eription REDUCED to TWO DOLLARS Par Annum in" Advance ESTA-BLXSHEI} I IV 1S40 f H® i@WS®Sl DEVOTED TO Agriculture is %he nursing mother of the Arts. — Xenophon. Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the State.— Sully. Ch. B. Williams, Ed. & Pro'r. Frank G Ruffin, Co-Editor. ^ * New Series. RICHMOND, VA., JULY 1869 Agricultural Department : High, Medium and Low Farming. Making Manures Clov<-r as a Renovating: Crop The Farmer— A Beautiful Work of Nature and Art. Knowledge is Power Mr. G. E. Gilmer working out his PiOblem, by F. The Best Farmer in the Country Rye for Eariy Green Food Relations of P;ants to their Food. Hint* on the Cultivation and Management of Tobacco. Disappointment in Swedes ami German Labor Fertilizers in Morth Carolina, by the State Geologist, W. C. Kerr, Esq. Will Lime Kill Sorrell? .- Cooked Food for Hogs Deep Ploughing in Autumn New Fodder Plant Sabbath for the Working Man The Effects of Gathering Clover Seed on the Fertility of the Soil, &c. Let us Manufacture our own Productions. Improvemeut of Worn»-ont Farms. A Steam Plough ^. Straight and Crooked Streams 77... Horticultural Department: Strawberry Exhibition^ the Virginia Horticultural and Pomological Society. Raspberries 436. Strawbprries Guano 437. Harvesting Navy Beans and Gathering Potato Crops. How to Preserve Melons from the Striped Bug Nut Cultu^ ....439. Must a Berry Box have Sloping Sides ?. ■P"uniiij£ 'Tomatoes Household Department : Alsike Clover for Bee Pasturage. Yellow Wash for Buildings Editorial Department : The Great. Reaper and Mower Trial at Westover. Correspondence of Southern Planter and Farmer— Lucerne— Tobacco Stalks for Manure, &c Extermination of Sassafras. Editorial Notices, &c FERGUSSON «& RADY, Printers, 1328 Main Street. A ■H 3(0 H ^ ■d H o o >> ^ CD 'u O > . M ■e.2 Eft l- CO S- o R 03 S o o Lflr-; HEAGOGK «£ CO., (Sums .rs t. J.) L {M M. GRIFFITH & CO) 41 & 43 N. Paca Street, Baltimore, Md., MANUFACTURERS OF THE CELEBRATED BUCKEYE fflHIUHKIK STEBL-TQBTH ? WHEEL-HORSE RAKE Which (wherever introduced) is acknowledged by all leading Agri- culturists in all sections of the country to be the best Wheel-IIorse Ltake now in us 3. Are also Aagents fo the Celebrated CUT-GEAR WORLD MOWER & REAPER, TO UN .\Do triRESHER & CLEANER, JJULLARDS HAY TEDDER, SWIFT'S LAWN MOWER, RUN HALL'S 110 KFE HAY FORK, VICTOR CANE'S CANE MILL, COOK'S SUGAR EVAPORATORS, And all leading AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY. Keep constantly on hand a general supply of all the different varieties of FIELD and GARDEN SEEDS, FERTILIZERS, &c. Send for Circular and Price List. may — dm NOAH WALKER Be. CO. WHOLESALE AND RETAIL CLOTHIER 1211 Main Street, RIGHMOMD, VA, Chief House Washington Building, 165 and 167, Baltimore St., Baltimore, Md. Branch Houses— Petersburg, Va., Norfolk, Va., Washington, D. C. feb— ly BALTIMORE KM1MI EMPORIUM. SISCO BROTHERS, No. 14 North Charles street, corner of Fayette, Baltimore Md., MANUFACTURERS AND DEALKR8 IN MASONIC, I. 0. 0. F„ RED MEN'S, SONS OF TEMPERANCE AND AL,Ii OTHER SOCIETIES' REGALIA, JEWELS, &C, &C. OF" Paticular attention paid to FLAGS and BANNERS. Designs furnished fret. Seud for Price List. sr-p— ly SOUTHERN PLANTER & FARMER New Series, vol, 3, May-Dec. 1869 Missing: no. 6, June and no. 9, September THE SOUTHERN PLANTER & FARMER, DEVOTED TO Agriculture, Horticulture and the Mining, Mechanic and Household Arts. Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts„— Xenophon. Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the State.— Sudly. CII: B. WILLIAMS, Editor and Prope Co-Editor. LIETOR. FRANK G. RUFFIN, New Series. RICDHOXD, VA., JULY, 1869. Vol. Ill- -No. 7. High, Medium and Low Farming. POINT OF MAXIMUM PROFIT. If you ask the moaning of these terms, I reply, reversing the order above: profit is what your crops give you over and above all costs of production. These costs are: 1. Interest on the value of land ; 2. Taxes, if any ; 4. Value of labor done by yourself or others at the time; 4. Team -work; 5. Cost of manure; 6. Wear and tear of implements and farm machinery; 7. Any other cost or costs you may think of, not included in the foregoing. The interest on value of land must come in as part of the cost, for the reason that you cannot afford to hold land and draw no in- terest on its value. The taxes must come in, because if your State tax farm land, you cannot escape paying. So of every other item — all must be charged to the crop, and paid by it, before you can begin to reckon profit. Keep accounts with your farm, and with each crop grown upon it. To farm without keeping accounts, is farming in the dark, and you may not ascertain whither it leads till too late. If you farm in the dark, you may keep on twenty years with some crop which loses you money every year, or may stop with some one which gives you handsome yearly profits, simply from not knowing which to continue and which to stop. Farmers are generally supposed to be men of sound judgment. Their employment is adapted to make vol. in — 25 386 THE SOUTHERN [July, them such. They generally are such. The keeping of farm ac- counts, so as to throw light from this year's doings on the question, what to do next year, is not easy; but in the exercise of such a judgment as we heartily ascribe to farmers, you can keep them well enough to prevent your going blindfolded many years in courses leading to disaster, and wed you to those tending to prosperity. By the point of maximum 'profit, I mean that point in the as- cending scale from low to high culture, which gives the highest profits over all costs. This is not a fixed but a variable point, varying with the value of land, the price of the crop grown, the cost of fertilizers, distance from markets, etc. As a general rule, where land is dear the cultivation should be high, and of course ex- pensive, for no man can aiford to grow small crops on land worth $300 an acre. Small crops would but little more than pay interest on value of land. On land worth but $30 an acre, he might make profit, more or less, from small crops. On land worth but $10, he might make something from still smaller crops. Where land costs but little it may be cultivated cheaply and yet pay; but let a man undertake to cultivate an acre worth $300 cheaply, and he will in- evitably find it a losing experiment. Every farmer should endeavor to ascertain at what amount for labor and fertilizers he can grow crops on his land, with a better profit, than by the expenditure of more, or less, for the labor and fertilizers ; and that, if he can as- certain it, he may regard as the point of maximum profit in his case. But what is to be understood by low, medium and high farming? Giving your land little or nothing, and expecting little or nothing in return, is low farming. If all farmers worked in this way, the soil all round the face of mother earth would wax worse and worse, till it would be equal to sustaining but half the present population of the globe, instead of becoming able, under the hand of man, as God designed it, to sustain ten-fold more than its present inhabi- tants. Yes, God made the land and the sea such, that, by the natural laws he has stamped upon them, this globe must perpetually become better and not worse, as the abode and life-sustainer of the human race, till ten times its present population shall be able to nestle on its bosom and feed on its bounties. The progress will be slow or fast, as man fails of his duty or discharges it earnestly and faith- fully. Low farming is athwart the purpsse of the Almighty. He wishes the land to become better for each generation than it was for the last. The man who farms it in a low way, giving it little, taking less, not half paid for his labor, makes it worse. 