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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

BeboteU to glgrfculture, ^ovtfculturc, auK the 51>ouseftotti &rts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 

Xenopkon. 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the 
State.— Sutty. 



C. T. BOTTS <fe L. M. BURFOOT, Editors. 



Vol. II. 



RICHMOND, JULY, 1842. 



No. 7. 



We are m ich indebted to the Agricultural 
Society of Powhatan for the following very able 
reports upon the subjects of wheat and tobacco. 
We submit them to the criticism and comments 
of our correspondents : 

WHEAT. 

The Committee appointed at the last meeting 
of this Society to report upon " the best kind of 
wheat for cultivation, the best mode of raising 
it, and the probable causes of the frequent fail- 
ures of the wheat crop," beg leave to make the 
following report : 

In investigating the subject matter submitted 
to them, it has been deemed best to invert the 
order of the inquiry, so as to take up, first the 
question of "the probable causes of the frequent 
failures of the wheat ciop ;" next, "the best mode 
of cultivating that crop;" and, lastly, "the best 
kind of wheat for cultivation." This arrange- 
ment is made in order to begin at the "root of 
the evil" of our present system of wheat cul- 
ture, to endeavor to point out the true nature 
and causes of that evil, and thence to deduce 
the remedy, that, great agricultural panacea af- 
ter which we are seeking. 

First, then, "what are the probable causes of 
the frequent failures of the wheat crop" in Vir- 
ginia, within the last twenty or twenty-five 
years, for it is only within that period that these 
failures, at least in this middle region of our 
State, have become so frequent and so disas- 
trous. In order to arrive at the true solution of 
this question, it would seem advisable to go 
back and trace up the history of cultivation, but 
more particularly the cultivation of wheat, from 
the first settlement of the country to the present 
time — to note the original nature and produc- 
tiveness of our lands when new — the actual 
crops of wheat then produced — the mode of 
cultivation then and since — at what time and 
under what circumstances the product of our 
lands in wheat first began todecline — thechanges 
of our climate, if any — together with any other 
facts which might appear to have a bearing 
upon the question. But your Committee are 
not aware of the existence of any such history, 
or even of any such minute statistical facts as 
would throw light upon the subject. They 
must, therefore, confine themselves to such gen- 
eral facts relative to the history of agriculture in 
Vol. 2— L9 



our State, as are recorded in the general history 
of the country, or to be gathered from tradition 
or other sources, whence to draw their conclu- 
sions in the investigation before them. 

It is a fact, generally admitted, that most of 
our lands at the first settlement of the country, 
both in the tide water and middle region of the 
State were much more productive in grain and 
tobacco than they now are, and that for many 
years, those lands continued to produce grain 
crops (wheat included) both abundantly and 
certainly. It is also equally well known that 
in lower Virginia, where in the beginning ihey 
used to cultivate wheat and tobacco successfully 
upon their best and alluvial soils, those lands 
had altogether ceased to yield those crops pro- 
fitably, until of late years, when they have been 
resuscitated by the use of lime, and become 
once more the finest wheat lands in the State. 
It is furthermore well known to this Society 
that our lands in this section of country some 
twenty or thirty years back, when the} 7 were 
then comparatively fresh and unexhausted, yield- 
ed crops of wheat in abundance and without 
fail, whilst we are left at this early day to in- 
quire why it is we cannot make wheat at ail. 

The failure of our wheat crops has been by 
some attributed to a supposed change in our cli- 
mate. Your Committee know of no facts suf- 
ficient to authorise the belief that any perma- 
nent and material change has actually taken 
place in our climate. In the oldest records and 
histories our climate is mentioned as one subject 
to rapid and extreme vicissitudes of temperature 
as well as of moisture — the winters sometimes ex- 
tremely cold, at other times extremely mild ; and 
the summers sometimes hot, sometimes cool — 
now wet, and then dry — and this we find to be 
precisely the character of the climate at this da}'. 
Nor is it at all philosophic to suppose that any 
such permanent change of climate can take place 
in a given region of country as materially to affect 
the staple crops of that region. We hear of no 
such changes of climate as this in the oldest 
countries of Europe, and all the known laws of 
nature are opposed to any such theory. But 
even allowing that a change and that a consi- 
derable one has taken place in our climate, it 
would yet remain to be shown that such change 
exerted any appreciable effect upon our wheat 
crops. Wheat thrives not only in temperate but 
in very hot and very cold regions, in Africa and 



146 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



Siberia, as well as throughout the greater part 
of the United States — in Great Britain and 
throughout Europe. It flourishes too in all si- 
tuations from the level of the sea to the altitude 
of six thousand feet in favorable latitudes — thus 
evidently manifesting the beneficial design of 
Providence to render this great staff of life in a 
measure independent of the vicissitudes of cli- 
mate, that its bounties might be extended far and 
wide over the surface of the earth, wherever 
man shall learn to obey the first law of his na- 
ture and live by the sweat of his brow. Fur- 
ther in this connexion, and upon the supposition 
that a change of climate has taken place which 
injuriously affects our wheat crops, how is this 
theory to be reconciled to the fact, that at one 
and the same time, and of course under the in- 
fluences of precisely the same climate, abundant 
wheat crops are now made upon the limed lands 
of lower Virginia, whilst our crops are failing 
every year, and getting worse and worse. But 
we take a more hopeful view of this subject 
than that which teaches that climate or some 
uncontrollable or inscrutable agency is the cause 
of the failure of our crops. We believe that for 
every evil, moral as well as physical, there is a 
remedy somewhere in nature ; and in the present 
case, when we shall have discovered the true 
nature of the evil, and traced it up to its prime 
causes, then we shall be in the way of finding 
the true remedy and the mode of applying it. 
What then is the cause of the failure of our 
wheat crops ? We have just seen that it can- 
not reasonably be attributed to a change of cli 
mate. And we have also seen that when our 
lands were new, fresh and unexhausted that we 
had no such failures, but on the contrary, that 
the wheat crops were then certain and abundant, 
and that it is only of late years, occurring with 
the gradual deterioration and impoverishment of 
our lands, that the wheat crops have gradually 
fallen otf, until now we can scarcely realize a 
profit upon our very best lands. It has also been 
shown that this very state of things just de- 
scribed, took place also upon the best lands of 
the tide water region of Virginia where wheat 
had ceased to be made to any profit, until of late 
years these lands have been once more rendered 
productive by the use of lime as a manure. 

Do not these facts alone (and many others 
might be adduced, did the narrow limits of this 
report allow,) indicate clearly and almost bej r ond 
doubt, that the soil itself is the medium into 
which we are to search after the true cause of 
the failures of our wheat crops ? What change 
then has taken place in our soil sufficient to 
cause the present failures of our crops ? In re- 
ply to this inquiry, your Committee are fortu- 
nate enough to be able to answer, not in their 
own language, and upon their own authority — 
but in the words and upon the authority of the 
new and celebrated work of Prof. Liebig upon 



Organic Chemistry as applied to Agriculture. In 
his chapter upon the Art of Culture and Ferti- 
lity of Soils, Professor Liebig says, "The first 
colonists of Virginia found a country, the soil of 
which had been exposed for centuries to all the 
influences which effect the disintegration of 
rocks, but from which the alkalies had not been 
removed, and which, therefore, was able to afford 
the means of nourishment to those vegetables 
which require alkalies for their growth during 
many years — but harvests of wheat and tobac- 
co were obtained for a century from one and the 
same field without the aid of manure, until now 
whole districts are converted into unfruitful pas- 
ture land, which without manure produces nei- 
ther wheat nor tobacco. From every acre of 
this land, there were removed in the space of 
one hundred years 1,200 lbs. of alkalies in leaves, 
grain and straw; it became unfruitful, then-fore, 
because it was deprived of every panicle of al- 
kali, which had been reduced to a soluble state, 
and because that which was rendered soluble 
again in the space of one year was not suffi- 
cient to satisfy the demands of the plants. Al- 
most all the cultivated land in Europe is in ihis 
condition ; fallow is the term applied to land left 
to rest for further disintegration. It is the great- 
est possible mistake to suppose that the tempo- 
rary diminution of fertility m a soil is owing to 
the loss of humus, — it is the mere consequence of 
the exhaustion of the alkalies" 

Here, then, is the true solution of the ques- 
tion. The exhaustion of the alkalies of our 
soils is the cause of the failures of our wheat 
crops. The alkalies most essential to the wheat 
crop, and all which are found to exist in the 
grain and straw are lime, potash and magnesia. 
These, then, are the great and important ma- 
nures for wheat. 

Upon the subject of manure, Professor Liebig 
says, "In addition to the general conditions, 
such as heat, light, moisture and the compom nt 
parts of the atmosphere which are necessary for 
the growth of plants, certain substances are found 
to exercise a peculiar influence in the develop- 
ment of peculiar families. These substances either 
are already contained in the soil, or are supplied to 
it in the form of mailers known under the general 
name of manures. But what does the soil con- 
tain, and what are the components of the sub- 
stances used as manure? Until these points 
are satisfactorily determined, a rational system 
of agriculture cannot exist. The power and 
knowledge of the plrysiologist, agriculturist and 
chemist must be united for the complete solution 
of these questions." 

Again, he says, " The rules of a rational sys- 
tem of agriculture should enable us to give to 
each plant that which it requires for its proper food 
and development." " But agriculture has hitherto 
never sought aid from chemical principles, based 
on the knowledge of those substances which 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



147 



plains extract from the soil on which l hey grow, 
and of those restored to the soil by means of 
manure." And it is precisely thi3 aid of chemi- 
cal science which Professor Liebig has attempt- 
ed, and so ably attempted, to apply to practical 
agriculture. 

Having ascertained, by means of chemical 
processes and analysis, the consiituent elements 
of all good soils, and found by the same means 
in what elements inferior soils are deficient, it 
becomes manifest what must constitute the true 
manure for these last. Again, as all plants 
must derive the elementary substances which 
enter into their organism solely from two sources, 
the atmosphere, and the soil ; and as the consti- 
tution of the atmosphere remains nearly uniform 
and unchanged, we need only have regard to 
the composition of the soil in our efforts to pro- 
mote vegetation. But there are certain sub- 
stances which plants can only obtain from the 
soil in which they grow : these are generally 
the salts, earths and alkalies — and if any of 
these, which are essential elements of the plant 
itself, are not to be found in the soil, ihen such 
plant cannot be matured in such a soil. 

Now it has been ascertained by chemical ana- 
lysis, that the straw and grain of wheat contain 
combinations of lime, magnesia and potash, be- 
sides other substances ; and if our soils do not 
contain those alkalies, as it has already been 
shown that they do not, then we must add thern 
as manure before we can hope again to see our 
lands produce wheat crops. Professor Liebig 
says that " in Flanders the yearly loss of the 
necessary matters in the soil, by grain cropping, 
is completely restored by covering the fields with 
ashes of wood or bones, which may or may not 
have been lixiviated, and of which the greater 
part consists of phosphate of lime and magne- 
sia." The great importance of manuring with 
ashes has been long recognised by agriculturists 
as the result of experience, and in some coun- 
tries of Europe it is transported eighteen or twen- 
ty miles as a manure. Ashes contain also sili- 
cate of potash precisely in the same proportion 
as it is found in wheat straw, besides the phos- 
phates of lime and magnesia, which are ingre- 
dients of the grain of wheat. 

Bone dust, chiefly composed of phosphate of 
lime, is also a powerful manure for wheat, and 
ought to be used together with lime and ashes. 
Forry bushels of bone dust to the acre, it is said, 
will be sufficient to supply the soil with phos- 
phates for three crops of wheat, clover, &c. 
Nitrogen also in some one of its solid combina- 
tions must necessarily exist in every good wheat 
soil, as this substance is a constituent of the 
gluten of grain. The use of gypsum together 
with the excrementitious matters of animals, 
but principally urine will serve to generate and 
fix in the soil the sulphate of ammonia, from 
which substance the vital functions of plants 



can separate and assimilate the nitrogen re- 
quired. 

Hence, then, it becomes apparent that we 
must add to our soils, besides the manures now 
in general use, all of which will then become 
doubly useful, lime, ashes, or bone dust, urine 
and gypsum. In short, we must give to our 
land all those substances in some form or another, 
which are now deficient in the soil, but which 
are known to enter into the organism of grain 
and straw, and must, therefore, have been de- 
rived from the food of the wheat plant existing 
in the soil. It would lead far beyond the nar- 
row limits of this report to enter into any dis- 
cussion of the theory and use of manures, how- 
ever intimately connected with the present sub- 
ject. Your Committee can, therefore, only refer 
to the subject of manure, in the modern and ex- 
tended acceptation of that term, as elucidated 
by the science of chemistry and confirmed by 
experience, as the source from which we are to 
derive the knowledge necessary to deliver us 
from the blind guides of habit, prejudice and 
ignorance which we have so long followed, and 
to lead us to a knowledge of the tiue and only 
means of restoring our worn out lands. And 
having thus endeavored to show the real cause 
of the failures of our wheat crops as well as 
hinted at the remedy, your Committee next pio- 
ceed to the other questions submitted to their 
consideration, viz : " the best mode of cultivating 
the wheat crop ?" 

