■ 



Subscription $2 Per Annum m Advance. 



TO CEUBS OF FIVE OR MORE, $1.75 EACH. 



EST A.BH,XSHI±:r> IlsT 1840 



L. R. DICKINSON Editor and Proprietor 



THIS SOUTHERN - 




DEVOTED TO 



Apiculture, Horticulture, anil Rial Affairs. 



RICHMOND. VA. 



OCTOBER, 1818. 



No. 10. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Page 



Col. Washington's Reply to Dr. 
Ellzey on the Analysis of Ma- 
nures 

A Word to Dr. Ellzey and Colonel 
Washington 

My Experience in Wheat Culture in 
1878 

One Bushel Per Acre 

Hard Times and the Remedy 

Irish Potatoes 

Thin Seeding of Wheat 

Experiments of R. Barton Haxall, 
Esq., as to Best Varieties of 
Wheat 

"The Ending of Hard Times''..!... 

Letter from Governor Wm. Smith. 

Seeding of Wheat 

Gas-House Lime 

Thiu Seeding of Wheat 

Success in Raising Chickens 



525 

532 

533 
534 

585 
536 

537 



538 
539 
540 
541 
542 
548 
545 



Raising Poultry in England 546 

Stock Department 547 

The Address of Dr. Southall ; Goat- 
Suckers; The Value of Manure 
from Different Feeding Stuff; 
Norfolk, Va., as a Shipping 
Point for Live Stock; Items. 

Editorial— Farm and Garden 557 

Fruit Prospects of Virginia 562 

The Hog 563 

Dr. Pollard's Valuation of Fertili- 
zers °'0 

Home Department..... 572 

Editorial Generai 574 

The State Fair ; A Special Word in 
Reference to the Tobacco Tax ; 
The Tuckahoe Farmers' Club ; 
Bendover; "Thistlewood" ; Mis- 
cellaneouo. 




Average 

Annual Production of 

Old Factory, 

Previous to 1873, 

3,000 Tons. 

Manufactured 

and Sold in 1877, 

Over 14,000 Tons. 



SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME. 



MANUFACTURED BY THE 



Atlantic and Tirginia Ferlzini Co. 

AT THEIR FACTORY AS ENLARGED AND IMPROVED IN 1875-76. 

NEAR ORIENT, L. I. 

Present Manufacture Exceeds 1,500 Tons Monthly, and this year will 
Probably Exceed 18,000 Tons. 



The standard manure continues to grow in popularity wherever it has been in- 
troduced, and is now the leading fertilizer in many sections of Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. We have already pub- 
lished many thousand certificates, proving its superiority whenever fairly tested 
by the side of other fertilizers, on Tobacco, Corn, Wheat, Cotton, and Vegeta- 
bles of all kinds, as well as on the succeeding crops of Clover and Grass. And 
its merits are now so well known, that any planter or farmer who has never used 
it, can easily ascertain about it from some of his neighbors, or obtain the name 
of some friend who has used it, from the Euheka agent near him. 

It never -finis to give entire satisfaction whenever there is a fair season, and 
this accounts for the rapid increase in its manufacture and sale as stated above: 
Tnis iiicrense is very good evidence that it is the best and cheapest fertilizer in 
the market. 

OFFICES: 

No. 52 Broadway, New York. 

Nos. 6 and 7 Crenshaw's Patrons' Warehouse, Eichmond, Va. 

No. 5 P. O. Avenue, Baltimore, Md. 

3So. 27 King Street, Alexandria, Virginia. 

J&S& 1 ' We want a good, live, active Agent in every neighborhood not yet cov- 
ered. PV't'iefl applying for the Agency, are requested to send their references 
with their application, as it saves trouble. 

W2tt G. CRENSHAW, Jr., WM. Gk CRENSHAW 

Secretary. President. 



THE SOUTHERN 

PLANTER & FARMER, 

DEVOTED TO 

AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 





Agriculture is the nursing 
Tillage and Pasturage are 1 


mother of the Arts. — Xenophon. 
he two breasts of the State. — Sully. 




L. B. 


DICKINSON, - 




Editor and 


Proprietor. 


Vol, XXXIX, RICHMOND. 


VA. 


, OCTOBER, 


1878. 


No, 10. 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

COL. WASHINGTON'S REPLY TO DR. ELLZEY ON THE 
ANALYSIS OF MANURES. 

[We very much regret that the discussion of so interesting and important a 
subject to our readers should be marred by personalities. Our good friends, 
Col. Washington and Dr. Ellzey, are too intelligent and public spirited in all 
that pertains to our farming interests, for us to believe that they are not ardently 
desirous of finding out the truth, and we hope that in their further discussions 
all unpleasant personal allusions will be avoided. — Ed.] 

Prof. Ellzey says I am ignorant of this subject. Ignorance is 
a misfortune, to which I plead guilty. To be wise in one's own 
conceit is a greater misfortune, to which I plead not guilty. It is 
gratifying to all Virginians to be informed that they have among 
them a gentleman, who, in scientific attainments, has reached, with 
one bound, an eminence so exalted that he can, with complacency, 
look down upon the State Chemists of Virginia, Georgia, North Caro- 
lina and of other States, and even upon Dr. Voelcker, the great 
analytical chemist of England, with cool disdain, and in pity say to 
these gentlemen, distinguished at home and abroad, Why, you do not 
understand your business ! I, Prof. Ellzey, the chemist, will in- 
struct you. Pity it is Virginia is so poor that she can't appreciate 
and provide for such magnificent ability. Mr. Editor, neither un- 
sustained assertion, egotism or personalities, with so much self- 
satisfaction indulged in by Prof. Ellzey, will divert me from the 
issues. Farmers of Virginia have lost millions by paying over- value 
for manures. My sufferings, interest and convictions are with them, 
and not with the Professor. 

You have frequently requested me to write my views on any 
subject I deemed of interest to the farmers for your able and 



526 THE SOUTHERN [October 

useful journal. I have responded when practicable to do so. I 
had not supposed to courteously express an opinion different from 
that entertained by one or all of your editors, would provoke 
the displeasure of any one. If aught I have written can justly be 
considered offensive to the fastidious, I cheerfully disclaim any 
such intention. My motive has been single — to get at a proper con- 
clusion — the truth. You will therefore pardon me for a brief recital. 
During the Winter of 1877 and Spring of 1878, a series of editorials, 
extracts and comments, under "Stock Department," appeared in The 
Planter. About the same time there were distributed among the 
farmers a number of pamphlets and circulars. These papers I 
thought tended to shake the confidence of farmers in, and to dis- 
credit, the analysis of manures, no matter by whom analyzed. In 
some of them, attacks, directly or indirectly, were made on the laws 
of Virginia enacted as a protection and benefit to the farmer ; and 
whether designedly or not, I think on the State Chemist and Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture, both high State officials, appointed peculiarly to 
promote the interest of agriculture. The circulars and Prof. Ellzey's 
productions appeared to run on all fours. Their authors seemed to 
be in the same boat. All of them, I think, whether so intended or 
not, were against the interest of the farmer. One short article 
only appeared in your paper, over the signature of "Farmer," in 
opposition. Also an extract from a letter of Dr. Voelcker. It was 
.at once intimated, under "Stock Department," that only "the na- 
ture of the contents of that" had been published ; whereupon the 
w r hole letter appeared. So complete was its vindication that chem- 
istry will analyze a manure — that analysis is beneficial to the farmer, 
and that no manure manufacturer, with a good conscience, can en- 
tertain a different opinion ; so crushing was it to all the comments 
and editorials of the "Stock Department," that Prof. Ellzey at once 
opened fire on Dr. Voelcker at long range. Under these circum- 
stances, in May last, I offered my views on this subject from a 
farmer's stand-point, hoping to elicit from abler farmers their views, 
in order that both sides might be heard. I made no allusion to any 
of the preceding papers — none whatever to Prof. Ellzey. A criticism 
in "note by the Editor" was appended to my article. Supposing 
this criticism to emanate from the Editor, I thought it appeared par- 
tial, that the first paper from the farmers' side, of an issue involving 
the repeal of laws and the abolition of offices, that they thought good, 
should be met with a criticism by the Editor of The Planter, when 
you had printed so much on the side of the guano dealers. I ad- 
dressed you a note as follows : (See June No.) 

1st, "Do you mean to say the analytical chemist is unable to ascer- 
tain the quantity of ammonia, soluble phosphoric acid and potash in 
agricultural manures ? Again, What do you mean by commercial 
valuation ?" To these a reply in another foot-note as follows : "The 
articles published in this journal, from the pen of Dr. Ellzey * * * 
answer fully the questions propounded by Col. Washington." Still 
supposing you the author of these foot-notes, I replied in August No. 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 527 

to Dr. Ellzey's views on the latter point, and concluding that you 
denied the proposition in the former — the basis of my article in May — 
I attempted to maintain the affirmative. With what success the 
public can judge, and I think Prof. Ellzey can feel. Prof. Ellzey says 
"he has never intimated the opinion that chemistry will not analyse 
a manure." Did the Professor "intimate" this in June last? If 
not, why did he not answer, No ? My reply of August frankly 
stated I did not know what were his views. If I "put up a man of 
straw," so easily knocked down, why did the Professor occupy five 
pages of your valuable journal in September to knock it down, 
when in June a word of two letters would have done so ? Verily 
the Professor has abundance of leisure, or a marked fondness for 
much writing. When a strong man cries out so long and loudly as 
did the Professor in September, his friends will think he is hurt, 
even by "a man of straw;" and of this injury he had strong appre- 
hensions. At the close of his lugubrious "Stock Department" edi- 
torial, he says, "We will correct the statement, for we never meant to 
convey that impression." Did you not ? Then why did you not 
say no to the direct question asked in June ? Let us see what the 
Professor's views were, and the impressions conveyed prior to June. 
In January No., p. 28, he says: "We have no where stated that the 
amount of inert material in a fertilizer cannot be ascertained with 
reasonable accuracy by the chemist." On p. 31, after forcing sun- 
dry conclusions from an extract from Professor Johnson, he triumph- 
antly writes : "What, then, is the use of these analyses and these 
figures resulting from them?" Again, December 1877, p. 776, he 
says : "The only thing, then, left to the farmer will be to try these 
two fertilizers, side by side, in his field and note the effect; * * * 
he will have sense enough to take that which will pay him best for 
his outlay, and will pay not the slightest regard thereafter to the 
opinion or analysis of the chemist. Certainly the chemist may dis- 
cover how much material known to be positively inert exists in any 
given fertilizer, and he may discover that it is an article positively 
fraudulent in its character. Further than this, in our opinion, he 
cannot go." So wrote the Professor in December — italics mine. The 
chemist may discover how much of material known to he positively inert, 
and may discover an article positively fraudulent. "Further than this 
he cannot go." Are you sure of this now ? Is ammonia, soluble 
phosphoric acid or potash "positively inert?" Are they "positively 
fraudulent" in a manure? Does the Professor intend to charge 
"positive fraud" on the part of all the dealers who label their ma- 
nures, with analysis giving per cent, of ammonia and other ingre- 
dients, not "known to be positively inert ?" Does Prof. Ellzey, who 
plumes himself as a chemist, mean to say that he can go no further 
than to "may discover the known-to-be positively inert and fraudu- 
lent" matters in a manure? I admit my ignorance, but by no 
means admit such a display of it as this. Certainly, if this is all 
chemistry will do, Prof. Ellzey, the chemist, cannot expect the 
farmers to "pay the slightest regard to his opinions on analysis." 
And I opine, on fertilizers, he will not be disappointed. 



528 THE SOUTHERN [October 

Again, Do not these extracts, if they show anything, plainly 
show that the Professor, at their writing in December last, was con- 
vinced that chemistry could not analyze a manure ; and that analysis 
was of no value to the farmer ? By September he has changed. 
Hear him, p. 508, "We have never said a chemist cannot analyze a 
manure ; we have no where said analysis is of no use to the farmer." 
And further on, "no body that we know of has ever assumed the 
position that no chemist can analyze a manure." If analysis is of 
use to the farmer, why advise the farmer "to pay not the slightest 
attention to analysis?" If chemistry will analyze a manure and 
can go no further than to "may discover" the material known to be 
positively inert and positively fraudulent, is this analysis ? Is this 
the ascertainment of the quantity of ammonia, soluble phosphoric 
acid and potash which "no body now denies" and which constitutes "a 
man of straw ?" I leave these questions to the Professor. Whether 
Prof. Ellzey expressed his opinions in December or September, I am 
still unable to say ; certainly my "not understanding his meaning" 
should have excited no surprise. The Professor says, "field results" 
are the only test. Suppose I use a manure in 1878 with good re- 
sults ; how am I to know that the maker has not changed his formula ? 
also, the ingredients, by 1879 ? Some farmers think this has been 
done. How am I to know that for blood your pet leather shavings 
have not been substituted, or the per cent, of ammonia and phos- 
phates reduced ? What are "field results" worth with these changes? 
A farmer's life, under your advice, will be one of trial of manures 
"side by side." If the Professor knew half as much about practical 
farming as he does about chemistry, he would change this opinion as 
quickly as he has done that about "analysis of manures." It is just 
here that the analysis comes to the aid of the farmer and helps him 
all the way. It removes the lottery from this business, certainly to 
a great extent. 

If we understand Prof. Ellzey, he now admits chemistry will 
analyze a manure and analysis is beneficial to farmers. But that 
-chemistry will not show the sources from which the valuable ingre- 
dients are derived; therefore, farmers must rely on field results alone. 
This looks like sitting on both sides of the fence ; but about as defi- 
nite as the Professor seems able to express his views. We will ex- 
amine it*. Suppose A makes a manure, taking as basis of ammonia 
and phosphoric acid, blood and animal bone, the cost is $30 per ton. 
B makes one taking leather shavings and South Carolina rock as basis. 
B's cost $20. Allow $5 to each as profit. Each sells at $50 per 
ton. Assume that by analysis each reveals the same per cent, of 
nitrogen producing ammonia and phosphoric acid, and their values 
are computed at $30. The farmer is by analysis informed that 
neither manure is worth over $30, and an excess in value of $20 is 
charged. Analysis thus exposes extortion. But, says the Profes- 
sor, it does not show that B is overcharging $30, and only shows 
that both overcharge $20. It proves extortion in both, but fails to 
prove the robbery in B. This gives to the Professor all he can pos- 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 529 

sibly claim for his theories. Still for months he has labored to break 
down the analysis of manures, and advised farmers to "pay not the 
slightest regard to the opinions or analysis of chemists." He also 
admits analysis to be of benefit to them and should see that it will 
protect them from extortion, so easily practised. The fact is, the 
Professor thinks commercial valuation is "but the money a manure 
will bring," and holding this opinion, it conflicts with all plans to 
expose an excess of charge. In short, excess of charge or extortion 
are impossibilities under this theory. Farmers have felt them and 
will be excused for not adopting such a theory. 

Again. Cannot all the Professor, and those on his side, have 
said be reduced to this. Analysis is of benefit to the farmer. It 
will save him $10 to $20 per ton. It will expose the extortion prac- 
ticed. It may not do so to the full extent in every case. And as 
it does not reach "absolute certainty" — perfection — in every case, and 
the analyst will "not swear to it," farmers must "not pay the slight- 
est attention to it." My dear sir, if you expect perfection, you will 
have to travel outside of your own and all other professions, and 
absolutely leave this world. 

On p. 503, the Professor assumes to quote from me as follows: 
"No analytic chemist of reputation has ever denied it." "If any were 
doing it they are not chemists and interested." Please, Professor, 
put on your glasses. The latter sentence is your work — and I have 
no occasion to borrow of you. In this connection, I cheerfully dis- 
claim all personal allusion. My reply was intended for the Editor, 
not the "Stock Department." Having flown the world over for words 
and figures with which to knock down "a man of straw," the Pro- 
fessor at last finds firm footing on "forcible re-adjustment, and 
orchard grass seed," and in great glee aims a personal blow from be- 
hind. As usual, he is in error as to the former, which I will excuse, 
as he obtained his information second-hand, or had none. I might, 
for impertinent personalities, become offended, but think I can afford 
to be generous. As to the orchard grass seed, his second-hand informa- 
tion was more fortunate. Yes, I sold my crop of orchard grass seed 
of 1878, after only one advertisement in the Planter and Farmer, for 
$2 per bushel. Had orders for hundreds of bushels more, and re- 
gretted my inability to supply them. They came from several States 
South — from Washington City, Maryland, and Virginia. Why? 
Because I sell none but fresh or new seed. They are threshed 
with the wheat machine; hence only the ripe are threshed. They 
are cleaned with the wheat fan ; hence all foreign matter is blown 
off. Inspection shows their ripeness and cleanliness and freeness 
from mould. My statement has always been taken for their 
freshness. The Commissioner of Agriculture of the United States. 
sent me an order for 200 bushels at $2 per bushel, of 12 pounds,, 
delivered at my depot. Why ? He had compared a sample with 
others (it may be with yours at $1.25); had subjected them to the 
microscope, and I presume thought them cheaper at $2 than others 
at $1.25. I have not the arrogance to suppose that Gen. Leduo 



530 THE SOUTHERN [October 

had ever heard of me, or my orchard grass seed, or of their "field 
results." No, no, Professor, Gen. Leduc purchased because he sup- 
posed "they were worth the money paid." Just the way we want 
to purchase manures. 

A little less lottery, if you please ! I charged the United States 
Government by the quantity the price charged a farmer for a single 
bushel. Again : There resides at Saltville, not far from Blacksburg, 
where those valuable orchard grass seed of the Professor's can be 
had for $1.25, a real, live and distinguished farmer, Col. Palmer, for 
years the leading seed merchant of Richmond. Reference to my 
farm book recalls the fact that a few years ago Col. P. purchased at 
Richmond and carried to Saltville my seed at $2.25 per bushel, when 
he could have gotten the Western seed at $1.50. From these I also 
learned that he had raised an abundance for his use, whereas he had 
so repeatedly failed by the use of those recommended by the Pro- 
fessor as to abandon them. It may do no harm for the Professor to 
call on Col. P., and take his first lesson in orchard grass seed. 

Reader^ who put up "the man of straw?" Let the foot note to 
my inquiry in June, so easily answered no, respond. 

Upon whom has this "man of straw" fallen ? Let the extracts 
from Prof. Ellzey's writings of December, 1877, January, 1878, 
and September, 1878, answer. He who knows the Professor's views 
on the analysis of manures and their usefulness to the farmer, is a 
wise man. Little did I suppose the vaunting knight (not Don 
Quixote) of chemistry, mounted (not on Rosinante) on a charger of 
his own selection, in full armor clad, would so soon be unhorsed by a 
"man of straw." I restore, Sir Knight, your plumed and broken 
helmet. I lend you a friendly and helping hand. I brush the dust 
from your soiled armor, and, with hat in hand, bid you an affection- 
ate adieu — as to analysis of manures. 

The "Stock Department" has displayed great egotism with refer- 
ence to immigration. For years the Legislative and Executive 
branches of the State government have striven to induce immigration 
to Virginia. Money has been more than once appropriated. Farm- 
ers, individually and in societies, have labored to this end. Hun- 
dreds of our public-spirited men have given their time, talents and 
means. Everywhere throughout Tidewater Virginia the farmers 
are anxious for immigration. In their poverty they see plenty if 
only their over-abundant and to them useless lands can be sold. The 
credit of the State is suffering because of the low price of these 
lands — the large part of her taxable values. Richmond city, which 
so nobly arose from her ashes, has increased her population fifty per 
cent., and with her concentrated learning and wisdom still with open 
arms invites immigration. The State Agricultural Society has sent 
her Sutherlin to Pennsylvania. At this writing, Gen. Lee; and 
Senator Johnston are addressing the people of New York on this sub- 
ject. Notwithstanding, in July last, page 381, in "Stock Department," 
the following appears : "The outcry is for immigrants, immigrants, 
people, people of any sort — paupers, thieves, criminals, outcasts, 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 531 

tramps, anybody to settle and develop the country. Heaven defend 
us from the realization of such wild vagaries ." Whence comes this 
outcry? Who but the Professor heard it? May we not hope it is 
the child of a wild imagination ? But what more triumphant reply 
can be made to the addresses of Sutherlin, Lee and Johnston than 
the reading of this editorial ? Are we to be informed that the Ag- 
ricultural Society of Virginia, the local societies, the Senators of the 
United States and the thousands of farmers whose families need the 
necessaries of life, while they are overburdened with useless lands, 
hold convictions as to their interests and the interest of Virginia that 
are but "wild vagaries?" — that Prof. Ellzey, as the guardian of 
their rights and interests, is necessitated to invoke the powers of 
Heaven to "defend them from the realization" of their wishes and 
convictions? All Virginia is overwhelmed in ignorance with one 
exception ! Alas ! alas ! 

That I be not misunderstood, I take occasion to say that nothing 
written by me is intended to disparage any dealer in manure. I know 
many of them personally, and for them entertain the highest respect. 
That some manures are sold at prices so high as to preclude all 
chances of profit to the farmer, I believe ; that others are sold at a 
fair profit to the dealer, and can be used to advantage by the farmer, 
I also believe; that the analysis of the State chemist is the only safe 
guide the farmers of Virginia have, I am convinced. I cannot un- 
derstand how the farmer can in security invest in any manure, when 
the dealer is afraid to have it subjected to analysis by the State 
chemist. If correct in any of these opinions, it is of the first im- 
portance to farmers to see their representatives and guard them 
against any and all efforts that may be made to repeal the existing 
laws, requiring fertilizers to be analyzed and labeled with printed 
or stamped analysis. Equally so to preserve the offices of State 
chemist and Commissioner of Agriculture. With these distinguished 
gentlemen I have no personal acquaintance. Their works I have 
read ; and with the means at their command, they have accomplished 
much. Their work is just begun, and is characterized with ability 
and fidelity. To repeal these laws and abrogate these offices, without 
waiting to see their full effects, will be unwise in the extreme. With 
an exercise of diligence, farmers can prevent it. They were enacted 
for their benefit. I understand foreign dealers send manures into 
Virginia and sell them, with no labels or stamps, and no analysis. 
This is an imposition on the farmer, a violation of law, and an injus- 
tice to the home manufacturer — a triple wrong. I think it can be 
corrected by so amending the present law as to require all manures 
before they can be sold or bartered in the State to be analyzed by 
the State chemist and the analysis published. These analyses 
should be selected by the State chemist in such way as to secure the 
greatest possible fairness and impartiality — not from samples fur- 
nished by the dealers. They may be partial, possibly doctored. 

Caroline Co., Va. John Washington. 



532 THE SOUTHERN L 0ctob er 

[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 
A WORD TO DR. ELLZEY AND COL. WASHINGTON. 

I have been much interested in the discussion of the matter of ferti- 
lizers in your Journal, and have been often reminded of a saying of a 
relative of mine when I was a boy, during the time when party politics 
ran high between " Whig and Democrat." "Til be burnt" said he, "if one 
side isn't good until you hear the other." So of Col. Washington and 
Dr. Ellzey. 

I think they both are right in this, that analysis or no analysis, com- 
mercial manures are not to be relied upon by our farmers of small means, 
with an}' - assurance of profit or success. Upon this subject, the present 
writer feels keenly; having been sadly gulled and disappointed by the use 
of several of "the very best" of these so called fertilizers. That in some 
cases, and under certain conditions, they act well, there is no question ; 
but, that the farmers' pockets have been as surely depleted, while even 
making good crops with the aid of fertilizers, needs no proof. What is 
the remedy, then? Just this, let alone all of them. They may be good, 
but they are sold so high as to preclude any hope of profit to those who 
use them. By sad experience I have found out this, and am now apply- 
ing the remedy in the shape of home-made manipulated manure and so 
far successful ; and for the benefit of my brother farmers, I give my 
formula. I purchased twenty bushels of oyster shells, burnt them into 
lime, slaked them and added a heavy cart load of old and leached ashes, 
a heavy cart load of the clearings of fowl houses and a sack of coarse 
salt; these were thoroughly mixed and spread with a long shovel by stand- 
ing in the cart and throwing them as far as possible, covering a wide 
land ; spreading them thinly and evenly, over not quite two acres of 
ground, which was rather thin soil and had previously received some 
coarse farm pen and-hog pen manure, preparatory for tobacco. The 
season here has been a good one,but no fertilizer of whatever brand has 
ever had such a showing in the tobacco crop as has this manure of my 
own preparation. It is said by all who have seen it, to be equaled by 
none grown by any other preparation, and I verily believe the same prep- 
aration will make, with good season, any crop. Thus I have as fine a 
crop as can be seen in a day's ride on land some of it very thin, sandy 
soil, at the following cost: 

20 bushels oyster shells $1 00 

Cutting wood, hauling same, and kilning 1 00 

Salt 11.00 and mixing 50 cts 1 50 

Total S3 50 

Hauling the shells was just the same as hauling any other fertilizer 
and the labor of spreading a great deal less ; of course the ashes and 
manure are worth something, but they were not bought, they were only 
utilized. Thus, for tobacco, any small farmer may prepare a manure 
at half the cost of any other and as everybody knows of far more per- 
manence. Then, I say, away with commercial and utilize home-made 
manures. 

Fluvanna Co. W. W. Kay. 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 533 

[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

MY EXPERIENCE IN WHEAT CULTURE IN 1878. 

Mr. Editor,— Not having threshed uiy crops when I wrote you 
in July on the culture of wheat, I write now to give you more fully 
the practical results of the crop, it having been threshed. In Es- 
sex county I had in cultivation about seven hundred and twenty-five 
acres, more than one-half corn land, and made seven thousand 
bushels wheat; no fertilizer on the fallow, and less than an average 
of one hundred pounds to the acre on the corn land. I had straw 
enough for twenty-five bushels on the fallow and fifteen on corn 
land, but the yield was very poor, owing, most persons think, to rust 
on the blade. I accord with those views, that the rust entirely de- 
stroying the blade, the lungs of the plant, just as it was heading, 
before blooming, curtailed the number of grains in the head, but the 
weather changing more favorable, and no rust appearing on the 
stalk, the grain, the little that was in the head, was perfect in quality. 
This crop was half Fultz, half Lancaster. The Fultz was sowed three 
pecks to the acre, the Lancaster one bushel; all drilled. The yield 
from the Fultz far the best. The wheat was certainly thick enough. 
On my home and adjoining farm in Fauquier, I had three hundred 
acres in wheat; one hundred and twenty of it corn land, drilled in 
after the corn was cut off, without replowing or even harrowing (the 
latter ought always to be done — to make a smoother surface for the 
drillj, one bushel Fultz to the acre with two hundred pounds raw 
bone, mixed with one hundred pounds "Sea Fowl," a manipulated fer- 
tilizer manufactured by Wm. L. Bradley, and sold by G. S. P. 
Triplett, of Fauquier county. The yield was twenty-one bushels to 
the acre, with straw enough for twenty-seven or twenty-eight. I had 
one hundred and sixty acres of what we call "stubble fallow," (that 
is, wheat stubble from which a crop has just been harvested), plowed 
up and put in wheat again. 

