and now he has 
opened the mines of Guano, on the shores of far 
Pacific, all of which are used for fertilizing the 
soil, while the same substances, not less needed 
where procured, are mostly neglected. 



TO CLEANSE EARTHEN POTS. 
Mrs. Darling, in a letter to a northern paper, 
upon the subject of preserving butter, insists 
much upon the necessity of keeping the pots, 
in which it is put up, perfectly sweet. To effect 
this, she gives the following directions: 

" The pots are cleansed every spring before 
using, by being wet all over outside and inside 
and turned bottom upwards in a brick oven im- 
mediately after bread or pies have been drawn 
and allowed to remain until the oven is cold or 
nearly so. I have known jars cleansed, (that 
had been used many years to hold soap grease,) 
b}' baking two or three times in the above man- 
ner, so that they were as sweet as when they 
first came from the kiln." 



SOWING SEEDS. 

A due degree of heat and moisture is neces- 
sary for vegetation, and an excess of either is 
as injurious as a deficiency. Some seeds are 
more particular than others, and possessing less 
vegetative powers, require more care in their 
cultivation. We find the following extracts in 
one of our exchange papers, "which we consider 
well worth the attention of our readers: 

On Sowing Flower Seeds. 

David Thomas, an experienced and very suc- 
cessful Florist, (N. G. Farmer, vol. 1, p. 66,) re- 
marks : 

" For large seeds, like the bean or the pea, a 
coarse soil is well adapted, as they can foice 
their way to the surface from any moderate 
depth: but small seeds require different treat- 
ment ; and we lay it down as a safe rule, the 
finer the seed, the finer should be the soil. 

"How does nature, exemplifying Supreme 
Wisdom, sow her most delicate seeds? She 
scatters them on the shady giound, trusting to 
the rain or the frost to cover them, (of course 
slightly,) and they germinate before the sun has 
acquired power enough to scorch them. The 
dust-like seeds of the orchis and cypripedium 
sometimes grow in beds of damp moss. 

"Common garden loam, whether clayey or 
sandj', is much improved by a dressing of ve- 
getable earth from the woods, well mixed before 
planting. If prepared in the preceding autumn, 
and pulverized by the frost, all the belter. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



125 



" Such a soil is favorable to seeds of almost 
any kind, but essential lo the finer and more de- 
licate sorts. The preparation of the soil alone, 
however, is not enough. Fine seeds may be 
smothered if covered from more than one eighth 
to half an inch deep; and their short roots may 
be parched if expose(l to the sun except in morn- 
ing and evening. To a fine soil, therefore, we 
must add the protection of s/iacle, and in lime of 
drought, a regular supply of moisture. If the 
seeds are sown in an open border, a sprinkling 
of water in the evenings is best, but carefully 
abstain from applying so much as will bake the 
ground." 

On Preparing and Solving Onion Seed. 

W. Risley (N. G. Farmer, vol. 2, p. 38,) says : 

" First soak the seeds in water from six to 

twenty-four hours — some seeds being slower to 

admit moisture than others, is the difference in 

time required. After soaking, drain off the wa 



These seeds are not quite as sure of vegetation 
as some kinds; still, if rightly prepared, and 
sown when the ground is in good condition, be- 
fore the weather becomes too dry, they will very 
seldom fail. I'he seed should be soaked in soft 
water, standing in a warm place, for three or 
four days before sowing. The shell of the seed 
is very hard, and requires a long time soaking 
for it to become softened so that the germ can 
burst it open. I have sometimes known it U\\\ 
after being soaked, owing to late sowing and 
dry weather." 

Planting too Deeply. 

In vol. 1, p. 97, W. R. Smith states that he 

"planted half an acre of mangel wurtzel with 

two pounds of seed from the Rochester Seed 

Store. In a few days some scattering plants 

made their appearance Well, nearly two 

weeks after, I was surprised to find a fair num- 
ber of plants just peeping through, and from 



ter, and mix the seeds with a sufficient quantity i their weak and thin appearance, evidently wea- 
of earth to absorb the moisture remaining on ried with their journey to the surface, which 



the seeds ; stir them often that they may vege- 
tate evenly, and keep thenri in a moderate degree 
of warmth and moisture until they are sprouted, 



they never could have reached, if the soil had 
not been light." 

Parsnip, Carrot, Celery and Parsley Seeds are 



when they are ready to put into the ground. If, all slow to vegetate, and if sown late and dry 
the weather should be unfavorable, put the seeds 
in a cool place, which will check their growth 



' weather succeeds, they will not often come up. 
These seeds should be sown early, in fine soil. 



On Soaking Mangel Wurtzel Seed. 

J. Rapaljee (N. G. Farmer, vol. 1, p. 149,) 
says : 

" I prepared half an acre of land for mangel 
wurtzel, and obtained the seed from your agent 
at Canandaigua. After soaking the seed one 
day, I commenced sowing ; but rain came on, 
and the soil being rather clayey, it was a whole 
week before I could sow the remainder. The 
seed was soaked all this time, and supposing it 
was spoiled or injured, 1 sowed it thicker than 
usual, and had not enough to finish the ground. 
Accordingly I sent to the same place and got 
more seed, and sowed the remainder without 
any soaking ; so that part of my ground was 
sowed with seed soaked one daj', another part 
one week, and a third part not at all. 

" Now for the result. The part soaked one 
week, came up first, and much too thickly ; the 
part soaked one day, came up slowly and very 
thinly; while the part not soaked, did not cone 
up at all. Thus showing conclus vely, the ne- 
cessity of tboroucrhly soaking these seeds, and 
the little danger there is to be apprehended from 
soaking too long. I am confident that inatten- 
tion to this subject, is the most frequent cause of 
the failure of the mangel wurtzel and sugar 
beet seeds." 

William Garbutt, (N. G. Farmer, vol. 1, 20,) 
says : 

"Much complaint is sometime made of man- 
gel wurtzel and sugar beet seed failing to grow. 



rolled or pressed down and kept moist. Mr. 
Geo. Sheffer of Wheatland, raises large quanti- 
ties of carrots for feeding. He soaks the seed 
forty-eight hours, then rolls it in plasier, and 
when sown covers it from one-half to three- 
quarters of an inch deep. — (N. G. Farmer, vol. 
2, p. 181.) 

Cvcumber, Mellon and Sguash Seeds, seldom 
lose their vitality by age or otherwise, but when 
sown they often fail to grow, owing- to the 
ground being cold or wet. These, and some 
other seeds, will invariably rot if sown too ear- 
ly — before the ground is sufficiently warm. — 
Lima Beans and Sweet Corn often fail from the 
same causes. 

Egg Plant Seed will not vegetate in the open 
ground — it requires a good hot bed. 

Locust Seed must be thoroughly scalded, by 
pouring boiling hot water and letting it soak 
twenty-four hours. — Neit; Genesee Farmer. 



HORSE RADISH FOR ANIMALS. 

Austin Randall, Esq. of Paris, writes to us 
as follows: "1 have seen in your excellent pa- 
per no notice of the value of the horse radish 
for cattle. I have found it very useful for them. 
If given to cows in doses of a pint at a lime 
once a daj^, it will materially aid their appetite, 
and will prevent or speedily relieve cows of the 
disease called cake in the bag. I feed it freely 
to any animal of mine that is unwell, and find 
it of great service to ^^orking oxen troubled with 
the heat. I have had one ox that would eat 



126 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



greedily a peck at a lime. Few animals refuse 
it ; and if they do, it may be cut up and mixed 
with potatoes or meal." Mr. R. cultivates his 
corn without hillino:, and his success with his 
last crop (73 bushels per acre) is a favorable 
commentary on the practice. — Cultivator. 



BACHELORS' BUTTONS. 
Mr. H. S. Poole, of Boston, has invented a 
button that needs no sewing, and stays on for« 
ever. How very difficult it is to procure a great 
good without a mixture of serious evil ; this 
article, which is spoken of as likely to form a 
new era in the button line will probably render 
worthless the laborious calculations of the im- 
mortal Maiihus on the increase of population ; 
for it is a well ascertained fact that a large ma- 
jority of mankind get married that they may 
have somebody always at hand to sew on but- 
tons for them. 



CURIOUS ARTS. 

Some friend has sent us through the post- 
office, the following useful recipes, which if ge- 
nu me — and we see no reason to doubt — are truly 
valuable, as well as curious. He has our thanks. 

1. A Water-proof Glue. — Melt common glue 
in the smallest possible quantity of water, and 
add by drops, linseed oil that has been rendered 
dry by having a small quantity of litharge 
boiled in it ; the glue being briskly stirred when 
the oil is added. 

2. Glue will resist water to a considerable 
extent by being dissolved in skimmed milk. 

3. The addition of finely levigated chalk, to 
a solution of common glue in water, strengthens 
it, and renders it suitable for signs or other 
work that is exposed to the weather. 

4. A glue (or cement) that will hold against 
fire or water, may be made by mixing and boil- 
ing together linseed oil and quick-lime. This 
mixture must be reduced to the consistence of 
soft putty and then spread on tin plates and dried 
in the shade, where it will dry very hard. This 
may afterward be melted like common glue, and 
must be used while hot. — American Mechanic. 



It is described as elegant in the extreme, and 
the order for a thousand yards was filled in pre- 
ciselj' nine days from the hour it was given. 
The most beautiful kinds, it is said, can be re- 
tailed at three shillings sterling per yard. They 
must inevitably supersede the woven carpets 
now in use, both on account of their superior 
elegance and cheapness. 



CARE OF FEEDING STOCK. 

Swine kept for breeders should never be shift- 
ed from pen to pen a short time before littering. 
They must not be disturbed nor be kept in small 
pens. When they are allowed to roam at large, 
they generally seek retired places in the woods, 
and in such cases they are seldom known to de- 
stroy their young by design or by accident. — 
Let them have room and their accustomed resi- 
dence at such times. 

A little poor wash may be given to the mo- 
ther in the straw, but she must by no means 
have rich food till the second day. She \w\\\ be 
cloyed and suflfer for it for many weeks. She 
has unnatural longings at such times, and will 
often satisfy her appetite for flesh by destroying 
her own offspring. Some good farmers throw 
them a piece of salt pork at the time of litter- 
ing. — Mass. Ploughman. 



FELT CLOTH. 
In one of our early numbers we noticed a 
new mode of making cloth without the use of 
loom or spindle, simply by compressure, some- 
what upon the principle that a wool hat is made. 
The inventor of this new article is an American, 
by the name of Wells, and we see, that, on 
the occasion of the late christening of the Prince 
of Wales, the floor of St. George's Chapel was 
covered with a carpet of the new manufacture. 



THEORIES. 

Agricultural theories, in the usual acceptation 
of the term, or guesses^ for they are little better, 
are as plenty as black beiries ; unvarnished facts 
are verj^ scarce, and yet, they are the only foun- 
dation upon which sound theories can rest ; but 
it is much easier to build castles in the air, than 
to erect an edifce upon solid rock. 

We wish that agricultural writers would draw 
the distinction, that is recognised amongst phi- 
losophers, between a theory and a hypothesis. 
The first is a general conclusion, supported by 
detailed and well ascertained facts. 

Now an individual may furnish the facts, 
leaving others to generalize, or form the theroy, 
or, what is better still, he may furnish the 
facts, and draw the conclusion from them. He 
is then a "theorist" pioper, and as such, always 
welcome to our columns. But when he draws 
a conclusion, without stating the facts upon 
which it is founded, it is called a "hypothesis" 
or guess. A hypothesis may do, where a 
theory cannot be had, but we always exhaust 
the latter, before we begin to draw upon the 
former. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



127 



EARLY POTATOES. 