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 887 There may be cases in which a rather low grade of farming is to be tolerated. The owner of a large farm may have reasons of his own for not selling a part of his land to enable him to cultivate the rest better. He may have good reasons, known only to himself, for holding the whole a while longer. But, as a general rule, it is folly, not to say wickedness, to go over large extents for small re- turns. It affords no 'profit; it less ihan pays for the labor; it is the costliest way possible for obtaining the productions of the earth ; a wise man will not walk in it long; the man who is both wise and devout, will not dare persevere in it, so manifestly is it opposed to the will of the great and benevolent Designer, who never meant that the farmer should work hard, life-long, for small pay. Medium farming may be considered half way up the ladder from low to high farming. By the low farming, of which we complain, as against God and humanity, and most of all against the man who practices it; as low as 10 to 15 bushels corn per acre, and other crops proportionally scrimped are often obtained. By medium farm- ing, our idea is 50 to 60 bushels of corn and other crops in propor- tion. This, in large portions of our country, yet comparatively new, not yet densely populated, distant from markets, freights high, may just about tally with the point of maximum profit. You may perhaps say you can more cheaply win the productions of the soil at this state of cultivation than by one higher' or lower. At any rate, by such cultivation as will give you 50 to 60 bushels of corn and the like of other crops, your land will not be run down, and you "will not sin against yourself nor against posterity, for it will- pay you and will leave those who come after you a fair chance. Perhaps this is as high a cultivation as should be aimed at by the farmers of one-half of our cultivated land. But this is not high cultivation ; it should not be thought of as such ; it may be wise temporarily ; but as the population increases, it must be superseded. Where population is already dense and out- lets to other countries dense, and especially if land be high, larger crops must be obtained, or no great profit in the cost of production can be realized, certainly not the greatest. From 80 to 90 bushels of corn, and proportionably for other crops, should be the aim, un- der such circumstances, if the land be of good quality. If a fail- ure to reach this mark be attributable to divine providence, in not giving favorable seasons, cheerful submission to a higher power be- comes a duty, but if attributable to anything the farmer himself did or failed to do, he should not be satisfied with his own doings, but should try again, and keep trying, till he can grow his 80 to 90 888 THE SOUTHERN July, bushels of corn, arid other crops in proportion, in an average sea- son, to set off for less in seasons that are unfavorable, that the ave- rage yield^may be as high as above named, and gradually increas- ing, as the land, under a system of high cultivation, increases both its productiveness and its saleable value. Medium farming pays better than low everywhere. High farm- ing pays better than medium wherever the circumstances exist which call for it. Farming in a way that deteriorates the soil, will not pay, in the long run. Farming that improves the soil a little each year, as God made it to be improved by the brains and hands of man, will pay always and everywhere. Thousands of farmers, in all parts of our country, fail of the best rewards of farming by too low cultivation, for every one who fails by cultivating too highly. The danger of failure by going down the scale too low, is a thou- sand times greater than that of ascending too high. Let us strive to avoid the former, and not be over fearful of the latter. — Nash, in the Working Farmer. Making Manure. It should be a cardinal principle with every farmer to economize his. manure. Upon it depends his success, and, without it, his la- bors must to a very great extent be without profit, if not attended with absolute loss. If it is necessary to have the barn-yard on a hill-side, it is equally necessary to have the lower side of it pro- tected by a wall, or some arrangement by which the escape of liquid manure may be prevented. It is almost equally important to have a spout to convey rain water from the roof of the barn in some other direction than immediately through the barn-yard. It is bad- enough that the manure heap should be exposed to the rains which fall directly upon it, without adding to it the droppings from the roof of the barn. If such improvident farmers were to behold the actual value of the fertilizing material thus lost, rolling from their purses in the shape of dollars and cents, how energetically would they labor to prevent this waste. The loss of a single little gold dollar would stir them up to a greater activity than the direct waste of a hundred times that little dollar's value in the form of liquid manure. Year after year, silently, steadily, the golden streams are flowing from their purses. Tell them of their error, and they acknowledge it, but rarely does it happen that being reminded of it in a friendly manner, they make a single effort to correct it. 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 389 How many are there who, after a lifetime of steady, unremitting toil, find themselves no richer in lands or money than when they began ! They cannot explain the reason. Other causes may have led to such discouraging results, but if the drain of liquid manures from their barn-yards had been checked when they began farming, very many of these unsuccessful ones would have been as prosperous as their more provident neighbors. Every farmer subscribes to this ; he knows it well ; but thinks he can do no better, " under the circumstances," than to let it go. He thinks, if he had conveniences, he would like to try the effects of liquid manure ; but " everything wants doing first," and it gets ne- glected ; or, if he had any vegetable refuse at hand which he could haul to soak up the waste liquid, he would do that, but such waste he has not. Now, one of the very best things to soak up manure water, and make into the best of manure, is common clay. It will pay any farmer well to haul clay to his barn-yard for its absorbing proper- ties. When this cannot be had, the washing of roadsides, cleaning of ditches, qr anything that comes to hand, may be used instead. There are many other more complicated ways of " making manures" by chemical ingredients, but this is a simple one, which every one can understand. All it wants is the command of labor, and this is the main point in which so many farmers err. Not to "employ much," but to do all possible one's self, and let the " rest go," is the general plan. The farmer forgets that when he buys a ton of guano he has employed sailors, ship-owners, commission merchants, and many others, at a rate at which another hand on his farm, em- ployed at nothing else but making manure, would have produced him immeasurably more value. It is not so much what is made, as what is saved, that leads to riches; and how to economise in ma- nure, and yet have an abundance, is one of the great secrets of be- coming a rich farmer. — T. Meehan, in Forney's Press. To be Noted. — In a cloudy morning it is a matter of impor- tance to the farmer to know whether it will be sunshiny or showery in the afternoon. If the ants have cleared their hole nicely, and piled the dirt up high, it seldom fails to indicate a clear day, though it may be cloudy until eleven o'clock in the forenoon. Spider webs will be very numerous about the tops of the grass and grain some cloudy mornings ; and fifty years observation have shown the wri- ter that these little weather-guessers seldom fail in their prediction of a fair day. 390 THE SOUTHERN [July Clover as a Renovating Crop. Some idea of the relative value of the manure made from clover, and common stable manure, the greater part of which is carbona- ceous matter, may be obtained from the careful experiments of Pro- fessor Lawes. The results of his experiments have been given to the world many times through the agricultural press. I had my attention first called to them about a year ago by an article from the pen of Mr. Joseph Harris, in the American Agriculturist. Since then I have examined the matter somewhat carefully, and have been, I must own, astonished at the results of repeated chemi- cal analysis of this plant, made for the purpose of showing its vast superiority over all other grasses as a hay or forage plant. According to Prof. Lawes, the manure from a ton of straw is worth about $2.60, taking the price of artificial manure as a basis. The manure from a ton of clover hay is worth a little over $9. Allowing two and one-half tons of manure to a ton of straw or hay, then a ton or ordinary load of manure from straw would be worth about $1, while a load of manure from clover hay would be worth about $3.50. The former would hardly be worth drawing into the field. Certainly not worth buying at $2 per load and draw- ing a long distance. The value of any manure depends upon the amount of potash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid it con- tains ; the carbonaceous or woody matter being usually in excess of that required by the soil. According to Prof. Lawes, a ton of com- mon barn-yard manure contains 8 lbs. nitrogen, 11 lbs. potash and soda, and 4 lbs. phosphoric acid ; while a ton of manure made from clover hay contains about 20 lbs. nitrogen, 16 lbs. potash and soda, and 5 lbs. phosphoric acid. Nitrogen being confessedly the most valuable element, it will be seen at once how much more valuable is the manure from