THE 



Southern Planter 



DEVOTED To 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, LIVE STOCK AND THE HOUSEHOLD. 



T. W. ORMOND, 
W. C. KNIGHT, 
W. C. JACKSON, 



Propriety 

Editor. 
Advertising A< 



43d Year. 



DECEMBER, 1882, 



No 17, 



OOHSTTZEHSTTS : 



Farmer* nnd Farming in Virginia in tlio Olden Time 

What Crops (mm be Grown to Profit in our Present Circumstances and with our Fu- 
ture Prospects? .. .. 

The New Food Fish (Sebastes daetyloptera) 

! iltural Notes 

Bat Guano in Texas 

German Millet.. 

Indian Corn in the South 

Fish Farming 

Industrial Education in the Public Schools 

Farming 



1 or Corn, Wheat and Tobacco 

R ion of Crops .... 

The I ':; 11 

i'he Holland Ilvdro-Carbon Retort 

It. the Wheat, Field 

Fertilizer- Tag Question 

A Curious Problem 

The Wheat Crop, and are there anT Substitutes for it and Tobacco. 

Bottom F.icts an 1 Southern Farming 

Pipes made from Potatoes.. 

Intensive Farming.:. 

How English Hank Notes are Made 

Agricultural Education 

Editorial: 
The State Fair 



The Virginia Country Squire of the Colonial Period 

Editorial Notes : 

Dr. Page's Essay; A Ladv Farmer; Advertising Agencies; Sheep Husbandry in 
Tidewater Virginia ; Egyptian Clover ; Winter Oats; The Summer Number of 
the London, England. Graphic, The l> Ladies' Floral Cabinet;" The Industrial 
Exhibition of the Agricultural Society of South Carolina; American Agiicultu- 
rnl Association; The Niagara (Jrape; Stoves. Oas Fitiiog y &c. ; The Stono 
Phosphrttic Company; Lydia 10 Pinkham ; Agricultural Toasts; The Farmer's 
Al nanac; A Step Forward; W. D. Blair & Co. ; Transmission of Diseases; To- 
bacco 338- 



270 

200 
291 

296 
297 
298 
801 
802 
805 
306 
307 

309 



334 
3j7 



343 



Richmond : J. W. Ferg-usson & Son, Printers. 



THRESHERS-FARM ENGINES-DRILLS. 
LOW PRICES. 



RICHMOND 

Farm-Implement House, 



C( 



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Iron cylinders — warranted in every respect. 

PEERLESS " Threshers and Separators. 

Simplest machines made. 

"GRAY" Threshers and Cleaners. 

Cheapest Threshers in this country. 



it 



a 



ONEIDA 



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FARM ENGINES. 



Most complete and warranted full' power, at prices lower than we have ever sold engines 

"SUPERIOR," "HAGERSTOWN," "UNION" Grain Drills 

WITH ALL ATTACHMENTS. 

The celebrated CHAMPION BARB FENCE WIRE, which is fast taking the place 
of the old styles. Pricks but does not lacerate. Call and examine any of the above 
machines. 

ASHTON STARKE, 

Office : 1422 Main Street. RICHMOND, Va. 



BUTTER 

For COLOR and SWEETNESS 

Use BEAN'S CONCENTRATED 

Extract of Annatto. 

{Nature's own Color. Brightest 

and Strongest. B u 7 of your Mer- 
chant, or send 25 cts. in stamps for a sample, coloring 500 lbs. to 

BEAN & RABE, Prop., 47 & 49 N. 2d St., PHILAD'A. 
ap 15 — ly 




<838 rr1883 POMONA NIJKKERY! -5,0UU 
' I_ ' Jkt'iflt-t'N I ■ > l»i-itl reals in or< hard, 
50.000 in Nursery, propagated ex. 
Ij/from healthy standards) no 
buds or scions cut li-oiu dwarfs 
Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackber 
riea, Grapes and Currants oral] the ap 
proved varieties. Fruit, shade and on 
namenta] trees, vines and plants. Caia 
lojut free. Wm.Pabkt.Pauby P.O..N.4 

nov'2t 




H. A. S. HAMILTON, 

Fishersville, Augusta County, Va., 

BREEDER OF PURE 

Southdown Sheep. 

My flock took seven premiums at Virginia 
State Fair in 1881. Am prepared to fur- 
nish buck of any age at reasonable prices. 

my 15— 11*, 

CHEAPEST Bl BLESarioo^iiVistrationBj neTe* 

tra features. Hoik Version* New Testament AarMTC UU ANTTD 
FORSHEB& McMACKIN.Cincinnati.O. MuiJlUO ff AfllliJ 

15— 



THE- 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 

DETOTBD TO 

Agriculture, Horticulture, Live Stock and the Household. 

Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. — XSNOPHON. 
Tillage and pasturage are the two breasts of the State. — Sully. 

» 

T. W. ORMOND, - Proprietor. 

W. C. KNIGHT, Editor. 



43rd Tear. RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1882. No. 17. 



FARMERS AND FARMING IN VIRGINIA IN THE OLDEN TIME, 



No. 5. 

[The following letters, printed from the original MSS. in our possession, will be inter- 
esting as showing the feeling in respect to agriculture in the early years of the present 
century, and their authors and those to whom they are addressed, being all leading men 
of the State who have long since passed from life, their publication now may awaken 
interesting reminiscences in many households of Virginia. 

First, The letter from Judge Paul Carrington, of Charlotte county, to his son-in-law, 
Col. Win. Cabell, Jr., of Amherst county, dated 19th March, 1782. 

Second. Letter from Dr. J. W. Gait to Gen. J. H. Cocke, dated 9th December, 1803. 

Third. Letter from Jos. Scofield, of Lancaster, England, to Joseph C. Cabell, of Vir. 
ginia, then in London, dated 6th of September, 1804. This letter shows that Mr. 
Cabell was the first to introduce into Virginia, and perhaps the United States, the cir- 
cular saw. 

Fourth. Letter from Col. Jno. Taylor, of Caroline, to Dr. George Washington Tennent, 
of same county, dated 24th of June, 1805, on the Yeatman, or cow, pea. 

Fifth. Fragment of letter, under date of August, 1807, from Francis Watkins, Sr., 
then clerk of Prince Edward county, and owner of the upper half of Elk Island, to 
Nicholas Cabell, Jr.] 

Dear Sir, — I have your letter of the 1 8th. It is equally con- 
venient to me to send your cattle now as at any other time. 
The season is not so proper, as cattle at this time of year are 
generally too weak to drive far ; however I have sent such as I 
think will go very well, if driven slow and fed well on the w r ay. 
They are chiefly young cattle, and in a few years will be very 
25 



276 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

fine. Gen. Green last winter, and other troops since, so wounded 
my elder stock that I have none to spare but such as I've sent. 
They are a fine breed of cattle, and if well taken care of will be very 
good and large. 

I have wrote the state of the family, to which I refer you. I 
am so unwell I can scarce set up to write this short letter. My 
best respects to my old friend and esteemed acquaintance, Col. 
Cabell ; tell him I would write him, but cannot, at present, with- 
out great inconvenience, though I am getting better. You '11 

see by letter to N when I shall be at home. 

Your affectionate friend, 

igth March, 1782. P. Carrington. 



Dear Sir, — When I was at your house you mentioned your 
intention of cultivating the Pride of China for feeding sheep — this 
will answer for the winter months very well — it did not occur to 
me then to recommend to your notice the cultivation of Scotch Broom, 
which affords an ample food for between two and three summer 
months for sheep and hogs. It affords an abundance of flowers, 
which those animals devour greedily ; it fattens them fast, and 
comes early, and will last till the wild fruits are ripe — such as 
mulberries, blackberries, and hurtleberries ; after that the chin- 
kapin succeeds ; this, added to the others, will give you a suc- 
cession of food for ten months in the year. 

I have sent you seed sufficient to plant all your hill-sides that 
you do not mean to cultivate in grain. Its roots are fibrous, of 
course they will prevent the land from washing. They should 
be put in directly — planted at five feet distance — four or five 
seed in each hill and about one inch deep, to prevent their being 
affected by the rays of the sun. They will lay in the ground for 
two winters, and sometimes three or four, before they vegetate. 
When I left England I brought some of the seed that had been 
gathered for twenty odd years. I planted them as an orna- 
mental flowering shrub in the garden. They remained in the 
ground four winters, then vegetated finely, and grew very lux- 
uriant. The seed now sent I saved the summer before last 
from Mr. Lucus's land in Warwick. It was originally planted 
as a hedge by an old Englishman, from which it has spread over 
some hundred acres of land by the birds. In England they 
have a method of expediting the vegetation of broom, hawthorn 
and holly, by mixing the seeds with the feed of their horned 
cattle and keeping the cattle up till they have passed the seed. 
They then sprinkle this over their land and plow it in in the fall 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER 277 

season — in the spring the seed will vegetate. As this process 
would be too late for this winter, I would recommend the mode 
I first proposed. They require no care after being sown. My 
best respects await the whole family. I am, dear sir, 
" Yours very respectfully, 
December 9, 1803. J. W. Galt. 

Sir, — Urgency of business calling me from home has pre- 
vented me writing you respecting the saws agreeable to my 
promise. The present is principally to inform you that I again 
saw Mr. Adkins on Monday last, when he repeated his assurance 
that the Circular Saw which he shewed you is a new contrivance, 
and only used (and he believes manufactured) by one person 
in Sheffield, On this account he recommends you to have the 
draught as originally proposed, which he will order to be done, 
and the price not to exceed 10s. 6d. This sum might be left with 
Mr Rennolds, and I will take advantage of the first opportunity 
to forward it, carriage free, for your address, to Mr. Rennold's 
care. If on your arrival in America you should wish to intro- 
duce these saws, we will with pleasure procure them for you. 

The little purchase you made at Cartlet's is now on its way to 
London, and you will find inclosed two plain razors, which I beg 
you to accept. If you are at any time disposed to make trial, 
for the sake of conveniency, of cold shaving, permit me to repeat 
the below directions, which I have found practicable from expe- 
rience, and though recently much averse to this method, I now 
give it a decided preference. Wishing you a most prosperous 
voyage, I remain, sir, Your most obedient servant, 

Lancaster, Sept. 6, 1804. Jos. Schofield. 

Make choice of soft water, in which dip the square of soap, 
and then rub it on the face ; apply your shaving-brush till a good 
lather is produced, and of course you will find the friction of the 
brush upon the beard to greatly soften it. For my own use I 
prefer "Middleton's Abyssinian Soap," which is sold by most 
perfumers. I believe I mentioned the necessity of wiping the 
razor quite dry, on a soft piece of linen, each time of using, and 
previous to the operation to draw it gently and as flat as possi- 
ble, once or twice over ^he strap ; a flat strap, too, is preferred. 



Dear Sir, — The Yeatman pea for your friend is sent with 
pleasure. It is, however, too late to plant it, except for the pur- 
pose of sowing the pods first ripening for seed, and even for 
this end it ought to be placed in a quick soil. 



278 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

The most beneficial modes in which I have used it, are to 
plant it among corn in strong land, and feed it off with sheep, 
and to drill it in rows three feet asunder and cut it for horses. 
The sheep may be turned on after the peas begin to ripen con- 
siderably, and they will become fine mutton without injuring the 
corn in any considerable degree. The peas to be cut for horses 
ought to be sown early in land well manured, and kept clean 
until they have nearly covered the ground. They will produce 
a crop of green food surpassing clover or any other vegetable 
I ever saw. When the pods begin to appear, the vines are cut 
at the root, or drawn up root and all, and given to horses in 
lieu of cut clover. There is no food they eat more heartily, or 
on which they fatten more rapidly, and it comes in the fall after 
clover fails or is unhealthy, placing the horse in a very healthy 
state to go through the winter. Taken off vine and all, it is, 
like other crops thus removed, an impoverisher ; but leaves the 
land so very clean, that wheat and clover prosper after it. 

But I conjecture that the annual cultivation of the same in- 
closure in this pea (adapting the quantity of land to the number 
of hogs), for the purpose of feeding off the pea in fattening pork, 
would be more beneficial than either of the modes I have tried. 
The destruction of a portion of the vine, and the manure of the 
hogs, would probably improve the land. They should be turned 
in on the first frost. This experiment I have only requested, 
because I do not raise hogs here. 

Such are my hasty reflections upon the Yeatman pea. I am, 
with great regard, dear sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 

Hazelwood, June 24, 1805. John Taylor. 

I very much regret that indisposition, with which I was 
attacked severely at E. Island in January, hurried me off sooner 
than I intended, and prevented me the pleasure of seeing you 
there. I wish much to make a farmer of you in style. 

I visited it in May, and again a week at the commencement 
of harvest. The crop is so vastly beyond anything my new 
manager has been accustomed to, with the finest prospects 
which can be conceived, and all the encouragement I could give 
him, he would despond. But from his last letter he seems to 
have gotten his spirits up, and I have sent express to bring him 
through. 

I found I was correct in saying to you / had 80 acres of the best 
wheat in Virginia. When the knife was put to it I was present, 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTKK. 279 

and could then have added, / believe the best in the world, unless 
some favored spot in the Delta of the Nile may perhaps have equalled 
it. The last 20 acres sowed was badly crippled by the winter. 
I however learn there is 800 stout ricks, and some small ones, and 
from the advice of my friends I am shipping to their mills in 
Richmond. 

The political horizon looks so squally we. can't guess what 
may be the change of times, and they promise me no price, but 
justice for all. 

Should you have an opportunity, let Col. Venable know all 
is well Tobacco getting up to pean price, and wheat 6s. and 6d. 

August 7, 1807. Francis Watkins. 



WHAT CROPS CAN BE GROWN TO PROFIT IN OUR PRESENT 
CIRCUMSTANCES AND WITH OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS? 



[For the Southern Planter.] 

Dr. Pollard and Col. Beverley say that wheat cannot be grown to profit, 
though our yield should average twenty bushels per acre; that is, I suppose 
they mean a living nrofit, or with a margin of profit sufficient to give the 
farmer a competence equal to the merchant. 

Suppose we admit the reasoning of Dr. Pollard, as to the general meaning of 
putting in wheat. I would ask, Would the simple change of crop improve the 
habits of farmers so much, that they would do justice to the oat crop, while 
they would continue to do great injustice to the wheat crop, by the manner in 
which they handle it, from fallowing the land to marketing the grain ? I think 
not. Indeed I am certain, that in our county there is a more general utter 
failure of the oat crop from year to year, than the wheat crop. But if you 
could iuduce farmers to sow thickly in August and September, would the result 
be any more satisfactory than the wheat yield? The oat crop seldom sells for 
one-half the price per bushel that wheat brings; and if you could double the 
yield wheat makes, would it pay? I have my doubts as to doubling the 
yield of wheat, unless he means to take the mere average of wheat, which he 
gives at eight bushels; then I have no hesitation in saying sixteen, or twenty- 
five bushels of oats, per acre are not paying crops. 

But suppose Virginia was to produce eight million bushels of oats, instead 
of wheat, and other States also were to grow oats, the price of oats would be- 
come unremunerative. 

Is there a better way ? I think there is, and a way that demands our earnest 
attention. Dr. Ellzey's series of articles on green fallow crops, animal nrmnures 
and commercial fertilizers, commencing in the August number of the Planter 
for 1879, and running through many numbers, will repay attentive re-rending. 
His strong and incisive statements in relation to the theories of chemists and 



280 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

fertilizer men, as to the necessity of presenting plant food in a soluble condi- 
tion, is perhaps the most important contribution to the stock of our positive 
knoivledge that has been made since the commercial fertilizer craze took posses- 
sion of the farming community. It shows that the theories of the past have 
been positive folly ; that the cost of fertilizers have been considerably enhanced 
by the use of a worse than useless, nay a positively injurious, agent — sulphuric 
acid ; that mechanical division is all that is necessary to prepare plant food for 
their capacities to digest and assimilate ; that consequently, the property of the 
acid to destroy water as the proper vehicle through which the mineral particles 
of plant food must be presented for their mastication and digestion, is perhaps 
the most injurious property it could possess, and especially when used in our 
hot and drouthy climate. 

Everybody knows that the one dominating property of sulphuric acid, is to 
convert water into vapor or steam. As long as it remains sulphuric acid, this 
continues to be its dominating property. When, therefore, it is commingled 
with the soil, its perpetual tendency is to convert the moisture of the soil into 
vapor, and enable it to rise and escape therefrom ; whereas, the normal condi- 
tion and tendency of the soil is to cool and condense the vapors of the atmos- 
phere, and thereby convert them into water, and thus provide the vehicle 
through which alone the minutely divided atoms of plant food can enter the 
mouths and vesicles of plant roots, " which are provided with the proper acids 
for their disintegration" and assimilation. This is the property and office of 
water in the soil. But when dissipated as vapor, it cannot perform these func- 
tions ; hence the effects of drouths on plant growth. And the intermixture of 
sulphuric acid with the soil is only to aggravate the effects of drouth, as all 
observers must have noted. In moist climates, such as England, the effects 
may not be so serious, but in ours they are serious ; and from this cause, mainly, 
comes the many complaints of the utter valuelessness of commercial fertilizers. 

Dr. Ellzey has demonstrated the value of clover and peas as sources of nitro- 
gen for growing crops ; and Mr. Stewart, in the Ninth Annual Keport of the 
New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, has shown, in a review of a letter of 
McLaws, that if we supply the necessary phosphates in a condition capable of 
being converted by the plant into phosphoric acid, corn can be grown in the 
Eastern States cheaper than it can be transported there from the West. In 
other words, the East can successfully compete with the West in growing corn. 
If it be true that the freight charges on a bushel of corn are more than the 
cost of the necessary phosphates to produce it — then we of the South also can 
compete with the West in corn growing. 

It is needless to go into the chemical question. I will only say, that the 
Charleston people have succeeded in grinding the Charleston rock so fine that 
it appears to be soluble in water; or, in other words, as fine as family flour — 
as fine as necessary for the water of the soil to present an abundant supply of 
it to the roots of corn plants. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 281 



We have tried it for two years, with very satisfactory results, on corn culti- 
vated as tobacco raisers are generally compelled to cultivate corn, and have 
seeded clover when we laid by the corn. We have now (September 15th) 
clover — seeded last week in July, when the corn wm laid by — six inches high ; 
and, thus far, we consider our chances for a good stand, permanently, far better 
than when seeded in wheat. Our last year's experiment was a perfect success. 

