THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 

Serjotea to Agriculture, j^oitfculture, antr the ^ousrnolc &rts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 

Xenophon. 


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


C. T. BOTTSj Editor. 


Vol. IV. RICHMOND, AUGUST, 1844. No. 8. 



HEMP. 

We have in our office a very beautiful speci- 
men of water-rotted hemp, presented by Mr. W. 
M. Peyton, of Roanoke. This article has at- 
tracted much attention, and we have been so 
frequently requested to obtain from Mr. Peyton 
a detailed statement of his mode of cultivating 
and managing the crop, (hat we lately made an 
application to him to that effect ; we received 
the following in reply: 

To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 

Dear Sir, — In compliance wiih your request, 
I send you for re-pnblication a transcript of the 
letter addressed to Dr. Armistead on Hemp. I 
know of noihing material which I can add to it. 
It embraces the results of my own experience 
and observation together with that of several 
western gentlemen, to whom I am indebted for 
many of the opinions given. Indeed, my sys- 
tem of hemp culture, as here developed, is based 
upon the plan of a distinguished western farmer 
whom I met with some years since. Since 
writing the following letter the price of water- 
rotted hemp has fallen very materially. The 
Government not only refuses to stimulate its 
production by the bonus originally offered, but 
has in violation of all sound policy, as justice 
to her own citizens, purchased an over svpply of 
Riga hemp, when the domestic article could 
have been obtained of equal quality and at the 
price given for the foreign. Water-rotted hemp 
may now be purchased in Kentucky at one 
hundred and sixty dollars per ion, and if the 
western members should succeed in their present 
plan of compelling the Navy Department to 
give the preference in its purchases to the do- 
mestic article, where there is no disparity in 
price or quality, it will probably continue for 
many years to be a profitable branch of agri- 
culture. 

The dew-rotted hemp which, as mentioned 
below, has heretofore commanded in this neigh- 
hood from six to seven cents, has fallen this year 
to five, which though a very poor price is never- 
theless better than the prices of tobacco and 
wheat. 

Yours, respectfully, 

W. M. Peyton. 

June 6, 1S44. 

Vol. IV. -22 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 

I have sent a paper on the Culture of Hemp, 
written by Mr. William M. Peyton, of Virginia, 
which I have no doubt will, if published, be 
read both with pleasure and profit by many of 
your numerous subscribers. 
Very respectfully, 

Wm. A. Armistead. 
Plymouth, JV. C, March, 1843. 

Big Lick, Roanoke, Jan. 26, 1843. 

Dr. Armistead : 

Dear Sir, — Your communication of the 10th 
insf. was received by the last mail. I am gra- 
tified that my remarks on the Culture of Hemp, 
in the December number of the Farmers' Re- 
gister, have been useful to you and will with 
pleasure, as you desire it, add to your satisfac- 
tion by responding to your inquiries. 

1. Time of Solving Hemp — Hemp is gener- 
ally sown in this latitude during the month of 
April, sometimes in the latter part of March, and 
not unfrequently in the early part of May. A 
good deal of course depends upon the season in 
so changeable a climate as ours; but taking 
one year with another I should fix upon the 
middle of April as the most eligible period for 
committing the seed to the earth-. 

2. Mode of Putting in the Crop. — The ground 
should, if possible, be ploughed in the fall, that 
the winter's frosts may reduce the clods perfectly. 
If this cannot be done, then the same result of 
complete pulverization must be reached, by re- 
peated deep ploughings, harrowing and rolling 
with a spike or smooth roller. The necessity for 
this very particular preparation, you will see 
explained in my communication above alluded 
to. When it is thus brought into thorough 
tilth and levelled by the harrow, it is then sown 
broadcast exactly as you do wheat, regulating 
the quantity to the acre by the character of the 
soil, taking care never to fall below one bushel 
and a peck, nor to exceed two bushels. When 
sown, plough it in with single horse " bull 
tongues" — a species of plough between the coul- 
ter and shovel, free from the objections and unit- 
ing the advantages of each. Follow the ploughs 
with a roller. The roller is recommended for 
the final operation, in preference to the harrow, 
for two reasons; 1st. Because it. presses. 1 he 
earth to the seed and promotes their vegetation , 



170 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



and 2d. Because experience has taught that 
harrowing inclines ihe land to bake, if n should 
be followed by a heavy rain before the hemp 
comes up, and a crusl may thus be formed 
which would smother many of the tender germs; 
whilst experience has proven that land pressed 
together with a roller and then soaked with rain, 
will crack and crumble as it dries, instead of 
forming a hard crust. 

3. When Matured and How Saved. — The crop 
matures in from twelve to sixteen weeks. The 
proper tune for saving may be easily determined, 
though exactness in this is not so material as 
in most crops. When the male stocks which 
bear the blossoms begin to cast, the pollen, 
(which will be observable whenever the hemp 
at this siane is disturbed by wind, by a succes 
sion "f clouds like dust, which rise over the 
field,) the hemp is in the best state for saving. 
This last process, whether it is pulled or cut, is 
a laborious operation and requires strong hands. 
Whether the one or the other mode is observed, 
it ts necessary, to prevent conn. sion and tangling 
that each hand should take a " through" cor- 
responding with the length of the hemp. Afier 
it has remained upon the ground a few days for 
the sap in the stock to dry out, tie it up in small 
bundles about the size of a small sheaf of wheat, 
usina: for this purpose the slimed stalks of hemp, 
which you will find in abundance throughout 
the field. Set it up in shocks of two or three 
dozen bundles each, to remain until it is entirely 
cured, which you will determine by the dryness 
of the stock, showing that there is an absence 
of all sap. 

4. Subsequent Management. — Some permit it 
to remain in the shocks, as we left it in the last 
paragraph, while others put it into stacks to re- 
main till the time for spreading it out to rot. — 
The latter is certainly the preferable inode, 
though involving a. great deal of additional trou- 
ble. It should be spread for rotting on the same 
ground upon which it grew, about the last of 
October or first of November. The time required 
to rot it of course depends upon circumstances 
of which every intelligent farmer will be a com- 
petent judge. Here it ordinarily requires several 
months; with you it would require less time. — 
To ascertain when it is sufficiently rotted, have 
a hand of it broken, and if the wood breaks 
easily and separates readily from the lint and 
the lint is strong, your hemp is well watered. — 
Very slight experience will make you master of 
this 

Your next step is to have the hemp set in 
shocks, neat and well built, with the tops so 
bound together as to keep them firm against 
winds and secure from rain. 

The breaking follows ; and for this you should 
embrace all cool and dry days, as they alone are 
suitable for the operation. Your bieaks should 
be made broad behind, from eighteen to twenty 



inches between the slats, narrow in front, and 
sufficiently heavy to give ihem steadiness. The 
legs of the bench to be put on with keys, instead 
of wedges, that they may be tightened at plea- 
sure. The process of breaking is very sin pie, 
but it requires several years practice before a 
hand is able to do what is esteemed a full day's 
work. 

5. Raising and Preserving Seed. — Seed should 
be planted about the first of April, perhaps in 
Carolina three or four weeks earlier would be 
better. Some prefer dibbling it in drills four or 
five feet apart ; otheis planting in a check the 
same distance wiih corn. Both modes answer 
well. It should be kept clean and well cultivated. 
When it has attained a foot in height it should 
be thinner! so as to afford the plants full room 
to grow freely. When they have attained their 
growth and the male plants have generally cast 
their pollen, they should be pulled or cut, leaving 
only a few of the freshest scattered thiough the 
crop. This will trive more room for the female 
plants to branch and spread, which they will 
continuetodo until arrested by excessive droughts 
or frost. When the pods begin to open and 
drop the seed, which sometimes precedes, but 
always follows a keen frost, it should be cut 
without delay. In the morning, when the dew 
is on the plant is the most favorable time for this 
operation. When cut it should be set up in 
loose, open shocks to dry, which will require 
ten or twelve days of good weather. As the 
seed shatters out very easily, great care is ne- 
cessary in securing them. The best mode I 
have ever tried, is to have a large low linen 
sheet made, spread it at the base of the shock, 
upset the shock on it and beat the heads oil' — 
Have a wagon or cart with a close body at 
hand to convey ihe contents of the sheet as it 
is filled to some place of security. When you 
have collected it in your barn-floor, beat it with 
light flails and -run it through' a fan mill. The 
seed when clean', v should be spread over the floor, 
and suffered to remain for some days, till lhey 
are thoroughly dried, and then put away se- 
curely in gainers, where the rats, who are as 
fond of them as old cheese, cannot possibly get 
at them. If thrown into a heap immediately 
afier lhey are gathered, they are liable to have 
their vegetating principle destroyed by heating. 
Seed carefully managed will sometimes come 
up the second year; but in nine cases out of 
ten seed two years old will not vegetate. 

General Remarks. — The yield of this crop of 
course varies like thai of every other, with the 
exception in its favor, that it is subject to fewer 
disasiers. No land, however, should be put in 
hemp which is not exceedingly rich ; with such 
land the product will be raiely less than six 
hundred weight to the acre, and may reach ten 
or twelve. If ihe crop is cut before ihe seed 
forms, it impoverishes less than any ciop known. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



171 



Where the crop is spread upon ihe land for wa- 
tering, the reduction in iis fertility is scarcely 
perceptible in a term of five years. Managed 
u pan the foregoing plan, my crops have averaged 
me between six and seven cents per pound at 
hume, yielding me a much better profit than my 
tobacco, and costing me infinitely less trouble 
and labor. 

Many tn the West and some here, are aban- 
doning the process of dew-rotting and are en- 
deavoring to water-rot afier the Russian mode. 
They are induced to do this from the fact that 
the Government has offered a price for the ani- 
clg, provided it is made suitable for naval cord- 
age, which if ihe farmers are successful in the 
new mode of rotting will make it an exceed- 
ingly lucrative business. The process is simple 
but requires care. 1 have, however, as \et no 
experience in it. I am now constructing vats, 
with the intention of water-rotting my next crop. 
Should you be inclined to water-rot, and desire 
my information, I will cheerfully communicate 
such as I have. The price offered by the Go- 
vernment is $280 per ton of 2,240 pounds. 
Very respectfully, 

W. M. Peyton. 



PHILOSOPHY OF WHEAT CULTURE. 

Dr. Lee, who "is one of the most devoted 
friends of agriculture in America, read a very 
able paper before a meeting at the State House 
in Albany, last winter, upon the cultivation of 
wheat. He calls to mind that from the analysis 
of Spreagel, the mineral proportion of the plant 
amounts only to three per cent, of the whoie, 
and that wood ashes present very nearly the 
same mineral constituents and in the same pro- 
ponions; Avhenee he infers, that soils the most 
wanting in these constituents, may be supplied 
with a sufficient quantity for all wheat bearing 
purposes by a small dressing of ashes. He 
goes on to say : 

Bein<r but slowly decomposed by the vital 
action of plants, ashes are an enduring fertilizer 
■when compared with stable manure. Mixed 
with quick lime, their good effects are more 
speedily obtained. Lime will render alumini 
either m the soil or in leached ashes, soluble in 
water, so that it can enter the minute pores of 
roots. Clay in the soil is always combined 
with a Lrge portion of silica; and before it has 
been exhausted by continual cropping, it holds 
in combination considerable potash and s>oda. — 
Lime, by combining with alumini, ihe basis of 
clay, liberates these alkalies and silica, which 
uniting chemically, form soluble silicates of pot- 
ash and soda. These also enter into the circu- 
lating nourishment of plant?, and are decomposed 



in the stems of grasses and cereals. The silica 
goes to make vegetable bone, to keep the plant 
upright; while the potash and soda go back to 
the earth, to dissolve, as before, another port ten 
of sand, to be also absorbed, and transformed 
into bone. It is in this way that a few ashes, 
applied to a sandy soil, will enable glass and 
grain to take up the eighty-one per cent, of flint 
found in their ashes. Lime will do the same 
thing on clay soils, for the simple reason that 
they generally do not lack potash, soda, and 
magnesia. 

" The quantity of lime and ashes to be applied 
to an acre, wi 1 depend entirely on their cost at 
the place where they are lo be used. A few 
bushels will be of essential service ; but a larger 
dose will be better. 

" 1 come now to speak of the orsranic ele- 
ments of the wheat plant, which, as 1 have al- 
ready intimated, form ninety-six or ninety-seven ■ 
per cent, of its substance. Water and its con- 
stituents, oxygen and hydrogen, caibon and ni- 
trogen, are ihe four elementary ingredients of 
all cultivated plants, beside their n.inerals. As 
there is no lack of water or of its elements, oxy- 
gen and hydrosren, our attent ion will be confined 
to obtaining a full supply of carbon and nitrogen. 
These are indispensable, and fortunately nature 
has provided an amount of carbon and nitrogen 
in ihe air, if not in ihe soil, more ihan equal to 
all the wants of vegetation. A large portion of 
the fertilizing elen en's of vegetable mould, in a 
rich soil, is carbon, and a small portion is nitro- 
gen ; both of which are usually combined with 
other substances. These important elements are 
ofien nearly exhausted in fields which have been 
unwisely cultivated ; and I have paid much at- 
tention to the subject of cheap and practicable 
renovation. 

"By the aid of clover and buckwheat dressed 
with gypsum, ashes, lime, or manure, and 
ploughed in when in blossom, much can be 
done in ihe way of augmenting the rich vege- 
table mould so desirable, to a certain degree, in 
all soils. Straw, corn-stalks, leaves of foiest 
trees, and swamp muck, marie into compost with 
lime and ashes, are of gieat value. Charcoal 
well pulverized, and saturated with urine, I re- 
gard as the cheapest and most useful fertilizer 
that can be applied to a poor soil, for the pro- 
duction of wheat or almost any of-.er crop. 