This question, like the first, is one of exten- 
sive general bearing and connection, and if traced 
back to first principles and followed up through 
all its relations would be ample theme for a vo- 
lume — but your Committee are well aware that 
no such task has been imposed upon them, and 
that this Society onty wants something concise 
and practical — the results of experience. In 
short, the plain practical rules for cultivating 
wheat to the best advantage in our climate, 
upon our lands and under the circumstances to 
to which wfi are subjected. 

It has been attempted to be shown above, and 
the fact will hardly be denied, that our lands 
must be improved before we can hope again to 
cultivate wheat successfully in this part of the 
county. But a suitable succession or rotation of 
crops is acknowledged to be the esseniail basis 
of every improving system of agriculture. We 
must first, then, begin the improvement of our 
land, and as the foundation of this improvement, 
we must fix upon and carry into practice a suit- 
able and liberal rotation of crops. 

As to the best rotation for general use upon 
our high lands, there may be differences of opi- 
nion, and it might not be advisable here to re- 
commend any particular rotation for universal 
adoption. Each judicious cultivator must at 
last determine for himself, adapting his system 
to the peculiarities of his soil and other particu* 



148 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



lar circumstances. And it is not at last any par- 
ticular rotation that can be recommended to all — 
but that all should adopt, and that forthwith, 
some system or other — and the more liberal the 
system adopted, the more extended the rotation ' 
in the beginning and in the present reduced 
condition of our lands, the greater will be the 
improvement in the end — and the more sure 
shall we be of making wheat in a little while. 

The mode at present practised by many of 
cultivating land in corn, then in wheat or oats, 
and next year in weeds, or grazed, and again in 
corn, &c. has already killed most of our lands, 
and in fact, James River low grounds of the 
richest kind have for a time been impoverished 
by this very system. 

A five field rotation of three grain crops in 
five years, (one only of corn) and two years in 
clover seems to be the system now most gener- 
ally approved, and is no doubt well adapted to 
our lands and mode of cropping. The rotation 
might run corn, oats, clover, wheat, clover — or 
leaving out oats after corn, two fields in wheat 
each year — the one after corn, the other on clo- 
ver fallow — and one corn crop every five years 
and that after clover. 

Upon a six field rotation the land would per- 
haps improve still more rapidly, and this system 
might be adopted upon plantations when there is 
land enough to make corn sufficient upon one- 
sixth of the surface. Here, of course, each field 
would go into corn only once in six years — two 
wheat crops each year, or a wheat and oat crop, 
and three 3 T ears in clover and pasture, in the six 
years. As to the particular manner in which 
the crops are made to succeed each other in each 
particular rotation although it is a matter of much 
importance yet it must be influenced and deter- 
mined by so many accidental circumstances, 
that no general rule can be given, and each one 
must determine for himself. 

It is taken for granted in the above remarks 
that clover and plaster are used in the rotations 
suggested. To these valuable means of im- 
provement ought to be added all the stable and 
farm- pen and cow-pen manure each year, either 
upon the field intended for corn, or upon the 
clover fallow for wheat, or upon both, if possi- 
ble, to be aided still further by the all-important 
manures referred to in the first part of this re- 
port. Grazing and trampling are deemed highly 
important by the most successful improvers of 
land, in every rotation, embracing wheat as one 
of the crops. Grazing serves to cleanse the 
land, and the trampling of stock compacts the 
soil and beats down and prepares the fallow 
crop, destroys insects, and otherwise acts benefi- 
cially as a preparation for the succeeding grain 
crops. Th^se means of improvement should, 
therefore, not be neglected in our attempts to 
cultivate wheat successfully. 

The proper time for seeding wheat cannot be 



too strongly insisted upon as experience has 
shown it to be a matter of the greatest impor- 
tance. In a series of years, the best time for 
seeding will be found to be between the lUh 
and 2 ah of October, and as a general rule, no 
wheat ought ever to be sown after the 1st of 
November. 

The preparatory ploughing for wheat should 
always be as deep and thorough as the nature 
of the soil will admit. The grain should be 
well covered, and the surface left free of grass, 
and well pulverized. 

No land will produce wheat that is not tho- 
roughly drained. This important process should 
therefore be well performed. 

"Where lands have been nearly exhausted, as 
is generally the case with all our high lands in 
this country, and it is desired to bring them into 
cultivation in a rotation preparatory for wheat, 
it would doubtless be highly beneficial upon our 
granite soils to begin with a naked fallow for 
one year: that is, break up the land, say in 
winter, and break it deeply too, if the land has 
any foundation, say with three horses, and let it 
lie fallow all summer, being ploughed and re- 
ploughed in the mean time so as to prevent the 
growth of grass. This land to be sowed in 
wheat in the fall, or succeeding spring with oats, 
and in either case with clover — thence to be fol- 
lowed by the usual rotation. Our soils in this 
region rest upon, and have been formed by the 
disintegration and decomposition of granite rock. 
Granite is composed of quartz, felspar and mica. 
Felspar contains seventeen per cent, of potash, 
and mica eight per cent. — both contain traces 
of lime, besides about thirty per cent, of alumi- 
na. B^y ploughing our lands deep and using 
the naked fallow, as above suggested, we shall 
the better promote the decomposition and decay 
of the rock of the soil, and thus provide a fresh 
supply of the alkalies so much needed. 

But we cannot, reasonably hope to restore our 
lands entirely, and to carry them to the highest 
pitch of productiveness in wheat and other grain 
crops, until we give them lime or potash in some 
form or other. Let us, then, begin the improve- 
ment of our lands, by the adoption of a suitable 
rotation, accompanied by the liberal use of clover 
and plaster, and the aid of vegetable and animal 
manure, combined with a more thorough and 
neater tillage of the earth itself, and let us add 
to all this a liming of our lands, and then shall 
we see our country once more teeming with 
abundant harvests. 

As to "the best kind of wheat for cultiva- 
tion," there can be but little choice in the present 
condition of our lands, and with our present 
mode of cultivation, for with these we shall fail, 
try what kind we ma}'. In truth, most of ihe 
wheats now in use have degenerated in conse- 
quence of the soil (as explained above) not being 
in a condition to produce and mature that grain 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



149 



to perfection, and the consequence is, that the 
grain becomes more and more imperfect, and n 
some measure loses its power of regeneration. 
If there is any choice of kinds, however, the 
Turkey wheal would seem to be best for rich 
and alluvial lands or good tobacco lots, and the 
red shuck beardless is a hardy wheat for ordi- 
nary land. For early seeding, say between the' 
2Uh and last of September, the Lawler is per- 
haps the best wheat, as it appears to resist the 
attack of the fly better than any other kind. 
The red May wheat is coming into general use, 
particularly in the lower country, and is worth 
trying upon good land. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

TOBACCO. 

The undersigned, a Committee appointed by 
the Agricultural Society of Powhatan, to whom 
was referred the subject, viz: "The best mode 
of managing Tobacco from the time it is cut in 
the field until it is carried to market," having had 
the subject under consideration, beg leave to 
present the following report as the result of their 
deliberations: 

In adopting a plan of management for this 
plant, (one of the most remarkable in the vege- 
table world) it will be necessary to inquire into 
its character and properties. 

The result of the analysis of the most expe- 
rienced chemists is, that tobacco contains eight 
hundredths of aqueous and two hundredths of 
oleaginous and other matters. Its medicinal 
properties they deem it unnecessary to mention, 
they being foreign to the subject before them — 
the plant being cultivated almost exclusively to 
be used as a luxury. From this analysis it will 
be seen that only two-tenths of this plant, then, 
from its character can be made available ; the 
remainder, being aqueous, disappears in ihe pro- 
cess of curing. A small portion of the two 
hundredths referred to, being more volatile than 
the remainder, changes its character, by the ap- 
plication of heat combined with moisture, and 
as a consequence, changes the character of the 
plant, and thereby destroys its beauty and qua- 
lity. It must be evident, then, that the great 
secret in curing the plant is that, by practising 
which, you can retain all (if possible) of this 
two hundredths of oleaginous and resinous mat- 
ter, and dispel the eight hundredths of aqueous 
property. 

The plant being supposed to be matured and 
cut in the field, the first operation is the hanging 
on the sticks. We advise that it should be done 
with great care — that each plant be placed per- 
pendicularly on the stick, with space sufficient 
to prevent one plant from coming in contact with 
another — it being a matter of importance to give 
each plant a sufficient space for free evaporation. 
The second operation is " scaffolding." Your 



Committee advise that the sticks should be care- 
fully removed to a scaffold, (which should al- 
ways be near at hand) taking great care that 
the plant shall not be bruised. The scaffold 
should be low, so that the tails of the plant may 
nearly reach the earth, — it being considered 
highly important to have the radiation of heat 
arising from the earth at ihis season of the year 
to aid in yellowing the plant. After it has re- 
mained thus crowded on the scaffold some two 
or three days, the sticks must, be removed fiom 
one another at such a distance as to give the 
plant ihe benefit of fiee ventilation. How long 
it should remain on the scaffold your Committee 
cannot exactly advise, it being dependant on a 
variety of circumstances, which they feel at a 
loss to explain even to an experienced planter. 
The result of their experience is, that when the 
pith of the stalk commences to contract, and the 
stems show a slight degree of contraction, and 
the margin of the leaves gives evidence of a 
slight degree of dryness to the touch, that then 
it is ready to be removed to the house. This 
mode is advised if it is desired to cure the plant 
a bright color. If it is desired to cure it a dark 
color, the same directions should be observed, 
with this exception, that instead of crowding 
the sticks upon the scaffold, they should be care- 
fully placed at intervals of about ten inches, the 
object being obviously to prevent the leaves on 
one plant coming in contact with those on an- 
other, a due regard being had to the size of the 
plant. 

This brings us to the third operation, the 
" housing," as it is termed. The same particu- 
larity and care should be observed in housing 
as has been advised in the last operation, a de- 
parture from which would produce disastrous 
consequences. By all means avoid crowding, 
which done, produces "house-burn." By "house- 
burn" we mean that leaf which presents a red 
color and dry and lifeless appearance. We be- 
lieve that it is produced by heat from two causes, 
crowding and excessive fire. There is a differ- 
ence of opinion on this subject, and your Com- 
mittee are well aware of it too, even by expe- 
rienced planters; but such is our conviction of 
its truth from close observation that we will al- 
most venture the opinion without the fear of re- 
futation. 

The fourth operation is by far the most im- 
portant branch of the subject before them, "the 
firing." Your Committee are well aware of the 
difficulty of removing old and established usages 
and opinions, and venture on this branch of the 
subject with great diffidence, as their plan will 
come in conflict with the usages and opinions 
of the oldest, most experienced and respectable 
planters of our State. But the importance of 
their opinions, (formed from experiment) if true, 
both as it regards the economy of labor and 
fuel, (the latter article becoming so scarce in our 



150 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



part of the State as almost to deter the boldest 
from the cultivation of the plant,) emboldens 
them in the stand they have taken, and induces 
them to recommend the plan to their brother 
planters. The plan heretofore practised and the 
general received opinion is, that it requires a 
great deal of fuel to cure tobacco, and give it 
that seasoning required to make it stand a voy- 
age to a market. The plan which we recom- 
mend, we think, will produce this result with 
less than one-half of that required by the old 
plan. 

All then that is requisite is to evaporate the 
water and retain the oil and resinous matters. 
This accomplished, we should be satisfied — your 
Committee recommend that the fire should be 
commenced gradually so that the heat by de- 
grees should be uniformly diffused throughout 
the house, never in the commencement exceed- 
ceeding the warmth of a summer's sun ; a greater 
degree of heat would prove injurious, seriously 
affecting the oily and resinous properties of the 
plant. Keep up this fire until the leaf (not the 
stem) is cured ; then let the fires burn out, (they 
should not be put out.) It will then be left as 
dry as tinder; let it remain until it gets in soft 
•order, and then commence the fire again, as be- 
fore directed, and continue it until the stem is 
cured, so much as to leave it in a safe condition, 
taking care never to permit the tobacco to get 
in too " high order," to correct which, should it j 
occur, apply the fire as before directed. We are I 
of opinion that a greater degree of heat should i 
never be applied than 110 or 120, Farenheit] 
thermometer. A greater degree of heat would 
tend to evaporate the valuable property of the 
plant, it being borne in mind that all that is re- 
quired is a sufficiency of heat to evaporate the 
water, any excess over that quantity must serve 
to encroach on the oily and resinous property of 
the plant. One of your Committee, for four 
years operating on this plan, has uniformly sold 
his crops for the best prices, and his crops too 
have uniformly been shipped and no complaint 
has as yet been heard, (although particular in- 
quiries have been made) that his crops did not 
stand the voyage. We, therefore, recommend 
the above plan to our brother planters as making 
more tobacco with less labor and at least one- 
half of the fuel ordinarily used. 