There is only one question I would like solved, and that is: If we treat corn 
as it ought to be treated — with thorough cultivation from the planting till made — 
can we overcome our usual long drouths? That is to say, Will thorough cul- 
tivation enable the soil to condense moisture enough from the atmosphere to 
meet the wants of the plants when tasselling or shooting? If thorough culti- 
vation will effectually overcome the drouths of our summers — then with two 
years' rest in clover, and which clover I would hog down, feeding two ears of 
corn to each shoat per day while they graze on the clover, and keep as many 
hogs as my clover would carrv. Starting corn with 500 pounds per acre of 
Charleston rock, I make sure a clover crop of first quality, and capable of sum: 
mering ten shoats per acre; and with two ears of corn each per day, my shoals 
that were pigged March 1st will be ready to go into the clover as soon as it is 
in full bloom, and they will never destroy it so much that it would bare the 
surface — at least I would regulate the number to that point that would keep 
the surface protected. I allot one barrel of corn to each shoat; and by the 
time he has eaten that, he will weigh at least one hundred and fifty pounds, 
and will always bring eight dollars. If I can only raise five barrels of corn 
per acre, I can only mature five shoats per acre ; but that would yield me $40 
per acre. And if I only giew thirty acres, that would give me an income of 
$1,200 per annum. And any man, not in his threescore years, can, with a 
sulky plow and cultivator, raise that, aud be independent of the inefficient and 
impertinent labor of these troublesome times, which is an important factor for 
the moment. 

Besides, if we can certainly accomplish these results with the cultivation of 
corn, we need have no cares about our corn aud hog crops, and need not, there- 
fore, do more than pull the corn and feed it in the shuck, saving hay enough 
for the teams and stock, and get rid of handling the corn stalks ; that is, reduce 
the labor on the farm to its minimum, and its care also. 

There are many questions of detail which must be passed over for the present. 
I only aim to suggest. S * * * * 



A forger who was sent to the Pennsylvania penitentiary in 1852, and has 
just been released, finds that his house and lot, then worth $1,500, now give 
him a fortune of $40,000, owing to the increase in the value of laud. He 
ought to be able to lead an honest life on that sum. 

Wolsley's victory, it is estimated, will cost England from $50,000,000 to 
$100,000,000. When they pay it, British tax-payers will be apt to think that 
John Bright was right when he declared the war unnecessary. 



282 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 



THE NEW FOOD-FISH.— (Sebastes dactyloptera.) 



Mention was made last week of the discovery by Captain Collins, in the ser- 
vice of the United States Fish Commission, of a new and promising food fish. 
The fish was taken, it will be remembered, while trawling for tile fish in deep 
water off the south coast of Long Island. 

At the National Museum, in Washington, the fish was recognized as the 
Sebastes dactyloptera, young specimens of which were taken in great abundance 
by the Fish Hawk, off Newport, R. L, in 1880, along the edges of the Gulf 
Stream, in 100 to 150 fathoms of water. 

The fish recently taken were the first adult specimens caught off the Ameri- 
can coast. Professor Goode states, however, that the fish is found in great 
abundance around the Madeira Islands, where it is popularly known as the 
"catseye," and highly esteemed as a food fish, in general appearance it closely 
resembles the red perch or Norway haddock, which is so plentiful along the 
coast of Maine. The fish run from two to three and a half pounds in weight. 

"[We have been intending for sometime to urge upon the attention of farmers the im- 
portance of fish culture. There is scarcely a farm which has not a running brook on 
which a fish-pond may not be located, and may be at the same time utilized for ice. 
With a little attention, a crop of food-fishes may be made more abundant than that of 
fowls, and at much less expense. And what can better supply a farmer's table ; and, 
when near to a market, furnish a better source of income for the outlay involved ? 

The carp, and other fishes, will be supplied free of cost from the agents of the State 
and Federal Governments, on proper application. So that it remains an easy and prac- 
tical matter for any household to have its well-stocked fish-pond. — Ed. S. P.] 



AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



[For the Southern Planter.] 

In traveling about the State a good deal this summer I have seen 
some things which may interest your readers. Though I am an ex- 
farmer I have not ceased to take an interest in all that appertains to 
the farm and farming interests. 

Seasons and Crops. — The seasons in general have been favorable, 
particularly so since the middle of July up to the date of this writing. 
Rarely have tobacco planters ever had a season more favorable to to- 
bacco in every respect since the date named, and the crop probably 
will be the best and largest made for several years. 

The White Burley Tobacco has been tried in numerous locali- 
ties. The growth I saw (in Nottoway) was very large and leafy. Some 
plants measured seven feet from tip of one leaf to the tip of the oppo- 
site leaf. It seems to be more difficult to keep the worms off this than 
from ordinary kinds as the leaves grow close on the stalk, and there- 



1882.] SOUTHERN TLANTKU. 283 



fore the worms can hide themselves better. It is liked by some plan- 
ters, but not by others. It remains to be seen how it will pay. Unless 
this or some other variety can be grown which afford.better remuner- 
ation than the staple made in Middle Virginia, it ought to cease to be 
cultivated, for it has ceased to pay expenses, except in special cases. 

For several years 1 have watched the Lespideza Striata, or Japanese 
Clover, about which so much was written a few years ago. The seed 
of this were sown some seven or eight years ago, on a gravelly and 
very thin ridge in Nottoway by which the road runs. Where the land 
has been cultivated the plant has disapeared — but in the space between 
that and the road which has been left unstirred, it has thriven and 
formed a sod. In the opposite fence-corners it has also formed a sod, 
even in spots where nothing else would grow. Moreover, it has 
spread along the road-sides for several hundred yards. Stock are said to 
like the plant, and if so it does seem practicable to seed old fields lying 
out in it aud thus form a good sod for sheep, for which it looks as if 
it might be particularly suitable. I hear it grows high enough to 
make good hay in the south.* 

Cattle and Swine seem to be scarcer this year than usual, on ac- 
count of the short crop of provender and corn last year. The fine 
grass this fall ought to bring the cattle to the winter in fine plight and 
a plentiful crop of corn ought to push the hogs. Quick maturing 
breeds would now be very serviceable. The white- oak mast is very 
good. 

Ensilage. — I have not found this system much practised and when 
tried, sometimes very slovenly done. As far as tested, it has given satis- 
faction. One farmer has used it this season for the fourth year and likes 
itmore and more. For beef and stock cattle I think it is very valuable, 
because it enables the farmer to put up a double supply of stock feed. 
The testimony of the one hundred whose trials are reported by the 
United States Department of Agriculture, is almost unanimous in its 
favor. Many hesitate to try it because of expense, but a one horse 
power seems to afford sufficient power in cutting it up, on a moderate 
scale. If ensilage prove a success, as I believe it will do, I consider it 
a most valuable step in advance, especially to the farmers of Eastern 
Virginia. 

*Since writing the above, I have seen another experiment with Lespideza. The farm 
on which it was tried lies in the northwestern corner of Brunswick county, on Nottoway 
river. The soil has a strong, red-clay subsoil. The seed were sown on it some six years 
ago, and the plant had kept on growing and spreading ever since. It had formed a good 
sod on a red gall, though not originally sown there. The proprietor considered it was 
good — especially for sheep. 



284 SOUTHERN" PLANTER. [December 



The Natural Resources of the country were brought into active 
requisition this year on account of the short crops of last year. Corn 
sold as high as $1.30 in remote districts. To supplement the bread 
crop and the small income from tobacco and wheat, salable stuff, such 
as railroad ties, tan bark, walnut logs, cord wood were sold in large 
quantities. One dealer in one of the old counties told me he had sold 
over four hundred car-loads of these articles. In another old county 
I saw these articles hauled twelve miles or more, this too where tan- 
yards had been closed up in former years for want of bark. 

How many years the country can stand this drain and where such 
supplies are to come from when the present supply is exhausted, are 
questions often asked but seldom answered. Certainly that rare estab- 
lishment in Virginia, the tan-yard, will have to go abroad for supplies 
if it ever becomes an institution again. Our people can talk politics 
— run country stores, beat the world in tournaments, but when you 
come to matters of this kind — such as manufacturing leather, shoes, 
wagons, hoe and axe helves, &c, they have a hollow place, instead of 
a bump on their heads, as old Mr. Ruffin used to say. 

Small Farms vs. Large Farms. — After a long test I thmk this ques- 
tion is practically settled. In Eastern Virginia I have not seen half a 
dozen large farms worked on ante-bellum plans, which did not bring 
the workers of these into loss. It is not an impossibility for such 
farms to prosper and pay, but it is risky business. There are however 
many cases where small farms have proven profitable. For the amount 
of capital necessary for a small farm, it is doubtful whether a fair re- 
turn can be more surely obtained by any other industry. 

Proper Rotation and progressive improvement of land, without 
bought fertilizers if possible, or with them if properly used, is the 
great want of Virginia farming. Mother earth is generous, but she 
cannot stand such treatment as is alas ! too often Jjcruelly and wantonly 
dealt out to her by her sons. 

So, Mr. Editor, keep the motto always prominent : u No grass, no 
stock ; No stock, no manure ; No manure, (home made) no permanent 
improvement of land." And I will add, No improvement of land, 
starvation or emigration. 

Richard Irby. 



Nature 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. 



1882.] SOUUIIEKISr PLANTER. 285 



BAT GUANO IN TEXAS. 



The progress of railway extension in Western Texas has led to the 
development of the beds of bat guano in certain caves in Uvalde county. 
A recent visitor says that there are two of the bat-inhabited caves which 
have been partially explored. The entrance to the smaller, or Cibolo, 
cave is about h'fty feet high and twenty-five feet wide. The passage 
widens gradually for a distance of about two hundred and fiftv feet, 
when the outer cave is reached. The bottom is of guano. The walls 
are of limestone, uniting nearly two hundred feet above in a grand dome. 
The cave is as dark as Egypt. There appear to be neither stalagmites 
nor stalactites. This cave is three hundred or four hundred feet in 
diameter, and the floor is covered with about thirty feet of guano. In 
some parts it is believed to be much deeper. The atmosphere is very 
dry, and five years ago the guano caught fire, the whole surface being 
burned over to the depth of about four feet. Since then eight feet of 
guano have been deposited, so that we have proof that the fertilizer is 
being deposited at the rate of more than a foot and a half a year. On 
the inner side of the outer cave, in the side of the dome, about one hun- 
dred and twenty feet from the floor, is an opening about six or eight 
feet in size. Through this all the bats go to an inner cave, which has 
never been explored. It is believed, however, to be very extensive be- 
cause of the immense number of bats that daily sleep in it, and because 
at the time of the fire in the outer cave great quantities of smoke es- 
caped through the crevices in the rock near the Cibolo river, on the 
opposite side of the hill, two miles and a half from the main entrance. 
This inner cave is believed to be fully two miles long and very broad. 
The Uvalde cave is said to be about six times as large as the Cibolo cave. 
It differs from the latter in being moist, instead of dry. There is no 
running water in either cave. The district is quite hilly, and is composed 
altogether of a limestone formation. In the abrupt hills many caves are 
known to exist, and all of them are inhabited by bats ; but only the two 
mentioned, it is believed, are of sufficient extent to warrant working 
for the guano deposits. The first shipment of guano was made from 
Cibolo cave but a short time ago. It is claimed that analysis shows the 
guano to be worth from fifty to sixty dollars a ton. The Uvalde cave 
deposit has not been touched. It is said that a factory for the produc- 
tion of sulphate of ammonia is to be set up at Uvalde by the company 
which owns and works the phosphate deposits at Charleston, S. C. — 
Neio England Farmer. 



286 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 



GERMAN MILLET. 



On land adapted to its growth, there is no forage crop more profita- 
ble to the farmer than German millet. Its yield is immense, producing 
on an average soil, with ordinary seasons, from three to five tons per 
acre. When cut at the proper stage and well cured, stock of all kinds 
are fond of it, prefering it generally to any other hay. Its superior fat- 
tening qualities are chief among its recommendations. Two crops can 
be grown in a single season, or a crop of millet secured after the wheat 
or rye, or oat harvest. Objection is sometimes made that it is a hard 
crop on land, but such is not the experience of those who have given it 
a fair test. 

Three things are essential to a good crop, in addition to the require- 
ments of a favorable soil, viz. : First, the land must be thoroughly pre- 
pared; second, sound seed ; and third, a favorable season. In prepar- 
ing the land it should be thoroughly plowed and well pulverized. The 
seed sown should have been grown especially for the purpose, and not 
gathered from a broadcast crop. The proper way to raise the seed is 
to sow thickly in drills, eighteen inches to two feet apart, and work 
one or two times with the cultivator. On a rich soil the yield of seed 
thus treated is immense. Seed, when good, present a very uniform ap- 
pearance in size. The season requires a moderate amount of moisture 
in the beginning, followed by one or two gentle showers. Seed should 
never be sown when the ground is too dry. River and creek bottoms, 
and low, flat places, are best adapted to this crop. Seed may be sown 
as early as the frost is out of the land up to as late as the 1st of Au- 
gust. With a favorable season it does well after the wheat crop has 
been harvested. The time for mowing depends upon the uses for 
which it is intended ; if for feeding the horse, it should be cut when 
in the flower, and for mules, cattle, or sheep, when in the dough state. 
There is no hay crop that stands the weather so well if carefully ricked 
or stacked, and when harvested it leaves the land in excellent condi- 
tion for any other crop. Every farmer who has land suited to its 
growth, should raise more or less of it. With a favorable season a 
crop will mature in forty to fifty days from the time of seeding The 
amount of seed to the acre depends upon the character of the land and 
the uses for which it is to be applied. If for horses, a bushel of 
seed to the acre is best, but if for cattle, half a bushel to three pecks is 
abundant. The seed should be covered very lightly, and, when con- 
venient, followed with the roller. 

It will not pay to put millet on poor land. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 287 



INDIAN CORN IN THE SOUTH. 

Eds. Country Gentlemen — Your able correspondent, B. F. J., page 
829, gives a good article on corn in the Booth. 1 know he will not 
think less of me if I take up the glove and reply from my stand-point. 
lie says: " There is one fact in regard to growing corn in the South 
which is not generally understood. Giveu as rich a soil as any in the 
North, it is not possible to produce more than half as much corn to 
the acre, because of the excessive heat, which requires planting at nearly 
double the distance apart required at the North. It has been supposed 
that the poverty of the soil was the reason why corn at the South was 
so spread out upon the land, but it is now recognized that under the in- 
tense summer heat, the plants require a free circulation of air, or 
they ' draw up' and refuse to ear." I am thankful that the odium is 
taken from my people, which I dare not do, and the blame placed on 
the '• poverty of the soil " and "the intense summer heat." My father, 
grandfather and great grandfather were natives of Virginia ; my mother's 
family was likewise thus early imported into the South, The South is 
no cabbage patch. Like all other countries, except Illinois, we have 
some ''poverty of the soil," but we just ask where can be found fifty 
miles square of richer, deeper soil — may I not ask, 100 miles square — 
in one body? Now as to the "intense summer heat." There is no 
record of as intense heat at any place in the South that can be shown 
since my day (76 years), as has been very often recorded, even in Eas- 
tern and Northeastern Illinois. 

But to facts that are facts, Dr. John Parker of Columbia, S. C, (my 
birth-place), reports to a South Carolina fair, properly certified (and 
none has denied the fact), the largest yield of corn in America — 200 
bushels, and a few quarts over. I have a slight pleasure in saying to B. 
F. J. that in my boyhood days I passed over said land, hunting rabbits 
and birds, for after September *<, 1821, until division, I was one of four 
children who owned said land. You see where the "slight pleasure " 
comes in. The largest yield of corn known grew on land of which I 
was, when a boy, part owner. So much for poor land and intense 
heat. My farm book, March 16, 1819, gives : 

" Planted an acre of Golden Alleghany corn to-day, as follows : Prior 
to Feb. 15th, I nad the laud turned over with two-horse plows; began 
to haul manure on it on the 13th; hauled 19 loads of about 20 to 25 
bushels per load — say 500 bushels ; this was spread broadcast; the sub- 
soil plow then ran two feet apart (the east side best subsoiled) ; the land 
then harrowed well. Rows marked off 3 feet apart; corn then drop- 



288 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

ped for a stand — 10 rows, one stalk every foot ; 10 rows, two stalks 
every foot; 10 rows, one stalk every two feet; 10 rows, two stalks 
every two feet; 10 rows, one stalk every three feet; 10 rows, with 
two stalks every three feet ; 10 rows, two stalks every four feet. I 
then scattered 100 bushels of cotton-seed (rotten), and left 50 bushels 
to manure around the hill. It took one-half bushel of corn, dropped 
by myself; Mr. Aiken, a visitor from Indiana, helped me. This Gol- 
den Alleghany had larger growth than any of our Southern corn." 

" Sept. 18th, gathered Golden Alleghany corn, A. K. Montgomery 
and John Hughes present; both citizens and planters. Lot No. 1, 8 
barrels; No. 2, 4J; No. 3, 9; No. 4, 8f ; No. 5, 9; No. 6, 9}; No. 7, 
9f , common flour barrel — w 7 ill average about three bushels. I began to 
plant on the west side, next to fence, w T here corn was 3 by 1 foot, one 
stalk ; the last lot was on the east side. 3 by four feet, and tw 7 o stalks. 
Best subsoiled ; east side and largest yield, last 10 rows. 9 J barrels, 3- 
foot rows and two stalks every 4 feet. 

Observe, first of 10 row T s, 3 by 1 foot, one stalk, gave 8 barrels ; next, 
with two stalks, gave only 4J barrels ; 3rd lot, two feet distant, in drills, 
and one stalk, gave 9 barrels, yet the last lot, 3 by 4 feet, and two 
stalks only gave 9f barrels; where most distance, only three quarters 
of a bushel, say over 3 by 3 feet, and one stalk. Of course one trial 
shows that we can lose if there are too many stalks, as I am sure we 
can by too few. I have made 90 bushels from 4 foot rows. Always 
after, perhaps, 1833 or 1834, I drilled, single stalks, about 22 inches 
apart in the drill. A. K. Montgomery who assisted in gathering, made 
103 bushels in rows under 4 feet. His father, for perhaps scores of years, 
always planted at five feet, and rich land ; crops 60 to 70 bushels ; 
same land at four feet, and the corn stirred often, should have made 10 
bushels more. My rule was, the richer the land, the more distance 
for cotton, and less for corn. An old neighbor said that on rich land 
cotton should be closer planted. I asked him about the Yazoo bot- 
tom ; rows 9 feet and stalks four. 

I have had cotton twelve feet high and not much of a crop — too 
thick to spread, and like saplings, grew up to get light. 

The fault is the southerner is crazy on cotton, just as B. F. J. 
charges on Southern Illinois. I pleaded with my brethren South for 
mixed husbandry forty to forty-five years ago ; had they followed myj 
practice, we would not even now be in the Slough of Despond. 

Clinton, Miss. ' M. W. P. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 289 



FISH FARMING. 