This one hundred and fifty acres was composed of three fields. 
The first, sixty-five acres, was a field cleared out of the forest in 
1850, and had been in corn or wheat twenty-one out of the twenty- 
seven years; had been, at different times, six years in clover, but 
since the war had but one year's rest. This was sowed with Fultz 
wheat, one bushel to the acre, with two hundred pounds Raw Bone 
and one hundred pounds Sea Fowl, and made twenty bushels to the 
acre. Stubble fallow, No. 2, contains sixty acres; was in corn two 
years successively in '75 and '76, in corn land wheat in 1877 sowed 
five pecks Fultz wheat to the acre, and treated with same quantity 
and kind of fertilizer, made twenty-three bushels wheat to the acre. 
This year being stubble fallow, was sowed one bushel Fultz to the 
acre, with same application of fertilizer as last year; made thirty- 
three bushels to the acre. Fallow No. 3 contained thirty-three 
acres; treated and cultivated exactly as No. 2, except that it was 
sown in Lancaster wheat in 1876 or 1877 — five pecks to the acre — 
and made 22 bushels to the acre after corn. Last year was sowed in 



534 THE SOUTHERN [October 

Fultz, one bushel to the acre, with two hundred pounds Raw Bone 
and one hundred pounds "Sea Fowl;" made thirty-six bushels to the 
acre. The crop of straw was enormous — full enough for forty bushels 
to the acre. My crop of wheat in Fauquier was seeded, all with the 
drill, from the 28th September to the 18th October. It should have 
been all in by the 10th. I attribute the good results very much to 
thin seeding, the kind of fertilizer used, especially Bone, and the va- 
riety of wheat sown. These stubble fallows were seeded down in 
the Spring in orchard grass and clover, both of which are now 
eighteen inches high and the clover in bloom. I never sow grass 
seed after corn land wheat, because I can't get the cultivation as 
smooth and perfect as I like it to receive grass. Just here I beg to 
state that I do not believe any manipulated fertilizer suits, or is 
beneficial on all soils. "Sea Fowl" has done me very little, if any, 
good in Essex county, on the Rappahannock river. Experiments 
only can teach to what soil the various compounds are adapted, but 
I have yet to see the soil to which Raw Bone, finely ground, is not 
beneficial ; also as to lime, it seems to be entirely valueless on the red 
lands of Albemarle and Orange, yet on white-oak clay lands it is in- 
valuable as a fertilizer, and my observation is, that in proportion as 
the white-oak obtains or predominates as the original growth of the 
forest, so lime is beneficial. I have already made this communica- 
tion too long. It was only intended to give the results of thin seed- 
ing of wheat, which I advised in your September number, and I re- 
peat my opinion expressed in that article, that wheat should never 
be covered more than one-half to one inch deep; that the land should 
be well plowed and pulverized by repeated harrowings, but to get 
somewhat compact by lying sometime after plowing, or by rolling, or 
by frequent rains before seeding, so that the drill will not deposit 
the seed too deep. I would never flush up corn land with the big 
plow for wheat; it makes the land too light and allows the slightest 
freeze of Winter to penetrate the roots of the plant. For that, among 
other reasons, stiff clay land is universally considered better wheat 
soil than light land. 

Fauquier Co., Va. Robert Beverley. 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

One Bushel per Acre. — Had I known the object of your postal 
in reference to wheat seeding, I would have written more in detail. 

My belief is that one bushel of wheat sown by drill, with teeth 
six inches apart, is the best standard for seeding productive soils, 
and the richer the land, the less seed required, on account of in- 
creased stooling. While the tap root of wheat may run down from 
twelve to fourteen inches, the lateral roots rarely extend more than 
three inches on each side. 

Roanoke Co., Va. R. B. Moorman. 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 535 

TFor the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

HARD TIMES AND THE REMEDY. 

The times are hard, sir, exceedingly hard! We hear this from a 
majority of people in most all the vocations of life, and one would 
think their lines have surely not fallen in pleasant places, and we 
are living in the midst of the worst of times, to listen at their sad 
tales of failures to get along, or even to make buckle and tongue 
meet. Now, this is nothing new; it is an old song, sung more or 
less ever since man entered into organized communities. It is true 
there are extraneous causes, such as wars and failures of crops that 
depress for the time the industries of a country ; these are rare and ex- 
ceptional causes. But this continuous cry of hard times by so many — 
what are the causes of it ? Why are a majority of people ever hard 
up and in arrears in their pecuniary affairs ? Such a perpetual cry- 
ing evil should not afflict so large a portion of mankind if there is 
wisdom sufficient on earth to remove this chronic malady. 

But, alas, there is no balm in Gilead that will heal it, from the 
simple fact, the sufferers will not follow the curative prescription 
that would soon bring healing on its wings. As long as cause will 
produce effect, so long will hard times afflict a majority of the human 
race. Now, let us get at the cause of this perpetual clamor, and 
the remedy will suggest itself. 

There are, with nearly nine in every ten, a lack of sufficient 
moral firmness to restrain self-indulgence, and the gratification of 
those factitious wants we all are inclined to have more or less, even 
when our means will not justify their enjoyment. Sufficient unto 
the day is the evil thereof, from being misapplied, has been a hurtful 
precept to a great many. So few of the poor are frugal and self- 
denying, to appear better in the eye of the world than we can really 
afford and vie with the rich, is a common weakness. If all would 
make an inviolate vow to live within their means, be jt ever so small, 
there would be no hard times with any one after a little. We know, 
in a majority of cases, it would take the firmness of a stoic to hold 
on, but if you wish to see easy times, and they getting better every 
year, you must keep your resolve, and if you will go a little further 
and lay by a moiety of your yearly income, you can, by the time 
old age begins to creep upon you, be in a condition to glide smoothly 
down the hill of life and only know hard times by hearsay. Hard 
times being produced by an inflation or contraction of the currency, 
except to speculators and those who trade upon fictitious capital, is 
all fudge ; it is a tune sung by politicians to ride into office by your 
votes. In a majority of cases, each individual makes nis own hard 
or easy times. Not all the legislation of the united wisdom of the 
world can legislate a people into prosperity when the expenditures 
of a majority of them exceed their incomes. A sets out in early 
life upon the principle above recommended; he starts poor; he finds 
it hard at first to keep in this groove ; he finds, however, it be- 
comes easier year by year. After awhile he can indulge his reason- 



536 THE SOUTHERN [October 



able tastes and inclinations in a wider range, yet stick to his old max- 
im, "Pay as you go." He has now reached the meridian of life; he 
has reared his family bountifully, yet with frugal habits; they make 
a good show at home and abroad; he has never allowed them to in- 
dulge in expensive fashions by aping the rich. And now he reaches 
a green old age, and, by a life of frugal industry and attending to 
his own business, has money to put out. His neighbors B and C 
borrow of him from time to time; his honored State wishes to build 
a railroad for the general good of the people ; he lends her all the 
money he can spare, and takes her bonds for its payment. It is true 
his lands are enhanced in value thereby, but those of his neighbors 
B and C much more so. Although he is called an old grip by the 
thriftless, yet his word is considered as good as his bond wherever 
he is known, and these very traducers will call upon him to arbitrate 
upon matters to be trusted only with those whom they have the ut- 
most confidence in. Such, men as this never see hard times. Now, 
the said B and C started life at the same time, and with compara- 
tively ample means, but pursued just an opposite course. Soon they 
commenced borrowing money. B's house needs general repairs ; the 
work is done with A's money. C wishes to make a doctor of his 
son ; the money is borrowed from A for the purpose. After some 
years the credit of these men runs out ; A thinks it time to have a 
settlement with them ; whereupon he is summarily paid by a bank- 
rupt notice from each. B having been an active politician, now runs 
for the Legislature, and, on account of the hardness of the times, 
becomes a readjuster — a soft word for repudiating the State's honest 
debts; and C is his staunch, friend. Having shirked their own 
debts, they now wish to drag the State dow T n into the same foul cate- 
gory, and thus cause A to lose the last of his hard-earned money. 
And these are representative men of that class, to a very great ex- 
tent, who, having helped to create hard times, would to-day dishonor 
the old Commonwealth by a forcible readjustment of her just pecu- 
niary obligations. And those who may not be bankrupts, yet advo- 
cating readjustment, you will be apt to find, in a large proportion, 
upon close scrutiny, a scre*w loose somewhere. 

We do not say that all who go into bankruptcy do it from dishonest 
motives, but, at the same time, there are too many who do. 

Hanover Co., Va. E. P. Meredith. 



Irish Potatoes. — I send you the following account of a crop of 
Irish potatoes raised in Gloucester county, on the farm of Mr. John 
T. Perrin by Mr.'Nash. From one barrel and a bushel of potatoes 
planted there was dug and sold one hundred and fifteen barrels, be- 
sides the small ones, and about a barrel of the large ones used by the 
family. They were of the Early Rose variety, and many of them 
weighed three pounds. Can the truckers around Richmond beat 
this ? G. 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 537 

[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

THIN SEEDING OF WHEAT. 

On reading the interesting and instructive discussion, in your Septem- 
ber number, of the question of thick or thin seeding of wheat — a sub- 
ject I have been examining by experiment and otherwise for ten years 
or more — I am moved to express my coincidence with the views of Col. 
Knight, Col. Beverley, Judge Christian and others as to the good results 
in increased yield, improved quality and saving of seed — an important 
item in a large crop — obtained by thin solving. 

As late as 1870, following the advice and example of my agricultural 
preceptor — an energetic and successful farmer of the old regime, nay 
practice was to sow two bushels per acre with the drill. (And just here 
I would add, en parenthesis, my emphatic endorsation of Col. Beverley's 
high opinion of the wheat drill as the most complete, durable, reliable, 
easily managed, readily and cheaply repaired and satisfactory labor- 
saving agricultural machine, both as a wheat seeder and corn planter, 
ever invented). 

Without recounting my experiments and observations, I will simply 
say they all, without exception, lead directly, and I think unerringly, to 
the conclusion, that at least one half of the wheat heretofore sown by 
the formers of this country is absolutely thrown away, as regards loss of 
seed, and operates much more seriously in damage to the quality if not 
quantity of the crop. The course of my experiments was to steadily re- 
duce year after year (on experimental lots, of course), the quantity of 
seed from two bushels to as low as three pecks per acre, and I had about 
settled down to one bushel, broadcast, as certainly sufficient, and per- 
haps the proper quantity per acre, when last Fall, as if not only to con- 
firm the conclusions above drawn, but. to convince me of the advantage 
and safety of a still further reduction of seed, by force of circumstances 
similar to those described by Col. Knight and Judge Christian, I had 
two acres seeded with but a little over three pecks of wheat — on the two 
acres. The wheat crop in this part of the State suffered from rust to an 
extent scarcely if ever before known, and was, perhaps, the poorest crop 
ever harvested here. My two acres escaped the rust entirely, tillered 
magnificently and produced a crop believed to be not less than twenty- 
five bushels per acre of fine, plump grain, weighing fully sixty pounds to 
the bushel. 

Of course this is an extreme case; still, I believe, if carefully and 
evenly distributed, three pecks per acre, broadcast, will produce a crop 
fully up to the capacity of the best lands, and with a drill nicely ad- 
justed and skillfully managed, one half a bushel will produce the same 
result. 

I would respectfully suggest that intelligent farmers all over the State 
make careful and accurate experiments this Fall to settle this impor- 
tant question for themselves and fraternity, and report the result through 
the Planter and Farmer. I. O. McGehee. 

Nottoway county, Va. 



In roasting coffee, none of the caffeine is lost, but it may be more 
completely removed from the grains if they are strongly roasted. 



538 THE SOUTHERN [October 

[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

EXPERIMENTS OF R. BARTON HAXALL, Esq., AS TO 

;best varieties of wheat. 

In compliance with your request of the 19th ultimo, I can now 
express my preference of five varieties of wheat I experimented upon 
in the last crop. First and decidedly the best is the German Amber, 
making, by several bushels per acre, the greatest yield and the best 
quality, though the last harvested and the last threshed, therefore 
longest exposed to repeated rain storms. The second is the Lancas- 
ter, not much behind the Amber, and upon low ground I will sow it 
in preference. The third in quality and productiveness is the Fultz. 
Very irregular from different parts of the field, high ground pro- 
ducing much the best grain ; fell very much before harvest ; was 
the first threshed and therefore the least exposed to rains. The 
fourth is the Boughton, moderate quality and very poor yield. The 
fifth is called Crawford White, a new variety about here* beautiful 
looking wheat ; ripened late; fell suddenly; was difficult to shock ; 
sprouted very much and made a very bad yield, of very inferior 
quality. If cut at right moment and threshed promptly, may be a 
desirable wheat. The yield of the best was moderate, not over 19 
bushels per acre, if quite that, and each variety about three bushels 
per acre less than the preceding, in the order mentioned. 

I doubt if the product of the whole State is more than seventy- 
five per cent, of what it was last year. 

I will sow mainly the German Amber, of which I have none for 
sale, and the rest of Lancaster, with exception of small quantities of 
several varieties I may procure out of the State to experiment with. 

In a recent conversation with Major Drewry, he said he knew of 
no wheat superior to the German Amber, and about the same time 
I talked with Major Sutherlin, who has a white wheat, combining all 
good qualities, has cultivated it 12 years, named it "My Own," and 
will sow no other this Fall, for a very large crop. 

Richmond, Va. R. B. Haxall. 



Salt or mint weed — Iva axillaris, Pursh.— Mr. William Budge, 
of Paris, Utah, has sent to the Department of Agriculture at Washing- 
ton a specimen of "a very obnoxious weed, called by the farmers in this 
section salt or mint weed." Mr. Budge says that its roots penetrate 
sometimes as much as fifteen feet into the earth, and it increases so fast 
and is so injurious to crops that it threatens great damage to that sec- 
tion of country. It is a low, insignificant plant, very abundant in the 
valleys of Utah. It also occurs in Colorado. The Department solicits 
further information respecting it. 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 539 

[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

" THE ENDING OF THE HARD TIMES." 

With great pleasure I read the letter of Hon. Alexander II. H. 
Stuart in the Planter of August, upon the "Ending of the Hard 
Times," and in the main I endorse it. The letter carried me back 
to thegTeat events in the financial and political world of half century 
ago, and brought up many reminiscences of that day, in which both 
he and the writer were active participants. The note by the Editor 
on the "State Bank System" I also endorse, for I firmly believe that 
State banks ought to be again established in this country, and ivill 
be, and the power of the present banking system of the United States 
should be curtailed. This is my conviction ; I may, however, be 
wrong. But, Mr. Editor, "The ending of the hard times" (if they 
are about to end, and I trust such is the case), is not to be attributed 
to banks or banking, nor to the resumption of specie payments, or 
the possible repealing of that act, or to any legislation on financial 
affairs, but to the determination of the people everywhere, especially 
of the South, to economise in every possible way, in order to save 
themselves from abject poverty and want. The people of the South, 
of the Cotton States especially, had so long enjoyed the monopoly 
of the great staple, cotton, which had induced extravagance and 
idleness ; and then the war, with its great volume of paper-money, fol- 
lowed by extravagant prices for cotton after the war, induced specu- 
lation, extravagance and debt, and consequently ruin. 

This state of things was not brought about for want of banking 
facilities; if there had been ten times the amount the result would 
have been all the same, or even worse. As it was, the country was 
ruined. 

The farmers were bankrupted, which ruined the merchant, who 
nearly swamped the banks, and then the farming community had to 
take care of themselves. It has been a hard struggle for three 
years for them to do it, but they are now nearly "out of the woods," 
and the crop now being gathered (I mean in the Cotton States, espe- 
cially in Georgia), will enable us to snap our fingers in the face of 
banks and bankers, and the whole army of money-changers and 
shavers. I say again, this has not been accomplished by any laws 
or banks, but by raising our own grain and much of our meat at 
home, and in wearing our old clothes and riding in our old carriages 
and attending rightly to our own business. There are banks plenty. 
Farmers and planters need no other banks than those every man 
should have in his own barn-yard, and I trust the Planter may show 
all others as an enemy. I trust the day may come, too, when indivi- 
dual debts may be debarred of collection by statute, except such as 
are made for orphans. Extravagance leads to debt, and debt to ruin, 
and in many cases to dishonesty. A Georgia Planter. 



540 THE SOUTHERN [October 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

A LETTER FROM GOVERNOR WM. SMITH. 

Yours of the 7th inst. came duly to hand and has been waiting for 
my conclusion as to your request'to review Mr. Stuart's article. I 
rather think I shall decline to do it, as age and occupation press me 
sorely. But I must say that after our sad experience of more than 
half a century, Mr. Stuart's letter (with whom I am pleased to believe 
lam on excellent terms) surprises me no little. The whole history 
of paper-money establishes beyond a peradventure two propositions : 
1st, That it makes the rich richer, and the poor, poorer ; and 2d, 
That it corrupts and demoralizes our people. Every thing that is 
produced by or made available by labor is capital, whether it be land, 
the fruits of the earth or minerals, or any thing else; the legitimate 
price of which is the cost of production, with a very moderate profit, 
for man should not make haste to get rich. The price of production 
under a well regulated economy, would literally depend upon sup- 
ply and demand, subject to some fluctuation, which is well illustrated 
by the way of the pendulum of the clock, to which society would 
easily, certain!}?- without distress, if not beneficially, conform capital 
thus produced and distributed in its thousand forms to meet the 
wants and tastes of men, and to obviate the cumbrous operations of 
barter, must have a currency; but that currency must be as stable 
as the yard stick, and government must supply it. So our ancestors 
understood it, for the Constitution provides in the 5th division of the 
8th sec. that Congress shall have power "to coin money, regulate the 
value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and 
measures." 

The whole clause is designed to secure measures of value, of fixed 
stability and uniformity. 

The effort to make paper-money answer in place of coin is a gigan- 
tic failure. The whole history of paper-money shows periodical ex- 
pansions and contractions — expansions in which the worst elements 
of our nature are pampered and invigorated; and contractions in 
which the consequences of such indulgences are frightfully developed 
in the perpetration of every crime known in our vocabulary, and 
which are clearly traceable to our paper-system — a system under 
which we have spent our annual income, exhausted our credit, and 
mortgaged our posterity, (have we a right to do it?) with a fright- 
ful debt of over some five thousand millions of dollars. But where 
am I going. I must stop. Wm. Smith. 



(For the Southern Planter and Farmer./ 
Home- made Fertilizers. — This is the only year for the last 
fifteen that I have used no commercial manures, but instead, sta- 
ble, farm-pen, hog-pen and wood ashes, the scrapings from under 
the hickory, dog wood and other trees, and all composted and 
thoroughly intermixed. A portion composted with cotton seed at 
the rate of about one-eighth of seed, and applied as nearly as I 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 541 

could, about three hundred pounds to the acre, and I have never 
had a crop to give me as much satisfaction. With the exception of 
about one acre, a very badly drained bottom that has the rust, there is 
not another hill thus infected, whilst every one of my neighbors, on the 
same grade and character of soil who used bought manures is literally 
eaten up with rust, whilst up to date (13th September) my crop retains 
its green and healthy color, and notwithstanding there was some shed- 
ding, I think I shall make nigh on to one bale to the acre, and that, too, 
on old land, which has been cultivated for at least sixty years. 

I allude to this subject in which I am a party interested, that I may 
elicit from others the cause of this condition of things. It was certainly 
not owing to seasons, for the rust attacked crops alike both in the wet 
and dry streaks of this section of the State alike. 

AUmgton, Oa. S. Wyatt. 



/ [For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

SEEDING OF WHEAT. 

I feel highly honored in being called on to take part in the wheat- 
seeding discussion, along with so many gentlemen of skill and expe- 
rience in farming — a business it was once my honor and pleasure to 
follow, and from which neither the change of place or time have 
weaned my heart and mind. 

The year I commenced farming was one when wheat was at 
a low ebb. I have recorded the account of sales of my wheat crop 
for 1817. I hauled it forty miles to Petersburg, and sold it for sev- 
enty and seventy-five cents per bushel — the lowest price I ever sold 
at. But, about 1851, began the "Golden" period of Virginia agri- 
culture, lasting till the war. I think it was in 1852 that Mr. Ed- 
mund Ruffin published,, in the American Farmer y a most valuable 
article on the management of the wheat crop, from which I derived 
more practical information than any one article I ever read. 1 well 
recollect taking the number of the journal out to the field and mov- 
ing step by step as directed, till the cap sheaf of the shocks was put 
on "with rejoicing." A few were put up under my special direction, 
and I never had any more trouble in saving my crop. If you have 
space to record a little incident which occurred in the famous "Not- 
toway Farmers' Club" (I say "famous," because I believe it con- 
tributed more practical articles to the old Southern Planter than any 
other in the State), I will give it: At the next meeting of the Club 
after the article appeared, a number of the members who had done 
as I had, were expressing their great delight at their success in sav- 
ing their wheat. One of the members, not now a resident of the 
State, remarked that "he never knew any other way" and considered 
it strange that myself and the others were so far behind the times. 
The next year, just after harvest, I happened to pass his 
wheat field, and I found his shocks were "shocking" indeed, 
and not according to "the book." Meeting his overseer, I said, 
"How is this, Mr. S ? Mr. B. told us at the Club that Mr. Ruffin 
could not learn him anything about shocking wheat, and I found he 
2 



542 THE SOUTHERN [October 

had as 'shocking' a set of shocks as I ever saw." "Ob," said he, 
Mr. B. never knew anything about how his wheat was put up, for 
Mrs. B. came to me just as harvest commenced and said to me, 'Do 
pray, Mr. S., have the wheat put up right this year, for I never saw 
it put up here as good as other people's.' " 

But this is not answering the inquiry about seeding wheat. 

My rule was to seed one and a half bushels on the best land and 
one and one-fourth on ordinary. My average yield was generally 
from ten to twelve for one. I do not think that the variation of a 
peck or so would make much difference in the product. If an im- 
plement could be devised that would put each grain in its proper 
place, I think that one bushel would be amply thick, and probably 
less would be better. But there were few No. 1 seedsmen then, and 
I judge they are not more numerous now. Nature kindly provides, 
to some extent, that the thin wheat shall expand by tillering, and 
where it is too thick some will die out. So, I think, that with aver- 
age seedsmen, the quantity seeded was, in main, nearly right. 

I had many discussions on this matter with my uncle, Wm. B. 
Irby. On a tobacco lot, of a very stiff red soil, and highly manured, 
one year he seeded over two bushels to the acre, and measured up, 
from six acres, about thirty-six bushels to the acre — the heaviest 
yield I ever knew to be raised in the county. The variety was the 
"Woodfin" white wheat — the best, I think, ever seeded in my recol- 
lection. 

My brother, William Irby, was also a very successful raiser of 
wheat, and attended closely to his farm. He had the best seedsman 
I ever knew. His rate for seeding was about the same as my own. 
His land was very different from our uncle's, being a gray soil with 
red subsoil. 

I found it worth the trouble (more to be counted than the expense 
in money) to pour the wheat slowly into strong brine, thus ridding it 
of faulty grains and foreign seed, and then stirring into it lime or 
good ashes. The effect was to get more perfect seed and prevention, 
wholly or partly, of smut — one of the worst fatalities incident to 
the crop. 

I hope to see the fields of our dear old State waving, as of old, 
and still more abundantly, with this most beautiful and useful of all 
grains. 

Ashland, Va. Richard Irby. 

N. B. — Seeding wheat on imperfectly drained land, is throwing 
seed and labor away. 



[For the Southern Planter aud Farmer.] 

GAS-HOUSE LIME. 
Mr. Wm. Brown, of Westmoreland county, Va., in a private note, 
says : I notice from a late No. of the Planter that Dr. Pollard re- 
commends the use of gas-house lime on some worn-out lands en route 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 543 

from Richmond to Burkeville. I purpose liming a green fallow 
(buckwheat) this Fall for wheat, and shall use fertilizers for the 
wheat The experience of our farmers is, that oyster shell lime (about 
the only kind we use), does not act well in connection with guanos, 
&c, from the fact that we cannot properly slack it ; and this process 
going on after its application, liberates the ammonia of the fertilizer 
used. Will the gas-house lime perform the same functions, with the 
exception of freeing the ammonia as oyster shell lime ? 

[We will be pleased to publish the experience of our farmers on this subject. — 
Ed.] 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

THIN SEEDING OF WHEAT. 

An attack of illness is my apology for my tardy compliance to 
your request to communicate to you the facts in my possession on 
the question of the "Thin Seeding of Wheat." 

Soon after I commenced farming I became satisfied that the quan- 
tities of seed generally used were entirely excessive, and that a con- 
siderable reduction of it would not only be that much saved for 
market, but in all probability would, at the same time, be productive 
of increased yields. I have, accordingly, for the last five years, been, 
making occasional experiments of one peck to the acre, drilled in 
rows sixteen inches apart; and in every instance the yield of such seed- 
ing has exceeded that of the same land seeded at one bushel per 
acre. These uniformly satisfactory results convinced me that one 
peck per acre could safely be depended on for economical culture* 
and last year I used that quantity for a portion of my crop, some 
100 acres. This wheat, soon after it began to tiller, assumed a more 
vigorous look than the rest of the crop seeded at two and one and 
a-half pecks respectively, and it preserved its superiority until it was 
overtaken by the rust, which ruined all alike, as it did most of the 
wheat in this section. My crop being mostly Clawson and another 
variety closely resembling it, suffered still more than the Fultz gen- 
erally seeded in this neighborhood ; and I have made up my mind to 
confine myself in the future to the Red Bearded varieties exclusively, 
they being the only ones, as far as I have been able to ascertain, that 
Lave made any approach to a satisfactory yield. 

I have invariably found the above mentioned way of drilling wheats 
one peck per acre, with the rows at 16 inches, to cover the land com- 
pletely at harvest time, but the plants, with that quantity of seed r 
being still crowded in the rows, I had two plats, one of 160 kernels, 
the other of 500, planted at 6k6 inches ; the first on the 25th of 
September last, the latter beginning of the following February, to 
test both the distance that plants will cover and the percentage of seed 
that would fail to produce plants. Of the above 650 kernels, two only 
failed, the plants being destroyed by insects after the blade had ap- 
peared above the ground. 



544 THE SOUTHERN [October 



It became evident, as soon as these plants had started in full 
growth, that they were crowding one another, and I had them conse- 
quently thinned to 12x12 inches, at which distance they completely 
covered the ground before rising and the plants looked all along 
so much more vigorous than thick seeded wheat does, that several 
farmers inquired "what new variety of wheat that was." 

For the plat planted in September I had selected purposely a poor 
spot that, with ordinary cultivation, would certainly not have pro- 
duced the seed, and it evidently yielded, with the exception of a 
few experimental acres of- German Amber, the only good wheat I 
iaad, but unfortunately my object in testing very poor land, was de- 
feated by an application of manure made to it early in March, with- 
out my knowledge. The second plat was not expected to and did 
not mature seed, having been planted entirely too late to produce 
any — the object in view, as stated before, having been different. 

These experiments, confirmed as they have been by numerous 
measurements of isolated plants in the fields, have brought me to 
the conclusion that under favorable conditions the wheat-plant will 
cover a space of one square foot, and should not be given much less 
in practical culture. This idea, I am fully aware, will seem startling to 
most farmers, but that this allowance is not inconsistent with a large 
yield will become evident to them if they will only reflect, that supposirg 
one peck to be seeded to the acre, and each seed to produce merely 
three heads of thirty grains each, not a very sanguine estimate cer- 
tainly, the yield would be 3X 4 30 =22J bushels. From calculations I 
made recently on two samples of wheat, Fultz and German Amber, I 
found that seeding one bushel of Fultz per acre, would give 17 ffo 
plants to the square foot, and of German Amber, for the same quan- 
tity of seed, 13j 8 4 plants per square foot. Anything more irrational 
than such an overcrowding of a plant of strong tillering habit natu- 
rally, it would be difficult to imagine. 