The tobacco supposed to be thoroughly cured, 
then comes the process of "striking" or taking 
from the sticks. We advise that during the 
month of December all tobacco should be taken 
down in tolerably soft order, so that striking 
two plants together to free it from grit will not 
injure the tails; a bed having been prepared of 
planks about twelve inches from the floor, place 
the plants down lapping the tails about twelve 
inches, and leaving the buts on each side ex- 
posed so that they can continue to dry, being 
careful to leave a space of eighteen inches be- 



tween the bulks to admit free circulation and 
permit a man to pass between them, then cover 
it over with straw, ivithout weight, as it strips 
easier, a weight causing the leaves to adhere. 

The next process is stripping. The tobacco 
is taken from the bulk into a stripping room pre- 
pared for the purpose, which should be made 
close, and with a stove the warmth kept as uni- 
form as possible; your hands must be divided 
into assorters and tiers up, and each assorter 
should separate the colors and lengths, and when 
so separated, they pass to the tiers up, who are 
required to tie it up in such number of leaves, 
say from six to eight, so that in packing they 
may be easily grasped and pressed by the hand, 
taking care to keep the colors separate and dis- 
tinct, and also dividing the long and short of 
each color. The lugs should be bundled up in 
large bundles, without much regard to nicety. 

The next process is the "straightening and 
boxing." The tobacco is taken to the packing 
room, which we will suppose is well prepared 
with boxes, in number according to the amount 
of tabacco made, which we recommend should 
cube four feet six inches, with a lever attached 
to each. This size is thought best to give the 
packer room sufficient to pack with ea?e; a larger 
box would prevent the lever from acting uni- 
formly on a larger surface. The packer takes 
his position in the box and the bundles, after 
having passed through three or four hands press- 
ed by each and straightened, or handed to the 
packer, one bundle at a time, who lays it straight 
in the box. The box should be packed at least 
half full before any weight is applied with the 
lever, and when applied, great care should be 
observed to avoid bruising by too much weight. 
Keep the colors and lengths in separate boxes. 
The lugs will not pay for the trouble of boxing, 
and we advise that they be packed in the hogs- 
head, and prized as fast as stripped. The to- 
bacco should remain in the boxes until it adheres 
together well ; that period will bring the spring 
of the year — it should then be taken from the 
boxes for the purpose of getting in prizing or- 
der, and instead of the old plan of tieing up 
with shucks, which is a very tedious operation, 
and the old plan of hanging on sticks drawn to an 
edge, which always tended to bend the stems, 
which, when dry, can never be s:raightened, we 
recommend a plan, the invention of one of your 
Committee, (Wm. Old, Esq.) Two bundles of 
tobacco should be placed together, and imme- 
diately below the tie should be fastened by a 
string, and two other bundles placed likewise 
and fastened by the other end of ihe string, 
drawing the string tightly, and ihen laid over a 
stick from ten to thirteen strings on each stick. 
The siring made of ordinary cotton, sufficiently 
strong to sustain the weight of four bundles of 
tobacco, should be twenty-two inches long, the 
end of each loop made into a running-noose, and 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



151 



the heads of two bundles caught in each end ; 
they are then hung up in the house wiih suffi- 
cient room between ihe slicks to prevent iheir 
coming in contact ; let it remain until it gets 
thoroughly dry. In the month of March it will 
get in that order; as soon thereafter as a season 
offers, strike it down in prizing order, but if you 
should not be able to strike it in the month of 
March, and you cannot get a season without 
the aid of art — then dry it with a moderate fire, 
such as has been recommended in the curing, 
until thoroughly dry, and then be careful to 
strike it down the first season that offers ; should 
you omit it, it will be necessary to dry it again, 
which should be avoided, as the oftener it is 
fired and the longer it hangs up, the more loss 
is sustained in weight. The tobacco should be 
taken down on the slicks, "cooped" in a bulk, 
and at convenient seasons thereafter, it should 
be again boxed in the same manner recommend- 
ed in the first boxing, taking care to turn the 
edges of the bundles up (they being flattened 
by the first boxing) and put on as much weight 
as you can with the lever. It must remain in 
the boxes until you are ready to prize. The 
prizing in the hogsheads after this preparation 
is one of the simplest operations. 

Your Committee present this report with the 
conviction that they have very imperfectly han- 
dled the subject, but they have done the best 
they could in this brief manner. 

ADDITIONAL. 

The undersigned, one of theCommittee, agrees 
with his brother planters and members of the 
Committee in the general views expressed by 
them upon the subject submitted for their consi- 
deration ; but differing with them in one of the 
most important operations of preparing a crop 
for market, viz: the curing, he conceives the 
object of the Society will be best accomplished 
by stating that difference. He does not know 
better how to communicate his difference of opi- 
nion, than by stating his own plan, which is as 
follows. He adopts the plan of the Committee 
in the commencement, and continues it until 
they stop the fire the •first time, at which time 
he increases his to a high degree, and continues 
it until the tobacco is cured, or nearly so. By 
this plan, he has succeeded uniformly in pro- 
curing good prices until the last two years, when 
the objection made by the buyers was, not to 
the manner of curing, but of prizing. His to- 
bacco has usuaily held out with the estimate 
whilst growing. " C. Selden. 



from which is descended the beautiful white pig 
belonging to Mr. Sublett, referred to in his arti- 
cle in your June number. She was truly (as I 
am informed) the offspring of a white Berkshire 
boar, but her mother is not white, as your cor- 
respondent describes her. She is, to use his 
own descriptive language, "distinguished by a 
lawny ground, marked with blackish spots" — a 
brief yet comprehensive compendium of what 
Low and others have said of the Berkshire breed 
of swine. Of the genuineness as Berkshires 
of both parents I entertain not a doubt, but that 
they are of a different variety from the black 
Berkshires I am equally confident, not having 
been subjected to trie Siamese cross, which con- 
stitutes the peculiar and distinctive characteris- 
tic of the last mentioned breed. The sow above 
referred to is now in my possession. She has 
a litter of pigs by a very fine black Berkshire 
boar of the best blood, but not one of them is 
marked after their sire. They are all spotted 
after the manner of their mother, and partake of 
her symmetry and beauty in form and appear- 
ance. I hold these in just as high estimation as 
I do my Berkshire pigs of Siamese descent, yet 
I should not think of sending them to a person 
ordering in the usual terms, "Berkshire pigs," 
because they are not of that precise variety I 
should presume to be intended. They are only 
China Berkshires, while the others are Siamese 
Berkshires. Admit these distinctions and all 
controversy about white and black varieties 
would be at an end. 

Yours, respectfully, 

Ch. B. Williams. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Mr. Editor,— Allow me to claim a small space 

in your valuable paper, merely for the purpose 

of correcting a slight misapprehension of "A 

Breeder" in respect to the color of the sow 



SALT. 

At the request of the Editors, Mr. John C. 
Mather, of New York, furnishes the Cultivator 
[ with the result of his experiments with salt as 
a manure. In the spring of 1838, he sowed 
j five bushels an acre on land well broken and 
, harrowed, which was much infested with the 
cut-worm, leaving a strip of half an acre on 
each side of the field unsalted, to test the expe- 
riment. The worms were destroyed, and the 
| corn and potatoes manifestly better on the salted 
! than the fresh land. This superiority has been 
continued to be manifested in three successive 
crops since. In time of drought, the salted land 
has exhibited a continued moisture as manifest- 
ed in the verdant green of the vegetable growth. 
Mr. Mather also states that he has sowed salt 
on his meadows with such satisfactory results 
as determine him to continue its use. 

A great many experiments with salt have 
been reported from time to time. It is repre- 
sented as having been sometimes injurious, some- 



152 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



times beneficial, and frequently inoperative. lis 
action, which of course varies according to cir- 
cumstances, has never been clearly and satisfac- 
torily explained. The best opinion seems to be 
that it operates chiefly by producing or prevent- 
ing the decay of animal and vegetable matter 



in the soil, consequently, the quantity applied 
should be proportioned to the quantity of these 
constituents; for it is a well known fact, that a 
small quant it}' of salt promotes deca}', whilst a 
larger quantity is universally used to prevent it. 



SHINGLE MACHINE 




This wonderful machine was exhibited in 
our city a few days since by the ingenious in- 
ventor, Mr. J. S. Raj'mond, of New York. We 
saw it in operation, and were surprised not less 
at the quality of the shingles, than at the des- 
patch with which they were discharged from 
the machine, and the whole accomplished by an 
apparatus the most simple to be conceived. A 
wooden wheel, twelve feet in diameter, armed 
with two knives, is suspended on two journals, 
and set in rapid motion by a band running on a 
head on one end of the shaft. At each revolu- 
tion of the wheel two perfect shingles are dis- 
charged from the machine. To facilitate the 
cutting of the knives, the blocks are all steamed. 



The round log is first sawed off into lengths, as 
may be desirable for the shingles: these round 
blocks are then rived into flat blocks, the thick- 
ness of the width of the shingle: these blocks 
are then steamed, and whilst hot, laid upon the 
platform of the frame, and pressed up to the 
plane of the wooden wheel: eaeh knife in its 
revolution cuts off a shingle. The knives pro- 
ject further at one end than the oiher, and con- 
sequently, the shingles are thicker at one end 
than the other ; in fact, when they come from 
the machine they are ready to be laid. More- 
over, the knives are so arranged, that the point 
of one shingle is cut from the end of the block, 
from which was cut the butt of the one before, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



153 



whereby, the block is kept square and true, 
without any loss of timber. 

This machine is so simple and light, that it 
may be moved any where, and driven by two 
horses ; and yet so efficient is it, that it is said 
to be capable of discharging ten thousand shin- 
gles an hour. Mr. Raymond carries with him 
the most numerous certific <•- of the simplicity, 
durability, and efficiency of them achine. We 
should think it would prove invaluable in some 
of our cypress swamps, and hardly less so 
where shingle timber is scarce, for it converts 
timber into most excellent shingles, that would 
be wholly unmanageable by hand. The steam- 
ing process is the most troublesome, though not 
expensive, for the inventor offers to carry the 
machine any where that a large job will be 
furnished, and from the logs delivered him, to 
return shingles at the rate of fifty cents a thou- 
sand. The cost of the machine, alone, is from 
one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars, 
according to size, the largest cutting twenty- 
eight inches in length, and being intended for 
cutting barrel staves as well as shingles. Indi- 
vidual or county rights may be had on moderate 
terms. 

C^=-Any further information that may be de- 
sired can be had by application, post paid, to the 
Editors of the Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 
Red Hills, Albemarle, May 26, 1842. 
Sirs, — The enclosed sheet contains the Consti- 
tution of "The Albemarle Hole and Corner Club, 
No. 1," which, by order of the Club, I enclose 
to you for publication in the " Southern Planter." 
Its provisions will fully disclose the objects of 
the Association ; and we are persuaded that, if 
pursued in the proper spirit and with a zeal 
which the great importance of the subject will 
justify, the cause of agriculture will derive 
greater benefits than from any other method of 
advancing its great interests. It is this persua- 
sion that makes us desire the publication of our 
organic rules; and it is in the hope that similar 
clubs will multiply that we have designated 
ours as No. 1. Our name is taken from that of 
similar clubs organized in Scotland about the 
year 1784, and from which arose that celebrated 
association, the " Highland Agricultural Socie- 
ty," which has changed the face of that coun- 
try, and which in spite of the unpropitious in- 
fluences of its stern climate converted its barren 
heaths, and reluctant soil in one of the best cul- 
tivated and most productive portions of Europe. 
Such is the origin of our name. It will excuse 
its quaintness. 

Vol. 2—20 



The few meetings which our club has alrea- 
dy held have been distinguished by a fine earnest 
spirit, and a vigorous zeal. Various experiments 
i on subjects of high interest, have already been 
I indicated, and when our conclusions shall have 
j sufficiently ripened for such a purpose, we may 
l hope to com mi silicate observations which will 
add an interest even to the pages of the South- 
ern Planter. Frank Carr, Cor. Sec'y 
To " The Albemarle Hole and Corner Club, No. 1." 



CONSTITUTION OF "THE ALBEMARLE 
HOLE AND CORNER CLUB, NO. 1." 

Among the causes which seem now to retard, 
in this section of country, the improvement of 
agriculture, both as a science and as a source of 
profit, and which tend to render farming an irk- 
some, instead of a pleasant occupation, we note 
the following as the chief: 1. Careless and in- 
accurate experiments, of which the results are 
either altogether unsatisfactory or lead to erro- 
neous opinions. 2. A slovenly and incomplete 
execution of farming operations, whereby fields, 
half ploughed and crops half tilled, fail to real- 
ize our hopes. 3. Insufficient and immethodi- 
cal attention to beasts of the plough, and stock 
of all kinds. 4. A want of careful attention 
and accurate observation, whereby wrong and 
hasty opinions are often formed. 5. The ab- 
sence of combined exertion to improve our pro- 
fession. 6. The want of sufficiently free and 
social interchange of individual views and ex- 
perience among farmers. 

