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



CH: B. WILLIAMS, 
WM L. HILL, 



Ce 



Editor and Proprietor. 
GiiNERAL Agent. 



i 



New Series. 



RICHMOND, YA., FEBRUARY, 1868. 



Vol. IL-No. I 



COaSTTElSTTS : 

Aghiculturaii Department: page. 

premium Essay on Cultivation of Corn, by Dr. T. P. Atkinson 65 

Are Farmers Quacks, No. 2 72 

. Watts Plough and Thoughts on Ploughing 74 

Routt's SlV'Vel Plough and Corn Planter 80 

Fai'f'.i Accounts , 81 

, 82 

88 




Report of Department of Agriculture Reviewed 

Corn Fodder— Economy in the Using, (2 articles) 

Inquiries of a Young Farmer i)'A 

The More Lime the More Manure 92 

Nitrate of Lime as a Fertilizer 9:J 

The Chester White Hog Illustrated and Described 98 

HOETICULTUBAL DEPARTMENT : 

The Kitchen Garden— Vegetable Seed 97 

Brief Suggestions for Spring Work 9J 

The (jrape Swindle, 99; Profit of Apple Growing 102 

"- Directions for Cultivating Asparagus 104 

Window Gardening,.. ...105; The Goodrich Potato lOG 

Sound Potatoes, 107; Planting Vines Deep 109 

Whole, or Cut Seed Potatoes, Experiments with 109 

Mining Department: 

■^ Topography, Geology, and Iron Ores of the Valley of Virginia 110 

Gold and Silver Production 113 

Mechanic Arts: 

Progress of American Inventions 114; Advice to Young Mechanics 114 

Brown's Carpet Tacking Machine 115 

Household Department: 

lilch Cows— How to Treat Them 116 

How to make Milkers 118 

Editorial Department : 

Indian Corn as a Green Manure 119 

Southern Planter and Farmer, from a Correspoiident 119 

Barlev — Inducements offered lor its ('ultivation in Virginia 121 

Medallion Likenesses of Bishop Soule and Rev. Hezekiah G.Leigh 123 

Notices of New Publications, &c 123 

Commercial Report: 124 



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THE SOUTHERN 

PLANTER & FARMER, 

DEVOTED TO 

Agriculture, Horticulture and the Mining, Mechanic and Household Arts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts.-XENOPHON 
Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the State.-SuLLY. 



CH: B. WILLIAMS Eo.tor 



AND Proprietor. 



New Series. RICHMOND, U, FEBRUARY, 1868. Vol. II-No. I 



AIM ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF CORN, 

BY DR. THS. P. ATKINSON, OP DANVILLE, VA. 

To which was awarded the First Premium by the Central Agr. Society of N. C. 

♦* Where grows, where grows it not ? if vain our toil, 
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil."— Pope. 

In the cultivation of corn, as in the construction of a compass or 
a telescope, due regard should be had to the principles of Philoso- 
phy and Science. It is true that one T^'ho is ignorant of both may 
plant and plough, and reap a fair return for his labor, when the 
heavens prove propitious and favor him with " the early and the 
latter rain." But if genial and fruitful showers be denied him 
during the formation of the ear and the perfecting of the grain • 
if the dreaded drought appear about this juncture, and he has failed 
to regard the character of the plant and the principles which govern 
Its growth and development, he will find himself unable to meet the 
exigencies of the case, and be left to lament over his blasted pros- 
pects and to utter the usual complaint that he will not make " half 
a crop." To be what is worthy to be called a successful raiser of 
this invaluable cereal, one must call Ms mind, as well as his body 
mto requisition. Neither of these can be excused from making its 
contribution without great damage to the crop. I shall write first 
on the proper mode of cultivating 

HIGH LAND. 

As preliminary to this, I will say something on the selection 
preservation, preparation, and planting of the seed. ' 

VOL. II— 5 



THE SOUTHERN [February 



Mrs. Glass wisely remarks, in her directions for cooking fish, that 
the first thing to be attended to is to " catch the fish." So I would 
say, if one desires to make a good crop of corn, he should first 
obtain good seed, and then, if practicable, good land; since it re- 
quires as much labor to cultivate an acre which yields only one bar- 
rel, as one which rewards you with fifteen barrels. This, I know, 
is in most cases impracticable ; hence it becomes important that the 
system of cultivation be such as will solicit from the unwilling soil 
the richest reward for the labor bestowed. 

The seed should be carefully selected and gathered in the Fall of 
the year, from those stalks only which have two or more good large 
ears on each of them. Let it be kept in the shuck, in some dry 
place, until needed for planting. To protect the grain against the 
ravages of moles, crows, and other depredators, and to insure its 
putting forth a vigorous bud, it should be soakeJ for twelve or 
eighteen hours in a solution of saltpetre, (one pound of the salt to 
a gallon of water,) and well rolled in plaster of Paris immediately 
before planted. 

With the seed thus prepared, and properly planted, of the mode 
of doing which I will treat hereafter, a good stand may be confi- 
dently expected. If the land to be cultivated be hilly, or from any 
other cause liable "to wash," I first construct hillside trenches at 
suitable distances apart, taking care to let them empty up stream. 
The bottom of these trenches should be eight inches wide, not level 
across, but inclining to the hillside above. In laying ofi" the rows, 
I run a deep coulter furrow three feet from each trench and parallel 
to them. Continuing these parallel furrows alternately with the 
trenches, I finish in the centre of the plat, thus forming all the 
short rows near this point, which is a matter of great importance, 
and the neglect of which has done much to bring the system of 
hillside trenches into disrepute and disuse. 

A little reflection will convince any one that if the short rows be 
made near the trenches they must discharge their water, and along 
with it their loose dirt into them, and thus, in a short time these 
last will be filled up at various points, where the water will cause 
breaks, and go coursing down hill with ever increasing force, and 
making along its track the much dreaded and most unwelcome gul- 
lies. In hauling off the corn the wagons should never be driven 
across the beds, but along the furrows to the end, where, turning, 
they should be directed between other rows, and so on as before. 
By observing these directions the beds will remain unbroken, except 
at the ends, and so, continue to serve as barriers to the passage of 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 67 

the water down hill. A neglect of these simple precautions, the 
importance of which must be apparent to any thinking mind, hag 
done much to injure our lands, by causing their owners to attribute 
to the use that which is solely due to the abuse of the system of 
hillside trenches, and so to discard an invaluable preventive of 
** washing." 

It is of very great importance that this "leveling operation " be 
accurately done ; and remembering the old maxim " If you would 
have a thing tvell done,'' &c., I always do it myself. I use a rafter 
level, of twelve feet span, and having adjusted the plumb correctly, 
I cut from one to two inches off one of the feet, according to the 
formation of the surface to be laid off. This will give the proper 
fall to the trenches, which should be kept free of grass and dirt, 
not only whilst the crop is under cultivation, but during the winter. 
I have deemed it proper to offer this defence of that which, for the 
last forty-five years, has rendered me good service, and which has 
been discarded by most others without just cause, and with as little 
thought, I imagine, as was given to its adoption. I commence pre-^ 
paring my land immediatel}*. after housing the preceding crop, by 
throwing it into beds with a double Dagon plough, commencing on 
each side of the coulter furrows already laid off, following each 
turn with a deep coulter furrow. This provides against the effects 
of a drought by affording a deep bed for absorbing and retaining 
the rains of the succeeding summer, whilst it protects the land 
against washing, that great destroyer of our farms. 

I prefer bedding even high-land, for two reasons : First, it allows 
the winter's frost to permeate the land more thoroughly than when 
it is left flat ; and secondly, because the water furrows thus formed 
afford a free passage for the surplus water that falls in winter, and 
the land is thereby left in a much better condition for cultivation in 
the spring. 

I know that many persons object to this mode of cultivation 
because they think that corn dropped upon a ridge must suffer more 
from drought than if it were planted on a flat surface. This is un- 
questionably true ; but only a slight reflection will teach them that 
they are not driven to the necessity of planting on a ridge because 
the land has been thrown into beds. They may, as I do, plant in 
the water furrows and on the clay. About two weeks before plant- 
ing, say from the 10th to the 20th March, I begin to reverse the 
beds with the plough by which they had been formed ; and if the 
ground be at all rough or cloddy, I run two furrows of a three-tooth 
coulter harrow over each bed. This puts the ground in first-rate 



68 THE SOUTHERN [February 

order, and pays better than any two plougbings after planting. On 
reversing the beds care should be taken to leave a ridge of one or 
two inches of the soil unturned. The dirt thus left will, when in- 
corporated with the clay, by the process presently to be described, 
form a suitable matrix or bed for the reception of the seed. The 
roots of corn branching ofi" laterally and never penetrating the 
earth below ivhere the grain is deposited, (there being no tap-root,) 
it is all important that the land be broken very deep and that the 
seed be planted very low in the ground ; otherwise it will wither 
and fire on the approach of droughts. It is impossible to break the 
land too deep or to pulverize it too well, although it may be, and 
often is turned too deep. The turning plough should run just deep 
enough to penetrate a little distance below the soil, so as to throw 
up clay enough to glaze the surface. 

The great advantage of very deep ploughing is that it greatly in- 
creases the power of the capillary attraction of the earth by which 
the moisture is raised from below to the roots of the plants. This 
power is augmented also by the separation of the particles of the 
earth which is effected by the plough, even as low as the bottom of 
the furrow. 

. The difference in the degree of this power of attraction, where 
the land has been well broken and where it has been left hard and 
cloddy, may be estimated by holding in one hand a lump of brown 
sugar with one end in water, and in the other hand a lump of loaf 
sugar similarly suspended. It will be found that whilst the last 
•will be slow to absorb the water, the first will have become saturated 
and dissolved. This will be owing to the difference in the relative 
compactness of the two samples. Nor is this the only advantage of 
deep ploughing ; for whilst it greatly increases the moisture by 
raising it in dry weather, it decreases it in wet weather by facilitat- 
ing its gravitation. And yet, with the importance of this method 
of cultivation set before them, how many are there who will prefer 
the old mode of scraping the surface, and setting it running down 
hill with every rain ? 

Having thoroughly prepared the land as above described, I run 
three deep coulter furrows midway between the ridges. This forms 
a suitable bed, by the admixture of soil and clay, for the reception 
of the grain. The opening should be deep, and this, together with 
the dropping and covering, may be beautifully effected at a single 
operation by the Sulky Corn Planter, recently introduced. If this 
cannot be procured, the opening should be made by a shovel plough, 
with a small mould board attached on each side. The grain should 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 69 

be dropped from the hand and covered with a hoe. Three grains 
of corn should be dropped where you intend but one stalk to 
remain. 

I may be asked what distance I allow. On ordinary high land, I 
plant the grain 3-|-5 feet apart, which will give 2,900 plants to the 
acre. On better land, 1 plant it closer — say 2J-1-5 feet — and on 
very rich land, I would have it not more than 2-f5 feet apart, giv- 
ing, respectively, 3,625 and 4,350 plants to the acre. 

I greatly prefer to maintain the full measure of five feet between 
the rows, because it will make the beds, when worked the last time, 
flatter, thus causing them more effectually to absorb and retain the 
water at a time when there is the greatest demand for moisture to 
sustain the stalk during the maturing of the grain. 

As soon as the plant attains the proper size, I run a deep Coulter 
furrow (I desire to familiarize the reader with this term) on each 
side, and follow it immediately with the hoe ; having the weakest 
stalks pulled out Avhere three are found. A suitable time should be 
selected, about two or three weeks afterwards, when the ground is 
wet, to withdraw another plant, leaving only one. 

About this time the land should receive a thorough harrowing 
with a Coulter Tooth Harrow, taking care to let the teeth run very 
deep. This will tear down the beds which have been formed by the 
reversing process above recommended, and leave a nearly level sur- 
face between the rows. 

If, from frequent rains, the grass be likely to get ahead, a keen 
shovel plough may be substituted with advantage. Two weeks more 
will bring us,to the fifth or tenth of June, at which time the corn 
will be in a condition to receive its last ploughing. This is effected 
by running one Dagon furrow on each side of the ridge, taking 
care to run as far from the plants as is consistent with making the 
dirt meet around them. The furrows thus formed should be filled 
by dirt thrown with a shovel plough having a small mould board at- 
tached. I prefer this to a second furrow from the Dagon, because 
it leaves a flatter bed, which I regard as of great importance. 

In laying by corn, I never plough every consecutive row^ but leave 
every alternate one to be attended to when the first shall have been 
ploughed. This will be in about six days, by which time the roots 
which may have been severed will have "taken hold" on the earth 
and be able to sustain the plants, whilst the last broken shall re- 
main disrupted. The plants are thus protected from the effects of 
too great depletion at any one time, and are preserved in a .green 
and flourishing state, when neighboring crops are parched and yel- 



70 THE SOUTHERN [February 

low. Every one knows that, if two quarts of blood be taken from 
a patient at one operation, paleness and fainting will be the conse- 
quence, whilst, if only half the quantity be drawn on one day and 
as much more six days thereafter, no such effect will be produced. 
It will thus be seen that the mode of cultivation here recommended 
is supported by analogy, whilst it is founded on reason and sound 
philosophy. 

I take occasion, just here, to impress upon the mind of the reader 
the very great importance of allowing the loose dirt to remain where 
it is most needed, namely, equally diffused over the whole surface 
between the rows of corn. It is the custom with many farmers to 
draw the dirt from the middle of the rows, and to pile it in large 
hills around the stalks. Nothing can be more irrational and inju- 
rious to the crop. The large roots coming out above the surface of 
the earth afford no nourishment to the plant, but serve only as 
braces to preserve it from falling. It is the small fibrous, thread- 
like roots only which convey the nourishment to the corn, and they, 
as every observing individual knows, are found like net work ex- 
tending entirely across the rows. If the soil which forms their bed 
be removed from its proper position, they will be deprived of all 
power to convey nourishm.ent to the plant, and it will, as a neces- 
sary result, sicken and fade and twist, and thus the cultivator will, 
by his own folly, be deprived of a remunerating return for his labor. 
Should a drought set in during the process of earing and filling, he 
may boast of housing a few nubbins, but will gather no good corn. 
I have known many farmers to suffer severely for thus setting at 
defiance the laws of Nature, the teachings of Philosophy and the 
plainest dictates of common sense. From the tenth to the fifteenth 
of July I run two deep Coulter furrows in the centre between the 
rows, thus forming a fresh and deep bed for the roots and retaining 
the greatest amount of moisture at a time most needed. Let no 
one who shall try this mode of cultivating corn be discouraged in 
the Spring, when he shall see his neighbor's crops, planted in the 
usual way, (on a ridge,) outstripping his in growth. " Not having 
depth of earth," it may be expected thus to go ahead for a time; 
but he who shall follow the directions above given, will have the 
satisfaction of seeing his crop green and flourisJiing during the 
summer^ when all around will be parched and withered. I am free 
to admit that there will not be this difference when rain shall fall in 
Bumcient quantities whenever needed ; but in all ordinary seasons 
the contrast will strike every beholder, and lead to the inquiry, 
" What causes this great difference in the appearance of contiguous 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 71 

crops?" I have thus far written of the cultivation of corn on 
high land only. 

On sandy low-grounds there need be but little variation of the 
mode; but in low-grounds with an impervious soil, or otherwise, lia- 
ble to be saturated with water, an opposite treatment is required. 
Whereas, the object in the first case is to solicit and retain moisture^ 
we are to endeavor here to provide the most effectual means of get- 
ting it out of the land. 

In the preparation of land of this character, the first step to be 
taken is to cut a sufficient number of ditches in the proper place, 
and of the proper size and depth, to attract and carry off the sur- 
plus water. If the soil be of an impervious character, it will be 
necessary to construct blind ditches of the required depth, leading 
into the open sewers, taking care to have their covering so far below 
the surface as not to be reached by the plough. These, together 
with surface trenches made with a plough and properly located, will 
put the land in a proper state for cultivation. 

Here I would throw up the beds four feet apart, pointing them in 
the direction of the trenches. I adopt narrow beds on such land 
for the same reason that I would discard them on high land ; 
namely, because they can be made higher, (and so dryer,) and for 
the further reason that the water-furrows are thereby multiplied, 
both of which circumstances tend to dry the soil. 

There is yet another reason for it. The higher and narrower 
the beds, the more effectually will they be penetrated by the frosts 
of winter, which exert a powerful influence in pulverizing and mel- 
lowing the land. 

In opening the beds for planting, the depth of the furrows should 
depend on the character of the soil and the liability to injury from 
over-moisture. 

In the cultivating, I would be careful to preserve the con- 
vexity of the beds as much as possible. Care should also be 
taken to keep the trenches and water-furrows well open during 
the winter. 

An experience of more than a quarter of a century has fully 
satisfied me that this mode of selecting, preserving, preparing and 
planting the seed, and of preparing and cultivating corn on high 
land, will insure much larger crops than any other that has come 
under my observation. Let others try it, (as many have,) and I 
feel confident that the rich returns will bring them to a like 
conviction. 

The comparative merits of this, and the ordinary mode of cul- 



72 THE SOUTHERN [February 

ture, should be tested by an experiment on contiguous portions of 
the field, and a fair statement of the result be published for the 
benefit of others. 



Are Farmers Quacks ? 

NO. II. 

Let me see. Mem. No. 1. — Guano is a humbug, as proved at 
wheat harvest of 1867. No. 2. — Stable manure is a little better. 
No. 3. — No manure is the best of all. The readers of the Planter 
and Farmer will remember the invincible logic of actual experiment 
and general arguments by which these conclusions have been estab- 
lished. Now Farmer Jones, who agrees with me in the main, as 
well as our friend of the raw-bone, will be astonished when I tell 
him that I -have discovered a flaw in his logic. It is a canon of 
experimental reasoning that all the essentials of the experiment 
must be noted and duly weighed. In consulting the weather calen- 
dar, I find that we had the most remarkable, severe and prolonged 
rains in this section exactly when the guanoed wheat was in full 
bloom ; that manured with stable and barn-yard manure had only 
partially bloomed, while the unmanured wheat was later still and 
not bloomed at all. The result was, the bloom was beaten ofi" and 
the crop was most damaged where it was most forward. The purple 
color I noted was but the sign of barren straw. The late wheat 
was of the proper color and well filled. So I beg leave to correct 
my memoranda again. Mem. No. 1. — In 1867 the heavy rains 
damaged the early wheat by beating off the bloom, and developed 
smut, probably by excessive moisture, or by bruising the seed germs, 
or both. No. 2. — Late wheat on good land succeeded better than 
that which was stimulated by manures. No. 3. — I conclude that 
the failure of manures this season was not the fault of the manure, 
but the result of the season which brought general disaster to the 
very forward wheat. 