"The earths contained in charcoal, as the 
analysis of its ash demonstrates, are identical 
with the earths found in the wheat plant. Coal 
contains a very large portion of carbon, and 
will imbibe from the atmosphere a large quantity 
of nitrogen in the form of ammonia and its car- 
bonates. Unlike stable manure, ihe salts of 
lime, potash, soda and magnesia, it will not 
waste by premature solution nor by evaporation. 
On the contrary, it is of incalculable value to 
mix with the liquid and solid excretions of all 



172 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



animals, to absorb and fix in a tangible condition 
those volatile, fertilizing elements, which are so 
prone to escape beyond our reach. 

" When it is recollected that without nitrogen 
in some form, it is utterly impossible to grow 
one kernel of good wheat, and that a pint of 
human urine or four quarts of that of the cow, 
or one quart of that of the horse fed on grain, 
contain nitrogen enough to supply sixty lbs. of 
wheat, we may begin to understand something 
of the money value of ihis animal product. — 
But mind this suggestion. Nothing is sooner 
lost than the hartshorn in an open smelling-bot- 
tle, or a large share of the ammonia in free urine 
in a warm atmosphere. Charcoal and gypsum 
will absorb it in large quantities, and give it out 
at the roots of plants as their wants require. In 
feeding plants, great judgment should be exer- 
cised. At least one-half of the food fed out to 
them in the shape of stable and barn-yard ma- 
nure, is entirely lost. It escapes into the air, or 
is dissolved prematurely, and carried like the 
potash in water running through a leach, be- 
yond the reach of your hungry, if not starving 
plants. 

" I have just separated a half pound of wheat- 
flour into its proximate elements of starch and 
gluten. The gluten I have in my hand. It is 
nearly identical with animal muscle. It forms 
from seven to thirty-five per cent, of the bulk of 
wheat kernels. The more gluten flour contains, 
the more good bread a given number of pounds 
w ill make. A barrel of flour rich in gluten, 
will make ten per cent, more of bread than one 
which is nearly all starch. Gluten will bear far 
more water than starch. The quantity of this 
meat-forming principle in wheat, depends in a 
good degree on the quantity of nitrogen in the 
soil where the wheat is grown." 



For the Southern Planter. 
RECIPES. 

C. T. Botts, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — Believing it to be a conceded point 
that the most simple remedies are generallj'' the 
most efficacious, and that short, practical recipes 
on the curative art will add to the value of the 
Planter, (of which I am a great admirer,) and 
that by this means a fund of useful information 
will be disseminated amongst your readers, which 
otherwise might remain unknown; I feel dis- 
posed to contribute something to your pages in 
this way. Wishing to further your "ambitious 
project of making the Southern Planter the 
most popular agricultural work in the Union.'' 

Piles. — Having suffered as much from this 
disease as any man living, I feel disposed to 
communicate through your pages the remedy 
which gave me relief. 

Take about one gallon of Jamestown leaves, 



(Stramonium,) boil them till the strength is ob- 
tained, strain the liquor and add thereto six large 
table spoonfuls of lard and one of beeswax ; boil 
slowly until nothing remains but the lard and 
wax; it is then fit for use. Anoint the pait af- 
fected with ihis ointment until relief is obtained. 
In very obstinate cases when there is a continued 
and painful protuberance of the intestine, it will 
be necessary to spread the ointment on a soft 
rag and keep it in place by a T bandage. When 
the protruded part can be easily returned to its 
proper position, the ointment should be applied 
previous to this being done, as it facilitates the 
operation and ac's belter. The patient should 
live on the lightest diet, keep as quiet as possi- 
ble, and if necessary, take an occasional purge 
of the mildest kind. Whenever there are symp- 
toms of a return of the complaint, apply the 
ointment and it will check its farther progress. 
I have no hesitation in stating, and that from 
experience, that this remedy has no superior, and 
it needs only to be generally known to be duly 
appreciated. 

This ointment is also valuable for painful 
sores, wounds, &c. — for rheumatism, affecting the 
joints, rub it in • well before the fire, and cover 
with flannel. For scalds and burns it will relieve 
the pain sooner than any thing that I have ever 
seen applied. 

In all cases above mentioned I use the oint- 
ment plentifully. 

I generally prepare the ointment in my yard, 
as the stramonium has a very offensive smell ; 
and the vessel in which it is made, if used for 
cooking purposes, should be thoroughly cleansed 
by burning, to avoid any deleterious effects that 
might otherwise ensue. 

Whitlow. — The application of a plaster 
made of soft soap and lime, is a sovereign re- 
medy, relieving the pain in a few moments. I 
have tested this prescription to my satisfaction, 
and Dr. Ewell observes that, "perhaps this re- 
medy might be useful in cases of the piles." 

Corns. — One thickness of flannel confined 
over the corn, anointed twice a day with spirits 
of turpentine, will effect a cure. 

Fistula on a Horse. — Take a large double 
handful or more of wild ratsbane, boil it in 
chamber ley, and foment the tumor two or three 
times a day, as hot as the horse can bear with- 
out giving pain. If timely applied, it will soon 
effect a cure, and out of many cases, I have yet 
to witness its failure in the first instance. This 
application will also cure the poll evil. 

Having lost some valuable horses with the 
distemper, (strangles,) I should like to see some 
efficient remedy for this disease in some future 
number of the Planter. I will observe that in 
a recent case I was advised to infuse red pepper 
in a pint of melted lard, and drench ; I did so, 
and the issue was unusually favorable ; but I 
am not yet prepared to say whether this favora- 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



173 



able result was owing to the action of the me- 
dicine, or that it was a mild type of the disease. 
I remain, yours, very respectfully, 

W. R. H. 
Charlotte, Va., June 1, 1844. 



REARING CALVES. 

A correspondent of the Albany Cultivator 
says: " When I first commenced farming I had 
to pay heavy crow rates every year, (as the term 
was J I never could get my calves through 
the first winier without losing one or more. — 
They would grow poor towards spring ; their 
backs would assume the appearance of an arch ; 
the scours would set in, and they would die in 
despite of all my care and attention. Expe- 
rience and observation have convinced me that 
lice were the primary cause of all the difficulty ; 



and for several years past I have adopted the 
practice of destroying them in the fall, or fore- 
part of winier, since which time I have not lost 
a calf. I have tried many remedies, but the 
best thing I have ever tried is sulphur. 1 lake 
two parts of lard and one of sulphur, melt the 
lard, and when nearly cold mix in the sulphur, 
and rub it thoroughly on the parts most fre- 
quented by these troublesome vermin, and they 
will soon disappear. It slicks close to the hide 
and hair, and continues to scent until they shed 
their coat, and prevents any more from getting 
on them from oilier animals with which they 
may chance to come in contact. I keep my 
calves by themselves, and have a warm shelter 
for them to go in when they choose, in addition 
to as much good hay as they can eat. I give 
them each half a pint of oats or corn meal 
ground in the ear, night and morning." 



For the Southern Planter. 
MEASURING CROSS 






CO 




s 



36 



Mr. Editor, — Having offered a substitute for 
the Measuring Cross, which you did me the fa- 
vor of presenting to your readers, I had deter- 
mined to say no more upon the subject. But 
Calvert, a commentator whose notes your read- 
ers will, doubtless, be pleased to see monthly, 
has marked the subject as worthy of special 
notice, and handed it over to his son. I agree 
with Calvert in the opinion that it deserves no- 
tice. Accuracy is always important in scien- 
tific, as well as in moral subjects. It will not 
be supposed that too much importance is at- 
tached to the case in hand, by any who have 
witnessed the inconvenient and embarrassing 
hesitation, and misspent labor resulting from the 



«h. 




want of an accurate and easily applied rule to 
ascertain what length of stock may be obtained 
from a given tree. The benefit of such rule is, in 
a great measure, for persons who take much upon 
trust, till their own observation and sometimes 
costly experience teach them better. It is well 
to inquire, Is it so? Is it true? Was it Dr. 
Franklin who was asked by the Philosophical 
Society of Paris, (equal to two schoolmasters) 
Why, if a vessel be filled with water and a large 
fish put into it, the water would not rise ? The 
answer was not such as might have required 
an octavo frem a sublimated transcendentalist; 
but simply, Is it so? Let the fact be shown, 
and then try to account for it. The trial was 



174 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



marie; the water rose, and overflowed, to the 
astonishment, and chagrin of the philosophers. 
In reference to ihe rule given by the school- 
masters for ascertaining heights by the measur- 
ing cross, I have asked, Is it true 1 ? I put it to 
the lest and find it untrue. In opposing it, fear- 
ful odds are to be encountered — two schoolmas 
ters — one "a very learned anil scientific gentle- 
man," and the other, of course, a " truly learned'' 
man. Aided by two old acquaintances and 
companions of my youth, geometry and trigo- 
nomeny, I shall advance to the contest. 

Let it be remembered that the object to be 
measured is perpendicular. The ground is sup- 
posed to be horizontal. The parts a c, and b d, 
of the cross, of equal length, "each precisely 
twelve inches." Then, according to the rule 
given, the cross is to be adjusted by "placing 
the end, d, on your chin, or upper lip, or any 
other part of the face on a level with the eye." 
Never having seen a face so constructed as to 
admit such arrangement, I would propose to 
bring the end, d, as near the eye as convenient — 
the nearer the more accurate the observation. — 
The observation being taken as directed, the re- 
sult will be, not that the distance "from the spot 
where you stand to the base of the object is its 
exact height," but the distance more than one- 
third of the same, is the exact height. That is, 
the distance is to the height, as three to four. 

Now, let unerring trigonometry testify in the 
case. 

Fig. 1.— As b c, 6: R. 90 deg. : : b d, 12: 
Tang. 63 deg. 26 min. the angle bed, which 
taken from 90 deg. leaves the angle b d c, 26 
deg. 34 min., which doubled, is the angle a c d, 
53 deg. 08 min., which taken frojn 90 deg, 
leaves the angle at g, 36 deg. 52 min. Now 
let d i, the distance from the observer to the 
base of the object, be 36; and the statement 
will run thus: As sine of the angle g, 36 deg. 
52 min. : i d, 3G : : sine of the angle g d i, 53 
deg. OS min : i g, 48. Agreeing exactly with 
geometry. Will you amuse yourself, sir, for a 
moment in looking over this calculation, that 
you may assure your readers it is correct? 

Spare me a little more space, if it may be 
done without injury to the Planter and its read- 
ers, and I will promise not to obtrude upon them 
again, unless troubled with rheumatism, some 
rainy day. I have calculated a cross which 
may be relied upon to give the exact height of 
an object by taking the distance from the foot of 
the observer to the base of the object without 
any addition or subtraction. See Fig 2. — In 
this Fig. 2, i g, the height of the object, is equal 
to d i, the distance of the observer from its base. 
In this case, the angle at g is 45 deg., and the 
angle i d g, also 45 deg. ; and the anirle b d c 
22 deg 30 min , which taken from 90 deg. leaves 
the angle b c d 67 deg. 30 min. Now let a c, 
one part of the cross, be twelve inches. To as- 



certain the length of b d, the other part, say, as 
sine of the angle b d c, 22 deg. 30 min. is to b 
c, 6, so is the sine of the angle b c d, 67 deg. 30 
min. to b d, 14.48. So it is found lhat a cross 
constructed with a c, 12 inches, and b d, 14.48, 
say 14^ inches, answers the purpose said by the 
schoolmasters to be accomplished by one having 
"each part precisely 12 inches." Tike, if you 
please, your scale and compasses and try it. 

fchould the above find place m ihe Planter, I 
request Calvert to semi it to his son. 
I am, Mr. Editor, 

Respectfully, yours, 

Cumberland. 

March 12, 1844. 

Note. — In the above instruments no importance 
should be attached to the particular size. The larger 
the better till you conflict with convenience. Only 
be careful to maintain the proportions. In Fig. 1, if 
each limb were 24 inches it would be better; and in 
Fig. 2, 24 and 29 inches. 



INVALUABLE SALVE. 

Take three carrots and grate them ; place in 
a vessel, and cover with lard without salt, if 
convenient. Boil thoroughly, strain, and add 
sufficient beeswax lo make a paste. This is a 
most invaluable oint mtnt or salve, for cuts, burns, 
scalds, or wounds of any kind. Given from 
long and thorough experience. — Eds. Saturday 
Courier. 



For the Southern Planter. 
IMPROVEMENT. 

Mr. Editor, — I know that the Virginian agri- 
culturist finds it difficult to understand the sort 
of cultivation which makes it less laborious and 
expensive to cultivate one acre of land, than 
two; and, therefore, feel some diffidence in of- 
fering the subjoined statement, since I have no 
disposition to throw away either my time or 
your own in unproductive labor. I will, how- 
ever, venture upon it, in the hope that you will 
introduce it with an elementary treatise so simple 
that little children may understand it. For ex- 
ample, you may commence by telling them that 
two dollars are more than one — that two horses 
at fifty dollars each will cost more. than one. — 
By some si in pie process of this kind you may 
perhaps bring their minds to the degree of vigor 
required lo master the grand and — to them, here- 
tofore — incomprehensible proposition, that the. 
cultivation of one acre of laud costs less than 
the cultivation of two. 

There is in Stafford county a stout old fellow, 
J E., of Stanstead, who though somewhat ad- 
vanced in life — nay, under ordinary circum- 
stances, would be called an old man — is, never- 
theless, in many respects still in the vigor of 
manhood. His case is a striking one to show 
that clod-compelling and reading were in no 
wise inconsistent one with the other. The field 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



175 



and the library claim, each a due proportion of 
his time; and the gainful exercises of the former 
prepare him for the scarcely less profitable re- 
creations of the latter. In proof that age has 
not bereft him of his mental power, it needs only 
to be stated that he has past the pons assinorurn 
of the Virginian farmer — mastered the intricate 
problem above mentioned. 

