THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

Sebotcti to Agriculture, horticulture, nttti the ^cuscliclti girts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 

Xenophon. 


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


C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 


Vol. IV. RICHMOND, APRIL, 1844. No. 4. 



For the Southern Planter. 
COMMENTS ON THE FEBRUARY NUMBER. 

I had announced my determination" to com- 
ment no furiher on the contents of lhe Southern 
Planter, hoping that some other person more 
competent to the task would undertake to bear 
the burthen. But being disappointed in this 
hope, and believing that such comments, if ju- 
diciously applied, are valuable, I again, upon 
the earnest solicitations of the Editor and many 
others, take up my pen to the work. My object 
being charitable, I must ask charity at the hands 
of others. 

Bommer's J\Ianure. — As I know nothing about 
it, I say nothing about it — only this, I admire 
the frank manner in which the Editor of the 
Southern Planter treats the subject. 

JVIr. Bolls' Corn Crop. — It is well enough to 
make experiments, each for himself, as to the 
number of stalks to be put on an acre, but I 
could have told Mr. B. that his crop was too 
thick. Indeed, he will find that 17,640 stalks 
are yet too many ; particularly of the kind which 
he proposes planting. On well prepared lots, I 
have planted, or rather, permitted to stand, 9,680 
plants, which is just double as thick as tobacco 
plants at the usual distance. I, too, at two dif- 
ferent times, have made about 100 bushels of 
shelled corn to the acre, and think that we can 
make 150 bushels — yea, more. Mr. Bolts' me- 
thod of preparing his seed corn is very well, but 
I greatly prefer soaking in strong tobacco amber, 
and rolling in plaster. The tobacco is not only 
a stimulant, but no beast, bird, or insect, will 
touch corn so treated. Make the amber very 
strong, and the grain soaked therein will be so 
thickly coated with gum, that a large portion 
of plaster will adhere. Mr. Bolts' method of 
placing the rows at the distance of three feet, 
has the advantage of smothering grass and 
weeds, consequently requiring but little labor in 
its culture; but I incline to think that thi3 ad- 
vantage is not equivalent to the risk of loss by 
disease. The disease I allude to, is lhe black 
rot, by which I have suffered when planting 
large corn on rows at the distance of four feet. 
Corn, like animals, is most liable to disease when 
in infancy, when blooming and silking, and 
when in old age. Hence my practice on all 
manner of land to give my row3 at leaet five 
feet distance, that the corn may, at the critical 
Vol, r/— ft 



time of maturing, have better opportunity of 
obtaining a plentiful supply of sun and air. I 
agree with Mr. B. as to the superior value of 
the large gourdseed corn; particularly, if that 
gourdseed is of a flinty kind. I have cultivated 
nearly every kind of corn, and have abandoned 
all for the large cob, long grain, big ear, flinty 
gourdseed. A weasel cannot yield a valuable 
hide for the tanner; neither can a small cob 
yield a valuable grist for the miller. It is true, 
lhat much can be said in favor of a low stalk ; 
but by careful selections of the seed, the gourd- 
seed can be brought down to the required height. 

Cure for Teller. — I have cured letters Oh my- 
self by the application of soft soap alone. 

Barn Yards.— I would particularly call the 
attention of the public to this manner of con- 
structing a farm yard and reservoir. Make the 
reservoir large, and cast iherein all the dead 
animals and filth which can be conveniently 
found. About the first of May, cover lhe reser- 
voir with earlh eight or ten inches deep, and let 
it not be disturbed till October ; then shovel out, 
mix, cart out, and spread on the meadow. Or 
if no meadow, cast it a little off the way, and 
use it in spring for garden or elsewhere. Now 
the reservoir is ready for filling again through 
winter and spring ; and the contents being co- 
vered and untouched through the warm season, 
are preserved from evaporation, and perfectly 
decomposed and purified. 

For Burns. — 1 thought that every body knew 
lhat cotton has the power of extracting fire from 
a burn, but the addition of ink is fudge, for ink 
is made of different materials. 

Whilst on the subject of cures, I am reminded 
of a recipe for curing a cancer, which I lately 
saw in a newspaper, and which, at the risk of 
being called a quack, I will add, in closing. — 
Mix the yolk of an egg with as much salt as 
it will absoib, and apply as a plaster. It has 
been tried in my neighborhood, and found ef- 
fectual. 

