THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

BeboteU to &tjrtcultunr, ffiovtUultixvz, anU the ^ousclioiu Sins. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 

Xcnophan. 


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


C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 


Vol. IV. RICHMOND, FEBRUARY, 1844. No. 2. 



THE BOMMER MANURE— PRO AND CON. 
If the inquiries with which our table is flooded 
be any test of public feeling - , we do not hesitate 
to pronounce Mr. Bommer's process the most 
prominent topic at this time before the agricul- 
tural public. Daily and hourly are we asked, 
orally and by letter, "would you advise me to 
buy this right?" Our answer has been and 
will continue to be, we will tell you all we know 
about it, and then you must exercise your own 
judgment, and buy or not upon your own re- 
sponsibility. And reader, we will tell you all 
we know about it. We have sold this right to 
some twenty or thirty individuals, and we have 
heard somewhat variant accounts of their suc- 
cess. Mr. Woodfin's unqualified approval has 
already been laid before the public. We know 
several other gentlemen who have succeeded 
entirely to their satisfaction, and are much de- 
lighted with their purchase ; we have heard of 
others who have not succeeded so well, but 
from the majority we have not heard at all. — 
We first received from Mr. Bommer a small 
pamphlet which we always suspected to be a 
very incomplete and unsatisfactory account of 
the process, which we attributed to Mr. Bom- 
mer's imperfect knowledge of the English lan- 
guage, more than to any thing else. During 
the last summer a gentleman came to us as the 
accredited agent of the patentees, highly recom- 
mended for his practical skill in erecting these 
manure heaps. He was desirous of putting up 
one or two in Virginia, that he might demon- 
strate to our farmers the value of the process. 
This was a gentleman apparently of great sa- 
gacity, perfectly familiar with the process, and 
one we thought every way qualified to do jus- 
tice to the invention. To facilitate his object, 
we introduced him to several of our most distin- 
guished farmers, and he superintended, we think, 
the erection of only three piles in Virginia. One 
of them was put up on the plantation of Gen. 
Cocke, in the county of Fluvanna, and was 
Vol. IV.— 4 



probably the largest of the three. Mr. Baer, 
the gentleman alluded to, we remember well, 
remarked to us upon his return, that on Gen. 
Cocke's farm he was supplied with every thing 
he wanted, and that upon the success of that 
pile he was willing to stake the reputation of 
the process. Yet, that pile has been compara- 
tively a failure. The General was very much 
pleased with the appearance at first, and ex- 
pressed a very favorable opinion of the value of 
the process for several weeks after the erection 
of the pile. But sometime afterwards, he in- 
formed us that he had been disappointed in the 
time required for the decomposition, it having 
been imperfectly completed in nine weeks, in- 
stead of eighteen days. The increase of weight 
too was much less than he had been lead to ex- 
pect, 41,000 lbs. of materials turning out only 
108,000, instead of 160,000 lbs. of manure. — 
We asked the General to give these particulars 
to the public, and offered him the use of our 
columns for the purpose ; but he declined doing 
so, saying that he was then putting out this 
manure in such a manner as to test its efficacy 
in comparison with stable manure. He after- 
wards informed us that the growth of the wheat 
where the Bommer manure was used, in com- 
parison with the growth where other manures 
were used, at the same rate per acre, and on a 
soil deemed of about equal strength before either 
was manured, was decidedly inferior, and that 
the superior strength, size, and verdure of the 
plants, where other manures of various kinds 
were used, began to be manifest soon after the 
vegetation of the grain, and that every succes- 
sive week left a more distinct difference between 
them. 

In the meantime, we received the new pam- 
phlet of Mr. Bommer, containing full and com- 
plete directions for the erection of these heaps. 
In this pamphlet, the proportion of chemical in- 
gredients is much greater than those used by 
Mr. Baer in the erection of his heaps, and the 



26 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



process is altogether a neater anil more work- 
manlike operation than the one practiced by 
that gentleman. We furnished General Cocke 
with one of these pamphlets, and called his at- 
tention to these circumstances. In a letter of 
December 29th, he says, " It is true that since 
I have seen the book of Mr. Bomrner I find the 
quantities of decomposing ingredients used by 
Mr. Baer, the gentleman who conducted my 
experiment, fall far short of the quantities re- 
quired to be used in Mr. Bommer's book j but 
this difference confirms me in the opinion alrea- 
dy expressed of the practical inutility of the 
process, because of the expense which it in- 
volves." Of this expense the General goes on 
to make an estimate, and he reckons it at some- 
thing more than twenty dollars an acre, and he 
concludes with the following remark, "It, there- 
fore, appears clear to me, however this plan of 
manure making may prove profitable to market 
gardeners around our cities, it cannot be adopted 
into our system of husbandry, unless I have 
fallen into some great errors of calculation, 
which, if I have, I shall be glad to have pointed 
out through the medium of your paper." 

What will be thought of our audacity, if, in 
the face of these facts, and this frightful calcu- 
lation, we should venture to persuade our readers 
not to abandon the Bommer process ? Notwith- 
standing the profound respect we entertain for 
the judgment and wisdom of Gen. Cocke, not- 
withstanding he was one of the gentlemen se- 
lected by ourself as most likely to give the pro- 
cess a full and fair trial, and notwithstanding 
his decision may be considered entirely adverse 
to our cause, so much have we permitted our- 
selves to rely upon this process for the re-estab- 
lishment of our exhausted lands, and so much 
have our hopes been strengthened by reports 
from other sources, that we cannot permit our- 
selves to despair; nay, we cannot refrain from 
entertaining the liveliest hope, that this inven- 
tion may yet prove all that the agriculturist and 
philanthropist could wish it. In the first place, 
we are satisfied from reading Mr. Bommer's 
complete work, that the piles erected by Mr. 
Baer were not put up in the best manner. The 
fact is, that gentleman was in a great hurry to 
get on to the South where he had some impor- 
tant engagements, and, in our opinion, jeopard- 
ized the character of the invention by the haste 



with which he was compelled to conduct his 
operations. Moreover, we think he erred in en- 
deavoring to cheapen too much the cost of the 
process; whereby he was induced to employ 
an insufficient quantity of the decomposing ma- 
terial. This not only retarded the decomposi- 
tion, but we believe allowed the escape of the 
fertilizing gases, and wonderfully deteriorated 
the quality of the manure. Moreover, both of 
these effects were undoubtedly much incresed 
by the extraordinary spell of rainy weather, 
which marked the last summer, and which fell 
out at the very critical period of conducting this 
pile of Gen. Cocke's. As to the General's cal- 
culation, we do think, with all due respect, he 
has fallen into "some great errors." It is im- 
possible to point out these in a definite manner 
without -betraying the materials and proportions 
used in the process, which we have no right to 
do : but this we will say, that the General's es- 
timate is founded upon a table of proportions 
furnished by Mr. Bommer in the first part of 
the pamphlet, and that it includes what we 
think an extravagant estimate of the labor em- 
ployed. But in the latter part of the work, Mr. 
Bommer expressly says that these proportions 
are only needed for the first pile, from which 
you obtain a residuum, that will enable you to 
dispense with something like two-thirds of them 
in succeeding operations. Again to those, who 
from their peculiar situation may find these ma- 
terials too costly, he offers several substitutes, 
some one of which must be found on every farm 
in America. In short, a practical and expe- 
rienced farmer sat down with us to day, and 
with the letter of Gen. Cocke containing his 
calculation before us, we came to the conclusion, 
that the decomposing materials over and above 
the labor of getting together, in other words, 
what be would be compelled to purchase, would 
cost a farmer from about $1 50 to $2 per acre, 
according to his location ; and the chief portion 
of this sum is to be expended in lime, which 
over and above the manure, is worth to the land 
all it costs. The gentleman who made the cal- 
culation was a purchaser of the right, who with 
Gen. Cocke's letter and all the facts before him, 
declined our offer of permitting him to rescind 
his bargain. 

The failure in Gen. Cocke's case amounts to 
nothing more than negative proof. That the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



27 



process is effectual and satisfactory we have the 
strongest evidence, both at home and abroad. 
A few days since, a gentleman from the county 
of Greensville called and purchased the right, 
solely from what he had seen of a neighbor's 
success. The first attempt, he stated, was an 
entire failure, and drew down the derison of his 
neighbors upon the purchaser of the supposed 
humbug; but on the second trial his success 
was Universally acknowledged to be complete, 
and it would be the cause, he thought, of many 
applications for the right. 

At the North the thing seems to be estab- 
lished. We observed a few days since, that the 
Editor of the New Haven Gazette, a gentleman 
well known even in that Athens of America 
for his literary and scientific attainments, alludes 
to the sneers with which his credulity on this 
subject was originally greeted by his neighbors, 
and seems to boast of its success as a thing 
established beyond the possibility of doubt. The 
Editor of the Agriculturist too, who seems by 
no means favorably disposed to the inventor, 
and declares the patent to be nothing more than 
an improvement upon a plan long known in 
France, says, " Mr. Bommer's method is un- 
doubtedly a good one, and if he gave it in a 
book at a reasonable price, it would be worthy 
of purchase." 

As to the book itself, although written in very 
Frenchified English, the ideas are generally 
plainly and clearly expressed, and the directions 
for the practical conduct of the process are so 
clearly given, and so well illustrated by cuts 
that they cannot be mistaken by the simplest 
capacity. But over and above the process, the 
book is replete with most valuable information 
conveyed in a style of great modesty and sim- 
plicity. 

Let it not be forgotten that we are pecuniarily 
interested in the success of this invention ; let 
our opinions, therefore, go for what they are 
worth ; the facts that we state are of course 
not affected by such an influence. 

Now, reader, we have made a clean breast, 
and you know all that we know about the 
Bornrner process ; buy or not as you please, but 
if you find yourself " stuck," don't blame us for 
selling you a humbug. 



LIEBIG. 

A correspondent has asked if we could not 
republish Dr. Mohl's review of Liebig's great 
work on vegetable ph} 7 siology, alluded to in our 
last. He says " it is very desirable that we 
should know which of his doctrines are contro- 
verted and which are sustained, as almost every 
intelligent farmer has read the work, and consi- 
dering the authority undoubted, has probably 
shaped his future course in conformity with the 
principles inculcated." 

The review is a long, scientific document, 
abounding in technical terms, which would con- 
vey very few ideas to the majority of our read- 
ers. But for the sake of those who have studied 
Liebig's work, we extract the following sum- 
mary from the translation that we have seen of 
Dr. Mohl's review : 

"It appears upon the whole that Liebig has 
not availed himself of his chemical resources to 
clear up doubtful points in the nutrition of plants. 
Contrary to the spirit of a true investigator of 
Nature, he has not formed his conclusions on 
the detailed facts of vegetable phenomena, but 
on random observations, or vague operations on 
a large scale, destitute of all precision. His 
calculations are based on arbitrary assump- 
tions. His book, therefore, far from being a 
consistent and well-digested theory, swarms with 
contradictions and false reasoning. He does not 
possess a knowledge of the most elementary 
doctrines of vegetable physiology. His asser- 
tion that physiologists have hitherto considered 
humus as the chief food of plants, is untrue. — 
The assumption that plants live merely on inor- 
ganic substances, is by no means new, but has 
long been one of the controverted points of ve- 
getable physiology. The assertion that all bo- 
tanists have doubted the absorption of carbon 
by plants, by their decomposition of carbonic 
acid, is untrue. The assertion that plants nei- 
ther absorb organic substances, nor assimilate 
them, rests on mere theoretical speculation, and 
is destitute of all proof. The statements as to 
the relation borne to the atmosphere by plants 
in the dark, is in direct opposition to every fact 
bearing on the subject. The assertion that the 
nitrogenous food of plants, and that which con- 
tains no nitrogen, are absorbed in certain propor- 
tions, is uncorroborated by the analysis of either 
the seed or the full-grown plant. The theory 
of the rotation of crops, is contrary to expe- 
rience, and unsound in its details. The asser- 
tion that plants receive their food during sum- 
mer from the atmosphere alone, is incorrect. 

" On the other hand, it cannot be denied that 
Liebig's idea that plants derive their nitrogen 



28 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



from the ammonia of the atmosphere, is very 
happy and pregnant with results. It is also 
probable that the absorption of saline bases is 
in direct ratio to the power of saturation of the 
acids formed in plants. These two views are 
a real gain to science, and it may be expected 
that his work will also have the merit of ex- 



citing others to make correct experiments on the 
nutrition of plants. But he has endeavored to 
introduce into vegetable physiology a series of 
most erroneous notions, and his unbecoming out- 
breaks against other physiologists, have proved 
him to be very little acquainted with the sub- 
jects on which his book is written." 



