BcboteS to Sericulture, horticulture, anti the 2£?ou5enolfc ®vts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 

Xenophon. 



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



C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 



Vol. IV. 



RICHMOND, MARCH, 1844. 



No. 3. 



For the Southern Planter. 

BRIEF COMMENTARIES ON THE JANUARY 
NUMBER OF THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 

Mr. Editor, — It is only within a few days 
that I have seen, for the first time, any number 
of your journal, and a very cursory view of. 
some of them, has served to impress me with a 
conviction of the loss of the enjoyment and in- 
' formation, which would have been derived from 
the regular perusal of them as they have been 
issued. 

I do not know how I can better indicate my 
sense of their merit and usefulness, than by 
making such remarks as are suggested by their 
contents. Well aware of the demand for every 
column you have to spare, these commentaries 
will be as plain and as brief, as may be com- 
patible with a clear comprehension of what I may 
have to offer, and even then, I pray you to reject 
without hesitation whatever you may consider as 
less worthy of the space it would occupy, than 
something else which may be on your files. So 
much for the first and last line, in the way of 
preface; for which I have generally, a great 
aversion, and to which too many agricultural as 
well as political communications are, in quantity, 
more like a pitcher to a handle, than a handle to 
a pitcher. If in what I may scribble for the 
Planter, the use of the first person may savor of 
egotism, I beg leave to say, that I adopt that 
form of writing, because it is more convenient, 
and surely the writer may claim exemption from 
the reproach of vanity, who hides himself under 
the veil of an anonymous signature? 

Poudrette. — The evidence in your last number, 
as far as it goes, is abundant to prove " the infe- 
riority, if not the utter worthlessness of the article 
furnished" to you last Spring by Mr. D. K. Mi- 
nor — and the view of that evidence leads one to 
these reflections : 

Poudrette or 'night soil, there can be no doubt, 
when unadulterated, must be one of the most effi- 
cient of all manures. It may be said that ani- 
mal manures are rich, generally in a direct pro- 
portion to the richness of the food of the animal. 
Thus, the manure of hogs highly fed, is more 
fertilizing than that of animals fed on grass or 
common vegetables alone. The manure from 
the stall-fed bullock would doubtless be as much 
more powerful than that of cattle fed on straw, 
as com is more fattening than straw. It is there- 
Vol. IV— 7 



fore superfluous any longer to discuss or enter- 
tain the question whether Poudrette, or the con- 
tents of privies, is or is not among the most ac- 
tive of all fertilizers. Neither ean there be any 
question, that it would rapidly go into general 
use, were it not for what has undoubtedly hap- 
pened in the case in question, its liability to be 
adulterated. To buy on a very small scale of a 
bushel or two, would be to throw away one's 
trouble, and worse than that, one's time ; while 
few will buy a large quantity, at a venture, of 
an article so costly. 

Mr. Minor speaks of many who, after trial 
have largely increased their purchases, but it 
would have been better if he had designated 
the persons, and their whereabouts ; as it would 
have enabled inquirers to address themselves to 
these persons for minute information as to the 
signs and guarantees of the genuineness of the 
article — and all the circumstances attending 
the use of it. Rich and valuable as this mate- 
rial unquestionably must be, if is to be wondered 
at, that every farmer does not make provision for 
its preservation and use — as well of all urinary 
as of all excrementitious offal — and it is to be 
desired, if it were possible, that an inspection of 
the article should be established where there are 
large reservoirs of it, in the towns — as there are 
inspections of lime and plaster, where the diffi- 
culty of substituting a spurious for a genuine 
article is much greater, and the temptation not 
so great as in the case of poudrette. 

From what has been said, in description of 
the appearance and effects of what was sent to 
you, it is no violent presumption to say, that it 
was made up chiefly of the common sweepings 
of the streets, or other offal not more germane 
to the matter; nor is it to be expected that pou- 
drette will become, at its present prices, an article 
of general use, until the public can have some 
better guarantee that what is sold for it, is un- 
mixed with foreign and worthless substances. 
From not a little observation, I utterly dissent 
from Mr. Minor's proposition that "Failures are 
reported often, whilst success is merely enjoyed, 
or occasionally spoken of by those who wit- 
nessed the results." The reverse is much nearer 
the truth. 

Emigration to Virginia. — This subject "at 
the first blush," leads to reflections that would 
make an essay worthy, if well prepared, of the 
ablest political economist. The reason why the 



50 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



tide sets from the North into Fairfax and Lou- 
doun counties is obvious. 

1. It is further from tide water, and, therefore, 
has, at least the reputation of being more healthy. 

2. It is more accessible, being nearer to the 
North, and to the seat of government. 

3. The impression is, that the slaves bear a 
much smaller proportion to the free, than they 
do about Petersburg. Settlers from the North 
have got a foothold in Fairfax and Loudoun. — 
The tide of emigration is setting that way, and 
will increase in a geometrical ratio. Had I the 
leisure that many Virginia gentlemen have, I 
would desire nothing easier of success than 
would be the undertaking to swell that tide ten- 
fold in one or two years. I would ascertain the 
price of lands in the intervale country, between 
the mountains and the tide. I would make me 
a list of actual sales within a given time. I 
would, in a course of lectures, in the Eastern 
country towns, explain the geography and the 
natural advantages of that region and its conge- 
niality to the constitution of northern people. I 
would dwell on its improvable soil — resources 
of lime and other manures — its glorious climate, 
with scarcely three months of winter — its ac- 
cessibiltty to market, the certainty with which 
the slave population will ultimately and rapidly 
recede to the South, into the rice and sugar and 
cotton growing regions. Thus would it be easy 
to draw thousands instead of hundreds, within a 
given space of time from New England into 
Virginia — not by an ignis fatuus but by the sober 
and steady light of truth and reason. More 
than twenty years ago, I heard Mr. Crownin- 
shield, Secretary of the Navy, say, that he had 
given one hundred dollars an acre for land in 
Massachusetts, which it afterwards cost him 
fifty dollars an acre to clear of stone, so that it 
could be ploughed 1 

Oxen.— You say that " either our horses at 
the South are much better or our oxen are much 
inferior to those of our Northern friends." This 
proposition is true in both its branches ; your 
horses are belter, because they have more blood. 
I once asked the late John Randolph, at a dinner 
party, merely to provoke him to talk, whether 
the horses in Virginia had of late years im- 
proved, or been kept up to their point of ac- 
knowledged excellence 1 No, sir," said he, 
" since we have given up horse-racing and fox- 
hunting, and turned up the whites of our eyes, 
our horses have sadly deteriorated." Even the 
mules of Kentucky are far superior to those of 
Ohio, because the sports of the turf in Kentucky 
insure patronage to thorough bred stallions, and 
the mules arc, for the most part, bred from 
thorough bred mares. 

But why are your oxen inferior 1 Not be- 
cause of the heat of your climate, but for the 
same reasons that your husbandry is generally 
inferior to that of New England. I have had 



an opportunity of reading the manuscript of a 
dissertation on the use of oxen, by Assistant 
Postmaster General Skinner, introductory to a 
work on the diseases of cattle, shortly to be pub- 
lished by Lea & Blanchard, which, in my judg- 
ment, goes to prove that one of the greatest er- 
rors in the practice of southern agriculture is, 
the omission to substitute more extensively, oxen 
for horses ! He proves that there is no insur- 
mountable difficulty on the score of climate ; for 
he shows that in Spain they haul heavy loads 
of ship timber twenty-five miles a day, and that 
in South America teams of oxen are driven over 
the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, with heavy loads, 
thirty miles a da}', for thirty days in succession. 
Get the North Devon breed, have them carefully 
broken and taught to walk fast in the beginning. 
Let them be always driven by the same man, 
and let them be treated with humanity and dis- 
cretion, and oxen may be made to supercede 
more than half the horses in use, with an an- 
nual saving of millions to the nation! 

The Measuring Cross — Country Schoolmasters 
forty-five years ago. — A sensible, useful commu- 
nication — marked it for ihe special notice of my 
son, to whom, after perusal, I send your work, 
he being a practical planter. I well remember, 
when very young, that a country schoolmaster, 
whose name was Wesley, communicated that 
mode of ascertaining the height of objects, to 
my father, who was very curious in all such 
matters. At that time it was the custom for a 
•few gentlemen farmers to advertise for a school- 
master, and one and another would " board him," 
and for his pay they made up a club-purse. — 
These schoolmasters were most generally, very 
poor, and sometimes truly learned men, not al- 
ways Yankees, but often young Irishmen, of 
good Latin and Greek educations. In autumn, 
down in the tide-water country, they were sure 
to be seized with bilious and remittent fevers, 
and it was pitiable to witness how they were 
appalled when first taken with a chill, that 
would make their lips turn blue and their teeth 
chatter — a pathological phenomenon they had 
never heard or dreamed of in the Emerald Isle ! 
They rarely remained, if they survived, more 
than one year, when the neighboring gentlemen 
had to advertise for another. Sometimes the 
new one would arrive before his predecessor had 
"missed his chills," and then it was curious to 
see the effect which the sight of a paroxysm of 
raging fever would have on the sensibilities of 
the now comer — but it was the chill that struck 
terror to Paddy's heart. I remember, when a 
" little shaver," the new schoolmaster came run- 
ning down stairs in awful dismay; he had 
been left alone, to administer the prescribed me- 
dicine and drinks to his poor countryman, until 
he saw him seized with a shivering, such as he 
had never witnessed. The poor invalid's face 
became pale — his lips blue — his hands cold — his 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



51 



teeth chattered and his limbs shivered until the 
very bed shook under him — when, in almost 
speechlees affright, the honest son of Erin broke 
away in affright and came running down stairs, 
as if pursued by "Gorgonsdire" — crying as he 
ran, " Oh ! Mr. Doons is about to depart ! Mr. 
Doom is about to depart /" It was my business 
on these occasions to go to the neighbor with 
whom the knight of the birch boarded, for the 
time, to ascertain if he had yet " missed his 
chills," and was ready to resume the tripod and 
the ferrule ; and never shall I forget how my 
heart rejoiced when I was told that he was yet 
in the gripe of Esculapius — and how, when 
there came a nipping frost, it sunk within me, 
on being answered that ' : school ivill begin again 
on Monday morning .'" 

Oh ! miserable hours and days spent per force 
in the company of those odious sages, Dilworth, 
and Erasmus, and Ovid, and Virgil, and Sallust, 
and Ctssar! Oh halcyon days of hare and 
coon hunting, and snare and trap setting, and 
sleighing and snow-balling ! compound of bitter 
and of sweets ! who would riot go back to the 
days and the play-grounds of his childhood, 
were it possible — 

' : And, as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue 
Pants to the place, from which at first she flew, 
I still had hopes, my long vexations past, 
There to return — and die at home at last." 

I doubt not, Mr. Editor, that both you and 
your readers will be well pleased that I have 
not time to pursue my hasty commentaries on 
your January number. 

Calvert. 

From those who are conversant with the 
style of " Calvert," the veil of an anonymous 
signature is too thin to conceal the features of 
one of the most elegant and experienced contri- 
butors to the agricultural literature of America. 
We hope he will find time not only " to pursue 
his commentaries on the January number," but 
to review every other number of the Planter as 
it is hereafter issued. 



For the Southern Planter. 
BEDS— COMFORTERS— MINCE-PIES. 

Mr. Printer, — I don't often spend a night from 
home, but last July I went to see a neighbor, 
richer than John and I. A rain kept me there 
all night. They put rne to sleep in a room right 
well aired, but in a feather bed ? The night was 
very hot, and you may be sure I suffered ! 

Isn't it wonderful that people should know so 
little about comfort, a3 to sleep in feather beds 
in summer % In all the houses I go to, some 
richer and some poorer than ours, I see none but 



feather beds. Now, I have been sleeping, win- 
ter and summer, upon a matress made of corn- 
shucks, with layers of wool, and upon my word, 
I would not give it up, and sleep on a feather 
bed, for fifty dollars a year. The feathers heat 
you too much in warm weather, and at all 
times, they let the body bend so in their mushy 
hollows, that it is filled with aches and cramps. ^ 
Dr. Mason says, (and John calls him my ora- 
cle,) that in bilious fever neighborhoods, people 
who sleep on oratresses like mine, or hair ma- 
tresses either, or nice straw beds, are a great 
deal less apt to have the fever, than people who 
sleep in feather beds. He says the feathers re- 
lax the sj'stem, make the sweat excessive and 
irregular, and disorder the digestive organs. — 
(You see I've learn't some of the Doctor's hard 
words.) 

John went to Middlesex last summer, and 
says they almost sweated him to death in their 
feather beds. They have a fever harvest there 
every September. Such a matress as mine, any 
woman can make, with a little help from her 
husband. I made mine. One can be bought 
for six or eight dollars. I hear that at the Ex- 
change Hotel, and all the most fashionable 
houses, they sleep only upon matresses. 

