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there was an excellent remedy; for that, in letting every plant bear eiofht or nine leaves instead of four or five, and she would have more tobacco and less leaves.

"There are many other places as easy to drain as this, though of larger extent and richer soil. Even in Jamestown Island— which is much what of an oval figure—there is a swamp runs diagonalwise over the island, whereby is lost at least 150 acres of land, which would be meadow, and would turn to as good account as if it were in England. Besides, it is the great annoyance of the town, and no doubt but it makes it much more unhealthy. If, therefore, they but scoured the channel and made a pretty ordinary trench all along the middle of the swamp, and placed a sluice at the mouth, where it opens into the back creek, for the mouth of the chanel there is narrow, has a good hard bottom, and is not past two yards deep when the flood is out, as if Nature had designed it beforehand, they might thus drain all the swamp absolutely dry, or lay it under water at their pleasure.

"But now to return to the reflections of improving and manuring of land in Virginia. Hitherto, as I have said, they have used none but that of cow-penning. Yet I suppose they might find very good marl in many places. I have seen both red and blue marl at some breaks of hills. This would be the properest manure for their sandy lands, if they spread it not too thick; their's being, as I have said, a shallow sandy soil, which was the reason I never advised any to use lime, though they have very good lime of oyster shells ; for that is the properest manure for cold clay land, and not for sandy soil. But as most lands have one swamp or another bordering on them, they may certainly get admirable slitch wherewith to manure all their uplands.

"But as this, say they, 'will not improve ground, but clods and grows hard,' 'tis true, it will do so for some time, a year or two at the first; but did they cast it in heaps and let it lie for two or three years, after a frost or two had seized and it had been well pierced therewith, I doubt not it would turn to good account. And for this I have something more than bare conjecture. For, discoursing it once with a good notable planter, we went to view a heap thereof that casually he had cast up 'twixt three or four years before, and we found it not very binding, but rather a fine natural mould. Whereupon he did confess, he then remembered that out of a ridge of the like mould, he had had very large plants, which must have been of

the like slime or slitch cast up before. But he said that himself and others despaired of this manure, because they had taken of this slitch fresh and moist out of the swamp, and filled tobacco hills with it, and in the midst of it planted their plants ; which so bound the roots of their plants, that they came [not] to anything,

11 Cows. —They house nor milk any of their cows in winter, having a notion that it would kill them. Yet I persuaded the lady where I lived to milk four cows the last winter that I staid in the country, whereof she found so good effect that she assured me she would keep to my advice for the future ; and also, as I have further urged, house them too; for which they have mighty conveniences, their tobacco-houses being ever empty at that time of the year, and may easily be fitted in two or three days'time without any prejudice; whereby their cattle would be much sheltered from those pinching sharp frosts that some nights on a sudden become very seveie.

"I had another project for the preservation of their cattle [which] proved very successful. I urged the lady to sow her wheat as early as possibly she could, so that before winter it might be well rooted, to be early and flourishing at the first of the spring; so that she might turn thereon her weak cattle, and such as should at any time be swamped, whereby they might be recruited and saved, and it would do the wheat good also. I advised her likewise to save and carefully gather the Indian corn tops and blades, and all her straw, and whatsoever could be made fodder, for her cattle; for they get no hay (though I was urging her to that too, and to sow sainfoin; for being a sandy soil, I am confident it would turn to a very good account) and very little fodder; but as they think corn more nourishing, feed them with their Indian corn, which they give them morning and evening. Thus they spend great quantity of corn, and when all's done, what signifies two or three heads of corn to a beast in a morning? It only makes them linger about the houses for more; and after such sweet food, they are not so apt to browse on the trees and the coarse grass which the country affords ; so that their guts shrink up and they become belly-shot, as they call it. I advised, therefore, never to give them anything in the morning; whereby, as soon as they were set forth of the cow-pens, they would fall a feeding; and though they filled their bellies only with such coarse stuff as had little nourishment in it, yet it would keep out their bellies, and they

would have better digestion. And when they come home at nights to fodder them, beginning with straw and their coarest fodder, which they would learn to eat by degrees, before they tasted that which was more delicate; and, whilst their digestion was strong, would yield them nourishment to keep them still so. Afterwards, when the winter pinched, their fine fodder then would stand them instead, and hereby they might preserve their weakest cattle. By these methods and help of the wheat patch, she (the gentlewoman where 1 lived) saved all her cattle and lost not one in two winters after, that I staid there. Besides, she saved above twenty barrels of corn, and a barrel of corn is commonly worth ten shillings Nay, further, the last spring she fed two beasts—a bullock and a cow—fat upon her wheat, with the addition only of a little boiled corn, and yet the wheat was scarce eat down enough.

" But to return aorain to the nature of the earth. I have ob-served that at hvQ or six yards deep at the breaks of some banks, I have found veins of day, admirable good to make pots, pipes or the like, and whereof I suppose the Indians to make their pipes, and pots to boil their meat in, which they make very handsomely, and which will endure the fire much better than most crucibles. I took of this clay, dry'd, powdered, and sifted potsherds and glass—three parts, two parts and one part as I remember—and therewith made a large crucible, which was the best I ever try'd in my life. I took it once red hot out of the fire and clapt it immediately into the water, and it started not at all.

"The country abounds mightily with iron ore, that—as I have been assured by some—upon trial has been found very good. There are rocks thereof appear at the precipice of hills, at the foot whereof there runs a river, fit for a forge; and there's wood enough to supply it with charcoal. As I have heard, there were formerly some persons undertook the work, and when they had made but a small quantity of iron, which proved very good, the Indian massacre happened; and they being higher seated than the then inhabited part of the country, were all cut off and the works demolished. Some Indians brought Col. Bird some black lead, whereof he has told me there is great store. There's very curious talk towards the Falls of Rappahannock river, which they burn and make a delicate white-wash of it. The Secretary of State, Col. Spencer, has assured me, there were vitriolic or aluminous earths on the banks of the Potomac.

"Hens and cocks are, for the most part, without tails and rumps; and, as some have assured me, our English hens, after some time being kept there, have their rumps rot off, which I am the apter to believe, being all their hens are certainly of the English breed. I am sorry I made no anatomical observations thereof, and remarks about the use of the rump in birds, which at present I take to be a couple of glands, containing a sort of grease for the varnishing of the feathers, having observed all birds have much recourse with their bills to their rumps when they dress their plumes, whereby they send through the air more nimbly in their flight.

"There are in Virginia a great many cormorants, several sorts of gulls, and in and about the bay many bannets.

" There were neither horses, bulls, cows, sheep or swine in all the country, before the coming of the English, as I have heard and have much reason to believe. But now, among the English inhabitants, there are good store of horses, though they be very negligent and careless about the breed. It is true there is a law that no horse shall be kept stoned under a certain size, but it is not put into execution. Such as they are, there are good store, and as cheap or cheaper than in England; worth about five pounds apiece. v They never shoe them, nor stable them in general; yet they ride pretty sharply 'A planter's pace' is a proverb, which is a good sharp hand-gallop. The Indians have not yet learned to ride; only the King of Po-monkie had got three or four horses for his own saddle and an attendant, which I think should nowise be indulged. For I look on the allowing these horses much more dangerous than even guns and powder.

"Wild bulls and cows there are now in the uninhabited parts, but such only as have been bred from some that have strayed and become wild, and have propagated their kind, and are difficult to be shot, having a great acuteness of smelling. The common rate of a cow and calf is fifty shillings—be she big or little. They are never curious to examine that point.

''Their sheep are of a middling size—pretty fine fleece in general—and most persons of estates begin to keep flocks, which hitherto has not been much regarded, because of the wolves that destroy them; so that a piece of mutton is a finer treat than either venison, wild-goose, duck, widgeon or teal.

"Swine they have now in great abundance. Shoats or pork-rels are their general food ; and I believe as good as any Westphalia.; certainly far exceeding our English."

THE COST OF PRODUCTION

With the farming classes the true, and perhaps the only, mode of increasing profits, is by diminishing the cost of production, since the price of such produce as the farmer has for sale is fixed by outside conditions, with but little regard to his individual success or profit. On the other hand, the cost of that which the farmer grows must always largely depend on his own skill, tact and industry. To diminish the cost of production does not necessarily convey a decrease in the expense of cultivation. Good farmers may, and often do, expend more money than the average of poor farmers : but they do it as an investment and in ways calculated to secure the largest returns. If this is not the case' their lar^e outgoes are wasted and serve as a warning rather than an incentive to good farming. Most farmers, as well as men in other vocations, pursue their business as a means of making money. Show the former class that improved farming helps this end, and the example needs no urging. Without this, all admonitions as to the benefits of new methods are worse than w T asted. The practices that prove profitable must be adopted, or those who refuse will be left behind in the sharp race and competition for success.

Above all things else it is necessary that there be a general understanding that large crops are always proportionally more profitable than small crops, that within certain limits a given amount of products can be grown more cheaply on fi.ve acres than on ten. When this fact is properly appreciated, the popular craze to secure more land will be abated and better culture of fewer acres will take the place of the present system of half tillage over large areas. In a general way farmers do understand this position ; they recognize the fact that small crops are generally unprofitable crops, that it costs money to plow, plant and till an acre in any crop, and even if the farmer and his sons do the work it should none the less be paid for just the same as if it were performed by hired labor. The farmer should be able to earn and secure better wages than the average hired help, as he has presumably more knowledge and skill than most of those he employs. If he cannot earn good wages for his own vvor.k, something is decidedly wrong in his make-up or his surroundings.

In the majority of instances all the means needed to change a small crop into a large one will be attended with profit. An unfertile field can often be manured with commercial fertilizers at a cost of §4 to $8 per acre. When a field is fertile but too wet, it will often happen that an underdrain properly laid will return its cost in two crops and some-

times in one. These are permanent improvements that will pay thirty to fifty per cent, yearly for all time to come. The fact is that much as has been said about high farming, the experiment has never yet been tried of expending on the farm itself all that improved farming brings. When these improvements begin to make the farm pay, there is an irresistible temptation to much greater expenditures in living. This is not to be wondered at nor complained of. It is the right of the succes-ful farmer to spend his surplus earnings in ways most conducive to the enjoyment of himself and family, albeit the fact that successful farmers often do live off the best, gives to their less fortunate neighbors an idea that the example is one which they cannot possibly follow. The truth is that the average farmers of the country live to poorly—perhaps as well, on the average, as they can afford, but not as they might if they improved their opportunities to the utmost. Year by year the progressive and intelligent farmer is being educated to regard his farm as a great manufactory, in the successful management of which business laws and economies must play a most important part.— Am. Cultivator.

ARE THERE ANY CROPS WHICH CAN BE MORE PROFITABLY

RAISED IN VIRGINIA THAN THOSE AT PRESENT

CULTIVATED?

This is an important inquiry, for the farmers are making very little from their present crops.

In an article bearing on this subject from my pen, published in the June number of the Planter, I expressed the opinion that the farmers were making nothing from the wheat crop in the whole State, and that there was little encouragement for the production of tobacco and cotton, particularly as it was almost impossible to have any general improvement of lands under their culture, and that there was great danger of the gradual and permanent exhaustion of soils where they are raised. Colonel Knight, the editor of the Planter, in commenting on my article, put in a plea for wheat, and argues that bad cultivation is the cause of the non-profitableness of wheat, and that the general average for this crop in* the State (8 or 9 bushels to the acre) is not a fair criterion of the profit of the crop. We think it is; the fact stands out that the farmers in the State, after more than a hundred years' experience in its cultivation, are making only 8 or 9 bushels to the acre. It is not denied that farmers on the rivers and oh the best and most improved lands make wheat a paying crop. That is the most that can be said in its favor. But the editor seems to ignore the fact that on the

best wheat farms, with the most careful cultivation, the crop is not un-frequentlv a failure. Men of capital can bear this, but what becomes of the farmer of small means who is relying on his wheat as his money crop to buy groceries and clothing for his family and meet other farm expenses? I gave instances of the entire failure of this crop on the best lands, even after tobacco, well fertilized. No other crop makes such complete failures. On really good land, corn and tobacco and winter oats scarcely ever foil to make tolerably good crops. Even in the dry season of last year, which was so disastrous to the corn crop, we saw some good fields of corn, and from my own land I gathered some as fine ears as can be seen any season. We never saw winter oats fail on any tolerably good land if seeded in August or September, and they will generally succeed if seeded up to October 15th, except they occasionally fail from freezing out in the winter, which is very rare. I speak of Middle and Tidewater Virginia. Even in the severe winter of 1880-81 I had some to survive the cold, which were seeded on very good land. By the way, oats are not generally seeded thick enough. In the Northern States, they sow 2J to 3 bushels per acre. Several years since some farmers in a neighborhood in Georgia determined to try thick seeding of oats, and used four bushels to the acre, seeded in the fall. The result was published in the Southern Planter and Farmer, and I should like the article republished, as the yield was so remarkable, and we may not be accurate in reporting the details. We think there were seven farmers, and that the smallest yield was 80 bushels and the largest about 120 bushels to the acre. This would pay much better than wheat. Col. F. Guy, near Manchester, seeded a portion, if not all his winter oats, four bushels to the acre, and we hope he will let us hear the result of this crop. While on the subject of winter oats, I may mention that some years since, I seeded on the 14th October, four bushels of winter oats on four acres of lan.d. I had not measured the land at the time of seeding, and was not then impressed with the importance of thicker seeding. The result was that I sold from the four acres, oats (baled) to the amount of $110. No fertilizer was put on the land ; it was very good land, and had been well improved by its former owner.

But the editor says, "Clover precedes and follows it with better effect than any other cereal crop." Clover takes better on rye than any other cereal, though rye is not often seeded in large quantity. If clover is seeded on rye or winter oats in August or first of September, it will rarely fail to stand. Rye hugs the ground and better protects the young clover than any other crop, whether it is seeded in the fall or

early spring, and if rye is used for soiling, it comes off the land sooner (April), and the young clover makes a good start before the hot suns come down on it. But the editor must be aware that clover seeded by itself, without other crops, makes a better stand than if seeded with them; and it is so important a crop, that farmers may afford to devote the whole land to clover, and forego the doubtful profit of concomitant crops. If wheat is so uncertain a crop, and an unprofitable one, how happens it that our farmers stick to it ? They dislike to give up what they have been accustomed to, and are familiar with, and enter on something they will have to study about, and learn, particularly if there is any expense attending the change; wheat brings in some money in a moderate time after seeding, and another reason that induces them to stick to wheat is that they see their neighbors on fine wheat farms making good crops and realizing large sums for it.

We mentioned in our last that we thought, among other things, that sorghum syrup and grapes and apples would prove more profitable crops in Virginia than those now raised. If our readers will procure a few numbers of Coleman's Rural World, of St. Louis, or subscribe for it regularly (it is a very good and cheap weekly publication) they will find nearly the whole of the first page (in form of the New York Herald, eight pages) taken up as the " Sorgo Department," being devoted to syrup and sugar manufactured from sorghum, mode of manufacture, machinery used, &c. These columns are filled with communications from correspondents and comments from the editor. This shows the interest which is being taken in this subject in the West; the correspondence extends through many of the Western States, and is spreading through the South. One correspondent from Texas mentions the early orange sorghum as standing cold better than the "ribbon-cane" (the regular sugar cane) being cultivated there, and that in that climate it was found to be perennial. In the July 6th number of the Rural World is a notice of a letter from Prof. Silliman, the noted chemist, to Dr. Richardson, of New Orleans, with some extracts from the letter. Prof. Silliman was the chairman of a commission appointed by the United States Government to ascertain the facts as to whether sugar can be made from early amber, early orange and other varieties of sorghum. In their report, the commission " announced what Hon. Seth H. Kenney and other sugar-cane growers in Minnesota have proven long since—that both sugar and syrup could be produced from the early amber and orange cane in the most profitable and satisfactory manner." Prof. Silliman says : " I think I may safely say that your planters can secure a crop from the seed of say half dozen sorts of sor-

ghum, which will fully mature iu periods of from three to six months from date of sowing, and which will produce from one to two hogsheads of C sugar, polarizing 96 per cent., and which cannot be told from the best ribbon- or other cane-sugar of the same grade. This they can do with no other treatment than they now employ in working the old stands of the cane, and with a longer working period, the juices will reach at least ten degrees B, equal to 1.075 specific gravity, and will polarize good 12 per cent, to 16 per cent., which, if I am correctly informed, is fully as well as the Louisiana planters now do. This juice they can defecate with lime, and- treat with sulphur fumes or sulphurous acid, and reduce in vacuum pans as usual or in open trains." We think there can be little doubt but what sugar from sorghum is destined to become a profitable industry in the whole country where Indian corn is successfully grown, and where the summers are not too short. But our farmers are not yet prepared for sugar making. They lack the experience-and the means to buy the machinery. But syrup making, from sorghum, is now an assured success to those who will enter diligently and industriously on it. The machinery is not expensive (about §100), and this may be bought by several farmers together, as the crops often come in at different times, and if they do not, the cane will keep several weeks by stripping it and -keeping on end under shelter. In 1880, the United States Agricultural Department issued a Report on Sorghum. This contained replies to questions on the subject from twenty-three States, and a considerable number of counties in Virginia. The enquiries were in reference to sugar and syrup making from sorghum. But few had attempted sugar. Many had raised 100 gallons of syrup to the acre, obtaining 50 to 75 cents per gallon for it. In Minnesota and New York as much as 400 gallons had been obtained. In Tennessee one farmer had from 18 acres made 6500 gallons, which he wholesaled in New York at 35 cents a gallon. He says, " This made me upwards of $2,200, which is more than I could have made from a hundred of wheat." A farmer in Culpepper, Virginia, made 160 gallons per acre, and sold it for 60 cents a gallon.

At the last State Fair, Maj. Venable exhibited some Honduras sorghum of fine growth. He told me from this variety he had made upwards of 100 gallons per acre, which he was selling at 60 cents per gallon. One hundred gallons per acre may fairly be counted on, and this will always bring 50 cents per gallon if well made with the improved machinery, and treated with lime or other defecating agent.

