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as from hops. This plant is to be found in almost any of our old fields, has rather a pleasant smell—is from two to three feet high, with a spreading top and white flowers on all the branches. It may be gathered now, in the midst of winter, but is better when gathered in the fall, and as hops usually are, tied up in bags. I will remark, that the bread is sweeter cold or hot, much lighter, more digestible, will not so easily become hard, as bread prepared with hop yeast, and will keep until it becomes perfectly "ripe." I would recommend it to all lovers of good bread, but especially to Airs. Dumpling^ to John, who she thinks "a great scribe" and to

all the little Dumplings.

Yours, respectfully, Bedford, Feb. 5, 1844.

W.

We have heard of this same yeast from one or two other " good judges," and should be much obliged to our correspondent, if he could afford us an opportunity of trying it. It may be, that this indigenous plant, (which, in length of name at least, has greatly the advantage,) is destined to rival, perhaps supersede, the hop; the culture of which, is understood to be very extensive and extremely profitable.

S T UMP MACHINE.

We know no labor the fanner is called on to perform more tedious or more laborious than the removal of those unsightly impediments, the stumps in his new grounds. We have already furnished several descriptions of implements intended to abridge the labor of this operation, and we now give a drawing and description (taken from an old number of the Cultivator,) j of a machine for this purpose, which is cheap and simple in construction, and whjch we hope some of our readers will put to the test:

"It is simply the wheel and axle, on a large scale. The uprights should be 11 feet high, 10 | by 12 inches square, of hatd wood. The sills I

7 by 9 inches square, 14 feet long, and turned up at the ends, sled runner fashion, to enable it to slide easily on the ground. Let the posts bei firmly morticed into the sills, and well braced.' The axle or shaft should be white oak, ash or maple; 18 inches in diameter, with the gudgeons

8 inches. It should be 20 feet long, and 2 pins should be driven into it, outside the posts, to

toc4st-'

keep them together. The wheel should be about 18 feet in diameter, with 8 spokes, 4 of which should go through the axle, and the other 4 set as deep as possible into the shaft, without cutting away too much wood, for fear of weakening it. The spokes are to be white oak plank, 8 by 3 inches square. Let the felloes be sawed out of 4 inch plank, and planked by two courses of inch boards on the two sides, in such a manner as to 'break joints' (as the phrase is) with the first set; thus, and at the same lime, to form a groove to keep the rope from slippng off. Then get two strong chains made of 1^ inch iron, and 12 feet long each. Fasten one end of each by a strong staple to the axle, and on the other end of one have a hook, on the other a large link or ring. Then fasten one end of a 1^ inch rope on the wheel, give it two or three turns around it, and your machine is complete. Now bring your two 3'oke of cattle and one assistant; hitch them to the staples (which should be in each end of each sill,) and drive where you like. Dig a hole under the main root of the stump (on one side, if possible,) and pass

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your chain under it. Hiich your caltle to the end of the rope, and they will draw any slump that ever grew in the ground. Then lake off the dirt from the stump wiih a spade, ami it will fall back exactly as it came up, leaving no hole to fill. There will also be no roois left in the ground forfuiure botheration, and the soil which was about the stumps having never been tilled, will be distinguished as good spots instead of bad ones.

"Let your shaft be the sliffest and toughest stick of second growth while oak that you can get; let the gudgeon fit the hole in the post as exactly as possible, consistency with its turning freely, and at the foot of the posts, instead of ' firmly mortising them into the sills,' let the tenon be round, about 4 inches in diameter, and not pinned ; the weight will keep it in its place. This will allow the post to turn a little on the sill, and thus keep it from splitting, and the gudgeon from breaking. You must also have two good iron bands around the top of each post, one above and one below the gudgeon, and the same on the end of each gudgeon outside the posts. In drawing a stump, your machine must be directly over it, so that the chains will draw plumb. If there is any elevation or un-evenness in the ground, have the same end of both sills raised or lovjered alike, and never one sill higher than the other. You must have a notch in the outside of the posts, about 7 feet from the ground, and if a little cramping is unavoidable, you put a pole or rail with one end stuck in the ground, and the other in this notch. You must not use frisky cattle at moving the machine, for if one team should stop and the other keep on, some mischief would follow.

"Now have an auger made, such as pump borers use first, only about four feet long, having a screw like a cork screw at the point. Bore a hole down exactly in the heart of each stump, (for however rotten at the top, they will generally be sound at the junction or knotting together of the roots,) and put down about three inches of coarse blasting powder. This will blow the stump to atoms; and you may then convert them by means of your beetle, wedges, and axe, into first rate wood for home consumption. Many farmers will not understand blasting, but it is, after a little practice, as safe and simple an operation as any other on the farm. You will want a crowbar, a priming wire of the same length as the auger, a four pound hammer with a handle five inches long, and some match paper made into strips three inches long, and half an inch wide. After your hole is bored, (and be careful not to have it go clear through by a foot or so,) put down your powder. Then put in your wire, which should be trade tapering, the small end about one fourth of an inch in diameter, on one side of the hole. Now fill the hole with pounded brick and damp clay,

alternately, pounding it down with the small end of the crowbar, and starting the wire every now and then, till it is full. Now draw the wire by putting the small end of the crowbar through the loop in the wire, and striking it up with the hammer, taking great care not to let the least particle of dust fall into the hole. Then fill the hole slowly with powder, apply your match paper, (common wrapping paper steeped in a solution of saltpetre,) touch fire to the end of the match, and take to your heels; and, depend upon it, the stump's powers of locomotion will be vastly assisted by this operation. The machine for drawing them will be cumbrous and heavy, but it will be strong, simple and effective. The whole cost of this apparatus will be between fifty and one hundred dollars; but it is well worth while for every large farmer, or three or four small farmers in company, to possess one, wherever stumps occupy the ground. It is enough to say that the machine made and tended by the inventor, has been in constant requisition since that time (fifteen years,) and never went at a stump which it did not take up."

For the Southern Planter.

Llangollen^ Ky., Feb. 28, 1844. C. T. Botts, Esq.

Dear Sir,—Permit me to return you my sincere thanks for sending to me two numbers (the January and February) of your agricultural periodical, "The Southern Planter." The people are more benefited, their real interests more advanced, their rational and moral powers more healthfully secured by one such paper, than by all the political and polemical slangwhanging journals that ever were or ever will be expectorated on them. Agriculture is gradually ceasing to be a mere empirical practice. It is rightly becoming an enlightened art, founded on science, and the time will surely come when the treatment of land, crops, stock, &c. will be founded on well ascertained and established principles deduced from facts. In feeding stock we err widely and commit great waste of food. If we observe the horse, cow and sheep, for instance, when permitted, unrestrained, lo gather their own food in spring and summer, we may learn truths, which we should apply to them when dependent on us for their supplies. We cannot doubt that their instincts direct them aright as to quantity and quality, for we see that they grow and thrive where there is an abundance of those plants which they select. The green leaves and seeds, both immature and ripe, constitute their food. In these, the larger portion is water; yet they drink and also seek salt-licks. The bodies of the mammalia, including man, contain seventy-five per cent, of water; yet we do not attempt to assimilate their food to green

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grass, but feed them on dry hay or straw and dry seeds. And the consequence is, that they do not grow or fatten so well, unless such quantities are given that a great portion passes undigested ; irritating the alimentary canal, and often causing disease. Besides, these animals will not eat enough dry hay or straw to give the proper degree of distension to the stomach for digestion and assimilation, without the danger of producing inflammation or other injurious effects when expanded in the stomach by heat and moisture. This should be done at least by the latter before it is eaten. Much of the hard, dry grain given to these animals, so different'in its condition from that which they gather for themselves, is neither sufficiently masticated nor moistened on entering the stomach, to produce its normal effect. One half the usual quantity, properly prepared, would benefit them more, and all the rest would be saved. Just so much nutritive matter as is contained in the quantity of good rich grass, eaten by one of these animals in a day, should be diffused in as much finely chopped hay, straw or fodder as the animal will eat in the same time, sufficiently moistened some hours before it is given, (the longer the better, provided that it does not ferment or turn sour.) I do not confine the beneficial effects of this method to the mere mechanical effect of the water in softening and distending the mass.— The most important effect, I believe, is produced on the elements of the water itself; one of which enters largely into the composition of flesh and fat, (hydrogen.) We know that cows and sheep will thrive when fed on turnips and straw, yet turnips contain 92^ per cent, of water, according to the analysis of Mons. Boussingault, an accurate chemist; and when compared with Indian corn, 138 parts of the latter are equivalent, in nutritive matter, so called, to 1,335 of turnips. The decomposition of water and the appropriation of its elements by the organs of nutrition, I believe, to be greatly facilitated by mixing vegetable matter with it: if so, we gain one of the important constituents of flesh, fat, &c. from the water. And this is certainly cheaper than to get it from rich, oily seeds, the proceeds of laborious cultivation. This is not a mere conjecture of my own. Count Rumford entertained the same opinion, and so do Drs. Prout and Per-eira. (Treatise on Food and Diet by Jonathan Pereira, edited by Charles A. Lee, New York, 1843, p. 40.) It is well known that gold and silver fishes, and others also, will grow and fatten on water alone. It may be said they obtain their nourishment from other substances contained in the water, and not from the water itself. This would not alter the case, for the water mingled, with the food of stock contains also these other substances, while haddock has in its composition 82 per cent, of water, carp, 80.1, and trout, 80.5, according to the authority of

Brande and Schlossberger. Now, this greater quantity of water in fishes than enters into the composition of the mammalia, it is fair to attribute to the water itself, on which they seem to live.

The mill, the straw-cutter, and water are, in my opinion, the indispensable auxiliaries of those who would feed their stock in the best manner and most economically. We have mills here which grind up unshelled ears of corn. A slight alteration in the common corn grist mills, adapts them to this purpose, without interfering with their fine meal making use. The eye of the upper stone, instead of being circular, is enlarged on one side, and a removeable lube, large enough to admit any ear of corn, is thrust into this side enlargement. Into the lower stone, beneath the end of the tube, two knives are fastened, so that at every revolution of the stone, the ear of corn is swept round over these knives, which slice it up, and then grind it into meal. It is a patent affair, answers admirably, and is added to any common mill for fifieen dollars, patent included. Mr. Robert Wickliffe, of Lexington, has had lately a sort of mill erected, which grinds up oats in the sheaf or corn in the shucks. I have not examined it, but am told that it makes excellent chop, ready for moistening or feeding dry.

