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THE' 

Southern Planter 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, LIVE STOCK AND THE H0US?H0LD. 

• - 

Office, 26 Wilkerson's Hall, Ninth Street. 

» • . , — _ : : — 



T. W. ORMOND, ----- Proprietor. 

W. C. KNIGHT, - - ' - - Editor. 

W, C. JACKSON, ----- Advertising Agent.' 



46th Year. FERBUARY, 1885. No. 2. 

OOlsTTE^TTS : 

Self-Supponing Employment for Ladies in the South '.. 47 

Mistakes of Farmers ....: 52 

Trees Around Farm Buildings 52 

Making Cows Give Milk - 53 

Animals Out of Condition ., .'. 53 

Farm Implements and Machines 53 

Use of Commercial Fertilizers 54 

Plaster : - 55 

Ajricultural Papeis 57 

.Science on the Farm -. 59 

The Oldest City in the World 60 

Salt for Live Stock 60 

Treatment of Farm Stock 61 

The Farmer ' 62 

Pennsylvania Farming.. ......... - 63 

Colic in Horses '. 65 

-. Commissioner of Agriculture, 66 

Jersey Cattle — Their Origin and Development 67 

A Fight with an Eagle.. -, , 71 

Agricultural Products 72 

The Virginia Poultry Show. t „ 73 

Experiments with Manures and Crops , -. 75 

What an Old Farmer Says 76 

The Live-Stock Department of the New Orleans Exposition -..,. 77 

Farmers and Sheep-Raising „ 78 

Law3 of Capital and Trade , '...,» 79. 

Agricultural Education , 81 

Whitewash for Outbuildings 82 

More Eggs in Winter 82 

''Outlook for Producers" 83 

South Carolina Superphosphates v 84 

The Future Supply for the Piedmont Grazier. . ; 85 

Editorial : 

Agriculture and It a Permanency ; 87 

Cur, ig Tobacco by Open Fires and Smoke 88 

The World's Industrial Exposition at New Orleans 90 

The Virginia State Agricultural Society - , 91 

Editorial Notes : 
Plant-Beds for Tobacco; Subscriptions; Women's Work; A Good Com-Sheller for 

Many Farmers: Magazines; Reports; Catalogues; New Advertisements 93-96 



. Richmond : J. W. Fer^uason & Son, Printers. 



I^GREAT GUNS!! 

UNPRECEDENTED LOW PRICES FOR 

Parjn Implements "Fop 1885. 

ASHTON STARKE, Richmond, Va. 

"Iron Age" Cultivators, Malta Shovel Plows, 

" Deere " Wheel Cultivators, Lever Straw Cutters, 
Smoothing Harrows, Broadcasters, 

Sulky Plows, Wheelbarrows, Churns, &c. 
"Buckeye" Pumps" will force water anywhere. 
Iron Fencing for sections and yards put up in tbe country. 
New improved "Wood's" Mowers and Binders. 
Thomas' Hay Rakes and Tedders. 

TP A |£ |JJ Wkt ^\ *r I f^ p 1 Don't buy a single implement until you have 
I f\ IV E IH \^ I I \f Eb ■ gotten our prices. We know we' can sell you. 

" OLD HICKORY " WAGONS, BUGGIES, &c. 

[fe 6t] 

[ESTABLISHED 1866.] 

Wm. H. Palmer, President. John Ott, Secretary. John Enjjers, Vice-President. 

Southern Fertilizing Co., 

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, 



-MAXni'ACTUKEBS OF- 



STANDARD FERTILIZERS. 

For the Spring demand we have : 

1. — The "Anchor Brand" Tobacco Fertilizer, both for Plant-beds and the gen- 
eral crop. (For Plant-beds this article is furnished in both 100 pound and 200 
pound sacks, as may be desired.) 

o. The "Anchor Brand" for Cotton. — This article, like the Tobacco Fertilizer, 

has had nineteen years' continuous test in the field, and still holds its own against 
all comers. 

3. —The "Anchor Brand" for Peanuts. 

4.— Tbe "Anchor Brand" for Trucks. 

,-,.— The"B. P." (Ammoniated) for Corn. 

C — The "Anchor Brand" for Potatoes. 

7__The " B. P." (Potash Mixture) for Grape Vines, Fruit Trees and for 
Composting. 

p. _The "F. B." (Flour South Carolina Bone). 

B^af* Apply to our representative at your trading point. If one is not found there ad- 
dt-ss the Company direct ■ ife 3t] JOHN OTT, Secretary. 



-THIS — 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 

DEVOTED TO 

Agriculture, Horticulture, Live Stock and the Household. 



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



T. W. ORMOND, Proprietor. 

W. C. KNIGHT, ---.... Editor . 



46th Year. RICHMOSTD, FEBRUARY, 1885. No. 2. 



SELF-SUPPORTING EMPLOYMENT FOR LADIES IN THE SOUTH. 



A Prize Essay. 



[This is an essay that received honorable mention by the committee who awarded the 
premium offered by J. M. Blair, Esq, Richmond, Va. The Author, we found by the 
sealed envelope after the award, is Miss J.B. Adams, Baltimore Md.— Ed. S. P.] 

In treating of this subject which is daily growiDg in importance, and occu- 
pying so much of the attention of our most thoughtful men and women, it 
would seem that a few words as to the necessary conditions of success in any 
undertaking would not be amiss. 

As a rule Southern ladies, and perhaps ladies generally, when they have ven- 
tured into the "outside world"— the field of labor-have done so in a half- 
hearted way ; as merely doing something to live by till marriage should put an 
end to their anxious cares for the morrow's bread by providing them a suitable 
maintenance. 

Marriage, however desirable for a woman— and according to God's law it is 
the most happy and natural destiny she can look forward to— ought not to be 
her one aim in life: for the manifest reason that all women cannot, in the na- 
ture of things, attain that end. 

More earnestness of purpose, thoroughness, and persistent effort in a single aim, 



48 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 



are important factors in any successful undertaking. If, then, a woman's ef- 
forts as a bread-winner are weakened by the constant diversion of her mind 
from a chosen occupation by matrimonial speculations, she loses her chance of 
success iu that occupation in proportion to her lack of interest in it. 

Starting out, then, with the idea of being an earnest worker ; independent of 
all masculine aid except as in the regular course of business one may help 
another, will be a great point gained. It is to be remembered that all work 
well done is ennobling. 

Hitherto women have flocked to the school-room. Teaching is highly respect-, 
able, and seemed to be almost the only occupation that a lady could take up 
without losing cast. It mattered not that shehad no training, no aptitude, no 
faculty for imparting the knowledge she had acquired ; to teach was respectable, 
whether success attended the effort or not. In the majority of cases no training 
was considered necessary. 

Happily, the " icy chains of custom and prejudice" are now broken, and 
never was woman freer to pursue her natural bent in the selection of a calling; 
and all experience proves that we are most successful in those avocations for 
which we have natural aptitude or fitness. Let us see in what occupation our 
Southern women excel as at present reared and educated : and how these occu- 
pations may be turned to advantage. 

The Culture of Flowers is an almost universal occupation with us, both in 
town and country. In our genial climate flowers grow to the greatest per- 
fection with the least possible care. Now consider the thousands of dollars 
spent daily in our large cities for floral decorations. There is scarcely a social 
occasion on which floral designs are not in demand and we all know the ex- 
travagance of the demand at funerals. At present they are made almost ex- 
clusively by men — professional florists. 

This work is natural to woman. Her fertile brain can invent designs which 
her deft fingers can swiftly execute. 

Gardening in all its branches has received much attention from English gen- 
tle-women, as witness Jane Chesney's "New Vocation for Women" (in Macmil- 
lon's Mag. Vol. 40.) In France and Switzerland it is made a branch of edu- 
cation for girls, as well as boys. Except the important work of preparing the 
soil, there is but little hard work. Many have done it for pastime, why not 
others for profit? The growth of flowers for seeds requires less capital and is 
perhaps commercially more profitable than when the productiou of the flowers 
themselves is aimed at. It is well to pay special attention to such plants as 
one is particularly successful with. Take for instance the old fashioned mig- 
nonette, heliotrope, asters, &c; new varieties are always in demand and bring 
good prices. The beautiful orchids, palms, ferns, and foliage plants which 
seem to grow under the fostering care of some amateur gardeners as if for the 
very love of growing, bring immense prices in the large cities, while the home- 
liest old-time balsams, sun-flowers, dahlias, pansies, &c.,are perfected and culti- 
vated to such a degree as to be commercially of considerable value. 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 49 

To horticulture it is easy to add Fruit Culture : 

2. The orchard is not outside of woman's domain. Grafting and budding ; 
selecting and packing the ripened fruit, who could better accomplish this kind 
of work? In these pursuits especially I would say, work upon the principle of 
doing the very best that can be done. Raise the choicest fruits and flowers ; 
select them carefully and offer them for sale in the most attractive style. It 
will pay you to have your rosy-cheeked apples, luscious grapes, plums, peaches 
and pears free from dust, and-packed with neatness and care. 

3. Silk Culture which has been receiving much attention of late years, is a 
growing industry which Southern ladies will do well to look into. Mr. Crozier 
of Corinth, Mississippi, spent eight years in visiting AsiaMinor, Syria, Turkey, 
Wallachia, Persia and Japan in search of the best breeds of silk worms. He 
seems to have made an exhaustive study of the subject ; and after ten years, ex- 
perience in Missouri, Kansas, North Carolinia, Louisiana and Mississippi, con- 
cluded that none of the silk growing countries he visited were better adapted to 
silk culture than the Southern and Middle States. 

The Corinth Mississippi Silk Co. offered, in 1882, 1000 eggs for $1.00 and mul- 
berry trees a year old for $10,00 per hundred They offered also to pay cash 
at Lyons prices for all good cocoons. The Woman's Silk Culture Association 
at Philadelphia makes the same offer, and will pay for cocoons according to the 
market value of the silk obtained from them. Late experiments have shown 
that the osage orange, of which we have an inexhaustible supply in the South, 
is better food for the worms than the mulberry. 

Of course it is impossible within the limits of an essay like this to go into 
any details of methods of such occupations as are discussed: but those interest- 
ed who wish to take up silk culture for instance can obtain circulars of infor- 
mation from the Woman's Silk Culture Association of California. It is an oc- 
cupation of exceeding interest, and has the great advantage of not requiring a 
large outlay of money. 

4. Poultry Raising, even without any of the new patent incubators, can be 
made vastly profitable by the sale of eggs alone : nor need this industry be 
confined to country people, though of course poultry can be raised at less ex- 
pense on a farm than in town. 

A judicious selection of good breeds of fowl, careful pains taking, attention to 
the henery, which by the way should not be over-crowded, is almost sure to re- 
pay amply the outlay in the beginning, which may be very small ; and even- 
tually to yield a good profit. In this, as in all other pursuits, concentration of 
energy is the prime factor of success. 

Leaving the domain of garden and field, let us see what can be done with 
the kitchen fire. Next to the cultivation of flowers, Southern women excel 
perhaps in the (5) Creation of Table Delicacies. Many well-to-do families in 
cities would be glad to purchase at good prices, such home-made delicacies aa 
would yield a handsome profit to the producer. Notwithstanding this day of 
canned goods, there are some things to be desired that are not found in canne- 



50 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

ries. The old fashioned preserves, marmalades, jellies, sweet pickles &c, that 
in our childhood were the delight of our hearts, and the pride of our grand- 
mothers, have almost disappeared from our tables, and their places are supplied 
with canned horrors. A despairing writer in Harper's Magazine sometime ago 
asked, "Where, with the fullest of purses, can one buy quince marmalade?' 
Thousands of families live upon baker's bread who would gladly pay the same 
prices for a good article of home-made bread if they could be regularly supplied 
with it. The profit on bread is enormous. So with cake and pastry. A lady 
in Maryland finds ready sale for spiced beef at thirty cents per pound, the pro- 
fit on which is fully 100 per cent. What is needed is the regular systematic 
production of such desirable articles as house-keepers need, and a ready market 
can easily be found. The grocer from whom supplies of flour, sugar &c, are 
bought, would in most instances take such products as are saleable on commis- 
sion. Here again I would caution the novice against attempting too much. 

If you are a first rate bread maker, stick to bread making — don't scatter 
your energies. Have regularly at your place of deposit a fresh supply ; and 
have an order-book always ready for your customers when special supplies are 
needed. Let your aim be to produce a superior article ; remember that you 
cannot compete with bakers and canners; but you may certainly produce what 
they cannot; a wholesome and toothsome article of food ; and if offered at a 
fair price, it will bring you a good return. 

So far I have spoken only of a few pursuits, to which Southern women seem 
best adapted ; and which seemed to the writer the most practical. But there 
are higher vocations and professions waiting. These call for training and study. 
The best years of the girl's life must be given to hard work in class-room, the 
lecture-room, the laboratory or the dissecting room if she is to follow in after 
years any of the higher professions. These years of toil, days and nights of 
study are the only "sesame" that shall open for her the gates that guard the 
treasures of knowledge. Work, earnest, loving work alone will lead to success. 
6. Positions of Trust are open to women when they show themselves fitted to 
fill them. Any women of average ability can, with practice, become a good 
accountant. Book keeping is by no means beyond her powers. Recent dis- 
closures of fraud, and embezzlement of funds by defaulting clerks, point to a fair 
opening for women. She has less temptation to dishonesty than man has. ; why 
should she not put herself in training for such work? A druggist of many 
years' experience said to the writer that it was almost impossible to obtain a re- 
liable clerk for his business. The temptation and opportunities to drink are so 
great. What more beautiful or interesting study than that of chemistry! 

7. The compounding of prescriptions, as well as manufacture of the various 
preparations, tinctures, extracts, syrups, &o., in constant use in every drug store, 
is work well adapted to women. The same may be said of telegraphy and type 
writing. 

One might fill volumes with the enumeration of the various occupations and 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 51 

trades that are open to women : but the vital question is, for each individual 
woman, " What is my special vocation ?" " For what are my powers, mental 
or physical, best fitted ?" Not " what is most lady -like or fashionable, or least 
open to social criticism ;" but " what can I do best, and what is most profitable 
to soul and — purse." A true woman can ennoble the meanest drudgery. It is 
the spirit and mind of the worker, the truthful earnestness of purpose, the hon- 
est intentions, the faithful performance of duty, that gives character to toil. 
And if a woman is to engage in any self-supporting employment she must make 
toil her daily companion and friend. The markets that are calling for your 
fruits and flowers ; the looms that are ready for your cocoons ; the hungry 
public that are ready to buy your delicious bread and "jellies or dainty cakes 
and pies, are impatient ; and will not wait while you dawdle. If your supplies 
are not prompt, they will buy elsewhere. 

The woman's cry need no longer be "stitch, stitch, stitch !" The "Song of 
the Shirt" is now a thing of the past, but the refrain is only changed to " work, 
work, work !" The curse of Eden is still upon us. Not man only must live 
by the sweat of the brow ; but it rests with woman, perhaps, to transform the 
curse into a blessing. 

Make choice of the fittest calling, pursue it earnestly. As earnestly as if it 
were the one thing in life worth living for ; know it thoroughly, though you 
know nought else. As a toiler and bread-winner, banish from your mind the 
long cherished notion of the ideal woman. A creature to be flattered and 
caressed ; to be shielded from the storm and blast, and sheltered always by 
man's protecting arm ; for in this work-a-day world the real and the ideal are 
as far removed from each other as the heavens from the earth. 

Jean Bayly. 
October 13th, 1884. 



Heeling in Apple Trees. — If apple trees have been purchased this 
Fall, it is safer to '* heel them in" rather than plant now. The heeling 
in is done by digging a trench in a well drained spot, laying the trees 
with their roots in the bottom and tops sticking up. The dirt should 
be packed closely all through the roots, so as not to admit air. No 
straw or other refuse should be used, as it will make a hiding place for 
mice. 



Sugar as Feed for Stock. — The low price of sugar in England is 
inducing farmers there to inquire into the advisability of feeding it to 
fattening stock. In this country we always feed more or less sugar to 
cattle in the staks of Indian corn and sugar cane, and in the sugar beet. 
Sugar is very fattening, and, if our sorghum industry proves success- 
ful, the coarse grades of sugar may be produced cheaply enough to be 
fed to stock which it is especially desirable to fatten rapidly. — Prince 
Edward Inland Agriculturist. 



52 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 



MISTAKES OF FARMERS. 

1. To think that any one can farm ; that a man who has starved as a can- 
vasser for a patent toothpick or has been unsuccessful as a carpenter, can jump 
into a business requiring high intelligence and persevering efforts, and being 
utterly unfamiliar with details, be able to make money. 

2. The idea that a large farm, half stocked and poorly cultivated, pays better 
than a few acres well and carefully tilled. 

3. What is it but the worst kind of a mistake to pay hundreds of dollars 
for good farm machinery, aud allow it for want of proper shelter to rot and be- 
come useless a year or so sooner than it should? 

4. It is a mistake to let year after year pass by with no attempt to improve 
the quality of the farm stock. Blooded cattle pay. They make beef, the cows 
give more and richer milk. Better blood in horses pays. A Norman or part 
Norman colt is a valuable piece of property. 

5. To let foolish pride or narrow minded prejudice prevent the adoption of 
new methods when (hey have been proved by practical men. 

6. To get up after the sun, lean on fork handle, speculate for an hour or two 
upon what the weather is going to be, let the weeds get a good start aud the won- 
der why farming don't pay. 

7. To leave a lot of unchopped wood, wet or half-split, at the pile, a lot of 
old harness hanging in the, kitchen, and muddy tracks in the dining-room and 
expect to see the women folks good natured. 

8. To have a lot of half-bred, emaciated, lonesome-looking fowls, roosting 
dejectedly in some old Cottonwood tree when a few good healthy, Plymouth 
Rock or Brahma chickens, properly housed, would make the poultry yard an 
honor, instead of a disgrace. 



TREES AROUND FARM BUILDINGS. 

Many of the buildings of the country have around them no trees nor shrubs 
and are thus exposed to the direct rays of the sun in summer, and the cold 
winds in winter, giving a bare and desolate look to the premises. There are 
exceptions, and these exceptions are increasing and will multiply more should 
the owners possess the requisite skill of arrangement. But such may be done 
without this knowledge. All can plant trees and shrubs ; their mere presence, 
however arranged, will be an improvement, affording protection and adding to 
the view. If not systematically displayed, there is the suggestion of nature in 
her primitive form ; only do not plant so that the trees form a dense mass, 
causing dampness and a lack of free air, or crowd upon the buildings ; have in 
view what space the tree will occupy when grown and there will be little danger. 
The beauty of planting trees, is to have them stand clear whether promiscuous- 
ly scattered or in rows. A variety of trees is an improvement and there are 
plenty of the best sort for the purpose, such as the elm, maple, basswood and 
walnut. One of the finest trees in America is the tulip. The butternut makes 
a beautiful meadow tree; its natural form is graceful ; so are some of the forms 
of the willow which flourish best along moist places or streams, or by a spring. 
Among evergreens are the hemlock aud the white cedar, the hemlock standing 
at the head for attractiveness in the fineness and density of its foliage, which 
can be secured admirably by a little care in clipping the branches ; but patience 
must be had with this tree, as it is a slow grower, doing better after it has at- 
tained its size. Set out the trees early in the spring, before the buds push, with 
plenty of roots, selecting small, rather than large trees, as more roots in pro- 

I 



1385.J SOUTHERN PLANTER. 53 

portion to top can be secured, and the smaller will make the handsomest trees, 
and do it sooner. Manure the ground, if not sufficiently rich, and if cultivated 
besides all the better. Thus treated, in five or six years there will be an array 
of handsome, young trees, improving each year, and adding to the value and 
attractiveness of the place, to say nothing of the comfort which their shade 
and the protection from storms afford. Not only the dwellings, but the barn 
also should have its trees. 



MAKING COWS GIVE MILK. 

A writer in the Southern Farmer says that his cow gives all the milk that is 
wanted in a family of eight, and that from it, after taking all that is required 
for other purposes, 260 pounds of butter were made this year. This is in part 
his treatment of the cow : " If you desire to get a large yield of rich milk 
give your cows every day water slightly warmed and slightly salted, in which 
bran has been stirred at the rate of one quart to two gallons of water You will 
find, if you have not tried this daily practice, that your cow will give 25 per 
cent, more milk immediately unde*r the effects of it, and will become soattached 
to the diet as to refuse to drink clear water unless very thirsty. But this mess 
she will drink almost any time and ask for more. Tbe amount of this drink 
necessary is an ordinary water pail at a time, morning, noon and night.'' 



ANIMALS OUT OF CONDITION. 



When animals are out of condition and loose their appetite, with no particu- 
lar symptoms besides, excepting flatulency, indigestion is indicated. When 
this occurs, as it is apt to do with animals fed much grain, the stomach needs 
a rest more than medicine, and medicine should be given, if at all, with great 
care. Generally, dieting will soon restore the digestive functions to healthful 
action ; but it may be advisable to begin this by clearing out the bowels with a 
dose of physic. Linseed oil is the best purgative, soothiog and cooling thesystem, 
and not drastic or irritating. One pint for a horse and one quart for an ox is 
a dose. This should be followed by light laxative feeding, as bran mashes, and 
linseed and oats steeped in hot water and given nearly cold, with a teaspoonful 
of ginger in the feed daily, will be useful. The appetite should not be tempted 
but barely supplied, as it improves. 



FARM IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES. 

In no respect are the resources and capacity of our American agriculture 
more strikingly noticeable than in the average superiority of the implements, 
tools and machinery used upon our farms and plantations as compared with 
those of other countries. If, for example, we take Portugal, Spain, Italy and the 
Christian provinces of the Turkish empire, we shall find them with the peasan- 
try still ar hering to the same rude, primitive implements for the cultivation of 
tbeir crops that were in vogue many centuries ago, when the civilization of 
these countries was in its early youth. It is important to bear this fact in mind 
because the civilization of the present Brazilian empire owes its origin to Por- 
tugal, and the whole of Spanish-America is about on a par with Spain in agri- 
cultural matters. Occasionally we read in the English papers interesting ac- 
counts of the systematic efforts of the Prussian government to induce the land- 
owners and the peasant farmers in European-Russia to adopt American imple- 
ments, tools and machinery in the cultivation and the harvesting of the grain-crops 
of those provinces. 



54 /SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

USE OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 

Editor Southern Planter : 

As supplementary to the article of "Farmer," in your December 
number, on " Commercial Fertilizers vs. Farm Manures," I beg leave 
to suggest very briefly the method of using commercial fertilizers, par- 
ticularly for grain and grass crops, from which the most satisfactory 
results have been obtained in this section. 

It is a well-established fact that, under the most favorable circum- 
stances, the best possible result to be derived from the use of guanoes 
applied directly to the wheat crop, gives too small a percentage upon 
the necessary outlay to warrant their general or extended use in this 
way; as in the Piedmont counties, with a recurrence of such seasons as 
we have had for the last four or five years, unless we can adopt some 
more economical method, their use, as a' direct agency for procuring a 
paying crop of wheat, had better be abandoned altogether. I believe 
the experience of those of us in this section who have tried it proves 
that this better plan has been discovered. 