HAY PRESS 




Instead of being an importer, the city of Rich- 
mond ought to be an exporter of hay, and that 
to a great extent. When the Yankees behold 
the beautiful and fertile flats that border the 
James River, the Appomattox, the Chickahomi- 
ny, and the thousand streams that intersect and 
water the State, they smile at the idea of their 
sending us hay, and confess they would almost 
as soon think of sending coals to Newcastle. — 
The adaptation of the country to the production 
of the grasses and the profit of the hay crop, 
begin to be pretty generally understood, and 
many who formerly purchased their hay in the 
Richmond market, are now preparing to sell 
where they used to buy. But to render this 
product marketable, it is absolutely necessary 
that it should be compressed into bales, and 
whereas ten years ago there were probably not 
a dozen hay presses in the State of Virginia, 
we have now frequently applications for as many 
in a month. We are not very conversant with 
the article, but we know there are a great va- 



riety of them, and we presume there is great 
choice amongst them. At the last exhibition of 
the American Institute in New York, we ob- 
served a model of a press, which struck us as 
probably the simplest and best we had seen, 
and which we heard highly commended by 
some of the spectators, who professed themselves 
experienced in the use of it. We have endea- 
vored to represent it in the engraving. The 
power consists of two toggel joints, which are 
straightened by chains passing from the ends of 
the long arm of each, round a windlass. From 
the wheel of the windlass a rope is drawn by a 
capstan, at which a horse or hands may work, 
as is most convenient. As these joints are 
straightened by the revolutions of the windlass, 
the follower is of course forced up, and the hay 
compressed. As the angle made by the two 
arms of the toggel joint become greater, that is, 
as they approach a straight line, the power be- 
comes greater: this is just as it should be, for 
the more solid the mass becomes, the more need 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



29 



is there of power to compress it. There are 
various fixtures and conveniences for strapping 
the bale, lowering the follower, &c. that it is 
impossible to describe. 

We took the address of the inventor and ma- 
nufacturer of this press, and find it to be, L. 
Dedrick, Kinclerhook, Columbia County, Neiv 
York. The price was stated to be from $100 
to $120. 



CORN. 



To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Sir, — In the November number of your work 
you state that you have been informed that I 
had raised one hundred bushels of corn from an 
acre of land, and you desire me to furnish you 
with the mode of cultivation, &c, and I proceed 
to answer your inquiries, but being very much 
occupied and at the same time very unwell, you 
must excuse me if the details are not as full 
and interesting as you would expect. 

I have been a cultivator of the corn crop for 
fifteen years, and during that time have never 
failed, I believe, to make such crops as attracted 
much attention ; yet, I have always thought, 
that on our rich lands are made too much stalk 
and too little corn, and have annually complained 
of my overseers for not planting my corn thick 
enough. 

This year I determined to make an experi- 
ment of my own, uninfluenced by the advice of 
overseer or friends, several of whom remonstrated 
against the extravagance of my proposition. — 
For this purpose I selected a lot, which I con- 
sidered very good land, though not of the first 
order, as it had no previous preparation for the 
purpose, having been indifferently used for many 
years, as a horse lot, watermelon patch, cabbage 
patch, turnip patch, and sometimes cultivated 
in corn : about one-third of it, it is true, was 
used a part of the preceding fall for a short time 
as a cow pen — which, by the bye, I have always 
had reason to believe was perhaps the best pos- 
sible mode of improving land that can be adopted, 
to the extent that it can be carried ; upon the 
balance of the lot I had my stacks of top fodder. 
In the month of May I had this land ploughed 
as deep as a large two-horse plough could turn 
it, and after having it harrowed perfectly level 
and fine, I had rows opened with a coulter two 
feet apart, and on the 18th of May the corn 
was planted at the distance of nine inches in 
these rows of two feet. A simple arithmetical 
calculation will show that this would give you 
105 rows and 280 stalks in a row, which would 
make 29,400 stalks to the acre ; and if each 
stalk would bring one good ear, estimating five 
hundred ears to the barrel, which with large 
corn is an ample allowance, the product would 



be fifty-nine barrels and three bushels to the acre. 
Well, that I had no expectation of making to 
be sure, yet I thought, that by making every 
allowance for those stalks that would make no 
corn, there must still be a much larger yield (if 
it made anything) than we had been accus- 
tomed to. 

It has been my habit for many years never to 
plant corn without first soaking it well, and then 
rolling it in plaster and ashes, a practice that I 
recommend with great confidence to your read- 
ers, as it not only gives the corn an early start, 
but preserves its color even in the dryest sea- 
sons. In this case, however, the corn was 
soaked and then rolled as usual and then left 
until the land was ready to receive it, which 
being a few days later than I had contemplated, 
occasioned it all to sprout ; when it was brought 
out to be planted I found the sprouts generally 
from onedralf to an inch in length. I was at 
first doubtful whether I should plant it or not ; 
at length, I concluded, as the whole affair was 
but an experiment, I would let that go along 
with it as another experiment, that might lead 
to some practical result, intending to examine it 
on the second or third day, and if I found it 
dead to replant it ; it was planted on Friday 
evening — on the following Monday I examined 
it, and was surprised to find the corn ready to 
shoot out of the earth, and in many instances it 
had protruded ; on the next day (Tuesday) it 
might be seen from one end of the row to the 
other. 

When the corn was about eighteen inches 
high, I made a parcel of children about the 
house, under my own superintendence, drop 
about a tea-spoonful of plaster in the bud of 
each stalk, through about half the field ; but I 
was never able to see that any advantage re- 
sulted from it, which might perhaps be owing 
to the fact, that in rolling and laying in the 
plaster, the grain itself had absorbed as much 
as was necessary, or as much of the plaster had 
adhered to the grain as was necessary for the 
roots ; for many have derived great advantage 
from this mode of administering the plaster, 
when it has not been rolled. When the corn 
reached the height of about two feet, I ran the 
coulter very deep and close to the corn on each 
side. I then ran what we call a skimmer be- 
tween the rows, and had the earth thus loosened 
pulled with the hoes about the stalks as well as 
I could, in order to give some support to the 
corn, in the form of a hill. From this time the 
corn was never worked or touched ; it grew off 
so rapidly as in a short time to shade the whole 
surface of the field, so as to preserve the mois- 
ture and at the same time to check the growth 
of grass and weeds ; and at the time of gather- 
ing, it was the only part of my corn land not 
covered with crab grass ; but on that there was 
not a spire. 



30 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



The fodder was pulled at the usual time, 
which was an enormous yield, though I did not 
have it weighed ; the tops were also cut as 
usual, and then I invited several gentlemen to 
come and see the corn gathered and measured. 
Four of them came, to wit, Mr. Peter W. Grubbs, 
Mr. Fendall Griffin, Dr. Miles George, and Mr. 
Samuel Perrin. Two of these gentlemen first 
measured the land accurately, which was less 
than an acre ; the corn was then gathered, 
shucked, and measured in their presence, which 
yielded, as you have heard, one hundred bushels 
to the acre. I have never obtained a certificate 
of the facts from these gentlemen, as it was not 
my purpose to make any parade in the papers 
about it, (though I confess I think it the duty 
of every farmer to give to his brother farmers 
the results of such experiments, whether suc- 
cessful or otherwise,) and as you will probably 
have an opportunity of seeing them, or most of 
them, before I shall, I wish you would obtain 
it, and publish it in connection with this com- 
munication. 

It should be remembered that the season was 
what would generally be called a good one — 
there was an abundance of rain, but it did not 
fall in such proportions, or at such times, as I 
thought best calculated to advance the crop; 
there were only two days, however, throughout 
the season (and that at a critical stage) that it 
showed signs of suffering from drought, but of 
course it did suffer for some days before it began 
to give way. 

Thus far I have dealt in facts, but if you will 
bear with me a little while, as I have pen in 
hand, I will now indulge a little in speculation. 
The result of this experiment has served to sa- 
tisfy me, that it is practicable to make one hun- 
dred and fifty bushels to the acre on our best 
corn lands, properly prepared, and with a good 
seas0 n — though with a very dry season it might 
bring very little. In the first place, I am con- 
vinced that this lot would have yielded me much 
more than it did if it had been planted with any 
other kind of corn than that which was planted. 
Some two or three years ago, I was persuaded 
by my neighbor Burton, who was a good prac- 
tical farmer, to try what is generally known in 
that neighborhood as " Gooch's corn," which he 
represented as remarkable for producing regu- 
larly two ears to the stalk on common land — 
which my experience has taught me is a qua- 
lity peculiar to that description of corn, and will 
for that reason answer a good purpose on very 
poor land ; but it is the most indifferent corn in 
use for good land — for on the best land I have 
never been able to get more than the same two 
short ears, measuring about eight inches in 
length — and for this it must have proper room — 
while with the large eared gourd-seed corn on 
land of the same quality the yield has been 
more than double. By some mistake or negli- 



glence on the part of my overseer, who prepared 
the corn for planting, this was the corn selected, 
although I had determined never to plant an- 
other grain of it on any quality of land that I 
had. This was the only piece of corn I had of 
that description. 

Again, the ears made were small, generally 
of the size of the Baden com, which when I 
tried it, usually took 900 ears to make a barrel — 
and estimating 900 of these ears to the barrel, 
it would show that there were 18,000 stalks 
that produced, on an average, though some of 
the stalks had two ears, and by the calculation 
before made, there were 11,400 stalks that did 
not produce, which no doubt diminished in a 
great degree the product of the balance, as they 
served not only to draw heavily on the soil, but 
to crowd and prevent the free circulation of air. 
Now if these 11,400 stalks are taken out, and 
the remaining 18,000 are properly distributed, 
they would produce much larger if not a greater 
number of ears — so that by planting in rows 
three feet apart, at the distance of ten inches, it 
would give you 17,640 hills or stalks of corn, 
at which distance it must be obvious from the 
experiment already made, that every stalk would 
bear (for in that case the same number did bear, 
when crowded up with 1 1,400 that did not bear) 
a full ear ; then estimating 6G0 ears to the bar- 
rel, which would be ample, and you would have 
twenty-nine barrels and two-thirds of a barrel; 
which with the extra ears, (for many of the 
stalks would produce two) would overrun the 
thirty barrels. 

At all events, this is the experiment I mean 
to make next year, and from it, with a good 
season, I anticipate 150 bushels of corn — and I 
wish this communication may have the effect 
of inducing others to try it, if it is only upon a 
quarter of an acre. I have already laid off my 
lot and am preparing it for the trial. 

Yours, &c. Jno. M. Botts. 

Washington, Dec. 27, 1843. 

This communication was received too late for 
the January number for which it was intended. 
We have not been able to comply with Mr. 
Botts' request by obtaining the certificate he al- 
ludes to, because we have seen only two of the 
gentlemen ; but they corroborate his statement 
to the fullest extent : that is as good as if a 
thousand had certified to it. 



MANUFACTURE OF CHARCOAL. 

A new process commended in the Journal des 
Forets, for this purpose, is to fill all the interstices 
in the heap of wood to be charred with powdered 
charcoal. The product obtained is equal in eve- 
ry respect to cylinder charcoal ; and, indepen- 
dent of its quality, the quantity is very much 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



31 



greater than thatoblained by the ordinary method. 

The charcoal used to fill the interstices is that 
left on the earth after a previous burning. The 
effect is produced by preventing much of the ac- 
cess of air which occurs in the ordinary method. 
The volume of charcoal is increased a tenth, and 
its weight a fifth. 



For the Southern Planter. 

REPORT OF THE UPPER HOLE AND COR- 
. NER CLUB OF MECKLENBURG. 

The Committee appointed at the last meeting 
of the Club to report how far the existence of 
the Club has been beneficial, and what are its 
prospects of usefulness to the members and the 
community, report, 

That the great object of all agricultural asso- 
ciations is to give an impulse to agricultural 
improvement, and to elicit agricultural informa- 
tion. That an impulse has been given to im- 
provement among us, there can be no doubt, 
and chiefly through the instrumentality of this 
humble association. Men are so constituted as 
to need constant stirring up, in any good cause, 
and agriculture, more than any other interest, 
stands constantly in need of those stimulants 
that are found in a constant and faithful compa- 
rison of plans and their results ; and so varied 
are the branches connected with this interesting 
pursuit, that there is no man, however well in- 
formed in it, who may not gain some informa- 
tion by mixing and comparing notes with his 
brethren. We have in this Institution not only 
the means of deriving light from writings on 
the subject, but we can once a month become 
eye witnesses of our neighbors' improvements. 
It is not only the giving an impulse to improve- 
ment, but keeping up that impulse, and keeping 
alive our interest, that is important — and we 
know of no plan so well calculated for both 
these purposes as ours. When we ride over 
each other's farms, every thing that is calculated 
to save labor or facilitate any of the operations 
of the farm, strikes us at once, and by compa- 
rison we find out our own faults, which is indis- 
pensable to improvement. The remarks made 
on our management by the members and enforced 
more fully by the reports of the committees, are 
not likely to be soon forgotten, and however 
plain and pointed they may be, they should ever 
be regarded by the subject of them, as any thing 
but kindnesses ; for among those who constitute 
our Club, there can never be any other but kind 
motives in such remarks. Many of the Club 
think they have been benefited not only by 
seeing the operations on the f,i.rrns of others, but 
by having their zeal and interest constantly 
awaken ed. 

