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OOIXTTETSTTS : 

Agricultural Department; page. 

What Shall we Do? Sheep Husbandry— continued— By F. G. Ruffln 385 

Our Exhausted and Worn Out Lands. What Shall we Do with Theni? No. 6. 

Soiling— continued from rage 344— By Rev. T. S. W. Mott 399 

Reply to ine Criticism of Mr. Mott on Dr. Atkinson's Essay on the Cultivation 

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Another Letter from Marlow— On Kentucky Husbandry, Stocks, and Grasses 

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A Mistake Worth Knowing ;,.„, 414 

* Fredericksburg and its Surroundings— The Rappahannock Valley— continued 

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Immigration— Colonization by Gen. J. D. Imboden 422 

Steam, as Applied to Agriculture 423 

/ Horticultural Department ; 

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r/ — ral Management of the Strawberry for Market— By Col. Wm. Gilham... 424 

/ Editor's Correspondence— Letter from M 434 

Overbearing of Vineyards 436 

Stir the Ground Frequently—As Good as a Coat of Manure 436 

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Error Corrected 437 

-- Survey of Virginia and the South by Washington College, Virginia 437 

Trial of Jobnson's Self-Raking Reaper 438 

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New Series. RICHMOND, VA, JULY, 1868. Vol. II— No. 7. 

What Shall We Do? 

No. 3. 
(Continued from page 332.) 

The following letters are all so good in their kind, and so plainly 
and sensibly written, that they need no introduction ; and as I have 
one or two observations to make on one or two of them, not however 
of a disputatious character, I think it fairest to pursue the rule I al- 
ways followed when an editor, and let the gentleman to be answered, 
confuted or commented on, speak first. I wish that all written 
controversy could be conducted on that principle. The writers are all 
well known in Virginia except the Messrs. Telfair — father and son — 
from Ohio. It is proper, therefore, that I should say they stand 
as high in my opinion as any gentleman of our own State. I endorse 
them fully, particularly the son, Mr. W. B. Telfair, because with 
him I have the pleasure to be personally well acquainted : 

Cortland Village, N. Y., April 29, 1868. 

Dear Sir : — I cannot give you the number of lambs now annually 
consumed in New York, Brooklyn and the other immediately sur- 
rounding towns. I think Mr. J. R. Dodge, Statistician of the 
Department of Agriculture, at Washington, is likely to possess the 
latest statistics on the subject, and I will write him herewith and 
request him, if he has the facts, to communicate them to me for 
your benefit and that of other enquirers. On receiving his answer 
I will immediately apprise you. At present I will only say the 
consumption is enormous. 

Early lambs for the New York market should be dropped as near 
as may be to the first of February, and turned off to the butcher as 
VOL n—25 



386 THE SOUTHERN [July 

they reach 40 lbs. weight. Well managed, they should all reach 
this weight by the first of June. Choice, or fancy lots, ready for 
market thus early, fetch on the average, I should say, one year 
with another, not far from $5 a head. 

Full blood sheep of any breed, are not adapted to this produc- 
tion. The small size and comparatively slow maturity of the 
Merinos, of course, put them out of the question. The English 
mutton breeds cost too much and are too great consumers — especi- 
ally for the thin herbage of much of your tide-water region. Proba- 
bly as suitable ewes as any other for the purpose — and, all things 
considered, the most profitable ones — are the ordinary farmers sheep of 
Ohio, and some of the other Western States. They are descended 
from the old "native" sheep, so called, with some uncertain Eng- 
lish and Merino crosses. They should have enough of the im- 
proved English blood to give them pretty good size ; and say a 
fourth of Merino blood to increase the product of wool, and, what is 
very material, render them ready to take the ram earlier in the season. 
It is difficult to get English sheep, or those deeply crossed with that 
blood, inlambed early in September. 

Sheep of this description are annually driven in great numbers 
from the Western States to the vicinity of New York — those not fat 
enough for butchering, being bought by farmers to feed for market. 
Many farmers keep the ewes over winter, raising a drop of early 
lambs from them, and fattening them (the ewes) the ensuing summer 
and fall on good pasturage, with a little grain after grass is injured 
by frost. They thus usually sell for about twice the first cost, or 
say $5 a head. In this way the grazier obtains a lamb, a fleece and 
the manure, in addition to doubling his original outlay — or upwards 
of $10 for an expenditure of $2.50. From this is to be deducted 
merely expense of keep. On Virginia lands this would leave up- 
wards of $5 net profit a head, after deducting all expenses. At 
the present prices of Western sheep, the profits would be greater. 
From what I have learned of those prices, my impression is that 
inlambed, wintered ewes could have been bought in the West, before 
yeaning, with their fleeces on, for $2.50 per head; and the dropped 
lambs would not probably yet add much to their price. The panic 
among sheep holders is beginning to subside, but unless there is a 
decided change, it is probable that immediately after shearing, 
good strong ewes with lambs at their sides can be bought for about 
$2 a pair. 

For the purpose of raising early lambs for market, good fair sized 
ewes are preferable — but the main point is to get those possessing 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 387 

good milking properties. When bought with lambs at their sides, 
the appearance of the lambs will sufficiently determine that point. 
As a general thing the mongrel sheep of the West are good nurses 
and mothers. They are also hardy, easily kept, and have not been 
taught any artificial wants by that kind of care which is given to 
full blood sheep. 

These ewes should be put to English rams. The South Down 
cross is highly approved of, as it is a fitting one in respect to the 
comparative size of the sire and dam, and it gives those dark colored 
legs to the produce which enables the butcher to sell them as South 
Down lambs in the market. These command an extra price among 
epicures, and other things being equal, they perhaps obtain a more 
ready sale generally. The crosses with the Leicester and other 
English Longwools are however larger at the same age ; and with 
good sized Western ewes, there is not that difficulty which would 
naturally be expected in yeaning. The Shropshire Down would 
give both the dark legs and greater size ; but I have had no oppor- 
tunity to observe the comparative early maturity and other charac- 
teristics of this cross. 

English breeders, who from soil, climate, &c, find it expedient 
for the purpose of growing lambs for market, to breed large im- 
proved rams with ewes of smaller and easier kept varieties — or with 
those who are from any circumstances better adapted to the lo- 
cality — usually make it a rule to stop with the first cross ; — that is 
to say, they do not continue to save their half, three quarter, &c. 
improved blood ewes for breeding, but sell them to replenish 
the breeding stock with ewes of the original variety. I think 
this will be found expedient in the tide-water zone of Virginia, for 
several essential reasons which I will not now stop to point out. 
But it may also be expedient, in many cases, to keep your Western 
ewes for more than a single year. As you live remote from the 
Western sheep droves, by far your cheaper course will be to send 
your own agents to the West to buy your sheep. You will thus es- 
cape paying the profits of the middle man. And it would be a 
great mistake to have them sent to New York and transported to Rich- 
mond by steamer, as you suggest. For economy, they should make 
the entire journey on foot, and by the most direct route ; and Rich- 
mond is as near, or nearer to the proper places of purchase than 
New York. During the periods of spring and summer, when grass 
is most abundant, the expense of driving is quite small. June, im- 
mediately after shearing, will be a favorable time. 



388 THE SOUTHERN [July 

I cannot name, as you request, the precise localities where the 
sheep can be most advantageously purchased. These places would 
not always be the same. An experienced Western sheep drover is 
the man to find them. He understands all the " run-ways" of the 
trade. He knows precisely where and of whom to make enquiries. 
He buys fifty in one place and there learns who has a hundred more 
for sale. Thus he goes on buying, on a certain route, so that he 
can gather up all his purchases on his return — without losing much 
travel. He will get better sheep, and get them twenty-five per 
cent, cheaper than a "raw hand." There are probably fifty such 
drovers in this country, many of them men of character and respon- 
sibility. I think I could employ one to purchase for you if you 
cannot find a suitable person nearer home. But it would not 
" pay" to do this for three or four hundred sheep. The economical 
way is for neighbors to club together and send for as many as eight 
hundred or a thousand. If you thus engage a foreign buyer it would 
be extremely well to send some one with him to learn the " run- way/' 
the modes and the mysteries of the business, for future occasions. 

The art of raising lambs for market is simple and in your mild cli- 
mate will be in some particulars, far easier than here. Here last Feb- 
ruary, when the early lambs should be coming, the thermometer 
several times marked twenty degrees below zero. Such a tempera- 
ture is no joke with a new dropped lamb, even in a close sta- 
ble. I have seen the clover sprouting finely in March in Virginia. 
On this blessed 29th of April, when I write this, grass has but just 
made a perceptible start ; occasional banks of snow yet lie in the 
deep hollows and gorges of the hills ; my breeding sheep are still re- 
ceiving roots, grain, and some hay ! Our spring however is some- 
what more backward than usual. 

Western ewes, for lamb raising, usually receive no other food 
than hay up to the time of yeaning. They are then fed roots, meal 
or bran slop, or roots and meal, in order to promote the greatest flow 
of milk. A portion of their stable, large enough for the convenience 
of the lambs, should be divided off" by a partition, having apertures 
sufficient for their easy ingress and egress — while it will wholly ex- 
clude their dams. In this apartment they should be fed hay, meal, 
&c, as regularly as the old sheep are fed. They commence eating 
these very early and it greatly promotes their growth and accu- 
mulation of fat. It is better that the ewes nurse but one lamb 
each, as a good one always commands a good price in the proper 
season — while poor ones sell for poor prices and are often un- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 389 

marketable. I need not enforce the necessity of regularity in the 
time of feeding — cleanliness, and an adequate ventilation — and non- 
exposure to cold spring storms. 

Yours, very truly, 

Henry S. Randall. 
Frank G. Ruffin, Esq. 



Cortland Village, N. Y., June 5, 1868. . 

My Dear Sir, — I received yours of May 30th and the copy of 
the Planter and Farmer. In mine of April 29th, I was only an- 
swering your specific enquiries in regard to the production of early 
lambs for market, and the best and cheapest mode, under the cir- 
cumstances of your people, of getting flocks together adapted to 
that purpose. On these points, I do not know that I have anything 
to add or alter. 

But had you asked me what kind of sheep I believed most suita- 
ble for general introduction throughout your State — as the basis of 
an extensive husbandry — I should by no means have recommended 
the common mongrel sheep of the West, crossed with English rams. 
While at points near direct water communication with New York 
and other cities, it may be very profitable to grow early lambs for 
market — it cannot be generally so in the interior ; and if it were, 
you would soon glut the markets and render the prices unremune- 
rative. 

Mutton-growing, under proper circumstances, is highly profita- 
ble — especially with the long-wooled English sheep, whose wool now 
bears a high relative price — but I do not believe that mutton is 
adapted to general production in Virginia — partly for the same rea- 
sons which exist in the previous case, and partly because I do not 
consider your soil, herbage, climate, habits and systems of husban- 
dry as well-suited to growing English mutton as those of some other 
regions with which you would be called on to compete. The large 
varieties of English sheep, like the Cotswold, Lincoln, Leicester, 
&c, do not herd well (i. e., remain healthy and thrive) in large 
flocks. Our experienced Northern farmers do not like to keep over 
about fifty together in the same field, or in the same winter quar- 
ters. In large numbers, they do not grow and fatten so well, and' 
are quite liable to become diseased. And being a highly artificial 
animal, when diseases assail them, they spread rapidly and fatally. 
These great sheep, when they do well, pay well for their feed in 
mutton and wool ; but they must have that feed abundantly and< 



390 THE SOUTHERN [July 

constantly. A country of droughts, or of long, dry, scorching sum- 
mers — a country where the feed becomes scarce or unsucculent at 
any period of the year — is not fitted to them. Nor must they be 
required to range over large surfaces. Their conditions for success 
are that they have good and abundant feed every day in the year 
without working for it — that they have nothing to do but to eat, lie* 
down, and grow fat. 

The " full-bloods," or .very high grades, are principally bred at 
the North by amateur farmers — ram-sellers — suburban farmers, or 
those who have good and rapid market facilities — dairymen — and 
occasional wheat-growers. It is rare to find over fifty or a hundred 
in a flock. They are usually a mere incident in the general farm- 
husbandry (except among the small suburban farmers). In all these 
situations, they have the pick of feed, abundant care — and they 
probably "pay" better than any other class of sheep. 

Large sheep-farmers — men who make wool-growing the leading 
object, or a leading object, of the farm — very rarely grow either full- 
blood or grade English sheep. I have stated some of the reasons which 
render it difficult and unprofitable. And I apprehend, as already 
said, that those reasons have greater force in Virginia than here. 
In the present situation of things, you want sheep that demand less 
attention and labor — that will take care of themselves in summer, 
and require nothing but hay or corn-blades in winter — that can 
" rough it," endure short keep, exposure and herding in large num- 
bers. I think, too, it is much easier to overdo mutton-production 
than wool-production. In the former, the production already equals 
the consumption, and I may say the demand. This will continue to 
be the case as the demand increases, without any great region like 
Virginia commencing to grow mutton on a new and great scale. 
Should the latter occur, I think that the supply would soon exceed 
the demand — or glut the market so that prices would be unremune- 
rative. 

Our wool-product has never more than about equalled two-thirds 
of the domestic consumption. There is a great margin yet to fill ; 
and, supposing it were filled, who would have to abandon the busi- 
ness — the farmers of Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, etc. — or 
the farmers of Virginia ? I have not had a doubt, for twenty 
years, that Virginia was as well-adapted to wool-growing as the 
North in every particular, and far better adapted to it in many 
particulars. Fine-wooled sheep are as healthy and productive with 
you as with us. The season when they require artificial food is far 
shorter with you. Taking the last fact in connection with the rela- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FaRMER. 391 

tive cheapness of your lands, you can, beyond all question, in vast 
portions of Virginia and other Southern States, grow wool at half 
the cost per pound that we can grow it. And it is now a perfectly 
established fact that fine wool does not deteriorate in climates like 
yours. On the contrary, it increases in softness and pliability, with- 
out the loss of any other valuable property, and hence actually im- 
proves in value. 

These are no novel or merely theoretical, propositions. Our most 
intelligent wool-growers all concede these facts. They understand 
it to be only a question of time when we of the North must be com- 
pelled to surrender fine wool growing principally to the South. We 
must do so just as soon as your people enter skilfully and generally 
into the competition. We must always grow sheep — but Ave shall 
do it eventually (that is, if the South drives us from the main field 
of wool-growing) more in the English style, keeping small mutton- 
flocks for market, and giving them high keep and care ; and of the 
fine-wool sheep, keeping only breeding flocks, i. e., small flocks bred 
with great attention to improvement, to furnish the large wool-groiu- 
ers of other regions with choice breeding-rams and ewes to raise the 
character and quality of their flocks. 

Where wool-growing is made the primary object of sheep-husban- 
dry, there is but one breed which it is even worth while to talk 
about, and that is the Merino. It, in the case of the improved 
American Merino, gives a greater value, and even amount of wool, 
in proportion to consumption and cost in other respects, than any 
other breed. It is a hardy animal, withstanding short keep and 
other privations. It has no maladies that other breeds are unsub- 
ject to, and is not so liable to many maladies as the high-kept Eng- 
lish sheep. It will herd in large numbers far better than any other 
valuable breed. ' In Australia, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Texas 
and in California, Merinos run together, summer and winter, in 
flocks of a thousand, fifteen hundred, and even more, without 
thereby adding to the danger of becoming diseased or unthrifty. 

He who has the requisite means, gains some years in time by 
starting his flocks with full-bloods or very high grades. But profit- 
able flocks for wool-growing purposes can soon be made by crossing 
common sheep with full-blood Merino rams ; and where the rams are 
really of pure blood and superior, the grading up is more rapid than 
any one, unused to the facts, would expect. My late friend, George 
Wilkins Kendall, of Texas, bred the miserable hairy Mexican ewe — 
far inferior to our common sheep — to Merino rams, and the third or 
fourth crosses produced fine wool, that sold well in the market. 



392 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Even the second cross produced saleable and profitable wool. The 
half-blood sheep were twice as valuable as the Mexican, and the 
three-quarter blood perhaps twice as valuable as the half-blood. So 
he obtained good profits from the start, and rapidly built up an ex- 
cellent grade-flock'* I know these facts, for I furnished him with 
rams on several occasions, was in constant correspondence with him, 
and had abundant opportunities to observe the progressive charac- 
ter of his wool. I have also observed the same facts in a multitude 
of instances immediately under my own eye, where the cross was 
started on common ewes. 

But enough on this subject at present. I have, crudely and in 
haste, given you an outline of my views in regard to the particular 
branch of sheep-husbandry which it would be most advantageous to 
introduce generally into Virginia — and it seems to me a most pro- 
pitious period to introduce it. Your farms are large, and not fenced 
into small fields. Good labor is scarce. Your lands are, to a large 
extent, lying almost idle. Causes which I have not space now to 
enter upon have rendered fine-wool sheep cheap in the North. The 
present wool-tariff gives sufficient protection to domestic wool ; and 
when business and trade generally revive, wool-production will re- 
vive, and must be extremely profitable in Virginia. Even now, it 
must be more profitable than any other husbandry which there is 
available means in the hands of the proprietors to introduce or re- 
store on a very extensive proportion of your large Virginia farms. 
And when trade does revive, it will cost you at least twice as much 
to buy fine-wool sheep as now. Good ones will be scarce — for the 
number has not been increasing in the North. Our small growers 
have been discouraged by the low prices of wool for the last two or 
three years, or what are low prices for our needs and expenses (40 
to 50 cents per pound) ; and have sacrificed their flocks to enter 
upon dairying in New York, and upon other branches of stock- 
raising and grain-growing in the West. Even our larger growers 
have not extended their flocks ; partly for the same reasons, and 
partly because they are fearing a rapidly increasing and destructive 
competition from the South and from our Pacific States. There- 
fore, in my judgment, now is the time for Virginia to embark in this 
production. 

Very truly yours, 

Henry S. Randall. 
F. G. Ruffin, Esq. 



* He also bred full-blood sheep. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 393 

Welbourne, March 6th, 1868. 

Bear Ruffin : 

****** You know that I much prefer the Southdown, but 
as the Yankees destroyed my old flock and my ability to purchase 
another, I have been obliged to content myself with Merinos. I 
bought one thousand Merino ewes and divided them into three 
flocks. My profits were just in proportion to the care and food 
given them. 