Considering the immense importance of this question to the agri- 
cultural interest of Virginia, under its present circumstances particu- 
larly, I would most earnestly urge our wheat growers to make this 
very fall a few experiments in wheat planting, and to lay off, every 
one of them, say two or three small plats, 12x12 inches, 16x80, 
16x6' inches respectively ; plant from two to three inches deep one 
sound kernel of wheat in each check, and to give the plats a couple of 
good harrowings, beginning as soon as the plants have begun their 
spring growth. By weighing each crop after harvest, it will be easy 
to come to a satisfactory approximation of the yield per acre for each 
mode of planting, and in that way to secure most valuable information 
for the cultivation of the next crop. The result, no doubt, will be a 
surprise to farmers who think that anything short of a bushel of seed to 
the acre is insufficient. From my own experiments I am led to be- 
lieve that rows 16 inches apart, with plants 6 inches in the row, 
would be a perfectly safe planting, for in cases of accidental destruc- 
tion of a plant, the two next would be still sufficiently near to close 
up the yacancy. I intend, at all events, to plant my crop this fall at 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 545 

that distance. Of a large grained wheat that space would require 
about four quarts of seed to the acre (with a drill altered for that 
purpose). Admitting each plant to have eight heads of thirty kernels, 
each, the yield per acre would be, 8x H 30 =30 bushels; an estimation 
I should suppose, not excessive for fair wheat land ; for in the two 
experiments already mentioned, that on poor land averaged twelve 
stalks, and that on good land fifteen stalks, notwithstanding the 
overlate planting of the latter. The few acres of German Amber, al- 
ready alluded to, averaged, on repeated countings, over twelve heads 
in the plants less affected by the rust, and 100 from amongst the 
best heads, averaged 44 grains. 

It is my firm belief that the adoption by our farmers of a persis- 
tent system of grain manuring in order to bring up their land to a 
condition of remunerative wheat production, and the substitution of 
the process of wheat planting to that of wheat seeding would, in a very 
few years, serve to throw the means to the diversified agricultural pro- 
ductions within the possibility of our unsurpassed climate, and in- 
augurate for the State a new era of substantial and lasting prosperity. 
Sooner or later her vast natural resources must conquer for Virginia 
a place among the foremost States of the Union, and it lies with the 
farmers more than with any other class of her population, to place 
the State in the pathway to the future that awaits it. 

Amelia Co., Va. A. Gerard. 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

SUCCESS IN RAISING CHICKENS. 

Two statements of success with fowls have appeared in the New 
York Tribune, in the last few weeks. One the result of a lady's 
care, sent to the Tribune by Dr. Dickie ; the other Mr. A. A. Law- 
ton's account of his own yard. By comparing my day-book with 
these statements, I find my returns greater than either. For in- 
stance, in the month of July from 25 hens I gathered two dozen 
eggs. Up to the 1st August 85 chickens, hatched this Spring, have 
'been consumed at table. The fine condition of these fowls may be 
judged of by their weight. The 25th of July a pair hatched" the 
last of April, when dressed ready to be cooked, weighed, one three 
pounds, the other two and a half pounds. My yard is still full of 
fine chicks, and the hens continue to lay regularly. If you can teli 
me what to do with the old hens, I will be obliged for the information. 
[We hope Mr. Bradbury, of Orange, will answer in our next num- 
ber. — Ed.] 

My Brahmas are so handsome that I am anxious to send them to 
the State Fair, but the cost of transportation and the risk will most 
probably prevent. 

Lexington, Va. Lella Pendleton, 



546 TliE SOLH.ti.ftKN [October 

Kaising Poultry in England. — When a boy, I helped my 
mother attend to her poultry. In the part of England we lived in, 
it was customary for the farmer's wife to have the entire care of the 
poultry of all varieties, aDd the eggs and young ones sold brought her 
in a nice acceptable sum of "pin money." My mother sold her eggs to 
a poultry higgler who came around once per week, and he also took all 
the young fowls she did not dispose of otherwise; but as she kept the 
speckled Dorkings, she had several first-class customers among the gen- 
try. She was a very liberal woman, and made presents of a good many 
to relations and friends who did not keep poultry. 

I went often to the gamekeepers' on the Sezingcote estate, and became 
acquainted with their plan of raising pheasants, partridges and wild 
ducks, from the eggs which would be found among the grass mowed for 
hay. These men were more fortunate than any others I ever heard of, 
and although it was thougt to be very difficult to raise wild birds, they 
lost less little ones than any of the farmers' wives did of the common 
chickens. Knowing this, I took as much notice of the proceedings as 
I could do, and I applied the same treatment, with such modifications 
as circumstances required, and have always ever since been able to raise 
any number of chickens desired. 

The art of raising young stock of any feathered tribe, is to put them 
on sound fresh ground on which no fowls of any variety have ever been 
before, and to have coops with no bottoms to them, so that by daily mov- 
ing them on clean ground, they are all the while on sweet, fresh turf. 
These gamekeepers would have several acres fenced off with strong hur- 
dles to prevent cattle or any animal from disturbing the coops and all 
attached. In their wild state, the parent game birds always take their 
young to where they can get congenial food, therefore a man with a 
horse and cart went daily into some woodland where there were ant hills, 
which he would bring to the breeding pheasantry, and these ants and 
eggs of the ants, would be speedily devoured. Likewise pieces of meat 
would be put on the wire basket-work which inclosed this movable pheas- 
antry, and which had to be used to keep hawks from descending to pick 
them up, and to prevent them from straying away. This wire caging, 
and all other necessary protection, cost probably several hundred pounds, 
and of course a great deal of it would be unnecessary for raising com- 
mon poultry. 

As might be expected, I used to tell my mother of all these contri- 
vances and arrangements for promoting health, as well as for giving suit- 
able food, and I did not forget to say that the meat put on the wire cag- 
ing was done that maggots might drop to the earth to be picked up by 
the young birds. Some of the meat would be given fresh and some 
cooked, for variety, to the larger birds. As they grew up and could 
take care of themselves agaiust common enemies, they had their liberty, 
but would be fed with grain in places where they would be likely to 
find it, and they would stray away to the turnip fields, which were near. 
As turnips grow very luxuriantly in the English climate, they made an 
excellent covert for them, and in the shade of the large leaves will be 
found all varieties of slugs, and a great many very small shell snails, 
&c. From the continued success attending the raising of game in this 
way, those who kept great quantities of domestic poultry learned that 
it is essential to raise chickens on ground which has not been contami- 
nated by any droppings from the old and general stock. My mother 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 547 

and myself (after I had poultry of my own) were always particular to 
spread fowls over as much space as possible, and give them unlimited 
range whenever it could be done. And here I will say that from above 
half a century's experience with poultry, I have proved that keeping 
large numbers in one place, on small, confined areas, for any length of 
time, is disastrous. Disease is certain to attack any crowded resort, or 
any poultry house, however clean it may be made, if the stock numbers 
hundreds. They may look well for a short time, and in the fattening 
of fowls which only occupy pens, &c, in succession, and then are dressed, 
they will do well for the two or three weeks they are kept. 

If farmers wish to keep as many fowls as can be done without having 
them unhealthy, they should not have many together. This may be 
managed by having roosts situated as far apart as the premises make it 
convenient for them. In case they should all frequent the same premises, 
they will not interfere with each other's roosts, and the outsides of the 
yards in the lanes or the fields will be used only by the fowls belonging 
to that side. 

I do not know how it should be so generally the case that farmers in 
England ignore poultry, leaving the management and everything con- 
nected with them to their wives; but so it is, excepting in very few in- 
stances. There is another fact which is difficult to understand — the 
women of England never pluck feathers from living water fowls, as is 
done in America. There was a pratice of plucking geese on the Lin- 
colnshire Fens some 30 years ago, but the society for the prevention of 
cruelty to animals put a stop to it by punishing the perpetrators. In- 
England, even if allowed by law, tenant farmers' wives would be ashamed 
to do any such thing. — G. G., In Country Gentleman. 



CONDUCTED BY DR. M. G. ELLZEY, AGRICULTURAL AND ME- 
CHANICAL COLLEGE, BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA. 



THE ADDRESS OF DR. SOUTHALL. 
We have before us the address of James C. Southall, A. M., L.L. D., 
delivered at the opening of the Lewis Brooks Museum at the University 
of Virginia. To deal with a vast subject and a weighty argument in a 
brief address, is perhaps the severest test of intellectual capacity. The 
subject of this admirable essay was, by request, the recent origin of man. 
A subject which, as all the world knows, Dr. Southall has treated in an 
exhaustive and, as we think, entirely unanswerable manner in his well 
known work. Perhaps the fact that we have never, for one moment, 
wavered from the belief which Dr. Southall has completely established, 
adds to our enthusiastic admiration for the very able and triumphant 
manner in which the learned gentleman has performed his task. Even 
in this brief and necessarily merely suggestive address, the authors enor- 



548 THE SOUTHERN [October 

mous reading and research, and perfectly digested learning and thought' 
shines forth. We hope this essay will be extensively read, and that it 
may lead to the more general reading of the works of the learned au- 
thor. We have long ago reached the conclusion in our own mind, that 
the doctrine of evolution, as taught by the scientific thought-leaders of 
the day, derives no support whatever from paleontology. It is beyond 
dispute that recent progress in that great science is all in a direction 
diametrically opposed to the theory. This, the able and sagacious Hux- 
ley was among the first to discern, and he has been disposed to claim 
that the most convincing evidences of this truth on the doctrine are to 
be found in the study of existing life, and especially in the wonderful 
simplicity and unity of the plan of generation and development which 
obtains throughout organic nature. It is, however, certain that the 
main light which must be Jshed on this theory is to be derived from a 
study of the rock -graven records of ancient life. All that has been 
written of the origin of species by evolution, is but an infinite multipli- 
cation of special pleadings. The real substantial facts of biology are 
all opposed to the theory, and none of them favor it. What has been 
put in a very clear light is, that no amount of morphological variation 
is sufficient to establish specific distinction in the animal kingdom, and 
the more light we obtain in that direction, as in the case of paleontology, 
the farther we shall be from the proof of the truth of the doctrine of 
descent with modification. Certain it is, that if the argument of Dr. 
Southall, which establishes that man appeared upon the earth with all 
his distinctive attributes which separate him from and elevate him above 
the brute, suddenly and recently, is ever to be answered, new facts will 
have to be discovered first, and the results of the most recent research 
will have to be reversed. For his great and patient and well performed 
labor, Christendom owes Dr. Southall a great debt. He has made it 
clear, that if ever the foundations of human faith, as laid in the Sacred 
Record, are to be shaken, the intellectual artillery which shall shake 
them, is yet to be fashioned and invented. How great a thing has been 
done by this learned Virginian, is as yet by no means generally appre- 
ciated. But he that shevveth the truth, no less than he that "doeth the 
truth," "cometh to the light." 

We will not leave this subject without referring to the occasion of the 
delivery of this address— the opening of the Lewis Brooks Museum- 
This magnificent and complete donation of a free-hearted and enlight- 
ened philanthropy, puts our own University on a footing with the fore- 
most institutions of the world, in illustrative material in one of the 
most important departments of modern science. 

Mr. Brooks did not live to see the museum opened, nor to know that 
his good work had been supplemented and given full force and effect 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 549 

by another wise and noble benefactor of Virginia, nor of Virginia only, 
but of the rising generation and of many coming generations throughout 
the country ; for a great fountain of truth opened in our midst is a 
blessing, whose influence will, in no wise, be bounded by the horizon of 
Virginia. Mr. Corcoran has endowed a chair of natural history. So 
that the Record is to have a competent interpreter, and the names of 
these two great benefactors will go down to posterity, not only associated 
with each other, but with the great name of the immortal founder of 
the University of Virginia. Jefferson founded our great school and 
Brooks and Corcoran have infused into it a new life and laid the foun- 
dations of a new departure, upon which we may hope, by our own en- 
ergies, when the days of our tribulation are over, to rear a superstruc- 
ture worthy to perpetuate the memory of Jefferson, Brooks and Cor- 
coran. Before what w T e are writing is in type, the Corcoran Professor 
of Natural History will be elected. As a Virginian profoundly grate- 
ful to the wise and good benefactors of our native State, we venture to 
hope that the selection may be worthily made. Let the man who fills 
this high and responsible trust be fully worthy, not merely eminent in 
science, but possessed at once of humility and boldness as a minister and 
interpreter of nature ; a teacher and dispenser of truth. For be it 
known that the man who fills this place is capable of incalculable good 
or enormous mischief. In the name of every thing which men hold 
dear, let us have no blaspheming atheist exalted to this high seat. We 
would have been more than pleased to have seen Dr. Southall the first 
Corcoran Professor, and it is our judgment that the chair should have 
had its development precisely in the line of his studies, but we have re- 
gretfully learned that he declines to become a candidate. When the 
organization of this school is completed, the trustees of the University 
should make provision for the proper teaching of medico-legal science. 
The strange neglect which that superlatively important field of investi- 
gation has experienced, throughout the world indeed, but especially in 
America, is hard to account for. This is not as it should be, and we 
hope soon to see the matter effectually remedied at our University. 
The neglect of this great branch of modern science in our institution 
of learning, is unquestionably a great defect. 

Each great subject must have its own professor in a complete Univer- 
sity. No man can teach as they ought to be taught, mineralogy, geol- 
ogy, botany and zoology. This does for high schools and colleges- 
Such smatterers are out of place in the University. 



GOAT-SUCKERS. 

Goat-suckers (Caprimulgidae) are a peculiar family of birds, having 
extraordinarily small bills and enormous gapes, and formerly supposed 



550 THE SOUTHERN [October 

to steal' the milk of goats, for which purpose their cavernous mouths 
were supposed to have been specially formed [by nature — hence, called 
goat-suckers. Two genera are familiarly known : First, the genus an- 
trostomus embracing the chuck-will's-widow and the whippoorwills. 
Second, the genus chordeiles, embracing: the bull-bats. It is very com- 
monly supposed that the whippoorwill and bull-bat are identical. 
This is, however, quite a mistake. 

The chuck-will's-widow is a native of the Southern States — from 
North Carolina southward. It is named from its very peculiar cry, 
which is a very exact articulation of the words as written in the name. 
The whippoorwill is also named from its wild, strange cry. The whip- 
poorwill may be at once distiuguished from the bull-bat by the peculiar 
bristles protruding on each side near the base of the bill, and by the 
absence of the white spots on the wing feathers — characteristic of the 
bat. The bull-bat derives its name from the loud booming sound which it 
utters as it swoops downward near its mate, and this is evidently its love- 
call. The bats are commonly called night-hawks, but they feed and 
migrate to a large extent in the day time. Besides the species common 
hereabouts, there is a Texas night-hawk, differing from ours, the Vir- 
ginia night-hawk, and there is a variety of the Virginia species common 
in the prairie country of the West. During the months of August and 
September, and usually in the afternoon, vast numbers of bull-bats are 
seen wheeling in circles over some favorite hillside or skimming above 
the meadows in pursuit of gnats and various small moths and beetles, 
and then passing rapidly out of sight, and perhaps after lingering about 
the locality for a few days, they pass on to the South, and are succeeded 
by other companies of the same great migrating host. When not 
feeding or flying on their southward journey, they alight on trees, couch- 
ing close on the top of a large limb, and, seemingly asleep or blinded 
by the glare of the sun, seem to be unconscious of the presence of the 
sly small boy, who climbs up to within a few feet of him, when he 
silently and suddenly takes wing to alight again, usually on a neighbor- 
ing tree. Among our minor game birds, none afford better sport than 
the bull-bat, and they are usually very fat and juicy, and there are 
few better birds to eat. It requires a quick aim and a prompt response 
to the will, by the muscular system, to make a successful shot at a dart- 
ing goat-sucker. We have seen many excellent shots at partridges fail 
signally on these birds. Their flight is by no means slow, and they dart 
to one side in the suddenest, most unexpected manner, which is pecu- 
liarly apt to take place just as the shooter pulls his trigger. We have 
sometimes shot from twenty to thirty in an hour, frequently having to 
change guns or wait for the barrels to cool down sufficiently to be 
handled without burning the hands. No one need to doubt that a dish 
of bull-bats, well broiled, makes a delicious breakfast. 



1878.] 



PLANTER AND FARMER. 



551 



THE VALUE OF MANURE FROM DIFFERENT FEEDING 

STUFF. 

There is a general impression among farmers that the manure pro- 
duced by any animal is of nearly the same value upon whatever food 
the animal may be fed. Such is, however, by no means the case. Un- 
der no circumstances is the value of the manure produced by a young 
and rapidly growing animal equal to that produced by a mature and 
fully grown beast. In the young animal, a large part of the nitrogen 
and phosphate of lime are withdrawn from the food to form bone and 
soft tissue, and these are the two most important ingredients of manure. 
Let it be remembered by the practical man, that the valuable constitu- 
ents of manure are not furnished by the animal, but exist ready formed 
in the food and are simply left over unconsumed by the vital processes 
in passing through the animal's system. It is certain that nearly all 
nitrogen, potash and phosphate of lime, existing in the food of a mature 
animal, are recovered in the solid and liquid excrements of the animal; 
and hence it is perfectly clear that the value of the manure depends 
essentially on the nature of the food. The manurial value of a food will 
depend upon its contents of nitrogen, potash and phosphate of lime. 
The oils, fats, sugars, starch and all hydrocarbons are consumed by 
respiration or stored up in the system as fat, and they need not be taken 
into account. If cotton seed are worth $30 per ton for manure, then 
the manure which results from feeding a ton of cotton seed is worth 
$30, if it be carefully saved and applied to the soil without waste. As 
the nitrogen, phosphate of lime and potash exist in all foods in forms 
which are about equally available as plant food, it follows that a simple in- 
spection of the^ analysis of any feeding stuff gives a safe indication of the 
value of the manure it will yield, as compared withequal amounts of 
any other sorts of feed. In this connection, the following table is of 
interest. Foods rich in nitrogen, are always rich in phosphate of lime 
and potash. We give in the table the quantity of three chief ingredients 
of manure — nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash — found in 100 pounds 
of each of the feeding stuffs named : 





Nitrogen. 


Potash. 


Phosphoric Acid. 




Cotton Seed 


6.50 
4.75- 
1.80 
2.00 
2.55 
0.90 
2.50 
0.18 


3.12 
1.65 
0.35 
0.50 
1.45 
1.11 
1.30 
0.29 


7.00 
4.92 
1.13 
1.17 
7.95 
0.88 
1.25 
0.11 




Linseed 

Indian Corn 

Oats 

Wheat Bran.. 




Meadow Hay 




Clover Hay 




Turnips 





Perhaps in practice, with intelligent care and skill, 90 per cent, of all 
the elements in the table above are recovered in the manure. A ton of 
manure from cotton seed is worth nearly four times as much as a ton 
from Indian corn. 



552 THE SOUTHERN [October 

NORFOLK, VA., AS A SHIPPING POINT FOR LIVE STOCK. 

The importance of establishing a regular shipping point at Norfolk 
for live stock, to go to the British market, will readily be appreciated 
by every Virginian. The great harbor of the Atlantic Coast is in direct 
connection with the great grass regions of Southwest Virginia, Tennessee 
and Kentucky. There is no manner of reason why, at any depot along 
the line of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio, or of the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Railroad, through bills of lading may not be given to Liverpool or 
London on car loads of stock, nor any reason whatever why this may 
not be the safest, cheapest and quickest route between the two countries. 
The section of country, tapped by the great railway lines named above, 
can produce, in vast supply, first-class horses, beef, mutton and pork, 
cheaper than they can be produced anywhere else in the known world 
at this time. And this product having, through existing lines, the short- 
est communication with the best harbor in America, the only thing neces- 
sary to encourage and develop this trade to vast proportions, is wisdom 
and liberality on the part of the transportation companies. They must 
be prompt to seize the occasion before the tyrannical power of capital has 
created irresistible monopolies at other points. It seems to require only 
promptness, liberality and energy on the part of those having control of 
the situation ; and from what we have heard, these seem not to be lack- 
ing. No movement, promising such vast results, has been inaugurated 
in Virginia since the introduction of railroads. May our people prove 
equal to the occasion. One, more, in view of the probable expansion of this 
great trade, the gap between the prices of inferior sorts of stock and 
those of the best blood widens. Why will the owners of grass lands per- 
petually stand in their own light by permitting them to He occupied by 
the scrub and the scallawag ? From Kentucky and the West comes the 
information that the demand for good bulls was never so active, notwith- 
standing the very low prices now prevailing — notwithstanding the ab- 
surd, perverse and utterly unskilful methods that have been pursued by 
the leading breeders of Shorthorns. If anything could have killed off 
so great a race of animals it would have been the subordination of indi- 
vidual merit to pedigree ; the subordination of quality to color ; the subor- 
dination of the value of top-crosses to those so very remote as scarcely 
to exercise an appreciable influence upon the character of the individual. 
Farmers in their turn ought to be shrewd enough to take advantage of 
this state of matters. The cheap animals are often better for their pur- 
poses than the higher priced ones. Farmers can get all the balls they 
want, and as good as the best, at from $100 to $150. They may often 
trade for them animals which they do not need ; they can unite and buy 
or hire the service of excellent bulls at a cost very much less than this. 
It is time to move in this matter now. When the West and Northwest 
have met the demand and monopolized the trade, it will be too late. 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 553 

ITEMS. 

We take from the Country Gentleman, August 15th, the following 
about wood ashes as a fertilizer. A correspondent of that much esteemed 
paper asks, " What is the real agricultural value of wood ashes, 
analysis as follows : 

Potash, 3.01 

Carbonate of lime and magnesia, . . . 51.34 

Bone phospkate of lime, ..... 6.72 

Phosphoric acid, 3.08 

Would they be a good fertilizer for flat turnips, and how many bushels 
per acre ?" 

Answer by Prof. S. W. Johnson : 

" The 'real agricultural value' of wood ashes is a wide, general subject 
on which a small book might be written, and nothing less than a book 
would suffice to present the matter fully. But the best answer to that 
question would be a discussion of it, and the completer the discussion, 
the further removed would the question be from the possibility of a direct 
answer, such as would satisfy the immediate practical wants of your 
correspondent ; that the chemical elements of wood ashes are essential 
to all agricultural plants, and most of them are liable to be or to become 
relatively deficient in most soils, are fundamental facts on which the 
general question must be considered, but whether the particular field 
on which Mr. B. proposes to raise turnips has any serious dificiencies 
which wood ashes will economically remedy, that is another narrow, 
particular question which it would be hazardous to attempt to answer. 
That wood ashes are a good fertilizer, is well proved ; that they often do 
well on all kinds of crops and a great variety of soils, is a ^perfectly 
authenticated fact ; that they often show no influence on this or that 
crop, on this and that soil, is another fact no less thoroughly authenti- 
cated ; that in a multitude of cases wood ashes would give good crops, 
but some other fertilizer would give better ones, at less cost, may fairly be 
inferred from the recorded experience of careful experimenters. In the 
face of these uncertainties, Mr. B.'s second question — ashes on turnips — 
is evidently a special problem that no one, unacquainted with the special 
culture, manuring and products of that particular plat of ground, can 
attempt to resolve. Local experience is the best guide in such a case, 
and if there is none to appeal to, Mr. B. had better acquire some by 
making a trial." Now we ask the very careful attention of our readeis 
to the above letter of Professor Johnson, with every word of which we 
fully agree. It will be observed that Mr. B. sends to Professor Johnson 
the analysis of a fertilizer — wood ashes — and says, please tell me what 
is the "real agricultural value." Professor Johnson replies : That is a 
wide, general question, to be answered best by discussion, and the more 



554 THE SOUTHERN [October 

you discuss it the further you are from a practical answer. Then says 
Mr. B., tell me, "Is ashes good for turnips ?" Professor Johnson : That is a 
a narrow, particular question, which it »would be hazardous to attempt 
to answer. So whether the question be wide or narrow it is equally un- 
answerable. Now, Dr. Voelcker, in the celebrated letter to Dr. Pollard, 
declares "Chemical analysis, in fact, is the only means of ascertaining, 
with certainty, whether a manure is good or worthless." Professor 
Johnson says : "Local experience is the best guide." Speaking, with 
the analysis before him, to Mr. B's question, What is the "real agricul- 
tural value of ashes?" he replies, that is too wide, I can't answer. Well, 
says Mr. B., is ashes (as per analysis) good for turnips ? Really now, 
says Professor Johnson, that is too narrow, I can't answer that. "Local 
experience is the best guide." "Make a trial, Mr. B." We are happy to 
concur most entirely with the learned Professor ; that is our doctrine 
precisely. "Make a trial, Mr. B." "Local experience is the best guide.'' 
We have the victory in this business. It is bound to be universally ad- 
mitted that the best and most accurate analysis does not afford sufficient data 
for either a commercial or agricultural valuation of any manure. Professor 
Johnson is the first agricultural chemist in America, and for him and 
his opinions, we entertain the profoundest respect. He is not only a 
learned and eminent chemist, but a gentleman of eminently sound, prac- 
tical views on all questions he has handled before the public. He has 
never announced sounder doctrines than in the above very wise and 
prudent advice. "Local experience is the best guide to the agricultural 
value of any manure in any given case." "Make a trial, Mr. B." Now, 
we have the pleasure to turn over this distinguished witness to the other 
side. « 



There is a certain sadness in all farewells. When the birds which 
have reared their young about our dwellings gather in busy, noisy flocks 
at the approach of Autumn, they mean good-bye ; they are going 
South. The chimney swifts have gathered thus in the chimneys of our 
dwelling the past few days. But at each chimney stands an old light- 
ning rod with three sharp and burnished points. Just now two little 
boys, four and six years old, at play in the yard, were w r atching the 
birds as they circled above the chimney tops and tumbled headlong down 
by the dozen, when suddenly a heedless little fellow, in his headlong 
hurry, flew against one of the sharp points and impaled himself. The 
little boys were much distressed and shook the rod with all their might 
in hopes to release him, but in vain. A faint, low screech and a con- 
vulsive flutter, and the dusky winged swallow was dead. 

A friend sends us a marked copy of the Maryland Farmer containing 
a very extravagant article from a person named Sotham, who differs very 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 555 



emphatically from our very moderate opinion of Hereford cattle, which 
is natural, as he has those animals for sale. We have no intention 
of attempting to answer the hysterical and extravagant mouthings of 
an advertisement. We never take notice of the writings of a person 
who is ignorant or unmindful of the decent proprieties of respectable dis- 
cussion. Our opinion of Hereford cattle is before our readers. We 
certainly shall take no notice of William H. Sotham. 



CATTLE. 



"A bull out of a scrub cow by Brahmin bull, 3 years old, a fine ani- 
mal, exhibited by D. G Holdbrooks. 

"A bull out of Durham cow by Brahmin bull, 22 months old, weight 
1 100 lbs., measures 78 inches around the girth and 53 inches from shoulder- 
blade to root of tail, exhibited by T. L. Martin, and was considered the 
handsomest animal on the grounds. Ayreshire cow and calf, calf sired 
by Brahmin bull, considered by judges the premium calf. Ayreshire 
and Brahmin cow-calf calf three-fourth Brahmin, adjudged the pret- 
tiest calf on the grounds, and we suggest the name of "Beauty." Ayre- 
shire and Brahmin heifer, 18 months old, voted the premium. If a 
"thing of beauty is a joy forever' her owner ought to be happy. Ayre- 
shire and Brahmin cow three years old, milk six gallons. Brahmin bull 

six years old, imported Smith, of South Carolina. Bull three-fourth 

Brahmin, one-fourth Ayreshire, thirty-four months old, weight 1100 lbs." 

The above, taken from the North Carolina Farmer and Meehanic, 
gives some idea of the success which has attended the crossing of the 
Brahmin and native cattle of the Southern States and also some of the 
improved breeds. 