Those who arc desirous of raising early po- 
tatoes should place ihem first in some kind of 
hot bed and let ihem remain till the sprouts have 
grown one inch or more in length. The pota- 
toes may then be carefully removed and set in 
drills or hills. Rotten manure only should be 
used for early vegetables. 

A ready mode of preparing such a bed is to 
spread the seed potatoes on the grass in a corner 
of the garden and cover them with horse stable 
manure three or four inches thick. Straw, or 
boards, or boih, may be placed on the manure to 
keep it from the sun and the hens. In this mode 
potatoes may be obtained, fit for use, two or 
three weeks earlier than by planting them first 
in earth. Care should be used lest the sprouts 
be broken on transplanting. If the extremities 
are left uncovered, leaves will immediately ap- 
pear, in warm weather. — Mass. Ploughman. 



OLD FIELDS. 

The Editor of the American Farmer suggests 
the use of sainfoin in renovating those desolate 
tracts of exhausted land in the South, passing ! 
under the familiar name of old fields. He re- 
commends the following as probably the most 
advantageous mode of treatment. Sow a bushel 
of plaster to the acre, turn under two crops of 
buckwheat the same season, and spread thereon 
from twenty-five to fifty bushels of lime ; then 
sow the sainfoin. 

This grass is highly esteemed in England, 
especially as a renovator. It will grow upon 
the poorest land, only requiring a dry soil — its 
roots are great penetrators, and the grass, it is 
said, will afford good hay and pasturage, when 
once set, for ten or fifteen years. The celebrated 
Mr. Coke esteemed it very highly, and used it 
most extensively as a renovator. 

The day, thank God, is passed, when our 
"old fields" are deserted for El Dorados in other 
lands, and the great question now is, what is the 
most advantageous mode of improvement? 



For the Southern Planter. 
WHITE BERKSHIRES. 

I, for one, Mr. Editor, am amused and in 
structed by the spirited controversy that has 
been commenced, and will, I hope, be continued, 
in the Planter, with respect to the value of Berk- 
shires. We lookers on should be much obliged 
to both the gentlemen, who are endeavoring to 
impress the opinions, they no doubt conscien- 
tiously entertain, upon the public. The specta- 
tor is always allowed the privilege of making a 
remark upon a game that is played for his be- 



nefit, and I will, therefore, say to you, that I 
have been amused at the antipathy Parson 
Turner exhibits to a whiie hog. This feeling 
he entertains in common with almost every 
raiser of Berkshires I ever saw ; no matter how 
perfect the form of the animal and his ancestors 
and, if you please, his descendants, if they have 
been white it is enough for these lovers of the 
black race. Now, sir, although I, in common 
wiih southern men generally, have my prefer- 
ences for color in the human race, I do not ex- 
tend it to the swine species. I know that white 
is by some considered a delicate color, and, there- 
fore, objectionable in any animal ; but as far as 
my observation goes, even this opinion is not 
sustained by facts. The hardiest and most per- 
fect race of men on earth are white men ; some 
of the best horses I ever saw have been white 
horses, and I never heard it pretended that a 
black sheep was to be considered the flower of 
the flock. 

Whence arises this peculiar distaste upon the 
part of the owners of Berkshires to the white 
hog? I believe it is derived from the false im- 
pression, that there can be no such thing as a 
white Berkshire. What is a Berks^hire hog? 
The ancient hog of England, which runs farther 
back than the memory of man, was a large, lop- 
sided animal, but very prolific, and an excellent 
nurse. Attempts were early made to improve 
this hog in the difl^erent districts in England, as 
in Berkshire, Hampshire, Yorkshire, &c. 'J'he 
small, compact, eastern hog was the cross gen- 
erally resorted to, and by this means, great im- 
provements were undoubtedly made in each of 
these districts. But the breed obtained in Berk- 
shire by the eastern cross, was the one most ap- 
proved, as uniting the size, fecundity, and nuis- 
ing properties of the ancient hog, with the com- 
pact form and aptitude to fatten of the little 
China hog. These China hogs were generally 
spotted with black and white, and the improved 
Berkshires were found of all colors, but generally 
distinguished by a tawny ground marked with 
blackish spots. It seems though, that recourse 
was again had to the eastern hog to improve 
the Berkshire. This lime the Siamese hog was 
called in requisition, which being generally cop- 
per colored, or black, and always small, reduced 
the size of the old Berkshire, and gave us the 
improved form of the modern Berkshire. 

This is the sum total of the information that 
I obtain from Low, Cully, Dickenson, Loudoun, 
and Henderson. It would be tedious to qno'e 
the words of all these different authors, but Low 



is so clear and distinct, withal so modern and 
generally recognised as the very best authority, 
that I cannot forbear to transcribe a paragraph 
from him. He says: 

"The Berkshire was the earliest improved of 
the breeds of English swine. It has been un- 
doubtedly formed by a mixture of the blood of 



128 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the eastern hog with the ancient swine of tlic 
country. ^J'he great irujDrover of this breed, was 
Mr. Asily, of Oldstonehall. The modern Berk- 
shire, however, is of less size than the older 
breed ; but still the animals are usually' of the 
larger class of swine. Their common color is 
a reddish brown with dark spots, but many of 
the modern breed are nearly black, manifesting 
their nearer approach to the Siamese character, 
and sometimes, they are black, broken with 
white, indicating the effects of the cross with 
the white Chmese." 

Now, let us remember that it is a well estab- 
lished fact in natural history, that alihough a 
wild breed nrjay preserve a distinctive color, the 
domestic animal runs into every variety — let us 
remember that animals are marked with the co- 
lors and qualities of their ancestors more or less 
remote, and let us remember the variety of breeds, 
that it seems have gone to make up this com- 
pound stock, the modern Berkshire, and tell me, 
in the name of common sense, why a white or 
any other color should not be found amongst 
them. Tell me why a Berkshire should neces- 
sarily assume the dark copper color of his Si- 
amese progenitor, which Mr. Allen asserts is the 
invariable characteristic of the genuine breed. 
That such is not the case, reason and analogy 
would teach us, and that such is not the case, 
facts will fully demonstrate. Did Mr. Allen 
ever see a litter of pigs, from a genuine Berk- 
shire sow by a genuine boar, that were all of 
the "dark rich plum" color that he says in- 
variably marks the genuine hog; and yet were 
they not all equally genuine? I am very sure 
that I have seen genuine Berkshires of almost 
all colors, and it was but a few days since, that 
I was called to see a lohiie sow pig, belonging 
to Mr. Sublett, of this city, that will compare 
with any, in point of form, I ever saw. Mr. 
Sublett prefers her to any of his crack stock. 
She is the produce of a pair of iv/tite hogs, sent 
out by Wm. H. GiLLioTT, of Liverpool, to fill 
an order from a member of a large tobacco firm 
in this city, for "a pair of the most fashionable 
Berkshires,'^ without regard to expense. 

If this article should have the effect of dis- 
abusing the mind of any of your readers of 
what 1 am inclined to believe, not only an idle 
but an injurious prejudice, my object in writing 
it will be fully answered. 

Your obedient servent, 

A Breeder. 



PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT 
TREES. 

We find the following extract from a letter, 

written by Mr. E. Phinney, of Massachusetts, 

to a gentleman in Maryland, in the American 

Farmer. The directions are from the highest 

"ithority, clear, distinct, and, we believe, fault- 



less. How much this pleasing and profitable 
branch of husbandry is neglected in the South ; 

" On the subject of priming apple trees, which 
is your first inquiry, a volume might be written. 
In a few words, it is difficult to give a good top 
to a tree unless pruning is begun in the nurse- 
ry — like loo many of our children, if suffered 
to grow at randoiTi in youth, it is difficult to get 
them in proper trim afterward. If, however, this 
has been neglected, and the top is too thick and 
limbs interfere and chafe each other, these should 
all be taken out so that no limbs shall cross each 
other — and in doing this, regard should be had 
to an equal balance of the top. A tree with an 
undue proportion of its burden on one side is 
more liable to be injured both in root and branch. 
I have never known an instance of too severe 
pruning — we are all inclined to let too much 
wood grow, by which the quality of the fruit is 
injured. No better general rule can be adopted 
than to cut out all such limbs as interfere and 
cross each other; not only those that interfere 
now, but such as from their direction will be 
likely to interfere hereafter. 

"The best time of pruning is while the tree 
is growing most vigorously. With us this time 
is about the first of June — the process of heal- 
ing then commences quickly, and the wound is 
not so likely to canker. Where, however, a 
limb of considerable size is taken off, in order to ; 
avoid canker, it is best to cover the wound with 
a little common mortar, made of sand and lime, 
and instead of hair to mix with it, I use bristles, 
which are much more durable than hair, and 
will effectually secure the part from canker, and 
will remain on till the wound is nearly healed 
over. In Maryland, I should think the best time 
for pruning would be from first of May to first ^ 
of June. 

"Thousands of valuable trees in this part of 
the country have been brought to premature 
decay and death by pruning in the months of 
February and March. 

" The best manure for apple trees is the top 
mould and leaves gathered from the woods 
mixed with a little lime or ashes. Strong ma- 
nure should not be applied direct!}' to the roots 
of trees. The best way to promote the health 
and growth of trees is to keep the ground in a 
high state of cultivation ; let the crop of what- 
ever is planted be v/ell manured and well culti- 
vated, and they will require no other nourish- 
ment. Trees will not do well in grass ground 
if ever so much manured. You may as well 
plant corn in grass ground as trees. I would 
as soon lay my trees upon the back log and ex- 
pect them to grow, as set them in grass land. 
If the land is tolerably good, fifteen cart loads 
of stable manure to the acre, spread on and 
ploughed in, in the spring of each year, will be 
sufficient for the growing crop, and at the same 



\ 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



129 



time afford sufficient nourishment to the trees. 
Plough close to ihe trees ; if a root is now and 
then broken by the plough the tree suffers but 
little or no injury. Too much manure appHed 
directly to the roots operates like stimulus upon 
the human constitution, and often induces pre- 
mature decay. The same manuring and culti- 
vation that will produce a good crop, will give 
a healthy, vigorous growth to the trees. 

E. Phinney." 



TURNING IN GREEN CROPS. 

The following is an extract from an address 
delivered by the Editor of the Farmers' Gazette 
before the Pee Dee Agricultural Society of S. 
Carolina. 

The system of green crop improvement, here 
so ably advocated, is beginning to be a favorite 
throughout the whole southern country. Mil- 
lions of labor, we believe, have been used in 
manufacturing barn-yard manure, that might 
have been much more profitably employed. 