clover than from straw or other hay. And let it be borne in mind that while it returns so much more to the soil, it takes much less from it, and that while timothy exhausts land al- most as much as a crop of wheat, clover actually benefits it, by ab- sorbing instead of dissipating ammonia. Farmers, 1 believe, do not generally understand this difference. Hence, in selling hay, many prefer to sell the clover because it is " coarse." But when men un- derstand that in selling a ton of clover hay they are parting with what if fed out would be worth $9 to them in manure alone, besides its value as fodder, I think they will decide to feed out their clover and sell some other kind of hay, if any. Perhaps farmers will not believe these figures; but the estimates are made from careful 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 391 analysis, and are no doubt approximately correct. The prices, of course, are based upon the price of artificial manures in England. But let the price of these be what it will, it does not affect the relative value of clover and common barn-yard manure. If a load of the latter, a great part of which is straw, is worth $1, then a load of manure from clover is worth $3.50. Now the clover ploughed under, it would be worth a little more — as there is a loss of about five per cent, in feeding out, which goes to make blood, bone, muscle, &c, in the animal. It has been the practice of many very good farmers in the Mid- dle States for many years to sow clover to plough under ; planting corn or potatoes on the clover sod. This method, when hay and its products, beef, mutton, butter and cheese were cheap, was undoubt- edly a good one. But with present prices and with a scarcity of hay throughout the country every year or two, it seems to me, that now it would be a wasteful practice. I believe a much better way is to cut the clover for hay and return the manure to the soil. Surely the value of the fodder will pay for curing and carting both ways. Or, if one objects to mowing, it may be fed off with fatten- ing sheep — oil cake or meal being fed to them at the same time — against which practice no objection can be raised, that I am aware of. In either case the loss would be trifling, and a good deal of valuable fodder would be saved. The roots, of which there are said to be from 20 to 40 tons to the acre, are of course subject to no loss at all. At present prices it seems bad policy to turn under a good crop of clover. If the crop be a light one, undoubtedly the best way is to depasture it with sheep. In this way the manure is distributed evenly over the ground. Sheep are also popularly sup- posed to manure the ?oil by simply lying upon it; imparting, it is said, nitrogen from the yolk in the wooL It is probable that there is some truth in this idea. At least the heavy rains of spring and fall must wash out portions of the yolk, which is well known to be exceedingly rich in fertilizing properties. However this may be, it is certain that land sown with clover and depastured with sheep be- comes enriched to an extent surprising to those who have not prac- ticed this method. This plan would also save the necessity of turn- ing out sheep in the mowing fields in the fall, to their very great injury — unless covered with an abundant rowen. " But," says one, " my land won't produce clover. It's of no use to sow it — it won't grow." Very true, and reason enough for it. It has been exhausted of the phosphates, and of potash and soda, perhaps, by long continued ■■ 302 THE SOUTHERN [July cropping with potatoes, followed with oats or barley, without ma- nure. At least such is the case with nine-tenths of the land that will not produce clover. But if it will not produce clover, it will not grow anything that will pay expenses of cultivating. In order to start clover upon such lands it will be necessary to use top dress- ing of some kind. On heavy clay soils lime or plaster will often be sufficient. These seem to disintegrate the soil and set free ele- ments that were before locked up and useless. Lime also acts me- chanically, making the soil more porous and less liable to bake; while plaster is supposed to absorb- ammonia from the air. Ashes, I believe, are the most valable top dressing for sandy land where barn-yard manure cannot be obtained. Sown at the rate of from 30 to 50 bushels to the acre, ashes produce a most marked effect upon clover. Last spring I sowed a piece of sandy land, a portion of which had been top dressed with leached ashes the previous sum- mer, for barley, seeding with clover. No other manure was applied. Where the ashes were used the clover came up thick and stout, but where no ashes were used it could hardly be seen. Once get a good stand of clover, and other crops may follow. Perhaps a good and profitable rotation on ordinary loamy soils, would be: 1st, clover sown with top dressing, if needed, on in- verted sod ; 2d, corn or potatoes, with a heavy dressing of barn- yard manure ploughed under in the fall (?); 3d, wheat or barley and clover again. The first crop of clover might be mowed or fed off with, or ploughed under, according to the previous condition of the land. If in good condition enough to produce a fair crop of hay, it might be mowed one or two years before ploughing. This would insure a good supply of roots, and the pulverization of the soil. What we want is to plough the land while the clover is large and vigorous, in order to get the benefit of the immense weight of roots. There is nothing equal to a clover sod for any kind of hoed crop. It is evident that we must sow and grow more clover— not only as a hay crop, but to renovate our worn out fields. It will not do to crop with oats and potatoes, year after year, and then say, " It's of no use to talk about renovating my land with clover; it won't grow.''' It will grow. It may require something to start it; but after that, being what is called a leguminous plant, it will derive its chief nourishment from the air. This is one reason, probably, why plaster acts so beneficially as a simple top dressing, as it is well known that sulphate of lime "fixes" the ammonia, which is being constantly evolved by heat, by fermentation, and perhaps by the growth of plants. Clover also acta mechanically upon the soil — 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 393 sending its long fibrous roots down into the sub-soil, and bringing up fertilizing matter before inaccessible as plant food. In this way it acts both as a disintegrator of the soil and as a conductor of fer- tilizing elements from the lower or sub soil to the surface. Finally, clover is the best and cheapest known eradicator of weeds. Sown liberally upon rich soil, it completely chokes out even the strongest and most noxious of our field weeds — and in this way saves the farmer an incalculable amount of labor. I have written upon this subject at much greater length than I intended when I began — for which, Messrs. Editors, and readers of the Farmer, I beg pardon — hoping that more experienced culti- vators will at some future time write upon this subject. — Young Farmer, in the Maine Farmer. South Norridgewock. The Farmer. A BEAUTIFUL WORK OF NATURE AND ART. Mr. Geo. William Curtis has given to the public the following beautiful picture, recently painted by him while summering at Ash- field, Mass. He calls it "The Farmer." It will undoubtedly be extensively copied throughout the country. He says : But the farmer stands still nearer to Nature, and she is his im- mediate teacher. Nature herself gives him the broad hints of his art. The sun warms the earth; the winds sift it and dry it; roots loosen it ; the dew and showers moisten it ; the dead leaves and birds manure it. But this is only a vague suggestion. So the wind draws imperfect sounds from the strings of a harp. But presently man, the master, comes, and sweeping the strings with knowledge, he pours out a melody which becomes the hymn of na- tions. And so the farmer, following the hint of nature, is the mas- ter musician who touches the landscape with skillful art, and plays a tune of peace and plenty all over the globe. Behold, then, the splendid scene of his labors. Sunrise and morning, the moon after the sun as the echo follows music; granite hills enchanted by distance into rosy clouds, drifting along the horizon — groves, pastures, rivers, blooming fields ; the song of a thousand birds, the hue of innumerable flowers ; the rustle of leaves, the hum of insects marking the changing months with vary- ing sound ; the breeze that whispers and the wind that roars ; the unfailing procession of the seasons circling through the heavens — all that is grandest and most graceful, tenderest and most terrible 394 THE SOUTHERN [July, in nature are