THE 



SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE AND THE HOUSEHOLD ARTS. 




VOLUME IV. 

CHARLES T. BOTTS, EDITOR. 



RICHMOND: 

S'laiNTED BY P. D. BERNARD, MUSEUM BUII.DlNG. 

1844. 



INDEX. 



A. 

^Agriculture — The farmer should be acquainted 
with the mechanical department of agricul- 
ture, p. 253. 

.Agricultural Society of Henrico — Report of the 
Farm Committee, fall 1844, p. 259. 

Jlgricultural Papers — Value of, p. 104. 

.Ague and Fever — Cure for, p. 66. 

Alders — To eradicate, p. 196. 

Animals — Principles of improvement, p. 201. 
To train, p. 210. 

Apples — How they should be used, p. 123. Ex- 
cellent food for animals, p. 242. 

Architecture — A taste for rural architecture great- 
ly wanting in Virginia, p. 115. A cut of an 
ornamental country house, p. 157. Another, 
p. 269. 

Artichokes — The Jerusalem recommended, p. 138. 

Ashes — They will not prevent the rust in wheat, 
p. 32. Good for hogs, p. 104. 

Asparagus — Proper mode of culture, p. 210. 
Medical properties of, p. 257. 

Ayrshire Cows — Report on, p. 59. 

B. 

Barn Yards — How to construct, p. 33, 163. 

Barberry — Does this bush produce rust 1 p. 161, 
180, 232. 

Bark — Tanners' bark burnt and used as ma- 
nure, p. 184. 

Bathing — Efficacy of, p. 120. 

Beds — Mattresses preferred, p. 51. Convenient 
mode of clea-nsing, p. 276. 

Beer — Recipe for making instantaneous beer, p. 
275. 

Berkshires — Out of favor, p. 123. 

Beam — Best food for sheep, p. 52. 

Blacking — A recipe for making superior black- 
ing, p. 138. 

Bleeding at the Nose — To stop, p. 127. 



Blister — How to raise one, p. 32. 

Blood ZTorse— Value of, p. 60, 69. 

Blind Ditches — Directions for constructing, p. 8, 

71. 
Black — A recipe for an excellent black dye, 185. 
Bommer — Pro and con, p. 25, 45. Baer & Gou- 

liart's specification containing a description of 

Jauffret's method, p. 87. 
Bounce — Recipe for making cherry bounce, p. 

220. 
Bread — Should be permitted to get ripe before it 

is eaten, p. 8, 32. 
Breeding — Male animals should not be allowed 

to run at large, p. 278. 
Bruise — A lotion for, p. 12. 
Broom Corn — Value of, p. 119. 
Bricks — Of unburnt earth recommended, p. 139. 
Burns — To cure, p. 39. 

Butter — Dutch management of, p. 65. A ma- 
chine for making, p. 117. Orange County 

method, p. 134. 
Budding — The process described, with a cut, p. 

189. 

c. 

Cabbages — To free from worms, p. 136, 177. 

To raise from the stalks, p. 1 0. 
Cattle — Apparatus for savage cattle, with a cut, 

p. 141, To free from lice, p. 200. 
Carrots — Capital food for horses, p. 158. 
Calves — To rear, p. 173. 
Charcoal — Proper mode of using in agriculture, 

p. 7. Modus operandi, p. 10. Directions for 

manufacturing it, p. 30. Experiment with, 

p. 92. Should be used with lime, p. 167. 

Uses of, p. 182. Used to preserve peach 

trees, p. 202. 
Chopped Hands — To cure, p. 39. 
Churn — A plan described, with a cut, p. 36. 

Another, p. 66. Another, p. 84. Another, 

p. 243. 



IV. 



INDEX 



Chills — A cure for, p. 66. 

Chewing — Necessity of chewing food well, p. 79. 

Chickens — Manufactured by machinery, p. 212. 

See Gapes. 
Chemj Bounce — Directions for making, p. 220. 
Chimneys — To remedy smoky chimneys, p. 245. 
Clover— Rovi to cure, p. 126. How to manage 

to get a stand, p. 151. 
Cora— John M. Botts' crop, p. 29. Commented 
on, p. 73, 96. How to cultivate, p. 100, 202. 
Report of experiments from the Hole and Cor- 
ner Club of Albemarle, p. 81. Mr. Ruther- 
foord's mode of cultivation, p. 108. Mr. Phy- 
sic's mode of managing, p. 143. Should be 
steamed for food, p. 143. Should not be suck- 
ered, p. 150. Objections to level mode of 
cultivation, p. 192. Controverted, p. 231. 
Should be soaked in a solution of saltpetre, p. 
219. Mr. Lownes' mode of cultivation, p. 
249. Recommended to be turned in as an 
improver, p. 253. 
Corn-stalks— V.sed for soiling, p. 12. Flow to 

cure for hay, p. 247, 
Corns — To relieve, p. 39, 89. 
Corn Meal i2MS/t— Recipe for making, p. 139. 
Comforters— How to make them, p. 51. 
Colts — Are they injured by eating green oats p 

163, 223. 
Caiman's Agricultural Tour — Reviewed, p. 194. 
Coxus — Directions for treating after calvine- d 
240. ^' ^' 

Coal Tar — Used as paint, p. 243. 
Cologne — A recipe for making, p. 250. 
Creosote—Fox preserving meat from decay, p. 78. 
Crushing— T\iQ value of a crushing mil], p. 14. 

One described, p. 78. 
Croup — Remedy for, p. 39. 
Croius—Row to catch them, p. 123. 
Cucumbers— Uow to cook them, p. 120. The 
vines should be trained on trellises, p. 264. 



I). 

Ditches — Plan for blind ditching, p. 8, 71. A 
machine for ditching, p. 206. 

Distemper— AmoTi^si cattle, a remedy for, p. 75. 

Draining— RQs.n\\. of an experiment, p. 185. 
Good effects of, p. 235. 

Drought— To guard against injury from, p. 116. 

Drowning— To save from, p. 14. Proper treat- 
ment of drowned persons, p. 251. 

c 

Eggs — How to make nest eggs, p. 138. 
Electricity — Applied to agriculture, p. 218. 



Emigration — People advised to stay at home, p' 

124, 199. 
Eye — Film removed by molasses, p. 159. 

F. 

Farrning—The best system, p. 16. Description 
of a well managed farm, p. 1 1 . 

Fence— Ps. plan of a moveable fence, with a cut 
p. 6. 

Feeding — Proper mode of feeding stock, p. 77. 
Relative economy of different kinds of food, 
p. 114. Estimate of the different kinds of 
food required by different animals, p. 114. 
Analysis and value of different kinds of food, 
p. 211. 

Fecundity — Remarkable instance of, p. 1 04. 

Fire Places — Directions for constructing, p. 65. 

Film — On the eye, removed by molasses, p. 159. 

Fish — Used as manure, p. 276. 

Fistula — To cure, p. 172. ; 

Fire Wood — Should be seasoned, p. SO, 124. 

Floxoers — To preserve cut flowers, p. 32, 223, 
130. To produce a variety on one stalk, p. 
1 92. To extract the essential oil from, p. 264. 

Fly — To prevent its ravages on tobacco plants 
and vines, p. 217. 

Flood Gates — A description of, with a cut, p. 125. 

Founder — To cure, p. 116, 240. 

Fruit — How to make an unproductive fruit tree 
bear, p. 8, 71. Plaster applied to the blos- 
soms of fruit trees, p., 220. Cultivation of 
fruit urged on the farmer's attention, p. 270. 

French Toast — Recipe for making, p. 192. 

Furnace— Moii's agriculture furnace described, 
with a cut, p. 135. 



G. 



Gate — A railway gate, with a cut, p. 181. 

Gapes — Nature of disease and remedy for, p. 
153, 185. 

Gout — Dr. Abernethy's remedy for, p. 192. An- 
other, p. 257. 

Grass — Proper mode of seeding grass lands, p. 
164. An essay on the nature, character, and 
cultivation of the different grasses, p. 175. 

Green Sand — Experiments with, p. 14. Dis- 
sertation on, p. 18. 

Grease — To remove from clothes, p. 13. 

Grooming — How it should be performed, p. 113. 

Guano — Experiments with, p. 131. Objections 
to, p. 196. Description of, p. 246. Result 
of Mr. Peticola.s' experiments, p. 273. 



INDEX . 



H. 

Hay — Compared in point of profit with the cul- 
tivation of roots, p. 100. How to cure, p. 
165, 16S, 199. Should it be salted? p. 2.51. 

Hay Press — Dedrick's described, with a cut, p. 
2S. 

Harrow — Geddes' described, with a cut, p. 60. 
Another, p. 205. 

Harrowing — Recommended to harrow grain in 
the spring, p. 136. 

Herd'sgrass — Inquiries propounded, p. 11. An- 
swered, p. 58, 71, 84. How to manage, p. 
126. Should be thickly seeded, p. 152. 

Hemp — To water rot, p. 105. Its management, 
p. 169. Keeps ofiF vermin from a poultry 
yard, p. 233. 

Henrico Jigricultural 5ocfei'2/— Exhibition noticed, 
p. 162. Report of the Farm Committee for 
the fall of 1844, p. 259. 

Houses-rChedL^ mode of constructing, p. 44. 
Of unburnt brick, p. 139. 

Hops — Iron rods preferable to hop poles, p. 48. 
A substitute for hops, p. 75. 

Hogs — Proper management of, p. 64, 94. A 
hog will weigh ten times as much as his 
head, p. 87. Grazing recommended, p. 147. 
The Chester County hog, with a cut, p. 236. 

Hog's Hair — Valuable as manure, p. 159. 

Horses — An example of what may be effected 
by gentleness, p 180. How to keep farm 
horses, p. 161. Directions for shoeing, p. 63. 

Hooks — Nature of, and remedy for, p. 72, 244. 

Hollow Horn—Cure for, p. 2, 72. Nature of 
disease, and remedy for, p. 278. 

Hoi Beds — Substitute for glass, p. 132. 

Hoarseness — To cure, p. 223. 

Hoven — A remedy for, p-. 233. 

I. 

fmprovement — How to be effected, p. 16, 104, 
122, 228. May be effected upon the poorest 
soil, p. 80. To be produced by system of 
small farms, p. 1-59, 252. How poor men 
rnay make poor land rich, p. 160, 220. Ex- 
periments in improving poor lands, p. 174, 
177. To be effected by mixing soils, p. 275. 

Indaslry — Result of, p. 9 1 . 

Ink — To remove stains from furniture, p. 88. 

fee Houses — New method of filling, p. 280. 

li. 

Labels — For gardens, p. 93. 

Ladcmeler — Description of one, with a cut, p. 53, 



Lard — How is it to be preserved? p. 132. 

Lard Lamp — Its excellence, p. 5. 

Lice — To free cattle from, p. 200. 

Liebig — Criticised, p. 7, 27. 

Life Everlasting — A substitute for hops, p. 75. 

Lime — Will not prevent rust, p. 36. Experi- 
ments with, p. 37. Should be used with 
charcoal, p. 167. Proper quantity per acre, 
p. 73. Proper mode of applying, p. 244. 
Extracts from a valuable essay of Mr. J. F. 
W. Johnston, p. 101. Test for limestone, p. 
262. How used in Pennsylvania, p. 265. 

Lockjaw — In a horse, cured, p. 40. 

Lucerne — Its character and value, p. 176. 

M. 

Manure — The proper mode of application, p. 33, 
74, 248. Heermance's method of preparing, 
p. 92. Other plans, p. 97. How barn yards 
should be managed, p. 163. Dr. Valentine's 
recipe for an artificial guano, p. 166. Speci- 
fic manures for specific plants, p. 178. Pro- 
per mode of using green crops, p. 230. Di- 
rections for saving manure, p. 233. Manur- 
ing seed instead of soil, p. 248. Mr. F. Mor- 
timer Butler's mode of managing organic ma- 
nure, p. 279, 

JMaitresses — Preferable to beds, p. 51. A new 
kind, p. 256. Convenient mode of cleaning, 
p. 276. 

Marl — An indicalor described, with a cut, p. 
221. 

Mahogany — To clean, p. 272. 

Measuring — Apparatus for measuring heights, 
with a cut, p. 2, 1 1, 173. Directions for using 
the measuring cross, p. 52. Another, p. 277, 

Mecklenburg — Report from the Hole and Corner 
Club, p. 31. A visit to the county, p. 188. 

Meadoivs — Should be harrowed, p. 264. 

Milk — Dutch method of keeping, p. 37. Ana- 
lysis of, p. 38, Tor emove unpleasant taste 
from, p. 223. 

Milking — Directions for performing, p. 160, 257. 

Mincepies — Recipe for making, p. 52. 

Missouri — John Preston's opinion of, p. 229. 

Motfs Agricultural Furnace — Described, with a 
cut, p. 135. 

Moulding — To prevent books, &c. from mould- 



ing, P- 7. 



N. 



J^anscmond — A description of, p. 137. 
JSorthern Tour — A description of, p. 137. 



VI. 



INDEX 



o. 



Oals — Are green oats injurious to colts 1 p. 163. 
Orchards — Fixtures for ploughing, p. 240. 
Orchard Grass — Its value, p. 176, 
Overseers — Remarks on, p. 183. 
Oxen — Comparison of oxen with horses at the 
plough, p. 4, 50. An ox break described, with 
a cut, p. 165, 179. 



P. 



Paint — Directions for mixing and using, p. 190. 
Peach Trees — Decay prevented by nailing, p. 

62, 88. Prevented by ashes, p. 118. To 

save from the worm, p. 128, 230. Proper 

management of, p. 142, 202, 243. New mode 

of pruning, p. 254. 
Peas — Experiment with, p. 99. Directions for 

curing pea vines, p. 257. 
Piles — A remedy for, p. 172. 
Plaster — Applied to the blossom of fruit trees, 

p. 220. 
Ploughs — A subsoil plough described, p. 21. 

Advantage of a wheel to a plough, p. 92. 

Prouty & Mears' plough described, with a 

cut, p. 149. Apparatus for turning in weeds. 

p. 239. A trial of English and American 

ploughs, p. 256. 
Ploughing — Deep ploughing recommended, p. 

114, 133, 260. 
Poisons — Remedies for the sting and bite of 

venomous insects and reptiles, p. 116. 
Poudretie — Result of Mr. Minor's manufacture, 

p. 1, 2, 3, 12, 66. Its effect upon tobacco 

plants, p. 198. Directions for manufacturing, 

p. 274. I 

Po/a^oes— Should they be hilled ? p. 224. To i 

cook them, p. 258. Planting the stems, p. 264. 1 
Poultry—To fatten, p. 98. Profits of, p. 167. ; 

Vermin kept from poultry yard by hemp, p. 

223. 
Productive Farms — p. 183. 
Pudding — Bachelor's, to make, p. 124. 
Putty—To soften, p. 142. 



Rats — To catch, p. 35. English mode of kill- 
ing, p. 179. To destroy, p. 250. 

Mazor — To sharpen, p. 48. 

Reaping Machines — M'Cormick's and Hussey's, 
p. 61, 204, 237, 271. 

Rein — A safety rein, p. 9. 118, 197. 



Report — Of the Commissioner of Patents, p. 1 36, 
145. Of the Farm Committee of the Hen- 
rico Agricultural Society, p. 258. 

Rheumatism — To cure, p. 223, 257. 

Ring Worm — To prevent its extension, p. 212. 

Roads — Hints on keeping in order, p. 65. The 
expediency of constructing roads of plank, p. 
241. 

Roofs — Directions for covering, p. 117. 

Roots — How they should be preserved for me- 
dical purposes, p. 34. Cultivation of, recom- 
mended, p. 147. Profit of, compared with 
hay, p. 100. To preserve from decay, p. 1 18. 
Machine for cutting roots, with a cut, p. 261. 

Rust — Not prevented by ashes, p. 32. Or lime, 
p. 36. Caused by wet fallowing, p. 128. 
To prevent, p. 207. Cause of, p. 180. 

Ruta Baga — Experiment with, p. 40. Mr. So- 
tham's mode of cultivation, p. 119. 

Rye — Injurious to orchards, p. 256. 

s. 
Safety Rein — Described, p. 9, 118, 197. 
Salt — Injurious to stock, p. 63. Should it be 

used with hay, p. 251. 
Salve — Recipe for a salve for burns, cuts, &c., 

p. 174. 
Saltpetre — Recommended for corn, p. 219. 
Scarlet Fever — How to treat, p. 149. 
Seeds — Directions for steeping and manuring, p. 