"A few words now as to the mode of fertiliz- 
ing. This is the most important, if not the only 
important part of our subject, and would itself 
afford ample scope for many successive addresses. 
But time now will allow me only to throw out 
one or two hints. The common mode of manur- 
ing practiced among us is to haul into our stables 
and lots leaves and pine-straw from the woods, 
and mud from the swamps. These are, in time, 
mixed and piled up ; and then, after, sometimes 
more, and sometimes less decomposition, they 
are hauled out into fields and spread, either 
broadcast, or in the hills and drills. This mode 
is copied, with a little modification, from the 
practice of elder countries, where land is scarce 
in proportion to labor, and cannot, on that ac- 
count, be suffered to lie idle, or without a yearly 
crop for immediate use. In such countries it is 
necessary and it is also economical ; because 
the price of labor is low and the price of land 
high. Laborious and expensive as it is, it is 
also found to be profitable here. But it does not 
seem to me to be the one best adapted to our cir- 
cumstances. It is not the one pointed out by 
nature who works on a large scale ; nor the 
most economical, where the quantity of land 
bears so great a proportion as it does here to the 
number of laborers ; and where, of course, it 
can be allowed frequent respite from provision 
and market crops, for the purpose of producing, 
on its own surface, materials for its improve- 
ment. I could state a number of instances, 
some coming under my own observation, of 
manifestly great improvement in land at little 
cost, by turning in green crops; but as such 
statements are unsatisfactory unless accompa- 
nied by accurate statistics exhibiting with some 
Vol. 2-17 



definiteness the expense, and in some tangible 
form, also, the degree of improvement, I shall 
confine myself to a single instance. It is an 
experiment made a few years since, by a mem- 
ber of this Society, and published in the Southern 
Agriculturist. Cowpeas were sown broadcast 
in a field exhausted by previous injudicious crop- 
ping, before it passed into the hands of the ex- 
perimenter, and of a soil adapted to that plant. 
For the purpose of testing the value of the 
operation, part of the field was left entirely fal- 
low, and not ploughed. In the fall, wheat was 
sown in the land, and turned in with the crop of 
green peas, and where the peas had not been 
sown, with the natural growth. The wheat 
which grew on the different ]ioitions of the field 
was accurately measured when harvested, and 
It was found that the land manured by turning 
in the pea crop, yielded fifteen bushels to the 
acre; whilst that on which nothing but the na- 
tural growth of weeds and grass had been 
turned in with the seed, yielded only one bushel. 
Here was a gain of fourteen bushels of wheat 
to the acre, worth probably eighteen or twenty 
dollars, from an outlay of a bushel or a bushel 
and a half of peas, in all not worth, on a plan- 
tation, more than from a dollar to a dollar and 
a half What merchant, or speculator in stocks, 
or in cotton, makes a proportionate gain on his 
outlay % Here was a judicious experiment, con- 
ducted by a man who understood what he was 
about. Account was kept of the outlay and 
income, and data were procured to be a guide 
in future operations. If the experiment had 
been repeated the next year on the same land, 
the profit would doubtless have been still greater; 
because the growth of the pea crop, which was 
the fertilizing substance, would have been much 
more luxuriant upon the richer soil. 

"Let the planier who uses as fertilizers only 
compost heaps, accumulated from the woods, 
his lots and his stables, calculate at what ex- 
pense he can, by his process, raise the produc- 
tion of wheat on exhausted land, from one to 
fifteen bushels per acre, and then choose between 
the two modes. An important advantage of 
vegetable over animal manures, in addition to 
their greater economy, is that the fertilit}' which 
they impart is more durable. It is chiefly by 
decayed vegetable matter that the otherwise 
barren sand and clay which constitute so large 
a proportion of the earth's surface have been 
converted into productive soil. Whence eke is 
chiefly derived the exhaustless fertilit}' of the 
Red River and Mississippi bottoms, and the fer- 
tility of all our river and creek bottoms ? 

"I would not be understood as advising the 
planter to discard his compost heap. Far, very 
far from it. As long as it is found profitable let 
it be reported to. But what I would suggest is, 
that a well considered system of green crop 
manurinEf be combined with the use of it. In 



130 



TEIE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



this way the planter would soon be taijght by 
experience, under what circumstances and to 
what extent, either should be preferred to the 
other. 

"In green crop manuring nature is made to 
do the greater part of the work. She collects 
from the atmosphere, and duly prepares the fer- 
tilizing materials, leaving them evenly spread to 
the planter's hand ; and requiring him only to 
turn them in. The quantity of vegetable mat- 
ter which may thus be accumulated, by a proper 
adaptation of the plant to the soil, almost ex- 
ceeds credibility ; especially after the land has 
been much improved; in which state manuring 
pays best. More than 200,000 lbs. of green 
corn has been cut from a single acre in one 
season." 



corn fodder. Every possible pains should, there- 
fore, be taken to avoid this ; and it is a good 
way 10 hang as much of our corn-fodder, as we 
have room for, on the beams and on poles ex- 
tended over the barn-floors, and in sheds where 
it will be out of the reach of the cattle. 

"As to the kind of corn to be sown, the 
Southern gourd-seed or the Western corn, will 
undoubtedlj^ give the largest weight ; but much 
of it will be in the butt, no part of which will 
the cattle eat. Our common JNorthern small 
flint corn will yield a large amount to the acre, 
as it will bear thick sowing ; and the main stalk 
is not so large but that a good deal of it will be 
eaten, especially if cut up." 



CORN-FODDER. 

The Editor of the Connecticut Farmers' Ga- 
zette strongly recommends the sowing of corn 
for hay. He says it has long been practised by 
the dairymen in his neighborhood, and, that it 
is not only preferred by the cow to any other 
hay, but is more productive of milk than any 
food that can be given them. It is much used 
for soiling, and for this purpose is sowed at suc- 
cessive periods, that a cutting may always be 
had during the summer months. Where it is 
to be cured, however, he recommends that it 
should be permitted to mature, because, in that 
state, it is more nutricious, and much more easily 
cured and preserved than when it is cut green. 
If imperfect ears are formed, so much the bet- 
ter ; by this process, the stalk maybe injured, 
but the grain will more than make up for the 
difference. On the mode of cultivation and 
curing he gives the following advice : 

" Many persons advise to sow it broadcast, in 
which case it admits of no after-cultivation, and 
the weeds, if the land is rich, will check its 
growth and fill the ground with their seeds. It 
is best to sow it in drills two feet apart, and quite 
thickly in the drdls, scattering the seed over a 
space in the row, six inches or a foot in width. 
It may then be ploughed or passed through with 
a cultivator once at least; and in a measure 
kept clean from weeds. It is believed that as 
much fodder may in this way be obtained from 
an acre, as if sown broadcast. 

" In pulling away corn-fodder, we have found 
it advantageous to insert occasionally, layers of 
wheat-straw. The sweet flavor of the corn- 
fodder is communicated in some measure to the 
straw ; and the straw serves to keep the corn- 
fodder from being injured by heating. No fod- 
der suffers more or sooner from wet or rain than 



VEGETABLE IVORY. 

It is said that the French discovery ships have 
introduced, from the South Seas, a new vegeta- 
ble, resembling the cocoa-nut, but much snrialler. 
When the outer shell is removed, the interior 
presents the appearance, and possesses all the 
properties, of the finest ivory. 

In the manufacture of articles to which its 
size is adapted, it is supposed, that this vegeta- 
ble product w^ill entirely supersede the more 
costly tooth of the elephant. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 
TO MAKE HENS LAY PERPETUALLY. 

Messrs. Editors^ — I never allow cocks to run 
with my bens, except when I want to raise 
chickens. Hens will lay eggs perpetually, if 
treated in the following manner. Keep no roost- 
ers ; give the hens fresh meat^ chopped fine like 
sausage meat, once a da}?, a very small portion, 
say half an ounce a day to each hen, during 
the winter, or from the time insects disappear in 
the fall, till they appear again in the spring. 
Never allow any eggs to remain in the nest, for 
what is called nest eggs. When the roosters do 
not run with the hens, and no nest eggs are left 
in the nests, the hens will not cease laj'ing after 
the production of twelve or fifteen eggs, as they 
always do when roosters and nest eggs are al- 
lowed ; but continue laying perpetually. My 
hens always laj? in winter, and each from se- 
venty-five to one hundred eggs in succession. 
There being nothing to excite the animal pas- 
sions, they never attempt to set. If the above 
plan were generally followed, eggs would be 
just as plenty in winter as in summer. The 
only reason why hens do not \^y in winter as 
freely as in summer, is the want of animal food^ 
which they get in summer in abundance in the 
form of insects. The reason they stop laying 
and go to selling, after laying a brood of eggs, 
is the continual excitement of the animal pas- 
sions by the males. I have for several winters 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



131 



reduced my theory fo practice, and proved its 
entire correctness. It inust be observed that the 
presence of the male is not necessary for the pro- 
duction of eg-gs, as they are formed whether the 
male be present or not. Of course such eggs 
will not produce chickens. When chickens are 
wanted, the roosters must of course run wiih the 
hens. B. 

When we met with the above astounding; 
assertion, that the way to make hens lay is to 
kill the chicken cock, what did we do ; resort 
to Buffon, Wilson, or Audubon? No, we ap- 
plied to better authority; we went straight to 
an old lady in this neighborhood, and asked her 
to solve our doubts, and she informed us, that 
strange as the fact may appear, it is neverthe- 
less true, that when hens are prevented from 
running with roosters, they continue to lay with- 
out intermission, and never show any desire to 
ffo to setting-. 



Rye paste is more adhesive than any other 

paste; because that grain is very glutinous. It 

is much improved by adding a little pounded 

« alum, while it is boiling. This makes ii almost 



as strong as glue. 



SUBSOIL PLOUGHING. 

But little is yet known in this country of the 
effect of stirring the subsoil of the fields we cul- 
tivate. 0\ir readers well know that in England 
the practice has been very decidedly advan- 
tageous. But there, under-draining generallj^ 
precedes the subsoil ploughing. They have in 
old England a heavier soil than most of ours, 
and their skies are more watery than those 
which bend over New England. Consequently 
our practices must be in many respects different 
from those of the English farmers. While Vv^e 
have many spots that require under-draining, it 
is doubtless true that it would be far from eco- 
nomical to under-(h-ain the mass of the fields of 
this country. They are, in their natural state, 
so dry as not to suffer from excessive moisture, 
while the relative price of land and labor here, 
the former high and the latter low, compared 
with English rates, is a sufficient reason why 
we may infer that a mode of operation which 
pays well there, would involve us in loss. 

The objection against general under-draining, 
does not lie with equal force against subsoil 
ploughing. The latter is comparatively a cheap 
operation, not costing more than from four to six 
dollars per acre. In the vicinity of Boston, the 
question may be a very simple one, and settled 
by a cheap experiment. Will an acre of good 
land, well subsoiled and dressed with six cords 
of good manure, produce as much in the course 



of crops from one breaking up to another, as 
the same acre would yield if not subsoiled, but 
dressed with seven cords of manure? This 
question is not settled here, and it cannot be un- 
til years have elapsed. We cannot give facts 
as yet which will serve as a satisfactory basis 
of an argument in favor of subsoil ploughing 
generally. But we saw several different crops 
last season, upon ground that had the subsoil 
plough run through it in the spring, and as well 
as we could judge by the eye, the crops on this 
land were eight or ten per cent, larger here than 
on the contiguous land treated otherwise the 
same. But independently of these imperfect 
experiments, an argument, and as we judge, a 
strong one, may be given in favor of stirring 
the earth below where our ploughs usually run. 

Whoever has noticed heaps of earth that have 
been thrown up where wells have been dug, or 
where ditches and trenches have been cut, knows 
that the earth which has been thus moved, is 
far less barren than similar earth lying in its 
original state. Simply throwing over soils, in- 
creases their fertilit^^ Subsoil ploughing, loos- 
ening up the pan, will bring new particles in 
contact, will facilitate the circulation of air, and 
cause some chemical action. Where such ac- 
tion takes place, the plants generally find nour- 
ishment. 

But the most obvious fact connected with this 
process, and the one which common farmers 
will most regard, is yet to be staled. Every 
ploughman knows, that in all old fields which 
have been ploughed many times, and at a nearly 
uniform depth, a hard pan or crust is formed by 
the rubbing of the bottom of the plough and by 
the treading of the cattle in the furrow. This 
pan operates to keep the surface waters from 
descending freely in times of copious rains, and 
it also breaks up that communication between 
the upper soil and the subsoil which favors the 
drawing up of water from below, sponge-wise, 
in times of drought. It blows hot and cold 
with the same breath; in other words, if you 
break up that crust at the bottom of the furrow, 
your land will be less wet when the great rains 
come, and will be more moist during the dry 
periods of summer. The principle is precisely 
the same as that which lets the water run 
through the sponge if you put upon it more 
than it can hold by its attraction, and which at 
the same time lets the sponge, if not very wet, 
take up the water to all its parts, if you hold 
one end of it in water. 