Wishing to remove these and all other obsta- 
cles to the improvement of our profession as far 
as we can, we have determined to associate our- 
selves into a neighborhood club for the purpose 
of testing the theoretic branches of husbandry, 
by more thorough and accurate experiments 
and observations; with a view of exciting a 
desire for, and determination to have better pre- 
paration, tillage and general culture, by frequent 
neighborly visits and inspections of the condi- 
tion of each others farms, and with the hope, 
by a free and unrestrained exchange of our dif- 
ferent views and opinions of eliciting the truth, 
deriving mutual knowledge and improvement 
and promoting social feelings and happiness. 
And as it seems meet and necessary, when men 
unite for the attainment of a common object, 
that they adopt organic rules for the direction 
and government of their combined efforts, we 
do agree to adopt the following as the basis of 
our organization : 

1. We will call our association, "The Albe- 
marle Hole and Corner Club, No. 1." 

2. The officers of the Club shall consist of a 
President, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, 
Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer. 

3. It shall be the duty of the President, and 
in his absence, of the Vice-President, to preside 



154 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



at all the meetings of the Club, to preserve or- 
der, to appoint all committees, and to call meet- 
ings of the Club whenever he may deem its in- 
terests require it. 

4. The duty of the Recording Secretary shall 
be to keep a full and regular record in a bound 
book, of the proceedings of the Club, subject to 
the inspection of any member, and he shall, at 
every meeting read the minutes of the preceding 
meeting, with a view to the correction of the 
same and for the information of the members. 

5. It shall be the duty of the Corresponding 
Secretary to conduct all the correspondence of 
the Club ; to prepare for publication all parts of 
proceedings, reports of committees, &c. which 
the Club may order to be published — and he 
shall lay his correspondence before the Club 
when required to do so. 

6. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to re- 
ceive and keep all the funds of the Club — to 
pay all expenses which shall be ordered by it, 
and to keep a separate account, and make report 
and exhibit of the same at the end of his office. 

7. The officers of the Club shall be elected 
at the present meeting, and continue in office 
one year from the date of their election, or until 
others are elected in their places. All elections 
shall be viva voce. 

8. The limits of this Club shall not embrace 
more than twelve farms, and the owners and re- 
presentatives of these farms shall be the mem- 
bers of the Club; and no farm situated more 
than twelve miles from the forks of the Rivanna 
River shall be embraced in the limits of the 
Club 

9. The Club may elect honorary members of 
the most distinguished agriculturists or scientific 
men of the vicinity, whose privilege it shall be 
to attend any of the meetings of the Club, and 
assist in their deliberations, and interchange 
views and opinions on all subjects connected 
w T ith the great interests of agriculture. 

10. Membership shall be constituted by sub- 
scription to the rules of the Club ; and may be 
dissolved by voluntary withdrawal, or by failing 
to attend three successive meetings, unless ex- 
cused by sickness or absence from the neighbor- 
hood. 

11. New members and honorary members 
shall be elected only by unanimous vote; but 
all other questions shall be decided by a majo- 
rity ; except so far as may effect the rules by 
which the Club is organized, to alter or amend 
which a vote of two-thirds of the members pre- 
sent shall be required. 

12. The Club shall meet on Saturday at one 
of the Club farms in regular succession once in 
every three weeks, beginning on the second Sa- 
turday in March and ending on some Saturday 
in November, except that one meeting shall he 
held in January ; and each meeting shall desig- 
nate the farm on which the next shall be held. 



13. The Club shall meet on the Hay and farm 
appointed, at 10, A. M. and proceed to examine 
into and inspect all the operations in execuiion 
at the time, the condition of the farm, stock, 
horses, &c. the general mode of culture, roiation 
of crops, the subject of manures, and all other 
branches of husbandry — making such inquiries 
as may occur to them, and suggesting such im- 
provements as they may think proper. 

14. The Club shall dine with the owner of 
the farm at which the meeting is held ; and af- 
ter dinner shall discuss, in an orderly and temper- 
ate manner by conversation and not by speeches, 
such agricultural subjects as may have been 
selected for discussion, or as shall occur to them, 
if none have been selected. No subject shall be 
introduced into the conversations of the Club 
unless it be of kin to agriculture; and politics 
shall especially be excluded. 

15 If the day appointed for the meeting of 
the Club be such as to prevent it, the meeting 
shall be held on the farm appointed on the Sa- 
turday next succeeding. 

16. At each meeting a subject shall be se- 
lected for discussion at the next meeting, and 
when the discussion shall be finished, any two 
members may call for a decision of it by the 
vote of the Club ; in which case, each member 
shall concisely give his opinion and the reasons 
therefor in the order called on by the Piesident, 
an abstract of which shall be recorded by the 
Secretary. 

17. Any subject selected for experiment by 
the Club shall be tested by a committee of three 
members, who shall make it in a fair and impar- 
tial manner, and shall report separately all the 
facts and circumstances which may attend it. 
Any member may suggest a subject for experi- 
ment ; and as often as the Club may deem it 
expedient, a committee of three shall be ap- 
pointed to suggest experiments. 

This being the most important object of the 
Club, it shall be imperative on the members ap- 
pointed, to make an experiment, to do so with 
care and attention, and to embrace in iheir re- 
ports all the circumstances and important fea- 
tures of the experiment, and all such facts de- 
veloped in its progress as may conduce to accu- 
rate conclusions. 

We were so much struck with the utility of 
the plan recommended, that we handed the com- 
munication to our old friend, the Rev. Jesse H. 
Turner, who happened to be sitting with us 
when it was received. He has been pleased to 
accompany it with the following remarks : 

"A short time since, happening at ihe office 
of the Southern Planter, the Iditor showed me 
a manuscript, which he had just recehed from 
Albemarle, giving an account of a farmers' 
club which had just been formed in that county. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



155 



To clubs of this kind, I give my most hearty 
and unqualified approbation. I have no hesita- 
tion in saying, that when properly conducted 
(and it is not an easy thing to conduct them 
otherwise) they are uniformly the means of do- 
ing great good. Nor do I say this from mere 
theory alone. 

11 Some time ago, a few of my neighbors with 
myself, were in the habit of meeting together 
at each other's houses for the purposes of social 
intercourse and mutual improvement. We al- 
ways dined together at the house where the 
meeting happened to be. On these occasions, 
we had no President nor other officer; nor were 
we tied down to any set rules of formality. No 
subject, had been previously agreed upon for dis- 
cussion ; but as farmers we naturally dwelt upon 
those topics in which we felt the deepest interest 
and which were most congenial to our taste. 
One and ihen another told the projects in which 
he was engaged — his plan of accomplishing 
them, and the benefit he expected 10 result there- 
from. In this way each one detailed his mode 
of manuring, of cropping, of gathering in and 
disposing of the fruits of the earth. It was at 
one of these meetings that the plan of our Agri- 
cultural Society was formed; and it was at a 
subsequent one, that it was carried into effect. 

" Now I would respectfully propose, that our 
good old habit be revived in my neighborhood, 
and that similar meetings take place in every 
neighborhood throughout the limits of our So- 
ciety. One day spent in this way, will diffuse 
an amount of information, and enkindle an 
amount of zeal, of which we can form no con- 
ception at present. J. H. Turner. 



HENRICO AGRICULTURAL FAIR. 

The fair and show of the Henrico Agricul- 
tural Society was held on the 25th of May, 
whilst we were in press, and consequently too 
late for a notice in our last. We were pleased 
to see that there was no flagging in the zeal 
heretofore manifested by the good people of the 
city in the success of -their agricultural friends. 
Indeed, the advantages derived to themselves 
personally from the improved agriculture of the 
surrounding country, and the consequently in- 
creased supplies of the city, are too manifest, to 
permit them to be indifferent to the fate of this 
Society. 

About two thousand of our most respectable 
citizens are estimated to have been on the ground, 
all exhibiting the highest gratification at what 
the} r saw and heard. A most sensible and elo- 
quent address was delivered by Mr. James M. 
Garnet t, which was listened to with the most 
profound attention by the assembled multitude. 



Nothing in the exhibition attracted more atten- 
tion than the extraordinary display of hogs. 
Time was, when men turned away in disgust 
from the sight of this rude friend of the human 
race, (unless, indeed, he made his appearance 
in the more refined form of a good ham) but 
such is the improvement in the form and bearing 
of the modern Berkshire, that we observed many 
of the gentler sex, who did not disdain to visit 
some of the noble specimens exhibited at our 
fair. There was especially a beautiful sow ex- 
hibited by Dr. Garnett, a cross of the Berkshire 
and Byfield, that attracted universal attention, 
and Parson Turner's sow, Virginia, with her 
interesting little family, was sunounded by a 
crowd during the day. 

At three o'clock, a large company sat down 
to a plain but excellent farmer's dinner, where 
decent mirth and sober hilarity reigned for the 
balance of the evening. After the withdrawal 
of the President at an early hour, Mr. Ritchie 
was called to the head of the table, where, by 
the exercise of the most gentlemanly urbanity, 
accompanied with an incessant flow of the most 
polished wit, he proved that his well known edi- 
torial abilities are the least of his accomplish- 
ments, and, as was w 7 ell s;<id on a former occa- 
sion, if any doubt his being the Napoleon of 
the press, none can deny him the title of the 
Chesterfield of the dinner table. 



For the Southern Planter. 
Jaynesville, Miss., May 27, 1842. 
Mr. C. T. Botts : 

Sir, — I am at present a subscriber to no agri- 
cultural paper but the Southern Planter, pub- 
lished in Richmond, Virginia, and I consider it 
worth ten times the price paid for it, and I would 
urge upon every farmer, whether wealthy or not, 
the advantage of subscribing to it, and particu- 
larly every farmer in Mississippi. But to the 
subject on which I commenced writing. 

In one or two numbers of the Planter you 
published some experiments on early cutting 
of wheat. Having some wheat myself, I de- 
termined to try the experiment, which I did, 
cutting it in that state described by Mr. Hannam, 
in the raw state. But before I give the result 
of cutting my wheat early, permit me to give 
the whole process, 1st, of preparing the ground ; 
2d, preparing the seed, and lastly, that of cutting. 

1st. I ploughed my ground intended for plant- 
ing about the first of September, 1841, with two 
horses, turning it completely over, then let it 
stand until the 13th day of October; at this 
time, I laid it off in lands six and seven feet 



156 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



wide, the lands being thirty poles, or one hun- 
dred and sixty-five yards long, on which I threw 
a bushel and a half of cotton seed to the land, 
broadcast, (I am particular in giving the quan- 
tity of cotton seed put on the ground, as too 
much would make it unfit for wheat.) 

2d. Preparation of the seed. I dissolved salt 
in water until it was of sufficient strength to 
bear an egg ; I soaked the wheat in this solu- 
tion of salt and water, and all the light giains 
that would float, were taken off; then, while 
wet, the wheat was sowed at the rate of one 
bushel to the acre, the wheat and cotton seed 
ploughed in together with a small shovel, plough- 
ing it very close. 

Lastly. Early cutting. I commenced cutting 
when it was, as near as I could judge, in that 
state described by Mr. Hannam — that is, the 
straw, though appearing at a distance green, 
when examined closely was of a hue fast ap- 
proximating to yellow, while for a foot upwards 
from the ground it was quite yellow. I cut my 
wheat while in its raw state, then tied it in small 
bundles with single bands — set it up in stooks 
of eight bundles on the ground, with the butts 
as far apart as possible, with two bundles put 
on top for protection. In this way I let it re- 
main a week or ten days. The berry is fine 
and heavy, weighing from sixty to sixty-six 
pounds to the bushel. 

I am thus particular in giving the result of 
the above experiment, as I am in hopes that the 
farmers of South Mississippi may be enabled, 
by some means, to raise a sufficient quantity of 
wheat for their own consumption ; as yet they 
have found it to be a very uncertain crop. 



I am, 



Your obedient servant, &c. 

J. C. McLaurin. 



For the Southern Planter. 
FISH. 