Space will not permit us to say much on grapes, destined, we believe, to be a large interest in Virginia. Grape-growers are making in Albe-

marie, and some other neighboring counties, $100 per acre from their grapes, which are mostly sold to the Monticello Wine Company at Charlottesville. The wine being made by this company, Mr. Hotopp and others, is wonderful. It is a species of claiet with more body than the French claret and scarcely any acid, and, in my estimation, and I believe in that of other unprejudiced persons, is superior to French claret. The "Norton seedling" made by these parties is good Burgundy. Not long since, at a gentleman's dinner in Richmond, some claret wine was passed around, and a gentleman next me said to me this is excellent claret—he is a connoisseur in claret. I replied, I was about to say the same thing to him. We afterwards found it was sold by Christian & White, Richmond, and manufactured by Hqtopp from the Ive's grape. He is also making excellent claret from the Concord. What has been made evident with regard to the adaptation of Piedmont, we believe will be found applicable to most of Middle Virginia and the upper portion of Tidewater near the head of tide. Grapes succeed well in the country around Richmond, and Dr. Gilmer and Dr. McCarthy have made grape-growing and wine making a success in the county of Henrico, just below Richmond. I have found my grapes, at least Concord and Norton, to succeed admirably, though on a chocolate soil with red clay foundation, a gray, light soil being supposed to be most suitable. Lower down in Tidewater grapes do not seem to succeed for wine-making. The late Dr. Briggs, of Surry, expressed the opinion to me that grapes in lower Tidewater must be raised for the table, and that they matured too soon for wine, not having time to form their sugar properly, a thing all important in wine making, as furnishing the alcohol.

Apples can be made very profitable in Piedmont and the Valley; in Tidewater they usually mature too early for winter keeping. In the apple portion of Middle Virginia they keep moderately well. The small number of apples raised for market in Piedmont and the Valley 6hows how averse the people are to engaging in new industries. In Tidewater and near cities early apples are profitably raised for market.

Thos. Pollard.

P. S.—Col. J. Marshall McCue wrote to me last year of the profit of apple culture in Piedmont Virginia, and mentioned that a lady in Nelson county (where he was then residing) had recently sold 300 barrets of pippins at $4 per barrel, and had 700 barrels of other kinds unsold.

[We always welcome with pleasure auything from the pen of Dr. Pollard. His known devotion to the agricultural interests of the State affords the assurance that whatever he may write will be duly appreciated by the readers of the Planter. Our disagreements

about the wheat crop we regard as rather fortunate than otherwise. They will invite investigation which may result beneficially, and thus it should concern us but little whether he or we are right or wrong.

The total yield of wheat in Virginia in 1880 was about 8,000,000 of bushels, worth ten millions of dollars. To the wealth of the State this is an important item, but Dr. P. thinks more than this sum has been sunk in its production, as the average per acre (8$ bushels) is below the cost of production. If the loss incident to such an average is placed on all the producers alike, then all have lost by the crop, whilst at the same time ten millions of dollars are added to the general wealth of the country. Is not this is a paradox? Both good and evil cannot come out of the same thing in like proportions without defeating each other. Our opinion is, that the crop yields a good net profit to all producers who cultivate well, and the losses fall on those who do not; and the measure of these losses is the difference between what is made and expended on the crop, and in the aggregate is not large at an average yield of 8£ bushels per acre. Twenty-five years ago the yield for the State was about 60 per cent, larger than now. The decrease has not been occasioned by any change of climate or adaptation of soil to the crop, but by the results of a devastating war, which time and active efforts can only remedy. It has required about 1,000,000 of acres of land to produce the 8,000,000 of bushels; and here is the point of difference between Dr. P. and ourself. We contend that one-half of the land now put in wheat will, with proper culture, produce a larger crop than the whole quantity, and if the whole should receive proper treatment the aggregate result would be doubled and a good profit made by all producers. It is not, therefore, a question of the adaptation of the crop to the soils of our State, but one of good culture only, and many of the uncertainties and disasters alluded to are the result of bad culture.

The Doctor recommends sorghum as one of the substitutes for wheat. This crop is one of the grossest feeders, and the yield he names can only be realized from very rich land, which will be equally sure for wheat. We have had a large experience with sorghum, and made one year as many as two thousand gallons of syrup from twenty acres of land. This was an average of 100 gallons to the acre, and at fifty cents per gallon was $50 per acre, or the equivalent of about thirty bushels of wheat per acre ; but when we consider the culture, cutting, stripping, preparing the cane, and the boiling of the juice into syrup, we doubt of any advantage in the way of profit over a crop of wheat on the same ground. We do not wish to be understood as disparaging sorghum under a system of diversified crops, and it is well that a farmer should have an acre or so to furnish his family with molasses, which is as good as any other if correctly managed. As to sugar from sorghum, this is entirely beyond the capacity of the farmer. Expensive machinery is required, and an amount of skill which can only be afforded and secured by capital specially directed to it. The development of this industry was closely investigated by Gen. Le Due, late Commissioner of Agriculture, and he erected at the expense of the Government the necessary machinery, costing about $20,000, to test it at the agricultural grounds in Washing!on. By his courtesy, and that of his private secretary, we were permitted to examine the whole process of grinding the cane, boiling the juice, and its conversion into syrup and sugar. Our conclusion was, as is already intimated, that any farmer with a cheap mill and evaporator can make his own syrup, but very expensive machinery and the skill of an expert are required for sugar, which cannot be, for this reason, a farm product.

What Dr. P. says about winter oats, grapes, wine and apples we thoroughly endorse. It is unnecessary to extend our note further. Before the receipt of Dr. Pollard's article we had prepared one which expressed our views in regard to the wheat crop, and we ask attention to it in our present issue.— Ed. S. P.]

THE DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS.

[For the Southern Planter.]

The vandalism and recklessness which has characterized the people in Virginia and the more Southern States in the last fifteen or eighteen years in the destruction of valuable timber, perhaps has not had a parallel in the histoid of the world. It is true man from his earliest history has had but little appreciation of the value of forests. The savage delights to roam in his native forests, and enjoys with exquisite delight the dark, cavernous retreats shrouded by majestic oaks, with their heavy drapery of hanging moss, but it pertains to man in his advanced civilization to regard this beneficent work of his Creator as an obstruction in his pathway of progress, and the foot-prints of civilization are marked by the prodigal destruction of woodlands. What the axe of the woodman does not accomplish, the aid of the torch is invoked to finish. This has never been more strikingly illustrated than in the Tidewater section of Virginia and the Southern States to Florida (inclusive), since the war. Almost every body of timber has been pillaged and generally cleared of its growth to supply the demands of saw mills, for ship-timber, for railroad ties, poplar wood, barrel staves, cord wood, spokes and fellows, hoop-poles, etc., and this not only on navigable water, but far inland, as far . s can be made to pay the slightest profit to the dealer. Scarcely a tract of woodland can now be found possessing any timber of value on the Southern Atlantic coast below the falls of the rivers that has not been pillaged of all its valuable timber, and obtained at such prices from the owners as to amount to a ruinous sacrifice ; indeed, this policy has resulted most truly in "killing the goose that lays the golden egg.'' Should this destruction continue a few years longer, there will not be timber enough in all the country above-named to build a decent frame house.

But this reckless waste of valuable property is not confined in its evil effects to the improvident owners, whom, as it seems, are in hot haste to rid themselves of a nuisance, but it is bringing ruin in its pathway to all alike, as I shall endeavor to show.

To quote from an eminent writer upon this subject, " Such are the relation of trees to the currents of the air, to temperature, to moisture and to the soil itself, that without them the earth ceases to be a fit place for the inhabitancy of man. Never was any region of the earth better fitted by climate, soil and natural adjustments of land and water to each other, for the abode of man in the highest state of civilization and in the possession of the greatest power, intelligence and happiness; in

short, with the promise of the greatest and more permanent prosperity than that which borders the Mediterranean, and which stretches through Europe from the Straits of Gibralta on the west, to ancient Phoenicia, and back through Africa to the Atlantic. Here, only a little way from the cradle of our race in Western Asia, it would seem the race might have hud its home and centre Of power and glory while the world should last. Greece, Rome, Carthage and Egypt, in the olden time, and Spain in more recent, what nations were these? What wealth and power, what glories of literature and art, helonged to them, our marvel even at this day, and their cities the shrines which we visit from this New World. Ancient Italy is said to have contained nearly 200 cities, Spain had 360. Greece was the glory of the world. Palestine was a land "flowing with milk and honey," aud crowned with cities and villages. Asia Minor, now hardly anything hut a desert, an unknown region almost to us, had once 500 populous cities. Northern Africa was the home of population and wealth. Lydia was once a fertile region ; she had once a population of 600,000 where now are only 60,000. These lands were once rich and fertile, the very garden of the earth. Their vales and meadows yielded every fruit abundantly; their hills and mountain sides were green with luxuriant forests. Now what are they ? The mere wrecks of their former greatness, like stranded ships upon the shores of time, for men to gaze at and take warning.

I might go on and name Persia and other populous districts abounding in fertility and wealth, and populous districts larger than the whole continent of Europe, which are now scarcely more than desert wastes, inhabited by -scattered pauper tribes." These countries were all at one time densely wooded, and their present condition has been brought about mainly, as claimed by scientists, by the destruction of their forests. This has in some instances been accomplished in a generation. The forests are much cooler in warm weather than the arable land, and thereby serve to condense the super-incumbent air, which results in causing rain ; this is naturally the case in densely wooded mountain districts, where they are said to arrest the clouds. The mold upon the soil serves to absorb this moisture from rains which fall, or from snow, and hold it as a sponge, gradually but slowly giving it up, which serves to supply the numerous springs and streams in which well-watered countries abound.

This effect of condensation is strikingly exemplified in the dews which fall at night. The soil cools more rapidly during the night than the surrounding air, and as a consequence the moisture of the air is condensed and falls as dew. The reverse of this is seen during the

day—the earth becomes warmer and the moisture is evaporated. When the woodland is cleared, the mold upon its surface rapidly decays, especially when the land is brought in cultivation, and nothing is left to retain the moisture, the result of which, heavy rains having nothing to arrest their course, flow rapidly down steep hills and mountain sides, washing off the soil as it goes, furrowing the soil into gullies, forming torrents resistless in their course. The snows and ice which accumulate upon high mountains to great depths during the winter and early spring, when the first hot spell of summer comes, is rapidly melted, and the streams from this source sweep down the mountains with resistless force, carrying enormous boulders, trees, and everything in its course; houses are swept away, indeed, villages are destroyed and even cities. The valleys aud immense districts of country are submerged, and thousands of people are destroyed with scarcely any notice. This was the case in Spain a year since, and a notable case in some of the German provinces two years ago, when 20,000 people were drowned in one district. But we may find an exemplification nearer home; the overflow of the Mississippi and its tributaries during the past spring, is a case strikingly exemplified, bringing ruin and destruction to large districts of our own country, so widespread in its effects as to require governmental aid to prevent the starvation of large numbers of people.

'This state of things must continue and increase with the destruction of our forests, and pari passu disastrous droughts will follow, until in time we shall realize the condition of things alluded to above, when the earth will refuse to give forth her increase, and barrenness and sterility will ensue where once fertility and plenty abounded. This may be gradual, but, nevertheless, sure, as like results have followed causes elsewhere. Ck History repeats itself." Let us take warning and guard against this evil which has been so destructive elsewhere. If our people should still prove deaf to reason, then it may and should become the duty of the State governments to adopt such legislation as may seem necessary to check the evil.

The sanitary effects of bodies of timber, or even narrow strips, bordering pocosins or bogs, are found of great benefit in arresting the poisonous exhalations of malaria, where they intervene between the residence and the bog. The shelter they interpose to arrest the force of violent storms, is another benefit which the forests afford. Where thickly wooded districts are found it is rarely any damage is done, while we frequently see in those districts of country where timber is sparce, that not only crops are destroyed, but buildings are blown down and frightful destruction of life ensues.

But it is a source of satisfaction to know that in some portions of the Northwest, where the need of forests are felt and appreciated, that steps have been taken to encourage the planting of trees. This is being done not only by individual enterprise, but the States themselves have taken hold of the matter, and are encouraging the enterprise, in some instances paying bounties to parties engaged in it. While one tree, however, is planted, fifty are destroyed, these latter the growth of a century. An area of country as large as some of our smaller States are denuded of their forests every year, and at this rate the end of the matter is not far distant.

It is sincerely to be hoped that the attention of the country will be directed to this subject, and that something will be done by the State governments to arrest the evil before too late, else the evil pointed out above will as surely follow as they have done elsewhere.

Aubrey II. Jones.

THE ONION—(Allium Cepa).

Editor Southern Planter:

One of your correspondents, in a recent issue of your paper, desires information of this vegetable.

The genus allium contains some of the most useful plants of our gardens. In it, besides the proper onious, are included the garlic, leek, shallots, and chives. There is a great number of varieties of onions, among which are: Large Bed, a hardy variety, raised abundantly iu the Northern States for export. It is a deep red, medium size, rather flat, and keeps well, and is the strongest flavored. Yellow-Strasburg. — Large yellow, oval, often a little flattened; very hardy; keeps exceedingly well; best for winter use at the South; flavor strong. Yelloio-Danvers. —Middle size, roundish oblate; neck slender; skin yellowish-brown ; early and good; keeps well. Stiver-skinned. —Of small size, but finer flavor; silvery white; flat; and very much used for pickling on account of its handsome appearance and mild flavor. Potato Onion. — This derives its name from forming'a number of bulbs on the parent root beneath the surface of the soil. It lipens early, but does not keep until spring. A sub-variety, with smaller bulbs, is said to produce bulbs on the stem like the Top onion. It is very prolific, aud affords a supply before other kinds are ready for market. Plant the offsets in rows a foot apart and ten inches iu the row, three inches deep, from October to March. Top or Tree Onion is said to have originated in 10

Canada, It produces little bulbs ("buttons") at the top of the seed stems, hence its name " Tree Onion." This is the easiest to manage of any of the onions, is of good, mild flavor, early and productive with little care, so that it is a favorite in climates too cold and too warm for the other varieties. Plant the buttons from October to March in drills one foot apart and six inches in the drill. Plant the apex of the button just beneath the surface of the soil. The small top bulbs are fine for pickling. Cibocile or Welsh Onion. —There are two kinds, white and red; is quite distinct from the common onion, and does not bulb. It is sown in September for drawing early in the spring. Flavor strong; very hardy. Of the varieties described, the first two and the Top onion are to be preferred for general use.

The common onion is probably a native of Asia and Egypt, has been cultivated from the most ancient times, and is one of the most useful of garden crops. The onion can be grown in great perfection at the South. The finest in the world are produced in the hot climates of Spain, Portugal, and Egypt, the roots being milder and of greater size than in other countries. Onions are raised from seeds or sets, which may be planted from October to April, but February is the best month for the purpose. They all require a rich, friable soil and a situation enjoying the full influence of the sun, and free from the shade and drip of trees. If the soil be poor or exhausted, an abundance of manure should be applied some time before planting, and thoroughly incorporated with it—for rank, unreduced dung is injurious, producing decay. If applied at the time of planting, the manure must be thorougly decomposed, and turned in only to a moderate depth. If the soil be tenacious, sand, or better still, charcoal dust, is advantageous; ashes and soot are particularly beneficial. Common salt, at the rate of six to eight bushels per acre is an excellent application to this family of plants. In digging the ground, small spadefuls should be turned over at a time, that the texture may be well broken and pulverized. Ashes, bone-dust, gypsum, and the salt and lime mixture will supply nearly all the inorganic constituents of this crop; and where they do not already exist in sufficient quantities in the soil, they may be supplied in addition to animal manure. The onion does not require a change of soil, being an exception to the general rule, that plants like a rotation, as they have been grown in Scotland a century in the same spot without any diminution of the crop.

It is a good plan to make the beds just wide enough for three rows, say thirty inches wide, with a narrow alley between, which may be filled with sweet corn or cabbages, after the crop is laid by. But in common

gardens, beds tour feet wide and the rows tlicreon twelve to fourteen inches wide are most convenient. The soil of the beds must be finely dug, the surface rolled smooth, and all the clods beat fine that may have escaped the spade. The drills should be drawn very shallow, as the best onions grow upon the surface of the ground. For this reason it is well to roll the bed or beat it smooth with the back of the spade before making the drills. Some soak the seed twenty-fours before planting, but to little advantage. Do not sow very thickly, oidy one or two seeds in a place. A seed every inch is quite thick enough, as thinning out, when too thick, is apt to injure the remainder. Cover the seed about half an inch with fine sifted soil, and press down the earth upon them by a roller, or walking over them on a plank. When they come up, thin out gradually in the drills to six inches apart. Keep the bed clean and free from weeds, and stir it frequently, but not deeply, with a hoe. Do not hill the earth up against the bulbs, but draw it away from them with the fingers, as they keep better if grown pretty much above the ground. There is no crop more easily raised or preserved, if the ground is rich enough, and the bulbs made to grow upon the surface. After the young onions have a good start, it is best to drop the hoe entirely and resort to hand weeding. In dry weather, a thorough drenching in weak liquid manure or soap suds is excellent. For pickling, the white kind should be sown much more thickly, and thinned out until about one or two inches apart in the row, which will cause them to ripen early, before they have become too large. When large bulbs are desired, a preliminary creation of bulbs is required. The seed may be sown quite thick, in pretty good soil, and not thinned at all. Little bulbs or sets will form about the size of the button onion, which should be taken up when the tops die, and preserved in a dry loft until time for preparing the bed, and then may be planted eight inches apart in the drills. If they throw up a seed stalk, it must be promptly broken off, or they will form no buttons. These sets, planted out early in the year, will form fine, large bulbs in May or June, whilst those raised from the seed do not ripen until July. Hence the latter are better keepers; besides, they are better flavored and more solid. The little bulbs of the Top onion are managed like these sets. The crop is ready for harvesting when the stems are drying up and change color.

In order to secure the crop, pull the onions on a dry day, dry them thoroughly in the shade and stow them in a loft where they can have plenty of air; when perfectly dry, they can be strung on ropes, made by braiding the tops together. From two to five hundred bushels per acre is the usual crop. M.

COL. ROBERT BEVERLEY'S EXPERIENCE IN WHEAT CULTURE.