This view of the matter is given in the hope 
that many will be induced the present season to 
test the value of this operation. Subsoil ploughs 
of different patterns, may be had of the princi- 
pal agricultural warehouses in Boston. Mr. 
Howard has two patterns for sale at Messrs. J. 
Breck & Co.'s warehouse, either of which will 
do its work well and to any depth you choose, 



132 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



not exceed ing ten inches below the bottom of 
the common furrow. But these can be worked 
only by a strong team ; four or six large oxen 
are needed. 

We have a plan for stirring the subsoil a little 
by the use of a less expensive implement. The 
land on which we intend to use it, is free from 
stones, and is rather loose than tenacious. We 
have looked at the cultivator tooth, and find it 
six inches long or more. We propose to take a 
stick of hard wood timber four or five feet long, 
and insert a cultivator tooth near one end, and 
the wheel of a plough near the other. To this 
timber we will fix a handle or handles, and make 
this answer our purpose on some of our lands. 
The work will be but imperfectly done — but as 
we can do this with the team that is needed to 
plough the surface, we shall adopt it out of mer- 
cy to our oxen and our purse. We mention the 



plan, thinking that possibly some one on some 
rainy day may fix for himself a simple tool of 
the kind. We are induced to hope some good 
will result from this scratching in the bottom of 
the furrow, partly from a statement made to us 
by Mr. Bement, of Albany, After he had fur- 
rowed or marked out his corn ground last spring, 
he drew some simple hook or iron prong along 
in the bottom of each furrow. His corn con- 
tinued green through the drought, while mat in 
his neighbors' fields rolled and almost perished. 
The difference in the appearance of this field 
and others in the vicinity, was so great as to in- 
duce travellers to stop and inquire the cause, 
Mr. B, could assign no other cause than that 
slight and imperfect subsoiling to which he re- 
sorted. This course might be imitated at a very 
trifling cost. — JS^ew England Farmer. 



DRILL- BARROW 




C, T. BoTTs, Esa. 

Dear Sir^ — In the May number of your paper 
there is "a perspective view of a drill-barrow, 
claimed as the invention of a Dr. Horton, of 
Maryland," which induces me to send you a 
drawing of one that is much cheaper and more 
simple, at the same time that it answers per- 
fectly well for sowing any kind of seed which 
any other kind of drill can sow. This I can 
certify from the actual use of for several years. 
The only thing about it which I claim as my 
own invention, is the changeable band or collar, 
and the mode of keeping it in place. The whole 
drill is so light that a boy can handle it with 
ease. 

Figure 1 represents a side view of the drill. 

The handles are 14 inches apart, and 2^ inches 

wide by 14; thick for the distance of one foot two 

inches from the large end. From the commence- 



ment of the curve they are tapered to the small 
end, and reduced to the size of a common hoe- 
helve — the whole length of the handles being 
six feet. The cross bar in front is two inches 
by one and a half, and is fastened into the han- 
dles by tenons one and a half wide by three- 
quarter inches thick, one of which may project 
and be fastened by a wooden key or pin for 
taking the frame to pieces. The cross bar be- 
hind the wheels may be smaller, and about one 
foot from them. As the drill shows in figure 1, 
the small ends of the handles are elevated two 
feet four inches from the ground. The tooth in 
front may be made either of iron or hard wood 
in any form suitable for opening a small furrow 
to receive the seed. The wheels are eleven 
inches in diameter, and made of inch plank, 
having a square mortice through the centre to 
fit on the axle with which they turn. The 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



133 



square part must continue an inch beyond the 
sides of I lie wheels, and the ends be made round 
where they pass through the handles. 

Figure 2 represents a front view of the axle 
with the wheels, and the hollow tin vessel to 
contain the seed, in the centre. This seed-vessel 
or spheroid is eight inches high and six inches 
wide where the axle, which is one and three- 
fourth inches in diameter, passes through it. 
The periphery of this vessel is flattened for one 
and a fourth inches ; and on each side of the 
flat part has a projection or flange one-eighth of 
an inch high to receive and keep in place bands 
that fit like a dog-collar. These bands are just 
wide enough to fit between the flanges, and are 
perforated with holes of sizes and distances to 
suit any kind of seed which is ever sown in 
drills. The figure represents the tin vessel with- 
out a band — and it must have five or six long 
openings between the flanges to allow the seed 
to be put in, and to pass out through the holes 
of the band — after it is put on. In using the drill, 
care must be taken not to fill it more than about 
one-third full, and to tilt it on one side as the 
sower turns at the end of each row. The best 
contrivance I have found for covering the seed, 
is a common trace-chain doubled, and fastened 
by the two ends to a couple of nails driven into 
the upper edges of the handles, just behind the 
wheels : it covers better than a roller, for I have 
tried both. The only wear to which this drill 
is subject, is at the ends of the axle ; but if this 
be made of hard, well seasoned wood, and lea- 
ther boxes be fixed in the holes through the 
handles, after they are much worn, I should say 
that one drill would last during an ordinary life, 
and ought not to cost more than about two dol- 
lars, although it will drill more seed in a day 
than six or eight men can drill by hand. 
I remain, dear sir. 

Your sincere well wisher, 

James M. Garnett. 

N. B. — In figure 2 the cross bar which holds 
the little iron for opening the small seed-furrow 
is not represented. 



J. E. Letton, to the 



CURING BACON. 
By far the largest portion of our readers re- 
side wnthin the limits of the " Old Dominion ;" 
from many of them, we doubt not, the caption 
to this article will only elicit the remark, "no- 
body can tell me any thing about curing bacon." 
It is very true, that our good old State has ac- 
quired a most enviable reputation for the manu- 
facture of this delightful article, and there is no 
inan in Virginia that will not maintain, and ar- 
gue by the hour to prove, that his mode of cur- 
ing is preferable to all others. But we think if 
they would only have the patience to read the 



following letter from Mr, 

"Agriculturist," they would admit that there is 

something novel if not plausible about his views : 

PRESERVING HAMS AND SHOULDERS FROM THE 
INSECT FOR SUMMER USE. 

In my travels through life and east of the 
Alleghany mountains, 1 have been always very 
mquisitive on their mode of making bacon, but 
found but a small variation from ours. Being 
a lover of bacon, it is almost my invariable prac- 
tice when travelling and calling for breakfast or 
dinner, I would greatly prefer bacon ham ; and 
in rny travelling tour through England and Ire- 
land in 1839, I found their bacon to be greatly 
superior to ours. I will state to you my mode. 
I believe 1 have tried and seen tried in my neigh- 
borhood, all the methods in practice of our coun- 
try, and frequently fail, and I must prefer the 
one herein described (taken from the English.) 
In Enf|iand their mode of scalding is very dif- 
ferent from ours ; as fuel is costly and not many 
hogs to clean in a general way as we have, they 
heat their water in a kettle and pour it on by 
small quantities and cover the pig over with 
straw so as to keep the heat on — their modes 
differ — and when cleaned neatly a.nd the animal 
heat is thoroughly out, then they salt their meat 
down and let it lie in salt from twenty-four to 
forty-eight hours ; (their salt is much preferable 
to ours,) then take it out of the salt and brush 
off the loose salt and hang it up on hooks to 
their joists in the dwelling-houses of the pea- 
santry, there to dry in the air until about the 
last of February or the first of March, which is 
the time the fly (a large gray hairy fly) depo- 
sites their egg. You should have your sacks 
made of cheap ninepenny cotton, large enough 
to slip over the hams and shoulders and will let 
the air pass and repass around the ham and 
shoulder ; then draw the top of the sack around 
the string that your meet hangs by, and tie it 
tight to keep the fly out. These sacks will last 
many years by proper care of them. There is 
no such a thing as smoking of bacon and beef 
in England ; they are very particular in cutting 
off the feet so as to cut them off below the 
knee and hock joint, to prevent the air from get- 
ting into the marrow of the bone, and keep it 
moist ; and in hanging their hams and shoulders 
up, always to have the hock-end downwards to 
keep it from draining dry and the meat from 
losing its sweet moisture. Their beef is not put 
in sacks; drying steaks are very neatly sepa- 
rated, as the seams through the flesh may show, 
and that prevents the insect from having much 
of a place to do an}'- injury. This practice I 
have put in usage since I returned home. The 
sacks are three-quarters of a yard long and a 
half broad, though the size will be owing to the 
meat ; the cost of the cotton sufficient to sack 



134 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



all my family's summer meat is two dollars and 
fifty cents ; much belter than smoking, besides 
the danger of the fire. I do not approve of my 
meat lying in salt longer than from five to ten 
days if the vi^eaiher is favorable for salt to dis- 
solve; and if it is practicable to hang up I do 
so ; then the meat is not hurt by the impure salt 
that is used in our land. According to the old 
Virginia and Marylander's rules they let their 
meat lay in the salt from six to eight weeks, 
and that is enough to destroy all the juices that 
ever were m the meat. Hogs slaughtered in 
the latter end of November and the first of De- 
cember, and hung up according to directions, 
will have nearly three months to dry in the pure 
air before it is requisite to put it in the sack ; a 
high and well ventilated meat-house is much 
preferable. There has been many ladies and 
gentlemen to visit me, and their universal admi- 
ration of the fine flavor and red color and mild 
taste ; more particularly they speak of the dry 
beef not smoked. It retains its juiceiB — in a 
broiled state. So I must draw to a close by 
saying if this is found worthy to be placed in 
your valuable paper, you can do so. 

Yours, truly, J. E. Letton. 

To many it will prove a recommendation, that 
Mr. Letton appears to be no scholar. To the 
degree of credit that such a fact secures, the 
writer may lay the most undoubted claim; but a 
man maj^ know how to cure bacon wi.*hout un- 
derstanding Latin or Greek, and, possibl}'', he 
may slaughter a hog all the better from the skill 
acquired in murdering the King's English. But, 
if Mr. Letton's style is a little obscure, and not 
very elegant, still we think we see the marks of 
an acute observer and sound reasoner in his com- 
munication. 

After all, the smoking and salting are entirely 
matters of taste, about which there is no disput- 
ing. We confess that our individual preference 
coincides with that of Mr. Letton. We greatly 
prefer our bacon neither too much sailed nor 
smoked, and the richest and juicest ham of 
"which it was ever our good fortune to partake, 
was served at the hospitable board of St. Julian, 
the residence of the Hon. Judge Brooke, in the 
county of Spottsylvania. The Judge, who, not 
without reason, prides himself upon the unri- 
valled quality of his bacon, assured us that he 
never subjected it to the drying and hardening 
influence of heated smoke. 

The value of the canvass bag is well known, 
although it is generally thought desirable to 
render it impervious to the air, by a good coating 
of whitewash. 



CABBAGES. 

Cabbages are often attacked b}' grubs, resem- 
bling, if not the same, the grubs found in corn 
and potato hills. These last change, I believe, 
into brown and yellow beetles. This grub is 
very destructive to cabbfige-pjunts, but in a dif- 
ferent way from the n)aggot at the root. 

The grub attacks the plant m the night, at or 
near the surface of the ground, and cuts it en- 
tirely off. It may generally be found without 
much trouble and destroyed. 

The maggot works eniirely under ground — 
attacks first the small fibrous roots, and then 
penetrates the main root, where it will generally 
be found. The first notice you have of this 
hidden enemy is in the wilimg of the outer 
leaves of the plant, and it soon after perishes 
and comes from the ground like a dry stick. 