Your Committee feel persuaded that if our 
Club only has the effect to give an impulse to 



the interesting and important cause of agricul- 
tural improvement, it is well worthy of our per- 
severing efforts. But when they really do be- 
lieve that general good is resulting from it, and 
that it is disclosing itself on almost every farm 
in the vicinity, and that it is kindling up more 
and- more the spirit of improvement, they cannot 
but look forward with the most confident assur- 
ance, of its future usefulness. Every step that 
we take serves to convince the members of the 
Club that we have only to pursue the even tenor 
of our way to insure for this portion of the agri- 
cultural community enviable success and dis- 
tinction in the accomplishment of our great 
object. 

But there is another view in which the Com- 
mittee feel called on to speak of the beneficial 
influence of the Club of no less interest or im- 
portance than agricultural improvement, and 
that is its bearing on the improvement of the 
social feelings and relations; and in this view 
we feel assured there can be but one opinion. — 
Have not all of us been made to feel that we 
live not alone for ourselves ? Have we not felt 
like brothers of one great family ? Is there not 
a drawing together, a feelings that there exists 
among us a common interest? And do we not 
entertain a warm-hearted sympathy for and with 
one another? This is as it should be, and we 
should be bound together like a band of bro- 
thers — make common cause in behalf of agri- 
culture and social happiness, and suffer no trifling 
cause to cool our zeal or mar our good feelings. 
We have need to be united in these feelings ; 
for agriculture has to bear the brunt against the 
hostility of every other pursuit ; as if instead of 
being their " nursing mother," she were their 
deadly enemy — but we will not pursue these 
reflections farther lest we tread upon the forbidden 
ground of " politics." 

There is one more view in which the Com- 
mittee feel themselves called on to notice the 
good effect of this Association. It has driven 
the strife of party politics from the field. All 
of this Club know full well how often the har- 
mony of neighborship is interrupted by the strife 
of party. The patriot heart is often made to 
bleed over the desecration of our noble institu- 
tions to purposes of party; but the demon of 
party is not allowed to enter here. Here we 
can shake each other by the hand and no rank- 
ling spirit of opposition embitters our intercourse, 
and here we can honestly feel that our great 
object is the general good. 

With these views the Committee leave the 
subject with the Club, hoping that every man 
present feels with them on the subject, and is 
resolved that we shall hold many anniversary 
meetings, and that with every year of its exist- 
ence we may find added reasons for its continu- 
ance. A. C Morton, 

H. L. Jeffries. 



32 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



HOW TO RAISE A BLISTER. 

The Lancet gives the following quick and 
simple mode of raising a blister : 

"The surgeon cuts a piece of brown paper of 
the size and shape he intends vesicating. This 
being well damped or moistened wilh water, is 
placed on the limb affected, a smoothing iron, 
(such as is used by washer-women,) being pre- 
viously well heated, is applied over the mois- 
tened paper ; this plan produces a vesicated sur- 
face almost instantaneously, being effected by 
the steam generated by the contact of the hot 
iron and moistened paper. This method of blis- 
tering, being more speedy and less painful than 
that commonly adopied, is now generally used 
in all cases where it is a matter of importance to 
procure immediate vesication." 



keep them from wilting and fading in summer, 
when cut from the plant, they should be imme- 
diately immersed in clean water, by which the 
pores will be filled with water, and exhausiion 
prevented, and the flowers will remain in a fresh 
state. To continue them fresh, the water should 
be occasionally changed, cut off half an inch 
or an inch, of the stem, according to its length. 
This will again open the pores and a renewed 
freshness will arise. — Jimerican Flower Garden. 



For the Southern Planter. 
CURE FOR TETTER WORM, &c. 

JVLr. Editor, — I have been a subscriber to the 
Southern Planter for two years, and I have been 
much pleased and benefitted by reading it. I 
now feel a desire to throw in my mite, by in- 
forming the public the result of my experience 
in the cure of tetter-worm of six or seven years 
standing, ring-worm, shingles, scald-head, and 
two cases which were both pronounced to be 
cancer. I am prompted to this from no other i 
motive but a desire to be instrumental in alle- ' 
viating human suffering. Should you think ' 
this communication worth a place in your va- 
luable paper, 3'ou will give it room. I could 
get the most satisfactory certificates as to the 
efficacy of the plaster which I will hasten now 
to describe. 

Take strong soft soap, country made, and add 
gunpowder, made very fine by grinding or beat- 
ing, until it forms a plaster ; spread it on the 
sore something like one-fourth of an inch thick ; 
put a piece of cloth over it to press it close down 
to the sore; let it remain twelve hours; take it 
off, wash the sore clean with soapsuds, and re- 
peat, say two or three times. In no case have 
I known it applied more than three times, and 
in every case it has proved effectual in curing. 
I confess that I am not sufficiently acquainted 
with the rationale of the process to say which 
of the articles composing the plaster possesses 
the quality of effecting the cure; or whether a 
combination of the whole is required. This I 
must leave to some of your readers who are bet- 
ter qualified than I am, to decide. 

Thos. A. Hope. 

Louisa Co., Va., November, 1843. 



For the Southern Planter. 
ASHES WILL NOT PREVENT RUST. 

JWr. Editor, — Having occasion to send an ex- 
perienced friend some of the Red May wheat 
for seed, I accompanied it with a long extract 
from the article in your August number upon 
the value of ashes in preventing rust. In re- 
turn, he writes me, " Being aware of this theo- 
ry, I applied ashes and lime liberally last year. 
Finer wheat I never saw ; but just while it was 
in the milk state, a warm, rainy spell set in, 
and ruined the crop. Ashes and lime will do 
almost any crop some, and in many instances, 
much good, but so far as my knowledge goes, 
if it is warm and damp while the wheat, or any 
other small grain, is in the milk state, it will 
rust, certain. Nor is it confined to grain, but 
my weeds, and even my blackberry bushes, do 
not escape." 

Your obedient servant, 

J. H. Lownes. 

Brookland, Henrico, November, 1843. 



MANAGEMENT OF CUT FLOWERS. 

To preserve cut flowers, such as the dahlia 
and succulent kinds, in a fresh manner, and to 



For the Southern Planter. 
RIPE BREAD. 

Mr. Editor, — Mrs. Dorothy Dumpling is right 
in commending bread several days old. Both 
science and experience prove it to be far whole- 
somer, as it is unquestionably more economical, 
than bread just baked. Yes, economical, in 
saving not only flour, but doctor's fees and time 
lost by sickness. 

Ripe bread, besides parting with the poison- 
ous carbon, and imbibing nutritious oxygen in 
the clean cupboard, (as pointed out by Mrs. 
Dumpling,) promotes health for another reason. 
It is eaten more slowly, because it cannot easily 
be swallowed without perfect chewing. In this 
process it becomes thoroughly mixed with saliva 
(spittle). Moreover, each mouthful goes to the 
stomach so deliberately, that the gastric juice 
has time to mingle perfectly with it before an- 
other mouthful goes down to interfere with the 
combination : and the mingling of this juice 
with the food, is the chief essential to digestion. 
The gastric juice is a liquor, powerfully solvent, 
issuing in small drops from the inner coating of 
the stomach, whenever food enters it. If the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



33 



food goes down too fast, or badly chewed, the 
juice, which exudes in very small quantities, 
and at intervals of forty or fifty seconds, cannot 
mix with it, at least for too long a time : so that 
it lies too long undigested in the stomach, and 
lays the foundation of disorder in that organ. — 
Now, it is ascertained that the time which the 
gastric juice requires to mingle with a moderate 
mouthful of food, is precisely that which is requi- 
site to chew it well. And ripe bread, both by 
the small mouthfuls and the thorough chewing 
it enforces, most happily meets that requirement 
of the stomach. Chewing the food is important, 
not only in making it finer, and so causing it to 
mix more readily with the gastric juice, but in 
blending saliva, which is nature's preparative 
for digestion. 

These considerations, fortified by universal 
experience in Great Britain and our own eastern 
States, make the superior wholesomness of bread 
some days old, perfectly manifest. The number 
of days is not very material, from one to seven. 

It is a pity that physicians do not bend their 
attention to this and other points of Hygeine ; 
to prevention of disease, by proper diet, clothing, 
exercise, &c, rather, than merely to its cure. — 
But if they will not, then the farmers (who may 
almost be called the community,) should them- 
selves take heed to these things, as a part of do- 
mestic economy. Surely, the worst prodigality 
is that of health. 

Respectfully, yours, 

Medicus. 

January, 1844. 



BARN YARDS. 

It is generally recommended by intelligent 
fanners to make barn yards with a hollow in the 
middle, that they may receive in the centre and 
there retain all the liquid manure and rains that 
run through the manure, as the liquid matter 
from yards of a different construction runs away, 
and is often wasted, or applied to lands already 
sufficiently rich. This plan, though good in 
point of economy, as it saves manure, is liable 
to an important objection ; a pond of manure 
and water in the centre of the yard is very in- 
convenient, the cattle are running into it, and 
sometimes it is frozen over, so that cattle are lia- 
ble to injury on the ice. 

The Scotch method of constructing barn yards 
obviates this objection. The yard declines from 
every part toward one side, that all the liquid 
may run in that direction ; then adjoining the 
yard is a depression, which is made the recepta- 
cle of liquid from the yard, and here are placed 
various substances to absorb it. In the yard 
should be placed prjat, mud, muck, turfs, loam, 
litter, and other substances, as may be conve- 
nient, to absorb liquid manure. Some farmers 

e sand when they intend to apply the manure 
Vol. IV.-5 



to moist, heavy soils, and clay when the manure 
is to be applied to light soils. 

For convenience in passing in the yard it is 
best to have the manure removed in the fall, and 
when laid in heaps in the field it may be saved 
from waste by covering it with loam. When 
carried to the field late in the fall, and applied 
to the land and covered in the soil early in the 
spring, there will be but little fermentation in 
this cold part of the year, consequently but little 
waste. — Boston Cultivator. 



GENUINE GOOD SEED CORN. 

We extract the following from a letter re- 
ceived from Mr. J. S. Skinner, the original Edi- 
tor of the American Farmer. We will take it 
as a personal favor, if any of our friends having 
the variety of corn described by Mr. Skinner, 
will send a bushel or two of it to our office, 
that we may forward it to him. Mr. Skinner's 
long and devoted attachment to the cause of 
agriculture, entitles him to such a courtesy from 
every farmer in the Union. 

:i Do you know of any one who still culti- 
vates the old-fashioned genuine yellow gourd- 
seed corn — from whom a bushel or two could be 
had in the ears — long narrow grain shrivelled at 
the top, with very often from twenty to thirty 
rows on an ear ? I have seen them with forty!! 
that being the result of a selection of seed for a 
series of years, with exclusive reference to the 
number of rows. The farmer may cultivate in- 
to great excess and extravagance any parti- 
cular quality or part of vegetables, as he can of 
domestic animals. It was thus, I dare say, that 
sheep have been reared to have tails weighing 
fifty pounds. 

In great haste and in great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. S. Skinner." 



For the Southern Planter. 

APPLICATION OF MANURES. 

Hanover, Jan. 11, 1844. 

Mr. Editor, — I send you below a translation 
from a treatise on gardening, published in France 
in 1805, which I accidentally got hold of a few 
daj's back. My object in giving vou this ex- 
tract, is to show that the application of manure 
by exposing it on the surface of the soil during 
the winter, (a mode which I am fully satisfied, 
is, next to top-dressing in the spring, the best 
way to apply manures of all kinds,) was recom- 
mended in France as far back as the commence- 
ment of the present century. The author's rea- 
sons in favor of it are brief, but clear and correct. 



34 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



It may also call the attention of your readers to 
the great advantage of adapting peculiar ma- 
nures to peculiar soils. 

Your obedient servant, X. 



" However rich a soil may be by nature, it 
insensibly becomes impoverished by continual 
cultivation; the principles of vegetation dimi- 
nish ; the plants having less nourishment are 
sickly and ill-grown, and the soil becomes weary 
of affording the particles for the sustenance of 
the same kinds of plants ; it is necessary to 
change the plants and not to sicken the soil. 

" When a soil becomes exhausted by a con- 
tinued course of production, its labors are insuf- 
ficient. 