Mr. Editor, — I have been long an attentive 
reader of the Planter, and have often thought of 
endeavoring to contribute something amusing or 
useful to your numerous readers and correspond- 
ents, in return for the many useful and amusing 
pieces which I have received from them. Your 
paper abounds with essays upon the best mode 
of raising horses, cows, sheep and hogs, but no 
one, I believe, has yet thought of saying a word 
about raising fish. For the present, I will con- 
tent myself with relating on experiment upon 
this subject, which may be amusing if not use- 
ful to your readers. In the winter of 1840 and 
1841, I had occasion to make an ice pond just 
below a spring and very near my house, in hopes 
of using it durimr the winter; but it was so 
late before I finished it, that it proved of little 
avail for that purpose; I then thought of using 
it as a fish pond, and made it a little deeper and 



put ditches all around it, so that it should be fed 
by none but spring water, that it might be pure, 
and that it might keep the great floods of water 
above the spring from coming down in heavy 
rains to break my dam, which was of dirt. In 
the spring of the year following, 1 put a number 
of roaches and other small fish in the pond as 
breeders, the former to breed small fish for food 
for the larger ones, which I intended af.erwards 
to put in — the latter to breed for use; among 
which were many sun perch and little swamp 
chubs or horn fish, as some call them. In breed- 
ing the roaches and sun perch, I bad succeeded 
most wonderfully before the end of the summer. 
About the last of August I could bring thou- 
sands of those to any part of the pond by throw- 
ing in a few crumbs of bread or a little fat ba- 
con. In September or October following I put 
in the pond seven Carolina chub and two pike, 
some of them twelve or fourteen inches long, 
others much smaller, and never saw any thing 
more of them till the first warm weather this 
spring. I then had the curiosity to examine 
the pond, when I saw the two pike and four or 
five of the chub, all apparently much increased 
in size. I saw at the same time many small 
fish about four or five inches long, which I took 
to be young chub, but they might have been 
sun perch, of which I have discovered a great 
many in the pond since. Some time after this, 
I invited a neighbor and his son (from whose 
pond I obtained the chub) to come over and see 
his old subjects. He did so, and we were for- 
tunate enough to see one of the largest of the 
old chubs and many young ones, as he and his 
son both thought. In this, however, we might 
have been mistaken — they may have been sun 
perch ; but I see no reason why the chub may 
not have multiplied as fast as the sun perch, 
which are now very numerous, and big enough 
for the pan. At almost airy hour of the day, 
when a warm spell of weather immediately 
follows a cold one, the chub may be seen tra- 
versing the pond nearly upon the top of the wa- 
ter, causing the small fry to dart for it in every 
direction, recollecting no doubt the sad havoc 
which had been made upon them on former oc- 
casions ; the sun perch, however, if of any size, 
seems not to regard this little monster of our 
deep; but holds his place, disregarding and dis- 
regarded, by his dangerous neighbor. These 
sun perch will take a position in the pond near 
the shore, and remain there for days, and some- 
times for weeks, without changing it, or seem- 
ing to seek any food, or to eat any thing except 
it be a small fish-worm, and that only when it 
is thrown in contact with its mouth. The chub 
sometimes will take a similar position, and re- 
main for hours at it ; but is much more easily 
frightened away. The sun perch, if you scare 
him away, will come again in very quick time, 
but the chub will not return so soon, and will 






THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



157 



not stay so long when he does come. I attend 
my pond every morning, when I am at home, 
wiih cups of bread about half as big as my 
hand. With this I feed the little fish and it 
seems amply sufficient to keep an abundant 
supply of them as food for the large ones. The 
chub may eat bread, and it is said they have 
been caught with it on a hook; but it is my 
opinion, they will only eat bread, when they are 
half starved for fish. At any rate, I have never 
seen them notice bread ; though I have fre- 
quently seen ihem when it was laying at the 
bottom of the pond plain in their view. 

I have frequently heard of whistling up fish 
from the deep, and leading them up and down 
the pond by certain calls; but I was always in- 
clined to believe these tales fabulous. I how- 
ever am now inclined to think from my late ex- 
perience that the thing is practicable ; though I 
do not pretend to say that I have trained mine 
to any such whistles or calls yet. If any one 
of your readers have turned his attention to this 
subject, a few lines from them, would, I think, 
be read with pleasure and profit. A fresh dish 
of fish is a great delicacy, when they are caught 
in great abundance every day ; how much more 
highly would they be valued, when they can be 
only had in nearly a putrid condition. 

I may be too sanguine, Mr. Editor, but it is 
clearly my opinion that it will cost no more to 
raise fish than it does to raise chickens ; and 
that the time is not distant, when I shall be able 
to get a mess of fresh fish with as little, or per- 
haps less labor, than those who live on the tide 
water banks of the James and Potomac rivers. 

Chas. S. Jones. 

At the paper mill in this city, they require a 
constant supply of pure water, which is obtained 
from a pond supplied by a spring branch. The 
intelligent manager of the establishment, Mr. 
Richards, some months since, called our atten- 
tion to the myriads of fish that swarmed in this 
pond, and informed us that they were the pro- 
duct of a few that he had placed in it a year or 
two ago, by way of experiment. He had pro- 
cured a general assortment of the fish common 
to our waters, and had found them all to increase 
and multiply exceedingly. He expressed the 
conviction that every country gentleman could, 
with a little expense and less trouble, keep his 
table constantly supplied with the finest fish, 
nothing is more common in England than these 
artificial fish ponds, and we have no doubt they 
would prove as profitable as convenient. 

To any of our friends who desire to try the 
experiment we would recommend the Potomac 
white perch, which is different from, and supe- 
rior to, any other pan fish we ever saw. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Mr. Botts, — I have, for some lime past, in- 
tended to write a few lines for your paper, in re- 
lation to two implements I have used for several 
years, as I think, with great advantage, in ihe 
business of securing hay: — A revolving rake, 
drawn by a horse, for gathering the hay when 
ready for shocking, and a very simple contri- 
vance which 1 will call a slide, for moving the 
shocks to the place of stacking; and as the 
season for hay-making is now at hand, possibly 
some of the readers of your paper may profit 
by one or both. In the use of these implements 
there is great saving of time and labor, but in 
the hay crop a saving of time is the most im- 
portant, as the gain of even a single day, some- 
times might enable the farmer to get his crop 
in stacks, and thus avoid the loss and injury 
from exposure to a long rain whilst in shocks. 

I shall not undertake to describe the construc- 
tion of the rake, as I should probably not suc- 
ceed, and as I hope by the time this reaches 
you, a friend, to whom I loaned a model with 
particular directions, as to the dimensions of all 
the parts, will have sent them to your office as 
I requested him* 

I will merely say that the rake head is about 
ten feet long, with teeth about twenty inches 
long, nearly two inches square, projecting on 
each side of the head, or in olher words, the 
teeth are made by pieces of the above size, 
something more than three feet long, morticed 
through the head, and flattened like a wedge at 
the end. It is so constructed, that when one 
side gets full, you can direct the points of the 
teeth, so as to strike the ground, cause the rake 
to turn over, and leave the hay that has been 
gathered: the teeth on the other side are then 
ready to operate. You drag across your mea- 
dow backwards and forwards, turning over the 
rake always in the same line of the first turn- 
ing : and thus you have your hay drawn up in 
straight rows, by one horse, as soon, I think, as 
six or eight hands could do it with pitchforks, 
and if your meadow is tolerably level, as clean 
as hand rakes would do it. 

I am indebted to my friend, Major Hunton, of 
Fauquier, for the model, and have fully realized 
the advantages he promised. This rake, 1 un- 
derstand, is generally used in his county. I 
have found it very useful in gleaning a wheat- 
field. 

The slide is a very simple contrivance, being 
a white-oak sapling, twelve or fourteen feel long, 
square at the but-end for receiving a clivy, and 
flattened to the other end, so that it will keep 
one position in dragging, and thin enough at the 
end to shove under a shock. Bore an auger 

* We have not yet received the model, but will 
furnish an engraving of it as soon as it comes to 
hand. Will Mr. Fontaine be so good as to look to 
it.— Ed. 



158 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



hole through this pole eighteen inches from the 
clivy, through which you pass a chain with a 
key to the end. To move a shock of hay run 
the pole or slide under the middle of the shock ; 
the chain must be drawn over the top of the 
shock — hooked around the small end of the 
slide, binding it together top and bottom, and if 
you do not leave some hay between the pole and 
the ground, the horse will carry it all away, any 
where you please. The advantage of this mode 



of moving hay is that you get it to ihe place of 
stacking, without being loosened or stirred up, 
and taking it up in compressed flakes, you stack 
faster and better. I move my straw from my 
wheat machine to the place of stacking, unless 
I stack at the spot, in the same way — laying 
down the slide and building shocks on it, or 
shocking and running under as with the hay. 

E. Fontaine. 
Beaverdam, Hanover, June 10, 1842, 



M'KEEVER'S THRESHING MACHINE 




Mr. M. M'Keever, from Staunton, Virginia, is 
now in our City with a machine for threshing 
and cleaning wheat and other grain, which comes 
highly recommended by some of the best farmers 
in the agricultural county of Augusta. 

There is nothing very peculiar about this ma- 
chine, except the combination of the Fan w T ith 
the Thresher; a combination, which we have 
lon<r. thought extremely desirable. 

The wheat in the straw is fed to the thresher 
in the usual way, and the wheat and straw are 
delivered together into a long trough, the bottom 
of which is an inclined riddle. This riddle is 
shaken to and fro by the machinery, which serves 
the double purpose of dropping the grain through 
the riddle, and passing the straw on down the 
trough ; the grain falls into the riddle of a com- 
mon fan, where it is again sifted and fanned, 
and then passed into another fan, where it goes 
through a similar process. It is finally delivered, 
as stated, clean and ready for market. 



This arrangement undoubtedly saves much 
handling, as well as the raking necessary to se- 
parate the straw from the grain. The machine 
is by no means complicated, although the two 
operations being combined, it of course requires 
a few more bands and wheels than are used in 
the thresher alone. The additional power re- 
quired to drive it, we are informed, is hardly per- 
ceptible. 

The principle of the threshing part of the 
machine is exactly the same with that of Par- 
ker's and numerous others now in use, and the 
detail is, we think, equal to any of them. 

The horse power furnished by Mr. M'Keever 
differs from a hundred others only in being, ap- 
parently, very substantially and neatl}' made, 
which, by the bye, may be said of the whole 
machine. 

We expect to see it in operation in a day or 
two, after which we will be better qualified to 
speak of its merits. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



159 



PAGE'S SAW-MILL. 

At the earnest request of several subscribers 
we went to examine one of Page's circular saws, 
that we might the better express our individual 
opinion of its merits. It has long been a great 
desideratum to apply the circular saw to cutting 
large logs. The difference between the friction 
of the circular and the up and down saw was 
so apparent as to induce many attempts to sub- 
stitute the one for the other. Although several 
of them obtained a short lived reputation, diffi- 
culties presented themselves which caused them 
all to be eventually abandoned, and the general 
conclusion was, that the object could not be ef- 
fected. One great difficulty was the supposition, 
that obtained at that day, that velocity was ne- 
cessarjMo the action of a circular saw; this 
opinion was probably derived from the well- 
known fact that a circular serrated plate of softer 
metal, revolving rapidly, will cut a harder one 
in a state of rest ; but this circumstance is now 
referred to a principle entirely distinct from any 
connected with the application of a circular saw 
to timber. This supposed necessary velocity 
caused the saw to heat and expand in the cen 
tre, or buckle, as it is technically termed. It was 
left for the genius of Mr. Page to overcome this 
difficulty. He effects his object by two means. 
He runs his saw 300, instead of 1,200, revolu- 
tions a minute, and he also relieves it by giving 
the shaft, upon which it is placed, a horizontal 
play of an eighth of an inch in the journals. 
In this simple manner, he avoids all heat and 
effects the great object of rendering the circular 
saw subservient to the lumber business. The 
carriage and apparatus for setting out are very 
ingenious, and do great credit to Mr. Page's 
mechanical skill ; but we presume the claim to 
a patent is founded upon the horizontal play of 
the shaft, upon which alone we imagine it can 
be sustained. 

The saw we examined was driven by steam 
power, and was capable, we were informed, of 
cutting ten thousand feet of inch plank a day. 
We saw no reason to doubt the statement. The 
quality of the work was equal, if not superior, 
to any we ever saw. 

Over and above the power derived from infe- 
rior friction, this saw affords the greatest advan- 
tage in the facility with which it may be moved 
from place to place. As it was much easier to 
carry Mahomet to the mountain, than to brin^ 
the mountain to Mahomet, so is it much easier 



to carry this saw to the timber than to bring 
the timber to the saw. Of all the expenses and 
trouble in the heavy business of lumber getting, 
none is so great as the labor of hauling heavy 
logs to the mill. Nothing, therefore, is more to 
be desired by the lumberer than a mill that can 
readily be transported from one lot of logs to an- 
other. Mr. Page's can be moved with a team 
and six hands a mile or two in five or six hours. 
The heavy timbers and firm bedding required, 
render such a movement with the old mill im- 
possible. Indeed, it would be hard to foresee or 
enumerate all the advantages that may flow 
from this successful attempt to introduce the cir- 
cular saw in the lumber business. 

We have been frequently asked by our agri- 
cultural subscribers, if we would advise thern 
to purchase one of these saws, to be driven by 
horse power, for their own and neighborhood 
use. 

In the first place, we do not hesitate to say, 
that it requires a good deal of mechanical skill 
to keep a circular saw in order, and that no man 
ought to have one of these saws, who would 
not have work for it sufficient to justify the em- 
ployment of a mechanic at good wages. It is 
true, indeed, that any saw T will cut much better 
when well attended, but we think the farmer 
will get along better with the old negro sawyer 
and the up and down saw, cutting five or six 
hundred feet a day, than with the circular saw 
in the hands of the same individual. 

With respect to horse power, we believe that 
six horses will be required to cut two thousand 
feet a day w T ith Page's mill, and we know that, 
for such an extent, horses are the dearest and 
most indifferent kind of power, in the general. 
To be sure, it possesses the great advantage we 
spoke of a little while ago in a superior degree, 
the facility of being moved ; and it may be, that 
a farmer has horses frequently idle, that might 
be profitably applied to sawing; but, upon the 
whole, we imagine, that this mill is chiefly 
adapted to, and will prove most profitable, when 
in the hands of a good mechanic, driven by a 
small moveable steam engine, it is applied to 
lumber getting as a business. 



For the Southern Planter. 

IMPORTED HOGS. 