Gentle reader, I know what yon would say — 
that you, your father and grandfather, and all 
around you and them, have acted upon a differ- 
ent principle — and this you hold to be conclusive 
against my arithmetic. Remember how long 
it took the world to understand things quite as 
simple — and if our Virginian farmers are not 
more than a century behind the rest of the world, 
the}' are doing- as well as any body expects of 
them. But do not, I pray you, fall further be- 
hind. Rather gird up your loins, take heart, 
and strive to diminish the distance between you 
and others. Pray you, good sirs, read on. ' 

Mr. E. holding the opinion which to you 
seems so absurd, made the following experiments. 

For his plantation, purchased about thirty 
years ago, he gave a very high price, viz: twenty 
shillings, or three dollars thirty-three and a third 
cents, per acre. The average yield was about 
two and a half barrels of corn. Belter land 
may now be had in that neighborhood for three 
dollars. 

1841. — Tn the spring he began to bring oys- 
ter shells from Fredericksburg, distant about 
three miles, paying from sixty-two and a half 
to seventy-five cents per hogshead. These, 
amounting to twelve hogsheads, were burned 
on the land and scattered upon four acres, 
marked out for the experiment, the ground hav- 
ing been first deeply ploughed. 

1842 — In the spring he laid off the ground 
for corn, three feet by four, and at the intersec- 
tions planted the corn in one tea-cupful of slacked 
ashes and gypsum, mixed in the proportion of 
four of the former to one of the latter, and co- 
vered with a little earth to prevent it from being 
disturbed by the wind. Every second row was 
planted with beans; these, however, were planted 
in the step — not in the hill. 

From the four acres were gathered fifty bar- 
rels of corn and sixty bushels of beans. 

Used in planting, three pecks of corn at the 
rate of three grains to the hill, were 

10 bushels of ground plaster, $2 50 

40 bushels of ashes at eight cents, 3 20 



$5 70 
At this rate the cost of planting one bushel of 
corn was $7 60. 

The ashe3 and gypsum were intended to sti- 
mulate the present crop, leaving the lime to act 
upon the wheat and clover. In the autumn of 
the same year a wheat crop was "seeded," 
which yielded eighteen busheb per acre. 



1S43. — Four other acres were tried with a 
similar lesult so far, and the wheat promises 
well. 

1844. — Encouraged by the success attending 
the above experiments, Mr. E. is now preparing 
for a larger essay, viz : twelve acres. 

The account may be thus stated for one acre : 

Dr. 

Lime, (3 hhds. of shells at 68^ cts.) $2 C6i 

Slacked ashes, 62A 

Gypsum, 80 

\\ ood and burning the kiln, 3 75 

Scattering the lime, 50 
Labor of one man and two horses em- 
ployed one day in ploughing in the 

lime, 1 50 

Checking, 75 

Flaming, 75 

Feeding, &c. 75 

Hoeing and oiher cultivation, 1 00 

Gathering and housing, 1 50 



Cr. 



$13 


9S£ 


$25 
30 


CO 
00 


$55 


CO 



By 12 \ barrels corn, at $2, 
By 30 bushels beans, 

Amount of sales actually made, 



Balance in favor of the experiment, $41 01-4: 
Mr. E. and your humble servant are both 
modest men and have no desire to see our names 
in the newspapers, you will, therefore, please 
become answerable to your readers for our re- 
spectability, and place beneath this communi- 
cation the appropriate signature. 

Ignotus. 



GRASSES. 

From a very excellent article in the "New 
Genesee Farmer" on Grasses, we make the fol- 
lowing extracts: 

In a valuable article on grasses, in the New 
Gennesee Farmer of 1840, Professor Dewey 
states, that ; ' more than 1,800 species have been 
described by botanists. More ihan three hun- 
dred are ascribed to North America ; and more 
than two hundred are found in the State of New 
York." About 150 species are said to be na- 
tives of Great Britain ; and about 40 kinds are, 
more or less, cultivated in England, for hay or 
pasture. In the United States, only five or six 
kinds are in cultivation at all, and only three or 
four extensive!}'. In Western New York, thou- 
sands of farmers never sow any grass seed ex- 
cept timothy, (phlevm pratense.) This is avow- 
edly the most nutricious and profitable grass for 
hay ; but it is by no means well adapted for all 



176 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



purposes, and lo all soils. For pastures, espe- 
cially, it should never be used except mixed with 
other kinds. 

The advantages of sowing a mixture of 
grasses are not sufficiently understood, or appre- 
ciated, in this country. It has been found that 
a square yard of turf will support, at least, 
double the number of plants when comprising 
several species, that 'it will of only one species. 
The reasons for this are, first, the different spe- 
cies subsist on somewhat different elements of 
the soil ; and, secondly, having different kinds of 
roots, some with tap roots running deep, and 
others fibrous and superficial, the different spe- 
cies derive their sustenance from different parts 
or strata of the soil. 

Sir H. Davy and others, observed, that in the 
best old natural pastures, in England, there is a 
mixture of from fifteen to twenty species of grass ; 
and that some one or more of these have their 
particular season of luxuriance each month, from 
spring to latest autumn ; or, in other words, dif- 
ferent species of grass growing on the same 
piece of land, supply stock with pasturage in 
different months of the year. It was also ob- 
served, that the mixture was different on different 
kinds of soil. Hence was seen the necessity of 
a more definite knowledge of the character and 
habits of grasses, in order to establish a perfect 
system of culture; and thus was the occasion 
of the celebrated Worburn experiments, under 
the patronage of the Duke of Bedford, conducted 
by G. Sinclair, the particulars of which consti- 
tute the admirable standard work on grasses, 
called " Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis." 

Orchard Grass, {Dactylis Glomerata.) — This 
grass has been cultivated for many years, in 
some parts of this country; but is very little 
known, and cannot be said to be fairly intro- 
duced in Western New York. It is not quite 
equal to timothy, in the nutritive quality of its 
hay; but it excels that species in other impor- 
tant qualities, especially for pasture. It starts 
earlier and more rapidly in the spring, continues 
its growth more uniformly throughout the sum- 
mer, and affords later pasturage in the fall. All 
kinds of stock are very fond of it, and it is said 
that sheep will pass over every other kind to 
feed on it. The late Col. Powel, of Pennsylva- 
nia, after cultivating this grass for ten years, 
declared it produced more pasturage than any 
other grass he had seen in America. Sinclair 
ranks it among the very first, especially for sheep; 
and its cultivation in England has greatly in- 
creased of late years, it having, with timothy, 
in a measure superseded rye grass, for sowing 
with clover. 

In the Transactions of the New York State 
Agricultural Society, for 1841, a writer, from 
IVladison county, states, that orchard grass is 
cultivated by some farmers in that county, and 
produces excellent hay, and abundance of pas- 



turage ; starting early in spring, and again after 
being mown. It also endures drought better, 
and yields feed later, than atiy other species ; is 
never killed by the winter, and its roots are ea- 
sily subdued. 

.Lucern, or French Clover, {Medicago Saliva.) — 
No plant has been more frequently or more 
strongly commended to the attention of Ameri- 
can farmers, during the past twenty years, than 
lucern ; yet it has never been fairly tried, except 
in a very few places, although it is found to be 
well adapted to the climate and soil of most 
parts of the United States, and of great produc- 
tiveness and value. 

The best soil for lucern is a deep sandy loam, 
free from wet, and having an open subsoil. In- 
attention to the kind of soil has been the cause 
of the failure of numerous experiments with 
this plant, in Western New York and elsewhere; 
and these frequent failures have tended to pre- 
vent its more general introduction. Another 
difficulty in the way, and a very serious one 
with some farmers, is, the land must be very 
free from weeds, or the crop kept clean by hoe- 
ing or weeding, the first year. . 

This is well illustrated by a writer in the An- 
napolis Republican, in speaking of a patch of 
lucern on the farm of William Johnson, Esq., 
of Somerset, county, Maryland. He says, "It 
consists of about three quarters of an acre; was 
sown in 1829, and has been cut — this makes 
the twelfth year. He keeps two horses and 
three cows ; has a full supply of milk and cream, 
and more butter than he knows what to do 
with — much more than can be said of many 
farmers who have five hundred acres of land, 
without a lot of lucern. This lot has been cut 
once over this season ; and now, before he can 
get half over again, the horses and cows getting 
more than they can devour, he will have to 
make hay of it, to prevent it from getting too 
old. It comes several weeks before clover — may 
be cut four or five times — strikes its root very 
deep, and, therefore, will stand dry weather, and 
will last, no one knows how long, for this is 
now a splendid crop, after being cut eleven years; 
and yet farmers won't sow it ! — even Mr. John- 
son's neighbors, with a few exceptions, and with 
his success staring; them in the face ! I told him, 
that the common objection urged against it was, 
that they cannot get it started — that the weeds 
and grass will smother it the first year. ' The 
way to manage it,' said he, 'is this: Take a 
rich lot of ground, on which the water does not 
lie winter nor summer; cultivate it previously 
in potatoes; sow your lucern broadcast, the 1st 
of May, 20 lbs. of seed to the acre, and in July 
cut it. You may suppose, from the looks of it 
the first season, that the weeds and grass would 
overcome it; but don't be alarmed. 'I hey die 
off, and the second year the lucern will survive, 
almost in immortal vigor.' 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



17? 



"Lucern possesses the remarkable character- 
istic of being exempt from that quality in clover, 
and other green meat, (as the English writers 
call it,) which makes them dangerous to give 
to horses when in active exercise. In other 
words, you may feed them as Mr. Johnson does 
his carriage horses, on lucern instead of dry 
fodder, or hay, and travel them on it fast or slow, 
without danger of touching their wind. Every 
one knows, that this can't be done with clover. 
But what signify a thousand arguments and 
illustrations? This, like others, will be read 
and thrown aside, as a thing that ' tells very 
well on paper,' but too troublesome to be put in 
practice!" 

Experiments with lucern were commenced in 
this State, as long ago as 1793 and 1794, by 
Chancellor Livingston, and one or two others, 
who published the results of their experiments, 
and advised its cultivation. Judge Buel, in the 
Cultivator of 1837, says, "We have had con- 
siderable experience in raising lucern during the 
last sixteen years. Until recently, we have 
found it an available crop, having been enabled 
to feed six or seven cattle upon an acre of it 
during the winter months; but for two or three 
of the last years our efforts to cultivate it have 
been less successful, on account of the severity 
of the winters, which has destroyed many of 
the plants; and the vexatious intrusion of other 
grasses, particularly of spear-grass." The late 
John Lowell, of Roxbury, Mass., cultivated lu- 
cern for more than twenty years, and warmly 
advocated its general cultivation. In a letter to 
the Editor of the New England Farmer, in 
1838, he says, "The lucern will give, in this 
Slate, two good crops the same season in which 
it is sown. Is there any other grass that will 
do this? It will endure the severest droughts, 
when all other grasses fail. It is the favorite 
grass of the horse and the cow. It will fatten 
thern faster than any other. It will do as much 
for a horse as an ample supply of grass and 
four quarts of grain a day, in keeping him in 
flesh and strength. But many persons have 
failed in attempts to raise it. And what then ? 
Does it follow that it is not worthy of culture? 
By no means. If one man uniformly succeeds 
for fifteen years, there must be some good reason 
why others do not succeed. Let us try to seek 
out the causes of their ill success. It is not the 
climate, because it stands our severest winters 
unhurt, when clover fails. It stands our severe 
droughts, when clover dies. 

" It is with me the richest treasure. My farm 
is small, it i3 true, but it is a grazing farm, and 
my produce is twenty tons of hay. Surely the 
experience of such a farmer, for fifteen years, is 
worth something. I have already cut two crops 
this season from lucern, sown in April last; and 
two crop3 from lucern two years old, and two 
'.rops of hay from lucern three years old, at the 
Vol. IV.-2S 



rale of three tons to the acre. I expect two 

crops more from each. 

The Editor of the "Farmers' Cabinet" ob- 
serves on this subject, " No crop can at all com- 
pare with lucern for quantity or quality, whether 
as green food for soiling, or as hay, of the most 
nutritious and fattening qualities. It is a grand 
mistake to suppose that a very rich soil is ne- 
cessary for its growth or well-being ; it is rather 
otherwise, the only sine qua non being a very 
dry subsoil and light surface ; upon such a soil 
the necessary means of support can be given by 
top-dressings of well composted manure, the 
chief regard being, that it contain no weeds. It 
is to be remarked, that hogs pastured on this 
grass require no other food, being often slaugh- 
tered, in fine condition, while feeding on that 
alone. The culture by drilling is not to be re- 
commended ; sow the seed thickly on a clean 
and well pulverized soil, either in the spring, 
the summer, or the autumn, without any other 
crop ; the plants will appear in a few days, and, 
if they are not choked with weeds, will soon 
overspread the land. An early and frequent 
cutting, giving them a fresh start over the weeds, 
and a slight harrowing after every cutting, will 
enable them to keep it. Truly, it is strange 
that such an invaluable crop is still confined to 
patches 'the third of an acre.' " 



For the Southern Planter. 
WORMS ON CABBAGE. 

Mr. Editor, — In your last number you copy 
from the Tennessee Agriculturist a mode of de- 
stroying worms on cabbage. I beg leave to 
offer a remedy for fhe evil, which I have no 
doubt will be found quite as effectual, and will 
give much less trouble. 