" To sustain and perpetuate the fertility of a 
soil, the salts of which it has been deprived 
must be returned to it by manuring. All that 
the earth produces or nourishes can be converted 
into manure. Vegetables, the excrement of ani- 
mals, animals themselves whether aquatic or 
terrestrial, are suitable to foster and augment the 
fertility of the earth when their parts decompose 
by corruption, mix with the earth, or rather re- 
turn to earth, amalgamating with the soil and 
returning to it the salts and juices of which 
they had been formed or nourished. Among 
the minerals themselves, salt, marl, chalk and 
all matters the salts of which can become de- 
tached and dissolved, fertilize the earth. The 
manures best known and most generally em- 
ployed for the amelioration of land, are the ex- 
crements of animals properly rotted and decom- 
posed. But what kind of manure is suitable 
for the different kinds of soils'? When and 
how should they be employed? For not only 
do all manures furnish salts to the soils, but 
some serve to give warmth, quickness and ac- 
tion to them, and some soils require more salts 
than others, whilst others only want heat to 
render them active. The excrement of the 
horse, when new, produces a heat equal to that 
of fire ; this is very suitable for correcting the 
defects of compact, cold and slow soils ; and if 
this should prove not sufficiently efficacious it 
will be well to substitute the dung of sheep, or 
to mix them a little. Poudrette would be still 
better. The dung of kine, which has less heat 
but is rich and unctuous, suits light and warm 
soils, the particles of which being too thin and 
dilated, require binding and cohesion to preserve 
their freshness and moisture. Bury manures 
too deep and you render them useless, you place 
the nutritious particles beyond the reach and 
extension of the roots of the plants. 

" Winter is the true time for applying manure. 
Stir the soil deeply and leave the manure upon 
the surface, there to remain during the winter. 
Being thus spread out during the winter, it be- 
comes entirely decomposed, and the rains de- 



taching the salts mix them and incorporate them 
into the particles of the soil. In the spring, 
work the soil less deeply, burying the manure. 
Many insects deposite their eggs in the manure ; 
it being exposed on the surface during the win- 
ter, the frosts and rains cause the most of them 
to perish, whilst were they preserved by being 
covered in the winter, they would hatch in the 
spring, and the worms that were produced would 
create much havoc." 

We shall be most happy to receive from our 
correspondent the "selections" to which he al- 
ludes in his private note, having the most entire 
faith that they will redound to the entertainment 
and instruction of our readers. 



ROOTS FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES. 

In a communication recently made by Dr. 
Houlton, he states that all roots should be taken 
up at the time that their leaves die, as they then 
abound with the proper secretions of the plant. 
This rule has no exception — it applies to the 
roots of trees, shrubs, herbs, root-stocks, bulbs, 
cormi, and tubers, and it includes that curious 
plant, colchicum, whose flowers only appear in 
the autumn, and its leaves and fruit the follow- 
ing spring and summer. Biennial roots must 
be taken up in the first year of their duration ; 
as, when the leaves decay in the second year, 
their roots are either decayed, or merely dry 
woody fibre. Roots intended to be preserved 
should be dried as soon as possible after they 
have been dug up ; the large tree roots, espe- 
cially the more juicy, dry better in their entire 
state than when sliced. — Medical Gazette. 



For the Southern Planter. 
PATTERN FARM AT THE UNIVERSITY. 

JYIr. Editor, — In looking over an old volume 
of the American Farmer, in some remarks on a 
lecture of Dr. Rush, on the diseases of domes- 
tic animals, published in that number as far 
back as October, 1822, Mr. Skinner, the then 
proprietor and editor, of that work, makes the 
following remarks. Will you let us know how 
far his fond anticipations have been fulfilled 1 

" That illustrious and revered philosopher and 
philanthropist, more than thirty years since re- 
commended that agricultural exercises and com- 
petitions should be made a part of scholastic 
amusements ; and we rejoice to learn that those 
who may be justly denominated the wise men 
of Virginia (the noblest of titles) have it in 
contemplation to establish a Professorship of 
Agriculture at their University near Charlottes- 
ville ; comprehending in their plan a pattern farm 
where every operation of husbandry and horti- 
culture will be exhibited upon scientific princi- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER- 



35 



pies, and causes and effects philosophically ex- 
plained and illustrated. Such a scheme is wor- 
thy of men who have honored, while they en- 
joyed the highest honors of their country. — 
Should it receive from the agricultural commu- 
nity of that enlightened State the countenance it 
deserves we venture to predict, with confidence, 
that the young men of Virginia will turn to the 
study of agriculture as to an honorable and ele- 
gant science. That Physic and the Law will 
no longer be exclusively regarded as the only 
learned professions, and their votaries will cease, 
like worms and locusts to cumber the earth, as 
they were threatening to do." 

Will you let us know if time has proved these 
ardent hopes and predictions to have been the 
foreshadowing of coming events — or, was it a 



fancy sketch ? 



S. 



We served our own apprenticeship to learning 
at this University, about fifteen years ago, where 
we believe we obtained a smattering of every 
thing else upon the face of the earth, except of 
the great business that occupies the time and 
constitutes the profession of seven-eighths of 
the sons of Virginia. We doubt very much if 
there was ever a man within the walls of our 
Alrna Mater, who could turn a furrow, or who 
would not have starved if he had had to rely 
upon a " pattern farm" for a support. 



TO CATCH RATS. 

Thirty-six rats have been taken in one night 
by the following plan : — Take a smooth kettle, 
fill it to within six inches of the top with water, 
cover the surface with chaff, or bran, then place 
it in the evening where the rats harbor. 



For the Southern Planter. 

CORRECTION. 

Mr. Editor, — I wish to correct an error in 
3'0ur last number which ascribes to Mr. Fea- 
therstonaugh the authorship of an article in- 
serted in the " Farmer's Encyclopedia." The 
truth is, the paper <! On the Influence of Climate 
upon Fruitfulness of Plants" was not written by 
a stranger, a citizen of the North, or by any one 
who could be suspected of being in the least 
degree influenced by feelings inimical to the 
South. In the " Cultivator" for November, we 
have expressly stated that the able article re- 
ferred to, was an original communication made 
several years since by a citizen of South Caro- 
lina, who had been born and educated altogether 
in the South, where he owned large possessions, 
situated chiefly in the States of Alabama and 
Mississippi. Hailing myself from the South of 
Mason and Dixon'3 line, where I have some in- 



terests at stake, and still more, those of an ex- 
tensive connexion of relatives and friends, I think 
I ought to be exonerated from any suspicion of 
design to depreciate Southern interests. It is 
one of the last things I should choose to do. — 
Had there been a feeling of the kind in me, 
either latent or avowed, one might expect to 
meet with evidences of it in various parts of an 
extensive work embracing 1,165 pages, in which 
the productions of the South are frequently 
treated of at considerable length. But if there 
be a single treasonable passage under the heads 
of Corn, Cotton, Tobacco, Rice, Sugar, &c. it is 
entirely unknown to me. Not but that a mis- 
chief-maker might so disjoint a passage or per- 
vert its sense as to impose a wrong meaning. — 
But little art is required to do this. The paper 
which, it appears, I have been denounced for re- 
publishing, may contain some errors, but after 
reading it again I cannot help saying that I 
should feel proud in being able to avow myself 
its author. It is, as you well know, a common 
thing to find the best friends submitting without 
the least umbrage to language and treatment 
which w r ould be resented from strangers or per- 
sons supposed to be unfriendly. The intention 
it is that constitutes the harm. 

Before closing this communication, permit me, 
Mr. Editor, to offer you my sincere thanks for 
the courtesy which distinguishes your remarks, 
as well as for the kind manner in which you 
have on several occasions spoken of and com- 
mended the Farmer's Encyclopedia, a work now 
completed, and which has been extremely well 
received from one end of the Union to the other. 
It must, I think, prove of great value to the in- 
telligent and educated portion of my country- 
men, spread over a land teeming with the sources 
of agricultural prosperity, which only require 
intelligence and industry for their development. 
With the exertion of these, there is nothing to 
prevent even the thousands of acres now aban- 
doned to commons, from rivalling and even ex- 
celling the original fruitfulness exhibited in the 
davs of our ancestors. 

Yours, respectfully, 
Editor of the Farmer's Encyclopedia. 



For the Southern Planter. 
TOBACCO.— LIME. 

Mr. Editor , — A difference of opinion exists 
among planters relative to the greater loss of 
tobacco in the process of sun and fire curing. — 
To satisfy my own mind upon this subject, I 
determined to make an experiment which would 
fairly test the two modes ; and as it may be of 
service to the public, to communicate the result 
to you, to be published in the Planter. 

In the month of September I selected eighteen 
plants of tobacco, cut the same day, of nearly 



36 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



the same size and appearance as possible, di- 
vided them into two parcels of nine plants each, 
and then weighed each parcel separately. The 
first weighed 16^ pounds, and the second, 16-J 
pounds. The former was put on a stick, marked 
and put in a secure place in the sun, to cure — 
the latter was also put on a stick, marked, car- 
ried to a tobacco-house and placed on the ground 
tier of a house, then ready for curing, and the 
process commenced immediately. The stick 
which was in the sun, when cured, was put in 
the house; and about a fortnight ago, both 
sticks of tobacco were taken down, in good or- 
der, stripped, and tied into bundles by my over- 
seer and myself and carefully weighed. The 
fire cured weighed 3 pounds and f of an ounce, 



and the sun cured weighed 2 pounds 8 ounces. 
From this experiment, it appears that there is a 
difference of about 20 per cent, in favor of the 
fire curing process. 

In January last I made an experiment with 
lime to ascertain if it would be a preventive to 
rust in wheat. I had about eighty bushels to 
the acre spread on a part of a field then in wheat, 
on another pari of the same field about twenty 
bushels to the acre, and on the residue, none. — 
The whole field rusted badly, the limed as well 
as the unlimed, nor was I able to discover any 
difference whatever. 
Respectfully, 

Richard G. Morriss. 

Buckingham, Jan. 3, 1844. 



For the Southern Planter. 

CHURN. 




JMr. Editor, — In accordance with the request 
contained inan editorial in the December num- 
ber of the Planter, I furnish you with the above 
plan (though not an original one) of a churning 
apparatus. The great ease with which it is 
worked, together with the cheapness and sim- 
plicity of the construction, are its recommenda- 
tion. In the above plan, a front view of the 
posts, roller and handle is given, also a lateral 
view of the beam with the churn staffs hooked 
to each end, and the handle attached to the : 
centre. This handle has several holes bored ! 
through it to admit of a wooden pin. The I 



roller has an iron pin driven into each end ; these 
pins rest upon brass castings let into the top of 
the posts, or it may be made entirely of wood, 
which would be cheaper, but not so durable. — 
There is a mortise cut in the centre of the roller 
through which the beam is passed, securely 
pinned and braced to the handle. The posts 
are 7 feet high, 3 feet apart, and firmly braced. 
The beam is 7 feet long and the handle 5. — ■ 
The churns should stand upon a level plank set 
between the posts under the beam. The length 
of the staffs should be so regulated that when 
the machine is at rest, the dashers will hang in 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



37 



the centre of each churn. The handle, roller, 
and beam, must be as light as they can be made 
to give them sufficient strength. To put the 
churn in motion it is necessary to stand between 
the posts, put a pin through the handle and 
move it to and fro which will give the staffs the 
requisite perpendicular motion. 

F. L. H. 
Louisa, Dec. 12, 1843. 



DUTCH METHOD OF PRESERVING MILK 
FOR A LONG VOYAGE. 

Take any number of bottles you wish to have 
filled, scald them thoroughly, turn them upon 
the nose in the sun until they are perfectly dry ; 
then milk from the cows into the bottles, and 
cork thern tight; the bottles are then put in a 
kettle, packed with straw or hay, and water 
poured in until they are covered. After being 
boiled, the milk is fit for use, and may be pre- 
served sweet for months. 

The gentleman who communicated the above 
to the Yankee Farmer, says that he has tasted 
of milk thus prepared, which had made a voy- 
age from Amsterdam to Batavia and back, and 
from thence to New York — the milk was as 
sweet as when first drawn from the cow. 



LIME.— STRAW CUTTERS. 
To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Sir, — Agreeably to my promise, though long 
delayed, I now proceed to give you the result 
of my experiments with lime. In 1840 I ap- 
plied lime broadcast upon clover in its second 
year's growth ; when about ten inches high I 
strewed it upon different lots, according to my 
estimates, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five 
bushels per acre. All of these lots were then 
ploughed with a four-horse plough and turned 
tinder seven or eight inches ; the land was then 
prepared in May, hilled and planted in tobacco. 
At housing time. I could perceive no superiority 
in the size of the plants over previous crops 
grown upon the same lots. I have no doubt I 
erred greatly in top-dressing and ploughing so 
deep. In October these lots were well prepared 
and well seeded in wheat ; at harvest it stood 
well ; although very tall, none fell down, which 
was remarkable, as portions of it generally fell 
of previous years. I think it fairly ascribable 
to the lime; my scythemen said it cut harder 
than common, and I thought the enamel, or exte- 
rior coat of the straw, was thicker, and contained 
more silex, an immense advantage in our low- 
ground wheat, as portions of it are apt to fall. 