So you see, sir, that even in this Elk Horn Paradise of hogs, horses, nudes, and corn, we are seeking out and practising more economical methods of feeding stock. You must not suppose, though, that these methods are in general use—far from it; few as yet have adopted them. After the adoption of these, another will follow for cows and hogs. The cooking of their food, in which there is certainly great gain.— But our onward course in all these matters is greatly retarded by the want of laborers, and the consequent high price paid for every kind of manipulation.

Although we are "a match" for the Yankees in horse-swapping, bartering, and stump-speeches, (in the latter, your real com-cracker can beat the world,) yet in machineiy, farm fixtures, and the economical application of labor, we have much to learn from them. The cheapness of grain and the want of a ready market for it, is one cause of its slovenly and lavish use in Kentucky.

Very truly, sir,

Your friend and obedient servant,

John Lewis.

CREOSOTE.

Creosote, so named from its great antiseptic power, which exceeds, perhaps, that of any other substance, has been long employed to preserve animal matters from decay. The only two ways in which creosote is usually applied for this purpose, consist either in exposing the

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meat which we wish to preserve to the smoke of burning wood, of which creosote is the effective constituent, or else in immersing it for a .short time in water containing a few drops of creosote. Articles of food prepared by either of these methods may be kept for a long time; but both these modes of using the creosote are attended with the inconvenience that the food acquires the taste and smell peculiar to smoked meat. This may be entirely avoided. During the past summer it struck me that perhaps the vapors of creosote might be found efficient.— The method adopted was the following very simple one: I placed a small plate containing a little creosote under each piece of meat as it hung suspended in the larder, and covered both over with a cloth. The creosote soon gave off vapors which formed an antiseptic atmosphere around the meat, and kept it quite fresh three or four days longer than it would otherwise have kept. If the plate is gently heated before the creosote is put into it the vapors rise more quickly, and if the additional precaution is taken of suspending the meat in a box or jar closed with a lid the beneficial effect is still more discernible. I tried this process during the greater part of last summer with invariable success, and a butcher, who tried it on a larger scale, was equally convinced of its efficac}'. The meat when cooked has not the slightest smell or taste of creosote. Another advantage attending the use of creosote is, its smell is so disagreeable to flies that it frees a larder from the presence of these noxious insects. The same quantity of creosote may be used for weeks, but on being long exposed to the air it loses most of its smell, and is partly changed into a species of resin.— Dr. Stenhouse's New Mode of Employing Creosote for the Preservation of Meat and Fish.

Our farmers are much incommoded by the liability of having their fresh meat spoiled before it can be consumed, during the summer months, and we should like very much to ascertain if there is any thing really practical and valuable in the preventive recommended above.

For the Southern Planter. CHEWING THE FOOD.

Mr. Editor, —I do not wish to run down a subject too far; but a little work of the celebrated Dr. Abernethy contains three paragraphs, which display the importance of thorough chewing so happdy, that I cannot forbear asking you to insert them, as a confirmation of what I said in your February number concerning ripe bread.

" For the purpose of reducing our food to a pulp or paste, we are provided with an apparatus more complete than those who have not examined the subject can conceive. The teeth

are admirably adapted to grind ihe food ; and the tongue, with its flexibilitj' and its endless motions, to turn it in the mouth, while it is mixed with a fluid supplied in abundance from several pairs of fountains or glands in the vicinity, from which pipes or ducts are laid, and run into ihe mouth.

"The whole surface, indeed, of the mouth and tongue, as well as the other internal parts of the body, give out more or less moisture; but this is not enough for the purposes of mixture with the food in eating, without the fluid, popularly termed spittle, {saliva,) prepared by the fountain glands.

"When the food has been properly masticated, comminuted, and mixed with saliva, it is prepared for digestion in the stomach: but it is most important to remark, that if it is not thoroughly mixed with the fluid in the mouth, it xvill he unfitted far digestion, and will probably derange the health. So indispensable is this, that serious diseases, arising from indigestion, have been cured simply by ordering the food to be eaten slowly, and carefully mixed with the saliva. It is worth}' of remark, that no kind of drink will supply the place of this singular fluid"

In another place, Dr. Abernethy says it is a fact of great importance, that the stomach cannot digest food when it is diluted with water or other fluids: they must all be removed before digestion can proceed. He adds, " there is not a more pernicious, vulgar error, than that which ascribes rich nourishment to beef tea, mutton broth, and other strong soups; for no digestion can go on, w 7 hile the stomach is full of liquid." Hence we may infer, that the common practice of drinking even water, at or soon after meals, is hurtful,—by impeding digestion.

An anecdote of Count Rumford (that illustrious New Englander,) strikingly shows the economy of good chewing. He told the Elector of Bavaria, that there was a very simple means, by which he might feed his troops at half the actual cost. "How?"—said the Elector. "By obliging them to masticate each mouthful of their food twice as long as they usually do," replied Rumford. "It will go twice as far, and half the quantity will do."

By the bye, the greatest of living writers uses this anecdote to check the voracity of those book-gluttons, who are continually stuffing themselves with literary trash, which they neither chew nor digest. There can be no doubt, says IVIacaulay, that one page, digested, nourishes the mind more than a volume, devoured.

Medicus.

We are in frequent and intimate communication with an old physician of rare attainments and very great celebrity: he is a curiosity in his way, and has no doubt cured as well as killed

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his thousands; though he says, he should be' very happy to know that the account was fairly j balanced. He insists upon it, that the preven-j tion of disease is no part of a physician's busi! ness, and that to seek from a hungry candidate' for practice the means of arresting disease, would be as reasonable, as to expect the assistance of j a lawyer in inculcating charity and good will amongst men. The old gentleman has retired on a large fortune, and, very disinterestedly, therefore, volunteers to open to the profaman vulgus the secrets of the charnel-house. We have alluded to him the more particularly in this con-j nection, because we have often heard him declare, that two-thirds of the cases of chronic disease he has witnessed in this country, had their origin in the habit peculiar to our countrymen of bolting their food. We are, he says, in too great a hurry to do every thing, and upon the old maxim, " the more haste the less speed," he maintains that we would " go ahead" faster, if we eat slower.

For our own part, we think that the moral as well as physical health of our people would be much promoted by a breach of this custom of dashing through our meals. The table is almost the only place where the man of business meets his family and friends in a social way, and if, instead of fifteen minutes of cutting and slashing and swallowing, he would devote an hour to social intercourse and faithful mastication, in the end, he would find his purse none the lighter, his body much the plumper, and his moral attributes greatly expanded.

For the Southern Planter.

MENDING ROADS.—FIRE-WOOD, SEASONED AND GREEN.

JVfr. Printer, —If, as there is no doubt, one scraper is equal to twentj' men with hoes, for mending roads, ought not road-overseers to get scrapers'? Along the James River canal, and wherever a turnpike or raid-road has lately been made, they can be bought very low; perhaps for two or three dollars. Wouldn't it be well for the county courts to authorize the overseers to to do so? They might be paid for out of the fines collected for not working, or sending hands to work on the roads. One scraper would do for three or four overseers. But those who can't get scrapers, ought never to neglect ploughs; and both should be used, if possible.

Seasoned xoood is so much better, and cheaper than green wood, that I am astonished at any body's using green. Nobody would, except for

the same reason that made the honest Dutchman put a stone in one end of his bag when he went to mill, because his father and grandfather had always done so. Nothing but old Custom, and its child Prejudice, ever would make people stick to what is so much against comfort and economy.

Why, Mr. Printer, a cord of green wood contains 140 gallons of water, (1,440 pounds!) — And not only have our horses or steers this extra weight to haul, but this water has to be driven out, (or evaporated,) before the parts of the wood where it is, can burn. And to drive it out, a large part of the heat has to be spent, which would otherwise go towards warming the room. This is the reason that a green wood fire is half an hour in beginning to warm the sitters by, when a seasoned wood fire blazes with a generous warmth in five minutes. If each, from that stage, lasts an hour, a wiseacre says, "see, my green wood lasts an hour and a half, while the seasoned wood lasts only an hour and five minutes !•' But he forgets that twenty-five minutes were lost, with the green wood, in sputtering, fizzing, and smoking. He foigets, too, that he had on ten or twelve billets of it, while four or five would do, of seasoned wood.

Mr. Printer, did you ever see a wood-house ? — I mean a plain, cheap house, or shed, to keep wood under all the winter, with room enough for one or two men to cut it ? Tell the planters and farmers, that if they will but make such a one, or get it made, they will own it to be the best spent five, or ten, or twenty dollars that they ever laid out in all their lives. 1 know of but one in this county. Mores the pity ! If I was a Peter the Great, it should be the law, that no man should have an ice-house, till he had provided himself a wood-house. The Yankees have wood-houses, and put their wood into them six, twelve, or fifteen months before it is to be used. Then, the comfort of having it perfectly dry in the worst weather! and the comfort and health to those who cut it up, of having a shelter to stand under, for that work !

Cannot you get some good hand to put a drawing cf a wood-house in the Planter? Your friend,

John Dumpling.

Louisa, March, 1844.

We are inclined to think our readers will find more difficulty in drawing the wood, than the house. The proverbial tendency of mankind to procrastination leads our farmers to postpone the hauling of their fire-wood, until necessity forces them to do it at a season when the transportation of one load is attended with more expense and inconvenience than belongs to three at a more propitious period.

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We made a little excursion into the country this winter, and even at that dreary season, amidst the generous hospitality and unconstrained mirth of our company, we could unconditionally have surrendered ourselves to the charms of a country life, had it not been for the eternal " fizzing, sputtering and smoking,'' alluded to by Mr. Dumpling. There was one continual cry of, " Jim, see if you can't find some more dry wood," and every flour barrel, and we believe, from the appearance of the billets, several of the washing tubs upon the premises, were knocked to pieces for the purpose of bringing the green logs into burning order. In the meantime, there was Jim with a mortal screen of twenty-four inches interposed between the company and the dying embers, that, for the twentieth time, he was endeavoring to fan into a flame; and there we sat, with our cheeks involuntarily expanded into the representative of a pair of bellows, in our natural sympathy with the success of Jim's operations.