So you see that I am ready for new experiments, and my faith 
in remedies for sick land is not yet wholly shaken. 

But there are other forms of quackery besides that I have 
noticed: e. g., Gil Bias tells us that he served as valet to Dr. San- 
grado, who paid him nothing and gave him very little to eat, but 
encouraged him to drink water freely. '' Drink, my son, drink ; 
you need not be afraid of it; water is the greatest purifier and 
invigorater. By no means neglect to drink a great deal of water." 
Gil Bias followed his directions with fidelity until he became so weak 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. T.^ 

and emaciated that he began to think of finding a new master and 
better cheer. But the doctor would not give up so docile a pupil, 
so he took him in as a partner in his practice after having taught 
him the whole science of medicine in one single sentence. *' Make 
your patient drink a great deal of water and be sure to bleed him 
freely. Blood-letting and water-drinking are the whole of phar- 
macy." There is no need to pause to describe his career in assist- 
ing his master in depopulating the city. 

Now, many farmers treat their lands in precisely this fashion. 
They feed their lands very lightly or not at all, and they rely upon 
water alone to make a crop. In the meantime they bleed as freely 
as possible at every harvest, and then apply leeches to the surface 
(in the shape of grazing stock) to extract the last possible drop of 
blood. After the system has been pursued for some time, the 
farmer is astonished to find himself poor, his land poor, and his 
cattle poor. Now, this is quackery, to produce a disease by inju- 
dicious treatment, and then aggravate it by continuing the same. 
I would recommend to this class of farmers to treat their lands by 
one of the rules of the Thompsonian practice by which they cure a 
great many patients, despite of their lobelia and steam ; I mean 
good feeding and good nursing, so that Nature may do the rest. 
It is worthy of note that lands well manured and well cultivated 
seldom fail to produce a good crop, while those left to the fructify- 
ing influences of water (rain) alone, fail partially or totally in four 
cases out of five. I do not undervalue the rains and dews and sun- 
shine of heaven, but for all that I am not a water-cure man. 

By the way, I once read a book on " water-cure," and was some- 
what captivated with its plausibilities. Not long after, one beau- 
tiful sunshiny morning, I saw a fowl of beautiful crest and snowy 
breast sporting on the surface of a limpid stream, sometimes diving 
and sometimes throwing the water over his glossy feathers in great 
apparent enjoyment. By-and-by he raised himself erect, and flap- 
ping his wings, he scattered the spray around. I was about to 
shout in ecstacy, " Cold water forever !" when he, more wise than 
I, opened his mouth and said, " Quack, quack, quack." 

Mr. Editor, I do not desire to be impertinent or personal. Our 
friend of the raw-hone found me out immediately, but farmer Jones 
is so obtuse that he has never seen the point of the joke in No. 1. 
But the followers of Dr. Sangrado are so numerous in this section 
that there will be a whole troop upon me when you publish this. 

There are other phases of Quackery which I shall endeavor to 
describe in my next. J. B. S. 



74 THE SOUTHERN [February 



Geo. Watt's Plough in a Tight Place, and Some Thoughts on 

Ploughing. 

Mr. Editor^' — I have a piece of depressed low grounds about 
three quarters of a mile long. A ditch through its longitudinal ex- 
tent vents the waters that gather from the adjacent hill, and also 
receives and discharges a portion of the tides every day. This 
shows that the land is low. It is of the best description of James 
river mud low grounds, but is subject to overflow. It has not been 
cropped since 1861 ; and of course had put up a heavy growth of 
weeds every year, varying from three to six and eight feet high. 
This growth consisted of iron weed or stick weed, of bull weed or 
wild hemp, and, below this, a rank growth of devil's bit, with its 
tough, strong white roots clumped like asparagus, both kinds of ■ 
arse-smart, wild oats and other swamp grasses, and a running ac- 
companiment of the annual vines that climb over and among the 
weeds. There were a few young sycamore and willow saplings 
interspersed, and an abundance of dwarf-ash — the bunchy shrub 
that infests low-grounds, and bears its seed in a button like the but- 
trn of a sycamore. Generally it is thought impossible to plough 
such land without first burning it over ; but I did not wish to do 
that. I designed the land for a succession of corn-crops, and its 
tendency is to become too stiff when the vegetable matter is worked 
out of it by repeated cropping. But I had never had a plough that 
could turn under such a coat of vegetable matter, the product of 
six successive crops of weeds; the present growth erect and matted 
or intertangled, and the prior growths lying cross and piled upon the 
ground in various stages of decomposition according to the age of 
the weeds. So I went to Mr. Watt and stated the case to him. 
He offered me for trial his three-horse left-hand plough. I took it, 
altered the set of it to suit the horses, and ploughed the land with- 
out difficulty about six or eight inches deep, subverting the soil and 
weeds completely and not distressing the horses. 

I used a chain to drag the weeds under, but I think the work might 
have been done nearly or quite as effectually without it. The plough- 
man used an axe occasionally to cut down the dwarf ash and now and 
then a sycamore sapling, to allow the plough to come square under the 
roots ; but with these exceptions there was no stopping except to 
blow the horses. From the time the plough became adjusted to its 
work in depth and width of furrow, and arrangement of drag-chain, 
there was absolutely no choking. I followed it myself for upwards 
of three consecutive miles, and in the whole distance it was not 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 75 

necessary to thrust away a particle of the trash which usually 
gathers under- the throat (5f the plough. Nor did that necessity 
occur at all until the ploughman undertook to change the point of 
attachment of the drag-chain ; and when I had that restored it came 
back to its former perfect work. 

And here let me say a word on the subject of the chain. Fre- 
quently it does more harm than good because it is not properly 
fixed. If attached to the beam at the throat of the plough ,it is 
sure to get in the way and make the plough choke. Let it be fixed 
to a staple temporarily driven into the beam of the plough some 
inches forward of the throat, until, by changing it according to ob- 
servation, the j^oper point is ascertained. There let the staple be 
fixed. I should have said that a small part of the land had been 
in corn last summer, that it had not been cut down, topped, or 
bladed, but the ears were gathered from the standing stalks, which 
had been mashed down by wagons and carts passing through them, 
and by cattle, which had browzed upon them. This piece was quite as 
well ploughed as the other, and with as little choking, the corn- 
stalks being completely covered. 

The operation of this plough was wonderful. My friend and 
neighbor. Captain James B. Jones, calling to see me and hearing 
that I was trying a new plough in the low grounds, failed to find us 
at first, so hidden were we by the weeds ; and when he did find us, 
he said, after looking at the work a while, " What made Watt such 
a fool as to try a new plough on that sort of land. It is the worst 
to plough I ever saw." He was well acquainted with foul land, as 
he had for years cultivated four hundred acres of reclaimed marsh 
on James river. 

This plough, however, though new to that particular job, is not 
absolutely new ; as a good many of them are in use by parties who 
bought them of Mr. Watt according to his published terms, viz : 
that if they are not liked the purchaser can get back his money by 
returning the plough. 

I had previously subjected this plough to another test. I had 
ploughed a portion of my garden with it eighteen inches deep, turn- 
ing the furrow perfectly with three horses, the ploughman walking 
by the side of the plough and rarely touching the handles except 
to turn the plough at the end of the furrow. There was no mistake 
as to depth, because the beam dragged on the ground all the way, 
the land being clean, and we had only to measure from the heel of 
the mould board to the bottom of the beam. 

This garden soil was originally a stiff intractable clay, but is now 



76 THE SOUTHERN [February 

well-fertilized by tile-draining and an abundance of manure, though 
still difficult to work at such a depth. The low grounds were not 
ploughed so deep, because it would have been impracticable for the 
teams ; and was useless had it been otherwise. 

The horses averaged not more than 15 hands- high ; and though 
stout and strong, were not heavy. 

I do not wish to be understood, in giving these instances of ex- 
traordinary ploughing, to recommend them as examples for every- 
day imitation. No team could stand it ; and in each of the cases I 
record, the horses were rested occasionally. Indeed, as the plough 
was unimpeded in its course, the horses had to be stopped ; for they 
could not rest, as is the case with so many other plojighs, while the 
ploughman laboriously clears his mould board. And it is the over- 
looking of. tbis fact which makes some people think the draught of 
these ploughs much harder than it really is. As they need not stop 
for the plough, they forget to rest their horses. 

What I aim to do, is to let people know that we have a better 
plough among us than any we can import, and to give my testimony 
to its merits. It follows that if it works with ease under the cir- 
cumstances I have detailed, it must be far ahead of other ploughs 
under ordinary circumstances ; and so far as I have tried it, that is 
my opinion. It must also follow that, as the excellence of this 
plough is due to its models that the same model, if applied to the 
two-horse and one-horse plough, must make them, in like manner, 
proportionately superior to other ploughs of their class. This I have 
demonstrated in my own experience. I have substituted the two- 
horse for the old three-horse Watt plough, because I find it does as 
much work as that did. (Though, if I could afi*ord to give up my 
two-horse plough, I would use the new three-horse plough to a much 
greater extent than my crippled means now allow.) I have also 
ploughed a hard- trodden clover sod seven inches deep and twelve 
inches wide, with one horse to the one-horse plough. But here, 
again, the horse could not stand it. Still, it proves the value of the 
plough. 

And now for the second branch of my subject — some thoughts on 
ploughing. A short time since, a neighbor of mine asked me to re- 
commend to him a good ploughman ; and I told him, what I now 
tell your readers : there is a great deal of misapprehension as to 
the necessity of having "a good ploughman." 

My neighbor worked a pair of mules, very fine animals ; but one 
of them kicked at every turn; and he had never made the plough 
the subject of any particular study. Such a man needs a good 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 



ploughman, I admit. But can he find one among the negroes, or 
raw immigrants ; and if he shall find one, how long can he keep 
him ? Would it not be better, by a little trouble, to be able to dis' 
pense with him? If we procure gentle horses, or better still, mares' 
but either in preference to mules, and gear them properly, and then 
follow the plough observingly ourselves, studying the relation of its 
parts one to another, for one or two days, until we understand it 
ourselves, we can make any hand a good ploughman, if he has a 
fair share of good temper and has been at all accustomed to horses. 
This is contrary to the received opinion, which has always held that 
there must either be a natural aptitude for ploughmanship, or, in its 
place, a long course of training and experience. Formerly, that 
was so ; but now, the theory and mechanism of the plough has so 
improved in the progress of in"Vention, that all a ploughman need 
now do is to keep his plough at the set the master gives it — and this 
any sprightly youth can do. 

The best plough I know is Watt's ; and I have worked it before 
the war by the side of various patterns that I, from time to time, 
obtained to compare with it, but especially by my old favorite, the 
Livingston, which I ultimately discarded. But the new patterns 
{and patents) of Watt's plough are better than the old. One great 
advantage is, that they are left-hand ploughs.* With them the 
lead-horse walks in the furrow and very soon becomes so well-accus- 
tomed to that furrow as his guide, that he needs no checking by the 
rein to keep him in position. Whereas with a right-hand plough, 
the lead-horse or the ploughman, one or the other, must always 
watch the distance so as to keep the plough in place. Hence, the 
ploughman is eternally checking his leader to keep him in place, 
which is a worry to man and beast. 

Another advantage of these ploughs is, that they work with less 
draught, when properly set, than any other plough (and even when 
badly set, they work as easily as any others) ; and, therefore, there 
is less occasion to drive the horses up to and beyond their strength, 
which frets and disturbs them. Again, this plough, when properly 
sety will frequently run one hundred yards by itself. I have often 
seen it do it. This makes it work more easily to the ploughman, 
who, not having to toil so much in clearing his plough, keeps in a 
better humor — a thing which, ridiculous as it may appear, is yet a 
very important consideration. And finally, the plough rarely ever 



* He has also right-hand ploughs of the same pattern, but I think them in- 
ferior to his left-hand. 



78 THE SOUTHERN [February 

chokes, and never as much as any other plough, which, independent 
of its direct excellence, is a great benefit, because neither the 
ploughman nor his horses are so much fretted and strained. 

As to gearing horses, it is usually thought that one man can do it 
as well as another. This is a mistake. The rule is very simple ; 
but very few know it, and fewer still apply it. The line of draught 
is said to be from the centre of resistance of the plough to the 
horse's shoulder. But, practically, it is a broken line from the 
shoulder to the end of the plough-beam at some point of attachment 
to the clevis; and it is commonly supposed that the traces should 
go straight from the horse's shoulder to the clevis, the only use of 
the back-band being supposed to be to keep the traces off the 
ground as the horse turns or ceases to pull. Now, the true theoret- 
ical line is perpendicular to the slope of the horse's shoulder, and 
perpendicular likewise to the centre of resistance. But this also is 
practically unattainable, and a broken line must be substituted,, as 
in the other case. It is very important, though, that this actual 
line — the traces — should leave the horse perpendicular to the slope 
of his shoulder, the slope and the trace forming a right angle ; and 
it is an accident if it be unnecessary to use the back-band to obtain' 
this line ; for it varies in different horses as the shoulder is more or 
less oblique. In most cases, the back-band must be used to get this 
Indispensable line; and if it is found to put any stress on the horse's 
back, it is better for him to bear it there than to pull outside his 
true line of draught ; for any line above that point has a tendency 
to raise his fore-legs, as any below it has a tendency to lift his hind- 
legs; in other words, to make him turn a front or back somerset. 
Of course, I do not mean to recommend the absurd practice of 
working the back-band on the loin, which some persons do to keep 
the plough from running too deep — a proper plough has other de- 
vices to prevent that. If I had drawings, I could easily illustrate 
what I may have stated somewhat obscurely, but any one can do it 
for himself by any picture or engraving of a horse he may have, to 
which he can apply the lines with a pencil and ruler, and demon- 
strate it for himself. It will well repay the study, for whoever 
learns to gear by that line will have almost ceased to gall his horse's 
shoulders. 

I say then that if, instead of a good ploughman, we will provide 
ourselves with good, quiet, manageable horses, and gear them pro- 
perly to a plough capable of being properly set to run true and 
level, and to throw the furrow-slice well-off from the mould-board, 
and guarded, if necessary, with a chain, against choking ; a plough. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 79 

in other words, made, as very few ploughs are made, after the right 
principles, we shall be able to dispense with a style of hand now 
deemed by many as necessary to the best ploughing, but which I 
venture to think an opprobriym on the farmer and the plough.' 
maker. For the latter should make an implement which, as in so 
many modern inventions, supplements the skill of the workman by 
the genius of the mechanic ; and the farmer should demand this im- 
plement at the hands of the mechanic. 

These conditions of successful ploughing with an ordinary plough- 
man are very simple, but they are rigidly insisted on. And equally 
inflexible is the first condition, that the farmer himself shall master 
the other conditions. Any man of ordinary sense and application 
can do it; and once done, it is information which will last for life, 
and render him independent of a laborer, whom too many men now 
think absolutely necessary to the commonest, but most important 
process of farming. 

Farmers would then as soon think of depending on the skill of a 
hand-loom weaver for the cheapest and best yard of cloth, as to 
the extraordinary skill of the ploughman as a necessary accomplish- 
ment for obtaining good ploughing. 

I think the theory of the Watt plough and his models the best I 
have ever seen. I doubt if they are not the best in the world, des. 
tined, perhaps, only to be superseded by the steam rotary digger. I 
claim them with pride as the inventions of a Virginian. But I should 
not be perfectly candid if I failed to say that there are faults in the 
construction of these ploughs which should be corrected. His tim- 
ber is not always of the best; his castings are sometimes defective 
and his points almost always so — they are entirely too soft. Doubt- 
less Mr. Watt, in studying as he has studied, to perfect the theory of 
the plough, has left the execution of details to others. But if he will 
only select model materials and model workmen, there will be but lit- 
tle cause to complain of his model plough. 

As I have herein not only stated opinions, but given testimony, it is 
proper that I give my name. 

Frank G. Ruffin. 

Chesterfield, Dec. 31, 1867. 



*^ Men's actions are the greatest sign of their inclinations." 

" Money may credit you, but it is wisdom that must adorn you," 

"Much coin, much care ; much meat, much malady." 



80 THE SOUTHERN [February 



"Routt's Shovel Plough and Corn Planter." 

Mr. Editor, — At the Agricultural meeting in Richmond in the 
month of November, 1866, I had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. 
A. P. Routt, of Liberty Mills, Orange county, who had on exhibi- 
tion models of his "Iron Double Shovel Plough and Corn Planter." 
Upon Mr. Routt's recommendation, I ordered four of his ploughs 
and a corn planter, and having worked the same during last year, 
and tested them fully, I find they answered in every respect fully up 
to Mr. Routt's recommendation. The Iron Double Shovel Plough 
is simple in construction, well made and very strong and durable, 
and, in my opinion, is superior to any plough I have ever used for 
the cultivation of corn and tobacco, and is a superb plough for 
putting in wheat and oats. With this plough, one hand and one 
horse can cultivate more land in corn and tobacco than two hands 
and two horses with any other plough, I have seen used, whilst the 
ground is thoroughly broken, and owing to the steadiness with 
which the plough runs, is but slight labor to the ploughman. My 
hands were loud in praise of this plough, and several of my neigh- 
bors ordered similar ones, after seeing them worked. 

Mr. Routt's Corn Planter is also a superior implement. It seems 
to me it cannot be improved. It opens and lays off the furrow for 
the corn, drops the corn, also the guano, covers up both at one ope- 
ration, and this is done by a man and a good horse or mule. The 
machine is so constructed that you can drop from two to three, four, 
five or six grains of corn at a time, and as much guano, or manipu- 
lated manure, as you may wish. What a saving of labor! By the 
old system, it would take five hands and two horses to do what a 
man and horse do with the Corn Planter. It gives me great plea- 
sure to recommend this plough and corn planter to the fanning 
community. In the use of them there is such a great saving in 
labor, I am sure that they will pay for themselves sooner than any 
farming implements I have bought for years. I think you wiL 
benefit the farming community generally by making known the 
merit of these implements, and informing them they can be had of 
A. P. Routt, of Liberty Mills, Orange county, Virginia, who is 
still manufacturing them and other farming implements. 

Thomas F. Perkins. 

Buckingham C. H.^ January 12^A, 1868. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER.. 81 

Farm Accounts. 