Editor Southern Planter:

Dear Sir, —You ask my views and experience in the cultivation of wheat. My experience would be easily given, but my views of its proper culture in Virginia, embracing such various climates from the Alleghany to the sea-shore, and more especially such various soils, is very hard to give in my limited time and your more limited space in your most valuable journal. I will combine my experience with my general views, to shorten this communication. In the first place, I will say that no farmer in Virginia can make wheat at & profit under $1.10 a bushel to the most accessible markets in Virginia; and the railroads bringing it so cheaply from the West, grown on those virgin soils, where fertilizers are not yet required, and charging so high in their local rates to Virginia producers, it looks as if those off tidewater and dependent on railroad transportation must abandon wheat as a staple crop, and corn also, for transportation. I would advise, therefore, that wheat and corn (off tidewater, where transportation is cheap), be not grown as a staple money crop, for disappointment is almost certain. We can't compete with the virgin soils of the West at same rates of freight (and it is the same 1,000 miles from the West, that it is 100 miles here in the East), and therefore I would not advise the cultivation of wheat or corn here, where railroad transportation comes in, except corn for cattle, that can walk to market. If, however, wheat must be cultivated, as I acknowledge it must be to some extent, to get back into grass, my experience in this section of Virginia prescribes the following culture: Either on corn land, or wheat or oats stubble, 150 pounds fine ground raw bone and 150 pounds Turner's Excelsior, or some other equally good standard fertilizer to mix with the bone, making 300 pounds to the acre—wheat and fertilizer sowed together with a drill, and wheat one bushel to the acre, and all not deposited more than an inch deep by the drill. If clover fallow, half the quantity of fertilizer will produce as good results as the above on corn land, or wheat or oats stubble. I think with 300 pounds of good fertilizer to the acre, 20 bushels of wheat can be made, and where transportation is cheap, some money. But in Tidewater Virginia I would not advise any fertilizer, except bone, lime, plaster, and possibly South Carolina dissolved bone or phosphatic rock. I do not believe that any ammoniated fertilizer will pay in a low, friable soil, such as prevails in Tidewater Virginia. Let them rely on peas, clover and lime mostly for their production of wheat. In Piedmont and Valley Virginia I know T we must

use fertilizers to get any crop of wheat that will pay expenses of culture ; and as I said above, we only sow it to get our land back in grass after corn, which crop every farmer in Virgiuia must cultivate for home consumption, for his meat and bread, and it can be fed with profit to cattle, thus saving all the manure from the corn crop to your land, and walking, through the cattle, the profit to market, or transporting the corn on the cars, in the concentrated form of cattle or hogs. To make 20 bushels of wheat in Piedmont or Valley Virginia (and there are few farmers who average it in a term of years), it costs $7.50 per acre in fertilizer, 12} cents a bushel freight, commission, Sj-c, or $2.50 per acre to market it, $1 a bushel for seed wheat, one bushel to the acre, making $11 per acre; interest on the outlay 66 cents, which leaves $8.34 to pay for plowing, harrowing, seeding, harvesting, threshing and cleaning, and hauling to depots, the product of one acre of land, to say nothing about interest on the land investment. It requires very little knowledge of arithmetic for any farmer, who knows the cost of labor, to discover how little profit is left. But the profit is in getting your land back in grass, improved by the residuum of the fertilizers after making the crop of wheat.

My experience is, that we should never sow more than one bushel to the acre on good and well fertilized land in Piedmont or Valley Virginia, and three pecks to the acre in Tidewater. The best time to sow is from the 20th September to 20th October; and if I could seed my whole crop in a day, I would do it the first day of October in this section—well fertilized—or the 20th September in Tidewater, without fertilizer, unless it be bone or lime, or both ; that is, bone with the drill on limed land. My experience is, there is less danger from fly in Tidewater Virginia, and ten days earlier seeding gives the wheat more time to root and branch before winter.

I think the drill the best agricultural implement ever invented, (if I had to sow wheat broadcast in this section of Virginia, I would abandon its culture), for the reason it deposits the wheat evenly a depth you may regulate, and every grain is covered and vegetates. It sows with certainty and regularity the quantity you wish, which very few seedsmen can do, but especially because it deposits the wheat in a little trench, where it is fed with dirt during the winter by the action of the frost from the surrounding hillock, and far less liable to be winter killed.

My favorite varieties of wheat are the Fultz and the Lancaster for all parts of Virginia—about tworthirds of the crop of Fultz and one-third of Lancaster—the Lancaster always sown on the flat, wetter land.

For several years past the Fultz has made 20 per cent, more yield to the acre. This past season especially, the winter being rather a wet one, the Lancaster in this section has about equaled the Fultz. One reason for sowing one-third of the crop Lancaster is, that it is about four days later in ripening, and thus gives more time for harvesting.

The reaper and binder is a most valuable implement in harvesting a crop of wheat, and no farmer who sows sixty acres in wheat should be without one. One of them, 6 or 7 feet cut, will easily save 120 acres wheat in time with four hands—that is, a driver, a manager on the ma-chime, and two shockers—the two latter only having any real work to do. The -"McCormick 7-foot twine binder" is far superior to any I have seen—doing its work more perfectly, and being far more durable. This binder will save one bushel of wheat to the acre over the cradle reaper, and will save fifty cents per acre in labor. Then, when you go to stack or thresh, the bundles are perfectly bound, and are more easily handled. If you stack, the butts of the bundles have very few heads in them to be sprouted in the outside of the stack. One field of wheat in this section has been cultivated this year on the English plan by Mr. J. S. Mason, and has been watched with interest by his neighbors—sown with a drill 16 inches wide between the drills, and then cultivated in the spring with a sharp coulter or shovel on the drill in place of the tines, to run in between the wheat rows. Result: 22 bushels per acre for the cultivated and 26 bushels for that sown in same field after our usual plan with same quantity of fertilizer. Loss: Labor of cultivation and four bushels to the acre of wheat; but a far better set of grass on the cultivated portion. J. S. Mason, Marshal Postoffice, Fauquier county, Va., can give you particulars and result of experiment. Conclusion : No cereals can be grown to profit with the present uncertain and high labor in any part of Virginia dependent on railroad transportation to market, because of the competition with the virgin soils of the West, from whence freights are about the same as from Virginia, with the advantage to them of $7.50 per acre—cost of fertilizer—for they can more certainly make twenty bushels to the acre without fertilizer than we can with it. Only in Tidewater Virginia, where wheat and corn can be transported to market for three cents a bushel, can we compete, and there not so well in wheat as in corn. Corn is a better paying crop in all Virginia than wheat, because where transportation is high we can convert it into meat, and thus reduce transportation cost, and improve our land with the offal, and not send anything off to market, and rely on the atmosphere and rains for recuperation.

Therefore, I would advise as little culture of wheat as possible; never plow up grass to put in wheat; only sow it on corn land or wheat stubble to get back into grass. This in Piedmont and Valley Virginia. In Tidewater always use peas or clover fallow for improvement, aud rely mostly on corn as the money crop. Virginia white corn is always ten cents a bushel higher than Western corn. The system that seems to me best in Tidewater Virginia would be corn, peas on corn stubble, wheat on peas, and clover after wheat—two years in clover, then corn again. The peas for seed should be picked, of course, from the pea fallow, and the clover seed should be saved from the second growth of the first year.

I can but think that sheep in small flocks, not over fifty together— thirty is better—would pay better than wheat in any part of Virginia. I have in the past written so much on the cultivation of wheat I mu6t make that my apology for not confining this article more especially to your request—Wheat Culture.

Yours truly, Robt. Beverley.

The Plains, Fauquier Co., Va.

THE MANURE HEAP.

What the merchant is without goods, what the manufacturer is without the raw material, what the banker is without deposits, what the engineer is without fuel, the farmer is without manure or fertilizers of some kind ; i. «. in a very poor condition to carry on business to say the least.

An ample manure heap may be said to be absolutely necessary to preserve the fertility of the soil, and to do this is one of the most important requisites to successful farming.

It is no mark of good husbandry, for the farmer to force a crop to such an extent as to draw from the soil more of the elements of fertility than were added to it, for in that case, he is injuring his soil more than the benefit he derives from the crop, and sooner or later, will, if the coarse is persisted in, produce a state of sterility.

The only way this can be avoided is by a careful saving and judicious application of manures of all kinds.

There is no doubt but that one half at least of all the material of a fertilizing character that exists in the United States, is from year to year allowed to go to waste, or at least is unappropriated in consequence of a proper care in the saving.

Manure may well be said to be the very foundation upon which successful farming depends, therefore the farmer should exercise great diligence in the direction of its saving.

Commencing at the barn, if possible all stables should be so arranged as to save a large proportion of the urine of animals.

It must be remembered, that, unless special attention is made to arrest it, here is a large amount of the most valuable material that will flow away. Its value in consequence of being in a condition to be immediately appropriated by plants is about equal to the solid evacuations.

Leaves, straws, and coarse bedding or sawdust will absorb much, but if muck or dry earth can be procured, and sprinkled where required every day, nearly all of the fluids may be retained. It is also much better if the same can be placed under cover upon being cleared away, unless immediately taken and spread upon the soil, rather than leave it exposed to the weather and the action of the atmosphere and rains which will wash out and carry away the more soluble portions which are the very ones that are most beneficial to the plant.

There is an exception in the case of horse manure; it is no disadvantage to this to obtain sufficient moisture to keep it well saturated, or else it will heat (ferefang) and its value be greatly diminished. Avery good method of saving this is, where practicable, to throw it under some shed where it will be trod upon by sheep or other animals, and so compacted and at the same time saturated with urine as to prevent even the possibility of heating. This makes a very valuable manure.

All yards, stables in which manure is to remain, and sheds, in fact, all places in which there is to be an accumulation of manure, should, after being cleaned out, be abundantly supplied with muck or loam, so that if there should be any drainage from the manure heap it may pass into the same and so be saved.

This is especially essential in the hog yard; there is probably no animal that will, with the assistance of the farmer, make more manure in the course of the season than the hog, especially if his nose remains untrammelled, but which possibly might not aid the fattening process.

Again, the yard or barn should contain all the conveniences necessary, so that after the animals are once taken to the yard in the fall they need not be obliged to again leave it till spring; a considerable saving is made in this way, over the plan adopted by some of allowing the herd to travel to a distance to a stream or spring of water to quench thirst, around which they will hover and stand and shiver for perhaps half a day dropping their excrement around it, and on the way to and from the same.

In all such practices they may be considered about the same as lost, for although dropped on the land about the spring or stream, it is a very difficult matter to discover that it was of very much advantage to the land and certainly none to the water.

If muck or earth is not used as an absorbent it by all means should be used to mix with the manure as thrown from the stable, to absorb and prevent the escape of ammonical gases which would otherwise pass oft* into the atmosphere.

By using proper means for adding refuse material to the manure heap, even from the stables, barn, and hog yards, a large quantity of valuable fertilizing material will be accumulated

But it must not be supposed that these are the only sources from which a supply is to be obtained ; there are others, which, although furnishing considerably less in quantity, make up in quality, but the limits of this article prevent their mention at this time.— From " The Practical Farmer."

UNDER-DRAINING.

Of the antiquity of this useful farming operation, Prof. McBride, in the Journal of American Agriculture, says ;

Modern writers on under-draining generally assume that the practice is of comparatively recent origin. Waring, in his work on draining, remarks:

The effort (probably an unconscious one) to make the theories of modern under-draining conform to those advanced by the early practitioners seems to have diverted attention from some more recently developed principles which are of much importance.

He then goes on to observe :

Joseph Elkingtou, of Warwickshire, England, about one hundred years ago, discovered that tapping under ground springs where the land was wet would relieve and improve the soil, and this, the Elking-ton system, may hence be considered as the germ or beginning of the present practice of thorough drainage.

He admits, however, that catch-water drains, made so as to intercept a flow of water, have been in use from time immemorial, and are described by the earliest writers. Now, without dwelling upon the passage wherein Virgil speaks of u drawing off from the absorptive soil water there collected after the manner of a marsh," I would ask what is to be thought of the following passage, written by Columella nearly seventeen centuries before Elkington was born ? *In his chapter on soils, while treating of wet land, he observes:

If it be wet, let the abundance of moisture be first dried up by ditches. Of these we are acquainted with two kinds, covered and open. In compact and calcareous soils they are left open ; but where the ground

is more porous, some of them are left open and some covered, so that the free vents of the latter may discharge into the former. It is necessary, however, to make the open ones wider at the top and sloping and contracted at the bottom, like inclined pan-tiles, for those with perpendicular sides are soon damaged by water, and tilled up by the falling in of the sides. In addition to this, the covered ones should be sunk three feet deep, and, after being half filled with small stones and coarse gravel, should be made level with the surface by returning the earth thrown out in digging them. If neither stones nor gravel are convenient, then a bundle of twigs, twisted together like a rope, should be made of such thickness as to exactly fit and fill the bottom of the ditch. This should be stretched along the bottom, and cypress or pine branches, or any other kind if these cannot be obtained, pressed down above it, and the soil thrown back over all, first placing at the head and mouth of the drain two large stones, one against each of the sides, and a single stone across these, after the manner of a little bridge, in order to support the sides and keep them from falling in and obstructing the ingress and egress of the water. (Lib. 2, Cap. 2.)

Pliny, in Lib. XVIII, Cap. 6, evidently has this passage before him, when he writes a few years afterward :

It is highly advisable to cut up and drain a wetter field with ditches —moreover, in clayey places that the ditches should be left open; in looser soils, that they should be strengthened with supports or pantiles, or sunk with sloping sides in order that they may not fall in; that certain kinds should be covered and led into others larger and more open, and, if occasion required, filled in below with pebbles or gravel; also, that the mouths of these should be strengthened on each side with two stoues and covered on top with another.

Palladius, also, nearly three centuries later, discusses the same subject in almost similar language. Here we have assuredly something more than "the germ " of under-draining.

We add the letter of Peter Minor, of Albemarle county, an eminent farmer of his day, under date 26th September, 1818, addressed to Mr. Madison, Ex-President of the United States, and President of the Albemarle Agricultural Society, never before published, and copied from the original manuscript:

Ridgeway, Sept. 26, 1818.

Lear Sir, — Four years ago I made a small essay in draining, after a manner different from any I had ever heard of or seen practiced, the efficacy of which determined me to repeat the experiment this spring upon a larger scale. I am so entirely satisfied with the success in both cases, that I am induced to communicate the mode to you for the information of our Society.

It may be remarked that lands which require to be drained are always rich, and when thoroughly reclaimed by this process are the most productive of any we have. The operation itself is one, too, of considerable labor and expense; and where open ditches are relied on,

this labor and expense becomes, in a measure, annual, from the necessity of cleaning out with the spado, and trimming the banks of weeds, boshes, briers, &c. Hence the superior advantages of secret or covered ditches will be at once perceived, by which not only all this annual labor but a considerable portion of the best land occupied bv the ditch, the bank and turning land, are saved. The land lost to cultivation by an open ditch, with its bank and the necessary width for turning a plough on each side, is not less than from 15 to 20 feet, which, in many cases, is the extent of surface to be reclaimed, to say nothing of the loss of time incurred by frequent and short turnings of the plough.

These considerations governed me in the first experiment I made, the subject of which had been an open ditch for many years running through a piece of flat land the distance of 300 yards, conveying the water of a bold and constant spriug from the foot of a hill to a river. The expense of cleaning out with the spade and trimming the banks of briars, Ac. (which before formed a considerable item in the account of disagreeable and unhealthy labor), had been incurred for several years, besides the loss of nearly half an acre of the best land.

I determined to save this expense and regain the land by conveying the water subterraneously. For this purpose I opened a new ditch from the river to the head spring, two feet wide and two feet deep, the sides of which were cut down perpendicularly instead of giving them the usual slope. At the bottom of this ditch, and exactly in the middle of it, I cut a channel six inches wide and six inches deep, into which all the water immediately collected. A common grubbing hoe was the instrument used in doing this, but I think a more convenient tool, something like a spade of the proper width, could be made in any blacksmith's shop. This channel, however, should be made larger or smaller, according to the size of the stream to be conducted, allowing for the increase of water in wet seasons with a gradual and regular fall. Stones, which were near at hand, were then obtained with at least one flat surface, and laid side by side across this channel, resting upon its two banks at the bottom of the main ditch. The stones for the first course should be so long as to bear at least four inches on each bank. If they are rough and do not come well together, other stones may be carefully laid on the top so as to cover the openings, and if convenient it will be advantageous to fill the whole ditch with stone, to a point somewhat below the depth of any ploughing that may be contemplated. The work was begun at the upper end and proceeded downwards that the channel might be cleared, if any obstruction should fall into it. The whole was then covered thickly with straw, and the earth returned. Ramming is unnecessary, as the earth will quickly settle to a proper firmness. ^ Ploughing and other operations of husbandry have since been carried on over this ditch, as if none existed, and the purpose of draining the land has been completely answered. A much-frequented road passes over one part of it. It has now stood the test of four years under an annual crop, in which time the whole has been twice overflowed

by the water from the river for four and twenty hours at a time, and no part of the vent at all injured or obstructed. I consider the work, therefore, as done forever, and the expense I conceive to be greatly less than that of an}' other mode of secret draining. I found that the same hands could place the stone and return the earth in less than half the time they spent in cutting the ditch. In the Northern States, where the practice of draining with stone is common, the method is to set up one course of stone perpendicularly against one side of the ditch, and another course leaning against it, forming an angle of about 45 degrees. But this is certainly not only more tedious, but it requires a double portion of stone, and that, too, of a particular size and shape to make the channel uniform and sufficient. Arator, a distinguished w T riter on agriculture, and one of the first practical farmers of our State, recommends a deep and wide ditch to be filled with brush, covered with straw or leaves, and the earth to be returned and rammed ; but not to mention the greater labor and expense of this process, it is certain that this work must in time decay, and should, therefore, only be resorted to where stone cannot be procured. In our hilly country stone is generally abundant, and in many places so much so as to greatly impede the operations of the farmer. By converting it to the use I have mentioned, he would find his hills freed from a troublesome annoyance, and his wet lands reclaimed to cultivation by the same operation. With great respect, yours,

P. Minor. Mr. Madison, President Agricultural Society, Albemarle.

[Printed in Am. Far. 1:309.]

IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LANDS.

By Martin H. Sutton, m. r. a. s., f. r. h. s., of Reading, England.

Thousands of meadows and upland pastures are producing less than half the quantity of hay and feed which the land is capable of, from a deficiency of plauts of those kinds which are most productive and suitable for the soil.

In many cases, great improvements can be effected by merely sowing renovating seeds (which should consist of the finest and most nutritive kinds of perennial grasses and clovers) in the following manner. Heavy harrows should be drawn over the old turf early in the spring, to loosen the soil for the admission of seeds, which, if sown freely, will € occupy the numerous small spaces between thegrassesalready growing, and supersede the coarse grasses and noxious weeds. After the seeds are sown the land should be carefully rolled.

It is always a sound practice to sow these seeds upon a thick top

dressing of any decayed material mixed with good soil. The months of February, March and April, are proper for sowing the seeds; the earlier the better, as the old grass will protect the young from frost. It is also useful to sow in July and August, immediately after carrying the hay.

Should the old turf be full of moss, this is generally an indication that draining would be beneficial. The following is, however, an almost infallible remedy for the moss, not only destroying it, but preventing the growth in the future. Mix two cartloads of quicklime with eight cartloads of good light loam, turning the compost several times, that it may be thoroughly mixed and the lime slacked, and spread this quantity per acre over the pasture, dragging the turf well with iron harrows.

Where a pasture is properly drained, but poor, it is a good plan to apply a dressiugof salt, which has the effect of so far killing the rushes, sedges, and even the rougher grasses, that they either die out entirely, or are destroyed to such an extent that their decaying element makes a manure that encourages a new growth of better grasses. A compost of scrapings from ditches, banks, and road sides, and any manure at hand, should be spread over the land. Upon this sow seeds of good grasses and clovers, and let the whole be thoroughly worked together by a bush or chain-harrow. A crop of hay should always be taken after sowing. If fed, the stock, and sheep especially, will be very likely to pick out the young and more tender plants of both grass and clover. After the young plants are well established, and as the fresh turf appears, sheep can be depastured thereon, and a permanent improvement in the produce will speedily be apparent.

The thickly folding of sheep on a poor upland pasture, consisting for the most part of Br achy podium pinnatum —False Broom Grass—has been known to nearly kill out this hard, useless species in a single season, and it so happens in pastures, that whatever discourages the growth of the rougher elements, encourages that of better sorts. On the contrary, if a good pasture remains uncared for, it will soon run into a wild state, or become an unproductive moorland.

Coarse grasses, rushes, sedges, mosses, cowslips, primroses, orchids, daisies, and a host of other plants in excess, point to a pasture out of order. Such a grass as Aira ccepitosa (Tufted Hair grass), with rushes and sedges, indicate a want of drainage; but Br achyy odium pinnatum indicates a healthy moor. Large-leaved plantain, thistles, docks, aud other weeds, must be extirpated before improvements can be effected.

Very many weeds are at once killed by a heavy dressing of salt, es-

SOUTHERN PLANTER. [September

pecially if put on after the plants have been cut, and while they are bleeding.

A friend, who had some rough, poor pasture on the Oxford clay, attempted to renovate it by removing the turf, and digging the soil a epit deep. It was^pointed out that this was both expensive and useless, and the plan was abandoned. Draining was advised, and then a manure compost was spread over the pasture, upon which was sown some good grasses well harrowed in. The whole was firmly rolled in spring and autumn. This treatment killed out a large proportion of the coarse herbage in a short time, and improved the pasture so much that it was capable of fattening bullocks. To loosen the soil by digging is doing absolute injury, but consolidation by means of the roller is always beneficial to a pasture. Fresh seeds of good sorts, manure, the harrow, the roller, and depasturing with sheep, will soon improve the quality of a pasture.

Much of the grass land of this country has been impoverished from too great greed for the rick, and especially when the grass is allowed to get too ripe before cutting. Again, the farmer sometimes thinks his pasture will be renovated by merely depasturing sheep upon it, and even then the sheep are too often folded on the arable at night; thus the pasture i3 robbed instead of benefitted. As this supposed enrichment of the pasture by sheep is all the dressing that some meadows have had for generations, there is no wonder that pastures become worn out. Though the remark may appear trivial, yet it is necessary to point out that unless hay and corn or cake be given to the sheep, the mere feeding of sheep on a pasture cannot add to its fertilizing matter, but when the animals have even a small portion of cake, the advantage to pasture is at once observable.

Too frequent hay-making, and the vicious practice of treating the arable at the expense of the pasture, is sure to pruduce poor herbage. What is taken away in the crop or by the fattened sheep, must be returned in the shape of manure, either by direct dressing, or by using feeding stuffs on the pasture itself, if it is to continue productive. When it is poor, nc device short of bringing riches to it will be successful.

Nature, who has made no two leaves to resemble each other, has endowed our souls with a still greater diversity, and imitation, then, is a kind of death, since it robs each of its individual existence.— Madame de Stael.

An orange twig at Waldo, Fla.,grew nine perfect oranges, all united.

SILICA AND POTASH IN SOILS.

Silica is that which forms the backbone of plants, so to speak, and is found in all soils. Land is nearly all silica in some places, and yet, being so plentiful, it is still beyond their reach except by slow process. Our window glass receives its transparent, glazed appearance from the silica in its composition, and though mingled or combined with a very soluble substance—potash—we know that window glass cannot be dissolved. But we do know that with a certain proportion of potash or soda it can be dissolved in water, and that if one cannot obtain silica by one process another can be tried. The only difference between window glass and soluble glass is in the proportion of alkali used, for otherwise they are the same. Plants get silica as silicate of alumina or silicate of ammonia, and silica is acted on by all the alkalies. It is the action of silicic acid on lime that causes the mortar of our walls to become so hard after a lapse of time, forming silicate of lime, and our own observation thus teaches us that even the hard, insoluble sand can be made to furnish soluble ingredients for plant food.

There is nothing certainly known regarding the chemical combinations that take place in the soil. With heat we can in a few moments perform experiments that tend to lead us to believe that peculiar transformations take place, but after all we are compelled to conjecture much and endeavor to discover all we can. There are two great ageuts continually at work on our soils—ammonia and lime. The first is given us in certain quantities free, in rains in small quantities, and its work has been the great secret long sought for by agricultural chemists. That it acts on silica is a fact that cannot be denied, or rather the silica acts on it, for silicate of ammonia can be found in straw, and when we still further investigate we can find silicate of alumina in connection with the silicate of ammonia, and thus it would seem that through the medium of ammonia the sand (silica) and clay (alumina) are united into a compound. Potash not only enters into plants, but, no doubt, has certain relations with the silica in the sand, for we cannot deny that if we can combine them in the laboratory the same thing can be done in the soil.

If we will notice a growing cornstalk we can see a glazed appearance on the leaf, with a keen edge on its outer parts. These edges will cut like knives, and are brittle like glass. In fact, it is glass in a certain sense, for silica forms the bony structure of such plants. In order to have all the conditions of growth, then, it is necessary that a plant have soluble silica, and, as we do not apply silica to soils, we should

assist the plants by furnishing ammonia and potash. It does not matter if a soil is all sand, the silica is useless unless first acted on by some other substance. Nitrate of soda is the best of all for this purpose, as it is composed of nitric acid and soda, and both, no doubt, chemically affect silica in the soil, and at the same time furnish soda and nitrogen for the pjants. This disintegration of nitrate of soda also enables the plant to reach after other substances, for during the reaction a long line of chemical changes takes place, and lime, potash and the phosphates are more or less set free.

All the alkalies—ammonia, potash, soda and lime—in addition to furnishing food for plants, cause changes of base to take place with other substances, rendering some soluble that would otherwise be locked up, and for that reason their very presence, outside of their intrinsic value, is an advantage and gain to the farmer. This is why lime makes some light soils heavier and heavy soils lighter, for the action of lime on the soil is to put a great many other things at work forming new compounds. But potash is really a plentiful substance in soils also, and the trouble is to reach it. If we apply lime we assist to set it free, and when we put manure on land we add soluble silica, combined potash and free ammonia. This is why manure—if we have plenty of it ■—is a better fertilizer than anything else, for it contains all that is needed by plants, but all manure is not alike, and we may often put a great deal of manure on land with but little benefit, for if it has been leached by rains, improperly cared for, or made from useless substances, it will be more in quantity than quality. With mineral fertilizers we do the work in a quicker manner, and speed is a great thing on a growing crop sometimes.— Southern Farmer's Monthly.

Fifty miles from the junction of Salt River, Arizona, with the Gela, there comes into it a stream of salt water. It is supposed that the interior of the mountain, out of which the stream flows, is largely composed of rock salt. If there were appliances for evaporation, sufficient salt to supply the markets of the world could be manufactured here.

A Woman who does all her own housework, attendf to seven children, and turns her dresses half a dozen times to make both ends meet, may be a good Christian, but when a lady in a thousand dollar carraige and a five hundred dollar dress halts at the door and asks her to subscribe to some charitable object, she can hardly be expected to act and talk like one.— Philadelphia News.

FREEMAN AND LIFE.

[For the Southern Planter.]

Mr. Editor, —This is not designed as biography, but apart from a brief reference to the character and lives of the two men, to illustrate the difference id the management of the same tract of land by each. The incidents in the lives and character of each will, however, not be without interest. There is, in the county of Augusta, three miles east of Fishersville, a small cove, that at the date of the settlement of this region, then a prairie, was called "Elk," from the unusual quantity of the antlers of this new extinct animal. They resorted to the several springs abounding in this cove, as a lick, there being mineral water among them. These have disappeared, except one or two, and of those, over which the plow now runs, was what was known as Coy-ner's " trout-spring," very deep, into the edge of which he cut down timber, that climbing in upon it, he could the more successfully draw out the speckled beauties. The little stream runs into Long Meadow run—a branch of Christian's creek—that is a tributary of Middle river.

A deed from George the Fourth to Hutchinsin, that passed to

McFarlane, then to Higgins, then to Ross, &c, indicates the character of the early settlers as of Scotch descent. A pretty knoll, called "Parley," now designates one of the fields. About 1805, on what has, for a century or more, been called the "Three Notched" road, in the county of Louisa, that was then, and for some time before, used by farmers of the Valley in hauling their hemp and other products to Richmond, was a poor widow of the name of Freeman. She had a son (Richard) about twelve years of age and two daughters younger. The county authorities were then very rigid in requiring that boys of families likely to be chargeable should be bound out to learn a trade. Richard, hearing that this fate awaited him, hid himself, and, meeting some kind-hearted wagoner returning to Augusta, engaged him to carry his mother, sisters and their few effects, and presently found shelter in the vicinity of this "Elk Cove." Here, the little hero, for he well deserved the appellation, worked, where he could find employment, at ninepence a day. When he reached man's estate he showed his manly character in promptly enlisting as a soldier, in the war of '12, at Waynesboro. He discharged his duties faithfully, and was spared to return. Such a boy and man could not fail to be appreciated by the gentler sex, and we soon find him leading to the altar one of the Misses Ross, one of the heirs to "Elk Cove." Time passed. Daughters are born to them; two in number. About the year 1855, one Samuel 11

Life conies upon the scene. He is the great grand-son of one of three German emigrants that found their way from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, up the South Branch of Potomac, into what is now Crab Bottom, in Highland, Barnett Lantz, or, as the name was then in the German, Leib. Seybert settled at the mouth of Straight creek, and the third we can't recall. Samuel, the second of seven sons of Martin Leib, or Life, having received a fair English education at the Emmer-son Institute near home, found his way to Augusta, and meeting with an accident that disabled him for labor for some time, taught school. "When able to work, he united in the purchase of one of Phillip Rham's 6team saw-mills—the second brought into the county; the first, a few months before, a second-hand one, from Rockingham. Following this a year or two in the neighborhood of Mr. Freeman, he married the second of his two daughters, and became a laborer on the farm. Mr. Freeman, who remembered early impressions, managed it strictly after Eastern Virginia ideas—to take everything off and put little on. The war came on; Life passed through as a good soldier, and came out with his own individual earnings he had saved, exhausted, ank Mr. Freeman, like all others, reduced almost to extremities. In '69, when the farm was so reduced that a fifty-acre field of wheat, after being most carefully gathered, made just fifty bushels of wheat, the old man surrendered to Life. One of his most intelligent and successful neighbors said to him he did not think it possible that he could improve the land; that a pine and black oak soil, with much gravel on the surface, he did not think susceptible of improvement. There, Mr. Editor, I am reminded of an incident of precisely the kind I am about to narrate that occurred in the county of Fairfax. It has long been regarded by even such intelligent persons as the farmer who advised Mr. Life, that it could not be improved. That very distinguished member of the New York Bar, who attained a national reputation in the Beecher trial, Judge Fullertou, deserves much at the hands of the farmers of the United States, and especially of those in Virginia. Visiting Fairfax just about the same date that Life took charge, he was induced to purchase a large body of land. His friends remonstrated it would be money thrown away. He had observed where a company of cavalry had been fed some time during the war, and was at once satisfied of the character of the subsoil, made the purchase, and has one of the finest farms in Virginia. Life had seen some places on the farm where the Scotchmen, in the last century, had burned lime on log-heaps, and the influence on the grasses, of the sites of several cabins that had been removed; yet, to satisfy himself fully, took

his mattock and went over the place, digging in many situations, to see the character of the subsoil. Finding a tenacious clay, and that the gravel was confined to six or more inches of the surface, he went to work with energy. He put up a lime-kiln, and whilst the lime is dark, he regards it as infinitely superior to the white that abounds in magnesia. On the Parley field, he told the writer, he hauled leaves and covered it so deep all over, and then a heavy coating of lime, that the plow could not turn it under as he desired. The crop was a failure, from the want of decomposition, but the next paid, and so with lime and a judicious use of fertilizers, he is making noio twenty and more bushels of wheat per acre. For years he has competed most successfully with the best farmers of the county in his hay, corn and wheat products. He introduced the first drill in his neighborhood; has put down much secret ditching, erected thirty odd gates, putting heavy locust post in six feet, taken out the stumps and quarried the limestone out of the way of the plow and burned it into lime, and as the writer, who studied the plan of constructing kilns and applying it, in person, in Pennsylvania before the war, knows the most profitable application is in a heavy grass sod, so has Life discovered and practised. He has done, also, what the writer long since found out, that the most successful way to raise corn is to cultivate it before you put it in tlie ground. Life's field now, although drilled by the wheat drill, closing all the spouts but two, is decidedly the cleanest and most flourishing field we have seen, and not a particle of fertilizer used. In short, he has demonstrated most satisfactorily the fact that an intelligent energy and use of proper means, with a good subsoil, any land can be improved. Mr. Life, appreciating the heavy tax of the worm-fence, though with a profusion of fine oak timber, will, at an early day, substitute wire fence, with good locust posts, as an economy.

There is in Brazil a common poisonous snake, the surucucu, respecting which the following facts are related : The natives say that such is the antipathy of the reptile to fire that they will rush into it, scattering it with their tails till it is extinguished, even becoming half-roasted in the attempt.

Sir Samuel Baker says that no pet animals are to be found among African tribes, even where there are children.

It is said that the steam power actually in use throughout the world is equal to 13,500,000-horse power.

LETTER FROM E. G. BOOTH, Esq.

Editor Southern Planter:

As stated in a former communication, the man who can raise good grass and stock without first making his land rich can beat me. Thus the fertility of the soil is the indispensable fountain of such improvement and worthy of chief consideration.

All agree that the home made manures should take precedence of all others. But, on a large farm, with abundant stock and earnest zeal in such production, I could rarely make more than ten acres of thin soil rich enough for good tobacco. Increased stock and grass might attain more extensive results, but the stock must be fed as pre requisite.

The question of bought manures thus merges into absolute necessity, even if at some loss in the commencement. Now T , the farm manures and the bought fertilizers are fixed and indisputable facts, and fixed on too small a surface for extensive utility.

What we desire is something of less cost and more extensive application. Here come in the questions of peas, millet, buckwheat, &c, but more especially ensilage. When this subject was first presented, it did seem to me the most visionary and impracticable I had ever considered. The idea of preserving green products by burying them in the ground was buried beyond probable resurrection, and only excited solicitude for the pecuniary safety of any friend. I confess a change has come over the spirit of my dreams. This was effected much through the instrumentality of such sensible, practical communications as were published by Col. R. H. Dulany and Boiling W Haxall, Esq., the "apprehension" as to them having little application. But these communications appeared several years ago, and subsequent silence is unfavorable to subsequent confirmation. Now, some persons are modest in the presentation of their publications, which is the best sign of merit, and I may say the chief impulse of this communication is to ask the favor to individuals and the public, by a report of the subsequent results of such experiments, as in my view the question of stock, &c, materially depends on something that can be produced on comparatively inferior land. A writer from Georgia, in the last number of the American Farmer, so ably edited in part by an experienced, practical Virginian, reports great improvement from continuous cultivation of wheat after pea fallow, immediately on removal of the wheat each year. This is a more important discussion than farm- or bought-fertilizers, having nothing problematical or new and uncertain, and we need some change.

From peculiar opportunities of judging, I will say, let not the farmer despair, though failing to make the buckle and tongue quite meet in any one year. There are other considerations of compensating comparison which only actual experiment can establish. I feel confident that you may take one mile on Chestnut or Walnut streets, Philadelphia, and compute the expenses of each family, especially those keeping the equipage of the country gentleman, and the average expenses would exceed ten thousand dollars per year. Now, if the farmer breaks ever, why, has he not made the same amount of ten thousand dollars, or if a little behind, can stand it, having housed supplies for another year? But what becomes of the merchant or individual breaking ever in his business, leaving these expenses unprovided for? Thus the proportion of failures in the mercantile and agricultural occupations is about as one to one hundred againt the mercantile, and without the consequent worriment and vexation of faithless customers. Then let the humblest farmer rejoice in a concentration of what has been denominated the summum bonum of human happiness—"a little house well filled, a little farm well tilled, and a little wife w T ell willed."

SOUTHERN LAND.