Investigator. 



QUANTITY OF LIME PER ACR2. 

We have repeatedly taken occasion to ad- 
vance the opinion, that a much less quantity 
than 100 bushels of lime, per acre, would an- 
swer for all present purposes — and we have a* 
often stated that an applicaiicn of 25 bushek, 



74 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



if repealed at the expiration of each rotation of 
four years, until one hundred bushels had been 
applied per acre, would be better than applying 
that quantity at a single spreading; first, be- 
cause the lesser quantity would be more than 
sufficient to meet all the demands of the crops 
for a period of years ; and secondly, because, as 
the outlay would be diminished three hundred 
per cent, a much larger quantity of land could 
be dressed with it, and the farm, therefore, at an 
earlier period, and at much less expense, be 
brought into a state of profitable fertility. And 
as the heaviness of the cosi forms a very serious 
objection to many persons undertaking the liming 
of their lands, we shall state a few of the many 
reasons which induce us to adopt the views of 
the subject we have heretofore felt it to be our 
duty to advance. 

From the tests of analysis, it has been very 
clearly ascertained, that the crops, in a four 
years rotation, extract from the soil, on an aver- 
age, about 242 lbs. of lime, which is 60-J lbs. 
per year. Some crops, we are aware, require 
more than others, but the average is set down as 
we have before stated. If, then, it requires but 
60| lbs., which is less than a bushel, to supply 
the plants grown on an acre, in a year, with the 
proper quantity of this particular kind of food, 
the inference is a fair one, that unless a mechani- 
cal amendment of the texture of the soil be an 
important object with the improver, there can 
be no positive necessity for the use, at any one 
time, of 100 bushels of lime upon a single acre, 
and the deduction is equally fair, that, as less 
than a bushel is given out in food to the plants 
in any one year, it would be preferable to use 
the hundred bushels on four acres, instead of 
one. By this division of the largest quantity 
named, the improver would be enabled by the 
increased products, to carry on his liming, and 
thus relieve himself from much of the onerous- 
ness of outlay, where heavy dressings are at 
first given. 

Practical observers, as well as scientific men, 
have affirmed, that visible good effects of lime 
have been witnessed thirty years after its appli- 
cation; and we have no doubt of the fact. For, 
although much is lost to cultivation by the ten- 
dency of the mineral to sink beyond the reach 
of the roots of most growing crops, yet it must 
be obvious that, if less than a bushel is annually 
taken up by the plants, an application of one 
hundred bushels to an acre would last for a pe- 
riod greatly beyond thirty years. The question 
then resolves itself into this : ]f 25 bushels will 
answer for a series of years, equally as well as 
an hundred, why should the heavy expense of 
the latter be incurred. We make this sugges- 
tion purely as a matter of economy ; and not be- 
cause of any fears we entertain that a hundred 
bushels per acre, could, under any circumstances, 
operate disadvantageously to the soil, provided 



there were sufficient organic remains in it for 
the lime to act upon, or that animal and vegeta- 
ble manure were applied, or green crops ploughed 
in. Lime, as a means of restoring fertility to 
an exhausted soil, is among the most efficient 
agents which can be used; and we hold, that 
without it, no permanent melioration can be ef- 
fected, and for these simple and obvious reasons — 
all analysis prove that lime is to be found in the 
ashes of most of the vegetable productions, and 
therefore forming, as it does, a part of their food, 
it is essential that it should be in the soil, in or- 
der to secure a healthful growth of the plants 
raised thereon. — American Farmer. 



For the Southern Planter. 
ON MANURES, &c. 

Mr. Editor, — There has long been a diversity 
of opinion in regard to the escape of manures 
from the soil. While one person contends that 
manures evaporate, another, with equal earnest- 
ness, asserts that they sink into the earth. Both, 
to a certain extent, may be right, still, I think 
the greater portion is carried off by ablution. — 
Much may be taken up by the production of 
crops, but the greatest thief is the washing of 
1 rains. Suppose one should expose, in the open 
air, a portion of sugar or salt, and, after a few 
; months, should undertake to inquire whence it 
jhad gone. All would agree that it had been 
[dissolved and carried off by the action of the 
rains, &c. In like manner is the substance of 
manures lost. But for this circumstance our 
roads would be the richest lands that we pos- 
sess ; for it is very evident that there is almost 
a daily manuring of them. 