Now, about comforters. There are many Vir- 
ginia people, quite well off in the world, who 
won't buy blankets, through " economy," as they 
call it. There are others who can't afford to 
buy them ; some, through real poverty, and 
some because they can't spare the money from 
their grog-shop allowance. Most of these peo- 
ple cover their beds with quilts. I would almost 
as lieve have a sheet of iron spread over me, as 
one of these quilts — it is so cold and heavy. — 
There's a philosophy about this, as there is about 
ripe bread. Quilting the bats of cotton in the 
quilts, with such close rows of stitches, makes 
it solid and compact, so that it conducts away 
the heat of the body. For things close-grained, 
or compact, are conductors of heat ; while things 
that are spongy, or open, like locks of wool or 
cotton, are «o«-conductors of heat. Now, I can 
tell these frugal people how they may have co- 
verlets for their beds, a great deal warmer, and 
cheaper too, than bedquilts. 

Take three pounds of cotton, carded in bats. 
Lay them smoothly and regularly over a sheet 
of cotton or cheap calico ; spread over them 
another sheet, and stitch the two sheets to- 
gether by long, easy stitches, in rows at least 
eight or ten inches apart. The stitching is only 
to keep the bats in place. Bind the edges with 
any thing you please. You will find such a 
comforter warmer than three blankets. And 
five pounds of cotton, carded into light, loose 
bats, will make it too warm to sleep under, ex- 
cept in the coldest weather. 

All clothing warms us, not by any warmth 
of its own, but by confining to our bodies the 



52 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



heat that comes out of them. The bats being 
so loose and spongy, make the comforter a non- 
conductor of heat. So it confines the heat to 
our bodies, and keeps them warm. No blankets 
have been on our beds for ten years, and nobody 
sleeps cold in our house. 

JVIince-pies, it is thought, can't be made tooth- 
some without wine or brandy in them. It is 
not so. No pies of mine have had a drop of 
any intoxicating liquor for three years, yet the 
best judges have said, and behind my back, too, 
that my mince-pies were equal to any they had 
ever tasted. Besides, Mr. Printer, I have the 
comfort of knowing, that in these three years, 
no reformed drunkard has ever tasted relapse and 
ruin at my table, though several have eaten of 
my pies, and that no child or servant of ours is 
ever seen coming from the liquor-shop with a 
jug or bottle — no liquor-seller can say " the 
Dumplings are customers" of his. 

This is my 

RECEIPT FOR MINCEPIES WITHOUT WINE OR 
SPIRIT. 

Take 4 pounds of plums — 1 pound of cur- 
rants — 2 of cherries — 3 of beef suet — 4 of su- 
gar — a fresh beefs tongue — \ a pound of cit- 
ron — 1 ounce of mace — \ an ounce of cloves — 
1 nutmeg — the juice of 2 lemons — vinegar to 
your taste. Make mincemeat of these mate- 
rials, and put it by for use. When you make 
pies, add syrup, or juice, of slewed apples to 
make the mincemeat liquid, and some fresh ap- 
ples chopped fine. 

In place of citron, marmalade, or preserves 
will do. 

Dorothy Dumpling. 

Louisa, January, 1844. 



DECAY OF PEACH TREES, 
A singular fact and one worthy of being re- 
corded, was mentioned to us a few days since 
by Mr. Alexander Duke, of Albemarle. He 
stated, that whilst on a visit to a neighbor, his 
attention was called to a large peach orchard, 
every tree in which had been totally destroyed 
by the ravages of the worm, with the exception 
of three ; and these three were probably the 
most thrifty and flourishing peach trees he ever 
saw. The only cause of their superiority known 
to his host, was an experiment made in conse- 
quence of observing that those parts of worm- 
eaten timber into which nails had been driven, 
were generally sound. When his trees were 
about a year old he had selected three of them 
and driven a tenpenny nail through the body 
as near the ground as possible : whilst the ba- 
lance of his orchard had gradually failed and 



finally yielded entirely to the ravages of the 
worms, these three trees, selected at random, 
treated precisely in the same manner, with the- 
exception of the nailing, had always been vigo- 
rous and healthy, furnishing him at that very 
period with the greatest profusion of the most 
luscious fruit. It is supposed that the salt of 
iron afforded by the nail is offensive to the 
worm, whilst it is harmless, or perhaps even 
beneficial, to the tree. 



THE MEASURING CROSS. 
A very intelligent and practical correspondent, 
who is by no means satisfied with the " mea- 
suring cross," extracted from the " Cultivator," 
offers as a substitute for it the following simple 
and convenient mode of measuring heights with 
a square : 

" The " iron square," or " two-foot rule," is 
in the hand of every timber getter. Let a stick 
of convenient length be sharp at one end for 
sticking in the ground, and split at the other 
end to receive and clamp the rule or square, 
with one side of the square horizontal, ranging 
to the root of the tree, and the other side ranging 
upward, and toward the tree. At the twelve 
inch mark, on the long shank of the square, tie 
a string, or make some distinguishing mark; 
then recede from, or approach the tree or object 
to be measured, till you find the position from 
which the extremity of the short shank of the 
square and the twelve inch mark on the long 
shank, range with the top of the object, while 
the horizontal shank ranges with the foot of the 
object. Now, the distance to the foot, is the 
height of the object. 



BEANS FOR SHEEP. 

If you have any beans on hand which are 
unfit for culinary purposes, in consequence of 
being mouldy or rancid, wash them carefully 
and give them to your sheep. There is nothing, 
perhaps, that sheep more admire at this season, 
and a gill a day will be of more benefit to them 
than a pint of corn. It is frequently the case 
that beans are injured by the wet before the 
harvest, or by being stowed away damp, become 
mouldy and unfit for use. In this condition, 
they are often sold for one-half their value, which 
we consider equal to the best corn in any state. 
The vines and pods of beans are also excellent 
feed for sheep, and should be as carefulty hus- 
banded by the farmer, as his corn and hay. 

JVIaine Cultivator, 

The Cultivator tells but half the story. Why 
is a gill of beans better for a sheep than a pint 
of corn ? This is an important problem in sheep 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



53 



husbandry ; and one that not one flock-master 
in a thousand can answer. 

If the object be to form fat in sheep, then the 
remark that beans are worth more than corn is 
not true. For corn contains more of the fat 
forming elements than beans. But if the object 
be to form muscle and wool then the remark is 
true. Beans contain more of the elements of 
wool, than any other cultivated plant. Hence 
nature, ever true to herself, has endowed the 
sheep with a taste for this plant which is denied 
to the -pig. 

Peas, oats, barley and wheat also abound in 
the elements of wool ; but in a less proportion. 



The liquid excretions of all animals furnish the 
largest, as well as the cheapest ' supply of the 
elements of cheese, wool, wheat, beans, &c; 
and yet in consequence of our profound igno- 
rance of the science of organic chemistry, the 
indispensable elements of our food and raiment 
are wastefully thrown away. Through inex- 
cusable ignorance, our cultivators of the soil 
break the laws of nature, and that harmonious 
circle of cause and effect — composition and de- 
composition — which enables us "to reap our 
daily bread from human mould" as Young so 
truthfully expresses our dependent condition. 
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 



LACTOMETER. 




A very common, but a very fallacious test of 
a milch cow, is the quantity of milk she gives. 
Our own experience teaches us that the most 
valuable cows are by no means the largest 
milkers, and by the bye, the best milkers are not 
those that give the greatest quantity at a par- 
ticular time. The greatest quantity we ever 
obtained in a year was from a cow that gave 
about twelve quarts a day, although we have 
had those that gave a great deal more for a 
short time. Therefore, when quantity is spoken 
of, we should always like to know, not how 
many quarts a cow has given at a milking, but 
how much she has given between calf and 
calf. But this is not all: in our estimate, we 
should like to ascertain the quality of the milk ; 
a quart of rich, yellow, creamy milk, not only 
for dairy purposes but for table use, would, in 
our estimation, oulmeasure a bushel of the thin 
blue stuff that some cows have the assurance 
to palm upon us for milk. In judging of these 
differences, taste will do something, and although 
we are not exactly like the man who could not 



tell whether he was hot or cold without looking 
at the thermometer, we confess ourselves very 
much pleased with the description of a little im- 
plement intended to assist the taste in comparing 
the milk of different cows. This instrument is 
represented above. It consists of a mahogany 
frame, 10 inches long, 4 wide, and 8 high, in 
which stand six glass tubes, in a manner resem- 
bling candle-moulds. These tubes are about 11 
inches long, and half an inch in diameter inside. 
Just 1 inches from the bottom, a fi ne line is marked 
round the tubes with the point of a diamond, 
and from this mark three inches downwards is 
graduated into inches and tenths of inches. At 
milking, these tubes are filled exactly to the 
upper line, (one from each cow,) and after stand- 
ing twelve hours, the quantity of cream which 
has risen to the surface is shown by the degrees 
of the scale ; each degree representing one per 
cent, of the whole. Thus, if there should ap- 
pear one inch and two-tenths, it would be twelve 
degrees; or the milk would give twelve per 
cent, of cream. 



54 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



For the Southern Planter. 

IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL AND OF 
THE MIND. 

The late excellent Judge Buel has left us 
much information upon the " improvement of 
the soil and of the mind." If I forget not, he 
generally had an essay on the improvement of 
the mind, for the benefit of the rising generation, 
both male and female. It is evident to every 
observing man, that the improvement of the soil 
and the mind must go together. Their influ- 
ence acts reciprocally on each other. The wisest 
of men, Solomon, says, " I went by the field of 
the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man 
void of understanding ; and lo, it was all grown 
over with thorns, and nettles had covered the 
face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was 
broken down. Then I saw, and considered it 
well ; I looked upon it and received instruction. 
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding 
of the hands to sleep : so shall thy poverty come 
as one that travaileth ; and thy want as an armed 
man," (a sentinel, I suppose, who dare not leave 
his post until relieved.) See Book of Proverbs 
xxiv. 30-34. 

Again he says, " Seest thou a man diligent 
in his business? He shall stand before kings; 
he shall not stand before mean men." 

All nature is progressive, and man, the lord 
of this lower world, by Divine appointment, is 
commanded to grow in favor and knowledge 
of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is 
done, by the works of creation, and revelation, 
understood and obeyed. The Author of all na- 
ture has given a constitution for the physical 
universe, for his creature man, and for Christ's 
Church. These are as immutable as his throne 
and admit of no improvement or amendments. 
Progressiveness is an essential attribute of all 
beings except the Deity — its absence implies 
either a state of absolute perfection, or an insus- 
ceptibility to any improvement. The first state 
is applicable to the Divine Being alone, and the 
second applies not to man, physically, politically, 
intellectually, or religiously considered. Pro- 
gressive improvement — constant, uninterrupted 
and perpetual, entered into the design of God, 
in the formation of all organized bodies, whether 
animate or inanimate, physical or mental. The 
vegetable, animal, and intellectual world, when 
uninterrupted by the perversions of art, afford 
constant, sensible demonstrations of the univer- 
sality of this principle. The infant plant, in its 
regular and rapid advances to a state of matu- 
rity — the infant man passing gradually and re- 
gularly from the cradle upwards, through the 
gradations of boyhood, and manhood, to matu- 
rity of stature and texture; the infant mind, 
which is first limited in its capacities to the di- 
rect objects of sense, but soon acquires the art 
of reasoning and reflection, and continues to ad- 



vance to the stature of a powerful genius, all 
tend to demonstrate this undeniable truth. The 
arts, sciences, politics, and religion, have had 
their infancy, and the various stages of their 
progress and improvement make up their whole 
history. 

How incompatible with the design of God, 
are those authoritative and proscriptive creeds, 
political and religious, which trammel the hu- 
man mind, and set those narrow bounds to in- 
vestigation and research ! What would be the 
result, should some misguided cultivator attempt 
to set physical bounds to his stalks of corn, be- 
fore they arrive to maturity ? or should some 
capricious or fanciful parent invent some physi- 
cal contrivance to prevent the further develop- 
ment of his son's physical system and apply it 
at the age of ten years, what would be the re- 
sult? Equally absurd is it to collect the agri- 
cultural, political or religious sentiments of any 
man or set of men of any age, and out of them 
constitute a proscriptive creed for the prevention 
of all further advances of light and truth : such 
a course would be disastrous to the peace and 
prosperity of society — and has been the cause 
of much political and religious faction, and 
is now rending and tearing the world to pieces. 
This is the fruit of bigotry and intolerance pro- 
duced by the demon of party spirit. 

Demosthenes, when asked the first requisite 
to eloquence, replied, " action" — when asked the 
second, he replied, " action" — and the third, he 
still replied, " action." Industry bears the same 
relation to agriculture that action did to elo- 
quence in the estimation of the Athenian orator. 
With industry the farmer may accomplish every 
thing, and without it, he can do nothing. Let 
him study the value of time. Time is his 
great capital, and should be well invested. The 
wealth of the world, its high civilization, and 
its magnificent improvements, have been created 
and finished by the labor and industry of man. 
The poorest soil and most unfavorable climate 
are scarce impediments to an industrious and 
energetic people. Look at Holland, reclaimed 
from the ocean, fenced in by her embankments 
and mud walls, literally a smiling garden, where 
once there were nothing but bogs and ocean's 
wave. Look at Switzerland, where an indus- 
trious and hardy people, contending against the 
avalanches of snow and ice, and the embank- 
ment of mountain masses of rocks, falling and 
crushing for miles square everything before them, 
have cut the hills and mountains in terraces and 
planted them with vines ; according to the ac- 
count of travellers, lands which before were 
worse than nothing, by this improvement sell 
for ten thousand francs per acre. 