On one farm I placed 350 ewes— cost $4 50, - 1,575 00 

Sold 1,575 pounds of wool, at 40 cents, - 630 00 

Raised 287 lambs, at $2 50, - - 717 50 

Old flock 330, at $4, 1,320 00 



$2,667 50 

These sheep had no corn, but had, morning and night, as much 
nice hay (clover and timothy mixed) as they would eat clean. This 
flock was in the charge of the best man I have ever had with my 
stock. He takes great pride in his flock, and says he is determined 
to have the best in the State. This winter he has lost but one ewe, 
although you see in my statement he lost twenty last winter, most 
of them by dogs. The flock is better than when I purchased, but 
as sheep have fallen, I have put the flock at less than cost in last 
estimate. 

I would advise no man to buy sheep unless he intended to give 
them regular attention and protect them from dogs. If I had bred 
my ewes to strong Southdown rams, I should have raised more 
lambs, and they would have brought one dollar per head more. To 
show you the necessity of care — I had a flock of beautiful young 
ewes running in my meadow. A negro hauling hay from the stack- 
yard left the fence down, and the ewes crowded in around the 
stacks, and while eating, a horse got in among them and killed ten 
before the sheep left the stacks. 

Wool is too low to breed fine-wool sheep. We must combine wool 
with mutton. 

I will try and send you a report from this my most successful 
flock after shearing. I made no calculation as to the rams, because 
their wool paid ai, very fair interest on their cost. 

I hope to have a meeting of our Club for the improvement of 
horses shortly, and a " colt-show" in June. Can you not be with 
us at the show? 

I had almost forgotten your principal question. I think I can 
feed at least eight hundred sheep with the food required for winter- 



394 THE SOUTHERN [July 

ing one hundred cattle. If the sheep are kept from the grass until 
it is two or three inches high, five sheep will equal one steer. But 
if the sheep are allowed to run on the same pasture winter and sum- 
mer, two sheep will equal a steer. If the grass is eaten into the 
ground, it seems never to grow again while the sheep are upon it. 
********* 

I have kept as many as three hundred Merinos without injury to 
the flock, but I have always found when I subdivided them into 
flocks, from sixty to one hundred each, they improved. If you have 
large flocks, be careful to take out any lame, thin or weak sheep, 
and put them by themselves. Foot-rot is as catching as small-pox. 

I doubt if sheep are as profitable as cattle on our best grass- 
lands, but there are thousands of acres in Virginia where sheep 
would pay, but where the grass would not fatten cattle. If I had 
to commence anew, I would buy good short-legged common ewes 
and breed them to Southdown rams, and raise lambs for the butcher. 

Sincerely yours, R. H. Dulany. 



Wilmington, April 22d, 1868. 

My Dear Sir, — Since the reception of your letter of the 27th of 
February, I have been constantly engaged in court, and have not 
had leisure to answer. I sent your letter to my father, and re- 
quested him to write you the results of his experience in sheep-hus- 
bandry. I enclose you his letter principally in reply to your first 
question. In addition, I have made some inquiry myself among 
practical sheep-growers here to enable me to reply to other questions. 

You wish to know why we, so near Cincinnati, raise sheep for 
wool instead of mutton. I am informed that the mutton-market of 
Cincinnati is not a good one ; and such as it is, it is almost glutted 
from the counties immediately around it, and particularly so from 
the adjacent counties in Kentucky. It is said, too, that our climate 
and grass are better adapted to fine-wooled sheep than to mutton- 
sheep — the fine wool protects more effectually from the cold, which 
is said to be too great here for the coarse-wooled sheep. Our grass, 
it is said, scours sheep early in the season, from April to July, so 
that they do not get fat until July, while on the prairie-grass of the 
West they fatten from the start. Our largest wool merchant here 
for a number of years tells me that the wool of this section of Ohio, 
Western Virginia and Pennsylvania, commands about ten per cent, 
more in the Eastern markets than any other wool. It would seem 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 395 

to indicate that this latitude is about the best for fine wool, being 
neither too cold nor warm, while it is yet too cold for the fine-wools. 

2d. Our lands are decidedly better corn- lands as an average than 
those of Augusta. Not so good for wheat. Our wheat-crop has 
failed almost entirely for the last three years, and from twelve to 
fourteen bushels is a fair average, I suppose. The grass of Augusta 
is perhaps as good, if not better, than ours for sheep — at least I am 
told that the lands of Washington county, Penn., which are, I think, 
very similar to those of Augusta, Va., are better grass-lands for 
sheep than ours. 

3d. Two pounds of hay per day and one pound of oats is esti- 
mated as the best feed for sheep in the stable. Some give one ear 
of corn per day instead of oats, but it is thought that oats is the 
best feed. Five bushels of oats for the winter to the sheep, I be- 
lieve, is the estimate. If they run out and have winter-grass, they 
need nothing else. Three sheep to the acre, I believe, is the gene- 
ral allowance. 

People here say you can make nothing from sheep with lands at 
fifty dollars per acre. Labor, corn and hogs alone make them pay. 
Lands worth from five to twenty dollars in large tracts are made to 
pay with sheep. 

Our lands being, to a large extent, corn-lands, and being subdi- 
vided into comparatively small tracts, corn and hogs are our chief 
aim — with wool enough to pay the June installment of taxes. 

* */* Yours truly, Wm. B. Telfair. 



The following statement was made by Mr. Isaac Telfair, to his 
son, who enclosed it in the above letter : 

I feel very much interested in Mr. Ruffin's efforts and plans for 
varying the products of Virginia, and adapting their economy and 
labor to their altered circumstances. 

Concerning sheep-husbandry, I have no statistics to communicate. 
I have only the results of sixteen years' experience in the business 
of handling sheep. 

About thirty years since, I undertook to make a sheep-farm or 
walk in Ohio. I had a large body of unimproved land in the woods, 
which yielded me nothing. I had but little capital, and no labor. 
How was I to manage my resources ? 

1st. I enclosed about two thousand acres in a large square enclo- 
sure for a sheep-range or walk. There was but little tame grass or 
pasture in this enclosure* The sheep lived on wild grass or herbage 
most of the year — summer and fall. 



396 THE SOUTHERN [July 

I placed tenants in each corner of this enclosure, and some along 
the lines, who accepted their leases five years for the improvements 
they made. 

In the meantime, I spent some money in clearing out grounds for 
meadows and corn-fields on each of these tenements, which, in addi- 
tion to the improvements made by the tenants in the course of five 
years, became sufficient to winter my sheep — that is to say, the 
meadows I had cut amounted to about one hundred and fifty 
acres. 

The hay I had packed in small stacks on blocks. The sheep fed 
themselves — that is, they ran to the stacks at pleasure. This hay 
and meadow-grazing wintered fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred 
sheep. 

There was a contract with the tenants that they should, in the 
months of February and March, feed the flocks, in the care of each, 
one bushel of corn to each sheep ; but I depended principally on 
my hay and the fall-pasture of the meadows, when the sheep could 
feed themselves. 

In 1852-53, I wintered and sheared in the spring sixteen hun- 
dred and sixty sheep, which yielded me four thousand four hundred 
and thirty-six pounds of wool, which I sold at home for 51 cents per 
pound, or -----■: 2,442 00 

The expenses were — 
Cutting 150 acres meadow, - 200 00 

Shearing and packing wool, - - TO 00 

Washing sheep, &c, - - - - 20 00 



$290 00 

1 paid nothing for feeding or handling the sheep. I expected the 
sheep to take care of themselves (having the privilege of abundance 
of hay to run to at pleasure). The quantity of corn fed to sheep 
by the tenants was doubtful, and their attention not reliable. I lost 
no sheep from disease or dogs — great numbers were stolen. I sold 
none for mutton, my object being merely the fine wool and to make 
as much cash by it alone, with as little dependence on the labor (and 
expense) of others as possible. I did not keep a wagon, or run a 
plough (in my own name) on the land. I raised no hogs or cattle. 
I avoided everything that involved labor or expense, and depended 
solely on the wool. 

The result of my experience, then, is, that gentlemen owning 
large tracts of land and no labor, should resort to grazing — espe- 
cially sheep. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 397 

1st. Because sheep will live well (like a camel) on light dry pas- 
ture, where cattle, horses or hogs would perish. 

2d. If suitably provided for, they can take better care of them- 
selves than any other out-door stock. They require less food, and 
for a shorter time in winter. They may be penned at night, at the 
proper season, for a turnip or potato-patch. The great requisite is 
large territory. Sheep must not be crowded. It does not injure 
them for numbers to run together in the day-time, but they should 
not be suffered to sleep on the same lot so long as to contaminate 
the ground. It is this that produces and perpetuates diseases 
among sheep. Mine did not suffer from disease. The most they 
suffered from was thieves, my flock being superfine. If I were to 
undertake the business again, I would keep a shepherd, dogs and 
gun. Isaac Telfair. 

P. S. — Some years since, previous to the late breaking up of so- 
ciety in Virginia, anticipating as I did the late commotions, I pro- 
posed to some of my friends to form a colony of fifteen or twenty, 
to emigrate to Illinois, purchase twenty thousand acres, enclose it 
in one large sheep-walk — each reserving his homestead to winter his 
own stock — the residue remaining for common use. But they then 
did not anticipate the necessity. 

I think now that some such combination might be practicable and 
useful, under the present state of lands and labor, provided the 
grounds will produce light pasture for summer-grazing — oats for 
winter. It would be a mutual protection against sheep-thieves. 

I. T. 



White Marsh, April 13th, 1868. 

My Dear Sir, — Owing to the negligence of some postmasters, 
yours of the 27th ult. did not reach me until last Saturday, and I 
hasten to give you a meagre account of my experiment in sheep- 
raising. 

This was begun in 1866, under the most unfavorable circum- 
stances. My lands, principally low-grounds, uncultivated since 
1861, had grown up in all kinds of weeds, broom-straw, golden-rod, 
thistles, &c. The sheep, kindly supplied by our mutual friend, Wm. 
M. Sutton, were of the most heterogeneous character, of every age, 
size and breed, picked up here and there, coming mostly though, I 
believe, from North Carolina — some from Augusta county, Va. — the 
rams purchased here not first-class — cross of Cotswold and South- 



398 THE SOUTHERN [July 

down, the fine stock of my father having been all taken by the 
Yankees. The flock numbered four hundred and fifty, about three 
hundred of which were ewes for breeding, remainder wethers, rams, 
and superannuated ewes. Increase from the ewes last year — fifty 
kept for breeding, 167 sold— 217. Average of fleece, 2J pounds. 

I at first divided them into three flocks, but soon found it impos- 
sible to keep them separate, and I do not believe their health suf- 
fered in consequence, as the extent of pasture was so considerable, 
most of the time being five or six hundred acres, the soil generally 
sandy, varying from black loam to grey, but wet, dreadfully so, all 
the ditches having, in great measure, filled up, and to drain the 
fields in cultivation was as much as I could do with my very limited 
means. From this cause I lost a great many that would have been 
saved if I could have put them on the highlands (which were in cul- 
tivation) ; moreover, such winters as the two last have, I think, been 
without precedent in the memory of this generation, and will long 
be remembered as peculiarly severe on stock ; notwithstanding all 
which, however, the net profits now, supposing those on hand sold 
at what I can get for them, would be fully 100 per cent., and my 
land improved by them ; but I have bedn in nowise prepared since 
the war to make a judicious experiment in sheep-husbandry, from 
the condition of my fields, fences and ditches, as also from want of 
capital to obtain the best stock. Soon I hope to be able to give it 
a fair trial, for I am entirely convinced that I can find profit in it ; 
my opinion being based on experience and observation of twenty- 
four years' ownership in a small way — tending to which I will men- 
tion that on this farm, where the flock was always a hundred, the 
profits averaged $532 for many years. At the same time, I think 
few farms in this section adapted to it. One altogether of high- 
lands would hardly yield grass enough without improvement and 
considerable outlay for bone-dust or some such manure. One with- 
out a proper proportion of high-land would be too wet in the winter. 
I am getting my fields gradually laid down in grass with a view to 
stock-raising, and am buying horned cattle to fatten by the fall ; 
but the supply of them is very limited now (the sheriff being the 
only salesman), and must continue so, as such stock cannot be 
brought from any of the counties above without a probability of 
their dying the first summer, and an almost certainty that they will 
the second — a great obstacle to their improvement by the importa- 
tion of the best breeds — which does not apply to sheep, and pro 
tanto an argument in their favor. 

Wishing you great success in your laudable efforts to do some- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 399 

thing for our unfortunate country, and desirous of giving all the as- 
sistance I can, 

I am, very truly your friend, 

J. Prosser Tabb. 
F. G. Ruffin, Esq., Summer Hill. 

The pressing demands of the wheat and hay-harvest upon my at- 
tention are such, at this time, as to interpose a serious obstacle to 
the further development of my subject in this number of the 
Planter. I, therefore, reserve my comments on the above letters for 
the August number, in which I will resume and conclude the discus- 
sion on the subject of the preceding pages. 

F. G. Ruffin. 



Our Exhausted and Abandoned Lands. 

WHAT CAN WE DO WITH THEM ? 

No. 6. 
(Continued from page 344.) 

Soiling. — Any person who has found time and patience to read 
the preceding papers on this subject with the least attention, must 
have perceived that in order to carry out the system proposed in 
them, it is necessary to keep cattle off all lands that are under the 
plough ; that is, lands that are cultivated from year to year in one 
kind of crop or another. This exclusion must be absolute and in- 
variable. The idea of it lies at the very foundation, and without a 
rigid adherence to it there will be no such thing as advancing one 
step in the system as a whole. But the question will at once sug- 
gest itself, How is this to be done ? In a region where the range 
for cattle is so poor as it is generally in these Southern States — in 
many parts of which there may, in truth, be said to be no range at 
all throughout the entire summer and autumn months — how is the 
farmer to get along unless, after harvest, he turn his stock upon his 
newly-reaped fields, according to the usual custom ? The reply to 
my own mind, though fully aware of the difficulties which many 
persons see, or think they see, in regard to it, is very obvious : they 
are to do it by soiling ; that is, by stabling and yarding horned 
cattle, and managing them in almost every respect as horses, in- 
stead of allowing them to run at large and sustain a half-lived, un- 
profitable existence by picking up such poor and scanty food as they 
may be able to find by running themselves half to death in the 
search for it. 



400 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Without further preliminary, I shall proceed with an attempt to 
show — 

I. That this plan is practicable ; and 

II. That it must be profitable. 

I. As to the practicability of soiling, I do not see how it can well 
admit of a question in any section where the grasses and the grass- 
leaved tribes of grain flourish as they do in every part of the coun- 
try I have ever visited, from Maine to the Mississippi, with proper 
attention to the cultivation of them. To confine myself to North 
Carolina, where there is probably as much misapprehension on this 
point as in any other part of the Union, I can with truth say, I 
have never yet found the latitude and the longitude within her bor- 
ders where clover and the best grasses could not, with a little pains- 
taking, be made to produce abundantly, and, probably, to a greater 
profit, on a moderate scale, than any other crop that could be sown. 
I have seen them growing rank and luxuriantly in every part of the 
State ; from the borders of South Carolina on the south, to those of 
Virginia on the north ; and from Tennessee on the west, eastward 
as far as the first meridian west from Washington ; and, though I 
have not seen them myself, I am well-satisfied, as well from abun- 
dant testimony as from the reason and nature of things, that these 
grasses will thrive equally well, on any soil suited to the cereals, to 
the very borders of the Atlantic. This, of course, excludes the 
parched, sandy lands of the naval-store-producing region where no- 
thing will flourish but pines and pea-nuts. At any point within 
these bounds, the grasses named may easily be made to grow from 
three to three and a half, or even four feet high, and as thick as 
they can stand. In order to this, nothing is necessary but land 
comparatively fresh and in good heart, moderately manured, ploughed 
from twelve to eighteen inches deep, and well-pulverized. Now, 
plenty of such land may be found on any of our small farms ; and 
one acre, or, at most, one acre and a half of it, may be made to 
keep a cow the whole year round, taking half for her summer and 
autumn, and half for her winter and spring food. Eed on this 
alone, without the assistance of meal, but how much more with a 
moderate quantity of grain of some kind, she may be made to sup- 
ply a family of average number with abundance of milk and butter 
the year round — much more abundantly than two or three cows kept 
in the ordinary way would do. One may begin to cut a lot of this 
kind, particularly if it is well-set in orchard-grass, early in May. 
By the time he has gone over one-half of it for one cow, it will have 
grown sufficiently for him to begin again, and so he may keep on till 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER 401 



frost. In the meantime, the other half will have been cut at least 
twice, yielding two heavy crops of hay, which will furnish an ample 
supply of winter provender. If the manure from this cow is skil- 
fully husbanded and applied, it will keep up the yield for an indefi- 
nite number of years, and leave a good deal for other purposes. 
There is, to my knowledge, a lot. of this description in the town of 
Lincolnton in this State. It was sown full forty years ago, and has 
never once been disturbed by the plough from that day to the pres- 
ent. During this long period, it has been cut over several times 
every season, and has received only a moderate dressing of manure 
once in two or three years ; yet, when I saw it in December last, 
though the clover had almost wholly disappeared, the orchard-grass, 
not yet killed by the frost, was lying on it in a rich, beautiful mat- 
ting of latter-math that did one good to look at. Now, the soil of 
this lot, like all in and near the place, is light and sandy. To look 
at it, one would not suppose it would produce these grasses to any 
advantage at all; yet Mr. M., the owner, finds rough food from it 
during the summer, in great part, for two milch cows, two or more 
horses, besides some for hogs. I think the lot is not more than 
three-fourths of an acre. 