144. How to select, p. 254. 
Silk — Directions for cleaning, p. 276, 280. 
Sheep — Beans best food to make wool, p. 53. 

good location for sheep, p. 234. Killed by 

brine, p. 223. 
Sheepskins — To cure with the wool on, p. 40. 
Smut— To prevent, p. 15, 203, 2C8, 239. 
Soils — Benefit of mixing, p. 275. 
Soiling — Economy of, p. 123. 
Sows — Cure for barrenness, p. 126. 
Sovp — Recipe for turtle and calf's head, p. 2G3. 
Spavin — To cure, p. 47, 117. 
Sprain — To relieve, p. 12. 

Straiv Cutters — Botts' recommended, p. 38, 63. 
Stumps — A machine for extracting described, 

with a cut, p. 76. 
Sturgeon — To dress sturgeon steak, p. 144. 
Straioherries — How to cultivate, p. 209. 
Stretches — A cure for the stretches in sheep, p. 

263. 
Subsoil Plough — Described, with a cut, p. 21. 

Value of subsoiling, p. ISO. 
Suckering — Objected to, p. 150. 
Swiney — To cure, p. 216. 



INDEX 



VII' 



T. 

Tanners' Bark — Burnt and used as manure, p. 
184. 

Tetter Worm — To cure, p. 32. Another remedy 

- for, p. 39. 

Threshing JSIachine — A cheap one, p. 15. 

Tobacco — Result of experiments in sun and fire 
curing, p. 35, 96. Mr. Baker's mode of ma- 
naging, p. 41. Report of experiments from 
the Hole and Corner Club of Albemarle, p. 
82. The tobacco interest in Virginia, p. 83. 
Recommended to the people of Virginia to 
produce less and that of better quality, p. 107. 
Origin of the term Cavendish, p. 165. Dr. 
Gardner's views on the subject of tobacco, p. 
186. The proper mode of constructing to- 
bacco houses, p. 193. Effect of poudrette on 
tobacco plants, p. 198. To save plants from 
the fly, p. 217. The Bolton hoister described, 
with a cut, p. 229. Inspections for 1844, p. 
262. 

Tobacco Prize — Thompson's the best, p. 17, 40. 
Another recommended, p. 72. 

Tomatoes — To make into figs, p. 168. To pre- 
serve, p. 186. Recipe for tomato catsup, p. 
204. 

Transplanting— A.-^'gz.xa.ius for transplanting trees 
described, with a cut, p. 255. 

Turkeys — How to raise, p. 167, 218. 



U. 

Urine — Substances to be used for absorbing it, 
p. 263. 

V. 

Ventilators — Best form of, with a cut, p. 245. 

Vines — To preserve from bugs and fly, p. 127, 
217. 

Virginia — Her natural advantages, p. 50. De- 
scription of some of the counties of Western 
Virginia, p. 233. 

w. 

Wata- — Apparatus for raising water described, 
with a cut, p. 213. 

Water Wheel — Hotchkiss' described, with a cut, 
p. 68. 

Weeds—To destroy, p. 220. 

Wheat — Report of experiments from the Hole 
and Corner Club of Albemarle, p. 3, 82. 
Gen. Harmon's mode of cultivation, p. 146. 
Dr. Lee's views, p. 154, 171. Time of cut- 
ting, p. 185, 254. Best variety, p. 207. Pro- 
per depth of seed, p. 207. Comparative va- 
lue of Red May and Mediterranean, p. 209. 

Whitewash — Recipe for a brilliant kind of, p. 
121. To make a blue whitewash, p. 156. 

Whitlow— To cure, p. 172. 

Wood — To render it incombustible, p. 240. See 
Firewood. 

Wool — Mr. Bonsack's factory in Roanoke, p. 88. 



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T 



'HE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

Stbotetj to Slgricuimre, f^ovtCcultuiT, nntt tlie ^miseftclti Bvts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the 

Xenophon. ^ State. — Sulli/. 


C. T. BOtTS, Editor. 


Vol. IV. RICHMOND, JANUARY, 1844. No. 1. 



For the Southern Planter. 
POUDRETTE. 

JVlr. Editor, — I have just laid down the last 
number of the Southern Planter, in which I find 
two very ditferenl accounis of the effects of the 
poudrette manure; one from Dr. Garland, of 
Fredericksbiu:2:, the other from Messrs. iNewman 
& Henshaw, of Orange. To each of these 
pieces I find a request annexed, that others who 
have tried experiments with it, would give you 
the result. I thus feel called upon, not only in 
justice to you, but to the community at large, 
to give the result of my experience. 

You will recollect that 1 purchased a barrel 
of it of you last spring, probably of the same 
lot out of which you furnished the genijennen 
referred to, with which I made various experi- 
menis on peas, corn, oats, &c., and I regret to 
say that there was not a single instance in 
which I could see iTiore effect than would have 
been produced by the same amount of common 
swamp earth ; and I must acknowledge that, 
from its being perfectly inodorous, and resenn- 
bling so much the common deposit about our 
swamps, I had strong suspicions of its not being 
what it professed to be. But fearing thai the 
fault was wiih me, and that I might do injustice 
to others, I did not intend mentioning publicly, 
eiiher the result or my suspicions; nor should 1 
have done so now, but for the call made by you, 
the result of other experiments, and the suspi- 
cions awakened in other minds. Nor would I 
be understood, even now, as condemning the ar- 
ticle, or as censuring those who furnished you 
with it; for the past season has certainly been 
a bad one for trj'ing agricultural experiments, 
and you know that new hands are apt to be 
awkward and unsuccessful in their first attempts 
at any thing. 

I have reserved a part of my purchase for 
further experimenis, the result of which, if ne- 
cessary. Will be given in due time — and should 
they be more favorable than the past, it will af 
ford me much pleasure, as a matter of justice to 
the vender.5, to testify to its genuineness and 
value. 

Very respectfully, your friend, 

John Cooke. 

Dewberry, JVov. 1, 1843. 

We have received several other statements, 
Vol. IV.— 1 



both verbal and written, from the most respecta- 
ble sources, all going to show the inferiority, if 
not the ulttr worihlessness, of the article fur- 
nished us last spring by Mr. D. K. Minor, of 
New York, and sold by us under the nair;e of 
PouDRETTE, It 13 Irue, we have heard some 
expressions of more favorable opinions than 
those we have published, but they have been 
few and far between, and the balance of tesli- 
inony against the article, has been overwhelm- 
ing. The communications in the Noveniber 
number and our comments upon them, have 
drawn the following from Mr. Minor, which we 
are sorry to have received too late for the De- 
cember number: 

JVeiv York, November 25, 1S43. 
C. T, BoTTs, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — I observe in the November num- 
ber of the Southern Planter, two communica- 
tions in relation lo the use of poudrelte, in Vir- 
ginia, during the past season, which you say 
was obtained from the Company under my di- 
reciion. In one of those communications the 
results are spoken of as highly saiisfaciory, and 
in the other directly the reverse, notwithstanding 
you say that used by the committee, and "so 
unequivocally condemned, was a pari if the 
same lot with that so highly lauded by Dr. Gar- 
land." 

On referring to our books I find that we 
shipped to 3'ou, in March last, 34 barrels, viz: 
on the 15ih, 20 barrels, and on the 3(jth, 14 
barrels — both of which lots v;ere packed from 
a binn which contained over 5,000 bushels on 
the 1st of December previous, and of a quality 
as uniform as lue could moke it from the contents 
of a large number of sinks. 

It is our aim to make a good article ahuays ; 
and of a quality as uniform as possible; but 
perfect uniformity is out of the question, as the 
manner of constructing, and taking care of, the 
receptacles for the material is as various as the 
manner of cultivating the soil; and it is not 
quite as easy to separate the valueless from the 
good material, as it is to assort apples and 
peaches, therefore, we not unfrequenily throw 
away entire loads of it after hauling it two miles 
or more, that we may not deteriorate the good 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



article. Our city laius impose a penalty for using 
the sink for other than its legitimate purposes — 
yet we find ihem ihe receptacles of evenj thing 
which servants desire to put out of sight, or are 
too indolent to otherwise dispose of, according 
to our city regulations, including ashes, broken 
crockery and glass, rags, and old shoes, and some- 
times silver plate, gold and silver coin and bank 
notes ; and we have found the dies, and plates 
for counterfeitin.g coin and hank notes. We do 
not however mtend, or desire, to have any of 
these things remain in the poudrette when it 
goes to the farmer; and to remove as much of 
them as is possible we pass it through two 
screens, one flat, made of iron rods, three-fourths 
of an inch apart to lake out all the coarse trash 
and pulverise the lumps preparatory to passing 
it through a revolving screen of wire-cloth with 
four meshes to the square inch; yet notwith- 
standing this double screening I have occasion- 
ally found pieces of glass when packing the 
bairels, o\'er an inch in length and half an inch 
wide, which must have passed through the 
wire-cloth screen, and even ten-penny nails have 
passed through it. I go thus into detail, sir, to 
show that we use due care to remove all foreign 
substances, though we are not always entirely 
successful. 

Your correspondents, Messrs. Newman & 
Henshaw, say "there was nothing in the ap- 
pearance of the article obtained by us that indi- 
cated its true character but the frdgments of 
broken bottles, glass, earthenware, &c. &c. found 
in it." 

I have explained above how such materials 
remain in the poudrette, yet I have no hesitation 
to say that I will give yoixx correspondents two 
barrels of poudrette for each half pint of " g-lass 
and crockery" which shall be found in anj' one 
barrel packed by us, if examined in your pre- 
sence, or an}' other gentleman selected by you. 
We could not afford to sell them glass at thirty, 
nor fifiy cents a bushel, as it is worth inuch 
more, and is picked out with much care and 
sold, especially white glass. 

Jn your remarks you say, "In justice to Mr. 
Mmor, the Agent of the Company, it is proper 
to slate that the article here so unequivocally 
condemned was a part of the same lot so highly 
lauded by Dr. Garland in another part of this 
number." I thank you, sir, for that acknow- 
ledgment; and if you had omitted one or two 
other remarks I should have been willing to let 
the subject rest upon these two statements, di- 
rectly at variance vv-ith each other though they 
are; but as you add, in the same paragraph, 
"there can, however, be no misiake about the 
article tried by this committee; it is utterly im- 
possible that genuine poudrette should be in- 
operative. It may bn that a real and a spurious 
article have been sent us." If, as you say, it 
was of the same lot as that had by Dr. Garland, 



ihen I assure you that it was as near like ii as 
would be an equal quantity of wheat, or oats, 
taken at the same time, from a binn containing 
5,0C0 bushels raised on many different farms, 
and so spread, in putting it up, as to endeavor 
to have it come out of a uniform quality — and 
had it been used under similar ciicumstances 
as the other, the result would, I have not 
a doubt, been similar to that used by Dr. 
G.; and had the committee used the /owr bar- 
rels, as they did the two, their report would, in 
all probability, have been similar to that now 
made by them. 

I have had numerous reports of unfavorable 
results from the use of one or tico barrels — and 
yet those persons, or some of them, are now 
large purchasers — after having witnessed its ef- 
fects on their neighbors' crops — and one gentle- 
man, on Long Island, who used it in 1841, in 
considerable quantity, not only got no benefit 
the first 3'ear, from its use on his corn, but ac- 
tually lost his crops, and for the simple reason 
that he used " a gill to the stalk," instead of a 
gill, or gill and a half to the hill, as advised by 
us. He did not, however, get angry and accuse 
us of fraud, but he investigated the matter, and 
learned how to use it ; and has, this past year, 
used what has cost him over $2C0 — with results 
entirely satisfactorj^, as he informed me by letter, 
in which he said that his wheat yielded thirty- 
six bushels, weighing 62^ lbs. to the bushel, per 
acre where he used poudrette; and his corn 
would be an extraordinary crop, but as it was 
not gathered he could not give particulars. 

- Your correspondents say that " it was applied 
in the month of April to wheat at the rate of 
twenty bushels to the acre ; to oats Avhen sowed 
and harrowed in, at the rate of twenty-five 
bushels to the acre ; to early peas very heavily 
when sowed, and just before they bloomed; to 
cabbage plants in the bed, and some time after 
they had been transplanted; to beets, potatoes 
and vines, very heavily ; to corn, when planted 
and at several stages of its growth, at the rate 
of a gill to a single stalk; and to tobacco, in 
.Tune and July, at the same rate to the hill ; and 
in no instance could the slightest benefit be ob- 
served." This, I admit, is very singidar, and 
well calculated to try the patience of experi- 
menters — but it does not prove that poudrette is 
not an exceedingly valuable manure, nor that 
we have practiced a fraud upon you and your 
friends; as in nine cases out of ten, during the 
past six years that 1 have sold the article, the 
results, and reports, have been of an entirely 
different character. It simply proves that, un- 
der some circumstances, it does not produce the 
desired results ; and that we have not yet had 
sulBcient experience in its use to know before- 
hand ivhere and lohen it will be of little, or much 
value — and I will, in all fairness, submit to you • 
and your readers, whether an experiment, on so 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



many different crops, wiih so small a quantity, 
only eight bushels, should be put forih as one 
upon which ihc merits of the article should be 
judged ? Is not the opinion of practical farmers, 
who have used it for several years, in large 
quantities, more safely to be relied on? I will 
mention a few instances where it has been used 
the past season by those who have thoroughly 
tested its value. One gentleman purchased four 
hundred bushels this year, after having used 
one hundred bushels annually for four years ; 
another, who had used fioe hundred bushels an- 
nually for four years past, purchased this year 
six hundred bushels ; and another has had seven 
hundred and fifty bushels this year, who had 
used nearly three thousand bushels within the 
past five years. These gentlemen have used it 
on all the variety of crops raised by our northern 
farmers, and v.- ith results which will induce them 
to use it hereafter, if they can obtain it. I make 
these statements to show that where poudrette 
has been properhj tested it is justly estimated. — 
Unfavorable reports, from the use of one or 
two barrels may deter a few from using it for a 
year or two, yet the demand will increase faster 
than the supply. Those who have used it most 
extensively, and for the longest period, have not 
always olDserved the saine effect on different 
fields the same year, yet they usually observe it 
sooner or later, and I should be gratified if your 
correspondents will plant corn next year where 
they used it this year on oats and corn. Will 
you suggest it to ihem % 

I regret that any gentleman should be disap- 
pointed in the effects of a single experiment, 
and especially at the South, or so far from the 
manufactory — as one failure usually does more 
injury than ten successful experiments can coun- 
teract. Failures are reported often, whilst suc- 
cess is merely enjoyed, or occasionally spoken 
of by those who witnessed the results. 

This enterprise has bad uncommon diiUcuUies 
to encounter from its commenceaient ; prejudice, 
opposition, detraction and malice have done their 
worst, and still I have gradually, but steadily 
progressed; and the demand has constantly in- 
creased, and vjiLl increase until the contents of 
all the sinks in the country will be preserved 
with as much care as the farmer preserves his 
oats or potatoes when they are raised. 

Your correspondents say they " are forced to 
the conclusion that you were made, in this in- 
stance, the unconscious instrument of imposing 
upon thern a spurious article" — and you appear 
to come to the same conclusion in your closing 
remarks. In reply, I have only to say, that my 
aim has ever been to deal ju.stly with my fellow- 
men ; and I have not, that I am aware of, in 
an?/ instance deviated from my rule in this busi- 
ness — nor do I believe that my superintendent, 
in charge of the manufactory, has ever inten- 
tionally, 0^ knowingly sent out a spurious article. 