Take a few sprigs of pennyroyal and place 
them on each plant ; so long as they remain, 
the insect will cease its depredations. The de- 
struction to this valuable vegetable has become 
so great irom this insect, that I have regretted 
the remedy was not more generally known. . 
Yours, very truly, T. C, 

Albemarle, June 3, 1844. 



RESTORATION OF WORN-OUT LANDS. 

Some time since we published an account of 
the astonishing improvement of Dr. Noble, of 
Philadelphia, on a worn-out farm of his in De- 
laware, which he had bought at fifteen dollars 
per acre, and so fertilized in a short period as to 
produce upwards of forty-seven bushels of wheat 
per acre. In inserting that account we expressed 
the hope that the Doctor would favor the public 
with a particular account of the modus operandi 
pursued by him, in order that the agricultural 
public might be benefited. Some friend of the 



178 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Doctor has answered our inquiries in the an- 
nexed article, but we regret that he had not 
been more particular. — American Farmer. 

From the Farmers' Cabinet. 
WORN-OUT LANDS. 

In the American Farmer of December 27th, 
appeared an extract from a communication by 
John Jones, of Wheatland, to the Farmers' Ca- 
binet, in which he makes allusion to the aston- 
ishing effects brought about in the renovation 
of worn-out lands in Delaware, by Dr. Noble, 
of Philadelphia. On land which cost but fifteen 
dollars per acre, and produced but five bushels 
of wheat three years ago, by the application of 
eight loads of manure, costing (freight included) 
less than one dollar and fifty cents per load ; the 
Doctor has raised forty-seven bushels of wheat 
from one acre, and from the remainder rather 
less, the average being an enormous increase 
over the produce of former years. The Editor 
of the American Farmer expresses an "intense 
desire" to learn the secret by which the Doctor 
has been enabled, at the small expense of less 
than twelve dollars per acre, to effect such as- 
tonishing results. 

We would inform him, there is no secret 
whatever in the method pursued, but such as 
any farmer might discover for himself, if he 
would but take the trouble to read Some of the 
numerous works upon the application of Che- 
mistry to Agriculture, lately published. Know- 
ing by chemical analysis or examination, the 
composition of the grain and straw of wheat, 
and that of the soil, it was an eas} r matter to 
apply those materials which were needed, in 
order to produce a healthy and vigorous growth. 
He prescribed for his wheat and soil as he would 
for a patient, and with equal success ; health 
and strength have been restored to the suffering 
subject. 

Now, as to the sources of the manure which 
he has made use of, we will say a word ; it is 
in the power of every farmer, near large cities, 
to procure the materials which are needed to 
enrich the soil. 

The Doctor formed a compost obtained from 
various sources, consisting of the refuse of tan- 
ners', soap boiling establishments, &c, in short, 
of such animal and vegetable substances as con- 
tain soluble salts, or which can be made subser- 
vient to the growth of plants. In the selection 
of these substances he was guided by their com- 
position as made known by chemical analysis. 
" Give," says the rational agriculturist, " to one 
plant such substances as are necessary for its 
development, but spare those which are not re- 
quisite for the production of other plants which 
require them." 

"An emphatical," or quack system "of agri- 
culture, has administered the same kind of ma- 
nures to all plants, or where a selection has been 



made, it has not been based upon a knowledge 
of their peculiar composition." The phosphate 
of soda or lime, the silicate of potash, and sul- 
phate of ammonia, or other salts containing 
these in other combinations, are necessary for 
the production of wheat ; these have been sup- 
plied by the Doctor, and why should we be as- 
tonished at the results which have followed their 
application? He has adopted the scientific me- 
thod of manuring, and if his knowledge of the 
composition of the soil and wants of the crop 
was exact, and his conclusions correctly drawn, 
he could not err in the application of his ma- 
nures. His is indeed a triumph of science over 
the old fashioned, uncertain, and empirical mode 
of farming ; here is an example worthy the at- 
tention of every farmer, and especially should it 
be considered by those whom prejudice has so 
blinded that they cannot perceive the vast bene- 
fits arising from the judicious application of sci- 
entific knowledge to agriculture. It is indeed 
" creditable to the Doctor as a scientific farmer," 
we hail him as a benefactor, and desire that he 
may persevere in that path of usefulness in 
which he has found both pleasure and profit. 

J. S. L. 
Philadelphia, Second month 6th, 1 844. 



SPECIFIC MANURES FOR SPECIFIC 
PURPOSES. 

Many farmers suppose that all manures are 
similar in their nature, and have the same effect 
upon plants, whatever may be the structure, de- 
sign, or use of those plants. Most farmers are 
unwilling to believe that any thing is manure, 
except what may be of animal origin. We 
have long labored to convince them of the fal- 
lacy of this idea. As long ago as 1832, in an 
address delivered before the Kennebec County 
Agricultural Society, we ventured to hold the 
following language, which an honest old farmer 
told us, afterwards, did very well "for a flight? 
but he did not think much of it in practice. " If 
you want a large, succulent growth of any thing, 
use animal manures plentifully. If you want 
to raise pumpkins, squashes, or roots, grass, or 
any thing which is naturally pulpy and succu- 
lent, animal manure is the ingredient necessary. 
But wheat is by nature very different in its 
structure and composition from those. You 
want a comparatively hard, flinty straw, and you 
want a full and hard, flinty, dry kernel. Lime, 
alkalies, and such substances, are the proper 
materials to produce such crops." 

We are pleased to find that Mr. J. E. Tesche- 
macher, a practical and scientific horticulturist of 
Boston, in experimenting upon manures, and es- 
pecially upon Guano, the manure which is now 
brought from the coast of Chili, and is exciting 
much attention — has come to the conclusion that 
particular manures are adapted to the promotion 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



179 



of different parts of the plant. That if you wish 
to grow foliage and stem, certain manures will 
effect it. If you desire seed only, other kinds 
must be used in greater quantities than the other. 
In a very interesting communication, which he 
has published in the last (April) number of Ho- 
vey's Magazine of Horticulture, speaking of the 
action of Guano on the growth of various plants 
and fruits, he says: "It seems to me highty 
probable that certain manures are particularly 
conclusive to a luxuriant growth of stem and 
foliage, while others are pecularly so to the pro- 
duction of numerous and well filled seeds." 
He then goes on to state, in general terms, 
' that those manures which contain ammonia and 
alkaline matter, or the nitrogenous manures, are 
chiefly instrumental in producing stem, leaves, 
&c, while the phosphates of lime, of magnesia, 
and the sulphureous compounds, all of which 
exist in those seeds useful to man, are useful as 
a manure to promote the production of them, 
and while the former are first necessary to fit 
the plant with proper and strong organs for de- 
veloping the seed and for supplying these phos- 
phates, &c, it must be somewhere in the soil 
or supplied by man, or the seed will not fill out 
and be so full of the essential amount of the 
true material. We see this result oftentimes in 
many crops. We recollect that no longer ago 
than last year, we listened to the remark which 
one farmer made respecting the crop of another. 
Farmer A. had planted a certain piece of land, 
for ten years in succession, to Indian corn. It 
was a warm piece of land, and he put on a 
good dressing of manure from his barn windows. 
His brother remarked to us, one day, as the corn 
was coming up, that A. would have a good 
crop of stalks, " but now mind what I tell you, 
his ears of corn will have plaguy long snouts 
when he comes to husk them." We had the 
curiosity to examine the corn in the fall, and 
sure enough, there were but very few ears filled 
out over the end — they had " plaguy long ears." 
Indian corn, we all know, begins to fill 'at the 
bottom of the ear, and if there be the proper 
kind of matter in the soil and plant, to fill the 
whole ear out, it will continue to fill, kernel after 
kernel, until it is filled all over the end with 
sound corn, unless, as is sometimes the case in 
our latitude,. the season is not long enough to 
allow the filling process to go on until all are 
filled. This man had, by his good supply of 
animal manure, always made a good show, and 
obtained stalks and husks in abundance ; but 
he had robbed the soil of other food, such as 
phosphates, &c, and did not know that it was 
necessary to supply them. It is thought that 
Guano possesses the ingredients necessary for 
both stern and foliage, and for the seed too, if it 
be properly applied. 

We hope that Mr. T. and others will be en- 
abled to go on with their experiments, and de- 



velop facts which are needed, and which will 
be so valuable to farmers in a practical point of 
view. 

It is probable that the science of manureology 
will become so perfect, that any part of a plant 
can be so stimulated as to be grown to excess, 
by the proper application of the right manure. 
For instance, if you want all leaves, or big 
flowers, you can have them. If you want all 
seed, and but little foliage, you can have it, by 
only knowing a little more of the nature of the 
plant cultivated, and the material to be applied. 

JSlaine Farmer. 



For the Southern Planter. 
OX BREAK. 

Mr. Boils, — It seems necessary for me to ask 
you to make a correction relative to the ox 
break represented in the last number of the 
Planter. From the cut the ox appears to be 
standing beside the pole, in which position if he 
walks at all it must be sideways, or pull up the 
post. His position in the cut should be exactly 
fronting you, the end of the pole resting on his 
neck. In this case there will be no necessity 
for an extra yoke, two holes being bored in the 
pole for the reception of the bow. An ox to a 
cider mill, pushing, (not pulling in traces,) will 
give you an idea of the matter. 

P. B. W. 

Nolioivay, July 5, 1844. 

We are much pleased to hear that our friends 
in Nottoway are paying so much attention to 
the subject of fruit, considering as we do that 
the same amount of money and labor can in no 
way procure as much comfort, pleasure and 
health as that expended in the cultivation of 
fruit trees. We shall be much obliged to our 
correspondent for the communication on this sub- 
ject to which he alludes, as well as for any other 
his convenience may permit him to afford us. 



ENGLISH MODE OF KILLING RATS. 

In your valuable paper I have read a plan for 
the destruction of rats by poison, which is at all 
times dangerous to have on your premises. — 
Now I beg to submit a plan which, in my opi- 
nion, is much better, and will, if properly at- 
tended to, catch them by wholesale, viz : place 
an old corn bin in a quiet place, where the rats 
are known to frequent, on some bricks or wood 
about four inches off the ground ; make a hole 
in the bottom of it to admit them ; fit a slate 
between two grooved strips of wood to pull over 
the hole by a wire passing out through a small 
hole in the end of the bin, but the wire must not 
rest over the hole ; then with a string about forty 



180 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



or fifty yards long fastened to the wire, the trap 
will be complete. Place in the bin a loose tied 
faggot or two, to separate them from fighting, 
and put in three or four red herrings, barley 
meal, or new malt, &c, and let them have free 
ingress and egress for a week or so, feeding them 
every night, and when you are satisfied they 
have found out the entertainment, go quietly in 
the dark and pull the slate over the hole, and 
you will have a good sample of them ; they 
should be destroyed at once, or the bin should 
be lined with tin. — Mark Lane (London) Express. 



SUBSOIL PLOUGHING. 

We are highly gratified to observe an increasd 
attention to subsoil ploughing, for we consider if 
it could be generally introduced among us, it 
would be found one of the greatest agricultural 
improvements of the age. In vol. 1, page 199, 
we gave full details of the successful operation 
of the subsoil plough in England, where it was 
shown, that by its use, crops may be doubled 
without adding a particle of fertilizing materials 
to the land. Two years subsequent experience 
by the farmers of that country, corroborate the 
benefits to be derived by the free use of the sub- 
soil plough, for grain as well as root crops. Mr. 
Tilley recently asserted before the Cornwall 
Agricultural Association, that he had the past 
year raised hundreds of roots of mangelwurtzel, 
weighing twentj'-five pounds each; that the 
crop of these, per acre, a's well as carrots and 
turnips, wasat least doubled by subsoil ploughing. 

Five years ago we had a piece of land con- 
taining two and a quarter acres of a hard clay 
soil, which, with the best management we could 
besiow upon it, yielded less than one hundred 
and fifty bushels of potatoes to the acre, and 
four hundred of sugar beet — while parsnips, 
carrots, or any long roots, it would scarcely 
grow. We had just heard of Mr. Smith's sub- 
soil plough in Scotland, and determined upon an 
experiment. We had no plough of this descrip- 
tion, nor could we then obtain one; we accord- 
ingly took the mouldboard off from a large, 
strong road plough, and used the point of the 
share alone for subsoiling. We ploughed the 
land in the fall of the year, by taking a common 
plough and one yoke of cattle, and turning over 
a surface furrow six inches deep. We then 
followed directly after this in the same furrow, 
with three yoke of cattle attached to the road 
plough, stirring the soil eight inches deeper, 
making fourteen in all. This we then bounti- 
fully limed, and the next spring as bountifully 
manured and planted it with roots, and the fol- 
lowing autumn obtained over one thousand one 
hundred bushels of sugar beet to the acre from 
it, and other crops in proportion. 

Subsoil ploughs may now be had in this city, 
of excellent pattern and strongly constructed, 



from ten to fifteen dollars each, which will stir 
the earth from twelve to eighteen inches deep, 
requiring from two to five yoke of cattle to 
move them, according to the nature of the soil, 
and the depth required to plough. — American 
Agriculturist. 



For the Southern Planter. 
THE BARBERRY BUSH. 