If there is one who may eat his bread at peace 
with God and man, it is that individual who 
has brought that bread out of the earth by his 
own industry — it is cankered by no fraud— it is 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



55 



stained by no blood — it is wet by no tear, but 
the sweat of his own brow. 

I will conclude by giving you the true test of 
fame. The truest seeker after fame is the man 
who labors to make his children useful and 
honorable in their generation. In this way edi- 
tions of his works may go on multiplying, in- 
stead of, perhaps, sinking into oblivion with his 
own time. 

If acceptable, I may furnish extracts of in- ' 
terest, to your readers occasionally, upon the 
various duties of this life. 

King & Q,ueen. 



From the American Fanner. 
DUTCH BUTTER. 

We are indebted to the Nashville "Agricul- 
turist" for the following account of the manage- 
ment of the dairy and the method of making 
butter in Holland; Dr. Frost one of' the editors 
of the Agriculturist is, we believe, a native of 
that country, and, therefore, may be presumed to 
speak advisedly upon the subject, and from our 
knowledge of his character we will add may be 
implicitly relied on. 

" I have never seen or eaten strong butter in 
Holland. I have eaten butter which formed part 
of the provision of an East Indiaman — it went 
from Holland to Batavia, and part of it returned 
again to Holland, and the butter was yet good. 

" Holland has long been celebrated for its fine 
dairies, and the Highland Society of Scotland, 
considering that the Scotch dairies might derive 
some advantages from an acquaintance with the 
management of those of Holland, offered a pre- 
mium for the best report upon that subject, found- 
ed upon personal observation. The premium 
was, in 1833, awarded to John Mitchell, whose 
report, filled with interesting facts and details, is 
published in the Transactions of the Highland 
Society for that year. In the quotations from the 
London Journal, the superior qualities and higher 
market value of Dutch butter was referred to. 
Some idea of the dairy produce of Holland may 
be gained by considering that, in addition to the 
home consumption of a populous country, and 
the vast quantities sent to other parts of the 
world, England imported in 1830 no less than 
116,233 cwt. of Dutch butter, and 167,917 cwt. 
of Dutch cheese. 

"The pastures in Holland, as is generally 
known, have been reclaimed from the ocean, the 
waters of which are kept off by artificial em- 
bankments. The lands, of course, lie very low 
and flat, and as the water in the numerous ca- 
nals is always near the top, the soil must be 
moist. The ground is seldom broken up with 
the plough, but is kept in good condition by top 
dressings, consisting chiefly of the solid and 
especially the liquid manures collected in the 



cow-houses, mixed with the scrapings of the 
small canals. The first year after such dressing 
the land is generally mown for hay. 

" The Hollanders make careful selections of 
their cows for their dairy, the price of good ones 
being usually from $40 to $45 — they are gen- 
erally fattened and turned off to the butcher at 
eight years old, and the bulls at four or five. — 
The cows are turned to pasture in March or 
April, and are at first covered with a very thick 
cloth of tow, covering the upper half of the 
body from the shoulders to the tail, to prevent- 
disease from cold. They are pastured about 
thirty weeks. Hay is their common food in 
winter, though rape-cake and brewer's grains 
are sometimes added. The byers or cow-houses 
are generally lofty, airy, paved with large square 
bricks, and kept perfectly clean. The roof is 
about ten feet high. There are no racks oi 
mangers, but the food placed in gutters, always 
clean, near their heads. Gutters in the rear 
serve to carry off the urine and dung, and these 
gutters are also kept clean. 

" The cows are always milked by the men, 
and the butter and cheese made by the women, 
generally of the family. Ninety cows are ma- 
naged by nine men and two women. There is 
generally one man required to ten cows ; while 
two women are considered enough for any dai- 
ry ; the farmer reckons that he can make one 
hundred guilders, about forty dollars per annum, 
by each cow. 

" There are three distinct kinds of butter made 
in Holland : grass butter, made when the cows 
are at grass ; ivhey butter, from the whey of 
sweet milk cheese ; and hay butter, made in 
winter. 

" Grass Butter. — The cows being carefully 
milked to the last drop, the pitchers containing 
the milk are put into the Kalbok, or coolers. — 
When the cream has been gathered and is 
soured, and if there is a sufficient quantity from 
the number of cows, they churn every twenly- 
four hours, the churn being half filled with the 
soured cream. A little boiled warm water is 
added in winter to give the whole a proper de- 
gree of heat, and in very warm weather the 
milk is first cooled in the Krelbok. In small 
dairies the milk is sometimes churned, when 
soured, without separating the cream. The 
butter, immediately after being taken out of the 
churn, is put into a shallow tub. called a vloot, 
and carefully washed with pure cold water. It 
is then worked with a slight sprinkling of fine 
salt, whether for immediate use or the barrel. — 
When the cows have been three weeks at grass, 
the butter is delicious, is made in fanciful shapes 
of lambs, stuck with flowers of the polyanthus, 
etc., and sell as high as 44 stivers, 70 to 80 
cents, the 17^ oz. or Dutch pound. If intended 
for barrelling, the butter is worked up twice or 
thrice a day, with soft, fine salt, for three days 



56 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



in a flat tub, there being about two pouuds of 
this salt allowed for fotrteen pounds of butter; 
the butter is then hard packed, by thin layers 
into casks, which casks are previously seasoned 
and cleaned. They are alwa} T s of oak, well 
smoothed inside. Before being used they are 
allowed to stand three or four days, filled with 
sour whey, and thereafter carefully washed out 
and dried. Each cow, after being sometime at 
grass, yield about one Dutch pound (17^ oz ) of 
butter per day. 

" We beg our dairy-women to mark two points 
in the preceding process. No salt is used but 
what is incorporated with and dissolved in the 
butter, and which is necessary to give it flavor ; 
and 2d. The butter intended for keeping is 
worked from six to ten times, to incorporate the 
salt, and to seperate from it every particle of li- 
quid, which if left in it, would induce rancidity. 

" Hay Butter, undergoes a like process. 

" Whey Butter. — The whey is allowed to 
stand three days or a week, after being separated 
from the curd, when the cream is skimmed 
off, or the whey itself put into the churn, and 
the butter is formed in about an hour. By this 
process, in winter one pound of butter is obtained 
from each cow in a week, and in summer one 
pound and a half. The relative prices of, are 
generally — 

"Grass butter S| stiver — 17 cents. 

" Hay butter 7 stiver — 13 cents. 

" Whey butter 6 stiver — 12 cents. 

T„ Editor." 



For the Southern Planter. 
POUDRETTE. 

Mr. Editor, — In the last number of the Planter, 
page 12, you remark that "Mr. Minor himself 
must by this time be convinced that he was 
grossly imposed upon in the article he sent us." 
No, sir, he is by no means convinced of any 
such thing — he is only convinced that from some 
cause, either from drought or some peculiarity of 
soil or season, the poudrette did not produce its 
ordinary effect in Virginia, last year, and he 
does not hesitate to say that if the ground where 
it was applied last year is planted with corn 
this year, and carefully observed, its effects will 
be seen. 

It was a common remark, in July and Au- 
gust, or during the very dry time last summer, 
by those who had used poudrette, that they were 
apprehensive it would not answer their expecta- [ 
tions — yet thus far we have had but a single 
unfavorable report in this vicinity, and that was 
on the light dry soil of New Jersey, where the 
corn did not come up at all — of course it was the 
"humbug" poudrette, and nothing else, which 
prevented the corn from growing. 

I have called, in the Cultivator and American 
Agriculturist, upon all who have used it to give 



me full reports — the kind of soil, crops, and 
quantity used, and how applied, in reply to 
which I have received, and send you the copy 
of a letter from Hon. R. M. Sherman, of Fair- 
field, Connecticut, and also a copy of the " Far- 
mers' Cabinet" for January, in which you will 
find three short letters — the one from Dr. Emer- 
son I never saw until I read it in the Cabinet — 
and you will oblige me by giving them all, to- 
gether with this, a place in the next number of 
the Planter ; I desire more to stand fairly before 
your readers, as an upright business man, than 
to sell them poudrette. I travelled extensively 
through Virginia in 1823 and 1824, and became 
partially known to many persons whose good 
opinion, though I may not now be recollected 
by them, I value more highly than any amount 
of money I can possibly expect to derive from 
the State by the sale of poudrette, or otherwise, 
and therefore 1 may make larger calls, from time 
to time, upon your columns than may be conve- 
nient to you — yet / am sure you will give me 
fair play, and that is all I ask, as I know 1 am 
right and shall prevail; and I say to you in all 
confidence that in less than ten years the mate- 
rial of which poudrette is made will be gathered 
and preserved with as much care, throughout 
this country, as oats or potatoes, when ready to 
harvest, and mainly through my instrumentali- 
ty, as, when in 1837 I undertook the preparation 
of poudrette and its introduction among the far- 
mers, it was " a by-word and a reproach," and 
no other man in this vicinity could be induced to 
undertake it ; yet, against prejudice, ridicule, op- 
position, detraction, and lack of means to work to 
advantage, I have persevered for six years, yield- 
ing for several years other more agreeable pur- 
suits, until the difficulties are mainly overcome; 
and the demand was last spring, and will be next, 
greater than the supply, notwithstanding I have 
commenced the manufacture in Philadelphia 
also, under much more favorable circumstances 
than here. 

I am, sir, respectfully yours, 

D. K. Minor. 
January 18, 1844. 

Nothing but a strict sense of justice to our 
subscribers, would ever induce us to express an 
opinion unfavorable to an article, in the value of 
which the interest or reputation of any particu- 
lar individual is involved. Not the least of the 
difficulties arising from such a course, is the loss 
of the command of our own columns, of which 
to a certain extent it deprives us. It is very 
difficult to resist the appeal to our sense of jus- 
tice with which the above was accompanied ; 
yet we believe a large majority of our readers 
think we have already devoted more space to 
the consideration of this subject than it is entitled 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



57 



to. In a general point of view, the value of 
human excrement is an important question, but 
the discussion of the purity of Mr. Minor's pro- 
duction, although far more interesting to that 
particular gentleman, is infinitely less so to much 
the- larger portion of our readers ; and as the 
paper belongs to them and not to us, we are 
only "obeying instructions,'' in determining to 
condense into general statements, particulars 
that may hereafter be furnished. Mr. Minor 
must also pardon us, if instead of copying the 
three letters referred to in the " Farmers' Cabi- 
net," we state in general terms, that they con- 
tain very flattering testimonials as to the efficacy 
of this same poudrette applied to corn, wheat, 
and grass ; they are also backed by similar state- 
ments, of the highest authority, in the "Ameri- 
can Farmer." But as the reports from this re- 
gion have been so unfavorable, we will insert 
the following letters of an opposite character 
from Mr. Lyons and Dr. McCaw. Mr. Lyons' 
statement will perhaps help considerably in re- 
moving the burden of failure from Mr. Minor's 
shoulders, to the season. Dr. McCaw's letter is 
a very interesting one, for there is no greater 
desideratum with the tobacco planter, than an 
article which would secure him a good stand of 
plants. 

To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Dear Sir,— As I differ " toio ccelo" from Mr. 
Taylor, of Union Village, as to the value of the 
" Planter," I enclose you the subscription for two 
3'ears, and charge you nothing "for my trouble ;" 
I will ask, however, the privilege of making 
one or two suggestions. The first is, that you 
will in future put the "month" upon the cover 
of the Planter. My reason for this suggestion 
is, that although I read the paper as soon as it 
comes to rny hands, yet frequently desire to re- 
fer to it, and wishing to find the " Planter" of a 
certain month, I am obliged to open many num- 
bers very often before I find the one desired. — 
This occasions some trouble and delay, which 
would be avoided if the month was printed upon 
the head of the cover* 

The next suggestion is, that probably some 

* TJ j- lion has been made before, and we 

are perfectly aware that it would be a convenience 
era. But our subscription list varies 
so much from month to month that we are compelled 
to strike off a large edition of covers to provide for 
contingencies : if the month were printed upon the 
yould be useless to us, whereas 
can now be used for succeeding months. But 
i eration should not prevent us from corn- 
request, if it were not so easy for the 
ribcr himself to supply the defect, by writing 
the w.m" of the month on the cover when he rece 
the paper.— En. i 

Vol.. IV.-S 



of 3 T our correspondents and contributors have 
done injustice, unintentionally, to Mr. Minor in 
relation to his Poudrette. This inference is 
founded upon a little experiment of my own, 
which I will state. I purchased of you, as you 
know, two barrels of poudrette, which you re- 
ceived from Mr. Minor, and I caused them to be 
applied to a portion of my turnip patch and to 
a lot of rnangel-wurtzel. Before the manure 
was applied, I had a conversation with Mr.Wood- 
fin in relation to the use of poudrette, and espe- 
cially as to the manner of applying it, and at 
the close of it he kindly offered me a bushel of 
his poudrette, for the purpose of being applied 
in comparison with the poudrette obtained from 
you, which I of course accepted. I directed 
my overseer to divide the ground into three parts 
by an intervening furrow, and to apply to one 
portion of it the poudrette received from j t ou, to 
another that received from Mr. Woodfin, and to 
the third, the common stable manure. The re- 
sult was, that the beets failed from being planted 
too late, and a wet and backward spring. The 
turnips were very luxuriant, and of fine size, 
but were injured from not being properly thinned, 
and those manured with poudrette were better 
than those manured with stable manure, but I 
could not perceive that there was any difference 
in growth between those manured with Mr. Mi- 
nor's poudrette and Mr. Woodfin's. 