The preventive I have used (and I think with 
good success) is essentially the same, Mr. Edi- 
tor, with the one recommended hy yourself, viz: 
salt — but in the form of sea-water. I got the 
idea from the stovy of some one, who, in a fit of 
desperation, watered his cabbages with salt-wa- 
ter ; thinking, and perhaps hoping, thai ii would 
kill them, but which, to his asionishmeni, re- 
sulted in imparting great vigor to his plants. 
My plants, which were cauliflowers, were fast 
failing from the attacks of the maggots, and I 
thought the salt-water could not hurt them more 
than the maggots; so I applied it to them very 
freely, (say one quart to a plant, and that re- 
peated several days) and it resulted, as I thought, 
very favorably. I have also used salt-water for 
the destruction of aphides or plant-lice on ruta- 
bagas, as well as the cabbage iribe, both of 
which are sometimes much infested with that 
insect. — JVeiv England Farmer. 



CYMLINS. 

We have been requested by a correspondent, 
who says he has found his account in it, to re- 
publish an article on the making of cymlins, 
from the first volume of the American Farmer. 
Our correspondent says, " I have pursued the 
plan therein recommended for several 3'ears, and 
it affords me a supply of the best summer food, 
not only for hogs but for my milch cows, which 
are fed with it night and morning. The}^ seem 
to relish it highly ; it improves the quality and 
increases the quantity of the milk; and may 
safely affirm, that finer butter and cream than 
mine, cannot be found, even in the justly famed 
market of Philadelphia." 

The writer, to whom he refers, after citing 
several cases to prove that the qualities of food 
are imparted to the flesh of animals in a much 
shorter time than is generally supposed, infersi 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



135 



that pork will be "hardened" as well on two 
weeks as on two months feeding- on corn, and 
thinks, that, during the balance of the time, a 
much cheaper article might be substituted. He 
then proceeds to saj: 

"Hogs as generally managed, are not only 
the modt troublesome, but the most cosily flesh 
we consume, and 1 have for many years been 
in pursuit of a plan to lighten the cost of their 
flesh, which is so absolutely necessary for the 
establishment of every Marylander. I flatter 
myself that I now see my way clear, for after 
two years trial, I am well. satisfied, that the use 
of cymlins, pumpkins, ruta-baga and clover, will 
enable me to send more corn to market, and 
with two weeks feeding upon that precious grain, 
my bacon will not yield to that of any person. 
No branch of rural economy requires more at- 
tention than feeding our various kind of stock. 
Our northern friends laugh and say, that in 
Maryland the hogs eat all our corn, and our 
negroes eat all our hogs. This is too true to 
be denied, and if my mite can in your opinion 
be of any use to the public, it is at j^our service. 

"As early as the season will admit, I prepare 
ground for cymlins, or squashes, (cucurbita ve- 
rucosa). Rich land is best for all purposes, but 
in this case, it is the first object to choose a place 
convenient to your hogs range. After plough- 
ing and preparing the ground in the best man- 
ner, lay it off by a single furrow, four feet each 
way, and at the intersection, manure highly 
with well prepared manure, mixing it well with 
the soil, by spade or hoe. Upon this ground so 
prepared, plant cymlins (and the bunch kind I 
think best,) in every other row and hill, which 
will give to you, at eight feet apart each way, 
about 680 hills to the acre. After plan/ing the 
cymlins, proceed to plant corn in the rows run- 
ning north and south, that is, only in one direc- 
tion, between every row of cymlins, and which 
being eight by four apart, will give you about 
1,361 hills of corn to the acre. It is unneces- 
sary to remind the careful farmer, that the most 
scrupulous attention sliould be paid to this 
ground, while the vines are young, for after they 
begin to fruit and run, nothing can be done, ex- 
cept to pull by hand, the strong high weeds. — 
When the fruit appears, be careful to mark for 
future seed, such as you wish to propagate, for 
it is desirable to have early fruit. 

"The drought of last summer will not be 
soon forgot, and yet from less than an acre of 
unfavorable ground, I kept in high condition 
more than sixty head of hogs of all ages (suck- 
lings excepted); they had not any grain, and 
but little grass. It was our rule to take a cer- 
tain number of rows every day, so that there 
was an interval of five days, and all fruit as 
large as a man's fist was pulled. It would 



sometimes happen, that fruit was neglected un- 
til it became hard but not dry ; in this case, the 
feeder cracked them upon his carl-wheel. A 
careful and steady perton should be appointed 
to pull — one who will neither neglect the fruit, 
or tread upon the vines; for if well managed 
they will continue bearing until your pumpkins 
are ready; and these will carry you on to the 
fortnight before the intended day of killing. 

"1 claim no merit from the cymlin culture — 
it justly belongs to 'I'ench Tilghman, Esq. of 
Talbot, and other gentlemen of that county, but 
believe me, that while I continue to raise my 
own pork, I never will omit the cymlin culture. 
Let us, however, not forget the pumpkin, as an 
able, and almost necessary auxiliary, and of 
which there are many varieties ; the long yellow 
is, I think, for many reasons, the best. Jn 1818 
my cymlin patch was small, and as my object 
was not only to have fat pork but to save corn, 
I began early with the pumpkins; yet hogs 
could not be fatter, and njy stock of old hams, 
can yet testify the quality of the meat. Yet, 
cymlins and pumpkins are not alone a sufficient 
substitute for corn ; some food is necessary to 
carry j'ou through the winter and spring, until 
your clover and cymlins are read3^ The ruta- 
baga is an excellent vegetable, which will sup- 
ply your want. We now know that they are 
infinitely more nutritious than the common tur- 
nip — that they are sufficiently hardy to remain 
in the ground through the winter, and yet bet- 
ter, if buried in small heaps in a well shaded 
northern aspect. They will be found in high 
preservation to July. 

" Clover is less injured by hogs than by any 
other stock, by sheep the most, and hogs after a 
few days will not root it up; but il is desirable 
that every farm should be provided with a hog- 
range well enclosed, uniting wood land for acorns 
and shade, bottom land for water, rooting and 
wallowing, and contiguity to clover. Ten hogs 
will not injure the growth of timber, as much 
as one cow. The hog indeed eats all the acorns 
he touches, but in his rootings he buries great 
numbers to a secure depth : the cow not only 
nips, and of course kills all the young sprouts 
of nuts, which she perscveringly hunts after, 
but she browses upon and tears down young 
limbs, and rubs and twists young sprouts from 
stumps. 

" If I have extended my remark beyond a 
mere recommendation of the cymlin culture, and 
with a view to save grain, which is always a 
cash article ; it is also from a wish to encournge 
persons who reside upon poor lands adjoining 
extensive wood-ranges, to turn their attention to 
rearing hogs upon a large scale. 

"For the cymlin, pumpkin, and ruta-baga, 
but little land is necessary, and for the two first 
articles, but little manure. Clover is certainly 
of great service, but if there is plenty of the 



136 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



other vegetables it may safely be dispensed with. 
I would give you my opinion of the quaniity of 
ground necessary for twenty hogs, but fear I 
have already trespassed on your time. 

"[ must, however, observe, that. instead of 
washing my bacon with warm water previous 
to hanging it, I have experienced the best effects 
from washing with a strong lie, made from 
clean hickory ashes. 

I am respectfully, yours, &c. 

A Subscriber." 



RECIPE FOR THE CURE OF FISTULA IN 
HORSES AFTER IT HAS BROKE AND RUN. 

Some time last summer, my father had a mare 
that had the fistula very bad, and finally he con- 
cluded to try an experiment on the disease. He 
first made a wash for her shoulder out of elder, 
{sambueus canadinis,) wild cherrj^ tree, [prumey 
hirgemanus^) sassafras root, {laucus sassa/rce,) 
equal parts of all, and boiled them on a hot fire 
for a half an hour. After cooling, he washed 
the eruption well and filled it full of saleratus, 
working it in with his fingers. On the third 
day, under this treatment, the disease resumed 
a considerable change; and in the course of 
ten or twelve days the mare was cured. 

Wm. R. Thompson. 

Greenup Co., Kij., Feb. 15, 1842. 

Kentucky Farmer. 



MANURING WITH GREEN CROPS. 
The Editor of the American Farmer,for whose 
opinions we entertain the highest respect, has 
taken up this subject, and handled it with his 
usual ability. He recommends Buckwheat, 
as the best known crop for turning in ; first, be- 
cause of the size and construction of its leaves, 
which peculiarly adapt it to abstract the fertiliz- 
ing properties of the atmosphere ; secondly, be- 
cause, from the shade aflforded by its luxuriant 
growth, it is one of the best cleansers of land, 
and never fails to eradicate noxious weeds from 
the soil; and thirdly, because, it will flourish 
luxuriantly even on poor soils, that most need 
its renovating qualities. He adds: 

"The process of ploughing in buckwheat, 
shoul(i be preceded by rolling; and before the 
plough is set to work, we would advise, that a 
few bushels of lime, say five to the acre, be 
sown on the buckwheat. By beginning in early 
spring, three crops of buckwheat might be grown 
to the blossoming state, and buried in time for 
sowing either rye, or wheat, and we have no 
doubt that, by pursuing the course indicated by 
us, soils measurably worn out might be made to 
yield good crops of all kinds, and remain in good 



heart for years — and we would ask, by what 
process could land be manured at less expense? 
If there be any, we know it not." 

The value of turning in green crops is sus- 
tained by Professor Dana, in a reference to a 
paper, addressed by Mr. John Keely to the Es- 
sex County (Massachusetts) Agricultural So- 
ciety, in 1832. 

In this paper, Mr. Keely states, that by re- 
peated ploughing in of the weeds alone, he had 
increased the crop of rye, upon a light sandy 
soil, from eight, to forty bushels, to the acre. 
He thinks, that in ploughing in the weeds, a 
furrow should never be turned after the dew has 
been evaporated, since he doubts not that a large 
portion of that fertilizing property in the soil, 
which during the summer months is continually 
exhausted from the earth, is by the dew brought 
again within our reach, and it would be wise to 
avail ourselves of the opportunity to again bring 
it in the soil. He would, by all means, use a 
heavy roller after such ploughing. It would 
fill all the cavities left by the plough, and by 
pressing the soil more closely to the weeds, at 
once hasten their decomposition, and very much 
retard the evaporation of the soil. 

Mr. Keely turned in as many as three crops 
of a season ; though he attributes much of his 
success to the manner in which he put in his 
rye ; this he effected by ploughing a small strip 
of land, sowing the seed immediately upon the 
furrow, and then harrowing in. Sowing the 
seed immediately after the plough, he considers, 
very advantageous to the crop. The ground 
being then moist, causes the seed to spring im- 
mediately, and gives a forwardness and vigor to 
the plants, which they ever afterwards retain. 



TO STOP THE EFFUSION OF BLOOD. 

Messrs. Editors, — In answer to an inquiry in 
the last number of the Cultivator, respecting a 
remedy for stopping blood, I will relate two in- 
stances of the application of cobwebs, with in- 
stantaneous and complete success. The first 
was a cut just below the fetlock joint of a young 
horse, from which a stream of blood of the size 
of a knitting needle spirted very swifily. A 
small wad of cobweb from the cellar was bound 
on, which <e«/zre/y stopped the blood in an instant. 
At another time on bleeding a horse in the 
mouth, the incision was made deeper than was 
intended, letting more blood than was designed. 
After other remedies in vain, the above applica- 
tion was made with the same effect as in the 
first case. H. Milton Hart. 

CornwaU, Ci., Feb. 23, 1842. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



137 



BEETS. 