Among the "fertilizers" enumerated by your correspondent "which 
have been tested and found to be just such as they are represented," I 
notice the Orchilla Guano, and it is particularly in regard to this that I 
ask just a small space in your journal. 

In the spring of 1883, induced partly by the reports of some Mary- 
land farmers and partly at the suggestion of the Orchilla's agent in this 
county, I tried the following plan: Immediately before harrowing down 
the land, preparatory to planting corn, I sowed broadcast on seven 
acres of land three hundred and fifty pounds of Orchilla per acre; 
planted and cultivated the corn as usual, and, in spite of the serious 
drought of the summer, made a very fair crop — certainly double as 
much to the acre as was obtained from other lands of a like character, 
with similar cultivation, on which no fertilizer was used. Last fall 
(1883) this land, along with the balance of my corn land, was seeded to 
wheat, and I can say with absolute certainty that this plat gave the best 
yield of any on my place, though no additional fertilizer was used; 
while on the other portion I applied three hundred and fifty pounds of 
the same guauo per acre when the wheat was seeded. I notice no dif- 
ference in the stand or general appearance of the clover on these lands, 
there being a good stand with vigorous growth on all. 

Last spring I used the same guano in the same way, only making the 
application earlier, and am satisfied, from actual experience and the tes- 
timony of others, that to obtain the very best results, especially on the 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 55 

corn crop, the application should be made just as soon after Christmas 
as the weather will permit. No fertilizer was used on the corn crops 
grown by some tenants of mine, and though the land was just as good 
(or poor, rather) and the cultivation equally as thorough, my yield was 
150 per cent, greater than theirs. The testimony of all my neighbors 
who made similar experiments is that they obtained like results. 

In order that the farmers may have the full benefit of its use in this 
way, I am informed that Messrs. Travers & Snead, the very enterpris- 
ing importers' agents in Richmoud, have determined to supply it dur- 
ing the winter, to be settled for the 1st of next May, either at cash price 
or by notes to mature twelve months from that time. By this method 
we obtain three crops — viz.: corn, wheat and grass — at the cost of but 
a single application, and the land left in an improved condition. 

I most cordially commeud this method to my brother farmers of Vir- 
ginia, in the confident belief that to try it will be to adopt it. 

And now, having written this much in regard to Orchilla Guano, it 
may be proper to say that I am not an agent for it, am in no way con- 
nected with it or any otber fertilizer, nor in fact with any other busi- 
ness except farming, in its strictest sense; and it may be best, too, for 
me to subscribe myself, 

Very respectfully, Chas. S. Thomas. 

Columbia, Fluvanna county, December 17, 1884. 

[This communication comes to us from a subscriber to the Planter, with his name ap- 
pended. We do not, therefore, feel at liberty to reject it for the reason that it speaks so 
highly of a special fertilizer. The question of fertilizers is an important one to farmers, 
and each one is entitled to his own opinion ; arjd it would be desirable to us that farmers 
would more freely communicate to the Planter their experiences with the leading com- 
mercial fertilizers now in use. In doing this, the time and method of application, quan- 
tity used to the acre, kind of soil and its preparation, yield of the crop, and other details 
should be stated. There are many valuable fertilizers on the market, and the columns 
of the Planter are not open to one more than another. Experiments and results in their 
use are invited, for the information of farmers and in justice to dealers in fertilizers and 
fertilizing materials. — Ed. S. P.] 



PLASTER. 

BY SIR J. B. LA WES, F. R. S. 

The influence of plaster upon clover and other leguminous crops has 
been explained in a variety of ways, none of which are quite satisfac- 
tory. Quite a new explanation has been brought forward by a French 
chemist. M. Pichard has been investigating the action of various com- 
pounds upon the nitrification of the organic matters in the soil. He 



66 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

tried the sulphates of potash, soda, magnesia, also chalk and gypsum, 
and found that gypsum nitrified the organic matter to a far greater ex- 
tent than any of the other substances; gypsum being 100, the other 
substances would range from 45 to li-J. Another French chemist, M. 
Joullie, has been investigating the loss of ammonia which takes place 
during the fermentation'of barn-yard manure. He says there may be 
a loss of 20 per cent, of the ammonia, this loss being due to the decom- 
position of the ammonia contained in the drainage water, and this loss 
is largely increased by the addition of plaster. If this be true, the 
beneficial effect of plaster, when used in stables, must be due to the 
destruction, and not the fixation, of ammonia. M. Pichard considers 
that the beneficial influence of gypsum upon Lucerne is due to the nit- 
rification of the soil; but there is a difficulty attending this explanation 
which is not easily got over. The cereal grain crops are especially 
benefited by the application of nitrates, but plaster is rarely found to 
be a good manure for these crops. M. Pichard's experiments were car- 
ried on upon a very poor soil, the organic matter of which would not 
nitrify without the addition of some ferment. We have found it very 
difficult to nitrify the organic matter in our subsoils at Rothamsted; if, 
however, the gypsum, when carried down by rain-water, would set up 
a nitrifying action in the subsoil, such a fact would be of considerable 
value in accounting for the source of the nitrogen in these plants. In 
the papers which we read at Montreal, both last year and this year, we 
have brought forward a good deal of evidence which bears upon this 
very complicated subject. With plants which take their food not very 
far from the surface of the soil, we can, with great care and attention, 
determine by analysis of the soil the losses which have taken place by 
the removal of crops. When, however, the roots of plants extend 
several feet below the surface, as is the case with some of the legumin- 
ous plants, and the influence of these roots extends some considerable 
distance below their extremities, all our efforts to measure the loss 
which takes place in a soil has hitherto proved ineffectual. Greater 
exhaustion of the soil by the continual removal of these crops, and 
more accurate processes for the analysis of soils, may in the course of 
time find a solution; in the mean time it is satisfactory to know that 
upon all soils upon which plaster was applied increased the growth, 
and the cultivator provided for his cereal crop a supply of nitrogen 
much more cheaply than by any other means, aud even when plaster 
fails he may have recourse to kauit salt with some considerable prospect 
of success. 



1885.J SOUTHERN PLANTER. 57 



AGRICULTURAL PAPERS. 

Editor Southern Planter, — Having to make you a remittance, and 
being an humble friend to the Planter and the agricultural interests of 
our dear old State, the reproduction of an idea expressed to an intelli- 
gent farmer the other day, who neither takes the Planter nor any other 
agricultural paper, that if I were sent to the Legislature I would im- 
mediately advocate the passage of a law requiring every farmer in Vir- 
ginia who could read and write to take at least one good agricultural 
paper, he took the ground which all the opponents take, that book farm- 
ing is a very dangerous thing, and in the warmth of my trying to defend 
agricultural literature, the language was used. Now, Mr. Editor, don't 
you think it would be a good law ? What is the object of any or all 
good laws ? Are they not to protect and promote the interests of all 
the people? Was there ever an agricultural paper of known ability 
published in any country that did no good? Is not that good just in 
proportion to the circulation or to the extent to which it is read? 

But let us reason a little about the matter. What would a farmer- 
think about the qualifications of a physician to practise the healing art, 
if he knew he had never attended a school where the science of medi- 
cine is taught, or if having graduated, and legally entitled to M. D., 
he practised and did not keep up with the profession by reading and 
study? 

What would he think of the lawyer practising his learned profession 
without having any law books, and having none at his command to 
read and perfect his knowledge? The farmer would be slow to be 
either the patient or client of such pretenders. And yet perhaps he 
will be the first to say awa}" with papers and books to the farmer, they 
will do harm. " It won't do to farm by books." 

Of course it won't do for one to lay aside good common sense. The 
doctors, lawyers, and other professions and callings in life, are as much 
bound to this rule as the farmer. To doctor by books, to law by books, 
and to farm by books, is not meant to violate known sensible rules, 
without thought and investigation. What is a book? Just the com- 
pilation or collection of one or many men's ideas upon given subjects, 
with a view to come at or bring out truth. Thus thought, inquiry and 
experiment with comparison is had. 

In any profession or trade, to say or do a thing and not be able to 
tell why it is said or done, is weakening to that pursuit, just in propor- 
tion as it is uncertain; for instance, a farmer says I plant my potatoes 



58 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

in the dark of the moon, another one says I plant mine regardless of 
the moon. Now a majority of farmers, in some sections at least, be- 
lieve that the crop of potatoes is increased by observing the moon 
phases, and to the extent to which others dispute this truth, is this par- 
ticular interest injured, and the entire community loses to the extent 
of the diminished production. 

The farmer who plants his potatoes and other crops without reference 
to this fact, in a lifetime might lose thousands of dollars, when if he 
had a good agricultural paper on this subject he would be induced to 
experiment, and thus to save perhaps much money. So with every 
other farmiug interest. I remember a dozen or more years ago to have 
gone around getting subscribers to an agricultural paper; one good 
farmer hesitated to take it, but did so. He told me years afterwards 
that this paper saved him at least one hundred dollars in one year. 

If this be true, wasn't it right for this farmer to take such a paper? 
If one farmer is benefitted by reading a good paper, will not others' be, 
and does this not establish a rule, and a good one : and then should not 
a good rule be enforced by law ? 

Mr. Editor, I think this is almost if not quite a self-evident proposi- 
tion. I believe great and increasing good would flow from such a law, 
presently felt, and with multiplied good to the future interest of the 
State. It would be an indirect law for taxes. 

The farmer that made the one hundred dollars one year by reading 
an agricultural paper did not have his taxes increased, but he was much 
more able to pay them. Upon another principle the law should be 
made which is this : Every citizen of this Commonwealth belongs to 
her — their interests are inseparable. How was it in the late war? 
The State not only took possession of the property of her subjects to 
support the armies, but commanded the bodies of all classes of citizens 
to protect the interest of the State. There is inhereut right then to so 
govern the masses that the rights and interests of all will be promoted. 
All of us are interested in the growth and prosperity of our dear old 
Mother, and to that end we should work, and endeavor to stimulate to 
increased action and beneficial effect every wholesome principle. 

I verily believe that did all the farmers this year read the Planter, 
who have not taken it before, that thousands of dollars would be at 
once saved to -themselves and the State, and for the future incalculable 
benefit be derived. 

Farmers, let us all open our eyes to this great and pleasaat source of 
improvement. We owe it to Virginia's present and future interest. 
We owe it to ourselves and our children. 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 50 

Let everyone take the Southern Planter. It commences its forty- 
sixth year of publication, and is ably edited. Send $1.25, and I doubt 
not you will reap many dollars in benefit. Often one article is worth 
more than the year's subscription. Friendly yours, A. J. A. 

Bedford county, Va. 

[Our correspondent will accept our thanks for his kind words of the Planter, but we 
cannot agree with him that it would be wise, or within the provisions of constitutional law, 
to require " every farmer who can read and write to take at least one agricultural paper." 
It would be an encroachment on the personal rights of a citizen as much as to require 
him to call in a physician to attend him when he believed himself competent to treat his 
own case. We earnestly desire that farmers should be educated to a taste for agricultu- 
ral reading for their own personal benefit, but this taste must come by regular methods 
of education, and not by rigid enactments of law. As pertinent to the subject, we ap- 
pend the following, taken from an exchange : 

SCIENCE ON THE FARM. 

We are no longer scared at the word science, in agriculture. We 
now hear without sneer even the term scientific farmer. Why not? 
Science is simply accurate knowledge, and the man who has arrived at 
accurate knowledge in any of the professions, in any of the processes 
of the farm, in the breeding and care of stock, is as truly scientific as 
are those in any walk of life. 

He who sneers at what has made up the agriculture of to-day, may 
look back to even a quarter of a century ago and ask himself if he 
wishes to be set back there in his implements, varieties of grain and 
seeds, and in his live stock. The inventions, new processes, and the 
data relating to the breeding aud feeding of live stock, so far as they 
may have been proven correct, is science. The dissemination of cor- 
rect intelligence among the masses has been solely through books and 
the periodical press, journals specially devoted to the interests in ques- 
tion, and the only men behind the times to-day are those who do not 
read what is new, or only snatches through the occasional borrowing 
of their neighbors' newspaper or volumes. 

Science is simply to know. The men who do not know are large in 
comparison with those who do. The one sneers at book farming; 
does not take a paper devoted to his industry; or, if he does, it is of 
that class who advertise to give away ten times the subscription price 
paid. It must be a low class of intelligence that is thus caught. Yet 
these journals flourish upon the ignorance and cupidity of a class shown 
to be large from the results of the schemes. Let us look at these in 
the results obtained by their labor. They are among the worst farm- 
ers in the community, and the poorest in pocket. Why ? The presents 
gotten with their paper were all the real value obtained. The journal- 
istic matter is trash, hashed up from authorities not competent, but 
visionary, and therefore corresponding to the trash called presents, re- 
ceived with the so-called cheap journals. This class is always crying 
out against science and " book farmer." They are, however, fast 
dying out. 



60 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 



THE OLDEST CITY IN THE WORLD. 

Damascus is the oldest city in the world. Tyre and Sidon have 
crumbled; Baalbec is a ruin; Palmyra is burried in a desert; Nine- 
veh and Babylon have disappeared from the Tigris and the Euphrates. 
Damascus remains what it was before the days of Abraham — a center 
of trade and travel, an isle of verdure in the desert, "a presidential 
capital " with martial and sacred associations extendiug through thirty 
centuries. It was near Damascus that Saul of Tarsus saw the light 
above the brightness of the sun ; the street, which is called Strait, in 
which it was said he prayed, still runs through the city. The caravan 
comes and goes as it did thousands of years ago; there is still the sheik, 
the ass, and the water-wheel ; the merchants of the Euphrates and the 
Mediterranean still occupy the streets " with the multitude of their 
wares." The city which Mahommed surveyed from a neighboring 
height, and was afraid to enter, " because it was given to have but one 
paradise, and for his part he was resolved not to have it in this world," 
is to-day what Julian called the "Eye of the East," as it was, in the 
time of Isaiah, " the head of Syria." 

From Damascus came the damson, our blue plum, and the delicious 
apricot of Portugal, called damasco ; damask, our beautiful fabric of 
cotton and silk, with vines and flowers raised upon a smooth, bright 
ground ; the damask rose introduced into England in the time of Henry 
VIII. ; the Damascus blade, so famous the world over for its keen edge 
and wonderful elasticity, the secret of whose manufacture was lost 
when Tamerlane carried the artist into Persia. It is still a city of 
flowers and bright waters; the streams of Lebanon still murmur and 
sparkle in the wilderness of the Syrian gardens. — Ex. 



SALT FOR LIVE STOCK. 



Salt is a restorative, anthelmintic, antiseptic, antitympanitic and tonic, 
and therefore should be always in reach of every herbivorous animal. 
It is a natural and physiological necessity to them. One animal may 
require little, the next one a great deal ; but without it perfect health 
cannot be maintained in horses and cattle. Its importance can be seen 
from the following physiological facts in connection with it: — The 
serum of the blood containing four to six parts per thousand. It ex- 
ists in all the secretions, and is the chief source of the muriatic acid 
secreted by the stomach. It largely increases the secretions from the 
gastric and salivary glands; it promotes the digestion of vegetable 
food, and renders it more fit for absorption. Hence the greed for salt 
in all herbivorous animals, and the utility of those salt licks to which 
buffalo, deer and other wild animals resort. In Holland, criminals in 
ancient times were condemned to die by eating undalted bread as the 
severest punishment that could be inflicted. The effects were terrible. 
These wretched persons are said to have died a dreadful death, literally 
devoured by worms engendered within their own bodies. In scrofula 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 61 

affectiug the glands, skin and bones, salt has been used internally. It 
is essential to digestion, a popular and reliable remedy for worms, and 
food without salt engenders them; and it also possesses the property of 
preventing more or less alcoholic iutoxication. This is well known by 
the use of salt meats before and after the use of alcohol. Army ani- 
mals should be provided with salt boxes attached to their mangers, so 
that they could fully supply their instinctive demand. The present in- 
sane method of distribution, periodically, mixed with food, forces one 
animal to eat more than his system requires, whilst others do not get 
sufficient, and have to eat the best substitute within reach, viz.: dirt, 
filth, clay, wood, lime and mud, from stable walls and floors. — Cole- 
man's Rural World. 



TREATMENT OF FARM STOCK. 

Editor Southern Planter, — The Bible says that the righteous man re- 
gards the life of his beasts. If this were taken literally, the inference 
would be that there are but few righteous men in the country in this 
region. In travelling about the neighborhood I see but little provision 
made for any stock save horses, and many of these are in stables ad- 
mitting free circulation of cold air. In many of these stables, so-called, 
horses are shivering all the day, and worse at night. With cattle the 
suffering is greater. Open pens, and in all weather without any pro- 
tection, and very often in deep mud, the poor brutes are compelled to 
take the torture of Winter's cold. 

With hogs the exposure is oftener worse, and the mud and rain much 
greater. The poor animals are compelled to walk about to avoid being 
frozen to death, and though often fed with abundance of corn and 
filthy water, there can be no increase of flesh. Hogs will cost as much 
as a horse — twenty-five to thirty-five cents for each day's feeding — if 
given them every six hours, and then there will be no addition to their 
flesh. The cost of such meat will be far in excess of the market price. 
These daily specimens of cruelty to the dumb brutes is a crying shame, 
and there ought to be an officer in each county specially delegated to 
inspect the barns and pens, and if not suited to protect the stock dur- 
ing cold weather, the owners should be fined so much per head. This 
officer should be appointed by the county judge, and his office only 
vacated from neglect of duty. A vast improvement would soon be 
visible in every neighborhood, and people would soon feel the differ- 
ence in the money received for taking care of their stock instead of 
paying out for the want of this care. If stock owners had to pay daily 
for the feed of stock, they would soon commence to calculate the dif- 
ference between taking good care and taking no care of their stock. 



62 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

The poet says, "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless millions 
mourn" and if the mourning of millions of all kinds of live stock were 
taken into consideration by an All Just Being, there would be a heavy 
reckoning against Christian stock owners. 

It is a disgrace to the age to see so little regard for the sufferings of 
stock, which are evidently designed by the Almighty for promoting 
the happiness of mankind, and yet the want of attention more than 
any designed neglect on the part of owners of live stock, produces so 
much silent misery. I could not overlook the wants of my stock when 
cold weather sets in, and frequently urge upon my neighbors better at- 
tention to their stock, but it is the old song over again — 

" Old Virginia never tire," in her old ways. 

C. M. CULLBN. 



THE FARMER. 

That farming is as sure, stable, houorable and remunerative a busi- 
ness as one can enter upon has been asserted and proved over and over 
again. It is true that other kinds of business — trade, commerce, and 
some kinds of manufacturing — that speculations of various kinds — 
banking and joint-stock companies — have, especially of late years, at- 
tracted much attention, and have been popular with dashing and am- 
bitious young men ; still, in the experience of a few past years, the 
statistics of business disasters and failures, the moral wreck of charac- 
ter, and the cra^h and ruin of men who were reputed rich, have proven 
that farming is an industry less fluctuating, less depressed by hard 
times, less subject to failures — a pursuit in which temptation to dishon- 
esty has had less influence and in which men pursued the even tenor 
of their way with less anxiety and with less exposure to financial ruin 
and wreck of moral character than any other kind of business. That 
colossal fortunes have been, here and there, now and then, built up by 
speculation, sharp practices, gambling in stocks, spoliation of labor, 
and by indirect and direct robbery, we cannot deny; but these fortunes, 
however large and glittering, do not stand up to the public gaze as 
monuments of public honor, of patient industry, of pains-taking, hon- 
est labor; but they tower rather as beacons, warning men to beware of 
the hidden rocks and treacherous quicksands on which so many of life's 
voyagers have been wrecked. These fortunes have no solid foundations 
to rest upon, and when the floods come and the winds blow they fall like 
the house built upon the sand. Farming is a business that rests upon 
a sure foundation. It demands honest work. It is not built up by the 
spoliation of others. Its gains, though they may be small, are legiti- 
mate and honorably earned. There is more capital invested to-day in 
agricultural pursuits than in all other industries combined. It pays 
more for the support of Governments and receives less protection and 
consideration from Government than any other interest. 



1885.1 SOUTHERN" PLANTER. 63 

In looking at farming in the broad, full light of practical utility, of 
safe investments, of sure dividends and of the best public service, we 
cannot help commending it, and urging it upon the young as a pursuit 
upon the whole more satisfying, less hazardous, more useful, honorable 
and remunerative than any other business. It gives a scope to the in- 
tellect, a play to the imagination, a range to the affections, a field to 
the inventive powers, a work for hand and heart which no other indus- 
try supplies. 

But for any adequate realization of the advantages, the remunera- 
tions and the satisfactions of farming, there must be among our pa- 
trons and farmers a high education, a better culture and a larger ap- 
preciation of and devotion to their own peculiar calling. They must 
Bee and feel its importance in its financial, social, moral and industrial 
bearings, and prepare themselves with as much zeal and earnestness by 
careful experiment, close observation and persevering study, as those 
who propose to enter the learned professions, the paths of science, or 
the study and the practice of the arts. — Pr. Edwd. Island Agriculturist. 



[For the Southern Planter.! 

PENNSYLVANIA FARMING. 



Mr. Editor, — The county of Lancaster is one of the oldest in the 
State. It abounds in historic associations. The German element 
largely predominates, and with the Scotch-Irish from Chester and other 
parts of the great limestone formation that extends from Philadelphia 
to Atlanta, sent out the emigrants that were the first settlers, many of 
them of the Shenandoah Valley, from Harper's Ferry, or towards the 
eouthwest. I am inclined to regard it as the best farmed single county 
in the United States. We have had some familiarity with much of it 
for forty \ears or more, and have been surprised in noting the gradual 
change in much pertaining to its agriculture. At the date of our first 
acquaintance, tobacco was unknown as a constituent part of its crop. 
Indeed, since the war, or more properly within ten years past, its pro- 
duct has more than doubled. Its aggregate per annum cannot be much 
short of seven millions of pounds. Three-fourths of that, perhaps, is 
Havana. The mode of curing is so radically different from that 
known in Virginia and other parts of the South, that I have often felt 
a desire that my friend Major Ragland could spend some time among 
her farmers, and give your readers the benefit of his observations. 
Apart from air drying, the only mode adopted, the color is dark, and 
when not sufficiently so, the manufacturers of cigars, into which the 
entire crop enters, carry it through a process that renders it more dark. 
None of the time and labor resorted to in the South of finding a situa- 
tion in the woods for plant-beds, and burning a quantity of wood, is 
5 



64 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

dreamed of here. The beds are prepared in the edge or by the side of 
where the crop is grown, covered with a thin cotton that not alone 
protects it from the fly, but stimulates its growth in attracting the 
sun's rajs. 