The foliage of each parcel was very fine, and 
the turnips were of fine size and flavor. I was 
struck, however, by the fact that the turnips 
which w r ere manured with poudrette, fired in a 
manner which I have not before remarked, so 
that while the turnip was yet growing, the leaves 
became perfectly j'ellow and then fell, and in 
some instances, the turnip itself seemed to be 
entirely decayed, and I thought, though it may 
have been imaginary, that the turnips manured 
with Mr. Minor's poudrette fired more than those 
manured with Mr. Woodfin's. Both certainly 
fired very much, while the turnips manured with 
stable manure fired very little. What caused 
this firing I pretend not to say. but it seems to 
have been the effect, in part at least, of the pou- 
drette ; for if it had been occasioned by the sea- 
son, each parcel of turnips would have fired 
alike ; and my inference, therefore, is, that there 
is either some ingredient in the poudrette which 
is too heating, or it was applied in too large 
quantity. Of course I do not intend to contro- 
vert any fact stated by any of your correspond- 
ents, nor do I affirm that the barrels of poudrette 
which I purchased did not contain materials si- 
milar to those found in the barrels which some 
of them opened, for I did not see my own bar- 
rels opened, but sent them unopened to my over- 
seer, with directions to apply the manure ac- 
cording to Mr. Woodfin's advice. But I infer 
that Mr. Minor conld not have intended to prac- 
tice an imposition, because if he had, I should 



58 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



have been as likely to get a barrel of the spu- 
rious article as any other person, and I infer that 
I did not, because every one who knows Mr. 
Woodfln, knows that he is incapable of practic- 
ing a trick, and if capable of it, he would not 
be silly enough to do it upon a friend, to whom 
he was making a donation for the purpose of 
experiment ; and if Mr. Minor's article had been 
spurious, it would have been detected in the 
comparison with Mr. Woodfin's. 

I must say, however, that I am satisfied that 
poudrette is too expensive, at present prices, for 
extensive field use, though most probably highly 
beneficial and profitable in gardening. 

Very respectfully, L. 

January 2, 1844. 

To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Dear Sir, — I obtained from you last spring a 
barrel of poudrette, with the view of making 
an experiment of its action on tobacco plants, 
and promised to report the result, which 1 have 
heretofore omitted to do from circumstances be- 
yond my control. I failed to receive the article 
until the 14th of May. 

On the 15th, I applied two-thirds of the bar- 
rel broad-cast on a plant bed of about six hun- 
dred square yards, never previously manured. — 
There was a portion of the bed of about twenty- 
five square yards, where the plants looked better 
and were on an average about double the size 
of the others, where the soil was much better, 
and to which no poudrette was applied. A few 
hours after the application, there came on a gen- 
tle shower, of some hours duration. 

Seven days after, I examined the bed, and 
found that the plants on the spot where the ap- 
plication had not been made, had no advantage 
in size, whereas the growth on the rest of the 
bed had every evidence of greater luxuriance, 
and such was the character of the experiment 
throughout the planting season. I am so well 
satisfied with the result of this experiment, that 
I expect to profit by it on a much larger scale 
this year. 

The rest of the poudrette was applied to a 
smaller bed, but nothing satisfactory could be 
ascertained from it, as it had been previously 
manured and destroyed by grass. 
Yours, respectfully, 

David McCaw. 

Powhatan, Jan. 12, 1844. 

On the other hand, we are bound to say that 
we have received a communication from Dr. R. 
H. Nelson, of Hanover, stating that he had ap- 
plied, last spring, five barrels of this poudrette 
to plant beds, corn, and tobacco, according to 
the printed advice of Mr. Minor, without pro- 
ducing in any instance the least perceivable be- 



nefit. He concludes with the following remark : 
"From the foregoing experiments I am decided- 
ly of opinion, that there never was a greater 
imposition put upon the farming community." 



.SOCIETY OF ARTS— CONSUMPTION OF 
SMOKE. 

A numerous meeting was held yesterday 
evening, Mr. Hobly, Vice President, in the chair, 
when Mr. Dicks gave a description of a new 
furnace for the combustion of fuel without the 
production of smoke. This subject is now ex- 
citing considerable attention on account of the 
recent select committee of the House of Com- 
mons appointed to investigate the cause, and 
point out means for the prevention of smoke. — 
The plan proposed by Mr. Dicks is to adopt the 
same principle to furnaces as the common av- 
gand lamp, or to diffuse as large a quantity of 
air from as many orifices as possible upon the 
burning mass of fuel. In such a case the che- 
mical means necessary for complete combustion, 
are as perfect as possible, and the result is that 
the whole of the vaporisable matters which, un- 
der ordinary circumstances, are given off either 
as black or colorless smoke, are made available 
for the support of combustion. This plan for 
obtaining complete combustion is already in ex- 
tensive use in different parts of the metropolis, 
and with entire success in the total suppression 
of smoke. — English paper. 



For the Southern Planter. 
HERDSGRASS. 

Mr. Editor, — Though not a farmer profes- 
sionally, my circumstances have been such as 
to afford me an opportunity of knowing some- 
thing about herdsgrass. I appreciate the diffi- 
culties of your Powhatan subscriber in relation 
to herdsgrass, respecting which he requests in- 
formation ; and, although the request is ad- 
dressed, especially, to your Nottoway corre- 
spondent, P. B. W., as it is not confined to him, 
I may, without indecorum, suggest the follow- 
ing for his consideration. On thin ground, to 
secure success, the seed should be much thicker 
sown, than is necessary on good ground. Un- 
der the most favorable circumstances, spring 
sowing is not so likely to succeed as fall sowing. 
Because in a very tender state, it has to con- 
tend with the drought of summer, and the na- 
tive weeds. But to the point. 

1st. " In what proportion should the oats and 
grass seed be mixed ?" Much will depend on 
the quantity of oats seeded to the acre. Some 
would say half a bushel is enough for " thin 
land ;" others, three pecks ; and others, a bushel. 
Again, much depends on the quality of the 
seed — whether well cleaned, or a half or three- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



59 



fourths litter, as is often the case. Whatever 
may be the measure of oats, not less than half 
a bushel of good grass seed should be put to the 
acre ; they can't be too thick. Of badly cleaned 
seed, I put a bushel or more to the acre. 

2d. " Whether or not will the grass seed bear 
being got in with small turning ploughs ?" It 
may be a labor-saving plan ; but, by it, most of 
the seed will probably be lost. It is a small 
feeble spire at first. Even if the seed germi- 
nate, it cannot make its way through a superin- 
cumbent mass of earth from two to four inches 
thick, especially when run together and hardened 
by rain, wind and sun. I advise that the grass 
seed be sown mixed with ashes and plaster of 
Paris, after the oats have been ploughed in, if 
they must be so got in. Then brush the land ; 
or, if you do not brush, the grass seed will stand 
a better chance on the surface than turned under 
by the plough. 

3d. " Will herdsgrass seed take on wheat 
land, seeded in winter or spring?" Yes; sow 
now — sow all winter, and early in spring ; and, 
on good land, you are likely to do well. When 
the wheat is taken off, the young grass is in 
danger from the scorching sun, as is especially 
the case on the oat land, when the oats are cut 
off. To guard against this calamity, as much 
as possible, sow the land with plaster soon after 
harvest. In a dry season, this should not be 
neglected. 

4th. "What preparation," &c. "for a hay 
meadow?" Answer. Make the best selection 
you can of land. It should be rich. If not 
rich, make it so. If so situated that you can 
water it at pleasure, it is a very valuable consi- 
deration. Keep it well cultivated through the 
spring and summer — if without a crop, the bet- 
ter. In the latter part of August or in Septem- 
ber give the land a fresh stirring, make it fine 
and smooth, and sow it down, while fresh, with 
about one bushel of good, clean seed to the acre, 
and in all probability, next August you will be 
paid for your labor. Seed sown at that period 
avoids the scorching summer sun, and gains 
strength to stand the frost of winter. Let ihe 
first cutting be delayed till the seed is ripe ; thus 
the thin spots, if any, will become thickly set. 
Fail not to cut over the whole surface, though 
it appear thin and unprofitable. It must be done 
to destroy the rising weeds and briers, and give 
entire ascendency to the herdsgrass. The se- 
cond year's crop will convince you, that that the 
process is a good one. I have said more than 
I expected when I commenced this subject. I 
did not know how to say less. If it can be of 
any service to your correspondent, let him have 
it. 

Your?, respectfully, 

Cumberland. 

January 17, 1844. 



AYRSHIRE COWS. 
We have seen nothing to change the opinion 
heretofore expressed, that the Ayrshire was the 
stock best adapted to the short herbage and 
rough usage to which milch cows are subjected 
in Virginia. We do not mean that they will 
give extraordinary quantities of milk, or even 
live long, on hen's grass, but we are satisfied 
that they are more hardy and better adapted to 
our soil and habits than their more lordly and 
luxuriant rivals, the Durhams. We had no idea, 
however, that they approximated, as milkers, 
the quantities with which they are credited in 
the following report. We are indebted for this 
paper to the kindness of a friend ; it is the re- 
port made by Mr. Randall, as Chairman of the 
Committee on Ayrshire Stock, to the American 
Institute last fall, and is now published for the 
first time: 

"Jtfr. President and Gentlemen, — Your Com- 
mittee have very imperfectly attended to the 
duty assigned them by you, last evening, and 
offer as an excuse, that a portion of them have 
been occupied by a very arduous task among 
the cattle on the show ground, as judges on 
stock. They are prepared, however, from the 
limited knowledge they have of the Ayrshire 
breed of cattle, and from the best information 
they have been able to procure, to offer the fol- 
lowing as their report : 

"The Ayrshire cows are of medium size, 
their average living weight about eight hundred 
and ninety pounds. Their peculiarities are as 
follows : — They are low in the leg, and fine in 
the bone, with a round and capacious barrel — 
rather heavy in the hind quarter — straight on 
the back — the neck and head very light — the 
neck well set on — no dewlap — horns small, 
short and clear — the tail very small — a true 
taper in the barrel from the back rib to shoul- 
ders — fore quarters light — the udder an oblong 
square, rounded off on lower part, and running 
far forward — their teats small and well spread ; 
they are a very hard}' race of animals, with 
good constitutions, and when dry, disposed to 
take on flesh quickly. Your Committee are of 
the opinion that the Ayrshire breed of cattle 
stand unrivalled as a dairy breed, and will give a 
better return in milk and butter, for the food con» 
sumed, than any breed of cattle now known. 

" It is a fact well established, that the beef of 
the Ayrshire breed will sell in the Glasgow and 
Edinborough market for one penny per pound 
more than that of any other breed. 

"Your Committee have, from their own know- 
ledge and from information from such sources as 
can be relied on, ascertained that the average 
quantity of milk from common Ayrshire cows 



60 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of milk, requue to be milked three times in each j "All of which is most respectfully submitted." 



MR. GEDDES' HARROW 

{Scale, half an inch to the foot's 




We are indebted to George Geddes, Esq., 
of Onondaga county, for the drawing from which 
the above engraving was made, as well as for 
the annexed description of the harrow, invented 
by him some years since, and which has been 
extensively used in that part of the State, and 
found superior to any other known there. With 
the aid of the description and drawing, our 
readers in any part of the country will be able 
to get them made for their own use, as there is 
no patent for it. — Cultivator. 

Description.— Timber, three inches square. 

The side pieces should enter the centre pieces 
so that the acute angle will contain thirty-five 
degrees. Or the bevel may be found by laying 
a carpenter's square on a board, and measuring 
on one side of the corner three inches, and on I 
the other two inches and one-twelfth of 'an inch • ! 
a line drawn through these points will make a j 



triangle, having the smaller angle, that is the 
angle at the point where the three inches 
reached, — the angle required. 

The tenons should enter the centre pieces only 
one inch, the mortise and tenon being cut square 
with the centre pieces, as shown in the engrav- 
ing. If this joint is well made, the bolt passing 
through both sticks will keep the timber in place 
perfectly. ^The side pieces have each three 
bolts, X, X, X, passing through the middle, to 
prevent their splitting. The back hinge is made 
of Swede's iron, bolted at A, B, C, D, E, F, on the 
timber with half inch bolts. These bolts should 
be well made, and have large heads on the 
lower end, as if any thing breaks, it probably 
will be these bolts. 