By attaching a pump, propelled by the wind, to a well, says the St. 
Paul Pioneer Press, you can supply a basin from 50 to 70 feet in di- 
ameter, and six to eight feet deep, with water sufficient to raise sev- 
eral thousand carp or other iish. The cost of this pond and appurte- 
nances need not exceed fifty dollars. The bottom and sides need to 
be cemented thoroughly. When the basin is complete, place in it a 
small quantity of floating weeds. If you intend to raise carp, do not 
place other iish of a predatory character in the pond. The spawning 
will occur during the spring months, the female laying from 50,000 to 
500,000 eggs. The eggs will adhere to whatever they touch, and will 
soon hatch. The green senm of a partially stagnant pond is fine food 
for the young fish. Mud in the bottom of the pond is beneficial. The 
fish will feed readily on kitchen-garden refuse, such as cabbage, leek, 
lettuce, hominy or other substances. Water seldom becomes too warm 
for these fish. During freezing weather they bury themselves in the 
mud at the bottom of the pond. While in this condition they 
should not be disturbed. In a pond of given dimensions several 
thousand fish have annually been taken. If weeds and grass grow pro- 
fusely about the borders of the pond, so much the better for the iish. 
In two years' time you can have a constant supply of sport and food, 
and the advantage of a pond to assist in beautifying your home. — 
Western Plowman. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

There is a growing feeling among the students of industrial prob- 
lems that our whole conception of education in general, and of indus- 
trial training in particular, needs revision and enlargement. This feel- 
ing is based upon such easily observed facts as the following: 

1. Paupers are on the increase. 

2. Onr schools too often educate their pupils out of harmony with 
their environment, thus justifying the charge that education (falsely so 
called) unfits its possessors for useful industry. 

3. The simpler and less important positions in the world's workshop 
are as a rule greatly overcrowded, while in the upper stories there is a 
vast amount of unoccupied space. 

4. The work done in the lower stories is often exceedingly shabby. 

5. Many who aspire to the upper stories fail to enter — or, if they ap- 
parently enter, soon end in failure. 

0. The ctiosen few who truly enter, and build up magnificent indus- 
trial fabrics, with the splendid fortunes which such fabrics imply, fail 
to educate their children to carry on their good work, or to do work of 
similar value in some other department of useful industry. 



290 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

7. A whole community of prosperous workmen may be well nigh re- 
duced to beggary by the incoming of some new invention, or by change 
in the fortunes or tastes of consumers. 

8. When old industries are swept away, and new ones established on 
the wrecks, there is usually little power on the part of the workmen to 
adapt themselves to the new conditions. 

9. The relentless law of the survival of the shrewdest and most un- 
scrupulous, instead of the Christian law of mutual consideration and 
co-operation, too generally prevails among individuals and all kinds of 
human organizations. 

That all education should be industrial, and that everybody should 
be industrially educated, we believe to be a perfectly tenable proposi- 
tion. — Professor H. H. Straight, in Popular Science Monthly for Octo- 
ber. 

FARMING. 

England has now been in cultivation for more than one thousand 
years, yet by intellectual farming and a liberal use of fertilizers, the 
soil is still made to produce more per acre than many farms in this 
country, which less than one hundred years ago were covered with a 
very good forest. A great many farmers will argue that they have no 
money with which to purchase fertilizers, and that their barn-yard does 
not begin to supply the quantity. To them we can say, Do like our 
cousins across the water : have a flock of sheep, and let them manure 
the land. To accomplish this end, more wicker hurdles must be pro- 
vided, so that lots large enough to contain the sheep can be enclosed, 
and the sheep kept in hand. Sow turnip or some other seed which 
will grow on comparatively poor land, that the sheep may have some 
pasturage. When this is done, and the crop begins to grow, divide off 
a portion with the hurdles, place the sheep inside, and while eating off 
the crop their droppings will be deposited on the land. Continue 
moving the lot from one place to another until the entire field has been 
gone over. If the land is very poor this mode of treating it should be 
kept up at least two years ; then in the spring plant wheat or oats, to 
be followed as soon as harvested by another turnip sowing, which is to 
be fed to the sheep in the same manner as described above, and thus 
raise two crops, one for the master and the other for the sheep. The 
animals will improve in wool growing qualities, increase in numbers, 
add to the supp y of manure, and all the while enriching the owner. 
There is no better manure than sheep droppings, and by following the 
above mode of sowing and applying it, marked benefits will result in a 
short time. The inevitable law of nature to return something for 
what is taken away must be adhered to. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER 2 ( J1 



I GO FOR CORN, WHEAT AND TOBACCO. 



Mr. Editor, — When William Cobet, the great English radical, spent some 
years in this country, he advocated with great zeal the cultivation of ruta baga. 
John Randolph, of Roanoke, was then member of Congress from* Virginia. 
Some question, of new and doubtful policy, was introduced in Congress. Ran- 
dolph, who was a good conservative, opposed it, and in the course of his argu- 
ment he cried out, in his peculiar way, "Mr. Speaker, we in Virginia go for 
corn, wheat and tobacco, and we dam the ruta baga." The question now is, 
Shall we abandon the daple crops of corn, wheat and tobacco and give our at- 
tention to sorghum, grapes, apples, &c. ; to which might be added broom-corn 
and teasels — the one yielding, besides the brush, which will always be in de- 
mand for brooms, a good crop of seed, equal in value to a crop of oats ; the 
stalks and fodder are equal to those of corn. The teasel is wanted by all man- 
ufacturers of yarn cloth ; no substitute has been found for it. It is cultivated 
with profit in New York and New England— making from 100,000 to 300,000 
burrs to the acre, and selling at from two to three dollars per 1,000 burrs. 
These are all specious crops. I like the old crops better; but the farmer is 
never satisfied. Virgil, two thousand years ago, described the farmers of his 
time as a dissatisfied class, and he exclaims : " O, fortunate farmer, if you only 
knew how well off you are ! " 

We are grumblers now. We want larger profits than we get. Yet no good 
farmer has failed who has cultivated these crops with industry, guided by in- 
telligence ; and why should they ? Indian corn is well suited to our soil and 
climate. With deep and frequent tillage, it never fails. It makes more nutri- 
tious food for man and beast, to the acre, than any other plant. The wheat 
crop has never failed to bring us in some income, even at six or eight bushels. 
Now it is thought that it brings us in debt at twenty bushels to the acre. I do 
not think so. Sancho said he did not want any better bread than that made 
of wheat. The whole world is now of his opinion, and the demand is constant 
for all we have to spare. Wheat after corn, without fertilizers; we expect a 
crop of six or eight bushels, and we are not disappointed. On a clover field, 
well plastered, and the clover turned under in August, we expect a crop of 
twenty or thirty bushels, and we get it. No crop is more certain than wheat 
on clover, fallowed, and the land improved under this system. 

In regard to tobacco: In spite of the bulls of popes and the counterblast 
of James the First, it is now in more general use than any other luxury, and 
commands a higher price than it did two hundred years ago. I regret its cul- 
tivation has been abandoned in some portions of this State. I know of no 
substitute that the small farmer can avail himself of. With the help of his 
children he can make a hogshead or two every year, aud thus have a certain 
income of one or two hundred dollars every year. Under the present system, 
they have no income. They raise a little corn and wheat, aud have none for 
26 



292 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

market. They are dependent on their fowls and dairy to clothe their families 
and purchase groceries. If they lose their horse or cow, they have no means 
of replacing them ; they have no money and no credit. 

Our representative in Congress, General Gordon, used to address directly the 
one and two-hogshead men. He told them that he had so high an opinion of 
their patriotism, that the hope of the country was placed on them ; if they but 
growled, the British lion would retire to his jungle. 

It is a mistake, that the culture of tobacco tends to the impoverishment of 
the farm. My observation, the result of a long life spent in the midst of the 
tobacco region, is, that the good planter improves his farm more, makes better 
crops, lives better, leaves a larger estate to his children, than the farmer who 
confines himself to corn, wheat, sorghum, &c. 

The tobacco crop requires thorough preparation of the soil, thorough tillage, 
and the making and application of large quantities of manure, and the grow- 
ing and turning in of good crops of clover. All the operations of the farm 
are conducted with industry and intelligence. It was my good fortune to live 
for twenty years next neighbor to one of the best farmers in the State. I saw 
him, in this time, double the number of acres of his farm, and double the value 
of the whole farm, by the cultivation of tobacco. This is the sum of the whole 
matter : We should stick to the crops that suit our soil and climate. We 
should endeavor to increase these products, and we should lessen the cost of 
their production. There is a farmer in every neighborhood that is doing this. 
Let us follow his example. 

In my last article, I said some of our best farmers had reported that plaster 
had ceased to show its usual effects on their grass and other crops. This, I 
think, is owing to their land being saturated with plaster. Manipulated fertil- 
izers which are in general use, contain a large amount of this mineral, put in 
for the sake of bulk and weight. The soil already containing plaster, I am 
not surprised that clover and other crops do not show its effects. 

The Plains, Va. Old Farmer. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



Correspondence Farmers' Review.- 

Paris, France, September 9. 
What is the true theory of a rotation of crops ? Doctors differ on 
the point. There is a school in this country that reduces the question 
of the fertility of the soil to a matter of give and take. Here, they 
say, is a general table of analyses of soils, and also of cultivated crops ; 
of certain manures, etc. Nothing easier than to calculate the total 
yield of a crop, to know the quantity of phosphates and of potash, etc., 
carried off. The analysis of the manure will enable the quantity of 
those salts to be estimated, and requisite to be returned to the soil ; if 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 293 

in excess, the richness of the land will be augmented. It is further 
laid down, that cereals and industrial plants draw largely on the soil 
for nitrogenous principles; but as these crops are succeeded by forage 
plants, the deficit is made up by the intervention (hypothetical) of at- 
mospheric nitrogen. Further, the necessity to practice a rotation of 
cropping, is explained by plants not requiring the same.mineral sub- 
stances, so that what one leaves the other will appropriate; and that, 
after a lapse, say of five years — thanks to periodical manurings and dis- 
similarity of tillages — the alternate exhaustion and the renovation of 
the soil will be found equalized. 

Now, what is our stock of precise, demonstrated knowledge on this 
subject of rotation ? It is exact, that the mineral food removed must 
be restored. By the successive cropping of lands in Sicily with wheat, 
the phosphates had been exhausted, and the soil has become impover- 
ished. The same fact was in process of realization in the North of 
France, till M. Corenninder called attention to the necessity of employ- 
ing phosphates, and since fertility has returned. Now for plants, as 
for manures, there is no constancy either in mineral or nitrogenous, or 
even in any other elements. Analysis shows that a large number of 
different manures vary in composition, from one to four times in the 
same element. Similarly for plants; wheat, for example, where the 
percentage of nitrogen, as in glutin, varies from one to three. There 
are analogous differences for the potash and phosphoric acid carried off. 
Hence there is no mean, no Procrustean standard, that can be declared, 
off-hand, applicable to a special soil. Strictly speaking, each particular 
case demands a new analysis. One field may produce a forage five 
times more nutritive than another. 

A popular error exists, that Boussingault asserted forage plants take 
nitrogen directly from the air ; even his latest experiments demonstrate 
the exact contrary. Then the attempt has been made to explain the 
restitution of nitrogen to the soil by the agency of meteors and rain. 
It is a fact that ammoniacal salts and nitrates are constantly present in 
the air, and conveyed, along with other saline and dust matters, to the 
soil by the rain. But the latter falls on the just and unjust alike ; upon 
all cultures indistinctly, not upon any particular rotation, and not spe- 
cially on forage plants. It is assumed, but not proven, that electricity 
nitrifies the ozote of the air in the interior of the soil, by a union with 
hydro-carbonaceous matters ; or effects a similar end in the interior of 
plants, by their starch, sugar, etc. We know, however, that the ozo- 
teous matters in the soil can be nitrified, but that is not an augmenta- 
tion of richness ; also, Cavendish has shown, in 1784, that an electric 



294 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

spark traversing an atmosphere enriched with oxygen, can produce 
nitric acid. Now, if electricity makes ammoniacal salts and nitrates 
in the atmosphere, that intervention is for all rotations and crops alike. 
It may be laid down as an axiom, that every system of culture which 
does not bring, from an outside source, the materials, whether nitrates, 
phosphates, or potash, etc., rare in a soil, and carried off by the pro- 
duce, must ultimately suffer in fecundity. There is a necessity, apart 
from these food considerations, to rotate crops ; the plan affords the 
means for extirpating weeds, for cleaning the ground, and of destroy- 
ing insects ; since if the latter, peculiar to a distinct crop, be deprived 
of its special food for one or two years, it must die of starvation. To 
keep a soil rich, depend upon manures, rather than on the air. 



THE TAG QUESTION, 



Mr. Editor, — I have had no disposition to engage in the discussion 
of the above subject, as it is no business of mine, except as it relates 
to me as a farmer; but in your issue for November, in commenting on 
the action of Clinton Grange, No. 220, on the "fertilizer tag question," 
you say: "That the Commissioner has the legal right, and, indeed, 
ought to affix a tag or brand on all fertilizers inspected and licensed 
by him, there can be no doubt or dispute." If you are right, then I 
misunderstood my legal right, and failed to perform my duties when 
Commissioner of Agriculture. But that you are wrong, I think is 
" beyond doubt or dispute." The law enacted before the creation of 
the Department of Agriculture, and which has never been repealed, 
expressly makes it the business of the manufacturer to affix a brand to 
every bag of fertilizer offered to be sold in the State, stating the per- 
centage of moisture, phosphoric acid, potash and ammonia claimed to 
be contained in it. The law creating the Department of Agriculture, 
nowhere gives the legal right to, or makes it the duty of, the Commis- 
sioner to affix any brand or tag whatever to fertilizers. In the first 
circular I issued to manufacturers requiring samples of their goods for 
analysis, I called their attention to this old law concerning brands, 
though I did not see it was my duty more than that of any good citizen 
to see it enforced. It is the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture 
to have analyzed such fertilizers " as he may deem of importance." 
Then the farmer can compare this analysis with the brand on the bags 
of the manufacturer, and decide whether the brand comes up to the 
analysis, and make up his mind whether to purchase. And while the 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 295 

Commissioner may exclude from market all fertilizers he deems of no 
M practical value; " yet, if the former chooses to huy hy the brand on 
the bag, or without any brand, the courts have decided he has no legal 
redress, and cannot refuse to carry out his contract of purchase. The 
Editor says : " The only open question is, How far the price of the 
tag or brand is in excess of its real cost or value?'' I do not see that 
the tag has any value, without analysis. If I had used it, and found 
any excess over cost, I should not have known what to do with this 
excess; for the law expressly appropriates $5,000 to the Department of 
Agriculture per annum, and says: " No greater amount shall be ex- 
pended for the purposes embraced within this act, during any one 
year." Tiios. Pollard. 

[As we have not critically studied the law in regard to the powers, or duty, of the 
Commissioner to affix his tag or brand to all fertilizers analyzed under his authority, we 
deemed it proper, under principles of common sense, that he should do so, in order 
that the farmers might know, at a glance, what fertilizers had received his approval. If 
the law does require the manufacturer to affix his brand on all bags, stating the percent- 
age of elements, by which, in case of false branding, the farmer may be protected under 
the penalties imposed by the law, and the redress given him — this, in our mind, does not 
in any way make it less the duty of the Commissioner to affix his official stamp on all 
manures analyzed by him as a guaranty of purity and a protection, both to the farmer 
and the manufacturer. Whether the Commissioner has a right to charge, either to the 
manufacturer or the farmer, a price for such a stamp or tag, is another question. The 
court has decided that he has not, and so the question ends. But still, as a matter of 
convenience and protection, such a tag should be attached. — Ei>.] 



|THE HOLLAND HYDRO-CARBON RETORT. 



Among the most interesting articles exhibited at the State Fair, was 
the Holland Hydro-carbon Retort, of which that public-spirited gentle- 
man, Mr. Edwin G. Booth, is the owner for the State of Virginia. This 
is a very simple and inexpensive contrivance that may be applied to 
any stove, fire-place, steam-boiler, or wherever heat is needed, and by 
means of which any desirable amount of heat may be produced, at 
a minimum of cost, and a maximum of convenience and safety. To 
make a fire by it is about as easy as to make a light with a match and 
a gas-jet. The combustibles are petroleum and naptha and water, 
which in combination evolve hydrogen gas with a beat-giving power, 
perfectly under control, capable of cooking a beefsteak in two min- 
utes, or running a locomotive at a speed of sixty miles an hour. As 
exhibited at the Fair, the apparatus was applied to an ordinary cooking- 
stove, to which it supplied all the heat necessary for cooking, at a cost, 
as stated by the person in charge, of about one cent an hour. When, 
in addition to this saving of cost, is considered how much trouble is 
got rid of in the making and keeping up of fires, how desirable it is 
to be able to regulate heat so as to increase or diminish it in a moment 



296 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

or keep it perfectly steady for hours ; and how important it is to be 
able to lessen the risk of having our houses burnt over our heads at 
any time, we are obliged to believe that this most valuable invention 
will soon come into general use for domestic purposes. Actual tests 
have also shown that it possesses equal advantages over former methods 
as a power-producing agent. In proof of this, the following note from 
the patentee to Mr. Booth, published by us some days ago, is repro- 
duced: 

New York, October 5th, 1882. 

Bear Sir,— The " C. Holland " locomotive took the 3:05 P. M. pas- 
senger train from Patterson to Jersey City, and the 3:55 passenger train 
from Jersey City back to Patterson, both heavy trains and short time ; 
and the actual running time was at the rate of sixty miles per hour. 
Started at each end with 130 pounds of steam, with the pop valves 
blowing off, and went into the depots at each city with the same amount 
of steam and the pop- valves blowing off, and ahead of time on each run. 

We burned out seventeen gallons on each trip, which, at three cents 
per gallon, would be but fifty-one cents for each trip, and less than 
two and three-quarter cents per mile. Yours, C. Holland. 

Another advantage claimed for this invention, but of which we have 
not yet witnessed any exhibition, is that while performing its task by 
day in the production of heat, it generates a gas that can be easily 
saved and used at night for purposes of illumination. 

Mr. Booth in purchasing, as he did at a round sum, the right for the 
State of Virginia, was prompted, as we understand, rather by philan- 
thropic than business considerations, and it is his wish to see a com- 
pany raised that will undertake to place the invention within easy 
reach of our people. 

P. S. — Since the above was put in type, we have been shown the 
following report of the Committee of Awards at the Fair : 

"Honorable and special mention is made of Holland's Hydro- Carbon 
Retort, exhibited by E. G. Booth, Esq., who is the proprietor for Vir- 
ginia. This is a simple contrivance by which water is decomposed, 
and hydrogen gas, which is highly inflammable and generates great 
heat when burning, becomes a convenient and cheap substitute for coal 
and wood in all cases where heat is required. It was exhibited as ap- 
plied to an ordinary cooking-stove, and did its work well, without dust, 
or smoke or smell. It is said to be efficient in generating heat in steam 
engines of all kinds; but this feature Mr. Booth was unable to show, 
as he failed to secure in time for the Fair a suitable retort. As no 
premium was offered in the Society's catalogue for such an invention, 
the committee took the liberty of attaching the blue ribbon, and re- 
commend the bestowal of a diploma." 