In proof of my position, it is only necessary 
that I should cite attention to the fact that all 
low places become rich from alluvion. The 
high places are gradually becoming lower and 
poorer, while, on the contrary, the low places 
are becoming higher and richer. 

The different streams, in time of high water, 
are ever tinged, not only with earthy particles, 
but with a solution of manure from various 
sources. The lighter particles of the soil, de- 
rived from the decomposition of animal and ve- 
getable matter, as well as manures of all other 
kinds, supply the perpetual drain. 

In order to save as much as possible of the 
substance of decaying animal and vegetable 
substances it is necessary that the soil should 
be kept in a light, porous, and absorbent condi- 
tion. 

I believe that it is generally admitted, that, 
in the percolation of fluids through sand, pul- 
verized charcoal, &c. that they are freed from 
all impurities. Thus, when the soil is open and 
porous in time of rains, it catches the fertilizing 
particles as the water passes through the earth. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



75 



Hence the impropriety of grazing land when 
wet, rendering it so close and compact that it is 
not open for the admission of these things, nor 
to the fertilizing influence of the atmosphere. 

It is a fact now generally admitted that the 
enclosing system, in conjunction with clover 
and plaster, is the cheapest mode of improving 
old lands. 

After the autumnal frosts, when the land is 
well covered with herbage, the rain, in the com- 
mencement of a shower, dissolves the fertilizing 
principle of the lifeless vegetables and lodges it 
in the soil. It is owing to this circumstance 
that wood land enclosed, so as to prevent stock 
from treading if, improves much faster than that 
which is not. The land becomes open and po- 
rous, from the frosts of winter, so that the sub- 
stance of the leaves, &c. can be carried into the 
soil in the way above described. From the same 
cause, lands cut down two or three years before 
they are cultivated, with all the timber, brush, 
&c. left on them, produce much better. 

From the foregoing remarks it might be in- 
ferred that I am opposed to top-dressing. I 
should think that the top-dressing of very hard 
places would not be very philosophical. But at 
the same time, if the soil be very porous, or the 
article slow of decomposition, the plan will not 
be found to be a bad one. In the latter case 
the protection of the young grass and the shading 
of the soil, may more than counteibalance any 
washing from the surface. 

I shall be sorry, if in my aim at brevity, I 
may have become unintelligible. 

R. D. Palmer. 

February 8, 1844. 






For the Southern Planter. 

CATTLE DISTEMPER. 

JVlr. Editor, — During the past year, there 
prevailed extensively in some portions of the 
upper country a disease among cattle no less 
fatal than common : during the prevalence of 
which, some of the finest cows and oxen to be 
found perhaps in the State, lost their lives. It 
commences generally very suddenly, without 
any signs of previous debilit3' or disease, and 
runs its course in most cases in the short space 
of twenty four hours. It seems to affect the 
head more than any other part of the system, 
producing great stupor and debility, perfect loss 
of appetite, and invariably lock jaw. The poor 
creature thus situated, continues to pine away, 
being unable to receive food into its stomach 
until it finally perishes for the want of nourish- 
ment. Perhaps there is no situation in which 
you can imagine an animal to be placed more 
calculated to excite our sympathies than the 
one under consideration. The disease was treated 
in various ways and by numerous remedies 



when it first made its appearance, and all alike 
were equally inefficient, until finally the treat- 
ment we propose to offer in as few words as 
possible, was adopted. So soon as the disease 
makes its appearance, and before lock jaw has 
taken place, a large dose of spirits of turpentine 
mixed with a table-spoonful of castor oil should 
be immediately administered in as much gruel 
as the animal can be made to swallow. The 
turpentine should amount to two or three table- 
spoonfuls. As soon as this has been accom- 
plished, a large orifice should be made in the 
large vein of the neck, and two or three quarts 
of blood should be drawn ; immediately after 
which, the spirits of turpentine should be rubbed 
on the neck and head. By following out this 
plan of treatment, and at the same time paying 
attention to the stall in which the animal is 
kept, the lives of many which otherwise would 
be lost, will be preserved. 

In haste, yours, &c. L. B. A. 

Richmond, Jan. 12, 1844. 



For the Southern Planter. 
SUBSTITUTE FOR HOPS. 