" Woodman, spare that tree." • 

Mr. Editor, — While the subject as well as 
the weather is warm, one of your readers asks 
room to say to your Louisa correspondent and 
all others concerned, that the barberry is inno- 
cent of the charge of rust in the wheat. If rust 
is caused by an extrinsic emanation or poison 
from the suspected bush, this poison must be of 
its own kind and specific, and where the barber- 
ry was absent the mischief could not occur, but 
it. does occur where the bush is unknown, and, 
therefore, the bush and the rust do not stand in 
the relation charged. It, being considered me- 
dicinal, is generally planted in gardens near 
which the land is more fertile than elsewhere on 
almost every Virginia farm. The wheat sown 
near is ranker and, therefore, more favorable to 
the invasion of rust, whether it be a parasitic 
production like smut or is a rupture of the vas- 
cular system, as argued by some. A number 
of observations satisfies the writer that in either 
case a certain degree of heat approaching to 
that of our summer solstice occurring at a par- 
ticular stage of growth, is necessary to its de- 
velopment. He has seen under the shade of a 
tree the straw bright at harvest when the rest 
of the field was dark brown. He has this year 
reaped a lot of red May wheat free from rust, 
whilst on adjoining land a late wheat was much 
injured. That we in Virginia cannot with pro- 
bable success, raise the laie wheats seems gen- 
erally agreed on, because of its exposure to this 
evil. 

Could we sow our late wheats the last of Au- 
gust, as in the days of our ancestors, and avoid 
the ravages of the fly by grazing with sheep 
till the first of March, our harvest would proba- 
bly be so hastened as to avoid the rust and make 
heavier crops than from any forward kinds. 

Graybeard. 

My 2, 1844. 



CONTROLLING THE HORSE. 

The study of the temper, disposition, and con- 
trolling motives of the horse or the ox, is akin 
to that of mental philosophy, and when properly 
understood, assists in the training of animals, as 
it does in the education of children and youth. 
A man once owned a fine family horse which 
had every desirable quality except that he would 
take fright and run at the sight or noise of a 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



181 



drum. This rendered him unsafe ; but the 
owner, loth to part wilh him, endeavored to 
break him of this infirmity. For this purpose, 
he hired a celebrated rider, who mounted him 
well armed with spurs and whip, while another 
was employed to beat a drum. The horse, as. 
usual, was unmanageable, and the rider rowelled 
his sides with his spurs, and plied the lash most 
unsparingly. But it was all in vain, all rendered 
the animal more ferocious, un hi he became frantic 
with fear ; the owner abandoned the hope of 
eyer rendering him a safe family horse, and sold 
him at a reduced price. The purchaser, how- 
ever, proved himself more of a philosopher. He 



procured a large drum, placed it on end, and co- 
vered the top with oats. He then led the horse 
towards it. The animal, at fust, snorted and 
whirled around with great fury, but by gentle 
approaches, he was at last brought so near, as 
to snuff the oats. He then cautiously advanced, 
often retreating, but finally became bold enough 
to nibble a little; and after many snuffings and 
whirlings, he ale the whole. The next day the 
process was repeated with comparatively little 
trouble; and it was renewed from day to day 
until the horse grew fond of a drum, and would 
run towards it whenever he heard it beat. — Pro. 
Olmstead. 



For the Southern Planter. 
GATE. 




Mr. Editor, — I have seen many plans for gates 
in the Southern Planter but I have six made 
from models that are in the May and June num- 
bers of the Cultivator for 1842, which I prefer 
to any I have ever j'et seen. They are on the 
rail road plan, making a firm and lasting gate, 
with less expense than any I have ever seen, and I 
am henceforth and forever done wilh the old- 
fashioned hinge gale. As your object is im- 
provement, the cuts transferred from ihe Culti- 
vator to the Southern Planter might benefit your 
numerous readers. W. R. H. 

Charlotte, June 1, 1844. 

In accordance wilh the suggestion of our cor- 
respondent, we have transferred the cut from the 
Cultivation to our columns. We have heard 
others speak highly of this plan of gate, and 
we have no doubt it is in some inspects superior 
to the old swing gate. The only objection we 
see to it, is the upper rail, which might inter- 
fere with the passage of a loaded waggon ; 



though this inconvenience is avoided in a sub- 
sequent plan in which the gate runs back in 
grooves ; but where the difficulty alluded to was 
not regarded, we would prefer the first plan. 

The following is the description that accom- 
panies the cut : 

Messrs. Gaylord fy Tucker, — Accompanying 
I his is a rough sketch of my plan for a gate. 
You will at once see that it is on the rail road 
principle; and for that reason I think that it 
will go ahead. I think that this gate has many 
advantages over any that I have noticed. It 
makes a firm and lasting gate, with less expense 
than any that I have seen. It saves at least 
half an hour shovelling snow every morning 
after a snow storm ; it plays easily, and is not 
liable to get out of order. However, the gate 
will show for itself, and I will occupy no more 
of your invaluable paper, save a description. 

1, gate post 4 by 6 — 2, do., with a mortise, 
the same as the height of the gate — 3, 3, rails 



182 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



for the gate to roll upon — 4, two slats nailed on 
to post, four inches apart inside, to keep the gate 
from being pushed either in or out when shut — 

5, 5, upright posts to gate, 3 by 4, with a mor- 
tise in the upper end long enough to admit the 
rail and a cast iron or hard wood pulley 4 or 5 
inches in diameter, upon which the gate hangs — 

6, in a post set beside the fence merely for the 
purpose of mortising the rail into. The dimen- 
sions I have not given you, as they may be built 
of any size required. , M. 

Onondaga Co., Dec. 9, 1841. 



USES OF CHARCOAL. 

A fortnight ago we called the attention to the 
increasing evidence as to the value of charcoal 
as an agent of cultivation, and we alluded to the 
employment of it in the pine growing at Bicton. 
We have since received a letter from Mr. Barnes, 
in which he entirely confirms the statement we 
then made. " Charcoal," he says, " is the most 
astonishing article to make use of for all pur- 
poses of cultivation, and especially for plants 
under artificial treatment. I judge from many 
years experience in its use. What }'ou say re- 
specting my employing it largely among my 
pine soil is true. It consists of nothing but 
charcoal and loam, without a particle of manure 
of any sort. Every plant under my care has 
some charcoal used about it. I never yet saw 
the plant that did not delight in it, and to heaths 
it is most especially acceptable." It seems to 
us that opinions thus strongly expressed by one 
of the best gardeners in the country, must carry 
conviction to the most skeptical. However, we 
may as well mention a few other facts before we 
leave the question to the experimental proof to 
which it is now certain to be subjected all over 
the country. The other day Mr. Stewart, gar- 
dener at Stradsett Hall, exhibited to the Horti- 
cultural Society, some cucumbers grown in equal 
parts of loam and charcoal, without any manure. 
No stimulant could have given better fruit, so 
far as health was concerned. The author of the 
" Rural Economy of the Midland Counties," 
states that the fragments of charcoal left by the 
charcoal burners have been found of great be- 
nefit to land. He reports them to be, in his 
time, in esteem as a manure for turnips, and for 
fining grass land. The well known operation 
of paring and burning has been supposed to 
prove so beneficial in consequence of its remov- 
ing insects, and destroying the cohesiveness of 
stiff clays. The latter is no doubt, its effect in 
part ; but we entertain no doubt that the char- 
coal formed from the roots of grass and other 
plants is also of much importance in the opera- 
tion. Try, for example, brick dust, — which is 
burnt clay without charcoal, — and the burnt 
clods of the fields, containing charcoal against 
each other, and the distinction will soon be seen ; 



yet so far as mechanical alteration of the texture 
of the soil is of value, they are not in a very 
different state. Then listen to what is stated 
by Mr. Rivers in the last edition of his " Rose 
Amateurs' Guide:" — "I have used," he says, 
•"with much success (for roses in pots,) turf 
roasted on a sheet of iron placed in temporary 
brick work, under which a moderate fire has 
been kept : about one hour's roasting is suffi- 
cient. This chars the under side, and acts most 
beneficially." — (P. 192.) We have reason to 
know that this is a most important fact in the 
management of roses in pots ; and let the reader 
consider how entirely it confirms all that we 
have said on the subject. When we last men- 
tioned this matter we quoted the experiments of 
Mr. Rigg, against the assertions of other che- 
mists, to prove that charcoal will form carbonic 
acid with the oxygen of the atmosphere, under 
ordinary circumstances. We have since met 
with a passage in De Candolle's " Physiology," 
which shows that we do not stand alone in our 
belief that charcoal does, even in the air, form 
gaseous combinations of some sort or other, and 
so furnishes food to plants, independently of the 
matters it may be able to condense within its 
pores. " Count Rumford," says M. De Can- 
dolle, "has proved by direct experiment, that 
charcoal, so long regarded as one of the most 
fixed of known substances, is capable of com- 
bining with oxygen, and forming with it carbo- 
nic acid, at a temperature very far below that at 
which it burns perceptibly. This slow combi- 
nation of charcoal with oxygen explains why 
those places in the woods where the charcoal 
burners have ' been at work, although at first 
sterile, became fertile in proportion as the char- 
coal combines with the oxygen of the atmos- 
phere to form carbonic acid, which dissolves in 
the surrounding water." We may add that the 
qualit}' of charcoal is much improved by steep- 
ing it in liquid manure; and that the lighter 
and more spongy it is, the better for the purposes 
of the cultivator. — English paper. 



For the Southern Planter. 
TOBACCO PREMIUMS. 

Premiums, on tobacco, will be awarded in 
1845, at the warehouses in Farmville, on hogs- 
heads exhibited from the growing crop. Farther 
particulars will hereafter be announced by the 
Inspectors. It is deemed proper to give planters 
who may wish to compete for the prize this 
early notice. p****_ 

Farmville, July 10, 1844. 



MARLING. 
We have received from our correspndent X. 
a translation from the French upon the subject 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



183 



of marling. The term marl is a very general 
one, and is not used in Europe to designate ex- 
actly what is meant by it in this country — some 
of the observations of the French author are, 
therefore, inapplicable to the subject as we un- 
derstand it. We would greatly prefer the ori- 
ginal article to which our correspondent alludes 
and which his experience in marling would ren- 
der very valuable to our readers. 



PRODUCTIVE FARMS. 

To a person not familiarly acquainted with 
the history and statistics of English husbandry, 
the extreme productiveness of the farms of that 
country, will appear incredible. Nearly nine- 
tenths of the cultivated land in Great Britain 
and Ireland, are rented to tenants, who pay, 
usually, from four to five pounds sterling per 
acre annual rent. Where is the farmer, in this 
country, who could live under such a burden % 
Here, a farm comprising a hundred acres, is often 
rented for one hundred dollars, and even at this 
rate, the tenant has a hard task. The cultiva- 
tion, even where there are a large number of 
acres in grass, will little more than pay the rent 
and taxes ; but in England the result is widely 
different. The tenant who there pays five pounds 
sterling, per acre, annual rent, and finds all ap- 
pliances, obtains not only a comfortable living, 
but in many cases wealth, from the prosecution 
of a business which here, with like hardens, 
would doom him to want and misery. 

In 1811, Irwin estimated the produce of one 
English farm of 890 acres, at .£8,578, — or 
$38,000 ! The quantity of manure applied 
was 13,746 one-horse cart loads in one year, 
and 10,250 the next ! Now, admitting the rent 
of this farm to be $12 per acre, and the cost of 
manure and its application $12 more ; and if to 
this sum we add, for interest, or expenses, taxes, 
and the various contingent expenses of cultiva- 
tion, &c. $12 more, we shall find upon striking 
the balance, that there will remain a profit of 
$10 the acre, amounting in the gross aggregate, 
to the sum of $10,000 clear gain to the tenant 
in a single year ! 

In the vicinity of London, a hay farm com- 
prising 160 acres, was rented. The rental in 
th'i3 instance, was $12 per acre, amounting in 
the whole to $1,920 per year. A very heavy 
expenditure was required for manure — probably 
as much as many a New England farmer would 
have been willing to give for the land, and yet 
the tenant succeeded, and has since become 
wealthy, and with no other income than the 
produce of hia farm. 

In Ireland, a poor tenant hired an acre of land, 
erected his cottage, purchased manure and farm- 
ing tools, and the first season cleared all expenses 



and had a balance of £8 left. And yet that 
Irish .peasant, in addition to the expenses and 
outlays above enumerated, had a church tax to 
pay, and to be at the expense of purchasing his 
own seed, and maintaining a family of four be- 
sides himself and wife. The frugality of the 
Irish peasantry is proverbial. But there was 
something more than mere frugality at the bot- 
tom of this man's success. There was thorough 
cultivation — a thing which in New England may 
be said to be wholly unknown. This is the 
mystery, and the only one. That Irish peasant, 
with like expenses, would have starved here on 
forty acres, with our cultivation. — Conn. Courant. 



For the Southern Planter. 

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM A SOUTHERN 

PLANTER. 



Allow me, Mr. 
about and to 



NO. II. 

June 29, 1844. 
Editor, to say a few words 



OVERSEERS. 

I design confining my remarks to an evil 
which " exists, is increasing, and should be di- 
minished" in Virginia. I refer to the custom of 
employing overseers, long before their services 
are required, — in some communities, six months 
before the commencement of the year. This is 
an evil, I maintain, which operates detrimentally 
to the farmer and also to the good overseers. — 
Formerly, engagements, between employers and 
overseers, were made, certainly, not earlier than 
October. But in "this age of improvement" in 
some counties, the June court days, by common 
consent, are the periods of making these con- 
tracts : and if this spirit of " improvement" con- 
tinues to progress it will be thought necessary, 
at no distant day, to make engagements in Jan- 
uary for the year commencing the next January. 

The following example will illustrate one of 
the chief evils of the custom referred to. The 
farmer employs an overseer who commences in 
January : if he is a good overseer, his services 
will be highly valued by his employer ; on the 
other hand, if he is an unfaithful and indifferent 
agent, the blue thistle is far more desirable on 
the plantation. If of the former character, his 
employer will desire to retain hirn. The proof 
of his merits is best shown by the manner in 
which he discharges his duties while in your 
employment. But before he has been your 
agent for a period of six months — before he has 
pitched his crop, or at least before he has shown 
an ability to manage a crop — before you have 
had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with 
his qualifications, he wants employment for the 
next year. And the maintenance of himself 
and little family perhaps makes it necessary for 
him to secure employment for the next year. 