Southerners never complain of the soil of their region. They seem usually to have an affection for it which sometimes appears to make them blind to its defects Where the soil is poor the people often manifest a kind of good-natured, patient fatalism, submitting without complaint to the inconveniences resulting from the scantiness of the returns for their labor, as if poor crops were a part of the order of the universe, a divine ordainment not to be criticised or remedied; though in truth much of the sterility is in the methods of the cultivators rather than of the soil itself. But in many places in the South the soil will not yield what an average Northern fanner would regard as "a living," and many emigrants have gone thither and begun farming only to learn, too late, that they had made a ruinous mistake in select-ing land. They are not purposely deceived; but there is a large class of farmers or "planters" in the South who do not require or expect so much from the ground as Northern men demand. They are satisfied with a lower degree of fertility, and their comparative estimate of the grade or quality of land differs from that of most immigrants from the North. An average Southern family needs much less for "a living" than Northern people require, and on much of the land of the South,

Northern people are unable to live by the methods of agriculture to which they have been accustomed in their old homes; nor can they succeed by those of the Southern men around them, unless they will adopt the scale of living and expenditure which satisfies their Southern neighbors, who adapt their tastes and habits to their circumstances.

[We clip the above from the Mecklenburg Democrat. Does it tell the true tale? In the main we think it does ; and yet we have to hear of the first Northern man who has failed on Virginia lands if his methods of culture have been right. Many have come here and bought more land than they needed—being tempted by apparent cheapness— and mortgaged the whole for deferred payments, which the crops expected did not meet, and thus lost entirely their investments, or very much imperilled them. This was unwise ; and in all cases in which a sufficient quantity of land was purchased and paid for, and cash reserved for a working capital, no disappointments have resulted.

There are many comforts "in the scale of living " which the Northern farmer knows of, and perhaps the Southern farmer does not, but these can be secured cheaper here than at the North, under proper management, and there is no obstacle to their introduction ; and our people who are imitative rather than originative, will adapt themselves to their surroundings.

We cannot think that " our average Southern family needs less for a living than Northern people require."— Ed. S. P.]

CABBAGES.

[For the Southern Planter.]

A kitchen garden cannot be said to be complete unless cabbages are included, as well for summer as winter use. Among the working classes especially, the cabbage takes a rank by the side of the potato as one of the staples of daily diet. It is too late in the season to give directions that will be of use this year in the starting of early plants; and these remarks will be confined to a general treatment of the subject, with such hints as to the later culture of the crop as may be still in season. Peter Henderson says that early cabbages are the most profitable of all garden crops to be grown for sale, provided the soil is congenial. . Experience has taught him that what is known as a heavy sandy loam, overlaying a porous subsoil, is the best adapted to its cultivation. Such a soil needs to be carefully plowed and even subsoiled, with a quantity of manure added, enough to make the soil rich and productive. The market gardeners plant the early cabbages out in the spring so soon as the ground can be worked. The distance between the rows is tw T o feet, and to economize the ground, lettuce is put between the rows a foot or more apart. The lettuce comes off before the cabbages are large, and the lettuce crop is so much gain. If stable manure is not to be had, bone dust, mixed with dried blood, can be

used, at the rate of one ton to the acre. This concentrated fertilizer should be thoroughly mixed with the soil by means of the harrow.

Among the leading varieties are—for early, the Jersey Wakefield, which has a head of medium size, close and of a deep green color; the Early York is smaller, but quite early; the Early Winningstadt is later, but an excellent kind. Among the best late kinds are, Large Flat Dutch, American Drumhead, Bergen Drumhead, Drumhead Savoy, and Red Dutch; the last mentioned is principally used for pickling. All of the late varieties can follow early potatoes as a second crop. Quinn writes, under the head of transplanting cabbages, "For fall or winter use we begin planting in the field about the middle of June, and expect to finish by the first week in July. Moist or damp weather is desirable for transplanting—the plants are first pulled from the seed bed, and at once carefully placed in baskets or boxes; the long tap roots are shortened to about three inches; each laborer is furnished with a dibble, which is made by cutting off the upper end of a common digging fork handle, leaving a shank about four inches long. This shank is made smooth and round and slightly pointed on the lower end. Expert gardeners have a round iron shoe to slip over this shank so that, while planting, the earth will not adhere to the dibble. Any person can make the dibble mentioned, or a simple sharpened stick or peg can be substituted. In setting out the plants, the rule is to place the plant so firmly in the ground that a leaf would be torn off if one attempted to raise a plant by it. It is w r ell to dip the roots of the plants in a liquid manure, and if the manure is mixed with soil or earth, so that it is thick enough to coat the roots drawn through it, so much the better. The newly set plants will usually wilt, especially if the transplanting is followed by hot and dry weather. As soon as the leaves are lifted from the ground, the cultivator should be run through the rows to loosen the soil and prevent the growth of weeds. The principal work from this time on is, to keep the ground clean, and watch for and destroy any insects that would do injury to the plants. The cabbage worm is very troublesome, which in some localities has destroyed the whole crop. That pest comes from eggs that are deposited on the underside of the leaves by a rather pretty medium sized white butterfly; these are sometimes so numerous as to appear almost like a cloud over the cabbage-field. They may be caught with an ordinary bug-net, made of mosquito netting, in the form of a bag, and attached by means of a hoop to a handle (like a dip net). Their destruction should be effected as soon as possible. Of course, Paris Green or London Purple, being deadly poisons, must not be used

on the plants. The most successful remedy so far as at' present known to kill the worm with, is hot water of about 160°, which does no injury to the plant. *

Savoy cabbages are not generally known, and therefore but little cultivated by farmers. They are very fine cabbages, and merit much greater attention than they at present receive. The English books on garden subjects treat of Savoys under a separate head from cabbages. The heads are never very hard, and the leaves are much wrinkled or blistered. The Drumhead Savoy, mentioned in the list in the first part of this article, will answer the best for a trial. It is hoped farmers will sow some seed of this variety, and see if it is not worth the while to have at least a few Savoy heads among the stock of cabbages for table use. M.

ON SAVING FODDER.

Mr. Editor:

I have read several articles in the Planter in former seasons as to the saving of fodder by cutting the corn down when the fodder is ripe and shocking it up on the land. The plan has always been recommended as the very best, and though it has been my practice for the past eight years, I have seen many persons, when first attempting the plan, become thoroughly digusted with it, and the fault has been, not with the system, but entirely with the method of carrying it out. In eight years' time there is not a farm around me where they do not practice it, though when I commenced there was not a single farm in this neighborhood where it had been adopted.

The cause for the disgust mentioned usually arises from the imperfect method of shocking the corn after it is cut. The cutting process is simple enough, but we are generally told that " after cutting, the corn is set up at convenient distances and one man holds the shock up while others place the armfuls around it until enough has been set up in one place to form a good shock, when the whole is tied tightly around the top." So far, so good, but in the process of setting which always goes on, a very great number of these shocks will twist and settle to the ground, and when the rain and mud and mould have finished with these down shocks, there is little left for the farmer but dissatisfaction and disgust, and there is certainly ground for it.

* [We think there is a better and more convenient remedy. Use brine with a watering pot. It is said that this is not only efficacious in killing the worm and its larvce, but, if not too strong, beneficial to the growth of the plant.— Ed. S. P.]

I think, however, if the plan I suggest be tried, there will be much less trouble at first and scarcely any as the plan becomes well understood. I do not claim any originality for it. I saw it illustrated some years ago in the Country Gentleman.

Before commencing to cut, a "horse" must be provided for each two hands. This horse is made of a pine pole say fourteen or sixteen feet long. (I usually choose those that have been used in draw-bars, as they are seasoned and therefore lighter to handle). In the large end two holes are bored one and one-half or two inches in diameter, at such an angle that two legs five and one-half or six feet long, when driven in the holes, will spread about four and one-half feet at the bottom; the small end rests on the ground without any poles or legs whatever. The next step is to bore three holes horizontally through the pine pole or u horse" at, say, a distance of three, five, and seven feet from the large end of the pole; these holes should be one and one-fourth inches in diameter. A smooth stick about four and one-half feet long and small enough to slip easily in and out of the one and one-fourth inch hole is next provided, and the " horse " is completed.

We then proceed to the cornfield, where say one-half the shucks have turned from green to yellow or whitish in color, and with a knife made of a piece of old scythe blade firmly attached to a wooden handle about two feet long, the corn is cut down, each hand cutting two rows and laying the corn four rows together, in piles with all the tops one way, of course. We commence cutting as soon as the dew is off in the morning and cut rapidly till dinner and after dinner, by which time the corn has wilted so that the stalks are tough and make splendid bands or ties—we commence shocking with the " horses."

If the land is to be seeded to grain at once, we put the corn from four rows of piles into one row of shocks. If no grain is to be seeded before the corn and fodder are removed, we only put two rows of piles into one row of shocks. The horse is dragged in between the rows of piles following the direction of the corn row, and the stick is pushed half-way into the hole which suits the height of the corn, forming four right angle corners. In these corners the corn is placed in armfuls, with the butts set well out and the tops all leaning to the centre. When enough corn has been placed in the corners, one man selects a good stalk for a band and twists it, being careful not to break it at the joint where the ear grows. He then hands the butt-end to his assistant who carries it around the shock, and pushing it well up to the top, hands it back to him. He then draws it very tight and fastens it by a simple twist and tucks the small ends under the butt, and the shock is

•rr ■■■*,

complete. The stick is then drawn out and the horse drawn forward for another shock. The corn is left with plenty of ventilation, all the centre being open, and dries and cures nicely.

There are some points where care is necessary and very little trouble will ensue. The first is not to cut the corn when too green. The next is to make the hands job the butts firmly to the ground, so that all the butts will touch the ground, which causes the shock to stand firm. The next is not to build the shocks too large, or they will not cure well if we have much rain; at the same time they must be large enough to stand firm. Lastly, they must be tightly drawn and tied. As I have before said, a corn-stalk wilted one-half a day in the sun will make a splendid tie. If used green they are very brittle, and also break easily when too dry, and much time is lost. By cutting in the morning and shocking in the evening, they wilt just enough, and each day's work is finished up at night.

For parties who grow very large crops of corn and have to commence in good time to save it, a very good plan is to cut eight rows alternately throughout the crop. These eight rows should be put up in very small shocks and well tied, and after going over the whole field in this way, the remaining strips of eight rows each should be cut and set up around the outside of the small shocks and then tied again, and there is hardly a possibility for any to fall down when thus doubly tied, besides the inner part of the shock is pretty well cured out before the outside is put up, and the outside, being only a thin layer, cures very rapidly, enabling the shocks to be made larger and consequently to stand up much firmer.

It is very important to tie tightly, and the assistant can often draw the top together by throwing his arms around it. If the corn is very tall, he climbs one side of the "horse " and the tyer the other.. I hope I have made the matter plain, and a little practice will furnish still more minute details, which I trust may be of benefit to some of your readers. A Former Richmond Boy.

" Tour future husband seems very exacting ; he has been stipulating for all sorts of things," said a mother to her daughter, who was about getting married. " Never mind, mamma," said the affectionate girl, who was already dressed for the wedding, " these are his last wishes."— Hurtford Times.

Certainly the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way, might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.— George Eliot.

Editorial,

THE VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY-ITS FAIR

Two subjects have delayed the announcement of the Fair for the present year:

First, The consolidation, or funding, of the floating debt of the Society.

Second, The transportation of visitors by means of steam cars on Broad street, as low as Eighth street, a convenient centre, which has been interrupted for two years past by an injunction prohibiting such cars for general trafic below the intersection of Belvidere and Broad streets.

By the energetic efforts of President Wickham both of these obstacles have been removed, and now the Fair is announced for the 25th October, and will continue three days, We have, in our two last issues, said about as much as we know what to say on the influence of the State Fair on the agricultural interests of the State, and we dislike to repeat. A State Fair should be regarded as a grand parental gathering, where the people—sons and daughters of the State—can meet together annually and enjoy themselves for a few days and learn of each other, and then return to their homes with enfreshened feelings and courage for the prosecution of another year's work. We shall hope to see a great outpouring of the farmers this year, which has blessed all who have diligently and intelligently cultivated with bountiful crops.

The Premium List of the Fair will be published as a Supplement to the Planter and mailed to all of its subscribers and exchanges; and we would suggest to the editors of all papers in Virginia, and Outside, whose people have any business relations with our State, that they will call attention to the Fair, and say what they can in aid of it.

As pertinent to the subject, we copy the following from an exchange:

"The real moving spirit in the present system of modern fairs, which, however, until within a comparatively short time, were called * Cattle Shows/ is said to have been Mr. Elkanah Watson, a well-known merchant of Albany, N. Y. The first fair held under his direction was at Pittsfield, Mass., in 1810. This was so successful that he organized fairs in every direction, and now every State holds its annual fair, and the system has been so extended, and the importance of these gatherings are so fully concurred in that for years districts, counties and towns have held their fairs. Not only this, but

horticultural societies, especially now, hold [separate and independent fairs.

" We are glad to know that these important gatherings are being more and more appreciated. It should be the aim of every farmer to foster them by all the means in his power, not only the fairs but the societies and boards of agriculture, who are the organizing and working forces. To do this, make preparations in time to attend and enjoy what there may be there. Do not go alone. Take your wives and families that they may participate in the enjoyment, and be instructed as well as yourselves. If you find there something better than you have at home, or on exhibition, strive to reach the mark next year. Prepare to show of the products of the farm. Suppose you do not get the premium. All cannot do so. You can show, and local societies can show that you and they are abreast with the times in what pertains to successful agriculture."

The railroads give round trip tickets at half rates, and in some instances there are excursion rates at less figures. All that the farmer and his family have to do is to inquire into those matters at the nearest station, and then come to the Fair.

WHEAT.

In our note to the communication of Dr. Pollard, which appeared in our issue for June, we made a plea for wheat and a promise of saying something on thick and thin seeding. In a very short time the next crop of this great cereal must be put in the ground. The attention of the farmer is, therefore, immediately demanded towards the best methods of culture. This he should decide from the lights of his own experience, and if these are not sufficient to guide him, he should be guided by the experiences of others as, in his best judgment, they may be applied to his own situation. The question of the proper quantity of seed*is a most important one. If thin seeding is best in results, there are two items of gain: First, The saving towards a marketable surplus, which in the aggregate will add largely to the commerce of the States; and, Second, The increase of yield, which contributes both to individual and national wealth. If thick seeding is best, we must sacrifice the first of these gains and accept the second.

The question, then, is too important to be lightly considered, and every farmer should institute careful experiments to satisfy his own mind; which, if carefully noted and reported, will furnish reliable data for a solution. Considering also the great value of the wheat crop throughout the world, there is no question, which attaches to its culture, more worthy of consideration than this.

Our experience, for many years, has been in favor of thin sowing, under proper circumstances; and in July, 1878, we communicated to the Southern Planter our views and experience on the subject. Many readers of our journal may call to mind the article we refer to. The fundamental propositions we laid down in respect to the proper culture of wheat were, in substance, these :

1. The fertility of the land and its adaptation from texture of soil, etc., to the crop.

2. Thorough preparation, perfect drainage, and good tilth when the seed is put in. Drainage is italicized because, all other conditions being favorable, whatever may be the fertility of the soil, the general health and success of the crop will depend on the surface and other forms of drainage.

3. The time of seeding, which, in the climate of Virginia, should bo from the :25th of September to the 15th of October.

4. Clean, well matured and selected seed; and on good land capable of producing 25 to 40 bushels to the acre, not more than one bushel to the acre broadcast, or three pecks with the drill.

5. Land of less fertility proportionately thicker.

6. Land which has not native fertility for fifteen bushels, or not manured to that point, should not be cultivated in wheat.

In these propositions the effect of seasons, insects and other disasters are not considered, as they apply alike to the crop under all ordinary circumstances.

In the application of these principles to thin seeding it must be noted :

1. That the quantity of seed used must be in the inverse ratio to the fertility of the land. The reason for this is obvious. All wheats branch or stool more on rich land than on moderately fertile land, and hence to produce the same number of heads on the latter an increased amount of seed must be used; and in this connection we may quote again the declaration of the old author, Varlo (1765), who says: "In rich, clean, good, well tilled land a plant of wheat may stool to fill eighteen inches square, yet I chose to fix my standard at one foot square, as that will bring forth to maturity twenty to thirty ears, which I found to be as many as had room to grow out of the root. I say one foot square will bring thirty ears to full maturity from one root, but were these thirty ears to have thirty roots, they certainly would fall down with what we call welt, but if they stood, the ears and grain in them would be small and good for little, and this I have accounted for in another place."

2. Fertility, drainage, and thorough preparation or tilth, standing as

essential points, the time of seeding must be sufficiently early, the local climate considered, to ensure a substantial root, or stock, before growth is checked by the frosts of winter.

3. The quality and selection of seed is of primary importance. Every intelligent farmer must know that badly cleaned and imperfectly matured seed cannot be relied on for a crop, so that the smallest quantity of seed demands the greatest purity.

4. Poor land should not be put in wheat or any other crop. If a farmer has but one acre rich enough to give the reasonable hope of a yield of fifteen to twenty bushels, and has not the means to fertilize a larger surface to the same capacity, without going in debt for this means, then he should confine himself to the single acre. Of all things, let the Southern farmer appreciate the fact that it is better, to cultivate one acre well, in any crop, and of proper fertility, than ten poor acres, remembering that the labor wasted on nine will more than make one thoroughly rich and give him better results.

Our article in the Planter for July, 1878, before referred to, produced many comments from farmers* in this and other States, which were published in subsequent numbers of the paper, and the general sentiment seemed to be one of endorsation of thinner seeding than usual.

In our next issue we may, if space is allowed, give a summary of the views of these commentators which are very instructive, but in the meantime we commend our subject to the attention of our readers, and ask that in the approaching season they will experiment and decide for themselves, and let their conclusions be known.