[We copy the foregoing article from the Industrial South, and have nothing to add to 
it, except to refer our readers to our own articles on the same subject, in our issues of 
October and November of the current year. — Ed. S. P.] 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 297 



IN THE WHEAT FIELD. 



BY PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE. 



When the lids of the virgin Dawn unclose, 

When the earth is fair and the heavens are calm, 
And the early breath of the wakening rose 

Floats on the air in balm, 
I stand breast high in the pearly wheat 

That ripples and thrills to a sportive breeze, 
Borne over the field with its Hermes feet, 

And its subtle odor of Southern seas; 
While out of the infinite azure deep 
The flashing wings of the swallows sweep, 
Buoyant and beautiful, wild and fleet, 
Over the waves of the whispering wheat. 

Aurora faints in the fulgent fire 

Of the Monarch of Morning's bright embrace, 
And the summer day climbs higher and higher 

Up the cerulean space ; 
The pearl-tints fade from the radiant grain, 

And the sportive breeze of the ocean dies. 
And soon in the noontide's soundless rain 

The field seems graced by a million eyes ; 
Each grain with a glance from its lidded fold, 
As bright as a gnome's in his mine of gold. 
While the slumbrous glamour of beam and heat 
Glides over and under the windless wheat. 

Yet the languid spirit of lazy Noon, 

With its minor and Morphean music rife. 
Is pulsing in low, voluptuous tune 

With summer's lust of life. 
Hark 1 to the droning of drowsy wings, 

To the honey-bees as they go and come, 
To the "boomer,"* scarce rounding his sultry rings, 

The gnat's small horn and the beetle's hum ; 
And hark to the locust! — noon's one shrill song — 
Like the tingling steel of an elfin gong, 
Grows lower through quavers of long retreat 
To swoon on the dazzled and distant wheat. 

Now Day declines 1 and his shafts of might 

Are sheathed in a quiver of opal haze ; 
Still through the chastened, but magic light. 

What sunset grandeurs blaze 1 
For the sky, in its mellowed luster, seems 

Like the realm of a master poet's mind — 
A shifting kingdom of splendid dream* — 

With fuller and fairer truths behind; 
And the changeful colors that blend or part, 
Ebb like the tides of a living heart, 
As the splendor melts and the shadows meet 
And the tresses of Twilight trail over the wheat. 

Thus Eve creeps slowly and shyly down. 

And the gurgling notes of the swallows cease, 

They flicker aloft through the foliage brown, 
In the ancient vesper peace; 

•The humbU, or as commonly called, ",bumble bee." 



298 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

But a step like the step of a conscious fawn 

Is stealing — with many a pause — this way. 
'Till the hand of my love through mine is drawn, 

Her heart on mine, in the tender ray ; 
hand of the lily, heart of truth, 
love, thou art faithful and fond as Ruth : 
But I am the gleaner— of kisses — sweet, 
While the starlight dawns on the dimpling wheat! 



THE FERTILIZER-TAG QUESTION. 



In our last issue we published the proceedings of the Clinton Grange, 
No. 220, on this subject. We added a note, which showed we knew 
but little about the subject as then stated ; and jet we thought the 
Commissioner had a right, and should attach to all fertilizers inspected 
under his authority a tag or brand, and to charge a reasonable price 
therefor; but it seems the law requires the proprietors of fertilizers to 
brand their goods at their own expense. The question went into the 
courts, and we have since received the brief of John Howard, of counsel 
for the complainants. Like all other legal arguments from the pen of 
Mr. Howard, this is couched in good and clear English, and presents 
the case of his clients in a very forcible manner. The decision of Judge 
Fitzhugh did not, therefore, surprise us. We have no part in the con- 
troversy, except so far that the farming interests of the country may 
be fairly dealt with. These interests are safe, we think, in the hands 
of our Commissioner, Dr. Blanton, who we have personally known 
for many years; and if any regulation of his office does not protect 
them, it will be an error of judgment and not of purpose. 

As to Mr. Howard, we wish to add a word or two: He was a bright 
boy, of eight or ten years of age, when we first knew him. His mother 
kept the house where we boarded when a student at college. He after" 
wards graduated at the same college, and came to our native county 
and established a classical school, and we were glad to welcome him. 
He determined on the law as his profession, and, during his school oc- 
cupations, managed to find time for much reading in that direction; 
and afterwards studied, and perhaps graduated, in the law class of the 
University of Virginia. Having obtained his license, he consulted us 
as to a location, and the result was that he came to Richmond and en- 
tered the law-office of the Hon. James Lyons. He has been in Rich- 
mond ever since, and has had a good practice,, and taken a prominent 
position in the Court of Appeals of the State. 

$@T' Since the writing of the foregoing note, we have received a 
request to publish the depositions of Dr. Taylor and Dr. Pollard, which 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 299 

request we comply with — taking these depositions from Mr. Howard's 

printed brief: 

Office of 0. G. Kean, Notary, 
Richmond, September 29th, 1882. 

Present ; John II. Guy and John Howard, Esqs., counsel for com- 
plainants. 

Deposition of Dr. Wm. H. Taylor. 

"W. IT. Taylor, having been duly sworn, deposes and says as follows: 

First question by John H. Guy, Esq. Have you been for the last ten 
or twelve years the State Assay er and Chemist ? and did you act as 
Chemist for the State Department of Agriculture during the term of 
office of the late Commissioner of Agriculture, Dr. Thomas Pollard? 

Answer, Yes. 

Second by do. Were you or not by virtue of your office brought 
into contact with fertilizers and vendors and purchasers of fertilizers to 
any great extent? 

Answer, I was, both by virtue of my office and by reason of my 
being frequently called to give testimony and make analyses in cases 
concerning them. 

Third by do. Did you analyze fertilizers extensively for the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture? and what were the regulations under which the 
analyses were made? and what information did you acquire as to the 
quality of the fertilizers with which you came in contact and in ref- 
erence to the methods of business of the manufacturers of fertilizers? 

Answer, I have analyzed a great many fertilizers for the Department 
of Agriculture, and a great many at the instance of other persons. In 
my analyses for the Department of Agriculture, the samples submitted 
to me, during the first year of Dr. Pollard's term of office, were ac- 
companied by their names, but after that time the names were with- 
held, the samples being accompanied only by numbers, and I was not 
aware of the names till the results of the analysis were handed to Dr. 
Pollard by me. I can recall but one instance, during my five years' 
connection with the Department of Agriculture, where there was rea- 
son to suspect fraud. The investigation which was instituted went 
"to show that it was inexperience rather than design that caused the 
fertilizer to be inferior." I quote Dr. Pollard's words, and agree with 
his view from his second annual report, page 95, where the instance is 
detailed. And in all this time I never saw anything in any fertilizer 
examined by me, the one just mentioned excepted, that indicated an 
intention to defraud, even if that one did. In my dealings with manu- 
facturers of fertilizers, they have always shown themselves anxious to 
give their customers all that was promised. I have made for them 
many a costly analysis, the sole object of which was to enable them to 
acquit themselves fairly and squarely of this promise; and in the nu- 
merous cases before the courts, in which I have been concerned as 



300 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

Chemist (not employed by the manufacturers, except one case, but by 
the Department of Agriculture, or by the purchaser of the fertilizer) 
the analysis always substantiated the chemical composition as claimed 
by the manufacturer, the above mentioned case still excepted. I do 
not assert that there are no worthless fertilizers, but I think that most 
of those thus stigmatized should rather be termed useless, not being 
suitable under the prevailing circumstances of soil, season, &c. For it 
is well established that the best fertilizer, theoretically, may prove the 
worst, practically, under certain conditions. Outside of the question 
of supervision, now so generally exercised over the manufacturers of 
fertilizers by Departments of Agriculture, it is hard to see why such 
manufacturers should not be as anxious to be acceptable to those 
whom they wish to buy their goods as manufacturers of anything 
else It seems to me, taking a common sense view of the matter, that 
the enormous extension of the use of commercial fertilizers, from year 
to year, is about the strongest argument that could be advanced in fa- 
vor of the general trustworthy character of these goods. 

Fourth by do. How many annual reports were made by Dr. Pollard, 
as Commissioner of Agriculture? 

Answer, Five. 

Fifth by do. Were, or not, the analyses, made by you for the De- 
partment of Agriculture, stated in each of said reports? 

Answer, They were stated in the reports and published with them. 

Sixth by do. There happen to be two of those reports here — that for 
1880, and that for 1881 — please examine them and state the page on 
which your analyses appear? 

Answer, In the report of 1880 (fourth annual), my analyses of fer- 
tilizers appear on pages 162 and 163. In the report for 1881 (the fifth 
annual), they appear on pages 126 and 127. There is a table of my 
analyses of fertilizers in each of the other three reports. I refer to all 
these analyses as part of my testimony. 

And further this deponent saith not. 

Wm. H. Taylor. 

Deposition of Dr. Thomas Pollard. 

Dr. Thomas Pollard having been duly sworn, deposes and says as 
follows: 

First question by John H. Guy, Esq. Were you the Commissioner 
of Agriculture from the creating of that office to the beginning of the 
present year? 

Answer, I was, until some time in January, 1882. 

Second by do. Did the vendors of fertilizers in this State generally 
submit samples of their goods to you according to law and your regu- 
lations; and did you analyze many of them? 

Answer, Yes. 

Third by do. Do you recollect particularly that this was done in the 
cases of the "Star" brand of Allison & Addison, and the "Anchor" 
brand of the Southern Fertilizing Company; and were those brands 



1382.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 301 

of manufacture sold to any extent in the State during your administra- 
tion? 

Arrnver, I answer yes to both branches of the question. 

Fourth by do. Have you read the deposition of Dr. Win, II. Taylor; 
and what answers would you give to the same questions? 

Answer, Yes, I have read his deposition, and ray replies would be 
substantially the same. 

And further this deponent saith not. 

Tiios. Pollard. 



A CURIOUS PROBLEM. 



Oleomargarine has come to stay, and those who consider themselves 
butter experts can rest assured that they have often bought it in prefer- 
ence to good country butter, for the manufacturers fully understand 
the prejudice against it, and trim their sales accordingly. It is a dan- 
gerous counterfeit, because it is so like the genuine that the two can- 
not be distinguished. We allude, of course, to good oleomargarine as 
compared with good butter, and poor oleomargarine can also hold its 
own with bad butter. 

But the problem is not as to the virtues of either, but in the effect it 
bears to the law of supply and demand. Over 300,000,000 pounds of 
oleomargarine was thrust upon the people the past twelve months, and 
yet butter did not fall one cent in price, although this vast quantity 
directly supplied the place of so much butter in the market. Curiously, 
too, our supply of butter was as large as usual, and promises, owing to 
the rapid multiplication of creameries, to be larger, while the supply 
of oleomargarine will be doubled the coming year. It is a problem 
how butter kept its price in the face of this monster, that threatened to 
drive it from the markets entirely, but we may naturally conclude that 
it is an impossibility to overstock the markets with anything. As 
long as an article of consumption is for sale the buyers will call for it, 
and the fallacy of such a thing as overproduction should not be thought 
of Our own wants are not yet supplied, and still we boast of sending 
thousands of cargoes abroad. Our newspapers teemed with descriptions 
of our exportations of beef cattle until the fact stared us in the face that 
we had no beef at home. Every year we sit down and wait for Liver- 
pool syndicates'to tell us what we shall charge for wheat, while at the 
same time we pay higher prices for flour than the English. Potatoes 
are coming over by the ship load, while our farmers at home are annu- 
ally fearful of glutting the potato market. And pork, right in the 
heart of the great packing centres, is higher than in the foreign mar- 
kets that are compelled to dispose of it. 

With thousands of acres of land under cultivation, and broad areas 
at the disposal of the government, we have not yet solved the problem 
of providing for our own people. And that, too, with Indian corn as a 
crop, for Europe cannot produce corn, which gives us an advantage not 
possessed by any other country. — Farmers' Magazine and Rural ixuide. 



302 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 



THE WHEAT CROP, AND ARE THERE ANV SUBSTITUTES FOR IT 

AND TOBACCO. 



BY TH. POLLARD. 



[For the Southern Planter.] 

Mr. Editor, — I may be persistent in my views about the wheat crop, 
but I do not think I am extreme. A man should be persistent until 
he is convinced he is wrong. I would not give a fig for one who is not. 
I wish my position clearly understood — that wheat should not be gen- 
erally cultivated in Virginia, but confined to the rivers and highly im- 
proved lands, and to the regular wheat lands of the State, such as Pied- 
mont and the Valley regions. But I am not at all certain but that the 
apple crop would pay better than the wheat in the sections alluded to, 
and I believe it would, and it is passing strange that farmers here will 
not set out orchards. Piedmont, too, is the great grape-growing region 
of Virginia, and there is no question but what grapes would pay better 
than wheat. In Albermarle grape-growing is rapidly increasing, and 
the farmers are making $100 an acre from it. 

I did not intend to confine my advocacy entirely to sorghum as a 
substitute for wheat and tobacco, by no means. I believe, and have 
repeatedly stated, that the farmers in Virginia should raise more grass 
and stock, and try to find some substitutes for wheat and tobacco as 
money crops, at least until they get their lands well set in grass, and 
have good heads of cattle established. While much of Tidewater will 
not raise grass successfully, most of Middle Virginia will, and indeed 
much of Tidewater will also. A short time since I traveled over the 
country from Richmond to " Seven Pines," and was surprised to find 
this such a good grass country. It lays level, retains all improvement 
put on it, is rather stiffish, and wherever clover has been seeded the 
stand and growth are very good ; at the "Seven Pines" is an excellent 
field of clover. 

But my confidence in sorghum has not diminished, but rather in- 
creased recently. We had no doubt about the success of sorghum 
syrup, but was more doubtful about sorghum sugar. In the last num- 
ber of Colman's Rural World (St. Louis, October 26), we find the fol- 
lowing from Col. Colman : 

'•Champaign, III., Sugar Works. — The problem whether sugar 
can be made from sorghum remuneratively has been solved. It is 
no longer a debatable question. The Champaign, 111., Sugar Works 
answer the question every day, every hour. They turn out batch after 



188l. J BOUTHERN PLANTER. 303 

batch of sugar from sorghum with precisely the same certainty that the 
Southern planter does tVoin the ribbon cade. It' any one is at all skep- 
tical in regard to this statement, lie has only to visit Champaign, Ills., 
to have that skepticism removed. He will lee some; thirty barrels of 
nice sugar turned out daily, fully equal to the New Orleans, selling by 
the barrel at the Bugar works at 8] cents per pound. There is no boa- 
ghura flavor nor gummy character about the sugar. It will sell in any 
market with the New Orleans Bugar, bringing the same price and giv- 
ingthe same satisfaction. * * * * 

Bearing from so many reliable sources of the success obtained at 
Champaign, we visited the works last week, and found all the state- 
ments that had been made fully confirmed. Indeed, we did not expect 
to find the ahsolute and positive certainty in obtaining sugar from the 
juice, that we did. The miller is no surer to obtain Hour when he 
grinds his wheat than this establishment is to obtain sugar whenever the 
juice is reduced. They know to a certainty just how many barrels of 
sugar they will obtain daily, by running their mill ten hours per day — 
now some thirty barrels — and the same mill could turn out about treble 
the quantity, if run night and day, by using more steam power. * * * 

Tiiis industry will be of great national advantage. It will make our 
own sugar and keep our money at home, instead of sending it abroad 
to the amount of about one hundred millions annually. Our farmers 
are running too much to wheat. There is a need of some other crop 
to occupy their attention, the product of which can be shipped abroad, 
and Bugar will be that product. It is not an exhaustive crop to land, 
like wheat, but draws its sustenance largely from the atmosphere — the 
ashy portion of its constituents being exceedingly light. It puts the 
soil in excellent condition for other crops, and, if fertilizers are to be 
used at all on the farm, they can on no other crop be used to so great 
advantage; especially the phosphates, as the}' not only largely increase 
the yield of cane, but hasten its early maturity wonderfully, and yet 
consume but little, leaving it in the soil for other crops. * * * * 

It has only confirmed what the Rural World has all along claimed, 
and as this journal has been the only one in the world to dignify this 
industry with a special department, we must be allowed to tell our 
readers all about the success achieved, and how happy it makes us to 
chronicle the fact that the problem is solved — sugar, henceforth and 
forever, from the Northern cane, is as much a certainty as from the 
ribbon cane of the South." 

The cost of the machinery for the above works was #25,000, shewing 
that the business should be carried on by a company. YV r e hope and 
believe this will make some of our farmers opeu their eyes, yet we are 
afraid that they witi generally " travel on in the old ruts" for many 
years to come. Farmers are unusad to any ventures, and have a great 
aversion to undertaking anything new, even to planting out apples and 
grapes in the region where they have been proved to be profitable. 
Col. McCue wrote me some time since that a lady in Nelson had, in 



304 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

1880, sold 300 barrels of Pippin apples at $4 per barrel, and had 700 
barrels of other kinds to sell then. 

Bat to some points in the editor's "Reply." I did not mean to say 
Mr. Ruffin did not give his land thorough cultivation, but to obviate 
winter killing he did not like too fine a surface, or rolling. If Mr. 
Rufiin was kinky, he made very good crops of wheat. If the editor 
were to visit the Valley in wheat-seeding time, he would not see very 
thorough cultivation for wheat — in many instances a drag run over the 
corn land, and then the drill, without any plowing, and sometimes 
broad-casting after dragging. As to the expenditure made for mules, 
machinery, etc., to cultivate and prepare wheat for market representing 
capital for the farmer, that is rather begging the question. If the wheat 
crop is unprofitable, then this is dead capital, and the investment had 
better not have been made. 

The editor says: "The Doctor's argument, apparently, we may say, 
that because sorghum is a gross feeder, it is therefore an improver, pre- 
sents a novel question in agriculture." The editor could not have read 
my article carefully. I said if sorghum is an exhauster, it cannot be a 
great one, as all the plant is returned to the ground by feeding, except 
the saccharine matter, which, being a carbo-hydrate, has scarcely any 
manurial value. The editor says: "It will be rather hard to say how 
the question stands as between the syrup and grain" (extracted from 
the soil by wheat). It is very easy; the former has very little value as 
a fertilizer, as just said, the latter being rich in nitrogen (albuminoids) 
and mineral elements, is a rich fertilizer. See what Col. Colman says 
about sorghum being an exhauster. He says, moreover, that it defies 
drouth, which certainly is a great thing in favor of its cultivation. In- 
dependently of its value for syrup and sugar, as a forage plant it is very 
valuable. If planted early here, and very easily further South two 
crops may be obtained from it annually. 