Judging from the great and curiously exaggerated variation of the 
Brahmins from the type of the common cattle, it might have been sup- 
posed that there was undoubted specific distinction, and that if offspring 
could be had at all by crossing the two sorts they would have been gen. 
uine hybrids; but we find no trace of infertility. The Brahmins possess 
many very desirable qualities, and we predict that a mixed race will be 
had which will prove more valuable in our Southern States than any 
cattle ever known there. Observe above a 22 months old Brahmin 
grade, out of a Short horn cow, weighs 1100 pounds, very promising 
for beef. "Ayreshire and Brahmin, three years old, milk six gallons." 
Very promising for milk. Now, for work, the Brahmins are as speedy, 
active and enduring as horses, and they are natives of a hot, malarious 
climate. Every thing points to the successful formation of a most use- 
full cross-breed for the Southern States and perhaps other localities. 

A Field Trial setter dog has been sold in England for fifteen hun- 
dred dollars. We have some of the same dogs for which we will take less. 

The European migratory quail have been successfully acclimated in 
Massachusetts and about six thousand of them are breeding there this 



556 THE SOUTHERN [October 

year. These are the birds on which the Israelites fed in the wilder- 
ness. We hope they may be extensively propagated and spread over the 
United States. They make very extensive migrations, but always re- 
turn to breed near their native spot. Very different from most of the 
quails, they are capable of extended flight. 

We have received from our friend, Col. M. B. Hardin, of the Virginia 
Military Institute, a very interesting paper describing the discovery in 
his laboratory of a mode of detecting very minute quantities of silver, 
by means of the volatilization of the metal in a Bunsen flame and the 
deposition of a film on porcelain. Col. Hardin is an able and accom- 
plished chemist and we wish he could be heard from oftener. When- 
ever we do hear from him he has something useful and important to com- 
municate. We are not acquainted with any scientific man whose ability 
and skill and the soundness of whose judgment we hold in higher estima- 
tion. There is no school in the United States where chemistry is better 
taught than at the Virginia Military Institute, which is in all respects, 
indeed, one of the best and most useful schools in this or any other country. 

Our Friend, F. S. Fulmer, of Appomattox county, Va. writes, 
enclosing a sample of mohair from cashmere goats owned by Mr. Fulmer, 
which is a very pretty article. He also inquires concerning grub in the 
head in sheep, and thinks mature larvae in the head argue that a sheep 
is more than a year old. The larvae of the sheep soon attain their full 
size and thereafter undergo little or no change for about ten or eleven 
months, when they emerge from the nostril, and bury themselves, soon 
to come forth in the form of the fly. There is no reason why a lamb 
may not be affected with grub in the head ; and the larger breeds of sheep 
are more likely to be injured than the smaller and more active kind, 
which can more dexterously avoid the attempts of the fly to deposit 
its eggs in the nostril. We think, however, grub in the head is very 
seldom fatal to sheep. 

Mr. William F. Page, of Lynchburg, recently put a large number 
of bass in Pea Creek, at Martin's Station, in Pulaski, for Col. McDonald, 
Fish Commissioner. It cannot be long now before this elegant fish will 
abound in all the upper waters of New River and its tributaries. The 
Greenbrier has been abundantly stocked by the West Virginia Commis- 
sion ; and if we are to depend upon precedent, in a few years more the 
fishing will be good. 

We are very much gratified to learn that the sheep sale of Gen. Meem 
proved a handsome success. Six hundred persons from various States 
were present. We had promised ourselves the pleasure of being present, 
and regret that circumstances prevented. The sheep sold well, as the 
times are, and the sale aggregated some $4,000 for about two hundred 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 557 

sheep, most of them bred by Gen. Meem. We are confident that 
Virginia is bound to take a prominent position in the business of stock 
breeding, and we have anxiously awaited the result of this pioneer enter- 
prise on the part of Gen. Meem. It has proven a very satisfactory suc- 
cess ; one reason for which, we think, was the liberality of the transpor- 
tation lines, both as to bringing persons to attend the sale at low rates 
and furnishing facilities for prompt and cheap shipments of stock sold. 
In no direction is liberality so sure to pay as in the matter of fares 
and shipping rates by transportation lines. Whatever be the wares offered, 
the merchants will sell much or little according as the price is high or 
low. If railroads will reduce fares one-half, four times the number of 
people will travel. We hope that others of our leading stock breeders 
will follow the example set by Gen. Meem, and profit by his enterprise. 
There are Shorthorn breeders among us who can furnish an attractive 
sale catalogue. Breeders may at first combine their means and bring to 
bear upon their enterprise the power of associated capital, which is in- 
deed a wondrous power and little known among farmers. Gen. Meem 
will repeat his sale next year and has already purchased some of the 
best Cotswolds in Canada. 



CONDUCTED BY DR. THOMAS POLLARD, COMMISSIONER OF AGRI- 
CULTURE OF VIRGINIA. 



Wheat Seeding is the great work for the month of October, though 
no doubt much wheat has been seeded in the Valley and Piedmont, and 
there is a general disposition to earlier seeding throughout the State, as 
far as we are informed. Many judicious farmers think it safer to get 
the advantages of stronger rooting by Winter to avoid killing by severe 
cold, and earlier seeded is less apt to have rust. These two advantages, 
outweigh, in the minds of many, the damage of "fly," which seems of 
late years less prevalent. As to the kinds of wheat to sow, we presume 
that farmers in Lower and Middle Virginia, and in many other portions 
of the State will sow principally Fultz and Lancaster. Some think well 
of Amber, and we know of one field of 40 acres, in Henrico county, 
which yielded of this 20 bushels to the acre. The land was very good, 
and only $100 worth of fertilizer was used. In the northern portion of 
the Valley, particularly in Shenandoah, the " Early Prolific " is reported 
to have yielded best. 

The farmer must be up and doing now, as he has no time to lose in 
this important crop. It is presumed the fallowing is done. The land 
3 



558 THE SOUTHERN [October 

must be put in fine tilth by dragging and re-dragging. If the fallowing 
was done early, re-plowing with one-horse plow may be necessary to kill 
the grass, but it is the opinion of many good farmers that this should be 
avoided by occasional dragging to keep down the grass, for wheat likes 
a compact soil, and loose land and continuities of soil prevent the roots 
spreading and getting good hold by Winter. The quantity to sow per 
acre has been considerably discussed recently. The general result of 
inquiries, we think, has been about one bushel by drill, and one and a 
quarter broadcast. This quantity should be modified to some extent by 
the locality, size of the grain of the different wheats, and time of seed- 
ing. Some farmers, in the Valley and Piedmont, sow as much as one 
and a half bushels, and some, in other sections, sow this quantity, if the 
seeding is late and the grain large. Some few sow as little as three 
pecks with the drill, and, perhaps, some that quantity broadcast. We 
should be afraid to trust the latter amount broadcast, unless the seeding 
was in September, and the ground in excellent order. Some object to 
having the ground too fine, as small clods protect the wheat from freez- 
ing, and this was the doctrine of the late Edmund Ruffin, who was a 
successful wheat raiser. He generally left his land in what would be 
considered a rather rough condition. For the same reason, the roller is 
objectionable after wheat, as it leaves the surface flat, with no protection 
from cold. If it is necessary, from any cause, to use the roller, then it 
would be preferable to run the drag after it to rough up the surface 
some. 

Eastern and Middle Virginia is not pre-eminently a wheat region, for 
the failures here on good land with good preparation are very frequent. 
We have had but one really good crop since the war — that of last year — 
and it becomes a question w T hether the farmers should not cultivate Win- 
ter oats, or some other crop in its place. The causes of this failure in 
our wheat crops may be various. Mr. Hill Carter expressed the opin- 
ion that the want of lime in the soil is one great cause of the failure of 
the w 7 heat crop so frequently. We suspect that the want of phosphate 
of lime — phosphoric acid and nitrogen being the first principles exhausted 
from soils — has been a more frequent cause of failure. At the same 
time, seasons and climate have much to do with the failure and suc- 
cess — as witness the last year's crop. There is no doubt but what "phos- 
phoric acid" is deficient in most soils, at least in a soluble form, and this 
and nitrogen are the great desiderata in the wheat crop. It may be, 
and it is very probable, that the imperfect crop of wheat for many years, 
has been permitting an accumulation of plant food for wheat, and that 
a favorable season has enabled the wheat plant to seize on and appro- 
priate this accumulated food. We know that nitrogen accumulates in 
land when not cropped much, and particularly where there has been a 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 559 

good growth of artificial or natural grasses. The bones of all animals, 
and the seeds of all plants, have a large proportion of " phosphoric acid" 
in an insoluble form. Thus "phosphoric acid " accumulates in soils, as 
well as ammonia. Now, ammonia renders this insoluble phosphoric 
acid soluble, and th'us may our opinion and theory be true, that " plant 
food " of wheat, on account of bad crops, has been accumulating in the 
soil. Phosphoric acid of the mineral constituents, most often required 
for plant food, is the sparsest, and the most locked up in an insoluble 
condition. Lime, ammonia and salt and sulphuric acid particularly ? 
make it soluble. England, recognizing the necessity of " phosphoric 
acid " for wheat, applies it largely on the turnip crop, which is eaten 
from the fields by stock, and then the land is seeded to wheat. The con- 
stant cropping for wheat without returning the necessary ingredients 
for its growth to the soil in the " Gennessee country " of New York, re- 
duced the crop from more than twenty bushels to the acre, to eight or 
ten. The farmers were forced to change this, and by proper fertilizers 
and manures, we are told that they are bringing their lands back to 
something like their original productiveness. As pertinent to this ques- 
tion, we introduce the following from the Country Gentleman : 

Sheep and Turnip Husbandry, p. 440 — "Are our wheat soils run- 
ning out?" At the close of this truthful communication, it is a«ked, 
" What may we look for fifty years hence?" Sheep and turnip hus- 
bandry carried on as near to the system pursued in England and Scot- 
land as the climate in the .United States will permit, would rescue the 
soil from the exhaustion existing, but even this escape is rejected, and 
the dogs are allowed to be a bar to any recovery of fertility by such 
means, and Southern men in the cotton States persist in growing cotton 
without profit, and buying fertilizers, when the Commissioner of Agri- 
culture in Georgia collected evidence that in 1873, while cotton pai 1 
nothing, wool gave a clear gain of 63 per cent, on the capital employed, 
after an average loss of 15 per cent, by the killing of sheep by dogs. 
The Southern States could all grow crops which would fatten sheep by 
feeding them on the land in the open air without shelter, and whenever 
a good fair trial of English sheep husbandry is made down South, some 
cute mind will invent means of shelter which will give the North a 
chance to follow suit. 

Potash, however, is not to be overlooked in the wheat crop. It is im- 
portant, and particularly so in all our old lands which have been much 
cultivated. Of the ash of the grain of wheat, 31 per cent, consists of 
potash, and 46 per cent, of phosphoric acid. (Johnson — "How Crops 
Grow.") New lands contain a considerable quantity of potash. 

Whatever kind of seed is selected, let it be as clean and free from im- 
purities of all kinds, as far as possible. It is folly to sow indifferent 
wheat, as much so as to attempt to raise good stock from stunted, dis- 
eased parentage. It is poor economy for the farmer to save his own 
wheat for seed, unless it is really good. He had better sell it and buy 



560 THE SOUTHERN [October 

good seed, even if the difference in price be doubled by doing so. It is 
also very unwise to sow wheat on poor land, without fertilizers of some 
kind, or on land insufficiently drained. After seeding, water furrows 
should be run wherever needed, and the plow alone will not answer for 
this. Follow with hoes or shovels, opening thoroughly, so that no water 
will rest on and sob the land. 

Winter Oats. — It is not too late to sow Winter oats. They will 
yield well, gotten in the 15th or 20th of October, if the land is tolera- 
bly good, but not so well as if gotten in earlier, particularly from last 
of August to last of September. One and a half bushels to the acre 
should be used when seeded as late as this, as they have not the same 
chance to tiller, and are more liable to be winter killed. Try to get 
clean seed, for the Winter oat is probably filthy, and will foul the land, 
unless pains be taken to get clean seed. All corn land had better be 
put in Winter oats than in wheat. Indeed, as we have said before, we 
believe Winter oats a more profitable crop than wheat, one year with 
another. They are quite a certain crop if ordinary pains be taken, 
while wheat, with the greatest care, and on the best land, is a very un- 
certain crop. Very few good crops of wheat have been raised in Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina for ten or fifteen years. Winter oats may be 
seeded between the corn while standing, by running a long-tooth culti- 
vator or one-horse drag, hoe hands following and chopping the oats in, 
which have fallen between the corn, or the corn may first be cut down, 
removed, the land broken up, seeded and dragged. We prefer the first 
method, if there is not too much grass on the land, as it enables us to 
get the seed in much earlier, and this crop is good, in proportion to the 
earliness of seeding. When raised for market, we think Winter oats 
should be baled in preference to threshing and selling the grain. If 
baled, there is much less loss from rats. 

Gathering Crops. — This is the month for housing many crops. 
The tobacco raiser has now to look out for " Jack Frost," and cut his 
tobacco in time to avoid this great enemy of all late tobacco. Corn may 
be gathered the last of this month, particularly if the farmer is hard 
pushed for this important feed for his hogs and horses. If not well 
dried, it should be put in pens and carefully covered over, to keep out 
rain. Fodder, if not previously done, should be housed or stacked. 
Potatoes — Irish and sweet — should be dug and carefully put away. 
Some prefer to put them in mounds out of doors, though sweet potatoes 
are safer in properly-prepared cellars or top fodder stacks. Our Hano- 
ver friends dig them in dry weather, put them in cellars or out-houses, 
or in the fodder stacks, carefully covered with " pine-tags " and boards 
to exclude air, using also sometimes dirt in addition. Last year we put 
them in a fodder stack in a hole three feet deep, placing "pine-tags " at 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 561 

the bottom, and also lining the sides with them, and after the potatoes 
were carefully placed in they were well covered with the "tags." Then 
some boards were put on, the joints being broken with other boards ; 
these were then covered with "pine-tags" and then with dirt. The air was 
thus effectually excluded, and the potatoes kept remarkably well. We 
are certain if this plan be adopted, and the hole well covered up each 
time the potatoes are gotten out, that there will be no difficulty in keep- 
ing this excellent and useful vegetable. All cut or injured potatoes 
must be carefully picked out before putting the crop away. We would 
say, also, that the potatoes should be handled as little as possible, and 
put away the evening of the day they are dug. Pumpkins should be 
put away in fodder stacks or cool cellars. 

Hogs must be put up now and be freely fed, that they may be fat be- 
fore cold weather. If this is delayed, we shall find the quantity of corn 
necessary to fatten will be much increased. 

Ditches may be profitably dug in dry weather, which usually occurs 
this month, and the old ones cleaned out. 

Fallowing. — After wheat and oats are put in, and the crops secured 
which. should be put away this month, fallowing should be commenced 
for corn and tobacco and Irish potatoes, and the land which has the 
most cover on it should be first plowed. 

Preparing for Planting Fruit and other Trees. — As the next 
month is an important one for tree planting, we advise those intending 
to plant to look out and engage the trees wanted, endeavoring to make 
a wise and judicious selection of the kinds to plant. Upon this point, 
we shall have something to say next month, as we feel anxious that our 
patrons should be posted in this matter, and not make the mistake that 
is yearly being made by so many, of planting useless and unprofitable 
kinds. Though not pretending " to know all about it," we can at least 
give them our advice and opinion, founded on experience and observa- 
tion for a considerable period. 

Strawberries may well be planted this month and the next when- 
ever the ground is moist enough. For market, plant "Wilson ;" for ta- 
ble use, the Charles Downing, Triomphe de Gand and Lady's Finger, 
will be found the best, though the Triomphe de Gand is a poor bearer. 

We are trying the " Great American " in a small way. This is said 
to be the largest of the strawberries. 

Some persons set out fruit and forest trees last of October, but No- 
vember is soon enough. 

The prospect for the corn crop for the State is good. In some por- 
tions, as usual, it has suffered from drought. Tobacco has improved 
very much with the late rains. At one time on the Southside, it was 



THE SOUTHERN TOctober 



very unpromising. The crop was less in acreage than an average, and 
we suppose it cannot be an average crop. North side of James river 
the crop is generally good. 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

FRUIT PROSPECTS, OF VIRGINIA. 

SYNOPSIS OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE OF 
VIRGINIA ON THE FRUIT CROP OF THE STATE. 

The number of counties of the State is 99, since West Virginia has 
been sliced off. Of these, 68 only reported on fruits. The 17 peach 
counties this year, or those having from an average to full crops, are Ac- 
comac, Gloucester, Stafford and Prince William of the eastern portion 
of the State, on Tidewater; and Franklin, Henry, Montgomery, Wythe, 
Grayson, Washington, Russell, Wise, Lee, Patrick, Smyth, Highland 
and Tazewell in other portions of the State, but principally of South- 
west Virginia. The counties having half crops or one-fourth, or no 
peaches that reported, are 82. Two counties — Stafford and Nottoway — 
report fair crops of seedling peaches. 

It is well known that trees raised from good seed or natural sorts, are 
much more hardy and equally as fine flavored as the best budded varie- 
ties, although, as a general thing, not so large or so showy. We think 
those who have frosty situations should profit by this experience ; and 
have, at least, a fair portion of seedlings in their orchards. The same 
applies to apples, although comparatively few seedlings are really good, 
except for cider, for which they are superior to most grafted sorts. 
There are a few varieties of peaches — such as the Columbia, Tafi's Rare- 
ripe and several others, that produce exactly the same from the seed. 
These are generally propagated by budding, but they had better be 
raised from good seed by those having frosty situations, as the trees are 
produced with less trouble, and such trees are much more hardy and 
durable than grafted sorts. 

As a general thing, wherever the peach has succeeded, the reports 
show a fair average crop of apples and pears. In some counties where 
the peach has partially or entirely failed, there are good or full crops of 
apples. For instance, such counties as Alleghany, Rockingham, Amelia, 
Augusta, Chesterfield, Halifax, James City, Prince William, Roa- 
noke, &c. 

From Mr. Pollard's valuable "Report for June," we have compiled 
the above statement and information in regard to our fruit crop for 
1878 ; from which we learn that small crops of fruit have been or will 
be gathered in Virginia. In our vicinity, the fruit was mostly destroyed 
in the bud on the 8th of January. In many counties southwest of us, 
the peach buds were killed by frost on the 16th of May. About the 
only peaches we had (except on high hills there were a few) were those 
saved by pinning the lower branches of low-headed trees to the ground 
without any covering, the warmth of the earth being sufficient protec- 
tion. In connection with the extreme cold of January the 8th, the un- 
usual high temperature, up to this spell, caused a slight swelling Of the 
buds of our fruit trees, the result of which was fatal to the peach crop, 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 563 

and apples and pears, we believe, were greatly injured at the same time. 
So severe was the shock, that not only the buds of the peach were de- 
stroyed, but the extremities of the branches, including the last growth, 
were killed, and many large and vigorous trees succumbed and died 
during the Spring and Summer. 

In giving this account of our fruit prospect, we do not wish to intimate 
that Virginia is not, in most seasons, among the first of fruit-growing 
States, but that capricious seasons sometimes deprive us of our wanted 
share of these delicious and healthful products of our soil. 

For the information of those wht) cultivate in unfavorable situations, 
according to our observation, the Winesap, Limber twig, Rawle's Genet, 
Sheepnose and the native seedlings were the only generally productive 
sorts. Instead of being discouraged, every farmer who has no orchard 
should plant one this fall, or, at least, a few trees. Now, October, is a 
good time. J. Fitz. 

Keswich Depot, Albemarle Co., Ya. 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

THE HOG. 

" The Hog — The Varieties to Raise, General Management and Diseases. By 
Dr. Thomas Pollard, Commissioner of Agriculture of Virginia." 

It may not be improper to state that it is not the object of the 
writer to make a critical review of this publication, which the Com- 
missioner tells us is an "Essay on an important subject, presented to 
the farmers of Virginia with the view of stimulating the production 
of pork and inducing them to raise a supply of this most essential 
of all meats for their families and laborers; " but I propose to notice 
and comment on certain questions in Circular No. 9 and the replies 
thereto by his correspondents. In the preface to his Circular, the 
author gives us some very interesting statistics, and also in the his- 
tory of the educated hogs shows us that the animal instinct is capa- 
ble of far more cultivation than most persons would believe their 
pigs capable of receiving. His description of "pork killing" time 
takes us back to our boyhood days, when, during winter, my father, 
a bacon merchant, slaughtered several thousand hogs annually, to 
be cured into Smithfield bacon for the Richmond market. Charles 
Lamb should have visited our summer camp-meetings in this section, 
to have enjoyed roast pig, where never a wedding supper is given 
ivithout that roast pig with a red apple in his mouth. Of the uses 
of the hog, the doctor has given us a very fair description, except 
that, perhaps, he forgot to mention the delicious sausage, the lard 
oil, stearine candles, animal matter and bones used as fertilizers so 
extensively from the slaughter-houses in the Western cities. In ref- 
erence to hog manure, our truckers and melon growers in this sec- 
tion regard it as equal in value to stable manure. I regret to see 
that so good a farmer as the doctor threw his ashes (unless they 
were coal ashes) in his hog pens, since we prefer woods mould or dry 



564 THE SOUTHERN [October 

muck for that purpose. If the ashes contained potash, and there 
was not abundant absorbing earth over the corner of the pens, where 
the animals usually make their deposits, we should apprehend loss of 
ammonia. Besides this, wood ashes are too valuable and concen- 
trated a fertilizer to be thus used. 

The author has saved his readers and myself much labor by his 
admirable summary of "information collected from circulars," and 
as every reader of your journal is not supposed to have in hand the 
Essay itself, I will repeat some of tile more important questions. 

1st. What breeds and crosses do you prefer, and what breeds are 
you keeping and have kept, with your opinion of their merits and 
demerits? Now, one of his correspondents, an old gentleman, Mr. 
Sharpe Carter, who has had forty-seven years' experience in breed- 
ing and raising hogs, gives the very best answer, at least in my opin- 
ion, to this question, when he says, "I have tried almost every breed 
known in this country, but have no particular preference for any 
particular one, believing one better for given circumstances and 
localities, and another for different ones." 

I well remember when my father, who, himself, raised and fattened 
mostly on peas and sweet potatoes over one hundred hogs every fall, 
was offered pigs of sundry breeds by the Kentucky and North Caro- 
lina drovers, each claiming his pet breed as the best. His reply was, 
"There is more in the raising- — the corn and the feeding- — than in 
the breed itself; give me an abundance of food, and I can make any 
breed profitable." 

In the summary of the replies we find seventy-eight per cent, in 
favor of the Berkshire as the best breed. There is no question of 
the fact that this is the most perfect hog in form we have, and the 
best fixed in type, hence impresses itself markedly on the natives 
and other made-up breeds. In my experience of several years with 
this breed, starting with a pair received as a present, and said to be 
direct from imported stock, I found the following objections to the 
pure bloods : While young, they did not grow like the grades; both 
boar and sow were wild and vicious, and while the grades, the Jersey 
Beds and Poland- China, were, as pigs, easily made gentle as kittens, 
the pure bred Berkshires would never let me handle and scratch 
their backs when feeding. There is no breed so widely disseminated 
in our State as the Berkshire, which is one reason for the preference 
here given, and I question if the object be to raise pork from native 
sows, one can do better than to use the Berkshire boar. For pens 
and small lots with contracted range, I am satisfied the Jersey Reds 
(which apparently are nothing more than red "White Chester") and 
the Poland- China, perhaps also the small Yorkshire, are by all odds 
to be prefered. I have seen Jersey Reds pigged and grown to ma- 
turity in the same pen, never out of it, sleep, eat and grow right 
along, making one hundred and fifty pounds at six months old, so 
gentle, that the owner could hold them in his arms, and they would 
eat out of his hand. The Poland-China is also docile, and nearly 
as perfect inform as the Berkshire, and, in my experience, most ex- 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 565 

cellent nurses and breeders. The question, then, as to which is the 
best breed for the farmer, must depend very much on his food sup- 
ply, his range, and whether for pork or bacon. He must or ought 
to have some large hogs for lard and to feed the negroes ; for slop 
hogs and to make manure, the Poland-China or Jersey Reds are the 
best pen hogs for the reasons already stated. 

3d question. Age at which breeding may be permitted ? Here, 
again, it is a question of growth and development, and depends much 
on whether the pigs have or ha^ not been steadily pushed forward — 
kept in good growing condition, not too fat. The pelvis of the sow 
must be sufficiently developed to permit her to bring forth her young, 
and her body of sufficient size and strength to nourish her offspring. 
Within two years I have seen three young sows, running at large 
with the boar, die from inability to bring forth their pigs. In gene- 
ral, a well fed sow pig of any breed is able at one year old to nurse 
five pigs. This would make her about eight months old when she 
took the male. 

There is no question in my mind that the improved breeds are less 
prolific than natives, and this is one reason why, for the farmer's 
hog, the majority prefer grades from pure bred boars on native sows. 
As "rambunctious" as a boar shoat, is a common expression among 
the people, and applies to the native boar, but not in my experience 
to the improved breed to such an extent. A pure bred Poland- 
China boar was raised in my rear lot, in town, with several other 
pigs. I never saw him manifest any desire for the other sex until he 
was six months old, and would weigh over one hundred pounds gross. 
Then a gentleman brought two sows in heat to be served. It w T as 
some hours before they could, by teasing him, get up his amorous 
propensities.' After one day and two nights these sows were taken 
away apparently unsatisfied. Both proved with and had pigs. Sub- 
sequently this boar was kept two years in close quarters, and stood 
regularly for the neighborhood. It has repeatedly occurred that sows 
were brought from a distance, served once and taken home, almost 
invariably one service has proved sufficient. A sow brought fifteen 
miles was taken from her box, and the boar served her while the 
farmer was at tea, after which she was replaced in her box and taken 
home. The result was nine pigs. The time to keep a boar depends 
much, in my opinion, on how he is kept. Mine, at two years old, 
grew so heavy that he was useless for my young sows and those of 
my neighbors, and was sold for twenty-five dollars to a breeder who 
had old and large sows. No boar of any improved breed ought ever 
to be allowed to run at large or with the brood sows. Independent 
of the fact that he will probably become mischievous by trying to 
break into neighbors' fields after sows in heat, he is apt to stray off 
and be lost or stolen. Then again, he will degenerate inform. Na- 
ture will give him longer legs to run ; hunger, a thin belly and sharp 
back ; and if he lives long enough, in hunting his food, dame nature 
ever ready to accommodate animals to their circumstances, his nose 
will grow so as to dig roots and hunt food. Sows vary very much 



566 THE SOUTHERN [October 

as to the time when they will take the boar after farrowing. In 
general native sows sooner than improved breeds. Of nine sows on 
the farm, two are native. These — both sisters — have for three years 
past invariably taken the boar within ten days after farrowing, and 
consequently have had three litters in fifteen months. Two litters 
annually is all that should be permitted, and this can only be regu- 
lated by keeping up the boar. 

4th. At what time do you prefer the pigs to come ? While I pre- 
fer to have all the pigs come in March and April, June and July 
pigs, by extra care and feeding, make good family pork in December. 
My experience with October and November pigs is, that they eat 
their heads off in corn during the winter at present prices of pork 
and corn. It is always well, however, to have a dozen shoats kept 
over winter to make large hogs for lard and the negroes. 

5th. Time to alter hogs is well answered; boars should be castrated 
very young, a month old, when they don't appear to mind it ; sows 
ought to be at least two months old, and not too fat, else the operator 
will have trouble in finding the pride or ovaries. Some of our 
farmers, who kill at eight months, never spay all at. 

6th Question is well answered. There is no doubt about the 
policy of keeping brood sows and pigs separate from the other hogs, 
and especially from the boar until his services are wanted. Before, 
as well as after weaning, pigs should be fed better and separate from 
all other hogs. 

7th Question: What are the advantages and disadvantages in 
your experience of cooking, soaking and souring food for hogs ? 