We could not help thinking, how much of the annoyance, which the inconvenience of his guests evidently occasioned our generous host, might have been saved by cutting his wood in the summer, and permitting old father Time, (the cheapest of workmen,) to perform the part of Jim and the dry wood.

For the Southern Planter. 1MPROVEABILITY OF THE POOREST SOILS.

Mr. Editor, —Rain and the air. furnish so vast an amount of nourishment to plants, that no man ought to be discouraged by the barrenness of his land from striving to make it productive. Naked rocks themselves, become clothed with a soil, from mere seeds, fed by the air, and by water from the clouds. The following passage from a distinguished chemist, explains the process :

" The seeds of various plants may be placed in pure sea-sand, or sown in leaden shot, and nourished only with pure distilled water and the common atmosphere, and the sun's light and heat; and the seeds will sprout, and the plants grow to maturity, elaborating for themselves, out of the water and air, their own nutriment, and properly arranging and composing the several vegetable structures and substances, and producing the several vegetable properties. And if the vegetable matter thus produced, be preserved and analyzed, the various earths, alkalies, acids, metals, gases, &c. may be obtained, as if the plants had grown in their natural soil."

Of course, then, the rotting of those plants ''which is Nature's analysis) produces those Vol. IV. -11

earths, metals, &c. That is, it produces the soil-covering, which commonly overlays the rocky body of the globe. The poorest land must be much more favorable than a rock, to the growth of plants thus seeded. And rain, being full of mineral and earthy matters in a state of solution, must be much more nourishing to the plants lhan distilled water. By making plants or vegetables grow and rot upon his land, therefore, any man may be perfectly sure of forming a soil upon it—and a rich soil. He has only to look out for those plants (whether grasses, or other vegetables,) which have lhe most leaves, with stalks the most easily rotted, and to cause them to grow, and let them rot; ploughing them in, or top-dressing with them as he may be best advised. His land will get rich, far sooner lhan sluggards imagine. By manures he may quicken the growth : and by lime, ashes, &c. he may quicken the rotting. Clover, oats, cornfield peas, carrot-weeds, and many other plants, will suit for this process.

a. a.

Louisa, March, 1844.

EXPERIMENTS.

We are much indebted to the gentlemen of the Hole and Corner Club of Albemarle for the following report of experimenis. Science calls loudly now for well ascertained facts, from which she may deduce the laws of agriculture ; and there is no portion of an agricultural paper more interesting than that which records the result of experiments upon authority such as this:

The following is the report of a committee appointed to examine lhe experiments which have been made by various committees, to embody the result, and report to the Club:

CORN.

1. The experiments made to ascertain the relative advantages of planting corn one, two and three stalks in the hill, in every case an equal number on an equal portion of land, result in establishing the fact, that the less crowded the stalks are, the greater will be the product. The following is the report of Dr. John Minor:

2 rows of corn 145 yards, 1 stalk at the distance of 1 foot, gave 1 barrel 2 bushels.

2 rows of corn 145 yards, 2 stalks at the distance of 2 feet, gave 1 barrel 2 bushels.

2 rows of corn 145 yards, 3 stalks at the distance of 3 feet, gave 1 barrel 1 bushel.

The corn grown from one stalk in the hill was best, largest, and soundest. It is to be regretted that the test of weight was not applied in this experiment.

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Clive gathered three parcels of corn, 18 ears each, from three portions of corn:

First parcel, 1 stalk in the hill l£ feet apart, gave 8 lbs.

Second parcel, 2 stalks in the hill 3 feet apart, gave 6A lbs.

Third parcel, 3 stalks in the hill A-} 2 feet apart, gave 6 lbs.

3. About the 1st April, 1842, Mr. William W. Minor planted four rows of corn on a hill side on land of uniform fertility:

The row lowest down the hill was left with 1 stalk in the hill at 2 feet apart, product, 73£ lbs.

The row next above was left with 2 stalks in the hill, 4 feet apart, product, 71| lbs.

The next row above, 3 stalks in the hill, 6 feet apart, 57 lbs.

The row next above, and highest up the hill, like the lowest was left 1 stalk in the hill, 2 feet apart, product, 70 lbs.

This last row was added that the experiment might be equalized as it respects the fertility of the land.

TOBACCO.

1. Mr. Richmond Terrell, one of a committee to ascertain what difference occurs in the weight of tobacco from the difference of its order, reported the following experiment: On the 3d of April, 1843, I weighed two parcels of tobacco in good, soft stripping order; one of good quality comprising 31 bundles ; the other of inferior quality comprising 36 bundles. The first parcel weighed, in the order mentioned above, Si lbs.; the latter, 8^ lbs. When thoroughly dried, (5 days after,) that of best quality weighed 8 lbs.; that of the second quality weighed 1% lbs.

2. Dr. William G. Carr, a member of the same committee, made the following report:— Lugs, 1st rate, weighed when dry 3 lbs. 10 oz. In good prizing order, 4 lbs. 2 oz.—gain 8 oz., equal | nearly. Lugs, 2d rate, not thoroughly dry, weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. In good prizing order 8 lbs. 15 oz.—gain 12 oz., equal T J T nearly. A parcel of first rate tobacco, dry, weighed 19-£ lbs.—in stripping order, 20| lbs.—gain 16 oz., equal T '5 ; in rather high prizing order 22 lbs. gain on 19| lbs. 2\ lbs., equal %. This last parcel was hung up on the 3d April, where it remained till the ICth May, when it was found to have lost one pound by evaporation.

WHEAT.

1. Report of an experiment to test the relative advantages of cutting wheat when first taken with the rust, and letting it stand to ripen, by Mr. Franklin Minor: On the 3d July, 1843, I cut a parcel of wheat on which the rust had just begun to appear. The straw was bright and the grain fully ripe, but not entirely hard. 374 grains of this wheat weighed 2 drachms, 2£ scruples and 3 graina. On the 16th July, I cut another parcel of wheat immediately ad-

joining the above, very much rusted, the straw almost black with rust and the grain dry. 369 grains filling the same measure with the first parcel, weighed 2 drachms, 2-5 scruples and 2 grains. The difference in the number of grains required to fill the measure was 5 in favor of the wheat that stood longest after it began to rust, and the difference by weight of the same measure only 1 grain in favor of that cut first. Both samples were ripe, however, before the rust, attacked them.

2. Report of Dr. William G. Carr on the same subject: On the 3d July, I cut two parcels of wheat from different spots in the field just beginning to rust, the straw and blades green, the head turning white and the grain in the dough state, but very soft; some of the heads were in the milk state. On the 14th July, I cut from the same spots the wheat that was left. The result was that the unripe wheat weighed most, but it also required more grains to fill the same measure.

TOBACCO PLANTS.

1. Experiment of Mr. William W. Minor on raising tobacco plants in hot beds: On the 21st April, 1843, a hot bed containing twenty-five square yards was prepared, and sowed the next day with tobacco seed just beginning to sprout. Plank was laid over it to retain heat and moisture : and while the plank remained, it needed no watering. The plants began to come up in three days from the sowing, and when most of them were up the plank was removed. The bed was watered, on an average, twice a day, though in thisrespect itwas somewhat neglected.

There were a few plants in this bed large enough for new ground planting in one month from its sowing, though they did not grow as fast after three or four weeks as plants grown in beds prepared in the ordinary way, though they had decidedly better roots, and lived better, and grew off better than those drawn from my other beds. This bed yielded 9,200 plants, and would have yielded one or two thousand more had they not been literally burned up from neglect of watering for the space of a week. I think I hazard nothing in saying that it would have yielded 20,000 plants had they been in the bed and distributed with tolerable regularity. The plants, however, were not thick enough, nor were they equally distributed, which was owing to the circumstance that I had to make an uncertain guess at the quantitj' of seed, they being in a sprouting stale; and also, for that reason, more difficult to sow with regularity.

The action of poudietle on tobacco plants was very decided and beneficial in all my beds; on the hot bed, especially, I made an accurate experiment with it, and with most unquestionable advantage. I never saw a greater effect produced by gypsum.

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Mr. Minor in the course of bis report makes an accurate esiimate of the expense of preparing the hot bed for tobacco plants, and finds it to be very nearly the same with that of preparing plant beds in the usual way. In making the hot bed he estimates the labor of two men and three women, an ox cart and four steers, one day, at three dollars: seven cart loads of stable and two of cow-pen manure, four dollars ; a cart load of mould from the woods, twice weeding the bed and watering, a bushel and a half of poudrette, one dollar covers the entire cost.— The manure used in the bed, after having performed its functions, still worth three dollars.— The nett cost of this bed, then, is about five dollars.

Mr. Richmond Terrell also made an experiment on growing tobacco plants in hot beds, j which, from various causes, was imperfectly I conducted, and with but partial success. As to the fact, however, of the plants in hot beds drawing with better roots, and living and growing off better, when transplanted, he fully sus-1 tains the result of Mr. Minor's experiment.

WHEAT.

On top-dressing wheat, by Dr. Wm. G. Carr. I top-dressed with equal quantities of stable manure, six lots of wheat in the first week of October, November, December, January, February and March. The land manured is thin, gray highland, with a considerable admixture of sand. Without manure it might have brought from three to five bushels of wheat to the acre. The manure was spread very thin, at the rate of not more than ten cart loads to the acre.— From the time it came up until harvest the wheat top-dressed at the time of sowing in October had the advantage of all the other lots.— It came up better, grew faster, filled better and ripened some days earlier than the other lots.— In spite of a thick crop of blue grass, this lot yielded at least fifteen bushels to the acre, while that adjoining, of the same character, but not manured, did not yield three. I was unable to discover any difference in the other lots. The top-dressing had a decided good effect on all in hastening their maturity and improving the quantity and quality of the product over the unrnanured land adjoining—the crop being fully doubled on all.