It is in vain, therefore, for those kinds of men, who always see a 
lion in the way, to say that soiling is impracticable in this country ; 
who scratch over a piece of ground two or three inches deep without 
cross-ploughing, sow it with half, or even a fourth of the proper 
quantity of seed, and then, when they find themselves disappointed 
in the yield, exclaim, " There ! didn't we say so? didn't we tell 
you clover will not grow in this low, hot latitude ? that it comes up 
thin as the hairs on the crown of an octogenarian ? and then all 
dies out during the first or second summer ?" In reply to this, we 
go back to the lot at Lincolnton, which is, after all, but an ordinary 
one among the many I have seen, and say, Well ! Mr. Nerveless 
you may be right ; but if these grasses will grow so on that ground, 
which is naturally a poor, thin, sandy hill-side, we do not see why it 
would not do even better on stronger land, and particularly in the 
lower and damper grounds found on any little farm in the country ! 
Pray, sir, try again. Plough your ground as it ought to be 
ploughed. Give it plenty of seed, not covering it so deep that it 
cannot germinate, and then give it a moderate top-dressing from the 
stable of your soiled cows every spring or autumn, and if you then 
fail, you may talk with some reason on your side. But until you 
have done this, pray do not try to check the progress of improve- 
ment by your ill-timed and groundless objections. 
vol. n—26 



402 THE SOUTHERN [July 



It is easy, therefore, to see how small a piece of ground, man- 
aged in the proper way, would suffice for the soiling of one cow. 
Besides, how easy to help the matter out, during the summer and 
autumn months, by superfluous or waste matter from the garden, of 
which there is always more or less, such as the thinnings of beets, 
carrots, parsnips, squashes, etc., etc. 

II. But this is a practical age everywhere, and particularly so 
here in the South, where grim poverty has, for the present, taken 
up her dwelling. The first question with regard to anything in a 
business line is, no longer, will it please— but will it profit— will it 



pay? 



The common objections to soiling are, that it requires, in the out- 
set, too much outlay of labor and cash ; and subsequently, too much 
time to very little, if any profit.. 
Let us examine these points. 

I. As to outlay. I have allowed an acre and a half to a single 
cow, which I am well satisfied is more than need be; but let it stay 
so for argument's sake. Now, what will be the expense of prepar- 
ing this piece of ground ? The ploughing, though somewhat extra- 
laborious, can all be done at leisure moments, as well as the harrow- 
ing, manuring, etc., by the means and appliances at hand. Land 
two or three years from the forest, and of ordinary fertility, with a 
very slight top-dressing of manure from the stables, or virgin soil 
and mould from the woods, mingled with a few bushels of wood- 
ashes, would be all that would be required to start with. After the 
first winter, the manure from the cow soiled alone will more than 
keep up the needful supply. Then how silly, how child-like, to talk 
about the expense ! It is really enough to make an energetic man 
sick to hear this kind of stuff! Expense! Are you not rather 
fearing a painful tax upon your own idleness and want of will ! 

II. The idea of a needless expense of time is equally groundless. 
How much time will it require a man with a good sharp scythe,^ to 
cut grass enough every morning to feed his cow three times during 
the day ? Not five minutes— not over three, if he has the least 
skill in the use of his instrument. Provided the lot joins the sta- 
ble, as it ought to do, how much more time to feed the grass to the 
cow three times a day ? Not five minutes more ; but say five for 
cutting and five for feeding, and we have ten minutes expended 
each day. If you just leave the stable door open, the eow will go to 
water at will, and come back of her own accord. 

Now, my friend, suppose instead of this you turn your cow out 
to wander where she will. If you put a bell on her, it will cost you 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 403 

more in actual cash than preparing the lot for her feed, which need 
not cost you one cent in cash. Besides, the bell is very apt to be 
lost every year or so, and must be replaced with renewed expense. 
But to proceed : even with the bell on, it will often take you from a 
quarter to a full hour every evening to hunt her up and bring her 
home ; without a bell, you will often hunt for hours and then, some- 
times, not find her at all. This you will have to do yourself, or 
some one about the place capable of assisting in the work of it, and 
whose time is, perhaps, as valuable as your own or nearly so. Now, 
on which side of the question does the waste of time lie ? But you 
send a little boy. Yes ; but you must send a horse with him, and if 
he is old enough to ride a horse for miles around looking for the 
stray cow, his own labor, as well as that of the horse, would, in the 
meantime, be worth a good deal more than the ten minutes' work of 
a single hand necessary to keep her at home. But, enough. 

Your cow, if found, comes up at night weary with the long day's 
hunt for food, poor, gaunt, and with a very slack udder. How 
much milk are you going to get from her ? How much butter from 
the gallon of that poor, thin, blue, watery, creamless, bitter-tasted 
stuff? Do you ever think of this? Have you ever put yourself to 
the trouble of calculating the waste that is thus made, compared 
with the obvious advantages of keeping her up ? The English have 
a saying, " If you feed your cow upon gold, she will pay you;" and 
like all sayings that have passed into a proverb, it abounds in truth. 
It asserts the fact which, in practice, will be found to be positive 
and unfailing, that the higher you feed and the richer you feed, till 
you feed in quality and quantity to actual repletion, the more but- 
ter and milk you will get. If, in this way, she pours out an over- 
supply, feed the surplus milk to the hogs, and send the surplus but- 
ter to market, which will command nearly double the price which 
is given for the white, lardy kind of stuff commonly found 
there. 

But again : Have you ever considered the saving in fences you 
may make by this means ? That your whole place need not have one 
cross fence upon it ? That it may be all inclosed in one ring ; and 
even the palings saved which, where cattle are suffered to run upon 
reaped fields, are necessary to the protection of the house-yard and 
shrubbery ? 

Keep your cow up ; feed her as you do your horse, or even more 
freely, and she will make it good to you, while you will need to, in- 
close nothing but the garden to keep out the fowls and rabits. One 
mile of new fencing, all things included, cannot be put up fox. less 



404 



THE SOUTHERN [July 



than one hundred dollars. Is there no saving— no advantage in 
avoiding that ? 

But above all, have you ever thought of the advantages of thus 
keeping your cow, or, if you have more than one, your cattle, off 
your cropping lands? Can you close your eyes to the unreasona- 
bleness of turning them on your fields to trample the producing life 
out of them, and rob them of all protection against the scorching 
rays of a Southern sun ? Has not enough been said, in the course 
of these papers, to show the wisdom of leaving upon them the cov- 
ering which kindly nature has provided for their sustenance and the 
recuperation of their yearly taxed and exhausted strength ? Think 
over the matter carefully, and you cannot fail to see that in this re- 
spect alone you secure an advantage more than sufficient to counter- 
balance twice the expense of soiling any number of cows you may 

have. 

It is obvious that much more might be said on the subject ; but if 
the above leading thoughts are well-weighed, they will scarcely fail 

to satisfy any reasonable mind. 

T. S. W. Mott. 



Reply to the Criticism of Mr. Mott on Dr. Atkinson's Essay on the 
Cultivation of Corn. 

Mr. Editor,— I have just read, in your last number, the following 
friendly criticism of Mr. T. S. W. Mott on my article on the culti- 
vation of corn, which appeared in the February number of the 
Planter and Farmer : 

"The only objection to it," says Mr. Mott, "that strikes me as 
particularly suggesting itself is, that it overlooks in toto what ought 
to be the prime object with every planter : The preservation, if not 
the positive improvement of his lands, in any crop he may see fit to 
grow upon them. If I mistake not, Mr. Atkinson has not a word 
to say on this most concerning subject. In thus giving it the go-by 
in speculation, he has done just what ninety-and-nine men in the 
hundred of our Southern planters and farmers do in practice ; they 
plant to the best of their knowledge in such a way as to get the last 
mite they can from the poor, over-tasked land, without one mo- 
ment's consideration of the question how it is to get a " quid pro 
quo" in return for its own generous bounty ; how its strength and 
productiveness are to be kept up. This is the more unfortunate, in- 
asmuch as this grain is, without a question, the great exhauster of 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 405 

our section. It always has been so, and always will be, until we can 
fall upon some method of raising it which shall, at least to some ex- 
tent, counteract its ruinous effects. That, it seems to me, were an 
easy matter ; though others might view the case in a widely differ- 
ent light. 

" At all events, the cultivation of corn will not answer in any 
system we may adopt for restoring our exhausted and abandoned 
lands," 

Why not? I would ask, if, as Mr. Mott asserts, "it were an easy 
matter to fall upon some method of raising it which shall, at least 
to some extent, counteract its ruinous effects." 

As Mr. Mott sees so clearly how this may be effected, I think I 
may, in return for his kindness to me, justly find fault with him for 
omitting to give the much-coveted information. He should remem- 
ber the old saw which has been in vogue ever since the days of 

Pope — 

" Now learn, what every critic ought to sJiow, 
For 'tis but half a judge's task to know." 

As a full reply to the strictures of Mr. Mott, to which I assure 
him I take no exceptions, it may suffice for me to say that my ob- 
ject in preparing the essay to which he refers was confined to the 
single purpose of giving my experience in corn-growing^ — without 
reference to any other matter. Nor did I conceive that the cultiva- 
tion of that important cereal (which Mr. M. thinks should be in the 
main dispensed with — in which idea I think he will find few South- 
erners to concur — ), w T as in any manner connected with the improve- 
ment, but rather with the impoverishment of land ; so that if I had 
turned aside from my subject to notice anythiDg else, I would prob- 
ably have endeavored to explain how that impoverishment was ef- 
fected, leaving to Mr. Mott the more agreeable, as well as the far 
more important task of showing how one may cultivate a most ex- 
hausting crop, and, at the same time, make it contribute to the im- 
provement of the land. 

If that estimable gentleman, to whom the agricultural community 
is already indebted for his efforts in their behalf, will bless the 
world by furnishing them with a recipe which shall be found capa- 
ble of producing this most desirable result, I think that it will be 
no difficult matter to insure him a monument such as never yet has 
been erected to any American citizen. 

To show that the worthy critic is rather hypercritical in his allu- 
sion to my article, I will say that I did not altogether ignore " the 
preservation of the lands, for I strongly recommended accurately 



406 THE SOUTHERN [July 

constructed hill-side trenches and deep ploughing as well adapted to 
that end. 

Regarding the improvement of the soil as altogether foreign to 
the design and character of the essay, I left that important matter 
to be discussed by wiser heads, never thinking, however, that one 
could be found competent to the task. of showing the cultivation of 
" the most exhausting crop grown in our section to be entirely con- 
sistent with not only the preservation but the improvement of the 
soil" 

I anxiously await the August number of your Journal, to be en- 
lightened on this interesting subject. 

Unfortunately for my hopes, however, I may not expect this in- 
formation from Mr. Mott, who, in one part of his communication, 
says, that "it were an easy matter," but farther on, and, as I sup- 
pose, on more mature reflection, asks, after speaking of the exhaust- 
ing nature of the corn-crop, " Is it n'ot, then, obviously the interest 
of the small farmer to cultivate less of this grain and more of those 
kinds by which he can improve his lands, instead of impoverishing 
and ultimately wearing them out T y This is an admission that the 
corn-crop is not one of a kind by the cultivation of which the land 
can be improved — and is therefore a giving up of the question. 

I may, Mr. Editor, in some future communication, give my expe- 
rience in renovating exhausted lands ; but if I shall do so, it will be 
in no connection with suggestions as to the most profitable cultiva- 
tion of corn. 

I invite your correspondent to continue his strictures on my pre- 
mium essay, and assure him that I will take them kindly, and that 
if I shall be satisfied of their justice, he will receive my thanks for 
his kindness in making them. I do not desire that it shall be val- 
ued above its true merit. 

Th. P. Atkinson. 

Danville^ Va., June 17, 1868. 



Hints to Graziers. 

A heifer or cow will make beef earlier than a steer. An old cow, 
or an old sheep, will not fatten nearly so well with hay as with grass. 
The longer the straw of any kind, the worse as fodder ; short straw 
is said to be, Invariably, the most nutritious. Cattle always prefer 
that which is fresh threshed, a day even making a difference. — Law- 
rence upon Cattle. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 407 

Another Letter from "Marlow." 

Mr. Editor, — In my former paper, written while in Kentucky, I 
hastily made the following promise to your readers : u In my next, 
I will try to show wherein Virginia and North Carolina may be 
profited by imitating Kentucky husbandry, and wherein not. I will 
also try to present to your readers reasons why Virginia and North 
Carolina should cultivate grasses and raise stock, and will likewise 
mention the sorts of grasses best adapted to those districts and the 
kind of stock-raising and dealing that would seem most likely to 
yield the fairest profit." 

The promise is too big. Even if I were competent to fulfil it, it 
would be too much for one paper. The only way I can at all ven- 
ture to redeem the pledge, will be to take up the different items and 
give each a sort of a running commentary. 

I. Imitation of Kentucky husbandry by Virginia and North 
Carolina. 

The usual plan is to copy the bad and reject the good, agricultu- 
rally as well as morally. But the wise farmer will strive to do like 
the virtuous man — and the rule will then stand vice versa. 

Kentucky, in my humble opinion, as an agricultural community, 
is vastly overrated. That they have fine crops and the best of 
stock, and that the farmers grow rich, is all true ; but no land be- 
neath the sun is more blessed than the "dark and bloody ground'' 
of Daniel Boone. Climate and soil vie with each other. Unlike 
most limestone countries, drought does not destroy crops. The 
rock generally is so far below the surface that it seems to hold the 
percolations as a great cup, without the sun's absorbing power get- 
ting down deep enough to reach the water-level. But be this as it 
may, it is a fact that Kentucky is never a great sufferer from long 
dry seasons. 

The soil is simply unsurpassed. It is deep and friable ; and the 
combinations of elements are such that artificial means need never 
be resorted to to supply deficiencies. Grasses, grains, tobacco and 
hemp are grown with equal success. And the blue-grass seems to 
impart to the soil a self-rejuvenating power, so that you find in the 
better districts of Kentucky but few old and worn-out lands. Re- 
alty in Henry, Shelby and Bourbon counties sells from sixty to one 
hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, and yet the good farmer 
makes a net income of 6 to 10 per cent, per annum ; and that, too, 
with a system of cultivation very far inferior to the highest stand- 
ards of agriculture. 



408 THE SOUTHERN [July 

My object is not to advertise the excellency of Kentucky lands — 
only to show how it is that the farmers succeed so well, while, at 
the same time, their husbandry is so imperfect. Nature has done 
the most — they the least. 

The ivant of barns struck me as very remarkable for a country 
so distinguished for its stock. But their vast amount and prodigal 
disposition of food supplies the lack of shelter. Give hogs, cattle, 
mules and sheep plenty of corn and hay through the winter, and 
unless the winter is extraordinarily severe, the cold, rain or snow 
will do them but little harm. And hence the fine stock ; but it is 
fine at the expense of vast prodigality. Of which more hereafter. 

The barns are mere stables, with occasional shedding — and very 
rudely and imperfectly built. In the fields, where they thresh their 
grain, they pile up the straw on pens in such a way as to afford a 
partial protection to cattle and mules. But the sheep go uncared 
for, to weather the storms of winter as best they can. 

The waste of manure is also peculiar to Kentucky. The word 
waste is, perhaps, not expressive. The fact is, the Kentucky farmer 
manages to have but little manure either to save or to waste. Only 
animal excrements are the manures to be found, and these to a very 
small extent, as the droppings are necessarily scattered over the 
fields where the stock roam winter and summer. That no manure 
is made by tramping over fodder, hay and straw, will appear from 
the mode of feeding. 

The prodigality of Kentucky husbandry exceeds anything I ever 
saw. The land yields from fifty to seventy-five bushels of corn to 
the acre ; and yet farmers will devote a field of twenty acres, capa- 
ble of cribbing at least one thousand bushels, to their stock as they 
do a field of clover or blue-grass. 

When the corn matures, they turn their cattle, mules and sheep 
into field number one, and after they have ruined the fodder, tram- 
pled down hundreds of bushels of corn and eaten the rest, they turn 
them into field number two ; and thus they winter their stock. The 
only clever thing about it is, that they turn in their stock-hogs after 
the cattle, mules, &c, are removed from field number one, that they 
" may gather up the fragments that nothing be lost." But the 
waste of fodder and the thousands of grains never found by hog or 

To appreciate this horrible wastefulness, let us see how a different 
and more economic plan would work. Let these animals be housed 
or shedded, and provided with mammoth troughs. Let the fodder 
be cut off at the ground, shucked, and the corn cribbed. Then put 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 409 



your horses and hands, on a winter's day, to operating machinery — 
cutting the fodder and shucks into small half inch pieces, crushing 
your corn and cobs into chop ; and three times a day fill your 
troughs with the cut fodder, covered thickly with your corn-chop, 
adding a little water to give it some adherence, and you will have a 
clean, delicious food, served up with agricultural gentility, and your 
cattle, happy and content, warm and well fed, will grow in fat and 
beauty as they grow in horns and hide. 

Without attempting a calculation of the cost of labor and the in- 
vestments in machinery on the one part, and the unnecessary waste 
of corn and fodder and manure on the other, it is only proper here 
to ask if any man can doubt that this latter plan would put into 
these farmers' pockets 100 per cent, above that which they derive 
by pursuing their system of prodigality? 

The present plan gives Kentucky farmers no manure to perpetu- 
ate the soil or give it new life and strength. It wastes all the fod- 
der and shucks without making any return to the soil. It requires 
vast quantities of corn to give internal heat to animals against the 
external cold of winter ; and, moreover, as is always the case, the 
unbroken and unground corn goes through the stomach half-digested, 
and therefore half-appropriated to the accumulation of fat and mus- 
cle, and therefore half of it a total loss. 

This mode of feeding may be modified in different localities ; but 
it amounts to very near the same wastefulness. Sometimes the corn 
is cut off, shocked, and then hauled to a common feed-ground, and 
thrown down in piles or scattered, for cow, mule, sheep and hog. 
In any case, anywhere else than in a country where little labor ac- 
complishes ajmndant harvests, such a system would eventuate only 
in the utter impoverishment of every farmer. 

There should, therefore, be no imitation of Kentucky husbandry 
in matters of these sorts. A good barn and ample shedding will 
save many hundred bushels of corn and many tons of hay and fod- 
der ; besides, the yields of the soil will be largely returned to it 
again in concentrated manures from stalls and yards. And the bet- 
ter system of feeding, above referred to, to make better cattle at less 
than half the cost, and thereby enable a farmer, even on poor land, 
to improve his soil, and add to his profits more and more from year 
to year. 