In 1842,1 fallowed a large square of low- 
grounds in clover, (the ploughing as before 
stated) harrowed it down, and shovelled over it 
from the tail of a cart, by rny estimate, sixty- 



four bushels of lime to the acre'; the ground 
looked as if covered with snow. It was then 
well harrowed under — at the proper season it 
was prepared and planted in tobacco, which 
lived well and grew off well, much better than 
the previous year with no better seasons ; at 
housing time, I saw the plants were larger and 
ripened unusually well. Your readers will re- 
mark the difference in quantity of lime as well 
as the difference in the mode of application. In 
October, this land was fallowed and put in white 
May wheat, two bushels to the acre, and al- 
though a rust season, and the red wheats were 
much injured, the grain of my wheat was per- 
fect, and weighed sixty-two pounds per bushel ; 
the yield per acre was twenty-five bushels. I 
have seeded of this kind of wheat, the white 
May, the past season, about six hundred bushels, 
which will enable me to supply many farmers 
upon James river. 

In 1842, I composted lime, straw, and earth 
in alternate layers, in heaps of ten or twelve 
feet long, and about four feet high, making the 
surface concave and inserting stake holes, which 
catch and conduct the rain water down through 
the mass and expedite decomposition. This 
mode is not equal, perhaps, to Mr. Bommer's 
process, about which, however, I have not heard 
much favorbly said of late ; I hope it will not 
prove a humbug, which in these times is a pre- 
vailing epidemic. This compost in May was 
spaded down and well mixed, and applied to 
young com, a double-handful to a hill, and 
earthed over immediately, the sooner the better. 
It acted promptly, and although it did not add 
much to the growth of stalk, it forced out good 
ears. This application was in an upland field, 
and upon the poorest part of the field. I judged 
it augmented the quantity of corn about twenty 
per cent. I am decidedly of opinion, that the 
most beneficial way of using lime, is in com- 
post, and this mode I shall in future pursue. — 
Now is the season to prepare it upon the farm- 
pen, which should be small, even if the stock 
be large in number — cover it over entirely with 
corn-stalks, rake around your straw-ricks for 
the refuse straw, and scatter it over ; and it will 
fall in the interstices between the stalks, and 
form a good bed for your cattle ; all over this 
mass strew fifteen or twenty bushels of lime, 
and add every week a re-lay of straw, leaves, 
shucks, top fodder, and whatever else is upon 
the farm that will decompose, together with soil 
from hedgerows, ditch banks, and swamp mud, 
the liming to be repeated if to be procured, 
otherwise, use plaster. Manage your stable and 
hog-house in the same manner ; the latter will 
make half as much manure as the former. If 
leaves can be procured they are to be preferred, 
as straw is liable to produce the mange, espe- 
cially in white haired hogs. In March, clean 
out your stable and hog-house, and upturn yo/ 



33 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



farm-pen with strong three-pronged hoes, making 
one or two heaps, the larger the better, to re- 
ceive the rains and bring on fermentation. In 
April, commence hauling out, which is, and 
ought to be, a heavy job, for labor in making 
and applying manure is more profitable than 
any other work done upon a farm. 

I will now give you an experiment upon land 
run down by long continued cultivation in to- 
bacco. I have a little paddock of ground con- 
taining eight thousand tobacco hills, that has 
been cultivated in tobacco sixteen years succes- 
sively with a light dressing of manure annually ; 
fourteen of which crops were tolerably good, 
the fifteenth, a failure. The sixteenth year I 
determined to try it again, to ascertain whether 
I could not restore back to the land that parti- 
cular food the plant required, by successive ap- 
plication of manure of different kinds. On one 
division was applied stable and hog-house ma- 
nure — on the second, farm-pen — on the third, 
mineral compost — on the fourth, leached and 
unleached ashes ; the whole was an entire fai- 
lure, which evidently shows the great impor- 
tance of a rotation of crops, and proves, that 
land in such condition, cannot be restored or 
rendered fertile by quantity or quality of ma- 
nure; I mean, for the same crop ; for had the 
land been in corn, I think it had sufficient ferti- 
lity to have produced fifty bushels to the acre. 

In conclusion, Mr. Bolts, permit me to say, 
that after having purchased a variety of straw 
cutters, the celebrated Green's, amongst others, 
1 procured one of yours, amongst the earliest 
made, and after a trial of four years, I do not 
hesitate to say, that, in my opinion, they are in- 
finitely preferable to any that I ever saw, and 
as such, I unhesitatingly recommend them to 
the farmers of the southern country. It is the 
only cutter I have ever seen that is perfectly 
manageable in the hands of negroes. 



Yours, respectfully, 

Chs. Yancey. 
Buckingham, January, 1844. 
P. S. — You see that I have left a blank in 
which you may insert anything with respect to 
the cutter you think proper, for I do not well 
know how too much can be said in its praise. 

C. Y. 

We prefer leaving the blank to be filled by 
the imaginations of our readers. 



been fed exclusively on milk, I was induced to 
look into the composition of an article which is 
thus capable of supporting animal life, without 
any other food, and of building up such car- 
casses, composed of bones, meat, fat, skin, bris- 
tles, hoofs, &c. 

Chemists say that cows' milk is composed of 
the following articles, viz: 

Cheese, - - - 4-48 per cent. 
Butter, - - 3-13 " 

Sugar of milk, - - 4-77 " 
Salts and mucus, - 0-60 " 

Water, - - - 87-C2 " 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 
MILK. 

Having recently seen a litter of fine pigs of 
four months old, that have increased in weight, 
a pound a day, each, since their birth, and had 



100 00 

And the above articles, when analyzed, are 
found to be composed of carbon, oxygen, hydro- 
gen, nitrogen, and various saline and earthy 
substances. 

A French chemist states, in treating on the 
phenomena presented from microscopic observa- 
tion, in the transformation of cream into butter, 
that the cream consists of the globules of the 
milk, which rise to the surface from their light- 
ness, and which contain the butter in the form 
of pulp, enveloped in a white, thin and elastic 
pellicle. The action of the churn, he says, pro- 
duces nothing more than the rupture of the 
pellicle, and it is the fragments of this pellicle 
which whiten the liquid called buttermilk. 

When cows are fresh and are fed with nutri- 
tious food, the quantity of butter contained in 
these pellicles is greater, and the covering is 
thinner, and consequently less agitation in the 
churn breaks them, and the butter comes much 
sooner than it does when they are fed sparsely 
on articles containing but little nutriment. 

The sugar of milk is obtained by evaporating 
the whey to the consistence of honey ; the sac- 
charine matter remaining dissolved in the whey 
after the curd is formed. A. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE SOUTHERN 
PLANTER AND ITS READERS. 

The first number of the Planter for 1844 is 
at hand, and I greet it with renewed pleasure 
as an acquaintance and companion. Some 
years since this paper was an infant, and con- 
sequently had not the grave and majestic ap- 
pearance and gait of maturity. I then contri- 
buted to its nurture, hoping that it would soon 
arrive to gigantic manhood, and walk forth in 
every direction to execute its office; and that 
hope has been realized. I wish the Editor 
prosperity, and especially do I wish the country 
prosperity; and to this end it should be remem- 
bered that zeal and ability are required on the 
part of the Editor, and contributions of money 
and essays are required on the part of the com- 
munity. From a slight personal acquaintance 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



39 



with the Editor, and intimate acquaintance with 
the Planter, I believe that said Editor is both 
willing and able to perform his part well ; and I 
do hope that the community will come forward 
with liberal support. The Southern Planter is 
the only agricultural work now published in 
Virginia, and I pronounce it, without fear of 
contradiction, the most valuable to a Virginian 
of any work of the like kind now extant. 

I am glad to see that no communication is 
rejected by the Editor merely because the name 
of Mr. Clubfist or Mr. Anti- Syntax is at the 
bottom. The diamond is valuable although in 
the rough garb of nature ; and so of much in- 
formation which can be obtained from illiterate 
yet reflecting and industrious men. By the 
above remark I do not intend to signify that 
there are not abundance of learned farmers in 
the Commonwealth, for the contrary is known, 
the world over. The Southern Planter is now 
handsomely supported in any and every sense, 
but I am not half satisfied. I desire to see its 
every page filled with valuable communications 
and intercommunications, so that as improve- 
ments occur we shall be enabled to reap their 
benefit, without waiting for their natural slow 
travel to us. Labor is to man both a curse and 
blessing, and although it is obvious that without 
incurring the curse there will no blessing ensue, 
yet if in the act of securing the blessing, the 
curse may by the ingenuity of man be palliated, 
then it is tantamount to an increase of blessing ; 
for it is evident that if the ingenuity or inventive 
power of man can, in part, be substituted for 
labor, then a part of the curse is remitted ; and 
if by a combination of ingenuity and industry, 
a double crop can be produced, then the blessing 
is doubled, and man blessed indeed. 

If my efforts shall be considered worth pro- 
mulgation, I shall continue to write ; and if my 
ability equalled my zeal, I would never cease 
to write until the eyes and ears of my fellow- 
craftsmen should be extensively opened to their 
own interest and that of our beloved common 
country. Virginia was once great, and if I 
had a few more drops of my " Uncle Toby's" 
blood in my veins, I would say that ere long 
she shall not only be great again, but shall be 
the greatest of the great. Who will come to 
the rescue? Let no false pride cause a great 
man to withhold his experience and name from 
the public. Let him not be ashamed to see his 
name written in the same book with that of 
Bob, or Dick, or Dorothy Dumpling, or his 
humble servant. 

In addition to the late subscription I send the 
Editor two dollars for new subscribers. 

Za. Dbummond, 

Amherst, Jan. 10, 1844. 

We are grateful to Mr. Druminond not only 
for his kind wishes, but for his ardent support. 



He has ever shown himself the able, zealous 
and steadfast friend of the Planter, and the de- 
voted promoter of the agriculture of his native 
State. 



RECIPES. 



For Burns. — Burns or scalds may be re- 
lieved, and speedily cured, by an application of 
ink and raw cotton, to take out the fire, and a 
salve of lard and Jamestown weed, to heal the 
wound. The salve is made by stewing the 
leaves or seeds of the weed- in lard, and strain- 
ing through any thin cloth. This is an excel- 
lent article for sores of any kind. Fresh cuts 
are soon healed by its use, and if you have a 
horse with galls or sore back this is a superior 
remedy. Every family would act wisely to al- 
ways have the salve in readiness. 

Another. — Another good remedy for burns 
is a preparation, one part of laid, one part of 
rosin, and a half part of turpentine, simmered 
together till all are completely melted. The 
burns, with an application, should be washed 
daily and dressed with fresh ointment. 

For Chopped Hands and Lips. — Wash 
two or three times in the day with tincture of 
lobelia, or steam-doctors' No. 6. Honey mixed 
with water is said to be good. 

For Croup. — Roast an onion, slice it, and 
press out the juice; mix this with honey or 
brown sugar, forming a syrup, and a tea-spoon- 
ful every fifteen minutes till your child is re- 
lieved. This is convenient and a good remedy. 

For Corns. — Keep them closely trimmed, 
wear large shoes, and you will never suffer 
much pain ; by perseverance you will, perhaps, 
outlive your corns. 

For Tetters and Ringworms. — Procure 
the roots of ,lhe yellow or narrow-leaf dock, 
bruise them and soak them in good apple vine- 
gar, and rub the tetter or ringworm three times 
in the day till a cure is effected. This is a cer- 
tain remedy, except where the nails of the fin- 
gers are diseased. 

Another. — Bruised mullen leaves and vine- 
gar constitute an excellent remedy. It is said 
to be a sure restorative of the nails, particularly 
if the patient does not become weary in well- 
doing. 

For Cross Words and Bloody Deeds. — 
If you find yourself angry, pause long enough 
to count ten before you speak, and if you think 
there is danger of your doing violence, think of 
the "judgment" and offer up a short prayer be- 
fore you strike the first blow, and you will feel 
a brave and delightful relief. 

For Head-ache. — Examine the cause. If 
it is cold feet, put on woollen stockings and 



40 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



thick shoes. If the cause is a foul stomach, 
take a vomit, and do not gormandise when you 
eat. 

To Select a Good Wife. — Choose a wo- 
man who has been inured to industry, and is 
not ashamed of it. Be sure she has a good 
constitution, good temper, and has not been ac- 
customed to "dashing" without knowing the 
value of the means, is not fond of novels, and 
has no giddy and fashionable relations, and you 
need inquire no further — she is a fortune. 

To Select a Good Husband. — Let the 
man of your choice be one who is punctual in 
his promises, and is industrious, sober and fru- 
gal. He should not smoke cigars, read "fash- 
ionable" books, or visit balls and theatres. Let 
him be dignified and have common sense, and all 
is well. — Tennessee Agriculturist. 