JVfr. Editor, — In your last number I observed 
an article "on ripe bread" from yonx correspond- 
ent Dorothy Dumpling : pleased as I was with 
Dorothy's suggestions, I have ventured to add 
a line also on the article of bread. 

While on my way to your city, last Decem- 
ber, I chanced to be a fellow-passenger, (on 

board the packet Jos. C.Cabell,) of Judge , 

then on his way to attend a sitting of the Gen- 
eral Court. At breakfast we were discussing 
some excellent rolls, the merits of which were 
highly extolled by all, when the Judge, who is 
a lover of good bread, as all good Judges are, 
remarked, that his cook, in making bread for his 
family, used yeast made of the tops of a very 
common plant amongst us, called life-everlasting, 
the botanical name of which is gnaphaliam. — 
He said, since its introduction, hops had been 
entirely discarded by his cook — that the bread, 
thus made, was far superior to that prepared 
from hops, and the change had been approved 
by all his family. Having so much confidence 
in his general good taste, I determined, on my 
return home, to try its correctness in this parti- 
cular. We have done so, and I shall long feel 
gratified that I had the good fortune to fall in 
with the Judge, on the occasion named, even if 
his company had not tended to make the trip a 
most pleasant one ; for, to his sort of bread, I 
have constantly treated myself since, and its 
superiority over all others, is admitted by every 
one who has partaken of it at our table. I am 
satisfied with the Judges decision; from it, I 
shall never appeal. The yeast is prepared from 
the flowers of gnaphalium in the same manner 



76 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



as from hops. This plant is to be found in al- 
most 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 in- 
tended 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 weak- 
ening 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 man- 
ner 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 as- 
sistant ; 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 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



77 



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 unavoid- 
able, 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 ma- 
chine, 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 gener- 
ally be sound at the junction or knotting to- 
gether 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 consump- 
tion. Many farmers will not understand blast- 
ing, 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, de- 
pend 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 ef- 
fective. 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 pos- 
sess one, wherever stumps occupy the ground. 
It is enough to say that the machine made and 
tended by the inventor, has been in constant re- 
quisition 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 sin- 
cere thanks for sending to me two numbers (the 
January and February) of your agricultural pe- 
riodical, "The Southern Planter." The people 
are more benefited, their real interests more ad- 
vanced, 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 expec- 
torated on them. Agriculture is gradually ceas- 
ing to be a mere empirical practice. It is rightly 
becoming an enlightened art, founded on science, 
and the time will surely come when the treat- 
ment 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, con- 
stitute 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 



78 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



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 quan- 
tities are given that a great portion passes un- 
digested ; 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 dan- 
ger 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 nu- 
tritive 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 accu- 
rate 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 appropria- 
tion of its elements by the organs of nutrition, 
I believe, to be greatly facilitated by mixing ve- 
getable 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 la- 
borious cultivation. This is not a mere conjec- 
ture 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 fat- 
ten on water alone. It may be said they ob- 
tain their nourishment from other substances con- 
tained in the water, and not from the water it- 
self. This would not alter the case, for the wa- 
ter 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 attri- 
bute 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 up- 
per 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 ex- 
cellent 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 sup- 
pose, though, that these methods are in general 
use — far from it ; few as yet have adopted them. 
After the adoption of these, another will fol- 
low 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 Ken- 
tucky. 

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 pre- 
serve animal matters from decay. The only 
two ways in which creosote is usually applied 
for this purpose, consist either in exposing the 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



79 



meat which we wish to preserve to the smoke 
of burning wood, of which creosote is the effec- 
tive 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 dis- 
cernible. 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 cele- 
brated Dr. Abernethy contains three paragraphs, 
which display the importance of thorough chew- 
ing 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 appara- 
tus more complete than those who have not ex- 
amined 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, popu- 
larly termed spittle, {saliva,) prepared by the 
fountain glands. 