He certainlj' has no interest in doing so ; nor 
have those tmder him — and, as for rnj'self, ex- 
tensively and permanently engaged in the busi- 
ness, my interest — if no higher motive actuated 
me — certainly prompts me to send a good arti- 
cle, and especially so, when we send to sections 
of country where it has not been before intro- 
duced — as, upon its reputation, depends my su.c- 
cess. If, therefore, they or you, or any other 
person casts upon me or my superintendent, the 
imputation of sending, designedly or knoiuingly, 
a spurious article when we profess to send pou- 
drette, I throw it back with scorn and contempt. 
I am, sir, respectfully yours, 

D. K. Minor. 

We do not object to the strong and indignant 
manner in which Mr. Minor repels the supposed 
imputation of fraud : it is just such a feeling as 
we should expect such a charge would create 
in an honest mind, and it only strengthens our 
conviction that Mr. Minor has been " more sinned 
against than sinning." We never supposed that 
Mr. Minor had been guilty of fraud in this mat- 
ter; we know very little about him, personally, 
but every thing we ever heard has been compli- 
mentary to him as a man of honor and a gen- 
tleman ; therefore it was, that satisfied as we 
v/ere, and are, that a spurious article had been 
sent us by Mr. Minor last spring, and feeling 
certain that Si fraud had been coirimitted some- 
where, we felt much rather inclined to attribute 
it to those connected with Mr. Minor, of whom 
v/e knew nothing, than to Mr. Minor himself, 
of whom, particularly from a most respected 
friend of our own in this cit}', we had heard a 
very high character. Against the gentleman 
whom Mr. Minor calls his svperintendent, and 
whose defence he so v.-armly espouses, we of 
course mean to say nothing, because of him we 
know as little as v.'e do of the man in the moon ; 
but we can never believe that an article "totally 
inefficacious" has, hy accident, been substituted 
for poudrette. It is enough for us to acquit Mr. 
Minor of any participation in the fraud, of which 
we doubt not that he as well as we have been 
the victims : for us to trace it and point out the 
persons with whom it originated, is neither to 
be required nor expected. 

We certainly have no interest in making 
these exposures. In the first place, it must be 
any thing but agreeable to us to be thus forced 
to condemn an article which may be the means 
of livelihood to another, and in this particular 
instance, as the agent of Mr. Minor, we sustain 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



a pecuniary loss in exposing ihe worlhlessness 
of this, so called, poudrelle. But we should be 
recreant to every principle of honor, if we per- 
mitted either of these considerations to influence 
us into a betrayal of the trust and confidence 
reposed in us by our subscribers. It is Hue, 
that in addition to our editorial labors, we have 
taken upon ourselves the responsibility of an 
agricultural agency, and in this department we 
freely offer our services to the public ; but if any 
inventor, or other individual, thinks the one cha 
racter is to be made subservient to the other; if 
he thinks, because we can make money out of 
the success of an article, we will gloss it over 
in our columns, or even be silent upon its de- 
merits when we know them, much less exclude 
from our pages the fullest and freest discussion, 
we tell him plainly he has mistaken his man, 
and he had better look elsewhere for a customer. 
We do not mean that we will be responsible for 
all that appears in the paper, but we do mean 
that we would be unworthy the position we 
hold towards the agricultural community, not 
only if we imposed on them ourselves, but if we 
willingly and knowingly permitted others to do 
so. 



For the Southern Planter. 

EMIGRATION TO VIRGINIA. 

J\Ir. Eilitor, — In the last number of the South- 
ern Planter you quote from a writer of the State 
of New York, who has recently visited Fairfax 
for the purpose of "spying out'' the land and 
making arrangements for the emigration of 
a company of his friends to Virginia ; he 
spenks in very high terms of the natural 
advantages of that portion of our State, and 
also of the low price of the lands, from ten 
to fifteen dollars per acre. Now, sir, without at 
all intending to disparage i/ial portion of our i 
State, I would remark that if I am correctl}' in- 
formed of its advantages, it does not at all com- 
pare with other portions of the State which 
have hitherto escaped the notice of our vigilant 
and enterprising friends of New York. Fairfax 
is, I believe, totally destitute of that great fer- 
tilizer, marl, or lime, in any shape. The mar- 
kets are not more convenient than other Iccali- 
tie.s, or better for the sale of agricultmal pro- 
ducts ; and as to the price of land, I have no 
hesitation in believing that the lands alluded to 
cost from two to three times as much as others 
■which I will name, possessing advantages very 
superior. Why have not our Northern friends, 
with their usual foresight and sagacity, looked 
a little farther south, before they located ? The 
whole country in the neighborhood of Peters- 



DURG is more or less supplied with rich marl, 
easy of access, the application of which will 
increase the product from fifty to one hundred 
per cent, the first crop; and the increasing and 
permanent effects of which are too well estab- 
lished to require any comment. Within the last 
two years, and within the distance of five miles 
of this town, lands possessing these advantages, 
have sold even as low as two dollars, and 1 be- 
lieve there would be no difficulty in buying them 
at this time at froiu five to ten dollars. The 
neighborhood is healthy, independent of the 
healthful influence which the application of 
marl is known to exert. Let our Northern 
friends come on and see for themselves the as- 
tonishing effects which are produced by the ap- 
plication of marl : the lands beautifully undu- 
lating for improving — its heallhfulness — the con- 
tiguity to a most flouris-hing town — these I be- 
lieve would be considered sufficient inducements 
to give some current of emigration to our sur- 
rounding country. 

I have no personal interests to subserve in 
these remarks, but it has been a matter of sur- 
prise with me that these lands should have been 
so long overlooked. We should be pleased to 
see a company' of such farmers as New York 
could send us, make a lodgement amongst us, 
and we believe the advantages, a few of which 
have been named, cannot long remain unob- 
served, and must soon be properly appreciated. 
There is already a growing spirit of agricultural 
improvement amongst us. 

Respectfully, W^ J. D. 

Petersburg, JVov. 18, 1843. 

P. S.— The Editor of the Albany Cultivator 
will oblige the author by copying the above. 



OXEN. 
We observe, that at the ploughing match of 
the American Institute at Patterson, New Jersey, 
the premium was again taken by a plough 
drawn by a yoke of oxen, driven by the plough- 
man ; they accomplished their task, the eighth 
of an acre, in nineteen minutes, beating the 
horse teams, easily. Either our horses at the 
South are much better, or our oxen are much 
inferior, to those of our northern friends. 

BREEDERS' CONVENTION. 
We anticipated a great deal of valuable in- 
formation from the assemblage of breeders, which, 
according to previous invitation, met at New 
York on the 17th of October. Animals are va- 
lued for the degrees in which they possess cer- 
tain qualities, as tendency to fatten, to give milk, 
&c., and these qualities are supposed, and no 
doubt to a certain extent correctly supposed, to 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



be indicated by the outward conformation of the 
animal. As to what, is the character of this 
outward conformation, we know that very loose 
and indefinite ideas prevail amongst the com- 
munity in general; but it was not upon this 
head that we expected to be enlightened by this 
Convention. Professor Cline and others we 
supposed had long ago taught pretij' much all 
that could be learned from books upon this sub- 
ject. Indeed, we liad imagined ihat as to what 
were good, and what were bad points, what it 
was desirable to obtain, and what to avoid, 
a considerable degree of unanimity prevailed 
amongst breeders. But Mr. Bement started a 
novel question, novel at least to us, who have 
no pretensions to being versed in the points of 
cattle, as to what were the relative merits of 
these different points : for instance, we have all 
been taught that a cow should have a good, 
clean, delicate head, and a deep, wide brisket ; 
but what proportion does the head bear to the 
brisket? These were the questions which we 
expected would have been discussed by this as- 
semblage, and upon which we thought the views 
of practical men could throw a great deal of 
valuable light. We observe that upon this sub- 
ject Mr. Bement read a paper, which we hope 
some day to get hold of, and which we doubt 
not is clearly marked wiih the strong practical 
wisdom of the author. But at this point we 
suspect ihe meeiing got into a snarl upon the 
old and mooted question of the relative values 
of the different breeds. At any rate, they have 
quite confounded us by the adoption of a reso- 
lution, appointing committees to report "scales 
of points which should constitute good animals 
of the various breeds." Now we were so igno- 
rant, perhaps, as to iinagine that one scale would 
have done for all the breeds. We can under- 
stand how one breed may be more remarkable 
for the possession of some points tiian another, 
and we can moreover understand that there may 
be one scale of points for milch cows, another 
for oxen, &c , but, as we said before, the idea of 
different scales for different breeds is beyond our 
comprehension ; although we by no means in- 
tend to stigmatise it as ridiculous; for there was 
not probably a single gentleman in the meeting, 
who doe.5 not know ten times as much about 
lh>i matter as we do ; and we only allude to the 
subject in the hope that from some one of our 
friends (Mr. Ali.en, of the Agriculturist, per- 
haps,) we may obtain that enlightenment that 



we have been unable to procure from our books. 
Several of the coinmillees, we perceive, deferred 
their report to a future day, and those views 
that were expressed do not seem to have been 
published. 



PRESERVATION OF VINES FROM WORMS 
AND BUGS. 

A member of the Legislature and subscriber 
; of the Monthly Visitor requests us to inform our 
I readers that he has found a complete remedy of 
I the cut worm from the destruction of cijcumbers, 
' melons, squashes, &c. in a simple box ten inches 
! or one foot square, and six or eight inches high — 

set open over the hill, without bottom or cover. 
'Such a box, constructed of refuse boards, set 

with the lower dge just below the surface, wdl 
'not only stop the cut worm, who crawls about 
I the ground in the night, but will be almost a 
! complete protection from the ravages of bugs. 
I The box also in land v.'ell prepared will facilitate 

the growth of vines, especially in a cold season, 

by taking greater benefit of the sunshine. 

Visitor. 



For the Southern Planter. 
THE LARD LAMP. 

Mr. Editor, — Your paper for the present month 
contains an account of a lamp which I have 
never seen, but which I think I'ess desirable than 
that by which I now write, not meaning, how- 
ever, to disparage the lamp alluded to in your 
paper, which 1 have no doubt is a very valuable 
one. I will ilescribe to you in as few words as 
1 can, without the aid of a drawing, the lamp I 
burn. The receptacle for the lard is a tin cup, 
which will contain about half a pint, placed on 
a pedestal similar to that of the old tin oil lamps ; 
the top of this cup is flat and soldered to the 
cup; in the middle of the top is an orifice in 
which is fixed a casing for the wick, about one 
inch long, one-eighth of an inch wide, and half 
an inch high ; running from the lop of this 
casing to the bottom of the cup, is a metal plate 
on which the wick is to be drawn, as in an as- 
tral lamp, which plate is to coitimunicate heat 
from the lighted wick to the laid in the lamp • 
attached to the bottom of this plate, embracing 
the narrow sides of it and running closely pa- 
rallel with them to the top, and extending over 
the sides of the casing for the wick, are two 
pieces of tin, which answer the double purpose 
of elevating the plate to put on a fresh wick, 
and of retaining the wick in its proper place at 
any point to which it maybe raised; on one 
side of the top is an opening covered by a sliding 
door, thronjrh which the lard, which must be 
first melted for the purpose, is to be poured into 
the lamp. The lamp which I use is bronzed 
and is decidedly handsome. One of its great re- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



commendations is its remarkable cleanliness, it re- 
quiring no attention, save care in filling ii, to keep 
it perfectly clean. It is impossible to spill any 
grease from the lamp I use, if the sliding door 
is closed. It was patented by Cornelius & Co , 
Philadelphia, during the present year. You will 
see from this account that it is at least more sim- 
ple than the Ohio lamp which you describe. 

I cannot too highly recommend the use of "lard 
lamps" to your readers and to rny fellow-citizens 
at lar.<re; for in rny humble opinion no light can 
be obtained which coinbines so many recommen- 
dations as this. Its perfect cleanliness, the purity, 
softness, and at the same time, brilliancy of its 
light, its entire exemption from smoke and smell, 



and its great cheapness render it a most valuable 
addition to our dornestic economy. To any fa- 
mily who will use this lamp entirely, the saving 
in the single item of light must be very great. 
Your obedient servant, X. 

Hanover, JVovonber, 1843. 

We know the lamp described by our corre- 
spondent, but we think if he had tried both, he 
would agree with us in the opinion that the 
Ohio lamp, as he terms it, is far superior. Be 
this as it may, we entirely agree in the estimate 
he places on lard lamps, when properly con- 
structed. 



MOVEABLE FENCE. 




The following letter addressed to the Editor 
of the "American Agriculturist," contains a de- 
scription of the very best plan of a moveable 
fence, that has ever been brought to our notice; 

JVew York, Nov. 6, 1843. 

When I visited the beautiful farm of J. F. 
Sheafe, Esq , at High Cliff, Dutchess county, 
the past summer, among other things which 
struck my attention there, was a moveable fence; 
and, as it is both handsomer and cheaper than 
the usual method of making these, as in Eng- 
land, of hurdles, I have thought a description 
of it might not be without interest to those de- 
siring to put up something of this kind. 

1, 1, 1, are posts made of joist, 3 inches by 4, 
and 4 feet long, with 2-inch pivots in each end, 
to fit into the holes of the cap 4, and step 5 ; 2, 
2, 2, 2, are slats 12 feet long, 4 inches wide, 
and 1 inch thick, nailed to the posts 1, 1, 1, 
making each four slats with their posts, an in- 
dependent length of fence ; 3, is a post the same 



j as I, 1, 1 ; 4, is a cap of white oak plank, 12 
i inches long, 7 inches wide, and 2 inches thick, 
with two 2inch auger-holes bored through it at 
proper distances, into which to inseil the lop 
pivots of two of the posts when set upright, lo 
form the fence ; 5, is a step, a piece of plank the 
same as the cap 4, but 3 feet long. It has two 
holes for the lower pivots of the posts to fit in, 
corresponding with those in the caps. 

Two boys can take down or put up 40 rods of 
such a fence in an hour ; and it is so light, that it 
can be transported to any part of the farm with 
ereat ease. When neatly made and painted it 
has a handsome appearance, and proves an effec- 
tual guard for all ordely stock. By taking it 
down in the winter, and putting it undercover, it 
will last a long time. It may be made very cheap 
by using slabs for the caps and steps, and split 
poles for the slats. 

Mr. Sheafe showed me another kind of move- 
able fence with pickets, which I may dercribe 
hereafter ; but I rather prefer this as being more 
simple. S. Allen. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



CHARCOAL. 

We have been requested by a correspondent 
to obtain for himself and neighbors, who desire 
to make some experiments with it, exact and 
practical directions for using Charcoal. We 
know not how better to comply with this reqiiest, 
than by publishing the following extract from 
an address delivered by Dr. Lee, before the 
Agricultural Society of Erie County, N. York : 

"I have slated to you that most plants require, 
in addition to water and carbon, a portion of ni- 
trogen. This also comes from a gaseous sub- 
stance in the atmosphere. Although niirogen 
forms the largest element in the air, (79 per 
cent.) yet it has been pretty well settled that 
plants do not obtain their niirogen by decom- 
posmg common air, but derive it from ammonia, 
which IS furnished, to the atmosphere in great 
ahundrmce by a world of decomposing vegeta- 
bles, and animals. It is the ainmonia that es- 
capes from putrefying substances that causes 
their offensive smell. Now, again, comes up 
the practical question: How are we to collect 
this highly volatile gas, and transform it at the 
cheapest rate, into wheat, beans, cheese, and 
woo!, of which it is an important element? — 
Rain water has a strong affinity for ammonia — 
which is a compound of 14 parts of nitrogen 
and 3 of hydrogen. Water at 50° will absorb 
650 times its bulk of this vegetable food. Every 
rain, then, brings considerable quantities of it to 
the ground. It is the ammonia in rain water 
that imparts to it its peculiar softness in washing 
the hands or clothes. It is the ammonia in snow 
that makes it valuable as a manure ; and it is 
the ammonia in rain water that causes it to pu- 
trefy in some degree, like an animal substance, 
when water is permitted to stand in warm wea- 
ther in a close vessel above ground. The first 
fall of rain after a long drought Is much the 
richest in this gas. Being extremely volatile, 
it escapes into the air again after a warm shower 
much quicker than water evaporates. What 
then will aid the cultivator of plants, and seize 
this volatile ammonia, as lime does carbonic 
acid, and hold it permanently about their roots, 
in such a shape that it will feed them all they 
need, and no more? For an excess of this sti- 
mulating alkali, like an excess of salt in our 
food, will destroy life instead of supporting it. 