But there is a power in Kentucky husbandry after all, which, 
though the result almost of necessity, may yet be imitated by many 
other sections where this power does not emanate from the native 
character of the soil. The system of grass-growing and stock-rais- 



410 THE SOUTHERN [July 

■ — - - ^*~*~ 

ing, putting into the concentrated form of muscle and fat the pro- 
ductions of the land, has given Kentucky her agricultural glory, 
and filled the pockets of her rural population with riches and their 
homes with comforts. I will, therefore, devote a short space to 

II. Grass-growing and stock-raising in Virginia and North 
Carolina. 

I mean no harm to any of your readers in the more eastern por- 
tions of Virginia and the Carolinas; but I fear that when they aban- 
don cotton, corn and tobacco for the grasses, they will rue it sadly. 
Every tree must have its own bark — you cannot gather figs from an 
olive, nor berries from a thistle. Nor can you make cotton profita- 
ble in Kentucky, nor the grasses in the light, loose and sandy loams 
of the Atlantic slopes. But towards the Blue Ridge, and of course 
beyond it, where the lands become tighter, firmer, the grasses can 
be made to grow with great success, and wherever grass will grow 
cattle will thrive, and the money will come ex necessitate rei. 

Beyond the Ridge, the soil naturally produces blue-grass like 
Kentucky, and stock-raising comes of itself. But it is with refer- 
ence to those tiers of counties east of the Ridge in Virginia and 
North Carolina, reaching eastward as far as the falls of the James 
in Virginia, and the Central railroad in North Carolina between 
Raleigh and Charlotte, where certain grasses can be made to grow 
with great success, that I would offer reasons for their introduction. 
There are three of these reasons that it may be well to mention : 

1. The oft-repeated story of the uncertainty of our present labor 
system is the first that may be adduced. It is impossible to make 
anything out of the soil with a peasantry so utterly unreliable as 
the freedmen. It will ever be an unending series of trial and fail- 
ure. And as to introducing improved implements — machinery, &c, 
it would be making failure still more sure. Fidelity and intelligence 
are prerequisites on the part of laborers for operating the improved 
implements of husbandry ; and without these, your best machinery 
could not be operated with paying success. And as to the introduc- 
tion of white labor — as long as the negroes have equal, and claim 
social equality with the working white classes, you can never induce 
either foreign or native white men to immigrate ; and if you can, 
you cannot hold them. They shun the negro as they shun the devil, 
except that the former is the shunning of disgust, while the latter 
is that only of fear. 

Grass-growing and stock-raising will require far less labor, and 
that may he more easily superintended and kept under the eye of 
the farmer than the growing exclusively of grains and tobacco. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 411 

2. The necessity of a change of employment and effort on the 
part of the agricultural community, points to grass-growing and 
stock-raising as the change best suited to the present condition of 
the agricultural mind of the South. Southern farmers are disgusted 
■with their old pursuits. The labor system has undergone a radical 
change ; and to continue their old routines of husbandry, with idle 
and vicious freedmen, is to drive them from their farms into trading- 
shops on street-corners, or into idleness, dissipation or melancholy. 
But let them begin a new agricultural life — start out afresh, with 
new plans, new efforts and new objects, and you will infuse into 
them a new strength which of itself will tend greatly to insure suc- 
cess. And there is nothing so fascinating to any man of agricultu- 
ral habits as the grasses and stock ; and especially would they wake 
up the enthusiasm of the prostrated Southern planter. He would 
rise to his feet a new man, and would find that, after all, it is in- 
deed a " bad wind that blows no good" — that out of his very ruin, 
sphinx-like, his fortune may yet spring, more substantial and com- 
fort-giving than ever before. 

3. The third reason for the proposed change is, that it would re- 
dound greatly to the pecuniary interest of the farmer. 

He may raise different kinds of stock at the same time and on 
the same farm. Suppose, for example, he would unite with four or 
five neighbors in the dairy business ; for, let it be remembered that 
the watchword of modern progress and success is organization — as- 
sociation — union of labor and capital. Suppose he feeds 50 cows, 
this will give him offal enough for 25 hogs. Then, if he will graze 
with his cattle 100 sheep, he will afford the sheep protection to a 
good degree against dogs, will support his sheep on the very things 
which his cattle and hogs cannot eat, and keep his pastures and 
meadows free from briers and weeds and noxious plants. Here are 
wheels working within wheels — each helping the other — and the 
whole grinding out money to replenish the farmer's pocket. A farm 
of 300 acres, well set in grass, with portions for grain, all scientifi- 
cally and energetically cultivated and kept, will support the amount 
of stock enumerated. 

Let us make a rough estimate as to the yields one year : 

Shearing 100 sheep twice, average of 4J pounds washed, 

450 pounds wool, at 30 cents, ... 135 00 

Increase of lambs (50), at $1 50, • - - .- 75 00 



Amount carried forward, ... 210 00 



412 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Amount brought forward, - 210 00 
50 good cows, well-cared for, will make easily 1000 pounds 

cheese, at 14 cents, ----- 1400 00 
Increase of 25 calves, allowing half the cows only access 

to the bull every year, - - - - 75 00 

25 porkers, say 5000 pounds, - 500 00 



$2185 00 
I allow in this for three brood-sows and their increase. 

From the above estimate I make no deduction, as the very low 
figures employed to make it would enable the farmer to support 
himself, to pay farm expenses, taxes, &c, out of blooded stock he 
may raise among these numbers and the horse and mule colts which 
he may also bring into market. 

The Kentucky farmer more than supports himself and pays ex- 
penses by raising full-blood stock and selling them at high figures:- 
As I said in my former letter, it is a small thing there to pay one 
hundred dollars for a full-bred Cotswold or Southdown ram or a 
Durham or Devon calf. 

Now, can there be a farmer anywhere found in the districts of 
Virginia and North Carolina, for whose benefit I am writing, that 
realizes a net profit of $2,000 on a farm of 300 acres ? And yet 
this result can be attained, and easily attained. But it requires 
time, tact, prudence, forecast and enthusiasm; with some, extra 
" change" to begin with. But with these, success is certain. 

And in addition to the amount of money to be made out of the 
grasses, let it not be forgotten that when judiciously fed, the ma. 
nures made therefrom will increase in perpetuo the fertility of the 
soil, and give you, at your own door, the guanos which now are tax- 
ing all your resources in order to raise tobacco and grain. 

In 1865, I " fell in" with a gentleman and his wife returning from 
Georgia to Virginia. He had been a large sheep-raiser in Culpeper. 
The armies slaughtered his sheep and drove him, with his negroes, 
South. He tried cotton-planting — became utterly disgusted with 
the whole business, the mode of life of the cotton-planter, and de- 
termined to return to his old pursuits in Virginia. He told me that, 
to say nothing of the pleasure, comfort and refined mode of life 
which belonged to the sheep-raiser, when compared with the turmoil, 
endless drudgery and coarseness of planting-life, the profits from 
his flocks were much greater than those from his cotton-fields. 

III. The grasses best adapted to the districts above named in 
Virginia and North Carolina must not be overlooked. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 413 



Blue-grass will not grow east of the Blue Ridge " to do any 
good." It will prove a waste of time and money to try it. The 
soil and climate are both adverse. 

Clover will grow with a good degree of success for both pasture 
and hay, if lime or plaster can be applied ; and, in some sections, 
it may do very well without the application of either. But wher- 
ever it can be made to grow there, it should be sown. It is the 
king of the grasses. As a green fertilizer, it is without a rival ; 
and for stock of all kinds, it has more substance and is more pala- 
table than any other grass grown. The common red clover for the 
up-lands and the Alsike or Swedish clover for the low wet lands. 
One reason that clover does not succeed with us is, that we do not 
put it in with sufficient care. There are but three ways to put it in 
with success — by sowing it on the snow or just after a hard rain, or 
by covering it with brush, harrow or roller. We cannot always 
prognosticate the weather, and therefore cannot rely on the coming 
rain. And the snow may melt before we get our seed, and then the 
best way is to drag a harrow through the wheat or rye or drive a 
huge cast iron roller over the field. Either plan will cover the 
clover sufficient for germination, and at the same time will improve 
the rye or wheat. 

But the grasses eminently suited to the districts in question are 
the herds and orchard-grass. The former is best for meadows, and 
to afford a small intermixture with the orchard-grass for pasture. 
The orchard-grass affords a noble pasture ; and it will grow east of 
the Ridge as well as west of it. It comes early and continues late ; 
and if covered with snow in the early winter, it will afford good 
pasture the year round without the blight of a blade. 

They both should be sown after wheat, rye or oats, in the autumn, 
and harrowed, brushed or rolled in at once. And for pasture, no 
one grass should be sown alone ; but clover and herdsgrass should 
be mixed in with the orchard — the latter, however, largely predomi- 
nating. This will afford you a pasture for Virginia and North Ca- 
rolina equal to the best in Texas, and almost equal to the blue-grass 
fields of Kentucky. 

The orchard-grass shoots up its heads of seed far above the tuft 
and blades, and even that of the herdsgrass-tops, and of course the 
clover, so that the cradle may reap the seed without molesting the 
solid, thick-matted grass beneath. 

In regard to the last clause of my promise, I have only to say 
that the kind of stock-raising and dealing best suited to our farmers 
will necessarily depend on different circumstances and localities. I 






414 THE SOUTHERN [July 

have already referred, in the body of this letter, to such stock- 
raising as would likely succeed in most places ; but at some subse- 
quent time I may address myself to the comparative claims upon 
Virginia and North Carolina farmers of the various kinds of stock- 
husbandry in the United States. 

Marlow. 
Wharne Cliff e, K C, June, 1868. 



A Mistake Worth Knowing. 

Mr. Editor, — To my mind one of the great wants of the farming 
interest of our country is such a practical knowledge of the princi- 
ples of chemistry as to understand the properties of our soils — what 
they possess, and what they need to make them productive ; and 
also the properties of the different fertilizers — what effect they will 
have upon the soil ; and, more especially, the effect they will have 
upon each other, when more than one kind of fertilizing matter is 
applied at the same time. 

Ignorance upon this last point led the writer to make the follow- 
ing mistake : Feeling satisfied that lime is a valuable article in ag- 
ricultural improvement, he had received the impression that it was 
safe to use it, mixed with any kind of manure. Hence, having a 
lot on hand, he mixed some of it with chip manure. Well, he sup- 
poses that was right ; but when the chip manure was exhausted, he 
also mixed the lime with a lot of stable manure, expecting to* have a 
fine compost for wheat the approaching fall. But while the com- 
post heap was lying in his stable-yard, it was his good fortune to 
get hold of a choice work on agriculture, written by Prof. Camp- 
bell, of Washington College, Va., in which he learned that lime had 
the direct effect of expelling ammonia from the manure, and thus 
neutralize its effect upon the soil. 

In conversation with a neighbor, who is an intelligent farmer on 
James river, I also learned that he bought two tons of guano, which 
he applied to his wheat-crop ; but before sowing the wheat, to pre- 
vent smut, he limed it, and the consequence was, he destroyed 
nearly all the effect of the guano. And why ? Because the lime 
expelled the ammonia from the guano. 

The farmer referred to was anticipating good results from his guano 
until, just before harvest, when he walked through his wheat-crop, 
and, to his utter astonishment, he could see but little effect of the 
guano, except at one small corner of his field. And when he in- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 415 



quired of the man who sowed it, he learned that the lime being ex- 
hausted, that small corner of the wheat-field was sown without it; 
and there the guano produced its desired effect.* 

I fear that your interesting correspondent from Granville county, 
N. C, who bought three tons of Pacific guano last fall, made a 
great mistake in applying lime to his wheat before sowing. 

It was the reading of his very interesting article of December 
12th, 1867, that prompted the present caution on the subject of 
using lime in connection with any animal manure. 

I will now proceed to give a few extracts from Prof. Campbell on 
this subject : 

" Rub a little sal-ammoniac and fresh lime together, and you may 
at once perceive the odor of the escaping ammonia. Ammonia is 
one of the most valuable ingredients in all animal manures, and 
every precaution should be taken to prevent its escape. Hence, 
fresh lime should never he mixed with animal manures, because it 
sets the ammonia free." 

" Rub a little of the guano with a few grains of freshly-slacked 
lime, and if a strong odor of ammonia is not given off, the quality 
is not good." 

Again, this same author, speaking of lime, says : 

" Its effects upon manures containing ammonia make it unsuita- 
ble to be mixed with such manures, or even to be applied near the 
same time." 

The object of the writer is not to discourage the farmer in the 
use of lime, but simply to guard him against the improper use of it, 

A. B. 

Dagger s Springs, Va. 

* We think the failure of the limed wheat is more lively to have occurred 
from soaking the wheat, then liming and retaining it too long in bulk before it 
was sown, wnereby the germinating property of the grain was injured, than 
that the operation of so small a quantity of lime in expelling the ammonia 
from the guano could have caused the failure reported by our correspondent. — 
Ed. So. Planter and Farmer. 



" Sense shines with the greatest lustre when set in humanity." 
" Speak well of your friends ; of your enemy say nothing." 
"If the counsel be good, no matter who gave it." 
"Meddle not with that which concerns you not." 
"Bear your misfortunes with fortitude." 



416 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Fredericksburg and its Surroundings— The Rappahannock Valley. 

[Continued from page 366.] 

Access to Market. 
The Rappahannock river gives us water-carriage to the markets 
of the world. In former times, corn could be shipped to Boston, 
ten cents per bushel covering all the costs thereof. Considerably 
less than 100 miles from the Chesapeake bay — thence 30 miles to 
the Capes of Virginia — opens up to our choice the markets of our 
land, the West Indies, or the more distant marts of the world. Two 
first-class steamers ply regularly between Fredericksburg and Balti- 
more — sailing craft flaunt their sails at our wharves; or, if we pre- 
fer, the railroad bears off the produce of the country. 

The Fisheries, ^c. 
The waters of the Rappahannock and Potomac abound in fish of 
fine size and superior flavor. The fisheries open early in the Spring, 
and furnish large supplies of rock, shad, herring, perch, &c, &c, 
which are shipped largely to distant marts. The sturgeon of the 
Rappahannock is noted as superior to that of any other quarter of 
the world. The sheephead of the same river, and terrapins, are epi- 
curean dishes. The Potomac also affords a very superior bass, this 
variety of fish having been brought to Cumberland, Md., and placed 
in the Potomac a few years prior to the war. Last year was their 
first appearance as low down the Potomac as the mouth of Aquia 
Creek. The oysters of the lower Rappahannock are unsurpassed 
for size and richness of flavor. Both rivers are visited largely by 
the several varieties of duck (among which may be named the can- 
vass-back), geese, sora, &c. 

Mining Lands. 
There are gold-bearing localities in Virginia, which, if not equal 
to those of California at present, are destined to be of great impor- 
tance in years to come. Gold ore (the quartz rock) and surface 
washings are important features in this immediate section. There 
are not less than seven gold mines in operation — some of them very 
successfully — within an area of fifteen miles of Fredericksburg. 
Astonishing developments have recently been made in iron ore in 
this county at points where none was supposed to exist. Unmistak- 
able evidences of this ore are apparent in many parts of the sur- 
rounding country. Lead is found in the State, but none in this im- 
mediate vicinity. Veins of rich copper are found in counties adja- 
cent. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 417 

Tungston, tellerium and titanium are metals occupying the atten- 
tion of- manufacturers of iron and steel. We are told by scientific 
men that these all are found in Virginia — the last in considerable 
quantities in the Piedmont section. The time will surely come when 
enterprise will open up these rich stores of valuable metal lying as 
dead capital beneath the hills and mountains of our favored State. 

Timber. 
The timber of the Rappahannock Valley is a mine of wealth. 
Large quantities for shipping, building, &c, were cut, sawed and 
shipped a few years before the war, but large forests of primeval 
growth may yet be found. The following are the leading varieties : 
Oak, hickory, locust, walnut, poplar, cedar, pine and chestnut. Saw 
mills have been worked with great profit, as most of this timber lies 
adjacent to the river, or tributaries thereof, and along lines of arti- 
ficial improvement. Except where destroyed by the armies, there 
are no farms without a sufficiency of timber for fuel and building 
purposes. 

Fruits. 

There has been little attention bestowed upon the growth of choice 
fruits, notwithstanding climate and soil are both so propitious for the 
development of this rapidly increasing source of wealth. There is 
not, probably, an orchard in this'whole vicinity planted and attended 
for the purpose of supplying the demand either at home or abroad. 
That which is offered is the surplus, and comes not from well-directed 
effort, but almost as nature sends it. Grafting and improving fruits 
is the exception. Among the varieties of fruits particularly adapted 
to the Valley of the Rappahannock, may be named the apple, pear, 
peach, quince, grape, fig, plumb and apricot. Melons and berries 
of every variety and in full perfection. The strawberry grows in 
its highest perfection in this section of Virginia. There are no vine- 
yards in the lower Valley, but the graperies of those who cultivate 
this delicious fruit give the strongest evidence of the adaptation of 
this country for that purpose. Large vineyards are being planted 
in the upper Rappahannock country with the most encouraging 
prospects. Indeed, they cannot fail to be eminently successful with 
a soil and climate like ours, in which graperies planted twenty years 
ago appear now just in their prime — the fruit increasing in quantity 
and improving in quality from year to year. Maturing in August 
and September, they furnish fruit for the Northern market several 
weeks in advance of that grown there. 

All the varieties of the berry are prolific, and it may not be amiss 
vol. n—27 



418 THE SOUTHERN [July 

to say that a farm was recently purchased along the river, at a cost 
of $15,000, which is to be devoted exclusively to the production of 
the blackberry. 

ACQUIRED RESOURCES. 

Among these we would embrace — 

1. Our internal improvements. 

2. The water-power, capacity, &c. 

3. Manufacturing establishments. 

4. Value of their products. 

5. Business pursuits of our people. 

Internal Improvements, $c: 

The facilities for acquiring trade, and of forwarding merchandise 
to the larger emporiums of traffic, are, substantially, these : 

A semi-weekly line of the finest steamers that leave Baltimore 
ply between that city and Fredericksburg, via the Chesapeake bay 
and Rappahannock river. 

A regular line of steamers from Baltimore, which touch at Aquia 
Creek (on the Potomac, distant 14 miles), taking off such produce 
as may be sent thither by rail from Fredericksburg. 

A line direct to New York from Aquia Creek, for the benefit of 
the Fredericksburg trade, is proposed. 

A canal running up the Rappahannock river, a distance of 53 
miles, which is out of repair, and not in use at this time ; and seve- 
ral feeders thereto, from the Rapidan and Hazle rivers, which are 
also out of repair and use. 