184 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Delay may deprive him of the means of support. 
If you employ him, you run the risk (often wo- 
fully realised) of being afflicted for eighteen 
months with a worthless overseer. 

The evil is not confined to the employer. — 
Here, let me call the attention of the really good 
overseers of the country, who form one of the 
most useful classes of every community, to one 
fact. A consequence of this custom is, that the 
overseer, whose merits entitle him to praise and 
to good wages, and the overseer, who is not en- 
titled to trust and confidence, both stand on the 
same footing ; the proof of their respective me- 
rits by the month of June may be the same, 
from favorable seasons or other causes. So far 
as condition of the crops is concerned they oc- 
cupy precisely the same situation ; they show 
equal claims to patronage. Here is a man who 
is industrious, honest, in the ancient meaning of 
that word, really desirous to advance the inter- 
ests of his employer ; he has one of the apostolic 
requisites of a good wife, " a keeper at home ;" 
in a word, he is worth a whole regiment of such 
as the cunning competitor for his place. There 
is a fellow just come to the neighborhood, who 
knows that his conduct for the first few months 
may determine his destiny for the next eighteen ; 
he " acts well his part" for six months and is in 
more senses than one a promising (never fulfill- 
ing) young man. With all the appearance of 
merit, he may be wholly unqualified for his re- 
sponsible station. There are tricks in every 
trade: he either retains his place or undermines 
a worthier man, and for eighteen months he is 
quarter'd on you. He will keep just within 
the letter of your contract: in his employer's 
presence his effort is to please: let his back be 
turned, he is soon " monarch of all he surveys." 
His cow, his riding horse, (one of your best,) 
his fowls, live on the fat of the land. Should 
you return home suddenly, or should you visit a 
farm on which you have placed him alone, ten 
to one, you will not find him : he is at a neigh- 
borhood village or grog-shop : he has discovered 
that he was " cut out" for a politician, and be- 
comes the warm advocate of some hunter of 
place, some " angler after fame," some little- 
great man, who wants office, and tells us 
that we are the wisest and best of the human 
race, especially the aforesaid overseer. He is 
one of the patrol and visits every body's house 
but his employer's, and believes that there is no 
luxury equal to finding a negro without a "pass." 
With your negroes he "wages perpetual war- 
fare ;" and Cuff (if he is a home-staying body,) 
and " O'seer" are any thing but " natural allies." 
Such a nuisance cannot well be fully described 
by the English language. You may have been 
led to employ such an one to the exclusion of 
another who would have made you a faithful 
agent, whose crop in June may have presented 
about the same appearance as the rival appli- 



cant for your favor. After some two or three 
such misfortunes, having enjoyed a small annui- 
ty from the farm of which you have nominally 
been the owner and from which two or three in- 
different overseers have drawn all the profits, 
you either sell out or make up your mind that 
the whole race of overseers are worthless. While 
it is not pretended that the fact of the many 
cases of imposition similar to the one referred 
to is wholly attributable to the custom referred 
to, yet it is evident that the evils to the employer 
and to the really good overseers of the country, 
above mentioned, often originate in the cause 
which I have stated; and I maintain, that if 
November, after the crop of the year is gathered, 
was the period of making contracts between 
overseers and employers, it is fair to presume 
that we should not be so liable to be deceived. 

The remedy for the evil is the removal of the 
cause. Let any dozen farmers co-operate, or let 
this subject be considered by our Clubs and So- 
cieties ; and let it be even among a few agreed 
that overseers shall not be employed till October. 
The evil will be removed : a greater stimulus to 
exertion to please will be held up before the 
3'oung overseers, at least, of the country; the 
employer and overseers will here have an op- 
portunity of better knowing each other, and 
other manifest benefits will result from such a 
change of a bad custom. 

It is, Mr. Editor, among the most auspicious 
signs of the times that the overseers of the 
country are beginning to be readers of agricul- 
tural journals. I am happy to know that such 
is the fact with regard to your valuable Planter. 
This spirit should be encouraged. The over- 
seers of Virginia stand in a most responsible 
position ; and that correspondent of yours who 
will address your readers a series of practical 
essays on the duties arising from the relation of 
employers and overseers will accomplish good. 
Could you devise some method of getting the 
overseers, whose experience and age entitle their 
opinions to weight, to become correspondents of 
the Planter, much valuable matter would thus 
be laid before the public. 

We have heard complaints elsewhere of the 
inconvenience arising from the custom of early 
ensrae-ements of overseers, and we know that 
one Agricultural Club has resolved by unani- 
mous resolution, that the members would not 
hereafter contract with their overseers for the 
next year before the first day of the November 
county court preceding. One great advantage 
derived from these Clubs, is the result effected 
by the force of united co-operation. 

July 9, 1844. 
tanner's bark. 

Mr. F., of P. E., had a very large heap of 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



185 



fanner's bark from his vats. He set fire to it 
when dry, and it continued to burn until con- 
sumed, (for some weeks, I think,) and he has 
now a large quantity of ashes, making', thus, a 
most excellent manure, which may be trans- 
ported much easier than the bark. He has ap- 
plied the ashes to grass, which grew rapidly, 
and he has no doubt of the great value of his 
ash heap. Our tanners might profit by the ex- 
ample. "For stiff, cold and heavy lands, a 
compost of one part of farm yard manure to 
three or four of tanner's spent bark is better than 
even stable manure." The ashes, however, may 
be mixed in the compost in smaller quantities. 

PLUM TREES. 

Plant them in the middle of walks or paved 
yards, if you wish to avoid many of the ills, 
that plums are heir to. 

GAPES IN CHICKENS. 

Mrs. E. a " gude housewife" and great chick- 
enarian(!), to whom I read the communication 
on this subject in the July number of the Planter, 
adds the following cure of gapes : — " Put the 
chicks in a covered basket and hold the basket 
over a pretty strong tobacco smoke, and smoke 
them till they get drunk enough to cease crying. 
But avoid the error committed by a good lady, 
who followed the latter part of the prescription 
too literally. She waited till the chicks had 
ceased crying, but waited too long: they had 
died. Young turkeys are benefited by the same 
application. 

A GOOD BLACK DYE. 

For two yards of cloth take 5 lbs. of logwood, 
3 oz. of blue vitriol; boil the logwood, say eight 
or ten hours, strain it, add the vitriol and when 
dissolved, put in the cloth and boil gently one 
hour, then put into cold water. 

AN EXPERIMENT IN DRAINING. 

I had a very wet, boggy piece of land which 
had been so overrun for years with a small 
branch that I almost despaired of bringing it into 
successful cultivation. This year I had a ditch 
dug on the lowest part of the land sufficient to 
carry the branch : this, however, did not drain 
it. My overseer feemed very desirous to add 
it to an adjoining lot of tobacco, and being a 
skilful and industrious (and young) manager, I 
told hirn to "try his hand," doubting his"suc- 
cess. He, however, went to work and has now 
a superior lot of tobacco. The following is his 
plan: He turned it up very deep (this, by the 
way, should have been done early in the fall,) 
with a four horee plough; laid off the land in 
high beds about twenty-five to thirty feet wide ; 
thefurrow3 on each side of the bed being parallel 
to the ditch which carried the branch, and deep 
and! well cleaned : he then run the ploughs, in 
Vol. IV.— 24 



making the rows for the tobacco hills, across 
these vnde beds, and thus had small cross-drains, 
made by the tobacco rows, running perpendicu- 
larly to the deep furrows. The land was thus 
completely drained. The crop of tobacco will, 
no doubt, more than doubly compensate for the 
comparatively small extra labor. Let me here 
say, Mr. Edilor, that this experiment will, no 
doubt, appear to many of your readers as un- 
important, and as taking up too much of your 
valuable columns. Strike out or amend as you 
think best. It being an actual experiment I 
thought it might add a mite to the increasing 
mass of testimony in favor of thorovgh draining. 
The fact, however, which I designed, when I 
took up my pen, to direct your attention, was, 
that the cross drains, formed by the tobacco 
rows, were most important in the experiment. 
Most planters run their rows parallel to the main 
furrows: the subsequent cultivation with ploughs 
is thus easier. In wet lands, old meadows or 
flats, for instance, this cross running of rows is 
preferable. 

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 

You were pleased, Mr. Editor, to approve of 
my making calls on several gentlemen in my 
last number to come out from their hiding places 
and to give their brother farmers the benefit of 
their "lights." I trust that your seeond to the 
call may bring them among your contributors. 
They, and others, whom I could name, can and 
ought to comply with your request. They are, 
I know, patriots. I again appeal to such to 
"come up to your help." And what has be- 
come of your former correspondent Dr. N. A. 
Venable, of Lunenburg? I read with much 
pleasure and profit his sensible essays on ihe to- 
bacco culture. I hope we shall hear from him 
again. 

Give me leave to add, in conclusion, that if 
these and many other able gentlemen in Virgi- 
nia, who can do so, will respond to my humble 
and your more weighty appeals, no one will 
more willingly give place to them, or more glad- 
ly "sit at their feet and learn" than your friend 
and 

Obedient servant, 

South Side. 



TIME OF CUTTING WHEAT. 
We have published various opinions upon the 
proper time for cutting wheat. Two or three 
years ago, Mr. Hannam, of England, published 
some statements of the advantageous result of 
cutting wheat in the milk or dough state. This 
lead to many experiments, some of which were 
made in this State and reported to us. The 
general result was far from favorable to the ex- 
periment. The grain shrunk and shwelled and 



186 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



was totally unfit for market. But we are now 
inclined to think that in most of these cases the 
time recommended was misunderstood and the 
wheat was cut too early. At any rate, subse- 
quent experiments seem to determine that wheat 
should be cut before the berry becomes hard and 
fully matured. The Editor of the Agriculturist 
says, " When the berry of any kind of grain 
has well filled and just begun to glaze, so that 
passing the thumb nail over it leaves a slight 
indenture, is the best time for cutting." Upon this 
subject the Editor of the Prairie Farmer says: 

" There is a growing conviction, among far- 
mers, that it is advisable to cut wheat much 
earlier than has been usually the practice. We 
have heretofore published some experiments, 
which established the fact conclusively, that 
wheat which is cut while in the milk, is much 
heavier and makes better flour than that which 
is cut when fully ripe. These experiments we 
advert to with the more confidence, as they are 
corroborated by a great number of experiments 
made by others, with the same results. 

" Nor are the incidental advantages of early 
cutting to be overlooked. A farmer may be 
able by early cutting, frequently to avoid the 
calamity of rust, which is often so destructive 
in large sections of country. Loss by shelling 
is almost wholly avoided, and the straw if used 
for feeding cattle, is much enhanced in value. 

" The grain should not be cut, however, as 
soon as it. is in milk, as in such case it v/ill 
shrink ; but, while the milk can still be expressed 
between the thumb and finger; and when the 
straw has turned yellow a few inches above the 
roots. At this time, the milk of the grain will 
be in the condition of starch or glue. After this, 
if the grain be allowed to stand, the straw will 
soon begin to draw upon the kernel for the nour- 
ishment which properly belongs to the latter. — 
It was in this condition that the wheat of Mr. 
Pell, of New York, was cut last season, which 
weighed sixty-five pounds to the bushel ; and of 
which he produced a little more than seventy- 
eight bushels to the acre. 

" We have been told, however, by an expe- 
rienced farmer, that this mode of cutting does not 
answer so well for wheat which is intended for 
seed. This should be allowed, as he informed 
us, to ripen fully upon the ground. 

"As there will probably be an immense har- 
vest this season, it is of additional interest to the 
farmer to know, that he can proceed to the busi- 
ness earlier than he has been accustomed to, not 
only without loss, but with decided profit." 

We would be obliged to any of our own cor- 
respondents for additional information upon this 
interesting subject. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 
TO PRESERVE TOMATOES, 

Messrs. Editors, — As I am very fond of to- 
matoes, and have a way of preserving them to 
use, when the season for them is over, a way 
which I have never seen proposed, although 
others may have heard of it, I have concluded 
to send it to you, that you may publish it if you 
think proper: 

Dip the ripe tomatoes in scalding water, peel 
them, and divide them into two, or if very thick 
through, three slices, lay them on plates and put 
them into the oven after the bread is drawn; if 
a good oven, by the time it is cool, or in forty- 
eight hours, they will be perfectly dried ; put 
them into paper bags and keep in a dry place - 
when wanted for use, dip them into cold water 
and lay them on a dish to swell, and in a mince 
or stew, they are almost equal to the fresh fruit. 
If you wish to make tomato sauce, add a little 
water to cook them in. They are very good to 
eat out of hand in the dry state. 

A Female Reader. 

Brooklyn, May 6, 1844. 



TOBACCO. 

The question has been often asked, is tobacco 
an exhausting crop, and the answer has been 
generally of an affirmative character. It is un- 
doubtedly true that improvement seldom goes 
hand in hand with the cultivation of tobacco, 
and it is true, as a general rule, that the most 
exhausted lands are those which have been de- 
voted to its cultivation. But we had been in- 
clined to attribute these facts rather to the con- 
stant attention required by the culture of tobac- 
co, whereby the planter is deprived of any time 
for improvement than to any peculiarly exhaust- 
ing qualities in the plant itself. But we have 
been looking over a series of essays published 
in the American Agriculturist on this subject 
from the pen of Dr. Gardner, Lecturer on Agri- 
cultural Chemistry in New York, and he states, 
that tobacco, in the few months of its growth, 
consumes 170 lbs. of mineral matter to the acre, 
which is much more than wheat or any other 
grain carries off in the eight or nine months of 
its growth. Dr. Gardner's theory is, that mi- 
neral salts and ammonia are necessary to the 
growth of plants — that the salts are found more 
or less in every earth, and that some plants, as 
particular forest trees, the natural grasses, clover, 
&c. are capable of drawing all their gaseous 
food from the air ; whilst others, which are pe- 
culiarly rich in nitre and ammonia, as tobacco, 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



187 



depend chiefly for their supply upon the decay 
of vegetable matter. This vegetable matter is 
not only useful in yielding an additional supply 
of nitrogen, but it also furnishes an accumulated 
quantity of carbonic acid. The mineral salts 
which exist in the earth, and which we have 
said were necessary to the growth of the plant, 
can only be used when the} 7 are dissolved, and 
they are only soluble in carbonic acid. But the 
carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere is not ab- 
sorbed fast enough to dissolve the quantity of 
the mineral salts in the earth required by the 
speedy growth of the tobacco plant. Hence, a 
large proportion of vegetable matter, or manure, 
w T ill be consumed in this process. 