The Editor of the " Farmers' Cabinet" thinks 
it probable, that nriany of the objections, that 
have arisen to the cuhivation of ihe sugar beet, 
arise from the fact, that the white Silesian, com- 
iTJonly used, is unsuited to a chmate so hot and 
dry as that in many parts of our country. He 
says, its cuhivation is confined to the northern 
parts of France, the more southern having been 
found inimical to its proper development. He 
suggests, that a variety, known as the yellow 
beet, of which the seed may be had in Philadel- 
phia, although for particular reasons less suited 
to the making of sugar, contains as much nu- 
triment, affords as large a yield, and is probably 
better adapted to our soil and climate generally. 

Mr. Pedder was very instrumental in intro- 
ducing the beet culture into America, and al- 
though he favored the white Silesian on account 
of its sugar properties, he obtained, long ago, 
the yellow variety from France, which he then 
recommended as a food for stock. 



From the Nashville (Tennessee) Agriculturist. 

KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS (GREENSWARD, 
POA PRATENSIS.) 

The best time for sowing is as soon as you 
get ready after October, but if you sow before 
the middle of March, you may expect a good 
stand, particularly if the season is wet. 

Lani. — Old fields, where the sun can exert 
all his powers, produce blue grass in the greatest 
abundance, and always of the best quality. The 
past fall we visited xVlark R. Cocknli's farm, and 
saw old fields on which former occupants were 
threatened with starvation, yielding the richest 
grass. It was remarkable that his mares and 
sucking colls, on these pastures, without grain, 
were fatter, if possible, than we ever saw " the 
noble animal" on other treatment. But inas- 
much as cultivated grounds are generally used 
for other purposes, the beginner is informed that 
woodland, particularly where the timber is not 
too close, will produce good grass. 

Preparation. — If you intend old land for pas- 
ture, break up the fields, and sow them in oats 
in February. Then put ten pounds of blue 
grass seed, a half a gallon of red clover seed, 
and if a little timothy or orchard grass be sprin- 
kled on so much the better. The clover, timo- 
thy and orchard grass will give a quick pasture 
and afford protection to the blue grass till it gets 
a strong hold, after which no other grass can 
contend with it. If woodland is to be sown, 
take off the logs, brush, leaves, &c. and if the 
undergrowth could be taken out, it would be 
much better. After the land is cleaned, harrow | 
Vol. 2—18 



it well, then sow your grass seed at the rale of 
ten or twelve pounds to the acre, but if you put 
on fifteen or twenty pounds, you will scarcely 
ever regret it. The lains will sufficiently cover 
the seed to insure vegetation. 



CORN. 
In the May number of the Cultivator, we 
find the following remarks, on the old question 
of late ploughing and hilling corn, from Mr. L. 
Physick, of JMaryland, a name familiar to agri- 
cultural readers : 

" I have noticed an error in the culture of 
plants and trees, wherever I have been, and I 
know no better plan to illustrate it than in show- 
ing the effect of the error on corn. In the cul- 
ture of corn, it is usual to work the crop till the 
tassel is about to make its appearance; this is 
an error. Whenever the lateral roots of a plant 
are injured, moved or disturbed, when the stalk 
that is to produce the seed is matured or about 
maturing, or whenever those roots are covered 
to a greater depth at this stage of growth than 
nature intended, it will produce early n aturity 
and decay ; and the yield will be just in the 
proportion to the extent of the error. If you 
will take the pains to destroy the lateral roots 
of a stalk of corn after its having made the last 
joint on the stock, you will find that it will pro- 
duce no corn ; and if you will displace their si- 
tuation at this time by hilling, you will get a 
less quantity of seed than if left alone. If the 
lateral roots of a stalk of clover are cut off 
when the seed stock is forming, there will be no 
seed ; and jnst so with other plants and trees ; 
and the working of them at this stage cannot 
be attempted without injury. Yet, strange to 
say, it is almost invariably done. I have never 
suffered my corn to be worked afier one-third of 
the height of the stalk was attained. I plant 
close enough to have the corn to shade the 
ground at this height, so as to prevent the 
growth of weeds after this last working. I 
plant two and a half feet square, and leave two 
stalks in the hill, and I have never missed hav- 
ing as much corn per acre and as large ears as 
my neighbors ; and much more than some of 
them. I never planted a crop of corn that I 
had not some kind neighbor or friend to tell me 
that I would have neither corn nor fodder. Last 
spring a cropper upon my neighbor's farm plant- 
ed thirty-five or forty acres in corn, and I about 
ten acres; our fields adjoining. He planted his 
corn four feet square, and left three or four stalks 
in the hill, and worked his crop till it was ready 
to shoot into tassels. I quit working mine when 
about two and a half feet high. His field was 
full of weeds and grass. Mine remained clear 
of both weeds and grass. When our com was 



138 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



husked and housed, he told me that I had from 
my ten acres nearly fifty bushels of corn more 
than he had from his thirty-five or forty acres, 
notwithstanding he told me in its early growth, 
that I would have no corn. Part of his ground 
was quite as good as mine. 

"A similar and worse effect is produced in the 
hilling or working of plants in the latter stage 
of their growth, than takes place in plants and 
trees when deep planted. A disease is produced 
that hurries the plant on to early maturity by 
impeding the proper nourishment, by disturbing 
or placing the roots below where nature intended 
they should range for food, as well as depriving 
the vessels of the stalks thus covered from per- 
forming their functions. The stalks being es- 
tablished, it is folly for man to attempt to do 
that which God alone can do. Deep planting 
and ploughing the peach orchard after the trees 
have attained sufficient maturity to produce 
fruit, is, if not wholly, the principal cause of the 
disease called the yellows. By ploughing, the 
lateral roots are either cut, disturbed, or forced 



to seek food apart from where nature intended, 
and thus operates as a hill placed around plants, 
and brings the tree to early decay. 

"To conclude this subject for the present, T 
will say, work your plants and trees while 
young, so as to form good stalks, and then trust 
to that all-wise Disposer of events to perfect 
them. 

"I think I noticed a remark in your paper, of 
the roots of the watermelon being attacked by 
small animalculss. Some salt added to the hills 
before planting will remedy that evil and give 
you better fruit; and salt and saltpetre sown in 
the peach orchard, (particularly where the or- 
chard is worked w-ith the plough,) will assist in 
preventing like depredations to the roots of the 
peach tree. 

"If you think that this hasty notice will be 
of any service, you are at liberty to dispose of 
it as 3'ou think best, and be assured that I seek 
neither money nor thanks for performing duties 
we owe one to another. 

Littleton Physick." 



VAN HOSEN'S PRESS FOR HAY, &c. 




Messrs. Editors, — The above cut is an illus- 
tration of the patent lever railway press, lately 
invented by William C. Van Hosen, of Catskill, 
Greene county, State of New York. The frame 
and box of this press are like those now in use. 
It will be seen b^^ the cut, that the lower pannel 
is left out to shov^ the follower or moveable bot- 
tom of the box with the end of the lever at- 
tached thereto. At the lower ends of the levers 
will be Been friction rollers, with a flange on 



each side to keep it on the track of the failwaj. 
Attached to the lower end of the levers are ropes 
or chains which are drawn in by the roller or 
shaft of the armed wheel. Upon the rim of 
this wheel is placed a rope, to which a horse 
may be attached, or carried to a capstan which 
is preferable; it will be seen by drawing in the 
lower ends of the levers, the follower is elevated, 
carrying up with it the article to be pressed ; 
and when the greatest power is required, it is 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



139 



given wiihoLit any additional draft of the horse. 
The portion of this press giving the power being 
made of wood, is not so hkely to break or get 
out of order as those made of cast iron. The 
travel for a horse in lunning up a bale, if at- 
tached to the rope on the arm wheel of five feet 
diameter, is one hundred feet. If attached to a 
capstan, it is increased according to size of cap- 
stan and length of lever. While in a screw 
press, the travel is one mile and a half in run- 
ning the screw up and down. 

This press excels all others now in use for 
pressing hay, cotton, wool, rags, &c. &c. and 
will be warranted to perform well and do double 
the work that a screw press can with the same 
number of hands, with less than half the draft. 
A small boy can attend the horse, and the run- 
ning back of the follower with perfect ease. The 
time required in running up the follower is about 
one minuie. Six bales have been pressed to 
the hour with ease. Bales weighing over three 
hundred pounds have been pressed by one man. 

The construction of this power is such that 
it does not require a building expressly for it, as 
it may be placed in any barn or shed, and the 
horse may move in any direction or at any dis- 
tance from it ; and when the bale is ready for 
delivery, it is discharged instantly, and the fol- 
lower gradually recedes as the hay is placed in 
the box. 

The construction of this power is so simple 
that anj^ man can make one or keep it in order. 
For a small expense it can be applied where the 
screw is now in use, and save much barn room 
and horse flesh. 

There are several of this new style of press 
now in use in Greene county, and others build- 
ing in different parts of the counties of Greene 
and Columbia. One may be examined at the 
residence of the inventor, Leeds, Greene county, 
and one at the farm of Judge Cooke, Catskill. 
The latter is sunken through the threshing floor, 
and the horse travels outside of the barn. 

W. S. Jacks. 

Catskill^ March 5, 1842. 

We copy the above from the Albany Cultiva- 
tor, because we have had frequent inquiries 
made for a good hay press. The one here re- 
presented is both cheap and simple, although 
the writer of the article betrays, we think, an 
ignorance of mechanical principles, when he 
claims for it an increase of power, with a de- 
crease of space to be traversed by the power. 
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an 
increase of power. Power is employed either 
in overcoming a natural adherence or repulsion 
of particles, and is always the product of nature, 
unalterable by man. The means of employing 
this power may, it is true, involve more or less 



fiiction, and to this extent only, can one machine 
be said to be more powerful than another. But 
the resistance by mechanical means may be in- 
finitely subdivided, which subdivision is meta- 
phorically termed an increase of power. Sup- 
pose a man were required to move an immense 
bundle of sticks, in its united shape far beyond 
his strength ; it is evident he might efl^ect his 
object, if he could untie the bundle, and remove 
them separately. This is exactly what all me- 
chanical principles seek to effect, it is all that 
they can possibly efl^ect, that is, to divide the 
resistance, and thereby remove it, part at a time. 
But it is apparent, that the more the resistance 
is divided, the more space must be traversed, 
and it is therefore folly to talk of greater power, 
and less space, unless the friction has been great- 
ly reduced. So far from this being the case 
with Mr. Van Hosen's press, we are inclined to 
think that the power acts at great disadvantage, 
especially in the beginning, when, to be sure, it 
is least required. But notwithstanding this, we 
like the principle, because this disadvantage can 
be overcome by causing the horse to traverse a 
greater space, and because, we think the ma- 
chine requires less nicety in its construction, and 
would be easier kept in order, than any we have 
ever seen. How far Mr. Van Hosen can sus- 
tain a claim to his patent, we are not prepared 
to say ; probably, the particular combination 
may secure it to him, but the principle of ob- 
taining pressure by bringing a broken line into 
a straight one, or into two parallel ones, is as 
old as the hills, and is the one used in the com- 
mon printing press of the day. The wheel and 
axle, we presume, he hardly pretends to lay a 
claim to. 

We have been led into a more extended com- 
ment upon this article than the subject would 
seem to demand, first, by the great want of a 
good hay press in this neighborhood, and se- 
condl}', by the very erroneous views we have 
found to exist in the minds of many of our 
readers upon the subject of "power." 

Some of our James River farmers are now 
reaping a golden harvest from their attempts to 
supply the Richmond market with Virginia \\<\.y. 
Hay at one dollar and twenty-five cents a hun- 
dred, is productive of more clear profit than the 
cotton crop in its palmiest days, and such are 
our natural advantages, that we need only a 
good press to drive the northern hay seller not 
only out of Richmond, but out of the whole 



140 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



southern market. It would be as well to state, 
perhaps, that we have received intimations of a 
press that is being gotten up in our own State, 
supposed to be superior to any now in use. We 
will endeavor to procure a cut and description 
of it as soon as possible, which shall be accom- 
panied with our candid and unbiassed opinion 
of its merits. 