Editor Planter and Farmer, — When your North Carolina cor- 
respondent in the November number of the Planter says " set us 
in the habit of keeping strict and systematic accounts with our 
farms, and of settling up those accounts annually, or semi-annually, 
as punctually as we do, or ought to do, with our merchants," he 
strikes one of the chief key notes to success in agricultural as well as 
other pursuits. And I will take the opportunity of remarking, by 
the way, that no people of any section of this great country are 
possessed of more good, hard, practical common sense than the peo- 
ple of that good old North State. The life of the farmer who 
keeps his accounts straight, and makes his crops before he spends 
them, is the happiest, the most healthful and independent in the 
world. Whilst, on the other hand, the farmer who is careless in 
the keeping of his accounts, and spends his crops by his estimates 
and not by measure, will always find himself behindhand at the end 
of the year, and will lead a life full of anxiety, apprehension and 
care. Let the farmer, therefore, ''pay as he goes." Let him lay 
down as a rule, never to be departed from, " to restrain his wants 
when he has not the means in hand to indulge them." Let him be 
able, by a habit of systematic accounts, to make accurate estimates 
on the first of January of each year of the requisite amount for 
the year, for labor, for manures, for necessaries, for comforts and 
for luxuries, and if he has not, beyond a doubt, within his reach 
the means for a full supply of all he wants, let him cut down, where 
best he can, until he brings himself within his means. Let him 
then give up his gun, his fox-hounds, his fishing-rod, his barbecues 
and his politics, and devote himself earnestly to the personal prose- 
cution of his business, and there need be no fear, but that soon he 
will be prosperous, contented and happy. I am satisfied that the 
same amount of money invested in lands and stock, with a year's 
expense ahead, in hand, in Virginia or North Carolina, will givie 
one more of comfort and quiet enjoyment than can be obtained 
from it by any other mode of investment. 

My object in writing this is to say to you, and through you to 
"Farmer," that, on page 502 of the report of the Department of 
Agriculture for 1865, will be found an essay upon a " System of 
Farm Accounts," by John H. Bourne, of Marshfield, Massachusetts, 
which, whilst not exactly calculated for our latitude, yet presents a 
capital plan for a farm "inventory," "journal" and "account 
book." One idea which has struck me as valuable, now that we 
VOL 2—6 



82 THE SOUTHERN [February 

may be forced to the conclusion that it may be best for us to reduce 
our area of land, is the keeping accounts with each field, thus en- 
abling us to see which portions of our lands pay us best. 

Can any of your correspondents give me the results of experi- 
ments with unleached ashes as a top-dressing for clover, or rather 
the full details of the experiments ? X. 

January ISth, 1868. 



Report of Department of Agrioultupe, 1866. 

As the report cannot reach the hands of all your readers, it is 
proposed to bring it to their notice in a review of its contents. 

This is the last report of Mr. Isaac Newton, the First Commis- 
sioner of this Department, to whose sagacity and common sense, 
aided very little by education or intelligence, it owes its present 
prosperity. He collected around him practical, useful assistants. 
His disposition was kind. This was manifested by the warm inter- 
est he showed in extending all the assistance he could to the South- 
ern States, by the wide distribution of useful seeds, and of the 
publications of his Department. The writer can witness his good- 
ness in this regard, and is glad to throw a grateful chaplet into this 
old man's grave, whose last act evinces his desire to improve South- 
ern husbandry. 

The report is dated November 20th, 1866, and is now being dis- 
tributed, more than a year after its date. This delay impairs, to a 
very great degree, its usefulness. It is to be hoped that hereafter 
there will be earlier distribution of a document interesting to so 
large a portion of the people. 

The Commissioner tells us that, of fifty-five varieties of wheat 
grown in the experimental garden, only six were worthy of remark. 
The Premium White Mediterranean, sown October 9th, was har- 
vested June 29th, and produced 48 bushels per acre. The Red 
Bearded Mediterranean produced nearly the same. " Both proved 
of fine quality, and are recommended for general cultivation. The 
Tappahannock and Russian ' Scheffer wheats succeeded admirably." 

Of sixteen kinds of rye, " Probstier and the Ternia (from Sax- 
ony) are considered the best." 

" Seventeen varieties of oats were sown. The White Swedish, 
Yellow Lethuarian, Black Tartarian, Black Prussian and Nuns suc- 
ceeded best." 

From seventy varieties of peas, the earliest were Dixon's First and 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 83 

Best, Wheeler's First Early, Sangster's No. 1 and McLean's Little 
Gem. The Epicurean, Princess of Wales and Premium (each 
McLean's) were fine. Saxton's Prolific, Yorkshire Hero and 
Madgeburg Gold are in high repute as second crop peas. 

Alsike Clover was cut three times — Lucerne was a success — the 
Esparset is remarkably adapted to light soils. 

Of potatoes, Orono, Samaritan and Early Goodrich rank first. 

The wheat crop of 1863, in twenty-two States, (Northern and 
Western,) was very large; in 1864, 160 million bushels (13 mil- 
lions less in '63) ; in 1865, 148 millions : in 1866, the estimate is 143 
millions. Seventeen millions, the estimate from eleven Southern 
States, and twenty millions from the Pacific States, the whole crop 
is assumed to be one hundred and eighty millions. The crop of 
1859 being one hundred and seventy-three millions, the crop of 
1866, by the ordinary rate of increase, should have reached two 
hundred and forty-two millions. The supply is about five bushels 
to each inhabitant, or half a bushel less than in 1859. 

The corn crop of 1866 is estimated at eight hundred and eighty 
million bushels — about forty million bushels more than in 1859. 

The loss of stock in the Southern States for 1860 to 1866 is esti- 
mated thus : Horses, sixty-eight per cent. ; mules, seventy ; cattle, 
sixty-five; sheep, eighty ; hogs, fifty-six per cent. In Virginia, the 
estimate is, 172,547 horses, 28,710 mules, 543,122 cattle, 761,586 
sheep and 959,951 hogs. This, of course, excludes Western Vir- 
ginia. 

The report of the Commissioner is followed by those of his 
subalterns. First comes a practical one of Mr. Saunders, Superin- 
tendent of the experimental garden. He gives useful directions for 
Strawberry culture, of which delicious fruit he places in the front 
rank the Jucunda and Triomphe de Gand, next, the Agriculturist. 

The Concord maintains the first place among the grapes. 

Of pears, he says: "For many years the dwarf pear has been 
planted very extensively, and while a considerable amount of suc- 
cess has resulted, it cannot be denied that great disappointments 
have also been experienced, and that, too, in cases where a know- 
ledge of tree culture was by no means of an inferior order. It is 
a common remark that dwarf pears are always successful under pro- 
per treatment. This may be so, but what proper treatment really 
is, has not been very satisfactorily defined." 

Of raspberries, "with proper Winter care (covering the canes), 
Brinkle's Orange, Franconia, Hornet, Falstafi" and Red Antwerp 
will give entire satisfaction.'* 



84 THE SOUTHERN [February 

He gives useful directions for treatment of orchards and sowing 
seeds. 

Eighteen pages follow on Entomology^ interesting to Science, and 
in which the farmer and gardener will find to be their best friends, 
insects which they have treated as enemies. This article proceeds 
from Townend Glover, of the Agricultural Department. 

The Chemist, Dr. Antisell, says much upon the subject of sugar. 
He thinks that " after a few decades have passed, the amount of 
sugar required to be imported for our own use will be enormous. 
At present, we supply only one-third of the demand, leaving nearly 
350,000 tons of sugar to be supplied from foreign sources — an 
amount which, in every future year, will need to be increased. 
Thus the necessity for the more extended, cultivation of sugar plants 
is incontestable. There are but two of these at present known to 
the civilized world which can, by process of manufacture, steadily 
and profitably yield crystallizable sugar. These are the sugar cane 
and the beet. There are few countries so favored by their extent 
as to be able to cultivate both plants. The Sorghum and Maple, as 
sources of sugar, may be placed out of view, inasmuch as the sup- 
ply from both is limited, and the separation of the sugar is not a 
remunerative process." 

Mr. J. R. Dodge, the Statiscician, reports the crops of the coun- 
try. He shows bad taste and no kind feeling, and no just discrim- 
ination, in this as well as in former reports, in referring to the late 
war as "a rebellion" — page 52. In noticing the report of the 
Commissioner, the statistics of the wheat and corn crops have been 
stated. A general table of the principal crops shows over fourteen 
hundred and fifty millions of bushels, raised from sixty- two and 
three-quarter millions of acres, valued at $ 1,191,843,405 — an ave- 
rage of nearly nineteen bushels per acre. Another shows the ave- 
rage cash value of farm products per acre for 1866, in which 
Virginia ranks twenty-four in corn, eighteen in wheat, twenty-nine 
in rye and oats, twenty-six in potatoes, fourteen in tobacco and six- 
teen in hay. In the average yield per acre, Virginia is twenty- 
three in corn, nineteen in wheat, twenty-three in rye, twenty-two 
in oats, eighteen in buckwheat, eighteen in potatoes, nine in tobacco 
and ten in hay. " The yield of wheat per acre in 1866, exhibits a 
remarkable range. While the Northwestern States generally show 
an average about equal to the average for four years previous, and 
in some of them a somewhat superior yield, Ohio falls to 4.5 bushels 
in place of 12.19 for the previous four years ; Indiana 5.9 instead 
of 13.1; Kentucky 6,5 instead of 8.76; Delaware and Maryland 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 85 

show a decrease ; the Southern States uniformly have low averages, 
and 1866 was no exception." 

Cotton and rebellion are linked together when the Statistician 
comes to the cotton crop ; but he shows a laudable interest for the 
successful culture of this plant. " A careful observation of each 
county in detail, aided by all outside reports and estimates attaina- 
ble, with a final analysis of all the causes of success or failure, led 
to the Department estimate, early in October, of 1,835,000 bales." 
He states, with just pride, " that after the heavy losses by floods 
and army worm in Louisiana, and the repeated insect depredations 
in Mississippi and elsewhere, that estimate was modified to 1,750,000 
bales. The result proved the former figure to be a remarkable ap- 
proximation to the actual return — an almost literal record of the 
year's production — though the statement was decried at the time as 
half a million bales too large, and no other estimate approached it 
by four hundred thousand bales. Obtained by elaborate calculation 
of current facts, it may be taken as evidence of the reliability at- 
tainable under our present statistical system." 

The tables show a decrease of farm stock in 1866, compared with 
1860. There is a loss of six per cent, in horses. The number in 
Vermont is reduced about 20,000; New York over 66,000 ; Ohio 
over 78,000. These were results of the war. Mules declined 
thirty per cent, in number. Kentucky fell from 117,634 to 59,752. 
Horses and mules must, therefore, remain high until these losses 
are more than regained. The number of sheep and hogs has in- 
creased largely. 

Your readers will be surprised to learn that, in five hundred and 
thirty-nine counties of the States, 130,427 sheep have been killed 
by dogs — 4,272 were killed in seventeen counties in Virginia. This 
proves the wisdom of the dog tax. It is to be hoped that it has 
been assessed in every county. 

There is an interesting notice of the "Wages of Farm Labor," 
from which we cannot copy as we wish, and must be content with 
this reference. 

The agricultural exports of 1865 are shown to be $ 193,121,365 — 
$412,284,392 in 1866. Cotton is the regulator of this large ex- 
cess—its value in 1865 being $5,720,549; in 1866 $281,885,228. 
Is it, then, for the welfare of the Union, that cotton culture should 
be crushed in the South? Can an impoverished South buy the su- 
pernumerary products and manufactures of the Northern States ? 
Are blacks likely to be as good customers as the white race ? It 
trenches too much on politics for the Statistician to suggest these 
queries. 



THE SOUTHERN [February 



An interesting and instructive article of Mr. Saunders, of the 
Department, follows on pruning and training the grape. An ex- 
tract or two must suffice. " There is one well authenticated fact in 
the fruiting of the grape ; viz., that the finest fruit, the best, the 
earliest and largest crops, are produced upon the strongest shoots of 
the previous year's growth. The only proper system of pruning 
will therefore be that which encourages and secures an abundance 
of such shoots," and he proceeds to prove that this principle has 
been constantly recognized for nearly two hundred years, and illus- 
trates the system by numerous drawings. 

" It cannot have escaped the observation of those whose attention 
has been directed for a series of years to the culture of the grape, 
that the best fruit is produced from terminal shoots; also, that even 
under what might be termed indifferent treatment, young vines will 
bear good crops for a few years ; farther, that under any mode of 
pruning that involves the retention of wood beyond five or six years, 
as in the case of spur-pruning, the results are weak, imperfectly 
ripened shoots and bunches. Under this head, we also place all 
those methods where fruiting shoots are produced From permanent 
horizontal branches, as in the Thomery system. In all such limited 
modes of training, it is absolutely essential to remove the older wood 
at certain periods, and replace it with young wood from near the 
base of the plant." 

Grape growing and wine making from other writers fill the nexj; 
ten pages. 

"Botany and Agriculture of the Rocky Mountains," and "Pop- 
ular Varieties of Hardy Fruit," with excellent drawings, fill ten 
pages more. 

A very elaborate article of fifty-three pages on " the Fruit Re- 
gions of the Northern United States and their local climates, im- 
parts no interest to us of the South. 

Twenty pages are on cotton culture. The first article is a brief, 
suggestive essay by Dr. Cloud, of Alabama ; the other by Mr. Ly- 
man, late of Louisiana. 

Turnips and corn fodder are recommended by Mr. Abbott, of 
Ohio, as " aids to cattle feeding." The White Norfolk Turnip is 
esteemed the best. The Russian Turnip will keep into July. 

There is an excellent article on corn culture by a Pennsylvanian, 
from which I could extract, but I fear I have encroached too much 
upon your space. 

In half a page, we learn wonders of California. Besides her 
precious metals, she exports millions of bushels of wheat and mil- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 87 

lions of pounds of wool annually. The average yield of wheat is 
twenty-four to twenty-six bushels per acre. Grapes, oranges, 
olives, almonds, English walnuts, are cultivated with success. 

The most valuable article of the book treats of " Improved Farm 
Implements." Its author, Mr. Todd, of New York, seems to be a 
mechanic and a farmer. Its eighty-three pages contain useful de- 
scriptions of about fifty implements, illustrated generally by cuts. 
The only defect seems to be that he does not, except in one or two 
unimportant instances, give the selling price of the article. This 
is the common defect of the catalogues of agricultural machine 
shops. Our thanks would have been due to Mr. Todd, if he had 
supplied this defect. 

The "History of Mowers and Reapers," p. 264, would make an 
interesting extract for your journal. The one-horse mower "Pony 
Clipper," seems well adapted to the pony-purse of poor old Virginia. 

From the notice of a Corn Husking Machine, lately introduced 
and praised highly, I must make one extract. " The husk crop is 
one of the most valuable which we produce. It would amount, if 
saved, according to the estimate of some persons, to not less than 
8,000,000 tons annually ; and would bring, at $ 15 per ton, $ 120,- 
000,000. In Austria the husks make paper superior to that from 
linen rags. The largest paper mills in the world — those near 
Vienna — employ nothing hut husks, brought from Hungary, and 
costing $40 per ton, about the price of white rags ivi the Austrian 
market. From the long fibre of the husk excellent cloth is made ; 
from the short fibre paper of superior quality is produced, while 
the gluten of the husks makes excellent bread." This machine . 
costs % 75, weighs 200 pounds, and is manufactured by Fuller & 
Co., 57 Broadway, New York. Let our Virginia paper-makers en- 
courage this production as a valuable help to the farmers of the 
State. 

We must close this notice of one-half the volume with a brief ac- 
count of the "Origin of the Domestic Turkey" by Mr. Baird, of the 
Smithsonian Institute. In spite of its name, this bird is of North 
American origin. It was first discovered in Mexico, taken thence 
to the West Indies, and from there, probably, found its way to Eu- 
rope, reaching England in 1541. There are two species — one con- 
fined to the Eastern and Southern United States, the other to the 
Rocky Mountain Region and Mexico. E. T. T. 

January 20th, 1868. 

Our readers will feel themselves under especial obligations to our esteemed 
correspond jnt, for the benevolent regard to their interests, which has prompted 



88 THE SOUTHERN [February 

him to the patient research and comprehensive survey of the various branches 
of industrial economy so strikingly manifested in the above review of the re- 
port of the Commissioner of the Agricultural Department for 1866. 

We thank our correspondent for this seasonable and valuable contribution to 
Our journal, and beg him to be assured that we shall always be glad to receive 
his valuable contributions. — Editor Southern Planter and Farmer. 



Corn Fodder. 

It is said that it was once the custom to go to mill with the corn 
in one end of the bag and a large stone in the other to balance it. 
On one occasion, as the fashion began to change, one neighbor ex- 
plained to another the advantages of throwing out the stone and 
arranging the corn in the bag so that one half of it might balance 
the other. The argument seemed to have some influence, for 
Mr. Oldtime slowly dropped the stone in the road and rode on a 
short distance. But habit and a reverence for the old landmarks 
soon made him halt, and his soliliquies were as follows : What am I 
doing ? My father before me and my grandfather always carried 
their corn to mill with a stone in one end of the bag, and they 
prospered in the world. Shall I profess to have more sense than 
they ? Besides, that stone has been in the family for three gene- 
rations. No, no, I can't do it." So he went back and picked it 
up and went on as before. Now, I am satisfied that many of the 
operations constantly performed by farmers are just as stupid as 
this. " This is the way daddy always done.'' 

We may see one illustration of this in the management of corn 
fodder, or more properly, corn forage, including stalk, blades, 
shucks, tops, &c. Now, I agree with your correspondent " Mar- 
low," that the stalk ought to be cut off at the ground, and thus all 
the forage is saved at once and much expense of handling avoided. 
But that is too long a leap for our old fogies to take at once. 
" Marlow " has nearly graduated. I have not got so far myself, 
though I hold in thesei that the stalk itself is worth as much for 
forage as all the blades and shucks upon it. But Marlow has one 
lesson still to learn before he can take his degree. It is this : he 
will find in practice that his cattle will trample the mass of that 
forage under foot after nibbling at it for awhile, and thus a great 
part of it is lost. He must tell us how to cut up this long forage 
so that the cattle will eat all of it. Now few of us are prepared to 
do this, and we are not likely soon to be. So I will content myself 
with giving an easier lesson. You know we must spell before we 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 89 

can read. I could give the entire lesson as Marlow gives it, and 
close by saying to the farmer, Buy a patent double action, revolv- 
ing, self-feeding straw chewer, with extra blades and balance wheel 
all complete. But the common farmer will retort upon me as the 
Prussian fifer did to his drum-major, who kept calling upon him to 
blow louder. " Tis very easy for you to keep saying, louder^ louder, 
but vare is de vint to come from,'' More than this, the most of 
them already have pretentious but worthless instruments of this 
kind among their old lumber. It is the old story, " the burnt child 
dreads the fire." 