We have in our possession a letter from an intelligent farmer of Chester county, Pennsylvania, which he was kind enough to write when this subject was under discussion four years ago, in which he advocates thin sowing and horse-hoeing, or harrowing, in the spring, to be immediately followed with the sowing of clover seed. We are informed that the lands of Chester county, the most famous in the United States for their wheat production, had very much decreased in their yield, so that many farmers had abandoned the crop, and for what may appear a very strange reason—these lands had become too rich for wheat. The quantity of seed generally used was two bushels to the acre,

*It may be well to mention now the names of some, or all, of these gentlemen, and to request that they will communicate any further experience gained on the subject: Col. Randolph Harrison, Col. Robert Beverley, Judge I. H. Christian, Ex-Go?ernor "Wm. Smith, Gen. G. S. Meem, R. Perrin Graves, Thos. Brown, Col. J. H. Hutchison, Dr. J. M. Blanton, Master State Grange and Commissioner of Agriculture ; J. P. Aylor, Geo. Chrisman, Col. Wm. M. Cabell, J. 0. McGehee, A. Gerard and M. B. Carrington, all of Virginia; Col. J. R. Minter and Col. J. M. Miller, of South Carolina; Dr. W. J. Martin, of North Carolina; S. Wyatt, of Georgia.

and the growth was so luxuriant that it bedded before the head appeared and rotted upon the ground. This, we are told, was not unt'requently the case on many farms. To remedy this condition, the farmer referred to adopted the plan of thin seeding by removing every alternate tube and hoe of his drill, which reduced the quantity of seed one-half and made the drill-furrows eighteen inches apart. The 6pace between the drills was loosened by one or two furrows of a light and narrow cultivator, just as the wheat began to show a spring growth, and clover seed were then sown. His plan worked admirably and increased the crop nearly fifty per cent. His attested statement, a copy of which accompanied his letter, showed a yield in 1878 of fifty seven bushels to the acre. In the May number of the Agricultural Review and Journal of the American Agricultural Association, we find an interesting article on wheat by the Hon. T. Bowick, of Bedford, England. Amongst other important questions bearing on the culture of the crop, we find much said on the proper quantity of seed, and we make the following extracts: ********

" The problem of thick versus thin seeding has been often discussed during the past six decades; and although it has been tested by experiments, experimenters have arrived at conflicting views. The soil and its condition, the season, the climate, the seed, and the time and mode of sowing, are all elements on which the determination of the quantity of seed rests. Major Hallett, in showing the advantage of early sowing, recommends two to three gallons if the wheat is to be put in before the 10th of September, and for each week later an additional gallon per acre; but such early sowing is not practicable in ordinary English farming, for wheat often succeeds beans, peas, potatoes or turnips. In conversing with Mr. Valentine, a famous farmer near Leighton Buzzard in Buckinghamshire, he named 20th of October to the 20th of November, as being the best period, and he added that early sowing makes the plant tender and too forward to stand the change aud chance of the winter weather. The late Mr. Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, Essex, strongly recommended a bushel an acre, but we think he got few followers."

* * * "If the soil is poor it receives the more seed, at least such is the practice of many farmers; but the practice is denounced by some as unphilosophical. They argue plausibly that if a man requires one pound of beef per day to keep up his health and condition, what would be the result if three men were obliged to subsist on the same allowance? Or, to put the argument more in accordance with the subject—if ten plants of wheat required one foot of land to perfect their growth, what effect may be expected if thirty plants were confined to the same space? Now, in acting contrary to this apparently self-evident proposition, we have to state that on poor ground the plant does not tiller—one kernel only produces one stem instead of three, four, or more, w 7 hen sown on

wealthy land—so to provide the requisite number of plants several more seeds have to be deposited. It is a fact, too, that the poverty of the laud dwarfs the plant, which, from that circumstance, occupies less space, and requires, in consequence of its slender condition, more stems or straws around it for mutual shelter and support." * * *

" The quantity of seed, as we have said, is partly regulated by the mode of sowing, and an even distribution of seed is indisputably the nearest approach to perfection. Drilling eight, nine, or ten inches clear from row to row are common widths; but such large gaps are disliked by some. These widths offer facilities for hand and horse hoeing, so that the weeds may be kept down and the ground pulverized; but a question arises: Is the hoeing of the crops indispensable? It is not done, neither is it required in some of the best agricultural districts. It is really not required for extirpating weeds in clean land, and if a baked surface wants stirring and breaking that can be done more expeditiously and economically by the common harrow. Wheat stands, and even improves, under a considerable amount of rough handling in the spring. We mention'these things in order to draw attention to a practice which caught our eye in Essex a number of years since, namely, cross-drilling at the distance of about four inches apart, which we were told answered admirably. It is a practical approach to the principle of giving to every seed or plant its clear space of ground to grow on, and this can never be done by wide drilling. Of the 144 square inches in the foot with the eight-inch rows, and the one inch for the space occupied by the row, only eighteen inches of the 144 have plants, and the remaining 126 inches are unoccupied. It is plain to observation that the roots of these plants permeate the whole intervals in search of food; but the crowding of the plants in their upward growth must be held to be detrimental. The plants thereby become deficient in strength and thickness of stem, and produce proportionably puny ears. It may be alleged that thick set plants draw each other up, and so they do, but only to their detriment. The late Mr. Patrick Shirreff, of Haddington, who did so much in improving and experimenting in cereals, gives an illustration and description of a thick and thin planted crop on the ears of wheat. He selected six average-sized ears from a thickly planted part of a field, and also six average-sized ears from a more thinly planted part of the same field, and obtained the following results : In the thickly planted the fertile notches numbered 71; infertile, 31; total seeds, 148 —which was an average of 25 kernels in the ear. In the six thinly planted wheat there were 117 fertile notches, 5 infertile notches, and 326 seeds in all, being an average of 54 kernels in the ear." * * *

"It seems scarcely necessary to recommend the selection of good seed, for every farmer knows that like produces like in a great measure, if all circumstances are favorable. Seed ought to be bright, sound, dry, plump, and well-cleaned. It is of first importance that the variety should be adapted to the soil on which it is to be cultivated, and experiment and experience are the husbandman's great teacher on that point. Various dressings are used to prevent smut and the depredations of crows and birds. It was formerly the practice to steep the seed in stale

wine or in a strong pickle of salt and water, and afterwards to dust it with quicklime till it be sufficiently dry to separate easily when sown. It did not always prove an entire success, but it quickens the springing of it, and gives vigor to the growing shoots. Preparations are now made by professional parties which in a great measure prevent smut, and the ravages of the slug, grub and wire-worm, as well as crows and birds. Mr. Howard, one of the members of Parliament for Bedfordshire, has been using a capital article at Clapham Park, his seat in Bedfordshire, which not only prevents smut but also effectually stops the ravages of rooks. For eight bushels of wheat, J pint gas tar, 2 lbs. blue vitriol, and 2 gallons of water or more are used. The water is applied in a boiling state to the tar and vitriol, which is stirred till the tar is dissolved. When the tar is all dissolved the mixture will be cool enough for pouring over the grain, which is turned several times till all is soaked."

We congratulate the farmers of the whole country on the great results of the crop the present year. Even poor land, such as ordinarily should not be put in wheat, has done well—it has paid expenses. We fear that over-cropping will be encouraged in the approaching season, and much of the care and attention to proper methods of culture will be overlooked. We trust that this will not be the case. Wheat is a great crop for the farmer, and for the country's wealth, if properly managed.

BALING HAY BY HYDRAULIC PRESSURE.

Our friend, Dr. Walker, of Goochland, made us a recent visit, and we had from him a confirmation of previous statements received in regard to his large hay-crop. The Doctor is not alone in good fortune the present year, for we hear that all good farmers have had more than average returns from their hay-fields. In view of these bountiful crops, he propounded to us a questiou which, at first, we thought could not be answered affirmatively. It was this: Cannot hay be cheaply and conveniently baled by hydraulic pressure? This question was natural to him, whose farm is watered by the noble James and small tributaries flowing into it. Not being able to answer his question on the spot, it nevertheless put us to thinking; and from crude thoughts we will venture some, suggestions which such skilled mechanical operators as the Tredegar Works, Talbott $ Sons, Tanner, Dulany $ Co., Ettinger § Edmond, of our own city, may solve, aye or nay, for the doctor's query.

We will announce these accepted truths in hydrodynamics : 1. The weight of water is as the quantity, but the pressure exerted is as the vertical height.

2. Fluids press equally in all directions; hence, any vessel containing a fluid and fed by a column of the same sustains a pressure equal to as many times the weight of the column of height of the fluid as the area of the base of the vessel is to the sectional area of the column.

3. These laws of fluids embrace all the principles of the hydraulic press.

A jet of water, under the usual operation of hydraulic machines, is thrown into a cavity by means of a force-pump, and the action and non-compressibility of the water repels the piston or ram with a force which equals the product of the effective power or pressure, exerted on the water in the pump, multiplied by the number of times the area of the base of the ram exceeds the sectional area of the feeding-pipe. To illustrate: Required the force, or pressure, of a six-inch ram, having a face area of 28.2 square inches, and 50 pounds applied to the end oi a lever, which is as 12 to 1, and the diameter of the pump, or plunger, with feed-pipe connection, is seven-eighths of an inch, we have this formula:

Area of base of ram 28.2 inches, multiplied by .6013, area of cross section of feed-pipe of seven-eighths diameter, gives 47; and this multiplied by 50 and by 12—the force in pounds applied to the lever of 12 to 1—makes a result of 28,200 pounds or nearly twelve tons.

This pressure is largely more than needed to press any bale of hay to the smallest desirable size. The question now comes up, How is the power worked by the lever, 12 to 1, by hand or other power, to be substituted by water? We have stated in the first proposition, as to the law of fluids, that the pressure is as the vertical height. Now, suppose we have a fall of twenty feet and water sufficient to supply a vertical pipe equal in calibre to one square inch, we shall have a pressure of about eighty-six pounds to each square inch of the head of a piston, and if this is about eighteen inches diameter, a power will be exerted equal to about ten tons, or much more than sufficient for baling purposes.

We think the question is one which addresses itself to the manufacturers we have named, and others, who should furnish farmers with all needed machinery for their business; and in doing this, see that mutual interests do not conflict in respect to expense and utility.

In one season four vessels secured 89,000 seals off New Foundland. Adding to the number that of those wounded and lost, and the young left to die of starvation, the aggregate reaches 200,000.

SOUTHERN PLANTER.

163

The Southern Planter

SUBSCRIPTION: $1:25 a year in advance, or $1.50 if not paid in advance.

fcJ-Expired subscriptions will be designated by a blue X in pencil on tbe cover.

TERMS OF ADVERTISING. PAGE RATES.

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EDITORIAL NOTES.

SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT, A former business-manager of the Planter accepted a number of advertisements to be paid for in the commodities advertised, and it is now desired to close up all such contracts, and for this purpose the articles are offered for sale at reduced prices. They embrace agricultural implements, improved live-stock, fertilizers, fruit trees, grape vines, seeds, etc. When sold these articles will be shipped fresh to purchasers from the advertising parties. Farmers in want of bargains will please correspond with us.

Southern Planter.

Ab§logt. —A temporary absence from the city has prevented us from giving our usual notices of magazines, catalogues, etc., in our issue for the present month. We have received the North American Review for September, the Century and St. Nich-

olas for August, the Popular Science Monthly for September, Harper s Monthly for September, and Harper's Weekly and Young People for August, and other valuable magazines not in the agricultural line, but interesting and instructive to the general reader.

Thanks.— We are too modest to bring to the eyes of our readers the many pleasant things said of the Planter, and therefore must be content with a general expression of thanks to friends who have so kindly spoken. ■ As a sample we give the following from the Lynchburg Advance :

The Southern Planter comes to us in its old form and the old name, and makes us feel really good. This is a most valuable monthly and ought to be taken and read by every man who owns Virginia land. Many other magazines and agricultural papers are interesting and profitable. We try to makethe Advance of value to farmers, but nothing can, for Virginia agriculturists, supply the place of the Planter. Itis exceedingly cheap, $1.25 per year. Of course it is published in Richmond. It would not be the Planter if issued elsewhere. We would like to stick our scissors into half a dozen pages, but our space is crowded with the conflict with political wickedness in high places, and we heed the advice at the conclusion of the first article, which the author calls the 11th commandment : " Every man mind his own business and read his own agricultural paper."

The American Garden. —This is an excellent illustrated Monthly published in New York by D. K. Bliss & Sons, Dr. Hexamer, Editor, at one dollar per annum. By request we will club it with the Planter at $1.67. We hope this liberal offer will be appreciated, and on the receipt of the sum named will send both papers—the Planter and the Garden, to one subscriber for one year.

D. Landreth and Sons, 21 and 23 South 6th, Philadelphia.—We have the catalogue of this firm. They are the largest seed-growers in the United States, and what is better, their seeds are always reliable. We would call the attention of our correspondent, D. K. M., in our last issue, to the Bloomsdale Pearl Onion, and other varieties which the Messrs. Landreth offer for field culture.

SOUTHERN PLANTER.

[September

Messrs. A. T. and M. B. Rowe.— We have from Mr. Thomas Franklin, Secretary of the Traveller's Rest Grange, No. 67, the report of a committee of inspection of the farm of Messrs. Rowe near Fredericksburg.

The report is too long for our columns, if not stript of many personal matters of no special interest to the general reader. These gentlemen are well known as breeders of cattle—especially the Jersey—and of fowls, and the details of their operation mentioned in this report would add nothing to their character as breeders. One thing strikes us as being very sensible, and that is, their attention to the grasses. On this subject we quote these words: "The next grass shown us was what Mr. Rowe told us was called " Evergreen grass," and was procured from Mr. D. Kain, of Battle Creek, Michigan. Mr. Rowe stated that his attention was first called to it by the discussions of the Elmira (N. Y.) Farmer's Club, and he thinks it is a very superior grass to mix and sow with orchard grass, as they ripen at the same time and attain equal height. In a piece of well drained bottom land was sown Meadow Fescue, which Mr. Rowe thinks will make a very fine grass, both for grazing purposes and for hay, as he said it kept green during the unprecedented drouth of last summer. Another grass, called Johnson, was sown with rye last fall, and is now coming on since the rye was cut. Its claims are that it will stand drouth remarkably well, and will make heavy crops of hay, grows from four to five feet in height, and can be cut three times annually on good land."

Will Messrs. Rowe let us know of this Johnson grass when its characteristics are fully developed under their eyes and management? We hear of it in nearly all the Southern States. It is not a prass which will form a sod. It is rather an annual—a cane {Sorghum halapense). and quickly matures in rich land, like the millet, and if sown thickly will make good hay. There must be some mistake as to the fall-sowing mentioned in this report.

Note : Since the above was written we have received the Home and Farm of August 1st, and see a communication signed .J. A. McCrary, Marion Junction, Alabama, speaking well of this grass or cane, as a forage plant in that locality, and stating that the roots will survive the winter of that climate.

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SOUTHERN PLANTER.

165

Buttermilk: as a Si'.mmku Drink. —A recent writer asserts that for a hot-weather drink, nothing equals buttermilk. It is, he says, ''both drink and food, and for the laborer is the best known. It rapports the Hystem, and even in fever will cool the stomach admirably. It is also a most valuable domestic remedy. It will cure dysentery as well as and more quickly than any other remedy known. Dysentery is really a constipation, and is the opposite of diarrhoea. It is inflammation of the bowels with congestion of the 'portal circulation' — the circulation of the blood through the bowels and liver. It is a disease always prevalent in the summer and autumn. From considerable observation I feel warranted in saying that buttermilk, drunk moderately, will cure every case of it; certainly when taken in the early stages."— Farmer's Home Journal.

Of all men we can, it seems to us, most thoroughly endorse butter-milk as a beverage for summer and also for winter. We may say we have been raised on it, and for fifty years have never seen a day when we would reject it, if properly prepared. Good butter-milk is one of the best of drinks, and bad is the worst of all things. So the preparation of this milk is a household art which deserves to be cultivated. In the majority of farmer's houses too lit-the attention is given to it, and many use iudifferent milk and think it good. The following rules may be laid down for getting the best butter-milk in summer time :

1. Cows must be pastured on good grass and the fields should be free from garlic and other weeds noxious to the taste.

2. One milking should be used, but if this should not be sufficient for a good churning, the milk taken at different times should be kept in a cool cellar, or milk house, where the temperature is not above 60 degrees;

3. After the cream has risen and the body of the milk becomes clabbered, the churning should be done.

4. It is best that the churning should be done early in the morning.

5. In taking off the butter no water should be used, and afterwards the milk poured into a tin, or a stone crock and placed in a cool cellar, ice-house, or spring-house. It should remain for twelve hours,

and then all whey will have risen to the surface and should be carefully skimmed or poured off. The milk is then ready for use, and will be sweet, thick, and palatable. With a glass half tilled with ice and then with such milk, a refreshing and wholesome beverage is secured, which the most fastidious palate cannot object to. With it we Southern people want richly baked corn hoe cakes, or what is better, a good ash-cake. We would not exchange it for all the cold iccd-tea we ever saw.

LIST OF PATENTS Relating to agricultural implements and machines, issued by the United States Patent Office, July 25th, 188*2, and prepared expressly for this paper by Messrs. C. B. Steele & Co., counsellors at law and attorneys for inventors, Washington, D. C. Plow —James M. Buchanan, Indianapolis,

Ind. Machine for Binding and Shocking Grain — C. D. Fox, Roscoe Township, Winnebago county, III. Fence Post — John F. Landers, Auburn,

Mass. Harrow —William H. Piatt, Dayton, Ohio. Fertilizer Distributor —Jacob W. Spangler,

York, Pa. Farm Gate— Edw. G. Wheeler, Indianapolis, Ind. Cultivator —Chas. II. Eggleston, Marshall,

Mich. Fertilizer Distributor — John G. Philpot,

Lebanon, Term. Grain Cleaning Apparatus—Thos. S. Bay-ley, Chico, Cal. Fruit Brier —Clarence Hopkins, Milford,

Del. Hay Loader —Geo. Meader, Fowler, Ind. Cotton Gin Feeder — Andrew C. Porter,

Batesville, Miss. Guano Distributor— John T. Senn, Troy,

Ala. Sheep Shears —Thomas A. Sorly, Sheffield,

England. Churn Power—Henry M. Wise, V. M. Stevens and B. Chapman, Oskaloosa, Kan. Wine and Cider Press —Henry J. Campbell, Altoona, Penn.

The term hydra may be used to represent any manifold evil. If you would battle successfully with this many-headed monster of disease you will find it expedient to keep Mrs. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound always at hand.— Dr. Banning.

SOUTHERN PLANTER.