To the Editor of the Southern Planter. 

When at your request (not persuasion) I pre- 
pared the article, published in the April number 
of the Planter, it did not occur to me as possible 
that it could lead to a controversy with any one; 
and I am scarcely more surprised by the com- 
munication in your May number from my friend 
the Rev. J. H. Turner, than at a portion of your 
remarks upon it. 1 intended no "attack upon 
the Berkshires" or on the breeders of that stock, 
and had 1 been aware that your object was to 
"lead to a conflict that would redound lo the 
benefit and amusement of the spectators," you 
certainly would never have received one ]ine 
from me. I am not ambitious of notoriety, and 
have no wish to be brought upon the stage, with 
a few, or many, or any "flourishes" at all. — 
Your cohimns (permit me to say) should be ap- 
propriated 10 more interesting and useful matter, 
than unprofitable controversies too often prompt- 
ed by vanity or selfishness ; and I much regret 
to find myself compelled to trespass upon them. 

As a Virginian, Mr. Editor, and for the im- 
portant interest to which the Planter is devoted, 
I sincerely desire that it may be as prosperous 
and as useful as you desire to make it, and to 
see it yielding a rich and a proud reward, to 
your editorial labors. But rely upon it this is 
not the way to accomplish any of these ends. 
Some indeed, like the mischievous school-boy 
who sets two of his fellows by the ears that he 
may stand by and enjoy the fight may be grati- 
fied — but I think the practical farmers who sus- 
tain your paper for other and better purposes, 
will turn from such controversies with disappro- 
bation. I shall, therefore, endeavor so to frame 
my rejoinder to your esteemed correspondent as 
to observe all due respect to him, and lo afford 
no occasion for encumbering the columns of the 
Planter with a reply. My remarks shall be as 
brief as possible — they arc ofl^ered with a re- 
spectful apology to your readers, wiih whom it 
is hoped the necessity of the case will excuse 
me.* 

* Between the Parson and the General, we believe, 
we arc like to got "more kicks than lialfpencc," as ilio 
old saying- is. Mr. Turner objects to our first editorial 
as too pirtial to the views of his oppononi, and ilu" 
General excepts to the last, as calculated to place him 
in tlie ridiculous liglit of an indis-idual clioatcd into a 
controversy, for tlie amusement of tlie pulilic. 

lu the hrst place, although we know tliat General 



I confidently leave it to every candid and dis- 
interested reader of your paper, lo determine for 
himself, whether my April number can justly 
be regarded as any thing but a simple statement 
of my own opinion founded upon given facts — 
and whether, as Mr. Turner supposes, I have j 
shown myself, so anxious to recommend Mr. | 
Dicken's hogs. I leave it also lo the same class . 
of readers to determine bow far his disclaimer 
of intention " to disparage any man's hogs," is 
sustained by the communication itself, in which 
sneers, and disparagement of the ivhite hog 
abound. Indeed a full and sufficient answer lo 
most of his remarks would, I think, be afforded 
by a comparison of them with the very article 
upon which he has commented. 

But our friend, the President of the Agricul- 
tural Society, is fond of an innocent joke, and . 
has travelled somewhat "out of ihe record" to 
get at one. '1 ake, for example, the turn he has 
given to my statement in regard to two litters of 
half Berkshire pigs, and a pig he purchased of 
me, which he says "would constitute so knotty 
a case" that he would not know how to dispose 
of it were it not that / have disposed of it niy- 
self. Let us see how the truth of the case dis- 
poses of it. 

As to the pig Mr. Turner purchased of me, I 
said, " though a very fine, he is not near so large 
a hog as the white ones have proved lo be." — 
He says, (and in effect makes me say.) "ihe 
little inferior tawny pig brought twenty dollars, 
whilst it took the four large svpenor pigs lo 
bring thirty dollars." Now it will be perceived 
that I have said no such thing in the sense 
which is here represented, and that it is not 
fairly deducible from any thing that I did say. 



Richardson does justice to the motives which lead to 
the article of wliich he complains, and that lie remains, 
as he has always been, one of the siaunchest and most 
effective friends of the Planter, still, we think, he does 
us grreat injustice in the construction he places upon 
our editorial. The whole difficulty arises, we believe, 
from General Richardson's lakiner it for crantrd that 
the controversy, which we desired to fret up, was to be 
a personal one. Nothing-, as he well knows, was far- 
ther from our real intention, nor do we see liow such 
an inference can be fairly drawn from the terms used, 
imperfect as tiiey are. Had we have formed so low an 
estimate of tlie taste of our readers, as to suppose they 
could be either amused or instructed by a personal con- 
troversy, we should certainly have deserved to be 
likened to sometliinsf worse, than an "idle school-boy, 
who sets two of his fellows by the ears, tliat he may 
stand by and enjoy the flirht." Imperfectly as we may 
have expressed it, we only intended to express the con- 
viction, in which we are streng-thened as the contro- 
versy proirresses, that both entertainment and instruc- 
tion mig-ht be expected from a discussion of a most 
inierestinjr subject, conducted by two sucli frenilemen; 
nor can we see how the expression of such an opinion 
can be at all objectionable to any of the parties con- 
cerned. 

If the General did not see tliat his article was an 
"attack upon Berkshires," and that it would, in all 
prot)ability, lead to a reply in defence of that stock, 
which is DKiiniained to be the b< st in existence, we can 
only say, that it was not our fault that he failed, in this 
respect, to exercise his usual sagacity.— Ed. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



141 



The facts are these. "TAe little inferior taivny 
pig" was one of the finest I ever saw, as Mr. 
Turner declared himself when he first saw it at 
my farm. He was decided in his admiration of 
it, and expressed also much graiification at the 
(supposed) prospect of having so fine a slock 
hog- in the neighborhood, I told him it was my 
intention to send the pig to a valued friend about 
forty miles from Richmond — he offered a friendly 
remonstrance against its removal, which, how- 
ever, was unavailing. The next week after- 
wards, on meeting with him at the house of a 
friend, he renewed the subject and asked if I 
was at liberty to dispose of the pig, I replied 
that 1 was, not having actually disposed of him, 
but intending only, to dispose of him as slated. 
He then said (substantially) that rather than 
lose the opportunity of breeding from so fine an 
animal, he would give me twenty dollars for it — 
which, as I told him at the time, as I could not 
afford to refuse, I accepted. He fixed the price 
himself — / never offered to sell the pig, or in- 
tended to sell him. " The four large superior^' 
{white) "pigs" readily commanded all that was 
asked for them — fifteen dollars a pair. Twenty 
dollars might very probably have been obtained, 
but that being the price of full bred Berkshires, 
I then supposed there was in;rinsically a differ- 
ence of twentj'-five per cent, between them, 

Mr. Turner next refers to the names of se- 
veral gentlemen mentioned by me, and says — 
" Now here would be another tough case to 
solve were it not for som.e stubborn facts which 
again come to my relief. These gentlemen have 
tried the white hog, it seems, and most of them 
have manifested their preference for him by send- 
ing their sows to my Berkshire boar, and this 
they did when their favorite hog was more con- 
venient than the inferior Berkshire," 

Here again the truth affords an easy solution 
of the other tough case imagined by Mr. Turner, 
and shows that the " stubborn facts" upon which 
he relies, are no facts at all. 

The despised white boar was sold by Mr. 
Dicken at the Agricultural Fair in May, 1841, 
to a gentleman from Lawrenceville, and as it 
afterwards appeared, not one male of that stock 
old enough for service was left in the neighbor- 
hood. It was much more convenient, therefore, 
to send their sows to Mr, Turner's, than to the 
county of Brunswick — hut not one of those gen- 
tlemen did send to JMr. Turner'' s^ until after the re- 
moval of the lohite hoar^ and until after a Berkshire 
hoar owned hij me had also heen sold and removed. 
I know nothing of the purchases of half Berk- 
shires stated in Mr. Turner's next sentence to 
have been made by Mr. Sims — but having seen 
him and all the oiher gentlemen referred to but 
one, I can state upon their authority that they 
fully concur with me, and that without excep- 
tion, they regret that Mr, Dicken's lohite boar 
was not retained for the general benefit of the 



neighborhood. Another gentleman of high re- 
spectability and intelligence, an owner of Berk- 
shire hogs, also declared to me within the last 
three days that he has ever since regretted he 
did not purchase that very boar "at any price." 
I quote his own words. As to Mr. Dicken him- 
self — he parted with the animal to avoid " breed- 
ing in and in," and very naturally crossed with 
the Berkshire as the most celebrated hog of the 
day — but neither he, nor any of the other gen- 
tlemen named, are "backing out," as Mr, Tur- 
ner supposes, and this I also state upon the au- 
thority of all of them I have seen. 

In the next sentence Mr, Turner adverts to 
what I said I had heard of a difficulty with the 
committee last spring, in deciding a premium 
between Mr, Dicken's boar and his own — ex- 
presses regret that 1 "penned the sentence" and 
speaks of a compliment to the hog at the ex- 
pense of the committee. To this I reply, that 
the cause of his regret is incomprehensible to 
me — that I cannot suppose any one understood 
me to speak upon the authority of that commit- 
tee, (as I certainly did not) or as intending a 
compliment at their expense. No such inten- 
tion can fairly or justly be imputed to me. Af- 
ter giving a detail of the proceedings in that 
committee he adds— "this is all that at present 
I choose to say of this transaction — if urged to 
it, I will slate more," "What more the President 
may have to say, or wish to say "of this trans- 
action," I cannot conjecture, but I can conceive 
that any committee, however intelligent, might 
well have hesitated about the award of the pre- 
mium in the case referred to. 

I come now to what he says of my commen- 
dation of his stock of Berkshires, as to which 
he has made it necessary for me to be more ex- 
plicit. That commendation was merely inci- 
dental — his being almost the only stock in this 
vicinity that 1 am acquainted wiih — it was in- 
tended to include, not the sow Virginia only, but 
the boar President, raised by Mr, A, B, Shelion, 
on which Mr, Turner got the premium — an ani- 
mal not inferior, in my estimation, to any he 
owns. I also thought some others of his stock 
good — though not all of it ; but as he condemns 
it as worthless, it is not for me to dispute the 
point with him. 

Furthermore, my commendation of this stock 
carried with it no intention to "disparage" any 
other man's stock. 

Particular circumstances have heretofore led 
me to a careful examination into the origin and 
various crosses of the Berkshire hog. I thought 
the improvement had been progressive, and was 
not aware of the "rapid decline of the Berk- 
shires" ^Nhich Mr. Turner says was arrested by 
the introduction of the boar Reading. It must 
be also unknown to the numerous purchasers 
of pigs from the stocks of Colonel Burfoot, Mr. 
Shelton and Mr. Sublett, all of them long estab- 



142 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



lished and celebrated breeders in the vicinity, 
since the dennands upon them still continue, with 
little or no abatement, I believe. 