A plankroad to Orange Courthouse, a distance of 40 miles, and 
another leading to Germanna, in Orange county, a feeder of the 
first named. Both of these, by reason of the vicissitudes of the 
war, are in bad condition. 

The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad, from Aquia 
Creek (on the Potomac) to Richmond, passes directly through our 
town, and is one of the best roads in the United States. 

The Fredericksburg and Gordonsville railroad (as it is known) has 
been graded a considerable distance from our city, and $272,105 
expended upon it. Capital is required to complete this link, which 
will afford a shorter distance to Tide-water for all the products of 
the West and Southwest, than any other liife in progress. It will 
form the connecting link, and be an outlet for the great Chesapeake 
and Ohio railroad. By this line increased facilities will be afforded 
our manufacturers to buy iron and coal cheap from the great depo- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 419 



sits in the mountains of Virginia. This road will form a direct line 
from the South and Southwest to all Northern cities, connecting at 
Acquia Creek, by a ferry-boat, with the Baltimore and Potomac rail- 
road. The interest of the State in this road ($163,229), and of the 
corporation of Fredericksburg ($85,000), may be had by parties 
who will simply guarantee its completion. By legislative enact- 
ment, Charlottesville has been made its terminus, the capital stock 
increased to $1,000,000, with power to borrow money at a rate of 
interest not exceeding ten per cent. Capitalists will do well to ex- 
amine. 

The Water-Power — Capacity, £c. 

We regard this as an element of power destined to add wealth, 
population and industrial enterprises ; as our winters are short, our 
water-fountains pure, and our climate propitious. 

Just above our city (and only the year previous to the war), a 
most substantial and durable dam was built across the Rappahan- 
nock river, embracing all of its power. Mr. John Chase, of Hol- 
yoke, Mass., the celebrated constructor of dams, was the architect. 
The material facts of this power are appended : 
Length of dam, 900 feet. 
Height, 18 feet. 
Fall, 48 feet 2 inches. 
Force of power, 4,000 horse. 
Applied power, 400 horse. 
Unapplied power, 3,600 horse. 
A canal leading from the dam makes a circuit around the out- 
skirts of our city, and along almost its entire length. The country 
affords as desirable sites for mills and factories as are to be found 
anywhere in the world. The company owning will sell or lease 
power upon very reasonable terms, 1 and offer great inducements to 
manufacturers. Lots suitable for mill or manufacturing sites can be 
purchased at from $500 to $2,000 each. The water-power here is 
said to equal that of Lowell, Mass. 

The counties adjacent to our city have numbers of small streams 
running through them, which afford power of from 10 to 60 horse. 

Manufacturing Establishments. 

The Washington Company's woollen factory (Kelly, Tackett & 
Ford) has already attained a well-deserved reputation in the South, 
North and great West, for the superior quality of their goods, 
among which may be named cloths, cassimeres, kerseys and blankets. 



420 THE SOUTHERN [July 

They expect soon to have on the market a quality of black broad- 
cloth that will vie with that of Simoni. They employ a large work- 
ing force. 

We have two cotton factories, largely engaged in the manufacture 
of cotton yarns, oznaburgs, &c. 

There are two founderies in operation. That of the Messrs. 
Hunter is engaged in the manufacture of stoves, agricultural imple- 
ments, hollow ware, &c, &c. That of Scott & Bowering combines 
a large machine-shop, where is manufactured all kinds of water and 
steam machinery, engines, &c, and also agricultural implements. 

There are three merchant mills for the manufacture of flour (and 
for grinding corn-meal). The shipments the last twelve months have 
been feeble, owing to the small wheat production, consequent upon 
the uncertainty of labor and inability to purchase seed. These mills 
are capable of grinding 500,000 bushels of grain per annum. Two 
other mills will be in readiness for the next wheat-crop. 

Two sumac mills. It was here that the first mill in this country 
for grinding sumac was built and successfully operated by our ener- 
getic townsman, Mr. John G. Hurkamp. 

A paper mill will soon be in operation, making news and book 
paper. 

We have also two tanneries ; a planing mill for the manufacture 
of sash, blinds, &c; two carriage and wagon manufactories, &c, &c. 

Value of Home Productions, 

The amount of manufactures sold for home consumption during 
the year 1867 is estimated at $150,000. Amount sold to other 
markets, $500,000. Articles manufactured in our midst will, in 
the future, find more ready sale among our citizens, as they are 
every day being more convinced of the fact, that, in order to make 
our community populous and wealthy, they must manufacture and 
buy at home. 

Other Business Pursuits. 

The business of the city supports one bank (and requires half a 
dozen times its capital stock); two banking-houses; eight dry goods 
stores ; thirty-three grocery and commission-houses ; two hardware 
stores ; two stove and tin-shops ; three furniture-dealers ; one crock- 
ery and china-house ; three feed stores ; seven bakeries and confec- 
tion stores ; three bookstores; two tobacconists and cigar-dealers; 
three drug stores ; seven boot, shoe and clothing stores ; two mer- 
chant tailors ; three saddle and harness manufactories ; several agri- 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 421 

cultural implement houses; seven blacksmith's shops; one brewery; 
two distilleries ; three newspapers ; several cabinet-shops ; two gun 
and locksmiths ; two jewellers ; a large number of boot and shoe- 
shops ; one soap factory; five churches; two female seminaries; two 
male academies; twenty primary schools; one large hotel, the 'Ex- 
change,' and several small sized well-kept public houses ; half a 
dozen or more boarding-houses; three lumber-yards; two brick- 
yards ; coal and wood-yard ; four land-agencies, &c, &c. 
Amount of goods sold in 1867, estimated at $1,250,000. 

FINALE. 

The former comfort, if not opulence, of our people, is a fact 
which speaks strongly of the great natural advantages and resources 
of this region of Virginia. It is left to the activity and energy of 
the present day to develop, in a still higher degree, the power, 
wealth and grandeur that is within the grasp of well-directed en- 
terprise. 

The stranger may well ask, in view of the advantages we have 
portrayed, why are these lands so cheap, and why is not so capa- 
cious a water-power employed ? The answer is plain : " There is 
not a tenth of the labor here that is needed to develop our resources, 
and not capital to employ profitably the labor we have. The neces- 
sary consequence is, a vast surplus of fine land put in market at a 
mere fraction of its real value, while priceless minerals lie dormant 
in the earth, and a water-power equal to millions of hands flows un- 
heeded to the sea, for want, of the capital to turn them to account." 

No part of the United States offers greater inducements to miners, 
farmers, speculators, business men — those looking for quiet homes, 
or those desirous of engaging in the great battle of life — than the 
beautiful country and fertile lands around Fredericksburg in the 
county of Spotsylvania, Virginia. These lands were dependent upon 
slave labor for their cultivation. Their owners having lost, in most 
cases, all but their lands, have not the means to work them, and are 
compelled to sell all or a part. Our people offer every encourage- 
ment, and the lands every inducement for immigration from all 
quarters. Those who come now will reap the pioneer's advantages 
without the pioneer's usual vicissitudes. Come, then, imbued with 
the proper spirit. . 



" A man is valued as he makes himself valuable." 
" Gamesters and racers never last long." 



422 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Immigration— Colonization. 

Mr. Editor, — It is gratifying to find this subject assuming a 
practical form. Since the issue of your June number, the people of 
several counties of the Southside have appointed delegates to a Con- 
vention to be held at Burkeville. on the 8th of July. The cardinal 
point to be kept in view is to secure uniform, harmonious coopera- 
tive action by the several counties interested. My decided opinion 
is, and I am sustained in it by some of the most practical men in 
the State, that the system of county land companies, suggested in 
my last, is the best plan yet presented to secure speedy and certain 
success. These county companies will, of course, have the confi- 
dence of the people, as they will be home institutions, managed by 
the neighbors and friends of the land-owners. They can procure 
large subscriptions of lands to their stock where alien and unknown 
companies would fail to get an acre. The only objection to these 
local companies, urged with any force, is that they are too feeble to 
accomplish much in the way of inducing immigration from abroad, 
which is an expensive operation. This difficulty I propose to meet 
by a confederation or combination of all these county companies for 
the conduct of their general business abroad, under the supervision 
of a general Board, to consist of one member, say the President, 
from each county company, to meet quarterly, or oftener if neces- 
sary. Suppose ten county companies are formed, with a land sub- 
scription to each of 20,000 acres — at, say $5 an acre. This will 
give a combined capital of 200,000 acres of land worth one million 
of dollars. If all these companies have similar charters, it is a very 
simple thing to combine or confederate them, and they will at once 
possess the means and strength of a powerful corporation, capable 
of grappling with all the difficulties of the subject and of command- 
ing success by the united power of all, when any one singly would 
fail. It is simply proposed in this business to apply the great prin- 
ciple of combination, which has achieved such wonderful results in 
this century. 

One of the most striking differences between the people of the 
North and those of the South in this country is in their mode of 
undertaking almost any enterprise. Those of the North combine,' 
form companies, and thus concentrate large capital with energetic 
management, and accomplish the most stupendous results in all de- 
partments of business. On the other hand, the rule in the South 
has been to act individually and separately, and of course with less 
capital and fewer of the elements of success in any given nndertak- 
ing. With the loss of individual fortunes that has occurred in the 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 423 



South has sprung up a necessity that we shall adopt the Northern 
plan, and attain ends by combination that are now beyond the reach 
of individual means. And in no undertaking is this more important 
than in the great work of populating our country from abroad. 

If any man of ordinary business capacity was to-day the owner 
of 100,000 acres of Virginia farming lands of average quality, in 
bodies of 10,000 or 20,000 acres, in any of the counties of the 
Southside, he could form a partnership with capitalists by which he 
could, in six months, settle 1,000 families on his domain at a rea- 
sonable price for his lands. One hundred men owning 1,000 acres 
each can do the same thing, if they will combine and extinguish in- 
dividual titles and suppress individual differences of opinion, by con- 
centrating all their titles and merging their conflicting views in the 
hands of a company. This is what I propose, and shall urge upon 
my fellow-citizens at the Burkeville convention. The details can all 
be readily arranged, and success, in my judgment, is absolutely cer- 
tain. J. D. Imboden, 

Domestic State Agent of Immigration. 



Steam as Applied to Agriculture. 

Rapid progress is being made in the production of a practicable 
steam-plough, and of a tractile engine for common roads. Invent- 
ors have, for many years, been engaged in patient experiment on 
these subjects. The latest information relates to a machine that has 
been constructed for the building of common roads, and is, at the 
same time, designed to perform both of the offices referred to. This 
machine is called a " Self-Track-Laying Car," and was invented by 
Jesse S. Lake, of Atlantic county, N. J. It consists of a truck 
sufficiently substantial to support an engine and boiler of ten-horse 
power, which supply all the motive force. Over and around the 
wheels of the truck passes, on each side, an endless chain or band 
of flat bars of wood, so connected and adjusted that, as the car 
moves forward, this band is laid upon the ground in front of the 
truck-wheels and picked up as soon as the wheels have passed over 
it, thus supplying a uniformly solid and compact track for the ma- 
chine. This enables it to travel over the roughest or softest ground 
with a reliable footing. 

To this car are first attached a gang of ploughs with which to 
break up the ground, on which, when fully prepared, it hauls and 
distributes loads of gravel. Its usual amount of work is to start 
and pull four to eight two-horse ploughs, according to the nature of 
the soil, "which it easily accomplishes. In hauling gravel, it will 
pull from twenty-five tons over soft-ploughed fields to fifty tons over 
a level highway, drawing a train of the same kind of cars or trucks, 
but without the engine on them. It runs eight miles per hour easily 
on level ground, with twenty pounds pressure of steam, and could 
easily attain fifteen miles at full pressure. — Richmond Whig. 



424 THE SOUTHERN [July 




horticultural geparfmrai 



The Virginia Horticultural and Pomological Society. 

An adjourned meeting of the Executive Committee of this Society 
•was held on Monday evening, June the 15th, at their rooms in the 
Purcell Building. 

After the usual routine of business, the Committee adjourned, 
and a meeting of the Society was then held, that all present might 
hear the following interesting and instructive essay from the pen of 
the President, Col. Wm. Gilham : 

THE CULTURE AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE STRAWBERRY AS 

A MARKET FRUIT. 

The almost universal adaptability of the soils of Virginia to the 
growth of the strawberry ; the ease and certainty with which an- 
nual crops of good fruit may be produced ; the short interval be- 
tween the time of planting and that for securing a remunerative 
crop ; the readiness with which strawberry plantations may be en- 
larged ; the facility with which the berries may be shipped to dis- 
tant markets , and above all, the early ripening of the fruit, by 
which our growers are secured a ready sale in the Northern markets 
at high prices, point to this as one of, if not the most important of 
our market fruits. 

The cultivated strawberry of the present day is undeniably & 
most delicious fruit, and coming, as it does, as the " first fruits" of 
the year, it is in demand by all classes of our people. For many 
years, the production of this fruit in the vicinity of almost all of 
the cities and large towns of the country, and on the railroads and 
navigable streams leading thereto, has been steadily increasing, and 
yet the demand, particularly for fine fruit, has increased with the 
production. This ever-growing demand has given rise to great im- 
provements in the varieties cultivated, in the modes of culture, and 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 425 

in the appliances for shipping the berries to distant markets; and 
such an amount of practical information in relation to this fruit has 
been acquired, and quite freely disseminated, that no one, who de- 
signs engaging in its cultivation for market purposes, need go 
astray. 

For a number of years before the war, the leading " truck" far- 
mers around Norfolk had been cultivating the strawberry for ship- 
ment to the Northern markets ; and in 1860, I believe, Mr. Frank- 
lin Davis commenced growing them, on the James river in Surry, 
with the same view. The war, of course, put a summary check to 
this rapidly-growing trade, but since its close, numerous parties, en- 
couraged by previous success or that of others, have gone into 
strawberry culture on a large scale at various points on the James 
river ; and around Richmond several parties are making arrange- 
ments, to grow them on an equally extensive scale, with the full as- 
surance that, if the demand for this fruit, and consequently its 
price, does not keep up in this market, a certain market with high 
prices will always be found at the North. The strawberry trade is 
already an extensive one on the lower James ; and there can be no 
reasonable doubt of its extending to numerous other sections of the 
State accessible from the Northern cities by water or rail. It 
should be the duty of the Horticultural and Pomological Society to 
disseminate reliable information on all points pertaining to this im- 
portant branch of pomology. 

The Soil and its Preparation. 

There. is no other fruit which, taken as a whole, seems to adapt 
itself with so much ease to almost every variety of soil as the 
strawberry. Large crops may be grown upon light sandy lands, or 
stiff clays, or upon every intermediate grade of soil; but in every 
case in which the grower desires large crops of fine fruit, it must 
be naturally fertile, or made so by judicious manuring. The most 
careful attention, too, must be given to its preparation and after- 
cultivation, it being the universal experience of growers that no- 
thing in the soil, be it ever so rich or well-adapted to the growth of 
this fruit, can atone for slovenly preparation and careless cultiva- 
tion. 

A deep well-drained soil, whether light or heavy, is necessary to 
the successful cultivation of the strawberry. In selecting a loca- 
tion for a strawberry plantation, care should be taken to select one 
naturally well-drained, otherwise, artificial draining must be resorted 
to and a heavy outlay incurred. 



426 THE SOUTHERN [July 

The practice of all of our large growers is to plough deep, and 
afterwards by harrowing, and if necessary, cross-ploughing, to get 
the land in the proper condition for planting. All authorities on 
the cultivation of this fruit recommend the use of the sub-soil 
plough. But few, if any of our cultivators are in the habit of sub- 
soiling. On the light soils about Norfolk, and on the lower James, 
sub-soiling may be of doubtful utility ; but on soils that are at all 
stiff, or are underlaid by a stiff sub-soil, I would unhesitatingly re- 
commend the use of the sub-soil plough, as the only means of se- 
curing a remunerating crop in all seasons. 

Too much care cannot be bestowed on the soil in its preparation 
before planting. Mr. A. S. Fuller, than whom there is no better 
authority on the cultivation of the strawberry, says, " I do not be- 
lieve that there is one acre of strawberries in a thousand, cultivated 
in this country, that yields over one-half that it would if the ground 
was properly prepared before planting." 

Manures. 

As I have before remarked, to grow large crops of fine fruit the 
land must be rich. There are comparatively few soils in Virginia, 
particularly in that portion of the State likely to become the straw- 
berry-producing region, on which the crop would not be largely in- 
creased by the judicious use of manures. Well-decomposed farm- 
yard manure "is scarcely to be excelled for the strawberry." But 
many cultivators, particularly extensive ones distant from cities, 
cannot command sufficient supplies of this article, and must resort 
to the use of such substitutes as may be at hand, or apply the con- 
centrated fertilizers. Where swamp muck can be had, the use of 
this, composted with stable manure, &c, may be recommended as a 
certain means of improving the crop ; but, I would recommend 
composts with caution, believing them to be very expensive in their 
application. Some of our most successful cultivators recommend 
the use of the superphosphates very strongly ; I would recommend 
the use of such as contain from two to four per cent, of ammonia. 
The analysis of the strawberry shows its ash to contain large pro- 
portions of potash and soda ; hence, fertilizers containing the salts 
of potash and soda, applied in connection with stable manure, or an 
ammoniated superphosphate, cannot fail to produce satisfactory re- 
sults. Ashes, both leached and unleached, are also valuable ; un- 
leached ashes must, of course, be used with caution, from ten to 
twenty bushels per acre being a sufficient application. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 427 

Plants and their Propagation, 

All plants sold by nurserymen and fruit-growers are runners from 
old ones. In selecting plants, great care should be taken to get 
them young — runners of the previous year — it being well-known 
that a small young plant will, in the end, prove more satisfactory 
than an old one, be it ever so large. Assuming that the cultivator 
has selected such varieties as are suited to his purpose, he will, after 
the first year, grow his own plants. For this purpose, he should 
permit a small portion of his plantation to make runners at will, 
and remove them at the proper season for planting. 

When plants have to be shipped from a distance, or are likely to 
remain out of the ground for a number of days, it is important that 
they should be purchased in the early spring or late in the fall — 
either before warm weather sets in or after it is over — otherwise, no 
matter what precautions may be taken in packing, the plants will 
heat, and many of them perish. In this connection, I cannot too 
strongly recommend the purchase of plants as near home as possi- 
ble, even at higher prices than Northern plants can be had for. 
The plants will, in general, be superior and the risk of loss far less. 