In reference to the advantages of cooking food for fattening hogs, 
I find that on the farm, in the fall, we can gather up a great deal of 
food that is more digestible and palatable to the hogs cooked than 
raw; besides varying the diet, the cooking will make them enjoy their 
corn when given alternately with cooked food. 

The food on which hogs are fattened has a very marked influence 
on the pork and bacon, as witness the pork from the swill of distille- 
ries and the soft pork and bacon from the exclusive feed of peanuts. 
One secret of the excellence of the so-called Smithjield hams was, 
that the hogs ran at large the greater part of the year — their muscles 
hardened by exercise like that of game ; then after gleaning the 
fields in the fall, were fattened exclusively on uncooked corn and 
meal. Cooking food increases the bulk and apparently saves food 
and aids digestion ; and while admirably adapted to fatten hogs for 
pork and lard, to be salted and used as such, I question the policy of 
cooking even corn-meal, during the last two weeks of the feeding, for 
bacon-pork. When the fattening hogs have had field-peas to run on, 
at the same time they are consuming the peanuts left in the ground 
after harvest, we find a very short time after penning and feeding on 
raw corn is required to harden the tissues so as to make tolerably 
good bacon. Even in the coldest weather we can, however, detect in 
cutting up the hogs, the peanut fed pork from that fattened on corn 
and meal alone. The only disadvantage that I know of, except that 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. , r >67 

stated, is the expense of the labor of cooking. My hog man, who 
has been feeding hogs for 40 years past, pursues this plan. He pre- 
fers to collect his wood and feed every Saturday evening, and in a 
kettle, set in masonry, that will hold over 100 gallons, he first pumps 
about one-third full of water; next he adds sweet potatoes, apples, 
cabbage-leaves and then corn-meal, often ears of corn chopped up, 
frequently pumpkins, turnips, anything he can gather up, never 
omitting the corn-meal. The hogs are fed once, often twice daily 
from this mixture, alternately wi% corn shelled in water in the troughs. 
In general, he expects his kettleful to last the twelve hogs a week. 
Ten days or two weeks before the hogs are killed, I think all cooked 
food (for the reason stated) should be omitted and the feed be con- 
fined to corn and corn-meal dough. Ashes frequently added to the 
cooked feed, and not unfrequently fire coals from under the kettle 
are given to the hogs, which they appear to enjoy. 

If we do not raise our pigs we are not apt to find such as would be 
profitable to feed in the market. The reason why grades are pre- 
ferred by a decided majority over pure breeds is, I think, because the 
industry of the natives makes them better foragers in gleaning our 
fields of oats, peas, peanuts and sweet potatoes. The cheapest pork 
the writer had the past year, was a lot of hogs, grades, fed only a 
week on corn during Christmas — fifteen hogs made 2,800 pounds. 
The last of August they went into the melon field of six acres, sown in 
field peas, where water was abundant, then into sweet potatoes, then 
gleaned the corn field where peas and peanuts had been grown. The 
corn-fed pork cost about double, having consumed over thirty barrels 
of corn, and I question if the pork would have brought anything like 
its cost to grow it, but I had a large bank of manure from the pens 
for Irish potatoes and melons. Inadvertently I have answered a 
number of questions and those of the most importance. 

The "Relative value of different food for hogs" gives us a great 
deal of information which the author has collected from various 
sources, and the farmer can see at a glance in the following analysis 
of the "flesh and fat producing material" the comparative value of 
the different kinds of food. 

Thus in 100 per cent, we have of 



Corn, . . . 


80.1 


Peanuts, . 


. . 87.71 


Sweet potatoes, 


31.27 


Chufas, 


. . 63.05 


Peas, . . . 


60.55 







In addition to this, he shows very clearly that their are a number 
of crops "superior to corn in nutritive value, taking into the calcula- 
tion the production per acre." While all must admit that corn is 
essentially the best known food to fatten hogs, and has, in general, 
been the principal food on which they were raised from pighood, yet 
it is our true policy to plant other crops, especially for growing the 
hogs, not omitting a plenteous supply of corn to fatten them. While 
the writer agrees with him in his plan of keeping a boar, he must 



568 THE SOUTHERN [October 

express his entire dissent from his method of curing bacon, a3 too 
expensive in time and labor. 

Our Smithfield hams are acknowledged to be the very best, and 
the following is our plan : We rarely or never cut up the hogs the 
same day they are killed; we want the hog well bled at the killing and 
the animal heat entirely gone before we salt. In general, we use 
equal parts of Liverpool blown and ground alum salt, moistened with 
water in a salt box ; the hams after being nicely trimmed, are first 
rubbed with saltpetre, powdered fin^j on the flesh side, from a tea- 
spoonful for a small ham to a tablespoonful to a twenty-five pound 
ham ; then each ham is rubbed with sugar or molasses, over the salt- 
petre ; now it goes to the salt tray and is well rubbed, skin and 
flesh side ; packed with the middlings and shoulders, the latter also 
saltpetred, all the meat skin down. Unless the pork is very large 
or the weather turns very warm, there is no further handling of the 
meat for twenty-one days. The bloody pickle must be 'permitted to run 
off. The flesh shrinks and shows to the experienced eye that it is 
safe and salt enough. When ready to smoke it is washed clean in hot 
water, and the hams and shoulders are heavily powdered on the flesh side 
with black pepper; it is then hung up in a dark smoke-house, allowed 
to drip until next day; then smokes are made with green hickory or 
red-oak wood, smothered with damp, rotten wood — corn-cobs do very 
well ; we'smoke daily until colored a light orange brown ; kept in a 
dark, clean (often white-wash the inside of our smoke-houses) house, 
we are rarely troubled with the fly and worms. 

Diseases of Hogs. — About two years since this neighborhood 
suffered severely with diseases among the hogs, losing forty myself, 
which in writing about, I called "Hog Plague." If memory serves 
me correctly, I made eight post mortem examinations, all of which, 
without exception, showed inflammation of the lungs or pneumonia. 
Many facts convinced me that it was an epidemic and contagious dis- 
ease, with true blood poisoning, little amenable to any kind of treat- 
ment by physic. Those most doctored died. Hygiene or attention 
to the health of the hogs, regular and proper feed in lots, with fresh 
water, is more to be relied on, I think, in preventing the disease 
than the use of physic in curing it. Charcoal, lime, wood ashes and 
salt, are dyspeptic remedies for hogs, and all very well if they will 
eat. The trouble we had was from the first. The hogs attacked 
went coughing about, with their noses to the ground, and would not 
eat — rarely would drink ; and many of the remedies ("sure cures") 
mentioned by the Doctor were tried in vain. Turpentine was mostly 
used, soft-soap, poke-root, and various teas and compounds. Car- 
bolic acid was freely used on the hogs and pens, and about that, time 
it appeared to cease and none others were attacked. This was a 
mere coincidence I presume. The disease had, like most epidemics, 
expended its force, killing the first attacked quickly, and was milder 
afterwards. 

It is not only my own but the opinion of hog raisers in this section 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 569 

where the "hog plague" has paid us repeated visits, that more can 
be accomplished in avoiding the disease, keeping the hogs in pastures 
with running water, feeding regularly, supplying such condiments as 
salt and ashes in their troughs, avoiding, when the disease is preva- 
lent, all contact with hogs on infected farms, and such measures as 
we doctors call hygienic, than by any kind of medication. In fact, 
we have the same plan to pursue here that is done by boards of 
health and quarantine in our cities to prevent the introduction and 
spread of contagious diseases. 

If hogs are salted regularly, I doubt if they will be attacked with 
worms ; spirits turpentine, easily administered, is doubtless the 
best remedy. The mange or red rust, (as our people call it) is, in 
general, the result of carelessness, attacking mostly penned hogs. 
While I never had a hog affected with it, I would suggest a thorough 
washing with soft-soap and warm water, and applying an ointment made 
of lard and carbolic acid. 

Nansemond Co., Va. G. W. Briggs, M. D. 

Comment. — The writer of the Essay on the "Hog" did not forget to 
mention " the sausage," but praised it (see page 5) ; or the " lard oil " 
spoken of in the form of fat, used hj perfumers, &c. (page 7). We ap- 
prehend little loss of ammonia by putting ashes in hog pens, 'as there is 
only one corner where the manure of the hog is deposited, and the 
ashes were advised for increasing the manure, keeping the pens dry, and 
keeping off vermin, and for these two latter purposes particularly, were 
used about the bedding where the hogs sleep. In this way, nothing 
valuable from the ashes is lost. White hogs are generally condemned. 
See the almost unanimous opinion of our correspondents on this subject. 
White seems in hogs and horses to be a defective color, particularly in 
hogs, which, as a general rule, have less hardy constitutions, and are 
more subject particularly to skin diseases than dark ones. 

Berkshire hogs seem not hard to make gentle and tractable (as see 
Major Venable's management of them, page 40). I witnessed hi3 
handling them and remarked on their tractability. 

As to curing bacon, if the Doctor had said that the "Smithfield hams" 
were the best cured on a large scale for market, I could have agreed 
with him. But they are not comparable to those cured by many Vir- 
ginia farmers for their own family use. They are smoked too much for 
the taste of many persons. The plan I adopt is not an expensive one 
for hams cured for one's own use. It was not intended to be recom- 
mended for curing for market. Almost every family keep their hams 
for the table and sell other parts. 

The remedies mentioned for "hog cholera," let it be remembered, were 
not recommended by me as "sure cures," but only as what were advised 
by other persons. The Doctor's, it must be conceded, is a very interest- 



570 THE SOUTHERN [October 

ing article, and I regretted I did not send ray questions to him to have 
embodied his replies in my essay. I did not know of his being such a 
hog-raiser, having thought of him more in connection with "fruits " and 
vegetables. 



[For the Southern Planter and Farmer.] 

DR. POLLARD'S VALUATION OF FERTILIZERS. 

In Dr. Pollard's "Valuation of Fertilizers," published in the Dispatch 
of the 13th inst., there is, I think, a very considerable mistake, and one 
which not only injures certain manufacturers, but also the farmers, by 
misleading them. He says : 

"I have not attempted to state the commercial or the money-value of 
the fertilizers — that is, I cannot say to the farmer *this fertilizer is worth 
so much money to you, and thus influence him to buy it on my "ipse 
dixit! 1 The value of a fertilizer is dependent on other things than the 
cost of the ingredients, as the mode and skill used in combining them, 
the adaptation to particular soils, mechanical condition, &c. (See this 
subject in my first annual report.) I have, however, given the commer- 
cial value of the important ingredients, as near as I can ascertain them, 
as follows : 

Available phosphoric acid . . . 12J cents per pound. 

Ammonia . .18 cents per pound. 

Potash . . . 8 cents per pound 

"The soluble and precipitated phosphoric acid together make the available 
phosphoric acid. Some authorities put the insoluble phosphoric acid at 
four cents a pound, but this is doubtful, as it may be a long time in dis- 
solving. 

"Then, to calculate the money-value of the phosphoric acid in a fer- 
tilizer, add the soluble and precipitated together, and multiply that 
amount by 121 cents (the value of one pound), which will give the value 
in 100 pounds, and this product by 20 (twenty times 100 pounds makes 
2,000 pounds, or one ton), and we have the cost of available phosphoric 
acid in a ton. And so of the cost of ammonia and potash." 

According to this rule, I take a fertilizer, which gives of "available 

phosphoric acid " 8 per cent, soluble -f 2 per cent, precipitated — 10 

'per cent., which, at 12£c, makes $1.25 per cwt. It also gives 2 per 

cent, insoluble phosp. lime, at 4c. per pound, = 8c. per cwt., or in all 

$1.33 = per cwt., or $26.66 per ton, value of the phosphate. 

I take another fertilizer, say, of steamed and ground bone, which has 
never been treated with sulphuric acid, and has, therefore, none of what 
Dr. Pollard calls available phosphoric acid, but whose phosphoric acid 
is all pronounced "insoluble," and therefore worth only four cents a 
pound, "but this is doubtful." This places it at only one-third the value 
of the "available," and the total value is only 5ti cents per cwt, or 
$11.20 per ton, or but little over one-third of the other. 

Now, I happen to know at least one case (I can easily find more) in 
which a soluble phosphated fertilizer containing 3 per cent, ammonia 
was used by the side of a steamed ground bone, and therefore an insolu- 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 571 

ble phosphate, containing 4 per cent, ammonia ; and though the results 
of both were the same (and unfavorable) the first year, yet the second 
year the clover on the boned land was two or three times as good as 
that on the land treated with the soluble phosphated fertilizer — in fact, 
it was the difference between a good stand and a comparative failure. 
And I know numerous cases in which that style of bone, at a less price 
than the so called soluble phosphate fertilizers has given equal or greater 
satisfaction. Hence I say Dr. Pollard makes a mistake when he gives 
a formula which rates such a fertilizer at a lower value than the soluble 
phosphates. I think it is worth as much for a present, and more for a 
future, result. 

I have no interest in any fertilizer, but I am only a 

/September 23, 1878. Farmer. 

Comment. — If "Farmer" is correct that undissolved bone "is worth 
as much for a present and more for a future result " than dissolved bone, 
it only proves what I admit and have acted on — that the commercial 
value of a fertilizer is not the agricultural value. If insoluble phos- 
phoric acid is worth on the market only four cents a pound, that is not 
ray fault. This is the valuation of the chemists to the North Carolina 
Department, and a little less than that of the Connecticut Agricultural 
Experiment Station. Prof. Johnson, the Director of the Station, says 
he adopts the trade-values recently found (September 18, 1878) in the 
Connecticut and New York markets, viz.: 

Insoluble in fine bone and fish guano, . . 7 cents per pound. 
In coarse bone, bone ash and bone black, . . 5 " " 

In fine ground rock phosphate, . . . 3J " " 

Or an average of about five cents a pound, and taking the two last to- 
gether, an average of four and a quarter cents. 

In making the remark that the " valuation of four cents was doubtful, 
as it may be a long time dissolving," I had in my mind the insoluble 
phosphoric acid left after the use of sulphuric acid, which phosphoric 
acid failed to be made soluble by this active agent. I had no reference 
to fine ground bone, which I believe to be a very good fertilizer, but I 
probably should have been more explicit. 

I gave the commercial value ^of the fertilizers, expressly declining to 
state that this was the agricultural value. As to ground bone being 
worth more than dissolved bone — such is not the general belief. Chem- 
ists in advising formulas for fertilizers very generally advise dissolved 
bone. Whether the undissolved bone acts well depends upon some con- 
tingencies. Prof. Pendleton (Scientific Agriculture) says, if "unadul- 
terated bone phosphate lime be applied as a fertilizer, in a soil with but 
little organic matter, it would produce but little more than the soil with- 
out it." And again, " one reason why superphosphates act so well is, 
the complete breaking up of the mass into such fine powder as to have 
every part of it exposed to the action of natural solvents in the soil * * 
but their main value lies in their great solubility." 



572 THE SOUTHERN [October 

Other farmers have had experience with these preparations different 
from that of a " Farmer " — probably on account of different condition 
of lands. I, myself, applied some five or six year ago, some ground 
bone, not very fine, obtained from a reliable Richmond manufacturer, 
on a piece of land sowed with oats and clover at the same time of the 
application of the bone (the land being staked off). No effect was visi- 
ble ou the oats or clover, the clover standing for two years, and no effect 
has since been observed on corn, or on tobacco, the latter crop being on 
the land now. I have pointed out this experiment on the land to sev- 
eral farmers. 

Thos. Pollard. 



§wmw §t$mttmtnt. 



CONDUCTED BY MRS. G. JULIAN PRATT. 



MOTHER'S WAY. 



"Oft within our little cottage, 

As the shadows gently fall, 
While the sunlight touches softly 

One sweet face upon the wall, 
Do we gather close together, 

And in hushed and tender tone 
Ask each other's full forgiveness 

For the wrongs that each have done. 
Should you wonder why this custom 

At the ending of the day, 
Eye and voice would quickly answer: 

"It was once our mother's way !" 

The true hospitality of the home is never loudly demonstrative. It 
never overwhelms you with its greeting, though you have not a doubt 
of its perfect sincerity. You are not disturbed by the creaking of the 
domestic machinery, suddenly impelled at unwonted speed for your ac- 
commodation. Quietly it does its work, that it may put you in peace- 
able possession of its results. He is not the true host, she is not the best 
hostess, who is ever going to and fro with hurried action, and flurried 
manner, and unnatural zeal, which implies forced effort to effect a hos- 
pitable appearance, but rather the one who takes your coming with quiet 
dignity and noiseless painstaking ; who never obtrudes attention, yet is 
very attentive all the while; who makes you, in a word, "at home." 

OH, THE BURDENS. 

To an ordinary observer, the mass of people one meets seem happy 
and joyous. Here and there, perhaps, we see a careworn, sad face, but 
the multitude pass on as sunny and smiling as if there was no trouble 
in the world. But could we lift the veil and look beneath this gay ex- 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 571 

terior, we should discover many a hidden grief, so many hearts there are 
that ache and make no sign, and that is not the bitterest sorrow that the 
world sees and knows. Those griefs are the sorest and the hardest to bear 
which must be kept concealed and never spoken of. 

Mourning and crape may well be termed "the luxury of woe," for they 
invite sympathy and permit the tender of friendly help and consolation. 
Even the world hushes its gay laugh and ceases its jest at the sight of 
the veiled mourner. 

But the deeper grief must be hidden as much as possible from mortal 
sight, because the sensitive and agonized sufferer cannot endure the harsh 
comment of the world, nor the well-meant but torturing pity of friends. 
Only in secret, and when no eye but God's can see, can these sad ones 
weep. — Christian Intelligencer. 

The First Stain. — Did our young readers ever think how little it 
takes to stain their character? A single drop of ink is a very small 
thing, yet dropped into a tumbler of clear water, it blackens the whole; 
and so the first oath, the first lie, the first glass, they seem very trivial, 
yet they leave a dark stain upon one's character. Look out for the first 
stain. — Ex. 

TRUST. 
Make a little fence of trust 

Around to-day ; 
Fill the space with loving work, 

And therein stay. 

Look not through the sheltering bars 

Upon to-morrow; 
God will help thee bear what comes 

Of joy or sorrow. — Ex. 

A Woman's Question. — Which is the most economical for farmers — 
to attend to their meals promptly, at the ring of the bell, or defer it 
from fifteen to thirty-seven and a half minutes, and keep a hard-working 
woman in a fret that length of time? — Godey's Lady's Booh. 

MATS AND RUGS. 

Mats and rugs are such indispensable accessories to the comfort of a 
home and are so easily made that no one who has ever had them will be 
willing to do without them. Fo'r the outside door one can be made out 
of corn-husks, nicely braided and sewed together in a round or square 
form, and is so nice for the men and boys to clean their feet on and save 
the wife and mother a great deal of labor in cleaning with broom and 
mop. If one does not want a carpet down, a rug is indispensable here 
and there and gives the room an air of cosy comfort and warmth. Al- 
most any house-keeper can make them, and, with the help of children 
to cut and sew rags, the ragbag is a fruitful source of material. This 
same receptacle usually swallows enough to furnish a whole house, if 
properly economized, with mats, provided you have the foundation to 
work upon. A common coffee-sack is very good material and inexpen- 
sive. Tack it into a frame. (I made mine of common lath.) Mark 
4 



572 THE SOUTHERN [October 

out your plan then with rags stripped as for rag-carpet, about an inch 
wide. With a rug-hook draw them first down from above, then up from 
below, and draw the rag tight underneath, leaving it an inch or more 
high on the upper side, to be trimmed when finished. I have one two 
and a half by five feet. The border is black and deep. Then several 
alternate rows of calico and red flannel. Then the center filled in, in 
diamonds of red, brown, and light shades. This for hall, front of bed 
or stove, is very handsome and durable. It is some work to make it, 
if you make it alone and do your own work, as I did. If one prefers 
to sketch her pattern, the center can with little more trouble be made 
to imitate the Turkish rug patterns. Another is a square rug, the foun- 
dation of any firm old cloth. An old salt-sack is very good. Take 
your rags of any desirable color. Wind them on a "long flat stick. 
(Mine I took from the lower end of the window shade.) Fasten the rags 
at the end. Now lay a cord of wrapping-twine on one edge, and sew 
firmly over this through every turn of the rags, which will hold them 
firmly in place. Then with a sharp knife cut the rags on the opposite 
edge from one end to the other of the stick. Lay aside the fringe, and 
proceed in your work till you get enough fringe for your mat. Then 
form your plan, and with a strong thread sew the fringe on to your foun- 
dation. You can bind the edge of your foundation first. 

Another one is made from square pieces of odds and ends of refuse 
rags of any material, laid four or five together and tied with strong 
thread, placed thickly together on any foundation, and will be very sat- 
isfactory to place before a toilet-table. Braided rags make very pretty 
mats, sewed together in any pretty fashion, for hall or bedroom. I have 
made them by crocheting the rags, and it is very easily done and they 
are very substantial. — Lady's Floral Cabinet. 

Setting Hens. — There is no expression in the English language in 
the use of which the people make more mistakes than in speaking of 
sitting hens, or hens that sit, or desire to sit. These errors arise from an 
imperfect knowledge of the use of the verbs to sit and to set. To sit, as 
we all know, is the act of sitting, as in a chair or on a nest; but to set is 
the act of placing a thing in some place or position, as eggs in a nest; 
so we can correctly say a setting of eggs. We can also say> " I have set 
a hen," because it required either some act of ours to place her on the 
nest, as putting eggs in it and setting the hen thereon, or she went upon 
voluntarily, by which act she set herself upon the eggs; but as soon as 
she adjusted herself in the nest she becomes a sitting hen. We should, 
therefore say, "A hen sits, is sitting, or desires to sit," and " a setting of 
eggs for a hen I am going to set that wants to sit;" and in no case can we 
properly say "a setting hen," or " a hen that wants to set," etc. — Ameri- 
can Dairyman. 

Toilet Mats. — One set, having pretty effect, is made from gray and 
white striped single-faced Turkish toweling, each piece — bureau, stand, 
bracket, and cushion-covers — edged with crochet work in blue worsted, 
and a row of cross-stitch in blue work on the cloth as a head to the bor- 
der. It may be any color to suit the room. 

Smilax. — You can best raise smilax from seed, of which any seeds- 
man can supply a paper. Sow the seed in a pot in spring and transplant 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 573 

the young plants to pots of rich sandy loam. They will grow rapidly 
and from thick, fleshy roots somewhat resembling those of asparagus. 
These roots are perennial and the plants grow stronger every year. The 
roots should be dried off in summer, but not be so dry as to shrivel. The 
flowers are white and delightfully fragrant. The fruit is a dark-red 
berry. Smilax will not grow from slips. 



DOMESTIC RECEIPTS. 

Quince and Apple Butter. — Ingredients. — FiVe pounds of quinces, 
ten pounds of sour apples, seven and a half pounds of sugar. Pare, 
core, and quarter the fruit ; boil the quinces, barely covered with water, 
until tender, then add the apples; when soft add sugar, and boil slowly 
several hours, or until as thick as desired. Stir occasionally, and towards 
the last very often, to avoid burning. 

Grape Catsup. — Ingredients. — Five pounds of ripe grapes, two and 
a half pounds of sugar, one pint of vinegar, one tablespoonful of cina- 
mon, one tablespoonful of cloves, one tablespoonful of allspice, one table- 
spoonful of pepper, half a spoonful of salt. Boil the grapes in enough 
water to prevent burning, strain through a colander; add the other in- 
gredients, and boil until a little thickened. Bottle and seal. 

Scalloped Oyster Plant. — Ingredients. — One and a half pound 
of stewed plant, three ounces of butter, half a gill of milk, two table- 
spoonfuls of salt, a pinch of Cayenne pepper. When the oyster plant is 
boiled tender, rub it through a colander ; add part of the butter and all 
the other ingredients. Mix well, put in a baking dish, cover the top 
with grated bread-crumbs and the rest of the butter. Bake it a deli- 
cate brown, and serve hot. Celery salt may be used for half the quan- 
tity of salt, and gives a delicious flavor. — Godey's Lady's Book. 

Snow Sponge Cake — One cupful of flour, a little heated, one and 
one-half cupfuls sugar, two tablespoonfuls cream tartar, mixed with flour 
(no soda), whites of ten eggs. This makes a very white, beautiful cake. 

Floating" Island. — Set a quart of rich milk to boil ; when it does 
so, stir into it two small tablespoonf als of white sugar, and the beaten 
yolks of six eggs ; flavor with lemon or rose, or peach water ; whip the 
whites to a high froth ; when the custard is thick, put it into a deep china 
dish and heap the frothed eggs upon it; it may be finished by putting 
spoonfuls of jelly or jam over the frothed eggs, and serve. 

Exchanges. — The blanks in our last number ought to have been 
filled in as follows: Ladies' Floral Cabinet, number 46 Beekman st., New 
York. Terms $1.20 a year. 

Our ladies could not secure a better guide for Floracltuure and fancy 
work. 



574 THE SOUTHERN [October 



€ilttovia! — (jbntral 



THE STATE FAIR. 

Remember, dear friends, that the State Fair is near at hand, and that 
every one of you is expected to do something towards making it a great 
success. Of what avail are the continued efforts of Major Drewry and 
Col. Knight, and ttie Executive Committee, in this behalf, unless you 
second them with all your might ? We complain that the agricultural 
interest in Virginia is in a bad way; it certainly will never improve if 
we spend our time only in groaning over it. The harder the times are 
the harder we must all work to make them better. Let us attend more 
to our own business, and let those awful people, the " money-changers " 
and the " bondholders " alone. We have been worried quite long enough 
with them ; a change now would do us good. It is plain that they are 
going to hang on to those bonds though we rail at them until our breath 
is gone. The world owes no man a living ; he owes it to himself, else 
he should forthwith cut that beard off of his face. That beard is the 
mark of a man, and not a slave. 

Come to the Fair. The State Agricultural Society was instituted for 
your benefit. The patriotic men in charge of it have worked, in season 
and out, to^make this benefit an absolute reality ; let not then their strife 
be in vain. 

The Society, for the greater convenience of the people, have most com- 
modious rooms, and an ample showing to accommodate a large meeting 
every night during the Fair. These rooms are located in Wilkinson's 
Hall, on Ninth Street, a few doors north of Main Street. The buildings 
at the Fair Grounds have all been put in complete order, and every ar- 
rangement necessary to the comfort of the exhibitor provided. The boys 
and the girls, as well as the father and the mother, must be on hand, 
and more than that, put there some evidence of their industry and thrift. 
We can all exhibit something. 

You will go back to your homes with more cheerfulness in your hearts 
than when you left, and the belief, which is true, that the Common- 
wealth of Virginia may yet hold her own in the race of progress and 
prosperity. 

A SPECIAL WORD IN REFERENCE TO THE TOBACCO TAX. 
As soon as Congress convenes, Mr. Ran. Tucker will open the fight with vigor 
on the tobacco tax. We understand he was twitted last session by members 
from the North and East, with observations like this : " How is it, Mr. Tucker, 
if this tax bears so grievously on your people, why don't they say so, and not 
leave you to do it all ? If our people deemed themselves aggrieved, in any di- 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 575 

rection Congress was held competent to remedy, petitions, and plenty of them, 
.would be found here as long as the moral law." It was the truth ; the Virginia 
planter had nothing to say. The condition of the tobacco market this year cer- 
ainly ought to convince the most stupid man that this bow-string, drawn a little 
tighter, will strangle the interest to death. 