But Dr. Gardner thinks that there is another 
mode of obtaining a sufficiency of these solvent 
substances besides the addition of vegetable 
matter to the soil, viz: by increasing the porosi- 
ty of the soil. This may be effected by pulver- 
izing or by paring or burning, but we will let 
the Doctor speak for himself: 

"1. To Pulverize the Soil. — When it is adhe- 
sive and wanting in porosity, it must be ren- 
dered fine. This may be accomplished by many 
means, in different localities. If lime is abun- 
dant, and the land a stiff clay, it should be used 
freely, drainage may be necessary, admixture 
with vegetable matter, as leaves, sawdust, muck, 
fallowing crops, burning clay, repeated stirring, 
rolling, &c. 

" By pulverizing the soil two important points 
are attained : first, the greater absorption of 
gaseous matter, dew, and fluids from the air : 
and secondly, the means of dissolving saline 
matters, are increased. Beside these advan- 
tages, the plant is enabled to draw food from a 
much greater extent, and the improvement, if 
properly made, is a permanent advantage to the 
land. 

"The absorption of gaseous matter is increased 
to an extent directly proportional to the fineness, 
and looseness of the soil. This requisite to fer- 
tility is certainly appreciated by many farmers, 
but there are none who are fully alive to its ca- 
pabilities. So much may be accomplished in 
agriculture by attending to this one point that 
it may be made the first, and only principle of 
successful farming, provided the mineral compo- 
sition of the earth is suitable. Everyone is 
now aware that plants will grow and flourish 
in charcoal powder watered with rain water, 
sufficient saline matter being present. Yet the 
charcoal, properly so called, independently of the 
bodies which adhere to it, furnishes no part of 
the food of plants, not so much as the clay of 
the field. It acts in consequence of its extraor- 
dinary porosity in absorbing and holding a suffi- 



cient amount of the carbonic acid, and ammonia 
of the air, to answer the necessities of the most 
luxuriant vegetation. Its action is undiminished 
for years so long as it is in contact with air. — 
There may be a slight difference, in the propor- 
tions of gaseous matters which clay absorbs, 
when compared with charcoal, but leaving that 
out of consideration, it may be proved that if 
the clay of the surface-soil could be reduced to 
the same condition of porosity, it would perform 
the very same office as charcoal, and constitute, 
in itself a sufficient material whereon the most 
luxuriant plants might be raised, provided, as 
before, the necessary saline matters were present. 
Common clay cannot be brought into this state 
of maximum porosity by mechanical means, for 
it differs from charcoal in its intense cohesion 
for water; but when it has been burned,' this 
point of difference is destroyed and the two now 
resemble one another very closely in this physi- 
cal property, and are equally known, as well as 
coal cinders which act in the same way, as fer- 
tilizing agents. 

" The doctrine advanced is not new, the inde- 
fatigable Jethro Tiill, as the result of mere ex- 
perience, wrote on it, and secured among other 
illustrious disciples the name of Duhamel. Lie- 
big applying the measures given by Dalton for 
the absorbent power of boxwood charcoal, and 
which are very far beyond an expression of the 
real absorption by pine charcoal exposed to mois- 
ture on the open field, was the first to account 
for one feature of the advantage gained by pul- 
verizing the soil. But neither he, nor any other 
writer on agriculture, has alluded to the fact, 
that dissimilar soils absorb unequal quantities of 
the components of the atmosphere. This is a 
topic of great importance in practice, and should 
be submitted to rigid experiment. From this 
investigation will appear the reason why certain 
iron-stone lands and fine clays are so decidedly 
superior to loose sandy soils. It leads also to 
the conclusion, that an addition of barren sand 
to clay is injudicious on the whole, for the same 
expense directed to burning the surface, or turn- 
ing in green fallows would lead to much more 
real advantage. 

"Again, we learn by the result of the forego- 
ing practice, as well as from investigations with 
charcoal, that those plantssuch as tobacco, James- 
townweed, wheat, &c, which do not draw suffi- 
cient nitrogen from the air for luxuriant growth, 
may be abundantly supplied in a highly porous 
soil, solely of mineral earth, without humus. — 
That decaying vegetable matter is not to them 
food, but only the gaseous bodies which they 
yield by decay, that the same gases absorbed 
by certain porous minerals from the atmosphere 
are adequate to their development. 

" The farmer, therefore, is put in possession of 
an important principle, which may be satisfied 
by very dissimilar practice. He learns that ve- 



18S 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



getable matter is unnecessary to fertility, where 
his soil is sufficiently ameliorated by burning 
for increased porosity, or that if burning is im- 
proper, as in sand}' and limestone soils, he can 
secure the object aimed at by impregnating the 
land with vegetable matter or adding charcoal 
or burnt clay from elsewhere." 

He concludes by saying, 

" But there are two essentially distinct and 
essentially important principles in the cultivation 
of such plants as tobacco and wheat. 

" 1. The presence of saline matters. 

"2. The presence of ammonia, &c, in the 
soil, either in virtue of an abundance of decay- 
ing vegetable matter, or by reason of the, porosi- 
ty of the soil. 

" Let me be well understood : the two princi- 
ples laid down, if correctly apprehended, point out 
the method of treatment to be pursued in every 
case, but I leave the question of expediency and 
profit to the farmer ; he must decide whether, to 
attain the second desideratum, he will burn a 
stiff cla}', or fallow, with clover ; both will an- 
swer the end, but the former is more durable, for 
a good burning will show its effects for seven or 
more years. In sandy tracts we may improve 
by fallows, charcoal, &c, but cannot by burning, 
which increases the looseness of the soil. Lime- 
stone lands must not be burnt, for obvious reasons. 
D. P. Gardner, M. D., . 
Lecturer on Agricultural Chemistry. 

Neiv York, June, 1844. 1 ' 



MECKLENBURG, 

We have just returned from a visit to the 
•county of Mecklenburg, full of admiration of 
the country and its inhabitants. Surely, the ad- 
vantages of this delightful region are unknown 
to others as they were to us. 

On Tuesday, the 2d of July, we left the city 
of Richmond, and by way of rail road reached 
Ridgway, North Carolina, on the morning of 
the 3d. Permit us to say, that this rail road 
from Petersburg out, is one of the most indiffer- 
ent in construction and conducted with the least 
regard to the comfort and convenience of pas- 
sengers, that it has ever fallen to our lot to en- 
counter. The country through which we passed 
presents in general a gloomy and melancholy 
aspect. The barrenness of the soil on the ridges 
is hardly less painful to the eye than the jaun- 
diced and sickly appearance of the inhabitants 
on the flats. But as we approached the Roan- 
oke, in travelling from Ridgway to Boydton, 
the scene was entirely changed. Instead of the 
harren sands and stumpy pines of which the 



eye had wearied in the travel of the day before;, 
we passed through a fine red soil, abounding iis 
hickory, poplar, dogwood, and locust : as we ap- 
proached nearer to the river, these natives of the 
forest began to yield to highly cultivated tobacco 
lots and magnificent fields of waving corn. — 
Nothing can be more beautiful than the smiling" 
appearance of this fertile region at this delight- 
ful season. 

We met our friends of the Hole and Corner 
Clubs at Boydton, on the fourth, and never have 
we seen that glorious day more elegantly or 
more appropriately celebrated than in the agri- 
cultural zeal that was manifested by the mem- 
bers on this occasion. The day itself was a 
most charming one, the assembly numerous, the 
table of mine host, Mr. Boyd, groaned under 
the luxuries of the season, and all was plea- 
sant mirth and delightful hilarity. It was charm- 
ing to one who has been too long accustomed 
to the stiffness, the pretension, and the hollow- 
ness of city forms, to witness the frankness, the 
cordiality and the kindness of these really ele- 
gant and polished country gentlemen. If we 
wished to show a stranger a specimen of what 
he had heard so much of, the " Old Virginia 
gentleman," we would take him to the county 
of Mecklenburg. 

We spent several days with our friends in the 
vicinity of Boydton, and we can assure them 
that their kindness and hospitality made an im- 
pression on our heart, never to be effaced. 

We visited several line estates upon the Roan- 
oke, and were not less surprised than delighted 
at the beauty and fertility of the country. The 
low grounds are, we think, perhaps, originally 
rather lighter, and generally more worn, than 
the James River flats. But they have the great 
advantage of being much freer from overflow. 
We saw what is very rare here, two or three 
hundred acres of these low grounds in their pri- 
mitive state, a large portion of it indeed in its 
original forest giowth. Nothing can exceed the 
fertility of such land. The corn, which was 
planted as thick as it could stand, was enor- 
mous in size, and almost black in color; whilst 
the weeds, which it was impossible to keep 
down, were hardly less luxuriant than the corn. 

The highland, which is generally of a light 
chocolate color, is equal, we think, to any we 
ever saw. A very frequent rotation in this 
part of the country is corn, wheat, and grazing ; 
all the manure being reserved for the tobacco 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



189 



lots. Notwithstanding this skinning process to 
which it had been subjected for fifty years, we 
saw this land bearing a crop of at least eight 
barrels of corn to the acre. If this be not a test 
of good land, we know not what is. 

Tobacco is the great market crop of this re- 
gion, but we have never seen a country better 
adapted to the growth of wheat and clover. 

With a judicious rotation of crops, and a 
proper use of clover and plaster, these lands 
could be brought to a state of fertility not to be 
excelled by any in Virginia. The highlands 



are sold for from ten to twenty dollars per acre, 
and the lowgrounds are valued at from thirty to 
fifty. An estate of a thousand acres, contain- 
ing, say two hundred and fifty acres of lowland, 
can be purchased for about fifteen thousand dol- 
lars. For the natural advantages of soil, supe- 
riority of climate, and the benefit of the most 
refined and elegant society, we have never seen 
any part of the world, to which we would re- 
commend a gentleman wishing to invest his 
funds in real estate, in preference to this Roan- 
oke country. 



For the Southern Planter. 
BUDDING. 




a* 7> 




ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON FRUIT TREES. 



Mr. Botls, — The methods of raising fruit trees 
are various and the results often fruitless. One 
method, principally recommended by almanac 
makers, (and none the less believed in by some 
on that account,) is to stick a twig into a potato 
in the spring and bury it in the ground. Some- 
times wax is used instead of the potato. That 
this method ever succeeded I know not, but the 
former was tried the past spring with signal 
success — that is to say, the individual succeeded 
in raising an unusually fine crop of potatoes — 
nothing more. 

The truth is, Mr. Editor, all such efforts at 
raising- fruit trees will produce little else than 
"small potatoes." One in a hundred may grow 
but the ninety and nine will be likely to come 
up missing. Why then may not, or rather will 
not, every individual who desires to raise an or- 
chard, adopt one of those two plans that have 
been tried with entire success by thousands, and 
I may say for thousands of years ? Some men, 
it is admitted, do not succeed at budding or 
grafting who succeed admirably in other things 
that require more labor, more skill, and more 
constant attention. Such know not the plea- 



sures or the profits that flow (not through the 
worm of the still) from an orchard of well se- 
lected fruits. 

The methods of grafting are numerous, and 
some of them complicated. The one which I 
have adopted is simple and tolerably successful. 
The description of it is move difficult than the 
operation. The first thing to be done is to pro- 
cure during the winter a nice parcel of grafts 
of choice varieties of fruit. These may be put 
away in moist sand or clay in a dry cellar and 
kept till wanted for use. If the trees are con- 
venient from which the grafts are to be taken, 
they need not be cut till they are wanted. The 
next thing is to have a healthy parcel of young 
trees from the size of a pipe-stem to that of a 
man's thumb. The best time for grafting is 
just when the buds on the trees begin to swell — 
the latter part of March or first of April. Hav- 
ing procured the grafts, the stocks or young 
trees being in the proper place, safe from the 
encroachment of pigs and even hens, a sharp 
knife and a ball of yarn are all that is necessary. 
Cut the stock off even with the ground and re- 
move the earth a little from around it that you 



190 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



ma}' operate more conveniently. Then with the 
knife split it to the root, or about one inch. Trim 
the lower end of the graft, which should be 
about eight inches long, into the shape of a 
wedge, and insert it nicely into the split just 
made, the bark of each coming in close contact 
on one side. Then wrap it with yarn and draw 
up the earth two or three inches above the con- 
necting part. If the stock is larger than the 
graft, two grafts may be inserted. The whole 
operation may be performed with more comfort 
to the operator by taking up the young trees 
and setting them out when done. 

Budding is also quite simple, and it possesses 
several advantages over grafting. It may be 
performed at any time from the first of June till 
the middle of September. The stock is not in- 
jured if unsuccessful, and the operation may be 
repeated several different times. Many varieties 
may be inserted on one tree. I have just seen 
six different roses growing on one bush — the 
pink tea, white tea, damask, common, monthly, 
and maiden's blush. This fact is mentioned for 
the special benefit of the ladies, who I know are 
fond of variety. 