"When the food has been properly masticated, 
comminuted, and mixed with saliva, it is pre- 
pared for digestion in the stomach: but it is 
most important to remark, that if it is not tho- 
roughly 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 can- 
not 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 illus- 
trious 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," re- 
plied 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 them- 
selves 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 communica- 
tion 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 



80 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



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, there- 
fore, volunteers to open to the profaman vulgus 
the secrets of the charnel-house. We have al- 
luded to him the more particularly in this con- j 
nection, because we have often heard him de- 
clare, that two-thirds of the cases of chronic 
disease he has witnessed in this country, had 
their origin in the habit peculiar to our country- 
men 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 mastica- 
tion, 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 Dutch- 
man 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 con- 
tains 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 gener- 
ous 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 mi- 
nutes !•' 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 pro- 
vided 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 transporta- 
tion of one load is attended with more expense 
and inconvenience than belongs to three at a 
more propitious period. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



81 



We made a little excursion into the country 
this winter, and even at that dreary season, 
amidst the generous hospitality and uncon- 
strained mirth of our company, we could un- 
conditionally have surrendered ourselves to the 
charms of a country life, had it not been for the 
eternal " fizzing, sputtering and smoking,'' al- 
luded 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 bil- 
lets, several of the washing tubs upon the pre- 
mises, 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 se- 
veral vegetable structures and substances, and 
producing the several vegetable properties. And 
if the vegetable matter thus produced, be pre- 
served 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 solu- 
tion, must be much more nourishing to the plants 
lhan distilled water. By making plants or ve- 
getables 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, corn- 
field 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 em- 
body 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, re- 
sult 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 dis- 
tance of 1 foot, gave 1 barrel 2 bushels. 

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

2 rows of corn 145 yards, 3 stalks at the dis- 
tance 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 re- 
gretted that the test of weight was not applied 
in this experiment. 

2. Early in November, 1842, Mr. George 



82 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



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, re- 
ported the following experiment: On the 3d of 
April, 1843, I weighed two parcels of tobacco 
in good, soft stripping order; one of good qua- 
lity 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 or- 
der 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 rela- 
tive 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 mois- 
ture : 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 wa- 
tering for the space of a week. I think I haz- 
ard nothing in saying that it would have yielded 
20,000 plants had they been in the bed and dis- 
tributed 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 unquestiona- 
ble advantage. I never saw a greater effect 
produced by gypsum. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



83 



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 per- 
formed its functions, still worth three dollars. — 
The nett cost of this bed, then, is about five 
dollars. 

Mr. Richmond Terrell also made an experi- 
ment 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 grow- 
ing 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, Febru- 
ary 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 Oc- 
tober 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 confi- 
dence in the results. 

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

The report on Col. Randolph's farm, will ap- 
pear 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 in- 
crease 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 con- 
sumption is comparatively small, which is proved 
by the excessively large stocks now in the Eu- 
ropean 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 Vir- 
ginia crop of tobacco for the last four years has 
been fifty-five thousand hogsheads, which is ten 
thousand hogsheads increaseupon former produc- 
tion. 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 Virgi- 
nia 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 Vir- 
ginia. 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 



84 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



two-thirds of the consumption of American to- 
bacco in Great Britain is stemmed or strips, a 
majority of which is Western growth. The 
north of Europe consumes much Western to- 
bacco, and it constitues nearly the entire con- 
sumption of the south of Europe. For certain 
uses in Great Britain, to very limited extent, the 
Western States have not produced, and it is be- 
lieved cannot produce tobacco to compete with 
the Virginia growth of the best quality, which, 
and especially of late years, const itutes but a 
very small portion of the crop. It is, therefore, 
thought that such qualities, and such alone, will 
maintain compensating prices in European mar- 
kets. It seems to follow as a plain and neces- 
sary 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 ma- 
nagement. The lessening the growth of to- 
bacco, and improving ihe quality, will insure to 
the planter profitable prices, enable him to im- 
prove 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 mak- 
ing 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 opera- 
tion 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 unhe- 
sitatingly 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 advo- 
cate, 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 le- 
velled and well prepared for oats, and after the 
oats were sown and raked in, the grass seed 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



85 



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, 1 84 1 , 
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 testi- 
mony 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 slight- 
est 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 cap- 
tivating 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 deserv- 
ing these denunciations; far from it — I hope the 
reverse, because we have conflicting testimony, 
and good authority for believing that their im- 
provements are real, substantial, and in fact, de- 
serving 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. When- 
ever their interest is in jeopardy I feel strongly, 
and am apt to speak strongly ; if they are at- 
tacked 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 dress- 
ing, twenty-five dollars charged — (the highest 
price, I believe,) — now suppose it prove a fai- 
lure 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 with- 
out 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 our- 
selves. Mr. B.'s system is in operation — if it 
succeeds, and the other does not, then his "al- 
leged improvements" will be established upon a 
solid foundation ; if the other succeeds, the far- 
mers 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 mo- 
tives 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 notwithstand- 
ing our repeated disclaimer, responsibility should 
be thus buckled on our back, whether we will 



86 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



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 sin- 
gular in thus confounding the mere expression 
of an opinion with an authoritative recommen- 
dation. 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 impu- 
tation upon his veracity. For every opinion we 
expressed we gave our reasons, leaving our 
readers to judge of the justness of our conclu- 
sions. 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 opi- 
nion is decidedly against it : it is for the present I 
as dead as a door nail. 