In .reference to the change in the agriculture, a most prominent fea- 
ture is found in the fact that something over half of the grain, corn 
and oats now fed to cattle, hogs and horses, is brought from the West- 
There has been no such thing as grazing here for years. Land is too 
precious and high priced. Taking the highlands, the back bone, such 
as the hills bordering the Susquehanna, Welsh mountain, &c, the aver- 
. age value, as I am told by reliable parties, is a hundred and fifty dollars 
per acre. Passing on to this city, from York, some weeks ago, a gen- 
tleman who is called the great horse and mule man not only here but 
in Bourbon, Payette, Madison and other counties in Kentucky, where 
his name is as familiar with the horse and mule raisers as Robert J. 
Glendy, of Bath county, Virginia, is in the Shenanhoah Valley and 
much of West Virginia, "Elias Kiudig," I received from him much in- 
formation touching agricultural matters. Crossing the Susquehanna 
from Wrightsville to Columbia, a mile or more east of the latter, he 
pointed out the farm of a gentleman who sold the last lot of cattle 
driven by me to this county, Jacob C. Stoner, Esq. (and who recog- 
nized us on meeting, after an interval of twenty-six years), and asked 
us what we supposed he got for forty acres nearest to us and the rail- 
road? We replied, some three or four hundred, we supposed. He said 
the sum was eleven hundred. Millersville is four miles southwest of 
this, connected by a street-car railroad, besides a fine macadamized pike. 
A friend pointed out a farm of near two hundred acres midway, and 
said the owner refused $500 per acre. Why is this? Here is one of 
the secrets, an appreciation of stable manure. In illustration we men- 
tion this fact : Passing via Columbia, York, &c, to Washington, a few 
weeks since, a white cravated gentleman got on at Columbia, and enter- 
ing into conversation, I found he was a native of Rockingham county, 
Va., and an intelligent minister of the United Brethren denomination. 
He labored a few years at New Holland, six miles northeast of this. 
We called his attention to a nicely thatched straw-rick, and said how 
striking the contrast in the care with which all rough food was man- 
aged here and in our Shenandoah Valley? Yes, said he, when I ar- 
rived at New Holland I found much difficulty in securing straw to bed 
my horse, and was only successful when I promised the farmer the 
manure. Says he attended a sale in the vicinity, and among the per- 
sonal effects was some manure. What think you a two-horse load of 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 65 

manure, such as I let the farmer have, brought ? We replied, three or 
four dollars. He said it brought eight. Do you regard it at all strange, 
Mr. Editor, with a knowledge of facts like the above, that this gentle- 
man and myself found it supererogation presently, when we asked the 
gentlemanly conductor to point out to us that famous line you have read 
so much about, " Mason and Dixon's?" Why, Sir, as we ran down 
through the old county of York, towards the northern boundary of 
Baltimore county, the conductor said to us, "you will find a broad 
sign in large letters, the Pennsylvania and Maryland State Line;" 
and, said he, " that big post and rail fence you see running off there is 
exactly on the line." My dear Sir, the authorities of the Northern 
Central road, running out of Baltimore via Towsontown, &c, might 
very well have saved the expense of that sign, inasmuch as the line is 
as strikingly defined as that between a Louisa and Fluvanna brown 
sedge field and a Norfolk truck farm. Your unworthy respondent has 
as much State pride as any biped raised south of that line, yet he must 
be pardoned for giving expression to this revulsion of feeling, brought 
about within a few hours after crossing it. 

Occasional. 
Lancaster, Pa., January 12th, 1885. 



COLIC IN HORSES. 



Horses are liable to an attack of colic at all seasons of the year, but 
among farm horses this complaint is most frequent during the Fall and 
Winter, also when first turned on grass in the Spring. It is brought 
on by a variety of causes, one of which is drinking cold water when 
the horse is heated. The New England farmer who reaches home late 
at night in the Winter season with his horse heated by exertion, and 
allows the animal to drink from a trough in the yard with the water 
ice-cold, then puts it into a cold barn, will be fortunate if he does not 
have a case of colic to deal with in a short time. It is sometimes oc- 
casioned by changing from old to new oats in the Fall of the year. It 
is not infrequently occasioned by eating frost-bitten clover. The first 
symptoms of an attack of colic is a manifestation of distress, the ani- 
mal changes his position frequently, of lying down and almost imme- 
diately getting up again. In a few minutes these symptoms are likely 
to disappear and the horse is apparently easy; but they soon return, 
and with each recurrence the severity of the pain seems to increase. 
The sufferer frequently looks around to its flanks, paws with his fore 
feet and strikes at his belly with the hind ones. In a short time a cold 
sweat breaks out all over the body. Animals suffering from colic gen- 
erally try to void urine, and a person witnessing a case for the first time 
would be led to suppose that it was a case of water stoppage. An ex- 
cellent remedy, and one most likely to be available in the country, is 



66 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

to mix a heaping teaspoonful of saleratus with a pint of milk, stir it 
well and pour it down the sufferer's throat from a bottle or horn. A 
half teaspoonful of cayenne pepper added to the saleratus and milk 
will render it more liable to prove effective. Probably the best remedy 
that a farmer can employ is one pint of raw linseed oil, to which is 
added one ounce of sulphuric ether and two ounces of tincture of 
opium. Care should be used to give oil which has not been boiled. 
As soon as the medicine has been administered, whether the saleratus 
and milk or the oil, give an injection of about two quarts of blood- 
warm water to which a little castile soap has been added if at hand, 
but if not give the water clear. If the pain is not relieved within an 
hour of giving the first dose of medicine, repeat the dose. It is safer 
to take the chill from the water for a few days after the attack. — Amer- 
ican Cultivator. 

U. S. COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 

Mr. Editor, — The last No. of the Planter heads an article "The 
United States Commissioner of Agriculture," and hoists the flag for 
Colonel Beverley as nominee to fill that office. Now, this is a move in 
the right direction for the old Virginia land-owners and producers — a 
class of people who have been made to feel that they were the step- 
children of the household; yes, as orphans, abandoned, as it were, by 
both national and State authorities. As one of them, I hold that it is 
stupid in any party to ignore the farmers and their interests; for in all 
sections they are the controlling power, and no combination can prevail 
against them when convinced of injustice. It is needless to mention 
what the Virginia farmers endured during the late war — raided upon, 
and for four years stripped by friends and foes, and for the last twenty 
years made to bear an exorbitant tax, levied upon crops which were 
their main ones for support. 

But enough of this. We trust the storm is now over, and that Colo- 
nel Beverley, our nominee, will be selected as the Commissioner of 
Agriculture at Washington, and if so, that the wants of his brother 
farmers of the whole country will be respected, and aided to some ex- 
tent with the means at his command. W. 



Farmers' Clubs will find it profitable to exchange speakers. They 
could easily arrange a sort of lecture circuit, appointing a speaker or 
lecturer from each club to address certain ones in the circuit. This 
would promote a beneficial interchange of ideas as well as of visitors. 
The speakers should be considered the guests of the clubs they address, 
and receive their hospitalities. The expenses of such a lecture circuit 
would thus be very small. 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 67 



JERSEY CATTLE— Their Origin and Development. 

[For the Southern Planter.] 

More than a thousand years ago, the hardy Northmen from Nor- 
mandy and Brittany brought these cattle to the island of Jersey. This 
island is about eleven miles long by five wide. It contains about 
26,000 acres of arable land, has a population of over two inhabitants to 
the acre, and supports one cow to every two acres. The annual rent 
per acre is from $30 to $60. It is strictly agricultural, containing no 
large cities. Its population is too dense for any but the smallest farms, 
and these are too small to admit of fences or pasturage (as we regard 
pasturage). Hence the Jersey cattle for years have been, and are now, 
on the channel island grassed by the tether and attended to almost ex- 
clusively by the Jersey ladies. Even the calves are taught in their 
babyhood to stand to the halter, both while feeding and resting. The 
docility of these cows may in a great measure be due to the fact that, 
for over a century, their ancestors have been accustomed to the gentle 
care and kind treatment of females, who appreciated their merit and 
worth. 

The inhabitants of this island are contented and prosperous to a de- 
gree beyond any other people. The Government of England applies 
to them the principle " that they are best governed who are governed 
the least." Greatly blessed by Providence, they have the manhood and 
independence to utilize these blessings. In this race for advanced pros- 
perity, men and women emulate each other; yet the women are healthy, 
pretty and refined. To their prosperity the Jersey cow has largely con- 
tributed — both by the healthful food she supplies and the large profits 
annually received from the sales of her increase. With so large a num- 
ber of cattle in proportion to the inhabitants, the butter yield is in ex- 
cess of the home consumption, and this is sold at a high price in Liver- 
pool and London. "Self-supporting employment for ladies of the 
South" has been a prominent subject in several numbers of your valu- 
able paper. The essayists have, among other employments, recom- 
mended "the dairy." With the example of Jersey island before us, 
with the annual rental of land at $30 to $60 per acre, with punctuality 
in its payment and universal prosperity, will it be unwise to add to 
"the dairy" one or more Jersey cows for healthful food and profit? 
With corn in the West at 12 cents per bushel, and used for fuel to-day 
because coal is 22 cents per bushel; with corn in many parts of Vir- 
ginia at 40 cents per bushel, and wheat at 80 — both less than cost of 
production — may not the farmer, who has a family to support and edu- 



68 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 



cate, well pause aud look about for something more profitable? To 
the grower of tobacco the writer will say, Go forward ! make it a spe- 
cialty. To the grain-grower he would say, Stop! let not the plow-fur- 
row break the sod. Grass is worth more than corn or wheat. If un- 
willing, as I know our Eastern Virginia farmers are, to engage in but- 
ter-making for market, just give a few cows to your wives and daugh- 
ters, and have nothing more to do with them. If you will give them 
one good Jersey cow, in ten years your wife or daughter will be able to 
buy your farm, unless more valuable than the average. If farmers are 
unwilling to try this experiment (it is so small a business), let the wife 
and daughter do it. If a pedigree Jersey is too costly, buy a heifer 
calf or a full blood unregistered. I see from your last paper that in 
Oktibbeha county, Miss., there are not less than 400 registered Jerseys, 
and in spring and summer over 1,000 pounds of choice butter is shipped 
monthly to New Orleans and other markets from a single point ;n this 
county. If Jerseys and their butter can be so utilized in Mississippi, 
with its soil and climate, surely they can be in Eastern Virginia, with 
the advantages she possesses in both. It is a remarkable fact that the 
butter industry is pushed forward with more energy in every other 
southern State than in Virginia. And there is more demand for Jer- 
seys in Florida and South Carolina than in Virginia. All of the sales 
made by the writer, with one or two exceptions, have been to breeders 
in the cotton States. 

JERSEY BREEDING IS IN ITS INFANCY. 

Fifteen years ago Jersey breeding in the United States was in its 
infancy. There were about 1,500 pure bloods in all the land. Now 
there are about 40,000 registered in the books of the A. J. C. C. — less 
than one to a million of inhabitants. Accustomed from infancy to 
stand by the tether, with no enclosure in which to play or exercise, we 
might naturally conclude that these cattle would become dwarfed, un- 
sightly and worthless. On the contrary they are neither, and to day are 
without a peer as butter makers. Within a few years past they have 
been carried to every kingdom and province of Europe, to Australia 
and South America; and, remarkable to say, after becoming acclimated 
seem to thrive in the cold climates of Canada and Russia alike as in 
those of tropical Florida and South America. 

It is however a fact, that these cows have rapidly improved and de- 
veloped in the United States, and will continue to improve much be- 
yond their present status, for reasons hereafter assigned. Three years 
ago there was no boom in Jerseys. Only a few persons (small was the 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 69 

number), who had closely watched and studied their make-up, appre- 
ciated and valued them. It was published to the world that "Eurotas," 
No. 2451, by accurate test had made over twenty-two pounds of butter 
in seven days, and 778 pounds in one year. Estimating this butter at 
fifty cents per pound, and the product is $389 in one year from one 
cow. When to this was added her annual offspring, each to command 
a price represented by four figures, the incredulous turned their backs, 
content with believing it impossible. Quickly this test was followed 
by others. "Bomba," No. 10,330, sustained the reputation of her 
grand dam by a yield of 21 pounds 11 J ounces in seven days; and Jer- 
sey Belle exceeded it in the same length of time. Other tests followed. 
Mary surpassed Eurotas in the seven da}s' yield. One only in that for 
one year, until the queen of all cows, Mary Ann of St. Lambert's (a 
Canada cow), took for the second time the highest honor, with her 
record of over 30 pounds in seven days, and over 800 pounds in a year. 
Their development was retarded and delayed by failure to weed out the 
inferior cattle. So great is the demand, and so high the price, that 
every breeding animal, no matter how defective, is preserved, to hand 
down his or her imperfections to their posterity. When these indiffer- 
ent members have been killed for beef, and only the better quality pre- 
served for breeders, the general improvement in Jerseys will be rapid. 
Again : For some reason they are allowed to breed too early. To be- 
come mothers or fathers at thirteen, fourteen, or even eighteen months 
of age, requires a draught upon the bone, muscle, and all other func- 
tions necessary for health and growth, to meet the milk demand, that 
the mother is not allowed the opportunity of either obtaining a strong 
constitution or a full and perfectly developed growth. The average 
weight is about 600 to 700 pounds. Mary Ann weighs over 1,000 
pounds; hence she has a fund from which so heavy a draught of milk 
and butter can be made without discount. Again : Most of the Jersey 
herds, and many of the best, are owned by cultivated and wealthy gen- 
tlemen who have other pursuits. Their information comes second- 
hand, through agents. It reaches the public without first having been 
tried by the touch-stone of actual experience, aided with an eye sharp- 
ened by self-interest. A laudable rivalry has sprung up among these 
gentlemen in the matter of handsome stables, fattest, sleekest, and best- 
looking cows. To do this, expensive buildings and machinery are 
brought into requisition. To utilize this machinery, the food is pre- 
pared, the cows fed and actually combed, by steam power. The result 
is, it is imperfectly done. Moreover, the stock are over-fed, kept too 
fat for good and reliable breeders, and when the stables are heated by 



70 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

steam they are necessarily delicate, because unaccustomed to change in 
the weather. They are cows (not delicate flowers) raised in a hot- 
house. In this connection, I may add, many stables have vaults to 
contain the manure, over which the animal lives. With all possible 
care she must inhale impure air. Add to this the soiling and ensilage 
plan of feeding, and she is reared certainly with not the best showing 
for healthful exercise or development. Yet under these disadvantages 
the Jersey is a hardy cow, of remarkable digestive powers, and a won- 
derful breeder. Again: Another cause which retards her improve- 
ment is the want of acclimation. The transition from the northern to 
the southern States has a direct tendency to weaken the animal as well 
as her offspring. No doubt many die from this cause; others are 
dwarfy and unthrifty for several years. This, in a measure, can and 
should be corrected: First, by avoiding extreme climatic changes; 
secondly, by making the change from Virginia or other middle States 
to the southern States from November to 1st of March, and from the 
more northern from December to 1st February; thirdly, by subjecting 
to these climatic changes only young cattle, and those not in milk. 
Lastly. In addition to the above, when the Jersey cow becomes a pas- 
ture cow, and grass being the chief food, obtained in a natural way, to 
which wheat-bran, corn meal, &c, &c, (not too rich) may be added, in 
order to supply a healthy proportion of flesh, and not fattened for 
beauty and show, then will her improvement be rapid and certain. 
During the first six months in 1884 there were sold at auction, in the 
United States, 456 Jersey animals, at an average of $539.44. During 
the whole year 8,990 Jerseys changed hands. Estimating these — good 
and bad, old and young — at $200 each, you have $1,798,000, the result 
of this young and fast-growing industry. To which must be added the 
proceeds from butter. What other interest can make a like showing? 

John Washington. 
Woodford, Va., January 12, 1885. 



Young Beef. — The practice of keeping cattle till three or four years 
old before fattening is much less common now than formerly. The 
improved breeds of beef cattle mature early. Two-year-old steers of 
the Shorthorn breed are as mature and average larger than three-year- 
olds of native stock. More good beef can be made between one and 
two years old, at less cost, with Shorthorn cattle than by keeping them 
longer. 

No Animal, cow, pig, sheep, or chicken is doing its best for the owner 
when oblidged to rough it, or to " rustle" it. 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 71 



A FIGHT WITH AN EAGLE. 

Lewis Williams, who lives in an isolated spot in the Preston moun- 
tains, near Stockport, Perm., having set a trap to capture a fox which 
was carrying away his chickens, and going out one morning to look at 
it found it gone. The trap had been chained to a small stake in the 
grouud, and this had been pulled up and was missing with the trap and 
chain. Supposing that the fox had been caught in the trap and escaped 
with it, Williams hunted about in the woods for some trace of it, but 
could find none. As he was returning home he heard a sudden and 
great commotion among a flock of crows in a piece of woods a quarter 
of a mile or so from his house. The crows were cawing furiously, and 
were circling round the tree-tops in one particular spot, and occasion- 
ally darted about through the trees. Williams walked over toward 
the woods, and as he approached the crows increased their hubbub. 
When he arrived within gunshot they withdrew to a more distant part 
of the woods, but kept up their noise. Williams had just entered the 
edge of the woods when he heard the rattling of a chain, and simulta- 
neously a very large bird strutted out from behind a tree, dragging the 
missing trap, chain and stake. The jaws of the trap were fastened to 
one leg of the bird, which was a bald eagle of the largest size. The 
eagle flew from the ground and was rising with difficulty toward the 
top of a tall, dead tree, when Williams fired at it. The charge took 
effect in one of the eagle's wings and it fell to the ground. Thinking 
to capture the eagle alive, Williams approached it, but in spite of its 
crippled wing and the burden of the trap in its leg, the bird flew at him 
and attacked him with such fury that he turned and fled from the 
woods. Hurrying back home, Williams, without saying anything to 
others, procured a stout rope and a large feed-bag. On his way back 
to the woods he noticed that the crows which had attracted his atten- 
tion to the spot in the first place were hoveriug over the place where 
he had left the eagle, and from their peculiar cries and frantic actions 
he inferred that something unusual had occurred during his absence. 
The crows, knowing by the wonderful instinct they possess that the 
eagle was wounded, and hating as they do all large birds, had swooped 
down on the eagle and attacked it in its crippled condition. This 
attack had been disastrous to the crows, for when Williams again 
reached the spot three lay dead near the enraged eagle and several 
others were dragging themselves away out of its reach, uttering the 
sharp, guttural cry which they only utter when wounded or in trouble. 

The eagle no sooner saw Williams approaching again than it rushed 
at him with all the force at its command, hampered and crippled as it 
was, and forced the fighting at once. Williams had made a noose in one 
end of the rope he carried, and when the eagle flew at him he waited 
until it was almost upon him and then quickly threw the noose over 
the bird's head and it slipped down around its wings. Williams drew 
the noose tight and fastened the other end of the rope to a tree. The 
eagle was now shorn of the great strength in its wings, but it pulled 
the rope taut in its efforts to get at its enemy. As it stood thus strain- 



72 SOUTHERN" PLANTER. [February 

ing at the rope, Williams succeeded in slipping the bag down over its 
head. He then clasped the bird around the body. Although now 
blinded and pinioned and doubly crippled, the eagle was still uncon- 
quered. As Williams stood with his arms around the great body of 
the bird, endeavoring to secure the mouth of the bag around its legs, 
the eagle suddenly sprang against him, and striking him in the stom- 
ach with one free talon, with one fierce downward stroke ripped his 
clothing from him and tore the skin from the flesh in a long strip clear 
to the waist. Williams quickly released the bird, and made haste to 
reach his house, supposing that he was terribly injured. Two men who 
were threshing buckwheat for him were then informed of the presence 
of the eagle in the woods, and they went to the spot and succeeded in 
overpowering it. It was brought to Williams' and tied to a post in the 
barn, the trap being removed from its leg. The eagle measures at 
least eight feet from tip to tip of its wings, and stands nearly four feet 
high. These birds still nest in the wild and rocky elevations in that 
region, where it is barely possible for human beings to gain access. 
They frequently visit the sheep pastures of the farm neighborhoods and 
the poultry yards. In defending her chickens against one of the bold 
marauders one day last summer, not far from the Williams farm, Mrs. 
Urban was compelled to fight it for nearly an hour, during which time 
it tore her clothing from her, and lacerated her flesh terribly with its 
beak and talons. She finally killed it with a fence-rail. — New York 
Times. 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

The Commissioner of Agriculture estimates the value of the agricul- 
tural productions of the United States for 1884, at fair average prices, 
at about #4,000,000,000. The bulk of this will be sold, transported and 
resold during the next twelve months, and will form the basis of the 
year's trade. The larger portion of these products will be required for 
domestic consumption, and the 55.000,000 people among whom they 
will be distributed have not lost their capacity for consuming or their 
ability to gratify their daily needs. The crops are being marketed at 
home and abroad in about the amounts usual at this season of the year. 
But prices are low and there is a general absence of the speculative 
feeling at the several exchanges which handle domestic productions. 
This gives to the market apparent dullness, and creates the impression 
that the marketing of the crops is being seriously delayed. Such, how- 
ever, is not the fact. Exports are larger than at this time last year, and 
the tonnage of flour, grain, and provisions brought forward by the 
trunk lines since July is scarcely in amount one week behind the heavy 
movement during the same period in 1883, and considerably ahead of 
the trunk line east bound freights for the corresponding period in 1882. 
Ex. 

Opportunities are very sensitive things. If slighted on their first 
visit, they seldom come again. 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 73 



THE VIRGINIA POULTRY SHOW. 

On the 10th of April, 1884, a number of gentlemen interested in 
thoroughbred poultry and pet stock met in the rooms of the Virginia 
State Agricultural Society, in the city of Richmond, and formed what 
is now known as " The Virginia State Poultry, Pigeon and Pet Stock 
Association." The following officers were then elected : President, 
Capt. M. B. Rowe, of Fredericksburg; Vice-President, M. H. Pendle- 
ton, Cuckoo; Treasurer, Geo. R. Hill. Alexandria; Secretary, Frank 
Lovelock, Gordonsville ; Assistant-Secretary, Geo. McD. Blake, Rich- 
mond. During the last eight or nine months the Association has been 
at work in many ways stimulating the interests in poultry, but princi- 
pally preparing for their annual show, which took place in Richmond 
recently— January 6th to 9th, 1885. 

The exhibition was a decided success, but doubtless many of the 
hundreds of people who attended the Moody meetings would have 
visited the poultry show had it not conflicted with the great religious 
revival. Then, too, the somewhat obscure locality of the hall (over a 
carriage-shop on Fifth street) was another drawback which tended to 
keep away many. Still there were hundreds of beautiful birds on ex- 
hibition, excellent professional judges, and a choice gathering of inter- 
ested fanciers; and as the Association paid every cent of its indebted- 
ness, and is already at work on the show for 1886, there cannot be the 
least doubt but that its members are perfectly satisfied with the results 
of the recent exhibition. The largest exhibitors were Messrs. Rowe, 
of Fredericksburg; Lovelock, of Gordonsville; Hill, of Alexandria; 
Pendletons, of Cuckoo; Dixie Poultry Walks, of Louisa; and Geo. 
McD. Blake, of Richmond. 