his familiar associations. He learns by experience •what science constantly discloses, that there is nothing useless or superfluous in nature. "The whole," as old George Herbert sang: " The whole is either his cupboard of food, Or cabinet of pleasure." But while this is the magnificence of his workshop, see .also the direct moral influence of his toil. The earth in which he works is just and honest. If the farmer sow wheat the ground does not re- turn him sugar-cane. If he transplant carelessly the tree, like a neglected child, will pine and die. If he plant potatoes and shirk hoeing, the weeds will shirk dying and the potatoes will shirk grow- ing. If he be stingy of manure, his fields will be equally stingy of crops. Thus the eternal sincerity of nature giving him peas for peas and beans for beans ; fair crops for patient industry and weeds for idleness, passes into his character, and he does not send his bar- rels of apples to market with all the large fruit on top, nor sell a horse wih blind staggers to a man who paid for a sound animal. So the necessities and fatigues of a work that can be done only by daylight call the farmer with the sun in the morning and the morning star in winter, send him early to bed and teach him regu- larity. Then as by his ceaseless toil he counts out, in blows of his arm and drops of sweat, every hundred cents in every dollar he earns — every penny stands for so much time and muscle, and thus he learns economy. With economy comes frugality and temper- ance, and so upon the farm grow the hardy virtues, like tough trees upon the rough mountain-side, and so the ideal farmer is the strong, robust, simple, sensible, truly conservative citizen, and as the spec- tator sees him standing crowned with content in the midst of his rural realm, he asks, as the poor clergyman asked his richer bro- ther, as they walked through the rich minister's magnificent estate: " What, Brother Dives, all this and Heaven too?" But look once more at a still finer spiritual result of the condi- tions of the farmer's life than any of these. See what pains he wisely takes to secure a perfect fruit. How cautiously he import 8 and examines the stock ; how sagaciously he grafts and buds ; how he hides the tree from the frost and nurses it in the sun ; how he ponders and studies the habits and diseases of that fruit ; how he toils to surround himself with perfect trees, that he may walk in the garden of the Hesperides whenever he goes into his own orchard. At last he plucks the pear in triumph. It is the glory of the fair. The dimensions of that fruit fly round the world by telegraph, over 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 395 the land and under the sea. It is photographed, engraved and de- scribed in a hundred horticultural papers and magazines ; the mouth of the public waters for that pear, and it bears the name of the happy grower forever. Is that all ? Is there nothing more ? Look ! Not yet has the farmer reaped all his harvest of success, nor tasted the finest flavor of his fruit. But when walking under his trees in the cool of the day, God meets him in the thoughts of his mind — for when a man thinks a lofty thought it is as if God met him — and says to him, " You are a tree in my garden of the world, and if you sought the sweet fruit of character and a noble life, as carefully as you trim and water and bud to produce a pear, the world would be again what it was when I walked in Eden," then the farmer has learned the last lesson of his calling as at all other human pursuits, for he perceives that as a tree produces a flower not for the sake of the flower, but for the seed which the flower covers, and which will reproduce the tree — so it is not the wheat, though it grew a thousand bushels to the acre, nor the pears, al- though a single one would feast the country, but it is the manhood and moral development of the farmer himself, wrought out by per- petual contact with the beautiful processes of nature, which is the crop of lasting value that grows upon his farm, a crop whose har- vest is human happiness. * * * New York Evening Mail. 11 Knowledge is Power," The best capital with which a young man can start life is a sound and well cultivated mind. We hear a good deal in this utilitarian age about safe investments, and insurance against loss, but know- ledge, the wealth of a well-stored and disciplined mind, is the safest investment of time and money, and the wisest insurance against the misfortunes and difficulties which we have to encounter in the tug and tussle of life. But the great effort of the mass of mankind seems to be to secure the material blessings of life, even at the ex- pense of intellectual and moral nature, and to protect them against the disasters of change and chance by all the safeguards which the ingenuity of human invention can devise. Men spend toilsome days and nights to heap up riches for others to enjoy; to leave a princely dowry for profligate sons to squander in the beastly grati- fication of depraved tastes and appetites, or after having clutched and hoarded their money bags to the very last inch of time, with affected generosity, to rear up a monumental pile of bricks and mortar for the promotion of some educational or benevolent object, 396 THE SOUTHERN [July in order to gloss over the stains of a mean and niggardly^life. In the constant fluctuation of material values, and amid the financial and political shocks, which are ever and anon convulsing society, all mere pecuniary investments are Table to be swept away by these disastrous convulsions. Few indeed are the safeguards around property, which can stand the tide of social and political revolu- tion. Banks and other corporations may break and stocks become worthless ; bills of exchange may be protested ; men may become bankrupt, and private obligations be repudiated ; in fact all the representatives of material value, like an unsubstantial frostwork, may vanish under the touch of the demon change, and utter finan- cial ruin sweep over society ; but the man who has a mind strength- ened by constant exercise and filled with gems of thought, gleaned from the treasure-house of ages, and a will which quails before no opposition, has a store of wealth which is unaffected by all the mis- fortunes which overwhelm more sordid things, and is panoplied in an armor that can defy disaster, and win success amid the wreck and ruin of all other sources of power. Let it be the first aim, then, of every young man to secure a thorough education, and hay- ing done this, he will then be qualified to take any position which circumstances may offer, and thoroughly prepared to enter with courage the great arena of life. Knowledge is in truth the lever, for which the Grecian philosopher longed, by which the world is moved. And that father who wears out the machinery of life in heaping up wealth for his children, while their intellectual and moral culture is neglected, is sadly blind to their truest interests, and thoroughly insensible to all the nobler emotions of man's na- ture. I know no truer object of pity than the man whose pleasures are purely material; who has no aesthetic aspirations and joys, but who surrounds himself with the base and sordid things of earth, and seeks his enjoyment in these alone. Such a man is ill-prepared to breast the tide of misfortune, and when disaster comes and sweeps away these groveling means of enjoyment, he stands, like a blasted tree, stricken by the lightnings of heaven, the poorest and most miserable of all the sons of men, being cursed with the double pov- erty of mind and estate. — H., in the Deaf Mate Casket. A correspondent of the Rural World has a very good opinion of the Harrison potato. He thinks it more even in size than the peach blow, and that it looks better and tastes better, and is seldom hollow inside. He also says the potatoes lie in a bunch in the hill. 