The several experiments have been, for the most part, conducted with highly commendable care and accuracy, justifying the fullest confidence in the results.

H. Minor, Wm. W. Minor, Frank Carr.

The report on Col. Randolph's farm, will appear in the May number.

From the Whig.

VIRGINIA TOBACCO INTEREST.

Reflections of a Virginia, Tobacco Planter on the present situation and future prospects of the Tobacco Growers in Virginia.

Until within the last ten or fifteen years, the average crops of the United States were about as follows:

Maryland, 30,000

Virginia, 45,000

Western States, 30,000

At present— Maryland, Virginia, Western States,

105,000 hhds.

185,000

80,000 hhds., present increase of production, in comparison with that of ten to fifteen years ago, or about 76 per cent., without a corresponding increse of consumption ; it is evident there must be a decrease in prices. Does such increase of consumption exist 1 It certainly does not; indeed the increase of consumption is comparatively small, which is proved by the excessively large stocks now in the European markets, and the unparalleled low prices in those markets.

The recent increase of production in Virginia may be attributed mainly to the uncertainty, of late years, of the wheat crop, causing a much larger extent of land to be appropriated to the culture of tobacco. The average of the Virginia crop of tobacco for the last four years has been fifty-five thousand hogsheads, which is ten thousand hogsheads increaseupon former production. The produce of the last two years would have been much larger but for the very unpro-pitious seasons. It seems to be very plain, that at the present prices of the lands and slaves, that the present prices of Virginia tobacco will not pay the cost of production. Is there any good reason to calculate on better prices 1 It is thought not, until the production is lessened.— Will the production be lessened ? The Western States produce more than half of the entire crop of the Union ; it is believed that the crop of the West will continue to increase, and force Virginia to abandon, in a great degree, ihe culture of the plant. The greater fertility of the lands of the West, their comparative cheapness, and the comparative cheapness of the necessaries of life, enables the Western planter to produce tobacco at lower prices than it can be produced in Virginia. The Western tobacco has been growing in favor in all foreign markets for the last few years, and for general uses it is now preferred to that of Virginia. Until within the last few years, Western tobacco was not used at all in France, nor in Great Britain. France now uses much more of it than of the Virginia growth ; about

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two-thirds of the consumption of American tobacco in Great Britain is stemmed or strips, a majority of which is Western growth. The north of Europe consumes much Western tobacco, and it constitues nearly the entire consumption of the south of Europe. For certain uses in Great Britain, to very limited extent, the Western States have not produced, and it is believed cannot produce tobacco to compete with the Virginia growth of the best quality, which, and especially of late years, constitutes but a very small portion of the crop. It is, therefore, thought that such qualities, and such alone, will maintain compensating prices in European markets. It seems to follow as a plain and necessary conclusion, that it is the interest of the

Virginia planters to lessen the quantity grown, and to appropriate to tobacco such lands only as are capable of producing the best qualities ; give increased attention to its culture and management. The lessening the growth of tobacco, and improving ihe quality, will insure to the planter profitable prices, enable him to improve his lands, by applying to the grain crops a larger portion of his manure, increase the grain crops, and to raise the meats and work beasts necessary for his purposes—render him more independent and comfortable than be would be by com inning ihe present system of making large crops of inferior qualities at losing prices, and buying Western pork and work beasts. A Virginia Planter.

For the Southern Planter. CHURNS.

Mr. Editor, —Like yourself, I take a lively interest in every thing connected with the making of that most valuable condiment, good butter. My attention has, therefore, been directed to the several representations of churns afforded by your correspondents, and I herewith enclose you k sketch of one, which, upon the same principle as others, and a little more expensive than the one described by F. L. H. in your February number, is much more complete. The operation needs no description. Any carpenter, who is furnished with two bevil wheels and a double crank shaft, can make the machine, exclusive of the barrels, for a couple of dollars. It is by so much better than the churn of F. L. H. as the crank motion is easier and more regular than moving the handle to and fro, as required in his machine. I first saw this machine described in an old work, called the " Mechanic's Magazine," and from an experience of many years, I unhesitatingly lecommend it as the best apparatus for making butter I have ever seen. Your3,

A Lover of Good Butter.

For the Southern Planter. HERDSGRASS.

Mr. Bolts, —From the fact that I had not paid you my " one dollar" I was debarred the benefits of your "cross mark," and consequently the January number of the Planter did not reach me till yesterday. In it I find your subscriber from Powhatan (a spot consecrated to me by the remembrance of many scenes of sportive childhood,) desires furiher information relative to herdsgrass. What I have I cheerfully impart, though I fear it will occupy room in your paper that might be filled with more useful matter.— However, I have no fine-spun theory to advocate, but a simple record of my experience for several years past.

March 20tb, 1839,1 sowed two and a half bushels of herdsgrass seed on about two and a half acres of fiat land, which had been in corn the year previous. There was no preparation for the grass seed whatever: the land was levelled and well prepared for oats, and after the oats were sown and raked in, the grass seed

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were sown. From this land I obtained a heavy crop of oats the following summer, and in July, 1840, 1 cut from two acres of it 6,400 lbs. of nicely cured herdsgrass hay. From this hay I saved, with but little trouble, thirty bushels of seed, tolerably well cleaned. January 21, 1841, I sowed six bushels of these seed on a high land lot of wheat, of about four acres. They grew finely, and made me a pretty lot of grass, from which I have cut two heavy crops of hay, and hope to get several others. When sowing oats in March of the same year, I mixed one peck of grass seed with each bushel of oats, and sowed them together. They were then gotten in with a heavy rake. The grass seed came up prettily, though a larger quantity of seed would have been better. About the same time, I sowed several bushels of seed after the oats had been gotten in, on the high land. These came up well and covered the ground with a better coat of grass than I expected. I have also sowed herdsgrass seed in gullies and on spots destitute of vegetation, after covering them with brush, and have not been disappointed in the effects produced. My impression is that herdsgrass seed covered with a turning plough will not vegetate. P. B. W.

Nottoway, Jan. 30, 1844.

For the Southern Planter.

BOMMER'S MANURE AGAIN.

Mr. Editor, —I am an enemy to humbugs— political or agricultural—and must acknowledge I am very suspicious of patent rights of all and any kind, until they have had such ample testimony to sustain them as shall not leave a loop to hang a doubt upon. Pardon me when I say this highly eulogised system of making manure, y'clept Bommer's, has not lessened in the slightest degree, my antipathy to humbugs, and high sounding patented inventions. God save the mark !—far from it. We have testimony, in the first place, of high authority, (Mr. Ellsworth,) for believing that Mr. Bomrner, alias Messrs. Baer & Gouliart, have lighted upon a patented invention of the Frenchman, Jauffret, and with some "alleged improvement," ushered forth this aged child, newly christened, with a most captivating and imposing flourish. In the second place, we have the testimony of Gen. Cocke, a name well known to the agricultural world, that this same aged baby has been fully tested, and ha3 proved almost a total failure. Now, sir, I should hold in perfect contempt and detestation, any individual who would attempt to wring from the hard-working yeomanry of our country (or any country) their sweat-bought earnings, with the original improvements or discoveries of othera, by "alleged improvements," which have, as before mentioned upon good authority, proved

almost a failure. Such a man should be branded with burning letters, so that every passer-by may know the catiff, and shun the miscreant.

I hope you do not understand me as asseiting or pronouncing Messrs. Bomnier, &c. as deserving these denunciations; far from it—I hope the reverse, because we have conflicting testimony, and good authority for believing that their improvements are real, substantial, and in fact, deserving a patent. I know little or nothing in regard to their system, and only judge from the evidence exhibited in the agricultural papers.— I mean no disrespect to these gentlemen, or to any one, particularly when they shall be backed by such powerful testimony as yours; but I speak as every man should, who is identified with that class, which is as much or more liable to be humbugged than any in existence. Whenever their interest is in jeopardy I feel strongly, and am apt to speak strongly ; if they are attacked with humbugs, they are placed in the position of defendants, and should cry aloud and spare not. Here, for instance, we have an old invention, newly furbished up, as is " alleged," (I hope you understand me,) and for this new dressing, twenty-five dollars charged—(the highest price, I believe,)—now suppose it prove a failure 1 —the money gone, time and labor gone, all gone, but the materials, and those you get at a heavy expense. Now, bear with me when I say, I humbly think this can be prevented without injury to Messrs. Bomrner, &c, although it may retard their anticipated profits, for a time. Thus, you as a friend to agriculture, publish the French mode entire, i. e. the ingredients, and mixture, and mode of making the heap, and let us have an opportunity of testing the thing ourselves. Mr. B.'s system is in operation—if it succeeds, and the other does not, then his "alleged improvements" will be established upon a solid foundation; if the other succeeds, the farmers are benefited, and Mr. B., &c. not injured; because the farmers are aided by a discovery to which Mr. B., &c. can certainly lay no claim. If the French plan fails in my hands, and Mr. B.'s succeeds, as you anticipate, I pledge myself to buy Mr. B.'s book. I presume every man who cherishes his own interest, (and who does not ?) will do the same.

In conclusion, permit me to reiterate, I mean no disrespect to any one, but wish to preserve the farmers from humbugs. R.

For the author of the above we entertain the highest respect, as well as for the particular motives which impelled him to this communication. But we must protest against the position which from the whole spirit of the article we are made to assume. It is very hard, that notwithstanding our repeated disclaimer, responsibility should be thus buckled on our back, whether we will

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or no. " R." speaks in very flattering terms of the consideration due to this claim from the weight of our testimony, &c, and he is not singular in thus confounding the mere expression of an opinion with an authoritative recommendation. We have borne no testimony at all to the value of this process; we have endeavored fairly and impartially to lay before our readers both sides of a controversy in which they were deeply interested, and with a love of fair play, for which no Virginian will reproach us, we have endeavored to shield an individual from what we considered a covert and unjust imputation upon his veracity. For every opinion we expressed we gave our reasons, leaving our readers to judge of the justness of our conclusions. In these conclusions a large majority of i our friends, we have reason to believe, did not! concur. With the facts and our reasoning before him, the reader either comes to our conclusion or he does not: in either case, he exercises his j own judgment, and has no right to hold us in the slightest degree responsible for the result.— With respect to this Bommer process, since the publication of our February number, public opinion is decidedly against it: it is for the present I as dead as a door nail.