In manuring fruit trees the cherry should receive a lighter applica- 
tion than most other kinds. It is not benefitted by much stable ma- 
nure, but can be top-dressed with ashes or anything containing potash, 
almost without stint. All stone fruits, especially those that are acid, 
need liberal does of potash. 

When the country was new, corn ground was often sown with wheat 
without plowing, the stubs being partly torn down with the drag. 
Good wheat was then grown, but the requirements of modern reaping 
and binding machines demand a smoother surface than was deemed 
necessary in the olden time. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTKk. 305 



BOTTOM FACTS AND SOUTHERN FARMING. 



BY DAN L DENNETT. 



The numerous facts given in our agricultural journals about a great 
variety of farm interests, how to do this and how to do that, are all 
very good and proper. There is but little that is new in all these. 
About the same facts, in other language, have been repeated scores and 
hundreds of times; but it is well to repeat them as often as once a year 
in each paper, that farmers may not forget them. They are usually 
well established facts, which ought to be indelibly stamped on every 
farmer's memory. 

But what we want now, and seldom get, is facts about the best and 
most direct road from cotton to a complete system of mixed farming. 
We do not pretend to be very well acquainted with this road. In a 
former article we threw out some hints on the subject, but it is a great 
question, and requires a great deal of close observation, and thinking, 
and a sound judgment, and a very complete practical knowledge of 
agriculture to enable one to act as a sure guide to this new road. We 
want facts specially for the guidance of poor farmers on poor lands 
who want to know how to escape from the bondage that binds them to 
cotton. Farmers who have plenty of means can make the change 
whenever they wish to — farmers who are very poor can only make a 
complete change after years of hard struggle, hard work, close economy 
and careful and correct calculations. 

It is doubtless best for a farmer who aims to get into mixed farming 
to lay out hi6 plans for four or five years in advance, and work up to 
them, instead of planning only for a single year. He can only lay the 
foundation for the work in a year. If he is very poor, he might say 
that if he had a small stock of good Berkshire hogs, including two or 
three breeding sows, fine milch cows, a good Jersey bull, fifty good 
scrub or half-breed sheep to a Merino buck, two good mules, a few 
dozen hens, ten hives of bees, a hundred bearing apple trees, the same 
number of peach trees, a hundred Concord and other bearing grape 
vines, ten Scuppernong grape vines, plum, fig and other fruit trees, 
and if he could be out of debt, with a pretty good house, barn and 
other out-bouses, rich land, &c, &c, he would feel quite well satisfied 
with his lot. All these and much more have been made by indus- 
trious farmers in five years, starting with little or nothing. It can be 
done by thousands of poor farmers if they will take hold of the en- 



306 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

terprise as a five years' job, expecting nothing more than a pretty hard 
living the first two or three years. 

Let those talk about making fortunes at farming who choose to — the 
great aim and ambition of farmers who are very poor should be to own 
a small, well-stocked farm, a nice home, with every thing well fed and 
comfortable, to give the children a good industrial and a good English 
education, to be able to purchase a good family library, and take half a 
dozen good newspapers and periodicals, and owe no man anything but 
friendship and good will. Any farmer who can work up to such a 
standard of peace and prosperity in five years may have more than 
most people have who possess what thay call fortunes. — New Orleans 
Picayune. 



Pipes Made From Potatoes. 



According to the Vienna Agricultural Gazette, it has recently been 
discovered that meerschaum pipes of excellent quality, susceptible of 
the highest polish, and even more readily colorable than the genuine 
spiuma di mare, may be made of potatoes. The familiar tuber, it 
seems, is well qualified to compete with the substance known to com- 
merce as u meerschaum clay." Its latent virtues in this direction are 
developed by the following treatment : Having been carefully peeled 
and suffered extraction of its "eyes," the potato is boiled unintermit- 
tently for thirty-six hours in a mixture of sulphuric acid and water, 
after which it must be squeezed in a press untii every drop of natural 
or acquired moisture is extracted from it. The residuum of this simple 
process is a hard block of delicate creamy white hue, every whit as 
suitable to the manufacture of ornamental and artistically executed 
pipe-heads as the finest clay. The potato, moreover, dealt with in the 
manner above described, promises to prove a formidable rival to the 
elephant's tusk. It may be converted into billiard-balls as hard, smooth 
and enduring as ivory, and can be depended upon for an inexhaustible 
supply of carved umbrella handles, chessmen and fans. As potatoes 
are plentiful all over the world, and likely to remain so, while ele- 
phants are, comparatively speaking, rarities, mankind at large may 
fairly be congratulated upon the . discovery of a substitute for ivory, 
which can be produced in unlimited quantity, and at an almost nom- 
inal cost, taking into consideration the difference of price between a 
pound of the best kidney potatoes and a pound of prime elephant's 
tusk. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 307 



INTENSIVE FARMING. 



We hear much of "Intensive Farming.' 1 By this term we understand 

that system which hy a judicious application of manure and rotation 
will make the biggest crops, whilst at the same time the land is gradu- 
ally improving and becoming more valuable. This is Intense Farm- 
ing. The land is the farmer's bank on which he is to draw. If his 
drafts exceeds his deposits, the bank fails. If he wants his bank ac- 
count to go on increasing, so as to meet readily all its drafts, he must 
keep an eye to his deposits. The deposits consist of high manuring 
— not simply the greatest quantity or the most costly artificial fertili- 
zers, but such as are specially needed for the growing crop with the 
least possible outlay in money. As in every other business where 
competition exists, reduced cost of production is one of the main ele- 
ments of success. Market prices for farm products are fixed by the 
general law of supply and demand. Railroad facilities quickly ad- 
just them even betweeu very distant points. The farmer who makes 
his crop at least cost, like the merchant who lays in his stock on the 
most favorable terms, can best sell at a profit. But the farmer who 
spends $50 per acre for manure and sells the produce for $150 per 
acre, is doing a better business than he who buys no manure and 
makes only $50 per acre. It may be to his interest, therefore, to pay 
money for his manures which will return him two or three fold its cost. 
And this is not all the gain. Besides the annual profits on the crop, 
there is the annually increasing value of his lands — his capital. This 
system of farming, by whatever name it may be called, is the true sys- 
tem and the one which must ultimately be adopted by those who are to 
be prosperous. But the farmer must guard against the fallacy that 
the mere money profits from sale of crops is all that he should expect 
from his form. If these profits are to go for purchasing the means of 
living, then he is not going forward, but standing still, with the chan- 
ces of retrograding. Food, abundant food for man and beast, is to be 
provided. Not food only but the various comforts and luxuries which 
a farm can furnish and which every farmer's family should enjoy. His 
living is no mean item in the list of profits to be derived from a well 
kept farm. He has it in his power to enjoy luxuries which can scarce- 
ly be purchased elsewhere in equal purity and excellence. The orchard, 
dairy and vegetable garden — the poultry, hogs, sheep and all other 
meats, are only accessories which can be had at very little cost of money 
or labor. — Charleston (S. C.) News. 
27 



308 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

HOW ENGLISH BANK NOTES ARE MADE. 

Among the things which inquisitive and energetic newspaper reporters bring to light, 
may be noted the following, which is credited to a reporter of the Cleveland Herald, 
Ohio: 

"The Bank of England notes are the most uncounterfeitable of any 
securities in the world. It is a simple matter to learn their peculiari- 
ties, and once learned it is impossible to pass a counterfeit upon a man 
knowing these peculiarities. They are in both the paper and the plate 
and type printing of the note. First notice the paper! It is distin- 
guished by its peculiar pink color. Such paper is never seen, and is 
made and used for no other purpose. See how thin and transparent it 
is ! Those qualities are made specially to prevent any portion of the 
printing being erased by the knife or acid washing, the two speciali- 
ties of American counterfeiters and forgers. Take the note in your 
hand ! It is peculiarly tough and crisp. These qualities are brought 
out by the paper being made entirely from new linen and cotton, and 
not from rags. 

"Do you see the peculiar water-mark or wire-mark, as it is called ? 
That is produced by a special mold used when the paper is in pulp. 
Two notes are placed in a mold when they are in pulp and divided 
lengthwise. Hence the top and bottom, or long edges, are always 
rough. This deckie cannot be imitated by cutting. The paper is also 
exceedingly strong. It is said that a bank-note evenly adjusted will 
lift a hundred pounds weight without tearing. Do you see the difficul- 
ties a forger must overcome before he can even produce the paper on 
which the note is printed ? 

"Every process described requires the skill of an artisan, whose high 
renumeration keeps him from any necessity of dishonesty, and neces- 
sity makes the majority of thieves. Look at the printing ? 'Besides 
the water or wire work, which is beautifully regular and intricate, a 
plate print is lithographed over the face of the note. Then the type 
printing is done. The paper is moistened first by atmospheric pres- 
sure, 30,000 double notes being dampened in an hour. 

"The printing ink is also made at the Bank of England, from lin- 
seed oil and the charred husks and vines of Rhenish grapes, which 
produces impressions of a peculiarly velvety black, especially in the 
heavier figures. After printing, the notes are numbered by a machine, 
which, unlike a man, cannot err, and lastly are indorsed by the secre- 
tary. The bank notes are printed in type on the side of the paper 
that receives the water mark, and even in the event of the note being 
split, another of the forger's favorite tricks, the unprinted surface 
would only retain a slight trace of the type and water marks." 



1882.] SOUTIIKKX PLANTER 309 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



The importance of agriculture has been recognised in all ages, by 
all nations; and nations have prospered in proportion to the fostering 
care bestowed upon it. Kings, warriors, statesmen and poets, have 
aided in its advancement. "The richest agricultural and horticultural 
contributions have come down to us from the master minds of Greece 
and Rome," and the most distinguished men of modern times have 
given it their close attention. But in the annals of history, no coun- 
try will be found to owe more to agriculture, than the United States 
of America. The Southern and Western States especially, always 
have been, and are now, directly dependent on agriculture for all the 
elements of material prosperity. The people of these States are es- 
sentially fanners: and yet, no civilized people of this age have shown 
less appreciation of its pursuits, as an art, based upon the principles of 
science. 

In palliation of this neglect, various causes might be assigned, if time 
and space allowed. Suffice it to say, that with Anglo-Saxon greed, 
spoliation and exhaustion of the virgin soil, acre by acre, have been 
the rule; and desertion and " Westward, Ho !" to fresh soils, the prac- 
tice — a rule and practice profitable in one sense, but ruinous in every 
other. 

Imbued with the spirit of personality of their ancestors, the South- 
ern people have left all new and improved methods of agricultural de- 
velopment to the enlightened enterprise of individuals, rather than to 
the States; and only of late years have invoked the aid 6f the latter. 
With what success, will be shown in the course of this article. 

England, France and Germany have been more or less active in pro- 
moting the art and science of agriculture during the last half century; 
but by different methods, which I will briefly mention. 

The British Government has never had "an Agricultural Depart- 
ment." All advancement and improvement in the art and science of 
agriculture have been mainly effected through the agency of private 
enterprise. 

The lectures of Sir Humphrey Davy on Agricultural Chemistry in 
1824, following the facts made known by " the tours and writings of 
Arthur Young; "the surveys of Marshall and of Tuke of the Middle 
Counties," gave the first impetus to the efforts of educated farmers 
and scientific men, which was followed by great improvement in all 
the processes of agriculture. But it is, perhaps, to the facts made 
known by Liebig in Germany, and Boussingault in France, taken hold 



310 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

of by the Royal Agricultural Society, with kindred associations in 
other parts of the realm, expounded by their chemist, and put to the test 
of experiment by Sir J. B. Lavves and others, that the greatest benefits 
are to be attributed. The scientific methods of research instituted and 
carried on at Rothamstead for more than forty years by Sir J. B. 
Lawes and his co-laborers, at his own expense, have never been 
equalled in practical results in any country. 

It may be said, indeed, that the advancement of British agriculture 
owes little to the direct aid of the Government, and nearly every- 
thing to the individual enterprise of her educated farmers and scien- 
tific men. 

In regard to the advancement of agriculture by means of "Technical 
Instruction," the Government has done very little. Under its patron- 
age, there are only three schools devoted to agricultural education — 
one in England, one in Scotland and one in Ireland. The instruction 
given in these schools is chiefly practical. Each has one hundred or 
more acres of land, divided into three unequal portions: One small 
portion devoted to "spade culture" for the instruction of "cottage- 
holders; " another larger portion, cultivated with ordinary inexpensive 
implements and appliances, suited to rent-paying farmers ; and a third 
larger portion for the instruction and training of large farmers. Each 
of these farm-schools is under the charge of a competent superintend- 
ent, with a corps of teachers, to carry out thoroughly the s} 7 stem adop- 
ted. The subjects taught are the usual English branches, with the 
theory and practice of agriculture. Judging from the character of the 
examinations I have seen published, the instruction in science studies 
must be very elementary. Besides the schools directly under the pat- 
ronage of the Government, there are the Agricultural College at Ci- 
rencester and some private institutions for instruction in agriculture 
and its cognate branches in other parts of the Kingdom, in which 
science studies are taught more thoroughly. The various courses of 
lectures delivered by scientific men on chemistry, biology, physiology, 
botany and geology in the universities and societies in the cities and 
towns, have doubtless contributed far more to the advancement of agri- 
culture than the technical schools under Government patronage. Then, 
the liberal patronage given to the support of such institutions as Kew 
Gardens, South Kensington Museum and others, gives indirect encour- 
agement to agriculture, advancing, by experiment, agricultural knowl- 
edge and disseminating it among the masses. 

From all accounts, the Government schools of agriculture have never 
been regarded as successful. 



1882.] SOUTH EKN PLANTER. 811 

In Franco, agriculture, with commerce and public works, is made a 
branch of the Government — with a Cabinet officer, known as Minister 
of Agriculture, Commerce, &c. 

The range of this department extends to all the various branches of 
rural economy, as well as to agricultural education, model farms, the 
improvement of the breeds of cattle, sheep and horses, and systems 
of experimentation. The department, as organized, receives about 
$20,000,000 annually, of which $2,500,000 is appropriated solely to 
agriculture. For this large expenditure, in comparison with that of 
other countries, the return in productive and agricultural wealth ex- 
ceeds that of any other, which accounts for the wonderful recuperative 
powers of the French people. In the sugar beet and silk culture alone, 
the methods pursued indicate clearly the importance of science as the 
basis of successful practice. Of the* Latin races, the French excel in 
all the arts of life, and technical education and rural economy, based 
on scientific instruction, occupy a distinguished place in the estimation 
of the people. 

In the Empire of Germany no National Department of Agriculture 
exists. Each Kingdom has been left to establish its own system to 6uit 
the varied wants and adaptations of its people. 

In the Kingdom of Prussia, agriculture is made a co-ordinate branch 
of the Government. The whole system of agriculture and of agricul- 
tural instructions is organized and co-ordinated with u graded schools," 
experimental farms and stations in various parts of the Kingdom, and 
regulated under a discipline almost as concise and rigid as that of the 
military. The results of this system are shown in the rapid advance 
of Prussia from a second- to a first-class power, in Europe, in all the 
elements of material prosperity aud the many benefits that have ac- 
crued to science from the accurate methods of research in use. 

It has been truthfully said, "that any system of education designed 
for the whole people must embrace maoy different grades; that we 
must not expect too much from the higher institutions alone." 

Having sought diligently for the best example of a system of graded 
education, I find in the Kingdom of Bavaria the interests of agricul- 
ture best subserved in this particular — a system so graded as to lead 
from the lower or practical agricultural tip to the higher or scientific u pari 
passu" with an ordinary education. 

A brief mention of this system may furnish us some useful hints for 
our future guidance. 

Commencing at an early age with Kindergarten, or object teaching, 
the child's love for natural objects is cultivated. At the age of seven 



312 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

years, compulsory education begins, with daily attendance during ten 
months, for seven years, at the common schools [Volksschulen] in 
which instruction is given, along with other studies, in garden and 
orchard culture as a regular part of the course — a piece of ground for 
a garden and orchard being provided as a part of the outfit. Practical 
lessons are given regularly, and the boys are required to take an active 
part in the lessons. Directors and superintendents are required to see 
that this department of teaching receives due care. The teachers doing 
this work are qualified for it by a five years' course of previous normal 
instruction. But even with this rigidly enforced system of compulsory 
attendance of seven years, it is admitted, by those in authority, that 
the results have fallen far short of the anticipation. At the end of the 
seven years and the attainment of the fourteenth, the boy may have to 
go to a trade or to work on a farm. But even then provision is made 
for him, so that he may spend a part of his Sundays and week-day 
evenings in several kinds of schools, according to his special wants, 
and be taught from two to eight hours a week. These schools are 
known by the name of Fortbildungsschulen, or higher graded schools, 
and attendance on them is also made compulsory for two or three years 
after leaving the common schools, or Volksschulen. 

In addition to these there are "winter schools," for farmers' sons, car- 
ried on by different Agricultural Societies, from November to February. 
In these, besides "the common school branches, instruction is given in 
the natural sciences, field-culture, the raising of animals, book-keeping, 
farm management; and where it is possible, drawing, field-measure- 
ments, drainage, soils and fruit culture." The fees for tuition in these 
winter schools are not high, and " the necessary living expenses are 
made as low as possible, that none may be excluded on account of 
want of means." The Government furnishes the teachers in the public 
schools salaries, buildings, fuel and incidental expenses, and the schools 
with wall-charts, collections of minerals, soils, agricultural products, 
models of machinery, of tools, of flowers, chemical and physical appa- 
ratus, and various other means of instruction. 

The next class in the series is the u Field Culture School" [Acker- 
bauusschulen], in which the course of instruction extends through two 
or three years, and practical farm work is made a part of the course. 
The instruction imparted is very similar to that of the winter schools 
carried on by the Agricultural Societies, and is so far of an elemen- 
tary character, that those who have passed through the "peoples' 
schools" are capable of understanding it. 

At Lichtenhof is located the " Middle Agricultural School," in which 



1 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 313 

there is a higher course of studies than in any of the preceding, ex- 
tending through three years, where theoretical studies can be pursued 
more thoroughly ; but practical farm work also forms a part of the in- 
struction. Id all the Middle Schools, the pupil who completes the 
course in agriculture is required to serve only one year, instead of 
three, in the army ; and this is a great incentive to young men to enter 
these schools. 

Before speaking of the " Higher Agricultural Education," I will men- 
tion the special courses of instruction connected with the various 
schools described, or provided, separately: "Of the pupils in these, 
one devotes himself to sheep, another to cattle and the dairy, another 
to fruit culture, each seeking to learn what especially concerns his own 
business. " These special courses for shepherds, stock-farmers, &c, 
geuerally occupy but a short time — scarcely more than a few weeks 
in the year. "Cheese-making, brewing, drainage, irrigation and horse- 
shoeing " are likewise represented in the circle of special agricultural 
courses given at certain fixed places. 