Varieties to Plant, 

No one at all conversant with the cultivation of the strawberry 
will require any argument to convince him of the necessity for care 
in the selection of varieties, particularly when the fruit is grown for 
market purposes. The cultivator who grows this fruit for a local 
market ; who, every morning, disposes of that gathered on the pre- 
vious day, need not concern himself about its keeping qualities, or 
be grieved to learn that his berries, after twenty-four or forty-eight 
hours' keeping, although still sound, will no longer present that pe- 
culiar rich color so attractive in the strawberry, and be, in conse- 
quence, unsaleable. He may therefore profitably grow many varie- 
ties that the producer for a distant market cannot. To both classes 
of growers, productiveness is of the first consequence ; after that, 
good size, rich color and fine flavor ; but for the shipper to a distant 
market must be added keeping qualities, and the necessary firmness 
to withstand the jolting of cars and the rough hauling of express 
employe's. 

To all who are about to commence the cultivation of the straw- 
berry on an extensive scale, I would say, buy largely at first of such 
varieties only as they, or other cultivators in their immediate vicin- 
ity, have thoroughly tested, without reference to what may be said 



428 THE SOUTHERN [July 

for or against them by distant strawberry-growers, or by interested 
parties. I would also recommend each grower to cultivate small 
beds of such varieties as promise well, in precisely the same way 
that he manages his larger plantings. After having, in this way, 
thoroughly tested their merits, he will be in a condition to make 
proper selections. 

Of all the varieties that have yet been produced, the Wilson s 
Albany seems to be the most desirable for general cultivation ; it is 
one of the most productive known, is of good size, firm, keeps well, 
and bears transportation better perhaps than any other strawberry 
whatever. This variety is remarkable for its uniform productive- 
ness and good quality in both light and stiff soils. The plants are 
said, by some, to fail after the first year's crop ; but in our climate, 
at least, this is a mistake, as some of our cultivators have beds six 
and eight years old, which are still productive. Any one who is in 
doubt as to what variety to plant, may select the Wilson with the 
certainty of satisfactory results. 

The Agriculturist is a very large berry of fine flavor, but so far 
has not, on our soils, proved itself so productive as the Wilson ; 
neither, as a fruit for shipping, is it so satisfactory. It is one of 
our best varieties, however, and will be found very desirable for the 
home market. 

The RusselVs Prolific is a very large berry of rich color, fine 
flavor and very productive, and has so far succeeded remarkably 
well in this section. It is later than the Wilson, and has not yet, to 
my knowledge, been thoroughly tested as a fruit for shipping. If, 
on trial, it is found to bear transportation well, and is not too late 
in ripening, it will prove a powerful rival to the Wilson. 

Whether a good shipping berry or not, it is destined to be a pop- 
ular and profitable variety for cultivation for our home markets. 

McAvoys Superior is a very productive variety with us, but too 
soft for shipping. This is probably the most popular strawberry 
brought to our market, and, judging from the samples of vines in 
fruit, exhibited by Mr. Stansbury, I should say would be quite as 
productive and profitable as most of the other leading varieties. 

The Triomphe de Gand is another very superior varietjr in our 
climate. Under ordinary cultivation, it is not so productive as a 
number of others; but when carefully grown on rich land, it is pro- 
ductive, and one of the finest strawberries grown. 

Did space and time allow, I might mention numerous other varie- 
ties ; so far as I know, but few of them have been tried with us, 
and none of them to the extent necessary for the formation of a 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 429 

correct judgment as to their merits. But to extend the list above 
given is unnecessary ; in it the cultivator will find everything ne- 
cessary to make success certain. 

Time to Plant, 

The strawberry is usually transplanted in the spring or fall: Un- 
less there is something special in the case, such as the prospect of 
being pressed for time, &c, the spring seems to be the more desira- 
ble season of the two. Plantations made then make a vigorous 
start at once, and, if properly cultivated, will bear a full crop the 
following season. The plants should be set during the month of 
May if possible, and not later than the month of April ; otherwise, 
the risk of loss becomes very great, particularly in cases where they 
have to be brought from a distance. 

Fall-planting at the North is usually done in the months of Au- 
gust and September ; in our climate, it would not be safe to under- 
take it before the last of September — the season extending from 
that time until late in November. Plants set in the fall will bear a 
few berries the following spring, but the number will almost always 
be found to be too small to make them an object. It sometimes 
happens that plants set out in the spring bloom and bear a partial 
crop. This checks the growth of the vines and is otherwise very 
injurious ; I would therefore recommend the stripping off of any 
fruit-stales that make their appearance. 

Preparation of the Plants. 

When the plants are taken up, the dead leaves should be re» 
moved, leaving only those that appear fresh and green. Some cul- 
tivators clip off all the large leaves when their plants have been 
kept out of the ground long, or when there is a prospect of warm dry 
weather before the roots have time to start. 

It is recommended by very high authority on strawberry culture, 
to clip off the roots when long at least one-half. This operation 
makes that of planting easier, and gives rise to a new set of fibrous 
roots from the cut ends. But when many thousands of plants have 
to be set in a season, and the saving of time and labor is an object, 
such niceties in the preparation of plants would scarcely be desira- 
ble. 

Sometimes it is well to " puddle" the roots before planting. This 
is done by mixing water with some rich soil (such as garden-mould), 
until it is of the consistency of thin mortar, and dipping the roots 
into the mixture. Mr. B. F. Wilson, one of the latest strawberry- 



430 THE SOUTHERN [July 

growers on James river, strongly recommends the use of an ammo- 
niated superphosphate of lime with the soil, say a couple of double 
handsful to the bucket of earth. 

Planting and Cultivation. 

The most approved method of field culture in this country, and 
one practiced upon many thousands of acres, is to plant in rows 2J 
or 3 feet apart (the latter distance being generally preferred), and 
the plants placed about a foot apart in the rows. Planted in this 
way, about 14,500 plants are required per acre. 

There are two methods of planting in common use. One of these 
consists in the use of a line to mark out the rows, the other in mark- 
ing them out with a plough. By the first method the line is stretched 
across the field, and the plants set beside it either with the dibble or 
garden-trowel ; some cultivators, in order to greater exactness, have 
the distances between the plants marked on the line. 

The holes should be made large enough to admit the roots with- 
out crowding and the plants set deep enough to cover all the roots 
but no deeper ; if the crown is buried, the plant is very liable to 
decay. When a large number of plants are to be set, several lines 
will be necessary. 

In making the rows with the plough, the ordinary process of 
"listing," in universal use among our market-gardeners, is resorted 
to. First a furrow is made with a light plough just where the row 
is to be ; then furrows are made on the right and left, with the 
mould-board towards the first furrow, thus throwing the earth back 
in a ridge, which, being cut down with the hoe or rolled, gives a 
row in the most thorough order for planting. 

In planting, the dibble or trowel may be used, but the use of the 
hand, as in setting cabbage or tobacco plants, is equally efficacious 
and more expeditious. In planting in the large way, each hand 
should have a row to himself, and every two hands should be at- 
tended by a boy to drop plants. Two good hands and a boy will 
set from six to eight thousand plants in a day. 

As soon as the plants begin to make foliage, and grass and weeds 
make their appearance, they should be ploughed and hoed, and 
throughout the growing season great care should be taken to keep 
them clean and the soil light. If plants are wanted for the next 
season's planting, a portion of the field should be left without culti- 
vation after the runners appear, in order that these may root. 
From this portion a large number of young plants may be taken in 
the fall or following spring, but the crop of fruit will be light. All 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 431 



that portion of the plantation which is intended for fruit should 
have the runners systematically removed as rapidly as they make 
their appearance, and before they have had time to exhaust the 
plant by making leaves. Thus cared for, each plant will increase 
in size very rapidly, and, by the following spring, will occupy a 
space from six to ten inches in diameter and have many fruit-stalks, 
each loaded with bloom. 

In the Northern States, winter protection is necessary, for which 
a mulching of straw, leaves or coarse grass is in common use, the 
mulch being removed from the crowns of the plants in spring ; but 
in our climate this is unnecessary and even hurtful, unless great 
care is taken to make the mulch very light over the crowns. 

In the spring, after the soil has been put in order by thorough 
cultivation, the plants must be mulched with hay, cut straw, pine- 
tags, &c, in order that the fruit, when ripe, may be kept clean. 
Some apply the mulch before — others after — bloom, but care should 
be taken not to apply it too early, as experience shows that early 
applications retard ripening. It is not necessary to spread the 
mulch between the rows, but it is necessary to put it carefully 
around the plants and of sufficient thickness to protect the fruit 
from dirt, sand, &c, in the hardest rains. 

After the fruit has all been gathered, the mulch should be re- 
moved, and the beds treated in all respects as they were in the pre- 
vious year. 

The usual practice is to plough up the plants after the removal of 
the second or third crop, from the general opinion that they deteri- 
orate very much after that time. That this practice should become 
necessary when strawberries are grown after the old style of letting 
them alone, is manifest, but if the method given above — the hill- 
system — be strictly adhered to, it is of very doubtful utility, at least 
for some very desirable varieties. The finest Wilson's Albany ber- 
ries that I have seen this season were grown by Mr. S. C. Robin- 
son on a bed that had been planted for six years ; and Mr. Cham- 
berlaine, one of the most experienced of our cultivators, has beds 
that have been planted eight years. He says, moreover, that his 
old beds generally yield him the largest crops. 

Gathering and Packing the Fruit. 

Almost everywhere the fruit, when ripe, is gathered by women 
and children, to many of whom the strawberry season is a rich har- 
vest. The berries are almost everywhere picked at a fixed rate per 
quart, two cents being the usual price. When the picking season 



432 THE SOUTHERN [July 

commences, about ten pickers for each acre in cultivation should be 
engaged for the season. So many hands are not necessary at first, 
but it is best to have them, in order that when the berries are ripen- 
ing rapidly, there may be no deficiency of skilled pickers. The 
picking must not be allowed to lag behind the ripening, and the 
only sure way to avoid this is to have a surplus of labor. 

Before commencing to gather the fruit, a room must be provided 
in which to store the berries and pack them for shipping. It should 
be fitted up with wide shelves on one or more sides, on which to 
place the baskets as they are brought in from the field, and where 
they should remain until it is time to pack them. There should be 
shelf-room for all the berries picked in a day, and space enough in 
the room for crates, empty baskets, &c, &c, as well as ample room 
for packing. 

Before going to the field, the pickers are numbered, and their 
names and numbers, or simply their numbers, entered upon a tally- 
board, which is kept in the field. This board is placed in charge of 
a " tally-keeper," generally an intelligent boy, who stations himself 
at some convenient point, and near him is set one or more handbar- 
rows to receive the baskets. Each handbarrow should hold from 40 
to 60 quart baskets. Each picker takes a row and keeps it to the 
end ; after picking from two to four baskets, she takes them to the 
tally-keeper, and after calling out to him " so many baskets for such 
a number," deposits them on the handbarrow. As soon as the lat- 
ter is full, it is borne by two hands to the packing-house. 

In gathering for shipping long distances, it is all-important that 
the fruit should not be permitted to get too ripe ; indeed, it should 
not be permitted to get thoroughly ripe upon the vine at all. One 
side of the berry only should be a full .red, so that a basket of 
strawberries, when first picked for shipping, would be considered as 
scarcely eatable. Fruit thus picked ripens in the basket, and, on 
reaching its destination, is in fine order and finds ready sale. Great 
care should also be taken to avoid bruising in gathering ; this is 
readily done by teaching the pickers to remove the berries by pinch- 
ing off the fruit-stem with the nails of the thumb and forefinger. 

Packing the fruit is an important operation, and is usually en- 
trusted to an experienced hand. Instead of packing as the baskets 
come in, it is best to let them remain upon the shelves until near 
the hour for shipping, thus giving them time to cool off and to set- 
tle. When the berries are to be sent to different markets, the 
packing is so conducted that those longest picked shall go to the 
nearest. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER 433 

There are several forms of baskets in use, as the American, the 
Beecher, the Burlington Tree Basket, &c, all of which have their 
advocates among strawberry-growers. For each pattern of basket, 
crates are provided to hold 24, 32, 48 and 60 baskets, or quarts — 
the quart basket being in almost universal use among shippers. 
From all that I have seen during the season just closed, I incline 
strongly to the baskets and crates of the American Basket Com- 
pany, as being as well, if not better suited to the wants of our ship- 
pers than any other. 

Where strawberries are grown only in a small way, or where they 
are to be sold in the nearest town or city the morning after they 
are gathered, attention to all the details above given is not neces- 
sary; but where they are grown in quantity, and are shipped to a 
distant market — say New York, or even Boston — to be consumed 
three or four days after they are gathered, it is a matter of the 
greatest consequence that every precaution be taken which may 
tend to ensure the fruit's reaching its destination in perfect order. 
Let it be borne in mind that good fruit in good order always com- 
mands fair, if not high prices, whilst fruit that is put on the market 
in bad order is always sacrificed. 

Yield and Profit of the Strawberry Crop, 

A few words before closing as to the yield of the strawberry and 
the profits arising from its cultivation. The yield is generally set 
down at from 50 to 100 bushels per acre, or say from 1500 to 3000 
quarts ; and repeated instances have been mentioned in which it 
was still higher. In order that I might present the Society with 
some exact information as to the average yield in Virginia, under 
good management, I requested several gentlemen to keep accurate 
accounts of this year's crop, which we all know has not been an 
average one. 

Messrs. Davis & Cooper, on James river in Surry, shipped nearly 
20,000 quarts from an area of about ten acres, the land being ordi- 
nary farm-land of that region, without extra manuring. 

Mr. B. F. Wilson, also of Surry, shipped 18,000 quarts taken 
from six acres. His strawberries had a light application of ammo- 
niated superphosphate of lime. 

Messrs. Franklin Davis & Co., from one acre on the Brook Turn- 
pike one and a half miles from this city, gathered 3200 quarts, the 
land being in good condition, but not extraordinarily rich. 

From nine acres of land near Norfolk were taken 32,000 quarts, 
more than 3500 to the acre. The owner of this prolific "patch'* 
vol II — 28 



i 



434 THE SOUTHERN [July 

uses fertilizers, I learn, with a lavish hand, putting on as much as 
1000 pounds superphosphate of lime to the acre. 

Mr. Wilson writes me that his sales for the season averaged him 
25 cents per quart ; and says this is considerably below what it 
would have been had not the steamer on which he shipped his fruit 
to Norfolk met with an accident, resulting in the sacrifice of two 
large shipments. At 25 cents per quart, his gross receipts were 
$750 per acre. 

I have seen the account of sales rendered Messrs. Davis & Cooper 
by their New York commission merchant, from which I find that 
their sales ranged from 25 to 50 cents per quart. Putting their 
average at 30 cents, we have a gross return of $600 per acre on 
ten acres in Surry, and $960 from one near Richmond. 

It may be interesting to state, in this connection, that they ship- 
ped strawberries from here to New York, both by express and by 
ocean steamer, and that by both they reached their destination in 
safety, and brought satisfactory prices. 

From the above examples, which are not cited because there was 
anything extraordinary in them, but because the statements as to 
yield, price, &c, are exact, and are to be relied upon, there can be 
no doubt at all as to the large profits attending the cultivation of 
the strawberry. May we not hope that the success of those now 
engaged in its cultivation may stimulate many others to follow their 
example, and that in a few years every train and every steamer go- 
ing northward during the strawberry season may go loaded with this 
delicious fruit. W. Gilham. 

Editorial Correspondence. 

Editor Southern Planter and Farmer^ — The first thing that 
strikes one after crossing the Potomac is the backwardness of vege- 
tation as compared with that of our section. 

We left you a fortnight since gathering peas and strawberries, 
and here they are not yet ripe, indeed will not be for a week. 
While this is only what was to have been expected, still one cannot 
restrain a sigh of regret as he remembers that you are enjoying all 
these fruits of early summer, while your correspondent is obliged to 
content himself with the meagre fare of winter. 

Another thing that strikes us forcibly is the high culture of the 
farms; the perfect condition of the fencing; the neatness, sometimes 
the elegance of the houses, as we pass through Maryland and Penn- 
sylvania, presenting a sorrowful contrast to the desolated fields and 
ruined homesteads of our own beautiful State. And yet, sorrowful 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 435 

as the contrast is, there is a lesson for us to learn from it, viz : that 
if we, with our diminished capital, would resuscitate our fallen for- 
tunes, we must do as the people of these States do ; labor ourselves, 
cut down our farms to such size as we can work properly, and turn 
our attention to those crops which are more certain and profitable 
than tobacco and cotton can ever be without slave labor. 

There is not a farm in all this country without its orchard, which 
is as carefully cultivated and cared for as any portion of the estate, 
and from which, in many instances, the largest income is derived. 

Thrift, industry and neatness are good qualities of these people, 
which it becomes us to imitate. Their faults and vices, to which we 
are not blind, we need not adopt. 

In horticulture and pomology, they are far in advance of our sec- 
tion, as also in landscape-gardening ; and combining, as these do, 
profit with comfort, their effects are readily traced in the quiet ease 
and home-happiness which everywhere seems to prevail. 

The lateness of the season prevents gardens and nurseries from 
presenting as attractive an appearance as they otherwise would ; 
still the prospects are encouraging. 

At York, Pa., I had an opportunity of seeing the " Napoleon 3d" 
strawberry in full bearing. It was remarkably prolific, and although 
not ripe, had already attained an extraordinary size. Unfortunately, 
it does not ripen early, but in every other respect it is decidedly su- 
perior to the Wilson's Albany, and fully deserving of all that Messrs. 
Evans &■ Co. claim for it. 

Here in Philadelphia business seems to be brisk, and the citizens 
are employed in making money and discussing politics. 

The latter at present absorbs a great deal of their attention, and 
both parties are making earnest preparations for the approaching 
contest. Fortunately, you and I are not disturbed with these subjects. 
The seed and flower establishments here are extensive and ele- 
gant, and the entire populace appear to have a taste for everything 
pertaining to flowers ; which their wealth enables them to cultivate 
and gratify. 