^'Common cho.rcoal is the cheapest, and, there- 
fore, the best material to apply to cultivated 
fields for this purpose. It will absorb 90 times 
its bulk of ammonia, and will give it out slowly 
to the vital attraction of the roots of plants. — 
Most of you know that charcoal will correct the 
taint ill meat — will purify rain water in a suita- 
ble cistern, so as to render it the purest water for 
culinary purposes. Such charcoal should be 



often renewed in filtering cisterns, and when sa- 
turated with aiTimonia, is an extremely valuable 
manure. The liberal application of this well 
known substance to the wheat fields in France, 
has mainly, m connection wiih the use of lime, 
added within the last ten years 100,OGO,OCO 
bushels to the annual crop of wheat grown in 
that kingdom. The charcoal should be sown 
in May, at the rate of 75 bushels per acre, well 
pulverized. This subject is one of vast practi- 
cal importance. By studying the science of 
agriculture, you may grow fifty bushels of good 
wheat on any acre of your land, I have good 
reason to believe, every year, bating of course 
extreme casualties. 

" You all know that a single kernel of wheat, 
will, sometimes, when its fecundity is highly 
stimulated, send up 20 stalks, and that each 
stalk will bear a head containing 100 kernels. 
Here is a yield of 2,C0O fold. Nature then has 
rendered it practicable to harvest 2,0C0 bushels 
of good wheat from one bushel of seed. The 
most sceptical among you will not deny that 
2,000 kernels have been produced from one ker- 
nel, and that the same natural causes that pro- 
duce such a result in one instance, will ever 
operate, at all times, under like circumstances, in 
the same manner. Hence, it is but reasonable 
to sa}', that nature is qtiite as willing to produce 
50 bushels of good wheat on an acre of ground 
every year, mark me, if her laius be obeyed, as 
she is to grow fifty bushels of weeds every year 
on the same ground." 



TO PREVENT MOULDING IN BOOKS, INK, 
PASTE AND LEATHER. 

Collectors of books will not be sorry to learn 
that a few drops of oil of lavender will ensure 
their libraries from this pest. A single drop of 
the same oil will prevent a pint of ink from 
mouldiness for any length of time. Paste may 
be kept from mould entirely by this addition ; 
and leather is also effectually secured from in- 
jury by the same agency. 



LIEBIG. 
We observe that various attacks have been 
made by the scientific men of Europe upon Pro- 
fessor Liebig's lately celebrated work on " Vege- 
table Physiology." Amongst these, the most 
virulent and the most elaborate, seems to be a 
review from the pen of a countryman and brother 
professor. Dr. Hugo Mohl. He seems to think 
that whatever is good in Liebig, is old, and 
whatever is original, is bad. It is hardly worth 
our while to enter upon an elaborate and scientific 
theory, which is liable to be upset by the time 
we have mastered it, and as we have neither 



8 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



time nor capacity to investigate all the new 
doctrines that are broached, we will, in genera], 
conient ourself and our readers with the pra^'^i- 
cal results derived from actual experiment. 



HOW TO MAKE AN UNPRODUCTIVE 
FRUIT TREE BEAR. 

A ladjr of our acquaintance took us into her 
garden a few days ago, where we were shown 
an apple tree which, she informed us, had been 
planted for ten or more years, but had never before 
borne an3' fruit. In looking over an okl volume, 
she accidenially met with what purported to be 
a remedy for this unproductiveness, which was 
simply to cut from each limb, close to where it 
diverges from the trunk, a piece of bark about 
four inches round the limb, and one inch in 
width, and immediately replace it hy lying it on 
with a rag uniil it adhered again. Early in 
the spring she tried the experiment upon the 
tree we speak of, leaving, however, two or three 
of the limbs untouched. The result is, that it 
is now filled with apples, which bid fair to ripen 
finely; but it is worthy of remark, that only on 
those lin:ibs which had been cut is the fruit to 
be seen. The operation is very simple ; and, as 
it has proved successful in this instance, we 
have no hesitation in reconjmending its trial in 
similar cases. — Reading Gazette. 



For the Southern Planter. 
ON RIPE BREAD. 

J\/[r. Printer^ — I wonder you do not ofiener 
tell I lie farmers and planters how much they 
would gain, by using light bread tiuo or three 
days old, instead of fresh from the oven. 

Doctor Mason, who studied in France and 
Eilinbro, and has been a good deal with the 
Yankees, told my husband, (.John Dumpling) 
six years ago, that in England and the Nor.h, 
they never use bread till two days at least, after 
it is baked : and he says, that is the reason why 
their women (if they don't lace tight, or dissi- 
pate too much,) have blooming cheeks for so 
many 3'ears longer than we have. John and I 
agreed to try it: and upon my word and honor, 
the Doctor told the truth. We both are cured 
of ailings we used to have, something like Ays- 
pepsy : and the little Dumplings have rosier 
faces and healthier stomachs than any children 
in the neighborhood. I have no doubt, as Dr. 
M. says, that more than half the sallow, wea- 
ther-beaten looks of our Virginia ladies, who 
generally seem ten years older than they are, is 
owing to the unwholesome, hot bread they eai 
three times a day. 

When bread comes out of the oven, it is full 
of a bad sort of air — carbon^ I think they call it, 



or carbonic assid gass. Put it in a clean cup- 
board or press, in a clean room, and it parts with 
that gass, :ind takes in a wholesomer sort, which 
thej' call oxygen, which they tell me is the purest 
and nourishingest part of the air that we breathe. 
When the impure gass has been so changed to 
the pure sort, the bread is ripe, and fit to eat. — 
On a fair trial, any body will find ripe bread 
sweeter and belter tasted than unripe. 

It can't be eaten quite so fast ; and less of it 
will satisfy the ci]ipelite: which is another rea- 
son why it is healthier — in addition to its being 
more digestible. 

Still another reason in favor of ripe bread is, 
that you can always have it well risen ; because 
you may wait for it to rise, half a day if neces- 
sary — which 3'ou cannot do, when the loaf is to 
be baked in a hurry for breakfast. 

Ripe bread is known to go so much further 
than fre=h, that (Doctor IVlason says) in a great 
famine once, in London, the bakers were ordered 
not to sell any bread under ihree days old. 

If you like me as a correspondent, I may 
write to you again. And John says, perhaps 
he may. And he's a great scribe. 
Your friend, 

Dorothy Dcmpling. 

Louisa, JS'oveniber, 1843. _ 

P. S. — .Tolin wants to have a farming club in 
Louisa, like some they have in Orange and Al- 
bemarle. Tin for it. D. D. 

We hail with pleasure the re-appearance of 
Mrs. Dumpling in our columns. She is an old 
acquaintance of our early youth, and lo this day 
ideas of hospitality and kindness are associated 
with her jolly good humored face. It has been 
a long lime since we heard from her, and know- 
ing that she lived in a land where people never 
die, except of old age, we feared ihat she had 
emigrated and taken friend Johnny to the West. 
Write, Mrs. Dumpling, write by all means, and 
make the old man write too : if you were a 
thousand times less interesting and instructive 
than you used to be, such is the paucity of our 
female correspondents, that we could not choose 
but hail you with especial pleasure. 



For the Southern Planter. 

BLIND DITCHES. 

Mr. Editor, — I recommend to your Powhatan 
correspondent ihe following plan for filling his 
blind ditches. Begin by placing three poles at 
the head of the ditch with the butt-ends up 
stream, then proceed placing all the other poles 
with their butt-ends down stream, and do not 
cut off the limbs, as they serve 10 cover the 
poles first put in ; proceed in the same way to 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the lower end of the dilch, always obseivinji experiment. The sole obstacle in ihe way is 
never lo put the butt-ends of the poles together, ' our ignorance of the proper quantity to be ap- 
which if done, would obstruct the passage of, plied, and 1 write this letter to you, in tlie Lope 
the water — but by placing them two or three that your superior oppor unities of acquiring 
feet from each other, they will admit a free pas- 1 knowledge, will enable you lo imparl the neces- 
sage of the water from the sides as well as thatjsary informal ion.- 

which flows from the head of the ditch. Begin I I confess for myself that I have no confidence 
to fill in the ditch at the lower end ; press the, in its proving, as its zealous advocates claim for 
limbs down, and if some of them are too stiff to ■ it, an pffedual preventive of this most seiious of 
yield, a chop with an axe \^ill make them lie all the maladies of our great staple, but 1 think 
well. I it not improbable, from its great aitraclion for 

A word to your correspondent M. We s\\on\<\\ nitrogen or ammonia and the reluctance with 
purchase a treatise wriiten by Edward Bevan | which it parts with this principal aliment of ve- 
on the management of bees. It is a valuable gelation, that it will act as a retanling principle, 
work on this subject, and he will find it interest- [ and thus diminish the liability to the disease — 
ing and useful, at the cost of only thirty-one If its value should only reach this far, it will be 



An Octogenarian. 



and a quarter cents. difficult lo estimate its iiTiportance to the wlieat 

grower. If you will act as my guide in this 
matter I will give the charcoal a fair trial on a 
liberal scale, and report the result of the experi- 
ment to the public. 

Whilst I have my pen in hand I will add a 
Mr. Miller, an ingenious saddler, of Loihian I few remark-son the article in your November 



IMPORTANT INVENTION FOR CONTROL. 
LING UNRULY HORSES. 



street, Edmburgh, has devised a mode capable of 
preventing even the strongest and wildest horse 
from escaping ihe control of its rider or driver. 
On Wednesday last, Mr. Miller made a public 
trial of his invention in Q,ueen street, in the pre- 
sence of Professor Dick, Ah". Wordsworth, and 
anumberof individuals, includingseveral of the 
country gentlemen, and all of approved know- 



number from an Engli.-h wheat farmer in favor 
of thin sowing. Have you ever seen the views 
of Lorrain, one of Pennsylvania's most intelli- 
gent, practical farmers, in opposition to the sys- 
tem advocated by Messrs. Davis & Johnstone? 
They have been published for many years, and 
should be in the library of every farmer in the 
wheat region. Imbued bv nature with an in- 



ledge. For this purpose, a strong, active, hard- 1 'e'leci strongly resembling that of Dr. Franklin, 
pulling, and notorious rim-away horse, was pro- 'he brings everything to the tests cf common 
cured, and yoke(\ in a gig, when Mr. Miller bold- ; sense and sound philosophy, and I think if you 
ly took his seat, and requested some of the com- 1 ^^ill refer to his essay in favor of thick seeding, 
pany to irritate the animal, with which desire i jou will be struck with his great superiority 
they reluciantly complied. Off set the horse, | over the Englishmen in all the qualities which 
but he had scarcely made a few springs, when should recommend his opinions to weight with 
Mr. Miller at once subdued him, bringing him ' farmers. Without at present, in this hurried 
tea literal stand. This was repeated several I letter, confining myself literally to his book, I 
times, every means being employed to provoke ! will endeavor to recall some of the reasons upon 
still further, the restive animal ; but he was as { which he bases his opinions. 1. When you 
often brought up by Mr. Miller, and apparently sow thin, say three pecks to the acre, as sug- 
wiih a ready facility. All present expressed I gested by the Englishman, you have it thinned 
themselves delighted and surprised, not more by |siill more by the fly, and then by the winter's 
the efficiency than the neatness and simpliciiy ' f'osis, and not unfrcquenlly by other accidental 
of the inveniion. The apparatus can, we un-' causes, some one of which is continually com- 
dersiand, be obtained at a trifling cost, and can, \ ruining havoc upon it from the period of seeding 
besirles, be u.sed with any harness or riding- :''il ihe genial weather of the spring enables it; 

: to escape from its destroyers. U'hen if the land 
is rich, it tillers in proportion to the spaces be- 



bridle, without alleration. 

British Jlmerican Cultivator. 



For the Southern Planter. 

CHARCOAL. 

Mr. EUtor, — The recent investigations of the 
French chemists, together with the learned re- 
searches of Liebig, have given such importance 



lo charcoal as a preventive of rust in wheat, 
that many of my neighbors, as well as myself, 

are very much inclined to test its efficacy by than it is possible for them to produce when 
Vol. IV,-3 



Iween the plants, and forms huge tnssoci-;.=, in 
which the roots are so closel}'' matted together, 
that it is impossible they can gather nutriment 
so readil}' fiom the soil, as the same number 
of original roots which are distributed equally 
through it. Again, he argues from the plainest 
principles of vegetable physiology that the same 
number of ears, supported and nourished by a 
greater number of original roots, must be capa- 
ble of producing much n.ore and better grain 



10 



TtlE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



nourished by a much less number of roots of 
the same description. Of course it would be a 
legitimate corollary to assert that as thicker 
sowing produces more original xoo\s than thinner 
sowing, it must be more productive, even when 
only tlie same number of stems and ears are 
produced by both modes of seeding. Thick 
sowing he thinks acts like suckering, as it re- 
duces the number of stems from each plant. — 
This he farther illustrates by reference to va- 
rious fruit-bearing tillering plants. Those who 
sucker ma'rze know very well that three or four 
stalks grown in one cluster from three or four 
grains, will yield far more and belter grain than 
the same number of stalks grown in the same 
way from one grain. The stems produced by 
tillering, form roots, but like all other roots formed 
by suckers, they are not, neither will they be- 
come so perfect, while they attach to the parent 
plant ; like young animals, they more or less 
depend on it for support, and like them, prove 
powerful exhausters, until they are separated 
from it. This is clearly seen in orchards, &c. 
&c. These and other striking views he sus- 
tains by the experience of a lifetime and by the 
uniform practice of all those portions of Europe, 
distinguished for their intelligence and agricul- 
tural skill. 

Under the influence of these views of Mr. 
Lorraine, I have sown this year upwards of 
four hundred bushels of wheat on about two 
hundred and twenty-five acres. A portion of 
the land is clover ley, part tobacco ground, and 
the residue corn land — nearly all of it very rich. 
The seedsman varied the quantity according to 
circumstances, falling below one and a half bush- 
els on parts of the corn land, and rising as high 
on the richer portions of clover ley and tobacco 
land as two and a half, and perhaps occasionally 
three bushels per acre. Some of my neighbors 
who are the advocates of thin sowing, have 
seeded at the rate of one bushel to the acre on 
precisely similar land and about the same time. 
This will afford a tolerably fair test of the re- 
spective merits of the two modes, the result of 
which I will give you next summer. 
Yours, respectfully, 

W. M. Peyton. 

Big Lick, Roanoke, JVov. 29, 1843. 

Mr. Peyton seems rather sceptical upon the 
subject of charcoal proving a preventive of rust, 
and assuredly the very contradictory results of 
reported experiments authorise us to doubt the 
fact. But we would suggest to our friend, that 
paradoxical as it may seem, it is perhaps not 
less to its tendency to advance than its properly 
of retarding vegetation, that its efficacy as a 
preventive of rust may be attributed. The 
great value of charcoal as a fertilizer is sup- 



posed to consist in its well known power of 
condensing the fertilizing gases within its pores, 
which it gradually yields to the requirements of 
the roots of growing plants. Various opinions 
exist as to the cause of rust, but we believe Mr. 
Peyton's notion, and the one most commonly 
received, is, that it arises from an excess of sti- 
mulus furnished the plant, about the time of 
its maturity, by the peculiar weather which fre- 
quently attends that period of its growth. If 
the stimulating gases thus generated are con- 
densed in the pores of the charcoal, the injury 
which they would otherwise inflict rnay be pre- 
vented, and this we imagine is the operation to 
which Mr. Peyton alludes as the "retarding 
principle." But if the charcoal acts as a re- 
tainer of the gases which are generated at other 
stages of vegetation, and thus stores up for fu- 
ture use food that would otherwise be dissipated 
and lost, it may in this way Itasten the m.aturity 
of the wheat so far, as to take it out of danger 
from that peculiar spell of weather, which is 
supposed to produce the rust, and which gener- 
ally occurs about the critical period at which 
the seed matures, under ordinaiy circumstances. 

For particular directions for the use of char- 
coal, we refer Mr. Peyton to an article in another 
part of this number. 

We shall be very much obliged to Mr. Peyton 
for the result of his experiments next summer, 
and hope they will go far to settle this vexed 
question of thick and thin seeding. Whatever 
may be the proper quantity of seed for the Eng- 
lish farmer, we are very sure more will be re- 
quired for the American cultivator, as a very 
large allowance must be made for the greater 
destruction of seed in this country, arising from 
the fly, and our more imperfect and slovenly 
mode of cultivation. We do not think Mr. Lor- 
raine's arguments conclusive against the English- 
man, and should be glad to see the subject far- 
ther discussed by our correspondents ; presuming 
always that we, and we believe our readers too, 
consider statements of facts far more conclusive 
and satisfactory, than any a priori reasoning, no 
matter how ingenious or plausible it may appear. 



From the Farmers' Journal. 
CABBAGE HEADS FROM STUMPS. 