For the Southern Planter. 
RUTA BAGA. 

Mr. Editor, — I think you have fully and 
fairly earned the dollar paid you by me, for the 
third volume of the Planter, and I think, also, 
that I have been benefited at least a score of 
them by reading it. 

Out of the many advantages that I have de- 
rived from reading the work, I will relate only 
one, as that is fresh in my mind. I was induced, 
from reading Mr. Bement's communication in 
your February number, to try a small patch of 
ruta bagas the past summer. 1 accordingly, 
prepared a piece of ground fifty-seven yards in 
length, by thirty in width, and planted it in tur- 
nips: I have this day had ihem gathered and 
housed, and the product is eleven four-ox loads ; 
all heaped up, equal at least to four hundred 
and fifty bushels. The cart will hold forty-five 
bushels of shelled corn. 

I am, respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

James Semple. 

Miller 's Tavern, Essex, Bee. 9, 1843. 



LOCK-JAW IN A HORSE. 

Loraine gives an account of successful treat- 
ment for this disease. A mare, from severe 
treatment, had a violent attack of the lock-jaw, 
and after it had continued nearly a day, the ani- 
mal was incapable of rising, and seemed to be in 
the agonies of death. Dr. Devves was con- 
sulted, who having been informed by Dr. Rush 
that he had cured a horse of the lock-jaw by 
dashing cold water over him, recommended this 
treatment. Thirty or forty buckets of water 
were dashed over her head and body with des- 
patch. But little effect was produced, and in 
about two hours the bathing was repeated, and 
then the clenching of the jaws was a little re- 



laxed. A third was tried and she bit the grass 
around her, though unable to swallow it. A 
fourth enabled her to eat, and the next day she 
was well, and for three years, the time the ac- 
count was given, she had been as healthy and 
active as ever. — Farmers' Gazette. 



For the Southern Planter. 
TOBACCO PRIZE. 

Mr. Editor, — I have received the last number 
of the Planter for 1843, and for the great value 
I set upon the work, I wish it continued. I con- 
sider it my duty to say to you that the dollar 
paid you for this volume, is the best spent money 
I ever laid out. I would not take five hundred 
dollars for what it has done for me. Amongst 
other valuable information, is a description of a 
tobacco prize, which, with some little alterations, 
I find to be the most complete thing of its kind 
I have ever seen, and indeed it is admitted to 
be so by, I may say, one hundred and fifty per- 
sons at least who have seen it in this neighbor- 
hood. It is entirely simple, and can be built for 
ten dollars. It is no small consideration that 
would induce me to forego my new prize and 
substitute for it any other I have ever seen. It 
avoids all the hard labor and danger, and makes 
prizing an easy job. 1 have in the presence of 
some eighteen or twenty of my neighbors taken 
off my weights, hoisted my beam, taken out 
my blocks, and prized them in thirty seconds, 
by a watch held by Robert Mitchell, Esq., the 
Clerk of our Court. The whole labor can be 
performed by boys. 

Yours, respectfully, 

Albert G. Williams. 

Bedford, Dec. 10,1843. 

The prize alluded to, is, we presume, the one 
engraved and described in the May number of 
our last volume, the same referred to in the last 
number, as the invention of Mr. Wm. Thomp- 
son, of Louisa. From all we hear from other 
sources, we doubt not that this prize is worthy 
the encomiums bestowed on it by Mr. Williams. 



TO CURE SHEEP SKIN WITH THE WOOL 
ON. 

Let the skins be taken from the carcass with- 
out flesh adhering, and it is best to have two at 
the same time. Pulverise alum and saltpetre 
in equal portions, and sprinkle the mixture light- 
ly on each skin, then lay the flesh sides together 
and hang them up to dry. When they have 
hung three or four days, take them down and 
rub the flesh side with a blunt knife till the skin 
be thoroughly broken, and the work is com- 
pleted. — Tennessee Agriculturist. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



41 



For the Southern Planter. 

MANAGEMENT OF TOBACCO. 

Mr. William Baker, of Louisa, penned the 
following instructions for curing tobacco, merely 
for the use of a friend in Missouri, who had re- 
quested him to do so. When he was about to 
send off his letter, another planter, struck with the 
fullness and clearness of the directions, asked a 
copy of thern for publication, which Mr. Baker 
reluctantly suffered to be taken. They are re- 
spectfully submitted to the Editor of the Planter, 
for the benefit of his readers. The value of Mr. 
B."s ideas on this subject may be judged from 
the fact, that he obtained last summer, for part 
of his tobacco crop, forty-one dollars a hundred, 
the highest price of the season, if not the highest 
ever paid in Richmond, to a planter. He has 
ever been known both in that market, and in his 
own county, as a successful cultivator of the 
" Virginia weed." 



MR. BAKER'S METHOD OF MANAGING TOBACCO. 

" I am raising a kind of tobacco called Oro- 
noco, which is preferred for manufacturing pur- 
poses, but it is not admired by the shippers. I 
would, therefore, advise you to cultivate the 
Green Frederick, or some other kind for shipping. 
It is important in the tobacco crop, in order to 
raise it of superior quality, that it be planted as 
early in the season as possible. To accomplish 
this, you should select your best land for plants, 
burn it well, prepare and sow your seed as early 
in the winter as practicable, say by the last of 
February, at all events. I deem it unnecessary 
to say anything to you about preparing your 
soil, presuming you understand that part of the 
business as well as 1 do. Commence planting 
as soon as your plants are of sufficient size and 
finish by the 10th of June, if you can. As 
your soil in Missouri is richer and more produc- 
tive than ours in Virginia, I have no doubt your 
tobacco will bear topping higher than we gener- 
ally top ours. I have topped mine for the last 
four years to eight leaves, and have made more 
and the quality is better than when I topped it 
higher. I have no doubt yours will bear topping 
to ten or twelve leaves. Be sure you top it 
high enough to prevent the top leaves from 
whetting against the ground ; because the value 
of tobacco is often very much impaired in that 
way. You should be as particular in guarding 
against the other extreme, that of topping too 
high, by which you will injure your tobacco in 
several respects, as by making it thin and poor 
and the leaves very narrow. You should see 
that it is not disfigured by the horn worm, if you 
have- any, and that your negroes do not break 
the leaves when pulling off the suckers. In 
fact, great care should be used when handling 
your tobacco through the whole course of ma- 
Vol. I V.- 6 



nagement, from the time you commence topping 
until it is ready for market, that they do not 
break nor bruise it while it is green, nor crumble 
it when dry, after it is cured, nor deface it in 
any way whatever. You should not cut your 
tobacco until it is well matured, unless you are 
forced to do so from its firing, or a danger of its 
being bit by frost. When you cut it, great care 
should be used to prevent it from sun-burning. 
Do not let it remain on the ground until it be- 
comes limber, but have it carefully taken up 
and secured as soon as it will bear handling ; or 
in other words, as soon as it has commenced 
falling. In every instance, move it to the houses 
as soon as possible after it is cut, in order to se- 
cure it in case of rain. If it is large, you 
should not hang more than from eight to ten 
plants on a stick, the space between the tiers in 
your tobacco house being four feet. A space of 
six inches between the sticks on the tiers in 
3 r our tobacco house will be necessary while the 
tobacco is green. After it is cured, it may be 
stored closer. You should build your houses 
with round poles or frames planked up, or in 
any way to suit your convenience or fancy, so 
you have them tolerably tight. The bodies 
should be high enough to admit of not less than 
three clear tiers below the joists. You may 
have the roofs of slates, planks or shingles, just 
as you like; it is best to have them close, so 
they will not leak. The curing process should 
commence in some four or five days from the 
time your tobacco is cut, if the weaiher is hot, 
or as soon as it has partially faded. This is 
done by raising small fires on the floor of the 
house. You can have four rows of fires in a 
house of the size I have named, extending from 
one side to the other. Fire your tobacco from 
three to four hours every day (Sundays excepted) 
until the leaf is cured ; after which time, it will 
only be necessary to fire it in damp weather or 
when you see mould on the stems near the stalk. 
You should bulk it down in tolerably soft order, 
so that you can strip it in any still weaiher 
during the winter. It should be carefully bulked 
with the tails lapped, not laying any stalks on 
the inside of the bulk. My reasons for wishing 
you to bulk it in this way, are that the leaf may 
not be damaged by any moisture the stalks 
might contain, and also to enable you to ex- 
amine it successfully at all times, by pulling out 
from either side of the bulk. Strip your tobacco 
in damp weather, when it will not speedily dry 
from exposure. Tie from four to six leaves in 
a bundle, and see that the leaves are pretty 
nearly of the same length and quality in the 
same bundle. Bulk your tobacco every evening 
when stripping, in the same way that you do 
before it is stripped. Let it remain in the bulk 
until March or April, (unless it should be likely 
to injure before that time,) then hang it on the 
sticks and raise it in the house. Let it hang 



42 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



until the stems are perfectly dry. Then take it 
down the first give, as soon as the leaf has sof- 
tened a little, before the stems have limbered at 
all. The stems should be dry enough to break 
short off from one end of the leaf to the other ; 
then it is in shipping order, and if you choose, 
you can pack it in large double bulks and 
weight them. Before you commence prizing, it 
will be best for you to sort over all your good 
tobacco and arrange it for the hogsheads, so as 
to have the tobacco in each hogshead as near 
of the same length and quality as possible. — 
Commence prizing about the middle of May, 
or any time thereafter when it may best suit 
your convenience, so as to put your tobacco in 
market by the middle of August. Its order, 
when dry enough to ensure its keeping, will 
vary according to the heat or cold of the atmos- 
phere. Have your hogsheads fully up to the 
gauge ; with rived or sawed staves, just as you 
like. Have thern set up smooth and nice, with 
planed plank headings. Prize 1,500 lbs. in 
each hogshead ; see that your tobacco is packed 
perfectly smooth and straight in the hogsheads. 
" I will try to tell you something more about 
curing. You should have moderate fires in 
every instance, bearing in mind, that all people 
who fire tobacco are more inclined to have their 
fires too hot, than not hot enough. If you raise 
your fires too hot, you will coddle the tobacco 
and make it worth but little ; besides, there is a 
risk of your burning it. A yellow piebald is 
generally most admired by all merchants, though 
any color from a nutmeg up to a bright yellow 
will command a fair price, if the quality is good 
in other respects. You must not expect to cure 
it all of the same color. It is almost impossible 
to do that ; nor should } 7 ou consider it of little 
value because it cures of different colors. If it 
is uniformly good on the hill, so it will be in 
market, if you manage it well. You cannot 
make it good after it is cut: it must be good 
before, — and then, by good management, you 
may keep it so." 

We are much obliged to our correspondent 
for this extract. Mr. Baker is so celebrated as 
a lobacco maker, that we have been requested 
over and over again to procure the details of his 
management for the columns of the Planter — 
we are, therefore, much indebted to the polite- 
ness which enables us to gratify so many of our 
readers. 



From the American Agriculturist. 

SOAPSTONE GRIDDLES. 

As the season of pancakes is coming on, it 
may be interesting to some of j'our readers to 
know, that a griddle made of soapstone is greatly 
superior to the ordinary kind made of cast iron. 



They require less greasing, and are not subject 
to the frequent changes of heat and cold which 
occur to the ihin iron ones. They should be of 
any size required, and about three-fourths of one 
inch in thickness. I have one in use, and the 
cakes baked on it are better than from the ordi- 
nary kind, and it is giving greater satisfaction 
to those in the culinaiy department. 

C. S., Jr. 



For the Southern Planter. 
HENRICO AGRICULTURAL AND HORTI- 
CULTURAL SOCIETY. 

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of 
the Henrico Agricultural and Horticultural So- 
ciety, on Wednesday, the 6th December, 1843, 
it was 

Resolved, That the next exhibition take place 
some lime between the 20th May and the 5th 
June next, the precise day to be hereafter deter- 
mined, depending upon the season — when the 
following premiums will be awarded: 

1. For the best stallion calculated to produce 

stock adapted to the saddle, harness or 
draft, the property of the exhibitor, $10 

2. For the best brood mare, of the same 

description, the property of the ex- 
hibitor, 5 

3. For the best saddle horse, the property 

of the exhibitor, 5 

4. For the best work horse, the property 

of the exhibitor, 5 

5. For the best mule, raised by the exhi- 

bitor, 5 

6. For the best pair of mules, the proper- 

ty of the exhibitor, 5 

7. For the best bull, the property of the 

exhibitor, 10 

8. For the best cow, of native stock, 5 

9. For the best cow, of improved stock, 5 

10. For the best pair of oxen, 5 

11. For the best boar, the property of the 

exhibitor, 5 

12. For the best sow and pigs, the property 

of the exhibitor, 5 

13. For the best buck, the property of the 

exhibitor, 5 

For the best lot of three ewes, the pro- 
perty of the exhibitor, 5 
For the best specimen of domestic ci- 
der, produced by the exhibitor, 5 
For the best specimen of ploughing, to 
be performed by the farmer himself, 
with his own plough and team, with 
two horses, mules or oxen, 20 
For the second best do. 15 
For the third best do. 10 

19. For the best threshing machine, with 

horse power, 10 

20. For the best corn sheller, a diploma 

21. For the best cutting machine, a diploma 



14. 