As in the operation of grafting, a sharp knife, 
a ball of yarn, healthy young trees and twigs 
of the present year's growth from which to ob- 
tain the buds f are all that is necessary. The 
operation is thus performed. Fix on a smooth 
health}' part of the stock, then with the knife 
make a transverse or horizontal cut across the 
bark, a little more than the width of a penknife 
blade — from the middle of this transverse cut 
make another downwards about an inch — the 
two cuts forming the letter T. Then holding 
the twig with the thickest part of it toward your 
body, enter the knife a half inch above the bud, 
cutting slightly into the wood and coming out 
a half inch below it. The little wood that ad- 
heres to the bud must be taken out with the 
point of the knife. If a little hole appears in 
the bud, another must be obtained. Now with 
the finger nails or the point of the knife sepa- 
rate the bark of the stock on each side of the 
pependicular cut, clear to the wood for the re- 
ception of the bud, which slip down between 
the wood and the bark to the bottom of the cut. 
Cut off the part of the bud that extends above 
the transverse cut that it may lie close to the 
wood. Lastly, wrap nicely with yarn, begin- 
ning at the lowest part of the perpendicular cut 
and continuing to the top. The eye of the bud 
must not be covered, though it is very necessary 
to wrap the yarn close above and below it. In 
about three weeks the yarn must be loosened 
and in a week or two more taken off entirely. 
The following spring the stock may be cut off 
an inch or two above the bud, and during the 
summer it may be taken off close to it. From 
this time nothing must be suffered to grow on 
the stock but the inserted bud. 



I rejoice, Mr. Editor, to observe the increasing- 
attention paid to fruit trees. It bespeaks a re- 
finement of taste and a lively sense of our best 
interest's. But information is needed, some of 
which I have thus attempted to give, though in 
a bungling way. For the attention which I 
have paid to the subject I feel amply compen- 
sated. And if I have succeeded in raising two 
or three hundred fruit trees of many and select 
varieties, by devoting a few moments of mornings, 
which many spend "in base, inglorious sleep," 
others may go and do likewise. I bid them 
" God-speed." P. B. W. 

We have had the cut made for the better il- 
lustration of our correspondent's directions for 
budding. We hope it will meet his approbation. 



PAINT. 
In the last number of the Planter we expressed 
the opinion that the cheapest and best pigment 
for the farmer's use, was white lead, and we 
promised to give some directions for its use. To 
say nothing of the preservation of the wood to 
which it is applied, the gratification the painter's 
brush affords the eye, is worth ten times more 
than its cost. Can any thing present a stronger 
contrast than the dingy, gloomy, and sombre 
appearance of a mass • of unpainted weather- 
boarding, and the lively, cheerful, animated scene 
presented by a neatly painted homestead ? Na- 
ture with her refreshing green of spring, hardly 
does more for her works, than man with a little 
keg of white lead, may do for his. We were 
forcibly struck with this lack of paint in a visit 
we lately made to one of the most splendid es- 
tates in Virginia. The situation was high and 
airy, the dwelling house large, commodious and 
handsome, the outhouses comfortable and pro- 
perly disposed, and the fencing capital. But 
with the exception of the dwelling, there it stood 
in its original gloom, ignorant of paint ; and 
buildings that probably cost ten thousand dol- 
lars, for want of a hundred dollars worth of paint, 
were suffered to decay and offend the eye. A 
Northern man on approaching the house would 
naturally have exclaimed, Alas ! for the proprie- 
tor, how long has he been dead. He would 
have no idea that any thing less than sudden 
death could have caused him to leave his pre- 
mises in such an unfinished state. A roofless 
house would be as familiar to his eye as an un- 
painted one. We saw enough of elegant taste 
displayed by the lady of the mansion to infer 
that she is constantly at the gentleman to have 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



191 



the buildings and palings painted, and we saw 
enough of his deference to her wishes, to infer, 
that he is constantly promising to do so. 

The main reason of the nakedness of our 
buildings is an exaggerated estimate of the dif- 
ficulty of mixing and applying paint. This 
operation is, in fact, extremely simple, and for 
all plain purposes may be performed by any 
smart boy on the plantation. The white lead 
comes ground in oil, and may be had of any of 
the painters or apothecaries. (Our friend Du 
Val across the way will furnish it as good and 
as cheap as any body.) This lead is of two qua- 
lities, the No. 1, and Extra. The first can be 
purchased for about eight, and the latter, which 
from its superior quality -is actually the cheapest, 
can be had for nine dollars the hundred weight. 
To every twenty-five pounds of lead about a 
gallon of linseed oil (which can be had for a 
dollar a gallon by the quantity) should be added. 
The whole should be strained through a wire 
sifter, or piece of coarse muslin, to free it from 
the particles of dry skin that have formed in 
the keg. Incorporate intimately into this mix- 
ture about a table-spoonful of yellow litharge, 
for every gallon and a half of paint, and you 
have white paint, ready for use. All kinds of 
work should have three coats — the first, or prim- 
ing as it is called, should perhaps be made a 
little thinner by the addition of a little more oil 
than here directed, and care should be taken 
that it is applied to every part of the wood. — 
When this is perfectly dry, the second coat, of 
a little thicker consistence, may be applied. — 
This should be laid on smoothly, with long, 
even strokes of the brush, and the third coat 
should be applied about as thinly as the first, 
with a light hand, and with particular attention 
to evenness and smoothness. 

For colored paints, a flag and stone, worth 
about three dollars, are necessary, to rub down 
the pigment used. For a lead color, admirably 
adapted to house tops, ploughs, and other imple- 
ments, dissolve lampblack in a little spirits of 
turpentine, and- add to your white paint until 
you shade it to your fancy. A beautiful blue 
may be obtained by mixing the Prussian blue 
of commerce with oil, and rubbing it down on 
the stone until you reduce it to an impalpable 
powder. Other cojjrs may be obtained in a si- 
milar manner, by u roiort to other pigments. 

Paint brushes should be cleaned with spirits 
of turpentine when the job is finished, and be- 



tween the intervals of using them they should 
be kept immersed in water, to prevent the paint 
on them from becoming dry and stiff. 

Midsummer is considered an unpropitious 
time for painting, as it is supposed that the heat 
of the sun has a tendency to evaporate the oil 
before it sinks into the wood. In this climate, 
painted work will require a new coat at least 
once in three years. But if the pores of the 
wood are well filled at first, this renewal is a 
small matter, requiring comparatively little labor 
or material. 



For the Southern Planter. 
A NEW AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 

JS'Ir. Editor, — During the month of last De- 
cember, we formed an association in this neigh- 
borhood, which is called the Chuckatuck Agri- 
cultural Visiting Club ; and although it has been 
in existence but seven months, its good effects 
are already very manifest. The Club consists 
of twelve members — a Chairman for the day ; 
a Recording and a Corresponding Secretary. — 
The Constitution and By-Laws, similar, I sus- 
pect, to those of other visiting Clubs in the 
State ; we meet the second Wednesday in every 
month, at the house of some member, when his 
farm, implements, domestic stock, &c, are ex- 
amined, his mode of culture detailed, and as 
there is a free interchange of opinion among us ; 
that which is thought worthy of praise is com- 
mended and that which deserves censure is in 
a respectful manner disapproved of. Each im- 
parts to the Club whatever information he may 
be possessed of on any particular subject, when 
requested to do so. These meetings are exceed- 
ingly agreeable, engendering a spirit of good 
feeling and creating an interest in the welfare of 
each other, which it is gratifying to witness. — 
The river lands of this county are, I think, 
among the most desirable in the State — possess- 
ing many natural resources for being made rich. 
They have immense deposites of decomposed 
oyster shells, marl of the finest quality and in 
inexhaustible qualities ; vast collections of rotted 
vegetable substances in the many ravines which 
abound, marsh mud, sedge, &c. In short, did 
we but avail ourselves, in a limited degree, of 
the means within our power, nearly every arable 
acre of land on Nansemond river might be made 
to produce sixty bushels of corn and twenty-five 
of wheat ; whereas, I do not think many of the 
farms average seven bushels of the former ; but 
little of the latter is sown. Since the publica- 
tion of the Farmers' Register there has been a 
very decided improvement in this county. Twelve 
years since, I imagine there were not one hun- 
dred acres of marled land in the county ; now 
there are thousands ; and where there were then 



192 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



hundreds of loads of putrescent manure made, 
there are now tens of thousands ; then there 
were patches of clover, and few of them ; now, 
fields, both of clover and spear-grasses. In fact, 
it was Mr. Ruffin who first gave an impetus to 
improvement here, and I conscientiously believe 
that through the instrumentality of his Register 
he has benefited this county one hundred thou- 
sand dollars. Nor am I unmindful of the South- 
ern Planter ; for what Mr. R. so nobly began, 
you are most valiantly carrying out, and 1 verily 
believe that, you are being of more essential ser- 
vice to the Old Dominion than all her politicians 
put together. I incline to the opinion that by a 
judicious application of marl, seeding down a 
part of our land every year to grass, top dress- 
ing that crop in the spring with all the spare 
putrescent manure of the farm,, (and 'this mode 
of applying manure I think the most economical, 
judicious and expeditious that can be adopted,) 
ours may be made a fine wheat soil ; oats do 
not, grow well here. Very few of us grow 
wheat, preferring trucks, such as watermelons, 
sweet potatoes, &c. These patches generally 
consume nearly all the manure made on the 
farm, leaving little for aught else. But that 
which more than all others, has retarded the im- 
provement of lands in Nanscmond, has been the 
policy pursued of hiring out to rail road con- 
tractors or putting all the efficient hands to oys- 
tering and cutting wood, retaining only the more 
indifferent hands to carry on the operations of 
the farm, but as such high prices cannot now 
be procured for hands, it is to be hoped that we 
will become more of a farming community, and 
by using our manures liberally and applying 
them judiciously, we must inevitably have some 
among the richest lands in the State. 

D. H. Hatton, Cor. Sedy 
Chuckatuck Agricultural Club. 
Stockley, JYanscmond, Va., July 10, 1844. 

There is no agricultural information that we 
receive with more pleasure than that of the for- 
mation of a new Club. Our late visit to Meck- 
lenburg has more than ever impressed us with 
the value of these institutions. They engender 
an esprit dc-corps that gives a new impetus to 
agricultural improvement. In the midst of these 
Clubs, agriculture, as it is entitled to do, becomes 
the chief subject of consideration ; inquiry is 
awakened, and an infinite deal of talent that 
was wasted upon minor subjects, is brought to 
bear' upon this most interesting pursuit. We 
will press this subject, until we establish an Agri- 
cultural clubiri.'every neighborhood in Virginia).; 



CURE FOR THE 
Live upon sixpence aj^y^and ean^it. ; Such 



is Dr. Abernethy's prescription. 



FRENCH TOAST. 

From a French gentleman, of this city, we 
obtained the following recipe : — Take a loaf of 
light baker's bread and cut it into thin slices — 
mix three eggs — three table-spoonfuls of sugar, 
and a tea-cup of milk, taking care to beat the 
eggs until they are very light. Soak the bread 
in this custard. Have some lard boiling hot, 
enough to cover the bread, and fry it until it is 
brown — then serve it up hot. 

This is a very convenient and very pleasant 
dessert. The children, who are very fond of it, 
have dignified it with the name of French toast. 



FLOWERS. 

The most beautiful array of flowers may be 
produced by taking an elder stalk, punching out 
the pith, and placing within the stalk a variety 
of seeds whose flowers blossom about the same 
time, and burying the stalk in the earth. When 
They spring up, the sprouts form themselves 
into one stalk; and when blossoming, it bears 
the various kinds of flowers according to the 
seed you planted in the stalk. Try it, ladies. 
Michigan Farmer. 



CONTENTS OF NO. VIII. 



ied'to 



Hemp — Directions for its cultivation, p. 169. 

Wheat — Philosophy of wheat culture, p. 171. 

Piks— To cure, p. 172. 

Whitlow — A recipe for, p. 172. 

Fistula — A cure for, p. 172. 

Calves — Management of, p. 173. 

Measuring Cross — Corrected, p. 173. 

Salve — For cuts, burns, &c. p. 174. 

Improvement — Result of experiments upon poor land, 

p. 174. 
Grasses — Essay upon the properties of different kinds 

of grasses, p. 176. 
Worms — To free cabbage from, p. 177. 
Worn Out Lands — To improve, p. 177. 
Manure — Particular manures should be applie.<] 

particular purposes, .pr 178. • 

Ox Break — Proper mocle of using, p. 179. jf 
Rats — English mode of killing, p. .179. 
Subsoil Ploughing — Advantages of, p. 180. 
Barberry — Harmless^p. 180. 
TJw Horse — How to, Manage, P-J&f- 
Gates— A description of a rail road gate, p. 181. 
Charcoal — Its uses in agriculture, p- ■■182. 
Tobnrm— Premiums offered pi Farmville, p. 182. 
English Forms — Productiveness of, p. 183. 
Overseers — Objections to ear™engagements with, 

183. 
,Tanner's Bark — Applied as a manure, p. 184. 
yVKcat — Proper time for cutting,. p. 185. 
{Tomatoes — Recipe for preservih*£p. 186. 
'tobacco — Is it an exhauster «fc.3$6. 
Mecklenburg — A visit' to, p. $88. 
Budding and Grafting— Directidn's for, p. 189. 
Paint— Directions for mixing a r " ) using, p. 190. 
* Agricultural Club— New o^B^nsemond, p. 191 . 
~ 'en'chJ Toast— Recipe for /making, p. 192. 

fifew mqjhodM' raising them, p. 192. 



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