Messrs. Editors, — I wi?h to record in the 
Planter the importation of ihree fine hogs from 
England. Two of them are a pair of the Sus- 



160 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



sex breed, selected npon the recommendation of 
fanners in that country. They are black hogs ' 
of good breadih and length — the limbs and head 
small. They appear too to be very active and ' 
capable of rooting a little for their Jiving. 

The third is a Berkshire — the survivor of a 
pair purchased at Reading, in the county of, 
Berkshire. The boar of this pair unfortunately j 
died on the passage from England. Since their 
arrival at my farm, on the Chickahominy, their I 
health has not been very good, which prevented 
nry exhibiting them at the Henrico Agricultural 
meeting on the 25th instant. Their condition, 
I am pleased to say, is now improving. 

The Sussex sow was imported in pig by a 
fine boar of the same breed in England, and she 
has since her arrival at my farm produced a litter 
of seven pigs — five of which appear to be good 
ones, and two are inferior, which I will kill. Of 
the five good ones, I am willing to sell the boar 
pigs at six dollars each — the sow pigs I prefer 
to retain, but will dispose of them at the same 
price to any one particularly anxious to have 
them ; they are now about sixteen weeks old 
Very respectfully, 

R. B. Haxall. 

May 28, 1842. 



NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 

We are much indebted to the politeness of 
Mr. Luther Tucker for a copy of the " Trans- 
actions of the New York State Agricultural So- 
ciety for 1841." The principal portion of the 
volume consists of essays upon agricultural sub- 
jects from eminent agriculturists, both at home 
and abroad, constituting a fund of information 
invaluable to the farmer. We shall prove the 
sincerity of our opinion of the merits of the 
work by the copious use we shall make of its 
pages. 



For the Southern Planter. 

Pkarsalia, Nelson County, June 2, 1842. 

Messrs. Editors, — In the month of May, 1840, 
the rye crops in this and the adjoining counties, 
exhibited (for the first time within my recollec- 
tion) a 3'ellow rust on the blades, that soon in- 
vaded the stalk and arrested the filling; some 
ten days thereafter, the wheat crop followed suit, 
and proved well nigh a totai failure. Tn June, 
1841, the same disease appeared in my wheat 
crop, and lessened it seventy-five per cent, in 
quantity and quality. The rye also participated 
in some degree, but not so extensively, as the 
year preceding. My oats suffered likewise from 
the same malady, and my timothy was by no 
means exempt. Some two or three weeks ago, 



I discovered the same scourge on the brier leaves, 
and within a few days past on my rye blades, 
from which I have strong fears it will extend to 
the wheat. Should it be so, all the bright anti- 
cipations of relief from that source, will be blast- 
ed, at least should that disease generally exist. 
It is, in my opinion, entirely different from the 
old fashioned red or black lust, and although its 
ultimate effects are the same, it is more gener- 
ally destructive, in so much as it has no respect 
for localities — invading all kinds of soil, culture 
and grain, nearly alike. I enclose you several 
brier leaves, to show the character of the disease. 
It may, however, be no new thing to yourself or 
readers. 

While on the subject of briers, I have to say 
that I would be greatly obliged if any of your 
numerous readers can devise a plan for their de- 
struction. The best and deepest culture with 
me seems only to invigorate their growth. 1 am 
compelled regularly to mow my fields before fal- 
lowing them. The August mowing, followed 
by an immediate deep ploughing, seems to crip- 
ple them most, but nothing that I have done has 
proved effectual. Rest and ihe use of plaster 
have made a perfect wilderness of my fields, 
and constant culture would make them barren. 

My soil, (situated immediately at the foot of 
the Blue Ridge) while very productive, is a 
spongy, puffy loam, on a si iff adhesive red clay, 
and more inclined to put forth brier bushes, &c. 
than any other I have seen, except that of simi- 
lar character, in the same range of country. 
In haste, very truly yours, 

William Massie. 

We have exhibited the brier leaves, sent by 
Mr. Massie, to several of our visiters, who had 
never noticed the appearance which they pre- 
sent ; but Dr. Morriss, of Louisa, informed us 
that nothing was more common than to see the 
leaves of the brier about his plantation covered 
with this species of rust, which he had no doubt 
was a vegetable fungus, arising from the same 
causes that produced the rust in wheat, though 
he had never observed any connexion between 
the two, except that the same weather produced 
both. 



For the Southern Planter. 

AN EXPERIMENT ON STONE FRUIT. 

You know, sir, how difficult it is to ripen the 
nectarine. Being a smooth-skinned fruit, free 
from the furze, the curculio is fancier of attack- 
ing it than the peach, and it is generally eaten 
up by its worm. As the immature fruit falls, 
the worm retires into the earth, only to rise again 
the next spring and renew its ravages upon the 
young nectarines. I had been so often tanta- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



101 



lized in the growth of this beautiful fruit — none 
trf my three trees bringing in many years a sin- 
gle specimen to maturity on my little farm, that 
I determined to remove one of them to my back 
yard in the city, which is well paved with brick. 
The result corresponded to my hopes. In the 
second spring the tree produced as beautiful 
nectarines as could be desired. My apricots 
always succeed in the same situation — and a 
worm is never seen in them (for ten years) — 
among them is the black apricot, a sound, very 
pretty and racy fruit, partaking of the charac- 
ter of the plum and the nectarine. 

My attention has been drawn to this matter 
by an article in the last " Farmers' Register, " 
'207, on "The Fruit Curculio, " from Hillsboro', 
North Carolina, April 8th, which states that 
" a few years since, while at the house of a very 
intelligent farmer of Lincoln county, I was 
forcibly struck w r ith the lively and clean 
appearance of his plum trees, which were then 
loaded with fruit. On inquiring his mode of 
treatment, he remarked, that the only secret in 
the case was to set them out by the road-side, 
(as his were) or along some path where the 
ground would be trodden down as hard as 
possible. It would appear, therefore, that the 
rationale of the thing is not to be sought in the 
shell marl or in the clay, but in having such a 
hard pan of earth around and under the trees, 
that the insects, which infest them, cannot get 
a lodging place in the soil. " 

Yours, with the best wishes for the success 
of your Planter, T. Ritchie. 

Richmond, June 1, 1842. 

P. S. — If your friends desire any cuttings of 
the black apricot, they are welcome to them. 
I will send you a specimen of the fruit when 
it is ripe. The tree grows in my back yard. 
My nectarine tree was an old tree, much in- 
jured by the worm before I removed it — and 
was stripped down by the wind the fourth year 
after it was transplanted. T. R. 

There is no man in this country, who under- 
stands, better than Mr. Ritchie, the proper mode 
of demonstrating to an editor the truth of a 
proposition : we have received a plate of the 
fruit, rare as it is delicious, the black apricot, 
to which he refers. In the name of our friends, 
we return thanks to Mr. Ritchie for his polite 
offer with respect to the cuttings. 

That the fruit is saved from the curculio, if 
the passage of the worm from the fallen fruit to 
the ground can be intercepted, is confirmed by 
the testimony of Mr. John Carter, the celebrated 
nurseryman in this vicinity. Instead of the 
trampling or pavement, Mr. Carter subjects 
them to the devouring jaws of his swine, which 
have a regular run in his peach orchard. 
Vol. 2—21 



For the Southern Planter, 
HOGS. 
Manchester Vd., April 28, 1842. 

Mr Botts, — I did not receive your April num- 
ber until last night, and I have as yd read but 
two or three of the pieces in it. The first thing 
[ always read in every paper of the kind, com- 
ing into my hands, is the articles on hogs, if it 
contains any such. I of course greedily devour- 
ed Gen. Richardson's communication, and in 
reply, I have to say, that 1 and my father have 
been breeding Berkshire pigs for sale for two 
years ; my stock is now large, and some of them 
very superior of their kind. It has been my 
decided conviction, ever since I commenced with 
the Berkshire, that it was the most beautiful hog 
in the world ; they are certainly the best and 
most prolific breeders ; some of mine having 
produced me twelve pigs at one year old (too 
many) and such is the capacity of the sow for giv- 
ing milk, that she can raise any number of pigs 
well if she has a teat for each ; but unless there is 
one for each, the superfluous number should be 
taken away, and either destroyed immediately, 
or put with another sow. I believe that full 
blood Berkshires can be made to equal any hog 
at nine and ten months old ; but, sir, I am, if f 
know myself, an honest inquirer after truth ; and 
if we have a better hog among us, the owner 
need only to convince me of the fact, and I will 
be his customer ; this can only be ascertained 
by actual experiment. I am anxious that it 
should be done. I will, therefore, do what my 
immediate interest would not prompt me to do, 
did I consult it alone, — I will, instead of selling- 
three or four of my best pigs, now two weeks 
old, agree to feed them until they are ten months 
old, and then exhibit them at your office, against 
pigs of the same age of any other breed — the 
pigs to be named and marked by some jndge at 
the Fair, 25th of May next. If on that day I 
am beaten by a hog that is handsomer, larger, 
more thrifty, a smaller consumer, and its family 
a good breeding family, and it giving evidence 
that they will breed all the pigs of a litter alike, 
and of good quality, as do my Berkshires, then 
will I confess, that it is a superior hog, and 
pledge myself to breed them exclusively, if the 
quality of meat equals the Berkshire. 

I have written this in great haste on the spur 
of the moment, as gentlemen are waiting for me 
to mount and ride to the election ; and as I am 
afraid that if I wait until to-morrow I shall be 
too late for your May number. 

Your friend, L. M. Burfoot. 

The above was mislaid and is now inserted 
at the request of the writer, who is still desirous 
to test the merits of different breeds by actual 
experiment. 



1 02 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



VELVET GRASS. 

From Captain Meriwether, of Albemarle, we 
have received a specimen of grass which we 
understand he values very highly. The species 
is not uncommon in this neighborhood, and has 
hern known for several years. It was at one 
time a great favorite, and is still esteemed by 
many. Nothing can be finer than the appear- 
ance it presents ; its rich soft surface having 
procured for it, we presume, the name by which 
it is known in this region, velvet grass ; but it 
is generally esteemed light and chaffy, and is 
rarely found now in our meadows, except as a 
volunteer. We have received a specimen of the 
same grass from Elizabeth City. 



For the Southern Planter. 
THE RUST. 

Big Lick, Roanoke, June 22, 1842. 

Messrs. Editors, — The rust has appeared up- 
on our wheat in this quarter. Up to the period 
of its appearance, within the last ten days, we 
were elated with the prospect of an abundant 
harvest, but the rapid diffusion of this disease 
over high lands and low grounds, upon rich 
lands and poor lands, upon thick wheat and 
thin, and upon that growing upon cloverleys 
as well as that upon corn lands, has destroyed 
all hopes of a full harvest, and excited serious 
apprehensions of a disastrous failure. 

Is this a disease which care and good man- 
agement may guard against, or is it the result 
of causes beyond human control ? If rust is, as 
many learned and scientific men have contend- 
ed, a species of parasitic fungus, which lives 
through all seasons on the barbary shrub, 
willow, coltsfoot, corn marigold, brambles, &c. 
&c. and which, in warm, humid weather, is 
excited into active life and flourishes with such 
astonishing luxuriance that it affects thousands 
of acres m a few days, it may be guarded 
against by the careful extirpation of the trees 
and weeds, which nourish and shelter it. 

If it is, as others suppose, a disease peculiarly 
incident to light lands, and produced by the roots 
penetrating to a poor subsoil, affording meagre 
nourishment to the plants ,and thus receiving a 
check, which when followed suddenly by warm, 
humid weather creates the disease, the evil may 
be mitigated, if not entirely corrected, by tread- 
ing or otherwise giving compactness to the soil 
when the crop is sown. Experiments upon an 
extensive scale in Scotland and England have 
favored this theory, and many of the farmers of 
those countries have adopted a system of tramp- 
ling with cattle, under a conviction that it is an 
effectual preventive of this mildew. 

If, as others suggest, the disease proceeds from 



minute fungi attached to the grain sown, and 
which being absorbed by its roots whilst ger- 
minating, is propelled like the uredo fastida by 
the circulating sap, throughout the plant, and 
affects the maturation of the grain, according as 
circumstances are favorable or otherwise to the 
growth and extension of the fungi, we may 
avoid the disease probably by steeping the seed 
in lime-water, as is recommended for smut 
(uredo si gc turn.) 

But if, on the contrary, it results from plethora, 
induced by excessive vegetation, then I am fear- 
ful it is an evil beyond remedy. 

That the last is the true character of the dis- 
ease I am convinced, though I express the opi- 
nion with some diffielence, as I know it is op- 
posed to the views of many agricultural writers 
of distinguished reputation. 