15. 



16. 



17. 

18. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



43 



22. For the best lot of farming tools, axes, 

hoes, spades, &c. $5 

23. For the best farm wagon, 5 

24. For the best farm carr, 5 

25. For the best specimen of poultry, geese, 

ducks, turkeys and bens and chickens, 2 

26. For the best specimen of rare and beau- 

tiful shrubs, plants and flowers, 10 

27. For the second best do. 6 

28. For the third best do. 4 

29. For the best specimen of early fruits, 6 

30. For the second best do. 4 

31. For the third best do. 3 

32. For the best specimen of butter, not 

less than 5 lbs. 6 

33. For the second best specimen of but- 

ter, not less than 5 lbs. 4 

34. For the third best specimen of butter, 

not less than 5 lbs. 3 

35. For the best market garden, not less 

than one acre, 20 

36. For the second best market garden, not 

less than one acre, 15 

37. For the best specimen of vegetables, 

regard being had to variety as well 

as quality, 6 

38. For the second best do. 4 

39. That the sum of five dollars be awarded, in 

whole or in part, to different specimens of 
vegetables deemed worthy of premiums, 
and which have not taken either of the 
two last premiums. 

40. That James Bosher, Jacob F. Earnes, Sam'l 
D. Denoon and William Mitchell, be a com- 
mittee to procure the exhibition of such spe- 
cimens of the productions of the mechanics 
of Richmond and Henrico as are suited to 
the place and circumstances of the next meet- 
ing, the articles to be designated by them; 
and that the sum of twenty-five dollars be 
placed at their disposal, to be awarded at their 
discretion, on premiums upon such of the ar- 
ticles as they may adjudge to be worthy of 
premiums. 

Resolved, That be a committee to 

select and arrange a place, and to conduct the 
exhibition. 

Resolved, That Governor McDowell be ap- 
pointed to deliver the address before the Society 
on the first day of the exhibition, and that Jas. 
M. Wickham, Esq., be appointed the alternate. 

Resolved, That the following premiums be 
awarded on farm crops, at the anniversary meet- 
ing of the Society, to be held next fall: 

1. For the best crop of wheat, not less than 

five acres, $10 

2. For the best crop of grass, not less than 

five acres, 10 

3. For the best crop of oats, not less than 

five acres, 5 

4. For the best crop of ruta baga turnips, 

not le3s than half an acre, 5 



5. For the best crop of white turnips, not 

less than half an acre, $5 

6. For the best crop of cabbages, not less 

than half an acre, 5 

7. For the best crop of beets, not less than 

half an acre, 6 

8. For the best crop of sweet potatoes, not 

less than half an acre, 5 

9. For the best spring crop of Irish pota- 

toes, not less than half an acre, 5 

10. For the best fall crop of Irish potatoes, 

not less than half an acre, 5 

11. For the best crop of parsnips, not less 

than one-quarter of an acre, 4 

12. For the best crop of carrots, not less 

than one-quarter of an acre, 4 

13. For the best crop of pumpkins, not less 

than one acre, 5 

14. For the best crop of corn, not less than 

five acres, 10 

15. For the best orchard of peaches, 5 

16. For the best orchard of apples, 5 

17. For the neatest and most substantial 

counterpane, the production of the 
exhibitor, 5 

18. Do. do. mattress, 5 

19. Do. do. comfort, 5 

20. Do. do. bedquilt, 5 

21. Do. do. carpet, not less than 10 

yards, 5 

22. Do. do. hearth rug, 5 

23. -Do. do. stockings or socks, each 2 
Resolved, That Committees on Farm Crops 

be required, in all instances, to ascertain, by 
weighing or measuring, the actual average pro- 
duct per acre of such crops. 

Resolved, That successful competitors for pre- 
miums on farm crops be required to hand to the 
Secretary a detailed account of said crops, em- 
bracing the preparation of the land, the quality 
of the soil, the kind of seed used, the lime of 
planting, the mode of culture, together with 
whatever else may furnish information as to the 
rearing and value of such crops. This account 
must be handed in before receiving the premiums, 
and preserved by the Secretary for the informa- 
tion of the Society.' 

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to 
make a tour of inspection through the county, 
commencing in the spring, and report to the 
Society at the fall meeting generally and spe- 
cially upon the state of agriculture within the 
bounds of the Society ; to suggest such means 
as to them may seem most expedient, for raising 
the standard of agriculture, and especially for 
diffusing information and improving and encou- 
raging the proprietors and cultivatois of small 
farms — that this committee be authorized to re- 
commend premiums on such farms as they may 
deem worthy of premiums, subject to the deci- 
sion of the Society. 



4-4 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



Resolved, further, That this committee be in- 
structed not to report upon any farm without 
the consent of the proprietor. 

Resolved, That this committee be authorized 



to add to the number, and to assign portions of 
the county to different portions of the committee, 
as may be found necessary to the examination. 
(Signed) J. H. Turner, President. 



For the Southern Planter. 
CHEAP BUILDING. 




'"'r", uW/JJ/J/* '__ " " 7 

" - -^ *-***!> 

J\/Ir. Editor, — I send you a hasty sketch of a 
block of buildings similar to one I have just- 
erected on one of my estates, for poor tenants. 
The block consists of four separate dwellings 
containing six rooms. Each room is twelve 
feet square; the chimneys are so disposed as to 
admit a fire-place to each house in the lower 
story, and a stove-pipe hole to each and every 
room in the block. The houses are composed 
of \\ inch hemlock strips, lathed and plastered 
on both sides, the mortar meeting and making 
a solid wall, or lattice plastered partition, in 
every part of the house. The plasterer says 
the block is as stiff as a stone house ; all the 
partitions being of lattice. The only timber 
used is for the posts for each division, the floor- 
ing, joists, sills, &c. &c. There are no studs 
in the building; the walls or partitions take up 
but little room. The first story is 8 feet high 
in the clear, the next 7, and the upper story 6 
feet. The roof is tinned, the floors are laid in 
tin over the joists, and boarded over with spruce 
boards. The joists are all plastered separately, 
so that there is no room nor hiding places for 
vermin or insects. There is not an inch of room 



wasted nor an inch of wood subjected to the 
action of fire. These houses are fire-proof with- 
in and without, and proof against the approach 
of vermin or insects. The cost is $8G0. The 
houses are let for $40 each, per annum, and 
should you know of any one who wishes to 
build in like manner, to secure their tenants 
from accident by fire, let them write to my car- 
penter, William Kline, Mt. Airy, Germantown 
Road, Pennsylvania, and they may obtain a 
faithful man who will build for them on similar 
terms. I have been experimenting for several 
years, endeavoring to build fire-proof houses in 
a cheap and substantial manner, and I believe 
that I have at length succeeded. 
Yours, respectfully, 

E. J. Pierce. 
Philadelphia, Dec. 26, 1843. 

P. S. — The cellars are seven feet deep, the 
middle walls dividing the cellars are merely 
piers, allowing openings for closets; the cellars 
are plastered and finished off as nicely as any 
part of the houses. There is nothing super- 
fluous in this block ; convenience, comfort and 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



45 



economy alone are studied. The tin used in 
this block is the leaded tin prepared exclusively 
for roofing, 14 by 20 inches, price $16 per box 
of 240 sheets. I have made no drawing of the 
cellar doors and windows, although each house 
is provided with such conveniences. You will 
perceive that the gable-end is represented as it 
appears before it is plastered. E. J. P. 



INVESTIGATOR. 
Repeated inquiries have been made for this 
popular correspondent of the Planter and many 
hopes expressed that he would resume his com- 
ments. 



BOMMER AGAIN. 
At the risk of being thought a little tedious, 
we have determined to place before our readers 
what has transpired upon this important subject 
since we penned the leading article for the pre- 
sent number. In the " Cultivator" for January 
we find the following ; 



best quality for almost every kind of cultivated 
crop. Of the French method, as described in 
the specifications, we are not competent to judge, 
having never witnessed its effects ; we should, 
however, prefer purchasing Mr. B.'s book, in 
which the whole process is detailed. 



LETTER FROM MR. ELLSWORTH. 

Washington City, Patent Office, Nov. 3, 1843. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker, — I noticed in 
your last number of the Cultivator, just at band, 
a particular notice of Bommer's piocess, — also 
his advertisement announcing 'Bommer's ma- 
nure method, secured by letters patent,' and re- 
ferring to 'documents recorded in the Patent 
Office,' to prove his rights. This advertisement 
has greatly increased the burden of answering 
requests for copies of 'Bommer's Patent.' Whilst 
I have studiously avoided expressing an opinion 
on cases pending or decided, yet as special re- 
ference is now made to the bureau to sustain 
the advertisement, and fearing that the public 
may be misled by my silence, I hasten to state 
the facts as they appear of record. Mr. Bom- 
mer, on the 12th of May, 1843, presented an 
application for a patent for making manure. — 
This application was duly examined, and re- 



We invite the attention of the readers of the 
Cultivator to the annexed letter of the Hon. Mr. 
Ellsworth, chief of the Patent Office at Wash- Jjected for want of novelty. No appeal was 



ington, on the subject of patents, and the claims 
of Mr. Bomrner in particular. There is no sub- 
ject in the whole range of agriculture, of more 
interest to the farmer, than that of manures ; 
and any improvement in its manufacture, by 
which its quantity and quality may be increased, 
will be received by them with favor. That ma- 
nures made in the way recommended by Mr. 
Bornrner, or according to the patent claimed by 
him, are of superior quality, no one acquainted 
with that method can doubt. But if, as Mr. 
Ellsworth seems inclined to suppose, it is only 
the French method, with some unimportant ad- 
ditions, so far as the making of the manure, or 
it3 quality is concerned, that method should be 
generally known, that all may avail themselves 
of its advantages, and we thank Mr. Ellsworth 
for enabling us to give the specifications a place 
in the Cultivator. We have given the large 
pamphlet, just published by Mr. Bommer, and 
containing an ample account of bis method and 



taken. The application was withdrawn, and 
twenty dollars, the usual sum allowed on with- 
drawals, paid to Mr. Bommer on the 6th of July 
last. No other application has been made by 
Mr. Bommer for a patent for similar purposes. 
It may not be improper to state that Messrs. 
Baer & Gouliart, in June, 1843, obtained a pa- 
tent for an alleged improvement on the method 
of making manure, patented in France by Juaf- 
fret, which said method, however, bas not been 
patented in the United States, and is, therefore, 
free to the public. How far the public are re- 
stricted in the use of foreign inventions, may be 
ascertained by referring to the claim of the Ame- 
rican patent, which, you will perceive, is re- 
stricted to the preparation of the heap and the 
mode of applying the lye to the same ; the in- 
gredients — in other words, the lye itself, not being 
claimed. That no injustice may be done to the 
parties concerned, I send you a copy of the Ame- 
rican patent, and only add that Mr. Bommer 



its advantages, a copy of which he has kindly has become an assignee for several States, under 
pla< 1 in our hands, an attentive perusal, and this last mentioned patent. 



can safely say there are few if any publications 
on the subject there discussed, whatever may 
be their pretension.?, which combine such a mass 



Yours, &c. 