Now the common custom of the country is ,too well known to re- 
quire much description. Some pull oflf the blade up to the ear and 
then cut ofi" the tops ; others pull off the blade up to the tassel and 
leave the entire stalk in the field. The man who cuts the tops is 
much the more sensible of the two, provided he makes a good use 
of them ; but there is the rub. Others, again, are so pressed with 
their tobacco, &c., that they do not save fodder at all, always say- 
ing that it costs more than it comes to ; that 'tis worth the fodder 
to pull it, and then it injures the corn to some extent. 

Those who save the shucks most frequently use the tops for thatch- 
ing a temporary house for holding shucks and protecting them from 
the weather. Every Virginian is familiar with this usage. Then, 
late in the winter, after the shucks are fed away, the tops, washed 
and leached with the winter's rains and snows, are thrown down to 
the cattle to be trampled under foot, and the farmer says, they 
make fine bedding. So they do, but they are too expensive. 

It would really be more economical to throw down the blade, fodder 
and shucks for bedding and take cap of the tops and feed them in a 
proper manner. This is a strong statement, but nevertheless, true; 
for, by actual experiment, the tops from a crop of corn are worth 
more than all the shucks and blade fodder stripped off below the ear, 
taken together. In other words the tops will feed a given amount 
of stock longer and with better results than the blades and shucks 
together. But the tops must be taken care of and then cut up fine 
for the stock. Indeed, my rule is to cut up every thing I feed 
away, wheat straw not excepted. They ought to be put into a 
house if possible, or if not, they should be well put up in small 
stacks around a pole, and transferred to the cutting room in a dri/ 
state. For an^ ordinary cutter that will cut up oats or shucks will 
cut up common top fodder with equal facility, provided it is per- 
fectly dry and crisp. It is only when the tops are damp that there 
is any difficulty in cutting them. They must also be fed to the 



90 THE SOUTHERN [February 

stock dry, for if you undertake to mix them up with meal and 
water they will become so tough before the animal finishes, that 
part of the stalks will be left in the trough ; but if they be fed per- 
fectly dry, the animal will hardly leave a trace in the trough. Top 
fodder is my favorite feed for milch cows, both on account of its 
cheapness and on account of its intrinsic excellence. Last winter 
I fed two milch cows (which had dropped their calves in April,) on 
top fodder from December till March, and they supplied milk and 
butter for fourteen in white family. It is true that I gave each cow 
two quarts of meal a day in addition. But when the tops gave out 
and I commenced on shucks, my wife complained of a falling off in 
both milk and butter in less than forty-eight hours, and we had to 
buy butter all the spring. But some one may say that it was time 
for the cows to fail in milk. Not so ; for we killed one of the cows 
(a mischievous one) in November last, and she was still giving a 
good quantity of milk, though her calf was eighteen months old 
and she had been chained in her stall and fed on dry food for more 
than a year. The other cow we are milking now, January 15th, 
1868, in connection with a fresh cow I have bought that dropped 
her calf in January last. The two are about equal to each other in 
product of milk, and they supply my family, and are fed precisely 
as the two were fed last winter — on top fodder. The same basket 
is used in feeding them with tops as with shucks. The results are 
better with the tops than with shucks, and the tops being much 
more bulky go a great deal the furthest. 

There, is one practical difficulty in cutting the stalk, forage and 
all, at once, on ^'Marlow's" plan, so that it is difficult of universal 
application. The weather in the tobacco region continues warm so 
long after the corn and forage mature, that it is extremely difficult 
to shock it at the proper time and escape the inevitable heating and 
the mould in the greener ears, especially if a spell of damp weather 
ensue. I am aware that this difficulty does not exist to the same 
extent where the seasons are shorter and colder. I would be glad 
of more light just here. 

With ttie experience I have had, I reach the following conclusions 
as safe and economical for planting farmers : 

1. It costs as much as it comes to, to pull the blades at all, even 
when the seasons are favorable. Let any man keep the account of 
the labor, &c., and he will see for himself. If the season be unpro- 
pitious, 'tis a dead loss. 

2. The corn is materially injured by the operation, as may be seen 
from the rapid drying of the shuck after the blades are pulled, to 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 91 

say nothing of the accurate experiments of others who tell us of 
great diminution in the weight of the grain. 

3. Cutting off the tops at the proper season does not materially 
injure the crop, because I have noticed that a stalk of late corn (as 
the re-planted commonly is) retains the greenness of the shuck a 
surprisingly long time after the top is taken off, if the blades are 
left below, and my conclusion is, that the ear breathes mainly from 
the blades below it. 

4. The tops may be saved in almost any season, contrary to the 
general opinion. Let them be set up as they are cut, in the usual 
way. They will take a great deal of rain before they are thoroughly 
cured, without nmterial injury. Fall before last, mine were caught 
in the field by late rains, and when they were hauled in, the blades 
on them were so much blackened as to smut the clothes. But the 
value of the forage was but little impaired, owing to the fact that 
the boot and the stalk were by far the most valuable part, and they 
are not soluble in any brief period. 

5. Then let the farmer be careful to save the tops and house them 
or stack them, and then pass them under an ordinary cutting blade 
before feeding them to any stock he desires to feed, horses not ex- 
cepted. In cutting the tops, every barren stalk and every stalk 
with a barren shoot should receive the knife at the ground. Such 
stalks are very rich in saccharine matter. 

6. If, afterwards, at gathering time, the farmer can manage to 
haul up the stalks to his farm-pen and allow his dry-cattle to nibble 
them all winter, instead of allowing them to do it in the field in all 
sorts of weather, he will find that he has taken a step in the right 
direction, especially when he comes to fork up his manure in the 
spring. 

I hope soon to see the day when I can realize my dream of feed- 
ing entirely on hay and corn forage (blade, stalk, shuck and all), 
then I can let oats alone. J. B. S. 



Fodder. 

Let none, not a corn-stalk, be fed upon the bare ground — make 
racks of some kind. It is poor policy to feed cattle in the yards in 
any way. Stalks cut up, sprinkled with warm water, a little meal 
or bran, and a small quantity of salt, will be eaten with as great a 
relish by almost all stock, but especially cows and oxen, as good up- 
land hay, and will go as far, ton for ton. — Lawrence Journal. 



92 THE SOUTHERN , [February 

Inquiries of a Young Farmer. 

Mr. Editor^ — I am aware that it is much easier to ask than to 
answer questions. But being a young farmer and having very little 
experience and knowledge of the system, I hope some of those who 
are capable will give to such enquirers as myself the benefit of their 
knowledge through your valuable journal. Let none whose experi- 
ence enables them to answer the following questions fail to do so, 
thinking some other will, for, in that way, they may not be answered 
at all. I earnestly seek information, and hope any one capable 
of answering the following questions will do so promptly : 

1st. When farm-yard manure cannot be obtained in sufficient 
quantity, what fertilizer is best on poor, old land, and how used ? 

2nd. Should corn rows be the same distance in thin as in good 
land, and what should be the distance, and also the proper distance 
in the drill ? 

ord. What system of cultivation and fertilization is most econom- 
ical to restore land which has been in cultivation many years and 
much exhausted, where farm-yard manure is scarce ? 

4th. Lime — what are its uses and benefits ; on what kind of land 
and crops can it be most judiciously applied, and how and when ? 

5th. Plaster — what are its uses and benefits ; on what land and 
crops can it be most judiciously applied, and how and when ? 

6th. Agricultural salt — what are its uses and benefits ; on what 
land and crops, and in conjunction with what other fertilizers can 
it be most judiciously applied, and how and when ? 

A YouNa Farmer. 



The More Lime the IVIore Manure. 

The old saying that "lime makes a rich father and a poor son," 
conveys, we think, a serious error, though the idea it is based upon 
is a correct one. That is, that lime, while it makes the soil more 
productive in crops at first, will finally leave it barren if its use be 
continued ; that it will force the ground, so to speak, to its utmost 
power of production, and finally leave it powerless — exhausted of 
the elements of plant food. This might be, in a great measure, the 
case, if we assume that everything made upon the farm was carried 
off from it, as is only possible under very bad management. 

But let it be remembered that in any proper use of lime, the 
first effect is a great increase in grass crops, filling the ground with 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 93 

masses of roots, estimated sometimes to be equal to the whole crop 
above ground. This alone makes a heavy manuring, and is so much 
added to the lime dressings, and yielding, on decay, all the elements 
which plants need to feed upon. 

But then with grass comes grain, furnishing large quantities of 
straw, and corn-stalks and blades, giving material for great quanti- 
ties of manure, and with these comes stock to consume them on the 
farm. More horses, more cattle, more sheep, more hogs — the ma- 
nure manufacturers of the farmer — turning all these to the best 
account, are, year after year, leaving great quantities of the best 
manure behind whdn they go to market ; the best because contain- 
ing not one element, as lime, but all that is needed. 

Then, if the farmer be wise enough to feed away his grain 
instead of selling, the manure is the richest and most valuable, and 
the soil may be kept at the maximum of fertility, if well managed. 
This accounts for the answer of an extensive and observant Chester 
county farmer to the question whether, after the application of lime 
for so long a period of years, there had been any symptoms of 
decline in the production of the land or diminution of the benefit 
derived from it ? His answer was decidedly in the negative, for, he 
said, "those who have limed the most have been pretty sure to ma- 
nure the most." Those who have the spirit to improve freely in 
one direction are not apt to stop at that, but use well, all the means 
at their disposal ; they are the best and most careful farmers and 
their land is constantly advancing in productiveness. — Am. Farmer, 



Nitrate of Lime as a Fertilizer. 

In the recent struggle for Southern independence, the fact is 
generally known that large quantities of saltpetre were made from 
the nitrate of lime found in numerous caves which exist in Northern 
Alabama, Middle and East Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. 
The formation of so much nitric acid in the limestone caves referred 
to, presents facts of great importance to all in any way interested 
in the fruitfulness of farms or plantations. Probably no scientific 
man regards an atom of nascent nitrogen liberated from hydrogen, 
as the two elements exist in ammonia, as better for any agricultural 
purpose than an atom of nitrogen, liberated from oxygen, as they 
exist in nitric acid. Nitrogen in a nascent state being alike availa- 
ble as plant food from ammonia and nitric acid, it follows that, 
if we can form nitric acid from its very abundant elements, as it 



94 THE SOUTHERN [February 

appears to be produced in caves, (one of which is on the writer's 
farm,) then we can make at will, with lime and loose soil, the most 
valuable element in Peruvian guano. Unfortunately, all the condi- 
tions necessary to the most successful nitrification, whether in caves 
or compost heaps, are not so well understood as those relating to 
combustion. Opinions among scientists diifer in regard to the fact 
whether nitrification is limited to the nitrogen derived from animal 
or vegetable substances, in caves, stables, or nitre beds artificially 
prepared, or often extends indefinitely beyond, taking nitrogen from 
the atmosphere. Knapp, in his Chemical Technology, favors the 
former idea; while Boussingault, Sprengle, and others believe that 
the chemical union of nitrogen and oxygen, in the form of nitric 
acid, once set in motion in the presence of a strong base like lime, 
potash or soda, in a porous body, (probably to condense the gases,) 
may continue until the favoring conditions fail. It is well known 
that an excess of water in wood or coal will extinguish combustion. 
The same is true of nitrification. 

Firebrands will burn rapidly if put close together so as to heat 
one another ; but change their condition, by separating them, and 
the fire on each will go out from the loss of radiated heat. 
Those seeking to form the nitrate of lime must study the conditions 
of temperature, moisture and porosity, which control nitrification. 

What are the conditions under which such vast quantities of cubic 
nitre (nitrate of soda) are formed partly in Chili, but mostly in 
Peru ? There is no apparent organic source, either animal or vege- 
table, that can furnish so large an amount of nitric acid. If not 
derived from substances once endowed with life, it must have a min- 
eral origin, or come from the atmosphere. Boussingault traces all 
the nitrogen in guano to the atmosphere ; and there need be little 
doubt that all nitric acid has a similar origin. Europe and America 
are supplied mainly with saltpetre and cubic nitre from the warm cli- 
mates of India, Egypt, Algeria, Spain, and South America. The 
inference is plain that our nitre beds should have a bottom heat, 
such as we give to pine apples, cocoa-nuts and other tropical fruits. 
They require for perfect development a higher temperature than our 
climate affords ; and the most efficient production of nitric acid ap- 
pears to demand a similar condition. 

With regard to moisture, it should be considerably below satura- 
tion. Too much water reduces temperature, and otherwise prevents 
chemical action or nitrification. It very rarely rains in the districts 
of Peru where the nitrate of soda is formed in such vast quantities. 
A porous soil or earth, some moisture, a pretty high degree of solar 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 95 

heat, and a strong alkaline base to take up each particle of acid as 
soon as formed, appear sufficient to eilect the chemical union of 
nitrogen and oxygen. Whether nitrification is started by some de- 
caying animal or vegetable substance in the ground, by decom- 
pounded ammonia, or by electricity, is a matter of little conse- 
quence. What we want is to make at will large quanties of nitrate 
of lime, by using the same forces and conditions that nature uses in 
making so much cubic nitre and saltpetre. 

During the late war I bought a farm on the Tennessee river, 
which had a cave, from the debris of which a good deal of saltpetre 
was manufactured. The nitrate of lime dug up with earth, on the 
bottom of the cave, appeared to grow from year to year, without any 
help from man or animal, very much as I have seen gypsum grow in 
Western New York. A few w^ords, showing how gypsum grows in 
some places, will aid in illustrating the chemical formation of the 
nitrate of lime. 

Some earths contain not a little of sulphuret of iron. Under 
favorable conditions this sulphur is oxidized into sulphurous or sul- 
phuric acid. More acid is formed than the iron will combine with ; 
and in Genesee county, New York, there is a large spring of water 
strongly impregnated with free sulphuric acid. It is obvious that 
any water charged with this acid in passing over lime rocks, or their 
debris in soils, will form the sulphate of lime, which is gypsum. 
Now, so long as the earth supplies sulphur, and air and water yield 
oxygen, sulphuric acid will be formed, and from this and lime, gyp- 
sum will grow on from year to year indefinitely. 

Make the conditions right, and oxygen is as ready to unite chem- 
ically with nitrogen, to form nitric acid, as with either sulphur or 
phosphoric acid. 

The facility with Avhich nitric acid is formed in limestone caves in 
this country and Europe proves clearly that lime, as a predisposing 
base, is fully equal to either soda or potash ; and as lime is a cheap 
article, especially in marl districts, I venture to suggest to such as 
have marl or lime to try to form the nitrate of lime for manure. 
By referring to page 169 of the December number of the American 
Fay^mer, it will be seen that Dr. Yoelcker found a fraction less than 
2 per cent, of nitrogen in box manure, i. e. the excrement of cattle 
well fed in boxes. Nitrogen is estimated 7 3-10 pence per lb., in 
gold, equal to more than 20 cents in our currency. These facts in- 
dicate the great value of assimilable nitrogen. So far as the crude 
nitrate of lime or of potash has been tried by farmers in Tennessee 
and Southwestern Yirginia, the reports are favorable. — D. Lee, in 
American Farmer. 

Gap Creek, Knox county, Tenn. 



THE SOUTHERN 



[February 




Engraved for the American Stock Journal from Photograph. 

Chester White Boar Grant, 18 months I Chester White Soio Beauty, 15 mo7iths 

old, weight 800 lbs. \ old, weight 750 lbs; 

Bred and owned by N. P. BOYER & CO., Gum Tree, Chester co., Pa. 

We are indebted to Messrs. N. P. Boyer & Co. for the above cut. As this 
breed of swine has attained a world-wide reputation, we have deemed it proper 
to give our readers a short account of its origin accompanied with a descrip- 
tion of some of the chief characteristics of this variety of the genus sus. 

" They are generally recognized as coming fully up to the requirements of 
a farmer's hog, and are rapidly superseding Suffolks, Berkshires and other 
smaller breeds. They originated about fifty years ago, through the exertions 
of a number of prominent and enterprising gentlemen of Chester county. They 
imported, at great expense, the best hogs to be found in England and other 
European countries, and crossed them on the sows of Chester county, from 
which have sprung a breed of hogs whose reputation is world-wide. This has 
only been accomplished by long years of careful breeding. They endeavored 
first, by a wide selection, and a judicious and discriminating coupling, to obtain 
the type desired ; and then, by close breeding connected with vigorous weeding 
out, to perpetuate and fix it. The best specimens may be described as long 
and deep in tbe carcass, broad and straight on tlie back, lieavy hams, full shoul- 
der, well pushed forward, admitting of no neck, wide chest, plenty of play for the 
lungs, a very small proportionate head, short nose, dish face, breadth between eyes, 
moderate ear, thin skin, straight or wavy hair, a capacity for great size, and to gain 2 or 
3 pounds per day till they are two years old. Add to these, quiet habits, and an easy 
taking on of fat, so as to admit of being slaughtered at almost any age, and we have 
What is considered in Chester county, a carefully bred animal, and whatis known else- 
where as a fine specimen of the breed called " Chester County White," and a pig that 
Will grow to weigh from 500 to 800, ibs at 14 or 16 months old. They will make more 
pork in a given length of time, with a given quantity of food, than any other breed of 
Hogs. They have been known to weigh 1280 lbs at 21 months old." 

Messrs. N. P. Boyer & Co., Temple & Co., and Geo. B. Hickman, advertise, 
in our columns, thoroughbred specimens of this popular variety. Read their 
advertisements. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 97 




portkultaral §epartmtnt» 



The Kitchen-Garden— Vegetable Seed. 

In the southern portions of this State and in North Carolina ope- 
rations in the kitchen-garden may begin during this month, and 
many of the earlier vegetable seeds may be planted ; even in colder 
sections a great deal of preparatory work should be done, and in all 
localities the necessary seed should be procured and had in readi- 
ness. It is to this most important part of gardening that we wish 
now to direct the attention of our readers. 

Of the many causes of failure and disappointment, both to indi- 
vidual consumers and to the market-gardener, there is none so fre- 
quent and so general as that of inferior and worthless seed. The 
failure of one or more crops resulting from bad seed is yearly re- 
corded in the experience of every vegetable grower, until at length 
it is the customary remark of the planter, " that if the seed is good 
he will have a good crop." Now, this is altogether wrong and un- 
necessary, and may easily be remedied by a little care and prudence, 
but to arrive at the remedy, it is necessary to examine the causes, 
so as to ascertain where the fault lies. 