The forward hinge is made with Swede's 
iron, and bolted on the top of the timber, with 
three bolts in each side of the hinge. 



/ 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



61 



The hook plays freely in an eye on the end 
of a rod, made of round iron, five-eighths of an 
inch in diameter, which runs through both 
hinges ; having a washer, nut and spring kej T , 
behind the back hinge. The eyes in the hinges 
should be the thickness of the iron above the 
timber, consequently the rod running through 
the eyes will be that much above the timber. 

The hinges should be four and one-half feet 
apart from centre to centre. 

The centre pieces are one inch apart. 

The side pieces 'should be twelve or thirteen 
inches apart in the clear, measuring square 
across. 

The four teeth in the centre pieces require to 
be made straight on one side, instead of having 
the point in the centre, as their places are near 
the sides of the timber. 

The teeth should be seven-eighths of an inch 
.square. 

This drawing of my harrow, shows all the 
improvements in its construction that have been 
made since you published the engraving in 1S36. 

I have attempted to show every thing in this 
drawing, and to give so minute a description 
that any common mechanic shall be able to 
construct a harrow without making mistakes. 

A harrow having thirty teeth passing within 
two inches of each other, from centre to centre, 
is just what is wanted on ground under good 
cultivation. On land just cleared, the teeth 
should be further apart, perhaps four inches. 

The advantages that my harrow possesses 
over the hinged square harrow, are very great. 
It draws easier. One reason for this is, that the 
line of draft passes through the middle of the 
harrow, having just as much weight, and just 
as many teeth, (and they equi-distant therefrom,) 
on each side ; consequently, the harrow on an 
even surface, moves straight forward, without 
producing any vibrating of the whiffietrees, as 
the square harrow does. 

Another advantage is, it is easily cleared of 
foul stuff. The driver, without stopping his 
, lifts up one side, and the stone or stick 
falls out. 

The teeth track better, and instead of leaving 
a few large marks on mellow ground, it leaves 
small marks. 

It is sironger, and when broken is easier re- 
paired than any other harrow. 

It is cheaper than a well made thirty tooth 

re harrow, and the expensive part, (hinges, 

rod and bolts.) will last a very long time. The 

of one of my harrows, made of the very 

best of timber, the teeth all steel pointed, and' 

the Wi I iwice, is twelve dolla 

*Asitn ome unacqm inted 

Mr. t, ribed, 

ruction eem 

per to State that such is not the in 

folic-, the only solicitucU ! e 6 • 



I request any person that may attempt to 
construct a harrow from my plate and descrip- 
tion, to follow the directions exactly. If it should 
be supposed that improvements can be made, I 
beg that first an experiment be made after my 
directions — -then improve, and if the improve- 
ment is not found to be backwards, give it to 
the public. 

I have been using this harrow for eleven years. 
Since you published the engraving in 1836, 
which showed the principles involved, I have 
made great improvements in the manner of put- 
ting it together ; but all the attempts to alter it 
fundamentally, have, so far as I have learned, 
been failures, and sometimes the experimenter 
has laid his to somebody besides himself. 

My only wish now, in relation to this harrow, 
is, that it may be made correctly ; that this may 
be done, I have prepared the drawing. I have 
no fears but that it will prove to be better than 
any other in use, if fairly tested. 

Geo. Geddes. 

Tyler, JV. F., JYov. 30, 1843. 



REAPING MACHINES. 
We have received a letter from Mr. McCor- 
mick in which he rather complains of our not 
having done him justice last year in noticing 
the contest that took place in this vicinity be- 
tween himself and Mr. Hussey. We are not 
only desirous to deal out evenhanded justice to 
each of these gentlemen, but we are anxious to 
discharge our duty to our subscribers, to whom 
we are under greater obligations than to either 
of them. We will, therefore, put them in pos- 
session of all the facts touching the premises 
that have come to our knowledge, and then ex- 
press the opinion we have formed of the two 
machines, letting it go for what it is worth. — 
During the last harvest, these machines were 
brought together, first, at Mr. Hutchinson's, about 
four miles above the city : we were not present, 
but understand, that an informal committee was 
raised amongst the by-standers, who expressed 
a preference for Mr. McCormick's machine, but 
awarded' Hussey great credit for his operation. 
Mr. Hussey informed us, both before and after 
this trial, that peculiar circumstances forced him 
to use a small and indifferent machine, which 
was by no means a fair representative of his in- 
vention. Mr. Roane, who was one of the com- 

is that of the inventor; but that should an}- person 
desire a harrow of tin's construction, by addressing a 
note to Oren Barton, Tyler P. O., New York, postage 
p; id, i nclosing twelve dollars, a harrow, made in the 
i ill be put on the canal, directed and 

forwarded to any place required. — Eds. Cultivator. 



62 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



mittee and who signed the report favorable to 
McCormick, told us afterwards, that he did so 
very reluctantly ; and being anxious to see them 
both farther tested, invited them to meet at Tree 
Hill a few days afterwards. We were present 
at this second trial for a part of the time, (they 
cut together, we believe, for a whole day,) and 
were much delighted with the performance of 
both. In the absence of either, we should have 
imagined that the other could not have been 
equalled. Some twelve or fifteen farmers were 
present, and as far as we could gather the public 
sentiment, it was very equally divided between 
them. Mr. Roane instituted this comparison for 
the purpose of choosing between the two, and 
his conclusion may be pretty clearly gathered 
from the following letter, which we find in the 
American Farmer: 

"Tree Hill, January 23, 1844. 

" Dear Sir, — I received a few days ago your 
letter of the 17th instant, on the subject of your 
reaping machine ; you call my recollection to a 
trial between it and Mr. McCormick's reaper at 
Mr. Hutchinson's, in July last, on which occa- 
sion I ' was one of a committee which gave the 
preference to Mr. McCormick's machine ;' you 
also advert to a trial between these rival ma- 
chines a few days subsequent, at this place, and 
request to know my impressions after this se- 
cond trial. I presume from the fact of my hav- 
ing ordered one of your reapers for the ensuing 
harvest, that it is your purpose to publish this 
statement. Averse as I am to having my name 
in print on this, or any other occasion, I cannot 
with propriety decline a response to your inqui- 
ry. I had never seen or formed an idea of a 
reaping machine until I went to Hutchinson's — j 
I was surprised and delighted with the perform- 
ance of each of them, and fully resolved to own 
one of them by the next harvest, but their per- ' 
formance that day left me in a state of doubt 
which I should select. The report spoke in ; 
terms of high praise of each machine, and 1 
consented to its award, that on the whole Mr. j 
McCormick's was preferable, merely because * 
being the cheapest, and requiring but two horses, 
it would best suit the majority of our farmers, , 
who make small crops of wheat on weak land — 
for I doubted its capacity in heavy grain. After 
this report was made I heard your complaint 
that you did not have a fair trial, because being 
unable to bring into the field your large improved 
reaper, which was up the river, you were com- 
pelled to comply with your engagement for the 
day, with a small and inferior machine, drawn 
by an indifferent and untutored team. Mr. 
Hutchinson's wheat was badly rusted, and there- 
fore light. I had ready for the scythe, a low 



ground field of heavy and well matured grain : 
partly to expedite my harvest work, and partly 
to renew the trial, that I might solve my doubts 
as to the merits of these machines, I succeeded 
in engaging them to be at Tree Hill on a named 
day — they both came agreeable to appointment, 
M'"- McCormick bringing the machine he used 
at Hutchinson's, and you bringing the one you 
could not on that occasion bring down the river. 
The day was fine, and both machines did their 
best, and had a very fair trial. My doubts were 
fully removed, and my mind convinced that in 
the heavy wheat we raise, on our river low 
grounds, rich bottoms, &c, your machine is su- 
perior to Mr. McCormick's, of which I still think 
highly — I accordingly ordered one of 3'ours to 
be made for the approaching harvest. 

" I wish you all possible success in cutting 
hemp in the ' Great West.' It must be very 
desirable to cut that valuable plant instead of 
pulling it up by the roots, and I cannot doubt 
that your reaper has ample power for the process. 
Most respectfully, yours, &c. 

W. H. Roane. 

Mr. Obed Hussev, Baltimore." 

For our own part, we consider both of these 
machines admirable in their construction, but 
certainly each has advantages over the other. 
McCormick's is cheaper, lighter, of easier draft, 
and will, we think, cut better in damp wheat or 
where there is much undergrowth of weeds and 
other succulent matter. But above all, the 
greatest recommendation to this machine, is, 
that it has stood the test of experience, and we 
have read and heard the most satisfactory testi- 
monials from some of our best farmers, who 
have tried it through one or two harvests. On 
the contrary, as they appeared to us last sum- 
mer, Hussey's seemed to be stronger, simpler, 
better made, more compact, and more rapid in 
execution. The raker, who has a very arduous 
task with McCormick, has comparatively no- 
thing to do with Hussey. A drawing and more 
particular description of each machine, may be 
found respectively, at pages 12 and GS of the 
third volume of the Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 

STRAW CUTTERS. 

Mr. Bolts, — My attention has been called 
to a communication over your name in the 'Al- 
bany Cultivator" for January, in which you un- 
dertake to correct what you suppose to be a 
misstatement with respect to the fitness of your 
knife for cutting cornstalks: you say it may 
answer for the small stalks of the North, but it 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



63 



is not suited for such as grow at the South. 
Now with all due deference I beg leave to differ 
with you entirely. I flatter myself that I live 
in a country where cornstalks grow as large as 
they do almost anywhere. I am in the habit of 
cutting off my stalks close to the ground, and 
for the last two or three years that I have been 
using your cutter I have passed them through 
it, without the slightest injury to the knife, to 
the superiority of which in every respect I most 
cheerfully bear my unqualified testimony. I 
volunteer this statement, which you will oblige 
me by inserting in the Planter from a desire of 
disseminating a knowledge of one of the best 
and most useful agricultural implements I ever 
saw* 

Your obedient servant, 

Peter Hanger. 
Waynesborough, Augusta, Va., February, 1844. 



puts it about his gullies and galls — thus inviting 
the cattle to frequent such spots and enrich the 
soil (on which he has scattered herdsgrass seed) 
by their "deposites." 

Junior. 
December 6, 1843. 

We have frequently noticed objections in the 
northern papers to curing hay with salt, on ac- 
count of its injurious effects upon the animals 
to which it was fed, arising from the unnatural 
excess of salt with which they were thereby 
drugged. But we had imagined that if a plen- 
tiful supply of salt were placed at the disposal 
of the animal, instinct would direct him as to 
the quantity required for his system. 



For the Southern Planter. 
SALT— AN INJURY TO STOCK IN WINTER. 

In conversation with a very practical farmer, 
who has been successful in raising stock, (I re- 
fer to Dr. Venable, of Mecklenburg, — I know 
he will excuse the liberty of giving him as au- 1 
thority, for what follows,) I was a little sur- 
prised to hear from him, that if he was requested 
to give a recipe, for the most effectual method 
of gradually destroying a good flock of sheep, 
he would say — "Salt them freely from the 1st of] 
November or December to the 1st of April." He 
thinks also, that it is very injurious to cattle, to 
salt them during the winter months. His rea- j 
son for this opinion is, that the use of salt creates j 
an unnatural thirst, and the introduction of cold 
water into the stomach of the animal (especially 
of sheep) is followed by many of the " ills that 
brutes are heir to." I am very sure, Mr. Editor, 
that the Doctor is very willing and would desire 
to hear any objections and reasons in opposition 
to his theory, and I hope you, or some of your 
correspondents, will give their " notions" on this 
subject. The theory is supported (the Doctor 
tells me) by facts — a very satisfactory mode of 
argument. Those of his neighbors who have 
made free use of salt in winter have lost their 
sheep and cattle : he and others of his neighbors 
have been very successful in rearing them. 

The Doctor, however, advocates the free and 
frequent use of salt for cattle, from 1st April to 
1st November. He gives it three times a week. 
He does not give the salt alone. He makes use 
of the following recipe, viz : 

Mix 4 bushels of clay, 2 bushels of salt, 2 
pounds of sulphur, and 2 pounds of saltpetre : 
he gives the mixture in ample quantities, and 
sometimes makes up the mixture in cakes, and 

* I give it up.— C, T. B. 



HORSE SHOEING. 

A writer upon the subject of "shoeing," ad- 
verting to the frog and the diseases that proceed 
from its inaction, maintains, that it should be 
always, as in a state of nature, subjected to 
pressure. He gives the following directions for 
shoeing : 

The horse's foot being circular, and not oval, 
the shoe should be made in that form ; or rather 
the shoe should be measured, and the shoe 
made exactly to correspond. An oval or elliptic 
foot is generally, nay, we may say always dis- 
eased. It has assumed that shape in conse- 
quence of the contraction of the bars, brought 
on solely by a diseased state of the frog for want 
of pressure; and in no one instance of oval- 
formed feet will the frogs be found healthy. — 
The moment the foot is lifted from the ground, 
the smell indicates the diseased frog, though 
perhaps cockney equestrians consider this the 
natural perfume of the organ when in health. 