" R." speaks of the farmers as a class peculiarly liable to be humbugged, and this liability to be imposed on by knavish and designing inventors, is a general cause of complaint amongst them. Can " R." tell from whence it arises 1 ? If he cannot, we think we can : it proceeds from the fact, that farmers are, in the first place, more ignorant of their business than any other class of workmen in the world, and secondly, that they possess less energy, and are entirely wanting in that esprit de corps, which induces the mem-bers of other professions to guard their fellows from impositions to which they themselves have been subjected. Is a carpenter humbugged with a saw or plane? But what is easier than to impose a worthless plough, or a good-for-nothing straw cutter, or a useless threshing machine, upon a farmer? Again, suppose a farmer has tested the value of a new invention, where can you find one with the energy and independence to step forward and expose its worthlessness ? This very Bommer process is a case in point: in the last twelve months we have sold thirty or forty of these rights; in every case, we have respectfully requested, in many earnestly entreated, the purchasers to send us the result of

their experiments; notwithstanding the repeated promises we have obtained to that effect, Gen. Cocke and Mr. Woodfin are the only persons who have ever written a line in the Planter upon the subject. There must be twenty persons at least in Virginia qualified by experience to set this question at rest; and yet no entreaties can drag out of them that, which a due regard for the interest of their professional brethren so imperatively demands. It is these circumstances that render the agricultural community favorite game for humbugging inventors, and instead of seeking to remove the cause, they content themselves with whining over the result.

Notwithstanding its present unpopularity, we are unshaken in the faith, at least in the hope, that this improvement in collecting and constructing manure heaps, is destined, mediately or immediately, to exercise a happy influence on American agriculture.

With respect to Mr. Bommer himself, as we volunteered to screen him from what we considered an unfair aspersion upon his veracity, we feel bound to advert to a circumstance, to which our attention was called by a friend and which had entirely escaped our observation. Whatever right Mr. Bommer may have to advertise now that he has a patent for this process, (holding as he does an assignment from Messrs. Baer & Gouliart) he unquestionably, in May last, was imposing on the public by publishing through us and others an account of his patent process, at the very time, according to Mr. Ellsworth's statement, that his claim was rejected. Mr. Bommer must clear his skirts from this imputation, before we can proceed any further in defending his claims to the title of a gentleman.

With respect to the French method, we know nothing about it but what we gather from the specification of Messrs. Baer & Gouliart's claim, which we give at length. For aught we know, the French method may be fully equal to the patent one; we only inferred the superiority of the latter from the increased impetus that it undoubtedly gave to the popularity of the old method.

Copy of Baer & Gouliart's Patent. —To all whom it may concern: Be it known, that we, Charles Baer and John Gouliart, of the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful improvements in the manner of making manure, which has been for many years practised in France, and has been there secured by letters patent under

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the name of " La Methode Jauffret," and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

In the method of Mr. Jauffret, a pit or reservoir is prepared of sufficient size to contain the quantity of prepared lye which may be required by the nature of the establishment. This reservoir or vat is intended to be a receptacle of water saturated with decomposed animal and vegetable matters, and is further to receive the ingredients hereinafter named; such water is to be found on nearly every farm, and it may be augmented by the drainings of stables, by dish water, suds, and other substances of a like nature.

Mr. Jauffret, however, finally prepares his lye, by which the fermentation of the article to be converted into manure is to be promoted, in the following manner, under various modifications.

For the conversion of from one to two thousand pounds of vegetable matter into manure, he takes about

200 lbs. of night soil,

200 lbs. of calcined plaster in powder, -50 lbs. of wood soot, 20 lbs. of wood ashes unleached, 60 lbs. of quick lime, 1 lb. of common salt, 1 lb. of rough saltpetre,

150 lbs. of lye or ferment drainings from a Jauffret manure heap.

These ingredients are, in many cases, to be replaced by others; this lye to be prepared ten or fifteen days before use. The quantity of materials above named, for the conversion of from one to two thousand pounds of straw or other dry vegetable stalks, will answer for about double the quantity of green vegetable matter.

In using this lye, the plan of Mr. Jauffret is to steep in it the vegetable fibres, which are to be acted upon by throwing them into the vat or reservoir containing it, and removing it thence at great labor so as to form a high heap in the vicinity of the vat, into which the drainings are allowed to run.

We have thus given a brief outline of the method of Mr. Jauffret, the same appearing necessary to the understanding of our improvements, which consist in our omitting altogether the excessive labor of steeping the materials to be acted upon in the lye, and elevating them from thence to the heap; and also in the preparation of a lye, which is equally effective with that of Jauffret, at much less cost, and which can be used immediately on its being made, thereby saving the delay of ten or fifteen days, which "La Methode Jauffret" requires.

We prepare a reservoir to contain the lye as usual, and in the immediate vicinity of this, we make our slacks or heaps of vegetable matter, which is to be converted into manure.

We give to the ground, where the heap or pile is to be made, an inclination towards the

vat; if the ground is a firm clay, it may be merely sloped, and have shallow trenches dug on its surface to conduct the drainings back into the vat; or it may have a flooring of timber, brick or stone, as may be preferred, which may be so trenched as lo conduct the whole towards a central drain. When our platform or flooring is of clay, we cover the trenches and whole surface of it with brushwood or rails, so as to form a temporary grating that will support the weight of the heap, and thus insure a drainage, and the admission of air to the heap from below.

The materials to be converted into manure, we pile up on this prepared platform immediately as it is delivered by the carts, and this we sometimes continue lo do until the heap has attained the whole height to be given to it, when, by the use of a pump, buckets, or other suitable means, we raise the lye from the vat and pour it on to the heap, continuing so to do until the whole mass is saturated; we, in general, however, raise the heap to a height of two, three, or four feet, more or less, and then pour on a portion of lye, repeating this as the height of the pile is increased ; this procedure obviates the necessity of lifting the whole of the lye to the full height of the heap.

The materials which we employ in making the lye, may be limited to the following, namely : cow, horse, or hog's dung, or night soil, the urine draining from stables, and quick lime.— The ingredients used to be intimately mixed with sufficient quantity of saturated water.

Two of the kinds of animal dung we have found to answer as well as a larger number. A perfectly good lye will be made by taking one barrel each of two of the species of dung, two of the urinary drainings, one of quick lime, and about fifty barrels of saturated water, which is then to be used as above explained.

What we claim as our improvement on Jauf-fret's method of forming manure by the rapid fermentation of vegetable fibres, is, first, the forming of the said vegetable matter into piles or heaps, without its being first immersed in the prepared lye, and the subsequently saturating the same by the pouring on the lye in the manner set forth.

Charles Baer, John Gouliart.

Witnesses, i

Th. M. Abbett, J. R. Abbett.

Patented June 24, 1843.

TO ASCERTAIN THE WEIGHT OF A HOG.

Mr. John Farrar, of Putnam county, furnishes us with the following method of ascertaining the weight of a hog, which may be of use to those who have a hog too heavy to be weighed by any steelyards at their command. He says it is sufficiently accurate for all purposes, except in buy-

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ing or selling the pork:—"Cut the head off in the usual way, about ]-£ inches behind the ears; ■weigh the head and multiply by ten, and the product is the weight of the hng. I have tried it frequently, and have found it correct to a fraction oftener than otherwise."—S. Cultivator.

MR. STEVENSON'S IMPORTED STOCK.

We availed ourselves last week of one of those soft and balmy days which herald forth the coming spring, to visit mine excellent host of Bacon Quarter Branch. As we basked in the rays of the genial sun, almost overpowering but for the fitful gusts of the " gentle south" as it swept across our face and sought to dally with the curls it could not find, we abandoned ourselves to the enjoyment and admiration of the glorious weather, which nature vouchsafes to our Southern clime at this beautiful season.— But when we arrived at the " Branch," we found, in the person of Mr. Stevenson's Ayrshire bull, another of nature's works, that fairly divided our admiration with the weather.

We pretend to no superiority of judgment in such matters, but it requires small powers of discrimination to assure us, that this is the finest animal ever offered to the breeders of stock in this region of country. The gentlemen by whom we were accompanied in this excursion, were so much struck with the beautiful appearance of this noble animal that they unanimously backed us in the determination we expressed of calling on Mr. Stevenson for some account of the pedigree and history of this slock, as well as of other importations, which his public spirit and devotion to agriculture have induced.

Whilst we are in the asking vein, we would beg Mr. Stevenson to favor our readers with the recipe by which he cured the ham and tongue we lately received at his hands. If that was the sort of tongue with which he flattered Queen Victoria whilst he was in England, we don't wonder at the position he attained in the good graces of that august personage.

For the Southern Planter. PEACH TREE.

Mr. Editor, —Mr. Garland Garth is the neighbor to whom I alluded in my conversation with you relative to the peach tree. Mr. Garth is a very intelligent and strictly /w«cft'ca/agriculturist.

On a visit to him, about the close of the last month, I inquired of him if he had bestowed

any attention on the two trees (not three) which had escaped the ravages of the worm, other than nailing them? He replied, "I have done nothing else for them, except to lop off the limbs which were broken by the superabundant crop of fruit they bore last season."

I again examined the two trees—they are apparent^' thrifty, flourishing, and entirely healthy, and are the sole remains of a considerable number of trees planted simultaneously, in the same kind of soil, and treated in the same manner, in all respects, the nailing excepted. As you have not stated the process quite correctly, allow me to correct it. When you remove the trees from the nursery, for the purpose of transplanting, drive a tenpenny nail through the trunk of each tree immediately above the region of the roots. The trees are nailed before they are re-planted. Hastily, but respectfully, yours,

Alex. Duke.

Albemarle, March 14, 1844.

TO REMOVE STAINS.

Stains on varnished articles which are caused by hot water, may be removed by rubbing them with lamp oil and then with alcohol. Ink stains can be taken out of mahogany, by one tea-spoonful of oil of vittriol mixed with one table-spoonful of water, or by oxalic acid and water. These must be brushed off quickly, and then washed with milk.— Exchange paper.