The Messrs. Rowe, of Fredericksburg, exhibited a large, varied and 
attractive collection, almost identical with the one with which they 
created such a stir at Madison-Square Garden last winter; and as a 
proof of its worth it is well to state that on Monday, January 12th, it 
was shipped to the New Orleans Exposition, costing fifteen cents a 
pound expressage, and this, too, when in one crate were a pair of mam- 
moth bronze turkeys weighing over sixty pounds. In this collection 
nearly every variety of land and water fowl is represented, whilst many 
of the coops contain birds scoring so high in feather, size, form and 
condition that they may be almost considered perfect. The Messrs. 
Rowe took a majority of regular awards and special premiums, and 
many of their exhibits (such as their gigantic turkeys, tiny bantams 
and brilliant Polish) were decidedly popular features. 



74 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [January 

T. Lovelock & Co., of Gordonsville, exhibited twenty-five coops of 
Langshans, Houdans, Plymouth Rocks, Light Brahmas, Partridge Co- 
chins, Black Javas, Brown Leghorns, Bronze and White Holland Tur- 
keys, Ducks and Guinea Fowls of several varieties. Whilst they ex- 
hibited so many breeds, their specialty is Langshans, and of these they 
had a beautiful display. 

Geo. R. Hill, of Alexandria, is the owner of the best Houdans in the 
State, and he came boldly to the front with many choice and valuable 
specimens. He also breeds Golden Polish, and is " great" on pigeons, 
exhibiting some twenty cages of the latter, containing all the old 
favorites. 

The Peudletons, of Cuckoo, showed largely in Wyandottes, Light 
Brahmas and White Leghorns. Their specialty being Wyandottes, 
they were expected to do their best, and they did it. 

The Dixie Poultry Walks, of Louisa, seemed to believe in ducks, 
although they exhibited the only Black Sumatra fowls in the hall, and 
the best Black Javas. Their breeding pen of Pekin Ducks was very 
fine, whilst their white-crested White and Cayugas attracted much at- 
tention. 

Geo. McD. Blake, of Richmond, importer and breeder of black- 
breasted Red Games, showed as choice a collection of these truly 
thoroughbred birds as is ever seen at any exhibition. 

Messrs. McGruder & Steel, of Richmond, had in the hall fifty cages, 
containing almost every known variety of pigeon, and this display 
seemed " to take," especially with the ladies. 

Fowls came from many parts of the North, and from all over the 
State, making such a show as Richmond had never before seen. Eight 
Houdans, from the celebrated Daniel Pinkney, of New York, were re- 
served at $100, although even at that price they will very probably 
find a buyer in Virginia. E. W. Taylor, of Baltimore, sent the best 
pair of Light Brahma chicks, scoring 94 and 93 respectively, and the 
cockerel weighing thirteen pounds. The Valley of Virginia was well 
represented by James E. Craig, of Augusta, in Brown Leghorns, and 
Alexandria sent in a $50 breeding pen of Light Brahmas, the property 
of H. & J. C. Smoot. 

The expert judges were Geo. 0. Brown and H. T. Whitman, of Bal- 
timore. They did their work fearlessly and faithfully, and actually 
gave general satisfaction. " Wharf Rat." 



A good way to spend the winter is in getting ready for spring. 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER, 75 

EXPERIMENTS WITH MANURES AND CROPS. 

SIR J. B. LAWES' CONCLUSIONS. 

As many of our readers already know, Sir J. B. Lawes, of Rotham- 
sted, England, has been carrying on a long course of experimentation 
with land devoted to continuous crops of wheat. It is now forty years 
since these experiments began. On one plot, stable manure at the rate 
of fourteen tons per acre has been applied annually, this being about 
the quantity the farmers in the vicinity would probably approve. On 
the other lots chemical fertilizers of various kinds have been applied. 
On one lot no manure of any kind has been used for the past forty 
years. _ 

The seasons have had influence on the crops on the experimental 
plots as elsewhere. On the unmanured plot the smallest yield was 4§ 
bushels per acre, and the largest 20 bushels, the latter grown in the 
twentieth year in the series. The average yield for the entire period 
has been 14 bushels per acre. Other plots, manured with minerals 
only, had their yield increased but 1J bushels, but where 43 pounds 
nitrogen per acre was applied with the minerals, the crop was increased 
10J bushels, and where 86 pounds of nitrogen was applied the increase 
was 18| bushels, or 32f bushels per acre in the place of 14 bushels. 
But the cost of the manure in this case made the crop unprofitable as 
compared with the crops from land manured less or not at all. 

With higher prices for wheat, the result might have been different. 
Mr. Lawes has given a history of these experiments in a paper for the 
twentieth volume (second series) of the Journal of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society, from which the Chambers of Agriculture Journal makes 
liberal extracts. In summing up the results of the experiments, the 
following statements are made, which must be of interest to all who 
use either manure or fertilizers. 

Soils. — 1. A soil which in the ordinary course of agriculture would 
have received an application of manure before another crop was sown, 
has produced forty crops of wheat in succession, averaging 14 bushels 
per acre, solely by means of its existing fertility. 

2. At the commencement of the experiment the soil contained a 
large amount of organic nitrogen, derived from the debris of pre-exist- 
ing vegetation. It also contained a large amount of the mineral food 
of plants. 

3. Every year a certain proportion of the organic nitrogen has been 
nitrified by organisms existing in the soil. 

4. Part of the nitrates formed has been employed in the growth of 
the wheat crop; part has been washed out of the soil or otherwise lost. 

5. The loss of nitric acid is greater in wet seasons, and the amount 
taken up by the wheat crop is in consequence smaller. Dry seasons 
should therefore be favorable for the production of large crops of 
wheat. 

6. The stock of soil fertility in the form of organic nitrogen has been 
considerably reduced during the forty years that the experiments have 



76 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 



been carried on; and the amount of such reduction has been ascer- 
tained by analyses of the soil made at different periods. The stock of 
both potash and phosphoric acid has also been largely reduced. 

7. Although so much soil-fertility has been removed, the stock that 
remains would appear to be sufficient to grow crops of wheat for a very 
long period; the produce, however, must in process of time necessarily 
be lower than it has hitherto been. 

Manures. — 8. Mineral manures alone have added very slightly to the 
produce grown upon the unmanured land. 

9. Manures containing nitric acid alone, or some compound of nit- 
rogen which is easily nitrified, have considerably increased the crop. 

10. The soil, therefore, contained a stock of minerals which the wheat 
crop was unable to make use of, owing to the insufficient supply of nit- 
rogen in some available form. 

11. Manures consisting of potash, phosphoric acid, and ammonia or 
nitrates, appear competent to grow large crops of wheat continuously. 

12. A given weight of nitrogen as nitric acid has produced more 
growth in the wheat crop than the same weight of nitrogeu in salts of 
ammonia. 

WHAT AN OLD FARMER SAYS. 

This is the advice of an old man who has tilled the soil for forty 
years : 

I am an old man, upwards of three score years, during two scores of 
which I have been a tiller of the soil. I cannot say that I am now, 
but I have been rich, and have all I need; do not owe a dollar, have 
given my children a good education, and when I am called away will 
leave them enough to keep the wolf from the door. My experience haa 
taught me that: 

1. One acre of land, well prepared and well cultivated, produced 
more than two which received only the same amount of labor used on 
one. 

2. One cow, horse, mule, sheep or hog, well fed, is more profitable 
than two kept on the same amount necessary to keep one well. 

3. One acre of clover or grass is worth more than two of cotton where 
no grass or clover is raised. 

4. No farmer who buys oats, corn or wheat, fodder and hay, as a rule, 
for ten years, can keep the sheriff away from the door in the end. 

5. The farmer who never reads the papers, sneers at book-farming 
and improvements, always has a leaky roof, poor stock, broken-down 
fences, and complains of "bad seasons." 

6. The farmer who is above his business, and entrusts it to another 
to manage, soon has no business to attend to. 

7. The farmer whose habitual beverage is cold water is healthier, 
wealthier, and wiser than he who does not refuse to drink. 



The best winter food is shelter. 



1886.] SOUTHERN" PLANTER. 77 



THE LIVE-STOCK DEPARTMENT OF THE NEW ORLEANS 

EXPOSITION. 

To the Breeders of Live Stock: In order that I might address this 
letter intelligently concerning the arrangements for the exhibition of 
live stock at the New Orleans Exposition, I visited the grounds of the 
Exposition at that city last week. The Government Building, Main 
Building, Horticultural Hall and Art Hall are complete in structure, 
and the work in the inside preparing for exhibits is being pushed as 
rapidly as possible. These buildings mentioued are very large, and all 
the space therein has been applied for, thusinsuriug a grand and inter- 
esting exhibition in every department. Other large buildings are in 
course of erection for exhibits. 

The department of Agriculture, which comprises all the exhibits of 
machinery used for agricultural purposes and the live-stock exhibitions, 
is under the management of Hon. Geo. Y. Johnson, superintendent, 
Lawrence, Kan. The advanced condition of the preparations in his 
department shows him to be a man of great executive ability, and, 
during the hurry and excitement always attending the opening of such 
exhibitions, he is ever ready in the most courteous mannuer to give in- 
formation. In all these qualifications as chief of a department he is 
ably assisted by Col. Edward Haren, of Kansas City, Mo. No efforts 
will be spared by these gentlemen to assist exhibitors in any way and 
make them feel at home as soon as they reach the grounds — a kindness 
always appreciated and seldom forgotten. 

The barns for the exhibition of live stock are located about three 
hundred yards from the Main Building and a like distance from the 
Government Building. Between the latter and the barns a fine track 
is being prepared for exhibiting stock. The barns are six in number, 
handsomely built and painted, and located in blocks of two in width 
and three in length. Each is 400 feet long by 60 feet wide. A row of 
well built stalls and pens is on each side, and a walk-way of 36 feet 
wide through the center. They are well lighted by windows during the 
day, and, as the Exposition will be open until 10 o'clock each evening, 
there will pe placed along the center of each barn eighteen electric lights. 
A portion of one of the barns is to be used for feed storage, in which 
corn, oats, chop feed and hay will be sold at cost prices. All grain and 
hay will be taken from the northern States. I noticed a lot of very 
fine timothy hay in store when I was there. Good water will be plen- 
tiful at convenient places in all the barns. Sawdust and shavings will 
be used for bedding, which is furnished free. 

The barns will be kept as a sanitary measure, as well as for the en- 
joyment of visitors. So far as I can form an opinion I see no cause 
for fear of disease. The temperature when I was there was that of 
May in the western States, and I am informed that no unpleasant heat 
for northern man or beast is felt before the month of May. The Expo- 
sition grounds are close to the Mississippi River, and livestock shipped 
by boat will be landed within a quarter of a mile of the barns. Stock 
snipped by rail will be unloaded close to the barns. Every convenience 



78 SOUTHERN PLANTER,' [February 

. ___ . . . . ^ 

which will add to the comfort of stock and the accomodation of exhib- 
itors has been carefully considered and adopted. Exhibitors will have 
the privilege of selling stock at private sale, to be delivered at the close 
of the exhibition, and Mr. Johnson, superintendent of agriculture, 
directed me to inform breeders of live stock that those who might wish 
to take stock there to be sold at public sale will be furnished stalls and 
pens ; the sales advertised and conducted under the manager of the 
department, at a charge only to cover expenses. All desiring to make 
such sales should notify Mr. Johnson as soon as possible. 

Throughout the southern States there is now more than ever before 
a desire to introduce the improved breeds of live stock. In cattle the 
demand is stronger for the dairy breeds than for beef breeds. The 
breeders of dairy cattle have never had such an opportunity of letting 
the people of the southern States see their stock, or such available means 
of extending their sales in that portion of the country. 

The exhibition of horses will open December 20, 1884, and close Jan- 
uary 25, 1885. That of cattle, sheep and swine opens January 31 and 
closes March 1, 1885, and there are large cash prizes in all classes. 

I will furnish live stock premium lists from this office to all who may 
apply ; or the same may be had by addressing George Y. Johnson, 
Department of Agriculture, Exposition, New Orleans, La, 

Sam'l Dysart, 
Supt. Division E, Cattle. 

Franklin Grove, 111., Dec. 15, 1884. 



FARMERS AND SHEEP-RAISING. 

There are few methods by which the small farmer can more easily 
increase the profit derived from the farm than by keeping sheep. I do 
not mean that the farmer should dispose of his excellent and profitable 
brood mare and replace her with sheep. I do not mean that the dairy 
•ehould be disposed of and the farm devoted to sheep husbandry. I do 
not even suggest that the fields of grain, corn and potatoes should be 
converted into a sheep pasture. I do not mean that even sheep-grow- 
ing should be considered the most important of all the industries to 
which a farm may be devoted. Notwithstanding, a small flock of sheep 
will, if properly managed, be found a most useful adjunct to the other 
industries of the farm, and on the whole a very profitable investment. 
Woolen blankets and many different articles of underwear are neces- 
sary in families residing in the northern States. No method of pro- 
curing these necessary articles of woolen goods can be so satisfactory 
or economical to the farmer's family as to keep sheep and produce the 
wool on the farm. There is no question but that this method is the 
cheapest, besides being more apt to furnish a satisfactory quality with 
less risk of the always undesirable shoddy. The farmer may keep sheep 
producing wool of a medium degree of fineness, which is apt to give 
the housewife much better satisfaction that the very fine wool or the 
coarser staples. It will be found more economical to keep sheep pro- 
ducing wool best adapted to home consumption, if it is not desired to 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 79 



produce wool for market. If wool is produced for market and not 
home consumption, of course the requirements of the market must 
be observed; and again, the farmer keeping a flock of sheep can in 
the fall, when the weather is cool, supply his family with excellent 
fresh meat. The necessary weeding out of the old or unprofitable 
ewes from^the flock will be generally found to answer this purpose, 
and such sheep at this season of the year will be found quite fat enough 
without extra feeding. Good mutton (and there are very few people 
who really dislike good Southdown and Cotswold mutton) is fully as 
cheap meat as the farmer can procure. 

One word in regard to the source of profit to be realized from the 
flock of sheep. Of course wool may be sold, and so the old and un- 
profitable ewes may be disposed of to the butcher and always at good 
prices. The most important source of profit consists in the sale of 
spring lambs. The earlier and larger these lambs are, of course, the 
belter prices can be realized. It is always safe to expect $4 to $6 per 
head for lambs, according to their quality and the market where they 
are sold. There is one other item of profit to the farmer due' to the 
keeping of sheep which all intelligent farmers will appreciate. I refer 
to the economy of pasturing and wintering sheep. Sheep may be kept 
on rocky and sterile pastures. They may be kept where cows would 
starve, and hence a pasture should not be overstocked with both cows 
and sheep. Sheep are very useful in eradicating weeds and subduing 
briers, and thus are a more excellent aid to clean culture. They may 
be well wintered on bean and pea straw, or other fodder that is not well 
relished by either cows or horses. It should be remembered that, al- 
though sheep are a very convenient subject for economical measures, 
yet at the same time they respond quickly to generous treatment. 
Warm shelter and generous feeding will pay with sheep as with other 
farm stock. In the meantime, farmers, pay a little more attention te 
the small flock of sheep. — F. K. Moreland in Chicago Breeder's G-azette. 



LAWS OF CAPITAL AND TRADE. 

The business depression of the past few months has been variously 
explained. We have heard much of over-production and under con- 
sumption ; which means simply that the supply has exceeded the de- 
mand. But this hardly explains the important fact. Competition in 
trade tends to lessen price; and when the cost of producing any arti- 
cle exceeds the price it will bring in the market, the capital invested in 
the production of that article will be dormant, or seek other channels. 
It is true that capital invested in large manufacturing companies can- 
not be easily diverted, and hence suspension of operations is the only 
alternative, with all the evils resulting to workingmen from cessation 
of wages, and to manufacturers with a large stock on hand, from which 
they cannot realize, and the loss of interest on capital invested from 
which they get no returns. J 

Various are the expedients by which capitalists seek to relieve them- 
6 



80 SOUTHERN PLANTER. February 

selves. By improved machinery they lessen the cost of production, 
and by reduction of wages; by tariff legislation, they seek to destroy 
foreign competition; by the aid of monied institutions, they tide over 
present difficulties. Workingmen resort to strikes and other forcible 
expedients to secure what they conceive to be a just enumeration for 
their labor. But for both, the inevitable law of action and re-action, 
of supply and demand, sooner or later defeats their efforts, and brings 
them face to face with the natural law. 

Every article bought and sold, labor included, has a certain money 
or market value. And much has been said of the influence of the cur- 
rency. When we speak of money as "tight" or "easy," we allude to 
its market value. Itjean be borrowed, on given securities, at such a rate. 
But as a medium of exchange, it has a purchasing value, and whether 
abundant or scarce, it sustains a certain relation to all commodities. As 
a rule, high prices indicate abundance, low prices a scarcity. It is as- 
serted that it makes little difference whether wheat is $1 or $2 a bushel; 
its purchasing power will be found to be equal. This possibly might 
be true were there no limit to the amount produced, and no difference 
in the cost of production. 

The great question with respect to agricultural products is that of la- 
bor. The capital required is small compared to that demanded in some 
other departments. It is true, the practice of dealing in " grain fu- 
tures," of "forestalling" and "cornering," may have some influence; 
but, as a rule, the crop has passed from the hands of the farmer before 
these transactions take place. Railroads and means of transporation 
have their influence; and all who handle agricultural produce must 
have their share of its^value. Facilities for reaching market are now so 
increased, that local causes do not produce as great effects now as form- 
erly. A drought or a frost, producing a short crop, may make local 
scarcity ; but the demand produced soon brings a supply. 

The great aim of all is to get as much as possible for as little as pos- 
sible; but has any law ever been discovered which will bring money 
into a section where nothing is produced. As a rule, the natural law is 
that business creates business ; money will be abundant where its equiv- 
alent is found. The larger the crop, the more value to the farmer; the 
less the cost, relative to the amount produced, the greater will be his 
profit. 

A community which has few business enterprises must necessarily 
be more productive than one which sustains only five. It should be 
the aim of every one to make all the local business he can, as thus 
money is kept in circulation, and more share its benefit. A natural 
law of trade is " to live and let live;" and another obvious law is that 
if those around you prosper, you will be likely to share in the common 
prosperity. — The Charlotte Va., Gazette. 



It won't Pay to grind oats for calves as they eat the whole oats well. 
The waste is not equal to the cost of grinding. A variety of grain 
builds up the whole body. 



1885.1 SOUTHERN" PLANTER. 81 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

[Extract from the address of the Hon. T. Robie, Master of the Main State Grange. — 
Ed. S. P.] 

The word "enlightened agriculture" has often been used, and it is 
closely connected with progressive civilization. The laborer who walks 
between the handles of the plow, is naturally far above the animal, 
whose strength turns over the furrow of the sterile soil, aud when you 
look over the vast field of nature, and contemplate the capacity of the 
mind, you find resources for improvement and advancement which 
the physical strength of the animal plodding along in the same track; 
but a man by the use of mental powers, can be raised to a position 
which the Author of his creation recognizes as little lower than the 
angels. In the vast pursuit of agriculture, there is a hidden field of 
knowledge which surpasses every other interest. " Every plant that 
grows on your farm, every animal in your stock yard, every bird and 
insect that hovers in the air, every implement of husbandry, every road, 
fence, farm building, every running stream, swamp, forest, change of 
temperature, rain storm, drouth, every alluvial deposit left by the swol- 
len stream, every upheaved rock, everything that the farmer's eye rests 
upon, or his ear hears, or which gratifies or offends his sense of smell, 
all represent a science which is very close to his work, or what is for 
his interest to know." 

Nature with which the farmer deals, is an encyclopedia of hidden 
knowledge. It requires the cultivated powers of the mind, aided by 
science, to develop established truths and principles which show the 
relation of cause and effect, so essential to an enlightened agriculture. 
The pursuit of farming calls for as much educatiou as any of the learn- 
ed professions, though in a different direction. It may be impossible 
for the individual farmer to possess all the uecessary knowledge in 
chemistry, natural philosophy, botany and the many sciences which 
make agriculture one of the most comprehensive of arts, but the more 
varied his knowledge, the more advanced will be the exercise of his 
faculties. Knowledge is power, and nowhere so effectual and remu- 
nerative as in the domain of agriculture. A practical farmer may raise 
wheat, corn and cattle, and harvest the productions of the farm, and 
market them, without much education: but we were created for a 
higher existence than that of mere drudgery. The farmers of this 
country represent 8,000,000 and probably not far from 25,000,000 of 
our people are dependent upon agriculture for subsistence. The dignity 
of agriculture can well rest upon numerical strength, but enlightenment 
and not ignorance, gives it a full supremacy. The farmer has gone into 
the American forest and upon prairies, and with the axe and plow 
has developed 4,000,000 farms, and furnishes the markets of the world 
with the productions of 536,000,000 of cultivated acres, setting at work 
the sails of commerce and the spindles of the manufacturer. This 
achievement of labor is the prime source of our natural prosperity, and 
the men and women who have constituted the bone and sinew of our 
nation, should be leaders and not followers; and in order to take this 



82 SOUTHERN" PLANTER. [February 

position, an equal education with other professions is essential. Num- 
erical strength gives farmers the power to choose the men who legislate, 
and the judge who interprets the law, and the executive which executes 
the law. The power to do this should be an intelligent power, meas- 
ured by a knowledge of the principles of civil government, the rights 
and duties of citizenship, and that culture and mental discipline which 
have made the learned professions more powerful. Is it necessary 
for the farmer to study Latin and Greek? By no means, unless he de- 
sires mental discipline which these studies give ; but this discipline will 
benefit him as much as any other class. The farmers should advocate 
and sustain an educational policy which gives to all its citizens a lib- 
eral and comprehensive education. It is found in the progressive sys- 
tem of our own State. Let us sustain a popular elementary education 
of a high order, free high schools, and the claims of the State College 
of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. These advantages will develop an 
education which will give the agriculturist of the State facilities to com- 
pete successfully with other pursuits in the race of life. 



WHITEWASH FOR OUTBUILDINGS. 

The following recipe is timely and reliable: "As we have often recommend- 
ed good white-wash, well applied to fences, sheds, rough siding, and the walls 
and ceiling of buildings, cellars, etc., has a highly sanitary influence, as being 
very preservative in its effects. To be durable whitewash should be prepared 
in the following manner : Take the very best stone lime, and slake it in a close 
tub, covered with a cloth to preserve the steam. Salt — as much as can be dis- 
solved in the water used for slaking and reducing the lime — should be applied, 
and the whole mass carefully strained and thickened with a small quantity of 
sand, the purer and finer the better. A few pounds of wheat flour mixed as 
paste may be added, and will give greater durability to the mass, especially 
when applied to the exterior surface of buildings. With pure lime, properly 
slaked and mixed with twice its weight of fine sand, and sifted wood ashes, in 
equal proportions, almost any color may be made by the addition of pigments. 
Granite, slate, freestone and other shades may be imitated, and without any 
detriment to the durability of the wash. This covering is very often applied, 
and with good effects, to underpinning, stone fences, roof's and the walls of barna 
and other outbuildings. Probably the pure whitewash is more healthy than 
the colored, as its alkalescent properties are superior, and when used in cellars, 
kitchens and sleeping apartments produces salutary results. No person who re- 
gards the health of his family should fail to have applied a coat of such white- 
wash every spring. Country places, especially farm outhouses, fences, etc., are 
greatly improved in appearance by an annual coat and it will add to their per- 
manency much more than many would imagine. As we all know, it is cheap 
and easily applied, so that neither expense nor labor can be pleaded against it." 
— Ba Uimorean . 