H. L. Ellsworth. 



Then follows the specification of the patent 



of practical instruction on the preparation and j gran ted Messrs. Baer & Gouliart, which it is 
use of manures. Of the legality of the patent unnecessary t0 copy . Suffice it to say, that 
under which he is acting, we do not express an 



opinion ; but we know that the method used by 
him, and described in the pamphlet, a copy of 
which is furnished every purchaser of a right, 
will make manure in any quantity, and of the 



whilst the French plan is referred to, and parti- 
cularly described, the American patent is ob- 
tained for a different, and we doubt not, much 
improved mode of constructing the heap. We 




46 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



think the Editor of the Cultivator speaks un- 
advisedly in saying that Mr. Ellsworth is in- 
clined to suppose that this patent covers only 
"some unimportant additions" to the French 
mode. The Commissioner of Patents is a sworn 
officer, and under the present law, we believe, he 
is required to refuse any application that does 
not contain some substantial and valuable im- 
provement upon what is already known. In- 
deed, it appears that Mr. Bommer's application 
was refused for want of novelty, but the appli- 
cation of Messrs. Baer & Gouliart, it seems, in 
the opinion of the Commissioner, lacked neither 
novelty nor the merit of being a substantial and 
valuable improvement upon the French plan. — 
It frequently happens that all the principles of 
a great invention remain known and useless 
even for centuries, until, at length, some slight 
devise, some simple arrangement in the practical 
detail, gives utility to that which was impracti- 
cable and useless before. The power of steam 
and its application to the purposes of navigation 
were suggested long before the days of Fulton, 
but it was by a difference in construction, so 
slight that it is at this day hardly discernible 
that he bore away the palm from all his prede; 
cessors and rendered practical that which had 
been an airy vision of the imagination before. 
The reciprocating motion of the steam engine 
is said to have lain dormant for years for the 
want of the simple device of a fly wheel to 
carry it over the dead points. The improvement 
of Messrs. Baer & Gouliart may stand to the 
original invention in the same relation that the 
fly wheel does to the steam engine, and from 
the increased impetus that it has undoubtedly 
given to the process, we think it fair to infer 
that it does. Mr. Ellsworth states, and correctly 
too, that the ingredients, or lye, is not patented — 
but the patentees distinctly assert that the lye 
they use is not the same as, but much superior 
to, that of Jautfret, the Frenchman. They very 
properly prefer keeping this part of the process 
secret to patenting it. It is exactly one of those 
things for which a patent gives no protection, 
and the only mode of securing the benefit of 
an improvement, which, if spread upon record, 
might be used without the possibility of detec- 
tion, is for the discoverer to keep it secret as 
long as he can. 

After many encomiums bestowed upon the 
process and the most unequivocal proof of its 
success at the North, together with a statement 



of Mr. Bommer's claims, we find the Editor of 
the "New Genesee Farmer" making the follow- 
ing remark : 

" In view of all this, our readers will be some- 
what surprised, as well as amused, to learn that 
J\ir. Bornmer has never obtained any patent right 
for his pretended discovery, and that he is not the 
original author or inventor of the 'Method' which 
he has made so much noise about .'" 

Now, we think the Editor misapprehends the 
thing, or he would not have penned a paragraph 
so fraught with injustice to an individual, and 
so calculated to mislead the public. Mr. Born- 
mer has as substantially obtained a patent right 
for this invention, as if the letters patent had 
issued in his own name. It was by agreement 
between Gouliart & Baer and Bommer, that 
the second and corrected application was made 
in the name of the former, with the understand- 
ing that Bommer was to have the right for the 
Northern States, whilst they retained the South- 
ern States. 

This letter of Mr. Ellsworth's has excited a 
great deal of interest in the North, and has 
drawn forth several communications and edito- 
rials in our exchange papers ; whilst some of 
them heap opprobrium upon the head of Mr. 
Bommer in no measured terms, one and all seem 
to agree about the incalculable value of the pro- 
cess. Now, for aught that we can say, the im- 
provements of Messrs. Gouliart & Baer, which 
are known by the name of the Bommer process, 
may be frivolous, insubstantial, and useless ; but 
to suppose them so, would be to infer negligence, 
carelessness, or ignorance upon the part of the 
Commissioner of Patents, and this, from our 
knowledge of that excellent officer, we will 
never presume. We know r enough about pa- 
tent rights to know that it is much cheaper to 
pa}' for the labor of inventors, than to seek to 
evade a patent, or strike out a new path for 
yourself; therefore, we heartily concur with the 
Cultivator in advising every farmer, who de- 
sires to use the process, to pay the additional 
price for Gouliart & Baer's patent, otherwise 
called Bommer's pamphlet. We think we may 
venture to say, if this process possess the merits 
that seem to be almost unanimously attributed 
to it, the additional information contained in this 
pamphlet will be worth to the operator ten times 
its cost. 

Our desire to present this interesting subject 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



47 



to our readers in all its bearings has induced us 
to devote to it more space than we are wont to 
allow to any one topic. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. 

The intrinsic merit of the paper, not less than 
the kind and liberal spirit of the Editor, induces 
us to call the attention, not only of the sporting 
public, but of the agricultural community, to 
this splendid "weekly." We are sorry to see 
from an editorial notice that it stands much in 
need of the assistance of its friends. The day 
has been, when a love of the sports of the turf 
would have sustained such a paper in Virginia, 
alone. Although this exciting and noble amuse- 
ment has from bad management lost much of 
its popularity, the love of fine stock remains 
unabated amongst us, and is destined at no dis- 
tant day to exhibit itself again in the re-estab- 
lishment of our race courses, under better aus- 
pices. The Virginian and his horse, like the 
fabled Centaur, are inseparable. Apart from 
the exhilarating and healthy influence of this 
manly amusement, over and above the policy of 
sustaining the popular sports of the country, 
we unhesitatingly assert, that every lover of the 
horse, every individual who has occasion for the 
services of this useful animal, (as who has not ?) 
is deeply interested in the regeneration of the 
sports of the turf. Whilst it is universally ac- 
knowledged that the thorough bred possesses 
the greatest superiority in wind and endurance, 
it has been contended, that the system of racing 
as heretofore pursued in this country, has had 
the effect of producing a speedy but light and 
leggy race, unfitted for the road, and much more 
unsuited to the heavy draft purposes of the far- 
mer. Be it so, (and we are inclined to believe 
it, and think, moreover, that it is one of the cir- 
cumstances that has had the greatest influence 
in alienating the public mind from this national 
pastime,) it only proves that we have heretofore 
established an improper test of the powers of 
the horse. The great object of racing should 
be to encourage and secure those properties of 
the animal that are most prized and demanded 
in the daily services he is required to perform. 
These are wind, activity, strength, and endu- 
rance; and we doubt much if the ability to 
carry a light weight four miles, with great 
speed, is the best test of the proper combination 
of these qualities. But if that is not, some 



other is, and what we now desire to do, is to 
call the attention of the lovers of the turf to 
this view of the question. Depend upon it, 
racing must rest upon a firmer foundation than 
the interest and amusement of black legs and 
gamblers. Institute a contest which will indu- 
bitably test the useful properties of the horse, 
and the farmer will no longer say, "why should 
I subscribe to a jockey club ; what good does 
it do me 1 Your best racers are altogether unfit 
for my purposes, and there is not a horse on my 
plantation that I would swap for Priam himself." 
If necessary, institute one contest for the en- 
couragement of a breed of heavy draft horses, 
another for road horses, &c. but in the whole, 
have an eye to benefiting the community in 
general, and you may expect that community 
to rally to your support. 

Our hopes of achieving this reform and sus- 
taining the character of the thorough bred in 
America, rest, mainly, upon the continuance of 
that spirited, talented, and unrivalled sporting 
paper, the " Spirit of the Times." An adver- 
tisement of terms, &c. may be found on our 
cover. We should be very much pleased to 
cancel some of the obligations which we are 
under to the Editor by acting as his agent and 
forwarding the name and money of some of our 
friends, who are so able, and who ought to be 
so willing, to sustain such a paper. 



APPLES AND CIDER. 
To those who doubt the capability of the soil 
of Virginia for producing the finest varieties of 
fruit we should like to address an argument 
founded upon a barrel of pippins sent us by our 
esteemed friend, John H. Pleasants, Esq. from 
the county of Goochland, and a demijohn of 
cider received from Mr. Joseph Sinton, of the 
county of Henrico. If Mr. Sinton will insure 
his apples to yield such cider as this, we will 
engage to find him a market for all the trees he 
can raise. 



CURE FOR SPAVIN. 

Editors of the Cultivator, — The following I 
have found would cure a bone spavin in its first 
stages, if properly applied. Add to two table- 
spoonsful of melted lard, one of cantharides, 
made fine or pulverised, and a lump of corrosive 
sublimate, pulverised, as large as a pea — all 
melted up together, and applied once a day till 
used up, confining it to the callous. This quan- 
tity is for one leg, and may be relied on as a 



48 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



cure. It will make a sore, and the joint will 
be much weakened while applying the medicine. 
No need of alarm ; it will all be right when 
healed up. 

Edward D. Worbasse. 
Edon Farm, JY. J., 8 mo. 26, 1843. 



Shirley, last year. Mr. Carter thinks there are 
few estates in Virginia which by proper manage- 
ment might not be made to yield thirty bushels 
of wheat to the acre. 



HOW TO HAVE A SHARP RAZOR. 

Take a strop of thick harness leather, the 
size you want for a strop and fasten it at each 
end upon a piece of wood, then rub upon its 
surface a piece of tin, (any tin dish will do) 
until it is smooih. Strop your razor upon this, 
and you will find it worth all the patent strops 
that were ever invented. 



BEST IMITATION OF GROUND GLASS FOR 
WINDOWS. 

Select some of the most purely transparent 
lumps of gum copal, and reduce them to a fine 
powder. Spread a thin coat of copal varnish 
diluted with spirits of turpentine, over one sur- 
face of the glass, and when it has become a 
little hard, sprinkle over it the powdered copal 
till the varnish is covered, and press it down 
gently with a ball of cotton or of flannel ; or if 
the position of the glass is vertical, dip a ball 
of flannel in the powder, and apply it to the 
varnish till the surface is covered. When the 
varnish is thoroughly dry, brush off a part of 
the powder with a stiff brush, observing to brush 
uniformly in one direction. Then if any lines, 
figures or flowers are to appear transparent, the 
powdered varnish may be scraped off from such 
parts, with the edge of a small chisel. This 
work will bear washing, and each particle of 
the powdered gum being transparent, none of 
the light which would ordinarily pass through 
the glass, will be obstructed. — Jim. Mechanic. 



IMPORTANT TO HOP GROWERS. 

It has been found that the substitution of iron 
rods in place of hop-poles exerts a most favora- 
ble effect upon the growth and amount of the 
crop. The plants are not troubled with mould, 
rust or the fly ; they grow much more weighty 
and luxuriant and ripen much quicker. This 
effect is supposed to be owing to the electric 
fluid attracted by the iron conductor. 



■ A bronze statue is to be erected in France to 
the philosopher Parmontier, who introduced the 
culture of the potato into that country. Every 
Irishman is a living monument, built cf the self- 
same article — not bronze, but patatoes. 

Bane Gazette. 



WHEAT CROP. 

We have called on Mr. Carter, and he has 
promised as soon as his legislative duties will 
permit, to give us a detailed account of the 
means that he used to make the remarkable 
crop of wheat which he raised on his estate of 



COMMUNICATIONS. 

From an extraordinary press of matter, we 
have been unavoidably compelled to postpone 
several very interesting communications to the 
next number. 



CONTENTS OF NO. II. 

Bomiacr — Pro and con, p. 25. 

Liebig — Dr. Mohl's review, p. 27. 

Hay Press — New one described, with a cut, p. 28. 

Com — Mr. John M. Botts' account of his crop of 100 
bushels to the acre, p. 29. 

Charcoal — A new process for manufacturing, p. 30. 

Mecklenburg Club — Report from, p. 31. 

Blister — To raise a blister, p. 32. 

Tetter-worm, <f-c. — Cure for, p. 32. 

Flowers — To preserve flowers after they are cut, p. 32. 

Rusl — Not prevented by ashes, p. 32. 

Bread— Should never be eaten fresh, p. 32. 

Bam Yards — Scotch mode of constructing, p. 33. 

Manures — The proper mode of application, p. 33. 

Roots — When they should be taken out of the ground, 
p. 34. 

University of Virginia — Neglect of agricultural stu- 
dies, p. 34. 

Rats — To catch, p. 35. 

Farmer's Encyclopedia — A note from the Editor, p. 35. 

Tobacco — Difference between sun and fire curing, p. 35. 

Lime — Result of an experiment on wheat, p. 36. 

Chum — A plan of one, with a cut, p. 36. 

Milk— Dutch method of preserving, p. 87. 

Lime — Major Yancey's experiments with, p. 37. 

Straw Cullers — Botts' highly recommended, p. 38. 

Milk— Analysis of, p. 38. 

The Planter — Mr. Drummond's views concerning, p. 
38. 

Recipes — For various purposes, p. 39. 

Ruta Baga — Account of Mr. Semple's crop, p. 40. 

Lock Jaw — To cure, p. 40. 

Tobacco Prize — Mr. Thompson's recommended, p. 40. 

Sliccp Skins — To cure with the wool on, p. 40. 

Tobacco — Mr. Baker's mode of management, p. 41. 

Griddles — Made of soapstone, p. 42. 

Henrico Agricultural Society — List of premiums offered, 
p. 42. 

Building — Cheap plan of fire-proof building, p. 44. 

Investigator — Requested to renew his communica- 
tions, p. 45. 

Bom-mcr — Again, p. 45. 

Spirit of t/ie Times — Notice of, p. 47. 

Apples and Cider — Of Virginia growth and manufac- 
ture, p. 47. 

Spavin — To cure, p. 47. 

Razor — How to sharpen, p 48. 

Wheat Crop — Promise of a communication from Mr, 
Carter, p. 48. 

Ground Glass — Imitation of, p. 48. 

Hops — Benefit of iron rods, p. 48.