The "Higher Agricultural Education " is imparted at the "Central 
School" at Weihenstephan, and in the Agricultural Department of the 
Polytechnic Institution at Munich. The Central School far excels 
those already mentioned, and the instruction is well adapted to young 
men who have been well trained by previous study and work. "The 
course of study comprises two years, and consists of theoretical and 
laboratory instruction. When the pupils enter, they must not only 
have a solid grouudwork of mathematics, but the faculties must have 
been well developed by the study of languages, history and drawing, 
so that they can understand the lectures given by the professors, and 
be able to digest them. 

The other advanced agricultural school, as stated, is the Agricultural 
Department in the Polytechnic Institution in the city of Munich, which 
has also an experimental station in connection with it, with sufficient 
ground for experiments on soils and animals. The requirements for 
admission include two years more of book studies than the entrance at 
Weihenstephan ; but no practical acquaintance with farm-work is 
deemed necessary. The design is to educate young men in those 
sciences which underlie agriculture, rather than practical farmers, or 
managers of large estates. The chemical laboratory for this depart- 
ment is fitted up with the best appointments, and nothing is wanting 
for the theoretical side of agricultural science. On the outskirts of 
Munich there is also a Veterinary School, which has a three years' cur- 
riculum course of study. 



314 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

At Aschaffenburg there is also a School of Forestry, which is regarded 
as holding equal rank with the Polytechnic School or the University; and 
the feature which marks its dignity is, that no one can be admitted 
except those who have completed a course of study in a " gymnasium " 
or " real gymnasium. " 

It will be noticed, now, that in the Kindergarten, the People's 
Schools, and the Fortbildnrgsschuler, instruction in agriculture is given, 
but it is made subordinate to the main object of developing the mind of the 
boy, and giving him a general education. It will also be noticed that a 
boy who has attended the " People's Schools" may pass through the 
Gewerbeschulen, or higher graded school, into the course of practical, 
higher education afforded by the " Central Agricultural School" ; while 
classical training is required of those who wish to pursue the more 
theoretical course in the Polytechnic School, or to enter the State ser- 
vice as "Directors of the Forests." 

Having briefly mentioned these systems of agricultural education, it 
is not my intention to discuss their merits or to pass judgment on 
them. They have been brought forward simply to indicate the char- 
acter of the organizations different nations have considered best adapted 
to the social and political conditions of their people. How far these 
systems, or any part of them, may be adapted to the wants of our peo- 
ple, is a question to be decided by the experience of the great body of 
teachers in our country. 

Prior to the passage of the "Morrill Bill," known as the " National 
Land-grant" in 186*2, agricultural teaching, technically, had been 
started only in two States, viz : New York and Michigan, and in both 
with very unpromising results. 

The National Land-grant Bill awarded to each State in the Union 

acres of public land, the proceeds of the sales of which have to be 

invested and the interest used for the education of the people. The 
words of the bill prescribe the establishment of u Colleges, where the 
leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical 
studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learn- 
ing as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner 
as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to 
promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in 
the several pursuits and professions of life." 

In 1875, the United States Commissioners of Education reported that 
forty-three schools in thirty -four States had been established on the 
Land-grant Funds, in thirty-four of which the claims of agriculture 
were recognized. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 315 



In a recent address on the subject of foreign systems of agricultural 
education by Prof. R. B. Warder [to which I am largely indebted for 
information on the subject], he says, in regard to our systems: " The 
plan of organization, the equipment and the internal features of no two 
of these schools are the same; the widest differences may be observed 
in the Standard for admission, the course or courses of study, the solu- 
tion of the manual labor question, the discipline of the students, and 
the facilities for practical and theoretical studies. It is a pleasure to 
believe that well qualified professors are earnestly engaged in impart- 
ing thorough, scientific and practical education ; yet it must be admit- 
ted that those who strove to inaugurate this new era of industrial edu- 
cation, have not yet realized their fond anticipations. In the first place, 
the few central schools we have for farmers, fail to reach the masses. 
Many who could attend them, think the way is too hard. The fact 
that tuition is free, is comparatively a small matter when a young man's 
labor is needed at home, or when he must be earning his own living 
instead of paying his board near a city. Even when farmers' institutes 
or lectures are held for a few weeks of the winter, it often happens 
that those for whose benefit they are intended, show very little interest. 
Similar discouragements prevail in Bavaria, but strenuous efforts are 
made to overcome the habitual indifference of the farming classes." 

That the foregoing statement is not the least exaggerated, is well- 
known to all who have paid any attention to the subject. In the cases 
where the Land-grant Funds have been given to universities and col- 
leges already established, the results, as to numbers in attendance, have 
been still worse. With the same drawbacks to contend with as the 
agricultural colleges proper, the universities and established colleges 
have had the additional drawback of unsuitably prepared students for 
the courses of instruction afforded in agricultural chemistry and the 
various other branches upon which the study of scientific agriculture is 
based. This want of preparation has been a grievous burden, even to 
the agiicultural colleges proper, and has rendered a majority of them 
utterly useless as technical schools, in any sense, in the time allowed to 
the student. This want of preparation on the part of young men who 
attend agricultural and other technical schools, may be regarded as the 
%i missing link" in our system which the French and German methods 
supply in their graded courses. How this want can best be supplied 
in our country, the wisdom of this, and of kindred associations, must 
aid in determining. To those interested in the future of American 
agriculture, no subject is more important. 

The agricultural colleges in the several States, although existing a 



316 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

i 
period scarcely longer than that allotted as probation to a teething 
child, with organizations scarcely more vigorous or mature, have 
received from all quarters the severest animadversions and criticisms > 
and, in many cases, the teachers have received the most abusive treat" 
ment at the hands of those from whom it was meet and right that they 
should receive every aid and comfort. So far from sustaining and 
strengthening the arms of the men engaged in this work, those most 
interested in it have been foremost in heaping upon them detraction 
and obloquy. 

It will be admitted that any rational system of agricultural education 
must rest upon a surer foundation than the mere practical knowledge 
possessed by the individual who proposes to make agriculture a profes- 
sion. This proposition will be accepted in the main by most persons, 
but the difficulty with the farmer seems to be as to " how, when, and 
where " the practical is to be combined with the scientific. Ardent advo- 
cates are to be found on all sides of this triangular question. Such 
being the case, it will be well for us to review briefly the methods pur- 
sued in the most prominent agricultural schools, established wholly or 
in part on the United States Land-grant. 

The oldest institution of this kind, and the only one which claims to 
be successful, is the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing. Prof. 
Beale, of this institution, in an address delivered before the Connecticut 
Board of Agriculture during the past year, in answer to direct questions 
said: " In twenty-three years we have had 212 graduates; of these 13 
are professors in other institutions, 86 are farmers, and the remainder 
have taken up the various avocations of life." In answer to a question 
in regard to the organization and career of the college, he said : " For 
many years the college languished with very few students, until the 
sympathy of the Grangers was enlisted. With their co-operation in the 
State Legislature, and the State Board of Agriculture, we were enabled 
not only to obtain the necessary appropriations from the Legislature, 
but to popularize the institution with the farmers, most of whom were 
members of the Grange. When I went there ten years ago it was very 
unpopular. The newspapers were fighting it throughout the State. 
We had to fight for any appropriation by the Legislature. The most 
influential papers are all in favor of us now. This change has been 
brought about largely, too, by the Farmers' Institutes, and by the fact 
that the right men have been at the head of the Granges in the State. 
The Master of our State Granges, and all the officers, are strongly in 
favor of the Agricultural College. They work for it in every way. If 
a member of the Legislature is not favorable to it, they go for him, so 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 317 

that he does not go to the Legislature a second time. They leave him 
at home and put another man in his place." In answer to the question, 
" How they manage students at manual labor," he said : "The man- 
agement of students' labor is very perplexing. For perfect success, it 
requires a foreman of unbounded tact and an unlimited amount of pa- 
tience." In answer to a question concerning the advantages derived from 
manual labor, he said: "On the farm there is need of more brain work 
and less of the hands. At all times brain work pays the best returns 
for the time given to it. Labor with the hands is easier than work with 
the head. If a greater portion of farmers were well educated, people 
would consider farming a higher business. Any occupation takes rank 
according to the culture of those who engage in it." 

These were the expressions of a Professor in the Agricultural College 
admitted to be the only successful one in the United States and they 
are very significant. 

On the other hand, in the convention of delegates from the agricul- 
tural colleges and societies of the various States, called by the Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture in January last, in Washington city, when this 
subject was under discussion, a gentleman [Dr. Gregory] for many 
years a member of the Board of Managers of the Michigan Agricultural 
College, and subsequently connected officially with the Illinois Univer- 
sity, said publicly, in my hearing, in substance, that such a thing as a 
scientific education proper could not be obtained in that college; that 
a majority of the students were induced to go there because they fared 
better and the work was lighter than it was at home ; that most of them 
were too poorly prepared to profit by scientific instruction, and those 
who passed through the course did so by the dint of the most persist- 
ent "coaching." How far this assertion is sustained by the facts, I 
have no means of knowing. 

Having carefully examined the catalogues of a large majority of the 
agricultural colleges founded on the United States Land Grant funds, 
I find, with a few exceptions, that all teach agriculture, the mechanic 
arts and military tactics in the course of a regular curriculum of studies, 
covering a period of from two to four years. In the agricultural col- 
leges founded on the United States Land Grant solely, there is no such 
thing as an elective system of studies allowed ; all who enter must 
study agriculture. 

In the address already quoted, Prof. Beale describes the methods of 
these different institutions so graphically, that I shall use his words* 
He says : " These institutions are located in thirty-seven States. Each 
college differs in some respects from every other. Some of them pos- 



318 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

sess and till large farms, performing much work with the aid of the 
students. Some possess no farms. Some till the farms entirely by 
hired labor, without the aid of students, and try to make money by the 
operation. To run a farm for profit is one great point made by some 
colleges. Some colleges are connected as branches or departments of 
a university. Others are distinct. Some have only an agricultural 
department and military training. Some a mechanical department. 
There are various plans for students to work. At some colleges stu- 
dents all work at one time a day ; in others, at different hours. In 
some the students all work every day throughout the course. Some 
require very little work of the students, and during only a part of the 
course ; others as much as three hours daily. In some of the colleges 
the students are taught telegraphing, engraving, printing, designing; 
and the girls are taught the art of cooking and washing. In some in- 
stitutions the students are paid for all their work ; in others for part ; 
or all of the work is for practice and instruction, without remuneration. 
We have agricultural colleges with ' terms' extending through the 
coolest part of the year ; others in which the terms extend through the 
warmest part of the year, with a long winter vacation, in which stu~ 
dents can engage in teaching school. We have colleges in warm States 
and in cold States. In States where agriculture is the prevailing in- 
dustry, and in States where manufacturing is the chief occupation. 
Most of these colleges are proceeding without a model. All are striv- 
ing to pursue the best way, so far as their means will permit. In time 
errors will be eliminated and the best courses will be learned. In due 
course of time we shall have somewhere a model agricultural college, 
and probably more than one, while others will dwindle, go down, or 
continue to pursue a course not very different from other colleges with 
purely literary and scientific courses. The practice of uniting an agri- 
cultural college with an established university, has been abandoned in 
Mississippi, Texas, and the Ontario College in Canada. The officers 
in charge of these institutions, after a trial of a few years, reported that 
one word, 'failure, gave the history of all such arrangements. They 
said that agriculture was overshadowed by other studies, and that 
farming was elbowed out by the other professions. But what shall 
constitute success in an agricultural college ? This is a question very 
difficult to decide. Each may be successful in some respects and not 
in others. Persons differ in opinions as to what an agricultural college 
ought to attempt. Some think that a college is more or less successful 
according to the extent and quality of the training given to its students. 
Others to the popularity with the class of people who support it — to 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 319 

draw large numbers of students and to retain a large proportion until 
they complete the curriculum. In this connection, however, other 
things have to be considered. If agriculture is depressed from any 
cause, and the outlook for fanners is discouraging, young men will 
seek other business, no matter what has been their training. If agri- 
culture is booming, some will study and probably make farming a life 
work. Some of the students attend the Michigan Agricultural Col- 
lege because they consider the opportunities excellent for getting a good 
education, although from the start they expect to become lawyers or 
doctors, or engage in other business. Others attend for various reasons 
of more or less importance. " 

This lengthy quotation has been made from Prof. Beale's address 
because it is the expression of an experience co-eval with the establish- 
ment of agricultural instruction in this country, by one eminently 
qualified to speak most advisedly on the subject. 

This account, however, relates chiefly to the Agricultural College 
proper. Let us now review, briefly, the career of those which have 
been established on the University plan, or have been grafted on uni- 
versities and colleges already established. 

Under the former head, we have Cornell University, near Ithaca, 
New York. With the United States Land-grant Fund, and a large 
endowment from Mr. Cornell, this institution is one of the most tho- 
roughly equipped in this country. It is organized with departments 
of classical, scientific, philosophic and literary courses of study ; with 
technical courses of agriculture, chemistry, physics, civil engineering 
and natural history. By the act of its incorporation, and by the acts 
of the State legislature, they admit State students from each assembly 
district every year, and continue each of these scholarships through a 
course of four years' curriculum. This makes the number of students 
in the State, on whom the University agrees to bestow its highest priv- 
ileges, free of tuition, five hundred and twelve, or four for each of the 
assembly districts. The successful candidate may enter any depart- 
ment or course of study in the University for which he is prepared. 
The scholars are mostly selected, by yearly competitive examinations, 
from the various public schools and academies maintained by the people 
of New York. With this grand inducement, the number of young 
men studying agriculture is — in the senior class, 5; junior, 11; sopho- 
more, 12 ; freshman, 7; total number, 35 — in a total number of 463 
attending the Institution. (See Catalogue for 1879-'80, page 32.) 

The Illinois Industrial University, an institution of the same charac- 
ter, largely endowed in addition to the Laud-grant Fund, having every 






SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

equipment for the £tudy of agriculture and horticulture, with tuition 
free, has only ten students of agriculture, in a total of 416 in the In- 
stitution. This Institution has, for the illustration of practical agri- 
culture, a stock farm of five hundred acres, with barns, stables, pen- 
yards with the finest specimens of improved breeds of cattle, swine and 
sheep; as well as one hundred and eighty acres in the highest state of 
cultivation as an experimental farm. Everything seems to have been 
done to attract students to the study of agriculture, with the result 
stated. 

The same is true in regard to Perdue University, at Lafayette, In- 
diana, with the United States Land-grant and very large endowments 
besides. Out of a total number of 300 students, they have only two 
in agriculture. (See Catalogue for 1880-'81.) 

In the agricultural department of Harvard University, the largest 
number they ever have had, is seven. 

In the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Sheffield School of Yale 
College, is the following statement, which explains fully the conditions 
there : " We beg leave again to state, as we took occasion to do in our 
last report — and we repeat it now for the purpose of giving still more 
publicity to the fact, and of keeping it constantly alive in the public 
mind — that there are no less than thirty scholarships in this school that 
are to be had by any poor and deserving applicant for the mere asking." 
And yet, the numbers studying agriculture in the Sheffield School are 
notoriously few, notwithstanding the thoroughness of the instruction 
and the great reputation of Professor Johnson and his able colleagues. 

The School and Department of Agriculture of the University of Vir- 
ginia has never received any portion of the United States Land-grant 
Funds. It was fully organized in 1873, being founded on the deed of 
gift of one hundred thousand dollars from the late Samuel Miller, of 
Lynchburg, Va., placed in the hands of a board of trustees, whose duty 
it is to take charge of the fund, and to see that the interest is used in 
the University to carry out the objects specified in the deed. 

While the peculiar nature of the organization of the University of 
Virginia — with its separate schools, elective system of studies and very 
high standard — renders any comparison with other institutions with 
curriculum courses unfair, we do not shrink from it, even with the 
more richly endowed and thoroughly equipped universities we have 
mentioned. 

In the School of Agriculture, Zoology and Botany of the University 
of Virginia, there have been 40 students, 13 graduates in the School^ and 
5 in the Department of Agriculture. In this, as in all the departments 



1382.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 321 

of the University of Virginia, the "elective system" obtains — i. e., en- 
tire freedom of choice is left to the student, as to the schools he shall 
attend, and the order in which he shall attend them. The studies com- 
prised in this department are taught in the Schools of Agriculture, 
Zoology and Botany; Natural Philosophy, General and Industrial 
Chemistry, Analytical and Agricultural Chemistry, Mineralogy and 
Geology, and Applied Mathematics. The order in which these schools 
are taken is left to the student, who is generally influenced by the na- 
ture and extent of his previous preparation, as well as by his ulterior 
aim. The Degree of Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture is conferred 
on such students as have obtained a "Certificate of Proficiency" in the 
class of physics in the school of natural philosophy; "Distinctions" in 
junior applied mathematics, analytical and agricultural chemistry; and 
"Diplomas" in the schools of general and industrial chemistry, agri- 
culture, zoology and botany, and mineralogy and geology. In the 
organization of the School and Department of Agriculture in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, the same principles have been adopted, the same 
methods of instruction pursued, and the same rules applied as obtain 
in all the other schools and departments of the Institution. 

Acting upon the idea that agriculture is the most comprehensive of 
all professions, having its foundation deeply laid in the principles of 
natural science, the authorities of the University have wisely put the 
school and department of agriculture on the same footing with the 
schools and departments of medicine, law and engineering, and pro- 
vided every facility for the instruction of those who enter it. 

It is well known, that the object of the authorities of the University 
of Virginia, from the days of its "father" — Thomas Jefferson — to the 
present time, has been thoroughness of instruction in all of its schools 
and departments, regardless of the numbers who may attend. The 
academic, medical, law and engineering departments are regarded as 
unrivaled for thoroughness of instruction in this country, and the 
graduates of these departments take the foremost rank in their respec- 
tive avocations wherever they go. That the school and department of 
agriculture should be an exception, even in numbers, will be fully ex- 
plained further on in this article. 