[September

Robert Dixwiddie, Governor of Virginia, 1752, oS.—I am engaged [ n prepar" publication by the Virginia Histori-cal Society the important historical manuscript recently presented to the Society by its vice-president, W. W. Corcoran. Esq., and known to the public as the "Dinwid-die Papers." Much additional original material bearing on the period is in the cabinet of the Society. The proposed publication will make a handsome volume of probably 500 hundred pages, and will be uniform in size and execution with the choice volume of the Spotswood Letters already issued. It is desired to accompany it in like manner with a biographical sketch of Governor Dinwiddle and with his engraved portrait, arms, &c. Unfortunately I have no knowledge that a portrait of him exists. There are representatives of the name Dinwiddie iu Virginia and other States of the Union, who are believed to be of the lineage of Governor Dinwiddie. It is desired that such descent should be stated in the proposed memoir. Any information as intimated, any traditional reminiscences of the residence of Governor Dinwiddie in Virginia, any reference to published works in which he is mentioned, however slightly, or any address to which application may be made regarding his portrait, will be most thankfully received.

The loan also of any letters written by him, or manuscripts in which he is mentioned, if such there be in the possession of the readers of the Dispatch, is solicited.

R. A. Brock, Corresponding Secretary and Librarian, Virginia Historical Society. Richmond, July 19, 1882.

We clip the above from the Richmond Dispatch, of July 20th, and hope its cer-culation amongst our readers may be the means of adding something to the material which Mr. Brock is collecting in respect to Governor Dinwiddie. His official and personal career, when fully embodied, will add much to an important epoch in the history of Virginia. Our last issue had gone to press before this appeal appeared—En. S. P.

Ladies who appreciate elegance and purity are using Parker's Hair Balsam. It is the best article sold for restoring gray hair to its original color and beauty.

Write to Mrs. Lydia E. Pinkham, Lynn, Mass., for names of ladies cured of female weakness by taking her Vegetable Compound.

REPORTS, CATALOGUES, Etc, RECEIVED.

1. From Hon. George D. Wise, Reports of the Consuls of the United States on Commerce, Manufactures, &c.

2. Quarterly Report of the Kansas Board of Agriculture, from Wm. Sims, Secretary.

3. The Houghton Farm —Experiments with Indian Corn, '80, '81, and Experiments with Wheat for forty years at Roth-am stead, by Dr. Lawes. /

4. Announcement of the Medical College of Virginia for the Forty-fifth Session, '82, '83.

5. Premium List of the Piedmont Agricultural Society's Fair, commencing on 18th October, '82.

6. Premium List of Sixth Annual Fair, Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical Association, at Lexington, commencing August 29th, '82, and continuing five days.

7. E. P. Rowe's Catalogue of Small Fruits for summer and fall of '82. Cornwall on the Hudson, N. Y.

Newspaper Laws. —In response to a request to give the law as it stands relating to newspapers and subscribers :

1. Subscribers who do not give express notice to the contrary, are considered wishing to continue their subscription.

2. If subscribers order the discontinuance of their periodicals, the publishers may continue to send them until all arrears are paid.

3. If subscribers neglect or refuse to take their periodicals from the office to which they are directed, they are held responsible until they have settled their bills and ordered them discontinued.

4. If subscribers move to other places without informing publishers, and the papers sent to former direction, they are held responsible.

5. The courts have decided that refusing to take a newspaper from the office or removing and "leaving them uncalled for, is prima facie evidence of intentional fraud.

6. Any person receiving a newspaper and making use of it, whether he ordered it or not, is held to be a subscriber.

7. If subscribers pay in advance, they are bound to give notice to publishers at the end of their time, if they do not wish to continue the paper; otherwise the publisher is authorized to send it on, and then subscribers will be responsible until an express notice, with payment of all arrears, is sent to the publisher.

SOUTHERN PLANTER.

167

Farmers and Farming in Virginia in the Olden Time. —We call attention to our serial articles under the above heading, the second of which appears in this number. These articles are, in the most part, taken from the original manuscripts in the handwriting of the authors, and never before published. It will require two, or more, years to exhaust the material in our hands in the serial way, and if we find the articles meet with favor from the readers of the Plariter, it is our purpose to have each month, while the types are set, several thousand copies of each number struck off, and laid aside, for binding when the whole is finished. Such a collection of hitherto published matter will add much to the history of the commencement and progress of agriculture in Virginia. We have only to add, that these articles will embrace letters, essays, and reports from Jefferson, Madison, the Lees and those who lived in our colonial period, and from Jno. Taylor, of Caroline, and others of subsequent times.

Floreston Cologne.

A New and Fashionable Perfume, Fragrant, Refreshing, Lasting. Sold by dealers in Drugs and Fancy Goods. Hiscox <fe Co., N. Y.

PARKER'S GINGER TONIC.

Ginger, Buchu, Mandrake, Stillingia and many of the best medicines known are combined in Parker's Ginger Tonic, into a medicine of such varied and effective powers, as to make it the greatest Blood Purifier and Liver Regulator and the Best Health and Strength Restorer ever used.

It cures Dyspepsia, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Sleeplessness and all diseases of the Stomach, Bowels, Lungs, Liver and Kidneys.

Remember! This Tonic never intoxicates, cures drunkeness, is the Best Family Medicine ever made, and is entirely different from Bitters, Ginger Preparations and other Tonics. None genuine without signature of Hiscox <fc Co., Chemists, N. Y.

Parker's Hair Balsam

The best, cleanest and most economical hair restorer and dressing. Sept.

EJ. GREGORY & CO., (Successors to Bain, Parrack & Gregory,)

COMMISSION MERCHANTS,

102 Siiockoe Slip, Richmond, Va. [E. J. GREGORY, late of Bain, Parrick & Gregory.J

Prompt personal attention given to the sale of all product! consigned to us. Leaf Tobacco, Cotton and Grain special ties.

I). E. Davidson, Book-Keeper.

W. V. Gregory, Ass't Salesman. fe 1—12t

T^LLERSLIE FARM. "™

THOROUGHBRED HORSES,

Shortborn Cattle, Cotswold Steep,

AND

BERKSHIRE PIGS

Bred and For Sale by

R. J. HANCOCK, Overton, Albemarle Co , Va.

G

"POTTED STRAWBERRY PLANTS."

I shall be prepared to supply, in large or small quantities, on and after July 15th, all the leading kinds of i4 potted strawberry plants," viz: MANCHESTER, BIDWELL", JERSEY QUEEN, etc., at prices as low as they can be bought in the United States. Pot-grown strawberry plants set out in July or August will bear a full crop the following summer. For terms, description, etc., address

D. C. WILDEY, Albany, N. Y.

Aug 1—2t

tti£ Gold Watches.

SUNDRESSES and FANCY GOODS

Gilt with Every Book!

ftlftftA WORTH O P ISKFUI, GIFTS VPIUUU WITH EVKRY l,UOO HOOKS.

Send 3c. Stamp for Catalogue. Agents Wanted. PHILADELPHIA PREMIUM BOOK CO., 252 north Eighth street, Philadelphia, Pa. mch 15 -12t

*TTANTED A SITUATION AS MAN-

\V AGER ON A FARM by a man of

steady and industrious habits. I refer to

Dr. T. M. Deitrick, of Henrico county,

and farmers of Caroline county.

Address G. R. POLLARD,

Coghill P. 0., Sept—It Caroline county, Va.

~" THOROUGHBRED

Shorthorn Cattle.

MERINO SHEEP and BERKSHIRE PIGS. Bred and for sale, at moderate prices, by

S. S. BRADFORD,

ja 1—ly Culpeper, Va-

SOUTHERN PLANTER.

[September

Hollow Horn. —Does such a disease exist? The question is well answered by one of our exchanges; and we regret that we cannot give proper credit for our clipping :

14 This question was recently asked and answered. We will only quote the statement of a veterinary surgeon which we find in one of our exchanges: In all inflammatory diseases the horns of cattle become heated, and a farmer finding the horns hot will sometimes bore into them; If he finds a hollow in the place where his gimlet goes through, he thinks it is a case of u hollow horn;" whereas the horns of cattle are always to a certain extent hollow, the 14 pith '' or central part consisting of a series of alternate hollows and buttresses. In the centre of the core there is also a natural cavity communicating with the nostrils, and this gets larger as the animal gets older. While the term w ' hollow horn,'' as used to describe a great many ailments in which the horn is affected, is wrong, it is a fact that the bony core of the horns

may become subject to disease; or from catarrh the passages in the horns may get filled with matter, and boring the horns in this case may give relief. Or, from lack of phosphates in the food the bony core may decay just as other parts of the bony system may suffer. The remedy for this form of the disease is to feed a handful of bonedust. For other diseases in which heat is felt in the horns, treatment will depend entirely on the nature of the disease."

"Rough on Rats." —The thing desired found at last. Ask druggists for "Rough on Rats."' It clears out rats, mice, roaches, flies, bed bugs. 15c. boxes.

Hundreds of Men, Women and Children Rescued from beds of pain, sickness and almost death and made strong and hearty by Parker's Ginger Tonic are the best evidences in the world of its sterling worth. You can find these in every community.— Post. See advertisement.

nSTCO RPORATED 1832.

VIRGINIA FIRE k MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

Half a Century in Active and Successful Operation.

ASSETS,

$557,000.00.

Has paid hundreds of thousands for losses in this Slate, and over three millions altogether. All kinds of Farm Property taken'at lowest current rates. Insures against Fire and Lightning. Agencies throughout the Sonth and West. Home Office ; Richmond, Va.

WM. H. MCCARTHY, Sec'y. W. L. COWARDIN; Pres.

feb 1—ly

NEW WHITE GRAPE DUCHESS!

AisoPRENTISS,POCKLINGTON,LADYWASHINGTON 1 LADY,YERGENNES,

JEFFERSON, BRIGHTON, MOORE'S EARLY, DELAWARE, WORDEN, etc. PIIYUBCRT PKPf*P nUin TAYLOR, Wachusetfs Thornless, SNYDER, UU I nBtll I 5 UiglfcUUi Utf BUa Sharpless, BIDVVELL, etc.; Jiieil'er's Hybrid and other Pear Trees; CHERRY; PEUM; PEACH; CHAMPION QUINCE; Lee's Prolific Black, and other CURRANTSt GOOSEBERRIES, and a general assortment of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, Climbing 1 Vines, ROSES, Seeds, Bulbs, etc., at low rates.

Descriptive Catalogue and Price-List/ree. Address H. S. ANDERSON,

Successor to Farley & Andekson, Cayuga Lake Nurseries, Union Springs, N. Y»

jan 1

The New

Prentiss.

Extra quality. Warranted true,

Pockllngton, Duchess, Lady Washington,"Ver-gcnnes, Moore's Early, Brighton, Jefferson, etc

Prices reduced. Also other Small Fruits and all older varie-_ ties Grapes. LARGEST STOCK IN AMERICA.

jheapbymail. Low rates to dealers. Illustrated Catalogue free. T.S.HuBB>RD,Fredonia.,N 1 Y I _

sep—9t

WATT & CALL,

Farming Implements and Machinery,

1444 Main St. (Cor. 15tn) and 1518 and 1520 FranMin St, RICHMOND, VA.

The McSHERRY DRILL—either as a Plain Drill or as a Combined Grain and Fertilizer Sower is the best on the market. Has the genuine force-feed. Fully warranted. Send for special Drill Circular.

THE AUBURN WAGONS are manufactured to order for us by the E. D. CLAPP MANUFACTURING COMPANY, the founder of which has had an experience of thirty-five years, and has made the building of wagons a study.

We offer these wagons as the strongest built and best finished on this market, and invite a comparison with any. Will meet prices of any first-class wagon, and warrant them in every respect.

ENSILAGE CUTTERS AND FODDER CUTTERS of all sizes for hand or power, with and without patent-safety fly wheels. Our prices and styles cannot fail to meet the requirements of all. We guarantee to cut with less power one-third more than any other machines one-third larger in size.

CIDER AND WINE MILL—The cheapest and best Mills made, with two tubs ; will extract more juice than any mill of a similar kind.

J8^~ Send for Descriptive Circular of FRUIT, WINE AND JELLY PRESS ; should be in every household; will extract the entire substance from all kinds of fruit and berries uncooked in one operation.

GRAIN AND FERTILIZER DRILLS with genuine force feed.

PLOWS AND CASTINGS of every variety. Our IMPROVED CHILLED PLOWS, as now constructed, are the most economical in use.

PRICES OF REPAIRS REDUCED.

HAY PRESSES, MOWERS, CORN AND COB CRUSHERS, CORN SHELLERS, PUMPS, FARMING TOOLS of every description. GARDEN SEEDS of every variety from selected stock. Now receiving a large and varied stock of TURNIP SEEDS.

Catalogue of Implements mailed free to any address.

WATT & CALL, Main Street, corner Fifteenth.

Wsg* On receipt of six cents, for postace, we will send a handsome book on Ensilage bound in cloth, of seventy pages. It will be of great assistance in building silos and preparing ensilage.

Aug—ly

The Session begins on the FIRST OF OCTOBER, and continues until the Thursday before the fourth day of July ensuing.

The Institution is organized in separate Schools on the Eclectic System, embracing FULL COURSES OF INSTRUCTION IN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE, and in the PROFESSIONS OF LAW, MEDICINE,

EWGINEEElINCr AND AGRICULTURE.

THE EXPENSES of the student (except such as enter the practical laboratories), exclusive of the cost of text books, clothing and pocket money,"are from $356 to $391, according to Schools selected; or, for those who economize by messing, these expenses are from $266 to $300. No charge for tuition candidates for the ministry unable to meet the expense.

Apply for Catalogues to F. W. Page, Secretary, P. 0. University of Virginia, Albemarle county, Va. JAMES F. HARRISON, M. D., Chairman of the Faculty.

apl 15—ly

PREMIUM CHESTER WHITE,

BERKSHIRE & POLAND-CHINA PIGS

And FINE SETTER DOGS

Bred and For Sale by

ALEXANDER PEOPLES,

West Chester, Chester Co., Pa.

Send stamp for circular and price-list, jan 1—ly

HEALTH IS WEALTH.

Dr. E. C. WEST'S NERVE AND BRAIN TREATMENT; a specific for Hysteria, Dizziness, Convulsions, Nervous Headache, Mental Depression, Loss of Memory, Spermatorrhoea, Impotency, Involuntary Emissions, Premature Old Age, caused by overexertion, self abuse or overindulgence, which leads to misery, decay and death. One box will cure recent cases. Each box contains one month's treatment. One dollar a box, or six boxes for five dollars; sent by mail, prepaid on receipt of price. We guarantee six boxes to cure any case. With each order received by us for six boxes, aucom panied with five dollars, we will send purchaser our written guarantee to return the money if the treatment does not effect a cure. Guarantees issued by BODEKER BROS., Druggists, 1414 Main street, Richmond, Va., Wholesale and Retail Agents. Orders by mail will receive prompt attention. jan 1—ly

LAHDRETHS'PffliHH

For the MERCH AWT on our New Plan

For the MARKET GARDENER For the PRIVATE FAMILY ICrown by ourselves on our own Farnis

SEEDS

CT" Handsome Illustrated Catalogue and Rural Register FREE TO ALL. MERCHANTS, SEND US YOUR BUSINESS CARDS FOR TRADE LIST.

DAVID LANDRETH&SONS,SEED GROWERS, PHILADELPHIA

my 15—ly

VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL

THE ELEVENTH SESSION OPENS SEPT. 6th.

200 State Staclents Pay No Tnition. Necessary Expenses for 10 Months, $132.

Apply to your County Superintendent of Schools, or address

T. N. CONRAD, President, Sept 1—2t BLACKSBURG. VA.

FOR SALE 469 ACRES OF ¥ IITITIII

In ALLEGHANY COUNTY, Va, JjlllHU I

On Little Ogle's Creek, three miles from Calleghan's Station, on the Ches. & Ohio R. R.

There are two dwelling-houses on said land. Apple orchards of various kinds; about 1000 sugar trees; an abundance of fine wood thereon, and about 50 acres of under cultivation, adapted to corn, wheat, oats, and grass. Also thought to be fine for the cultivation of grasses. Seventy-one acres are of the richest unimproved mountain land.

Persons wishing to see said land for the purpose of buying, will please call on Mr. J. F. RICHARDSON, at Calleghan's.

P. A. JOHNSON,

August 14, 1882. Alleghany Co., Va.

Improve Your Dairy Stock!!

IKBTUn JUSIYIHU AD IBU* CUfB!

FROM SIX TO TWELVE MONTHS OLD, Bred from Superior Butter Cows,

^ FOR SALE AT MUCH LESS THAN THEIR REAL VALUE ^

XF APPLIED FOR SOOIST.!

A JERSEY BULL will pay five times hitf cost in a few years, as the demand for GRADE JERSEY COWS is now already greater than the supply, and is annually increasing ; and they can always be -sold at much higher prices than the grades of other breeds.

Apply in person, or address

Rowe's Co-operative Stock Farm,

Aogust 25th, 1882. [Sept—It] FREDERICKSBURG.VA.

Orchilla Guano has been used for corn quite extensively in Maryland and Pennsylvania for several years past with the beet results, and also, to a limited extent, in some portions of Virginia very successfully, and we offer it feeling fully satisfied that a trial is all that is needed to convince the most skeptical that it is not only the cheapest but the best fertilizer in the market. A liberal application of the Orchilla (say from 400 to 500 lbs. to the acre) will not only produce a good crop of corn, but will leave the land in excellent condition for the wheat crop, which may be very safely sown on the same land after the corn is gathered without any additional application of any kind of manure; and where it is desired to follow the wheat with grass, the effect of the former application of Orchilla will be seen in the production of from three to four crops of good grass. Thus its effect does not by any means cease with the crop on which it is first used, but is of positive and lasting benefit to the soil.

WOOLDRIDGE, TRAVERS & CO., Importers,

JVo. 64 Buchanan'% Wharf {Foot of Frederick St.), Baltimore, Md. 5^*Send for Circular and see what farmers say. jy 1 —2t

SAUL'S NURSERIES,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

The undersigned offers a fine stock of the following, at Low Rates : NEW PEARS, NEW PEACHES, NEW CHERRIES, NEW GRAPES, NEW STRAWBERRIES, &c

FRUIT TREES OP ALL KINDS—

An extensive stock, viz :

PLUMS, CHERRIES, APRICOTS, APPLES, SUITABLE TO THE SOUTH, iC.