The shoe should be as light as possible con- 
sistently with the labor the animal has to un- 
dergo. Before it is put on, the hoof should be 
pared away toward the heels, in such a manner 
that without the shoe the horse should stand 
with the frog close to the ground, as when in a 
state of nature ; when the shoe is on, it should 
be filed away towards the heels, being left only 
sufficiently thick to enable the frog in the na- 
tural position of the animal without a rider or 
burthen, just to clear the ground ; so that when 
the horse bears its burthen or its rider, the frog 
of the shoed foot should receive the same pres- 
sure from the ground that it would do if the 
shoes were taken off and the animal turned 
loose. When a horse is shod according to the 
present system, besides the various diseases 
brought on by the want of the frog, the animal 
walks upon its toes, (the expression cannot be 
misunderstood,) and the proper muscular action 
of the foot and leg is perverted. Hence many 



64 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



horses fall dead lame without the farrier being I but thev all prove to be only temporary My 
able to assign any cause for it, although he will older hogs also suffer more or less with mange 
talk dogmatically enough on the subject to con- and vermin, and although they can be relieved 
found those who know no belter than- himself, j by such applications as are recommended, jet 

i as in the other case it is only temporary. I 



For tlie Southern Planter. 
■ HOGS. 

Mr. Editor, — Although I am not a very 
young farmer, yet I have never undertaken to 
raise hogs in sties till within the last two years. 
I had observed the success which had attended 
the efforts of others. I had particularly attended 
to what my old friend, the Rev. Jesse Turner, 
had said on the subject, in whose experience and 
good sense I placed much reliance. I had ex- 
amined his arrangements for the accommodation 
of swine, and with great confidence and ardor 
constructed my sties upon his plan and pursued 
as rigidly as circumstances would permit his 
whole system. One of the things which most 
attracted my attention and with which I was 
most pleased, was the prospect of raising a large 
amount of manure, which would compensate 
me for the expense of the pork. As I before 
remarked, my sties are constructed after the 
plan prescribed by Mr. Turner, of the best ma- 
terials and in the best style — six in number, with 
an area of 54 by 21 feet in front, in which the 
hogs are permitted to range occasionally for ex- 
ercise, particularly the sows and pigs. The 
sties as well as the yard are kept well supplied 
with leaves and other litter to be converted into 
manure, and removed as soon as it is sufficiently 
worked up by the hogs. They are well fur- 
nished with vegetable and other food, according 
to the season of the year. 

I would here remark, that there is no food on 
which 1 have fed my hogs more profitably in 



summer than fresh cut clover. They eat it nure, are incompatible 



know with most persons, as it has been with 
me, the idea of mangy and verminous hogs is 
associated with bad feeding or want of cleanli- 
ness, but such was not the case with mine. — 
The secret, in my opinion, lies in this. We are 
too often inattentive to the provisions and eco- 
nomy of nature. He who has attended to the 
habits of the hog, will see that he delights (in 
the summer particularly,) in the running stream, 
to wallow in the mud, and to sleep where he 
can receive the cool and refreshing showers. — 
And to my .mind there is nothing so well calcu- 
lated to disturb and destroy vermin and mange 
as these things. What is the mange but a hard 
and scaly eruption of the skin, arising most 
generally perhaps from the irritation produced 
by fleas and lice ? Who has not seen that hogs 
which lie about granaries and straw, have 
mange — situations most calculated to engender 
and retain those insects ? But perhaps the re- 
medy will point out the true nature of the dis- 
ease. In numerous instances I have turned out 
those which were affected with the above named 
maladies, into a lot where they could indulge in 
the water and the mud, and with the same, or 
perhaps less food, they would very soon recover 
and get fat. 

Now, sir, I believe it is impossible to keep 
your sties littered in summer, so as to insure 
you manure worth your trouble, without at the 
same time generating vermin and disease, to 
the destruction of your young hogs and the 
great injury of the old ones. If this be true, 
then my position is also true, that the successful 
raising- of hogs in sties, and the raising of ma- 



with great avidity and thrive rapidly upon it 

The result of my experience and observation 
in this matter, is this: That the successful rais- 
ing of hogs and manure are incompatible with 
each other, to a certain extent, and that the sty 
system rigidly carried out, as we practice it in 
this part of Virginia, will not answer. Perhaps 
on those farms where there are extensive dairies, 
or some other circumstances which vary the 
system, it may be attended with different results. 
My sows bring their pigs about the first of 
March, and grow off very finely till they are 
about four or five weeks old, when they are ob- 
served to begin to cough and wheeze, and to 
rub and scratch themselves. From that time 
they become mangy and lousy, and continue to 
decline. They are permitted to go out of the 
enclosure at their pleasure, but of course are 
most commonly within, with their mothers, and 
sleep within. 

Various remedies have been used to cure thern. 



The system which I have chalked out for 
myself and which has been founded .on the ob- 
servation and experience of the last two years, 
is this : As soon as my sows have their pigs, I 
shall at least in the day, and in mild weather, 
(for they delight in cool weather to bask in the 
warm sun,) turn them into a lot provided with 
water. I shall rear them there, except as the 
cool weather or their protection may require 
them to be styed till the time when I shall put 
them up to fatten. From that time, I shall keep 
the sties well littered, as I believe at that sea- 
son of the year vermin are not so easily gener- 
ated, and the age and constitution of the hogs 
are better able to resist them. 

I would here remark, that I found the sty con- 
structed after Mr. Turner's plan too confined, 
and I knocked off the front of that part where 
it was intended for them to sleep, which greatly 
improved it. 

In expressing my views on this subject I have 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



65 



been frequently met with the argument that ne- 
groes generally succeed in raising hogs in small 
pens, and, therefore, the sty system cannot be in 
itself objectionable ; to which I would reply, 
that the two systems are very dissimilar, and the 
results prove the correctness of my views. It 
will almost invariably be found on examination, 
that their pens are without litter, and that they 
are most commonly muddy, (at least some por- 
tion of the pen,) which furnishes the hog an 
opportunity of indulging in his natural propen- 
sity, so necessary to his comfort as well as health. 

I have previously remarked that my hogs 
were furnished with food varying according to 
the season, and that they were not more im- 
proved by any, than clover. In order to save 
myself the trouble of cutting it for them, or of 
having some one to attend them in the clover 
field to prevent their ranging beyond proper 
limits, I purpose next summer to construct a 
portable fence which can be easily moved, and 
with which I can enclose a space large enough 
to graze them two or three days at a time. 

The want of water and shade, which are so 
essential to the well-being of the hog, are ob- 
jections to the plan, but that can be remedied by 
only confining them in this enclosure during the 
cool of morning and evening, and removing 
them during the heat of the day where they 
can enjoy those luxuries. 

The above remarks and suggestions have 
been made more to obtain information than lo 
give it. I am in search of truth. I do not de- 
sign to call in question the propriety of other 
men's plans or their success, but 1 wish to profit 
by their experience. What has been the result 
of the experience of such of your subscribers 
as have used the sly ? Will they instruct me 
in the true art of hog-raising on a farm where 
they cannot range at large? By the way, 
what is now thought of the Berkshires ? With 
us they have grown into some disrepute ; they 
are thought to be too diminutive. For what 
can a pair of your best stock (Mr. Turner's, for 
inslance, or of Chesterfield's progeny,) be bought 
in these times, when pork sells for four dollars 
per hundred ? I am not entirely willing to give 
them up, and yet, from some experience, my es- 
timate of them is considerably lowered. 
Very respectfully, yours, &c. 

W. J. D. 

Petersburg-, Dec. 22, 1843. 



For the Southern Planter. 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

Mr. Editor. — My wife Dorothy has never let 

me rest since your compliments to her. Nothing 

will do, but I must write for the Planter. You 

by my cramp bandj what a mistake she 

made in calling me a great scribe. But it's the 

Vol. IV— 9 



way with all good wives. Each thinks her 
husband a nonesuch. If I must write, it shall 
be about some kinds of internal improvement, 
though not exactly the kind that Congress used 
to squabble about. I wish to give a hit or so to 
our overseers of roads, and a hint to house- 
keepers about fire-places. 

Roads. — I never ride half a day without see- 
ing a dozen bad places in roads, that might be 
made good with a hoe and a spade, in less time 
than it will take me to write this letter. Any 
man, with half an eye, would be astonished to 
find how small a ditch would drain off the water 
from mud holes that are the tenor of all drivers, 
and formidable even to riders. Very often, places 
which may now be called impassable, would be 
made dry and firm, by a ditch five or six feet 
long and two feet deep, running off right or left 
from the road. The drain ought always to be 
a little deeper than the bottom of the mud hole. 
When the draining alone does not answer, it is 
then easy to bridge over the place, or to fill it 
with earth, ridged up and beaten firm. Sur- 
veyors of roads show such disregard of their 
duty in not mending these places that I do not 
see how the grand juries gel over their duty of 
enforcing the law made for such cases. I heard 
our Commonwealth's Attorney, Mr. Greenbag, 
lately lay down the law, that the surveyor was 
bound to keep his road smooth and clear of all 
obstructions, thirty feet wide. 

The farmers themselves, if they looked well 
to their interests, would now and then volunteer 
a little mending to the roads along their grounds. 
The time saved by their teams, and the saving 
of wear and tear to teams, wagons and carts, 
would be inducement enough. And what if it 
should benefit their neighbors too? I have read 
of a Scotch farmer who was seen with his sons 
and helpers lifting his wagon out of a ravine, 
where it had fallen by the breaking down of a 
bridge. He had been driving over it twice a 
day, and when reminded that he had been 
warned it would break down soon, he said, 
" Hoot, mon ! I would na ; trouble mysel' wi' a 
job that was to benefit all the folk in the glen." 
Surely our farmers have not so narrow a spirit 
as this. They will generally find some of their 
neighbors, at least, ready to do a like service. — 
And a liberal public spirit in one, begets it in 
others. 

But I have heard a very eminent lawyer say, 
that whenever a public road is impassable, a 
wagoner or other wayfarer has a right, by law, 
to go upon any of the adjoining land — even to 
pull down fences. If so, farmers must see that 
the roads by their farms are passable, to prevent 
their fields from being encroached on. 

Fire-places. — The common way of making 
fireplaces is at war with comfort. The sides 
run so straight backwards, and the backs are so 
far back, as to throw out scarcely any heat, 



66 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



while the throat is commonly so large that most 
of the heat from the fire goes up the chimney. 
I don't think that one fire-place out of every 
hundred, in this country, is shaped as it ought 
to be. And yet the right shape has been known 
ever since Dr. Franklin's day. Let me give 
your readers the measure and form of a fire- 
place, that will always be found to draw best, 
to throw out most heat, with least wood, and 
with least smoking. 

The front should be three feet wide ; the back 
from twenty inches to two feet. This would 
splay the sides properly. From the front of each 
jamb to the back, measuring along the splayed 
side, down at the hearth, should be fourteen or 
sixteen inches. The back should rise perpendi- 
cularly (straight up) from the hearth, for nine 
or ten inches, and then lean forward till, upon 
its jutting as high as the arch or upper face in 
front, it should be only eight or ten inches from 
the outer edge of the jamb; making the throat 
of the chimney only three and a half or four 
inches deep. This leaning forward of the back 
at once narrows the throat, thereby preventing 
the heat from escaping tip the chimney, and 
making it draw better, and throws the heat for- 
ward, where it is most wanted, upon the feet 
and knees of those who sit by the fire. The 
splayed sides aid much in casting the heat out- 
wards, instead of upwards. This effect will be 
increased by whiteivashing the sides every two 
or three days. 

With such a fire-place, whoever will quit the 
abominable custom of leaving the door open, 
may count with confidence upon a warm room ; 
abundantly supplied, too, with fresh air. For 
the foe's burning, is of itself a sufficient sign of 
plentiful air, and the very sort of air we breathe. 
Your friend, 

John Dumpling. 

Louisa, January, 1844. 

P. S. — Road surveyors don't seem to know 
how useful ploughs are in mending roads. One 
tivo-Iwrse plough is equal to six hoe-hands. If 
a scraper was added it would be better still. A 
scraper is equal to twenty men with hoes. I 
may say more of this hereafter. 



A NEW CHURN. 

It having been found by experiment, that the 
greatest quantity of the finest quality of butter 
is obtained from cream at a mean temperature 
of 55 degrees Fahrenheit, Mr. David Ritchie, 
of Edinburgh, Scotland, has made a churn 
which seems well calculated to accomplish the 
object of keeping the temperature of the cream 
at the desired point. It consists of one cylinder 
placed concentric within another, so that water 
either cold or hot as the case ma}' require, may 
be put into the outer cylinder. 



For the Southern Planter. 

A CURE FOR CHILLS AND FEVERS AND 

"NO MISTAKE." 

J\Ir. Editor, — In sending you the enclosed for 
circulation in Eastern Virginia, you must not 
suppose that I mean to intimate that that region 
of country is more than others liable to chills 
and fevers. Let it rather be attributed to my 
overweening affection for the people who inha- 
bit it ; and after all, what a glorious country it 
has been ! in its good old days of mint juleps 
and apple jack, and apple toddy and peach and 
honey, and fox hunting and driving four in hand, 
and sleighing parties, and accidental dances to 
the tune of some grey headed old negro, Calo ! 
or Titus! or Pompey! or Cccsar ! playing on 
three strings — a much more enlivening and un- 
derstandable music than ever came from the 
bow of Ole Bull ! 