" R." speaks of the farmers as a class pecu- 
liarly liable to be humbugged, and this liability 
to be imposed on by knavish and designing in- 
ventors, 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 en- 
treated, 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 im- 
peratively 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 them- 
selves 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 con- 
structing 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 consi- 
dered 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. What- 
ever right Mr. Bommer may have to advertise 
now that he has a patent for this process, (hold- 
ing 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 imputa- 
tion, before we can proceed any further in de- 
fending 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 un- 
doubtedly 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 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



87 



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 reser- 
voir is prepared of sufficient size to contain the 
quantity of prepared lye which may be required 
by the nature of the establishment. This re- 
servoir 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 thou- 
sand 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 ma- 
terials above named, for the conversion of from 
one to two thousand pounds of straw or other 
dry vegetable stalks, will answer for about dou- 
ble 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 ne- 
cessary to the understanding of our improve- 
ments, 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 prepa- 
ration 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 sur- 
face 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 some- 
times 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 man- 
ner 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 suf- 
ficiently accurate for all purposes, except in buy- 



88 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



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 pro- 
duct 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 our- 
selves 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 di- 
vided 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 appear- 
ance 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 neigh- 
bor 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 ap- 
parent^' thrifty, flourishing, and entirely healthy, 
and are the sole remains of a considerable num- 
ber 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 com- 
mendation, (and no doubt surprise, as com- 
ing 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 con- 
tained 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 ad- 
joining 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 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



89 



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 Ben- 
jamin 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, epi- 
dermis, 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 carpen- 
ter'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 prin- 
cipal 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 rub- 
bing 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 dig- 
ging out a piece of stick frozen in the ice. A 
sharp-pointed bodkin is the most accessible in- 
strument to the generality of people, though an 
imperfect substitute for the lancet-pointed qua- 
drille of the chiropodist. By such means, deli- 
cately 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 figurative- 
ly 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 (pres- 
sure 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 un- 
disturbed for some days, when the plaster should 
be removed ; first extracting any old stems ob- 
served to have been left, thus guarding against 
the continuance of the cause, a complete cure 
may be effected. If a coin has excited inflam- 
mation, 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, espe- 
cially 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 pre- 
vented, by rubbing with pumice stone or sand 
paper. — The Art of Preserving the Feet. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 

We are indebted to the author for "Observa- 
tions 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 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



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 labo- 
rious and skilful experiments. It is itself a sy- 
nopsis, 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 com- 
mittee of the Club in December last, in which 
the general good management of Mr. R. was 
set forth. The condition of the farm as exhi- 
bited on the present occasion certainly betrays 
no relaxation of diligence, attention, or progress 
in improvement. We found every thing in com- 
plete 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 shel- 
tered from the weather and preparing the spot 
on which it had been accumulated, for a tobacco 
plant bed. The snug shelter reared up to pro- 
tect the hog-feeder and the kettle, shows that 
the gentle admonition bestowed by the commit- 
tee on that subject, last year, w r as not wholly 
disregarded. 

The stable, stable-yard and its enclosure, in- 
dicated that Mr. R. was paying great attention 
to the subjects of raising and preserving ma- 
nure. The enclosure was a post and rail fence 
erected on a bank, which served to prevent in- 
jury 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 dis- 
tance 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 sub- 
stantial capping of a five or six inch plate mor- 
tised 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 pre- 
pared to recommend this mode of fencing gen- 



erally, either on the score of economy or conve- 
nience, 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 improve- 
ment 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 at- 
tention 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 im- 
proved 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 in- 
jure their appearance, but would be in better- 
keeping with his highly cultivated and improved 
farm and general good management, and at- 
tended 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 resem- 
blance 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 estima- 
tion 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 pro- 
verbially 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 plough- 
ing, whether in depth, uniformity, or neatness. 