Rust never appears until the wheat has at- 
tained its full growth, and when there is nothing 
left for the leaves and stem to perform, but the 
elaboration of the juices for perfecting the seed. 
When plants have reached this point every phy- 
siologist knows that they require no further ex- 
traneous aid in the formation of their seed. The 
ovary has performed its office, fructification has 
taken place, and the gradual concentration of 
the juices of the leaves, stem and roots in the 
seed, producing the death of the former, is all 
that is required. Before attaining this state, 
excessive vegetation only produces excessive 
growth ; but when the plant is fully developed 
and nothing more required for the maturation of 
the seed but a slow, graelual and regular supply 
of dully elaborated sap, if there should then hap- 
pen a warm, damp spell of weather a succession 
of sun and showers, an inordinate flow of sap 
is at once produced, which destroys the consis- 
tency which is then so necessary to the grain, 
and you distend the vessels to such a degree, that 
they burst of their repletion and exude upon the 
surface. Should this occur when the grain is in 
the milk state it is destructive of the grain, which 
perishes for the want of proper nourishment. 
When the wheat is thus struck early, and the 
grain destroyed, it is usually attributed to the 
black in contra distinction to red rust, by inac- 
curate observers, who are not aware, that all 
rust is the same, resulting from the same causes, 
and that what is called black rust was at first 
white, then red, brown, and finally black, from 
the action of causes familiar to every chymist. 
When the grain has reached the dough state, 
before the disease appears, the crop is oftentimes 
very slightly affected, and the rust, when the 
wheat is cut, from not having been so long ex- 
posed to solar and atmospheric influences, is 
red. Hence the popular remark, that " red 
rust doesn't injure wheat like black rust. " 

I have heretofore supposed that the exudation 
proceeded from the bursting of the minute sur- 
face vessels, whose rupture not being visible to 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



163 



the naked eye, had discredited the theory, which 
(aught the existence of what couldn't be seen. 
But in conversation a lew days since with a 
sensible and observing fanner of a neighboring- 
county, he told me that the ruptures were dis- 
tinctly visible, when the rust was removed with 
care. On the same day he illustrated the cor- 
rectness of his statement by producing several 
stalks of rusted wheat, upon which longitudinal 
ruptures were very distinct under every blotch 
of rust examined. This fact corroborates the 
theory here maintained, so conclusively, as 
scarce to leave a loop to hang a doubt on. It 
is possible, however, that there may be some 
mode of resolving what seems to me to settle 
this long mooted controversy. In confirmation 
I will add that wheat rarely, if ever, rusts when 
growing under a tree. The draught upon the 
soil, which is made by the tree, prevents that 
excess of nutriment, which would otherwise be 
given to the plants. Can this be satisfactorily 
accounted for upon any other hypothesis ? 

If, then, I am right, is it not an evil without 
remedy — dependent upon the seasons, and of 
course, beyond human control? Some have 
suggested as a mode of avoiding the damp, sul- 
try weather of June and July, which all admit 
have an important agency in developing the 
disease, to sow early, or substitute the May 
wheat, which matures much sooner than the 
kinds in general use. But I think it is better 
" we should patiently bear the ills we have 
than fly to others we know not of. " If we 
sow early we are almost certain of suffering 
by the ravages of the Hessian fly, and if we 
substitute the May wheat, we at once sacrifice 
a prolific wheat for one which yields indiffer- 
ently, and besides w T e incur the hazard of hav- 
ing our crop killed by frost. 

Such, Mr. Editor, are the views which I 
entertain upon this subject, more condensed, 
perhaps than is consistent with perspicuity, 
but " deformed, half formed and unfinished, " 
as it may be, I confide it to your discretion to 
be ushered into the world or not as to you 
may seem fit. It is the first time the current 
of my inkpot has been directed to your little 
reservoir and I should prefer your diverting it, 
unless you find it clear and healthful. 

With the best wishes for your success, 

W. M. Peyton. 

We hope that the fountain of our correspond- 
ent's inkpot will prove a constant and steady 
feeder to the reservoir of the Planter. We know 
of no stream whose course we should be more 
proud to divert into our channel. 



June number of the Southern Planter, why it 
came out without an index as formerly. Please 

solve the difficulty. 

And also, respecting Mr II. Milton Halt's 
remedy for stopping the effusion of blood, on 
page 13G, June number. We beg to be in 
formed by what means cobweb can be bound 
to the roof of a horse's mouth? 

Being friendly to the Planter and having 
everted myself much to promote its interest, 
I am your obedient servant, 

A SlTBSCRir.F.R 

Gloucester County, June 5, 1842. 

The press of original agricultural matter 
coming in late in the month, excluded the mis- 
cellany, the markets and table of contents. 

We published the cobw r eb recipe as an ex- 
tract, without knowing any thing of its virtues. 
We see no difficulty in its application to the 
mouth of a horse. The simple application may 
cause the blood to coagulate and it may adhere 
without a bandage, although if one i* necessa- 
ry, there would be no difficulty in applying it 
by passing it through the mouth and securing 
it on the top of the nose ; for in bleeding a horse 
in the mouth, care must always be taken to 
make the incision in one of the bars below the 
corner of the mouth Of course, a wad would 
be placed between the cobw r eb and the bandage 
at least as thick as the length of the teeth. We 
have, by the exercise of a little ingenuity, ap- 
plied many more difficult bandages than this. 



For the Southern Planter. 



Mr. Editor, — The question has very fre- 
quently been asked, since the arrival of the 



For thfi Southern Planter. 
SASSAFRAS. 

Mr. Editor, — In looking over some of the 
volumes of the Farmers' Register, I saw in the 
seventh number, first volume, a communication 
from Skrinicsky, of Buckingham, stating that 
his plan for destroying sassafras bushes (that 
abominable pest to many farmers) was simply 
to cut down or grub up the sassafras in the win- 
ter, and turn in a flock of sheep on the land in 
the spring and keep them there during the 
spring and summer of that and the ensuing- 
year. 

One of my fields is rendered almost useless 
for small grain in many parts, owing to the sas- 
safras. The same field is thickly set in clover ; 
that being an early growth in the spring, will 
not the sheep neglect to browse the sassafras, 
and destroy the clover, and thus the much de- 
sired effect be defeated? Will Skrinicsky, or 
any other gentleman, be so good as to give the de- 
sired information through the Southern Planter? 

An Inquirer. 

Powhatan Co. June 25, 1842. 



164 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



RECIPES 
We are anxious to make the Planter a record 
of valuable household recipes, conceiving that 
there would be no department of the paper more 
useful than this, if well conducted, and believing 
that no part of America affords a better source 
for such a collection, than might be obtained 
from the housewives of Virginia. We frequent- 
ly extract from other papers recipes of which 
we know nothing ; but for any that appears in 
editorial form, we are ready to vouch. Since 
the publication of the recipe for pickle vine- 
gar, p. 124, we have had an opportunity of 
testing its value by an experiment made upon 
the pickle itself, and if our readers can place 
any confidence in our taste, we advise them not 
to omit a trial of this mode of making pickles. 
From the same source we also obtained the 
following unrivalled recipe for making 

PLUM PUDDING. 

Beat eight eggs very light, add one pint of 
milk, one quart of flour, and three quarters of a 
pound of butter after it has creamed ; cut and 
stone your raisins, rub them in flour and mix 
them in the batter with half a nutmeg, wet your 
cloth, flour it, tie it up tight, and shake it fre- 
quently to prevent the plums from settling at the 
bottom ; put your pudding in when the water is 
boiling ; have a plenty of water ; two hours will 
boil it well. The sauce used is made of sugar, 
wine and nutmeg. 



cultivation and advantages of a barley crop is 
urgently desired by many Loudoun farmers, 
and particularly by a 

Loudoun Subscriber. 

P. S. — I am sorry to inform you that the rust 
is playing the mischief with our wheat. 

We will try and furnish the information de- 
sired in the August number, and will be much 
obliged to any of our readers for their assistance. 



For the Southern Planter. 
MAY WHEAT. 
Bear Sir, — Having heard that the early May 
wheat was successfully cultivated upon the low 
lands on James River, and wishing to know why 
it is preferred to other wheat upon such lands, I 
write to ask the favor of you to make the in- 
quiry through the July number of the Planter, 
so that we who have such lands may avail our- 
selves of it ; likewise my thanks will be due to 
any one who will be so good as to give the in- 
formation asked for. 

Respectfully, yours, 

Qjjintus Barbour. 
June, 1842. 



BARLEY. 

Loudoun Co., Va., June 27, 1842. 
To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Dear Sir, — Propositions have been made to 
some of the Loudoun farmers to undertake the 
growing of barley upon our well improved lands, 
and we would cheerfully do so if we knew any 
thing about its management, but not being ac- 
quainted with the proper treatment of the crop, 
we are compelled to ask information upon the 
subject, and most earnestly request that some 
correspondent of your valuable paper (unless 
an editorial will do as well) will furnish 
through your columns a statement showing the 
kind of soil best suited to its growth — the pre- 
paration necessary — the time of sowing — the 
quantity to be sown to the acre — the time and 
mode of securing the crop — the manner in 
which it can best be seperated from the straw 
— to what useful purpose the strata can be 
applied after the separation, and the compara- 
tive value of the wheat and barley crop to the 
grower — in short, a concise treatise upon the 



OKRA COTTON. 
We are indebted to that devoted friend of 
agriculture, Mr. James M. Garnett, for a beau- 
tiful specimen of Okra cotton. We see this 
species is much lauded at the South for its great 
growth, early maturity, and fine staple. Mr. 
Garnett also left with us a parcel of seed for 
general distribution, a few of which still remain 
on hand. 



PLASTER. 
The following is an extract from a letter 
from a subscriber : 

" Will you have the kindness to inform me, 
through the Planter, whether burning may be 
substituted for grinding in preparing plaster to 
sow ? If so, what quantity of burned plaster 
should be sown to the acre 1 and oblige 

J. L. J." 

Plaster of Paris is in chemical language a 
hydrate, that is, it has a peculiar attraction for 
water, with which it forms a chemical combi- 
nation. When subjected to a strong heat, this 
combination is dissolved, the water first boils, 
and is finally driven off in the form of vapor, 
and the sulphate of lime falls into an impalpable 
powder. In this state it is called boiled plaster, 
and is used in the arts, especially by the moulder 
of busts and figures. The affinity for water 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



165 



continues so great, that the plaster, like lime, 
combines with it, or sets, as it is termed, when- 
ever it is exposed to moisture, and so again be- 
comes a hydrate. Tbe minute division of the 
particles thus obtained in the impalpable pow- 



der, would no doubt render the plaster very fit 
for agricultural purposes, were it not, that the 
first rain would run it together in a substantial 
mortar. 



For the Southern Planter. 
BERKSHIRE SOW VIRGINIA 




•"'^CisoL* 



The main figure in the above engraving, is 
my Berkshire sow, Virginia, which took the 
first premium " for the best improved sow and 
pigs " at the late exhibition of our Agricultural 
Society. Virginia was purchased from Mr. A. 
B. Allen, a celebrated breeder of hogs and cat- 
tle at Buffalo, N. Y. She was sired by the 
famous imported boar, Reading, and out of one 
of Mr. Allen's " best Shaker sows. " She was 
what the northern breeders call a " reserved 
pig " — that is, one which they intend to keep 
for their own use, and on which they set an 
extra price. An unusually high value, it seems, 
was placed on Virginia ; for to get her, my 
nephew who bought her for me, had to pay one 
hundred dollars there, whereas he got another 
male hog, nearly her size for thiity. Tn's 
sum, together with the additional expenses of 
transportation, made her cost me, when deliver- 
ed, not far short of one hundred and twenty 
dollars. 

This may seem at first sight, a high price for 



B.R.BucKele* 



any one hog. But let us see how the matter 
stands. I received her on the 22d May, 1841, 
then (as I suppose) about eight months old. 
On the 22d July ensuing, she produced five 
pigs, four boars and one sow. Three of the 
boars I readily sold when eight weeks old, at 
ten dollars apiece. One boar and the sow I 
kept for my own use. I afterwards sold the 
boar when eight months old for fifty-five dol- 
lars, refusing at the same time fifty dollars, for 
the sow. 

On the first day of March last, Virginia pro- 
duced her second litter of pigs, ten in number, 
as represented in the engraving. Four of these 
I sold, when eight weeks old, at ten dollars 
apiece ; and the balance, I could have sold ten 
times over at the same price, but chose to keep 
them. 

The reader has now been introduced to Ma- 
dame Virginia, but as I wish him also to be- 
come acquainted with her whole, family, as far 
as they remain with me, I will now inform him, 



166 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



that one of her first progeny, which dors not 
appear in the engraving, but actually appears 
at my piggery, is called Sultana, a name/m- 
inised from her worthy English sire, Sultan. 
T am not fond, it is true of giving names from 
riving characters : yet the name of Henry Clay, ( j 
of Kentucky, has become so illustrious (no 
politics) that I have ventured to give his name 
to the fine pig which appears to the left ; and I 
hope and confidently believe, that this great man 
Avill never disgrace my pig, and judging from 
present appearances, the pig will never disgrace 
him. The next, to the right, is another remark- 
ably fine pig, which from her great beauty, I 
c ill Kate Nk kleby — then in succession, appear 
three other fine pigs, called respectively Flora 
Mclver, Rose Bradwardine and Jennie Deans, 
(of these, my wife has chosen Jennie for her 
pig) and the little one trying to get his breakfast, 
is the runt, which from his diminutive size, I 
call Tom Thumb. Tom however, is steadily 
and constantly gaining on the others, so that in 
the end, I shall not be surprised if he becomes 
the biggest hog. In that event I shall change 
his name to something else indicating his great 
and rapid growth. The other four pigs, are 
gone to their respective homes, and I hope and 
request that their proprietors will give them 
names worthy of them. 