Too frequently the blame attaches to the seedsman, who, either 
from cupidity sends out old seed, which has been carried over un- 
sold from previous years, or from ignorance and carelessness, puts 
upon the market immature and badly grown seed, or such as are 
untrue to name. There is scarcely any business requiring more 
skill, care and integrity, than the seed business, and a long experi- 
ence is needed to enable any one successfully to operate in this 
branch of trade. 

The very general idea which prevails, that certain seedsmen grow 
all, or even a large portion of the seed they offer, is very erroneous, 
for but few seed can be grown profitably or successfully in any one 
locality, consequently the wholesale seedsmen must make contracts 
with growers in all sections, not of a continent, but almost of the 
VOL. II — 7 



98 THE SOUTHERN [February 

globe, for a supply; and to do this, great caution is necessary to 
guard against imposture. Owing to these difficulties, few houses 
ever acquire the reputation of being first-class reliable seed estab- 
lishments. 

Notwithstanding all this, the fault is not altogether with the 
dealers, but as often, if not more often, with the purchasers. 

Many ask for cheap seeds — five or ten cents dijBference in the 
price of an ounce of seed will frequently decide the question ; con- 
sequently, the pedlar who brings to Virginia this season the seed 
which he failed to sell last year in Ohio and the previous in Massa- 
chusetts, is preferred to the known and reliable merchant, who is 
too honorable to sell what he knows to be worthless. 

Again, with many it is the want of thought. They suppose, or 
at least say they suppose, that one is as good as another, and take 
the first they see, while others, having frequently been deceived, re- 
fuse to trust any one and undertake to grow their own, with the na- 
tural and inevitable result of securing, in the course of one or two 
years, a splendid deterioration. 

Now, the remedy for all this is very simple — purchase only of 
dealers whose reputation for skill and integrity is established — such 
there are in every State, and they can be found by a little inquiry. 
One sure way of determining such is, that they do not offer cliea'p 
seeds. 

No one can sell fresh and genuine seed at the same price that his 
neighbor can sell old stock, and as a rule, reliable houses differ very 
slightly in their prices. 

In this communication, we would caution our readers against the 
new "extra early," "very superior," "mammoth-sized," and "tre- 
mendously productive" varieties of vegetable seed, with notices of 
which the advertising pages of magazines and papers teem. In the 
vast majority of instances, they are miserable trash sent out by as 
miserably worthless parties, who have no object save to make money, 
with a penchant to make it dishonestly, if possible. Of course, this 
is not always the case, but let our readers be certain that these no- 
velties are endorsed by responsible parties before investing in them 
to any great extent. 



A Nuisance IVIade Useful. 

The Northern Farmer mentions a man in the southern portion of 
Wisconsin who destroys bugs on potato vines by sprinkling them 
with a decoction of May weed. If this is true, it is turning a farm 
nuisance to a good account. — Rural New Yorker, 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 99 

Brief Suggestions. 

Prepare, as far as possible, this month for the Spring work in the 
orchard, flower and kitchen-gardens, even though the ground may 
not be in condition to work — manure can be hauled on it and rub- 
bish cleaned oiF. 

Plant trees, shrubs and grape vir^es as early as the weather will 
permit. 

Raspberries, strawberries, and all the small fruits, should also be 
planted early. 

Vegetable seed should ^ot be sown until the ground begins to 
grow warm. It is not always the earliest sown seed that produces 
the earliest crop, and frequently the seed rots in the cold wet soil 
for want of heat to bring it up. 

In planting potatoes, cut the tubers into sections. It economizes 
seed, and the yield is better than from whole tubers. The early 
Goodrich variety succeded remarkably well in this State last year, 
and is, we think, by far the best, both for earliness and productive- 
ness. 

Mulch strav/berry beds with pinetags, leaves or straw, to prevent 
the fruit from being sandy by heavy spring rains. 

If there are any worthless varieties of fruit in the orchard, cut 
off the heads of the trees and graft them with good kinds. 

Manure as heavily as possible, and do not work the ground until 
it is thoroughly dry. 



"The Grape Swindle." 

From childhood, Mr. Editor, I have been suffering from an incu- 
rable attack of vitomania, and as my experience is not of yesterday 
or to-day, I may be excusable for clothing my opinions in the drapery 
of ink. The other day I received a note from an eminent amateur 
vito-culturist, in which he states that " the culminating point to the 
grape sivindle has been reached.'" 

I, for one, sincerely hope that my friend may be correct regard- 
ing the attainment of "the culminating point in the grape swindle;" 
for a gullible public have been swindled for years by false statements 
contained in the most beautiful productions of the printer's art. It 
is amusing, as well as disgusting, to look over the huge pile of cat- 
alogues in my possession and read the glowing and transcendental 
descriptions of trash foisted upon the public by unprincipled par- 



100 THE SOUTHERN [February 

ties. In some of these guides, the party with $5 to spare for an 
extra No. 1 plant, with three buds, will find the fair side of the pic- 
ture with a sufficiency of descriptive falsehood, but not a cloud from 
the dark side. It seems that these figurative and descriptive gen- 
tlemen fancy that 

" Man wants but little here below, 
Nor wants that little long." 

We are of the opinion that it would be a manifestation of honesty 
and fair dealing if these descriptive gentlemen would cast overboard 
their twaddle and stufi', and add to their descriptions of vines — not 
thoroughly tested : liable to winter kill ; mildew in some or most lo- 
calities; a poor grower; not as hardy as an oak; not the best wine 
or table grape in America ; not equal to the Muscat of Alexandria 
or Black Hamburgh ; in other words, dispensing with the varnish 
and veneer that deceive a gullible and confiding public, and fill the 
pockets of designing aad unprincipled cultivators. 

Yearly we have one or more bantlings sent forth at $5 for a mi- 
croscopic specimen, with the assurance that it will beat all creation. 
But, alas ! the poor deluded purchasers are the only ones who" sufi'er; 
for when they test their last dearly purchased pet, they discover that 
they have little else than a page of adjectives clothed in printer's 
ink. If we possessed the temerity, we could mention the name of 
one renowned for his adjectives and transcendental bosh, who has 
sent out at least one dozen of these wonderful productions, and, 
strange to tell, not one of them has stood the test of cultivation. 
Who can estimate the pecuniary loss sustained, or the disappoint- 
ment incurred by the public through the misrepresentations of this 
vito-garometer ? 

We are of the opinion that the period has arrived for at least one 
vine-grower to publish an accurately descriptive catalogue, giving 
the dark as well as the fair side. In the event of any honest man 
being guilty of this meritorious act, we will liberally subscribe to- 
ward a statue to be erected in commemoration of the noble deed, 
so that his name may be handed down to posterity as a public bene- 
factor. We would most humbly and respectfully suggest the pro- 
priety of some one of the fraternity publishing an accurately de- 
scriptive catalogue, calculated to enlighten and benefit the commu- 
nity — a catalogue giving in extenso the faults as well as the good 
qualities of the vines in cultivation. Such a meritorious individual 
would make his fortune, for the public would at once award him the 
title of a fair-dealing, honest man, and extend to him a correspond- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 101 

ing patronage. Unless some such course is adopted, vine-growers 
will have to "hang up de fiddle and de bow," and engage in stock- 
jobbing, or some such employment, where they can find a sufficiency 
of dupes. Americans are a gullible people, and run away with some 
mania for a time, and designing and unprincipled parties are ever 
ready to take advantage of their weakness. The mania followers 
consent to be sold for a time, but ultimately fly ofi" at a tangent, be- 
coming deeply prejudiced against everything savoring of their de- 
funct pet. We have been credibly informed that vine-growers are 
clothed in sackcloth and ashes, lamenting the want of customers, 
and that some of the leading landmarks among them have already 
reduced their prices fifty per cent. This was to be expected ; and 
we predict that extra No. 1 two-year-old vines, equaling Hamburghs 
and Muscats in flavor, will be plentiful and cheap in the autumn of 
1868. 

The vito-mania has reached its "culminating point," and unless 
vine-growers adopt a different course, the cultivation of the vine in 
the United States will receive a check from which it will not recover 
until vine-growers and their bantlings go where — echo answers 
where ? With all due deference to the staff editorial as well as au- 
thorial-, we have an inkling that they are, to a certain extent, cen-i 
surable for giving undue prominence to new and unfledged bant- 
lings ; but as we are touching upon sacred ground, we must refrain 
from giving particulars. 

Now, sir, as a guide for the uninitiated, I sometimes fancy that 
amateurs who "have no axes to grind" should publish the results of 
their experience and observation, and thereby benefit those who are 
exposed to an attack of vito-mania. The masses want a vigorous 
growing vine that will produce fruit of a fair quality, that will flour- 
ish in favorable as well as unfavorable circumstances, never mildew — 
never requiring an expenditure for sulphur or sulphurating bellows, 
and last, though not least, standing our winters without protection, 
leaving the new-fangled bantlings of unprincipled venders for the 
experimentation of vito-maniacs like the writer. 

I will, as briefly as possible, give my experience during the last 
summer. My situation is elevated ; exposure, good ; soil, light sandy 
loam ; subsoil, light, with perfect drainage ; number of vines under 
cultivation, about two thousand ; number of varieties, too numerous 
to mention. 

Mildew appeared on the vines in the order as named ; lona, Ro- 
gers' 5, 15, 19, and 25 ; Israella, Delaware, Adirondac, Creveling, 
Maxatawney, Allen's Hybrid, Lydia, Alvey. 



102 THE SOUTHERN [February 

The only varieties that entirely escaped mildew and produced a 
vigorous growth, were the Concord, Hartford, Christine, Clinton, 
Ives, and Arrott. Our advice to the uninitiated, based upon some 
observation and experience, is — If you want fruit for your families, 
plant Concords and Hartfords ; if you want fruit rivalling the Mus- 
cat of Alexandria and Hamburgh, erect a cold grapery and plant 
Muscats and Hamburghs ; but if it is desired to waste money, buy 
the last bantling sent out by some designing vine-grower, and pa- 
tiently await disappointment and vexation. 

Al Fresco, in Horticulturist. 

[The above is a most timely article. Perhaps in no branch of Horticulture 
has there been, and is there now, more gross swindling perpetrated than in 
vine growing and selling. We caution our readers, as we have frequently done 
before, against these new and expensive humbugs. — Editor Southern Planter 
AND Farmer.] 



Profit of Apple-Growing. 

The apple is the great standard among fruits, as wheat is among 
grains, or potatoes among vegetables. Some localities, of course, 
give better returns than others, but everywhere the apple is looked 
to for a crop as is the potato, and it depends much on the cultiva- 
tor's skill in managing and selecting varieties as to the amount of 
returns. Niagara county, N. Y., is put down this year at 180,000 
barrels, and in that county one tract of apple orchard produced for 
sale 600 barrels of fruit, which sold at $3 per barrel. One tree of 
Rhode Island Greenings produced twenty-six barrels. H. T. 
Brooks, Esq., at the New York State Fair, during one of the even- 
ing discussions, gave, among other evidence of the profits of apple- 
growing, the following : 

''A tree in Middlebury gave 11 barrels ; four trees in Le-Rey, 13 
barrels each. Patrick McEntee, of Perry, took 14 barrels of Bald- 
wins from one tree, and sold them to A. W. Wheelock for $60. 
Mr. True, of Castile, took 15 barrels of Gilliflowers from a single 
tree. Enos Wright, of Middlebury, sold the product of two trees 
for $100. Two years ago Mr. Hammond, supervisor of Middlebury, 
sold the product of 33 trees of Northern Spys for $900. C. Cronk- 
hite sold the apples on less than four acres for $1,000; they were 
immediately re-sold for $1,500. He said that Edmund Morris, the 
admirable author of 'Ten Acres Enough,' who, by-the-by, with the 
usual consistency of preaching farmers, had added 13 acres to his 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 103 



' Ten,' wishing to do some tall bragging, had told us of 20 apple- 
trees that paid their owner $225 one year. Here, said Major 
Brooks, is a story to match : Robert McDowell, of York, Livings- 
ton county, has 22 trees, grafted nineteen years ago to Dutch Pip- 
pins, Greenings, Russets, etc., standing 35 to 40 feet apart — his 
soil sandy loam, annually ploughed and cropped, being also heavily 
manured every year, and protected by woods on three sides. He 
sold from these trees, after reserving his culls, in 1865, 163 barrels 
of apples for $779 50. 

"Prescott Smead, of Bethany, Genesee county, from six acres, 
on clay and strong clay loam, sold as follows : 

18G2, - - - . 750 barrels, - - - - $2,370 

1863, - . - - 590 do. ..... ijgo 

1864, - . - ' - - 600 do. - - - - 2,100 

1865, - - - - 810 do. .... 4,500 

1866, - - - ^ 150 do. .... 863 
1S67 {estimated), - 600 do. .... 3,000 

'^ Add to the above, copied from his income report (and reports of 
this kind are not apt to be over-stated), apples used in the family, 
and we have 100 barrels to the acre, and 2J barrels to the tree, an- 
nually, for the whole six years, paying $400 per acre every year for 
the whole term. 

" For practical cultivators, there is another fact of great signifi- 
cance. This same orchard, after coming into full bearing for some 
ten years, received only ordinary care, which means scarcely any 
care at all, and its returns were very meagre. It was then heavily 
manured, ploughed shallow, and suffered to lie two years longer, all 
the time uncropped ; then it was manured again, and the same treat- 
ment repeated. The results were as has been stated. 

*' S. P. Lord, of Pavilion, bought a neglected, and, of course, un- 
fruitful, orchard of seven acres — trimmed, manured, and ploughed 
it, when it immediately commenced bearing, and during the next six 
years yielded $6,000. 

" He recommended careful and moderate annual pruning where 
necessary, as contrasted with the too frequent slashing to which 
trees are subjected — keeping the heads of the trees low, which would 
favor ease in picking — objected strongly to the common neglect of 
cultivation, and also to the close cropping of the ground, in the at- 
tempt to obtain other products from the soil, the strength of which 
should be given to the trees. He cited cases where good clean cul- 
ture had given high profits, and added that in nearly every instance 
where very large crops had grown on single trees, he had found 



104 THE SOUTHERN [February 

those trees to stand near wood-piles, slop-grounds, barn-yards, or on 
other spots where they received a good supply of enriching material. 
— Horticulturist, 



Directions for Cultivating Asparagus. 

[From the Southeru Planter of Dec, 1841, p. 227.] 

It will be remembered by those in this vicinity at least, that Gen. Richardson 
obtained a premium from the Henrico Agricultural Society for the extraordi- 
nary asparagus exhibited by him at their Fair last spring. Since that time, we 
have been requested, more than once, to obtain for publication the General's 
mode of cultivating this delicious vegetable. With this request we have com- 
plied in the article below. 

(7. T. Botts, Esq., Editor Southern Planter : 

Dear Sir, — I give, as you have requested, not " directions for 
cultivating asparagus," but, as briefly as I can, the manner of cul- 
tivating mine ; premising that, so far as I know, there is no skill or 
mystery involved in the matter. 

The roots, then two years old, were planted in the month of March 
in trenches 1 foot deep, 12 inches wide, and 5 feet apart. The crowns 
of the roots were set on the bottoms of the trenches, so that the 
lateral roots interlocked, being about twelve inches from crown to 
crown. Previous to planting, stable manure was spread over the 
bottom of the trenches an inch or two deep, the roots were then set 
and covered with about as much earth well-pulverized, and the whole 
surface kept free from grass and weeds through the year. By the 
end of the first year, the trenches were filled up by the ordinary 
process of weeding, to within two or three inches of the general 
surface. I cut off the tops, filled the trenches to the surface with 
stable manure, and very early in the spring drew up the earth so as 
to form a ridge over each row of roots. The produce was more than 
sufiicient for my family. We cut none after the month of May in 
this year, but kept the beds as before, clear of weeds and grass, and 
in the fall, before the berries began to drop, the tops were cut down 
and removed. 

Finding that by the ordinary method it would take more time and 
labor than I had to spare, and supposing it would be better to apply 
the manure near the roots than on the surface, I split the ridges 
with a single-horse plough. The next season, running twice on each 
bed, removed the earth left by the plough with broad hoes, and put 
in an inch or two of fresh stable manure. The garden "line was then 
set over the centre of each row of roots, about 12 inches above them, 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 105 

the earth (well-pulverized) drawn up to the line, first from one side and 
then from the other with hoes, so as to form a ridge or bed 14 or 15 
inches high, the line then removed, the bed raked over, and that 
completed the dressing. The produce was abundant, large, fine, 
and well-bleached. I have continued this practice ever since. The 
beds were never forked, but when they became dry and hard on the 
surface, a dressing with iron-tooth rakes puts them in good order 
again. 

The crown of the root from which the shoots are thrown up seems 
to increase in size every year, buds forming upon buds, which give 
it somewhat a conical shape. I observe that more and more of 
these crowns are visible, and are cut in every succeeding year's 
dressing ; but it does not appear to injure them. Forking, I sup- 
pose, injures them quite as much or more. I observe, also, that the 
lateral roots or feeders have spread across the intermediate space 
between the beds, and think it highly probable it might be better to 
apply the manure there than to the crowns. I tried the experiment 
last spring upon a small scale, but without any visible effect until 
the tops were suffered to grow up — it was perceptible in them, 
though it had not been in the shoots cut for the table, possibly be- 
cause the manure was applied too late. 

My success in raising this plant, so far as depended on my own 
knowledge or management, is entirely accidental. I never planted, 
or owned, or dressed a bed of it before — never heard of its being 
dressed in this way, and adopted the plan at first to save time and 
labor, which I had not to spare. 

I have 39 beds (one row of roots in each) 60 feet long, which are 
usually dressed by four men in a day and a half. 
Very respectfully yours, 

W. H. Richardson. 



Window Gardening. 

Thousands of persons, fond of flowers, are, during a great por- 
tion of their lives, confined to the house, even if they have a garden 
or pleasure-ground in which Flora's treasures are growing and 
blooming. To meet this love of the beautiful and gratify the taste, 
the common practice is to grow a rose or geranium in a pot upon 
the window-sill, or a stand near the window. Those who have com- 
mand of means have had aquarias constructed, but rarely with any 
satisfaction to meet anticipation. Some time since, the London 



106 THE SOUTHERN [February 

Gardener's Magazine gave a representation of a case constructed 
in the window by removing the entire lower sash, and then project- 
ing a frame to cover the whole width of the sill, inside and out, 
raising the lights and curving them until the top met the lower part 
of the upper sash ; the bottom of the case to be made like a draw, 
showing paneling, to give artistic appearance, and to have its drain- 
age made so that any surplus water that should be given the plants 
would escape from the outside. In this draw the earth is to be 
placed, and the plants either set directly in it or they may be in 
pots, and the draw filled to surround and cover the pots with moss. 
The cost of construction of this form of window-case would be quite 
small, and, except in severe weather, it would be no trouble, and 
mostly out of the way. It should be made, of course, to fit the 
window, and movable on approach of really cold weather. 