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 397 Mr. G. C. Gilmer Working out his Problem. Messrs. Editors, — Your May No. contains an assurance from Mr. G. C. Gilmer that he is in a fair way of working out his theory of fanning, published in May No., and reviewed in June, 1868, by his "'Friend Ficklin." These opinions are assuming a serious form, since they are re-as- serted as a whole, and liable to make converts to a theory it will require several years to test; and should failure ensue, it will fall heavily on the class of struggling farmers to whom his system is most applicable. He carries his eggs in too few baskets, and lets go his hold on mixed husbandry, avoids stock, and works but "two plough- men" as a regular force and other hands as "a frolic in busy sea- sons." Now, four hands on a six hundred acre farm is his practice, and to do all the work the year round. One of these hands is his manager, who tells his sanguine employer that "he has conquered the bushes, broom-straw and briars in the field on which he had at- tacked them, and, with his present force, in three years more he could bury the last member of these unsightly and unprofitable pests." Stick a pin here. Mr. G. assumes, on his own responsibility, that he will cultivate his 600 acres of open land better and cheaper with this force than he formerly did with 22 slaves ; if better, then he is wonderfully reconstructed and improved by new examples of industry and thrift around him. With this increased leverage of 4 against 22 hands, he proposes " to put in 10 to 15 acres in corn certainly, not over 20," and give his four hands time "to devote to fencing, clearing up, ditching, picking up rocks," &c, for seeding rye and wheat in the fall. Why rye instead of wheat ? Mr. G. theorizes what is best suited to a large body of farmers, and if they adopt his policy, who is to raise the excess of corn needed in the country around him ? who to raise stock and give employment to all others than the few magieal hands to be had of the class he employs ? and who will send grist to his mill that enables him to live and raise but garden spots of corn ? How much ? — tell, Mr. G. And if your neighbors curtail in corn as you do, how much must you add to your crop to make up the toll from others ? Are you not, Mr. G., breeding from four fine mares, and had you not better increase your stock of cattle and sheep to assist in de- stroying the sassafras, sedge, briars and pests in their season, and some of your excess of forage in winter and early spring, as well as hogs to eat what excess of corn you ought to raise, since the latter 398 THE SOUTHERN [July produces bacon worth now 20 to 25 cents, equal to an average of 15 cents for pork ? Lastly, Mr. G., tell us how the "100 acres in yard, barn, garden and truck patches" are managed "to pay," and favor us occasion- ally with reports how your theory is working out, and particularly your results from your farm, and which of the many fertilizers you are trying has done most towards these results. F. Agriculture. THE BEST FARMER IN THE COUNTY. The name of the county is not material, nor would the honest, industrious man who is generally admitted to beat all his neighbors in the quantity of his crops, and the general excellence of his til- lage, be pleased to see his name paraded before the great public. He lives about twenty-five miles from Philadelphia, and the fortieth degree of latitude is very near his north line. His area is a little over 200 acres. More than a hundred years ago, when Benjamin Franklin was the most conspicuous citizen and the ablest editor on this continent, the ancestor of our hero came hither from Wales. In the quaintness of those colonial days he spelled his name with a double-f and double-o. His son took the clearing, and pushed the ring fence of old oak and walnut further and further from the cen- ter. His son succeeded, and his son and his son, to the present generation. Now these ancestral acres are hallowed by the labors of a pedigree of farmers who all followed in the footsteps of one general father, earning their bread and making the bread for many other mouths by honest sweat, and wearing to their coffins the bronzed face and the calloused hands. The soil is a light clay loam, so admixed with sand as not to hold water except on two or three low places that have been thoroughly tile-drained. There is not a stone, nor a stump, nor a log, a clump of bushes, or a nest of weeds on the place. The whole area comes under the ploughshare once in four or five years. The general sur- face of the region is level, but on this place are two swells, very moderate indeed, not worth noticing by one accustomed to hills, yet just sufficient to allow good drainage. We mention these details because there are thousands and thousands of such farms all over the great West — farms that could be made just as productive and as profitable. The average American farm is nearly 200 acres, and as the art of agriculture is now understood and practiced, this is the best size for regular tillage husbandry, such as the best 1889.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 399 farmer in the county carries on. As this statement will not be re- ceived by some, and as it is wide of the catch words, " Ten Acre3 Enough," we will give a few reasons for the faith that is in us : 1. Except in the vicinity of cities, where the manure of great sta- bles and breweries can be obtained, the profit of farming must de- pend on the use of yard composts. The quantity of this must de- pend on the number of animals kept, its strength on the quantity of rich food which they consume. The same attendance and labor will feed and fatten the animals on a two hundred acre farm that would be required on a hundred acre farm. 2. In the improved condition of all farm tools, it will not pay to use poor, old-fashioned implements. The progressive farmer will have the best ; they cost several hundred dollars, and when bought they will do the work on 200 acres as well as 100. 3. On a large farm the fields are larger, the roads longer, not so many bouts, headlands, fence-corners, and dead furrows. If the farmer's methods are good and his thinking sound, it costs no more to spread it over a larger area. If a man can plan well for a good crop of wheat from 20 acres, he can plan as well for 40, 60, or 80 acres. On the other hand, when a farm is much over 200 acres in area, there will arise a grave difficulty in harvesting grain and grass at precisely the right time. The more acres one has down, the more dependent he becomes on the weather, the more risky and specula- tive becomes the business of agriculture. This farm is divided into fields of not over fifty acres, nor none less than fifteen. Many interior fences he has removed, and more might be. His general plan is to have about fifty acres in grass. After cutting three or four crops, of about 2J tuns per acre, he turns the sod under in April and plants corn. In a few cases he allows corn to follow corn, but not often. The upturned sod is fur- ther enriched with yard manure, which is well harrowed in, the harrow teeth being small and short, so as not to disturb the sod. When the season is a good one he gets 70 bushels to an acre, and sometimes 80, but these are exceptions. On a rich soil like his, in this climate, the tendency of corn is to run to stalk, and his diffi- culty is never to get it to grow tall, but to make the ears corres- pond to the bigness of the stalk. Here is one of the unsolved prob- lems in our tillage. One might suppose it easy to lift an acre from a capacity of 60 to 80 bushels in corn by extra doses of manure, just as it can be raised from 40 to 60. But let the farmer try. If 400 THE SOUTHERN [July the season suits he will get corn stalks that run up like fishing rods. Some of the tallest will have no ears at all, others 12 or 15 feet high will give one nubbin eight feet from the ground. With fifty acres in grass and fifty in corn, our farmer has one hundred left for pasturage, roots and small grain. Most cultivators would allow thirty or forty for pasturage ; he does not. This year he has nearly fifty acres in wheat, fifteen in rye, and will put in fifteen acres of potatoes. Like Mr- Mechi, he believes in the plough, and would not keep wide reaches of old sod. Of wheat he raises from 18 to 25 bushels per acre. In this great cereal we have another unsolved problem. Any good farmer will say that by using more manure he can get a ranker growth of blade and stem, but his bushels will not be increased in proportion ; for the crop will begin to lodge by the middle of June, and half of it may be flat by harvest. Are these difficulties with our grand cereals — the bars that so often stop the corn grower at 60 bushels and the wheat. grower at 25 bushels per acre — are they the work of climate, of shallow ploughing, of the unskillful application of manures, or bad sowing? Our farmer un- derstands potatoes, and can make an acre bring him $300. Like all cultivators of rich level surfaces, he has the rot to contend with. Of the many varieties he has found the peach blow the most popu- lar in market, and the best late potato. He plants about three feet apart each way, and cuts his seed small, so as to allow but one or two vines to a hill. When the shoots are fairly out of the ground he throws a furrow from each side so as to cover them. The potato is such a hardy and vigorous grower that it will push out from this shallow burial and so outstrip the weeds as to gain and keep posses- sion of the surface. He never has use for the hoe, and never ma- nures in the hill for potatoes. If it were not for the rot this crop alone would soon make him rich. He is planting the Harrison this year, well aware of its inferiority as a table potato, but he hopes with this new and vigorous variety to elude his enemy for two or three years. His sales have been of potatoes, hay, corn, wheat, rye, and rye straw, pork, and fat cattle. Experience is showing him the advantage of feeding out most or all of his hay and corn to fattening animals, and parting with no vegetable products of the surface but wheat and potatoes. Such is without doubt his true policy, and he would have been driven in that direction much sooner had there not been, at the edge of his farm, an inexhaustible bed of marl as rich in potash as wood ashes. This fertilizer he has used freely for twenty or thirty years, but of late the conviction is forced upon him that marl has made his land as rich as marl alone I860.