For the Southern Planter.

ROANOKE WOOLLEN FACTORY.

Mr. Editor, —As the blankets manufactured by Mr. John Bonsack, of Roanoke county, Virginia, and exhibited at your Agricultural Fair, last fall, very justly elicited much commendation, (and no doubt surprise, as coming from this mountain region,) some notice of his manufactory, reared up by his own skill and enterprise, may not be uninteresting to your readers and patrons. This establishment is in its infancy, having gone into full operation in the fall of 1842. Its location is on the main Western road from Lynchburg to Salem, and within six miles of the Big Lick, on the waters of Glade Creek. The building is fifty by forty feet, and three stories high. The first story is well built of lime and stone, in which is contained the propelling machinery, an oil mill, and a room for dyeing. The second story is devoted to the carding of wool, and is occupied with six wool carding machines. There is a room adjoining for pressing cloths and dressing them off. The third story is occupied with the spinning apparatus, say three hundred spindles—two very superior carding machines—six looms for the weaving of blankets, jeans and satinets. The

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establishment is provided with nappers, pickers, shears, stocks for filling, kettles for dyeing, &c. Besides weaving very superior bed and negro blankets, Mr. Bonsack makes a very heavy and good article for overcoats, and jeans from the very finest to the coarsest for servants, and very good cloth, (all wool,) well fulled and dressed.

There is also a woollen factory at Fincastle, Botetourt county, owned and conducted by Benjamin Amer, of said county. Though on a smaller scale, the excellence of its fabrics bear unqualified testimony to his skill and enterprise.

Both these establishments are in a state of successful experiment. They are more or less patronized and encourged by our farmers; who find it their interest to live (as they say,) within themselves, as far as practicable.

As our country between the Blue Ridge and Alleghany is as fine as any country for sheep, our citizens are paying some attention to that stock and are introducing the Bakewell, Saxon, and Southdown, into our folds. All over and above our supply, we can barter for the cottons of the South.

The Virginians should make all their woollen clothing—and the successful enterprise of these gentlemen is furnishing the most incontestible evidence of their ability to do so.

A Planter.

CORNS.

Corns consist of a horny development of the outer or scarf-skin, in technical language, epidermis, arising from united pressure and friction, which sets up an irritation on the spot (being a law of all vital economy). The corn is a hard tubercle with a crown and stem, or root, as it is improperly termed, being exactly like a carpenter's nail. The crown or head is flat or rough, unless polished by rubbing against the shoe.— The stem is conical, horny, and pointed : there may be two or three stems, the points of which, piercing down towards, or even quite through the true under skin, and sometimes penetrating the capsull of a joint when seated over such, cause the well known exquisite pain by irritating the delicate expansion of nervous fibrils with which the skin, &c, in every part of the body, i3 beautifully supplied. They are chiefly classed into hard and soft. The latter being of the same structure as the former, only, from being situate in a part where they are kept moist, present their characteristic softness and mareeration of crown ; in fact, the hard corn is most commonly on the outside of the little toe, where the principal pressure, with friction of the shoe, occurs. The side3 of the nails, the sole, and the heel are obnoxious, also, to these pest of the feet. From what has been stated, it will be evident, that to cut off the head of the corn is only a temporary relief, and not a radical cure: this i3 only ac-Vol. IV.-12

complished by cautiously digging out the tail or stem, which may be seen with a magnifier, and which any steady-handed person may do for themselves, by the following method, which can be only very briefly described in this already prolonged but useful note: Put a drop of oil on the corn, where soaking in hot water and rubbing with a rough towel or the finger-nail will not remove it (only practicable in an infant corn). With a penknife cut away a little of the head, if very large and protuberant, then cut cautiously round it, so as to loosen it by degrees out of its bed, and thus to clear the stem at last by means of grubbing round it, as you would do in digging out a piece of stick frozen in the ice. A sharp-pointed bodkin is the most accessible instrument to the generality of people, though an imperfect substitute for the lancet-pointed quadrille of the chiropodist. By such means, delicately and dexterously employed, the point of the stem may be got at, when it may be forced up, lifting at the same time the crown by the fingers, or, far better, a small pair of forceps, or strong tweezers: thus, with care, and without pain, may this thorn, as it literally and figuratively is, be removed. Not a drop of blood should be drawn; and, if all the stem or stems (where more than one so acting for each), are eradicated by dint of patience and cautious practice (pressure on the spot will test the success of the operation by the most welcome relief obtained from all pain,) place a slip of diachylon plaster on the part and round the toe, and then another of goldbeater's skin, or oil silk, and leave it undisturbed for some days, when the plaster should be removed ; first extracting any old stems observed to have been left, thus guarding against the continuance of the cause, a complete cure may be effected. If a coin has excited inflammation, known by redness around, the shooting pulsating pains, rest and emollient applications, such as a linseed poultice, a fig, &c, will relieve it. Avoid, by all means, the cutting of a corn till it bleeds, which may be very serious, especially in advanced life. A bunnion is a many-stemmed corn, seated in tumefied flesh: bulbous, flabby, scarf-sktn comes off in flakes, stems like millet seed, roundish and conical. Callosites are only thickenings of scarf-skins, superficial, insensible, they may be not only cured but prevented, by rubbing with pumice stone or sand paper.— The Art of Preserving the Feet.

VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.

We are indebted to the author for "Observations on Vegetable and Animal Physiology, by W. L. Wight, M. D." This little pamphlet of twenty-seven pages, in the hands of any modern philosopher, would have been unquestionably amplified into a work of several volumes. In

so

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these days of superficial guessing, dignified with the name of philosophy, it is refreshing to meet with a work teeming with profound and original conclusions drawn from a series of most laborious and skilful experiments. It is itself a synopsis, and we can hardly make a synopsis of it; but we have committed it to the hands of one, from whom we hope to obtain a review of the work commensurate with the merits of the author.

For the Southern Planter.

REPORT

Of the Committee appointed to examine Mr. Richard Russet's farm, read before the Hole and Corner Club of Mecklenburg, January, 1844.

The Committee appointed to examine Mr. Russel's farm find their work somewhat abridged by the report which was submitted by a committee of the Club in December last, in which the general good management of Mr. R. was set forth. The condition of the farm as exhibited on the present occasion certainly betrays no relaxation of diligence, attention, or progress in improvement. We found every thing in complete order. The hog-pen was the first thing that attracted our attention. The large heap of manure was truly farmer-like, and the hands were engaged in throwing it together in one corner for the double purpose of having it sheltered from the weather and preparing the spot on which it had been accumulated, for a tobacco plant bed. The snug shelter reared up to protect the hog-feeder and the kettle, shows that the gentle admonition bestowed by the committee on that subject, last year, w r as not wholly disregarded.

The stable, stable-yard and its enclosure, indicated that Mr. R. was paying great attention to the subjects of raising and preserving manure. The enclosure was a post and rail fence erected on a bank, which served to prevent injury or loss in the manure, by the washing of heavy rains, or by filtration. The fence was something new in the mode of construction, and admirably fitted for the purpose, uniting the important requisites of strength, durability and closeness (which latter quality secures the leaves, with which he litters freely, from being blown away by hard winds.) It was constructed with grooved posts about five feet high, at the distance of eight or ten feet, with pine poles barked and let into the grooves from the bottom to the top, so as to rest one upon the other, and a substantial capping of a five or six inch plate mortised on the top of the posts, and extending the length of two or more panels. The sheds of some of the tobacco barns were walled up in the same manner. The Committee are not prepared to recommend this mode of fencing gen-

erally, either on the score of economy or convenience, but for the purpose to which Mr. R. has applied it, they think it valuable.

Mr. R. is a large wheat grower and his wheat fields presented a truly fine specimen of efficient preparation, careful seeding and draining, and if there could be any fault found, or improvement made here, we are free to confess that we could not detect the former, or know where to apply the latter.

In passing from the wheat field to that in course of preparation for corn, we passed the farm pen, where we saw more indications of attention to the subject of raising manure. We also saw the cattle and although they presented evidence of good keep, they were certainly not such as ought to be exhibited by a man of Mr. R.'s enterprise and wealth. On an estate like Mr. R.'s we might expect to find the most improved breeds of stock, exhibiting evidences of careful attention to breeding and improvement. The Committee are not disposed to countenance an extravagant passion for blood stock, but they think that a free cross of the most improved breeds of cattle on Mr. R.'s purely scrub breed, would not only not diminish their value, or injure their appearance, but would be in better-keeping with his highly cultivated and improved farm and general good management, and attended with what to him would be a very trifling expense. There is some apology for Mr. R. in the fact, that his open land hitherto, has not been more than sufficient for his labor, and that he has been rather scant of pasture ground.— He has, however, made some improvement in this respect, by obtaining a bull of the Durham and Devon crosses, and enclosing a portion of land, including old field pine land, and forest, and laying it down in herdsgrass, after thinning out the pines and undergrowth of the forest and trimming up the trees, giving to the whole what 3'our Committee imagine to be a striking resemblance to the park scenery of England. And your Committee would suggest to Mr. R. that the addition of a few full blood Durhams, De-vons, or Herefords, would in no wise lessen the beauty of the scene, or its value, in the estimation of the Club.

Our attention was arrested on the road by the plough teams. They were chiefly mules of fine size, in fine order, and working in pairs to large ploughs, and however negligent Virginians generally are of their teams, (and they are proverbially so,) Mr. R.'s showed no signs of hard usage or abuse.

The fallow for corn on the upland was nearly completed. It was well executed. A heavy coat of vegetation was completely turned in and the Committee could find no fault of the ploughing, whether in depth, uniformity, or neatness.

Mr. R. is pursuing a system of improvement that is gaining ground in this region of country,

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and upon it, or some other system similar to it, depends, as your Committee verily believe, the restoration of Virginia to her former wealth and prosperity. He raises the greatest possible quantity of manure, makes the land as far as he goes thoroughly rich, and shifts the scene every year. He thinks that in three or four years he will in this way have gone over the whole of his high land, with the exception of the small portion appropriated to standing pasture. His rotation on. the manured land, is tobacco, wheat, clover, grazing and then summer fallow, varying slightly, according to circumstances.