In the brief review given of the systems pursued in the agricultural 
colleges proper, as well as the universities with agricultural depart- 
ments, we have seen that some among the former class have attracted 
a reasonable number of students, while others have been less fortunate. 
But it will be noticed, also, that where the numbers are found, they 
have been attracted by methods based chiefly on favorable, social and 



322 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

political conditions, rather than on any excellence of the system of in- 
struction. It appears, furthermore, that all pi these systems and 
methods have been absolutely theoretical and tentative, without foun- 
dation in experience. In fact, many of them may be regarded as es- 
sentially "empirical," without any claim to be compared with systems 
of education, resting upon the tripod of experience, reason and attain- 
ment. Such a system, we claim, the University of Virginia has at- 
tained. With what success in the school of agriculture, time will show. 
It is evident, however, that on this subject there is nothing like an 
uniformity of opinion among the great body of instructors and others 
interested. This is shown in the different way the courses of instruc- 
tion are divided ingthe several schools. One advocates a short term ; 
another a long term; one a four-year curriculum, with compulsory ag- 
ricultural studies; another a two-years' course, with agriculture optional 
for a part of the time. Each advocate of a particular system, if he has 
obtained "numbers" no matter how he has gotten them, triumphantly 
points to them as proof of perfection, regardless of real attainment. 
Under these circumstances, the question very naturally arises, Is suc- 
cess in agricultural education, in any true sense, to be found anywhere 
in this country ? Is it scientific attainment, or practical knowledge, or 
practical training without scientific attainment, that produces the best 
results? How is it, that so many honest men advocate systems and 
methods so different ? How shall we reach the truth of the matter ? 
Can all these methods be equally correct and applicable to every con- 
dition? While truth is absolute and unique, may not circumstances 
alter cases ? Can it be advisable to submit all the agricultural institu- 
tions of the country to the same methods ? It is a wise exercise of 
common sense to infer that certain adaptations must exist in relation 
to, and have more or less influence on, the success and usefulness of 
any given institution. As previously indicated, there is a prevalent 
notion among farmers that practical knowledge is the matter of greatest 
importance. But if it can be shown that scientific knowledge is not 
injurious, but is essential in all the details of the art of agriculture; 
that it adds skill to practice, and is fully recognized in all other indus- 
trial arts, as well as the learned professions, surely such a demonstra- 
tion would establish the fact, that scientific instruction is not only ne- 
cessary but should be made the most prominent factor in any scheme 
for the " higher agricultural education." This does not exclude the 
idea of the importance of practical knowledge, and training too, how- 
ever previously obtained, whether on the farm, as in this country, or 
in the " common and central schools " in the graded system of Bavaria. 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 323 

The question very naturally arises as to the extent and amount of prac- 
tical knowledge necessary for the farm-raised youth in this country, 
otherwise prepared, to enter the science schools in a university. The 
average farm- raised boy in the Southern and Western States is gene- 
rally very familiar with the natural phenomena and all the incidents 
of practical importance which occur on the farm. If he does not pry 
into " the why and the wherefore " at the time, the facts are impressed 
upon his mind so firmly, that in after life he is able to recall them and 
to trace effects to their causes. If this be true, what I have spoken of 
as the " missing link in our system " is, to some extent, supplied in 
place of the Bavarian graded-schools. The observant traveller, or so- 
journer, amongst the country people of Continental Europe can scarcely 
have failed to observe the clumsy gait, the cumbrous garb, the head and 
foot gear, entailed upon the young as well as the old, for centuries, by 
which the physical, not less than the mental, activities seem to have 
been enervated and repressed. In what striking contrast with this is 
the entire freedom of life and limb given to the American boy? I re- 
peat, then, that a large majority of boys reared on farms in this country 
are familiar with all the ordinary processes of farm-work, the manage- 
ment of stock and the use of implements and tools. They may not 
have attained an accurate knowledge of all these processes, or very 
great skill in the use of the implements and tools, nor do we regard 
this as essential in this stage of the educational process. When young 
men, reared under these conditions, are brought face to face with the 
scientific principles upon which these familiar processes and phenomena 
are based, they readily perceive their bearing, seize hold of them, and 
are ever afterwards able to apply them. In this way they soon become 
intelligent interpreters and skilled co-workers with Nature in all of her 
operations. The idea that a young man who has been raised in the 
country, or on a farm, should be required to plow, to ditch, to mow 
aud to attend to stock for a large proportion of his time in an agricul- 
tural college, or agricultural department in a university, in order to 
learn the relations between science and skilful agricultural practice, is, 
to ray mind, time thrown away. That may be the best way to make 
skilled laborers, aud may be time well bestowed in schools of a lower 
grade, but it is not the way to elevate agriculture to a higher plane or 
impart a just knowledge of the scientific principles on which its suc- 
cessful practice is based. 

To the question, so often asked, how, when and where should this 
practical knowledge be obtained in our system, my answer is, In their 
own homes, until we can organize some system like that already stated 
28 



324 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[December 



to exist in Bavaria. Farmers who wish their children to have tastes 
for country life and their sons to be farmers, should not only do all to 
make their homes pleasant and attractive, but should begin with them 
as early as possible in the household and on the farm, not as a task, 
but as helpers in all the work going on whenever the time can be taken 
from study and legitimate sport. The observation and perception of 
children at this early age, in regard to all the natural phenomena going 
on around them, is keener than ever afterwards during their lives. 
What they see and observe then they never forget. Instruction of this 
kind is very similar to that of the Kindergarten and early common 
schools in Bavaria. Boys and girls submitted to instruction of this 
kind, even casually, learn a great deal up to the time they are nine or 
ten years old. More carefully imparted, it will prove of great im- 
portance when they enter the schools and departments for the higher 
scientific education. 

Who has not observed the large proportion of time idly spent by the 
children — white and black — who attend our common schools, and has 
not realized the necessity for some useful and instructive occupation to 
prevent the "mischief that Satan finds for idle hands to do?" The 
fact that the ages of those attending our common schools range from 
seven to twenty-one years, makes it all the more important that some 
instructive occupation should be provided in place of excessive base- 
ball and nomadic wanderings in search of " forbidden fruit." 

How far any improvement of this kind can be made in our system, 
your experience and maturer judgment is better able to determine. 
The evil is apparent. Idleness, for too large a portion of the time, is 
the cause. As long as the cause remains, the evil will increase in en- 
hanced proportion. The only remedy is the provision of some whole- 
some, useful and instructive occupation during the idle time of school- 
days and Saturdays, by which the pupils may be beneficially trained in 
useful labor as well as in reading and writing and cyphering. I am 
fully convinced that those who enter our common schools should be 
taught to work as well as read. To a large majority, the education of 
the hand will be more useful thau the head. But, on the other hand, j 
the question may be asked, Is it absolutely necessary that a practical 
knowledge of agriculture should be obtained before it is studied as a 
science ? This is not the case in the study of other professions. It is 
not considered necessary that a student should have a practical knowl- 
edge of medicine or law before he studies these professions. A gradu- 
ate of medicine in the University of Virginia and other institutions 
generally recognizes the want of practical knowledge after leaving 



i 



1882] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 325 

, — . — — — — — 

college; and, to satisfy it, outers the wards of a hospital, or tonus an 
alliance with an old practitioner in the country or town, who is often 
glad to have him on account of his new and more scientific methods 
of investigation. The graduate of law either goes into the ofHce of an 
experienced lawyer for a time, or bestows an equal amount of time to 
attendance on courts, the perusal of the records and the investigation 
of special cases. Is there any reason why the student of agriculture 
should not pursue a similar course? But, admitting that previous 
practical knowledge is important in the study of agriculture, it must 
be conceded that the advantage in this respect is greatly in favor ot 
the farm- raised boy who enters the school, otherwise prepared, to 
profit by the instruction. 

Again, the assertion is often made that agricultural education should 
be made special. Why more special than any other profession or occu- 
pation which rests upon such a broad basis of the physical, chemical 
and physiological sciences? The suggestion never seems to have oc- 
curred to this class of people that, like other things, it may be made 
entirely too special, even in the four-year compulsory curriculum 
courses of study in the best equipped institutions in the Northern 
States. The danger is that this special education may be carried too 
far, and that the risk is incurred of turning out a set of "empirics" — a 
class of men well characterized " as wanting in the four dimensions 
necessary to make a full and complete man " in agriculture, or in any- 
thing else. 

Do the universities and colleges, with agricultural schools and de- 
partments, founded upon the United States Land-grant Funds and 
other endowments, furnish any model or improvement upon the system 
pursued in the University of Virginia? In my judgment they do not. 
The principles of organization and the methods of instruction laid 
down by the illustrious founder of the University of Virginia for the 
academic and other schools and departments, are equally applicable to 
the school and department of agriculture in all respects ; and the system 
of instruction is like that of all the other schools in the institution, in 
which the student is brought under the teaching of instructors who, 
by precept and example, impress upon the mind the scientific principles 
on which the profitable practice of the art is based. This is the only 
course likely to inspire the student with a true sense of the importance 
of agriculture as a profession. The organization and methods pursued 
in the University have stood the test of nearly three-fourths of a cen- 
tury, and have found so great favor in the eyes of the officers of va- 
rious institutions in our country, that they have adopted them. For 



326 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 



these and other important reasons, I submit, that it is wiser and better 
that the school and department of agricnlture should follow in the 
path of safe precedent and the light of experience in the conduct ot 
the other schools than enter upon a new and untried system. 
' This subject, of combining " the practical and the scientific m agri- 
cultural education, has occupied the attention of the most experienced 
educators in the country. President E. E. White, formerly a professor 
n the Michigan Agricultural College, and now at the head of Perdue 
or Indiana University, in a recent address on this subject before the 
State Board of Agriculture, says: « To what ext ent can an agncu tu- 
ral college give its students actual practice in farming? A few stu- 
dents may be provided with sufficient practice to increase their skill, 
but I confess that I do not believe that they can be provided with ade- 
quate practice on a farm of 150 acres. It takes time to learn any art 
and farming is one of the arts that cannot be acquired in a few lesson 
5 takes years of practice to learn how to run a farm successfully and 
tWs practice cannot well be provided in a college course I have little 
respect for the wisdom of the farmer who will send a boy to an agn- 
uS liege to learn how to mow, to plow or to sow. The co lege 
can give a most valuable course of instruction in agriculture. It can 
not only teach the sciences closely related to agriculture but it can im- 
part a knowledge of principles and processes, and give illustrations of 
heir skilful application and uses. It can also afford some practice; 
but a well-conducted farm is, in my judgment, the place to learn prac- 
tically the art of farming- to acquire the manual skill, and to learn its 
details as a business. Much is said of the importance of teaching stu- 
dent the art of conducting experiments in agriculture. Experiment 
should have a prominent place in agricultural instruction, but ,t should 
be remembered that experiment should be taught as a means of inves- 
Nation. Experimental farming, and practical business farming, are 
different processes. Experiment, like experience, is a dear school ; and 
experimental farming is not an exception. Experimental farming 
should be taught for the distinct purpose of investigation, and the stu- 
dent should realize the difference between investigation and a business 
operation. Moreover, thorough scientific training is the necessary 
Ipltion for experimenting in agriculture. The student should be 
Eht that experiments at one place are of little value to reach the 
best results; they should be conducted in more than one locality. I 
am here to give no countenance to the pretension that an agncultura 
Siege can fake boys, and in from two to four years turn them out 
practical farmers, able to manage a farm successfully; but I do claim, 



1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 335 

in examining the many labor-saving implements which ingenious me- 
chanics are continually inventing and improving, in addition to seeing 
the fine specimens of improved stock. No farmer can be successful 
unless he adapts himself to the present condition, economizing labor by 
using improved machinery, improving the soil, reducing the area of 
cultivation, making crop yields far greater from a smaller surface, and 
a thousand blades of grass grow where one grew before. The State 
Agricultural Society, if wisely managed, may become a great adjunct 
in advancing and building up our depressed and prostrate agricultural 
interest, which is the main basis of prosperity, and especially so to a 
people having so few manufactories as we have. 

In selecting executive officers, none should be appointed but the 
most sensible, solid, practical men, of incorruptible integrity, who keep 
fully abreast of the times in perusing the leading agricultural journals, 
steering clear of adventurers and doubtful characters, who are bank- 
rupt in every sense of the term, and especially of that pestiferous class 
who are ready to go with any party or obey the order of any corrupt, 
unprincipled boss who will promise them a chance for a good resting- 
place, avoiding also another class whose sole end and aim is to use the 
Society as a machine to carry out their selfish and sinister designs and 
purposes, the result of which would soon take the Society down to its 
lowest ebb. 

I am grieved to think of the poverty of the mass of our farmers, but 
few being so fortunate as to have any money after paying their neces- 
sary expenses, taxes, etc., and to enable as many of them as possible to 
come together, our railroads should not charge more than one-fourth 
of their usual rates, and the hotels and boarding-houses very low rates. 
The greatly increased numbers desiring accommodation would com- 
pensate them amply. J. R. W." 

Second. A short extract from the Gordonsville Gazette. We say 
short, because of the length of the article from which our extract is 
made : 

"But I am getting off the track. Our section came out in a new 
line at this Fair. Not only did Jobri Reedy take five first premiums 
with his horses, and Dr. Reid one, but Mr. Moore, of Liberty Mills, 
carried off valuable stakes with a neat little racer he rode. Ficklin, 
Doswell, and other noted horsemen were astonished at this departure, 
as well they might be. I took a good look at Ficklin's new §1,700 
Percheron, " Victor," but don't like him quite as well as old "Colonel." 
Still I'm not a judge, and he is a good, quick, heavy-draft horse. 

In poultry, friend Bradbury proved that Orange could raise as fine 
chickens as sheep and hogs. 

Thousands of people visited the Fair daily, and I think that the 
Gazette Farm and Live Stock Circular must have been read and com- 
mented upon by at least ten thousand people. Several prominent gen- 
tlemen spoke in very favorable terms of the enterprise, and I think we 
may all reasonably expect some good results from it. 

The display of machinery was marvellous, but what pleased me most 



336 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [December 

were the daily races run by the traction engines, which had far more 
at-traction for me than the best running or trotting match. 

The side-shows were very numerous, there being a mermaid, a living, 
eating chicken, without a head [like Mountcastle's Herodian Mystery], 
and many other monstrosities. But the chief attraction was an enter- 
tainment given by a band of foreign gypsies with seven large bears and 
two baboons, who performed in a tent on the grounds and had their 
encampment outside. Part of this band passed through Gordonsville 
a few weeks ago. 

Of course the ladies were greatly interested in the V. M. I. Cadets, 
who had their tents on the ground and went through their drill every 
day. Friday the First Regiment joined them in a grand review before 
Governor Cameron and other notables. It was truly a beautiful sight, 
and I wished that our boys had been able to take part. I passed many 
pleasant hours with the Hamiltons iu their hospitable tent, where a 
host of stock-men would congregate to listen to the Augusta twins 
[Bowman and Pratt] cracking jokes with the Judge and Maxon. 
These reunions are glorious, and lead one to think that for geniality 
and fraternal kindness these stock-men take the lead. Good luck to 
all of them. 

Before closing my notes upon this, the most successful Fair Rich- 
mond ever held, it is but right to say that but for the energy, the cour- 
age and devotion of Gen. Wickham, the State Agricultural Society 
would be an institution of the past. The General was called upon in 
the Society's darkest hour, when hope seemed dead, and by his indi- 
vidual exertions he so stirred up the press and the people as to make 
this exhibition an overwhelming and glorious success. For this the 
General deserves the unbounded thanks and gratitude of the whole 
State. He has done more for the farming community in one single 
year than politicians have in ten. He has done his duty well, and we 
of this section do but unite with hundreds of others when we thus 
publicly thank him for his untiring efforts. Wharf Rat." 

We have only to add our opinion as to the effect of the Trades' Pa- 
rade on the Fair. As managed it did the Fair no good, but injured it. 
It was, all admit, a grand display of the business interests of Richmond; 
but occurring, as it did, on the day before the Fair, when all the busi- 
ness houses and factories were closed, it brought out the whole popu- 
lation of the city to their windows and the most favorable positions on 
the streets. The Fair was thus denied a similar closing of business on 
Thursday, which we may term the city day, and thus the State Fair 
was only secondary in the great display. 

Now we have reason to know that it was not the purpose of the man- 
agers of the Trades' Parade to ignore the Fair, but to help it. The 
mistake was, to make it an exclusive city display, and to forget the fact 
that the people of the State wish no impediments to the best attendance 
at their Fair, and that the city people should unite, in a practical way, 






1882.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 8j 

with the Agricultural Society, to show on its grounds all the great 
industries of the State, from the smallest fertn, factory and village, to 
the capital city itself. 



The Virginia Country Squire of the Colonial Period. — Apart 
from politics, these country squires found but little business wherewith 
to occupy their time. The correct supervision of the slaves was ordi- 
narily intrusted to overseers, and the masters were thus secured in the 
enjoyment of ample leisure, which men of noble ambition, such as 
Jefferson and Madison, could turn to good profit in cultivating their 
minds. But to men of more common mould this ample leisure became 
monotonous, and in such a society as that here depicted, with no town 
life, no roads or inns worth speaking of, and no amusements save 
horse racing, the entertainment of guests by the month together was 
regarded both as a duty and as a privilege. Every planter kept open 
house, and provided for his visitors with unstinted hand. The style of 
living was extremely generous, and often splendid. The houses were 
spacious and solidly built, sometimes of brick or stone, but more often 
of wood. Panelled wainscots of oak and carved oaken chimney-pieces 
were common, and the rooms were furnished with the handsomest 
chairs and tables and cabinets that could be brought over from Eng- 
land. The dress, too, of both men and women was rich and costly, 
and the latest London fashions were carefully followed. Silver plate, 
elegant china, and choice wines were commonly to be found at these 
great manor houses, and the stables were stocked with horses of the 
finest breed. — John Fiske, in Harper's Magazine for November. 



It may not be generally known that the Duke of Athole is one of 
the most extensive tree planters in the world. There are already vast 
woods and plantations in Athole and Dunkeld, Scotland, and, as of 
course they exist for use as well as ornament, large numbers of trees 
have to be planted annually to maintain the woods. Indeed, every 
year the Duke plants from 600,000 to 1,000,000 trees. During this 
season a plantation covering 2,000 acres has been completed. It may 
be remembered that the Duke of Athole's plantations were thinned of 
80,000 trees by the gale which destroyed the Tay Bridge. When the 
Planter Duke began operations on a large scale in 1774, the Dunkeld 
hills were almost bare. During his life the Duke, who may be described 
as a true benefactor to his country, planted 27,000,000 trees, covering 
an area of 15,000 acres. 



338 



SOUTHERN- PLANTER. 



[December 



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EDITORIAL NOTES. 

Editor of Southern Planter, Richmond, Va., 
Mats Unis : 

Dear Sir, — You would greatly oblige by 
kindly forwarding a specimen copy of your 
journal, with advertising rates. 

Very respectfully, 
Cie Gle des Cyanures & Produits 

Chimiques, 
2, Rue du Landy, St. Denis, France. 