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



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



91 



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 quan- 
tity 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 slight- 
ly, according to circumstances. 

Mr. R. has occupied the estate on which he 
lives only seven or eight years. When he pur- 
chased it, it presented by no means an improved 
appearance. His predecessor, an excellent Vir- 
ginia 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 appear- 
ance has been much improved, and its produc- 
tiveness 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 busi- 
ness of raising and applying manures. Mr. R. 
knows too much about the calculation of interest 
to have lost sight of the fact, that the applica- 
tion 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 unspar- 
ing 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 prepara- 
tion for wheat on common corn land, {land of 
medium fertility,) and up to this time (16th De- 
cember, 1843,) the wheat has a fine, rich, vigor- 
ous 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 al- 
most to the water's edge. The ditch banks are 
levelled and cultivated neatly. The river bot- 
tom 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 pro- 
portion of the growing crop. 

Mr. R.'s entire estate is in a high state of im- 
provement. 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 posses- 
sion 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 coun- 
try, "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 occu- 
pying 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 encourage- 
ment 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 



92 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



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 morn- 
ing 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 al- 
most any other." 

True, I'll be sworn ; for in breaking up mea- 
dow 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 re- 
medy 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 recommend- 
ing 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 pro- 
pagated 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 advo- 
cating the cultivation of tobacco. Bordley says, 
" Houses are un grudged 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 pre- 
sent means of keeping them, on the pretence, 
that the more the cattle, the more the dung for 
the tobacco." The tobacco crop and improve- 
ment in agriculture have ever seemed to me an- 
tagonistic 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 agri- 
culture, 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 aver- 
age 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 in- 
credible 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 admix- 
ture of earth ; likewise corn, beet, carrot, and 
other seeds, and believe it to be the most valua- 
ble 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 de- 
scent 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 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



93 



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 measure- 
ment 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 ingre- 
dients thoroughly with the liquid in the vat, 
and if the vat contains one hundred barrels, in- 
crease 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 ex- 
tending 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 throw- 
ing 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 can- 
not 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 distri- 
buting 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- 



94 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



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 pu- 
mice 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 un- 
able 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 ma- 
chine 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 per- 
fectly 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 suc- 
ceed 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 Domi- 
nion, 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 flatter- 
ing 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 re- 
quire their assistance in beating up the neigh- 
borhood. 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 Reap- 
ing 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 ma- 
chine 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 in- 
telligent 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 corre- 
spondent has failed in his attempts at stye feed- 
ing, 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 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



95 



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 ani- 
mal, 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 in- 
dulge 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 cir- 
cumstances ; 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 sup- 
plies 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 al- 
ways 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 Far- 
mers' 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 un- 
der 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 din- 
ner, 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 dis- 
posed 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. 

Campbell's Station, Term., Feb. 1843. 



96 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



For the Southern Planter. 
COMMENTS. 

Mr. Editor, — Since you deemed my comments 
on the January number worthy a place in your 
paper, I will continue them, with the understand- 
ing that you do with them as you please. I 
will endeavor at all times to be as cautious as 
circumstances will admit. In the first place, I 
would urge on your correspondents the great 
importance of condensing all communications 
intended for the Planter, and if they should not 
take the hint, why you should do it for them. 
It seems, Mr. Editor, that the present age is rife 
with new inventions, and it is truly gratifying 
to know that agriculture comes in for her share. 
Since science begins to dawn on our path, may 
we not cherish the hope that ere long it is des- 
tined to take its stand, where it justly belongs, 
in the front rank of all professions 1 Chemistry, 
the handmaid of agriculture, has done a great 
deal, and will do much more, toward advancing 
our great and glorious cause ; and to you, Mr. 
Editor, I would sa} 7 , be of good cheer and con- 
tinue to prosecute your noble undertaking, and 
believe me, the day is not far distant when you 
will reap the rich reward for your well-spent 
lime and talents. If you need farther encou- 
ragement, I would but remind you of the de- 
voted and illustrious friend of agriculture, the 
late Judge Buel, whose motto was, " to improve 
the mind and the soil." Posterity will continue 
to love and cherish the memory of Judge Buel. 