Mr. R. has occupied the estate on which he lives only seven or eight years. When he purchased it, it presented by no means an improved appearance. His predecessor, an excellent Virginia gentleman, managed it as most of our large river estates are generally managed, and with very much the same results; but in the few years that Mr. R. has owned it, its appearance has been much improved, and its productiveness greatly increased. Most of our river planters, accustomed to think that their lands are sufficiently fertile, forget that such lands pay for every effort at improvement, in proportion as they are rich and they neglect the great business of raising and applying manures. Mr. R. knows too much about the calculation of interest to have lost sight of the fact, that the application of manures to such soils cannot fail to be a good investment. A fair proportion of the estate under consideration, is river bottom, and Mr. R. has wisely drawn from this source the rich and abundant materials (wheat straw, corn stalks, and other offal of the crops,) with which he has so rapidly improved his uplands, and the Committee do not hazard much in the opinion, that at no distant period he will have it in his power to render back to the bottoms, from the high land, the loam which he has exacted from them, with compound interest.

Mr. R. had his ox teams employed in carrying out wheat straw to the land which is to be the scene of his manuring operations the ensuing year, and he was heaping it on with an unsparing hand. He has top dressed a good deal of his wheat this fall with stable manure. He ha3 also in hand an experiment with peas, sowed in June and July and fallowed in as a preparation for wheat on common corn land, {land of medium fertility,) and up to this time (16th December, 1843,) the wheat has a fine, rich, vigorous appearance, fully equal to that sowed on his highly manured lots.

The Committee cannot too highly commend Mr. R.'s neatness and skill in the cultivation of his estate. The river banks are cultivated almost to the water's edge. The ditch banks are levelled and cultivated neatly. The river bottom is laid off in forty feet beds, the furrows serving as complete drains. There are no head

lands, hedge rows, thickets, brier patches, or other waste places, to offend the eye, but instead of these, (and they are but too common in our Virginia farms,) every spot yields its full proportion of the growing crop.

Mr. R.'s entire estate is in a high state of improvement. The uplands are well protected with hill-side trenches, and both high and low lands effectually drained. A considerable part of the bottom land has only been in his possession a few days, and when he shall have applied his wonted skill to that, the whole will exhibit a scene of improvement that your Committee believe will not be excelled, if equalled, by any estate within the limits of their acquaintance.

The Committee regret that they have not received a statement of the crop made by Mr. R. last year, which was promised, should it be received in time it will be annexed to this report. Should, however, Mr. R.'s engagements prevent his furnishing such statement, the Committee will say that his crops have kept pace with his improvements, and that he has given a practical refutation to an error too common in our country, "That improving farmers generally reap the smallest profits."

The Committee regret, also, that they have not space to give Mr. R.'s plans of cultivation and improvement, as well as his opinions, more in detail, but they have not had time and leisure to confer with him freely on these subjects. There is one opinion, however, entertained by him, which the Committee think ought to address itself with great force, not only to the Club but to the whole public, and that is, " that one of the greatest difficulties in the way of extensive improvement is, deficiency of teams."

The Committee hope to be excused for occupying so much time in giving this mere outline of Mr. R.'s management.

A. C. Morton, H. S. Jeffries.

INDUSTRY.

The following anecdote may give encouragement to the industrious:

Not long ago a country gentleman had an estate of £200 a year, which he kept in his own hands until he found himself so much in debt, that to satisfy his creditors he was obliged to sell the half and let the remainder to a farmer for twenty years. Towards the expiration of the lease, the farmer coming one day to pay his rent, asked the gentleman whether he would sell his farm. " Why, will you buy it ?" said the gentleman. "If you will part with it, and we can agree," replied the farmer. " That is exceedingly strange,"said the gentleman, "pray tell me how it happens that, while T could not live upon twice as much land, for which I pay no rent, you are regularly paying me a hundred

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pounds a year for your farm, and are able, in a few years, to purchase it ?" " The reason is plain," answered the farmer, " you sat still and said go —I got up and said come —you laid in bed and enjoyed your estate—1 rose in the morning and minded my business."— Selected.

For the Southern Planter. PLOUGH WHEEL.

"A wheel is an indispensable accompaniment to a good plough in sward land, or indeed in almost any other."

True, I'll be sworn ; for in breaking up meadow land, my plough, if set to the right gauge for the firm parts, would invariably dip too deep in the soft ones, and besides injuring the team by the increase of draught, rendered the land much more difficult of after management: to remedy this inequality, 1 procured a gauge wheel, and attached it to the plough, which had not been at work with its appendage ten minutes, before I saw abundant cause to wonder that I had not adopted the plan all along. I now use the Comb plough, gotten from Palmer, of } r our cit}^, which is decidedly the best for turf land I have ever tried.

Pray, can you tell me any thing about the Robinson, or Fancy grass? Has any one of your acquaintance tried it, and with what effect ? A hyperbolical friend is constantly recommending it to me, as the most valuable grass on moist lands, in fact, reclaiming and making valuable such as are too wet and washy for anj r other artificial grass. I have recently obtained and transplanted a parcel of the sets—for it is propagated only in this way—but do not desire to proceed farther with the experiment, until better advised in the matter.

I am concerned to see Mr. Darracott advocating the cultivation of tobacco. Bordley says, " Houses are ungrudged for curing tobacco, two to eight or ten houses are cheerfully built for this crop ; but not one for live stock., not a blade of hay for them, though multiplied beyond the present means of keeping them, on the pretence, that the more the cattle, the more the dung for the tobacco." The tobacco crop and improvement in agriculture have ever seemed to me antagonistic in their character, of which a large portion of our State is a melancholy proof.— Still, there are good managers amongst us who make tobacco, and no doubt, Mr. Darracott is one of them ; but in the main, it does appear to me incompatible with the belter interests of agriculture, and highly as I respect him, I should be sorry to see the doctrine established which he is endeavoring to inculcate.

Excuse me a little farther. Does Mr. Ruffin in his fodder essay state the startling fact, that in the gathering of this crop it takes ten persons

to do the work of one? In this, that the average amount of fodder to the hand is two hundred pounds, whilst an ordinary mower will get his two thousand of hay by the scythe ? How vast the difference ! Why not have grass lots for a supply of provender instead of going to the enormous expense of hand gathering ?

Oberlin.

EXPERIMENT WITH CHARCOAL.

Robert L. Pell, of Pelham, Ulster county, New York, writing to the editors of the Albany Cultivator, says: "I mentioned to you last spring that I had sown fifty-two bushels of charcoal dust to the acre, on wheat, and would give you the result of the experiment. In order that my promise might be fulfilled, I selected a corner of a twenty-five acre field of wheat, containing by survey two rods; the grain was harvested while in the milk, on the 17th of July; threshed, cleaned, and measured on the 21st, yielding 31 quarts and 1 pint, or 78 bushels and 24 quarts to the acre. As the above fact may appear incredible to many wheat growers, I enclose the survey, and certificates of two of my men who measured it.

" I have grown cuttings of the camelia japo-nica, soft-wooded geraniums, cactus, wax plants, &c, in pure charcoal dust, without any admixture of earth; likewise corn, beet, carrot, and other seeds, and believe it to be the most valuable substance now* unknown as manure, being pure, incorruptible, and lasting."

NEW METHOD OF PREPARING MANURES. The following is an extract from a work lately published in New York, by a Mr. Heermance. It attracted our attention some time since, but we forbore at that time to give it circulation, in consequence of a hint we received that the operator under this process would be prosecuted as an infringer upon the patent of Messrs. Baer & Gouliart. With the manner of constructing the heap in both cases before him, the reader can judge for himself how far Mr. Heermance's plan infringes on Messrs. B. & G.'s patent.— We have been repeatedly asked if the materials recommended by Mr. Heermance, are not the same as those used, but not patented, by Messrs. B & G. Our information having been obtained in a manner wholly confidential, we must of course decline answering this question.

"1. Form your barn-yard with a gradual descent to one side, so that the liquid formed by the rains will flow gently to that side: make the bottom as hard and smooth as possible, that there

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may be little or no waste by soaking into the earth. Arrange your stables, hog-pen, &c, in such order, as to throw all the litter and manure into the yard.

"2. Sink a vat or reservoir to the lower side of the yard, of sufficient capacity to contain the juice of the yard. The most common form of the vat is six feet width by three feet deep, and twelve or more in length, according to the size of the yard, and the amount of liquor flowing from it. When the vat is more than twelve in length, it will be best to divide it by partitions into two or three parts, so that if at any time you want to use only part of the liquor, you can do so without any inconvenience. It will be further desirable to have the vat so connected with the yard, that when once full, and you have commenced your manufacture, if additional rains come before you shall have completed your heap, of which we shall soon speak, you can prevent the liquid so formed from running into your vat, either by keeping it back in the yard, or by turning it another direction.

" 3. In this vat mix the following ingredients as nearly as you can, without actual measurement or weight: to every barrel of liquid add 4 lbs. of stone lime just slacked, 4 lbs. wood ashes good qualitjr and dry, or an equivalent of leached ashes, or £ lb. of salt, or its equivalent of brine; 2 ozs. saltpetre ; 20 lbs. plaster of Paris, or mud, or muck ; 10 lbs. of excrements from the privy, or 20 lbs. of horse manure. Mix these ingredients thoroughly with the liquid in the vat, and if the vat contains one hundred barrels, increase the above ingredients an hundredfold.— It would be well to mix these ingredients a few days before you lay up your heap, and stir them every day, but this is not essential.

"4. On the upper side of the vat lay the foundation for the heap, by placing poles or rails, with one end to the vat, and the other extending from it, about two feet apart; on these lay other poles crosswise, (precisely as we do the foundation for a stack of hay or grain,) to keep the straw from the ground, and that the liquid may flow freely beneath.