GRAPEVINES, STRAWBERRIES, RASPBERRIES, &c.

New sorts EVERGREENS, NEW ORNAMENTAL TREES, NEW SHRUBS, &c. SMALL SIZES, suitable for Nurserymen, as well as large stock in great variety.

DUTCH BULBS.

Large importations direct from the leading growers in Holland. First quality Bulbs— HYACINTHS, LIL[ES, TGLIPS, &c. New and rare GREENHOUSE PLANTS; WINTER BLOOMING PLANTS.

ORCHIDS— East Indian, Mexican, &c.

NEW ROSES— Bennett's, Hybrid Teas, Queen of Bedders, New French and English Roses, &c.

B^,Everything at LOW RATES. CATALOGUES mailed to applicants, sept—2t JOHIY SAUL, Washington, D. C

Feed Your Lands and They Will Peed You.

FERTILIZER FOR THE WHEAT CROP!

Farmers in the Wheat Country will be able to procure this season, as usual, their supply of the OLD STANDARD

"Anchor < J'V\ > Brand"

PATENTED

FERTILIZERFORTHE WHEAT CROP!

Reliable Agents attend to its sale at all points of any importance in the Wheat-Growing Region ; and receiving it in quantity, will furnish it at bottom figures.

This article, in the thousands of tons that have been used of it during the past sixteen years, has demonstrated its reliability in the field against all comers.

For further particulars, address

SOUTHERN FERTILIZING COMPANY,

Sept—3m RICHMOND, VA.

WILLIAM L BRADBURY

NASON, ORANGE COUNTY, VA.,

IMPORTER, ESIIRER, Ul SALES AGENT,

OFFERS FOR SALE

J II

Shorthorns, Jerseys

DETONS

• VS

S»

FROM THE CHOICEST HERDS AND FLOCKS IN VA.

He would call SPECIAL ATTENTION to a very superior lot of—.

YEARLING COTSWOLD BUCKS that sheared an average of fifteen pounds last spring. Also, BUCK LAMBS, EWES, and EWE LAMBS.

MERINO EWES for Sale Low. They are a SPLENDID LOT OF YOUNG SHEEP. Can supply both Thoroughbreds and Grades.

STOCK SHEEP, delivered in Car load Lots at any Railroad Station in Virginia.

JERSEY-RED PICS.

HOUDANS, LIGHT BRAHMAS, SILVER SEABRIGHT BANTAMS. GENUINE WINTER OATS FOR SEED.

(Send for Special Oat Circular.) ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE AND PRICE-LIST—FREE.

Sept—ly

Address WE L. BRADBURY,

Nason, Orange County, Va.

N

ORFOLK & WESTERN RAILROAD.

Time Table in effect June 18, 1882.

CONNECTIONS.

At PETERSBURG, with R. & P. R. R. for Richmond and points on C. & O. Ry., Fredericksburg, Washington. Baltimore and the North and East. Through Pullman Car from Petersburg to New York. Solid trains Petersburg to Washington.

At BURKEV1LLE, with R. & D. K. R. for South.

At LYNCHBURG, with Va. Mid. R. R. to and from the South and North, and with Richmond & Alleghany R. R. for Lexington, Natural Bridge, Buchanan, Williamson's and (J. & O. Ry. points.

At B..1STOL, with East Tenu., Va. & Ga. R. R for Kuoxville, Dalton, ChattanoogaandallpoiutsSouth, West and Southwest.

CONNECTIONS.

At LYNCHBURG, with Va. Mid. R. R. for Danville and North Carolina points, and for Washington and Eastern cities.

At BURKEVILLE, with R. & D. R. R. for Richmond.

Through car from Lynchburg to Richmond.

At PETERSBURG, with P. R. R. for Weldon Raleigh, Goldshoro, Wilmington and the Southeast'

At NORFOLK, with Bay Line Stealers daily, except Sunday, for Baltimore—thence rail to Philadelphia and New York ; with Old Dominion Steamers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays for New York, and on Tuesdays and Fridays with M. & M. T. Co. for Boston and "Providence.

First and second class tickets as low as the lowest —150 lbs. of baggage checked free to each whole ticket, and 75 lbs. to each half ticket. 1,500 mile tickets, 837.50; 1,000 mile tickets, fciO.00.

For further information as to tickets, rates, baggage checks, &c, call on or address L. S. BROWN General Traveling Agent, Lynchburg, Va.

HENRY FINK, V. P. and General Manager.

CHAS. P. HATCH, Gen'l Ft. and Pass. Agt.

W. A. CARPENTER, AssU G. F. and Pass. Ag't. Lynchburg, Va.

Beckwith's Anti-Dyspeptic Pills.

These Pills, once compounded by a physician of extensive and long practice and of high reputation, are recommended by gentlemen of the highest standing both in and out of the medical profession. They are used by the most cultivated people in our country. They contain no mercury, and profess to do no more than one medicine ought to accomplish. They have stood the test of more than sixty years, and have lost no reputation.

Beckwith's pills will PREVENT AND CURE DYSPEPSIA. They are an unrivaled DINNER PILL, mild aperient, and admirably adapted as a FAMILY MEDICINE. Prepared solely by E. R. BECK-VVITH, Petersburg. Va., from the original receipt of his grandfather, Dr. John Beck-with, and sold by druggists generally.

For sale in Richmond by

feb 1—ly

POLK MILLER & CO.

PAYNE'S AUTOMATIC FARM ENGINES

Spark Arrester, lu

Reliable, durable and economical, will furnish a horse-power with one-third less fuel and water than any other engine built, not fitted with an automatic cut-off. Send for Illustrated Catalogue " D 10'' for information and prices.

B. W. PAYNE & SONS, Box 1377. Corning, N. Y.

jan 1—ly ^__^^__

POMONA NURSERY.

Oriental & Hybrid Pears.

Manchester, Bid well and Mt. Vernon Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Flowers and Fruit irees. Catalogues free.

WM. PARRY, Parry P. O., N. J. jan 1—ly

POLAND-CHINA PIGS.

A choice lot just farrowed for which I am now booking orders. Prices reasonable. J. B. GRAY, Fredericksburg, Va. mar 1—ly

FOR FALL PLANTING.

Fruit and Ornamental TREES,

SHRUBS, ROSES, &c.

The largest and most complete general stock in the U. S , including many Choice Novelties. Abridged Catalogue mailed Free to all applicants. Address

ELLWANGER & BARRY, "jJgffl&XP'-CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO RAILWAY

Opened through the beautiful BLUE GRASS region of Kentucky to Louisville and Cincinnati. Connecting at these cities with all of the Great Lines of Railways diverging for Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago,

Kansas City, Nashville, Memphis, and all principal points

West, South and Southwest.

SOLID TRAINS with Pullman Sleeping Coaches, run through daily between Washington, Richmond, Charlottesville, Waynesboro, Staunton, Clifton Forge and Louisville and Cincinnati without change.

SHORTEST & MOST DIRECT ROUTE

and the only route without transfers, Avoiding the uncertainty by other routes of making connections.

For rates and full information, call on the nearest Chesapeake aud Ohio agent, or address

C. W. Smith, H. W. Fuller,

Gen'l Manager. Gen'l Pass'r Agent.

For the North and West.

Do not fail to see that your Ticket.

reads by the

NASHVILLE, CHATTANOOGA

and ST. LOUIS RAILWAY.

For speed, safety and comfort you will find this line to be unrivaled.

Emigrants wishing to go West either to locate or as prospectors, will find it to their advantage to go by this route. Round trip emigrant tickets on sale to Texas points. By this line you have no tiresome delays. Through coaches are run from Chattanooga to Columbus without change. Sleeping coaches on all night trains. Good Coaches, Good Road and quick time.

For Maps, Time Tables and all information in regard to this route, call on or address A. B. Wrenn, Wm. T. Rogers,

Traveling Agent, Passenger Agent

Atlanta, Ga. Chattanooga, Tenn.

Or W. L. DANLEY, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, Nashville, Tenn.

JERSEY RED PIGS

From largest herd South, which took Five Premiums and special mention at Virginia State Fair 1881. This hog is free from disease, a natural grazer, prolific and early to mature. Catalogue free.

T. LOVELOCK, Gordonsville, Va. Also, Collie Pups in April from imported strains. jan 1—ly

are sent anywhere on trial to operate lagamst all other Presses, the customer keeping the one thafc suits best. No one has ever dared show up any other Press, as l>ederick r s Press is known to be beyond competition, and will bale with twice the rapidity of any other. The only way i interior machines can be I sold is to deceive the inexperienced by ridiculously false statements, and thus sell wlthoutsightor seeing, nnd swindle the purchaser. ! Working any other Press 1 alongside of Dedcrick's al« I ways sells the purchaser a Dederick Press, and all 1 know it too well to show

tip. Address for circular and location of Western

and Southern storehouses and Agents.

F. 2. DEDERICK & CO.,

1 -— Albany f jr. Y,

fe 15—ly

WANTED 50,000 FARMERS

To send for Illustrated Circulars of our Adjustable and Folding

IRON HARROW.

Outs Six, Seven. Eight, Nine. Ten and Twelve Feet Wide at Pleasure.

j^XjXj izroist.

Does fine or coarse work, adapting it to different seeds and soil. Best Harrow for cultivating corn, potatoes, cane, cotton, tobacco, &c, as each section goes between the rows. The only Harrow adapted to small farms, large farms, nurserymen and gardeners. The frame can be spread to a distance of eighteen feet and narrowed to fourteen inches.

tiGg* Low freight and low prices.

Address

BOMKEY BROTHERS,

Sept. Burlington, Iowa.

(ERtat>l!*hed 1866.)

FAY'S BUILDING MATERIAL

a or Hoots, wans and Ceuings in place of plaster. Sam, Dies and catalogue mailed free. W. H. FAY.Camden.N. J

EAST TENNmTIRGIXIA A GEORGIA

GREAT SOUTHERN TRUNK LINE Between all principal Southern cities. For freight and passengers. Shortest, most Direct and comfortable route lo all Eastern and Virginia cities. Only direct route to the watering places and resorts of East Tennessee and Virginia. The Great Emi grant Route to Texas and the Northwest via its Memphis and Charleston Division, and to all points in Southern and Central Texas via Calera or Meridian and New Orleans.

THROUGH SLEEPING CARS between New Orleans and Lynchburg, Memphis and Lynchburg, connecting with Through Sleepers, Lynchburg to New York, Way Cross Line to Florida, via, its Macon and Brunswick Division. Illustrated Pamphlet free on application.

For Rates or Information, address, Jas. R. Ogden,G. F. & P. A., Knoxv'le,Tenn Jos. Gothard, A. G. F. & P. A., lk u T. S. Davant, " " " " Memphis

Ray Knight, " " " »« Selma, Ala. J. J. Griffin, " " " " Macon, Ga. M. M. Welch, Western Agent, Chattanooga H. W Lowry, Ticket '« Dalton, Ga. W. R. Kerr, Passenger " Knoxv'e,Tenn H. D. Boyd, Ticket " Chattanooga

J. Bunting, Jr., " " Bristol, Tenn.

are raid every Soldier disabled in the U. S. service by Hound. Ehijj)-turc, accidental injury or any I>is-oaso however slight. Apply for your just dues. "Widows, Mothers, Fathers, Children and Brothers and Sis'ers ure paid Pensions. Under new laws SSf-(L/Ctt'ANEO of Pensiors are due thousands of Pensioners. Patents secured for inventors. BOUKTI £M are due thousands of Soldiers and Heirs and do not know it. Reterences furnished. Address, (with stamp,)—

Eli-. 1.11.1'."53 MILLER A CO.

U. S. Claim Attorneys,

LOCK-BOX 233. WASHINGTON, D.C

my 1—6t

ROOT BIER

-^»s^^

Address: BEAN & RAPE Nos. 47 & 49 ap 15—ly

i fie rienct, creamy BEER ever quaffed. Purifies the blood. CURES Dyspepsia, Liver and Kidney diseases. Sent by Mail on receipt of 25cts, in postage stamps. , Wholesale Druggists, N. 2d St., Philadelphia.

f*1LTXf*TPT2 OFFICE, 202

vAW l/XLXX. west 4th St.

New book on treatment and cure of Cancer. 8ent free to any address on receipt of stamp. Address,

Drs. GRATIGNY &. NORRIS, Box 598, Cincinnati, 0. je 1—6m

Greenfield Cutlery Co.

Manufacturers of

Superior Solid Steel

Silver Plated Pie, Butter. Table, Dessert, and Tea Knives, to Match.

ALFORD, WARD & TAVENPORT,

85 CHAMBERS ST., NEW YORK.

In order to introduce our goods to the people, we will send by mail, prepaid,

1 Pie Knife, 1 Butter " 6 Tea Knives,

mch 1—ly

>2.00

50

8.00

6 Table Knives, $3.tal 6 Dessert " 3.25

or any portion pro rata*

QTTAT.T.T;r>

Beech-Loading

SINGLE SHOT GUN

Side Snap Action, Pistol Grip Stock. Choke Bored. Either Braps or Paper Cartridges can be used in it. BonE, 10, 12,14 and 1G. Nickeled Mountings. H*ICE, $16. Auxiliary Rifle

Barrel can be used in this gun, thus making virtually two guns —a Breech Loading Shot Gun and Rifle.

ALFORD, WARD, DAVENPORT & CO.

85 CHAMBERS STREET, NEW YORK.

feb 1—ly

SMITH, MYERS & SCHNIER,

Manufacturers of ALL SIZES OF

Circular Saw Mills

Steam Engines and Boilers

Shafting, Pulleys, Hangers, Coupling!, Gearing and General Machinery.

OUR

No. I Plantation Saw Mill,

$2

• II

(8END FOR DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS.)

SMITH, MYERS & SCHNIER,

823, 325, 327 & 329 W. Front St.,

CINCINNATI, OHIO.

je 1—6t

fieceivefl Medal

AND

HIGHEST AWARD

OF MERIT CENTENNIAL.

Send for Catalogue.

SAWMILLS

Send it r

Catalogue.

STEAM ENGINES, tB.*ARQUHAB,Iork,Pi.,

Cheapest and best for all pur' poses—simple,-strong, and durable. Also Horse Pow crs and Gin Gear.

Saw, Grist and Cob Mills, Gins, Presses andMachweky generally. Inquiriespromptly answered.

VerticalEngines.witU or without a g* ' wheels, very convenient, economical and complete in every derail, best and • cheapest Vertical in the world. Pig. \1 is engine linnsa.Fig. =2ready for

iroad Fig. 2,

The Farquhar Separator

(Warranted)

Penna.

Agricultural Works,

Tork, Pa.

Lightest draft, most durable, aimpkst. most

eeonomlcnl

•ad perfect in use. V"ast5sno (Tain, cleans it 'tiuj for itaricot.

AND

EX8-HZ8T ffBISB

AWARDED SEPARATORS,

V* IM f— XQuftratcd Cair.iog-ae. Address A. B. Farquhar, Tork»P*

sep 1—eot

LANE & BODLEY GO.

AWARDED

GOLD MEDAL

BY THE

ATLANTA COTTON EXPOSITION,

Steam Engine and Saw Mil

Exhibited at Atlanta in 1881.

Manufacturers of Steam Engines, Boilers. Saw Mills, Gang Edgers, Lath Machines, Hub and Spoke Machinery, Shafting, Hangers, Pulleys, Couplings, Gearing, Grist and Flour Mills

Send for Special Circular of our Ao. 1 i'.autaf.ian Saw Mill, which we sell for

$200.

Special attention given to Plantation Ma-chinery. Illustrated Circulars Fr»ia.

LANE & BODLEY C0. 9

John & Water Sfs., Cincinnati. O. my 1—8t

COOLEY CREAMERS

Greatly Improved

In daily use in over 15,000 factories and dairies. For securing cleanliness, purity and! greatest possible] amount of cream, have I no equal.

Made in four styles, ten sizes each. Durable and ornamental. Skim automatically with or without lifting the cans. Most popular in the cream-gathering plan. Four gold medals and six silver medals for superiority.

Davis' Swing Churn

Best and Cheapest.

No inside fixtures —always right side up. No danger of cover falling out, letting all of the cream on to the floor. Nine sizes made. Three sizes Nesbitt Butter Printer. Four Sizes Eureka Butter Worker.

the I3S£:p:r,o"v:b:d

EVAPORATORS I

Make Better

SYRUP,

SUGAR,

and JELLY, with less fuel and labor than any other apparatus. Will condense Sorghum Juice faster than any evaporator in use. The best appratus known for making jelly from sweet cider. Thousands in use. Send for descriptive circulars of Evaporators, Cane Mills, &c. Every implement warranted exactly as represented.

VT- FARM # MACHINE CO.,

Bellows Falls, Vt.

ASHTON STARKE, Agent, RicMond, Va.

mch 1-

•12t

G

ueen the South

POI^TABLB

FARM MILLS

For Stock Feed or Meal for Family use. 3.0,000 ZEOiT TJ-SE. Write for Pamphlet.

Simpson & Gault M'fg Co.

Successors to Straub Mill Co. . CINCINNATI. 0-

9fl5—6t

Times Change and We Change With Them!!

LARGE REDUCTION in PRICES.

THE OLD and STANDARD BRANDS:

THE

ORIENT

Complete Manure.

(WITH POTASH.)

SUPERPHOSPHATE

OUR

ACID

OF

LIME.

$35 Cash at Factory. $35 ^ $ Factory. $22 CaSD at Factor y-

With LIBERAL DISCOUNT for ONE or More CAB LOADS.

MANUFACTURED AND FOR SALE BY

taTIC i VIRGINIA FERTILIZING COMPANY.

WM. O. CRENSHAW, President.

)FFICES :—6 and 7 Crenshaw's Warehouse, - RICHMOND, VA. 'ACTORIES :— RICHMOND, Va-, and ORIENT, L. I.

ALSO ON HAND-

URE SULPHATE OF AMMONIA,

of our own manufacture, and other high-grade Chemicals. STSend for Circulars and Testimonials.