In view of the above, then the case as to 
Virginia stands thus. She cost me say $120. 
But she has brought me, in the short space of 
less than twelve months, for four of her first lit- 
ter, $85, and for four of her second litter $40, 
amounting to $125, and if I had taken the sum 
offered for Sultana, it would have been $175. 
But I have actually pocketed $125 and have 
Virginia, Sultana, Henry Clay, Kate Nickleby, 
Flora Mclver, Rose Bradwardine and Tom 
Thumb, as so much stock in trade. In addition 
to this, I will state, that poor Sultana has trans- 
gressed just as poor frail Effic Deans did, so 
that in two or three weeks I expect she will 
"increase her family," and if all things then 
turn out well I shall again have other Berk- 
sliires to give fanciful names to. 

Now I state the above, not as an advertise- 
ment, (for except Henry Clay) I would not sell 
a pig that I own. Five gentlemen have also 
already requested me to record their name? as 
applicants each for one pig of Virginia's next 
litter. But I do state (as an advertisement if 
you chose) that next spring, 1 expect to have 
thirty or forty for sale, some of which 1 hope 
will be very fine. 

J. II Turner, 

P. S. — Since writingthe above. I understand 
that one of the pigs sold, has the name of Prince 
Albert — a very good nmne, except it smacks 
too much of royalty, for a plain republican like 

J. II. T. 



EDGE TOOLS. 
Nothing pleased us more at the late exhibi- 
tion of the Henrico Agricultural Society than 
the display of edge tools from the Factory of 
the Messrs. Barns, of this city. They were of 
every variety, and would have done credit to 
any establishment in America. We have had 
occasion before to allude to a similar exhibition 
on the part of Mr. Hitchcock. With two such 
establishments in our native State, will her citi- 
zens hereafter go out of it for an axe, a chisel, 
or an auger? Whatever may be thought of 
the policy of governmental interference, we 
would venture to suggest to the friends of do- 
mestic industry the propriety of giving the pre- 
ference always to the home product, especially, 
when it is offered as cheap as the foreign 
article. 



HARVESTING. 

To the Editor of the Southern Planter . 

My Dear Sir, — Has it ever occurred to you 
to examine accurately what proportion of wheat 
grown upon an acre of land is actually delivered 
in the market? I had been induced to think 
the waste was much greater than was generally 
supposed, and to satisfy myself I selected a yard 
square in four forty acre lots; I took especial 
care that the part selected should not be more 
than an average, and I then carefully cut with 
my penlrtiife every stalk upon the yard square. 
The grain was all gotten out by hand, and care- 
fully measured. The produce of each lot, from 
which the wheat was harvested in the usual 
manner, was sold separately, and I delivered in 
market just about one-third of what should have 
been the product, reckoning from the product of 
the square yard. Now is it possible that we 
lost two-thirds of our wheat crop ? These ex- 
periments were conducted with great care and 
accuracy, and I myself was astonished at the 
result. Will some of your readers repeat them 
and report the result ? I am sure they will not 
make the loss less than I think I have ascer- 
tained it to be. If it can be ascertained to be 
so great as I imagine it, the next thing will be 
to consider wherein it can be remedied ; for it is 
certain that to save two-thirds of our crop would 
justify a very great increase of expense in har- 
vesting. 

Your obedient servant, 

An Observer. 



HOW TO KEEP ICE. 

We take, at sunrise, from the ice-house, as 
much ice as will probably be Avanted through 
the day, and cover it up in some saw-dust placed 
in a barrel, which sits in the dairy-house. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



ir,r 



At night, the size of any given lump is scarce 
perceptibly diminished. It is a perfect charm. 
Away with your half ton of lumber, charcoal 
and zinc, with which you arc humbugged, un- 
der the name of u refrigerator. " 

Kentucky Farmer. 




We are happy in being enabled to announce 
to the friends of the Planter, that we have 
effected an arrangement, whereby Mr. L. M. 
Bub foot, of Chesterfield, becomes joint owner 
and Editor of this paper. Mr. Burfoojt is a 
gentleman of fine abilities, devoted to agricul- 
ture, to which he has been trained from his 
youth, and is thoroughly versed in its princi- 
ples. The fact that he is, and will continue to 
be, engaged in the practical operation of farm- 
ing and experimenting, whereby new theories 
will canstantly be tested, is culculated to add 
much inter- st to the columns of the Planter. 

The Editors are determined, that, as far as 
their exertions can effect it, the Planter shall 
have no superior. To further this object, they 
propose to occupy the month of September in 
an agricultural tour to the North, where exten- 
sive arrangements will be made to improve 
even the present superior mechanical execution 
of the work. Neither pains nor expense will 
be spared to render the paper such an one as 
the South is entitled to have, and, as they feel 
assured, she will continue to support. 

In the course of their travels, they will have 
the best possible opportunities of seeing and 
comparing all varieties of stock, agricultural 
implements, &c. ; they, therefore, offer their ser- 
vices to their friends of the South in attending 
to any orders, for the purchase of such articles, 
that they may choose to forward them before 
they start. 



Id* We have taken the liberty of enclosing 
to each of our subscribers a form of subscription 
list, in the confident expectation that there is 
not one from whom we shall not receive some 
return. All that we ask is. that he will hand 



the list around in his neighborhood, and < nclose 
it to us when he has obtained as manjf names 
as he can procure. The subscribers can after- 
wards, at any time within sixty days, enclose 
us the price of subscription, which any post- 
master will frank. 

Will not the great agricultural State of Vir- 
ginia sustain a paper devoted to its interests ? 
New York, ever alive to her great interest, 
supports four, giving to each four times the 
number of subscribers that we require. 

We have before intimated that the present 
income of the paper barely paid its expenses : 
we are happy to say, that, since that announce- 
ment, our subscription list has been considerably 
extended ; but we are receiving tens where we 
ought to have hundreds, and where we believe 
thousands may be obtained by a little exertion. 
With the most disinterested sincerity, we de- 
clare our solemn conviction, that the prosperity 
of Virginia is intimately connected with the 
existence of a cheap agricultural paper, within 
her limits. We hope, therefore, not only for 
our own sakes, but for the sake of the " Old 
Dominion," that our subscribers, one and all, 
will take a little pride and pleasure in return- 
ing our lists well filled. We assure them that 
their own interests will be advanced by their 
exertions, for an increased patronage will ena- 
ble us greatly to improve the paper. 

P. S. — At the earnest request of many we 
have determined to permit a subscription to be- 
gin either with the January or the July num- 
ber, at the option of the subscriber. Where 
no particular direction is given, we shall pre- 
sume that it is intended that the subscription 
shall commence with the second volume, an I 
the back numbers, beginning with January, 
1842, will be sent. 



Can any one inform us of the whereabout 
of a certain Mr. H. F. Hurlbert, who has bet n 
collecting subscriptions for the Planter, which 
he has failed to pay over. We arc afraid some 
accident has happened to the young man. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 

Although very grateful, it is seldom that we 
have room to return our thanks for the many 
flattering notices of the Planter in our exchanges 
— but the last "State Register" from Porl To- 
bacco, Maryland, brought with it so compli- 
mentary a review of the June number, coupb d 



168 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



with so kind an offer of an agency for us, that 
we would be wanting in common politeness if 
we failed to express our obligations for the 
kindness of the Editor. 



H3 1 * Will our exchanges do us the favor to 
notice the addition to our editorial department, 
and the change of terms, by which a subscriber 
is permitted to commence with the January or 
July number, at his option. 

Richmond Markets, June 30, 1842. 

Sales yesterday at the Exchange of $2,000 

of six per cent, stock of the State of Virginia, 

at $90 per hundred. 

Butter — Mountain butter, wholesale 12 1-2 
a 16 cents for firkin ; 20 cents for roll. 

Cotton — 8 a 9 cents per lb. 

Cattle — For cattle on the hoof, from $5 to 
$6, are the general prices. Mutton — There 
is great variation in the quality ; indifferent 
sheep bring only from $1,25 to $1,50, while 
the finer qualities bring from that to $3 per 
head. 

Feathers — 38 a 40 cents per lb. for live geese. 

Corn — 55 a 60 cents, and very little coming 
to market. 

Wheat — No sales, and none received. Crops 
in some sections represented as much injured 
by rust, in others very little. 

Hides — Green 5 cents per lb. ; Spanish 13 a 16. 

Iron— Pig, $25 to $35, Swedes, $100 per ton; 
English, $85 to 90 ; Tredegar, (Richmond 
manufactory,) $90 ; Up Country bar, $75 to 
$80 per ton. 

Lumber — Clear white pine $33; refuse clear 
$25; merchantable $15; refuse last sale at 
$11 a $12 per M. 

Lime — Thomaston selling from wharf at $ 1 to 
$1 12 1-2 — none arriving. Washington City 
$1. 

Meal — 70 cents per bushel. 

Provision — Bacon — Smithfield and city cured 
6 cts.; extra hams 8 a 9 cts.; Western sides 
4 a 4 1-2 cts.; shoulders 3 a 3 1-2 cents. Lard 
is scarce and inactive at 7 a 7 1-2 cents. 

Plaster — On the Basin bank $4 50; at the 
wharf $3, by the cargo. 

Tobacco — On receipt of advices per steamer 
Britannia, the market opened rather heavily 
at a small decline on previous rates, but at 
the close of the day's sales, we thought prices 
about the same. We, therefore, continue our 
quotations: $2 50 a $3 for common lugs; 
good refused and common leaf $3 25 to $4; 
middling leaf $4 50 to $5; good $5 50 to 
$6; fine leaf from $6 to $7 50, occasionally 
a fine manufacturing hogshead sells from $S 
to $9. 



FREIGHTS. 

New York — Flour, per bbl. 20 cts. — very 
little going. Coal, 5 cents per bushel. 
Tobacco, $2 25 per hhd.; boxes 20 cts.; kegs 
25 cts. 

Philadelphia — Flour, no»e going. Tobac- 
co, $2 25 per hhd.; 20 cts. for boxes; 25 cts. 
for kegs, none going. Coal, 6 cents per 
bushel, Richmond measure. 

On the Canal — To Lynchburg and interme- 
diate places, 10 cents per 100 lbs. 

EXCHANGE. 

Foreign — On London, last sale at 9 a 9 1-2 

per cent, premium. 
Domestic — New York Checks, 2 1-2 a 3 
prem. 

Philadelphia, 2 1-2 a 3 premium. 

Baltimore, 2 1-2 a 3 premium. 

North Carolina Bank Notes, par. 

South Carolina, 1 premium. 

Savannah, 1 discount. 

Augusta, 1 discount. 



CONTENTS OF NO. VII. 

Wkeat— Report upon the cultivation of, from the Agri- 
cultural Society of Powhatan, p. 145. 

Tobacco— Report on the management of, from Agri- 
cultural Society of Powhatan, p. 149. 

Berkshires— Distinction between the China and the 
Siamese cross, p. 151. 

Shingle Machine— Mr Raymond's, described, with a 
cut, p. 152. 

Agricultural Club — Constitution of the Albemarle 
Hole and Corner Club Society, No. 1, with remarks 
on by J. H. Turner, Esq. p. 153. 

Agricultural Fair — Exhibition of the Hemico Agri- 
cultural Society noticed, p. 154. 

Wheat — Mr. McJLaurin's experiments on, in Missis- 
sippi,)?. 155. 

Fish — The construction of fish ponds recommended to 
the Farmeis. p. 15G. 

Horse Rake — Described and recommended, p. 157. 

Hay Slide — Useful implement for moving shocks, 157. 

Threshing Machine — McKeeve's described, with a 
cut, p. 158. 

Page's Saw Mill — Described, with the opinions of the 
Editor, p. 159. 

H gs — Sussex and Berkshires imported by Mr. R. B. 
Haxall, p. 1(50. 

Rust — A peculiar kind described by Mr. Wm. Mas- 
sic, p. 16i> 

Briers — Inquiry for best mode of destruction p. 160. 

Curcu-io— How to destioy, p. KK). 

Hogs — A challenge from Berkshires, p, 1(11. 

Grass — Velvet grass recommended by Captain Meri- 
wether, p. 16*2. 

Rust— Essay on, p. 163. 

Sassafras— Inquiries for the best mode of extirpation, 
p. 163. 

Pickle Vinegar — The value of a former recipe for ma- 
king, confirmed, p. 164. 

Plum Pudding— Valuable recipe for making, p. 164. 

Jiarlcy — Inquiry for best mode of cultivation, p. 164. 

May Wheal, — Infoimation asked for, p. 164. 

Cotton— A specimen of Okra cotton with seed for dis- 
tribution furnished the office of the Planter, 164. 

Plas.'er— The effect of hurtling, p. 164. 

Berkshire Sow — Mr. Turner s, with a portrait, p 165. 

Harvesting — Loss sustained, p. 166. 

Edge Tools— Factory of J. F. Barns & Co. p. 1G6.