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 401 can make it. Quite likely. A highly productive soil contains three or four important substances, such as potash, lime, ammonia, phosphorus. The first of these, potash, he gets in abundance when he applies marl; but for the active, concentrated fertilizers, that make the deep green blade, the long ear, and the heavy head, he must look to rich stable manure, to bone dust, and to guano. White oak is choice timber for a cart wheel, but ten cords of the best oak that ever grew, without iron for the bolts and tires, would not do the farmer as much good as a fourth of a cord with the iron. Just so of potash manures. Alone they cannot carry lands to the high- est productiveness. Let us calculate how far this excellent farmer, with his 200 he- reditary acres, benefits society. It will illustrate the fundamental value and worth of the ploughman. His wheat crops made into flour supply 200 mouths annually with white bread. His potatoes feed 300 persons a year at the rate at which this tuber is usually consumed in families. . If the grass he grows were changed to milk, it would supply 300 persons; changed to beef, it would feed 60 persons. His corn transmuted to pork would give 200 consumers full annual rations. Why should the man who can do this aspire to the . degradations of local or of national politics? Why hanker after the gambling uncertainties of traffic? Why rasp his temper between the endless chafing of other men's quarrels? — J. B. L., in New York Times. Rye fop early Green Food. The importance of a supply of green feed for stock in the Spring, is very often realized at that time, but generally overlooked at the proper season of preparing for it. Experienced graziers know the value of an early bite. Cattle, horses, and all stock thrive faster for an early supply of green food. Youatt says of the horse: " The Spring grass is the best physic that can be given to a horse. To a degree which no artificial aperient or diuretic can reach, ifc carries off every humor that may be lurking about the animal. It fines down the roughness of the legs, and except there be some bony enlargement, restores them to their original form and strength." To horses that cannot conveniently have a run at grass, it is especially important that a supply of green food be duly provided for. There is no plant which so readily offers a supply of this as rye, and we suggest the sowing of a lot either for early pasturage or for vol. m — 26 402 THE SOUTHERN [July cutting. It will afford a good cutting full two weeks before the clover, and so far as we know the use of it is attended with no ill effects. One of the most successful farmers we ever knew was in the habit of sowing rye in rich lots, chiefly for Spring grazing. If seeded in September, the plant becomes firmly rooted, and affords a great amount of herbage during March and April, until the clover is large enough to graze, and if the stock is then taken off, the yield of grain will be almost as good as if the crop had not been grazed. A light rich loam is the best soil for rye. It makes a good growth of straw on ground not fit to be put in wheat. But the richer the better of course for a good yield. We would sow not less than a bushel of seed, when intended chiefly for grazing or cut- ting. Sow early in September. — Rural Minnesotian. The Relations of Plants to their Food. The agriculturist who would obtain the largest results from a given expenditure of time, labor, money and material, should not content himself with the mere knowledge of the nature and charac- ter of the food required for each crop he cultivates, but should also make himself familiar with the physiological action of the growing plant itself upon the various agents presented to it by the soil, ma- nure, the air and the rain. Ignorance in this particular will lead to as ridiculous errors as that of the self-conceited correspondent of a British provincial newspaper, who having in some way or other acquired the information that nitrogenous matter was the basis of the formation of all the tissues of the body, immediately rushed into print with a furious denunciation of the extravagant habit of using bread and meat to support animal life. " What we want," said he, " is nitrogen. Why, then, adopt as the sources of nitro- gen, materials which are so expensive, and which contain so much extraneous matter?" He then went into a calculation of the amount of nitrogen contained in the ordinary articles of human food, and triumphantly contrasted it with the quantity which an equal weight of Peruvian guano would supply. He then calculated the relative cost of these two varieties of nitrogenous materials, and indignantly demanded why so valuable a source of supply of the inevitable waste of living tissue had been so long neglected ? He also cited numerous statistical arguments to prove the enormous saving which would result from feeding the inhabitants of the Brit- 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 403 ish islands on guano soup, instead of those ancient dainties so dear to every British stomach, roast beef and plum pudding. Of course it is easy to laugh at the ignorance of this reform in gastronomy, and to point out the glaring errors of his theory. But is it any less absurd to undertake to feed a plant without know- ing in what form it appropriates its food, and how it disposes of it when once introduced into its organism ? Much has yet to be dis- covered in reference to this matter ; but enough is already known to give important practical hints to those who will master truths already acquired, and who will add to their number by careful ob- servations of their own. Every one knows that there is a great diversity in the appetites of plants, some being what are commonly termed gross feeders, while others are known as moderate in this respect. Much de- pends, of course, upon the duration of the plant's life, and upon the size it attains at maturity. A large, succulent, rapidly ^growing plant like corn or tobacco, will, of course, demand more food in a given time than a smaller vegetable, which takes a longer time to reach maturity. The existence of a plant is dependent upon the time it takes to form and ripen its seed, perennials being left out of consideration. Some of our little spring flowers shoot up, expand their blooms and ripen their seed within a few days. Their task in the world being accomplished, nothing is left them but to fade and perish. Others require the entire summer for their maturity, while others again need the influences of two seasons to complete their existence. It is not our intention at present to enter into a consideration of the varieties of nutrition dependent upon these varying vital condi- tions, but rather to call attention to certain facts which bear upon all varieties of growth. Every one knows that the young leaf in the spring manifests its greatest activity during the earlier periods of its existence. Chemical examination shows the same fact. Chemical activity is always proportioned — every thing else be- ing equal— to the solubility of the agents reacting upon one an- other. In the ashes of the young leaves of the beach we find 30 per cent, of potash, while in the same leaves withering in the au- tumn blasts, but 1 per cent, remains. So, too, phosphoric acid, which existed in the proportion of 24 per cent, in the spring, has fallen to 2 per cent, in the fall. The insoluble materials, on the other hand, greatly increase as the leaf grows larger. The truth is, the earlier part of the existence of any plant is oc- cupied in preparations for the future. For example, the turnip, 404 THE SOUTHERN [July immediately after sprouting, devotes its energies for half the period of its growth chiefly to the production of leaves. At the end of sixty-seven days, the turnip