Friend Cole, — I do not know all that your 
Boston gardeners are up to, but T do know, that 
if cabbage slumps of any variety are set out in 
the spring in good order, that one, two, three, or 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



11 



even four good sound heads will grow on them — 
and this they will do year afier year, until they 
die by accident. 

They are managed in the following manner: 
When the npper, narrov) leaved ones, which 
would bear seed, are carefully rubbed off, and 
likewise all the lower, round leaved ones, which 
will form heads except the number the strengih 
of the stump and soil are capable of bringing 
lo perfection. 

At our cattle show, last week, Mr. John Drew 
presented several such stumps, with one to four 
heads of low Dutch cabbage on each, which 
have borne for three years. He sets them out 
in earth in the cellar in autumn, cuts off the 
heads when required for use, and places them 
pretty thick in the garden in spring. The labor 
is trifling, the cut worm gives no trouble, and 
the crop sure and abundant. 

J.iMEs Bates. 

Norrids-ewock, Me., Oct. 18, 1843. 



For the Southern Planter. 
HERDSGRASS. 

-J\Ir. 'Editor., — Having it in view to commence 
the seeding of herdsgrass, I was much gratified 



at seeing a short communication on the subject in 
your Oclober number, from your Nottoway corre- 
spondent, P. E. W., with which I was much 
pleased as far as it went, but as I am a beginner 
with that kind of grass, and as there is none raised 
in my neighborhood, may I be permittefl through 
you to ask him and ail others who may see my 
request and have experience on the subject, to 
throw a little more light 1 Now I design my 
first effort to be on thin land which grew corn 
the present year, (not with the view of raising 
hay) and wish to be informed in what propor- 
tions the oats and herdsgrass seed should be 
mixed, and whether the grass seed will bear 
being got in with small turning ploughs, that 
being the mode in which I propose to get in the 
oats? whether herdsgrass will take on wheat 
land, seeded in winter or spring 1 and what pre- 
paration is necessary, time of seeding, quantity 
of seed, &c. for a hay meadow ? 

The information asked for above, together 
with an}' further inforiuation which may be ne- 
cessary on such a subject, will be acceptable to 
me, and perhaps may be so to others of your 
readers. 

A Subscriber. 

Powhatan, JVov. 25, 1843. 



THE MEASURING CROSS. 
5 '•• 




We are indebted to a correspondent of the 
"Albany Cultivator" for the following descrip- 
tion of a simple device for measuring heights. 
It is probably novel to many of our readers, and 
may be at some time or other useful to all : 

^'■Messrs. Editors, — When I was a little boy, 
I heard a very les-rned and scientific gentleman, 



a native of Germany, describe to my father, an 
easy method of ascertaining the exact height of 
a tree, monument, or any other perpendicular 
object, by means of what I have called, at the 
head of this article, the Measuring Cross. As 
a knowledge of this may add to the farmer's 
stock of useful information, 1 communicate it for 
his special benefit. 

" In tliis diagram, a, c, and b, d, represent the 



12 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



cross 10 be used ; a, c, and b, d, being of equal 
lensih, each pi'eciselj' tivclve inches, h, d, must 
be inserted in ihe centre of a, c, at b. Then go 
towards the object jou design measuring, plac- 
ing I ho end of the cross d, on yoiir chin, or up- 
per lip, or any other part of the face on a level 
with the eje, until the top of the object at g, 
and the end of the transverse piece of the cross 
at a, form the right hue g, o, y, uiih the eye at 
e; and the bottom w foot of the object at ?', and 
the lower end of the transverse jiiece at c, form 
the right line i, c, h, with the eye as before. — 
Then from the spot lohere you stand, to the base of 
the object, is itr, exact height. 

" In this way, any person, though ignorant of 
the principles of trigonometry, may measure 
correctly a tree, for example, the height of which 
he is desirous of knowing before he falls ir, so 
ihat he may be assured it will afford him a piece 
of limber of the requisite length for some parti- 
cular purpose." 



From the American Agriculturist. 

LOTION FOR A BRUISE OR SPRAIN. 

In a letter from Mrs. Susetie Andrieu, a wo- 
man who, by instinct, experience, and talent, is, 
as I ain persuaded, the best nurse in these 
Unitsd States, I find the following recipe for 
sprains and bruises. My system has always 
been to spread such ihinizs far and wide, for the 
benefit of humanity and the brute creation. In 
every f.imdy there sliould be a cominon-place 
bock, in which such things should be entered or 
p:vsied, fur ah hough we ofien hear of cures fcr 
burns, scalds, sprauis, colics, &c., when these oc- 
cur, we have either forgotten the materinls or ihe 
proportions, or we have them not at hand. How 
many farmers are there who have such a thing as 
a set of phleuies to bleed a horse, or a boitle with 
the neck of it wr.ipperl with twine, ready to ad- 
minister a drench ? But to the ]3resrripiion for a 
bruise or sprain: 1 pint soft soap, 1 pmi strong 
vinegar, 1 handful of table-salt, a table spoonful 
of saltpetre. I, S. S. 



For the Southern Planter. 

POUDRETTE. 

Jtl/'. Eiitor, — Having procured through a 
friend in Richmond five barrels of poudreite from 
you, I have delayed making any report regarrl- 
ing the result of my experiment until 1 had jra- 
thered all my corn, it being my single object to 
arrive at the true state of the case. 1 had 
bought it time enough to have planted it with 
rny corn, but it did not reach me until my corn 
was all up. with the exception of a small piece 
of new ground. I planted one-half of this with 
corn, and immediately before covering the corn, 
put a g-iU and a half of poudrette on it, and 



then with ihe hoe covered it slightly with earth : 
the other half of the lot I planted without ma- 
nure of any sort. As this lot was near my 
house I took a good rrany of my friends at dif- 
ferent stages of the corn to see if they could 
'.ell an}' difference between that which had, and 
that which had not, the poudieite. They never 
could discern any. I often asked the hands if 
they could see an}' difference at the time ihey 
were working the corn ; they said they could 
see none. I used it also on peas, cabbage plants, 
and beets, but without seeing any benefit. I 
put thiee iDarrels, at the rate of a gill and a half 
to the hill, on corn that was up in different parts 
of the field, on poor land, and on rich land, but 
could see no difference. I had taken up the 
most exalted opinion of it from what I had seen 
in the Cultivator, and from my friend Mr. Wood- 
fin's reports of its action upon his land, and al- 
though I have been disappointed in it, 1 am 
confident if under the superintendence of Mr. 
Woodfin, poudrette were manufactured in your 
vicinity, it would meet with a ready sale. I 
may further state to you that scaicely one gill 
of the five barrels was used without uiy obser- 
vation; that 1 found in every barrel shavings, 
window gluss, earthenware, &c. I do not, in 
the least, attach to you any blame in this n al- 
ter; on the contrary, 1 think the farmers of Vir- 
ginia are under lasting obliiiations io }oufor 
what has been done through your very useful 
paper in awakening a spiiit of improvement 
throughout our State. You, therefore, have 
done nothing in reference to the above but what 
was highly coimnendable, in bringing before 
the formers of this State an article that if ma- 
nufactured upon Mr. Woodfin's plan, would be 
highly beneficial to farmers living remote fiom 
large cities. 

A query to the admirei^s of Liebig. I/iebig 
ascribes the value of gypsum to its giving a 
fixed condition to the ammonia which is brought 
into the soil for the nutrition of plants. Now, 
is not ammonia in lesser or greater proportions 
everywhere; why then does not gypsum act 
everywhere? 

James Fife. 

Charlottesville, Dec.l, 1843. 

We could fill a number by publishing all the 
testimonials we have received of the utter worih- 
lessness of the article we sold last spring as 
poudrette. Mr. Minor himself must by this 
time be convinced that he was grossly imposed 
on in the article he sent us. 



GREEN CORN-STALKS MAKE RICH MILK. 

At a late meeting of the Farmers' Club in 
New York, Mr. Morris, of Morrisania, stated 
that he kept a dairy of a hundred and twenty- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



13 



six cows 10 supply the York market wiih milk. ] 
That he feeds ihem on green corn — he sows his 
own broadcast — and sajs it makes belier and 
richer milk than any other feed he has used, and ; 
there can be no doubi that it produces more pro- 1 
vender, by the use, than any other vegetable. — 
IVIr. Morris's plan coincides exactly wiih onr no- 
tion. So much saccharine matter as corn-stalks 
yield, nnist make rich milk. — Farmers' Gazette, 
JVew Haven. 



From the South-Weslern Farmer. 

, August 7, 1842. 

'I'O THE LADIES. 

Will yon allow a gentleman with an indefi- ' 
nite age, an admirer of domestic econoiny, to tell i 
you how 10 remove grease spots from 3'our me- : 
rinoes, silks, &c. without injuring their color?. 
Or the cufF and collar of your husbands' coats '< 
can also be cleaned in the savne manner ; in short, ! 
any article that may be desired, but it is more 
particularly applicable to such as are made up 
of n-Qol or of which it forms a part. 

Take the yolk of an eirg, entirely free from 
the white, mix it with a litile warm water, (be 
sure not to seal 1 the egg) and with a soft brush 
apply the mixture and rub it on the spot 
until the grease appears removed or loose. — 
Wash off the egg with moderately warm water, 
and finally rinse off the whole with clean colil 
water. Should not all the grease be removed, 
w?iich may ari.se from being on a long liine, or 
not sufficiency washed, dry and repeal ihe oper- 
ation. 

Some years ago, I was in company with a lady 
who wore a splendid merino sha^vl, and in pass- 
ing the wheel of a carringe, she got her shawl 
badly smeared wiih tar and grease. 1 saw she 
was much mortified at the accident, and 1 im- 
rne'diaiely applied the above remedy, and in a 
few minutes all was sunshine again. I don't 
pretend to say the lady lost her teiiiper. Oh no, 
not I. 

Try it and let us know the result. 

J. E. W. 

P. S. — If there is a nap on the article, brush 
with it. 

J. E. W. is a genllernan of veracity. We 
vouch for him. — Eds. Farmer. 



that the blades which spring from it will be uni- 
form, and present the same health}' appearance, 
anil will maintain the sair.e equality tmiil the 
time of harvesting. Thus instead of having so 
great a proportion of small weakW stocks start 
from diseased or pinched kernels, which can ne- 
ver produce any thing but small straw and con- 
sequently wheat of an inferior quality, the whole 
will stand a fair chance to come to maturity, di- 
vested of i7iany evils which attend the sowing of 
grain where sifiing is neglected. 

Btit, says the reader, this important discovery 
of which 3'ou speak, don't amount to an}' thing 
afierall. It has lieen known foryears, that tosift 
out the small grains from seed-wheat is a good 
idea, and it is now generally piaciised aii:ong our 
best farmers. I will re.-pecifully ask such, have 
you ever known sifiing carried to the extent I pro- 
pose? If 3'Ou have not, 3'ou ]<now but little of 
the real benefits that will result from this disco- 
very and practice in accordance with its rea- 
sonable theory. 

I am informed that Isaac Bowels, Esq. of this 
town, tried the experiment the past season, and 
the result was what we had pood reason to ex- 
pect, the most perfect growth of wheat he has 
ever raised. 1 believe if this practice should be 
adopted generally by the farmers of this Slate, the 
quality and quantity of the wheat crop would in 
a very few years be increased one-quarter by the 
simple process of sifting seed in the proportion 
I have named, and no farmer need be afraid of 
injuring his seed by carrying the piinciple 10 
loo great an extreme. The improvement is 
within the reach of ever}' farmer, and he can 
satisfy himself on this point. — JSlaine Farmer, 



IMPROVEMENT IN SELECTING SEED 
WHEAT. 

In the selection of seed-wheat, take at least 
six bushels of a good quality, then take a seive 
or screen with holes suff.cienijy large, so that 5 
bushel.:? of the 6 will pass throu;.'h it. The one 
bushel that remains will be kernels of the largest 
size, and this should be used for seed. When 
this seed is sown and gerrainaies, it will be found 



" SELECTED." 

Why does the Southern Planter of Richmond, 
Virginia, place the word "selected" at the bot- 
tom of articles selected from our journal? 'J he 
credit is due us, and we should have it. We 
refer the Editor to his Noveniber nuniber, and 
he will see that in two instances, he has with- 
held that justice which, in common cotirtcsy, he 
ought to have awarded us. — /S. W. Farmer. 

In our editorial career we have always endea- 
vored to be scrupulously exact in rendering "unto 
Ccesar the things that are CfEsar's" — and to be 
thought wanting in courtesy towards a cotem- 
porary for whom wc entertain so high a resjject 
as the South- Western Farmer, is peculiaily 
painful to us. We have never hesitated to ap- 
propriate to our own columns a good article 
when found in our exchange papers, and this 
transfer we have ever esleerred the highest 
compliment we could pay to the paper. But to 
appropriate it, and luiljully to withhold the credit, 



14 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



would be little better than highway robbery. 
But there are various reasons why we may copy 
an article and be unable to credit it to the proper 
source. In the first place, suppose we wish to 
transfer the article on "Small Farms," credited 
to "Ex. paper," as it appears in the number 
of the South-Western Farmer under date of 
October 27, 1843, how shall we make it? If 
we are ignorant of the Editor with whom it 
originated, is not " selected'' the proper term to 
appl}' to it? It is true that the articles copied 
into our November number are not thus marked 
in the Farmer, and we do not now recollect 
whence we obtained them, but think it very 
likely that we copied thenn from some other pa- 
per where they were marked as extracts or se- 
lections ; or it may be, that from the manner in 
which they appeared in the South-Western Far- 
mer, we did not know them to be originals. Our 
own custom is to lead our editorials; conse- 
quently every thing in the Planter that is not 
leaded, or from a correspondent, is copied. This 
habit of designating editorials by the use of 
particular type we had supposed obtained uni- 
versally amongst the craft, but since our atten- 
tion has been called to it, we observe that the 
editorials of the S. W. Farirjcr are printed in a 
great variety of type, and perhaps it is intended 
that every thing that is not credited shall be 
understood as original. 

We hope we have been successful in our en- 
deavor to satisfy our brother editors of the Far- 
mer that we may have copied an article from 
their paper and marked it as selected, without 
having been guitly of the dishonest design of 
robbing them of any of the merit to which they 
are so justly entitled. 



foddered twentj-six head of cattle and yoimg 
horses on cornsialks cut up at the roois before 
frost, on to which, after being run through a pa- 
tent cutting box and well wet, was put from 
two to four quarts per day to each head, of corn 
and ccb meal. My cows gave milk all winter, 
and nearly up to calving ; and all my neat slock, 
with one or two exceptions, would, if any acci- 
dent had happened to them, have been ready 
for the butcher. 

I saved foiu* hundred dollars in wintering my 
stock, admitting hay to be worth fouileen dol- 
lars per ton, which was the case here that win- 
ter. I have a portable horse power, which I 
think will turn the crusher, and stormy days in 
winter, my help can be employed in grinding, 
instead of keeping under the feet of the women, 
who must necessarily be employed about the 
house. 

Yours, truly, J. W. Smith. 

Maumee City, Ohio, 1843. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 
CRUSHING CORN— CORNSTALKS. 

Messrs. Gaylord <Sf Tucker, — I do not intend 
passing another winter withoitt a corn and cob 
crusher. During the winter of 1840-41, I 
hauled my corn to a bark mill, run it through, 
and then hauled it ten miles to a grist mill, and 
got it ground coarse, and never but in one in- 
stance did 1 get my grist without going twice 
for it. 'I'his you will say was paying dear for 
the whistle, and so it was; but I thought it 
paying dearer still, to see my working cattle 
voiding unmasticated, full one-half the corn they 
ate. 

In 1841-2, 1 hauled m.y corn to a steam mill 
in town, and paid one sixth for toll, besides pay- 
ing five dollars to get the thing started ; and I 



For the Southern Planter. 

Barren Hill, JYotioivay, Bee. 7, 1843. 

Mr. Editor, — Enclosed I send you my sub- 
scription to the Planter for 1844. I had intended 
along with it to have sent you the accurate re- 
sults, ascertained by weight or measure, of some 
experiments made by me this year to test the 
relative value of several substances used as ma- 
nure ; but having been prevented frorn attending 
personally to the gathering of the crop upon 
which they were applied, I can only give the 
apparent results. 