The gentleman to whom this recipe was ad- 
dressed after trying in vain to shake off this 
loathsome enemy for the last six or eight months, 
was thoroughly cured by one trial. At my in- 
stance he allows it to be published for the com- 
mon benefit of all lowlanders and uplanders ! 

I. S. S. 

Petersburg, Jan. 31, 1S44. 

Mr. J. L. Mustean: 

Dear Sir, — According to promise, I give you 
below the recipefor the pills ; go to a drug store 
and have it put up : 

24 grains quinine. 

20 grains blue mass. 

1 6 drops oil black pepper. 
Have them made up into twelve pills ; take 
one every hour for six hours, and the next day 
take the other half, say six, in the same manner. 
The next day they must be taken in the absence 
of fever ; if necessary, open the bowels with a 
dose of calomel and castor oil. You may have 
confidence in this remedy ; I have cured, I may 
say, a thousand persons, and in no instance has 
a failure been known to me. All I can say to 
you is, try it, it can do you no harm, and will 
only cost you twenty-five cents. 
Yours, respectfully, 

Solomon Davis. 



For the Southern Planter. 
REPORT ON CAPTAIN HASKINS' FARM, 

Read at the Meeting of the Upper Hole and Corner 
Club of Mecklenburg, in November last. 

The Committee appointed to examine the farm 
of Capt. Edward Haskins, have performed that 
duty, and report: 

That Capt. Haskins commenced with a very 
small farm, to which he has made several addi- 
tions, and for which he had to involve himself 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



67 



in debt to a large amount, for the force which 
he employs. He has, by economy and diligence 
as well as skill, managed, from the proceeds of 
his farm, to extricate himself entirely from debt, 
and at the same time provide abundantly for his 
family all the substantial comforts of life. His 
farm is upland, lies beautifully, and is in the 
highest degree susceptible of improvement. — 
Every part of the premises shows skill and 
good management. Comfortable buildings, good 
fences and gates, and the fields well laid out in 
three shifts for com and tobacco. The tobacco 
lots Were in a very high state of improvement, 
and the tobacco in his barns not only proved the 
fertility of the land on which it grew, but the 
skill and attention of the owner in curing the 
crop. The corn crop appeared to have been 
very well worked, and was a good one for the 
season. The whole farm seemed to have been 
very well taken care of since it came into his 
hands, and few men in our vicinit}', all circum- 
stances considered, have made more progress in 
improvement. He is determined, in future, as 
he has provided himself with three shifts for 
tobacco, to commence manuring his corn land, 
and rely on the aid of clover and plaster, in 
some measure, to keep up his tobacco land ; and 
your Committee have no doubt diat with his 
accustomed skill and diligence, he will be able 
to realize a rapid advance in improvement. — 
For your committee believe that after the planter 
has provided himself with three or four shifts of 
rich tobacco land, and seeded them in clover, 
and begins to apply his manures freely to the 
corn lands, that the resources for making manure 
and improving the farm increase in such a pro- 
portion as would excite the astonishment of any 
man who had not experienced the desirable ef- 
fects produced by this system. Capt. Haskins' 
teams were in good condition, and he seemed to 
be well fixed in the articles of gear and ploughs 
for the operation in which he was employed, of 
preparing the land for the crop of wheat. One 
of the entire tobacco shifts has been seeded in 
wheat, which was neatly effected, especially the 
draining, which was very carefully and efficient- 
ly done. Such of the stock as were seen by 
the Committee looked well. In short, the Com- 
mittee were very much pleased with the whole 
exhibit made by Capt. Haskins, and they would 
urge him to carry out fully his scheme of ex- 
tending his manured surface, and at no distant 
period his farm may become one of the most 
productive, as it is now one of the most beauti- 
ful, in our region of country. They would also 
recommend to him the more extensive cultiva- 
tion of the artificial grasses, to which his farm 
is peculiarly adapted, and the putting in mea- 
dow the beautiful creek flat which runs through 
hi3 land, which would greatly increase his ma- 
terial for making manure, and also enable him 
to raise more cattle, without a well kept stock 



of which, your Committee think there cannot 
be much improvement. Your Committee would 
not do justice to Capt. Haskins, if the} 7 omitted 
to mention, that the corn crib was well supplied 
with old corn, and that he, at least, is in no dan- 
ger of having to put a stone in the end of his 
bag when he sends to mill. 

A. C. Morton, 
Rich'd Russell. 



SIXTY BUSHELS TO THE ACRE. 

We state the following fact to show what 
may be done by proper management. Henry 
Workman, Esq., solicitor of this town, planted 
about an acre and three perches of ground with 
rather more than a bushel and a half of the red 
cluster wheat, furnished by Mr. Robert Beman, 
of Lenchwick, and the produce is twenty bags 
or sixty bushels to the acre ! The seed was set 
by the hand, that is, it was dibbled. The land 
upon which this extraordinary crop was grown 
is known to be as good for cast as any in the 
Vale of Evesham. — Worcester {Eng.) Chronicle. 



A gentlejnan from the county of Brunswick 
asked us a few days since why we had no agent 
in that region of country, saying that several to 
whom he had shown his paper concluded to 
subscribe immediately ; the work, as he was 
pleased to say, only wanting to become known 
to be universally patronised. Similar inquiries 
have been made from various quarters, and in 
answer to them, we take this occasion to say, 
that the price of the paper is so low that out of 
it we cannot afford to pay an agent enough to 
make it worth his while to seek subscribers. — 
We must, therefore, throw ourselves upon the 
kindness of our friends to disseminate a know- 
ledge of our work. Agricultural societies and 
farming clubs might probably advance the cause 
to which they are devoted by extending infor- 
mation of a Southern periodical, published at so 
cheap a rate. We know that in some counties 
we have twenty subscribers where an hundred 
might be obtained, and if the cheap rate at 
which the paper is afforded, cuts us off from 
the services of an agent, we may with a better 
grace ask our subscribers who are benefited by 
its cheapness, in a measure to fill his place. 



A cat of extraordinary intelligence, says a 
writer in Bentley, was lately seen feeding a kit- 
ten with starch, to make it stand upright ! This 
reminds us of the house-maid who drank a pint 
of yeast, to make her rise early in the morning. 



68 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



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Mr. Gideon Hotchkiss waited on us a fevvi describe on paper the nature of this invention, 
days since with a model of a new water wheel, [ but the following are the peculiarities and ad- 
which is represented in the engraving as at- ' vantages claimed for it by the proprietor, and 
tached to a saw mill, which differs also from ' certified to by a long list of names from various 
the usual mode of construction, especially in the , regions of the United States : 
feeding apparatus. Mr. Hotchkiss impressed 
us very favorably with his claims to the cha- 
racter of a scientific millwright, and of a fair 

and candid gentleman. He contemplates estab- « 2 They are ag cheaply constructed as the- 
lishing an agency in this city for the sale and common flutter wheel, and will do double the 
construction of his mills. It is impossible to' business with the same advantage of water. 



"1. The vertical wheel when used for saw 
mills, requires no gearing to produce from 175 
to 300 strokes of the saw per minute. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



69 



"3. Backwater is no impediment when there 
is a head above. 

" 4. Ice cannot form on the wheels. 

"5. They occupy less space than a flutter 
wheel mill. 

" 6. The increased speed of the saw makes 
better lumber, cuts the same distance with less 
resistance, and the saw dust is freely thrown oft, 
which often returns with the saw, causing it to 
bind and heat, with slow mills. 

" 7. They can be placed on the shaft of a 
common flutter wheel mill, if in good order, and 
hung upon the same bearings if sufficiently 
strong to sustain the power of the wheels. 

"8. The wheels being of cast iron, will last 
an age. They also constitute the requisite fly 
or balance wheel, securing a uniform motion, in 
all parts of each revolution. 

"9. The introduction of mills is reduced to a 
plain system, so that if the head of water is 
known, the result is a mathematical certainty. 

"10. Any workman having the- patterns, a 
model and table of calculations, can adopt mills 
to any location, with perfect success. 

"11. The improved mode of feeding is much 
approved of by those who have adopted it." 



For the Southern Planter. 

GOING AHEAD ! 

Mr. Editor, — Mr. Joseph K. Weisiger, of 

Goochland, bought of Dr. Joseph Watkins 12 

acres of low grounds at $120 per acre ; so much 

for the value of Goochland soil. 

Yours, respectfully, R. K. P. 

February 18, 1844. 

P. S. — The above was exchanged for high 
land at $25 per acre. R. K. P. 

If we did not know the value of Goochland 
highland, we might think this was something 
like the story of the man, who bragged of hav- 
ing sold his dog for a hundred dollars, but when 
questioned more closely, he confessed he had 
taken four puppies in exchange, which he reck- 
oned at twenty-five dollars apiece. 



THE BLOOD HORSE. 
The tenor of our article on this subject in the 
last number of the Planter, has been much mis- 
understood by the Editor of the Spirit of the 
Times ; a misapprehension attributable, without 
doubt, rather to our want of perspicuity, than 
to any negligence of his. In the last number 
of the "Spirit," we find this remark : 

"A3 a national benefit, it may be asserted by 
some — and the Planter would seem to take this 
ground — that we do not require that breed in 



use for the turf, technically termed the blood 
horse." 

Nothing upon earth was farther from our in- 
tention than the taking any such ground. We 
believe that no one circumstance in the history 
of the brute creation has ministered so much to 
the convenience and comfort of man as the in- 
troduction, and preservation in its purity, of the 
blood horse. We are aware that very loose and 
indefinite ideas are frequently affixed to this 
term, and we shall, therefore, state distinctly our 
conception of its meaning. The different soils 
and different climates of the world have given 
birth to various races of horses, possessing pe- 
culiar and distinctive traits. Upon the barren 
sands and under the torrid zone of Africa and 
Arabia, is found a peculiar race, possessing in 
the highest degree those properties, which in a 
state of domestication are most subservient to 
the requirements of his lord and master. It is 
not to be imagined that every horse born within 
the limits of Africa or Arabia, is possessed of 
superior merit ; but there is a race highly va- 
lued by the inhabitants, and carefully preserved, 
which affords specimens of the greatest perfec- 
tion of animal construction. They are marked 
by a fineness of hair, a cleanness of limb, a 
litheness of form, a nobleness of carriage, and a 
solidity of bone and muscle unknown to any 
other race. 

It has been long since these qualities were 
known and appreciated. The English, of all 
European nations the most remarkable for their 
devotion to this noble animal, were taught to 
feel the superiority of the Eastern horse upon 
the plains of Palestine, and many a Saracen 
steed found his way to England in the re- 
turning train of her noblemen. But it was not 
probably until about the time of Charles II. that 
selections from the Eastern race were made with 
care and judgment. This monarch, whose only 
redeeming trait was a good eye for a fine horse, 
introduced a lot of mares direct from Barbary, 
of a very different character from the indiscri- 
minate importations that preceded them. By 
means of these the heavy draft horse of Flan- 
ders soon yielded to a light active, and nervous 
race, that placed the English horse where he 
stands now, at the head of his species in Eu- 
rope. To them succeeded the celebrated Barb, 
known as the Godolphin Arabian, the Wellesley 
Arabian, and the Darley Arabian. The extra- 
ordinary properties of these horses and their de- 



70 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



scendants, established their claims to a pure 
descent from the noble house of Kochlani, and 
constituted them the founders of a new race in 
England, known as the blood horse. And now, 
no horse is entitled to the name of " thorough 
bred," unless he can trace, at least, fifteen-six- 
teenths of his blood to these fountains, pure and 
undented. 

Tt may be asked if these natural properties, 
which we have stated to be originally peculiar 
to the horses of Africa and Arabia, have not 
declined in the humid atmosphere and on the 
luxuriant and moist soil of Great Britain. We 
answer that such undoubtedly would have been 
the tendency of these influences, if the horse 
had been subjected to them, but such has been 
the care of this horse-loving people to preserve 
the race in all its pristine glory, so much judg- 
ment and wisdom have they shown in the se- 
lection of individuals and in judicious crossing, 
in short, the talent of civilized man has so over- 
balanced the mere inferiority of climate, that 
the race has not only not deteriorated, but there 
is much reason for thinking that the English 
race horse is at this day greatly superior to the 
best of his foreign ancestors. The greatest in- 
citement to the exercise of this skill and judg- 
ment, whereby the English nobleman and the 
English farmer are supplied with the best horses 
in the world, is undoubtedly to be found in their 
system of racing: By this means a practical 
and unerring test of the comparative merits of 
different horses has been afforded, and in the 
reward bestowed upon the conqueror, a mighty 
inducement has been offered to every breeder to 
seek after excellence. Oliver Cromwell, puritan 
and hypocrite as he was, had too much discern- 
ment, and was too much of an Englishman, not 
to appreciate the value in a national point of 
view of the racing system; he, therefore, kept 
his racing stud, and to him we are indebted for 
the importation of the celebrated Eastern horse, 
called White Turk. 