crop, according to Anderson's experi- ments, had formed twelve thousand, seven hundred and ninety- three pounds of leaves, and two thousand, seven hundred and sixty- two pounds of roots. At the end of the next twenty days, the leaves weighed nineteen thousand, two hundred pounds, while the roots weighed fourteen thousand, four hundred pounds. In thirty-five days more the crop was gathered, and weighed eleven thousand, two hundred and eight pounds of leaves, and thirty-six thousand, seven hundred and ninety-two pounds of roots. Of course it will be understood that these figures all represent equal areas of the same field, cultivated in the same manner. The point to which w r e wish to call attention is, that during the last period of growth there has been a reduction of the actual weight of the leaves, due to a transference of already elaborated material from the leaf to the root. We thus see that the turnip, during the early and more vig- orous stages of its growth, has expended its energies in laying up and organizing nourishment in the leaf, which is afterward carried back to the root. This is no exceptional case. All plants have experiences more or less simlilar. Thus winter wheat spends much of its early vege- tative power in developing strong roots, at the expense of its young leaves. Indeed, it has been observed in the fox-hunting districts of England, that a field trampled by horses in the winter, so as to leave scarcely any wheat visible, he.s produced far more grain at harvest than another not subjected to so rough a system of im- provement. It is plain, then, that as a general rule it is the duty of the agri- culturist to see that, at the beginning of their growth, his young crops shall be abundantly supplied with soluble plant food. There are, of course, some exceptions to this rule, which need not be here considered. The young plant needs a very full supply of food ; first, because, as we have already seen, it is busy for the future as well as for the present ; and secondly, because its roots being small and weak, it cannot go far in search of nutriment, but must find it on the very spot on which they are growing. A crop well started by a judicious supply of soluble manure, will grow vigorously, and maintain the advantage thus secured to the very end of the season. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of insuring to the young crop a rapid and active growth at the beginning. More roots are formed, and they are pushed farther through the soil. 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 405 More leaves and stem rise into the air, and consequently a far more energetic appropriation of the atmospheric constituents of the grow- ing plant becomes possible. Indeed, the strong, healthy plant is able to rob its weaker neighbor of the nourishment universally dis- tributed throughout the atmosphere itself. — Baltimore Leader, Hints on the Cultivation and Management of Tobacco. Messrs. Editors, — Some time ago I promised to give you my no- tion about raising Tobacco, and now proceed to fulfill my engage- ment. And first, I will speak of PLANTS. There is no such thing as raising tobacco profitably without early plants, and yet if earlier than the first of June they will be sure to make narrow leaf tobacco. In selecting my plant land, I prefer to do it in July, for the next year, and choose a valley detached from any field, facing the southeast, on which is a growth of whortle- berry and some ivy. I cut off the bushes and timber, but let the leaves and litter remain, and manure it heavily with the best ma- nure I can get. I prefer cow manure, collected in May, and piled under a shelter to protect it from rain. This has fewer grass seeds in it than any other manure. Tobacco stalks answer very well. A little before, or as soon after Christmas as the weather will permit, I take off the leaves and other litter, and if I think there is grass seed that has not germinated, I cover the bed with dry brush, if to be had, putting the leaves on the brush, and burn them ; then with grubbing hoes sunk in the ground as deep as pos- sible, giving the handle a wrench, I loosen the ground, but not so as to bring the clay to the top ; I then chop with sharp hoes, take off the rocts, and prepare for sowing the seed. I prefer not to sow the seed until the 25th February, and then sow about half the quantity of seed (a table-spoonfull is common,) on every hun- dred square yards ; a little before I think the seed is sprouting, I sow the other half spoonfull, and tread without raking. . If the first sowing come up well, the second does not molest the first. Thin sowing yields more plants than thick. I prefer to tread when some of the dirt will stick to the feet ; the plants grow better trod then than when the ground is dry. When the plants are large enough, I plant, but would much pre- fer to set them out when the land is in good order to work ; if set out when the land is too wet, the plants do not thrive well ; if set out early in the season, and they are large, or if set out in 40G THE SOUTHERN [July the evening, and there comes rain on them before they wilt or lap from the sun, they are apt to be narrow leafed; but this may be altered by running a coalter on each side, so as to make them wilt or lap ; then it will take a broader growth. When tobacco is cut and it rains on it so as to make it strut, and the stems turn upward, unless this be corrected the stems will rot, and the quality of the tobacco is, of course, much injured by it ; the leaf on each side of the stem loses nearly all the quality of to- bacco, and is hard to get soft enough to strip ; if the stem be soft enough not to break, the leaf is too soft. When tobacco gets in that state, the best remedy I know of is to re-cut it. Some years past I had a scaffold of tobacco strutted as above. About 12 o'clock I went to it and re-cut one stick; an hour after I went to it; the stems of what I had cut were soft and hung down straight. I then re-cut all on the scaffold. Before night all the stems were soft and tough, and it cured well, having no appearance of ever having been strutted. Since then I have re-cut all that were strutted with good result. Charles Brown. Albemarle, Va., June 14, 1869. [Our octogenarian friend, who has favored us with the above arti- cle, prefers to select the ground for growing his plants in this month for his next year's crop of tobacco. For this reason his suggestions are seasonable to those who may desire to adopt his plan for regu- lating their future practice. — Eds. S. P. & F.] Disappointment in Swedes and Germans as Laborers. Messrs. Editors, — I feel it to be a duty I owe to brother farmers to give, through your valuable paper, my experience with regard to white labor. Much has been said and written on the subject, which amounts to nothing more than mere opinions. I propose to give you naked facts, leaving the reader to draw his own inferences. In the Fall of 1868, through the medium of the Newberry Immi- gration Society, I ordered from New York three white single labo- rers. On the 20th November three stout red-faced Swedes arrived at my farm. I put them to work at once in chopping and splitting rails. They performed admirably ; so well, indeed, that I ordered a Swede family from New York. (We always have to advance about twenty dollars to pay traveling expenses of each emigrant from New York, including the continued expenses of the Society.) On the 30th of December I received a "splendid" Swede family, as the agent called them, but really as mean and degraded, es- 1869.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 40T pecially the woman, as the lowest order of free negroes. I kept them until the 3d of April, when I discharged them, after losing up- wards of one hundred dollars on them. The first three determined to go to Chicago, and on the 25th of January also left me, minus several dollars. I have never seen or heard of a people who eat so much as the Swedes. If a man has to feed them to the extent of their wants, and is not strong in purse, they would ruin him, even if he allowed no wages. I concluded next to try Germans. On the 12th of February three good looking specimens came on my farm. They did very well for a while. One of them, however, turned out to be crazy, and I had to send him off, losing his traveling expenses. (I have heard of another crazy one in our district.) The other two staid and did tolerably well until the sun commenced shining warm. They loved the shade ; would stop ploughing or hoeing, take a rail off the fence and put it across from one pannel to the other, and sit down, and if I didn't show myself they did not work near as much as the freed- man on the same place. I finally told them they must work better, or I could not pay them ten dollars per month and board, as I was then doing. They proposed to leave, and with my full consent they departed the 12th of June. While in my service, they staid in my own house, ate at my table, and fared as I did. I am now done with white labor. This Immigration Society in New York sends to us (down South) the offscouring of the earth — penitentiary birds and lunatics out of their asylums. There have been a great many immigrants brought to this district, very few of whom have been worth their board. I think this immigration busi- ness one of the grandest humbugs of the day. H. D. B. Newberry, S. C, June 14, 18G9. Several English gentlemen who went last September to Virgi- nia to spend some time in hunting in the Blue Ridge, were so de- lighted with the country that they purchased a large tract of land on the Manassas railroad, near Gainesville. A colony of English will settle on the land in the spring. A correspondent of an exchange advises American farmers to adopt the rule of many English farmers — that is, never to allow two white straw crops, such as wheat, oats, barley and rye to follow each other. 