Winter before last, Mr. Tucker's committee examined, under oath, a number 
of large tobacco manufacturers. Among them was Mr. Catlijst. In answer to 
Mr. Tucker's question as to the effect of this tax on low grade tobaccos (and 
unfortunately too much of our crop is of that sort), Mr. Catlin said : ''The pres- 
ent high rate of tax is driving the low grades of tobacco out of the market. 
The producer can't dispose of it at any price." We see the perfect realization 
of this statement in the accounts of sales now returned to planters by their mer- 
chants ; good lugs, the like of which several years ago brought $6 to $8 per hun- 
dred, have sold this season as low as fifty cents per hundred. Of course, men 
can pay debts and support their families with a vengeance on such prices! 
" What, now is to be done? The planters, in every tobacco county in the State, must 
see to it that a meeting is called for next court day, to petition Congress to relieve 
us at least in part, of this most onerous and tyrannical tax. These petitions sent 
to Mr. Tucker, (his postoffice address is Lexington, Va.) and presented by him, in 
a lump, as soon as Congress opens, will prove more effective than all the speeches 
he can possibly make. He and Mr. Cabell did all, at the last session, that men 
could do ; it is time now for the people they are working for so zealously to lend 
a hand ; and these petitions will do the work. 

It is certain that, if we do not look out for our own interests, we should not 
complain if they flounder. 

A convention of tobacco men will be held this month in Cincinnati, to consider 
the matter of the tax, and a representative of the Internal Revenue Bureau has 
been invited to be present. Let the work of our people, as we have indicated, 
be added to this effort for their relief. 



THE TUCKAHOB FARMERS' CLUB. 

The September meeting of the Club was held at "Ellerslie" the residence of 
Dr. Thomas M. Deitrick, on the James river, eleven miles above Richmond. 
This is one of the most beautiful and valuable estates on the river. It contains 
750 acres, and is well timbered. The low grounds are very rich, producing some- 
times sixteen barrels of corn to the acre, and thirty bushels of wheat. This land 
produced last year the best tobacco we ever saw. The Doctor has greatly im. 
proved the high lands, and in a few years it will be as rich as the low grounds. 
The farm is enclosed by a good plank and rail fence. The low land has been 
improved by thorough draining, and is now well set in orchard, timothy and 
herds grass. A very large crop of hay has been cut this year, and is now being 
baled for market. 

The principal crops raised are tobacco, wheat, corn, oats and hay. The im- 
provements consist of a large brick dwelling, situated in a beautiful grove of 
oaks, maples, elms, &c, commanding a magnificent view up and down the James 
for miles. The outbuildings are good, and suitable for such a farm. 

Dr. Deitrick devotes all his time to his farm, and its great improvement shows 
he understands his business. Particular attention is paid to his stock and mak- 
ing manure. His horses and mules are fat, and cattle in good condition. He is 
pursuing the right course in crossing them with the Jersey. He has had the mis- 



576 THE SOUTHERN [October 

fortune to lose many of his fine hogs this summer by cholera, but he has suc- 
ceeded in arresting the disease. His industry and enterprise is worthy of imita- 
tion. 

The Club discussed at length the proper quantity of wheat to be seeded per 
acre, after which a resolution was adopted stating that, in the opinion of the Club, 
from four to five pecks broadcast and three to four pecks drilled, was the proper 
quantity — amount varying as to the tilth, time of seeding and size of the berry 



Bendover. — Recently we had the pleasure of visiting this magnificent James 
River farm, some twenty miles above Richmond, owned by Mr. James Murray 
of London, England. It contains about fourteen hundred acres, two hundred of 
which is fine bottom land, the remaining portion is in good tilth and is being rap- 
idly improved under the intelligent supervision of Mr. William U. Kennon, who 
has, for a number of years, been managing it in the absence of Mr. Murray. 
The principal crops cultivated, are corn, wheat, oats, and hay. "Bendover" 
however, is more of a stock than a grain farm, and besides the large crops of 
grain, we noticed eleven acres of mangel wurtzel, ruta-bagas, and carrots, as fine 
as we ever saw. The farm is stocked with a fine head of forty-five thoroughbred 
Devons, equal to any in the country, a number of these having been imported 
by Mr. Murray. At the head of this herd stands "Master James,"" a four year 
old bull' which took the first two prizes at the Royal Agricultural Society, Bir- 
mingham, England in 1875 and 1876, and the first premium at the Virginia State 
Agricultural Society in 1877. "Nella," the second on the English Stock Book, 
four years old, also took two first premiums in 1875 and 1876, at the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society. We might mention others of equal merit. Mr. Kennon has 
some eight or ten yearling bulls of great beauty at reasonable prices. 

Equally as attractive are the Shropshiredown Sheep of "Bendover." They 
number some eighty-five, and a finer breed of sheep we doubt can be found in 
the State. The Executive Committee of the State Agricultural Society at a late 
meeting offered special premiums for this herd of sheep, and we hope Mr. Ken- 
non will be on hand with them at our next fair. The sheep and cattle sheds of 
"Bendover" are most conveniently arranged. Mr. Kennon will please excuse 
us for saying (for he is a very modest young gentleman) that we have never seen 
in our extensive travels among the best farmers and stock raisers of the State a 
better managed farm or better kept stock and teams than we saw at "Bendover." 



Mr. R. Peters, the great thoroughbred stock-raiser of the South, has sent to 
Colonel George Watt, of this city, a package of pea vines grown on his planta- 
tion in Georgia.' One vine of the number sent weighed, green, 4f pounds, and 
measured 16£ feet in length. This seems to be incredible, but such is the fact, 
the Colonel and ourselves carefully measuring the same together with a tape line. 

Mr. Peters calls this pea the "Couch" variety, and says that "if planted 4x4 
in June, one pea in a hill will, in thirty days, cover the ground." Mr. Peters has 
promised us an article for the Planter on the cultivation and varieties of peas as 
an improver. We will be greatly obliged to him for it. No subject would be 
more interesting to our readers. 

WE'are indebted to Dr. JohnR Page for his valuable report of "Experiments 
in Wheat and Beet Culture" on the experimental farm at the University of Va. 
Dr. Page is doing a good work in this behalf, and we wish this report could be 
read by all our farmers. 



1878.] PLANTER AND FARMER. 577 

"Thistlewood." — During a recent visit in the neighborhood of Gordonsville, 
we drove out to this beautiful farm, owned by our friend, Mr. Arthur Daven- 
port. It was formerly known as " Egypt," on account of its productiveness. 
Mr. Davenport is strongly in favor of permanent pastures, and has most of his 
cleared land in a good orchard and meadow oat grass. We saw his flock of 
grade ewes, with which he has taken several premiums at our State Fairs. With 
them was a fine yearling Oxfordshiredown ram, obtained from Mr. Harrison, of 
Maryland (who purchased several of the imported specimens of that breed at 
the Centennial exhibition). We also saw that favorite English fowl, the Dorking, 
of which Mr. Davenport has some extra fine specimens — bearing off first pre- 
mium whenever shown. We could only note that plowing was going on for win- 
ter oats and wheat, and get a distant view of some grade Shorthorn heifers, by a 
bull of our friend Ficklin's raising. Mr. D., however, thinks the Devon would 
suit this locality better. 

Imperfsct as was our inspection, we saw enough to show that under the present 
policy of Mr. D., " Thistlewood " will soon become an excellent little stock- 
raising farm. Our friend, Mr. Davenport, is an Englishman, and we would re- 
joice to know that all of his countrymen were as well satisfied with their adopted 
State, and doing as well as he. 



During a recent visit to Charlottesville we noticed with great pleasure the 
splendid improvement of the road leading from that place to Monticello under 
the supervision and direction of Mr. H. L. Lyman. Had we a man in every neigh- 
borhood of the same public spirit, intelligent zeal and activity as Mr. Lyman, 
who would follow his example in this regard, in a few years the prices of our 
lands would almost double their present value. 



Mr. Geo. W. Palmer has recently sold to Mr. J. G. Meem, Jr., his Short- 
horn Bull, ''Albert Edward." Mr. Palmer has filled his place by purchasing 
another bull of very superior excellence. 



We have received from the publishers a new work "Talks on Manures," by 
Joseph Harris, Morton Farm, Rochester, N. Y. The author's "Walks and talks 
on the Farm" have probably been more widely read than any other Agricultural 
writing of the day. The work on manures is in a similar style, in which the re- 
sults of scientific investigation and the best farm practice are given, divested of 
all technicalities, in a pleasing, colloquial manner, just as a knot of intelligent 
farmers would talk when they come together. In its practical teaching, and the 
common sense reasoning: that perva les its pages ; it is not only unlike any other 
work, but is a really valuable addition to the small class of books that give the 
best practice based upon the best science. For sale bj Orange Judd and Co. 
New York, at $1.50. 



From the National Journal of Education, Boston, Mass. — A movement 
in the right direction has been inaugurated by Dr. Virgil W. Blanchard, who has 
been a contributor of several valuable papers to the Boston Medical and Surgical 
Journal, and now is engaged in the advancement of the Food Cure System, de- 
signed to supplant the use of drugs in the treatment of all debilitated conditions. 
The system is a series of concentrated liquids, manufactured principally from 
the wheat kernel, concentrated and artificially digested by processes well known 
to science. We have not space to go at length into the common-sense theories, 



578 THE SOUTHERN [October 

but have pleasure in saying that the evidences of the value of these Foods are 
conclusive. Our well-known Rev. Dr. Austin Phelps, of Andover, endorses the 
Life Food highly; Prof. John Clark, of Oberlin, has received great benefit; 
numberless physicians from all parts of the country, as well as hosts of private 
individuals, testify to the curative effects of the Blanchard Foods. See adver- 
tisement. 



It gives us pleasure to call the attention of the readers of this paper to an ar- 
ticle of such merit as the Ayres' Hernia Truss, because, in the first place, of its 
intrinsic value to those needing such things, and in the second place, it is made 
in our own State, where money paid for them recurs to the benefit of our own 
citizens and the payment of our own taxes. This truss stands in the front rank 
as a superior appliance for reducing difficult hernia of any kind, as is shown by 
the many certificates from the best physicians and surgeons in the United States. 
Should any one want anything of the kind, apply to Mr. Samuel Ayres, maker, 
Richmond, Va. 

PARTICULARS OF A FARM FOR SALE 

IN THE PIEDMONT SECTION OF VIRGINIA. 

The Farm contains 513 acres, of which all but about 80 are cleared. It is sit- 
uated in a most healthy neighborhood, at the foot of the Southwest Mountains. 
The property adjoins Gordonsville, a rising town of nearly 2,000 inhabitants, 
with churches, public and private schools, numerous stores, hotels, &c, and is 
within half a mile of the railway depots of the lines of railway running to a 11 
points, which pass through the town. Gordonsville is seventy-six miles from 
Richmond, ninety miles from Alexandria, ninety-seven from Washington, and 
one hundred and thirty miles from Baltimore, at all of which places there are 
good markets for all kinds of produce. 

The buildings on the farm consist of a comfortable house, very prettily sit- 
uated in a grove of trees, fronted by a lawn and flower border, and contains 10 
rooms, with large entrance hall, verandah and 2 cellars ; a tenant's house, with 
outbuilding ; 3 laborers' houses, poultry, wood, ice, tool and carriage houses ; 
stabling for 10 horses ; corn-house, granary, meat-house, one large barn (80x60 
feet) ; one smaller barn, together with cattle and sheep yards, surrounded by 
covered sheds. Adjoining the barn is the engine shed, containing a twelve-horse 
power stationary engine, with shafting and belting complete, together with the 
following machinery worked by it: Corn Mill, Feed Cutter, 2 Cord- wood Saws, 
1 Rip Saw, Grindstone. Grain Separator, Grass and Clover Seed Thresher. All 
the above are in good working order. 

Near the House is the Kitchen Garden and Orchard of Apple, Peach, Cherry 
and other trees in full bearing. The property is well fenced and drained, and is 
divided into enclosures of about 50 acres, each field having a never-failing stream 
of water running through it. There is a pump of spring water near the house, 
one in the stock yard, and another in the engine-house. The farm is bounded 
on the south by the high road to Orange Courthouse, and on the west by the 
high road to Liberty Mills and the Valley District ; it adjoins the vineyard of 
Dr. Cadmus, and much of the land is well suited to the growth of vines. 

Nearly all the land is in Grass and Clover, and the property is admirably 
adapted for a Stock or Sheep Farm. 

With the property the purchaser will be required to take, at a fair valuation, 
the Live Stock, Implements, &c, about 120 tons of well-cured hay, a quantity of 
other feed, together with the growing crops. The purchaser will have the option 
of taking the House Furniture on the same terms. 

The price of the land and buildings is $30 per acre (less than two-thirds of the 
cost to the present owner within the last four years), and $1000 in addition for 
the engine and machinery as above. 

The purchase money, in all $16,390, maybe paid as follows: $4,390 cash, and 
$800 a year for fifteen years, with interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum 
on balance unpaid. These terms will remain open until December 31, 1878. 

It might be arranged to divide the property into two farms of about 313 and 
200 acres, with necessary buildings on each. 

Any further particulars can be obtained by applying to 

DICKINSON & CHEWN1NG, Richmond, Va« 

We are well acquainted with this farm, and think it very cheap. — D. & C. 



THE BL&MCHARD 







is a pure concentrated liquid food prepared directly from the Wheat Kernel, with- 
out fermentation, and retaining all of its Blood, Nerve and Brain restoring ele- 
ments in a natural state of vitalization. 

Nervous debility, which underlies all forms of chronic disease, is speedily 
overcome by the use of this Food. 

"For the year past, I have constantly prescribed The Blanchard Blood and 
Nerve Food to my patients of all ages, from eighteen months to eighty-three 
years. In every case the result has been exactly that claimed by you. It is, by 
far, the most valuable and reliable tonic I have ever met with." 

Edward Sutton Smith, M. D., 
20 Irving Place, New York. 

Food at Last a Substitute for Drugs. 

Food is made a curative agent by concentration and artificial digestion, and it 
is so simple in its application that the advice of physicians is not required. 

Thousands of recoveries from chronic diseases are reported, where the best 
medical skill has failed. 

Many of the best physicians throughout the country are discarding drugs and 
using the Blanchard Blood and Nerve Food with the most gratifying results, 
permanently relieving all forms of physical and mental debility. The Dyspeptic 
and Consumptive patient, sufferers from Malarial or Blood Poisoning, together 
with the entire list of complaints peculiar to the female sex, find in the use of 
this Food sure and speedy relief. 

New York, November 26, 1877. 
Dr. V. W. Blanchard : During the past year I have prescribed your various 
preparations of Food Cure, and feel happy to say they have met my most san- 
guine expectations, giving to patients long enfeebled by blood poison, chronic 
disease, or over drug dosing, the needed nutrition and nerve force. 

Prof. Clemence S. Lozer, M. D., 
Dean of Horn. Med. College and Hospital for Women, New York City. 
Hundreds of cases of Bright' s Disease of the Kidneys have been reported 
cured. For Neuralgic and Rheumatic Diseases, it is almost a specific. Physi- 
cal and Mental Debility from the use of Alcohol, Opium and Tobacco, or from 
any unnamable cause, find in thsi Food a natural and potent remedy. For the 
intellectual worker, 

The Blanchard Blood & Nerve Food 

affords a certain and natural means of supplying the waste of the brain, resulting 
from labor, that will enable him to do better and more work than ever before, 
without danger of mental strain. 

As a remedy for the loss of appetite and want of vigor, physical and mental, 
in children, this Food has no rival. 

$1 Per Bottle, or Six for #5. 

SOLID BY J±JL>Tu DRUGGISTS, 
Or sent by Express on receipt of Price. 

Andover Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass., March 29, 1878. 
Your Life Food is an excellent thing. I have no hesitation, after a thorough 
' trial of it, in recommending it in cases of chronic dyspepsia arid nervous pros- 
tration. Rev. Dr. Austin Phelps. 

The Blanchard Food Cure System now receiving such popular appreciation, 
is clearly set forth in a sixty-four page pamphlet, which will be sent to any ad- 
dress on receipt of 25 cents. Address 

BLANCHARD POOD CURE COMPANY, 

oc— 4t 27 Union Square, New York. 




RUPTURE 



T T T * T 'T 

tK^TF RUPTURED. Send 
at once for Dr. Pierce's NEW 
Illustrated Book. Address 
Magnetic Elastic Truss 
Co., G09 Sacramento St., San 
Francisco, California. 
CURED! 



Virginia Female Institute 

STAUNTON, VIRGINIA. 

Rev. R. H. Phillips, Rector, assisted by a full 
corps of experienced officers. The 24th annual 
session will commence September Ilth; 1878. 
Buildings spacious, with gas and hot and cold 
water. Heated by steam. Extensive grounds. 
Patronage from 19 States. School first-class. 
Terms reduced. Seven churches within three 
minutes' walk. For catalogue, address the 
Rector. au— 3t 

t-^.^n^i^..... ,— .... ■■■■■■ iwmiuHiiMi mm »iiiiji«mT*gsgrax™Ega 

BERKSHIRES FOR SALE. 

A fine lot of well-bred pig boars and 
sows will be sold at moderate rates. 
0. A. CRENSHAW, 
april — tf Richmond, Va. 



"W. "W- ESTILL 
LEXINGTON, KY., 
Proprietor of 

ELM WOOD FLOCK of 
COTS WOLDS, 

From Imported Stock. Young Stock 
For Sale. 

j2££^L-— — s— ■ _. 

(rENRIOKE UNIVERSITY HIGH 
SCHOOL, near Amherst C. H. Va. H. 
i A. STRODE (Math. Medalist, U. Va.,) 
* Principal and Instructor in Mathematics, 
H. C. BROOK, B. Lit. U. Va., (recently Asst. 
Ins. Latin U. Va.,) Associate Instructor. This 
School is strictly preparatory to 'the University 
of Virginia, and embraces in its course every 
branch taught in the High Schools of the 
State. ' 

.For testimonials as to its general character, 
and particularly as to its discipline, its high 
moral tone, and the success of its students, see 
the Catalogues. 

TERMS. FOR HALF SESSION : 

Board and Tuition $125. 

This charge may be reduced in many cases to 
$85, by boarding in private families near the 
School. Seventh session begins SEPTEMBER 
12th, 1878. 

TESTIMONIAL. ' 
The success which the KENMORE HIGH 
SCHOOL has achieved under the energetic and 
conscientious administration of the Principal 
and his able Assistant, and the preparation and 
training of its pupils, who have entered the 
University of Virginia, have fully justified the 
recommendations of this excellent School to 
the public, at its beginning. I regard it as a 
very successful educational foundation, and I 
trust it will continue for many years to do its 
good work for our State and country. 

C. S. VENABLE. 
aug— 3t Prof. Ma*h., U. Va. 

QfT 4.- dhjOfl P er day at home. Samples 
<P0 10 KP^U worth $5 free. STINSON & 



CO., Portland, Maine. 



jan-ly 



THOROUGHBRED ESSEX PIGS for 
SALE, bred from Prize Winners 
at the State Fair of 1876. 
This family of Essex is a cross of the importa- 
tions of Joseph Harris and Samuel Thome, and 
is of the most superior quality. A trial of them 
will convince the most incredulous that the Es- 
sex is the best hog for the Virginia farmer. 
Prices to suit the times. 

R. H. FIFE, 
may— ly Charlottesvlle.Va 

"DERKSHIRES FOR SALE. 

I have some good Berkshire Pigs of 
different ages, and two Berkshire Boars 
twelve months old, for sale. Prices 
moderate. Address 

Dr. THOMAS POLLARD, 

oct — tf Richmond, Va. 



THOROUGHBRED 

BERKSHIRE PIGS 

FOR iS-A^E. 

Bred from stock imported by T. S. 
Cooper, of Pennsylvania. Prices, pedi- 
grees, &c, upon application to 

JOHN M. PAYNE, 

Aug-ly P. 0. Lynchburg, Va. 



(yK Fashionable Cards, no 2 alike, with 
/CO name, 10c. 20 Scroll, with name, 
10c. post-paid. Geo. I. Reed & Co., 
Dec-ly Nassau, N. Y. 

Q£ Elegant Cards, no 2 alike, with 
/gjlname, 10c. 20 Fine Scroll Cards, 
20 styes, 10c, post-paid- 
dec-ly J. B. Husted, Nassau, N. Y 

-"— — "1I II W1II I II M^— — — —— ■■■— IMIMII ■■ 

TROTTING & HARNESS HORSES 
JERSEY CATTLE (herd registered), 
SHETLAND PONIES. 
SOUTHDOWN SHEEP AND BERK- 
SHIRE PIGS. 
For sale by 

CAMPBELL BROWN, 
Spring Hill, Maury co., Tenn. 
ise^— ly 

Fine Stock and Eggs 

FOR SALE. 

BERKSHIRE PIGS from pedigree stock 
$25 per pair. 

ESSEX PIGS of the best strains, $25 
per pair- 

SHORTHORN BULL CALF (regis- ■ 
tered) 4 months old. 

HOUDAN and BLACK B. R. GAME 
EGGS at $3 per dozen. All warranted 
genuine. L. R. DICKINSON. 

Outfit 
TKUE & CO., Augusta, 
Maine. jan-ly 



dN"l Q a day at home. Agents wanted 



terms free. 



Manufacturers of and Dealers in 

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, 

1518-20 Franklin Street, - Richmond, Va. 

Sole Manufacturers of WATT PLOWS and WATT'S PATENT 
FLEXIBLE HARROW. 




WATT PLOWS THE BEST AND CHEAPEST IN USE. 



First Premiums on Two, Three and Four-Horse Plows at last Virginia State 
Fair. First Premiums on One, Three and Four-Horse at Lynchburg. Seven 
First Premiums at last North Carolina State Fair, over all competitors, being the 
Fifth successive vear that these Plows have swept the field there. First Premiums 
on One and Two-Horse Plows at Weldon, N. C. First Premiums on One and 
Two-Horse Plows at South Carolina State Fair. First Premiums at Atlanta, Ga., 
Orangeburg and Cheraw, S. C. 

They are guaranteed to work in sandy, clay and hard land; in sod, stubble, or 
weeds of the heaviest growth, and with 

Less Draught than any Plow In Use. 

-pA^'hv In buying duplicate castings for Watt Plows, all par- 

ties are warned to use only those bearing this TRADE 
MARK. 

All genuine Points, Slides, Moulds, and Standards 
have it. All without it are Spurious, and are made 
and used in violation of law. All genuine are warrant- 
ed. 

'^£^**fif$F! SOLE AGENTS FOR 

WANTWORTH'S PATENT WATER DRAWER. 

The only complete Machine for drawing water with a bucket. THE CRANK 
DOES NOT REVOLVE WHEN THE BUCKET DESCENDS. Prices lower 
than any other. 

BIG GIANT CORN MILL. 

The only Mill grinding corn and cob successfully, that will grind Shelled Corn 
fine enough for family use. GRINDS TWICE AS FAST as any other mill of 
same size and price. 

The McSherry Improved 

FORCE FEED GRAIN DRILL, 

Warranted to sow 

Wheat, Rye, Oats, Barley, Timothy & Clover Seed. 

CAN BE REGULATED IN A MOMENT. 

THEY NEVER CHOKE UP, WHILE FOR REGULARITY AND EVEN- 
NESS IN SOWING THEY ARE UNRIVALED BY ANY 
OTHER DRILL NOW MADE. 

ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE sent to any address. Liberal discount to 
merchants. 



oct — 



"WATT & CALL. 




FOR THE 



Pronounced the Best Fertilizer for Wheat by the largest and most pract- 
ical and intelligent farmers in Virginia and North Carolina. Among them, Dr. 
R. H. Stuart, of King George county, Virginia, and Col. Thomas M. Holt, Pres- 
ident of the North Carolina State Agricultural Society. It has been tried on 
every variety of soil, and proved not only beneficial to the growing crops, but 
those who used it two years ago say they never had such crops of Clover and 
Grass on the same land as they had this year, and that without the application 
of any fertilizer since the prepared Lime was applied. 

Price, only $12 per ton. Prepared and sold by 

A. S. LEE, Richmond, Ya. 



oct 



The Mapes Formulai Peruvian Guano Co. 

CHARLES V. MAPES, General Manager, 
158 FRONT STREET, 1ST E ^T "5T O E, EI - 

AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS A SPECIALTY. 

MURIATE OF POTASH (80 per cent.) price per singleton, $35. This is 
equal to but 3J cents per pound for actual potash, while in Kainit at fifteen dol- 
lars per ton, the actual potash cOsts nearly six cents per pound. 

Nitrate of Soda, Sulphate of Ammonia, Dissolved Pure, Fine Bone, 

High Grade Sulphate of Potash, Genuine No. 1 Peruvian Guano, 
direct from Government Stores, all at lowest cash market prices. 

Manufacturers of Mapes' Complete and Special Manures — Tobacco, Corn, etc. — 
Prof. Villes' Formulas, etc. 

B@~Experi mental Sets of Fertilizers for Testing Soils— Price $5 per set o* 
four bags.— See American Agriculturist, August number, pages 282 and 311. 

MAPES' COMPLETE MANURE for Corn produces 75, 90 and 100 bushels 
Shelled Corn per acre. See Address of"Dr. Henry Stewart, Asst. Ed. American 
Agriculturist, before Farmers' Club, American Institute, New York (weekly Ed. 
New York World, July 31st). 

fi^Very low rates of freight both by Steamer and Sail from New York to 
Richmond, Va.,*Wilmington, N. C, &c. 



EJLa 






This farm was commenced by me as such in 1847, and has improved with the 
age. Trying various breeds of horses, cattle and hogs, 1 aimed to get good 
breeders and of best kinds, and raised them with tolerable care, often too lean 
for rapid and popular development, and they are the better for the change of 
homes and acclimation when sold and sent away. I have owned and bred from 
the best stallions, thoroughbreds of the riding-horse type ; and of them, Granite 
had fine trotting style and action, Black Hawk of like kind and of Morgan de- 
scent and the best, leaving me many fine animals and Albanian, a superb repre - 
sentative stallion. 

A Percheron-Norman importation of two stallions and two mares in 1866 
came at a time after the destruction by war of ho^se stock, and the changed 
condition of things made them more needed and popular. I have also five full 
Percheron stallions one half bred, several under service-age, and a half 
bred rising four years, out of Dew Drop, thoroughbred, she by Imported 
Australian, and a Clydesdale stallion rising four years, a rival of the Perche 
rons for draught purposes. Also a young stallion, Granite, Jr., by- a thorough 
bred and out of a double Black Hawk mare, and promises to be a rapid 
stylish riding and driving horse of the best trotting cross. 

I will sell any of the stallions to clubs, by which they may easily and soon 
clear first cost of them. 

If not sold by March, will let them on safe and living terms, to establish the 
fact that they are suited to the times we live in, and should be propagated. 

My geldings and fillies are grazed on the high table land of the Blue Ridge 
mountain from May to November, and on an elevation and sod that tends to 
make the best horse flesh for muscle and endurance. 

My cattle are the purest Shorthorns of popular families, and too hard fare for 
successful sales, but they came from such sires and dams, there will be no disap- 
ointment in breeding from them. Of these, like the horses, they can be had of 
any age and at low prices, as compared with like stock elsewhere. 

f" Chester White and Berkshire swine are my favorites; there may be as good 
of others for our purposes, but I never saw their superiors for the average farmer's 
wants of our country. 

I have bred nearly every animal I own, and will sell those that I know to be 
what they are represented. 

Persons interested in fine stock can send for catalogues. 

S. W. FICKLIN, Belmont Stock Farm, 

near Charlottesville, Virginia, 

an — ly 



SHORTHORN 

THOROUGHBRED BULL CALF 

A Thoroughbred Pedigree Shorthorn Bull Calf of the best strain, 
ruh — tf Apply to Proprietor of Planter. 

CHESAPEAKE & OHIO RAILROAD. 