"5. Having every thing prepared, commence laying up the heap by placing a layer of straw, weeds, stalks, or whatever you have at hand, on the foundation of poles, to the thickness of a foot. You will find great advantage from throwing the materials as you collect them in the j'ard and letting the cattle tread on them, until they are thoroughly wet. When the layer is a foot thick, stir up the ingredients in the vat and with a pail or other vessel, thoroughly wet the layer on the poles. Place another layer on the first, and of the same thickness wet as before, and thus continue until you have raised the heap as high as you wish—say from six to ten feet.— Be careful at wetting to stir up the ingredients from the bottom of the vat. The easiest and

quickest way to wet the several layers, will be to use a pump, or elevate, with a hose attached, to spread the liquor over the heap. In such a case, let one stir, another pump, and a third manage the hose. Only be careful, whatever method you pursue, to wet the several layers thoroughly in all their parts. When finished, cover the heap with settlings in the bottom of the vat, or with anything else at hand—common earth will answer.

" 6. If the heap consists of straw, weeds and the like, it will require wetting every fourth day. If you have used much peat, muck, or earth, with the straw, water once a week. To water the heap, make holes with an iron bar or other instrument in the top of it, from eight to twelve inches apart, and extending downward about to the middle; then stir the liquid in the vat, and pour it into the holes until the hole is saturated ; finally close the holes. At every watering make new holes.

" Give the heap three waterings when made of straw, and it will be fit for use in fifteen days from the time of laying it up, when much muck or mud has been added, thirty days.

" When it is desired to manufacture this kind of manure in places where barn-yard liquid cannot be readily obtained, river, spring or pond water, will answer the same purpose for wetting the heaps as the barn-yard liquid, by increasing in a small proportion, the ingredients for the mixture, as given in section 3, and adding them to it."

SEEDS FROM THE PATENT OFFICE.

We are much indebted to Mr. Ellsworth for a large assortment of field and garden seeds.— We will exercise a sound discretion in distributing them, so that they may be fairly tried, and if there prove any thing new or good in them, that it may redound to the benefit of the community. In this way, we imagine, we shall best subserve the ends of the public spirited donor.

LABELS FOR GARDENS.

The trouble of affixing permanent labels in the beds or places where seeds or roots are planted is known to all who have had any experience in gardening. The common method of writing upon sticks, leather or paper is soon rendered useless by being exposed to the rain and sun, but the following, quoted from a French Magazine, by Hovey, in his Magazine of Horticulture, is a remedy for the difficulty.

"Zinc labels to write on with a common lead pencil. —Slightly rub with pumice stone the part upon which you wish to write, then write upon it with a common lead pencil, and when the let-

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ters have been exposed to the air for two or three days they are indelible. If you wish to efface the writing, you must rub the label with the pumice stone, and if the labels become covered with earth or oxide, rub your finger, slightly wetted, over them, and they will re-appear. Old zinc is preferable to new for this purpose."

THE PLANTER.

We must apologise both for the quality and quantity of engravings in the present number; but we are so situated, at present, as to be unable to help ourselves. We hope soon to place this department of our paper upon a different footing, when we will endeavor to make up for all delinquences.

We had as well out with it at once ; there is no use in being mealy mouthed about it; ice entertain the ambitious project of making the " Planter" the first agricultural paper in the

which have been heretofore reduced to practice. The additional power required to move the hearer is scarcely worth estimating, and its simplicity so great as to make it a matter of wonder that it had not been -suggested before by hundreds. All the required addition to McCormick's machine will be a light horizontal shaft, connected at one end with the motive power by a system of cogs, the other end being supported by a gudgeon. Upon this shaft, which is in a line with the apron, there are erected three small band wheels, and on the opposite side of the apron a roller sufficiently long to receive a band coming across the apron from all the band wheels. These bands, either of leather, (or chain, which would be preferable,) with pins at corresponding intervals, to catch the straw and bear it along as the bands revolve, complete the invention. There is but one difficulty which presents itself to my mind, and that the inventor seems so perfectly confident he can remove by a slight change in the construction, that I will not trouble the public with it.

The inventor is a very worthy citizen, and I

Union; and, without arrogance, we believe Vir

ginia can afford us the means of accomplishing! should be exceedingly gratified if he could succeed in perfecting his invention so as to make

this end. To effect this, we want the "sinews of war," and first and foremost, we must have five thousand additional subscribers; yes, and we mean to get them too—how ? you will ask ; by making a tour of Virginia during the coming summer; by visiting in person every part of the State, and by pressing into the service every true friend of Virginia agriculture. We flatter ourselves that there is no part of the old Dominion, in which we will not find a welcome: there is no part of it where we will not meet with friends ready and willing to afford us their aid in obtaining such a list of subscribers, as will enable us to make the only agricultural paper within our limits, the pride and ornament of the State. The invitations that pour in upon us from every quarter, together with the flattering and treasured proofs of approbation bestowed upon us, have determined us upon this course. Our friends must, therefore, not be surprised, if one day we pounce down upon them, and require their assistance in beating up the neighborhood. Who will volunteer to aid us in such a cause 1

For the Southern Planter.

McCORMICK'S REAPING MACHINE.

Mr. Editor, —An ingenious gunsmith of this county, Mr. Johnson, has invented a plan for carrying off the straw from McCormick's Reaping Machine, which seems to me to obviate the difficulties in all the plans for the same object

it practically useful and a source of profit to himself. I know you have considerable taste for mechanics, and I hope if you can make any suggestions which-are likely to be of service to Mr. Johnson, that you will do so. In great haste, yours truly,

W. M. Peyton. Big Lick, Roanoke, Feb. 20, 1844.

As we have hinted heretofore, one of the greatest of our objections to McCormick's machine is the labor it devolves upon the raker.— We should consider such an improvement as Mr. Johnson's is described to be, calculated greatly to enhance the value of the implement.

For the Southern Planter.

HOGS—STYE FEEDING, &c.

J\Ir. Editor, —To meet the wishes of your intelligent correspondent, W. J. D., in your March number—not "to call in question the propriety of other men's plans or their success"—I will state the result of my own experience in raising hogs. It does not surprise me that your correspondent has failed in his attempts at stye feeding, because I have long been satisfied that no farmer has found, and that no farmer will find it profitable in Virginia. It may answ r er, like other hobbies, to amuse one whose leisure and pecuniary means will enable him to experiment in this way; but pushed to practical results, it will prove a losing business. Even if the hog escapes disease and remains perfectly healthy

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until he comes to the knife—with all the litter ] ing and all the manure lhat can possibly be j gathered upon this system, he will be found to have cost more than the same weight of pork in the market.

It is of the greatest advantage, as it is most congenial to the nature and habits of the animal, to have access to a running stream and to mud, when he chooses (as he always will in warm weather) to wallow in it. I have indeed read somewhere, of an experiment made with two pigs, one of which was permitted to indulge himself at will in this way—the other kept clean with curry-comb and brush—and that the result upon the same or somewhat less food, was in favor of the latter. This, as far as I know, is an isolated case—which may have been perpetrated by some hobby rider, or not; but I am persuaded it cannot weigh against the results of practical experience; and if it did, it is impracticable by our farmers, many of whose work horses and mules receive far too little of the necessary attention from the curry-comb and brush; currying hogs with them, is of course out of the question.

It is a familiar, but sound maxim in domestic economy, that a farmer should produce every article for home consumption that he can grow. There are some few, but very few exceptions, I believe—but this general principle is as true in regard to the farmer's pork as any thing else, and though there be exceptions, I think they are not many. As to the most economical mode, that necessarily depends upon a variety of circumstances ; but taking the case stated by your correspondent, which is similar to my own, and premising that I sometimes omit the raising of pork when it is inconvenient or unprofitable to do so, (though I have raised it for the last three or four successive years,) I will now state the plan which has been found to suit my own circumstances best, which is all I mean to say for it.

My hogs are turned upon a lot of good clover enclosed for the purpose as early in the spring as it is large enough for thern to graze—which of course depends on the season—having free access to the farm-yard and to a piece of wet land where there is water through the year. I borrowed this plan from a statement in the New England Farmer, that the celebrated Arthur Young had pastured sixty-four hogs, large and small, upon two acres of clover, from May until November; and with the addition of small supplies of cyrnlin3 through the season I have found it an excellent one. The hogs keep the clover from running into head, where they are confined to a small surface, and mine have always gone into the fattening pen upon this keep in good order. The few sties necessary for my stock are open to the south, the floor slightly inclined to the front and a single broad plank

placed under the roof to keep the bedding from the litter of the open part. The front is secured by strips, not-close planks—and I think such a shelter sufficient for them at all seasons. They certainly may be kept in it in warm weather better than in any I have seen hereabouts. My breeding sows and my young hogs that remain over winter are fed from the time they are taken off the clover, late in the fall, until they return to it in the spring, upon boiled vegetables, after the plan of Mr. Ingersoll—published in the Farmers' Register for January, 1839, page 31.— The boiled food is given thrice a day with but little trouble, and always given warm. Twice a day might possibly be often enough in winter. At day-break every morning a fire is made under a large iron boiler in which enough is left every evening for the morning's feed—so soon as that is warmed the hogs are fed, and the boiler immediately filled again. They are fed the second time when the hands come in to dinner, and lastly, at night, the swill remaining warm enough until that time. This, for a small farm like mine, I think is the best plan I have tried. At first I kept my sows in the sties all winter—but now allow them free access to the farm-pen during the day, and I do not now keep any pork hogs through the winter—finding that pigs dropped in February and March will make very excellent pork of sufficient size for my use, say from 125 to 140 or 50 lbs. which some of it will reach by the next December. Last year I was so situated that I could not graze my hogs upon clover, and my pork was smaller than usual and cost more than I could have bought it for in the Richmond market.

Upon large estates, where hogs could have the double advantage of a clover pasture during the spring and summer and a range of oak wood land for the fall and winter, I should think it would be easy to raise large supplies of pork at but little expense of corn. If they are disposed to root up the clover, a piece of wire put through the cartilage of the nose by means of an awl, and the ends twisted together to keep it in place, will effectually prevent them.

I regret the want of time for a more careful preparation of this article, which, as you will perceive, is penned very hastily.

Very respectfully, yours,

Wm. H. Richardson.

From the Tennessee Agriculturist. DURABLE RAILS.

Rails ought all to be split in April or May, when the bark will peel off the trees, and then the sap rails will last as long as the inside heart rails will. This is material to know.

Samuel Martin.