408 THE SOUTHERN July, Fertilizers in North Carolina. A committee of the State Agricultural Society of North Caro- lina, appointed "to investigate the subject of producing fertilizers in this State, for sale to the farmers of the State at fair remune- rating prices," addressed to the State Geologist, W. C. Kerr, Esq., a letter, stating that "the*object of the Society is, first, to ascertain "whether the materials exist out of which fertilizers can be manufac- tured; secondly, to ascertain whether they can be produced in such quantity and form as to compensate the manufacturer and remune- rate the farmer," and asking any information he might find leisure to give them on the subject. To this letter Mr. Kerr made the following reply : Raleigh, June 10, 1868. Geo. W. Whitfield, Esq., Eon. D. 31. Barringer, Col John L. Bridgers, Committee, &c.: Gentlemen, — I have not yet had time to give the subject of your communication the attention which its importance demands, having been wholly occupied with the survey of the Western section of the State. It is my purpose, in a few months, after completing the examination of that region, to take up, in detail, the study of the marls of the eastern counties, and, in connection with them, to discuss the whole subject of our resources of fertilization in this State, and the best methods of utilizing them. But it has occurred to me that it might be worth while, preliminarily, to call the atten- tion of your Committee and of the Agricultural Society to some general considerations which must direct and limit our investiga- tions and experiments in this direction. "Without going into the general subject of manures and the theory of their action upon the soil, it will be sufficient to state in general, that the principal problem of practical agriculture in our State and region is, how to restore and maintain the supply of lime and humus in our soils. This is so, partly because these are among the most important ingredients, and, at the same time, the most liable to exhaustion, and partly because, whatever method is adopted of supplying these, the other exhaustible elements are also restored incidentally. The methods of supplying humus are mainly two : First, the ploughing in of green crops ; and, second, the direct addition of it in the form of stable manure, peat, muck, &c. Lime may be restored directly, as lime, or in the form of marl or 1869,] PLANTER AND FARMER. 409 gypsum. And, still better, either or both of these may be com- posted with the peat, &c. Since the process of improving soils by ploughing in green crops, however advisable, will not readily nor speedily be adopted by our farmers, and since the quantity of stock in our region is and must long remain utterly inadequate to furnish a supply of stable ma- nure, it is important to inquire whether there are other available sources of supply. The immense peat beds of our coast region will at once occur to you as capable of furnishing unlimited quan- tities for an indefinite period. In fact, there is enough to supply for one hundred years every acre of cultivated land within ten miles of a railroad or navigable river. As for lime, of course the marl-beds of the same region furnish an inexhaustible supply. The manufacture of lime for agricultural purposes ought to become at once a large and lucrative business. The soils of a very large proportion of the State being of granitic origin, are generally very deficient in this most important element. It might be supplied to a large part of the eastern and middle sec- tions of the State from the marls near the coast, which are often almost pure limestone. This is one manufacture your Society would do well to ecourage. As to the matter of transportation of peat and marl to consid- erable distances, I have no doubt that much might profitably be done in that way. Peat, air-dried, loses from § to f of its weight. The marls of the coast are in many places rich onough in fertilizing ingredients, phosphates, potash, &c, to bear transportation (and where they are not, they might, in some cases, be concentrated by simple mechanical means) over large districts, along the rivers in whose banks they abound, and on the line of the railroads, as is done so extensively in New Jersey. But this is not the enterprise which I propose for your considera- tion. It is the utilization of these materials, together with the waste from the fisheries of the sounds and rivers of the same sec- tion, for the manufacture of a manipulated manure which may be profitably transported over the whole State by water and rail. These fisheries, as you are aware, furnish thousands of tons of refuse and offal annually, which are now little better than thrown away. Consider the composition of these materials : The marls contain, besides lime, which is the principal ingredient, iron, magnesia, phosphate of lime and organic matter, and some of them, also, pot- ash and soda. 84.1 per cent. 2 u u 1 a u 4.2 a me of the articles are spicy ; all are entertaining ; but we are particularly struck with the un-gloved style in which Miss Olive Logan handles modern theatricals, and " The Nude Woman Ques- tion." We do not admire Miss Logan, or her Woman's Suffrage doctrines, but she certainly deals the " Black Crook," " White Fawn," and all such, most telling blows, and we trust she will continue to " fight it out on that line, if it takes all summer." The Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal. The June number of this valuable scientific monthly gives evidence that it is well sustained. Its pages are enriched by the best medical t.ilent of the whole country, and no practicing physician — especially in the South, West, or Southwest — should fail to send $5 to Dr. E. S. Gaillard, Louisville, Ky., and become a subscriber. Peters' Musical Monthly is a very pleasant monthly visitor, and our lady friends should send for a copy. The new music obtained in twelve numbers should be worth the subscription price — $3 per annum. Address J. L. Peters, publisher, 198 Broadway, New York. The Reconstructed Farmer. A monthly magazine of 32 pages, published at Tarborough, N. C, by James R. Thigpen and John S. Dancy. It is gotten up very neatly, and is of a prepossessing appearance. It is well filled with se- lected and original matter adapted to the necessities of the times. We wish for it a career of usefulness and prosperity commensurate with the ability and enterprise with which it is manifestly conducted. TJie American Artisan. This useful journal, devoted to the interests of Ar- tisans, Manufacturers, Inventors, &c, after an interval of some weeks, is again restored to its former regularity of appearance on our exchange table. Pub- lished by Brown, Combs & Co., 189 Broadway, New York. Monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture for May and June, 1869. This interesting cereal contains " a condensed statement of the growing crops, and articles upon Steam Ploughing in New Jersey and Louisiana; Fruit Culture on the Mississippi Rapids ; Progress of Nebraska ; Value of Sewage Deposits ; Land Drainage in California ; Wheat Culture in Virginia, &c. * * * Agricultural Exports ; Live Stock at Chicago; British Wheat; Imports and British Wool Exports ; together with Meteorological Tables and Notes on the weather for the months of April and May, and a variety of Extracts from the Correspondence of the Department," by J. R. Dodge, Statistician. The Manufacturer and Builder is a very handsome quarto of 32 pages, issu- ed monthly in the interest of Manufacturers and Builders, at the low price of $1.50 yearly, or sold by the single copy at 15 cents.