This particular race of horses possesses then, 
we contend, from natural and artificial causes, 
a superiority of physical construction, a fineness 
and density of fibre, their bones are ivory, their 
muscles are tendons, and a mechanical adapta- 
tion of parts, that render them superior to all 
others in strength, speed, activity, and endurance. 
This is no fanciful theory nor groundless as- 
sumption ; every farmer, every cartman in the 
South, relies upon his blooded horse, at the " pinch 



of the hill." Edwin Porter, one of the most 
experienced and most judicious of stage pro- 
prietors, whom the steam innovations of modern 
times has driven to the mountain passes, where 
with his beloved teams he can canter up hill 
and down hill, and laugh to scorn the idea of a 
rival rail-road, we have heard him declare a hun- 
dred times, that every thing else equal, he would 
give twenty dollars more, for mere coach pur- 
poses, for a well bred than for a cold bred horse. 
But we must not forget the means by which 
this excellence has been maintained. An in- 
teresting and exciting public test of the valuable 
qualities of the animal must be instituted, and 
rewards must be bestowed commensurate with 
the value of the object to be obtained. In what 
shall this test consist % what is that best calcu- 
lated to determine the valuable qualities of the 
individual? Remember, that the race will be 
bred up exactly to the standard you erect. Sup- 
pose your test be, as it is in this country, the 
capability of carrying a light weight a long dis- 
tance ; it may be that this will secure only 
speed and wind, without strength : if so, it is evi- 
dent that in the breeder's consideration, strength 
will be overlooked, and those individuals only 
kept for the stud, who possess the properties of 
activity and endurance. For our own part, we 
are inclined to think that this is the fact, and 
we think the failure of our system of racing to 
test the strength of the horse, has produced a 
light and active race, that has had a great ten- 
dency to bring into disrepute the claims of the 
blood horse to superiority, as a horse of all work. 
We incline to think that the English rule of a 
heavy weight for a short distance, begets a de- 
gree of stoutness, that is a great desideratum 
with our farmers, and workers of horses gener- 
ally. It was this idea, which we ventured to 
hint in our last number, that misled our re- 
spected friend of the " Spirit." Such is our de- 
votion to the thorough bred horse, that we almost 
feel it as an imputation upon our good taste, to 
suppose we could have for a moment advocated 
the superiority of any other race, for any pur- 
pose whatsoever. There is no game, but a slow 
race, at which the blood horse will not come off 
victorious. Institute what test you will to try 
his strength, activity, or wind, all or either, even 
to the pulling of a heavy weight in the collar, 
and such is our confidence in his bone and sinew, 
that we would bet, the winner would be found 
with pure blood coursing through his veins. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



71 



NURSERY. 
We would call attention to the advertisement 
of Messrs. Winter & Co., successors to Prince, 
the celebrated Long Island nurseryman. Their 
establishment is probably the most extensive in 
the United States. The descriptive catalogue, 
which is furnished gratis, is a neat pamphlet of 
ninety pages, and contains information worth a 
hundred times as much as the price at which 
it is offered. 



For the Southern Planter. 
COMMENTS. 

J\Ir. Editor, — As it is a rainy day, I will devote 
afew hours to reviewing your last number, which, 
like all that has preceded it, is both interesting 
and useful to every farmer, and indeed well worth 
the " pitiful sum of one dollar" to every reader. 

"Poudrette." — I am satisfied from the various 
and contradictory communications, that some 
plan will have to be adopted for testing the qua- 
lity of this valuable manure, before it is sold. — 
For after so many have been deceived, others 
will be slow to purchase. Your remarks seem 
to have roused Mr. D. K. Minor's ire, which 
may have a salutary influence in making him 
or his agent more particular in future. 

"Emigration to Virginia" — The author is cer- 
tainly right in regard to the relative advantages 
of the country about Petersburg to the Northern 
emigrant, over Fairfax. The almost inexhausti- 
ble source of marl must make that country very 
desirable to any one disposed to locate near good 
markets and good society. It is really strange 
that a country like that, possessing so many 
natural advantages, should have been so long 
overlooked. 

" Oxen}' 1 — The only true reason why the 
Northern ox is quicker than the Southern, is 
the mode of breaking ; teach them to step quick 
when they are first worked, and never work a 
young ox with an old broken down one, and my 
word for it, they will always step quick. If 
they are to perform hard service in hot weather, 
they must be fed on some dry food, for no ani- 
mal, either horse or ox, can stand hard work 
when fed alone upon green food. 

" Preservation of Vines from Worms and 
Bugs" — The mode suggested is certainly a 
good one and a cheap one. The boxes once 
made, will last for years, if taken care of. I 
lost myself every single vine the last year for 
the want of just such boxes. 

"The Lard Lamp." — This is a good invention, 
if properly made; but all I have seen have the 
same defect ; which might be easily remedied by 
making the screw of better quality.* 

* We have this lamp for sale, in which the defect 
complained of is completely remedied. — Ed. 



"Moveable Fences." — I have never seen< any 
moveable fence that would stand our hills in 
March, or during windy weather. I have used 
them for lots and cow-pens, for which purposes 
they answer very well. 

"Charcoal." — This is a valuable auxiliary to 
the soil, no doubt; but I fear (in many places 
at least) it will be like the " Indians gun, cost 
more than it will come to." I have made an 
experiment to ascertain what quantity of coal a 
given quantity of wood will afford ; and find, 
that it takes about fifteen cords to yield about 
three hundred bushels. Now, when we estimate 
the worth of the wood, the hauling, and the 
time it takes to burn and then prepare it for the 
soil, which itself is a tedious operation — we will 
find it rather a slow business. Still, I would 
advise all who have to burn coal for a shop, (as 
many farmers keep one,) to use all the refuse 
coal after the kiln is burned, as there is a great 
deal of fine coal ready prepared for the soil, that 
is useless for working. 

"Liebig." — I see knowing ones are handling 
this gentleman's theory of " Vegetable Physiolo- 
gy" with gloves off; lay on Macduff, so we but 
get at the truth. 

"How to Make an Unproductive Fruit Tree 
Bear" — There is some truth in this: I have 
seen the whole body of a tree skinned by an 
old lady for the same purpose, and to my aston- 
ishment, the next year the tree had a beautiful 
smooth bark, and bore ever after finely. 

"On Ripe Bread" — This seems rather an odd 
expression ; but as to the saving, I suspect Mrs. 
Dorothy is right, and as to its being more health j', 
none can doubt, though not quite so palatable. 

"Blind Ditches." — An Octogenarian is per- 
fectly correct about how poles are to be put 
when used for blind ditches ; but my own ex- 
perience is, that stone is the very best material 
that can be used ; I have made a long ditch 
with very rough stone, and find it answers much 
better than poles, and when once done, it is done 
forever. When stone is not to be had, poles 
answer next best, or two poles and one slab 
plank. 

" Herdsgrass." — " A Subscriber" wishes to 
know whether it answers to plough in the seed. 
Any small seed require to be covered very light ; 
ploughing, I think, would put them in too deep. 
I have generally obtained a good stand by sow- 
ing with my wheat in the fall, and harrowing 
it in with the wheat. If wheat is ploughed in 
on corn land, I sow after it is ploughed in, and 
then harrow with a light harrow ; and if it 
should not be thick enough in the spring, 1 sow 
again upon the surface ; and if for a meadow, 
and still not thick enough, (as sometimes will 
be the case,) I sow on the stubble early in the 
fall, and harrow in. The quantity I never mea- 
sure, but aim to put an abundance, as there is 
no danger of having it loo thick. About a 



72 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



bushel to the acre, is common. I sowed twenty 
bushels this fall with my wheat; it looks well, 
as the winter has been a favorable one so far. 

"Salt a Preventive of Smut." — As to the truth 
of this I add my own experience, though I have 
always brined and then rolled in dry, fresh slacked 
lime whenever I saw any smut, and have al- 
ways found it a certain remedy. 

"Prize Essay, by Mr. Bowie" — This essay 
deserves a place in every agricultural paper, and 
adds to my conviction of the propriety of having 
moderate sized farms, and them well tended. 

"Tobacco Prize." — I would not detract one 
iota from the value of Mr. Thompson's Patent 
Prize, but, will offer what, 1 am almost certain, 
is a much belter one, without patent. The one 
I use occupies very little space, is worked, if 
necessary, b}' but one hand, and may be put up 
anywhere in the tobacco house. It is nothing 
more nor less than a plain cheap screw, fixed in 
a frame sufficiently large to admit a hogshead. 
The cost of such a screw in Richmond would 
not be more than ten or twelve dollars, and when 
once fixed, it never gets out of order. You may 
prize as hard as you please with but little labor. 

Mr. Lewis' communication ought to awaken 
every Virginian to an appreciation of his great 
advantages, and stop the emigrating fever; for 
there is no doubt, if we will avail ourselves of 
-the many advantages which a bountiful Provi- 
dence has placed in our reach, that there is 
no situation on the whole globe superior to "Vir- 
ginia, when we take every thing into considera- 
tion ; at any rate, this is the firm conviction of 
Your most sincere friend, 

Commentator. 

Franklin, Jan. 20, 1844. 

We will only say of this new commentator, 
that we have long known him, by reputation, 
as a thoroughly practical farmer; one who both 
holds and drives. Over another signature, he 
has been one of the most popular contributors 
to the Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 
HOOKS— HOLLOW HORN, &c. 

Mr. Editor, — When I saw you in Richmond 
you expressed a wish that your patrons on this 
side the mountain would write for the Planter, 
upon the subject of grazing, and at the same 
time called my attention to the subject of con- 
versation between two gentlemen who were in 
your office, the disease which is so general and 
so fatal to cattle removed from the upper to the 
lower country. I saw at the livery stable of 
Atkinson & Turk, a very fine cow with a young 
calf, and upon inquiry, learned she had been 
taken there two years ago and kept about that 
stable and never showed the least si";ns of the 



disease. It seems to me a little care and atten- 
tion to that subject might lead to a discovery of 
the cause of it, and perhaps to a preventive. 

When I got home I read your November 
number, and my attention was called to a piece 
headed "Anomalous diseases of horses." I do 
not design to make any objections to the disease 
being called hooks, nor to the remedy alluded 
to, but I wish to give a remedy which is, in 
most instances, decidedly preferable. That is to 
say, take a spoonful of spirits of turpentine and 
rub upon the loins of the horse or cow, (for cows 
are subject to the same disease,) once every other 
day for a week ; during that time keep the ani- 
mal in a comfortable stable, and feed regularly 
upon scalded hay and bran, and by the time the 
beast shows an improvement in its condition, 
you will see an equal improvement in the eyes. 
Should this remedy fail, it will then be time to 
resort to the operation of " Fairfield." I will 
add a cure for the hollow horn in cattle, con- 
firmed by my own experience. Rub the horns 
well with spirits of turpentine, also the top and 
back of the head, a little on the loins will not be 
amiss. A few repetitions will effect a cure. 
Your subscriber, 

Stephen Harnsberger. 

Port Republic, Dec. 23, 1843. 

CONTENTS OF NO. III. 

Comments — On the January number, p. 49. 

Beds — Mattresses preferred to beds, p. 51. 

Comforters — Recommended, with directions for mak- 
ing, p. 51. 

Mince-pies — Recipe for making, without spirit, p. 52. 

Peach Trees— Singular mode of preventing the ra- 
vages of worms, p. 52. 

Measuring — Simple mode of measuring heights, p. 52. 

SIwcp — Value of beans as food for sheep, p. 52. 

Lactometer — Described, with a cut, p. 53. 

Improvement — Of the "soil and the mind," p. 54. 

Butter— DutcB method of making and preserving, p. 55. 

Poud.relic — Testimonials for and against, p. 56. 

Fuel — Improvements in combustion, p. 58. 

Herdsgrass — Excellent directions for seeding, &c. p. 58. 

Ayrshire Cows — Mr. Randall's report, p. 59. 

Harrow — Mr. Geddes' recommended and described, 
with a cut, p. GO. 

Reaping Machines — Comparison of Hussey's and 
McCormick's, p. 61. 

Straw Cutters — Botts' recommended for cutting corn- 
stalks, p. G2. 

Salt — May be given too freely to animals, in winter, 
p. 63. 

Shoeing — Directions for shoeing the horse, p. G3. 

Hogs — Difficulties of sty-feeding, p. 64. 

Internal Improvement — By John Dumpling, p. 65. 

Churn — A new one, p. 66. 

Fever and Ague — Cure for, p. 66. 

Report, — From Upper Hole and Corner Club of Meck- 
lenburg, p. 6G. , 

Wheat — Sixty bushels to the acre, p. 67. 

Agents — Wanted for the Planter, p. 67. 

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

Goochland — Price of land, p. 69. 

Blood Horse — Essay on, p. 69. 

Nursery — Winter & Co. p. 71. 

Comments — On the Planter, p. 71. 

Hooks and Hollow Horn— To cure, p. 72.