On the 29th of January last I scattered green 
sand in ten rows, eight feet wide and twenty 
yards apart, over a wheat lot, the wheat being 
an inch or so high. On the 4th of March I 
sowed this lot in clover. I could perceive no 
other effect on the wheat except a slight differ- 
ence in color, that on the marled rows being 
rather greener than the rest; but the clover 
came up thicker throughout these vows, and the 
weeds which succeeded stood several inches 
higher than the average of the lot. 

About the same time (viz: 4th of March) I 
scattered several rows of this earth over oats 
just seeded upon land very poor, dry and sandy, 
sowing at the same time clo\-er seed over these 
rows; and also on rows alongside upon which 
no green sand was put. I could perceive no 
effect upon the oats. The clover came up much 
thicker upon the green sand, and has flourished 
surprisingly for such land, while that on the 
rows alongside has nearly perished cut. 

On the 24lh, 25ih and 26lh April, after corn 
was covered in planting, I put dry, unlcached 
ashes on ihree rows of corn, about a handful to 
a hill. Then wet, leached ashes to the three 
next rows; then green sand to the three next; then 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



1; 



nothing on the three next ; then coal ashes and 
din (obiained from a spot upon which a kiln of 
charcoal ^vas burned several years before,) on 
the three next rows, and so on, aliernalely, over 
about an acre. The corn over this space was 
extraordinary, far superior to the rest of the 
field ; but owing to the hands, on gathering the 
corn, throwing two rows together, instead of 
three, as I directed, the corn treated with these 
several manures, was so mingled, that I lost the 
chance of testing their relative value. 

Do you ever, Mr. Editor, now-a-days, see any 
thingin the Cultivator or elsewhere, about green 
sand, Jersey marl, or "gypseous earth," as Mr. 
Rufiin terms it? Since I dropped the Cultiva- 
tor for the Planter, I have scarcely seen any ac- 
count of this article, upon which such hopes of 
improvement in New Jersey were founded se- 
veral 3'ear3 ago, although Virginia has as much 
to hope from this particular substance (if it be 
indeed valuable) as any other State. Professor 
Rogers, (from whose description of it, and whose 
suggestion that it would, probably, be found far 
higher up the country than the shell marl — I 
discovered it in 1835 — ) thought very highly of 
it. Mr. l\ufRn experimented with it, sometimes 
with very favorable results, though he always 
seemed to entertain a low estimate of its value, 
compared to shell marl, though this may have 
been owing to his having used indifferent de- 
posits, as it is probable that some beds are far 
superior in quality to others of the same mate- 
rial. I was in Mr. Puffin's office in Petersburg 
in 1841, and mentioned to him that I had dis- 
coverd another bed of green sand in cleaning 
out a sulphur spring; that I found the veins of 
water forming the spring to rise through this 
bed. He observed that that fact accounted for 
the qualiiy of the water, and the green sand 
was the source whence the sulphureous quality 
was derived. I took a lump of this article from 
his office home, and found .upon comparison 
with mine that it was of a much paler color, 
and cruinbled almost as easily as sand, while 
mine had nearly as much cohesion as clay. 

By giving some late account of this article 
in 3'our January number, either original or se- 
lected, you will very much oblige 

Your friend, Sh.irpe Carter. 



handkerchief into the hand of the person drow- 
ning, who would be thus kept floating and easily 
conveyed to the shore. 



PRESERVATION FROM DROWNING. 

Take a silk handkerchief, and spreading it on 
the ground, place a hat on the centre, with the 
crown upward in the ordinary position of wear- 
intr; and gather up the corners, giving thern a 
twi.st to keep 1 hem more securely together. The 
person may then venture into the water, without 
being in any fear of the drowning person taking 
hold of him, as the quantity of air contained in 
the hat is sufficient to sui)porl two persons ; or it 
might be advisable to put the corners of the 



For the Southern Planter. 

THRESHING MACHINE. 

Mr. Editor, — 1 wish to know if there is such 
a thing in use as a small wheat thresher, to go 
with one or two horses, that will thresh froin 
ICO to 150 bushels per day, to occupy but a 
small space, and to cost from twenty to forty 
dollars. If our machinists have not yet con- 
structed such a machine, they should do so as 
soon as possible ; for such an one is more needed 
in North Carolina by the small farmers than 
any thing else. 

An Inquirer. 

Plymouth, JV. C, Dec. 4, 1843. 

We have had a great many applications for 
a small, cheap threshing machine, and noticing 
one at New York this fall that struck our fancy, 
we purchased it, and are in daily expectation 
of its arrivaL Our opinion of its merits were 
founded altogether upon an examination of the 
machine as it stood, and from the lepiesentations 
of others who had tried it. After we have 
tested it a while, we will know more about it, 
and if it does not belie its promise, we shall make 
arrangements for a constant supply of them. 

This machine is calculated for two horses, and 
it was said, would get out a hundred bushels a 
day in the most perfect manner. The horse 
power will cost about sixty or seventy, and the 
thresher about thirty dollars. And we think we 
are waranted in saying that these prices are 
about as low as a really good substantial article 
can be offered at. 



SALT A PREVENTIVE OF SMUT. 
To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Sir, — In perusing the pages of your excellent 
journal, I find salt recommended as a fertilizer; 
although my experience with this mineral is 
very limited, still such as it is, I have concluded 
to give it to you. 

A few years since my crop of wheat was so 
badly injured by the smut, that I determined 1 
would not use it for seed, and I, therefore, pur- 
chased from a neighbor a few bushels that was 
clean and good. I found, however, that I had 
not near enough to finish my crop, and hav- 
ing heard that salt sowed with wheat would 
prevent the smut, I resolved to make the experi- 
ment. Accordingly, I took my smutty wheat 
and washed it, and mixed with it while it was 



16 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



yel wet, about a quart of salt to each half bushel ; 
and wiih it finisherl sowing m_y crop. 

When I hrirvcsied ihe crop, I found the wheal 
purchased of my neiijhbor nuich injured by ihe 
smut, but my sahed wheat was emirely free 
from this disease, and so superior in quaniily 
and quality, thai 1 believe if 1 had let alone ni}' 
neighbor's clean wheat, and sowed my whole 
crop of my oivn smutty wheat, thus prepared, 
I should have made one hundred bushels more 
than I did. 

In ihe spring of 1842 I tried a similar experi- 
ment on a kw bushels of smooth chaff spring 
wheat, which was much affected with the smut. 
I washed and mixed as above, about a quart to 
the half bushel, and sowed it by the side of the 
same wheat without this prepaiaiion. IVIy 
salted wheat grew about six inches liigher than 
the other, and yielded me twenty bushels to one 
seeded; whilst the other did not yield half that 
quantity. 

Respectfully your obedient servant, 

A. Lee. 

Patrick Co., Va., J^uvemher, 18-43. 



The Editor of the "American Farmer," from 
whose paper we extract the following essa}', 
well remarks, that it is suited to other regions 
of our country as well as to Maryland : 

PRIZE ESSAY 

Read bffore the Prince George's County Jigricul- 
tural Society, JVovembcr 2, 1S43, on the Best 
System of Farming, adojited to the Tobacco 
Growing Region of Maryland. 

BY WALTER W. \V. EOWIE, ESQ. 

The best s3'stem of farming, adapted to the 
tobacco legion of Maryland will, I am inclined 
to believe, be found upon trial to be similar to 
the one hereinafter detailed. I set out upon the 
principle as if it were admitted, (or 1 believe 
that it cannot be denied) that small farms are 
most productive. Although 1 take as a ixiodel, a 
farm of four hundred acres, it being considered 
a medium sized farm in this region, yet I be- 
lieve, as the number of acres are diminished, the 
rate of product to the amount of capital will be 
increased. 

No farm should be over four hundred acres. 
If a man owns eight hundred acres, he should 
divide it into two farms, and if he has not the 
force to work both, and cannot rent one out, he 
had better let it be idle. On a farm of this size, 
sixty acres in wood is enough and ten acres 
about his house, for garden, pleasure ground, 
stables and small lot for a thousand purposes, 
too tedious to mention. Thirty acres should be 
put down to grass, not in one body, but in five 
different lots, selected over the whole farm with 
a view to the nature of the ground and general 



convenience. These should be well set in grass, 
and one top dressed every year, thus each one 
would receive a dressing every five years. — 
Three of these should be mown for hay each 
year, the other two might be pastured. This 
would give twelve acres of early and late pas- 
ture for the stock when your clover was getting 
up in the spring, and when it had declined in 
the autumn. '1 hus one hundred acres of the 
fi\rm are disposed of The balance should be 
accurately divided into four fields, of seventy- 
five acres each, to be worked thus — No. 1, No. 
2, in rye and oats, and set to clover; No. 3, in 
corn; No. 4, in tobacco and wheat. 'J'hat is, 
75 acres in pasture — 35 in oats, and 40 rye — 
75 in corn — and 40 in tobacco and 35 in wheat. 
By this course, it will be perceived that 225 
acres are in cultivation each year. And only one 
field fitllowed each year. Ihe routine would be 
this: Of one field, 35 acres, would be put in 
wheat, on fallow, and 40 in tobacco. These 
crops to be followed by corn, and it by rye and 
oats, and clover and timothy mixed, sowed with 
the grain. To enable you to do this, ihere must 
be employed, including the overseer, a force of 
thirteen good hands — say six men, three women 
and three gills or boys, over ten years of age. 
Wiih such a force, e\ery thing ran be kept in 
good onler. I would advise ihe keeping of eight 
good oxen, being fully enough for two carts, and 
seven good woik horses with nn idle hack pony, 
assomeiimesa make-shift. With good nianage- 
ment and ordinary seasons, this farm, and this 
force, would make the following crop: 

40,0C0 lbs. tobacco, at $4, $1,600 

350 bbls. corn for sale, at $2, 700 

SCO bushels of wheat, at 80 cts. 400 
2(0 bushels of rye, at 50 cents, 100 
600 bushels of oats, at 20 cents, 100 
Of slock, wool, &c. 200 

Hay, 2 CO 



Whole amount, $3,300 

But after a series of years, this amount would 
be greatly increased by the improved condition 
of the farm. 1 would use no manure or plaster 
on the tobacco or wheat crop — but all should 
go upon the corn land, and used in top-dressing 
the young clover and one of the grass lots. — 
There should be applied lo the corn ground at 
least twenty loads to the acre, on all that part 
on which tobacco grew, which would be eight 
hundred loads, the wheat stubble and weeds 
ploughed in green, would be a stifficient manur- 
ing for that part of the fielil, if two bushels of 
plaster per acre was applied prior lo turning in 
the weeds and stubble. By such an application 
their decomposition would be increased, and the 
ammonia and other gases, which ought to be 
generated, could be fixed in the soil, and retained 
for that greedy king of plants. Each of these 
lots of grass, being six acres, would require one 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



17 



hundred loads of manure, this would make nine 
hundred loads, and one hundred more would be 
required for the tobacco beds. Independent of 
this one thousand loads of manure per annum, I 
would recommend the purchase of one thousand 
bushels of ashes or lime, and one hundred bushels 
of plaster. It will be asked " how is all ihis to be 
raised and spread, and the crop managed with 
the number of hands you have named V I an- 
swer by having a man in addition to the number 
named, who with a good horse cart, and the se- 
venth horse, will, having nothing else to do, secure 
the amount of manure, and find time to go to 
town and sell what otherwise would be lost, and 
bring back the ashes or lime. He could be con- 
stantly employed in bringing litter, weeds, grass, 
leaves, muck, rich earth and mud, and carrying 
out return loads of first rate manure. Beside, 
the cattle could all be soiled until, say the 1st of 
July. He could cut the grass and feed it to them 
in racks, keeping them in pen No. 1 for a month, 
keeping it well littered all the time. Then put 
them in pen No. 2, and while he carted out the 
contents of pen No. 1, he could bring return loads 
to keep pen No. 2 well littered. This processof 
manure-making would be greatly aided by keep- 
ing all your hogs in the pens with the cattle. 
These pens should be about half an acre in size, 
with fine shade trees or good sheds, to protect 
the stock from the heat of the sun, and the hard 
rains of summer. When the stock are about 
to be removed from one pen to another, take all 
hands in and make up the manure heap, and if 
a rainy day comes or the earth is not fit to work, 
or a leisure hour or so offers, take every body 
there, with carts and wagons and run it off in 
a huiTy to the land where it is needed. Then 
spread it, and leave it till you wish to work the 
land. If you desire to get the ivhole benefit of 
the manure, spread one bushel of plaster over it 
as soon as spread. But, before scraping this 
manure into heaps, if you have bought lime, the 
proper course would have been to spread over 
the whole pen, lime enough to make the entire 
surface look white ; if you do this, you then 
have a valua,ble compost. This man, horse and 
cart, will be worth three hundred dollars at least 
to the farm per year. He will be a hand in the 
crop, at harvest, planting and housing tobacco, 
and in seeding grain. When the hogs are put 
up in pens to fatten, they should have clean, 
dry beds every day. The pens should be often 
cleaned out, and fresh leaves or straw, or what 
is very good, corn-stalks with blades, shucks 
and tops all on. By this means the hogs being 
kept dry and warm, fatten faster, and thirty 
hogs thus kept well bedded will yield in six 
weeks, sixty loads of manure. In every farmer's 
kitchen-yard should be a sink, for the reception 
of ashes, sweepings of the house and yard, the 
contents of house-buckets, soapsuds, weeds and 
grass from garden and yard, soot from chimneys, 
Vol. 1V.-3 



cleanings of poultry-houses and coops, and in- 
deed a general depository for all that would 
otherwise be offensive to the sense, and every 
way inconvenient. By having it all concen- 
trated in one spot, and sometimes throwing over 
it a little dry straw or litter, and sometimes half 
a peck of lime, it is never in any way offensive, 
and the back yard is kept clean and neat, while 
there is accumulating a treasure for the farmer. 
B}' strict attention to this sink, fifty to seventy- 
five loads of manure, worth fully as much as 
ashes, will be saved in one year. By these se- 
veral means, it will not be questioned but that 
the one thousand loads could with little trouble 
be secured. 

In the corn field, five acres should be taken 
off for a "truck patch." These five should be 
the poorest in the field, they will thereby be 
made rich. Half an acre of this patch should 
be put in sugar beet, one-fourth of an acre in 
ruta baga, one-fourth in white turnip, one acre 
in c^raiings, squash and pumpkins, and the 
other three acres in potatoes. Pumpkin seed 
should be stuck over the whole corn field, it is 
easily done when you go to thin and "sucker" 
the corn. By this imeasure, you obtain a fine 
supply of food for your hogs and cattle. Take 
care, however, to reserve your turnips for your 
ewes in lambing season, which cut up fine, and 
sprinkled over well with meal and some salt 
added, will greatly benefit your sheep, and pays 
you ten times for your trouble. You will get 
$2 60 for a lamb of the same age that would 
not bring $1 50, raised upon the old plan of 
" letting the sheep take care of themselves" 

As to the amount of stock proper to be kept 
on a four hundred acre farm, I would observe, 
that it is best to keep but little stock and keep 
that little well. One himdred sheep might be 
kept, if of the Southdown breed, if of the larger 
and more consuming kind — eighty would be 
enough. Six milch cows would be amply suf- 
ficient, unless making butter should, from your 
vicinity to market, be an object. Eight work 
steers and fen or eleven young cattle, in all, 
twenty-five head. Eight hoises and about 
twenty-five or thirty hogs. This would be am- 
ply sufficient for the use of the farm. 



TOBACCO PRIZE. 

We have been informed by several of the 
most judicious tobacco planters in Louisa that 
having tried the prize described in the last May 
number of the Planter, they are fully satisfied 
it is by far the best ever used. W^e have been 
requested to call the public attention to this 
subject. 

Mr. William Thompson, of Louisa county, 
is the inventor of this prize, ai.d as he is now in 



18 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



the progress of obtaining a patent for it, Ave are 
desired to forewarn all persons from using it 
"without his consent, which maj^ be obtained by 
the payment of five dollars for an individual 
right. 

A model, with particular directions for con- 
struction, has been left at this ofSce. 



■ .. \ GREEN SAND, 

In compliance with the request of our re- 
spected correspondent, Mr. S. Carter, we pro- 
ceed to give our readers such information as we 
can glean from our books upon the subject of 
green sand. 