MORE EGGS IN WINTER. 



This is the very time when eggs are worth the most, when hens want 
to lay as much or more than thay do at any other time, and when they 



1885.] SOUTHERN" PLANTER. 83 

are not allowed to do so by most poultry keepers. Folks think there is 
a great mystery about making hens lay in winter. There is none; 
anyone can do it ; that is, the heus will lay if you will let them. They 
bear a good deal of cold in the sunshine, and even freeze their combs 
and toes, and yet will not stop laying altogether if they can sleep warm. 
Now do not begin to plan setting up a stove in the hen house, or intro- 
ducing steam pipes. Artificial heat is not poisonous perhaps, but very 
nearly so to chickens. They are warm themselves, and need onty to 
be crowded on their roosts, with the roosts all on the level. The ceil- 
ing of the roosting room should be only a few feet above the fowls' 
heads, and provided with ventilation from the floor if possible. Give 
them very close quarters, with no drafts of cold air, and clean out 
under the roosts every morning, not excepting Sundays. The comb3 
will theu redden up, and eggs will be plenty on j less feed than usual. 
It must not be corn, however, or onlj' a small preeentage of it, for this 
will make theru too fat to lay well if they sleep warm. — Col. Weld, in 
American Agriculturist. 



"OUTLOOK FOR PRODUCERS." 



The Journal of Agriculture thus describes the prospects of the farmer : 

"The financial troubles of the last Spring have caused very serious 
complications among the producing classes, and no inconsiderable losses 
have been sustained by the farmers of the Western States. With good 
crops and a prosperous year, unprecedented prosperity should have 
been the record of this class of world feeders. In its place we find low 
prices ruling the market for all farm products. 

The wheat aud other small grain crops, which were confidently 
looked to for handsome returns, barely pay the expenses of production, 
yet the majority of farmers, fearing still worse fate in store, are sacri- 
ficing their crops to secure the meaus of liquidating liabilities. 

It is well for the farmer to investigate the causes which have brought 
about the present unsatisfying state of atfairs, and when they are found, 
to provide a remedy to prevent a recurrence of such troubles. A care- 
ful search will reveal the primary cause of unsettled values in farm pro- 
ducts to have been grain gambling and speculation among the handlers 
of these products. 

The desire to amass wealth, through speculative means, has assumed 
such vast proportion in the commercial world that the rapacity of 
dealers in grain is only bounded by their ability to bull or bear the 
market. No longer are legitimate sales based upon the actual supply 
or demands, but are ruled, manipulated and controlled by large dealers 
in grain through the modern, and to the farmer most ruinous, gambling 
hell known. 

Corn was quoted recently at one dollar per bushel in the Chicago 
market, whilst most farmers in the West cannot sell at shipping point 
for as much as forty- five cents. 

The producers of grain should unitedly labor through the ballot to 



84 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

elect as State and national law-makers those who will suppress by law 
this hurtful feature of commercial exchange. We speak advisedly 
when the term hurtful is used. All classes of business men are injured 
either directly or remotely by these speculators in the necessities of 
life. Financial stringency, peculations, defalcations, forgeries, bank 
robberies, and the long train of crimes that fill the telegraphic and 
news columns of the daily press, are originated, fed, nurtured and 
grown for their huge proportions as the fruit of this deadly and dan- 
gerous species of commercial knavery. 

The outlook to the producer will never be bright, nor will the legiti- 
mate compensation due him for his labor be paid, until this crying evil 
is banished from the land. An incentive for prompt and decisive ac- 
tion more deserving of the united labor of all classes of Western men 
never has appeared in ; the history of the country. Then, to reap the 
fruits of honest toil, to advance the coming generation in moral stand- 
ing and commercial honesty, all sincere lovers of the country should 
unite in devising means to stamp out this foul blot upon American 
civilization. Crops are good, and the supply is not so great, either of 
breadstuff's or forage crops, as to bring down prices below the cost of 
profitable production, were these supplies properly distributed in the 
world's markets." 



SOUTH CAROLINIA SUPERPHOSPHATES. 

[Extract from address of Hon. A. P. Butler, Commissioner of Agriculture, S. C- — 
Ed. S. P.] 

Our phosphate mines are the wonder of the world. While enrich- 
ing the poor lands up to a fertility equivalent to the alluvial bottoms 
of the Mississippi, or the delta of the Nile, these mines have poured a 
million dollars into the State treasury, and brought millions into the 
State for investment. And the area covered by these phosphate de- 
posits is comparatively very small, and only a minimum portion of 
that has been developed, but it has been sufficient to place many of the 
larger States under obligations to South Carolina, and has furnished 
the civilized world with " the chief part of all the phosphate of lime 
used in the manufacture of commercial fertilizers." A compilation 
just made by the Charleston News Courier, shows that there are six- 
teen land companies engaged in mining rock, that have a capital of 
$2,000,000, and employ 3,000 hands. In addition to these, there are six 
river companies, with a capital of about $1,500,000, making $3,500,000 
invested in phosphate mining. Besides, there are the wealthy fertilizer 
factories, manufacturing large quantities of the rock; these are the 
outcome of the phosphate mining. There has been mined and shipped 
since the discovery of the South Carolina deposits, 1,078,000 tons of 
river rock, and 1,211,830 tons of land rock. 

This amount, at the very moderate average of six dollars per ton, 
has given to the State the large amount of $13,740,000, of which 
amount the entire State has been benefited by a royalty of $1,078,170. 

The cost of production per ton varies. It is estimated at $4.50, in- 



1385.J SOUTHERN PLANTER. 85 

eluding the payment of royalty and other expeuses. 

One hundred thousand tons of crude rock are annually consumed 
by the fertilizer manufacturers of South Carolina. 

The value of the phosphate annually mined is $2,100,000. 

The royalty paid the State in 1883 was $130,116.42, being one dollar 
per ton paid as moved by the marine companies. 

As stated above, the taxes levied on product of land companies, and 
the heavy tax on fertilizer manufacturers, are exclusive of this large 
amount of revenue. 



THE FUTURE SUPPLY FOR THE PIEDMONT GRAZIER. 

[For the Southern Planter.! 

It has been frequently remarked that the relative prices paid for cat- 
tle to be grazed and fattened are inordinately high when compared with 
the prices the same cattle bring after having been wintered and grazed 
to fatness. 

The great demand for stockers and the continued glut of the fat cat- 
tle market, is due to two causes : first, the area grazed is every year 
growing larger; and secondly, the supply of stockers is correspondingly 
diminished by the rapid means of transporation afforded the Western 
grazier, whereby he is enabled to send his cattle into the Eastern 
markets/a£ instead of being obliged to sell them to the Piedmont gra- 
zier to be fattened by him. Then, too, the running of refrigerator cars 
from Chicago to the Eastern cities has undoubtedly helped to keep 
down the market for our fat cattle. 

So there is little hope that the prices of fat cattle will be increased. 
The only way out of his difficulties is for the grazier to buy at lower 
figures. This cannot be done while the demand for stockers is so great 
and the supply so small. Then the supply must be increased. 

Now it appears to us that there is no more promising field for labor 
in raising stock cattle than the Northern Neck of Virginia. 

There is throughout this section an indigenous grass, known as Wire 
Grass. It grows everywhere, covering the ground like a cloak. It 
puts up in corn stubble, wheat Melds and, in fact, wherever 
the bushes and briers will give it room. Like the Blue Grass of the 
Piedmont was some thirty years ago, it is looked upon as oue of the 
greatest pests which the farmer has to contend with. It stands drought 
remarkably and when the land is good forms a sod. It is very tena- 
cious of life and its roots, putting out at almost every joint, penetrate 
the ground to a considerable depth and have even been known in their 



86 SOUTHERN" PLANTER. [February 

race for life and moisture to pierce a growing Irish potato. This grasa 
forms the principal meaus of support for the large, horrid, curly-headed 
cattle with which the Northern Neck is stocked. 

Clover can be raised very successfully here as well as orchard grass. 
These as auxiliaries to the wire grass, (which it is maintained will in- 
crease in luxuriance and nutritive powers in proportion as it is encour- 
aged and fertilized) and will afford ample food for young cattle. Now let 
the farmers of the Northern Neck improve their herds by the introduc- 
tion of new blood, not of the large-boned Shorthorns or Holsteins but 
of the lighter and more compact breeds of Devon and Ayrshire. Do not 
try to raise thoroughbreds — but cross upon the hardy native stock and 
if necessary repeat the introduction of this new blood. 

The kind of cattle now raised in this section are so rough that they 
are not desirable. Tbey are badly bred and never having had sufficient 
food are stunted, consequently no grazier who takes pride in his busi- 
ness likes to handle them. But if the cross-bred cattle are fed 
during the first two winters they will always bring a good price and 
be easily sold. Well bred, well grown yearlings are frequently sold in 
the grazing sections for prices ranging from $25 to $30 a head. 

If the grasses both natural and artificial are cultivated and a judi- 
cious cross introduced into the herds of the Northern Neck, there is 
no reason why it can not produce stock cattle, and thus supply the 
largely increasing demand in Loudoun and Fauquier. It is not advis- 
able that the cattle be fattened upon wire grass even when fed with 
clover and orchard grass. The stronger blue grass sods of the Pied- 
mont can do this much better. Sell your stock by the time they are 
two years old. Up to this age it is not difficult to keep the animal in 
good growing condition. 

Grazier. 



Cheese and Butter Making — The factory system has worked a-revo- 
lution in cheese making in this country, but it has not done so much 
for butter making. The bulk of cow butter is still made on farms, 
and there is one reason why it probably will continue to be. The skim 
milk is of great value for feeding pigs and for other purposes, while 
the whey from cheese is worth little or nothing. The dairy system of 
butter making will probably insure a better and more uniform product, 
but there is another difficulty to be taken into account, which is the 
loss from churning the cream from a great number of cows together. 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 87 



Editorial. 



AGRICULTURE AND ITS PERMANENCY. 

The phrase that " farming does not pay" is becoming trite. The 
corollary is, that it should be abandoned, for every occupation that 
does not pay must be. That such a sentiment should be uttered by 
farmers is unjust to them and to the great and necessary pursuit of 
agriculture. This is an occupation which cannot die except with the 
world and all its inhabitants. It was ordained of God when Adam, 
with Eve, was expelled from the Garden of Eden, and was commanded 
to "till the ground from whence he was taken." 

Cain, the first-born of these parents, was a " tiller of the ground," 
and Abel, his brother, was a " keeper of sheep." The two leading de- 
partments of agriculture — tillage, and the raising and care of domestic 
animals — were thus blended at the commencement of human existence, 
and have since continued, and must continue to the end of time. Why, 
then, should fanners annoy themselves with the cry that "farming 
does not pay"? By its divine origin it must and does pay. Many 
farmers who join in this cry are unconsciously getting very fair returns 
from the labor and intelligence they bestow. Money may not be rapidly 
accumulated, but they have a fair living, and, if provident, have no 
debts. This, probably, is a great dividend on what they have ex- 
pended. 

The idea that agriculture must be abandoned because it does not 
pay is a heresy. If a farmer fails in his occupation, he must, like men 
in other pursuits, blame himself and his methods, and not the business 
of farming. Whether farming pays depends on the farmer himself. 
And so in other businesses, some men fail whilst others succeed. Look 
at law, medicine, divinity, art, trade, commerce, and manufactures, and 
their pathways are strewn with those who have fallen ; and yet there 
is a disposition among many farmers to look on these professions as 
nobler than their own, and which pay better. There never was a 
graver mistake. The science of agriculture is now being recognized 
as the co-equal of any other; and whilst the humblest and most illite- 
rate may sow, plant, and reap, the best results are given to the most 
intelligent and earnest workers in its fields. 

We might elaborate these views much in detail, but our present re- 
marks are designed to be suggestive only. Farmers should think and 
carefully consider before they condemn their business. Supply and 



88 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

demand as to all products must regulate prices in legitimate trade, un- 
influenced by unjust speculations througb controlling rings and mo- 
nopolies; and in respect to this governing law the farmers are, for 
many reasons, on the safest side. 



CURING TOBACCO BY OPEN FIRES AND SMOKE. 

We have a letter from a subscriber in Venezuela, S. A., asking in- 
formation on the Virginia plan of curing tobacco with open fires and 
smoke. His surprise in not finding something on the subject in the 
columns of the Planter is answered by the fact that this process of 
curing is no novelty in the United States, and in Virginia especially, 
where it has existed, with but little change, from about 1620 A. D. to 
the present time. 

The log barns for curing dark and strong tobacco with fire and 
smoke, as they were constructed in colonial times, are still common. 
These barns are built of straight logs about eight or ten inches in di- 
ameter, and usually about twenty feet long. They are put up in the 
form of a square pen, and notched down at the corners so as to touch 
each other. About seven feet from the ground the first corner of tier- 
polos are put, resting on the logs on opposite sides, and four feet apart. 
As the body of the house is built up, at each three feet another course 
of tier-poles are placed virtically over those below, and so on until the 
body of the house reaches the desired height — generally about twenty 
feet. Hewn plates are then put on, and upou these the feet of the 
rafters rest. The rafters are so framed as to have an elevation of forty- 
five or fifty degrees, and they are placed over the line of the tier-poles, 
and are strengthened by cross ties nailed strongly on opposite sides. 
These ties are also placed the same distance apart as the tier-poles of 
the body, and ranging virtically above them afford the means of hang- 
ing nearly as much tobacco in the roof as in the body. 

The covering of the roof is now usually of shingles, or with planks 
placed vertically, with the joints covered by other and narrower planks. 

After the house is completed, a door is cut on the south side, and a 
proper shutter made and hung by wooden or metalic hinges. The 
space between the logs should be daubed with clay to the height of the 
first line of tier-poles, and if the logs are properly notched, no daubing 
will be needed above. The openings between the logs will afford ven- 
tilation for drying out the tobacco when necessary, and bringing in 
order in damp weather when it is desirable to strike and place it in 
bulk. The tobacco, when it is cut from the field, is hung on sticks 



1885.] SOUTHERN PLANTER. 89 

riven from straigbt-graiued timber, four and a half feet long and about 
an inch square. These sticks, when filled with from six to twelve 
plants each, according to size, are lifted into the barn and hung on the 
tier-poles, commencing in the roof and working downwards; and when 
the house is filled, the firing may commence at once, or be postponed a 
day or two, according to weather and other circumstances. The fires 
are always made of green or half-seasoned logs, cut about six or eight 
feet long, and of a size that a man can lift and carry into the house. 
These logs are laid end to end in three parallel rows, and three or four 
together, the rows being about six feet apart. Small fires are kindled 
under and between the logs at short distances with some dry material^ 
and when the logs commence burning the fires are kept up by adding 
other logs. Care is taken that the fires are kept slow at first, generat- 
ing more smoke than heat; but as the tobacco begins to dry, more heat 
is given until the leaf and the lower part of the main stem is well 
cured. 

This process requires great care to prevent a conflagration. In its 
last stages the leaf becomes almost as dry as tinder, and a few strong 
sparks generated by careless handling of the fires will in many cases 
cause the destruction of the barn and contents. 

The following is our correspondent's letter, and we hope some one 
of our tobacco growers will supplement our reply, which has been very 
hastily written : 

Editor Southern Planter, — I hope you will excuse the liberty I take 
in addressing you. I some time ago subscribed for your valuable 
book, which I have recommended to be the best one on growing and 
curing tobacco. What I want to know is how to cure tobacco by fire. 
I do not mean by the flue process, but by the open fire and smoke. I 
have watched your book for some hint on the question, but I have not 
seen anything of it yet, so I write to you for the advice that will lead 
me in the right direction. Our crop will be ready for market about 
the 1st of May, so I am anxious to try the Virginia idea of curing. All 
the tobacco out here is sun-cured, and very sweet. Makes a fine chew, 
but the people of this country want something common, and something 
that will smell strong, and smoke strong. You will do me a very 
great favor if you will help me with your advice. 

I am yours, with respect, W. P. Jones. 

Caro, Venezuela, S. A., 23d December, 1881. 



"Whenever coal is burned the ashes should be taken to the henhouse 
and scattered under the perches. This will prevent loss of ammonia, 
and in the spring, if the henhouse is free from snow, the manure will 
be in fine condition. 



90 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

THE WORLD'S INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION AT NEW ORLEANS. 

We hear and read from all sources that the great Exposition, now in 
full working order, exceeds any other of a similar kind ever before 
held. We have talked with a prominent citizen of our city who has 
returned from a month's visit there, who assures us that in his opinion 
it exceedes the famed Centennial at Philadelphia in 1876. 

We can well understand this; for if the material products are not 
greater, there is the great Mississippi river washing the shores of the 
exhibition grounds, with their groves of live oaks, and beds of perenuial 
flowers, which can only be seen in a semi-tropical climate. Such a 
ecene in mid-winter is worth many miles of travel; and then the exhi- 
bition itself, in all its varied departments, will furnish a great fund of 
entertainment and information. 

We are not informed as to the extent of contributions from the 
northern part of the United States, or of Europe, but the central por- 
tion of the world will be well represented, extending across the conti- 
nents from the western to the eastern shores of the Pacific. Of course 
the contributions will embrace all tropical and semi-tropical productions 
of farms, gardens and orchards, flowers and plants, art in all its phases 
of sculpture, painting, engraving, &c; and to these will be added all 
grades of machinery and its numerous adaptations. 

Many persons will be anxious to visit this great Exposition, but may 
be deterred by a want of knowledge of the attending expense. We 
have some data on this subject, collected from one of our great railway 
lines. 

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway offers a galaxy of routes by which 
tickets are on sale at excursion rates, going and returning by the same 
route, or going by one route and returning by another. There are 
nine of these different routes, having each its special attractions. For 
detailed information apply to H. C. Fuller, General Passenger Agent, 
Richmond, Va. ; J. C. Dame, Southeastern Passenger Agent, Rich- 
mond; or to 0. C. Doyle, Agent, Lynchburg; P. H. Woodward, Agent, 
Staunton; or to any station agent on the line of the road. 

This is an opportunity of any man's life; and all who can afford the 
expense should go to this Exposition — certainly all who desire, or are 
interested in, the development of the middle belt of our continent. 



Be Careful how you treat the cows now. Radical changes of food 
produce indigestion, and general unthrift may follow. 



1885.] SOUTHERN" PLANTER. 91 



THE VIRGINIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

The first quarterly meeting for 1885 of the Executive Committee of 
the Society was held in the Society's Rooms in this city on the 16th 
of January. The attendance of members from different parts of the 
State was good, and Robert Beverley, Esq., the President elected at the 
last annual meeting, presided. Much of the business was routine work 
and of no public interest, so that we have embodied in this report only 
that which may interest our readers. The vote of thanks which was 
unanimously given to Gen. Wickham, the retiring President, was but 
a deserving compliment for his efficient administration of its affairs at 
the most trying period of its history. 

The resolutions offered by Maj. Gaines, of Charlotte county, and 
promptly adopted, calling for a State Convention of farmers in this 
city on the 15th of April next, should arrest the attention of every 
farmer in the State. Some such great movement in behalf of our 
agricultural interest is at this time especially important. The resolu- 
tions are so terse and expressive that it is unnecessary to attempt to 
say more than they do. Let the farmers of the State prepare for this 
convention, through their local organizations and meetings, and send 
to it, as delegates, the best and most earnest workers for the promotion 
of the agriculture of the Commonwealth. 

Proceedings of the Executive Committee op the Virginia Agricul- 
tural Society. 

The quarterly meeting of the Executive Committee of the Virginia 
State Agricultural Society was held in the Secretary's office last Wed- 
nesday at 7:30 P. M. Present, Col. Robert Beverley, president; Gen. 
W. C. AVickham, Col. R. H. Dulaney and Col. W. C. Knight, ex-pres- 
idents; Major Burr P. Noland, of Loudoun county, vice president; 
Corbin M. Reynolds, of Botetourt; Capt. R. R. Carter, Charles City; 
Hugh C. Preston, Montgomery; John 3. Ellett, R E. Blankenship 
and N. V. Randolph, of Richmond city; S. W. Corbin; Julian M. 
Ruffin, Hanover ; E. R. Cocke, Cumberland ; Maj. R. V. Gaines, of Char- 
lotte county, and Maj. W. A. Burke, of Staunton, members of the com- 
mittee. 

George W. Mayo was elected secretary and treasurer. 

The advisory boards in the various departments were appointed. 

Mr. N. V. Randolph stated that since his election and acceptance he 
had made business engagements which would necessitate his absence 
from the city during the greater part of the year, and was consequently 
obliged to resign from the committee. Mr. Randolph's resignation 
was accepted and Mr. 0. L. Cottrell, of Richmond, elected to fill the 
vacancy. 



92 SOUTHERN PLANTER. [February 

Genera] Wickham presented his financial statement for the year 1884, 
which was examined and approved, and turned over to President Bever- 
ley $4,500 in Virginia new 3 per cent, bonds, and $936.05 in money. 
The following resolution was unanimously adopted : 
Resolved, That the thauks of the Virginia State Agricultural Society 
are due and are hereby tendered to Geu. Williams C. Wickham for his 
very able and efficient management of its affairs. 

Proper action was taken on various letters and communications. 
The offer of $25 in money and $15 in any of his stock, for special pre- 
miums, made by Mr. H. A. Catlin, florist, of Richmond, was accepted 
with thanks. 

The following resolutions offered b'y Maj. Gaines were then adopted: 
Resolved, That a convention of farmers and others identified with 
the industrial interest of the State be held in Richmond, April 15th, 
1885; said convention to be composed of two delegates from each mag- 
isterial district in the State and each ward in the cities and towns, under 
the auspices of the State Agricultural Society : — 

1. To effect thorough organization and to promote co-operation in 
all measures looking to the advancement of our agricultural and in- 
dustrial interests. 

2. To expand and give greater efficiency to the department of agri- 
culture by making more liberal provisions for its support and enlarg- 
ing its field of operations. 

3. To consider and discuss questions, affecting immigration, fertili- 
zers, &c, and to formulate public opinion to the end that the agricultural 
and industrial interests of the State may be promoted. 

4. That a committee of three (members of the Executive Committee) 
be appointed by the chair to prepare and publish an address to the 
people of the State on this subject, and that the President be ex-ojficio 
a member of the committee. 

5. That the Secretary of the State Agricultural Society be instructed 
to obtain from the transportation companies and hotels reduced fares for 
the members of the convention and a suitable hall for holding its ses- 
sion. 

Resolved, That the President designate one citizen in each county 
and city of the Commonwealth, who shall be commissioned to act as 
auxiliary to the Executive Committee in securing representation and 
furthering the objects of the convention, and who shall be a delegate 
at large to the convention. 