General Passenger Department, \ 
June 7, 1878. J 
On and after SUNDAY, June 9, 1878, passenger trains will leave and arrive 
at Richmond as follows : 

WESTWARD. 
No. 1 — 7:20 A. M. — Leaves — For Huntington: Daily except Sunday ; stops at 
all regular stations ; arrives at Gordonsville at 10:40 A. M. ; Charlottes- 
ville at 11:25 A. M.'.; Staunton at 1:35 P. M. (dinner); White Sulphur 
at 6:50 P. M. (supper); and Huntington at 8:30 A. M. 

For Washington: Arrives at Gordonsville at 10:40 A. M. ; leaves by 
Virginia Midland at 4:50 P. M. ; arrives at Washington at 9:15 P. M. 

For Lynchburg : Arrives at Charlottesville at 11:25 A. M. ; leaves by 
Virgina Middland at 11:35 A. M. ; arrives at Lynchburg at 2:20 P. M. 
No. 3 — 9:45 P. M. — Leaves — For Cincinnati: Daily; stops at Hanover Junc- 
tion, Noel's, Beaver Dam, Frederick's Hall, Louisa, Trevilian's, Gor- 
donsville, Cobham, Keswick, Charlottesville, Lynchburg Junction, Ivy, 
Medium's River, Greenwood, Afton, Waynesboro', Fisherville, Staun- 
ton, Swoope's, Goshen, Millboro', Clifton Forge, Williamson's, Low- 
moor, Covington, and all Stations west of Covington. Arrives at Gor- 
donsville at 1:20 A. M. ; Charlottesville at 2:25 A. M. ; Staunton at 4:25 
A. M. ; Covington at 7:20 A. M. (breakfast); White Sulphur at 8:45 A. 
M. : Kanawha Falls at 1:30 P. M. (dinner); Huntington at 5:45 P. M. 
Steamer arrives at Portsmouth at 9:30 A. M. ; Cincinnati at 6. A. M., 
and connects with the lines for the West, Northwest and Southwest. 

For Washington : Arrives at Gordonsville at 1:20 A. M. ; leaves by 
Virginia Midland train at 3:35 A". M. ; arrives at Washington at 8 A. M. 
For Lynchburg ; Arrives at Gordonsville at 1:20 A. M. (change cars), 
and Virginia Midland arrives at Lynchburg at 4:32 A. M. 
No. 5 — 3:45 P. M, — Leaves — For Gordonsville: Accommodation, daily (ex- 
cept Sunday). Stops at all stations, and arrives at Gordonsville at 8 P. M. 
EASTWARD. 
No. 2 — 8:15 P. M. — Arrives — From Huntington : Daily (except Sunday); leaves 
Huntington at 6:30 P. M. ; White Sulphur at 8:45 A. M. ; Staunton at 
1:35 P. M. ; Charlottesville at 3:50 P. M. ; Gordonsville at 4:45 P. M. 
From Lynchburg : Virginia Midland leaves Lynchurg at 12:55 P. 
M. ; arrives at Gordonsville at 4:45 P. M. (change cars) ; Chesapeake 
and Ohio leaves at 4:45. 

From Washington : Virginia Midland leaves at 6:35 A. M. ; arrives 
at Gordonsville 10:45; Chesapeake and Ohio leaves at 4:45. 
No. 4 — 6:45 A. M. — Arrives — From Cincinnati : Daily ; steamer leaves Cincin- 
nati at 4 P. M. ; Portsmouth at 3:30 A. M. ; Chesapeake and Ohio 
train leaves Huntington at 10 A. M. ; White Sulphur at 7:30 P. M. ; 
Staunton at 12:25 A. M. ; Charlottesville at 2:30 A. M. ; Gordonsville at 
3:30 A. M. 

From Lynchburg: Virginia Midlandleaves Lynchburg at 12:20 A. M. ; 
arrives at Gordonsville at 3:30 A. M. (change cars); Chesapeake and 
Ohio leaves at 3:30 A. M. 

From Washington : Virginia Midland leaves Washington at 9:35 P. 
M. ; arrives at Gordonsville at 1:25 A. M. ; Chesapeake and Ohio leaves 
at 3:30 A. M. 
No. 6—9:00 A. M. — Arrives — From Gordonsville: Accommodation, daily (ex- 
cept Sunday); leaves Gordonsville at 5:15 A. M., and stops at all sta- 
tions. 

W. M. S. DUNN, Engineer and Superintendent. 
CONWAY R. HOWARD, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, 
jy — tf Richmond, Va. 



Eflpwooil Stock: Farm BerMires, 

REPRESENTING THE CELEBRATED 

"Sniper," "Sallie," "Primrose," u Robin Hood," and"Cardiff" Strains 

1 have been breeding for the p^st two years from the best stock money would 
buy, and with such a Boar as "ENGLAND'S PRIDE," whose record has no 
superior in the world, at the HEAD OF MY HERD, assisted by "SAMBO XX" 
and imported "TOM PUNCH," together with the class of SOWS which [ own, I 
have been able to breed some grand pigs. The following sows have farrowed 
this spring: 

Imported SNIPER IX, 7 pigs by imported England's Pride. 

" BLACK BELL, 11 " " 

" LADY MAUD,' 12 " " " " 

" HEROINE II, 4 " " " il 

RANGER III, 6 " " " " 

" STARLIGHT, 6 " " Sambo XX. 

STAR-SALLIE 7 " " Tom Punch. 

" ZULEIKA, 7 " " " '' 

" MARY B. 7 " " " '• 

ZOBEIDA, 6 " " Sambo XX. 

GRANGE COURT, 7 " " " " 

" LADYCHESIL, 7 " " " " 

Together with the above pigs, I have some fine Boars and Sows, both imported 
and of my own breeding, which are ready for service at prices to correspond with 
the stock and times. I can furnish almost any aged pig, either for breeding or 
show, and persons wanting imported Berkshires need not send to England for 
them when they can be furnished nearer home, without the risk of crossing the 
ocean, and at less cost for transportation. I have made arrangements with the 
Express Companies, by which charges are greatly reduced. 

My Herd was awarded ALL OF THE PRIZES at the Ncrth Carolina and 
Virginia State Fairs in 1877. 

Imported "England's Pride" is a grand Boar, weighing 780 pounds in work- 
ing order. He was awarded 1st prize at the Hamilton Fair, Ontario, in 1876, 
and at the Provincial Show in London, 1877, and 1st at Virginia State Fair. 1877. 

Sambo XX is a grand young Boar, son of the famous "Lady Liverpool" — a 
sow who has won more prizes, and bred more prize animals than any other sow 
in the kingdom — says Mr. Russell Swanwick, her herder. 

Tom Punch is of the celebrated Robin Hood family — a boar who sold for 
$1,400 cash. 

Sniper IX one of the grandest sows in the world, and weighs in show condi- 
tion 750 lbs., 1st prize Ohio State Fair 1876. Sweepstakes at Indianapolis in 
1877, and 1st prize at Virginia State Fair in 1877. 

Ranger III and Grange Court III were selected as the best in a pen of thirty 
imported sows, and have proved wonderful breeders. Both received 1st in their 
respective classes in 1877. 

Star-Sallie is a splendid representative of the Sallie family. 

I have several very fine Registered Ayrshire Bull Calves for sale at $25 each. 

Walsingham South Down Sheep, also bred from imported Walsingham Rams- 
Buck and Ewe lambs now ready. 

For Pigs 2 and 3 months old, freight prepaid, $15" each. 

" " 4 " 6 " " " " 20@$30 " 

u u q « g u « (i « 30@ 4Q u 

My Pigs are not excelled in this country. I have recently bought a young sow 
6 months old, from the most extensive breeder in the country, which cost me 
over $50, and I guarantee to deliver at the above prices as good or better pigs. 

Orders solicited. Safe delivery and satisfaction guaranteed. Address, 

-A.. JEL- "VEIST ATFST iE, J":r., 

EDGEWOOD STOCK FARM, 
oct — tf Farmville, Prince Edward Co,, Va. 



DEVON CATTLE 

AND 

Sliiro^slxiiro Slieep 



Thoroughbred Youna DEVON BULLS and Young Rams of 
the SHROPSHIRE BREED. 



Several of the young bulls were sired by the Imported Bull, "Master 
James," the winner of several prizes in England, amongst others the 
first given to his class at the show of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
England, held at Birmingham in July, 1876. 

The young rams were all sired by imported rams purchased at high 
figures from one of the very best flocks in England, and several of them 
are out of ewes recently imported from the same flock of the rams — the 
others being out of ewes obtained from the celebrated flock of Mr. T. 
Conger, of Waldberg, near Haverstraw, in the State of New York. 
Also one Imported Shropshire Ram now a little over three years old. 

Particulars, as to pedigrees, prices, &c, may be obtained by applying 
to 

Mr. W. N. KENNON, 

June — 6t Sabbot Island postoffice, Goochland Co., Va, 

mm 



I am happy to announce to my friends and the public generally that in addi- 
tion to my own choice and select flock of Southdown Sheep, I have made ar- 
rangements with Mr. John D. Wing, of New York, by which the larger portion 
of his celebrated " Maple Shade Flock " has passed into my hands to be bred 
jointly by Mr. Wing and myself. This flock has long enjoyed the reputation of 
being the most noted flock of Southdowns in America, and Mr. Wing is ever on 
the alert for the best rams he can find. The first prize yearling and two-year 
old rams of the Centennial Exposition, as well as the first-prize ram of the 
Royal Show in England for 1876, have done the service in the flock for the last 
two years. The sheep are of the u Walsingham type," and are noted for their 
well-sprung ribs, heavy quarters, good fleeces, short legs and hardy constitutions. 
The Southdown is pre-eminently the sheep for the Southern States, and I think 
I can confidently say that my advantages for supplying first-class specimens of 
this breed are equal, if not superior, to those of the best breeders in America. 
At the last Virginia State Fair all the prizes on Middle Wool Sheep (except two 
second prizes) were awarded to me. I have also some choice young 
SHORT HORN BULLS AND HEIFERS, 

AS WELL AS 

BERKSHIRE, ; POLAND-CHINA AND ESSEX PIGS, 

as well bred and as choice specimens as can be found anywhere. Safe arrival 
guaranteed. Write for what is wanted, or come and see. 

A. M. BOWMAN, 
je — tf Waynesboro, Va. 



THE 
VAXiXiiErS CHIEF 






STRONG, DURABLE AND LIGHT DRAFT. 

The only Machine made in the South, and the BEST of all. 

Catalogues furnished on application, and inquiries cheerfully an 
swered. Correspondence solicited. 



CHAS. T. PALMER, Manufacturer, 

Richmond i Vo,. 



april — lyr 



CORN SH1LLIRS AND CORN MILLS 

FOR HAND OR POWER. 

OVER 20,000 XTST XTSE- 

Every machine guaranteed to give satisfaction, or money- 
paid will be promptly refunded. 

SHELLEBS $5, MILLS $12. 
Every farmer should have one. Send for descriptive Cir- 
lars. 

ILX-^E -A^G-ETSTTS -W^ISTTEID- 
LIVINGSTON & CO., Iron Founders, Pittsburgh. Pa. 
We know Messrs. Livingston & Co., are reliable. — Pub- 
lisher of Planter an I I armer. oct-fcf 




Tie: :e 




This journal enjoys the possession of a corps of con- 
tributors not found in connection with any other publica- 
tion of the kind in this country. It discusses, with free- 
dom, all questions of importance to the Southern country; 
in fact, it is the exponent not only of Southern agriculture, 
but of Southern opinion. No effort is spared to make it 
of absolute value to all of its readers. 

L. EL DICKINSON, 

Editor and Proprietor. 



AGRICULTURAL I1FM1I1TS. 

I offer to the public the following choice selection : 

The Towanpa Eureka Mower, which took a diploma at our last Fair, and we 
believe superior to all others now on the market. It tedders the hay after cut- 
ting it, which causes it to cure in one-third less time than after other mowers, 
and is remarkable for its ease of draft. 

Russell's Celerhated Massillon Thresher, worked either by steam or horses. 

The Farmer's Friend Dkill, which has superior attachments for fertilizers 
and small seed sowing. 

Rhoads & McComb's Superior Oak-tanned Leather Belting. 

Moore's Patent Duster for applying paris green to potatoes. 

J. Yearsley's Celebrated Superphosphate. 

Plows, Harrows, Corn Shellers and Farm Implements in general. 

FORTHE^LADIES. 

The superior Light Running, Dur- 
able and Cheap 

WING MACHINE. 

PATENT BED SPRING AND 
TAYLORS CHURN. 

JOHN B. CRENSHAW, 

Sample Merchant and General Agent. 
ie-6m] No. 16 Ninth St, Richmond, Va 

Write to 

A. P. or M. B. ROWE, 

Co-Opcrative Stock Farm and Poultry Yards, 

FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 

For Herd-Book Jersey or Ayrshire Cattle, bred from stock selected in person 
from best Northern breeders, and from "Centennial'' Stock Exhibition. Cots- 
wold, Leicester, Shropshire and Southdown Sheep, all bred from best imported 
stock, and Lambs of each breed for sale in August. Herd-Record Berkshire 
Swine of best strains, and Essex surpassed by none. Poultry — Choice, well- 
marked young fowls from all of our varieties will be for sale this Fall. Orders 
for eggs from all classes have closed, except Leghorns. We will continue to fill 
orders for Leghorn eggs, of either the brown or white variety, at $1.50 per dozen. 
More premiums have been awarded to our stock at the Virginia State Fairs, than 
t hat of any other exhibitor in the State. my-ly 




The session begins on the FIRST OF OCTOBER, and continues until th 
THURSDAY before the 4th day of July ensuing. 

The Institution is organized in separate Schools, on the Eclectic System, em- 
bracing FULL COURSE OF INSTRUCTION in Literature and Science and in 
the professions of Law, Medicine, Engineering and Agriculture. 
t THE EXPENSES of the student (except such as enter the practical laborato- 
ries), exclusive of the cost of text-books, clothing, and pocket money, are from 
$365 to $391, according to Schools selected; or for those who economize by 
messing, these expenses are from $266 to $300. No charge for tuition to candi- 
dates for the ministry unable to meet the expense. 

Apply for Catalogues to Wm. Wertenbaker, Secretary, P. 0. University 
of Virginia, Albemarle county, Va. 

may— Gmoa JAS. F. HARRISON, M. D., Chairman of the Faculty. 



OLIVER CHILLED PLOWS. 

n. :&£. s^eith: &c co. 

GENERAL AGENTS, 
THE BEST PLOW IN USE 

The following is a sample of the letters we receive from those who 
have used the Oliver Chilled Plows : 

To the Farmers of the South : 

I have been farming, and have held the plow handles, for over fifty years. 
The first plow I used was the Peacock Plow, a cast mould board, with wrought 
share and coulter, very expensive — the coulter and share being soft, beam low, 
and choked badly. The next plow was the Beach Plow, all cast iron, low beam, 
choked badly, and difficult to regulate. The third plow was the Prouty & Mears, 
a splendid plow for clean land. The fourth plow, the Watt. This plow I have 
used for several years, but it is expensive — all the castings wearing out very 
quickly, and costly to replace. This plow inclines to run on the point, the shaft 
is severe on the team, and in clay and adhesive land will not clear itself. The 
fifth is the Dixie ; this plow is expensive — the castings wearing out very fast, 
and expensive to replace — inclines to run on the side, and, like the Watt, in- 
clines to let the furrow stand on edge and fall back. This is a great fault. Its 
draft is severe on the team, and it is laborious to guide. The sixth plow is 
Oliver's Patent Chilled. This plow I cannot praise too highly. For ease of 
draft for team it has no equal; for ease to plowman it excels any plow [ have 
ever used. I am plowing a ten-acre field of stiff timothy and clover sod, which 
has been standing for five years. This plow takes a much wider slice than either 
of the former plows, and will cut eight inches deep with all ease to the team. 
There is not a single misplaced sod in the whole field. The furrows are 400 
yards long. I can start the team at one end of the field, and walk between the 
handles, and not put a hand to the plow in the whole distance — the plow cutting 
the same width and depth of furrow the whole distance. It has no tendency to 
run on the point, and one point will outlast two of any other plow. 

For ease to plowman and team, and thorough plowing, there is no plow to 
equal the Oliver Chilled. It is the first plow I could ever trust servants to work 
with any surety of having my fields plowed a regular depth, and with uniform 
furrows. R. M. Thorne, Stony Run Road, Henrico Co., Va. 



H. M. Smith & Co.: 

Dear Sirs, — I have tried the Oliver Chilled Plow, and am delighted with it. 
It beats anything I ever saw. I wish now I could get rid of my old Farmers' 
Friend Plows. Very trulv, 

R. T. Lacy, Jr. 



Messrs. H. M. Smith & Co.: Edge Hill, Charles City Co., Va. 

Gentlemen. — In answer to your inquiries of the Oliver Chilled Plow which I 
purchased of you last Spring, I think it is the best plow I ever saw, having used 
almost every plow put on the market for the last ten years. It is free from 
choking, very light draft, and no soil will stick to it. 

Yours very truly, S. D. Turner, Master of Clendale Grange, No. 372. 



[From Scottsville paper.] 

We, the undersigned committee of farmers, selected to examine the merits, 
workmanship and plowing done by the Oliver Chilled Plows (sold by Z. Lee 
Gilmer, at Scottsville) do hereby certify that we saw three three-horse Oliver 
Chilled Plows at work, and tested by the side of one of the best plows in use, 
upon the farm of Isaac R. Barksdale — hard, gravelly, hilly land, with running 
briars fifteen to twenty feet long, interwoven with weeds and grass — on flat land 
covered with weeds five feet high. &c, and that it turned the land far better, 
freer from choking and clogging, with more ease to team and teamster, and with 
less wear to plow than any we ever saw, and after this fair trial upon different 
soils, decide that it is the cheapest, most simple [so simple that any plowman 
can put it together and regulate it] and best plow of the ap-e, and so recommend 
it to our brethren of the plow. [Signed] 

P. P. Gantt, Howell Lewis, Z. R. Lewis, Jr., R. S. Carter, John Alexander 



DISTILLERS OF 

PURE HOOP-TAW WHISKEY, 

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. 

The above is offered to the public in 5, 10 and 40 gallon packages. 

sep-6t. 

SAUL'S NURSERIES 

WASHIISrGTON, ID. 0_ 
The undersigned offers a fine stock of the following at low rates: 
JAPANESE PERSIMMONS or KAKI— 8 choice varieties. 
PEARS — Standards and Dwarfs; an immense .stock of fine trees. 
NEW PEACHES— Alexander, Downing, Wilder, &c. ; also the fine new late 

varieties. 

FRUIT TREES of all kinds ; an extensive slock, viz : Plums, Cherries, 

Apricots. Apples suitable to the South, &c. 

Grape Vines, Strawberries, Raspberries, &c. Evergreens, new Ornamental 

Trees, new Shrubs, &c. Small sizes suitable for Nurserymen, as well as large 

stock in great variety. 

IDTTTa:__ BULBS. 

Large importations direct from the leading growers in Holland. First quality 
Bulbs, Hyacinths, Lillies, Tulips, &c. 

New and rare Greenhouse Plants; a very rich collection well grown, as well 
as fine stock for winter blooming. 

NEW ROSES — Duchess of Ediuburg, Perledes Jardins; and with an im- 
mense stock of finest varieties grown in pots and open ground. 

New Wistarias, new Clematis, new Pelargoniums, Geraniums, &c. 
Catalogue mailed to applicants. 

sept-3t JOHN SAUL, Washington, D. C. 



PURE BRED 

SOUTHDOWN SHEEP, 

I have for sale 2 Southdown rams 2 years old. 
9 « J « « 

35 " " lambs. 

60 Southdown ewes. 
Lambs, yearlings and two-year olds at prices to suit the times. 

GEORGE W. PALMER, 

sept-3m Saltville Va 

_ _ __________ 

CHARLOTTESVILLE (VA.) 
WOOLEN MILLS CASSIMERES, 

sep-tf 



¥. 0.i VIRG. MIDLAND & G. S. R. R. 



JOHN S. BARBOUR, Receiver. 



On and after Sunday, June 9, 1878, Passenger Trains will run as follows : 



SOUTH BOUND. 



Washington le 

Alexandria 

Gordonsville 

Charlottesville 

Lynchburg ar 

Danville 

North Danville 



NORTH BOUND. 



North Danville le 

Danville . - 

Lynchburg 

Charlottesville.. . 

Gordonsville 

Alexandria , ar 

Washington 



MAIL. 


EXPRESS. 


6 85 a. m. 


9 35 p. m. 


7 00 " 


10 00 " 


10 44 " 


1 25 a. m. 


11 34 " 


2 15 " 


2 20 p. m. 


4 32 " 


6 07 " 


6 52 " 


6 15 " 


6 55 " 


MAIL. 


EXPRESS. 


9 25 a. m. 


10 00 p. m. 


9 33 " 


10 13 " 


1 20 p.m. 


12 23 a. m. 


4 02 " 


2 45 k ' 


4 52 " 


3 35 " 


8 50 " 


7 35 " 


9 15 " 


8 00 '■ 



The MAIL SOUTHWARD connects at Gordonsville with Chesapeake and 
Ohio Railroad for Staunton, White Sulphur Springs, and all the watering places 
on that line ; and Eastward to Richmond and South. At Lynchburg, connects 
with Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad through Southwest Virginia to Nash- 
ville, New Orleans, Memphis, Little Rock and Texas ; and at Danville, with 
Richmond & Danville Railroad for the South and Southwest. 

The EXPRESS Southward connects at Gordonsville to all points East and 
West on Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and at Danville with Richmond and 
Danvile Railroad for the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and via Atlanta to New 
Orleans. 

Passengers for MANASSAS LINE leave Washington at 6 35 a. m. and Alex- 
andria 7 00 a. m. daily, except Sunday, arrive at Strasburg at 12 00 a. m., con- 
necting with the Valley Road to Orkney and Rawley Springs, and all the line 
East and West. Leave Strasburg at 3 20 p. m., Front Royal at 4 00 p. m., con- 
necting at Manassas with north bound mail train for Washington and North. 

For WARRENTON leave Washington 6 35 a. m., and Alexandria 7 00 a. m., 



All trains make good connections at Washington, to and from North and 
West. 

New Orleans sleeper leaves Washington at 6 35 a. m., running through with- 
out change. 

Through sleeper for Savannah, Ga., leaves Washington 9 35 p. m. 

Through tickets sold at the lowest rates 



aug 



J. M. BE O AD US, G. T. A. 



PURE HIGH GRADE FERTILIZERS 



FOR THE 



Wheat and Grass 

CROPS. 

ANALYSIS GUARANTEED, WARRANTED PURE 

MANUFACTURED BY 

} 




I 





CHARLESTONS. C. 

'or circulars and particulars apply to 

WM. C, BEE & CO., 

WM. A. JAMES, General Agents, 

Gen'l Travelling Ag't, Adger's Wharf, Charleston, S. C. 

Lock Box 118, Richmond, Va. 

Delivery Warehouses: 



WM. A. JAMES, 

GENERAL AGENT FOR VIRGINIA, 

Cor. 12th and Cary Sts., Richmond Va. 

LOUIS HILLIARD & CO., Agents, 

A. & AEDISOH & CO., Agents, 

LIE k TAYLOR BROS., Agents, 
Tobacco and Commission Merchants, 

LTUOHBTJBG, "VJL. 
sept-tf 




peaks of otter. 



INDIAN QUEEN, 

JOCKEY CLUB, 
SMOKER'S DELIGHT 

AND 

FARMER'S REFUGE, 

R. M. Chambers, Patentee, Box 103. 

LYNCHBURG, VA. 

JAMUS M. BOROUGHS & CO,, 

No. 11 Tenth street, Sole Agents for 
Richmond, Va. 



.ilL iigora C3r oats, 

BRED PURELY FROM IMPORTED STOCK. 

My flock of ANGORA GOATS has now been kept in Virginia for eight years, 
are thoroughly acclimated, prove hardy and prolific. They are very fond of 
weeds, brush, briers. &c, and will therefore live and thrive on the poorest of land, 
and in clearing and improving su<*h land, they prove invaluable. They shear 
yearly from four to eight pounds of mohair as white as snow and as fine as silk. 
Specimens from my flock have never failed to take first premiums at all Fair, 
where they have been exhibited. Goats bred in this country are even superior 
to those imported from Asia Minor, which proves how thoroughly they are 
adapted to this country and climate. To any person wishing to procure stock of 
this kind, strictly pure and first class, I offer an opportunity at a lower rate than 
can be had any where else in the United States. Address. P. S. FXJLMER, 
Importer and Breeder of Pure Angora Goats, Spring Mills. Appomattox Co., 
Va. Please state that this notice was seen in the Planter and Farmer, dec-ly 





TEOBOU&HBBEB RQR8E8 

m SHORTHORN CATTLE 

OF THE LARGEST AND BEST FAMILIES, FOR SALE 

ADDRESS 

R. J. HANCOCK, 

april — lyr Overton, Albemarle Co., Va. 



Wlffi, Tm, BRADBURY, 

P. O., MasOn, Orange Co, V^i,. 

BREEDS 

f The breed of FOWLS best suited to Virginia 



| and the Southern States. Lay Large, Rich 

I Eggs, Grow Rapidly, Fatten Easily. Tbey are 

\ THE FINEST TABLE FOWL in the WORLD. 

j My birds won all of the premiums for this vari- 

| etv at the Poultry Exhibition in Richmond. 

| EGGS ONLY" $2.50 A DOZEN. 

L Safe Arrival Guaranteed. 

f THE GREAT FARMER'S PIG! 

I This pig was originated by the farmers of South - 
j ern N. .1., and by them has been bred to its pres- 
-j ent high standard of excellence. 
I Mine are from the best and oldest breeders in 
||| j New Jersey. In order to introduce them into 
| Virginia, I offer young pigs, when two months old, 
[at only $12 a pair ! 

f JERSEY CATTLE AND SCOTCH COLLIE 
ALSO \ (Shepherd), ENGLISH, BASKET, BEAGLE and 

1 SETTER DOGS. All from Imported Stock. 

ap] ;»*SEND FOR DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULAR. «®« 



HOUDAN FOWLS. 



JERSEY RED 



JOHN B. RUSSELL, 

54 Buchanan's Wharf, 
Importers' agent for sale of 

ORCHILLA GUANO, 

A TRUE BIRD GUANO, 

and 
THE BEST FERTILIZER EOR 

$25 PER TON CASH AT BALTIMORE. 

rah-6t 



Spottsylvania County, Virginia. 

I am breeding Thoroughbred Devon Cattle, Merino Sheep, Poland -China, 
Essex and Berkshire Hogs. Also Light Brahmas, White-faced Black Spanish, 
White Leghorns, Pekin Ducks and Bronze Turkeys. 

My stock took many first premiums at the Piedmont and State Fairs. 

Ighave selected my stock with great care from the best herds in the United 
States, and intend to be excelled by no one. 

[ have just added to my stock a flock of SOUTHDOWN SHEEP. 

Orders solicited and satisfaction guaranteed. Address 

Z. C. DANIEL, Twyman's Store, 

jan — ly Spottsylvania county, Virginia. 



PATENTS. 

Any information relating to obtaining 
Patents, Caveats, Trade marks, etc., 
furnished without charge. Pamphlet 
giving full directions free. We publish 
a book on "How to sell Patents," which 
gives much valuable information. Also 
another entitled a "Hand book of Pat- 
ent Law," full of law points and court 
decisions, 120 pages, price GO cents 

We furnish printed Blanks for selling 
Rights. MANN T & CO., Patent Agents", 

116 W. Baltimore St., opposite Sun 



Ii 



Bull 
sept-ly, 



BALTIMORE, MD. 