Like other compound substances, its action is 
various, uncertain, and perhaps, inscrutable. — 
Its beneficial influence was formerly attributed 
to the potash which it contains, and more latterly 
it was imagined that its chief value consisted 
in the silicate of potash it furnished ; this is the 
substance furnished by common glass, on ac- 
count of which Llebig and others have recom- 
mended it as a manure for wheat. But at the 
present day, much virtue is attributed to the 
protoxide of iron, which is invariably found in 
this substance. 

Be that as it may, although New Jersey and 
Delaware furnish the largest beds yet discovered 
of this valuable mineral, yet it undoubtedly 
abounds in Virginia to a considerable extent ; 
and although there may be occasional differences, 
in the proportions and combination of the mate- 
rials of the substance, as it is found in different 
places, we presume, that, in the general, what 
is true of the New Jersey sand is more or less 
applicable to this mineral wherever found. It 
is, therefore, from the " Report of the Geological 
Survey of New Jersey," by Professor Rogers, 
that we principally quote : 

" For judging of the quality of a marl by 
observation, says Professor Rogers, 'some fami- 
liarity with the multiform aspects which it as- 
sumes is indispensable. The leading rule, how- 
ever, is to bear in mind that the fertilizing effi- 
cacy of the compound resides in the minute, 
round, greenish grains which compose most, or 
sometimes all of it ; and that it seems, moreover, 
to be dependent upon the proportion in these 
green grains of those powerful alkaline stimu- 
lants to vegetation, potash and lime, but espe- 
cially potash. The first thing, then, is to ap- 
proximate to the relative quantity of the green 
grains in the whole mass, and this may be ef- 
fected with a greater or less degree of accuracy 



in several ways. The simplest and readiest 
method is to employ a small pocket magnifying 
glass, and to become familiar with the dark 
green grains, so as to distinguish them at once 
from other dark varieties of sand which som.e- 
times occur associated with them. A little prac- 
tice will very soon enable one to use the glass 
expertly, and to arrive at a ])retty true estimate 
of the probable per centage of the green granules. 
But as these granules cannot sometimes be dis^ 
tinguished from the grains of ordinary white 
flinty sand, or from other kinds, in consequence 
of the particles being aU alike coated with a 
thin film of the dark cemiCnting clay, it will be 
useful to adopt some method of bringing out, 
under the magnifier, their different characteris- 
tics of color and form. Let the mass be washed 
in a large glass lumber, and repeatedly agitated 
with the water, until as much of the clay as 
possible has been detached fiom the grains, — 
After pouring off" the turbid water by repeated 
rinsings, and permitting it to settle until clear, 
we may estimate the comparative quantity of 
clay in different marls by the relative amount 
of sediment which subsides. If we wish to be 
more accurate, we can weigh out a given quan- 
tity of the marl, then pursue the above plan, and 
decant the clear water from the clay, and after 
thoroughly drying the clay, weigh it to ascer- 
tain its amount. Having got away most of 
the clay, we should spread out the granular mat- 
ter upon a sheet of paper and dry it, when there 
will be no further difficulty in distinguishing, by 
their color and lustre, the foreign impurities from 
the grains of true marl, and also of estirraiing 
the relative abundance of each. When the marl 
to be examined contains much clay, I would re- 
commend the experiments to be made upon a 
regularly weighed quantitj', weighing both the 
clayey and the gianular portions. A delicate 
apothecary's balance will commonly be found 
accmate enough. Another more expeditious, 
though less accurate ir.eihod, is merely to dry 
the n)arl, spread it extremely thin upon a sheet 
of white paper, and then hold it near a window, 
or in the light, to examine it carefully by the 
magnifier. The flinty sand, though stained with 
clay, may then be clearly discerned in conse- 
quence of its transparency ; whereas, when we 
inspect a solid lump, all the particles upon the 
surface are nearly alike dark. 

" 'A useful suggestion is, to place a portion of 
the marl upon a hot shovel, or on the top of a 
stove, when all the granules will change from 
their ordinar^y green tint to a light red or brick 
color, while the other materials of the mass sus- 
tain little alteration. This will ofien render ob- 
vious to the naked eye the proportion of the 
green grains. 

"' When there is a yellowish or whitish in- 
crustation upon the marl after the moist surface 
has remained for some time exposed to the wea- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



19 



ther, it is indicative of tiie existence of a portion 
of eitiier copperas or sulphate of alumina, the 
hurtful nature of which has already been ex- 
plained. 

" 'An astringent inkj taste will very often de- 
tect the presence of these noxious substances 
at times when no such efflorescence shows it- 
self. If the quantit}'- be too small to betray 
them distinctly to the palate, and we are still in 
doubt as to their presence, other more rigorous 
tests are within our reach ; and as these astrin- 
gent matters are so unquestionably pernicious in 
their action, it is of importance to have the means 
of determining in what proportion they abound 
in different marls. This can be effected v.'ith 
precision only by a sy.=;tematic chemical analj'sis, 
but iheir existence can be made to appear by the 
following simple tests. Put a small portion of 
the marl in a flask or other thin glass vessel; 
pour upon it some pure water, and heat it mo- 
derately ; after causing the water to dissolve in 
this way as much as possible, remove the heat, 
and lei; it settle ; then decant the clear fiuid into 
some glass vessel, such as a wine-glass. If 
there is any copperas present, it will be evident 
upon adding to the fluid a little lime water, which 
will produce a milky turbidness that after a little 
whds will become stained of a yellowish brown 
color. The milkiness is owing to the formation 
of gypsum, and the brown color to oxide of iron 
from the copperas. Or, in lieu of this, add a 
solution of oak bark, and, if copperas be pre- 
sent, v;e shall ha,ve a dark inky color at once 
produced. 

" 'A good marl will, upon being squeezed in 
the hand, fall asun.ler again, rather than bake 
into a tough doughy mass; and upon being left 
in heaps to dry, will assume a light grayish 
green color, and be extremely crumbly. It seems 
to be a very general characteristic of the better 
class of marls, that they throw out a white efflo- 
rescence or crust upon those grains which are 
most exposed to the air ; hence the very light 
color externally which some heaps of marl pos- 
sess. This crust I have already shown to con- 
sist usually of the sulphate of lime (gypsum), 
sulphate of mngnesia, and carbonate of lime. 
A drop or two of strong vinegar, or any strong 
acid, v/iU produce an effervescence or frothing, 
if it be the carbonate of lime; and should no- 
thing of this kind take place, we may set it 
down to be gypsum. Of course, from the mi- 
nuteness of the quantity of the white coating, 
much care and accuracy of observation are de- 
manded in doing this, in order to avoid erroneous 
conclusions. 

" ' iVTarls dec ced equally good with the kind 
showing the efflorescence, very frequently occur, 
exhibiting none of the white incrustation. 

" ' It does not seem that any general rule can 
be given for distinguishing the fertilizing proper- 
ties of a marl by its mere color, as it must ap- 



pear from what has been said, that the peculiar 
shade of color is frequently owing to the color 
of the intermingled clay. When the mass, how- 
ever, is comparatively free from clay or common 
sand, and consists of little else than the green 
sand, observations go to show that the rather 
dark green variety is more potent in its effects 
iban the very light green which sometim.es over- 
lies it. 

" ' The presence or absence of shells I look 
i-ipon to be a point of but little moment, for I 
find that several of the most active marls in the 
region show no traces of fossils. The whole 
amount of carbonate of lime in the shape of 
fossils, and in that of the occasional while in- 
crustation upon the grains, can in very few in- 
stances amount to one per cent. ; while, as ana- 
lysis shows, that lime chemically combined with 
the other ingredients in the greeit grains, is 
sometimes one per cent., and the potash nearly 
twelve per cent.' '' 

The following facts are stated by Professor 
Rogers, in proof of the value of this manure : 

"Mr. Woolley mjanured a piece of land in the 
proportion of two hundred loads of good stable 
manure to the acre, apptying upon an adjacent 
tract of the same soil his mail in the ratio of 
about twenty loads per acre. The crops, which 
were timothy and clover, were much heavier 
upon the section which had received the marl; 
and there was this additional fact greatly in fa- 
vor of the fossil manure over the putrescent one, 
that the soil was also entirel}' free from weeds, 
while (he stable m.anure had rendered its own 
crop very foul. 

"This green sand stratum at Poplar Swamp 
seems to be almost entirely free from any sul- 
phate of iron or other astringent material, and 
as a consequence the crops seem not to be 
scorched by an extra dose, however lavishly 
applied. 

"There can be no doubt that twenty loads of 
marl per acre must be regarded as an unneces- 
sarily bountiful dressing; but, computing the 
relative cost of the two manures, v.'hen employed 
in the ratio above stated, we find a considerable 
disparity in favor of the green sand. Placing 
the home value of farm-yard manure at one hun- 
dred cents for each two-horse load, and that of 
the marl at twenty-five cents per load, we have 
the expense of manuring one acre two hundred 
dollars ; of marling the same, five dollars. 

"This being an experiment, an extravagantly 
large dressing of m.anure was employed, but not 
exceeding the usual average application more 
than the twenty loads of marl surpassed what 
was necessary. 

" Experience has already shown that land 
once ampl}' marled retains its fertility with little 
diminution for at least ten or twelve years, if 



20 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



care be had not to crop it too severely ; while 
with all practicable precaution the stable manure 
must be renewed at least three times in that in- 
terval to maintain in the soil a corresponding 
degree of vigor. 

"At the Squankum pits, which are very ex- 
tensive, the marl is sold at the rate of ihirty-seven 
and a half cents the load, itie purchaser having 
to dig it. It is transported by wagons to a dis- 
tance, in some directions, of twent}' miles, and 
retailed, when hauled that far, at the rate of ten, 
or even twelve and a half cents per bushel, be- 
ing very profitably spread upon the soil in the 
small proportion of twenty-five or even twenty 
bushels to the acre." 

As to the quantity, and manner of application, 
Professor Booth in his report of the geological 
survey of the State of Delaware, remarks ; 

" In what manner and in what quantity 
should the green sand be applied 1 All varieties 
of the marl are more or less compact, when 
freshly extracted from the pit, and if applied in 
such a state, would be unequally distributed 
over the soil ; and hence the first precaution is 
to suffer it to be exposed to the air for a few 
days, according to its compactness or tenacity, 
in order that it may crumble to powder, if pos- 
sible ; for the finer the pulverization, as shown 
of lime, the greater will be the immediate benefit. 
There is another advantage attending this delay, 
that we may then observe the efflorescence, and 
obviate its ill effects by lime. Indeed, in a ma- 
jority of cases, the addition of lime in small 
quantity will prove serviceable, since it is gener- 
ally wanting in the pure green varieties, and 
yet it is an important requisite in the fixed con- 
stituents of vegetables. The most economical 
method of applying the marl as above proposed, 
will be to cart it from the pits immediately into 
ttie fields to which it is to be applied, to throw 
it into heaps at convenient distances for spread- 
ing, and then to put a small quantity of lime on 
each heap, which should remain exposed to the 
9.ir for a longer time. In regard to the quantity 
to be applied, a variety of opinions exist; and 
hence from fifty to one thousand Uushels per 
acre have been tried, with and without success. 
A little attention to the theory of its operation 
will enable us to approximate to the true pro- 
portion. Its strong bases appear to act on the 
organic matter in the soil, and to combine with 
it ; hence it would be useless to apply a large 
cpiantity to a poor and light soil, for which sixty 
to one hundred bushels would suffice ; but a 
clayey soil would be rendered looser by it ; and 
as there is usually more organic matter present 
in such a case, from one hundred to two hun- 
dred may be employed with advantage. Where 
the land is already of good quality, from two 
hundred to five hundred may be used, according 



to its richness and tenacity. Many persons be- 
lieve that because one kind of marl is inferior to 
another, a much larger quantity will be required ; 
but the truth is, that the differences, although 
important, are less so than is generally believed, 
and should not lead to the employment of quan- 
tities greater than have just been enumerated. 
Notwithstanding the effects of marl will be 
shown to be striking on ordinary, and even on 
very poor land, yet it is essential that the soil 
should contain a fair pioportion of organic mat- 
ter, in order to reap the highest benefit from it. 
Hence the failure of some experiments made 
with the green sand; for, although it stands su- 
perior to lime in requiring the presence or addi- 
tion of less organic manure, slill the views of- 
fered to explain its mode of action show the ne- 
cessity of some organic materials on which to 
operate, and this conclusion is strengthened by 
experience. 

" The difficulty of overcoming prejudice is 
clearly exemplified in the progressive employ- 
ment of green sand in Delaware. One of the 
first experiments made with it in St. George's 
hundred may probably be dated as far back as 
the year 1826, when a small quantity was 
drawn out from the site of the canal. One spot 
of ground where this was applied was observed 
in 1837 on the farm of Jamies Wilson, eleven 
years after its application ; and although that 
soil had received no other assistance, a luxuriant 
growth of corn clearly pointed out the limit to 
which it had been spread." 



PAYMENT IN ADVANCE. 
We have always been satisfied of the policy, 
we might almost say, necessity, of requiring 
payment in advance for a dollar paper ; but last 
year we were overpersuaded to adopt the plan 
of giving a credit of sixty days. To insure 
the payment of the dollar, w-e fixed the price of 
the paper at one dollar and fifty cents, unless 
the payment was made within the sixty days. 
We found the penal clause totally inoperative 
in practice. We felt as much repugnance to 
demand, as our subscribers did to pay, the extra 
fifty cents, and in no one case did we ever re- 
ceive it, and yet there were hundreds of cases, 
not only where the penalty was incurred but 
where the subscription is still due us. Expe- 
rience having thus satisfied us of the advantage 
of the old rule, of payment in advance, we 
adopted it for the present volume. We have 
received several communications from some of 
our best friends, expressing the opinion that in 
doing so we had committed an error. They 
are afraid we will give offence to some of our 
subscribers, and they think we overrate the trou- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



21 



ble and loss that we anticipate from the neces- 
sity of dunning our subscribers for so small a 
sum. Only for the purpose of affording them 
an opportunity of seeing to what we are some- 
times subjected when we ask for payment after 
the service is rendered, we publish the following 
letter, received by the mail this morning: 

" C. T. BoTTS : 

"Sir, — As you offered the postmaster fifty 
cents to collect the pitiful sum of one dollar and 
fifty cents, my subscription to the Planter, 1 en- 
close you one dollar and keep fifty cents for my 
trouble, and will be very much obliged to you 
to discontinue it, as it is of no account to me 
and very little to others. 

Yours, J. H. Taylor. 

Union Village, Va., Dec. 16, 1S43." 

We have stated, that in no case had we de- 
manded or received more than the dollar. But 
at the end of the year, finding several hundred 
dollars still due us, (much of it, no doubt, from 
the most excusable forgetfulness on the part of 
subscribers) we were compelled to make out the 
bills and send them to somebody for collection. 
Of course, we could ask no such favor of any 
one as to collect these bills without charge ; we, 
therefore, offered the several postmasters the extra 



fifty cents to which we were justly entitled, if 
they chose to charge it, for making the collec- 
tion. It is this which has excited the spirit 
which evidently dictated Mr. Taylor's letter. — 
After permitting this "pitiful sum" to remain 
due for nearly twelve months, he takes offence 
at our offering the postmaster one-third of it to 
make the collection. We think the postmaster 
would have had much more reason to complain, 
if we had done as we suppose Mr. Taylor would 
have had us, asked him to do it for nothing. 

All these disagreeable consequences are avoid- 
ed by requiring the payment in advance, and to 
this rule we mean most tenaciouslj' to adhere 
hereafter. If any friend feel inclined to take 
offence at our failing to send him the paper 
without the monej'-, we hope he will reflect upon 
the necessity of our establishing some general 
rule, and the confusion that would ensue from 
deviating from it in particular instances. 

We must say, however, that about the richest 
thing of the season is, the idea of Mr. Taylor's 
charging us this commission for collecting the 
debt of himself. On the whole we are per- 
fectly satisfied, and consider Mr. Taylor's charge 
quite moderate for the " trouble" he must have 
had in making the collection. 



SUB-SOIL PLOUGH 




b 



The subject of sub-soil ploughing has attracted 
great attention in this country as well as in Eu- 
rope; its beneficial effects areuniversally admitted, 
but the operation is complained of as tedious and 
laborious in the extreme. To overcome these 
difficulties, Yankee ingenuity has originated 
several modifications in the implement ; one of 
them is described in the following letter to the 
Editor of the "American Agriculturist." We 
are not altogether satisfied with this plough of 
Mr. Cornell's, and we extract the article in part 
as a provocative to communications from some 



Virginia farmers who we understand have been 
using, with great success, an implement proba- 
bly better calculated, at least, for our own mode 
of farming. 