The President appointed Major R. V. Gaines, Gen. Wickham and 
Col. A. S. Buford a committee to prepare and publish the address to 
the people of Virginia, provided for in the first resolution. 

The Committee then adjourned to meet in ^Richmond on Tuesday, 
April 14, 1885. 



Now Blaknet the horse when he has to stand out in the cold after 
driving. If the day is very cold and the horse is much over heated use 
two blankets. 



1885.] 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



93 



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EDITORIAL NOTES 



PLANT-BEDS FOR TOBACCO. 

Now is the time for farmers who grow 
tobacco to consider the question of a sup- 
ply of plants. A sufficiency of plants lies 
at the foundation of the crop. In this 
matter farmers, and the tobacco-growers of 
Virginia especially, are, as in other farm- 
ing methods, disposed to adhere to old 
habits. Why should this be so, when by 
a little reading and reffection new and bet- 
ter paths can be followed? The old plan 
of burning large surfaces of the virgin soil 
of the forest is now, with the best planters, 
•deemed unnecessary and expensive, in 
time and labor, to say nothing of the large 
amount of firewood consumed. It is pro- 
bable that the average planter devotes in 
this way ten times as much space to secure 
his plants as would be necessary under a 
different method. The idea prevails that 
large surfaces must be given to plant-beds 
to make up the loss by flies and unfavora- 
ble conditions of weather, whilst the main 
fact is overlooked that acres of surface may 



be unproductive from these causes. Is it 
not, then, a wiser plan to limit surface and 
labor to the actual requirements of a pro- 
posed crop, and have this surface so pre- 
pared and guarded as to be independent of 
both flies and weather? The covering of 
the beds with canvass suited to the purpose, 
and irrigation or proper watering will do 
this. In other words, adopt the cold-frame 
or hot-bed system, by which millions of 
cabbage and other garden-plants are raised. 
As to the efficiency of canvass for the pro- 
tection of the beds from flies, Major Rag- 
land and other leading planters have testi- 
fied, and have written in detail in the 
Planter and other agricultural journals. 
We have seen, in a recent issue of the Ru- 
ral Messenger, an article on the same sub- 
ject from the pen of our esteemed friend, 
Dr. Blanton, late Agricultural Commis- 
sioner, in which he shows by figures the 
number of plants which may be grown on 
a given surface, and be fully protected 
from flies by the use of canvass, and at the 
same time nurtured into active growth. 

In our present issue will be seen an arti- 
cle on " Pennsylvania Farming," in which, 
speaking of tobacco culture in Lancaster 
county, it is stated that the farmers never 
think of going into the forest to burn beds, 
but locate them on the side of the open 
ground on which the crop is to be grown, 
and manage them as a cold-frame under a 
cover of canvass. 

We have another thought to suggest, for 
experiment, in reference to such beds. Try 
the forcing principle when you are in doubt 
about your other methods. Dig six inches 
into the ground and throw the earth thus 
removed around the edges; fill with stable 
manure; cover with wood-mold six inches 
deep; rake fine, sow the seed, and tramp 
them firmly in ; have the sides protected by 
planks a foot in width; cover with thin 
canvass which has been saturated with lin- 
seed oil, and let the canvass be so arranged 
that it can be conveniently turned back to 
give water when needed. Such a bed 
should not be prepared before the 1st of 
April, as plants thus forced will be ready 
for the hills by the 1st of June, which is 



94 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



early enough for setting in the tobacco belt 
of Virginia; and other States should be 
governed by latitude in their time of plant- 
ing. 

In either case of the cold or forcing 
frame, the bed should be in the form of a 
parallelogram, not more than eight feet 
wide, and long enough to afford the surface 
required. This will facilitate the use of 
canvass which will not sag, as it would do 
on a broad bed, and also make it more 
convenient to hand-weed, if necessary, and 
water and draw plants without walking on 
and bruising them. 

Subscriptions. — A number of subscrib- 
ers will accept thanks for their remittances 
on bills sent out in our December and Jan- 
uary issues. There is a much larger num- 
ber who have not responded to pur bills, 
and to them we expect to extend thanks 
hereafter. Pay the printer if you expect 
to have a prompt and useful paper. 

The New Orleans Exposition is now in 
full blast. Go to it if you can. 



10. C. B. McDonald & Co., High Grade 
Stock. 



In our last issue there failed to appear 
any notice of new advertisments. Full 
notices were written, but by some means 
the MS. was mislaid. All we can do now 
is to give a list of them, and ask our read- 
ers to look back to our advertising columns. 

1. J. H. Gregory, Seedsman, Marlboro, 
Mass. 

2. Church & Co., Arm and Hammer 
brand of Soda. 

3. R. L. Ragland, Tobacco Seed. 

4. Hiram Silby & Co., Seeds. 

5. Geo. Payne & Co., Sewing Machines. 

6. T. S. Avery, German Doll-Heads, &c. 

7. J. T. Gatewood, this city, Family 
Groceries. 

8. W. H. Smith, Seeds. 

9. Peter Henderson & Co., Seeds and 
Flowers. 



Come to the Farmers' Convention on the 
15th April. As to^it, see proceedings of 
the Executive Committee of the State Ag- 
ricultural Society, in this issue. 



Women's Work. — We have a number of 
essays still unpublished on the subject of 
" Self-Supporting Employment for Women 
of the South," called forth by the premium 
offered by Mr. J. M. Blair, of this city. 
In our next issue we will publish that 
signed Poor Richard, coming from South 
Carolina, which is among the best of the 
entire collection. If space allows we will 
publish others, as it is a subject of great 
interest and importance. 



A Good Cor n-S heller for Many 
Farmers. — We have accepted several of 
these shellers in payment of an advertise- 
ment. They are peculiarly adapted to 
small farmers, or to the easy shelling of 
mill-turns on any farm. The factory price 
is $5, but we will sell to subscribers for 
twenty-five per cent, off, or will furnish the 
sheller and the Planter for a year at $5. 
It will make no difference whether any 
subscriber orders or not, as we can easily 
dispose of the few at our command, but we 
prefer to encourage the introduction of 
cheap labor-saving implements, especially 
with our own readers, who can blame us if 
we recommend a bad thing. 



MAGAZINES. 

The Harper Publications, and those of 
the Century Publishing Co., for February 
are received, and are as rich and attractive 
as ever. We have also Godey's Lady's 
Book for February. If any are wanted at 
our clubbing rates, twenty per centum be- 
low subscription rates, send address and 
money for one year of Planter and either 
one of these publications. 

We have also The North American Re- 
view and Popular Science Monthly for this 
month, filled with matter adapted to the 
tastes of educated people, which we can 
also send with the Planter at the same rate 
of discount from onejndividual subscrip- 
tion. 



1885.] 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



95 



REPORTS, &c. 

Annual Report of the Department of 
Revenue Settlement and Agriculture for 
1882-83, Madras, India. This is a large 
publication, and valuable, as showing in 
contrast crops of this and the far-off east- 
ern countries. 

A Report on Nitrification, part 3, with 
Experiments in the Rothamsted Labora- 
tory, England, by Robt. Warrington. The 
subject is presented under various heads, 
and is interesting to educated farmers. 

Report of (U. S.) Department of Agri- 
culture on the Soils and Products of South- 
western Louisiana. This report gives in- 
formation as to soils, general crops, forests, 
climate, and other things. 

Tennessee Crop Report for November, 
1884, and Report of Weather Service. 
Commissioner McWherter will accept our 
thanks. 



CATALOGUES. 

We have received from Messrs. N. W. 
Ayer & Son, Newspaper Advertising 
Agents, Philadelphia, Pa., a beautiful Cal- 
endar. This firm ranks number-one in a 
long list of agencies, and our business with 
them has always been satisfactory. 

Catalogue of the Co- Operative Stock 
Farm of A. P. & M. B. Rowe, Fredericks- 
burg, Va. They have thirteen imported 
and registered Jersey Bulls; one hundred 
and four imported and registered cows and 
heifers. Then comes their Farley Vale 
herd, owned by M. B. Rowe and S. W. 
Corbin; the Spring Hill herd, owned by 
M. B. Rowe and John Washington ; and the 
Bowling Green herd, owned by M. B. Rowe 
and A. B. Chandler; the Auburn herd, 
owned by M. B. Rowe and T. F. Taylor; 
the St. Julien herd, owned by M. B. Rowe 
and A. M. Boulware ; the Boscobel herd, 
owned by M. B. Rowe and W. A. Little ; 
and the Highland Home herd, owned by 
M. B. Rowe and D. M. Lee. These differ- 
ent herds embrace 166 animals of the Jer- 
sey breed. 

Poultry Keeper Series. — Incubators 
and Breeders, by P. H. Jacobs, editor of 



the Poultry Keeper and Farm, Field and 
Fireside, Chicago, 111. This is a good 
pamphlet for all who wish to learn of the 
artificial hatching and brooding of chickens. 

T. W. Wood, 1518 Main street, this city, 
sends us his Catalogue of farm, garden and 
flower seeds for 1885. Mr. Wood is an in- 
telligent dealer who can be relied on. The 
most of his seeds and plants are of his own 
production, near the city. Send for his 
Catalogue, which will be mailed free. 

Henry W. Wood, son of T. W. Wood, 
doing business at the corner of Sixth and 
Marshall streets, also sends us his Cata- 
logue of field, garden and flower seeds, for 
1885. It is free on application, and is sug- 
gestive and instructive on matters touching 
the garden and farm. 



NEW ADVERTISEMENTS. 

J. T. Lovett, Little Silver, N. J., through 
N. W. Ayer & Son, Philadelphia, Guide to 
Fruit, Culture. 

Gibbons & Co. (formerly Alex. Peoples), 
West Chester, Pa. We have advertized 
this firm for a number of years, and their 
transactions have been prompt and satisfac- 
tory. See their ad. as to hogs and dogs. 

Silas Wilson, Atlantic, Iowa, Grape- 
vines, &c, through Alden & Co., Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. 

Co-Operative Dairy Company, Boston, 
Mass. 

A. M. Lang, Poor Dale, Ky., Book on 
Poultry, through Alden & Co. 

T. W. Wood, Seedsman, this city, who 
is worthy of confidence. 

Associated Farmers' Poultry Book, 
through Ayer & Son, Philadelphia. 

J. B. Gray, Fredericksburg, Va., Live 
Stock of various kinds. No one who deals 
with Mr. Gray will have cause to complain. 

Frank Ford & Sons, Ohio, Early To- 
matoes, through Ayer & Son, Philadelphia. 

W. F. Jackson, Jetersville, Amelia Co., 
Va., has for sale Berkshire and Jersey Bed 
Pigs. 



96 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[February 



Forrest & Co., Brooklyn, N. Y., through 
Alden & Bro., Electric Belt. 

J. C. Everett, Lima, Ind., Seeds, Fruit 
Trees, Vines, &c 

The Southern Fertilizing Company re- 
new their advertisement with a seasona- 
ble change. See it. Among other things, 
they have something appropriate to Vine- 
yards, which need nourishing at this time 
of the year. 

Mason Gibbs, Homer, Mich., advertises, 
through Messrs. Lord & Thomas, Chicago, 
a novel implement, called "The Wheel- 
Barrow Seeder." 

The Shaker Sekd Company, Lebanon, 
N. Y.. through Ayer & Son, Philadelphia, 
advertise their Field and Garden Seeds. 

Henry W. Wood, this city, advertises 
bis Field and Garden Seeds. Mr. Wood 
and his father, T. W. Wood, are well 
known here as reliable seedsmen, and our 
farmers should give them a liberal patron- 
age. 

Simpson & Gault, Cincinnati, Ohio, ad- 
vertise, through Messrs. Parvin & Sons, 
"The Queen of the South" portable Farm 
Mills. 

David B. Prosser, this city, manufac- 
turer of Saddles and all kinds of Harness, 
has been ten years in the business. His 
work is all done by hand, and with the best 
materials. Farmers cannot patronize a 
better man. Call on him, or write, and 
say that jou have been recommended to do 
so by the Planter. 

The Farm, Field and Stockman, an ag- 
ricultural and live-stock journal, published 
in Chicago, 111-, advertises a long list of 
prizes in connection with its subscriptions. 

B. S. Williams & Co., Kalamazoo, Mich., 
renew their advertisement of their Wind 
Engines, which attracted so much attention 
at our last State Fair. Any farmer who 
wants a wind-mill to keep in flow a supply 
of water for his stock-yard should corre- 
spond with this firm. 

We call attention to the ad. of B. H. 
Bragg, of Bremo Bluff, Fluvanna Co., Va., 
who advertises Prolific Seed Corn. 



Last, but not least, Ashton Starke, this 
city, advertises his large stock of Agricul- 
tural Implements and Machines, which he 
is offering at very low prices. See or cor- 
respond with him as to whatever you may 
want. 



John Saul's Catalogues of everything 
pertaining to the Plant, Seed and Nursery 
business. Catalogue of new, rare and 
beautiful Plants, issued in January, with a 
colored plate free to customers ; to others 
10 cents, or plain copy free. 

Catalogue of Roses. 
All the novelties, as well as standard 
sorts, well-grown Pot Plants. 
Catalogue of Seeds. 
Every novelty of value, among Flowers 
and Vegetables. 

Catalogue of Fruits. 
All the standard Fruits — pears, apples, 
peaches, small fruits, &c. 

Catalogue of Orchids. 
Cool, intermediate and tropical Orchids. 
John Saul, Washington, D. C. 

Co-operative Stock Farm. 
Herd-Registered Jersey Cattle 

OF BEST STRAINS 

A. SPECIALTY. 

Largest herd in Virginia, and first premium at 
Virginia State Fairs. Kept on four (arms. 

Cotswold, Shropshire, and Southdown Sheep ; 
Berkshire and Jersey Red Swine, and all the leading 
varieties of land and water fowls. Address 

A. P. or M. B. ROWII, 
CO-OPERATIVE STOCK FARM, 
jan It Fredericksburg, Ta. 

FOR SALE! 

Six or Bight Thoroughbred Devon 
Bull Cow Calves 

From best families. 

DILLARD & GRAVES, 
de ly Thornhill, Orange Co., Va. 

C. LUMSDEN & SON, 

823 Main Street, Richmond, Va. 

Fine Watches, Jewelry, 

Clocks, Spectacles, Wedding Rings, &c. 
[ap ly] 



A Safeguard. 

The fatal rapidity with which slight 
Colds and Coughs frequently develop 
into the gravest maladies of the throat 
and lungs, is a consideration w T hich should 
impel every prudent person to keep at 
hand, as a "household remedy, a bottle of 
AYER'S CHEERY PECTORAL. 

Nothing else gives such immediate relief 
and works so sure a cure in all affections 
of this class. That eminent physician. 
Prof. F. Sweetzer, of the Maine Medical 
School, Brunswick, Me., says : — 

"Medical science has produced no other ano- 
dyne expectorant so good as Ayer's Cherry 
Pectoral. It is invaluable for diseases of the 
throat and lungs." 

The same opinion is expressed by the 
well-known Dr. L. J. Addison, of Chicago, 
111., who says : — 

"I have never found, in thirty-five years of 
continuous study and practice of medicine, any 
preparation of so great valueas Ayer's Cherry 
Pectoral, for treatment of diseases of the 
throat and lungs. It not only breaks up colds 
and cures severe coughs, but is more effective 
than anything else in relieving even the most 
serious bronchial and pulmonary affections." 

AYER'S 

Cherry Pectoral 

Is not a new claimant for popular confi- 
dence, but a medicine Which is to-day 
saving the lives of the third generation 
who have come into being since it was 
first offered to the public. 

There is not a household in which this 
invaluable remedy has once been in- 
troduced, where its use has ever been 
abandoned, and there is not a person 
who has ever given it a proper trial 
for any throat or lung disease suscep- 
tible of cure, who has not been made 
well by it. 

AYER'S CHERRY PECTORAL has, 
in numberless instances, cured obstinate 
cases of chronic Bronchitis, Larnygitis, 
and even acute Pneumonia, and has 
saved many patients in the earlier stages 
of Pulmonary Consumption. It is a 
medicine that only requires .to be taken in 
small doses, is pleasant to the taste, and is 
needf-d in every house where there are 
children, ns Ihere is nothing so good as 
AYER'S CHERRY PECTORAL for treat- 
ment of Croup and Whooping Cough. 

These are all plain facts, which can be 
•verified by anybody, and should be re- 
membered by everybody. 

Ayer's Cherry Pectoral 

PREPARED BY 

Dr. 3. C. Ayer & Co., Lowell, Maes 
Sold bv all druargists. 



DYSPEPSIA. 

Sedentary habits, mental worry, nervous 
excitement, excess or imprudence in eat- 
ing or drinking, and various other causes, 
induce Constipation followed by general 
derangement of the liver, kidneys, and 
stomach, in which the disorder of each 
organ increases the infirmity of the others. 

The immediate results are Loss of Appe- 
tite, Nausea, Foul Breath, Heartburn, Flat- 
ulence, Dizziness, Sick Headaches, failure 
of physical and mental vigor, distressing 
sense of weight andfulluess in the stomach, 
and increased Costiveuess, all of which are 
known under one head as Dyspepsia. 

In every instance where this disease does 
not originate from scrofulous taint in the 
blood, Ayer's Pills may be confidently 
relied upon to'effect a cure. Those cases 
not amenable to the curative influence of 
Ayer's Pills alone will certainly vield if 
the Pills are aided by the powerful blood- 
purifving properties of Ayer's Sarsapa- 

RILLA. 

Dyspeptics should know i hat the longer 
treatmeut of their malady is postponed^ 
.the more difficult of cure it becomes. 

Ayer's Pills 

Never fail to relieve the bowels and pro- 
mote their healthful and regular action, 
and thus cure Dyspepsia. Temporary 
palliatives all do permanent harm. The 
fitful activity into which the enfeebled 
stomach is spurred by "bitters," and alco- 
holic stimulants, is inevitably followed! 
by 'reaction that leaves the organ weaker) 
than before. 

"Costiveness, induced by my sedentary 
habits of life, became chronic; Ayer's Pills 
: Torded me speedy relief. Tbeir occasion I ii • 
lias since kept me all right." Hermann Buns- 

off, Newark, N. J. 

"1 was induced to try Ayer's Pills as a 

■rncdy for Indigestion, Constipation, ujid 
. /csulache, from which I had long been a cuf- 
I' r r. I found their action easy, and obtained 

",npt relief. They have benefited me more 
: h ■> i all the medicines evft before tried." M.V. 
Watson, 162 State St., Chicago, III. 

"Tbey have entirely corrected the costive 
1 'ibit, and vastly improved my general health." 
liEv. Francis B. Harlowe, Atlanta, Oft. 

"The most effective and the easiest physic I 
bave ever found. One dose will quickly move 
my bowels and free my head from pain." W. L. 
Page, Richmond, Va. 

"A sufferer from Liver Complaint, Dys- 
pepsia, and Neuralgia for the last twenty 
years, Ayer's Pills have benefited me more 
than any medicine I have ever taken." P. R. 
Rogers, Needmore , Brown Co., Ind. 

"For Dyspepsia they are invaluable." J. T. 
Hayes, Mexia, Texas. 

AYER'S PILLS, 

PREPARED by 

Dr. J. C. Ayer & Co., Lowell, Mass. 
Sold by all Druggists 



JOSEPH M. BLAIR 



-IMPORTER AND DEALER IN 



FANCY 



GROCERIES 




FINE TEAS AND WINES 



803 Main Street (Pace Block), 



RICHMOND, VTEGINrA. 
SAMPLES AND PRICES; FURNISHED UPON APPLICATION. 




S3"o Sutoscritoer "^^7"iiX Receive Ijess | 
Tlaan S3 Oexxts isa. OsfcsHa.. 



The followine list of Prizes will be awarded to the persons who subscribe for our paper between this date 
and the 30th day of March: 

T?/\T> rf~t"\TT? FIlAT T ATI? We will enter your name on our subscription books, and 
rUll \Jiyili U\J &-JLjJ$.1\ mail you regularly twice a month for One Year the 
Farm, Field and Stockman (24 pages ),and send you immediately by sealed mail three numbered re- 
ceipts good for three of the following presents : 

The List of Presents to Be Olven @ur Subscribers; 

100 Solid Silver Table Spoons $ 250 

100 Solid Silver Desert Spoons 200 

100 Sets Silver Forks (6 to the set) 1000 

100 Sets Silver Plated Dinner Knives (6 to set) 250 

100 Silver Sugar Shells 50 

50 Silver Ice Pitchers 500 

1000 Photograph Albums. $2 each 2000 

1000 Pocket Silver Fruit Knives 1000 

1000 Gentlemen"s Pocket Knives 1000 

20 Gentlemen's Gold Watches 1600 

20 Ladies' Gold Watches 1200 

20 Boys' Watches 200 

3 Solitaire Diamond Finger Eings 400 

2500 Souvenir Art Portfolios 1200 

500 Ladies' Gold Lockets 500 

500 Gold Finger Rings 500 

400 Ladies' Breast Pins 400 

200 Gent's Scarf Pins and Watch Chains 200 

2000 Fine Mounted Gold Toothpicks 2000 

500 Beautiful Nickel CloclA 3000 

2500 Gold Toothpicks 1000 

2000 Gold Pencils 500 

104 Telescopes 520 



10 TJ S Government Bonds of S500 each $5000 

20 TJ S Greenbacks of $ 100 each 2000 

1 T7 S Government Bond 1000 

20 TJ S Greenbacks of §50 each 1000 

50 US Greenbacks of §20 each 1000 

100 TJ S Greenbacks of §10each 1000 

100 TJ S Greenbacks of #5 each 500 

5 Grand Parlor Organs ,. 1000 

3 GrandPianos 900 

1 Twenty-Foot Sloop Sail-Boat 300 

1 Bob Roy Fifteen-Foot Canoe 100 

1 Four-Oared Row-boat 100 

1 Columbia Bicycle. 100 

2 Phartons 500 

5 Top Buggies 1000 

5 Elegant Black Silk Dress Patterns 200 

2 Tillage Carts 200 

5 Best Singer Sewing Machines 250 

2 Raw Silk Parlor Suits 400 

2 Plush Silk Parlor Suits 600 

5 Silver Dinner Services 500 

1 Black Walnut Marble Top Chamber Suit- .. 100 

100 Sets Solid Silver Teaspoons— 6 to the set. . . 600 



' Every subscriber who does not get one of the above valuable prizes will receive a present of Twenty- 
Five Cents in cash. Remember everyone who subscribes for one year will receive our twenty-four page 
elegant illustrated paper for one year and Three Receipts good, for three of the above presents 
ranging from 25 cents in cash to One Thousand Dollars in Cash. Our paper has now a bona-fide cir- 
culation of 150,000 subscribers. Has been established eight years. All of the above presents will be awarded 
March 30th, in a fair and impartial manner. A full list of the award will be furnished subscribers free. Per- 
sons living at a distance will have presents sent them by mail, express or freight, as may be required by the 
artic le aw arded. Po sitively no postponement. 