BERKSHIRE HOGS. 

One BOAR 1G months old, S16 , an 
other 4% months old, $8. PIGS four 
months old, $6 each. 
THOMAS POLLARD, Richmond, Va 



KEEN SPRINGS ACADEMY 



The fifth session of this institution 
will open on the 1st October, 1878, and 
close 1st June, 1879. 

Students are prepared for business, 
or senior classes of Colleges, or Uni 
varsity. Apply for catalogue. 
Board and tuition, per session. .8156 00 
half session 78 00 
Address Du. C. R. DICKINSON, 

Trevillian's, Ches. & Ohio R. R., Va. 

sep 

STEAM ENGINES, 

A. B. FAKQUHAR, York, Pa., 
Cheapest and be.st for all pur 
poses — simple, strong, and du 
rable. Also Traction En- 
gines for common roads. 

Saw, Grist and Rice 
Mills, Gins, Presses 
and Machinery gener- 
ally. Inquiries promptly 
answered. 

VerticalEngines,with or without S g- 
wheels, very conveni- 
ent, economical and 
complete in every de 
tail, best and 
cheapest Vert- 
ical in the 
world. Fig. 
I is engine 
inuse.Fip:. 
= 2 ready for \P3/^gl 
Sroad Ffi-rS/ 

The Farquhar Separator 

(Warranted) 

Penna. 
Agricultural/ 
Works, ' 

York, Pa. 
Lightest draft, 
most durable 
simplest, most 

economic 

and perfect in 

grain, deanVit Send for Illustrated Catalogue. 

ready for market. Address A B. Farquhar, York, Pa. 

sqp-ly^ ^ 

„.< CIHCULAK 






G. DAWSON COI-EJIAX'a HERD 
OF PURErBKED 

Registered Jersey Cattle 

will, at all times, furnish animals of both sexes 
and of unequal merit. 

Registered Berkshires, Shetland Ponies, South- 
down Sheep, Arab Horses, and Game Chickens. 
CO LI ft €AMEl*OK, Brickcrville, Pa. 

J££^L» — ■— m— — i 

PUKE BRED 

SHORTHORN CATTLE. 

Skotsiuoli anb &outrii)oum Slice 
AND BERKSHIRE PIGS, 

For sale at "CLINCMDALE," Bean's Station 
Grainger county, Tenn. 
jan-ly J. T. & W. S. SHIELDS. 

IMPROVED STOCK. 

Thoroughbred Shorthorn Cattle 
Merino Sheep and Berkshire Pigs 
bred and for sale at very moderate 
prices byS. "S. BRADFORD, 

^ u S" * y Oulpeper, Va. 

«~FQR SALE.-^a 

Ten Thoroughbred Yearling 
Cotswold Rams, by my Imported 
Buck, "Earl of Warwick," outof English 
and American bred ewes— the last, equal 
to the first. R. B. HAXALL, 

ma^y— 3t near Gordonsville, Va. 

tit (INSURANCE AGENCY 

OF 

R. F- JOHNSTON & C0-, 
No. 1117 Main St., Richmond. 



Al P.r\.BEDER!CK&CO 

*»'.. '.-■ ALBANY, .,■ 




GRAND 

Centennial 
iPremiuw, 




30 BALES PER HOUIl/^ *Z Z 3tm^ ]0 TONS IN A OAK. '^S 

Sold on trial and guaranteed cheaper .it its price, 
than auy other nay press us a gift or nn sale. J'on't be 
swindled bv irresponsible manufacturers of infringing 
nachinos, ns the purchaser is liable. It cots no more 
for a good press than an inferior or worthless*? one. 
Address, P. K. DEDEUICK & CO., Albany, N. T. 



Insures property in city and coun f ry 
against loss or damage by fire. 

Westchester Fire Insurance Com- 
pany, assets $1,000,000. Maryland Fire 
Insurance Company, BaU., $200,000. 

Deposit wilh the Treasurer of the 
State for benefit of Virginia policy- 
holders 

R, F. JOHNSTON & CO., 

jy-6t Agents. 

"Fruit and TRIfPU 

ORNAMENTAL I lUjIDB ■ 

Large Stock. Low Rates. 

Standard Pear Trees a Specialty. Send 

stamp for Trade List. Agents wanted. 

E. Moody & Sons. Lockport, N. Y. 

Niagara Nurseries. Established 1839. 



Yourname'prmted "un 40 Mixed Cards 
for 10c. STEVENS BROS., Nortbford, Conn . 



THE 

HOME FERTILIZER. 

FOR LESS THAN FIFTEEN DOLLARS we agree to sell you enough PURE 
CHEMICALS to make a ton (2200 lbs.) of MANURE that will make yon as 
much Wheat, Corn, 'Jats, Potatoes, and Tobacco as any manipulated Fertilizer 
offered in the market at forty to forty-five dollars. For this remarkable statement 
we offer you the very best references in your State, which you will find by writing 
for circular, also formula with instructions, &c. The name is copyrighted 
and Recipe Palenteed. 

BOYKIN, CARMER & CO., 



sept-3m. 



PROPRIETORS, 

Baltimore, Md. 




FERTILIZERS 



MADE FROM THE 



BLOOD AND BONES 

OF THE 

Cattle Slaughtered in New York 

AMERICUS SUPERPHOSPHATE! 

AMERICUS BONE FLOUR! 

The fertilizers we manufacture and sell under the " AMERICUS 
BRAND" are made from the blood, refuse butcher's offal and bones, 
taken daily from our slaughter houses in New York City. 

These materials are manufactured in a fresh condition by the most 
improved process, by which all the valuable fertilizing properties are 
saved and concentrated. We treat in our works weekly the refuse from 

FOUR THOUSAND CATTLE 

EIGHT THOUSAND SHEEP. 

MANUFACTURER'S SUPPLIES. 
Dried Blood and Meat Scraps, Ground Bone, &c, Tallow and Bone 
Grease. 

KAFFERTY & WILLIAMS, 

Principal Office and Factory foot 44th street, East river, N. Y. 
Branch Office, 35 Light street, Baltimore, Maryland. 

sept-3t Send for Circular. 

BUY 

CHARLOTTESVILLE (YA.) 

WOOLEN MILS CASSIMERES. 

••tf 



THE FARMER and MECHANIC. 

An Eight Page Weekly Agricultural 
paper. * 

The Organ of the 

Department of Agriculture of North 

Carolina. 

Published at Raleigh, 
may — ] Price, $2 per annum. 

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 

Judge William Fullerton has con" 
signed to me the agency of his Hol- 
Stein Cattle, probably excelled by no 
herd in the United States. Those 
familiar with the characteristics of this 
breed pronounce them unquestionably 
superior to all others for dairy and fat- 
tening purposes combined. Only bulls, 
one and two years old. for sale at pres- 
ent. Prices furnished on application. 
JAMES P. MACHEN, 

Grange Agent. 

oct — 3t Alexandria Va. 



WEST JERSEY NURSERIES, 

Woodbury N. J., 
GIBSON & BENNETT. 

100,000 Felton's Early Prolific Reliance 

Raspberry; 
200,000 Cinderella and Continental 
Strawberry Plants, direct from 
the original stalk. 
Millions of other Plants, Trees, &c. 
New Descriptive Circular now ready, 
oct— 2t 



J^THE COMING RASPBERRY. 



ip. Rons 



Pride t ° f e 
udson 



Awarded the "FIRST PRIZE 1 ' by the 
Boston Horticultural Society. "GOLD 
MEDAL/' 

STRAWBERRY PLANTS 

E. P. Roe'l Strawberries have taken 
first prize two years in succesion. Pot- 
ted Plants low. All the new kinds, 
true to name. Catalogue free. Ad- 
dress E. P. ROE, Cornwall on-the 
Hudson, Orange Co., N. Y. oct- It 



TQM £5 €TS« 



$1 
fcven new and wonder'ilrir'icles atone- 
■US fourth tho retail pruie. .diamine ttuliaC 

No. i . Musical Pipe*— Madecf me- 

tnl,wiiM,owlr..3uuoinig a bu^uf. . ty-aitog witi 
T7ater,wiii imitate pertictiy th.-Lo it. Lay Lird. 

No. £. Miuiaenre flJtai'ar!.— itilta- 

bleiorneckiaco or waich chain, t.ic oigo d do- >,y: 
haj allot i.ord'3 Prayer clturly engraved on. it. b>„woul 
beautiful. A perfect little pj m. 

No. 3. Eiireka Whistle.—IiOTdast 

and clearest 'whistle m-do. Yny ujexuiior Bnoiuuicjiio 
cichango signals at lou^ disfcnci.3. 

No. 4. Japanese Parage?.— Jnst 

imported. Prettiest bijou novtl'y in the m..rL..;. tin- 
isbed in beautiful colors. Epli ndid pit toalady. 

, Ko. 5. Mag!c Spider.— Funrfest 

thingout. A norriUelookinirftUow.surotoinak iptop.J 
iumpoutof theirboot3. / .vovi creatiaaneieittioeu;. 

No. 6. Musical W«md«nv- A ncrr 

Trcdimtrumcnt, on -which any tunc au; t>r piayd, or 
round imitated, from tho trauloi' a cat to u i i-u.-i tad 
Judy show, l'leasr? everybody. 

. No. 1 ?. Golden Wmfreiv-P'":) . Pri- 

flucesclear, golden letter?, by simply d'pp.i; in w..^;, 
laatsfor months. Unexcelled for enrd wriuct.;. 

Theaboveocvm articles aroabowp in cut?, "m'l will T)0 
Ecntinneatoabinot,poJt-paid,for '.5 ct3. A', retail thry 
•would co9t$5. Wo mafco tlii 3 reduction to o!.m..i n t \r 
names rcr our Fall Cataloc-cs. lostayo otacL,.) caica. 
eamoascash. Address, 

Eureka Trick a^d Kovelty Co., 

P.O. Box 4614. 39 Ann Si., N. Y. 

^Lia advertisement Trill Dot appear again. 



oct-lt 



is by far the best time to set out 
RASPBERRY, 
CURRENT, 
ttOOSHREKRY and 
B..ACKBERKY PLANTS. 

has a very fine and 
varied stock true to 
name. Send for cat- 
logue. Address E. P. ROE, Cornwall- 
on-Hudson, New York. oct — It 



FALl 
IP. 



Vt +r» ^90 per day at home. Samples 
$0 lo §W wortQ $5 f ree> Address 
Stixson & Co., Portland, Maine. 



a week in your own town. Terms 
and #5 outfit free. Address H. 



Hallett & Co. 



fill Fl ^" n ^ wor k er can make 



day at home. 



$12 
Costly outfit free. 



Address True & Co., Augusta, Maine, 
oct— tf 



BE a SHIRES 



FINE LOT OF YOUNG PIGS. 



YOUNG BOARS, six months old, 
and YOUNG SOWS, heavy w ith pig, 
for sale at moderate prices. 

O. A. CRENSHAW, 

oct-tf Richmond. Va. 







THE BEST AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL IN THE SOUTH. 



Southern 




AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WARMS 



J^JsTlD 



Sill MTABI. 



'® 



A Southern Cultivator and Horse Hoe for Corn, Cotton, Tobacco, 
or anything that grows in hills or drills, which has received the 
first premium at 45 exhibitions at State and County Fairs. 

The cut is readily adjusted to any width from 15 inches to 4 feet, or any depth 
from J to 9 inches, doing away entirely with the use of the hand hoe, saving on 
each plantation the time of from 4 to 6 men. 

We are agents for the following first premium Machinery : 
Gaar, Scott & Co's Steam Engines and Threshing Machines, Grand Centennial 
Gold Medal Separators, Mounted and Down Powers, Saw Mills, &c; D. M Os- 
borne & Co's Celebrated Reapers, Mowers and Self-Binding Harvesters, the only 
successful self-binder manufactured. Premium Buckeye Chilled Plows, &c, and 
have for sale, or will procure on short notice, all of the most improved imple- 
ments and machinery. Our stock of Machinery has thus far met the approval of 
the most successful planters and farmers of the South. We shall keep the most 
improved stock of seeds and best fertilizers in the market. Sole Agents for Vir- 
ginia for Andrew Coe's Fertilizers. Call and see us. It will be to the advan- 
tage of every one in need of our goods, as we keep the best quality and sell at a 
very small margin from cost. 

There will be a trial of Messrs. D. M. Osborne & Co's, Self-Binding 
Harvesters atMaj. A. H. Drewry's, Westover, Charles City county, Va. 
at Capt. Robert Carter's, Shirley, Charles City county Va., at Mr. J. H. 
Crenshaw's, Berkeley Plantation, Chailes City county, Va., at Mr. 
Baker's, Curls Neck, Henrico county, Va., at Mr. R. A. Allen's, Tucka- 
hoe, Goochland county, Va., on or about the 10th of June, also at Dr. 
Tate's, Falls Plantation, near Manchester, on the 10th of June. Com- 
petition is respectfully solicited. Mr. D. M. Osborne will be present at 
Maj.A. H. Drewry's. 



je— ly 



N. U. MOTT &L CO., AGENTS, 

No. 1418 Main Street, Richmond, Va. 



WATER WHEELS, 



THEUN^ DOUBLE 

PORTABLE AND STAT IONARY 
SAW, FLOUR AND GRIST MILLS, 



MACHINE MOULDED MILL 1 GEARING 



SHAFTING, PULLEYS AND HANGERS 



Of Iriiprotfed Designs, A Specialty; 



Address, POOLE & HUNT, 



LTIMORE, v 



A iN iliVV 

WHITNEY CABINET 

SEWING MACHINE 

Worth $45, will sell for $20. Am using 
same kind in my family, and know it to 
be a first-class machine. Call at office 
of Planter and Farmer and see it. 
sept-tf L. R. DICKINSON - 

HM0 G £3$°ri- ORGAN 

$1,600 only $425. Superb Grand 
Square Pianos, cost $1,100 only $255. 
Elegant Upright Pianos, cost $800 
only $155. New Style Upright Pianos, 
$112.50. Organs, $35. Organs, 12 
stops, $72.50. Church Organs, 16 
stops, cost $390, only $115. Elegant 
$375 Mirror Top Organs, only $105. 
Tremendous sacrifice to close our'pre- 
sent stock. Immense New Steam Fac 
tory soon to be erected. Newspaper 
with much information about cost Pi- 
anos and Organs Sent Free. Please 
address Daniel F. Beatty, Washing- 
ton, N. J. sept — 3t 



Q(\(\ flAO TWO-YEAR-OLD 
ZUU^UUUdwARF PEAR TREES 

Budded on best French Quince Stocks, 
and of prime quality. The largest and 
best stock in the United States. As- 
sortment large and complete. Best 
market, sorts. Prices low by hundred 
or thousand. '/Dwarf Pears; their 
Culture and Management." mailed free 
to applicants. Address. 

R. G. HANFOHD&SON. 
Columbus Nursery, Columbus. Ohio. 
sept — 2t • 

N U R b EH.Y 

STO C K. 

THE LARGEST AND FINEST 

STOCK OF PEARS, PLUMS 

AND CHERRIES IN THIS 

COUNTRY. 

Also, Standard Apples, Grapes, Roses 
and all varieties of Nurserv Stock of 
the finest quality at prices that will make 
it an object for every Nurseryman and 
Dealer to correspond with us or call be- 
fore purchasing. 

SMITH & POWELL, 

se — 2t Syracuse, N. Y. 



FOR SALE 

REGISTERED JERSEYS from choice stock 
Bulls, Cows and Heifers. Calves of both sexes, 
Prices reasonable. 
Catalogues furuished on application. 

GEO. A. QUINBY, 
Loudoun', Stock Farru. 



sep-ly 



Aldie, Loudoun county, 



Pear Trees for the Million 

Largest stock in the West. Splendid 
quality — carefully selected, carefully 
dug, carefully packed to go safely any 
distance. A full assortment of Apples, 
Cherries, Plums, Peaches, Quinces and 
other Fruit Trees, Small Fruits. Ever- 
greens, Shrubs, Roses, &c, at prices to 
suit the times. Price List mailed to 
applicants. Address, 

R. G. HANFORD & SON, 
Columbus Nursery, Columbus, Ohio. 

sept— 2t 



HALF A MILLION 

PEACH TREES!! 

The largest and best stock ever of- 
fered, embracing all the new extra ear- 
ly and late sorts with all the old stand- 
ard market varieties; also, 300,000 
APPLE TREES, 200,000 of them 
extra long keeping varieties adapted 
to Southern planting, or wherever long 
keeping apples are desirable. I also 
offer a full line of all kind of Nursery 
Stock at, prices to suit the times. Ap- 
ple and Peach Trees sent by mail to all 
sections. Catalogues showing how and 
what to plant, with much valuable in- 
formation, mailed gratis to all appli- 
cants. RANDOLPH PETERS, 
Great Northern and Southern Nursery, 

se — 3t Wilmington, Del. 

COtswold and Shropshire- 
down Bucks>Southaown 

Buck Lambs, and 
Shorthorn Bull Calves 

For Sale at moderate prices. 
JOHN R. WOODS, 

Near Ivy Depot, 
se — 2t Albemarle county, Va, 



Brsiin 



FOR FARMERS. 

ALL SIZES AT LOW PRICES. 

Address, 
Southern Planter and Farmer. 



ALLISON & ADDISON'S 



STARP ^a\BRAND" 




FERTILIZERS. 

As the season is at hand for ordering fertilizers for the Tobacco crop, we beg 
o announce to our friends that we have discontinued the sale of Pacific Guano, 
and will confine our business in Fertilizers to the sale of our own manufac- 
ture, viz ; 

COMPLETE 

TOBACCO MANURE. 

COMPLETE 

WHEAT MANURE. 

PURE 

FLOUR OF RAW BONE. 

Thirteen years experience and extended experiments having satisfied us that 
the use of fertilizers prepared especially for each staple crop is sound policy and 
true economy, we will hereafter confine ourselves to the manufacture and sale of 
the above special manures, which several years trial has shown to be all that 
could be desired for the crops for which they are made. 

We also keep on hand a large stoc% of 

No. 1 PERUVIAN GUANO, 

Potash, Ground Plaster, and other Fertilizing Materials, 

Which we offer in large or small quantities at lowest rates. 

ALLISON & ADDISON, 

OFFICES AND WAREHOUSES : 

1322 GARY STREET, . RICHMOND, VA. 

38 SYCAMORE STREE T, . PETERSBURG, VA. 

WAL1UT GROVE STOCH FARM. 

Herd Register JERSEY CATTLE and 

SOUTHDOWN SHEEP (Walsingham), 

BERKSHIRE, ESSEX and 

POLAND-CHINA SWINE. 

All bred from premium Stock and satisfaction guaranteed. 

H3 02. <X> S3* s^ is ©wsi^s^r^ a 

Address 

G. JULIAN PRATT, Waynesboro, 
oct — tf Augusta Co., Va. 



Mitchell S kkWi Fun and Freight Wagons- 




HI. ZMI. SMITH &c CO., 

GENERAL AGENTS, 

1532 Main St., RICHMOND, VA. 

We keep on hand the Best Assortment of Farm and Freight Wagons in the South. 

In putting on the market the Farm and Freight Wagons which were introduced 
here by us, we know we are offering those which will, in all respects, fully equal 
the recommendations of the manufacturer and the expectations of the purchaser. 
In regard to the prices, we have only to say that the wonder is that so good a 
wagon can be sold for so small a price. 

N. B. — Our Price List includes Brake and Seat. Most lists are for wagons 
plain, and $4 extra is charged for seats, and $4 more for brake. In comparing 
prices, note this, and remember that if either brake or seat are dispensed with, 
a reduction in price is made of $4 for each or either. 

We warrant every Wagon we sell to be made of good seasoned timber and well 
made. Any breakage within one year, from defect in either material or work- 
manship, will be made good free of cost to the purchaser. 

NOTE TO FARMERS. 

We have sold upwards of four hundred of these wagons in the last two years, 
and the perfect and absolute satisfaction they have given in all cases is an assu- 
rance that we have not too highly recommended them. From the Price List, 
which we regard as very low, we make a discount often per cent, to cash buyers. 

Some of the Reasons why otir Wagons are LiM by Farmers and Teamsters. 

Thej are made by the best wagon mechanics in the world. 

None but the best Ohio, Indiana and Canada hickory are used for axles, and all 
other materials are of the best quality. 

Both Lower an I Top Boxes are ironed on top. 

Tongue Houns are double braced. 

The Patent Coupling prevents the wearing and weakening of the hind axle by 
an Iron Box Coupling bolted to the hind axle and bolster. 

Bottoms are matched and painted, and have six supports, thereby securing the 
end from breaking when loading heavy weights. 

The Spokes are driven in glue, and never work loose. 

All the stakes are bolted in the bolster, and not driven in, as many are, which 
soon work loose. 

Extra Sizes, not mentioned in Circular, Furnished Promptly, 

The prices quoted in our Special Wagon Circulars arv for Wagons delivered on the 
(Jars at Richmond, Va. 

We decidedly recommend for general farm purposes the Thimble Skein Wagons 
as lighter running and more durable than the Iron Axles ; but we can furnish 
either Iron or Thimble Skein Axles of any desired size, and of either the Stude- 
baker or Mitchell manufacture. The prices of the different makers are uniform. 

N. B. — There are plenty of lower-priced wagons in the market, but none 
cheaper. In wagons, more than in any other article required in the outfit of a 
farm, the best is the cheapest* 



HARD TIMES MADE EASY BY PURCHASING YOUR DRY 
GOODS OF LEVY BROTHERS 

AT LOWER PRICES 
THAN EVER KNOWN SINCE THE WEARING OF FIG-LEAVES. 



Black Gros-Grain Silks at $1 worth $1 25, at SI. 10 worth $1.35, at 81.25 

worth $1.50, at $1.35 worth $1.75, at $1.50 worth $2. 
Colored Silks at 75c, 90c, $1, $1.10, $1.25., and $1.35 per yard— the 

cheapest ever seen. 
Striped Silks at 60, 75, 80, 90c,. and $1 per yard — all very cheap. 
Plaid Silks at 75, 85c, and $1 — much below regular prices. 
Black Alpacas at 161, 20, 25c, and up to $1 per yard. Don't buy your 

Alpacas before examining our stock. 
Black All- Wool Cashmeres at 60, db, 75, 85c, $1, and $1.25— the bes 

goods for the money ever offered. 
Black Australian Crepe at 40, 50, 60, and 75c per yard. 
Colored Alpacas at lGf, 20 and 25c per yard, worth 20, 25 and 30c. 

per yard. 
Wash Poplins at 63, 83, 10 and 12^0. per yard. 
Black Grenadines — Stripes, plaids, brocaded and plain. 
Fancy Dress Goods at 10, 122", 15, 16fc, and up to $1 per yard (we 

show all of the novelties as they appear). 
Ginghams at 10 and 12$c. per yard worth 12? and 16fc. 
All kinds of Dress Goods suitable for mourning. 
Printed Percales — the best quality — at 12ic per yard, would be cheap 

at 16fc. 
Linen Lawns in great variety. 

New styles of Calicoes at 4, 5, 61 and 8|c. per yard. 
Soft-Finished Cambrics at 10, 12! and 15c per yard. 
Colored Piques at 7 and 10c per yard worth 10 and 12Jc. 
Swiss Muslins at 10, 12J, 15, 16f, 20 and 25c per yard — the cheapest 

ever seen. 
Checked Nainsook at 16|c worth 20c per yard. 
Checked Muslin — large plaid — at 25c. worth 35c 
Victoria Lawns at 12i, 15, 16f, 20 and 25c per yard — all cheap. 
Cheviot Shirtings at 10, 12£, and 16|c. per yard worth 12?, 16 and 20c 

per yard. 
Bed-Tick at 8*, 10, 121, 15, 161, 20, 22 and 25c per yard. 
Striped and plain xlwning Duck in all qualities. 
10-4 Bleached Sheeting at 20c per yard worth 30c 
10-4 Unbleached Sheeting at 18c. per yard worth 25c 
Full-width Pillow-Case Cotton at 12£c. worth 15c per yard. 
Bleached and Unbleached Shirtings retailed at the lowest prices, even if 

it is less than cost. We keep all of the best brands, such as Warn- 

sutta, Davol, New York Mills, Fruit-of-the-loom, Androscoggin, Au- 
burn, &c. 
Carpets, in great variety, now sold at less than cost, so as to close out 

the entire stock. 

We enumerate but a few articles we keep, but state that we have the 
largest and best assorted stock ever offered by any one house in this State. 

Prompt attention given to orders. Samples sent upon application. 

LEVY BROTHERS, 

Ap— tf 1017 and 1019 Main Street, Richmond y Va. 



1878. Established, July, . . Jg^g, 

J. B FIGKLEN & SONS, 

MANUFACTURERS OF THE FIRST FLOUR BRANDED 

"FAMILY," in America, 

OVER PIPTT "3T.Er.A.TiS -aLG-O. 




Our "NEW PROCESS" Against the World. 

Bridgwater Family and Belmont Best Extra in barrels and sacks. Entire sat- 
isfaction guaranteed with every barrel, or money refunded. 

Family, Extra, Graham, Super and Fine Flours; also Mill Feeds, for sale cheap. 
Ask your grocer for Ficklen's Flours, aud take no other brands. 

J. B. FICKLEN & SONS, 



sep-ly 



Bridgwater Mills, ^ Fredericksburg, Va. 



NON-RUSTING 






Orders for the above oat can be filled 
by addressing W. S. Wills, care of 
Planter and Farmer, at 75 cents per 
bushel and 15 cents for bags. 

•'I have sown the Lyell non-rusting 
oat for two years, -and as a spring and 
winter oat, and I have never seen its 
equal. They have been sown as a win- 
ter and spring oat in my neighborhood 
for four years, and have never failed to 
do well. They will yield double any 
other oat on same land. They will 
ripen from one to two weeks earlier 
than any other It can be sown later 
in the spring than the spring oat, but I 
believe it does better sown in the fall. 
Very truly yours, . F.GUY." 

Chesterfield Co., Va. 



"After a year's trial with the above 
oat, 1 can endorse Mr. Guy's estimate 



of it. 



L. R. DICKINSON. 1 



WE SELL 

EVERYTHING 

FOE, THE 

GARDEN 

WANTED BY 

FLORISTS, 
Market Gardeners 

OR 

Amateurs in Horticulture. 

Our Greenhouses (covering 3 acres in glass) 
and our Grounds of 20 acres, exclusively de- 
vote l to the cultivation of Flower, Fruit 
and Vegetable Plants, enable, us to test 
not only the germinating qualities of all 
Flower and Vegetable Seeds, but to experi- 
ment with so as to test the merits of all Nov- 
elties in Small Fruits, Flowers or Vegetables. 
Our Descriptive Catalogue of Everything 
for the Garden mailed free on applieatiou. 

Seedsmen and Florists, 

35 CORTLANDT ST., 
NEW YORK. 



TO 






We are now preparing our usual stock of Standard Fertilizers for 
Wheat Crop. 

SOLUBLE SEA ISLAND GUANO 

Well known and of undoubted excellence. 



A high grade fertilizer of known merit. 

Ammoiiiated Alkaline Phosphate, 

An article especially prepared for corn and tobacco, and sold on 
satisfactory terms to Grangers. Endorsed by the patrons who have 
used it for the past four years. 

For sale by Grange Agents at Richmond, Norfolk, Petersburg, 
Alexandria and Baltimore. 

HAW, STEAMED 11 IBM BONES, 



In store and for sale. 
Special compounds prepared on orders. 

R. W. L. HASIN & CO., 

Southwest Cor. South and Water streets, 



jy 



— tf 



Baltimore.