Messrs. A. B. <§■ R. L. Allen, — Having be- 
come satisfied of the utility of sub-soil plough- 
ing, and equally well satisfied that the heavy, 
ungainly English plough, hitherto introduced 
into this country, is not well calculated for the pur- 
poses of the American farmers, I herewith give 
you a rough sketch of a sub-soil plough, that I 
think will perform the office of loosening the 
sub-soil in a better manner than any with which 



22 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



I am acquciinled. It consists of three coulters 
set in a beam, one twelve inches in advance of 
the other, and varying four inches from a right 
line, as is seen by the mortices in the top view 
of the beam, in the sketch. 

It will work best to follow in the furrow of 
the common plough, cutting a twelve inch fur- 
row. It may be guaged to a suitable depth hy 
raising or lowering the wheel. The clevis should 
be so arranged that the line of draught will be 
in line with the left side of the beam, which will 
allow the plough to keep its place in the furrow, 
when the team follows the furrow of the surface 
soil plough. The manner in which the coulters 
are set, will prevent clogging, and assist in the 
performance of the work, as each coulter has a 
slice of four inches only to pare off or loosen, in 
most soils. One pair of horses would be team 
enough to plough six or eight inches deep, with 
the above plough. If you have one team with 
the surface soil plough working seven inches 
deep, and one on the sub-soil plough working 
eight inches, this would stir the ground to the 
depth of fifteen inches. Where it is desirable 
to go deeper, I would plough eight, nine or ten 
inches deep with the surface sod plough, and 
the same depth with the sub-soil plough. 

The coulters are made of wrought iron, with 
steel points, and when they become dull they 
can he taken out and sharpened by any black- 
smith that can shoe a horse. The price of a 
subsoil plough, with three teeth, as above, would 
be about $10, one with four teeth, $12. 

Yours, &c. E. Cornell. 



AGRICULTURAL ADVANTAGES OF 
VIRGINIA. 

It is with great pleasure we lay the following 
letter, addressed to the Editor of the American 
Agriculturist, before our readers. The author, 
formerly of Spottsylvania county, is well known 
to many of our readers as one of the most intel- 
ligent and valuable citizens that the " Old Do- 
minion," in her unbounded generosity, has ever 
bestowed upon her sister States. Hundreds 
who have arrived at the estate of manhood 
since his removal from his native Stale, and who 
formerly bore towards him the relation of pupil 
to teacher, entertain for his memory sentiments 
of the most unbounded esteem and veneration. 
To the agricultural world Mr. Lewis is known 
as one of the most distinguished writers, and 
the most practical farmer of his day. He is re- 
siding probably in one of the most desirable 
parts of one of the richest States of the West ; 
at any rate he is intimately acquainted with 
that country and with this, and yet he does not 
hesitate to speak of lower Virginia as fully 



equal, all things considered, to any country he 
has ever seen. Will not the western emigrant 
pause before such testimony, from such a source 1 
Indeed the whole current of public opinion 
abroad confirms the idea that we have so strenu- 
ously endeavored to inculcate, that Virginia is a 
place rather to be emigrated to, than from. 

We were fortunate enough to make the per- 
sonal acquaintance of Mr. Lewis during the last 
summer, and though for his agricultural com- 
munications in the general, he could find no 
more worthy or suitable organ than the 'Agri- 
culturist," yet we had hoped, that when the 
subject was so peculiarly our own, he would 
not have forgotten, that there was a journal 
published in his native State, that would always 
be proud and happy to afford him the means of 
direct communication with the friends and asso- 
I ciates of his early days. 

Llangollen, Ky., Oct. 23, 1843. 

Dear Sir, — After a lapse of eleven years, I 
have paid a visit to Virginia, my native State. 
Feeling a deep and filial interest in her prosperity, 
and in the welfare of her inhabitants, many of 
whom are my relations and friends, and all of 
them a noble race of generous, hospitable, and 
patriotic men, my attention was naluialij' turned 
to their agricalture — the basis of national pros- 
perity, individual comfort, and independence. 

When Heft the Slate,a rapid tide of emigi'ation 
to the south and west, was sweeping away much 
of her population and v/ealth, especially from the 
seaboard, and that portion of the Slate lying be- 
tween the southwest mountains, and the head of 
tide-water in her fine navigable rivers. These are 
the sand-stone, quartz, and granite regions of 
Virginia ; in many places underlaied by fine ar- 
gillaceous earth. From ihebaseof thesouihwest 
or little mountains westward, and from the valley, 
there was less emigration. Their argillaceous, 
calcareous, and slaty lands, adapted to wheat, 
grass, tobacco, and corn, withstood more firmly 
the impoverishing efTects of a system of culti- 
vation, which, though not so defective as that 
practised in the lower country, was far from the 
best now in use. Gypsum and clover found 
their way into the counties of Loudoun, Albe- 
marle, and other upland counties, long before I 
left the State. Timothy and other grasses for 
grazing, as well as for the scythe, were cultivated 
in the valley. But in the lower countr}', although 
a clover patch for soiling was common, and timo- 
thy and herdsgress for meadows, especially near 
the towns, were scattered through the Stale, there 
were but few fields of clover laid down for the 
improvement of the soil, and the timothy mea- 
dows were soon supplanted by broom-straia. To 
Col. John Ti^ylor, of Caroline, Lower Virginia 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



23 



is more indebted for his Orator and his agriciil- 
lural conversations, than even the United States 
are for his pohtical writings; and to .Mr. Ruffin, 
ihe Editor of the Farmers' Register, and the 
auilior of the essay on Calcareous Manures, the 
people of Lower Virginia, and indeed of the 
whole tide-water coimtry on the Atlantic sea- 
board, owe a large debt of gratitude. 

In the Yallej' (fine limestone and slate lands,) 
the grasses and clover, together with wheat and 
corn, are extensively cultivated. Large herds 
of cattle and hogs are raised or fed for market, 
and the improvement of their lands is in exact 
proportion to the attention paid to grasses and 
clover, and the observance of an ameliorating 
rotation of crops. 

On the southern side of the Southwest moun- 
tains, clover, tobacco, wheat and corn, constitute 
the staples. I call clover one of the staples, be- 
cause I consider it the tasis of all good and pro- 
fitable cuhivation in that region ; and it is cer- 
tainly more extensively used than when 1 left 
the Slate. Hence the lands of those who use 
it are irpproving. 

In the upper end of Louisa county, there are 
between ten and twelve thousand acres of land, 
(once in my opinion the bottom of a lake drained 
by the South Anna, one of the branches of the 
Pamunkey river,) remarkable for the production 
of wheat. There is perhaps no equal area of 
finer land for wheat in the world. 'I'hey are 
called the Green Springs land. Mingled with 
the gray argillaceous loam of these lands, there 
is much comminuted shot-iron ore. Can it be 
that this, disintegrating and mixing with the 
soil, attracts and fixes the amnionia, thus ren- 
dering the land so suitable for wheat? The in- 
telligent landholders here use clover and grasses, 
and their lands are. improving beyond their great 
natural fertility. 

For some twenty miles below the Green 
Springs, the lands are very unequal in quality, 
and in the degree of improvement. Some judi- 
cious farmers, husbandmg their manure, and 
cultivating clover, although growers of tobacco, 
are improving their lands. But the majority, I 
fear, are still pursuing the old ruinous system of 
exhausting crops without proper rotation, and 
without cultivated grasses to cover their naked 
fields. Such, when their lands are worn to the 
bone, and from the want of returns to the soil, 
will be forced to emigrate. These lands are 
quartz ore, with much silicious gravel. 

Passing lo\ver down, there is a strip of land 
on both sides of the North Anna, in Spottsylva- 
nia and Louisa counties, and the lower part of 
Orange, known as the Forks and Ducking-Hole 
neighborhoods, in which the lands are essen- 
tially different from the quartz ore and silicious 
lands above and below ihern. They are undu- 
lating and hilly, with boulders of granite and 
gneis.?, I believe, scattered sparsely over the 



lands, but in greater abundance near the North 
Anna. Much of this disintegrated rock is min- 
gled with the argillaceous loam, and wherever 
It appears, the lands are productive in their ori- 
ginal state, capable of easy and great improve- 
ment, and very lasting. Every particle of ma- 
nure tells, and every leaf of clover adds to the 
fertility of this fine land. Its owners are becom- 
ing aware of its comparative value. Many of 
them are improving it steadily with clover and 
manures, and they are reaping the rich rewards 
of their labor. 

From this strip of land to the head of tide- 
water on the rivers, the lands are more sandy, 
and poorer, except on the streams, where the 
bottoms are rich alluvial, and the hillsides facing 
the streams, good tobacco lands, where they 
have not been worn out by successive crops, 
without returns of animals or vegetable matter 
to the soil. In this section of the State, there 
has been less general improvement than above 
or below, although I know that clover and gyp- 
sum, as well as barn-yard manure, ensure good 
returns for their liberal use. I'he spirit of im- 
provement has reached some of the farmers and 
planters in this region ; but they are rare excep- 
tions to the general rule. Corn, wheat, and to- 
bacco are the staples. 

Below the head of fide-water, great improve- 
miCnt on many farms has been the result of 
marling, and the successful introduction of the 
cultivated grasses and clover. You have doubt- 
less seen an account of the wheat crop at West- 
over, and other places on James river, averaging 
thirty bushels to the acre. The use of marl, 
and the practice of covering the fields with 
grasses, is extending in all that region, so that 
the first lands settled in Virginia, and greatly 
exhausted hy injudicious cultivation, are now, 
in my opinion, becoming the most valuable lands 
in the State. The means of improvement are 
as inexhaustible as the marl-banks; and the fa- 
cilities of transportation, both for this, as well as 
for the productions of the farms, greater than in 
any other portion of the Slate. 

The ploughs and farming tools generall)' are 
much improved since I left the Stale. Good 
rollers, threshing machines, and reaping ma- 
chines, are now in use. Two of the latter, one 
of which I saw, have been used near Richmond 
the last season, and I heard both spoken of as 
answering well. They are Hussey's, and 
M'Cormick's. 

I was particularly struck with the improved 
style of farming in the neighborhood of Rich- 
mond. They have discovered that their lands, 
even those that arc very .sandy, can, by judicious 
management, be covered with grass. And this 
is the basis of agricultural improvement. When- 
ever the fields can be covered with a good coat 
of grass, so great a return of vegetable matter 
and manure from the animals consuming it, 



24 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



either on the fields or from soiHng, or in the form 
of hay, is, or may be made to the lands, that, 
with a judicious rotation of crops, instead of 
wearing out or deteriorating, the lands will be- 
come richer and more productive. The alluvial 
lands below tide-water were naturally very fer- 
tile, and those that were exhausted from long 
and unchanged crops, are, I believe, now recover- 
ing their pristine fertility under a better system. 
What a fine country it is ! and what a fine race 
of men inhabit it ! — Intellectual, brave, generous, 
and hospitable. There are no men in the world 
superior to the descendants of the cavaliers in 
Old Virginia. Many of them have removed to 
the west and the south, actuated by the spirit of 
adventure, or driven by necessity, or lured by the 
wiles of land speculators, or dazzled and blinded 
by the brightness of better lands beyond the 
mountains. Let those who remain in Lower 
Yn-ginia, and who can now barely live on their 
lands, instantly begin to improve them. They 
are eo.sily improved; and when improved, are 
more valuable than any they will obtain farther 
from the seaboard at the price of their improve- 
ments. Let them bear in mind, that land v.'hich 
brings only ten bushels of wheat, or twenty of 
corn to the acre, luhere these articles can be sold 
for ten dollars per acre only, is more valuable 
for cultivation, than land which will bring double 
those quantities, where the prices for them will 
be less for the produce of an acre. When oats 
were worth thirty cents a bushel, and corn fifty 
cents, in the city of Richmond, we could with 
difficulty obtain twelve cents for oats, and twenty 
cents for corn. Last year corn sold at twelve 
cents per bushel in Louisville. 

Many years ago, the Hon. James M. Garnett, 
one of nature's noblemen, whose death we have 
been lately called to deplore, in an address to the 
Agricultural Society of Fredericksburg, of which 
I was at that time a member, stated some cases 
in which manure from cow-pens, I think, per- 
mitted to remain on the surface for some time 
before it was mingled with the soil by plough- 
ing, seemed to produce a more beneficial effect 
on the crop, than when immediately turned un- 
der. The idea was considered novel at that time. 
But in conversing with a very intelligent, ob- 
serving, practical farmer near Richmond, during 
my late trip to Virginia, he assured me that his 
own experience bad convinced him of its truth. 
And I observed in returning home, that many 
of the excellent farmers in Lancaster county, 
Pennsylvania, through which I passed on the 
way from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, plough their 
lands first, then scatter the lime and manure and 
then barely mingle them with the surface-soil, 
by a light second ploughing, instead of turning 
them deeply under. Now, as these men are 
successful practical tillers of the earth, I pre- 
sume they would not pursue a system in the 
application of manure, unless experience had de- 



monstrated its advantages. Is more fertilizing 
matter attracted from the atmosphere than is 
lost by evaporation ? 

I had no adequate idea of the quantity of 
lime used in the agriculture of Pennsylvania, 
till I passed through the State, and saw the nu- 
merous lime-kilns, and the piles of lime in the 
fields. What this substance is effecting for the 
interior, marl is doing for the seaboard. But the 
facilities of transportation, wiihout the payment 
of tolls on turnpikes or railroads, gives a decided 
advantage to the dwellers on the navigable ri- 
vers, bays, and shores of the Atlantic. 

With due attention to a proper rotation of 
crops, the collection and application of manure, 
marl, green sand, and lime, with, in all cases, a 
good cover of grass or clover, when the fields 
are not in summer cultivation, the land from 
Boston to Florida point, in my humble opinion, 
will be the most valuable in America; and cer- 
tainly none along this extended line more valua- 
ble for soil, climate, or the productions to which 
they are adapted, than those of Lower Virginia. 
Let them appreciate their natural advantages, 
and improve them, and they need not encounter 
the toil, anxiety, and expense of removal to 
other localities less favored in all respects except 
one — richer land, less productive of profit though 
than theirs, if only moderately improved and 
properly cultivated. John Lewis. 



CONTENTS OF NO. I. 

Poudretti — Mr. Cooke's statement, p. 1 . A card from 
Mr. Minor concerning, p. 1. 

Emigration to Virginia— IjRnds near Petersburg re- 
commended to northern emigrants, p. 4. 

Oxen — Northern oxen quicker than horses, p. 4. 

Breeders' Convention — Result of that held in New 
York, p. 4. 

Vine — To preserve from bugs and worms, p. 5. 

Fence — Plan of a moveable one, with a cut, p. 6. 

Charcoal — Directions for using as a fertilizer, p. 7. 

Licbig — Criticised, p. 7. 

Pndt — How to make an tmprodactive fruit tree bear, 
p. 8. 

Bread — Value of ripe bread, p. 8. 

Ditches — Plan of making blind ditches, p. 8. 

Horses — An invention for controlling unruly horses, 9. 

Wheat — Thick and thin sowing, p. 9. 

Bust— Can it be prevented by charcoal 1 p. 10. 

Herdsgrass — Information wanted, p. 11. 

Heights — Fixture for measuring heights, p. 11. 

Bruises — A lotion for bruises and sprains, p. 12. 

Poudrette—Mr. Fife's experience with, p. 12. 

Grease — To remove grease from garments, p. 13. 

Seed Wheat — How to select it, p. 13. 

Feeding — Economy of crushing com and -cutting 
stalks, p. 14. 

E.rperinients-^With green sand and ashes, p. 14. 

Drowning — To prevent, p. 15. 

Threshing Machine — A cheap one wanted, p. 15. 

Sr7iul — Prevented by salt, p. 15. 

Essay — Extracts from a prize essay on the manage- 
ment of a small farm, p. 16. 

Tobaao Prize— Mr. William Thompson's, p. 17. 

Green Sand — Treated on, p. 18. 

Pomncnt in Advance — Necessity of, p. 20. 

Sub-Soil PZo?(5-/i— Described, with a cut, p. 20. 

Virginia — Agricultural advantages of, p. 22.