In the midst of a heavy rain (for it rains here every second day), 
I went to see Mr. Meehan, and found him, like his magazine, at the 
top of the list. His nursery is a splendid one, and conducted as 
only such a thorough master of his business could manage it. The 
kindly interest which he takes in the welfare of our section, together 
with his standing as a botanist and pomologist, commend him and 
his magazine to the most favorable attention of our people. 

Writing in great haste, I must defer to another mail many mat- 



436 THE SOUTHERN [July 



ters of interest, and this hurried epistle must be excused for the 
same reason. M. 

Philadelphia, June 9th, 1868. 



Overbearing of Vineyards. 

"We know there are a few persons who believe in permitting the 
vine to set and ripen all the fruit it will ; but we also know that 
whenever we have watched the practice of such advocates, it has 
resulted, within a few years, in either mildew of leaf and fruit, rot, 
or an imperfect ripening of more than one-half the fruit. Our old- 
est and most experienced vignerons ; those who have unwittingly 
practiced a year or two of overloading the vines; all vegetable phy- 
siology and study of the natural laws of life and health, tell us that 
an undue exhaustion of the system must, if continued, soon be fol- 
lowed by disease or premature death. Acting upon these teachings, 
the true vineyardist — he who owns his vines and expects to continue 
yearly gathering the fruit therefrom — will now go over them care- 
fully, note the strength of the vine, and judging with good common- 
sense knowledge of supply and demand, remove at once all appa- 
rent superfluous or overloading number of bunches while they are 
yet but in the blossom, and have not drawn from the regular supply 
food belonging to the vine. Young vines are especially injured by 
allowing them to fruit freely ; and many a one, because his canes 
are good and strong the second year from planting, permits them to 
fruit eight or ten bunches, and thus reduces their natural amount of 
vitality not yet fully gained or matured. In vegetable life, an over- 
exhaustion, while the plant is young and immature, is just as per- 
manently injured as over-working, or in any other way exhausting 
the natural system of animal life before it has reached maturity. — 
Horticulturist. 

Stir the Ground Frequently. — A frequent stirring of the sur- 
face of .the ground during the early and growing part of the season 
is almost, if not quite, as good as a coat of manure. In fact, our 
experience and observation have taught us that we succeed better 
with our young plantations, or our bearing ones, of raspberries, cur- 
rants, dwarf pears, etc., by a regular system of stirring the surface- 
soil at least once a week, than by means of a heavy dressing of ma- 
nure and only two hoeings for the season; A light, loose surface 
admits heat, air, and moisture, and all combining necessary food for 
the plant ; while a hard, compact surface excludes these influences 
and prevents the action of chemical or natural changes, and hence 
the comparatively moist condition of the plant. — Horticulturist. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER AND FARMER. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, JULY, 1868. 

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION AND ADVERTISING. 

Subscription One Year, $2.00 

ADVERTISING. 

1 square, 10 lines or less, one insertion, f 1 00 M page, one year, $ 35 00 

1 square of 10 lines for six months 6 00 Y 2 page, six months, 35 00 

1 square of 10 lines for one year 10 00 Y z page, one year, 60 00 

1 page, single insertion, 15 00 1 page six months, 60 00 

M page, six months, 20 00 1 page, one year 100 00 

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



(Jbiforial §prtmeni 



Error Corrected. 

The reader will observe that in " Marlow's" communication, on page 412, the 
product, in cheese, of 50 good cows is stated by the writer at 1,000 pounds. It 
was, without doubt, intended for 10,000, the amount required to make good the 
calculation of $1,400, at 14 cents per pound. 



A Survey of Virginia and the South. 

A stupendous work of incalculable value and importance in its relations to 
the material interests of every Virginian is announced as about to be under- 
taken under the auspices of Washington College. It is no less than a survey, 
with a view to collect exact information of the topography, mineral resources, 
industry and natural history of the South, particularly of the State of Virginia, 
and to publish the same for the benefit of the public generally. The survey is 
to be conducted under the auspices of a Board composed of the President of 
Washington College (Gen. Robert E. Lee), the Professor of Mathematics (A. 
L. Nelson), the Professor of Applied Mathematics (W. Allan), the Professor of 
Natural Philosophy (R. S. McCulloch), and the Professor of Chemistry (J. L. 
Campbell). " Such a survey by such a Board," adds the Richmond Whig, 
from which we extract the above specifications, " will need no recommendation 
outside of its intrinsic merits. It is the great imperative want of the State." 
The Whig elsewhere says in substance: "That upon the judicious application 
of their time and energies to the material interests of the people of Virginia 
depends their advancement in wealth, power and social and intellectual eleva- 
tion." 



Acknowledgment. 

We gratefully and respectfully acknowledge the courtesy of the Washington 
and Jefferson Societies of the University of Virginia in inviting us to atteird 
their final celebrations, the one on the 29th and the other on the 30th of June. 
It would have afforded us a season of recreation and enjoyment which we re- 
luctantly forego, but which we were forced to decline by reason of incompatible 
engagements. 



438 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Trial of Johnston's Patent Self-Raking Reaper. 

On Thursday, the 18th of June, we received an invitation to accompany our 
friends H. M. Smith, Esq., Col. Shields (of the Whig) and others, to the highly 
improved farm of Jas. H. Grant, Esq., near the Brook Turnpike, for the purpose 
of witnessing a trial of Johnston's Patent Self-Raking Reaper. The day was 
beautiful, no better season for harvesting could have been asked, and soon after 
reaching the farm, two mules were hitched and the Reaper put to a heavy test, 
in a field of rye that stood very thick on the ground and had been much matted 
by the heavy storms of wind and rain that have passed over this section re- 
cently. The machine did its work well, making a smooth cut six feet in width, 
scarcely leaving a straw standing. The special feature in this machine is the 
self-raker. It is so arranged that one bar in five rakes off, and throws into 
swath, out of the track of the machine in making its next round ; or, by the 
use of a spring pressed by the foot of the driver, a gate is thrown open (which 
hitherto only permitted the passage on to the iron track attached to a perpen. 
dicular shaft and driven by the same gearing that drives the sickle of the pivot- 
wheel of one of the bars), and all the rakes are in lull play, throwing into a 
continuous swath. This feature is valuable; and we here venture to suggest 
that if more strength can be secured in arranging the bars, without adding ma- 
terially to the weight of the machine, the inventor will have secured, in our 
judgment, a first class self-raker. 

As we before remarked, the test was a severe one, and we heard no one who 
■ witnessed it express other than satisfaction. 

Although the weight of the machine is only 800 or 900 pounds, and it is 
claimed as adapted to two horses, it was our observation that the addition of a 
third mule later in the day greatly facilitated its performance. 



The Rockbridge Alum Springs. 

By reference to our Advertising Sheet (where, too, our readers will find 
many other good things), it will be seen that the above-named popular place of 
resort is now open to visitors. During the dog-days, now fast approaching, the 
fortunate possessor of a surplus of greenbacks can find no cooler or more de- 
lightful place to spend them, than with Messrs. Frazier & Randolph, who are 
pledged to extend to all visitors that old-fashioned Virginia hospitality so well- 
dispensed at the Rockbridge Alum for years past. 



Correspondence of Southern Planter and Farmer. 

CROPS, &C, AC. 

My Dear Sir, — The monthly correspondence of the Farmer's Register was 
one of the most interesting and valuable features of that " treasury of know- 
ledge." I am pleased to see that your intelligent correspondents are making it 
quite as useful a department of the Planter, and I will now attest my sincerity 
by a few seasonable suggestions. 

The wheat crop of the present season seems to have escaped destruction al- 
most miraculously. Every field which I saw, or of which I heard, was, ten days 
ago, thickly covered with rust — scarcely a blade escaped — and we all supposed 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 439 

the crop doomed to destruction. It has been preserved by a natural remedy, 
which British farmers have long taught was the only cure for rust, but which, 
in the course of my experience as a farmer, I have never known to be effectually 
applied. We have had a succession of violent rain-storms, attended and fol- 
lowed by high winds. Some of the rankest of the wheat is laid, but the rust 
has entirely disappeared, and the grain is maturing well. The heads are larger 
and fuller than for many years, the grains averaging three on a bar. The heada 
have about twice as many grains as last year. The crop will be somewhat di- 
minished by the effect of the storms, in breaking off at the root all those stalks 
that had been weakened by the fly. The quality of the crop will also be much 
affected by the foulness of the seed which farmers, in their poverty, have been 
compelled to use. A great desire is now manifested for clean seed. Has Col. 
Skinner's machine for cleaning wheat of cockle, cheat, and other impurities, 
proved a success ? The prospect of an average crop of wheat is very cheering 
to the farmers, who have been so long doomed to sow without reaping. Let not 
speculators be induced to believe that the product will be immense — there is no 
hope of such a crop as we used to make in olden times. I hope it will be re- 
munerative to those who have labored so hard, amidst many discouragements, 
to' make it. The breadth of land sowed is small — not half, probably less than 
a third of what was sowed fifteen years ago. The freedmen, as a rule, sow no 
wheat and they occupy a large portion of the best low grounds : and the small 
farmers in the "forest" heretofore so productive in wheat, have, in many cases, 
been unable to procure seed or fertilizers. 

I am glad to see that intelligent farmers are inquiring with interest, "What 
shall we do ?" Permit me to say that the question has not yet been satisfacto- 
rily answered, and we can hope for no such answer until we again live under a 
free government. Neither railroads nor ships, nor small nor large farms, nor 
potatoes, nor peas, nor fruit, nor even " cranberries," can save us, until we as- 
sert our dignity as men and vindicate, by our suffrages, our right to self-govern- 
ment. It is easier to teach what not to do, and in our present distressed condi- 
tion as a people, this negative instruction will be much the most effectual. Lst 
the people cease to worry and harass each other with petty litigation — with mo- 
tions for interest, the costs of which often exceed the sums recovered — let them 
avoid the folly of mariners in a shipwreck, who fight over the straws and drown 
each other in contending for the last plank. The madness of the people during 
the plagues of London or of Athens scarcely exceeded the soulless and unfeel- 
ing conduct now exhibited by many of the people of Virginia. Their supplies 
have run low, and they must fain satisfy their hunger by eating each other. I 
speak in behalf of others. I have not been harassed by this petty litigation, 
and if I were starving, I would perish before I would worry my suffering fel- 
low-citizens by these petty prosecutions. 

Very truly yours, Willoughby Newton. 

Linden, June 17, 1868. 

[The machine to which Mr. Newton refers is " Arnold's Cockle Machine," 
which was examined by Col. Skinner some time since, who thought well of it. 
We are not aware that it has been thoroughly tested, however, nor do we find 
the machine in the hands of any of our leading machinists or dealers in Agri-, 
cultural implements. 

We believe the patent-right is under the control of Messrs. Minor & Peyton, 
of Charlottesville, Va. — Ed. So. Planter and Farmer.] 



x I 



440 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Since the foregoing letter was in type, Mr. Newton has furnished us with the 
following modification of the views therein expressed in relation to the wheat- 
crop : 

My Dear Sir, — I regret very much to have to say that my congratulations to 
the farmers in my letter of the 17th inst. on the safety of the wheat-crop were 
premature. We had the plentiful moisture desired by the British farmers, and 
the plants were effectually cleansed of the rust, and the crop seemed to be ma- 
turing well. In a few days, another enemy equally formidable (mildew) made 
its appearance. This has been nearly destructive of some crops, and very in- 
jurious to all. My neighbors, who are harvesting the Boughton wheat, say it 
is not more than half a crop. My early purple straw, on clover-fallow, which 
I shall commence reaping to-day, is very much lightened, and many of the 
grains shrunken. The blue-stem white, I understand, is in a still worse con- 
dition. The Planter for June speaks of the failure above Kichmond, and I 
have private advices of the condition of the crop in Piedmont and the Valley, 
from a gentleman of extensive observation in Fauquier, who gives a most dis- 
couraging account of the prospects in that fine wheat-growing region. 

The disease known in the books as mildew, vulgarly called the scab, does not 
seem to be well understood by many farmers. Thirty-odd years ago it destroyed 
the whole crop of the State. Much was written on the subject in the Farmer's 
Register. In a letter published in the monthly correspondence, I communicated 
to the editor its effects upon the crop about to be harvested, with some observa- 
tions on the nature of the disease, taken from the article " Agriculture," in the 
Edinburgh Encyclopedia. The disease of this season is, I hope, not so univer- 
sal or destructive, but it is, beyond doubt, a very serious calamity. "What 
shall we do?" Not repine — not fly in the face of Providence and curse God. 
By no means ; but let us endeavor to bear with patience the ills we cannot 
cure, and, by mutual kindness and good offices, do all in our power to mitigate 
the calamity. Grass and vegetables are abundant; the stock are all fat; the 
corn, though late, where well-cultivated, is thriving ; and we shall not starve» 
For this, at least, we should be thankful; and but for " man's inhumanity to 
man/' the calamity, though great, would not be overwhelming. 

I had not seen the June number when my last letter to the editor of the 
Planter was written. Mr. Kuffin makes a very favorable show on the sheep 
question. His success is very gratifying to his friends and the farmers gene- 
rally. He discusses well a most important subject. His command of the Kich- 
mond market, when he can sell in person, at his own time and his own price, 
without the intervention of an agent, gives him peculiar advantages. Forty 
cents for wool unwashed is nine cents above the highest Baltimore price, and 
five dollars is much above the market price of lambs ; but with these abate- 
ments, and making some allowance for occasional depredations by dogs. I en- 
tirely concur in his views, which are confirmed by my own limited experience. 
I have lately sent to market the wool product of my small flock, averaging ra- 
ther more than five pounds a head. The sheep are a cross of Southdown and 
Cotswold. Only one ewe bore two lambs, and there is one lamb, I think, for 
every ewe in the flock. The cost of keep has been literally nothing, unless a 
charge for the grazing a field of wheat during winter and early spring should 
be set down to their account. This is a question of great importance in con- 
nection with sheep-raising, in a system of convertible husbandry. It has long 
been the practice of the farmers on the light lands of Essex and King & Queen 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 441 

to pasture their wheat fields with sheep until quite late in spring, to the evident 
improvement of the wheat, as they believed. I have occasionally done so from 
necessity, and not from choice, without being able to perceive any injury to the 
wheat. The field grazed by the sheep last spring is on oat-fallow — the growth 
of straw is not equal to that on the clover-fallow — the crop is somewhat later — 
the heads are large and well-filled, and exhibit no sign of the disease which so 
extensively affects other fields. The retarding the ripening of the wheat for a 
few days by grazing, may possibly have caused the wheat to pass the critical 
period of attack. Whatever may be the cause, the sheep in this case have cer- 
tainly done no injury to the crop, whilst they were kept fat during the inclem- 
ency of the winter and spring ,and did not lose a lamb or a lock of wool. 

Will Mr. Rufiin be so good as to elucidate this point in his next article? 

Yours very truly, Willoughby Newton. 

Linden, June 23, 1868. 



Dear Sir, — Though not a farmer, yet a country doctor, who circulates a good 
deal among our farmers, I have concluded to drop you a line relative to the 
prospective wheat-crop in this region of our State, fully aware that whatever 
can be collected as information relative to this important crop will be not only 
appreciated, but must prove advantageous in a material point of view. 

In consequence of the drought which prevailed in this portion of the State 
in the months of August and September of the past year, but a comparatively 
small area of fallow-land was broken up for seeding, and what land was 
ploughed was so poorly done as to have rendered it almost futile. Wheat was 
seeded from the 10th September to the 1st of November, some few patches 
were sown as late as the middle of November. The drought continuing through 
October to a considerable degree, much of the seed sown did not come up; then 
a winter of uncommon severity followed, many light snows fell, severe freezes, 
but no snow of greater depth than six inches fell during the winter, thus leav- 
ing it to the chances of destruction from the intensity of cold. The result of 
these different unfavorable influences upon the crop could have been easily fore- 
seen — a short crop upon the ground. Yet, wherever the wheat was put in early 
and well, and the fallow thoroughly prepared, the stand good, the yield will be 
a very fair one. 

A gentleman in my office a few days since, residing in the western portion of 
the county, stated that upon a clover-fallow, sowed in September, he would se- 
cure 25 bushels to the acre, observing, as you will do, that no fertilizers, which 
are so fashionable "with other folks," are used here. 

The yield here will be greater in the aggregate than last year, and the qual- 
ity of grain better than for any year since the war. 

We are much behind our Eastern Virginia brethren in skilful agriculture. 
We are unwilling to spend a little for experimenting with fertilizers. We are 
beginning to experiment with improved agricultural machinery, and like it so 
much that each man's neighbor seems much pleased with the new mower and 
plough and apple-mill. We are waking up — getting out of the brush. 

No region of country is better adapted to the successful culture of wheat than 
Washington county — an excellent soil, genial climate, magnificent pasturage, 
gypsum invaluable and inexhaustible ; but skill and tact we don't use. "Re- 
construction" of labor and pursuit, we hope, will soon set us all right. P. 

Abingdon, Va., June 25, 1868. 



442 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Dear Sir, — Moses acknowledges "to haff seed de show," not by returning 
the back numbers of your Planter and Farmer, but by enclosing the price of 
Subscription. 

Allow me to express my high appreciation of your Journal, and my warmest 
wishes for its success. I am a new farmer, utterly inexperienced. Your arti- 
cles are practical, and treat of subjects which, though they may be familiar to 
old farmers, are outside of the knowledge of those like me (and they are not 
few in number), who, ruined by our late war, unfitted for professional life, along 
which we have skirmished or starved off from that life of ease through which 
we had lounged, have turned to the bosom of our mother earth, thence to draw 
our sustenance. 

To Dr. Atkinson's hint I add my request that all correspondents should give 
their real names. " Marlow" may be, and no doubt is, as reliable as Dr. At- 
kinson, but he does not carry the same weight, for I do not recognize him in 
his nomme de plume, while I know my old acquaintance, the Doctor, used to be 
thought a farmer — for I, too, am an old Virginian, a Tuckahoe. 
Very truly your brother planter and farmer, 

James Benagh. 

Harris' Station (iV. & D. E. E.), Ala., June 18, 1868. 



MISSISSIPPI. 