The Bommer Manure and Poudrette seem to 
be all the rage at present ; and it is to be hoped 
they will both meet with all the encouragement 
they may merit. 

You give us the cut of a very simple looking 
Hay Press, and very truly remark, that Rich- 
mond ought to be an exporter instead of being 
an importer of hay. It is admitted that land 
suitable for hay will produce nothing that re- 
quires so little labor in proportion to its yield ; 
and that there is an abundance of meadow land 
contiguous to Richmond to more than supply 
the market, if used for hay, no one can doubt. 

Corn— Thick Planting. — Mr. J. M. Botts' ex- 
periment is but another proof that our good land 
will produce much more than is generally real- 
ized from it. I have satisfied myself fully, that 
thick planting will make much more than thin, 
eight years out of ten. I have adopted the 
plan of planting a part of my crop thick and 
a part thin, for fear of a drought. It is impos- 
sible to make a great yield without a great 
number of ears, and to obtain them we must 
have a great many stalks. Two small ears will 
yield more than one large one, besides the extra 
fodder. 

Farmers' Clubs. — They not only do much 
good in aiding agricultural improvement, but 
also in cherishing social intercourse. 



Mr. R. G. Morris' Experiment in Curing To- 
bacco. — Will not this astonish every planter in 
our land ? From my own experience 1 know- 
it to be a fact, ihough I had not supposed the 
loss so great. Twenty per cent, in loss of weight 
of tobacco, and then a loss in quantity, for no 
one can cure as nice tobacco in the sun, as with 
fire; 20 per cent.! why, who would suppose so 
many good farmers were actually shaving them- 
selves at the rate of 20 per cent, these hard 
times — it is ruinous. Still, I believe more than 
half the tobacco made in Virginia is cured by 
the sun ; here is a loss then of 20 per cent, 
on half of the great staple of our land — prodi- 
gious ! I do hope that planters will look to this 
matter, or rather to their own interest. I see 
Mr. Morris also applied lime to see if it would 
prevent rust ; and found no effect. Query, will 
not the lime have a much greater effect on the 
succeeding crop, when the lime becomes better 
incorporated with the soil ; does not lime act 
slower than any other manure, and is not the 
effect more lasting when it does act ; ought lime 
to be applied to the soil when it is void of any 
vegetable matter for it to act on ; or will it have 
any effect upon a perfectly barren soil 1 

Commentator. 

Franklin, March 10, 1S44. 



CONTENTS OF NO. IV. 

Comments — On February number, p. 73. 

Lime — Quantity per acre, p. 73. 

Soil — Should be porous and permeable, to save ma- 
nure, p. 74. 

Distemper — Remedy for, p. 75. 

Ycastr- -A new kind, p. 75. 

Stumps — A machine for eradicating, p. 76. 

Feeding — The value of wetting food for stock, p. 77. 

Meat — To preserve from putrefaction, p. 78. 

Food — Necessity of perfect mastication, p. 79. 

Wood — Fire wood should be seasoned, p. 80. 

Improvement — To make the poorest land productive 
p. 81. 

Experiments — Reported from the Hole and Corner 
Club of Albemarle, p. 81. 

Tobacco — Prospects of the tobacco interest in Virgi- 
nia, p. 83. 

Churn — Another plan, with a cut, p. 84. 

Hcrdsgrass — Time and mode of seeding, p. 84. 

Bommer — Again, p. 85. 

Hogs — To ascertain the weight, p. 87. 

Ayrshire Bull — A visit to Mr. Stevenson's, p. 88. 

Peach Tree — Account of the nailing corrected, p. 88. 

Virginia Woollen Factory — Account of Mr. Bonsack's, 
p. 88. 

Corns — To cure, p. 89. 

Dr. Wright — Work on vegetable physiology, p. 89. 

Report— Of the U. H. & C. Club of Mecklenburg, p. 90. 

Industry — Anecdote, p. 91. 

Wtwcl— Necessary to a plough, p. 92. 

Charcoal — Experiment with, p. 92. 

Manure — New method of preparing, p. 92. 

Seeds— From the Patent Office, p. 93. 

Labels— For garden use, p. 93. 

Reaping Machine — Improvement on McCormick's, p. 
94. 

Subscribers — Wanted, p. 94. 

Hogs — Stye feeding, p. 94. 

Rails — To render durable, p. 95. 

Comments— By Commentator, p. 96.