Tmu OJN-tiJ X> C> T i T i.A.3Et. which you send us is the regular subscription price for a yearly 
subscription, and therefore we charge nothing for the presents. Do not let this opportunity go by. We believe 
you will like our paper so well that you will remain a regular subscriber, and say with others that you would 
not be without it for five times the cost. YOUR SUBSCKI PTION FREE. Get five of your friends to 
join you by cutting this out and showing it to them. Send us S5 and we will send you the paper for one year, 
and three numbered receipts for each of your subscribers and two extra tor your trouble. 

SEND TEN SUBSCRIBERS with §10 and we will send 12 papers one year and 36 
numbered receipts good for thirty-six presents, and in addition we will send you at once a 
solid hunting cased gold Aluminum Watch free. This watch is a fine time keeper and cannot be 
told from a genuine gold watch. You can trade this watch for from twenty to fifty dollars. You can have 
the papers sent to you friends and we will make the receipts all out in your name. We could not make this 
watch offer did we not control the entire product of the factory. 

FARM FIFI 11 AMD ^THPIfMAN Is one °* tne ° ,(Jest UT ' d ablest edited Family and Agricultural papers. 
rfin!»i< rlLLU Hill* OlUUIVlimll It contains twenty -four large pages. The paper is magazine form, 
bound, stitched and cut. Its circulation is now 150,000. SAMPLE COPY SENT FREE. Stories, 
Sketches, Poetry, Farm, Garden, Household and Agricultural Departments by the best 
Contributors of the day. In short, it contains that which will interest, instruct and amuse the whole 
family. Our reputation is fully established and the people are satisfied that we have capital enough to carry 
ont and fulfill anv offer we may make. Can it be possible that vou will let such an opportunity go by? 
<Tk~\TT? TIT^T TAT? secures the FARM FIELD AMD STOCKMAN for one year, and 
VFXi Hi MJ \_f lJ AJxs.JLfc three numbered receipts which will entitle yon to three of the presents in 
the award. The paper is worth double the subscription price. As to our reliability we refer to any Bank or 
Express Company in Chicago and the Commercial Agencies. We are now known the world over. Money in 
sums of .gl may be sent in ordinary letter at our risk ; larger sums should be sent by Registered Letter, P. O. 
Money Order or Express. 

REMEMBER these are Presents to our Subscribers given to them absolutely Free. Cut 
this out and show to friends, acquaintances and neighbors, as it will not appear again. 
This is a great opportunity and you should take advantage of this extraordinary oiler. 
Address FARM, FIELD AND STOCKMAN, 89 Randolph St., Chicago, Hi., U.S. A. 



SALT 



HIGGIN'S EUREKA ENGLISH HIGH GRADE 

DAIRY AJNT3 TABLE 

Has no equal for Purity, Strength, Flavor, Uniform Grain of Crystal, Keeping Qual- 
ity, Perfect Dryness and Cheapness. Butter and Cheese salted with it carried the High- 
-est Premiums over everything else, wherever put in competition. The Queen of Eng- 
land uses it. Hotels and Families should use no other. Salt is the cheapest article in 
the household. Why not use the best? 



■FOR SA.LE B~X"- 



CMT1! & WHITE, 



Importers anil Dealers in Fancy Groceries, 



RICHMOND, VA. 



[dec ly] 




Received M& 

ANB 

EiGEST AWAED 



STEAM FiNGINSS, 

O.MQjJIlAKJork.Pa. 
Cheape^tand best for a.l 
poses — simple,j;trong, ;.£■■ 
rable. Also Horse Pow 
era and Gin Gear. 

Saw, Grist and Cob 
Mills, Gins, Presses 
andMacbkbet goner- 
ally. Inquiriespromptly 
answer : d. 



OF HIRJ? 

AT t 

CENTENNIAL. 

Sand for OatoXogfm. 

SAWMILLS 





VertioalEngmes.with oiwitliout a \ 
wheels, very conveni- 
ent, economical and 
completo in every 
tr.il, best and 



1 ''cheapest Vert- 
ical in the 
, iT''^nf^ world. Fig. 

-,,.■■ Sijffll is engine 
'--':< Mnuse> Fig. . 

■4:^V/M)preadyfor 
"^groad. 




Fig, 



Send ar 



The Farquhar Separator 

(>Turr mned) 




AWABIKi > 
SEPARATORS. 



TUB 

SILVEB HEDAT 

Paris Exposition. 



Idfo- 



Tloatrated r^'alorne. JdrfreaaA.It. FarquTmr, TorKP*" 
JV It 




Dana's White Metallic Ear Marking Label, stamped 
to order with name, or name and address and num- 
bers. It is reliable, cheap and convenient. Sells at 
sight and gives perfect satisfaction. Illustrated 
Price-List and samples free. Agents wanted. 

C. H. DANA, West Lebanon, N. H. 
Orderthrough tbp Southern Planter. 
jetf 



Are unequalled in EXACTING SER VICE. 
_ Used by the Chief 
t^OO Mechanician of the 
- U. S. Coast Survey ; 
by the Admiral 
commanding in the 
V. S. Naval Observ- 
atory, for Astro- 
nomical work ; and 
by Locomotive 
Engineers, C on- 
ductors and Rail- 
way men. They are 
v e c o jr n i z e d as 
for all u<f» in which close 
time and durability are re- 
quisites. Sold in principal 
cities and towns by the COM- 
PANY'S exclusive Asrents 
(leading jewelers, i who give a Full Warranty. 

jyiy 




THE BEST 



Sefaloll 





Is the only general purple Wire Fence in use, being b> 
Strong Net- Work Without Barbs. It will turn dogs, pigs, 
eneep, and poultry, as well as the most vicious Btock, 
■without injury to either fenoe or stock. It is juet the fence 
for farms, gardens, stock ranges and railroads, and very 
neat for lawns, parks, school lots and cemeteries. Covered 
with rusi*proof paint for galvanized) it will laBt a life-time. 
It is Superior to Boards or Barbed Wire in every respect. 
We ask for it a fair trial, knowing it will wear itself 
into favor. The Setfsrwicfc <fi*ate», made of wrought* 
iron pipe and steel wire, defy ailcompetUion'in neatness. 
strength and durabilitv. We also make the best and 
cheapest All Iron Automatic or Self- Opening Gate, also 
Cheapest and Nea-test All Iron Fence. Beat Wlro 
Stretchier and I*o»t Anper. Also manufac* 
ture Russell's excellent Wind £ngisiea for 
pumping water, or geared engines for grinding. 
and other light work. For prices and particulars ask 
■Ttidwnrp dealers, or address, mentioning paper. 
«EOOWICfi BSCj?), Mrrs..Biehmond Ind* 

je ly 

THE BEST CATTLE FASTENING. 

Smith's Self-AjjnstiBg Swing StancMoL 

The only practical Swing Stanchion in- 
vented. Thousands in use. Illustrated 
circular free. Manufactured by BROOKS 
& PARSONS, Addison, Steuben Co., N. 
Y. Akhton Starke, Richmond, Va. , Ag't. 

myly 




=EUREKA!= 

Is the Standard Incubator the world over. 
Made by J. L. CAMPBELL, West Eliza- 
beth, Allegheny Co., Perm. aul 

Dr. GEORGE B. STEEL, 



723 Main Street, Richmond. Va. 
Chas. L. Steel, M. D., D. D. S., Assistant. 
oct ly 






PIANOFORTES. 

U.NEOTALLBD IN 

TonejTouclij-Worlaaanstiip and Duraijiiity. 

WIULIASI KNABE & CO. 

Nos. 204 and 206 West Baltimore Street, 
Baltimore. No. 112 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. 
de 3m 

VIRGINIA VILLA. 

This most desirable residence is now for 
sale. It is situated one mile from Peters- 
burg, on the Richmond Turnpike, and 
combines all the advantages of city and 
country life. The place contains twelve 
acres, more or less, and can be made profi- 
table as a vegetable farm. Improvements 
consist of a handsome frame dwelling with 
six rooms, hall above and below stairs, 
porch in front, verandah in rear of the 
house, and is situated in a shady lawn of 
original oaks. The outhouses are a frame 
kitchen with two rooms, smoke-house, 
milk dairy, stable and carriage-house. 
There is a large orchard of select apples ; 
also peach, pear, plum, cherry, damson 
and quince trees,' with gooseberries and 
raspberries. This property will be sold 
for cash, and offers an opportunity to a 
person to secure a delightful home. Those 
wishing to buy will call at the residence, or 
address Mrs. H. V., Petersburg, Va. 

dec3t 

IFOIEt SALE I 

THOROUGHBRED HORSES 

AND SHORTHORN CATTLE. 
PURE COTSWOLD SHEEP 

And BERKSHIRE PIGS. 
Address, R. J. HANCOCK, 

oc 12t Overtoil. Albemarle Co., Va. 




BRADLEY SUTTER BOXES 

Tiie swp.-i.si. cheapest ami miMt attractive 
small btutgr pnckiige evrr offered. Butter hells 
quicker tuid hringx bettei prices for family trade 
triaii in anvo"..T iKieka^e. Send for descriptive 
priee list. (.HAS. K WILLAKD &. CO., 280 

1 ■ . ' . IO. 

dec 4t 



SAW MILL GAUGE 




Address, TAYLOR MFG. CO. 

ifuasc Mention this Paper.) Chambersburg, Pa, 

m y ly — alt 

rURCELL HOUSE, NorMJa. 

Conveniently located and all modern improve- 
ments. PHILIP F. BROWN & BRO., Prap'rs. 

Blue Ridge Springs, 7a., 

BOTETOTJRT CO., VA. 

The celebrated Dyspepsia Water and charming 
summer resort, 
je tl PHIL. F. BROWN. 

A FRAGRANT BREATH. 



MEADI! & BAKER'S 

Carbolic Moitlt Wash 

An essential requisite for the Toilet. Heals all 
diseases of the Gums. Disinfects decayed Teeth. 
An excellent gargle for Sore Throat. A delicious 
and fragraDt Mouth Wash. Purifies the breath. 
Prepared only by 

T ROBERTS BAKER, Pharmacist, 

919 east Main street, Richmond, Va. 
FOR SALE BY ALL DRUGGISTS. 
Price, 50 cents a bottle. 

Caution. — Beware of worthless imitations of style 
of wrapper, bottle and label. Ask for Meade & Ba- 
ker's, and take no other. nol2t 



VIRGINIA HOG CHOLERA CURE^ 

, IS THE:ONUY .ABSOLUTE CUREW.OR ' 
H06 CHOLERA.ITCOMPLETEtTjERADICATE&k 
THE DISEASE AND- FATTENS HOGS. 1 
IT CURES CHICK-EN'-eWOtERA. 

f*r p\-_' ij 'AGENTS WANTED ;J^; l .*i D lNE ST ' 
; ^ERIJ.COUNTr IN THE SOOT,H ANP *» 
..;." i*,.lTsEND FOR PARTICULARS^ .n n , 

S k BirrLER,WiNST0N&CO.BOX6'rB.i 



Wi NORFOLKiVA. 



%-mm 



je ly 



A FRESH^ p REL^iB€E- 



THIRTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE In the busl- 
»(■■« enable* me to offer the BEST STRAINS of 

VEGETABLE, FLOWER, AND FIELD SEEDS. 

For PURITY, Vitality, and Superior Quality, 

they cannot be excelled, especially for those who 
appreciate a choice ytock of seeds. A trial is re- 
quested and they will recommend themselves. 
smith's Seed Catalogue, .with select lists of 
Vegetable, Flower and Field Heeds, and Bulbs, also 
Implements and Garden Requisites^ mailed to all 
applicants free. WiM. H. SMITH, Seedsman, 
(Late of the Firm of Henry A. Drwr) DhiliH '-» 
«ari018 MARKET STREET. rlllidU di 
Jan 3t 



SWOB 








Opens Tuesday, December 16, l»8-4. 



In the presence of the Presidents of the Amer- 
ican Republics, viz: Arthur, of the United 
States: Diaz of Mexico ; Barrios, of Guatemala; 
Bograa, of Honduras. 

The Colossal Exhibit 
of all Time! 



Sixteen (16) Immense Exhibi- 
tion Buildings : 

One — the largest building: ever erected, another 
— the largest Conservatory in the World. 



90 Acres of Spat 



low Transportation Kates from all 

.Poindi. Ample Accnmuiotlations at 

Reasonable Kates tor ail Visitors. 

During the period of the Exposition, from 
December 16, 1SS4, toj nne 1, 16S5 thetempera 
ture at New Orleans averages 65 Fahr. The 
lawn and shrubbery remain green, flowers 
nlofin, fruits ripen, and all kinds of veg< tables 
grow and mature. 

Full information promptly furnished. ■'<■ ■ 
otness, ' 

SJ. A. BURKE, Dircfioi'tlciici-..., 
New ©rleans, lL,a. 

an 2t 



The oldest Agricultural Journal in Maryland, 
and for ten years the only one. 




an 3t 



OPIUM 



I SKY II rt BITS cure* 
at hoine without pain. Boob 



andW 



ap ly 



of particulars sent Free. 

is. M. VVOOLLEY. M. U., Atlanta, G». 



J. T. GATEWOOD, 

DEALER IN 

Fine Groceries 

LIQUORS AND FEED. 

116 E. Broad Street, Richmond, Va. 

Famiiies having a surplus of anything produced 
in the Dairy, Barnyard or Garden, will do well to 
advise with me. Correspondence solicited, ja ly 



SIBLEY'S 




•TESTED* 




S 



KW SEN" for our ILLUSTRATED and DE. 
SCRIPT1VK CATALOGUE of C E? E? BtC 
Vegetable, Flower, and Field ObCUO 
OB A BWI "HP tt BULBS, FLORISTS' SUP- 
rtflll B W PLIES and IMPLEMENTS 
of ALL KINDS, malted FREE on application. 

HIRAM SIBLEY& CO. 

ROCHESTER, N. Y. CHICAGO, ILL. 

• 822.826 E. Main St. 20O-20G Rnndolph St. 

jan 3t 



The Largest 
Stock of 



Select varieties in the World, suited to every 
type to choose from. PfiniuREK Sir KDS, 
from 10 to 50 years, under improvement, and new 
kinds of Unsurpassed Excellence. Qual- 
ity Guaranteed, and Prices Lower than ever. 
Price 1.1st FKEP. 
ja 3t K. L. RAOLAWDi My co, Va. 




Address 
Great Western 
Gun Works, Pittsburgh, Pa, ,- 



sep 5t 



|11®W 



IN order to BOcure new cUBtomers._we wui BenO luu ""„ ~"2 
bossed pictures. 4 German DoUs' Heads, MOM"" 
liirtbday Card, 8 Imported Chromos,16 *2 lH gd£££L 
nnd Reward Cards, 1 Album of 60 Cotured Transfer Pictures, 
100 Selections for Autograph AlburflB, 10 Odd Games, b new 
Style Red Napkins, 1 Pack Pu^leCardsl Pocket Book. 
All the above goods for 36 eta.. Address, F.S. AVfeKT, 

11H Soutli 4tn Street, WiUiamsburg, ni. V. 

jan It 




otnger Mai-i,i.„.s....ijjj 

Including an SS.OOsetof 
extra attachments of 9 
pieces and needles, oil and 



15 



usual outilfc of 12 pieces with each. 
Guaranteed perfect. War- 
ranted 5 vears. . Handsome, 
durable, quiet and light running. 
Don't pay S30 to $50 for machines no 
better. Wevfll Isend oors nnywhereOD 

trial before paving. Circulars free. 

Save SI 5 to $35 by addressing 
CO,, it Third Ave. , Chicago, Ills. 



AlaLISOM *£ ADDISON. 



MANUFACTURERS OF 




"STAR BRAND" SPECIAL COMPLETE MANURES 

FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING CROPS : 

TOBACCO, WHEAT, COTTOS, CORN, OATS, VEGETABLES AND GRASS. 

Pure Flour of Raw Bone, Acid Phosphate, Ground Phosphate Rock, Sulphuric Acid. 

— DEALERS IN — 

German Kainit or Potash, Nitrate of Soda, Plaster, &c. 



OFFICE— 1322 Cary -Street. \ 

FACTORY— Opposite Koeketts, J 



RICHMOND, VA. 

All orders and communications promptly attended to. fe tf 




■8-e 



THE" 



" HOLLOW STEEL STANDARD i Ut 
HOHSETHOE 




EW 

As lately introduced, has do equal in t^e world. Its excellent work in tbe field 
ha3 distanced that of all competitors. It i.s, in some sections, doing in one 
passage, the work of four or five old-style implements, and in others super- 
ceding the cumbersome and expensive two-horse tools. The ** PLANET 
JK» HAM) SEED-BRILLS AND WHEEL HOES are the 
newest and best, lightest and strongest known. There are 7 distinct tools, 
each with special merits, no two alike or the same price ; all practical and 
labor-saving. Let do Farmer or Gardener fail to study up during the 
winter evenings our 1885 CATALOGUE, which gives reduced prices, 
careful aud exact engravings of these different machines, and such descrip- 
tions as will enable the reader to judge correctly of their merits. Thirty 
pages and forty engravings. Free to alL Correspondence solicited. 

S. L. Allen & Co., Mfrs., 127 & 129 Catharine St.,Phila„ Pa. 




[dec 4t] 



Franklin Davis. 



Edward H. Bissell. 



RICHMOND NURSERIES. 
FRAMKLIM DAVIS & CO. 

400 Acres in Nursery Stock ! 100 in Orchards ! 100 in Small Frnits ! 

We offer to our customers an immense stock of ArPLES, PEACHES, CHERRIES, 
APRICOTS, GRAPES, &c — all the standard sorts. Also, the new varieties of 
FRUITS, ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ROSES, &c, Wholesale and Retail. 
To dealers we can offer stock on favorable terms, and the best facilities for packing and 
shipping. Catalogues mailed on application. 

FRANKLIN DAVIS & CO., 

aep 6t Office : 1013 Main St., RICHMOND, VA. 



T. W. WOOD, 

Seedsman and Florist. 

1518 E. Main St., Richmond, Va- 

All kinds of Seeds and Plants. 

Agent for Lister Bros.' Standard Fertilizers. 

Catalogues mailed free on application. 

Mention the Planter. fe ly 



<^OW TOUR CLOVER AND TIMOTHY 






mm%m WHEELBARROW S5F.BER. 

Sendforcircnlnnlescriliiu^ ' t sfc improvement's. 

W ' •>",-• , ■ !<'-■„ Micfl 

fe2t 

i—— i^— iwrn—i^ — mi — — 

$5 each or $8 
per pair, a few 
pure, thoroughbred 
Berkshire Pig's, 
2 months old lot ot February. Also, pigs out of 
Jersey Red ^ow by large pure Berkshire Boar, the 
most desirable cross. Will exchange one of these or 
pure bronze gobbler for a pea-hen. Bronze Turkevs 
for sale. WILLIAM F. JACKSON," 

fe 2t Jetersville P. O., Amelia Co , Va. 




FOR SALE! 




^.UIJDE 

Faun- 'culture! 



Ir a sumptuously illustrated 
book of over TO pages. It 
tells bowto grow fruits of all 
kinds, gives honest descrip- 
tions of all worthy Small 
Fruits and others; represent- 
ing the largest stock in the 
U.S. It contains full instructions for planting, pruning 
and obtaining Fruit Trees and plants ; and a fund of in- 
formation invaluable to nil interested in fruit culture - 
especially beginners- Price, with plates 10c.; without 
plates Gc. Price lists free. We ship to all points safely. 

«/. T. LOVETT, Idttle Silver, New Jersey. 

fe2t 



DAVID B. PROSSER, 

Manufacturer and Wholesale and Retail 
Dealer in 

Saddles & Harness 

Of all Grades and Prices. 



Large Stock of Sad- 
dles, Harness, Bri- 
__^v dies, Collars, Hames, 
Horse Blankets, 
&c. 




^f^m0w Whip9 ' Spurs 

^=-!L '•■- ! Hi Rorialrirxr r 



1 



Repairing of every 
description cheaply 
and neatly done. 



No. 1328, cor. 14th and Main, Richmond, Va 
Mention the Planter. fe 3t 



TRAVELERS' REST STOCK FARM, 



J", IB, C3-K. AY, 

Breeder and Shipper of Registered 

Jersey and Shorthorn Cattle 

Pure Cotswold Sheep and Regis- 
tered; Poland-China Swine 

Of the most approved type and breed. Now book- 
ing orders for spring pigs. Choice lot of Bull and 
Heifer Calves for sale. Send for Catalogue. 
P. O. Address, Fredericksburg, Va. fe 2t 

QUEEN SOUTH 

PORTABLE 




1 10,000 in Use 

fil Write for Pamphlet. 

" Simpson & Gault 

Wl'F'C CO. 

SUCCESSORS TO 

STRAUB MILL CO. 
CINCINNATI, 0. 
ete& Cheap Floor Bill Outfiti. 



fe 3t 



SEEDS! 

FRESH and RELIABLE SEEDS for the Farm 
and Garden. GRASS and CLOVER SEEDS, SEED 
GRAIN and POTATOES at lowest prices. 

SEND FOR DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE of 
Garden, Field and Flower Seeds for 1885. Mailed 
free on application. 

HENRY W. WOOD, Seedsman, 

fe 3t Sixth and Marshall Sis., Richmond.Va. 

PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOKJ 



liA 



moo^ag^" 



COLORED « 

►f nearly. 



,rtMt " JUW fi.> 11% "i!i,'raviuy o; nearly 
Iot"'' '' jStW?"*' k ' n,li " 1 fowls, plans for poultry 

i^wj'-'j 1 ' w' ll ' l,v '■ bow apouize, information 

ft. * ^SjT about inon haws. Descriptions of fihe. 




fe4t 



G 



ES. 



All varieties old and new. Includ- 
ing NIAGARA. Largest Stock in 
Ambkica. CATALOGUE FREE. 
SILAS WILSON, Atlantic, Iowa. 



felt 




Water Wheels & Millstones 

Best and Cheapest in the 
World, Manufactured by 

A. A.DeLoach & Bro., Atlanta.Ga- 

46 page Catalogue Free. 




Sawing Made Easy. 

MOHAECH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE 



SEOKTT ON 

TEST TRIAL, 




For lodging camps. wood -yards, fanners getting out 
ftove wcl.trda 1 ?07"t3 of log-cutting — i* isonriralei* 
%'buaaad.i neid ,!-ti > lt A buy of 16 can saw leys fasi alia 
nsy. Immense saving of labor and money. Write 
f -■ le^p- fiv i:!urr?-n'ej catalogue in 6 brilliant colors, 
also brilliant' / illuminated poster in 5 colors. All £ftt. 
if-itj Wanted. />;■■ w<w-v»""fe ouirMv. 
K3S&ECEL EPS CO., <£j20j EfcitsSt., Cjics£0, '^ 
fe5t 

OUR NEW 
90 DATS 

EARLIEST OF ALL. round, smooth, bright, 
red, productive, no r«»t, good shipper, best quality. 
Having grown Tomatoes in Florida for Northern 
market, we believe this will be found better and 
more profitable than any now grown for that pur- 
pose. Per pkt., 100 or more seeds, 25 one-cent 
stamps. SOISD TFfi'TABLK SEEP* ia 
Great Variety. SEED POTATOES. 
53* ALL 'RITT PLANTS. Best kinds, fair 
prices. 1885 Catalogue free to all. 