[We have sent copies of the Planter as 
requested, and, modestly, we may say that 
our European circulation is increasing,] 



Dr. Page's Essay. — We present to our 
readers this month an interesting essay by 
Dr. Page, Professor of Agriculture in the 
University of our State. It is too long for 
any one number of the Planter, and ought 
not to be cut up into parts. We, there- 
fore, present it entire, and thereby add 
many pages to the regular issue of the 
Planter for this month, as a compliment to 
its readers. Dr. Page's communication 
should be well read and considered. 



A LADY FARMER. 
We hope we do not betray confidence 
when we quote from a personal letter re- 
ceived from a daughter of an old neighbor 
and valued personal friend who has lately 
died and made her his executrix and de- 
visee of his homestead. As she is unmar- 
ried, and attractive in person and mind, 
and withal highly cultivated, we venture 
the advice, in view of the troubles men- 
tioned in our extract, that she will not 
reject proposals from some gentleman, 
equally cultivated with herself, and let him 
manage the farm and she the dairy and 
other departments of the household. She 
says: "To speak of myself, my father's 
death has revolutionized my life. It was 
at the critical period of crop-saving, and no 
man of any value as a manager could be 
gotten to take charge of things at such a 
time ; so I, with no assistant, have tried to 
step into the place he filled so easily and 
so well. It would be impossible for you to 
realize how ignorant I am of the common- 
est details, or the general principles of 
farming. Drawn suddenly from a literary 
life, and one of great physical ease and in- 
ertness, I rise at day and scarcely have 
time to eat — go from place to place on the 
farm, walking or riding the whole day, and 
making pitiful efforts to arrange and carry 
on the affairs that worked so successfully 
in the hands now so passive and powerless. 
Were you in my place, would you attempt 
to raise tobacco next year? Can you sug- 
gest a plan by which I might make as 
much from other crops?" Under the cir- 
cumstances, these are enquiries which ap- 
peal to every reader of the Planter, and we 
shall endeavor to do our part in guiding 
the hands of the enquirer. Having, in her 
childhood, dangled her on our knees, we 
esteem her and the memory of her father 
too highly to fail in our encouragement of 
her efforts in the great cause of agricul- 
ture. 



Frksh Complexions.— If you have hu- 
mors and pimples, boils and eruptions, it 
is because the system needs toning and pu- 
rifying. Nothing will give you such good 
health, smooth and fresh skin and vigorous 
feeling as Simmons Liver Regulator. 



1882.] 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



339 



ADVERTISING AGENCIES. 

1. Their number is groat, ami their de- 
mands unreasonable. 

2. We find a number on our books whose 
contracts, made by our predecessor, we 
will execute to the letter; and possibly 
some few contracts unwittingly made by 
ourselves, which we will also fulfil. 

8. They ask for positions and send read- 
ing notices, which are to be regarded as 
the utterances of the editor. 

4. They demand the lowest rates, with- 
out regard to the privileges they eeek to 
secure. 

5. Our purpose in the future is to take 
their advertisements on the terms of those 
advertisers who deal with us directly. 

6. No independent journal can comply 
with, or justly meet, their demands. 

7. Our exchanges show that many ac- 
cept their exactions, but we cannot. 



Sheep Husbandry in Tidewater Vir- 
ginia. — We have a letter from a gentle- 
man of West Virginia asking for informa- 
tion on this subject. We are sure that 
sheep-raising may be, and probably is, 
made a good industry in our Tidewater 
counties. We would be glad for some 
reader of the Planter to furnish some prac- 
tical experience on the question of the 
adaptation of this section to sheep hus- 
bandry. 

At the date of this writing, we find that 
entries of slaughtered mutton have been 
made for the State Fair, and the prospect 
is that the best will come from the Tide- 
water section. 



Egyptian Clover. — [t is said that this is 
a legacy of the war to Georgia and other 
Southern States ; that it grows in the track 
of the armies; that it is hardy, killing out 
weeds, etc. ; and that it is highly esteemed 
by stock of all kinds, and makes a fine 
pasturage where nothing else will grow. 

Is this the Lespidesa which is also ap- 
pearing in many places in Virginia? It 
seems to come without seeding,' and a 
friend left with us a few days ago a fine 
specimen, gathered in Nottoway county, of 
our State. 

29 



Winter Oats — U A 'young farmer' from 
Warrenton, Va.. states, in Southern Plan- 
ter, that Russian White oats, without fer- 
tilizer, made four times as much per acre 
as ordinary oats with fertilizer." — Ex. 

We think our young farmer can verify 
bis statement. Spring oats are very un- 
certain, even on good land, so that a good 
variety of winter oats has a decided advan- 
tage. We hope the young farmer will let 
us hear from him further on the subject, 
and give us his name, as, by the general 
rule of all publishers, anonymous articles 
are rejected. A correspondent may sign 
his communication anonymously, but the 
name of the author should be known to 
the editor. 

We were called on to-day to give the 
name and address of "young farmer" by 
a gentleman who wished to correspond 
with him, but we were unable to do it. 



The Summer Number of the London, 
England, "Graphic." — We have received 
from the publishers, 190 Strand, London, 
their issue of the "Summer Number of the 
Graphic" which, to be appreciated, must 
be seen. It is a wonderful specimen of 
what may be done in printing in colors. 
It is beautifully printed in colors, and no 
expense, it seems, has been spared in its 
production, and cannot fail to please all 
who may patronize it. We see one of our 
enterprizing Richmond manufacturers ap- 
preciates its value as an advertising me- 
dium. 



The "Ladies' Floral Cabinet." — We 
will club with it at $1.90 — that is, will send 
it with the Planter to any new subscriber at 
this price. 

The October number of the Cabinet, 
published in New York, is on our table, 
and presents choice reading for lovers of 
flowers. Several illustrations brighten its 
pages. Its editorials on soils and annuals 
are interesting and useful to all who are in- 
terested in the culture of flowers. And 
can there be any home in the lovely South 
where not one of its inmates are not thus 
inclined ? Take the Planter for the farm 
and the Cabinet for the yard and pleasure 
grounds of the family. 



340 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[December 



The Industrial Exhibition op the Agri- 
cultural Society of South Carolina. — 
As we go to press with our last number for 
the year, we have time only to make a brief 
acknowledgment of the receipt of the cata- 
logue for this exhibition, which commenced 
in the city of Charleston on 21st Novem- 
ber, and ends on the 16th of December of 
the current year. The catalogue is hand- 
somely engraved and printed, and embraces 
all the industrial interests of the South ex- 
cept live stock. It is well worthy of the 
attention of manufacturers of all classes. 
The display of textile machinery and fabrics 
we have no doubt will be very superior. 
Phosphates and fertilizers will also be an 
interesting feature. 



American Agricultural Association. 
The American Agricultural Association 
will hold its Third Annual Convention at 
the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, commen- 
cing Wednesday, December 15, 1882, and 
continuing three days. 

Addresses will be delivered, and papers 
read by the ablest and best known Agri- 
culturists, Scientists, and public men of the 
country. Questions will be discussed re- 
lating to Agriculture and kindred topics. 

Reduced rates of fare are expected from 
the different lines leading iuto Chicago, 
and it is designed that this shall be a 
worthy successor to the Conventions al- 
ready held by the Association, the first at 
the Metropolitan Hotel, N. Y., in 1879, 
and the second at the Grand Central, N. 
Y., February, 1882. 

Every farmer, and all interested in Agri- 
culture are cordially invited to attend. 

Membership in the Association $3 00 per 
year, including the registration lee, and 
entitling each to free admission to the As- 
sociation's proposed Exhibition, to be held 
next year, and to all its publications, inclu- 
ding the Agricultural Review. 

Payments made now will be good for 
next year. 

Address the Secretary, 19 University 
Place, New York. 

N. T. Spragub, President. 
Jos. H. Rball, Secretary. 



The Niagara Grape. — This new variety 
of white grape has been introduced and 
carefully perfected by the Niagara Grape 
Company, of Lock port, New York. We 
have noticed in some of our exchanges — 
notably the Rural New Yorker — many com- 
mendations of it. We have received from 
the Secretary of the company, Mr. J S. 
Woodward, a basket containing a few 
bunches of this grape, which he states 
were cut from the vine on the 3d Novem- 
ber ultimo, and had been matured in Sep- 
tember. These bunches came to us in 
perfect order by express, and were received 
on the 6th of November. They are, un- 
doubtedly, delicious in taste and flavor, and 
in color quite as light as the famous foreign 
Malaga. We have submitted them to sev- 
eral connoisseurs, and they pronounce 
them excellent. 

Virginia is a great grape State in its 
adaptability of soil and climate, which our 
colonial ancestors wrote about two hun - 
dred years ago, and our people should find 
out and cultivate the best varieties. As to 
this particular variety, we are not now 
prepared to say more than we have said. 

WEBSTER'S 

UNABRIDGED. 

Latest Edition has 118,000 Words, 

( 3000 more tnan any other English Dictionary,) 
Four Pages Colored Plates, 3000 

Engravings, (nearly three times the number 
in any other Diet'y,). also contains a Biograph- 
ical Dictionary giving brief important facts 
concerning 9700 noted, persons. 




Ancient i untie. 

On page 203, see the above picture and names 

of the 24 parts,— showing the value of 

Webster's numerous 

Illust rated Defini tions. 

It is the best practical English Dictionary 

extant. — London Quarterly Review. 
The Book is an ever-present and relia- 
ble school master to the whole fam- 
ily.— Sunday School Herald. 
G. & C. MERRIAM & CO., Pub'rs, Springfield, 



1 fE,A 

DEAF. 



Garmore'sAri'S^. 

I* An Invented and worn by him 
perfect I) restoring I 

ii for thirty year*, he h 

listlnctly. Are 
not obacri nlilf, nut remain In i»im- 
tion witl i in ulai 

Free. CAUTION I Do not be deceWed 
I i eai drums. Mmr is the only 

' l artificial Ear Dr.nu maau- 

factured. 

JOHN CARMORE, 

Filth & Kace Sts., Cincinnati. O. 



novGt 



POMONA NURSERY. 

Oriental & Hybrid Pears. 

Manchester, Bidwell and Mt. 
Vernon Strawberries. Raspber- 
ries, Blackberries, Flowers and 
Fruit Trees. Catalogues free. 

WM. PARRY, Parry P. 0., N. J. 
jan 1 — ly 




JREAT WESTERN 



GUN WORKS, i 

»=*^ Pittsburgh,* 




_ Write for Large Illustrated Catalogue 

Bides, Shot Guns, ReTolTers.ient o. o. d. for examinatooa. 

n>v3t 



HI 



LABEL] 




Dana's White Metallic Ji;ir MarkitiR Label, atamped 



to order with name, or name and address und Hum- 

It iri reliable, cheap and convenient. Sells at 

ilgbt Mid give* perfect Batlefaetion. Illustrated 

Price-List and iamplet free Agents wanted. 

C. II. DANA, WestLebuuon, N. H. 

de 



i;llerslie farm. 
THOROUGHBRED HORSES, 

Shorthorn Cattle, Cotswold Sheep, 

AM) 

BERKSHIRE PIGS 

Bred and For Sale by 

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

FARMERS and FARMERS' SONS 

CAN MAKE myk&% 



During the Fall and Winter. 

J. V. McCurdy Ac Co., 

delt 



articulars. address, 
Philadelphia, Pa, 



DIPHTHERIA 



CROUP, ASTHMA, BRONCHITIS. 

JOHNSON'S ANODYNE LINIMENT will posi- 
tively prevent these terrible diseases, and will cure nine 
cases out of ten. Information that will save many lives, 
sent free by mail. Don't delay a moment. Prevention is 
better than cure. I 8. Joumson «fc Co., Boston. Mass. 



deiyeot 



ESTABLISHED IN 1870. 



STONO-PHOSPHATE COMPANY, 

CHARLESTON, S. O- 
WE OFFER TO THEPLANTERS 




GROUND TO A POWDER AS FINE AS WHEAT FLOUR- 

"PHOSPHATE FLOATS," 

FOR APPLICATION TO 

GRAIN, GRASSES, AND FOR COMPOSTING. 

The Rock is subjected to FREQUENT ANALYSIS by the Company's Chemist, 
and is of the BEST QUALITY. 

For TERMS, etc.,. address the Company. 

SAMPLE sent by mail upon application. 
de!2m 





OUR LITTLE ONES 

-•"THE NURSERY. 

The most Beautifully Illustrated Magazine 
for Little People in the World. 

The extraordinary success of this Magazine proves 
that the people desire the best literary and artistic mat- 
ter for the instruction and amusement of little children. 
The stories and poems, all original, are by the 
Best Writers for Children. 

The illustrations, 380 a year, are made by the 
Best Artists in the World, 
expressly for this Magazine. Invaluable as an educa- 
tor. The cheapest as well as the best. 

81.50 A YEAR. 15 CENTS A COPY. 

Newsdealers sell it. Specimen free The most lib- 
eral terms to Agents. Special terms to Schools. 

RUSSELL PUBLISHING CO., Boston, Mass. 

delt 




We continue to 
act as solicitors for 
patents, caveats, 
trade-marks, copyrights, etc., for 
the United States, and to obtain pat- 
ents in Canada, England, France, 
Germany, and all other countries. 
Thirty-six years' practice. No 
charge for examination of models or draw- 
ings. Advice by mail free. 

Patents obtained through us are noticed in 
the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, which has 
the largest circulation, and is the most mflu- 
cntial newspaper of its kind published in the 
world. The advantages of such a notice every 
patentee understands. 

This large and splendidly illustrated news- 
paper is published WEEKLY at $3.20 a year, 
and is admitted to be the best paper devoted 
to science, mechanics, inventions, engineering 
works, and other departments of industrial 
progress, published in any country. Single 
copies by mail, 10 cents. Sold by all news- 
dealers. 

Address, Murm & Co., publishers of Scien- 
tific American, 2fil Broadway, New York. 
Handbook about patents mailed free. 

THOROUGHBRED 

Shorthorn Cattle. 

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

S. S. BRADFORD, 



ja 1— ly 



Culpeper, Va. 



SAVE THE EXPENSE CF 

BUILDIJNG A BRICK CHIMNEY. 




Our Fire Clay Chimney Pipe does not rust nor 
crack by heat nor crumble from frost. It has been 
need ten years for dwellings, schools, churches, 
Sc. No dancer from fire, aB it docs not commu- 
aicate heat to wood. Insurance companies have 
iecided it to be a safer chimney than brick. Any 
oue can put it up. A complete chimney costs from 
$5 to $10, according to height of building. This 
is no experiment. Thousands are now in use all 
throuch the S outh . Baees supplied for use with 
fire places. ^^"Send for descriptive circular with 
lull information. 

CHAS. H. TOR8CH A CO., 
S. E. Cor. Pratt & Charles Streets, 

Baltimore, Did. 
ig^lt will pay you to cut this out tor future use. 

delt 



GOOD SEED 

Of best varieties, true 
to name, is the basis of 
NiceVegetables, 
.Beautiful ¥ low- 
ers, and BNi 
Farm Crops. 
All seed is tested 
for vitality and 
purity, and only 
heBESTotfer- 
d. We are the 
irgest farmers, 
eed growers and 
/6eed dealers any- 
where. Spring Cata- 
ogueoi over2,0(!0va- 
rieties of Flower, Vegetable.Farm and Tree Seed.FJtEE. 
Catalogue of Flowering Bulbs and Plants for house and 
garden, FREE. Sibley's Farmers' 1 A Imanac, $500 prize 
essays on special crops, Northern or Southern edition, 
10 cts. Grainand Farm Seeds Manual— history,descrip- 
tions, cultureof best Grains.Grasses, Potatoes, IO cts. 

HIRAM SIBLEY & CO., Seedsmen, 

Rochester. N. Y. and Chicago, 111. 



Has o Pad differlnp from nl ) othaa, 
Is eupahapo, with Salf-Adj.istinjy 
Ball in center, adaptoitself to all 
pofllions of tbo body, wbilu til* 
Vallm the cup presses back th» 
IntostlnoaJiioirisapersonKOuIfl 
wlih the Finger. Wlih light 
pre»ure the Hernials held occurely 

lay and night, and a radical cure certain. 1 1 Is easy, d^rablij 

|S4 cheap. Sent by mall. Circulars free. 

EGGLEST0N TBUSS CO.. Cliicasc. IIL 





de6t 



WILLIAM L BRADBURY 



NASON, ORANGE COUNTY, VA., 



I 



, Jffl SALES AEENT. 



OFFERS FOR SALE 



Shorthorns, Jerseys 



DEVONS 



0I8WWI 



u*. 



FROM THE CHOICEST HERDS AND FLOCKS IN VA. 

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

YEARLING COTSWOLD BUCKS that sheafed an average of 6fteen poundi 
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. 




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

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



Sept— ly 



Address WM, L. BRADBURY, 

Nason, Orange County, Va. 



SPECIAL ATTENTIO 



IS OAHiXiEID 

Randall Harrow. 




TO THE 

This Is a Meel-IMsk pulverizing llarr< 
la us- (I after a fallow for cutting sod-laud topi* 
for deep harrowing, for pulverizing and 
log to pieces to a depth which no other 
can reach; for gettlog In grain, &e. '1 lie di 
on li is seat, can change the position of the dl 
will, making it heavy «i raft, cutting de«- 
pul vei iziiijf thoroughly, or to a position 
will .simply cut the heavy sod to pieces; in 
position it is the lightest draft harrow 
This harrow is particularly recommended for* 
and heavy har rowing 1 . 



We can fully recommend the BICKFORD 
& HITFFMAN ItltELL. In offering it toour 
customers, we can guarantee^catisfaction in every 
particular, for drilling Wheat, Oats, Corn and Peas 
with all kinds of Grass Seed and Fertilizers. It 
has a non-corrosive bottom. The quantity per 
acre of seed and fertilizer is accurately and ensily 
tegulated. One motion takes hoes up and throws 
rery working part out of gear. 



WHEAT DRILL. 



ae«s»tf 



•avs. 



PORTABLE ENGINE. 




Our SHALL PORTABLE ENGINES are 

adapted for cutting Ensilage and other feed, shelling 
corn, driving small grinding mills, sawing wood, <fcc. 
These Engines are particularly recommended for their 
Smt'UMTY, I>UIt ABILITY, SAFEJfESS, 
I*ERFECTA T ESS and the little skill required to manage 
them. 

We also have LARGE ENGINES, Portable 
stationary. 



The CYCLE and the BELLE CITY are 

the most perfect. They never clog or choke 
and require very little power; they will cut up 
any kind cf feed. We keep the SINCLAIR 
and many other good cutters. Wo call atten- 
tion also to our superior 

WHEAT DRILLS, SORGHUM MILLS, 
Evaporators. Corn Shollers, k 

JS-Sknd for Cibculab amj Catalogue. 



H. M. SMITH & CO., 



Ensilage Cutters 




MANUFACTURERS & C-EN'L AG! 
P.O. BOX 8, RICHMOND, VA. 



non-c::.:'jlating 



'^