Mr. Editor, — The farmers in this vicinity, so far as I know, have pretty good 
crops— considerably better than they have had for the last four or five years at 
this season. The planters generally have planted very largely in corn, as the 
most of them have had to buy corn for the last two years, and have at last come 
to the conclusion that it is a good deal cheaper to raise it. Last year and the year 
before it was cotton and nothing else, but it has changed this year to corn and 
sweet potatoes ; and, I hope, for the better. The corn-crop looks very promis- 
ing all through the country, but we are beginning to need rain very much. 
Farmers that planted twenty five and thirty acres last year have this year 
planted one and two hundred acres. The cotton-crop looks very fine, and if the 
worm don't come, there will be a pretty good crop in this county ; for the crop 
is all clear of grass, a thing that has not been known since the war at this sea- 
son — generally speaking, the cotton is very grassy in June. There are several 
farmers here that have gone to regular Yankee farming — a little of everything. 

I hear some talking of going into the stock business next year. 

There is a striped bug that made its appearance about two weeks ago, and has 
nearly ruined the gardens, especially the Irish and sweet potato-crops ; and, so 
far, there is no remedy to rid us of them ; and if there is anything that the edi- 
tor knows of that will do any good, the neighbors in this vicinity would be 
very glad to hear what it is. Some persons think if there is a rain, they will 
leave. 

The freedmen this season have worked exceedingly well up to this time, but 
there is to be an election on the 22d of this month, and I don't think they will 
do as well until after the election is over. There are so many electioreering 
around through the country that they don't know what to do, and will be con- 
siderably disturbed until it is over. 

Very respectfully yours, John McKee. 

Locust Grove Plantation, near Satartia, Yazoo Co., Miss., June 13, 1868. 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 443 

Dear Sir,- — You will, on the reception of this letter, without delay and fail, 
send specimen numbers of Southern Planter and Farmer, one number for April, 

one for May, one for June, and also Prospectus, to the address of , Sal- 

tillo, Lee county, Miss. I would inform you that this gentleman is a good and 
true Southern man by birth and education, and has many relatives living in the 
good old State of Virginia. 

You will attend to this matter, and also write him, as he is a man of sound 
and practical sense and of some influence, and would be of much service to you 
in the way of getting you some subscribers, as there are a good many Virgin- 
ians living in Lee county, Miss.; and you could not get a better man than the 
above named gentleman to get you subscribers, as there is no one that takes 
your Journal in his part of the county. 

I would inform you that I am a man that runs on a steamboat on the Missis- 
sippi river, and when at home, live in the Old Dominion. 

I want to see your Journal circulate in Mississippi as much as I can, so send 
specimens as jl have named. Very respectfully, Nat. Matthews. 

On the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, below Corinth, Miss., on my way to Vicksburg, 

Miss., June 13, 1868. 



My Dear Sir, — Please find enclosed my subscription to the Planter and Far- 
mer for this year (1868), and please excuse me for not having sent it sooner* 
I have been intending to do so for some time, but kept neglecting. But, sir, 
on the receipt of the last (June) number, I could resist my conscience no longer, 
and determined to send the amount at once ; for one who is doing so much for 
the agriculture of our country ought to be paid punctually for the best, the very 
best agricultural paper published in the South. The last (June) number is 
richly worth the subscription price for a whole year ; and I cannot, for my life, 
see how any man, who ever pretends to farm or plant, and can read, can afford 
to be without the Planter and Farmer. 

There are, sir, in the last number eight communications: Rain's, Marlow's, 
Mott's, M. S. R.'s, J.'s, Imboden's, Ficklen's and Hite's, all valuable, interest- 
ing and instructive; and, sir, while all the subjects treated of are important 
and interesting, those on fertilizers are particularly so in these hard times, and 
I hope you will endeavor to have them thoroughly and fully discussed, and, if 
possible, find out the best and most reliable. I am a great advocate for fertili- 
zers, but I have been so often deceived, not to say cheated, that I am almost 
afraid to venture on anything. Last spring (1867), I bought a manipulated 
guano that proved to be perfectly worthless, and was a total loss of money and 
time — not only the actual cash amount invested, but also a loss to the amount of 
my crop, sir, that I would have made had the manure been good, and that is no 
small matter with a poor ruined Confederate in these times of scarcity of money 
and no credit. I am trying another kind this spring, and may, for aught I 
know, be cheated and swindled again. 

It will soon be time now to begin to prepare for the wheat-crop, and I would 
like to have your advice, and that of your numerous and intelligent correspon- 
dents as to the cheapest and best fertilizer for wheat. I see your correspondent 
"J" speaks highly of the Chesapeake Phosphate," prepared by Isaac Reynolds 
& Sons, Baltimore. What is it — and what does it cost? 

Please acknowledge the receipt of my subscription, and believe me your well- 
wisher, Most truly and respectfully yours, R. H. Allen. 

Nonintervention, Lunenburg county, Va., June 23, 1868. 



444 THE SOUTHERN [July 

Book Notices. 

De Bow's Review. — The May and June numbers of this Southern Institu- 
tion (under one cover) is received. We cannot help expressing the belief that 
there is a wide field of usefulness before this Journal. As a faithful record of 
Southern and Western progress, as an organ of the business man in every 
sphere of action, as the repository of statistics valuable to the whole country, it 
has no superior. We earnestly hope for it a success commensurate with its high 
merit. 

The New Eclectic. — With the July number of this entertaining Journal 
we received the following notice, to which we take great pleasure in calling the 
attention of our readers. This enterprise should receive a handsome support at 
the hands of all lovers of choice literature: 

" FACTS OF INTEREST TO THE SOUTHERN READING PUBLIC* 

The publication of The New Eclectic was commenced on January 1st, 1868, 
with a view of furnishing for the South a monthly Magazine, in which would 
be presented, in a cheap and popular form, the most valuable articles of all the 
Quarterly, Monthly and Weekly publications of the world. The Richmond Ec- 
lectic, a work of a similar character, which was favorably known throughout 
the South, was bought out, the office removed to Baltimore, where there are 
larger facilities for the purpose, and numerous improvements were introduced, 
so that now the Publishers feel assured that in every respect their publication 
is the best of its class in the country. 

Having spared no expense or trouble in their efforts to please, they had con- 
fidently hoped that The New Eclectic would meet with very extensive favor from 
the South. It has now been before the public for six months, and though the 
press has been unanimous in its praise, and the most prominent literary gen- 
tlemen in the South have offered their congratulations, a recent trip of a special 
agent through the South has developed the fact that for every copy of The 
New Eclectic circulating in the South there are at least fifty copies of Northern 
magazines, and these too of those which are most offensive and insulting in 
their tone toward the South. 

These facts are offered for what they are worth. It is merely asked, is the 
South willing (for though so poor, she is able, since she liberally patronizes 
Northern publications) to support a magazine in full sympathy with her peo- 
ple — published by Southerners, for Southerners, and in a city that has lavished 
her best blood and treasure for Southern rights ? It is not on the strength of 
her sympathy alone that the patronage of the South is solicited ; but the Pub- 
lishers feel assured that the intrinsic merits of their publication are not infe- 
rior, in any respect, to those of Journals emanating from Northern sources. 
They ask all to examine for themselves. A specimen number will be sent to 
any address on the receipt of 25 cents. The subscription price of the Magazine 
is $4 per annum. Each monthly part contains 128 pages, beautifully printed 
and prepared jpr binding. Philosophy, Fiction, Poetry, Narrative, Biography, 
Fun, Art, etc., agreeably intermingled. Very liberal inducements to new sub- 
scribers, clubs, agents, canvassers. Particulars upon inquiry. 

Turnbull & Murdoch, 
Publishers of The New Eclectic, 49 Lexington St., Baltimore/' 

The Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal. — We welcome the June 
number of this highly interesting and scientific Journal, and while we parted 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 445 

with its accomplished editor with many regrets, we are much pleased to see that 
in vigor and interest "The Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal" has sus- 
tained no loss by its removal from the Old Dominion. Many of our subscribers 
are medical men of high standing in the Southern States, and we take occasion 
here to commend to them the above-named Journal as in every way worthy of 
their support. 

The Galaxy. — The July number of this handsome Monthly is on our table, 
and presents an attractive appearance. Its enterprising Publishers have se- 
cured the services of many contributors whose names are familiar to the whole 
country ; and its pages are rich in reading matter, varied to suit all tastes. 
The subscription price is cheap, only $4 a year. 

Address Sheldon & Co., 498 and 500 Broadway, N. Y. 

The Leonard Scott Publishing Company. — We need not say how eagerly 
every man connected (even remotely) with the press of this country looks for 
the appearance of each monthly and quarterly issue of this Company, and how 
much every one is indebted to them 'tis hard to tell. In the days long ago, we 
remember " Blackwood •" 'twas old then and wore the same close-capped, grey 
bearded visage on its front it bears now; and as we look on it, as stamped on 
the June number of 1868, we wonder if that old man has not at last discovered 
the fountain of youth. He brings us to-day all the freshness of a living litera- 
ture, and, at the same time, links us by pleasant memories to the past. Long 
live the Leonard Scott Company, and may our people sustain them with a libe- 
ral hand. 

Hunt's Merchants Magazine. — The June number of this valuable Journal 
is before us, and we think it one of the best we have seen for a long time. The 
articles are eminently practical and useful; many of them most timely; and 
the whole number should be read by every man who can get it. 

" The Currency Question," " Powers and Responsibilities of Directors," 
" Panics and Prevention," " The Conditiomof Trade," " The Condition and 
Prospects of the South," and " Nationalization of the Telegraph," are all 
strong articles. The writer of the last article makes a bold strike at centraliza- 
tion, and speaks honest words that should make the ears of many holders of 
the strings of office tingle. 

Every number like that issued in June is worth more than the subscrip- 
tion price for a whole year. 

Rural American. — The enterprising editor of the above Journal, Mr. T. B. 
Minor, publishes, in the June number, a notice of its removal to the city of 
New York as the future place of publication. The following extracts will ex- 
plain the reasons which led to the change : 

" REMOVAL OF THE RURAL AMERICAN TO NEW YORK CITY — EDITORIAL OFFICE AT 
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY. 

On the 1st of June the publication of the Rural American was removed to 
New York city, and the editorial and general business office established at the 
city of New Brunswick, New Jersey (near New York), where the proprietor 
owns an extensive farm. 

The office is located as above to save the heavy expense of rental in New 
York, while the paper can be edited with much more efficiency than in a large 






446 THE SOUTHERN [July 

city, and the price be considerably reduced in consequence of the reduced ex- 
pense thereof. 

New York city furnishes many of the requirements to render such a publica- 
tion complete in all its departments, rendering it necessary to remove the pub- 
lication of the Rural, in order to make it what its proprietor designs it to be in 
illustrations, typographical execution, &c. 

An Agency will be established in New York in due time ; but until such 
Agency is established, all business pertaining to the paper must be transacted 
at the New Brunswick office, in Market Square, Hiram street. 

Direct letters, " T. B. Minor, New Brunswick, New Jersey," and exchange 
papers to "Rural American," same place." 

The Land We Love for July is full of interesting matter, which is the pro- 
duct of Southern talent, and we thank its gallant editor over and over again, as 
we read it, for the energy he displays and the pride he takes in thus bringing 
to light (hitherto) "hidden treasure" 

Did time and space allow, it would give us pleasure to tell our readers who 
fed too poor to take " The Land We Love," something of what is in it. As we 
cannot, however, we must say to every Southern family, deny yourselves and 
take it. Terms, $3 a year in odvanGe. 

Address Gen. D. H. Hill, Charlotte, N. C. 

We nave received and placed on our exchange list The New York Mercan- 
tile Journal, a weekly of great value to merchants and business men gene- 
rally. Subscription price, $3 per annum. 

Our enterprising friends, Messrs. West & Johnston, Booksellers and Station- 
ers, 1006 Main street, have kindly sent us a work entitled House-Painting — 
Plain and Decorative, by Jno. W. Masury, which promises to prove of value. 

It treats of "The Art of House-Painting," "Paints and Colors," "True 
Economy in the Use of Paints," * * * " Consumption of Paints in the United 
States," "Weight of Paint and Measures of Oil Required to Cover a Given 
Number of Superficial Feet of Wood or Brick," &c. 

Such a work is much needed by our country friends, who must paint to pre- 
serve their buildings, and must do it as economically as possible. 

The Advertiser's Hand-Book, from Evans' Advertising Agency, 129 Wash- 
ington street, Boston, Mass., has been received. Mr. Evans has proven, in all 
our dealings with him as agent, a prompt and reliable business man; well-de- 
serving of our confidence. 

We can commend him and a few others only as thus deserving ; for so far as 
our experience extends, we have found the most of those agents with whom we 
have had business relations to be very unreliable. 

Chemistry Applied to the Arts.— From a lecture delivered before the Uni- 
versity of Virginia on the 30th of May last, by J. W. Mallett, Ph. D., M. D., 
F. C. S., Professor of Applied Chemistry in that University, on the subject of 
" Chemistry Applied to the Arts," we cite a few paragraphs, merely as samples 
of the rare qualities of this masterly production, filling thirty-eight pages of 



1868.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 447 

printed matter. We are indebted to the Richmond Whig for these extracts, 
and for others which we hold in reserve for future insertion in our Journal : 

"In a civilized community, the University should be the highest exponent of 
the actual condition of human knowledge. It surely, therefore, cannot be 
deemed right that applied science — a department of knowledge which to day 
yields such magnificent results, and which absorbs the attention and engages 
the best efforts of thousands of able and well-trained intellects throughout the 
civilized world — should be excluded from or neglected in the list of studies 
which the University recognizes as parts of a liberal education. 

Nor, in fact, does any such idea prevail. It is seen that education in the 
principles and applications of natural science is of the highest value to the stu- 
dent himself, and through him to the community of which he is a member. 
For many years past, the opinion has been steadily gaining ground amongst 
intelligent men, that opportunities for the study of natural science, both in its 
general laws and special applications, should be presented to the youth who are 
to form the educated classes of the State, and that where facilities for such 
study already exist they should be fostered, extended and improved. In some 
communities, this view has originated within the higher schools of learning 
themselves ; in others, it has been urged upon their attention by the pressure 
of public opinion from without. In some places, it has been carried into prac- 
tical effect; in others, it remains yet in the form of an ill-defined belief that 
the time has come when some such change must be made in the system of pub- 
lic education ; but everywhere — on both sides of the Atlantic — we find the idea 
in existence, and yearly growing in recognized importance. 

* * * * Just at present, there is a renewal of eager interest in the subject, 
due in part to the stimulus of last year's International Exhibition at Paris. 
There have been published extracts from replies made by a number of eminent 
English jurors who attended that Exhibition, to official enquiries addressed to 
them upon the subject of its bearing upon technical education. 

Dr. Lyon Playfair says : 

'When he found some of our chief mechanical and civil engineers lamenting 
the want of progress in their industries, and pointing to the wonderful advances 
which other nations are making; when he found our chemical, and even textile 
manufacturers uttering similar complaints, he naturally devoted attention to 
elicit their views as to the causes. So far as could be gathered by conversa- 
tion, the one cause upon which there was most unanimity of conviction was 
that France, Prussia, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland pocsess good systems 
of industrial education for the masters and managers of factories and work- 
shops, and that England possesses none/ 

In the last expression, the word ' none' must, of course, be understood in a 
relative sense only. 

Prof. Tyndall, F. R. S., ■ expresses a general concurrence in the views of Dr. 
Playfair/ and says : 

1 The facilities for scientific education are far greater on the Continent than 
in England, and, when such differences exist, England is sure to fall behind as 
regards those industries into which the scientific element enters.' 

Dr. Frankland, F. R. S., says: 

' He refers the want of progress in the manufactures of this country (Eng- 
land) chiefly to the almost utter lack of a good preparatory education for those 
destined to take part in industrial pursuits. This great defect in the School 



448 THE SOUTHERN [July 

and College education of England affects the masters and managers of our fac- 
tories even more deeply than the workmen themselves. The former have bat» 
rarely had any opportunities of making themselves acquainted with the funda- 
mental laws and principles of physics and chemistry; they, therefore, find 
themselves engaged in pursuits for which their previous education has afforded 
them no preparation, and hence their inability to originate inventions and im- 
provements. It is true that such men not unfrequently imagine themselves in- 
ventors, and yearly files of specifications abound with instances of their so- 
called inventions. The great loss of time and money attending these futile pa- 
tents would be rendered impossible by a very moderate, if accurate, knowledge 
of chemical and physical science. In the polytechnic schools of Germany and 
Switzerland the future manufacturer or manager is made familiar with those 
laws and applications of the great natural forces which must always form the 
basis of every intelligent and progressive industry, It seems that at length 
this superiority in previous training is more than counterbalancing the un- 
doubted advantages which this country (England) possesses in raw material/ 

* . * * * *\ i # #■ * #-* 
In discussing the immediate future, the prospects of recuperation, and the 

direction which public and private effort should take, there seems to be no point 
upon which thinking men are more generally agreed than the necessity of va- 
rying the forms of Southern industry and Southern products, instead of at- 
tempting to revive the purely agricultural policy of the past, which resulted in 
the Southern States producing for sale to the rest of the world little or nothing 
beside her magnificent crops of four or five valuable staples, while depending 
upon other States or countries for domestic supplies of almost every article of 
necessity or convenience. Agriculture must, of course, still be pursued, as the 
basis of all prosperity ; and, doubtless, to be successful, must be practiced with 
much more intelligent skill than ever before — but with the uncertain character 
and amount of the labor upon which Southern farmers will obviously have to 
rely for a long time to come, it is clearly to be desired that other forms of in- 
dustry should be developed, less vitally dependent upon labor — and, above all, 
labor in connection with particular seasons — as a condition of success. 

* * * * * . '* ***,.#. * 
The student of pure science occupies himself solely with facts and principles, 

regardless of any artificial bearing that may be given them upon the wants and 
comforts of the human race. He who devotes himself to applied science must 
not only study with equal attention these same facts and principles of nature, 
but, in addition, must notice the direction and the form in which they may be 
made subservient to the purposes of daily life. 

The latter, therefore, is called upon to examine the wants of society, con- 
stantly varying in character and urgency. 

In this matter-of-fact world, and under the organized system of commerce of 
modern times, the measure of the urgency of such wants is the money-price 
which the means of satisfying them can command — and hence the student of 
applied science, in dealing with the question of the attainment of any particu- 
lar object, has to consider — 

1st. The possibility of its attainment. 

2d. The cost of its attainment. 

3d. The price which society will be willing to pay for its attainment.