FRANK FORD &• SON, 
fe It Sunnyside, Ravenna. Obio. 

ALL TESTED 

TRTJE TO NAME 

Immense Stock. 

H A IP A T OPTTTT < 1885 ' telling all about 
UtXi aJjULTU £l OLD and NEW varie- 
ties, full DESCRIPTIONS, profuseiy IL1 TJ8- 
TBATED. much valuable INFORMATION. 

Sent to all applying FREE. Large stock Fruit 
Trees, Small Fruits and Vines, 
fe 3t . J. C. EVEP.ITT, Lima, Ind. 



Seem 




2r YEARS IN THE 
POULTRY YARD, 

; 1. Kditi n. ii'" i(rea, explain- 
ing ib- i i Uie .Muess. Gives! 
■ '.mi;'-. hi- li.iI ii.s( remedies fori 
■•■.-.-.-. A 5II-, a.' .-il.n-i rated { 
ojrue. \ " r ' " ""'■' in .' i"tr>s. 
A. }i. LANG. 
Covi»IJal«-. !i«is Co. K; 



felt 




fe2t 



STEVHfs«0"m 

FRENCH BIHE ' 

gggrfMUJ 

Thecheanept and BEST 
miils in the world. Prices 
S SO and u pwards, sub- 
ject to cash oiscount. 
Send for circulars to,«», 
A.W. STEVENS * SO.\ ffi 

irBCRS, N. V. 
{£j*MciU Um thi* paptr, 




w 



ANTED LADtE8 AX " GENTLEMEN who 

i. .^' sl ? to niake •» to »4 a day easily at their 

own homes. Work sent \,y mail.No canvassing. Address 
with sump Crown Mfg. Co., 594 vine St,, Cin'ti.O. 



SHAKER'S* 

FAB/SOUS 

GARDEN SEEDS 

New Crop at Greatly Reduced Prices. 

If you want Splendid Vasretables and 

Beautiful FlOwers, always plant them. Spe- 
cial inducements to Grangers and Market Gar- 
deners. Splendid Illustrated Guide mailed 
Free to All who want seeds. Write for it. En- 
dorsed by the leading Agricultural journals of the 
country. Established 1794. Address 

SIIAKER SEED CO., 
fe 2t Kit, Lebanon, N. T. 

TO FARMERS AND SHIPPERS. 

THE 

American Co-operative Dairy Co. 

INCORPORATED MAT 24, 1884, 



CAPITAL STOCK OP $100,000. 

Offer extra inducements for consigners of 
Butter, Eggs, Beans, Cbeese, Poultry, 
Game, and all hinds of Farm 
Produce. 

This company is duly established by law, and far- 
mers, shippers or dealers can depend upon prompt 
and honest returns for all consignments. 

For particulars address J. W. WHI TE, Sec'y, 
31 Beach street, Boston, Mass. 

fe 3t Mention the Planter. 

CRAFTS. STOCKS, TREES— Everything 
Nurserymen, Fruit Growers and Amateurs. 
STARK NURSERIES, Louisiana. Mo. 

51st year. 300 acres. fe 2t 

BHEDCDDV a valuable Fruit, succeeds on 
LUCDCnlll all soils, and is a profitable 
fruit to grow for market. Two dozen plants by 
mail, $1. Descriptive price-list free. 

DELOS STAPLES, 
fe 2t West Sebewa, Ionia Co , Mich. 

Chester White, Berkshire 
and Poland-China Pigs, 
Fine Setter Dogs, Scotch 
Collies, Fox Hounds, and 
Beagles, Sheep and Poultry, 
bred and for sale by W. 
GIBBONS & CO., West Chester, Chester county. 
Pa. Send stamp for circular and price-list, fe ly 

THE NEW ENGLISH COMPANY, 

FOR THE 

Sale and Purchase of Land in Virginia, 

Have many enquiries for the purchase of 
farms and real estate, and have already 
made extensive sales at good prices. Those 
wishing to sell or buy land, or farm prop- 
erty, should apply at once to G. B. Lynes, 
Ivey depot, Albemarle county, Va. 

Parties wishing to look at farms can be 
boarded by advertizer 

G. B. LYNES. 

sep 6t 







FA V CU .^ NT £*RAPF<* 



CU ..1^ NT CRAPES m "™^ 

(lUABTEES. >Wfll I % Vm ■ QMS ^Jr w ° K "' D 

SMALL FRUITS AND TREES. LOW TO DEALERS AND PLANTERS. EVERYTHING FIRST 
CLASS. FREE CATALOGUES. GEO. B. JOSSELYft, FREDONIA. N. Y. 



_ 



J. 



) 



jau 61 



SEED CORN! 

1 have an excellent corn which I will sell for seed. This corn is very prolific, and weighs when well 
matured sixty pounds to the struck bushel. Brings on the market two and three cents more than any other 
corn. This corn is suitable for bottom lands and heavy clay soils — a hard, white flint corn, standing more 
water than any corn known. I have oft times had it flooded with but little or no damage. I never average 
less than fifty bushels to the acre, and this amount on laud running in corn from seven to thirty years. In 
1881 1 measured 105 bushels shelled corn from one selected acre. I can supply any person wanting good 
Seed Corn for bottom lands or table lands, or more elevated heavy clay soils, at $1 per bushel, delivered on 
the cars at Bremo, if bags are furnished free by purchaser, or will ship through Messrs. Simpson, Bass & Co. 
or Messrs. Sublett, Cary & Co., of Richmond, Va., I furnishing bags, at $1.15 per bushel. 

fe tf B. H. BRAGG, Bremo Bluff, Fluvanna Co., Va. 



THE 

UPPER JAMES RIVER VALLEY. 

All things considered, the advantages of this section cannot be well over-estimated. 
The advantages are, viz. : Health and salubrity of climate, good and productive soil, 
abundant supply of pure water, excellent timber, an inexhaustible supply of the staple 
minerals (coal and iron), accessible to the best markets with rapid transit. These lands 
are now cheap, yet must rapidly increase in value, and make sure and speedy fortunes to 
those who secure them at present prices. Send stamp for pamphlet, giving full particu- 
lars. Address, W. A. PARSONS, 

fe Maiden's, Goochland Co., Va. 

HARNESS THE WIND 

BY tTSING THE 

MANVEL 

i®* WIND ENGINE, ^s«r 

Carrying Wind Mills on hand at Boston, New York City, Roch- 
ester, N. Y., Philadelphia, Pa., and many other points, operating 
our experienced men to plan and execute work from these points, en- 
ables us to do superior work promptly, thus insuring satisfaction to the 
buyer. We contract to force water from wells or springs to any point 
for Farmers, Dairymen, Gardeners, Florists, Villages, Private Residences, &c. We can 
refer you to parties using. Write for our Catalogue and Power Engines, Pumps, Tanks, 
&c, giving us an idea of the kind of work you want done. Address all communications 
to B. S. WILLIAMS & CO., Kalamazoo, Mich. 

fe4t 




DAIRYMEN and FARMERS 

should use only the "Arm and Hammer" brand 
for Cleaning and Keeping Milk Pans Sweet and 
Clean. It is the Best for all 
Household Purposes. 




; HOC DISEASES.— The "Arm and Hammer" 
i brand Soda and Saleratus is used with great 
■ success for the prevention and curejDf HOC 
| CHOLERA and other diseases. 
, Mix with the animal's food. 



"ARM & HAMMER BRAND" 




To insure obtaining only the "Arm k Hammer" brand Soda 
or Saleratus, buy it in "pound or half pound" cartoons which 
bear our name and trade-mark, as inferior goods are sometimes substituted for the "Arm & Ham- 
mer brand when bought in buli. Ask for the " Arm & Hammer" brand SALSODA (Washing Soda). 
jan4t 



Farm Grist Mills and Shelters. 

OVER 30,000 NOW IN USE. 

Every machine is warranted to suit, or money 
refunded. 

PRICE OF MILLS, $20 TO $40. 
SHELLERS, $5. 

Do not buy a mill or sheller until you have seen our terms and illustrated Circular. 

Address, with stamp, LIVINGSTON & CO., Iron Pounders, 

dec 3t PITTSBURGH, PA. 





iAwi f i STOiistis® 

■^r^^sHEiisra-TOisr, r>_ o. 

The undersigned offers a fine stock of the following: New Pears, New Peaches, New Cherries, New 
Grapes, New Strawberries, &c, P'ruit Trees of all kinds. 

An extensive stock, viz. : Plums, Cherries, Apricots, Apples, suitable to the South, &c. Grape Vines, 
Strawberries, Raspberries, &c, new sorts Evergreens, New Ornamental Trees, New Shrubs, &c, Small sizes, 
suitable for Nurserymen, as well as large stock in great variety. 

DUTCH BULBS— Large importations direct from the leading growers in Holland. First quality Bulos, 
Hyacinths, Lilies, Tulips, &c. New and rare Greenhouse Plants, Winter Blooming Plants. 

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

**• Everything at low rates. Catalogues mailed to applicants. 



no 6t 



JOHN SAUL, "Washington, D. C. 



© T£g/ t^3< WSSS vs) ^©^ «fe* «!&5 

Corner of Ninth and Grace St., Richmond, Va. 



STRICTLY FIRST-CLASS IN ALL ITS APPOINTMENTS 

This Hotel fronts upon the beautiful Capitol Park— the most elevated, central and 
fashionable portion of the city. 

TERMS: $2.00 AND $2.50 PER DAY. 

STEPHEN HUNTER, - - Proprietor. 




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

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

ENGINEERING- AND AGRICULTURE. 

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

Apply for Catalogues to W. A. Winston, Secretary, P. 0. University of Virginia, Al- 
bemarle county, Va. JAMES F. HARRISON, M. D., Chairman of the Faculty. 

dely 



HOME INDUSTRY! 



« 



DIXIE SHIRTS! 

AGME 53 DRAWERS 



FINE DRESS SHIRTS a specialty. 

UNDERWEAR of all kinds ready made 
or to measure at short notice. Write for 
prices and printed blanks for self-measure- 
ment. We employ the most experienced 
cutters and skilled operators. We use the 
most improved steam machinery in our 
factory. 

We guarantee the quality and fit of every 
garment that goes from our factory. Cor- 
respondence solicited. 

H. T. MILLER &, CO., 

MANUFACTURERS, 

Cor. Ninth and Main Sts., Riclimonu, Va. 

[oct ly] 

H. E. MAGEUDEK,Tres. 0. Reierson, Sec. & Tr. 
R. T. W. Duke, V. Pres. G. Aknajid, Supt. 

Monticello Wine Co. 

Monticello Wine Company makes abso- 
lutely PURE GRAPE WINES AND 
BRANDY. 

Norton's Virginia, Clinton, Ives, 
Virginia Claret (Conebrd) Del- 
aware and Catawba. 
Address the Company, or 

OSCAR REIERSON, Sec, 
sep 6t Cnarlottesville, Va. 

Send Ten Cents and get a sample 
copy of the 

Southern Poultry Guide 

A monthly journal devoted exclusively to 
Fancy Poultry, Pigeon and Pet Stock. It 
is interesting to both old and young, and 
should be read by every one interested in 
the improvement of poultry. To adverti- 
sers it offers extra inducements. The cir- 
culation is large, and it is the only journal 
of (he kind published in this part of the 
Southern States. The subscription price is 
only 91.00 per year. Address 

E. B. McARTHUR & CO., 
tf Meridian, Mias. 



THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. ONLY $1. 

BY MAIL POSTPAID. 




KNOW THYSELF. 

A Great Medical Work on Manhood. 

Exhausted Vitality, Nervous and Physical Debili- 
ty, Premature Decline in Man, Errors of Youth, and 
the untold miseries resulting from indiscretion or 
excesses A book for every man, young, middle- 
aged and old. It contains 125 prescriptions for all 
acute and chronic diseases, each one of which is in- 
valuable. So found by the Author, whose expe- 
rience for twenty-three years is such as probably 
never before fell to the lot of any physician. 300 
pages, bound in beautiful French muslin, embossed 
covers, full gilt, guaranteed to be a finer work in 
every sense — mechanical, literary and professional — 
than any other work sold in this country for $2.50, 
or the money be refunded in every instance. Price 
only ?1 by mail, postpaid. Illustrative sample, 6 
cents. Send now. Gold medal awarded the author 
by the National Medical Association, to the officers 
ot which he refers. 

This book should be read by the young for instruc 
tion, and by the afflicted for relief. Ii will benefit 
all. — London Lancet. 

There is no member of society to whom this book 
will not be useful, whether youth, parent, guardian, 
Instructor or clergyman. — Argonaut. 

Address the Peabody Medical Institute, or Dr. 
W. H. Parker, No. 4 Bulfinth Street, Boston, Mass., 
who may be consulted on all diseases requiring skill 
and experience. Chronic and obstinate diseases that 
have baffled the skill of all ■ I p A I other 
physicians a specialty. Such 1*1 Ed 3^ ua treat- 
ed successfully without ^" ■■ , ^^2 ET I ET 
an instance of failure. I wt I V5 E* *c u 
Mention this paper. ap ly 



Real Estate Agent, 

P. O. Box 216, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. 

Buyers of Real Estate are directed by this Agency 
to the very greatly favored sections of Virginia, em- 
bracing the Piedmont counties, the James River 
Valley west of Richmond, and the Valley of Virginia 
and West Virginia contiguous to the great C. & 0. 
Railway. DOLIN'S LAND ADVERTISER free. 

Correspondence solicited with buyers and sellers 
of Real Estate. (^-Enclose postage stamp. 

'PEAR HEADQUARTERS^ 
_ sJt-Ei.OW. o-Jid s'torTRUIT TFE1FS. JK* 

Sm+EEJM CLUSTER!«|iS 
BPH hew GRAPES KKSKSmRh 

T : /OTKRANTS, kt. KTCatalogutfru.-^m 
tt^ M ^ / i. 8. 0©1XX>"9, lioo;-C8tuwu. N. J. 

oc 7t 



PATENTS 



Hand-Book FREE. 

R. S. & A. P. LACEK 

Patent At t'ys, Waar'ngton, D. 0, 



sep 6t 



VIRGINIA STATE 

INSURANCE COMPANY. 

OFFICE: 1006 MAIN STREET, RICHMOND, VA. 

INCOBPOBATED IIST 1865. 

CASH CAPITAL, ... - $800,000. 

Insures Dwellings, Stores, Merchandize, and other property against loss or damage by fire 
f DIRECTORS. -J. L. Bacon, President ; Thos. W. McCance, Vice-tresident. Wm. H. Haxall, Jame 
Alfred Jones, Thos. Atkinson. 

Rc, E. Richardson, Sec. Jno. B. Grant, Jr., Ass't Sec. W. G. Maury, Solicitt 

«S*Agents in all the prominent Cities, Towns, and Villages of Virginia _____ 



seply 



BKLMONT STUD & STOCK FARM 

Was commenced in 1847, and has been continuously improved, and two grazing farm 
added, with the kind of stock my experience has adopted as best suited to our country 
wants. I have bred only from stallions or mares of my breeding or importation, and 
suited to the wants of any section, and will sell any of above of three years old and over, 
and in plain, unpampered condition, will let stallions, if not sold on safe busuess terms, 
for seasons of 1884. I have bred of several breeds of Cattle, but of late years lonly the 
Pure Shorthorns, and have all ages for sale, especially young Bulls, Heifers and Calves. 
I breed only the best Berkshire Swine, and have a number of Boar aud bow bhoats and 
Pigs for sale ; also, White Brahma Fowls and their Eggs. There may be other stock as 
good, or better, but my experience has settled on these, and I feel that I am doing a pub- 
lic good to forward the propagation of these improved breeds. ^ T r«xrT TAT 

Near Charlottesville, Va., Jan. 1st, 1884. a P l 7 

THE GKEEN HILL, HEBU OF SHORT- 
HOttD CA'iTLE is headed by the pure Bates' 
Illustrious Rose of Sharon Bull, Hogarth, winner 
of eleven sweepstakes and first prizes at Virginia 

Weoffer for sale FINE YOUNG BULLS of the 

highest breeding and individual excellence ready for 
spring service. The sires and dams of the above bulls have won many P™miumsWilisell cheap Cor- 
respondence solicited. Address ^aK^fontgomery Go!, Va 




JSenci for mat -tf 

Catalogue !;■';.,.,. 
and 
Prices- 




ti nm ENG 



WORKS 



INDIANAPOLIS. IND., U. S. A 

MANUFACTURERS OF 

STE&M ENGIWES& BOILE RS. 

Carry Engines and Boilers in Stock 
for immediate delivery. 




THE KEYSTONE 

OVER 300,000 IN ACTUAL USE 

And all el vine perfect satisfaction. 

AGENTS WANTED. 



WASHER. 



Win wash Cleaner, Easier, and wiih Less Injury to 
Clothes than any other in the World We challenge 
any manufacturer to produce a better WaBher. 
Every Machine Warranted FIVE Years, 
and Satisfaction Guaranteed. The only 
Washer that can be clamped to any sized 
tub like a Wringer. Made of malleable 
iron galvanized, and will outlast any twowooden 
machines. Agents wanted. Exclusive Terri- 
tory OuragentsaUoverthecouutryaremaking 
from $75 to $200 per month. Ketail price, $7. 
Sample to agents, $3. Also our celebrated 




KEYSTONE WRINGERS AT LOWEST WHOLESALE PRICES. 

L Beler to ' editor* ttla paper. Address F. F. ADAMS & CO.. Erie, Pa., 



Circulars Free. 



FARMERS, USE 

ORCHILLA GUANO! 

I The BEST and CHEAPEST for ALL CROPS. 

That ORCHILLA GUANO positively and permanently enriches the land; that it in- 
creases the crop and improves the quality of the land; and that it never fails to ensure a 
uxuriant growth of grass for succeeding years, axe facts which 10,000 farmers, who are 
using it in the States of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania are willing 
to testify. 

This guano is found on the Orchilla Island, in the Carribbean Sea, and comes to us di- 
rect by vessels, and all we do to it on arrival is to screen out the lumps and bag it. 

We guarantee Orchilla to contain from 35 to 45 per cent. Bone Phosphate Lime. 

And not only does it furnish, in high percentage, this most valuable of all fertilizing 
lements, but (unlike acid Phosphate, which has its sole merit in the small percentage of 
phosphoric acid which it contains), Orchilla furnishes, as shown by an exhaustive analy- 
sis by Prof. J. W. Mallett, of the University of Virginia, a number of other valuable 
fertilizing substances, comprising Magnesia, Chloride Sodium, Chloride Potassium, 
Sesqui Oxide Iron, Carbonate Lime, Sulphate Lime, and others, making up the entire 
on 3 hundred parts; giving the farmer 2,000 pounds of actual fertilizer in every ton he 
buys: and in a combination, formed in nature's laboratory, that cannot be attained by 
any manipulation. . 

THE CHEMISTS ENDORSE IT. 

Every cargo of Orchilla is analyzed before leaving the Island, that we may be sure that 
none is brought away below our guarantee ; and this analysis is verified by another anal- 
ysis after the arrival of the vessel in port. These analyses have always been confirmed 
jy the State Chemists, and others who have analyzed it subsequently. 

We refer to Doctors Gascoyne and Taylor, of Virginia ; Dabney, of North Carolina ; 
White, of Georgia, and Leibig, Lehman, -Williams, Toney and Wilson, of Baltimore, 
ho have all made separate analyses of Orchilla. 

ORCHILLA IS LOW-PRICED— because we have left off the cost of manu- 
acture. 

ORCHILLA IS SUCCESSFUL— because it is Nature's own provision for her 
xhausted fields. 

And by its' wonderful clover-producing qualities, it converts the cheap and 
»rren high lands, like those of Eastern and Southern Virginia, into soil as fruitful as 
;he Valley of the Shenandoah. All who have ever used Orchilla say, that as a grass 
irower it has no equal. 

ORCHILLA FOR WHEAT. 

For years the farmers of Maryland and Virginia have been testing Orchilla for wheat, 
ide by side with the high-priced ammoniated goods, and the constantly-increasing de- 
pond for Orchilla shows how well it has stood the test. Not only has it made as much 
rheat (for less money), but it has left the land covered with grass and permanently im- 
roved. Give it a trial. Respectfully, 



BALTIMORE, 2>y3.JD. 



GRAVERS SHEAD&CO. Importers' Apnt, 1326 Cary St., Ricnmona, Va. 

We sell Orchilla at a low price. Send for our LITTLE BOOK, giving testimonials of 
farmers who have used it for years. nov ly 



ROSS FODDER & ENSILAGE CUTTERS 

HAVE RECEIVED (W240 MEDALS 
AND HIGH AWARDS OF MERIT. 

Successful at every competing trial at 
cutting. Will do more work with less 
power than any other Cutters made. THIS 
WE GUARANTEE, and warrant every 
one to give satisfaction. We furnish these 
Cutters with a capacity of TEN TONS per 
HOUR, down to fodder cutters of one 
man power. We can meet the varied 

wants and tastes of all, in size, price and make. 

CUT YOU" °^^N-STALKS.— It has been thoroughly and practically demonstrated 
that by cutting cwn.-iodder, instead of feeding it whole, our machine can be actually paid 
for upon three to six acres of stalks, according to the size of the machine, while the ma- 
nure is improved tiny per cent. Cattle will eat the cornstalks up. clean when cut by our 
machine, because the feed is left soft and palatable. 




Jan ly 



9 

i^ion^coisrr), va. 



ASHLEY PHOSPHATE GO. 

CHARLESTON, S. C... 

FLOATS AND KAINIT MIXTURE of best materials, thoroughly 

mixed by machinery, containing Bone Phosphate, 25 to 30 per cent. ; 

SuTph. Potash, 12 to 14 per cent.; besides Magnesia and Soda and 

Lime, &c 

SOLUBLE GUANO- Highly Ammoniated. 

DISSOLVED BONE— Ve «7 High Grade. 

ACID PHOSPHATE— ••• For Composting. 

ASH ELEMENT— For Cotton, Wheat, Peas, &c, 

FLOATS— Phosphate Rock, reduced to at* Impalpable Powder by the Due 

Atomizer, of Highest Grade. SAMPLE sent on application. 
SMALL-GRAIN SPECIFIC— Rich in Ammonia, Phosphoric Acid 

Potash, Magnesia and Soda. 
GENUINE LEOPOLDSHALL KAINIT. 

The above FERTILIZERS are of very high grade, as shown by the Official Reporti 
of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. 

For Terms, Hand-Books,:Agricultural Primers, and good Articles on Floats, Peas anc 
Ash Element, Kainit, &c, address the 

ASHLEY PHOSPHATE COMPANY. 

N. B.-Special inducements for Cash Orders. Special Formulas made carefullj 
to order of best materials. >J a Wi