Another mode is to have a draw eight or ten inches deep, and 
projecting into the room four to eight inches, having the sides, or 
ends rather, carried up as panels next the window, and sash-doors 
hung on the inside opening into the room. In the draw, pieces of 
rock and soil are placed, and the plants set among them and trained 
as they grow up the side or end panel work. The eifect of this in 
the long French window is very good, especially when care has been 
taken to get plants that are good climbers, and with broad, glossy 
foliage. — Horticulturist. 



The Goodrich Potato. 



Editor of Planter and Farmer^ — As some of your readers may 
be interested in the cult-ivation of the potato — particularly the 
"Early Goodrich" — I enclose you a copy of a statement made to 
me by the gentleman mentioned below, whom I have known for a long 
time and have entire confidence in what he says. This statement 
does not say anything about the merits of the "Early Goodrich" 
as a forward potato^ but clearly demonstrates what can be done by 
preparing land properly, using the right sort of fertilizers, and cul- 
tivating well afterwards. I saw the potatoes, and never before have 
I seen finer or larger potatoes, even for seed. 

Mr. Joy, in charge of a farm near Washington city, belonging to 
George W. Riggs, Esq., planted not quite one-fourth of an acre in 
Early Goodrich potatoes, on which he sowed broadcast three hun- 
dred i^ounds of bone dust, and ploughed it in with a three-horse 
plough ; planted the rows three feet apart ; sowed in the drills or 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. lOT 

rows at the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds Peruvian Guano 
per acre, and cut the potatoes each with two eyes, and planted them 
twelve inches apart in the rows. Just as they were coming up, 
they were harrowed across the rows;* then a sub-soil plough was 
used three times in each row, from twelve to sixten inches deep : 
after which, they were worked with a long tooth cultivator, some- 
times called a '■^Gro deviV Then the work was finished by one 
hoeing ; and from two barrels planted, two hundred and ten bushels 
were dug up and saved. H. B. 

Alexandria, January 16^A, 1868. 



Sound Potatoes. 



The wide-spread destruction of the potato crop, caused by the 
almost unprecedented rains of July and August of this year, 
amounting to millions of bushels, has naturally excited the earnest 
attention of the agricultural mind, and the question is anxiously 
asked on all hands, "how shall we escape the rot?" The potato 
disease has manifested itself, with nearly equal virulence and fa- 
tality, on all soils and under all modes of culture, throughout the 
region visited by the great rain-belt. No locality has been exempt 
from its ravages, and no panacea been found for its prevention, or 
cure. It becomes, therefore, a question of vital interest, not merely 
to the professional potato-grower, but to every farmer and every 
consumer of this now indispensable root — the fourth crop in value 
in the national soil products — what varieties to plant, with a rea- 
sonable prospect of a fair crop and exemption from disease. 

In New England the standard sorts, the Carter, Jackson White, 
Davis, and Colebrook seedlings, have all failed to resist the rot ; in 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Southward, the kinds 
most popular and generally planted, the Peach-Blow, Mercer, Dyke- 
man, White-Sprout, Prince Albert, Pinkeye, Jersey Monitor (sy- 
nonymous with Shaker Russett and its pseudonym Shakers' Fancy !) 
have, with rare exceptions in favored localities, suffered equally from 
the rot with their Northern relatives. Some instances there are of 
entire exemption from disease, even of the Monitor, the most sus- 
ceptible of all to its influence, but they are so rare as to be barely 
worth mentioning ; nor is there anything in soil or culture in these 
cases that can enlighten us on the question " how to obtain, in sea- 
sons of potato rot, a sound crop of the standard popular kinds?" 

We must turn, then, to an examination of the merits of those va- 



108 THE SOUTHERN [February 

rieties which have generally escaped the disease under the influence 
of the long, sunless, rainy season of 1867. From careful personal 
observation, verbal and written correspondence with friends, and 
assiduous reading of the agricultural press, I am satisfied that, taken 
as a elass^ the Goodrich seedlings more fully meet our requirements 
than any other. Not that they have proved invariably sound, but 
that with them health has been the rule and disease the exception — 
"which is the reverse of our experience with all the older varieties. 

Mr. Goodrich raised over 16,000 seedling potatoes, of which 
number less than ten sorts have proved of value to the general cul- 
tivator. They are the Cuzco, raised from the seed of the Wild 
Peruvian, and its progeny the Early Goodrich and Harison ; the 
Garnet Chili, from seed of the Rough Purple Chili, and its progeny 
the Calico ; lastly the Pinkeye Rustycoat, from seed of the western 
Red, and its progeny the Gleason. 

In addition to these is the beautiful potatp, the Early Rose, not 
raised by Mr. Goodrich, but obtained from seed of the Garnet Chili 
in 1861, by Mr. Albert Bresee, of Vermont, to which fuller refer- 
ences will presently be made. 

Foremost among the well tasted of these sorts is the Early Good- 
rich, which is, this year, of unsurpassed quality, abundantly pro- 
ductive, a handsome market variety, next in earliness to the White 
Sprout, an admirable keeper, and as to health and soundness 
unequalled. Of the others, which are all winter sorts, the Hari- 
son, newly introduced, is the most productive and handsome, gene- 
rally sound, and of medium but improving quality. Next is the 
Cuzco, also a great bearer, and this season of good quality, and 
growing in popularity. 

The Garnet Chili and Calico are inferior in productiveness to the 
preceding, but are fair croppers, and generally sound ; the Calico is 
very delicate in flavor, fully equal to Mercer. 

The Pinkeye Rustycoat and Gleason are much prized by many 
growers for their truly excellent quality, productiveness and long 
keeping. 

The Early Rose, although raised in 1861, and well tested by its 
originator, in Vermont, and by D. S. Hefi"ron, of Utica, New York, 
who is the proprietor of the entire stock, is yet untried with us. 
It is the most promising, in general appearance and character, and 
certainly the best in quality, of any potato I have ever known. 
Mr. H., of whom I can confidently speak as one of the most con- 
scientious cultivators in the land, assures me that thus far it has 
proved " as sound as any that Mr. Goodrich has ever raised, ten 



1838.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 109 

days earlier than the Early Goodrich, more productive and with 
fewer small tubers than almost any other kind." 

Should it fully bear out this description in our latitude, it will be 
the greatest boon to the farmer and to the community that this 
generation has yet witnessed. The fact that it is a seedling of the 
Garnet Chili, and has the Goodrich " strain of blood " in its veins, 
is greatly in its favor. — Practical Farmer. 



Planting Vines Deep. 

There are many, even among our best vine-growers, who advocate 
planting the vine deep — say eight and ten inches of soil above the 
upper root. Now it is well known that the most of grape roots, 
when left to themselves, are grown near the surface, and that one 
of the great objections to vine-growing, without pruning in a bor- 
der, is that the roots, if not walled in, will soon extend beyond a 
desired limit, and that walling, to prevent their extension, causes 
them to seek food below the genial influence of light and air, and 
thus create disease. If this prove true, as record makes it in the 
border, why is it that compelling the roots in the field to seek their 
food deep below light and air can prove a healthy feature in grape 
culture ? We hope some grape man will tell us wherein lies the 
value of keeping grape roots below the influence of atmosphere, for 
in all other fruits all growers advocate the reverse. — Horticulturist, 

[We shall be as happy as the Editors of the Horticulturist to have some one 
assign a reason for this to us inexplicable practice. — Ed. Southern Planter 
AND Farmer.] 



Whole OP Cut Seed Potatoes. 

, BY PLOUGHMAN, BALTIMORE, MD. 

Being pretty well through with storing root crop, &c., and hav- 
ing a short time to spare, I give you a little experiment on a few 
potatoes, (called the Quaker,) which were presented to me by some 
Philadelphian unknown to me. They were large size and similar 
to the Harison in quality, and form : 

No. 1. Potato weighing twelve ounces, cut in one and two eyes, 

produced 6 pounds. 

No. 2. Potato cut in halves weighing twelve ounces, produced 

5 j pounds. 
No. 3. A whole potato, weighing nine ounces, produced 

3J pounds. 
No. 4. The sprouts of one potato weighing eight ounces, pro- 
duced 1 pound, 2 ounces. 



110 THE SOUTHERN [February 

Width apart, No. 1, ten inches ; No. 2, eighteen inches ; No. 3, 
twenty-four inches ; No. 4, eight inches. 

They were planted in meadow land and had a very wet season 
to contend with, otherwise I think the product would have been 
greater. 

My object of trying the experiment was to ascertain if planting 
whole potatoes, (as has been recommended,) possessed any advan- 
tage over the old plan of cutting the potatoes in small pieces. If 
my exhibit is worth a»nything, it certainly shows that the old plan is 
best, saying nothing of the importance of economizing seed. — Grar- 
deners Monthly. 



^\\\m% §t%M\\m\\t 



Topography, Geology and Iron Ores of the Valley of Virginia. 

The following extract, from Colonel Hotchkiss' pamphlet, noticed 
in our last, was intended as a particular description of the Elizabeth 
Furnace Iron property of the Messrs. Forrer ; but, as the topo- 
graphy, geology and mineral resources of this extensive property 
may be regarded as a pretty fair type of the whole of the great 
Valley which extends through Virginia, we have thought it might 
subserve the interest of that section to give it greater publicity 
through our pages : 

TOPOGRAPHY. 

The Great North Mountain has an elevation of some 2,500 feet 
above the valley of the Little Calf Pasture, but much of this eleva- 
tion is comprised in the first portion of the slope of the mountain, 
rendering it too steep to be of much value, but all the lower portion 
of- the mountain consists of long, gradually descending spurs, with 
intervening hollows, these are very good land and well timbered. 
The valley proper, having a width of some two miles, embraces 
much excellent grass land, and is covered with a very fine growth 
of original forest ; much of this is comparatively level, dotted with 
some hills of moderate elevation. The western slope of the Little 
North Mountain is broken up into a succession of spurs and de- 
tached ridges, diminishing in elevation as they increase their dis- 



1867.] PLANTER AND FARMER. Ill 

tance from the axis of the mountain, with hollows and streams 
winding among them ; many of these are well timbered and fertile, 
and among them are found the valuable iron ores and fossiliferous 
limestones that give to this property its great value ; while from 
their sides gush numerous chalybeate, alum, healing, limestone and 
freestone springs, among the best of their classes, and valued for 
their medicinal virtues. But the topography of any region being 
but the incidents of its geology it will be better understood ^fter 
that is briefly given. 

GEOLOGY. 

The Silurian limestone, with its associated slates and shales, that 
underlies the Great Valley of Virginia (and which has formed that 
valley by having had its upturned edges eroded,) is succeeded, con- 
formably, on the west by the Medina Sandstone of the New York 
geologists, (called the Levant by Professor H. I). Rogers and No. 
IV. in the early surveys of Pa. & Va.,) and this, hard and unyield- 
ing, bajffled successfully the denuding agency of the waters, and 
now forms the crest and eastern slope of the Little North Moun- 
tain ; because this second great sand rock of the palaeozoic system 
conforms to the dip of the limestone named, that is to the southeast, 
it necessarily forms the eastern face of the mountain and renders it 
rough and steep, but it furnishes fine quarries of excellent sandstone 
on the summit and beds of the finest sand on the sides of the moun- 
tain. It is needless to add that this sandstone renders the outline 
of 'this mountain bold and well defined ; preserving a uniform ele- 
vation of from 800 to 1,000 feet above the adjacent valley. This 
sandstone is conformably succeeded on the west, about one-third of 
the way down the mountain, by a variegated fossiliferous limestone, 
(probably the Scalent of Rogers,) and there the character of the 
surface, of course, changes, and the harsh features that characterize 
the sandstone rim of the valley, or crest of the mountain, give 
place to 'the rounded spurs and winding hollows peculiar to lime- 
stone formations. This limestone is followed by a succession of 
softer shales and slates, with occasional sandstones, giving rise to 
the descending series of spurs and ridges we have spoken of in de- 
scribing the topography of the western slope of the Little North 
Mountain. The valley of the Little Calf Pasture is derived from 
the slates and shales we have before spoken of, and as these harden 
towards the west they rise into the "spurs of the Elliot's Knob, or 
Great North Mountain, and are then succeeded by the very hard 
sand rock that forms the crest of that mountain and gives it such a 



112 THE SOUTHERN [February 

commanding elevation, one of its knobs rising to a height of 4,448 
feet above mean tide at Richmond. These features are clearly de- 
fined upon the maps. 

This North Mountain is the same range that is known in Southern 
Pennsylvania as the Kitatinny, and as the Blue Mountain in the 
Eastern part of the State as at the Delaware Water Gap, it is the 
Shawangunk Mountain of New Jersey and New York ; to the 
southwest of Elizabeth Furnace it extends through Virginia, under 
various names, the whole to the northeast and southwest " form- 
ing," says Lesley, "a succession of mountain outcrops that run into 
each other in curious zigzags, doubling like hares across a thousand 
streams, always wearing on their backs the red sandstone and the 
red shale, with certain marks, and the rich fossiliferous iron ore 
from which many of our largest (Pa.) furnaces obtain their stock." 
With this general reference to the geology of this region we now 
proceed to describe its 

IRON ORES. 

The system of mountains of which the Little North Mountain is 
a member is everywhere noted for its iron ores, and from a period 
anterior to the Revolution successful furnaces have drawn their sup- 
plies of ore from its extensive deposits, and now an almost unbroken 
chain of active furnaces, but a few miles apart, occupy the line of 
this system from New York to Alabama. Those familiar with the 
furnaces of Virginia will readily recognize well known names when 
we mention Zane's, Van Buren, Columbia, Esteline, Bath, Cali- 
fornia, Australia, Lucy Selina, Catawba, &c., furnaces, all of which 
draw or have drawn their supplies from the summit or western slope 
of this mountain range. This list could be greatly enlarged, and 
we have never heard of any iron from this region that was not 
of good quality, while much of it has enjoyed an enviable repu- 
tation. 

This band of the great iron belt reveals the abundance of its iron 
ores by the numerous strong and bold chalybeate springs that flow 
from it, Orkney, Liberty, Rawly, Union, Yellow and Variety 
Springs are more or less widely known, but excellent " iron waters 
flow from unnamed springs along this mountain, in almost every 
mile of its course — they show that the "soft ore" is abundant. 
As an illustration of the quantity of iron contained in some of 
iron contained in some of these waters, we can instance Rawly 
Springs in the North Mountain, twelve miles from Harrisonburg — 
the flow of the water from one spring is one hundred and thirty 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 113 



gallons an hour, and each gallon contains a half ounce of the very 
purest iron ore. 

Professor William B. Rogers, in his Report on the Geology of 
Virginia, says : *' The ores almost exclusively in use, are Hsematites 
of various aspects, known under the names of Honey-comb and 
Pipe ores — many of which yield a metal of the very finest char- 
acter." These Hydrous Peroxides of Iron, or Haematites, by the 
numerous analyses of the Rogerses, may be said to contain from 
seventy to eighty-seven per cent, of Peroxide of Iron, some of them 
a trace of oxide of Manganese, from one to two and a half per 
cent, of Alumina, from two to fifteen per cent, of Silica, from 
eight to fifteen per cent, of water and some traces of lime. The 
amount of metalic iron in one hundred parts is from forty-six to 
sixty. 

The iron ore of the Elizabeth Furnace attracted attention as 
early as 1796, when Timothy Green obtained a patent for one 
hundred acres of land, known as the "Gum Ore Bank Tract." 

This is near a notch, or gap, in the mountain and no one could 
pass along the road leading to it without noticing a bluff of iron 
ore, a dark brown hsematite, rising some twenty-five feet* above the 
surface of a spur on the left, and marking the eastern boundary of 
a belt ot country about a fourth of a mile wide, and extending in- 
definitely to the northeast and southwest, scattered over with de- 
tached masses of the same valuable ore. This tract passed from 
hand to hand unimproved, until it came into the possession of the 
Messrs. Forrer, who have, within the past five years, partially de- 
veloped its resources, and are now operating a single charcoal fur- 
nace, making from five to seven tons of pig metal a day. 

From a recent survey of the property, I am enabled to make 
these statements. 



Gold. — The total production of gold all over the world, from 
1848 to 1866, is estimated at $3,341,500,000, or at the average of 
$ 185,638,888 per annum. The weight of the whole would be 6,157 
tons, nine-tenths fine, or 5,542 tons avoirdupois of fine gold, equal 
to 30TJ tons per annum. The silver product of the same period 
was valued at $1,629,460,000, or at the average of $ 90,022,222. 
The weight of this nine-tenths fine would be $47,743 tons, or 
43,696 tons of pure silver, equal to 1,832 tons a year, or in the 
proportion of about eight tons of silver to one of gold. 
VOL II — 8 



114 THE SOUTHERN [February 



Ptcljantt %xts. 



Progress of Amepioan Invention. 

Judging from the rapid progress made in invention within the last 
few years, it might seem to some that we must be naturally ap- 
proaching the acme of mechanical perfection ; but as we appear to 
approach this acme, it recedes and opens the field of invention 
wider and more extended, thus giving a greater scope to the ener- 
gies of ingenious and enterprising men. Each invention, no matter 
how humble, opens a new field of greater or less magnitude, in 
which not only its inventor, but others may operate. 

In respect of the inventions which affect the prosperity not of our 
own country alone, but the whole world, America stands pre-eminent, 
and not only pre-eminent in the introduction of such inventions and 
machines, but in their manufacture. As a proof of this fact, wit- 
ness the result of the competition at the World's Exhibition at Paris, 
and we see that in the competition for sewing machines, reapers, 
mowers, locomotives, safes, and many other leading inventions, 
America bears the palm. It is but a few years ago that American 
mechanical skill was not very highly estimated abroad ; but now a 
great change has taken place, and a high value is placed upon it. 
Thus encouraged, our inventors and artisans ought to, and will, rer 
double their energies until they outstrip all competition of other na- 
tions, and our country will be considered as a national w^orkshop, 
and the world can order the products of our ingenuity and skill. — 
American Artisan. 