One more remark upon the President's com- 
munication, and I will conclude with some bet- 
ter authority than my own opinions. After re- 
ferring to m}'- account of the progeny of my 
white sow bred from two Berkshire boars, he 
admits that the case is a strong one, but thinks 
a stronger, in his favor, exists at what he calls 
his piggery, at this very time. He proceeds 
to a comparison of the full bred Berkshires 
with the progeny (half blood) of a " sow nearly, 
but not quite white^^ which he had constituted 
wet nurse to two of his Berkshire pigs. Hav- 
ing seen this sow and pigs myself, I cannot con- 
ceive how Mr. Turner should have persuaded 
himself that it is a stronger case than the one 
staled by me, or even a case that deserves to be 
mentioned at all. The sow is an ordinary ani- 
mal, not at all comparable to Mr. Dicken's ; and 
the mother of the adopted portion of her familj^, 
is Mr. Turner's favorite Virginia, a very fine full 
bred Berkshire. It would be strange indeed if 
there was not a difference, and a very consider- 
able one, between the pigs of the two sows, 
even, though " the sire of each litter is the same 
hog." As to his allusion to " long legs" in the 
progeny of the sow " nearly but not quite white^^ 
it is necessary for me to say that the v}hite pigs 
spoken of in my April number, were, and are as 
free from that defect as any full blood Berkshires 
Mr. Turner ever saw. 

Considering his communication fully, it seems 
to me that he has actually " disparaged" all the 
Berkshires but his own favorites, much more 
than I have — so that instead of his taking me 
to task, I, (being a breeder of that stock,) might 
with more reason complain of him. But as he 
is at the head of our valued Society, and I am 
but an humble private, I must not commit the 
indiscretion, so I respectfully take leave to retire. 

Do me the favor to publish with this, the ac- 
companying extracts from the Fourth and last 
Report on the Agriculture of Massachusetts. 

A parting word to you, Mr. Editor. Though 
I complain of your remarks as placing me in a 
ludicrous, if not ridiculous, light before your 
readers, justice to you requires me to say that 
I have not, for a moment, supposed you intended 
they should be so regarded — and that I have 
referred to them to justify mj'self, rather than to 
censure you. 

Wm. H. Richardson. 

The following are the extracts alluded to : 
" We have been compelled, however, in this 
as in many other cases, to witness the capri- 
ciousness of public favor ; and to adopt, with 
the variation of only a letter, the familiar pro- 
verb, and say in this case, that ' every hog must 
have his day.' The popularity of the Berkshire 



swine is on the wane. It is objected to them 
by many farmers that they are not large enough, 
though they are easily made to reach, at four- 
teen months old, 3G0 or 3.50 lbs.; and further, 
that ihey do not cut up well; and that the fat 
on their backs and sides is not thick enough, 
especially for packing down for fishermen, who 
would be glad to have their pork all fat, and 
whom I have seen spread their uncooked sailed 
fat pork, as landsmen spread butter, on their 
bread. 

" The former objection is not made by all per- 
sons, as many would prefer for their tables the 
pork of a hog weighing 300 lbs. to that of hogs 
weighing 600 lbs. of which I have seen many 
in our market. With respect to the latter ob- 
jection, I was half disposed at first to consider 
it as mere caprice, but that E. Phinney, of Lex- 
ington, a farmer in this matter 'not unknown to 
fame,' — and another most respectable farmer of 
Franklin county, admit that there is some truth 
in it ; and they, as well as many others, prefer 
a cross to the pure blood. The impression is 
becoming general, and the butchers in Quincy 
market are unanimous in their unfavorable opi- 
nion of the Berkshire hogs. They admit that 
their hams and shoulders aie good for bacon ; 
but their backs, where they most require it, have 
no depth of fatness, and they are, therefore, un- 
suitable for salting. They are good breeders 
and nurses. They may be kept, therefore, to 
much advantage where the object is to raise roast- 
ing pigs for market. * * * * 

" It is but just, however, to the Berkshires to 
say, that the unfavorable impression in regard 
to them, though general, is not universal. An 
intelligent and very exact farmer at Eraintree, 
B. V. French, has found them to answer his 
expectations. Upon recently killing a number, 
he was well satisfied with their appearance, and 
is of opinion that much of the prejudice which 
exists against them belongs properly to the im- 
pure but not to the genuine race." 



THE HANOVER FAIR. 

On the morning of the 19th of Ma}^, we 
started for Taylorsville, and were soon borne 
upon the magic wings of steam from the foul 
breath of the c\\.y into the refreshing air and 
genial influence of the country. The day was 
a glorious one, and secured a large attendance 
of both ladies and gentlemen. Although the 
exhibition of stock and domestic manufactures 
was highly respectable, it was from the speci- 
mens afforded of the " human face divine," that 
we emphatically pronounce that "old Hanover" 
has reason to be proud of her fair. 

A very neat and appropriate address was de- 
livered by Mr. C. W. Dabney, and the Rev. J. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



143 



H. Turner, being called on to address the assem- 
bly, afforded the very highest satisfaction, appa- 
rently, by some felicitous strokes of satire aimed 
at the conduct and deportment of the legislators 
of Virginia. 



The whole affair went off with great eclat, 
and the spirit manifested on this occasion, gives 
token of that lively interest in agriculture, which 
has been awakened throughout the length and 
breadth of this happy land. 



WATT'S CUFF-BRACE AND GUAGE PLOUGH. 




The plough here represented, is the invention 
of Mr. George Watt, of Alabama, who has con- 
stituted that ingenious and enterprising mecha- 
nic, Mr. John Haw, of Hanover, his agent for 
the State of Virginia. Our attention was first 
called to this plough at the agricultural exhibi- 
tion in Flanover, on the 1 9th of May, where it 
attracted the most favorable notice from the com- 
mittee. The peculiarities of its construction 
are, that the mould board is fastened to the side, 
instead of the bottom, of the beam. A cuff, 
made by bending a three-quarter iron bar into 
three sides of a square, is made to embrace the 
beam, the ends penetrating the extended upright 
of the mould board, the whole being secured to- 
gether by screws and nuts. The coulter is 
moveable, so that it may be set near to, or fur- 
ther from, or at any angle with, the mould board. 

The advantages claimed are, that the position 
of the beam to one side and out of the plane of 
the mould board, secures the plough from the 
common and troublesome objection of choking. 
This desirable object is said by some good 
judges, who have tried it, to have been fully at- 
tained. It is moreover contended, that the beam, 
not being weakened by a bolt passing through 
it, may be made of much less than the ordinary 
size, and, consequently, with less expense. The 



stocking, the manufacturer asserts, can be done 
for one-half the usual price. The handles are 
fastened in the usual manner by screws and 
bolts to the heel of the plough ; these bolts serve 
as pivots on which the wood work turns ; thus, 
when the screws of the cuff are slacked, and 
the handles of the plough are pressed, the beam 
moving freely through the cuff, the hind part is 
depressed, and the front elevated, whereby more 
or less draught is given with the greatest facili- 
ty. Again, by the insertion of an iron wedge 
between the beam and the mould board, land is 
given, or taken, at pleasure. 

Mr. Watt has published the certificate of some 
of the most respectable farmers in Hanover, who 
testify to its great superiority. The lower part 
of the mould board, it will be readily perceived, 
may be of any shape or form, to please the fan- 
cy of the operator. 

Now for our own opinion. We do not see 
that there is here any saving of expense. The 
beam, it is true, will cost a little less, but this 
will, we believe, be more than offsetted by the 
increased cost of other parts. The landing and 
draughting have certainly a greater range, and 
are effected with greater facility than in any 
plough w^e have ever seen, but we are almost 
afraid, that these qualities are obtained at the 



144 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



expense of permanency and simplicity. But its 
great boast, and what may render it invaluable 
to the farmer, is its fieedom from choking, which 
is said to be obtained by the position of the 
beam. This position is in entire opposition to 
the centre draught opinions of Prouty & Mears, 
and would be said by them greatly to increase 
the draught. But the choking, we are assured 
by practical men, is relieved, and if this be the 
case, we believe the plough, if well made, will 
come into general use. Upon this point we 
will seek more definite and precise information, 
which, when obtained, shall be laid before our 
readers. 

Of all the coulters we have ever seen, we 
prefer the cutter connected with the point, as 
used in Tinkler's plough. 



For the Southern Planter. 
King William, Jlpnl 21, 1842. 
Dear Sir, — I have not been unmindful of my 
promise to report to you, for the benefit of my 
brother farmers, the result of my trial of the 
corn and cob crusher purchased from Mr. Obed 
Hussey, of Baltimore. I regret it has not been 
in my power to make this communication ear- 
lier, but now I have pleasure, both on their ac- 
count and of the ingenious manufacturer, in 
stating that the result has been very satisfacto- 
ry. With the power ordinarily used in thrash- 
ing wheat I do not hesitate to saj^ it will grind 
the ears of corn into good homony more rapidly 
than any pair of millstones I ever observed at 
work. The cost in Baltimore is forty dollars 
with a pair of extra plates, and where one's 
wheat thrashing box is fixed to work in the 
house, no further expense is necessary; mine, 
unfortunately, is made to work out of doors, so 
I was obliged to incur the expense of a new 
shaft with a band-wheel on each end, and a new 
band, &c. — and my machine, now^ completely 
fixed to work in the house, cost me near sixty 
dollars ; but I consider it a most valuable acqui- 
sition. We have worked it only on rainy daj's, 
and find profitable emploj^menl for hands, which, 
in such weather, would be almost eating the 
bread of idleness, as I do not engage in the cul- 
ture of tobacco. If Mr. Hussey would make 
his iron hopper taller and larger for our big south- 
ern corn, it would be an improvement for us. 
Respectfully, W. Gwathmey. 



EDITOBIAIi. 



OUR TERMS. 

We have nominally increased, really lowered, 

our terms of subscription. That is, we have 

been induced by the persuasions of friends, and 

a consideration of the extreme difficulties of the 



times, to give a credit of sixty days on the price 
of subscription. Many of our readers, we are 
proud to say, are taking a warm interest in the 
Planter, and exerting themselves most manfully 
to extend its circulation — they assure us, that 
they have been much retarded in their efiR)rts by 
the cash feature. Small as the sum is, ihey 
say, many, who are willing to take the paper, 
cannot conveniently spare the money, just at ihe 
moment that the application is made. In a few 
days, when it is convenient, they have not the 
opportunity of subscribing, and are not anxious 
enough, to seek it. It is to accommodate such 
individuals, who generally belong to that class 
of plain, frugal, practical farmers, amongst whom 
we are most anxious to circulate the paper, that 
we have concluded to alter the terms. Now, we 
wish it distinctly imderstood, that in every case, 
where the sixty days is permitted to elapse 
without payment, we shall most rigidly demand 
and enforce the payment of the greater sum. 
Indeed, in no case do we wish, or expect, to put 
in our own pocket more than one dollar, the 
original amount of subscription. We have con- 
tracted in all such cases to put the claims into 
the hantls of a collector, who is to pay us one 
dollar a piece for them, and he, we imagine, 
will be somewhat particular in the collection of 
all to which the law entitles him. 

In truth, the terms of the paper now are, 

ONE DOLLAR PAYABLE IN SIXTY DAYS FROM THE 
DATE OF SUBSCRIPTION. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

We are much obliged to " X." for his valua- 
ble article ; the nature of the subject must ex- 
cuse its length. It shall appear in our next. 

"A Loudoun Farmer near Leesburg, Va." is 
informed, that his communication is inadmissi- 
ble, because it contains imputations against the 
veracity and fairness of a real name over an 
anonymous signature. If over his own name 
he chooses to expose any fraud we have been 
instrumental in circulating, our columns shall be 
open to him. In exposing error we discover truth. 

We regret that the article from " P. B. W.=' 
came too late for the present number. We are 
always glad to make room for such good prac- 
tical matter as his pen furnishes. He shall ap- 
pear in our next. 

The experiments furnished by "A Country- 
man" are so loosely detailed, and we fear, so 
loosely made, as to be wholly useless. 

We would say, to "Aqua," that his commu- 
nication, although an excellent one, is not ex- 
actly adapted to our columns, and that it must 
yield, for the present at least to a press of agri- 
cultural matter.