Advice to Young IVIeohanios. 

There is a growing inclination on the part of young men, after 
they have served long and hard apprenticeships to acquire a good 
trade, to abandon that mode of making a living to enter the legal 
or medical profession, where it is supposed greater emoluments can 
be secured and larger honors won. In nineteen cases out of twenty 
such ventures are failures, for two reasons. First, the professions 
require peculiar talent and the most thorough education. As a rule, 
apprentices to the trades have neither the time nor the means to 
acquire this education. Hence, when a mechanic at the end of his 
apprenticeship aspires to and enters any one of the professions, he 
does so at a great disadvantage. lie may be a fluent speaker, 
know how to argue a point in a debating society or harangue a 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 115 



crowd at a ward meeting, but such talents do not fit him for the 
legal profession. He may know how to extract a splinter from his 
own hand, how to make a salve, how to mix a powder or administer 
a pill, but all this, while it might qualify him as a good nurse, does 
not fit him for the medical profession. The fact is, the young men 
who abandon their trades are tempted to do so by a feeling of false 
pride erroneously imagining there is no honor to be secured in a 
pursuit of the mechanical arts. History proves the fallacy of such 
suppositions. 

The brightest names which now adorn the annals of all countries 
are of the best mechanics who have blessed mankind with the pro- 
ductions of their genius. All that is beautiful and grand is the re- 
sult of improvement in mechanics. The pendulum, the main-spring, 
the barometer, thermometer, printing-press, steam-engine, sewing- 
machine, telescope — all are the result of mechanics' arts, making 
those famous who produced them and the people great who adopted 
them. 

A good mechanic who becomes a pettifogger or a quack merely 
because he is too proud to work at his trade, is indeed a pitiful ob- 
ject. A man of the right mental balance, who has proper mental 
force, with the necessary independence, will win as much honor and 
as fair a living in the trades as in the professions ; indeed, an indif- 
ferent law^yer or doctor lacking briefs or patients, is always a mise- 
rable being, a bad example in the community. Let our young me- 
chanics, then, become ambitious in their own peculiar vocations. 
If they dignify their trades by becoming proficients therein, the 
trades will dignify them with the highest honors. If mechanics 
pursue their business with a purpose to self-improvement therein, 
and not merely to hammer and file and saw, but to improve the art, 
to develop something new therein, the mind will be strengthened as 
the arm becomes muscular, and the heart of the mechanic will be 
made to sw^el'l with as true a pride as ever glowed beneath the doub- 
let of a prince. Will the young mechanics think of these truths? — 
State Gruard, Ilarrishurg ^ Pa. 



Brown's CARPET-TACKiNa Machine consists of a serrated foot 
which is placed over the spot where the tack is to be driven, and is 
so held by a handle long enough to enable the operator to stand up- 
right. The tack is dropped into a tube at the upper end of the 
handle and falls to the lower end, and then by pulling a cord a 
hammer is raised, and when acted upon by means of a spiral spring 
the tack is forced into the spot intended. The machine is intended 
to stretch and tack the carpet at the same time. The weight of the 
whole apparatus is about four or five pounds. — Ame7'ican Artisan, 



116 * THE SOUTHERN [February 



^Qiiseljalij department. 



Milch Cows 



Mr. Editor^ — That far too little attention has been paid by 
our farmers and others to these useful animals, is a fact which your 
correspondent has had occasion to remark. 

Accustomed, from infancy, to Southern plantation life, but in lat- 
ter years familiar with Northern and Western processes, he has 
been led to compare the general neglect of cows on our plantations, 
and consequent deficiency of milk and butter, with the greater care 
and better results in these respects, witnessed in some other regions. 
On a small scale, too, he has put in practice a moderate amount of 
energy to endeavor to realize what care, directed by good sense, 
may accomplish in this latitude towards remedying the deficiency in 
question. The result has been gratifying, and he takes the liberty 
of making a brief statement, by way of inciting others to put forth 
endeavor in this direction, with even better reward. 

Your correspondent has but a small body of land, on which he 
raises only a limited amount of corn, wheat, oats and hay. He keeps 
four cows. His care of them embraces these essential particulars : 

1. That they be always dealt with gently — no hallooing at them, 
or violence allowed. 

2. That they be sheltered, haltered in stalls, kept clean, and with 
good beds, in winter. 

3. That they be systematically fed with food suitably warmed in 
winter. 

4. That they be systematically and thoroughly milked — by a 
man, if possible. 

5. That their tendencies towards maturity be so attended to, as 
to insure, if practicable, calves and renewed freshness every year. 

By this course your correspondent is enabled to secure, in mid- 
winter, an average" product of six or eight quarts of milk a day from 
each cow, supplying a large family with an abundance of milk, 
cream and butter, the gross value of which, at this season, may be 
fairly estimated at not less than twelve dollars a week, besides the 
comfort which no such outlay could, in general supply. 

His personal attention is given only in the w^ay of exact super- 
vision, half an hour in the early morning and again towards night- 
fall. The work is done by a negro man, hired at ten dollars a 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 117 

month, who does a great many other things. The feeding is done 
in large troughs or cribs, subdivided, so that the smaller portion 
shall be water-tight for slops, &c., the other for fodder, &c. 

In the early morning a mixed feed is given of Mangold Wurzel 
beets or turnips sliced up, and bran, thoroughly treated with warm 
water, in the tight portion of the crib. At the same time a suffi- 
ciency is put of shucks or fodder in the other portion of the crib. 
About a gallon of the sliced roots, and as much bran, to each cow, 
and two or three gallons of water to each, constitute this succulent 
morning's meal. At one o'clock they are fed again, differently. 
A quantity of straw is cut up with a cutting knife, treated with a 
few quarts of bran, put in the tight portion of the crib, and served 
with a considerable portion of warm water, and the whole well 
stirred. At night the morning process is repeated. 

The stalls are cleaned out and relittered every morning, and 
again at night, if necessary. Being thus attended to, it takes but 
little time. The animals are let out in the stable-yard in the day, 
unless the weather is very bad, this being well floored with stalks, 
straw, &c. The haltering is with a small cord simply tied around 
the base of the horns. The animals, treated gently, are so tracta- 
ble, although one or two of them had been extremely wild and un- 
manageable, that they are as readily haltered as the best trained 
horse. 

The milking is done about the time of feeding, morning and 
night, and with energy and rapidity. 

Your correspondent having important literary work to do, and 
very limited means, can give to matters of this kind only a frag- 
ment of time, and very little outlay. But he has been surprised to 
see what a little judicious care thus applied will effect. 

One of the secrets in the case is, it will be observed, the summer 
cultivation of succulent roots, and their preservation in winter. 
This is essential. But it can everywhere be easily done ; and it is 
astonishing that so little of it is effected. The warm water, too, is 
an important element. Everybody can secure it with some simple, 
economical appliance. Kitchen slops are also used. 

Under the changes wrought in our labor system, things of this 
kind will have to be attended to ; and your correspondent will be 
rewarded for this unpretending contribution, if others in our dear 
suffering South gather from his suggestions a few profitable hints. 

P . 



118 THE SOUTHERN [February 



How to Make Milkers. 

No matter what breed you have, whether Ayrshire, Jersey, Short 
Horn, or grades, something is necessary to be done to reach the 
highest success in raising milkers. 

It is a great thing to have good blood, but apart from this advan- 
tage, the course of raising a milker is somewhat different from that 
of raising an animal for beef or for labor. 

The calf should be well fed and petted while young. 

Fondling helps to create a quiet disposition, so important in a 
diary cow, and this education must begin when young. 

For a milker we would have the heifer come in at two years old, 
and if she has been well kept, so as to have attained a good size, 
she is then old enough to become a cow. She will give more milk 
for coming in early. It forms the habit of giving milk, and the 
habit, you know, is a sort of second nature. We use too many 
young bulls. An older bull is better. A three or four years old 
is far better as a stock getter than a yearling, and many prefer a 
five or six years old to any other. After the heifer has come in, 
let her be fed regularly. A little oatmeal induces a Lirge flow. 
Indial meal is rather fattening. In bad weather, give her a clean, 
airy stall. 

A cow newly come in should, not drink cold water in cold wea- 
ther, but moderately warm slop. Calves intended for raising should 
be taken from the cow within a few days after birth. Feed them 
first with new milk for a time, then skim milk, then sour milk, 
taking care that all the changes are gradual, by adding only a por- 
tion first, and gradually a little meal. 

Calves well fed and taken care of, with a quart or two of meal 
daily in winter, will be double the size at two years old they would 
have attained by common treatment. 

Heifers thus treated may come in at two years old, and will be 
better than neglected animals at three, and one year of feeding 
Baved. 

Heifers dried up too early after calving, will always run dry ear- 
lier in after years ; therefore be careful to milk closely the first 
year, until about six weeks before calving. 

Hearty eaters are desirable for cows, and they may usually be 
selected while calves. A dainty calf will be a dainty cow. 

Heifers should become accustomed to be freely handled before 
calving, and drawing the teats. 

They will then not be difficult to milk. Begin gradually and 
never startle them. 

Persons who milk should keep the nails cut short ; animals are 
sometimes hurt with sharp nails, and are unjustly charged with 
restlessness. 

To determine which cows are best for keeping, try their milk 
separately, and w^eigh their butter — for sometimes a cow may give 
much milk and little butter, and vice versa. — Colmans Rural World. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER AND FARMER. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, FEBRUARY, 1868. 

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION AND ADVERTISING. 

Subscription One Year, $2.00 

ADVERTISING. 

1 square, 10 lines or less, one insertion, $ 1 00 ^i page, one year, | 35 GO 

1 square of 10 lines lor six months, 6 00 }4 page, six months, 35 00 

1 square of 10 lines for one year, 10 00 }4 page, one year, 60 00 

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% page, six months, 20 00 1 page, one year •. 100 00 

PAYMENTS. 
Subscriptions— in advance. Advertising— annual— quarterly in advance. All others in advance. 



dbitorial §tpartinnit. 



Indian Corn as a Green IVlanure. 

Will any of our readers who may have tried the broadcast sowing of Indian 
corn, for the purpose of ploughing under, as a manure, be so good as to favor 
us with his experience of the results of his experiments? 

State particularly the favorable or unfavorable character of the seasons and 
whether light, dry and warm or stiff, cold and wet ; or of what intermediate 
variations of condition. 

We all know that green vegetable matter requires a greater amount of heat 
for its decomposition, than can always be found in cold, wet soils, and it is de- 
sired particularly, therefore, to learn from the practical farmer what has been 
his success upon this kind of land. 

If, in answering this call, any person may feel disposed to enlarge the field 
of inquiry and give his views on the subject of green manuring generally, it 
will greatly enhance the value of his communication. 



Correspondence of Southern Planter and Farmer. 

Our thanks are due to the kind partiality of our esteemed correspondent for 
the following very flaitering notice of the " Southern Planter and Farmer." 
We pass it over to our readers for such consideration as it may please them to 
give it. — Ed. Southern Planter and Farmer. 

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER AND FARMER. 
Unum, sed leonem. 
The first number of the united Planter and Farmer came to hand by last 
mail. Allow me to congratulate you, Mr. Editor, upon this step in the right 
direction. It must be a great gratification to all who have the interests you ad- 
vocate at heart, to perceive that we p-re thus in the way of being furnished with 
a periodical on agriculture fitted in so high a degree to iheet the pecul-iar wants 
of the region, for whose benefit it is particularly designed. We, of the South, 
now more than ever — for scarcely any other alternat've is at present left U8 



120 THE SOUTHERN [February 

than plant or perish — stand in need of a superior and widely-circulating pub- 
lication of this kind. With soil, climate and productions differing so materially 
in many points from those of our Northern fellow-citizens, their agricultural 
papers, however ably conducted and valuable in themselves, as a matter of 
course will pay less attention to, and often wholly overlook, things that are of 
the last importance in our latitude. In fact, many things highly concerning to 
us — such as the cultivation of all crops suited to our climate, but unsuited to 
theirs — the management of our thin, light soils; above all, the restoration of our 
old worn-out fields— could not be well admitted into them, without rendering 
them so far "flat, stale and unprofitable '^ to their home patrons. But the very 
length, breadth and depth of this want have led to the wrong policy with re- 
gard to its own supply ; that is, to too much uncombined action. Every one 
has put his hand to the work in his own way, without consulting the general 
good, or the disinterested judgment of others. Every State has been trying to 
get up a journal of its own, as if that were at all necessary to its actual wants 
and success. The consequence of all this has been the defeat of the very ob- 
ject which the originators of such publications had in view. It has left us, not 
with many, as probably was hoped and expected it would, but without even 
one paper of that high character, varied contents, literary finish, extensive cir- 
culation, low price, and proper adaptation to our peculiar wants and circum- 
stances, which it is admitted on all hands we require. Our strength — not from 
•want of numbers, but from lack of interest and consequent inattention — never 
more than sufficient to support more than one really good paper, divided among 
80 many, has been frittered away, and has gone to waste. These sickly, feeble, 
short-lived issues of an hour, even during the days of our prosperity and 
strength, have dwindled and died, almost without exception ; and now, with 
diminished numbers and crippled resources, we are left to begin the work 
anew. Can we not be a little wiser for the future ? We positively want but 
one paper of this kind from Virginia, where our peculiar products, soil, cli- 
mate, etc., begin, to Texas where, as far as our country is concerned, they end. 
Cannot one paper represent these diversities and interests as well as a dozen ? 
Why not, then, unite upon one paper, and use all our efforts to make that what 
it should be ? The better supported, the greater will become its merits ; and 
the greater its merits, the more extensive its circulation. Every year as that 
circulation enlarges, richness and attractiveness will gather upon its pages 
through the influence of growing means. What is of especial importance, as 
the' number of subscribers enlarges, the amount of the annual subscription 
may be made less and less, till it comes within the reach of multitudes who 
ought to have it, but who can ill afford to take it even at the comparatively 
moderate rate of two dollars a year. In this way, with the united support of 
the whole cotton, tobacco, rice and sugar-growing regions, a paper cannot fail 
to succeed, whatever may be its name or the place of its publication. Why not, 
then, put our shoulders to this wheel as one man ? Why not lay aside all petty 
State pride — which "was never made for men" in our present political condi- 
tion — all selfishness, everything but love of the public good, and strive together 
as a band of brethren for the temporal salvation of our ruined, suffering coun- 
try ? Her agriculture is now her only hope. Again I say it, she must plant, 
and plant on a wiser and better system than she ever has done, or she must 
perish. The Planter and Farmer, as far as my knowledge extends, is now the 
most prominent and promising agricultural journal among us. Why not go to 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 121 

work like a hive of bees, each one working with a will, and in his own way, to 
build it up, till it shall find its way into every household, laden with its trea- 
sures of thought and knowledge, and opening the way for the improvement 
and happiness of the great general life? It is a noble object. Lot us work, 
and acquit ourselves like men. Then, as the queen of the forest paid of her 
whelp, "one but a lion," we should have one paper only, but that one a 

APER. T. S. W. MOTT. 

Garden Farm, January 21th, 1868. 



Barley. 

INDUCEMENTS OFFERED EOR ITS CULTIVATION IN VIRGINIA. 

Messrs. Yuengling & Beyer, proprietors of the large brewery in Richmond, 
propose to furnish selected seed of this valuable commodity at cost, for cash. 
Barley is the only grain from which beer is made, and the rapidly increasing 
consumption of this wholesome beverage among us, renders it a fit subject for 
trial on the part of farmers. In the selection of seed, great care should be 
taken that it is not of a reddish hue, as it is more than probable that, in such 
case, a great part of it will never vegetate. The sample should be of a pale, 
lively color, and uniform. We mention this as a reason why the novitiate in 
this business should avail himself of the practical skill of this firtn in selecting 
their seed ; not to speak of the obvious advantage of obtaining, through them, 
their seed at cost. The land that produces the best barley is generally of a 
silicious, light, dry nature ; for a good mellow preparation and free soil are es- 
sential to the growth of malting barleys. Cold wet soils, which are peculiarly 
retentive of water, are ill adapted to the growth of this grain, both in reference 
to its wefght and its malting qualities. The whole matter of barley and its 
straw contains more silicious particles than that of any other small grain ; and 
hence, one reason why a sandy soil is most congenial to the growth of the 
plant, especially as it serves best to stifien and harden the straw ; and thus, to 
counteract its tendency to fall when it does not derive a sufficiency of this ele- 
ment, as it fails to do when sown on stifi" wet lands. In harvesting barley, 
great care must be taken to avoid heating and sprouting of the grain, by thor- 
oughly curing and drying before housing, and even after housing, watchful at- 
tention to prevent heating in the mow. The operation of threshing should not 
be done by a machine, as the injury done thereby is frequently of a very seri- 
ous nature; it bruises the malting spear, which is as injurious to the malsters 
as if heated in the mow, and therefore should be guarded against. 

M. Saussure, in subjecting barley to the test of chemical analysis, reports the 
following constituents found in the grain and straw: 

The grain reduced to ashes, with its skin, gave, out of 100 parts, 18 of ashes, 
which contained : 

Potash, 18.; phosphate of potash, 9.2; sulphate of potash, 1.5; muriate of 
potash, 0.25; earthy phosphates, 32.5; silicia, 35.5; metalic oxides, 0.25; 
loss, 2.8. 

One thousand parts of straw produced 42 of ashes, containing: 

Potash, 16.; sulphate of potash, 3.5; muriate of potash, 0.5; earthy phos- 
phates, 7.75; earthy carbonates, 12.5; silicia, 57.; metalic oxides, 0.5; loss, 
2.25. 



122 THE SOUTHERN [February 

These products vary, no doubt, in different soils, but the proportion of silicia 
in the straw and in the skin of barley is remarkable. The subjects of these 
analyses grew on chalky soil. 

This grain is cultivated largely in New York and in the West, where the 
crop is said to average 40 bushels, which, at late January quotations in New 
York, $1 82j to $1.85 per bushel, is a remunerating price. 

We have some results of the experimental cultivation of last year, which we 
will now state: 

Twenty-five bushels per acre were reaped in Dinwiddie county under circum 
stances deemed not the most favorable. 

Mr. Milton Barrett, near Keysville, about the last of April, 1867, sowed upon 
very poor land, with 200 pounds of Fisk guano to the acre, two bushel8 of two 
and four-rowed barley, which yielded ten bushels to the acre. This, he adds, 
"I consider a decided success, for the crop was sown at least two months too 
late." 

Mr. E. S. Hammond writes from Lynchburg in March, 1867, to Messrs. 
Yuengling & Beyer. . . . Please inform me the varieties of seed you have, 
and if suitable for spring-sowing. ... The objection to the kind I now plant 
is its falling ; the stem is so soft and weak; but it has yielded me 60 bushels to 
the acre on low grounds, and no defect or blight in the grain. I wish a variety 
that has a stiffer stem. 

We refer to the advertising sheet for the particulars of Messrs. Yuenghling 
& Beyer's offer, and have been requested to say that applicants for seed will be 
furnished with particular directions for the proper cultivation of barley. 



Beautiful Medallion Likenesses of Bishop Soule and Rev. Hezekiah 

G. Leigh, D. D. 

We are indebted to the courtesy of the President of Randolph Macon Col- 
lege for the above named Medals. These eminent men of God, whose names 
adorn the annals of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and whose distin- 
guished faithful and efficient labors in the gospel have enshrined their blessed 
memories as "holy relics" in the hearts of all true Methodists, are most beau- 
tifully and artistically expressed in bas-relief likenesses of admirable truthful- 
ness on metalic disks of bright untarnished lustre. These souvenirs are offered 
to those who contribute to the fund being raised for the repairs of Randolph 
Macon College, upon the following terms : 

A contribution of $2 entitles the donor to the likeness of the Bishop. 

A contribution of $1 to that of Dr. Leigh, the founder of the College. And 
for three dollars both will be given to the contributor. 

Address Rev. S. T. Moorman, care of the Richmond Christian Advocate. 



Club Rates. 

We receive subscriptions for the following papers in connection with the 
Southern Planter and Farmer : 

Richmond Christian Advocate and S. P. & F. together, - - $4 50 

Cultivator and Country Gentleman and S. P. & F. together, - 3 75 

American Farmer, Baltimore, and S. P. & F. .together, - - 3 50 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 123 



New Publications. 

The Sunday School Magazine, devoted to the interests of Sunday Schools. 
Published under the auspices of the Virginia Sunday School Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Edited by Rev. W. W. Bennett, D. D., 
Vol, I No. 1 — 32 pp. octavo. Price one dollar per annum in advance. Its 
ensemble is at once beautiful and attractive, being 'put up' in the artistic style 
of workmanship and characteristic good taste of Messrs. Fergusson & Rady, 
Book and Job Printers, 1328 Main street, Richmond, Va. But these are but 
accessories. The w'^ork itself is worthy of the highest praise, and commends 
itself, by the richness and variety of its contents, to the patronage of all Chris- 
tian denominations as a choice manual of moral and religious instruction for 
the family and the Sunday School. 

The New Eclectic. The second or February number of this magazine has 
been received, and judging from the numbers already issued, it promises to 
equal the expectations of its most sanguine friends ; and already deserves to be 
classed among the best periodicals in this country. 

Contents — I. Music and Architecture; II. Aunt Anastasia on Society; III. 
Mr. Arnold and Mr. Swinburne; IV. A City Apologue ; V. Phineas Finn — 
the Irish Member; VI. Democracy, Carlyle and Whitman; VII. Ireland and 
the Irish ; VIII. The Companionship of Books ; IX. The Comedy of Convoca- 
tion ; X. Scientific — Reviews, Recent Publications, Miscellany and Editorial — 
128 pages. Price $4 per annum^ 

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. The December number has been re- 
ceived fr()m the Leonard Scott Publishing Company, 140 Fulton street, N. Y. 
Price $4 a year. 

Contents — Linda Tressel — part III; The Church — her State and Prospects; 
Nina; Sir Charles Wood's Administration of Indian Affairs; The Conversion 
of England; Cornelius O'Dowd ; Garibaldi versus Vlo Nino, &c.; Grimm's 
Law; Brownlow's — part XII ; The Government and the Press, &c. 

North British Review for December, No. 94, has also been received from 
the Leonard Scott Publishing Company. The character of this periodical is 
such that its own name is its sufficient recommendation. 

Contents — 1, Relations of Heathenism and Judaism to Christianity; 2* 
Modern Provincial Poems ; 3. Ralph Waldo Emerson ; 4. The Natural His- 
tory of Morals; 5. The Military Systems of Europe; 6. Population; 7. Italy 
in 1867 ; 8. The Social Sons of Britain. 

DeBow's Review. The January number has been received, and contains 
the usual variety of well-written articles on the subjects which will be seen by 
the contents below ; before giving which we will state that we have seen in one 
of our exchanges that Wm. M. Burwell, Et-q , has been called to the position of 
Editor in-chief of this valuable magazine. He is well-known and appreciated 
at the South for his fine talents, qualifications and experience for such a posi- 
tion, and will, no doubt, contribute materially to the prosperity of this journal. 

Contents — I. Party Purposes and Personal Political Designs Associated 
with the Recent Popular Elections ; II. Oratory — a Fine Art ; III. Effects of 
Radicalism; IV. Recollections of Mexico; V. Gen. U. S. Grant; VI. Agri- 



124 ' THE SOUTHERN [February 

culture of Missouri; VII. Department of Commerce; VIII. Do. of Agriculture; 
IX. Do. of Mining and Manufactures; X. Do. of Internal Improvement; 
XI. Editorial Notes, &e. 

New Catalogue of the Hermitage Nurseries. Messrs. Allan & Johnson, 
of this city, General Agents, have sent us the new Catalogue of Fruit and Or- 
namental Trees, Plants, &c., grown and for sale by the Virginia Nursery and 
Wine Company. Office, 1506 Main street: Post-office box, 438. 

This company has been organized under a regular charter, and is represented 
by the following officers: 

Jacob Fuller, of Rockbridge county. President; L. W. Rose, of Richmond, 
Treasurer; John M. Allan, of Richmond, Secretary: Robert P. Richardson, of 
Reidsville, N. C , and John D. M. Ross, of Rockbridge county, Directors; Allan 
& Johnson, of Richmond, General Agents. 

This Company have purchased the property and stock of the Hermitage Nur- 
series, whereby they are enabled, without delay, to offer a good assortment for 
the Spring trade. They will purchase largely of the fruit of the vine, and 
manufacture, on a large scale, the best qualities of wine the fruit will afford. 

This Catalogue abounds in useful directions to the fruit-grower : on Planting 
and Cultivating Orchards and Vineyards ; table of Distances for Planting, &c.» 
and contains a full descriptive list of Apples, Pears, Peaches, Cherries, Plums, 
Apricots, Nectarines, Quince, Grapes of select variety, suited to this latitude. 
Strawberries, Raspberries, Gooseberries, Currants, Blackberries, Evergreen 
Trees and Shrubs, Deciduous Shrubs, Climbing Shrubs, Vines, &c.; Hedge 
Plants, Select Bedding Plants, &c.; and Roses and Flowers in all their Select 
Varieties. Also, Select Green-House and Hot-House Plants, &c., &c. 

Wilson's Ammoniated Super-Phosphate of Lime. — Messrs. Spotts & Gibson, 
Agents for Richmond, have sent us the above pamphlet, describing it generally, 
and giving directions for its application with regard to Corn, Potatoes, Roots, 
Broadcast Grains, Top-Dressing Meadows, Trees, Vines, &c., and Cabbages. 

This pamphlet can be obtained from the Agents, Messrs. Spotts & Gibson. 

Allison & Addison's Hand Book of the Garden, Seed Catalogue and Al- 
manac for 18G8. The publishers are seedsmen and dealers in agricultural im- 
plements and guano. Under the present postal law, seeds, &c., can be mailed 
in packages not exceeding four pounds in weight, thus affording a cheap and 
expeditious mode of obtaining them. Call at 1320 Cary, beiween 13Lh and 14th 
streets, Richmond, Va. 

Annual Descriptive Catalogue of Garden Seeds, grown and for sale by 
Allan & Johnson, wholesale and retail seedsmen, 150G Main street, Richmond, 
Va. Post-office box, 438. Seeds sent by mail to any part of the country, and 
their safe delivery guaranteed. 

Descriptive and Priced Catalogue of Plants, grown and for sale at Plea- 
sant Valley Small Fruit Farm and Nursery, one mile southwest of Moorestown, 
Burlington county, N. J., by John S. Collins. 

Knox Fruit Farm and Nureries. Catalogue of Small Fruits for Spring of 
18G8, by J. Knox — City office, No. 137 Liberty street, Pittsburg, Pa., with nu- 
merous illustrations of the various fruits offered for sale. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 125 

Catalogue of Fresh and Genuine Field and Garden Seeds; also, Ama- 
teur's Price List of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Grape Vines, Small Fruits, 
Shrubs, Roses, &c., grown and for sale by Edward J. Evans, York, Pa. 

. Price List of R. IL Allen & Co., 189 and 191 Water street, N. Y.— of 
Seeds, Fertilizers, Agricultural and Horticultural Machinery and Implements, 
in great variety. •' 

Price List of Portable Steam Engines, manufactured by A. N. Wood & 
Co., Eaton, Madison county, N. Y., with testimonials of their merits. 

Cherry Lawn Farm. Price List for Strawberries. The Wilson — a Spe- 
cialty; also, Prices of Blackberries and Raspberries, Rhubarb and Asparagus 
Plants. Address D. H. Brown, New Brunswick, N. J. 

True's Potato Planter. It is claimed to be the most valuable labor saving 
machine adapted to agricultural purposes ever introduced. Address J. L. True, 
Burton, Maine. 

The Oriental Base Burning Hot Air Furnaces. — We have received from 
Messrs. Snyder & Irby, Agents for this city, their Circulars setting forth the 
advantages of using these furnaces for heating purposes. These advantages 
are chiefly derived from their form, durability, convenience, healthfulness, 
economy and effectiveness. They are perpetual burners, and only require re- 
plenishing once in twenty-four hours. They will keep fire many days without 
attention. * 

Hovey & Nichols' Artificial Fruits. — This firm announces that they can 
supply the public with new artificial fruit that is a perfect counterfeit of na- 
ture. Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Grapes, Strawberries, &c.,can be dupli- 
cated, at prices varying from one to two dollars at retail. Their address is 57 
State Street, Chicago. 

Blackwood's Magazine, for January, is just received. 

Contents — Address of Working Men, by Felix Holt; Linda Tressel — part 
IV; Sketches in Polynesia; Brownlows — part XIII ; Modern Cynicism ; What 
I Did at Belgrade ; The Night Wanderer of an Afghan Fort ; The Education 
of the People of Fngland and America. 

The New York Teacher and American Educational Monthly, devoted to 
popular instruction and literature, by J. W. Schermerhorn & Co., 430 Broome 
street, New York, pp. 48, octavo, price $ 1.50 per annum. January, 1868. 

Contents— Inner Life of Reform Schools ; The Ranhe Haus, Hamburg, 
■with an Illustration ; The Classification of the Sciences ; The Objects of School 
Training; Intervention of Government in Education ; England and the Eng- 
lish Colonies, from the French of M. Emilede Laveleye; Grammatical Notes — 
Verbs Modified by Adjectives ; Cloverbobs, or How Dr. Rounder Beat his 
Boys; The Year; Shall the Truth be Told About School Books; Where are 
the Mothers ; Play Grounds, &c., &c. 



126 THE SOUTHERN [February 



increase of Original Matter in the Southern Planter and Farmer. 

We have the highest satisfaction in bein^ able to present to our readers the 
large amount of seasonable, practical, original matter which will be found in 
the present number of this journal ; and with equal pleasure we add, that our 
kind friends are increasing our debt of gratitude to them for the extension of 
their beneficent labors in this direction. 

Their previous communications are beginning to arrest attention, and are 
drawing out valuable contributions from other correspondents. These again 
draw out others, and thus, vivacity, freshness, and variety are imparted to our 
pages, while they become the vehicle for the wide dissemination of valuable 
and important instruction in practical husbandry and the industrial arts. 

Thus, too, will our paper become, in due time, a recognized organ, for the 
interchange of the opinions and practices prevailing among our farmers; a 
focalizing centre on which the scattered rays of knowledge will converge, and 
thence be reflected in their combined radiance for the enlightenment of all 
within its sphere. 

It is the interest of our patrons, as well as our own, that this ideal should 
be speedily realized. Verbum sat. 



€mmmml |ifpcrrt. 



Just one year ago we prepared our first report for the opening number of the 
new series of the Southern Planter. Our field in the then existing state of 
things was an unpromising one, and atnid the pall of gloom that overshadowed 
our people, it looked like a hopeless task to attempt any enterprise that 
required of them pecuniary support, or active and hearty co-operation. Look- 
ing over the whole ground, we determined to obey the war-cry of our noble 
Stonewall Jackson, who, above the din of battle, could often be heard exclaim- 
ing "press forward,'^ and although "clouds and darkness'' still encompass our 
land, we have no cause to regret our twelve months of toil, and hope there are 
not a few of our readers who feel that we have not labored altogether in vain. 
We stated ia our first Cumuiercial Report that it was our purpose "to use every 
resource at our command to make our journal a welcome visitor to the mer- 
chant as well as the planter;" and while the present subscription list of the 
Southern Planter and Farmer attests the esteem in which we are held by the 
planters and farmers of this and other States, we regret that we have so few- 
readers among the merchants. We have offered our pages as a medium of 
communication to the R'chmoud Chamber of Commerce, the Tobacco Exchange 
and the Corn and Flour Exchange, but, as yet, we have not had the pleasurp of 
hearing from either of the honorable bodies mentioned. We hope and believe 
that, with the return of that state of prosperity for which we are all longing, 
and hoping and laboring, our mercantile friends, who have thus far omitted to 
use our journal as a means of communication with the planter and farmer, 



^ 



18G8.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 127 

looking upon us as co-workers with them, will join hands with us, and help on 
those productive interests by which we all live. 

Like the corresponding season of last year, this has been a winter of unu- 
sual severity, and we can hope for but little improvement in any branch of 
commerce until there is a general thaw, followed by the drying winds of 
March. When the produce, aow locked up in the country, comes to market, 
we have every reason to think that it will furnish a basis for even more 
business than was transacted last Spring. How successfully the soil of the 
South is to be cultivated during the current year, is a problem yet to be solved, 
and every one must resolve to "act well his part," and master the difficulties of 
the situation as best he can. 

TOBICCO. 

"We now proceed to give annual statistics, as extracted from the valuable Cir- 
cular of Messrs. Norton, Slaughter & Co., of New York: 

"Comparative stocks of leaf tol?acco in the United States on Ist of January, 
1868, and Ist of January, 1867 : 

New York, - - - - - 

Baltimore, ----- 

New Orleans, - - - - - 

St. Louis, - - - . - 

Louisville, - . _ - . 

Cincinnati and Covington, - . - 

Paducah, . . . - . 

Clarksville, . - - . . 

Virginia, - - - , - 



Total Receipts at all American ports for the year 1867, 
Total Exports from the United States for the year 1867, 

Statement of stocks of American tobacco in the principal ports of the world on 
1st of January for the past ten years : 

January 1. 1868. 1867. 1866. 1865. 

Liverpool, 22,715 23,642 27,820 28,514 

London, 21,982 23 782 22,^98 22,786 

Bremen, 2,982 4 552 7,864 7,385 

New York, 23,876 . 19,366 35,1P4 41,712 

Baltimore, 8,506 17,645 22.297 20,938 

INew Orleans, 875 4,507 1,553 957 

Virginia, 1,476 3,700* 10,593 



1868. 


1867. 


23,876 Hds. 


19,366 Hds 


8.506 " 


17,645 " 


875 " 


4 507 " 


2,199 " 


793 " 


2,708 " 


4635 " 


2,150 " 


2.700 " 


123 " 


479 " 


1,476 " 


3,700 ♦' 


41,913 


53,825 


1867, - - 


220,166 " 


1867, - 


189,648 " 



Total, 82,412 97,194 127,709 117,292 

* Estimated. The stocks in Virgiuia on 1st January, 18C8, were smaller than 
ever before in the history of the State. 

January 1. 

Liverpool, 

London, 

Bremen, 

New York, 

Baltimore, 

New Orleans, 

Virgiuia, 

Total, 99,917 77,338 114,448 



1864. 


1863. 


1862 


20.598 


18.216 


18,519 


18,005 


17.705 


21,340 


10,114 


6,724 


12,072 


29,475 


23,711 


22 524 


21,660 


6,470 


24 600 


165 


4,452 


15,493 



128 THE SOUTHERN [February 



January 1. 


1861. 


1860. 


1859. 


Liverpool, 


18,251 


15,503 


15,289 


London, 


27,187 


22,415 


19,376 


Bremen, 


7,720 


6,533 


6,484 


New York, 


16,274 


19,048 


8,644 


Baltimore, 


15,181 


8,354 


4,219 


New Orleans, 


13 271 


19,547 


20,167 


Virginia, 









Total, ^ 97,884 90,430 74,179" 

^^■'- '-^ Hc«.^t _>...... ^ , ->" ■■ . 

Of the above stock of 82,412 hogsheads American tobacco on hand at the 

beginning of this year, we find the proportion remainiDg of Virginia and North 
Carolina growth, as follows : 

Hds. Hds. 

Leaf. Stemmed. 

In Liverpool, 2,261 951 

In London, 1,797 1,790 

In Bremen, 171 

In New York, 590 

In Virginia, 1,476 



6,295 2,741 

6,295 



Total leaf and stemmed, * 9,036 Hds. 

* Exclusive of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and South of Europe, from 
whence we have no returns. 
The stock fur corresponding period of last year was 9,882 Hds. 

The tobacco inspections in this State, from October 1st, 1867, to this date, 
are as fuUows : 

Richmond, 2,205 Hogsheads. 

Farmville, 36 " 

Petersburg, 1,424 " 

Lynchburg, 340 " 

Total for State, 4,005 

Unless causes arise that shall obstruct the present channels of business, 
there is every indication that the tobacco crop of last year's growth will be in 
active demand during the season just opening. The demand, thus early, is 
good at the following quotations : 

LUGS. LEAF. 

Common and light weights, $ 3 50@ 4 50 Common, $7.00@8 00 

Fair, 6.50@ 6.00 Medium, • 11 00@12.00 

Good, 6.50@ 7.00 Good, 13.00(^14.00 
Brio^ht Smoking: Good and Fine Stemming, 

Good to Fine, 20.00@ 35.00 14 00@16.00 

Good Shipping, 14.00(^18.00 

Good Bright, 25.00(^35.00 
No Fine, 

Wheat— Good White, $2.45@2.50; Good Red,$ 2 30(^2.40. 
Corn— New White, $1.07^ ; Mixed, $ 1.05. 
OATS-G0c.(a,70c. Rye-$ 1.40.